2 A Beginning

William woke up shivering and disoriented in the pre-dawn haze. It took him a moment to remember where he was and when he did he reached out next to him for Lizzie but she wasn't there. He sat up, confused, and a wave of dizziness overtook him. He leaned over the bed and was grateful that the bowl he had placed beside the bed for Lizzie was still there as he emptied the contents of his stomach. He felt the bed dip beside him and a gentle hand rubbed circles on his back. When he was through, Lizzie helped him back up fully on the bed and handed him a box of tissues. "Oh God, I feel awful that I got you sick too," she said as she placed the back of her hand on his cheek to check his temperature.

Once he had cleaned himself up and calmed his breathing back down he responded. "Lizzie, I've never been happier to be sick in my life. I will gladly share your germs if it means kissing you." He leaned in to kiss her but she deflected and merely kissed his forehead and wrapped him in her arms.

"And I will gladly continue kissing you ... after you've brushed your teeth," she laughed and pecked his cheek again to take away the sting of rejection.

He looked up at her and a troubled unease spread over him. "Lizzie, is this real? Or is this all just some fever dream that my mind cooked up? Will I wake up shivering and alone in my own bed?"

Her arms tightened around him, "This is reality. If it were all a dream, would we both be sick? Would I have the worst bedhead from spending the entire day sleeping? Would we have spent the night in the same bed fully clothed and asleep?" She gave him a skeptical look, "that would have to be the saddest fantasy ever."

"Not if it included you in my arms," he shifted from his back to his side and rested his head on her shoulder as he splayed his hand across her stomach, "my dearest, loveliest, Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth?" She asked with a laugh, "Only my grandmother and teachers on the first day of class call me that."

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away," he replied, dropping a kiss on her shoulder. She softly ran her fingers through his hair in response and he leaned into her touch, still not entirely convinced that this was real. The soothing rhythm of her fingers lulled him back to sleep.


He woke up again to an unfamiliar alarm and a groaning Lizzie attempting to silence it without getting up. When she'd succeeded at this task and settled back down, she drowsily said: "I somehow doubt either of us are going in to the office today."

William nuzzled her shoulder and asked how she was feeling this morning. "Well, I managed to make it to the bathroom before vomiting this morning and I now feel like I've only been hit by a car rather than a bus, so ... progress? How about you?"

"I am achy, nauseous, fatigued, and my eyes are killing me for sleeping with my contacts in," he said, then tightened his hold on her and continued: "but also warm, cozy, and deliriously happy."

"Well, delirious at any rate," Lizzie said as she pressed the back of her hand to his forehead. "You're burning up." She shifted for a moment then added, "here, I think we could both use one of these," as she handed him an aspirin and the bottle of water.

He sat up, took the pill, and rubbed his eyes. "I really should take out these contacts. I've got an overnight bag in the car." He stood up to go get it, but swayed a bit too much and sat back down quickly.

Lizzie reached out a hand to steady him. "Whoa there, maybe I should go get it."

"But you're sick!" he complained, earning him an incredulous look from Lizzie.

"Look, I'm a day farther into this than you. I can manage a trip to the car." She said, swiping his keys from the night stand. "Stay here and rest until I get back, okay?" She kissed him on the forehead and left as he sunk back down to the bed.


He woke up again when Lizzie entered the room with her hair wrapped in a towel wearing pajama pants and a large sweatshirt. "Hey, I figured I'd let you sleep while I showered," she said as she sat down and snuggled next to him. "How pathetic is it that after a trip to the car and a short shower I'm exhausted?"

He kissed her forehead and sighed. "I just woke up and I'm already exhausted."

"Ugh, the flu sucks," she whined. He rubbed her back in commiseration. It was so tempting to just lie here with her in his arms and never get up, but he rationalized with himself that the sooner he brushed his teeth, the sooner he could kiss Lizzie properly again. "I'm going to go clean myself up a bit."

"I should finish getting ready too I suppose," Lizzie sighed and dramatically heaved herself up.

Fifteen minutes later he emerged from the bathroom after a quick shower, much more comfortable in a tee-shirt, pajama pants and his glasses. He found Lizzie in the kitchen taking the kettle off of the stove. Her hair had been braided to one side, leaving the other side temptingly bare. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. "I figured I'd make breakfast while we were both on our feet, then we can collapse in bed again," she said as she turned in his arms, "nothing too adventurous: tea and oatmeal?"

"Sounds perfect," he responded as he leaned down and kissed her, unable to wait a moment longer. He'd been resisting the impulse to kiss her for so long that he could hardly believe that she was here, in his arms, kissing him back.

Her hands fluttered to his chest and as they pulled apart she looked down at her hands, then leaned farther back and examined him more closely, laughing. "Well look at you! I don't think I've ever seen you so ... casual."

"It's a sick day," he shrugged.

"And the glasses with the mussed hair!"

"I had to take out my contacts and I just got out of the shower." She bit her lip and giggled in response.

"Are you teasing me?" He asked, confused at her response.

"Oh no! Those glasses ..." she stepped closer and whispered against his lips, "those glasses are fantastic." That magical moment was, unfortunately, ruined by a shiver and a bout of coughing on his part and she chaffed her hands up and down his bare arms. "Why are you wearing short sleeves, you must be freezing?" She asked in concern.

"It's all I have other than button downs."

"Here, why don't you take these," she handed him two cups of tea, "into the bedroom and get back under the blankets. I'll be in in a minute and we'll see what we can do."

He made his way slowly back to the bedroom and crawled back in bed. She followed a minute later with two steaming bowls of instant oatmeal. Setting them down on the nightstand, she rifled around in the closet for a minute before yelling a triumphant "Aha!" and held up a ratty old hooded sweatshirt. "Try this," she said as she handed it to him. He put it on and it surprisingly fit.

"Where did this even come from?" He asked, looking skeptically at the frayed cuffs.

"Protip, Darcy, if your girlfriend has a men's hoodie, you probably don't want to know where it came from," she said as she crawled back in bed beside him, sighing into the pillows. He stared at her in stunned silence.

"What, do you really want to know about the football player I dated in highschool? He lost return rights to his hoodie when he dumped me after three weeks and asked Jane out instead."

"Did you ..." he cleared his throat, "did you just call yourself my girlfriend?" He asked, heart in his throat and his dizziness only partly caused by the fever.

"Oh. Oh! Did I jump the gun on that?" She asked, her brows creased in worry.

"No!" He choked out, then continued in a more regulated tone: "No. It's just that we haven't talked about it ... I wasn't sure what this was for you."

"Isn't that what your spiel last night was about? Let me make things as clear as possible. William Darcy, I don't wanna be just friends and I don't wanna be with you because I'm grateful. I wanna be with you, because of you. Got it?"

Warmth seeped through him that had nothing to do with the fever and he reverently drew his hand over her cheek and through her hair. "Clear as day Lizzie Bennet." He leaned forward and was again drowning in her kiss, but she pulled back abruptly.

"Um, not that I'm not enjoying the kisses, but cold oatmeal is the worst and I'm too drained to get up and make more."

He laughed and kissed the tip of her nose. "I suppose that's fair." He sat up and accepted a bowl from her. He drank his tea and ate as much as his stomach was willing to tolerate before setting the bowl on the nightstand and laying back down with one arm slung loosely over Lizzie's lap.

Lizzie had just sunk down to join him and he was occupied with nuzzling her neck when his phone made the calendar notification noise and with a groan he roused himself to check it. It was quarter to nine and he had a meeting scheduled for 9:30. "Reynolds will probably be in by now. I should call in and have her reschedule my meetings."

"I suppose I should call in too, although I have no idea how to go about that. I suppose it's somewhere in the welcome packet that's sitting on my desk at Pemberley."

He chuckled and kissed her cheek. "Well, you've just notified the head of the company, so I think you'll be fine. But I'll let Reynolds know and she'll pass it through the proper pipelines." His twenty minute phone call with Reynolds sapped the rest of his energy and he curled himself around Lizzie, who had already dozed off, and promptly fell back to sleep.


His phone was still conveniently in his hand when it next woke him up. He attempted to answer as he lifted it to his ear, but only managed to cough into it for several seconds before getting out a groggy: "Hello?"

"Jesus William, you sound terrible."

Lizzie woke and looked at him questioningly. "Thanks Gigi, I appreciate your candor." Lizzie nodded and repositioned herself against his side.

"Where are you? Reynolds said you were sick, so I stopped by to check on you on my lunch break, but you're not at home."

"No. I'm actually ..." he looked down at Lizzie who was smiling at his awkwardness although her eyes were closed "...I'm at Lizzie's."

"WHAT!" He held the phone away from his ear, wincing at her volume. "How did that happen? Tell me everything!"

"Lizzie came down with the flu yesterday at work and I took care of her. I drove her home and made her dinner."

"And it was a twenty-course meal that's still going on at lunchtime the following day?" Gigi prodded expectantly.

"It got late, we both fell asleep, then this morning I found I also had the flu so I called in sick and went back to sleep."

"There are so many holes in that story! Dish!"

"I..." it was all so new and he and Lizzie had yet to talk about what they were going to tell other people, so he was coming up at a loss for what to say. Lizzie raised up her hand for the phone and he gratefully gave it over to her.

"He fell asleep in a tiny chair and looked so uncomfortable when I woke up at 3am that I ordered him into bed with me. He required some ... persuasion ... but eventually agreed and since then it's been a wild ride of fever, aches, chills, and the occasional bout of digestional pyrotechnics. Oh, and cuddling, lots of cuddles — he makes a wonderful furnace." William blushed at her playfully arch recounting of events. Lizzie paused while Gigi spoke. "I was perhaps a bit over persuasive considering I'm still contagious, but he doesn't seem to mind the outcome terribly much."

"Ok," he said as he took the phone out of her hands, speaking to Gigi he said "that's enough information for you."

"William what does this mean?" His sister asked excitedly over the phone, "this is Lizzie Bennet the girl you've been pining after forever!"

"This means..." he paused and looked down at Lizzie, who smiled and nodded, "this means that we're dating..." Gigi burst out with a loud squeal that had him again holding the phone away from his ear ... "or at least we will be once we're both well enough to venture out in public for an actual date."

"Oh My God! I can't wait to tell Fitz! I'm just so happy for you guys!"

"Thank you Gigi. Do you think you could stop by this evening with some more clothes for me? I don't think I'll miraculously recover today." He concluded his call with his sister and settled back down.

Lizzie draped herself across his chest, looked up at him and murmured, "so now people know," she murmured.

"Well, Gigi knows at least," he replied just as both of their phones alerted them to a twitter notification.

Gigi Darcy ggdarcy 25 Jan 2013 "I guess we won't be sightseeing this weekend after all since wmdarcy and TheLizzieBennet have the flu. Both of them ... at the same time ... just talked to them both and I will be stopping by this evening to drop off provisions ;)"

"Ok, so I guess now people will know," he amended sardonically.

"Whoa, this already has five likes. I think my fans are already eating this up." She pushed herself off of his chest to look down at him, "are you comfortable with all of this, all of the attention?"

He quirked his lips and pulled her closer as he replied. "Lizzie, your fans have already seen my failure at wooing you. I do not mind a bit of fanfare at my success." She leaned down to kiss him. Before long the kiss deepened, hands began to roam, and he rolled them over so that he was on top of her. Unfortunately, the sudden movement was too swift for his stomach and he found himself just as swiftly rolling away to scramble for the bowl from the floor — which Lizzie had thankfully emptied this morning.

"Well there's a mood changer," Lizzie said playfully as she handed him the tissues and water bottle. He was mortified and began stammering out an apology but Lizzie cut him off, "hey, we're both ill. I think maybe we just need to hold of on any more ..." she shot him a flirtatious smile tinged with a blush "... strenuous activity for a while."