Chapter 10 – The Departure

Will walked down to breakfast the next morning with some trepidation. He and Caroline had agreed the night before to talk to Charles at breakfast about leaving Long Island and going back to the city. Caroline could barely contain her excitement, but Will dreaded the look on Charles' face; that defeated, yet compliant look that sometimes made Will feel like a bully. And today might be especially hard, for Will could tell that Charles more than liked Jane, he might even be a bit in love with her. But Will rallied his spirits and persuasive powers… Jane didn't love Charles, it was as simple as that. Besides, the sooner they got away from all the Bennets, the better they all would be.

"Ah Will, there you are," came Caroline's slinky voice. She trotted down the stairs until she fell in step with him. "Ready?" she asked.

"Ready as ever," Will replied.

Caroline chuckled and entwined her arm in his. "But Will, I have to ask you; why on Earth did I see George Wickham at that party last night? I thought…"

"I didn't speak to him," Will said coldly… he did not want to think about George right now. Thinking of George would lead to thinking of George with Eliza, which would lead to thinking of Eliza… and Will could not deal with that right now.

Caroline took her cue from Will's cold reply and fell silent. They found Charles already at the breakfast table, looking slightly hungover but upbeat.

"Good morning, you two!" he said, and then winced and put a finger to his temple.

Will and Caroline fixed themselves some breakfast, and while Will poured himself some coffee, he heard Caroline already jumping in.

"Charles, we need to talk," she said.

Will sighed, but finished stirring in his milk and went to sit down next to Caroline. Charles was looking back and forth between them, suddenly looking cornered and a bit anxious.

"Um, alright," he said.

"Charles… you've trusted my judgment on many, many things before, and I just ask that you trust it again," Will said slowly.

Charles lowered his eyes, nodding. He knew what was coming.

"Will and I think it best if we all went back to the city this week," Caroline said. Charles' eyebrows twitched.

"I'll be going back to work soon, and Caroline will be going back to London…"

"Will, this isn't about you going back to work, or Caroline going back home," Charles suddenly interjected. "It's about Jane, isn't it?"

"Mostly, yes," Will replied honestly. "Charles you're my friend, and I'm not going to let you stay here and get your heart broken again."

"What makes you so sure it will?"

"Charles, have you met her family?" Caroline said with a cackle, but fell silent at the look on Will's face.

"Charles, I've paid special attention to her when you're together, and she just… she just doesn't seem to feel anything but friendship towards you," Will said.

Charles opened his mouth, but shut it again. After a little while, he said, "I think I know what you mean."

Will had to forcefully remind himself that he was doing this for the right reasons, Jane did not feel anything for his friend, because at that moment, Charles looked the saddest Will had ever seen him.

"But…" Charles began, "what if I just wait it out? What if I just spend a little more time with her, and get her to love me?"

Inexplicably, Will's thoughts flicked to Eliza.

"Charles, that won't work," Caroline spoke for Will. "You've spent plenty of time with her, and she still obviously doesn't feel the same way."

Will nodded in agreement. Charles sighed, but nodded.

"I'll go start packing," he said, and then stood up and walked slowly out of the room.

"Thank God," Caroline said as soon as he was gone. "I don't think I could stand one more day in this dump."

Will also felt a surge of relief. The further he was from Eliza, the better. He couldn't wait for the day, which couldn't be far off, when he forgot about her completely.

Wednesday morning, Eliza woke to two equally distressing sounds. Downstairs, her mother was shrieking and crying at such a high-pitched level, Eliza had a sudden vision of all the windows blowing out. But the other sound demanded her immediate attention; it was the sound of much softer weeping coming from the upstairs study.

"Jane?" she asked quietly as she entered the study. Jane was sitting at the computer, and she wiped her eyes quickly when Eliza entered.

"Jane, what's wrong?" Eliza asked, pulling a chair next to her sister and hugging her immediately. Jane didn't answer at first, and Eliza's eyes went to the computer screen over her sister's shoulder.

Dear Jane,

I'm so sorry I couldn't stop by and say good-bye to you, but we left so quickly that there was barely time to pack! Will must go back to work soon, and so Charles and I decided to go back to the city with him. As I said to Charles, the quicker we leave, the less painful it will be. Besides, Will's sister Georgia is coming to visit soon, and if I'm not much mistaken, she's always had a soft spot for Charles! Of course, she's much younger than him, but to think that one day she could be my sister! How wonderful would that be?

So anyway, my dear Jane, I will miss you terribly. I hope we will keep in touch, even if we shall never see each other again. Au revoir!

Love your friend,

Caroline Bingley

"That bitch!" Eliza exclaimed, jerking away from Jane in anger.

"Lizzie," Jane said, furiously wiping away her tears, "don't say that."

Eliza groaned; never had she marveled more at her sister's inability to be angry.

"But Jane, she –"

"They've gone back to the city, that's all," Jane said.

"But-"

"I'm quite relieved that they're gone, really," Jane pressed on. "Now I can go back to work without feeling guilty for spending less time with them."

Her voice was calmer, but Eliza still noticed the pain in Jane's eyes. She couldn't blame Charles, not really, for letting his sister talk him into leaving. Sure, it would be nice if Charles had a little more backbone, Eliza thought with a snarl, but then he wouldn't be perfect for Jane. And he really was perfect for Jane... Eliza couldn't bear to think of the pain that Jane must be going through.

"Don't look at me like that, Lizzie," Jane suddenly said, yanking Eliza out of her thoughts. "After all, you never really liked them… and if you don't like them, then why should I?"

Eliza gaped for a moment. "Well..."

"Exactly," Jane said briskly, and then turned back to the computer and closed the e-mail.

"Well, I guess we'd better go downstairs," Eliza said, still struggling to cope with not only the news but her sister's reaction. "If I'm not mistaken, I believe Mom has heard the news."

This made Jane smile a little, and they left the safety of the study and wound their way downstairs to the living room, where Mrs. Bennet and her sister were sitting on the couch; well, Mrs. Phillips was sitting, at least… Mrs. Bennet was more sprawled over half the couch with her legs up on the coffee table. Lydia and Cate hovered over her, trying to give her a glass of wine.

"How could this happen? How could he leave?" she was moaning when Mrs. Bennet caught sight of Jane and Lizzie.

"Ah! There she is! How could you do it? How could you let him slip right through your fingers?" Mrs. Bennet charged Jane. Eliza could feel her arms clenching, but Jane just sighed and went over to her mother.

"He obviously didn't love me, Mom," she said in that lilting, soothing voice of hers.

Mrs. Bennet just let out a fresh moan. "Preposterous!" she exclaimed. "He was completely in love with you, he adored you! How could you just let him go?"

"I didn't know he was leaving, Mama," Jane said.

Mrs. Bennet took no notice of this. "And now he's gone, forever. How are you ever going to find another man like him?"

"I don't know," Jane said; Eliza knew she was the only one who realized that Jane was telling the truth.

"He was handsome, he was rich! Now you'll never marry!" Mrs. Bennet went on.

"Mom, Jane's only twenty-five," Eliza couldn't help but say.

"Actually, the average American woman does get married at twenty-five," Mary suddenly cut in.

"You see?" Mrs. Bennet screeched.

"Yeah, and then they get divorced at thirty!" Eliza said. "Wouldn't you rather Jane wait and find a man she truly loves and will stay married to?"

"That would have been Bingley!" Mrs. Bennet yelped. Eliza opened her mouth, but Jane gave her a look that said: Please don't aggravate this further. Eliza fell silent, mouthed an apology to her sister, and then scampered out of the room.

As she ate her breakfast, her iPod up way too loud as to drown out her mother's incessant moans, Eliza pondered the Bingleys' departure. She couldn't say she was sorry to see Caroline and Will Darcy go, as both of them had been nothing but downers since they arrived… Caroline with her insipid, snide remarks and Darcy with his arrogant, unsmiling face. But Charles…

Before she could finish her thought, however, her cell rang. Reaching over to the kitchen counter, she smiled when she saw that George was calling.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Hello, gorgeous," his smooth voice came through.

She chuckled. "Hello, George."

They had talked a few times on the phone since Sunday's party, flirting ever so slightly. Well, it was slight on Eliza's part, anyway.

"And how are you today?" he asked.

Eliza sighed. "Fine, I suppose."

"You don't sound so fine."

Eliza leaned back in her seat and put her feet up on the edge of the table.

"Well, our house is in a bit of an uproar. The Bingleys have decided to go back to the city," she explained.

There was a pause. "So?" George said, sounding confused.

"Well… it's complicated. But we'll probably never see them again," she said sadly (well, sadly for Charles and Jane's sake, anyway).

"Oh, I see," he said. "Does that mean our friend Darcy has left, too?"

Eliza smiled at his sarcasm. "Yes, it does."

She could almost hear his excitement over the phone. "Say, I'm busy for the next few days," he said, "but how about I come over on Monday, we'll do something?"

Eliza stabbed her eggs with her fork. "I can't."

"What?" George exclaimed. "Don't go breaking my heart, Bennet."

She laughed. "No, I really can't. My internship begins Monday."

"Oh." He genuinely sounded disappointed. "Well… how late will you be home?"

"Could be kind of late… sometimes I have to stay until five or six. And until I get home..."

"Well, how about lunch?"

She smiled. "Lunch would be great."

"Fantastic. Call me Monday morning and I'll come over."

"Alright. See you then," she said.

"Stay gorgeous," he replied.

She chuckled as she hung up. Lunch with George, getting away from Tom, Caroline Bingley was gone… suddenly her week was looking up.

A/N: I apologize for the long wait! I would blame it on school, but that's only partially true. The other part of it is that this chapter was kind of boring for me to write, and so it just took awhile to get through it. However, I do plan on posting the next chapter very, very soon, since this chapter was pretty darn short, for which I also apologize.

I'm actually quite happy that many of you found George almost too likeable… I wanted to make him like that because, even though we all know what he'll turn out to be, I wanted Eliza to be completely oblivious and I always thought that she should've found something fishy… and also note that Eliza does know that Darcy is honest, if nothing else, so that'll make it easier for her to believe. But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Just to clarify… there were a few questions; the Bennets are pretty darn WASPy and upper-class… Mr. Bennet is making a salary somewhere in the six-figure range. I actually went to the NY Times real estate page and went through some of the houses on Long Island – whew, are they nice (and also tres expensive!) Still, having five daughters would probably put a strain on any budget, no?

Also, there will be more Eliza-Darcy-ness before the whole Rosings bit (which won't actually be Rosings but you get the idea). The next few chapters will take a departure from the book, although there will be some familiar dialogue thrown in. You'll just have to wait and see!

And just on a random note, I've just watched the movie again (and again, and again), and decided that I actually do really like it. I think the first time I saw it I was so ready to not like Keira Knightley because I really don't like her in Pirates of the Caribbean, but she's grown on me. And did anyone see her dress at the Oscars? That was so gorgeous.

Anyway, sorry again for the delay and keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter. And review! I'm loving the 700+ hits this story is getting, but reviews make me even happier!

Love, luck, and flying Ringwraiths,

Emma the NazgulQueen