Chapter One – "It Felt So Real"
The whole town of Hope Valley comes out for Carson's birthday party that Faith has surprised him with. When he starts opening gifts, Elizabeth realizes that she left Carson's gift at the school. Abigail agrees to walk with her, giving them a chance to talk on the way.
Abigail and Elizabeth leave the saloon, laughing and smiling as they walked towards the school to retrieve Carson's gift. As they stepped off the last step onto the main road of Hope Valley, a horse nearby snorts and Elizabeth turns to see a figure in the shadows.
"Jack?" Elizabeth whispers as she hopes Jack has returned from his two month assignment.
"Jack!" Elizabeth says as she runs towards the unknown rider in the shadows.
The unknown rider in the shadows emerges and Elizabeth soon realizes it's not her husband, Jack, but another Mountie.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought you were someone else." Abigail comes to Elizabeth's side to see what's going on.
The rider dismounts his horse and turns towards the two women in front of him.
"I'm looking for Elizabeth Thornton." Elizabeth steps forwards. "I'm Elizabeth Thornton."
The Mountie takes off his hat. Elizabeth senses something is wrong. "Has he been hurt?"
The Mountie just looks on, fighting back the sorrow that he feels for his lost comrade. "No ma'am."
Elizabeth begins to hold back tears that threaten to fall on her face. "Just tell me he's still alive."
The Mountie looks on, still holding back the sorrow he knows is hurting this Mountie's wife. "I'm sorry ma'am."
Elizabeth, with tears streaming down her face, cannot begin to accept the fact that her husband of just a few weeks is now dead.
"No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! Jack! No! No! No!" She yells and cries as she falls to the dirt road below her.
Abigail holds her friend tight and cries herself.
Elizabeth jolts awake, sitting up in her bed, drenched in a cold sweat.
"Jack! Jack! No!" She yells out, gasping for air, as she soon realizes he isn't there and she was dreaming.
She begins sobbing, lying down on the bed on his side of the bed, clinging to his pillow, unwilling to let go. His scent, still on the pillow, calms her crying and she begins to process the nightmare she just had.
Within minutes, there is a pounding on the door. "Elizabeth! Elizabeth, are you okay?" It's Lee and Rosemary. Rosemary runs to the side window to look in, not seeing Elizabeth.
"Lee! We need to get inside!" Lee runs to the side window and starts to slowly open it. They both climb in, running upstairs.
"Elizabeth!" Rosemary yells as she runs to the bedroom door and slowly looks inside. "Elizabeth…" She sees her friend crying uncontrollably, clinging to the pillow that she knows is Jack's. Rosemary sits on the bed and reaches out to console Elizabeth.
"Shhhh…It's okay. Lee and I are here now Elizabeth…" Rosemary rubs Elizabeth's arm and continues to let her cry. Rosemary stands up and goes into the hallway to Lee.
"You should probably run over and get Abigail. It must be pretty bad." Lee smiles and runs to Abigail's café. Rosemary turns back to Elizabeth and continues to console her, trying to calm her down.
Abigail sits up in bed, wondering who could be knocking on her door at this time of the night. She slips her robe on and descends the stairs. She opens the door to Lee.
"Lee, what's wrong?" Abigail looks at Lee's frantic expression, wondering what is going on.
"It's Elizabeth. We heard her scream in the middle of the night for Jack and she's crying uncontrollably and Rosemary sent me to get you to help calm her down."
Abigail nods and they take off to Elizabeth's house.
The two ran up the steps and into the house. Rosemary led Abigail up to the second floor of the Thornton home. Upon entering the room, Abigail found Elizabeth curled up in the fetal position. She was faced away from them, her arms wrapped tightly around Jack's pillow.
"Lee," Rosemary whispered across the room where her husband had been standing while she was gone. He hadn't said much, and really, he didn't know what to say to Elizabeth, but he hoped that at least another presence had been somewhat comforting. Rosemary nodded toward the door for them to leave. "Let's give them a moment," she said and the two of them moved downstairs to wait, giving the close friends some privacy.
Abigail stood still, hesitant to see her best friend so distraught. Finally, she moved over to the edge of the bed and sat down, her hand reaching over and placing it on Elizabeth's back. "Elizabeth? Please look at me."
Just the sound of Abigail's voice made her want to cry even harder; just knowing that she was there for her. After a few minutes, Elizabeth finally rolled over to face her friend and Abigail's heart immediately broke at the sight of her. She didn't dare let Elizabeth know though.
"Come here," she said, her arms opened wide. Elizabeth accepted the invitation and crawled over into her arms, her head laying against Abigail's chest. Abigail wrapped her arms around her, her hand rubbing up and down Elizabeth's arm. "Will you please tell me why you're so upset? I'm assuming this has to do with Jack?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath in and released it, clearing her throat. She nodded before speaking. "It felt so real, Abigail…" she started as she began to cry again, her body shaking in Abigail's arms.
"Shhh…it's okay. You don't have to explain," she stated. "Elizabeth, I know that it felt real to you, but it was just a nightmare. Look at me."
Elizabeth reluctantly pulled away from Abigail, looking up at her with her tear stained face. Abigail quickly wiped a few tears from her cheeks before new ones replaced them. She grabbed her hands before starting. "I know your biggest fear is losing him, and I completely understand that. When Noah was alive, I was absolutely terrified every day that he walked into those mines. Day by day, the fear built up inside of me until there was no more room for anything else. It consumed me, Elizabeth, and it only became worse once Peter started working in the mines. It wasn't until after they both passed away and that part of my life was gone that I realized just how much that fear had been controlling my entire life. For years, I lived like that, and it's a dark place to be. Elizabeth, we can't live our lives focused on the 'what ifs' and the 'maybes.' We have to keep looking forward, keeping our eyes on what we do have. And for you, that's a husband that loves you very much and will be returning to you in just a couple weeks. We have to focus on that, okay?"
Elizabeth nodded, releasing one of Abigail's hands to wipe her face. "Remember Elizabeth; God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power and love and good judgement."
"Thank you," Elizabeth said, smiling back at her friend before her. "What would I do without you?" she said, hugging Abigail one last time.
"Hey, that's what I'm here for. You have a lot of people in this town that care about you, Elizabeth. Including those kids. What do you say we get you freshened up and on to the school? I know they'll be missing their teacher."
Elizabeth nodded in agreement and stood from the bed to start getting ready for the day.