A/N: A special moment between Niles and Daphne in "The Three Faces of Frasier" just made me melt!
Some narrative and dialog from the episode has been slightly modified.
"What a waste of time," Daphne muttered as she drove away from the third supermarket she'd visited that morning. "I go to three stores and only then do I find out that Dr. Crane's 'exclusive' bran cereal is no longer sold in Washington. Bloody hell, now I'm talking to myself!"
And now, I have to explain to Dr. Crane that his hoity-toity cereal is no longer sold in Washington and Mr. Crane and I will endure hours of complaining, she thought to herself. It was bad enough hearing him rant about running out of it. A sense of foreboding overcame her as she thought back to earlier that morning.
"Oh, calm down, Fras'," Martin said in annoyance. "Just have some of my Post bran clusters!"
"It's not the same!" Frasier said indignantly. "This cereal is carefully made in small batches from the finest imported bran, and isn't processed to death!"
"Back in my day—" Martin began.
"—'We were grateful just to be have food'," Frasier parroted. "But I've eaten this cereal for years and it's helped me stay healthy! What am I going to eat NOW?"
"For God's sake, son, complaining about fancy-pants cereal. So what if you'll miss it for a day? You'll live!"
Frasier opened his mouth to complain again, but Daphne quickly intervened.
"I'll go get your precious cereal."
"Daph, you don't need to do this," Martin said.
"It's no trouble at all. I could use a distraction," Daphne insisted. Anything to get Frasier to stop sulking. And distract herself from thoughts of….
So here she was, running all over Seattle for his overhyped cereal. And unsuccessfully at that. Now she and Martin would hear no end of it, even if it wasn't her fault.
"Unless…" Daphne muttered, "I go into Portland for some."
Portland? For CEREAL? her mind demanded.
"If it'll shut Dr. Crane up."
Great. Now she was arguing with herself! Daphne sighed heavily. It really was ridiculous, going through such lengths to placate Frasier and prevent his endless whining. She should just let Martin tell him to "shut his big bazoo" and deal with it. Honestly, all this fuss over a certain brand of bran flakes. Dear God, Frasier was particular.
Now, be fair. Both the Drs. Crane are quite fussy! Daphne told herself, but kept musing. It's different with Niles, though. He always finds humor in the situation and never makes others feel miserable. That's one of the things that's so adorable about him.
This train of thought nearly distracted Daphne from making a turn that would get her to Elliot Bay Towers. She put on her turn signal at the last minute, earning herself a loud blast of the horn and a none too polite epithet from the driver behind her.
Here she was thinking of the younger Dr. Crane as 'Niles'—and quite fondly. With her wedding to someone else coming up in weeks.
Someone else? Was she really thinking of of Donny—her fiancé—as "someone else"? Just weeks before her wedding! As if taking the plunge and accepting his proposal hadn't been difficult enough, now she was complicating matters with this sudden affection toward Niles Crane.
It's just wedding jitters. It will pass, she told herself, but thoughts of Niles began to surround her. His wonderful smile, the playful side she glimpsed behind his seeming snobbery, his gentleness…
No, she couldn't think about that now. She'd try to sort out this conflict tomorrow, to prove to herself that it was just frazzled nerves driving these ridiculous thoughts. Now, however? She really did need a distraction. And a long drive across state lines was just what she needed.
Battling semis, dodging cocky motorcyclists, and having to maneuver around drivers who seemed to think there was nothing wrong with taking a highway at a leisurely pace kept Daphne from thinking any more about the situation at hand—and, hours later, she repeated the course, this time back to Seattle. A bag of ten bran cereal boxes—Frasier's "hoity-toity" kind, of course—was on the passenger seat.
"Well, I had to go to four different stores," Daphne said by way of greeting as she stepped into apartment 1901. "But here's Dr. Crane's cereal!"
Martin looked up from his trusty chair.
"You left eight hours ago! I was starting to get worried and was going to call you!" he exclaimed. "Why did it take you eight hours for Frasier's snooty cereal?"
"Well, I went to three different stores before I found it's not sold in Washington anymore," Daphne said brightly—a little too brightly. "But I got it! Here it is, fresh from Portland!"
"Excellent!" Frasier walked in at this juncture. "Now things are back to normal. Of course, I wish I'd had it this morning, but it's not your fault, Daphne."
His last words were spoken in the manner of someone making a great concession, at which Martin rolled his eyes, but Daphne was not listening; instead, she was staring fixedly at the couch as a memory only hours old surfaced…
"I understand how you can be unhappy with your looks," Daphne tried to placate Frasier's disappointment about his caricature, much to Martin's and Niles' annoyance. "It's like that with me eyes. I always fancied sparkling blue eyes instead of dull, old brown."
Out of the corner of her eye she saw Niles turn to her as they sat together on the couch.
"Dull?" he exclaimed incredulously. "Your eyes aren't dull! They're warm and…full of life!"
Those words…that look in his own eyes. Daphne felt a pull she hadn't felt before, even with Donny.
She collected herself before the feelings that had been rising to the surface lately showed on her own face.
"Thank you. You have beautiful eyes, too," Daphne said shyly, and to her dismay, she felt a blush creep over her cheeks—but if he had noticed, Niles didn't let on.
A moment later, Niles took his leave, but Daphne couldn't stop thinking about the way he'd looked at her moments before. So loving, so searching. He had never even looked at Mel like that (at least in Daphne's and the Crane men's presence). Could it mean that somewhere deep inside Niles still loved HER?
Daphne pushed the thought aside. One look, one compliment from a friend didn't necessarily mean anything beyond just that, friendship. Niles had been going out with Mel for nearly six months. He talked about her constantly and was always showing up with her at Frasier's apartment (which no one particularly looked forward to, including Eddie).
Surely Niles was over her and that wonderful moment was nothing beyond friendship. And as much as she treasured their friendship, the realization hurt more than Daphne could've imagined.
"I still think it was ridiculous of you to make Daphne cross state lines for your precious cereal!"
"Make her? I didn't make her do it!"
An argument between Frasier and Martin brought Daphne back to the present.
"Maybe not outright, but I might have driven into Oregon just to get you to stop yapping about your overpriced bran flakes!"
Daphne turned around and faced them.
"That might do your some good," she snapped. "Get off that big round duff of yours."
And before Martin could react, she fled to her room, suddenly caught in a storm of feelings. The reactions of the two men followed her.
"That was strange," Frasier said, puzzled.
"Yeah. What's with that 'big, round duff' comment?" Martin said indignantly.
Daphne knew she'd been incredibly rude and would feel horrible about it later, but right now all she felt was a mixture of guilt, sadness, and disappointment. It wasn't right to want Niles when she was going to marry Donny and it was ridiculous to be so disappointed that Niles was over her. After all, his happiness was what mattered, wasn't it? But that reality saddened her more than she wanted to admit.
So, Daphne did what she had done when she'd had suspicions about Niles' (then) feelings for her for so many years.
She denied them, pushed them away, eventually convincing herself that it had been a passing fancy due to Frasier's unwitting confession during his massage.
And she prayed for those feelings to never resurface. It simply hurt too much.