Alex hurried to follow him onto the sidewalk. "Mister, wait!" She called to him.

The man turned around and glared at her. "What do you want?"

"To help you." Alex said.

"I assure you I'm fine, thank you. I don't need help from a... a child." He said, emphasizing the word.

"Come on... Please? Just tell me what's wrong." Alex begged.

Wearily the man walked over to a nearby bench and sat down. "I might as well. I'm a psychiatrist and I of all people should know that it's not good to keep my

emotions bottled up."

"Good!" Alex said with a smile having no idea what he was talking about. Without being asked, she sat down beside him. "So what's bothering you?"

"Well, for starters, I've been voted out of my wine club! For something that wasn't even my fault! I'm sure that Frasier will take great pleasure in knowing that his little

brother will no longer be lurking in his shadows. God knows we've competed enough in our lifetimes."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Brothers are such a pain! I have two of them; an older one and a younger one and they are both... Wait... did you say Frasier?"

"Well, yes... but..."

"Oh my God! I was just at his house looking for him! Do you know where he is? Oh my God I can't believe you're his brother! Wow... he sure has a big family!"

The man looked at her like she was nuts. "Wait... How do you know where he lives?"

"It's on the Internet." Alex replied.

The man's hand flew to his mouth. "Dear God! Who would put Frasier's address on the Internet? Just because he's a so-called radio star doesn't mean-."

"Well it was easy to find. It's right over there." Alex said, pointing to the KACL building across the street. This news apparently brought the man great relief.

"Oh.. Yes, I suppose you could say that KACL is his home." The man said.

"I'm Alex." Alex said, extending her hand. "And what's your name?"

"I'm not sure if I should even tell you..." The man said. "But I'm Dr. Niles Crane."

"A doctor, huh?" Alex asked, tugging on her shirt. "Do you think you can take a look at this rash on my neck?"

The doctor cringed and backed away.

"Hey!" Alex yelled. "I'm not contagious! Or at least I don't think I am..."

"Um... Well... I 'm not that kind of doctor. I'm a psychiatrist." He told her for the second time.

Finally she got it. "Ohhhh... You mean you're a head shrinker like Frasier? Well, maybe you can help me. See, my older brother Justin is such a pain. He's always-."

"Listen..."

"Alex." She finished, annoyed that a guy who probably went to a really big school could forget her name so quickly.

"Alex. I'd love to help you with your problems, but I have enough of my own, okay? So if you don't mind-."

"But you never told me what's wrong!" Alex said. "Well except for this club you got kicked out of. But hey, I wouldn't worry about it. I mean who wants to be in a whine

club anyway? I bet all they do is complain all day! Maybe I could try to get my brothers to join?"

"Your bothers drink wine?" Dr. Crane asked in disbelief. "But you said you had a younger brother! Why you can't be more than-."

Alex laughed hysterically. "No! I mean whine, like "W-H-Y... um... N-E".

Dr. Crane wasn't at all amused.

Wow, this guy's sense of humor is worse than Mr. Larritate's! And that's bad!

"All right. So what's wrong?" She asked.

"Dr. Crane sighed. "What isn't wrong?"

"Oohhh! Sounds serious!" Alex said, shifting to a more comfortable position in her chair.

"Well.. not only did I get thrown out of my wine club...that's wine that adults drink by the way; a patient threatened me at work and now I'll probably lose my license!"

"Wow... You can lose your driver's license over that?" Alex asked, making a mental note not to make her shrink mad. If she ever had one that is.

The man looked at her with annoyance. "My license to practice... Oh never mind."

"So that's it? That's why you were crying like a baby?"

"I wasn't crying!" Dr Crane yelled.

"Okay, okay! So what else happened?"

"Isn't that enough?" Dr. Crane sighed.

"Look, I can totally tell that you're hiding something. I do it all the time! What happened? You get dumped or something?"

To her amazement, the man turned away, but she could hear him start to cry again.

"Oh man! I knew I should have kept my mouth shut!"

"I-it's all right." Dr. Crane said, quickly rubbing his eyes.

"So who was this chick, anyway?" Alex asked.

A dreamy look came over Dr. Crane's eyes and he actually smiled. Kind of the way Alex did whenever she saw Mason.

"Daphne..." Dr. Crane said.

"And what's the big deal about her?" Alex asked.

"She's an angel, my goddess. I loved her for almost seven years before I could tell her. She was engaged to another man and then Frasier found out that she loved

me, only I didn't know it. But then on the night before her wedding to this other man, she finally kissed me. And now she's going to marry me instead... Or at least...

she was."

"Wow... that's deep. You could put that on a Hallmark card or something!" Alex said. She started to laugh, but when Dr. Crane glared at her she thought better of it.

"So why isn't she? Going to marry you, I mean?"

"Oh... Well it was my fault. But it doesn't matter now." Dr. Crane said, rising from the bench. "Look, it was very nice to meet you Alex, but I should be going... back to

my cold... dark... lonely apartment."

"Later!" She called to him.

As he walked away, she could hear him sighing to himself.

"I just wish my life was perfect. The way it used to be... before I made a mess out of things."

Alex knew that he completely unaware of the shower of sparkling dust that covered him as he walked down the sidewalk and turned the corner.