Previously: Mr Bennet issues an ultimatum to Elise, who decides to move out of the family home. Jane leaves to return to her teaching job in China.
14
Sunlight streamed through the large French windows and fell upon the face of a heavily slumbering man. At first, he slept in, but as the sun rose higher on the sky and shone brighter on his skin, the man began to stir.
Darcy flailed about, only very slightly awake, trying to block out the unwelcome rays. In doing so, he managed to bang his elbow against the wooden headboard of his bed. He growled in annoyance and sat up, squinting. He shielded his eyes from the sun with his hand and looked at the clock beside his bed. Nine o'clock was none too early, but having only gone to sleep some 5 hours prior, he was unwilling to wake up. He flopped back down on his bed theatrically, rolled onto his front and pulled the duvet over his head.
Try as he might, he couldn't seem to get back to sleep, even though the pain in head was telling him he could do with some more. The bright sun and the sound of movement from the next room was not helping. It sounded to Darcy like Charlie was deliberately walking into their furniture, what with all the bangs and curses he was hearing. He grizzled as he heard something fall and Charlie yet out a rather effeminate yelp, and thumped his headboard in annoyance. It turned out that that was a rather silly thing to do, as it seemed the hard wood had hurt him more than he had hurt it.
There was a loud rap on Darcy's door. Darcy flung the duvet off himself and sat up, ready to tell Bingley to sod off, but before he could manage, his friend had barged in and begun speaking.
"Dude, do you have any duct tape? Or masking tape? Just any tape really?"
"No." Darcy didn't bother to elaborate further, but rather squinted at Bingley and flopped back down on the bed, pulling his pillow over his head. Charles, the harmless soul that he was, took no offence whatsoever. He muttered something about asking Elise and then closed the door gently returning to the danger zone that was his room.
Darcy was just drifting back to sleep again when he heard the doorbell ring loudly. He then heard some muffled banging and cursing as Charlie rushed to the door, stumbling over his packing over the way. He pulled his pillow down more tightly, ignoring the fact that he was on the verge of suffocation in his quest for more sleep.
"Hey Charlie!" Elise greeted chirpily as Charles opened the door to her. "I brought you something to help with the packing," she announced, handing him a large roll of duct tape, a pair of scissors, a roll of bin bags and couple of markers. He accepted the materials with both gratitude and relief. He turned around to move back inside, and Elise followed him, raising her eyebrows at the clutter and nimbly managing to avoid bruising her shins. "It's weird to think you're going to be disappearing soon. Do you know where your next job is?"
"Uh, gosh it'll be really far away from here actually," Charles responded, not wanting to lie, but unable to admit the truth.
"Wow, so like the other side of the country then?"
"Feels more like the other side of the world!"
Elise chuckled, amused at what she thought was exaggeration. Feeling awkward, Charles turned and began shuffling things about. Elise realised she was getting in the way and deemed it time to admit her actual purpose in visiting.
"Um... Is Darcy around by any chance?" she asked, blushing slightly at the memory of him gently waking her and helping her out the limo when they had arrived home the night before.
Charles raised his eyebrows at her heightened colour, but quickly forgot to think more about it when he noticed his boots over Elise's shoulder, waiting to be packed away. "Uh, he's in his room, I think."
Elise's moved in that direction, and just as Charles heard the click of her opening the door, he recalled Darcy's less than pleasant mood a few moments too late.
"GOOD LORD-" Darcy began, sitting up, ready to bite Charlie's head off, when he notice the much more petite figure of Elise is his doorway. She had jumped back in shock at his outburst. "Oh, sorry. I thought you were Bingley," Darcy said, grumbling. Elise didn't move, not wanting him to shout again. Darcy realised he wasn't going to be getting any more sleep but not yet ready to leave bed, he decided it would be better to just call her over. "Come in," he said, waving her over. "Sorry, I'm just a little bit pooped after being up so late last night."
"Yeah, that's pretty understandable. I think I'm going to need a nap later on," Elise agreed as she entered his room. She scanned the vicinity for somewhere to sit, but the one chair in his room was piled with clothes, so she just approached the end of his bed and stood there uncomfortably.
"Are you heading out?" Darcy asked. Elise shook her head. "Oh, what's up, then? Sit down," he demanded, patting the other side of his bed. She took his offer and slipped off her shoes before sitting cross-legged beside him. As she did so, she suddenly registered his lack of a shirt, and quickly looked him over appreciatively, unable to resist and hoping he didn't notice.
He did.
Holding back a smirk, he schooled his expression so that when her eyes were on his face once more, he was looking at her expectantly.
"We're moving out," Elise announced.
"Huh?" Darcy asked, his eyebrows moving together.
"Very long story short," Elise said, not wanting to bring up her supposed engagement to Nicoll, "I've decided I want to live in my own place. Spread my wings and all that jazz."
"Is everything ok?" Darcy asked, slightly concerned at what seemed like a very sudden decision.
"What? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine. It's just that I feel a need for my own space, and now that Jen's gone I guess there's less of a pull to be at home and stuff."
Darcy nodded understandingly. "Fair enough. Does this mean we're going to have to go apartment hunting again?"
Recalling his incessant questioning and his general finickiness, Elise shook her head quite aggressively. "Ugh, I really don't think I want to deal with all that again. This is only going for be rented for a few months, so I don't think we need to be quite so..." she hesitated, trying to come up with a term that didn't sound too negative, "...picky. I looked up a few online and I found one that seems to be going for a really good price that's not too far from here. I thought I'd just show it to you quickly."
"Sounds good."
"Er, do you have a laptop?"
Darcy nodded. He finally removed himself from bed and turned to retrieve it from on top of the desk. Elise admired the pleasant view of his back dimples while he was faced away from her. Darcy sat back down on the bed, placing his laptop on his thighs and stretching his feet out in front of him. He pressed the power button, as watched the screen returned to life. His eyes widened slightly as he took in the page in front of him and Elise moved closer to look at this screen, narrowly missing seeing what ever had startled him as he had just closed the window. It had looked like a Facebook page to her, but she hadn't managed to catch whose.
Darcy breathed a small sigh of relief, glad she had not caught him Facebook stalking her.
He opened up a new tab and passed her the laptop. "Here you go," he said, placing it on her lap.
"Thanks."
Darcy watched as she opened up an estate agents website and typed into it, bringing up the page of a 2 bedroom apartment going for what seemed to him am absurdly low price, considering its location. She quickly brought up the images of the property and showed Darcy.
"So this place, I think, looks pretty amazing. It's got a good location, not too far out, 2 bedrooms, one bathroom and check out these photos!" she said, flicking through each of the pictures.
Darcy had to admit that the place looked really good. It was listed as being fully-furnished, and the furniture in the pictures looked to be in ahold state. There was a large leather couch in the living room with a sturdy looking coffee table. One of the bedrooms had a large double bed while the other, which was slightly smaller, had a single. He assumed that would be his room if they got the place. He didn't really mind, the room although smaller did not seem small at all and the bed looked pretty comfy.
"It looks pretty good," he admitted and Elise smiled at him.
"I know!" she responded, sounding pleased with herself.
"You won't miss it? I mean... miss being at...home?" he asked quietly.
"Home?" she repeated, sounding puzzled. "No... I guess not. But then I don't really feel that home pull to this place. It's my Dad's place- like, I don't get that funny feeling in my tummy when I have to leave, you know?"
"Ugh yeah, I hate that feeling. So where do you feel like is home for you? With your mom?"
"What? Oh gosh, no. I mean I love my mom, obviously, but she's kind of a nomad anyway. I don't think she even has somewhere she feels is home. Although I dare say for her, those home feelings are now more tied to a person than a place. And Edouard, her husband, goes where she does. I feel sad when Mom leaves but I think I've come to terms with her being... free-spirited," she smiled. "What about you? Where do you get the home tingles from?"
"Uh, I guess I get them whenever I leave my Mom's childhood home in England. That's where my sister lives right now," he explained.
"Why don't you live there, then?" she asked before realising that sounded a bit rude. "Not that I'm trying to send you away or anything," she corrected herself, "just wondering."
He chuckled, "In all honesty I've never actually live there," he said, looking up to see her surprised face. "My family used to spend summers and Christmas there and my cousins would often join us. Time there was something I really looked forward to as a kid," he sighed. "Georgie, my sister, just moved there full time pretty recently. I guess lately I've been feeling like there's less of a hold on me here... and there feels more like... home."
"I kind of wish I had that with someplace," Elise sighed.
"You don't feel that way about anywhere?"
"No, not really. I mean I miss Mom and Jane a lot when they're away. And Dad too, but, um... uh he's pretty distant even when he is around I guess. I miss Marissa too and Carla and JW, but my attachments are all to people rather than to a place that I call home."
"I know what you mean. To be fair, a lot of my attachment is based on my sister being there."
"You guys are close, then?"
"Yeah. She's my baby sister, you know?" he said with a half smile. "She's been through some tough times lately as well."
Elise's brow furrowed. "What happened? Is she alright?"
"Well-"
There was a rap at the door before Charlie entered the room. His eyebrows shot up at the sight of Darcy and Elise sat close together on the bed in the unlit room. As neither of them seemed to find their closeness peculiar or attempt to disguise it, he quickly tempered his surprise.
"Hey guys, this is me pretty much all packed up," he announced.
"Wow! Already?" Elise was surprised that he was already done considering the state of the living room when she had arrived.
He laughed, "Well, I've been at it for a while!"
"So, are you off to the airport?" Darcy asked, his eyes widening imperceptibly when he realised Charles may not have wanted him to disclose that information in front of Elise. He was relieved when Charles didn't even bat an eyelid.
"Yup, taxi should be here in 10."
"Taxi? Charlie, why don't you go with Hill?" Elise asked.
At that point Darcy noticed Charles becoming more uncomfortable. "No, no, it's fine. I don't want to trouble him and I have quite a lot of stuff." Darcy realised that in reality Bingley didn't want to risk Hill seeing what flight he'd be getting on.
Elise looked at him, unconvinced. "Are you sure?"
When Charles nodded vigorously, Elise decided to let it go, thinking that perhaps he didn't want to be seen in the rather ostentatious limo.
Charles approached the bed, to say his goodbyes to the two. Elise removed herself from the warmth and stood. Charles gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek.
"Take care of yourself," she told him.
"You too," he smiled. "Well, actually you have Darcy, he'll take care of you." Charles grinned.
Hearing his phone buzz, Charles announced that his taxi must have arrived. Darcy peaked out the window and saw it parked right outside the guesthouse. He helped Charles move his suitcases and boxes and load them into the car, while Elise watched from Darcy's window. Once Charles was all set, Darcy gave him a hug and a manly back slap.
"I'll miss you, bro," Darcy stated.
"Are you tearing up?" Charles teased. When Darcy elbowed him, Charles laughed. "Nah, I'm just kidding. I'll miss you too man."
"Take care of yourself, okay? Don't get into too much trouble and call me if you need anything. Also do me a favour and text me when you get there so I know you're ok," Darcy demanded.
Charles grinned "Yes, mom. Don't worry I'll be in touch. I'm probably going to screw this up and need your help real bad. Anyway, you take care of yourself, and your girl too." Bingley climbed into the car and Darcy shut the door for him. The taxi began to move and Darcy waved his friend off.
Elise, after witnessing the hug and manly back slap combo between the two friends, had climbed back into bed with Darcy's laptop. She was fairly certain of her choice in apartment and quite frankly could not be bothered with doing any more in depth hunting. She decided in the mean time, to leave Darcy a present. She opened the photobooth program and took a photo of herself making a kissy face. Satisfied with the ridiculousness of the photo, she set it as his desktop background.
When Darcy returned to her, he climbed into bed and she climbed out. "I've made the decision. This is the place I'm going with."
"Ok," Darcy accepted, although really he was not entirely convinced. The pictures looked good, the price looked good, the place looked good. Still though, Darcy was not one for spontaneity. At all. Elise's quick decision just did not sit well with him. He realised though, that it was not his place to interfere. This would be for a short time, everything looked good about the place online, he tried to reassure himself.
"I'm going to call the landlord so we can go sign the papers today," Elise announced before retrieving her phone and wandering into the living room to talk.
Darcy picked up his laptop. When he noticed his new wallpaper, he couldn't hold back a snort. He chuckled and shook his head. He contemplated changing it, but decided he rather liked the new background.
Several minutes later Elise re-entered the room. Darcy turned his screen to her.
"Now this," he began, gesturing at the wallpaper, "this is attractive."
Elise shrugged at him. "What else could you expect from me?" she asked with mock conceit.
They shared a grin.
"Ok, so the landlord said she'd had a lot of interest in the place. I said we wanted it and she said we could come over to her and sign the papers today!"
"To her?" Darcy asked, looking suspicious.
"Yeah, her baby's sick or something so she can't leave. Her place is actually not too far away."
"You don't want to see the place before you sign the papers?" Darcy asked, trying not to sound incredulous.
"I did ask, but she said she really couldn't leave what with the sick baby, so if we wanted to see it before hand we'd have to wait a couple of days. She then said that there were pictures online. Those are the ones we've seen and they look pretty good, so I think we might as well just sign," Elise explained.
"Uh huh," Darcy replied, really not at all keen on the plan.
Elise now knew him well enough to recognised his unimpressed state, but ignored him.
"Ok so come on, get dressed," she demanded, eying his delightful thorax one more time. "I'm going to head over to the house to grab my purse and stuff, I'll meet you out front. Hill can drop us off." She turned and exited. Darcy slowly rose and muttered under his breath about not taking the proper precautions and being too spontaneous before hunting for a shirt he could wear.
"Oomph!" the tall man quickly regained his balance and swivelled around to see who had collided with him. He found himself looking at a petite (or she would have been, without the six inch heels) redhead who was bending to adjust the shoe-stilts she was wearing when he had knocked her off balance.
She stood back up and pushed her hair out of her face to reveal a sneer, but when she took in the face of the man she was looking at, her eyes widened in surprise.
"Charlie? What are you doing here?"
Charles Bingley had the expression of a deer in headlights. He was at a loss as to what to respond. Aside from Darcy, David Bennet and his mother, for he was a mama's boy, nobody had any idea where Charlie was heading. In actuality, his mother didn't even know that he was headed to China, all she knew was that he was headed to the far east for a job, that he would be in touch and that he would be back in the states in time for her birthday. He knew Jen would be hurt when she found out he had trailed her without her knowing, and she would indeed be finding out, because he had decided that he would have to tell her before their 'relationship' became any more serious. He also knew that if Jen found out that everyone else had known about him trailing her, she would be even more hurt at being left out of the loop.
So it was, that Charlie stared at the woman blankly for several seconds before she squealed and clapped her hands and pulled the boarding pass he held from his fingers excitedly.
"Beijing! Wow! Charlie that's really far away! What are you going to do over there? Oh! Let me guess! You're bodyguard to a multimillionaire? To Angelina Jolie? That is just too exciting!" she squealed, not even waiting for him to respond fully.
Charles let out a false laugh. "My lips are sealed," he announced, making a show of zipping his lips. "Where exactly are you going, Carrie? Don't you have class?"
His cousin gave him a dazzling smile. "Nope! I'm on spring break and I'm going with some of my girls to Mexico!"
"Wow! Mexico? You must really have been saving from your hotel job!"
"Nope! Daddy said he thought I'd been really studious this semester and he decided to treat me to this holiday!" she responded, beaming.
"That's really great!" Charlie said over the sound of his flight being announced. "Oh look, that's me boarding! I guess I'll see you when we're back, Carrie," he said, giving her a quick peck on the cheek before making his escape with brisk strides. For once, Charlie's face was without a smile. He was more than a little displeased at this coincidence. He was relieved though that Carrie hadn't pressured him more about his purpose in China. The secrecy was weighing on him greatly, and the more focused on it he became, the more it seemed like his secret needed protection. It was becoming a vicious cycle.
A/N:
Sooo it's been an incredibly long time since my last update, but med school has consumed my life since Christmas time not unexpectedly. I'm finally done with exams (although no word on whether I passed or not... hope for the best...)
I'm going to try to get back into the groove of writing, but since I have another month of school, no promises!
I'm sorry to those of you who just had to go back and reread large chunks of the story having forgotten what had happened! Also, thanks to those of you still reading :) My apologies again and I'll try to get more out soon. Let me know what you think!