Sorry for the cliffhanger! I tried to update as fast as I could. (Fizzie-Lizzie, I did try to get this chapter out before you went on vacation on Tuesday night, but I didn't manage to write fast enough.)
1.
Jane opened the door, took one look at who was on the other side, and immediately slammed it shut with a furious scowl.
"Jane," said Lizzy, scrambling to her feet.
Jane opened her mouth to speak and closed it, jaw clenched, shaking her head. Lydia stood slowly, looking from one Bennet sister to the other anxiously.
The knock sounded again, louder this time.
"Lizzy, no—" Jane said, but her sister was already at the door, already opening it.
There he was, uncertain but desperate, blond hair sticking straight up like he'd been running his hand through it for hours. "Charlie?" Lizzy murmured, but he wasn't looking at her; he was looking past her, over her shoulder, watching her sister back slowly away. She was glaring.
"Jane," Charlie pleaded, and Lizzy stepped out of his way.
"No," Jane snapped, turning and hurrying to the window, unlatching it. Trying maybe to climb outside, run down the fire escape. "I don't want to talk to you."
The window was already half-open by the time Charlie was next to her, his hands over hers. "Jane, please."
"No." She twisted out of his grip. She was crying now. "I said I don't want to talk to you."
"I—" Charlie started, reaching for her hand, but Jane shoved him, hissing, "Stop. I said no."
"Jane," said Lizzy quietly, taking a worried step toward her sister, but a hand on her shoulder pressed her gently back.
It was Will, meeting Lizzy's glare with a glimmer of a smile, almost nervous. "He should try at least, don't you think?" Will said softly.
"Jane, I'm sorry," Charlie told her with wide, hopeful eyes.
"I don't care," Jane said fiercely. She took a step back, chin lowered, but Charlie followed her. "I don't fucking care, Charlie."
"I'm sorry," Charlie repeated. "I'm so sorry."
"It's too late," Jane snapped. She hit him, on the chest, a hard thump that made Lizzy wince for him, but Charlie's gaze didn't falter. "It's too late for that."
Jane hit him again, and Charlie caught her hand. She tried her left hand, but Charlie caught that one too.
"I love you, Jane," Charlie said softly, watching her face.
"No," Jane said stubbornly, looking at his chin.
"I'm miserable," Charlie explained. His voice was shaking. "I'm pathetic. I bought a new cell phone so your caller ID wouldn't recognize me when I called here."
"You didn't call," Jane told him.
Charlie nodded, trying almost to smile. "To listen to your voicemail."
"That was you?" Lydia said, jaw dropped. When Lizzy and Will turned to her, Lydia ducked her head, muttering, " Sorry."
Jane took a deep, steadying breath, pressing her hands over her mouth, shoulders shaking as if she was trying not to sob, but she let Charlie put his arms around her. She let him push a strand of cropped red hair from her face, but she wouldn't look him in the eye.
"I haven't been happy," Charlie told Jane, "since I left."
"You left," Jane reminded him sadly. "You left me."
Charlie nodded, waiting for her to look up. "But I'm trying to come back."
Jane did look up then, still frowning, but her mouth was trembling. She got a hand to hit him again, his shoulder this time. "Do you know what I thought?" she asked.
"I know," Charlie said mournfully. He made no move to reclaim her hand. "I'm sorry."
"Do you have any idea how I felt?" Jane whispered, and somehow her arms were around Charlie's neck and she was kissing him, smiling against his mouth. They were both crying now.
There was something in Charlie's hand, sparkling. "Oh, my God," breathed Lydia. It was a ring.
Lizzy fished around the table behind her, her eyes on her sister, and Will noticed and pressed her camera into her hands. Lizzy raised the lens to her face:
Jane and Charlie in profile, the window behind them, illuminating them with the day's last light, foreheads resting against each other, both staring down at the ring Charlie held between them. Click.
Charlie's face, hesitant but expectant, hopeful and desperate still, watching Jane's eyes widen as she realized what the ring meant. Click.
Jane looking up, a smile growing in her eyes; Charlie letting himself smile slowly back. Click.
Another kiss; Charlie was knocked to the wall, delighted. Click.
"Is that yes?" Charlie asked, trying to brace himself and Jane against the wall behind them.
The ring was already on Jane's finger. "You're not off the hook," she said smiling and kissed Charlie, her hands in his hair.
Lizzy snapped another picture.
"Time to go," Will said softly.
"I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you," Charlie promised, kissing Jane's nose, her eyelids.
"What?" Lizzy asked Will startled, as Lydia snatched up Jane's forgotten keys.
"Not the rest of your life," Jane murmured, turning slightly to kiss his neck. "Just until maybe Christmas."
"They need to be alone," Will explained, steering her toward the door gently with a hand on the small of her back. Lydia was already outside.
"But—" Lizzy protested, twisting just in time to snag her camera bag off the end table before she let Will propel her out the door.
2.
In the heavy October dusk, the quad was nearly empty. Will was grateful for that at least, as he, Lizzy, and her cousin strolled through it. What concerned him, though, was Lizzy, flushed and bewildered, turning back toward her apartment every few meters, looking as lost as he'd ever seen her. He wanted to tell her that her sister would be all right. He wanted to ask if she was all right, but he knew that Lizzy wouldn't answer him, not truthfully, not with her younger cousin in earshot.
"When can we go back, do you think?" Lizzy asked, looking back over her shoulder for the thirtieth time.
"Well, I think they'll want longer than ten minutes," her cousin said with a small smile, but she glanced away when Lizzy glared at her.
"They'll call," Will told Lizzy, to reassure her, to make sure that she wasn't too angry to look him in the face. She only met his eyes for a brief instant before looking back toward the apartment quickly. "I have the keys," he explained.
"No…" said the cousin, pulling a clattering set from her jacket pocket, "I have the keys."
Will glanced from the girl to Lizzy, asking permission to laugh, and Lizzy smiled slowly in response. "The car keys," he explained.
"You drove?" the cousin asked.
"Well, Charlie couldn't. He was too nervous." Will glanced back to Lizzy again, but she had her camera to her face, pointing her lens at the trees in the middle of the quad, probably framing something to capture their long, winding branches.
The cousin was grinning now, in a way that Will mistrusted. "Where'd you park?"
"Pardon?" Will said, glancing at Lizzy again, this time for help.
"Lydia wants to see your car," Lizzy explained with a smile.
Lydia—the cousin's name was Lydia. "Ah," Will said, stuffing his hands in his pockets and examining Lydia for signs of depression, but the girl was beaming at him, looking up at him through her long, blonde hair coyly. Will heard Lizzy's camera click again, and when he turned back to her smiling hesitantly, he was surprised to see her lens was pointed at him. Surely, Lizzy wasn't terribly angry if she wanted pictures of him.
"So what kind of car do you have?" Lydia asked.
"A BMW," Will replied. "A black one."
The girl's face fell. "Do you have like, a Playstation in the back seat or anything?"
"Of course not," Will said, annoyed.
"How boring," Lydia said, and Will turned to Lizzy again, bewildered.
"You watch too much TV," Lizzy told her cousin, and Lydia rolled her eyes.
"You must watch that program," Will said, understanding suddenly. "Pimp and Drive."
Lizzy laughed. "You mean, Pimp My Ride," she corrected, and he grinned back sheepishly.
"I thought you'd have a Jaguar, at least," Lydia explained to Will. "What kind of rock star are you?"
"I don't like to drive anything that would draw attention—" Will started scowling but stopped distracted when Lizzy snapped another shot of him.
"Basically, something boring," Lydia scoffed.
"Unnoticeable," Will amended miffed, as Lydia turned her back to him.
"I wouldn't mention that your version of a 'black BMW' probably cost more than all of our tuitions combined," Lizzy whispered, so close suddenly that Will froze. He saw her smirk out of the corner of his eyes. "Not unless you're willing to let Lydia take it for a test drive."
"Now you talk, Lizzy," Lydia said, turning back around with a wry grin. "You've been kind of quiet."
Lizzy was still smirking. "Well, I'm a little stunned, I guess."
Lydia nodded with a heavy, dramatic sigh, walking a few more steps down the abandoned sidewalk. "Yeah, I've never seen Jane get so worked up."
"Me neither," Lizzy admitted, and when Will turned to her with a worried scowl, she smiled back reassuringly. Will relaxed a little, certain now that she wasn't too angry, not if she could smile at him that way.
"You think they'll set a date?" Lydia asked.
Lizzy's mouth curled into a slow grin, as if she was expecting a joke. "A date?" she repeated, pulling the camera up to her face again to shoot a portrait of her cousin.
"Yeah, for the wedding," Lydia replied.
"The wedding…" Lizzy repeated thinking, and then gasped. "Oh, shit—the wedding; they're getting married."
"Well, yeah," said her cousin with a mocking snort that Will suspected she'd learned from Lizzy. "That's what the ring meant."
Lizzy cupped her hands around her camera, squinting into the sunset, her long fingers splayed out on either side of the lens. "Jane's getting married," she said softly to herself.
"Probably not soon," Will assured her, in case that was what Lizzy was worried about. Lizzy turned to him again, a small, knowing smile creeping across her face. "We have to go on tour," Will explained.
"Oh," Lizzy said disappointed, and Will had to tell himself sternly that he shouldn't be so glad to see her seeming disappointed. "When?"
"'Bout a month and a half," chirped Lizzy's cousin; when Will and Lizzy turned to her, she shrugged. "I do watch a lot of TV." She turned back down the sidewalk. "Long engagements are cool, though," Lydia continued, placing her feet heel-to-toe, heel-to-toe, arms stretched out as if she were on the tightrope. "They make for better weddings. Lizzy, you're going to be maid-of-honor obviously, and if I stay on my best behavior, I might just be a bridesmaid too. We'll have to talk her into some good patterns for the dresses, though. I refuse to wear those lavender puff balls Aunt Diana made you and Jane suffer through—"
As Lydia continued to plan Charlie's wedding for him, Will watched Lizzy sling her camera over her shoulder so that she could shake her hair out and drag her fingers through it roughly. She was probably tired, Will guessed, seeing her pull her hair back and twist it into a ponytail. Her jeans were too big for her. They slung low on her hips, leaving a gap of smooth, pale skin between the waistband and the t-shirt she was wearing. Her eyes were larger than he remembered them, and brighter, more blue than green today.
Then, she lifted her camera again and glanced up, noticing his attention with a start.
"Well?" said another voice right in front of him, and Will flinched to see Lydia so close, her blonde hair right under her nose. "What do you think?"
"About?" Will said stiffening, and it didn't calm him any to hear Lizzy snap a picture, snorting.
"Do you think Bing will write Jane a song?" Lydia asked. Her voice has changed; it rather sounded like she had a cold. "For the wedding reception?"
"What about 'Accident'?" Will suggested, taking a step backwards toward Lizzy.
Lydia followed, coming even closer than before; only a few inches away stood between them. "He can't sing that. It's not even appropriate anymore."
"With a little tweaking, perhaps," Will said, glancing back to Lizzy for help again, but she was trying too hard not to laugh.
Will felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to find the hands of Lizzy's cousin grasping at the cloth near his middle. "Will you sing us something, Dar?" she asked.
"Me?" he replied, panicking as Lydia used her grip on his shirt to pull him closer. Surely…she must know that he and Lizzy—
"After all, every girl has a secret dream," Lydia whispered, looking up at Will with such wide, pleading eyes that he was terrified she might cry, "of being sung to."
Will gulped and turned back to see Lizzy laughing so hard and so silently that tears were blooming out of her eyes.
When he looked back to Lydia, she was grinning widely at her cousin. "Well, shit—I thought you'd get jealous," she told Lizzy. "Otherwise, I would've tried it sooner."
Lizzy just shook her head, still laughing.
"What—" Will started and began to scowl. "What was that?"
"I think I see someone that I need to go thank," Lydia said in a sing-song, peering around Will. Across the quad was a boy about her own age smoking in front of the dorms,. "Bobby, my friend from campus patrol," she explained to Lizzy.
"Oh," said Lizzy brightening. "Tell him we owe him something. Like dinner maybe."
"What is going on?" Will snapped, glaring from one cousin to the other.
"Bye!" Lydia chirped and fled.
"Bobby chased the paparazzi away for us this morning," Lizzy explained, snapping an idle shot of her cousin striding across the lawn, her long blonde hair streaming behind her like a flag.
"That isn't what I meant," Will said scowling.
"Lydia was messing with your head," Lizzy told him with a sly grin.
"Ah," Will said, turning behind him to watch Lydia edge up to the smoking boy, even push the boy's arm playfully, and Will wondered irritably how the girl could flirt in her condition. "Well, she's certainly an interesting character."
"Don't give me that shit," Lizzy said, so sharply that Will realized that he hadn't quite escaped her anger after all. "She has the right to pick on you a little. If it was me, you wouldn't get off nearly so easy."
Will refrained from pointing out that at the moment he wasn't getting off easy at all. He was quiet a moment, trying to gauge again exactly how upset Lizzy was.
"You told her?" he asked finally.
"Didn't have to," Lizzy said, sending him a level glare. "Wickham showed up drunk, and after proposing, he told us all himself."
Will groaned, pulling a hand over his face.
"Well, come on," Lizzy said, and she planted her feet firmly, as if she planned on throwing a hard punch if she needed to. "You're bound to have a good explanation prepared by now."
Will was silent, unable to think of anything to say, not with Lizzy waiting with that sharp scowl, afraid that he'd undo something and make Lizzy hate him again. He was almost sure that she was fond of him now; she wouldn't have wasted the effort of coming to New York if she wasn't, Wickham or no Wickham.
"That was your cue," Lizzy told him stoutly, "in case you didn't realize."
"I feel that I can't say anything now," Will said quietly.
"You have to say something," she told him in a low, dangerous voice.
"No, that's not what I meant—" Will started again.
"Well, you have to try to explain," Lizzy informed him with a glare. "Otherwise, I won't understand—"
"I was trying to say that anything, any excuse I have probably won't hold up to your standards," he told her with as little temper as he could manage. He must have still come across badly, because Lizzy stared back at him with narrowed, defiant eyes. He sighed and tried again. "You have very high standards, Lizzy, and I'm trying to meet them."
Lizzy was quiet, regarding him with a calm, level stare. "Well, my first standard," Lizzy said slowly, "is starting."
Will watched her warily, wondering how long she'd be patient enough to hear him out.
"I am listening," she assured him with a half-smile. "There's only reason I wouldn't, and that's if you tried to tell me that it's completely legitimate to pay someone $100,000 to marry their pregnant girlfriend. Especially when that someone already tried to seduce your little sister," she added. Will winced and couldn't look at Lizzy. "I really hope you didn't pay him by the way."
"No, I didn't pay him that," Will said, choosing not to mention the $2,000 he'd given Wickham in advance. Glancing over and noticing Lizzy's raised eyebrows, he swiftly added, "And I do realize that bribing someone to do what you want is unacceptable."
Lizzy snorted. "Glad someone knocked some sense into you then."
"Aunt Catherine actually," Will said with a cautious smile. "Or rather watching her try to pay you not to see me again."
"Fitz, too," Lizzy reminded him firmly, but she was blushing—Will was almost sure; it was difficult to tell in the dying light. Then, Lizzy smiled in her most dangerous way and told him, "Don't think I'll let you change the subject."
"I—" Will started and stopped again. Lizzy watched him steadily, waiting. "I believed it was what she wanted—your cousin, I mean."
"To marry Wickham?" Lizzy asked with a slight, disbelieving frown.
"Yes. To have someone there, someone to take care of her and to take care of the baby. To—" Will stopped again, knowing from the way that Lizzy was staring at the ground—arms crossed, mouth twisting—that he'd said the wrong thing. The truest thing, but still wrong.
"Well," Lizzy said slowly, her voice tight but controlled, "that's a little more infuriating that what I first guessed."
"What did you guess?" Will asked, wary of the answer.
"That you thought a bad husband was better than none," Lizzy said, "and all that shit about societal pressures."
"Yes," Will said quickly, "that too."
Lizzy glanced up at him sharply, meeting his gaze with a glare and making a noise that was half-incredulous, half-exasperated. "That doesn't make it better, Will. It just means that you underestimated society as much as you underestimated Lydia. Not everyone is as shallow as your aunt."
Will was silent for a moment, watching her as she ran her fingers through her hair again and realized, annoyed, that she'd tied it back. "I'm sorry," he said.
"It's not me you should apologize to," Lizzy snapped, tugging the elastic band out so that her hair fell in waves around her face, but when she glanced at Will's face, she sighed and said, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled. I know you already feel bad."
"I had to do something after…seeing you off," Will explained and looked away quickly when he saw her expression begin to change, to soften. "I needed to do something, and at the time, I didn't care if it was the wrong thing. So I followed you to Boston and tracked him down. I did regret it as soon as I'd done it." Glancing back at Lizzy, assuring himself that he had her mostly calm attention, he continued, "I suppose I should have contented myself with dragging him back here. But by then…"
Will couldn't think of anything else to say. Waiting for Lizzy's response, he watched the shadows stretch under the quad's trees and glanced at the young cousin, laughing now with the smoking boy. When he heard the camera click, he looked back to Lizzy startled and found himself staring her camera lens.
"It could've been worse," Lizzy told him, almost cheerfully. "Seeing Wickham again helped Lydia get closure. And getting him arrested," Lizzy added, lowering the camera to flash a bright grin toward him through the growing dark, "that definitely gave her closure."
Will smiled slowly back, warily back. "That was you then, who put him in jail?"
"And how did you know that Wickham went to jail?" Lizzy asked with a curious smile.
He shrugged. "He called me for bail."
"Bastard," Lizzy muttered with a grimace. "But no, it wasn't me. Lydia was the one who actually called the police. Right after he passed out, she ran up to the apartment, dialed 911, and charged Wickham with everything she could think of. Unfortunately, by the time the police actually arrived, she'd calmed down. So the only official charges were public intoxication and disturbing the peace. I'm still very proud of her, though," Lizzy added with another bright grin.
Will smiled, hesitantly. "But it you who gave him the black eye."
Lizzy shook her head, grin widening. "That was Jane."
"Jane?"
"Yep," Lizzy chirped, pleased. "Shocking, I know."
Will hoped this was a sign that the conversation was relaxing. "Charlie nearly hit me the other day."
"No…Charlie? Really?" Lizzy said, eyes wide, and she was shocked. "I guess they're growing up on us."
"Usually, young people grow out of using violence," Will reminded her, letting himself smile.
"I meant, them graduating from pushover status. They're both too nice for their own good," Lizzy explained. "What you do to make him so mad?"
"Jane. The pic—" he started, but Lizzy had already pointed the lens back at him and was snapping another photo. "I did offer, though."
"What?" Lizzy snorted, face behind the camera. "To hit him?"
"No, to let him hit me," explained Will. "I found him after Giana's press conference and offered. He nearly took me up on it."
"I would've," Lizzy said grinning and took another picture when Will scowled.
"Charlie said that it would be harder if he didn't hit me," Will explained. "That I would feel worse."
Lizzy was still grinning. "And he was right, wasn't he?" Will grimaced and let out a short angry scowl. "I'll take that as a 'yes,'" she decided with a smirk.
Will watched her silently, as she lifted her camera and stole another picture of him. "Please stop," Will said quietly. "You're making me worry that you're planning to take revenge and sell my pictures."
Lizzy laughed, so hard that Will felt obliged to smile back. "You know, I hadn't thought of that. But it's a good idea," Lizzy told him, teasingly snapping another photograph. When Will made a face, she added, "All right, I'll stop." To reassure him further, she even unzipped her bag and tucked her camera away. "It's getting too dark out anyway. It's just…" she told Will with a thoughtful smile, "You're more photogenic today than usual."
He wondered what that meant to a photographer like Lizzy, watching her intently. Too intently perhaps, because when she noticed, she laughed again. "Relax, Will. I'm not angry anymore."
"You aren't?" Will asked. "Are you quite sure?"
"Well, not very angry," Lizzy amended, wrinkling her nose, but when Will sighed, she grinned. "You thought you were helping; you were just a little misguided. In another life, I—well, we would've thanked you."
It occurred to Will that she was trying to comfort him, but he didn't know how to respond.
"Just so you know," she added with her usual grin, so wide that Will almost stopped noticing the dark smudges under her eyes, the extra room her body left in her clothes, "women want more these days than just somebody to take care of them and the kids. They expect more, too."
"What do they want?" Will asked, his gaze so intent that Lizzy's smile changed when she saw it, more wistful than cynical.
"Well, careers for one thing," Lizzy told him, squinting across the darkening quad at her cousin's bright hair. "And love," she added, almost as an afterthought, but she glanced his way again. And when she noticed Will's attention, she continued rather hastily, "Lydia wants to be a psychiatrist. For girls. Teenagers." She was rambling. Lizzy was rambling. Will had never seen her ramble. "She's been taking child psychology courses and—"
"You're lost weight," Will said and winced when he realized how blunt that sounded.
"Okay…" Lizzy said, smiling again and bemused, as if he'd given her a strange sort of compliment. "I hadn't noticed, but I guess it's good to know why my clothes aren't fitting right—"
"I meant—" Will tried again, struggling to collect his thoughts and calming himself with a deep breath, "it seems like it's been hard here."
Lizzy shrugged again and turned away again to stare over the dark lawn. "I think it's settled down," she said thoughtfully. Following her gaze, Will noticed her cousin, only recognizable now by her bright hair; she had an arm slung around the boy's neck. Lydia plucked the cigarette out of the boy's hand and tossed it to the ground, smothering it under her foot; when the boy started to protest, Lydia kissed him. Lizzy only snorted. "Lydia's slowed down a lot actually. I bet she won't even take that one home. And Jane…." Lizzy drifted off. She was smiling, her hair brushing her cheeks, but she was looking at the ground, her arm folded over her stomach. "Jane's obviously much better."
"How are you, Lizzy?" Will asked, trying not to be impatient.
That startled her. She turned to him quickly, mouth slightly open and eyes very wide. She looked down and away even quicker, but Will could have almost sworn that her eyes were brimming with tears.
"Lizzy—" Will said, taking a worried step forward, one hand outstretched, and Lizzy grasped that hand midair before it could reach her shoulder.
She was smiling.
"You're a good man, Mr. Darcy," she told him softly, and her eyes glittered suspiciously in the half-light.
"Lizzy, what is the matter?" Will asked, exasperated and worried.
"I'm all right," she assured him, smiling still in that odd way.
"No, you aren't. You aren't even acting like yourself," Will informed her, clasping her hand. "Tell me, Lizzy, what's wrong?"
She laughed, but even the laugh was shaken. "I l—" she began, but a shadow stretched toward them, saying "Ooo, am I interrupting something?"
Lizzy jumped away from the hand Will had begun to reach toward her face as they both looked quickly to their left. There was Lydia, beaming in the streetlamp's yellow light as if she knew that she was definitely interrupting something.
"Don't be a brat," Lizzy told her cousin curtly. To Will, she said quietly, "I'll tell you later."
"Lizzy—" Will said impatiently, more than willing to send the little cousin back to her new boyfriend so that he could get some answers out of Lizzy.
"What's up?" Lydia asked, glancing from Lizzy to Will with a sly, cautious smile.
"Lizzy isn't feeling well," Will explained.
"Will," Lizzy snapped, trying to pull her hand from his, but Will held it firmly, watching her face for a reaction.
"You know," said the cousin thoughtfully, "you might just be hungry."
Lizzy only rolled her eyes, half smiling, but she let him keep her hand.
"Lizzy," said the cousin in a scolding, motherly voice, "what have you eaten today?"
Lizzy turned to her cousin, grimacing guiltily. "Life."
The cousin gasped. "So, you're the one who's been nabbing my cereal."
"Sorry, Lydia," Lizzy said, almost meekly as Lydia glowered. "It's really good, though. I can see why you're addicted."
"That's all?" Will asked with concern.
"And lots of coffee," Lizzy said, which Will didn't find comforting. Lizzy made a face. "Don't look at me like that. Usually, I eat breakfast, get to working on my thesis, and look up to find out it's dinnertime already. I don't skip lunch; I just forget it."
"We should eat then," Will said decisively, looking from Lizzy to her cousin.
"We should," the cousin agreed with a slight smile that reminded Will strongly of Lizzy, "but gosh, Charlie and Jane are probably busy back at the apartment. We can't eat there."
"Lydia," Lizzy warned.
"Is there a restaurant around here?" Will asked.
"There's a sushi place just across the street," Lydia suggested with a smile.
"Do you like sushi?" Will asked Lizzy, but she was shaking her head at her cousin and giving her a shrewd, warning glare. "What?" Will said, looking back to the cousin.
"Lydia's trying to get you to take us to one of the most expensive restaurants in the area," Lizzy explained to Will.
"Don't fuss, Lizzy," Lydia said, patting her cousin's head. "Everybody will pay for their own."
"Don't give me that shit," Lizzy said, and Will was sure that she would've crossed her arms irritably if he weren't still holding her hand. "We ran out of the apartment without any cash, and you know it."
The cousin only grinned impishly.
"Do you like sushi, Lizzy?" Will asked again.
"She loves sushi," Lydia said in a sing-song. "Her favorite's unagi. That's eel," she explained to Will. "In case you didn't know."
"We should go, then," Will announced, and when Lydia cheered, Lizzy shot her a glare.
"I'll pay you back," Lizzy told Will.
"I don't mind—" Will began.
"I do," Lizzy reminded him, meeting Will's frown with a defiant scowl. "I'll pay you back."
"So we're going?" Lydia asked, and Will looked to Lizzy for the answer.
"We're going," Lizzy sighed and smiled despite herself when Lydia cheered again. "I do really like unagi," Lizzy told Will.
"Onward ho," Lydia cried and started toward the street, her long hair swinging behind her.
Once she was out of earshot, Will mustered the courage to lean toward Lizzy and whisper, "She's rather kind, your cousin."
Lizzy rewarded him with a sidelong smirk. "You're only saying that because you was trying to take care of me," she whispered back.
"Well," Will said with a brief smile, "yes."
"Well," Lizzy replied with a bright, answering smile, "don't start singing her praises just yet: Sushi 101--this place where we're going—is also one of the busiest places in the area. It's bound to be really crowded on a Saturday night, so you can expect to eat your sushi with some rubbernecking and maybe a few stolen pictures."
When Will stared at Lydia in horror, Lizzy laughed and pulled her hand away a second time, and Will was so stunned he let her draw it back. "Clever, isn't she?" Lizzy said, adjusting the strap of her camera bag so that it rested higher on her shoulder.
"She is your cousin," Will replied.
Lydia was waiting just ahead of them, pressing the crosswalk button and watching the walking signal.
"Yeah, on my mother's side. You should probably remember that," Lizzy advised. "Be careful, or she'll weasel retribution out of you for the rest of your life." Will felt something brush his hand and looked down, shocked, to see Lizzy threading her fingers between his. She only smiled and led him forward. "Come on. Let's go see if your press-free Vickroot deal still holds."
3.
Most of the time, you'll notice that the longer you sleep, the groggier you'll wake up, and Lizzy was no exception. The next day, she got out of bed bleary-eyed and achy all over, still in the stretch jeans and blue t-shirt she'd worn the previous day. She stumbled out in the living room, wincing as she knocked into the doorframe, and steadied herself on the back of the couch before moving on determinedly to the coffeepot.
It was still warm, and Lizzy smiled sleepily, pouring the rest in her favorite yellow mug. Glancing around for the sugar, she noticed a couple bridal magazines and frowned at them, flipping one open absently to a page that recommended ten kinds of bridal bouquets.
Then Lizzy gasped and her coffee mug slipped out of her hand, banging on the counter, brown droplets splattering everywhere. "Shit!" Lizzy snapped, snatching the magazines out of the way and mopping at the mess with a dishtowel.
Jane came running out of her room, frowning worriedly. "What? What happened?"
"What day is it?" Lizzy asked frantically.
"Um, Saturday," Jane said, still frowning, coming to the kitchen and grabbing paper towels to help.
"No, yesterday," Lizzy demanded impatiently, "what happened yesterday?"
"Well…" Jane blushed, looking down at her left hand. It was the first time Lizzy had seen the ring, and it was beautiful: a smooth platinum band with three stones, the middle one biggish and princess cut.
"Oh, good," Lizzy said with a heavy sigh of relief, grabbing the wad of paper towels Jane was holding out and catching the puddle of coffee just before it ran off the counter. When she noticed her sister still frowning at her, Lizzy explained, "I saw the magazines and I just assumed they were Charlotte's, but that would mean—"
"That the last year didn't happen?" Jane finished with a smile.
"And that we'd have yet to suffer through Charlotte and Collins' wedding," Lizzy grumbled, so darkly that Jane laughed, and Lizzy grinned too, noticing Jane's short, red hair sticking out in all directions. "But I guess the haircut kind of gave it away too."
"What's so funny?" someone said, and Lizzy jumped to hear a male voice in the apartment, wondering if Lydia had brought Campus Patrol Bobby home after all. But it was only Charlie, unshaven, blonde hair in a state similar to Jane's and beaming so wide that Lizzy's cheeks hurt just looking at him.
"Lizzy's not awake yet," Jane explained, as Charlie walked toward them. His arm went around Jane's shoulders, and her arms went around his waist. Jane's head was tucked perfectly under Charlie's chin, and Lizzy marveled sleepily at how well they fit together. Then she wondered where her camera was.
"So, how's Sleeping Beauty this morning?" Charlie asked, and it took Lizzy half a minute to figure out he was talking to her.
"Um…" said Lizzy bewildered, looking from Charlie to her sister.
"She doesn't remember?" Charlie asked Jane.
"Remember what?" Lizzy asked.
"She's kind of a heavy sleeper," Jane said, smiling fondly at her twin "I didn't know she could sleep walk though."
"Remember what?" Lizzy repeated irritably.
"Last night," Jane explained.
"What happened last night?" Lizzy said, suddenly worried. "I remember eating sushi with Lydia and Will, I remember walking back with Lydia and Will, and I remember sitting on the couch, watching Lydia grill Will and Charlie about their careers. After that, I guess I fell asleep."
"You did fall asleep," Jane assured her sister.
"You were so cute," Charlie said grinning.
"What did I do?" Lizzy asked, already blushing.
"About eleven o'clock, we look over, and you're asleep, curled up into Will like this," Charlie said, closing his eyes, pillowing his head on Jane's shoulder, and clutching at her shirt sleeve.
Jane smiled and kissed him, and Lizzy couldn't believe she'd fallen asleep on Will twice.
"And when he got you up to go to bed—" Charlie said.
"Shit," Lizzy said horrified. "There's more?"
"Don't worry," Jane told her smiling. "You didn't let him carry you."
"Will tried to carry me?"
Charlie nodded, grinning widely. "But you said you could do it yourself. So, he took your hand and walked you to your room—"
"Prevented you from crashing into the doorframe," Jane added. To Charlie, she explained, "Lizzy's always hitting the doorframe."
"He gets you to bed, and you kick off your shoes and kinda fall into bed," Charlie said, "mumbling and groping for the covers. Will starts to tuck you in, and you grab him around the neck—"
"Don't make it sound like she tried to choke him," Jane chided Charlie.
"Excuse me—you hugged him around the neck," Charlie corrected with a wider grin, and Lizzy groaned. "Then, when he tried to get up—he was kinda hunched over, you see, with you hanging onto his neck like a monkey," he explained to Lizzy, who stared back horrified. "Then you pulled him back down, halfway onto to the bed, and told him—very firmly--'Stay.'"
"It's all right, Lizzy," Jane said, squeezing her sister's hand when Lizzy was too embarrassed to respond. "Will's really a nice guy. He didn't mind."
"No, he didn't mind at all," Charlie said, gracing Lizzy with a knowing grin. "In fact, he was really bummed that that he had to go back to the city."
"He's gone?" Lizzy said, looking from Charlie to Jane and back to Charlie again. "How come you're still—"
"Charlie didn't just switch nationalities on live television," Jane reminded Lizzy.
"He's gone to meet some lawyers," Charlie explained.
"So his Aunt Catty got involved?" Lizzy said with a scowl.
When Charlie nodded, Jane asked, "Aunt Catty?"
"Our ex-manager," Charlie explained.
"Oh," Jane said, smiling up at Charlie, and he grinned down at her. Then she told him quietly, "Hi."
"Hi," he said back, kissing her nose.
"Hi," she repeated, kissing his chin.
"You know, if you need me to hop in the shower, turn on the radio really loud or something, just let me know," Lizzy said amused, and Jane and Charlie separated reluctantly. "It's not a problem. Really."
"Actually, I need to go back to Netherfield," Charlie said, smiling at Jane. "Take care of a few things."
"What things?" Jane asked suspiciously.
"Shave, first of all," Charlie said, scratching at his whiskers and grinning ruefully.
"Good call," said Lizzy, but Jane was frowning.
"I'll be back," Charlie promised Jane softly, and she looked up at him slowly. "Hey!" he said brightening. "You can come with me."
Jane shook her head smiling and kissed him again, a distinctly goodbye kiss. "You'll be fine on your own," she said and walked him to the door.
"Bye, Lizzy!" Charlie called through the doorway.
"See you later, Charlie," Lizzy called back, and Jane walked outside with him. By the time she came back, Lizzy had the Windex out and was de-coffeeing the countertop, trying not to remember all the things she hadn't told Will. She looked up smiling when she heard Jane click the door softly shut, but Jane didn't smile back.
"Lizzy," Jane said, so hesitantly that Lizzy assumed that she was in trouble somehow. Lizzy's eyes widened, and Jane crossed the room to take Lizzy's hand and reassured her. "It just—you didn't tell me that you saw Will Darcy when you went to visit Charlotte."
"Um…" Lizzy said, panicking.
"And you didn't tell me that you saw Charlie in England," Jane continued, pressing her lips together.
"No, I did tell you that, or tried to, at least," Lizzy protested, picking up her stained coffee mug and setting it in the sink. "I just didn't tell you anything else."
"It was a lot of else," Jane pointed out.
Lizzy nodded, watching the floor before herself to look up into her sister's worried face. "I'm sorry," Lizzy whispered, but as soon as she said it, Jane smiled and hugged her.
"Poor Lizzy, you just woke up, and everybody's picking on you," Jane said giggling.
"Well, I already feel guilty about it," Lizzy muttered, picking up the coffee pot and starting to some into a fresh coffee mug.
"Don't," Jane said, kissing her sister's cheek. "I did tell you not to tell me. I just didn't expect you to listen to me."
"What did you expect?" Lizzy grumbled, scowling at the coffeepot when only a trickle poured out, disgustingly grainy with coffee grinds.
Jane laughed again, tousling Lizzy's hair. "I expected you to say whatever the hell you wanted, just like you always do."
"I don't just say 'whatever the hell I want'—" Lizzy started, scraping her hair out of her eyes, and thinking again of all the things she'd wanted to tell Will.
"Yes, you do," said Jane with a wide, happy smile.
"Not if I'm afraid that it'll really hurt somebody," Lizzy finished scowling.
Jane smiled again, slowly this time, and kissed Lizzy's forehead tenderly. "You don't always have to take care of me, Lizzy," Jane said, stroking her twin's hair.
Lizzy shrugged, eyeing the beaming bride on the cover of the splattered magazine. "Sorry I got your magazine all coffee-y," she apologized.
Jane shrugged, still smiling. (Lizzy guessed that her sister couldn't stop smiling if she tried.) "Doesn't matter. I have some more on the couch."
"I guess someone's excited for the honeymoon," Lizzy teased. "You certainly moved onto the wedding planning stage fast."
Jane rolled her eyes with a placating smile. "They're all an engagement present from Lydia."
"Oh, Lydia's out and about already?" Lizzy asked, glancing at the open door to her cousin's bedroom.
"She was gone when I woke up," Jane said with a nod, "and I found a stack of magazines next to the coffeepot with a note on top."
"A note?" Lizzy repeated, and Jane handed it to her:
Hey, roomies!
I'm going home to Boston for a couple days, to check if the parental units will let me back into the house yet or not. (If not, I'll go find Daddy at his office or something.) I'll call you when I get there, but don't expect me back until October Break's over.
3, Lydia
P.S. Thanks, Lizzy, for letting me borrow your car. I'll get it back in one piece, I promise.
Lizzy scanned the key rack quickly and noticed her car keys were conspicuously absent. "Brat," she muttered. "I just hope 'back in one piece' doesn't mean one mashed up piece."
"I didn't realize she was planning to confront her parents," Jane said softly. Her smile had faded a little, almost worried.
"I did," Lizzy said, frowning at the note. "But I'm pretty sure she was scheduling it for Winter Break. All that forgiving Christmas spirit."
"I wonder why she moved it up," Jane said softly, using a bottle of Windex to spray over the last of the coffee spill, right along the edge of the counter.
"My guess is that she didn't want you trying to play Role Model with Charlie around," Lizzy said with a smirk. "She must really love you to get up so early, though. She normally sleeps in 'til about noon on Sundays."
"I don't think she had to get up that early," Jane said, hiding another wider smile behind her hand.
"She had to get up pretty early if she wanted to steal my car keys without me catching her," Lizzy said, opening the dishwasher to put two dirty but unfortunately unused coffee mugs away.
"Lizzy, it's one in the afternoon," Jane told her.
"It's one?" Lizzy gasped, glancing toward the clock disbelievingly, and Jane laughed. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"
"We figured you needed the sleep," said Jane, still giggling, but when Lizzy pouted, angry at herself for being so lazy, Jane added, "Go take a shower, get dressed, and everything. I'll make you some breakfast."
Lizzy nodded and moved toward the bathroom, grumbling, "I can't believe you didn't wake me up."
"Lizzy, you wouldn't have wanted me to wake you up," Jane called after her.
"Ugh," said Lizzy, stepping into the bathroom and stripping off her shirt. "I didn't need to hear that, Janey." But Jane only laughed again.
4.
To develop black and white film, you need to follow a series of steps: 1) unseal the film case with a bottle opener, 2) take the film out, 3) wind it onto a reel, 4) place that reel in a developing canister, and 5) then seal the canister shut so that you can treat it with developing solutions. You'll repeat steps 1 - 4, of course, if you're trying to develop several reels at once. The only trick is that the film will be ruined if exposed to light. Which means that you'll have to do all of the above while fumbling in complete and absolute dark.
This is what Lizzy did—just after she took her shower and got herself dressed, after she sat down at the kitchen table and obediently ate the oatmeal Jane gave her, after Charlie came back (freshly shaven) and took her sister away.
The lights were out. The door was locked. The reels were stacked in front of her. The bottle opener was in her right hand, and the first film canister was in her left.
She opened it; the vacuum inside popped obligingly, and the metal top dropped the floor with a slight ping. She sniffed and brushed the back of her hand across her eyes.
"Lizzy," questioned a voice behind her, "what are you doing?"
"Will?" she gasped, turning toward his voice and nearly dropping the bottle opener.
He took a step towards her, feeling along the sink to guide his way in the dark. "Yes?"
"What—" Lizzy sputtered, trying to process this, trying to figure out if she'd lost her mind completely. Will grinned, wishing he could see her expression. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you," he replied, smiling in the dark. "'See' being a relative term, of course."
"How did you get in here?" Lizzy asked, bewildered, sure that there had always been someone in the living room, almost positive that he couldn't have just appeared.
"Your sister let me in, and Charlie snuck me in here when your back was turned at the sink," Will explained, stopping when he knew he was close, close enough to smell the shampoo in her wet hair. "I didn't, however, expect you to walk right past me and snap off the lights."
"Sorry. I didn't even know you were coming back," she said, sniffing again and scraping her hair out of her face, and Will got another whiff of her shampoo. She resisted the same urge that she'd had to resist the day before: to reach out a hand and see if he was solid. "Um…how are you?"
"Fine," he said, leaning against the counter, hearing another pop and ping from the film canister. "Seriously, though: what are you doing? And do you really have to do it in the dark?"
"I'm developing the film from yesterday," Lizzy said, sniffing again, "and if it's not dark, I'll ruin the film."
"Lizzy," Will said, concerned when she sniffed a fourth time just before he heard another pop and ping, "are you crying?"
"No," she replied stubbornly, but her voice shook. "I'm just being stupid."
"You're not stupid," Will said gently, wanting to reach a hand toward her face to feel if her cheeks were wet. But he didn't, worried that in the dark, he would only manage to poke her in the eye or worse, graze a breast. (That would definitely get him kicked out, film exposure or no, probably with sexual harassment charges to boot.) "Even Fitz agrees that you're not stupid."
Lizzy smiled despite herself, using the palm of her hand to wipe another tear away. "I am being stupid. I'm happy for Jane. And Charlie. I'm happy for both of them."
"Good," Will replied hesitantly. "I am, too," he added and winced, thinking of Rosings. "For my part."
"I know they'll be happy together, very happy; it's just—" Lizzy said and stopped, and for a moment, the only thing Will heard was the sound of film rustling.
"Lizzy," he said, wondering what was wrong, wondering if he could manage to hug her despite the dark.
"It just occurred to me that it's going to be like when Charlotte left," Lizzy said softly, picking up the first reel.
Will made a face and remembered that Lizzy couldn't see it. "It isn't quite going to be the same."
"No, it'll be worse," Lizzy interrupted, picking out a strand of film and beginning to wind it onto the reel, careful not to make bumps and bends in the film. "I'm not sure you'll understand—"
"I'll try," Will promised, just so she knew.
"I know, Will; don't try so hard that you end up forgetting to let me talk," Lizzy said irritably, and Will half-smiled (silently), hoping that this was an improvement from crying. "You might not understand, because you have Pemberley. Home for you has always been a place." She slid the first finished reel into the developing canister and moved onto the second. "But me and Jane, we've always been together. Even when I moved out of the house and went to New York, I went to Jane when I wanted a break, not back to where I grew up."
"Oh," replied Will, understanding, "but they really won't be married for a while. They won't even be able to live together yet. We'll start rehearsing for the tour in the next couple months, and the tour itself will last for another six or seven, depending on how Maggie feels. You'll have another year, at least."
"It's not just that she's getting married," Lizzy said and sighed. "She'll be starting her internship soon. And if I manage to get my thesis done, I'll be graduating and moving out at the end of the semester." The second reel dropped into the canister with a tiny click, and Lizzy picked up the third. "I just know our lives are changing."
"Not for the worse," Will said gently. "Not necessarily."
"I know," Lizzy replied, and Will was almost sure that she was smiling. She sighed again and placed the last reel into the developing canister. "That's why I'm being stupid."
"So, you're writing your thesis?" Will asked when Lizzy was silent for too long.
She was screwing on the canister's top and groping for the developing solution. "Finished the rough draft last month."
"What's it on?" Will asked, hearing another pop as Lizzy found the bottle of the developing solution and opened it.
Pouring the solution in the canister, Lizzy grimaced and rolled her eyes at herself when she realized that Will couldn't see her. "You don't want to know."
"If I hadn't wanted to know, Lizzy," Will asked, smiling, remembering what Lizzy had told his aunt, "I wouldn't have asked."
"The culture of celebrity worship," said Lizzy, pressing the timer she'd preset and scraping her hair from her face.
"Your hair smells good," Will said before he could stop himself and gulped nervously when he sensed Lizzy turn towards him.
"Thanks," Lizzy replied. She was laughing, and Will was grateful. "It's my shampoo; I just took a shower."
Will didn't know what to say. He knew he was blushing like a schoolboy, but it was still dark at least; Lizzy couldn't see.
"Where are you?" Lizzy asked. She was shaking a little, but Will couldn't know that.
"Here," Will said and risked reaching a hand out, managing to find her shoulder with a minimum of fumbling, grasping it gingerly just below the curve of her neck.
"Good," she said decisively, and Will felt her hand on top of his, felt it sliding up his arm and then across his torso. The other hand followed, and Will forgot to breathe. He noticed that she was trembling and opened his mouth to reassure her, but Lizzy was already memorizing his shape, letting her hands travel up his chest, slide up his neck, and rest then on either side of his face.
Lizzy took at deep breath and went for it.
Will felt her lips at the corner of her mouth and turned toward the kiss automatically, but she was gone. "Lizzy…" Will murmured, wondering if she was teasing him.
"Oops," Lizzy said, and Will stayed very still, his head between her hands. "Missed," she explained and tried again.
He was ready this time, had a hand cupping her face before she'd gotten his mouth open, and then, they were kissing, finally kissing, one of his hands in her hair and the other at the nape of her neck. Hers traveled, roaming down his back, up his arms, and around his waist and then holding, tight, like she was staking a claim.
Then, one of her arms lifted off, and Will didn't notice much until he felt something clang behind him.
He flinched, breaking the kiss. "What the bloody hell was that?"
"Agitating," Lizzy explained breathless, and when she felt Will draw away, she realized he thought she was talking about him. "Bubbles. In the film canister. I shook it so they wouldn't ruin—"
"I understand," Will said, and his breath caught in his throat when he felt her lips traveled down his neck. "Multi-tasking."
"You're not complaining," Lizzy murmured, and he could hear her grin in her voice.
"No, I'm not—" he started, but Lizzy was already kissing him again, her hands gripping his back. His hands slid through her still damp hair; it was so soft he almost felt like he was doing something wrong. When he felt her arm leave him again and heard another sharp clang, he laughed against her mouth and felt her laugh too.
"How many times are you going to do that?" he asked and trailed kisses across her jaw.
She stifled a moan as his lips worked right below her ear and replied, as calmly as she could, "Every minute. Just about."
He laughed again, quietly, just next to her ear. "Counting, are you?"
Lizzy shook her head, and he began kissing her temple, her eyelids, her nose--brief, fleeting touches. "Guessing," she said and captured his mouth again.
When the timer went off, she tried to ignore it, she was going to ignore it, but Will fumbled behind him and swiped the film canister off the counter, pressing it into her hands. "Need this?" he asked.
"Yes," she sighed and pouted, turning to pour the developing solution into the sink.
Will fumbled along the counter until he found the still beeping timer. "Can I turn this off?"
"Sure," said Lizzy distractedly, pouring fix into the canister.
"No, I meant how," Will said irritably, glaring in the direction of his hands as it beeped at him. "How do you turn the bloody thing off?"
"Don't break it," Lizzy said quietly, and she reached between his hands and pressed a button on the top of the timer. It was silent in the darkroom, except for their breathing, huskier than normal. "It's safe now. We can turn on the lights," she added, stretching an arm across the sink toward the switch but stopped when she felt Will's hand around her forearm.
"I'm not ready for lights just yet," he told her softly. "We're having too much fun in the dark."
She laughed, imagining his expression, and kissed him underneath his chin. He moaned softly and returned the favor, trailing his lips down her neck until she gasped and hooked her hand around the back of his neck for another kiss, a long one, so tender that Lizzy was afraid that she was going to cry again.
He broke the kiss when a thought occurred to him suddenly. Unperturbed, Lizzy redirected her attention back to his jaw, traveling toward his ear. "Lizzy, when Jane and Charlie get married, you could move to Pemberley," Will suggested, and Lizzy's lips stopped just before his earlobe.
"No, I couldn't," she said softly and kissed him again, and even distracted, Will was almost sure that she was just trying to end the conversation. Returning her kisses eagerly, he fished a small, velvet box out of his pocket and opened it. "I'm serious, Lizzy," Will told her, and he could feel her pouting as he caught her hand and placed it on top of the open box. "Pemberley could be your home."
Impatient to get back to their previous activities, Lizzy frowned, feeling something under her fingers, something smooth and metallic on either side, with a slightly prickly bump in the middle. "Will…" she began questioningly and reached back across the sink to turn on the lights. She hit the wrong ones, the red ones, but even in the red light, Lizzy could see Will's smiling, expectant face and recognize the object he was holding in his hands.
"Are you crazy?" Lizzy snapped, glaring at the ring in his hands, open-mouthed.
Will blinked a couple times and smiled. "I don't believe so, no."
"You know what a commitment phobe I am, and you still think it's a good idea to pull that out," Lizzy said, staring at the ring in fascinated horror.
"Well, Charlie and I—" Will started, still grinning.
"Charlie?" Lizzy repeated, eyes narrowed. "Jane and I are completely different people, Will. Just because she decided to get married doesn't mean—"
Will had pulled the ring from its box and had taken her left hand in his, preparing to slide it on her finger, and Lizzy snatched her hand back.
"I can't accept that, Will," Lizzy said, glaring at him.
"Why not? I'm almost sure it's your size," Will told her, reaching for her hand again, but Lizzy pulled it away and hid both hands behind her back. "All your chemicals won't hurt it; I asked—"
"You're missing the point; I can't…" Lizzy stopped, took a second to take a deep breath and whisper, "…do that."
"Do what? Marry me?" Will asked, almost laughing.
"Yeah, that," Lizzy said, hands behind her back, scowling at the ring so hard that Will did laugh, and her scowl turned to him. "I'm serious, Will. I can't get married yet; I'm only twenty-one years old."
"But your birthday's next week," Will reminded her, smiling when Lizzy's mouth dropped open again. "Charlie told me," he explained.
"You aren't listening to me, Will," Lizzy growled. "I can't marry you. I can't live with you at Pemberley. I need to go to New York. I have apprenticeship offers coming in; I'm calling galleries. I love you, Will, but I have things I need to—"
"You what?"
"You heard me," Lizzy said, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest.
"No, Lizzy," Will said, serious now. "I need to hear you say it."
"I love you," Lizzy repeated, as she stared at him, answering his growing smile with a bewildered frown. "You didn't know?"
"No," Will said with a short laugh, "I can't read your mind."
Lizzy felt like this wasn't the time to tell him that her mind had nothing to do with it, not with Will beaming at her like that, the lines of his face softened in the red light. "Wasn't it obvious?" she asked instead. "I thought between your conference, yesterday's sleepwalking, my photographs—"
Will glanced around, noticed the photos hanging on the walls, noticing his own face looking back at him several times over. "Dear God," he said, startled. "You have quite a few pictures of me, don't you?"
"—and the kissing," Lizzy continued, feeling herself beginning to blush and very glad suddenly for the red light, "it should've been obvious."
"It wasn't," Will informed her, the smile growing on his face again, so wide that Lizzy knew that she was really blushing now. "Say it again."
"I love you," Lizzy said distractedly, letting Will slide his arms around her waist, the ring hooked around his own little finger, but she gasped just before Will managed to land another kiss. "This is what Giana was talking about."
"Giana?" Will asked. "Giana called you? You mean she ruined the surprise?"
Lizzy snorted. "No, she did not ruin the surprise," she said. She was smiling now; she couldn't help it and Will knew it. "She called it Damage Control."
"Brat," Will muttered, bending down to kiss her again, pausing an inch away from her mouth. "Again?"
"I love you," Lizzy said and smirked. "I can't believe you asked me to marry you before you knew how I felt. You are completely insane."
"Not completely," Will replied mock-pouting, almost pulling it off except for his eyes, wide and very happy. "If I were, they wouldn't let me buy the ring."
Lizzy laughed and kissed him again, her hands traveling from his chest to around his neck, his fingers tracing her spine. She grumbled when Will broke the kiss again. "Once more," he said grinning, and when she pouted, he added, "Please."
"Will—" she started scowling, going up on tiptoes to try and reach his mouth.
He leaned away, grinning wider. "Here, we'll practice. Now I say, I love you, and you say…" He waited, and Lizzy stared at him incredulously. "Lizzy, you're missing your cue."
"How 'bout this?" Lizzy offered, beginning to smirk, pulling him closer. "You kiss me now, and I'll leave it on a message on your voice mail so you can listen to it any time you want."
Will kissed her, but when Lizzy giggled triumphantly against his mouth, he broke the kiss again.
"Will—" Lizzy protested, on the verge of losing her temper.
"I'm going to hold you to that, you—" Will said, but that was all he managed, because Lizzy impatiently grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him back into the kiss.
(Fix, if you didn't know, has no time requirements, which--considering current distractions—was a very good thing.)
5.
Some things are unavoidable. Meals, for instance, will always come no matter what happens in your life, and someone will need to make them. Because Lizzy didn't feel like eating another dinner at some restaurant where some of her classmates and a lot of strangers stared at them, she entered the kitchen at about five o'clock and took Will with her, setting him up next to her cutting carrots.
"I rather like this," Will told Lizzy, as he chopped. From her own cutting board, surrounded by bell peppers, cucumbers, and celery, Lizzy smirked: his carrots were in giant, uneven chunks. "It's quite homey."
Lizzy snorted, and Will turned to her, grinning over his shoulder. "What? Is it my apron?" he asked, looking down at the green apron he was wearing, one that read If you like the food, I'll kiss the cook. "Do I look ridiculous?"
"No, you look cute," she assured him, and Will beamed. "But come on, Will: two hours as a couple and we've already started playing house. I can't tell if that's a good sign or bad."
Will put the knife down, grabbed Lizzy around the waist, and kissed her. Firmly.
"Okay, I'm convinced," she decided grinning. "Good sign."
Grinning, Will let her go and went back to his carrots. "So we're a couple now?"
Lizzy looked up from the cucumber she was slicing, glaring over at Will. "Well, I assume so. But," she added, with as much dignity as she could muster, "you're free to walk out that door and never come back. Just know that I'll have to track you down and kick your ass."
"No, by all means," Will said, bending down again to kiss her briefly. "I'm just making sure. I seem to never know where we are in our relationship. Proposing, for instance, seems not to have been as brilliant an idea as I originally planned—"
"Definitely not," Lizzy agreed, so emphatically that Will scowled. "But I love you," she added, and he smiled again.
"So, I'll just ask you from now on," Will told her. "To make sure."
"Which means basically that I'm calling the shots," Lizzy said smirking, and when Will paused in his chopping endeavors to think that through and scowl, she kissed him smiling.
"Oh, my God."
Lizzy jumped away from Will and noticed her sister staring at her, her red brows raised high. Grinning, Charlie walked up behind and tossed his keys on the kitchen table before wrapping an arm around Jane's shoulder.
"Um, hi," Lizzy said blushing. She glanced up at Will, who only rolled his eyes smirking, so Lizzy looked back to her gaping sister. "I didn't hear you come in."
Charlie couldn't decide who to grin at, Lizzy or Will, his gaze jumping from one to the other. "I don't believe it."
"I know," Jane said, leaning into Charlie. "Lizzy and Will?"
"No, not that," Charlie said, pointing at his bandmate. "Will in an apron."
Will looked down and brushed away a sliver of carrot from his front. "I think I look rather fetching."
"Aww," said Lizzy grinning. "You say words like fetching."
"This is too weird," Jane said. Her mouth was still open. "I need to sit down."
"Ooo," said Lizzy brightening, "do you want coffee?"
Will made a face. "Don't make coffee."
"Why not? It's only 5:15; it's not that late," said Lizzy. "And I haven't had any yet."
"I don't like the taste of coffee," Will explained.
"Well, you don't have to drink it," she pointed out, but Will was smirking at her so pointedly that Lizzy blushed and Charlie started to laugh.
"Okay, I really do need to sit down," Jane said, pulling a chair out from under the kitchen table and dropping into it. Charlie stroked her hair comfortingly.
"Well, I guess that's the first thing that has to change," Lizzy said, opening the cabinet and pulling out a box of pasta before reaching for something on the top shelf.
"You'll give up coffee for me?" Will said eagerly.
"No," said Lizzy, jumping to grab what she wanted and dropping it on the counter. It was the coffee. "You're going to get addicted like me, and we won't have this problem."
Charlie laughed again, and Will turned to him, glaring. "I like this," Charlie told Will. "It's going to be entertaining."
"When did this happen?" Jane asked, her mouth still open.
"I don't know," Lizzy said, shrugging before she poured the coffee beans into the grinder. "Sometime in England."
"I understand," Will said with a wide grin. "You love me for my house."
"No, I love you for how much you love your house," Lizzy corrected. "And your sister," she added as an afterthought, kissing his chin, probably because it was closest.
"And you," he reminded her, and she smiled and started grinding the coffee.
"Can I borrow your phone, Jane?" Charlie asked, and when Jane nodded distractedly, Charlie picked the cordless phone off the receiver and strolled to the window across the room, dialing.
"You really had no idea?" Lizzy asked her sister, straining to reach the coffee filters on the top shelf.
"No," said Jane frowning, "I had no idea."
Will took pity on Lizzy and took a filter from the highest shelf so that he could hand it to her.
"Thanks," said Lizzy smiling, and Will nodded and returned to his carrots.
"Yes, you did," Lizzy said. "You were teasing me in the car coming back from Boston—"
"Well, I knew he liked you," Jane said, glancing over her shoulder to make sure Charlie was still there. Leaning against the windowsill and talking into the phone, Charlie winked back at her, and Jane smiled.
"Did you really?" asked Will surprised.
"Oh, yeah," Jane said, pressing her lips together and nodding. "Even though you ignored me the rest of the time, you always paid attention every time I brought Lizzy up, and you kept staring at her at Netherfield—"
"Ha! I knew it," Lizzy said smirking and poured water into the coffeemaker.
"So, Charlie told you?" Will asked Jane.
Jane frowned again, thinking. "No…oh, wait—yeah, he did."
Will nodded, pleased with himself; Lizzy rolled her eyes affectionately and turned on the coffeepot. "But Lizzy," continued Jane, "I thought you hated him."
"I didn't hate him," said Lizzy with a pout.
"No," Will reminded her grimly, pausing mid-chop, "you did hate me."
"I didn't hate you," Lizzy insisted, slicing some more cucumbers. "I hated who I thought you were. There's a difference."
"Now you aren't making sense, love," Will said smiling.
"No, actually I understand now," Jane admitted with a small smile, coming to the kitchen and pulling a large pot out from under the sink.
"See," Lizzy said smugly. "You just don't speak my language."
"Yet. I'm learning," Will promised.
"Hey, Will," said Charlie, getting up from the windowsill, phone at his ear. "Fitz says he needs confirmation."
"That's Fitz on the phone?" Lizzy asked, making room for her sister as Jane put a pot of water on the stovetop to boil. "Tell him hi for me."
"Fitz, Lizzy says hi," Charlie said into the phone as he crossed the room.
"Fitz is the other band member, right?" Jane asked her sister softly, and Lizzy nodded.
"What kind of confirmation?" Will asked, putting the knife down on the cutting board, eyes narrowed.
"For the betting," Charlie explained, grinning widely when Jane put her arms around his waist.
Will scowled. "Fitz started a pool?" Charlie nodded. "Again?"
"A pool? On what?" Lizzy asked, and Will opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it.
"He didn't believe me when I told him that Lizzy didn't just run off," Charlie said, holding the phone out to Will.
Lizzy snatched it before Will could, snapping into the receiver, "You started a pool? On us?"
"Oh, hi Lizzy," Fitz replied. "How are you? And no, the pool's not on us; it's on you and Will."
"You can't start a pool on me and Will," Lizzy growled, and Will snorted softly and resumed chopping. Jane let Charlie go with a sigh and took over her sister's cutting board.
"I beg to differ," Fitz said politely. "Now I have a few questions if you don't mind: First, did Will propose or not?"
"What kind of question is that?" Lizzy snapped.
"I'll take that as a yes," Fitz decided.
"But I didn't answer," Lizzy protested.
"Yeah, but if he hadn't already mentioned marriage, you would've flipped out when I did," Fitz pointed out, and Lizzy couldn't argue with that. "Next question: have you had sex yet?"
Lizzy's mouth dropped open.
"What are we having?" Charlie asked, snagging a carrot chunk from Will's chopping board.
"Lizzy called it pasta salad," Will told him, "and don't touch my carrots."
Charlie raised an eyebrow and reached for one of Jane's cucumbers instead. "I'll make you leave the kitchen," his fiance threatened.
"Lizzy? Hello?" Fitz asked.
"You can't ask me that!" Lizzy hissed.
"What'd he ask you?" Will said, and Lizzy blushed and didn't answer.
"Well, that's a no, then," said Fitz, "and thank you: Maggie owes me fifty bucks."
"Fitz!" Lizzy snapped.
"I wouldn't want to be Fitz when Lizzy sees him next," Charlie said grinning, and Jane giggled.
"Getting angry won't help," Will told Lizzy, tidying up a carrot pile. "It won't change him; Fitz just likes to gamble."
"That's because he always wins," Charlie pointed out.
"Moving on then," Fitz continued. "Any hickies?"
"What the fuck?" Lizzy said. "Absolutely not. How old do you think we are? Fourteen?"
"Come on, Lizzy. You have to check for me."
"I do not have to check for you, Fitz," Lizzy snapped.
"Check what?" Will asked.
Lizzy held the phone away from her mouth and told him grimly, "He wants to know if I have any hickies."
"You do," Jane told her with a hesitant smile. "I noticed when I walked it."
Lizzy's mouth fell open. "Will," she scolded, and Will blushed.
"All right!" Fitz cheered. "Like I said, just like teenagers. Giana owes me. Now can you count them for me?"
"Count them?" Lizzy repeated, horrified.
"Looks like two from here," Jane said, angling her head to see.
"TWO?" Lizzy growled, turning to Will, and he drew back, worried she might hit him.
"Got it. Now how many does Will have?"
Lizzy lurched and dragged Will toward her by his apron, pulling his collar down until she noticed a series of three small red marks. "Ha! Three! I win!" Lizzy said triumphantly, and Will laughed and kissed her.
Since Lizzy seemed sufficiently preoccupied, Charlie took the phone from her hand and told Fitz, "Will is in an apron. Did we have a pool going for that?"
Jane giggled and turned her attention back to the pasta salad.
"Yeah," said Charlie into the phone and paused to listen to Fitz. "Okay. Right. Yeah, see you later, Fitz."
"Mind if I borrow that?" Will asked, taking the phone after Charlie hung up.
Lizzy seemed unwilling to let him discontinue his previous activities and pulled him back into a kiss. So, Will dialed without looking and then pressed the phone to her ear.
"Who?" Lizzy asked him frowning, as it rang.
Will pulled his ringing cell phone out of his pocket. "Me."
"Is your ringtone really 'Fire and Ice'?" Jane asked.
"Shh," Charlie said grinning, a finger over his lips. "Will doesn't like to get teased about it."
Lizzy paused listening, still holding Will's hand over the phone. "It's your voicemail," she informed him.
"Again," Will said smiling, and Lizzy laughed. She waited a few more seconds and then said, "Will. It's Lizzy. I love you."
"Oh, come now," Will complained. "I don't believe that for a second. Do I have to give you a reminder? Even the score, perhaps?" Will asked, bending toward her neck.
Lizzy laughed and pushed him away. "I love you," she said into the mouthpiece, beaming.
"I love you, too," Will replied and hung up for her.
Jane gasped, hands over her mouth.
"What's wrong?" Charlie asked her.
"They love each other," Jane said.
"Aww, but I think that's sweet," Charlie said teasingly.
"No, it's not a bad thing," Jane agreed and took a deep, steadying breath. "I was just…surprised."
"Hey, the coffee's ready," Lizzy chirped.
"No," Will said scowling, as Lizzy took her favorite yellow mug from the dishwasher.
"Uh-huh," Lizzy said, picking up the coffeepot and pouring it ceremoniously, as her twin sister stared incredulously.
"Don't drink that," Will told her.
"I hope you like sugar," Lizzy said in a sing-song, as she spooned some into her mug and stirred it.
Charlie laughed, and Jane looked up at her fiancé, eyes wide.
"I'm serious, Lizzy," Will said, watching Lizzy lift the mug to her mouth.
"I heard you," she replied and took a sip.
"That's it," Will said sighing. "You can't kiss me now."
Lizzy took another gulp and asked grinning, "Wanna bet?"
"You wouldn't…" Will started, backing away slowly.
"You shouldn't have said that," Charlie informed him. "You've only encouraged her."
"What if I have a severe allergy or something?" Will asked, backing slowly out of the kitchen.
"You don't," Lizzy said, swallowing a final gulp and putting her mug down. "You would've mentioned it."
Will ran, and when Lizzy chased him, even Jane was laughing. She caught him in the living room, tackled him so that they both fell on the sofa, Lizzy pinning him underneath her and Will trying to grapple with her.
"No," Will said again, but he was grinning.
"Don't be a wuss," Lizzy replied and kissed him, thoroughly.
Jane shook her head smiling. "Our lives are going to be insane from now on, aren't they?" she asked Charlie.
"Probably," Charlie said with a shrug and a smile and kissed her cheek.
When Lizzy let them stop and breathe, she was smirking, and Will was laughing so hard they both shook with it. "Marry me," Will told her finally.
Jane gasped, hands over her mouth again, and Charlie grumbled, "Copycat."
"I told you," Lizzy said and kissed the corner of his mouth. "I'm not getting married."
"Ever?" Will asked, pretending to be heartbroken.
Lizzy considered for a moment. "I didn't say that…" she murmured, and Will laughed and kissed her again.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's it! Well, kind of. That's all that I initially planned to write when I first outlined this story. So I went ahead and changed the status of this fic to 'complete,' but I am planning on writing an epilogue now. I'll just be charting into a storyline that wasn't even remotely in Jane Austen's original novel, so those of you readers who really loyal to the original book probably shouldn't read past this chapter. (To give you a hint about the epilogue and its readability, almost everybody is going on the B.F.D. annual ski trip. It'll be set over a year after this chapter to sketch out what the rest of Lizzy and Will's life together will be like.) The epilogue will probably take me maybe a month to write and update, unless I split it into two parts.
And I'd really like to thank everybody who reviewed. I'm really glad you guys enjoy this story so much. (I'm having fun writing it too, which is one of the main reasons why I decided to write an epilogue.)
Also, some of you asked about B.F.D.'s songs and if I wrote them or not. The only ones I actually wrote are "You Told Me" and "Accident." For the other ones, I took a poem I really liked and rearranged the verses until they sounded more like song lyrics. I sort of made up tunes to go with them and sometimes sing them to myself, but I'm really not a musician.
Thanks again for reading, everybody! Have a good summer!