The next thing Darcy knew, she was driving home. She rode out the rest of the night at her aunt's dinner on autopilot. On the outside, she was calm, cool, collected, the picture of poise and rigidity. On the inside, her mind was reeling, screaming, beating against the walls of her brain at the wealth of injustices done not only to herself but to her family, the people she loved, the people she had worked hard to protect.

Any tears Darcy might have spared at the emotional hit she had taken at Eli's words had dried up by the time Darcy let herself into the quiet house that awaited her. Her room was dark but she didn't dare turn on the light. She might see something that reminded her of the emotional ordeal she had just survived and Darcy had enough reminders blaring in her head.

She didn't even change. Why bother? She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep. And sleep, she did not.

Her mind picked over every word Eli said, ran through the tape of his indignation over and over again, finding flaw after flaw with his perception of her, what he believed to be true. Everything he said Darcy could write off as false. Well, almost everything. It was that one percent of truth that kept Darcy from sleeping.

She was tired when the morning sun finally drifted into her bedroom. Her eyelids were bricks and Darcy feared she might not be able to keep her head up straight for the entire day. At least she had free period to take a nap.

As tired as she was, though, Darcy would have had to be dead to notice the dark cloud hanging over Charlie. Her usual bubbly self was nowhere to be found. Instead of a smile, a frown hung from her lips, along with a scowl she must have picked up from Darcy.

Since Darcy noticed Charlie's foul mood, it was easy to spot its twin from where it resided on Jamie's face. She spotted it the second they entered the crowded hallways of Meriton Charter. Charlie's cloud of gloom had a sibling and it was floating over Jamie.

Darcy watched as Charlie and Jamie met eyes, looked away, glanced back, and then looked away for the final time. Darcy's guilt roiled in her stomach. Her restlessness from the night before came back in a large tidal wave that threatened to engulf her.

No, not every Eli had said the night before had been false. Darcy wasn't the one who had hurt Jamie but she hadn't stopped Charlie from doing it.

Darcy avoided Eli's eyes, something she didn't need to do as he refused to even look her way. With her head down and her books clutched tight to her chest, Darcy focused on making it through the day without screaming. Or crying.

She didn't bother to look over her shoulder as she drifted from class to class to the library for lunch and then back to class. She didn't need to know where Gina was. Her laugh seemed to bounce off the very walls around Darcy, echoing out of Darcy's head. No matter where she went, there went Gina as well.

Darcy was dreading English class, had been since the moment she had fallen into bed and realized that she would have to see Eli again. Not only face him but sit next to him for an entire class period.

Taking deep breaths as she entered Miss Austin's classroom, Darcy found she had nothing to worry about. Eli had requested a change of seat. Someone new was now sitting in his spot and he was sitting three places away. The two of them had ample room for their twin walls of silence to fill the space between them.

For the first time all year, the quiet in the library was not a comfort to Darcy. The silence felt deafening and too similar to the tense quiet she'd had to suffer through from Eli all through English class.

When the bell rang in the library to signify the start of Darcy's free period, she didn't move. Didn't even flinch. She sat in her seat at her usual chair and stared at the wall of books opposite. She had lost. Gina had won.

Eli hated her. Charlie was miserable and Darcy had a feeling angry at her, as well, for her part in her misery. George was gone. Darcy hadn't spoken to her father in months. Suddenly the weight of her loneliness came crashing down upon her.

But as she slouched in her chair, the guilt burned a hole in her stomach started to change, morph, into something different, something familiar, something almost... comforting.

Darcy felt the anger start to spread through her veins, up her spine, and awaken her brain. Righteous anger. Just anger. Anger at the one person who had gone out of her way to make Darcy's life a living hell.

"Wickham," Darcy muttered, with all the venom she possessed.

Gina had won. There was no denying that. But if Gina had won, then Darcy had nothing else to lose. Eli already hated her. Charlie's relationship with Jamie was no longer in existence. Gina had nothing left to hurt Darcy with.

If Darcy was going to accept defeat, she was going to have to go down with a fight. It was the only way her pride would allow it.

As the second bell rang, Darcy finally reached for her messenger bag, pulling out not her homework or study materials but a notebook. Opening a fresh page, Darcy started writing.

It was the summer after Darcy's junior year. Henry and Lois had plans to make it an extra special summer that year. They were all aware that it was the last before Carson, George and Darcy would be graduating and therefore heading off to college or summer internships. The three of them leaving, moving on.

They all had an agreement. It was to be a Cape Cod summer. No work. No school. No studying. Carson had no problem with the plan as his new school of Meriton Charter wasn't as heavy on the summer studies as Netherfield was but Charlie and Henry took some convincing. He took a sabbatical from his real estate firm for the season and Lois passed on her responsibilities to one of her team at Pemberley Gallery. They packed up the car and headed south the day after school let out.

Darcy was the first out of the car when they pulled through the gates of the Bingley's summer home. Gina was there waiting for them, squealing as Darcy crossed the driveway and wrapped her best friend up in a tight squeeze. It didn't matter that they had seen each other the day before, the excitement was for the summer to come.

Darcy couldn't recall meeting Gina but it must have been during one of her early summers with the Bingleys, running around the pool with floaty wings on or racing the waves down on the beach. Gina was simply there. Always there. Gina was the Cape for Darcy.

Gina's mother, Marianne Wickham, was a single mother who had worked as house manager for the Bingleys since before Carson had been born. Marianne and Gina lived in a small rental in town when the Bingleys were at the Cape but most of the time Gina slept in the spare bedroom.

Darcy and Gina had grown up together. Charlie had become their third and they formed a trio. With Carson and George, the five of them were inseparable. And this summer was due to be the best one yet.

George didn't have music camp or private lessons, Charlie had no scholastic commitments. It was to be the summer of the five of them. Together. All summer.

Henry and Lois had a surprise for George and Darcy that put a kink in their summer plans. Their second morning at the Cape, a taxi pulled into the driveway. Everyone was curious but Henry and Lois made it so that only George and Darcy went outside to greet their new guest.

With brown curls going in each direction and dark bags under his eyes, Marco Williams squinted first up at the high summer sun overhead and then down at his children. It was a long moment between the three of them before George and Darcy slowly approached. It was stiff and awkward until Marco opened his arms wide. George and Darcy ran crashing into their father's embrace.

Marco was there for the summer. It had multiple long-distance phone calls between him and Lois but she had finally convinced him. It was hard to argue with the fact that he had never spent more than two weeks with his kids.

The next few days, fighting off jet lag, Marco wouldn't appear from his apartment over the garage until late into the afternoon. That left Darcy loitering around the house waiting for him to appear for hours when she could have run off with Gina and the rest of them when they planned a day in town or an afternoon down on the beach.

Each time Gina pulled on Darcy's arm to get her to follow, George was there, talking Gina down, trying to explain what this meant to Darcy. Gina stopped asking, eventually, and instead turned to George as her summer companion.

It took a few days for the dark bags under Marco's eyes to ease up. And for his accent to ease up as his Italian accent was thickest at the beginning as it always was when he was jet-lagged. Every time he entered the kitchen to get something to eat, there Darcy was determined to be.

She knew seeing a living image of your dead wife wasn't the easiest way to wake up but it had been fourteen years. Darcy was tired of hiding away from her father.

Their relationship was slow at first. Her questions were hesitant, his answers even more so. But it didn't take too long before they started a natural flow of conversation. Darcy's work at the gallery had taught her how to understand great art, how to talk about it, seek it out. And Marco could tell.

First, he showed her how his portfolio had expanded since Christmas. Next, he showed her his current project: a series of shots of Macchu Picchu from his hiking trip in Peru for National Geographic. And then, one day Darcy could still remember as the best day of her life, Marco asked her to join him on a little drive. There was a gallery he wanted to check out, a local talent he needed to consider for the gallery.

Darcy said yes without a second thought. And so began her summer with her father.

They were inseparable. Took drives all through the Cape, exploring its natural beauty. Marco still had work to do but he brought Darcy along with him. They even took a trip down to New York once and spent the day in the city.

Darcy got to learn what her dad's life was like from the inside, not just through check-in emails. He mentioned something, that day in New York, that Darcy knew would change her life forever.

"You should come with me, sometime. You're a good travel companion."

From then on, Darcy's thoughts of college paled in comparison with working side by side with her father, collecting art for her family's gallery, carrying on her mother's legacy.

Back at the Cape, the summer was taking an interesting turn there as well. Darcy wouldn't find out until much later but, with Darcy away with her father, George and Gina got a chance to really get to know each other, to connect. In a way, Darcy would never have seen coming.

They did everything in secret, even holding hands under the table during dinner so no one would see. If they sneaked out, it was long after everyone had gone to bed. No one knew what was happening. And no one would find out why it was happening until it was too late.

Out of gratitude for Marianne Wickham's decades of service to the Bingley family, Henry and Lois had offered to pay Gina's way through Netherfield Prep, including room and board so she could stay on campus during the week and even covered transportation fees so she could commute back and forth to the Cape to visit her mother on the weekends.

Somewhere, in all these arrangements, there was a misunderstanding. A mis-hearing, mis-comprehending. Either way, Gina had gotten it into her head that not only were the Bingleys paying for her private education, but they would be paying for her college as well. Of course, they would. Gina never doubted this thought for a second.

Until that summer, when she started mentioning places she would be applying to in the fall and whether or not the Bingleys agreed with her choices because they would be paying her way.

Something shifted in Gina the day she found out she had been wrong all this time. The shift formed cracks that would take the summer to finally show.

The Bingleys would not be paying for her college. They had Carson, George, and Darcy's tuition to cover, all at once. They couldn't afford to. And they were very sorry for the misunderstanding.

Gina smiled as best she could, nodded, placated to their guilt, and left the room, the fake smile still plastered to her face, her eyes taking on a glassy stare. She didn't think about anything else for two weeks.

And then she remembered. If the Bingleys weren't going to pay, then surely the Pemberleys would. Why, she was best friends with the Great Katherine Pemberley's only living relatives. They had that scholarship fund. She was a shoo-in.

With Darcy busy with their father, George no longer had anyone to go visit his great aunt with. When Gina offered to accompany him, he was thrilled. Gina spent the summer smiling, charming, winning over the old bat, spending countless hours in her stuffy drawing-room that had no air conditioning and windows that were painted shut. She had suffered for that money but at least she could say she had earned it with the amount of hot tea and stale cake she ate with the old woman.

Gina broke, for good, when Katherine made it known that no one connected to the family was eligible for the scholarship fund. Not just genetically, but friends and romantic partners were discouraged from applying as well and would be disqualified if it was determined they were connected to the Pemberley family at all.

It was a smart rule. It kept people like Gina from doing exactly what she was trying to do. She had run out of options. She was desperate. She was determined.

Darcy knew this had been her best summer yet and was disappointed for the first time in her life when her father finally had to move on. There were promises of quicker email responses and a long visit at Christmas. The Bingleys waved goodbye as he drove away and then turned back to pack up the house. They were headed back to the city. School started the next week.

With their relationship still a secret, Gina grasped at the last straw she had at any chance of a future. Once back home, Gina waited a day or two and then convinced George to sneak out with her. He was headed off to music boarding school soon and they would no longer be attending school together. It was their final hurrah.

Darcy learned the details of that fateful night months later, once George was able to swallow his embarrassment and pride enough to retell it for her.

The first red flag should have been that Gina wanted to stop by Netherfield. At ten o'clock at night. George didn't believe her story of needing to pick something up but couldn't say anything to protest as she had grabbed a black duffle bag from the back seat and was already racing off to the dark campus before George could open his mouth. She had taken the keys with her. He was miles from home and he had left his cell phone back at the house.

And so he waited.

While he waited, Gina broke into the school and did an excellent job of vandalizing the gym. It was spray paint in her duffle bag and when she was done, she signed George's name and stuffed the duffle into his old locker.

When speeding away from the scene of the crime, Gina made sure to drive so the passenger side of the car sped past the exterior security cameras and caught George on tape. After their escapade at the school, George hoped they would be returning home but Gina had still one more thing to take care of. Speeding south down the highway, George tighten his seat belt and held on as Gina raced towards the Cape.

He refused to get out of the car when she finally came to a stop just down the street from the Bingleys now empty house.

"I'm staying here," George insisted.

"Fine," Gina replied. "I'll go have all the fun all by myself."

George watched as she hopped the fence and walked casually across the empty driveway, pulling a set of keys from her back pocket and opening the door. She turned on all the lights and started blaring music through the sound system. George could just barely see, through the living room windows, that she was simultaneously trashing the place and dancing to the music.

The cops arrived first (Gina had forgotten to disarm the security system), Darcy, Lois, and Henry arrived soon after. Lois had been awoken by a call from the school. Gina had set off an alarm there, as well.

Darcy stood gaping at the mess Gina had made in the living room, unable to move. George placed his arm around her. Darcy didn't even think to ask questions. When she finally did look up, Gina was wearing a wide grin but the glint in her eyes spoke of danger.

"What would you like us to do with her, Ma'am?"

The police officer addressed Lois but Lois looked to Darcy and George. It was the moment Darcy regretted more than anything else in her entire life.

She looked to her brother, who couldn't meet her eye, then looked to the person she had considered a friend for most of her life. The choice should have been easy. But still, Darcy made the wrong one.

"Let her go. This is just a prank. Nothing more."

Gina rubbed her now freed wrists and met Darcy's eyes with a cold glare as her smile refused to waver. The sight sent a chill down Darcy's spine.

The repercussions of that night took weeks to sort out. George was already moving on from Netherfield and so he wouldn't be expelled. It was only his excellent record and the full debriefing from the Bingleys of what had happened that night that kept the principal of Netherfield from placing mention of his involvement in the vandalism on his permanent record.

Gina, however, was a different story. They had video evidence of her doing the damage. Even if they hadn't, Netherfield had a strict goodwill behavior policy that was triggered when Gina broke into the house on the Cape. Gina was expelled from Netherfield.

The Bingleys had no choice but to let Marianne go. She was given a generous severance package, along with a glowing recommendation and a job interview for a position in Meriton, close to where Gina would now be attending school.

As the details fit into place, Darcy could feel herself finally start to breathe again. She didn't have to show up to Netherfield every day and seen Gina, remember the look on her face when they got to the house, remember the look of shame her brother refused to take off. The way it was panning out, Darcy would never have to see Gina Wickham again.

The bell rang. Darcy didn't have time to write anything else. She didn't need to. Eli knew the rest.

She folded the piles of papers while shaking out her hand, her fingers cramped from writing. Halfway through her words had gotten sloppy, messy, the words cramped. Darcy could only hope they were still legible as she grabbed her bag and raced for the lockers.

She slid the letter into Eli's locker without a second thought, no time to second guess herself as he might appear with the crowds that were pouring out of their classrooms.

Darcy waited for Charlie by the car instead of her locker as she didn't want to be anywhere nearby when Eli opened his.

As her sister approached, Darcy's guilt returned. Charlie's eyes were low-cast, her walk slow, her shoulders hunched.

The anger had been burned away with every word Darcy wrote. But it had done nothing for her guilt.

She hesitated before starting the car. Charlie looked over at her for the first time all day.

"What are you waiting for? Let's go."

Darcy took a deep breath. Her hands gripped the steering wheel.

"Charlie, I was wrong. Forgive me. Please."

"What? Wrong about what?"

Darcy turned to meet her friend's gaze. Charlie looked away at first but when Darcy didn't speak until she looked back.

"I was wrong about you and Jamie. He is important. He's important to you, Charlie. You need to call him and set things right."

A/N:

Anyone else get like hella fired up when thinking about what Gina did to our boy George?

He is precious and must be protected at all costs!!

So. What did we think of the chapter? Darcy starting to make a little bit more sense as to why she is like super closed off?

I sure hope so. Anyway. Meme time!!