Chapter 3: Painful Truths

Bing Lee rolled over in bed and clung to the last whisps of his dream fiercely, clutching the pillow that moments ago had felt much more like Jane Bennet than down encased in Egyptian cotton. The pounding began again and Bing realized that it was real and there was someone at his door. He padded to the door and opened it to the astonishing sight of Darcy in some disarray. His normally meticulous friend wore a button up shirt, tie, and slacks like any other day. The casual observer might not notice anything amiss. However, he also had dark circles under his slightly bloodshot eyes, he hadn't bothered with contacts and instead wore his glasses, his hair was rumpled and looked like he'd run his hands through it repeatedly and his brow was furrowed. "Hey Darcy!" Bing strove for his habitual charm as he let his friend into his apartment, but his concern seeped through. He looked at the clock and noted that it was nearly nine. It was a work day and Darcy was never late. "What's going on?"

"I..." Darcy began then fell silent and shook his head as he sat down stiffly at the table.

Bing had rarely seen Darcy this distraught, in fact only two occasions came to mind. "Darcy, are you ok? Is it Gigi?" He asked as he sat nearby.

"No, nothing like that. Gigi is fine. It's ..." His friend looked up as if summoning courage "... I have made a monumental error in judgment and led you to do the same."

Bing momentarily considered whether he was still dreaming. William Darcy admitting to faults? He laughed slightly, but sobered at Darcy's grave expression. "What do you mean?"

"I made a discovery last night, there's something you need to see." He pulled out his phone and made a couple of swipes and taps before handing it over. Lizzie Bennet appeared and broke his heart. Jane appeared, with that brittle smile and false cheer and he felt like a monster. When she began crying he felt light-headed and nauseous, and tears pricked at his own eyes. He watched the whole video in a silence that hung thick in the air for minutes after the video ended.

"You ... You said she didn't love me. That she was using me," he said, unable to look at Darcy.

"I observed her myself and couldn't see that she felt more for you than any other man she interacted with." There was another long pause. "Obviously I was wrong. About so many things. I'm so sorry."

"You and Caroline said that she cheated on me!" This time he turned an accusatory look at his friend and noted that Darcy looked as wretched as he felt.

"I saw her kissing another man. I was only in the room for a moment, but I did see it." Bing felt the same stab of jealousy and disbelief he had when first confronted with this story. "But I've thought about it further and realized that the man in question was Fred Tilney."

Bing's jaw dropped, "What was he even doing there? I haven't even spoken to him since he broke up Jim Morland and Izzy Thorpe!"

"I don't know, but Caroline sent out the invitations. She's the one who led me into the room then immediately back out of it."

"But..." Bing was having a hard time wrapping his head around this "...but Caroline loves Jane. They're friends. She wouldn't ..."

"Caroline knew about the videos. She'd been in the videos. Anyone who watched those would know that Jane Bennet was in love with you," Darcy said dolefully.

"Tilney always did see monogamous couples as something of a challenge." Bing felt sick at the thought of that man pawing at dear sweet Jane. Panic and bile rose up in his throat. "Oh God! I didn't even ask her what happened. I just left! I've avoided her calls for days! What have I done? What can I do?"

As his throat seemed to close up and it became increasingly hard to breathe, he felt Darcy's hand pushing gently on his back and heard his voice say from an indeterminable distance, "put your head between your knees, take deep, slow breaths."

As his panic began to reside, he slowly got his breathing under control, and said sarcastically, "I thought I was the med student."

Darcy gave his ironic half smile that so few people ever saw, "it doesn't take formal training to know how to manage an anxiety attack."

Bing sat back in his chair and looked at Darcy, "what can I do to fix this?"

Darcy's chin drew back into his neck and he refused to make eye contact. "I thought we'd just proven that I am not qualified to give advice in this arena."

"Come on Darcy, I need help! I can't immagine a worse way to alienate the woman I love."

Darcy let out a strangled laugh, "Trust me, it's possible." Bing looked up and saw a look of utter despair on Darcy's face. This couldn't just be about Jane, Darcy messed up, but at least he'd apologized and was here, now, helping.

His last statement seemed like too wide of an opening to pass up, so Bing asked, "How?"

"You could insult her within her hearing, act cold and indifferent, ridicule her taste and family, assume that the frequent arguments you had were flirting, and not even consider what her opinion of you was until you saw her rant about you on the internet." Darcy was sitting back and scowling into the distance.

"Lizzie...?" Bing ventured, genuinely surprised at this development.

Darcy nodded. "Jane is upset at you because she loves you and you left. She'll be mad for a while, but if you talk to her, apologize, and explain what happened, she'll forgive you. Lizzie hates me, and I did nothing but confirm her assumptions about my arrogance and conceit."

"Well, look..." Bing began optimistically, "assuming Jane ever forgives me for my stupidity I'm sure you'll see Lizzie again. It's not too late to change her opinion."

Darcy looked at him skeptically but nodded. "I'll take my leave then so that you can call Jane and start making amends. If there is anything I can do..."

Darcy left and Bing took a deep breath and called Jane. She explained that Fred Tilney's drunken advances were wholly unwelcome, but she hadn't wanted to cause a scene or make a fuss, so after the kiss she'd firmly excused herself from his company and fled to a more populated room. Bing apologized for reacting without hearing her side of the story and for failing to protect her while she was in his home. It was a long and difficult call, but by the end they had slipped back into their habitual good humor together. She would be starting her new position next Tuesday, so Bing offered to 'carpool' with her to LA. He'd drive up tomorrow, load his car, and drive back down with her on Sunday.

With the hopeful prospect of seeing Jane in two days, Bing settled himself down with his laptop and watched some of Lizzie's videos. It didn't take long for him to see why Darcy was so upset.