Chapter 1: Open Season
We start towards the end of the episode, after Nathan arrested Dylan Parks.
Nathan rode Newton into town in the early afternoon. It had been an uncomfortable ride, since his campaign hat had been detained as evidence for Dylan's trial. The sun had shone hotly on his bare head for the last stretch of the ride toward Hope Valley, and his canteen had run out halfway home. His face hurt from squinting. His right shoulder was sore from where he had landed on it when Dylan lassoed him down. He might have a mild concussion too. He had been unconscious for an undetermined amount of time on the dirt road.
Yes, Dylan had gotten him good.
Nathan had easily forgotten about his injuries once he had woken up and reunited with Newton. He was filled with the adrenaline of the chase. He was motivated by the chance, the first chance in years, to serve justice to the man who had ruined his sister's life and who still posed a threat to Allie. This was personal. Fortunately it was also appropriate criminal justice, because Dylan was a swindler. He was smart, too, intelligent enough to get away with most of his crimes. That's why Nathan had to plan it carefully and be willing to sacrifice his own body a bit.
Allie. He would tell her everything tonight. When he had woken up on the road in those early hours of the morning, he had laid there thinking while the edge of the pain wore off and he got his wits about him. First the prisoner transfer shooting six months ago and now this. Two close calls, and God had spared his life. Nathan knew he couldn't keep secrets anymore.
Not from Allie. He would tell her this evening what had transpired.
Not from Elizabeth. No more hiding the truth from her either.
Truth brought freedom, and not just for him. The burden of the secrets was so heavy to bear. Nathan thought of the Emerson verse he had given to Elizabeth, which had been his own motto during his first several years in the Mounties: "Always do what you're afraid to do."
He had followed Emerson's advice today and Dylan was safely put away with evidence to lock him up for a long time - long enough for him to complete Allie's adoption and beyond.
Funny how he felt more afraid of the upcoming conversation with Elizabeth than he did confronting Dylan.
He was going to keep the momentum going. Never mind his aching ribs and sore joints, his somewhat fuzzy head. He was going to keep pushing until the truth was revealed.
He had escorted Dylan and the Buxton Mounties to their office and had seen his brother-in-law locked up in their jail cell. Nathan had quickly completed his portion of the paperwork, grabbed some lunch at the cafe there, and started on his way back to Hope Valley.
When he got into town Nathan took Newton to the livery and went through the process of feeding and caring for his faithful friend.
School had just gotten out, and Allie popped into the stable to see if Newton, and therefore Nathan, was back in town.
"Uncle Nathan?" she said as she saw his disheveled state. "Are you okay?"
Nathan turned to her with a genuine smile,"Oh hey, Allie!"
Allie had been trained over the years not to ask Nathan what happened to him while he was on duty. She looked him over from head to toe and quizzically asked "Do you need to go to the infirmary, Uncle Nathan? Here let me help you." She put down her books and started brushing Newton.
Nathan finished putting the saddle and tack away. "I'll need to rest tonight but I'll be fine," he reassured her. "It looks worse than it is. Mostly just my uniform is dirty. Thanks for your help Allie. Hey, I need to go talk to Mrs. Thornton before she leaves school for the day."
They agreed to meet at home for dinner, which Allie said she would prepare.
"Here Uncle Nathan," Allie said, handing him her leftover apple from her school bag. "You look like you need this."
Nathan thanked her and munched the apple quickly on the way to the school house, feeling a new supply of resolve fill him for the discussion - confession - he hoped to have with Elizabeth.
He approached quietly and stopped on the grass in front of the steps. He wanted to gauge her present mood before entering. She was at her desk and appeared to be grading, just finishing the last of a pile of papers. Perfect timing.
He started up the steps, and when Elizabeth heard the sound of his boots on the hardwood floor, she glanced up, with her pen still in motion on the paper. Distracted, she glanced back down, and then quickly back up at him with widened eyes as he continued up the steps and in through the opened double doors.
Elizabeth quickly rose from her desk, circled around, and approached him, with a look of concern mixed with curiosity on her face. "Nathan, you look…."
"Oh," he shrugged, as he moved toward her and stopped about a meter away, "I'm fine. Actually in some ways, things couldn't be better." He gave her a relieved smile as he remembered Dylan's face behind bars.
Elizabeth was stunned into silence and merely looked at him with an expression he couldn't read.
The capture and arrest of Dylan Park had emboldened Nathan.
"Elizabeth, the man you saw me with yesterday,' Nathan paused for the briefest of seconds, as he saw the recognition and curiosity spark in Elizabeth's eyes, "that was Allie's father."
Elizabeth's mouth opened in a gasp and she even raised her hand over her mouth in surprise.
"He's a criminal, Elizabeth. This morning a group of Mounties from Buxton and I arrested him. He'll be put away for a long time."
Elizabeth digested this and said, "Is that how this happened?" gesturing to his disheveled appearance. "Are you hurt?"
"Enh, well, yeah, a little," he admitted, grimacing a bit and rolling his right shoulder, "but it's nothing compared to knowing that Allie will be safe from the likes of him."
"Nathan, does Allie know?"
"Not yet, but I'll tell her tonight. Dylan was a miserable husband to my sister, and he abandoned Allie after Colleen died. He's also a gambler and a crook. I've tried to spare her from that knowledge, but now that we're moving forward with the adoption, I know I need to tell her the truth. Tonight."
Elizabeth's eyes filled with compassion as she envisioned how that conversation might go tonight in the row house. "Nathan, do you need any help? Perhaps I could…"
"No, thank you. No." Nathan gave a pensive nod. "Allie and I will work through it. I actually came here now because there's something I need to tell you, too."
"Me?"
"Yes, Elizabeth." Nathan suddenly felt a little light headed and reached out to hold onto one of the school benches. He prayed for strength. If he fell, Elizabeth certainly wouldn't be able to catch him. He moved over to hold on with both hands and lowered himself down to one of the benches.
"Nathan?!" Elizabeth reached out to feel his forehead briefly, grabbed his arm for a minute. When she saw he was not weakening further she rushed back to her desk for her jar of water which she brought and handed to him.
"Thank you," he said and drank deeply, all of the water, with long gulps. He set the empty jar on the bench, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, and was silent for a few moments while Elizabeth watched him, concerned.
"Nathan, whatever it is, I'm sure it can wait. You should go home and rest-"
"No. Elizabeth, this has been put off too long. I need to tell you. It's about Jack. Jack Sr."
Elizabeth was completely caught off guard and did a hard blink and then several fast ones. "Jack?" she breathed out in a whisper.
Elizabeth rose and went to the window. She placed both hands on the sill and looked out at the prairie grass.
In the initial panic of her mind, a nursery rhyme started to recite itself.
This is the house that Jack built
This is the house that Jack built
This is the house that Jack built
This is the house that Jack built
This school house.
This house of God.
This is the house that Jack built.
This was a house of love.
Jack's love.
For her.
God's love.
For all who entered here.
For Nathan too.
It strengthened her. It calmed her.
She turned around and was shocked to find that Nathan had stood up and had moved silently to stand behind her.
She drew in her breath in surprise at his nearness but felt nothing but concern for what she saw in his eyes.
"Tell me," she said.
"Elizabeth, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I always meant to, but there was never a right time. There was No. Good. Time. But that's no excuse. I should have told you sooner."
Elizabeth tried to push her wild imagination back. "Good heavens, Nathan, what is it? Please tell me!"
Nathan opened his mouth several times, as if to find the words, as he looked to the side. His eyes caught the blue light reflecting off the stained glass window on the door, and then returned to the blue of her eyes.
He blurted out, "Three and a half years ago I was stationed at Fort Clay. I was a training officer. I led a number of training missions over the course of several months."
Elizabeth looked increasingly confused. "Fort Clay?" She looked down as she said "But, Fort Clay was…"
Nathan pressed his lips together and pressed forward because the only way through this was to tell his story. "Elizabeth, I was the one who was supposed to lead the training mission, THAT training mission, not Jack. I was…disciplined for an earlier incident and your husband…Jack replaced me."
Elizabeth's eyes were locked on his chest now, her body frozen except for her eyes moving rapidly back and forth. Suddenly she gasped, and turned around to brace both hands against the side window frames.
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the house that Jack built.
This is the priest all shaven and shorn
That married the man all tatter'd and torn
That kissed the maiden all forlorn
The milked the cow with the crumpled horn
This is the house that Jack built.
She closed her eyes and a stream of images flashed through the viewscope in her mind as she pressed her hands as hard as she could against the frames of the school house window.
Her first sight of the brand new school house with her strong Jack standing beside her.
Jack coming home from war, tattered, soul torn,
She was the maiden all forlorn.
Pastor Frank, shaggy, not shaven and shorn,
When they were married in this house that Jack built.
A new stream of images from the last three years now crowded their way through Elizabeth's consciousness.
Her first glimpse of Nathan in red serge at the NWMP station.
Their first meeting when he gave her Jack's pension.
Her baby son in Nathan's arms as he made funny faces.
Baby Jack laughing with delight.
The sight of Nathan walking into town when she thought he was dead.
His red clad shoulder under her cheek as she embraced him.
Nathan was silent.
Finally, Elizabeth turned around to face him and there were tears running down her face.
She asked with a quivering voice, "You never met Jack? You said you didn't?"
Nathan gently confirmed, "No, I never had the honor. I was transferred to Fort Simpson before he arrived at Fort Clay."
"What do you mean you were disciplined?" She was getting stronger, but her voice was still shaky.
He heaved out a sigh. "It's a long story. I will tell you all of it if you want to know. In short, I was on an assignment to track cattle rustlers. They were about to cross the border so I made the capture and arrest. My commanding officer suspended me for disobeying direct orders because he only asked me to locate and report."
Elizabeth wrinkled her forehead. She knew Jack undoubtedly would have acted as Nathan had in the same situation. Why be disciplined for good professional judgement?
Elizabeth shook off that question, raised her chin and asked the next question.
"I want to know what took you so long to tell me."
This was the crux of the matter. Why did it take him three years to tell her? Nathan glanced down and rubbed the toe of his boot on the floor before widening his stance, standing firmly and admitting the truth.
"I felt guilty."
"I don't understand." Elizabeth understood that Nathan had no part in causing Jack's accident, so why would he feel guilty?
"After the accident I requested a transfer here to Hope Valley. I never met Jack but I knew he left behind a wife and child. I felt it was my responsibility to look after you. To protect you."
"Why would you assume that?" Elizabeth's old stubborn independence reared up at that moment.
"I felt it was my duty." Nathan said weakly. "I thought I would be doing it from an impartial distance. I...I...never expected-" Nathan stopped abruptly and thought carefully about his words. He continued at a measured pace. "I never expected that we would become friends or that you and your son would become so important to Allie and I. I felt like I was betraying Jack and his memory by...caring for you. That's why I didn't tell you. I'm sorry, Elizabeth. It's not a good reason. Please- forgive me." Nathan heaved out a sigh and brought his hand up to rub his forehead and over one eye.
Elizabeth nodded and took a moment to let her eyes roam around the church, to give her mind a break from this new overwhelming information. She looked up to the rafters, around at the windows. She started walking around the perimeter of the church school house, trailing her fingers along a windowsill here, the back of a bench there. She felt the firm floorboards under her feet. She slowly circled the entire church.
That silly nursery rhyme would not leave her alone!
This is the house that Jack built.
Elizabeth suddenly knew what she needed to say. Suddenly it all made sense … Nathan's awkwardness, his cut off sentences, his unfinished invitations, the feeling that he wasn't letting her in, that he was shutting her out. It wasn't just the circumstances of each day or a shy personality. It was THIS that had been eating at him all along, weighing him down, stealing his freedom. No one should live like that. She could relieve him of his heavy burden.
She turned. Nathan was now seated in the front bench. The events of the last day and half were catching up to him.
Elizabeth sat next to him with her knees and body facing him. She waited for him to raise his head and meet her eyes.
"Jack might have taken the place for anyone on that mission, it just happened to be you."
Nathan bit his lip, looked down and then shifted his eyes out the window before returning to meet hers.
"And I want you to know," Elizabeth continued in a steady calm voice, "From the bottom of my heart, I don't blame you for his death. I wish you had told me about this sooner. I'm thankful you told me now."
Elizabeth had never seen anything like Nathan's face at that moment. The tension released gradually from his forehead down, his clenched facial muscles relaxing until he nodded and quietly said, "Thank you."
The relief Nathan felt was so freeing and uplifting that before he knew it he had reached out with his right hand to take Elizabeth's left. Elizabeth responded by grasping tightly and they were bound together in heart by the miracle of forgiveness, asked for and granted.
Elizabeth was aware that they were seated in the same place where she had sat with Jack the night of their engagement over four years ago. In a way she felt that Jack was present with them, blessing this moment of harmony. Her wedding ring pressed into the flesh of her fingers as Nathan firmly held her hand. Her pulse sped up at the intense warmth of his touch. She wouldn't sort out all of her feelings about Nathan today, but this moment wasn't about that. It was about healing. For both of them.
Author's note:
It's been 5 months since the WCTH season 8 finale!
Although it's been almost half a year, I'm finding I'm still not done with season 8. I'm a Star Trek fan and have spent years watching that series and its various spin-offs. I know that in fiction, especially science fiction, we can have alternate universes, mirror universes, and so many different story lines. This has helped me to heal from the disappointment that WCTH dished out to us - we can still have Nathan and Elizabeth be happy in as many alternate universes as we like.
I am accepting that "canon" (what actually happened and will continue to happen on screen) is just one version of the story between our beloved characters.
There are still a myriad of possibilities we can play with in fanfiction. It's like a choose-your-own adventure book.
My new goal is to explore each episode of season 8 and show us all how the story could have been corrected, the disaster averted, at any point in the season.
This series is not a sequential story, with each chapter continuing from the one before. Each chapter will start during a specific episode with the assumption that everything that happened on screen prior to that moment did happen per "canon" but I change it where I pick up the story in each chapter.
Let me know how you think season 8 would have been different if the time and place of Nathan's Fort Clay confession would have been moved up like this.
I'm really happy with this first new episode. I think it's beautiful.
They won't all be this beautiful. Some might be downright silly. I'm not sure yet if all of my stories here will lead to a Nathan/Elizabeth pairing ….but I do promise they all will make more sense than what we actually saw.
I have a pretty good plan for episode 2, "Honestly, Elizabeth." If you have ideas you'd like to suggest for fixing any of the following episodes, I'd love to know them. Send me a PM.
Many of you have asked about my other story "Nathan Grant, the Man." I'm so glad so many of you like it! I believe I will continue it, but for now this new idea has momentum. For that story, I feel I've left Nathan and Elizabeth in a safe and happy enough place until I can get back to them.
Many thanks to my partners in adventure, Fanfic Heartie and Elle018.
Also thank you to Paths Through Lavender Fields who gave me some very meaningful advice the other day on how to get writing again. Thank you friend!