A/N: I still don't own Pride and Prejudice and I still love my reviewers! You guys really motivate me and encourage me.

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Whole New World

Lizzie's POV

The hardest part about getting engaged was all the phone calls I had to make. There was calling my mother, who didn't answer her cell phone so I just left her a message and told her that I hoped that she might understand what I saw in Will someday. I knew she'd probably threaten to not come to the wedding but I also really hoped she'd see sense about the whole thing. Jane was thrilled to death and immediately asked if she could be my maid of honor since I was going to be hers. I told her I'd think about it because under that logic, Becca and Char might also want to be my maids of honor although they're actually both matrons but that's not really the point. The point is that they would have good reason to ask to be my maid/matron of honor. Of course, Jane is my sister, so that does give her points. But I still wasn't quite positive on who I was going to pick. I needed to think about it and figure out who the best person would be. I knew I'd definitely have Jane, Becca, Char, Jenny, and Hannah in my wedding party but I wasn't quite sure on who I wanted to be my maid of honor. Hannah immediately warned me that she might be pregnant during my wedding if I got married the summer after her wedding but I assured her that was fine with me.

Within a week of getting engaged, we'd booked St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Meryton for the last weekend of June 2010. My dad wanted us to have the reception at the Longbourn but my mom told him there was no way in hell that was happening. So we were opting for the Netherfield instead. Charlie was willing to give us a discount as a wedding gift. If we'd had the reception at the Longbourn, it would have been free, but now, with the way things stood after my fight with my mom, there was no way that would ever happen. My mom was still refusing to speak to me. Mary was giving me the silent treatment and Katie never had anything nice to say to me. These days, my only allies in my family were my dad and Jane. Mary was being so rude to me that I finally gave up and was staying with Jenny Putnam for a while. I'd only been planning on staying there for a day or two at first but Mary wouldn't grow up and it was just easier to stay with Jenny. Plus I was welcome to stay there as long as I liked. I had to pay rent and all if I stayed for more than a few days but I was still welcome to be there.

I also got to see Will more and I was definitely going to see him more once school let out for the summer. We had a wedding to plan and there were so many details we still needed to work out. I needed a dress. We needed to pick wedding colors and our bridal party and flowers and all those kinds of things. Of course I'd probably end up taking care of most of those decisions. I could see our wedding plan involving Will picking his groomsmen and me taking care of everything else. I knew he just wouldn't care; as The Wedding Planner says "Most grooms are NID…not into details." I was pretty sure that as long as I wore a white dress and we got married in a Catholic church, Will would be happy. Oh and he was very specific that our wedding colors could not be silver and red or green ad white. Yes, my fiancé might be a fan of the University of Michigan's football team. I did tell him our wedding colors would also not be maize and blue or any variation of a blue and yellow combination. The second color of our wedding colors needs to be more neutral and subtle; it needs to be an accent color, not something that will immediately grab people's attention. But men don't always seem to understand these seemingly insignificant details of wedding planning. This is why women plan weddings and men don't.

When the school year ended in June, I was still living with Jenny. She had a two-bedroom apartment and she hadn't had a roommate for a couple months because she'd been living with Becca until Becca and Steve's wedding. But I stayed with her on a temporary basis after my fight with my mother at the end of March. And after living with her for a month or so, we decided that it would just be easier for all involved parties if I moved in with her and paid rent. It was weird moving, especially knowing that I'd be moving again in a little over a year, but it was necessary. Jane was sad to see me move out but she knew that she was getting married in December and I would have needed to find a new place to live then anyway. After Jane got married, Mary was probably going to have to move back in with our parents, which was unfortunate, but she'd be happier there than I would. It was actually pretty fun living with Jenny. She and Kyle had been dating for about nine months or so; they were so happy together. It was great.

Becca Logan gave birth to her first child on June 11, 2009. They had a beautiful baby girl whom they named Mary Rebecca Logan. Both of their mothers were named Mary and Steve really thought the name "Mary Rebecca" was beautiful and poetic. And Mary Rebecca Logan was a gorgeous baby. She had Steve's insanely dark brown hair and big blue eyes. I was pretty sure the eyes came from Becca but she had a lot of the Logan looks. If things kept going the way they were looking, Mary Logan was going to be an Irish-Italian beauty. She was more Irish than Italian, but she was still beautiful. And Kyle and Jenny were going to be her godparents, which basically cemented their relationship in my mind. They were pretty serious about each other and I was expecting him to propose any day now.

About a week after Mary Rebecca was born, I found myself sitting in the living room of my new apartment holding the little darling in my arms while talking to Becca, Steve, Jenny, Kyle, and Will. It was great seeing the guys with the baby and it was great just hanging out the six of us. "She's so precious," I told Becca. "I love her eyelashes."

"Those are all Steve," she replied with a proud smile. "You have to remember that Steve was voted 'Best Eyes' from our senior class."

"Yeah, and Lizzie had the best eyes for the girls that year," Steve said. "I think our class just had a think for brown eyes with long lashes that year."

"Well, she does have a pair of fine brown eyes," Will remarked, looking at me with a smile.

"Lizzie or the baby?" Kyle teased.

"Well, they both have nice eyes," my fiancé replied. "But I tend to prefer Lizzie's eyes to Mary's."

"That's good," Steve said. "No men are coming within a hundred feet of my daughter until she's at least thirty years old."

"Umm, darling, you married me when I was twenty-five," Becca told her husband.

"That's nice," he replied. "I know what guys are like and I don't want men near my daughter until she's at least thirty. Heck, I might just lock her up in a convent for the rest of her life to make sure she stays safe."

I smiled as I looked at the baby in my arms. "Just remember, Steve," I said. "She is only a week old."

"And she's my baby girl. I have to protect her."

"Are all guys like this?" I asked. "Or is this only a gene you acquire when you have sisters or daughters?"

Kyle nodded. "You've probably never realized it but a lot of us have that gene in us to some extent. It exists more in guys who have sisters but we all have it in us to an extent. Steve, Alex, and I usually exhibit it to protect you and your sisters. In case you haven't noticed, we really try to protect you like you're our own sister."

I smiled. "Did you guys ever try to threaten a guy I was dating or something?"

"Umm, well Andrew Caldwell was a little scared of Kyle and Alex," Steve said.

"And they offered to kill me if I didn't behave myself," Will admitted. "And they can be pretty intimidating when they want to be."

"Why are you guys so protective of me?" I asked.

"We've seen you get hurt and we don't want it to happen again," Kyle replied. "We love you and we want to protect you; you're our baby sister."

I smiled and leaned against Will. "So you guys do approve of this one?"

"He'll do," Steve said simply. "He isn't perfect but at the same time, he's no Damien Wickham; that's for sure."

"Did you guys meet Damien?" my fiancé asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," Kyle said with an annoyed glint in his eye. "There are some guys who just shouldn't be allowed to date your friends, especially your girl friends who really matter to you, and Damien was one of those guys. I mean the fact that he's now married to Lydia should give you a clue as to his character. He's not exactly a savory character from what I saw of him."

"He's disgusting," Steve remarked with his classic raised eyebrows that I knew signaled disapproval. Steve has a very distinctive eyebrow raise that means he's angry or he just plain doesn't approve of something. It's kind of quirky, like Steve, but it really suits him. I love Steve; he's a great guy and a real sweetheart. And now he's a daddy, which is always exciting. It's amazing to watch your friends grow and mature. Steve and Becca have a new wonder of life in their family and Char and Ethan are going to have their first baby in August. While Becca and Steve didn't know if they were having a boy or a girl until Mary was born, Ethan demanded that they know their baby's gender and they were expecting a baby boy. In fact, despite the fact that Char wasn't due for another two months, Ethan knew exactly what he wanted to name the baby. Actually he was debating between Ethan Thomas Collins, Jr. and Dylan Isaac Collins. I wasn't much for the whole naming your first born son after yourself thing, but at the same time, I wanted the baby's name to have meaning for Ethan and Char. I knew that Mary Rebecca's name had meaning for Steve and Becca. I also didn't want Ethan to force anything on Char, which I was really afraid that he would. I wanted them to choose their son's name together.

As I planned my wedding that summer, I learned a lot about myself and my relationship with Will. I began to realize that the whole reason I'd hated him for so long was because I was attracted to him. He had insulted me and I'd gotten angry because the guy I liked was basically rejecting me so I decided to hate him. Now to most people, especially guys, that probably didn't make much sense but when you're me, it made perfect sense. But that was all in the past. I loved Will and I knew that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. This was the guy I wanted to marry and have kids with. I wanted to grow old with him. I loved Will Darcy. And I knew that he loved me. Knowing that you loved someone and they loved you in return had to be one of the greatest feelings ever.

In September, I started thinking about who I wanted in my wedding party. I knew I was going to ask Jane, Becca, Jenny, Char, and Hannah. I wanted to ask Gianna as well but I knew that Will was just planning on asking Charlie, Rick, Greg, Jake, and Jonathan n his side and that would bring my side up to six people and he'd only have five and I didn't want our sides to be uneven. Then one night we got talking about it. "I really want Gianna in the wedding; she's your sister and I love her. But I don't want the wedding party to get too big. We already have ten people plus Connor and Elana."

Rick's son, Connor, and my cousin, Elana, were going to be our ring bearer and flower girl. We had asked Gianna if Emily could be one of our flower girls but since Gianna would be a little over two years old at our wedding, Gianna was worried about her getting distracted. Elana, on the other hand, would be seven at the wedding and Connor would be five. We figured they wouldn't have too much trouble walking down the aisle in unison.

"But at the same time, Gianna is your sister and I really want her in my wedding," I continued.

Will smiled. "What if you asked Gianna to be a bridesmaid and I asked Kyle to be one of my groomsmen? He's like a brother to you and I've come to really like him and respect him. If you want to have Gianna in the wedding, I'd be willing to ask Kyle to be one of my groomsmen."

I nodded. "I like that idea. Kyle has been like a brother to me since college and it would be really nice to have him in my wedding."

Will kissed the top of my head and smiled. "Okay, we can have a little bit bigger of a wedding party if that will make you happy."

"You spoil me," I teased. "First you make me dinner and give me roses, then you let me have my way with planning the wedding, and I don't know what's going to happen next."

"Well, we could have dessert," he said with his amazing smile. "I might have made one of your favorite desserts."

"Did you make me cheesecake?"

"Nope," he replied. "I know that you're lactose intolerant. Okay, so I did make something with dairy but it's something you like more than cheesecake. Plus, you can make cheesecake but I can't. Actually, generally, you're the better cook of the two of us."

"Well I do have my associate's degree in culinary arts," I told him, pulling away from him so I could look at him better. "It's not my fault that I'm a good cook."

This made Will laugh. "Well, I still made the effort to make you a nice dessert. Stay here while I go get it."

We were in Charlie's apartment that we'd taken over for the evening while Jane and Charlie were off doing "other things." They were actually having a family dinner at my parents' house to which I was not invited. I was still on my mom's bad list. It had been almost six months since that dinner with Damien and Lydia and I'd been engaged for most of those six months but my mother was still mad at me; she hadn't spoken to me since that fateful dinner. Jane and Dad were always telling her that she was ridiculous but she was insistent that it was entirely my fault; I was the screw-up in the family. I was now the bad daughter and the one who was failing at everything. I just wasn't good enough for her standards. Except not really…

A few minutes later, Will came back into the room and handed me a plate of tiramisu and I looked up at him. "Did you really make this yourself?"

He nodded. "It took a lot of time and I had to consult the cookbook and the Internet on multiple occasions but I did it by myself."

"Well, then you should try it first to make sure it tastes as good as it looks."

He laughed. "It's my treat for you; you should try it first."

I smiled at him, popped some Lactaid in my mouth, and took a bite of the tiramisu; it was amazing, absolutely amazing. "It's fantastic," I told him with a smile.

"See?" he said. "I told you I could cook."

I kissed him. "Yes, William, you're wonderful. I love you."

"And the tiramisu?" he asked with a teasing smile.

I nodded and laughed. "And of course the tiramisu."

By the end of the month, I had my wedding party finalized. I'd also settled on a wedding dress and bridesmaids' dresses. We'd ended up deciding that our wedding colors were going to be black, white, and red. Will had finally decided that those colors weren't really Ohio State's colors so we could use them. My bridesmaids were going to wear black dresses with red sashes and carry bouquets of red roses while I wore a white dress (obviously) and carried a bouquet of red roses. Will and his groomsmen were going to wear black suits with black vests and shirts and red ties. Will was going to wear a red rose in his boutonnière and the groomsmen would have white roses; they were going to look amazing.

Will's POV

I loved moments like this, moments when Lizzie was completely and entirely mine. She was snuggled up against me while we watched a movie. It was mid-October and I was in Meryton for our monthly meeting for marriage prep and we were also dealing with other wedding related things. Plus, Lizzie's friend, Charlotte Lucas-Collins, was having her son, Jackson Stephen Lucas-Collins, baptized the next day. Lizzie wasn't entirely enthusiastic about Jackson's birth or his name; I know she disapproved of the hyphenated last name, but I think she was more frustrated with Charlotte in general. I knew that she didn't like Ethan Collins and I think it was hard to see Char living so far away and in a relationship with a guy who didn't like Lizzie and who she didn't really like him either. I think she was also frustrated because Charlotte was being difficult about our wedding. She was willing to be in the wedding party but Lizzie had asked Jane to be her maid/matron of honor and Char felt that since Lizzie had been her maid of honor, she should be Lizzie's. But by that logic, Jane and Becca Logan should also be Lizzie's matrons of honor. Jane is Lizzie's sister and one of her dearest friends. It makes sense to me that Lizzie would pick Jane as her matron of honor. If nothing else, she's been around our relationship much more than Char has. In fact, I didn't even really know Char that well. I knew Jane, Becca, Jenny, and Hannah, but not Charlotte.

Lizzie looked up at me and smiled a sleepy smile; we were watching a movie at the apartment she shared with Jenny. The two of them actually had a really good arrangement. Lizzie was moving out when we got married at the end of June and then Jenny and Kyle were getting married in July so he'd be moving in shortly after Lizzie moved out.

"I like you a lot," my fiancée whispered. "You're a great guy."

I smiled and kissed the top of her forehead. "You're wonderful, Lizzie, absolutely wonderful. How'd I get so lucky?"

"You insulted some girl and she fell in love with you."

"I think it was slightly more complicated than that," I told her. "I think I had to prove to the damsel that I was worthy of her attention and that I wasn't a louse."

She smiled. "Well, you turned out to be a great guy and totally worthwhile." She sighed and then smiled. "I'm glad we finally got everything to work out for us. You're the best thing that has happened to me in a long time."

"Even if being with me is screwing things up in your family?"

"Will, you're worth it," she said. "My mom is an idiot and Lydia and Mary aren't far behind her. Don't even get me started on Katie." She paused and smiled at me. "Some members of my family are ridiculous. My mom is undoubtedly the worst of the bunch but my younger sisters aren't far behind her."

Something occurred to me just then. "Elizabeth, has your mom pulled a stunt like this before?"

She nodded and I frowned. "My junior year of college she decided that she didn't want to see me when I got back from Spain. I'm not sure she told me why but she didn't want to see me."

"What did you do?"

"I spent my winter break with Kyle and Alex's family; I didn't really have any other choice. If I'd stayed with the Lucases, Mrs. Lucas would have meddled in family problems and that would have just created more issues and I could have lost a lot more than a couple weeks with my family. It wasn't all horrible; Jane came down to visit there for a few days and I did drive up to Meryton to see Jenny, Hannah, and Char for a couple days over my break. But I spent most of my time in Coopersville with the Kilpatricks."

I frowned; the more I learned about Mrs. Bennett the less I liked her. "She didn't let you come home for Christmas?"

"Nope, she didn't want me around. She said that if I was going to go jetting off to Spain for months at a time and I couldn't be bothered to fly home for Thanksgiving then she didn't want to see me for Christmas."

"She does understand that it would have been insanely for you to fly home just for four or five days? It wouldn't have been worth it at all."

"My mother is not rational," she said calmly as if having a mother who treated some of her daughters like princesses and others like they were lower than dirt was perfectly normal and acceptable. "She likes everything to be exactly the way she wants it to be and she doesn't understand how anyone could ever look at life differently than she does. Sure it's irritating and all, but you get used to it after a while. You learn that Christmas with the Kilpatricks or Thanksgiving with Putnams or Easter with the Logans, things like that aren't so bad. At least when you're with them, things are more normal. Do you know that most of what I know about family traditions for holidays either came from my aunt Sophie or from my friends' families? Mrs. Kilpatrick taught me how to make Christmas cookies while listening to the Messiah and that you don't need to hire professionals to decorate a Christmas tree. The first time I ever really decorated a Christmas tree was with Kathy and her sons; my parents had always hired somebody to do it for us."

"Is she a single mom?" I asked; I was confused by the lack of references to any Mr. Kilpatrick in the story.

Lizzie shook her head. "Nope, it's just that we decorated the tree while Mike was at work. Kyle and Alex were out of school for break and Connor had a snow day. It was so weird, Will; they have family dinners together. Like Kathy makes dinner and when Mike gets home from work, they all sit down at the table and Mike makes one of the boys say grace and then they eat dinner together. It was so weird to me."

I smiled; we'd talked about this before. Her family only had "family dinners" on special occasions whereas I'd grown up with almost nightly family dinners. "Well, at least they cared about you."

She nodded. "They're great people and they made that part of my life that much better. It was from that Christmas that I decided I wanted to raise my children with regular family dinners and family prayer times. I want my kids to really know what family means. I want them to know that they're loved and I don't want them to feel that you and I have favorite children. I want them to know that each child is loved equally. I know that my mom has her favorites and my dad has his; that's a part of life in the Bennett family. I don't want my kids to feel the way I did growing up. I don't want them to know that you love them more than I do or vice versa. I want them to know that we both love them."

I ran my fingers through her hair and nodded. "I know, sweetheart, I know. I want us to be a strong, healthy family. I don't want absentee parenting or favoritism. I want our kids to know that they matter to us."

Conversations like that one were hard for me sometimes. I had a lot of problems with Lizzie's parents and I really wanted to confront them about things like this. I wanted to ask her mother where she got off telling her daughter that she couldn't come home for Christmas. I was grateful to people like Mike and Kathy Kilpatrick, who I was going to meet the next month at their son's wedding, for teaching her about what families were supposed to be like. I was looking forward to having a family with her. We were getting married in eight months, which at times seemed really far away but then I knew that time would fly by. But I was ready to get married and have a family. I was ready and I was looking forward to the future.

The next day, Lizzie's godson was baptized. Jackson Stephen Lucas-Collins was an adorable baby even if his name was a mouthful. I think if your kid is going to have a last name, they need a manageable first name. I guess he could go by Jack or something but his name was long. I was really hoping that Lizzie wasn't planning on hyphenating last names for our kids. Bennett-Darcy sounds like someone's name; actually, while we're on the subject, I'm pretty sure I know someone named Lucas Collins. Either that or it's a publishing company. Lucas-Collins really sounds like the name of a publishing company. But I didn't think that idea up on my own. Steve Logan remarked that while listening to Ethan babble about how he thought it would be "simply splendid" if Jackson Lucas-Collins were to marry Mary Logan. That actually sounds like a bad idea to me. I really don't approve of planning babies' lives while they're still babies.

I was actually holding Mary Logan during this discussion. She'd randomly been handed to me when I was talking to Lizzie and Becca, and I just kept holding her; she actually seemed really content and happy in my arms. "She is a doll," Kyle said. "She really makes me want kids."

"Jackson is better behaved," Ethan inserted. "She is so fussy and she's always squirming. It's annoying."

"She's four months old," I said. "She's more mobile than Jackson is. Wait a couple months and he'll be fussy and squirming too."

"And right now she's a peaceful little angel," Kyle added, stroking the baby's head. "She's not making noises right now. She's almost asleep and she looks so sweet."

"You're biased because she's your goddaughter," the proud papa of Jackson protested.

"Maybe," Mary Rebecca's godfather said. "But that's allowed."

A/N: Okay, so we're gradually working towards the wedding. Please review and I hope you liked it!