Disclaimer: Not falling for it. You can't make me say it again!
Author's Note: So we're in the home stretch. This marks the potential 3/4 mark. Thank you to everyone for sticking with me to get here. And I hope that you'll stick with until the end.
The Netherfield Effect.
12. Party Time.
Whoever said that being late was fashionable had never been to a party at Netherfield. Despite arriving an hour before most of the guests were to arrive, Lizzie and Jane weren't anywhere near the first ones there. There was over a dozen people mingling in groups when Lizzie finally coaxed herself inside.
Caroline had outdone herself with this party. She had already felt out of place, but seeing the decorations left her feeling smaller than she ever had before. Not that she would admit it, after all Lizzie wasn't one to allow herself to be intimidated easily.
She looked around in the moment before she was noticed. Bing was with Jane, his arm around her, introducing her to his classmates, another group of friends - probably other med students by the look of them - were by the bar. There was a third group, comprising mostly of what looked to be family. And there, away from everyone, was Caroline and Fitz and Darcy, with his back to the door.
Caroline noticed her first, and smiled brightly as she would with any guest, placing her hand on Darcy's arm as she moved by him to greet Lizzie. Darcy turned and looked at her and Lizzie, for her part, couldn't pay attention to anything but the look on his face, on how he seemed as uncertain as she was at how to greet her.
Then there was movement beside her and she was being hugged. She laughed as she pulled back, realizing that this must be Fitz.
"Lizzie B," he greeted, looking her over, "You are more beautiful than you appear on screen."
"How are you, Fitz?" Her voice was light, although tinged with regret. Even after knowing him through one phone call she had missed him.
"You two have met?" Darcy asked, coming upon them, eyebrow raised almost knowingly.
Lizzie and Fitz exchanged a guilty look. "I've never seen him before in my life," Lizzie assured him, "I would remember that hair."
"Well, not everyone is an internet celebrity." He looked to Darcy, "Did you know that there are meme's dedicated to this woman?"
Darcy smirked, enjoying the blush that rose to her cheeks. "No, I did not."
Lizzie avoided his eye, deciding instead to lean towards Fitz, already feeling more at ease with having him around, "Does he even know what a meme is?"
"Yes, I think so. But, unless you want to start a debate over syntax, don't ask his opinion of demotivational posters."
She laughed, well believing his possible reaction to the often contradictorily named internet movement. "Gotcha."
"Are you two are quite done," Darcy interjected, hands buried in his pockets, "Or am I going to continue to be the butt of your jokes for the remainder of the evening?"
"Come on, Darcy," Caroline put in with a frown, sliding her arm through his, "We should collect my brother, more family has just arrived."
"Well she's a subtle as a brick to the face," Fitz muttered, watching them leave. "Think she could throw herself at him any more?"
Lizzie shrugged, not liking the jealousy she felt as she watched the other woman link arms with Darcy as though she belonged there. "Well, she could try it without wearing clothes. Do you suppose she'll let him out of her sights any time soon?"
He looked like he thought about it for a few seconds before shaking his head. "I think we have time for a drink. Or two. After you..."
~*~LBD~*~
"So your friend actually works for Collins and Collins?" Fitz asked with a laugh. They had spent the majority of the party hidden away in the corner of the room, drinking and talking about their lives and the people in them. While not how she usually spent her evenings, she quickly found herself enjoying this one more than she had first believed she would.
"You know it?"
"Oh yeah. In fact, I'll be spending a month there very soon. Darcy's aunt is the backer."
"Wait, Darcy's aunt is the Ms. de Bourgh I've heard so much about?"
"The one and only. Wait, wasn't your friend - Charlotte - finishing grad school with you?"
Lizzie frowned into her drink and nodded. "Yeah, she gave it up for this job."
"Ouch..." he said, feeling the pain of the choice that Charlotte would have had to made. Their conversation fell silent, however, when he noticed Darcy standing near them. "Hey, you made it out alive. Lizzie owes me five bucks. She said that you would have had to chew off your arm to escape Caroline."
Darcy didn't make a reply. He was too caught up in looking at Lizzie, too caught up in having her look at him while she struggled to remember to breath. How he could look at someone like that, with such intensity, was beyond her. It shouldn't be legal. Before it made her uncomfortable thinking that he was looking for faults and defects. Now it made her uncomfortable for reasons she was still struggling to come to terms with.
Fitz cleared his throat, "And that's my cue to check out the local eye candy. I'll check on you two later."
Lizzie blushed, "Hi."
"Would you like to dance?"
Trying to hide her smile she nodded, following him to the dancefloor, wondering which type of dancing she should be expecting - the dancing from the day spent at the vineyard, or the dancing from the wedding.
It was somewhere in between.
"How is Charlotte settling into her new role at Collins and Collins?" He asked after clearing his throat. He was looking past her. He knew had to if he had any chance to actually converse with her successfully.
For her part, she was taken aback. Of all the things they had to talk about he had chosen to talk about Charlotte instead? "I actually don't know. We haven't spoken since she left."
"That must be difficult for both of you. Especially considering how much you would have needed her as of late."
She paused in her step, "You still watch my videos?"
He cleared his throat, "My sister has been persistent in keeping me updated on your goings on. I believe she is a fan of yours."
"I'm flattered. And you're right, I've really missed not having her around, but I can't be okay with her decision."
He gave her a half shrug, finding himself more comfortable with her, talking to her. That they were very possibly on the brink of a sparring match felt like old times. "And yet it was her decision to make."
She stared at him for a moment, surprised at his comment, before shaking her head. She should have known he would take such a position. "Tell me something, honestly?"
"Of course."
"As a businessman, what do you think of her choice? Was it sound?"
He thought it over, weighing his words before he said them. At one time she would have found it annoying and a sign that he didn't think she was worth speaking earnestly with, that he had to censor himself. Now, she knew that it was the opposite, and she hoped it meant that she was worth the time and effort of an honest answer. He wouldn't dumb things down or sugar coat them. For that, she was grateful.
"While I understand the want to continue her degree, especially considering how little time left she had, I understand that life can sometimes get in the way of the plans that we make for ourselves and we must adapt. She can still finish her degree in time and she is gaining vital experience and contacts in the field while benefiting from joining a financially sound company while still in development. She is, in a way, building it into something that she, too, can be proud of.
"If she is successful and even if she does not manage to complete her degree, I feel that future employers would look upon her as a vital asset to their cooperation. I cannot imagine that Collins and Collins is an end point for her in her career. I feel that it is more likely just the beginning of what I can only believe is a bright future in the industry."
She was silent as she listened to him, allowing him to move her about the dance floor without attending to her own steps until she found them standing still and the music silent.
"It is what we do with what is in front of us that makes us who we are; not what we do not do."
"Lizzie..." Jane said coming between them with an apologetic expression upon her worried face, "I need your help."
"Sure, what is it?"
"Some of Bing's college friends have been feeding Lydia alcohol. She's steadily approaching her pass out point. And mom's in the other room..."
"Being mom," she sighed, her own anxiety at the possible disaster before them growing. "Okay, this is okay. It is fine. We got this. After all, this is why we have backup plans."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Darcy asked, looking between the pair.
She froze, her mouth impersonating a goldfish's as she tried to think of how best to react to his offer. This was just what Lizzie had been afraid of: Darcy seeing the embarrassment that was her family.
"Can you help me bring her outside?" Jane asked, glancing between the pair before focusing on her sister, "You get mom. We'll meet you by the car."
~*~LBD~*~
"Mom," Lizzie greeted, pulling her away from where she was about to go into the room where Bing's peers were. The one place Lizzie's mom should never be, "I need you to take Lydia home. Someone's been feeding her booze."
"Now, Elizabeth, I am sure that your sister is just fine. There is no need for me to..."
"Mom, Jane and I have both been drinking and we can't drive her home. If she makes a scene in front of Bing, what will that say about Jane?"
Her mother paused as to think about the possibility of damage to Jane's reputation by Lydia making a scene and Lizzie knew she almost had her. She just needed to add the icing onto the cake, "And Darcy..."
"What about that unpleasant man, Lizzie?"
"Well, he's actually helping Jane now. He's bringing Lydia outside. Just consider what might happen if he tells his friend..."
"Enough said. I'll get the car."
~*~LBD~*~
Lizzie exhaled deeply as she watched her mother drive her sister home. It wasn't until the car was out of sight that she focused on the man that still stood behind her. When Lizzie and her mother came out of the house, he had been carrying Lydia around to meet them, Jane following with her baby sister's shoes and purse.
"I don't suppose your sister's ever done something like that?" She asked, turning to look at him. She was embarrassed that he had seen that, and also embarrassed that her mother barely thanked him for helping Lydia into the car.
"Not that I am aware, although it is more likely that she has not told me about it than her never having done it at all. I was that age once, after all."
She smiled at him, the air between them wavering between comfortable and awkward, "I'm not sure I believe that."
"Then Fitz is a better friend than I have given him credit for. Those are usually his favourite stories to tell." He looked her over a moment before both became aware that there were as many people starting to mill about outside as in. It was getting late, and he knew that soob she would have to go home. "Shall we go somewhere a little more quiet?"
"I'd like that."
~*~LBD~*~
She smirked shyly when he led her to his room. If it had been anyone else she would have immediately thought they were putting the moves on her. That it was Darcy, she was convinced that he probably wouldn't think of the possible connotations for his choice of room until too late.
At the sight of his blush when he shut the door, she knew that he was now aware of them.
How had she never noticed how cute he was when he was flustered?
"So, how many of Bing's friends have come from out of town?"
"Most, I believe. A large number have driven from LA and are driving back tonight."
"They're not staying at the Hotel Netherfield?"
"The inn is full, actually. Between your sister's permanent room, Fitz and myself, there are enough of his family here to make me wish that I had booked a hotel."
She smirked, walking around his desk, glad for the distance between them. "Not big on company?"
"Bing's family is very persistent in certain areas of conversation."
"Oh? As in the areas concerning Caroline and yourself?" She had moved closer to his bed, nervous energy making her unsure of what she should do or say or even sit. She did note as she ran her fingers over the soft spread covering the mattress both the comfort of the bed and the uneasiness that washed over him with her action. It made her glad that she wasn't alone in feeling uneasy. "Why don't you just tell her that you don't like her? Or do you like her?" She added quickly, the possibility never having occurred to her before.
His lips smirked before he could stop them. She didn't seem to enjoy that possibility. "No. While I do enjoy her company, in smaller doses, that is as far as my interest in her goes. She is the sibling of my best friend, and as such is a necessary evil." He stopped. "I should not have said that."
She tried not to laugh. "Now who is being judgmental? It's a good thing my opinion of her was already coloured."
He was staring at her again. It amazed her that it no longer bothered her as it once did. When he looked at her like that she used to feel small, now it made her feel almost larger than life, as though she were the only person in the room.
Her eyes met his, and she found herself moving towards him, meeting him in the middle of the room. There was a lot that she wanted to tell him. Even more that she felt the need to ask. But the connection between her thoughts and her mouth seemed to be experiencing technical difficulties, and she didn't know what to say.
Almost at the same time their phones chirped. She smiled with relief as they both looked at their own interruption.
"Jane."
"Fitz."
"She says party is dying down. Most people are leaving and that she's staying here tonight. She wants to know if I'm okay to make it home."
He cleared his throat, feeling the heat rise over the collar of his shirt, glad for the dim light in the room. "Fitz's message is better left unrepeated in mixed company."
She laughed even as she typed her reply to Jane, assuring her that she would be fine. "Wishing you luck?"
"Let us leave it with him being aware of where you currently are."
"Ah, wishing you lucky," she allowed, putting her phone away. "He's a good guy, that Fitz. Strange, but good."
"He is. I cannot picture my life without him. Tell me... Y-" He paused, trying to find the right words, "You called him, didn't you?" His tone tried not to sound hurt, and mostly succeeded. "It is alright if you did. After all, I would not have provided the number if I had felt otherwise."
"I did call him," she confessed, not able to look at him. "I'm sorry, I just..."
"I understand," he told her, moving to step back and put space between them.
She grabbed his forearm quickly, willing him not to leave, not to misunderstand her as she had him. "Wait, no. I don't think you do."
His back straightened and muscles tightened at the feel on her hand against his skin. "Really, Lizzie. There is no need to explain. I am grateful for the time we spent together and that you were able to see through Wickham's guise before your feelings were put at risk. And if you still do not think well of me then there is nothing else I can do to convince you otherwise."
"Kiss me," she told him, surprising them both with the words. She hadn't meant to say the thing that she had been avoiding thinking since coming into his room - that she had wanted him to kiss her. That was how she had known that things were George wasn't right. There had been nothing there behind his kiss. Now, faced with Darcy, and with all the words that she wasn't sure were right to say... this just seemed easier.
"What?"
"You could kiss me?"
Slowly, as if not believing her request real, he stepped forward, his hand nervously going to the nape of her neck, guiding her forward to meet him halfway in a kiss that he still didn't believe was real, even as her lips met his.
And she knew. Even as the chaste brushing of his lips against her quickly became anything but, and she was on the tips of her toes, her hands in his hair and around his tie, pulling him closer, and his arms were the only things keeping her in this world... all the passion that had filled their sparring matches being replayed through their lips. When the panic of her situation, of the truth of the potential strength of her emotions, began to flutter in her chest she broke the kiss and moved away from him as though she had been burned.
"I shouldn't be here." She told him, trying to steady her heart rate and the quivering in her legs. "I need to go home, I think."
He looked lost and confused, not that she could blame him. Hell, she was confused and she had some idea what was going on with her. All Darcy understood was that the woman he cared about had asked him to kiss her, had responded to him kissing her, had seemed to really enjoy him kissing her, and then backed away from him as though it was the last thing in the world she actually wanted.
He swallowed a few times, trying to adjust his thoughts enough to catch up with the turn of events. "D- did you need a drive?"
She shook her head, wanting to laugh even though she knew it wasn't the time. Only Darcy would offer her a drive after something like that. "No, we have a car here. And it's not far, I could even walk."
"I'm not letting you walk home." His tone left her without a doubt he would fight her on that no matter what she could say. "Why don't you stay here?" Her eyebrow rose as his furrowed, not appreciating the amusement she found in the situation. "I meant in the house. With your sister, perhaps, or you could take my room and I will..."
"I'm not going to kick you out of your bed, Darcy." She went back to the desk, having left her sweater on the smooth wooden surface in hurried movements, not daring to look up at him as she smoothed her skirt, wishing she could soothe her own thoughts and doubts as easily.
"Lizzie," he said softly, his tone stilling the raging uncertainty within her, and bringing her back to that moment. She turned and looked at him. They were both standing in the room, between them was the large bed that had turned into the elephant in the room. He sighed. "Please tell me what's wrong. Did I...?"
"It's too fast."
He smiled, a warm, genuine smile the likes of which she had never seen from him. While nothing with her was going the way he had wanted from the first moment they met, at least she wasn't telling him no. "Then take it slow." He sat on the edge of the bed, and gestured for her to do the same. "Please, Lizzie, I would be happy to just continue our conversation."
It would be a lie to say that Lizzie felt better and that the rest of the evening past without any awkwardness. Neither of them said anything that was earth shattering or all important. They didn't broach the topic that both felt the desperate need to talk about - them. What was happening between them. Because as she fell asleep on his bed, beside him, she knew that things would never truly be easy, and she would never be happy until she knew that she wasn't the only one who was on the fast track to falling in love.
~*~TBC~*~