This chapter was supposed to be longer, but I really wanted to update. x) This was all supposed to be oneshot, you know. O_O Enjoy ~


"Don't make me get ugly!"

C.C. warned, waiting for Niles to zing back at her. Niles stood there, looking as if he were uncertain of her and clutched at his chest, and in a matter of seconds he was unconscious on the floor. C.C. rushed to his side as she ordered Brighton to call an ambulance.

Her heart was thumping in fear as she checked signs of him alive. She grew more and more afraid as she realized that he wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't beating. This was not how things should have turned out. Everything was getting better. They were both forgetting, and returning back to normal. Why'd this happen now?

The paramedics came after about five minutes.

"Why couldn't you idiots come any faster?" C.C. barked in panic. "Now hurry up before I'm paying for a funeral!"

The two men rolled their eyes as they carried Niles in a stretcher after stabilizing him and getting a pulse back. C.C. followed, trying to keep her self-possession intact. As the ambulance drove off to the hospital, she clutched at Niles' hand as she sat next to his stretcher, hoping it would help him hold on a little longer.

They brought him up to the hospital room and put him on the bed. "A doctor is on his way, stay until he arrives," the nurses informed C.C. as she nodded and took a seat next to Niles, taking his hand once more.

"Niles," she said to him with a strict tone, as if he could hear her. "Don't die on me, you hear me, Benson?" Her voice became more shattered each second as her eyes reddened and the back of her throat started to ache. She couldn't lose him now, no. Not after all they'd been through, with and against each other; and especially not before anything much more than that happens.

"Hello there," the doctor called, arriving. "Could you please excuse me miss, I'll be checking on him now." She nodded as she let go of Niles' hand and left the room.

As she walked out she ran into Fran and Maxwell, and had never been so glad to see them. When all her life she'd been focused on her self-composure, this was a time where she could not find the will to do such things.

"Oh C.C., thank God! Where is he?" Maxwell asked in worry.

"Oh he's in there I don't know Maxwell everything was perfectly normal!" She cried frantically. "I said to Niles I'd wish I'd gone to England with you and he said oh sure you could've visited your old neighborhood, Stonehenge."

Max and Fran nodded for it was something Niles would say in a 'perfectly normal' situation.

"And I said, oh you mean the place where the rocks are older than yours? I thought it was so clever!"

C.C. sobbed a little as she sat on down. "And then the scariest thing happened..."

"He had the heart attack?" Fran predicted.

"No not yet... There I was, waiting for a zinger... and nothing."

Fran and Maxwell gasped.

"I even set him up again, I said: don't make me get ugly!" She crooked a finger in emphasis. "And his eyes just rolled up into his head and he collapsed onto the floor..." C.C. held at her head and blew into her tissue as the two gasped and cried along with her.

One of the male nurses rolled out a stretcher with a body covered, calling death. Without thinking, C.C. cried in horror as she ran beside it. "Oh! I've killed him! It's all my fault, oh don't leave me!" She wailed as she climbed on top of the corpse and cried like a little child. A woman came out of the same room and this hysterical woman on top of her husband's body.

"Hector! Who is she?!"

She continuously hit C.C. with her purse as they strolled the body away.

...Fail.

C.C. couldn't take being in the hospital any longer. Seeing all those people grieve as every 5 minutes a new person was rolled out and scheduled for a funeral ,ade her feel worse and wore each time.

She sat in the living room of the mansion and tried to calm down. But how could she? Any way she saw things, if Niles died, it would be her fault. She knew the doctor said that he'd be okay, but she just couldn't get over everything. She knew how Niles felt about everything--or at least she could take a really good guess, and she was too selfish to acknowledge him for anything. Not even for the things she saw him to be. She spotted Niles' feather duster on the floor, where he dropped it when he had the heart attack. She picked it up with an affectionate hold.

"God, this is pathetic of me," she mumbled to herself as she stroked through the feathers. How the hell is it so clean after all the dusting?

She idly found herself wandering into the kitchen, where she'd always find Niles. Fran spotted her moping about.

"Oh Ms. Baaabcock," Fran awed. "Hey would you like a cup of coffee?"

C.C. smiled a nod as Fran handed her the mug.

With a sip she spat it out. "That is not coffee, it's gravy!" Fran gave her a knowing smile.

"Oh thank you Nanny Fine I miss him so much," she said as she held the duster to her chest.

"You know I was gunna make a high ball in a dribble cup," Fran added as she pulled out the chair for C.C. to sit. "But it's so messy and well, the kids are all busy."

C.C. smiled in remorse. "I know everyone thought Niles and I hated each other but... that's the only way I can have a relationship... When you really get to know me I'm not a well woman..." she noted as she squinted into space.

"Oh, I know, I know." Fran said as she rubbed her shoulders in comfort.

"And look, you're being so sweet. I really should find a way to repay you... but I won't, it's just not who I am."

Fran raised an eyebrow in disappointment but continued to comfort.

----

It was 3 am and Niles' sleeping pattern was officially turned upside down. He yawned awake as his eyes re-moistened. Ugh.. I can't wait to get out of this place...

As he was about to return to sleep, something caught the corner of his eye. He was frightened at first, for he sensed a presence beside him. But when he turned his head, he found C.C. asleep on the chair next to him. She had spent the night watching over him.

"Ms. Babcock?" He whispered.

C.C.'s eyes immediately opened in alert. Shit, caught. "Oh um, this is only a dream Niles, you can return to butler wonderland now," she said as she picked up her purse and slowly made her way out of the room.

Niles smiled as he shook his head and returned to sleep. C.C. out in the hallway crashed her head into the wall several times for her unstealthiness.

The same morning C.C. came back to the hospital. She regretted leaving earlier, but she didn't really have a choice. Niles caught her and she was bloody afraid of talking to him at this time.

She walked in with a large basket of flowers, and half joyful-half frightened, she found Niles awake. "Niles, you're awake! How are you feeling?" She said as she tried to hide her fear by sounding sweet. She was uncomfortable looking at him in the eye, so she found herself focusing on his hands. "Is there anything I can get for you" She offered sweetly as she placed the flowers on the end table and sat on the chair.

"Well," Niles started dozily. "I could use another pillow."

C.C. nodded as she went to get an extra pillow from the siding hospital bed. However, when she opened the curtain, she found much more than a pillow.

"Aaaaaaghh!"

Niles wore a smug face and put a finger over his mouth.

Fran and Maxwell immediately sat up. "Oh, um, C.C.," Maxwell stuttered.

"Yeah, uh, we'll be leaving now!" Fran stoof with a failure attempt of fixing her hair and clothes and dragged Maxwell out.

C.C. stood there in scarring shock as she slowly turned to Niles who was sitting up and snickering. She glared at him and took slow steps towards him. "Of all the devilish things you've done..."

Niles flinched as C.C. came close, but rather than striking him, she hugged him. "I saw them when I came in, idiot," she said softly next to his ear.

Niles chuckled as he put his arm around her and patted her back. "I'm sorry," he grinned. "Just trying to make myself feel at home."

C.C. smiled. "And while you're at it, you might want to take off that eyebrow liner, you look ridiculous.

"What?" Niles let go as he rubbed his brows. "Ms. Fine..."

C.C. stared at him and giggled. Niles looked back at her and smiled.

And that was when they promised themselves one thing. It was times like these where they wanted time to stop. Moments like these were always so rare because of their "circumstances." But maybe things would be different from now on. Things wouldn't change dramatically, but maybe they'd learn how to make every moment this treasurable, as if in any moment, one of them could pass out of no where. After all, they were running out of chances.


"I'm frightened... I don't want to be alone!"

C.C. quietly hissed as she crouched away, leaving Niles with a disturbed expression. "Well you finally went crackers."

Niles made his way to the living room and picked up the phone. "Yes hello Dr. Borg? This is Niles. It's about Ms. Babcock. Yes well I think we have a little problem; she's behaving in a very strange way. Well I.. I wouldn't call it delusional..."

"Granmamá, is that you?" C.C. called to Niles as she swayed idly on the chair.

Niles stared down at the delirious and insane C.C. "Yes, child." Talking back to the phone, "maybe I would..." He hung up the phone and faced C.C., who was smiling like a little child.

"Come along," Niles called as he took C.C. arm to drop her off to the loony bin.

-----

It has been two days since C.C. was taken into the Sanitarium and her isolation made her grow even more insane. If anything, being alone and on her own was her biggest ear. It sent her back to her lonely past--staying home alone and bored, her parents divorcing and having to deal with it by herself, lost friends, ex-boyfriends who were only after her for her money (and her body, rawr). And there was only one person who realized it and cared. In fact, he was visiting her right now.

He stepped into her temporary room, which consisted of one tiny twin sized bed, and a small round table with two white leather chairs on both sides. C.C. didn't seem to see him, and looked through him as if he were nonexistent. "Maxwell?"

Niles smirked sourly and sat on the coffee table. "Hm, I think your last jolt didn't do you any good... Still don't get it in your head that Maxwell loves Fran and that you're getting old and alone and have to wear a strait jacket to feel a man's arms around you."

C.C. shuddered and recoiled as she hid behind her knees as his words. "Stop."

Niles softened his grim into a sympathetic smile. Moving his seat on the arm of her chair, he stroked her hair affectionately. "I'm sorry, dear. You just irritate me. In a lovely way."

C.C. remained in her position silently, hiding her face. Seeing like this was so heartbreaking to him; he had to leave. Niles kissed the top of her head as he stood up to go. "Hang in there kiddo."

Making it home, he felt horrible all the way. Things seemed so empty without her. Was this how she felt when he was gone?

Meanwhile Fran and Gracie were in the kitchen, tending to Chester. "You know its really so funny," Fran commented as Chester licked her face. "Usually when a pet misses its master, its really depressed and walks around whimpering.

"Hey..." he gloomed by. Fran and Gracie gave each other stares then looked at him sympathetically.

-----

The next week Niles visited C.C. again while his work was (mostly) done. She appeared more jolly than his last visit--although still very delusional. She sat in the same spot where he had left her, with her feet tucked to the right as her hands rested on her knees.

"Goodmorning, granmamá, would you like some tea?" C.C. chimed with the same tone of illness she had at the mansion.

"Goodmorning, dear, I'm fine," Niles played along as he took a seat on the chair opposite to her. "How are you so far?"

"C.C. can't wait to get home, gran."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"C.C. misses home so much!" C.C. said excitedly.

"Home?" Niles didn't know what she meant. That lonely penthouse? Her childhood home?

"Mhm! I bet they're all waiting for C.C."

Niles snickered. "Child, stop fooling yourself."

C.C. pouted. "Well, I know there's one person waiting for me."

"And who is that?" Niles said curiously.

"Niles of course!"

Niles stared at her, not quite believing it. "Really?"

"Mhm," C.C. nodded cheerfully. "C.C. adores Niles very much."

Niles smiled. "And why?"

"C.C. doesn't know yet," she said as she looked on the floor with slight guilt. "But she will."

Niles stared at her with amazement, still not believing what she had just said.

But it was true--C.C. would have to see it sooner or later. She'd have to see that it was Niles that came to her and still loved her at her worst moments. Niles was the only one who gave such a damn about her. She'd have to see sooner or later that He Was The One.


Next Chapter:

Colon comes in :0

Stay tuned ~