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".

To the readers: Sorry for the delay with this chapter. I have had to get the timing right for the next few before posting them. So here's the first of three new chapters … the others will be up tomorrow :) Let me know what you think!

Steam Warning at the end!

(11/8/2018)

CHAPTER 26

On Monday, Jack had another session with Frank. Jack looked forward to these sessions. He felt comfortable with Frank and it felt more like going to have a chat with an old friend rather than a psychologist. Frank asked him about his progress and Jack filled him in.

"What about new plans, Jack? Things to look forward to?"

"Actually, it is mine and Elizabeth's anniversary this Friday."

"Well congratulations."

"Thanks. I had an idea to make it a bit special. I was a bit uncertain about it but I've run it by another friend and he thinks it's a good idea."

"That's good. What did you have in mind?"

Jack explained his plan to Frank. He had still been ironing out the details, but it turned out Frank was just the person to speak to.

"I can give you a hand with that if you like. I have a bit of experience in that area."

"Really? That would be fantastic."

Frank explained to him exactly how he could help. Jack was thrilled. It was all coming together.

Elizabeth had booked into a training session on Wednesday a few months prior. It was a session in the city on novel teaching methods for children that have learning difficulties. She had booked into the course before Jack's accident and had asked Viola to babysit the girls for her for the day. Since Jack was home though, she decided to run it by him on Monday night.

Elizabeth was surprised at how eager Jack was to look after the girls on his own.

"Jack, are you sure? I would be gone the entire day."

"We'll be fine. I can take them to the cinema. We'll have a great time."

"Okay. I would have pulled out but I was really interested in what that they are presenting."

"Just go, Beth."

"Fine but just promise that you won't bring home any more animals!" she said as she walked upstairs. "Or speedboats!"

Elizabeth was leaving early on Wednesday and the girls had woken up and were there to say goodbye. After she had driven off, Eve stared after her.

"Why's Mommy leaving?"

"She's going away to the city" Halley said, before Jack could answer.

"Why didn't she take us with her?"

"She had to work, baby, that's all" Jack said before taking her into the kitchen.

He fixed breakfast for them and told them about the exciting day that he had planned. Jack was planning on taking them to see a movie but had also decided to get the girls to help him with Elizabeth's anniversary present.

He drove to the mall and Halley directed him to the shop that the girls often bought their clothes from.

"We need to find you some pretty dresses for Friday. But you cannot tell your Mom!"

Halley showed him to the section that had dresses in their sizes.

"Which ones should we try on Daddy?"

"It would be nice if they were all the same colour."

"Okay. I like this one" Halley said pointing at a gold one.

"I like that one too" Gracie said.

"Okay let's get your sizes in that one and we will go check that they fit."

The women's change room became a problem though.

"I don't think I can go in there with you" Jack said standing on the outside. It clearly said female fitting room, but he didn't want to let his daughters out of his sight. A shopping assistant came up to offer help.

"Is everything okay, sir?"

"My daughters need to fit these dresses on but they are too young to go in there on their own. Where should we go?"

"That's okay. Just a moment."

The woman walked into the changeroom and making sure it was clear she directed the four of them to a fitting room closest to the door.

"Just call out if you need anything."

Jack helped Eve into her dress and zipped Halley's and Grace's up. They stood side by side in the change room in their matching gold dresses, big smiles plastered on their faces.

"Oh girls. You all look beautiful. Are you happy with your dresses?"

They all nodded enthusiastically.

"Okay, let's get these."

Jack helped the girls back into their clothes. He opened the change room door and went to leave but Halley called back to him. "Daddy. My hair is stuck."

Jack turned back to see a strand of Halley's long, dark hair had gotten caught in the zipper of the dress she was wearing. Jack turned back and tried to get it out. Meanwhile, Gracie and Eve were talking to the sales woman. When Jack finally fixed Halley's dress and stepped outside of the change room, the sales woman was waiting right there, her eyes fixed on him.

When Elizabeth got home, the girls ran to greet her. Elizabeth picked up Eve and walked into the kitchen, putting the dinner groceries down on the bench.

"How was your day?"

"Good. We went to the store today and met a new friend, Lou" Gracie said.

"That's nice. Was Lou there with her Daddy too?"

"No. Don't be silly. She's as big as you. She worked at the store. Lou asked where you were and Eve said that you left us. Then Lou went and talked with Daddy."

Left them? That's a bit dramatic.

"Yeah she kept touching his arm" Halley added.

"Did she now?"

"Yeah and then she gave Daddy a piece of paper that he put in his pocket. What does that mean?" Gracie asked, her head cocked to the side looking at her curiously.

"Nothing sweetie. I'm sure she was just being friendly." Elizabeth told her girls that but she knew exactly what the woman wanted. For goodness sakes, they led her to believe that Jack was an attractive single father!

Jack was sitting on the lounge watching the baseball highlights when Elizabeth walked into the room.

"Hey Jack."

"Hi babe. You're home! I didn't hear you come in."

"The girls told me about your shopping trip."

Jack was immediately disappointed. He had given them strict instructions not to mention their new dresses to Elizabeth. Darn it!

"You're kidding! They can't keep a secret for long! That was less than five minutes" he grumbled.

"Why did they need to keep Lou a secret?" Elizabeth asked with a puzzled expression.

"What?" Jack said surprised.

"Lou."

"Who's Lou?"

"Seriously? The woman from the store" Elizabeth said impatiently.

Jack had no idea where this conversation was going.

"What did they tell you exactly?"

Jack was focused on the dresses. How much did she really know?

"Lou was flirting with you and gave you her number."

"Is that all they said?"

"More or less."

"Phew" Jack said relieved.

"What do you mean phew? What else happened with Lou?" Elizabeth said, her hands on her hips. Uh oh. I'm in trouble now.

"Oh no, no. I meant phew they didn't tell you why we were at the store."

"Why?"

"Do not ask them! You can ask them on Saturday."

"Why?"

"It's a surprise."

"Is Lou my surprise too?"

Jack pulled back. "What?! No! Enough about Lou."

"Fine. I think you need to put your wedding ring back on though."

"Where is it?"

"In your drawer."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jack was certain that Elizabeth had not mentioned his ring.

"You had a full cast until last week. You only used to wear it on special occasions but now that includes going out when I'm not with you."

Jack grinned at her. "Are you jealous?"

"Of course, I am!" Elizabeth exclaimed, clearly not impressed. "Gracie said she was touching you!"

"She patted my arm. That's it." Jack said standing up and coming toward her, trying to reassure her.

"That's enough. I should be the only one patting your arms."

"Well here. They're all yours." Jack put his hands on her sides and held her at arms distance. She brushed her hands along his arms.

"Good" she said as he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

Elizabeth threw together a quick spaghetti bolognese. The girls sat down and were quickly slurping up the noodles.

"Mommy, what's a fine piece of ass?" Halley said in between mouthfuls.

Elizabeth dropped her fork while Jack spat out his water all over the table and Elizabeth. They both looked at each other as Elizabeth began to wipe her face. Jack got up and grabbed her a tissue off the kitchen bench.

"That's not a nice thing to say. Where did you hear that, baby?" Elizabeth said, recovering, her face now dry.

"Lou from the store."

Elizabeth turned her focus back to Jack who had gone as red as his bolognese sauce.

"Right. When did she say that, honey?"

"When Daddy was bending over to do up Gracie's shoelace."

Jack put his hand over his mouth stifling a laugh.

Elizabeth pointed her finger at him while she shook his head. The smile quickly disappeared.

"Yes, well we don't speak like that in this house."

"Okay" Halley said as she put another mouthful of spaghetti in her mouth.

"You are not going to that store again" Elizabeth whispered. Jack nodded, a grin slipping back onto his face. Elizabeth shook her head, even though she couldn't help but smile too.

Jack woke up in the middle of the night. His hands were wrapped around Elizabeth tightly but his dream made him pull away from her quickly. At first he was worried that he had woken her in his hurry but she resettled and stayed with her eyes closed.

He had dreamt or remembered a woman, but she didn't look like Elizabeth. She had short black hair and had been wearing white but the rest of the details were vague. But he had been intimate with her. Jack was trying to remember the dream again. It definitely wasn't anything he remembered from his life before. He was terrified what this may have meant though and what it might mean for his anniversary plans on Friday. And how was he ever going to find out who the woman was.

On Thursday, Jack had another appointment with the therapist for his first neurofeedback session. All morning he had avoided Elizabeth, barely touching her or really even talking to her, worried that she would be able to discover what he had dreamt last night, even though that was silly. He didn't know what to do about it but it seemed avoidance was the best method for the moment.

Jack and Elizabeth dropped the girls off at Rosie and Lee's and drove to the clinic together. Jack was nervous. Not only about sitting in the car with Elizabeth, alone, but also his treatment. He was hoping that this new technique would work but he didn't want to get his hopes up after the hypnosis failures.

Elizabeth stayed in the waiting room while Suzie took him down to the office down the hall.

"This is Yuen. She will be doing today's treatment."

Jack stood in front of a young woman who barely looked old enough to be out of school.

"Are you sure you're experienced enough at this?" Jack said uncertainly.

"Mr Thornton, I assure you. I am the best there is at this hospital at neurofeedback. I have a PhD in neurofeedback applications for cases of anxiety and depression and I have a lot of experience in this area. Please take a seat."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I'm just a bit nervous."

"It's okay. People underestimate my age. I'm 34 years old but most people think I'm barely 20."

"Yes, I would have expected you to be about that" Jack said smiling. He took a seat in the chair and Yuen immediately reclined the chair back.

"Are you comfortable there?"

"Yes, thankyou."

"So today we are going to be doing your first neurofeedback session. I am going to hook you up to a bunch of sensors. These sensors will be able to determine the frequencies that are active in your brain and feedback to us an audio signal when you are in the right state of mind. It sounds complex, but it isn't too hard."

"What do I have to do?"

"You will need to stay still with your eyes closed and just listen to my voice. I will guide you into a deep relaxation which will be a trance-like state where alpha and theta waves exist, right on the edge of sleep. We will be aiming to get to the point where the amplitude of alpha waves drops and theta waves become stronger. This crossover point is where we are hoping to access some of your memories. At the end we will try and discuss any visual or auditory images that were experienced."

"I'm ready."

"Let's begin."

Yuen hooked Jack up to the sensors which were then connected to another machine. He sat there quietly focusing on breathing long, slow breaths. He listened to Yuen's voice as he tried to slow his mind down, drifting slowly out of consciousness.

Jack could see Elizabeth in the hospital, nursing a tiny little girl in a blanket. She was staring down at her with such love and wonder in her eyes. He was sitting beside her on the bed. Elizabeth glanced up and he leant in and kissed her. That morphed into him and Elizabeth fighting. There were tears streaming down her face and she was yelling at him while he stood there and took it, feeling angry and frustrated but knowing that was all he could do. The image of Elizabeth standing there in a hallway with tears rolling down her cheeks, changed into seeing his mother holding the same baby, rocking her to sleep. More memories flashed back, all of Elizabeth and Halley.

They all disappeared when loud bangs and explosives were going off loudly in his ears. He watched as an entire war scene appeared in front of his eyes. He was ducking for cover as something flew past his head and exploded behind him. There was a man beside him. Cover me, he yelled and ran off as Jack poked his head out and began firing. All the images disappeared, and Jack was staring at the ceiling of the clinic room again.

"Jack. Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"Could you see anything?"

"A lot."

"That's great. Let's review what you saw."

Jack relayed everything to Yuen.

"I know it seems difficult right now but that is fantastic progress for your first appointment."

Jack nodded.

"It says in your notes from Bill Avery that you are really good at drawing and that has been helping with your therapy. Is that true?"

"Yes."

"Well perhaps, next time you should bring your art supplies and at the end of the session you can begin to draw what you have just seen. We can also ask your wife to come in then and explain when the scenes fitted in. I would predict though after a handful of sessions you might be able to recall exactly when they happened."

"That would be good. I get sick of asking when things happened."

"It's something to work towards" she said, her voice full of encouragement.

On their way home from the clinic, they dropped into Rosie and Lee's place to pick up their daughters to find Rosie had already made dinner for all of them again.

"Rosie, I can't tell you how grateful I am for all of your help over the last few weeks" Elizabeth said as they sat with a glass of wine in the lounge room.

The children were in the next room playing with a slot car track that Will had got for his birthday. Jack had pulled Lee away almost the second he had gotten in the house. Elizabeth just assumed it had something to do with his session from today. He had said it had been quite promising but that was all he had said. She had noticed that he had been distracted all day.

"You're welcome, Beth. I know you would do just as much for me if the situation were reversed."

"Thank you all the same."

"How is Jack? He seemed a bit funny when you came in today?"

"You noticed that too? He has been weird all day. I don't know why."

"I'm sure Lee will fix it. It's nothing to worry about, I'm sure."

"I hope so."

"Maybe it's something to do with your anniversary. Has he mentioned anything?"

"Just that the girls had something to do with it."

"That's a good sign" Rosie said eagerly.

"I guess" Elizabeth said, reluctantly.

Jack dragged Lee outside so that no one could hear their conversation.

"What's wrong Jack?"

"I had a … dream … or memory … or something last night."

"Okay …"

"I need to ask you a question. Don't go nuts at me because I can't work out if what I saw was real or not and I can't ask Beth and I don't know what to do with our anniversary and everything and …"

"Spit it out Jack."

"Have I ever … cheated?"

Lee's eyes went wide. "Noooo" he said slowly.

"I don't know who the woman was then."

"What woman?"

"The woman in my dream."

"What happened with the woman?"

"What do you think happened? Why do you think I'm freaking out? I have no recollection of being intimate with my wife and yet I just dreamt of being with a total stranger!"

"Whoah. You said you weren't sure if it was a dream or reality. Maybe you just dreamt it."

"My wife is hot. Why would I dream about another woman?"

"I have no idea. But why would you cheat on her either? Anyway, you cannot tell Beth the way you just told me! She will kill you!"

"Well, how do I ask her?"

"I don't know. There is no way you can tell your wife that you dreamt of another woman."

"Especially not after yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?"

"I had a saleswoman flirting with me and the girls came home and told Elizabeth."

Lee burst out laughing. "I take it that didn't go over well."

"Nope. Now I'm wearing this again" Jack said as he wiggled his ring finger.

"That's not a bad idea."

"I know. It doesn't bother me. It was just the whole situation. Especially when Halley asked Elizabeth what was a fine piece of ass."

Lee hollered with laughter. "No wonder she was jealous. Imagine if the girls came home and told you that a guy had said that about her."

"Yeah, I would have gone to the store and punched his nose in!" Jack exclaimed, with a grin.

"Exactly!" Lee said, laughing.

Elizabeth came out of the bathroom to find Jack sitting on the end of the bed.

"Babe, what's wrong? You've been quiet all day?" Elizabeth went and sat down beside him, pulling her wet hair to the side.

"I have to ask you something and I don't want you to get mad."

Elizabeth nodded at him, uncertain as to where this was heading.

"I had a dream last night but I couldn't tell if it was a dream or a memory. It's doing my head in. I asked Lee about it and he said that it was unlikely but I have to know."

"Okay. You're scaring me."

Jack exhaled long and slow.

"I dreamt of a woman. The details weren't really distinct. All I could remember was a short black bob and white short dress. Apart from that she looked the same as you."

Elizabeth looked at him puzzled. "I don't know who that would be. Do you remember anything else? What were you wearing?"

"Green maybe."

Elizabeth sat on the bed trying to think. Then it dawned on her.

"Wait here."

She ran out of the room and downstairs to the study where she pulled out a photo album and ran back to Jack. She threw it on the bed and plopped down on her stomach. Letting go of her towel now, she flicked through the pages until she found the one she was looking for.

It was a Halloween party. There was the woman with the white dress and short black wig. A woman dressed in a short nurses outfit staring adoringly at the man next to her. The man beside her wore green scrubs and had a stethoscope around his neck, his arm holding her waist tight against him.

"Is this it?" she asked him.

Jack laid down next to her and took a better look at the photo.

"Yeah. Oh thank goodness." Elizabeth could see the relief in his expression.

"Why?"

"I remembered that night."

Elizabeth smiled. "You remember us being together?"

"Yes."

Elizabeth stared at the photo of the two of them, looking so young, still so in love. That had been a pretty amazing night.

"Where was Halley?" Jack asked.

"That was our first night without Halley. Mom and Dad minded her so we made the most of the peace and quiet."

Jack nodded still avoiding her eyes.

"I thought I had cheated on you. That memory scared me half to death" Jack whispered, as if not wanting to admit it.

Elizabeth didn't say anything. She realised now why he had been so quiet all day. He had been upset with himself. She pushed the album away and rolled to the side a bit, putting more weight on her arm. Her other hand went straight to his hair, running through it gently.

Jack didn't want to ruin his anniversary plans for the following day but he had to know the truth.

"You should have told me. I know you have never cheated on me" Elizabeth said.

"How do you know that for sure?"

"Look at how upset you were because you thought you may have. Look at me Jack."

Jack turned his head toward her. She was so beautiful. She was right though. He loved her intently. He knew he could have never cheated on her.

"I love you and you love me. Forever" Elizabeth said, her hand resting on his neck.

He leant in and kissed her, leaning in immediately so that she fell onto her back, the towel slipping away as she went. His body pressed up against hers. Jack kissed her gently, his hands slipping to her torso as his fingers found skin. Soft, warm skin.

Her lips parted and he leant into her more, his tongue slipping between them and finding hers. His hand pushed the towel away further and his hand glided down her side, from her rib cage, past her waist and hips to the top of her thigh and back up again. Her hands were at his hips, rucking up his tshirt. He moved back a second as she slid it up and over his head and he caught a better glimpse of what was underneath him. She lay bare from the waist up.

His lips collided with hers again, firmer this time, trying not to let his desire for her overwhelm him but it was useless. Her tongue slipped between his lips this time and immediately ran across the sensitive spots in his mouth. His hand went higher, resting on her chest subconsciously. He was distracted by her kissing, when he realised where his hand was and what it was doing to her.

I have to stop. I have to wait until tomorrow.

Jack pulled away.

"Sorry. I didn't mean … I … sorry" he moved off her, stood up quickly and walked out of their room, leaving her laying on the bed breathless and wanting more.