"Aaaaaah!" Betty's scream, through the now open window, awoke Daniel with a horrifying start and the next thing he knew he was being bombarded by stuff animals.

He clutched his chest; his heart was beating so fast he thought it was going to explode. Betty stood in front of him in her jeans and a bright pink summer blouse, the light and fresh style of her outfit completely contrasting the pale look of utter horror on her face. After a moment the terror started to fade and was slowly replaced by confusion.

"Daniel!" she said with dismay as she processed that it was him. "What are you doing here?"

He hopped up immediately. "Oh, hey Betty," he said, trying to sound casual which was virtually impossible with his heart pounding as hard as it was. "Nice morning, huh?"

She looked at him equally stunned and bewildered.

"Can I come in?" he asked, feeling incredibly stupid.

"Uh...Sure. Um, do you mind getting those?" She pointed to the stuffed animals lying on the fire escape.

He bent down and picked them up. "Interesting security plan but you might want to stitch some bricks inside them if you want them to have any real affect in intruders." He handed the fuzzy animals to her before she moved aside so he could climb in.

"You scared the hell out of me. You should be grateful I don't own a weapon," she replied in disbelief with an undercurrent of annoyance, as she replaced the animals on the window ledge. "And now, thanks to you, I will never feel safe in my apartment again because apparently you can climb up my fire escape."

"Not easily, believe me. But you should tell the super to move the dumpster a little further away from it." He reconsidered that for a moment. "Actually, maybe a lot further away."

"You're, um, bleeding." She pointed to his forehead.

His hand went up and he felt the wound. The blood was mostly dry. "I had a little…mishap." He gestured to the fire escape and she nodded.

"Let me get a cloth to clean it up." She disappeared for minute and returned with a warm wet washcloth. She directed him to the couch where he sat while she gently started wiping his cut. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. It's not that bad," he assured her. He tried to fill the awkwardness with polite conversation. "So how was your flight?"

She looked at him like he'd lost his mind or like she thought maybe the whack on the head was harder than they both realized. "It was fine."

"Oh." There was more silence while she continued cleaning the injury which was unusual considering this was Betty. Finally Daniel spoke again. "No turbulence?"

She sat back a little and examined his expression as if to assess if that was what he really wanted to talk about. "Okay, so apparently we're talking about my flight. If you must know, there was a lot of turbulence and I barely slept a wink because I was frightened and my mind was racing about…all sorts of things. And then they lost my luggage so I had to fill out a ton of paperwork and leave my phone number and address so they can get it to me when they find it."

Ah, lost luggage - that explained her delay.

"So is that why you're so tense?" he asked, subtly fishing about the proposal. When she gave him another funny look he started back tracking. "It's just…you look a little on edge and you're acting odd."

"Maybe I'm on edge because you were on my freakin' fire escape and scared the crap out of me," she suggested with dismay. "And really Daniel? I'm the one who's acting odd? You were staked out outside my window like some kind of crazy person."

He shifted uncomfortably. "I guess that does seem a little strange."

"Ya think?" She placed the washcloth down on the back of the sofa crossed her arms over her chest looking moderately annoyed with him. "Why are you here?"

He tried to swallow the rock that had apparently taken up residence in his esophagus. Now that he was faced with it, he wasn't sure what he wanted to say. Regardless of whether he would tell her his feelings he needed to know if she'd accepted the proposal.

"Did you say yes?" he asked, searching her face for some clue before the words came.

She looked startled and confused.

"About the proposal," Daniel clarified. "Did you give him an answer? Did you tell Vincent you'd marry him?" His heart started pounding a little faster and the apprehension he was trying to keep at bay was creeping in.

"What?" She was even more confused now.

"Betty, it's killing me. I have to know if you are going to marry him. Wait, no…scrap that. You can't marry him."

Screw the martyr complex; she needed to know the truth before she made such an important life decision. His pulse was racing and he was finding it a little hard to breath. He couldn't sit still so he jumped up and started pacing back and forth across the tiny living room.

"What are you talking about?"

The living room was too short for three strides before he had to turn the other direction but two made him feel stupid - and kind of dizzy going at the fevered pace he was - so he stopped pacing and turned to face her.

"You've dated him a grand total of one month. Marrying him would be stupid. I won't let you do it." He realized his voice was getting high pitched and squeaky but didn't know what to do about it.

She blinked a few times in disbelief before speaking. "You won't let me?"

"Uh…okay, bad choice of words. I mean, you can marry him, obviously, and there is probably very little I could do to stop it. But you need to make this decision with all the facts and right now you don't have them. Listen Betty, marriage is a huge commitment and sure, maybe you feel like this is romantic and Vincent's great but you need to spend time getting to know a person before you commit to something so…permanent."

She was smirking a little.

"What?" This did not, at all, seem like an amusing conversation to him.

"That's rich coming from you. How long did you know Molly before you got married?" she asked pointedly.

"Bad example, there were extenuating circumstances."

"What about Sophia before you were engaged?" Betty asked.

"Another bad example. Look, we're not talking about me, we're talking about you. You and Vincent hardly know each other." He sat down beside her, resisting the urge to take her hand. "Does he even know how you take your coffee, or how about that you like raisins in your bagels and cinnamon rolls but not in your oatmeal cookies?"

"Why does that matter?" she asked, looking confused again.

"It's just symbolic of the fact that you haven't spent nearly enough time together. Does he know that you organize the items in your desk drawer by length first, and then by colour, that you can be unbelievably bossy and hardheaded, or that you're a little anal when it comes to organization and you freak out when someone messes with your 'system'?" He used air quotes around the word. He barely took a breath as he continued. "Or how about that your natural perkiness combined with too much caffeine, or even just too much excitement, creates a totally freakish reaction something akin to Rocky the flying squirrel on amphetamines – does he know that? Does he know that you laugh hysterically at stupid cartoons and sometimes cry during commercials, or that the best way to diffuse your anger is with pictures of cute kittens and bunnies, followed – in close second – by chocolate dip donuts? Does he know that you try to act all independent, liberated and pragmatic but deep down you're a hopeless romantic who believes in fairytales and happy endings; that you love your family passionately, are incredibly loyal, and have a deep rooted fear of change which makes this move to London just about the bravest thing I've ever seen," he swallowed hard. "Does he know all of that about you?"

"I don't know, probably not," she admitted softly.

"Well…he should." Daniel wasn't sure what else to add.

There was a long pause while she looked at him a little bewildered.

Finally she spoke. "I suppose if we were getting married it might be helpful if he knew all that," she admitted and Daniel nodded confident that he'd made his point. "But seeing as we're not it's not really relevant."

"Wait…you're not?"

"No. Why would you think I was going to marry Vincent?" She looked puzzled.

"Uh…because he proposed." It seemed logical to Daniel.

"Where did you hear that?"

"From your Dad. He said that you had to consider Vincent's proposal..."

Her expression of puzzlement slowly changed to mild amusement and then she started laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"Vincent 'proposed' that I work with him on a photojournalism book he wants to do, not that I marry him. He's allowed to choose his own staff and he thinks we'll make a good team."

"Oh. OH!" Daniel couldn't be sure if he felt more relieved or idiotic. Idiotic was pretty high up there. And, for some reason, her reference to being a "good team" with Vincent really stung.

She started to explain a little more. "It would be at least a year long project, with travel all over the world, and I'd have to take a leave of absence from the magazine, if I could get one. I might have to quit. I've just started there and I can't imagine leaving already. Then again, it would be such an incredible experience working on a book."

Daniel nodded agreement but his mind was far from contemplating Betty's new project.

"So you called me..." he started to question.

"Because it was all I could think about and I wanted to talk to you. I've always valued your opinion."

"Except when you were leaving Mode," he reminded her.

She looked wounded and he immediately regretted bringing that up.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that." He changed the subject. "So why didn't you answer my calls?"

"Oh." She was startled by the sudden change in topic. "I didn't have my phone with me when I was out for my walk and then once I got back I started getting ready for the airport and figured I'd just talk to you when I came back. It's not like it's urgent. He's given me a little while to think about it." She changed her tone and the topic. "So what was with that spiel and why are you bossing me around anyway?"

"Uh…" He sat back down sheepishly on the end of the couch. "I was just concerned."

"Concerned?" She tilted her head to the side indicating she didn't believe him. "That's why you were hanging out on my fire escape - for who knows how long - just so you could talk to me?"

"It wasn't that long," he shrugged sheepishly.

"Still. That's a little extreme, don't you think? I have a phone."

"You weren't answering it," he reminded her.

"You could have called tomorrow."

"I couldn't wait until tomorrow. I was feeling a little panicked because of that whole Henry proposing thing and that stalking guy, Wilber or whatever his name was."

"What stocking guy?" Betty asked, completely perplexed. "And Henry…what?"

"It's not important now." He shook his head realizing he wasn't making any sense and not really wanting to explain. "What's important is that you're not marrying Vincent."

There was a long pause while she looked at him, examining his appearance for the first time. "You look awful."

"Thanks. I did shower and change, but then there was that brush with death on your fire escape."

"I don't mean…you know what I mean. Your eyes are bloodshot and you look like you haven't really slept," she said with concern and then she added curiously, "Brush with death?"

"Did you know fire escapes had retractable ladders?"

She nodded and looked like she was trying not to smile.

"And as for the other stuff, I haven't really slept. Well not sleep that didn't involve horrible, vivid nightmares," he admitted.

"Oh."

She didn't ask what the nightmares were about and Daniel didn't volunteer which led to a considerably awkward moment.

Finally Betty spoke to break the tension. "Are you hungry? I'm not sure what I have because I haven't been home for a while—"

"I didn't come for breakfast Betty."

"Oh. Well no, of course, you came to tell me it would be stupid to get engaged."

"I said it would be stupid to get engaged to Vincent because you hardly know him," he corrected. "Actually the real reason I came was to talk to you." He paused for a second to collect his thoughts.

She looked at him, her eyebrows raised expectantly. It was now or never and after what he went through between last night and this morning, it sure as hell wasn't going to be never.

"It's about us," he added slowly.

"Us? What about us?"

"Well…uh…sometimes there are changes in the way people feel about each other…" He looked at her, trying to feel his way through the conversation by gauging her responses.

Her eyes went wider and she looked a little panic stricken. Obviously she'd gotten the message but this could not possibly be a good sign.

She stood up quickly. "Well, even if you don't feel like anything to eat I want something."

Daniel gently grabbed her wrist before she could walk away. "We need to talk Betty and I think you know that. I also think you're afraid so you're going to try and avoid it. I feel like I've just been through the ringer trying to get here to speak to you this morning and so I would like to talk now. But I'm also not in the mood to try and convince you…of anything." He wasn't angry, just frustrated and exhausted.

She didn't answer or sit back down or even turn to face him, so he got up to leave and was almost at the door.

"Daniel wait," she pleaded. "Please don't go."

He stopped and turned around.

She sighed. "Can I make some coffee?"

He nodded.

She busied herself in the kitchen making coffee for a few minutes. He had to hand it to her she was the queen of preoccupation. But at least she was open to having this discussion at some point this morning so he just waited while she worked off whatever nervous energy she needed to.

A few minutes later she came over and handed Daniel a coffee and sat down with her own. She took a sip and stared intently into the mug. Obviously the ball was in his court.

"So…Betty, I have something I need to say." He put his coffee on the side table next to the wall. Then he paused, trying to gather his thoughts, and his courage.

"This is a new roast." she responded nervously, out of nowhere. "It's fair trade - I hate the thought of children picking my coffee beans instead of…"

Her sentence ended abruptly when he gently took the coffee out of her hand and placed it on the side table with his and then he took both of her hands.

"I don't want to talk about the coffee," he said.

She could hardly look at him. Her face was slightly flush with embarrassment and she looked like this conversation was painful for her. "Daniel, I know you want to talk about us and I agree that we should. It's just that everything is so confusing right now with all these things I have to think about. And once we talk about this it's going to change everything. I think right now, today, I just need you to act like everything is normal."

He smiled gently and caressed her hand. "I don't think I can do that," he said softly and she looked distressed with that response.

"Daniel please. I swear I won't act any differently. You can just pretend you don't—"

He gently pressed his lips into hers, silencing her. She almost immediately started kissing him back so warmly and with such meaning that he couldn't imagine that she hadn't been thinking about this at least a little, which filled him with some hope. But when he pulled back slowly he saw apprehension and a little fear, mixed with confusion. It made his heart ache. He lifted his hand up to her soft, warm cheek so he could caress it with his thumb imagining that somehow that would wipe the anxiety away.

"Betty, will you let me say something now? Please?"

She nodded cautiously.

"I don't want to pretend anymore. I've been pretending for too long. I can't sit back and watch you date Vincent and pretend it doesn't kill me inside. I can't stand around and listen to you talk about someone else and pretend I'm not the one who's in love with you."

Her eyes went a little wider but he just kept talking.

"I need to tell you how I feel because not telling you is driving me insane. You have no idea how it felt thinking Vincent proposed and I was helpless to stop it. I almost went crazy trying to get a hold of you on the phone. God Betty, I know you probably don't feel the same way and I'm not even sure you ever could but I can't pretend anymore that I don't want you to. I can't pretend that we're just friends - best friends - because we're not, at least not in my head. I love you. I think about you all of the time. Since I've been in London, all I could think about was getting the chance to tell you how I feel, and the irony is, my responsibility at Mode was the one thing keeping me from you. I would have shunned it altogether except I know it's my chance to prove - to you and to me - that I'm not a screw up anymore, that I can be counted on. That you can count on me. I want you to count on me Betty. I don't want to just be your best friend and your ex-boss any more. I want more than that.

"I have no idea what your reaction to this is going to be and I only hope I haven't wrecked our friendship entirely because the only thing worse than knowing you don't feel the same way would be if I couldn't have you in my life in any capacity at all. But I also know that I can't be silent about it anymore – it's not fair to you and it's really not fair to me."

She stared at him as if she was trying to process things but didn't say anything for several long dazed seconds.

"Betty say something," he pleaded. "Say I'm an idiot for doing this to you when your whole, exciting, new career is in front of you. Say that you know too much about me and you could never feel that way. Say that you appreciate me as a friend and you need some time. Say anything." His mouth was dry now, his heart pounding and his palms sweating from the panic as the weight of his actions sunk in - he'd completely changed the dynamic of their relationship and there was no going back.

She pulled in the corner of her lower lip, slowly contemplating something and then she spoke very quietly.

"I think…I think I love you too."

"I know this was a lot to spring on—" His eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. "Wait…what?"

"I think maybe I love you too," she smiled hesitantly, her eyes filling with tears.

That was not at all what he'd expected to hear. His heart was still pounding but in a good way now. "Betty—" he didn't want her to say it just to appease him or because she felt sorry for him not that he really thought she would.

She blinked back the tears. "I mean it Daniel. Well, I mean at least that I'm not positive but I think maybe I do. I thought you were trying to tell me you saw the crush and I was mortified. I tried to get rid of it and that's why I avoided you and then Vincent came along and he was sweet and romantic and helped me forget – sort of – but I could never really fall for him and I thought it was because I didn't want him to be another Henry. But it wasn't Henry, it was you. And then you were here, in London, and there was Rachel and it hated the idea of it. But it wasn't just Rachel, I hated the idea of you with anyone. But now I know it wasn't a stupid crush at all."

She was completely babbling and half of what she said didn't make sense to Daniel, but he didn't really care. The most important part had come out loud and clear and that was all that mattered to him right now.

Her eyes went wide with another realization. "You weren't interested in Rachel! She said she threw herself at you and you weren't interested." She said it like it was the most astounding, outrageous concept in existence.

He shook his head more relieved than ever that he hadn't listened to that stupid voice of Beck's in his head the other week.

"She thought you were gay," Betty smiled in amusement and then clasped her hand over her mouth while they both laughed. "Obviously she hadn't done her research," Betty said as their laughing subsided.

Suddenly they were quiet, just examining each other. Daniel was trying to absorb that this was finally real.

He gently brushed her hair back behind her shoulder. "I can't believe this. It feels like I've been waiting for this moment forever," he said softly as he bent down, cradling her face in his hands. He tenderly pressed his lips into hers and she placed her hands on his chest.

"I love you so much Betty," he whispered softly.

"I love you too." She leaned against his chest and he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

He held her silently, gently caressing her arm. She shifted a little, so he leaned back into the couch in order that they'd both be more comfortable. He felt her tracing the collar of his shirt with her finger and he lifted his chin a little as he enjoyed the sensation. Then she pressed a tender kiss to his adam's apple. It was probably intended as sweet but somehow this intimacy with her ignited something. He kissed the top of her head, and then her temple, and her cheek. She turned her face up to him and he met her lips urgently. She kissed him back with the same kind of urgency, rubbing her hands over his chest and up around either side of his neck into his hair.

She was breathless when they pulled apart. He brushed the back of his fingers gingerly across her warm, pink cheeks. And her eyes…those eyes were betraying an emotion he'd recognized a thousand times in other women. But they needed to be smart about this. Moving too fast could wreck everything.

His head desperately wanted to keep everything cool but the rest of him wasn't readily listening to his head. He kissed her again and Betty responded earnestly. He reclined back into the corner of the sofa and Betty leaned over him, her hair cascading around their faces, enveloping them in a silky canopy. Her hands snaked around his torso and she pressed their bodies together. She started kissing across his jaw and down his neck. Daniel thought he needed to say something now, before he lost complete control of his logical mind which was happening rapidly.

"Betty…I think…uh…we need to slow down." It was difficult to even process the words let alone say them so he was pretty sure there wasn't any sincerity in his tone.

Almost exactly as the words came out - as if his feet had their own intentions – he slid his shoes off and they landed on the floor with a thud.

Betty turned to look at what had caused the noise and then turned back with the cutest smirk. "It looks like your feet have different ideas."

"I didn't want to put my shoes on your couch." He drew his knees up so he could slip then onto the sofa around behind her and she leaned back down for another kiss.

Her lips still connected to his as if she didn't want them to ever part, she pulled herself up along side of him so she could lie down along the outer edge of the sofa. Daniel pressed his back into the back of the couch so she'd have more room. They were lying on their sides now, face to glorious face examining each other but not saying a word.

He gently pulled her glasses off and reached to put them on the side table. She followed the motion with her eyes but didn't protest. Her face uninhibited now, he tenderly kissed wherever his lips landed. Her face was so soft and warm beneath his lips.

"This is so weird, it's like a dream," she whispered through his kisses.

"A good dream?" he questioned hopefully; he stopped kissing her face long enough to look into her eyes.

"An amazing dream," she breathed out in awe and he smiled. "I thought it was all me. I can't believe you feel the same way."

"Believe it Betty." He leaned in for another kiss that filled him with an ache the moment their lips touched.

She responded with such intensity, his heart raced. She pressed urgent, hungry kisses all along his neck as her hands caressed his chest and then encircled him so she could press their bodies together again.

"You're driving me crazy," he whispered as he ran his hands through her hair.

"The feeling's mutual," she said as she reached up and grasped his earlobe between her teeth and at the same time let her hands migrate down to his waist and then inward up underneath his shirt over the muscles of his abdomen and across his chest. Well, one hand, the other was kind of pinned between them on the narrow sofa. He groaned softly, immediately feeling constricted, like he had too many clothes on. And she definitely had way too many clothes on.

He glanced quickly at her cute blouse with its little frills along the arms and neckline and a million tiny buttons down the front.

"So many buttons," he whispered to himself with dismay.

Betty smiled as she noticed where he was looking. "Yours will come off easily," she said as she tugged his t-shirt up and he sat up just enough for her to pull it off. She immediately attacked his bare chest with hungry kisses the second she discarded the shirt.

He really wasn't thinking clearly at this point at all, and it was more out of some sick sense of decency bred out of God-only-knows-where because he had never, ever had it before, that he asked "Seriously Betty, don't you think we're moving a little fast?"

"Mmm hmm, definitely too fast." she said absently between kisses to his chest, before returning to his lips.

He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her closer. Their arms were tangled around each others' torsos and their bodies pressed together tightly. Both of them forgetting for a moment where they were, and concentrating only on each other, on every sensation - Betty's eager hands across his back filling him with longing, his kisses on her neck causing her to gasp.

Someone's weight shifted only a little and then suddenly there was a quick lurch and a short hard drop.

"Ooof!" She let out a strange, air filled grunt as Daniel landed directly on top of her on the floor.

"God Betty, are you okay?" He examined her shocked, pale face. He hadn't been hurt because she'd cushioned his fall.

"Can't…breathe," she gasped and he immediately moved over so he wasn't crushing her.

He brushed the hair off of her face. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head and took a couple deep breaths. "I just got the wind knocked out of me."

He couldn't contain his amusement now that he knew she was alright so he started laughing. She looked stunned for a minute and then she started laughing too. Between the hard landing that was like a bucket of cold water and the humour they were now finding in it, the romantic mood was completely broken.

"That was probably for the best," he finally said once he stopped laughing.

She looked at him questioningly and teased "Says you, you landed on top."

"I didn't mean the fall, exactly, just the snap back to reality." he smiled gently. "Betty, I want you, really I do. And if I thought you could do this today without regretting it later I would totally be on board, but something tells me this might be rushing things a little."

She hesitated for what seemed like the longest moment of Daniel's life as she thought it through. "I love you Daniel. I wouldn't regret it."

"Really?" His eyes brightened hopefully. It was almost too good to be true.

She nodded with a smile and he leaned over to continue where they'd left off. "But," she pressed her hand to his chest to stop him. She looked at him apologetically. "It would complicate things with this all being so new. You're right; we probably shouldn't catapult our relationship into completely uncharted territory like that."

He nodded with a small sigh. "I hate when I'm right."

She grinned and then sat up to grab his t-shirt off the back of the sofa. "You should probably put this back on."

"I guess it's too much temptation for you, huh?" he teased with a smirk. She shook her head with a smile and threw it on his head.

He slid the shirt over his head and then snatched the throw pillow off of the couch, tucking it under his head before he lay back down.

She looked at him with the sweetest smile and tilted her head to the side slightly. "Maybe you should take me out on a date first. I suppose that would be polite."

"I suppose," he grinned, opening his arms to indicate she should join him.

She lay down beside him and put her head on his chest.

"Maybe even two or three since I'm not really the kind of girl who sleeps with someone on the first date," she turned her head up to smile at him.

"Two or three?" Daniel said, realizing as soon as it was out how whiny it sounded.

"Maybe four or five," she teased with a smirk. "The point is, we have lots of time to figure it out."

"Lots of time," he echoed. He couldn't ever remember his heart feeling this full.

He was feeling a little nagging about something and he didn't want to start their relationship out with any secrets. "Now that all of this is out in the open, I kind of feel I need to tell you something in case Marc posts something on the internet."

"What?" She raised her head up to look at him again.

"This could go one of two ways. You could think it's kind of cute and romantic or you might think it's bizarre bordering on the edge of creepy," he warned.

"Just tell me what it is Daniel."

"Remember when you first started dating Vincent?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I went out with a woman named Marisa."

"So."

"She kind of looked like you." Betty looked confused. "A lot like you. Right down to the braces."

Betty started to laugh and covered her mouth with her hand. When she regained her composure she said, "You're right, that is kind of bizarre and creepy."

"I was sort of hoping you'd see it the other way," Daniel admitted sheepishly.

"Don't worry, it's no worse than faking your recovery so you can try and sleep with your physiotherapist, or staking out your own date with Molly, or turning yourself into a giant cheesy to try and convince people you'd been to Brazil. Or how about that time you lied to me about how you got that black eye and I ended up coordinating a publicity shoot with the girl guides."

Daniel clamped his hand over her mouth. "We don't need a recap right now, okay Betty?" She nodded with his hand was still in place. Slowly he took it away.

She chuckled again and then placed her head down on his chest. He was filled with a dizzying warm sensation and he almost felt overwhelmed for a second. Somehow she knew all of that, and far worse, and yet it didn't seem to matter to her; she loved him anyway.

She gasped and lifted up her head at a realization. "Your therapy!"

"Yeah. Let's just say I kind of thought it bordered a little on creepy too."

She giggled and put her head back down. They stayed like that for several minutes until Daniel heard her breathing slow and deepen and he realized she'd fallen asleep. So he closed his eyes, feeling more relaxed than he had in far too long and fell asleep too.