Authors Note: Hey, so I decided to go ahead an update again because I've been on fall break and I have a lot of free time. Anyway, I'm not really happy with this chapter, and I'll probably revise it. So, thank you to everyone who followed and favorited; I really appreciate it! I'm not really sure where this should go, I mean, obviously I'm going to stick with the original, but I have no plans right now of what direction to take this, so any suggestions are welcome! Finally, please review and thank you for reading!

Chapter Four

Lizzie was woken up by the annoyingly loud jingle of her ringtone, and the sound of her vibrating phone on the coffee table. She had been sleeping on Jane's couch until she could find a place of her own, and didn't even realize that Jane hadn't returned from her night out with Caroline Bingley. She rolled over, and slung her arm out to pick up her phone. It was Jane's number calling, but she was calling at nearly 4 a.m.

"Jane, what's wrong? Why are you calling me so early?" She began, wiping the sleep out of her eye. Her mind was reeling from all the possible and horrific things that could've happened earlier that night.

"Hi, Elizabeth?" A familiar, sugar-coated voice sounded, "It's Caroline, I just got back to my brother's house with your sister. We went out clubbing, a bit, and well, your sister drank a little too much..." Lizzie relaxed, laying back down on the couch as Caroline continued, "anyway, she passed out in the car, and I don't know where she lives, so I'm letting her crash at my place for the night, okay?"

Lizzie bolted up again, "I can give you our address, you can drop her off, it's no big deal."

"Nonsense," Caroline replied, "we're almost back to Charlie's house, anyway, you can come pick her up in the morning." And with that Caroline hung up.

Lizzie slumped back down, agitated from being woken up at such an ungodly hour. Crap, she thought to herself, Jane took the car to Charlie's house last night. Hungover Jane would be in no shape to drive, she decided. She groaned loudly before drifting off into sleep.

"What kind of girl drinks so much?" Caroline said to her brother and his friend, as she stirred in the cream of her coffee, despite it being only eight in the morning, she was already fully dressed, hair done, and makeup applied.

"Caroline, be nice, you're the one who made her go out anyway," Charlie replied, nursing his own cup of coffee.

Caroline ignored him, "And when she was drunk, well you know how drunks are, it's like talking to someone who has ingested truth serum, well, she told me all about her family," Charlie shot her a stinging glance, but she was egged on by Darcy's curious expression, "apparently, their drowning in debt from Lizzie's grad school, and trying to pay for their other daughters to go to college, too, and Jane's been trying to help them, but she said they refuse everytime." She scoffed, "it's not like Jane is rolling in money, she's an artist,"

"Graphic designer," Charlie corrected, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Anyway," Caroline ignored him again and continued looking at Darcy, "she must have been super stressed to make her drink so much...I guess having Lizzie at home isn't helping,"

Charlie was about to defend the girl still in Caroline's self-proclaimed guest room, sleeping when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Darcy said hurriedly, trying to escape from Caroline, even for just a moment. He turned to set his coffee town and left the kitchen where the siblings sat in continued silence.

"Hey, it's a little early to be selling Girl Scout Cook-" he began.

"Shut up, I'm here for my sister,"

Lizzie stood in front of him on the small front porch, hair even more frazzled than usual, her face bright red from exercising. He noticed behind her, on the ground there was a bike laid on its side. He was at a loss for words. Her breathing was still heavy as she sighed and slid her hands over her hair, as if to calm it.

"Okay, are you going to let me in or not," she said, exasperated. She crossed her arms over her chest, and shifted her weight to her right foot as Darcy just stared, bewildered.

"Who is it, Will?" A woman's voice called from inside, as Caroline walked up to him, standing in the doorway.

"Oh, Elizabeth," she said, trying her best to sound happy, "how wonderful it is—wait, did you walk here?"

"Biked," Lizzie corrected, gesturing to the bicycle laying haphazardly by the driveway.

"So you live close..." Caroline began, surprised that an unemployed environmentalist and a graphic designer could afford downtown LA.

Lizzie laughed at this, "Hell no, we can't afford this," she remarked, as if reading Caroline's mind, "we live near the South Park neighborhood,"

Both of their mouths fell open, "that's seven miles, if not more," Darcy said, finally able to properly articulate after being shell-shocked from Lizzie's sudden appearance.

"Yeah, well, I need to pick up Jane and I didn't have a car so..." She explained looking back at the bike, it was a piece of junk. Lizzie had discovered on the way to Charlie's extraordinarily nice townhouse, that the bike's gears were broken, so she was perpetually stuck in fifth gear. In addition to the gears, the seat was loose and the handlebars were twisted.

Caroline was still recovering from her own shock, she couldn't imagine ride a bike that wasn't in her spin class, when Charlie decided to join them.

"What is taking you two so long?" He asked, seeing the person standing on the front porch, "Oh, hey, Lizzie, Jane is still sleeping her hangover off,"

"Oh," her shoulders sunk.

"I mean, you can join us while you wait," he offered politely. Caroline and Darcy looked at Charlie in equal surprise and disapproval.

"Uh, okay," she said cautiously, "if you're sure I'm not bothering you,"

"No, of course not," Charlie gently pushed Darcy and Caroline out of the door so Lizzie could walk in.

"Your place is amazing," she observed, walking from the foyer into the kitchen. The room was large and was connected to the living room. Everything seemed new and expensive. Lizzie felt like a child going into a glassware store, and being told continuously by her parents not to touch anything so she wouldn't break it.

Charlie shrugged, "It's alright, I guess,"

"Are you two normally here?" Lizzie asked suddenly, turning to Darcy and Caroline who were trailing behind them.

"My house is also downtown, but I'm having renovations done," Caroline replied coolly, "so I'm staying with Charlie until they're done."

Lizzie nodded, "Oh, yeah, Jane told me that," she looked at Darcy.

He coughed, "Yeah, I live out in San Clemente, but my job in here in the city, so I usually stay with Charlie," he tried his best to not seem nervous in front of her.

He wasn't quite sure why he felt nervous in front of Lizzie Bennet, but something about her general existence made him feel like he was a teenager all over again.

"Interesting," she told Darcy, they both felt like it wasn't very true, "Sorry, do you mind if I see my sister," she added quickly, facing Charlie.

"Sure, no problem"

In the few weeks that the Darcy-Bingley party had been acquainted with the Bennet sisters, Jane and Charlie became instantly attracted to one another. They suffered through an awkward first dinner, in which they both made the humiliating mistake to bring their best friend, one of which happened to fervently dislike the other. Since then, they had been on "real" dates, where Darcy and Lizzie were not present to get into arguments.

Jane was really convinced that they would start dating, and was really happy when Caroline invited her for a "girl's night out". But she had let the stress of living on a freelance artist's salary, and the anxiety of dwindling work get to her, and had far too many shots than she should've. She couldn't quite remember what she had told Caroline, but she remembered telling her about her family's financial troubles, and how her father refused to tell Lizzie so she wouldn't worry. After that it was all a blur. Until she heard her sister's voice.

"Janey," Lizzie pleaded, "please wake up, I don't want to be stuck with these people all day,"

Jane groaned unintelligibly but Lizzie thought it sounded like, "Leave me alone,"

"C'mon," Lizzie poked her sister's shoulder, "I'll drive you home and you can hole up in your room for the rest of the day,"

Then Jane remembered.

She remembered passing out on the ground outside the club. Caroline got some strangers to help her into the backseat of her car. She remembered gaining consciousness as the strangers groped her ass while they lifted her into the car, she was too drunk to protest. She soon fell asleep in the backseat, to the sound of Caroline talking on the phone.

All of a sudden, Jane sat upright in the bed, then soon gripped her head in agony.

"Oww..." She complained, fully realizing the magnitude of her hangover, and let her body fall back onto the mattress, "Lizzie," she mustered.

"Yeah?"

"Can you get me some Advil?"

"Yeah,"

Lizzie glanced down at her watch, 10:30, she had been at Charlie's house for three hours, and Jane was nowhere close to being ready to leave. Between the pain and her extreme embarrassment, Lizzie wasn't sure she would ever be ready. Charlie offered to let her sleep it off, and Caroline left to check on her renovations. Lizzie now sat in the living room, trying to occupy herself, as Darcy sat idly in front of his computer and Charlie walked around the house doing various chores.

"Do you need any help?" Lizzie asked, desperately hoping Charlie would give her something to do while she waited.

Charlie smiled, "No, thank you, Lizzie, for offering again,"

She sunk back into the sofa, caught Darcy looking at her, then both quickly looked away. She wasn't sure why he looked at her unless it was to decide on her most obvious flaw. His presence in any situation bothered her; at the party, the dinner date with Charlie, and now. He stared at her, completely expressionless, and if it weren't for his comments at the party where they first met, she would've thought he liked her. But even the thought of Will Darcy liking her made her laugh bitterly.

Will Darcy was trying his best to look busy; he had finished his work an hour and a half ago, and decided pretending to work was better than trying at conversation with Lizzie. He flitted between articles from US Today's website, as he continually glanced at Lizzie over the top of his laptop screen. He decided he liked looking at her, but couldn't decide why. He knew that this infatuation would be short lived, and he would be glad when it was over, but at the present moment, he settled for agreeing that he maybe, perhaps, slightly, possibly had some feelings for Lizzie Bennet. However, he decided that she wouldn't know about them, and he would try to overcome them as soon as possible, but until then, he just pretended to read articles and tried to figure her out.

By the time lunch rolled around, Jane was feeling a lot better. Thanks to her sister constantly coming into her room to refill her water, she was hydrated and the advil had kicked in. She had tried to convince Charlie to let Lizzie drive her home, but he insisted they should have lunch first.

Jane didn't exactly want to do anything except go home and sleep, but she felt she should try to redeem herself in Charlie's eyes. She didn't want him to think she was the kind of girl who got drunk often. Mostly because she wasn't, and she wanted Charlie to have a good opinion of her.

Lizzie was less than happy to stay an extra hour or so at Charlie's house. She had braved nearly four hours of dead silence from Darcy, only provoked by Charlie's occasional mocking comment.

They sat on the ground around a low coffee table, with two medium sized pizzas they had ordered.

"Well, let's dig in," Charlie began to open the boxes.

Everyone was hungry enough to suspend conversation for most of the meal; too busy trying to eat their slices quickly so they could get more before the others did.

By the time that they were done, little more than five words had been spoken between the four throughout the entire duration of their meal.

"Well, we should be heading home, " Jane began, and Lizzie silently thanked her.

"Are you sure?" Charlie began, "You could stay."

"I would hate to impose, and I really need to rest before I have work tomorrow," she told him. Charlie simply nodded.

"Anyway," Lizzie interrupted, "As much as I've loved hanging out here all morning, I need to prep for some interviews tomorrow,"

They exchanged goodbyes outside, and Lizzie shoved her torn up bike in the back of Jane's beat up CRV. Darcy stayed in the living room, while Charlie stood on the porch, waving as they backed out of the driveway.

"Seriously, Will," Charlie said, entering the living room.

"What?"

"You didn't talk at all to Lizzie the entire time she was here," he sighed, "What's your problem?"

"She makes me nervous," Will told him honestly, and Charlie felt a wave of understanding wash over him.

"Oh, really," he arched one eyebrow.

"I hate him," Lizzie told Jane once they were driving back to their small apartment, "he's so-"

"Who?"

"Will Darcy," Lizzie replied, grinding her teeth together.

"Lizzie, please," Jane said with her eyes closed, "try to be nice to him; he likes you," Lizzie laughed loudly, and Jane opened her eyes in response, "No, I'm serious he always looks at you."

"That's only because he is trying to find my faults,"

"Well then, why does he smile whenever you talk,"

"Because he is sick and twisted and enjoys picking apart everything I say," Lizzie retorted, agitated from a wasted Sunday morning.

Jane smiled to herself, and closed her eyes.