Previously: Elise hides from Nicoll with Darcy.

10

They sat side by side on deck chairs, by the Bennet family pool. She looked exceptionally cute in her floppy sunhat, the rim of which hung down over her eyes, shielding them from his view. She was reading a book and he was glad of it because if her attention had been focused on him she would surely be creeped out by his staring. She sighed gently, and he saw the change of expression on her mouth. She was pouting slightly and he knew that if he could see her forehead, little frown lines would be there. He wondered briefly what she was reading that had displeased her so, before he was once again distracted by the sight of her lower lip sticking out. He fought the urge to throw the damned book in pool, take her face into his hands and kiss her mouth. He couldn't completely restrain his impulses though and so he stood from his chair and walked two steps to her. She noticed his movement and dropped her book into her lap. He bent down and softly kissed her cheek.

"Charlie," Jenine sighed happily, "what was that for?"

"Nothing." He blushed, his boldness leaving him. "You were frowning…"

"Was I? This book is so sad," she said glumly. "Every time the protagonist tries to turn her life around, someone in her family gets in the way." She scooted over in the deck chair so that he could sit on the edge.

Bingley perched himself next to her. "I think life is like that sometimes. Just when you think everything is perfect, something infringes on it."

Jenine looked up at his face, her eyebrows drawn together. She was surprised at this sudden pessimism from her ever-smiling bodyguard. In her mind he was still her 'bodyguard' rather than her 'boyfriend'. Although there was some handholding, a few pecks on the cheek and numerous meals eaten together, she still felt that she couldn't say they were 'dating'. She was beginning to think that as long as he was still her bodyguard, she wouldn't be able to call it that.

Right now, she was at home, by the pool (hiding from Fran who was continuously sending her to the Lucas house with ridiculous excuses.) He didn't need to be there, but he was. She knew that his job wasn't the only reason he spent so much time with her, but as long as it was one of the reasons, she didn't feel like they could be in a real relationship. She didn't want him to be with her out of obligation.

"You know what I mean?" Bingley continued. "Things are never perfect."

"What's bothering you?" she probed gently. For him to have such a gloomy outlook, he must have something on his mind.

"Nothing," he replied. "Well… I was just thinking about you leaving again. I almost hope your dad does think you'll need security in China just so I get to go with you," he confessed, blushing.

Jenine frowned. While she didn't want to spend the next couple of months away from Charlie, she knew she didn't want him to be accompanying her as her bodyguard. Not only was she reluctant for their relationship to progress whilst she was part of his job, but also, she knew that having a man following her around all day was not going to be conducive to classroom activities while she taught.

She clasped his hand in hers. "Let's just enjoy the next three days. But I think we really need to have a discussion with my dad urgently. In fact, we should probably get things sorted out sooner rather than later," she announced, standing up.

Elise growled loudly as she saw the commotion outside her home.

She had intended that morning to nip out in Betty to buy the new Sims game she wanted. However, as she and Darcy had gone outside to where Betty was parked, they'd been met by a crowd of people with cameras and microphones gathered outside the gates of the Bennet property. Darcy had suggested that it might be better that instead of driving out in Betty herself, she let Hill drive them. She had agreed, and Hill had driven Elise and Darcy to a nearby electronics store. They'd been followed on the way there and she and Darcy had clambered out of the limo quickly. He'd shielded her with his body from the people pushing to speak to her. She'd quickly procured her game and they were on their way back home as soon as possible.

Now, as Hill was attempting to get the car through the throng of people outside the front gate, Elise's nerves were wearing thin.

"Hill, what is going on? Why are there so many people here? Dad's not even home!"

"No idea, little miss," Hill replied. "It would seem they're not here for your father."

"I just don't get it. We knew there would be more interest in us from the press because of Dad's merger, but this is crazy! This isn't the type of attention you get for a business merger, this is the type of attention you get when Kristen Stewart cheats on Rob Pattinson with you!"

Darcy snorted. "Something else has to have happened, you're right, all this can't be because of a simple merger, even if it is a high profile one."

Hill managed to manoeuver the car through the crowd and into the driveway. There was a scramble to close the gate without enabling any of the reporters to get into the property.

Elise ignored the cries of "Miss Bennet!" as she got out the car and started to make her way towards the front door.

"Elise, can you tell us about the wedding?!" one of the reporters shouted.

Elise looked at Darcy in confusion, however his face was entirely blank. They both shrugged it off and entered the house.

In the hallway, they found Jenine and Bingley waiting.

"You're back!" Jen said cheerfully. "We were waiting for Hill, we're off to see Dad," she announced.

"It's crazy out there, Jen! There's loads of press outside. I have no idea what they want, this ruckus can't just be because of Dad and the company…" Elise told her sister.

Jenine looked worried for a moment before her usual serene expression returned. "I'm glad Dad got us bodyguards in that case, " she said, smiling at the two men.

"I guess we'll head off now and get things over with." Jen started to make her way to the door, with Bingley following her. She was a little concerned about the press, but more worried about what her father would decide about Bingley accompanying her to China.

Bingley, Jenine and Hill were hounded by the press on their departure, throughout the journey and on their arrival at David Bennet's office building. Bingley had used his body to shield his charge from the onslaught of people asking questions indistinguishable to the ear over the rowdy noise. When they made it up to Mr. Bennet's office, his secretary informed them that he was in a board meeting. They'd waited almost an hour in the foyer area until they were finally told he would see them in his office.

After greeting his eldest daughter with a hug, Mr. Bennet apologised for not being home often enough and promised that he would try to spend more time with her before she left. Jenine smiled brightly, but Bingley wondered if the man would keep his word.

Jenine began telling her father that she felt it unnecessary for Bingley to accompany her back to China. Although her father had yet to say anything to indicate where he stood on the issue, Jen was already on the defensive. Bingley was a little bit surprised and slightly hurt that she seemed not to want him to go along. He had thought they were simply looking to find out Mr. Bennet's decision. He hadn't known that Jen had already made her own decision.

Mr. Bennet too was surprised that his daughter had begun defensively. It was clear to him that she had already made up her mind. Jenine was usually much more amenable than her sister and for her to express her opinion so plainly, he thought she must feel strongly about the issue. He tried briefly to counter her arguments, saying he would be more comfortable if she had additional security and that it was only short term. When she did not seem any more compliant than initially Mr. Bennet came to a decision.

"Very well," he agreed, "You will return to China without Mr. Bingley."

Jenine was startled at how easily her father gave in to her demands. She had seen Elise and her father debate on occasion, and usually their discussion would continue for much longer. Elise clearly got her stubbornness from her father and thus Jenine found it odd that he was so easily persuaded. She was also surprised that her father hadn't brought up the increased press surrounding the family that day. It would appear that he hadn't noticed it yet. She brushed off her surprise at how easy persuading him was, thinking that perhaps he simply was not strongly convinced of his own views anyway.

"Jennie, if you would just wait in the foyer for a moment, I would like to speak to Mr. Bingley briefly about the termination of his position here."

Jen quickly acquiesced and left the office to chat with her father's secretary.

While Mr. Bennet was not the most affectionate of fathers, rarely spending time with his girls, he was very protective of his daughters. He was extremely wary of the girls living away from home. He had never been keen on Elise and Jenine doing anything other than living at home and working at the company with him. Although he spent more time at his office than at the Bennet house, he took comfort in knowing that his daughters were close by. Much of it stemmed from his own insecurity as a result of the departure of his ex-wife Madeleine with both daughters years ago. He had never gotten over her leaving him and thus he had a lingering fear that his daughters by her would too leave him behind someday, even though he wasn't there to begin with.

When Jenine left the room, David Bennet focused his eyes on the man sitting before him. Bingley began to feel somewhat uncomfortable under the older man's shrewd gaze.

"Mr. Bingley," he began slowly, "while my daughter believes that she knows what is best for her, I believe that I know better. And in the end, you are working for me. I no longer feel comfortable with my daughter living on her own some ten thousand kilometers away." Bingley was growing more and more perturbed by his employer's plan. "I don't know why I didn't think of this before," David continued. "You will be accompanying Jenine to China. However, she does not need to know that this is the case." Bingley's face fell.

"Mr. Bennet-" Charles began to object.

"You will ensure her safety at all times, just like you have been over here, except this time, it will be from a distance."

"Mr. Bennet, what about her privacy? What if she finds out?"

"Mr. Bingley, there should be no need for her to find out. You are simply following her to ensure her security. You will not be taking photos like some private investigator, you will not infringe on her personal space like the paparazzi. I am simply asking you to keep my daughter safe. If that is too difficult a task for you, I should have no difficulty finding someone else to do it."

"You're right, sir," Bingley reluctantly agreed, "I can do as you ask."

"Very good." Mr. Bennet nodded his head and began rifling through papers on his desk. Bingley realised he had just been dismissed. He stood and went to find Jen.

"How did it go?" she asked, when he approached her.

"Great," Bingley said unenthusiastically. Jenine didn't seem to notice his tone, and she subtly brushed her hand against his, feeling more comfortable being affectionate with him now that he was no longer going to be her bodyguard.

"I hope he gives you a good letter of recommendation," she said smiling.

"Me too…"

"You know… I could have just gone and gotten the game for you…" Darcy said to Elise as he followed her into the living room.

"Yeah, you could have, but then I could have just sent Hill. I wanted to go though. I had all these plans of overspending on random computer games like Lego Island and that game with the worm. I was also planning on taking loads of photobooth pictures of myself and making them the desktop background of all the Macs."

Darcy chuckled, "That would have been fun. It's a shame we were only in there for 4 minutes and 33 seconds."

"Were we actually only in there for 4 minutes and 33 seconds or did you choose that length of time because of the John Cage composition?" Elise questioned as she grabbed her laptop off the coffee table and inserted the disc.

"The John Cage composition," he admitted with a grin. "I'm surprised you knew about that."

"Excuse me? Did you just imply that I wouldn't remember my knowledge of 20th Century music dating back to my middle school days?"

Darcy gasped loudly, "I would never imply that."

The game started up and she eyed Darcy, who was standing awkwardly at the side of the sofa she was sitting on. "You want to play? Or rather… you want to watch me play?" she asked, nodding her head in the direction of the empty place on the sofa beside her. He happily sat down beside her, glad for the company.

Elise played for an hour or so, in between even relinquishing possession of the laptop to Darcy. She allowed him to play until he pissed her off by turning her simself into a vampire. When the doorbell rang, Elise at first was worried that it was someone from the press. However when Hilary entered the living room to say that a Mr. Nicoll Collins was waiting for her in the parlour, Elise's worry quickly turned to annoyance.

"Hilary, you have to tell him I'm not home," she pleaded. "Tell Fran he's here and she can deal with him, I'm leaving!" She held her laptop with one arm and yanked Darcy's up with the other. She pulled him to follow her as she decided to take the same escape route as yesterday, walking the way to the guesthouse with long strides as Darcy trailed behind her.

She wondered briefly how many times she could pull this off before Fran caught on and forced her to sit with Collins. It appeared Fran had taken in her own hands to enable Nicoll to reach Elise. After hiding with Darcy the day before, Elise had awoken to find an email from Nicoll in her inbox. He had even put in a link to Coach Cathy's twitter where he said she could 'get fabulous tips for getting fit'. Elise had replied with a 'thank you', just to be courteous, before flagging his email as 'junk'.

Arriving at the guesthouse, Elise and Darcy quickly plonked themselves down on the couch and resumed their gameplay. After a short while, Darcy disappeared briefly before returning with two glasses of ginger ale. He leaned over her shoulder watching as she played. One of his errant curls tickled her neck.

"Hey, stooop, your hair is poking me," she said as she pushed his head away.

Darcy worried for a second that he was genuinely making her feel uncomfortable with his proximity, but she poked him jokingly with her finger and his concerns dissolved. He smirked at her deviously and then turned his head rubbing it against her arm.

She giggled before she put on a stern face. "Stop that, you're going to make me drop the laptop."

Darcy sat up straight and grinned. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to rectify the mess. Elise snorted at his efforts.

"What?" he demanded.

"Like that's going to make any difference," she replied sarcastically.

"I'm just trying to smooth it down."

"I hate to break it to you Darcy, but your hair wasn't exactly smooth to begin with."

He smiled sheepishly and ran his hands through it once more. "Maybe I should cut it short…"

"NO!" exclaimed Elise, a little too forcefully. His curls were beautiful. They reminded her of Paris of Troy. She herself had been somewhat tempted to run her hands through them a few minutes earlier.

He looked at her strangely. "Why not?"

Trying to quickly come up with a valid reason for her loud objection, she hesitated before responding. "Well… short hair will draw more attention to your ears."

"My ears…?" he repeated to himself, self-consciously raising his hand to touch the shell of his ear. He made a mental note to check in the mirror later exactly how much his ears stuck out. He was surprised at how offended he was by her criticism of his looks. Darcy had never thought himself unattractive before and he was a little bit hurt that Elise seemed to think him so.

A/N:

To all you lovely people reviewing: Thank you! Also, thanks to my beta who I harass endlessly. Did I fool you at the start of this chapter? Nyehehehe. (That was my evil laugh.) - N