Optional Brief Recap: Darcy fixes things between Bing and Jane. Gigi invites Lizzie to her house. Lizzie is tricked into spending time with Darcy during her stay with the Darcys (watching DVDs together,falling asleep on the couch together, playing tennis). Lizzie is tricked spending time with Darcy during their tour of San Fran. Lizzie and Darcy have fun during her 'corporate interview' where he makes her laugh by impersonating Fitz. Darcy gathers up the courage to ask Lizzie on a date and she agrees. The pair get tipsy and get intimate using faulty contraception. They are separated by Lydia's situation. Darcy buys Novelty Exposures and gets the video taken down. Lizzie and Darcy track down George together. They begin an official relationship but keep it on the down-low. Lizzie returns to San Fran with Lydia. During another stay at the Darcy's, Lizzie faints and finds out she's prego. Lizzie and Darcy visit the doc together and are both happy with the idea of a baby. Lydia, Gigi, Fitz, Lizzie's parents, and Jane and Bing are all supportive of Lizzie and Darcy's surprise pregnancy and their new relationship. Charlotte has yet to find out anything, except for the fact Lizzie went on a date with Darcy.
Also, big thanks to FF user SOLYAHU for her ideas in this chapter!
Darcy spent the rest of the afternoon handling business affairs by phone and email while Lizzie took a nap. She had nothing better to do until Charlotte called and she was super tired. The stress and relief of telling her family their little secret was physically draining.
Lydia came by to announce when dinner was ready. She made sure to knock loudly before yelling,"Dinner's ready, lovebirds!"
Darcy had just finished typing up his last email for the day, and he yelled out,"Thank you, Lydia! We'll be down in a moment."
Lizzie was still asleep. He hadn't noticed exactly when she had fallen asleep, but he quickly learned that noise didn't bother her and he didn't have to try to speak lower while on the phone.
After shutting off his laptop, Darcy looked over at his pregnant girlfriend.
"She looks so peaceful like this...", Darcy acknowledged while debating whether or not to wake her up for dinner. He really didn't want to face the Bennets alone, so the selfish side of him wanted to wake her up. "She needs to eat, right?", he thought, trying to give himself a legitimate reason for disrupting what appeared to be a very satisfying nap.
That seemed to work fine for him and he was about to wake her up when he had an idea.
"I hope she doesn't mind...", he said to himself as he snapped a picture of her. She was on her side, one arm beneath her pillow, the other resting near her belly. She was almost smiling, too. She was too cute and he couldn't help himself.
Darcy sat beside her on the bed and started running his fingers through her hair. He bent down near her ear and whispered, "Lizzie, my love, wake up. Your mother has prepared dinner."
She stirred and he continued whispering for her to wake up. When that failed, he started to place a series of short kisses all over her ear, neck, and face. Lizzie smiled at this and then opened her eyes slowly. She blinked several times and then smiled widely as she remembered where she was and saw who had woken her up.
The dinner was much more pleasant than lunch. Now that their little secret was out in the open, the family could talk about the baby and the future.
"So Lizzie, Janie called. Did ya speak with her?", Mrs. Bennet asked as they sat at the table eating spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and mixed salad.
Lizzie got mad and started telling her mom that she wasn't supposed to go near a phone, when Darcy stepped in and changed the direction of the conversation.
"Bing and Jane were very pleased. And I don't know if you remember, Lizzie, but Jane mentioned something about moving in with Bing, right?"
Mr. Bennet was impressed at how quickly Darcy had learned to handle Mrs. Bennet. He expertly shifted the focus from himself and Lizzie to Bing and Jane.
After dinner was over, Lizzie and Darcy went back up to Lizzie's room in order to have a chat while they waited for Charlotte's call.
On the way up the stairs, Lizzie said to him jokingly, "I don't think Jane is going to appreciate how you threw her and Bing under the bus."
Darcy just shrugged and replied, "But you and your mom stopped arguing, so I think Jane would understand."
They had settled into their spots, Lizzie sitting indian-style on her bed and Darcy sitting across from her in her computer chair, when Mrs. Bennet barged in decked out in a super tight yoga outfit with a rolled mat under her arm and a bottle of water in her hand.
"It's yoga time, y'all! Remember? I had turned your room into my meditation haven while you were gone. I need to do this everyday, undisturbed, for my poor nerves. Your room is the best spot. Unless you'd care to join me? You know, I heard yoga is good for the baby-"
"No thanks, mom. We'll be out of your hair... Mom-", Lizzie said eyeing her mom up and down. She looked like one of those older women who try to squeeze into young women's clothing.
Darcy chimed in with an idea of his own, in order to avoid another argument between mother and daughter. "Actually Francine, would you mind terribly if I stole Lizzie away until tomorrow? I have the keys to Netherfield and I thought we might stay over there tonight. You know, in order to avoid causing too much inconvenience."
"Oh, Darcy darlin'! You two are family! No inconvenience here! But if y'all wanna spend some time together, I don't mind.", she said and proceeded to wink and nudge Darcy in the ribs with her elbow.
"Great! Let's go say bye to Dad and Lydia. Bye, mom.", Lizzie said quickly, trying to escape her mom's embarrassing assumptions.
"I wanna see y'all here bright and early for a nice Sunday luncheon!", Mrs. Bennet called out to them as they exited the room. "And oh! Don't forget your cake! It's amazing, if I do say so myself!"
Lizzie teared up in the car. Sometimes her mom annoyed her to no end, but sometimes, her mother could be the sweetest person in the world. Lizzie wiped the tear that had escaped before Darcy could notice.
"How can she be so infuriating one minute and then so lovely the next?! I don't get it!"
Darcy didn't say a word. He just grabbed her hand with his free hand as he drove them to Netherfield in a rental he had ordered while he was handling business. He liked listening to her rant and rave.
Darcy was listening with a slightly amused smile to all the ranting of his girlfriend in the car. He found that her energy and passion was adorable, and her raving about convoluted plans and incorrigible parents was more entertaining than anything he could watch on TV. But this time, she was complaining about her mother giving her emotional whiplash. She went from annoying to best-mother-in-the-world in only the walk from Lizzie's room to the kitchen.
The cake was a beautiful chocolate cake that said 'My grandbaby is lucky to have a momma and daddy like y'all!' with icing and then it had a heart made out of mini chocolate chips underneath. The fact that her parents were being supportive made her really happy, so this cake just made her really emotional. She was blaming it on her hormones, however.
When they got to Netherfield, Lizzie went straight to the kitchen to put the cake down. She snapped a picture of it to send to Jane later and so she could look at it whenever her mother pissed her off; it might remind her that her mother could be awesome sometimes.
She also was craving a piece. She could smell the hint of vanilla extract in the cake during the whole ride with her new pregnancy nose and she couldn't resist any longer. She looked for two plates and forks and a knife to serve herself and Darcy. "Hmm, this is becoming kind of like a second nature.", she thought to herself as she noticed that now whatever she was going to do, she considered Darcy as well.
Darcy, who had just entered the kitchen after taking their bags up to his room, leaned back against the wall and watched his girlfriend busy herself with the cake. The fact that they were now alone didn't escape him and he had plans for them after their dessert.
As they were eating, Darcy tried to snap a picture of Lizzie with his phone.
"Whoa, whoa! If you're gonna take a picture of me stuffing my face, at least let me pose.", she protested as she jokingly attempted a seductive pose with the forkful of cake.
"Lemme see!", Lizzie demanded playfully as she grabbed his phone and then nodded her approval of the picture.
She wasn't aware, but that quick little pose deepened within Darcy a desire that was already barely restrained. He set that picture as his phone's background, and then quickly got up to pick up his and Lizzie's plates.
He had already put them in the sink when Lizzie yelled, "Will! What's your problem? I wasn't finished yet!"
He shrugged casually which angered Lizzie even more. It wasn't the cake that angered her; it was the fact that he thought he could do whatever he wanted.
She got up and made her way to the sink to retrieve her plate. "If you think I'm just gonna sit there and let you do that, you got another thing coming-"
Darcy intercepted her path and said, "Sshh!"
"Oh, hell no! Did he just shush me?!"
She looked up at Darcy with fire in her eyes, and he just calmly grabbed her hands and intertwined them with his own.
"Allow me to divert your thoughts to something more pleasant…", he said before leaning down to kiss her.
Within seconds she was on her tippy toes, her neck craning so Darcy wouldn't be the only one putting forth the effort; the remnants of her piece of cake quickly forgotten.
Neither could recall how or when they got to Darcy's room because they were so wrapped up in their passionate embrace.
Lizzie pulled away from a reluctant Darcy, grabbed something out of her bag, and smiled promisingly at the pouting man before her as she withdrew into the en suite bathroom.
Darcy pulled at his tie and sighed frustrated at his inability to undo the knot. "Lizzie is to blame. I can never do anything correctly while I have her on my mind."
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
*BEEP*
A series of noises from Lizzie's bag interrupted Darcy's thoughts.
"If that is Ms. Lu, she has terrible timing.", Darcy said to himself with an annoyed tone. He seemed to have worked himself into a bit of a bad mood. Like when a child is told they have to wait until after supper to eat their candy.
He checked her screen and saw that the noises came as a result of some twitter messages. "Oh, only social media notifications; nothing important. I'll just put the phone on silent."
After about a minute, however, the devilish device kept up its rebellion and started buzzing with the flow of incoming messages. There was absolutely no way he could ignore that.
One thing about Darcy is that he's painfully honest and dislikes even a slight hint of duplicity, but he knows the ruckus is just some unimportant Twitter and Tumblr explosion of some kind, probably from their getting together. "I wonder who revealed our secret? Probably Gigi…".
Now he was faced with a decision: should he tell Lizzie her phone was blowing up and put their intimate moments off for God knows how long later in the evening, or shut off her phone and tell her afterwards? Meanwhile, the damned phone started buzzing and that settled it.
"I don't know if the Digital Gods have conspired against me to ruin my current happiness, but I will not allow it! I am sure we don't have much time until Ms. Lu calls and I don't know if after our conversation Lizzie and I will be in the mood."
He let his libido win and shut off her phone. He was feeling rather guilty about it and decided he would tell her about it, but all coherent thought was lost when Lizzie opened the door to the bathroom.
She stepped out, barefoot, in a lacy two-piece ensemble from Victoria's Secret. With one hand on her hips and the other twirling her hair, she walked slowly towards Darcy who was just staring at her wide-eyed and hungry.
After the couple made love, Darcy gently rubbed Lizzie's belly as their breathing evened. Still no super obvious sign, but he knew their baby was growing in there. They were lying next to each other and began talking about things they'd like to accomplish before the baby arrives and the future and just random things. Darcy always made mental notes about what she said, with every intention of making her ideas come to life.
"What time is it? Maybe we missed Char's call?", Lizzie asked after their conversation simmered down.
"Crap." Darcy had abruptly stopped rubbing Lizzie's slightly pudgy belly.
Lizzie started to get up to look for her phone, when Darcy pulled her arm to stop her.
"Lizzie, I have a confession to make.", Darcy said seriously. He was scared she'd be mad at him and he hated to ruin their lovely night together.
"Okay...", she said with a smile and threw herself back on the bed. She thought that Darcy was trying to be playful and tease her. For a man who disliked deception, he sure had the best poker face of anyone Lizzie knew, so she had a hard time discerning when he was kidding and when he wasn't.
"Would you like to confess that I am a divine sex goddess and that you'll worship me forever?", she asked flirtatiously.
Darcy's brows raised in surprise; he wasn't expecting that. Here he was dreading her getting upset at him, and she was flirting with him.
He smiled and responded, "Of course.", before setting a gentle kiss on her lips. She had her hair spread around her face and she was still sort of flushed from their exercise; he couldn't resist.
"Which one is it? The former or the latter?", Lizzie challenged.
Darcy laughed, recognizing it as a trick question of some sort, he simply answered, "Both, babe. But really, I must tell you something. And please don't be angry with me."
Lizzie frowned,"Okay. What is it?"
"Well, when you were in the bathroom, your phone kept beeping and buzzing with notifications and I found it annoying so I turned it off..."
"Okay..."
"That's it. I apologize. I should have asked."
Lizzie burst out laughing. "Seriously, Will? Wowww. Aside from the fact that Charlotte will be mega pissed if I missed her call, I have no problem with you turning off my phone...".
"Really? Had someone shut off my phone, I would be at least annoyed."
"But you're not just someone, you're my boyfriend. But if it bothers you that much, then RAWR; I'm angry. And I want payback!", Lizzie said in a pretend-annoyed voice.
"What would you like me to do?"
"Hmmm... I know. First hand me my phone.", she said but then her voice changed and became more uncertain. "I'd like for you to appear on my videos again. And I'd like to reveal, well, everything. Not everything, but...you know.", she said pointing to her belly. She turned on her phone and waited for it to boot. "When we spoke to Charlotte she mentioned the viewers and I have noticed that I haven't uploaded a video in forever...".
Darcy's expression was not a happy one. The internet had been a place of ridicule for him, but he'd do anything to make Lizzie happy, so he nodded in agreement.
"Really? Great! I'd like to tell everyone gradually. You know, first let's tell them we're dating. Let them digest that for a little bit. And then, before I blow up like a balloon, I'd like to share the news."
"Okay. That sounds alright. When would you like to do this?"
"I don't know. Whenever. But soon, I guess. And since I'll be done with the independent study this week, I wouldn't even need Charlotte to edit it for me."
"About that- what are you going to do after it's finished? Are you going back home?"
"Actually-"
She was interrupted by her phone ringing. She hadn't had a chance to check her notifications and there's no way she could now- Charlotte was finally calling.
"Hey, Char!", Lizzie answered nervously as she put the phone on speaker.
"Sooo... Care to explain the video? I'm sure your viewers would like an explanation as well!", Charlotte answered curtly.
"Well, Char... I'm gonna explain but you can't interrupt us okay?"
"Ohhh, Darcy is there with you, huh? Fine; I won't say a word."
Lizzie could tell Charlottle was fuming and she understands why. They're best friends and even though their lives have gotten busy, news like this should've been shared a while ago.
"Okay, so it all started...", Lizzie said and then she and Darcy filled Charlotte in on everything. Like, everything. Darcy blushed a few times times as Lizzie recounted certain parts of their rocky relationship.
"And now we're sitting naked in Darcy's room at Netherfield... Okay, you can speak now."
"SERIOUSLY?!... And nobody is freaking out?!", Charlotte finally responded.
Darcy couldn't believe Charlotte and Lizzie were so open with each other. She didn't even react to the fact that she was speaking to them while they were in the nude. He couldn't even remember the last time he had spoken so frankly with someone.
The fact that Charlotte knew he wasn't clothed made Darcy uncomfortable, so he got off the bed and threw on a pair of his '$5000 boxers' and handed Lizzie the get-up she had on earlier, which she put on while speaking to Charlotte. Darcy rejoined her on the bed and continued listening to the conversation.
"Well, at first we were, but now we're okay. It's like my dad said, we're adults and there's really no reason why we shouldn't have this baby."
"Lizzie, I'm happy you guys are happy but I just can't understand how you two can be so nonchalant about this. A baby is a life changer. Sure, Darcy has money, but money isn't everything. Your life isn't going to be yours anymore. I never would have expected this from you two."
Here Darcy jumped in. He felt that she was patronizing them. "I am older than her, right?"
"Charlotte, I don't mean to come across as rude, but we understand all of that. We've already talked about it and we're okay with the fact that our lives are going to change forever. We've been doing research and we've got the support of Francine and Thomas-"
"You're on a first name basis with the Bennets now?! Wow.", Charlotte laughed and then sighed. This was a big shocker but she couldn't stay mad at her friend. That baby should be a source of joy right now, not worry.
"Alright. Well, clearly you guys are serious about this and I have nothing but congratulations for you. It'll take some time for me to get used to the fact that you're gonna be a mommy. But you better keep me updated from now on... Seriously though Lizzie, you could have told me sooner..."
"I'm sorry, bestie! We just wanted to keep us to ourselves for a while. But then with the unexpected news of the pregnancy, we were forced to tell..."
"So I was the last one to find out, huh?"
"Yeah... Sorry about that! The only ones left are the viewers."
"Oh... I thought you knew. My twitter has been super busy, I assumed yours would, too..."
"Yeah, Will mentioned I was getting notifications earlier but he turned off my phone and it was off for a while...".
"Ha ha, I bet it was. But umm, yeah. I was kind of angry that you hadn't told me that you and Darcy were a thing! I totally knew it would happen so I wasn't surprised but the fact that you kept me in the dark... I uploaded the video you sent me to YouTube and now the viewers are going insane!"
"You what?!", Lizzie exclaimed.
"Whoa, look at the time! I've gotta go! I'll talk to you tomorrow! Bye, bestie! Bye, Darcy!", Charlotte said quickly before hanging up.
"Well, there goes our plan.", Darcy said with a smile. "You know, with you, nothing seems to ever go right."
"That's what comes along with me. Craziness and spontaneity. Take it or leave it."
"I'll gladly take it.", he said before planting a kiss on her forehead, and leaving her side and heading to the bathroom.
"So then a new video tomorrow? We can't leave them hanging for too long!"
"Sure.", Darcy mumbled through toothpaste, "We can do it tomorrow at your parents' after your mother's lunch."
"Perfect.", Lizzie said.
All of a sudden, she had a strong urge to pee. "I'm definitely not going to miss this when you're out!", she said to her belly. She got up off the bed reluctantly and made her way towards the bathroom. She passed Darcy who was finishing up brushing his teeth and went straight for the toilet.
Darcy froze. He had never been in the bathroom with her when she was actually using it.
Lizzie burst out laughing. "Chill out, Will. It's just pee! Nooo! Don't go! Stay in here and let's talk about what we're going to say tomorrow."
Darcy chuckled. "Do other people do this? Converse in the bathroom?". In his prim and proper upbringing, he never experienced anything like this.
"I've always done this with my sisters. Never with a boyfriend, though. There's a first time for everything."
Darcy sat on the counter and faced Lizzie. "Okay, so what should we say tomorrow?"
Lizzie just smiled. He had loosened up around her so much and she was enjoying it.
"What?", he asked wondering at the weird grin on her face.
"I love you, William."
"I love you, too, Lizzie.". They were both glad they could say it aloud now.
"So about tomorrow..."
So in the upcoming chapters they explain themselves to the viewers, Lizzie finishes her independent study and decides what she's going to do until graduation, some people aren't too happy with Lizzie and Darcy's relationships, and Lizzie and Charlotte celebrate their 24th birthdays!