This story is a one shot that has no place in my The Story of Nathan Grant timeline. This story was brought about by my frustration about Elizabeth's behavior towards Nathan this season. This is set in the episode of the graduation. Anyway, I hope you find this as therapeutic as I do! Enjoy!
Actually, It's Constable, Mrs. Thornton
After Nathan's inquiry and subsequent acquittal, Nathan and Allie had decided to start their summer vacation. Nathan knew that they had a parent-teacher conference scheduled for the first day of their time together, but since Nathan and Elizabeth hadn't had a conversation about Elizabeth saying that she couldn't try with him, Nathan knew that their next conversation would be awkward and Allie would pick up on it, and she was already trying to hide the hurt that Elizabeth caused by not following through with their dinner several weeks ago, and he heard Allie praying that Elizabeth would changed her mind about Lucas; so that Elizabeth would have the potential to see what an awesome family they would make.
Nathan knew that Allie absolutely adored Elizabeth and had hopes for her becoming Allie's mother one day, officially. She constantly asked about Elizabeth and his feelings for her to give a weather check on their relationship. Since Elizabeth had chosen to pursue her relationship with Lucas, Allie (and Nathan if he were honest with himself) had days where Elizabeth gave her hope, and then in the next moment, dashed them all into a cavernous abyss.
So, despite knowing that parent-teacher conferences were important, and he would have to talk to her eventually, Nathan decided that spending an afternoon fishing with Allie was much more important to both of their aching hearts. When they got back for the evening, Allie was chatting away as they approached the door.
Allie noticed the note first.
"Nathan, please come see me at your earliest convenience, - Elizabeth," Allie read as she took it off of the door and passed it over to Nathan. "She's asking to see you in private? I think this is a good sign. You should go now."
Nathan took the note, feeling like whatever she wanted, he was about to be lectured, not rising in her esteem.
"Allie, we haven't even had dinner yet," Nathan pointed out.
"So, I will start it. I will clean our fish and then start the things that don't involve the stove," Allie said with a smirk.
"Allie, I really think this can wait," Nathan persisted.
"No, it can't, Uncle Nathan. Hasn't anyone told you that you don't keep a lady waiting," Allie teased him.
"Yes, but I'm pretty sure that only counts if the meeting was agreed upon by both parties. This," Nathan waved the note, "doesn't count."
Allie just rolled her eyes at him and blocked his path.
They had a stare down on their front porch.
"Fine, I will go now. But know that it's not what you think it is," Nathan said as he gently tried to let Allie know that her hopes for this were unfounded.
Allie smiled up at him.
"It might be, though," Allie pointed out with barely concealed optimism.
Nathan just shook his head as he turned down the steps. As he walked towards Elizabeth's house, he heard Allie's whispered prayer as she watched him walk away.
"Please, God, please, make them okay! I want a mother!"
Nathan's heart clenched at the prayer.
He knew that her prayer wouldn't come true. His prayers were always about how to help her when Elizabeth did break her heart. Nathan knew it wasn't a meeting to reconcile with him (them), so during the walk over to her house he had two deductions about what this was about, she either had an emergency that she needed his help with as a Mountie, or it was about the missing parent-teacher conference, and he wasn't quite sure how that would go.
It really was a toss up for which one it could be, which made him more anxious. He was leaning towards the conferences, which made him want to walk right back.
'But something COULD be wrong that she needs my help with as a Mountie,' Nathan thought, which is why he was on her porch and knocked gently on her door.
Nathan waited anxiously until she opened the door.
"Good evening," Elizabeth answered quickly.
Nathan did a quick assessment of her body language. Nothing wrong physically with her. He could hear Jack upstairs. So something else was clearly bothering her.
"I got your note. What is it? What's the matter?" Nathan said with more anxiety coming out of his voice than he had wanted to reveal.
The look on her face showed that she was cross with him.
He watched her debate on how to have this conversation.
"Please, come in," Elizabeth stepped away from the door so that Nathan could enter her house.
'Nothing good is going to come of this,' Nathan thought as he knew that she needed the time and space for it to be a private conversation. Nathan did. He took a few steps in, got a quick look around and turned to face her after she had shut the door behind her.
Elizabeth sighed, before folding her hands together and mustering her words.
"It's just that you and Allie didn't attend your parent-teacher conferences today, and I was just wondering where you were," Elizabeth said as a statement, not a question.
Nathan looked down a bit before crossing his arms across his chest.
Knowing that honesty was the only acceptable answer he replied with honesty.
"Allie and I went fishing," Nathan said as he looked into Elizabeth's eyes again.
The look on her face wasn't quite surprise.
"Oh, I was sort of hoping you had a good reason for missing it," Elizabeth said flatly, completely emotionless. Nathan was having a hard time reading if she was trying to tease and failed or was actually commenting on the fact that she didn't think that spending an afternoon with Allie was a good reason.
'How dare she?!' was Nathan's first thought.
So, he tried to elaborate.
"Well, we really haven't spoken since you told me how you felt. So, I just thought it was best for both of us," Nathan said calmly, matter-of-factly, but anyone who knew him would see his crossed arms and notice his agitation.
Elizabeth seemed to actually react to that statement. She gave a little headshake.
"Regardless of how things are between us, Allie's education…" Elizabeth trailed off knowing that Nathan would agree with her, most of the time.
"What do we do? Do I have to make an appointment? Or can we talk now?" Nathan said calmly, uncrossing his arms, and hoping this was all.
"You're here...so, let's talk," Elizabeth answered stiffly, as she went to cross her parlor.
She brushed past Nathan, gently grazing his arm in the small space.
Nathan took a deep breath to compose himself, and then looked at the furniture before Elizabeth returned with Allie's report card.
"Allie had another stellar year. She received straight 'A's' but particularly excels at mathematics," Elizabeth said as Nathan took a seat on the sofa.
She sat in her chair still looking at the report.
Nathan leaned back on the sofa, trying to get comfortable.
"Uh...That's not uh a big surprise. Growing up I would often bribe Colleen to do my algebra homework," Nathan said with nervousness and a smile.
Elizabeth just looked down at the report.
'Get a grip, man! She doesn't care about you. This is about Allie. Focus!" Nathan thought to himself as he watched Elizabeth avoid eye contact on the story about his past.
Elizabeth took in a breath and picked up a paper on the top of the file.
"I was hoping we could discuss putting Allie in an accelerated math program," Elizabeth handed over the flyer of information.
Nathan took it as he listened to her.
"Yeah, that sounds great," Nathan said as he flipped open the flyer to give the appearance of reading it. He was too unnerved to read it right now.
"The kinds of things she would be learning would really stretch Allie," Elizabeth continued to sell the program.
'I just agreed to it, why are you still talking about the program,' were Nathan's thoughts as he heard her talking in the same manner.
"But she would probably need your help with her homework, or she would need a tutor," Elizabeth continued, looking down at the tutor part.
'A tutor!' Nathan was visibly shocked by the tutor part.
"Well she's not going to need a tutor," Nathan said forcefully, offended that Elizabeth would even suggest something like that for him and Allie.
"That's not what I meant," Elizabeth backtracked, took in a breath and said, "Towards the end of school...perhaps due to her worry over your inquiry, Allie's concentration suffered. She became distracted in class. And it seems that whatever happened at Fort Clay, it's still weighing on her."
Elizabeth had finally taken to looking at Nathan, and Nathan couldn't meet her eyes now, but he felt her looking at him intently.
"Well that's all behind me now," Nathan said, without much conviction. Nathan gave a small smile, "so, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Nathan, you are Allie's world," Elizabeth started firmly.
'Oh great, here is the lecture and what Elizabeth is actually upset about,' Nathan said as he listened.
"You're the only father she's ever known. And as she grows up, you will always be the measure of the quality she'll look for in a man when she chooses who to marry," Elizabeth said.
Nathan felt the barbs of her words, but found them to be hypocritical. He absolutely knew that it was wrong to skip the parent-teacher conferences without letting her know, but she was the one constantly breaking their hearts and to suggest that Nathan wasn't a man of his word for ONE missed meeting, was an insult to him and an insult to the friendship between the two of them, because she knew better! She had made it her mission when they first arrived to butt into their personal lives and got to know them!
Nathan was suddenly very angry and hurt at her. Nathan scoffed.
"I'm sorry for not letting you know that we weren't coming, but I won't apologize for taking the time to spend it with Allie," Nathan said just as firmly back.
"Nathan…" Elizabeth said in surprise.
"No, it's my turn," Nathan spat back. "You agreed to a date with our children involved, and then ten steps from the door, you asked to go home. Jack is too small to notice, but Allie absolutely knows and was hurt just as much as I was when you decided to go home. If you were still struggling, or knew that you didn't want to be with me at that time, you should've been honest about it then, rather than getting BOTH of our hopes up."
Nathan took in a deep breath.
"You've said that I'm the quality of the type of man she will pick in a husband, but you seem to think that missing ONE meeting with you after you RAN off after my confession of love, and didn't have the audacity to talk to me about in person after the fact, is a bad thing. I'm trying to show Allie that I ALWAYS have her back and have her safety and protect her heart when I can. School is important, but being present is more so," Nathan said firmly. "So, while I'm sorry about not rescheduling beforehand. I'm not sorry for spending time with my girl."
"Nathan…" Elizabeth tried again.
"With Allie not having a mother figure in her life, you've put yourself, willingly, into that role many times, without either of us asking. Allie prays everyday that you'll change your mind. I pray everyday that she is able to get through the heartache when her prayers don't come true. You've been toying with all of our hearts, Elizabeth. So, Elizabeth, before you criticize me for my faults in not showing up, after you ripped our hearts out, take a good look at your actions and see if you would want Jack to be around someone who keeps playing with his hopes and dreams," Nathan said fiercely as he glared at the woman sitting across from him.
Elizabeth looked at him with wide eyes. She had apparently thought that he would take the criticism with thanks.
"Actually, since you've made it clear that you haven't chosen us, I want you to take a step away in Allie's life. You have this habit of showing her some means of hope, and then dashing it away in the next moment. If it doesn't concern you as a teacher, I want you to send her to me. As you've said, academics are important, and I agree, but I don't want you involved in our personal problems," Nathan said again.
Elizabeth's jaw dropped.
"But oftentimes, home life is where problems arise academically," Elizabeth pointed out.
Nathan glared at her.
"Right now, you're the problem," Nathan said matter-of-factly, and was thinking that that should have been obvious in his spiel.
Elizabeth finally looked gobsmacked.
"Leave us alone, for a bit," Nathan said as he stood up.
"Nathan…" she protested as she stood up.
Nathan quickly crossed over to her door and stepped out onto her porch.
"I will let Allie know that we are putting her in the accelerated math program," Nathan said as he stepped away.
With his long stride, Nathan was half-way to his rowhouse when Elizabeth finally raced after him from her doorway.
"Wait...Nathan!" Elizabeth called out.
Nathan stopped in his tracks and took some steadying breaths. He turned a glare at her. She stopped in her tracks.
"Actually, it's Constable, Mrs. Thornton," Nathan said as he looked back at her.
Nathan had said it loud enough for everyone who was in the rowhouses to hear.
Elizabeth stopped firmly in her tracks, and he could see the pain in her eyes at his words.
"Does this have to do with Allie's school?" Nathan asked, already knowing the answer.
"No, it doesn't, but I feel like our conversation isn't done yet, Nathan," Elizabeth choked out.
Nathan turned away from her. His heart breaking for what seemed to be the 1000th time with this woman.
"Then it IS done. And I told you to call me Constable, Mrs. Thornton," Nathan said firmly as he walked away and into his rowhouse.