A Day in the Life of a Fan Fiction Reader

Alyson was up early, a glass of fruit smoothie in one hand, her trusty iMac opened and firing up to read fan fiction, when there was a wail from the other room. She cocked her head to listen, but it wasn’t one of the kids. She shrugged and started reading.

Darcy put a hand behind Elizabeth’s neck and leaned in for a…

“Al! Have you seen my belt?” called her husband from the other room.

“Just a minute!” she replied, eager to finish just one little chapter, especially because she disliked ellipses…

“Why, Mr. Darcy!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “What a big…”

“Al! I need help, please!”

With a sigh and some speculation as to what was so big (A carriage? A bank account? Pemberley?), Alyson closed her laptop lid enough so that prying eyes wouldn’t see the stuff she secretly read online. She was sure, however, it had to be a carriage.

After the belt was found (it was hanging in the bathroom near the celebrated “Shower O’Darcys” and had no doubt been borrowed by one of them to keep up his pants), Al went to the kitchen to make toast for the thundering herd.

It did not take long for the kids to smell toast and nutritional yeast (yum!) and they did, indeed, come thundering down the stairs for breakfast. Al got everyone settled with their food and color-coded cups of fruit smoothie, and went to open her notebook once more.

His lips were buried in her neck, and he breathed her name…

“Mom!”

Huh?

One of the kids had knocked over a smoothie.  Al rolled her eyes, closed the cover once more and went to the laundry room to snag a towel to clean up the spill.

Once the spill was cleaned up, Alyson sat back at her computer reading intermittently as she supervised the children cleaning up after breakfast.

"Mr. Darcy!" cried Elizabeth in feigned astonishment.  "You're proposal is quite inappropriate."

"Mom, baby needs changing."

Alyson stood up once again and grabbed the littlest one.  She deftly and swiftly changed the offending diaper while trying to catch a glimpse of the next line of the story.

As the child toddled off to play with his siblings, Alyson sighed to herself.  It was time to begin the school day.  She spent the next couple of hours going over lessons with the children and then gave them assignments to work on while she started to prepare their lunch.  She looked wistfully at her computer.  Perhaps lunch could be put off just five minutes.  The older children were all working quietly and the younger ones were napping.  She gave in to temptation and began reading.

Miss Bingley snarled across the room at Elizabeth as she noticed Mr. Darcy place his hand at the small of her back and lean towards her to whisper something softly in her ear.

The phone rang.  Alyson answered it hesitantly and ended up in a half hour conversation.  By the time she hung up the little ones had woken up from their naps and everyone was starving.  She whipped up a quick lunch and fed the masses.  When tummies were full she checked their morning assignments and resumed her lessons.  At three o'clock, school was over and she settled back into her chair to read.

Darcy's fist landed squarely on Wickham's jaw, hurtling him to the floor.  "Stay away from Elizabeth," he said.

"Mom, didn't we have a play date scheduled for this afternoon?" asked Alyson's eldest daughter. 

"Oh no," cried Alyson, looking at the clock.  She closed her computer once again and herded everyone into the family's van. 

As soon as they returned home from the play date, Alyson had to start preparing dinner if she planned to have it ready by the time her husband returned.  But there was nothing to say that she could not cook and read at the same time. A casserole would be perfect. She whipped up the ingredients and tossed it in the oven, glanced out the window at the kids on the trampoline, and then opened up her laptop.

Elizabeth sighed and cast a quick glance at the gentleman beside her. One year before, after the Meryton assembly, if anyone had suggested she would be marrying this man, she would have laughed in their face. And so too, she thought with a grin, would he have. But now, today, she stood before the altar beside the best of men, and beside them stood her sister Jane and her own . . .

Alyson looked at her watch and sighed her own sigh. She went to the back door, called the children in, and checked the oven. Dinner was ready and soon her own husband would be walking through the door. She supervised the children at washing their hands and sent the biggest ones to set the table while she helped the littlest ones dry themselves off.

Just a few more moments, she thought, as they ran to the living room to watch out the window for the lights of their father’s car. She opened her laptop one last time.

The wedding breakfast over, Elizabeth found herself being handed into the carriage by her new husband. The firm grip of his hand upon hers thrilled her. She waved goodbye to her family, conscious of his virile presence beside her. She turned to him and smiled.

“My dearest, loveliest Elizabeth,” he whispered as he folded her in a close embrace and lowered his lips to hers.

“Oh, Charles!” she gasped, and pressed her lips to his with an ardor that equaled his own.

Alyson laughed and closed her laptop for the last time that day. There was nothing like a surprise twist at the end of a story.

“Daddy’s home!” came the cry from the living room, and she ran to the door to greet her husband as he walked in. She couldn’t believe her eyes when her husband was followed by all her esisters and bennetgirl neighbors carrying a huge chocolate cake between them.

“Happy Birthday Al!” they called out together. “Hope it’s the best one yet.”

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