Hello all! After a very long hiatus I am back. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter! I originally meant for the chapter to cover more, but the ending seemed natural so I left it there. Constructive criticism/feedback is always welcome and reviews are so exciting so please leave one if you have the chance!

Thank you!

xoxo

Chapter Three

Only after opening the door to his apartment and throwing his coat down on the sofa did Darcy begin to worry about Elizabeth's safety. He should have never left her to walk alone, despite how angry she had been with him. There were numerous creeps and criminals on the loose in New York at any given time, nevermind the fact that it had been nearing 10pm. He should have followed her discretely from a distance in his car to ensure her safety. He tried to push these thoughts from his mind. She'd walked home alone many times before, as she'd said herself. There really was likely nothing to worry about.

Despite these attempts at self-assurances, upon arriving at his office the next morning he promptly phoned Charles to confirm that Elizabeth had in fact arrived safely back at her apartment the previous night.

Darcy wished to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so he could move on with his day, and likewise his workweek, absolved of the guilt and worry he was currently feeling. For once Darcy sincerely hoped that Charles was still in bed-as he often was when Darcy called early in the morning-and that his tired and foggy mind would let Darcy off the hook without questions such as Didn't you walk her home last night? Why are you asking me if she got home safely?

Therefore, as soon as Charles picked up the phone, murmuring a sleepy hello, Darcy spoke, his tone abrupt and business-like.

"Charles. I'm phoning to confirm Elizabeth got home safely last night?"

There was a pause.

"Elizabeth?"

"Yes, Elizabeth." Darcy said, sitting back in his chair and hoping Charles wouldn't ask any questions. Hearing some murmurings he could only assume that Charles was with Jane. Dammit. This would make the chances of him evading some unpleasant questions a lot less likely.

"Didn't you walk her home last night? Jane said Lizzy texted her shortly before going to bed, around 11:30."

Darcy breathed a sigh of relief and straightened in his chair. She was safe. He still couldn't believe he'd been so foolish as to let her walk home alone, argument or not.

"It's a long story Charles. I have to go, I'll talk to you later."

If he had thought that being reassured of her safety would absolve him of the guilt he was feeling, Darcy was sorely mistaken.

Although the week following the "incident" at The Acorn was a fairly typical work week for Darcy, moments of guilt peppered with feelings he couldn't quite place continued to ambush him. He followed his regular rigorous schedule: waking up early, exercising, eating breakfast and catching the business news all before making it to the office before 8. Then he attended board meetings, meetings with clients, meetings with prospective clients and read files and emails until around 5 o'clock when he would walk home, go for a run through central park, eat dinner, phone Georgiana, work some more and finally, if he had time, enjoy a glass of scotch and watch the news before bed. It was in the transient moments between the events of his meticulously scheduled and religiously carried out daily routine that Darcy felt Elizabeth's accusatory words bother him.

Darcy was nearing thirty-one and as a man who was both wealthy and handsome, he had certainly had his share of women pursue him, the vast majority of which held no interest for him, particularly when it seemed that they cared only for his bank account and name. Despite this, he had always believed in the importance of remaining collected and civil, no matter what the circumstance. He knew numerous men in positions similar to his who enjoyed directing obscene and licentious remarks towards those they perceived below them, a habit Darcy had always viewed with disdain and disgust, thinking himself well above offensive remarks and so-called 'low-blows.'

Although his recent altercation with Elizabeth Bennet seemed to indicate otherwise, a fact that was gnawing at Darcy's conscious as of late, he was presently unwilling to contemplate the implications of this.

What he did know was that, had his mother or father been alive and present to witness his behaviour they would have not only been mortified but also ashamed. Both of his parents had been born into wealthy families, his mother an English heiress who had met his father while attending Juilliard and his father's family wealthy and established American investment bankers and real estate tycoons, yet they had always impressed upon him the importance of not only the external quality of good manners, but also of the more internal qualities of respect and good character.

By Wednesday Darcy felt he had wallowed enough and needed to apologize to Elizabeth and clear the air between them. If Jane and Charles were to continue dating, they would certainly be seeing more of each other and he couldn't imagine facing her again without first apologizing. After managing to finagle her phone number from Charles Darcy had to only wait until 10 o'clock when he hoped she'd be done work and pick up her phone.

She picked up on only the second ring, catching Darcy somewhat off guard.

"Hello?"

Darcy cleared his throat.

"Hello. Elizabeth?" There was a brief pause and then,

"Yes. Who is this?"

Darcy cleared his throat again, suddenly nervous and wondering why he hadn't prepared something to say.

"It's Will. Uh, Will Darcy. I was hoping you had just a minute of your time to talk to me. I'm unhappy with how we left things when we last talked and if Jane and Charles are to continue dating I presume we will be seeing more of each other so I figured we should clear the air." Darcy rushed this little speech, worried she would hang up on him before he could finish.

"And I wanted to apologize." Darcy added quickly.

"That's the first thing I wanted to do actually. I'm sorry you heard what I said…my words were unwarranted."

Rather proud of his impromptu apology and the way in which he perceived himself to have taken full responsibility for his actions that night, Darcy paused awaiting Elizabeth's response. When she didn't respond immediately Darcy felt embarrassment creeping in and beginning to increase with each passing second.

"Do you usually speak that way towards women? Discuss them as if they are some sort of stock you might like to purchase? Criticizing their abilities, their job, their behaviour, their appearance? You know, despite what you might like to delude yourself into thinking, we don't breathe to please you!"

Darcy frowned deeply and stood up from his spot on the sofa to pace near the window, fearing this conversation wasn't going over as smoothly as he had hoped it would.

"No, no, I assure you I do not. I take-"

He was cut off as Elizabeth angrily interrupted.

"So just with me then, huh?"

"No. I assure you, I do not usually act or speak in...such a way. It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. As I said it was unwarranted. I can offer no good explanation except perhaps that I am used to being unrelentingly pursued by women who are often interested only in the….material benefits that would come with being associated with me and I believe I have become rather...cynical over the years."

"Cynical? I mean maybe you are but when I think of you there are other words that come more immediately to mind: demeaning, offensive, judgemental, sexist, plain rude!"

Darcy cringed, wondering if he was worsening the situation and trying not to think too deeply about these words being applied to his person. Perhaps this would be irresolvable and it would be best to just try and wrap it up before it got more out of hand.

"Again, Elizabeth I just phoned to apologize. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know."

Elizabeth snorted loudly through the phone.

"Oh, please. I don't want anything from you. In fact I'd be happy if I never met another man like you again in my life. I know it may be difficult for you to comprehend, but I honestly could care less about you or your money or your big fancy name."

Darcy rubbed his eyes. Another man like you. What did that even mean?

"Elizabeth I know maybe you don't believe it but I am truly sorry. I hope you can accept my apology and that we can remain civil for the sake of Charles and Jane."

Elizabeth sighed, feeling exhausted, as if the flame of her anger had been suddenly snuffed out. She still felt incredibly annoyed at Darcy. Although he seemed somewhat genuine in his apology, she had a hard time believing a man who would say such harsh things about someone who he had only just met could really be a good and genuine person.

"William, I just want to remind you that before we met and before you completely insulted me, I was perfectly ready to be more than civil to you. Jane had been absolutely gushing about Charles for over a month now, something she would never do unless she really, really liked him and since you are apparently his best friend I assumed you would be very nice too. I was ready to meet with some nice people for a nice dinner and hopefully make some nice friends. Well obviously that didn't happen and it's thanks to you, so please, I'm not even that angry anymore, but please save the 'I hope we can remain civil for Charles and Jane' for someone else."

There was a brief pause where neither of them spoke. Elizabeth took a long, deep breath that Darcy heard through the phone and then continued.

"All of that being said, while I most certainly do not wish to be in your company any more than is absolutely required of me, I can recognize that Charles and Jane's relationship is progressing rather quickly and we might be together on more than one occasion in the future. So yes, I hope you can manage to remain civil with me whenever these occasions come about."

Darcy felt his annoyance growing. He'd already apologized multiple times, he'd tried to explain himself, he'd asked her what he could do to make it up to her...he couldn't remember the last time he'd apologized so completely and profusely! He couldn't remember the last time someone had berated him in such a manner.

"I assure you I will be able to remain civil Elizabeth."

He said stiffly, his words coming out somewhat frostier than he had intended.

"Good. Then I guess we have nothing left to discuss." Elizabeth curtly replied, wishing to end their conversation as soon as possible.

"Alright. Goodnight Elizabeth."

Darcy waited for a moment before hearing the click of the phone, signaling Elizabeth had hung up.

A large portion of the guilt and remorse Darcy had felt before the phone call was now resentment and annoyance towards Elizabeth. What more could he have possibly done? Beg and plead with her? A little voice in the back of his head suggested that he could have never insulted her to begin with but he promptly shut it up. There was no point in thinking of what ifs at this point anyways.

Besides the personal feelings involved, the call had cemented a practical fact: they were going to have to begin to seriously search for a chef for the restaurant. Bingley would likely be disappointed that Elizabeth had declined their offer and it would be best if Darcy could scrounge up a list of potentials before he was forced to disclose Elizabeth's rejection to Bingley so that they could move on to the next thing as soon as possible.

This issue was brought up sooner than Darcy anticipated as the next morning Charles called Darcy with two purposes in mind. Firstly, a personal one, to invite Darcy to a brunch he and Jane were hosting on Saturday so that she could meet his family and friends and secondly, a work-related purpose to check on the progress of the restaurant and on Lizzy's status on the position they'd offered her.

Upon informing Charles that Elizabeth has rejected their offer-he neglected to inform Charles exactly how he had come to (twice) offer and she had come to (twice) reject the position-Charles, in a rare moment of objective entrepreneurial rationale said,

"Perhaps it's for the best. Not mixing family and business and all that." There was a pause before Charles caught himself.

"Friends! Not mixing friends and business…."

Darcy couldn't help but attempt to contain a wry smile,

"Yes Charles. I think you're absolutely right. I already am building a list of some other potential candidates you can check out, I'll send it to you later today."

Later that night Jane phoned Elizabeth, for their habitual Wednesday-night talk. Although the sisters talked multiple times throughout the week via texts, social media and phone calls, Wednesday night they each set aside a few hours to just talk to each other and catch up.

In the days following Sunday's events, Elizabeth had debated as to whether or not she should reveal what had happened. On one hand this particular confrontation had involved a man, albeit indirectly, with whom Jane was quickly falling in love as well as the fact that Darcy's words had truly injured Elizabeth, and Jane, being a psychologist, always seemed to be able to calmly reason through any situation. On the other hand Lizzy was abhorrent to do anything to upset the fragile balance of Charles and Jane's young relationship.

In the end Elizabeth decided to tell her. There would be no point in hiding what had happened only for it to come out later. Furthermore, Lizzy felt that this was probably something Jane should and would want to be aware of.

When Elizabeth first disclosed to Jane what she had overheard, Jane was furious. William's offstandish body language and short, succinct replies had been one thing, but to personally insult Lizzy was too much.

After assuring her, multiple times, that Charles had had only positive things to say about both the restaurant and Lizzy herself, Jane calmed down somewhat but was still fuming over how such a seemingly sweet, kind and all-around decent guy like Charles could be friends with an arrogant bastard like William Darcy.

"And Charles wanted me to remember to invite you to brunch on Saturday! It's apparently something they do lot as a family. But of course Will is included….I can't believe this Lizzy, I really can't. I know you told me not to go off on Charles, and I promise I won't, but he has some serious explaining to do!"

Elizabeth smiled at her sister's protectiveness.

"Honestly Jane, I wish you wouldn't. Charles really isn't to blame, he truly only said nice things and in fact he defended me! I can tell he cares so much about you. I'll come to your brunch even if William does show up, we did agree to be civil with one another after all, and we can only hope that Charles' family is more amiable."

After reassuring her that if Elizabeth wanted to cancel out at the last minute Jane would cover for her, the sisters said their goodbyes and hung up.

Despite Lizzy's pleads to not bring up the conversation Lizzy had overheard between Darcy and Charles, Jane couldn't help herself. She was falling faster for Charles than she ever had for any other man and was developing feelings that were far more deeply rooted than those of her previous relationships. He was picking her up at work, they were spending nights at each others apartments and now they were hosting a brunch together so that she could meet his closest friends and family. The psychologist in her knew that she simply couldn't afford not to ask questions.

So when Charles picked her up from work Thursday afternoon to spend the night at his apartment, Jane took the chance to question him about Darcy and Elizabeth.

"Charles…" Jane started off cautiously, attempting to figure out how she should navigate this very delicate conversation.

"Yes love?" Charles replied, glancing over at her in the passenger's seat and taking one hand off the wheel to squeeze her hand.

"Remember when we went out for dinner at The Acorn with Lizzy and Darcy on Sunday night?"

"Yes of course. Last Sunday."

Charles said, glancing over at her again, a questioning look in his eyes.

Jane took a deep breath and decided to plunge right in and get it over with.

"Well that night, after Lizzy and I went to the washroom, she overheard a conversation between you and Darcy on her way back."

Charles shifted in his seat stiffly, his face going rigid as Jane went on.

"And he said some things...well you know what he said. And then after we left, when he attempted to walk her home, they had some….words." Jane finished lamely.

Feeling a fresh swell of anger rise up in her upon recounting the events Jane spoke with renewed passion.

"Charles how could you? How could you bring your friend out for dinner with me and my sister- my sister- knowing how completely rude and offensive he is? Attempting to comprehend how you and him are even best friends is almost impossible for me but I simply cannot fathom in any way, shape or form why you would think it appropriate to then bring him around me and my sister without any kind of warning whatsoever!"

During her speech Jane had tore her hand out of Charles', leaving his rejected hand lying limp in his lap.

"Jane, Jane, darling please. I understand how this comes across to you but please try and understand-"

Jane was a psychologist. She listened to people discuss their lives and their relationships and their problems. She spent hours every single day listening to her clients talk, patiently waiting for them to finish, and then provided them with well-thought out, reasonable, educated and scientifically-based counsel.

However, in this situation she couldn't help but abruptly interrupt Charles.

"Understand what Charles? He really hurt Lizzy! You don't know everything she's been through these past years! And for him to say that to her!"

Jane exclaimed, now on the verge of tears.

"I know, I know darling…" Charles said, backing into a parking spot underneath his building and cursing Darcy's difficult disposition while a tremor of horror surged through his body at the sound of Jane's tearful voice.

"Jane love, I know you are upset for your sister, as am I. His behaviour was unpardonable. I will have to speak with him about it. It's just that Darcy had a very blunt and direct way of dealing at work and I think that sometimes these attitudes and habits carry over into his personal life. He's been alone since he was 22 when his father died. Georgiana was only 13 at the time. He was instantly effectively in charge of a multi-billion dollar company, something he had to manage while finishing law school and figuring out how to raise Georgiana. A lot of people tried to take advantage of him during that time, many persist in trying even now, even those close to him…."

Charles trailed off, not entirely sure how to finish his little speech.

Darcy's behaviour had undoubtedly been completely offensive and inappropriate yet he was unsure of how to explain years of knowing a man who was, at the heart of it, an honest and steadfast friend, to Jane in a matter of minutes.

"I know you don't want to hear this right now but he really does have a good heart. It's just tough to see sometimes. I'm not saying his behaviour wasn't abhorrent because it most certain was," he quickly repeated, glancing nervously over at Jane.

"And I shall make sure to have a serious conversation with him on the subject before Saturday."

By this time they were exiting the elevator and walking towards Charles' apartment.

Jane was silent for a few moments as they crossed the threshold of the apartment. Charles eyed her nervously, afraid of provoking what, up until now he had only known to be the sweetest and most lovely creature he had ever laid eyes upon.

Jane, for her part was feeling mixed emotions. She was- in part due to her profession and in part due to her natural and unshakable disposition-particularly susceptible to feeling compassion and empathy to the woes of others. At the same time she was still feeling upset on behalf of her sister who had suffered her own hardships and betrayals in the not-so-distant past.

"Fine Charles." Jane said rather harshly, setting her bag down with a loud thump on the small table adjacent to the door and causing Charles to flinch so slightly it was almost imperceptible.

"But if he says or does one thing to suggest that he does not have the utmost of respect for Lizzy, I swear to God…." she trailed off, not bothering to finish her sentence as she felt that the implication was clear.

"I promise." Charles said, relieved as he felt blood rush back to his face.

"I promise you Jane." He repeated, clasping his hands together as if in prayer and then letting them fall to his sides awkwardly.

Despite the acute anxiety it had given him, Charles had to admit that anger was most definitely becoming on Jane. Before their little argument, if one could even call it that, he'd only ever witnessed her speak in a calm and collected tone that had been carefully perfected over her years of both training and practicing as a psychologist.

Even during sex, while she had been reciprocative and clearly enjoyed herself, she had remained his sweet and gentle Jane.

The raw passion that had transformed her usually clear blue eyes into magnificent, storming seas, the delicious pink blush that was now staining her porcelain cheeks and that had seemed to flush upwards from its source at her impassioned and most generous heart to the tops of her breasts, peeking out of her blue-pastel blouse, her neck and finally her face was beautiful. Charles could only imagine what this newly-discovered passionate Jane would be like in bed, the thought sending a new wave of desire surging through him and urging him to close the space between them and kiss her savagely while he carried her off to his bedroom. Their bedroom.

Charles almost didn't know what was happening when Jane began to slowly walk towards him, caressing him with eyes full of fires only partially doused. She stopped right in front of him and without breaking eye contact placed the palm of her hand on one of his cheeks and leaned in for a kiss.

Relief flooded his body at Jane's physical demonstration of her forgiveness and Charles fought to resist the temptation to crush her to his body in a tight hug while professing his gratitude over and over again.

He managed to stay relatively still as Jane gently caressed his lips with hers, lightly running her tongue over his teeth and sending shivers of pleasurable anticipation up his spine. When he attempted to deepen the kiss, Jane leaned back, pressing a firm hand against his chest, and for a second Charles froze, paralyzed by the fear that Jane hadn't really forgiven him at all and that any moment she would renounce her divine pardon and leave his life forever.

These fears were quickly put to rest as Jane, her eyes continuing to caress the contours of Charles' body underneath his charcoal suit, moved to slide his jacket from his shoulders, placing it carefully on the table text to them. She then placed light kisses against the column of his throat as she slowly unbuttoned his crisp pinstriped dress shirt. Next, she dropped to rest herself on her heels and looking up at him undid his belt, pulling it slowly away from his pants before throwing it carelessly to the side. Finally, still on her heels, she flicked open the button of his pants, and grasping the waistband of both his boxers and pants in her hands, proceeded to slide them down, careful to accommodate for his now throbbing erection. After untying his shoes and removing his socks Jane rose back up to her full height.

"Charles love," she said, slowly moving to unzip her own skirt, revealing white lacy underwear and causing Charles to clench his fists tightly while biting down on his lip.

"You have given me a very sweet apology. But, you have yet to really make up for your naughty behaviour."

With this she shrugged out of her blouse and stood, appraising a completely nude Charles in nothing but her heels and a few scraps of very expensive white lace.

Charles heart was pounding, likely faster than it ever had before. In fact, had he been in full command of his senses, he would have perhaps thought to worry over whether or not he could suffer a heart attack in his present state. But given that his mind was more pleasantly occupied, the thought didn't cross his mind.

"Hmmm?" Jane said, moving closer to grasp his erection firmly in her hand while guiding him backwards towards the bedroom, not truly expecting any kind of a response from a now completely silent but obviously attentive and eager Charles.

"I think some reparations are in order Mr. Bingley."