Last Chapter Synopsis: Lizzy leaves England in uncertainty about her future with Will, and can't quite explain the foreboding she is experiencing. Going to meet Kitty's boyfriend in Central Park during a cold spell, Lizzy is horrified to realize that the boyfriend is Greg Wickham...and he has a gun.

Also, this chapter includes an instance of kidnapping and mild violence - possible trigger? Just wanted to give a heads up.

Chapter 42: Impediment

Although she would have liked to call it courage, Lizzy knew that it was only necessity that allowed her to begin to walk over to where her sister and Greg were standing. Her mind riled at the current circumstances, their reality so far beyond the realm of what she had considered to be possible that she almost felt as though she were watching the events unfold outside of her own body. Kitty looked dazed and disoriented, swaying a bit from side to side where she stood. As Lizzy drew closer, she soon recognized that her sister's hands were restrained behind her back.

Her senses heightened, the snap and crackle of each blade of frozen grass beneath her feet almost seemed to reverberate across the entire lake. Where were the people? Even the joggers she had seen in her search for her sister seemed to have been absorbed by the alternate universe she now found herself in.

It started in a small corner, but Lizzy felt a blinding rage begin to wind its fingers around her racing heart. How dare he involve her family in his schemes? What could he possibly be trying to accomplish? After all he had done to Will's sister, he still wanted to play with people's lives? The white hot heat radiated from her coat collar, tingling her blood and tensing her muscles. With a spontaneous burst of speed, Lizzy flew at him in a manic attempt to draw him away from her sister.

"Kitty! RUN!"

Lizzy threw all of her weight into Wickham's chest, sending them both toppling over onto the hard, frozen ground beneath them. Swiping angrily at his arms, Lizzy immediately recognized his superior strength and size in their tussle. Although she had knocked him off balance, her attempt at escape was soon ended when she felt the hard steel of the gun press into her side.

The calm in his voice terrified her. "Kitty. Don't go anywhere."

His missive was pointless. Kitty hadn't moved from where she stood.

Glancing up at Greg with venom in her glare, Lizzy was shocked to find his normally bright blue eyes dull and empty in return.

"Lizzy, get up."

She opened her mouth to tell him to go to hell, but his raised eyebrow made her think the better of it. Regaining her feet, Lizzy felt the gun immediately press into the small of her back.

Sensing movement behind her, Lizzy watched as Kitty's cell phone arched through the air before splashing and disappearing into the black water next to them.

"Walk." He gestured with a finger to a space between two trees a short distance away. "Over there."

Dragging Kitty with him when they passed her, Greg made sure that Lizzy kept the lead as they progressed; it wasn't long before Lizzy dejectedly realized that the trees had completely obscured them from anyone who might have chanced upon their situation. Although she expected Greg to make them walk for miles, the path was short, and it wasn't long before they reached a metal door in the side of a rock wall. Lizzy noticed that the padlock had been cut away.

Wickham smirked and looked her dead in the eyes, gesturing with his head in the direction of the door. "You first."

Lizzy felt a solitary tear slide down her cheek as the car pulled away from the curb, taking the last opportunity she had to watch her sister, who was passed out entirely on the bench Wickham had left her on near a local sports bar. The light snow that had slowly begun to fall was gently dusting Kitty's dirty blonde hair, lending a deceptive sense of peace to an unbelievably tense situation. When the watchful eye she had trained on her sister became impossible to maintain when the vehicle rounded a corner, Lizzy once again felt a surge of rage rise up inside her. Flexing violently against the zip tie restraints that now held her arms firmly behind her in the passenger seat, it wasn't long before frustration filled her body and causing her to lungs to half sob, half gasp in noted defeat.

"I wouldn't do that. You're gonna make your wrists bleed."

"Fuck you Greg. What the hell did you give my sister?"

"It's amazing what Rohypnol is capable of when mixed with alcohol, isn't it?

"You Roofied her?!"

"She'll get over it."

"When she comes to, she's going to turn you in. I don't understand what you're getting out of this."

He laughed, one of the darkest sounds Lizzy had ever heard. "When she comes to, she won't know her head from her ass. The last thing she'll remember is me leaving her by the bar to handle some business. I told her I'd be back in an hour. She won't remember the park or ever seeing you there."

Lizzy looked down at her lap as she tried to make sense of the situation she now found herself in.

Greg began again. "That's one thing you can always count on…teenagers being eager to be given free drinks, no matter what time of day it is. Oh, that reminds me. Speaking of drinks…I bought you a coffee."

"There is no way in hell I am drinking that."

"Come on Lizzy…I'm just being friendly." His accent, the one that had made him so congenial and welcoming when they first met, had quickly begun making her skin crawl.

"No."

Lizzy watching as he began to reach into his waistband to withdraw the gun.

"Now Lizzy, we can make this easy or we can make this hard. Which would you prefer?"

"I'm not letting you Roofie me, too."

"Roofie you? Never. I want you to remember every moment of my victory." He shrugged his shoulders and directed his attention back to the road for a second. "I just need you to knock out for a few hours until we get where we are going. Now drink it, or…I just kill you now. Your choice."

Lizzy felt the beads of perspiration spring onto her upper lip. She didn't recognize the man next to her, and she had no idea what he was really capable of. There could be poison in the coffee…but then you'd be dead anyway. You might be better off with the lesser of two evils, Liz.

"I…hate…you."

"I'm sure you do. But this is not about you. Drink."

"What? Greg...what are you talking about? You're holding me hostage."

"DRINK." Lizzy gasped as some of the hot liquid spilled on her blouse when he pushed the cup at her mouth.

Lizzy could see that his agenda left no room for her to bargain. Closing her eyes in terror, Lizzy parted her lips slightly to allow him to give her a drop of whatever was waiting for her in the Styrofoam cup. It might just have been her imagination, but the drink tasted like sludge as she took a small sip.

"Another." The word was firm and impatient. She had no choice but to comply.

Looking ahead, Lizzy noticed that her peripheral vision had begun to get blurry, and the only thing she could manage to focus on was a tiny red car far in the distance. She could sense motion, but beyond that her surroundings seemed to have left her some time ago. Somewhere in the fog of her brain, she heard a command to drink, and she obliging took another sip.

And then there was nothing but black.

Greg Wickham had always had a way with technology. It just…worked for him. It…bent to his will. Just like so many other things eventually did in his life.

It hadn't taken long to find the emails to her sister in her cell phone. Or the photos and messages stored in her "sent folder" documenting both her DR vacation and her trip to England.

Will was surprisingly lacking from the photos in the Dominican; but in England, he had definitely taken center stage.

Greg glanced over and saw that Lizzy was still sleeping off the Chloral Hydrate, posed exactly as he had left her an hour ago. He had used the moment to take a few opportune selfies with Lizzy, and now he selected three of the best ones and attached them to an email. In the "To:" section, all Greg had to do was type a D before Darcy's email came up with ease. Then he began his message…or – he snickered at the simplicity of it all, at the joy of technology - to be technically correct, her message.

Will,

I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for being so available to me when I needed it. You see, Greg needed someone who was close to you so that he could keep an eye on Gianna, especially considering her terrible circumstances. When he asked me to do it, you know that I couldn't refuse. I mean, who is Clyde really without his Bonnie?

I am so glad I don't have to pretend anymore.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy some photos from the recent vacation I rushed home to get to.

-Liz

Short and to the point.

Greg knew that he was betting on Will's feelings being very strong for Lizzy. Thinking back to Ella Lounge, he closed his eyes and once again remembered the look Will had given her. The look that had told him everything. The look that had revealed exactly how to destroy Will Darcy.

Oh yes. He cared deeply about her.

Will would figure out it was all a ruse eventually; probably when Lizzy's body was found in some ditch or floating in a river. Funny...he hadn't planned that part out yet.

But for now, all he would feel was pain.

A/N: Okay, it's out there. This is probably the most angst ridden chapter out of all of them. The only way to go from here is up, believe it or not! :)

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I hope this wasn't too long of a wait. (Hey, anything is better than six months...I'm still so sorry about that one.)

Until next time my Fanfiction friends.