Thanks everyone for the reviews! They have been absolutely wonderful.

Chapter 8:

How did this happen?! How is it that the one guy I was actually interested and attracted to in god knows how long, turns out to be the big boss. Screw buying a lottery ticket tonight, with my luck being this crappy it would just be a waste of money.

Will, whoops sorry, Mr. Darcy, cleared his throat. I turned my attention back to what he was about to say.

"Thank you Ms. Gardiner. Ladies and gentlemen, as previously said, the pro bono department has been flourishing quite nicely as of late. It is the firm's position that the services this department provides sets the tone for this firm to both the public and to our clients. It tells them that we care about every single case we take on, regardless of whether or how much we are paid to work on it. Every client is important to Darbing and every client receives our upmost attention, even those who are unable to afford an attorney to begin with. Therefore, we are going to be implementing some methods and procedures that have been used in our London offices to great success. I plan on taking a very active role in integrating those ideas." He scanned the faces in the room. When he got to mine, it seemed like he was taken aback a bit, though it was hard to tell since his face was so stoic.

"How many of you are currently law students?"

I raised my hand along with 3 others. Darcy nodded.

"All right, each one of you is going to be paired off with two attorneys. You'll receive your case assignments and instructions from them and they will be the attorney who you consult with about your cases, and the ones who co-sign any documents and accompany you to court, when necessary. The purpose of this is two-fold. First, it allows Darbing to ensure that every case is handled competently, to make sure that every nuance in a case is handled since there are some that will only be found by an attorney with experience. Second, it benefits you because you'll be able to learn more from only having to work with specific attorneys, it means you don't have to track down attorneys whenever you need to consult about something and finally it allows you to show us what you are fully capable of doing." Darcy then picked up a piece of paper.

"Chris Jolly?" A guy at the other end of the table raised his hand. "You'll be assigned to Melissa and Jerry. Savannah Grey?" The girl across from me raised her hand. "You're with Anthony and Crystal. David Sullivan?" A guy a few seats to my right raised his hand. "You'll be with Ann Marie and Margaret. Elizabeth Bennett?" I raised my hand and Darcy's eyes bore into mine. "Ms. Bennett, you'll be with Joshua and myself"

My jaw nearly dropped. Lovely. Does somebody up there want to drop an anvil on me while they're at it?!

"Now if you'll open your portfolios, you'll see that I have provided in explicit detail how this will work . . ."

For the next hour, I halfheartedly paid attention to the new procedures that were going to be implemented. While I tried hard to pay attention, my mind tended to drift.

" . . . based on the number of changes that might be made, I assume that we'll be calling meetings like this frequently. Please make sure that you are on top of your work to the point that you can accommodate these meetings last minute. That will be all for now."

As the attorneys started to rise, I did the same and all of us began to head out of the room.

"Oh and Ms. Bennett?"

I froze, and then slowly turned around.

"I'd like to discuss some things with you in my office. Please be there in 30 minutes. I trust you know where that is?"

I silently nodded.

"Good, I'll expect you to be on time then." And he brusquely left the room.

Before I could turn to leave again, a man approached me. He seemed to be about 6 feet tall, black hair, brown eyes with a broad build (well, broader than Darcy at least), that bordered being considered stocky.

"Elizabeth Bennett?"

I nodded. He extended his hand for me to shake.

"I'm Josh Fitzwilliam, the attorney you'll be working with."

I shook his hand and smiled.

"Please, Mr. Fitzwilliam, call me Liz."

"All right but you'll have to call me Josh then, otherwise it sounds as if I'm as stuffy as Darcy was this morning."

I had to stifle a laugh.

"Good, you have a sense of humor. Then we should get along just fine together. You just transferred to this department, correct?"

"Yes, just this morning actually."

"Ok, so why don't you finish setting up your office, then go see Darcy about whatever the hell he issued his summons for – god you'd think the man was the king of England the way he issued orders sometimes. After that, if you have no standing plans, I'll take you to lunch so that you can get to know me a bit and I can fill you in on all the details of the department you need to know. Things like all the juicy gossip, but with Caroline downstairs that tends to stretch firm-wide and not to just this department. After lunch we can get to work. Sound good?"

"That sounds just great."

"Fantastic, I'll see you in my office at 1 then."

And with that Josh left me alone in the conference room, wondering what exactly Darcy wanted to see me about.

Yes, I know it is a very short chapter. The next part is a biggie and felt it deserved a chapter onto itself and not to be tacked on to the previous chapter. As always, please please review!!!!