Back to Fan FictionGo back to Parts Five through Eight
Part Nine by Rachael
Fran helps Max up, both of their faces still red, and they race down the stairs. Brighton is kneeling on the floor next to Grace who is holding a cold compress on the back of C.C.'s head. Niles is on the phone to 911.
Niles: Yes, yes that's right. Please hurry! OK Bye.
(An ambulance is heard in the distance)
Max: What happened old man?
Niles: I think C.C. had to much to drink tonight. You know toasting herself because now you guys don't have to pay a dime. She passed out and hit her head on the marble table.
Max could see it now. There was a little bit of blood on the table and Niles' hand had it on it too. He was cleaning off the phone when the paramedics came in. C.C. was mumbling some inaudible words. They bandaged her head and took her out to the awaiting ambulance.
Fran: This is terrible.
She grabbed Grace tight to her. 'This will put her back in therapy for sure,' she thought.
Max grabbed his coat as they all walked out the door. At the hospital...
Fran wanted to bring up what they had been talking about earlier but Max looked to preoccupied with C.C.'s condition.
The doctor finally came out.
Max: Doc, how is she? Will she be all right?
The doctor didn't answer.
Max (paranoid): Well?
Doctor: She suffered severe contusions to the back of her head. Her skull was chipped. We tried to apply pressure but...
Max blocked everything else out.
Max: Oh dear God no!
He looked like he wanted to cry but couldn't.
Doc: She slipped into a coma. We're not sure if she will come out of it and if she does if she will be the same again.
Niles (shakily): Thank you doctor.
Max looked at Fran with those pleading eyes and she rushed to embrace him. She started to cry uncontrollably while Max wept in her arms.
Back at the mansion...
Niles had stayed at the hospital by C.C.'s side and the children were there too. Max and Fran were alone in the house. They are sitting on the couch together.
Max: This is terrible. How could this happen to her?
Fran: I know what you mean.
Max: Another fine mess this family has gotten itself into eh?
Fran: Yeah. Listen I know what your going through now with C.C. and all, so maybe this isn't the best time to bring this up but I really understand.
Max: Understand what?
Fran: That whole thing about calling me Sarah.
Max: Oh. Well, thank you.
He began to rub her cheek and she played with his curly hair. She wiped a single tear off of his face.
Fran: Like my mother always said, 'When the going gets tough the tough get going.'
Max smiles and laughs just once.
Fran: There we go. Now go get 'em tiger.
Max: With one of my closest friends by my side?
Fran: Of course.
Max smiles and gently brings his lips to hers.
Max: Thanks for being my friend through all the crap I've put you through.
Fran: No problem.
Max: You're more than any guy could ask for.
Fran: What are you trying to say?
Fran notices he isn't wearing his ring.
Max: I'm trying to say to you that I want to go beyond being friends. I know this is not the best time to say this, with C.C. in the hospital and all, but I love you and I would like to be able to have a chance at being your "Man" as Maggie would say.
Fran: Oh baby I'm yours.
Max smiles and slowly brings his lips back to hers, longer this time and with more passion. As she went to bed that night she thought about calling her mother.
Fran (to herself): Nah. I'll do it in the morning.
Max smiles up at her and goes off to his respective room. They both dreamt about each other and what the next days, weeks, months, and years would bring.
**************************
Part Ten by Julia S. O'Brien
They might have spent the night differently, had they known what the morrow would bring, for fate, and the Martian fleet, had other plans.
Sometime just before dawn, Maxwell was awakened from his dreams by an irritating sound. At first he thought it was just Miss Fine, laughing about something, but as he gradually became more fully awake, he realized that the sound was more akin to a flock of deranged geese, and that it was coming from outside. Pushing aside the heavy drapes at the window, he peered out into the street and was confronted with a scene straight out of a B movie.
The sky was filled with flying saucers. He watched in horror as, one after another, the skyscrapers of his beloved New York City were reduced to smoldering rubble as the spinning orbs trained their weapons on them and fired.
In the street below, an army of demonic space aliens, their huge brains encased in bubble-shaped helmets, were mowing people down with guns that looked more like Brighton's Super- Soaker, than the deadly lasers they so obviously were. The sounds that had awakened him were coming from their mouths, as they gleefully incinerated everything in their paths, even the pigeons.
Leaping from his bed with a shout, Max was halfway to the door when it flew open and Brighton ran into the room, armed with one of the alien weapons.
Brighton: DAD! What are you doing just standing there in your pajamas?!! Don't you ever know what's going on?!
He rushed past his father, smashed open the window and began firing down at the melee below.
Brighton (contd.): Mars is attacking!!! DIE YOU ALIEN SCUM!!!
Niles appeared then, dressed in his usual attire, and carrying a tray bearing Maxwell's morning tea.
Niles: The theater just telephoned, Sir. They've canceled rehearsals for this morning. I hope all this won't affect my starring in your production of Man of La Mancha. This could be my big break, you know, and we do have a contract.
Before Max could think of anything to say to that, Miss Babcock trotted in, her head apparently sewn onto Chester's body. She bit Niles viciously on the ankle.
Niles: Begone, you worthless cur!!
He gave his ankle a shake that sent C.C. sliding across the room.
Maxwell: NILES!!! What . . . . how . . .
Niles crossed the floor to set the tray down on the bedside table.
Niles: Oh, the aliens got hold of her, Sir. Their idea of a joke, I assume. It doesn't really matter. She was never going to be the same after her accident anyway, you know.
As Maxwell stood there gaping at the madness around him, Miss Fine glided soundlessly into the room. A long gown clung to her sensuous curves and her hair looked exceptionally big this morning. The gum she was chewing seemed oddly out of place.
Maxwell: Oh . . . Miss Fine . . .
Brighton whirled around from his place at the window, training his gun on her.
Brighton: Careful, Dad! These aliens can be really tricky . . .
Before he could add anything else, Miss Fine whipped out a laser gun and shot him, reducing poor Brighton to a charred skeleton which toppled out the window behind him.
Peeling off her face to reveal the huge brain of the alien creature beneath the disguise, it trained its weapon on a speechless Max, and began moving across the room toward him.
At that moment, the real Miss Fine tottered into the room on her high heels.
Fran: Mr. Sheffiellllllllldddddd . . . . .
The Martian turned, leveling its gun at the helpless Miss Fine, but Fran's voice seemed to have an unexpected affect on it. That nasal Queens whine caused its huge brain to undergo some kind of convulsion, and it exploded, spraying everyone and everything with hideous green slime.
Gasping for breath and drenched in cold sweat, Max sat bolt upright in his bed. The room was dark and quiet. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, painfully leaping again as, somewhere in the distance, he heard a faint honking sound. Whirling around, he frantically pushed aside the heavy drapes at the window and fearfully looked outside, but the street was quiet and cloaked in early morning darkness. High overhead a flock of Canada geese were flying south in V formation.
A dream. It had all been dream. The finding of Sarah's picture, that awful mix-up when he'd called Fran "Sarah," the mess with the dueling actors, C.C.'s accident, and that incredible madness at the end. All just a bloody, horrible nightmare. Well, that would be the last time he'd stay up eating anchovy pizza and watching science fiction movies with the children!
Drawing a deep breath, and shivering in the chill morning air as the sweat began to dry on his back, Max felt the panic slowly subside. He hadn't had a nightmare like that in a long time. If Fran were there, she could tell him what it meant. He could almost hear her voice, "Tell me what you dreamt, and I'll tell ya what it meant," she'd say. Well, he wasn't going to creep into her room like some frightened child and ask her. He was a man, he would figure this out himself.
It had started with his finding a picture of Sarah and all his memories of her flooding back. That was easy. He'd been thinking of her quite a bit lately. The anniversary of her death was rapidly approaching again, and although it was almost eight years since she had passed away and the memories were not as painful as they had once been, he had not forgotten the first love of his life. Perhaps that was why he had called Fran "Sarah" in the dream. Was he afraid that his love for her would replace his love for Sarah, and that he would forget her?
Then there had been that bit about the actors dueling over a woman, the race to the hospital and the possible lawsuit. That was easy, too. There was always something brewing at the theater, eating away at him in the back of his mind.
Maggie's orientation dinner. She had been so embarrassed by his behavior with Miss Fine. Yes, he'd been concerned about how the children would react to a serious relationship with their nanny, for some time.
Niles had come to their rescue with the musical, volunteering to play the lead. He was always coming to his rescue, and sometimes he did wonder if maybe the man had dreams and ambitions of his own, and was wasting his talents here as his butler.
Then C.C. had fallen and been rushed to the hospital in a coma. He was concerned about the amount of drinking she seemed be doing of late. Perhaps that was it. Either that or his fear that someday Niles really would kill her.
This wasn't so hard. But what about that madness at the end, with the Martians and Miss Fine? They had been like demons, and they had nearly killed them all, but the sound of Miss Fine's voice had destroyed them. Hmmm . . . Miss Fine had the ability to conquer his demons?
Max got out of his bed and began searching for his robe in the growing light of a new day. It was time to talk to Fran and, remembering all the accidents of his nightmare, to increase his accident insurance.
Back to Fan FictionBack to The Really Unofficial Nanny Home Page