As Colleen had told him he would, Jack eventually did figure out why he wasn't quite ready to leave the physical world behind. The realizations came while standing behind Elizabeth while she read the letter he had written and left with Abigail before going north. In his joy of being home with Elizabeth and their upcoming wedding, Jack hadn't even thought about asking Abigail to give him that letter back. Now, he was glad that he hadn't. Yes, he might have come home from the Northern Territories but that wasn't the point anymore. Though she hadn't received the letter in the way Jack had intended when writing those words, he was thankful that he had written those parting words down for Elizabeth.

Reading the words again over Elizabeth's shoulder, Jack hoped that despite the tears now, that his final words to Elizabeth would help bring her comfort in the near future.

I need you to promise me one thing Elizabeth. You will open your heart to love again.

Jack saw those words in black and white and knew that he still meant them. He didn't want Elizabeth to keep grieving his passing. She had loved him, as he had her. He didn't doubt that. Nothing could ever make him doubt that. He also knew that she had more enough love in her heart that falling for someone else would not diminish what they had share.

More than anything, he would have liked to grow old with her and continue to share that love. That was no longer possible though. His walk beside her had come to an abrupt end. However, Jack didn't want her to stay in one place, mourning him. He wanted Elizabeth to go on with her journey. He wanted her to follow her dreams. To teach her students to look at the world with the same wonder that she saw it in. Jack wanted others to realize her talent as an author though he hoped she would always cherish her first book that he had published for her. He wanted her to find love again. To have someone at her side to share the joys and sorrows of life. Someone who could give her the children that he couldn't now because there was no doubt in his mind that his Elizabeth would make a wonderful mother.

As she reached out a hand to the rough carving of their initials in the log, Jack knew that he couldn't move on until he knew his Elizabeth had found another person who loved her as much as he did. Someone who would protect her. Who would put her needs over his own.

In his heart, Jack knew that person was out there. Falling in love after a heart ache was possible. So many women of Hope Valley had already done so. People weren't meant to go through life alone. Jack needed to make sure that Elizabeth found the person to walk through life with now that he was no longer able too.

Jack reached out to run his hands through Elizabeth's hair as he had on other occasions. Instead, his fingers slipped right through her hair. The motion did cause the strands of hair to move as if caught by a wind. He saw Elizabeth shivered and hoped that she sensed his presence.

Jack had written that he would always be with her in spirit. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but he certainly was still with her.

Jack was worried about Elizabeth. She was tired, wasn't eating enough, and was suffering from headaches. He supposed Carson was right. Jack knew that grief could take a terrible toll on someone.

He didn't want Elizabeth to be grieving though. More than anything, he wished he could appear to her and tell her not to grieve him. Assure Elizabeth that as long as she was happy, then he would be happy for her no matter what form that happiness made.

Alas, she could no longer see him. Jack thought that perhaps there was time she felt his presence near, but that was all he could ever be to her now. A sightless presence that wanted only her happiness.

Jack followed Elizabeth everywhere. He watched life in Hope Valley go on without him and was flattered by the tributes made to him by even the youngest members of this town. The fact that his name would be remembered by the school that he had put so much effort into seeing that it was built would have warmed his heart if his heart could still be warmed.

Jack felt relief that Elizabeth would be staying in Hope Valley. With or without him, Hope Valley was where his Elizabeth truly belonged.

Now only if she would stop feeling ill. He stood beside her on the porch of Abigail's café wanting nothing more than to hold her in his arms and comfort her. Indeed, he did reach out and tried to hug her, but his arms passed right through her just like they did air.

"Elizabeth, you're going to have a baby."

Abigail's words stunned Jack as much as they stunned Elizabeth. He and Elizabeth had been together for such a short time after they were married. Granted, they had made the most of that short time, especially out under the stars on their way to Fort Clay. However, Jack knew that sometimes couples could try for years with no success. Lee and Rosemary didn't yet have a child, though perhaps that was on purpose. He had heard Rosie say on more than one occasion that children were sticky.

Apparently fate had known what was waiting for him at Fort Clay even if he hadn't.

A baby.

He would have a son or a daughter. In some small way, a piece of him would live on beyond just his memory. That knowledge brought Jack the first sense of peace he had felt since he had looked down upon his own lifeless body.

Jack stood between the strewn items and boxes in what was to be the nursery. He couldn't fault Elizabeth for having a hard time getting the room ready. As the birth of their child was getting close, Elizabeth's joy of the news and given away to a longing for him once again. It both touched and pained Jack. He wanted Elizabeth happy but instead she was still struggling and he didn't know how to help her.

Perhaps he couldn't help her. He certainly couldn't organize this mess for her but it was clear that somebody needed to.

Footsteps caught Jack's attention. Looking toward the hallway he watched as Abigail, Florence, Molly and Rosie trouped into the nursery and Jack smiled.

The calvary had arrived.

Jack watched as together Elizabeth's friends transformed the room from a collection of things to a room ready for the coming child. He saw the first genuine smile in quite some time come to Elizabeth's face as she watched her friends. That was what he wanted to see more often - the Elizabeth that had come to enjoy the simple pleasures that friends and neighbors brought to your life.

When Elizabeth left the room, he felt the same confusion that was on the other women face. What was wrong?

Then Elizabeth appeared with one of his pictures and placed it on a shelf.

Yes, that picture did complete the room. Though his child would never meet him, Jack did not fear that the child would not know him. Though he had never felt like he had done quite enough with his life, death had shown him that he had made an impression on the people around him. It would be a long time before Jack Thornton was forgotten. Elizabeth, Bill and Rosemary would make sure that his child knew the kind of person that he was and the values that he stood for.

As he made that realization, Jack looked around. Was that enough? Was that what he had to learn in order to move on?

But other than Elizabeth and her friends, no one else was in the room. Colleen had told him that those who had gone on before them, would be waiting to welcome them to the next existence.

"Take a walk with me?"

Like Elizabeth, he had heard the father speak those words to his child. Echoes of the words he had often said to Elizabeth. Words that made Elizabeth feel as if he was with her, which of course he still was in a way.

Jack had wished they hadn't gone to Benson Hills for the stroller. Not when Elizabeth was so far along in her pregnancy. The stroller could wait. He doubted it would be used right when the baby was born anyway. There would be plenty of hands to hold their child even if his weren't among them.

Yes why should anything of changed. Both Rosie and Elizabeth were the type of women that would follow through with something when their mind was set on it. It had gotten both of them into precarious situations before and now it had put them on the road from Benson Hills to Hope Valley in a snow storm.

Jack followed the car, determined to see all three women safely home. What he had not anticipated was Elizabeth going into labor before that happened. Neither apparently had any of the three women in the car.

Instinctively, Jack knew they would never make it back to Hope Valley before the baby came. He also knew that delivering in the car, in the middle of a snowstorm was not a good option either. Elizabeth, the baby, or both of them could succumb to the elements. Elizabeth needed some place that could be warmed up to give birth.

Realizing that they were passing an area where a hunting cabin wasn't far from the road Jack knew he had to intervene. Abigail would remember the hunting cabin if she was thinking about looking for shelter.

Putting himself on the road in front of the oncoming car, Jack braced himself for the car to pass through him. It was still a weird sensation to have something pass through him and never before had he simply waited for something as big as a car to do so. However, the action had his intended result and by passing through him, the car's trajectory changed just enough for the wheel to hit a patch of ice and slide into a snowbank.

As the three women climbed from the car, Jack tried to think of ways to trigger someone to remember the hunting cabin. It turned out that his intervention wasn't needed. Now that the car wasn't an option, Abigail was thinking of shelter and recalled the hunting cabin. As the three women started out through the woods in its direction, Jack followed. He would make sure that they found the cabin no matter what it took. Once the women were safe, then he needed to make sure the people looking for them could find them. The idea that no one would go out looking never even crossed his minds because the people of Hope Valley looked out for one another.

The baby's cries filled the cabin. It was such a blessed sound this Christmas Eve. The six people gathered around the baby in that cabin in the woods weren't the only one amazed at the small little miracle.

Alone in the corner, Jack Thornton stood watching in wonder the small life that he had been a part of bringing into the world. Yes, Elizabeth had done the hard work, but he had been a part of it. Without him, that little boy would never have come into the world.

He had a son.

That fact made Jack proud. He had spent his life trying to figure out how he could make his life mean something. Finally, in his death he had figured out just how to do that.

Moving from the corner, Jack moved to the bed. Though they wouldn't be aware of it, Jack sat down on the bed next to Elizabeth and his son. He reached out a hand and placed it close to the baby's head.

This was his son - Jack Thornton Jr.

Jack knew that there was no fear of Elizabeth ever forgetting him no matter where life took her. Now, he just needed her to find someone to share her life with so that he knew she would be okay through the good times and the bad times.