Hypotheses of the Unverifiable Kind

Disclaimer: Ugly Betty does not belong to me. I'm just borrowing the characters for my own personal, obsessive needs . . .

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Daniel/Betty

Summary: 'Exactly what were you supposed to do when you found out your boss may just be head over heels for you? Prove it, of course.' Hopelessly Daniel and Betty . . .

Author's Note: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the wonderful reviews. You guys make me so happy. Apologies for the wait, but I hope you like it . . .

Chapter Four

Christina had that smug look on her face again.

Betty folded her arms across her chest, glared back at her friend and said with an unexpected bite to the word, "What?"

Christina shook her head, trying her hardest to feign sincerity, "Nothing," she said, stabbing the mannequin in front of her with a pin – the fabric currently draped all over it being of the 'far too thin to wear respectably on its own' variety. "Nothing at all," she repeated.

The repetition of the words and the fact that the smile playing on her lips had not faltered in the least did nothing to curb Betty's suspicions.

"Christina?" Betty snapped, "What?"

Betty had returned back to Mode, only in time to realise that she and Daniel had spent nearly three hours together and it was already fast approaching lunch. Daniel had shrugged his shoulders and told her to take her break now since there wasn't much point in starting work and then stopping after ten minutes. Betty had reluctantly agreed, feeling illogically yet unsurprisingly guilty at having had such an unproductive morning.

She had made her way down to Christina in the Closet and had found her relentlessly attempting to pin together a flimsy piece of fabric that draped off the mannequin at odd angles. She was huffing in annoyance, muttering some Scottish obscenity, which Betty thankfully had zero familiarity with and therefore understanding of.

Christina had turned around, taken one look at her friend and the expression she was desperately trying not to wear so obviously, and asked, "What's going on?"

Betty having given up on any pretence of not looking as ruffled as she felt, sat down on one of the many seats dotted around the Closet, and spilt all. From the hours they had spent drinking coffee in that beautiful little coffee shop, to her little lie about Henry and then how Daniel had taken her to pay her respects at her former boyfriend's fake grave. The only thing she didn't bring up, was the stomach churning feeling and momentary disorientation that had been forced upon her when she had realised that the possibility Daniel was in love with her, wasn't quite as impossible as she had first thought.

But Christina was sharp enough to know that that was in fact the crux of Betty's problems, even if she hadn't uttered a single word on the subject.

And so she sighed, throwing her arms up in the air as she turned around to face her clueless, bespectacled friend, realising she was going to have to spell it out for her, one letter after the other;

"He's in love with you, Betty."

Betty entirely flustered and so failing miserably at the appearance of nonchalance said, "You're not starting that up again, are you?"

She stood up from her seat, adamantly trying to persuade her friend, and perhaps even herself, "Daniel is not in love with me. It's stupid and ridiculous."

"Oh okay," Christina shrugged exasperated, "As ridiculous as the fact he willingly spent three hours with you beside a faux grave symbolising the lost love of your life, one Henry Grubstick?"

"He was just being a good friend. And it was not three hours."

Turning back around, Christina stabbed the faceless mannequin in front of her with more pins several times in frustration, "Oh Betty" she growled, "You're smarter than that-"

"Exactly!" Betty exclaimed almost as if having proven some universally unsolvable puzzle, "Exactly, I'm smart enough to know that a man like Daniel could never be in love with someone like me."

"Someone like you?" Christina repeated; mouth agape. She turned back around, and then marched forward with all the theatrics of a pantomime fairy Godmother, and quite literally shook her friend by the shoulders, "Now you listen here Betty Suarez, any man would be lucky to have you. And hell, Daniel probably doesn't even deserve you."

Touched as she was, Betty was still as unconvinced as she had been when Christina had first slurred the words to her that night at the bar. She collapsed back into the chair she had been stood in front of and groaned, "This is ridiculous," she muttered, head in hands, "This whole conversation is ridiculous."

Christina looked down at her; a rare moment of utter seriousness flashing across her face as she said, "So why does it bother you so much?"

Betty looked up at her through parted hands.

She didn't have an answer but it seemed it had been only rhetorical on Christina's part as the Scottish seamstress then came out with the most unexpected of words;

"Ask him," she said

"Ask him what?" Betty returned.

"Ask him how he feels about you."

Betty scoffed, "I'm not going to do that! Are you completely insane?"

Christina shrugged, "You'll never know unless you try."

Betty shook her head, "No." She stood up, paced a little, and muttered the word, "No," again and with a little more resolve.

She stopped still, nodded her head as she reaffirmed to herself and Christina that she was not going to ask Daniel if he was in fact in love with her, and then turned and left the Closet and a somewhat deflated and defeated Christina.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Betty had somehow made her way back to her desk; the operative word being 'somehow.'

She had been watching her feet as she walked; her mind lost to the wandering paths of sweet words, an undying hope that she could not fathom and which refused to be subdued, and most distracting of all, the bluest, most beautiful of eyes that seemed to watch her every step. It was no small wonder that she had nearly bumped into every member of staff that had crossed her path and it was even more surprising that the one person she would careen head first into, would be him.

A muted "oomph" left her lips, only to be smothered by his shirt and perhaps more specifically, his lean, hard chest.

She was sure she could feel her heart thumping away in her ears as she stumbled back.

"Whoa, Betty," Daniel laughed, one hand coming to rest on her shoulder as he steadied her. His hand was warm, like it always was, and Betty wondered if the man always had a core body temperature several degrees above normal. It explained a lot. He was always hot . . . not hot hot. Not that he wasn't hot, because, well, he was . . .

Positive she was turning a lovely shade of red, she cursed her mind's inability to switch off for even two seconds and give her that much needed time to process things. Only small things, like why on earth she was suddenly paying attention to trivial things such as her boss' aesthetics and physical attributes.

Once again, she found herself cursing Christina.

Stuck in another daze, Daniel's concerned voice waded in through the tangle of her thoughts, "Betty?" he said, "Are you ok?"

She nodded dumbly, "Fine. I'm fine."

He raised a brow, entirely sceptical, "You sure?"

"Ask him." There was Christina's voice in her head again, "Ask him how he feels about you."

"Daniel," she said with a suddenness that made him frown.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong," Betty said, her heart thumping away in her chest, perilously close to ditching its normal sinus rhythm, "I just-"

Daniel's hand had left her shoulder as he moved to put on the coat that he had held in his other hand. Betty hadn't even noticed.

Mindlessly she helped him pull it on, tugging it around to the front, doing up one of the buttons, "I was just wondering-"

The coat finally registered in her brain, as she then asked, with no regard to what she had been trying, and failing miserably, to ask initially, "Where are you going?"

Daniel gave her an odd look, a fleeting smile that soon resurfaced; coy and unmistakeably unsure of himself, "I've got a date."

To any other casual observer, it was plain as daylight that Daniel was trying to gage her reaction, but Betty was ever oblivious.

"Oh," was all she could manage, "As in a date date?"

Daniel nodded, "Yeah."

"Oh," Betty said again before she pushed back her glasses and attempted her poorest smile yet, "Well uh, have fun."

"I will," Daniel returned the smile, just as lacking in sincerity - not that she realised.

"Well if that's all," he said.

Betty nodded.

Daniel nodded back.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay," Betty repeated in her dumbfounded haze.

And with nothing left to say, Betty turned back to her desk, and Daniel left her; rounding the corner, and finally, disappearing from view.

A/N 2: So this fic seriously has a mind of its own. Now I'm all for autonomy and Bunny Rights, but it would be nice if the plot bunnies gave me a heads up once in a while. And despite my crazy ramblings, I hope you guys are still reading and enjoying, and once again, as always, I would love to know your thoughts. Cheers.

SmilinStar

xxx