As the car carrying the eldest Bennett sister, a slightly tipsy Charles Bingley, and a very irritable Fitzwilliam Darcy pulled into the Meriton Family Fun Center; Darcy was sure that Charles was trying to punish him, for what he did not know but it had to be for something iniquitous indeed. First with dinner at that ridiculous restaurant and now with the loud noises of a bowl-o-rama/laser tag place Darcy was not sure on how much more he could take.
The normally major pushover Charlie Bingley had decided to hold hostage Darcy's hotel key along with the rest of the contents of his wallet under the pretence that Darcy would not need it and then Bingley actually had the cheek to suggest that if his good ol' friend wanted to call it a night he could just give a call to Carolyn and have her take him to Bingley's condo until Bingley was ready to call it a night. Because we all know that she would be willing to offer her umm… services to Darcy if he wanted them or not. Just the thought of being in the same car let alone same room with that clingy orange squid caused a cold shiver down Darcy's spine. Needless to say Darcy did not like the intoxicated Bingley one bit.
"You're fired, you realize." Darcy darkly muttered to his hyperactive companion. But as usual Bingley laughed it off. "I mean it this time Charles, tomorrow pack up your office and don't bother returning." The C.E.O. pulled his arm away from Bingley.
"Sure you do Darcy ol' buddy ol' pal of mine, just like the last time and the time before that and the time before that." Bingley replied in a sing-song voice "Now come on Darce, you need to lighten up. Come play a round of pool or darts with me, I promise that your reputation of being a wet blanket won't be too tarnished if you do." Bingley teased. Darcy just pinched the bridge of his noise and point blank told Bingley to go run off with his angelic girlfriend and leave him in peace at the bar until it was time to go.
"You know I am still not gonna give your wallet back, mate." Charles smiled.
'Damn'
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The moment that Elizabeth walked pass the bar and lounge area of the fun center she was instantly scooped up in the waiting arms of her father. Now if this was anyone else then the man that knew how his little girl's brain worked he would have been doubled over clutching a newly throbbing part of his male anatomy. Of course there were some days he cursed Sandra Bullock and her beauty queen movie for that little trick when he was not fast enough to dodge his favorite daughter's hand. "Dad! You know better then to do that." Her eyes blazed for a moment before enveloping the man in a tight bear hug. "I've missed you." She grinned "How has life been treating you these past couple weeks? You crazy old man."
Thomas Bennett smirked at his daughter's words and stated that life has indeed been treating him well even if her mother or step mother as Lizzy corrected him has not signed the divorce papers yet and he stressed the yet part. To this Lizzy did a pretty spot on impression of her step mother complaining about her poor nerves and how she will never be able to show her face in good society if she got a divorce.
"Really father, why on earth did you marry the woman and father two demonic spawn with her? The woman is completely ridiculous." Lizzy let out an exasperated sigh.
Her father reminded her that before she could start with that rant again that what choice did he have being a widow with two toddlers and a new born with no one to take care of them. Lizzy at this juncture thought it would be best not to point out that she and Jane spent most of the first five years of their lives after their mother's death with her uncle and aunt on their mother's side. Franny Phillips-Bennett loved the idea of having the new born around because she could just pass Mary off as her own but Jane and Elizabeth were too old to try that ploy at least until grade school. By that time people would just think that they had been married longer then what they had. The last thing Franny wanted was the world to know that her husband was married before. Elizabeth never did get the logic behind it but then again, when did she ever get Franny's logic.
In Elizabeth's early years she tried to win Franny's love but as she grew she knew it was pointless. Elizabeth unfortunately looked too much like her birth mother and nothing like her father so there was no way that she could try and pass the girl off as her own like she did with Mary and Jane who blessedly as Franny often pointed out had their father's pale Irish completion unlike Elizabeth and her light coppery complexion that she inherited from her mother's side of the family even though Elizabeth and her full sisters were only a quarter Native American. But the lack acknowledgement did not deter Elizabeth from attempting to gain her step mother's love until she heard that woman dare to utter racist remark about her birth mother's roots her roots right in front of her that made Elizabeth realize that she wanted nothing to do with the ridiculous woman.
"By the way father of mine" she said in her all-knowing voice "Who let the evil step mother plan the party?" Elizabeth threw her thumb over her shoulder to point at the loud woman as they made their way to the bar to order a round of drinks to themselves.
"You know how much Jane is a pushover" Thomas Bennett started taking his seat.
"Yes, our darling pushover Jane she can see the good intentions in anyone I don't understand how but she can." Lizzy sighed copying her father's motions. "Do you think she's gonna try to play the part of mother of the year again?" she shot her father an amused look.
"Doesn't she always?" he cracked a teasing smile causing both of them erupt in a fit of laughter and clanked their glasses together.
Darcy watched the interaction of the Meriton branch's IT Manager and the elderly man with slight interest, catching bits and pieces of the conversation. From what he gathered is that she thought her mother was evil and that the man was her father. He was beginning to wonder why he was even trying to make out the conversation in the first place. He chalked it up to boredom and left it at that. The last thing he wanted to think about is some cheeky employee and her family issues. No matter how fascinating her blue to lilac eyes were.
Darcy's musings on what was the exact shade of Miss Bennett's eyes were interrupted by the same Miss Bennett's loud annoyed reaction to her phone. From what he could tell she wasn't too happy about something and had to leave the lounge area with the phone still at her ear. He caught the words of "How long" and "on my way" from her conversation. Needless to say his curiosity in the woman's conversation was somewhat peaked as he somewhat tailed her out of the lounge.
Lizzy made a v-line straight to the announcer's booth and requested that they would have a list of about seven or eight people meet her there. Darcy walked up behind Charles and Jane as the couple made their way to the second Bennett child. "Jane, Charlie good." The brunette nodded and glanced to the clock on her phone. "Charlie the whole building has had a power outage and the sever power backup won't come on. I need you too to inform my minions when they get their sorry asses over here to meet me on the server room, except Denny I want him to be in the office fully rested first thing in the morning. I need at least one tech fully operational tomorrow morning. If they don't show up here in five minutes, page them again. They're probably in the middle of a round of Laser Tag, the lucky bastards." Elizabeth turned her attention to her sister. "Janie I need you to go to my apartment walk and feed Isis. Pull a suit out for me to wear tomorrow and bring to me on your way to work in the morning. You know the drill give me a call when you are pulling into the parking lot. I'll meet you outside to get it. Oh and preferably one with pants this time. Last thing I need is to crawl under any more desks in a skirt." She motioned to the skirt that she was wearing "Also be a dear and tell everyone that I'm sorry I had to leave and I really appreciate the party. Oh and if the step mother has any issues about it, tell her to kindly stuff it wear the sun don't shine. I don't have time for her pettiness right now." She looked into Charles and then Jane's eyes to make sure that at least one of the two understood her instructions. "I'll call you later Janie." Elizabeth gave her older sister a quick hung and told her that she was a life savior before Darcy's raven hair caught the corner of her eye, Elizabeth turned to the raven haired C.E.O. "Have fun at the party." She winked and with that she was out the door and into her car before he had time form a reply.
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After a brief layover at Elizabeth Bennett's apartment to walk a delightful five or six month old Australian Sheppard pup, a slight detour to let Bingley's dinner resurface again, and a pit stop at the local connivance store to pick up a bottle of Gator-Aid for Bingley; Darcy finally made it into the comfort of his hotel suite. Sleep however, decided like it has been since the trip to Ramsgate that it wanted nothing to do with the green eyed man.
After a couple hours of staring at the ceiling followed by a short marathon of re-runs of 'I Love Lucy' Darcy decided to shake off all ideas of having a good night sleep or even any sleep for that matter and started to prepare for an early morning at the branch office. If he could not sleep he might as well do something more productive then watch late night TV, he thought will at the same time cursing the fact that Charles had actually talked him into leaving his briefcase in the office.
After a shower, shave, and Starbucks Darcy entered the lobby of the Branch. "And here I thought I was the only one crazy enough to be here willingly at five forty-five in the morning." the petite IT Manager removed an ear bud from her ear her eyes never leaving her laptop screen. "Tell me Mr. Darcy," she typed a few keys on the keyboard never looking away from the monitor "what brings you to the office at this early hour?"
Darcy dumbly muttered something about leaving his briefcase in the office as he took in the sight before him. There on the floor without a care in the world sat one dirt covered barefooted and torn jean clad Elizabeth Bennett working on her computer and listening to who knows what. "What on earth are you doing on the floor?" he looked at her quizzically.
"Doing random quality checks as I wait for the blasted server technician to get here from Surry. What else would I be doing here at five a.m.?" She answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world while she adjusted the placement of her glasses.
"You wear glasses?" Darcy mental berated himself for such a dumb question.
"Yes, when I need to read I need them or else I'll be squinting trying to make out a bunch of squiggly lines. She smiled at him as though he lost his mind. 'Thanks for noticing, Captain Obvious.' She mentally added.
"Why are you covered in grease?" the words stumbled out of his mouth before he realized it.
"The crawl space under the floor boards isn't the cleanest area in the building Mr. Darcy." She sighed as she looked at his puzzled expression. "Had to check to be sure that the wiring wasn't melted or been severed." She mentally rolled her eyes at the C.E.O.'s still dumbfounded face. "None of my boys can squeeze into the shoe box under the server racks." She explained rather slowly and watched the mental light bulb come on above his head. 'Not too bright in the morning, is he?'
"Then why are you waiting for a technician then?" he wondered why she didn't just fix the bloody thing herself, since she is apparently the technological super woman at least by the way that Charles raved about her she was.
"I'd fix it myself but, I would rather not void the warrantee on a two hundred and fifty thousand dollar piece of equipment." She gave him a challenging smirk, almost daring him to find a way to put her knowledge down. She didn't spend most of her adult life living off of studying and caffeine for nothing. "…and since I am salary unlike my team, you can work me until I die and not have to pay for one cent of overtime." She added in a slightly condescending tone before muttering something under her breath about how Collins and De Bough would chew her hide out again if they had to pay overtime to anyone in her department.
"Have you been here all night?" his eyes nearly popped from their sockets when she nodded and acted like it was no big deal. "Are you going home after the technician leaves?" to his astonishment she shook her head. "Why on Earth not?" Darcy couldn't help being shocked.
She tapped her chin thoughtfully while opening her calendar book "Let's see here shall we….interviews for the expansion of the call center from nine until noon, a follow up call with Collins at two, performance reviews from three till five… Busy, busy, busy..." she sighed and glanced at her cell phone. 'Where the hell is that tech, it doesn't take six hours to get here from Surry. I would like to get this done and over with so I can take a quick nap before having to be all Miss Sunshine and Lollypops and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Jackass is doing nothing to improve my mood' Lizzy took a quick look to see if Darcy had took her subtle hint that the conversation was over and she wanted him to leave her in peace. 'He's been doing nothing but staring at me for the last what twenty minutes? Thirty minutes? Is my greasy person mucking up his precious hallway or something? Go away far away, leave and let this little peon get back to her work.' She mentally chanted until he finally muttered something about the time and went up stairs finally. About a good fifteen minutes later both Denny and Jane arrived.
At this point that Jane was handing her sister a travel bag and shoes Elizabeth was catching Denny up with what was going on as they walked up the steps of the building. She paused to thank her sister and informed Denny that she would be upstairs removing the grease from her person. By the time she was out of the shower she was relaxed and refreshed that was until she opened her travel bag. "What the hell was Janie thinking when she chose white?" she grumbled when she saw the white slacks, a short white tailored jacket, long black empire waist blouse with white trim, and jewelry to match. By this point there was really nothing she could do about it. The suit that she wore yesterday was a bit wrinkled to put it nicely and she really didn't have the time to go back home since the blasted tech had yet to make an appearance. Lizzy just prayed that she would not get anything on it.
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Darcy's morning went rather smoothly after his hastily retreat from the lobby, that is until Bingley arrived at the office with a condescending Carolyn in tow. Darcy swore he could hear her belittling Charles from the moment the elevator opened if not before that. God, how that woman annoyed him with her shrew-like shrieking and her obsession with him and wearing the color orange.
"I saw pictures of last night on your Facebook Charles, how dare you not tell me that Darcy is in town." Carolyn's voice reached a new level of loud as she droned on and on about how Bingley should have invited Darcy to stay with them and how insensitive Bingley was being to their dear friend's needs.
'More like your needs, you orange twit.' Darcy's mind replied. 'Oh please don't let her realize that I am in the office.' He mentally chanted. 'Make her leave already.'
"Carolyn, nobody expected Darcy to come in until next Monday." Bingley hoped that his sister would understand "how about coming back for lunch and we can all go out somewhere nice?"
'When did Charles learn to handle his sister?' Darcy wondered. 'Did he just commit me to lunch with the woman?' he felt a headache coming on.
Darcy waited in uncomfortable silence for the elevator to open and close before daring to venture outside his office over into Bingley's. "What's this I hear about Facebook?" Charles nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard his friend's voice.
"Don't do that!" Bingley grasped his heart. "You nearly gave me a heart attack." Darcy nearly laughed at his friend's over dramatics and asked again about what Carolyn was saying about pictures on Facebook. "Oh um, Jane tagged me with the photos she took last night at the restaurant and a couple had you in them." Bingley meekly replied and Darcy absentmindedly nodded in response.
A few moments later Bingley and Darcy's conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door and an Elizabeth Bennett peaking her head inside. "I'm sorry, I didn't know I was interrupting anything." She apologized.
"Don't apologize Lizzy, come in come in. You know my door is open to you any time." Bingley motioned her to come into the room "So…. What's up?" Charles's face beamed.
Darcy's heart nearly stopped when he saw the vision in white entered. He had a hard time believing that this was the same woman that only a couple hours before hand was covered head to toe in grease. He knew the girl was attractive, you would have to be a blind man not to know that but the way his body was reacting to her was simply absurd. He was sure it had something to do with the lack of sleep. There was no way he could be attracted to her. No way, he told himself. He had to get out of the room and get out of it quick. The longer he was around her the more this unknown feeling would surface and Darcy did not like what he could not explain. He quickly excused himself and returned to the sanctity of his office.
Elizabeth paid no mind to the retreating man and informed Bingley that everything was up and running again. Bingley was rather surprised that he was not aware that anything was down but to this Elizabeth reminded him of how much he had to drink the night before. The two laughed Bingley's drunken antics off and soon the conversation turned to Carolyn and that Lizzy heard her all the way down in the server room. She even joked on how the server room was supposedly made to be sound proofed and she guessed she should have requested it to be made Carolyn proofed. To this Bingley laughed and agreed that Carolyn could break glass with the high pitched sounds that came out of her mouth. All joking aside Charlie enjoyed talking with Elizabeth she did have a way of speaking her mind without and couldn't care less on how people would react to it. Charlie had to admit that even if he wasn't dating her sister, Lizzy would definitely be one of his best friends.
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That night Darcy didn't know when or how he even got to Elizabeth Bennett's Facebook profile page, nor did he care at this point. All he knew is that he wanted to find out as much as he could about Elizabeth Bennett and couldn't help himself from smiling at the picture of said female's profile picture. There she was looking like she just came out of paintball World War Three with a playful smile on her face. Darcy admitted to himself that there was far much more to Elizabeth Bennett then what met the eye as he fell into a calm sleep. And for once he did not awaken in the middle of the night to the same nightmare that has been plaguing him for the past few months.
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Author's notes:
Woo! Finally finished writing this chapter. –Does a happy dance- I'll be frank and tell you that I had no idea where I was going with this chapter. The coming to visit a sick sister some how became a sick server, and somehow Darcy developed sleeping problems. Those were not planned and just sort of happened when I sat down to write this chapter.
You got to love the random muses.
I hope to get the next chapter up sooner then this one, but I make no promises since I do most of my writing during the down time at work so I have to conform around my work load.
Once again I would like to thank my reviewers and watchers you guys rock. Pure and simple.