Chapter 3: Middle

Last time on Kindergarten:

"So what did you tell her?" Will asked.

"Tell her about what?

"About us dating."

Lizzie flushed at his straightforwardness. She rarely blushed, but damn this man for turning her world upside down. "Technically, we're not dating." Lizzie responded, stone-faced.

Will raised an eyebrow, walking slowly towards her desk. "Did you not agree to go on a date with me just two days ago, Lizzie? "

"Technically, we haven't been on a date yet. Therefore, technically not dating."

Will frowned. "Well, no time like the present to change that technicality then. We can't have you lying to my poor patients in elementary school." Will held out his hand to pull Lizzie on her feet.

Lizzie rolled her eyes as she took his hand and grabbed her things from her desk. "Like I said, it technically wasn't a lie."

"Sure, sure. My mistake, Lizzie." Will nodded, totally not convinced with mirth filling his eyes. "Let's go have our first date."

"Sherlock Holmes."

"No way!" Lizzie snorted. "You're telling me you dressed up as Sherlock Holmes for Halloween in middle school? You can't be serious."

"As serious as a heart attack." Will said solemnly.

"You shouldn't be allowed to use that phrase as a cardiologist."

"Oh please. My heart people coined that term. We own it."

Lizzie laughed loudly as she took in the man sitting in front of her, who still somehow happened to look incredible during an 18 hour shift. It had been a whole two days since Will (He had insisted that she stop calling him Darcy, since it had reminded him of his college shenanigans on the rowing team. Lizzie filed that away for another time.) had burst into her office on a Monday morning, confessed his undying devotion to her (okay, a little bit of exaggeration on that part), and asked her out to dinner.

Unfortunately, Lizzie had a really important meeting with the Operations Excellence department in an hour, and Will had a surgery coming up, so Will and Lizzie were having an impromptu first date in the very romantic and intimate hospital café. It was just her, Will, and about 40 other hospital employees and family members of patients who were milling about for their morning coffee and pastries.

Despite the interesting circumstances surrounding their morning date, Lizzie couldn't deny that she was having a great time getting to see a side of Will that was different from the brooding, pestering, and somewhat miserable looking man that she had believed him to be.

"I'll have you know that my Sherlock Holmes costume was a huge success. I was the greatest literary detective of all time. I was so in character that I ran around saying 'Elementary, my dear' at school."

"Of course you did." Lizzie rolled her eyes at him. "I bet you were the most popular kid in middle school, you nerd." She drawled out sarcastically.

"You're just jealous of how much style and brilliance I already possessed at such a young age. Besides, what did you dress up as for Halloween? There's no way you can beat Sherlock Holmes."

Lizzie leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms across her chest, and looked at him smugly. "I was a hot dog."

Will sputtered as he choked on his coffee, his eyes widening comically as he attempted to expel lukewarm coffee from his lungs. "A hotdog?! You were giving me so much shit for dressing up as Sherlock Holmes and you went to school in a hotdog suit?"

"My mom was so mad at me that year because she dug out an old princess outfit from the attic. But I stomped my feet and went to my dad to demand a hot dog costume because, and I quote, 'I don't need a man to rescue me. What I do need is a hot dog.' With that logic, my father had no choice but to take me shopping for a new costume."

"You were always such a rebel, weren't you?" Will chuckled.

"And you were always such a snob, weren't you?" Lizzie asked, eyes twinkling.

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"What's got Will in a such good mood? I haven't seem him like this since they announced the new Star Wars movies." Doctor Richard Fitzwilliam, better known as Fitz to everyone, remarked as leaned against the nurses' station while Lizzie did her weekly quality assessment walkthrough of each department.

Lizzie snorted as she avoided eye contact with her boss and Will's cousin. "He's always like that." Lizzie muttered as she held her tongue from asking more about Will's extreme nerdiness. People magazine failed to mention this aspect of his personality in their interview with him.

"Are you kidding? We're talking about the same William Darcy, right? Head of cardiology? Takes himself a little too seriously sometimes? Weren't you just telling me how outrageous he was being in our meeting last week about the new medical record processes?"

Lizzie blushed slightly at her failed nonchalance act. Though Richard often played the part of the kooky COO, he was actually extremely perceptive and often times devious. He also gossiped like an old woman. Luckily, she was saved from responding by none other than Will Darcy himself, strolling over after speaking with one of his patients.

"If it isn't the operations dream team here to inspect my department. You're not going to find any issues here. You know I run a tight ship." Will exclaimed as he winked at Lizzie, causing her to blush. It had been a week since their first breakfast date and Lizzie and Will had managed to line up their schedules to have dinner the night before. They had decided to keep things on the DL, as there was nothing worse than the rumor mill getting involved in the beginning of a relationship. Especially when the King of Gossip was none other than Will's cousin and COO, Richard Fitzwilliam, whom Lizzie also had to work with on an almost daily basis.

Lizzie rolled her eyes, knowing fully well that their inspection would yield exactly what Will had just said. Other than a few issues here and there when Lizzie had first started, Will's department always passed her weekly inspections with flying colors. Lizzie had found it annoying initially – the way that he obnoxiously proclaimed that his department was perfect. She had interpreted it as him essentially saying that she was wasting his time and that her role was unnecessary, but now she thought maybe it was to show her that he was taking what she had said to him to heart.

Looking back now, he was always very attentive to what her department was doing. Some departments were a little slower to come around to the initiatives Lizzie had pushed for (some might even say staunchly opposed, but that was hospital politics in a nutshell), but cardiology was almost always first in line once Will had questioned the hell out of Lizzie's projects.

Usually, Lizzie tried to finish her work in cardiology as fast as possible so she could move on with her day and get away from Will. Today, she had to control the urge to nitpick at something tiny just so she could hang around a little bit longer. That seemed like something a crazy person would do, and Lizzie was the utmost professional, even if she happened to be maybe-dating her coworker.

"Everything looks perfect as per usual, Dr. Darcy." She smiled up at him, before grabbing her things from the nurses' station to move on to the next department. "Have a good day."

It was only until she had made it to Pediatrics and Fitz was called away to another meeting was she able to sneak a peek at her phone.

You look perfect as per usual as well, Miss Bennett.

Lizzie rolled her eyes at the cheesiness of it all, but couldn't help the smile threatening to take over her entire face. She sent over the vomiting emoji in response (her boy-crazy sister, Lydia, would have screamed at Lizzie for responding in this way to a boy).

You're disgusting, Darcy. Lay off the cheese.

Disgustingly perfect, you mean.

Disgustingly perfect, indeed.

A/N: Thanks for the read! Please leave a review and let me know what you think. :)