Never in my life have I given in to fan demand for a chapter in a one shot beyond what I initially wrote. What are you guys doing to me?
Enjoy.
William didn't often visit Gigi's office.
For one thing, it was inconveniently located in relation to his own within the building. For another, he did try his best to treat his sister as any other employee, and the CEO of a company did not often personally visit the desks of junior graphic designers. Most of the time, if he needed to speak to her, he called her or buzzed her up to his office.
So when he strode purposefully through her door that afternoon and stood in front of her desk in all his towering glory, it was unexpected, if not unprecedented.
"Did you have anything to do with this?" he asked, holding up a sealed envelope. His voice was firm and unyielding, with a distinct edge of "Georgiana, we are about to have a serious discussion."
"I don't know what that is," she replied quiet honestly. He didn't look as if he believed her.
"It's a letter," he said shortly, and Gigi rolled her eyes.
"Yes, thank you," she replied sarcastically. "I can see that. Who sent it?" He threw it onto the desk in front of her in response. Her eyebrows disappeared into her hairline when she saw the L Bennet on the return address. "It's from Lizzie," she said, slightly stunned.
"Did you have anything to do with this?" William repeated.
"Nope," Gigi said with a shake of her head.
"Gigi," he said in a warning tone of voice.
"I swear!" Gigi insisted. "You told me not to scheme, I haven't schemed."
"And Fitz?" William asked, determined to cover all his bases and close all loopholes.
"If Fitz is scheming, he hasn't told me. And honestly, I'm insulted that you think our schemes would be so simple and low-key as to simply have Lizzie send you a letter, William."
"But then, why is Lizzie sending me a letter?" William asked, and Gigi rolled her eyes again.
"Hmmm, let's think about this for a second," she said. William interrupted her.
"Lizzie mocked me relentlessly for writing her a letter, Gigi."
"A long time ago, William," Gigi pointed out gently. Nobody needed to be remembering the disastrous beginning of this relationship. "And maybe that's exactly why. Maybe this is a . . . gesture."
He lifted an eyebrow. "A gesture," he repeated in a dry voice.
"Yeah," Gigi said easily. "A symbolic communication, if you will, that the past is understood and forgiven." She may have been projecting her own hopes onto that last bit. "But," she said, her voice turning brisk and businesslike, picking up the letter in front of her, "if you really want to know why Lizzie is writing, the only way to know for sure is to — oh, wait."
She frowned at the letter, pulling it back to her even as William reached for it. She'd only paid attention to the name before, but now . . .
"What?" William asked, a hint of anxiety slipping past his mostly-calm facade. "What is it?"
"I don't think Lizzie sent this," Gigi said, trying to break the news to him as gently as she could.
"What do you mean?" William asked, and Gigi hid a smile at just how disappointed he sounded.
"It's not her handwriting. I worked with her on several projects, and Lizzie's handwriting is a lot spikier than this. So if she sent it, she didn't address it, which I think we can both agree would be weird."
"But then, who is it from?" William asked, his voice bewildered, his brow furrowed in a frown.
"Well, there is more than one L Bennet in the household," Gigi pointed out.
"It makes even less sense for Lydia to be writing me than Lizzie."
"Again, that may be true, but the only way you're gonna know for sure is to open this and read it, which is what one usually does with mail."
She held the letter out to him again, and this time he took it, snagging the letter opener from her desk and ripping neatly through the top of the envelope after only a moment's hesitation. Gigi leaned up on her desk for a chance at a better look, and saw two distinct colors of paper inside before William realized what she was doing, glared at her, and turned his body away. With a shake of her head, Gigi sat back in her chair as William pulled out the startlingly pink sheet of paper that turned out to be sheets of paper. His frown deepened.
"One of these is for you," he said, utterly bewildered now.
"What?" Gigi asked, echoing his confusion. He held out one of the folded papers for her to see. Her name, Gigi Darcy, was written across the front in the same loopy handwriting as the envelope. She took it quickly and read it, entirely intrigued.
Gigi, it said.
You don't know me, and I don't really know you, but I've seen you in Lizzie's videos, and in Pemberley's, and I know you can get this done.
I couldn't sleep last night and I found Lizzie downstairs in the den, sobbing, a video with your brother in it paused on her computer screen and the letter currently in your brother's possession sitting on the floor.
My sister and your brother are two very smart people who are currently acting like idiots, and the way I see it, you and I are the only way they are ever going to get themselves in order. So I'm joining Team Figi. We're now Team Filygi. Team Lyfigi? Figily?
Not important. We'll work on the name. But right now, this is our new scheme. You have one job:
MAKE HIM READ THE LETTER.
That is all. Lydia Bennet out.
Gigi couldn't help but smile. She'd come to admire and respect Lydia Bennet a lot in the past couple of months, and she'd really wanted to reach out to the girl, but hadn't known how or if it would be welcome or how she'd be received. But now, it seemed, that issue had been solved.
So it was with a smile that she looked up from her letter, only to see her brother with a disapproving look on his face, shaking his head rapidly and fitting Lizzie's letter back into the envelope.
"I'm not reading this," he said in a voice that left no room for argument. Gigi argued anyway.
"What? Why?" She couldn't fail at the one job Lydia had given her.
"Because the very first line tells me not to, Gigi." Sitting on the desk was the pink note Lydia had written to William. Gigi snatched it up before he could stop her and read it quickly.
Darcy,
Lizzie wrote this for you, but I know my sister, and I know she'll chicken out long before she actually sends it to you, so I've done it for her. Because regardless of her second guessing, this is something you need to see. Read it, okay?
Lydia
"So, her letter's addressed to you?" Gigi demanded.
"That isn't the point," William said, his voice low and with the edge that meant a scolding was on the horizon. "I read enough to know that this contains some highly personal sentiments that were never meant for anyone's eyes. I am not going to invade Lizzie's privacy by reading them."
Gigi almost threw her head back in frustration. Normally she was glad to have a brother who held such high moral sensibilities. Now, however, was not one of those times.
"But she wrote the letter to you, William! She wanted you to read it!"
"No," William countered firmly, "she wrote to get her thoughts down on paper, nothing more."
"Then why write a letter at all?" Gigi demanded. "Why not write her feelings down in a diary or a journal? Why address her thoughts specifically to you if there wasn't some part of her that didn't want you to see them?"
William hesitated. "Regardless of any truth in that, Lydia sent this without Lizzie's knowledge."
"Too much knowledge can be a bad thing," Gigi said stubbornly, then cut off whatever reply her brother was planning to make. "William, I know you, and I know her, and Lydia's right! She would have second-guessed herself into oblivion, you do the exact same thing! You two are so busy playing relationship chicken that you are going to slip through each other's fingers because neither one of you will pluck up the courage to be the first to say anything, and that's the dumbest reason to lose someone ever! Have you been watching her videos?"
William looked away, which was answer enough. "Of course you haven't," Gigi muttered in frustration. "Then trust me on this, because I have been watching. She misses you. She's afraid she's missed her chance with you. I know, I know, that she loves you."
"Has she said as much?" William demanded quietly in a resigned voice. "Has she come right out and said that in any way?"
"Of course not," Gigi said. "Not on her videos, she wouldn't. After everything that's happened? She hasn't confessed her feelings on the vlog, but I am willing to bet everything that she has still made a confession and that it is sitting in your hands right now."
William looked down at the letter he was holding as if it might at any moment explode. But he made no move to read it. Gigi gave it one last try. "What are you afraid of?" she asked quietly. "That she's going to tell you in there that she never wants to see you again? Why would Lydia have sent it if that was the case? If it didn't contain irrevocable proof of Lizzie's feelings for you, why would you be holding it?"
William was silent for a long time. Gigi held her breath. Finally, he spoke, in a whisper, "I can't be rejected by her again, Gigi," and Gigi's heart went out to him.
"You won't be," she said with absolute certainty. William looked up at her and held her gaze for a long moment. Then he swallowed and closed his eyes briefly before pulling out the letter and unfolding it once more.
Gigi watched as a thousand emotions played out over her brother's face as he read. She watched him grow stiller and stiller, which was a sure sign that inwardly, he was freaking out. She watched his eyes widen as he reached the bottom of the page, and his breath come quicker, and at that, Gigi knew she had been right. Biting back a smile, she picked up her office phone and hit the button for William's PA.
"Hi, Mrs. Reynolds?" she said, eyes still on William, whose eyes were still on the letter, rereading whatever was written at the end. "William needs you to book a flight for him out to Netherfield. As soon as possible, please. It's urgent." She waited for Mrs. Reynolds to give confirmation, then hung up. Only then did William look up at her, a little lost, like his world had shifted and he wasn't sure what to do next.
"Well?" Gigi asked expectantly. "What are you still doing here? You have a plane to catch." And with a look like he wanted to be irritated with her but couldn't because he was too busy being grateful, he left. Alone in her office, Gigi punched the air, then immediately pulled up YouTube and found Lydia's channel to send a private message.
Mission Accomplished. Welcome to Team Figia.
This is it. Really. This is really the end. Writing any further means writing not one but TWO versions of Darcy's second proposal that I know will get canon-balled, and that really is a step too far.
But I will admit I had fun writing this scene. And I hope you enjoyed it.