Behind The Glockenspiel
When Niles came home that night, Daphne hurried over to take his brief case and rain coat and to kiss him.
"Dinna's almost ready. It will just be a moment."
After she hung up his coat, he took her by the hand. "Daphne, can I have a word with you for a moment?"
"Sure."
"Come have a seat here." He turned one of the kitchen table chairs around so she would be facing him and not the table. When she sat, he crouched down beside her with one knee down. "I wanted to talk to you about the clock."
She took a deep breath. "Niles please…"
"No, please hear me out. I did some soul searching and discovered another reason why I wanted that clock out of here so quickly."
"There was?" She looked at him with great interest.
"Do you recall several years back, that night you came over to help prepare an apology meal for Maris? It was the night the Glockenspiel started working again. We were by the hearth of the fireplace."
She nodded. "It was the night of the storm and the lights went out."
"That's right. Maris was stuck in Arizona."
She nodded. "I remember."
"Well, there's something about that night… this isn't easy for me to say… it's actually more difficult than I had imagined."
An alarm went off in the kitchen. "Oh", Daphne said as she jumped up. "I've got to pull me rump out of the fire." She headed for the kitchen.
Niles tried to speak, but the words got caught in his mouth. "O-oh! A rump roast. Yes, of course."
When she returned to the room, she was removing her oven mitts. "Sorry about that Niles. Had to save me rump." She sat back down where he was still down on one knee. "You were saying?"
"Daphne, the night of the storm, I almost did something… well, that I'm not very proud of."
"What is it?"
"This may be upsetting for you to hear…"
The phone rang. "Do you want me to get that?" she asked.
"No, let it ring. Daphne…" But it continued to ring. "I'll get it." He went over and snatched it up. Damn these interruptions. "Hello," his word was more of a statement than the standard question when answering a phone.
"Niles, Frasier. Listen can you meet with me tomorrow…"
"Frasier, I'm terribly sorry, but you've called at a really bad time. I'll have to call you back."
"Alright, but I just wanted to ask you…"
Niles hung up.
"I've never seen you have such a short conversation with your brotha."
"Oh, I hung up on him."
"Niles," she said in an accusing manner. Neither one of them had to say it. They knew how much Frasier disapproved about things like being hung up on.
"I know. I'll make it up to him later." He went back over to her chair and took his place again, kneeling on one knee. "Daphne, on the night of that storm, I…"
"Yes?"
"Before I tell you, and you're probably going to hate me for this, could I get a hug and a kiss and tell you again just how absolutely beautiful you are and how very much I love you."
"Oh, of course you can." She leaned over and hugged him tight. "I could never be mad at you long. I love you too."
He kissed her longingly and then stared into those warm maple eyes. "I do love you."
She smiled. "Why don't you just tell me what you want to tell me?"
"On that night, just before the Glockenspiel sprang to life…"
"Yes?"
"I was going to kiss you." There it was, he said it. A weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. He was nervous about telling her, but he didn't think she would take it too hard. After all, it was water under the bridge. They were married now.
Instead of Daphne giving it a laugh and embracing him, her face drained from color and lost all expression.
"Daphne, please don't be mad at me. I love you. I've always loved you. And I know I shouldn't have tried to kiss you. I know I was still married. And…" Niles continued to babble on about how sorry he was and as he did, he could see the preverbal coin flipping in air. Now that they were married, heads and tails couldn't have been as damaging as if he'd actually kissed her back during that storm, but he was sure wishing that that fictional coin would land on its edge. "Don't hate me. I felt the guilt of what I had almost done. That's why I sold the clock so quickly. Daphne, say something."
She took a hold of his hand with a firm grip unlike any other time she'd grabbed his hand. "I'm not mad," she said as she stared through him. "But Niles, we've GOT to get that clock back."
"Daphne, you're scaring me. Whatever do you mean, we have to get the clock back?"