Thanks to my beta MAB35 for all her help! An once again I'm sorry for the delay, I'm really trying to get back on track with it.

Chapter 16

Jane walked into the den of the Bennet townhouse finding her friend sitting in an armchair with her legs curled up under her and a book in her hand. It was the afternoon after Charlie's impromptu sleepover and the girls had managed to leave his apartment late that morning. There was still plenty of snow outside and flurries were still coming down gently but the roads had been cleared throughout the night.

"What are you reading?" She asked, sitting down on the sofa and craning her head to catch a glimpse of the title. Deciding to make it easier for her, Lizzy raised the book and held the cover in front of Jane's face for a few seconds before continuing her reading.

"Ah…so," She waited for Lizzy to look up again, "How are you doing?" Lizzy raised an eyebrow, "Umm…I'm good?" she asked.

Jane laughed at her friend. "Sorry, it's just, you were a little upset at Charlie's place and you've been quiet since we got home. What's bothering you?" She looked at her friend, the concern evident on her face.

Lizzy smiled at her, "Don't worry, it was just a bad mood. I'm fine now, just…a little hung over."

Jane giggled and then sat up quickly as something occurred to her, "Hey, what were those texts you were getting? Why did Richard think you had a boyfriend?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about those." She sat up a little and looked around. Locating her cell phone on the coffee table, she reached over to grab it and tossed it on her friend's lap. Jane opened the texts and read the two in question.

"Gorgeous?"

"I know, who could it be?" Lizzy frowned thoughtfully. They sat quietly thinking over the possibilities.

Jane looked up at Lizzy with wide eyes. "Lizzy, what if it's Marc?"

"It couldn't be, Marc is in Paris remember?"

Jane shook her head, "Well what if he's here? What if he wants to see you?"

"Why would he? We broke up months ago. Almost a year actually. Why would he show up now?" Lizzy looked at her friend, baffled by her suggestion. Jane shrugged, "I don't know but who else calls you gorgeous?"

"Yeah, I always hated that." Lizzy wrinkled her nose.

"You really don't think it's him?" Jane insisted.

"It's highly unlikely don't you think?" She asked, shrugging in response.

Jane pursed her lips. "Well, maybe you should call him, find out."

"Nuh uh, no way! What if it's not him? I'd look like an idiot. I'll just pass on the number to a friend and see if he can track it and figure out who it is." Lizzy sighed, not really bothered at the moment about her mystery texter. Her headache had dibs on her full attention.

"Oh la la Lizzy has friends in high places!" Jane waggled her eyebrows at her Lizzy and winked earning her a guffaw from her friend followed by a wince.

"Oh sorry!" Jane winced also as if she too felt the pain of Lizzy's hangover. "Well, I could really use some tea. Want some?" She stood up and waited for her friend's answer. Lizzy shook her head, "No thanks I'm good."

Jane left the room and Lizzy dropped her book onto her lap as she thought about her ex-boyfriend. Marc-Andre DuPont. They had been involved for a little over a year. At first Lizzy couldn't help but be attracted to him. He wasn't exactly tall, just a few inches taller than her really, but his dark blonde hair and hazel eyes had made up for that. Normally, she didn't go for blondes, but at that time, Lizzy was all for experimenting and so when the struggling artist asked her out after meeting her at the Musee d'Art Moderne, she accepted with only a moment's hesitationafter only briefly hesitating. Marc Andre was always sweet and very affectionate but for some reason Lizzy could never bring herself to take their relationship to the next level and hadn't even told him she loved him and she hadn't been in love with him. It was more of a warm friendship. Eventually, Marc got tired of waiting for her to come around and slowly their relationship went downhill until they mutually decided to end things between them. Although their break up had been amicable, Lizzy had never really bothered to keep in touch with him. She hadn't even called him to say goodbye when she left. So why would he be contacting her now? Lizzy shook her head, it was all very confusing. She looked up when she heard her friend's padded footsteps. Jane walked in holding a mug of steaming hot tea and handed Lizzy a water bottle.

"For the hang over." She explained as Lizzy took it from her with a thankful smile. She carefully sat down on the sofa and blew into the mug she held with both hands. The temperature of the cup warmed her cold fingers and she savored the heat, being unused to cold weather like this. She smiled at Lizzy as she made herself comfortable by tucking her legs underneath her. Taking a sip, she watched her friend over the rim.

"By the way what is going on with you and Will?"

Lizzy frowned at her, "What do you mean."

"Do you like him?" Jane persisted.

"Uh no, where did you get that?" Lizzy raised her eyebrow at Jane who regarded her calmly, "I mean, yeah I like him, he's a good friend but do I like like him, no." Seeing the knowing look on Jane's face made Lizzy suspicious, "Whyy?" she dragged the word to 3 syllables.

"I don't know, there's a vibe when the two of you are together. He's always looking at you." Jane began.

"No he's not." The denial flew out of Lizzy's mouth automatically.

"Yes he is! Every time we are all together, I see him checking you out and whenever you sit with Richard or he hugs you or something, I can see Will getting jealous. He turns red and frowns and has to look away." Jane insisted. Lizzy laughed,

"Ok seriously Jane? Where are you getting this? You are always looking into Charlie's eyes, how would you notice any of this, if in fact it was actually happening?" Lizzy rolled her eyes but Jane wouldn't back down. "Lizzy, I'm not stupid, I know what I saw. Will likes you and you are different with him. Not like how you are with Richard."

"Hey, I do not like Will anymore okay?" Her eyes widened when she realized her slip of the tongue. Jane leaned forward looking like the cat that ate the canary.

"Anymore? What does that mean?" Jane stared at her friend who was having trouble making eye contact. Lizzy played with the label on the water bottle.

"It's nothing okay?" She insisted.

"Lizzy come on," She prodded gently, "Talk to me." She watched Lizzy for a few minutes in silence. Finally Lizzy looked up and sighed, "Okay, so I had a crush on him when I was a kid, it's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal? How can you say that? When was this?" Jane put her empty cup on the side table and focused all her attention on Lizzy.

"Because it was a long time ago. Before I moved to Paris."

"So what happened?"

Lizzy shrugged, "Nothing, I was crazy about him, he thought I was a kid, I got tired of seeing him with women all the time and then I ended up moving away. End of story. It's a pretty boring one too."

"Is Will the reason you left-" Jane began but was cut off my Lizzy,

"No! Absolutely not…or at least not the only reason." Lizzy could see the surprise on Jane's face and felt uncomfortable for revealing so much. "Look, Jane, it's all in the past ok? Will and I are just friends."

"Lizzy, you moved to Paris because you were love with Will and he saw you as a kid. Even in Paris, you barely dated at all, except for Marc and that was barely dating. Were you waiting to come back to Will all this time?" Jane's eyes were shining with excitement.

"Whoa easy there Cinderella. You might be living a fairy tale life with your Prince Charming but my life isn't like that." Lizzy fought to keep the bitterness from her voice. She didn't want to begrudge Jane her contentment. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was Jane with her tender heart and sweet nature.

"I don't know Lizzy, it all sounds very romantic to me!" Jane sat back, ideas whirling in her head she pictured Lizzy in a beautiful dress with her dark curls floating around her while her tall, dark and handsome Prince Will stood behind her with a protective arm around her. She couldn't help but sigh over such an image. Lizzy noticed her dreamy expression and grew suspicious of Jane's musings.

"Janey, do not get any ideas in that pretty head of yours concerning my love life!" The smug smile on her friend's face brought her no comfort whatsoever.

A few blocks away, Darcy stormed into his cousin's penthouse apartment with raging eyes. He found his cousin lazing on the leather couch in front of the TV, idly flipping channels in the vain attempt to find something remotely interesting.

"Hey man," Richard turned to find Darcy glaring at him, his face red with oppressed emotions and raised his eyebrow, "Whatcha been smoking?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Just what is going on between you and Lizzy?" Darcy burst out placing himself directly between his cousin and the television.

Richard shrugged, "Sure, by all means, stand there. You're prettier than anything else on."

Will rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly as he moved over to the armchair. "I'm serious, Richard. You're always flirting with her. At the very least you're going to raise false expectations. And what about Jessie?"

"Are you kidding me?" Richard scoffed, "Get your head out of your ass, Othello. Lizzy and I are friends. Good friends, nothing more and we both know that and neither of us wants more."

"Are you sure about that? How do you know she doesn't want more?" Will ignored the pang in the pit of his stomach as he waited for Richard's answer.

"Because Lizzy treats me like a brother, not a potential love interest and she knows about Jessi. Listen, I'm not the one you should be worried about. She's a beautiful young woman. I'm surprised that no one's snapped her up yet. If you're interested, and I mean seriously interested, not playing around, you're going to have to make a move." He watched the range of emotions flit across his cousin's face.

"So what, I just ask her out? I can't do that. I'm not sure I'm ready to do that." Will mumbled.

Richard sat up and leaned his elbows on is knees as he shook his head. "No, just spend time with her first, get to know her. Knowing you if you ask her out now you'll get all nervous and say something stupid and piss her off."

Will exhaled and sat back, pondering Richard's words. He really couldn't argue with them. His cousin knew him well. "Your furniture still sucks by the way" he muttered.

"Yeah well, blame the decorator. She forgot to factor in comfort when she did this place." He stood and walked over to his open concept kitchen, complete with black granite counters, stainless steel appliances and tall bar stools. Opening the fridge, he leaned in to examine its contents. "Hungry? I got leftover chinese from…Wednesday." He called out without looking at his cousin.

"No thanks I'm good," Will walked over and perched on the barstool. "Ok, seriously you have to redo this place. Even these are uncomfortable. And everything seems so…cold"

"Eh, I'll do it eventually. I hate the hassle man." He pulled out a soda and held it out over the counter.

"Why don't you just get Jessi to do it?" Will reached for it and opened the can warily in case his cousin shook it. When the coast was clear, he relaxed and took a gulp. Richard smirked at him.

"I will…once I get a ring on her. Don't want to scare her away with my 'domestic expectations'." He rolled his eyes and opened a box of Ppringles. Will chuckled,

"Never thought I'd see the day where Richard Fitzwilliam would be begging a woman to marry him."

"Hey I'm not begging." He protested, "I'm just…waiting."

"No you're right, you passed begging months ago." Will grinned at the unusual advantage he had over his cousin. Richard sighed and walked back to the sofa.

"I don't get why she thinks things have to change if we get married. She can still go all over the place for her job. She'd actually be more comfortable, she'd take the jet." Richard flopped down with a frown and popped another chip in his mouth. Will followed him back still clutching his soda.

"Maybe she's scared of the women in your family?"

"Hey! My mom's a lovely woman." He protested with a confused expression. Will was always very close to his aunt. He thought for a second, "Ohhh you mean Aunt Cat. Yeah she's a deal breaker." He grimaced as Will nodded in agreement. "But that's not enough to say no. I mean she's not marrying her, she's marrying me. No there's gotta be something else." The two men sat in silence for a while quietly sipping drinks and crunching on chips.

"Ok enough of this gloomy subject. Call of Duty?" Richard placed the container on the side table and walked over to the console to grab the wireless remotes.

"Sure why not. It's been a while since I kicked your ass" Will shrugged and tossed his empty can into the garbage. He reached out for the remote, ready to lose himself in any activity that kept his mind of his women problems. He had a plan of action. For now, that was enough.