The Thin Line between Love and Hate

A Pride and Prejudice- story

By: jakeline

Summary: A modern P&P with a Shakespearean twist. He said she wasn't pretty enough and she threw punch at him. After 12 years Darcy is back in Meryton and Lizzie still hasn't forgiven him.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to be Jane Austen and most definitely not Shakespeare. I just borrow their work as an inspiration to this story, loosely basing it on Pride and prejudice and Much Ado about Nothing.


Chapter 7: And so it Begins

She was just turning in on Jane's street when she hit the human wall. What the hell? Elizabeth found herself knocked to the ground with limbs sprawled in every direction in a most unladylike manner. Her mother would be appalled had she seen her. Furious she glared at the person who had knocked her over, getting an angry speech ready. To her surprise she saw that the person was no other than William Darcy. Elizabeth's mouth opened and closed without any sound coming out.

"Oh shit," William said as he saw her sprawled on the ground. He got up as if he had fire up his butt. Elizabeth allowed a small lopsided smile before scrambling to her feet, totally ignoring William's extended hand. She brushed her hands on her jeans and blew a strand of hair out of her face, placing her hands on her hips.

"Darcy," she nodded. William looked totally dumbfounded. Elizabeth enjoyed it.

"Your jeans are ruined," he said at length and pointed at a tear on her knee.

Elizabeth looked down and chuckled, "That was probably already there." She enjoyed the embarrassed look on his face.

"Oh."

Awkward silence, flushed faces and averting of eyes followed. They looked at everything else but each other. There was this big elephant between them. Also known as the night before. Neither one of the wanted to go there.

"So…" Elizabeth hesitated, shifting her weight from one leg to the other.

"Yes, I…" William too, hesitated. Elizabeth started tapping her foot, annoyed with her lack of conversation skills. What had happened?

"You should really watch where you're going," she finally said.

"I could say the same to you." True. She had been negligent of where she was going.

"Got to go," Elizabeth said.

"Got to run," William said at the same time.

"I can see that," she replied, eying his training gear pointedly. William shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Don't let me keep you." Elizabeth made a movement to leave.

"Sorry about… Well, this," he motioned to the ground in general.

"I'm tougher than I look," she said. "I'll live."

"Well, um, see you…" Why did he seem so hesitant to leave? He had made it very clear that he wanted nothing more to do with her last night..

"Yeah. Have a good run," Elizabeth said, feeling like Baby in Dirty Dancing after saying 'I carried a watermelon.' Why couldn't she find anything cleverer to say? She must be more hung over than she had thought.

William nodded and trotted off, leaving Elizabeth looking after him before turning and hurriedly walking the few yards to Jane's building.

-xxx-

William was torn. As much as he wanted to get away from there, he couldn't make himself take the step to leave. The conversation went downhill after his comment about her jeans. He could see that she was trying very hard to find something clever to say. He really didn't want to give her that satisfaction.

Ha had successfully managed not to think of her, or what had happened the night before. Until now, that was. When he at last regained the power of moving his legs again he quickly got away from there, plopping his ear buds in again. He didn't want to think of what had happened.

William was happy to find his old route still usable. He really put his heart into it and enjoyed feeling sweat form and trickle all over the body. The exercise successfully banished all thoughts of a certain lady. He finished his work out with 30 push ups followed by double the amount of sit ups. Satisfied with himself he jogged home.

He ignored the blinking light on his answering machine, indicating new messages, and didn't even as much as glance at his cell. He went straight to his bathroom for a hot shower. He had deserved it. William knew his mother would be furious at him. He actually relished the thought of not being the obliging son she was used to. He could see her annoyed face before him and even hear her voice; 'Fitzwilliam Darcy, what on earth has gotten into you?' He loved her to bits even though she tried her best to run his life for him.

A quarter of an hour later he emerged from his bathroom, feeling rejuvenated. He was exhausted, but in a good way. William made himself a light dinner and sank down in front of the telly. As soon as he had started eating his phone rang. Before answering he checked the caller id. It was his sister.

"Has mum persuaded you to mediate?" he scolded as he answered.

His sister giggled, "Hello to you to, bro."

"You know I'm right, Gigi."

"Of course you are," she replied. "Oh, and please don't call me Gigi anymore. I'm going by George these days."

"George? What's wrong with Gigi?"

"Do I look like a poodle?" Georgiana scolded.

"Perhaps not, but George? Why not Georgie or your full name, Georgiana?"

Georgiana snorted, "Oh please, I'm not 200 years old and I hate it as much as you hate 'Fitzwilliam'. Seriously what's wrong with our parents?"

"I don't know. I guess they're trying to make up for the fact that they have boring names or something. I mean Emma and John are not as exciting as Fitzwilliam and Georgiana. Fine, George it is." William picked up his cell to see how many missed calls he had. "Mum's called my cell 10 times, and I was only gone for an hour."

"You know how she gets when you don't answer the phone. I swear she was about to call the hospitals when I got hold of you," Georgiana said. "She really hates it when you leave your cell at home. She's so into this being reached at all times thing. You know the whole; 'What's the use of having a cell phone when you don't answer it'-shit. You almost gave her a heart attack. I kid you not."

"She's such a drama queen," William sighed. "I'm just so fed up with her matchmaking schemes."

"I'm so glad that she still thinks I'm her little baby and too young to marry off," Georgiana said.

"You're lucky. I'm on a different continent and she still manages to pimp me out."

Georgiana laughed. "So, how's ole England treating you?"

"It's just fine. Not much happening though, out here, in the country. I miss you," William said.

"Aw, you big softie," Georgiana mocked.

"Yeah, I know, and proud of it. But don't tell anyone! Honestly though, I'm really going to convince the parents that you are needed here before July."

"I'll ask them too, I'm sure they can spare me sooner."

"So," William decided it was time to take the bull by its horns, "is mum there?"

"Yeah, she's right here, trying to rip the phone from my hand," Georgiana giggled.

"Fine, let me talk to her."

-xxx-

"You look like you've seen a ghost," Jane greeted Elizabeth.

"Thanks, nice to see you too," Elizabeth retorted. "I ran into Darcy, literally, on my way here."

"Awkward?"

"You think?" Elizabeth followed her sister out to her kitchen. "Mm, smells heavenly." She stuck her nose down the pot. "Spaghetti Bolognese, my favourite."

"I know," Jane said. "So… Are you going to tell me more about your encounter with Will?"

"There's nothing to tell." Elizabeth shrugged and tasted the sauce.

"Seriously?" Jane looked at her sceptically.

"What?" Elizabeth turned to face her sister. "Nothing happened."

"You didn't bite his head off?"

"Well, no…" Jane stepped forward and put her hand on Elizabeth's forehead. "What are you doing?"

"I'm just checking to see if you're ill."

"I can be nice," Elizabeth defended herself.

"When have you ever been nice to Darcy?"

"Okay, so he's an exception. But it's very hard to be nice to him." Jane stirred the pasta, shaking her head. "And you know I have my reasons."

"About that… That's 14 years ago… let it go."

"It's not that easy. He really hurt me." Elizabeth fidgeted with her hair as she usually did when she was cornered. "Just because you happen to like his friend, it doesn't make me have to like Darcy."

"It kind of does," Jane said.

Elizabeth took down two plates and went to set the table to escape the conversation about William Darcy. She didn't understand why Jane insisted on her being friends with him. Fine, she got that Jane wanted her to be able to be in the same room as him if needed. But seriously, why would she be with her and Charlie anyway? Peter Fitzwilliam, now there was a guy she could spend some time with. Easy going and fun, and not too bad to rest one's eyes on. Elizabeth chuckled as she placed the glasses. Jane looked at her with quizzical eyes.

"Nothing," she murmured.

"You're sure you're not sick?" Jane asked.

"I'm fine." Jane, however, did not look convinced, but knew better than to pursue the subject further since she knew it would prove unfruitful. Jane brought the food and they sat down to eat.

"So, Charlie called today," Jane said to change the subject, beaming.

Elizabeth snorted. Desperate much? she thought, out loud she said, "Lovely."

"Isn't it just?" Elizabeth rolled her eyes, but said nothing. Jane looked absolutely adorable with sparkling eyes and glowing cheeks. Elizabeth hadn't the heart to bring her down just yet.

"So, what did Prince Charming say?"

"Just ask if I could make lunch some day this week. He thought Friday was too far away," Jane giggled and Elizabeth almost threw up a little in her mouth.

"I see," she managed to squeeze out.

"I sense a bit of hostility," Jane said.

"It's just…" Elizabeth hesitated, "nothing." She stuffed her mouth full with food as to not be able to say anything more for a while.

-xxx-

"I would not ask this of you if it wasn't absolutely a matter of life or death," William started as Charles answered the phone.

"Okay…" Charles said, wondering what was to come. William seldom asked for help.

"See, my mother has this insane idea that I would enjoy a blind date with one of her friends's daughter."

"And how does that involve me exactly?"

"I really don't want to be left alone with this woman," William said, sounding sincerely freaked. "I keep telling my mother I'm not interested in dates or women or potential wives, but she keeps on sending dates my way."

"Aw, poor Darcy," Charles mocked.

"I'm serious, Charlie."

"Okay, fine, what do you want me to do?" Charles sighed, glad that his parents didn't interfere with his life like that.

"Would it be too much to ask if you took Jane to the same restaurant as me and Anne on Saturday? And if you could ask Peter to join in as well, that would be awesome."

"And who do you suggest Peter go with? You know he hates to dine alone," Charles said, but was well aware of who Peter was going to ask.

"I don't know. But he's never had any troubles in finding a date. I'm sure he will figure it out," William said. "And then you're just happening to arrive at the same time as us and then I'll ask you to join us."

"I'm not sure that's fair, Will," Charles said. "Poor girl."

"I honestly don't care, Charlie, I really don't want her to get her hopes up. God knows what her mother and mine have said to her. It's better that she realises as soon as possible that I'm not interested."

"You're right. As always," Charles said, he knew better than to fight William on this subject. "I'll ask Jane if we can move Friday's date till Saturday. I'm sure she won't mind."

"Thanks, you are a lifesaver," Williams said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you," Charles said and hung up. William was actually playing his friends right into their arms. He took up the phone again and dialled Peter's number.

"Hey, Pete," he said as the friend answered the phone. "Guess what, that opportunity we were talking about? It's gonna happen a bit sooner than we had hoped." A wicked grin spread on his face as he listened to Peter's response.

-TBC-


Author's note: Yes, my life is kind of in the way of my writing these days. But I'm really trying to write as much as I can... Hope it was worth the wait though and that you'll bear with me. Happy Easter!