Ending 2

Light…blindingly bright light…

Warmth…against her hands, her cheeks, her lips…

Elizabeth Bennet blushed and pulled away slightly. What appeared before her was a tall, young man. A living, breathing, tall, young man. Handsome in death, he was striking in life. No longer transparent, Darcy stood above her, his hands gently cupping her face.

"You're alive," she murmured breathlessly.

"Thanks to you," he whispered back in the same manner. Elizabeth grinned knowing that she was having the same affect on him as he was on her.

He wrapped an errant hair behind her ear, traced her jaw line with a lean finger, and pondered as to why he was no longer dead.

"I remember a gypsy woman muttering an incantation. Something about I'd fall to pieces if someone kissed me. I guess she thought it was funny."

Softly cushioned in contented bliss, Elizabeth struggled to clear her thoughts. First he was alive, then dead, and now alive again.

"I don't know what happened… I don't even know your name!"

"And I don't know yours," he retorted but still with the same small smile as his roaming finger began to travel along her neck.

"Elizabeth Bennet," was accompanied with a humorous arch of her eyebrow.

He straightened and gave a formal bow.

"Fitzwilliam Darcy, at your service," he said with seriousness.

He knelt down so that he was eye to eye with her and clasped her small hands within his larger ones.

"Marry me."

Elizabeth let out a peal of laughter at his abruptness. She sobered though with the thought that this man had just come back from the dead. Who knows what state his mind would be in?

"You said you would have doubts about marrying me if you were alive. You're alive now, are you not?"

"Elizabeth." She could not stop the thrill that coursed through her as her given name graced his lips.

"In life, I worked for other's happiness without thought for my own. This second chance has given me the opportunity to right that… and I intend to. You are my happiness and none other."

He flushed in embarrassment from his departure from usual reticence.

Touched by his heartfelt words, she could only answer as best she could. He had more to lose than her: social standing, wealth… but he did not regret his decision. She would make sure that he never will.

She placed a gentle kiss against his cheek.

"You saved me from the cold and didn't pity my situation. You saved me from being dead and you're my happiness too."

The couple was so wrapped up within their recent acknowledgement of love that they jumped at the startled scream of the caretaker entering to air out the library.

"Good morning," Darcy replied calmly.

The great house, once filled with so much sadness now erupted with chaos. The master, missing for months, appears suddenly and now insisted to be married to a young lady no one has ever heard of.

The couple claimed that after the attack he suffered from amnesia and was found and nursed back to health by Elizabeth. The return of his memories prompted their sudden appearance at his home and subsequent engagement. His joyful mood, quite different from his typical melancholy, and her humor and sweetness mollified the household though and the two were married. An invitation was not sent out to Uncle and Aunt Wickham.

It has been so long now that no one quite remembers which ending is true. What is certain is that second chances present themselves whether you're ready or not. No one knows whether it ends in happiness or despair but it always unexpectedly arrives, quiet and subtle, or loud and boisterous. It is said that in the light of a quiet sunrise, one can hear the joyous laughter of a man and woman who found and seized their second chance... together.