Chapter Nine: All His Colors Fade to Black

After being rescued by the love of his life, Will Darcy actually slept happily. His heart was full.

The room was immersed in warm tones of rose and ember, and the flames of color illuminated the room like the glow from a fire, but the flickering was less frequent and not emanating from the hearth. The glow became more concentrated and the large and spacey room's walls grew lighter and glistened with gold when she walked in. She was dressed in a violet nightgown, and her emerald eyes glittered, but sparkled when she saw him. Her face alit further when she approached him, and he realized she was holding something behind her. She handed him a shimmering ruby-toned package, and she bent forward to whisper in his ear. He was instantly immersed in the fragrances of citrus and lavender, and was just about to open the ruby box…

"Dearest, loveliest Elizabeth, what is this?"

"This is-"

~*~*~*~

"- your wake up call, Darcy!" came Charles' voice from behind the door, accompanied by decently heavy banging. Quoting a famed public service announcement, "It's 11 a.m.! 'Do you know where your children are?'"

William got out of bed and opened the door. His light mood was shattered. "NO. I don't know where she is." He shut the door, but didn't slam it, because he still cared for his friend and it was his best friend's home that he was occupying. He sunk down behind it, and prayed that his Violet Goddess would come to him and soothe his fears, perhaps alleviate his pain with that ruby gift from his dream. Then he'd be complete, if Georgie was added to the equation.

"Georgie, where are you?" he sighed, again. He felt like Harry Potter with all his angst. Someone knocked upon the door - it was incessant, like Bingley's, and not at all gentle.

"Daaaaaarcieeeeee!!!!!!" And now the horrible, ear-wrenching screech of the woman who somehow was related to Bingley sounded. "I need your opinion on my outfit!! I made a picnic for us today, so you can tell me all about how wonderful we are together and how sexy I am!" William started gagging. After a few moments, she was gone, and a tentative, yet gentle knock, completely unlike the others was coming from the joint bathroom-to-bedroom barrier.

"Yes?"

"It's Lizzy. Can I come in?"

"Yeah." The weight lifted a little. She slowly inched her way into the room which was only illuminated by the light that trickled in from between the slats of the window shades. Lizzy frowned and slowly let the shades up to let the light in.

"I…I just wanted to see how you were doing. Charlie's also going crazy because you didn't come out of your room. He's now resorted to a weird leg-jiggling thing in front of the T.V. 'cause he just can't sit still. I swear; he must have attention deficit!"

"Yeah he does that when he's upset or confused. I think he's both."

"Well, he seems to be full of remorse today."

"I forgave him already."

"When? When you realized he doesn't want you to tell him how sexy he is?" she smirked.

"Actually, yes." He shuddered, and Lizzy laughed.

"Hey, you have a sense of humor after all!" she grinned, teasingly.

He made a half smile, but didn't respond. Seriously, he asked,

"How is Jane?"

"She's fine enough, for a congested model with pneumonia. I'm publishing the latest Era campaign, though, in a few weeks, so I'm going to have to find another model because no amount of makeup or styling can make her look healthy at the moment."

"You don't air-brush your models?"

"No, I don't believe in that stuff, I do get rid of crap like pimples, but I'm not going to change the way a person's face looks. But the reason for the search for another model is 'cause Jane lost way too much weight when she was seriously ill, she won't wear the clothes well." William gave a nod, showing that he was interested. Lizzy interpreted it as dismissive, and was about to say something angry and rash, but, after a pause, he replied.

"What about your tall friend who's bl-…has dark hair? At the party?"

"You remember Charlotte? Wow, I thought you just had a stick up your…" William smirked rather than looked offended, so she continued, "Oh, um, well, Charlotte hates modeling and will never do it, no matter how much I plead. I thought it would be perfect with Jane's gold complexion and Charlotte's caramel one, but… I'm rambling. You don't really care."

"Of course I care; I could listen to you all day." He cleared his throat, "you do tend to ramble though."

A semi-awkward slash comfortable silence. Both Lizzy and William turned slightly rosy. Lizzy cleared her throat.

"Uhm, well, since I need to find a new model, I'm leaving this afternoon."

"So soon?" William suddenly felt depressed.

"Yeah…I need to take care of my siblings too…"

"You take care of Lydia?" he blurted.

"Ah, no…I take care of Daniel and Ana."

"Ana?" Somehow that name rang a bell, but he just couldn't place it. His brow furrowed in his concentration.

"Yeah, Ana. Oh!"

"Pardon?"

"She could be my model! Thank you William; that is a brilliant idea!" She hugged him – well, more like squeezed him – and scampered out, calling, "Bye William! See ya soon!"

"What just happened?" He sighed, remembering the warmth he felt from her touch. "I guess it is goodbye again." Sigh. "Well, at least she was real this time."

~*~*~*~

"Jane?"

"Yes, Charles?" She beamed, seeing the golden halo-surrounded face of her latest amour. You see, Jane fell in love quickly, so quickly that not only did it freak out Lizzy, but it made the constant love-cynic that went by the name of Charlotte, want to go home and hide in her flat until Jane fell out of love with her beau. Charlotte had attempted it once actually, and found that it was perfectly feasible. Jane's most recent beau lasted for two weeks, which was pretty long, considering the previous one in which Charlotte remained in her apartment for the duration of four days. Jane could never stay interested in a man for an extended period of time, and felt guilty for keeping a boyfriend for too long if she didn't see the relationship going anywhere. But Charlie (what she called him in her head) was different. She could tell.

"Jane, now that you're better, well, I know you're not really better but you're healthier than before, would you like to…"

"To do what?"

"Maybe you'd want to go on…a date…with me?" Jane inwardly jumped up and down with glee, but on the outside, she merely smiled warmly and said,

"I'd love to." She coughed, well, more like wheezed, "What shall we do?"

"Well, since you're still sort of sick, how about we have an indoor picnic? I mean, Caroline wanted to have one for everyone, but because Lizzy's leaving and Darcy's no fun, there is no point for her sort of company anyway, so, I figure it'd be a fun date and you wouldn't catch cold or anything..."

"Charles." Jane put her cold, frail, hand upon his.

"Yes, Jane?" Her name came out more as a squeak than an actual syllable. Jane giggled.

"I'd love to." She smiled sweetly, and Charles beamed. If you were there to see his face, my esteemed reader, you would most definitely liken Charles Bingley to a very happy puppy with a frantically wagging tail.

~*~*~*~

Caroline Bingley put on her favorite orange-blossom toning facemask in front of her vanity mirror. After all, orange blossoms actually do work wonders on pores! This imported edition of facemask came in a garish, sorry, lovely, mix of neon and burnt orange and was liberally applied all over Caroline's visage and neck. Under her sheer bronze robe were: a very skimpy, triangle-cut bra, and a piece of Clementine-toned floss that may be classified as a g-string. Now that that witch named Lizzy was gone, Caroline thought, she could easily plan the seduction of Darcy. She was splashing water on her face to wash off the toning mask, when she heard the object of her soon-to-be seduction yelling on the phone. Without thought, she rushed herself in her Cheeto-colored stilettos out into the hallway and following the loud rumble of noise.

~*~*~*~

"Bingley!" bellowed his best friend, "BINGLEY!!!"

"Yes?" Bingley was panting – he had rushed from his darling's bedside to attend to his friend.

"I just got off the phone with Richard, what is this business with me attending yet another one of your parties? You know I CANNOT socialize, especially NOW!" William was incredibly red-faced, and his face quickly turned ghostly when…

"DARRCIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!! Is everything all right???" The creature demanded. Its face was dripping orange goop; it looked like a pumpkin version of Nickelodeon's neon green slime, but thicker, and crusty in some places. But the face wasn't what made William turn ashen. It was the Mandarin Fireball's attire that made him feel like he was going to go through all nine lives of a cat.

William felt woozy. He heard the calls of Charles, the reprimands given to Caroline, the now present Jane's, "Oh my!" The walls spun around and he couldn't determine the difference between the ceiling and the floor. The colors began to mix with each other, the tan wooden floor, the azure papered walls, the ruby box, his purple goddess, the orange Caroline, all became a swirling mass until William faded into a void of black.

~*~*~*~

"It never occurred to me that Darcy would faint from my beauty!" screeched the Mandarin Fireball, while her brother and his angel lifted the tall and broad frame of her victim to his bed. Jane insisted that William be taken to the hospital, as she was convinced that he suffered a concussion much like Lizzy's foster sibling did.

William did not regain consciousness until he made it to the hospital. Then he swiftly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

A/N: New computer, new chapter, new apologies, dare I ask for (as usual), more reviews? By the way, orange blossom toner actually does work, and it smells pretty good!