A/N: I don't own Pride and Prejudice. Thank you to all my reviewers; you guys make it worth it.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Come What May

Lizzie's POV

My bridal shower was in mid-May around the same time that Hannah King-Kilpatrick announced that she was pregnant and due in December. I was thrilled for Hannah, but Jane wasn't. Jane and Charlie had really been hoping for a honeymoon baby but after four months of marriage, she still wasn't pregnant. She was starting to get discouraged especially after Hannah announced her pregnancy, but her doctor told her that she needed to wait a few more months before he would actually consider this as a problem. My personal opinion was that Jane was just too stressed out about the whole thing. She just needed to relax and stop worrying. That really would help her in trying to get pregnant. But my sister liked to remind me that I wasn't married yet and therefore didn't really know anything about the specific details of getting pregnant. Umm, dream on, dearest sister. I am a woman after all.

Planning for the wedding in general was going really well. Will was in Meryton almost every weekend helping me with details. And when he wasn't there, I was in Chicago making adjustments to his house to prepare for our married life there. Mostly I was trying to put a few feminine touches on a house that had mostly been Will's bachelor pad since his dad died. And before that, his dad had lived there as a widower with two children for five years after his wife died. Sure Gianna had lived there but she was younger and didn't want to change the way her mom had the house or argue with her dad or her brother. But now that I was going to be living there as Will's wife, I planned on bringing some life and life into the cold, dark house. I wanted to use brighter, happier colors than had been found in the Darcy house in years.

But most of my focus was on the wedding. I had to deal with a million and one minute details of wedding planning that no one actually thinks about until they themselves are getting married. I was also spending too much of my free time babysitting my nieces. Lydia's second daughter, Hayley Anne, was born at the beginning of February and her mother was still shrugging her maternal duties off on the little girls' grandparents and aunts. I found myself responsible for the two little blonde angels far more than was typically expected of any child's aunt. But I knew that Lydia had no clue how to be a mother. She was nineteen years old and no one had been planning on her becoming a mother at the age of 18. And growing up in our parents' house hadn't trained her to handle guys like Damien. Most of my training in male-female relating came from other people's parents and older siblings. My younger sisters were basically raised by TV shows. I think I've learned a lot from my mom's parenting mistakes and I hope that I can show my daughters what it really means to be a woman in this world.

The day before my bridal shower, I found myself eating lunch in the faculty lounge with Kyle. "When you were a kid, did you ever think that the teachers sat around and talked about you in here?" he asked.

I nodded. "I'm pretty sure every teacher sat in here and wondered why I couldn't be like Jane."

"Why?" he asked. "You were smart; dude, you took classes at a community college and got your associate's degree while you were in high school."

"Yeah, but I was also more headstrong and obstinate than Jane. I had an opinion about everything."

"You still do," he quipped.

I shook my head and smiled. "I also did crazy things like getting into a car accident my senior year of high school. Jane never would have done anything like that."

"That's only because Jane wouldn't have been working during high school, especially not until one or two in the morning. Lizzie-belle, you did too much during high school."

"You don't know that for a fact; you've just heard that," I retorted.

Kyle sighed. "You Bennett girls will never just accept a compliment. What are you going to do when your husband wants to show his affection for you with a compliment? Are you going to argue with him?"

"You know that I only argue with you," I snapped back.

"What about Will? Do you guys argue?"

"Yeah, but not in the same way we do; with us, it's more of a sibling thing than a person you're about to marry thing."

"Are you calling me your brother?"

I nodded and smiled. "You are my brother."

He grinned. "Not by blood though, my daddy only makes the best kind of babies, boys."

I laughed. "What are you going to do when you have daughters?"

"Blame Jenny," he replied frankly.

I shook my head. "You do realize that you're the one who can shoot an X or a Y; she can only contribute X-chromosomes."

"It's still her fault; it will just mean that her womb is a hostile environment to Y-chromosomes."

"That's some really sound science there, Mr. Biology Major and Chemistry Minor."

Kyle stuck his tongue out at me and I laughed. Paul Jacobs walked by just then and said, "You two are almost as mature as some of the freshman boys on the baseball team."

"Paul, when are you going to realize that neither Lizzie nor I actually care what you think about the two of us?" I got along with Paul pretty well, but Kyle and Paul always had somewhat of a rivalry. It was pretty one-sided; basically, Paul hated Kyle because the students liked him more and because he had a fiancée. Apparently, it was nice being the heartthrob to high school students but Paul was getting sick of being alone and watching Kyle's personal success with women and just in life in general.

That evening, Will and I were having dinner at La Mesa talking about Gianna and Emily when a brilliant idea popped into my head. "Will, we should introduce Gianna to Kyle's younger brother, Connor. They're about the same age and if nothing else, it would give her someone her age she could talk to at our wedding."

He smiled. "Where did you get that idea from?"

"I was talking to Kyle at lunch today about how there are only boys in his family and then Paul Jacobs came over and started talking about how Kyle and I are pathetic for settling when we're so young. He sounded so jealous and frustrated, not like he actually thought we were being stupid for being in serious relationships but like he wanted to be in one and was annoyed that he wasn't."

"So how does that lead to wanting to set my younger sister up with Kyle's younger brother?"

I smiled. "Gianna is your darling little sister and Connor might as well be my little brother. I want to see both of them happy."

"We'll think about it, Lizzie," he said. "Maybe the next time Connor and Gianna are both in Meryton we can introduce them and see how things go."

"Okay, well, Connor is in Meryton now visiting Kyle. He figured that since Alex and Hannah would be in town this weekend, he'd come up for the weekend and spend some time with his brothers tomorrow during the bridal shower."

"Wow," my fiancé gasped. "You really have this all planned out, don't you? So when are we all going out for dinner to set them up? Is it going to just be Alex, Hannah, Kyle, Jenny, Gianna, Connor, you, and me? Or will the entire Kilpatrick family be there to witness this exciting juncture in their son's life?"

I shook my head. "You know what? Just forget I said anything. Maybe it's a bad idea. I mean Gianna has Emily to take care of and Connor is just your average twenty-two-year-old guy who just graduated from college and is heading off to law school in the fall."

"Connor wants to be a lawyer?"

"Yeah, he majored in history and British literature in college. He studied in London for a summer and spent a year at Trinity College in Dublin."

"So he's in touch with his Irish heritage?"

I nodded. "You could say that."

"How about we try this one? I get to meet Connor first and if I like him, we can introduce him to Gianna. But the whole thing has to be very casual. I don't want this to feel like a set-up to either one of them and I definitely don't want Gianna to feel like this is a pity date or something."

"Okay, but just for the record, Will, this is not a pity date. I really think that Gianna and Connor would go well together. He's good with little kids."

"How do you know that one?"

"Easy, I've spent way too much time at Mike and Kathy's house. That means that I've watched Alex, Kyle, and Connor playing with their younger cousins a million and one times over the past several years."

He smiled but then it seemed as if a shadow had fallen over his face. "Lizzie, I have a question that is going to sound really weird to you, especially considering that we're getting married in six weeks and your bridal shower is tomorrow."

I nodded, guessing that this question would probably have something to do with my relationship with Kyle. "What's on your mind?"

"If you never knew about what I did for Lydia and things had never worked out for us, do you think that you would have ended up marrying Kyle next month?"

My breath caught in my throat and I didn't know what to say. That was such a complicated question. Yes, Kyle and I had been supposed to go on a date the night that Will and I went on our first date. But things had worked out for Will and me. Jenny and Kyle ended up being a better match than anyone ever would have guessed. "There are so many 'what-ifs' wrapped up in that question. Yes, Kyle and I had a an agreement to go on a date the week after Charlotte and Ethan's wedding, but who knows if that relationship would have worked out? Think about how similar Kyle and I are. We work better as friends or siblings than we ever would as a couple. And don't worry about it; I'm never going to leave you for Kyle. Don't worry about what might have been; let's live with what we have. We love each other and we're getting married in six weeks. This is real."

I know why my relationship with Kyle scares Will. Kyle and I are close in a way rarely seen outside of the bond between siblings. The bond between us was forged by years of friendship and a need, at least on my part, for a sibling of the opposite sex. We could have tried dating, but in all likelihood, things would never have worked out for us. We would have dated for a while before fighting miserably and ending things, destroying not just our hypothetical dating relationship but also our friendship. We were much better off as friends, just very good friends who were almost siblings, and who were involved with other people. That was the best possible relationship for Kyle Kilpatrick and Elizabeth Bennett. We could never make it work any other way. And he and Jenny are perfect for each other.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of Jane frantically barking orders at Jenny. Most of her orders revolved around trying to wake me up, feed me a nutritious breakfast, and making me shower and look like a "normal human being." When I heard Jenny scream, "Jane Bingley, it is seven-thirty in the morning and the shower isn't until one. The only people who need to be at the Longbourn setting up for the shower are you, Gianna, Char, Hannah, Jenny, and me. Lizzie doesn't need to be there until things get started. Just leave her alone and let her sleep."

"I just want my sister to look perfect for her bridal shower," my older sister protested.

I heard Jenny sigh as I walked into the living room. "I just want her to be well-rested. This is the only day of the week she gets to sleep in and you're yelling, which isn't going to help her sleep."

"Well, I'm not asleep anymore," I said, putting my glasses on. "So what does Jane want from me?"

"I want to make sure you wear the best possible outfit today. I want you to look your best for your bridal shower."

"Well, why wouldn't I do that?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't want you to show up in jeans and a sweatshirt."

"And I won't," I sighed. "I was planning on wearing that green dress that Aunt Sophie bought me when I was in Chicago a couple weeks ago, unless you disapprove."

My sister seemed to wither a little under my Strict Teacher Face, which had been perfected after years of practice both in the classroom and at home on my younger sisters. "Fine, I approve of that dress, but wear it with a nice pair of heels and your pearls. Will's family is going to be there; you don't want to embarrass yourself."

I took a deep breath and smiled at Jane. "I'm well aware that Will's aunts and cousins will be at the shower. And I've also spent time with them before. I know how to dress and behave around them."

"I'm just making sure," she snapped. "I don't want you to embarrass yourself at your own bridal shower."

By the time Jane left two hours later, I was starting lose my mind. It was fine that Jane had been a Bridezilla when it was her own wedding but now she was trying to hijack my wedding and make sure it was perfect, the way she wanted it to be perfect. But I wanted my wedding to fit my relationship with Will, not my sister's relationship with her husband. Jane and Charlie were married; now it was time for Will and me to get married. I was going to do things my way. Yes, we were having red in our color scheme but it was different. Our colors were red and black while hers had been the traditional Christmas colors. I also wanted things to be simpler than Jane's wedding. I just wanted to marry the man I love in front of the people who matter to me. I don't want it to be a big deal. I'll wear my pretty dress and have my fancy reception and all that jazz to make people happy and satisfy the five-year-old girl who still wants to be a princess that hides inside of me. But the most important thing to me is that in front of God and the people I love the most, I promise to love, honor, and cherish William Richard Darcy for as long as we both shall live. That was the point of getting married, at least for me.

I left my apartment for my bridal shower the Longbourn around twelve-thirty. It would take me about ten minutes to get there and then I could play with my godson, Jackson, and help my bridesmaids finish setting up for the shower. I know Char, Jenny, Becca, Gianna, and Hannah wanted the whole thing to be a surprise for me, but I also knew that Jane was stressing out about the whole thing. My sister had planned her own wedding and been in a few weddings herself but for some reason, she was stressing herself out over my wedding. It wasn't even her wedding or anything. She was more concerned about the minute details of my wedding, like who was sitting where at my reception, than I was. She was worried about so many minute details that might bother me at some point before my wedding but I wasn't stressing out about them now.

When I got to the Longbourn, I found Jackson shoved into my arms as Char ordered me to take him someplace and "just keep him quiet and entertained for a while." So I took my godson to play in what was one of my favorite places in the hotel when I was a child. I took him to the wading pool that had played host to many of my best moments until the age of ten. The wading pool was in a greenhouse-like room filled with plants of all kinds. It was like perpetual summer or something. And it was also home to the hotel's "wishing well" that was really a wading pool with a fountain in the middle. My parents probably have hundreds of their five daughters splashing around in this little pool. And now I was taking my godson there. When we arrived there, Jackson and I found Katie there with my nieces, Maddie and the now three month old, Hayley. "Lydia dismissed her children because she's too stressed out getting dressed for the bridal shower."

I laughed. "Have Mom and Dad decided what they're going to do with Hayley and Maddie?"

"Adopt them," she said. "They're not certain but they don't know what else to do. Lydia has no intention of caring for them and they always end up with you or Jane or Mom or me. So Mom wants to adopt them and Lydia doesn't really care; she says she doesn't want them. And I doubt that Damien will really care; he's not even listed as Hayley's dad on her birth certificate."

I nodded. Lydia wasn't very fond of her children or her ex-husband. Ever since Hayley was born, she'd been shoved off on my mother and I think Mom was sick of it. Yes, Lydia was undoubtedly her favorite child but that sentiment didn't mean that she appreciated it when her granddaughters were shoved off on her. So my mom had decided to adopt her granddaughters to make their lives and hers simpler.

My bridal shower was amazing. The food was wonderful and so many people I love were there. My aunts and my cousins were there as well as Will's aunts and cousins. And all of my mom's friends and my friends were there. Becca Logan had once said that you have to invite your mom's friends to your bridal shower so they can buy you all kind of really expensive things from your wedding registry. That theory worked wonderfully for me. From what Bed, Bath, and Beyond's website was telling me, people had bought me most of the stuff that we'd registered for. My aunt Sophie and my aunt Grace bought me the dishes I wanted, which made me so happy.

When we packed up our wedding shower gifts to take to his house over Memorial Day weekend, I realized that in a month, we would be promising each other forever. We were taking some things that were his and some that were mine and some that were new to both of us. And that was what was happening with our lives. We were joining two separate lives to create one new life. We were getting married on June 26 and then after a two week honeymoon across Europe, we were going to start our married life in Chicago.

Will's POV

Before I knew it, it was Friday, June 25, 2010 and I was standing in Kyle's kitchen getting ready to go to my rehearsal dinner. You might be wondering why I wasn't at the Netherfield with Jane and Charlie. Well, Jane was finally pregnant, after almost six months of trying, and she was going through horrible morning sickness and didn't want anyone seeing her except her husband. She was determined to still be matron of honor in our wedding but she wasn't doing anything else besides helping us get ready for the wedding. So, I was staying Kyle who was busy getting ready for his own wedding that was a mere three weeks away. "Are you ready for this?" he asked me as he walked into the kitchen tying his navy blue tie.

I looked at him. "Kyle, be honest with me. Do I deserve her?"

"Hell no," he replied without pause or hestiation. "But for some reason, she seems to love you and apparently she wants to spend the rest of her life with you. So tomorrow at one o'clock, you'll walk down the aisle and then a few minutes later her dad will walk her down the aisle. And then, in front of God and Man, you'll profess your love for her; you'll promise her forever and then, it'll be real. You'll be man and wife. I might not think you deserve you but she seems pretty ready to spend forever with you. She loves you, Will. If nothing else, she loves you and she wants to marry you. And if she thinks you're good enough, then who am I to stop you? Go for it and marry the girl."

I smiled at him and then a horrible, jealous thought jumped into my head and out of my mouth before I could stop myself. "If you could have married her, would you have done it?"

Kyle's blue eyes turned a strange shade of gray that I'd never seen before and he shook his head. "She is yours. I knew that the first time I saw you with her. You two belong together. Lizzie is my baby sister and I love her but we could never be anything other than siblings."

"Funny thing," I said. "That's almost exactly what she told me when I asked her the same question."

"It's true," he stated calmly and simply. "Will, that girl loves you passionately and will always love you. Just don't screw it up."

"I know," I told him. "If I screw it up, you and Steve will screw me up."

"So badly you won't know what hit you," he replied calmly as we walked out of the apartment.

The rehearsal was almost painful as I realized how close we were to getting married. In less than twenty-four hours we would become man and wife, Mr. and Mrs. William and Elizabeth Darcy. I could wait. Our entire lives were about to change, but it was going to be for the better. Lizzie and I had been joking that our wedding song should have been "For Good" from Wicked. Charlie said that the problem with that we knew that we'd been changed for the better. Lizzie laughed and asked him how he knew that.

"You've changed Will," he replied. "You've made him a better man."

It was true, what Charlie said. She had made me a better person. I was stronger and more open with my feelings than I'd been before meeting her. And I was happier than I'd been in years, possibly since my mother's death nearly twelve years earlier. And I knew that was because of Lizzie's influence in my life. She brought light into my life and she filled me with so much happiness and love, for her, for others. She was a beautiful, amazing woman filled with life and energy. She cared so much about the people around her.

Even now, a few minutes before our wedding rehearsal, she was playing with Connor and Elana. Connor, my cousin's six-year-old son, and Elana, Lizzie's seven-year-old cousin, were our ring-bearer and flower girl. They were so cute watching all the adults getting ready for the rehearsal. Connor was sitting on Lizzie's lap while Elana leaned against her arm and my fiancée made them little animals out of colored play-dough that just happened to be in her purse. It was amazingly adorable. And speaking of adorable, Connor Kilpatrick was bouncing my two-year-old niece, Emily, on his hip while we all waited for Jane, Hannah, Becca, Gianna, Jenny, and Char to finish up their "secret bridesmaids' meeting." Connor and Gianna had met at brunch after Mass the day after Lizzie's bridal shower. They'd been on a couple of dates over the next few weeks while Gianna and Emily were in Meryton helping Lizzie with some wedding things. Connor was in Meryton a lot helping his brother out with various things especially leading up to Kyle and Jenny's wedding.

And then came Memorial Day weekend. It was the first time Connor met Emily and if my younger sister had been interested in him before that weekend, Emily's unabashed adoration of her mother's beau had cemented the mother's love for said beau. At a Saturday barbeque on the beach near Netherfield, Emily had followed Connor everywhere and he'd been amazing with her. Now, a month later, he was carrying her around and showing her the fatherly affection and devotion she'd always needed but had never received. In one month, Connor had been able to give my beautiful little niece more love and affection than her biological father would have been able to give her in a lifetime. I didn't know if Connor and Gianna would ever get married but they had an amazing chemistry. And he was wonderful with Emily. I smiled as I saw him singing softly to her. "Just as long as he doesn't sing the 'Believe it or not, George isn't at home' song," Lizzie remarked to me.

"I think that's more Kyle's thing than it is Connor's. I've kind of picked up the impression that Connor doesn't want to be Kyle or Alex," I replied.

"He doesn't have to be his brother but that doesn't mean that the whole making a stupid song your voicemail isn't just genetic."

Thankfully, the bridesmaids finally emerged from the church basement just then and we were finally able to start the rehearsal. In some ways, it was simple, just making sure we all knew when to do what but it meant so much for me. The next day at one o'clock in the afternoon, we would be here again but in different, fancier clothes and it would just be a practice or a rehearsal. It would be real. I was finally going to marry Lizzie.

We had the actual dinner at the Longbourn. It was amazing to see who was there and remember the roles they'd played in our relationship. Char and Ethan Collins were there with their son, Jackson; Lizzie and I had gone to Char and Ethan's wedding together only a few short weeks after we started dating. Steve and Becca Logan were also there with their little girl, Mary. Steve and Becca had never done one specific thing that could be pinpointed as helping our relationship, but their friendship had helped us. And Steve was one of Lizzie's surrogate "overprotective big brothers." Then there were Jane and Charlie; none of this would have ever happened if Charlie hadn't bought the Netherfield and dragged me to Meryton to see the hotel. That trip was when we were invited to Char's birthday party, which was where we first met Lizzie and Jane. And then he fell for Jane, which forced me to spend time around Lizzie. And then Char and Ethan were spending Easter with my aunt Catherine and Char invited her sister, Maria, and Lizzie, to spend Easter with her. That was when I asked Lizzie out for the first time and found out about all the lies Damien Wickham had told her about me. Then in July, her aunt and uncle brought her to Pemberley in Virginia while Gianna, Emily, and I happened to be there. And it was then that things really got on the road to where we might possibly start dating. But that was before Damien ran off with Lizzie's younger sister, Lydia. Seeing how upset that made Lizzie, I became determined to make things better and went in search of them. When I found them, I let Ed Gardiner take control of the situation and they were quickly married. And then, Lizzie found out what I had done.

I have been told that it was when Lizzie discovered my role in tracking down Damien and Lydia that she realized what her feelings for me really were. She saw me a few times after that before things really came out in the open, but by the end of August of 2008, we were dating. We dated for about eight months before I proposed. That was about fourteen months earlier. And our wedding was the next day. I was finally going to marry the girl I'd seen a birthday party and while I thought she was beautiful, I'd referred to her as "fine, barely tolerable. She wasn't someone you could look at every day." I was wrong about that. Lizzie is someone I could look at every single day for the rest of my life and still never get enough. She is, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman I know. I looked at her across the room. I was standing and talking with Steve, Kyle, and Alex while she was talking to her aunt Sophie, Hannah Kilpatrick, and her sister, Katie. She was laughing and moving her hands expressively. She looked so happy and so peaceful. And she was gorgeous in her royal blue v-neck dress; she was wearing a simple strand of pearls and she'd pinned her hair up in a simple chignon. She didn't look at all "barely tolerable." She looked absolutely ravishing, simply stunning.

A few minutes later, I was still talking to Steve, Kyle, and Alex when I felt a pair of arms slip around my waist. "Hey there, handsome," I heard whispered in my ear and I felt soft breath on my neck.

"That had been better be Lizzie," I said as the other three laughed.

"Don't worry," Kyle said as he adjusted little Mary Logan on his hip. "That is definitely your Elizabeth."

"If you like, we can leave you two lovebirds alone for a while," Alex told us as Lizzie came to stand next to me.

I wrapped my arm around the woman I was going to marry the next morning and pressed my cheek into her hair. "You can stay," I told him. "We don't mind you, do we Lizzie-lou?"

She smiled. "You three guys are the best brothers a girl could ever ask for. But if you want to leave and let Will and I goof off, you can."

"We're not going anywhere," Steve said quickly. "As long as we have Mary here, you have to behave yourselves."

"Just be good until you get married," Kyle added. "After the reception tomorrow night, you two can do whatever you please."

"Do you hear that, Will?" Lizzie said. "We can do whatever we want."

"I knew there was a reason we were getting married."

A/N: I'm sorry this took me so long to get out. I'm really busy these days working 20 hours a week and taking 18 credits. But I hope you guys like it and please review! Also, if you're interested there are pictures of the dresses Lizzie wore to her bridal shower and to her rehearsal dinner in my profile. Feel free to check them out!