Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. All rights go to the actors, writers and creators of the show "When Calls The Heart".

To the readers: Thanks for all of your support. Love reading your reviews! I know things seem a bit slow at the moment but I'm building up to something big … I just need to get all of the background information in there first ;)

(8/8/2018)

CHAPTER 25

Continued …

"I think I will have to tell you the rest tomorrow. Its almost midnight, Jack."

"Okay."

"Plus we're seeing Lee and Rosie again tomorrow. They should be there when I tell you the rest anyway" Elizabeth said with a little laugh.

"Why?"

"Rosie tells it all too well. You know, being an actress and all."

The following night, Lee and Rosie came over for a pizza and movie night. Rosie had brought over the new Peter Rabbit movie and all the kids had been so excited that Elizabeth relented and let them take their pizza into the tv room.

"Well done, Rosie. Halley has been asking me about getting that DVD for a few weeks now."

"It's such a funny movie. The girls will love it."

Elizabeth went and got a bottle of wine out of the fridge.

"Rosie?" she said holding it up.

"Would I say no?"

"Never. Just checking."

Elizabeth poured two glasses before bringing them over to the table and sitting down beside Jack.

"Rosie I was up to telling Jack about your wedding last night but I thought we better wait so that you can give the story telling some justice" Elizabeth said, grinning.

"Ooooh our wedding. It was a magical day, wasn't it Lee?" Rosie said clasping her hands together in front of her and glancing at Lee.

"Oh yes. Magical" he said shaking his head in humour.

"So …" Rosie began.

Everyone had been so looking forward to Rosie and Lee's wedding day. It was going to be the event of the season. Everything was going smoothly and there would hopefully be no surprises on the big day. Rosie had written out a timeline and it did not allow for a minute's deviation. But that was where Rosie went wrong.

Rosie had three bridesmaids: Elizabeth, her sister Sophia and her cousin Petra. They had been ready early, left for the church early, arrived at the church early and had to stand in the back wing of the church for a good fifteen minutes waiting for everyone to arrive. The only thing that Rosie had been worried about had been that there was no one to give her away. It had played on her mind for weeks but she didn't have a solution.

While they were waiting inside the church, Rosie thought it was a good idea to take peek to try and see Lee, who turned out not to be there yet. But in the process she noticed that most of Lee's guests had arrived and were seated and Rosie's side of the church was practically empty. Rosie stopped peeking and began worrying about where all of her guests could be.

"Um, wait a minute. Worrying?" Elizabeth cut in.

"Yes, I was very worried."

"Worried? If that was what you call worried, what is your version of hysteria?"

"I was not hysterical."

Elizabeth looked at Lee. "Sweetie, you called me saying that we had to call off the wedding because all of your friends and relatives must have disappeared down a sink hole in the parking lot!" Lee exclaimed.

Elizabeth waved at her to continue.

Rosie was a little worried that something bad may have befallen her guests. After speaking to Lee on the phone, he and Jack convinced her to continue as planned. Her guests were probably just running a little late.

Meanwhile Lee was standing at the front of the church, with Jack beside him telling him it would all be fine.

"How do you know, Jack?"

"Just trust me. There will be a perfectly reasonable explanation why all of Rosie's theatre friends are all absent right now" Jack said with a wink.

Lee missed the hint and the organ immediately began to play.

Rosie stood at the back now waiting for her bridesmaids to walk down the aisle. After Petra, then Sophia had disappeared, Elizabeth turned back for a moment.

"Rosie, this will be perfect. Just take a deep breath and enjoy it" Elizabeth said.

As Elizabeth, now 38 weeks pregnant, began to walk down the aisle, the music suddenly stopped. Rosie was still peeking through the doors and saw Elizabeth freeze at the top of the aisle, along with Sophia in the middle and Petra all the way down the front. All of them had stopped.

"Oh no. Keep going. Keep going" Rosie said to herself wondering what happened to the organist.

A crackling sound came over the speakers and all of a sudden Chris Brown's song Forever began to play. Suddenly people spilled everywhere from the side doors. Rosie looked on at first in horror that her wedding was about to get crashed, until she began to recognise the people dancing out of the side doors.

Lee was standing at the front watching as two lines of people danced they're way along the back of the church. This wasn't a simple dance either. It was choreographed with proper dance moves. They made their way toward Elizabeth at the back of the church.

Elizabeth had pretended to appear shocked but when they got to her, a big grin took over and she joined in with their moves. They danced down the aisle and Sophia and Petra joined in all the way down to the front of the church. Lee watched on in surprise as Jack and the two groomsmen joined in as well. They all new the dance moves. They had practiced this!

When the music slowed, the group of Rosie's friends danced back down the aisle while the bridesmaids and groomsmen stayed down the front still dancing slowly. The back doors opened, Rosie was brought to the front and as the music built up again, she walked down the aisle, her friends dancing behind her.

Rosie beamed. She looked so happy. She reached the front just as the music died down, to which the rest of the guests were standing and applauding.

At the point when the minister asked, "Who gives away this woman to be married to this man?", all of Rosie's guests including her theatre friends replied, "We do."

Rosie beamed.

"It was so wonderful Jack! I thought everything had to be on my timeline but that alone showed me to enjoy the rest of the day."

"Yeah, you should have seen you and Beth! I think my jaw hit the ground when you joined in! Beth was nine months pregnant, dancing in stilettos. No wonder she went into labour!" Lee laughed loudly.

Elizabeth turned to Jack. "I think Lee's right. I'm pretty sure practicing those dance moves all week put me into labour!"

Not ten minutes into the ceremony did Elizabeth feel the first twinge. She didn't think anything of it until about six minutes later it happened again. They were light at first and not painful.

By the time they had finished taking photos, the contractions were getting more uncomfortable.

When they arrived at the reception, Elizabeth had to concentrate very hard when she felt one coming on. She sat down at her seat at the table and after trying to eat her entrée she went for a walk outside for some fresh air. She sat down on a bench right as another contraction came, taking her breath away.

"Elizabeth, are you okay?"

Viola came hurrying toward her.

"I'm fine, Vi."

"You don't look fine."

"I think I'm in early labour."

"What? You have to get out of here now" Viola said taking her hand.

"No, no. I have heaps of time. I just have to get through the toasts and the cake and the dance and then maybe I might be able to slip away."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm going to tell Lionel. He can be ready with the car if you need it."

"Okay. Thanks Vi."

"Come on, I will help you back to your seat."

Elizabeth could feel another contraction so she stayed where she was.

"Beth are you sure you're going to make it until the dancing?"

"Yes. I'm fine now. It's passed."

Elizabeth stood up and took Viola's hand as she led her back inside.

Jack came running over to her, taking her hand from Viola.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just struggling in these shoes, Jack."

"Come on, I will take them off for you."

Jack helped her sit down and took her shoes off.

"That is so much better. Thank you."

Elizabeth had been anticipating that the speeches would be over and done with in an hour so she could leave, but she forgot Rosie was doing one too.

"Hey!" Rosie said.

"Hey what? You spoke for an hour on your own!" Elizabeth said laughing.

"I had a lot to say!"

"Yes, you did. But it wasn't entirely necessary to tell an entire room full of people most of those things!" Elizabeth exclaimed looking at Lee who nodded in agreement.

"Like what?"

"Like my best man was your ex-fiance?" Lee said.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"You mentioned that at your wedding!" Jack said in horror.

"Yes, well I had a few too may champagnes at that time and the words just came flying out."

"Don't worry. That wasn't the biggest shock of the night" Elizabeth said, patting him on the arm.

"Do I want to know?"

"No!" Rosie and Elizabeth both said at the same time.

"That's right Jack was mortified when you said it last time" Lee said laughing.

"Now I have to know!"

"In front of everyone at our wedding, she said that her best kiss was from Laura Benson in senior year."

Jack shook his head. "No! Your best kiss? You're kidding right? And what were you doing kissing Laura when we were supposed to be dating!"

Elizabeth laughed. "That was your exact same response last time! Then you and Lee were arguing about who was the better kisser between you two!"

"Definitely me!" Jack and Lee both yelled at the same time.

"You guys are never going to grow up!" Rosie exclaimed.

After the speeches that went for a good 90 minutes, Elizabeth was in quite a bit of pain and her contractions were now four minutes apart. She knew Viola was watching her the entire time and as Elizabeth looked up Viola motioned to Lionel.

"Soon" Elizabeth mouthed. Viola nodded.

Lee and Rosie had their first dance and Jack finally came to help Elizabeth up and walk her over to the dance floor. Jack put his arm around her back and held onto her hand, holding her close to his chest. Elizabeth had another contraction and couldn't help but clench Jack's hand and her eyes shut, leaning into him.

"Beth? Beth? Sweetie are you okay?"

Elizabeth tried to breath but they were coming on stronger and more painful now.

"Hospital. Lionel" was all she could reply.

Jack scooped her up and after calling for Lionel, ran out of the wedding reception. By the time Jack had carried her downstairs, Lionel pulled the car up and they raced toward the nearest hospital. Jack carried her straight into emergency and they hurried her through to the maternity ward. The nurse showed them to a bed and immediately went to get the midwife. By the time a midwife came back, Elizabeth was well on her way to delivering the baby. Another ten minutes and baby Halley was placed in Elizabeth's open arms.

"So we just made it?"

"Yes. If we had have stayed at the wedding reception for another thirty minutes or so, Halley would have been born on the dance floor" Elizabeth said laughing.

"That day was fantastic. We were on the middle of the dance floor when I felt my phone vibrating" Lee said. "When I saw it was you, I answered immediately thinking something must be wrong. When you said you had a baby girl, we couldn't believe it. IT felt like you had literally just left."

"I'm pretty sure, I was crying" Rosie added.

"Crying? You were bawling your eyes out! I went and grabbed the microphone and announced it to the whole room, totally forgetting that Beth's family were all there and they hadn't even found out yet! It didn't matter though, everyone was so happy for you two."

"Well, you can't beat that entrance can you?" Jack laughed.

"I think Halley got the most entertaining birth story" Elizabeth said.

"Oh, I don't know. Gracie's was pretty good too!" Rosie said laughing.

Elizabeth shook her head. "That story is for another day!"

After dinner, Elizabeth and Rosie were cleaning up while Jack and Lee went out onto the back porch to have a chat.

"I tell you Lee, this memory thing is a bit of a downer lately."

"What do you mean?"

"I thought we were making progress and then I lost some memories again. Elizabeth has had to re-explain everything to me but it's hard. I keep misunderstanding things and doing crazy things but they don't seem crazy to me."

"Like the puppies?"

Rip was at that moment sleeping practically on Jack's foot. Jack looked down at him and smiled.

"Yeah. There's been some other small things too but I feel like my relationship with Beth is strained because of it."

"That's fair. You do remember it's your anniversary next Friday?"

"Yeah, Ma told me."

"Have you decided what you're going to do?"

"I had an idea but I don't know if it's the right thing to do or not. It seems good but with my reasoning off it could be the stupidest idea ever. Plus I will need a lot of help to get it right."

"Well, come on. Spill."

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"I will try my hardest, but I cannot promise that!" Lee said grinning.

Jack sighed, shaking his head. "Fine." He continued to tell Lee his idea.

As Elizabeth washed up, Rosie dried the dishes. And talked. A lot.

"What are you doing for your anniversary next week?"

"I don't know. I haven't mentioned it."

"Beth, you have to tell him!"

"Sure but our anniversary is to celebrate a wedding day and our vows that he doesn't even remember."

"It doesn't matter. It's also to celebrate making it through another year and this has been a tough one."

"I know but I don't want to force him into something."

"You still haven't done it yet, have you?" Rosie said in shock.

"Done what?"

"It!"

"It?"

"It! You know. In the bedroom. It!" she motioned her head to upstairs.

Elizabeth didn't answer but just looked away.

"I thought when you made up after that big fight that you would have …" Rosie looked at Elizabeth sideways.

"Nope" Elizabeth still looked down into the sink.

"Elizabeth!" she said in surprise.

"Rosie!" Elizabeth imitated back to her.

"You have to take control!"

"And look where that got me last time! We didn't speak for almost a week. It was horrible. Jack was my best friend before we were intimate at the beginning, so I figure getting back to best friends again is more important."

"How far are off are you of being best friends again?"

"A long way. It's complicated now. I know him like the back of my hand. I can read his expressions and understand him a lot better than he realises. But then he keeps doing these random things and misunderstanding me. I don't know if it's because he doesn't know me that well or because of how his brain was affected in the accident."

"I understand all of that but you still need to tell him about your anniversary."

"Okay. I will think about it" Elizabeth agreed.

The next day Elizabeth was outside playing with the girls. Jack was inside working on some drawings and he had been supposed to come outside a while ago. Elizabeth decided to go inside and grab some drinks and check up on him.

When she walked into the house, she heard another male voice. In the front entrance there was a man standing there talking to Jack. Elizabeth heard the word "speedboat" mentioned and came closer.

"Beth. This man is selling speedboats" Jack said eagerly.

"That's … nice" Elizabeth said, looking at Jack curiously.

"I told him we were interested."

Elizabeth's eyes widened in surprise.

"Why are we interested?" Elizabeth asked.

"Because we could take the girls out on the lake if we had a speedboat."

"I'm sure we could do a lot of things, but we don't need a speedboat right now."

"Aww come on. We could go fishing and teach them how to waterski."

"They're not waterskiing. They're too little."

"But they could fish."

The salesman watched the conversation between Jack and Elizabeth like it was a tennis match, shifting his eyes backwards and forwards.

"Jack, we don't have anywhere to store a boat."

"Sure we can keep it on the driveway."

Elizabeth sighed. "We don't have time to go out on the lake."

"Yeah we do. We could have gone today."

"Because you're not working. That's only for another two weeks. Then you will be too busy again."

"Well, you could take them" Jack said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm not taking a boat out on the water, on my own with three young children. No boat, Jack."

"Elizabeth …"

"No, Jack."

Elizabeth walked into the kitchen to get the drinks. She waited until she heard the salesman leave before she walked back outside. She handed each of the girls a glass of cold water before she sat on one of the sun lounges.

Jack came out a bit later and sat down next to her. He didn't bring up the topic of a boat again.

Elizabeth was putting Eve to bed that night. She tucked her into bed and was about to say goodnight when Eve cut her off.

"Can you sing to me please, Mommy?"

Elizabeth hadn't sung to Eve in months. She used to do it every few nights when Jack was home to help put the other girls to bed but since he had been deployed, it was one thing that Elizabeth just didn't feel like doing. By the end of a long work day and then feeding, washing and putting her three daughters to bed, singing wasn't on her list of priorities.

"Sure. What do you want me to sing?"

"The rainbow song."

Elizabeth began to sing.

"Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

And the dreams that you dream of

Once in a lullaby …"

Jack heard Elizabeth singing. He stood outside the door listening to her voice. Immediately he remembered her sitting in a rocking chair with one of their daughters in her arms. Halley. It was Halley. Jack remembered seeing her rocking there with the tiny bundle in her arms, trying to get Halley to stop crying. Halley lay there, her big blue eyes staring up at Elizabeth as she sang that same song.

Jack could remember the whole nursery. It was painted a light grey colour. It had a white cot against the wall and a white dresser and change table. There were pictures on the wall of white fluffy bunnies and a pink rug hanging over the end of the cot. Elizabeth finished singing and looked up at him, smiling. Baby Halley had fallen asleep in her arms.

Meanwhile Eve had fallen asleep. Elizabeth leant down to give her a kiss on the cheek before she left the room. She ran into Jack as she rounded the corner.

"Woah" she said bumping into his shoulder.

"I remember that song. You singing Halley to sleep sitting in the rocking chair in her nursery."

"Really?" she said with a big grin.

"Yeah. I remember everything. I even knew it was Halley."

"That's good, Jack. Are you going to go and draw it?"

"Yes. I just … that was the most vivid memory I have had."

"Go draw then, while it's still fresh."

Jack grinned at her and hurried downstairs.

Elizabeth sat down in her room and pulled out her phone. She pulled up her music app and started browsing through songs. She found the songs from their wedding and other ones that she remembered. Elizabeth began making a playlist.

The next day, Elizabeth set her phone up on the stereo and called Jack in. Jack came closer to have a look at what she was doing.

"I've made you some playlists. They're sorted roughly into groups. Then I've written this list of when you might remember hearing them."

Jack looked down the list of songs. Elizabeth had written things like. Wedding, honeymoon, Christmas, birthday. But then there were other things like date night, road trip, concert, recital, favourite and other things that weren't important milestones.

She turned the first one on. A band filled the room and as they began to sing, he recognised them.

"Is that Kings of Leon?"

"Yeah. You loved them. You remember this song?"

"Vaguely."

"I think their album came out in 2008 but you loved this song. You loaded the whole album on your ipod and you took it with you on your first deployment in 2009."

Jack glanced through the other bands and singer's names. Snow Patrol, The Fray, Coldplay, Jason Mraz, Ed Sheeran, Imagine Dragons. Some of them were familiar but others not.

"Who is Ed Sheeran?"

"He's a really famous singer."

"Never heard of him."

Elizabeth giggled. "No, you probably haven't. But I like his music. We used to dance to it a bit."

Jack looked down at the list again. There was a lot of Ed Sheeran.

"You really do have a thing for this guy, don't you?"

Elizabeth laughed.

"Just listen, Jack. Don't stress about remembering. Sit and enjoy the music" Elizabeth said before kissing him on the cheek and leaving him to it.

An hour later, Jack was still sitting in the lounge room listening to Elizabeth's playlist when he heard his daughters calling him.

"Daddy! Come outside!"

Jack walked outside to see his daughters drenched. He looked around but couldn't work out how they got so wet.

"The sprinkler stopped working. Can you take a look?" Halley asked grabbing his hand.

"Sure."

Jack walked towards the sprinkler. "Where's Mommy?"

All three of them burst into a fit of giggles and one glance at Eve told him exactly where Elizabeth was. Jack continued to play along.

"Here Daddy. Have a close look?" Gracie said pointing to the sprinkler fitting.

"Okay." Jack smiled as he bent over the sprinkler only to see the water shooting out of it a second later. The girls were laughing so hard. Poor Eve was on the ground she thought it was so hysterical.

"Oh no! How did that happen?" Jack yelled in mock surprise.

"Mommy!" Gracie said pointing at Elizabeth who was standing by the side of the house next to the sprinkler looking a bit too dry for Jack's liking.

"Is that right?" Jack said turning and walking toward Elizabeth. She immediately knew what he was going to do.

"No, no, no, no!" she began laughing and shrieking. She began to run away but he was too fast for her.

"All is fair in love and war" Jack said as he grabbed her.

"Well what's this then?" she said laughing as he dragged her back toward the sprinkler.

"Right now, its war."

He held her right over the sprinkler jet. He looked into her eyes and found them to be sparkling brightly, matching her laughter. Water ran down her face and through her hair. She truly was a beautiful woman. He leant in and kissed her while their daughters ran around them dancing in the water.

"And now?" she asked when he let her go.

"What do you think?" he said grinning at her.

"The former" she said as she pulled him back down, so that his lips met hers.