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Elizabeth
It's an ache in her heart that has become too familiar as she closes the door behind the handsome Mounty. He comes for dinner every night and she knows it isn't for her cooking, he comes and they eat and then he leaves. She understands why he wants to take it slow, she can sympathize with how it must have felt to walk into that church and see another man kneeling before her but she is so tired of closing the door behind him.
She yearns for a day when dinner will end and they can sit on the settee, her with a book and him a pad of paper and pencil. She can see it so beautifully in her mind. Her toes tucked beneath his muscular legs to keep warm, his shirt loose at the collar and his brow furrowed as he sketches something beautiful. She'll mumble, frustrated or excited by something in her book and he'll brush his hand over her knee his eyes not leaving his sketch because it will all be so familiar so common that he doesn't need to look up to make sure she's alright.
Every single time she closes that door she adds a picture to her dream and it gets more and more difficult to say goodnight, but she absolutely refuses to push him. Elisabeth clears the dishes from the table stacking them on the now cooled stove. She'll clean them tomorrow after school. Heading upstairs her mind wanders again and she can almost feel him climbing the steps behind her, his hand warm and gentle on her hip as they reach the top stair. They reach the top in silence, moving in opposite directions as they prepare for bed it's so routine so comfortable that the ache returns. By the time she crawls beneath the covers she's missing him so much it feels like they haven't seen each other in weeks. She finally falls asleep, imagining what it would feel like to have his steady warmth beside her through the night.
Jack
She closes the door behind him for the hundredth time and he can't move off of her front porch. What is he doing still courting that incredible woman. He wanted her, all of her, for the rest of his life and he was pretty sure she felt the same way. Jack heard the creek of the steps as she made her way upstairs and forced his own feet down the front steps.
The thought of returning to that cold dark empty prison had him shivering so instead he mounted his horse and made his way to that plot of land and the shell of a house he'd begun building in the summer.
Fall had arrived with full force and he had hoped to be a little further along in the building process but with outlaws and runaway sisters it just hadn't been the case. Jack pulled his horse to a stop and sighed. He desperately wanted to be able to move into their own home once they were married but maybe it was more important to just be married. They would be happy anywhere they lived, he knew that deep down so why didn't he just propose already. Frustration pushed him off the horse and up the front steps of the unfinished farm house.
There was a part of him, filled with pride that didn't like the idea of moving into a house that wasn't his. He wanted to show her father that even if it wasn't high society and luxury he could give Elizabeth a life she deserved, a life fit for the daughter of a Tycoon, even in the wild west. There was a part of him that yearned for the approval of her family. A family that was so important to her it had to be important to him as well. Jack chuckled under his breath as he imagined the introduction of his mother to the Thatcher's of Hamilton.
Finally, when the air escaping his chest begins to cause little clouds in front of him, Jack decides to head back to the prison, for a long cold night alone with his Rip.
A/N – I haven't written anything in a really long time but since finding WCTH not too long ago I just can't seem to get the residents of Hope Valley out of my head. This will just be a little what if to fill the gap until season four begins if you enjoyed leave a comment!