TIMELESS/CH 12

He grabbed her hand and they both slid into the waiting car. The silence between them surprisingly felt comforting. The way he was looking at her, like she was a treasure, yet still felt like they were the best friends they had become over the past two years.

As he held up their intertwined hands and smiled, kissing the back of her hand, "Do you have any idea how beautiful you've gotten? What happened to that sweet, innocent little girl who first slammed into my door and kissed me like we were an old married couple?"

Betty sighed, biting her lower lip, "Daniel! We've talked about that!"

He rolled his eyes, "I know, I know. You had a concussion! Right! And that explains how I had basically the same premonition about us. Then, even after you left New York, I still dreamed about you and Michael. And I'll bet anything you've had the same fantasies about us and our little family! Am I right?"

She blushed, looking down at her lap nervously twisting her finger around her hair. Should she say anything to him about her (quite frequently) continued fantasies about them being a family?

His eyes lit up as he noticed her expression and lifted up her chin towards him, "Betty? What is it? Please be straight with me. Have you been

thinking about us as much as I have all this time? Trust me, I've been TRYING to forget about you, to go back to my crappy life, my 'manwhore', rich, spoiled, playboy ways. After all, you did sort of leave me, high and dry here. What was I supposed to do, you know?"

"I'm sorry, Daniel."

He blew out a deep breath, narrowing his eyes, "Don't be sorry. Just tell me...is it just me? Am I alone here? Or are you…"

She couldn't let him go on, she cut him off, nodding and crying as she pulled him down to her, grabbing her arms around his neck, "Yes! Of course, I missed you, too! I dreamt about you, and me, and our baby...even on the flight here, just now!"

"You did? Really?" his grin spread as she covered his face with kisses and breathed out, "Uh huh! I think the people on the plane thought I was insane because I'm sure I was moaning and saying stuff about us while I was dreaming!"

He laughed, "Moaning, huh? Sounds...interesting. Show me."

She shoved his chest lightly, "No! I don't know what I said out loud! I was asleep!"

He nuzzled her neck, and ran his hands over her hip, wagging his eyebrows suggestively, "Tell me what your dream was then. We should compare notes. Let's see if we've both been dreaming the same thing."

"I...um...it was...about us both getting ready to go somewhere. I think."

"Go somewhere? Wait, get 'ready'? So, we weren't wearing clothes? Sounds interesting. Sounds a lot like my dreams, too. A lot of them involve us being in the shower. Or in the bedroom. Sometimes you're covered in mud. Sometimes, you're just naked."

She blushed again, "DANIEL! You're making that up. Cut it out!"

"Cut what out? I'm not doing anything. We're just talking about our sexy dreams we've BOTH been having ever since you ruined me for all other women, you crazy girl!"

She sighed, putting her hand on his cheek, "You're really not going to just forget about this, are you?"

He shook his head, as he leaned closer, "Why should I? You didn't let me forget about you! I can't be that bad guy I used to be anymore. You changed me. Just in the few months I got to know you, you got me to look at myself, at the way that I was living my life. And I didn't like what I saw.

Too many women, too much booze, not caring about anybody but myself, not taking pride in my work or giving a shit who I hurt in the process. And just when things started getting really interesting between us, you left me!"

"I didn't leave YOU! I had to go after my dream, I mean...my career goals, you know, Daniel."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I admire your work ethic, Betty. You rubbed off on me. Not necessarily the way I really hoped we would 'rub up together', but...you inspired me to do better at my job, too. But then...you left me so … unsatisfied! You managed to put me in the friend zone since we stayed 'buddies' from three thousand miles away! And I know that's my own fault.

I'm the one who kept torturing myself, insisting we stay "friends" all this time. But being your friend from a distance was better than losing you altogether, sweetie. I couldn't bring myself to actually...say goodbye to you. You have to know, I could never live without you."

"Daniel, that's very sweet. Your mom told me...well, she insisted that you might...have feelings for me. But I told her there was no way. That you were out of my league. You dated models and starlets, famous women. Not ordinary girls like me."

He closed his eyes, shaking his head, then opened them to smile at her, stroking her cheek tenderly, "YOU are the only woman I want, Betty. You're so much better than any model. Do you know how many times I've gone to our spot, to the Brooklyn Bridge at five in the morning and thought about that night, wishing it had gone differently? Wishing we had slept together, had made those dreams of ours come true?

Hell, I didn't even WANT a family! I had no intention of ever getting married, at least not for years until I met you. Now, all I can think of is how perfect you are, how perfect we are going to be together, how amazing our little boy is going to be and how I DO want that life. I WANT to be a husband and a father! If it's with you...I might sound crazy here, but I don't care.

I fell in love with you the first day I met you. I've been madly, deeply in love with you ever since. I know I must be crazy, because I've never stopped having those insanely hot dreams about us, being married, having a baby, being SO happy together! I just want to make those dreams come true. I never stopped loving you, Betty. You changed me into a better version of myself, into a much better man than I was or even knew I wanted to be. You made me want to be worthy of you."

She wiped away a tear from his cheek and furiously wiped her own tears away. She didn't know what to say to this man. He had been such a huge part of her life ever since she met him, too. She wasn't going to lie to him and tell him she hadn't been having extremely erotic dreams about him, too. Now he was telling her it was mutual? That he wanted her as much as she clearly wanted him? He was literally the man of her dreams, and he wanted to make those dreams come true? It was too much.

She grabbed his face and smiled back at him, "Daniel, honey, I don't...I don't know what to say to you!"

He chuckled slightly, "Well, that's a first! I made Betty Suarez speechless? I mean...I sort of hoped for that the first time we actually slept together. But honestly, honey. The way you talk...and talk...and talk. I figured I'd have to do something pretty crazy to keep that mouth of yours occupied. That very sexy mouth. Oh hell, will you just shut up and kiss me already?"

They both laughed as she pulled him down to her and did as he asked. The reality of his kisses from her memories of their brief "almost affair" two years ago mixed with her hot dreams were both a poor substitute for the real thing. The man's kisses lit something inside her that she didn't know how to quench, other than by continuing to kiss him more deeply and fall into this 'rabbit hole' she felt like she had been in ever since they first met.

"Oh God, Daniel! I want you so much!"

He grinned slightly, but pushed himself away, "You WANT me? Is that all? Not to sound cocky here, Betty. But I've had other women say they 'want me" before. I need more. Especially from you! IF you expect me to be your 'baby daddy', I expect marriage! We need to put a ring on it! I don't want my son born out of wedlock."

"MARRIAGE? Daniel, are you crazy?"

"Well, yeah, I think we already established that. I must be. But YOU started it! You're the one who had that crazy dream about us in the first place. You're the one who KISSED me first, and then told me about your dream and somehow infected me with it.

You GAVE me that idea about us and planted it in my head and my heart and now I can't go back to the man I was. I don't really want to go back. So now, you're telling me you don't want to see if we can actually make our dreams a reality?"

"I didn't say that. I just...it's kind of insane, to think we could just jump into a real relationship after only knowing each other for such a short time."

"Two years is short? How do you figure that?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yes, okay, I admit we've technically known each other that long, but, we've just been friends...and friends from a distance at that."

He shrugged, looking slightly hurt at her seeming reluctance, "Okay. Fine. I still say you ran away when things started heating up between us. But think about it. People met and fell in love and got married before the guys in World War II went off to war years ago. Nobody said they were crazy. They had to do things quickly back then because of unusual and extreme circumstances. I'd say our situation fits into that category, wouldn't you?"

"Yes. That's true." she sighed, chewing on her bottom lip for a moment, "It's not that I don't feel the same way about you, Daniel!"

"Then say it! I need to hear you say it, Betty. Or else I'm going to really think I am just crazy. Tell me you don't think of me, think of us all the time like I do!"

She shook her head, then covered him with kisses, "Of course I do! I can't stop thinking about you, about our family, our life that I thought I had, that I still want! I dream about you all the time, Daniel! I miss you. I miss the way you make me scream and how your touch makes me feel and how our son is the best of both of us and fills my heart just by looking at him and knowing he's ours! I love you, too! You HAVE grown, you have changed.

I watched how you always had this huge heart, but now it's gotten even bigger. You struggled and made some mistakes over the years, but you grew and you became the son you always wanted to be before your father died, he was so proud of you. And now, seeing how you have taken over for him and how you and your sister have shown you can work together, how you can let Wilhelmina run Mode, and you two have taken over the rest of your father's company."

He pulled her close, and whispered, "I make you scream? Really? Yeah, I think I really want to hear that right now, lady!"

She rolled her eyes, "Oh my God, Daniel! Out of all that, my big declaration of love and pride for you and that's all you heard?"

He shrugged, "What can I say? I haven't changed THAT much! I still like sex! And it has been a HELL of a long time! Two years of blue balls? How long are you going to keep me waiting?"

"Hey, YOU are the one who said we had to get married first! You told me to 'put a ring on it'! Well, make up your mind, Beyonce! Do you want sex or marriage?"

"I want both, of course. But for now, I'll settle for sex. Then we'll talk about the marriage part. I mean, we have at least nine months to worry about that, I guess. I just didn't want you to NOT say you love me first, you know? I have standards. I don't jump into bed with just any woman anymore. And after all, you are the future mother of my children. So I respect you. I'd hope you respect me, too. Enough to WANT to marry me."

She smiled, blushing, as she gave him a deep, intense kiss, "Of course I respect you, Daniel. And I do love you. Very much. I love you. I want you. I NEED you, baby daddy!"