Elizabeth awoke a day before her marriage with a small scream. She'd had that nightmare again. During the whole time since she'd become engaged Elizabeth could not remember thinking of Mr. Collins once. And now, when she was to marry on the morrow that dream again.

Elizabeth's shoulders drooped as she slowly pulled on her morning clothes. She had hoped he was gone.

In this depressed mood Elizabeth wandered out. Ten minutes later she stood by the Meryton churchyard. She'd always avoided the graveyard. It gave her unhappy thoughts and memories, and not merely of Mr. Collins. This time she let herself in through the gate and looked around. There it was: a stone on which was written, William Collins, Requiescat in Pace.

Elizabeth felt an unpleasant certainty his shade would always be with her. She was happy, far happier than she had ever felt before — she looked forward to tomorrow. She wanted, very, very much so to be married to Darcy. So why the nightmare? Why could he not at last leave her alone?

With a sigh Elizabeth turned away. Her eyes were caught by another grave marker: Thomas Bennet, loving husband and father. With a choked sob Elizabeth realized she almost never visited him. Perhaps because he was buried next to him, perhaps because she always had been a little angry.

Tears sprang to her eyes; Elizabeth realized how terribly much she missed him. She wished it was he, and not Uncle Gardiner who would give her away tomorrow. "Papa, oh papa — I'm to be married tomorrow. To a very good man, the best I have ever met. I wish — oh, I so wish you could meet him. I wish you were here. I — let me tell you how I met him."

For half of an hour Elizabeth talked to her father about her courtship, her Mr. Darcy, and how happy she was. As Elizabeth finished she heard footsteps behind her, and turned to see Darcy. He gave a soft smile and stepped up behind her. Elizabeth leaned back into him so he could put his arms around her. He felt solid and warm, safe and happy.

"Papa, this is my Mr. Darcy and I wish you to meet him."

Darcy spoke and Elizabeth felt his deep voice vibrate in his chest, "Mr. Bennet, I wish I could meet you, you raised a magnificent daughter. She is really the best person I know; she is the loveliest, kindest, the most graceful, elegant, and brave woman I've ever met. I love her. I love her more than my own self."

Darcy pulled Elizabeth closer in his arms as his voice thickened with emotion, "I love to hear her laugh, I love to see her smile, I love to touch her and be near her. Every day I feel my affection for her grow stronger. I wish you could be here, and see how she smiles and her happiness. I swear, I swear upon everything in me I will do all in my power to keep your daughter always happy. Mr. Bennet, I — I believe your spirit is somehow here, watching us. I feel I can sense your presence right now. So I ask your blessing, your permission to marry. For I promise with all my soul to always love and treasure her as she deserves."

Elizabeth smiled at Darcy's words and stepped back so she was nestled closer against him. It may have been fancy, but with a chill she too felt the presence of her father near them. And she felt him give his blessing. For several minutes the two stood silently, and listened to the birds chirp and the breeze blow through trees. Elizabeth's eye followed a butterfly, which bounced from flower to flower.

Elizabeth felt Darcy start and stiffen. She looked at him and followed his gaze, it was on Mr. Collins's grave marker. "Yes, he is here as well," Elizabeth's voice was flat as she remembered her nightmare.

The two looked at it, and Elizabeth added, "I had another dream about him and what he did to Lydia last night." Then with sadness in her voice, "I had hoped he was gone."

For a time Darcy said nothing, but pulled her close and slowly rubbed her forearms and hands. After Elizabeth relaxed into his comforting hold Darcy said, "When I first read your letter, I thought to stop my carriage and turn around so I could desecrate his grave."

Elizabeth felt a small smile work its way across her face, "Indeed. And how were you to accomplish that?"

"Ah — that is to say, I mean," as Darcy stammered Elizabeth turned to look up at him; he looked redder and more embarrassed than Elizabeth had ever seen him.

"Well?" She asked with a mischievous smile, "Do tell me."

Darcy looked away from her, "I had some thought to — well to empty the chamber pot on him."

"You what!" At the expression on Darcy's face Elizabeth glanced between him and the grave several times before she dissolved into helpless giggles. "That. That — was not what I had expected you to say."

Darcy had a somewhat stiff expression as he watched her continue to laugh, "Well I did not do it."

"No — and that is probably for the best, but only because someone might have seen you. It is the thought that counts though." Elizabeth started to laugh again at the image in her mind.

Darcy shook his head, with a smile that showed that despite his embarrassment he was pleased to have improved Elizabeth's mood. "Come. We have spent enough time here."

Elizabeth nodded and let Darcy take her arm to lead her out of the cemetery, she giggled a half-dozen times on their walk back to Longbourn as she continued to imagine her dear stiff and proper Darcy 'emptying the chamber pot' on Mr. Collins's grave.

When the two reached Longbourn, before they entered the house Darcy pulled Elizabeth into the garden. "Elizabeth, I hope — I hope this was the last time his memory ever bothers you, but it may not be. I cannot promise — I wish I could make it so you never thought on him anymore — I wish I could make it so that no unhappiness ever touched you. Alas, I cannot. Whether it be Mr. Collins, or something unimagined we will face some trial in the future. But, my dearest, loveliest Elizabeth I will always be with you. When troubles come, we will face them together."

Darcy's intent eyes gave Elizabeth the familiar happy flutters in her stomach, and she remembered how he had dissolved her ill humor this morning into laughter. With an intense rush of affection for this wonderful man who was hers, Elizabeth stepped forward and tightly embraced him. "Together," she whispered into his ear standing on her toes, "we will face everything together."

Sorry that this, and the epilogue, are short, but two of last three chaps were around 5k words... And you have no desperate need to know what happens next anymore. Also, the epilogue is currently posted on A Happy Assembly. It and Dwiggie are great repositories of stories about Darcy and Elizabeth, and many authors who don't post here post on one of them. AHA (unlike Dwiggie) requires registration. But, great stories. Lots of them.

The site set up makes it harder to sort which story you want to read (or even tell what a story is about), but on AHA several of my favorites authors are, Juliecoop who is generally excellent though very adult (guess what, you can find lemons if you move off this site - though there aren't any on Dwiggie), LucyS who is wordy, but writes some very beautiful scenes and premises, and Linda (booknut) - though in her case I can only recommend the earlier stories before she discovered the joy of million word manuscripts. YMMV oc. But you should like someone on AHA. Also, both on AHA and Dwiggie is BethAM, whose Brave New World (if you want to find it easily text search on Dwiggie) was one of the first half dozen JAFF I read. Also it is published as Goodly Creatures. Very emotionally powerful. London Outskirts, also on Dwiggie, is one of the funniest stories I've ever read.