Once again thank you to everyone who's reading, and an extra special thank you to everyone who's reviewing. It all means so much. :-) I hope you continue to like and enjoy the story.

Chapter 5

Monday morning Brighton was seated at the head of the table with Maggie on one side, and Gracie on the other as Niles was serving them breakfast. When they all heard the front door close, they looked around at each other being confused as to who it could be.

Niles shook his head in curiosity.

"Now who could that be so early in the morning?" Brighton shrugged.

"It's probably Sylvia coming over for breakfast."

Niles, Maggie, and Gracie nodded agreeing with Brighton, and rolled their eyes in the process. However, all four of them stared wide eyed when CC walked through the door a few moments later with Chester tagging along.

"Hello, hello." She smiled around at everyone before taking the empty seat next to Maggie.

"Miss Babcock, what are you doing here?" CC looked at Gracie.

"Just because your father is away on his honeymoon, doesn't mean that I don't have work to do."

"So you'll be working here while Dad and Fran are away?" She looked at Maggie and nodded.

"Yes, I am." She then looked at Niles and smirked. "Hey, Butler Boy, why are you still standing there? I'm hungry and so is Chester." He smirked back.

"I'm sorry, but we had pizza for dinner last night, so there are no bones left for you to chew on. But I'll go and leave the toilet seat up for you, so that you can get yourself a drink. And I'll make sure to fix a nice bowl for you, Chester."

She fixed him a glare, but he kept smirking as he left for the kitchen to get her a plate, cutlery, and a mug with Chester following him.

Once he was in the kitchen and he was sure the door was closed, he started to dance around. He was absolutely thrilled that she'd be at the house the entire month that Maxwell and Fran were away. He continued to dance as he got the plate, cutlery, and mug, and fixed a bowl with food for Chester. Still dancing he then padded the dog on the head, but stopped and took a calming breath before walking back into the dining room.

When he got back into the dining room, he put the cutlery and mug down in front of her, and went to fix her a plate. She examined the mug and then looked at him smirking.

"I see you got me a clean mug. Seeing as I'm not the only one having coffee, I assume, it's dishwater free."

He smirked back at her when he returned to her with a plate of food and the coffee in his other hand. He sat the plate down in front of her and poured the coffee into her mug.

"For now."

The children tried to hide their grins while CC rolled her eyes but kept smirking.

"Well, it would be nice if it remained dishwater free for the rest of the day." He gave her his lopsided grin.

"We'll see."

She groaned slightly and rolled her eyes again. Instead of going on about dishwater free coffee, she turned her attention to the children.

"So, do you kids have a long day of school ahead of you?"

Maggie, Brighton, and Gracie all looked at CC liked she'd grown an extra head before looking around at each other with a confused expression. Niles had to admit to himself that he was a bit surprised too. Maggie then turned to CC and nodded slightly.

"Uh, yeah. Neither of us will be home until about 3.00."

Knowing that it would be polite to ask back, Gracie turned her attention to CC to ask about her day.

"What about you, Miss Babcock? Do you have a lot of work to do today?" CC smiled at Gracie.

"I have plenty of paperwork to get to, with our new play scheduled to open in the late Fall."

"So, does that mean you'll be here when we get home?" She took a sip from her coffee before answering.

"Yeah, probably."

Niles smirked as he poured some more orange juice into the glass Brighton was holding out for him.

"You know what they say, Brighton. No rest for the wicked." Brighton gave Niles a confused look.

"Niles, that's no rest for the weary." Niles shook his head and pointed at CC.

"Not in her case."

Not really knowing how to respond seeing as CC was giving Niles a glare, Brighton finished his juice and stood up.

"Well, we better finish getting ready for school, so that we won't be late." Maggie and Gracie stood up as well.

"Yeah, we better." CC smiled at them as they approached the door.

"Have a nice day."

Still not quite knowing how to respond to CC, seeing as it seemed she was acting nicer since the wedding, they merely gave her a polite smile.

"You too, Miss Babcock."

"Bye."

Niles cleared their plates, glasses, mugs, and cutlery away, brought it all to the kitchen and returned to the dining room a few moments later.

"I'm just going to see the children off to school." She nodded.

"Okay."

When Niles reached the front door where the children were, Maggie and Brighton gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Niles, we're sorry that you have to put up with Miss Babcock."

"Yeah, it seems you won't be able to relax much with her being here. If she catches you doing nothing, she'll just rat you out to Dad when he gets back."

"Or worse. She'll probably think up something horrible for you to do as payment for keeping quiet." Gracie shook her head.

"I actually don't think she'll be that bad." Maggie and Brighton looked at her like she'd grown an extra head.

"You're kidding, right?"

"No, I don't. She was the one, who convinced Fran to walk down the aisle. We all tried and failed, but somehow whatever Miss Babcock said convinced her."

Maggie and Brighton looked at each other and knew that their sister had a point. Maggie then looked at Gracie again and shook her head.

"Yeah, but that still doesn't mean that she won't give Niles a hard time."

"No, it doesn't. But I really think Miss Babcock is changing. Maybe not so much that she's not going to torment Niles, but still enough that she's going to be nicer than before. And let's face it, Niles can defend himself and torment Miss Babcock more than she can torment him." She smirked at Niles and he winked at her.

"Right. I do appreciate the concern, but I can handle Miss Babcock perfectly fine. Now you better be off, or you'll be late."

Brighton patted him on the back.

"Well, best of luck to you."

"Bye."

"See you later, Niles."

"Goodbye."

Niles watched them leave, and once he'd closed the door he did another little happy dance before walking back to the dining room.

CC was pouring herself another cup of coffee at the serving table by the wall, when Niles entered the dining room. She looked at him when she heard him enter and smirked back at him.

"Thought it was best to get myself a cup of coffee before you had a chance to tamper with it."

He chuckled and shook his head and went to take her empty plate from the table when he noticed, the table was empty. He looked at her confusedly as she walked towards him.

"Where's your plate?"

"In the kitchen." He gaped in mock shock.

"You actually cleaned up after yourself? I didn't know you were housetrained." She rolled her eyes.

"It's not like it's the first time, I've ever carried something I've used, to the kitchen. I've often carried my own mug and the occasional plate to the kitchen after I've used it. So don't act so surprised." He smirked at her.

"Now, Babs, don't be such a spoilsport." She just rolled her eyes again.

"I think I better get some work done."

"Me too." She laughed out loud and he frowned at her. "What?"

"You don't actually expect me to believe that you're going to be working, are you?" He gaped and then protested.

"Of course, I'm going to be working." She rolled her eyes yet again, but smirked in the process this time.

"Just who are you kidding, Tidy Bowl? There's no way that you're going to work as much as usual, now that Maxwell isn't here. And with the children at school, you can relax the entire day and no one would be the wiser. Come on, admit it. If I wasn't here, you'd be doing absolutely nothing." He shook his head.

"I'm admitting to nothing, Wench."

"You're afraid that if you admit it, I'm going to make you do something against your will, so that I won't blab to Maxwell." When he didn't respond she gave him a triumphant smirk. "Your silence is giving you away." He sighed heavily.

"Okay fine. I'll admit that I hadn't planned on doing nearly as much work as usual. However, I can't very well stop myself from working completely. The kitchen, the bathrooms, and the bedrooms all have to be cleaned regularly, and it'll show too much if I don't dust and vacuum for an entire month." She patted his arm in mock comfort.

"Now was that so hard to admit?" He groaned.

"Okay, Witch, name your price. What's it going to cost me for you to keep quiet?"

"Well, I could always make you built another gazebo for the terrace, I don't have. Or I could just make you my personal slave for the entire month." He groaned again and then hung his head in defeat. His expression made her chuckle. "But as long as you're just around now and then to bring me food and drinks during the month and take care of Chester while I work, I'll keep quiet."

He looked up at her and eyed her suspiciously. He kept looking at her like that before shaking his head and commenting.

"There's got to be more to it than that. I don't believe that you're letting me off the hook that easily."

"Honestly, Niles, what do I get out of ratting you out? Maxwell might want to scold you, but all Fran would have to do is look at him with those Bambi eyes of hers, and he will forget all about scolding you. And like you said, there are certain places you can't avoid cleaning for an entire month. Since you'll still be cleaning, I won't really have anything on you. So, your secret is really safe with me." He smirked at her.

"Well, if what you say is true, then I don't really have to be around. I can just leave you to get your own food and drinks." She smirked back.

"But you're still the butler, which means you're still expected to be at the house. I can easily tell Maxwell that I didn't see you once for the entire time, they were away." He gave her his lopsided grin.

"I see your point. Alright then. However, I do have some things to take care of outside the house from time to time, so I can't be at your service constantly."

"Fair enough. However, there is one thing I'd like you to do. And if you don't I'll be ratting you out." He groaned again.

"And what would that thing be?" She held up her coffee mug.

"No more dishwater in my coffee, and no more putting the coffee in a dirty mug." She saw the smirk form on his lips and smirked back. "Or any other trick, like that, which involves anything I drink and eat." He smirked and nodded in recognition that she'd been on to him.

"You've got yourself a deal." She reached her hand out for him to shake.

"I'm glad." He shook her hand. "Now that we've cleared that up, I should really get started on work." When she was nearly out the door, she looked over her shoulder and smirked. "At least that's the deal for now. You never know if I change my mind." She laughed throatily while walking away leaving Niles to gape at her.

However, a few seconds after she'd left, Niles put the hand she shook to his cheek, and imagined that it was her hand touching his cheek. He kept standing in the dining room like that for a few seconds before heading back to the kitchen to clean up after breakfast.

TBC