Disclaimer: All characters are the property of Fran Drescher, Peter Marc Jacobson, CBS, and High School Sweethearts.
by
Aimee
(aimeed@earthlink.net)
"Hello, Niles," she said softly, in a low, sweet voice.
"Katherine!" he gasped. "Come in! What a surprise!"
"So you do remember me. I was afraid you wouldn't." Of course, she'd known he would. Fifteen years had changed her very little, due to assiduous workouts, a little surgery, and some help from the nice people at Vidal Sassoon to help maintain her flame-red hair.
Niles gestured her through to the kitchen, but she sat down in the living room, gracefully crossing her long, slender legs.
He was surprised that a former servant would come to the front door and sit down in the living room uninvited, but she didn't look as though she'd been a servant for many years. In fact, she looked quite prosperous.
"So, what brings you by after all this time?" he asked, hoping for a clue as to her transformation.
The desire to wrap my legs around your neck, she thought. He was still in good shape. She knew the older he got, the handsomer he would be. He was one of those lucky men that age flatters.
Instead of saying what was on her mind, the former maid and ex-love of his life merely replied, "I simply wanted to stop by, see my old friend, and find out what's new." That was the truth. The cards had told her there was great upheaval in the Sheffield home, and Niles was one of the principal players in this drama. She'd waited fifteen years to play it out her way, to make him vulnerable, and suddenly her hold over him was slipping just when she at last had the power to claim him on her own terms.
There was a night about two years ago, when in a dream she'd learned that intense happiness, confusion, and passion suddenly erupted within this family. She saw a strange, dark woman that Maxwell loved in silence, and for some reason, a vision of C.C. Babcock clucking like a chicken. She'd managed to change things back, make them the way they were, but she knew she couldn't wait much longer or her entire plan to take revenge on Maxwell Sheffield and win his butler for her own would be spoiled, and she'd waited so long to develop the power to make them vulnerable to her. Suddenly, Sheffield himself came in. "Niles, who was at the -- Dear God! Katherine!" Maxwell sucked in his breath sharply, distrust and barely concealed dislike radiating from him. "Well, it was lovely seeing you, but I must be going. So very busy -- oof!" Maxwell spun around to leave and crashed right into C.C.
C.C. helped him recover his balance. "Maxwell, what are you jerking your head like that for -- dear God, the house is possessed!"
"Ever since you arrived," Niles told her irritably. He turned to Katherine, who sat frozen with shock. "Don't mind her, she gets like this around the full moon."
C.C. had never paid the tarty maid much attention, considering her to be beneath the notice of a Babcock. All she felt for her was the natural rivalry that erupts when two attractive unattached women are in close confines. But this girl had changed. She was no longer the sweet, girlish maid, she was a striking and very wealthy-looking woman. And she was still two years younger than C.C.
Katherine hadn't been able to open her mouth since C.C. entered. As much as Katherine had hated the high-class snob when she'd been the maid, she barely recognized Miss Babcock now. C.C. had actually gotten thinner with age. Moreover, her whole image had changed. No longer Maxwell's mousy, ingratiating secretary, the Executive Vice President of Sheffield Productions was sleek, sophisticated, and radiantly confident. The ash-blonde hair was now a sunny gold that brought out her ivory skin and vivid blue eyes. It was cut into a trendy but classic bob and tucked behind one ear, a style that flattered her excellent bone structure. She'd lost her plumpness and now had a gorgeous hourglass figure and haute couture clothing to flatter it. In fact, C.C.'s severe black suit, though conservative in cut, showed off breasts that looked twenty years old without surgery and legs that went on forever. Moreover, she had a direct, challenging gaze and tall, relaxed posture that would have been totally foreign to the stiff aristocrat of a decade and a half ago. Kathryn felt sick just looking at her. Could this be the new factor that was ruining her plans?
But Kathryn was not easily cowed. "Miss Badcock," she said coldly, deliberately getting one significant letter wrong.
Niles snickered. "You mean, No --"
"Niles!" snapped Maxwell.
But C.C. didn't need Maxwell to defend her. "How lovely to see you again, Jezebel -- I mean, Carolyn."
"It's Kathryn."
She'd fallen right into C.C.'s trap. "I seem to remember you answering to, 'Get in here, you incompetent slut!'"
Kathryn smiled a cat's smile. "Only for Niles," she said silkily, as a flash of insight came to her.
Sure enough, her barb hit home. C.C. flushed pink, retorting, "Oh, no, we all knew you were incompetent. By the way, I like the new hair color, little orphan Annie. Did you dye the collar and the cuffs to match?"
This was vulgar even for C.C. The men sat in shocked silence, but Kathryn replied easily, "Why, C.C., what's your interest in my collar and cuffs? I didn't know you swung that way."
Maxwell gasped audibly, and Niles gaped at Kathryn as though she'd grown another head. C.C. shot back, "Yeah, so I like men, but you're still too low-class to be my type."
When Kathryn failed to respond, Niles muttered, "You walked right into that one, love." He could have jumped in, but found himself reluctant to take sides, and he didn't really want to explore the reasons why. Kathryn broke her staredown with C.C. to say, "I can see I'm not welcome here when Maxwell lets his bleach-blonde toy talk to me like that, but that doesn't affect things between you and I, Niles. Shall we say, Gatsby's at eight?"
She turned to go without awaiting an answer. Niles remained frozen, mouth open until C.C. placed her finger under his chin and pushed it closed. Kathryn stood at the door, tapping her foot. Niles hurried to open it, but before he could, it slammed open of its own accord and Fran came bursting in. She stood in horror when she saw the beautiful stranger tumble to the ground.
"Oh, my God!" she shrieked. "I am so sorry. Here!" Fran extended her hand.
Kathryn ignored it, rising by herself to face Fran. So here was the darkly bewitching woman in her dream, the one the posed such a threat. The one with Maxwell Sheffield's engagement ring on her left hand. "Oh, get out of my way, you clumsy slut!" She slammed the door on her way out.
"Who the hell was that?" demanded Fran, looking from Maxwell's cold face to C.C.'s angry one, to Niles' stoned stare.
"An ex-employee," Max said icily.
"A clumsier slut," said C.C.
"I don't know," Niles replied sadly, turning to go. They watched him trudge into the kitchen. Max gestured to the two girls to follow him into the office.
The first thing he did was check the intercom to ensure that it was turned off. "I don't want Niles to know what I'm about to say, but if that cheap floozy is about to start trouble, I want us all to be prepared to help him."
"I want no part of it," C.C. proclaimed angrily. "If Easy-off wants to dally with an overblown tart like Kathryn, far be it from me to stop him."
"C.C., please hear me out. You may feel differently if you do."
"I wanna help already," proclaimed Fran, loyal as ever to her fiancé.
"I'm listening, but I'm not committed to anything," C.C. told them.
"Fair enough, C.C. Fran, that was Kathryn. Fifteen years ago, shortly after C.C. started working for me, Kathryn was working here as a maid. I kept a much larger staff then, for Sarah's sake. Well, it became obvious to all that Niles was powerfully in love with Kathryn, and she seemed a sweet, quiet thing who wouldn't hurt a fly."
"I never trusted her," C.C. announced to no one in particular.
"I don't already," Fran told her, patting her arm.
Maxwell cleared his throat, and continued. "We were all cheering for Niles, of course. Glad to see him happy. The problem was, they just couldn't seem to get together. She seemed to like him, but she was so shy she couldn't tell him, and he just couldn't get up the guts to tell her."
"Sounds like another couple I know, except that Nanny Fine is about as shy as a Mack truck," commented C.C.
"C.C., will you please stop interrupting? Anyhow, we all believed that there would soon be a wedding in the house, and we couldn't wait. Then, one night, Sarah had gone away to visit her parents. I had the strangest dream. Then, I realized it wasn't a dream. Someone was kissing me, and I could feel hands all over me." Maxwell looked up and saw both the women in his life staring at him with their jaws on the floor. Fondly, he reached out and pushed their mouths shut. "I woke up and there she was."
"Kathryn?" gasped Fran.
"No, you idiot, me. Of course it was Kathryn." This was C.C.
"Did you ever try that?"
"If I had, do you honestly think he'd be marrying you?"
"Actually, yes, but that's beside the point." Fran and C.C. glared at each other before returning their full attention to Maxwell.
Max continued, "I pushed her off and sent her away immediately, dismissed her without a reference right then and there. By morning, she was gone. C.C., where are you going?"
"To tell Niles all about his little tart and his boss."
Fran grabbed C.C. by the Adolfo blazer and held her. "Oh, no you're not. You can't tell Niles." She thought about it for a second, then turned to Maxwell. "Why can't she tell Niles?"
"Oh, God, it would break his heart! Did you see the look on his face this afternoon when we didn't exactly welcome her? He still sees her as the bloody Lady of Shalott, and he is Sir Lancelot!"
"I always wanted to play Guinevere. I'm telling him," C.C. announced.
"Scary as this is, Miss Babcock is right! Niles has a date with her tonight. What if he gets involved only to get crushed?" Fran was wringing her hands, though secretly admiring the glint of her diamond engagement ring as she did so.
"No!" Maxwell said forcefully, causing both women to look up in astonishment. Max usually wasn't the domineering type. "Don't you see, if C.C. tells him, he'll never believe her. He'll think she's just being spiteful. If we tell him, we may isolate him just when he needs us the most! No, the only thing we can do is pray she's changed so much he's no longer interested. Now, Fran, please leave us. C.C., get me the Mame revival casting file."
C.C. touched Fran's arm. "Wait outside," she hissed.
Five minutes later, C.C. hurried into the hall, then into the living room. "Nanny Fine! she shouted.
"She just left," Niles informed her.
"Why?" demanded C.C.
"She probably heard you were looking for her," Niles commented.
C.C. had a suspicion as to where Fran had gone. She stalked to the front door, reached out, and pulled a shivering Fran back in. "For God's sake, Nanny Fine, I meant outside the office, not outside the house!"
"Well, ya never know who might be listening!" Fran responded haughtily, jerking her thumb in Niles' direction.
"Oh, please. I have better things to do than listen to you two fight," he replied loftily. "Now, if you wanted to don bathing costumes and go mud wrestling -- "
C.C. reached out and jerked loose Niles' Miracle Ear. "You're no more deaf than you are human," she told him. "So that's how the press got wind of our new revival!"
"That woman knows me too well," grumbled Niles, rubbing his ear and stalking into the kitchen.
C.C. drew Fran down on the couch. "We've got to stop that hussy from taking Niles away," she hissed.
"I thought you hated him!"
"Nanny Fine," C.C. said with exaggerated patience, "I have explained this before. It's just the way we relate to each other. I don't actually want to see him hurt, especially not in a cruel way like that. Only I'm allowed to be cruel to Niles. We have an understanding!"
"So what are we gonna do?" Fran wasn't worried Niles would leave, she was more worried about him getting chewed up and spat back out by that dragon, and for once she didn't mean Miss Babcock.
"We need to find out what she's up to. Have you still got that wig of Maggie's?"
"Yeah."
"Meet me in front of the French embassy at seven, and dress for Gatsby's. We're going to do a little spy work."
A classic black BMW pulled up in front of the French embassy, and a familiar voice hissed, "Nanny Fine, hurry up! I want to be there before them!"
Fran got in the car. "Oh, my God, Miss Babcock!"
"You like?" C.C. grinned.
"You look like a younger Angelica Huston!"
C.C. grinned with pride. She'd coated her golden hair with a thick black dye and was wearing sunglasses and purple Chanel Metallic Vamp lipstick. Her basic black dress was low-cut enough to show off some of the décolletage that made Kathryn so jealous.
They made it just in time to see Niles and Kathryn enter. "Hurry," C.C. hissed, handing Fran a pair of plain-glass eyeglasses to disguise her face.
Kathryn was clutching Niles' arm possessively and they heard her say to the Maitre d', "Barry, for two."
As soon as they'd entered, C.C. said, "Bond, party of two. We'd like to sit by the fishpond, if you please. It looks like that table over there is free?"
C.C.'s authoritative manner never failed to produce results. Soon, they were seated with a fishpond and a sculpture between them and the objects of their observation. They could hear every word, but they couldn't be seen.
"So you're still a butler," Kathryn said in some disappointment. "Really, Niles, you sell yourself short."
Niles shrugged. "I wish it were a more challenging position, but they are my family. I would never leave them."
"Who is it you'd never leave," Kathryn asked, "Max, the children, or the whore?"
"Miss Fine is one of my best friends," he said angrily.
"I was talking about Pee-Pee."
Niles snorted with laughter. "You've certainly changed, Kathryn. I would never have guessed you'd be able to stand up to C.C. Babcock. I'm truly impressed."
Kathryn smiled, and touched his hand. "Are there feelings there?"
"Oh, teasing her is my hobby," Niles said uncomfortably, wondering how she could possibly have known. "Especially since she started fighting back instead of running to Mr. Sheffield."
"Yes, she has changed, though hardly for the better. Of course, you can't expect a shark to become a dolphin. But what about you? How are you, in good health?"
Niles told her of his heart attack, though it was information she already knew.
She squeezed his arm. "So that's why you've been working out." At his surprised glance, she laughed. "Oh, yes, my darling, I noticed. As has every other woman in this room."
C.C. was fuming. She hissed to Fran, "Is he going to fall for that?"
Fran angled her head around the sculpture. One look at Niles' face and she answered, "Oh, yeah, he's fallin' for it."
C.C. said a word Fran had never heard her say before, and bent her head to hear the conversation more closely.
"And what about you?" she heard Niles ask. "You seem to have prospered."
"Yes," Kathryn smiled. "My investments are just enough to keep me in style. I'm not rich, but there's just me, so I'm not struggling, either."
"I've had some luck at investing, as well. We bachelors have very little to do with our money but invest."
"So why don't you quit?"
"And do what?"
"Travel, play, enjoy life."
"I like what I do."
This came as a shock to C.C. Niles had the cash to retire and he didn't? He must really care about the Sheffields. That or he and his feather duster were closer than she wanted to contemplate.
The rest of the conversation was fairly boring. Niles asked some token questions, but Kathryn, knowing how any man loved to talk about himself, invariably steered the conversation back around to him.
Finally, dinner was over. C.C. had no idea what she'd eaten. She signed her check without looking at the total and tried to hear their plans for the rest of the night.
She heard Kathryn say, "Niles, I'm very attracted to you. An hour from now, I'm going to kick myself for not inviting you back to my place. But I want to wait, see what develops."
C.C. didn't catch Niles' response, but she saw him pull out her chair and help her on with her coat.
"Smart," Fran whispered. "Very smart. She's gonna keep him waiting."
C.C. swore again, profaning the names of gods Fran had never even heard of. As soon as the couple was out the door, she grabbed Fran's hand and followed.
It was hell trying to maneuver the car so that they stayed out of sight while Kathryn dropped Niles off at the Sheffield house and they could follow her home.
"Did you see her kiss him?" demanded C.C. "That whore, that tart! That cheap floozy!"
"Maybe you should come in the house and crawl in bed with him like Kathryn did to Mr. Sheffield," Fran suggested with only a trace of sarcasm.
"Yeah. We saw how well that worked. Anyhow, I'd vomit."
C.C. parked the car when they saw Kathryn entering an elegant brownstone. A moment later, a light went on in the living room window.
C.C. and Fran dashed into the bushes before the door. They climbed up on top of the air conditioning unit, and what they saw shocked them to the core. "She's insane!" gasped C.C.
Kathryn lit one dim lamp and a number of candles, which she arranged in a rough circle around the room. In the center of the circle was a table with a small metal cauldron on it. Into this cauldron Kathryn placed two of Niles' hairs, which she'd collected while kissing him. She then added a few herbs and a pink stone and she began to chant.
C.C. and Fran couldn't hear most of what she said, but they sure heard the last part.
"Niles!" screamed Kathryn, raising her hands to the sky. "You will love me!"
"Over my dead body!" C.C. hissed. Fran was frantically jamming her credit card under the windowsill. Finally, she managed to open it a tiny fraction. It wasn't much, but they could hear.
Kathryn began a new spell. "Discord, I invoke you! Let that house be without love! Maxwell will never love and never remarry, let Niles love none but me!" C.C. had to hold Fran down to keep her from storming the brownstone and ripping the sorceress's head from her shoulders.
"And for C.C. Babcock a special fate. Loathe her, despise her, feel mutual hate! If ever love 'twixt her and Niles existed 'tis broken by my wiles!"
C.C. raised her shoe to break the window. Fran grabbed her and they both fell to the ground.
They climbed back up, but Kathryn was already cleaning up the evidence.
Kathryn smiled. That should restore discord long enough for her to be avenged on Maxwell Sheffield for rejecting and firing her, and take Niles for her own.
C.C had to pull over three times on the drive back to her apartment because her hands were trembling. Once she controlled her fear, however, a plan came to her.
"It's going to be a long night, Nanny Fine. Are you up for this?"
"Will it stop Kathryn?"
"It better. I won't stop until it does, if I have to kill her! In fact, I kinda like the idea," C.C. said with a tight, angry glare
Once in her apartment, she dialed her brother. "Please, Noel, please, please be there. Dear God -- Oh, thank God, Noel. Yes, it's me. Look, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need your help. No, just some information. You remember what you told me you saw among those people in Brazil? Yes, the Candombles. Well, you know how I never believed you? Well, I do now. I think I'm fighting such a person. Yes, my life insurance is paid up and you're my beneficiary. Just tell me what to do!" C.C. listened closely, then gestured to Fran for a piece of paper and pen. She hurriedly scrawled down a name and thanked her brother effusively. "Oh, Noel, I won't go down that easily. I'm a Babcock, nobody messes with me. Anyway, I'm fighting for something far more important than my own life. Yes, such a thing exists. Well, umm, ah, marrying Maxwell, of course! Oh, just shut up, Noel. I have a lot of work to do tonight."
"What? What?" Fran hissed, jumping up and down. C.C. ignored her and began to dial again.
"Hola, Concepcion, I'm sorry to call so late but it's an emergency. My name is C.C. Babcock. I believe you know my brother Noel?"
"Nanny Fine, listen carefully. Here are the keys to my BMW. You crash it, I kill you. Now, I have to wait here for Concepcion. You have to go to the house and get something of Niles'. An article of clothing or a picture will do, some hair or blood would be better. Bring something of Maxwell's as well."
"Are you nuts?"
"Maxwell Sheffield will never remarry," C.C. intoned.
"I'm outtie."
Fran was back in an hour, the longest of C.C.'s life. When she returned, a dark old gypsy woman stood behind C.C.
"Nanny Fine, meet Concepcion, a friend of Noel's. She's going to help us put that hussy out of commission. Now, what did you bring us?"
Fran placed each item on the table as she pulled it out of her pocket. "Here's a picture of me and Niles from last year on the cruise. Doesn't he look cute in his tuxedo? Here's some hair from his hairbrush, and some from Maxwell's. Here's a hanky of Maxwell's. I tried to get his underwear, but -- "
"Nanny Fine!" gasped C.C. "This is a story I don't need to hear!"
Concepcion nodded and began to mumble. There was a pile of debris on C.C.'s coffee table, including candles, incense, dried leaves and flowers, and a roll of black string. Concepcion passed each item through incense smoke before wrapping it all into a little ball in the hanky and winding the black string around it. She knotted it three times and handed it to C.C. "Okay, boss, you conceal it in that house and the witch's power will be bound."
C.C. blinked. "It's that easy?"
"No. If she's very powerful, she might sense what we've done and counter our counterspell. I just bound her spell so it doesn't work. Tomorrow I get some supplies, neutralize her power."
Fran and C.C. both thought it was suspicious how Concepcion's English got better & worse depending on how hard she was concentrating on looking authentic. But there was no doubt she was their only hope. They told her so.
"No," Concepcion said. She turned to Fran. "You already make the witch less powerful. You've got love magic inside you and it helps break her hold. She wants them to be sad because it makes them weak, you make them happy and they're strong."
She then turned to C.C. "You've got power, babe, and it ain't in your checkbook. You stand up to her, don't let her scare you. You're the one who'll always win because you'll never quit, and you can use her own magic against her. But in order to take her down, you're gonna have to take a risk you've never taken before. Only your wildest dreams can save you."
"Murder?" C.C. asked hopefully.
"Naw. Something that'll take all your guts, but if you do it, her power is broken forever. She," and Concepcion jerked her thumb at Fran, "She weakens the bitch enough, but only you can actually break her."
C.C.'s blue eyes were luminous in the darkness. "I'll do it. I don't know how, but I will."
"In order to fight her, you must give up fighting something else, something you've been fighting for longer than you know. When the time comes, Fran will help you know what to do."
"Anything else?" Fran asked eagerly.
"Yeah," Concepcion winked at them. "Stay away from the Dark Side of the Force."
C.C. and Fran both groaned
After Concepcion left, Fran said, "Tell me there weren't as many zeros on that check you gave her as I thought there were."
"Do you want to marry Maxwell or not?"
C.C. drove Fran home, giving her the charm. "Sneak it into Niles' bedroom to make sure that harpy stays out." Fran nodded and disappeared inside the Sheffield mansion.
It was four in the morning before C.C. got all the black washed out of her hair. Between that and a number of disturbing dreams, she was a very grouchy woman as she swept into the Sheffield house at her accustomed hour of eight in the morning.
"Is it done?" C.C. whispered to Fran.
"Under his bed," Fran told her.
"Thank God. They're safe."
Niles decided to spend his free time that day cleaning his room. He came upon the gruesome ball of junk and shuddered. He untied the knots and unrolled it, shivering as he did so. It was probably some rubbish of the children's, but how did it get into his room? He shrugged and threw it away.
"Care for a drink, Caca?" Niles invited, offering C.C. a tray with a snifter of clear liquid on it.
"Normally I wouldn't drink this early in the afternoon," C.C. retorted testily, "But seeing you every day would drive anyone to drink."
"You arrived there years ago, Babs."
"You were the chauffeur, Jeeves." C.C. took a deep gulp of the liquid. Immediately she began to choke. Hydrogen peroxide was not her beverage of choice.
"Help! Help!" shouted Niles as he raced through the living room. "I'm being molested by a four-legged animal!"
"You wish!" C.C. was hot on his tail. Okay, she was just plain hot. Every time he walked in the room she felt like she was being pushed toward that dangerous precipice of desire she'd resisted for so long. What the hell was in that junk ball of Concepcion's? What was it doing to her?
Niles and she were trying to squeeze through the kitchen door at the same time. Trying to shove her out of the way, he ended up with his hands all over her chest, and she let out a gasp of desire, which she masked as anger. Vengefully, she grabbed him between the legs and snapped, "Try that again, janitor, and you'll loose your two best friends, and I'm not talking about the mop and the broom."
To her utter horror, C.C. suddenly found herself wanting to pull his clothes off and do it right there on the kitchen floor.
C.C.'s hand was in a dangerous area. Niles was horrified by how much he wanted to pull her clothes off and take her right there on the kitchen floor, and he knew she could feel the evidence.
They both looked at each other, eyes wide. Niles' hand, still on her breast, slid slowly down below her waist.
For once, C.C. had no witty remark. She just wanted to hold him, to beg him, to give him whatever he wanted of her.
"No!" she gasped her eyes wide. "Niles, we can't!" She turned and fled back to the office.
Niles stood motionless, watching her go.
He was joined soon by Maxwell. "Can we talk privately, old man?" Max asked.
"Of course, sir. What's on your mind?" Niles was glad for anything to get his mind off his pants -- and hers.
"Well, this wedding. Do you think if I let her redecorate the hallway I could get out of it?"
"Oh, not again, sir!" Max wanted out of his commitment to Fran, C.C.'s bitchiness was turning him on until he just wanted to show her who was boss, just a normal day in the Sheffield house.
Kathryn stared down at the cards in disbelief. "No!" she gasped. "How can this be?" Only one set of couples were as they should be. The card of the lovers sat in the middle. On one side, the card of discord separated the Emperor and Empress, who represented Fran Fine and Maxwell Sheffield. That was all well and good, but on the other side, the High Priest and High Priestess, representing Niles and C.C., were together as always. No discord seemed to have been sown.
Kathryn knocked the table over with an angry sweep of her arms. She was going to go over there and fix everything.
Niles was drying the dinner dishes as Kathryn walked in. He was pleased to see her, and embarrassed to feel a rush of desire. What was wrong with him? Two hours ago, he'd wanted C.C. Babcock violently. Now, all Kathryn had to do was enter the room and he wanted her, too.
"I brought you a present," she said softly. She held out a small box.
Inside was a tin of pate. Niles set it aside. "It looks delicious. Maybe in a while, Kathy, I just had dinner."
"Oh," she said, with a disappointed little frown. "But I was hoping we could eat it for dessert. It's very convenient. You don't need a cracker. Just spread it on."
Niles was transfixed as she opened the tin and touched a little bit to her lips. She grabbed him and kissed him hard, and he swallowed the tiny morsel of food before she thrust her tongue hard into his mouth. Niles wanted to tear her clothes off and take her on the kitchen floor, and he suddenly couldn't remember when he'd had that thought before.
"Now if you're a very good boy, we'll have dessert together," she said softly. Her eyes met his, and she projected her lustful thoughts into his unresisting mind. Her enspelled pate had done its duty. Niles was hers.
She led him out to the living room and silently sent a message to C.C. Babcock. Come. Witness my triumph. Katherine drew the unresisting Niles down onto the sofa.
C.C. felt a horrible premonition as she darted from the office.
Through a red haze of desire, Niles saw C.C. come in, saw her mouth open wide as she saw Katherine on top of him on the sofa. He found himself unable to react, even as her anguished, enraged scream echoed through the house.
Max and Fran came from opposite ends of the hallway at the sound of CC's cries to dash down the stairs together. Brighton, Maggie, and Grace already stood looking on in horror as C.C. stood unable to move and Katherine continued her determined assault on Niles' lust-drugged senses.
No spell held C.C. rooted to the floor, just her own confusion and misery. It was all her worst nightmares come true. Let anything happen, let her be raped, murdered, assaulted by every demon in every horror movie she'd ever seen in her life, but please God, she thought, don't make her stand there and watch while Kathryn had sex with the man she loved.
Loved? Good God, it was true. She loved Niles.
"Children, upstairs!" Max said sternly, and they obeyed in silence for once. Then, they turned, paused, and watched unseen.
Max and Fran dashed past the motionless C.C. They dragged Kathryn off of Niles. Max began to berate Niles for his ungentlemanly behavior. Max, of course, knew nothing of the spell and couldn't understand why Niles remained passive.
Fran stood next to C.C. "I'm so sorry!" she whispered.
C.C. looked at her as though peering through a fog. "He wanted me this afternoon," she said frantically. "I got scared and ran."
"Oh, good going!" Fran smacked her arm.
"It wouldn't have mattered, C.C.," Kathryn said smoothly. "My spells are too powerful. Watch." Kathryn turned to the two men. "Niles, come here," she commanded with quiet authority. Niles shoved Maxwell to the ground and obeyed, moving like an automaton. Fran ran to Maxwell and knelt beside him, holding him tight.
Kathryn turned to them, extending one red-tipped finger in their direction. "Max, do you want to marry Fran?"
"Well, not really, but she does want it so. She'll leave me if I don't," Max pointed out reasonably, starting to get the same glazed look as Niles. Fran gave a keening wail that was undecipherable except that it had something to do with the Holocaust.
Kathryn looked at Fran. "He'll never marry you."
"He will!" sobbed Fran. "Max, I love you so much!" Max patted her arm absently. "There, there, Miss Fine, don't take on so about it. You'll find someone else."
C.C. found her voice. "You bitch! You whore! You'll never win, I'll see to that."
"And how will you do that?" Kathryn asked, lasciviously running her tongue down Niles' throat.
C.C. was left speechless with rage.
Fran left Max to join her. "Miss Babcock, what will we do? What will we do?" C.C. shook her head silently, utterly confused.
Kathryn advanced on them, Niles just behind her. "I don't know why he wanted you this afternoon, my discord spell should have taken care of that, but he wants me now. Niles, would you put a bit of pate here and here and here, and lick it off, please?"
"No!" screamed C.C. "Niles, you worthless toilet-scrubbing, two-timing servant!" It wasn't her best, but hey, she was under pressure.
Niles abandoned his assigned task to glance at her in surprise. A flicker of annoyance crossed his features, the first sign of life since Kathryn had put her spell on him.
Fran started jumping up and down. "Insult him some more!" she said, as a suspicion dawned. "Hit him where it hurts, Miss Babcock." Kathryn smiled. This crazy scene was all the discord she could hope for and more.
C.C. thought carefully. Due to the spell, Niles loved Kathryn. He wouldn't be able to bear to see her insulted or humiliated. She decided to start with the basics.
"Why waste your time with Niles," she said coldly, "when there are so many street corners full of paying customers?"
Kathryn snickered. "Say what you like, C.C., you'll never win."
"You should never have left service. A slave to those of us with class is all you ever ought to be."
Niles was beginning to get angry with her. It cut through his haze of lust and his head began to clear. "Caca, the only class you've got is the one where they taught you how to sit up and beg."
"Ha. You only wish I'd beg."
"I only wish they'd taught you how to shut up."
C.C. was starting to feel a great deal better. She began to really warm up. "I wouldn't bother trying to teach you, Windex, I'd just buy a muzzle."
"Intriguing thought," remarked Kathryn.
"Too bad they don't make one big enough to fit over your huge ugly nose," C.C. told her, turning her own small, pretty nose into the air.
"Now this is more like normal," Max remarked to Fran, rising to stand at her side. "However annoying the arguing is, it beats seeing Niles knuckle under to that brazen slut."
"That's it!" Fran shrieked, kissing him square on the mouth. "Max, you're a genius!"
C.C. was warming up her next diatribe, totally ignoring the by-play between Fran and Max, when Fran hurried up and whispered to her, "Keep it going! That's what Concepcion was talking about. Your power is in words. Kathryn's discord spell will backfire if you work with it, because discord turns you and Niles on. That's why she couldn't stop him from wanting you. If you can really get to him and make him mad, it'll take her out."
C.C. turned to Niles, a surge of love for him swelling her heart until she felt as though her body were too small to contain it all. "What's the matter, Niles, can't you take me? You're so quiet."
"Caca, the very thought of taking you is enough to prevent me from ever functioning as a man again." God, I want her!
"Like you ever did." If he calls me Caca one more time, she's gonna get a floor show!
"You could give me some lessons there." And on the floor, the sofa, the kitchen table, my bed, Mr. Sheffield's bed . . .
"Aging pervert."
"Ha! Look in the mirror, Badcock!"
"Better Badcock than none at all," she taunted.
Kathryn interrupted. "Niles," she screamed. "Get over here, now!" For Niles had gravitated toward C.C. and was now nose to nose with her.
Niles looked at Kathryn, stepped back, wavered. She was gorgeous, but he'd never liked dominant women. Which didn't even begin to explain his fascination for C.C. Babcock. But still, Kathryn was hot and willing . . .
C.C. knew she was loosing him. In desperation, she made a chicken noise. Everyone looked at her like she was insane.
"What the hell -- wait, I don't want to know," Max said.
C.C. grabbed Niles' shoulders and looked him straight in the eye, and clucked again. He began to laugh uncontrollably. "God, Babcock, you're insane," he told her. "But like that comes as a surprise."
"You ain't seen nothin' yet, dust buster." It was time to break Kathryn's power for good and show her how a real woman handled her man -- by tempting him to show her who was really in charge.
C.C. once again faced Niles directly. "I loathe you," she said in a low, spell-like cadence.
Kathryn felt her power over Niles shaking on its foundations.
"I despise you," Niles informed C.C. haughtily, blue eyes meeting blue eyes in a duel they'd fought a thousand times before. Suddenly, Kathryn was the last thing on his mind.
"Servant!" C.C. took a step closer, glaring.
"Trollop," he accused with a perfectly straight face.
"Bellboy!" she said in a low, husky voice that sent shivers down his entire body.
"Brunette!" he deadpanned. For just one split second, all was silence and nobody moved. Then, he was seizing her, crushing her soft mouth under his. Her hands cupped his face, her lips opening to allow him to thrust his tongue into her.
Niles hauled C.C.'s unresisting body hard against his. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and she could feel something pressing into her hips that definitely wasn't a feather duster. She moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck.
They came up for air for only a second, before diving back into each other's embrace. Niles silently, forcefully demanded all C.C.'s passion, everything she kept hidden under icy pride and hostile repartee for so many, many years. And C.C. gave him everything he asked for and more. She yielded everything to him, hiding nothing, concealing nothing, surrendering to her wildest fantasies in a way that she'd never done with anyone else in her more than three and a half decades of life. And she'd never felt stronger. She knew she'd won, and the prize was definitely worth having. Right now.
Their kiss lasted an eternity. Kathryn fled, angrily swearing revenge, but they never noticed, even when Brighton came down the stairs just in time to trip her on her way out the door.
Fran and Max watched in awe. There was a fairy tale sensuality about Niles and C.C. that the greatest lovers of all time could only hope to rival. Watching this love finally come to fruition reminded them of their own love and how precious it was. Max held Fran tightly, both crying unashamedly at the beauty of what was before them as snide Niles and cynical C.C. finally tapped the deepest wells of emotion in their hearts.
"This is gonna get X-rated pretty soon," Fran sniffed sentimentally.
"I certainly hope so," Max murmured, not talking about Niles and C.C.
Fran laughed her unforgettable laugh. "Oh, Mr. Sheffield," she gasped coyly, feeling his hand on her bottom.
"Yes, Miss Fine?"
"First one upstairs gets to be in charge," she laughed, dashing away with him right behind her.
"Eww," said Brighton, who was thinking of spending some time in the basement where he couldn't hear either couple. He signaled to his sisters, who decided to join him in safety.
"My place, or yours?" C.C. asked, already pulling on his tie to loosen it.
"Shut up, wench," he told her with that fiendish smile of his, sweeping her up into his arms and carrying her toward the back stairs.
"Yes, master," she crooned sarcastically. "Slime."
"Chicken."
She laughed her low, husky laugh and hit him on the chest just as they reached his door.
Niles kicked it open and dropped her on the bed. "You'll pay for that, slave." He closed the door and advanced menacingly upon her.
They tore at each other's clothing until barely enough scraps remained to cover them decently in the morning. As Niles worshipped her with his lips, C.C. recalled Concepcion's words: to break the spell, she would have to explore her wildest dreams.
Tearing away the last remains of his clothing, C.C. submitted eagerly to Niles' masterful lovemaking. Of course, she didn't submit totally. After all, she didn't want him to loose the challenge of taming her.
"Niles," she murmured as he seized her wrists and held them above her head.
"Mmm?"
"Hate you," she purred.
"Hate you more, baby." Niles kissed her into silence.
The End
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