A/N: I do not own Pride and Prejudice. I like it though. But anyway, thank you to all my reviewers. The support is awesome. I can't believe I'm on chapter 21; this is weird.

Chapter Twenty-One: I Thank You

Lizzie's POV

Thanksgiving was excessively late that year but it had been really early the year before so I guess it all evened out. But by the time lunchtime rolled around on Tuesday afternoon, I just wanted the day to end so I could go home and get ready to fly down to Chicago; my flight was leaving at five-thirty and I'd be in Chicago around six o'clock their time. But I still had to get through three more classes. Kyle looked at me as we sat in the teachers' lounge eating lunch and laughed. "I've never seen a teacher more ready for Thanksgiving break."

I smiled. "I'm going to Chicago to see Will."

"I know," he replied. "You've told me at least ten times and you told Hannah who told Alex who told me and you told Jenny who told me. I also know that you're flying to Chicago tonight but Will is in South Carolina until tomorrow evening so you won't see him until then. But when he gets back he and his niece will be coming over to your aunt and uncle's house for dinner."

I sighed. "So I say one thing to one person and suddenly, I become the topic of the gossip chain."

He laughed. "That's the truth." Kyle and Jenny Putnam had started dating shortly after Steve and Becca's wedding and it looked like Kyle had finally found the girl for him. Jenny was willing to put up with all of Kyle's ridiculousness or tell him he was stupid when he started driving her up the wall.

"So do you have any big Thanksgiving plans?" I asked.

"I'm heading down to Coopersville tomorrow and spending the weekend with the family. Alex is bringing Hannah, of course. Jenny is spending Thanksgiving with her family in town but she's planning on coming down to Coopersville for Saturday and Sunday."

"That'll be fun."

He nodded. "But Connor is going to have a field day when he has both of his older brothers around with girlfriends. He's been waiting twenty years to torture us about our love lives."

"He's only twenty," I said.

"Exactly," he said with that gorgeous Kilpatrick smile; he and Alex have the same smile that's like someone turning on a light bulb in their faces. "That boy has been waiting his entire life for one of his big brothers to fall in love so he can tease us about something. We've been teasing him since he was born and he's always wanted to tease us. And this weekend he'll have a perfect reason."

I smiled. "I guess sisters don't really do that kind of stuff to each other. The only people who really tease me are you and your brothers and the Logans."

He laughed. "The Logans will tease anyone within a hundred miles who looks like it might be even remotely possible to tease them."

"So true," I replied. "I was at Steve and Becca's for Becca's birthday party and all night, the brothers were sitting there picking on each other and anyone who went anywhere close to them."

"I can see that. Once, a while ago, I was at their parents' house and the four of them just stood around insulting each other for most of the day. But then at the end of the day, you realize that they're just kidding and they really do care about each other. Not one of them thinks that one of his brothers is ugly or stupid or whatever. They can be so sarcastic at times but when they need to be serious, they're serious. They know how to be mature adults but they also have realized that they shouldn't take themselves too seriously."

"Most people never realize that. They take themselves seriously until they die and they never take a moment to relax and smell the daisies."

"You don't like daisies," Kyle remarked.

I laughed. "Nope, not at all, but some people do and they should take time to stop and smell them. Me? I'll stop and smell the roses or the lilies or the irises while they're off smelling the daisies."

"You do that," he replied.

I made it through my last three classes of the day without too much trouble. Granted my students wanted to be enjoying the break as much as I did but I still had to get them to stay focused for the rest of the day, or at least for as long as they were in my classroom. "Senorita Bennett, why is it that Thanksgiving is mostly an American holiday?" one of the boys in my sixth hour Spanish II class asked.

"Do you know the story of the first Thanksgiving?" I asked.

He nodded. "Of course, you learn it in kindergarten and hear it every year of your life until you die."

"Then think about that story. Why would the Spanish-speaking world celebrate that day?"

"Well, they wouldn't have to celebrate the Pilgrims surviving their first year in North America but they could celebrate all the things that they're thankful. Isn't the real point of Thanksgiving to give thanks for all the things we have to be thankful for? If that's true, shouldn't all people in every country celebrate Thanksgiving?"

I smiled. "That's a good question, Tommy. And I honestly don't have a good answer for you about that. But at the same time, shouldn't we spend every day of our lives giving thanks for all the things we have? Why is it that we Americans need the government to give us a special day so we can give thanks? And how many of us actually spend that day giving thanks for what we have? Or do we just sit there and stuff our faces with turkey and watch football? And if we do actually recognize the point and purpose of Thanksgiving, do we carry it beyond the actual day of Thanksgiving or do we just leave it behind and move on with our lives? How many of us get up the day after Thanksgiving so we can be at the mall or at Kohl's or wherever when they open at 5am so we can get the best deals? Do we really realize what Thanksgiving actually is? Or do we just use it as a great extra day or two off from school and work and then go indulge in the ridiculous consumerism and materialism that has taken over our society?"

I stopped and took a deep breath. I couldn't believe that I'd gone off on that rant and looking at my students' faces, I don't think they could either. When the bell rang in ten minutes, they'd probably go out into the hallway and tell their friends that Ms. Bennett had flipped out and gone mental on them. And maybe I had, but Tommy's question had started me thinking and I had to tell someone what I was thinking. I realized that I really believed what I told them and I needed to tell them that. I couldn't let my students go out into the world without telling them that. It might not have stuck in their brains, but if one bit of it stuck in one of their minds, it would have been worth it. That was the real reason I had become a teacher. I wanted to change the world and touch the future. This was the only way I could do that.

Silence reigned in the room for a few moments and then one lone, soft voice arose from the back of the room and broke through the quiet. "Senorita Bennett, do you believe what you just said?"

I nodded. "I do believe that. I think that Americans have forgotten what the purpose of Thanksgiving is and I want you to think about that for your homework this weekend. When you get back on Monday, I want a list-in Spanish-of fifteen things you're thankful for. And be prepared to discuss them in class. Muchachos, take this seriously. I don't want you to just throw down fifteen random old things. I want you to think seriously about what you're thankful for. Now I know you probably won't take this seriously. I wasn't born yesterday and I was in high school once myself, but for my sake, please try to take it seriously."

I heard a few groans and I knew that they didn't like it that I was giving them homework over Thanksgiving, but I didn't care. I wanted them to think seriously about life. That was why I asked my students questions about things like who they wanted to meet and what they wanted to change about the world. I wanted them to think, and maybe someday, they'd look back on my class and realize that there was more to life than getting a good job and making money to create a nice life. I wanted people to realize that there is more to life than things. Financial success is great but in the end, we're all going to die and you can't take it with you. We can't live forever physically, but if we do good things, we can leave our footprints on the world. I looked at the classroom filled with fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen-year-olds. I was only nine years older than the oldest of these kids, but I had so many dreams for these kids.

"I want you to think about something while you're making your list this weekend. We remember the name of Andrew Carnegie not because of how he earned his money but because of what he did with his money to help other people. If you really want to be remembered in this world, you have to do something memorable. I'll admit that we do remember people for things like robbing banks and blowing up buildings but that's not what I'm thinking of. I want you to do great things in this world. I want you to try to change the world, one person at a time. Leave your fingerprints on the glass of this world. Don't go down silently. People will always remember William Wallace because he fought to make a difference." I looked at them. "People will tell you that you're too young to make a difference, but you're not. Joan of Arc was a teenager."

"Yeah, and they killed her," one of the boys who sat near the back of the room said.

"They did, but her efforts did make a difference, and people remember her for that. The people who work for justice and try to do the right thing will leave an impact on the world. People remember Mother Teresa; she was someone who was always trying to do the right thing."

I knew I was fighting a losing battle considering that these kids only had one more class before a five-day weekend. What did they care about some teacher who was ranting about her problems with a materialistic society? And then the bell rang and they all rushed out. I knew I had just wasted those last ten minutes of class. I could have taught them more Spanish vocabulary or something. I wanted to change the world but they just wanted to get to the weekend. Oh I wanted the weekend too, but I also wanted to teach them something that really mattered. I think it was St. Catherine of Siena who said "If you were as you were meant to be, you would set the world aflame." I wanted to be the person I was born to be. I wanted to start a fire in these kids' minds and make them think about things. But I knew all they were thinking about was their Thanksgiving break.

I was still slightly depressed about my efforts to make my students more socially aware when my plane landed in Chicago. My seventh hour class had gone smoothly; we'd stuck to the material in the lesson plan. They were my AP Spanish class and I was making them write essays about what they were thankful, making use of certain vocabulary and certain verb tenses. It had gone well and no one had to listen to my frustrated ranting. And then my plane landed in Chicago. When I arrived at baggage claim, my Uncle Edward was standing there waiting for me. I hugged him and he smiled. "How are you, Lizzie-belle? It's good to see you again."

I nodded. "It's good to see you too. How is everyone at home?"

"They're looking forward to you. Elana is insistent that you have to get back to our house before she goes to bed."

I laughed. "I think I should make it there on time." It was a little after six and I knew Aunt Sophie was keeping dinner until I showed up.

"I think your little cousin misses you," my uncle told me. "This morning when she got up, the first thing she did was ask if you were here yet."

I smiled as we started walking out to his car. My wonderful uncle was carrying my heavier bag for me so I only had my carry-on and my purse. "All the kids are looking forward to seeing you," Uncle Ed said as we walked. "Ben and Emma demanded that they be allowed to stay up later tomorrow night so they can spend time with you and Will."

"So they remember him?" I asked.

"Oh they remember him and they like him. Ben said he thinks you should keep Will around for a while."

"I'm planning on that," I told him. "I like Will and I think he's a good guy. I'd like to keep him around for a while."

"That's good," he said. We had reached his car and we stopped talking while we put my things in the car and got inside. "Sophie and I want to see you happy, Lizzie. Will Darcy has a great talent for making you smile and that's something that we haven't seen much in the past few years. So keep him around for a while; it's nice to see a smile on your face every now and then."

"I'll see what I can do about that," I told him. I was planning on keeping Will in my life. My cousins approved of him which meant more than you might think it would. Sure they were little kids but they were perceptive and if they liked a guy, well then that was a good thing.

Will's POV

My plane landed at O'Hare airport around two in the afternoon the day before Thanksgiving. I had enjoyed spending the past week and a half in South Carolina but now it was good to be home. I was looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with my sister, my niece, and Lizzie. Lizzie's aunt and uncle had invited Gianna, Emily, and I to join them for Thanksgiving dinner. I'd heard that Mrs. Gardiner was a good cook and anything sounded better than my aunt's horribly formal catered Thanksgiving dinners. Aunt Catherine banned me from attending because if I came, I wanted to bring Lizzie with me. Aunt Catherine didn't want Lizzie at her Thanksgiving now that she was my girlfriend. Apparently, my girlfriend was below me socially and all that, so I shouldn't be dating her or being involved with her at all.

Walking into my house and finding my sister just relaxing with her baby girl was wonderful. I'd missed Gianna and Emily while I was gone and I was looking forward to having Emily that night. Gianna was going out with some friends and Emily was going to join me in heading to the Gardiners' for dinner. I knew that Lizzie's cousins would like to see the baby and I also knew that my girlfriend loved babies. While she'd never really talked about it in my presence, I knew from talking to her sister and other people who knew her well that she really wanted to be a mother. One of the things I enjoyed most about my girlfriend was her natural maternal instincts.

"We've missed you," Gianna said when we were in my room talking. I was unpacking and she was playing with her daughter who was now nine and a half months old. I really couldn't believe Emily was that old already. It seemed like just yesterday she was born. "Right Emily?" my sister asked her baby who was busy crawling around my bedroom floor. "We missed Uncle Will, didn't we?"

Emily stopped at my feet and cooed at me. I reached down and picked my niece up. She had big brown eyes like her mother and light brown hair that had been influenced by her father's lighter hair color mixing with the trademark dark brown Darcy hair. I settled her on my hip and she smiled up at me. "You're so pretty," I told her.

She grabbed my nose and beamed. Gianna laughed. "Will, I think she likes you."

"She's my niece; she'd better like me," I told her before kissing the baby's head. "Emily, you're perfect."

"Trust me; you won't be saying that about her in a couple years. Pretty soon she'll be getting into everything and you'll be yelling at me to get her out of your bedroom."

"Are you going to let your daughter break things and ruin our furniture?"

Gianna sighed. "She's not a dog, Will."

That evening, I bundled my niece who is not a dog up in her puffy pink winter coat and put her in her car seat and then we headed off to the Gardiners' house for dinner. I was bringing a bottle of Italian red wine; it had been the house wine at the Virginia Pemberley when the Gardiners were there in July and I remembered that Mrs. Gardiner had really enjoyed it. I was looking forward to seeing my girlfriend. I loved being able to call her that after everything we'd been through. It was weird to think that we'd met almost a year ago and think about all the things we'd been through in the past year. She'd hated me and had been involved with my arch-enemy. My niece was born in February, a moment that had transformed my world. Lizzie had rejected me in April when we were both in New York for Easter. My cousin's daughter, Caitlin, was born in June. In July, I'd had helped arrange the marriage of my arch-enemy, Damien Wickham, to Lizzie's sister, but that was only after spending a few days with Lizzie and the Gardiners in Virginia. Then in August, Lizzie and I started dating. Last month, Lydia and Damien had announced that they were expecting a baby due in late March. I didn't really want to think about that one because it ended up meaning that a thirty-year-old man had sex with a seventeen-year-old.

The Gardiner family was as energetic and vibrant as I remembered from our brief encounter in July. Lizzie and her aunt were in the kitchen when I arrived and her uncle was in the living room playing with his five kids. Ben and Karl were playing with a miniature air hockey while their little brother looked on eagerly, probably waiting for his turn to play. Meanwhile, their dad was playing Go Fish with Emma and Elana. "It's the only game Elana can really play very well," Lizzie told me as she came up next to me. "But she loves it and she thinks it's the greatest game on earth. So Uncle Ed plays it with her every now and then."

"Is Emma playing voluntarily or as some form of punishment?"

"She volunteered," my girlfriend replied. "It was either that or helping out in the kitchen. The table still needs to be set, but Elana is quiet and out of the way so it's not as big of a deal."

"Do you want me to set the table?" I asked. "You can play with Emily for a couple minutes and I'll set the table. I'm very good at setting tables; my mother said I could be a professional."

She smiled, took the baby from me, and kissed my cheek. "Go knock my socks off, buddy-boy."

As I set the table for ten of us, Lizzie was entertaining Emily. She'd taken my niece out of her coat and was playing with her. Emily was wearing a pink corduroy dress with white tights and little black shoes; she was darling. Lizzie was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a dark pink sweater; her long brown hair was pulled back by two brown barrettes. She looked so beautiful and natural. She and my niece were playing with wooden blocks. Lizzie would build up a little stack or tower of blocks and Emily would look at it for a moment or two before knocking it over.

After a few times, she got bored of that and started sucking on blocks. She was in that phase of infancy where she stuck everything she could get in her mouth. She'd suck on her fingers, on my fingers, and on people's shoes. I know my niece isn't a dog but sometimes the things you stuck in her mouth could make a man wonder about his darling little niece.

Later that evening, Lizzie and I were watching Robin Hood with her cousins when I noticed that Emily had my girlfriend's hair in her mouth. "Lizzie," I whispered. "Emily is trying to eat your hair."

She looked down at the baby and pulled her hair out of Emily's slobbery fist. Then she handed my niece to me. "It's your turn. She's tried to eat my hair and my clothes. You can let her eat your buttons or something now."

I took my niece and let her snuggle up against my chest. "She's just going through a phase, Lizzie-belle. Pretty soon she'll be done sucking things and she'll have found a new hobby."

"Oh good," she replied. "Otherwise I might have to cut my hair."

I looked at her long curls and smiled. "I like your hair. You can cut it if you want, but I like it long."

"She used to have short hair," Emma announced from the other side of Lizzie; she was leaning against her cousin's shoulder. "Back when she was in college, she had short hair. I don't really remember it but I've seen pictures of it."

"How short was it?"

She shrugged. "I had it bobbed during my sophomore year of college, so it was like chin-length right after it had been cut. But I started growing it out again during my junior year of college, so it's pretty much long in the past. I've had long hair ever since I got back from Spain."

"I like you with longer hair," Emma said. "You have such pretty hair."

Lizzie ran her fingers through her cousin's chestnut brown hair. "You have pretty hair too, Emma-Lou. I love your hair."

"I wish I had your hair. You have curly hair and I love it."

"I wish you wouldn't talk during the movie," Karl inserted. "It's really annoying and I hate it."

My girlfriend reached into the popcorn bowl that was resting on Emma's lap and threw some at Karl who in turn decided to throw M&Ms at her. But just then, Lizzie decided to take a more mature, adult role in the situation. "First off, no more throwing food in the living room; it's messy and irresponsible. And secondly, Karl, don't throw popcorn at me when it was Will who threw it at you in the first place."

"I didn't do anything," I protested but before I could say anything further, I found myself being barraged with food by Ben, Karl, and Johnny while Emma and Lizzie hid under blankets and pillows and laughed at us males. My girlfriend rescued my niece from the attack and handed me a bowl of popcorn with which I was to defend myself before she and her female cousins moved to a different couch that happened to be closer to the TV and ignored us males except to laugh at us occasionally. I spent the rest of the night rough-housing with the boys until it was time for them to go to bed. It was actually one of the best nights I've spent in a long time even though it was also one of the weirdest. I liked Lizzie's family, crazy cousins and all.

The next day, I was back at the Gardiners' house, this time with Gianna and Emily. We had a great Thanksgiving Day. It was interesting listening to the little kids say what they were thankful for that year. Elana was grateful for Lizzie's visit while Ben was grateful for the time off from school. Lizzie was thankful for the opportunity to spend time with friends and family, "with people I love dearly and for living in a free country." Gianna was grateful for her "wonderful brother, beautiful daughter, and the opportunity to be here today." And what was William Darcy thankful for? Well, I was thankful for many things such as "a great sister, a beautiful niece, a gorgeous girlfriend, good friends and good company today and all the blessings God has given me in my life, of which there are many."

It was true; I have been blessed a thousand times over in my life. I have a wonderful sister, a beautiful niece, a fantastic girlfriend, wonderful friends, a successful business and a good career as a lawyer and many material blessings. I have a huge house that I don't really need but I never bothered to get rid of after my parents' deaths. I was keeping it in the hopes that someday I would find a bride to share the house with and then we would start a family to fill the large house to the rafters. Now it was just Gianna, Emily, and I rattling around in the old house, but maybe someday soon, I would have a wife and a family of my own living there. Don't get me wrong; I love my sister and my niece, but I'm thirty-years-old. I want to get married and start my own family. I was ready for that in my life. I understood what Greg and Jonathan saw in marriage and family life. It wasn't an escape from something; it was a completion and a source of freedom. I wanted that completion; I wanted to have someone who was my other half and who was always there for me.

The next evening, Lizzie and I went out for dinner with Jake, Jonathan, Gretchen, Greg, and Melissa. Jake was dateless as usual, which made our seating arrangements a little awkward, but we survived. We'd ended up at Applebee's because we all liked it and it was a convenient meeting place for all of us. Jonathan and Gretchen had also brought their baby, Marcus, with them. Greg and Melissa had spent Wednesday and Thursday in Columbus with her family and were now in Chicago to spend the rest of the weekend with his family. They were planning to get married at the beginning of May and they were so excited about their wedding, but they were also busy planning the wedding.

They were all very excited about meeting Lizzie. "We've been hearing about you for ages," Jonathan said. "You're Will's favorite conversation besides his niece, his court cases, and Pemberley. You must be a very special lady."

She smiled. "I've heard all about you too. He likes to talk about you three guys as some of his closest friends."

"We'd better be his closest friends other than Charlie," Greg remarked. "We all went to college together and we've spent a lot of time together over the past several years."

"We're even nice to each other when certain ones of us move away for long periods of time and when they come back, they announce that they're dating someone who graduated from the Ohio State University," Will teased.

"I don't know what you're complaining about," Greg replied. "Melissa is a great girl. You're the one who had to go study at the University of Michigan purely because you wanted to go to some fancy, hoity-toity law school."

"And you're one to talk," I said. "Both your bachelor's and your master's degrees are from private universities."

"Hey now, you got your bachelor's degree at a private school," his friend retorted.

"Yes, but my law degree is from a public university."

"And you are both ridiculous," Jake said. "On Sunday, I'm leaving for two weeks in Hong-Kong and all you two can do is argue about schools. No one actually cares about this crap; just get over it and have a good time."

Lizzie seemed to enjoy herself. She got along with everyone, especially Gretchen and Melissa. I had to admit Melissa was really amazing, despite all the crap I gave her about going to the Ohio State University. And they were nice to my girlfriend, which was what I wanted. Lizzie was so important to me and these guys were my best friends except for Charlie and Rick. The fact that they accepted and liked Lizzie meant the world to me. And Lizzie liked them too, which was amazing. I really wanted her to get along with my friends. I wanted them to all accept each other especially if Lizzie and I were going to have any kind of future together.

And more amazingly, within twenty-four hours of our Friday night dinner, all three of the guys had emailed me to tell me how much they liked Lizzie. "You really need to keep that one around," Greg told me. "She has a good heart and a great sense of humor. She's good for you."

I had to agree. Lizzie Bennett was very good for me.

A/N: I hope you guys liked it. I know it's a little longer than usual, but I hope it was worth it. Please review. Reviews really do inspire me and keep me going.