Becoming Nice

By LadyWithLight (a.k.a. Martha)

Summary: A confrontation and an apology. Set after "A League of Their Own." Possible spoilers for "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Disclaimer: I don't own Ugly Betty or any of the characters or plotlines from the show. I'm just borrowing.

Henry rolled his shoulders as he walked down the unfamiliar street, trying to shake some of the tension out. According to his information, his intended destination was only a few blocks more. He would be ready for the confrontation that awaited him when he arrived.

He knew that he really should have asked Betty before taking such a drastic measure, but his strong chivalric tendencies surfaced. He wanted nothing more than to defend his lady's honor, even if she never found out about it. He wished that he was in a position to slay all her dragons, but at the moment, he was a part of one of the biggest dragons in her life, along with his ex-girlfriend and unborn child.

In retrospect, it had been remarkably easy to find the location of the man he wanted to talk to. He'd found the name on Betty's computer, quite by accident really. After that, he could hardly be expected to let it go. With just a few clicks on the internet, his address, phone number, e-mail and a plethora of details about his fairly mundane life were at Henry's disposal. Most people would be both amazed and horrified at how much personal information was readily available about them on the internet to anyone with the research skills and motivation to look.

And so here he was, about to confront the man who had hurt her.

Closing his eyes, Henry took a deep breath and released it slowly, making sure to keep his anger in check. He opened his eyes and He reached up to knock sharply two times on the door in front of him.

The door opened, revealing just the man he wanted to see. "Can I help you?" the man asked.

"Are you Steve?" Henry asked.

"Yeah, who are you?"

"I'm a friend of Betty Suarez," he said.

"Betty…the girl from the other night?" Steve wondered. "Did she send you over here? That girl was—"

"Don't say it!" Henry raised his voice, just a little of his latent anger bleeding through. "No, she didn't send me here. She doesn't know I'm here, and I would actually prefer it if she didn't find out."

"Then, what are you doing here?"

"I want you to apologize to Betty," Henry said. "She didn't deserve what you did to her. At the very least, you could have told her yourself that you were leaving. It's ungentlemanly and rude to walk out on a date with a woman, even if that woman is not quite what you expected."

"She misrepresented herself! Her screen name was 'CuteInQueens,'"

"She is cute. She's one of the most beautiful people I know. And I'd say you misrepresented yourself quite a bit too, 'NiceGuy,'" Henry said. "A nice guy would not run out on a date like that and leave the girl to wonder where you went. If I hadn't gone over and told her that you left, she might have just sat for a long time waiting for you to come back. She would have been humiliated in front of everyone there. It's not right to do that to someone. She gets enough of that kind of treatment from the fashionistas, glamazons, models and drama queens she works with. She doesn't deserve it then, and she certainly doesn't deserve it when she goes on a date with a guy who asked her out, trying to pass himself off as a nice guy."

"I am a nice guy."

"It doesn't look that way to me."

"Why does it matter so much to you if I apologize?"

"You didn't see the look on her face when she realized that you'd left her," Henry said. "I'd do anything to take pain like that away from her. She's a wonderful woman, and she doesn't deserve to be treated like a troll."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

"Don't tell me, tell her."

Nestled in the back of a coffee shop in the Bronx, far away from the Meade building and her family's house in Queens, Betty and Henry sat at a small table sharing dessert and enjoying a secret rendezvous. "So, you'll never guess who e-mailed me this morning," Betty said casually.

"Maya Angelou?"

"No, although, that would really have been a more exciting e-mail," Betty said, smiling up at him. "Think male, someone we've both met and not a celebrity."

"Daniel?" Henry guessed.

"No," Betty stated. "Someone who e-mails me every day does not count in this conversation."

"Okay, I give up. Who was it, then?" Henry asked, hoping to hear that his visit had been a success.

"Steve," she said. "The guy from the other night. The yellow shirt wearing bowling ditch out guy."

"Really?" Henry said casually. "How is the pet bird?"

Betty smiled at the continued ruse.

"What did he have to say?" Henry asked.

"Just apologizing for the other night," she said.

"What reason did he give?"

"He didn't really give one. I'll just assume that it's the reason I thought it was. Besides, he wasn't apologizing for his reasons, just for the method of delivery. It's okay, I only felt bad for a little while. You were there to pick me back up."

"Still, I'm glad he apologized. Shouldn't go around calling yourself a nice guy and then acting like that."

"Wait. How did you know his name was niceguy?"

"Well, I, that is, you see…"

"You went to see him didn't you?" Betty demanded, a bit of the Latin temper showing through in her tone.

Henry did not reply verbally, but his face confessed his guilt. He steeled himself, ready to receive her anger. It did not come.

"Thank you," she said. "You're the real 'nice guy.'"

She leaned over and kissed him.