Fitzwilliam, Pride and Prejudice Fanfiction
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Fitzwilliam/Fitzwilliam ~ Section IBy Judy-Lynne Section I, Part 1 Somewhere in New York's Tribeca district: "What the...? Who the heck has been in my office?" Charles Bingley heard the shouts from down the hall and quickly told his client that he'd have to call him back. He hung up the phone and headed for the office of Elizabeth Bennet. When he reached the door he was nearly hit by a flying soda can. "Just what has been going on here, Charles? I'm away just from the office for just three days--" Charles reached out and took the empty pizza box from the irate woman's hands. "I'm sorry, Lizzy. I meant to have this all cleaned up before you got back," he began sheepishly. "What are you doing here anyway? You weren't due back until next week!" "So you thought it would be okay to throw a frat party in here while I was out of town?" Lizzy sneered as she waded through the litter of crumpled papers, napkins, small plastic bags and other items apparently discarded on the floor. She reached her desk and sat down in her chair. "Just look at this mess!" "We had a major crash the night before last, you know, when that big thunderstorm hit...no, you were away. Well, there was a big thunderstorm Tuesday night. Our entire system crashed. Everything was basically wiped out in one massive power surge. We were totally offline for a day," Charles assayed, but he stopped when his eyes meet Lizzy's. She was staring at him coldly. "So since you couldn't get any work done, you decided to host a party?" She said as she picked up a half-eaten slice of pizza and tossed it into her wastebasket, which was already full of soda cans, and other food-related refuse. "No, no...it wasn't like that at all. I called in a friend of mine. His company repairs, maintains, and provides security for computer systems. He came in with another friend of mine and we pulled an all-nighter us to get back online." Lizzy didn't respond. "We did kind of use your office...you see, yours was the only computer that didn't crash." "How is that possible?" Lizzy asked, crossing her arms and glaring at Charles. Bingley removed a box of computer cables from a chair and sat down. "It was possible because, in your wonderfully anal-retentive adherence to the dictates of pessimism, you had the foresight to unplug your computer before you went on vacation. Anything that had been left on or plugged in bought the farm. Yours was the only one we could work from to restore the system." Lizzy sighed. "Didn't we invest big time last summer for surge protection?" she asked. Charles nodded. "It held for a while, but the system eventually crashed anyway. I have a call in to our insurance agents about it. I think we can get restitution. In the meanwhile, Fitz and his people have reconstructed the network and have installed a new backup system so--." "A new backup system? What a concept. I wonder why I didn't think of that?" Lizzy sneered, and Charles reddened, knowing that she had been after him to upgrade their backup system for some time. But the company was just starting out and he had been willing to take some risks in order to get the small Internet-based company off the ground. "Look," Charles said, rising. "I'm sorry about the mess. We weren't expecting you back until next week. Everyone was too exhausted to clean up on Wednesday. I told them not to worry about it, but Fitz promised to come back this morning and clean up everything this afternoon. Why don't you just go home and come back next week and everything will be just as you left it?" Charles suggested sweetly. "I only came in to pick up something I want to work on over the weekend. I'll just get it and be on my merry way. But you tell your friend Fitz that when I come back next week I want to find my office just as I left it. Not one thing out of place, you understand?" she said threateningly. Charles smiled and quickly left. He had just reached his own office when he heard Lizzy scream once more. "My hard drive! That @#$%$# took my hard drive!" Charles ran back to Lizzy's door. "Oh, uh, yes...he said it would be easier to copy the network files from your drive into the backup system from the set up at his offices. He'll bring it back today," Charles said warily. "You let him take my hard drive to make copies? I have personal things on it, for heaven's sake!" Lizzy was nearly hysterical. The very files she had come to reclaim were now in the hands of a complete stranger. And who knows how many others would have access to them before the day was out? "No, no, Lizzy," Charles replied quickly, attempting to calm his frantic associate. "He'll only make copies of relevant network-related files. He promised not to touch anything else." Lizzy threw herself in her chair. She was not completely satisfied. Even if the files weren't published to others, she didn't like the idea of their being in the possession of another. Suppose he read them? The thought made her queasy. "Listen, Charles. You tell that pizza-eating, computer geek slob pal of yours that if he so much as touches one thing that doesn't belong to the company, I'll--." "Don't worry, Liz. I've known Fitz since college and I can vouch for him. He'll respect your privacy. You have my personal guarantee." With that, he offered to go and call his friend to ascertain what time he would arrive with the hard drive, leaving Lizzy alone to think. After a few minutes spent getting her temper under control, she left word with the receptionist that she was leaving and would be back later in the afternoon. She wandered out into the street and tried to put all thoughts of her office out of her mind. She spent the next two hours gallery hopping in Soho. "So she was mad?" asked Fitzwilliam Darcy as he pulled onto the side street that led to Charles's office. "Mad? Fitz, if looks could kill, you'd be making your delivery to a mortuary," Charles replied. William laughed at the remark and cast a quick glance at the box on the passenger seat next to him. "So why isn't Fitz with you? "I left him back at the office crunching numbers for the quarterly report. Don't worry, Charles, I can reinstall a hard drive without his supervision." "I hope so. If you botch the job you'll have Elizabeth Bennet to answer to, and I think I'd rather face a school of starving piranhas before I'd confront her again, as angry as she was this morning." "Look, I'm about a block away. I'll be there in a minute," he said before he reached over and shut off the speakerphone. A few minutes later William sat in Charles's office, the box containing Lizzy's hard drive in his lap. "I thought you said that she had left the country-Aruba, wasn't it?" "Yeah, she and Jane left on Saturday," Charles replied as he sorted through the stack of papers William had handed him upon his arrival. "Our Jane?" William asked. "Yeah. She and Lizzy are sisters. Didn't you know that?" William shook his head. "I knew Jane had a sister named Elizabeth, I knew you had a partner named Elizabeth Bennet, but I guess I never made the connection." "How do you think I met Jane? Hey, I wonder why Lizzy's back early?" Charles mused. "Could it possibly have something to do with the fact that the same hurricane that wrought havoc on your offices on Tuesday had previously made landfall in the Caribbean on Sunday morning?" William asked as he rose and headed for Lizzy's office. Charles stared into space for a moment. "Oh, dear lord," he cried suddenly. "I'd better call Jane!" William slipped into Lizzy's office and quickly reinstalled the hard drive. He switched the computer on and turned his attention to the office as he waited for it to boot up. He spied a picture of Jane on the bookshelf and picked it up. "Jane's sister, eh? Too bad...I could never really warm up to a blond...." William returned the picture to its place on the dusty shelf and went back to the computer. After a few minutes, during which he ascertained that everything was in working order, William stared at the screen for a minute. Then he smiled and clicked on the "W" icon and opened a file. "Charles, where do you keep your cleaning supplies?" William called from Charles's doorway a bit later. "Cleaning supplies?" Charles laughed. "There's no need to disinfect the place, Fitz. It isn't that dirty." "Look, do you have anything or not?" Will asked with a hint of exasperation in his voice. "I haven't the foggiest! We have someone come in to clean the offices. I have no idea what she uses," Charles responded. William shook his head and strode out of the office. When Lizzy returned to her office an hour later, she was stunned. Her office was cleaner than she could ever remember. She did not pause to wonder at it, however. She went to her computer and switched it on, kissing her fingertips first to give a silent welcome to her restored hard drive. Charles, on his way out, stopped by her door when he noticed that her light was on. "I'm on my way to see Jane. Can I give you a lift home?" Liz blushed furiously as she spun around, inexplicably guilty at being caught running her system through a number of utilities programs to make certain that her files were all intact and uncorrupted. "If you don't mind waiting a minute, yeah. I just need to download a few files to a disk then I'm out of here." Charles readily agreed to wait and sat down as Lizzy quickly scanned the icons that appeared on the screen. All appeared to be in order. She clicked on a folder and began to download. As the computer began to transfer files from the folder onto her disk, Lizzy noticed a file icon with a name she didn't recognize. "What's this? Did you put this here, Charles?" Charles leaned over the desk and squinted. "Nope. That's not mine. I haven't used your computer." Liz felt herself grow slightly annoyed once more. "What's your friend's e-mail address?" Charles rose and took her place at the desk. As he fired off a quick note to accompany the attached file, Liz looked around the room. She wandered over to Jane's picture. "All done!" Charles declared and closed the e-mail program. "He dusted!" Liz murmured. "Should I shut it down?" "He dusted?" She stared at her unsoiled finger. Charles came up behind her. "Shall we be off?" Liz showed him her finger. "He dusted!" she smiled. Charles chuckled as he reached for the light switch on the way out. Way to go Fitzwilliam! You really know how to make an impression on a lady. "Wow!" Liz exclaimed as Charles led her to his car. Somewhere in Brooklyn Heights: "Something smells really, really good!" Charles murmured as he and Lizzy entered the apartment she shared with her sister. "Jane?" Liz called out. "Up here," Jane answered from her bedroom. A moment later, Jane Liz poked her head in. Jane was dabbing at her eyes, having just put in her contact lenses. "I brought Charles home with me," Liz smiled. "But he's apparently more interested in being reunited with your chicken than in being reunited with you," Lizzy teased. Jane sighed and shook her head. "Doesn't it scare you every now and then when you realize that, once in a while, that grandmother was right about men?" Jane said as she headed for the kitchen. Lizzy laughed as she headed for her room. "Hey! Do I have time to take a shower before dinner?" she called down to Jane. "Not if I have anything to say about it!" Charles called back. Jane put her arms around his neck and drew him close. "Well...you can have five minutes, but not one second more." Uptown, 53rd and Broadway: The following morning, William Darcy checked his e-mail. He clicked on the message bearing the name "Elizabeth Bennet" as the sender, but the note he found there came from Charles. "Charles, what did you do?" he said to himself after he read the note. He clicked on the button marked "Forward," and sent the file back to Lizzy. An hour later, he found a returned mail notification. He picked up the phone and dialed Charles's number. "Cherry Blossom Web Design. Charles Bingley speaking." "Do you always answer your own phone?" William asked dryly. "I do when I am the only one in. No one else is ever here before nine except me or Liz, and she's still on vacation," Charles replied. William was silent for a moment. "Charles, I thought you told me you were going to change the name of your company." "I was, Fitz. But Caroline won't let me." William winced, knowing that he was going to regret asking, but curiosity outweighed his better judgment. "What do you mean she won't 'let' you?" "Well, you know she put up nearly half the money to start up the company." "Yeah, so?" William prodded. "I put up forty percent and Lizzy put up the rest. We jointly own about fifty-five percent of the company but Caroline actually has a controlling interest because at the last minute I couldn't liquidate enough assets to launch the firm. Anyway, Liz and I came up with the name Cherry Web Design--you know, a play on Bingley and 'Bing" cherry--and she created a great cherry logo. It was perfect. She designed the whole corporate image: letterhead, business cards, graphics package--everything. But Caroline nixed it. She insisted that fruit wasn't sophisticated enough for a corporate identity and that cherry blossoms were much classier. We tried to reason with her, but I was too desperate for her cash to put up much of a fight." William groaned. "I don't suppose she has ever heard of Apple Computers?" "Lizzy brought that up, but she completely discarded that as an aberration. Anyway, the good news is that she has taken a completely hands-off position with the company. Other than insisting on the name, she has left us completely alone." "Really? I find that surprising," William said. It wasn't at all like Caroline not to exert any potential influence to her own advantage. "Well, there are a few things that can account for it. First of all, Caroline doesn't know the first thing about web page design. And since we have been very successful thus far, she has been content to just stay away and ogle her growing bank account." "You've been paying out to her? Don't you think that you should be plowing your early profits back into the company?" William asked. "We are, Liz and I. But our goal is to rid ourselves of Caroline as soon as possible. Our plan is to reduce her to minority partnership status by the end of the year. If all goes well we can eventually buy her out." "I cannot say that I blame you, Charles," William said. "Hey, you interrupted list of my reasons why Caroline is not a problem. Number two: Caroline has a shrewd head for investments, but she thinks that tech companies are too 'nouveau riche' to actually be physically involved in." William groaned again. Just thinking about the machinations of Caroline's mind made his head ache. "And finally, number three, and believe me, I've left the best for last: Caroline is afraid of Lizzy." "Afraid?" "Yeah! You have got to see it for yourself. I don't know how she did it, but one day, when Liz and I were revising our business plan, Caroline came by and was making a nuisance of herself. I left the two of them alone in Lizzy's office for about ten minutes and when I returned, Caroline was as docile as a lamb. She never gave us a minute of trouble after that." "Really! I have to meet this Lizzy Bennet!" She's sounding more interesting by the minute, even if she is a blond. "And did she ever reveal her methods?" "You'll have to ask her yourself when you meet her; she won't tell me and I've given up trying to figure it out," Charles sighed. "I may just have to do that. Speaking of Bennets, is Jane okay?" "Oh, yes. It seems that they arrived in Aruba just in time for the storm warnings. They immediately flew back to the states, but they were forced down in Miami, due to bad weather. They rode out the storm there in a hotel room that they had to share with two other girls, no phone, and no room service. It apparently turned into quite an ordeal. They finally made it back to New York late Wednesday night." Charles shifted the phone to his other ear. "By the way, why did you call?" "Oh. I was wondering if your system had gone down again. I sent a file over there yesterday and it came back." Charles turned to his computer and scanned his e-mail. "No, everything's been okay around here, but you're right--I didn't get anything from you yesterday." "I didn't send you anything. I mailed a file to Lizzy Bennet, the same one you sent to my office the other day. Why did you do that, by the way?" William asked. "We thought it was yours. Lizzy didn't recognize it, so we assumed that something of yours was left on her hard drive by mistake." "It wasn't a mistake. I just left her a brief apology for messing up her office." "You needn't have apologized, Fitz. I already claimed responsibility, and after all, it was Fitz and I who started throwing things back and forth like a pair of schoolboys. By the way, Lizzy was very impressed with your cleaning skills," added smiling at the memory of her reaction. "Well, I'm glad someone appreciates them. You and Fitz would drown in your own filth before you noticed anything was out of place," William exclaimed with asperity. "I won't even try to argue with you on that one, Fitz," Charles laughed. "Look, I don't know why Lizzy didn't get your e-mail, but why don't you just resend it? She's due back on Monday, but if I know Liz, she'll probably make an appearance during the day." "Maybe I'll do that," William said thoughtfully. He hung up and stared at the computer screen. No sooner had Charles hung up the phone than the lady under discussion arrived at the office. "Hi, Liz. We were just discussing you." Liz stopped in her tracks and turned to him. "Who's we?" she asked suspiciously. "My friend Fitz and I. I was telling him how impressed you were with his cleaning skills," said Charles. "Oh really?" Liz replied indifferently. She headed for her office and turned on her computer as Charles stopped in her doorway. "What are you doing here, anyway?" Lizzy turned and eyed Charles. "And to think I actually believed you last night when you claimed to have missed me," she smirked. Charles rolled his eyes and left Lizzy to herself. She checked her e-mail and found a file with a suspicious subject line. "Re: Your unpleasant surprise." "No thank you. I don't need any viruses today." Liz deleted the file and looked through the rest of the e-mail. "Lizzy! What are you doing here? I thought you'd be in Aruba...oh, that's right...the hurricane. Are you and Jane all right?" Liz smiled as Charlotte Lucas came in and gave her a warm hug. Charlotte fetched coffee for both of them and sat down to listen as Lizzy regaled her with the tale of her aborted vacation. "Oh, that's so awful. But at least you and Jane are okay." "Aren't you glad we didn't succeed in talking you into coming with us? You would have had a miserable time of it as well," Liz concluded. "And then, of course, I came in here yesterday morning and my office looked as though the hurricane had struck here, too..." "It did, sort of. Well, we had a flood, and there was a mess everywhere. We managed to clean up everything, but then the system crashed. I lost two days of work on the McAllister web page." Charlotte sighed. "And then out of the blue, these friends of Charles's showed up to help him out and we were back online in about twelve hours. They were even able to recover some of my work." "And they used my office for a playpen," Liz said sarcastically. "Well, we did kind of use it as a 'war room.'" "Don't you mean 'wreck room'?" Lizzy quipped. Charlotte looked a bit guilty. "But it's all cleaned up now, isn't it?" "Are you kidding, Char? This place never looked so good!" Lizzy laughed." If I had known that he would do such a good job of neatening up, I would have left my file cabinets open for you guys to make a mess in, too." Charlotte and Lizzy shared a brief laugh. "Who's 'he'?" Charlotte asked. "Fitz, or something like that. Charles's computer-geek friend," Liz replied before she drained her cup. Charlotte leaned forward conspiratorially. "Listen Lizzy, Fitz is no geek. In fact, both he and his partner were so gorgeous that even 'Leave-early Lisa' stayed till nine o'clock to help out." "Really?" asked Lizzy, somewhat impressed. She adopted Charlotte's conspiratorial tone. "And what time did you leave?" she teased. "Ten a.m. the following day. You know how loyal I am to Cherry Blossom," she said expressively. "Uh huh," Lizzy smirked. She glanced at her carpet. "So should I assume that the vast majority of those drool stains are yours? Or did these two gorgeous men do any drooling back?" "Oh, I don't know. I was so unnerved by their presence that it was all I could do to concentrate on my work." "I see. I don't suppose that there is any possibility that these two business partners are life partners as well, is there?" "Oh, Lizzy, the gods could never be so cruel! No," Charlotte declared dramatically. I don't want to even consider that possibility." "Well, it would be just my luck that two gorgeous, heterosexual, available men--they were available, weren't they?" Charlotte shrugged. "Anyway, it just figures that I'd be stuck in some storm-battered hotel a thousand miles away when they showed up." Charlotte went to her office, but Lizzy remained pensive for some time. She sighed and shook off her funk and turned her attention to catching up on her work. A few hours later she was disturbed by a call of "knock, knock" from the doorway. Lizzy looked up. "Oh, Jane. Is it noon already?" "No," Jane replied as she came in. "I'm a bit early. Are you really busy?" "Nah. I'm just catching up with my correspondence and checking the status of some of my projects. How were things at Bloomingdale's?" "It was a very successful outing. I got a great party dress on sale." "Good!" cried Lizzy. "All you need now is a party to wear it to. But I suppose Charles will be happy to provide you with an occasion." "I'm rather counting on that. He did mention something about a surprise party for an old college buddy of his this weekend, so maybe I'll get to wear it then." At that moment, Charles stopped in. "I thought I heard the voice of an angel," he said, bending to kiss Jane. "Are you ladies going to lunch?" "Just as soon as I print out this memorandum." Lizzy replied without turning around. "Would you care to join us, as if I needed to ask?" Charles smiled and claimed a seat beside Jane. "Well, I was just on my way out to grab a sandwich, but if you two insist..." Lizzy rolled her eyes and turned back to the screen. "Oh, by the way, Lizzy. Did you get an e-mail from Fitz today?" "Unh uh," Lizzy replied as she closed the e-mail program, and reached into her desk for her purse. "Why should he be e-mailing Lizzy?" Jane asked. "He said he left a note for her the other day after he fixed her hard drive but we sent it back, thinking that he'd accidentally left it on her computer. So he sent it back to her this morning," Charles explained. "Well, I didn't see anything..." Lizzy briefly thought back to the file she'd deleted earlier, but decided that it could not have been what Charles was speaking of. "I didn't know he'd even met her," Jane persisted. "He hasn't," Charles explained as the trio headed to a local diner. "But he used her office the other day and left her a note as a simple courtesy." "Hmmm...likes to clean, gorgeous, and knows something about etiquette. When do I get to meet this paragon of manhood?" Lizzy teased. Charles held the door open for Lizzy as he exchanged a significant glance with Jane. "What are you doing tomorrow night, Lizzy?" the couple asked in unison. When the recipient of the surprise party was introduced to Lizzy, the shock of the surprise was still recent enough there was still a sparkle of amusement in his eyes and a rosy bloom in his cheeks. He was tall, well formed, and extremely handsome, and he was possessed of a smile so engaging that it was all Lizzy could do not to lick her lips. Charles made the introduction. "So, you're the neat freak?" she said. "That's the first time I have ever been called that!" Richard Fitzwilliam laughed delightedly. "Well, let's just say I was very impressed with the state in which you left my office," Lizzy smiled. Charles quickly explained. "You became intimately acquainted with Lizzy's office this week while you were repairing our system." Both Richard and Lizzy blushed, Lizzy at the use of the words "intimately acquainted" and Richard at the thought of the embarrassing mess he'd left behind. Word had gotten back to him from his cousin about Lizzy's reaction on finding her office in a mess Thursday morning. Richard took comfort in the fact that she seemed to have regained her sense of humor about it, however, eager to distract her from whatever her initial impression of him might be, he quickly changed the subject, and led her to the dance floor. "I thought you were trying to set her up with William," Jane commented when they were out of earshot. "That was my plan, yes, but he doesn't appear to be here," Charles said with a glance at his watch and a quick scan of the room. "Fitz took Georgiana to the airport this evening. Maybe they got held up by the bad weather." "I am beginning to wonder if it will ever stop raining," Jane sighed. "Well, if William doesn't get here soon, Richard will have Lizzy eating out of his hand before he even has a chance with her. She looks like she's having an awfully good time with him." "Well, Fitz's loss is Fitz's gain," Charles quipped as he led Jane to the refreshment table. "What is that supposed to mean?" "Well, one Fitz is as good as another, isn't it? I thought that the main idea was to set Lizzy up with someone..." "And I thought the 'someone' you had in mind was Fitzwilliam Darcy," Jane challenged. "Well, as long as Lizzy doesn't seem to mind, why should we?" "There you are, Richard," William said when the president of the fledgling tech support firm showed up in his office. He had already made himself comfortable in a commodious leather chair, and was reading an article on the company in a computer magazine. His well-tailored suit contrasted sharply with Richard's business casual attire. "I wanted to apologize about missing your party, but Gee's plane didn't take off until 10:58 and then I got stuck in traffic back to the city. By the time I got out of the tunnel I was completely wiped out. I called you yesterday but--." "You know my prohibition about returning phone calls on Sunday. I figured you had a good reason for not coming, although I'm glad Charles went with an alternative plan for getting me out of the way or I'd have missed the party, too." "Yes, I was a little worried about the weather holding up the flight so I talked him into taking you to a movie instead," William said, as he casually flipped through the magazine. "It would have been awful if the guest of honor missed his own birthday party." "Well, you missed out, Fitz. It was awesome. I even met a very interesting lady," Richard said slyly. "Don't you always?" William quipped back. Richard stuck out his tongue. William noticed it but refused to take the bait. "So, what brings you down to the fifteenth floor?" he asked. "Just checking up on my investment. How's business?" "Just great. In fact, Mister CEO, we're ahead of our quarterly projections. Danielle's just completed the quarterly; let me go get a copy of it for you." Richard rose and strode out of the office, leaving William to his reading. Richard's phone rang and after a moment, William picked it up. "Fitzwilliam/Fitzwilliam." "Hi, Fitz," said a feminine voice that brimmed with laughter. "Who is this?" a surprised William asked. No one but Charles or Richard ever called him that at the office, but then he remembered that he was in his cousin's office, not his own. "How soon they forget!" Lizzy teased. "I'll refresh your memory: Saturday night, a party. You gave me your card and insisted that I make the first call? I believe your exact words were, 'Call me on Monday and invite me to lunch.' I bet you didn't really expect me to take you up on your suggestion, did you?" William shook his head. Richard came back in and tossed the report on William's lap. "Would you hold on a minute?" William handed the telephone receiver to Richard. "Someone you met at the party?" Richard smiled and took the phone as William rose and made for the door. "Why don't I discuss this with Danielle? I'll speak with you later." Richard nodded, then turned his attention to his call. "Hello." "Now, you sound better." "Really? Better than what?" Richard asked sweetly. "Better than you did before. Has your memory returned?" "Did I lose my memory?" Richard laughed. "Tell me all about it. I forgot." Lizzy laughed at him and offered a formal invitation to lunch. The two chatted briefly before Richard excused himself and joined William in the chief financial officer's office. When they were done, the two men headed back down the hall. "So, Fitzwilliam/Fitzwilliam is, by all accounts, doing quite well," said the satisfied CEO. "Don't sound so surprised, Fitz. With my technical knowledge and your business sense, success was a foregone conclusion," Richard countered. "Your technical knowledge? Give me a little credit, cousin. Who helped you out last week when Charles's computers went down? And who cleaned up after you?" Richard conceded. ...
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