CHAPTER 18

The day was passing too quickly in Niles's opinion. He was having a hard time figuring out how to use the new dirt he had against CC.

He was in his bedroom when he reached into his blazer to pull out the incriminating evidence. As he brushed his fingers over the material of her stocking, he felt an unusual rush that he didn't usually experience while cooking up an anti-Babcock plan.

He lifted the silk to his nose, without thinking. It smelled like her. Maybe it's a scented body lotion, he wondered. Then he frowned at himself and quickly stuffed the garment into his bedside drawer. You need to get out more, he told himself, Of course anything would smell good when you're inhaling detergents all day! He snorted.

CC stormed into the kitchen. Where is that nuisance of a man?! She thought. When she couldn't find him, she walked up the back stairs from the kitchen. She was a little nervous to be on his territory. He'd have the upper hand.

She rounded the corner and saw him coming out of his bedroom - the place she last set foot in when drying her wet clothes after the water fight. But she couldn't let that distract her now.

She stormed at him like a raging bull and pushed him out of the way to see where he could have stashed her stocking. When she had realized it was missing from her handbag and that it wasn't in the dining room, she knew he was the only one who could have had it.

"Alright rubber maid, where is it?" She shouted.

"Where's what? He asked.

"You know exactly what! Don't play dumb."

"I have to in order to talk to you on a level you'd understand."

"Oh-hoh, that's hilarious, Niles!" She said, dripping with sarcasm. "Now give it before I make minced meat out of your domestic ass!"

"I said I don't know what you're looking for, now calm down! Geez, keep your stockings on, for goodness' sake!" He couldn't hide his smirk.

"Oh, that's IT!" She said with warning and began rummaging through his closet. He quickly dipped his hand into the end table behind him and put the stocking into his trouser pocket before rushing to her in the closet.

"Stop messing up my organized clothing rails!" He groaned as she started throwing his possessions around when she couldn't find what she was looking for.

"So now that the tables have turned, it's annoying? It wasn't an issue when you threw my things around in Atlantic City looking for your wallet!" She shot him an angry look.

"Yeah, you enjoyed that!" He said.

"Oh, please." She said, moving into his room to check the end tables.

"What do you mean 'oh please'? You were eager to help me that night." He moved near her back where she was bent over the end table. "In fact, if I recall, you even offered to use..." He lifted his stocking-covered hand to the side of her face. "...a hand puppet."

When she heard that, she turned her head slightly to come face-to-face with her stocking... on his hand. She slowly turned to face him.

"Give. That. Back." She said, slowly inching towards him.

Niles took a small step backwards every time she advanced, all the while holding up his hand and grinning like an idiot.

Moving his hand as if the puppet were talking to her, he said in a lower voice, "What exactly where you suggesting with your hand puppet in Atlantic City, Miss Babcock?"

He thought she blushed but it faded quickly.

"I don't have time for your games, Niles. I have another date tonight and I need that back so I can go home and get ready!" She yelled.

"You have a date? Tonight? Well, then why did you come in to work at all these past few days? There's no way you'll be presentable by tonight!"

"…Or by Christmas for that matter," said the puppet and he laughed, nodding his head in agreement. He was pushing at her buttons and he knew it.

She tried to grab at his hand but he pulled it out of her reach. Her blood began to boil and she clenched her fists in frustration.

"What do you need this for anyway? Do you use it to tie down your victims? - I mean dates-" he smiled and stretched his fingers in the stocking as if inspecting its durability.

She looked him straight in the eye, teeth tightly clenched.

"You are going to rip that!" She said angrily.

Niles wasn't satisfied that she wasn't returning the serve of insults. So he tried again.

"Lord knows you'd have to tie him down to endure your poor attempts at dirty talk..."

Her eyes widened in fear and embarrassment. He'd heard her conversation with Damon.

He imitated her in a higher pitch for effect, "No, my bra isn't visible, I'm at work!"

She blushed and tried to grab her stocking from him again. And couldn't, again.

He continued, "Yes, Damon... I am..." Niles whispered the next part just as he'd heard her do it, "...touching myself."

Her face was scarlet. She looked at the floor. "How the hell did you...? The intercom was off... There was nobody in that room... I checked!" She ran through it in her head.

"I had the best seat in the house...I got down while you got 'dirty,'" he laughed.

She was confused. Where was he- oh, no. He was in the room!

He saw realization wash over her face.

"Now I know why you can never keep a man... You're the worst at faking it!" He provoked her.

She opened her mouth but then closed it again. He laughed.

"You would know! What with you not being able to satisfy a woman! She's have to fake it every time! She said, proudly.

"Oh, well done, Babs! Finally joining the party!" He said in a patronizing tone.

"Ya know what, Niles? Keep my stocking. It's the closest you'll ever come to them." CC said triumphantly and nudged him out of her way.

"Seemed closer when you were taking them off..." He said, looking down at her calves, which were visible in her below-knee length skirt.

He was under the table?! Oh, dear God!

She noticed he was still distracted with looking at her legs so she used the opportunity to attempt to snatch the stocking from his hand. He clutched her hand through the flimsy material and held it so that she couldn't peel it off of his hand.

When she realized he wasn't going to release her hand and let her take the stocking, she stopped struggling, sighed loudly and asked, "What do you want, Niles?"

Her question was a loaded one but he wasn't going to disappoint himself by assuming she meant something more by it. He took it the way he took all of her jabs, frustrations and general passing comments: "Oh, nothing, Miss Babcock... You don't have to pay me..." He smirked.

Her heart jumped at the memory he had unearthed but she regained her composure quickly. "I can stand here all day if I have to!" She challenged.

"Me too," He replied.

She stared him down until his gaze shifted to their joined hands. His grip loosened slightly and she slowly inched her fingers up to his wrist to reach for the end of the stocking. She took a hold of the tips of the material with her fingers and slowly slid it down his wrist towards his hand. He didn't budge. She was confused.

She looked up at him again but he was still watching their hands. He's going to let me take it that easily? She wondered.

She slid her fingers between the stocking and his skin and slowly slid her hand into the stocking. She could see it was distracting him. He was likely wondering what she was planning to do.

She let her fingers glide all the way up to his inside the stocking and she felt his fingers twitch as if he were fighting the urge to clasp them between hers.

"Miss Baaaabcock!" A nasal voice rang through the passage outside. "Where are ya? Mistah Sheffield is lookin' for ya!"

She quickly pulled her hand and the stocking off of Niles's.

With the stocking now covering her own hand, she mimicked the same high-pitched voice she had used for her hand puppet the last time they'd had an encounter and said, "I will pay you back for this one."

Then she stuck out her tongue, stuffed the stocking into her pocket, turned and left.