Two people from different sites have noticed it already so as a nod to them and to other readers who probably already know what thirteen means, this is a backstory to the significance of it.
THIRTEEN
Seven weeks. Seven weeks was all it took for everything to blow up in her face. She thought that once they had that talk in Oakham Park that everything was going to be rainbows, sparkles, unicorns and whatnot. They deserved that. After everything they had been through, every single little wound they had inflicted on each other, they deserved to heal and to let the wounds close up. But it wasn't to be.
The thing was, they had dropped their guard. They had been too caught up enjoying being together that they totally forgot that there had been reasons why it took that long to get together and why they didn't get together that first time, in the first place. They forgot that they still had issues to solve, that, despite how much they had grown in the past few months, they still had so much they needed to work on.
They forgot about their biggest faults. Him, his tendency to decide things for people and to assume too much. Her, her tendency to jump into conclusions and see the worst in someone. And that was what unraveled everything/
It didn't start out that way at first. They were supposed to go out on a date by the Marina. After that dinner with Dr. Gardiner, Lizzie had discovered just how peaceful it was there and how easy it was to tune out the chatter and the noise as she took a walk. She had told him that once and he had admitted that, as a child, he and his Mum would go to the Marina early in the morning to watch the men haul in their daily catch. And so, the Marina became their favorite place to just spend time with each other.
Lizzie had arrived at the cafe they frequented slightly late and out of breath, as she was intercepted by a phone call from her mother on her way out. She found him already seated at their table with their orders served, just waiting patiently for her. She knew at exactly what moment he saw her because his eyes lit up and he gave her that smile that the public rarely ever saw but she was privy to almost everyday. At that instant, her irritation with her mother just disappeared and she was absolutely excited to just spend time with him.
"Hi. I am so sorry for being late. My mother called just as I was about to leave and we all know how long her phone calls take." She gave him a wry smile as she said that and she could see his worry disappear.
"Good. I feared that something must have happened to you for you to not arrive on time since you're never late." He gestured to her food and she picked up her fork; and they began to eat quietly. "Tell me about your day."
"Well, I bumped into Dr. Gardiner today as I went grocery shopping. Apparently she was visiting a friend over the weekend. She asked me how it was, interning in Pemberley and she also told me to tell you how much she appreciated you allowing her student to continue interning until graduation. Then I met up with Gigi because she wanted a tennis buddy and skyped with Jane afterwards. Oh and Mother's phone call. That was about it. You?" She watched as he swallowed his food and took a sip of his soda water.
"Today was mostly uneventful. There was a problem concerning two of my employees that HR was unable to diffuse and so I had to step in and mediate. Then I had a board meeting where the older members, as always, questioned my ideas and reminded me of the success of my father's initiatives. Fortunately, I had the numbers to back me up and they promptly fell silent." He took a bite of his food, chewing slowly and she watched him as she always did. "Oh, Fitz's parents are holding their annual soiree next Thursday. I took the liberty of adding you to the guest list as my plus one. I also asked Gigi to take you out shopping tomorrow, my tab of course, as you'll probably be needing a dress for it. Formal attire only. Shall I pick you up at 7 that night?"
He looked at her with an eyebrow arched, waiting for an answer. She opened her mouth but no words could come out. How dare he just presume that she would go along with his plans like that? How dare he just basically arrange her whole evening for her? Didn't she have a say as to whether or not she was going to go or when she was going to get picked up or whether or not she was going to buy a dress. She was 25 for goodness' sake. She could make decisions like that on her own. She didn't need him making them for her.
"Elizabeth? I'm taking your silence as agreement." His words just made her angrier. She stood up quickly, the stress from her mother's phone call returning in full force and adding to her already unsettled emotions.
"I'm sorry but I have to go. I can't have dinner with a man who thinks that he can just control my life like that." She heard him call out to her as she stalked towards the door but she ignored him and just continued to walk briskly in the direction of her apartment.
"Elizabeth! Wait! What's wrong? I - I don't understand!" And that was it. The breaking point. She grounded to a stop and whirled back to face him.
"That's what's wrong! The fact that you have no clue what you just did wrong because you don't think what you're doing is wrong?" She jabbed her finger at his chest as she spoke. "You cannot just go around arranging someone else's life for her. You can't just assume that I would want to go to the soiree or that I would need to go shopping or that you'd have to pick me up. You can't just do that okay?"
"Elizabeth, I-"
"Will. Look at me. I am an adult. I am more than capable of making wise decisions so I'd appreciate it if you'd let me."
"Wise decisions? Like what? Believing Wickham when he spun lies about me?" Silence reigned over the place and she reared back as if burnt. She blinked furiously as she felt the tears building up behind her eyes. No she wasn't going to cry. Lizzie Bennet does not cry. She tried to process just how it all went so wrong and how he got brought up into the conversation.
"Elizabeth, oh gosh, I didn't-"
"Shut up. Do not talk to me. Do not call me. I'm sorry that I'm incapable of making wise decisions to the point that you felt like you had to make arrangements for me. And I'm sorry that I was stupid enough to fall for that douchebag's lies." She began to walk away, furious at him for bringing Wickham up. But despite the anger that was slowly blanketing her, she could feel her heart breaking into little pieces. She was such a fool to think that they would work out, that it was all better. Because if this wasn't an indication of how wrong she was then she didn't know what was. "I'll clear out of the office first thing tomorrow and I'll have HR process my papers seeing as you probably don't trust me enough to do it."
"Elizabeth, that wasn't what I meant. That wasn't- " She rounded a corner and kept walking as fast as she could until she was absolutely sure that she couldn't hear him anymore. When the sounds of the nightlife-cars, people, music- were the only things she could hear, she allowed herself to relax and to slump against a wall in an alleyway. IDIOT. There you go just leaving your heart out in the open. Lydia was right. There were reasons why she was perpetually single and reason #1 should be "She's absolutely, pathetically incapable of choosing the right man."
Lizzie shook away the tears that threatened to come welling back up as she remembered it. She sighed as she looked out the window of her bedroom. She was back home, back to where the only stressful things she had to worry about were her mother's constant nagging and her lack of a career. After the incident, Lydia had surprisingly grown up a little and she was giving Lizzie space these two weeks. Jane had also popped by last weekend for a visit. Bringing a whole basket of snickerdoodles and chocolate crinkles with her "just because". Even Lizzie had to snort at that. She knew that it wasn't "just becuase". She knew that it was to "cheer her up" after the Darcy incident - which her mother still hasn't forgiven her about. ("Why Lizzie? Why can't you just hold on to a man for once? Look at your sisters. Jane has Bing and they're probably going to be engaged by the end of the month. Even Lydia has Chase. And she's younger than you. Why did you have to open your mouth and ruin everything? Learn to make wise choices Lizzie or you're going to send me to an early grave.") But the truth was, there was no reason for Jane to have to cheer her up. She was totally okay now. Yes she was.
She walked back to her bed and grabbed one of her books. She faintly heard the doorbell ring but ignored it seeing as her it was usually one of her mother's friends.
"Lizzie! Lizzie! I'm making peach pie and my hands are covered in flour. Get the door!" Groaning because she had just found a comfortable position, she slowly makes her way downstairs and, just as she's about to open the door, plasters a smile on her face.
A smile that immediately disappears as soon as she recognizes the anxious face staring back at her. The face, like her smile, also disappears, because she immediately swings the door back close.
Or at least that was the plan before a foot wedged itself in the tiny gap between the door and the frame.
"Elizabeth, please." She hears him whisper brokenly and she sighs before opening the door, stepping out and closing it behind her.
"What do you want Will?" She crosses her arms across her chest and she just wants to go back because she's tired of this. Tired of getting worked up over him. Tired of hoping and getting crushed and hoping and getting crushed again (1).
"I came to apologize." He's nervous, fidgety. She can tell because she knows how his eyes blink rapidly and how his eyebrows raise when he's uncomfortable. He almost mechanically thrusts a bouquet of sunflowers forward and she stares at them. And she hears him say please softly again and Darnit, she can't resist so she takes them from him and gently sets them down on a nearby window sill. She stares at him again, willing him to speak so they can get this over with when he suddenly does. "Elizabeth. I was an arse. What I said was uncalled for and definitely out of the line. My father fell for his lies. Gigi fell for his lies. And I still think of their judgment as impeccable so why would I think otherwise of your judgments, especially since, once you saw the truth for yourself, you willingly changed your opinions and apologized? I'm also deeply sorry for deciding for you. You're right. You're an adult and a perfectly capable one. I've seen how you've grown to be more openminded and I've seen how wise the decisions you make are. Even your snap second ones proved to be astoundingly perfect for the situations. It was your quick thinking after all that saved Gigi from Caroline's insensitive Wickham remark during that disastrous dinner incident. And it was your reevaluation and decision making skills that allowed you to give me a second chance. How could I presume to decide over your life when your decisions are so much better? My mother was right when she told me that in a relationship, one must learn the art of compromise and joint decision making. I neglected to do both and for that I ask for your forgiveness."
He kneels in front of her, taking both of her hands.
"What can I do, Elizabeth, to prove how sorry I am and how much I've regretted my decision? What can I do for you to take me back? I am willing to do anything and everything. These last two weeks have been pure agony. I can't lose you, Elizabeth. I can't lose you ever again. My life's tied up too much in yours for me to be able to breathe without you. When you left, you took all the colors with you. The house isn't warm and sunny anymore and even Gigi isn't her usual perky self. And work. Somehow, your presence has made a difference and everything's been slower without you. You've become the soul of Pemberley, Elizabeth. And of the Darcy family You're what lights up the place and makes things beautiful. I need you back. Please tell me you'll take me back. I love you."
She's surprised to find out that her cheeks are damped. So engrossed was she in his words, in the desperation and raw honesty in them. She's touched and her heart breaks at how helpless he sounds. But she's terrified too. So terrified of how much power she possesses over him and his life and how much she has come to mean to him. She's terrified too of how much he has come to mean to her, of how easily and willingly she has forgiven him- because she already has. She realized that she forgave him the moment he showed up at the front door of her house. And she knows now, she just knows that she's as doomed as he is because he's right. Her life is inexplicably tied up in his and she loves him so much that being away from him hurts, being away from his is like walking around without a heart, without something that keeps life pumping into her.
And suddenly he's standing up and wiping the tears from her eyes while ignoring the tears that are in his.
"I made you cry. Please don't cry, Elizabeth. I'm sorry."
"No, no," She gives a weak laugh as she shakes her head. "These are good tears. I'm sorry for overreacting as well. You were just being your thoughtful self and you wanted to include me in your life, in your gatherings. Oh gosh. I judged too quickly and got angry too quickly. I'm sorry. And I'll take you back. I'll take you back even if you change your mind about it. I care too much to walk away from you again."
He wraps her in a fierce hug and they spend ten minutes just standing that way, crying with relief and letting all their pent up emotions disappear. And when all the emotions come out, they both just slump together on the ground, exhausted and utterly spent.
She shoots him a smile, the smile that she's saved just for him and she reaches for the flowers that he gave her.
"Sunflowers?" She cocks an eyebrow at him.
"Yes. Because, like I said, you're a ray of sunshine. You're what makes Pemberley and home feel like home again." She blushes at this, cheeks going beet red at his statement and she ducks her head. She doesn't know what to say, has never been good with the mushy stuff so she busies herself fingering and counting the sunflowers when she realizes that there are thirteen instead of twelve.
"Thirteen. There are thirteen sunflowers."
"Yeah." He shrugs awkwardly and it's his turn to blush. "I figured if you got mad and decided to throw stuff at me that you might decide to start by plucking a flower of and using that. And if you did throw a flower back at me or destroy it, at least you'd have twelve left when I finally convinvced you to forgive me and it wouldn't look odd in a vase."
She laughs at that explanation because it's so odd yet so him and she can't help but tease him about it.
"You were so sure that we were going to make up."
"Well of course. I was planning on camping out on your porch until you changed your mind."
"I love you." She just blurts it out because really, that's what she was thinking as he said it. But he stills suddenly and she realizes that she's never said that to him before. Sure, he's said it a million times. No use not saying that to her since he did profess his undying love in front of a million eager viewers; but she hasn't and it's her first time and before she can think about it more, she finds all thoughts leaving her head as he pulls her in for a kiss.
(1) The Lydia incident was the first "hoping and getting crushed"
Hope you liked it and thanks for reading!