Chapter Fourteen

The week since Charlotte's wedding had flown past a blur of activities that brought back nostalgia in full force. Lizzie was glad for the distractions. It kept her mind off of Will's letter and how terrible she felt about the whole George Wickham deal. She had always prided herself on being a good judge of character, but apparently she had fallen short in her estimation of George. She wasn't too quick to believe everything Will said; she wouldn't make the same mistake of trusting one man's opinion of the other again, but she had intentions of seeing him again in LA, and perhaps confronting him on the subject. She hadn't quite figured out the details, but something should happen.

Jane was feeling better, and in their shared childhood bedroom, in the hours before sleep, Jane confessed to Lizzie that she had almost entirely forgotten Charlie.

Lizzie wasn't going to use the letter to remind her, but she hated keeping things from her sister.

"Lizzie, dear, sit up straight," her mother chastised her as she hunched over a bowl of cereal. So far only her, her mother, and her younger sister Mary were awake, "you know slouching like that isn't good for your back."

Lizzie straightened herself, and gave Mary, who was sitting next to her, an exasperated smile.

Lizzie's father emerged from the hallway rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, "Good morning everybody," he said as he yawned.

"Good morning," Mary and Lizzie replied in unison as their father meandered to the coffee pot and poured himself a cup.

"Jane, Lizzie," Lydia was bored out of her mind and wanted to convince her sisters, who were leaving to return to California soon, to help aid her boredom, "let's go shopping! I am so bored, and you two could use some clothes for the upcoming spring season."

Lizzie and Jane readily agreed, tired of watching reruns of Friends on the television. Mary decided to stay at home, but Kitty agreed to follow them to the mall. The four of them piled into their parents' car and Lydia, claiming to know the fastest route to the mall, decided to drive.

Soon they found themselves mingling between racks of clothing and Lydia and Kitty had disappeared in the dressing rooms.

"So, did you safely manage not to beat up Charlotte's fiancé in Yellowstone?" Jane began, thumbing through the clearance tops.

Lizzie laughed, "Fortunately, yes, and I met some interesting people," she replied haphazardly.

"Who did you meet?" Jane asked, not really paying attention to their full conversation, as she pulled out an attractive purple blouse.

"Will's cousin, Richard, he's hilarious and he lives in Seattle and—"

"Will as in…Will Darcy?" Jane looked up at her sister, who immediately regretted the words she had said. Hadn't she promised not to mention Will to Jane. Jane took her silence as conformation, "why was Will Darcy at Charlotte's wedding?"

Might as well tell her the truth, "Apparently, Ricky's future employer is Will's aunt," Lizzie tried to make light of the situation and keep her sister's thoughts from Charlie, "but he was his usual anti-social self."

Jane nodded and resumed looking through the shirts, done with the present conversation she asked, "Are you looking forward to going home?"

"Yeah, a bit," Lizzie readily complied with her sister's change of subject, "I got an email about a new project were doing at work, it seems really cool and I'm going to get to do some field research that I'm really excited about," Lizzie gauged that her sister wasn't too interested in her upcoming research and quickly accommodated, "what about you?"

"I am anxious to get back to work," Jane replied honestly, "it feels like forever since I've done anything artistic and I really want to reconnect with that passion. I mean, I haven't painted since…well,"

"Yeah, I am looking forward to your artistic endeavors," Lizzie smiled at her sister, noting her hesitance.

Lydia and Kitty had returned with an onslaught of clothing, they asked for Jane and Lizzie opinion on what they should buy, and Lizzie thought the 'Remembering Charlie' crisis had been somewhat safely avoided.

"You know what," Lizzie turned toward her sister on the airplane back to LA, "I have actually missed California weather, I mean, I know that I am made for the cold, but sometimes it's nice to be able to wear shorts whenever I want."

Jane nodded, "I am looking forward to moving on with my life."

Lizzie smiled as they settled in for their flight.

Despite all she complained about work, Lizzie really enjoyed what she did. Her team decided to come up with an innovative agricultural technique that they wanted to try out. The idea was to take some creative inspiration from tide pools and level that into a new way to grow plants that required a substantial amount of water. This is where Lizzie's upcoming role as a field researcher came into play. Her team decided that she should head a bit south and do some in-depth analysis of tide pools in the area.

Lizzie, though enjoying being back in the city, was also excited to see the southern Californian coast. In fact, she had volunteered for the research and her group had agreed since they had other projects they were working on, and were willing to let her handle the more labor intensive work. And they had all been to San Clemente before, and were happy to give Lizzie the opportunity to see it.

"San Clemente?" she asked.

"Yeah, they have some great beaches down there,"

"Yeah, but why does it sound so familiar?" she racked her brain for any memories she had, she shrugged, not able to remember anything, "it's probably just the setting of a movie or book I read,"

Her team nodded and dispersed for lunch, and Lizzie sat quietly at her desk eating her sandwich before a thought dawned on her, "Crap," she said audibly, and quickly pulled open a search bar before looking up the population of San Clemente. "Okay, sixty-five thousand people, there's no way, I'll run into him."

A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the somewhat late update. And sorry for the short chapter, the next two will be kind of boring because I need to tie up some loose ends and set up for the next part of the story, which I hope will be sufficiently more exciting. And sorry for no Will Darcy this chapter, he'll return next chapter, I promise! Anyway, the whole tide pool agriculture thing is actually a project I did for an environmental science class one time, I have diagrams and everything. Also I haven't proofed yet so let me know about any errors. Please leave a comment to tell me what you think! And happy new year!