Gentle Reader,

Second part of "Face to Face," two part chapter sponsored by Corona Virus. Hope you're in the mood for some more Darcy angst. (This is the part where the restaurant comes in.)

Stay safe, stay healthy, and please comment, I love them.

Love,

RobinDesBois

Within an hour of returning home, they were asleep together on the couch with the television playing Sleeping Beauty in the background. He insisted she rest, she insisted he rest, and he insisted she pick the movie they were going to watch. Still feeling the effects of the medication, she picked something she thought would be easy to follow, and they were both asleep before Aurora and Philip even met.

When he woke up first, he stretched and felt her shift beside him and nuzzle her face into his chest. He placed a light kiss on top of her head and checked his watch. Six o'clock. They had napped for four hours, and clearly they had needed it. He tilted Lizzie's chin up and gently ran his fingers across her cheek.

"Hey, there, sweetheart. How are you feeling?"

"Mmmm," she moaned as she buried her face deeper into his chest.

"Lizzie, you've got to wake up, or you won't be able to sleep tonight. What sounds good for dinner?"

"Ugh, you'll think I'm crazy."

"I mean, yeah, maybe. But I wouldn't stop loving you."

"Ok, then. I could really go for Italian right now. I know we had it the last two days, but it just sounds really good right now."

"I can make that happen. But no wine with it tonight, the meds they have you on aren't supposed to be mixed with alcohol."

"I can live with that. Does our Italian place deliver?"

"No, but they do carry out. I would have to leave you here alone to go get it, though." Lizzie looked up at him through her eyelashes and bit her lip, knowing he never said 'no' to anything she asked him when she used that expression.

"Italian it is. What would you like?" He called in their order, got her an additional Vicodin, made sure she didn't need anything else right then, and extracted a promise from her not to leave the couch until he returned.

Lizzie thought he was being a little overprotective, but she couldn't say she minded.

William was waiting for their food at the bar when George Wickham walked through the door.

"Hello, Darcy. Or is it Darvid now?"

"What are you doing here, George?"

"Am I not allowed to be in a public space? I happen to have good memories here, thank you very much." Darcy rolled his eyes and turned back to the bar to see if his order might be coming.

Perhaps if George had been aware of the stress William had been experiencing since the afternoon before, or how he'd only made up a small amount of the sleep he'd missed the night before, or how badly Darcy needed to work out his anger at himself for letting Lizzie fall, he wouldn't have said the next thing that came out of his mouth.

"This is one of your sister's favorite places, you know," George goaded, and Willim heard the smirk in his voice. "I took her here several times. And she was very generous with her gratitude, if you know what I mean." George would never say that he hadn't seen William's fist coming, but he had to privately admit that the man was fast.

Strong, too. George fell backwards with a crash, knocking over a chair and only just missing a table. He was back on his feet quickly, spitting a bit of blood from his mouth, and tackling William to the ground. The two men only had a few seconds to express years of dislike before two large waiters pulled them apart.

"Gentlemen," Darcy recognized the owner's voice. "What happened here?"

"He attacked me!" Wicham lied smoothly. "I was just standing here, and he sucker punched me. I could sue all of you."

"I did punch him, Antone," Darcy admitted without breaking eye contact with George, "But he insulted Gigi. I will be happy to pay the cost of any damages to your property."

"What about my face!" George interjected.

"What of it? Put some ice on it and suck it up. Jimmy," Antone addressed the waiter restraining George, "This young man isn't welcome here ever again. Have Rosie take his photo to pass around to the staff and remove him at once. Tony, let William go."

Jimmy pulled George towards Antone's wife, who was getting out the camera, and turning back to William, the older man continued, "William, the Darcys have been family friends for years. No one insults Miss Georgiana here. But I do expect you to behave better next time you're here, and I think your parents would agree. Fortunately, I think you boys only broke one chair, but you're both lucky no one got hurt worse."

"I realize that now. How much was the chair? I can write you a check right now."

"Fixing all your problems with money again, Darcy?" Georgre laughed. "Is that how you got Lizzie, too? Tell me, how does it feel to have my leftovers?"

This time Antone personally grabbed both of William's arms as the younger man started to take a step towards George.

"Let Jimmy take him out and let's have a talk." This was clearly not a request, since Antone did not release William's arm, but rather pulled him along into a back office.

"Now. What happened?"

"I told you, he insulted Gigi."

"Not with the fight, to you. You're usually so calm and collected, you've been that way since you were five years old. Does it have something to do with the pretty redhead you've been bringing in from time to time?"

"It has everything to do with her," William sighed.

"Did she cheat on you or something? I've never seen you snap like that."

"No, no, Lizzie would never. She loves me, as unbelievable as that sounds. And I love her. That's the problem, I didn't protect her well enough, she fell, she hit her head, she…" William tried to keep his emotions in check in front of the man he respected so much, but the last twenty four hours were hitting him harder than George ever could've. He took a deep breath and continued.

"After we left here yesterday, we went to the Queen Wilhelmina garden. She was taking photos, she was standing on a bench. I said her name, she turned around, she fell. She's at our place right now, with her broken ankle elevated and a severe concussion. I got her attention because I was trying to propose, and she ended up in the emergency room. And the last time I tried to propose Gigi and Fitz showed up and crashed it. And maybe I'm not meant to propose, maybe I'm not meant to be happy, maybe it's a sign, maybe…."

"Maybe on your way home today you'll trip on a sidewalk crack and fall through a manhole into another dimension and never be able to return. Listen, kid. You love this girl?"

"More than anything."

"Then don't worry. When the time is right, the time is right. But give her time to heal, she's going to want nice photos where she's not wearing a cast. Hey, I think Tony's got your food. Listen, William, I like you, kid, but you can't swing a punch at a guy in here, it's bad for business. And I'll let you know how much getting that chair replaced." Antone reached out his hand to the younger man

"Thank you. For the advice and for everything." William shook his hand, smiling, then flinching, realizing the ache he felt meant there was probably a black eye coming on.