I don't own any of the characters that appear in his fic.
Daniel was pacing up and down the corridors at Mode. It was almost one o'clock, but he had so much on his mind that he had barely noticed the time passing. Alexis had found out about him and Grace, and now any trace of a relationship he had begun to build with his sister looked likely to disappear. Not only that, but Grace was now refusing to have anything to do with his family, and so his father was still in jail.
"And all this is thanks to one woman," Daniel said aloud to himself, "Wilhemina Slater."
As he walked by the closet, his train of thought was interrupted as he thought he heard a sound. As far as he was aware he was the only one still in the office, so he went to check it out. Amongst all the clothes and shoes he found Christina, sitting on the floor with a dress spread out in front of her, the bodice of which appeared to be made of old copies of 'Mode.'
"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought I was the only one still here," Daniel made his apologies and went to leave, but then realising that there must be a reason why Christina was still there at almost 1 in the morning he stopped and asked "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," she shrugged and quickly looked away, not wanting Daniel to see the tears welling up in her eyes. It was too late, however, he had already noticed.
"Hey, come on, you're obviously not fine. What's wrong?" Daniel sat down on the floor next to her, though he made sure he wasn't too close. He didn't know Christina very well and didn't want her to think he was imposing.
Christina just looked at him for a moment. She had heard so many sordid rumours about Daniel Meade that she found it hard to believe Betty when she insisted that he was really a good man, and yet here he was sitting next to her now with a concerned look on his face, asking if she was okay. Perhaps she had misjudged him.
"It's Wilhemina," She answered finally.
"Ah," Daniel sighed knowingly. It seemed that most of the trouble at Mode could somehow be traced back to Wilhemina.
Daniel sat and listened as Christina explained to him what had happened. She told him how she had felt nervous yet excited when she had received the phone call from Sarah Jessica Parker's 'people', how Betty had had to persuade her to take the job, and how she had worked for hours with Mark, trying to create a suitable dress out of what little resources they had.
"I thought it was my big break, you know? It was a chance to be something more than a seamstress. A chance to actually do something with my life." She explained, and then on remembering that she was talking to the man whose magazine she was working for, added, "It's not that I don't like working here, it's just…"
"I understand" Daniel simply nodded; he was thinking the whole thing over. There had to be some way to use this situation to his advantage. Now that it wasn't just himself that Wilhemina had hurt… He could see a plan forming right in front of him. He turned to Christina and took her hand in his.
"At the risk of sounding like a pantomime villain," he began, with a smile on his face for the first time that evening, "How do you like the sound of a bit of revenge?"
Oh so cheesy and a bit short I know, but if I get enough reviews I'll post the next part, in which Daniel and Christina, with a little help from Mark, plot revenge on Wilhemina.