Pride and Prejudice doesn't belong to me
One Day
Pemberley Labs was well situated in the middle of the city and Elizabeth Bennett got off the bus and made her way to the building. She couldn't believe that she had got the job, granted it wasn't what she wanted, not what she was qualified to do but being a junior assistant to a scientist would pay the bills, and keep her mind off him, and that's what really mattered now. She would write in her free time.
She stowed her bag in the drawer at her desk and went to join the other assistants, Charlotte and Lucy in the breakroom. She had met them the week before when she'd been offered the job and they had been very friendly.
"You're very lucky to be working with Dr. Albert," Lucy said, "He's such a brilliant man."
"And quite good looking too," Charlotte added.
"Don't forget that charming accent of his," Lucy said.
Elizabeth just smiled, she had yet to meet any of the scientists she was going to be working with but she'd seen their bios on the websites although curiously none of them had a photo attached.
"I'm sure they're all nice people," she said neutrally.
"Yes, they are," Lucy enthused, "and the best part is, they don't seem to care that we don't understand half the words they say."
"Really?" Elizabeth was curious, "I thought I was going to be the odd man out here with my journalism degree."
"I'm actually a social worker," Lucy confided, "I mean, I have a degree in social work and Charlotte here a degree in ancient languages."
"Of course you're surprised," Charlotte said, "and I must admit it's a bit unorthodox, maybe, but we get the job done and we are paid very well for our troubles."
Elizabeth nodded, pretending to understand, but it didn't make any sense to her at all. But who was she to look a gift horse in the mouth. She had needed a job, any job; in fact she had been on her way to the Lambton Inn to ask if they had anything when she'd received the call from Pemberley Labs. She had applied there a few months earlier, there and a few other random places and being called for an interview and then getting the job a few days later had been a godsend.
She went back to her desk a few minutes later and turned on the computer; she'd been told that her work would be sent to her. She opened the files and reading the instructions began to input the data that had been sent.
000
Fitzwilliam Darcy entered the cortex and quickly pulled off his tie and coat; he unbuttoned a few buttons and breathed what seemed to be his first easy breath in hours.
"That bad, uh?" Charles, his best friend, asked him.
"I don't even want to talk about it," Darcy replied.
Charles nodded; meetings with Catherine de Bourgh were rarely smooth. "Georgie and Richard are waiting for you in the lab," he said instead, "they seem to have made a breakthrough."
"Okay," Darcy grabbed the coffee that Charles was holding out and made his way to the lab. At least something was going well.
As he walked he passed a number of people, employees and interns most of whom scurried out of his way. He always wondered at this; to the best of his knowledge he was a conscientious employer and a really friendly person to boot. He nodded in greeting to any who met his gaze and that was when he saw her.
She was standing with Charlotte and Lucy, Darcy took pride in the fact that he knew their names, and they were looking at a sweater of some sort, a large sweater, if his eyes were to be believed in an overpowering canary yellow. They had their heads together over the intricacies of its pattern and he couldn't help himself, he made his way quietly to them and said, "If I might have your attention – if you can spare the time?"
Lucy turned around very quickly, like a thief caught in the act, but Elizabeth made of sterner stuff and unconscious of wrongdoing, merely folded the pullover tidily and said: "Certainly, sir," which simple remark seemed to annoy him very much, for he glared at her quite savagely.
"You're on duty, aren't you?" he asked. "That is, you have some work to do, don't you?"
"Not, me," said Elizabeth ungrammatically in her pleasant voice. "I just met with Dr. Albert and we discussed the report, Charlotte is just going check on some experiments."
"When I need to be reminded of the assistants' routine in Labs, I shall say so, Miss…?"
"Bennett. Elizabeth Bennett," she told him. "I just started here this morning."
She gave him a kindly, thoughtful look, her previous ill humour at him quite forgotten. Probably he was one of those unfortunate people who were always ill-tempered in the mornings. She found, for some inexplicable reason, that she was prepared, more anxious to make excuses for him.
"I didn't intend to annoy you, sir," she pointed out to him reasonably, and was rewarded with a sour look and a compression of his well-shaped mouth.
"Who said anything about you annoying me?"
"I tend to speak my mind," Elizabeth continued, "which my mother says is one of the worst qualities a person can possess."
He turned to Lucy, who had been silent all this while, "any news on the ashes I sent down?"
"No, no, Mr. Darcy," Lucy replied, "but let me go back and check on that right away, and she hurried off, leaving behind her the strong impression that she was delighted to be free of their company.
So this was Mr. Darcy, the brains behind the whole operation, Elizabeth thought to herself as she put away the sweater and picked up the file and prepared to go too, but was stopped by the man's voice, very silky.
"Are in the habit of addressing your superiors in such a fashion?"
She considered carefully before she answered him. "No, I can't remember ever doing so before, but then, you see, they always said good morning." She studied his face as she spoke; perhaps she had gone a little too far, but she didn't like being treated in such a highhanded fashion. He looked very angry indeed—she waited for the outburst she felt sure would come and was surprised when all he did was walk off.
000
Darcy didn't know what had possessed him to speak to Elizabeth Bennett like he had. All he could think of was that he had never been so …disturbed by a woman like that in his life.
000
Elizabeth rubbed her eyes and looked around the room; she glanced at the clock and saw that it was already past half-past one. It was lunch time; no wonder the room was empty. There was a cafeteria on the ground floor and she stood up intending to make her way there.
The door opened as she reached it and Mr. Darcy entered the room. He seemed surprised to find her there.
"Miss Bennett, you're aware that it's lunch time, aren't you?"
"I was on my way out, as you can see."
"Good."
"How has your first day been so far?" he asked. "Any problems?"
"No," she replied, "I am quite happy thank you."
He looked at her and said surprisingly, "Are you? I wouldn't have supposed so, although I daresay you do your best to disguise the fact."
She was appalled, what did he know about her life; they had barely met for five minutes earlier, when had he looked at her long enough to even notice her unhappiness? "I—I..." she began, and was instantly stopped by his bland, 'No need to excuse yourself, Miss…er… Elizabeth—we all have our worries and sorrows, do we not—and they are never as important as we think they are."
Elizabeth went brightly pink. She blushed seldom, but when she did, she coloured richly from her neck to the roots of her hair. He watched her now with a detached interest, nodded briefly, and went away, wondering what had possessed him to speak to her like that.
000
"Where have you been?" Georgie asked him.
"I went for a walk," Darcy replied. "Just wanted to clear my head."
"In the assistants' room?" Charles asked. "That is where you were, isn't it?"
"Was it?"
"He probably wandered in their by mistake," Georgie said.
Richard was about to say that he'd seen Darcy talking to the new assistant, Elizabeth Bennett, but kept quiet instead. Somehow he knew that Darcy wouldn't appreciate that being made public knowledge.
"Let's go over it again," Darcy said, flipping the switch. He wasn't going a chance meeting with a woman, even one as … intriguing as Elizabeth Bennett, get him off balance.
He wasn't.
000