Elizabeth came through the bedroom door and closed it quickly, leaning up against it as if holding wolves at bay.

Nathan looked up in alarm as he prepared to change into his riding boots. "Who are you running from?"

"Lucas. He's following me around like a puppy dog. I just tried to give Cora a hug and he took my arm and pulled me away to look at the roses." She caught her breath and continued leaning on the door. "You think being engaged is addling his brain?"

Right now Elizabeth was feeling a little addled herself, because her husband was not only bootless, he was shirtless. He had stood up to come to the door to make sure she was alright and she was staring directly into his chest.

"Could you put some clothes on, please?" she said, slightly irritated.

Nathan frowned, knowing that another potentially irrational moment was upon them. But this time he could feel a smile tugging at the right corner of his mouth. He didn't want to let this moment go.

"And why should I do that?" Nathan said, moving slowly toward her.

Elizabeth took a deep breath and said, "Because it's distracting. I'm trying to explain something to you, and... and..."

Nathan moved even closer. "And?" he said softly. He pushed a lock of hair away from her cheek, very slowly. And there it was. The blush. What he was hoping for.

"And..." she said, trying desperately not to react to his proximity, "...I'm having trouble keeping my thoughts straight as it is, and when you..."

Now he was kissing her, light kisses on her neck and up to her ear. Her breath was coming more quickly and before she knew it, she had moved her hands up to his chest, the dark hairs there tickling her fingers, and the muscles underneath...

"This can't be healthy, you know..." she said, sighing.

Nathan chuckled softly in her ear, "Well, I know it's not healthy for me, because there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. But I'm out for a long ride, so maybe I can vent my frustration there."

Elizabeth laughed softly and closed her eyes. "It won't be much longer. These kids are ready. I can feel it."

Nathan kissed her on the cheek, making his way to her lips. The combination of the extra weight of the twins and her rapidly weakening knees caused Elizabeth to buckle a little. Nathan put his strong arms around her and lifted her up. "Whoa," he said laughing. He walked her to sit on the end of the bed, "If I'd known you were this fragile, I wouldn't have teased you."

Nathan brushed her hair back from her face and looked down into her eyes. "Are you okay, angel?"

Elizabeth looked up at him and smiled. She put her hand on his cheek. "I'm fine, really. But they're getting very close. I just know it." She gazed into his eyes, which were turning very blue. "I'm a little... "

"Nervous? Afraid? Excited?" Nathan said softly. "Me too."

"Don't you wish you could... just go forward two or three weeks? With you holding Becca and me holding Nate, and us on the train home?" Nathan thought Elizabeth had a mildly desperate look in her eyes.

He reached his thumb up and smoothed the lines across her forehead gently. "No, I don't. I don't want to miss a minute of this." He kissed her softly on the forehead. "You know how I'm not the best at being comfortable around new people?" He pulled away and smiled at her. "I've never been more excited to meet two new people than I am right now."

Elizabeth laughed. She took his hand and put it on her stomach. "They're pretty excited to meet you too."

Nathan smiled as he felt his son and daughter move. With a deep sigh, he bent down and put his head near them. As Elizabeth leaned back happily, Nathan began humming "The Water is Wide."

She could tell he was feeling ready to sing again, which might mean he would pick up the guitar when they got back home. Elizabeth had heard him occasionally struggling to find the words to the song as he worked out in the paddocks with James, and as he got dressed in the morning.

"Will you sing to them?" Elizabeth asked softly.

Nathan looked up and grinned at her, but kept his head close to them. "I am singing to them. You said they can hear me, right?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, they can hear you. They like it when you do that. They calm down."

Nathan raised his eyebrows. "Hopefully that will continue once they're born." He put his head back down and murmured, "Okay, you two. Let your mom rest a little."

Suddenly Elizabeth was so overcome with love for Nathan that she felt the tears start, and one rolled heavily down her cheek. Her breath caught and he looked up at her. When he saw her cheeks were wet he sat up, looking concerned.

"What is it, angel?"

Elizabeth smiled and hiccupped a little in the middle of a sob. "I love you so much. I felt so alone with Jack, and I don't feel alone at all with these two." She put her arms around him and he drew her head down to his chest. She loved the feel of his skin against her cheek and she breathed in the clean smell of soap from his morning bath.

Sniffling, Elizabeth said, "You really need to put a shirt on..."

Nathan laughed softly, already accustomed to how quickly her moods could change. He held her closer. "With all you're dealing with right now, I must say I'm surprised it bothers you."

Elizabeth turned her head and let her lips graze the soft hairs on his chest. "I miss this," she whispered.

Nathan breathed deeply and held her tighter. She could hear his heart begin to race a little. "Okay, you're right, I really need to put a shirt on," he said with a sigh, lifting her up. "Are you going to be okay while I ride? Should I stay here with you?" he asked as he focused on her eyes.

He wasn't fully prepared for the softness he saw there, and he couldn't stop himself from leaning down to kiss her. They both felt the heat of it, and allowed themselves a time of letting go, of remembering. Nathan finally moved and held her as they caught their breath. Taking in the fragrance of her hair, he said, "I miss you, too," his voice low and rough.

Elizabeth laughed softly. "Considering what I look like these days, that's a good sign."

He pulled away and looked at her, his eyes the deepest blue imaginable. "You have never been more beautiful, Elizabeth."

She'd always loved the way he said her name. When he was feeling things deeply, as he was now, it seemed harder for him to get all the syllables out, and it emerged from his lips as Lizbeth. As she looked in his eyes she was remembering all the times, at the very beginning, when he had stopped her as she walked away, or had suddenly gotten that look in his eyes of determination.

"Lizbeth," he would say, and then there would be the hesitation, the confusion as he heard that second voice inside his head that urged caution. She'd really wanted to throttle that second voice, and once, in the livery, she'd actually said, "Yes-s-s?" to urge him on. Another time, she'd thought maybe she could joke him out of it, saying "Cat got your tongue?" Neither had worked, of course.

But then, as she walked away for what felt like the hundredth time, hearing him say, "Lizbeth," she had turned, expecting another, "Never mind," or "Maybe some other time." Instead, she was surprised to see him confident, almost easy with it. "Would you like to get dinner with me?" It had nearly knocked the wind out of her, that ease, and she'd been unable to speak.

In that moment, there on the boardwalk in front of the Mountie office, they'd switched places. Nathan was strong and sure, and Elizabeth had felt a sudden empathy for all those times Nathan's emotions had choked his voice - because in the face of his ease, she'd felt unable to say all the things that were welling up in her heart. With a smile, he'd uttered the familiar words that had become almost a tender joke between them, "You let me know." All she could do was nod.

That day everything had changed. Everything. And it had set them both on the path they walked now.

"Say my name again," she said softly.

"Lizbeth," he whispered, knowing how she liked to hear it.

She closed her eyes, letting the sound of it wash over her. Sighing, she said, "You should go so you can get your ride in before it's time to go to the station."

Nathan took a deep breath and looked away reluctantly, searching for his shirt. "I'm not going to the station. Lucas said he's going alone." He stood and finally found the blue plaid shirt on the chair, and she watched as he shrugged easily into it. Elizabeth thought watching him get dressed was one of life's great pleasures.

As he buttoned his shirt, Nathan frowned slightly. "You know, I think you're right about Lucas. He has been acting strangely. He's got that look that I remember from early on, like he's... keeping secrets."

Elizabeth tilted her head. "You don't think he's having second thoughts, do you? About Julie?" Then she shook her head and answered her own question. "No. They could hardly keep their hands off each other at breakfast." She laughed softly, "As usual."

Putting an arm through the sleeve of his vest, Nathan said, "Well, there's something going on with him. For a man who plays cards, Lucas doesn't always have the best poker face, you know?"

Elizabeth nodded. She stood up with some difficulty, using the post on the bed to assist her. Walking over to him, she began to button his vest. Elizabeth loved watching him dress, and Nathan loved this. There was something so tender, so affectionate about the way she cared for him.

When she finished and looked up, he was gazing at her.

"What?" she said.

"I love you," he said simply.

"I love you too." Elizabeth took his face in her hands and kissed him lightly as he began to pull her closer. "Let's not get started on that again," she said playfully. "Go ride."

Nathan leaned down and kissed her tummy. "I love you both, too," he said softly. "Be nice to your mother."

Elizabeth laughed and almost pushed him out the door. "Find out what's going on with Lucas," she said.

"I will if I can," he said. "But if a man isn't ready to talk, you can't force him into it."

Grinning, Elizabeth said, "You're preaching to the choir, my love." She kissed him again and closed the door as he walked down the hall.

"Lucas," Nathan said, finding him in the library, "Can we talk?"

Looking up from his book, Lucas sighed softly. From here he could see Julie in the garden with Cora. Jack and Buttercup, inseparable as always, were in the box hedges chasing butterflies.

Lucas had known this was coming. Two days living with life-or-death information had taken its toll, and Lucas was very glad that it would only be another couple of hours before he headed to the train station to pick up Carson. But as he looked at Nathan's face, he could see that he might not make it another couple of hours.

Closing his book and setting it on the side table, Lucas said, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Why you're so strange around Elizabeth and why you don't want me to go with you to pick up Carson," Nathan said simply. He sat down in the chair opposite Lucas and waited.

Smiling, Lucas said, "You never beat around the bush, Nathan. It doesn't give a man the time he needs to think up a good way to avoid the truth."

Nathan smiled and said, "Yep. That's the point." He leaned back into the soft leather wing chair. "What's up?"

Lucas shook his head. "The Mountie sixth sense is taking hold, isn't it?" He picked a nonexistent piece of lint from his pant leg. "Don't imagine I can say it's nothing, can I?"

"Nope."

"What would you say if I told you Carson will explain it all in a couple of hours?" Lucas said.

"I'd say that makes it even more important that you tell me what's going on." Now Nathan was beginning to look very concerned. "Is this about the babies, or Elizabeth? Is it medical?"

Lucas took a deep breath. "Somewhat."

Leaning forward, Nathan narrowed his eyes. "Listen, I'm not playing twenty questions with you, Lucas."

Finally resigned, and seeing the look on his friend's face, Lucas knew it wasn't fair to keep this from Nathan. In truth, it wasn't really fair of Carson to have asked him to.

Lucas folded his hands in his lap. "The reason Carson wanted me to wait to tell you this is that he will be able to explain it much better than I can. He doesn't want to add worry to you and Elizabeth. He wants you to concentrate on taking care of her."

Nathan was getting impatient. "Thank you, but enough preamble. Spit it out, Lucas."

Taking a deep breath, Lucas said, "There's an... illness. A virus, that is spreading across the country. Carson says it's not common knowledge, and not a lot is known about it yet, but the hospital is taking precautions."

Lucas watched, fascinated, as Nathan went from protective husband and father, to Mountie. This was a steely-eyed strength, he thought, that no one could touch. Lucas had known for a while that he had vastly underestimated Nathan. And for a moment he thought it was no wonder Elizabeth had fallen so hard.

"How does it spread?" Nathan asked.

"By touch and by breathing," Lucas said softly.

"No cure? A vaccine?"

Lucas shook his head. "Not yet."

"Fatal?" Nathan asked, his voice like iron.

"Yes."

"Everyone is at risk?" Nathan asked.

Lucas paused the interrogation, which is what it was beginning to feel like. If this was the hardest part for Lucas to hear from Carson, it would certainly be much worse for Nathan.

Nathan narrowed his eyes further. "Lucas?"

"Young people and pregnant women are most at risk," Lucas said softly.

Nathan had been kicked by a horse once. What he felt now was like that.

Lucas let him think. He saw something that had become pretty familiar to him back in those days of their competition – the tightening of Nathan's jaw, rhythmic, powerful. It was something that Lucas would call a "tell" in cards. Although his face was relatively impassive, it showed Lucas what was going on under the surface. What can't be controlled.

Once he'd given Nathan some time to process, Lucas continued. "There's more, Nathan."

Nathan looked up from his focus on the floor. "Go ahead."

"Carson says they think the virus is spread by soldiers coming over from Europe, and it's making its way through the country by the trains going west." Lucas made sure Nathan was still with him. "He says we have to drive back to Hope Valley."

Nathan sat stock still and only his eyes narrowed. "Lucas. That's over 2400 miles. With two brand-new babies and the woman who has just given birth to them?"

Lucas put his hands up in surrender. "Don't shoot the messenger, Nathan. You wanted to know."

Nodding, Nathan said, "Yes, I did. Sorry." He looked up at Lucas again and raised an eyebrow. "Anything else?"

"No." Lucas was grateful that he'd finished passing on Carson's message. At least the part he had been given.

"But Carson will be getting off of a train this evening," Nathan said. He tilted his head at Lucas, trying to make sense of that fact.

Lucas nodded. "He says he's being very careful. He's wearing a mask and has antiseptic with him. He wanted me to pick him up, but I'm to wait in the car."

Nathan got a suddenly fierce look in his eyes. "Not a word of this to Elizabeth," he said forcefully.

Lucas laughed softly. "Nathan. I didn't want to tell you."

That finally snapped Nathan out of the dark place he'd been heading into for the last ten minutes. He took a deep breath and then chuckled softly. He hung his head down with his elbows on his knees, looking at the fine Persian rug under his riding boots.

When his head came up, he was nodding slightly. "Okay, we'll be fine. We can do this."

"We can," Lucas said. "I had Lionel take me out to the garage to see the cars. The Thatchers can easily spare two of them."

"And what if we just stay here until it all blows over?" Nathan said.

Lucas shook his head slowly. "I got the feeling it's worse where there are lots of people. And I also got the feeling that this is not getting better anytime soon. You can ask Carson, but I think Hope Valley may be the safest place for us." He sighed. "Not to mention Julie and I have two businesses to run, and I don't think you want to leave Bill in charge for too long." Lucas raised an eyebrow and smiled.

Nathan smiled. "No. I do not. I appreciate what he's doing, but as it is, I wonder if all my drawers have been rearranged."

Lucas laughed and looked back at Nathan. "For what it's worth, I can't think of anyone I'd feel safer with."

Nathan's crooked smile emerged slowly. "It's worth a lot, Lucas." He put out his hand and Lucas shook it. Then Nathan suddenly laughed.

"What?" Lucas asked.

Nathan raised an eyebrow. "I'm really glad I learned how to drive."