Enjoy - next chapter will conclude the story. Thank you to everyone for commenting and liking this story. Based on how close I am to finishing, please do not comment with grammar tweaks, spelling errors etc. I'm sorry for these and I hope they don't ruin your reading experience. I won't at this stage be engaging a beta reader.

It was well after midnight. The seconds ticked by on the grandfather clock in the hallway and aside from the crackling fire nothing stirred. Darcy had arrived home a little after 6pm. He had originally committed to showing up at his aunts party, but after a long flight and torturous afternoon flight she could wait.

What couldn't wait was Elizabeth and William. He hadn't known what he was going to say, he had just driven to their house and hoped words wouldn't fail him. But, no one was home. The barn was empty and her car wasn't there.

He had waited … one … two … three … four agonising hours. They never returned.

It had sent him into a downward spiral. He couldn't stop the growing dread that gnawed at him, the one he couldn't confront - what if they had moved on.

A bottle of Whiskey later and Darcy sat in the chair closest to the fire, transfixed by the flames which flickered through the amber liquid.

"I met them." Out of the darkness came a familiar male voice, rousing Darcy from his melancholy.

"You are persistent," Darcy growled. He had been ignoring calls from Georgiana and Richard all evening. He wanted to be left alone.

"Oh come on Darcy play-along, aren't you going to ask me who I met?"

"That's something I would only ask if I cared. What part of ignoring your calls feels like an invitation to come over?"

Undeterred, Richard dropped onto the couch opposite, helping himself to a Whiskey and then folding back into the chair.

"You are staying then," Darcy rhetorically spat out.

"You are in a delightful mood. Has jet-lag rubbed you up the wrong way? Or perhaps you haven't been rubbed recently and that's the problem?"

A pillow landed squarely against Richard's head.

"Aunty missed you today. We all did."

Darcy glared over at Richard through his thick eyebrows. The glow of the fire making Darcy look more beast than man.

"If you have come to deliver the latest gossip from Rosing's Park, save it for someone who cares. I am not in the mood."

Richard sighed, "that is a pity. It was certainly a more colourful affair. I met that woman I told you about. You know, the one that left me standing there holding the coffees – fine eyes, tight arse, a smile that could launch a thousand ships, a body that would make any man come … home."

Darcy didn't bite. He continued staring into his glass. The silence stretching on.

"Anyway, it turns out she is taken or rather, she's involved and it is complicated. I think in time she could come to love me which is a real shitter because it turns out she loves," Richard drained his glass, slammed it on the table and poured himself another, which he promptly knocked back, squaring his shoulders to Darcy before whispering "you."

Darcy's head shot up, his eyebrows drawing together and saying the words he couldn't bring himself to speak out loud.

"Yes Darcy, I met your Elizabeth today …"

"and …"

"and William. Doesn't take a genius to figure out who his father is. That kid has certainly mastered the Darcy glare."

"How?"

"How did I know? Georgie told me. I wish you could have trusted me with that titbit of information."

"She had no right to tell you about them."

"Darcy – we have fallen for the same woman. The woman I was telling you about months ago in the coffee shop, that was her. There has barely been a morning I haven't woken up without her on my mind. All these years you were right - she's incredible. Vulnerable. Soft. Caring. Kind. Vibrant. Witty. Hot. Beautiful. The stuff wet dreams are made of."

"Richard," Darcy gritted out in warning.

"The difference is – I met her son for the first-time today and I saw you staring back at me. I could have dismissed it for coincidence if Georgie hadn't spent all afternoon with them. Sharing secrets like sisters. Georgie protected them in the lion's den. How could you leave her? Them? What were you thinking?" Richard clenched his fists unconsciously, his eyes glued to Darcy.

"Leave them … Richard until a few months ago I didn't even know William existed."

"So you've known for a few months that he did and you still went to Japan."

"Elizabeth told me to go and besides she hid William from me. I found out he existed by sheer fluke."

"Because she probably figured you'd leave them … and you did."

"That's not fair."

"What's fair about loving someone? You don't get a scorecard in love. Fuck, Darcy - I could love that woman and I'm certain I could make her happy, but for whatever fucked up reason, you're the only one who will make them happy."

Like predators circling one another, Richard and Darcy locked eye contact before the anguish filled Darcy's eyes and he finally said what had been troubling him. "What if I let them down?" Years of therapy from losing his parents young and that was the best he could come up with.

"I have missed so much already. I have a son who doesn't know who I am. How do I make up for lost time? Where do I even start?"

"With a Hello … the rest will be easy."