A/N: Prompt #9 - Remember. I don't own P and P.
Darcy does not shy from painful recollections. He faces them head on, regardless of the hurt they cause him.
So when his father suffers from a riding accident three months after Darcy's mother's death, and he is given partial custody of Georgiana, he presses the memory into his mind.
Remember, he tells himself, this is what responsibility feels like. Remember, and be more careful than your father was.
When he almost arrives too late to save Georgiana from Wickham, he runs over the memory again and again until its brutal edges rub his mind raw.
Remember, he tells himself, this is what failure feels like. Remember, and don't fail her again.
When he makes his disastrous proposal, he realizes that he needn't have feared forgetting the feel of failure. The weight of it is heavy on his heart.
Remember, he tells himself, first bitterly, then thoughtfully. Remember, and you can change.
When he sees Elizabeth again, he doesn't have to tell himself to remember. Every smile is as fresh in his mind as it was the moment he saw it.