A/N: *cheerfully* Hey, guys!

...

*crickets*

Heh heh. *rubs back of neck awkwardly* Yeah... Would it help if I said sorry? Would it help if I told you that I've been rapidly turning out both original stories and Criminal Minds fanfic in the interim? Would it help if I offered cookies?

How about money?

How about the promise, on my honor as a writer, that I will work doggedly on this one until it's done? Because that's the best I can do...

Well, hope whoever's still with me enjoys this!

Disclaimer: They won't let me have it, worse luck. I suppose I'll have to say "please" and put it back when I'm done...

Chapter 7: Camping

The next day, Saturday, Will abandoned his cousin to the mercy of the Bingleys and sat on the porch until Lizzy appeared, climbing down from the porch roof instead of jumping. He was by her side in an instant, helping her off the rickety trellis.

"Feeling better?" he asked gently. "How's your face?"

"I'm doing all right," she said.

"Do you want to come over?" Will asked. "I want you to meet my cousin, Richard."

Lizzy looked warily at the house across the street.

"Caroline's not there," Will said, amused. "She left for college this morning."

Still looking a little wary, Lizzy nodded.

"Come on," Will said, and led her across the street.

Will's cousin was friendly and energetic, and seemed genuinely glad to meet her. He told embarrassing stories about Will's childhood, though Lizzy knew that Will had no right to get mad, as every single one of the stories was embarrassing to Rich, too. She wondered, then, why Rich kept glancing at Will, and Will glared back with every look. Mentally, she shrugged it off. It had nothing to do with her.

Little did she know how wrong she was.

"So she's the friend you want to bring?" Richard asked quietly after Lizzy had excused herself a while later.

"The only other friend I can think of is Charlie," Will replied. "And you've already invited him. Besides, I could tell he was thinking of inviting Jane."

Charlie glared at Will. "How would you know?"

Will snorted. "You got that sappy look on your face you always do when you talk about her. When are you going to ask her out, anyway? You've known her long enough, and I don't think she'll say no."

"If you're talking about who I think you're talking about," said Lizzy, coming back into the room, "then no, she won't say no."

Charlie blushed. "You're sure?" he asked.

"One hundred percent positive," Lizzy replied. "Ask her. But do it in person. You'll both feel better for it."

Charlie was gone in seconds.

Richard roared with laughter as soon as the door shut, and Lizzy pressed a hand across her mouth, obviously suppressing giggles. Will couldn't help grinning at the obvious mirth surrounding him, though he himself was worried about how exactly he was going to ask Lizzy.

Charlie didn't come back. Lizzy didn't notice until Will suggested that the two of them give Rich a tour of the neighborhood, and at that point, she realized she didn't care. She liked Rich well enough, but even more she liked the change he wrought in Will. With his cousin, Will Darcy was far more prone to smile and crack jokes, and Lizzy couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard as at the antics of the two English boys.

The walk to the park did not seem as long as it normally was, walking with the two of them. Rich told stories, Will corrected him, they both made fun of each other for being idiots and not remembering how the story went, and Lizzy couldn't keep a grin off her face.

When they reached the park, Richard excused himself and strolled casually up to a young woman sitting on a bench on the other side of the playground, one eye on the drawing pad in her lap, the other on a little girl playing on the slides. Will watched his cousin, a small smile on his face.

"He's a shameless flirt," Will said. "Either he'll get her number, or she'll send him packing in about thirty seconds. It never fails."

Lizzy grinned, too, following Will's gaze to the two on the other side of the park. "He's definitely very friendly," she agreed. "I can see how it wouldn't."

Will felt a sudden surge of fear at Lizzy's comment. Was she falling for Richard's charm, like so many other girls? He must have been wearing his emotions on his face, because when Lizzy looked at him again, she bumped his shoulder with hers. "Worried for her virtue?" she asked, laughter in her eyes, jerking her head towards his cousin and the woman.

Will shook his head. "No, it's nothing." He glanced at her, her bright green eyes alight with laughter and curiosity, and found himself speaking without consciously decided to do so. "Hey, Richard said that he wanted to take Charlie and me on a camping trip next weekend, and that we can both bring a friend. I'm pretty sure Charlie is going to ask Jane. I was just wondering if you wanted to go, too."

Lizzy raised an eyebrow. "Camping?" she asked. "With you, Jane, Charlie, and Rich?"

"Well, if Jane says yes," Will added, "but yeah."

"Jane'll say yes," Lizzy said distractedly. She bit her lip, obviously mulling it over. "Well," she said finally, "I can't think of anything that would prevent me, though I could be forgetting something. Let's go with, I'd love to, definitive pending."

Will laughed quietly, shaking his head. "You have the oddest way of putting things," he told her, unable to stop smiling. She said she wanted to go!

"Come on," she said, grabbing his hand. "Your cousin just got forcibly ejected from the bench. Let's go laugh at him." And she proceeded to drag him across the playground.

Lizzy kept her face steadfastly out of Will's view, hoping that he wouldn't see her blush. A camping trip. With three boys. And Jane, but still, three boys. She'd never be able to say what pushed her to agree, nor could she say if she wanted to thank it or punch it in the face.

She thought of the hand she was holding, warm and gentle and very suited to her own, and decided to thank whatever the force was.

Time's sense of humor, the one that causes anticipated events to take forever in coming and dreaded events to come all too soon, had backfired. The week in between Will's invitation and the actual trip passed at the same rate as any other week, because, while Lizzy was looking forward to getting out of the house and hanging out with her sister and their friends, she was also very anxious about the whole thing. She wasn't really sure whether time was moving too fast or too slow.

All too soon, not soon enough, in just the right amount of time she and Jane were adding their bags to Will, Charlie, and Rich's in the trunk of Rich's car. When everything fit and Will had closed the trunk, he slid into shotgun while Lizzy, Jane, and Charlie piled into the back, with Jane in the middle, holding hands with Charlie. Rich turned on the car and added some ridiculous thumping music, and they were off.

Richard had managed to find a campsite relatively nearby; the drive took an hour. When they got to their site after checking in, Richard practically exploded out of the car. "Okay!" he said loudly, grinning. "Who knows how to set up a tent?"

Lizzy facepalmed.

Will couldn't help laughing. "Give it here, Richard," he said, holding out his hands. "I can get this thing set up."

His cousin handed him the awkward bundle, off-balancing him. Suddenly, Lizzy was there, holding on to the other end and keeping his balance. "I'll help," she offered.

"I don't know why you brought it," Will said half an hour later, surveying the tent he and Lizzy had just erected. "It's lovely out."

"You wanna strip naked in the middle of the forest?" Lizzy asked, fighting a smile and a blush.

"You have a point," Will conceded after a pause. Was it Lizzy's imagination, or were his cheeks tinted pink, too?

"Well," Rich said, coming up behind the two, "I think it's beautiful, and it will definitely do for a changing stall for when we all get into our jim-jams tonight."

"What do we do until then?" Charlie asked.

Lizzy raised an eyebrow. "Have you never gone camping before?" she asked.

Jane gaped as Charlie shook his head. "Not once?" she demanded.

"Nope," Charlie replied.

Jane glanced at Lizzy. "You do know what this means, Janie, don't you?" Lizzy asked, a mischievous glint in her eye.

"You will not put frogs in his sleeping bag, Elizabeth," Jane said, trying to be stern and suppress a smile at the same time.

"No," Lizzy said musingly. "I don't think it will be frogs."

Jane turned from her plotting sister to her worried-looking boyfriend. "What you do on a camping trip," she explained, "depends a lot on what you brought with you, and what's at the campsite. For instance, Lizzy has a soccer ball, and I brought a deck of cards, and there are trails we can hike on around here."

Lizzy snickered as Jane led the still-worried Charlie away from the camp.

"You're not actually going to put something in his sleeping bag, are you?" Will asked.

Lizzy laughed. "No, that's just something Jane and I do. We'll keep it up the entire time we're here, and I'll probably end up putting a plastic snake on his seat in the car on the way home." She flashed a grin. "So, are you any good at the little game we Americans call soccer?"

"I don't know," Will said, grinning back. "What about you? Are you any good at the little game we Brits call football?"

"Shall we find out?" Lizzy asked.

Will nodded, still grinning.

"You suck."

"I do not!"

"Yes, you do."

"You just wouldn't let me actually be a goalie!"

"You have to do more than jump into the goal and grab the ball with your hands."

"It's worked this long!"

"That's because you've only ever played against your sisters."

"Liar."

"Am not!"

"Are too! I've played against more than just them!"

Richard lifted his head from the fire he was tending. "Do my ears deceive me," he said, "or is my dearest cousin William actually having a fight with a girl?"

"Shut up, Richard," Will said, without venom. "We're having an intellectual debate."

Richard turned to Jane and Charlie, who were sitting at the wooden picnic table, watching him. "That means they're about two minutes from degrading to 'You're stupid,' 'No, you're stupid.'"

Jane and Charlie roared with laughter and Lizzy flipped Richard off. Will couldn't keep the grin off his face.

"You can't sleep on the picnic table," Will pointed out, walking into her range of vision.

"You're blocking the stars," Lizzy said, pushing him away.

"Lizzy, you'll fall off and break your neck, and then Jane will break mine," Will said, grabbing her hand to pull her up.

"Meh," Lizzy replied, not cooperating.

"You can see the stars just as well from the ground," Will said, trying to cajole her into getting off the table.

"Not bothered," Lizzy answered. "I like it here." I won't fall asleep here, she added privately.

It felt almost as if Will could read her thoughts. "Jane's here," he said quietly. "And so am I."

Lizzy glared at him. "So?" she demanded, a little too roughly.

"So maybe you won't have nightmares."

Lizzy turned her head away. She hated being vulnerable; that's why she had never told anyone but Jane about the nightmares. But one day, one blasted day this boy had to come along and…let her open up. Let her be herself. Let her be afraid.

She turned back to him. "Maybe I won't," she said softly.

Will held out his hand again. "Come on," he said. "We should get to sleep. Everyone else already is."

Lizzy took his hand and followed him to the sleeping bags. They stretched out next to each other in a clear space with a beautiful view of the stars.

"I'll be right here," Will murmured. "If you need anything."

He fell asleep before Lizzy, but she noticed something as she slipped into her dreams; the gentle, firm grip of Will Darcy's hand on hers never once slackened.

A/N2: Virtual cookies to every single reviewer! 3