Previously: Elise and Darcy move into an apartment that isn't exactly what they'd been hoping for...

16

Darcy stood several feet away from Elise. His heart was pounding heavily and there was a lump in his throat. He tried to speak to her but found that his voice was not working. Elise looked stunning, wearing a long green gown. Darcy looked down at himself. He was surprised to find that he too was formally attired. He reached up to his neck and desperately tried to loosen his cravat hoping that with that, he might once again be able to speak. All of a sudden it was raining! Droplets fell on his nose and his forehead. He wiped them away, feeling exasperated.

"Elise!" he cried, but she didn't hear him. "Elise, I love you!"

Still she gave no sign that she had heard.

The rain became heavier and heavier and Darcy desperately tried to make his voice audible.

Alas, it was too late. He watched with anguish as she melted into a puddle on the floor.

"No! The rain!" He heard himself shout.

He ran up to where Elise's remains lay, in a green puddle on the ground. He couldn't hold back his tears as he collapsed to the floor, kneeling beside the puddle and weeping. Suddenly he thought to get the doctor. He stood and started running but he slipped in the puddle and felt himself falling slowly.

Darcy sat bolt upright in bed and shook his head as if to remove the dream from his mind. Far too groggy to make anything of it, he pressed the home button on his phone, saw the early hour and flopped his back down onto the bed. He closed his eyes and clasped his hands together over his chest. He closed his eyes and hummed contentedly, a small smile on his face as sleep began to reclaim him.

Just as his consciousness faded however, a drop of water landed on his nose. He sat back upright and grunted with annoyance. He checked to see if he had been crying, and was relived to find dry eyes. He then looked up at the ceiling, relieved to see it was still there. When another drop of water landed atop his bed head however, he reached over and switched on his lamp. He looked up again and growled angrily when he noted a small water stained patch above his bed. Angrily he rose from bed, and aggressively, whilst muttering several curses against the apartment, pushed it several metres to the left, so that the patch was no longer above where he lay. He switched off the light and covered himself with the duvet mulishly, determined to sleep some more.

Jenine had been feeling out of sorts lately. She prided herself in usually being calm, collected and incredibly organised, but of late she seemed to be entirely addle-minded. She had been forgetting things all over the place, losing things, misplacing things and for some reason she had found her house keys in the fridge thrice already. She'd diagnosed herself with pre-senile dementia a few nights back with the help of certain online services. When she'd mentioned her situation to Elise, her sister had laughed and pronounced Jenine 'crazy in love'.

Jenine hadn't given any credence to Elise's diagnosis at first. She knew she had feelings for Charles, but she didn't think she was in love quite yet. When she thought about it further, however, she became less and less certain that her sister was wrong.

For starters the other day, she had had dinner with two of her colleagues at a fine dining establishment, and as she'd walked in through the glass doors, their closing had wafted air into her nose and she'd been startled to find that it smelled exactly like Charles' signature scent. She'd smiled to herself and decided to send him a text while she waited for we colleagues to arrive, asking how he was. She hadn't thought much further on the incident at first.

On top of that, a few days back, she'd thought she'd heard Charlie's voice somewhere in the parking lot. She'd quickly scanned the area, but hadn't seen anyone around. Rolling her eyes at herself she'd gotten into her car and forgotten about the whole thing.

Jenine had been startled by a comment from a student several days prior. As she was teaching English at an international school, she couldn't claim to have the most refined knowledge of the local language, however she had overheard two students talking about seeing a fireman on campus.

Jenine was, of course, extremely concerned that there had been some sort of incident at the school. As a result, she'd probed a little and asked the kids about it. One of them announced that it had been very strange and that she'd never seen one before. Jenine nodded encouragingly, but remained perplexed. She hadn't initially wanted to unduly worry the children who seemed largely unruffled, and more fascinated by the sight of the fireman, so it was with some reluctance that she then asked if there had been a fire on campus. One of the kids laughed and announced with great amusement that yes, it was the man's head that was on fire. However seeing his teacher's horrified expression, he had gone on to explain that what they had seen was not in fact a fireman but rather a man with fiery hair. When Miss Bennet's eyes had remained the size of saucers the poor boy had tried to explain that the man's hair was orange jumping and pointing at a poster in the classroom with A is of Apple, B is for Banana, C is for Carrot and much further down O is for Orange.

Once Jenine was sufficiently reassured that there was no actual fire and that no one had been harmed, she actually found the situation somewhat amusing. Clearly gingers were particularly unusual and exciting around the area. She smiled to herself, deciding that this was a story she would include in her next email to Charles. She contemplated with amusement her students' reactions to his hair if she ever brought him into class.

Lately it seemed that Charlie-related things were appearing in all frontiers of her life. She contemplated that maybe she was actually 'crazy in love' before snorting softly and dismissing the idea. She wasn't there quite yet, but maybe she would be soon. She was perfectly aware that she'd only need a little more time with Charlie before she considered him her veritable redhead Prince Charming.

The first night at the apartment hadn't been all that bad, Elise had been relieved to find. Without proper curtains on her windows, the sunlight had woken her considerably earlier than she might have desired. She'd gone to the window and attempted to block out the sun with a towel. It hadn't worked all that well, but really she didn't need much to allow her to get back to sleep.

She had just gotten back under the covers when she heard a thumping against her window followed by a muffled voice. Both irritable and curious, she rose once more to see what it was. She was surprised to see a large ginger tabby perched on her fire escape, his tail flicking up and down. His head was cocked to one side as he studied her with his large green eyes. Elise's inner cat lady made and appearance and she readied herself to open the window and reach out to him. She hesitated for a second, worried that he was a feral cat, but noting that he looked well-groomed and well-fed, very well-fed in actuality, she didn't see the harm.

Opening the window, Elise reached her hand out and made squeaky noises to try to draw him towards her. He sidled over to her hand without any shyness and reached his head down to it. He appeared disappointed that she held nothing for him and batted her hand with his paw. Feeling guilty, she scooped the big guy up, slightly taken his back by his weight.

Elise now faced a slight dilemma. She wasn't keen to take him to the kitchen and risk Darcy stumbling upon her and the cat if he was awake, or risk waking him if he was still asleep. She chose to leave the cat in her room with the door closed and retrieve him something from the kitchen.

The kitchen was mostly empty. There was no food, and the small amount crockery Hilary had sent with for her was only half unpacked. She discovered in amongst it a shallow plastic Tupperware box. With a lack of other options, she filled it with water from tap and reopened the door to her room, praying her new friend wouldn't try to run out. Elise was relieved when he did not, and chuckled when she spotted him curled on her bed, peering at her through half closed eyes.

She put the water dish on the floor and picked him up off her bed. He resisted, somewhat disgruntled, but quickly settled and even began purring when he was placed in her lap and stroked lovingly. After a short while, he was placed on the floor where he lapped at the water briefly, unimpressed, before jumping back up on to her bed and settling down once more. She smirked as she recalled that her own plan had been to settle back into bed and snooze some more.

Elise let the cat be as she began unpacking what remained of her few possessions still within her suitcase. It didn't take too long but by the time she was done it was clear the cat was contentedly asleep. Deciding not to disturb him, she went ahead and had her shower, relieved that she was spared any awkward moments as Darcy had yet to make an appearance.

Re-entering her room, she found her new friend in exactly the same position she had left him in. She was half dressed when she heard a knocking on her room door.

"Uh…. Just a second!" Elise called out.

"Take your time," Darcy responded sincerely.

Elise scuttled about, pulling out a pair of jeans and quickly brushing her hair. She was about to open the door when she remembered the cat asleep on her bed. Unwilling for Darcy to meet her new friend, she apologetically disturbed the cat's slumber lifting him and plopping him down on the fire escape where she'd found him. He scratched her a little in annoyance.

"I'm so sorry big guy!" she whispered. "If you come back later I might have something for you! Sorry for kicking you out."

He stared back at her unimpressed, but quickly turned his back and disappeared hastily along the fire escape.

Elise rapidly made her way over to the door, banging her shin against the frame of her bed, and cursing in annoyance and with the pain. She rolled her eyes, knowing it would bruise. She opened the door to Darcy, who it seemed was ready and dressed.

"Sorry I took so long Darcy, I was just getting dressed," she apologised.

He blushed slightly, with the memory of the last time he'd seen her undressed coming to the forefront of his mind. "That's okay," he replied, "I was just wondering if you wanted to head out and pick up some groceries?"

"Yeah!" she responded enthusiastically, "that sounds good."

Darcy moved back away from the doorway and she grabbed her coat and left her room to join him in the living area.

"I didn't realize you were up. Have you been awake a while?" she asked.

"Um, yeah, uh, I didn't sleep all that great," he mumbled.

"Oh," Elise responded, with a pang of guilt.

He realised quickly that he might have been hitting a sore spot, and quickly tried to rectify, "No, no, I just mean because, it's sleeping in a new place and all you know?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, I get it," she said, smiling back at him weakly.

Darcy placed his palm on her lower back to guide her gently out of the apartment and Elise flushed at the contact. She turned her face away as he locked their new apartment.

Elise drove them in Betty to the nearest large supermarket branch and Darcy acquired a trolley for them. She was surprised when he put his hand on her arm, causing her to look up at him.

"Um, how are we going to do this?" he asked her awkwardly.

"What do you mean? Have you never pushed a trolley before?!" she asked, looking at him like he'd lost his mind.

"What? No, of course I've pushed a trolley before," he said, rolling his eyes. "What I meant was are we just going to buy separate groceries? Or do you want to just pool everything and split the cost? Or share some essential things like milk and bread and meat?"

"Oh. Right. I don't know, actually," Elise responded, feeling slightly awkward and unsure of what the normal policy was. "How did it work when we were living at Dad and Fran's place?" she asked him.

"Well there was some essential food provided for us in the guesthouse when we moved in, and we weren't there that long, so Bingley and I just ended up doing a small grocery trip the one time," he responded.

His response didn't guide Elise much, so she decided to use a combination of logic and instinct. "Well it seems silly to by duplicate milk and bread and things. Although Darcy, you should know, I don't really consider meat to be an essential."

He huffed and rolled his eyes, "Oh that's right, I forgot about you and your salmon and tuna burgers," he said teasingly.

"Yeah, I should probably warn you, I'm mostly pescetarian," she told him apologetically. "Fish-eater. Like a cat, or something," she explained, seeing his confused expression.

"Ridiculous," he replied with a teasing grin.

In the end, Elise ended up paying for their shared food which included milk, bread, eggs, an assortment of fruit and vegetables and some household cleaning supplies alongside her own things. Darcy paid only for his own things, with the understanding that next time he would pay for the shared items. Elise was very much relieved that in their scheme Darcy hadn't ended up having to pay for her sanitary pads, or anything else humiliating.

Once they were home and the groceries unpacked, Elise and Darcy found themselves sitting on their kitchen counters just chatting generally about daily life. They agreed to take turns cooking, although Darcy warned that he was in no way Masterchef material. Elise laughed and said she wasn't much better, but she could probably feed them if he didn't fuss too much over the fish.

"Will you not eat meat at all then? Not even chicken?"

"No, no, it's not that. I do eat beef and chicken and such occasionally, it's just not my favourite thing, I guess. I wouldn't normally buy it because generally I don't eat that much of it, but I'm not going to make pukey faces at you if you cook meat for me." She laughed as Darcy dramatically sighed with relief.

It was then that she felt her phone vibrating in her back pocket, wedged between her butt and the counter surface. Hopping off she pulled it out, and checked who was calling, unwilling to ruin her relatively carefree mood by conversing with either her Dad or Fran. Seeing that it was J.W. on her caller ID she decided it was safe to pick up.

"Hello! To what do I owe the pleasure?" she asked, smirking to herself.

"Elise, you wound me. You make it sound like I'm not texting you each and every day," J.W. replied with mock seriousness, although his statement was, for the most part, true.

Elise giggled in response. "So… 'sup?" she asked, putting on a deep voice.

At the other end, J.W. snorted at her silliness. "Nothing really, I just haven't seen you in a while, and I was wondering if you maybe wanted to get coffee and chat?" he asked.

"Oooh, are you asking me out?" she said waggling her eyebrows although he couldn't see. Darcy however heard her question, noticed the waggling and was eying her phone suspiciously.

J.W. laughed. "How does the Starbucks near mine sound?" he asked.

"Sounds good, but since I've moved and all, it's going to take me a bit longer to get there."

"That's no problem," he replied.

"Ok, then," she replied happily, "I'll 'missed call' you when I'm almost there, so you can leave," she told him.

They said their goodbyes, and J.W. said he'd see her soon.

"Looks like we're off again, Darcy," she announced.

"I see. Who are we meeting?" he said somewhat roughly.

"My friend, Jun Wei," she replied. "He wants to grab coffee and catch up," she told him.

"Your friend?" Darcy asked demandingly.

For reasons unknown to even himself, Elise having a male friend did not seem a thrilling prospect to Darcy, although in his own mind he put it down to there being yet another person to protect her from. In all honesty, he was hardly protecting her from anybody at the moment, aside from that one incident with a little excess press. It had become fairly clear to Darcy, especially after discovering his petition to Bingley, that Mr Bennet could be extremely overbearing and overprotective when he wanted.

"Yeah," Elise responded, frowning at him perplexed. She wasn't sure, but Darcy seemed to be acting a tad weird. "Jun Wei, J.W., Carla Lucas's brother," she announced.

Elise drove them over to Starbucks, and it took a while. She wondered to herself why she hadn't instead suggested a place to meet nearer her. The listened to a variety of music along the way, and they both sang along. In particular, they sang along with great enthusiasm to 'Istanbul'. Elise giggled away at the lyrics and Darcy's deep baritone sung 'it's Istanbul not Constantinople'.

When they finally arrived Elise saw J.W. sitting at a table with only two chairs and realised she'd neglected to tell him she was bringing Darcy along.

J.W. frowned seeing the strange man walk in with Elise, and pondered who he might be.

It was at that point that Elise realised she had put herself in an awkward predicament. She wasn't sure if J.W. remembered catching her googling Darcy, but even if he had let it slip his mind, she was worried hearing the name 'Darcy' again would jog his memory, and quite frankly she didn't want to explain all that to him. Unfortunately, she couldn't get past that by introducing Darcy by his first name either since she still didn't know it. She could have asked Darcy, but her stubborn nature prevented her from giving the satisfaction of knowing she was curious. She decided that she had better check it out on the lease documents later on.

Elise realised though, that she couldn't just act like Darcy wasn't there. She definitely was going to need to explain his presence to J.W. So, after she and J.W. had said their hellos, Elise decided she had better make her announcement.

"So, this is my bodyguard," she explained, jerking her thumb in Darcy's direction. "I think I mentioned to you that Dad was acting a little crazy and over protective," she said, trying to shift focus away.

J.W. stuck out his hand at Darcy, "Hey man, I'm Jun Wei," he said, as Darcy gave him a strong handshake.

"I'm-" he was quickly cut off by Elise asking J.W. about some project of Angelica's before he could finish introducing himself. J.W. was surprised at Elise's abruptness, and wondered what was going on, but decided to say nothing.

Darcy was both hurt and annoyed that she hadn't bothered to introduce him properly, just saying he was her bodyguard, and that she had then cut him off, as if he wasn't even there. Lately they seemed to have formed a tentative friendship, and he was genuinely upset that she was treating him so differently in this man's company. He stayed silent, and sulked slightly as J.W. and Elise continued their conversation about their families, medicine and various inconsequential subjects that he couldn't follow their discussion about.

Elise went on to ask J.W. how Carla was doing. She was shocked at J.W.'s response.

"She's fine. I asked her if she wanted to come along but she seemed to be rushing somewhere and she mutter something about meeting that Nicoll guy."

Elise's eyes widened. "What?" she asked, more than a little perplexed.

J.W. wrinkled his nose contemplatively, "Yeah, she's been hanging out with him a fair bit lately," he stated, "it's kind of weird."

"It's really weird!" Elise replied. "How did she even meet him? And why would she voluntarily spend time with him? Wait. When you saying hanging out, what do you mean?"

"Oh, no, no, I don't mean that they're dating or anything. No way, it's not that. I got the impression that Carla was helping him with his show. Or that he was helping Carla with a show. Honestly she wasn't very clear about it, and you know me, I don't like conflict. I didn't want to start nosing around where I wasn't wanted."

"Ugh, that is really strange," Elise replied. "I'm going to be nosing around when I get the chance to speak to her about it." J.W. smirked at her knowingly.

They chatted for a while longer, before J.W. announced that he had to get going to meet someone. He kissed Elise's cheek goodbye, and was surprised to notice that Darcy was glowering at him. J.W. didn't really know what was going on there, but it definitely seemed like something was up. In an uncharacteristic move, J.W. glared back at Darcy as if daring him to defy him. Elise was completely oblivious to this exchange.

The ride back to their apartment was silent. Darcy was still sulking, and Elise was pretty sure her behaviour had offended him. Honestly, she wasn't surprised, seeing as she had been pretty rude. The problem was that she couldn't for the life of her think of a decent explanation for it.

The next morning, Darcy was once again awoken by water on his face. He was somewhat relieved to note the daylight outside and to realise that it couldn't have been as early as the last time. His relief passed when he noticed that his ceiling was now leaking from a different spot. He ended up shifting all the furniture around in an attempt to find a dry spot for his bed. But when he got back into bed after all the activity of shifting furniture, he soon found that he was no longer sleepy. He pulled out his phone and sent his sister a quick message checking up on her.

He was flicking through his phone contacts, bored, when he heard a mewling sound from outside his window. He opened the curtains to see what he considered a rather plump ginger feline sitting on the fire escape. He opened the window.

"Hey there, big guy," he called out. Darcy was surprised when the cat took his greeting to be an invitation to come indoors. He was even more surprised when the cat quickly settled himself in Darcy's lap. Amused, Darcy smiled to himself and gently scratched behind the cat's ears. The cat tilted his head back, closing his eyes to slits, and purred contentedly.

"You're just like my Jeeves, aren't you, big guy" Darcy said, thinking to the tuxedo cat that was technically his sister's. Like Jeeves, this guy appeared to be a very well fed beast. Although Darcy wasn't worried about the cat's nourishment, he made his way over to the kitchen carrying the cat around his neck, like a boa, and retrieved a tray of water for the cat. He wasn't sure how Elise would react to him feeding some of her canned tuna to his new feline friend.

The cat lapped at the water for a short while before returning to Darcy's lap.

"Sorry I don't have anything better than that for you, Mr Cuddles. I'd give you some milk, but you honestly don't look like you need it. And Georgie always yells at me when I sneak Jeeves some milk. Poor guy has resorted to drinking from my cereal bowl when I'm not paying attention."

Darcy tried to play with the cat for a short while, before giving up, discovering that Mr Cuddles was as lazy as Jeeves. Darcy took a photo of Mr Cuddles with his phone to send to Georgie. He thought she might be relieved to see he had some feline company. In his message, he did however tell her to make sure Jeeves knew that he had not in any way been replaced. He knew Georgie would roll her eyes, especially since she certainly had not forgotten the fuss Darcy had initially kicked up when she had first gotten Jeeves as a kitten.

When after a while, Mr Cuddles spotted a pigeon perched on the fire escape, with stealth that shocked Darcy, he climbed from Darcy's lap out the window to follow it. Deciding he might as well emerge from his room, Darcy went out into the kitchen and decided to make them both pancakes.

It wasn't long before Elise awoke to the appetizing scent of pancakes. She quickly brushed her teeth and hair and joined Darcy in the kitchen still clad in her pyjamas. Noticing her presence, he turned from the stove.

"I made breakfast," he announced. She smiled at him warmly in response, and he grinned back at her.