A/N: I don't own Ugly Betty. But I do appreciate all of the reviews that I've gotten. It really encourages me and reminds me why I write this stuff.

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Daniel Meade was one of those men who really enjoyed being a parent. He liked coming home to Ella's eager hugs and incomprehensible babble at the end of the day. He liked holding his daughter or his pregnant wife, depending on the moment. There were even the occasional moments when he held both. But Ella was a very mobile toddler and didn't have much time for snuggling unless she was tired. And then she was the world's most lovey-dovey affectionate little girl. She was also a big fan of anyone who would play with her because she spent the whole day with her mother who was very pregnant and easily worn out. She loved having someone who would chase her around and laugh and tease her. That was Daddy's job. He wasn't pregnant with twins and tired. Sure he'd been at work all day but that wasn't like taking care of Ella and being pregnant.

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On the evening of February 9, Daniel walked into his apartment to find Ella running around in circles while Betty tried to make dinner. He could tell that his daughter was underfoot and his wife was more than exhausted. So he told his wife to go rest until dinner was ready and set to work making dinner and supervising Ella who was more than willing to tell him about playing with Mr. Benjamin all day. She'd also gone next door to play with Peter for a while. Understanding the stress of pregnancy, Annabel Mariano had offered to baby-sit Ella for two or three hours every afternoon and Betty had been more than willing to accept. Ella was telling him all about playing with Peter and Lucy and their puppy.

Daniel was trying to listen and cook and not worry too much about his wife. He didn't know what labor looked like for Betty. She hadn't had a normal labor with Ella. Oh sure, he knew everything that What to Expect When You're Expecting said the signs of labor were. But he didn't know what labor would be like for his wife. This was her second pregnancy. But they had no previous experience with normal labor. What he did know was that Betty had looked unusually tired that night and she looked like she was in some degree of pain. But he didn't know what all of that meant for her. She'd been uncomfortable for weeks. He didn't know if she was simply uncomfortable or having Braxton-Hicks contractions or if she was in the beginning stages of labor. He did know that she had gotten much closer to her due date than Dr. Cunningham had ever guessed or imagined that she would. At her appointment a few days earlier, the doctor had admitted that he'd never expected Betty to get within a few weeks of her due date. And now she was only eleven days away from it. That almost never happened with twins.

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Daniel put Ella to bed around eight o'clock and then went back to his bedroom. Betty was curled up in bed watching reruns of Law and Order: SVU, a show Daniel had barely been able to stomach before becoming a father and now, he couldn't handle it at all. He didn't like the idea that men did things like that to women. He just did not like it. "Can we watch something else?" he asked as he changed out of his suit and into his pajamas.

She nodded. "I forget you don't like it. Are you okay with watching The Devil Wears Prada?"

He smiled. "If you want to watch it, go for it."

She changed the channel and he impulsively kissed her. She smiled and snuggled up against his chest to watch the movie. However, she kept squirming and readjusting herself through the movie; her breathing also occasionally became more labored and intense but after a minute or two would ease.

About halfway through the movie, Daniel looked down at his wife. "Are you sure you're all right, sweetie?"

"I've been having contractions all day," she admitted. "But they're really far apart, so I don't think it's anything."

"Are you timing them?"

She nodded. "They're like fifteen or more minutes apart right now. But they're getting closer and more regular."

"Do you want me to call Dr. Cunningham?"

"Not yet, I don't think it's anything yet."

They finished the movie a little after ten o'clock and both went to sleep. About two hours later, Daniel woke up to his wife's gasping cries of "Oh my god, oh my god, Daniel, wake up!"

"What's wrong?" he asked. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

"My water just broke," she replied. "You have to call Dr. Cunningham and find someone to watch Ella. We have to go to the hospital now."

He nodded and jumped out of bed, throwing on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans while calling the doctor who promised to meet them at the hospital as well as his mother, her father, and then the next-door neighbor who was more than willing to come over and stay with Ella until Grandma Meade showed up to baby-sit. Once Annabel Mariano was there, Daniel and Betty took off for the hospital. Betty's contractions were now only five minutes apart and she was breathing rapidly. Daniel was driving as fast as he could, desperate to have his twins born in healthy and safe circumstances.

---

Around five o'clock in the morning, Dr. Cunningham informed Daniel and Betty that their wait was about to end. And sure enough a few pushes later, Adam Daniel Meade made his appearance at 5:14am. Twenty minutes later at 5:36 am, Naomi Claire Meade showed her face. Adam had blue eyes and dark brown hair; he weighed six pounds, 6 ounces and was twenty-two inches long while his twin sister with her dark brown hair and eyes, weighed in at six pounds, one ounce and was nineteen inches long. "They're perfect," Betty said as she held them both in her arms. "I just wish my mom could see them. She'd be so proud."

Daniel nodded as he watched his wife with their newborns. "They're ours, all ours. I really wish your mom could see them. She'd love them."

"Your dad would love them too. I know he'd be so proud of us."

"Well, your dad and my mom can see them."

"When is your mom coming?"

"When Ella wakes up," Daniel replied, stroking Adam's tiny foot. "When she wakes up, then she'll bring her over here and they'll both meet these two at the same time."

Betty smiled. "Can you please take one of them?"

Her husband smiled and immediately took Adam from her. "Hey, little man, I'm your daddy. You have two sisters and an amazing mother. But I'm your dad. We're going to be very close; that's my promise to you. I'm going to be a better father than my father was."

Betty smiled at her husband. "Adam is a lucky little boy. He has a father who loves him and an adorable twin sister."

"And an amazing mother," Daniel told her. "These two have an amazing mother. And they have a big sister who I'm sure will be a great big sister."

"You sound like a greeting card," Betty told him.

He laughed. "I'm not trying to. I'm just really happy to have a son. And I'm also really happy about Naomi. I'm a dad, Betty. I have three amazing kids. I didn't grow up in a warm, affectionate family. But I know that you did and it was great for you. I want our kids to have that. I don't ever want our kids to think that we love one of them more than the others or that we don't care about them."

"We won't be like your parents. I promise you that."

He smiled and kissed Adam's forehead. The little baby boy scrunched up his face and sighed. He opened his eyes for a moment and looked around before closing them again and going back to sleep. "He has blue eyes," Daniel said.

"But she doesn't," Betty replied. "We're going to have to keep trying for our blue-eyed daughter."

Around nine o'clock, Claire arrived with Ella. Daniel was very nervous about his older daughter's reactions to her two new baby siblings. He was also a little worried about the fact that Betty and the twins would be coming home from the hospital the day before Ella's second birthday. He really didn't want her to get jealous of her baby siblings. But when Claire brought Ella into her mother's hospital room, the first thing she noticed was Mommy and all she wanted was Mommy. So Betty held her daughter in her arms for a few minutes, hugging her and kissing her and telling her how much she loved her before Daniel introduced the subject of the two sleeping bundles in the bassinets. "Ella," Betty began. "Daddy and I want you two meet two very special people who are going to come live with us. Do you remember how Mommy kept telling you about the babies in her belly?" When her daughter nodded, the mother continued. "The babies aren't in Mommy's belly anymore. They're here, sleeping in their beds. Do you want to meet them?"

"Why?" Ella asked, clinging to her mother.

"They're your brother and sister," Betty replied.

"Mine? They're mine?"

"And Mommy's and Daddy's, but they're going to live with us."

"Where?" she asked.

Daniel picked Adam up and carried the baby to his mother. Betty took her son in her arms and let Ella see the baby. "Ella, this is your little brother, Adam. Adam, this is your big sister, Ella."

"I'm the big sister."

Daniel picked up Naomi and brought her over to the bed as well. "And this, Ella, is your baby sister, Naomi. Naomi, this is Ella."

"Hi, Mimi," Ella said peering down at the little red face in the blankets. "You can't have my dolls, Mimi."

Her father smiled and kissed her forehead. "I don't think Naomi is quite ready for dolls yet."

"Good," Ella replied happily, climbing into her father's lap so she could get a better look at her "Mimi."

Daniel pulled his older daughter closer to himself with one arm and held his newborn daughter in the other. "My beautiful little girls," he said. "I have three beautiful girls in my life. My Betty, Ella, and now Naomi, and I have a handsome son."

Betty looked down at her son in her arms and smiled. "I'm not pregnant anymore and that's something to be thankful for."

Claire laughed. "They're absolutely beautiful, Betty. I'm so happy for both of you, for all of you."

Betty grinned. "Thanks."

"Mom, would you like to hold your granddaughter, Naomi Claire?"

"You didn't name her that seriously, did you?"

Daniel nodded. "That's her name."

"Are you serious?"

"We wanted to honor you."

"I think I might cry."

Betty smiled at her mother-in-law. "Claire, we did it because we wanted to. We love you and we want your granddaughter to carry your name."

"That is the nicest, sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me."

"We love you, Mom," Daniel said.

---

Betty and the twins came home from the hospital on February 13, when the babies were three days old. Now it was just Daniel and Betty "against" Ella, Adam, and Naomi. Sure, they had family members and friends coming over to help them. But it was intimidating especially because they knew that very soon the day would come when it would just be Daniel and Betty with their children. "I'm afraid of that day," Betty told Daniel the first night they were home. She was lying in bed feeding Naomi while Daniel burped Adam. "We have to feed and change and care for two babies and Ella. There are two of us and three of them. They could kill us."

"Honey, they're babies. They can't kill us."

"You don't know that."

"I'm taking at least the next two weeks off from work to help you out. Your dad and Hilda are also going to be over here helping you whenever they can. It may not feel like it but you can handle this. I'm sure of it. You handled Ella, didn't you?"

"Daniel, Ella was in the hospital for the first two months of her life. I have no time to prepare. I'm just diving into it."

"But this isn't your first time as a parent. You know what you're doing. You have experience with Ella. How different can Adam and Naomi be?"

"Adam's a boy," Betty replied. "That makes diaper changes completely different."

"Oh trust me; I know. I've already gotten nailed in the face once."

His wife laughed. "I'd recommend that you not change his diapers while you're wearing suits."

Daniel smiled and looked down at his son. "Adam, now I know that there are definitely some things about you that come from me and you're very proud of them. But the thing is that you have to be careful what you do with them. You can't ruin people's clothes. You also have to be a gentleman to your mother and sisters. I'm not going to let you act like a spoiled brat just because you're a Meade. That might have flown when your grandfather was alive but those days are over. This is the Daniel Meade era and Daniel Meade expects everyone to pull their own weight. You don't get your own magazine when you graduate from college or turn thirty or whatever my dad's rule was. You have to earn things in this family."

Betty laughed and looked down at the baby in her own arms. "You hear that, Naomi Claire? In this family, things are earned, not given."

"That's right," her husband said. "I think Ella understands that. She works hard to be cute and make me love her."

"Daniel, she's naturally cute. And she doesn't need to earn your love. You're her father; you're supposed to love her. It's a basic requirement of fatherhood; you have to love your children."

"I think I love you more after having seen you give birth than I did before. It shows me how strong you are. And seeing you as a mother blows my mind. You've never been this beautiful, this brilliant, or this sexy before. Marriage and motherhood, they become you; you were made for this."

She smiled and looked at Naomi in her arms. "I was never the one who wanted to get married and have a family. That was Hilda's dream. I never thought I was pretty enough. But then you came along and you wanted me, baggage and all. You took me as I was, including an unplanned pregnancy and failed previous relationships."

"But you also accepted all of my baggage when you got involved with me," Daniel said. "You accepted the fact that I had slept with more than half the women on the eastern seaboard and used to be the most notorious playboy in the city."

"I knew that you were more than that. You just needed direction and motivation."

"And then I met you, we had Ella, then we got married, and now we have the twins. I think I'm getting some purpose or direction in my life. I'm losing sleep. I'm always busy. And I have a son and two daughters. Oh, and I have the world's best wife whom I love more than you could ever imagine."

The supposed world's best wife smiled and kissed her husband's cheek. "Fatherhood becomes you, Daniel Meade."

"Thank you, Mrs. Meade. I enjoy it."

---

The July issue of Mode featured a Beckett Scott photo spread entitled "The Dawn of a New Day in the Meade Empire." The spread was of the Meade family-Daniel, Claire, Betty, Ella, Naomi, Adam, and DJ; Alexis had opted against being in the shoot. But the four page spread, which had been shot at the Meade Mansion, featured some amazing shots of Claire and her four grandchildren, Daniel and Betty with their three kids, various arrangements of the kids, a few candid shots including an amazing one of Daniel lying on a couch with Adam sleeping on his chest while Ella sat by her dad's head and babbled away about playing at Peter's house the day before. (Peter Mariano was fast becoming Ella Meade's best friend in the whole wide world.) There were dozens of favorable letters to the editor after the spread appeared and even Wilhelmina had to admit that it was an amazing idea.

However, there was apparently one person who was not pleased by this photo spread as Daniel discovered when he walked into his office one morning in early July to find Henry Grubstick waiting for him. "When did you marry Betty?" Henry asked Daniel the minute Daniel entered his office.

"About a year ago," Daniel replied, walking to his desk to put down his briefcase.

"What gives you the right to marry her?"

"What gives you the right to ask me that question? You two broke up several years ago. She was single. I was single. We realized that we were interested in each other. We're married now. We have three children. But it's not really any of your business."

"How do you have three children if you only just got married a year ago?"

Daniel sighed. "Ella was born over a year before we got married. And then we had twins in February."

"You got Betty pregnant."

"That's generally where babies come from. I'd think you'd know that; you have a son yourself."

"Don't bring Aaron into this," Henry said angrily. "We're not talking about me. I'm a good guy. We're talking about how one of the most promiscuous bachelors in the world ends up marrying my ex-girlfriend who is, by the way, an amazing woman who deserves so much better than you and she's just settling by being with you."

"She willingly married me. I didn't force her to marry me."

"But she could do better than you. You get her pregnant out of marriage."

"And you've never done that before?" Daniel asked as he checked his email. "Yes, I got Betty pregnant but then I took responsibility for my actions. I married her and we're raising Ella together. And now we have two more wonderful children. No one was forced into any of this."

"But why did she pick you?"

"I don't know. But I do know that I'm amazingly lucky and I can't complain about this. I know that I've got an amazing wife who I don't really deserve and three wonderful kids. I know that I don't deserve this. But I'm working hard to be the best possible husband and father to this family."

"I just don't get it. She wouldn't marry me but she was willing to marry you."

Daniel shrugged. "I don't get it either."

"It's about adventure," Amanda said; neither of the men had realized that she was in the room until then. "Sorry, Daniel, I have some mail for you. But here's the thing. If Betty marries Daniel, there is adventure there; she doesn't know what will happen. But with Henry, she knew what would happen. She'd have to give up on her dreams. With Daniel, he lets her live her dreams."

"I would have let her live her dreams," Henry protested.

"You wanted her to move to Tucson," Amanda said. "Nothing against Tucson but there's nothing like Meade Publications there. Here in New York with Daniel, Betty has a great shot at being Editor in Chief of a magazine someday."

"I just don't like it."

Amanda shrugged. "But it's life, Henry. You're in Tucson being an accountant and Betty is in New York working as a freelance journalist and married to Daniel Meade. And she has three adorable kids. I think she wins. And so does Daniel. Now, if you'll excuse him, Daniel has a meeting with someone from Dior in about three minutes, so you'll have to leave."

As Amanda escorted Henry out of the room, Daniel smiled at Amanda's words but at the same time he felt badly for Henry. Henry had a child but had lost the woman he wanted in the process. Daniel, on the other hand, had the woman of his dreams as well as three children. But unlike most situations where Daniel had gained things that others had lost, this time money had not been the source of his advantage. This time, his advantage had come from his willingness to help his friend and his desire to be a good person.

And he had Betty and three amazing children. He honestly felt badly for Henry but was grateful for what he, Daniel, had.

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A/N: Please review! I hope you liked it.