Awakening, a pride and prejudice fanfic

Author's Note: This is my third fanfiction portraying Elizabeth & Darcy. I'd like to thank the people who were kind enough to review 'Distraction' and 'Reunion', your comments were greatly appreciated and I hope you enjoy this third companion piece.

Summary: (Complete) A third small, intimate interlude between Elizabeth and Darcy; revelations and assurances occur during a loving moment between husband and wife.

Disclaimer: Pride & Prejudice belongs to Jane Austen; I claim no rights, other than having an obsession with strong and tall, dark men that find everything disdainful.

Awakening.

Elizabeth could sense his stare.

The dark eyes she had come to regard as the most handsomest in the country were, at present, locked in the joy of regarding her features as she slept.

Some would find such intrusions bothersome at such an early hour, but she did not seem to care a wit. Not at all. In fact, she rather enjoyed her husband's gentle awakenings; his probing gaze as he caught her during her most vulnerable state. In the time between twilight and dawn, Elizabeth felt remarkably safe as she slept by his side and from the first time they had shared their bed, she had come to anticipate the intense gaze that would most assuredly pull her away from the comforting embrace that sleep had rendered.

She never questioned his motives for such actions before this day, but after enduring her husband's stare every morning for the four months since their marriage, she had become far too curious to allow him to continue without a further explanation.

Slowly, the full lashes of Elizabeth's eyes fluttered open to the bleary sight of her husband's striking face as it loomed above her. She smiled up at him and received a dimpled smirk and raised brow in return. "Good morning," she breathed, shifting slowly beneath the heavy covers that protected her from the winter's chill.

"Good morning," Darcy replied absently as he softly pushed a dark curl away from her eye.

Elizabeth sighed contentedly as his lips found her temple. Wriggling closer to his warmth beneath the covers, she held back a large grin. "May I ask you a question?" She whispered dubiously, afraid to the break the stillness of the morning with her loud voice.

Darcy drew back with a thoughtful expression, "You may," he responded superiorly.

"Why do you look at me thus; in the same manner, every morning?"

"You would prefer that I did not?"

Darcy's deflated demeanour made Elizabeth sit up and graze her fingers across his pronounced jaw. "Nay, not at all; quite the contrary I assure you!" She paused, "I simply wish to know what fascinates you so greatly about my appearance in the morning... Or is so frightening to your eye that you can find no rest?" She teased, unconsciously fearful of what his answer might be.

A chuckle was her only response as Darcy leaned in closer to place a small but warm kiss upon her cheek. A tremor washed through her form at this loving gesture. "Nothing about your appearance is frightening," he finally said with a dashing smile.

"Oh? Nothing at all?"

"Indeed," he remarked offhandedly, "Quite the reverse, my dear wife. It appears that I can no longer begin my day without looking upon your peaceful repose."

Elizabeth's brow furrowed as she allowed silence to descend between them.

The caress of her husband's thumb up her forehead, as he smoothed out the worried line, started her from her reverie. "Dearest Elizabeth," he murmured eventually, "So much pain has been endured on both our parts, that every time I awaken, I fear our life together is but a dream."

Elizabeth tilted her head as she looked at her husband in a new light.

And as he gathered her into his unyielding arms, she felt a new peace descend upon them. A new understanding. Drawing a small circle upon his chest, where his beating heart lay, she was overcome with such gratitude and love. "I know we have suffered much in our quest to be united but this is no dream; our struggles ensure that our life together is embedded in truth, not in the world of reveries," she comforted.

He chuckled dryly. "Yet I still fear that a day will come when I shall rise from this dream, and that you will be gone from my side... It is why I look at you thus every morning, to be sure that you are there and have not faded away into the mists of time; to be sure that I am not alone."

"Never," Elizabeth stated adamantly. Taking his hands, she held them firmly to her dimpled cheeks. "You will awaken every day, and you shall find me beside you. If there is one thing I am certain of, it is that I shall always endeavour to be by your side."

Darcy nodded solemnly, a twinkle lighting his eye. "Then hence forth, I shall have many good awakenings..." And with that, he drew her closer to further ensure that he was not trapped within a dream; and that the image of his wife was, in every possible way, firm to his wandering lips and gentle hands.

Fin.

Reviews are welcome.