It was Thursday evening the week following the magazine launch and Betty was getting into bed. Daniel had gone out with some of the gang from his work so she had spent the evening doing some work she had brought home and catching up with people in New York. She had been on Skype with both Hilda and Amanda and she had sent a few emails to some friends as well.

She was just dozing off when her cell phone rang. She looked at the display – it was Daniel.

"Hello." Betty answered.

"Heeey, Betty. How's it goin'?" Daniel sounded slightly inebriated.

"It's fine. It's late. Did you have a good time?"

"Yeah. I had a blast. You? Did you have a good time?" He had clearly forgotten she was staying in.

"Sure." Betty smiled to herself – he must have had a great time. "Um…Why are you calling?" She didn't want to sound rude but it was getting kind of late for small talk – she had to go to work in the morning.

"Oh ya…why I'm calling…" He paused like he had to think about it.

"Daniel?" Betty wondered if he was still there.

"Ya?"

"How much did you have to drink?"

"I'm not sure. My mates kept buying me drinks." This was the first time Daniel had gone out with the guys from work since he'd started his job. Betty wondered if the game Daniel's coworkers were playing was "Initiate the Newbie" or "Tank the Yank" – ultimately it didn't matter, the result was the same. "I think I had too much."

"Really?" Betty chuckled.

"Why are you calling?" She asked him again.

"Oh ya…guess what?"

"What?"

"I'm locked out." She should have guessed. Daniel was notorious for locking himself out. "I thought maybe you could come and bring your key over…"

"Daniel I don't have a key to your place in London…remember. I had a key to your place in New York a long time ago but I don't have one now." She spoke to him slowly and carefully like he was in preschool.

"London? Oh ya…Oh…" The thought had just occurred to him that he might not be able to get in. "Maybe I could just sleep here…" he looked around at the front step.

"Where are you?" She asked him.

"On my front step." He answered.

Betty was mortified. Clearly he wasn't thinking straight. He couldn't sleep on his front step all night.

"I'll be right over." She said. If worse came to worse and they couldn't figure out how to get in they could come back to her place and he could sleep on the couch.

She got dressed quickly and called a cab.

When she got to Daniel's, he was sitting on the front step leaning up against the door. He was a little disheveled but Betty thought he looked cute. It was a really good thing she liked him so much or she might have been slightly annoyed that she had to get out of bed for this.

"Hey Betty. " His face lit up. "You've come to rescue me."

"Like always." Betty smiled. "Ok…let's get down to business. Did you leave a key hidden outside somewhere?"

"Hide a key outside…" Daniel was impressed. "What a great idea!"

Betty's heart sank – this was not a good sign. Clearly hiding a key outside was a novel idea to him.

"So no key outside then?" She just needed to make sure before they did something more drastic.

"I'm totally going to do that."

Betty stood thinking for a minute and then she started walking around the complex to the back of Daniel's unit. Daniel followed her. She climbed the steps to the back deck and tried the back garden door. It was locked. She looked at the windows – the one a little higher up looked like it might actually be slightly open, or at least not locked. She reached up but she was a little too short. She stood on her tiptoes but she still couldn't quite reach it. Daniel staggered up behind her.

"You're a little short." He commented.

"Thanks for the opinion. A little help please…Could you slide that and see if it's locked?" He reached up and pushed the window across.

"Hey look at that. I left the window unlocked."

"Thank God." Betty said. "Now we just need to figure out how to get up and in it."

She had an idea.

"Get on your hands and knees." She said to Daniel.

"What?"

"Get on your hands and knees."

Daniel did what she asked. "This is a little kinky isn't it?" He tried winking but really just made a contorted face.

Betty shook her head, chuckling to herself. She climbed on his back using the wall for balance. Standing on his back the window was just about chest height – not quite low enough for her to climb through.

"I need to get higher." She said. "Can you try to stand up a bit?"

"You're joking, right?" Daniel asked.

"No…I need to get a bit higher or I can't climb through."

Daniel tried standing up. He was more than slightly blitzed so standing up from hands and knees without Betty standing on his back would have been a challenge. As it was, he swayed one way first and then the other. Betty jumped for the open window so she wouldn't end up on the ground over the edge of the deck. Daniel lost his balance and fell face first onto the deck.

"Help!" Betty yelled. She was hanging from the ledge part way in the window and part way out. She didn't have enough leverage to boost herself up. She was kicking her feet trying to get traction on the side of the house. Daniel started laughing hysterically.

"Are you kidding me?" She said. "Are you going to sit there and laugh while I'm stuck here?"

"Sorry." He struggled to get up while stifling his laugh. He finally managed to stand.

"How can I help?" He asked chuckling.

"Boost me up." Betty said.

He grabbed her feet and pushed her a little higher. She managed to get a grip on the inside of the window ledge and started pulling herself through. As she got farther through, gravity took over and she fell the rest of the way.

"Betty…are you ok?" Daniel asked from outside.

"I'm great." She said sarcastically from the floor of his bathroom. Luckily the lid of his toilet was closed or the situation might have been much worse.

She unlocked the back door and let him in. He looked at her so gratefully.

"What would I ever do without you?" He asked, putting his arm on her shoulder.

"Well you'd be sleeping on the steps of your condo, for one." She smiled at him. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

"Yeah…to bed…let's do that." He kissed the side of her head and tried being seductive but in his state it was a sorry attempt.

"You're going to bed." She clarified. "I'm going home."

He looked so disappointed. "Really?" He asked.

"Trust me Daniel. You don't want it to happen this way…you'd never remember it."

"I'll want to remember it, that's for sure." He said partly to himself. Betty just smiled.

The next morning Daniel woke up to his alarm blaring. At least it felt like it was blaring. His head was pounding and his mouth was the Sahara. He promptly shut it off. What had happened last night? He remembered the guys from work being so friendly and buying lots of rounds. He vaguely remembered Betty being at his house. Instinctively he looked around to see if she had stayed. Part of him was relieved…it would be bad not to remember that. He sat up and noticed a note from Betty. It told him she'd set his alarm and she hoped his day wouldn't be too rough. At the bottom she'd left Hilda's hangover remedy. Daniel put his head back down on the pillow. Today was a good day to call in sick. His phone rang almost immediately after he'd decided that. He was going to ignore it but he noticed it was Betty.

"Hello." He answered groggily.

"Hey Daniel. How are you feeling?" He could tell she was smiling.

"Wonderful." He said sarcastically. "I'm going to call in sick."

"No!" She was adamant…and far too loud in Daniel's opinion.

"Why not? I feel like crap."

"Because then they win." Betty answered.

"Who wins?"

"Your co-workers. The one's who got you drunk last night. They're playing a game with you for fun. You have to go in to work to show them they didn't win."

"You mean they did this on purpose?" That would explain everyone being so generous with the drinks last night. "Why would they do that?"

"Because you're guys…for the same reason you punch each other on the arm or snap each other with wet towels in the locker room."

"We don't do that." Daniel said seriously.

Betty laughed. "Just get ready for work. And make Hilda's hangover remedy."

"I'll get ready for work…but I'm not drinking Hilda's sludge." Daniel got up. It was going to be a long day.