Don't worry, I'm still alive! Sorry that I haven't updated in two weeks! I feel horrible for not typing. It's really quite awful! I've just been so consumed by last minute test before break and colleges. Oh that horrid word: Colleges. It just happens to be my father's new favorite word, and topic... But I shall not bother you with the boring explination! Horray! I just want to say some things before we jump into this next chapter:
1. I'm not typing up a Christmas Story. If this isn't already obvious well then here's your annoucement. I tried typing a story and they all end up like a regular story with no Christmas at all! But since I'm not writing a Christmas Story...
2. I'll be writing a regular FF story! I know, exciting stuff! I have a little bit of an outline to the stories but which one to post? Want to tell me? Well I have a poll on my profile! Go check it out and vote!
3. Thank you to every one who reviewed or read or favorited or followed this story! It's amazing how much doing one or more of those things make me happy! It's awesom logging on to here or checking my email and seeing how much eveyone is enjoying the story!
That's everything I think... Well Here's the story. Just a little FYI before you read thing: half of this chapter is a back track to the last chapter, but in Darcy's words/head. The other half continues on from the past chapter where it left off. I think that it's not too confusing. But find out for yourself and read!
In Love
The day you appeared I lost my heart
To you, to love
And from that day I cannot part
From you, from love
You hold me tight
To you, to love
In my thoughts all day and night
Of you, of love
I offer all that I have to give
To you, to love
And all my days I want to live
With you, in love
-Amanda Marie Burson-
Previouslty: The plaque read, In Memory of a Marvelous Mother, a Wonderful Wife, a Fierce Fighter, and a Beloved Friend to All, You Will Be Missed, Anne Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Back Track: this time we're in Darcy's Head!
Darcy left Charles sitting in the chair. He didn't want to hear what Charles was saying. He did know what he felt. William Darcy did not feel anything for Elizabeth Bennet, or at least that's what he was going to believe. There is no way that a little sophomore girl was going to make a fool of his heart; she had no connections or any popularity to speak of. Sure, she was friendly to all and no one ever spoke ill of her except Caroline but she was a nobody. There was no way in hell that Darcy would ever do anything with her. Darcy nodded his head in agreement of what he was thinking.
"Sir, can I help you find what you're looking for?" a nice looking nurse asked, biting her bottom lip trying to look seductive. She stood by a door holding a clipboard to her chest, which she was trying to make look bigger. She had light brown hair that was cut in a stylish bob, with some of the ends going every which way with blonde highlights at the tips. Her eyes were a soft hazel color, but were surrounded by lots of heavy black eyeliner. Darcy examined her, 'Elizabeth's hair is much better than that. Plus Elizabeth's eyes look much more intelligent which she doesn't try to make stand out. She's very skinny, almost sickly looking. Nothing to compare to Elizabeth.' Darcy stopped in tracks. He was quickly falling for Elizabeth Bennet.
"No," Darcy said curtly and continued on at a quickened pace. His feet knew where they were taking him which left his mind to wander. How in the world could Darcy fall for Elizabeth? He tried to come up with some reasons. 'Well to start off, she grabbed my syllabus away from me when I had first met her. Oh, wait I never gave her one, so I guess that was my fault. Um, she insulted me in front of both Jane and Charles at the library, but then again I did insult her multiple times. Wait I know, when she insulted me for not conversing with her. Didn't she know I was having issues concentrating on the road and not on her? She can't read my mind. Um, she keeps creating arguments between Charles and I. Yeah, that's something that's wrong with her. And she makes me forget about things and the stuff she says is usually very insulting and gets us into an argument.' Darcy had a smug smile on his face thinking about what was bad about Elizabeth.
Cold air whipped Darcy in the face. The chilling breeze slapped his cheeks and bit his nose. The snowflakes that were falling from the sky landed on his head, his shoulders, his nose and his eyelashes. Darcy pulled the jacket that he was wearing closer to him, trying to beat the cold from getting to him. Darcy trudged through the blanket of snow on the ground that the hospital failed to shovel away. His footsteps were visible for a moment of time before being covered by the falling snow. Darcy made his way over the statue that was situated in the middle of the courtyard.
Darcy sat down on the outside ring of the statue, not even swiping off the snow that had accumulated on top of it. He found comfort in this statue. Darcy frequented the statue on many different occasions when he was a child. He loved seeing the stone face of his mother and the toddler version of himself and his best friend. When he had been younger he had often climbed up on the statue and sat next to his mother and stroked her face or the baby that was in her arm's face. He cherished looking upon the face of his mother for he had little memories of her. Darcy had been only six when his mother died. His sister, the baby in the woman's arms, had been three months old.
"Mom, oh how I wish you were here. I mean, I need you so much. Father now lives in England and we only see him about once or twice a year. I so need your help," Darcy's head fell into his hands. He was trying so hard to stay together. He had to or else Aunt Catherine de Bourg would take over as caretaker for Georgiana, not him and Richard, his eldest cousin. He had to keep the best grades, get into the best colleges, be the best friend, be the best gentleman, but it was so hard with a girl like Elizabeth around calling him out for all of the arrogant things that he did or said. "Mom, what should I do? I keep being an ass to her, she must hate me. I can't stand not having an argument with her. Her eyes light up and she looks supremely happy. I don't know what to do."
Not a single tear would drop from his eyes. He had learned a long time ago not to cry about something in the past. His father said that it was weakness, and to a seven year old boy who was still morning his mother it was life changing. Darcy sat there for a while, letting the snow fall upon him and start to collect.
He heard the door to the courtyard open, but he paid no attention to it at all. The soft crunching noise of snow underneath foot echoed through the courtyard as Elizabeth walked over to Darcy. "Hey," She said, her hand touching his leg. Darcy sucked in his breath and his heart began to take off as well as the butterflies in his stomach. She was touching him. The simple gesture felt just amazing to Darcy. How she could do something so small and it make such a big impact to him blew his mind.
"Hey," he replied back not knowing what else to say. He sat up straight. The snow started to fall off him because of the sudden movements, he helped it get off. Elizabeth took her hand off of his leg and aided Darcy with his snow removal.
"You okay?" Elizabeth asked concern laced in her voice. Darcy just nodded, turned around and started to walk towards the door that lead back into the inside world. He didn't want to tell her anything. He just wanted to ignore that she was there and pretend that he had never met her. She made him too nervous to be good. "Back to ignoring me, I see how it is. Oh, and by the way in case you were worried Jane has fractured her leg in two different places and might have pneumonia as well. Thanks for the worry. And just come find me when you're about to leave because I don't feel like going on a wild goose chase after you. I'll be in the waiting room."
Darcy's hand rested on the handle of the door. Elizabeth was walking this way. 'Do it man! Just see how it goes, nothing else if it totally sucks it'll help you move on!' his mind told him. Darcy sighed; he was going to listen to the voice inside his head. That was a smart move.
Darcy turned back around, and walked to where Elizabeth was. She looked up to him with her large brown eyes and gazed into him with such power that he was overwhelmed. He bent down and placed his lips on hers. Sparks started to dance on his lips. The whole world just seemed to melt away. All of Darcy's issues and troubles vanished as though Elizabeth's lips were the magic spell to send away all misfortunes. He was enjoying himself too much, but he had to end it. She was a sophomore, two years younger than himself. He didn't want to overpower her. It took every ounce of self will to rip his lips off of hers.
He looked at her quickly then practically ran back inside. Darcy rushed into the hospital and ran into the nearest room that he could find. Thankfully the room was vacant. Darcy went to the bed and sat down. He ran his hand through his hair and fell back against the bed. He was an emotional mess of all kinds. Why in the world did he kiss her? He couldn't answer himself because he didn't know. That bothered him greatly. 'Darcy, why did you do that?' he thought to himself. 'Well, um, you were in front of your mother's statue. Elizabeth did show me some concern and yeah, it's her fault. If she didn't look so cute with the snow all in her hair and Georgie's shoes on her feet maybe I wouldn't have done that. It's your entire fault, you know that don't you,' Darcy argued to himself.
He closed his eyes and allowed himself to revisit the kiss. A smile graced his lips as he thought about Elizabeth and what she was doing at that moment. Questions came to his mind like bullets, one after one after one. What was her favorite color? When was her birthday? Did she like flowers? What was her favorite kind? Does she like cookies? Does she hate him? Would there be a chance for them? What type of scent did she like for soap? Did she like bow ties or just regular ties? What was her favorite book? Movie? Music? Oh, the questions were limitless.
Darcy sat back up. He shook his head as though he were trying to get everything that was invading his head out. He stood up and walked out of the door to go find Elizabeth to see when she wanted to return home.
Elizabeth read and then reread the plaque a few times to let the information sink in. She put her hand back up to her lips and tried to feel exactly where Darcy's had been. She closed her eyes and sat in the same place that Darcy had sat. 'Damn him. Damn him for kissing me. Damn him for letting me read his mother's plaque. Damn him for being here!' Elizabeth thought to herself. She hated the fact that he had so much pull on her. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, she didn't do things like that. Sure she had a few crushes here or there and maybe a 'date' with a boy in middle school, but she had never been this involved with someone, ever. What about her being 'barely tolerable'? Was that still up for debate?
Elizabeth stood up from where she had been standing and walked back inside to the lobby where she said that she would be. Her feet were so cold from being outside in the snow and winter conditions that it hurt for her to walk on them. She looked down at her feet and saw that they were bright red. Elizabeth hobbled her way over to the lobby where she sat down on the mellow blue sofa and waited until either Darcy or her family found her.
A few moments later Mrs. Bennet came rushing through the door. Behind her came Kitty and Lydia who were laughing about something that Lydia had said. Mary came in shortly after Kitty and Lydia. She was clutching some old book that boasted religion and being modest. Mr. Bennet was the last to enter, his graying hair covered in snow and old man jacket opened.
"Where is she?" Mrs. Bennet shrieked flailing her arms around her head. "Where is my Jane? Oh, she can't be ill! Her looks may deteriorate with the sickness." Elizabeth shrunk down into the couch. Mrs. Bennet heeded no attention to Elizabeth and went straight up to the front desk where she animatedly demanded to see Jane.
"Jane will never be as good looking or as friendly as I am, Mama," Lydia cooed emphasizing friendly in a 'seductive' manner sauntering after her mother.
"Yeah, friendly," Kitty repeated following closely behind Lydia in an attempted saunter. Always one step behind the youngest and often was the one repeating what Lydia said. Elizabeth shrunk down even farther into the couch.
Mary said nothing but followed after her two other sisters and mother. She clutched her book even closer to herself and kept her head down, looking at the tile pattern on the floor.
"My dearest Lizzie," Mr. Bennet said walking over to where Elizabeth was shrunk on the couch. "I'm sorry dearest, but everyone demanded to come. I couldn't say no or else the entire household would be in chaos."
Elizabeth said nothing, and just nodded. "Elizabeth?" called a voice from down the hallway. Elizabeth shrunk down even farther and tried to hide her face with her hands. She so did not want Darcy to see her or her family. "Elizabeth where are you?" Darcy called again.
Lydia's ears perked up. A masculine voice was calling for Elizabeth. A small smile came to Lydia.
Darcy walked into the lobby of the hospital only to see the Bennet family spectacular. Darcy's eyes grew to double their original size. Three younger girls were standing by and older woman who was arguing profusely about seeing her daughter. Two of the girls were sizing him up like a chunk of meat that they were interesting in buying. One looked to be about twelve and the other maybe fourteen at the most. The fourteen year old one walked towards him, sashaying her under developed hips in a very humorous manner.
"Why are you looking for Elizabeth? She's such a bore," Lydia said, batting her eyes at him. Darcy looked around for an escape route but found none. Lydia came even closer. "You must be William Darcy. You're even hotter than what I had thought."
Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her face started to burn red with embarrassment. Lydia could not be flirting with Darcy. She was in seventh grade! "Uh, yeah I, uh am," Darcy managed to squeak out. Elizabeth buried her face even farther into her hands.
"I knew it. Oh, you must work out a ton," Lydia purred. She attached one of her hands around his bicep, slightly squeezing it for effect.
"I, uh, work out, um sometimes?" Darcy replied trying to be as nice as he could to Elizabeth's sisters. It was a miracle that Elizabeth could be so normal with a sister like this.
"Darcy? I need to speak to you," Elizabeth cut through. There was no way that she was going to allow Lydia to continue to fawn over Darcy, it would only mean more insults the longer she left him there.
"Defiantly," Darcy replied, shaking his arm away from Lydia's snare like grip. He followed Elizabeth to a nearby hallway.
"Sorry about that," Elizabeth replied. "Lydia thinks she's older than what she really is. I am, uh, going to need to have a ride home. The sooner the better. I'm not sure how long they're going to be here and I um need to finish some things up at home. Plus it's getting late."
Darcy looked suspiciously at her, "It's eight thirty."
"Yeah, and that's uh late," Elizabeth explained. There was no way that she'd allow him to stay near her family for long. It had been a whole two minutes that he had been in their presence and Lydia already had tried to seduce him!
"Okay. I'll go find Charles and tell him that we're leaving. Want to come?" Darcy managed to get out. For some reason he was nervous to ask her to come with him.
Elizabeth nodded. She didn't want to be with her family. Who knew how long it was going to take her family to find Jane's room? She wasn't about to help them. It would be better for Jane to rest in peace and for Charles not to endure the pains of her family.
Darcy led the way through the hospital for he knew it better than her. Elizabeth quietly followed behind Darcy, not talking just making mental note on how Darcy walked. His paces were large and powerful, as though he was taking steps that would be changing the world. His arms swung heavily and his shoulder drooped a little. There was a curl on the back of his head that went the wrong way from all of the rest of the curls. Oh, how she wanted to fix the mismatch curl.
The walk was brisk and quick. Darcy did not dally around or go for the longer route. They found Charles in Jane's room sitting on the chair next to the bed.
"Knock. knock," Darcy called. Charles' head looked up from Jane's face. He smiled at the sight of Darcy and Elizabeth together.
"Hey, well aren't you two a sight for sore eyes? It's been over a half an hour since I last saw you two. What's up?" Charles asked.
"We're just heading out," Darcy replied, he walked into the room over to where Charles was sitting.
Elizabeth walked in the room and went to Jane. She pushed a piece of Jane's blonde hair from her face. Jane stirred a little, but continued to sleep. Elizabeth looked up at Charles, "Just a warning, my family's here. If you savor your life and sanity leave quickly and make sure they don't see you."
Charles laughed, he looked at Elizabeth, she wasn't joking. "Okay, then I guess that I'll be leaving. Don't cause too much trouble lovebirds, and don't stay out too late," Charles said with a wink. He grabbed his coat and headed out the door.
Elizabeth looked at Darcy with disbelief, he had already told Charles! "I didn't say anything," Darcy said, trying not to go too far down the wrong path with Elizabeth.
"Uh, huh," Elizabeth countered, her eyebrow raised. "Let's take my advice to Charles and do the same thing." Elizabeth turned around and walked to the door and said, "Coming?"
"Yeah," Darcy said as he followed her out of the room.
I know, I know I'm amazing;) Just kidding! I was really upset with this when I started to type it up about 5-6 hours ago, but now I like how this chapter came out. This really made me happy to write! I hope that you all enjoyed reading it. If you review you get a preview, like always! Yup, I don't have much more to say... Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out within a week, but who knows? I might get caught up in baking or ACT studying or college looking(BTW I love Duke, Cornell, Stanford, and MIT currently, not like you need to know or anything)
Well Ta Ta For Now! (That's Tigger's line:))
~write-to-be-me