This takes place after Chapter 17 of Evolution of a Friendship...before the epilogue.

Thanks to Vaniah for the inspiration to do this "fill in the blank" episode.

When her alarm sounded, Betty's small hand crept out from under the cozy duvet and she pushed the snooze button. Relaxing, she allowed herself the pleasure of a few more minutes of slumber. That is, until her semi-conscious mind processed the reason for the alarm in the first place. Her heart leapt and she sat up throwing the covers off. She flicked on the lamp beside the bed.

"We're going home today!" She softly squealed in a voice half squeak, half whisper.

Unable to contain her enthusiasm, she pounced on the Daniel-shaped lump of covers sleeping next to her. Unfortunately, Daniel was sleeping on the very edge of the mattress so Betty's small but mighty leap on top of him sent both of them, a couple of pillows and the duvet crashing with a loud and painful thud to the floor – Daniel on the bottom, Betty sprawled on top.

"Owww." Betty could only hear a soft moan from underneath all the linens.

"Oh…Daniel…" She rummaged around in the bedding until she found his face. "I'm so sorry. I'm just so excited to be going home. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I think so…I mostly landed on a pillow. That's an interesting way to wake someone."

When she realized he was fine she started laughing hysterically at what she'd just done, burying her face in the duvet on his chest to try to stifle it a little. Once she'd collected herself, she gave him a haphazard peck on the check before pulling herself up.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Daniel grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her and started kissing whatever available skin there was. "You're going to jump me like that and all I get is that meager kiss?"

She gave him a look and tried, unsuccessfully, to extricate herself from the bundle on the floor. Daniel was having none of it – he held her firm.

"Daniel…we have a plane to catch."

"The plane can wait…I can't."

"Daniel…seriously. I need to shower and get my stuff together. I arranged for a cab to be here at four thirty." She said. Daniel groaned. A thought occurred to her. "You are ready to go aren't you?"

"Mostly." He said. Betty recognized that look.

"Daniel…I do not want to miss the plane." She warned him sternly.

He let her get up. He was a little wounded – Betty almost never turned him down. Obviously her head was somewhere else and there wasn't any amount of cajoling or coaxing that was going to get him what he wanted this morning – and it wasn't an early morning flight to the United States. It's not that he didn't want to go…he just wasn't quite as enthusiastic as Betty about it. Granted a kid going to Disney World for the first time wasn't as excited as Betty was today. He sat up and rubbed his head. Come to think of it, it had kind of hurt when he hit the floor. He got up and threw the linens on the bed in a big crumpled mess. Betty would hate it, but frankly he needed to gather a few more things together and based on what she just said - and the way she said it – she would hate missing the plane far more.

Betty had spent the night at Daniel's house. She had said it was easier: one cab, one pickup and straight to the airport. Truthfully though, she thought Daniel was likely to over sleep if she wasn't there to make sure he got up on time. He wasn't good with early mornings, particularly extremely early mornings like this one. Of course, she didn't tell him that. And really, it wasn't like she even had to convince him she should stay over - Daniel always wanted her there and she'd been sleeping there more and more lately.

There was absolutely nothing festive about the Heathrow Airport at all, unless you count the little girl with the reindeer headband and flashing Rudolph necklace. In fact no one would have even suspected the holidays were just around the corner if it weren't for the people that were bustling around trying to catch their flights. It's was amazing how busy the airport could be three days before Christmas even if it was only five in the morning.

Daniel and Betty had arrived, as required, two hours before their scheduled flight. Betty wanted to make sure they didn't have to rush. She hated rushing at the airport. It flustered her and made her uncomfortable for the entire trip.

Daniel was not in good humour. For one thing he hadn't yet had a coffee. For another, his head and his ego were kind of bruised from that sudden, unexpected and obviously unfruitful pounce from Betty this morning. And for a third, it was a horrific time in the morning to be anywhere, let alone at the airport with all the craziness of holiday travel. Daniel had originally suggested they take a later flight…after all there were at least five a day to New York at this time of year. But Betty couldn't be convinced. A later flight was more expensive and she needed to save money where she could. Never mind that when Meade stocks were up, Daniel could have bought a couple 747s or at least a few Airbuses. Betty had insisted she pay her own way…it was one of her things. So here he was, with her, at this ungodly hour. He had been tempted to take one of the later flights himself anyway, but thought better of it. This was their first trip home together. It would look really bad, particularly to Betty's family, if they came home separately. Besides, he knew that later in the morning when the fuzz of sleep deprivation wore off he would be glad to have Betty beside him for the seven hour flight.

"I hate the endless waiting. Why on earth do we need to get here two hours before the flight? It's not like we're driving the plane." He complained. He knew he was being childish and pouty but he couldn't stop himself.

Betty cocked her head to the side and smiled at him. She could tell he was grumpy.

"I think we need coffee." She suggested.

That was the first sensible thing that he'd heard that day.

Betty went over to the coffee shop and ordered two coffees. She walked back to where Daniel was sitting with the carry-ons and handed him his cup. He smiled a half smile up at her.

"Let's just relax, have our coffee and read a little bit." She suggested trying to appease him.

"Read?" He said, like it was a foreign concept.

"Yes…you did think to bring a book didn't you?" Betty was surprised.

"I wasn't thinking much of anything, when I got up this morning, except that I wanted more sleep." He said.

Betty smirked and shook her head at him. "Let's get you a magazine." She suggested. She walked over to the magazine stand. "Hey…how about the Christmas issue of Mode?" She waved it at him.

He smiled and nodded. It might be a little interesting to see the kind of issue Wilhelmena came up with on her own. He'd been completely out of the Mode loop for the past few months.

She brought it back over and handed it to him as she sat down beside him. He took it and sighed heavily.

Leaning in and bumping her shoulder playfully against him she said "Come on grumpy…snap out of it. We're going home. Aren't you even a little bit excited?"

"I'm happy to be going back to New York with you Betty. And I'm looking forward to seeing my mom." He said honestly. He added "But I'm not too thrilled about he Norman Rockwell Christmas my mother has planned." He was referring to Claire's attempt at having all her children together under one roof.

Betty smiled at him and for a brief moment he almost forgot his bad mood – she had effect on him.

"It'll be ok." She encouraged. "First of all…it's about time you got to know Tyler…for real…no alcohol involved. Second, you said that Alexis hasn't been so bad the past few times you've talked to her."

"Talking to her on the phone for a few minutes and spending Christmas holidays with her are two completely different things. I just hope I can survive it."

"Well, I'm completely jazzed to be going home. I miss everyone so much." Betty stated; a big smile spread across her face.