I'm afraid that I must admit this next chapter is, once again, heavy on plot and light on relationships. I won't apologize because this is actually going somewhere, but I know a lot of you get grumpy with me when there's not enough kissing, so I figured I'd be upfront with the facts.

Next week should please you though (assuming it can come out next week...).

A note about next week's chapter: it managed to go far enough that I fear the eff-eff-dot-net terms of service (the ones that say that a story can't be rated Mature for Adults), so I am breaking it up. Here on fanfiction, I will be posting most of the chapter, and on Archive of our Own, I will be posting the whole thing. (Don't worry, I'll go over this again when it happens.) If you want to read all of the sexy bits, you'll have to do so on archive. I have a different name over there, but the story doesn't, so you should be able to search for it.

I believe that's all I have to say about this week. Hope everyone's week has been better than mine!

ETH316: Ethics and Social Responsibility

Rosemary stood around the corner at the end of the hallway from their Economics classroom. As she waited, she closed her eyes and tried to picture Elizabeth's flashcards in her mind's eye. They'd run through them five times, just the night before.

It annoyed her- she could memorize a script or piece of prose in three readings, quickly learning the character's speech style and meaning and motivations. The same process didn't work with facts however.

Elizabeth had no such problems. Faith had held up the cards and Elizabeth had immediately had every answer every time.

"I can't sing, dance, or act," she'd said, as though that had helped in the moment. "And you should ask Faith about the year I had to take both physics and biology in high school."

Faith had grinned. "It's always fun to have something that you can tutor your smartest friend in."

Elizabeth did have the soul of a teacher and had tirelessly walked Rosemary through the cards over and over and over. Rosemary thought she would probably pass her midterm, and if she did, she would kneel and kiss Elizabeth's pink running shoes.

Rosemary opened her eyes at the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway and smiled to see Lee, laden with books and papers, looking adorably distracted.

He was apparently so distracted that he didn't notice her until she stepped out in front of him, blocking his path to the classroom.

"Rosemary?" He said, blinking as though just waking. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you, of course," she said, stepping up to him and smiling up into his eyes.

Lee blushed and stepped back from her, putting an annoyingly appropriate distance between them.

Rosemary sighed. Lee had proven himself willing to gently nudge the rules, but not to truly push them. The closest he'd come was that visit they'd all made to Elizabeth's family in September. Even when he'd invited her to dinner at his apartment, he'd been careful only to talk about her paper and the class. He would only chat about real life if they were in public and he couldn't make a move- when they were in private, he was careful never to cross the boundaries.

It was frustrating to no end. Rosemary knew men, and she would have staked all the money in Elizabeth's trust fund that Lee was interested in her right back, but he needed the GA position, and, if she listened to the logical voice in her head that sounded more like Elizabeth every day, Rosemary had to admit that she couldn't afford to have her grade in Economics questioned because she'd been dating the GA. It was terrible though, because she really liked Lee.

"Rosemary?" Lee said suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. "Are you busy tonight?"

Rosemary was startled- it was as though he'd been reading her mind.

"Tonight? Not really, why?" She asked, wondering if he was finally making his move.

Lee shook his head. "I'm not supposed to talk about one student's grades with another student but… well… Gowan gave me the papers to submit grades on, and they're being handed back tonight and… I think Elizabeth is going to need a friend tonight."

~?~?~?~?~

Elizabeth rolled her eyes as she walked across the courtyard with her phone pressed to her ear.

"Have you been watching Masterpiece Theatre again, Mom?" She asked. "Nobody's called another person a 'suitor' in about a hundred years, and 'paying court' in five hundred. Jack's my boyfriend."

She stopped and leaned against a wall outside of her class building and listened for a few minutes.

"Prospects, Mother? What century is this? He's in college and going to get a job, and I'm in college and going to get a job. We're not entrants into the Westminster dog show, I don't need to know his pedigree. Jack is a good man and I love him."

Another moment of listening, which Elizabeth interrupted with an exasperated snort.

"I have known him less than two months! We're not talking about marriage. Right now, we're mostly talking about whether our final schedules will let us see the new Star Wars movie before school lets out."

Elizabeth frowned at what her mother said on the other end of the line.

"Mom, we're in the middle of midterms, none of us have thought as far ahead as Halloween, much less Thanksgiving. Besides, I'm sure Jack misses his mom and brother and would much rather go home than come spend it with us."

"No, I-" she said, then stopped.

"I didn't say-" she tried again, then stopped, looking annoyed.

Finally, after another long minute of listening, where Elizabeth's face grew tighter and tighter, she spoke too loudly into her phone, as though cutting off a tirade.

"Mom, I'm going to be late for my test, I have to let you go. We can talk about this later, okay? I'll call again, promise. Okay? Bye. No, bye, Mom. I have to go! Goodbye!"

She hit the button on her phone with more force than necessary and sighed as she leaned back against the red brick wall of the class building.

"Sounds dramatic," Jack said, stepping up and joining Elizabeth against the wall. He'd been walking with her from the library to class when her mother had called. Elizabeth's half of the conversation had been fascinating, though he was somewhat glad he hadn't heard her mom's. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Sort out two-hundred years of American aristocratic snobbery?" Elizabeth asked without bothering to open her eyes.

"Hmm, the American aristocracy has its roots in the British aristocracy, and I don't think even I have the tenacity for digging that out," Jack said, making Elizabeth chuckle.

"Even if you could, it probably couldn't convince my mother that I'm not in college to get married and become some objet d'art who throws very nice, high-society parties and sits on the board of at least three charities that pay their CEOs seven times more than they give out in actual charitable works."

"At least she's feeling well enough to question your life choices," Jack said with a shrug.

Elizabeth smiled. "Yes, there is that. My life was quieter when she was sick, but I wouldn't trade."

"That's because you're a better person than most," Jack said, reaching out and stroking her arm. "But you're going to be a better person than most who has missed her Econ final if we don't get in to class right now."

Elizabeth nodded and pushed off the wall to head in to class, Jack falling into step beside her.

"You'll do great," he said, glancing over to see her staring at the ground, a small furrow between her brows. "You're smarter than anyone I know."

Elizabeth looked up, face clearing quickly, and smiled at him.

"Oh, I'm not worried about the test."

"No?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

Elizabeth shook her head, but not in negation. "Okay, I'm worried about the test because that's what I do: I worry about my grades. But I was actually thinking about what my mom said. I can't believe she'd be so…"

Jack didn't force her to find a word. "She's 50 miles away, and you're an adult. She can't do a damned thing about anything you do," he said, reaching for her hand and squeezing comfortingly.

"Are you saying it doesn't bother you?" Elizabeth asked, skeptically.

"Nope," Jack said, "it bothers me plenty, but I can't do anything about her archaic views, can I? Besides that, she kind of has a point: stick with me and you'll never go hungry, but you'll never live in a castle either."

"I don't want a castle," Elizabeth said, leaning against his shoulder as they turned into their Econ classroom. "They tend to be drafty."

"The annoying part of that is that I'm pretty sure you're speaking from experience," Jack said, moving aside as they reached their row to allow Elizabeth to take the seat beside Rosemary who had beat them there.

Elizabeth just smiled knowingly as she pulled three test books from her bag and handed them around.

~?~?~?~?~

Elizabeth glanced up from her test paper at the stack of pages waiting face-down on the corner of her desk.

Part of her wanted to look, but she resisted, though the not-knowing roiled through her stomach like nausea.

If it was a good grade, that would be fine. She'd earned a lot of A's in her life, and she knew how to handle it.

If, however, it was a bad grade, she would never be able to finish her test. As much as she wanted to believe that Professor Gowan would never mark her down for disagreeing with him, Lee had seemed very sure, and Elizabeth knew Lee much better than she knew Gowan.

She tore her eyes away and returned to the question on her test- the last one, though it was six parts.

"Eric receives utility from days spent traveling on vacation domestically (D) and days spent traveling in a foreign country (F) as given by the utility U(D,F)=DF. The price of a day spent traveling domestically is $160 and in a foreign country $200. Eric's annual budget for traveling is $8000."

Ugh, Elizabeth thought tiredly, math.

She started to carefully write out the problem, forcing her mind into numerical theory. It was just like Gowan to throw a series of calculations at the end of a test that had been predominantly essay work. Elizabeth thought it was totally unfair- numbers took a whole different type of thought, and switching from one to another was hard!

She was glad nobody was timing how long it took her to do the relatively simple arithmetic, but she finished eventually and, glancing up, was pretty sure she was still the first done.

Elizabeth sat straight in her chair to ease her tense back, and flipped her test book back to the first page and began to read her own answers. She could almost hear Rosemary rolling her eyes, but she'd done it on every test she'd ever taken, and she'd be damned if she stopped now.

Her handwriting started out neat, but deteriorated quickly as her mind had started working faster than her hand, which had also grown more tired. She thought it stayed legible to the end- she was pretty sure most teachers had seen worse- and nodded at the last questions again. She was done.

"I'll wait for you in the courtyard," Elizabeth whispered as she gathered her papers and bag and passed Jack's desk. His golden head nodded and she smiled as she walked up the center aisle to Gowan's desk where she set her test book.

Professor Gowan didn't look up from his writing, and Elizabeth couldn't decide if he didn't want to look at her specifically, or if it was his usual disinterest in the students he taught.

"See you next week, Professor," Elizabeth whispered, as she turned away. He didn't respond.

As she walked toward the door out of the classroom, Elizabeth took a long, deep breath and finally looked at the grade on the paper in her hands.

~?~?~?~?~

Lee was waiting at the door of the classroom and could see the moment Elizabeth's paper grade hit her. Her rose-petal cheeks went suddenly white, and her blue eyes went wide. Her step faltered, but she kept going. Her face remained pale but it was blank and calm by the time she reached the door.

"Elizabeth-" Lee whispered as she passed, but she ignored him and left the classroom.

~?~?~?~?~

The classroom door slammed and Jack glanced up from his papers in surprise. Elizabeth was thoughtful and would normally be careful with the door, but something had apparently distracted her.

Jack glanced over at Rosemary, who was looking back over her shoulder at the door that Elizabeth had left through, a crease on her brow. Jack turned to look back as well, finding Lee standing, face upset.

Jack turned back to his test, bumping his research paper as he did. He wondered if Gowan had really had the temerity to fail Elizabeth, and what he, Jack, would do if he had.

~?~?~?~?~

Elizabeth's blood rushed in her ears drowning out everything but her own thoughts, which were confusing in the extreme.

She had never gotten a C before in her life.

Honestly, was a C really so bad?

She'd worked her tail off on that paper!

Maybe it wasn't as good as she'd thought it was- as well-written, or well-argued.

Lee had assured her it was one of the best papers he'd read.

Did Lee really know?

What was she going to do?

The tips of her fingers were cold and buzzing, as though all of her blood had retreated to her core and brain, protecting her. There was a sensible voice in her head which said that she was overreacting to a grade, but Elizabeth had always put far more academic pressure on herself than was reasonable.

"Elizabeth Thatcher," the voice in her head- Rosemary's voice- said, "you stop this self-pity, right now!"

"Elizabeth, stop!"

Elizabeth stopped and turned to find the real Rosemary and Jack both breathing hard and jogging to catch up with her.

"You said you'd wait," Jack accused, once they'd met her.

Rosemary waved this off, shooting straight to the heart of the issue. "What did you get on your paper, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth took a deep breath to say aloud what she hadn't wanted to acknowledge as real. "A C."

She was vaguely aware of how well Rosemary and Jack knew her, and how much they loved her, because they both reacted in horror rather than asking her what the hell her problem was.

"That is completely unfair!" Rosemary cried, seizing the bit between her teeth as she always did. "It's a completely egregious miscarriage of justice. Your paper should have set the curve!"

"You don't know that, Rosie-" Elizabeth began, only to be cut off.

"Lee said that yours was the best paper he's ever read, and he read most of the class' papers. Lee's not stupid, Elizabeth. If he said it was good, then it was good!"

Rosemary grabbed Elizabeth's arm and began to pull her up the road toward the not-too-distant neon that marked Abigail's cafe.

"Come on, Elizabeth. I'm buying you a brownie sundae, and we're going to plan our next move."

As she continued on in the wake of Hurricane Rosie, Elizabeth glanced behind them to find Jack, smiling and shaking his head at the two girls, and following behind them without comment.

~?~?~?~?~

Elizabeth tapped on the unfamiliar office door. Rosemary had assured her it was the right one, and it had taken all of Elizabeth's powers of persuasion to keep her friend from joining her on this quest.

There was no answer, so Elizabeth knocked more forcefully. The receptionist for the Economics department had said he was in his office.

The door in front of Elizabeth opened, and she found herself eye-to-eye with Professor Gowan. Elizabeth hadn't realized he was so short- he couldn't be any taller than her own five-foot nine.

"Professor Gowan-" she said in surprise, only to be cut off.

"I don't offer office hours," he said simply, and moved to close the door.

Elizabeth caught it with her hand. "Professor, I wanted to discuss my research paper with you, actually."

"I don't discuss grades either," Gowan said, and tried to close the door again.

Elizabeth had it in hand now, however, and she was several years younger than Gowan.

"Professor, I think you need to reconsider mine," she said- that line had been a compromise between her and Rosemary. Rosie had thought she should demand he change her grade, and Elizabeth had wanted to ask him if he thought he might have made a mistake.

Gowan sighed and moved away from the door, apparently consigning her to the "inevitable annoyance" part of his day. He said nothing, but walked to his desk and sat down.

Elizabeth took this as an invitation and stepped inside the office and began to speak.

"Professor," she said, trying to remember everything Rosemary had drilled into her the previous night- if only she could act! "Professor, I worked very hard on my paper and I think that you should consider giving me a grade higher than a C."

"If I gave you a C, you deserved a C," Gowan said simply. "If you worked very hard for that C, perhaps you should be proud of yourself. Nothing wrong with a C."

"I don't think you understand, sir," Elizabeth said, beginning to get flustered. "I don't get C's. I have never gotten such a low grade in my life!"

"Perhaps you didn't understand that university coursework would be more difficult than the work you did in high school," Gowan said, giving Elizabeth a sickly smile. "Not everyone is cut out for higher education my dear."

Elizabeth saw red. Her spine straightened and her eyes flashed and she could practically feel sparks flying from the ends of her curly hair.

"Professor Gowan," she said, articulating carefully, "I have been preparing for my university career since I was seven years old. If anyone is cut out for this school, it is me. You, on the other hand, have completely dismissed my research paper because my conclusions disagree with yours."

"Oh, I know who you are now, the socialist, is that right?" Gowan's patronizing smile had not left. "Perhaps you worked hard on that paper- it was nearly 1000 words longer than requested- but your conclusions were invalid. Had you worked harder or used more reputable sources, you would not have come to such an erroneous conclusion. Your writing is good, next time just take more care with your scholarship."

"Professor Gowan, I-"

"Miss Thatcher," Gowan said, voice suddenly going dangerous, "your father may be a major donor to this school, but that does not give you the authority to question my teaching or my grades. If you do not stop wasting my time and leave this office this moment, I will update your paper's grade to an F. Do I make myself clear."

Elizabeth froze. Gowan had found the chink in her armor- she could not stand the thought of failure. The very thought nearly sent her into a panic.

"Yes professor," she whispered, then turned on her heel and fled his office before he could see her start to cry.