A/N: This story is told from a perspective favorable to Team Lucas but is also very pro-Nathan. It is set in a period beyond season 8 and the characters have moved forward and Elizabeth is with Lucas and Nathan on his own with his adopted daughter. If you are Team Nathan, I truly understand your disappointment as I've been there with other shows and other characters, but I'd ask that you please refrain from using reviews to comment on the creative decisions of the show's writers or the actors or what you didn't like about season 8. There are other places for that and this is just one woman's effort and continuing the story. I do not own any of the characters associated with When Calls the Heart, but the story itself is my creation. Thank you and on to our story!
Elizabeth Bouchard and her husband Lucas sat in mournful silence at the graveside of Sergeant Nathan Grant as Hope Valley's minister, Dr. Cooper Canfield, preached a farewell sermon. For forty-seven years Nathan had been their dearest friend, but of course it had not always been so. You see, Lucas and Nathan had once competed for Elizabeth's love – both exhibiting virtues that any woman would have considered admirable. But in the end, it was Lucas who won her heart, her hand and her lifetime of joys and sorrows - and it was Nathan who willingly stepped aside.
For a short time, things were awkward between the couple and the town's dashing constable – but tensions eased as life progressed. Lucas and Elizabeth went on to marry and had three children together and Nathan moved on - finding the love of his life in a woman named Emily Reardon who came to Hope Valley in the fall of 1920 and would later bear him two children, a son who was his namesake, and a daughter named Lily.
But the romance and domestic histories of the Grants and Bouchards is not what this story is all about. Rather, it's a tale of how beauty can spring forth from ashes and how hearts, once broken, can heal stronger than ever before.
It all began on a fateful day in September 1919 – a day that began with hope and happiness but ended with brave acts, tearful pleas and tragedy that would change their lives forever.