Thanks to all my betas who contributed in different ways: lovingyouisbest, JD Bell; Joy Booth and Fredrica.
Final tweaking is my own.
Epilogue: 10 years later
The church parlor was in the disarray typical of a wedding. However, the hysterical woman sitting at the vanity was not the bride, but the mother of the groom. Well, one of the grooms. "You children are going to be the end of my poor nerves! Young people these days. Mark my words Lizzy, if you'd not given away your milk for free the cow would have married you!"
Caught between stifling a laugh and being offended, her second eldest asked, "What does that even mean, mother?"
"Don't you take that tone with me!" Kitty and Mary rolled their eyes, thinking their mother couldn't see. They were wrong. "And don't give me those looks, either of you! Katherine, 2 years spent in the graduate school of Agriculture meeting all kinds of eligible men and what do you have to show for it?"
"Mother! Kitty is barely 25! Give her some time!" Mary scolded.
"Time, you said? Young lady, I would have supposed that you'd had enough time to figure out that Collins is quite the catch. He will suit admirably to fill my shoes. I am getting so weary from running the 4-H club these many years! How I long for a rest! If you just said yes to his proposal, Mary." Francesca fanned herself melodramatically.
Mary huffed, "I won't be getting married to my boyfriend so you go ahead and can pass the torch for the club, mother. Besides, you know I've been happy to help you. Need I remind you that I bore you your first TWO grandsons AT ONCE? What am I? Chopped liver?"
Francine stopped fanning herself and began preening in the mirror. "Chopped liver, indeed! Oh, that reminds me, did everyone bring the food for the reception?"
"Yes, mother."
"What a steady young woman you are, Jane, and even with your handicaps you've managed to marry and you've given me three granddaughters! I hope they don't have your afflictions!"
Lizzy got into the fray, "Mother! First of all my nieces are perfect regardless of their ability, size, orientation, or gender. Hell, they could dye their hair the most hideous shade of orange or become preppies and they will still be perfect. Secondly, the car accident injuries that started Jane's fibromyalgia are not genetic!"
"Be that as it may, Lizzy, you don't have your sister's challenges. You should be pregnant by now, is that why you've put on weight?"
"No, it's all that free milk from the cow!" Lizzy's sisters laughed while their mother simply looked confused. She was spared explaining things when she heard their cue. "Never mind, mother. We're on."
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The 4 Bennet bridesmaids took their places in the foyer and followed the two best men. The star shaped brick walled sanctuary with wood beams, red carpet and matching pews was accented with western décor such as wagon wheels, wrought iron candelabras, and wildflowers wrapped in antiqued lace and leather strips.
The bridesmaids wore breezy, vintage prairie dresses while the groomsmen and grooms wore jeans, boots, and cowboy hats that also evoked the bygone west era. The little flower girls and ring bearers were mini versions in tiny cowboy hats and boots, the girls with ringlets and braids recalling the "Little House" girls.
The ceremony represented Lydon and his bridegroom Mitchell's taste for the country, as they had also hired a folk band with a fiddle, guitar and vocalist to perform folksy versions of the traditional wedding songs. The band also performed a country version of 'How wonderful life is' in which Mrs Bennet cried almost as loudly as the vocalist sang. In the end it was a toss-up concerning who had the better pipes.
It was a short service and everyone soon gathered at the Farm for an old fashioned chuckwagon feast that was catered by one of the family's friends who moonlighted in this style of catering. Everything except the wedding cake and coleslaw was cooked on an open fire- some with hand made cast iron cookware -from a pit roasted hog, to beans, cornbread, fruit compote and even some mac and cheese for the kids.
The Phillips got out the old family recipe and had enlisted half a dozen friends with ice cream freezers to make a rainbow of homemade strawberry, peach, French vanilla, pistachio, mixed berry, and champagne/grape ice creams and sorbets which completed the feast.
The band had added a stand up base and percussion and had set up so the group could dance on the concrete slab in front of the Bennet's house. People mingled on the lawn, sat at picnic tables and wandered in the orchard under the setting sun.
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After Elizabeth was finally done with her final bridesmaid duty ( and a top secret one at that) her man found her and grabbed her waist, pulling her onto the 'dancefloor' for a country waltz to a version of 'Just Like You Said It Would Be.' "Where have you been, sexy cowgirl?"
"I can't tell you or I'd have to kill you." Her eyes sparkled and he knew her top secret mission likely involved putting the finishing touches on cans on the back of the getaway car. That would have been an understatement. Her secret mission involved a rainbow of cans using fantas, 7 up, coke and blue sky soda brands for that effect. He would soon see what she'd been up to.
But, Darcy was more interested for the moment in the way he could see most of her assets as he gazed down. She was more than fine with his obvious lack of eye contact. It boded well for later in the evening.
"Koko pulled it off." She told him.
"What exactly did he pull off?" Darcy asked. "Your family got most of this together, with the exception of M_'s extensive decorating skills."
"Koko finally got you to wear honest to goodness shit kickers as opposed to those urban cowboy excuses for boots." Lizzy's eyes sparkled.
He looked a her suggestively, "You're lucky that Gunne Sax makes it so easy for me to stare at your breasts because otherwise I would hold out on you for such a statement."
She made an exaggerated movement so that more of said assets were revealed. "So that's how I bend you to my will? Wearing low cut vintage dresses?"
"It's definitely a good look," he said, not making eye contact.
"I can feel how much you like it!" She pressed against him.
"That's just the beginning." He stopped their dance, pulling her close and rasping in her ear, "Lizzy, I so want to leave."
She grasped his collar, and said authoritatively, " . Sorry, but we gotta wait till they throw the bouquet and drive into the night."
-MA alert-
"Pleeeeease?" He knew just how to speak into her ear to elicit excessive moisture in certain parts of her body.
"I have a better idea." She took his hand and they disappeared into the house. "Just something to tide you over."
"You mean we finally get to be naughty in the room where you grew up?" She didn't say a word, pulling him through the doorway of her old bedroom and pushing him onto the bed. The lights were off and the room was quite dim at twilight. They could still hear music playing through the window.
She buttoned down his fly and proceeded to take his length into her lush mouth, consuming him over and over until he was about to spend. He groaned as she released him from her lips, and the tone of his rumbling voice changed when he was firmly ensconced within her slick depths.
Grasping her ass, he lifted them both and heaved her against the wall, his mouth consuming hers as his cock teased her with its repetitive slow withdrawal until his tip teased her g spot. Then he would slam into her, filling her to the hilt. Over and over his instrument played her until she cried out. He released soon after and collapsed taking them backward onto her old bed.
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When they caught their breath, Darcy and Elizabeth snuck into the adjacent bathroom and made themselves presentable, laughing conspiratorially while they primped. Soon, they heard a thump, thump, thump against the back of the bathroom wall. The thumping was hard enough to shake the Thomas Kinkaid pictures Francesca had hung in there.
"Um, isn't that Jane's old room? Isn't it sacrilegious or something for them to have sex in her childhood bedroom when she's pregnant?" Darcy asked.
"Don't be ridiculous….. Damn," she cursed as the thumping became more frequent and shook the pictures more violently. "On second thought, mother would have hysterics if she knew her beloved pictures were under threat from her daughter's 'indecency'. But I'm not telling. You?"
Darcy looked frightened, "No way. I don't want to suddenly become the favorite son in law if she disowns Charles for defiling her daughter's bedroom and breaking her Kinkaids!"
"Well, I guess we'll just have to find some other way to pass the time. The guests will probably keep dancing for another couple of songs, and then they plan to set off fireworks before the finale when they throw the bouquet and leave. Let's get a good spot." The lovers wended their way up the back spiral staircase and to the veranda.
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Lizzy turned and was about to close the door when the loud 'clomp, clomp, clomp' of little feet could be heard up the back staircase. "Hey! You took our spot! No fair, Uncle Darcy!" The two red headed boys couldn't be any cuter as the sported identically 'menacing' glares.
"Sorry pals. Finders keepers." He grinned.
"That's not fay-er!" One of the 5 year olds stomped.
"Just kidding, there is room for all of us. Look, you can sit up here and we will hold you." He pulled them up together, ensconcing them both safely in his strong arms.
Lizzy couldn't believe her eyes. "Will! Collins will kill you if he sees them balancing on the veranda rail, even if the roof is right in front of them."
"Not up there. Geez! I'm not totally incompetent with kids. Look." He pointed and she followed the line of sight.
The veranda had an extension on the roof, including a porch swing, a perfect venue from which to gaze out at the southern and the famous mountains to the east. "When did you get time to make this?"
"I've had plenty of time- you've been in the studio with your sister for a few days and the last time you were up here was that time..." Her boyfriend had that impish look in his eye...
"Yes!" Lizzy interupted brightly, "I recall the other night we were up here um, stargazing."
" That sounds like fun, why didn't you let us go stargazing?" asked little Rufus, the younger twin.
" Because that was past your bedtime." Darcy answered quickly, while Lizzy just quirked an eyebrow, mouthing 'you started it.' Darcy mouthed back, I'll show you what I'll start..."
Not 30 seconds had passed before Arlo pleaded his auntie to quit kissing so they could swing and watch fireworks. Auntie Lizzy and Uncle Will obliged little Rufus and Arlo, placing them securely in swings. Soon, the dusk ended and fireworks lit up the sky but it had not been soon enough for the dozing cherubs. By the time the fireworks subsided the pair had been installed on the upstairs study's hideaway bed.
Jane's 8 year old, Eliza, a replica of her namesake, was still going strong, along with Luke, Charlotte and Richard's 9 year old. Eliza's two siblings, 6 year old Maggie and 4 year old Anna were crashed in Kitty's old room, which housed shelves of collectible toy horses.
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Lydon and his new husband were seen off by what remained of the party, sans sleeping children. They tearfully hugged every family member and left amidst the clatter of colorful cans.
"You did that, didn't you Lizzy? Very clever. "Her father remarked. She could tell it was his feeble attempt to hide the tears shed because his boy had grown up and found a soul mate, no longer to be under his father's care, but under the care of his husband.
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The adults had caught their second wind and were visiting as they chipped in to clear away the food and litter. Everyone was thankful the rental company would clear away the tables in the morning. Just as Lizzy and Jane were returning to the house, discussing the merits of Jane adding vintage cowboy gear to her Etsy store, they were interrupted their mother's hysterics.
Everyone hurriend to the kitchen to see why Francesca was in such hysterics. They found out soon enough. Kitty was holding a bin that smelled of the contents of her stomach and wiping her mouth with a napkin. "Mother! Calm down! I'm not sick! I'm just pregnant!"
"Another of my daughters who's giving the milk for free! Oh, Mr Bennet, what will become of our girls!?"
It's OK. Kitty announced," I'm married. David Lucas and I eloped when we were in Vegas with the school. You know, the week of the Rodeo. He moved into my apartment a month ago."
"What! Oh! Mr Bennet! Oh!" The shock of not being able to see her youngest in a wedding gown was too much. And that she was pregnant at the hands of the son of her frenemy, Mercedes. Francesca fainted dead away.
It was a good thing that Woody, the chuckwagon caterer, was still shutting down. Woody, an EMT in his day job, hurried over and checked her vitals, proclaiming that she would be fine and the worst she suffered was a bruise from the fall.
Nothing else would please Francesca Bennet but to have a grand reception/ shower for her daughter. Her husband, however, put a moratorium on all lace, flowers, balloons and party games for at least eight weeks. Which gave her plenty of time to plan a lavish event at the Old Town Historic Hotel.
She may never understand Jane's condition, or Lizzy and Darcy's independent commitment which bore much fruit, all of it artistic. Lizzy became a highly sought after sartorial artist as she called herself, employing apprentices to help make her bespoke garments.
Even though Francine didn't understand her second eldest's career, she came to accept it, especially the more well known she became.
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For the most part, Lizzy's fear never came to pass: she was mostly known in her own right, and only linked to her partner when they were photographed at events together and it made the news. It may have helped that Lizzy made a point of keeping an open demeanor with the first reporter who wrote about the up and coming textile artist. The journalist, who wrote about Lizzy's opening at _ Gallery in Soho was charmed by the story Lizzy told and was determined to take the artist on her own merit and included some of Lizzy's anecdotes about the normally taciturn Darcy. The story set the precedent for any stories to come. Lizzy had a way of telling just the right amount to make an interesting story for the magazine but little enough to keep their private lives just that.
Darcy continued to be a prominent visionary artist, although his preferred media would change from time to time- stained glass and giant stone were just 2 of his 'phases.'
The couple was proud of their prodigious work and satisfied with their lives where they enjoyed spoiling their nieces and nephews, filling in for moms and dads, and having plenty of time for themselves as a family- just the 2 of them- and their 2 rescue dogs. Lizzy had always wanted to be an auntie, teaching her nieces and nephews to behave very ill and having great fun in the process.
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Well, Francine's most vexing, second eldest daughter got her wish.
Francine would never understand why Mary would end up bearing Collins a total of eight children and yet they would never marry. (she did end up 'giving the club' to Mary after child 4, in exchange for watching the grandbabies and their extensive garden).
Nor could she ever completely forgive Kitty that Mercedes was now a relation- although the lavish reception and subsequent three grandchildren helped. No, Out of all of her children Francesca thought that they would all be so happy if they would just settle down traditionally like Lydon and his husband. The couple, both prominent firemen on the city's force, had a daughter and son by separate surrogates. They had bought back some of the old Gardiner farmland and had settled just a quarter mile down the dirt road.
The women who were surrogates, and their eventual families, were also included in Bennet family. Francesca thought them paragons, greatly approving of their farming and ranching lineages, both women working in their family's operations.
She would never understand children these days but at least Mary would get the farm when she died, and Lydon also owned a bit of the old family farm. Oh! What nerves she got thinking of it.
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None of this mattered to her children, their spouses or her children's children. They all loved each other in their own imperfect ways, the way that families do when they repeat cycles and stories that resonate through generations until some are mythology and others pathology. Perhaps those stories, those cycles, were one and the same.
Lizzy and Darcy could agree that was probably the case. The woman in white knew this to be so.
Well we have come to the end of my fanfic. I am quite set on having alternative types of families for ODC and their family, so if anyone is unhappy that Lizzy and Darcy don't marry and have kids- feel free to imagine they do. I wanted to show that HEA can look different than marriage and kids and hope that you still found it satisfactory. If you want more, let me know, and I will do out takes and/or further epilogues at your request.
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