Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. All rights go to the actors, writers and creators of the show "When Calls The Heart".

(6/8/2018)

CHAPTER 24

Recap …

As they were leaving the restaurant, Jack carried Eve and held Gracie's hand as they walked out to the car. They said goodbye to William and Jack helped the girls into the car. As he shut the door he heard William speaking to Elizabeth.

"Sometimes you just have to walk away."

"Dad, I really don't think that applies in this situation."

"Trust me, Beth. It will be for the best."

"Just move on? That's your answer."

"You know it deep down. There are so many memories there that just hurt too much."

"I suppose you're right."

"You know I am."

William hugged Elizabeth tightly before letting her go.

"Bye Jack" William called out before turning to walk toward his own car.

Jack stared after him. I don't believe it. He just convinced Elizabeth to leave me.

Continued …

Jack was silent all the way home. Eve and Gracie were both fast asleep when they pulled into the garage. Jack carried Eve to her bed and then returned for Gracie, tucking her in tightly before he left her room.

He went and had a shower, standing underneath the hot water thinking about William and Elizabeth's conversation. I must have misinterpreted something, surely. But what else could they have possibly been talking about? Jack was bewildered.

The problem was Elizabeth had agreed with her father. She was going to leave him and Jack felt like he had never been more terrified in his life. But he was also angry that Elizabeth could be convinced so easily to agree with her father. It was almost like William had put the idea inside her head to begin with.

Jack turned off the tap to the shower, roughly dried himself and pulled his pyjamas on, still undecided what to do.

Elizabeth was sitting next to Halley waiting for her to nod off. She heard Jack in the shower for a long time and after she heard the water shut off, she detached herself from her daughter's side and left her room.

As she closed Halley's door and turned around she saw Jack emerge from the bathroom.

"Jack, is everything okay? You seemed really quiet tonight" she said approaching him.

He turned toward her, his eyes clearly indicated he was upset about something.

"I'm fine."

"I wanted to show you something" she said taking his hand and pulling him downstairs. He went with her but she could tell he wasn't happy.

Elizabeth pulled him into the lounge room and told him to sit down while she left the room again. She came back and his eyes immediately focused on the object in her hands. His guitar.

"Here you go. I've been meaning to give it to you."

Jack took it in his hands but held it away from him, as if he was not sure what to do with it.

"You don't remember your guitar?" Elizabeth asked in surprise.

"Um, kind of." He brought it closer to him but he still held it awkwardly.

Elizabeth had seen him play a lot but had never seen him hold his guitar like that. Elizabeth waited, watching, to see what he would do. He ran his fingers across the strings gently. Elizabeth knew it was a bit out of tune but Jack didn't seem to notice. His left hand held the neck but his fingers didn't slide straight into the position of a chord. He's forgotten how to play. How is that possible? He's known how to play since he was a kid!

Elizabeth stood up suddenly.

"I will leave you to it then."

She walked out of the room and stood around the corner listening. She hoped that she would hear the notes of a familiar song breeze past her any second, but she didn't. It was quiet except for the odd ping of a string.

Jack's mind was blank. The guitar didn't feel right to him. He remembered playing with his brother but now that he was holding the guitar, he didn't know what to do with it.

He tried hard to think of anything. Reading a sheet of music or songs that he liked but he couldn't remember a thing. It was like there was something blocking his thoughts altogether.

Instead of focusing on the guitar, Jack's mind wandered back to Elizabeth and William's conversation and immediately he felt the anger boiling over in front of him. He stood up, throwing the guitar to the ground and walked up to his room.

Elizabeth expected Jack to come into their room that night but he never did. The next morning, she decided to go for an early morning run before the rest of the house awoke. When Elizabeth got downstairs early the next morning, she saw Jack's guitar lying broken on the floor beside where Jack had been sitting the night before. What in the world?

She went over to it and carefully picked it up. The neck had snapped clean off the body and was hanging on by the strings. She stared at in disappointment. It had been Jack's most beloved possession. She knew Jack would be devastated, but she couldn't work out what happened. The kids weren't awake yet, so it wasn't them, but Jack was the last one who had used it.

She turned back up towards the stairs and went to Jack's room.

"Jack?"

"Mmmm" he said sleepily.

"What happened last night?"

"What?"

"What happened?"

"Regarding what?" he said groaning as he rolled over.

Elizabeth was standing beside the bed. She gingerly held up the guitar. She expected to see sadness but instead Jack just shrugged.

"That's it?!" she asked.

"Yeah" he just shrugged at her again.

"Jack, its really broken. Don't you care?" she said, surprised at his response.

"Not really, no" he said nonchalantly.

Elizabeth stepped back like she had been slapped in the face. She stared at the man in front of her before she walked out of the room.

She carried Jack's guitar into her room before closing the door. She placed it on her bed before going to her walk-in wardrobe and went to the back near her winter coats, before she slid down against the wall and began to cry.

Jack had been worrying all night about Elizabeth leaving him. He knew he had been failing on the husband front. Except for bringing Elizabeth some flowers at the suggestion of his mother, he realised that he had done nothing but worry her for the last month. He had decided it was time that he tried to fix it.

But now, he had done the exact opposite. He didn't know why he acted the way he did, but Jack knew he had really hurt her. When Elizabeth recoiled he could see the pain in her eyes. It was not hurt, like he had done something to her, but rather the type of pain you have when you see someone hurting or dying. As Elizabeth left his room, Jack felt a wave of guilt pass over him. He groaned, before throwing the covers off and pulling himself out of bed.

He walked down the hall, only to see Elizabeth's bedroom door shut. He opened it slowly. The guitar was there but Elizabeth wasn't. He walked toward the bathroom and only then did he hear her sobbing. The sound broke his heart.

He followed the sound into her wardrobe and in the back corner he could just make out her legs poking out. He slowly walked in, not wanting to startle her.

"Beth" he said quietly and immediately the sobs stopped.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

"Its fine Jack."

"No, its not. I just … I was distracted last night."

"Fine. Don't worry about it. Just leave me alone, Jack."

"No, I'm not going to do that" he said as he came closer. He saw her crouched on the ground, leaning against the wall.

"Jack …"

He leant down in front of her. She was holding her knees tight up to her chest. Her face was red and blotchy and her cheeks were stained with tears.

"I'm sorry. I just heard you talking to your father last night and something he said made me really upset."

"What?" she said puzzled.

"I thought he told you to leave me and you agreed."

"What?!" she said. "When did he say that?"

"When I was putting the girls in the car. I turned back around and he was telling you to move on."

Elizabeth looked at him puzzled. "Move on? What are you …" He saw something dawning in her eyes. "He wasn't telling me to leave you!" she yelled.

"Well, what was he saying?" Jack said annoyed at her tone.

"He was telling me he's thinking about selling our family home! It's too big for just him and there are too many memories there!"

Jack stood there rethinking the conversation. It made sense now that she said it but at the time, all he could think was that he was too much of a burden for her.

"Why would you think I would leave you?" she said watching him.

"I just thought this might all be too hard for you. I've been a shitty husband lately so I thought you might think you and the girls would be better off without me." He looked down at his feet as he spoke. He felt stupid and couldn't understand why everything in his head kept coming out jumbled and wrong. "Everything I say and do hurts you. I can see it in your eyes" Jack said as he looked at her.

"Come here" she said as she put her hand up toward him.

He took it and slid down the wall to rest next to her, their hands remaining clasped together on his leg.

"Jack. You are my husband. I made a vow to love, honour and cherish you until death parts us. I would never leave you. I need you" she said as she leant in and kissed him gently on the lips.

"I know things have been hard but it's just another challenge for us. We need to overcome it together. But you can't wall yourself off like you did before. Not communicating and pretending to be someone that you're not. That is what hurts."

"I'm sorry."

"Jack, you remember what Dr Shepherd said about your reasoning skills? This is what can happen. You can misunderstand and confuse things but you have to tell me what's going on in there" she said as she raised her eyes to his head. "Promise you will talk to me next time."

"Yeah I promise."

"Good." She lowered her head onto his shoulder.

After breakfast, Elizabeth was in the laundry pulling out one load of washing and putting another one on. She went out to the clothes line to hang out the first load when her phone rang in her back pocket. She saw the caller ID and answered.

"Hi Viola. What's up?"

"Can you come over today, Beth?"

"Yes. What time?"

"Soon. Bring the girls and Rip. They can all play outside. The kids can't wait to meet the puppy."

"Ok. I will be there in about thirty minutes."

"Great. See you then."

Elizabeth was surprised at the call. Viola never asked her to come over like that. I wonder what that's about.

Elizabeth got the girls ready and said goodbye to Jack. He was expecting the social worker in the next hour.

Elizabeth pulled up at Viola's and Viola was already at the door waiting. Immediately Eve and Gracie were running to the door with Halley carrying Rip slowly behind them. They disappeared inside.

"Hi Vi."

"Hi Beth."

"What's going on?" Elizabeth asked as Viola led her inside. The girls had already disappeared through the house and Elizabeth could hear them playing outside.

Viola led her through to the kitchen. She checked that all the kids were outside before she turned to Elizabeth.

"I'm pregnant."

"What?" Elizabeth said surprised, with a smile breaking across her face. "I thought you had decided not to have any more."

"I know. We changed our minds."

"Oh Vi. I'm so happy for you!" Elizabeth grabbed her sister in a hug.

"How far along are you?"

"Just passed twelve weeks. I had the scan yesterday."

"Congratulations. That is fantastic news."

"And there's something else."

"Yeah …" Elizabeth waited expecting to hear it was twins or something.

"It's another little girl" Viola said with tears in her eyes.

"Oh Vi! That is wonderful. Is Lionel happy?"

"Yes. Secretly I wanted a girl so I am over the moon."

"I can't believe it! Every scenario was running through my head but I was not expecting you to say that!" Elizabeth laughed.

Jack had his visit from the social worker, Bill. He was nothing like Jack had expected. Jack thought he would somewhat resemble a male nurse but instead the man appeared in jeans and a shirt. He appeared to be a hard man but Jack very quickly got the impression that Bill knew exactly what to focus on.

Bill wanted to know what memories Jack had and how he knew he was forgetting things. Jack took him downstairs to the basement to show him his picture wall.

"Wow, Jack! This is amazing. You've drawn all of those images just from your memory? Not from photos?"

"Yes."

"Jack, the detail here is amazing." Bill ran his eyes over the pictures of Elizabeth and Jack's hands together.

Jack was embarrassed about some of the pictures but Bill didn't mention anything. Bill's eyes ran over the newer ones that Jack kept down in the corner – the ones of the accident that was now haunting his sleep.

"This is a great idea. And the feelings?"

"Yes, Frank suggested I try and focus on the feelings and the triggers and I've been trying to write them down when I think of them but that part is probably the hardest."

Bill nodded thoughtfully.

"Okay, let's go back upstairs and we can discuss your treatment options from here."

Bill had agreed the hypnosis wasn't working right now but he suggested that Jack could try neurofeedback instead. It was still done through the therapist but involved organising his thoughts rather than specific memory recovery. Jack was open to that idea.

Bill had also noticed that three of the memories downstairs had definitive triggers. Two were due to music while the other was due to a smell.

"I think we should consider some music therapy as well, Jack. I will have to ring around and find someone suitable, so I will get back to you on that one."

Once Bill had left, Jack had felt a lot more optimistic than he had in the last few days. That was a good sign.

That night when Jack and Elizabeth went to bed, Elizabeth lay there staring at the ceiling.

"What's going on Beth?"

Elizabeth turned her head to face him.

"Viola told me that she's expecting another baby. A little girl."

"That's nice."

"Yeah. I'm really happy for her."

Jack could sense there was more to it. He rolled onto his side, propping his head up with his elbow.

"Did you always want three kids?" Jack asked curiously, his free hand running gently over her bare arm.

"Truthfully, we always wanted lots of kids. For a while it was always five."

"Five?"

"Yeah, but we changed our minds after Eve was born."

"She was that bad?"

"No. She was a brilliant baby." Elizabeth laughed. "We just worried because of the chance of you being deployed. After we had Eve we decided three was enough for me to manage on my own. Even though they were all girls" Elizabeth grinned at him.

"We wanted a boy?" Jack said, looking down at her.

"You did. You kept trying to convince me to have one more but the last time you had been deployed was when we had Halley as a baby. I knew it was only a matter of time before you would be called up again. Sure enough, here we are. Imagine if we had a toddler running around right now?" she laughed. "I think we made the right decision."

Jack nodded. He knew she was right.

"I think you would have had ten kids if you could have convinced me. You've always loved children, probably even more than me" Elizabeth said smiling.

"When we were pregnant with Halley, did we end up finding out if it was a girl?"

"No. We decided to keep it a surprise."

"Were you happy though? With a girl?"

"Yes. I thought it was a boy deep down so I got a bit of a shock when she was born."

"Really?"

"Yes" Elizabeth chuckled.

"What about Gracie and Eve?"

"No, I knew they were girls."

"So tell me about when Halley was born."

Eight years and three months before … (April 2010)

They had ended up moving out of Elizabeth's apartment at the end of March. Jack had received a house on base. It wasn't quite as nice as Elizabeth's apartment but it was their house together and it had three bedrooms. Jack immediately began decorating one of the spare rooms as the nursery. He painted it a light grey colour and they put new carpet down. They went and bought furniture together and set it up, all before she was seven months pregnant. They had been so excited.

Most nights after dinner, Elizabeth would lie down on the couch with her feet up on the arm. Jack would come in and almost every day, he would pull out his guitar and sing to her. He had read that it was beneficial for the baby to hear its father's voice and hear music so Jack thought it was the perfect thing. Elizabeth didn't mind either. Jack's voice was soothing and he often ended up singing her to sleep.

The pregnancy was going well but as it progressed further, Jack grew more and more protective of her. She didn't mind at first but when he would hardly let her do anything, they would start to argue. Elizabeth hated arguing with him.

Rosie's bachelorette party had been planned for the end of April. Elizabeth would still have six weeks until the baby was due but Jack didn't want her to go. She was in her room pulling out clothes to pack for the hotel room. Her and Rosie had decided to get a room in case Elizabeth was tired, she could leave immediately and be safe to get back.

"Jack, I'm going. I will be fine."

"What if some guy approaches you?"

"I will talk to them. I'm pregnant. If anyone approaches me, it would probably be to ask how much longer I have left, not to whisk me away in a taxi."

Jack's eyes widened. Okay, that may have been a poor choice of words.

"Absolutely not!"

"Jack, it's Rosie's party. I have to go."

"Fine. I will come with you."

"You cannot come to a bachelorette party! There's supposed to be all kinds of things there that guys aren't meant to see."

There was no way she was about to tell him that they were supposed to be going to a place that had topless barmen who walked around in g-strings. Elizabeth hadn't been too phased, after all her husband would probably have a better six pack than most of those guys anyway.

"Like what? What will you be seeing?"

"Things women like to see."

That seemed to be a poor choice of words. She could see Jack thinking and immediately his face went rigid.

"Strippers? You want to see strippers?!" he exclaimed.

"No! Oh for goodness sake, Jack. I am not explaining what goes on at a bachelorette party. Ask Lee at your buck's party."

Jack finally let her leave but with instructions that she call or text him every hour until she was back in the hotel room.

Needless to say, Elizabeth was watching her phone most of the night making sure she remembered to text him as she was worried he would send the cops to look for her if she didn't comply with their deal.

The topless barmen were pretty cute after all. Elizabeth went over to order some shots for the girls right before she was due to check in with Jack. The bartender called out to her.

"Elizabeth?"

"Liam?"

Her eyes almost fell out of her head when she saw her fellow teacher from the previous year behind the bar. Shirtless, no less.

He came around from behind the bar to give her a hug. Thankfully he had shorts on and not a g-string.

"Look at you! Are you still with Jack?"

"Yes, we got married last year."

"Congratulations – on both accounts. You're having a baby? That's amazing Elizabeth."

"Thank you. But what are you doing here?"

"Just making some extra cash. It pays so well here. I only do Friday and Saturday nights. What are you doing here?"

"Bachelorette party for my friend Rosie" Elizabeth said turning around to see their whole group staring at her. "You want to make some extra cash by having a photo with my friend?"

"Of course. Anything for you Elizabeth."

Elizabeth beamed and led him back to Rosie.

"Rosie, this is my friend Liam."

Rosie for once went shy but she was willing to pose for a few photos. Liam asked her to come in one of the photos too. Liam stood in between Rosie and Elizabeth and posed, his arm around Rosie and Elizabeth's waist. He pretended to kiss Rosie's cheek and then he did it to Elizabeth too while she was laughing to stop.

Liam went back to work and thanked them for his tips. Rosie's sister immediately posted the photos on Facebook and Elizabeth was so distracted that she missed her 10pm and 11pm check in time with Jack.

"I'm going to guess that all of those coincidences didn't turn out well for you?"

"Um. No."

Jack groaned. "I was a fool wasn't I."

"A loving, caring, anxious, over protective fool. Yes. But I was grateful for it" Elizabeth laughed.

Elizabeth had wanted to go home for half an hour. She was falling asleep on her feet but Rosie was still having a good time and she didn't want to ruin it. The hotel was only five minutes away but she couldn't walk there if she tried and she definitely wasn't going out alone.

She slumped on the lounge, her hand holding her head up and her eyes were closed. She felt a man's warm hand on her shoulder which startled her awake.

She opened her eyes to see Jack crouched down in front of her.

"Jack. What are you …"

"You didn't check in. Come on, I'm taking you to the hotel. Have you got your room key?"

"Yeah" she said still sleepy.

Jack lifted her up but she was so tired, she fell into him. He picked her up immediately and carried her out of the club and back to his car. He took her to the hotel and carried her to her room. He pulled off her shoes and pulled the pins out of her hair. He took off her dress and pulled the blankets over her and then lay down beside her as she drifted off to sleep.

She woke up in the morning thinking she was all alone. She still felt so tired. They had ordered a late check-out, so unconcerned she drifted back to sleep.

What seemed like moments later, Jack was sitting beside her, leaning on his knee with his elbow, playing his phone.

"Jack?" she murmured.

"Hey baby" he said turning to kiss her gently.

"What happened last night?"

"You were falling asleep. Thankfully I got there just in time."

"How'd you know where I was?"

Jack showed her the picture he had been staring at. Rosie's sister's Facebook page. Underneath was the photo of Liam standing between her and Rosie and kissing her on the cheek.

"Jack, I …"

"Babe you promised me that you would check-in."

"I know. I got distracted."

"You scared the hell out of me, Beth." He was looking away from her.

Elizabeth put her hand out to Jack's face, turning him back to look down at her. She could see he was upset.

"I'm so sorry."

"I thought you had collapsed when I found you in the club."

"I just got so tired."

He nodded before leaning in and kissing her, his hands gliding over her stomach as he did it. He sat back up.

"I don't know what I would do without you Beth."

Elizabeth sat up this time and wrapped her arms around his neck. They sat there, holding one another tightly.

To be continued …