THE AUTHOR IS BACK – OR NOT
Author's Note: The author apologises for not being able to write romance.
Author's Understudy's Note: The author's understudy apologises for not existing.
Elizabeth fell onto her bed. Jane was arriving the next day. Same with Charles. She fell asleep with the song she and Darcy had written running through her head.
Charles arrived first. Darcy had drove him to the Bennets. Jane landed her helicopter on the Bennet's landing pad. Elizabeth hugged her. Or at least tried to with one arm. Then Jane saw Mr. Bingley. She looked at him coolly.
"Hello Mr. Bingley. Nice to meet you again."
"Oh Jane, nice to meet you." Mr. Bingley rushed to her and kneeled in front of her. He held her hand.
"Will you marry me?"
Jane broke down.
"I thought you hated me."
"How could I hate you?"
"Hey Darcesta, let's give them some privacy." Elizabeth said.
"Okay Elizabeth." Darcy said cautiously. Elizabeth put her hand on his arm.
"So now…"
"Now I say goodbye to you. You can go be a workaholic. And oh yeah, we'll see each other at Jane and Charles wedding. And here."
Elizabeth slipped the bracelet off her arm and handed it to him. Then she looked away. Darcy dropped his arm and she let go. Elizabeth turned back to him.
"Goodbye."
"I've changed my mind. I don't care how crazy you are. You can be crazy as you wish. We don't have to have a wedding." Darcy dropped to his knees. He took Elizabeth's hand.
"Ow. You're killing my arm."
"Please will you marry me?"
"Yes."
Darcy slipped the bracelet back on her arm. Then he hugged her. Elizabeth pushed him away.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty six."
"You know, my mom's going to make me have a wedding no matter what."
"Poor you."
"You're not going to back out on this one, are you? Or else I have no idea what I'm going to do."
"Well…there is this one thing…"
"Elizabeth." He growled. "I am going insane."
"Don't you have to ask my parents?"
"Parents. It's been so long since I've seen my parents, I find the subject of parents confusing and incomprehensible."
"Come on." Lizzie dragged Darcy into the living room. Mrs. Bennet had returned from whatever trip she had been on.
"What. Are you doing here?" Mrs. Bennet asked Darcy.
"Um…"
"Snobbish rich people are not allowed in my house." This hypocritic comment amused both Elizabeth and Darcy.
"Actually…I was going to request the hand of your daughter in marriage."
"As if!" Mrs. Bennet said. "After nearly killing her twice, I want a restraining order on you."
"Mo-ther!"
"Have you asked your father about this?"
"Yes."
"Fine, but if my daugher gets so much as a papercut, I am filing a restraining order on you."
"Oh, and mother? A happier thought, Mr. Bingley is here. And he went with Jane for a walk."
"Oh?" Mrs. Bennet raised an eyebrow.
Elizabeth sat down at the computer and started digging through her contacts. Because about ninety percent of her friends worked for the government, and because the government was so paranoid, it took a long time to find the current e-mails of everyone. She typed out the announcement to her closest friends, and wrote one e-mail to the rest of the people. She also composed a letter to a friend in Transylvania who decided to only correspond by mail. (No, the friend was not a vampire.)
Surprisingly, it took Darcy much longer to send out the announcement, despite the fact he only had one person to send it to. His sister. But this was a lot more complicated. He had degraded her for years, calling her 'mentally ill' and the 'girl who believes in chameleon cats'. Georgiana had questioned him on whether that was fair or not, but he had always replied that he absolutely hated her. Even recently, scratch that, especially recently, he had said things that he could now kill himself for. This was going to involve a lot of explaining. He started typing up pages and pages and pages of explanations on the not-so-recent change of mind. Even after typing up what was the most basic of explanations, it still didn't explain it. But some things can't be explained.
