~ Chapter 17 ~

Commitment

As she opened the door, she saw beau sat up on the bed, his back towards her, she saw his TV screen and he was obviously playing playing his PlayStation.

"Am I allowed in?" she asked and smiled when she saw turned to her.

"Hey mom."

Wilhelmina walked around the room and took a seat next to him, placing the food tray on the bed side.

"Brought you breakfast."

"You know you didn't have to do that. I can get my own breakfast..." he tried to reason but he felt his mom's hand on his head, telling him to shut up.

"I want to." she said softly while stroking his hair.

"Because you're leaving soon?" he faced his mom.

"Hm." All of the sudden, she looked down, uncomfortable.

"Don't worry, I'm fine with it, I understand." he smiled to assure her.

"I'll miss you sweety."

"You did a good job wooing my mother last night." Nico said laughing. She was sat opposite Daniel in the garden.

"Wooing wasn't exactly the word I was thinking of, more like impressing."

"Because it's cleaner?" she smirked, and Daniel

"I guess."

"Well, I think the words 'clean' and 'Daniel Meade' doesn't go well together." she laughed. Daniel hit her on the arm lightly while shaking his head.

"Shut up... By the way, did she say anything about me?" he asked.

"Regarding what? If it's about your performance last night, I didn't hear anything, I probably closed my ears at that time."

"Did she?" he raised his brow, suddenly interested.

"No! You're sick!" she grinned.

"What did she say about me then?"

"Oh. Nothing much..."

"Tell me."

Nico crossed her arms and bit her lip, "She told me that you now know about Beau." she looked up to him

"Wait. You know?"

"Back to my mom. She said you don't hate her for doing what she did, even thought you have the right to - and I would so hate her if I were you, but we're two different people."

"Wilhelmina, she's an amazing person inside. It's kind of hard to figure out how she turned out to be such a bitch."

"That's one of her many features." Nico laughed quietly.

"Quit joking now. Tell me more."

"Good news though, she said she won't be telling Beau very soon, but at least she didn't say that she's not gonna tell him."

"Oh, she said that?" Nico nodded.

"Ugh, I'm still hungry, be right back." she stood up.

"Hey, are you going back to Italy?" Daniel asked looking up to see her back.

"Not had the chance to talk about that yet... But I'll be staying here for two more weeks with Beau."

"Willie and I leave in 3 days." he informed her.

"Just make sure you take good care of her." she smiled at Daniel before she went in.

"Don't worry, I'll handle everything, your Mom will be safe with me." Daniel said as he and Nico watched Wilhelmina and Beau saying their goodbyes to each other. Nico looked at Daniel.

"Have you said bye to Beau yet?"

"It's okay."

"Go on, he's your son. Don't you at least want to say bye before you leave, you might not see him for a while." Nico pushed him to go to Beau. Wilhelmina pulled away from her son's hug when she saw Daniel. She gave him a light smile, before walking over to where Nico was.

"Big man." he said, and the boy grinned.

"It's really nice to have met you Daniel." he said and hugged Daniel. Daniel was shocked so he just stood there for some time, unsure of what to do, but in the end he too wrapped his arms around Beau. Then he leveled with his height and played with his hair.

"Don't cause any trouble here alright?" he smiled.

"I'm a good boy, right mom?" he looked at Wilhelmina.

"And I'm responsible Daniel!" said Nico. Wilhelmina laughed and put her arm around Nico's shoulder pulling her closer, and she kissed her on the head.

"Take care of yourself too Nico."

"Sure mom." she smiled shyly.

"Again, I'm happy to have you back. I won't screw up as much this time." she tried to hide her laugh.

"I'll believe that when I see it." Nico joked, earning a laugh from Daniel, so Wilhelmina glared at him.

"We're gonna be late Willie." Daniel announced looking at his clock. Wilhelmina nodded.

As soon as they arrived back in New York. Daniel dropped Wilhelmina back to her apartment., he went in with her. He sat down on the sofa with her since he asked her if they could talk. They couldn't do that back in France or in the airplane, so he figured it was better it it was in one of their homes.

"What exactly are we going about this?" he asked with his hands clasped together. She just stared at him unsure.

"We can go back to normal..." she suggested.

"What if I tell you that I don't want that."

"What do you want?"

"I want a relationship." he looked at her straight in the eye and she shifted her gaze to the floor, but she pulled herself together and laughed quietly. "You're kidding right?"

"No." he shook his head.

"Daniel, it's complicated. One, your mother hates me. Two, the press will kill us. Three, we're enemies remember? Four, we have a child. And five, we're not the same people we used to be. You see, so many obstacles."

"Well one, I can speak to my mother. Two, who cares about the press. Three, not anymore, we're lovers. Four, so what if we have a child? That's a good thing, it'll make us stronger. And five, we are the same people, we just don't want to accept that." he sat closer to her and took her hands.

"We can make this work."

"What about Beau?"

"You can tell him when you're ready.. It's about the right timings Willie." She looked up to meet his lips and they shared a tender kiss.

"I love you." Daniel said, she just smiled, unsure of what to say yet. He understood that, he wasn't really expecting such a big dramatic change of her personality. She wasn't exactly gonna admit her feelings yet, but her committing in a relation was enough for him.

Betty greeted Daniel with a huge hug as soon as he came out of the elevator. They walked side by side to go to his office.

"So boss.. You've been gone for a long time. What have you been up to?"

"Lots." he said smiling.

"Ooh, you're in a good mood. Something good happened? You have to tell me everything." she clasped her hands together, showing her excitement.

"Yeah, I think I'll need to. But now now okay?" he said and entered his office. Betty sat on her desk.

"And you told him? My God Willie! This is like big, no huge! It's massive, as in Betty massive!" she rolled her eyes at her assistants' exaggeration.

"I had to Marc. It's not a big deal, they get on well and he was good to me when I was there. He kept me quite sane." she shrugged.

Ring, ring.

"Wilhelmina Slater." she answered.

"Hey, good morning." she heard Daniel's voice. She paused to send Marc our.

"Good morning. Why are you calling me?" she raised an eyebrow and looked to his office, she could see him staring at her with a goofy grin on his face. She still hadn't identified if she like that grin or not.

"Just to say morning."

"What are we, in high school? Come on Daniel, remember our little talk this morning? Enemies in the office, lovers at home."

"I just don't get why we can't just be lovers every second of the day. 'Cos I'd sure enjoy that."

She snorted and he laughed, "I bet... But I still want to you to suffer a bit." she smirked and she heard him laugh louder.

"Now sweetheart, get your lazy ass back to work."

"You meant sexy ass, right?" he smirked.

"I'm hanging up." she shook her head with a small smile on her lips.

A/N: Dear god, sorry for the long wait. Well, i'm home now, so the updates will be back to normal now. Just wanna say thanks for the reviews, they really do make me smile. And probably about 5-6 chapters left for this story. Anyways, love ya all :)

Next: Daniel tells Betty the truth & Daniel push his luck.