A/N: I don't own Ugly Betty. This really and truly is the end of the story and I'm sad to be ending this but all good things must come to an ends. And I'm very grateful for all the reviews I've gotten.
68.
"Yet another wedding," Daniel sighed. "Remind me again why we had five children"
Betty laughed. "I wanted another daughter and it took two tries to get a daughter. But we ended up with Vivianna."
"I like Vivianna," he replied. "She's a great kid."
"Daniel, she's twenty-five years old. She's old enough to get married. And you like Jackson."
"I like him more than Gabriel, the guy she was dating when William got married."
"I told you that relationship wouldn't last," Betty told him with a smile.
"You're a smart lady."
"That, my dear sir, is why you married me. You need a woman who was smarter than you were."
"And are you?"
She shrugged. "Sometimes I'm smarter than you. But you're no idiot yourself, so it's difficult to say. There are times when I'm pretty sure that you must be pretty intelligent underneath those bright blue eyes and the sunny smile."
"Honey, I went to Harvard."
"I didn't. We couldn't afford it."
Daniel looked at his wife. "You've really traveled a long way in the world, haven't you, Mrs. Meade?"
"Betty from the Block marries the president of Meade Publications," she replied. "How did this little girl make out so well?"
"She changed the life of the poor little rich boy, Daniel Meade."
Betty looked up at her husband. "I think we both got pretty lucky."
"I'd have to agree with that," he replied.
Just then Sarah came out of the room where Vivianna was getting ready. "Mom, Vivianna wants you."
"I'm coming."
Sarah looked at her dad. "Are you ready for this?"
He shrugged. "I've got Vivianna's wedding this summer and then next winter, we're all off to Germany for Nikolas's wedding."
"It's crazy," she said, adjusting her daughter Claire on her hip. "Does it ever scare you how we're all growing up and starting our own families?"
Daniel looked at his daughter and granddaughter. "Sometimes it does. It mostly just reminds me that I'm getting older."
"Do you feel old?" she asked.
He nodded. "On days like today, I really feel old. I'm reminded that you and your siblings are growing up. And that must mean that I'm getting older. I'm seventy-three years old, Sarah. I'm no spring chicken."
She smiled at him. "But you don't seem old. I know Will and Luke used to call you an old man but you don't seem like you're old."
"Thanks," he said. "But there are days when my arthritis is acting up when I feel old. And when I look at the pile of pills I have to take every morning, I know that I must be old. Your aunt Alexis died a few years ago. Your grandmother died two years ago. I'm not getting any younger."
"Can you hold Claire for me?" she asked holding out his granddaughter.
Daniel took his youngest granddaughter with a willing smile. "I'd love to spend some time with this little angel."
"Thanks; I should probably get back to Vivianna. I think she's getting a little nervous."
"I'm going to take Claire to check on her soon-to-be Uncle Jackson."
"About three years ago, my youngest daughter brought home a young man who she told me over the phone reminded her of me a lot," Daniel Meade said at his daughter's reception. "And I became a little nervous about meeting this Jackson Waters. But then I met Jack and I understood why my daughter loved him. He and I do have a lot in common but the thing that I liked the most about Jack was the way he loved and respected my daughter and our family. I won't lie; the motorcycle freaked me out a little at first. But I saw that there was a real person underneath all of that. He wasn't just a stereotype. And he was very good to Vivianna. Several years ago, Vivianna told me that I was her favorite person in the world and she wanted to stay with me for the rest of her life. She told me that she was never going to love anyone more than she loved me. I told her that couldn't be true, that someday she would find someone and get married and she would love him more than she loved me. She told me that was a lie; she could never love anyone more than she loved me. But I think that's happened; she found a man she loved more than her daddy. And I'm so happy for you two. Jack, welcome to the family. And to everyone else here, we hope you enjoy the reception. Have a great evening!"
Daniel went back to his wife and kissed her cheek. "We only have one more kid to marry off and we're doing that at Christmastime," she told him.
"Are you ready for Christmas in Germany?" he asked her.
"I've got six months to get ready. I'm just not sure I'm ready to watch the last of my kids get married."
"Oh Betty, we've been through a lot together. Thirty-six years of marriage and five kids," he said with a smile.
"And grandchildren," she replied. "How much longer do you think we can make this work?"
"I was kind of thinking that we could go until death does us part."
"I think we should just die together. That will be easier for both of us and it would probably make the whole funeral thing less expensive for the kids."
69.
Six months later, the Meades gathered in Munich, Germany for Nikolas's wedding. Anna Hahnenberg was a tall, slender brunette with bright blue eyes and an energetic smile. And she was a sweetheart. It was obvious that she loved Nikolas and his whole family adored her. She was great with all of the various Meade grandchildren. Claire Sparks was always hanging on Anna whenever she was around. "I love her," Daniel told Betty. "I really think she's perfect for Nik and she's a great addition to the family."
"Now if we could only convince them to move to America," Betty replied. "Then I would have all my children close by and I'd be completely happy."
"You'll have to talk to Nik and Anna about that," her husband said. "I don't have anything to do with what our kids do or where they live. I can't control them; I learned that a long time ago."
She sighed. "He's the last one to get married. I can't believe we've watched all of them get married."
"I'm amazed that they've all done so well picking spouses."
"Sarah told me once that it's because they had such great examples of what marriage should be when they were growing up."
Daniel smiled. "We are a great pair."
"We've worked hard to make this marriage work."
He nodded. "But we've been very happy together."
"I think your dad would be amazed if he could see us."
"I think he had a feeling about us towards the end. Remember that he did ask you to take care of me after he died. I think he knew that you and I were very important to each other."
"But I don't think he ever would have predicted us getting married."
"That was the magic of it all. When I met you, I never would have guessed that I would marry you. But then I probably never even considered getting married until Sofia."
"Poor Sofia," Betty sighed. "She never bothered to grow up and move into the real world. There was a place in the world for the Modern Young Woman but she misunderstood it and that's why MYW failed. And she hurt you badly."
"Well, I seem to have recovered and you got to marry me. And that should make you pretty damn happy."
"Oh it does. It makes me happier than you could ever imagine."
"Last night, Nikolas asked me if I had any advice for him before getting married," William began his best man's toast at the wedding reception. "And I told him that waiting to ask the question until the day before the wedding wasn't the greatest idea. But then I told him what my dad told me about ten years ago. On my parents' twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, I asked my dad what the secret to the success of their marriage was. And he told me the secret was self-sacrifice and realizing that you aren't the most important person in the world. You always have to put your spouse, and your children when they come, ahead of yourself. My dad said that marriage is never easy but if you're with the right person, it's always worth the effort. I got married a few years ago and I realized how true that was. Marriage means putting your family first all the time. A famous movie once said that 'love means never having to say you're sorry' but I think that's wrong. I think love, especially in marriage, means knowing when and how to say that you're sorry. Marriage isn't always easy or fun, but I think that Nik and Anna are really ready for this step. I think they're good for each other. And I'm pretty sure that they can make their marriage last forever. To Nik and Anna, I wish you have a long, happy, and peaceful marriage!"
Nik danced with his mother to Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World." "Mom, I really want to thank you and Dad for everything you guys have ever done for me. You guys have given me a great example of what marriage should be."
Betty smiled. "Just come back to the U.S. someday. Your father and I miss having you nearby."
"I have a job here in Germany. And Anna's family is here."
"I know but I miss having my son nearby. And your father isn't getting any younger. To be honest, neither am I."
"Mom, you're in your sixties and Dad is in his seventies; you guys aren't that old."
"Nikolas, just take it into consideration for my sake, please."
"All right," he said. "We'll consider it."
"Thank you. Now, I'm very proud of you. I really like Anna and I think you two will be very happy together."
"I just want to have a marriage like yours and Dad's. You guys love each other so much."
"It takes a lot of work. But if you work hard, you can do it."
"Well, then I'll work hard because I want what you two have."
70.
Daniel Meade had a massive heart attack in June of 2062 and Betty had to quickly gather her family together in his hospital room. All of her children except for Nikolas lived in New York, so getting them together was simple. But she needed Nik and his family to fly in from Los Angeles and she was worried that they wouldn't make it in time to say good-bye. But Nikolas made it in time to say good-bye to his father, thankfully. Betty sobbed as she watched her children and grandchildren say good-bye to Daniel. She knew that her husband was dying and there was no hope for him. Nothing could save him now; he was dying. And for the first time in more than fifty years, Betty wouldn't have Daniel Meade in her life. His body was tired and couldn't make it any longer. But he found the strength to say good-bye to each of his five children and their spouses and all of his grandchildren who were twelve and older.
William Meade stood next to his mother, holding her hand throughout everything. He knew that his mother's heart was breaking as she watched the love of her life die. Betty clung to Daniel's gray, frail hand as long as she could. She gave each of her children time alone with their father. But she didn't want to leave her husband's side. "I want to be with him. Will, he's dying. And I can't bear it." Tears were streaming down her cheeks. "I just want Daniel. He's been my world, my life for the past fifty years."
After he'd talked to each of his children and grandchildren, Daniel wanted to be alone with his wife. "Betty, I don't want to leave you alone. But I have to go," he told her in a tired, rasping voice.
"Daniel, I can't live without you," she sobbed. "I just can't do it."
"But you can; you've lived without me before."
"I was in my twenties the last time I lived without you. I've been with you for over fifty years. Daniel, you're all I have. I've lost most of my family and friends. All I have is you and our children and grandchildren."
"Then live for them. They love you more than you could imagine."
"But I want you," she said, kissing his ashen, tired cheek. "Don't leave me, Daniel. Don't go where I can't follow you."
"Betty, I love you. And I'll always love you. Someday you will follow me; I promise that we'll meet again."
"And I'll always love you," she sobbed, clinging to his hand.
"I have to leave you," he told her. "I don't want to but I have to. But I'll always be with you. I promise you that."
Betty kissed Daniel's pale lips and he smiled faintly. "I love you, Daniel."
"And I love you always and forever," were his last words before sighing and closing his eyes. And then the lines on the monitors went flat and the silent room was filled with a horrific, monotone beep. William came back into the room and took his mother by the hand. Then he led her out of the room as tears spilled down his cheeks and his mother sobbed. They left Daniel Meade's body behind them with the doctors.
"He's gone," Betty whispered to no one in particular. "My Daniel is gone."
Her oldest son pulled her into his arms and held her as they both sobbed. And then Sarah, Luke, Nik, and Vivianna came over and also wrapped their arms around their mother.
"My father was the strongest, bravest man I knew," Lucas Meade said at his father's funeral five days later. St. Patrick's Cathedral was packed full of Daniel's friends, family, and people who had known him through business and charitable connections; even the mayor of New York was there. "My father, Daniel Meade, knew what it meant to love people and to care about them. He was married to my mother for forty-eight years and they had five children together. He was a good, patient father who taught us by his actions more than his words. And he was a good businessman. For forty years, he was the president of Meade Publications and he made it the most powerful publishing house in New York City, probably in the nation. He was dedicated to his job, to his friends, and most of all, to his family. He loved my mother more than anyone else in the world. And their marriage was an example to their children and others around them. We looked up to them and we wanted to be like them. I admire them both so much. I wasn't always a good son to them but they were always patient with me. My dad was patient with us through so many things. He never stopped loving us kids. Looking around this church today, I can see no greater tribute to my father. He had countless friends. He had twenty-one grandchildren and he loved each and every one of them. He had five children, all of whom respected and adored him. And he had a wife who loved him and whom he loved. They had a strong, faithful marriage."
Lucas looked at his mother who was seated between his two brothers in the front pew. Betty was only five-foot-two while William was six-foot-one and Nikolas was six-foot-three. She looked lost between the two of them. And the way she was clinging to their strong hands, it looked like she was hanging on to them in an attempt to stay alive. How would Betty live without Daniel? The two were so a part of one another that it was impossible to imagine one without the other. Betty was strong but her heart was breaking. And it didn't seem likely that Betty would live much longer. She was in good health but if you have no will to live, you can die of a broken heart. Daniel and Betty had been married for forty-eight years and they'd been together for even longer. Betty really had lost a large part of herself when she lost her husband.
"My father was the best man I've ever known," Lucas said as he cleared his throat. "And the world has lost a great man. But if we try to live like he did, I think that his spirit will live on through us. He loved people and he was a very charitable man. He was a devoted husband and father. He was an honest and fair businessman. He shared his blessings with the people around him. He genuinely believed in honesty and fairness. Daniel Meade was a good man and I don't know how we're going to live without him. He was the best, the bravest man I ever met and I was so privileged to be able to call him my father. Dad, I'm really going to miss you."
Lucas had tears in his eyes as he walked back to his pew. He stopped at his father's casket and looked at his father's body for a moment before gently squeezing his father's lifeless hand. He bit his lip and walked to his mother. He hugged her and then kissed her cheek. "Mom, we love you and he loves you still wherever he is," he whispered in her ear.
Betty clung to her son for a minute before he released her and took his seat between Will and Vivianna. Vivianna took her older brother's hand and squeezed it. "He would be proud of you," she whispered in his ear. "He is proud of you. He loved you and he would have loved what you just said." And then the tears started pouring down Lucas's face; he just clung to his younger sister's hand and sobbed.
Before the priest closed the casket, he let Betty have one last chance to say good-bye to her husband. William walked with his mother to his father's casket and watched with tears in his eyes as his mother adjusted his father's tie and kissed his pale, lifeless cheek. And only William heard the words she whispered to her dead husband, "I'll be along shortly. Wait for me; Daniel, I'm coming to be with you soon." Daniel's pallbearers were William, Lucas, Nikolas, Justin, Logan, Jackson, Michael, and Daniel Sparks. When the funeral ended and Will and Nik went to escort their father's casket out of the church, Sarah and Vivianna took their brother's places beside their mother. Sarah noticed how frail and fragile her mother's hands were as she took Betty's hands in her own. She wrapped her arm around her mother's shoulders and kissed the top of her head. "We love you and we care about you so much."
Betty looked up at her older daughter and nodded. And then Vivianna kissed her mother's cheek. "We're not going anywhere, Mom; I promise."
71.
After Daniel's death, her children quickly moved her into Sarah's house. She was quieter and sadder than they'd ever seen her before. She didn't eat as much and she just seemed tired all the time. And when they asked her doctor about it, he told them that if she didn't want to keep living, there was nothing they could do for her. "Your mother was married to the same man for most of her life. She may feel that she has no reason to live anymore. She may feel that a huge part of her has died and there is no point in going on. I wouldn't say that your mother is depressed; I would say that she has accepted old age and death"
And in mid-July, Sarah went to her mother's room one morning to find that Betty Suarez-Meade simply just hadn't woken up. "She looks so peaceful and happy," Sarah said to Logan as they looked at her mother's body.
"She's with Daniel now," Logan told his wife. "She's where she has wanted to be for the past six weeks and where she always was for forty-eight years. She's happy and at peace."
Sarah nodded. "And in a weird way, I'm happy for her. I'm sad that she's gone but I'm happy that she's with Dad. I don't think she ever wanted to live without him."
"I'm not sure she could," her husband replied. "They had become too much of the same person to live without each other. She died of a broken heart."
And five days later, the Meade clan found itself in St. Patrick's Cathedral once again. "My mother and father loved each other passionately," Vivianna said. "And I think that my mother died of a broken heart. She simply couldn't bear to live without my father. My mother was a strong, passionate woman who loved without reservation. My grandmother used to call her 'the Latina spitfire who turned the Meade family on its ear.' And she meant it in the best way possible. She was a hard worker and she did an amazing job as the Editor in Chief of Mode for many, many years. But above all else she was a good, devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. She loved us children and she loved my father. And now she is with him. She's at peace now. That gives me peace knowing that she is with him and that she is happy with him. I'm going to miss her more than words can express. But I know that she'll still be watching over us. And I know that she is happy."
The same eight men who had escorted Daniel's casket were now escorting his wife's casket. At the funeral luncheon, William said to his siblings, "She didn't want to live without him. When she said her last good-bye to him at his funeral, she told him that she would be along shortly."
"Before he died, she told him not to go where she couldn't follow," Sarah said.
"And now she's followed him," Nikolas admitted sadly. "I can't imagine life without the two of them. They were so warm and amazing."
"They were good people," Luke said. "And they were amazing parents. I'm really going to miss them."
His siblings all nodded. "But they're together forever now," William said. "And we'll see them again someday."
"I think they're together watching over us now," Vivianna told her siblings. "I think they're up in heaven watching over us and making sure that we're all right."
"I bet they're laughing at us," Lucas replied. "I was always sure that they were laughing at us up in their bedroom."
In a cemetery in New York City, there is the plot where the Meade family buries their dead. You can find there the graves of Bradford Meade, Claire Meade, Alexis Spencer Meade, and other members of that famous family. But the most beautiful gravestone is near the center of the family plot. It is two hearts enjoined so delicately and beautifully that you cannot really tell where one begins and the other ends. And the words engraved on the stone give you one small hint of the beautiful love these two souls shared with each other.
Daniel Bradford Meade
May 15, 1975-June 7, 2062
Loving husband and father
Betty Rosa Suarez-Meade
April 20, 1984-July 19, 2062
Devoted wife and mother
Rest in peace. You will never be forgotten.
There are always flowers lying on this gravesite. And people who see it know that whoever this Daniel and Betty were, they truly will not be forgotten. And they must have had one amazingly beautiful life together.
FINIS
A/N: It's over. I really hope you enjoyed it. And I cannot tell you how much I cried when I wrote this chapter. Please review. And yes, I did make up middle names as well as birthdates for Betty and Daniel. Based on the show we know what year and month Betty was born in but that's it. And you can approximately guess the age of Daniel Meade based on a couple things.
And as promised here is a small teaser for my next story "A Natural Father" that I hope to have at least a chapter of posted in the next few days.
"I, Gabriella, take you, Peter, to be my lawfully wedded husband for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as we both shall live."
Daniel Meade and his wife watched as their oldest daughter promised now, always, and forever to Peter Mariano, her long-time boyfriend. Twenty-five years earlier, Gabriella Rosa Meade's birth had turned the lives of both of her parents upside down and changed everything for both of them. Daniel squeezed Betty's hand as tears slid down her face and he smiled remembering how one little baby girl had changed so much in his life.
"What's wrong?" Daniel Meade asked his assistant as he walked by her desk one Monday morning in September. "You look like someone just shot your bunny."
Betty Suarez looked up at her boss with a faint smile. "I had a rough weekend."
"Do you want to follow me into my office and tell me about it?"
She shrugged. "I'm not really sure."
"That wasn't really a question," he said setting his briefcase and coat down on her desk. Then he grabbed the back of her desk chair and started pulling it and Betty towards his office.
Anyway, I'm very grateful to everyone who reviewed and especially to people who gave me ideas. I hope you'll check out my next story. And I really hope that Silvio Horta gives me some substantial Daniel-Betty interaction in the near future. I really think that those two are destined for each other.
