Lighthouse

Chapter 8

Josh had reached the conclusion that he wasn't going to find his wife on his own. He needed help and since he was a cop and there were a whole lot of cops all over, they could help him. They just wouldn't know they were helping him.

He had a recent picture of Kate and had attached that. Along with that he added that she was a suspect. Wanted for Murder. Any other action wouldn't get him the response or help he was looking for. Once she was found and caught they would simply detain her and notify him so that he could come out and pick her up.

Gabe McClure, the other homicide inspector called out, "Josh, we've got a new case."

"You take it, I'm busy." Technically finding Kate was his only job and he didn't need the distraction.

"The captain says otherwise, so grab your stuff and let's go." Gabe had a higher up behind him this time. He didn't know what was wrong with Josh but the man needed to do his damn job.

"Yeah, yeah." He would start sending it out as a fax to all the numbers he could think of when he got back so he put it in his drawer for later.

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"What's that?" Kate had never seen anything like it before, though the fact that it had an antenna gave her a clue.

"They left me a walkie-talkie. It's an SCR-536 made by Motorola in the States. We tested it before they left but what we don't know is if it has enough range. Caribou Island isn't really that far, but it might be too far." Rick looked at his watch since they had agreed on a time to test it. Fifteen minutes after the agreed on time he hadn't heard a thing so he started calling out, though he still heard nothing.

"Do you want to stay here or come with me?" Rick asked. He planned on walking to the far end of the island and get as close as he could to Caribou Island.

"I'm coming." She was curious if this really would work. It almost looked a little science fiction-y to her. The device was kind of big and it had this long metal rod that stuck out the top that whipped around.

Kate only went just so far and watched Rick walk out onto the rocks of the northernmost end, risking being splashed by a wave. He was far enough out that she could barely hear his voice and didn't hear exactly what he said. Then suddenly he was yelling into it.

He was still way out there when he began celebrating. Now she was watching him work his way back to her.

"It worked! For all of about one minute. Then it died but it came back again for a few seconds. Except it died and stayed that way," Rick said, still sort of excited.

"Oh, the supply ship is still on schedule which is just short of three weeks from now. They don't know anything about the radio antenna tower replacement. They do have a plan, however. They're going to come out in two days with a much smaller antenna. They want me to mount it to the maintenance building and connect it to the radio. The hope is that this antenna means I don't have to go back out there to talk to someone. So we'll see." Rick counted it as a victory. Especially when they didn't know when they would both be in position to hear the other.

She still wasn't happy that he was going to do some research on Josh. She was terribly afraid that he would figure out where she was, show up there, and kill Rick, dragging her back home and doing god only knew what to her.

"Now what?" Kate queried since without enough cloth she couldn't make much of anything else. Though she could use some paper and do some designs.

"We go back to doing what we've been doing." Rick didn't see any other choice. "Where did we leave off after you married Josh?" She needed to keep up her part of the deal, even if the deal was mostly on her.

"Christmas." Kate really didn't want to talk about her first Christmas from hell, but she didn't have a choice. "Technically it was Thanksgiving when I started preparing for Christmas." She began the next part of her story.

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Kate was in her room when another boat showed up. The windows didn't have any blinds on them so trying to get a peek, while tempting, was out. If she was spotted it would put both of them on the spot. They still had to come up with a plan for getting her off this island, but that was in the future. For now she was hiding.

Rick showed up at her door. "They're gone. They left behind a few things. One was the antenna that looks a lot like a large TV antenna so I'm not sure this thing is going to work."

"Isn't an antenna an antenna?" Kate didn't know anything about it but surely they were the same, right?

"You would think so, wouldn't you." But Rick was shaking his head. "I would be so much simpler. Oh, and they also brought a box of paper and another box of colored pencils." He thought that might make her happy.

Kate squealed, "Where, where?" She didn't wait for him to answer and went racing out of her room and flying down the stairs to look for it. Between the two of them they were going through paper fast and her pencils had been old to start with.

Rick rolled his eyes and finally went downstairs after changing clothes to put up their stupid antenna and prove that it wasn't going to work.

He found her in the dining room sitting at the table with her new pencils and the entire box of paper. She looked busy so he left her to it. He had work to do. Besides if it kept her busy and out from underfoot he was happy.

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Rick had his antenna up and connected to the radio and it took him only a minute to prove that it wasn't going to work. "Nobody listens to me." They had wasted his time with this stupid thing. He walked back to the house in a bad mood, grumbling and muttering most of the way.

That lasted until he stepped inside and smelled Kate's cooking. He followed his nose and found her busy at the stove. He stepped up next to her and inhaled deeply. She more felt him than saw him until she saw a spoon sneaking into what she was doing. "Get your hands out of that!" She swatted his spoon away.

"It smells great!" He wasn't joking this time much like the other times she cooked.

"By the time you go wash and set the table it'll be done. Now shoo." Kate batted him away and smiled as he walked away. It actually felt good to be cooking for him. It was a far cry from when she cooked for Josh. Rick wanted to taste her cooking while Josh just wanted to control her and never said anything about the taste.

Since Kate had taken over the dining room table they were stuck with using the little two person table located in the kitchen. It meant they sat across from each other, rather close.

Rick was eating with proper manners but he was getting close to done while Kate had barely started. "Hungry?" She was amused when he didn't even answer her but got up to get seconds. This time he ate much slower. "I take it you like it." He obviously did since he was eating seconds which he sometimes did, just not always.

"You're much better than I am. Too bad you're married." Kate would be a real catch. Then he stopped eating and put his fork down. "I'm sorry, Kate." Talking about her marriage was a sore point for her. He hadn't meant to remind her that she was married.

"It's okay, it was my mistake. If I could take it back I would." Turning back time was impossible. She had to live with her mistake.

"So would you divorce him?" Rick asked her, not sure just where he was going with this.

"In a heartbeat, but he would never sign the papers." She was trapped.

"Maybe," Rick responded.

That had Kate stopping from eating. "What?" What did he know? What had he done?

"This last visit I gave them my papers for my friends. Two are going to do some research on Josh while another is going to do some research on how divorces work in Canada. I don't know what any of them are going to find, but I thought I should ask." Rick shrugged.

Kate was ready to kiss him. If he could get her a divorce she would have his baby. Then she sat back. She was screwed and she knew it. Rick knew that look.

"Don't give up just yet." It hadn't even been a whole month yet.

"It doesn't matter. He'll find me eventually. My only real hope was to get as far away as possible. Some tiny town in Texas or somewhere else, maybe." Just disappear.

"TEXAS! Might as well move to the moon." Rick thought very little of Texas, though he thought very little of most of the States. Texas was the worst possible option for her. "Have a little faith. Maybe Paris. You keep designing dresses and maybe you'll be a well known designer and do Paris shows." She should be dreaming not thinking her life was over.

"Paris." Kate huffed out a laugh. Living in Paris wasn't even the wisp of a daydream.

"Never say never. We've only just begun to fight." Rick wasn't giving up so neither should she.

That had Kate looking at him. He had said WE. As in he was behind her and willing to help her. She shouldn't hope but couldn't help it. Was it really possible that he would find an answer?

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"What are you doing?" She found him in the dining room looking over her doodles. They were mostly just that too. Doodles. Not really a design.

"I think you should reconsider your thoughts on being in Paris and doing Paris shows. I know I don't know women's fashion, but these look pretty good to me." Rick put them all down on the table in front of him so he could look each of them over.

Kate moved in and scooped them all up. "They're just some design doodles. They're nothing." She didn't even know where she was going with them.

"Don't shortchange yourself, Kate." Rick got up and kissed her cheek and headed out of the house to get to work.

Stunned, Kate stood there holding a hand to her cheek where he had kissed her. She really was learning to like him. He was kind, maybe a little funny sometimes, he certainly worked hard and knew what he was doing. He was handsome and he was built. It left her wondering What If.

What if she kissed him back? What if they did more than kiss one of these times? Was he kissing her because he really liked her or was he kissing her because he wanted her to feel better.

But she kept going back to the fact that she was married. She had to get away from Josh first. Everything else was just going to have to wait.

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Kate had been in the dining room trying to do more than just doodle. That was when she noticed the time. "SHIT! Lunch." Rick hadn't stopped for breakfast which was actually a good thing since she had managed to sleep in. She hadn't meant to but she had. Sleeping in was something new. Josh had never allowed her to do that before. She had to be up to do her job.

She got up to try and find him to see what he wanted for lunch. Since he had skipped breakfast she was betting a simple sandwich wasn't going to cut it.

She opened the door, closing it quickly and trying to be silent about it. All the color drained from her face as she ran to her room. She had seen Rick and two other men walking from the maintenance building toward the house.

She closed her door and worked at being as quiet as a mouse.

Rick hadn't seen the boat since he was inside the maintenance building doing his work. In this case it was maintenance on the main generator that served the lighthouse light.

"Rodgers." The two men had started there first since this was were they had docked their boat.

"GOD, WILL! Don't do that." Rick placed a hand over his heart.

"Sorry but we have news so we thought you should know. We were also hoping for some lunch." They had taken the risk that they could get lunch here while delivering their news and some of what Rick had asked for.

"Sure." Rick starts walking for the main house. What he didn't know was where Kate was. That was until he saw the door open and then close even faster. He surmised that Kate had seen them and would retreat to her room.

Since it was fast and easy Rick made them all sandwiches, got out some potato chips, opened several cans of soup and put the percolator on the stove.

"What brings you here?" Yes, he was out of communication but he couldn't help that.

"This is for you." He handed over a large manila envelope that was sealed and had his name on it. "We've also got news on your antenna. Bids are out and we've got three of them back. Naturally one's lower then all the others so he will likely be selected. This also means that you can expect for him to arrive so he can survey the sight and decide what he needs for installation and how he's going to get it all here," Will said.

"That's great news. Is the supply ship still on schedule?" Since there were two of them he was going through supplies a little faster than he liked.

"It is." Jacques spoke up this time with his French accent. "You must be a pretty good cook. Some of what you asked for is unusual. Beef and chicken are standard. But buffalo, venison, and lamb? We're going to have to get you to cook for us one of these trips."

Rick tried to keep a straight face. He had simply handed over the list that Kate had given him in the hopes that they could augment his normal delivery. He hadn't actually read it. He didn't know what she was going to do with those meats either. However based on what she was cooking with what he did have he could hardly wait for what she had planned.

"I'll try and put the leftovers in the refrigerator for you," Rick smiled since they all knew he wasn't going to do it. He was going to eat all of it.

"Is there anything else you need?" Will inquired. "The parts on your list will come with your supply run."

Rick started shaking his head, then a thought hit him. "Fuel for the lawnmower and the other grounds equipment." He didn't think he had asked for that. "And spark plugs, oil and oil filter." He had everything else taken care of.

"You got it." Will would do it since it was easy.

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"Thanks for lunch." Will and Jacques shook his hand.

"Glad you came. Come back anytime." He had Kate but he was glad for the company.

"Getting lonely, are we?" Will teased.

"Well since you brought me a TV antenna you could at least bring me a TV." He wasn't sure what there was to watch but anything was better than nothing.

"I'll see if it's in the budget. Your antenna has already broken it." Granted it wasn't his fault, but it was still money.

"You do that." Rick watched them leave and then ran to the house. He had a manila envelope to check. He had high hopes that something was in it from his friends.

Rick read all that was inside it before calling for Kate.

"They almost caught me. Did you know they were coming?" She wasn't blaming him and she never would. But maybe it had skipped his mind.

"No, they were a surprise. Without a radio they have to come here by boat to tell me anything. So they told me that the supply ship's on schedule. That they've selected a contractor to install the antenna. We can expect him to come visit the site in a few days." It was his warning to Kate that she was going to have to hide again.

"I'll try and keep my eyes open." Kate didn't want to hide but that was her life now.

"They also brought me one more thing." He handed over the manila envelope since it was mostly for her.

"One of my guys came through. …Open it." She was just sitting there holding it.

It was already open so Kate knew he had already looked at it and knew what was in it. He could have just told her but she chose to indulge him and read what was inside it.

The Act of Getting a Divorce in Canada

When a marriage is over the only way to legally end your relationship is to be granted a Divorce. In Canada it is not required that both parties want their marriage to end in order for a Divorce to be granted. It is only necessary that one party prove that the marriage has broken down and can not be repaired. The process of proving that a marriage has broken down is quite often referred to as "Grounds for Divorce". We will explain the valid grounds for Divorce in Canada, further down this page.

Throughout Canada every Divorce is governed by the Federal Divorce Act. However, each province will vary on the specific documents and procedures used for their individual jurisdiction. This is just one of the reasons that it is best to contact a lawyer specializing in family law, when seeking a Divorce in Canada. A local lawyer will be familiar with the Family Law Act and all of the procedures in your province or jurisdiction. They will review your personal circumstances and then explain all of your obligations during a Divorce, as well as ensure your rights are fully protected.

Understanding the Grounds for Divorce in Canada

The only way you will be granted a Divorce in Canada is if you can prove to the courts that your marriage has broken down and cannot be repaired. Currently, there are two ways you can legally prove a marriage breakdown. That is by completion of a one year separation from your spouse, or by providing valid proof that adultery or abuse occurred. Most divorces in Canada are granted based on the completion of a one year separation – this is called a "No Fault Divorce".

One Year Separation – No Fault Divorce

First, let us clarify that you do not have to wait until you have been separated for a full year, in order to apply for a divorce in Canada. In fact, you can begin the application process as soon as you and your spouse are separated. However, the courts will not grant you a divorce, until the full one year separation has been completed.

That said, separating for one year does not always mean that you and your spouse must be living at separate addresses. What it means, is that you must be living separate lives. Separate houses are the most clear and uncomplicated way to complete a one year separation period. However, in the event that separate homes are not possible (due to finances, children etc) you can indeed continue to live in the same house. In this type of situation, the court will require that the couple prove that while they were abiding in the same dwelling, they no longer continued to live as a couple. This can be complicated and it is always best to obtain legal assistance in this situation.

Lastly, if you and your spouse separate and then get back together, you are not always required to begin the one year separation period again. You will only have to restart your one year separation period if you were back together for a period of more than 90 days, or for several periods which added up amount to more than 90 days. This law allows couples a chance to try and work on repairing their marriage, without delaying a Divorce in the event that their attempts are unsuccessful.

Generally speaking, a "No Fault, Uncontested Divorce" is the least complicated and inexpensive way for couples to obtain their Divorce. However, we understand that every situation is unique and getting advice from a lawyer who fully understands your personal circumstances is always the best approach.

Adultery or Cruelty – For Fault Divorce

Couples who chose to file a divorce on the grounds of adultery or cruelty are filing what is referred to as a "For Fault Divorce". This simply means that one spouse is trying to prove that the other is solely at fault for the breakdown of their marriage.

It is very important to be prepared when filing a "For Fault Divorce", as the courts will require proof of exactly what has occurred in order to substantiate the claim. For this type of divorce legal representation is almost always necessary. "For Fault Divorces" as usually not recommended, as they tend to be costly, lengthy and difficult. Also, due to the backlog in our court system, it is not uncommon for a "For Fault Divorce" to take a year or more to be processed. This means, a couple could have successfully completed a one year separation (a no fault divorce) in less time, without the added expenses and stress.

Lastly, it is important to point out that regardless of how you prove your marriage has broken down, or under what grounds you file a divorce, this has no impact on the courts decisions regarding custody, access and support of children.

Since every individual situation is unique, we recommend that you have a family lawyer review the specifics of your personal situation. This will allow an expert to give you the advice you need to make the best decisions for your future.

Kate had finished reading it all and was staring at Rick. She couldn't believe it. It couldn't be that simple, could it?

"He added a note that isn't in there any more. Basically it breaks it down. He needs to know your province for where you lived to verify the local requirements. But put simply you need to file the papers, show proof that you no longer live with him, and one year later you are given a divorce. You will officially be rid of him."

Kate couldn't stop the tears. That he would do this for her showed that he was an amazing man. She had been so very fortunate to end up washed up on his island after her ship sank or as her ship sank.

"Thank you!" Kate stood up, took his head in her hands, and kissed him with all the thanks that she could put into the kiss. It was their first real kiss and while she was holding his head he moved his hands to hold her head and was kissing her back.

Kate finally broke from the kiss and looked him in the eye. She really wished she had met him before she ever even saw Josh. However, her mind reminded her that she was still married. But maybe when she wasn't….