EPISODE: EPILOGUE Q&A #1

The scene opens unusually today; we see an unfamiliar room in the background, with very chic yet understated decor. Lizzie, of course, is facing the camera. However, sitting beside her, looking remarkably at ease - considering he's being filmed - is Darcy.

"Hello, Internet!" effuses Lizzie. She smiles at Darcy, who inclines his head slightly in greeting as she begins the intro. "Well, I've been absolutely inundated with questions since my last video, so I thought I'd do another Q&A session to try and satisfy everybody. And I have here with me a trusty assistant!" Saying this, she nudges him teasingly with her elbow. Amazingly, he actually gives her a teasing nudge back, which makes her grin stupidly. "My name is Lizzie Bennet, and..." she makes an overwhelmed sort of face, "there are a lot of questions...this might take more than one episode!"

Lizzie starts right in as soon as we come back from the animated logo and theme song. "Okay, so the first question hasn't actually been asked yet, but I'm sure it will be, so I'll head that off right now." She gestures to the room around her. "'Lizzie, where the heck are you'?" She drops her hands back into her lap. "Well, I'm actually in New York City, for my final shadowing placement." Darcy smiles fondly at her as she elaborates, "And guess who just happens to own a studio apartment there?"

Darcy straightens his posture defensively. "It was a fortunate coincidence," he protests. "I travel here a great deal, it's efficient to own somewhere to stay."

Lizzie shakes her head at the camera. "Anyway, that's where I'm staying while I'm here."

Darcy turns his head toward her. "And are you enjoying your time in New York?" he inquires politely.

She looks over at him. "That isn't one of the questions," she mutters quietly.

He looks unfazed. "Yes, but I'm sure it will be," he says, echoing her earlier phrase.

She narrows her eyes and shakes her head at him, but she's obviously not truly annoyed. Finally, she grins. "Well, the home comforts are pretty nice," she admits.

His eyebrows go up. "Oh, the 'home comforts'," he banters back at her, reaching over to take her hand. He brings it to his lips. "Only 'nice'?"

She stares back at him with delighted surprise and twinkling eyes, before turning quickly back to the camera. "Okay, way more than nice," she concedes. "I do have this houseguest," she continues, as he releases her hand, "who keeps jetting up every weekend to stay here with me." He smiles in response, showing a dimple. This distracts her, and she stares at him for a bit, enjoying the view.

A cut, and she's back to paying attention to the camera. "Anywayyyyy," she continues, her eyes widening in mock exasperation.

Another cut, and she's frowning with her head tilted thoughtfully. "Wait...how can you be a houseguest when you own the place?"

Another cut, and she calls out, "Next question!"

Another cut, and Darcy starts reading from a list. "Lizzie: how can you end up with someone who totally dissed your family? And how can Darcy end up with someone who rejected him so nastily?"

Both of them look rather uncomfortable as this question is read out - Darcy a bit more so than Lizzie, especially when he gets to the part where he has to utter the phrase 'totally dissed'. (He doesn't pull it off.) Lizzie looks like she's trying to frame a coherent response, but Darcy speaks first. "Frankly," he tells the camera awkwardly, still getting used to this vlogging thing, "I think I rather deserved a nasty rejection." Lizzie opens her mouth to protest, but he continues, turning to look at her again. "True, a lot of your accusations towards me were based on mistaken premises, but the way I behaved to you," here he flushes, "it was unpardonable. I feel awful just thinking about it."

Lizzie shakes her head at him, looking equally embarrassed. "Both of us behaved badly there. I don't think we should try to play the blame game for that fiasco." She forces out a laugh. "And besides, both of us have improved a lot since then!"

Darcy has been shaking his own head in response to her point about sharing blame. "I'm not so sure. I've been thinking about it a great deal...the way I chose to express myself...and it was truly horrible." He looks apologetically into her eyes. "I'm quite embarrassed by it. And I shall never forget the way you...well...'smacked me down'." (He pulls that expression off a bit better.) Lizzie looks abashedly down at her hands, and his mouth quirks a bit at the bitterness of the memory. "You told me that I acted like I'd rather have a hernia repaired than be around you. You said I was arrogant, proud, and selfish." Lizzie rolls her eyes at herself before looking up apologetically at him. He gives her a serious gaze. "I couldn't stop thinking about that."

Lizzie looks very uncomfortable. "Will...I had no idea that what I said would have that kind of...impact."

He raises his eyebrows. "Of course you didn't!" he assures her. "You thought I was an emotionless robot who only cared for my own opinions. My behaviour was so abhorrent that I was 'the last person you could ever fall in love with'."

Lizzie winces and shakes her head as if to erase her own words. "Oh...don't remind me of that..." Her voice gets very small. "I'm so ashamed of what I said to you. You must have hated me."

He tilts his head to the side, looking at her seriously, then takes a stray lock of her hair and gently tucks it behind an ear before caressing the side of her neck. "I would never dare hate you," he says quietly, intensely. This is a phrase which long-time viewers will likely recognize. Lizzie and Darcy seem to recall it, too, as they smile at each other for a moment. Then he touches her arm reassuringly. "You shouldn't be ashamed at all. It isn't your fault that I came across in completely the opposite way as I intended." His eyebrows quirk sardonically. "You were only acting from a lack of knowledge. The reasons for how I acted, however, are far less forgivable." He sighs. "It did take me a while to admit to myself that you had a point, and that my anger would be more usefully directed at myself." He takes a breath. "Suffice it to say that you were not the only one thinking they had 'sucked at being a good person'. I did a lot of thinking after I left Collins & Collins - about myself, about how I am." He takes a deep breath, glancing self-consciously to the side. "I was an only child for many years...and as wonderful as my parents were, as good as the principles were that they instilled in me...I was spoiled. I know that now."

Lizzie looks up at him in surprise - we've never heard Darcy talk about his parents before, and it's likely, judging from the look on her face, that she hasn't, either.

He continues. "I grew up like a little prince. Of course, I treated people well and shared my wealth generously, as I had been taught to do...but still, I ended up believing that I should only have personal relationships with certain people." His tone is bitter, and he looks Lizzie in the eye. "I did tell you one truth that day: social classes are a real thing." He shakes his head at himself. "But what I never had to face, until your honesty forced me to, was that this wasn't right; and that the only reason that it continues to be 'a real thing' is that people like me maintain that status quo, setting ourselves apart from everyone else." He looks her full in the face. "You humbled me, Lizzie Bennet." She inhales in surprise, but he presses on. "Yes...I came to you with the incredibly arrogant presumption that you would be delighted to hear of my love for you." He gives a bitter little laugh. "Well, you disabused me of that feeling of superiority rather instantly." He gives her another piercing gaze. "You showed me how much I had to grow in order to truly be worthy of you."

She blushes, then frowns. "So...is that why you were so different when I showed up at Pemberley?"

He nods. "Yes, I had given a great deal of thought about the sort of person I wanted to be, and I wanted to show you that I'd made some improvement in the areas you so despised me for...I wanted to make you think better of me."

Lizzie looks touched, but also, after a moment or so, faintly amused. "Really? To 'think better' of you? That was your only motivation?"

Darcy gives her a knowing smile, once again giving us a hint of dimple. "Well..." he confesses, "I did have some wild hopes about where the self-improvement process might ultimately lead...but I thought..." he quirks his eyebrows at her, "first things first. Getting you to stop hating me seemed to me to be an appropriate first step." She laughs appreciatively in response.

A cut, and Lizzie's reading from the list this time. "So Lizzie, does being with Darcy mean you're going to get a cushy job at Pemberley after all?"

She reddens and looks distinctly uncomfortable. "I...don't..." she begins awkwardly, "Y'know...I haven't even finished school yet...and even then..." she shakes her head, "I don't think it's right to take advantage of a relationship like that." Tentatively, she looks over to check out Darcy's reaction to this question.

He's frowning slightly. "You wouldn't be 'taking advantage'," he tells her. "You've earned a position at Pemberley on your own merit." She snorts skeptically, and he raises his eyebrows in surprise. "I'm quite serious."

She gives a short, disbelieving laugh. "Will, all I did was follow your staff around for a few weeks. I didn't earn a thing!"

Darcy sets his jaw determinedly. "That is entirely untrue, Lizzie. Throughout your placement, the department heads reported back with their teams' impressions of you, and-"

She gasps and cuts him off. "They what? Of...me? WHY?!"

The eyebrows go up again. "That's standard procedure with any kind of student internship at Pemberley." As her mouth gapes open, he continues. "All the reports about you were extremely favourable." He looks very pleased. "Everyone was impressed with your knowledge; how generously you shared your own experiences; how quickly you picked things up; your insightful and intelligent questions; the helpfulness of your suggestions..."

Lizzie looks completely astonished. "That's...just..."

Darcy continues, "And what they all spoke most highly of was your enthusiasm."

Lizzie throws her hands up. "Of course I was enthusiastic! Everyone there is incredible, and is doing amazing work! How could I not get jazzed about that?"

Darcy nods patiently. "Yes...that's exactly the attitude we want from anyone working at Pemberley." He takes her hand reassuringly. "Lizzie, you fit in magnificently with us when you were there. Relationship or no, I'd be a fool not to take you on, particularly with your success at going viral, and your large fanbase; those are assets that any company would want." He squeezes her hand. "Would you consider working at Pemberley after you graduate?"

Her mouth continues to hang open for a moment, then she shakes her head incredulously. "I can't believe you're actually serious about this," she says in an awed voice. "Of course I would!"

Darcy dimples right up at her answer, and releases her hand so that he can reach over and touch her cheek. "I'm so pleased," he says, with great understatement. A moment later, he flashes an even wider grin. "Why don't we dine out to celebrate? I can make a reservation at Corton," he offers.

Lizzie still looks a bit shellshocked, but manages to get out, "Okay..." She looks over at the camera. "I guess...we'll keep going with the Q&A another time?" She glances over at Darcy. "Uh...do you want to say goodbye, Will?"

Darcy quirks his mouth and raises a hand in farewell. "Goodbye, Will," he deadpans.

The screen goes black.