by
Jafry
(Jafry D@aol.com)
Fran entered the kitchen. She was still wearing her dressing-gown, although it was late in the morning. Niles was working in the kitchen, cleaning the plates from breakfast.
"Niles, where is our gold-guy?" she asked a little aimlessly.
"I don't know. I don't seen him very often these days. But I think he's already working at the theater."
"Gee, I wonder when this man takes a break. I mean, he leaves the house before breakfast and arrives in the middle of the night." She took one of the bagels that was left over from breakfast and began to nibble on it.
Niles stopped washing the dishes. "You miss him, don't you?"
"Oh yes. Without Mr. Sheffield work is boring" she sighed.
He thought about that for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe ..."
" ... it is quite interesting to enjoy his whiskey, his cigars and of course his whirl-pool" she finished his sentence.
The butler grinned pleasantly. "There's another advantage. Ms. Babcock wasn't here for a week." He grinned again, but this was only a show.
"Oh Niles, you are a bad actor. I know, that you miss your 'Bab Witch Project'". She friendly punched his shoulder.
At that moment, Gracie came down the stairs and went straight to the fridge. She opened the door, took a bottle of water out of it and close it absorbed in thoughts. Fran looked at Niles, but he only shrugged his shoulders. Carefully she asked: "Hey sweetie, what's up with you?"
Gracie nibbled at her water bottle.
Fran thought she understood. "Oh honey. What did Brighton do to you?" she asked and taking the smallest of the Sheffield kids in her arms.
"Brighton? Nothing, for once. It's dad."
"Your dad is still at home?!" Niles and Fran wondered.
"Yep, he's been working in his room for ... I don't know how long ..."
Niles put the plates back in the water and rushed out of the kitchen. "I have to take his whiskey and cigars back in place before he notices!" and fished a lot of cigars out of his pockets.
Fran only said: "Maybe it would be more sensible to dress sexier ...?!"
"Fran" asked Gracie. "Did you realize what dad has done?"
"Oh sweetie, nothing he did can be so bad, that you could be so ... perhaps angry... except he'd said, that he loves you and took it back!"
"No Fran. He worked so hard, that he doesn't even realize his surroundings."
"Especially me!" Fran performed disappointed.
"The only thing he does is work, work, work."
"He has to work to pay for all our wishes, darling" said Fran with a little smile on her face.
"He's changed in the last few days. He's begun to worry" said Grace with a perfect doctor look on her face.
Fran stroked her hair. Mr. Sheffield had worked very hard all last week. No one except Ms Babcock had seen him. Fran had asked herself once or twice if he had spent the nights at home or if he was spending nights at the theater as well.
Niles entered the kitchen, the cigars still in his hands. He had a very strange look on his face. Gracie and Fran noticed. Niles saw the question in their eyes. "He had shut the door ..."
"And?" Fran and Grace asked.
". ... locked it!" Niles had to sit down. "In over 25 years, he has never locked the door."
This wasn't really normal. Now Fran began to worry about Mr. Sheffield's behavior as well. "O.k. I want to know what's wrong with this man." She turned to Niles. "Did you see something through the keyhole?"
"Ms Fine!" Niles became indignant.
She gave him her don't try to fool me look and he began to writhe under her gaze. "I saw him sitting behind his desk with a tower of documents in front of him. Working, working, working." The butler got a worried expression on his face. "He didn't answer any of my questions."
"What did you ask?"
"If I get fired, 'cause of the cigars ... and the whiskey ... and the whirl-pool ..." he sighed.
"You didn't ask what's wrong?"
"No. What for?" He tried to rectify his action. "What can be so wrong with a man, who could swim in his money, treat himself to a big limo, a fantastic mansion and can call a brilliant butler his partner ... employee."
"But Niles, wealth is not everything" Fran interrupted.
"Not to forget this sexy babydoll, his nanny" he chuckled.
"Thank you." Fran smiled over her entire face.
At this moment Ms Babcock entered the kitchen through the back door. She looked very exhausted.
Without looking at her, Niles commented on her arrival: "And such eccentric things like this walking zombie."
"Oh, the man with no life, no future and especially ... no sex!" She greeted him and smiled diabolically.
"At least, I know what sex is" he shot back.
"Hah, you don't even know how to spell it" she said rather aggressively.
"It's the same with Ms Babcock" Gracie said interrupting the two arch-enemies.
"What's with me?" C.C. asked quite interested.
Niles gave the answer: "We talked about lobotomies and how the patients are changing. We didn't notice a difference in you."
C.C. was too tired to go on with this quarrel. "Hey, you poor slave. Shut your mouth and get me a pot of coffee. I only slept for 4 hours last night."
"There's no more time to sleep if you want to look as good as Quasimodo." Niles mentioned and served her the stale coffee from hours ago.
Fran ignored the commentates from her friend and agreed with Gracie. "Ms Babcock, why don't you take a break. You worked so hard the whole week. You need to sleep."
Ms Babcock was surprised. "Why are you so worried about me, Nanny Fine?"
"She has a heart for creepy animals" said Niles amused.
"Thanks bellboy. The man who has to wash dirty foreign underwear his entire life. Nanny Fine, I can't do it. I have a duty to Maxwell. I believe, he has worked the whole night. He is so ... obsessed about our new play. And we have to finish it this weekend."
"Niles, did Mr. Sheffield work the whole night?!" Fran was shocked.
"I didn't notice but I didn't have to make his bed this morning."
At this moment Maxwell Sheffield entered the kitchen, lost in his thoughts, with his clothes in a mess and unshaved. He wrote some notes on a bundle of papers and noticed no one in the kitchen. He went to the cupboard and took out a mug, then he put in a tea-bag and poured coffee into it. After this strange performance he left the room the same way he came.
No one said anything for a while. Then Ms Babcock asked in a shock: "Do I look like him?"
Niles said indignantly: "We don't want to be so conceited, do we?"
"Ms Babcock. You don't really look healthy. You need a break, take it!" said Nanny Fine .
Gracie nodded in agreement.
So Ms Babcock took her bag and left the house, too exhausted to say good-bye.
Nanny Fine watched her leaving: "One more hour without sleep and she would transform into Frankenstein's monster!"
Niles chuckled.
"Dad has to sleep as well." Gracie said, remembering the man who crept through the house like a man from another planet.
"O.k., let's go. Let's save your father from himself."
Fran and Grace wanted to leave the kitchen but Fran hesitated: "Niles, what about you?"
"I've been saving the man his whole life. I don't need any practice!"
Niles had been right. Fran and Grace were standing in front of a locked door.
"Dad? Are you still working?" Gracie asked carefully.
Both were holding their breath. No answer.
"Perhaps you should ask, Fran?!" suggested Grace.
"Why? You sounded loud enough."
"Only an idea. You know, your special... sound?" Gracie chuckled.
Fran yelled at Mr. Sheffield. After a moment, they heard a loud voice: "What?" He sounded absent.
"Are you still working?"
Pause.
"Why?"
Fran watched Gracie. "Someone want to talk to you."
"Who?"
"Sweetie Gracie." Fran smiled.
"When?"
Fran asked Grace: "Does he only know these W- words?" Grace chuckled.
"Maybe now, Mr. Sheffield?!"
"No time!"
Fran to Grace again: "Wow, what a development. Two words and none of them with a 'w'!"
Gracie tried one last time. "We are all worried about you. Maybe you have to sleep for a few hours, dad?"
"Only a suggestion!" added Fran.
They heard a great sigh. "I am not tired sweetheart. Please don't disturb me any more, o.k.?" he sounded a little bit upset. His phone rang and he picked it up. The call sounded very important.
That was it. He didn't answer any more of their questions. Turned away like this they went back to the kitchen where Niles was preparing the lunch.
"Did you manage anything?"
"No, not much" answered Gracie. "Like expected."
"Maybe I'll have more success by serving him his lunch?" suggested Niles.
He took the silver tablet and put Mr. Sheffield's favorite lunch on it. "Have a look how good the butler is! I'll win the game!" and left the room.
A few minutes later he came back without the tablet. A big smile on his face. "I win."
"At this game there's no winner" said Fran sulky.
"O.k. but I have the most points!"
"What did you do, to make him unlocked the door?"
"Butler's secret!" Niles chuckled by his triumph.
"Come on. Don't be so cruel!"
"Nope!" he said and enjoyed it.
"Please!" begged Fran. "Please!"
Gracie studied Niles behavior. "He didn't open the door, did he?"
Niles collapsed. "No" he answered embarrassed.
"Oh Niles, you're a bastard." Fran was outraged.
"You sneak" hissed Niles to Grace. "You had to steal me this little triumph."
"Hey, don't oppress my sweetheart, o.k.?" Fran protected Grace, who obviously enjoyed that.
The three sat down at the kitchen table. Mr. Sheffield wasn't sleeping, eating and has isolated himself. What the hell did he think he was doing. Suddenly they heard the stressed voice of Mr. Sheffield. Apparently he was yelling something at the phone. A moment later, they heard a second loud noise. Niles shook his head. "I hope that wasn't the silver tablet."
"Niles" yelled Mr. Sheffield through the entire house.
"I should stop hoping as long as I am here." Niles stood up.
Maxwell Sheffield rushed into the kitchen before the butler could leave. In one hand he held the silver tablet in the other hand the broken pieces of a cup. He looked exhausted but his eyes had a really mad expression.
"Oh Sir, I am so sorry. I thought you would like to have lunch later. So I put the tablet besides your office door."
"Bad idea, Niles." He looked down at to his trousers. There was a big coffee stain on his left leg. He threw everything on the kitchen table.
Ms Fine started to say something but Mr. Sheffield didn't gave her the chance. "Not yet." He went straight up the stairs to his room to change his trousers.
After a moment they heard Brighton's voice. He stumbled down the stairs and excused himself to his dad: "I am sorry, you were ..." But his dad was already gone. "Wow, was that dad?! I didn't recognize him. What's up with him?"
Niles sat down again. "He hasn't slept very much."
"... Or eaten anything..." Brighton's younger sister said.
"He works to hard!" Fran finished the short summary. She tried to find a solution. Suddenly she smiled. "Hah!" she said. "Yeah" she added still in thought.
Everyone looked at her. "What?" they asked.
"The solution!" she said satisfied. The other were exited.
"He's changing his clothes, right?"
All the others nodded in agreement.
"He's doing it in his room, isn't he?"
They nodded again.
"So, why we don't lock him in?!"
They looked at each other.
Nanny Fine smiled all over her face, proud of her suggestion.
"Oh no, I would sooner become a chaste priest." Brighton warded off and escaped in the living-room.
"I don't believe, he'll like to be locked in refrain from this fact I have to collect the rest of his lunch from the floor." Said Niles and left the same way as Master Brighton.
Fran looked at Gracie, her last possible accomplice.
"Don't look at me. You're are my nanny, you have to protect me. As to everything else... I don't think my psychologist would agree to this action." She left like the others.
"Cowards" yelled Fran after them. "O.k. my turn, as always." She encouraged herself. She went up the stairs and carefully arrived at Mr. Sheffield's room. She tested the door, to see if it was locked. It wasn't. One problem less, she thought, and entered quietly. He wasn't there. New trousers were laid on the blanket. She supposed he was at his wardrobe and she wanted to go over there.
But at this moment he came out of his bathroom only in his underwear and his shirt. He stopped in a shock. "Ms Fine!" he shouted out surprisingly.
She stood there and could only looked at him. He had taken a shower, was shaved and hair-styled. He smelled absolutely fabulous. Fran had to close her eyes and take a deep breath to clear her mind. She had to control herself not to go to him and give him a tender kiss.
Mr. Sheffield noticed the situation and felt embarrassed. He tried to say something but his voice was halting: "Ms... my trousers."
After an endless moment she realized his request. Slowly she took his trousers from the blanket. She held them out, not able to go over to him. He had to come to her and he did it very slowly and a little self-consciously. Both of them sighed. Then he tried to take his trousers out of her hand but she didn't allow it. "First you have to promise to sleep for a few hours!"
"Ms Fine!" he became a little angry.
"You go to bed right now!" She looked at him very seriously and did not intend to compromise.
First he wanted to contradict but then he noticed his deep exhaustion himself. His face seemed to relax and he agreed: "You're right. Maybe some sleep is exactly what I need."
"Maybe?" she chuckled.
"I promise!" he smiled.
She smiled too and wanted to leave his room but he kept her back.
"Ms Fine, my pants!"
She turned to him. "Oh, sure. Sorry." She threw them onto the chair at her left. "Get some sleep-now!"
He nodded and she closed the door behind herself. With a big sigh she wanted to leave but a "accidental" passing butler mentioned: "I think you won the game, Ms Fine."
"Believe me, Niles. If I had won the game, I would be lying beside him!" she chuckled and left. "And he would love it to be locked in."
The End
With greetings to katrin and ada!
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