So there's five chapters total, and they'll go up fairly quickly because I've already finished it. This moves pretty fast from Collins and Collins to Pemberley because, well, Darcy. Not that I don't love the other plotlines in the LBD, but again, Darcy. ;)

62-64

Editing her videos after that was less of an ordeal, because she learned to censor herself while filming. Even when Charlotte tried to pry about the letter, even when Caroline showed up with some convoluted plan to learn Darcy's secrets, Lizzie kept her mouth shut about it. And about Darcy, by and large. She didn't need her audience to know the extent of the turmoil in her mind, and she certainly didn't need Darcy to know, on the chance that he was now a part of that audience. When she perused her footage after filming, she was pleased to find very little that needed to be removed.

65-76

Somehow, even an earth-shattering thing like Darcy's declaration of love faded to the background as other concerns began to fill her life – getting Charlotte home in time for Thanksgiving, becoming acquainted with New Jane, and preparing for the terrifying prospect of Lydia turning 21. There was a little blip, thanks to Charlotte's conniving, about what Darcy's letter had said about George; still, Lizzie thought she handled that about as well as could be expected. Hypothetically speaking. She was also appropriately guarded about Darcy during her costume theater with Mary, and didn't elaborate on any supposed virtues in spite of all her cousin's curiosity.

It wasn't until the blowout with Lydia that she had any real trouble managing her videos. She thought she was perfectly calm and reasonable while editing and posting the footage of their fights, but a good number of her viewers seemed to think otherwise. As many of them sided with Lydia as sided with her. Were they not seeing the same thing that she was? This was ridiculous, all this anger and hurt over a book – a very thoughtful gift, after all! She wondered if she should have posted the videos at all.

She wondered if she had been trying to use the Internet as a safety net again. Maybe she was just angry that no one had been there to catch her.

She needed a distraction. And she got one.

77

With Charlotte on an Internet-free retreat, Lizzie had no choice but to edit all her videos at Pemberley. And most of the time, she really missed her bestie's helpful suggestions and expertise. But some of these videos – certain videos containing a certain CEO – some videos Lizzie was glad she was editing alone.

78

Watching the footage of Gigi shoving Darcy into the room with her, Lizzie was flooded with a bewildering array of impressions. Had he changed that much, or was it just the change in her perspective after months of re-reading that letter and re-thinking all their past encounters? She found herself pulling up the two previous videos containing Darcy and comparing all of them. No, it wasn't just her. He was definitely warmer, less stiff (even when he had good reason to be awkward thanks to Gigi), letting her take the lead in the halting conversation, accommodating her practically to the point of bending over backwards.

Why? It couldn't be for her sake, certainly. It would be nothing but vanity to assume she had become some kind of special exception. He was nice to his employees; they all loved him. She thought for a foolish instant that his reference to unforgiving hills was a kind of indicator that he was still watching her videos, but that was ludicrous. What use would he have for her videos at this point? It must be a phrase that he and his sister used a lot, that was all.

So why the change? Maybe – maybe he was just really nervous before, thinking he was in love with her, and now that that illusion had been done away with, he could be normal around her.

Lizzie had to notice her own change in demeanor as well. Had she really looked at him that much? She hadn't been aware of it at the time, nor of the little nervous smiles that kept popping onto her face. Their few seconds of making eye contact seemed to stretch on into an hour. Maybe that was because she kept pausing the video right then and scrutinizing it beyond any practical editing purposes.

She didn't cut any of their meeting, though she was severely tempted to edit out that stupid arm-touch at the end. It was awkward, but it was too closely connected to her "thank you," and she did want to leave that in. She had changed too; somehow she wanted her viewers to know that. No one had seemed inclined to condemn her for judging Darcy so harshly, but she couldn't help feeling like they were thinking it. At least some of them. Maybe the same people who thought she had been in the wrong about Lydia.

So the arm-touch stayed, and the thanks, and the whole meeting, painfully awkward but somehow still better than the last.

79

She definitely missed Charlotte when she was trying to puzzle out Bing Lee's unexpected appearance, and the ethics of him still not knowing he was part of an online video diary, but somehow she managed to edit that video and move on.

Editing the next video was a different matter.

80

The footage was taped sometime in the late afternoon, and she didn't have too much going on with her shadowing that day, so she should have had ample time to get the video ready for the next day. She barely got it done by the deadline.

She found herself pausing the video every two seconds, finding some fresh nuance in his expression or the tone of his voice. Her video-self was baffled throughout most of their exchange, trying to understand all the things they were delicately not talking about, and if she had hoped that reliving the conversation would clarify matters, she was sadly mistaken.

Just when she had convinced herself he was only talking about Bing, his tone guarded only because he was embarrassed for being called out on his meddling, she would rewind and rewatch and wonder what was hiding beneath the words. She replayed the moment when he first appeared in the hat and bowtie five consecutive times before she had to admit she wasn't looking for any hidden meaning at all; she just liked the subtle smirk on his face. She did the same thing during his discourse on hyper-mediation. Never had she so enjoyed the sound of the word verisimilitude. Over and over again, until she couldn't even pretend she was doing any editing.

That footage in the hallways, though. Their height difference seemed like a living symbol of the distance between them, the wildly successful CEO and the silly nobody who used to make fun of him on her dumb little videos. She would have greatly preferred not to include that, but how else could she explain how he came to be her partner in costume theater? She trimmed it, at least, leaving just enough of their exchange for expository purposes.

And he actually did it; he went and found a hat and tie (Where? Did he keep a spare bowtie in a desk drawer; did he really wear that hat more often than one unfortunate day at a wedding?) and he put them on. For her. If he hadn't voluntarily done it himself she doubted she would have dared offer him her own version of the costume. She still wasn't sure why she had brought it to Pemberley; she hadn't done any impressions of Darcy since he appeared in her videos. It was just easier to pick up her bag of costumes and lug the whole thing with her than to ponder whether to leave certain items at home.

She might be doing a little too much pondering right now. With only the first third of the video ready, she took a break and checked to see what sort of questions her viewers were submitting for the next Q and A. That was a bad idea. Half the questions were about Darcy. Have you talked to him since Gigi pushed him into the room with you? Do you run into him all the time now that you're at his company? IS HE STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU?

She closed the browser window with a shudder, not wanting to imagine what would happen if she featured those questions on her bonus video. Well, back to editing.

Several hours later, she still hadn't arrived at a cut that she felt comfortable with, her vision had gone blurry from staring at the screen, and she was vaguely aware that it was well past dinnertime and she was close to starving. In resignation she stopped for the day, resolving to set her alarm early enough to give her time to finish.

Lizzie went to bed early, but it didn't matter. She couldn't fall asleep till well after midnight. Six-thirty came way too soon, accompanied by a heartless buzz from her alarm and the fuzzy realization that she had left her laptop open on the nightstand with footage of Darcy's face staring at her. Not real-her, video-her. She had noticed that he was almost always in profile, his gaze directed at her rather than the camera. She couldn't explain this away by the disproven thinks-she's-a-traffic-accident theory. She couldn't explain it at all.

She was running out of time. In disgust she forced herself to power through it, to view the video as dispassionately as any regular old footage of two people talking. With just an hour to spare, she finished. It was oddly anti-climatic. She was probably reading too much into it after all. He was being civil, friendly, nothing more. At nine o'clock, she posted it with remarkable calm.

And then, watching the video online, she discovered something entirely new. Somehow in the midst of all her confusion about Darcy himself, she hadn't registered a significant detail. The red-hot rush that came whenever she thought about her sister and Bing was gone, dissipated into nothing. She couldn't say that she agreed with what Darcy had done, but she could see his perspective for the first time, and she might even be on the way toward forgiving him. Of course it was really more important whether Jane forgave him, or Bing, but Lizzie had no control over that. Her own anger and hurt was gone.

Somehow she managed to find a few safe questions to answer during her bonus video, which she filmed shortly before going to lunch with Gigi. Gigi didn't mention that morning's video overtly, but Lizzie could tell from her smug little smiles that she was pleased with it. She wasn't sure what to do about Darcy's sister trying to play matchmaker for him, wondering whether this invitation to tour the city was just another ploy to get them alone together. But she liked Gigi for her own sake and hated to disappoint her.