Chapter Two

Will woke up on Saturday morning asking himself what his life was going to be like now he was back home. He rolled on his back, looking at the digital alarm clock on his bedside table that told him it was nearly nine in the morning. The smell of bacon cooking in the frying pan downstairs made him smile to himself as he noted just how much he had missed his stepmother's cooking. His dad and Alice had been married since his teenage years, having gotten together when Alice had been hired to help look after Georgiana when their mother had died, and he had been a great help to the three of them as they went through the healing process. Without Alice's help, his dad would have struggled to get through that dark journey of grief and it hadn't surprised him when he noticed how the two of them had gotten closer. Will still remembered the day his dad had sat him and his sister down to tell them gently that he was dating Alice, about a year and a half after their mother had died and had assured the two of them in the early days of his relationship with Alice that he loved their mother dearly and nobody would replace her. But he liked Alice, so did Georgie. Alice was devoted to them, she never tried to push their mother's memory out, often encouraging them to tell her stories about their mother and after a while both he and his sister had come to see Alice as a mother-type figure, but Alice had always been adamant that they weren't to call her 'mum'.

As his thoughts drifted from his father's relationship, he thought about his own past relationships and how disastrous they had been. He had never been the type to womanise, having been taught by his parents to be respectful and kind to others. His first girlfriend had been at the age of seventeen when he was studying his A Levels which had ended before he started at the University of Portsmouth. During his university years he had met Eleanor and their relationship had ended after their graduation because she had been expecting a proposal and he hadn't popped the question at the graduation celebration as she had hoped. And between his relationship with Eleanor ending and the present day there had been a few dates which had failed to develop into a relationship and Elizabeth.

Lizzy. Ever since they were kids he had felt closer to her than the others, she was his everything. She teased him without hesitation, listened to him and helped him as best she could whenever he had a problem. She made him laugh so much that his face and sides hurt. They would talk for hours, have dinners out, hang out at her flat watching films, just be there for each other no matter what in general. After his breakup with Eleanor she had sat with him at Drift bar and downed countless shots with him until she was tipsy. She told him she had never liked Eleanor, that his ex-girlfriend was snobby and had lost her chance to be with someone great and that had made him feel better. She had reassured him that he was good enough and would find someone who wouldn't pressure him into things he wasn't ready for. Back in those days, they saw each other every day if they could; if not physically see each other, they always talked in one way or another. And when she graduated from university last year, it became apparent to him that he saw her as more than a friend.

For a long time, he tried to deny his feelings. She was his best friend and it would be confusing if he were to tell her about his feelings. When she had landed a job at Longbourn & Co. with Charles, he found it more difficult to handle his feelings because she started dating a guy named George Wickham who also worked with her and Charles. And because of Wickham, he and Lizzy were arguing a lot more than they used to, often because of something George had done and was often the underlying problem between him and Elizabeth. After eight weeks of dating George, Elizabeth had called him up one evening in tears to say that she had been dumped by George after he had gotten what he wanted. Dropping everything, he had gone over to her flat and held her as she cried through her sadness and hurt, listening to him tell her that she was good enough and they had just sat in her living room watching one of her favourite films: Notting Hill, until she fell asleep against his chest.

Around the time of her breakup with George thirteen months ago he'd been called up and offered a job working abroad as a journalist for the BBC and his first assignment was to film a documentary on life in Thailand as part of an understanding different cultures project. It was an amazing opportunity, it gave him the chance to take a big leap with his career and he got to travel to what had been described to him as a beautiful country. He knew that he could learn a lot from this experience and after consulting his family and friends, he accepted the job offer.

A few weeks later, they had gone out to dinner to celebrate. She had won a huge contract to develop land in Southampton for Longbourn & Co. which had earned her a promotion from an assistant on the first floor to a surveyor position on the second floor of the office building the company were based at. After their dinner they had decided to keep celebrating with a bottle of wine at her flat. After a few glasses were consumed, they were tipsy, giggling and reminiscing about their favourite times from childhood until Elizabeth confided in him how she had to fight hard at her job to show her superiors she was a hard worker. And it made him angry as he listened to how George was spreading rumours around the office about her being frigid and shit in bed as an effort to try and sabotage her landing the contract. Although she tried to keep the tone of her voice amusing and meaningless, he knew that she was hurt that her ex-boyfriend was trying to ruin her professional life.

"He's the shit one, Lizzy. It says more about him than it does about you." He assured her.

"How does it? My colleagues are now going to speculate if I'm a good lay or not. They're going to make my superiors question my ability to do my job if I'm being gossiped about. I love my job, Will, but I don't want to be at the centre of the gossip pool." Elizabeth sighed heavily.

"It says that Wickham is bitter about you doing a better job than him. He's jealous and wants to hurt you because you were the one that landed the contract and promotion instead of him. He wants to tear you down because you're clever, beautiful, dedicated and determined. You're remarkable, Lizzy. I've always thought so."

They shared a look and a minute of silence until their heads were getting closer and closer and her lips pressed against his lightly. When she pulled away and opened her eyes, she looked up at him; hesitant about what was going to happen next until he cupped her cheek and pulled her more closely to him.

"Will…" she breathed against his lips.

"You don't know how long I've wanted you." Will whispered, looking into her eyes.

"You…want me?"

Nodding his head, he captured her lips in a fiery kiss. He poured every ounce of passion he had within him into the kiss, one hand cupping her cheek while the other weaved into her hair and held her head to his as he kissed her; expressing just how much he thought of her as their lips moved together. Elizabeth fell against him, her hands clutching at his collar as they fell back against the sofa.

That night was still pierced into his mind like it had happened yesterday. He still remembered the way her lips felt against his as she kissed him back, he remembered how her skin felt underneath his hands as he explored every inch of it that was exposed to him as they removed the other's clothing. He remembered the sounds of pleasure she made as he kissed her neck, her breasts, furthering their arousals. He still remembered the look in her eyes when he asked her if it was what she wanted, only taking her into her bedroom when she nodded her consent. Will remembered every single second of his night with Elizabeth and the next morning he had woken up feeling conflicted whether he should turn down the job offer or not; until she told him he should take it.

"Opportunities like this don't come around this often." Elizabeth stated softly.

Twirling a loose wave of her hair through his fingers, he looked at her deeply.

"But what about us?" Will asked, "You know how I feel. I want you, Lizzy."

Elizabeth sighed.

"I don't know Will. I don't want you to not take this job, I would feel so bad if you didn't. I want you to have this, you always wanted to do something like this with your career. And it's only nine months."

"Did last night change anything for you?"

He watched as she bit her lip nervously until she smiled up at him.

"So…I take the job…what happens with us?" Will questioned.

"I don't know." Elizabeth sighed.

"I'll be back and forth between London and Thailand apparently, so I'll give you the number where you can reach me in London if you can't get me on my mobile and when I'm back properly, we can talk about us taking things further?" Will offered.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Elizabeth asked.

Will smiled down at her and pressed his lips to hers, groaning his approval as she pulled him closer to deepen the kiss…

He had tried to keep in touch as much as possible. But due to time differences and the fact that they were filming in poorer parts of Thailand where WIFI and phone signal were practically non-existent he had found it hard to stay in touch as much as he would have liked. When he was in London he would call his family and friends, even having his dad, Alice and Georgiana stay overnight with him in London for a visit before he was due to fly back out to Bangkok but every time he tried to call Elizabeth, his calls would go straight to voicemail. His text messages to inform her that he was in Portsmouth for a certain amount of days went unanswered. And the last email that he got from her four months ago stated very clearly that they were better off as friends.

He stretched his arms above his head and kicked back the covers, putting his feet gently on the carpet as he pulled himself out of bed. Opening his bedroom door, Will headed downstairs as he pulled his dressing gown on and met his dad sitting at the kitchen table.

"Morning son." Reginald Darcy greeted, looking up from the morning paper.

"Morning dad, morning Alice." Will replied, sitting opposite his father.

Alice gave him a pat on the head as she placed a plate of bacon sandwiches on the table, letting the two men help themselves as Georgiana came bursting into the kitchen.

"Morning Georgie, why in such a rush?" Will asked, taking a bite out of a sandwich he'd just picked up.

"Running late. I was supposed to meet Lydia for breakfast half an hour ago before our shifts start at eleven, but my alarm didn't go off." Georgiana replied hurriedly.

Will chuckled as he watched his sister grab a bacon sandwich, shout her goodbyes and slam the front door to a close behind her as she rushed out of the house. It was strange getting used to his sister growing up. It was hard to imagine Georgie as a seventeen-year-old studying for her A Levels and having a part-time job when sometimes he still thought of his sister as that annoying ten-year-old who constantly pestered him.

"Have to say it, she has a better social life than I do." Reginald chuckled.

"Definitely." Will agreed.

"So, what's your plan now that you're home?" Alice asked, taking a seat next to her husband and helping herself to a sandwich.

Honestly? He didn't know what his plans were now that he was home for good. Travelling around Thailand for the past year had been educational and he had scratched the adventure itch he'd had for a long time. Filming the documentary had made him meet new people, learn basic questions and answers in a new language, see and engage in a different culture which was rewarding. But a lot had gone wrong during the months he was out there. Filming equipment had been sabotaged to not work properly, passports had gone missing, phones got broken and whenever they had to fly back to the UK to have meetings about how the documentary was going, their filming schedule had been extended for reasons they weren't allowed to know. And now he was finally home, unsure about his career due to all the mess-ups abroad.

"I'm meeting Charles and Jane for lunch today and I expect I'll hear back next week about my future with the BBC." Will replied.

"Are you going to tell us more about this 'serious girlfriend' who messaged your sister on Facebook?" Reginald questioned.

Ah. Caroline.

He knew it was only a matter of time before her name was mentioned. Caroline Bertram had been one of his colleagues who had worked with him on the documentary and was a completely horrible person.

"She was only ever a colleague, dad. We worked together on the documentary and when we were in Thailand, she made continuous attempts to have more than a working relationship or friendship with me and I turned her down." Will explained.

"So, her getting in touch with your sister and cousins was…?" Alice asked confused.

"I don't know. But I never had any romantic or non-professional involvement with Caroline." Will replied.

"If you say that you were not involved with her beyond a working relationship than your word is good enough for me, son." Reginald stated.

"Thanks dad."

"Did you have a good time last night?" Alice asked.

"Yeah it was nice catching up with them all again. They were all pretty thrilled to have me back but Lizzy-"

He stopped himself from continuing. The way that Elizabeth had been acting last night hurt him a little. As he recalled his brief interaction with her last night, his thoughts drifted back to when he landed back in London three days ago.

He was sat in his hotel room, having bought a new phone because his had gotten broken before his flight back to the UK. Sitting on the bed, Will tried to process the news that Jane and Charles had just told him.

"What do you mean she's withdrawn?" Will asked.

"She's always staying at work when we all finish at five. Lizzy is constantly asking if there are reports she can write up, projections that need to be done. She is taking everyone else's workload and offering to finish it herself." Charles replied.

"Not only that Will, she's not socialising with us much anymore. It's been months since she came to a Fleet Friday with the rest of us. She's cancelling plans with us and using poor excuses. She's holed up in her flat during her free time and she's not going around to see dad or Lydia either." Jane stated worriedly.

"When did this start happening?" Will asked.

"Well she seemed a bit mopey after you left but she was still connecting with us and then about ten months ago she was off sick for two weeks from work. She didn't say what was wrong and just shrugged it off as stress but then when she came back to work she threw herself into working too hard." Charles replied.

"She won't tell me if there is something bothering her, and she used to tell me everything! Every time I try and express my concern about her working too much she shuts it down and says she's fine. But she isn't fine, Will. I can't remember the last time I saw her give a genuine, happy smile. She looks like she's bottling something up, but nobody can get through to her." Jane sighed.

"Even Thomas and Lydia have tried to talk to her Will. We don't know what to do with her. I don't want to go to higher powers at work with this because she loves working at Longbourn & Co. and the last thing I want is to take away her only coping mechanism." Charles stated.

Will let out a long sigh as he processed all the information that Jane and Charles had told him. If Elizabeth's dad and sisters had tried to talk to her and had been unable to get through her built up walls, then something serious must have happened. But he didn't know what. He had emailed her here and then when he'd been able to, but her replies had gotten shorter and shorter instead of the long replies he had gotten from her prior to him going away.

"Don't say anything to her yet but I'm coming home tomorrow. Give me a few days to settle back in. Can you try and get her to come to The Fleet on Friday?" Will asked.

"I can try." Jane promised.

When he had walked through the crowded bar last night, her look of shock had surprised him. The only people who knew he was coming home were Charles and Jane, the others had been excited to see him. Except Elizabeth. She looked nervous and he suspected that the text message she'd received at the bar wasn't from her landlord, but she had been looking for an excuse to leave.

"Lizzy was there?" Reginald questioned.

Will nodded, "Yeah, it was nice seeing her again." He smiled.

Seeing her again, despite her guard being up, had been the best part of his night. His feelings for her hadn't faded, he missed her so much every day. But from the way she had acted last night, it was clear that Charles and Jane were right: Lizzy wasn't the person she used to be.

"You know she's become a bit of a workaholic over the past year, wanting to work hard and prove herself. Thomas hardly sees her these days, I've told him to relax and let her come to him if something is wrong. But you know Thomas, constantly worrying about his three girls." Reginald commented.

"He's done it all by himself Reg, of course he's going to worry about Jane, Lizzy and Lydia." Alice argued.

"He should be proud of how his girls are turning out. All of them have a strong work ethic and positive attitude. Considering how lazy Fran was before she ran off." Reginald muttered.

"Still, work isn't the only aspect to life." Alice finished.

As Alice and his father moved away from the subject, his thoughts were still on Elizabeth. He wondered what had happened over the past year for her to withdraw from everyone who cared about her. Before he had walked into The Fleet, he had pictured what her reaction would be in his head a hundred times. But he hadn't expected her to be shocked and in a rush to remove herself from the situation. Whatever had happened, it must have been something that was painful to her.

Helping himself to another bacon sandwich, he made a mental note of what to try and do to coax Elizabeth out of her withdrawal.