AN: This story is part of the Common Starting Point Fanfic Challenge. As the name implies, all stories in this challenge will have the same beginning. This common beginning text is in bold. As such, the text in bold will appear in others stories. The bold text is used with permission of the original author and the text following the bold is the work of the author posting this story.
AN2: This is what happens when your muse has ADD and is reading stories. This idea was influenced by K8esunbug's entry for this challenge "A Father's Love" but while she has the conceited, spoiled-brat version of Elizabeth that started to show up in s8, I have the Elizabeth that Jack fell in love with. This takes place a few months after "Home For Christmas" and so the rest of season 7 and beyond never happened.
Disclaimer: The character's are not mine but the property of Crown Media. Just the same, enjoy what I did with them!
Inspector Nathan Grant rubbed the back of his neck as he made his way through Mountie Headquarters in Union City to his office. He had spent the last hour inspecting freight coming through Union City by railroad for one of his current open cases. This particular case involved the smuggling of stolen jewelry from stores in big cities in Eastern Canada to points out west. The operation had been discovered when a shipping crate for Thatcher Shipping Company had accidentally been dropped while moving it from one train to another. Two small canvas bags with several precious gemstone rings had come dislodged from the lid of the shipping crate. Nathan had been called in by the railroad, and two other crates in the shipment had been found to have jewelry hidden in crates of dishes and utensils.
Today, jewelry from a reported robbery in Halifax had been discovered in crates of food bound for Cape Fullerton. Having no reason to believe that William Thatcher himself was party to the smuggling operation, Nathan had been in contact with the shipping tycoon. Confiding in only his right-hand man about the incident, William Thatcher had not been able to turn up any indication that the stolen jewelry was being added to the crates at their origination in Hamilton. Unfortunately, that still did not rule out involvement by someone in the Thatcher Shipping Company organization entirely. The inside man could also be associated with the railroad or a third party altogether.
Reaching his office, Nathan hung his hat up on the hook inside the door as he walked over to his desk. He had left the contraband in the crates today. Picking up the phone, Nathan called and alerted the Mounties that were near the trains next stop. His plan was to keep tabs on the contraband and see where they disappeared.
After making the call, Nathan leaned back in his chair. He reached out for the lone photograph on his desk. The photograph was of him and Ally taken at Abigail's café just before they had left Hope Valley. While Bill had stayed quiet about the promotion until after Christmas as he had asked, once the fact became common knowledge that he would be leaving Hope Valley for Union City, Bill had set about organizing a going away party for him and Ally.
The fact that the town that had been slow to accept him when he first took the posting was now sad to see him leave had been touching. However, he didn't regret his choice. The Inspector job had been one that he had wanted. He found his new job responsibilities challenging. As for Ally, his niece seemed to have adjusted to life in the city.
Nathan placed the photograph back on his desk as the phone rang.
"Hello, Inspector Grant speaking," Nathan replied. It had taken him a bit to get use to answering the phone with the new title, but after three months it finally felt natural.
"Nathan, I am scared. I do not know what to do."
Nathan sat up straighter at the statement over the telephone line. The fright in the tone alone was enough to get his senses on high alert. The fact that the voice belonged to someone he cared about only made him more tense.
"Elizabeth, where are you?" Nathan asked, wishing he was not quite so far away from Hope Valley right now but hoping she was at least somewhere safe.
"The Mounted Police Office," Elizabeth said quietly. "Bill's in Buxton on a case and I was hoping Constable Laray would be in but he isn't and I do not know what to do."
The repetition of the words told Nathan that whatever was going on was serious. "Are the doors to the office locked?" he asked. If she was frightened, chances were it was of someone. A locked door would at least create an obstacle.
"Yes," Elizabeth replied.
"All right," Nathan said, his tone calm as he kept his on worry from his voice. His words and tone were the only way he could comfort Elizabeth right then. "Now tell me what is going on? Why are you scared, Elizabeth?"
"Lucas gave me this ostentatious ruby necklace for Valentine's Day. I am not even sure Julie would wear the thing."
Nathan felt his heart clench at the mention of Lucas giving Elizabeth a fancy gift. Not that it surprised him. Nathan had assumed that the saloon owner would not take long to swoop in once he and Ally had left for Union City. Lucas had certainly lost no opportunities to try to make him look bad in front of Elizabeth while he was in Hope Valley.
"I guess he expected me to be excited about it. His expression got stormy when I didn't. When he asked if I liked it, I told him it wasn't my taste and suggested he return it. He angrily told me he couldn't and stormed from the room. I have worn the necklace on a couple of dates to try to placate him."
"Did he say why he couldn't return the necklace?" Nathan asked, his curiosity piqued. He and Bill had been trying to figure out where Lucas Bouchard's "wealth" came from. The Queen of Hearts did well but given the size of Hope Valley, could not sustain Bouchard's lavish lifestyle. Nor had they been able to track down any other source or sources of income. Yes, his parents were well off, but as far as either Nathan or Bill could determine, Lucas did not receive money from his parents. Neither Arnold nor Helen Bouchard would field questions about their only child. Given his own family issues, that indicated to Nathan that all was not well in the Bouchard family. Wether it was a simple difference of opinion or criminal activity, Nathan could not determine.
"No," Elizabeth conceded. "I already felt bad enough about the situation so I did not press the issue. Then last night, Lucas got down on one knee. He had a ring, a good sized diamond, surrounded by emeralds. It was pretty though I could only imagine it would get in the way. When he asked me to marry him, I couldn't say anything. He got mad and stormed out, leaving me sitting in the saloon alone with the ring sitting on the table. Well, Gustav was still in the kitchen."
Nathan felt like someone had stabbed him in the heart. Lucas had proposed to Elizabeth. He could not imagine her turning him down. Lucas could give her the things that she had grown up with.
But was he doing so by legal means?
"Not wanting to leave the expensive looking ring sitting there, I picked it up and walked home. I spent most of the night tossing and turning. When I released the children for lunch today, I headed into town. I realized that though I enjoyed the flattery and attention, my heart was . . . well it was elsewhere," Elizabeth told him. "Reaching the Queen of Hearts, Lucas was not in the main room so I went back to his office. My hand was on the door knob to walk in."
How much of each other have they been seeing if Elizabeth was comfortable enough to just walk into his office?
"I had already started to turn the knob by the time the voices registered. I was going to retreat but the door opened all the way. Lucas was standing there. He told me he was busy and we would talk tonight and then closed the door. Before I could leave, I heard someone inside ask, 'do you think she heard anything'. I ran then. I knew I had witnessed part of something I did not want to be a part of. Oh, I wish you were here Nathan. I would feel safer."
Nathan wished he were there as well. He wasn't though and he had an investigation to conduct.
"Elizabeth, did you catch any of what was said?"
There was silence. Nathan hoped it was Elizabeth trying to recall information.
"Someone commented that 'perhaps it was time the move their base again' and I remember Lucas replying. He said something about the Mountie here now being easy to fool."
Nathan nodded. His replacement, Constable Carl Laray, was a fresh faced twenty years old. Hope Valley was his first assignment and Bill had commented on the kid being easily intimidated.
"I could probably throw him in jail and he would not have said a word. Just sat there until his superiors started asking about him," Bill had said on one phone conversation. The reference to their own meeting had made Nathan smile.
However, what Elizabeth had overheard made Nathan even more certain that Lucas had been involved in something shady since coming to Hope Valley. The man's 'from here and there' and do 'this and that' answers about his past had never set well with him. Right now he kept that thought to himself. He knew all to well what Elizabeth thought about his suspicions of Lucas. She thought his job had made him cynical. Well, if he was cynical, Nathan contributed that to his father and not the Mounties.
"Elizabeth, where is Little Jack today?" Nathan asked.
"He is with, Rosemary. Laura has been sick," Elizabeth said, her voice raising with even more fear. "Do you think they'll do something to him?"
"Now stay, calm Elizabeth," Nathan said. "Take a deep breath and let it out slowly," he instructed.
Nathan heard Elizabeth follow his instructions over the line. "If they believed you had overheard something they would have followed you immediately. That being said, I don't want you to stay in Hope Valley. Do you have the necklace and the ring?"
"The ring is with me. I was going to return it. The necklace is at home."
"All right. Here is what I want you, to do. I want you to leave the Mounted Police Office as calmly as you can. Go to Lee's office," Nathan said, praying his friend would be in the office. "Tell Lee that I said for the two of you to get Rosemary and Jack and drive to The Grand Hotel in Buxton. If you can, retrieve the necklace," he told her. The jewelry that Lucas couldn't return made him wonder if what Lucas was involved in and his current case might just be connected. Was Elizabeth's frightened phone call what he needed to break the jewelry smuggling case? "I will call Bill and have him meet you, if I can't get there first."
"Nathan, what is going on?"
"I only have suspicions right now, Elizabeth. Right now, I just want to make sure that you, Jack and the Coulters are out of harm's way. Can you do what I asked?"
"Yes."
The one word sounded awfully shaky to Nathan but there was not much he could do about it from where he was.
"All right. Hang up the phone and got to Lee," Nathan said again. He knew Lee would do his best to protect her and Little Jack. "I will see you soon," he promised.
"All right," Elizabeth said before Nathan heard the soft click of the connection being broken.
Knowing that he had done all he could to help her right then, Nathan rang for the operator. Getting a hold of Bill in Buxton was his first priority. Not only did he want him to be there to greet Elizabeth and the Coulters, but if the jewelry Elizabeth had on her matched descriptions of current stolen pieces, then Nathan would finally have the evidence he needed for a search warrant. More than once, crates marked for the Queen of Hearts, had been near crates with stolen jewelry. However, nothing had ever turned up in a Queen of Hearts crate while in custody of the railroad.
But what about after the crates left the railroad to be delivered by wagon?
Giving their run-ins with Lucas Bouchard, Nathan and Bill, both knew that they needed something more than suspicions to search shipments going to the Queen of Hearts as they were all clean at the train station. Lucas in possession of stolen jewelry would be a valid reason in the eyes of the law.