Thanks for the support! It keeps me going! No characters belong to me… Sorry for the wait! I was on vacation...
Elizabeth's POV
Sunlight filtered through the window, and I slowly opened my eyes to meet the bright light. I glanced over to the side, expecting to see Jack's sleeping form like every morning, but the sight of rumpled blankets met me instead. Sitting up, a moment of panic rushed through me, but I was instantly calmed when I heard the sizzling of bacon coming from the kitchen.
Moving to the side of the bed, and standing up, intending to fetch my robe from the other side of the room, a moment of dizziness passed through me. It was gone in an instant however, and I didn't think much of it, blaming it on moving too fast.
I headed down the stairs, a bit slower this morning, being a bit more careful. I passed the drawing that Jack had created of himself and I, and smiled, the memories of that day coming back full force. Even back then I knew that I was in love with Jack and wanted to be his wife, although never admitting that fact to myself until later. I paused for a second, thanking God that He had let everything turn out okay. Ever since mine and Jack's conversation a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to mend my relationship with God. It would be a while until everything went back to normal, but I didn't mind.
As I stepped off the last step, Jack turned to face me, attention switching from the bacon cooking on the stove, to me. He looked so handsome, with his hair tousled and robe wrapped around him. A lazy smile spread across his face, and he said, "Good morning, Mrs. Thornton."
Repeating the same words that I had spoken months ago, the morning after our wedding, I responded with, "Good morning Mr. Thornton."
I strode over to his side, and rested my head on his shoulder, while he flipped the eggs. We just stood there for the longest time, just thankful for each other's company. Finally, Jack broke the silence with his words, "Breakfast is almost done. You can have a seat, while I serve up your plate."
I opened my mouth to protest, but he glanced at me with 'the look'. 'The look' that was a mix between requesting me to stop arguing with him, and pleading puppy dog eyes. The 'look' that he had used many times these past few weeks.
I closed my mouth, and headed toward the table to pull out a chair for myself. I should be thankful that Jack was almost fully recovered. Although he still had a brace on his wrist that would come off in a few weeks, his ribs were almost completely healed, he only walked with a slight limp, and his bruises and cuts were completely gone. He was making amazing progress, but I still worried about him injuring himself again.
I've convinced him to wait a few weeks before riding Seargent again, but what will happen then? What if he falls off? What if he's injured when capturing another criminal? What if headquarters calls him out on another mission? I knew they were stupid and crazy worries, but I was allowed to worry sometimes, right?
A plate of food and a cup of coffee being set down before me broke my chain of thought. Everything looked absolutely delicious, and I was very grateful that Jack cared so much. I was about to thank him, when the smell hit me like a ton of bricks. Nausea started to rise within me, and my head started to spin. It was like my feet had a mind of their own though, carrying me over to the door. I barely heard Jack call out, "Elizabeth, are you okay?" I couldn't answer him though, I had to get some fresh air. Flinging the door open, I staggered out into the morning air. Gasping in as much of the stuff as I could, the world finally stopped spinning, and I could now feel Jack holding my arm to keep me from dropping to the ground, and could feel his other hand rubbing circles on my back. The nauseousness finally started to disappear, and I could now hear the chirping of the birds instead of the rushing in my ears. Jack slowly led me back into the house, and sat me down on the couch.
"Are you okay Elizabeth? Do you want me to get you a cold towel? Do you need me to fetch Carson or Faith?" he asked, worry clear on his face. I almost laughed at the craziness of the situation. 5 minutes ago, I was worrying about him.
"I'm fine Jack. The smell of the food probably just didn't settle with me right." I looked up into his worried eyes, and managed to smile, trying to reassure him. Once I was sure another bout of dizziness wouldn't come to pass, I slowly got up, so I was in a sitting position with my legs crossed.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Jack asked once more. "I can stay home with you today if you want," he added after a second.
Almost instantaneously, my legs shot out from their sitting position and were throwing themselves over the side of the couch, so I ended up in an upright position. Slight panic surged, and I yelled out, "No! I have to go to school!" I was incredibly gracious that my mouth clamped shut at that moment, and my reasons for my demand hadn't been revealed. I had to go to school, because the children were finishing the decorations for the party and I had to check how the 'committee' was doing, the committee being most of the town. I had originally planned to keep the party small, but the news spread very quickly when Rosemary had gotten wind of it. Perhaps the old adage, 'the more, the merrier' would come true…
Jack had a look on his face that was a mixture of concerned, alarmed, and suspicion, and I honestly didn't blame him. It's been hard these last 2 weeks, keeping the news of his party a surprise, and a few times, I've nearly let the cat out of the bag. It turns out keeping a secret from your husband, who's also a Mountie, trained to deal with criminals, is an impossible task. The big day was tomorrow, however, and all secrets would soon be revealed.
"Why do you need to go to school so badly, Elizabeth?" Jack asked, suspicion creeping into his voice.
"Um, um," I stammered, desperately thinking of a suitable answer.
My words, or lack thereof, did nothing but arise his suspicions even further. He cocked his eyebrow, and met my eyes, and asked again, "Why do you need to go Elizabeth?"
I was about to let everything out, when I was saved by the bell, or rather, a knock on the door. As soon as Jack strode away to answer it, I let out a sigh of relief that I didn't know I had been holding in. Just before his hand was on the doorknob however, the door slammed open, narrowly missing Jack, and Rosemary burst forward.
"Elizabeth, are you alright?" she gasped out, taking both my hands in hers. I glanced past her to Lee, standing there looking very apologetic for his wife's actions. He mouthed the words, 'I tried to stop her,' in an effort to try and explain.
I focussed my attentions back on Rosemary, and answered her concerns, "Thank you for being worried about me, but I'm absolutely fine now. I just had a moment of dizziness there." About halfway through my explanation, I wondered how Rosemary would know about what happened, but then I remembered how thin the company house walls were.
She seemed to accept my explanation, and I thought she was going to let my hands go when she unexpectedly pulled me into a tight hug. The action was nice enough, but it was a tight hug. And I mean a very tight hug, as in she was slowly suffocating me tight hug.
She was 'comforting' me by rubbing circles on my back, and murmuring words into my ear like, "Shush, it's okay,' and 'there, there, now."
Although I didn't need comforting of any sort, it was kind of nice to be cared about so much by Rosemary. Although our relationship has gotten much better over the years, we sometimes had our disagreements.
When I realized that she wasn't letting go any time soon, I turned my head back so I caught the attention of Lee, signalling to come help me before I passed out from lack of oxygen. He quickly stepped forward, grabbing Rosemary's arm, and lightly pulled her off of me, with the words, 'let's give Elizabeth some room now."
She scowled a bit, but for once, didn't object. I was very grateful when Jack swooped in, and stood by my side. Before I could ask if I could help the Coulter's with anything else, Jack spoke up, looking at the clock before doing so.
"It was nice of you to see if Elizabeth was alright, but I think we all need to start getting ready for the day."
I was about to agree with his suggestion, when Rosemary cut in. "Elizabeth, are you still going to school today? I could sub in, if you'd like. I never did get to finish telling the children about myself in a production of the Nutcracker."
"Yes Rosemary, I'll teach today. No need for a sub, but thank you for the offer," I quickly reassured her.
"About that, how are the decorations going?"
As soon as the words were spoken, both me and Lee gave her a sharp glance to quiet her. I looked over to Jack, who seemed to notice the interaction, and seemed to be trying to figure it all out. As soon as he opened his mouth to say something, I cut him off.
"The decorations for the classroom! Oh, they're lovely! The posters are looking amazing so far. You should come by and see them!" Through my spiel, I think Rosemary had finally processed the impact of her statement, for her face expression changed from confused, to startled, to horrified.
"Lovely! I'll be sure to drop by and have a look. I'm sure the classroom will brighten right up," she said, trying to cover up.
Before we had another chance to incriminate ourselves further, and spill the beans, Lee took Rosemary's hand, and marched out the door, yelling behind," Sorry, got to go. Long day at the mill!," with Rosemary voicing her agreement.
"Yes, long day at the mill, indeed!" before shutting the door behind her, and leaving us in silence.
I brushed past Jack, looking at the clock, and I headed to our bedroom. "I'm going to go dress. I have to leave soon," I announced, without looking back to see Jack's reaction.
I needed to get out of here before I revealed everything. I just needed to keep the secret until tomorrow. Before I closed the door to the bedroom, however, one of my concerns was remembered. 'I still didn't have a gift for Jack…"
Jack's POV
Everyone was acting weird, and I had no clue what was going on. The weirdness started happening about 2 weeks ago, and I didn't know when it was going to stop. First, everyone has been giving me weird looks when I go and do my rounds. I figured it would be over soon, but even my close friends have been acting strange. Abigail, Lee, Rosemary, Bill and even Elizabeth were all acting like they were keeping some sort of secret from me.
And now this. I knew for a fact that Rosemary revealed something important, but decorations doesn't seem that big of a deal, and Elizabeth's explanation made a lot of sense. Maybe my detective skills needed a bit of work.
Speaking of work, I needed to get to the jail. I had mountains of paperwork to catch up on, and that stack of papers wasn't going to get smaller by itself. For now, I would just ignore the weirdness, and focus on being the Mountie of Hope Valley.
Abigail's POV
I looked up from wiping down a table, as Elizabeth strode through the door. The school day had finished, and she must have just finished up at the schoolhouse. Cody was outside playing baseball with his friends. As soon as she closed the door, she asked, "Is everything ready?" Before I could answer, Clara brought in the final plate of sandwiches, exclaiming," last plate Abigail," answering Elizabeth's question for me.
Elizabeth looked comically relieved, slumping her shoulders and pulling out a chair to sit on. These past few weeks, she's seemed more tired, but I figured it might have just been stress. Kicking into hostess mode, I offered," Does anyone want a celebratory cup of coffee?"
"I'd love to Abigail, but I was going to go meet Jesse. He's taking me to his favorite fishing spot," Clara explained, with a bit of hesitancy. I smiled and nodded at her, making sure to reassure her. I didn't want to hold her back. She was young, and had a lot of living to do yet, and with the way things were going, I was certain that love was in young Clara's future.
"That's alright Clara. You go have fun. You can join us for a cup some other time," I said, and Elizabeth nodded in agreement.
My words must have worked, because she took off her apron, and headed out the back door, calling out, "I'll be back at dinner Abigail, and it was nice to see you again Elizabeth," before shutting the door behind her, and leaving the two of us alone.
I turned back to face Elizabeth, and I could tell that something was bothering her, so I asked, "Elizabeth, is there something wrong? Anything that you want to tell me?" before pulling a chair out, and sitting right across from her.
"I don't have a gift for Jack yet," she admitted. "I made him a card, but that doesn't seem big enough."
I sat there for a while, just contemplating her words, trying to think of a solution. Finally I suggested, "How about if we say that my gift is from the both us?"
Elizabeth gave me a kind look before answering," That's a very nice offer, but I think my gift has to be from me, alone."
Again, I started to think, but couldn't come up with any ideas. Eventually I sighed out my frustrations, and gave up.
"I don't know what you'll think of Elizabeth, but I know that it will be a genuine gift from the heart," I finally added, unable to think of anything else to say.
Suddenly I remembered the coffee, and got up to retrieve it before it got cold. When I entered back into the room, pot in hand, I thought for a second that Elizabeth looked a few shades paler, but figured it was a trick of the light. When I poured the cup, and set it down in front of her, I knew I wasn't imagining anything.
She sat there for a millisecond, looking white as a sheet, before springing out of the chair, and stumbling toward the door at a rapid pace, hand on her stomach. I was too shocked to move, before the sound of the door opening broke my shock. I rushed after her, and was at her side. She was leaning heavily on he rail, gasping in breaths of air.
Once it looked like she wasn't going to topple over any second, I asked," Are you okay now Elizabeth?"
She looked to me and answered," I'm fine now thank you. The smell of the coffee just made me sick." She focussed her attention back to a point in the distance, and after a while, added to her last comment.
"The weird thing is, I had the same thing this morning. I felt dizzy and sick after I smelled the breakfast Jack had made."
This was definitely strange. Feeling sick once a day was peculiar, but twice? I was making a mental list of Elizabeth's symptoms, trying to figure it all out. Tiredness, nauseousness, dizziness and headaches. I was just about to suggest paying a trip to Carson or Faith, when it hit me.
I had experienced all these symptoms myself, years ago, and it hadn't turned out to be a simple stomach flu. Running the symptoms through my head once again, I came to the same conclusion. A smile started to spread across my whole face that I couldn't stop. Elizabeth looked at me strangely, and asked, "What is it?"
"I'm not quite sure yet, but I think you have the perfect gift to give Jack tomorrow."
"Really? What is it?"
"Elizabeth, you're going to have a baby."
Longest chapter yet! So sorry for the long wait. I'll try to update more often. Thanks for reading a reviewing!
