I just read the most awesome story called "A Shoulder to Cry On" by none other than one of my favorite authors, Kristen. While I was emersed in the story, I suddenly realized we didn't get this wonderful moment of Niles taking the leap of telling Daphne his feelings on his own, without that push of finding out that Daphne had feelings for him.


Don't get me wrong, I love the episode where Niles tells Daphne everything,
but does anyone else feel just a bit slighted?

Interesting thoughts... While I haven't read that story yet (maybe it will make me see things differently?) for right now, I don't feel slighted at all. I feel that by the time "Something Borrowed" came around, Niles was trying with everything he had to move on... maybe had pretty much given up on his dream with Daphne and was prepared to try to live his life without her. After all, Daphne gave him no idea whatsoever that she was ever interested in him, not ever, from the very beginning. Plus now she was engaged to someone else, and appeared happily engaged. So why wouldn't he think she wasn't interested? In the time before that, he was either married or in the middle of his divorce, and the few times he did think he was going to tell her everything, she said something that put him off and made him aware that it wasn't the right time. Granted, she didn't know he was talking about her in those times, but nevertheless, Daphne herself was the one who told him the timing was wrong each time. I agree with him when he told her he wanted to tell her but the timing never seemed right. But then, when he found out how she felt, in a weird way, the timing was exactly right because now that he had a possible green light from her, it was now or never at that moment. He's shocked to find out that she might feelings for him-- and who would've guessed?-- not me-- and so he's got this one very tiny 12 hour window to take that leap-- and he does.

To me that is a more courageous leap for him to have taken than any leap he might have taken before. I mean, he's at her wedding-- guests are there, her family has come in from England, everything is paid for and ready to go. Never mind the fact that he's married, AND he doesn't even know for sure yet how she feels. He took that chance, with all those things against him, without even knowing for sure how she feels. And he would have never known if not for Frasier tipping him off, because she sure wasn't giving him any clues, even after she realized she has feelings for him. She too had chances to tell him how she felt, and she couldn't do it either. It would have been sooooo easy for Niles to just say it's too late, it's going to hurt a lot of feelings, it's going waste all that money, it's going to cause a lot of trouble, it's going to stress her out, it's too late! But he didn't. The moment he had a clue that there was a possibility, he acted on it and most definitely took that most courageous leap. To me, that's the best and bravest leap he could have taken, and if I were Daphne it would mean more to me because he did it when the easier option would have been to let it go.

First of all, I'm insanely flattered that my story inspired this thread. See the link in my sig if you want to read it! :) Anyway, I do agree w/ everything badabingbaby said. And I think doing it that way allowed the writers to play out the whole "will they/won't they" thing for as long as possible w/o it getting old. And really, who doesn't love the balcony scene in "Something Borrowed"?! But of course things could have been very different, which is why fanfiction exists. And I'm SO glad it does, b/c I've made some really great friends through it! :)

- Kristen