seven years

Janie heaved a bag into the living room and dropped it heavily onto the floor. "I need a break," she said to Elizabeth, who was sitting on the couch. "What's going on out here?"

Elizabeth had been packed for a good week, whereas Janie was taking the last-minute approach. Elizabeth shrugged. "I'm just hanging out with your boyfriend. I was trying to call mine, but he's off saving the universe, or whatever it is he does with his free time."

"He's in with the president," Chris interpreted from the satellite screen.

"Yeah, I can bet that's a last ditch effort to talk him out of me and into Anne de Bourgh," Elizabeth said, moving over so there was room for Janie to sit down beside her. "She could be his wife and his vice president. How cute would that be?"

"Albert and Victoria kinds of cute. Love story of the millennium," Chris said.

Elizabeth scowled at the screen. She said to Janie, "I hate him. You can have him."

She wanted to go visit her plants one last time anyway. It seemed silly, maybe. She was going back to a planet full of plants. But her garden here meant something to her. It was not what it had been before the bomb had destroyed it, but she had spent the year working to get it back in some order. She was glad that one of the three trainees who were taking over the Maia station after them had been as excited about the garden. But she was still sad to let it go, and apprehensive about leaving it to someone else's care. Char felt the same way about his water recycling system.

When she returned back to the living room, it was Char sitting on the couch and Will on the satellite screen. "Don't use the toilet," Char said. She raised her eyebrows, and Char said, "I'm testing Phil. I have to be sure he can fix the water system under pressure before I leave him alone with my baby."

Phil was one of the trainees. They had been on the planet for a month—a month of very cramped quarters. Whereas Char, Janie, and Elizabeth were long since used to wandering in and out of each other's satellite calls, the trainees still seemed a bit weirded out by Will Darcy showing up on the screen and steered clear when Elizabeth was talking to him.

"And what if he can't fix it? You're staying here? Would you really choose the water recycling system over me?" Elizabeth asked Char, as she settled down beside him.

"We'll all stay here!" Char proclaimed, then laughed as Will groaned.

"That's just cruel," Will said.

Then somewhere a toilet flushed, and Char was on his feet in a second flat. "I said DON'T flush the toilets!" he bellowed, as he barreled out of the room.

"Well," Will said, once Char was gone. "He seems okay. I mean, he seems himself."

"Char? He's coping. Training the newbs has been a pretty good distraction," Elizabeth replied.

Collins had dumped Char via satellite two weeks ago. The timing had been both brutal and suspicious, and sure enough a few days later it came out that he was already seeing someone, a field organizer from the Darcy camp. A girl. It was Will who had discovered it first, and had sworn complete ignorance up until that point. "The thing is," he'd said, "I usually make a sprint in any other direction as soon as I see Collins. So I really had no idea." Elizabeth knew he was telling the truth. Will and Char had gotten to know each other pretty well over the past year, and to Elizabeth's immense relief they liked each other immensely. Had Will known, he would have said.

He said, now, "Collins is scrambling. He doesn't know whether he's coming or going anymore. As of now, I can guarantee you he's going. And truthfully, I cannot pretend to be sorry about the thought of Collins out of my life forever. It's a dream come true, really."

"I hope you haven't said so to Char."

"It was actually the first thing I said to him just now," Will said, and then: "Of course I haven't said so to Char."

Elizabeth laughed. "Hey, I'm just saying. Historically, your sensitivity has not been something to admire."

"You know, you're the only person in galaxy who thinks so. I'm practically the sensitivity candidate."

She rolled her eyes. "I wish Chris would stop putting these things into your head."

"What things?" she heard Chris's voice ask.

"That he's the sensitivity candidate," Elizabeth said. "His ego doesn't need your help."

Will began playing the martyr ("What? What have I done to deserve this attack?") while Chris, meanwhile, appeared on screen musing, "Sensitivity candidate. I like it. We could use a brain like yours on the campaign, if you're looking for a job." He was typing something into his computer. She hoped he wasn't actually jotting down sensitivity candidate, but he probably was.

"You can't afford me," she said. And while that probably wasn't true—the Will Darcy campaign could probably afford anyone—she did have quite a few job offers already rolling in, and she wasn't even on Earth yet. She suspected that had more to do with her connection to Will than her work on Maia. But she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Pity," Chris said. "Anyway, duty calls us."

"I just want the record to show that I actually came up with sensitivity candidate," Will said. Then to Elizabeth he added, "See you in a week. And I don't care what Char's toilets are doing; you'd better get on that ship."

Elizabeth smiled. "Scout's honor," she said, and saluted them.

"Toilets?" she heard Chris asking in confusion as the screen flickered off.

Elizabeth got up and went back to the bedroom, where she found Janie kneeling on the floor, shoving the last of her things into a bag, taking no care to fold or pack carefully. She looked up when Elizabeth entered and sat back on her heals. "I can't believe we're leaving today," she said.

"Me neither," Elizabeth grinned. And yes, there were probably things she would miss about Maia—her plants, the dune buggy, the feeling of doing something important. But right now she couldn't feel anything but happy.

one day

When Will woke up, she was sitting up in bed beside him and the television was on. He yawned and pulled himself into sitting positions that mirrored hers. As she felt him move, she reached over and put a hand on his knee, but otherwise her concentration remained on the TV. She was wearing his shirt from yesterday.

"What are you doing?" he asked, squinting as his eyes adjusted.

"I'm watching us on the news," she said. "Apparently we're very in love."

Elizabeth was indeed watching as two perky morning show hosts talked over clips of their reunion yesterday. "I think it's sweet," the blonde, bosomy one—he was pretty sure he'd been interviewed by her once—was saying. "They know the camera's are on them and their trying to be demure, but he never lets go of her hand. It's definitely the happiest the galaxy has seen William Darcy." The video clip showed him leaning in to say something to her, and she laughed, her eyes bright and joyful.

Now, alone with her, Will leaned forward against Elizabeth and kissed her shoulder.

The other morning show host, this one your classic ken doll said, "But I think what people are wondering, Suzie, is if all the mooning around is going to affect his ability to run—"

Elizabeth turned the television off. She lay back down, gone thoughtful. "Do you want me to do the interview thing?"

She'd been invited a few weeks ago to be a special guest on the galaxy's most watched talk show. People wanted to know who she was, and while she said she didn't mind and she'd known what she was getting into, he wasn't sure all the publicity didn't bother her a little. "I told you," he said, "it's completely up to you."

"Well I've thought about that, and I think I want to do whatever is going to best for you."

"Then ask Chris," he said dismissively.

She seemed almost annoyed by this answer. "You know you can just say, 'I want you to go on the show' or 'I don't want you to go on the show.' You don't have to throw it to Chris. I won't be mad either way. I just want to know what you want."

He looked at her, Elizabeth Bennett, and it just came out. He didn't mean for it to, but it did. "Marry me," he said. She sat bolt upright again. He'd never seen her eyes so huge. "That's what I want. I want you to marry me."

Elizabeth blinked. "Are you kidding me right now?"

"Um?" He pushed his hair back nervously. What was he doing? Of course she was going to say no. He should've waited. He had meant to wait. "Okay, look—" he began.

"Did Chris put you up to this?" she interrupted. "Does he think it looks better if we're engaged?"

"What? Elizabeth! Come on. Please tell me you think better of me then that."

Her eye softened. "Sorry."

"Listen," he said. "I know we've been on the same planet for a grand total of about two months the whole time we've known each other and this might seem premature. But for me…well, I know I'm going to marry you. I'd marry you tomorrow, and I don't give a damn what it looks like or what Chris thinks about it, or Catherine de Bourgh for that matter, or any and every political analyst out there. But on the other hand I get it if you want to, you know, be on the same side of the galaxy as me for a while before you make that decision. So I don't want you to feel like, I have to say yes now in case he won't ask again. Because trust me, I will. Better. With a ring. So…" He paused. "No pressure," he finished lamely. And she was still staring at him like she she'd been thrown into a state of shock.

It felt like ages, but it was probably on a few seconds. She said, "I have one question. If I stay yes now can I still have a ring?"

"What?" he said dumbly.

Then she was laughing and crawling into his lap and kissing him and saying, "You're such an idiot. What did you think I was going to say? I love you. Of course yes." And it was really an incredible response to such a bungled proposal. But Will Darcy was not about to complain.

Later that day, in the car, Elizabeth was beginning to feel nervous. The closer they got the restaurant, the worse it was. They were having dinner with her parents. "It's going to be fine," Will kept saying. But that was easy enough for him to say. He didn't have parents. Specifically, he didn't have Rose Bennett for a parent.

"It's not that I don't want you to meet them," Elizabeth said. "It's just that I wish you'd bought be a ring first. Because then when you change your mind I'd at least have something to pawn."

The only relief to her growing anxiety was that Giana and Lydia were also meeting them. It was possibly the first time she'd been relieved about Lydia coming along to something. But Will had seen the worst of Lydia and still let her hang out with his sister. Lydia was the devil Will knew. Rose Bennett was the devil who might be a deal breaker.

"Elizabeth," he said. "I braved George for you. I doubt your mother is going to scare me off."

"True," she said.

He was still going. "Not to mention the fact that my family is George, so you hardly have a lock on the Worst Relative award."

"All true," she said. "Although you forget that I am distantly related to Collins."

"Hmmm," he mused. "Alright, you win."

She noticed that she didn't feel nervous anymore. She leaned back in her chair, relaxed. What was there to be nervous about? They had made it through a year apart. They had made it through the president of the galaxy trying to split them up, and George, and lot of assumptions and misjudgments, and even an actual war. Of course they would make it through her mother.

She was, in fact, pretty sure they would make it through anything. She said, "A year and a half ago, when you showed up on my planet, do you know how much I hated you?"

"Yes," he said ruefully. "Because you told me. Repeatedly."

"Thank you for not giving up on me," she said.

He glanced at her. She was sincere, and he saw it. "Well," he said, "it was its own reward." And his hand that wasn't steering the car came to rest on her leg.

They were five minutes away from the restaurant. Elizabeth felt happy, content. Her nervousness had been replaced by a kind of warmth. Will Darcy was going to meet her parents. She was going to marry him, and he was going to be president someday. They would have many adventures. They would have fights, because they were both so stubborn. They would have kids who would call Chris and Char "uncle." She wanted all of it. She wanted all of it with him. And she was going to have it. Today was day one.

Today was the beginning.

A/N: Sorry, that chapter took excruciatingly long for me to write, but hope you all enjoyed the story. Reviewers and lurkers alike, this is your last chance so REVIEW NOW! Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing throughout and stuck through it with me. You guys are the best! I may have a new story in the works, so keep an eye on my profile!

Jill: For you! As promised!