TEXT: ACT ONE Scene One - Niles' Hospital Room [SCENE_BREAK] Niles is in the bed, Daphne is puttering around. Niles holds up a card. Niles: Oh, this one's from your mom. A kitten in a basket of yarn. [He opens it to read.] "Dear Niles, I know we haven't always gotten along..." He checks the back of the card for more, but that's it. Niles: Wasn't that sweet of her? Frasier comes in with Roz. She's holding some flowers. Frasier: Hey, Niles, look what I found in the parking lot. Roz: Hi, Niles. It's good to see you. [crossing to Daphne] How's he doing? Daphne: The doctor says he's doing just great. Roz: Well, he looks just great. [whispering to Daphne] Why is he so pale? Niles: [who's heard her, whispering] He's always this pale. Daphne: I'll take those. She sets the flowers down amongst all the others. Frasier: Well, Niles, you've got quite an impressive array of flowers here. Oh, dear lord, who sent mums? Niles: Those are from Jaime, [pronounced hi-may] our squash valet. Frasier: Really? You know, when I had the flu, Jaime didn't send me so much as a card. Niles: You didn't have the flu, you barely had the sniffles. Frasier: I almost threw up. Who knows, mums might have been just the thing to cheer me up. I guess we'll never know now, will we? Roz: I'm so sorry you have to go through all this, Niles. Niles: Oh, I'm pretty used to him by now. Everyone chuckles. Roz: No, I meant... Niles: Oh, right, the... umm... [pointing at his chest] Yes, well, thank you. Who knew all those years of fois gras and brie would finally catch up with me. Da
SUMMARY:
Niles has been taken to hospital, and is about to undergo heart surgery . Daphne, Frasier, Martin and Roz have all come to see him, and each is coping differently: Martin jovially pretends there is no problem, and that Niles is just avoiding work; Frasier has researched the medical procedure thoroughly, and keeps offering to talk everyone through it; Daphne is just terrified, and Roz does her best to look after her. Frasier irritates the surgeon by asking questions about the operation, and by suggesting that he knows a better way of doing it, just because his source is a colleague from Harvard . Niles, on his way to the operating room, speculates over whether a hospital has memories. Then, at several points while the others wait for the operation to finish, little scenes from their past are played out around them in different parts of the hospital, including when Niles was born, when Roz brought baby Alice in for a check-up, and when Martin received bad news about his wife's health. Once Niles' surgery is over and a relieved Daphne is leaving the hospital, the hospital shows us a hopeful scene from the future in which she and Niles welcome a second child.