AN: Alrighty, so my drabble Drunk Truth (chapter 63 of Drabbles From Hope Valley) was suppose to be just a little joke drabble. It was meant for a laugh, and nothing more. However, pn1thrasher and elizabethB88 both asked for something more to follow up. After further encouragement from elizabethB88 (I still want my Brookfield wedding story btw) and suggestion from her and EX-WCTHfan about what they would like to see in a follow up to the drabble this is what I ended up with. While there will be no kissing at the end of this, it does end with a rebuilding of a friendship and after that disaster of a finale that did not have an once of romance in it, perhaps that is where it needs to begin. Hope you enjoy!


Nathan didn't bother going to the train station to see Elizabeth off on her book tour two days after he had made a scene in the Queen of Hearts. It wasn't that he regretted what he had said that night to Elizabeth. He regretted the lie he had told Lucas about thinking her heart had always been with Lucas even if he had felt it was necessary at the time. What he had said the other night, hurtful as it may have been, had been the truth. He had once asked Elizabeth what was in her heart. She had not given him an answer then. He had told her to tell him when she figured it out.

Nathan believed that Elizabeth had yet to figure out her own heart.

Sitting in the saddle, Nathan watched the train pull out of the station from a distance. It wasn't that he was not happy for Elizabeth. He was. She deserved for her book to be a success. He had asked Lee to order a copy for him, knowing that Lee would keep it quiet. He didn't want people to think he was still pining for Elizabeth. She had made her choice. He wasn't convinced she was truly in love with Lucas, but he respected her choice. He respected that he was more willing acknowledge his feelings for her than she was her feelings for him. He respected that losing her husband had been painful and he did not fault her for wanting to avoid repeating that experience.

But he had meant it when he had told her he would quit the Mounties for her.

What did it mean that he had made that offer and she had run? She had run right to Lucas where she seemed content. Nathan couldn't say she looked happy, because she didn't. Not really. The happiness was forced. He believed that what Elizabeth really felt with Lucas was safe. There would be no red uniforms to face with Lucas. No dangerous assignments that would call him out of town. Lucas was just a reminder of her life growing up in Hamilton. Just like she had felt safe under her father's roof as a child, Elizabeth was looking for that agin.

Perhaps she should just let her. Was it so wrong to want to feel safe?

As the train moved over the horizon, Nathan turned Newton and continued on his rounds. Perhaps if he did not see Elizabeth every day he would be able to move past his pain. Perhaps without the constant reminder, the heart that she had shattered would begin to mend.


As the passing landscape outside the train window indicated they were getting closer to Hope Valley, Lucas knew he was running out of time to have the discussion that he wanted to have. He also thought it was best to have the conversation now, before they returned to their lives in Hope Valley.

Nathan's words before the book tour had begun had stayed on his mind these last few weeks. Despite being under the influence of alcohol, those words had sounded more sincere than Nathan's claim that he thought Elizabeth's heart had always been with him. Lucas had not missed the pain in those words. The resignation that Nathan would say what needed to be said giving the situation but that he did not believe it. Lucas had a feeling it was one of the few, if not first, lie Nathan Grant had ever told.

Despite being drunk, Nathan seemed in control that night in the Queen of Hearts. The words he said might never have been said if he were sober, but that didn't change the truth behind them. It didn't change the belief in them.

Elizabeth had been hurt by the words, but she had not denied them. Not then and not in the weeks that had followed. That told Lucas that Elizabeth sensed truth in them as well. If she had felt they were lies, Lucas was sure she would have been more vocal over them. Instead, she had absorbed them and like himself, Lucas had a feeling that she had been thinking about them as well.

Along with pondering Nathan's words, Lucas had searched his memory for other things as well. After all the resistence to his pushing for a date with Elizabeth, her acceptance had come out of the blue. He had accepted it as face value but as he thought back, perhaps he should not have. Along with Elizabeth allowing him to court her had caused a tension between her and Nathan. Lucas had a feeling something had happened between the two of them that had sent Elizabeth running to him. He remembered the first time he tried to kiss her. She had turned away. Nor had she seemed like a woman in love through the courtship. She had been nervous and resistant. Lucas had tried to tell himself it was because she was a widow but if that was the case, why had she not shown that same resistance to holding hands with Nathan during Ned and Florence's wedding reception. Even when they had kissed on the bridge, there was nothing natural about it. Not like when she had embraced Nathan when that Mountie had been shot. No, instead it had been desperate. Like she had wanted to convince herself of something.

Then there was the timing of that as well. He breaks up with Elizabeth and suddenly Nathan is downcast and claiming he thought Elizabeth's heart had always been with him when Elizabeth's actions before that had clearly been showing otherwise. She had taken an interest in the inquiry Nathan had faced. She had sought Nathan out at the reception after sitting apart from him during the ceremony. Nathan had gone to visit her at home the following day. Then he had broken up with her and suddenly she put distance between Nathan and came running to him.

Lucas was starting to think he should have questioned things from the start but he hadn't. He had thought he had won, and he liked to win. He liked to have things go his way.

Perhaps he had been trying too hard. Perhaps he should have giving Elizabeth more space to sort out her feelings, like Nathan had. Perhaps he should have not pressured her so much trying to orchestrate the relationship that he had wanted.

Just like this book tour. Elizabeth had loved writing the book. She was proud of it. Lucas did not doubt that. However, this book tour had been a formality for her only. She had not taken pleasure from it. She had quickly tired of the high society outings that he had planned, instead saying she just wanted to spend time with Jack in the hotel room. Elizabeth may have come from high society but Hope Valley was truly where her heart was these days.

Then there was Jack. It wasn't that Lucas had tried to ignore the fact that she was a single mother but he had not truly embraced it either. That had become clear to him during this book tour. None of his plans had taken Jack into consideration. When a porter had offered to hold a sleeping Jack for Elizabeth while she stepped from the train, Lucas realized she should have already done that. Even Mr. Thatcher had noticed something was off. A comment that Elizabeth's father had made to him when they left Hamilton had stuck with him on their journey home.

"I see that you will carry luggage and hold a door for my daughter. However, you don't seem to show my grandson as much consideration."

Though he had opened his mouth to protest the observation, he had not actually vocalized anything. Lucas had realized quickly he could not come up with an example that proved otherwise.

Looking from the window, he glanced over at Elizabeth. Instead of sitting next to him, she had once again selected the seat facing him. Jack was sleeping on the seat next to her, his head on her leg like a pillow.

The sight told him that what he was about to say was the right choice for the both of them. Elizabeth might be content in Hope Valley but while he may be content to call it home, a part of him would always crave the fine things in life that he grew up with.

"Elizabeth, can I ask you a question?" Lucas asked, getting her attention.

Elizabeth looked up. "Of course," she replied, a small smile on her face. A content smile.

Lucas decided he was not going to dance around the issue. For once he was going to be direct. Like Nathan.

"I have been thinking about what Nathan said before we left Hope Valley and about the timing of you making your choice," Lucas began. "I am thinking there was truth to his words. I've been thinking about everything and it seems to me you came running to me when you thought you would never have me as a buffer between you and facing your feelings for Nathan because he was right that night Elizabeth. You do have feelings for him. I've seen that though I tried to deny it. However, if I am honest with myself, I have never seen you look at me the way I have seen you look at Nathan."

"Lucas, I do care for you," Elizabeth countered.

Lucas smiled. "Of that I have no doubt. Perhaps on some level, you do even feel love for me, but it is not the deep, passionate love of soulmates. You are content with me. Kind of like a comfortable pair of shoes. You feel safe with me and while there is nothing wrong with that, I do not want to be the person you settle for because you are afraid to risk your heart again."

"How can you be so sure about how I feel?" Elizabeth asked, a touch of annoyance in her voice.

"If we step off this train and you heard Nathan had been badly hurt while we were away, how would you react."

Elizabeth's breath caught at the suggestion. Lucas did not need her to say anything because her reaction was clear on his face.

"Lucas, have you heard something I haven't?" Elizabeth asked, her voice trembling.

Lucas shook his head. "No, and as of the last stop we made, Nathan was fine. I called and checked with Mike before posing that question because I was fairly certain I knew how you would react."

Elizabeth looked down at her hands, which were folded in her lap.

"Don't be, Elizabeth," Lucas told her. "I have enjoyed the time we have spent together, even if it has shown me that we both want different things. You would be content to stay put in Hope Valley while I would always be craving adventure. There is nothing wrong with that but I do think that us trying to continue this relationship will only end with one or both of us being unhappy."

Elizabeth looked up and met Lucas' gaze. "I think you are right."

Leaning toward her, Lucas pressed a soft kiss against Elizabeth's forehead. "I will never forget you, Elizabeth but I think it is time that you face your fears and then find the person who doesn't make you just feel safe but who evokes the entire range of emotions. The person that truly allows you to live your life again no matter what that life may bring."

"Thank you, Lucas," Elizabeth told him, a genuine smile on her face. She held his gaze briefly before looking out the window. "We're almost home."

"You've missed it, haven't you?"

Elizabeth nodded. "There is no place like Hope Valley," Elizabeth said.

Lucas nodded, but did not feel quite the same excitement at being home. Perhaps a visit to New Orleans might be next on his plans of things to do.


As happy as she was about her book, Elizabeth had never been happier to return to Hope Valley as she had been after her book tour. Though a crowd greeted her at the station, many of her students among them, Elizabeth did note the absence of Nathan and Ally. Though she could not blame either of them for being there, Elizabeth also could not ignore the pang of regret she felt at their absence, especially after her conversation with Lucas.

There was no big fuss made over her break up with Lucas, though people noticed it in the days that followed. Elizabeth had told Rosemary what had happened over tea the afternoon after she returned. Her friend was sympathetic and supportive, for which Elizabeth was grateful for. Elizabeth had also written to Abigail about it. The older woman had written a lengthy reply assuring her that there was nothing wrong with entering a relationship only to find out it wasn't going to work. Abigail had reminded her of her own journey.

"When you fall in love for the first time, you feel like your heart can never break. All you know is the euphoria you feel inside. Finding love after losing the love of your life is harder. The romantic notions of girlhood are gone and the reminder of your heart breaking grounds you to reality. But even though things did not work out with Bill or Frank, I do not regret those relationships. They were both part of the healing process, just like Lucas has been for you."

Elizabeth took those words to heart. She had taken both that letter and Jack's final letter to her to the cemetery one day. She had read them there and she had cried as she had talked to Jack. The tears had been cleansing, though at the end she still had one wish in her heart.

"I wish you could give me a sign about where to go from here, Jack," Elizabeth said, voicing that wish to her husband's headstone.

At that moment, a horse's whinny caught her attention. Looking in the direction of the sound, Elizabeth saw Nathan, his red serge bright in the otherwise grey day, trying to calm Newton as they rode toward town. There was no indication of what had spooked the horse, nor did Nathan give any indication that he had realized she was here. She watched as Nathan rode out of sight, and then looked back at the headstone.

"Was that my sign, Jack?" Elizabeth asked, not expecting an answer.

Things in Hope Valley continued on. Elizabeth's days were spent at school and her evenings with her son. Sometimes Bill would join them for dinner. Other times they would join Lee and Rosemary. Even Clara and Jesse had invited her and Little Jack to dinner one night. Life was ordinary but Elizabeth was seeing the beauty that was in ordinary.

Nathan crossed her mind quite often these days. Though they exchanged pleasantries when their paths crossed, she had not had an actual conversation with him. Part of her wondered if he would want to talk to her though in her heart she knew she at least had to apologize. She knew now he was right. It wasn't Jack he had been seeing in him. Instead, she had seen the uniform and all the pain that uniform represented. When he had spoken to her that day at the pond, it had not been ready. All she could remember was losing Jack and she knew that losing Nathan would hurt just as much.

So she had run. She had run right to Lucas. Back to the safety of the life she had grown up in.

In protecting her own heart, she knew that she had broken Nathan's heart. She would not be surprised if he simply wanted nothing to do with her now, so she kept her silence. Not knowing was better than his rejection.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon, Elizabeth found herself with some free time. She was caught up with things for school. Bill had taken Jack on an 'adventure' in the woods. Elizabeth knew the time together was important for both men - Bill because it connected him with his friend and for Little Jack because Bill was filling in for the father figure the boy was missing in his life.

Elizabeth looked at her desk. Her typewriter sat on top and inside was her journal. Neither held any appeal to her. Reaching for her coat, she slipped it on. Stepping outside, Elizabeth buttoned the coat as she walked. Her footsteps had naturally taken her in the direction of the pond. As she found the water soothing, she continued in that direction. She watched some ducks float lazily on the water for a while. She listened to the birds signing, and the wind singing its lullaby. As she approached the dock, she noticed a lone figure sitting at the end.

Nathan was sitting there, fishing pole in hand. Though he had not noticed her yet, something kept Elizabeth going forward as she remembered that day on the dock. The day he had noticed her short stories that Jack had published for her, just like Lucas had been key to her novel being published.

In that moment she realized the truth. She hadn't been looking for Jack in Nathan. She had been looking for Jack in Lucas. The candles. The easy speech. Publishing her book.

Elizabeth also remembered Nathan asking her on that dock what was in her heart. She hadn't answered him because she hadn't been ready to admit that he and Allie were finding a place in her heart. It had been why she had not wanted Nathan to take that promotion the previous Christmas. Nathan hadn't pressed for an answer. He had never pressured her for anything. He had simply been there.

As her foot sounded on the wood of the dock, Nathan glanced back over his shoulder. She saw the surprise on his face. She hadn't sought him out since that day in his office.

"Lovely day for fishing," Elizabeth commented, walking toward him.

"It is," Nathan replied. She could see the indecision in his eyes. He was probably trying to figure out if he should get to his feet or continue fishing.

"Don't get up," Elizabeth told him. She noticed the second pole on the dock beside him. "Looks like you didn't start the outing alone?"

Nathan shook his head. "Ally was with me."

"Did she go get something?" Elizabeth asked, wondering if the girl would be back soon.

"No. Robert came by and asked her to take a walk with her," Nathan replied.

"You seem calm about that."

Nathan shrugged. "She has to grow up some time and Robert is leaving next week for Mountie training."

"I had heard that," Elizabeth replied. "Again, I am surprise you are taking this so calmly."

Nathan blushed slightly. "I may have sat them both down for a lecture about not making any commitments to one another. Ally still has some growing up to do and Robert is going to be exposed to a lot of new things. I told them that I am okay with them writing to one another but that they needed to stay open to life experiences. That if they were meant to be together that it will work out no matter where life takes them."

"Do you believe that?" Elizabeth asked.

"I do," Nathan replied without hesitation.

Elizabeth nodded. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Nathan, about what you told me that night you were drunk-"

"Drunk or not, I meant what I said that night," Nathan told her. The conviction in his voice told her he did not regret his words. Somehow, that gave her even more respect for him. He had told her the hard truth and he was not going to shy away from having done so.

"I know," Elizabeth replied. "You were also right. I have only ever seen the uniform and that scared me. That fear was not an excuse for speaking to you the way I did. For lying to you, to protect my heart. Can you forgive me?"

"Love always forgives," Nathan replied. "I realize now that it was love that made my mother give my father so many chances. It was love that made me give him the benefit of the doubt with the missing necklace. You taught me that, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth felt a weight lift from her shoulders at his words. Nathan forgave her. Nathan still loved her.

"Thank you," she said softly, knowing that the words were inadequate but not knowing what else to say.

"I asked you once before when we were here what was in your heart, Elizabeth. Do you remember?"

Elizabeth nodded.

"Can you answer that question now?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Elizabeth said, words finally finding her once again. "My heart is filled with home, friends, my son, you and Ally. I fear I may have lost my chance to keep the last two in my heart."

"Perhaps not," Nathan told her. "Though perhaps we start rebuilding our friendship first."

Elizabeth smiled. "I'd like that."

Nathan motioned to the other fishing pole. "Would you like to join me?" he asked.

"The one time I went fishing with Jack he ended up baiting my hook and taking the fish off because I was too squeamish to touch either."

Nathan's response was to tuck his pole between his knees, reach for the second pole and bait the hook. "There you go," he told her. Elizabeth reached out for the pole. "I haven't had a bite all day but if the fish decide your pole looks more tempting than mine, I will take the fish of the hook for you."

Elizabeth cast the line in the water and sat down on the end of the dock next to Nathan. "What is the draw to fishing if you spend hours siting here and never catch anything?"

"I like it because it gives me time to think," Nathan said. "When Ally was old enough to join me, it was less about fishing and more about spending time with her."

Elizabeth reflected on that. She could see how both would be good reasons to sit and wait for a fish to bite. The one thing she was sure about, even if she didn't catch anything today, she would happily come out again on another day if it meant spending time with Nathan.

Glancing over at him, Elizabeth saw a relaxed demeanor about him. It was something she had not seen when he was in her presence for quite awhile. However, despite the mess she had made of everything, despite the fact that she had broke his heart, Nathan was giving her a second chance.

This time she planned on being worthy of that love.