A/N: Here's one more chapter,I think its my longest one for this week,there's a bit of drama in this one,enjoy.
-Pessi. Rom
Thanks To : UzuNamikaze, AMM,TMadison, AndromedaAiken and ptime for reviewing the previous chapter, I appreciate your reviews , I hope you enjoy the new chapter.
Special thanks to : Windfall,who's idea a couple of chapters back sorta plays a integral part in this chapter,that combined with a few details from a scene from the final season,I hope you enjoy what I've done with the idea.
Chapter Six: Suits and Ties
"Crap, I'm gonna be late!" Betty said abruptly waking up and seeing the time, on the clock on the wall.
"Huh, what!" Daniel said, having been shocked awake by Betty's yell.
"I only meant to close my eye's for a second, I'm gonna be late for work!" Betty said scrambling to her feet and searching for her shoes. Which she kicked off,when they'd started playing board games.
"Sorry, I meant to wake you, but I fell asleep too." Daniel said rubbing the sleep from his eye's.
"It's ok...I need to find my phone and my purse." Betty said looking around frantically.
"They're right here." Daniel said handing her, her purse and phone, which were resting on the floor in front of the couch.
"Thanks! Gotta go, we'll talk later, call me if you need anything." Betty said then rushed out of the apartment before Daniel could reply.
He smiled to himself, Betty was always willing to be there for him, even when she had her own stuff going on. It was one of the things that had made her such a great assistant, and now, a great friend.
He realized that he had really taken her for granted. He decided that, starting now, he would change that. By showing her how much he appreciated her, and being there for her, like she'd always been there for him.
He was shaken from his thoughts by a knock on his door. He walked over to the door and looked through the peephole, but there was no one there. He cautiously opened the door, stepped out, looked both ways and saw no one. He was about to go back into the apartment and close the door, but he spotted a white envelope in his peripheral vision.
He spotted his name written in the familiar handwriting, and he immediately knew it was another letter from Molly. He picked up the envelope then walked back into the apartment closing the door after he entered. He took a seat on the couch,grabbed a letter opener and opened the envelope. Inside was a white card, he pulled it out and read Molly's message to him.
Daniel, here is your second task. I want you to go back to work. You're probably thinking its too soon after my death. But I want you to know that it's not,and going back to work will be good for you. I don't want you sitting around our place moping and wallowing over my death. Going back to work will give you something to focus on. I know how much your job at MODE means to you,it'll keep you grounded now that I'm gone. I also know you wouldn't want Wilhelmina Slater,or Cal Hartley to mess with a company your father worked to build, and one that you've worked hard in, these past few years. So change out of that shirt and sweats,shave your beard, put on a suit and tie , and go back to work. Do this , not just for me, but for yourself.
-Molly
P.S. That means today,not tomorrow, today! Remember to take a deep breath,and remember I'll always love you.
Daniel put down the card and took a deep breath. Part of him knew she was right,but part of him worried that he wasn't ready. He guessed the only way to tell which was right was to adhere to Molly's requests.
He got up out of his seat and headed to the bathroom. He found a bottle of shaving cream and retrieved his electric shaver out from under the sink cabinet. Wetting his beard, he sprayed the shaving cream into his hand and lathered it onto his facial hair. Once it was applied everywhere he turned on the shaver and started to remove the overgrown hair.
A few minutes later he rinsed his face, then got into the shower. After showering he wrapped his lower torso in a towel then headed over to the closet. He sighed looking inside, saddened at the fact that the once full closet now only contained a couple of his shirts, pants, and suits,with her clothes gone.
He made a note to himself that he should move the rest of his clothes ,and other belongings he hadn't had a chance to move,after they'd gotten married. He grabbed a suit jacket and pants, as well as a dress shirt, and placed it on the bed. He then walked over to the dresser and pulled a tie and undergarments out.
He changed, then called his town car, which hadn't been too far. The car arrived fifteen minutes later, and he made his way downstairs. He was tempted to take a swig from the alcoholic beverage chilling in the small cooler, but thought it was best to arrive back to work sober, even if he was the boss.
"Late again, Suarez tsk, tsk, maybe they should have given the job to someone else. And weren't you wearing that same outfit yesterday, I can't tell the difference because they're all equally hideous." Mark said in passing as Betty got off the elevator.
Ever since Betty had been chosen for the features editor job, over Mark. Mark had been a total pain in her side. He cracked jokes and made remarks about Betty ten times more,then he usual did. His remarks were snide and ruthless. He'd even tripped Betty in the hall once, then he'd stood there pointing and laughing at her,drawing attention to anyone within hearing distance.
If that wasn't bad enough,Matt hadn't been the easiest to work with either. She had been really excited about getting the features job until she'd showed up to work, the day after Molly's funeral. She hadn't officially started her new position till then,because she had been busy helping Daniel plan the funeral.
Matt had basically ignored her the first day. He refused to call on her,and it was blatantly apparent that he had an issue with her. His father was now part owner of MODE, and Wilhelmina had never been, and would never be on her side, so she had no one to turn to about her treatment.
She couldn't tell Claire, because she'd surely tell Daniel. She couldn't tell Daniel what was going on, he was dealing with enough on his own,he didn't need to hear about her problems,which couldn't even compare to the pain of losing a spouse.
She shrugged off Mark's comment and headed toward the conference room,where a staff meeting was being held. A staff meeting she was unfortunately late for. She walked in and took her seat.
"Nice of you to grace us with your presence, Suarez" Wilhelmina said in that tone of hers.
"Sorry I'm late." Betty said,even though she knew her apology would fall on deaf ears. In fact Wilhelmina just ignored her and continued on talking.
"Ok,now that we've discussed the theme, lets start with features, what have you got?" Wilhelmina asked.
"Um,well we agreed on some sort of nature feature maybe around one of our state parks." Matt said.
"Boring,what else. Betty?" Wilhelmina asked knowing Betty probably wouldn't know what to say since she'd arrived late.
" Well, I was thinking maybe focusing on a particular activist,or a actor who is involved with a particular organization involved in keeping green, and awareness of protecting the environment." Betty said.
"Not,bad,next time be more specific and actually be in agreement obviously, you're not organized at all, who's next, how about photography."
"Well..." The photo editor began,but Betty tuned her out. She couldn't concentrate,because she could feel Matt glaring at her. She hadn't meant to make him look bad in front of Wilhelmina,but it wasn't her fault that he hadn't exactly been keeping her in the loop. She'd only been able to publish one features article,and that was only because hers was the best idea and Wilhelmina had overruled Matt.
"I'm done, clearly this was a waste of time,get your act together people. Come along Mark." Wilhelmina said then sauntered out of the room,Mark throwing a glare at Betty before following Wilhelmina out of the room.
Betty got up to go to her office, well her desk, to work further on the idea she had for their "Go Green "edition. Mark walked over to her, with an angry look on his face.
"I don't appreciate you walking in late, and making us all look bad,just because you were too busy doing God knows what yesterday,while the rest of us were working on a pitch." Matt said.
"Excuse me, even if I was here, its not as if you'd even give me a chance to express my ideas. Ever since you were hired you've been acting like a total prick." Betty said finally fed up with the way he'd been treating her, over the past month.
"Like it matters,since you don't even view this job as important enough to show up to work." Matt said.
"Not that it's any of your business, I was helping out a friend." Betty said.
"Oh,you mean Daniel,that's not surprising." Matt said.
"What's that suppose to mean." Betty said not liking his tone of voice.
"You were going around kissing your ex-boyfriend when we were together, I wouldn't be surprised if you were sleeping around with your ex-boss too. How else would you have gotten that promotion." Matt said.
"What did you just say to her!" Daniel said angrily, suddenly appearing.
"If it isn't the player himself, probably used your dead wife to make Betty..." Matt started to say but before he could finish he was on the ground holding his eye.
Five minutes Earlier
Daniel made his way to the elevator, he got on and waited as it ascended to the floor that housed MODE magazine. He took a deep breath then got out. He figured he'd find Betty, and she could fill him in on what he missed in the mornings staff meeting.
" Amanda, do you know where Betty is?" Daniel said when he walked up to the receptionist desk.
"No, hey Amanda how are you doing? Just , where's Betty?" Amanda said pretending to be offended.
"Hi Amanda, how are you doing?" Daniel said in a slightly annoyed tone.
"I'm whatever, and Betty's in the conference room, staff meeting or something. I think its over because I saw everyone else come out except her." Amanda said then went back to not doing work.
"Thanks." Daniel said,suprised she was actually helpful.
He made his way to the conference room, and quickened his pace,when her heard arguing. He heard Betty's voice and the other voice sounded like Matt's voice. Both voices were yelling. He stopped outside the door,deciding it would probably be best not to interfere, but when he heard Matt say a specific set of words, he knew there was no way he could let him talk to his best friend like that.
"Oh,you mean Daniel,that's not surprising." He heard Matt say.
"What's that suppose to mean." He heard Betty say.
"You were going around kissing your ex-boyfriend when we were together, I wouldn't be surprised if you were sleeping around with your ex-boss too. How else would you have gotten that promotion." He heard Matt say, and thats when he decided to step into the room.
"What did you just say to her!" Daniel said angrily, suddenly appearing.
"If it isn't the player himself, probably used your dead wife to make Betty..." Matt started to say but before he could finish he was on the ground holding his eye.
"Matt!" Betty said walking over to him. She tried to see if he was ok,but he pushed her away.
" I guess I was right." Matt said,getting up from the floor, and clearly not knowing when to give up.
"You little bastard!" Daniel said advancing on him.
"Daniel,don't!" Betty said standing in the middle and putting her hand between them , stopping Daniel from hitting Matt again.
"I'm out of here." Matt said leaving the room.
"What the hell was that!" Betty said turning to face Daniel.
"He deserved it, after what he said." Daniel said clearly still angry.
"What are you even doing here?" Betty said confused and still a bit angry herself.
"Because of this..." Daniel said giving her the task card.
"Oh..." Betty said,but she was still a bit mad.
"You mad at me?" Daniel asked seeing she was still a bit tense.
"No..." Betty said not wanting to upset him.
"Betty..." Daniel said knowing when she was lying.
" Ok, maybe I am. You didn't have to do that, I could have handled it by myself. I'm not a little kid Daniel, I can fight my own battles. I'm sure you were trying to help,but you just made it worse. I'll talk to later." Betty said, then walked away needing to calm down.
Daniel walked away and sighed. He was beginning to think maybe it wasn't such a good idea to return to work today. And that his attempt to be there more for Betty, had obviously backfired in his face.
A/n: Thanks for reading hope you liked it,even with the bit of angst there at the end. So I've got a couple possible ideas for what Molly will have him do next,but I'm open to any suggestions, you my lovely readers may have, so feel free to let me know of anything you may want to see or if you have an idea. I may not update for another week as I will be focusing on another of my Detty's "For Better or Worse" next week,but if I get inspired I may update this over the weekend. For those of you not reading "For Better or Worse" yet, it is a sequel story to my fic "Endroit across la rivire" which is a must read before you read "For Better or Worse", Anywho Thanks again for reading, and as always a review/suggestions/construct criticism is greatly appreciated.
-Pessi . Rom
