"Good morning, Elizabeth. I have an urgent telegram for you," Mr Yost called out to Elizabeth in the street. She was on her way to Abigail's.

"Thank you, Mr Yost," she replied.

Elizabeth changed course from Abigail's to the General Store. She walked quickly up the stairs and into the store, sensing the urgency in Mr Yost's voice.

Jack saw Elizabeth dart into the store and tried to call out to her but she was already inside. He decided to follow.

"Here you are, dear," Mr Yost said handing Elizabeth the telegram.

Elizabeth, I hope this reaches you before I do. We need your help. Love Julie

"Mr Yost, when does the stage arrive?" Elizabeth asked, worried.

"It should be here any time now. Is everything alright?"

"I...I'm not sure."

Elizabeth turned to leave. She nearly ran into Jack as she went to go out the door.

"Oh, Jack," she inhaled sharply.

"Elizabeth? What's wrong?"

"This," she replied holding out the telegram to him.

"Julie?" he asked, confused. "What does this mean? Who needs your help? I didn't think your parents had heard from Julie since she ran away."

"They haven't, Jack. I'm worried."

Jack saw the concern in her eyes. He put his hand on her cheek and pulled her closer to him.

"It's going to be okay, Elizabeth. I'm here for you."

Elizabeth smiled. Suddenly, she felt calmer. Reassured. She placed her hand on top of Jack's.

No sooner than she did, they heard the sound of horses approaching. The stage was arriving.

Jack and Elizabeth hurried towards the stage. Just as they arrived a woman's leg emerged from the door of the coach.

"Julie? Oh my...Julie?"

Elizabeth covered her mouth when she saw the sight of her sister standing before her with a swollen abdomen.

"Oh, Elizabeth, please don't look so cross. I realize this might look bad, but I assure you, it's not as it seems."

"Julie Thatcher! How can this not be as bad as it seems?"

"Well, for one thing...I'm not Thatcher anymore," Julie replied, smiling.

"Tom?" Jack exclaimed as his brother emerged from the stagecoach and put his arm around Julie.

"Hey, Jack. Look, we can explain..."

Before a crowd gathered around, Jack wisely corralled everyone to Abigail's. There, Elizabeth sat down by her sister on the couch with a cup of coffee Abigail had poured for her. Her head was spinning.

"Please explain all this, Julie."

"When I ran away from home, I followed Tom."

Seeing Jack's eyes flare, she quickly added, "He tried to tell me to go home. He told me that I shouldn't be there and that I should go back to my parents."

"I see that you weren't persuaded," Elizabeth said flatly.

"I wasn't. I took a room in town and when it was clear Tom wasn't going to change his mind anytime soon, I got a job," Julie replied.

Elizabeth coughed, nearly choking on her coffee.

"You got a job?"

Julie nodded.

"I spent enough time here with Abigail that I picked up a few things," Julie insisted, a little hurt that Elizabeth had such little faith in her.

"Like what, Julie? What skills could you have possibly learned in the few weeks you spent in Hope Valley that qualified you to hold a job?" Elizabeth asked sternly.

Julie couldn't hide the hurt in her eyes. Tears started to form. Elizabeth noticed.

"Julie, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you, but you have never displayed any sign of domestic skills that would make me think you would be qualified for manual labor."

"I realize that, Elizabeth, but I was simply doing what I had to do. I was being strong like you."

Elizabeth smiled and touched her sister's cheek, wiping a stray tear.

"What sort of job did you find, Julie?"

"I was a waitress. There was a restaurant in town. Tom would come in every couple of days and pretty soon he realized I wasn't leaving and I wasn't giving up."

"After a couple of months, we decided we might as well get married," Tom added.

"You might as well get married? That's an incredibly stupid reason," Jack added, exasperated.

"Jack," Elizabeth chided softly.

"I didn't mean it like that, Jack," Tom replied, looking hurt. He insisted, "We did think this through. I had a good job. Julie wasn't going home and she had a good job. We had a good life. We were going to be happy."

"Tom, I appreciate all that, but that doesn't explain what you're doing here now. If everything was going so well, why did I get a telegram from Julie that you needed help," Elizabeth asked.

"Well, we certainly weren't planning a baby this soon after getting married. We hoped to have a year or two on our own," Julie smiled.

"Don't misunderstand," Tom pleaded. "We were very happy about the baby. It was still going to be fine. Things would be tight, especially when Julie couldn't work anymore, but we were saving up."

He took a deep breath and Julie touched his arm. Tom swallowed hard and tears began to form in Julie's eyes again.

"There was an accident in the quarry," Tom continued. "Several men were killed. I was lucky. I had been sent into town for supplies when the accident happened."

"But the quarry was damaged severely. They aren't going to reopen it. We didn't know what to do...or where to go," Julie explained with tears in her eyes.

"Well, you did the right thing," Jack replied, his whole demeanor much changed from moments earlier. "We'll help however we can. I'll talk to Lee when he gets back from the honeymoon, Tom. Maybe he could use you on his crew."

"And I am certain Julie could help out around here," Abigail, who had been trying to be invisible through this whole thing finally chimed in.

"That would be great, Mrs Stanton," Tom smiled. He turned to Jack. "Thank you, too, Jack. I really appreciate...I mean I was trying to...to make you proud."

Jack put his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"I know, Tom. I am proud of you. I'm happy for you and Julie, too. But I hope you're ready to deal with the consequences of what you two have done. The Thatchers will be very upset."

"We know," Julie said softly.

"But at least they are a stagecoach ride away," Elizabeth said.

Julie and Tom looked at her with a puzzled expression.

"I think she's trying to say that you'll have a closer problem to deal with," Jack said grinning.

"Yoo hoo, Abigail. I got your message to come over right away," Charlotte called as she came in the front door of Abigails. They were all gathered in the back, so she couldn't see the group that awaited her arrival.

"Was that..." Tom began. He turned as the curtain opened, revealing the answer to his question. "Mom?"

"Thomas Thornton, is that you? What on Earth are you doing here?" Charlotte asked surprised. She plowed her way to her youngest son and wrapped him in a bear hug. She smiled as she looked him over from top to bottom.

"Let me look at you, baby boy."

Charlotte fussed over him for several minutes before realizing he was not alone.

"And who is this young woman?" Charlotte asked, noticing Julie for the first time.

Tom smiled and put his arm around his bride.

"Mom, this is Julie. She's my wife. Julie this is my mother Charlotte."

Charlotte looked at Jack. She searched his eyes for some confirmation that all this was true.

"Mom, you remember me telling you about Elizabeth's sister Julie. She followed Tom to Fort Mitchell and they got married."

Charlotte took a deep breath.

"Welcome to the Thornton family, Julie," she said wrapping her arm around Julie's shoulders. "A family that is apparently growing heartily as of late."