Darcy had to turn to get out of there before he did something stupid. He heard the click of the camera being turned off behind him and Lizzie beginning to pack things up. She seemed desperate to leave and Darcy didn't want to be the cause of her discomfort any longer. He had been mistaken and her videos since that eventful evening hadn't shown that she believed him. In fact it had taken cajoling for her to even state his side of the story when it had taken nothing but hatred towards him to reveal Wickham's side of the story. Turning behind him, he spoke quietly to her back.
"I hope you enjoy your meal."
Six words, replacing the six words he had spoken earlier. Lizzie, I'm in love with you. But he wouldn't speak them again, he would wait until the feeling would pass and allow Lizzie to continue her life without him in it. He heard Lizzie pause in her packing and as he opened the door he could have sworn he heard her respond in kind. And mean it.
Opening the door, he saw his younger sister back off quickly, hiding very badly that she had been listening at the door the entire time. Closing the office door behind him, he looked at her, at the nervous wringing of her fingers and the half smile on her face.
"How did it go?" Gigi asked hopefully and Darcy didn't want to talk about it.
He had felt something when he walked into that room and saw her standing up quickly from in front of that camera. And it was reminiscent of everything that had occurred before. Her movements, the standing, their positions when they were next in front of the camera. He wanted to hope that things had changed or were different but he didn't know what to make of Lizzie, he no longer trusted himself to read Lizzie correctly.
"I'm sure you'll find out on the next video." Darcy spoke quietly as he walked down the corridor, hearing the scurrying steps of his sister keeping up with him.
"William, Will, Big brother." Gigi smiled broadly at him.
"Gigi," He stopped and took a breath as he glanced back down the corridor to where he had left her in that office. In an office he owned. "I-" Releasing the breath he shook his head and kept going. "I can't right now."
He could practically feel the frown and heard a text chime echo from her phone. The furious tapping of her nails against the screen preventing her from catching him before he made it to the elevator. Scanning his access card, the elevator opened and he held the door for his younger sister to climb in.
"You're not mad at me are you?" Gigi asked, getting right to the point. "Because we were doing it for your own good. You were avoiding her. And I know that you would go out of your way normally to talk to her, I watched the videos, she talked about it."
His jaw tightened as he remembered that she had watched all of the things that Lizzie had said about him. "I'm not mad at you." And he meant it.
"Good, because its like peeling off a bandaid, getting back on the horse, and all that stuff you used to tell me-" Gigi stopped mid sentence as the text chime echoed from her phone.
Darcy nodded as he waited for the elevator to reach the ground floor lobby. "We?" He asked.
Gigi looked up from her texting and opened her mouth. "Well, royal we, we, as in everybody wants you to be happy." The over enthusiastic response made him suspicious as he narrowed his eyes. He was about to ask her what she was actually talking about when the doors opened to the lobby and she bounded out. "So is Lizzie joining us?"
He looked at her. "No, she's having dinner elsewhere."
"That's okay, she can come out with us another night."
Another chime, another text, another response typed by Gigi.
"You're popular this evening." Darcy commented.
"There's a lot going on." Gigi answered with a grin. "Where are we going?"
"Where do you want to go?"
Gigi hadn't heard the exact restaurant that Lizzie was going to, but she would give it a stab.
"I feel like something different tonight, what about near the marina?"
Darcy stopped across the lobby and stared at her. "Nice try."
"Oh come on, it's perfect! She'll get to see you outside of the office environment, doing something fun." Gigi knew the smile to use and the way to persuade her big brother into doing nearly anything.
"She has seen me outside of the office environment, and I don't think that it would be a good idea."
"What did she say in the room? It can't have been that bad."
Darcy sent her a look that told her he knew that she had been listening. Deciding against answering when Gigi was in her stubborn mood, he opened the lobby door to the street and let her out before him. Another chime went off and Darcy was starting to become curious about who his sister was talking to.
"Are you seeing somebody?' He asked on the way to his car.
"No!" The response came fast that she could practically see the disbelief on Darcy's face before it arrived.
"Then who are you texting?" Darcy asked his sister easily.
"Fitz." Gigi answered with the same tone.
He frowned at that. He certainly had no reason to suspect anything between them, but it was unusual for Fitz and Gigi to be texting this much. "I see." Was all he could comment on the situation at hand.
Opening the door for Gigi, he looked at his sister's face curiously, peering to see if he could work out why she was so happy tonight or texting his friend so much. She rolled her eyes at the typical gesture and climbed into the car as he made his way around, still thinking about what had happened. The spot that she had touched him and the way his heart had stopped when he had walked into the office.
It certainly hadn't been as bad as he had thought it may become between them, but he assumed that the tension was her need to be polite as the CEO of a company she was being graded on. Climbing into the drivers' side, he closed the door and with the calmness that often worried Gigi, he clicked his seat belt on before he looked at her.
"Before," Darcy began.
"Oh I am in trouble aren't I?" Gigi asked and then rattled off before he could answer, "But you have to understand that it was done with the best intentions. You've never told somebody you love them before as far as I know, in fact I've never heard you mention any girl before that you liked enough to, well talk to them."
Darcy raised an eyebrow at that, but Gigi was on a roll.
"And she was shadowing your company. And you don't think that's fate or some sort of subconscious thing or another. Whatever. The point is, she's been at Pemberley a week and loves it, she even announced that to the entire internet fandom that she loves your company." Gigi turned in the seat to look at him. "We were just trying to help."
Her texting chime went off again and she quickly looked down to check what it was. "You said we again." Darcy pointed out dryly. "Who is we?"
Gigi slowly looked up and smiled at her brother. "The royal we won't work this time?" She asked and Darcy merely shook his head. "Okay, but you have to promise not to get mad okay? Well Fitz and I-" She was still talking but Darcy felt a small pang of disappointment. He didn't know why he had thought differently, but a smallish large part of him had hoped that the we also included Lizzie.
He was apparently wrong to think that.
"Will?" Gigi asked out of his haze and he blinked a few times to look at her.
"Sorry, yes, we should get going."
He turned and reached for the keys but she lent over and placed a hand on his. "You promise you're not mad?"
Darcy didn't look at his sister, but kept his eyes on the stationary road. "I'm not impressed." He answered honestly, "Nor am I pleased that I was forced, by two people that I care about very much, to be put into a situation that was not ideal and was designed to make two people uncomfortable. I believe that Lizzie has made it clear how she feels."
Gigi was quiet for awhile as he started the car and pulled out of the parking space, as he paused to change gears he heard Gigi speak. "She was helped though, into how she feels."
Darcy slowly turned the car towards the parking lot exit. "I know." He answered honestly, "But it was encouraged, her original feelings were the same."
"They can change though. She likes your company, and she likes that you're liked here. To be honest it just seems like she's more, embarrassed by the way she talked to you that day."
Darcy flicked his indicator to pull out of the parking lot and into traffic. "I don't want her to be uncomfortable and the situation was uncomfortable."
"But you like her Will," Gigi countered, "You've never talked about somebody like that before, so you're going to have to talk to her and be a little uncomfortable so she'll-"
"Fall in love with me?" Darcy finished. "I don't believe that will ever happen."
Gigi was silent as he drove through the traffic. Pulling up at a red light, she smiled and Darcy looked at her sideways. "What?"
"You're heading towards the marina." Gigi answered simply.
