Chapter Nine

A/N: so I realized that this website still counts seven part two as chapter eight, and since I am extremely type A, and want this to be orderly, I'm changing part two to eight, and then this is chapter nine. Almost to the double digits, and I feel like this is the farthest I've ever gotten with anything, which I owe to the people who follow and comment: thank you! And with this chapter I have brought the resurgence of the infamous Wickham, tell me what you think of him in this chapter. I've also started working on some other P&P fanfiction that I hope to work on as a side until this is done, and then start posting the other stuff, it's not a modern au but it's definitely really different from the original. Anyway, I know I swore not to post until Dec. 10, well plans changed because I took my calculus exam early (I got an A in the class!) and my English teacher let me turn in my final exam essay early too, so I only have to focus on US history and chemistry (arguably only chemistry), and so I'm a lot less stressed, and decided to work on this because I have had some weird bouts of inspiration and wanted to get it down. Anyway, sorry for that boring insight into my life, and thank you for the reviews, because y'all make my life (if I haven't responded to yours I promise I will get to it) and for the follows, as y'all also make my life.


Chapter Nine

Jane wallowed in her bed. Well, she had been wallowing for the past few weeks since Charlie left without a word spoken to her or anyone else in their mutual friend group. It was pathetic, and Lizzie felt it was her familial duty to make her happy. So far she had failed in every attempt: she took Jane to the movies, and a puppy made Jane relapse in the movie theater, which really pissed off a lot of people; she took Jane to her favorite Mexican restaurant, but that made her remember seeing Will Darcy last time they came, and then she thought of Charlie, and then she cried. The list went on. Lizzie was at her wits' end; she loved her sister, more than anything and it pained her to see wallowing in self-pity.

"Jane," Lizzie said sternly on a morning about a month after Charlie had left, and Jane was still drowning in despair, and making no effort to save herself, "Change of plans."

Jane made no noise, but moved slightly under the covers. Lizzie sighed audibly, and let her shoulders sink down in exasperation.

"You're coming home with me."

"You're going home?" a weak voice said from under the covers.

"Well, Charlotte's wedding is in Yellowstone, which isn't too far from home, so I've decided to go early, and then drive to Charlotte's wedding." Lizzie moved to sit down on the mattress next to her sister, "And you're coming with me. Everything here reminds you of him, you need the distraction. And we both know mom is ample distraction," Lizzie was rewarded with a meager laugh, "and you haven't been home in a year, you need the environmental therapy of the untamed Montana Rockies." Another soft laugh, maybe this was progress, Lizzie thought to herself.

"I have work," Jane breathed, "I can't go."

"Jane, you've barely been going to work the past month, and you have a ton of freelance work that you can take with you," Lizzie was reminded of having to call Jane's office for a short leave of absence, which was a sign that Jane was truly hurting from Charlie's behavior. Her work was somewhat obliging; they asked why and Lizzie lied a bit about a family emergency to hide the embarrassing details that, when taken from the outsiders' perspective, made Jane seem a bit pathetic. Lizzie knew that Jane wasn't pathetic, despite the current situation, but she had opened herself up to someone who she thought she trusted and he turned around and hurt her; Jane needed time to heal. The leave of absence was for two months, Lizzie negotiated so that Jane would have plenty of time and wouldn't feel stressed to start work. Jane had continued on her freelance work, but very slowly.

Jane sighed again, "Lizzie, I don't want to let my family see me so pathetic,"

"Jane, that's crazy," Lizzie patted her head; her hair was matted and dirty, and had lost all the glossy shine it used to have, "we both know that family is supposed to support us when we're at our worst, and that's what you need: support, more than I can offer,"

At this Jane turned to face Lizzie, her eyes were bloodshot and her face was tinged red, "Lizzie, you're the best support."

"Right now you need to be free of reminders, and you need to be distracted. You can get through this, I know you, you're tough and brilliant and amazing, and I have the utmost confidence that you will emerge from this whole thing with the most grace anyone possibly could."

Jane smiled weakly at her sister before agreeing to accompany Lizzie to Helena.


Will Darcy needed a break.

He always felt like he needed a break; he imagined it was a typical feeling for people condemned to a job the hate. He sat through corporate meetings and debriefings on company finances one after the other, and they began to bleed together in his memory. He needed Gigi. He hadn't even spoken to her recently, she was wrapped up in school and he was busy helping his friend settle into his new life in New York by wrapping up loose ends on the LA side.

Perfect, he thought suddenly, and his upper body bolted upwards, straightening his spine, I can kill two birds with one stone. He opened his laptop and searched for flights to New York City, and quickly booked a flight for the next day. His intention was to visit Charlie in New York, then rent a car to surprise Gigi in Ithaca.

And that was how he found himself confused on Charlie's couch less then forty-eight hours later.

"How's LA holding up without me?" Charlie tried his very best to sound cheerful in front of his friend.

Will instantly picked up on Charlie's unhappiness from the minute he saw him in the airport, he accounted it to be just adjusting to a new city. However, now that they were alone in his apartment, Will could sense that it was deeper.

Will laughed, "I think the general LA population has managed quite nicely, but I have been lost." Will quickly realized the truth in his statement after he said it, "Work is horrible, as it usually is, but now I have no one to complain to, not even Caroline will return my calls."

"What a strange turn of events," Charlie said apathetically.

"I know," Will sighed, "How are you holding up?"

Charlie looked down.

"Are you okay, Charlie?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, I mean, I'm healthy, I guess" Will looked at his friend intently, "I just miss home,"

"That's normal, you'll probably get over that soon, and it's only been a month,"

"But it's also…I miss our friends. I mean, I obviously miss Jane a lot, and I wished I had spoken to her before I left, but now it seems like too much time has lapsed and it would be weird. But I also miss everyone, New Yorkers don't give off the friendly vibe; I think it's the weather," Charlie smiled, wanting to change the subject.

Charlie trusted Will more than anyone, yet he felt like he had made a mistake trusting Will's opinion above his own this time. In most cases, Will's pragmatic nature helped Charlie see more realistically, but in the relationship that Charlie wanted so much from, he wondered if his friend's advice was too cold and unfeeling, like the person who gave it. Charlie thought back to Jane and his conversation about Lizzie, and it was plainly obvious to him that Will had feelings, but he would never do anything, too taciturn and callous. He had originally hoped that Jane and his relationship would ease Lizzie and Will into their own, but it was cut short.


"Hey, you wanna be my plus one?"

"What?" George Wickham replied as he and Lizzie walked on Santa Monica pier, an unofficial date. George wasn't really sure if he wanted to actually do anything with this girl, but she was funny and nice to look at, so he decided he would decide later.

"To my friend's wedding." Lizzie reminded him, "It's in Yellowstone, a beautiful venue at the Old Faithful Inn, I don't know how Charlotte even got it…"

"When is it?"

"Two weeks from now, I'm actually heading up the day after tomorrow with Jane to see my family, but you can be spared that torture," she laughed to herself thinking of introducing George Wickham to her family. Her father would be indifferent, as he always was. Her mother would put their pictures onto an online photo morph to see what their children would look like. She stopped herself from imagining her younger sisters.

"Crap, sorry I can't" he said honestly, "I'm actually heading up to New York this weekend; I'm seeing some buddies there,"

"Ah," Lizzie said in understanding, and she was surprised at how disappointed she felt, "No problem, I got hordes of other guys swarming to get my plus one invite,"

"Really?" he said, arching an eyebrow. Dammit, he was hot, Lizzie thought.

"Really."

"You're not just saying that to make me jealous?" he teased, they had stopped walking at this point, and he had turned to face her, leaning in flirtatiously.

"I would never,"

"Really?"

"Really." She confirmed.

"Well, now, that's the problem," he leaned in closer, and Lizzie did nothing to back away, "it's doing a very good job of making me jealous." Then he closed the space between them.


A whole mess of a scene unfolded before Will Darcy's eyes.

George Wickham was sitting on his sister's couch, and she was sitting across from him. She turned toward him as he let himself into her apartment, and her surprise was written plainly on her face.

"Will?"

"What's going on?" Will could scarcely mask his anger. George Wickham two years previously decided to secretly date his sister, and for whatever reason, when Gigi told Will he was angry, remembering their freshman year together where George drank too much, and tried to take advantage of girls who also had been drinking. Will and Gigi's fight gave way, and Gigi refused to speak to Will. Eventually, or maybe it was his plan all along, George began to realize the monetary value that could be gained from Gigi if he played his cards right. Their relationship soon became emotionally abusive, it wasn't until Will discovered it that he learned the depth of George's manipulation: he repeatedly told her that Will didn't care for Gigi, that he only kept her around since she owned 30% of the shares in his company, and then convinced Gigi to hand over her shares to George. She agreed partly from her anger with Will, and partly from wanting to do anything to keep George in her life. He had also convinced Gigi that his intentions were marriage, so they would share the 30% of stock interest. Wickham originally had his own 30%, along with Darcy, but sold it over to Darcy when his father died, declaring that he didn't want to be associated with the company, and requested only that Will honor his father's wish to provide him an education. Will complied and funded his education at Boston University for a semester, then NYU for what Will thought was the remainder of his undergraduate studies, but soon found out that George had not been attending college at all, and was spending his tuition money on excessive parties and alcohol. The day before Gigi handed over her shares of the company to George, Will went to Ithaca to surprise her and apologize, intending to explain how George had used their father's good nature to fund his exuberance, and Gigi realized how George had taken advantage of her to get money. Will was able to stop the transfer, but Gigi was devastated. Now, his instant reaction was that history was repeating itself, and he would have to deal with Gigi's heartbreak by George all over again.

"What the hell is going on?" Will repeated.

Gigi looked down, ashamed.

"I was just coming to apologize to Gigi—" George began.

"Stop, George, get out, please," Gigi cut him off, "I appreciate your apology but I would like it if you left now."

George looked aghast, but quickly complied with Gigi's request and slid past Darcy to shut the door behind him.

"Are you okay?" he asked his sister.

"Yeah," she told him as he replaced George's position across from her, "he did apologize, but he wanted money from me. He had a plan about how to get around you, then you walked in, kind of ironic, huh?"

Will was pleased to see that Gigi seemed relatively unaffected.

"Anyway, what are you doing here?" she stood up, "and come here, I haven't had a chance to hug you properly."


"You're home!" Lydia raced to hug her two eldest sisters, "I have been so bored with just Kitty and Mary, Lord knows they're so boring!" Her brunette ringlets looked like Lizzie's, if Lizzie had ever had the patience and time to fix her hair like Lydia did.

"Lydia, be nice" Jane warned. Lizzie noticed how Jane was defrosting from her melancholy almost before her eyes. Jane loved her family, and Lizzie knew she made the right decision.

"Whatever, Kitty changed her major to marketing, how lame is that?" ringlets bobbed around her head.

Kitty soon joined the three of them, "Lydia, you're a creative writing major, you have no room to talk!" she defended. Kitty was the weird halfway point between Lizzie and Jane in terms of appearance. Her hair fell somewhere in the range of brown or blonde, but it looked like it couldn't decide on just one.

Lydia groaned loudly, "anyway, I've been seeing this guy, his name is Denny—"

"Like the fast food breakfast place?" Lizzie snorted, but was quickly quieted by a pointed look from Lydia.

"As I was saying, we're dating now, and he's taking me with him to California this summer," she squealed, "so I might get to see you!"

"I won't be seeing you this summer, as I was not invited." Kitty said dejectedly, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"Of course you weren't invited, it's a couples' trip," Lydia replied and Lizzie instantly made a gagging noise.

"My girls!" their mother tossed her arms around Lizzie and Jane at the same time before showering them both with kisses, "How I have missed you two!"

"We've missed you, too, mom," Jane tried to breath under her mother's stifling presence.

The quickly gathered all their luggage before piling into their crowded Subaru.

"So how long are you staying?" Kitty had somehow managed to claim the shotgun seat, and turned around to face the other three sisters.

"I'm here for two weeks, but Lizzie has to leave in a week to go to Charlotte's wedding," Jane explained.

"Who's Charlotte?" Lydia asked.

"Really? She was my best friend growing up," Lizzie turned to face Lydia, offended but not really surprised that Lydia forgot.

"Lizzie, I don't pay that much attention to you because you're unbelievably boring," Lydia replied before losing interest in the current conversation and moving onto to a topic that revolved around her.


"You're leaving already?" Gigi asked.

"Yeah," he replied sadly, after only two days with his sister. He had originally intended on staying longer but things had come up, "Aunt Catherine has force me and Richard to her employee's wedding. I spared you by telling her you were too busy with school,"

"Thank you,"

"No problem, she says he's getting married to some neuroscientist, anyway, I don't know why I'm coming since I don't know either of them, but she insisted."

Gigi laughed, "Okay, well good luck facing the beast," he smiled and kissed the top of Gigi's head, "at least you'll have Richard."

In the car back to New York City, Darcy realized that he was surprisingly excited for the wedding. He had wondered over Lizzie Bennet for what seemed like an eternity, and now he had the opportunity to go to Yellowstone, which was somewhat close to where she lived (not really, he thought, but close enough), and he believed that seeing her environment would help understand her. And by understand her, he meant overcome the feelings he had developed for her.