Author's Note: Thank you to everybody who read or reviewed the last chapter. I know you want Betty and Daniel to get things together and I will say things will be moving faster now that were getting near the end of our story. I am not ready to put out an estimate on how many chapters we have left in the story but we are in the metaphorical homestretch. I will say that the story will not end once Betty and Daniel get it together because we still need to find out who killed Bradford among other mysteries.

Sorry this chapter covers less ground then I wanted it to because I was sick when writing and my voice recognition software is extra evil when I'm sick because it doesn't recognize my voice as well. Thankfully I'm better now

Chapter 35: The Assistant That Killed Christmas

"I'm going to fucking kill him." Marc said as he looked on it what could only be described as a dominatrix paradise. He hasn't seen this much leather since he dated a Hell's Angel member. Fake brick walls, lots of chains, whips, and high quantities of leather and Marc is not talking about beautiful pristine white leather couches. And he really doesn't want to know how they managed to anchor that sex swing to the high ceiling. Actually, Marc is 95% positive half of the props being used were from Faye's sex dungeon, which has since been remodeled as the MODE employee lounge/Alex's play room.

Of course, the piece of resistance of this massive trashing of their beautiful photo shoot were the outfits. Betty had a panic attack when she saw all the leather and chain mail for her goddaughter, there was even a baby size whip. Actually, Betty was desperately trying to cover the eyes of the two 12-year-olds with them as they all got out of that room as quickly as possible. Marc wanted to cry. Marc was just grateful they discovered what Carlo did before the model showed up probably wearing collars and leashes. Yes, those items were in the wardrobe for tomorrow, instead of the designer non-ugly Christmas sweaters he asked for.

Chloe probably would have thought that the whole thing was us cynical reference to her old sex tape and then will never do another shoot with MODE ever again. That would just be horrible.

"No cursing." Betty chastised.

"Please, they both go to private school and have heard much worse. If any situation deserves cursing it is that mess in there." Marc pointed at the studio space.

"I thought you emailed our family Christmas shoot idea to the design department; in case, Carlo tried to do this." Betty asked incomplete irritation.

"I did." Marc sighed. "Carlo must have switched the designs. I knew I saw him having lunch with Kristen last week. He's probably fu…" He cut the curse word short when he sees Betty's glare. "I should've known better. He did train at the feet of Wilhelmina the devil."

"Yelling at each other is not going to make things better." Cliff interjected.

"The good news is you guys found out what he did today, instead of tomorrow." Another reason Marc was happy that Betty crashed his normal viewing of the parade from the offices. "That means you have time to fix things. I mean I can still use the fake stone background. Just put up a Christmas tree and add presents and get rid of the…"

"Sex dungeon material. I think I remember some of the stuff from the room that became Alex's playroom." Justin supplied for them causing the three adults to look at him strangely.

"I'm a 12-year-old from Queens. We know stuff. Also I helped Faye with the design for the space." Marc is not surprised at all.

"Of course, you helped." Betty sighed. "Cliff, can you take the boys upstairs to watch the parade and we will go through the props to see if there's anything useful. Didn't Hudson do a Christmas shoot last year? The props should still be here in the basement storage area. I'm sure we'll find something."

"Why do I have to go up to watch the parade. I can help you guys." Justin offered and Marc knew the 12-year-old really could help but he was overruled by Betty's glare. He has learned long ago to not overrule Mama Bear Betty especially when she got like this.

"It's dusty down there and you will ruin your Thanksgiving outfit. You hate getting dirty."

"That's true."

"You can come help us set up things tomorrow. Right now, we are just checking to see if we have anything here that we can use or if we need to make a midnight run to Target in New Jersey."

"If you think I'm going to go to a shopping mall in New Jersey, let alone a Target at midnight on the most insane shopping day of the year you are out of your fu…" Marc was cut off by Betty elbowing him in the stomach.

"Marc, Kiss your boyfriend and let's go." Marc only followed her directions because he never misses any opportunity to kiss his boyfriend.

The MODE storage dungeons were an absolutely dreadful place located in the subbasement of the building. There were even lower than the parking. He was expecting it to be extremely dreary and dusty and not for there to be three or 4 inches of water on the ground. He also found several broken pipes and he hoped that they were all water pipes and not sewer pipes. Marc did not even need to see the security tapes to know that this was all Carlo's fault.

Faye was going to be furious when she found out about this. Although on the bright side, maybe, he can finally fire Carlo and get a competent assistant.

This morning, before the sun was even up, Daniel loaded a half-sleepy DJ into the town car to head over to Faye Somers' house for a very Somers-Suarez Thanksgiving. Daniel doesn't know what's more absurd the fact that he's going over to Faye Somers house voluntarily to spend the holiday or the fact that he's getting there at 5 AM to cook a turkey. He's going with the last part.

Although, Faye Somers is now his boss and the woman who did not necessarily destroy his parents' marriage but definitely hastened its demise she was still married to his son's grandfather and to Daniel that made the two family now. And as Daniel learned a long time ago sometimes you have to spend time with family members you hate.

Fortunately, Faye is more tolerable than about 95% of his family and she really did adore Alex. She lavished the child with presents and kept the paparazzi off their back. If it wasn't for her Alex's picture would be everywhere.

No, the fact that he was up early to cook was surprising. Actually the truly surprising part was he's doing it completely voluntarily. Cooking was never his strong suit although he has been getting better at it recently, especially now that he's back in the US. In France he could always just had out and get something pre-prepared or go with bread and cheese. They did a lot of bread and cheese.

Okay the real reason why Daniel's surprise he volunteered to do this is because he will be spending several hours alone with Betty's father. Just the thought alone made him nervous, nervous enough that he changed close four times, for cooking. Cooking!

He wondered if the man could tell that Daniel was ready to try things again with Betty just by looking at him? Thankfully, he didn't say anything as Daniel carried DJ to the grandkids room, so he could sleep until Betty showed up to get him to see the parade at MODE and drop off Alex so they can spend some time together.

They managed to survive preparing the turkey without talking about the Betty-shaped elephant in the room much to Daniel surprise. Although, there was an incident with the stuff inside the turkey that Daniel does not want to talk about ever although now he knows that turkeys do not come pre-stuff with actual stuffing.

Preparing breakfast for everyone afterwards went a lot better because sticky buns and goat cheese and spinach a casserole are both dishes that he can prepare competently. Thankfully, the Betty issue did not come up when whisking eggs or crumbling the cheese. So far, the Betty issue only came up when Betty showed up and Mr. Suarez made up some excuse to leave them to eat breakfast in the kitchen together. Okay, he actually went to wake up DJ while he force Betty to eat something but it just seemed too convenient.

For a moment, Daniel thought this was his moment to talk to her. She really did like his cinnamon roll. Then, Alex somehow managed to get said cinnamon roll all over himself and Betty ran out of the kitchen so quickly that she almost tripped over the Ottoman with Alex in her arms. Not good.

The fact that she wanted out of there so quickly did nothing for his self-confidence. Was it too late? Did it take him too long to deal with the fact that she lied to him? Has she moved on? Was there too much damage done for the two to ever be a couple again? Or were all their bridges to each other burnt to the ground? He didn't have the answers to these questions and he wouldn't as long as Betty kept running away from him. They needed to talk about this stuff but Betty obviously wasn't willing right now.

Daniel tried to push this out of his mind as Mr. Suarez tried to teach him how to do a proper cream sauce for the macaroni and cheese and doing much better than Claudette ever did. Of course, he couldn't because Mr. Suarez finally brought up the Betty issue.

"My wife wanted me to talk to you about Betty." It never ceases to amaze Daniel what Faye can get somebody to do for her. In this case, it's having her husband give Daniel something along the lines of the appropriate office behavior talk. Its better that it comes from him because from Faye it would be laughingly hypocritical. Not only did she carry on a decade-long affair with her boss, she also dated Shelley for several years, who was Wilhelmina's number two for the majority of their relationship.

"Of course, she did." Daniel said as he continued to whisk in the cheese. "She doesn't need to worry about our professional relationship because Betty is a constant professional. She should know by now not to believe 90% of what comes out of the MODE rumor mill." There were all sorts of ridiculous stories about him and Betty fighting with each other all the time. That's not true at all. They were avoiding each other most the time that they were not fighting.

"Faye was part of that magazine for over it 30 years. She is well aware of how the MODE rumor mill works and that's not what she's concerned about. What she's really worried about is…"

"Getting more sweet adorable grandchildren as soon as possible." Daniel supplied for him. He heard Faye say something like that yesterday as they managed to get Amanda off of the tables. So nobody ended up having sex in the nearest supply closet. However, at some point, Amanda decided to do some sort of table dance and striptease between turkey and dessert.

"Yes." Mr. Suarez sighed.

"How do you feel about that?" What Daniel really wanted to ask was 'how do you feel about me dating your daughter and subsequently marrying her and giving Alex and DJ a little sister or another brother?' But Daniel was too terrified to even consider actually asking that question.

"I like Kenny." And apparently Mister Suarez is afraid to answer that question, even in an implied way. "He's a little strange but he loves Amanda. However, their years away from that unless there's an accident and it would be nice for one of my daughters not to get pregnant by accident." Or maybe not even if that last part was mumbled under breath.

"I'm sorry about that. We really thought that we were being safe by…" not having actual sex. But there was no way Daniel was saying this to Betty's father, none whatsoever.

"You didn't abandon her like Santos." Right at that moment, Mister Suarez chop the head of a carrot off. Daniel was almost positive the man was envisioning Santos' dick on his cutting board.

"I was in France and I didn't know." Please don't do to me what you just did to that carrot.

"You called every single hour while she was in labor when you were in another country, even though you thought that the woman you were in love with was having another man's child." Okay, the man was saying good things. Daniel should expect this because Betty's dad has been relatively good to him, despite the fact he got his little girl pregnant.

"Good point."

"Are you still mad at Betty for not immediately telling you that Alex was your son or that Wilhelmina was blackmailing her?" The man asked directly.

"Not as much as I used to be. Not like I was back at the Hamptons. Everything was so fresh and I was still mentally processing of the fact that Alex really was my son. It was like a dream come true because I really, really wanted that." Daniel confessed. "But it's been a couple of moments and I'm aware that things can't keep going the way we were. I understand why she did it. Probably for a lot of the reasons why I didn't tell DJ about Alexis. I stayed angry at my father for so long now that he's gone… I don't want to make that mistake again."

Daniel's biggest regret was how he left things with Bradford. He would never have a chance to repair his relationship with his father but Betty was a different thing altogether. As long as they were still alive, he could fix things.

"To be better co-parents or…" Mr. Suarez left the question hanging.

"Honestly, I want more than that but being good co-parents is the place where we have to start. But I'm in love with your daughter. I tried not to be. I tried to be mad at her for keeping Alex from me. I tried to get over her, to move on but I just couldn't do it. For a while, I was afraid to do anything but I don't want to be afraid anymore, I don't want to have to deal with that regret." His conversation with Jordan made him realize that was the real reason why he was so reluctant to finally resolve things with Betty.

"You're not just doing this for Alex? I know that you had a less than pleasant childhood and I know you want better for him. You also just mentioned how much you've regretted not repairing your relationship with your father before his death."

"I would never get back with Betty just so Alex can grow up in a traditional to parent household. That's a bad reason to start a relationship or in this case repair one. Honestly, things would've been better if my parents divorced earlier. They loved each other but they didn't belong together. Bradford wasn't made for monogamy and I think he just brought mom down. They brought out the worst in each other. I don't think she would have stayed sober if they stayed together." Daniel paused for a moment as he stops during the sauce.

"I wouldn't want to put Alex through that. If it's better for him for us to be a part then that's the way it will be but we can't just keep on the way things…" Just then he was cut off by Faye running into the room screaming at somebody on the other side of the phone.

"Yes, I realize I should let you fire Carlo weeks ago. Look, just call Claire and let her know what is going on. I will be there in 30 minutes so we can figure out how to fix this disaster. And make sure Kristen is there. We need to talk." Faye looked as if she wanted to throw her phone at the wall.

"What's wrong?" Daniel asked worriedly.

"Carlo decided to give the wrong concept design to the set design Department or maybe he fucked the deputy head of the design department into doing the wrong design. We are not sure yet. Then he arrange for every single bit of holiday decorations for every office in the building to be destroyed by flooding the basement storage area." Faye explained.

"That's not even all Meade Publications stuff." Daniel pointed out and Faye started cursing in Spanish.

"This is a disaster. The building management will have to pay for the structural damage can the cleanup but we are going to have to replace everything destroyed by the idiot. I'm just thankful that I decided that we would never store overflow from the closet down there."

"This shoot has been cursed." Daniel groaned.

"Normally, I don't believe in stuff like that but I felt otherwise right now." Faye sighed.

"Do you both need to go in?" Mr. Suarez asked as he kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Unfortunately, yes. Don't worry help will be arriving soon. Hilda is on her way." Faye reassured her husband.

"But what about Alex? I can't cook Thanksgiving and watch Alex."

"That's very true considering his propensity to cover himself with various food items. But we can't take him with us."

"Alexis?" Ignacio suggested.

"Currently somewhere in upstate New York along with Jordan and Jamie." Daniel supplied.

"And Monique is on her way to the Hamptons and Nico is being forced to spend time with her father. Marc and Cliff are already dealing with things that Meade Publications." At that moment, Faye picked up her phone.

"What about Marisol?"

"We're going to need her especially if I strangle Kristen." The scary thing as he doesn't know if Faye was joking.

"Who are you calling?"

"The only option left." Faye sighed.

"Not Amanda. The last time she babysat the kids alone she told DJ that Alexis was his real biological father." Daniel considered it a small miracle that DJ is not in therapy for life because of that little incident. He's actually doing really well with the fact that his Aunt Alexis is his biological father.

"She also allowed Alex to be covered in green paint. I'm not calling Amanda. I'm calling Kenny."

"You're boy toy, just completely fucked over not only the Tim and Chloe shoot but managed to do millions of dollars in property damage. I also lost Kristen because he fucked her over literally in an effort to fuck us over." Betty heard her stepmom scream at Wilhelmina over the phone. The last time Betty saw the women this angry was when Santos said something mean about Justin.

"We're not even going to be able to let people into the building again until management is able to clean the basement, let alone have a photo shoot here."

Unfortunately, Carlo or whoever decided to sabotage their shoot managed to break several pipes and not all of them water completely flooding the basement storage area and requiring an outside cleaning crew to restore everything, the type that had to wear hazmat suits. They were not even allowed in the building right now. This particular phone conversation was taking place in Rosa because the restaurant was closed.

"I did not order him to sabotage the shoot or sleep with Kristen to do it. I did not order him to do anything. He's not even my assistant. Carlo is Marc's assistant so I don't know why you're screaming at me. He is the one who couldn't keep his assistant under control." True but nobody wanted to say that to Marc, who is currently being consoled by Cliff in the corner.

"You were the one who brought him to MODE from Isabella. Therefore, you are responsible when Carlo decides to lie to the set team and convince them that were doing a very dominatrix Christmas and then managed to flood the basement storage area, so we no longer have any props or even have normal office Christmas decorations to use. We also no longer have studio space to shoot." Faye screamed.

"First, we don't know if Carlo was actually responsible yet." Wilhelmina defended.

"Do you want me to drive up to the Hamptons and show you the security footage? Actually, I should have Kristen do it. She can tell you all about how he convinced her to do the dominatrix Christmas set up as he finger fucked her. Such an amateur." Faye criticized.

"You actually have him on tape?"

"One of the security guards also saw him on the premises." Daniel chimed in from beside Betty. He was currently rubbing circles on her back. She was shaking with anger. What did she ever do to Carlo to make him completely sabotage her shoot? She was trying to get Marc to not be mean to him. This wasn't fair.

"I assume that you're firing him." Wilhelmina sounded resigned at this point.

"I'm having him arrested." Faye remarked.

"Don't. He has too much on all of us. Do you want him to bring Alex's paternity to the press?" Wilhelmina questioned.

"Would he really do that?" Betty asked worriedly.

"He just destroyed one of the biggest shoots of the year because I pointed out that Wilhelmina wouldn't sleep with him again no matter how hard he tried."

"That's not exactly what you…" Betty started to say but Marc cut her off with the glare.

"So we just let him do whatever he wants to protect Alex?" Marc asked.

"Yes, we do. Carlo is not worth endangering Alex over." Daniel said from beside her, squeezing her hand at that moment. Her whole body was warm. It made her realize that when it came to protecting Alex they would always do it together. That made her feel a lot better.

"We can't just let him get away with it this time."

"Let me take care of it. If the trigger for this little incident is what Marc said it was I may be the only person who can resolve this." Wilhelmina told the group.

"Fine," Faye sighed "Do whatever you have to but I don't want to see him in my building Monday morning. Do we understand each other?"

"Perfectly. In the meantime the rest of you have a photo shoot to save. If you insist on going with the family Christmas theme just shoot it at one of your apartments and use your own decorations. Nico says that Betty's apartment is quaint." With that Wilhelmina disconnected from the call.

"That's actually not a bad idea. The apartment does have good light." Cliff said reflectively from the background. She personally thinks Cliff just likes the idea of only having to cross the hall to get to the shoot.

"I haven't gone shopping for my own Christmas decorations." Also Betty just doesn't like the ideal of half of MODE descending upon her not that clean apartment. It's impossible to keep an apartment clean when you have a one-year-old and an Amanda.

"It's a horrible idea just simply because it's a Wilhelmina idea." Faye quipped. "However, my apartment will be perfect. We can even use the Suarez family decorations to add an organic touch."

"See everything is going to be okay." Daniel kissed her on the forehead. Betty is not even sure that he realized what he did until afterwards because he had this really surprised look on his face. She hoped he was right but when her father called 15 minutes later, to let them know that the family storage unit where they store all of the Suarez Christmas stuff was the victim of vandalism, Betty knew that wasn't going to be the case.

To Be Continued