Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, or the show, or anything from the Nanny. I simply own the story's alternative ending and this fan fiction is for entertainment purposes only.

"Don't you worry Miss Fine, I've got you." Maxwell Sheffield said as he carried up Fran up the stairs.

"Boy, do you ever." Fran said, looking into Mr. Sheffield's green eyes as he carried her in those strong British arms of his.

They reached the top of the stairs and Maxwell headed towards Ms. Fine's bedroom. Fran couldn't stop staring into those eyes of his and she couldn't stop but wonder, 'When the heck are you going to tell me that you want to marry me!' Fran sighed. 'Oh well. Maybe next time he'll get through.' , she thought as Mr. Sheffield opened her bedroom door and gently laid her down in her bed.

"I uh… uhm. Thanks Mr. Sheffield," Fran managed to blurt out as she watched Mr. Sheffield remove her other boot and throw off the bed covers for her, "you know… you know you don't have to do that for me."

"Oh it's all right Miss Fine, I just want you to be as comfortable as possible." Maxwell said as he pushed a few stray locks from Fran's face, "do you need anything else, Miss Fine?"

"No. Not really." Fran said as she settled herself on her bed.

"Very well, see you in the morning then." Maxwell turned and turned off the lights. "Good night, Miss Fine." And he quietly closed the door behind him.

Fran sighed and turned on her bedside lamp. She took out the letter from inside her shirt and started to tear the top part but she stopped. She felt her eyes well up again, and completely lost it. She tore the letter in half and buried herself in her bed. "I love you, Mr. Sheffield. I just wish you'd just tell me you do too." And then she cried herself to sleep.

Maxwell kept pacing around his room. He couldn't stand it any longer, he definitely knew that something was wrong with Miss Fine and he knew that he can't bear seeing her crying.

'God, did I do this to her?' Maxwell thought as he crept inside Miss Fine's bedroom hearing a soft sobbing sound from her. He found himself face to face with this beautiful woman, with a tear-stained face but nevertheless, just as stunning. Max found himself wiping those tears away and lying down on the bed beside her. 'She's been crying the whole night, what could've happened to her?' he thought as he caught glimpse of the smudged letter torn in half lying on her bedside table. Maxwell took it and put the two torn pieces together, and read the letter Miss Fine wrote for him.

Dear Mr. Sheffield,

I just thought, I'd write a letter for you to tell you that I just left so I could go with your brother Nigel. We're meeting at the pier and going off in the QEII, moving forward London and I guess this is it. I don't mean to hurt you or anything, not even the kids for that matter, but I can't stay here any longer. I couldn't wait for that man who's so afraid of commitment to take a few more years to take matters into his hands. I just want that man right now, who'd love me for who I am, and for who I will be to him. I do hope you understand what I'm trying to say here.

By the way, I just wanted you to know, I love you with all my heart. I probably won't find another man who I loved the way I love you, but I guess this wasn't just meant to be. Tell the kids that I love them so much and that nobody could ever replace them. Could you also do me a favor and tell Niles that I'd like to thank him for everything that he has done for me. He's been my best friend through all these years and he didn't even know it. Tell him I love him.

I guess this is it, Max. Thank you for everything, and for giving me the best years of my life.

I love you.

Love,

Fran

Maxwell didn't know what to think after he read the letter. Tears just began welling up in his eyes and he didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to react. He just knew, deep inside him, that he loved Fran and that was it.

'What the bloody hell is wrong with me!' he thought. Fran instinctively cuddled close to him in her sleep and put her hands in his chest. 'I told her I love her and I took it back! Why am I so afraid of telling it to her when it absolutely is the truth?' Maxwell held her in his arms and figured that he should go tell her everything in the morning. But as for now, he'd have to settle with Miss Fine sleeping peacefully in his arms as he himself fell asleep.

Niles knocked on Miss Fine's bedroom door. It was quite late for her to be still in bed and the children were already off for school. He peeked inside Mr. Sheffield's room earlier and figured that he already went to the theater early. So that left him with the task of waking up Miss Fine…

"If she even slept here." Niles muttered to himself as he opened Miss Fine's unlocked bedroom door. He found Miss Fine's luggage by the front door when he took the newspaper in.

"Miss Fine?" Niles called softly as he entered her room, "Breakfast is waiting for you downstairs and the childr---. Whoa." And there was Miss Fine, sleeping alright… with Mr. Sheffield holding her in an embracing position.

"Right on, sir! Right on!" Niles mumbled as he slowly crept out of Miss Fine's bedroom. He smiled and went back to the kitchen to make more breakfast, maybe for two this time.

Fran woke up feeling weird… something was so different from the way she slept last night. She smelled something different here in bed; she felt something that wasn't supposed to be in her bed. She opened her eyes and looked to her right.

"Oh my God," Fran whispered frantically trying to push Mr. Sheffield's arms away from her, "I slept with Mr. Sheffield!"

Fran blinked away the bright sunlight streaming from her window. Maxwell slowly came around from his sleep, feeling something was missing from his arms. Fran was still staring at Maxwell when he finally woke up. He looked at her in the eyes and smiled at her.

"Oh. Good morning, Miss Fine." Maxwell sat up and stared at her. 'My God, she's beautiful even if she just came right out of bed.' he thought to himself, 'Maybe I should always see her like this.' "How's your ankle doing this morning?" he asked, touching her knees to assure that it was alright… with him sleeping in bed with her.

"My wha…?" Fran asked, confused, "oh my ankle. Yeah… it's uh… it's fine." She looked at her right ankle and the ice pack that Mr. Sheffield put on last night. Yeah, it felt sore but nevertheless, she felt fine. 'I'm fine,' she told herself, 'well, maybe except for the fact that Mr. Sheffield is here in my room… and in my bed!'

"Miss Fine," Maxwell asked, "are you alright?"

"I… I uh… yeah! I-I'm fine!" Fran stammered, "Mr. Sheffield! You… you slept in my bed!"

"Yes… I… I do suppose I did," Maxwell said as he stood up, "I just went by to check on you last night; I must have fallen asleep here." Fran just stared at him. 'Is that a really supposed to be the right excuse or what?' she thought. "So, would you like to have breakfast now, Miss Fine?" Maxwell continued as he handed Fran her robe.

"I suppose so." Fran answered as she felt herself being lifted up from bed by none other than Maxwell Sheffield.

"Would you like some more cake, Miss Fine?" Niles asked as he poured a cup of coffee for Fran.

"No, Niles. I think I've had enough." Fran said, toying with her food, "Oh alright, maybe a little bit more. A slice will do."

Niles smiled at her comment as he put a slice of cake on Fran's plate. "Oh Niles, I don't know what to do!" Fran said as she took a bite of the cake Niles just put.

"Now, now, what's the matter?" Niles asked as he took a seat on the chair beside Fran, "You should be happy, Mr. Sheffield brought you down for breakfast. Ohh, I know you've always wanted him to do that to you and now he did!"

"Yeah, I've always wanted him… Niles!" Fran exclaimed, "That is not my problem right noooow."

"Then what is the matter? I couldn't see anything wrong with your morning right now, Miss Fine."

"Mr. Sheffield," Fran sipped her coffee, "slept in my bed last night."

Niles' eyebrows shot up in a mock expression of surprise that Fran didn't quite recognize, "Oh now, did he?"

"Yeah. And he said that he was just checking by on me and he fell asleep on my bed! Is that really an excuse! Because if it is, then that's probably one of the weird things he's ever gone into and that he should do that more often!" Fran babbled to Niles as he stood up to start cleaning the dishes.

"I don't know what we did in bed!" Fran drabbled in desperation as the conversation completely stopped when Grace just walked in the kitchen.

Maxwell just stared at the contracts piled before him on his table. His mind wasn't exactly on his work right now and he just couldn't stop thinking about Miss Fine. 'She almost ran off with my brother!' he thought as he rubbed his temple with his hand. "Oh for heaven's sake, C.C., take the afternoon off." Maxwell said, put down his glasses and stood up starting to pace the room, "I bloody couldn't understand what these contracts are for, might as well we just finish it off for tomorrow."

"But Maxwell!" C.C. Babcock retorted back, "I'm not yet done telling you about the corporate sponsor who would like to do extra back up on the show's opening night!"

"You were?" Maxwell asked. C.C. stared at him with dagger eyes. "Oh, you were. I'm sorry C.C., I was barely listening to you. Just, oh I don't know, just take the afternoon off." he finished.

"Oh, if you say so, Maxwell." C.C. grabbed her briefcase and stormed right out that door.

Maxwell sighed. Miss Fine has been popping in and out of his mind since this morning and that letter. 'Oh good Lord, it's that letter that's been bothering me.' Maxwell thought as he pulled out the letter from his coat. He sat down on his desk, grabbed a pen, and started writing like crazy. It was time to tell Miss Fine what he had always wanted her to know.

Fran was once again stuffing herself up with a box of Godiva chocolates that the Sheffields would always have handy around in the living room. Niles was off cleaning and tidying up the kitchen, the kids are all upstairs killing time off with either homework, boys or making a huge racket with the CD that Brighton just brought and Mr. Sheffield… well, he's still holed up in his office and reading piles of contracts that probably said the same thing over and over in different word formations.

"And here I am," Fran muttered to herself as she flipped the channels of the TV, "drowning myself in choco… what is this?" she picked up a piece of envelope lying on the table under the box of chocolates that she was munching on. It smelled so much of Mr. Sheffield and Fran swore that she'd know that handwriting anywhere. There it was, written in script handwriting that came from that one man in the house… Mr. Sheffield.

Fran caught herself staring at the envelope that she was holding. She fumbled to open the letter and found herself getting teary-eyed at the note she was reading.

Dear Miss Fine,

I just wish this isn't too late for me now, because if it is, I wouldn't know what to do without you. I'm sorry if I hurt you bad, I'm sorry if I was being a coward for not letting you know how I feel. But I think you do. You're just waiting for me to tell you all about it. And here it is, I love you. Far more than anything in the world, far more than the riches that lay before me. I love you for what you are, for what you've done for the children, and for what you've done for me. I feel bad for myself for almost letting you go, I almost lost you. I almost lost another part of my life and I wouldn't want that to happen all over again. Because you know, you are that one person that captured my heart, the one person that made me smile again. You've also been a huge part in the best years of my life, and you turned my and my children back into a family together. They simply adore you, and you're not just their nanny, you've become their mother. I do hope you will stay here with us forever.

Fran, I love you. And that's what I've always felt for you.

Love,

Maxwell

Fran was dumbstruck. She didn't know what to do after reading the letter, and frankly, she didn't have anything to say either. She just sat there staring blankly over nothing, that she didn't even realize Maxwell slipping in beside her on the couch, with a bouquet of sterling long stemmed red roses for her.

"I suppose you now know what I've been feeling for you all along." Maxwell whispered as Fran snapped back from her reverie. Fran looked at him with those tender eyes and she buried herself in Maxwell's embrace. "I missed you" Maxwell tilted up Fran's chin ever so gently and looked into her eyes, "Don't ever leave me."

"I won't." Fran answered gazing into those piercing green eyes, "I promise."

And then, they started passionately kissing.

The End.