This is going to be a rewrite of a story I started four years ago. It's partially based on the story of Andy Warhol and other individuals who were part of a place known as the Factory, where many films, music, and artwork were created in 1960s New York. I've written this to see how Jane Austen's characters, especially Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, would be like as part of both the pop art scene and the sexual revolution of the sixties, so expect some mature content. Also, in sticking true to the facts regarding Warhol and other Factory members, Mr. Darcy will be bisexual in this story, but he will still get together with Elizabeth at some point. There will also be some shift in setting between the sixties and present day, for reasons which you'll soon learn for yourselves. I hope you'll all enjoy this new version of the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Pride and Prejudice or anything else by Jane Austen

Ch 1: Universal Truths in Changing Times

Netherfield, New Jersey, June 1967

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the 1960s marked a major shift in the way relationships worked between men and women.

While twenty years before, marriage seemed to be the only suitable way for them to be brought together permanently, with rigid expectations of the hardworking man and the refined housewife being imposed upon teenagers as soon as their parents found it suitable for them to learn about their places within society, this decade seemed to bring in the loosening of these old traditions and to usher in a new era in which men and women could go their own way when it came to romantic relationships.

Whether this was a good or bad thing, however, depended very much upon the individuals and their choices. And twenty-one-year-old Elizabeth Bennet hadn't been making the wisest choices, which was part of the reason why she decided to move to New York City and join one of the most talked about places in the art world: William Darcy's Pemberley Studio.

On the day she was to leave, her whole family, even her older sister Jane, who was heavily occupied by preparations for her college graduation festivities, accompanied her to the busy train station in downtown Netherfield.

Mrs. Susanne Bennet, who carried nothing except a black leather purse while most of her family carried at least one of Elizabeth's belongings, used this as an opportunity to remind her second oldest daughter of what she believed truly mattered for young women. "My dear Lizzie, once you do find work in the city, remember to always fix yourself up in the mornings and keep your work clothes neat and washed. No man would even bother looking at you if they saw the way you go running around in the mornings with your clothes all wrinkled up and your face without a trace of makeup. You could manage to win over your boss if you do this, and just imagine all that could follow!"

"Please don't go around giving her ideas, Susie," Mr. Maxwell Bennet, who was holding his daughter's red suitcase, said. "After all the trouble Elizabeth had with the Peck boy, do you really thank another boyfriend is the right thing for her right now? And you better not hope she wins over the boss. If they ever do manage to have relationships with the girls they hire, marriage is usually the last thing on their minds."

"Max, watch what you're saying! Katie and Lydia are right beside us," Mrs. Bennet said, acting as if her twin daughters were still six instead of seventeen. The twins, who both carried armfuls of Seventeen and Vogue, responded by rolling their eyes and turning up their noses, imitating each other perfectly.

Except for the fact that Lydia was three inches taller than Katie, those two girls were alike in almost every way, with the same dark hair that went down to their upper backs, the same love for bands like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, the same careless attitude towards school and work, and the same obsession with boys which their mother had pushed towards them since they were entering kindergarten. Mrs. Bennet deemed Lydia to be the best amongst the two, since she was taller and better at getting the attention of the boys than Katie was, but Elizabeth sometimes felt as if they didn't have a trace of individuality and would always follow each other's silly ways even if it got them in trouble.

"I think you're both acting perfectly ridiculous," Elizabeth said to her parents, speaking up for the first time since their arrival at the train station. "Just because I had one disastrous relationship with a boy doesn't mean I'm doomed to have another one. And Mother, no matter what you say, I'm not going around husband hunting in New York. It's not 1945 anymore. Most women nowadays aren't rushing around to get married in their early twenties and have four or five kids."

"Now who said anything about having a dozen children? I just want you to be comfortably settled with someone to support you, just as I was after marrying your father when I was nineteen. With you having dropped out of college, you won't be able to at least have a teaching job to fall back on as Jane will, and the longer you wait for a man to propose, the less interested they'll be in you," Mrs. Bennet insisted.

"Very encouraging, Mother," Elizabeth said sarcastically.

As far as her parents knew, she was going to be joining an old college friend and looking for a job as a secretary or typist in one of the big Manhattan business centers. There was no way they would approve of her taking part in the Pemberley Studio, which was said to attract dozens of young bohemians who were searching for a quick way to gain fame as artists, actors, or musicians. Since Elizabeth had been involved in theater throughout her whole time in school, and even planned on majoring in it while in college (which her father had disapproved of but which her mother had encouraged because she'd believed it might help her win over a successful actor by the time she graduated), she planned to demonstrate her acting talents to William Darcy and eventually win a role in one of his experimental films, which dealt with everything from men who slept for six hours to young adventurous women meeting up with friends at cafes.

"Now Mother, many secretaries manage to do very well for themselves if they work hard enough. Lizzie has always been quite self- sufficient when she's motivated, even more so than myself sometimes, so I think she'll be just fine over there on her own," Jane said, having always been the peacekeeper in the family.

In fact, Jane was the only one who knew where Elizabeth was actually going. It was she who knew most of her sister's biggest secrets, from how she'd switched her after school activity from Girl Scouts to children's theatre at the YMCA when she was nine years old, to how she started seeing an aspiring actor from Vancouver named Orson Peck (or so he claimed his name was upon meeting Elizabeth) at her college, believing herself to have finally found the man she loved, and going so far as to lose her virginity to him. And when their relationship ended six months later, with Orson threatening to blackmail her by giving a false history of her past relationships to other students to clear his own name if he was threatened with expulsion, Elizabeth decided to drop out as a result, going over to Jane's college twenty miles away and giving her the whole story behind the awful relationship. Unlike their parents, Jane rarely resorted to making hasty judgements on people based on their mistakes.

And a year later, after Elizabeth dedicated herself to working as a waitress at a diner (a job which she hated), she'd eagerly shown Jane an article in Vogue about William Darcy. Despite being only thirty-one, he was already considered the most influential living artist in America, having become famous after some of his work, much of which featured multiple images of the same person or figure, was displayed in a special exhibition in 1962. In a large picture of him standing next an Elizabeth Taylor painting, he was dressed all in black, with his eyes kept hidden by large sunglasses. Jane thought he looked a bit handsome, but Elizabeth could only think about how mysterious he seemed, as if there was something he wanted to hide from the world.

According to Darcy, these figures and persons, which included Hershey Bars and soup cans and people like Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy, were supposed to represent the country's obsession with advertising and celebrities. "We see all these glamorous stars and seemingly boring objects every day in our own homes, whether through boxes we buy at the grocery store and posters we hang on our bedroom walls, or through television in the form of commercials, movies, and shows. We love the celebrities, but think little of the boxes and cans once we've finished eating out of them, and yet we see them both so many times that we lose track, sometimes even side by side during commercials. I could probably count how many times I see my aunt or sister on a regular basis, but I can never remember how often I've seen Liz Taylor's pictures, or a Hershey's bar, because they can appear anywhere," he said as part of the magazine's interview.

Of course, it was the final part calling for Darcy's need for new actors for the movies he was working on and even including the Pemberley Studio's address which had excited Elizabeth. The article didn't include any information on pay or even how long the actors would be wanted, but it did say that living accommodations would be provided for by Darcy himself, since Pemberley Studio included several spare rooms which he was willing to let actors and other artists use for free so long as they were working with him.

"I have to go there, Jane. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity," Elizabeth told her sister once she'd read through the whole article.

"But Lizzie, how much do you even know about William Darcy and all these other people who work for him? It doesn't sound like a good idea to join a group without having a good idea of what you'll be getting yourself into," Jane said.

"Everyone there will be working towards a creative career, with most of them just getting started like myself. As far as all these articles are concerned, everyone at the Pemberley Studio is serious about what they want to do, and some of them turn out becoming very successful, like the stars of Darcy's most recent film Afternoons in a Diner. One Hollywood director liked it so much that he hired two of the actresses to star in a high budget romantic comedy coming out next year. If that's how it goes, then I think it must be the right place for me," Elizabeth said.

"Mother and Dad aren't going to be pleased about this," Jane insisted.

"I'll tell them that I'm meeting up with a friend in the city, which is actually my backup plan if this somehow fails. But what I can't do is stay here in the suburbs waiting on customers while Mom goes around trying to pick a husband for me. The world's changing right before our eyes, and I want to be a part of it. If I don't, I feel as if there won't be anything else I can do. I might just be doomed to be a failure forever," Elizabeth said.

"Well, if you say so," Jane said. "But don't go around making any hasty decisions like you did in college. If you're serious about being an actress, you have to know for sure what your priorities are, and you must push aside anything you know will get in your way."

And as Elizabeth said her last goodbyes to her family, she didn't have any plans to stray away from Jane's advice. For one thing, she assumed that most of her time at Pemberley would be spend working. At college, half of the coursework consisted of reading thirty pages of the textbook and writing reports on theatrical productions held at the local theater, with only a portion of the classes dedicated to actual performing. She'd gotten bored with this routine so quickly that it was impossible to say no to having a relationship with the first guy who showed interest in her. But if she was actually performing, she would give her whole heart to giving a perfect performance, with little else in mind.

Also, according to rumors, Darcy wasn't out there looking for relationships either. In fact, he'd even admitted to still being a virgin in a past interview. The media always portrayed him as a very private person, and besides the occasion photo of him with one of his stars, the only woman he was ever seen with on a regular basis was his younger sister Georgiana. So, if her mother ever asked her if she managed to win over her boss, Elizabeth could easily say that it was out of the question.

"Goodbye, Lizzie! Be sure to send a letter soon telling me what the men you're working with are like," Mrs. Bennet said.

"Be sure to save as much as you can so you can come visit us, and please don't follow your mother's advice," Mr. Bennet said.

"And get us tickets for any of the rock concerts while you're at it," Lydia said.

"Yeah. And be sure to buy them early or else they sell out," Katie said.

"Good luck, Lizzie," was all Jane said through the rest of the family's chorus.

Elizabeth gave a small wave and called out, "Goodbye, everyone!" before walking into the train, but with that being done, all thoughts about her family were set aside for the moment. She was about to take the first step towards becoming an actress, and she didn't think she could recall being more excited for anything else in her life.

She could only hope that no troublesome relationships would get in her way once again.