TWO WEEKS! We are getting SO VERY CLOSE!

In the meantime, I have a question for you, my fellow Hearties. Does anyone know the song they used in the last trailer (well, the two most recent ones, I suppose)? I've been trying to figure it out all week with no luck haha! It's just been stuck in my head, and listening to the entire song sounds much more appealing than the same two second clip on repeat.

Anyhow, this one is set, theoretically, right now. Or rather, what would be right now if we were two weeks from Elizabeth's return to Hope Valley from Hamilton. I will be back next week to share another short as we eagerly await the return of our favorite show, but until then I hope you enjoy this one! :)

It had only been a few weeks, but it felt so much longer.

Per usual, Lucas paced back and forth across the threshold of his office. Gustave would pop in from time to time, reminding him that if he didn't stop, he was going to wear a hole into the floor, but still Lucas paced.

The few short weeks after their kiss on the bridge had gone by far too quickly. Preparations for Christmas had kept them both busy, and when an invitation for Elizabeth and Jack to join her family for Christmas since her sister Viola and her family were home from London, they had headed to Hamilton for the holidays.

Lucas, meanwhile, knew he had to stay behind in Hope Valley. With the festival upon them, a slew of visitors in town, and Henry still gone, there was more than enough on his plate. And so, he had watched as the coach carried Elizabeth and Jack off, just days before Christmas.

Thankfully, the holiday season had passed with significantly more joy and laughter than the previous one had. Lucas threw himself into his work, assisting Rosemary with decorating trees and working with vendors for the numerous booths that lined Main Street. He spent most afternoons at the oil derricks with Hickam, working out how they could make the operation more efficient and profitable. And when, in the evenings, the loneliness would start to creep in, he would hold himself up in their library, organizing books until he felt weary enough to fall asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

But on Tuesday evenings, a predetermined time for both of them because, for Lucas, the saloon was quiet and, for Elizabeth, her parents and sisters all had meetings, leaving her with Jack in their large family home, he got to hear her voice.

Still pacing back and forth, Lucas let out a breath, slumping down on the settee and wondering if he should invest in a new one. One large enough for all three of them to sit on the way they sometimes did at Elizabeth's. But a memory flashed through his mind, of a quiet evening, pressed tightly against Elizabeth and he decided against it.

He stood up then, resuming his motion, and halted on the opposite side of his desk. Again, he let himself collapse into the chair, shuffling through the piles of paperwork that had taken over his desk in the weeks since Christmas. With the holiday season over and expansion on the horizon for the petroleum business, half of his days were now spent crunching numbers. It wasn't a particularly enjoyable activity, especially for a man who preferred to be in his saloon, socializing with the town he'd come to love, but it was what he needed to do until Henry returned. He owed him that much.

That didn't mean that Lucas hadn't contemplated what would happen after Henry did find his way back to Hope Valley. He seemed certain when he left that he was out to find his happiness, and Lucas sincerely hoped that he did. If what he felt for Abigail was half what Lucas felt for Elizabeth, then he knew the kind of pain he must've gone through the entire time she was away.

It was, after all, the same pain he felt now.

Foregoing any thought of getting work done as he waited for Elizabeth to call, Lucas sat back in his chair, looking about his office until his eyes landed on the desk drawer to his left. There were dozens of sentimental objects scattered about the room, but there was one in particular that he kept hidden away.

Pulling the drawer open, Lucas reached in to pull out a small, red box. He'd hidden it there ages ago, immediately after his mother had left Hope Valley. She'd been the one to give it to him, just moments before she stepped on the coach, and despite the fact that emotion swirled inside and he was more than uncertain about where he stood with Elizabeth at the time, his mother had been sure.

Standing at the platform, she'd pressed the box into his hand. "For when the time is right, and, until then, remember that love is patient," she had said, a lesson that Helen Bouchard seemed to be reminding herself of as well.

Cracking it open, Lucas gazed at the ring inside. As a boy, he'd listened to story after story about how his father asked his mother, time after time, to marry him with this ring, and he'd always envisioned that someday it would be in his hands as he asked the woman he'd been waiting for the same question.

As he pulled it out of the box, pondering the cut of the diamond in the center, the phone finally rang. Quickly, he set the ring back into its case and set it on the desk in front of him, still open. Grabbing the phone, Lucas straightened in his chair.

"This is Lucas Bouchard," he answered, heart already feeling like it was about to beat straight out of his chest.

"Good evening, Lucas," came Florence's knowing voice, "you have a call from Hamilton." She stayed late every Tuesday to connect them, and in return, he insisted that she have dinner on-the-house at the saloon every Wednesday.

Clearing his throat, he thanked her and waited to be patched through, reeling a moment later when her voice came clearly through from the other end of the line, not even waiting for the confirmation that they were connected. "Lucas?"

"Elizabeth," he returned, voice lilting. "How are you? How's Hamilton? How's Jack?" he asked all at once, questions tumbling out of his mouth as though he hadn't heard from her in ages. And, for him, a week felt just as long.

Her laughter rang through, "I'm fine, and so is Jack. He loves spending time with his cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncle, but I think he's equally ready to come back home."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Elizabeth returned, "to start with, he doesn't stop talking about you."

Lucas smiled brightly, once again leaning back in his chair. "Is that so? All good things I hope?"

"Of course, and, to be fair, I think I'm the one who brings you up half the time. Jack just always chimes in with how excited he is to play airplane when we get home."

"It is his favorite game," he pointed out, although his mind longed to address the first half of her statement. "You can tell him that I'm just as excited as he is and that I cannot wait to give him the biggest hug."

"And is there anyone else you're excited to hug?" came Elizabeth's coy response.

"Not that I can think of," he returned, playing into her game. "I do, however, know exactly who I'm excited to kiss."

She laughed, and to Lucas, it sounded like the most beautiful sound in the world. "Until then, tell me. What's been happening in Hope Valley?"

He went on to relate the stories of the past week as though he'd been the one to write Rosemary's newspaper. The Coulters were doing just fine, busy as ever, especially with the election for mayor quickly approaching. Clara and Jesse were finishing their preparations for moving to Montana, and Elizabeth expressed again just how sad she was that she wouldn't be there to see them off. Bill was, per usual, doing as Bill did, but he asked Lucas daily about updates from Hamilton, despite the fact that he was well aware of their Tuesday night conversations. Nathan had, to everyone's surprise, begun sporting a new mustache, which had been the talk of the town for more than a few days, and all of Elizabeth's students were doing fine in their studies while she was away.

"I am supposed to inform you, per Opal, that Brownie misses you and that class with Fiona is fun, but not as fun as when you're here," Lucas informed her. "I saw her the other day when I stopped by to ask Fiona something during lunch and she ran right up to me."

"You really made an impression on her," Elizabeth commented. "After all, you did suggest the 'best book in the whole universe.' Her words, not mine."

"I don't know what you're talking about. If I had a choice between Anne of Green Gables and Moby Dick, I'd pick Green Gables every time." Another bright laugh came through the phone, and then a pause, the conversation lulling. "It's good to hear your voice," he said finally.

Her voice was soft, "it's good to hear yours too. Just a couple more weeks."

"You're sure you won't be home sooner?"

"Lucas," Elizabeth kidded, "you're the most patient man I know."

"Perhaps, but that doesn't mean I'm not ready for you to be home. I miss you," he admitted, '' I miss you more than is describable."

"I miss you too."

His eyes fell to the box in front of him once more, ring glinting in the light. "You'll call next Tuesday?" he asked, aware that their time was likely running short.

"Of course I will." They were silent for a moment before she giggled quietly.

Lucas grinned. "What?"

"It's just, I don't want to hang up. I don't want to stop hearing your voice."

He continued to ponder the ring in front of him, and about what it could mean for both of them, for the family they would make with Jack. Since his mother had given it to him, he'd thought about asking her. He'd thought about it more times than he could count, but it had never seemed quite as real as it did now, at this moment. The longing he felt not just to hold her in his arms, but to simply hear her voice proved to him more than anything ever could that he didn't want to live another day without her.

"Then don't."

"Lucas," she laughed harder, unaware of his current thoughts. "My family will be back soon, and this call alone is going to cost a fortune."

"I'll pay it," he reminded her. "It's worth it." He knew she was smiling on the other end of the line, just as he was.

"Well, if you insist, then I think it's your turn to tell me a story."

They'd done this a few times over the course of the weeks, when news in Hope Valley was light and her existence in Hamilton was downtrodden with parties and fancy dinners that she simply wanted to escape from. Instead, one of them would tell a story. Elizabeth's last had been an idea she had for her next novel, outlining the chapters to him as though she were writing them down on paper.

But tonight, he could only think of one story.

"Well, there once was a man who had lost his way," Lucas began, "and he thought he'd find himself back on the trail if he just kept going. So he moved, from city to city across the continent and across the world, in search of meaning. And one day, he found himself in a little town amidst the mountains. It was the last place he ever thought he could belong, but with a criminal on his tail, out for revenge, he figured that, there, he'd be safe."

"And why was the criminal after him?" came her inquiry, although he was well aware that she knew the very reason Amos had followed him to Hope Valley.

"Because he had challenged him to a high stakes game of poker and the criminal lost. Along with the game, he also lost the ability to seek out the money owed to him by a young woman, and instead of going peacefully, he set fire to her home. The man saved her, and helped her go into hiding before heading West, and it was there that he found something he never expected."

Her voice was more of a whisper now, "what did he find?"

"Love."

"Oh, Lucas," she interrupted again, a little bit breathless.

"The story isn't over," he pointed out, and she let out a squeak that he couldn't help but smile at. "They were on different paths for a while, seemingly as lost as he had been when he first arrived, but they helped each other. She helped heal him, helped show him that life was worth slowing down for, worth living. He waited for her, and encouraged her to chase every dream she could possibly imagine, and eventually they found their way back to one another."

When his silence indicated that the story may have ended, she spoke again, "and what happened to them after that?"

"Only time will tell, I suppose. I hear their story is still being written." As he spoke, he picked up the box from where it sat on the desk, running his thumb over the smooth, red leather.

"Well, I'm sure that whatever it is, it'll be filled with adventure and joy and love. And I do love you, Lucas. I can't wait to see you."

He looked up at the picture of Elizabeth and Jack that she had gifted him for Christmas before they left, "how many days?"

"Thirteen," Elizabeth returned, although he could hear shuffling in the background on the other end of the line. Her voice grew somber, "That would be my parents, which means I must get going."

"Next Tuesday?" he asked again, just to be sure.

He could hear the excitement in her voice, "next Tuesday. I love you, Lucas."

"I love you, and Jack, too. Make sure you give him a hug from me."

"I will. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, My Love."

Their call ended with a click as she hung up, and Lucas returned his receiver to its stand. It turned out there was an ending to the story, or at least he hoped, and it all started with the ring in his hand.

And with a warm smile, he snapped the box shut, and gently placed it back in the drawer to his left.