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The Moments Between

Chapter 16

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

“Lizzie, is something wrong?”

Lizzie had been ruminating about Collins’s ridiculous text, and berating herself for still ruminating about Collins’s ridiculous text, but William’s voice pulled her from her reverie. “No, nothing’s wrong,” Lizzie said, giving him her best carefree smile.

“Are you certain? Because you have been mindlessly twirling the same few pieces of spaghetti for several minutes now,” William observed, looking pointedly at the hand still mindlessly twisting her fork.

“Oh. Oops. Sorry,” she replied. “Just lost in thought.” She picked up the thoroughly twisted forkful of pasta and took a bite.

William tilted his head slightly in thought, still eyeing her thoughtfully. Lizzie tried not to flinch under the scrutiny, but after a minute she broke. “What?” she asked, letting out a huff of self-conscious laughter.

“Did I do something to upset you?” William finally asked.

Lizzie stared at him in shock. “What could you possibly have done to upset me?”

“I thought perhaps you were frustrated with my interference in your video earlier,” William offered.

Lizzie grinned. “Have you seen my videos, Will? People are constantly interrupting them and getting involved. It would be a little weird for me to suddenly mind.”

“Yes, but this was a viewer question video, and I overstepped by asserting my right to ask a question when you had carefully curated a set of questions from your fans,” William argued.

Lizzie laughed at that. “‘Carefully curated’ makes it sound like a much more intensive and thoughtful process than it actually is. I genuinely answered a question about why I’ve never answered that particular viewer’s question before with a shrug. These videos aren’t exactly award-winning, hard-hitting documentary material.”

William still looked slightly concerned. “Perhaps, but it was still arrogant and selfish of me to interject a question for my own benefit rather than allowing you to address topics of interest to your viewers.”

“I think the whole website-crashing debacle from yesterday proves that anything related to you is of interest to my viewers,” Lizzie said with a grin. 

William’s face finally relaxed, the slight quirk of his lip indicating he was amused. “I suppose it does.”

“Plus, your question was a lot better than a lot of the other questions Lydia ‘carefully curated’ for me,” Lizzie added.

William frowned. “Questions about me?”

Lizzie nodded, taking another bite of her pasta. 

“What kinds of questions?”

“Very, very personal questions that I probably shouldn’t repeat in a family-friendly restaurant,” Lizzie replied.

William’s eyes widened. “Oh.” He cleared his throat, then reached for his glass of water. Lizzie couldn’t help but smile as his chin retreated slightly into his neck. “You received… intimate questions about me?”

Lizzie nodded again, still smiling slightly at her boyfriend’s adorable discomfort. “About you, about us… I’m happy to share them with you later if you wish.”

“Um, no, that’s alright,” William replied, taking another long drink of water as if he suddenly found himself in the middle of a hot, dry desert.

“Don’t worry. I didn’t answer any of them,” Lizzie assured him.

“I appreciate that,” William replied gratefully, setting his water down. “While I respect that it is your video blog and would never try to dictate its content, I would prefer to keep some aspects of our relationship private.”

“I mean, ultimately, these videos are still my thesis project,” Lizzie reminded him. “And while I’ve ended up crossing a lot of lines into far more personal territory than I intended when I started, discussing my sex life in my master’s thesis is definitely a line I will not cross.”

William gave her a small smile. “On a personal level, I am quite supportive of that boundary, but your thesis would get significantly more attention and traction if you didn’t have such a boundary.”

“Is that your professional advice, Mr. Porn Website Owner?” Lizzie teased.

William grimaced. “First thing Monday morning, I’m filing the paperwork to disband that company,” he muttered.

Lizzie smirked at him. “Do you really think that’s going to stop me?”

“I was hoping it would.”

Lizzie laughed. “Oh, Will. You’re adorable.”

William furrowed his brow. “Why doesn’t that feel like a compliment?” 

Lizzie had mostly been teasing, amused at how naïve her boyfriend was being about the whole situation. Whether he actively owned the website and company or not, it was always going to be funny to her. Now, though, he was wearing that adorably perplexed expression, the one he seemed to have whenever he was pretty sure he’d missed the joke, and Lizzie just kind of melted. She smiled softly. “I love you.”

William still had his brow furrowed in confusion, but his eyes softened. “I love you too.” Then he tilted his head slightly, as if coming to a conclusion. “You were teasing me.”

“Me? Teasing? Never,” Lizzie replied dramatically.

William’s eyes sparkled slightly with humor. “Sorry. I must have you confused with my other girlfriend.”

“She sounds like a lot of fun,” Lizzie commented benignly, though her heart was fluttering at him calling her his girlfriend. She wondered if that sensation would ever go away, or if she’d always get a little thrill from being reminded that out of all the people in the world, William Darcy had chosen her.

William shrugged. “She can be, sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” Lizzie echoed, feigning offense. “Just for that, I’m not going to take you to my favorite bakery to get cupcakes before we go home.”

William gave her a small grin. “That sounds more like a punishment for yourself than me.”

“Damn. You’re right.” Lizzie had known since spending time with William and Gigi at Pemberley that she had more of a sweet tooth than both Darcy siblings combined. “I really didn’t think that through.”

Lizzie expected William to come up with some witty retort, but he just silently reached out his hand to touch hers on the table. “I like the sound of that,” he finally said softly.

“The sound of what?” Lizzie asked, watching his long fingers as they traced gentle patterns on the back of her hand.

“Home,” William said, his gaze still fixated on their joined hands.

A warm sensation settled in Lizzie’s stomach at his sweet sincerity. Somewhere in the back of her brain, a skeptical part of her reminded her that they had been dating for less than a week, and it was far too early to be talking about things like this. It should probably scare her a little, the intensity of his feelings for her and his certainty about the future of their relationship.

Luckily, the skeptical part of her brain was drowned out by the gooey mush that had flooded the remainder of her thought processes, so instead she smiled at her boyfriend and said, “Well, then. Let’s go home.”

*****

William looked over at Lizzie, curled up on the loveseat in his makeshift office at Netherfield, her head nodding slightly along with the music coming through her headphones while she worked. They’d both slept in slightly late this morning, since Lizzie had stayed up late to edit her Q&A video and William hadn’t wanted to go to bed without her. She’d seemed a little distant yesterday evening, getting lost in thought more frequently than she usually did. He’d tried asking if anything was bothering her, but she kept insisting it was nothing. 

Despite her reassurance, William still felt uneasy. So far this morning, she’d seemed a lot more subdued than usual, less radiant and ebullient than the Lizzie he’d come to know. At brunch, she hadn’t teased him at all, even when he’d made a comment about the coffee that even he recognized as being a bit snobby and pretentious. When they’d gotten home, she’d immediately gone to retrieve her laptop, so he assumed she wanted to do some work without being disturbed. He had been slightly surprised when she’d settled into the office with him, though. He didn’t mind at all, but he thought maybe she had realized they were moving too quickly and needed space. Apparently that wasn’t the case if she’d intentionally sought out his company.

Part of him wondered if he was just projecting his own tension and anxiety on to her. While he’d been able to shift meetings and delegate a lot of his responsibilities this week, he knew he had to get back to Pemberley soon. They had a couple of big projects ramping up over the next few weeks, and there would inevitably be unexpected issues that arose. William always tried to minimize his travel at the beginning phases of new projects, because he preferred to be on-site to decide on changes and adjustments that might need to be made. It was a lot easier to field questions or provide input when he could just walk down to the relevant department and talk to the team directly instead of trying to set up video conferences and remote demonstrations. As much as he was enjoying his time with Lizzie, he had an obligation to his employees and his investors, and he needed to get back to his office.

The problem was, he wasn’t sure how to broach the topic with Lizzie. While they’d made a lot of strides in their relationship over the past five and a half days, they hadn’t really talked about what happened next. Both of them were intelligent enough to realize that they couldn’t just keep hiding out at Netherfield indefinitely, but he was pretty sure they were equally reluctant to burst the cozy bubble they’d been living in since Sunday. He was a little concerned that as soon as reality intruded, Lizzie would realize she had far more important things in her life than William Darcy. She was about to graduate, and the world was full of opportunities for someone as intelligent, creative, motivated, and amazing as Lizzie Bennet.

Selfishly, the only opportunity he wanted her to consider was working at Pemberley. He knew she had enjoyed her time there, and everyone at Pemberley had loved her. Her temporary supervisors had given her glowing reviews, and she’d provided some interesting ideas on some ongoing projects. She would bring a fresh new perspective to the company, and Pemberley had the resources to make almost anything she could imagine into a reality. Plus, he’d get to see her every single day, work with her all the time, be inspired by her constantly. She would obviously have to move to San Francisco, and maybe he could even convince her to move in with him.

However, William also knew she was going to receive plenty of other offers. Her web series had been an impressive success, and she’d already started making a name for herself in the digital media world. If she wanted to work for one of his competitors, he would be nothing but supportive. He certainly didn’t want to hold her back. She would do great things no matter where she worked.

Unfortunately, his competitors weren’t all based in San Francisco. Many of them weren’t even in California. While he was willing to do anything necessary to keep Lizzie Bennet in his life, he knew long-distance relationships could be difficult, and not everyone was interested in that kind of life. With his substantial financial resources, he was in a better position than most to be able to sustain a long-distance relationship. He could afford to fly across the country on a regular basis if that’s what it took. The problem was schedule logistics. William still was the CEO of a major company, and he had responsibilities that would prevent him from being away all the time. Lizzie would likely be incredibly busy at whatever job she took, working hard to prove herself. Even if he committed to visiting her regularly, there would be no guarantee she’d have the time to spend with him. How could they sustain a relationship if they couldn’t get any time together?

Realizing he was spiraling unproductively into a chasm of worst-case scenarios, William forced himself to take a few deep breaths. He could speculate indefinitely, but until he talked to Lizzie, he wouldn’t get anywhere. He needed to bite the bullet and broach the conversation.

Across the room, Lizzie glanced up from her laptop and caught him looking at her. She smiled and blew him a kiss, then went back to her work. The silly little moment caused a warm feeling to fill his chest, and with it came the certainty that Lizzie Bennet was it for him. She was the woman he would always love, no matter what happened. He would do anything in his power to make her happy, even if that meant sacrificing his own happiness. Whatever she wanted in the future, he would oblige. He loved her too much to do anything else.

He just really, really hoped that one of the things she wanted was him.

Notes:

Hey, everyone - I'm still alive, and so is this fic. I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update. Between life/adulting and some writer's block, this chapter has been giving me some grief. I'm still not sure I love how it turned out, but... it's a chapter, and that's something.

I can't guarantee a time frame for more updates, but just know that they will be coming. Eventually. Sporadically. Thanks for your patience and your continued support!