Countdown
Disclaimer: Not Mine. Like Lizzie, I'm a broke 24 year old college grad with a mountain of student loans, so if you sue me, you won't get much!
Author's Note: With the sex tape story line arc pretty much wrapped up, I kept thinking about Darcy's side of things. I was kind of hoping someone else would write it but when no one did, I figured I'd take a shot at it. FYI, I started this before the Pemberley video yesterday, so I took some creative license and incorporated parts of the it into what I already had written :) Please be kind- it's the first story I've written in about 8 years.
January 31 (14 days and counting until The Release)
"I could have prevented this."
As William Darcy watches the car carrying Lizzie off to the airport and back home to her family, her words haunt him. She couldn't have stopped this calamity from happening, but he certainly could have. Now, he can't help but wonder if he will ever see her again. When the car gets to the bottom of the hill and finally disappears out of view, he pauses for a beat before flying into action. He starts making phone calls—to lawyers, to private investigators, to computer techs, to Fitz, to Gigi—bringing them up to speed, weighing options and drawing up battle plans.
At the end of the day, he is exhausted and not even sure if he is has even made any progress towards getting that blasted website taken down or finding that bastard. The guilt he feels is all-consuming and like a weight on his chest, but he presses on. He will make this right. For Lizzie.
February 1 (13 days and counting until The Release)
Of course Gigi wants to help. It's in her nature to want to fix things—just as it is in his. But he does not want her anywhere near this—or George Wickham
He hears himself tell her "He forbids her from having anything to do with this" and that she's "too vulnerable." He knows this sounds harsh (and it is), but he just wants to protect her from being hurt (again). Just like he wishes he could protect Lizzie.
February 3 (11 days and counting until The Release)
Darcy is vaguely aware that somewhere the Super Bowl is going on. The fact that the 49ers—his hometown team—are playing makes it near impossible to be completely ignorant of it. It is not lost on him that were it not for Wickham he would likely be enjoying the game (and Lizzie's company) at Fitz's party right now. But he knows he does not serve him to dwell on what might have been. Reality was enough to deal with at the moment, thankyouverymuch.
His progress has been slow. Maddeningly so. He's already been in LA for 48 hours and is no closer to finding Wickham or shutting down the website. His lawyers have advised him that there is no legal recourse they can take to stop the company from releasing it (citing "First Amendment precedents"), so tracking George is their best option for now. But he knows this—he will not allow that son of a bitch to win. George Wickham will not hurt another person he loves.
February 4 (10 days and counting until The Release)
Lizzie's video was illuminating, as always. The fact that Lydia didn't know speaks volumes to the man's character (as if releasing a sex tape wasn't bad enough). In a way, it's a relief to know that she was not complicit. But he fears this will break that young girl, which will in turn hurt Lizzie. He knows all too well the pain, grief and guilt she is feeling and would do anything to take it away.
The fact that he and his investigators (not to mention Fitz) keep hitting dead ends isn't helping matters. Darcy can't help but wonder, "How does George Wickham, of all people, keep eluding me?"
February 5 (9 days and counting until The Release)
He has his first tangible lead. All signs point to Wickham hiding out somewhere in Orange County. It's not much, but at least it's something to go on.
As much as he is loath to admit it, his phone call with Gigi was actually helpful. Try as he might to convince her (and himself) that the situation does not concern her, she is as wrapped up in this as he. She was once in Lydia's shoes and loved the scoundrel. And she is Lizzie's friend. He knows all of this- but that doesn't mean he has to like it (or accept it).
For the first time in days, a ray of hope creeps in.
February 7 (7 days and counting until The Release)
That hope is quickly stamped out and replaced by the feeling that he is on a wild goose chase.
Watching Lizzie's video is hard. She is clearly struggling. While Darcy is glad that Jane is there to comfort and support her, he would give anything to be the person she turns to in a crisis.
Maybe someday. But, for now, he will settle for getting the website taken down and giving her peace of mind. And her video has given him an idea—he should watch Lydia's vlog for clues (he's not sure why he hadn't thought of that before now).
An hour in, he hates George Wickham even more and can't help but see a bit of Gigi in the girl. He's about to start another video when his phone buzzes. It's Fitz—he thinks he has Wickham's phone number.
February 8 (6 days and counting until The Release)
He wants to strangle Fitz. He knew he didn't want Gigi involved and yet he gave her Wickham's number anyway.
When he confronts Fitz about it, he defends himself by saying "Darcy, have you ever tried saying no to that girl? Impossible. Besides, we weren't getting anywhere and we're running out of time. What do we have to lose?"
The answer to that question is what scares him the most. He has everything to lose.
February 11 (3 days and counting until The Release)
Heartbreaking is the only way to describe Lizzie's latest video. For someone who so rarely displays any outward signs of emotion (smiling does contort the face after all), the range of emotions Darcy feels as he watches her breakdown is impressive. Anguish. Guilt. Sympathy. Hopelessness. Anger. Hate. Love. It's too much for him to handle, as the stress and anxiety of the situation comes barreling down on him.
He gets texts and phone calls from Fitz and Gigi, but he ignores them both. He knows they'll worry but he can't bring himself to care from the depths of his despair. He is drowning in his guilt- and somewhere, vaguely, Jane's words from Lizzie's last video echo in his mind. But he dismisses them because knows in his heart, he could've prevented this and spared Lizzie this pain.
He feels like he failed her already.
February 12 (39 hours and counting until The Release)
Emotionally drained from the previous day, Darcy pushes on, knowing that time is his biggest enemy now. If he doesn't get a lead on Wickham's location or something else he can use as leverage on the distribution company soon, it will be too late and the tape will be released. As he sits in his hotel room, contemplating his next move, his phone pings with a notification from the Domino App:
George Wickham has installed Domino and messaged Gigi Darcy. Click here to message George and welcome him to Domino!
Blinking a few times as the information sinks in, Darcy selects Gigi's name from his contact list and calls her. Before she can even say anything, he exclaims "Gigi, what did you do?"
His well-intentioned little sister launches into a longwinded apology. He can tell she's upset and his anger immediately dissipates. When she pleads for him not to be mad at her, his voice softens as he assures her that he isn't and is only concerned for her well-being.
It's then he realizes that Gigi isn't aware of what she's accomplished. The smile that slowly breaks out on her face as the implications of George downloading Domino and accepting the TOS dawn her almost makes the risk she took worth it. Almost.
His hope renewed, Darcy gets Fitz on the phone. They need to use Domino to find Wickham before time runs out.
February 12 (26 hours and counting until The Release)
Over 12 hours later, Darcy finds himself standing outside of a sleazy motel room in Chino of all places. George managed to cover his tracks remarkably well and even with the information from Domino it took them hours to track him down. Not for the first time in the past two weeks, he half-jokingly wonders if George Wickham is a spy of some sort, as his talents for subterfuge and evasion would rival that of James Bond or Sydney Bristow.
Shaking his head free of those ridiculous thoughts, he raps on the door in front of him. He hears the squeak of a bedspring and heavy steps as Wickham comes to the door, which swings out just as he starts to say "Peach, I told you not to-"
Wickham freezes mid-sentence as he looks up and sees Darcy standing there, instead of whatever poor unsuspecting girl he was expecting. Wickham eyes dart around the room and opens his mouth to say something, but before he gets the chance to, Darcy catches him off guard and punches him square in the jaw and pushes him back in the motel room, closing the door behind them. (Unbidden, he thinks to himself, nope, definitely NOT a spy—which he attributes to his utter lack of sleep.)
He hears Wickham say, "Jeez, Darce, I don't think I've ever seen you like this. I didn't realize that you cared that much for Lydia Bennet. Or wait, it must be the other lovely Miss Bennet you're here to defend."
He feels his blood start to boil as Wickham prattles on, "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Like I told Gigi, the tapes were stolen from me. I had nothing to do with it. I'm the victim here, just like Lydia."
Darcy snorts, "Do you really expect me to buy that George? You forget that we grew up together—I know you. So cut the crap and tell me what this is going to cost me."
Wickham eyes him up before flashing his trademark smirk and saying, "$100,000. Take it or leave it."
Darcy counters with $50,000, which Wickham scoffs at. "Puh-lease. You can do better than that. Tell me, what's Lizzie worth to you?"
Darcy seethes. Wickham always did know exactly which of his buttons to press.
But before he can stop himself, he retorts, "Love isn't something you can put a price on."
Darcy mentally kicks himself for playing into Wickham's hand. Before the bastard can say anything else, he makes another offer.
"$75,000. Final offer. Provided you surrender all copies of the tape and sign a contract and confidentiality agreement, stipulating that you will never speak of this to anyone or have any contact with the Bennet family, Gigi, myself, or any of our family and friends. I want you out of our lives forever."
"Done. Pleasure doing business with you."
As he shakes hands with Wickham, Darcy can't help but feel he just made a deal with the devil.
February 13 (18 hours and counting until The Release)
For the first time in days, Darcy thinks he might actually pull this off.
His legal team worked through the night to draw up the necessary paperwork and review Wickham's contract with Novelty Exposures. Apparently to break the contract, he would need to pay back the $15,000 that they paid Wickham for the tape, plus an additional $5,000 in penalties. A pittance, really, in comparison. It was worth every penny for the relief and joy he imagined it would bring to Lizzie.
Wickham was another story. He found paying this man any sum to be abhorrent. But if it got him out of their lives permanently, he could deal with it. He made sure the agreements were airtight and the punishments for breaking them severe. If Wickham ever dared to violate them, he would find himself wishing he had never been born.
As he looks over the documents one last time before signing them, Wickham gives a low whistle and says, "Damn, Darce—these conditions are pretty harsh. What am I supposed to do?"
"You got what you wanted. Just take your goddamn money and leave us alone. I would strongly suggest a change in scenery— to the East Coast, to Australia, to Timbuktu for all I care. The farther, the better. Where ever you go, just know I will be keeping an eye on you."
February 13 (Crisis Adverted)
The next six hours are quite possibly the slowest moving of his life. As he sits at his computer, ostensibly working, all he really does is refresh the page every five minutes to see if the site has been taken down yet. Every time he does, the website's countdown clock mocks him. Finally at 11:32 am, he is rewarded—the countdown has been removed and replaced with a message that reads, "We're sorry. Due to reasons beyond our control, we are no longer able to offer this product."
Darcy exhales a breath he didn't know he was holding and refreshes the page a couple more times before firing off a text to Fitz and Gigi thanking them both for their help and attaching a screenshot of the now defunct page. Both are thrilled at the news, and while Gigi uses a few too many exclamation points and emoticons in her response for his liking, he can't help but feel the same way.
Crisis (narrowly) averted.
February 14 (The Aftermath)
As he walks through the door of his family estate, he calls out his sister's name, announcing that he is home.
He sees he come to the tops the staircase and come barreling down, as she squees, "William! You're back!"
When she reaches the bottom, she envelops her big brother in a huge hug and says, "Thank you. I knew you would be able to stop him."
Darcy smiles sadly, pressing a small kiss to Gigi head as he says, "I was only remedying a previous error. I should have done this long ago."
"What exactly did you do, William? Not that I'm not glad, but how?" she questions
He fixes her with a glare and remains silent.
"You're not going to tell me what you did, are you?"
"No. It's taken care of. He will never be able to do this again. That's all you need to know. I'm sorry-"
Gigi interrupts him and "I know, William. It's alright. You're trying to protect me."
He looks her in the eye and says, "I am. I know I can be overbearing, but with our parents…"
"It's fine. You are the best big brother a girl could ask for. Now, c'mon, I have something to show you."
She drags him up to her bedroom and parks him in front of her laptop. "She posted it right before you got home. You need to watch it now."
They sit there watching Lizzie's video together, in silence. When they get to the part where Lizzie finds out the website has been taken down, a smile breaks out on his face—his first genuine smile since this whole ordeal began. It is gratifying to hear her thank him—even if she doesn't know that it's him she's thanking.
After the video ends, Gigi turns and says to him, "See, William. You HAVE to tell her. Think of how much she will appreciate it."
He sighs and responses, "No. Gigi, that's not why I did it. It was the right thing to do. I don't want her to feel… indebted to me or… obligated to behave a certain way towards me. Besides, our last encounter did not end on a particularly pleasant note."
Now it's Gigi's turn to sigh, "That was not your fault. Plus, she was totally going to say yes. She deserves to know."
Darcy stands up and moves towards the door, saying, "It doesn't matter. We are not having this discussion. I am not telling Lizzie and I would prefer it if you and Fitz would honor my wishes on this matter."
As he exits the room, he tries to ignore the glint he saw in Gigi's eyes when she said she understood.
Later
Ggdarcy: Oh, it is so on FitzontheFitz
FitzontheFitz: You know it, GGD. We'll talk when I get back from Fiji.
Ggdarcy: Countdown starts now