A/N: I'd like to thank any one who decides to give this a read, this is a concept that I've been toying with for a few weeks after a conversation I had with a friend who also writes fanfiction and she gave me the idea to turn it into another modern day AU story involving E&D and like the original story by the wonderful JA the story will be based on misunderstandings. I will also warn you now that there is a lot of scheming and secrets being kept in this story so I don't want you to hate on that fact too much especially with regards to Darcy at how he may come across in the beginning; so please don't review saying that 'Darcy wouldn't do that' or 'Darcy isn't like that' because there will be an explanation behind everything that happens.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and make nothing writing these fics, the only thing that belongs to me are original characters of my own creation and the story idea.

At three o'clock on the dot that Friday afternoon, the bell that signalled the end of the school day rang and the class of thirty ten year olds that Elizabeth Bennet taught at Meryton Primary School bade goodbye to their teacher and ran out of the classroom and into the playground to meet their waiting parents. With her classroom now empty, she laughed to herself that it was going to be quite a long weekend of lesson plans.

Elizabeth Bennet was twenty-two years old and had taught at Meryton Primary for a year since she had graduated from the University of Hertfordshire in Primary Education and Teaching. It had been a challenge, having to juggle the long drives to the University for lectures and exams whilst also looking after her three year old daughter Rose. Being a single parent was the most challenging yet most rewarding experience that she had been through and to this day she was grateful for the amount of time that her father had helped her in looking after daughter so that she could attend university.

When she had discovered that she was pregnant with Rose there had been a lot of confusion. The father, or the father's father to be more precise, wouldn't allow her to speak with her boyfriend and had sent her off in a taxi with a cheque written for one hundred thousand pounds; on the condition that she never contact her boyfriend again. To this day she had no clue whether her ex-boyfriend knew about their daughter but she had gotten over the decision that Reginald Darcy had made for his son a long time ago; if the Darcy's didn't want to be apart of her daughter's life it was their loss, not Rose's. So she had torn up the cheque, returned to Longbourn after spending an amazing summer with William Darcy in Spain after meeting at the bar her Uncle Ed owned and decided that she was going to keep the baby.

Her parents had been a little against their eighteen-nearly-nineteen-year-old daughter having a child whilst she was due to start her second year at university. Her mother had told her that her life would go down the toilet if she kept the baby, that she wouldn't have the career she wanted nor the time to go out with her friends but Lizzy didn't care about that. The university she attended was only a forty minute drive from Longbourn, she had access to a car and had passed her driving test at seventeen so that wasn't an issue. The money that she had received as a result of her parents saving money in a bank account for her since she was born had been left untouched and she would have to do a lot of shifts at the restaurant she worked at in Meryton to ensure she saved a lot of money for the baby but she was determined to make the situation work. After a lot of arguments with her mother, she threatened to move out and stay with Charlotte for a while until she could get sorted. Eventually, Mr Bennet said that it was her life and he would support her, he had retired early and would love to help her with childcare.

Luckily, her second year of university consisted of her being pregnant and she was able to complete her exams before she gave birth to a little girl. When a little girl had been born weighing six pounds thirteen ounces, she had taken a picture of her newborn daughter and text it to William's number; she never received a reply. She guessed he had changed his number or he had deleted the text after seeing it was from her; whatever the reason, William Darcy hadn't been in touch.

After clearing up her classroom, she switched off the lights and pulled her bag on to her shoulder. Elizabeth bade goodbye to some of her colleagues and left via the reception. As she was walking down the slope, she knelt down and smiled when she saw a three year old girl with dark brown curls running towards her.

"Mummy, Mummy!" the girl laughed happily, throwing her little arms around Lizzy's neck and hugging her tightly.

Lizzy reciprocated, lifting her daughter off the ground and standing up as Rose's little legs wrapped around her abdomen. This was always the best part of Lizzy's day, being greeted so happily by the little girl she loved more than anything. As Lizzy walked down the slope, still holding Rose in her arms, she was greeted by a grinning Jane and Charles.

"We let her run on ahead, she was too excited to see her Mummy." Jane explained.

"That's okay, has she been good?" Lizzy asked.

"Well behaved, she has Charles wrapped round her little finger." Jane laughed.

Lizzy looked at her sister's boyfriend with an eyebrow raised.

"Rosie, did Uncle Charlie spoil you?" Lizzy asked.

The little girl sat on Lizzy's hip and nodded, looking at her favourite Uncle with a goofy grin.

"She may have been taken to a park, had lunch out and we stopped by the sweet shop." Charles replied.

"What else did you get up today?" Lizzy asked.

The three adults began to walk away from Meryton Primary, with Rose lifting Jane's left hand up to show Lizzy something that hadn't been sat on her finger that morning. Lizzy's eyes widened as she looked at the diamond ring that sat on her sister's hand to the wide grins on her sister and Charles's faces.

"Jane...is that what I think it is?" Lizzy asked quietly.

"Yes!" Jane squealed, "We're getting married!"

Lizzy pulled her sister in for a hug and then went for Charles too, feeling so happy for her sister and Charles. Jane had met Charles three years ago when he had hired her to help redesign his family home at Netherfield Park. Charles owned a few businesses up and down the country, from restaurants to cafes to investing in retail and when her sister had spent three months redoing the manor on Charles's family estate, the two had been inseparable ever since.

"Congratulations, have you told anyone else yet?" Lizzy asked.

Charles laughed, taking Rose from Lizzy and placing the little girl on his shoulders, "Only you and Rosie, we're going to tell the Bennet clan when we get back." he replied.

"I can already hear Mum's excited squealing." Lizzy mused.

"We're thinking of hosting an engagement party next weekend at Netherfield, you don't have plans do you?" Jane asked.

Lizzy shook her head, "Other than lesson planning, I'm otherwise free." she replied.

"Great!"

Charles walked on ahead of the two of them as they took the lane back to the village to pick up a bottle of wine to celebrate with the Bennet family. Lizzy watched as her daughter ran her fingers through Charles's red hair and heard the sound of melodious laughter coming from Rose when Charles spun around. Rose laughed Charles, he made a very good Uncle.

"So tell me...how did he do it?" Lizzy asked.

"Well, we were walking round the grounds at Netherfield. His sisters had gone to London for the day so it was just the two of us and we stop in front of this massive oak tree-"

"The one where he bet that I couldn't climb to the top of?" Lizzy interrupted.

Jane nodded and smiled in memory of the time when Rose was four months old, they had been having a barbecue in early September at Netherfield when Charles pointed out the oak tree and said he had tried to get to the top of it as a teenage boy but had failed due to the fact he had fallen out of it. Lizzy had told him that she climbed trees all the time as a child, their mother had always said she was born a monkey but in human form, and could climb it. Charles had sniggered and said it was impossible and that only fuelled Lizzy's desire to prove her sister's boyfriend wrong. Needless to say, Elizabeth had climbed to the top of the tree with ease and Charles was forced to pay up the fifty quid as a forfeit.

"The very one. We had carved our initials into the wood on our one year anniversary and on the ground there was a large tray of tea-lights writing out the question 'marry me?' and as I looked from the tray back to Charles again, he was kneeling in front of me presenting the ring." Jane gushed happily.

"That's a really nice gesture." Lizzy smiled.

"It took me a minute to process the fact that I wasn't dreaming and I may have squealed at him as he put the ring on my finger and then we..."

"I don't need to know that detail." Lizzy laughed as Jane blushed a light pink.

"Well we went to pick up Rosie from pre-school and then we told her she could be a flower girl." Jane replied.

"I'm really happy for you Jane." Lizzy said, hugging her sister tightly.

The two carried on walking and met up with Charles as he came out of the shop.

"You'll be my maid of honour, won't you Lizzy?" Jane asked.

"I'd love too!" Lizzy replied excitedly.

The two sisters hugged again before walking at the same pace as Charles who still had Rose on his shoulders. They walked down the country lanes, past the church and met with Lydia who was on her way home from sixth form. When the entire family was gathered in the living room with Mary and Kitty joining in on the family meeting on two laptops via skype, both having recently returned to their universities to start their final and second years, Jane and Charles announced their news of the engagement. The entire house was in an uproar of squeals, with Lydia asking to be maid of honour only to then sulk when Jane said that Lizzy had already agreed to the position, Kitty demanded to be a bridesmaid and Mary muttered a mere 'Congratulations, I won't wear a pink frilly dress.' whilst Mr Bennet kissed his daughter's cheek and shook his future son-in-law's hand.

Mrs Bennet, as predicted, was the most excited out of the Bennet family. Finally, the matriarch would get to see one of her daughter's married and started to discuss potential wedding venues and colour schemes for the Bennet-Bingley wedding.

"Oh and you have to start having children soon after the wedding, you don't want to be in your thirties and having a child and at least I would get a grandchild who isn't a bastard-"

"I apologise Mother if having a child out of wedlock in the twenty-first century is a disappointment to you." Lizzy said.

The room went quiet.

"Oh Elizabeth, of course I love our little Rose. She's a beautiful little girl, she certainly doesn't get those brown eyes and curls from you-"

"Having a child out of wedlock these days isn't as uncommon as you think. As for her looks, I take no credit. Rose takes after her father in that way."

"And her itchiness to explore and her curiosity lead her to be mischievous like her Mother." Mr Bennet laughed.

Lizzy smiled at her Dad, out of both of her parents it had always been her Father who was more devoted to Rose; mostly for the fact that Lizzy was Mr Bennet's favourite and where Rose had her Mother's personality, Mr Bennet had a soft spot for the little mischief maker. As if on cue, Rose was stood next to her grandmother's knitting when the little girl sneezed three times and wiped the bogey that came out of her nose on to her grandmother's knitting. Mr Bennet chuckled as he picked up his granddaughter and took her out of the living room, even Lizzy and Jane smiled as Mrs Bennet complained at what the three year old had done.

"Rose is just like you Elizabeth, determined to annoy me to no end by anything that you do!" Mrs Bennet shrieked.

Rising from her seat, "She's not being told off for that. You deserved it, you shouldn't have made that comment about Rose being a bastard and nor do I need a reminder of how she came to be in this world. The sooner you accept the fact that your daughter got pregnant at nineteen, kept the baby and raised said baby into the amazing little girl she is and still managed to go to university and get a job to support her daughter, the better it will be for everyone!" Lizzy snapped.

Mrs Bennet looked a little flustered at being told off by Elizabeth but as she stormed out of the living room, Lizzy didn't care what more her mother had to say on the subject. Right from the start her mother had never approved of her decision to keep Rose, stating that raising a child wasn't easy and that she'd be throwing her life away if she raised a child on her own. Of course, Lizzy knew that raising a child was hard but from the moment she had felt her little girl move inside of her, she had loved her instantly and knew that she could do it. It took sacrifice, going without things she needed so that Rose had something she wanted instead and being a single parent was quite the challenge but she realised that giving up boozy weekends with her university friends to long weekends playing and spending time with her daughter meant more to her. Lizzy knew that she was lucky, with the help of her father and Jane, she was able to keep her education going and passed her degree.

Raising a child without the father was difficult, Rose had the Darcy look mostly. Those brown eyes and brown curls she had inherited from William but luckily her little girl hadn't inherited the Darcy pride. Once she was outside her family home, she walked through the gardens and sat on the grass that had been freshly cut that morning. It would be the last time that the grass was cut, her father usually kept the gardens tended between March to September and now that the autumn would soon be upon them, she was going to miss the smell the freshly cut grass brought.

She was joined by Jane minutes after her departure from the living room, her sister took her hand and squeezed it lightly.

"Don't take Mum's words to heart Lizzy, we all love Rose. Mum just has her own opinions and I told her that she should be proud of the way you raised Rosie without the help of the father." Jane said softly.

Lizzy smiled slightly, "She's the best part of me. I can never be ashamed of how she came to be in this world." she replied.

"You've never told us much about the father, you've never even told us his full name."

She looked at her sister and sighed heavily, "It gives me too much pain when I think of Will. His father especially. I don't know whether Will knows about our daughter but he's never been in touch and my attempts to get in touch with him when Rose was born went unanswered. If he does know about Rose, it's his loss not hers, they don't get to see how wonderful my daughter is." Lizzy replied.

"Rose is wonderful, nobody can fault that. I just want you to know, Lizzy, that no matter what happens I'm proud of you. You could have terminated the pregnancy and continued at university but you chose to carry on with the life you and someone else created. You've worked hard and with the help of Dad and myself, you were able to get the career you've always wanted and raised a child at the same time, that can't have been easy-"

"I'm grateful to the amount of time that you and Dad have put in to helping me raise Rose, looking after her when I had to go to uni lectures and exams, collecting her from pre-school and looking after her whilst I'm working. I just hope that I can save up enough money to get us our own home and that everything I do will be enough for her." Lizzy sighed.

"It's my pleasure to look after my gorgeous niece, she's a well behaved child for the most part. She takes after you though, climbing trees when she isn't supposed to, sneaking off to the stables at Netherfield, feeding the dogs when they've already been fed. Rosie is a little mischief maker but she's a happy and well loved child, she has everything that she could possibly want."

"Everything except a Dad."

Jane patted her on the shoulder, "You tore up that cheque and that man has had plenty of opportunities to get in touch. Personally, I feel that maybe he was scared about what his father might do. From what you have said, Will's father was always against his relationship with you and maybe he just wanted to keep his father happy and Lizzy, that doesn't make him a bad person."

"He isn't a bad person. after we fell in love with each other I knew that he was the best man I'd ever know." Lizzy agreed.

Jane smiled, "Then don't fret over the situation you found yourself in. The decision was made and you're doing the best you can, that's all you can do. One day, you'll find someone else to love and they'll love Rose as if she were their own child."

"I'd like that one day." Lizzy said with a smile.

The two sisters sat on the grass for a little longer until Charles came out of the house to inform them that dinner was being served in the dining room. Putting her thoughts of William and her unexpected pregnancy four years ago to the back of her mind, she followed her sister into the house and prepared herself for more of her mother's ideas for wedding planning.