William Darcy was not proud of himself at the moment. What he was doing was borderline pathetic, and he knew it. Plus, he had spent FAR too much money on convenience store food he was never actually going to eat. He had gone to the QuickaSnack every day, sometimes multiple times. Usually he just peeked in, hoping to catch a glimpse of her. It would have been less pathetic had she actually been there, any of those times.

God. He was acting just as bad as Bingley. So what if he couldn't stop thinking about the way she looked, the way she laughed, the way her hair curled around her ears in soft brown tangles he just wanted to run his hands through… NO! He was a grown man— he had more important things to do than… than this!

Darcy sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked at his phone. Gina, for the past few days, had been hanging around Merriton University, dropping in at lectures and getting familiar with the schedule. Usually she was done around this time, but she had yet to call.

Darcy himself had just finished drawing up the contract for Netherfield, and was done for the day. He had some time to kill, so he had planned to pick Gina up and go out for ice cream (or something equally unhealthy). Since she had yet to call, he decided, why not, let's go find her then.

He pulled up to Merriton, and parked in the visitor's section. He sat in the driver's seat for a while, just breathing. And thinking. LOTS of thinking. It's not like it was a big deal— just walk in there! So what if you don't know anyone? Why would it matter? Why are your palms sweating and your throat closing up and your head hurting oh god—

Groaning, Darcy pulled himself together.

He got out of the car and walked into Merriton. As expected he didn't know anyone in the halls. It felt like all the students were staring at him, which they may have well been. Darcy still hadn't adjusted to the whole 'dressing casually' thing, and still opted for a suit and tie whenever possible.

He looked into a few classrooms, his eyes scanning the crowd for Gina's straight blonde hair and red T-shirt. Instead, Darcy caught sight of brown, curly hair, a Hawaiian shirt, and bright laughing eyes. It was her.

Darcy stopped in the middle of the hallway, observing how easily Elize was chatting with the other students. Unlike him, she seemed perfectly at ease in the crowd. Lizzy laughed, and touched some guy's arm as he told her a joke.

Darcy all but ran out of the hall.

What was he doing? She hadn't felt a connection, obviously. Heck, maybe she had a boyfriend! Darcy didn't know! She hadn't seen him in days— HE was the one being weird here. Of course she would have other people to talk to… Why did he feel like crap? He barely knew her!

Without remembering how he had gotten there, Darcy found himself in a large, cavernous library. Bookshelves abounded, and there was a circular check-in desk at the center, but other than that it was abandoned.

Darcy would have been tempted to pick out a novel or two, but didn't feel like going up to the librarian afterward. Instead, he opted to sit down at one of the desks, the ones with computers.

He stared at the black screen for a few seconds, his mind wandering inevitably back to Lizzy. It struck him that, besides her name and where she worked, he didn't know anything about her!

An idea came to him, and he bit his lip, thinking. Then, after checking surreptitiously over his shoulder, Darcy clicked onto Google, feeling half-embarrassed and half-unquenchably-curious.

He typed in 'Elize Benítt.' Nothing came up. He tried again. 'Elize Valentina Benítt.' Zero Results. He was typing in 'Elize Valentina Benítt at Merriton Univerity' when a voice behind him made him almost jump out of his chair.

"It's actually spelled B-E-N-N-I-T, with an accent over the 'i'— just FWI."

Darcy whipped around and found himself looking up into the startlingly gorgeous grey-green eyes of Elize Valentina Bennít. She raised an eyebrow, an amused smile dancing across her lips. Darcy felt his cheeks heating up.

"I- uh- Hi," he stammered, surely as red as a sunbaked crab.

"Hi," Lizzy laughed, throwing down her book bag and plopping down next to him. She was wearing a red and white Hawaiian shirt, unbuttoned over a crisp white tank top. Her jeans were high rise and cuffed; they clung to every curve of her form. Her hair was messy, her eyes laughing.

After a while Darcy realized he had been staring. He coughed, and looked away. She popped her lips to draw his attention back to her.

"So, um, do you.. often stalk your friends on the internet?" Lizzy asked, grinning.

Darcy let out a chuckle that was anything but natural. "No!" He said in a falsetto, before clearing his throat and dropping back down an octave. "No I don't."

"Soooooo," she drawled, "why were you stalking me?"

"I, uh, well," he spluttered, definitely cementing himself as a fool in her mind, "I don't really.. know anything about you."

Instead of laughing as he expected her to, Lizzy surprised him by sitting back in a contemplative way. She smiled. "Well, whaddya wanna know?"

Darcy shrugged helplessly.

"Seriously. I KNOW you're better at conversations than this."

"I'm really not."

She blew a raspberry at him, then tilted her head back, thinking.

"How 'bout I talk about family stuff, then move onto interests?" Lizzy said, then assumed a very poor Darcy impression. "Or do you require a comprehensive packet, sir?"

"No no," he laughed, "that sounds like a good plan."

A pause.

"So, uh, tell me about your family?" Darcy asked. Lizzy happily obliged.

"Well, my dad was born in Israel, but grew up in Turkey most of his life. When he turned 20, he did a missionary trip to rural Mexico, where he met my mom. He was a bookish introvert who just wanted to sip spiked tea and read novels on philosophy, while my mom was a party animal fresh off her teenage years with big plans. And, well, opposites attracted. They got married, took my mom's name 'cause my dad had kinda been disowned by his family when he decided to move permanently, and had us kids. Five girls: I'm the second oldest."

Darcy interrupted her there. "Oh! I've actually met your sister."

"Yeah? Which one?"

"Rosa Jane."

"Ohhh," Lizzy said. "Yeah, she mentioned meeting some uptight big city lawyer with the new project, but I didn't know it was you!"

Darcy frowned slightly. "She called me uptight?"

Lizzy laughed. "No, she said 'seemed devoted to his task', which is Rosa-speak for 'didn't smile once and refused to sit down during the hour-long meeting'."

Darcy ducked his head. "I did smile. I'm NOT uptight."

She giggled and eyed him, her eyes sparkling with mirth. Darcy found he rather liked the way his face heated up when she teased him, as long as her lips still quirked in that ever-so adorable way. He blinked and she was talking again. He had GOT to stop getting distracted.

"Well I know that. Now. But you're kinda bad at first impressions, you gotta admit."

"I guess so," he said, smiling ruefully. Then he cleared his throat, and, unwilling for the conversation to die, asked, "So, is Rosa Jane the oldest sister?"

"Yep," Lizzy said, "Then comes me, then Marie, then the twins, Katyln and Lysa."

"Is there much of an age gap between you?"

"Not much. I'm about to start senior year of college, and the twins are going into their senior year of high school."

"Ahh." He didn't really know what else to say.

Then Darcy was saved from having to do any more quick-thinking conversation tactics by his little sister bursting into the room. "OH! Hey William! What are you doing here?"

He turned to her in his seat and smiled. "Just picking you up, G."

She came to a stop in front of his chair and cocked her head. "What for?"

"Ice cream, obviously."

"Yesss! That sounds awesome!" Gina seemed to notice Lizzy, and then shot her brother a look that could only be described as 'conniving'. "Say, Lizzy, you wanna come with us? I'm sure we would both love to have you!"

Darcy flushed. Why did Gina have to meddle? Just because he had— in a fit of ill-fated honesty— revealed he thought Elize was pretty did NOT mean he was interested in her! ...Did it? Wait! No! Not the issue right now! The issue was his little sister butting in to HIS business! He was fine on his own! GAH! …but.. then again, he reasoned, if she said yes… then maybe the meddling wasn't so bad. He turned to Lizzy, hope in his half-smiling expression.

To his disappointment, Elize's own smile was sideways and apologetic. "Sorry Darcys, but I have to get back to the store."

She must have caught the look of suppressed dejection in Darcy's eyes because she put her hand on his shoulder again. "Hey— I'll see you around though! My QuickaSnack shifts are usually the early morning weekdays (like seven to ten) or early-ish afternoon (like four or so). Drop by if you want to hear more about… whatever it was we were talking about. I kinda forgot." She laughed and got up. "But I'll see ya 'round, yeh Will?"

"Yeah," he grinned softly, lifting his hand in an almost wave, "See ya."

His skin still tingled where her hand had touched.

And the warm, familiar smile Lizzy gave him over her shoulder as she exited the library almost made the oncoming barrage of Gina's nosey questions about his love life bearable. Almost.