Chapter Text
After spending her Sunday procrastinating whilst binge watching Call the Midwife; she realized, when she was preparing for bed, that she felt a little nervous. Nervous to go into work, how would Darcy act? How would she act? How should she act? It would probably be awkward. She didn't handle awkward situations well. To the outside world she tried to maintain the image of an accomplished, put-together woman, but in reality she didn't cope well with these sort of things. Internally screaming was the way she dealt with stuff. This included her mother, frustrating clients and awkwardness in general. She lay awake for a while but decided not to worry about it. They might become friendlier at work but it was much more probable that everything stayed just the way it was.
The next morning she applied her foundation with a little more care than usual. After that she put a dark shade of lipstick on, a bit more daring than what she would normally go for. She looked at her reflection in the mirror critically. And then told herself: "I'm not going to make myself pretty for any man. I'm a strong independent woman, I'm doing this so I feel pretty." (she also coped with things by lying to herself) When she got out of the bathroom, she found Jane at the other side of the door, having just come back from her stroll with Dobby, grinning widely.
''Don't", Elizabeth said.
"I wasn't going to say anything", Jane huffed indignantly.
Elizabeth tried to maintain a shred of decency, but failed miserably.
When she got into the kitchen she realized it was already five minutes after when she usually left the apartment in the morning so she grabbed a granola bar and stuffed it in her bag.
"I'm going, see you tonight!"
"Don't be late, I made reservations at 8 o'clock!"
"I'll be there 8 sharp." (If Elizabeth was honest, there was no way she would get there at 8, it was so busy at work that it would be a wonder if she would even be able to leave tonight. But she knew that Jane knew she was lying, so therefore it was okay.)
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She arrived at the law firm she worked for only two minutes late. Charlotte, the receptionist, gave her a cheery wave and exclaimed: “Oh my, two minutes late, that has never happened in the two years that I have worked here.” She handed Elizabeth her post and exclaimed: “there is someone, isn’t there?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, Elizabeth said. (it was very lucky Charlotte couldn’t tell that her heart was hammering very loudly in her chest because that would tell a whole other story)
“You have lipstick on”, muttered Charlotte, “I will find out who it is you know, you don’t have to tell me.” Her face brightened up remarkably: “Yes, don’t tell me. I will find out myself! This is going to be great!” (Charlotte had wanted to be a detective growing up, a dream she had never fully given up on. Scattered around her desk were at least three detective novels at all times. She also had some non-prescribed glasses because she found they made her look more ‘detectivy’ whatever that may be. The worst of it all was however that she was very much intrigued by one of Elizabeth’s most annoying clients who, and this are Charlotte’s words, looked just like Poirot without the mustache. Elizabeth herself would describe the man, a Bill Collins, much more as a giant, walking egg but that wasn’t very professional so she refrained from doing so. Out loud.
After saying goodbye to Charlotte, who was looking very pensive at her, trying to look for more clues, she headed for the stairs. It was very unlucky that she bumped into Caroline before she could get into the safety of her office. Caroline was, to describe it in a dignified way, a fucking nightmare. She looked down on people who weren’t rich enough, aristocratic enough… Just about everyone who wasn’t white, straight and rich was beneath her notice. Elizabeth had only the white part going for her. She was doing okay but wasn’t rich in the terms that Caroline applied (meaning having inherited a shit load of money). When Elizabeth had joined the firm she had to undergo a crossfire by Caroline asking her about absolutely everything, from her credit-rating and her family to her dating-life and her living arrangements. Elizabeth had tried to undergo this with as much civility as she could muster, but at the end she had just snapped. When Caroline had asked if she was gay and she had answered in the negative, her response to this seemed to be to utter some very, let's say, problematic things about gay people and that had been too much for her.
“I will have you know that I am not gay. I am the B in LGTBQ+ and normally I don’t tell this to people that I don’t know, because it’s none of their fucking business, but you have just gone too far. I am a bisexual, but don’t worry because you’re not my type. So you don’t have to go running at HR saying that I’m trying to get in to your pants.”
Caroline had looked very shocked after this and Elizabeth had just wanted to leave, when she said, in a very haughty tone of voice (if Elizabeth was the judge of it and she was, she had decided) :”You can’t curse, we’re a very distinguished law firm, you just can’t curse.” (she had some nerve)
Elizabeth had narrowed her eyes at the horrible woman and wanted to stalk out of her office when she saw the way out was blocked by a man (very good looking for that matter) she hadn’t had been introduced to yet. He looked at her and said in a deep (very sexy) voice: “Do I know you?” (His sexiness levels dropped immediately) Elizabeth had just had it up to there with rude people that morning but tried to control her anger, he was probably just surprised to find her there in an argument with a colleague of his, and her anger should be aimed at Caroline, not this innocent bystander.
“Oh, hi. I’m Elizabeth Bennet. I’m the new lawyer. Nice meeting you.” He didn’t answer and continued looking at her, it had become more of a stare now. (Okay he seemed to be rude as well, it couldn’t be construed to shock anymore). The urge to push him out of the way and leave that room was coming up when he seemed to realize she had extended her hand and shook it. “I’m William Darcy, one of your bosses, and I would really appreciate it if you didn’t start looking for arguments with your colleagues on your first day. I also find it highly improper that you curse. I’m not sure that you know what kind of standing this firm has but I’m not going to let you pollute it.” All this was said with a big frown on his face. Elizabeth looked at him, shocked, how dare he? (The sexiness-meter had frozen after hearing his little ‘speech’)
“So I would very much appreciate it if you refrained from spouting such things ever again. Caprice?”
By this time Elizabet was seething. But she decided to reign it in. Everyone else had seemed really pleasant so she wouldn’t lose this job just because of two wankers.
“Off course, now if you would excuse me.”
She had walked out of there feeling furious, from then on out her conversations with both Caroline and Darcy had been -stilted, to say the least.
Elizabeth was shaken out of her trip to memory lane by Caroline’s cutting voice.
“You’re late.” She said it with such a triumphant tone in her voice, like she had achieved something.
“You’re right.” Elizabeth answered and walked past her to her own office. She wasn’t going to waste her time with Caroline, she had work enough to do.
“Don’t do it again.”
“I don’t know if you know this Caroline, but you’re not my boss.” Elizabeth didn’t even look back when she said this. She only knew Caroline had heard what she had said when she heard an indignant huff and a mutter that sounded very much like “not yet honey, but don’t bite your tongue”. It was common knowledge that Caroline was trying to become partner, she was a brilliant lawyer so Elizabeth thought it wasn’t going to take a very long time. If only her personality was a bit -less horrible, she would be happy for her.
Elizabeth put her post down on her desk and started up her laptop. She opened up the curtains and checked her inbox, awaiting her were 87 new mails that had all come in since last night, great. It was going to be a lo-ong day.