by
Aimee
(aimeed@earthlink.net)
C.C. eyed her cousin. She'd known that every family had their bad seed, but the Babcocks seemed to have come up with not a seed but a whole damn spice rack of bad, all incarnate in handsome, silver-haired black market "businessman" David Babcock.
"And I thought I was insensitive," she muttered. "David, I can't be part of this. Look, I never heard anything, I never saw anything, I don't know anything. You have my word. Just leave me out of it."
"And I trust you implicitly, C.C., I really do. And I would let you out of this, but you're the only one who can help me. Come on, you know art export is a great investment, and your touring company of "The Widower" is the perfect way to get a few small items out of the country. Nice play, by the way. Semi-autobiographical for Maxwell Sheffield, wasn't it? So, are they going to add a new scene where the glamorous business partner gets knocked up by the butler?"
C.C. sighed, the bigger issue momentarily forgotten. "How many times do I have to tell you people, I was married before I knew I was pregnant!"
"Never mind, C.C. love, Morgan's an exquisite beauty. Most babies are so ugly, but she'll be a stunner like her mama."
C.C. preened. Like most new mothers, especially the ones who swore they never wanted children, she was insanely proud of her child and considered Morgan her own personal achievement.
"So with a child to take care of, you can understand why I can't take this risk, David."
"Aren't you the slightest bit worried about Niles?"
"What?"
David smiled, placing his hands tenderly on her upper arms. "As lovely a widow as you'd make, you're a much prettier bride. Please protect him, C.C.."
C.C. spun away from him and faced the view of San Francisco bay that graced his twentieth story office. She wrapped her arms protectively around herself.
C.C. ran in the front door of their Beverly Hills home several hours later. Fran stood arranging flowers in the hall. C.C. grabbed her by the upper arms, digging her nails into Fran's skin. "Where's Niles?" she demanded.
"Upstairs in your bathroom soaking the Jacuzzi. Will you get your claws out of me? I'll have scars, and short sleeved evening gowns are in this season."
C.C. took the steps two at a time to the third floor, where she burst into the bathroom like a whirlwind. She flung herself fully dressed into the tub.
Niles wrapped his arms around her, laughing as she plastered herself against him. "What's the matter, wild eyes?"
"Nothing, I swear! I just missed you. Are you all right?"
"Of course I am. Now either get undressed or go away and stop tempting me, slut."
Buttons went flying as C.C.'s suit flew out of the tub and slapped wetly against the far wall. Stockings, blouse, shoes, and underwear were soon draped carelessly around the room. C.C. made love to Niles like a tornado striking, aggressive and uncompromising in her eagerness, leaving him drained and exhausted but quite possibly the happiest husband in the known world.
When they were done, as she perched on his lap, head on his shoulder, she begged, "Niles, promise me something."
"Anything."
"That time will stop now. That we'll never have to worry about the future. That here and now will be here and now forever and tomorrow will never come."
"I promise. Now tell me what's wrong."
"Nothing, I told you!"
"C.C., are you PMSing?"
"Where's Niles?" C.C. asked anxiously.
"What is it with you? Everything lately is 'Where's Niles?' What, you're afraid he runs on a time share and the other owners are about to show up?" Fran rolled her eyes as she changed Jonah.
C.C. caught four-month-old Morgan up in her arms and bent her golden head over the tiny replica of herself. Morgan cooed and reached for the curl that dangled at C.C.'s temple. C.C. kissed the tiny face all over. "My love, my little love, where's your papa?"
"He went grocery shopping, dammit, C.C.!" Fran said impatiently. "Give the man some space!"
C.C. walked from the room cuddling her daughter and murmuring, "Don't worry, Mama will think of something. Mama won't let anything happen."
"Is she flipping her lid again?" Fran asked Jonah. Jonah shook his small head sagely and gurgled something that sounded wise, if only Fran could understand him.
There were few prettier sights in the world than the one that greeted Niles when he walked into the living room after putting away the groceries. His wife, his glamorous, beautiful, spirited, wonderful wife, stood in the living room tenderly holding the perfect little angel whose bright smile and mercurial temper promised that the C.C. he loved had been reproduced flawlessly.
As he moved to embrace them, he thought how Morgan was more than just a daughter. She was a chance he'd wanted for years, the chance to go back to C.C.'s childhood and lavish all the love on her that she'd always been denied. Through Morgan he could take the empty, lonely seasons of C.C.'s youth and fill them with life and love.
If he and C.C. had been inseparable even when they believed they hated each other, the bond they shared now was even stronger. Together they shared not only a love that had rocked the foundations of their world, but they both loved their daughter to the point of obsession. "Perfect" was too mild a word for this four-month-old miracle.
C.C. smiled at him. "So, do you think she was conceived at Wal-Mart or Home Depot?"
"What makes you think it was either? We've still got my bed, your bed, the kitchen, closet, stairway, limo, Jacuzzi, and the ladies' room at the Four Seasons to choose from."
"I know, but the whole Wal-Mart thing just sounds like something we would do."
Niles chuckled. "So, Fran just told me you were looking for me. What did you need?"
"Only you. I missed you."
Niles put his arms around her and Morgan. "I missed you too, but you've been awfully jumpy and clingy lately. Is anything wrong?"
"No. Was everything okay at the store?"
"You'll laugh at me, actually, but I could have sworn someone followed me home. C.C.? Ceec? What is it? You're not going to faint, are you?"
Another denial rose to her lips. But then, Fran came in. "C.C., your cousin David is on the phone. He says if you want in on the business deal you two discussed, it's now or never."
C.C. was paper-white and trembling. She turned to face Fran and said in a low, shaky voice, "Tell him I'm in. I'll be there in a moment."
C.C. looked at Niles. "Take Morgan upstairs and put her to bed, then meet me in our sitting room. We have to have a serious talk."
Niles was alarmed by the change in her demeanor, from clingy to cold in a matter of seconds. He obeyed her wordlessly.
C.C. watched him mount the curving staircase, Morgan looking tiny and fragile even as her little clenched fist swung happily at his nose. Niles laughed and tapped at her nose with his finger as he rounded the landing and disappeared on the way up to the third floor.
C.C. took up the extension Fran handed her. "David? When do you want to meet to discus the details?"
Fran looked at her curiously when C.C. switched on her ever-present tape recorder and held it up to the telephone to catch David's voice.
Niles was pacing anxiously when C.C. entered, grim and silent, a few minutes later. "Sit down," she said briefly.
Niles obeyed her, leaving room for her to sit beside him on the small white loveseat, but she remained standing. She stood for some half a minute with her back to him, then turned slightly. He could just see the curve of her jaw as she said quietly, "Niles, I'm leaving."
"Where?" he asked. He pretended confusion to try and fend off that inevitable moment when he had to admit that her meaning was clear.
"Never mind where. I just have to go. I'll be back someday, I really will, but for now I can't be with you and Morgan. There are some things going on that you don't know about." C.C. made her meaning deliberately ambiguous to let him put the worst possible construction on her words.
Niles' pride insisted that he let her go without a fight, that he pretend he didn't care. Begging would do no good. He decided to challenge her. "I don't believe you. You've been a wonderful wife and mother, despite everyone's expectations, and if you're having problems, you've never told me about them. I know damn well you aren't being unfaithful to me, because even if it were imaginable, you don't have the time! The only time you're away is on business trips with Maxwell and you don't expect me to believe he'd keep a secret like that for you. Turn around and look at me, damn it, C.C.!"
C.C. obeyed, and immediately regretted it. The rage and hurt in his blue eyes was unmistakable, even if his words were cold and even and logical. Niles moved toward her and she flinched away, averting her face again. "Trust me," he implored. "Tell me what's going on. Is it all just too much for you, marriage and motherhood and business and everything? Are you just scared? C.C., look at me. You know I can't stop you from going if you really want to, so at least give me the truth before you go."
He didn't try to touch her, but she could feel his gaze burning into her back. She felt herself weaken. She tried to strengthen her resolve by telling herself that when David was in prison, Niles would understand and take her back. She tried to remind herself that he could end up dead. She could see in her mind the blood, the bruises, the coffin, and knew what was at stake. But when he appealed to the perfect trust that lay between them, the trust that had bridged the gap between social classes, between heart and mind, hate and love, to bring them together, she knew she couldn't deceive him. She couldn't let him believe for one moment that he wasn't the most important thing in her life.
She turned back to him, suppressing her tears with an iron control that had taken years to perfect, but that he could break in a matter of minutes with that betrayed look on his face. Dry-eyed, she told him, "Sit down again. This won't be easy for you to hear, but I just have to start by saying that you mean everything to me, and when you asked me to trust you with the truth, I couldn't lie to you even though I want to."
This time she sat beside him. He remained stiff and uncomfortable for a moment, but as he came to realize that C.C.'s resolve to leave him had nothing to do with any lack of love for him, he let her take his hand. By the time she'd finished her horrific tale, he had a new understanding of just how profound her love was.
"So you see," she said, "I wanted to leave to keep you safe. I was hoping that if I could make David believe that I cared nothing for you and Morgan, he wouldn't bother threatening you."
"So you were going to go away, just like that, until this little sting of yours was over, letting me believe you didn't love me or Morgan? C.C., how idiotic was that? I mean, not even looking at what that would do to our relationship even if we did get back together afterwards, do you think he'd fall for something that transparent?"
"Well, excuse me for not being able to think straight when my husband's life is in danger. Besides, my mother left me when I was born. It's not that ridiculous."
"Sweetie, under the circumstances it's utterly absurd. Besides which, give me some credit for being one of the prime plotters of all time. You're good, and I have no doubt you'd have succeeded in taking him down, but with the two of us working together, your bastard cousin doesn't stand a chance."
C.C.'s eyes brightened. Granted the situation was a little more complicated than that, but not by much. After all, this was the man that persuaded her to cluck like a chicken, to sing the Popeye song, to buy back the BMW she'd conned him into taking off her hands. And she was the woman that persuaded him to go to the airport in the middle of the night to pick up a nonexistent Pavarotti, to spot Sylvia Fine doing squats in a thong, and convinced him she'd kidnapped the fictional "Sidney Sheffield." Damn, why hadn't she thought of working together before?
"You're good," she said with hope in her eyes and a devious smile on her face. "And I'm good. But we are invincible."
"Of course we are. Remember the time we terrorized Fran into helping me get the weekend off?"
C.C. giggled. "Who could forget? You and me, together against the whole damn world. It was so wonderful." She felt that her euphoria was wrong in the middle of danger, but she couldn't resist his infectious enthusiasm for the hunt. "Now, here's what I'm thinking. I'm still going to leave for a while. I'll tell David he's ruined my life, that you've dumped me because all the lying and sneaking around for the smuggling scheme convinced you I was having an affair. But I'll still be part of his plan because of my great tragic love for you."
"That's good. It'll kill me slowly having you in danger where I can't watch over you, but I can't think of anything better. You'll have to tell Maxwell what's going on with his touring company, though."
"Right. We can communicate through him. I wish we could send Morgan away, but if we did that, he'd be sure to suspect we were up to something."
"Not if we send all the kids away to Sylvia and Morty."
"Brilliant! Now, how are we going to contact the police without him finding out?"
"Already thought of that. Undercover agents posing as investors for the play and servants to you when you move out."
"Niles, you're a genius."
"Thank you, pet. Now, there's one more detail to be worked out before I go call the police."
"What's that?" C.C. asked.
Niles slid his hand up the inside of her thigh under her skirt. "I want to know if danger is the aphrodisiac it's supposed to be."
"Oh -- oh my god -- Niles, I'm thinking yes."
"Ma, Niles dumped Miss Babcock! Well, C.C. was acting really weird, all sensitive and hyper for a couple of weeks. Niles was afraid she was being unfaithful, so a couple of days ago he demanded to know what was going on, and she wouldn't tell him so they argued, and she just walked out on her own husband and child! Poor Niles, he's being so heroic, but all he does is hold Morgan and talk about what a perfect little replica of C.C. she is, and how no matter what happens, she'll always be there for him to love. It's just tragic. No, Ma, I think we should give it at least a couple of weeks before we get Cousin Sophie out here to visit. Niles just isn't ready yet. She just walked out. But it would be good for the three kids to get away from all this grief, so can Morgan and the twins come visit you? Yeah, I'll bring them, but then I'm flying back to be with Niles and Max."
Niles listened in on an extension, his heart breaking to hear the love and concern in Fran's voice. He wanted to tell her the truth, but the more people who knew, the more who were in danger. And having C.C. in danger was already more than he could bear.
C.C. had rented a plush little condo on the coast, making a show of being the angry, vengeful, rejected wife. Unfortunately, though its secluded locale made it a perfect place for nefarious goings on, it was too easy to watch, which prevented his seeing her in secret. Fortunately, the sting wasn't taking nearly as long as they'd expected. The touring company left the country in two days, and the night before was when C.C. would meet David and help him conceal his black market objets d'art in with the props. The police would be watching, and David would be arrested. The only thing that neither C.C. nor the police were aware of was that Niles would be there. There was no way he would let C.C. go through this alone. She was being so brave.
Maxwell had come to him in his sitting room, where he sat holding Morgan, the night before. "I just saw C.C., old man. She's holding up well and says she loves you very much and misses you and not to worry, she's having a fabulous time living it up without you."
"I wondered why I couldn't find her foot massager. Did she say anything else?"
"Yes. She said everything is going smoothly and according to plan, because of course she's organizing it," They both smiled at her cheerful egotism, "and she says, umm -- "
"What?"
"She says 'Grrr,' and said to call you tiger." Maxwell pulled a face.
"Not in front of the baby!" Niles admonished.
"From what I can tell, in front of the baby is the only place you two haven't done it."
"Of course not. Do you think I want her to be a pervert like her mother?"
"Right. That and my desk."
"What?"
"My desk. You haven't done it on my desk."
"Well, actually -- "
"No! Never tell me."
C.C.'s heels clicked on the pavement as she approached the side door to the theater where the props were being transferred to huge trucks for the journey to Mexico City, the first stop on their tour of Latin America.
David was waiting in the prop room. She waved to him as she ordered the workers to take a fifteen minute break. Since all of them were undercover agents, that was the agreed-upon signal that the action was to begin. They dematerialized in all directions. C.C. never noticed the man with the short dark blond hair and the English accent who went only as far as the other side of the door.
David took a crowbar and pried the top off of a crate. He pulled out a beautiful jade statuette of a Geisha.
"It's exquisite," said C.C.. "Tell me that's my thank you present."
David laughed. "I suppose you've earned it. Listen C.C., I'm really sorry about your husband. I never meant to break up your marriage."
"Yeah, yeah, you're a smuggler, not a monster."
"That's exactly right. I may be a smuggler, but you are family."
"Well at least you admit you're a smuggler."
"Of course. I think it would be a little hypocritical to deny it when the proof is right here, don't you?"
With all the other evidence, that was all the confession they needed. Immediately a swarm of police descended from the ceiling, dashed in from the corners, and just generally appeared out of nowhere. David was in custody before he understood what was happening. "Bitch!" he snarled at C.C.
"Moron!" she smirked back. "I can't believe you fell for it."
"I will get you back for this, Chastity Claire."
"I think not, cuz. I'll be making love to my dear husband while you're making special friends in the shower with a large man named Bubba."
As David was handcuffed and informed of his rights and the police began to sort through the contraband, Niles rushed in and threw his arms around C.C.. She kissed him passionately.
David spat upon the floor. "That's disgusting, C.C. I hope you and your servant have a long and miserable life together."
Niles smiled at him. "Give Bubba a kiss for me," he said, and slid his arm around C.C. to escort her out.
Outside, a remorseful Fran threw her arms around C.C. "I'm so sorry I doubted you. You were so brave and unselfish to leave to save your husband's life," Fran sobbed into C.C.'s silk blouse.
"Nanny Fine, pull yourself together! Everything's all right now. And I'm no angel, I'm the same C.C. I always was. But I'll tell you one thing." Fran looked up at C.C., who leaned over conspirationally. "Fran, if I thought the sex was good before, a little danger makes it spectacular. As Niles would say, Yowsa!"
Fran laughed. "Well, does danger put you in the mood for something sweet, too?"
"Of course. How about a stop at Ghiradelli before we go to the police station? By the way, how's Morgan? Can we go get her tomorrow?"
Maxwell walked ahead with Fran while Niles held C.C. back. "How can you do this to me? We've got like twenty minutes to spare and you want to spend it in the middle of a crowded café."
C.C. walked her fingers up his chest to his lips. "I know. And wouldn't it be a tragedy if I dropped my spoon and had to crawl under the table to get it?"
"So Caca wants to do a naughty in a restaurant."
"No, Caca wants to do a very naughty in a restaurant. Okay, Butler Boy?"
"Very okay, Caca."
The End
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