Disclaimer: I don't own any of the fabulous characters from 'The Nanny'.

A/N: I've always wondered if this could ever really happen. Not just Niles and CC but anyone, anywhere.

Phantom of the Mansion

Chapter 8

New Years Eve - Later that night

CC leaned over to Niles at their table. "Niles, would you walk me to my room, please?"

"Of course, but it's only eleven fifteen. Don't you want to stay until mid-night?" Niles asked her.

CC shook her head. "No, I'm a little tired. I've had a pretty big night. I think I'd just like to get upstairs. I'll watch the ball drop from my balcony." CC smirked at him.

"Alright, Babs, if you're sure. I don't need to be here. I get enough of Fran and Max necking at home." Niles laughed at the sight of the far more relaxed Max than he was used to.

Niles stood and pulled out CC's chair for her to stand. Max and Fran finally noticed them. "Oh, CC, Niles…are you leaving us?"

"Miss Babcock wants to retire, Sir. I'm going to escort her safely to her room and I think I'll catch a cab back to the mansion, if you don't mind." Niles detailed.

Max frowned. "Well if you're both sure you want to leave now, then I suppose I have to stay until the end of the party." Turning his attentions to Fran, "You don't mind, do you, Darling?"

"Oh no, Max, I love a good party." Fran winked at Niles and CC, who exchanged glances. Niles offered his arm and CC took it. They turned and left barely noticed by Max and Fran.

Niles and CC walked silently to the elevator. They rode silently up to her floor. He walked her silently to her room. When she opened the door, Niles finally spoke. "Let me check your room, please."

"Niles, I don't think that's necessary." CC looked at him.

"Please, you know Max and Fran will ask if I did." Niles' eyes were pleading with her.

CC stepped aside and allowed him to enter and look around the room and the bath. "Well, now I can say I've been in a room at the Plaza! Sleep well, Miss Babcock, Happy New Year." Niles left the room and listened for the lock to engage before he left her door.

"Silly servant, he's always looking out for me." CC laughed lightly. She went into the bathroom and changed into her white lace negligee. CC came out of the bathroom brushing out the curls from her hair. She'd washed her face and felt fresh and clean and ready for a restful night sleep. It was still only eleven forty five, but waiting until midnight didn't really seem that important to CC so she climbed into bed and clicked off the light. It was barely a moment before she heard the voice whispering her name on the lilt of the music…

"CC…" He whispered. "CC…I'm here."

CC recognized which of the soft tunes was playing and felt new found confidence and sang the words as she got out of bed and approached the sound of his voice.

"Angel, I hear you! Speak, I listen…stay by my side, guide me!
Angel, my soul was weak, forgive me enter at last, Phantom."

His voice came from her balcony. She could feel him on the other side of the sliding glass door. She slowly approached him in the soft glow that washed into her room from the city lights outside.

"Finally my love you shall know me, see why in shadows I hide!
Look at your face, your reflection, I am there inside!"

The closer CC got to the door the more clear he became. She was mesmerized as her reflection faded and he came into view. She slid the door opened and took his outreached hand and drew him into the room pleading with her words.

"Angel of Music!
Guide and guardian!
Grant to me your Glory!"

CC placed her hand on the cheek of his mask as she'd done in the ballroom. This time he placed his hand on hers and his song changed.

"Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime;
Lead me, save me from my solitude.
Say you want me with you, here beside you.
Anywhere you go let me go too."

Her Phantom helped her to pull the mask off his face and hair revealing her…Niles, who whispered. "CC… that's all I ask of you." CC's tears were flowing freely now and Niles did his level best to brush them away with his kisses. "Please, CC…please don't cry."

"I knew it was you. From the very beginning…I…I felt it. Oh, God, I love you, Niles." CC wrapped him in a crushing embrace.

"I love you, too." Niles whispered. Their lips met in a soul joining kiss and that would bind them forever as one. They had…passed the point of no return, and they couldn't have been happier.

EPILOGUE

Five years later:

Niles stepped into the third floor apartment that Max had graciously offered to him and CC when they married on Valentine's Day five years ago. He was immediately met by a little girl leaping into his arms. "Daddy!"

"Hello, Princess, where are Mommy and Danny?" Niles asked his oldest child.

Lauren smiled up at her father with a lopsided grin that matched his own. "Danny woke up from his nap with a stinky, so Mommy's changin' him."

"Let's go see if she can use some help." Niles put Lauren up onto his shoulders and walked into the nursery. "Hello, my love. Lauren tells me that young Daniel woke with a less than pleasant mess in his diaper." Niles placed a kiss on CC's cheek and tickled his son's bare tummy.

CC finished dressing the baby and lifted him onto her shoulder. "Nothing a seasoned mother of two can't handle," CC said. "How was your day, Belvedere?"

"Mommy." Lauren chastised CC for calling Niles names.

"I'm sorry, Princess. How was your day, Honey?" CC looked at her daughter seeking approval. Lauren nodded.

"It was just fine. I've got the new staff all trained. I should be able to spend my days at the piano and helping my beautiful wife with our growing family in no time." Niles smiled as he lifted Lauren down from his shoulders. "I'm amazed that after all the time I spent doing that job, Max decided it was too much for one person."

CC laughed. "I still don't know how you managed it."

"I don't either. I suppose Max's standards were never really that high. I only ever excelled in the kitchen." Niles followed his family into the sitting room.

CC winked at him. "Well, that's not the only room you excelled in." Niles blushed.

"Daddy, tell me again the story of how you whoohooed Mommy." Niles and CC chuckled.

"That's wooed, Princess. Whoohoo is what Aunt Frannie says when she's really happy." CC corrected softly.

Niles frowned at his little girl. "Are you sure, Lauren? I've told you that story a million times."

"Daddy, don't 'zaggerate." Lauren started sounding just like CC. "And I really like that story."

CC got Daniel started at nursing and looked at her husband. "I think you're cornered, Niles. You'd better just start from the beginning."

Niles sighed. "Well, Uncle Max and Aunt Fran were having a Halloween party…"

"No Daddy, start with the part about how you fooled Mommy into buying that penhouse from you." Lauren giggled.

"Well, I knew that Mommy wanted to buy her neighbors penthouse so she could have the entire floor to herself. So I offered to buy it and Mrs. Thomas sold it to me. After about six months Mommy bought it from me." Niles detailed. "Well, from the fake company I used so she wouldn't know it was me." Niles winked at CC.

"I still don't see the reason for that. You knew that after all was said and done, we'd be moving in here." CC wondered aloud.

"I needed you to be here at the mansion if my plan was to work. I couldn't keep schlepping across town to your penthouse. Not to mention standing beneath your window would've been difficult since you were on the 25th floor." Niles smirked.

"How'd you get to all those places without Mommy seein' ya?" Lauren asked, as she always does.

"That's a part of the story for another time, Princess." Niles kissed her forehead. "Now, shall I continue or do you have more questions?"

"Sorry, Daddy, g'head." Lauren sat back and listened to Niles tell the story of how he donned the Phantom costume and how he first sang to CC out on the terrace.

CC watched as her little girl who looked so much like the man she loved listened earnestly to the story of how her friend, her love, her…Phantom finally wooed her and made her his wife. She couldn't help but smile. She softly caresses the cheek of their infant son. CC sighed; she didn't think she was able to get pregnant when they found out about Lauren and when her doctor told her about Daniel she thought her life may actually be perfect. She had her Niles, the man of her dreams and so much more. A beautiful little girl that so resembled her father it made her heart flutter at the sight of them together. And now a new baby boy who filled the house with giggles and cooing and yes, stinky diapers, but it was a life CC had never known she wanted until her Phantom had thrust it upon her…they've crossed their bridge and gladly stand together and watch it burn.