Title: The Rumor Mill Is Going to Love This

Series: The Gossip Universe

Summary: Because life is peppered with realizations and tiny moments that change your life forever. You just won't realize it for a little while.

A collection of one-shot epiphany moments from the Gossip Universe.

Related: T

Disclaimer: I only on my original characters.

A/N: This may look somewhat familiar to those of you that read the original version of Adaptation Mode Style on (soon to be reposted under the new name Happily Ever After is Just a Rumor). I am completely rewriting the story. So much that I decided to make the original prologue a series of one shots that will be separate from the main story. I'm planning to add a few as time goes on. This is just the beginning.

I came to this decision because first of all my writing style has changed significantly over the years. Also I've been stuck for three years on how to finish the story and I decided that the best way to complete it was to start over. Also, this version has been proofread by Nina.

The shorts in this collection will be nonlinear. We will be jumping around in time. This is why each story will be timestamped.

In relation to the show, this short story takes place between seasons two and three.

In the Gossip Universe, this predates the main story by about a year.

Daniel Meade's Epiphany

Timestamp: August 10, 2008 11:33 PM Eastern daylight savings Time

Daniel Meade could think of a million reasons why he did not call Betty a.k.a. his assistant a.k.a. his best friend a.k.a. the only person who ever understood him completely. He could not bring himself to tell her that his own sister stabbed him in the back and took away one of the few things he cared about besides her. Mode mattered to him because it was the first time he was given an opportunity to prove that he was more than just the pretty boy everyone thought he seemed to be.

Except apparently they were all right. He was now the failure that everyone always said he was, everyone but Betty. Mode was now Wilhelmina's. He put his heart and soul into Mode and Alexis took it all away. Worst of all, he just let his sister and her evil accomplice do it.

He did not fight Alexis' decision, because in his heart he believed he was the constant screw up that everyone saw him as. Maybe that is why after over a month he could not bring himself to tell her that the two of them have been "reassigned" to Player magazine and Damien the truly incompetent.

Actually, it was just he that was reassigned to Player. If she wanted to, she could stay at Mode. She did nothing wrong. Actually Daniel was certain Alexis believes that Betty does most of his work for him.

The thought of her not being with him scared the hell out of him. Contrary to what people believe he can do this job by himself but it's just easier with her there. It's good to have someone to bounce ideas off of and tell him when he's being an idiot. He enjoys just being able to tell her what he was thinking even if it was at three in the morning. He couldn't imagine not being able to brainstorm with her in the middle of the day or console her on a project idea. He wasn't sure he could be an editor without her.

This last month was torture without her there to be his cheerleader. He was second-guessing every single one of his decisions. Should he send DJ to the overly pretentious prep school that he went to as a child? Should he fire Damien for being an idiot or don't rock the boat and keep things as they are? Should he actually try at Player when everyone expects him to fall flat on his ass?

Before he met her, he made being a moron and a screw up an art form. He probably kept half the tabloids in business during the two subsequent months following Alex's supposed death. He definitely kept Tiffany's a float with his apology trinkets.

When he got the job two years ago, being the editor of Mode was about pleasing his father and having a different model in his bed every night. No, it wasn't about proving he could be better than Alex Meade. Mode was just something handed to him on a silver platter because Alex was supposedly gone. Like everything else in life this was nothing he actually earned. Therefore he did not see the need to put any effort into it.

Then, this girl with bad teeth, no sense of style, and hair that had serious issues came into his life and flipped his entire perspective. She made him care about something else. She made him see the value in himself. Daniel is very self-aware that without her, he would only have lasted a month as the editor of Mode, not nearly two years. What would he do without her? He was not sure and he's absolutely terrified of finding out.

Now he loved his job (or he did before he was reassigned to the Player purgatory that is Damien). Betty gave him that. She was the one that showed him he was more than the playboy of New York and definitely more than his last name. She made him learn about the magazine industry, maybe about life in general. He now understood every aspect of the publishing process of the magazine from graphics to layout.

Because of her, Daniel now saw the position at Mode as a platform to do something productive and maybe even change the viewpoints of others. The proudest day of his career was the Alternative Fashion show. Not only did that show make Mode the star of Fashion Week 2008, it also showed the magazine's readership that being fashionable had nothing to do with being a "skinny hanger". That show was the entire reason why they were able to get their May cover girl; she would only pose for a magazine that promoted healthy body images.

Now every millimeter of progress he's made in the last two years has been undone by Alexis and Satan the Diva. His two years of hard work meant nothing and it never really did. Now he was back to being the screw up and "player" everybody, including himself, saw him as. The half-empty bottle of something very expensive he was drinking alone after DJ went to bed was testament to that.

But Betty never saw him as this and that thought made him feel warm and fuzzy in a way that he couldn't comprehend at the moment. It did more for him than the alcohol ever could.

Before he met her, everything he did in this life centered on pleasing "them" and living up to "their" image of who he was supposed to be. It took him a while to understand that was impossible.

Betty was the one who made him recognize that it was more important for him to learn to please himself. Despite that, at a certain point she became his only motivation for doing anything good in his life. He is not sure when this happened, but he knows it has. Instead of making his father and later his sister happy, he only cares about pleasing her. Her smile literally makes his day. Because if she was happy, he was happy and that's what mattered.

At this moment, Daniel realizes his main reason for not telling Betty that he was no longer editor in chief of Mode magazine was because he did not want to make her unhappy. His heart could not take the sound of disappointment in her voice, of seeing a frown on her face. Daniel's self-worth would shatter into a million pieces once he realized he could not make her happy.

For over a month, he tried to tell her what happened. Every night after DJ went to sleep, he would dial her number. Every night he would panic and never actually press the send button. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her, he just couldn't. He couldn't bear to hear the sound the disappointment in her voice.

Daniel knew he needed to talk to her. He was just starting to realize that not speaking to her every day made him feel empty. He missed the sound of her voice and actually speaking to someone who just understood what he was thinking instantly.

Now on the night before her return to work, he sat in his new apartment with his cell phone in hand, trying to get up the nerve to tell the most important person in his life (not related by blood) that he was no longer the EIC of Mode. Daniel wondered when she became the most important person in his life. He could not pinpoint the moment when she took that place.

He tried to call her 20 times that first night after the world's worst softball game. But every time he tried he could not bring himself to press the green button to send the call. At first, he told himself he did not want to ruin her trip to Rome or her first night back with the supposed love of her life. (Although what type of "love of your life" would knock someone else up while they were in love with you? He would never do that to her-anyone.)

The real reason he did not call her that day was because he could not deal with the possibility of losing her forever just so she could be with Henry in Arizona. It may just kill him. He doesn't want her to leave, especially if she was leaving him for someone who didn't really love her. That first night he came to the conclusion that he couldn't live without her.

If he would have checked his messages like any sane person he would know that Betty didn't choose Henry over him. He means that Betty did not choose Henry over Gio. No, he was right the first time. There's no point in lying to himself in his own head. Even if he was in complete denial about it, he knew that he saw Betty leaving for no other reason than a personal rejection of him.

Three days after the game from hell, he finally brings himself to check his blackberry. (The new one that Amanda brought by because his old one had a small accident with the wall.) He had hundreds of messages in his account that Daniel had no choice but to go through himself because there was no Betty to filter the most important ones out for him. They included several inquiries from the press about why he is leaving Mode and a few emails from employees that will miss him. He barely reads any of them except the latter. Daniel really only cared about the messages from Betty. If she did not label it, "I'm not going with Henry to Arizona," he probably would have never opened the e-mail. (DJ promised to not say anything about his actual cheering).

As soon as he read her letter, it would be easy for him to send her a message about everything that has happened. He may have started drafting it:

Thank God you dumped both Harry and Gio. I really need you to come back here. I'm drowning without you. Satan herself took over my magazine and Alexis let her. I can't even look at DJ because I feel like a complete failure. I think I'm going to be a worse father than Bradford and I didn't think it was possible to go below the bar he set.

So, how is Ohio? Did you finally go to Cedar Point? Are the roller coasters as great as everyone says they are? Please come home.

After a 20-minute argument with himself, he decides that this is not the type of news you give your best friend in an e-mail and quickly deleted his miserable attempt at correspondents and started over.

Good use of subject line. Without you here the emails are getting overwhelming.

I think you made the right decision in trying to find yourself first. I personally felt that Howard had no right to ask you to come to Arizona. Your life is in New York. Also, it was probably best to let Gio keep the trip to Rome considering that you dumped him, sort of. I will make some phone calls to make sure he has access to everything.

Things are great at home. DJ and I are getting along really well. I'm starting to be able to hold a basic conversation in French. It does eventually come back to you.

OK I'm starting to recognize the food words again but that's making grocery shopping a lot easier. Yes, I can go grocery shopping by myself. I'm not that hopeless. I will not die of starvation without you.

DJ loves your dance game and made a complete fool out of me. Did you actually make it to Cedar Point? Send me a shot or two of you on a roller coaster. Send pictures and pick DJ up a T-shirt from somewhere. I will pay you back when you come home.

Personally, Daniel finds it a small miracle that he did not beg her to come home. He wanted too, badly.

That night he also tried to call her, but after five failed attempts, he gives up. He ends up watching The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast in French with English subtitles in a desperate attempt to pick up the language so that he can communicate with DJ. Even though he has seen each film with her 100 times during the great Henry debacle, he still only understood about 10% of what was being said. It made him feel better because they remind him of her. He realized that even things that remind him of her bring him peace.

Two days later, she starts sending him photographs of her travels including one of her terrified on a roller coaster as requested He missed her so much after a week; he is halfway ready to take DJ on a tour of America just so he can accidentally bump into her at the Grand Canyon. Instead, he saved every single one of her emails and uses a picture of her as the wallpaper on his cell phone.

He chose to reply to her by e-mail because it is easier that way. If he talks to her, she will be able to pick up on his uneasiness instantly. No one else can read him like her. He keeps things light. He doesn't tell her about all the times he caught DJ crying in his room at night or fighting his daily urge to strangle Damien. He definitely doesn't tell Betty about family dinner with Alexis making him physically ill. There is definitely no need to tell her that.

He tries not to think about how he scans every message from her for mentions of casual hook ups or her having sex with strangers. He tries not to think about how happy he was to know she stayed single all summer. Nor does he want to think about the fact that he hasn't slept with anyone because none of the women that he meets can hold a candle to her.

Tomorrow she will be back, but he still could not bring himself to talk to her on the phone. He felt like a 15-year-old boy trying to get up the courage to call the head cheerleader and ask her out on a date. Except he didn't think of Betty that way contrary to what the rumor mill believed.

The fact that he has been having the occasional erotic dream involving making love to Betty on top of his desk is completely irrelevant. He blames Renee for putting that particular idea in his head.

(Go ahead and keep lying to yourself Daniel, maybe you will eventually believe it.)

He tells himself he is having these types of dreams about her because Betty is a beautiful woman and he would have these dreams about any beautiful woman. It does not mean anything. He tries not to think about how he uses the term "make love" in relationship to Betty instead of the term "fuck". He also tries not to think about how the thought of Betty having sex with anybody else makes him want to throw up or that at least one time he considered asking Alexis if she still had a "friend" that could take care of the guy . Instead of trying to find the questions that he's not ready to answer, he focuses on trying to call her for the 522nd time this summer.

As he has for the last month, he puts the phone down without actually doing so. He will see her tomorrow and everything will be okay. She will not leave him. She can't leave him. No he doesn't want to consider why he so adamant about this.

15 days later
Daniel is completely unable to watch her pack her things to go back to Mode where she belongs. He is already on the verge of tears and he can't handle it. He cannot bear to watch her leave. He cannot say goodbye to her. He tried to tell himself that she is leaving Player not him. His mind knows that, but his heart doesn't. He loves her too much to watch her leave him.

Oh fuck, did he just say the L word? She is his best friend. Of course, he loves her. He loved her just as a friend. Except he's pretty sure you're not supposed to be having now daily sex fantasies about your best friend. You are not supposed to wonder how your best friend would look dressed up in the lingerie set that all the other models are wearing for the photo shoot she feels is beneath your dignity. You're not supposed to feel even worse about your horrible life choices because she gave you her disappointment look.

If he loved her as just a friend, then why does it feel like she is ripping his heart in two as she walks to the elevator? If he only loved her as a friend, then why does he feel like his entire world is falling apart right now? If he only loves her as a friend, why is she the most important person in his life? The answer is obvious.

He is in love with his best friend. He is in love with her in the "happily ever after, want to raise a family with her" way. He is in love with her in the "I want to see her become the greatest EIC ever" way. He is in love with her in the "I can't live without her," way. He is completely in love with Betty Suarez.

Oh, fuck!

What is he going to do now? He can't tell her. He remembered her explicitly telling him that she only sees him as a friend. His heart is fragile and Daniel can't take her rejecting him again. He will just keep this revelation to himself. There's no need for her to ever know. Besides he's not good enough for her. No one is.

The end (or just the beginning of Daniel's Extreme denial).