A/N: Just another sweet fluffy chapter that was fun to write and imagine in my head. As always, encouraging comments are very welcome, they are a huge motivator for me and I appreciate them very much.

And the Heart is Brave

Chapter 8

Nathan Grant strode vigorously down the path in front of the rowhouses the next Saturday in his bright red serge coat, his Mountie hat firmly affixed on his head, one arm swinging in tandem with his lengthy strides, one hand resting atop the belt at his waist. Elizabeth Thornton's house was the last one in the row and as usual that was his destination on this day, in the early afternoon.

As he walked, Nathan noticed a small figure in the road ahead. Puzzled, his eyes quickly scanned the area. He even pivoted on a heel to take in a full 360 degree view as he walked backwards a few steps before turning fully around. But there was no one else in view. Just that small figure in the road. He came up to the figure and crouched low.

"Hey, little man," he said, reaching out to touch one of Little Jack's hands, giving it a quick jiggle. "What are you doing out here alone? Where's your mama?" he asked the child.

Little Jack twisted and pointed back to the rowhouse, the very last one in the row. Nathan's brow furrowed with puzzlement as he eyed Elizabeth's house. The front door was closed and there was no one in sight.

"Well," Nathan sighed, reaching to hoist Little Jack into his arms as he rose from the ground. "I guess we'd better go find her."

Elizabeth Thornton stood in her rear yard, pulling the clothespin from her mouth before fixing it to the bedsheet over the washline. As she did so, she continued the story she'd been telling her little son, her view of him hidden by the sheet she was fastening.

"And then he huffed and he puffed and he blewwwww the house down!" she recited enthusiastically, her eyes on her work, hanging laundry on this fine sunny Saturday. Into her mouth went another clothespin and her words became muffled. "The thecond little thig built a thouse made of thicks," she said, the clothespin rendering her storytelling a bit nonsensical. After positioning the next sheet, out came the clothespin allowing Elizabeth to recite the next line of the nursery rhyme in a more traditional way. Not getting much, if any, reaction to her words, Elizabeth pressed down the clothesline to peer over the top of the sheet, wondering why Little Jack had grown so quiet. If he wasn't laughing at her storytelling, he was usually at least banging his blocks around.

Elizabeth took in a swift breath, for Little Jack was not in the spot where she'd left him, his toy wooden blocks siting forlorn and abandoned. Elizabeth's eyes flew to the gate, it's door hanging open a good six inches or more. Quickly, she hoisted her skirts, ducked under the clothesline, and made towards the gate door. She was sure she had closed it tight, but perhaps not tight enough for an inquisitive child.

"Jack! Little Jack!" she called, pushing through the gate, her eyes frantically surveying the land, trying to stifle the rising fear that rose from the pit of her stomach and seared right to her heart. "Jack!" she called, bounding around the side of the house. Coming round to the front, Elizabeth stopped short, and placed a hand flat to her belly, slumping as relief washed over her, the relief coming as quickly as the fear had. For there in the road in front of her house was her son in the arms of Constable Grant. Nathan was playfully jostling Little Jack in his arms as he strode towards her house, to the delighted squeals of her small son.

Spotting Elizabeth now in view at the front of her house, Nathan strode up close to her, then, a twinkle in his eye, he quickly tucked Little Jack under his arm, somewhat like a football, the child's body level to the ground, face down with his arms out front and his feet kicking behind. Little Jack squealed in delight at this new game. Nathan assumed a serious stance, his feet braced apart and his other arm bent, the hand fisted at his waist.

"Excuse me, ma'am," he said in a comically low tone. "You wouldn't by chance be looking for a young'un? A little feller, blonde hair, about yea tall?" he asked.

Sensing the game now afoot, Elizabeth clasped her hands in mock desperation before her. "Why yes, constable! Have you seen him? I can't find him anywhere!" she moaned pitifully.

"I'm right here!" Little Jack shouted, squealing and giggling at the game, his face growing red with his laughter.

"Why lookie here! I just happen to have a young'un on me!" Nathan intoned in his mock serious constable voice, before he suddenly broke role to swing Little Jack away from his side. One arm across Little Jack's chest and the other hand on the seat of his pants, Nathan swung Little Jack into his mother's arms. "There you go now," he said in his normal tone. "Back to your Mama." Almost immediately, and to Elizabeth's surprise, Little Jack leaned back towards Nathan, his arms stretched straight in the air, the universal language of all children wanting to be picked up.

"Well, um, okay," Nathan took Little Jack back into his arms, the child had leaned so far he would have fallen if he hadn't. "I guess I did kinda forget something, didn't I?" he admitted, meeting the little boy's eyes as Little Jack nodded solemnly to him. Nathan raised the flap of his breast pocket and pulled out a pine cone, and handed it to the boy. "How's that?" he asked the child's opinion of the little treasure he'd brought with him today. Little Jack merely eyed the object with wide, delighted eyes. Nathan smiled, handing the child back to his mother, this time in a less dramatic way.

"What you have got there?" Elizabeth cooed to her child as she eyed the pine cone with him. "It's a pine cone!" she told him enthusiastically.

"Pine cone!" Little Jack repeated in delight.

Elizabeth looked over to meet Nathan's eyes, gratitude in hers. Nathan broke away from her look to glance around him. "Everything...everything okay here?" he asked, just the normal question he asked while doing his rounds.

"It is now," Elizabeth said, double meaning behind her words, subtly expressing her thanks to him, while Nathan squirmed a little.

"Anything else...anything else I can do?" Nathan asked, not meaning that he'd done anything special already, just wondering if Elizabeth might need anything.

But Elizabeth was shaking her head no. "That is...unless...," she started, a twinkle forming in her own eye.

"Unless what?" Nathan asked, with slight concern.

"Unless...you wouldn't have any way of outlawing laundry, would you?" she asked, remembering the laden basket of wet sheets in her rear yard still requiring her attention.

Nathan laughed out loud. "No, ma'am, 'fraid not," he answered in his mock Mountie voice. "I can take it up with my superiors though," he said and smiled, this new game now just between the two of them.

"Please do," Elizabeth smiled at him, before Nathan tipped his hat at her and they both turned to resume their day, a smile on both their faces.