Desperately Seeking Niles
Make-up for Martin Crane
"I don't think I can go through with this Frase," Martin confessed as the lady in the makeup room blotted his forehead with some foundation.
"You've got to Dad. If you can't do it for yourself, do it for Niles."
Neither man said anything for the next few minutes as the makeup ladies completed their task.
Once they had gone, Martin pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and shuffled through all the pictures.
Martin sighed pensively and sniffed.
"Are you okay Dad?" Frasier asked quietly and laid his hand on his Dad's shoulder as a sign of support.
"You know, your brother commented to me not so long ago when he was in my bedroom that I had pictures of your Mother and of you and Freddie, how come I didn't have any of him..."
"When he comes back home to us, I'll take a picture of the two of you and you can make it up to him."
"I just hope he does come back home to us," Martin commented solemnly.
"He will Dad. He will. Because by the end of tonight, somewhere, someone in Seattle, saw him Friday evening after he left Donny's office," Frasier said confidently.
"Knock-knock," a female voice unknowingly interrupted and announced her arrival in the dressing room and went over to give Frasier a big hug.
"Frasier, it's so good to see you again. I just wish it was under better circumstances."
"So do I. Kelly, I don't think you've ever met my father…"
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She was almost done with the dinner dishes. Not that what her knight had had could really be considered dinner, but, it was a small victory none the less. She had managed to get a few spoonfuls of broth down him. She glanced up at the clock. It was almost eleven. The next dosage of painkillers would be around twelve-thirty. Maybe she would just watch TV until then.
She picked up the remote that was on her kitchen counter and clicked the TV on and went back to drying the last few dishes.
"No..." a muffled voice cried out.
She picked up the remote and muted the sound, unsure if she had actually heard anything. If she did, was it just coming from the TV?
She waited for a minute and didn't hear anything, so she turned the volume back up just as the television station was announcing,
"Coming up on the 11 o'clock news. Kelly Kirtland joins us live in the studio to bring us the heartbreaking appeal of a local radio talk show host with his father, as they desperately search to find their missing…"
"I'm sorry…" he cried out again in his sleep, only much louder.
This time she knew she heard something and instantly recognized the cries as her knight. She rushed to his side and was about to wake him when she realized he was talking in his sleep.
She quickly discarded the remote that was in her hand, replacing it with pen and notepad she had lying nearby. She feverishly and frantically scribbled, recording his nocturnal ramblings for future reference.
"Good evening Seattle, thank you for joining us tonight..."
Even with her back turned to the television, Daphne still found it distracting. His admissions had become barely an audible whisper and were so muffled and hard to understand, she didn't need any competition.
With one hand behind her back, she fumbled around for the remote behind her.
"We now go to Kelly Kirtland over on the set of Good Morning Seattle with..."
She found the remote and turned the television off and was now able to give her knight her undivided attention.
The Powers that Be Help to Keep Her Sleepless in Seattle
She set the pen and pad down on the trunk and looked over what she had written. It wasn't as much as she hoped, but then again, who knew what it would take to spark and return his memory.
Even his doctor had stressed that even if he ever recovered his memory, there would still be some things that he would never recall, like his beating. He also stated that his short-term memory was also impaired. That for the rest of his life, and whether or not his memory returned, he would constantly struggle to remember even the most simplest of things, like names, phone numbers etc. Essentially, he would require much more care and patience, almost like a child. The man would never again have a quote/unquote normal life, even if he did remember.
All that depressed her but also made her that much more determined.
All this came upon him because he came to her rescue. She vowed to do everything in her power to help him remember something, even if it was only his name. Which reminded her, now that he was becoming more and more lucid she would have to come up with a name to call him.
Knight (since that is what he is and always would be to her anyway) was okay to call him in her private thoughts and dreams or whenever she talking to Audrey, but something told her she didn't think he'd go for it.
She rolled her neck around for it had stiffened up, as did the rest of her body. She stood up and shook loose her limbs and stretched. She stifled a yawn and was surprised at how emotionally exhausted she was by just hearing him and recording his cries.
She bent over, picked up, and covered his shivering frame that was now scrunched up into the fetal position, with the afghan that had fallen to the floor as he thrashed in his sleep. She brought the afghan up close and tucked it in securely around him.
She looked at the clock. She still had almost 45 minutes before she had to wake him for his painkillers.
She cuddled up in the overstuffed chair and turned the TV back on and flipped through the stations. There wasn't a whole lot to choose from, it was mostly all late night talk shows, which she had no interest in.
She was about to give up hope, but decided to go around the channels once last time.
"Did I just see what I thought I did?" She mentally asked herself, and backspaced her remote a couple of channels.
A man, attempting to hang himself by a drape cord and failing to do, accompanied by an audience laugh track filled her television screen.
There was something eerily familiar about the man, but what was it?
Perhaps it would come to her if she continued to watch the show. She quickly found herself caught up in the show and laughing hysterically. She made a mental note to remember to watch this show again. Upon its completion at midnight, and to her great surprise and enjoyment, another episode immediately followed.
At the second show's conclusion she went over to wake up her knight.
It was a challenge to say the very least, for he had fallen into a very deep sleep. Quite a contrast to just over an hour ago when he was restlessly tossing and turning and plagued by his nightmare.
She gently shook him to consciousness.
"Sorry to wake you, but, time for your painkillers."
He slowly got up into a sitting position. Once he did, she picked up his hand and placed two painkillers in it.
He lifted his hand to his mouth and popped the pills in.
She then placed in his hand a glass of water, which he chugged down.
"Thank you," he whispered as he slowly fell back down on the couch and pillows.
She started to tuck him in again.
"Tell me a bedtime story," he requested, half asleep.
She was taken aback by his request, not quite sure what to say.
"Please," he begged like a little boy.
She sat down beside him on the couch and commented, "Your Mum must have had a hard time saying no to you when you were a young lad."
"I can't really say," he sadly reflected and also unintentionally reminded her.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"Just tell me a story," he said as he started to drift off.
"Once upon a time…" she began.
Before too long she felt her hair being ruffled by his soft snores.
She had no idea how long she just sat there studying him, not wanting to move.
He was becoming more and more fascinating to her.
Could it be? Was she starting to fall for him? Her inner voice questioned.
It was getting late and that was too deep of a question for tonight.
She got up and before turning in for the night, she bent over and softly kissed her knight on his forehead and that's when it hit her.
"Goodnight, Theodore," she whispered and turned off the light.
Somebody Else
The next afternoon, Daphne and Audrey were having some tea and cookies as her knight was taking a nap.
"So, has he remembered anything?" Audrey asked.
Daphne shook her head in disappointment and sipped her tea. "Not a bloody thing." She quietly added so that her knight wouldn't hear, "It's just so bloody frustrating. If I find it so painfully frustrating, I can't even imagine how he must be feeling."
"You're not going to give up are you? Didn't his doctor say he sustained a very serious blow to his head and that it might take some time for it to come back?"
"Of course I'm not giving up, but it's just…" Daphne got real quiet and contemplative and looked longingly over at her knight.
Her glance didn't escape Audrey's attention.
"Audrey, I-I think I may be falling for him." She finally confessed.
Audrey was confused and probed. "And that is a bad thing because?"
"What if he already has a family Audrey? What if he already has a wife and kids? What if I risk falling for him harder, only to lose me heart? What if the man I'm falling for already belongs to somebody else?"
To be continued…