Beth ran through the doors to the ER and up to the front desk. "Excuse me, Jack Thornton, please?" her voice cracked.
"I'm sorry?"
"Jack Thornton, my husband, was shot. He's with the LAPD. I'd like to see him."
"Give me one moment."
Hanna walked over, holding Henry who was asleep and oblivious. "Beth. Sweetie."
"Hanna, thank goodness. Have you heard anything?" Rick walked up. "Rick. What happened?"
"We were on a call. Convenience store robbery. The guy fired and one of the bullets ricocheted and grazed Jack's arm."
"Oh my," she said, covering her mouth with her hand. "I knew this would happen one day but…" Tears poured down her face. She shook her head and needed to escape.
"Beth, honey, the nurse." Hanna gestured toward the nurse's station.
"Mrs. Thornton? I can take you to see your husband." She took a deep breath and nodded.
"It will be ok," Hanna told her.
She nodded again and followed the nurse through a set of automatic doors and then to a room off the hallway. "Here you go."
"Thank you."
She walked in. She expected him to be laying down, attached to machines, bleeding. However, what she found was him sitting up, being examined by a doctor who was wrapping up his arm.
"Jack?"
"Babe? Come here," he said, reaching with his good arm. "It just grazed me. I'm ok." The doc stepped back for a moment and made some notes.
"I was so scared." She cried into his shoulder, gripping his hand so hard he winced.
"Sweetie, I'm glad we are in a hospital because you're crushing my hand."
"Oh! I'm sorry." He kissed her forehead and smiled.
"Doc, this is my wife, Beth. Beth, Dr. Royce. Tell her I'm ok, please."
"Beth, he is. I promise. It only grazed his arm. He just needs to keep it bandaged for a few days, use some antibiotic ointment and mild pain killers. Are you up to date on your tetanus vaccine, Jack?"
"Yes, I had one last year. That shot almost hurt worse than this," he joked.
"This isn't funny," Beth told him.
"I'm sorry."
"Rick called and said you had been shot. I couldn't breathe, Jack. All I knew was I couldn't lose you after a year of marriage. I couldn't lose my best friend and my husband!"
"Shh. Beth, you didn't lose me."
"I'll have the nurse bring in your discharge papers in a bit. Sit tight." Dr. Royce left and Jack held Beth.
"Beth, baby, look at me." She lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him in the eyes. "What do you see?"
"What do you mean?"
"How do I look? Close to death?"
"No. Thank goodness."
"Because I'm not. Yes, this had been a dangerous situation and it could have been worse. But it wasn't." She nodded.
"I'm taking care of you today," she told him. "This is Christmas and it's our first one as a married couple. It's going to be amazing. And then tonight we are having a turkey and stuffing and corn and cranberries. And then we will wake up tomorrow on our very first anniversary together, just like we are supposed to."
She kissed his cheek softly. "Oh, gosh!"
"What?"
She pulled out her phone and called Charlotte. "Pick up, pick up."
"Beth? Honey, is he ok?"
"Yes. His arm was just grazed by the bullet. He's perfectly fine."
"Well, we will be there in about an hour. I'd like to speak with him."
"Of course." She handed her phone to Jack.
"Hello?"….. "Yes, Ma. I'm fine."….. "Ma, please don't cry."
Beth watched him as he talked to her, his eyes welling up as they spoke. He loved his mom so much. What a wonderful man she had married.
"Ok, we will see you soon."…. "Bye. I love you too." He wiped his cheeks and sighed. "I hate it when she cries."
"She was worried too."
"I know she was."
The nurse walked in the room. "Ok, Jack Thornton, Doc says we can discharge you. We have some things to discuss first."
….
She drove him home, and held onto his good arm as they walked into the building, almost as if she was holding him upright. "I am not complaining that you are holding onto me, but my arm was grazed. It didn't have anything to do with my legs."
"Humor me." The look on her face told him he better do just that.
"Yes, ma'am."
His parents chuckled behind them as they walked and then piled into the elevator. When they got to the eighth floor, they headed down the hall to their condo and walked in. The cats immediately started meowing like they were starving.
"Hang on, I'll feed you soon," she told them as she "assisted" Jack to the couch with a kiss to his forehead.
Tom stepped into the kitchen to make himself some coffee, knowing he wouldn't be sleeping now.
Charlotte sat down next to Jack and grabbed his hand. "She loves you, son. I can see her fussing is making you uncomfortable but honestly, if she wasn't doing that, I would be."
"I'm fine, Ma."
"You are the love of her life, hon. It is in a woman's DNA to take care of her family. Don't take that from her when she was scared to death just a few hours ago."
"You're right. Thanks."
He got up and kissed the top of her head and then went to find Beth who hadn't returned from feeding the cats yet. He looked in their room but he didn't see her. Then he walked into the bathroom but she wasn't in there either. Then he heard something in the closet.
He opened the closet door and found her, curled up on the floor with a pillow over her face, sobbing.
"Honey?" He walked over and sat next to her, gently peeling her hands from in front of the pillow so he could talk to her and she could breathe. "Baby, breathe. I need you to take a few deep, slow breaths or you are going to hyperventilate."
She obeyed his suggestion and sat up, embarrassed that he found her like he had. "I'm sorry...We got home...and it just hit me. You're safe…and the weight just lifted off. I'm fine, really."
He knew she wasn't fine. The state he found her in was something he had never seen before with her. She had been struggling to breathe and he had never seen her cry so hard. It hurt him to see it.
He backed up against the wall of the closet and patted the floor that was between his legs. "Sit here, sweetie."
She moved there, leaning back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, ignoring the burning from his injury. He honestly didn't have any idea what to say to her to make it better but he could change the subject.
"So, I am really looking forward to Jamaica," he whispered, pressing his lips to her temple. "Walks on the beach at night, laying in the hammock, my arms around you."
"I can't wait." She needed it, especially now. She needed to get away from danger and scary things and just be with Jack.
She yawned a moment later and relaxed against his chest, her eyes closing. "Beth, why don't you go to bed?"
"I need to get things done," she mumbled. "Dinner."
"Beth, it's only six thirty in the morning. You have plenty of time."
"Will you stay with me?"
He kissed her cheek and smiled. "Of course I will. I'm going to check on Ma and Dad first though."
He moved back the covers a moment later and she slipped in. He knelt beside the bed for a moment. "I'm sorry, Beth. I'm sorry you were so scared."
She smiled bravely and leaned up to kiss his warm lips. "I love you."
"I'll be right back."
….
A few hours later, Beth got up, leaving Jack in bed. It was ten am so she had three to four hours before she needed to put the turkey in the oven. She had to clean however. She needed to start the dishwasher, clean the bathroom, and declutter the living room. The only issue was, her head was hurting and she was congested from the crying and her eyes were puffy and red. She honestly just wanted to stay in bed with Jack but duty called.
When she got to the kitchen, the dishwasher was going and Charlotte was washing the counters.
"Hi."
"Hi, sweetheart. Did you sleep?"
"Yeah." Beth wished she didn't look terrible. It was obvious she had been crying and if asked about it, she might start again.
"Good." Charlotte put her arm around Beth's shoulder, pressing a kiss to her temple. "Now, I'm assuming with the amount of food that is in your refrigerator that you are hosting Christmas dinner."
"Yes, would you like to stay?"
"We can't. We are going to spend it with Tommy, Julie, and Lane. However, I would like to help. We don't leave for another hour. So put me to work!"
So she did. Charlotte offered to make a pumpkin pie and Beth let her do that while she cleaned a bit.
Tom joined her in the living room as she tidied up. "Hi, sweetie. You doing ok?"
"Of course, why?"
She could feel his eyes watching as she cleaned. If she looked him in the eye, she would break down. The man, along with Jack, had the power to bring on her emotions with just a kind word or a touch.
"Beth."
"Tom, please, if I look at you now, I'm going to cry again and I don't want to." He put his hands on her shoulders.
"There is nothing wrong with that, honey."
"I'm supposed to be strong. Crying doesn't show strength."
He gently turned her and pulled her into his arms as she broke down. "It doesn't mean you're weak either. It means you love him. That you were scared."
"I've never been more scared."
"I want you to know something, Beth."
"I already know." She pushed away, not wanting to talk about what he was going to say. "I know that if something happened to Jack," she said, her voice cracking. "That you would take care of me."
"We would, yes, of course, but I was just going to say that we love you and we are very proud to call you our daughter."
"You really need to stop saying such wonderful things. My eyes are never going to recover," she said with a laugh.
He laughed too and hugged her again. "Sorry, Beth."
….
Jack woke up in time to say goodbye to his parents. Once the door was shut and locked, he went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee.
Beth was staring into the sink. "Honey?"
"Hmm?"
"You made pie?"
"No, your Mom did."
"Pumpkin. You don't like pumpkin, Beth."
"No, I don't. But you do."
"Yes and I really don't think I can eat a whole pie."
"Leftovers?"
He turned her and squinted. "Let's see, Julie, Tom and Lane came for Christmas Eve lunch and my parents came for Christmas Eve Eve dinner…so that means the only ones I haven't seen yet would be William and Grace." She kept her expression neutral and innocent. "Is that right, Beth?"
"Technically yes."
"So is the giant turkey in the fridge and this pie, and those potatoes and stuffing for dinner with your parents?"
She kissed his cheek and left the room without confirming.
An hour later, she cleaned the turkey and put butter and sage under the skin and slipped it into the roasting pan before putting it in the oven.
Then she felt Jack walk up behind her and nuzzle her neck, his hands inching around her waist. "Merry Christmas, baby."
"Merry Christmas." She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. Before she knew it, they were swaying and dancing to the quiet sounds of their condo.
"How long?"
"What?"
"Before your parents get here?"
She looked at the clock. "Two hours."
"Thank you, Beth, for making this a perfect Christmas. Having our family here has really helped me."
"Its perfect because we are here together," she whispered, her forehead resting on his. "I hope it's always like this."
"Next year, maybe we will be in Silver Pines, in our own house, with a baby."
"I hope so."
"I think we need to increase our odds of having that baby," he said with a smirk, pulling her by the hand toward their room.
"I'm good with that."
….
Hope Valley….
Julie held Tom's hand as they drove to the lake house. Charlotte mentioned making a ham with garlic mashed potatoes and a cherry pie for dessert so they jumped on that.
"Mamamama," 10 month old Lane babbled from the back seat.
"Hi, sweetie. Mama loves you."
She smiled when she heard him blowing bubbles and shaking his toys around. He was a happy baby, rarely ever cried anymore.
"Jules, I think we should get married this June coming up."
"I'd love to, sweetie, but we need to make sure you have a full time job, or me, first right?"
"I will. My boss told me that I'm guaranteed a position once I graduate, with a significant raise in pay because I'll have that degree. That comes with benefits."
"That's great."
"So, June? Maybe the end of the month?"
Both of their graduations will be done so it made sense. "Where will we live?" she wondered.
"We can get an apartment." Tom noticed Julie looking out the window. "Julie? Is June too soon? I mean, we've waited a long time. I thought you'd want to do it sooner rather than later."
"Its scary, you know?"
"What is?"
"Being an adult, a mom, a wife."
"Life is scary sometimes, but we have each other. We can finally be together, raise Lane by ourselves."
"What about my job?"
"Which? The store or at the pharmacy once you graduate?"
"Both. I mean, are you going to allow me to keep working?"
"Allow you? I'm not going to control you, Julie. You aren't my child. You can work if you want to work."
"Are we gonna have more kids?"
"I'd like to. What's going on? Why all the questions?"
"Tom, we haven't talked about a lot of these things. We need to before we get married."
He kissed her hand and squeezed it. "We will. I promise. But tonight, let's just enjoy Lane's first Christmas, okay?"
"Sure. Of course."
…..
While Charlotte made dinner and Tom Sr. played with Lane, Tom and Julie headed out on the deck to watch the sunset.
They snuggled up on the bench and Tom took her hand, deciding to bring up the future anyway. "I love you, Julie."
"I love you too."
"Where do you want to live?"
"An apartment makes sense so we can save money to buy a house. And I do want to work to help save and I eventually want more kids, just maybe not right away."
"You're so cute when you babble," he told her with a kiss on her forehead. "Did I scare you by wanting to set a date?"
"Maybe. I guess I like how things are and setting a date means things will change."
"For the better. Julie, I want to marry you. It's hard for me to live in the same house with you and raise Lane but not be with you, as your husband. I'm so grateful to your parents for letting me move in but I feel like I can't be completely forthcoming with you or show you how I feel without them being there. I don't know if I'm making sense or not."
"You're cute when you babble too." She kissed his cheek. "We are alone now, you know, if you wanted to show me how you feel," she flirted, playing with a button on his shirt.
He turned slightly and covered her lips with his, kissing her without reserve.
"Ahem," Charlotte said from the door to the deck. "Um sorry, but dinner is ready."
Julie blushed, biting her bottom lip. "We will be in shortly."
"June?" he asked again.
"Yeah. Sounds good."