Well, gentle readers, I've had a blast writing this fic, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it! I'm wrapping this particular story up, but never fear, there shall be a sequel…if you want. Deep, sincere thanks to all my reviewers and readers…you're the reason I write.

Epilogue: Or Something

The mood on the flight back to New York was noticeably more subdued than the embarking journey. It was the usual suspects, the Mode crew, minus the witty repartee, Beck's drunken flirting (he was currently passed out with his proclaimed future trophy wife on his lap), and one fiancé by the name of Vincent Bianchi.

Marc and Amanda sat in silence for once, Marc gazing out the window and Amanda clutching Halston to her breast with as close to a pensive look on her face as she was ever likely to be caught dead with. She glanced up and met Betty's eyes, and of course Marc turned as well. Betty winced, preparing herself for smirks that never came, as their eyes took in Betty and Daniel obvious new-couple-y status. Instead, there was something other than revulsion there, which Betty found oddly touching. Not approval, no, not by a long shot, but she couldn't help but feel she and Daniel had allies in the most unlikely places. And she and Daniel were going to need all the allies they could get if they were ever going to make this thing work. What are frenemies for? Thanks Marc and Mandy, she thought.

Daniel and Betty's plot to unleash the critters on Marc and Amanda turned out to be more satisfying in the conception/contemplation than in actual execution. By the time they'd sneaked into Marc and Amanda's cabin window, they were so wrapped up in each other that the best Daniel could manage was to halfheartedly sling the lizard somewhere in Amanda's general direction and not down her blouse, as was the original plan. Betty just released the skunk back into the wild altogether. She couldn't conjure up much of her previous roiling fury at the two, since their tasteless prank was responsible for her getting an eyeful of Naked!Daniel and ultimately their newfound Detty-ness. Or Baniel-ness? Oh, whatever. We haven't even had sex yet, and I'm already thinking up cutesy ways to combine our names. Might as well say "Betty Meade." Or "Betty Suarez-Meade." Ooh, that has potential…

Betty turned to Daniel to have a good drool/stare at him while he slept, his face squished against the window and leaving a ghastly smudge. His hair had long since lost its trademark meticulous, deliberate bed-head look and was now just plain tousled. Betty reached up to smooth it.

Daniel captured her hand, kissed it, and without opening his eyes, mumbled, "Betty, is there any particular reason you're staring at me?"

"Is there any particular reason why I wouldn't want to stare at you as much as I can?" Betty teased back.

"Well, no," he said with his patented brand of endearing conceit. He opened his eyes, the eyes of his father, but so much more alive. How can there be so much warmth in such an icy blue color? Betty marveled. She was suddenly taken back to that night on the bridge, their bridge, and a conversation:

"Like a blizzard."

"What do you mean?"

"You know…when the city stops and everything just…sparkles."

And Daniel's resulting look…not just any old look but a LOOK, that'd made her weak in the knees even then.

They were interrupted from their reverie by the pilot's gung-ho announcement. "Mr. Meade, we're approaching the Meade Publications building if you'd like to look out your window to your right. I'm radioing the airport for permission to land. This shouldn't take long."

"Just bring her in whenever, Eric," Bradford said in his formal, austere, dismissive way. He didn't need to look…he already knew the full-scale majesty of his publishing empire, what he'd built.

Betty, however, leaned over Daniel and peered out the window to see the Meade logo, perched on the top of the building like a space-age gargoyle, shiny, silver, and confidently rotating, with hints of sharp cruelty but redeeming hints of promise, seemingly just like they left it, but somehow not.

Betty shook her head and smiled. Goodbye mountains, hello to an even scarier kind of wilderness. Hello, again, Mode… Things are about to get interesting.

The end…for now.

Will Betty and Daniel's newfound love be able to survive the snarky, hellacious goodness of Mode? Who knows?

And, of course, there's always the B/D sex I never got around to. If that's not an excuse for a sequel, I don't know what is.

Please, please tell me what you think overall and/or specifically. Questions, comments, constructive criticism—I can't write better without it. Again, many thanks! Ta for now.