The rest of the summer has is passing quickly, and September arrives in the blink of an eye. Daphne's birthday is just around the corner and, on its part, the city tries to make the most of the remaining days until the beginning of autumn.
She and Niles have been quite busy due to their cohabitation, jobs, routines, household tasks, dates, family meetings with the other Crane men, social life with their friends and romantic getaways a few hours far from Seattle. Daphne has never been so happy or felt so fulfilled or so in tune with anyone before. Step by step, they've found their pace together, like a sort of shared dance that restarts every day with the accumulated knowledge which experience provides, and thus the dance improves progressively, it's more and more natural, familiar, synchronized and beautiful. They've got used to each other's habits, likes, dislikes and quirks. The days next to Niles are both similar and very different, there's always the reassurance of the known, mundane things, but also the thrill of something exciting to look forward to, like true romance, toe-curling sex, their small gestures toward each other, the enjoyment of carrying out lots of activities together or their luck to have a loving family (the Cranes) and excellent friends around. All that makes up, in Daphne's heart, for the shortages concerning her relationships with the Moon family.
She hasn't seen Simon since late July, when he showed up suddenly only to end up offending badly her and her boyfriend and being kicked out for his meanness. Of course, her mother called her some time later on Niles's landline, defending her adored favorite offspring and making Daphne feel like shit as is customary between them, but Daphne had stood her ground firmly and that time she didn't allow the fact that Gertrude invariably knew how to get under her skin to undermine her self-confidence or ruin completely her day. Daphne has a clear conscience; she isn't responsible for her family's problems, failures or screw-ups; much on the contrary. Many times she's tried to mediate, only to be rebuffed for her trouble. She's endured quite a few backstabbings, unfair criticism and constant reproaches for having dared to escape from the vicious cycle, as if she had been sentenced to waste her life in unhappiness with her family and an unworthy husband just because she had been born into that family and into that environment.
Needless to say, it had cost her a great effort to assuage Niles enough after her mother's call, because he was immovably intent on giving Gertrude a piece of his mind. Daphne had very long ago resigned herself to the fact that she and her mother had never got along, and never would, but there are certain lines one can't cross without things breaking definitely and irremediably. And besides, that is a battle she has to fight by herself. She is immensely grateful to Niles for his unwavering support, but she can't let him fight her battles. That is something she has to do on her own, though she doesn't have to do it alone. Niles staying by her side gives her the necessary strength.
After the storm triggered by Simon's umpteenth airheadedness, Daphne doubted that she would hear from him or from Gertrude in quite a long time, and she felt relieved, as well as secretly pained, by that certainty. They are the two members of her family with whom her relationship is the most complicated and strained, to the extent that she often wonders if there is any kind of love involved on her mother's anf brother's part. She sometimes doubts it, as disturbing as that sounds. Very deep inside she knows somehow that they love her in their own way but they don't have a healthy way of expressing it, or know how to.
Well, Daphne is tired of being their punching bag. She has reached her limit.
And she doesn't owe them anything.
The weeks have passed by after that painful episode and Niles's presence is a blessing, as always.
One evening in early September, when Daphne returns from her workday at Frasier's, she finds Niles pacing the living room, looking excited and nervous, far from his usually calm disposition at this time of day, when he's happy to be back home.
"What's up, love? Is something bothering you?," she asks after their welcoming kiss.
He fidgets with his hands and fumbles for words. "Daphne, I... I don't know if I've done something... absolutely crazy."
Her heart speeds up in fear. "Tell me. What is it?" Her mind is running a thousand miles per hour, and throwing inconceivable images at the forefront of her consciousness. He's met another woman and fallen in love with her. He's going to break up with me... She chastises herself hardly for jumping to conclusions so fast, but she can't suppress that nagging feeling at seeing him so agitated.
"Some weeks ago I made reservations for a week-long trip to Fiji, to celebrate your birthday," he reveals, studying her reaction cautiously. "You must think this is insane."
Daphne's jaw drops and her eyes open wide in delighted shock. "Oh, Niles, yes, it's absolutely insane! But I love it!," she exclaims, jumping into his arms, laughing incontrollably and kissing him repeatedly. Niles laughs with her, evidently relieved by her enthusiastic response.
"When I had the inspiration and ran to the travel agency, the idea looked brilliant, but once the reservations were made, I started to doubt myself. I've been hiding it all these days, and I was hoping that you wouldn't find it too much over-the-top...," he rambles, and Daphne shuts him up with another kiss.
"Of course it's over-the-top, but I can't care less! Going to Fiji has been a secret craving of mine since we watched The Truman Show. How did you know it, if I didn't tell you about that? By then, even I thought that the idea was quite hairbrained," Daphne blabbers in uncontainable excitement.
Niles gives her his mysterious smile. "You didn't need to tell me, my love. You spent a long while talking about Truman's secret dream of escaping to Fiji to reunite with Sylvia, to run away from his trapped life, even though he didn't even know yet that everything and everyone around him was fake... It truly is a great movie, one of the best ones I've ever watched. All those reflections on the many things that can trap us in unhappy lives, and the message it conveys about the world we live in, more and more slave to greed, technology and mass media... It's hair-raising. I know I told you this already, but I saw myself in Truman, in the sense that his marriage to Maryl was so much like my own marriage to Maris. She never loved him, it was all pretense, she lied, manipulated and used him for her own gain and malice. And Sylvia was a breath of fresh air for him, his true love, and she was so close and so out of his reach, like you were to me. The similarities are overwhelming," he expounds passionately.
Daphne nods, because she agrees fully. "You're right about everything, love. So going to Fiji was in our fate. Can you believe that I saw it in a vision shortly after watching the movie? More or less by the time you must have gone to make the reservations," she discloses. It's true that she had that vision, but she kept it on the back burner for the proper time. And that time has arrived.
Niles lifts his eyebrows. "Wow, you did? Then I'm very glad that I had that impulse. It can only mean that this in all certainty has been my greatest idea ever," he says smugly and in a teasing tone, wrapping his arms around her waist. She swats his chest playfully and rests her hands on it.
"When do we depart? We have to get ready for a stay in a tropical paradise. That means plenty of suncream and scanty clothing," she teases in return.
"Hmm, I like that image a lot. You scantily clothed are the best view. Even the dreamlike landscapes we're going to be surrounded by can't be compared," he flatters, kissing and nipping her neck.
Daphne's breath hitches. She loves his skilled mouth on her. "You wheedler. I see what you want, and I don't need to be a psychic for that."
"Oh? And what may it be?," he murmurs on her skin.
She pushes him onto the fainting couch and straddles him. "Let me show you."
And she does.