A/N: I don't own Ugly Betty. That's about it. If you don't recognize it from the show, I probably do own it. And I adore reviewers.


51.

"You know we have to tell people about us eventually," Daniel told Betty one night as they sat in his apartment eating dinner.

"But I don't want to!" she protested. "I like this feeling of being together and no one knows. We're together and no one is analyzing it," she replied.

"But we can't do this forever. If we get married and have children, people will wonder how it happened. We'll have to tell people that we're together so we can invite them to our wedding. And then there are other issues with keeping it a secret. What are we going to do if some guy asks you out? I have to protect my woman from those losers who want to steal her from me."

Betty smiled. "I'm not your woman; I'm your girlfriend."

"Okay but I still have to protect you. I can't just let some guy steal you away from me because he doesn't know that we're dating because you don't want to go public with this relationship. Now, can we at least tell our families?"

"All right, we can tell our families. It's just a simple phone call to say 'Dad, I'm dating Daniel.' It shouldn't be so hard."

He laughed. "It won't kill you to admit that you're dating one of the sexiest men in New York and loving every moment of it."

"You have absolutely no problems with your ego," she remarked.

Daniel grinned. "I'm Daniel Meade and I'm dating you. I don't know how I got so damn lucky but I'm pretty happy about it."

His girlfriend kissed his cheek. "Oh, Daniel; you're incorrigible."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, it doesn't mean that you won't be treated like a boy."

"What?"

"It's from The Sound of Music, dumbo," she told him.

"Hey now, my ears aren't that big."

Betty laughed. "Well, incorrigible means that you're hopeless. And I think you are hopeless."

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, I'm hopelessly in love with you."

She pulled away from him. "Daniel Meade, that's such a pathetic line. You really need to find other friends besides Becks."

"Well, I have you."

"Like I said, you're pathetic."

"Can you imagine what Becks will say if I tell him that I'm dating you?"

"He'll probably ask you if he can bang me sometime soon."

Daniel cringed. "He can go screw himself if he says that. Or I could give him a free castration courtesy of Meade Publications."

"You need some more mature friends."

"Would you prefer that I spent time with Mark and Amanda?"

Now it was Betty's turn to cringe. "Please, never do that to me."

"They will know that we're dating."

"Yeah and they'll make fun of me."

"Did you talk to your dad?" Daniel asked his girlfriend the next evening after work.

She nodded. "He wants to have you over for dinner on Friday night."

"Will it just be me alone with him?"

Betty laughed at the fear in her boyfriend's bright blue eyes. "No, it's going to be him, Hilda, Justin, you, and me. It's just going to be a nice family dinner. And he won't kill you during dinner."

"Did he say anything about dessert?"

She laughed again. "Honey, I think he likes you. He said that he wasn't surprised to hear that we were dating. I think he's suspected something for a while. And I'm pretty sure he likes you."

"My mom wasn't surprised at all. When I told her, she said, 'Finally, I've been waiting for this to happen for a while.'"

"I like your mom."

"And she loves you. I really think that she would probably adopt you and disown me if I ever broke up with you."

"I'm sorry," Betty said. "I'm just cuter and sweeter than you."

"And you work for her."

"But you own the company."

"No, I'm just the president of the company. I only own part of the company."

"Oh, so you're humble and powerful," she said with a mischievous smile. "That's incredibly sexy."

He grinned and pulled her close. "Oh, you haven't seen sexy yet."

She giggled and snuggled close to him. "Did you call Alexis?"

Daniel laughed. "Oh man, I wish you could have heard that phone call."

"What did she say?"

"She wanted to know if I realized that you weren't the kind of girl who had flings, that you are the kind of girl that gets married and has a family."

"And what did you say?"

"I told her that was kind of the point. I was looking for someone I could settle down with and with whom see myself having a future."

Betty smiled. "You're growing up. Daniel, you're really growing up and becoming a man. When did this happen?"

"It had to happen at some point."

"Well, I'm glad that it happened now."


"Did you tell anyone besides your family?"

"I told Christina."

"And what happened?"

"She wasn't surprised at all. She told me that she was glad we finally came to our senses."

Daniel laughed. "How long have people expecting us to get together?"

"I'm really starting to wonder about that myself. No one seems to be surprised by this."

"I told Becks and even he wasn't shocked at all."

"What did he say?"

"Let's just say that he will be getting that free castration."

"Oh god, what did he say?"

"Umm, he asked about the possibilities of a threesome."

Betty gasped. "Honey, why are you friends with him again?"

"We grew up together."

"Physically, not mentally and emotionally," she teased. "He's stuck around age fourteen or fifteen."

"And where am I?"

"Mid or late thirties; I would guess that if I had to make a guess."

"You're so cute."

"I'm glad you like me."

Betty smiled. "I'm glad I like you too. It makes this whole dating thing a lot easier. Could you imagine what it would be like if we didn't like each other?"

Daniel laughed. "We'd be miserable."

"And it wouldn't be any fun."


52.

"Do you have two quarters?" Betty asked Daniel when he got home from work one November night when William was six.

"Why?"

"William lost his first tooth today and he's all excited about getting money from the Tooth Fairy. And I'm out of quarters."

"Is two quarters the going rate for losing your first tooth these days?"

"I think it's more like five bucks but I'm pretty sure we gave Sarah two quarters."

"For every tooth after the first one," he said. "But we gave her something different for the first one."

"You're right. Do you have a five dollar bill?"

He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket. "You're in luck, darling," he said as he pulled a five dollar bill out of his wallet.

"You can hang on to it," she said. "We just need to put it under his pillow after he falls asleep tonight."

"Okay, so how did the little man lose the tooth?"

"He's been playing with it for days and then today he was messing around with it when he got home from school when it just kind of came out. You should have seen his face, Daniel; he was so excited. It was adorable."

He smiled as his oldest son ran into the kitchen. "Daddy, you have to see this!" William yelled, jumping on his father. "Check it out! I lost my tooth!"

Daniel examined the gap in his son's teeth and grinned. "So I suppose you're expecting the Tooth Fairy to visit you tonight?"

"Sarah said he always visited her."

"The Tooth Fairy is a he?"

"The Tooth Fairy is a really short old man. That's what Sarah says. She saw him once."

Daniel smiled and picked his son up. "I'll bet she did. She's really sneaky and good at finding things."

"But she's never seen Santa Claus except at the mall."

"Neither have I," his father admitted.

"Mommy, have you ever seen Santa?"

Betty shook her head. "Nope, but you could ask Aunt Hilda; she probably has seen him. She was really sneaky when she was kid."


"Whose turn is it to be the Tooth Fairy?" Daniel asked his wife that night after all their children were in bed.

"I'm not sure but you're going to have to do it," his seven-and-a half-months-pregnant wife said. "I'm a whale; I can't do it right now. If he woke up, he would recognize his fat mother."

"You're not fat, babe."

"Honey, I think I weigh about 190 pounds."

"No you don't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I went to your last doctor's appointment with you and he said you only weighed 150," Daniel replied.

"I could have gained forty pounds."

"In two weeks?" he asked. "Honey, I highly doubt it. You don't look like you've gained forty pounds recently."

"I'm still fat. You can play Tooth Fairy now."

"You're not fat; you're pregnant. But I'll play Tooth Fairy. You can relax."

"Good, because I can't get my fat self out of this bed again for a while," Betty told her husband.

He sighed. "You're ridiculous."

"Wait until Thanksgiving, honey. I'll probably eat more than everyone else at the table combined. And I won't be able to get out of bed ever again."

He rolled his eyes at that remark. "Betty Meade, you're absolutely ridiculous. I love you but I think you're being more than a little silly."

"I just want to have this baby."

He kissed her before taking the five dollar bill from his wallet. "I'm going to give some a little boy something special. And when I come back, I'll give you something special if you're good."

Betty sighed. "If you get me some ice cream while you're out there, I'll give you whatever you want."

"What kind do you want?"

"Chubby Hubby," she replied with a teasing smile.

"You're getting Half-Baked."

"Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Only if you are, darling," was his reply before he left the room with a wink and a smile.


"I'm up to 160," Betty informed Daniel the morning after that Thanksgiving.

"You're due in a month, sweetie," he told her.

"And I could get fatter between now and then. I'm always hungry. All I want to do is eat and eat and eat."

"I love you and I'll always love you. And I don't think you're fat," he said stroking her belly.

"Daniel, look at me."

He looked at his wife. "I'm looking at you and all I see is a very pregnant woman who needs to let her husband kiss her and then take her to bed to do things that would never happen in a Disney movie."

"You're still attracted to me," she said. "That amazes me."

"Honey, I don't think you've ever been so sexy before in your life. You're pregnant and that's amazing."

"And fattening," she sighed.

"In one month, we'll have a beautiful baby girl who will complete our family and you'll love her more than you could ever imagine," he told her.

"And then I'll have to lose all this excess weight."

He kissed her. "Sweetie, you've been like this with every pregnancy. Do you remember Nikolas?"

"I was huge," she said. "I was bigger with him than I am now."

"He was a ten pound baby."

"The doctor said he thinks this baby might get that big."

"We've had some big babies," he said.

"Yeah, that would be your fault," she replied. "I'm only five-two."

"And I'm closer to six-two."

"So it's your fault I'm getting so fat."

Daniel sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Then go get me some ice cream. I want chocolate this time."

"You really are pregnant with a girl."

"Why do you say that?"

"You never craved chocolate this much with any of the boys."

Betty laughed. "Was I this bad with Sarah?'

"I think you were. I remember a lot of French silk pies and fondue."

"William was fruit and vegetables, especially sweet ones, and I was really horny. Lucas was bread and other carbohydrates."

"And Nikolas was dairy products, especially cheese."

"Especially foreign cheese," Betty recalled. "I think I once ate a whole wheel of Brie in one sitting."

"I remember that. We were watching a movie and you were eating it like it was popcorn or something."

"Being pregnant is so weird."


53.

Vivianna Rosa Meade weighed ten pounds, four ounces and was twenty-one inches long. "She's the second biggest baby weight-wise," Daniel remarked when Betty told him how big Vivianna was.

"And the chubbiest if you look at the weight to length proportions," his wife said, looking at the chubby baby in her arms.

"Is she worth everything you went through?"

Betty nodded. "More than worth it," she told him with a smile on her face. "She's absolutely perfect."

"Are you happy now?" Daniel asked his wife.

She beamed up at him. "We have the five most perfect children ever born. They're all healthy and beautiful and happy and perfect."

He smiled and kissed her. "So when are you coming back to work?"

"The thirty-fifth of never," she replied.

"You're never coming back? But I miss seeing you at work."

"Darling, I haven't been there in eight and a half years."

"So when are you going to come back and protect me?"

Betty looked down at the baby in her arms. "Daniel, I like being Mommy. I like putting band-aids on cuts and kissing boo-boos. I did the whole magazine thing and I can do it again when this little one starts school. But right now, I like knowing where my kids are and what they're doing."

"I understand," Daniel replied.

"And I will come back someday. And I write freelance articles for you. I just don't have to be at Meade Publications every day and when I do come in, I can bring the kids with me."

"But you usually end up leaving them in my mom's office."

"She likes them."

"I've noticed," Daniel told his wife with a smile.

"And now I can lose all the excess weight."

He shook his head. "You always lose weight just from breast-feeding."

Betty laughed. "That's true. These kids of yours like to suck off the pounds."

"They like sweet things."

"You are so weird."

"I think you once told me that I was incorrigible."

She smiled. "After I told you that it meant hopeless, you told me that you were hopelessly in love with me."

"It was true then and it's true now. And I'm pretty sure that I love you more now than I did then. Becoming a husband and a father has taught me what love really is. I would die for these kids and for you."


54.

A year later, the Suarez-Meade family was celebrating Vivianna's first birthday. Grandpa Ignacio had made dinner including empanadas, which were his grandchildren's favorite food, and Betty had made the cake. Alexis even found time to come to New York for her youngest niece's first birthday. Nikolas was running around looking for attention while Lucas showed up for anyone who would watch him for more than two minutes. Sarah was helping her mother in the kitchen, and William was trying to keep Nikolas entertained. And the birthday girl was snuggled up against her father's chest while he talked to his sister. Vivianna, like her older sister, adored her father. And Daniel loved spending time with his two little girls. They were his princesses. Becoming a father had helped Daniel to grow up and become a better person.

"How do you do this, Danny?" Alexis asked her brother after dinner. They were watching their mother playing with her grandchildren while Betty and Hilda cleaned the kitchen and got things ready for dessert.

"What do you mean?" he asked her, bouncing the birthday girl on his hip.

"They're so energetic and they always need attention," she said. "I could never live like this; it's so chaotic."

"It's a beautiful chaos," he replied. "I love it; I thrive on it. You couldn't live like this and you don't. But I love living like this. It's so amazing. They're so loving and caring."

"But there are dirty diapers and early morning feedings and disciplining them. And you have no freedom. They consume your life. They become your life."

"They're my children, Alexis," he told her. "And I love them. I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to have five children. All that hard work is worth it. There are sloppy kisses and smiles and hugs when you're unhappy."

"But I never would have thought of you as a father."

He smiled and kissed Vivianna's forehead. "I never thought of myself like this until I met Betty. But this is the real Daniel. The real Daniel Meade is a father who plays soccer in the backyard with his kids and spends his Friday nights watching Disney movies with his kids."

Alexis shrugged. "It's just not the kind of life I would want. I like being able to do what I want when I want."

"You can't do that with kids," her brother replied. "But you can act like an idiot in front of them and no one cares."

"That's not for me."

Just then, Justin came into the room. "All right, munchkins, who wants to play horse?"

Almost instantaneously, he had four Meade children climbing all over him. "I want to be first!" Lucas yelled.

"But what about me?" three-year-old Nikolas asked. "I want to go."

"But I'm bigger!" his five-year-old brother protested.

"Luke, let Nikolas go first," Sarah told her younger brother. "He is the smallest and we should give him a fair turn."

"But I never get to go first!"

"You can play trucks with me," William offered.

"No!" Lucas had his arms crossed on his chest and a pout on his face. "I don't want to play trucks. I want to ride the horse."

"Well, if you're going to act like that, you don't get to ride the horse," Justin said. "We have to give everyone a fair turn and share."

"But I hate sharing."

Daniel handed his youngest daughter to her grandmother and stepped over to Lucas. "If you don't want to share, you can go sit in your room by yourself. You won't have to share it with anyone."

"But I want to ride the horse!"

"Let your brother go first and then you can go," his father replied. "Or you can go to your room. What do you want to do?"

Lucas shoved Nikolas and stuck out his lower lip at his father. "I'm a big boy and I get to ride the horse first."

"Lucas Bradford Meade, we do not push our sibling in this house. Now apologize to Nikolas or you're going to your room and you don't get to ride the horse at all."

"I want to ride the horse first. Nikolas can go later; he's just a little kid."

"By that logic, I should let Sarah and William each take a turn before you."

"I don't care about them. They're obnoxious."

Daniel picked Lucas up then. "All right, buster, it's off to your room with you. Justin, can you give Nik the first ride please?"

"Sure thing," Justin replied.


55.

"Being a father may kill me yet," Daniel told his wife that night.

She laughed. "I doubt it. You might get some bruises and scars but you won't die. And they're good kids, in general."

"In general," he repeated. "Did we do something different with Lucas than with the other?"

"I ate more bread," she replied.

He shook his head. "That's not it. But I feel like he's different than the rest of the kids."

"I didn't drop him on his head."

"Maybe some members of the Meade family are just naturally dysfunctional," Daniel said. "Or they just take longer to grow up. I took longer to grow up."

Betty smiled. "Maybe that's it. Maybe Luke is more like you than we think."


A/N: Please review!