Chapter 7: Robot Surprise

Lizzie was sitting in her temporary office at Collins and Collins reading through Charlotte's operational plan for her independent study when Charlotte burst into her office.

"I need to know what was in that letter." Charlotte demanded as she sat down across in front of the desk.

"Charlote, we've talked about this. I can't"

"I know that it was personal, and I don't need all of the gory details, but I need to know what's going on between you and Darcy." Charlotte's 'successful business woman' voice seemed out of place for such a private request.

Lizzie shifted in her seat. How could she explain what was going on with Darcy to Charlotte when she didn't know herself. She strove for a casual tone and replied, "nothing's going on between me and Darcy." Which was true. They'd had no contact since that letter.

"Ok, real talk. This is important. Catherine DeBurgh informed us yesterday that she was bringing in a consultant to monitor corporate progress at Collins and Collins. This afternoon, Mr. Collins and I got an e-mail from Darcy informing us that he was the consultant and he and his colleague Fitz Williams would be here on Sunday to begin the process. Then five minutes later I get a second e-mail from him asking that I inform the staff and any interns or shadowers ahead of time of their presence so that nobody would be blindsided."

Lizzie started at that phrase. "Oh God, he's still watching the videos!" Lizzie whined.

"Apparently," Charlotte concurred, "So, I need you to tell me. Is he concerned about running into you because he's angry at you, or because of ... other things."

"I don't know, Charlotte. He wasn't angry in his letter, more ... hurt."

"In your last video you said that you were blindsided by Catherine DeBurgh being his aunt, maybe he just wants to make you more comfortable?"

Lizzie giggled a bit at the idea of William Darcy making anyone comfortable, but the laugh died on her lips as she recalled the gentle tone of his letter. "I don't know what's going on with Darcy," Elizabeth repeated, "he's this guy I met and thought was an arrogant snob, we had an awkward relationship IRL, I said a lot of mean things about him on the internet, he saw them, and he sent me a really nice letter. If it had been anyone but Darcy, I would have thought that he liked me from some of the things he said in his letter..." Lizzie trailed off, blushing.

"Such as..." Charlotte prodded.

"In response to my assumption that he hated me he responded that his feelings were quite the opposite."

Charlotte sat up straighter, "he loves you?"

"I didn't say that!"

"Come on Lizzie! We learned what the opposite of hate was in like kindergarten!"

"Shit! Does Darcy love me?"

"Well, that probably means a better outcome for C&C from this review at least," Charlotte said flippantly. Lizzie shot her a look. "How about you? What do you feel."

"Certainly not love! But I do owe him an apology, and we probably need to talk."

"Yeah!" Charlotte said sarcastically as she rose to go back to work.

The next day she'd gotten a phone call from Jane. She was doing so well in LA with her new job, and things with Bing were as practically perfect as they were before the incident. Somehow Jane still hadn't seen or spoken with Caroline since they all left, which was weird with them living in the same city and Jane dating Caroline's brother. Jane did admit that Caroline might have played a role in the incident, it was the worst thing she'd ever heard Jane say about somebody else and Lizzie was proud.

But then Jane continued on with: "I know Darcy initially advised Bing to cut ties with me too, but after he realized what my feelings were he tried to fix it. He's actually kind of sweet."

"Jane, this is Darcy we're talking about!"

"I never thought he was as bad as you portrayed him, and I've seen him several times in LA... I hear he's going to be in your neck of the woods for a while." Jane tried to sound casual.

"Ugh, not you too!"

"Lizzie, he saw your last video and he wanted to make sure he wasn't ..."

"Blindsiding me... yeah yeah," Lizzie finished for her sister

On Sunday she sat in the deserted Collins and Collins office in front of her camera. She had just let off a lot of nervous tension by dancing around like a five year old when nobody could see her. Of course, filming this and uploading it to the internet somewhat negated that logic.

"Sometimes you just need to kick off your shoes and run around like a little kid. My name is Lizzie Bennet, and I can't remember the last time I laughed like that." She paused to give a clean break for the intro to be edited in to. Things have been so tense lately, Charlotte and Mr. Collins are off meeting a new consultant, and you'll never guess who it is!"

"Well, you probably will, because you guys always seem to guess that it's Darcy, so this time, internet, you win. In the past three days I've heard from no less than three sources that William Darcy would be consulting at Collins and Collins. He e-mailed Charlotte, explicitly asking her to inform me, my lovely sister Jane 'casually' slipped it into our phone call yesterday, and he even tweeted about it! The man never tweets unless tweeted at and is only following, like, four people but he felt the need to tell the internet where he'd be for the next few weeks."

Lizzie grimaced at the implication that she'd studied his tweets, of course she hadn't. She'd been linked to the tweet and she studies communications, she just naturally observes trends and analytics ... Well, Charlotte would have to edit this awkward pause out. "Before you ask, I only know because so many of you, my loyal fans, retweeted it at me. You should all probably leave the poor man alone."

"So basically, after my last video, Darcy felt the need to widely advertise that we'd likely run into each other which is ... actually kind of sweet. It would be awkward anyway, but at least now I'm prepared."

"Hey Lizzie," Charlotte called from down the hall, "some people came back after the meeting, you should join us," she said with a shrug and a significant look.

Lizzie looked at the camera and shrugged, "I guess it's time to get this over with."

"Pleasantly?" Charlotte said with a pleading face.

"Pleasantly, I can do that!" Lizzie said to the camera. Then got up and followed Charlotte down the hall.

Darcy was sitting in the reception area, his chin locked against the monotonous drone of Ricky Collins's voice, but as soon as he saw her he jumped up and said "Lizzie!" in a voice that almost showed emotion before he cleared his throat and asked in his habitual tone, "how is your family?"

"They're doing well," Lizzie said, uncomfortably aware of his feelings toward her mother and Lydia.

"That's good, I had dinner with Bing and Jane on Friday. She seems to be doing well in LA." His voice was still somewhat mechanical, but it seemed softer than she remembered.

"Yes, they actually seem to appreciate her talent in LA and she's got a lot more opportunities than she had in our sleepy little town."

"Yes," Darcy said stiffly, then turned to introduce his friend, "this is Fitz Williams."

"Lizzie B," he said exuberantly, "I've heard so much about you!"

"Really?" Lizzie turned anxiously to Darcy and he blushed a little — Darcy the robot blushed!

"Only good things! Listen, my boyfriend has been chilling at the hotel all afternoon and is ready for dinner, you wanna join us?" He asked and wiggled his eyebrows.

She looked at Darcy and replied, "sure..."

At just the same moment that Darcy began, "I was ..." Darcy cleared his throat again and said, "you go ahead."

"I was just going to say sure, but..." she paused as she felt the sudden need to clear the air, "can we talk for a minute?"

Darcy looked surprised, but answered with a small nod, "of course." He swallowed visibly and Lizzie was momentarily mesmerized by his Adam's apple.

She led him to the office she'd been using and remembered the camera was still rolling. "Oh, I can shut this off if ..."

"Oh, you're filming." He swallowed again, "no, it's quite alright, I can't begrudge your videos certainly. They've been very useful from my perspective." Lizzie couldn't quite see how a series of videos railing on him could possibly be useful.

"Um, ok." She sat down stiffly and he sat beside her.

"You wanted to speak with me?" He asked hopefully.

She found she couldn't look at him, so she looked at the camera instead. He could look her in the eye when he inevitably watched this video later.

"I owe you an apology, I was overly ... harsh on you in my videos."

"What did you say of me, that I did not deserve?"

"Do you need a recap? Because there was a lot. One of my fans even helpfully made a supercut of all of the times I've insulted you."

"I hadn't realized ... I've been used to acting the way I act and having everyone else just fall in place because of my money or position. I might have continued acting like an infuriating douchebag forever if you hadn't called me on it."

"Well, I'm sorry I did it so publicly then. I somehow never pictured you actually watching my videos. How did you find them?"

"I do run a digital media company, I'm perfectly capable of running a google search."

Her eyes snapped up to his. "You googled me? Why?" He returned her gaze with that intense stare of his that she remembered so well. She'd always assumed he'd seen her as such a trainwreck that he couldn't look away, but now, sitting this close to him, feeling his heat against the length of her arm ...

"I ..." he began, then seemed to loose his courage. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he finally shrugged and said, "I missed you."

Lizy felt uncomfortable and looked away. She had hated this man only ... wait, when did she stop hating him?

"Lizzie, I don't want to make you uncomfortable with any sentiments you don't return..." Well, he was definately in love with her. "...if you want me to go, just say the word and I'll leave you alone forever."

Alone forever. Lydia's list of reasons Lizzie Bennet is perpetually single popped into her head unbidden at his statement. Here was a rich, handsome man, apologizing for burdening her with his love. She may be confused, but she didn't want to be cruel, or for this to be the last time she saw him. "No need for anything so drastic. Why don't we just try to start over. Clean slate?"

She offered him her hand and he nodded as he took it, "I'd like that."

"Well, should we go join the others for dinner then?" He rose and gestured for her to go out the door first. As they walked down the hall Lizzie mused to herself with some surprise that Darcy was not a robot at all. He might even be considered a gentleman, even if he was a little shy and super awkward.