EPISODE: THE PLACEMENT BEGINS

The episode opens, as usual, onto Lizzie, but things are different this time. She's closer to the camera, her face has that slight concavity which is characteristic of the self-filmer, and the camera is moving, shaky. Clearly, she's on a handheld.

"Hi, viewers!" she enthuses. "Today I decided to do something new - it's my first day at my next shadowing placement, and I thought I'd vlog the whole introduction with the handheld I got for Christmas!" Gesturing widely with her free arm, she moves a bit so that she's not taking up the entire shot, and so that the audience can see more of her surroundings. The view is that of an open, well-appointed office lobby, with decor that is both tasteful and modern, with, somehow, a hint of fun. "My name is Lizzie Bennet," she says enthusiastically, "and this...is Pemberley Incorporated!"

After the animated logo and accompanying theme music, we return to Lizzie filming herself, but this time we're walking with her down a long office corridor. We can see a little bit of a woman, dressed very professionally, walking ahead of her. Lizzie keeps her voice low as she talks to the camera. "So here we are, at the offices of the high-profile media company, Pemberley Incorporated. It's very well-established, apparently on its third generation of family ownership. Dr. Gardner got me this placement, she thought it would be a great opportunity for me to develop industry contacts, plus, it makes a really interesting contrast to a start-up like Collins & Collins, which, as I'm sure you remember, was my first placement!"

She looks back to cast a glance at her surroundings. "And I have to admit, my first impression is that it is really awesome here! The premises are...amazing, and everyone I've dealt with so far is super-nice. This," she continues, raising the handheld a little bit to give us a better view of the woman leading her around, "is Mrs. Reynolds, the executive assistant of the company's president." We can see that Mrs. Reynolds is a very pleasant-looking woman near retirement age, who smiles warmly back at Lizzie and the camera as she's introduced. Lizzie gives a laugh. "I'm not sure why a little student like me merits a personal tour from an executive assistant, but apparently...I do!"

Ahead of her, Mrs. Reynolds chuckles. "No mystery there, dear," she says. "Bringing in fresh faces and new ideas, and helping with the education of the next generation, is all part of Pemberley's core values." Astonishingly, she manages to say this very genuinely, without sounding like she's reading robotically from the company's mission statement. Lizzie turns back to the camera with a gleeful grin, clearly very happy with the situation.

The next few minutes are filled with various cuts of Lizzie's initial tour. We get a quick peek at various departments, with some introductory commentary from Mrs. Reynolds on each one. The physical layout througout the offices is very collaborative, and everyone Lizzie meets is friendly and welcoming, obviously happy to work there. The camera even manages to catch a couple of quiet comments made to Lizzie about how supportive and approachable upper management is within the company. Lizzie makes a point of leaning in towards the camera after leaving each area to whisper various comments.

"Did you see the SIZE of those monitors?!"
"The people here are SO NICE!"
"There's a freakin' POOL TABLE in the staff lounge!"
"My gawd, I feel completely inadequate now. What am I DOING here?"

The highlight of the tour for Lizzie, though, is clearly the A/V studio, where all the equipment is totally state-of-the-art. As they're leaving the studio, Lizzie gives the camera an expressive jaw-drop expression, and comes closer to whisper, "Charlotte, I wish you were here, you would LOVE THIS!"

Finally, as we walk down the most sumptuously-decorated corridor yet, Mrs. Reynolds announces that she's going to show Lizzie to her desk. Lizzie gives an amazed chuckle and tentatively says, "That's...terrific, thank you! Um...I don't mean to be rude or anything, but don't you have more important things to do than show me my desk? Doesn't the president expect you to like, take a memo for him or something?"

Mrs. Reynolds smiles again. "Actually no, Mr. Darcy is on a business trip out of town, so I'm not as busy as usual today."

The camera joggles alarmingly as Lizzie whips her head around to stare, horrified, at Mrs. Reynolds. "I'm sorry...WHO is on a business trip?"

Mrs. Reynolds looks politely surprised. "Mr. Darcy, the president of Pemberley."

Lizzie begins to stammer incoherently. "The...the...the...pr..." She shoots a quick, panicked look back at the camera. "Pemberley is DARCY'S company? PEMBERLEY is Darcy's company?!"

Mrs. Reynolds now looks a bit taken aback. "Of course," she says. She looks more closely at Lizzie, and tilts her head inquiringly. "Why, do you...know Mr. Darcy?"

There is an awkward pause while Lizzie works out how to answer this startling question. "Um...yes. Yes, I do. We, uh...we met this summer."

Mrs. Reynolds looks absolutely delighted. "How wonderful!" she exclaims. "Well then, you already know how personable and accessible he is!"

Lizzie blinks rapidly in response.

Fortunately, Mrs. Reynolds doesn't notice this gobsmackery, as she's already turned away to point out some portraits on the wall. "And in that case, of course, you'll recognize this..."

Lizzie manages to recover her senses enough to raise the camera to point at the portraits. There are three of them, each mounted in an ornate wooden frame, each showing a handsome, dark-haired man, all showing a clear family resemblance to each other. The right-most portrait will be excessively familiar to anyone who's watched episodes 60 and 61 of Lizzie's videos: William Darcy.

"Yes," Lizzie manages to choke out. "Yes, I certainly do."

Mrs. Reynolds points to the centre portrait. "And that's Mr. Darcy Senior, Mr. Darcy's father." She takes a moment to let out a wistful sigh. "We lost him a few years ago, you know."

Lizzie frowns. "No, I didn't."

Mrs. Reynolds nods, looking quite sad. "Yes, it was a terrible tragedy. Car accident, coming back from dinner one evening with his wife. Drunk driver, plowed right into them. They were both killed."

Lizzie looks appalled. "That's horrible!"

Her guide gives another sigh. "It was. We were all devastated here. But I think it was worst for poor Georgiana."

Lizzie inhales sharply as she recalls that Darcy has a younger sister. "Oh, no!" she exclaims with sudden empathy. "She would have been so young!"

Mrs. Reynolds nods again. "Fortunately though, she and her brother have always been very close, and of course he's quite a bit older than she is; so he was a tremendous support for her." Another sigh. "I've often wondered whether he ever managed to find any support for himself..." She trails off thoughtfully, then gives her head a little shake. "At any rate, the staff were all a bit nervous when he took over the running of the company; so young, you know...and," she laughs, "it was definitely odd for those of us who had been at Pemberley so long, and remembered him as a little boy who toddled around under the desks when he visited his father's office! But," she continues, not seeing Lizzie's eyes going wide and looking back expressively at the camera at the idea of William Darcy as a tiny boy, "he had been working here for a few years already before the accident, and his father had obviously taught him very well. Of course there was a pretty steep learning curve at first, but he really has a natural gift for leadership. And he's very knowledgeable and insightful. And such a hard worker! It's almost impossible to get him to go home and take a break!"

Lizzie smiles ruefully and her tone becomes sardonic. "Yes, I...I have noticed that about him, with his laptop and his texting. Even when he's not at the office, he's at the office."

This comment is met with a laugh. "Exactly!" agrees the older woman. "But," she muses thoughtfully, "I suppose he has to have something to fill the void..." She tsks at herself and looks around, frowning. "Of course, you mustn't think that I would speak so openly about him to anyone who wasn't his friend," she assures Lizzie, who looks very taken aback at being given this label.

"Oh, no," she stammers. "No, of course not."

Mrs. Reynolds smiles. "It's a pity you won't be seeing him today."

Lizzie takes a deep breath. "So he's definitely not here, then?"

"No, we don't expect him back for a few days."

Lizzie looks immensely relieved, and follows Mrs. Reynolds further down the hall as her guide picks up the tour from where they left off, heading around a corner. Lizzie walks backwards so that the camera's pointing in the direction she's travelling, and leans in to whisper in a panicked tone, "Now I just have to figure out how to avoid seeing him for the rest of my placement!"

"Now, your office, dear, is going to be just down...oh!"

As Lizzie rounds the corner after Mrs. Reynolds, the reason for this startled exclamation is instantly obvious. There, coming down the new corridor in the opposite direction, is William Darcy his own very tall self. It takes him a moment to recognize Lizzie, since she has her back to him, but even from that angle, she must somehow be recognizable to him, because he suddenly stops walking and stiffens in utter surprise, eyes wide, throat swallowing convulsively.

Lizzie, however, doesn't see him at all at first, and continues walking. It's only when her guide exclaims, "My goodness William, we didn't expect you back until Thursday!" that we get to see her incredibly pronounced reaction. She, too, stops instantly, and joins Darcy in his amusingly accurate impression of a deer caught in the headlights before turning...very...slowly...around.

Their eyes meet.

The view abruptly and stomach-churningly drops, as Lizzie completely forgets about holding the camera up and lets her arm fall to her side. The audience is treated to an entirely unhelpful view of Darcy's knees. Aside from that, it's audio only.

"Darcy."

"Lizzie."

The screen goes black.