Hello all,

Thank you for the follows, reviews and favorites that continue to come in about this story. I am appreciative of every one.

No, I am not planning on quitting this fic (or any of my other ones).

Yes, I am planning on continuing this fic. Slowly.

No, I do not often have a lot of time.

Yes, I am a year away from having a PhD in chemistry. I am busy. I'm writing papers, doing research, considering my thesis, applying for jobs, conferences and teaching on top of a number of health and family issues that have been knocking my feet out from under me for the past year and something.

Anyway, thank you for kindly sticking with me through this. I promise I will continue with this. And as it happens, I always say that during my spring breaks from school, when I have just a tad more time and the mental motivation to spend a few hours doing something that's not directly work- or live-to-see-tomorrow related.

Thanks,

EW

Miss Jane Bennet arrived at Rosings Park almost exactly two days after her sister's accident. She had managed to retain her composure through yesterday and most of the ride to Kent from Town, though when the carriage wheels met the gravel drive to the house, Jane felt a few tears threaten to fall. She sniffled once, then a second time shortly after. Sarah, the Darcy House maid that had been assigned to Miss Bennet as a companion and maid by Mr. Darcy, caught her attention with a small cough and held out a handkerchief. Miss Bennet gave Sarah a watery smile of thanks and accepted the cloth. It was not the quality she was used to, but never one to complain about the kindness of another, she dried her eyes and returned it a little while later.

The servant girl had been very surprised when Mrs. Fitzgerald had found her in the kitchens and asked her (asked!) to get cleaned up to meet the Master in his study. She had never been so frightened! Her Papa was the Master's valet, and sometimes she worked as a maid, but she could not for the life of her figure out why the Master would want to talk to her. She had never met the Master for longer than a few seconds at Christmas, and he had apparently held her a few times when she had been a baby, but he always seemed like a very nice man and master. She got paid much more than some of her friends, and her Papa always spoke well of him. Needless to say, she was still very surprised when the Master himself asked if she would like to be a lady's maid for Miss Bennet and travel all the way to Kent! She agreed almost instantly, and the Master explained the tricky situation somewhat. She knew he had left some parts out, but she did not need to know those things. Sarah felt badly for the Misses Bennet, obviously for Miss Elizabeth who was injured, but also for Miss Jane, who was her older sister (and there was no one on Mr. Darcy's staff who did not know of Lady Catherine's crazed antics). When Miss Bennet came to Darcy House the next day to travel to Kent, Sarah liked her almost instantly. She hoped the other sister would be the same… when she woke up.

Sarah tucked the handkerchief back in her sleeve and glanced out the window at the very fine manor house they were approaching. She was not given leave to travel along with some of the London house staff to Pemberley and she had never been outside the city since she was too small to remember. The amount of space outside the carriage had been rather daunting at first when they got outside the city limits and onto the main highway. When the carriage started to feel small compared to the surroundings was when she truly started to comprehend what the Master was asking of her, and how important her job could be to Miss Bennet. She felt she was up to the task, though. Besides, she had her father there to help, and he always knew what to do if there was trouble.

The Darcy family physician rode in the carriage seat across from the two girls. Dr. Wiggins was a middle-aged, trim-looking man with no living family, and as of yesterday, no patients other than one Miss Elizabeth Bennet. He had known the Darcy family nearly all his life, his own father having been the old Mr. Darcy's doctor since his childhood. The current Dr. Wiggins very much liked this Mr. Darcy and hoped to be able to give him good news, if not that day, then soon in the future. He did not hold too much hope for that, however. Head injuries, such as the one he had heard Miss Elizabeth had suffered, were rarely fully recovered from. He would have to see to make his own judgment, however. He tried not to think of the circumstances that required his presence there, nor that Mr. Darcy was paying his salary carte blanche for the care for the young lady. He also ignored any consideration for what it would mean to the gentleman if the lady did not survive.

Though he and his cousin had ridden alongside the carriage, Darcy was sure to be the one at the door when the carriage finally stopped outside the main entrance to Rosings Park. He waved the hovering groomsman away and opened the door, stepping aside to allow Wiggins to exit before handing Miss Bennet to the ground. He offered her his arm and she accepted it with a grim smile. "If you would accompany me, Miss Bennet, Doctor," he motioned towards the door with his free hand. He led her and the doctor into the front hall, the maid following a respectable distance behind, to where Colonel Fitzwilliam was already obligingly distracting Lady Catherine and Mr. Collins. Mrs. Collins rushed up to Jane and took her free hand and squeezed it by way of greetings. Mr. Darcy made the remaining introduction between Mrs. Collins and the doctor and appropriate salutations were made.

"Lizzy is upstairs, Jane," Mrs. Collins whispered before she eyed Mr. Darcy for a moment. "Perhaps Mr. Darcy, it would be best if I showed them the way to the guest wing?" She gestured with her eyes towards his Aunt, who seemed to be having a fit of rage in the background, during which Mr. Darcy heard his name. Having hoped to see Elizabeth when they arrived, Darcy was disappointed, but he disengaged Miss Bennet's arm with a short apology. Not having his Aunt frighten or insult her guests was of, for the moment, far greater import.

"I will introduce you to my Aunt before supper is served, Miss Bennet." He nodded to the women and shared a look with the doctor before the man turned and followed the two ladies down the hall.

Jane was fairly distraught upon seeing her sister lying in the bed, pale and unmoving except to breathe. It was so unnatural for Lizzy to be so still. So colorless. Normally she was vibrant: always moving around, always doing something with her hands or bobbing her foot under the dinner table when she thought Jane wouldn't see. She often even twitched as she slept, as Jane well knew from years of sharing a room, which her sister was not doing here. Instead of embracing Elizabeht, she turned and leaned her head down onto Charlotte's shoulder, refusing to cry. "She is so still, Charlotte."

Dr. Wiggins had not moved very far into the room, allowing the lady to have a few moments to acclimate to her sister's condition in person before he said anything. Miss Elizabeth had been lying so for nearly two days, and had been seen by another doctor yesterday and so it was unlikely a few more minutes without his examination would significantly change the outcome. He cleared his throat to remind the women of his presence and they moved aside for him in a wordless rustle of fabric.

"Mrs. Collins, I have heard the majority of the story about the accident from Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam," he began, putting his examination bag on a chair next to the head of the bed. He opened it to expose a number of medical devices. He reached for one, but apparently changed his mind and his hand remained empty. "Is there… anything else I should know about?"

Mrs. Collins' head tilted to the side, but she answered, "She has only stirred once, to move her hand sideways, since she was placed there. Lizzy breathes but cannot do anything else for herself."

"Does she have a history of other head injuries? Has she ever fainted? Does she suffer from headaches?"

Jane and Charlotte both thought hard before sharing a doubting look. "Not that she has ever told us, sir. She was always adventuresome, but she never complained of headaches more than any of us," Jane replied, her mouth twitching downwards when she realized she had just used the past tense when referring to her sister's character.

The doctor laid a gentle hand on Elizabeth's left arm, feeling for her pulse, before touching her ankle to check for the same. He repeated this motion on her other limbs before turning to the two ladies. "I am going to perform a few basic tests. This may be challenging to your sensibilities, ladies. I understand if you wish to step outside."

"I will stay, sir, if that is all right by you." Jane had a very un-Jane-like, determined look on her face. Elizabeth had normally been the one to stay with any of their sisters during a doctor's visit, as she could cope with much more. "She would stay in the room for me." Charlotte nodded in agreement, but looped her arm into Jane's for mutual support.

Dr. Wiggins looked between them one more time and gave a curt nod and returned to his work, knowing there were two women watching his every move with rapt attention. He checked Miss Elizabeth's temperature and then listened to her breathing by leaning his head very close in front of her face. After folding the counterpane to the side, he simultaneously inspected her major joints for dislocations while checking for any breaks, bruising or discoloration on her legs, abdomen and arms that would be indicative of any more serious injuries that she had since been unable to tell them of. Aside from a few small cuts and scrapes, a large bruise had appeared on her chest, corroborating the fact that she had been struck with a solid object that had ripped her bodice. Finding no significant injuries, he took a small mallet out of his bag to test her reflexes in her extremities.

His inspection of her lower body complete, he replaced the blanket over her figure and gingerly sat next to her on the bed. He reached upwards and massaged his fingers through her scalp, finding as he had expected a large and rather hard protrusion on the top left side of her head. He made a quick measurement of the size of the welt, and continued his inspection. He slid her eyes open one at a time, and behind him one of the women gasped (but made no other noises) when the white part of Elizabeth's left eye was completely reddened. He then covered each eye with an open hand while carefully holding her eyelid open to check that her pupils would dilate in the darkness and shrink again when he moved his hand away.

He did not mention to the ladies that this was among the most important of the tests that he had done. Other bruises and injuries could be overcome with time, but if her brain was no longer working….

He checked a few other things before taking a small notebook, ink jar and pen from a section of his bag. Dr. Wiggins made a few notes and then just looked at the girl for about a minute, trying to commit the image of her into his mind as best as he could in order to be able to best judge any progress she made in the next few days.

There was a timid knock at the door that connected the bedroom to the parlor. With a look at Jane, Charlotte moved to open it, finding the Darcy maid on the other side. Charlotte slipped out of the room and latched the door. The girl curtsied and asked if she was Mrs. Collins.

"Begging your pardon, ma'am, Lady Catherine has instructed that supper shall be served in one hour. You and Mr. Collins have been invited to stay."

Mrs. Collins glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece and nodded, realizing she did not likely have enough time to return to the parsonage for a true dinner dress. "Thank you. If you will wait by the door there, I will bring Miss Bennet out, and you may help her dress for dinner. Her room is the one opposite this one in the hallway, is it not?"

The girl blushed and looked at the floor. "I think so, ma'am. To be rightly honest, I only just found this room and that took me ten minutes."

Charlotte felt her lips curve up in a small smile despite herself at the servant's effusion. Mr. Darcy had brought this girl from London, she knew, and the girl likely had little to no preparation for this duty. "Well, after today you will have to know how to get there through the servants' halls, but for today, you may walk with Miss Bennet across the hall to her room."

The girl went redder, recognizing the hidden not-quite-reprimand in Mrs. Collins' words. "Thank you ma'am."

She curtsied and moved towards the door, and as she reached it, Mr. Darcy walked into the parlor, red in the face and somewhat worse for wear after conversing with his Aunt; he had clearly raked his hand through his hair at least once, for there were pieces of it at odd angles. He saw Mrs. Collins across the room and came over to her, knowing his doctor had been examining Elizabeth in his absence.

He nodded his head in greeting. "How is she?"

"She is unchanged, sir. The doctor has not yet reported his findings to us," she replied. Darcy nodded and gave a longing glance at the door to the room just before the door opened to reveal the doctor himself, followed by an uncomfortable-looking Jane.

"Mr. Darcy, sir," the doctor stated, inclining his head towards his patron. If he was surprised to find the man waiting anxiously in the attached room, he did not show it. "I have just finished my examination of Miss Elizabeth," he commented despite knowing he was stating the obvious. Mrs. Collins and the eldest Miss Bennet came up behind him, arms hooked together, expectant to hear the verdict as well.

"Before I begin, please wait for me to go through my full explanation before you ask any questions you may have. I have seen a few cases such as this in my time." – he looked around and observed the three peoples' faces as he spoke – "Some of those cases ended positively, others unfortunately have not. I believe that Miss Elizabeth has been severely concussed, though apart from a swelling, a bloodied eye and a bruise, has no other obvious physical injuries. I believe she could wake," – there were three gasps at this – "though, please do not misinterpret me. I do not know when, or truly if, she will do so. Most of these types of cases will be asleep like this for a few days to maybe a week, but some will be asleep for months to years." He looked around again, judging the resolve of his audience, and though the gentleman looked very pale, they all appeared able to continue. "She is young, and from all accounts I have heard, is a very active and fit lady. Her history of good health and a strong constitution make her prognosis more promising than a multitude of others. Unfortunately, there is little I can do to tell the true state of her mind while she is in such a state.

"In such a fortuitous case as she awakens, I must say another thing as well. There is a very small, but not nonexistent, likelihood that she will suffer from temporary or permanent damage. Please understand that I say these things to help prepare you for the possible outcomes, rather than to frighten you."

The two ladies nodded, and Miss Bennet looked down at the floor. Mr. Darcy opened his mouth and closed it again. These were all things he knew, and had heard from his Aunt, but hearing them from the lips of the physician somehow made them more real and more frightening. After a breath, "what type of damage?"

The physician studied the man carefully. From years of treating the Darcy family, Wiggins knew that his patron was normally a very steady man, but the emotional toll from the past days seemed to have worn greatly upon him. "I have seen memory loss of various sorts, and physical and mental impediments within a broad range of severity. However, given that there was no open wound and no apparent fractures or indentations to her skull, I would say the chances of these complications are fairly small. We just do not have enough information on the human mind to be able to predict such things at this point, and it is still too early to tell in any event."

Dinner that evening was a very… interesting affair, given the number and identities of the guests at the table. The party included the two deBourghs, of course, as well as Mrs. Jenkinson, the Collinses, Mr. Darcy and Colonel Fitzwilliam. The newcomers to the table were the eldest Miss Bennet and Dr. Wiggins. In her usual style, Lady Catherine took it upon herself to cross-examine every particular of the lives of her subjects whilst they were intruding upon her domain. Especially those whom she had not known well before.

Dr. Wiggens, whom she had met once before in passing and very briefly at the occasion of the death of Lady Anne Darcy, she was not nearly as interested in as Miss Bennet and who consequently got away with only a few questions on his education and whether he had any other well-known clients. Jane Bennet, whose arrival had been greatly – and loudly – despaired of by Lady Catherine upon previous occasions, managed to take much of the Lady's inquisition with her normal equanimity and calmness, only becoming exasperated once. Much of this steadiness, in light of her current situation and the present circumstances for her arrival, came from the fact that she had been well-prepared for the older woman's ways by Lizzy's letters over the past month or so. Charlotte had also persuaded her to dinner, with the apologetic explanation that any notice Lady Catherine would take to her would be only increased if Jane did not go to dinner that evening and instead waited to meet Lady Catherine over a meal.

"You are Miss Jane Bennet, correct?"

"Yes, Lady Catherine."

"Jane is an awfully common Christian name, it is a wonder your mother did not choose something more singular. You are Miss Elizabeth Bennet's elder sister, is that not correct?" With little change in her expression, Jane nodded, and the Lady continued. "Miss Elizabeth mentioned she is nearly one-and-twenty, so that must make you how old?"

"I will be four-and-twenty in a month, Lady Catherine."

"Oh my, four-and-twenty! I was married much younger than that, as were nearly every gentle-born woman I know. You are quite near on the shelf." Lady Catherine did not see, or did not pay attention to, any of the reddened or angered faces belonging to most of the rest of her dinner guests. "And with so little fortune to speak of, as well."

Jane, ever a pleasant conversationalist at home, had no response for this and looked into her soup to try to collect a few words in a string. Mr. Darcy was seated across from Jane and could see the distressed expression on her otherwise serene face. He may not have thought much of her heart, but he would ever acknowledge her as kind, and undeserving of such scrutiny on his Aunt's part. He was also growing more annoyed with the current line of questioning, given he also knew Lady Catherine's own daughter was more than two years older than Jane, spoke up to try to change the subject to any item that could be described as pleasanter, but Lady Catherine would have none of it.

"I am asking the girl valid questions, Darcy," Lady Catherine defended, wiping her mouth daintily and ignoring her daughter's crossed eyebrows: those were Mrs. Jenkinson's area of concern. She continued again, "why are you not yet married? It is not as if you are not pretty, and your voice seems pretty enough. You must sing for us later."

Darcy watched Miss Bennet's face during his Aunt's words, and the younger lady made eye contact with him very briefly, signaling she was able to answer. "I thank you for the compliment on my voice and appearance, Lady Catherine, but I must own to not being of a good disposition to sing this evening."

Eyebrows raised, Lady Catherine acknowledged this as a good consideration, in light of her younger sister's health, though she was not to be distracted. "But why have you not yet married? You spent the winter in Town, did you not?"

Jane was silent a few moments. "I did spend these last few months in Town, Lady Catherine, with my Aunt and Uncle and their children."

"You should well have been able to find a suitable man for a husband while you were in Town, what with dinner engagements, balls and such."

Jane's cheeks went pale, something that only Colonel Fitzwilliam noticed from his seat next to her. "Our acquaintance in Town is not that large, Lady Catherine. I met a number of amiable gentlemen, to be sure, though I did not find one in particular that interested me in that way."

"One that interested you in that way? Are your standards that high? You should certainly think about lowering them, even though your hair is somewhat pretty for being blonde."

Darcy and Fitzwilliam both blanched at this last statement by their Aunt. That was low, even for her normal line of questioning. Anne chose this moment to begin to cough, and soon her mother's attention was fixed again on her daughter for most of the rest of the evening, the time spent enumerating all the praises that could be seen in that area, namely to Darcy.

Jane went back to eating her soup, her eyes down and tearing up. Mr. Collins, who had even found that comment slightly over-reaching for the fairest of his cousins, managed to start a conversation with the doctor with the aid of his wife. Darcy met his cousin's suspicious eye.

Miss Bennet removed herself from the parlor after dinner as quickly as possible, making her good-nights in order to spend time her sister. Jane spent the rest of the evening at her sister's bedside doing little besides holding her sister's unmoving hand, knowing there was little she could do aside from sitting there and praying for her sister's speedy recovery. Ever the optimist, Jane could only hope her sister would be fine, given the not-terrible review of her condition by Dr. Wiggins. The doctor came in at one point in the evening to check on Miss Elizabeth, and found, as he expected, no change in her. He recommended to Mr. Darcy, who again passed the time the doctor was seeing to Miss Elizabeth in the hallway pacing, that a servant should be set to watch over Miss Elizabeth during the night when Miss Bennet was not able. Giving in to the idea that she must also rest and keep up her own health, Jane allowed Sarah to prepare her for bed when it was an appropriate time.

However, Miss Bennet could find no rest in the room that she had been given. She had no qualms with the accommodations, of course, she just could not rest thinking her sister may wake up and need her. Crossing the hall in her dressing gown, she relieved the servant that was seated there and stayed in her sister's room for much of the night.

The next morning Jane woke up, called for Sarah, and rather than facing Lady Catherine's scrutiny after not sleeping much the previous night, asked for a breakfast tray to be brought to the parlor attached to Elizabeth's room.