For The Love of Daphne by Patrick Councilor
Martin, Frasier, Charlotte, and Roz sat in the conference room in the hospital trying to console Daphne. The door opened and Doctor Sapperstein walked in with a Styrofoam cup of coffee. "Martin, Daphne." He shook their hands. "I haven't met the other's yet."
Frasier introduced himself, Charlotte and Roz.
"Pleasure to meet all of you." He sat at the edge of the table. "It's been a pretty rough morning; not all bad though. Niles is up and alert. The only problem is that he's not himself; at least not in age."
"I was thinking this could partially be a result of the medications and the early stages of reviving from the head trauma." Frasier added.
The doctor looked his way. "I considered that as well, but that's not the case. We wanted to call in a head trauma specialist, however the person best suited for the job is tied up with other cases at this time. Under his advisement, we are going to try a few things to recover Niles' memory. I am asking you to give us the rest of this day for testing and rehabilitation and possibly all of tomorrow. With a head injury like this, the closer we get to the event that put him here will be the hardest to recover. He may or may not ever recover that part of his memory. I need you to trust me that he's in good hands, to go home and relax… get some sleep, and support each other. He may advance in short time periods. This may take some time, but we will do a little 'time travel magic' here for you, okay?"
"Thank you doctor," Martin said as he shook his hand.
Frasier shook the doctor's hand and Daphne hugged him.
"We'll call you tomorrow with more information as to when you should return to see him."
"Thanks again," everyone said as the doctor left.
"You see, Daph," Martin said, "everything's going to be just fine."
"Is it?" she asked. "The only one who can shed light on this whole mess is my husband who thinks he's ten years old and doesn't even know I exist. And even the doctor said that he probably won't ever remember the night of the accident. Oh yeah, everything's going to be fine. It's just peachy," she said in sarcasm.
Frasier's voice was solemn, "Daphne, I know things look rough right now, but let's look on the bright side: we are getting Niles back, which is a small miracle in itself taking into account what he has been through."
"You're right. I'm sorry. I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth." She gave Frasier a hug. They headed out of the conference room to go back over to The Montana to keep Daphne company and her mind off of the clock.
The rest of the day was painful to not know of Niles' progress, but David kept his mother busy with his needs and playtime. The others cooked and cleaned for her and Frasier drew her a hot bath to soak in with lit candles throughout the room.
Even with all of her friends and family to help her through this, she still cried herself to sleep.
The next day was even longer. At any given moment, the phone could ring and their visiting privileges could be restored. Daphne kept busy playing with David all morning. At forty-seven minutes past noon, the phone rang. Everyone looked at each other with great hope. Frasier picked up the phone and handed it to Daphne. She spoke with them, mostly giving "yes" replies. When she got off the phone she looked scared.
"Daphne, what is it?" Frasier asked. "Are you okay?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Well what is it?" Roz said.
"They told me that Niles is asking to see me."
"Well that's great news, isn't it?"
"It sure is," she started to cry.
"Well then why are you crying?" asked Frasier.
"I'm just so happy." She sobbed.
"Oh," everyone accepted that answer.
"I'll get some drinks for everyone to celebrate," Daphne almost couldn't talk, she was crying so hard. "Roz, could you help me in the kitchen?"
Roz followed her. Once the kitchen door was closed, Roz started in, "Alright Daphne spill it. WHAT IS GOING ON?"
"They said…"
"Yes."
"They said…"
"What is it?"
"They said that he was asking for his wife."
"Okay that's good isn't it?"
"He may… recover his memory… in short… parts… what if… what if he was asking to see… his wife and… and is expecting Maris."
The look on Roz's face looked like she had just been doused with ice water. "Oh my God!" She covered her mouth with her hand for a second in disbelief. "Oh my God!" Then she pulled it away. "What are you going to do? Do you want me to go with you?"
"No. No, I have to face this problem on me own."
The phone rang again and Frasier answered it. "Hello… Oh, hello Frank. Yeah, Dad's right here." He held the phone out. "Dad, it's for you. It's Frank."
"Thanks son," Martin took the phone and stepped away from everybody as far as the phone cord would take him and spoke softly to keep his phone conversation personal. "Hey Frank, how are things?" He looked around to ensure no one was listening in.
"Marty, we need to talk."
"What is it?"
"Not over the phone. Where can I meet you?"
"You want to go for a drink?"
"No, let's just meet."
"Frank, you're scaring the hell out of me. Is this good news or bad news?"
"I don't know Marty. I guess you could say there's no good news no matter how you look at it."
"Where do you want to meet?"
"In the lobby of The Montana. One hour."