By Felicia Ferguson
Rating: PG
Keyword: C.C./Niles, occurs during "The Finale Part I"
Author's Note: Please forgive me if any of this was addressed in "The Finale Part II." I've only managed to catch the first part and a few last season episodes on Lifetime. Unfortunately, I missed most of the final season when it was originally running. This is also a POV fic, which is very close to stream of consciousness (though not quite so insane as that). Since this is my first Nanny fic, I'd love to hear from you.
Also, please forgive me. I just read through it again and it is awfully sappy at the end. I didn't plan to make it so; nonetheless, that's how it turned out. Therefore, be forewarned. If you want to bail now, I won't hold it against you. :-)
1/1
Marry him. Marry him?!?!
Oh, poor, sweet, pitiful Niles! Doesn't he realize that he's just a passing fancy? One day (and soon if Nanny Fine keeps on gaining weight like she has the past nine months) Maxwell will tire of that little floozy and realize that I'm still here, still ready to be his.
Besides, what would I do being married to a butler? I certainly wouldn't be admitted into my friends' homes in such a situation.
[Hmmm….you have friends? Where do you hide them?]
What was…that sounded like…Oh, God, I'm beginning to channel him! That's what I get for sleeping with him. Why in Heaven's name did I ever start doing that?
Oh, now I remember. Those damned chocolates. But I suppose I can't really blame them. I could wax philosophical and say they merely removed the blinders and allowed me to see beyond the Molly Maid exterior to the sensuous man beneath.
Ha! It was a moment of weakness, pure and simple. It was a moment that turned into…many more moments…each hotter than the last. Whew! Where is a cigarette when I need one?
But marriage! When he asked me to marry him (again), I couldn't help it. I laughed. And not just a polite chuckle, but a sidesplitting uproar. I still get a giggle every time I hear his pleading little voice on that tape recorder. "Marry me, marry me, marry me." Oooh, it's just too good. He was so pathetic! He even got down on one knee!
Marriage to a man who dusts for a living? It's laughable! It's obscene! It's….
[Probably the best offer you'll ever get.]
Oh, dammit, Niles! Get out of my head!
But, like it or not, he does make me face reality. He's right; Maxwell will never notice me as a woman. He will never leave Nanny Fine. And I…I have wasted some good years waiting for him. I didn't lie to them. I always do stay too long at the party. But it's not out of desperation – shut up, Niles!
It's actually out of hope. I've always believed that if I stick around long enough, then by sheer force of will, what I want will happen. I thought if I was constantly there, always available, I could make a man love me. And you know what? I succeeded. It just didn't happen to be the man I expected.
He does love me. It was there all along, submerged beneath every scathing jibe, and later more obvious in every lingering caress. I just didn't realize it until now.
Oh, Niles. Who is the more foolish: the fool or the fool who loves her?
This is probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but as I climb the back stairs to his room, it's also the most exhilarating (well, next to us at The Home Depot). I know he won't be asleep. Not yet, not with so many unresolved issues floating around us.
I'm right. He's stretched out on the bed in his underwear and dress shirt, a sight eerily reminiscent of the day I caught him in his own "risky business." He's surprised to see me, but he doesn't say anything as I close the door. He's right not to speak. After all, I'm the one with everything to say.
And everything to say can be summed up in one word. It is a word that lights up his eyes and fills my heart. It is a word that brings him to his feet and me into his arms.
The word is, "yes."