Caroline Lee was calling Lizzie and she couldn't help but groan aloud. Caroline and Lizzie had a very colorful history together: they went from being archenemies to being friends. Well, actually, only Caroline used to consider Lizzie an enemy. Lizzie was more indifferent towards her than anything else; which ticked Caroline off even more. She resented Lizzie for stealing Darcy from her and disliked Jane for stealing her brother away. She quickly got over not liking Jane, though. Who could be mad at her?
Caroline begrudgingly accepted the fact that Darcy had eyes only for Elizabeth Bennet and after that, their relationship could only improve. She spent a lot of time with Lizzie during the preparations for Jane and Bing's wedding and they realized that they'd have to get over Caroline's deception for the sake of their families. They had a super deep heart-to-heart and emerged from it as friends, just in time for the wedding.
Eventually, Caroline opened herself up to one of the many suitors she had. This one man in particular had been in Caroline's life since her college days, but she had never really paid much attention to his love for her, due to her obsession with Darcy.
After being slighted by Darcy so many times, she really appreciated the attention that this man had for her and she quickly fell in love. He was in her social circle, came from old money, and was devastatingly handsome (not as handsome as Darcy but she couldn't complain). His name was Antoine Margaux and his family owned one of the world's most famous wine companies. He now lived in France with Caroline; which Caroline adjusted to fairly well because she spoke fluent French and had been there many times already in her privileged life.
The reason why Lizzie groaned half the time that Caroline called her was because most of the time, Caroline would talk for hours. She didn't have many close girl friends so Lizzie and Jane had become her go-to friends to call whenever she felt she needed a deep conversation.
Lizzie was not in the mood. She was kind of irritated at the whole Twitter fiasco and she wanted to spend time with her bestie. She sighed and hung up with Gigi, "Gigi? Caroline is on the line. I've got to go. I'll talk to you later…. No, I'm not mad at you, 'kay? …Alright. Bye." She braced herself and prayed that whatever Caroline had to say was brief. She answered the call.
"Hi, Caroline.", she said sounding tired, hoping that Caroline would get the hint, and try not to talk for too long.
"Oh my goodness, Lizzie Bennet, your baby is the cutest!", Caroline said excitedly over the phone. She still called Lizzie by her maiden name. Not to bug her, but out of habit. Lizzie was about to ask how she'd seen her baby all the way from France if she hadn't sent her a picture of him, and then she remembered Gigi's slip-up.
"Thanks, Caroline. I'm assuming you saw Gigi's tweet?", Lizzie responded irritated.
Caroline picked up on that and said, "Ohh… I'm guessing she wasn't supposed to do that, then? Well the cat's out of the bag now. I was going to wait to see your munchkin when I flew to New York with Antoine for my nephew's birthday party, but I'm calling to ask you for some pictures now!".
Lizzie breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the heavens that that was all Caroline wanted.
"Sure thing, Caroline. I'll send you one I took today while he was sleeping... I've actually go to go because he's waking up. I'll send you a picture ASAP, okay?... Yeah, you too... Send greetings to Antoine from Darcy and I… Talk to you later.", Lizzie said as she hung up. A little white lie never hurt anyone, right? She sent Caroline a picture of Ben and headed inside to tell Darcy the news about the leaked photo.
"Will, did Gigi call you and tell you what happened yet?", Lizzie asked Darcy upon entering the living room. Darcy nodded yes because he was on the phone. When he hung up, he said that that was the third magazine that had called so far. He didn't look very happy. Lizzie felt the same, but alas, there was nothing they could do.
Lizzie plopped down on the couch beside him and Ben, who was in his arms, and placed a big kiss on Benjamin's chubby cheek. She proceeded to place a soft kiss on Darcy's stubbled jaw and then made a face. "You, my good sir, are in need of a shave.", she pointed out, making Darcy chuckle. This mirth was short-lived, however, because his phone rang again- another magazine.
His face went from happy to annoyed instantly, and Lizzie grabbed his chin and pulled his face towards her. "Babe, let's not let this ruin our first few weeks with our son, okay? Gigi made a mistake which only precipitated something that would have eventually happened anyway. Let's just ignore the calls for a while. I know privacy is super important to you but this is the world we live in, alright?", Lizzie declared, to soothe Darcy.
It worked because he was soon smiling. The phrase 'super important' became a running joke with them and they always used it to cheer each other up or to break the ice after they'd had an argument. Lizzie smiled back at her husband and kissed him chastely on the lips. Lydia happened to walk by the living room and said, "Eww. Get a room, you two! Oh wait, you can't, right Darcy?". He turned to face her and rolled his eyes. She giggled. Darcy wasn't going to let her have the last laugh, though.
"Oh Mrs. Bennet! Come in here, please! I want to talk to you about another potential son-in-law!", Darcy yelled. Lydia blanched. Lizzie looked at Darcy and Lydia and wondered what they were even talking about.
She shrugged. "Weirdos.", she thought to herself as she got off the couch. She wanted to go to talk to Charlotte before any other interruptions came about.
Charlotte was in the kitchen getting interrogated by Mrs. Bennet. She wanted to know what everyone thought of her new grandbaby.
"Mom, can you give Charlotte and I a few minutes? I haven't seen her in forever and I'd really like to talk to her. Also, I think she might enjoy the delicious food you saved for her if she were actually able to eat it, instead of answering your questions.", Lizzie said to her mother.
Mrs. Bennet smiled and nodded her head. "Sure thing, honey. I understand y'all need to catch up. I'll go see what Darcy wanted. He called me, right?... Well, I go check anyway."
Lizzie sat in the chair across from Charlotte and began telling her about the Twitter incident and about everything else that had been happening as of late. Lizzie truly missed Charlotte. She was always the one to listen to Lizzie complain about everything, gush about what she loved, and was one of the few who wasn't afraid to contradict her opinions.
Her husband does all of those things, but it's not the same as having a person from the same gender to bond with.
After filling her in on everything, Lizzie offered to show Charlotte the infamous nursery and she was not disappointed at her friend's reaction. Charlotte was cracking up so hard. Tears-coming-out-of-your-eyes, doubled-over-laughing-while-slapping-your-knees hard. They both finished laughing and then sighed. They turned to each other and hugged. A long, bear hug void of unnecessary words.
They both got teary-eyed and started wiping away at the corners of their eyes. Charlotte suggested they sit on the big basketball-shaped rug they were standing on, so they could talk.
"I missed you, Char… Everything is so different now.", Lizzie confessed.
"Well, I missed you, too! I've been busy taking over Collins & Lu you've been busy being pregnant and giving birth and getting kidnapped…", Charlotte replied jokingly.
Lizzie winced at the memory of that immense fear she felt. Charlotte noticed.
"Too soon?... Sorry… But yeah, things haven't been the same around here for a long time. But that's okay! Change is good. And you have the best kind of change now. You have a baby that loves you and needs you in order to survive. And you're not doing it on your own. I don't know if you knew this but newsflash: William Darcy is in love with you and will be there to support you through thick and thin and all that jazz. He promised he would be with you forever in front of like 400 people…", Charlotte pointed out.
Lizzie sighed. "I know! I am happy and I am loved and in love; I love Ben more than I ever fathomed I could love anything. But I'm also scared, Char. My life has changed so much and so quickly after finally getting together with Will and it still feels overwhelming sometimes. You were my rock. You were my symbol of stability, and now with our lives taking such drastic turns, I'm scared…"
The women sat there combing through each other's brains and removing any fears, doubts, and worries they had about their futures. They assured each other that they would always be there for one another no matter what.
Darcy was looking for Lizzie to tell her that Fitz had called him with some good news. He was looking all over and finally found her in the nursery. He poked his head in and saw Lizzie's head lying in Charlotte's lap; both girls laughing at some inside joke. They couldn't see him because they were facing away from the door, but he was smiling.
He was happy to see his wife happy. But he was also kind of jealous. The closest thing he ever had to a Charlotte was Wickham, and look how they ended up. Darcy wished, in that moment, that George hadn't turned out so evil. Maybe they could've shared a friendship like the one Lizzie and Charlotte have.
Darcy decided to leave them be, he'd tell later tonight when they went to bed. Instead, he texted Gigi and told her to come over early tomorrow.
Fitz showed up to the Darcy estate around lunch time. Mrs. Bennet made a big fuss over the fact that Fitz and Brandon were coming over with a surprise, so she was in the kitchen all morning. By the time Fitz arrived, the table was set and everyone was ready to eat.
When Fitz rang the door bell, Darcy said he would answer and hurried to let them in. After a few minutes, Darcy led the couple to the dining room, where everyone was seated and announced their arrival, "Let us welcome Fitz and Brandon, who were in Brazil adopting their new daughter, Lorena.".
They stepped from behind Darcy and showed off their beautiful 13-month old baby girl. She had tan skin and short, light-brown curls on her head, along with big brown eyes.
"This is the reason why we weren't present for the birth of your little guy, Lizzie. We were finishing up the process of adopting her. Now where is he? Where's my man Benjamin?", Fitz said.
They all kind of played hot potato with the babies. Ben, Charlie, and Lorena were passed around and hugged and cooed by everyone in the room.
"Alright now, we'll have all the time in the world to play with the children, but let's eat before the food gets cold!", ordered Mrs. Bennet.
After lunch, everyone headed outside sat in the patio. Gigi held Lorena and was scolding Fitz for not telling her they were coming; Fitz held Benjamin and was already calling him by his new nickname: Lil' Lobster; Brandon held Charles and was asking Jane where she shopped for Charles's clothes.
They all looked incredibly happy and didn't really notice when Charlotte and Darcy slipped away.
"So, how are we going to do this?", Darcy asked Charlotte, after closing the door to his office.
Charlotte smiled smugly and said, "I know my best friend and this will work perfectly."
I guess I have a thing with scheming, guys! Lol.
Next chapter we see what Darcy and Charlotte are up to and then the chapter after that, I end this story.
Thank you for sticking around and reading! I'm glad this story has been enjoyed, despite my ridiculousness lol.