"Presents now?"

The innocent question from the frosting-covered toddler got a laugh from those present. After a simple lunch, Elizabeth had presented Jack with his cake. The boy seemed to get the concept that it was for him this year, and had clapped when shown the cake. Happy Birthday had been sung and then the cake cut. The first piece had gone to the birthday boy, but Elizabeth wondered if her son had not worn as much of the cake as he had eaten.

"Before presents you need cleaned up," Elizabeth told him.

Jack proceeded to lick some frosting from one hand. He then held his hand up. "Clean?"

"Not quite," Elizabeth said still laughing.

"Rosemary and I will clear dishes while you clean up the birthday boy," Abigail volunteered.

"I think you got the easy job," Elizabeth commented, drawing more laughter.

Soon though, both birthday boy and dishes were cleaned. Elizabeth placed Jack on a blanket before the settee. One by one, the guests presented him with their gift. The toddler had as much fun ripping the paper away as he did with the gifts themselves. Finally, as the last gift, Bill held out a small, awkward shaped package to the boy.

"This is from Mountie Nathan, Jack," Bill said, holding it out to him.

"Nathan!" Jack said excitedly looking around the room as if looking for him.

"He could not make it. He is with Allie, but he made that for you, Jack."

Jack looked down at the package for a moment before tearing the paper away to reveal the present inside. Inside was a wooden Mountie astride his faithful horse. The horse was painted black like Sergeant and the Mountie's hair was the exact shade of Jack's.

"Daddy!" Jack said, holding up the carved Mountie and horse for Elizabeth to see.

The Mountie did bear a resemblance to Jack. Elizabeth felt tears filling her eyes, at both the sentiment and the time she knew must have gone into carving the piece. Writing in black near the left pocket on the wooden Mountie caught her attention. Unable to read the writing from a distance, Elizabeth asked her son if she could see the toy. Jack surrendered it, and holding it up, Elizabeth read the writing.

There in tiny black letters was the name Thornton. Nathan had indeed attempted to capture Jack's father in the figure for the little boy.

"Yes, Jack. It does look like your Daddy," Elizabeth said, handing the figure back to the boy.

Jack got to his feet and walked over to the table Elizabeth kept the pictures on. He then placed the Mountie and horse in front of Jack's picture in his uniform.

Bill had moved to sit beside Elizabeth. He put an arm around his shoulders.

"Are you all right?" Bill asked.

Elizabeth nodded, reaching up to wipe a couple of tears that had slipped from her eyes away.

"I am fine. I just do not understand when Nathan found the time to make that."

"During the hours he spent sitting at Ally's bedside recently," Bill told her. "Nathan said he did not have any idea what he was carving when he started. He just needed to be doing something. When he realized it was shaping up to be a man on a horse, he thought of Little Jack, and painted it to represent the boy's father. Nathan was worried about giving it to Little Jack for fear of causing you pain, but I told him that I thought Little Jack's joy of having the reminder of his father would cancel out any sadness. If I was wrong, the blame is with me, not Nathan."

Elizabeth shook her head. "I am touched that Nathan would take the time to do something like that for Little Jack," she said looking over at her son. Little Jack was standing in front of the table staring at the figure and the picture of Jack Sr.

Watching her son, Elizabeth finally realized the weight of the most significant difference between Lucas and Nathan. Lucas had accepted that she was a single mother but it had stopped at that. He did not stop to consider Little Jack when he made plans. He had not made the effort to make Jack feel special. He had never offered to hold the boy. Elizabeth doubted that he had ever took the time to consider that marrying her would mean being a father figure to Little Jack. However, Nathan had not only accepted that she was a single mother but understood what that had meant. Nathan had offered to hold him at the christening party. She still remembered the funny faces Nathan had made to entertain him, not even worrying about how silly he might look to the others at the party. Any time he had met up with her when she had Jack with her, Nathan had addressed the boy directly, often kneeling or squatting down so that he was on the boy's level.

The fact that Little Jack knew and said Nathan's name and not Lucas' told her the different influence the two men had on her son.

Finding a new love was not simply about her any more and it never would be. When she had made her choice months ago, she had left out the single most important factor in that choice - Little Jack.

No wonder things with Lucas had always felt off.

Elizabeth looked up at Bill. "Can you watch Little Jack for me?" she asked. "I think I need to take a walk to Jack's grave."

Bill nodded before kissing the top of her head.

"Go," Bill told her. "I will keep an eye on Little Jack and clean up for you, so you will not be late to meet the kids at the café."

"I will help, Bill," Lee offered. "That way, Rosemary can go help Abigail get the hot chocolate ready."

Rosemary and Abigail readily agreed. Elizabeth gave all her friends a grateful hug. She gave her son a kiss and told him to be good for his uncle Bill before putting on her winter garments.

Elizabeth made her way to the cemetery. She was not the only one visiting loved ones that had passed away but as no one was near Jack's stone, Elizabeth did not interact with any of them.

Despite the snow, Elizabeth knelt in front of Jack's grave. Reaching out, she let her hand move over the etched letters that made up his name.

"Our son turned three today, Jack," Elizabeth said. "It is hard to believe that so much time has passed. There are so many moments in his life that I wish you could share with us. Maybe you are and I just cannot see you. You did say that you would be watching over me the rest of my days."

Elizabeth thought of Jack's insistence at seeing his Daddy and what she herself had seen the night before.

"You also told me to open my heart to love again. I have had trouble doing that because my heart still hurts from losing you. Perhaps it always will and that scares me, Jack. Because, if I open my heart to love again, it means my heart can ache like this again if I lose him too. So, I have been running from that kind of love."

"Has running protected you from the pain, Elizabeth?"

The words were said in Jack's voice. Perhaps she had simply imagined them, but looking up from the words etched in the stone, Elizabeth saw a hazy image of Jack standing behind the gravestone.

"Look beyond the uniform, Elizabeth."

As the last syllable of her name was said, the image disappeared.

Elizabeth continued to stare at the spot, she had seen her late husband, those last words echoing in her mind. Look beyond the uniform. As she thought about what they met, she saw the truth in them. It had not been Nathan she had been running from, or the love he offered her but the uniform that he wore.

"I would quit. I would quit the Mounties."

She had heard the conviction in Nathan's voice as he had said the words. She knew he would do that for her. She had no doubt that he would still do that for her. Nathan did not say anything that he did not mean.

Nor had running saved her from worrying about Nathan. She had been worried during the inquiry, seeking information from Bill. She had been just as happy as Ally with the positive outcome of the inquiry though she had not been able to express that joy in the same way. Every time she saw Nathan ride out of town, whether it was on rounds or a longer trip, she still worried. She knew the concern would always be there, but she had not been in a place to show that concern.

It was not Nathan that scared her. It was the uniform that he wore and what that could mean that scared her. But Nathan was not the uniform. Nathan was so much more than what he did. He was honest and loyal. He loved with a fierceness that rivaled no other. She had seen that when it came to Ally. He believed that love was worth fighting for. He had never forced her into anything, but had simply shown her the love he had for her in his actions.

Trying not to love Nathan would not protect her from the pain of losing him. She knew if anything had happened to Nathan last night she would have felt that pain. All she was doing was robbing them of the joy they could share.

Elizabeth looked at the name on the grave stone again. Even as her eyes began to fill with tears, she began to talk softly again.

"I think I am finally ready to open my heart to love again, Jack. Not that it will change the love I have for you. That will always remain. However, our vows were until death do we part. I know I am free to love again. The blessing that you left for me to do so only reinforces that. Getting to the point where I could accept that has been difficult. I have hurt people who I never intended to hurt. It is time that I let go of the fear that is holding me back and embrace life and love again. Know that I will always love you, my dear Jack. You were my first great love. Our love will live on in our son."

Reaching up, Elizabeth wiped her tears away with her gloved hands even as big, fluffy snowflakes started to drift down from the sky. Elizabeth looked up as they continued to drift down, as if tears from heaven were falling. Gentle tears for what was, though for Elizabeth, she knew that her life was still in front of her. A life that could be filled with laughter, love and joy if she followed Jack's advice and opened her heart to love.

Leaving the livery, Nathan started toward home. The light snow that had started falling during his rounds, still fell. It was big, fluffy snowflakes that would not cause a disruption to the evenings festivities.

Reaching home, Nathan walked through the front door. The warmth of the home was a welcomed sensation after being out in the snow. The fact that Carson was at the stove and looking very comfortable there did not phase him after the last couple of weeks.

"Where is Ally?" Nathan asked, as he took off his hat and hung it up.

"Upstairs taking a nap," Carson replied, looking up from the pot he was stirring. With the hand not holding the wooden spoon, he gestured toward the wall near the staircase. "Therapy wore her out. The braces and crutches came in and Faith brought them out. For now we'll stick to just using them during therapy until she gains strength and gets use to them."

"Was starting something new with her today a good idea?" Nathan asked, pausing in the process of removing his black coat. He instantly realized the questioned sounded more critical than he intended but it was already voiced. It wasn't that he didn't trust Carson. He did. However, Nathan was also worried about his daughter.

If the question bothered Carson, the doctor didn't let on as he replied. "If the nerves in Ally's legs are starting to receive messages from the brain again then stimulating those nerves by trying to use them is the best thing for her. At least in moderation. It is important not to do too much, too soon. Needing a nap in the afternoon after last night and this morning is not necessarily a bad thing."

"I know," Nathan said. Having hung up the coat, he had made his way over to the settee. He now slowly eased himself down as he continued speaking. "I am sorry. I do trust you, Carson. I am just so afraid of losing, Ally. Of failing to protect her like I promised Colleen I would do. I feel like I have let so many people down in my life and I do no want to let Ally down."

"Nathan, I think you are too hard on yourself," Carson said. "I think you are your own worst critic and that if you ask they people you feel that you have let down, you would find that they do not feel that way at all. Life happens and a lot of what happens is out of our control."

Carson stirred the food in the pot and then placed the wooden spoon down on a nearby saucer. Walking over to the settee, the doctor sat down next to Nathan.

"Like I told Ally, when I first came to Hope Valley, I was running away from being a doctor. My wife had a tumor in her brain. One that a lot of surgeons considered inoperable. She knew that her chances of surviving the surgery were slim, but like in Ally's situation, doing nothing would have resulted in death as well. My wife may have lived longer if I had not done the operation, but her death would have been a slow and painful one. She died on the operating table. Her family blamed me, even after an inquiry board at the hospital had cleared me. No matter what they all said though, I felt like I had let her down. I did not trust my skill or judgement as a doctor for a long time after that."

"I was working as a cook in the café when one of my sister-in-laws came searching for me. She blamed me for her sister's death. She was the reason that people here found out that I use to be a doctor and what had happened. I left town and Cody got sick. Elizabeth found me and convinced me to come back. Another doctor also had arrived. We differed in our opinion on whether to operate or not. Abigail chose the wait and see option at first over surgery. However, Cody condition worsened. Eventually I performed the operation that the other doctor insisted was unnecessary. I knew I was right, but his doubt made me doubt. Who was I to play God?"

"I wasn't playing God though. Not with Cody's surgery, not with my wife's, and not with Ally's. I am simply a tool of God to bring about an outcome. People die from surgery even if surgeons do everything right. I did not fail my wife because she died during the surgery. I would have failed her if I had refused to try. She knew the risks but she believed those were risks worth taking over the slow death she knew was waiting for her otherwise. Another sister-in-law developed the same condition my wife did. Despite what had happened to her big sister, she had come searching for me to perform the same operation. I did not want to. I told her no at first, and then she collapsed in my arms. The tumor was killing her slowly and she saw the operation as a chance at life. I operated and it was successful, with less equipment and in less than ideal conditions. I could not explain why one surgery was successful and the other wasn't. What I have learned is that all I can do is to make sure people know their options, the risks of those options, and then do my best. That is all you can do as well, Nathan. No one needs you to be perfect. All we expect from you is to do your best, and you do that every day. Ally sees it, as does the rest of this town. Last night was about trying to show you that."

Nathan reached up and rubbed the back of his neck, letting Carson's words sink in.

"And here I was thinking I was too old for a lecture," he commented lightly.

Carson smiled. "We all need a good lecture from time to time," he said. "How do you think Elizabeth got me to come back?"

Nathan was about to respond when the mention of Elizabeth reminded him of something. Groaning he rested his head in his hands.

"Elizabeth asked me to stop by after rounds. She was going to save some of Jack's birthday cake for me and Ally."

"Go now," Carson said simply. "I will finish dinner. Ally is sleeping. Even if Elizabeth saw you come home, she is not going to be upset over a few minutes."

"Are you sure?" Nathan asked. "You and everyone else have already done so much."

"Go, Nathan," Carson told him, getting to his feet and heading back for the stove. "None of us are doing anything that we are not glad to be doing. Neighbors help one another when the need is there, here in Hope Valley."

"Thank you, Carson," Nathan said, getting slowly to his feet. Walking over to the tree he retrieved the package that held the gift he and Ally had made for Elizabeth. Now was as good a time as any to give it to her. He was not sure when he would see her again.