A/N: So, I decided sod it all. Sod the posting schedule, sod writing a chapter a week, sod waiting until Saturdays, sod the...well, you get the point. Anyway, have fun. R&R, please. It's like my food. It tells me that you love me. :)

Disclaimer: I just checked. It's still not mine. :'(

Chapter 2: Dinner with the Neighbors

Will fidgeted nervously next to Charlie as they crossed the street. "Why?" he muttered. "Why do we have to do this?"

"Don't be a spoilsport, Will!" Charlie whispered back. "They're our neighbors, and they're being really nice!"

"But I don't know any of them!" Will replied. "Don't you remember how I was when I first came to your house?"

"Yes, and now we're best friends," Charlie hissed, "so loosen up a little. Who knows; your almost-blonde could fall for you."

"Her name is Lizzy," Will bit out, then glanced at Charlie and realized he had fallen for the American's trap.

"Boys, stop whispering back there," Mrs. Bingley commanded as they reached the Bennets' door.

"Yes, ma'am," Will replied instantly, and kept his mouth shut, even as Charlie laughed. The doorbell was rung, and seconds later, the door was opened by one of the twins. Will couldn't tell which one it was, but it didn't really matter, as Lizzy's was the only name he could really remember. Rubbish with names, him.

They were led through the kitchen, where Mrs. Bennet and the middle girl—Martha?—Margaret?—were cooking. Mrs. Bennet spun to great them, and was smiling and chattering away immediately.

The voice of the eldest Bennet girl—Charlie's blonde, who Will was reasonably sure was named Jane—filtered through to the kitchen. "Mary? Could you come out here a second?"

Mary! That was it! At least he got the first three letters right.

"Not now, Jane, I'm helping Mom," Mary called back.

Mrs. Bennet, however, didn't seem to be intent on cooking at all. Now that she had guests to entertain, they had all her attention. Will had to admit, if only to himself, that he would be better off without her attention. The woman led them into the living room, where Jane, Lizzy, and the twin who had answered the door were already sitting. At least, Will thought it was the girl who had answered the door. She was wearing the same bright pink tank top and cut-off denim shorts, but twins had been known to wear the same outfits.

"Lydia!" Jane suddenly barked. "Don't touch her!"

The girl jumped away from Lizzy, who she had just been about to poke.

"You're no fun, Janie," Lydia said with a pout. "Besides, the guests are here."

"She needs all the sleep she can get, and you know it!" Jane said, and it was only then that Will realized that Lizzy had been too still to be awake. "Leave her alone."

Mrs. Bennet had indicated that they should all sit down, and Will, a bit slow on the uptake, found that the only seat left open was on the other end of the couch the sleeping Lizzy occupied. He perched himself nervously on the edge.

Lizzy slept through the whole before-dinner conversation, but Jane periodically glanced at her sister, her eyes worried. After her twin made an appearance, Lydia popped up next to Will and said, "If she starts thrashing, wake her up, for your well-being as much as hers." She misinterpreted his confused look and added, "If she lands a kick on you, you'll have a green and yellow bruise for weeks. They're not fun." She disappeared behind his seat, leaving Will wondering why Lizzy would start thrashing in the first place.

"Lizzy!"

"Mph."

"Lizzy, wake up."

"Go 'way, Janie."

"It's dinner time, Lizzy. You have to get up."

Lizzy slowly opened her eyes. The yellow, pink, and blue that was her sister's face filled her vision. "Don't stretch like you normally do," Jane whispered.

"Why not?" Lizzy mumbled.

"Will's at the other end of the couch."

Lizzy's eyes snapped all the way open; there was no better way her sister could have gotten her fully awake. "Why didn't you wake me up when they got here?" she hissed. "What if—?"

"You were sleeping, though!" Jane protested. "Actually sleeping! No…anything. Just sleeping."

Lizzy glanced up to where Will was looking at them oddly. She tried for a smile, but was sure it came out awkward and stiff. "Jane's always worrying about me," she said. She could tell that Will knew there was more, but he was nice enough to nod and leave it alone.

Lizzy's mother stepped into the room then. "Dinner!" she said, clapping her hands together. "Lizzy, get your father."

Lizzy felt herself involuntarily shrink back into the couch a little. Jane met her eyes, then said to their mother, "Lizzy just woke up. I'll get Dad." Lizzy smiled gratefully at her sister, and got up to follow Will and Charlie to the table. She situated herself at the end of the table from her mother, and ended up with Will on one side, an empty seat for Jane on the other, at the very end of the table, and Charlie across from her.

Jane and their father arrived at the table moments later, and Lizzy avoided his gaze, focusing instead on serving herself and offering the dishes to Will. The British boy mostly kept his mouth shut, leaving the conversation largely to Charlie, Lizzy, and Jane, but threw in the occasionally comment. It didn't take Lizzy long to recognize the stiff, awkward symptoms of shyness, and she did her best to work around it, but she knew from past experience that shyness only disappeared with time. Still, she had to keep his attention from the other end of the table and her mother's embarrassing talk and her father's dark glare.

Will was starting to suspect that Lizzy knew what was going on. She seemed to be doing her best to talk to him, while Charlie and Jane got to know each other. When Will had met Charlie, he had thought that the American boy was the nicest person in the world. Now that he knew the Bennet family, though, he was hard put to say who was nicer; Jane or Charlie.

Will had heard from Caroline and Mrs. Bingley that Lizzy had taken on three boys who had been picking on one of her sisters, and won. While Caroline had tried to make it sound ridiculous—"She's a girl for God's sake! She should have gotten another boy to do it!"—Will had simply found it another reason to get to know Lizzy; she was fierce, protective, and loyal, and seemed to go to any length to keep those she loved safe. She would be a wonderful friend.

Lizzy was trying to draw him into a conversation about his family. Will left off his thoughts, did his best to ignore Caroline making eyes at him from across the table, and started to answer Lizzy's questions.

"My family isn't much," he said with a shrug, "just me, Dad, and my sister Georgie."

Lizzy cocked her head to one side curiously. "Where's your mother?"

Will felt his eyes drop to the table. "Mum died a little after Georgie was born."

"I—I'm sorry," Lizzy said quietly.

Will shrugged, his hands falling to his sides. "It was a long time ago," he said. "I was only four. I don't really remember her." He glanced up at the girl sitting next to him when a small hand crept into his and squeezed gently. Lizzy pulled her hand away as quickly as she had put it there.

Lizzy felt terrible. She should have known just to leave well enough alone, and not ask about his mother. Instead, she had managed to put her foot in it and now he probably hated her. She was very surprised, then, when he kept talking.

"My little sister, Georgie, she's thirteen now, almost fourteen, and, well, don't tell Charlie this, but she's the best mate I've ever had." Will smiled softly, tenderly, obviously picturing his sister in his mind. Lizzy felt her heart stutter at the look on his face. "She—she—it's so hard to explain!"

"She makes you feel happier than you've ever dreamed you could. She makes you forget, if just for a little while, everything you've ever been through, and imagine that life is all rainbows and butterflies." Lizzy flushed a little under Will's stare.

"How'd you know?" he asked softly.

"'Cause I've got a sister just like that," Lizzy replied. "It's the best gift I could ever be given, a pair of arms to feel safe in, and a friend to forget the hurt with." She unconsciously glanced at her dad, and neither she nor Will said much after that.

Will glanced over his shoulder at the house he had just left. On their way out, Caroline had commandeered his arm, and he had seen Lizzy's face fall, just slightly. He wondered if Lizzy thought he and Caroline were together. That would be…awkward, to say the least. They lived in the same house, for crying out loud! And aside from the fact that she was Will's best mate's sister, she was a good two and a half years older than him.

There was definitely something wrong in the Bennet home. He didn't know what, but Will could tell that there was something going on, some undercurrent to the whole family that no one was willing to talk about, and he would have to deal with it sometime if he wanted to be Lizzy's friend.

Charlie was going to have to deal with it, too, more than likely. He had taken quite a fancy to Jane at dinner, and now couldn't stop jabbering about the girl. Will couldn't help smiling in the face of his friend's happiness; Charlie was a more than decent bloke, and deserved a girl as nice as Jane seemed.

Will shook his head to clear his rambling; he was obviously tired. As soon as he came back to the present, he wished he had stayed in his thoughts. Caroline was making snips at Lizzy about shallow things, like her clothes, the style of her hair, the lack of nail polish on her fingers and toes, and the fact that she had been sleeping before dinner. She was trying to get his attention, but really only pulling Louisa in. When they reached the Bingley's home, Charlie pulled Will immediately up to his room.

"Are you going to call your sister?" Charlie asked as Will pulled out his laptop.

"Are you kidding me?" Will asked. "It's almost four in the morning over there! She'd kill me!"

"Through the computer?" Charlie asked skeptically.

"You've never met her," Will muttered. Charlie only laughed.