Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for sticking with me as I do what has become a massive re-write. I hope to tackle the sequel next. This is the final official chapter of the story. I did as much research as I could, but remember, I am not British, and sometimes I don't get everything just as right and realistic as it could be. Thanks to all those who reviewed, I hope you enjoy the end! The sonnet in this chapter is Sonnet 145, which is an awesome one.

The Course of Love

Chapter 21

Lizzie's head was pounding. She opened her eyes slowly and groaned. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was Caroline asking her to come look at something quickly. Caroline! It had been Caroline who hit her over the head! She sat up and blinked, realizing for the first time that her hands were bound behind her back and her feet were tied together.

"Welcome back to the land of the living." Caroline said, her voice cold.

She was sitting in a chair, dressed in what Lizzie could only call "spy chic" black clothes from head to toe, a gun with a silencer sitting causally on her lap. Around her neck, however, was the onyx necklace Will had given Lizzie for the wedding.

"Caroline?" Lizzie looked at her, confused. "What's going on? Why are you wearing my necklace?"

"I had the perfect plan, you know. The lovely Liza, found murdered in the park. The mourning fiancé, William Darcy, turns to family friend Caroline Bingley, who would help him work through it. Eventually, she wins his heart. But you didn't die. And then I tried to have you kidnapped by some unscrupulous men and raped and murdered, with the same outcome, but you went out of the country." Caroline stood, pacing with the gun in her hand. "Did you really think you were good enough for such a man? No. You are common. You are vulgar, and you're not very pretty or fashionable. You don't deserve jewels like these. I'm doing you a favor. The elite of society would tear you apart in a heartbeat. You could never be a Lady, dear Eliza."

"So…you think you're doing me a favor?" Lizzie scoffed. The woman was delusional. "You were behind Wickham?"

"Of course I was behind Wickham. I am the only one will ever be married to Will Darcy. I will be the Countess of Devon. I will be mistress of Pemberley. He never suspected me, so all I have to do is make this look like a suicide or something, and my plan will be back on track." Caroline explained, deadly serious.

Lizzie almost burst out laughing. "Caroline, you've failed. You failed in July. I am legally Elizabeth Bennet Darcy, Countess of Devon. Darcy and I got married four months ago."

"You are lying. You are just being a whore and living with him." Caroline's eyes narrowed with fury and her grip on the gun tightened.

Elizabeth took a deep breath; she needed to keep talking, to stall so someone could find them. "I am not lying. Those three weeks Darcy and I were gone was our honeymoon. And really, we have you to thank. We probably would have eloped, but had I not been attacked, I don't know that we would have done it so soon. Caroline, I think your plan is flawed. Who kills themselves with a silencer? And if you take it off, how much time to you think you really have to get away before someone gets here? They'll certainly hear the shot. I'm not going to help you so you've got to find some way to force me, and that's not going to be easy. Plus, you hit me over the head. A medical examiner would find that and they would investigate the possibility of murder. How do you think Darcy would feel if he found out you murdered his wife? He's not going to fall in love with you after that, Caroline. What you don't realize, Caroline, is that you can't just split up a couple that is in love. That's why you couldn't split up Jane and Charles, and I know you tried. No matter what you do, Will and I will always be. Even if I am gone. I will always be his first wife. His first love." Elizabeth said her voice edged with anger. She wasn't sure how true anything she just said was, but even if it was pure bull, she had to keep Caroline talking.

Will couldn't believe what he was hearing. He figured that if Wickham hadn't cracked within two weeks, he wasn't going to. "So he told you who hired him?"

"Yes. Wickham claims that Caroline Bingley hired him. He says she's deranged and delusional, which also means she is highly dangerous." Inspector Roberts said.

Will didn't say a word; he just hung up the phone. "We have to find Caroline. Now."

"Why?" Louisa looked concerned.

"Wickham caved and confessed to everything. Caroline hired him to take out Lizzie. He said she was crazy and he wouldn't…he thinks she's going to snap and try and take Lizzie out herself." Will explained, and without another word, the group ran out of the kitchen, Winston and Frank in the lead with guns drawn. They sprinted down the north corridor. Fortunately, all of the doors on the hallway were open. All but one.

"Let me talk to her." Darcy said when they got to the door. "She's sick, she needs help, maybe I can talk her down."

"Agreed." Winston nodded. "I'll break down the door. Mr. Bennet, you and Frank and Darcy follow."

"Please…" Louisa was in tears. "Please don't kill her. She's my sister."

"We'll do our best." Frank nodded, feeling for Louisa. "Ready Winston? On my mark. Three, two, one…"

Suddenly, the door burst open and her father and Will burst in followed by Winston and Frank, who had their guns trained on Caroline. Caroline screamed and pointed her gun at Elizabeth.

"I'll kill her!" She warned.

"Just put the gun down, Caroline." Darcy said, his voice soft. He crept closer to Elizabeth and Caroline, keeping his eyes on the crazy redhead with the firearm.

"Sir!" Winston warned but Mr. Bennet shook his head.

"No! If I can't have you, why do you think I'd let her win?" Caroline asked, sobbing. Darcy was almost in reach of Elizabeth. "No!"

Chaos erupted. Caroline fired first and Will pushed Elizabeth, who was still bound and unable to move, out of the way, the bullet connecting with the side of his abdomen. A split second after Caroline fired, there was a much louder boom as Winston and Frank both returned fire.

"Will!" Lizzie screamed, wiggling over to him and pulling herself from the scarf tied tightly around her wrists. Immediately she put her hands over the wound in his side, trying to stop the blood. "Call an ambulance!"

"Lizzie?" Will asked, his voice a little weak.

"Hang in there, my love. We're going to get you to a hospital and fix you up." Elizabeth gave him a brave smile. "I look forward to growing old with you."

"If you insist." He nodded, grimacing. "Caroline?"

"Who cares?" Lizzie shook her head. "You don't worry about her."

The paramedics arrived and took over for Elizabeth. She refused to leave her husband's side, so her father and the rest of the family followed in the car. They arrived at the hospital and were rushed into a private room, as Lizzie could hear the snap of cameras and knew the paparazzi weren't far behind. The paramedics hadn't questioned her, but the attending physician did.

"Ma'am? I am afraid you are going to have to leave and wait in the waiting room." He said softly.

"I'm his wife. I'm not leaving." Lizzie shook her head, not letting go of Will's hand. "Please…don't let him die."

"Your husband isn't going to die. We need to get him prepped for surgery." The doctor explained. "I'm going to let you stay in here while we prep, then I'm going to have a nurse take you and help you get cleaned up. From what I see, I think you're lucky, because it looks like the bullet went through his muscle only. If it hit any organs, we'd see more blood and he would be in more dire straights."

Lizzie nodded numbly. "Stay with me, Will."

He just squeezed her hand. Even if the bullet had only hit muscle, it still hurt and it was still in there. After a few minutes, they wheeled him away and a nurse got Lizzie a set of scrubs to wear and helped her clean herself up. By the time she arrived in the surgical waiting area, her whole family, including Jane, Charles, and the Gardiners were there.

"Lizzie." Jane rushed to hug her sister. "You are so very brave. These inspectors are here and want to talk to you. Do you feel up to it?"

"Of course." Elizabeth nodded, determined to stay strong. "Inspector Roberts. Inspector Austen."

"I'm so sorry, my Lady. Is Lord Darcy going to be okay?" Austen asked.

"It sounds like it. I won't rest easy until he is out of surgery. How did you get here from London so fast?" Lizzie asked.

"We were coming to tell you. We called Darcy on the way and when he hung up without answering we knew something was wrong so we put on the sirens and sped out here." Roberts explained. "Dispatch filled us in when we got close enough. Do you mind coming into one of the conference rooms and giving us a statement?"

"Only if my sister can come get me the minute we hear anything." Lizzie said, looking at Jane.

"Of course." Austen nodded. "We'll be right over here."

He led Lizzie to one of the private rooms off of the surgical waiting area.

"Now, walk us through what happened." Roberts instructed.

"I woke up a little after 8 o'clock this morning. Louisa and I had agreed to meet in the kitchen at 8:30 to organize the welcome home party we were throwing for my sister and Charles. I'm not sure exactly what time I left the room, but Caroline caught me on the stairs. I was honestly shocked to see her awake. She never got up before 12 the whole month we were there. She said she'd been working on a present for Jane, sort of a 'I'm sorry I've been so horrible, welcome to the family, lets start over' present. I didn't buy it, but I'd seen her disappearing to this part of the house that's all old servants quarters, supposedly to talk to her boyfriend in private. No one goes there. I was curious and I knew she was up to something but I never thought Caroline was dangerous. We got to this door and she fiddled around in her pockets. I thought she was looking for the key to the room, because it was locked. Next thing I know, I'm being hit on the head and I blacked out."

Inspector Austen stopped her. "Have you been looked at by a Doctor? Did they take pictures of the wounds?"

"No." Lizzie shook her head. "I mean, they checked me over and I don't have a concussion but they didn't take pictures or anything."

"The minute we're done, you need to be." He said. "We need to take pictures of the head wound and document any other injuries you may have."

"Right. Well, next thing I remember is waking up, my head was killing me, and I realized that my hands were tied behind my back and my feet were tied as well. It dawned on me that Caroline was behind everything, which she admitted to me, telling me that I had ruined her plan. She was going to kill me, then comfort Darcy, and he was going to fall in love with her and marry her after that. Caroline clearly planned this, she had changed her clothes into this black outfit and she was wearing my necklace. That necklace was a present to me from Darcy, and the only way she would have gotten it was if she had been snooping around our suite. She had tied me up with a scarf, so I knew I could wrangle my hands out if I had some time, so I kept her talking. I told her that Darcy and I got married in July and that her plan would fail. I basically kept her talking long enough for Darcy, our bodyguards, and my father to burst into the room. When they came in, Caroline pointed the gun at me. Will tried to talk to her while moving closer to me. When she realized what he was doing, she fired. He pushed me out of the way and was hit himself. A second after she fired I heard two loud pops and Caroline went down. I don't know what happened after that, I was solely focused on Will. I know my father untied my feet and I believe the police collected it."

"They did." Inspector Roberts nodded. "We're going to call a Doctor up here for you. He's going to take pictures of your wrists, ankles, and the back of your head. He's also going to take a DNA sample so we can match the skin cells on the bindings to you."

"We'll probably need to talk to you some more, but for now, you can go back to your family. We will be borrowing your body guards to interview them while we wait for Lord Darcy and Miss Bingley to come out of surgery."

"So she is alive?" Lizzie asked.

"Yes. Two gunshot wounds. One to the arm, one to the leg." Roberts answered. "Your boys are excellent shots, Ma'am."

"I'm glad we have them." She nodded. "What about my necklace? It…it has great sentimental value."

"I'll make sure it is returned to you when we are done with it. We'll send the doctor up to you then you can join your family."

It took nearly an hour for the Doctor to poke, prod, photograph, and collect any evidence from Lizzie. By the time she rejoined her family, the surgeon had arrived to update them on Darcy.

"I'm looking for Mrs. Darcy." He said.

"That's me." Lizzie stood and walked over. "Is he okay?"

"Your husband is fine. The gun was pretty low-powered, the bullet went through skin and muscle and lodged in his back muscle so we had to do surgery to remove it. There was no damage to the internal organs, which is great because it means he is going to make a full recovery." The surgeon explained. "I've given the bullet to the police, and we're moving him into step-down now. I'd like you to come with me to meet the hospital's administrator so we can arrange more private and secure rooms for your family and your husband."

"He's going to be okay?" She asked, the information not sinking in yet.

"Yes ma'am. He's going to be okay." The surgeon smiled. "Come with me and as soon as we have the room squared away, I'll let you see him for yourself."

The hospital administrator was a perky blonde woman who looked like she was in her late thirties.

"Lady Darcy." She smiled. "I'm Evie Lesner. I'm the administrator here. First off, you've got to clarify something for me. I thought it was your sister who just got married and you weren't getting married until February?"

"We're holding a big public ceremony in February, but Will and I were married in July. I have all the legal papers if you need them." Lizzie said.

"Not necessary. For security purposes, we're putting you in a section of ICU. Your husband doesn't need intensive care, but it is our most secure area. We have a special private waiting area for the ICU. Would you like to have your family moved there?" Evie asked.

"Yes, please." Lizzie nodded. "I'd like to keep the many details of this morning as private as possible."

"Of course, my Lady. Please, follow me and I will take you to your husband's recovery room. They will be wheeling him down to the ICU in just a few minutes. I'll inform your family of the location change and the nurse on duty will tell you when he can have other visitors than family."

It was strange, and almost heartbreaking, to see her big, strong husband attached to several machines. And something about the hospital bed made him look small and frail. He was awake, and fairly alert considering what he'd just been through.

"Hello darling." Lizzie kissed his forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"They have me flying high." Will sighed. "How is Caroline?"

"Alive, unfortunately." Lizzie crossed her arms. "Why do you care? She shot you! Well, she tried to shoot me."

"She's mentally ill. She needs help." He replied, taking her hand and kissing it.

Lizzie softened. "Thank you. That bullet…it would have probably killed me."

"I refuse to live in a world without you, darling wife." Will smiled up at her.

Elizabeth just held his hand. She was glad she hadn't lost him. Those first few moments after he had been shot were the worst in her life. And with Caroline going down and Wickham and the other hired thugs in custody, maybe this was all finally over. Several minutes later, Will was wheeled into his new room, a large recovery suite in the ICU. An hour later, he was ready for visitors so Lizzie started letting them in.

Georgiana was the first one through the door. "Oh Will! You're so brave!" She cried as she held her brother's hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been shot." Will smirked. "It's okay, Sister. I'll be off my horse for a few weeks, but I'd take that any day over losing Lizzie."

Georgiana and the Bennets stayed for a few minutes, and then rotated out so the Gardiners and Richard could visit. Finally, Jane, Charles and Louisa came in.

"How is she?" Will asked.

"Raving like a lunatic." Louisa shook her head. "I don't know how my sister can be this crazy and I never noticed it. She's also highly addicted to diazepam. The wounds were minor, so she'll recover from those a lot faster than she will the addiction." Louisa explained.

"I'm so sorry, Darce. I should have kept a closer eye on her." Charles sighed. "To think, she nearly killed Lizzie. Several times. They said you took a bullet for her?"

"He saved my life." Lizzie took his hand. "My very own knight in shining armor."

"You're both so very brave." Jane sighed; this was very hard on her. "I just…I can't believe we didn't see it."

"Jane, I thought she was up to something and even I didn't see this." Lizzie shook her head. "I mean, none of us knew about the drugs, none of us knew she was even capable of this sort of violence. The biggest thing I thought she was hiding was a fake boyfriend."

"We should have been paying more attention." Charles said. "I'm just glad you are going to be okay."

"I'm fine. I'm going to have a really cool scar and I am going to get my lawyers to press for a deal for Caroline. She needs to be locked up for a while, but she needs to be in a psychiatric facility where they can help her." Will smiled. "I'm sorry you had to come home to all this."

"Will, you were shot. You have nothing to apologize for." Louisa shook her head. "And Lizzie, I found your mobile, your assistant has been calling you. I told her you were okay and gave her some of the details of what has happened."

"Thanks." Lizzie smiled. "I'll call her later and fill in anything else. I'm just glad this is all finally over."

"Sort of. I think your marriage was outed and there are a million paps outside." Charles reported. "Want me to make a statement?"

"Not about the marriage, but tell them it's nothing. My appendix or something. Maybe we can keep this out of the papers." Will said.

Louisa shook her head. "I doubt that's possible."

"But we will try." Charles nodded. "I'll craft a statement and let Lizzie look at it before I give it out."

"Thanks, Charles." Lizzie smiled. "Why don't you and Jane head home? Unwind for a bit? Go enjoy that lunch that Louisa and I had planned. We'll be okay."

"Are you sure?" Louisa asked.

"Yes." She nodded. "If you guys act like it's no big deal, the paparazzi will be more likely to buy that it's just an appendix. Also, will you do me a favor and check Caroline's room? Or have the police check it?"

"Why?" Charles asked.

"Earlier today she was wearing my necklace. I don't care about most of my jewelry, but that's my first set of Darcy jewels as a Darcy, I don't…I also know that people struggling with an addiction tend to steal things to help pay for their habit. We might find some other stolen items in her room." Lizzie explained. "I hate to say it, but it needs to be done."

"I'll have the police search it and show us anything of value. Between me, Jane and Louisa, we should be able to identify almost everything. Anything we aren't sure of, we'll send you a picture." Charles nodded. "We'll be back in two hours, okay?"

"Take your time, Charles. You just got back from your honeymoon." Will shook his head and they left. "Speaking of honeymoons, after all we've been through, we deserve a fantastic one."

"We already took a fantastic honeymoon, darling." Lizzie shook her head.

"Not officially." He smiled. "Where would you like to go, Mrs. Darcy?"

"We'll talk about it when you are feeling better." Elizabeth smiled at him. "We have certainly had one rough year."

"What does the bard say? 'The course of true love never did run smooth'." Will kissed her hand. "I can't call it a rough year, though, because it brought me you."

"Fitzwilliam Andrew Richard Darcy, you are the cheesiest man I have ever met." Lizzie laughed. "And I love you for it."

She leaned down and kissed him gently. Will smiled at her, "I love you too, my darling wife."

"Glad to know it. Now get some rest."

"Yes ma'am." Will nodded and settled into his bed.

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a wealthy, single man is in the market for a wife. And even though this one particular single man was not, the market found him anyway, and he couldn't be happier.