Hey guys, a couple of things to talk about this update!
First off, in regards to language and question of the last chapter's rating, I consider the T rating akin to a PG-13 movie rating, which is completely in line with the posted guidelines of . So, PG -13 movies all get their 1 f-word, I've used mine and you won't see it again (unless you're familiar with military slang and the phonetic alphabet). To perhaps the disappointment of many of you, this also means nothing will be getting steamy. I've got nothing against steaminess or those who enjoy it, it's just not in my wheelhouse, and I believe in the power of imagination ;) That being said I am a fan of sexual tension, and if applicable I will be all over that!
Second, while I appreciate the support you all show by writing reviews I can't say I appreciate being told repeatedly that you all want updates. Trust me, I'm very aware that you'd like to read more, and I'm enormously flattered by the fact that you guys like what I'm writing, I want to give you new chapters, I really do! That being said there are two very important factors in if a new chapter gets published, 1) if I can find the time, which is tricky on weeks like last week, when I had three tests and a massive presentation where I had to teach my Virology class for an hour. 2) I don't want to publish what I'm not proud of. More than once I've written entire chapters and hated them, so I didn't publish that week. This isn't an issue of self esteem, it's an issue of my work not being the quality I expect of myself. Also you guys don't want to read crappy chapters, so I do it for you too! What I'm getting at with all of this is that if you have a review of helpful criticism (like those mentioning my abominable editing last chapter, I sincerely thank you), speculations on what will happen next, or even just saying that you enjoy the story, that's wonderful and I'd love to see it. However if you would kindly refrain from requesting new chapters, particularly when the last several reviews before you have done the same, that would be very much appreciated!
That leads me to my final bit: due to my schedule for the next month (4 weekends) I can't commit to publishing a chapter weekly. The end of my semester is rapidly approaching and with it a bevy of tests and papers and presentations. Regretfully (not too much actually, I really love it) I've got to give schoolwork first priority. This isn't to say I won't put out a chapter or two, however if I don't publish one weekend, I'm not playing with you, I'm just up to my eyeballs in studying!
Thanks for putting up with me for a moment, and I just want to repeat that I really do appreciate all of you guys taking the time to read this story, it's half the fun of writing it!
The dynamics of the Nautilus changed slightly after the party, everyone was more relaxed, happier. Clearly the purpose of the party, to increase staff moral and release tension, worked. Elizabeth had to say that while the few interactions she'd had with Caroline had left a nebulous feeling of discomfort, the woman had thrown quite a party. The music had been on point, the food easily surpassing the Nautilus chef's usual excellence, and the overall event had exceeded expectation. As someone who gave credit where credit was due, Elizabeth sought Caroline out the Monday after, in the canteen, to express how wonderful the party was.
Caroline's response to the compliment had been confusing. Her words were mostly polite, but her tone indicated utmost distaste with Elizabeth. "Yes, thank you Doctor Bennet. I thought everything came together well."
"I think Jane mentioned that you did party planning before? It must have been a change to throw parties down here, with such limitations." Elizabeth acknowledged, trying to continue the conversation.
"Well, one adapts as one must." Caroline replied airily, "And clearly everyone enjoyed the party. I noticed you were having quite the time."
"Yes, I did enjoy myself," Elizabeth replied, suddenly feeling self conscious. "The event was to blow off steam, so that's what I did. Perhaps I enjoyed myself a little more than I normally would have, but no harm, no foul."
"No foul?" Caroline repeated sourly, as if she thought some sort of foul had taken place. "Of course not. Now, Doctor Bennet, if you'd excuse me, I've somewhere to be." And with that the slight woman trotted off in heels, her signature dark bob swishing sharply.
"If I didn't know better I'd say that woman was a vampire." Fitz muttered, coming up behind Elizabeth,
"Is she the mysterious vamp on Level 4 I'll never gain clearance to see?" Elizabeth laughed, turning around.
"Fortunately no. And actually Doc, in that regard I've got some good news for you." Fitz said in a sing-song voice. "Level 4, not Caroline." He clarified.
"How does anyone take you seriously?" she asked in amusement, "And what about Level 4? Have they at least revoked Nate's clearance to make up for me not getting any?"
"No, And they take me seriously because I kick ass, and if they don't I can fire people, which in this business is rather permanent." Fitz waved a manilla envelope in her face, "Now guess again."
"Yes, yes, license to kill" Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "Please just tell me what it is."
"Well Doctor Bennet," He resumed a more professional persona, "I'm pleased to inform you that your request to work on the zombie vaccine project has been reviewed, and you've been granted clearance to access the pertinent laboratory in Level 4."
"Serious?" was all Elizabeth could say.
"Read it and weep dear." Fitz replied, handing her the envelope he'd been holding outside of arm's reach.
She tore it open and read the letter, stating in black and white, that she, Doctor Elizabeth Bennet, was now authorized to work in the Level 4 laboratory currently researching the development of a human safe vaccine against the zombie virus. The bottom was signed by Agent Calvin Fitzwilliam and Agent William Darcy.
"I should have given this to you Friday, but everyone was so jazzed for the party, it was left on my desk." Fitz silently considered it was best the decision was made before Darcy's outburst after the party. He'd already decided to tell Elizabeth what had happened, maybe she would get mad and fight with Darcy and the two of them could get together sooner, like a bad rom com.
"Ah the party, Caroline seems to think I behaved poorly." Elizabeth smirked, looking through the other papers contained in the envelope.
"You were taken to bed by a strange man." Fitz reminded her.
"Do I need to give you a pep talk about self worth Fitz? Because you really shouldn't call yourself strange." she smacked him lightly on the shoulder with the sheaf of papers. "Thanks again for that, I usually pace myself a little better, but I was distracted dogging Collins all night. And I've never won against vodka, that was a poor choice."
"I'm just glad you were out of it enough to not maim me for taking your gun off you." Fitz grinned, "Speaking of which, Hernandez and Shackleford, are working on a project I'd like your input in. You've got a more experience with guns than most researchers, and at the moment more understanding about luska than most agents. We're due for an update on the luska encounter simulations and I was hoping you could provide some realistic, measurable specs on the monster's durability, strength, speed, etc. maybe some pertinent behavioral traits based off physiology."
"So you want me to write up a RPG profile for a monster?" Elizabeth clarified, "Will I have to meet with Darcy to ensure I'm qualified? Because I need at least a week before I'm prepped for another argument. Do you know what's up with him? He was weird all weekend; for example, I was brushing my teeth Saturday morning," Fitz raised an eyebrow and she conceded, "Okay it was like 1 in the afternoon, but I'd just gotten up, and he walked into the bathroom, saw me, and literally about-faced and left as quickly as possible."
"Erm, yeah, I need to talk to you about that," Fitz glanced around the canteen, "But maybe not here."
"Why not here?" Elizabeth asked, confused, "I may have been out of it, but I know I didn't try anything with Darcy. Right? Drunk Me loves Sober Me too much to do something like that!"
"No, you didn't do anything, but, well…" he thought for a moment, "Can we go to my office?"
"Sure… why?" She asked, following Fitz as he headed out the door.
"People stop and knock on my door, they just walk into your office." he explained.
"Not making me feel better!" She informed him as they walked down the hall, towards the administration offices.
"You'll thank me soon enough. Best to avoid the prying ears of gossips." Fitz muttered, holding open in office door. "They'd have a field day with this one."
"Calvin Fitzwilliam, if you don't tell me what you're talking about I'm going to try very hard to kick your ass!" Elizabeth replied in rising panic. "Did I try to give Darcy a lapdance or something? There's no way I was drunk enough for that!"
"No, no, nothing like that," Fitz sat heavily at the corner of his desk. "Though now I'm a bit curious as to what Drunk Elizabeth has gotten up to in the past."
"Most of the time, nothing. Drunk Elizabeth rarely gets into trouble, but Sober Elizabeth has a worse-case-scenario imagination, which you have put into over drive!"
"Well this is one of the stranger things I've ever had to explain." Fitz shrugged, then took pity on her panicked face, "Don't worry, Drunk Elizabeth did nothing other than be just as friendly as Sober Elizabeth always is."
"Soooo, then what happened with Darcy, did we magically get along and that's why he's shorting out?" Elizabeth demanded, beginning to pace, "Could you please stop beating around the bloody bush?!"
"Well, erm, this requires some explaining." Fitz began, gesturing for Elizabeth to sit. "You recall that, after the meeting with Will to determine your eligibility for the Zombie Vaccine project, I told you he didn't fight with people if he didn't respect them?" she nodded, "Well I might have been downplaying that more than a little."
"Explain." she demanded slowly.
"Will and I have been working side by side for the past 7 years, 4 years since the Nautilus has been up and running, and 3 years before that doing normal MCB things. I know this guy like I know my brother, actually at this point I know Will better than I know Brad, but Brad's kind of a douche. Anyways, in our line of work, as MCB agents, you can't tell most people what you do, so you get close to your fellow agents, and you share basically everything. It's not like some kumbaya, love circle crap, but late nights doing paperwork after you just had to clean up a vampire nest or ending some guy who survived a werewolf attack, but got infected, because if you don't he'll be munching on some poor innocent the next full moon. It's tough shit, and it gets you talking about life. He helped me through when Anne left. And I talked him down when Gigi joined MHI. So I know William Darcy." Fitz looked at Elizabeth, his eyes hard. "He fights with you because he respects you, but I'm fairly certain he also has feelings for you… of a romantic nature."
Elizabeth blanched. "Annd, what makes you think he has these, um feelings?"
"Well he punched me Friday night, after the party, when I came out of your room." Fitz rubbed the dark bruise on his jaw.
"Figured you hadn't hit your face slipping in the shower." she responded, looking peeved.
"Nope. He was pissed already because Caroline had had him cornered, and I rescued you from Collins before he could. I'd put you in bed, and went to fill up your water. When I come back, he was in the hallway. He thought I was taking advantage of you."
Elizabeth made a sound of discontent, "'Rescued' is a bit strong. But how could he think that of you, if you're so close?"
"Well I may have prodded him a bit, after he got started." Fitz admitted, "But I was hoping when he got it out he'd calm down and maybe we could have a rational discussion."
"And did that work?" Elizabeth demanded, sounding angry.
"I'm not entirely sure. You woke up and he ran out. I gave Saturday to let him cool down, then I couldn't find him Sunday. I wanted talk to him this morning, but it was his turn to do sims with the agents, and those bastards are the biggest gossips I've ever met, so I was going to wrangle him later today." Fitz shrugged.
"What exactly did you say to 'prod' him?" she asked sharply.
"I might have purposely said some really douchey thing about you, your choice of underwear, and that if I was interested you might be up for a roll in the hay." He looked sheepish. She looked livid. "I promise that it was only to get him to stop pretending he didn't have a thing for you. I felt like washing my mouth out afterwards, but I meant absolutely none of it!"
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't clock you right now!" Elizabeth demanded. "Why the hell would you feel the need to provoke Darcy?! Even if he does supposedly have feeling for me, what purpose does it serve if he admits it? Have you considered the idea that I may not reciprocate?! I can accept that I've maybe been more combative than usual, but this isn't middle school, that doesn't mean I like him! And he might not be as bad as I paint him, Jane made that clear, but I have absolutely zero interest in having anything other than a professional relationship with William Darcy!" she finished in a shout.
Unbeknownst to either Elizabeth or Fitz, the door to Fitz's office had opened just after the start of Elizabeth's reaction to Fitz's dumb choices. A throat cleared. They whipped around to see none other than William Darcy standing in the doorway, his expression stone faced. He was once again in exercise clothes, clearly having just returned from the simulators.
"Will, I-" Fitz began.
"Stop." Darcy replied tightly. He turned to Elizabeth, "Doctor Bennet, if you don't have anything else to say about me, you're free to go."
Elizabeth felt entirely horrible. Ordinarily she felt no guilt at stating, usually more politely, her disinterest in a potential relationship. However the mix of anger at Fitz and embarrassment at Darcy's entrance was only made worse by the look in his eyes, the effort of concealing emotion more present than the emotion that he was trying to hide. It made her stomach churn and tighten. "I'm- I'm sorry." was all she could lamely manage, before practically sprinting out of the room.
"What the hell were you doing Fitz?" Darcy asked, looking furious and betrayed, and worst of all, defeated. Fitz began to answer, but Darcy cut him off, speaking carefully, however increasing in volume, "I was here to talk to you about what happened Friday night. I know I was out of line, and I thought you knew you were out of line as well. But in what twisted, meddling part of your deluded, jockstrap of a brain, could you possibly consider it appropriate to tell Doctor Bennet that I may have feelings for her."
Fitz adjusted his shoulders, and rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I don't know. In seven years I've never seen you have any interest in a woman, ever. I always knew that whoever it would be, she'd have to be special. And then you come back from a recruiting trip, pissed to high heaven at the female researcher who'd tried to pull her gun on you, twice. And ever since then that delightful, smart ass of a woman has thrown you off your game in a way that meeting the damned President hadn't done. You've claimed that you've been off because of the stress caused by Gigi and Nate being here, but I know it's because you like her."
"Why push me over the edge Friday?" Darcy demanded. Fitz mentally noted that Will hadn't said he was wrong.
"Because Elizabeth was out of it, and if I got you to admit it, maybe we could have had a rational discussion about it. Like when you waited for me to almost get myself killed on that lindworm job, after Anne left, before I'd actually talk to you about it."
Will was shaking his head in exasperation and sat heavily in one of the chairs. "What did you think I'd say Fitz? That yes, I find Doctor Bennet to be an entirely captivating woman? Did you need me to tell you I was half in love with her before I even finished reading her background check? That's why I took a year and obtaining a fully intact luska sample before selecting her for recruitment, because I had to be sure I was being impartial. Do you need me to admit that I liked her even more when she tried to pulled her gun on me? She's passionate about what she does, she's passionate about life, she's sharp as hell, how do I not be attracted to that?" Darcy held his head in his hand, running his fingers through his already disheveled hair. "You know what it's like Fitz, this life. You know how hard it is to find someone who's allowed to know what the world is really like, much less still be willing to wake up every day and live in it. I've known for a long time that I could only fall for a very unique woman, and now I've found her and she couldn't hate me more."
The office was quiet for a while. Fitz couldn't muster an excuse, he knew he'd been incredibly out of line. Eventually Darcy stood up. "I know you meant well, in your own way, Fitz, but in the future, please let me make a blunder of things in my own time." He walked to the door and looked at his friend with a wry expression on his face. "It sounds like Doctor Bennet was rather angry at you by the time I showed up, you might want to go apologize to her; maybe let her hit you a few times, I known I enjoyed it."
Fitz snorted, "Thanks man, I'll give it a go," He stood and extended his hand to Darcy, "For what it's worth Will, I'm sorry, I screwed up big time."
"No arguments here." Darcy nodded, then grinned a bit evilly, pulling him into a man hug, "Fair warning, tomorrow you're running the agents on the Vamp sims, highest level, hope you're up for it."
"Ohh," Fitz winced and pulled a face, "I suppose it's no more than what I deserve, but doesn't mean I like it."
"Well stay out of my personal life and I'll call it even." Darcy slapped him on the shoulder and walked down the hall towards his own office. He knew Fitz had had the best intentions, but his dear friend couldn't have made much more of a charlie foxtrot of things if he'd tried.