A complete crush.

Disclaimer: None of the characters/ familiar storylines are mine.

A/N: Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I love seeing how you respond to my ideas :D. I hope you enjoy the story. And noooo! It's Daniel's kid! Ok, fine, I guess I'll adapt to that change in time.

Those eyes lingered in her mind all night, the hurt in them.

She shifted again in her bed, staring at her graduation photo. Betty Suarez.

Lying there, just thinking her name for a while, over and over, all the thoughts and memories of her life surfacing momentarily in her mind.

Somehow she fell asleep.

"Somebody's grumpy!" Amanda called after Betty, who had stalked past the receptionist desk without so much as acknowledging today's slight to her outfit.

Betty walked to her desk, swung her bag down, and pushed into Daniel's office, where he sat reading something, head propped up on his right hand.

"Morning," he said, not looking at her.

Without a word, she deposited the bagel and coffee onto his table and turned to leave. Daniel started to shift his arm; she turned back, and he stopped, quickly reverting to his original position. Folding her arms, she stood squarely in front of his desk and waited for him to look up.

"I'm not leaving," she said, like she'd done when he'd rigged the scales for the fashion show.

Slowly, Daniel looked up, his right hand still covering most of the right side of his face. "Hi, Betty." He tried his most charming smile, but she just looked at him.

"I'm sorry," he said, morosely, looking down again. "I just..."

What time better was there to confront all those unspoken emotions, to find out for real what they felt towards each other? But then again, there was that little problem he had to hide from her. He would not be looked at with that classic Betty disappointment. But he had to be honest, but - really, he didn't want to cause that -

He couldn't bear not knowing, couldn't bear having to pretend that they were just normal Betty and Daniel. But he didn't have to courage to ask or tell all just now.

"I'm just really sor-"

"We need to talk," Betty said, sighing, sitting down on one of the sofa stools in his office, patting the lounger beside it.

Daniel froze awkwardly at his table. How was he going to get there with his hand pressed to his face? That would be way too suspicious.

Betty

Betty watched incredulously as Daniel kind of side stepped to the lounger, his face turned away from her.

"Daniel...what are you doing?"

Had he been fighting? That was impossible, right? Daniel Meade surely wouldn't go around punching people. And Gio...well, Gio...but...she wasn't even sure if they both...okay, so she did know now, most probably, that they both loved her in a way that was not just friends.

Daniel groaned as he sat down facing her on the lounger, and finally let his hand drop to his lap.

Betty's mouth rather fell open. She'd never seen a more perfect black eye in her life, not even in those soaps her father loved to watch. The angry bruise stood out strongly against Daniel's pale skin.

"Gio?" she said, sounding all chokey in a most un-Betty-like way. She rushed out of the room in a gust of colourful clothes. Maybe they didn't need to talk right now.

Daniel

Well, what is there to do now?

I know that Gio isn't good enough for her. Heck, I'm not sure I'm good enough for her, but I love her -

Gio says he loves her too. Who does Betty love? In the end, even how could I ever beat Gio if she loves him?

Gio looked up and scowled at the sight of Daniel Meade walking into the sandwich shop. He noticed he still had a pretty nasty looking eye. Not so charming now, are they, those baby blues?

Then he felt rather bad because after all, he'd punched him way harder than he'd needed to. But still; Daniel had attacked him first. A guy needed to defend himself. Himself and the right to love the girl he wanted.

Betty.

Daniel stood in front of the counter facing Gio, folding his arms across his chest. Gio noticed sourly how his shirt pulled nicely across his shoulders, defining the muscles he no doubt spent hours training. Pretty-boy, he thought disdainfully.

"Look, about Betty," Daniel started.

"Yes, the girl I love," Gio said, watching his eyes.

Daniel's jaw tightened. "Why can't you just back off?"

"Because I love her," Gio said, looking at him quizzically. "You understand, don't you, Mr. Meade?"

Daniel grit his teeth. That name again. "Sure, Mr...Mr..."

Crap! Crap, crap, crap. That humiliation he was so used to he felt again. "Gio," he completed, lamely.

There was a silence in the shop, Gio smiling not nicely, letting Daniel's mortification hang in the air.

Meanwhile, trying to escape his utter shame, Daniel considered Gio's words. He loved her. This was a dead end. They both loved Betty. She would hate their competing - she'd rather just think it through. He should just talk to her, not -

Ah, hell. Who cared. Bring it on, Gio!

"Yes, I do understand, Gio. And what do you think we should do about it? Because I love her too." He smiled at Gio with unsettling confidence.

Gio smiled back. "Why would I tell you what I'd do?"

Daniel scowled and left the shop.

"Hi, Betty," he said, coming up behind her and leaning down to peck her on the cheek with his hands on her shoulders. His hands felt unbelievably warm even through the fabric of her shirt. She could smell his aftershave. Then the pleasant warmth left as he smiled at her, backing into his office, sitting down at his desk.

And he swore at the sight of a handful of Mode workers goggling at him through the glass. He'd forgotten to glue his hand to his right eye. And now the entire office was abuzz, wondering why, exactly, Daniel Meade had been fighting someone.

It must have been a slow news day, because Fashion TV turned up outside the building as he left, the host saying to him eagerly, "Why were you fighting, Mr. Meade?"

Daniel looked nervously to Betty, who stood by his side with a stack of files and folders - ever the good assistant - and quickly looked away before meeting her eyes, for fear he'd smile stupidly in pure love in front of the camera, or something. "I, uh, I tripped," he said unthinkingly to the microphone shoved before his face.

Suzuki paused, raising an eyebrow dramatically, turning to face the camera and doing what Gio had done - let Daniel's awkwardness drag out painfully.

Betty reached out and grabbed the guy's wrist, pulling the mike closer to her, and said, "Yeah, he fell over the newest Prada collection. It was pretty nasty, actually, and really unfortunate."

This managed to yank the attention swiftly away from Daniel's black eye to the newest Prada collection, which was all the buzz at the moment. Betty grabbed Daniel's wrist and tugged him away from the camera guys.

When they were a safe distance away, she stopped, glaring at him furiously. "You tripped."

Daniel nodded. "Listen, Betty, dyou want to have dinner? We could talk then."

She stared at him for a while. Then, "No, thanks, Daniel. I promised Gio already."

His mouth felt incredibly dry. Her tone was hard, no-nonsense, don't-be-a-child, and she looked firmly into his eyes as she spoke.

"Okay," he said. "Right. Okay."

And he headed home.

He hadn't thought about that tin for a long time.