"Denial"
A D/B Fanfic by Me and Melissa
A.K.A. uscaremealot8357 and SaraSidleStokes @ FanForum

Daniel Meade sat in his Limo, his sister’s words ringing in his ears, "Go after her. Tell her how you feel before you lose her forever." He was indeed shocked that everything she said was true, and with those words in his head he told the driver to turn around and go to Queens. Telling Betty Suarez he was in love with her was exactly what Daniel Meade was going to do.

*****
Earlier that Day

Alexis may have had a sex change, but she wasn’t dumb or new to the dating scene, nor was she immune to not noticing the looks her baby brother shot towards his assistant and shot in her direction often. They were supposed to be working but it seemed as though Daniels mind was a million miles away. She was going to broach the topic. "Danny, why do you do this to yourself?" She began. Daniel gave her a confused look. "What are you talking about Alexis?" She frowned at her little brother, and said quite bluntly, "You love her! It’s completely obvious!" If he was supposed to know what she meant, he didn’t notice. "Who?" He questioned her. She laughed as she said, "Betty! God Danny, it’s so completely obvious that you're in love with her!" He gave his sister a look. There was no point in denying it, not anymore. He simply sighed, "Even if I did admit to it, I don’t stand a chance." Alexis almost laughed at his comment. Daniel Meade, someone used to dating fashion models, not confident to tell his best friend/assistant that somewhere along the way he fell in love with her? She simply raised an eyebrow as she said, "Well, I think you should tell her how you feel before it’s too late and you lose her forever."

Seconds went by like minutes, and minutes like hours at the Suarez household. It was around midnight, and Betty was typing up some memorandums for Daniel, just the usual stuff. It was hard for her to concentrate. The consistent ticking of the clock on the kitchen wall couldn't help but provide a constant reminder of Henry's departure for Tucson in April. Each tick of the second hand was one less second left with Henry. The love of her life was about to be gone from her life, forever. What made it even harder was that she was experiencing some new feelings, feelings that seemed crazy and impossible, but yet so right at the same time. But she denied them. There wasn't enough time to play Russian roulette with what her heart truly felt. It was Henry. It had to be, and always would be. A gentle knocking could be heard from the kitchen door. Betty groggily rose from the table and opened the door to see none other than Daniel Meade standing there. "I've got something important to tell you Betty." Betty seemed to snap to attention at the mention of her name. "Oh! Is it about the memorandums? I have them right here for you. Let me go get-" As Betty turned to retrieve them from the table, Daniel grabbed her arm, oh so tenderly. "I LOVE YOU."

Betty stood there in shock. She frowned a little. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hear those words, because she thought that perhaps maybe, just maybe, she did, but one doesn’t fall in love with Daniel Meade. She knew that for a fact, and she also knew Amanda had learned the hard way what happened when you did. No, she'd settle. She'd settle for Henry, even if that meant in the end she'd have her heart broken. But in all honesty, what difference would it make, really, because she knew Daniel was bound to break her heart too. She tried not to look in his big blue eyes as she said, "You don’t mean that! You just think you do because we spend a lot of time together. I was there when you're dad died. I'm your best friend." She raised an eyebrow at him. If this was going to work at all, she was going to have to pull out the mean Betty Suarez side. "Or maybe this is all a joke, a bet maybe." She shrugged as she looked away. "At any rate, you should go."

Betty slammed the door in his face, and sunk to the floor, crying. Daniel could hear her from outside, and he wanted so much just to rush in there and comfort her. But he couldn't. He had to respect the woman he loved. He had finally gotten the courage to say "I Love You", and she thought it was a stupid bet. He was determined to get Betty to realize he was serious. But then again, what if she already knew?

As Betty sat crying on the kitchen floor, all she could do was reflect back on what had just happened. The words wouldn't stop running through her head. "I LOVE YOU."  "You don't mean that!" She still couldn't believe it. Could her hidden feelings for him actually be surfacing? Does he really feel the same way? Is it possible that she is falling for him, just the way she had fallen for Henry almost a year ago? No, she couldn't be. If she was, she wouldn't have just rejected him like that. She would have jumped into his welcoming arms and kissed him, oh so tenderly and passionately. Her heart had decided on Henry a long time ago, and these feelings can't possibly mean anything more than a deep love for a friend. And yet something in the back of her mind was just screaming to her, "Go after him you fool! You LOVE him! Stop denying it and face the facts! HE'S the one you should be devoting your time to, not Henry!" She shook the thoughts from her mind. As she tried to stand up, she felt a familiar hand latch on to her elbow and help her up. "Betty! What are you doing up so late?" Hilda Suarez said with a yawn in between. "Hilda," Betty had to choose her words carefully. She didn't want her knowing about what just happened, or at least not knowing that it happened to her. "Christina has a problem, and I think you can help." Hilda was slow to respond. It was getting late. "Sure." She yawned. "Lay it on me."

Betty frowned and bit her lip, trying to keep from the tears that were threatening to fall from actually coming from her eyes. She sighs as she looks at her older sister, "Well, she's confused." She said. She was sort of telling the truth, but she didn’t need to know that. "She loves someone. She loves him a lot, but she's also in love with someone else, and now she's wondering if the feelings she's feeling for the one person are just because she's known him forever, because they’re best friends," she sighs and continues, "and the fact that he just told her he loves her doesn’t help. She's not sure if he really means it. Guys like him don’t fall in love with girls like me, er, I mean her." She had hoped that Hilda wouldn’t have noticed her blunder, but the problem was that Hilda had known who she was talking about from the start. She had seen it all. Daniel Meade coming into their house, telling her little sister he loved her, her little sister asking him to leave, it was enough to break her heart. She touched her gently and wiped the tear she saw. "Betty, this isn’t about Christina, is it?" She looks at her, "You love Daniel. It’s as easy as that." She looked at her and continued, "I've seen the way you look at him, and the way he looks at you. It reminds me of me and Santos, and he's not going to break your heart. He's changed so much, and so have you Betty." This wasn’t exactly what Betty wanted to hear. She didn’t need to be told the feelings she were feeling were indeed love. She groaned and said, "God Hilda, you're not helping." She ran upstairs in tears, but that action alone proved Hilda's point.

****
Meanwhile in his car, a very sad, love struck Daniel Meade called his best friend Becks. He sighed a little when he answered the phone. "Hey, you wanna get a drink?" He questioned. Becks had raised an eyebrow on the other end as he said, "Who is she?" Daniel tried to laugh. He wasn’t about to be obvious. "What makes you think there’s a girl?" Becks laughed, "because, man, you only act this way when it involves a girl, and you only call me after you've been dumped or rejected, so who is she and why aren’t you crawling to Betty..." He stopped himself when he realized who she was "Oh God, it’s her isn’t it? You're in love with her, and you’re upset because she just rejected you." He snickered a little at the thought of his friend falling in love with his assistant. In the past, the thought wouldn’t have been all that amusing, but it was Betty, and she wasn’t all that pretty. Still, Becks wasn’t all that surprised. In a weird way, they were a lot alike and he had noticed the change in Daniel whenever Betty was around. For what seemed like a very long time, he finally heard Daniel speak. "What difference does it make? She doesn’t love me." He sighs as he says, "I'm willing to bet she hates me right now."

Betty had reached her door and was about to enter when Hilda grabbed her arm and dragged her, unwillingly, back down to the kitchen. "Let go of me Hilda! We've said all we need to say and I wanna go to bed!" It was hard watching Betty suffer through this and she knew that she needed to give her more advice, even if she didn't want to hear it. "Betty quiet down! I know that you didn't want me involved, and if you keep shouting you're gonna get the whole neighborhood involved! Now shh!" Betty knew Hilda was right. If her father knew, oh if only her father knew... "Okay Betty. There's more to this story. Now tell me what it is. You know you can talk to me hermana." Betty knew she was sincere when she went all espanol on her, so she decided she better open up. "Okay. Fine. I'll tell you more." She hesitated, choosing her words carefully in her mind before saying them. "Ever since I found out Henry was moving back to Tucson with Charlie and the baby, things have been really strained between us. I still love him, and I know he loves me, but the fact that he is moving away in April has been tearing us apart. We have huge fights about nothing and its really starting to hurt both of us." Next came the part about Daniel, which was going to be particularly hard for her, because even she was still confused about what was going on. "I could tell Daniel was starting to become aware of what was going on with Henry and I about a week after our relationship starting hitting bumps in the road. He'd look at me in his office with those deep blue eyes that just said 'I'm here for you', and oh, did it help me get through my day. We never talked about it, but we exchanged looks of deep emotion. At least that’s how it started. Then he began meeting me in the lobby when I came into work, which eventually lead to hello hugs that felt oh so warm and welcoming. It got to a point where I didn't want to let go. These past few nights I've been late coming home because he's kept me at work. Just doing the little things, filing and memos, but I couldn't help but notice him looking at me the whole time. It was then I started to feel like there was something more growing between us, but I denied it. A part of me still does." Betty's words brought both herself and Hilda to tears. "Betty, you love him. You know it, I know it, and so does Daniel. You need to go to him. I don't care what you say, but you know damn well that you love him more than you ever loved or ever will love Henry, and both of us know he doesn't have a pregnant girlfriend back in Tucson to run away from you to." Betty knew Hilda's words were right, but her heart still yearned for Henry. Betty simply sighed and went to bed without saying one more word.

****

Daniel and Becks were at the local pub, discussing what had just happened over some watered-down beer. Becks was pretty much doing all the drinking. Daniel was too love stoned to do anything right now. "Listen Daniel, it isn't the end of the world that your ugly little assistant hates you. Seriously, what fun would you wanna have with that piece of rotten meat?" These words sent a spark off in Daniel's mind and heart. Never had this happened before when someone made derogatory remarks about Betty, but now he couldn't control his anger for some odd reason, and he knew why. "Where the hell do you get off calling her ugly? She's the best damn thing that's ever happened to me and you know it! She is the most beautiful thing in the world to me and you have the nerve to call her that? What kind of best friend are you?" Daniel stormed out of the bar and called a cab. When he entered he slammed the door, slightly frightening the cab driver who couldn't help but think to himself, 'Aye! Not another drunk one!' "Where are you going?" Daniel was quick to reply, in quite a frustrated tone. "Take me to Meade publications please." There was only one more person he could talk to about this, and even they might find it amusing, but it was the only person he could think of. That person was Alexis.

****

The elevator dinged, and Daniel stepped out onto the executive floor of Meade publications. He turned the corner and noticed Alexis packing up her things in her office. Their dad's old office. He was still adjusting and wanted to talk about that with her, but that could wait. Now he needed to talk about Betty. Just as she was about to lock the door, Daniel grabbed her elbow. She gave a quick gasp, and then turned to notice it was Daniel. He could see the fatigue in her face. She had been working her ass of as new C.E.O., and he could tell that it had been taking its toll on her. Right now he didn't care about that. He needed to talk to her, and hopefully she would offer some support. 'Yeah, right,' he thought to himself, 'I'll be lucky if she doesn't fall to the floor laughing at me.' "Alexis, we really need to talk." Alexis was exhausted, and frankly, she wasn't in the mood to hear about another one of Danny's little problems. "Listen Daniel, can this wait until tomorrow? I'm exhausted, you know that." Daniel was getting aggravated now, and just shoved her back into her office. "Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Daniel angrily shot back, "What the hell do I think I'm doing? I think I'm trying to talk to you about something really important that I need your support on." Alexis sat on the couch and he followed. He paused for a moment. "You're the only one left I can talk to about this." Alexis sighed, realizing his brother really did need her then and there, and waited for his response. 'This better be worth my time.' She thought. 'If he slept with another underage model I think I'll blow my top.' Daniel found himself at a loss for words, so he just seemed to blurt everything out. "Well, you aren't going to believe this, or like this, but I'm in love with Betty Suarez. The past few months I have been getting some minor feelings for her, and just these past couple weeks they seemed to morph into something more. I've never felt this way about anybody." He paused, his eyes welling up with tears, and proceeded. "I went to her house tonight and told her. I was almost positive she felt the same way. She rejected me, Alexis, she slammed the door in my face and now she probably won't speak to me ever again." The tears started streaming down his face. He had to hold them in when he was with Becks, but he had hoped that his sister wouldn't care. Alexis could see the pain he was feeling, and couldn't help but to have a few stray tears fall from her big blue eyes as well. "Oh Danny, I knew you were falling for her." Daniel seemed shocked. "How would you know? You've been so busy with taking over and everything that you wouldn't have had time t-" Alexis cut him off. "I haven't had time to what, pay attention to you? Of course I have. Just because I'm C.E.O. now doesn't mean I don't still give a damn about you and it surely doesn't mean that I won't stop loving you. I'm your big sister. I'm supposed to know these things." She put an arm around Daniel, and he collapsed onto her shoulder. "I don't know what to do Alexis. I've never loved anyone more than her in my life, and now she doesn't want to be in my life.” He couldn’t stop himself from stuttering these next words,” You have no idea how alone I feel right now." The tears started streaming down Alexis's face now. She's never seen Daniel hurt this much before, and for the first time, she could actually feel her brother's pain. "Listen to me Daniel, don't give up on her. You can't. If you do, you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Trust me Daniel. I've never been more right in my life." Daniel couldn't respond. He was still choked up. He just sat there in Alexis's arms, waiting for an answer to come. He had never felt this way before. The mix of emotions was tearing him apart, and he felt he needed Betty now more than ever. It killed him inside knowing that he had probably destroyed any chances of recovering their friendship. Alexis simply sat there, holding her brother, trying to comfort him. It was all that she could do for him, and it wasn't easy watching him suffer like that, knowing that she didn't have the power to make him better again. For the rest of the night they lay there, on the couch of their father's old office, trying to make his pain go away.

After careful consideration and no sleep whatsoever, Betty had made a decision she knew she'd more than likely regret, but one she had to do nonetheless. Now at 9:00 AM the next morning, (thankful for her, Daniel hadn’t come in yet, and part of her was worried about him, but she refused to admit why that was), she began to unload her desk and put the items in a box. Christina had come for moral support, but she also desperately wanted to talk her out of it. "Betty, you're making a huge mistake," her thick Scottish accent coming out as she spoke, "why are you doing this? Because Daniel Meade hit on you? Please! If he hit on me, I'd be walking on air!"
Betty sighed, hiding the tears in her eyes. "It’s more than that. He's in love with me. I can’t work here knowing that, and knowing I hurt him by turning him down." Christina sighed as she looked at her friend. She had known for a long time that Betty was in love, and not with Henry, but she wanted Betty to figure it out on her own. "Betty," she began, "he's Daniel Meade. He's been hurt before. He'll get over it!" Betty sighed, looking away again, hiding her tears. "This is different...." she stammered, and then quickly added, "Remember when Sofia hurt him? I was the one to fix his broken heart. I can’t do that now." She said with a sigh. Christina could see the tears in Betty's eyes, even if she refused to admit they were there. "So what? You're just going to run away, to a job Henry gave you? You know that won’t last. He doesn’t love you, not the way Daniel does." She touches her friend’s hand gently and says, "You need to stop this being in denial. You love him too. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be crying over the prospect of leaving him." Betty frowned as she took the last of her things, and looked at Christina as she turned around. "You can’t tell him. You can’t tell him anything." With that, she turned around and walked away. It wasn’t until she had completely left that Christina had noticed the note on the desk.
*********
Daniel had walked into work that day feeling a little better. He had decided that once again Alexis was right. He'd have to prove to Betty that he loved her, but there was no way he could have been prepared for what he had seen when he got there. Betty's desk was completely empty. He looked towards Amanda and said, "Do you know where Betty is?" His voice filled with fear. Amanda didn’t end her phone conversation and said bluntly, "She quit. She left you a note." Daniel felt his whole world crumble around him. He read the note with tears in his eyes. He was going to win her back if it was the last thing he did. He found the nearest taxi and went to the Suarez home, hoping he'd catch her somehow.

Daniel had reached the home and knocked on the door, acting like a stricken lovesick fool as he banged. "Betty, please let me in, please! We need to talk!" The door slowly opened, but it wasn’t who he had expected, and that just made his heart sink more. Hilda stood there on the porch, looking at him. She frowned, wishing she didn’t have to be the one to tell him. "Betty's not here. She's at the airport. She's going to Tucson." She saw the hurt look in his eyes, and remembered how she felt when Santos died. She smiled faintly, "There’s still time if you hurry. Here’s the flight number." She jotted it down and handed it to Daniel. She watched as he turned around and found another taxi as fast as he could.
***************
Daniel had finally reached the airport, and he frowned when he got near the boarding station, noticing it was nearly empty and they were calling the final boarding calls. He ran through the halls as fast as he could, tears streaming from his eyes. He didn’t care that he looked vulnerable and very UN-man- like. He couldn’t lose the woman he loved. Not to him, a man who didn’t love her. He screamed as he ran, "Please Betty, don’t get on that plane! Please!" He said, pleading as he ran. He noticed how she turned around, and his heart skipped a beat.

Betty turned around to see him. There were tears in her eyes and a faint smile on her face. As her heart was rushing rapidly, she realized she couldn’t fight it anymore. She loved him, and she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to be his. She bit a lip as she said softly, "Daniel," she choked back a tear as she said, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t."
Daniel looked at her as he moved some of her hair away from her glasses. "Because I love you. I love you damn it! I know you don’t believe me, but I do. I'm miserable without you." He smirked a little and added, "Just ask Becks." She smiled faintly, but let him continue with his speech. He touched her hands gently and looked in her eyes. "You're the only one I think about. When I'm with you, my heart skips a beat. I can’t think straight. It takes all I have in me not to just ravish you. When I'm not with you, I want to be." As he was finishing his words, he got down on one knee, pulling out a ring he had bought somewhere between kissing her a few nights ago at her back door step and this very moment in a not so crowded airport. As he got the ring out, he gazed into her eyes and held her hand. "I want to spend the rest of my life being with you, so, Betty Suarez, will you marry me?" Betty looked into his big blue eyes, full of sincerity and love for her. She smiled. He was all she ever wanted, even if it took her forever to realize it. She could faintly hear oohs and awws but she didn’t really pay attention. She also didn’t notice as the gates were closing and the plane was pulling away. She simply gazed into Daniel Meade’s eyes and said, "Yes, yes I'll marry you." She wiped a lone tear as she watched him get up. She kissed him passionately, and then grinned as he slowly slipped the ring on her hand. To no surprise, it fit perfectly.

Well, as you can see from the entry title, I had a pretty boring-ass Christmas Eve. All I did today was post on FanForum, Myspace, and LiveJournal from 11:00a.m. til right now, which is almost 12 HOURS! This just goes to show that I have absolutely no life. At all. I'm not insulting anyone who also posts this much on these websites, I'm just saying that about me. But yeah. I've had better days.

HOMEWORK WATCH:

Once again, NOTHING. Is that really a surprise to anyone? Christmas goal: FAILED.

GIFT WATCH:

I opened three gifts tonight as a part of my family tradition. Here they are:

1.) Zip-up hoodie with my personal trainer's logo on it (TOTALLY HOT!)
2.) $15.00 Claire's gift card
3.) PENGUIN JOE BOXER JAMIES! (I'm wearing them now!)

And hopefully tomorrow I will be gettting my HOT DIGITAL CAMERA!

Well, this is pretty much all that happened today. I PROMISE I will have a longer post tomorrow. Okay, maybe the next day. Look forward to it, it'll be a biggun!

Today was Christmas Gift Wrapping Part II. Woo. So much fun. Once more my wrapping skills were dissed. My mom actually had the nerve to unwrap three of the gifts that I wrapped and then re-wrap them herself! I was like WTF?!?!!? That got my blood boiling! Luckily I didn't lose my temper on her like I did last time and get grounded like I did last time. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this right now. So I took my anger out by throwing snowballs at my house. I know, doesn't it sound so devious? But it worked, so I'm okay now.

HOMEWORK WATCH!!!

Here is what I have left to do:

ALL OF IT!!

Yup, thats right! I didn't do ANY of it yet! I've been too busy wrapping gifts and posting on here to even bother with it. Wish me luck!

On a good note, my uncle just gave me three tickets to the Buffalo Bills football game! They're section one seats at the 40 YARD LINE! He is a season pass owner, so its only natural that when he can't go to a game, I'm the first person he considers giving them to. I'm so excited! I will be sure to post details of the game on here tomorrow for sure!

On a bad note, the Buffalo Bills, my hometown team, have been absolutely TERRIBLE lately! They lost 56-14 like a month ago! They were in the Super Bowls of '91-'94, and they freaking LOST all of them! Oh well. I believe there is still hope for them yet. If I didn't, my mom would kick my ass for sure. She is one of the BIGGEST Bills fans I know! Unlike me. So I am forced to hide my hatred of them from her. It's kinda hard, but I get by.

Well, I best be off to bed now! I have to get up SO early tomorrow in order to get to the game on time. The parking situations can be quite horrendous! Like I said, I will post again tomorrow with game details and homework updates!

I am SO excited that my winter break is finally here! Today was my first day off and I am loving it! I've been on the computer all day on fanforum and myspace. I also created my LJ account, which is still in the making. I've yet to figure out how to get a layout on here without it looking all weird. I dunno I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Today I also helped my mom wrap some Christmas presents, which was a total BORE. First of all, she won't let me wrap my own presents. Second of all, she ALWAYS criticizes my gift wrapping skills! It is the MOST annoying thing in the world! And I'm actually a good wrapper too! I mean seriously, you should see my wrapped gifts compared to hers. You would definitely see where I'm coming from.

Other than that, today was sort of blah for me.

Oh and just look at this RIDICULOUSLY long list of homework I have to do over winter break. I swear my teachers either need to take a chill pill or go to hell either way they'll be out of my hair:

1. Math A/B Honors: take-home test (its freakin' 7 pages long and 53 QUESTIONS!)
2. Living Environment (Regents Level): Make a brochure on an infectious or viral disease (not genetic- this project is yet to come)
3. English 9 Honors: Make two collages- one of who you want to be in 25 years and the other of what you want to do in 25 years (do these  just happen to sound like the exact same questions?!?)
4. Global History and Geography AP (College Level): Write a DBQ essy using ALL 8 DOCUMENTS!!!! (I swear this bitch is crazy!)