To Misti, first for her inspiration, then for her encouragement and most
recently for her hard-ass warning that part 9 was due Monday...ish. (
Dedicated with affection to the Beth and Traxland of the Student Strike brigade. Here is part 9, now please go back to class, get good grades, become successful and fabulously powerful. We need more Frasier fans in high places.
Away from it All (part 9)
He did not say, "I still do, with all my heart."
In fact it was impossible to say anything until the return of his mind, blown out of this world and last seen streaking by the Horse Head Nebula. There were bombshells and then there were bombshells.
"I know you were in love with me for six years."
If there was anything in the world he might have imagined she would say to him, this was absolutely the last... the furthest... the most... Obviously his brain was still skirting asteroids. His entire nervous system had bailed on him, leaving only enough of functioning to keep him in an upright position while he gawked.
She knew.
When Daphne's face finally came back into focus, her expression was both defiant and shocked. If her intention had been to shut him up, she could have hardly done so more effectively but obviously she had not planned to say that she knew that he...
She knew?
How?
And for how long?
Someone must have told her. But nobody knew except Frasier and Dad. And Roz. Roz, despite their mutual enmity, would not do such a thing to him. Not without gloating afterwards. And Dad had made it perfectly clear years ago that he would not forgive either of his sons if they did anything that would make Daphne want to quit again.
Which left his brother.
No, never in a million years. Not on purpose. And even if he had let it slip accidentally he would have told Niles. Frasier may have thought the infatuation ridiculous, his but ethics and general decency would not have permitted Niles to be in the dark about this.
Which left only one other possible explanation. Horror filled Niles' veins where once there had run blood.
Daphne must have figured it out on her own.
Niles thought he had successfully hidden his feelings all these years but Daphne may have guessed from the beginning and had never said anything because she wanted to...
No...
As if reading him, Daphne looked away. Tears in her voice, she whispered:
"I wish... I'm so sorry."
She had never said anything because she wanted to spare his feelings. Kind, gentle, beautiful Daphne had never said anything because she could not love him back.
No.
His soul may be trillions of miles away in some obscure galaxy, but wherever it was he knew it had received the message. He knew it was screaming.
Deep inside he had always held out hope. That despite his being married to Mel and Daphne to Donny there was a small possibility that they would one day be together, even if it was just for fifteen minutes at the very end of their lives. He had also known that as long as he kept quiet about his feelings that hope would continue. The only way to extinguish it once and for all was if he found out for certain Daphne did not return his feelings.
As he just had.
And Niles realised he had never really known death before.
Daphne. He wanted to cry out her name, howl it with the chilling loneliness of a wolf. Daphne. He wanted to say her name because for years his heart had been broken over and over but had never permanently stopped beating.
Daphne. All that was left was to stop breathing. Through the white shroud of death he saw his angel and wished he really could die now, that her face would be the last thing he saw.
That face which over the years had grown even more beautiful than the first time he laid eyes on it. Niles took a sudden deep breath. It was not the face but the expression on it that told him he could not die, not yet.
She looked so desperately sad.
Of course. Niles had expertly extracted a patient's secret but in his stupid psychiatrist's vanity he had forgotten two things. One, was that Daphne was not his patient. And two, that Daphne was not his patient. He loved her and, dear god, she loved him. She may have pitied him as well, but she loved him in her way and despite her inability to address him by his first name it was the purest, cleanest form of friendship anyone had ever offered him.
Daphne was squinting with the effort of not letting her tears fall.
Eternal minutes ago he had told her she was no good at keeping secrets. Right. For who knows how long she had tried not to hurt him and had done so successfully until he forced the secret out of her. By cornering her not only had he dashed his own dreams against rocks but now even the careful friendship he had tried to build was on the line. She looked so sad Niles felt he could actually die a second time.
"Please don't be sorry, Daphne." The words sawed gashes on their way up his throat but sounded surprisingly level. Incredibly, he found that he could even will himself to smile. "I did, and it was a very beautiful time in my life..." he would not choke on the words. He would not cry. "There is something about love that makes us into better people. You gave that to me and I ... I will always be grateful."
Screaming. His soul was screaming.
##
So that was that.
He had loved her once but it was all in the past. It was kind of him to tell her that the way he felt had changed his life; as if he had forgiven her for not returning his feelings until it was too late. It was kind of him not to mention Mel.
His face kept swimming into shapes as her eyes filled up like an aquarium. It helped not to see him properly.
He had finally said what she had only heard from other people. It was too early to tell yet whether she would take back the words if she could. For one thing, he was right; she was terrible at hiding and secrets. She had told Roz and a million times she had nearly told Dr. Crane or his brother. She had not even been able to keep from Donny that she did not love him enough to marry him.
Was it only five days ago that she still thought she could go through with the wedding? Last night her nightmares were guilt-ridden replays of Donny's face when she had told him that she could neither spend the week nor her life with him.
But why? All her life she had taken risks and either enjoyed the rewards or learned to live happily with whatever consequences came along. And most of those risks were a lot scarier than settling down with a man who adored her. Or they should have been.
Exactly one week ago tonight they had broken open a bottle of champagne to celebrate yet another out of court settlement. Donny was always high as a kite when this happened.
"Who wants to marry a millionaire?" he had asked, clinking his glass to hers.
Daphne had laughed to keep herself from answering.
"It's the reason I do what I do," he had said, as he often did. "Giving your clients the good news... It's just the best feeling in the world." Then he kissed her. "Or at least it was until I met you."
Daphne kissed him back, silently pleading with that best feeling in the world to come over her, to make her feel the same way about Donny that he felt about her. It did not, of course, it never did. Until so very recently she had thought she loved Donny as much as she was capable of loving anyone.
"You should have seen the other guy, Daph," Donny laughed. "One thing I'll say for him is; he took it like a man. A good lawyer always knows when he's beat."
"Do you?" Daphne teased, sitting on his lap.
"I've never had to find out," he grinned. That was when he told her that in addition to everything else, the settlement meant he was free to whisk her away to New York this week and started rattling off all the wonderful things they would do and see on their trip.
This was the man, the same one who had offered to sweep all the stars from the sky and lay them at her feet, this was the generous, thoughtful and marvellous man Daphne had let go and crushed, just weeks before their wedding day.
The conversation and the apartment had been surprisingly short. When Daphne had told him she could not marry him, Donny was understandably stunned. Twice he asked why and when Daphne could not answer, he stood up and slowly staggered to the door.
"Donny..."
"Don't, Daphne," he said softly from behind slumped shoulders. "A good lawyer knows when he's beat."
If only he knew how much she had hated her own heart for not knowing a good thing when it saw one.
Karma worked with efficient vengance. Hours after she had broken Donny's heart, a phone call had broken hers. Then it had broken again when she saw the man who had taught her exactly how much love she was capable of kiss his new wedding ring. Then again when she heard him say finally that he had loved her once but now she had lost her chance to share that love for a lifetime.
Threefold, right? That should have squared her up with the universe.
She could have lifted a house with the effort it took not to let the tears fall. She was no good at this either.
Why was it such a shock? She knew Dr. Crane was married. She had heard him say he how happy he was now and how very much in love he was with Mel. The way he had said it should have left no doubt.
Her tears burned like acid but what was said was said, what was done was done.
Dr. Crane did not look so good when she dropped the bomb but that was his fault, really. Why couldn't he just leave things be? Why did he have to keep hounding her? And if he had been shocked by what he had made her blurt out, what would he have done if she had let slip the biggest revelation of all? What if she had said: "I'm in love with you?"
He was bloody lucky, that's what he was. Bloody lucky she only treated him to the smaller shock. By comparison, it was no big deal, really.
Still, it was the first time she'd ever seen someone turn ashen.
As soon as the words had left her mouth, as soon as he turned that sickly shade of grey she knew it was true. She knew that as bad as these months had been for her, with her being secretly in love with him, he had suffered his own secret for a full six years.
She must have caused him such pain.
"I'm so sorry," she had said, and now she said it again even though she knew in her heart of hearts it was not enough. It could never be enough.
The aquarium overflowed and Daphne blinked back what she could. She rubbed her eyes dry and tried once more to face him.
Something was terribly wrong. The colour had not returned yet to his face but it was more than that. As she watched he sank onto the couch and leaned forward on his knees, no longer looking at her but straight ahead. He was controlling his breathing.
He was about to have another attack.
"Dr. Crane?" She sat next to him and put her hand flat on his back, feeling the taut, concentrated rise and fall. He was struggling but he seemed to have it under control. Rise, fall, rise, fall. Daphne found herself breathing with him. Rise, fall, rise, fall. It did not get any worse but it did not get any better. New tears replaced the old and followed the beaten path down her cheeks. He was trying so hard.
"Dr. Crane," she whispered. Because there was nothing else she could do and because she could not help herself, Daphne leaned her head against his shoulder. There was a jump in his breathing, then the tightness of his back loosened and finally the breaths moved easier. A cautious arm crept around her, drawing her to him as he sank back into the couch so she would not think he was pulling away.
Daphne started to cry. He was so considerate, so caring. And he was still her friend. She put her arms around him so he would not get any funny ideas about moving away but he did not move, except to hold her even closer and let her cry. UnCrane-like, he asked no questions. She would not have known how to answer them anyway. UnCrane-like he also made no protest about the deep water marks that seeped into and darkened his cardigan. For the millionth time in the past few days Daphne sobbed out of control and unable to stop. But this time someone she loved was holding her and it made all the difference in the world.
"I love you, Dr. Crane."
"I love you too, Daphne."
They had sad the words before. She could not remember when, but... that's right, it was the night at the bar after they had both been dumped. Her by Rodney and he by what's-her-name. Adelle. Stupid woman. Back then she had said 'I love you' in friendship and had not known his answer, identical to hers in words were completely different in meaning. Now it was she who spoke the words more truly and deeply than she had ever spoken them before and he who echoed with friendship. Ironic. Maybe one day she would tell him about this and they would laugh and laugh and laugh.
Not tonight.
Sobs wrung out of her as they got their second wind. She loved him so much for being here, for holding her while she cried. For forgiving her for shocking him into near asphyxiation. He hugged her and murmured what sounded like "I love you," again, but it was probably only what she wanted to hear so she chose to leave it be.
God, how she loved him.
##
God, how he loved her. This was what he had dreamed of for the past seven years. He wanted to hold Daphne close to him like this for the rest of his life. He wanted to be in this place which by some ridiculous paradox he had only reached after all hope of a future was lost.
Daphne cried forever. Thinking he should get her a drink or at least a box of tissues, he once tried to sit up but Daphne clutched tighter and did not let him. She needed him to do exactly what he was doing. She needed to be held. No one had ever wanted Niles to hold her before. He sank back down and gently kissed her hair. He had better do it well.
They spent the night in each other's arms. Niles would have never imagined he would fall asleep but he did, several times, and several times he awoke to the warmth and weight of Daphne against him, sometimes sleeping, sometimes crying softly. In instances of the latter he stroked her hair and, for lack of knowing what to say, hummed the only tune he could think of; the same song he and Daphne had sung together the night of her engagement. Because of their position she could not see the odd tear that ran down his face as the melody of 'My love is like a red, red rose,' eventually cradled her back to sleep.
In the past Nile's hell had been in standing at the gates of heaven prevented first by his marriage, then by his cowardice and finally by Daphne's engagement, from ever going in. Now his heaven was at the gates of hell, in knowing that the woman he held would never truly be his; that her only happiness would be in the arms of another.
The thought, avoided all night long, hit him like a punch with the day's first light.
Feeling the miniscule jolt, Daphne sat up as if she had been awake for a while. She grimaced slightly as she straightened, probably stiff from their night on the couch. She smiled a shy smile at him, confirming what Niles had suspected for years: That nothing in this world could be as perfect as seeing Daphne's beautiful eyes first thing in the morning.
He sat up as well and ignoring the shooting pain through his own limbs, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her away from him.
He may not be an expert at massage the way she was but Daphne's body language told him he was doing a fair job. Even through the sweater she had slept in, he could feel her loosening up. He worked her upper back, her lower back, her arms, saving for last the riskiest part. Daphne gave a small gasp when his hands touched the bare skin at the nape of her neck and Niles forced himself to keep the motion steady so she would not see how touching her affected him.
He managed to rub out most of the knots but Daphne stayed on guard for as long as his fingers kept direct contact. Because of the tension in her posture, it surprised him that when she turned around there were no traces of fear or blame on her face. There was some nervousness, but except for slightly flushed cheeks, the way she looked at him was the familiar way in which she had since they arrived. If trust had not yet been regained, there was still hope.
"Thank you, Dr. Crane," she said softly.
Whether it was for the massage, the night or for something completely different, Niles did not care. The feel of her skin, the smile on her face, the sound of her voice; this heaven was temporary but it was still heaven. And it was theirs for four more days.
[to be continued]
Dedicated with affection to the Beth and Traxland of the Student Strike brigade. Here is part 9, now please go back to class, get good grades, become successful and fabulously powerful. We need more Frasier fans in high places.
Away from it All (part 9)
He did not say, "I still do, with all my heart."
In fact it was impossible to say anything until the return of his mind, blown out of this world and last seen streaking by the Horse Head Nebula. There were bombshells and then there were bombshells.
"I know you were in love with me for six years."
If there was anything in the world he might have imagined she would say to him, this was absolutely the last... the furthest... the most... Obviously his brain was still skirting asteroids. His entire nervous system had bailed on him, leaving only enough of functioning to keep him in an upright position while he gawked.
She knew.
When Daphne's face finally came back into focus, her expression was both defiant and shocked. If her intention had been to shut him up, she could have hardly done so more effectively but obviously she had not planned to say that she knew that he...
She knew?
How?
And for how long?
Someone must have told her. But nobody knew except Frasier and Dad. And Roz. Roz, despite their mutual enmity, would not do such a thing to him. Not without gloating afterwards. And Dad had made it perfectly clear years ago that he would not forgive either of his sons if they did anything that would make Daphne want to quit again.
Which left his brother.
No, never in a million years. Not on purpose. And even if he had let it slip accidentally he would have told Niles. Frasier may have thought the infatuation ridiculous, his but ethics and general decency would not have permitted Niles to be in the dark about this.
Which left only one other possible explanation. Horror filled Niles' veins where once there had run blood.
Daphne must have figured it out on her own.
Niles thought he had successfully hidden his feelings all these years but Daphne may have guessed from the beginning and had never said anything because she wanted to...
No...
As if reading him, Daphne looked away. Tears in her voice, she whispered:
"I wish... I'm so sorry."
She had never said anything because she wanted to spare his feelings. Kind, gentle, beautiful Daphne had never said anything because she could not love him back.
No.
His soul may be trillions of miles away in some obscure galaxy, but wherever it was he knew it had received the message. He knew it was screaming.
Deep inside he had always held out hope. That despite his being married to Mel and Daphne to Donny there was a small possibility that they would one day be together, even if it was just for fifteen minutes at the very end of their lives. He had also known that as long as he kept quiet about his feelings that hope would continue. The only way to extinguish it once and for all was if he found out for certain Daphne did not return his feelings.
As he just had.
And Niles realised he had never really known death before.
Daphne. He wanted to cry out her name, howl it with the chilling loneliness of a wolf. Daphne. He wanted to say her name because for years his heart had been broken over and over but had never permanently stopped beating.
Daphne. All that was left was to stop breathing. Through the white shroud of death he saw his angel and wished he really could die now, that her face would be the last thing he saw.
That face which over the years had grown even more beautiful than the first time he laid eyes on it. Niles took a sudden deep breath. It was not the face but the expression on it that told him he could not die, not yet.
She looked so desperately sad.
Of course. Niles had expertly extracted a patient's secret but in his stupid psychiatrist's vanity he had forgotten two things. One, was that Daphne was not his patient. And two, that Daphne was not his patient. He loved her and, dear god, she loved him. She may have pitied him as well, but she loved him in her way and despite her inability to address him by his first name it was the purest, cleanest form of friendship anyone had ever offered him.
Daphne was squinting with the effort of not letting her tears fall.
Eternal minutes ago he had told her she was no good at keeping secrets. Right. For who knows how long she had tried not to hurt him and had done so successfully until he forced the secret out of her. By cornering her not only had he dashed his own dreams against rocks but now even the careful friendship he had tried to build was on the line. She looked so sad Niles felt he could actually die a second time.
"Please don't be sorry, Daphne." The words sawed gashes on their way up his throat but sounded surprisingly level. Incredibly, he found that he could even will himself to smile. "I did, and it was a very beautiful time in my life..." he would not choke on the words. He would not cry. "There is something about love that makes us into better people. You gave that to me and I ... I will always be grateful."
Screaming. His soul was screaming.
##
So that was that.
He had loved her once but it was all in the past. It was kind of him to tell her that the way he felt had changed his life; as if he had forgiven her for not returning his feelings until it was too late. It was kind of him not to mention Mel.
His face kept swimming into shapes as her eyes filled up like an aquarium. It helped not to see him properly.
He had finally said what she had only heard from other people. It was too early to tell yet whether she would take back the words if she could. For one thing, he was right; she was terrible at hiding and secrets. She had told Roz and a million times she had nearly told Dr. Crane or his brother. She had not even been able to keep from Donny that she did not love him enough to marry him.
Was it only five days ago that she still thought she could go through with the wedding? Last night her nightmares were guilt-ridden replays of Donny's face when she had told him that she could neither spend the week nor her life with him.
But why? All her life she had taken risks and either enjoyed the rewards or learned to live happily with whatever consequences came along. And most of those risks were a lot scarier than settling down with a man who adored her. Or they should have been.
Exactly one week ago tonight they had broken open a bottle of champagne to celebrate yet another out of court settlement. Donny was always high as a kite when this happened.
"Who wants to marry a millionaire?" he had asked, clinking his glass to hers.
Daphne had laughed to keep herself from answering.
"It's the reason I do what I do," he had said, as he often did. "Giving your clients the good news... It's just the best feeling in the world." Then he kissed her. "Or at least it was until I met you."
Daphne kissed him back, silently pleading with that best feeling in the world to come over her, to make her feel the same way about Donny that he felt about her. It did not, of course, it never did. Until so very recently she had thought she loved Donny as much as she was capable of loving anyone.
"You should have seen the other guy, Daph," Donny laughed. "One thing I'll say for him is; he took it like a man. A good lawyer always knows when he's beat."
"Do you?" Daphne teased, sitting on his lap.
"I've never had to find out," he grinned. That was when he told her that in addition to everything else, the settlement meant he was free to whisk her away to New York this week and started rattling off all the wonderful things they would do and see on their trip.
This was the man, the same one who had offered to sweep all the stars from the sky and lay them at her feet, this was the generous, thoughtful and marvellous man Daphne had let go and crushed, just weeks before their wedding day.
The conversation and the apartment had been surprisingly short. When Daphne had told him she could not marry him, Donny was understandably stunned. Twice he asked why and when Daphne could not answer, he stood up and slowly staggered to the door.
"Donny..."
"Don't, Daphne," he said softly from behind slumped shoulders. "A good lawyer knows when he's beat."
If only he knew how much she had hated her own heart for not knowing a good thing when it saw one.
Karma worked with efficient vengance. Hours after she had broken Donny's heart, a phone call had broken hers. Then it had broken again when she saw the man who had taught her exactly how much love she was capable of kiss his new wedding ring. Then again when she heard him say finally that he had loved her once but now she had lost her chance to share that love for a lifetime.
Threefold, right? That should have squared her up with the universe.
She could have lifted a house with the effort it took not to let the tears fall. She was no good at this either.
Why was it such a shock? She knew Dr. Crane was married. She had heard him say he how happy he was now and how very much in love he was with Mel. The way he had said it should have left no doubt.
Her tears burned like acid but what was said was said, what was done was done.
Dr. Crane did not look so good when she dropped the bomb but that was his fault, really. Why couldn't he just leave things be? Why did he have to keep hounding her? And if he had been shocked by what he had made her blurt out, what would he have done if she had let slip the biggest revelation of all? What if she had said: "I'm in love with you?"
He was bloody lucky, that's what he was. Bloody lucky she only treated him to the smaller shock. By comparison, it was no big deal, really.
Still, it was the first time she'd ever seen someone turn ashen.
As soon as the words had left her mouth, as soon as he turned that sickly shade of grey she knew it was true. She knew that as bad as these months had been for her, with her being secretly in love with him, he had suffered his own secret for a full six years.
She must have caused him such pain.
"I'm so sorry," she had said, and now she said it again even though she knew in her heart of hearts it was not enough. It could never be enough.
The aquarium overflowed and Daphne blinked back what she could. She rubbed her eyes dry and tried once more to face him.
Something was terribly wrong. The colour had not returned yet to his face but it was more than that. As she watched he sank onto the couch and leaned forward on his knees, no longer looking at her but straight ahead. He was controlling his breathing.
He was about to have another attack.
"Dr. Crane?" She sat next to him and put her hand flat on his back, feeling the taut, concentrated rise and fall. He was struggling but he seemed to have it under control. Rise, fall, rise, fall. Daphne found herself breathing with him. Rise, fall, rise, fall. It did not get any worse but it did not get any better. New tears replaced the old and followed the beaten path down her cheeks. He was trying so hard.
"Dr. Crane," she whispered. Because there was nothing else she could do and because she could not help herself, Daphne leaned her head against his shoulder. There was a jump in his breathing, then the tightness of his back loosened and finally the breaths moved easier. A cautious arm crept around her, drawing her to him as he sank back into the couch so she would not think he was pulling away.
Daphne started to cry. He was so considerate, so caring. And he was still her friend. She put her arms around him so he would not get any funny ideas about moving away but he did not move, except to hold her even closer and let her cry. UnCrane-like, he asked no questions. She would not have known how to answer them anyway. UnCrane-like he also made no protest about the deep water marks that seeped into and darkened his cardigan. For the millionth time in the past few days Daphne sobbed out of control and unable to stop. But this time someone she loved was holding her and it made all the difference in the world.
"I love you, Dr. Crane."
"I love you too, Daphne."
They had sad the words before. She could not remember when, but... that's right, it was the night at the bar after they had both been dumped. Her by Rodney and he by what's-her-name. Adelle. Stupid woman. Back then she had said 'I love you' in friendship and had not known his answer, identical to hers in words were completely different in meaning. Now it was she who spoke the words more truly and deeply than she had ever spoken them before and he who echoed with friendship. Ironic. Maybe one day she would tell him about this and they would laugh and laugh and laugh.
Not tonight.
Sobs wrung out of her as they got their second wind. She loved him so much for being here, for holding her while she cried. For forgiving her for shocking him into near asphyxiation. He hugged her and murmured what sounded like "I love you," again, but it was probably only what she wanted to hear so she chose to leave it be.
God, how she loved him.
##
God, how he loved her. This was what he had dreamed of for the past seven years. He wanted to hold Daphne close to him like this for the rest of his life. He wanted to be in this place which by some ridiculous paradox he had only reached after all hope of a future was lost.
Daphne cried forever. Thinking he should get her a drink or at least a box of tissues, he once tried to sit up but Daphne clutched tighter and did not let him. She needed him to do exactly what he was doing. She needed to be held. No one had ever wanted Niles to hold her before. He sank back down and gently kissed her hair. He had better do it well.
They spent the night in each other's arms. Niles would have never imagined he would fall asleep but he did, several times, and several times he awoke to the warmth and weight of Daphne against him, sometimes sleeping, sometimes crying softly. In instances of the latter he stroked her hair and, for lack of knowing what to say, hummed the only tune he could think of; the same song he and Daphne had sung together the night of her engagement. Because of their position she could not see the odd tear that ran down his face as the melody of 'My love is like a red, red rose,' eventually cradled her back to sleep.
In the past Nile's hell had been in standing at the gates of heaven prevented first by his marriage, then by his cowardice and finally by Daphne's engagement, from ever going in. Now his heaven was at the gates of hell, in knowing that the woman he held would never truly be his; that her only happiness would be in the arms of another.
The thought, avoided all night long, hit him like a punch with the day's first light.
Feeling the miniscule jolt, Daphne sat up as if she had been awake for a while. She grimaced slightly as she straightened, probably stiff from their night on the couch. She smiled a shy smile at him, confirming what Niles had suspected for years: That nothing in this world could be as perfect as seeing Daphne's beautiful eyes first thing in the morning.
He sat up as well and ignoring the shooting pain through his own limbs, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her away from him.
He may not be an expert at massage the way she was but Daphne's body language told him he was doing a fair job. Even through the sweater she had slept in, he could feel her loosening up. He worked her upper back, her lower back, her arms, saving for last the riskiest part. Daphne gave a small gasp when his hands touched the bare skin at the nape of her neck and Niles forced himself to keep the motion steady so she would not see how touching her affected him.
He managed to rub out most of the knots but Daphne stayed on guard for as long as his fingers kept direct contact. Because of the tension in her posture, it surprised him that when she turned around there were no traces of fear or blame on her face. There was some nervousness, but except for slightly flushed cheeks, the way she looked at him was the familiar way in which she had since they arrived. If trust had not yet been regained, there was still hope.
"Thank you, Dr. Crane," she said softly.
Whether it was for the massage, the night or for something completely different, Niles did not care. The feel of her skin, the smile on her face, the sound of her voice; this heaven was temporary but it was still heaven. And it was theirs for four more days.
[to be continued]