When they arrived at his apartment Betty asked if she could use the bathroom and locked herself in. Daniel removed his coat, his eyes trained on the door in question, before walking over to the counter and preparing some coffee for both of them. In the corner of his eye he saw the red light blinking on his answer machine. It had been doing that for days, but he had not bothered checking the messages. Now he had no choice as his mother had apparently known that Betty was coming to New York and he did not doubt for a second that she would have left a message for him about it. However, he did not like the idea of going through all of those messages while Betty was nearby. He had to wait.

The thought of Betty made his eyes wander to the bathroom door again. What was taking so long? Frowning slightly he walked over and knocked on the wood with his knuckles.

"Betty?" he asked. "Is everything alright in there?"

"Yeah", came her reply. Was it just his imagination or was her voice sounding strangled? As if she had been crying?

"I've made coffee", he said, forcing himself not to pry. "Do you want me to run down and buy us something to eat as well?"

"No, that's fine", Betty replied. "I'll be right out."

Daniel nodded, then realized that she could not actually see him do it. However there was no word he could come up with that would suffice in this situation. At least not one he could come up with; Betty might have, but he could not. So instead he walked back to the counter and poured the coffee into two of the few clean cups. He sent an angry glare towards the pile of dirty glasses and cups in the sink, then realized that it existed because of him.

Right then Betty walked out from the bathroom and smiled at him. Not one of her old smiles, those that had brightened his day for four years more than he had ever admitted to her, but a smile that seemed force. Yep, something was definitely off.

"Sit down", he quickly said, gesturing towards the couch. "I'll bring the coffee."

"Daniel..."

"You spent years bringing me coffee, it's only right that I return the favour", he pointed out, which earned him a quick smile of the old, true kind before Betty turned away and walked towards the piece of furniture he had gestured at. However that smile had caused hope to flutter in Daniel's mind; he could get through to her, he could help her and he would. There was no way Betty would have changed so much in these few months that she had shed her beautiful colours.

"Here we go", he said and placed the cups on the table in front of the couch. "Here's to you being back in New York."

"Here's to Christmas", Betty replied with a strained smile, before raising the cup to her lips. Daniel watched as her eyes closed at the taste of coffee and told himself – for who knew what time – that he had done the right thing to buy himself a coffee brewer and bean grinder so that he could make coffee himself, the way he liked it. Betty seemed to enjoy it immensely as well.

"So", Betty said as she put the cup down, not meeting his gaze, "you still live here."

"Yeah", Daniel replied. "I mean, I've been looking at some other places, but... nothing's been quite right."

In fact most of those places had been located in London, but Betty did not need to know that. He had already acted stalker-y when they had met again in the British capital and rekindled their friendship; there was no need to repeat that event.

"What about you, then?" he asked. "Still live in the same place?"

"Yeah", Betty replied. Daniel's heart leapt again; if she still lived in the small apartment he had visited a few times during his stay in London that meant she and Nathaniel Whatshisname had not moved in together.

"Daniel", Betty said, drawing him back, "I'm sorry for not calling. Or texting. Or e-mailing. But..."

"It's alright", Daniel quickly interrupted.

"No, it's not", Betty answered. "It was just that I needed to focus on the magazine and make sure we got the sales up and..."

She fell silent, her hands clutching the cup of coffee. Daniel set his own one down on the table.

"Betty", he said, "it's alright, I promise."

"Don't lie to me, Daniel", Betty said, shaking her head. "Your mother told me what had happened."

"What, exactly?"

"That you'd... gone back", she replied. "Drinking, partying..."

"Betty", Daniel sighed, "I didn't... go back that much. I didn't become who I was before I met you. Yes, I've been out a lot lately, but... I guess I'm getting old."

Betty's head shot up.

"Old? Daniel, you're not old."

"Past thirty-five is apparently enough to keep me from staying up all night", Daniel replied with a smirk, "or drinking until I don't know what I'm doing. I still get a hangover every time, though."

Betty huffed, though the worry that had been shining out of her eyes was still present. Obviously his mother had scared her with her talk of what he was doing.

"Betty", he said and reached out, taking one of her hands in his, "I'm fine. Really."

She did not reply, though her gaze flickered down to their joined hands for a moment before she pulled free.

"Well, then", she said and rose, "I should be off."

"I'll call the car for you", Daniel said and rose as well.

"No, no, I'll take a cab."

"I insist."

Betty paused, studied him for a few moments and then slowly nodded.

"Alright."

"How come you're not staying at your father's?" Daniel asked. "He's not unwell, is he?"

"No", Betty quickly replied, "no, he's fine. I just didn't want to settle in there and then have to leave tomorrow again."

Daniel nearly dropped his phone.

"You're leaving tomorrow?"

"Daniel", Betty said, placing her hands on her hips, "your mum told me she'd told you this."

"Well, she might've", Daniel said, then nodded at the answering machine, "but I've been too busy to check my messages."

"Really, Daniel? That's a terrible excuse."

With that she walked over to the machine in question and pressed the button that would allow them to listen to the messages.

"You have twenty-eight new messages", came the mechanical voice.

"Twenty-eight?" Betty said, spinning around to face him. "Please tell me we won't have to shuffle through a bunch of..."

"Hey Danny-boy!"

It was Becks' voice.

"Just wanted to check where you went last night. You know, I'm perfectly fine handling two girls, but Shauna missed your company."

Daniel quickly walked over to the machine and pressed the forward button to skip through to his mother's messages. Thank God her name would show up on the display if there was a message from her somewhere on this thing!

"Daniel, it's me", came Claire Meade's voice after several uncomfortable seconds of shuffling through messages from Becks and unrecognizable numbers. "I thought you should know that I've invited Betty's family to spend Christmas with us in Aspen. Betty will be there too; I've arranged for her to fly home on the twenty-second. I will go to Aspen a day before that so I would be very grateful if you could make sure that Betty is brought from the airport to her hotel. The Suarez' will be travelling with me."

There was a pause before Daniel's mother continued.

"I hope you'll be able to see some sense when you get these news, Daniel. I really do."

Then the message ended with Claire stating the time when Betty's flight would arrive at Newark Airport; a couple of hours ago.

"Oh my God", Daniel said and slumped down in a chair. "Betty, I'm so sorry. I should have checked those messages days ago, but..."

"But what, Daniel?" Betty asked, her tone bitter. "Been too busy hanging out with Becks and girls like this Shauna-person who missed your company?"

"Betty, I..."

"Danny!"

It was Becks' voice again, though this time it sounded a lot more slurry than it had in the earlier message they had listened to. Daniel moved to shut the answering machine off when Becks continued.

"Listen", his old friend slurred, "I just want you to know that I love that you've found your soulmate, alright? Like, that's a fairytale, Danny! Why are you even here now, dude? Get a horse and ride to her door, haul her off and marry her. Christ, lucky Danny. Lucky Danny!"

"Jeez", Daniel muttered and reached for the machine again.

"Who is she?" Betty asked before he was able to press the delete button.

"Who?"

"Your soulmate", Betty replied, her voice calm. That was not a typical Betty-voice.

"Betty, I don't know..."

"Danny and Betty sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!"