Happy New Years! :) Yes, I sorta have a life to post this during New Years, but there was nothing for me to do; the whole family was playing Poker. XD I hope you love this chapter, cause I really had fun writing this one. Also, I wanna thank all my reviewers cause you guys have made me happy. Like a lot. :) and Thanks to Alba for helping me with C.C.'s kickass bitchout. Enjoy!



"Oh yeah well when your clothes come off the insults just write themselves."

C.C. walked out with Colin with a content look on her face as Niles had the opposite. He glared sadly at them as they walked away and looked down.

Niles shut the door rather loudly as he sulked his way onto the couch. He'd seen the look on C.C.'s face as she walked away with Colin. It was the same look she always gave Maxwell. And now the only difference between the two was that she could actually get this one.

He didn't get it. He thought things were starting to change. They were getting closer, they were becoming friends--best friends. And now this man, whom C.C. magically falls for despite knowing him for no more than maybe 48 hours, was stealing her away from him. Well... she wasn't his.. yet!

Half an hour later, as if connected, C.C. felt the same wave of negativity. She tossed around her salad with her fork as she rested her head on her hand in boredom. Colin had been talking and cracking crude jokes behind the waiters' backs (which would normally please C.C.), but she was uninterested at this time.

He didn't know, but C.C. did see the way Niles reacted when she left with Colin. She only meant to use him as a distraction from Niles. She never intended to hurt him in the process. Who would have thought---C.C. Babcock, the coldhearted bitch of Broadway, was feeling guilty for someone in a much lower class, while on a date. The world had gone mad.

"C.C.?" Colin called. "Are you alright? You seem dazed."

C.C. looked up at him and immediately sat up straight. "Oh, sorry."

"Is it the butler?"

"Huh?" C.C. looked at him with a suspicious stare. "What's it to you?"

"I saw when we left too." C.C. looked down.

Colin scoffed. "You shouldn't worry about the likes of him, dear."

"Excuse me?" C.C.'s temper was beginning to tick.

"He's just a butler, a domestic, the help. They're like dogs, except many dogs have pedigrees." He laughed as he stuffed a slice of chicken into his mouth. "They're there just to clean and cook. Not to worry about."

"Bullshit," C.C. seethed in a rather harsh tone as she stabbed the table with the fork. Colin sat there rather frightened, and then it turned into an amused expression.

"Are you on something, Colin? Cause you seem full of crap today." C.C. barked as he sat there.

"I could ask you the same thing. It seems unlike you to defend the low-lives."

C.C. paused. "You're right." Colin smirked, thinking he'd won.

"It's also unlike me to be seen among low-lives. So I'm out of here. Don't ever come knocking on my door again, I don't like letting the trash in," she continued, gathering her things as she got up to leave.

"You'll regret this C.C. Babcock! You'll never be able to find anyone like me--" he followed her as he nearly knocked into her when she briefly turned around. Her eyes were alight with fury.

"I'll say this once Colin, once, so open up your big fat ears and listen up: Niles is one million times the man you'll ever be and more. Now go fuck yourself and leave me the hell alone before I call the authorities. Goodbye Colon." she spat out venomously.

Before leaving she turned back at him once more. "Oh, and another comment, you're voice is more irritating than Nanny Fine's and you sound like Squidward when he's constipated."

She turned around and left briskly, with her head held high.

Colin squinted into space, not quite understanding what happened. "Colon...?"

-----

This was it. Niles was going to tell her everything. Maxwell was right--he had to let her know, and now.

He tidied himself up as well as he could--he even took the time to buy a bouquet of flowers. He felt so nervous. He was so tense! Excitement and fear flowed through him like mad.

Niles stood in front of the mirror, still finding the words to say when she came through the door.

"Alright," he started. "It's time I've got something out of my system, Ms. Babcock." He shook his head. "Ehh no that's too formal... C.C.," he tried again as he sprayed his mouth with breath spray. "Look... I've known you, since you were little calf... ugh! No, no no..."

Just in time, C.C. came in. She was still furious with Colin from the day before.

Niles spotted her and walked nervously to her as she opened the closet to put away her coat.

"Alright... it's uh, it's time I got something out in the open." His hands shivered as he held the flowers and his knees shook furiously. "I uh, I think it's time you knew..."

"Oh would you spit it out," C.C. barked. "Colin just dumped me and I have an anonymous call to make to the IRS," she lied.

Niles looked down on the floor suspiciously. "So uh, you're not seeing him anymore?"

"No," she said bitterly. "Well now so what was it you wanted to get out in the open?"

"You," Niles chickened out. "All animals should run free."

C.C. looked up at him in suspicion and crossed her arms. "That isn't what you were gunna say. And why are you holding those flowers?"

Niles became even more tense. "I thought you'd like a snack," he saved himself as he handed the flowers in C.C.'s direction.

She pointed as his pants as she remarked with a grin, "You're wearing your fancy pants..."

Niles looked down, caught.

C.C. smirked as she prepared to tease. "Niiles has a crush on someooone."

"Oh, do not..."

"Niles and his girlfriend sitting on a tree," she danced around him. "D-u-s-t-i-n-g!" She clapped and laughed at her own joke. "Alright who is it?"

In a panic, Niles looked around the room, when he saw Lynn Redgrave come out of the hallway.

"Her!" He pointed triumphantly and ran away. C.C. stared, puzzled, for in a matter of few seconds and distant mumbling, Niles was walking away with her.

But C.C. knew her Niles. She knew when he was lying. And this little last minute charade intrigued her--but all the more it scared her. Niles was so close to spilling everything. And she wasn't sure if she wanted things to change yet... It wasn't like Maxwell's issue with his trouble for commitment... it was just...



"Marry me?"

C.C. turned around with shock on her face. He was serious.

He had gone through so much trouble for this moment, he jeopardized everything just to produce his first Broadway play to earn her recognition. He worked so hard... but it all had to go in such vain.

She tried to make a joke out of it, but there was no way she could. So she just laughed at him, sending him away.

When Fran confronted her in the lady's room, she almost went to the point of madness.. again. She had to lie to her, she had to act as cold as she could possibly be. She had to repeat the words that she despised Colin for saying.

"Oh Ms. Babcock," Fran pleased. "Why do you always have to think with your head? What does your heart say?"

It says to drown you in the toilets and hide your body in my backyard. "Don't marry a maid," C.C. replied coldly. It was a lie, though. This time, it had nothing to do with class and pride, not anymore, not after its gone this far.

She didn't particularly care about what Fran thought. She found herself blurting out unconvincing nonsense jut to get her off her back. It was really none of her business... mostly.

Later that night Fran forced her to dinner with Niles. Thinking that it would be a chance to get things back to normal, she eventually accepted. But Niles saw it differently and proposed to her. Again. On the way back home, he proposed to her. Again. Desperately, on the phone, proposed to her. Again. A total of four times, including the time before. C.C. couldn't take it. She had to turn him down. Four times.

Niles didn't get it at all. He couldn't take it at all. He had to quit. Quit on her, and his job. Being within at least a mile to her broke and chipped away at his heart each time.

C.C. on the other hand planned another approach. It made her look like a really big bitch in the process, but she hoped it would let Niles bring back the "hate" that made them so close. She hoped it told him that she liked the way things were and she just wasn't ready for anything she wanted.

Fran came to her as C.C. checked mail. "Oh Ms. Babcock, please, please apologize to Niles and promise him that you won't bring it up again or rub it in his face?"

"Ummmmmmm no." C.C. replied with indifference. "Nanny Fine, do you remember when I told you that I was waiting for that magic; for that something that just makes my heart pound?"

"Yes?" Fran said hopefully.

"Well I've got it right here," C.C. smirked as she held up her tape recorder. "So you might as well just save your breath sister cause I am gunna milk this for everything it's worth."

C.C. felt really bad about this; but if it made things back to the way they used to be then she was up for it. But things were going to backfire on her. It was always going to be that way because her intentions were correct but her methods were always a pile of shit.

Maxwell spotted C.C. and briskly came over to her as well as she sighed. How many more people would she have to deal with?

"Ah, C.C. there you are. Niles! Now look here C.C. I refuse to let Niles quit because of this ridiculous nonsense between the two of you, do you understand? Now I want you to talk to him, I want you to tell him you're not going to rub it in his face, and fix it."

C.C. looked guiltily on the ground. He was going to quit...? "Okay..." she responded shakily. She didn't know that he would take it this far... Her plan had no effect if he were to quit...

Niles quickly walked down the stairs, but quickly retreated back up when he spotted C.C. "Oh god..."

"Niles, get back down here now," Maxwell commanded as if Niles were his teenaged daughter.

He walked back down as C.C. stood at the bar of the staircase. "Niles," she tried to start. "I'm sorry this whole thing happened... Let's just put the past in the past... So you proposed to me four times--"

"Four?!" Fran and Maxwell interrupted in shock.

"Forget it, I've been humiliated enough," Niles said tiresomely as he walked to the couch.

"C.C, C.C.!" Maxwell ordered as she followed Niles after.

"Niles, I'm trying to say something nice!" And she really couldn't handle it. "Help me Nanny Fine!"

"What she's trying to say is," Fran started as Niles impatiently waited on his seat. "That she'd be daaamned lucky to have you... but she's a lesbian!"

C.C. gave Fran a menacing stare. "I am not!" She yelled as she pulled Fran out of the way and sat in front of Niles on the table. She took a deep breath and tried again. It was hard not to feel nervous and achey with the expression of hopelessness Niles wore. "Look, what happened, happened, but it's just between the four of us. Nobody else ever has to know, I promise I will never tell another soul."

And as if God really wanted to fuck up C.C.'s life, she accidentally clicked on the tape recorder, replaying Niles' voice: "Will you marry me?"

Niles closed his eyes, he was so close to letting everything go too.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," C.C. begged. "I pressed it by accident--"

Niles got up, not wanting to listen anymore; his patience was running thin. "That's it, I'm out of here. She is never going to let this go--an elephant never forgets!"

"Oh puh-lease," she said as she followed him as he got up to leave. "You used that pathetic line on me three years ago!"

"See?"

"Maxwell!" C.C. barked. "I cannot do this!"

C.C. continued to follow Niles around, becoming frustrated as he started to walk back up the stairs. "Niles I'm sorry you're quitting, but I'm sure you have a career to fall back on, you know in case this whole dream didn't pan out."

Niles faced her and glared, bending down so she could hear. "Well whatever I have to fall back on isn't half as big as what you have to fall back on!"

"I don't think this is going very well," Maxwell muttered to Fran.

"No, no honey, this is going great," she said in contrary. "This is their natural habitat. We're the strangers. Just don't use a flash, it startles them, they could charge," she joked as she brought herself and Max a step back.

Overhearing, C.C. thought the same. They were bantering again. Maybe this had a chance of renewal after all.

"Me marry you? Please," she scoffed as she walked to the wall of the staircase. "You are a pathetic excuse for a man." She hurt herself saying this.

"Ditto!" Niles spat. He went a step down, wanting C.C. to hear every single thing he said with crystal clarity. "But at least I know when it's time to move on. You are going to be spending the rest of your life pining for a man who doesn't love you, and is married to a woman half your age."

After his comment Fran interrupted seeing that there was nothing C.C. could say to that, waving her arms and hanging on to him. "Oh please Niles, don't go!"

Niles ignored her and went back to C.C., who kept her eyes on the floor. "Look around you; they're married, they're starting a family. Where are you going to be, ten, twenty years from now? You're going to be saying 'Merry Christmas' to your friends in rehab, and wondering what might have been."

Convinced that there was no more to be said, he retreated back upstairs. "I'll be leaving first thing in the morning, Sir."

All eyes turned to C.C., who tried a weak attempt of a smile. "My god, he's right... The best years of my life are gone... and they sucked."

She took a deep breath and glanced at the floor. "I've always stayed too long at the fair... well not this time." She walked over to the end table to grab her purse. "I've got to move on..."

She walked to the door and before leaving, she turned to Maxwell's direction, but made no eye contact with him. "Maxwell my resignation will be on your desk in the morning."

And with that she left, shutting the door behind her.

Why? Why did everything have to happen to her?

Only ten minutes had passed but it felt like ten years. C.C. stood idly at the sidewalk as if she were waiting for her taxi, even though she never called for one. She found herself crying, which she had never done before. She was trained never to let herself break, but this was it, and there was no way she could fix anything at this point. She stood there with her arms crossed and her head down, occasionally wiping her face dry only to overflow again.

She took several glances at the mansion, and her eyes always led to Niles' bedroom window, and every time she looked away to weep some more.

This couldn't be the end, it couldn't be. She couldn't just leave ending on such horrible terms with Niles, oh especially not Niles... she needed to go back in there and make things at least a little bit better. But what was she to say, what was she to do?

C.C. walked back to the front door, closing the exterior gate behind her. Her hands rose and fell in hesitation. She was too afraid to do anything--knock, ring, open. Eventually she chickened out and turned to leave, but as she did, the door opened. Having a miniature heart attack, C.C. found the person to be Niles himself.

He averted her gaze and looked down as he dug around in his pockets for his keys. "I'm going out for groceries for the last time. I thought you should have left by now. It's getting late."

C.C. stood by the side with a pool of words swimming around in her head, not knowing which ones to pull out, and was rather drowning in them.

He opened the gate to leave, but C.C. held on to his sleeve. "Niles, don't leave..." she said, in a low quiet, broken voice.

Niles froze in his place. Never before has he heard so hurt... He turned around to face her, and mere eye contact made her start to cry harder; her eyes and nose red and stuffy.

"Niles please, I-I'm begging you."

He turned his whole body to her and held at her elbows as she was starting to fall, for her knees were wobbly.

"I'm sorry, Niles, I'm sorry I-I had to hurt you I really am," she said with sniffles and hiccups in between. "I'm sorry I said all those things--I just wanted everything to go back to normal, the way they always were. You deserve so much better an-and they really need you--don't let me ruin your life, please don't, Niles." C.C. sounded so hysterical. She tried so hard to keep herself together but only found herself breaking down in front of Niles and it broke even his heart to see her this way.

After spending a few seconds to cry, she continued. "I love you, Niles," she gathered the courage to say as she looked him strong in the eye. Niles felt his heart sink in bittersweet-mostly-bitter feelings.

"But I just"--she hiccupped--"I just... I'm not ready to lose you..."

Niles held on to her closer as he laid his palm on her face and wiped away one side of her tears with his thumb. "Lose me...?"

"I'm not perfect, Niles," she shook her head as she tried a pitiful smile. "I'm far from it and I'm not kind I'm not loving and I'm selfish I'm a bitch and if I let alone married you Niles--" she sniffled and hiccupped once more. "There are just too many possibilities of me screwing up and I'm just so afraid..." her voice faded as she continued to weep.

Niles took a deep breath as he brushed her hair behind her ear. "Stop crying."

"I'm sorry I just can't..." C.C. whimpered as she looked down as she wiped away at her own face with her palms.

"Stop."

"I'm telling you, once I start--"

Niles pulled her closer and held her head up with his hand and kissed her. It took C.C. a few seconds to bounce back into reality. Her whole body became weak and the only support she found was holding on to Niles' arms.

He pulled away, waiting a few seconds and smiled at her. "You've stopped crying."

C.C. became red all over her face and felt light headed.

"Now you listen to me," he started as he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped her face dry and pinched her little red nose with it. "All that you have described yourself to be.... is completely true."

C.C. couldn't help but to sigh a smile and hit her forehead on his chin, like a little facepalm.

He lifted her back to eye level by her chin. "But I love you and I will always love the things about yourself that you completely despise."

C.C. felt her eyes watering again. Never, in her whole entire life has anyone offered her such acceptance and love like he just did right now.

"I'm starting to cry again, I think you should stop me." C.C. laughed as Niles chuckled and smiled at her warmly.

She looked at him endearingly. "I love you."

Niles froze in the mix of relief and utter happiness and everything in between. "Love you too, kiddo."

She smacked his arm softly playfully and giggled as Niles pulled her closer into another warm and passionate kiss.

The both of them were overwhelmed with complete relief, joy, love. Everything that they had used and wasted so much will power for in six plus years, finally spilled over. See, sometimes Babcocks did have happy endings.


weee~ I guess that ends the frustration part of the story ;P I don't really know if I'm going to include things in between then and the finale, but you guys want one, I'll bring it over. Writing paper drafts til 3 AM is no biggie LOL.

Happy New Years, everyone! Have a safe, great, and awesome-riffic 2010.

-Rei