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: Thank you for the reviews. I will admit this whole punch up scene just randomly came to mind when I was writing the other day and I didn't think it through enough like I do other scenes. Obviously I didn't write it clearly enough because I had a few people quite passionately arguing that E has to go to hospital. So I've added a doctor's visit in so you can remain calm :)

BTW for the Guest who didn't realise Grace Thatcher wasn't alive in this story, I mentioned it way back in Ch 14 when Elizabeth was playing the piano and I've brushed over it in a few chapters since. I was waiting to get the flashbacks further along in chronological order but this is where I had been planning on adding it in.

1ST OF 2 CHAPTERS

(1/9/2018)

CHAPTER 33

Recap …

"I wanted to show you something. Look!" Viola pulled out a black and white photo and handed it to Elizabeth. Elizabeth held the photo of the baby's first ultrasound image.

"Oh Vi! Wow! It's your baby" Elizabeth said with tears in her eyes.

"Yes and we found out the gender" Viola said excitedly.

"Well …"

"We found out it's another girl!" she squealed.

"That's wonderful" Elizabeth said hugging her big sister.

They pulled back slightly. "I just wish …" Viola began, tears glistening in her eyes.

Elizabeth knew exactly what she was thinking. "Mom would have been so excited for you" she said as the tears spilled over.

Continued …

Jack and Lionel walked in to the kitchen to see Elizabeth and Viola hugging each other tightly, both of them in tears. Jack didn't know what to think, but as the women pulled apart, they seemed to be happy tears.

"We found out the baby is a girl" Lionel said to him.

"Congratulations!" Jack said turning to shake his hand. "That's great news!"

"Yes. We're both very excited."

"Understandably."

Elizabeth moved toward Jack as she wiped the tears away from her face. Jack wasn't sure why both of the sisters had been so upset but he didn't feel like it was time to ask.

"Mommy!" Eve came running in from outside and clung to her legs. Gracie was close behind.

"Hi baby. How was your sleepover?" she asked them both.

"So fun! We had poccorn and watched a movie last night."

Jack couldn't help but laugh at Gracie's pronunciation.

"Popcorn?" Elizabeth asked.

"Poccorn. That's what I said."

Elizabeth just shook her head. "I'm glad you had a nice time."

"What happened to your eye Mommy?" Gracie asked.

"Oh, it's nothing. I fell over."

Elizabeth and Jack exchanged a glance but Gracie seemed to accept her reason and didn't think much of it.

On the way home, Elizabeth was really quiet in the car. Jack didn't want to say anything while the girls were in the car in case it related to the previous night.

"How about we go to Abigail's for lunch?" he said to Elizabeth quietly.

"That would be nice."

Jack detoured on the way home and pulled up out the front before his daughters registered where they were. Halley was the first to realise and was immediately cheering from the back seat.

"Ms Abigail's!"

As soon as they were inside, the girls ran straight to a booth in the corner. Jack held Elizabeth's hand as they followed.

"Beth! Jack! So nice to see you!" Abigail said from behind them.

As soon as Elizabeth turned, Abigail saw her face.

"Oh my goodness. What happened?"

Eve began yelling for Jack so he moved away from Elizabeth to see what the fuss was about. That gave Elizabeth a moment to talk to Abigail.

"I got hit in the face last night when we were out."

"Oh dear. Have you seen a doctor yet? It looks very sore."

"Not yet. I still have a headache so I might go this afternoon just to get it checked."

"That seems wise. Why don't I look after the girls for you? Then Jack can go with you."

"That would be good. I will go talk to him."

Jack thought it was a good idea just to go get everything double checked so they left the girls there while they went to the local medical centre. Abigail packed them some sandwiches for the wait.

They ended up having to wait for almost two hours before a doctor could finally see them. By that stage Elizabeth's head was pounding and she was laying across three seats using Jack's lap as a pillow. He was running his hands through her hair when her name was finally called.

Jack helped her up and thankfully she didn't suffer from any dizziness or worsening of her symptoms. The doctor listened to what happened and had a thorough check of her face.

"So you've been dizzy and sick just the once?"

"Yes."

"And the headaches? Have they gotten worse?"

"No, just constant."

"Well, that could be caused from a mild concussion or just from the impact when you sustained the injury, a bit like whiplash if you will. The headaches should ease up soon. Just stick with painkillers but if your symptoms worsen over the next 24 hours, please go to emergency. Just rest for the remainder of today and tomorrow."

Jack helped Elizabeth back to her feet and they walked back to the car.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes. I just want to go home."

"That can be arranged" he said as he helped her into the car and leant over putting her seatbelt on.

Jack drove past Abigail's and picked up the girls who had a great time making ice-cream sundaes again and devouring cookies. Jack thanked Abigail who came out to the car to check on Elizabeth.

"Give me a call Beth if you need anything."

"I will. Thank you for everything Abigail."

"Any time. Glad I could help."

Jack drove home and as soon as they got in, he helped Elizabeth back upstairs and put her into bed.

Jack took a tray of food up to the bedroom for dinner. All he could find to make were ham and cheese toasties but he didn't think Elizabeth would mind. He placed a bottle of water and cup of tea on the tray as well.

Elizabeth rolled over when he entered.

"How you feeling, babe?"

"Better. The headache has gone away for the moment."

"That's good. Here's some food."

"Thank you."

Jack placed the tray down before sitting next to her brushing her hair out of her face with his hand.

"Are the girls okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine. We're just sitting down to play a board game before bed."

"I should come down" she said, going to move.

"No, they're fine. Stay there. Once they're in bed, I will run you a bath. That might make you feel better" he said as he leant over to kiss her forehead. "I'll be back to check on you soon."

Jack drew a bubble bath for Elizabeth once he'd put the girls to bed. He went back into the bedroom and helped her up.

"Thanks for the toastie. That was just what I needed."

Jack laughed. "Sorry that's all I could manage to make."

Elizabeth smiled. "You were never a great cook when we got married although you did get better."

"Clearly I need to practice."

Jack helped Elizabeth into the bath and he sat down on the floor as she rested her head back.

"How is your head now?"

"The headaches are gone. I feel much better. It ended up being such a late night yesterday too so I think the headache was from a combination of things."

"I'm glad you're feeling better."

They talked for a little while until Elizabeth was ready to get out of the bath.

When Jack got her back to the bed, he sat beside her again and held her hand.

"Beth, you seemed quite upset at Viola's today. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I just miss my Mom."

"What happened to her?"

One year and six months before … (February 2017)

Grace had been having abdominal pain for months but her doctor had put it down to some type of intestinal issue. She had been having weeks of tests done with a gastroenterologist and they had come up with nothing. That was until she had finally been sent for an MRI.

The large mass that took over her uterus was immediately visible on the screen. Grace was referred to a surgeon and was admitted to hospital within a few days to have the mass removed. Unfortunately, the results indicated that the mass was cancerous and further scans were required.

That was the day that Elizabeth's life changed forever.

"Hi Beth."

"Hi Dad. How's Mom?"

"Okay. She got the results from the PET scan today."

"Yes? Is she okay?"

"She's feeling fine but the scan indicated that the cancer has already spread."

"No ..."

"Yes Beth. It's already in her lungs and liver."

Elizabeth was speechless.

"Are you still there Beth?"

"Yes" she said through the tears.

"I'm not going to lie, Beth, but this is bad. Really bad. The doctor has given us rough timeframes as to how long we're expected to have with her."

"How long?"

"It depends on what treatment option she chooses. At the most, a couple of years."

Elizabeth was shocked along with the rest of the family.

Grace had decided to have chemoradiation to help with the pain and prolong her life for as long as possible. There came a point where she didn't have the strength to continue and she didn't want to feel sick for the little time she had left. They decided to stop all further treatment only three months later.

Elizabeth got leave from work and went and sat with her mother as much as she could. Grace insisted that she didn't need the company and Elizabeth should stay with her family but Elizabeth couldn't leave her.

Grace had always been all of her daughters' biggest supporter and advocate. No matter what they had wanted to do, she backed them up. So now it was her turn to have her daughters' look after her. Between Viola and Elizabeth, Grace always had someone with her.

Elizabeth got the call from William one morning that Grace didn't have much time left. She jumped in the car and drove in the peak hour traffic as quickly as she could to the city hospital, picking up Viola on the way, but they didn't make it in time. Grace was already gone. They had both been devastated but took comfort in knowing that their mother was at peace. The fact that the two women had been together was another comfort.

As she neared the end, Grace had written letters to all of her daughters and given them to William to hold until after she was gone. Grace had told Elizabeth how proud she was of all of her daughters in different ways. For Elizabeth, it was for her compassion for others, her strength and her determination. At that moment, Elizabeth felt far from the strong woman that her mother was so proud of.

"Oh Elizabeth. I'm sorry. That must have been terribly hard for you to deal with" Jack said as he pulled her to him, hugging her tightly, running his hand down her arm.

"Yes, well it got worse."

"How?"

Grace had passed away in late August. Elizabeth had gone back to school and everything was beginning to settle down. Elizabeth was home one night in October after a particularly rough day when Jack came home from work. Quieter than normal, he put his arms around her and kissed her cheek but just stayed there holding her, not talking. Elizabeth didn't mind at first but then she realised what he was doing. She pulled back from him.

"What is it Jack?"

"I got my papers today" he said quietly.

Elizabeth took in a deep breath. "When do you leave?"

"In a month."

"For how long?"

She could see the pain in his eyes now but instead of telling her straight away he pulled har close to him, holding her tight. "Nine months."

At first the duration didn't sink in and she was thinking, that would be fine, but then she realised. Jack was going to miss Christmas, Gracie's birthday, Halley's birthday, their anniversary and a whole lot of other special moments in between. Everything hit her all at once and then she was sobbing uncontrollably into his chest. Big ugly cries. That night Elizabeth cried so much and she couldn't tell if it was because she lost her mother permanently or because she was about to lose her husband temporarily.

"I miss her so much. When you were deployed it was particularly difficult. You were really worried about me. The night you got your papers and we found out it was for nine months, it was … hard. And then with your accident … there's not a day that goes by that I don't wish I could give her a call and just hear her voice."

"I'm sorry. I left you when you needed me" Jack whispered to her as he kissed her forehead.

"No. It's your job. You were just doing your job."

"So today was about Viola's baby?"

"Yes. Mom's going to miss it all. Viola was just having a moment."

"Was that all it was?"

"Mmm hmm" she nodded.

"That's understandable. I wish you had have told me before now though."

"It's not something you can fix, Jack."

"I get that, it's just …"

"It is what it is. Only I can deal with it. It's the same as when you lost your father. Time is the only thing that makes it all better. You told me that. Slowly the pain begins to fade, is what you used to say. Some days are better than others but her anniversary is coming up in a few weeks and I'm … anxious, I guess."

"I can understand that. The first anniversary is the hardest I think. How is your father with everything?"

"He threw himself back into work and he doesn't take much time to himself these days. I do really worry about him but he told me once that his work is all he has left so he may as well stick at it now until he's too old."

"That makes sense. Everybody handles these situations differently."

Jack lay there with Elizabeth pulled to his chest. He eventually heard her breathing settle and looked down to see her asleep. He smiled down at her before relaxing himself.

When his own father had died it had been sudden and tragic. Those memories following his death were still there. The look on his mother's face when she told him and Tom the news. The tears. The funeral with the police honour guard. A constant stream of policemen coming to give his mother, him and Tom their condolences. The quiet of the house afterwards. It took a long time to get used to his father not being there anymore.

It was funny how memories work. Jack would have gladly forgotten the pain that came in the year following his father's death but instead he had seemingly forgotten the best ten years of his life.