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. Yes, I do realize that this was a really fast update; it just kind of happens sometimes.
56.
"You have to see this," Betty said, throwing an envelope at her boyfriend one night when they'd been dating for about a year.
"What is it?"
"My electrical bill," she replied. "Just open it."
"This is like ten dollars," Daniel said, reading the bill.
"Yeah, honey, I haven't spent the night at my apartment in close to a month and most of my clothes are here. I'm really starting to wonder why I have my own apartment at all anymore."
"You need someplace to keep your couch?"
She laughed. "I could sell my couch and it would be easier than paying rent and utilities on an apartment that I rarely use."
"What are you trying to say?"
"I'm asking you why I still own that apartment."
"You need someplace to hide after we fight."
"So I'm playing over a thousand dollars a month just for that. Hotels are less expensive."
"Betty, are you suggesting that we move in together?"
"I guess so," she said. "I don't know. How do you feel about it?"
"You might as well live here now. We can sell your furniture and move whatever you still have over there here this weekend. When does your lease there end?"
"September," she said. "So there's only a month left on it."
"Then just move in with me," he told her. "You basically live here now. Your clothes are here. You have a towel and a toothbrush here. What more do you need?"
"I'd like to have my pots and pans so I can cook more often. We need to eat less take-out around here."
"Yes, mother," Daniel teased. "If you move in here, we will eat less take-out and you can cook more."
"And you can learn to cook."
"Now that is a scary idea."
Betty laughed and kissed her boyfriend. "So I'm moving in this weekend."
"If your dad doesn't kill me over this," he replied, pulling her closer to his chest.
"Oh, he loves you."
"But now he's going to know that I deflowered his little girl."
"Honey, if he didn't know that before, he's blind. He's seen us kissing before."
Daniel laughed and kissed Betty.
"So I moved in and Dad didn't kill you. He even helped us. He didn't do that with Henry."
Daniel smiled. "I know. But he did glare at me a few times when you weren't working. I think he wanted to remind me that you're still his little girl until I make this all legitimate and ask you to marry me."
"Hey, it's not like we're going to go have illegitimate children or something," Betty replied. "We know what safe sex is."
"Honey, I'm Daniel Meade; I can understand why he's glaring at me like that. He's afraid I'm going to hurt you."
"I think he trusts you. I think he sees a lot of himself in you."
"I'm not a good cook."
"No but you are a good man who isn't perfect."
"I'm not perfect? Then why are you dating me?"
"I love you," she replied. "I see the good in you despite your imperfections. And I love you the way you are."
He started nibbling at her neck. "You're delicious."
"If you're hungry, I can make dinner."
"I like this better," he replied. "It's healthier."
She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Daniel, do you want me to make dinner?"
"Later," he said, pulling her into his lap. "I'm busy working."
"If you keep going like this, someday we're going to have a lot of children."
He laughed. "I only want three or four, at absolute most."
"I want at least two boys and two girls," she replied.
"Okay, so we'll have four. Now I need to get back to work."
"You, Daniel Meade, are ridiculous."
"I know," he said. "That's why you're dating me."
"I thought I was dating you because I loved you."
57.
"I go away for one week and you trash this place," Betty said walking into their apartment the following January. She had gone to Paris for spring Fashion Week and returned to find the apartment littered with newspapers, mail, and empty take-out boxes.
"I've been busy," Daniel replied.
"Did you water the plants?"
"Every day," he told her. "I just never did anything about the trash."
"You're ridiculous."
"You know," he said. "You tell me that awful lot. Don't you have anything nice to say about me?"
"You smell nice," she replied, kissing him.
"I showered," was his reply. "And I used your shampoo because I missed you."
"You're full of it."
"No, I'm serious."
"Okay, you're serious but you're seriously full of it."
Daniel laughed. "Can we go make use of our bed?"
"I just want to sleep," she replied. "I've been up for about a hundred hours straight."
"I can do that," he told her. "I've missed sleeping next to you and smelling you."
"I hate sleeping alone," Betty admitted. "The other half of the bed always feels like a chasm or something. And I can't sleep there because I think that you should be there. I can't sleep on your side of the bed."
"I can't either," he replied. "But I'm not above stealing your pillow and sleeping with it to make me feel better."
"Oh I've done that before," she told him. "But right now I just want to go sleep forever and ever. And then I have to be at work tomorrow at eight."
"I should make you take the day off, as your boss."
Betty laughed. "No, you shouldn't. People will think that you're just doing that because I'm your girlfriend. And I've just started as editor of Mode. I don't want to make things a mess already just because I'm your girlfriend."
He sighed. "Fine, go sleep. But I'm also going to expect you to rest this weekend. We'll just relax all weekend so you can get over your jet lag."
"Can we watch The Emperor's New Groove?" Betty asked as she snuggled up against her pillow.
Daniel's collection of Disney movies had grown by leaps and bounds since Betty moved in with him. "Whatever you want," he replied. "I watched The Little Mermaid while you were gone."
She laughed. "I'm growing on you."
He pulled her close to his chest. "And I love you for it. You're making me a better man."
58.
"Can't we just elope?" Betty asked her fiancé as she looked at the pile of things related to their wedding that was growing on their dining room table. "We can have a nice reception for our family and friends later but I don't want all this stress and mail. I just want to marry you and have it be legal and all of that. We already live together. Do we really need to bother with getting married?"
Daniel smiled. "It will make our families happy and as I recall, you were the one who said we couldn't have kids until we got married."
"And I do want babies."
"So we're still going to get married next month?"
Betty shrugged. "I guess so. I just hate all the stress around this."
"I know," he said, lacing his fingers through hers. "But just think; you'll get to wear a pretty white dress and promise to love me now, always, and forever. And then we'll dance the night away. All of that will be followed by two beautiful weeks in Rome. Will you still marry me?"
She kissed him and laughed. "I'll still marry you. But I just want all of this stress to be over. I just want to marry you and have it all be over. I just want to be married."
"I thought every little girl dreamed of her wedding day."
"I did although it was always Hilda's dream more than it was mine. But I did want to get married. I wanted to wear the fancy white dress. But you have to remember that Hilda was the pretty one. I was the fat, smart sister."
Daniel sighed, leading his fiancée over to the couch. When he had her settled in his lap, he looked into her eyes. "I don't want to hear you call yourself fat anymore. I think you're absolutely beautiful and I'm sick of hearing you insult yourself. So you don't look exactly like Hilda or the models in those stupid fashion magazines. I don't give a shit about that garbage. I love you the way you are and I don't care what other people look like or think of you."
"You didn't know me when I was twelve."
"No, but I know you now and I love you; now will you please stop insulting my fiancée? I love her and I hate hearing people saying bad things about her."
"You're so sweet," she said. "How did I end up with you?"
"My dad hired you because he was sure that you were the only woman on earth who could both be a good assistant for me and who I would never think of sleeping with."
"How'd that one work out for him?"
"It's hard to say," Daniel replied. "He's dead and we're getting married. How do you think it worked for him?"
She laughed. "I don't care. I'm editor of Mode and I'm marrying you. What more could a girl want in life?"
"Dinner sounds pretty good to me," her fiancé replied. "What do you want me to make you?"
"Empanadas," she told him. "And make them just like my daddy makes them."
"Honey, I can't do anything until you get off my lap."
"But I'm comfy."
"Darling, this is a recurring theme in our relationship. I'm either comfy or I'm ridiculous."
"Or sexy," Betty told him. "Don't forget that I think you're amazingly sexy."
He kissed her cheek. "I'm glad. Now please get off my lap so I can make you dinner."
She sighed. "Make me."
"Okay," he replied, picking her up and then standing up. "Now, what should I do with you while I make dinner?"
"I need to get changed out of my work clothes."
"To the bedroom!" he said and started walking to their bedroom. When he reached it, he dropped her on the bed and then left for the kitchen.
Ignacio had started giving Daniel occasional cooking lessons after he asked Betty to marry him. One of the first things that he'd taught him was empanadas because it was one of Betty's favorite foods. He'd also taught him the secret to his pancakes, which were one of Daniel's favorite things. "You know that I think you're really sexy when you cook," Betty told her fiancé when she came into the kitchen wearing jeans and a plain blue t-shirt.
Daniel, who had removed his suit jacket and dress shirt, laughed. "It's just because you can see all of my muscles."
"I think it's because you remind me of my daddy and you bring out my inner Elektra complex."
He laughed. "Please don't ever say that again. I don't want to think about your inner Elektra complex."
"Oh come on. I know you secretly want to murder your father and marry your mother."
"My dad is already dead."
"Then it's that much easier for you. Oedipus and his mom had four kids together. Just think about it."
"Please excuse me while I gouge my eyes out. The mental images you just presented to me are horrific. Can we please talk about something peaceful, like fuzzy white bunnies?"
But Betty wasn't quite done being mischievous yet. "I don't know if bunnies have oedipal complexes."
"You can leave the kitchen now and come back when you're ready to behave like a rational adult and stop telling me about poor innocent bunnies and their psychological disorders."
She stuck out her lower lip. "But I'm just having fun."
"I'm not enjoying it, young lady. Now if you want to eat dinner, you're going to have to behave for me."
"Fine," she sighed. "Is dinner almost ready yet?"
He nodded. "I just need you to set the table and then we can eat."
"You're going to be an amazing father someday."
"I'm not quite ready," he replied. "But I'll trust you on that."
59.
Claire Meade outlived her husband as well as her oldest child. Alexis Spencer Meade died at the age of seventy after a heart attack. Her brother, at the age of 68, took his sister's death to heart and continued to watch his diet, especially his cholesterol, and take care of himself. Claire lived three more years after that, to see the age of ninety-six. She had attended the weddings of three of her five grandchildren and seen the birth of several great-grandchildren. "She accomplished more than most women could ever dream of doing," Betty told Daniel the morning after his mother's death.
Claire had been living with her son and daughter-in-law for the past ten years or so. And one morning in 2048, she simply didn't wake up. "But she's smiling," Daniel remarked as he looked at his mother's peaceful face. "And she's finally with my dad."
Betty nodded. "She's finally at peace. And she had a good life."
Claire had outlived her husband by thirty-six years and in those thirty-six years, she had seen her son marry an amazing woman and become a father to five beautiful, wonderful children. She had watched Sarah, William, and Lucas each get married and have children. And she had met Jackson, Vivianna's fiancé. She had twice made the trip to Germany to see her grandson, Nikolas, who was playing professional soccer for Bayern in Munich. And while there she had met his girlfriend, Anna. At her funeral, the pallbearers were her son, William, Lucas, Logan Sparks, Marc St. James, and Amanda Tannen's son, Jayden. She hadn't always done the right thing with her life but she had loved the people about whom she cared the most. And she had been loved by her family.
"Why did Nana Claire die?" Sarah's six-year-old son, Michael, asked at the visitation.
"She was old," his mother replied.
"Is Papa Daniel going to die?"
Sarah looked over at her father, who was sitting on a chair with William's infant daughter, Caroline, in his lap. Daniel was seventy-three years old and had white hair. He wore his age well but it was still obvious that he was growing old. "He'll probably die someday but it won't be anytime soon."
"I love Papa Daniel and I don't want him to die."
"I know, Michael," his mother said. "I know exactly how you feel."
Ten-year-old Reese Meade was standing by her grandmother watching the people who were paying their last respects to her great-grandmother. "I don't get it, Grandma. Why do people die?"
"It's a natural process," Betty replied. "At some point, our bodies get too old to function properly anymore and we die. And I think by the time you get to be as old as your Nana Claire was, you get lonely."
"Why was she lonely?"
"Her husband died over thirty years ago and many of her friends had died. She was lonely."
"But she had you and Papa Daniel."
"I know, but her daughter had died three years ago. And she'd had a long, difficult life. I think she was very much so ready to die."
"But I didn't want her to die."
Betty squeezed her oldest granddaughter's hand. "I know. But you'll see her again someday."
"Do you promise?"
"I do. I'm sure you'll see her again."
"I feel old," Daniel told his wife that night when they got home from the funeral home. "I feel old and tired."
"I know how you feel."
"We're both orphans now."
"We're adults; I don't think we count as orphans."
"But we both have lost both of our parents," he protested. "And Alexis died; I've lost my older sibling twice now."
Betty nodded. "I don't know how much longer Hilda is going to make it," she admitted. "She's seventy-years-old and she's never really taken care of herself, especially since Papi died."
"We could bring her to live with us," Daniel suggested.
His wife laughed. "No, honey, I think we need to move out of this house. It's too much for just the two of us."
"Are you suggesting we sell it and move to a nursing home?"
"I was thinking of an apartment or a condo someplace. Daniel, we could move to Florida like all the other old people."
"We could move to Germany and be closer to Nik."
"And then we'd be farther from Luke, Sarah, Vivianna, and Will. You can't take me away from all of my grandchildren."
Betty and Daniel had eight grandchildren. Sarah and Logan had three children; Michael Paul was six, Elizabeth Rose was three, and Daniel Logan was a year old. William and his wife, Marie, had two daughters; Simone Olivia was two and Caroline Ava was about four months old. Lucas had Reese and then he'd married Clarissa Burton about two years earlier and they had twin daughters, Adelaide Marie and Nora Louise, who were seventeen months old. Daniel occasionally liked to joke that Sarah was his favorite child because she was the only one who had given him grandsons. "How do you expect the Meade name to live on after I die?" he teased his sons. "Do you expect the Meade name to die when you three die?"
His sons simply laughed at him whenever he started in on his rant and he would shake his head at them and say, "And you think I'm joking. I really do love your sister more."
"I've buried both of my parents and my sister," Daniel said the next night as he sat in his bed. "I buried Becks. I'm seventy-three years old and I'm not getting any younger."
"Honey, I'm sixty-five; I've buried both of my parents and I don't know how much longer my sister will last. I know how you feel. We're not going to last much longer. And I think that it's time we acknowledged that."
"We can't keep this house anymore. You're right about that. I think we should just let the kids take what they want and we'll find someplace smaller. We can sell this place and travel more."
"And we don't need two cars anymore. I'm retiring from Mode. I'm too old to do that anymore."
"I'm talking to Sarah about taking over Meade Publications from me. I can't handle the stress of it anymore. I'm too old for it."
"I can't believe that she's the one who has followed us into all of this. I'm not surprised that William is a photographer; he's been headed that way since he was four."
"Vivianna is headed into publishing too," Daniel said.
"That isn't a surprise either," Betty replied. "Lucas went into business, which I always figured would happen. He has a head for numbers and sense."
"And you've been predicting Nikolas's soccer career since before he was born."
"He couldn't be that good at kicking my bladder without any reason."
Her husband laughed. "The only real surprise is Sarah and publishing. I would have thought she would be a doctor or something."
"Are you referring to when she used to cut up her dolls?"
He nodded. "And she was just always so smart. I figured she was going to change the world."
"Give her the reins at Meade Publications. I can guarantee you that she'll blow you away."
"She's a lot like you," Daniel said. "She's very driven and determined."
"Vivianna is like that too."
"So is William. He isn't using photography the way his mentor did. He isn't like Becks. He prefers news and real stories with history and relationships and details."
"Well, he isn't doing it to sleep with his models the way Becks was."
Daniel laughed. "No, he's a happily married man who is more interested in showing people what's going on in the Third World and Antarctica."
"Simone and Caroline will see more of the world as children than most people see in a lifetime," Betty said. "I'm a little jealous of them."
"I can show you the world," he sang to her. "Shining shimmering wonders, tell me, princess; when did you last let your heart decide?"
"I really changed your world when I introduced you to Disney movies and music."
"You really did. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"You would have been very, very bored."
A/N: I'm getting pretty close to the end. I think I have about eight more episodes. I'm going to do things like their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and their first night at home after Vivianna starts college. And I want to do the weddings of all their kids. But please review!
