Licensing Note: Based on Characters and story lines from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Text from Jane Austen is in green, text from movie adaptations isin blue. If you would like to turn off the colored text, click "Hide Creator's Style" at the top of the page. The tense, pronouns, or wording of these quotes may be slightly modified to fit the scene. All original content and plot for Paws and Prejudice is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license by Morgan A. Wyndham. Cross published on Archive of Our Own as Morgan AW and Derbyshire Writer's Guild as MorganA.

Elizabeth Bennet sighed as she loaded her pack into the car. She knew she had a problem, she just couldn't help herself ... whenever a particularly needy dog came into the shelter she volunteered at she inevitably broke down and adopted them. Jane was her first, she was the most beautiful cocker spaniel Elizabeth had ever seen with long golden locks. She had been a breeder rescued from a puppy mill and while she had the largest heart once you got to know her, she was shy around new people and typically afraid of male dogs. Because of this all of Elizabeth's subsequent rescues were females.

Then came Mary, a shetland sheepdog who was so afraid of people that she would cower under her bed in the shelter and went months shivering alone without being adopted. Even now that most of the fear had subsided, she would rather remain curled up on her bed in between the bookshelves than interact with others. Her great joy in life came from music and she would happily howl along whenever there was a tune to follow.

Next was Kitty the pekingese – unfortunately named by the six year old daughter of her first family. Said family had abandoned her at the shelter when she had a bad cough and they couldn't afford the vet bills. Even after her pneumonia had cleared up, poor Kitty suffered from severe separation anxiety. She was happy as a clam while people were in sight, but the minute she was left alone she started crying and pawing so frantically at the cage doors that she bloodied her paws. One day Elizabeth just couldn't bear leaving her there alone for one more night and adopted her.

Finally there was Lydia, a chihuahua puppy who was found half frozen on the streets with a broken leg. She was just so small, vulnerable, and young that Elizabeth couldn't leave her alone in that cage. As expected, Jane turned into a rather attentive surrogate mother, Mary tried to ignore her as much as possible, and Kitty had instantly idolized Lydia. Elizabeth could see the pekingese's anxiety fading away with her new companion. After the leg had healed Lydia turned out to be a lively, gregarious dog with an affinity for men and a reluctance to be housebroken.

While working with traumatized animals at the shelter was Elizabeth's passion project, she paid her bills as an animal behaviorist at an upscale veterinary clinic. She was essentially a therapist for spoiled poodles and their obnoxious owners. Today was the clinic's annual picnic for their patients and their owners. It was hosted by a stable that the clinic worked with so there was plenty of space for the dogs to roam. When she arrived she clasped leashes onto Kitty and Lydia, took a breath, and opened the door to let her girls out.

"Ms. Bennet," the booming voice of her least favorite customer beckoned her, "you're bringing four dogs out at once? That seems highly unusual." Mrs. DeBurgh was a wealthy widow with no children who poured all of her attention into criticizing everyone around her and fussing over Anne, her Persian cat with COPD.

"Hello Mrs. DeBurgh, while Mary here would have been happy to stay at home," Mary responded to her name with a harrumph and curled up under a tree with stick, "it would be unfair to leave any of them out of the fun."

"Your house must be quite overrun, I hope you've got a good pet sitter."

"Nope, just us girls, but the clinic is close enough that I can stop in and walk them on my lunch break most days."

Mrs. DeBurgh's eyes bugged at this, but Lydia caught her attention at that moment with a yap and a preen. The puppy sure did know how cute she was, but rather than the coddling that such a display usually would win her, Mrs. DeBurgh just gave a disdainful sniff. "I see two of your dogs are leashed and the others are not."

"Well, Kitty and Lydia are fairly young to be out on their own, but I trust my two old ladies." Jane elegantly sat next to Elizabeth and looked up at her serenely as if to prove her point.

Mrs. DeBurgh looked like she had far more unsolicited advice to doll out, but her attention was drawn by a sleek black sports car pulling in. "Finally, someone sensible," the old lady said under her breath. Elizabeth was intrigued, she'd witnessed DeBurgh treat every member of the staff with similar disdain and wondered who would garner such a reaction. The door opened and quite possibly the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen stepped out. He was tall and handsome in a 'who wears a suit to a picnic in July' sort of way, and everything about him screamed of wealth and class. Everything, that is, until he opened the door and an excited golden retriever bounded out.

"William! Thank heavens you've arrived, there's nobody here worth talking to!" Mrs. DeBurgh called out to him.

Elizabeth must have done a poor job at masking her annoyance at being brushed off as 'nobody' because the handsome man's eyes rested on her a moment too long before he replied, "Aunt Catherine, would you introduce me to your friend?"

William Darcy had been dreading this event, it was just one final straw to this whole absurd business. First his friend had foisted this dog on him against his will. Then his poor, sweet, broken-hearted and currently cynophobic sister had instantly fallen in love with the puppy, leaving him no choice but to keep it. When his aunt found out, she insisted that if he mentioned her name at the Bromwell clinic he'd be taken care of – as if it wasn't their jobs to take care of him as a paying customer anyway. Then his aunt had insisted that he come to this ridiculous picnic as he was now part of their community. Just because his aunt devoted her life to that wheezing furball didn't mean that he would do the same.

Nonetheless, his aunt had ordered him here and now he was standing in a stableyard in an Armani suit surrounded by people obsessed with their 'furbabies'. At least that had been his frame of mind until he looked up into a pair of lively eyes with an expression caught between amusement and anger. He found himself asking for an introduction.

"Friend?" His aunt asked in confusion, she looked around and seemed to recall the woman standing next to her, "ah, yes, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, this is my nephew William Darcy. Miss Bennet is a behaviorist at the Clinic."

Those expressive eyes focused on him and she smiled as she breezily responded, "please call me Elizabeth," and held out her hand. Darcy mutely took her hand and nodded, desperately trying to think of what to say to her, but after an awkward moment she raised her eyebrow at him then asked: "and who is this?" She held out a fist toward his dog.

"His name is Bingley," he responded as the dog eagerly sniffed then licked her hand.

She knelt on the ground and pet his dog, murmuring, "aren't you a handsome boy," as Bingley licked her face. Darcy felt a momentary flash of jealousy that the dog got such treatment from the pretty girl before he reigned in his thoughts and slipped further behind his mask of indifference.

Catherine DeBurgh had begun another long-winded monologue in the awkward silence. As she greeted the happy golden retriever Elizabeth mused to herself that the company was much better down here with the dogs than up there with the humans. Eventually she was forced to stand up as Bingley lost interest in her in favor of sniffing around Jane as Lydia and Kitty ran around him trying to get his attention. When Catherine paused for a breath Elizabeth quickly made her excuses and walked toward the barn turned banquet hall where the food was being set up. Bingley, smitten already, seemed ready to follow Jane as she trailed Elizabeth into the barn but his leash restrained him and Darcy made no attempt to follow.

She found her friend Charlotte Lucas, the Clinic's veterinary specialist on exotic species, setting out the buffet of kibbles and treats for the pets. "Not three steps out of the car before I was cornered by her ladyship," Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"Ouch, what were you doing wrong this time?"

"Oh, having too many dogs and walking them myself like a plebeian." Charlotte giggled as she gave treats to Jane, Kitty and Lydia – Mary had remained outside under the tree. Jane greeted Charlotte with a sedate wag of the tail and a gentle nudge with her nose. "And get this, I just met her nephew who just oozes wealth and disdain. Luckily though he's content to silently judge me rather tell me my faults to my face like his aunt."

"Darcy, right?" Charlotte sighed, "now Lizzie, don't go making snap judgments, the guy's hot and loaded with a sweet dog to boot, he can't be all too bad. I saw a glimpse of him when he brought his dog in for a checkup and just itched to muss up his pristine appearance."

Elizabeth momentarily appreciated the mental image of a disheveled Darcy with a flushed face, but shook herself out of it. The guy was kind of an ass and she wouldn't waste her time pining.

With a few minor hiccups the picnic went over well. In the brief minutes of madness that she decided to try letting Lydia and Kitty off of their leashes, Lydia dashed into the crowd of dogs and people with Kitty close on her heels. They persistently chased after dogs twice their size and made quite the display before Elizabeth was able to restrain them again. There was also the point when a man had walked by Mary's tree whistling and Mary started a howl which spread throughout the dogs of the party and lasted several minutes before they all calmed down. But now at the end of the day Elizabeth just sat quietly at a picnic table with Charlotte watching Jane romp around with Bingley.

"I can't remember the last time I've seen her run around like that," Charlotte remarked.

"I've never seen her so comfortable with a male dog but they've been inseparable all day." She looked around at the dwindling crowd.

"Good for Jane, we could all use a good guy once in a while."

"Well, don't wish them happy just yet, at the end of the day she'll be coming home with me and he'll be going home with mister tall, dark and judgmental." Elizabeth shot a dark look across to where Darcy sat rigidly on the edge of a bench, his eyes shot from hers down to the phone in his hand.

"I'm pretty sure if you tried you could be going home with mister tall, dark, and can't peel his eyes off of you," Charlotte replied sarcastically.

"Oh please, he's probably just cataloging every fault I have. I wonder why he's even still here, his aunt took off ages ago and he doesn't seem to know anyone else here."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "maybe he just believes in puppy love and is playing wingman for his pooch."

Elizabeth laughed as she hauled herself up and began cleaning up. Several minutes later she was depositing a large haul of paper plates into a trashcan when Bingley came rushing up to his owner a few feet away. Elizabeth stifled a laugh when the serious Mr. Darcy began speaking to his dog as he pet him.

"What, do you think I'm going to go out there and run around with you? I don't even know anyone here." Bingley whined with a wagging tail and looked back to where Jane was sitting with Lydia and Kitty. "We can't all be as lucky as you to hit it off with the prettiest girl at the party." Bingley whimpered and tugged gently at his shirt cuff. "Yeah, ok, her owner's not bad either, but not pretty enough to tempt me to go crawling around in the dirt playing with dogs. You should go enjoy her company while you can," he said, tossing a stick in the direction of Jane. Bingley chased after it and before long the two dogs were lost in their own little world again.

Elizabeth could hardly believe her ears. Not only was she merely 'ok', but the jerk looked down on her for playing with the dogs? They were at a dog days picnic for goodness sake! What kind of irresponsible man adopted a dog if they were too good to play with them?

Darcy sighed wistfully as he watched Bingley run back to his newest obsession. He wished he could make friends as easily. He wished that he'd had enough courage to talk more to Elizabeth Bennet that day rather than observing her from a distance and listening in on her conversations like some sort of stalker. He wished that she'd show even a fraction of the interest in him as she showered on the dogs.

The clanging of a trashcan lid rather closer than expected pulled him out of his thoughts and he saw, to his horror, that Elizabeth Bennet was standing nearby glaring at him. She stormed off back to her friend and he was certain that she'd heard his little dialog with Bingley. Embarrassed, he collected his dog and left.