AN: Okay, here we are with another chapter! I know that we left off at a rather tense point, so I'll get right to it!
From upstairs at Abigail's, they could hear the sounds of the party loud and clear, but they seemed to fall silent as they settled into the room, and tried to figure out just what was wrong. Jack quickly helped her out of her dress, and she pulled aside her silky camisole to look at the stretched skin of her belly.
"I don't know what's wrong, it all happened so fast!" Elizabeth cried. Jack settled her onto the bed, and made quick work of removing her shoes and stockings, trying to help her get as comfortable as possible. "Jack, what if-"
"Hey. Everything is going to be fine." He insisted.
"But-"
"Nope. Elizabeth, you're going to be okay. You both are." He insisted.
"Oh Jack!" She cried, and wrapped her arms around his neck, holding him fast. He rested his forehead against hers. She leaned back suddenly, her face twisting in pain. "Mmm! Ow, ow, ow!"
"It's alright." Jack said, allowing her to grip his shoulders like a vice.
"It's too early for this to be labor, but what else can it be?" She sobbed, and collapsed against his chest. Her tears were effectively ruining the vest he was wearing, a fault that even Rosemary would have been able to forgive, given the circumstance. "I'm going to lose the baby!"
"No! You aren't." Jack insisted, pressing kisses to her hair. "Elizabeth Thornton, you are the strongest woman in the entire world, and whatever this is, you're going to come through it just fine. And so is she."
"You called it a girl!" Elizabeth said, almost tenderly.
"I did. I've been thinking about it, and you're right. It's going to be a girl." He said softly as he brushed tears off of her cheeks. "And she's a fighter too. She's going to be as strong as her mother, and just as beautiful. So don't you give up on her now."
"Never!" Elizabeth insisted, holding him impossibly closer. "I'll never give up on her." He smiled, and the door swung open.
"I fetched the doctor!" Abigail said as they entered, both a bit out of breath.
"Oh Doctor Ryan!" Elizabeth gasped. "Something isn't right!"
"Now now Mrs. Thornton, don't you worry. I'll do a quick examination, if Constable Thornton-"
"I'm not leaving her." He said fiercely, and to confirm his point, she gripped his hand even tighter.
"I was going to say if you'd move to the other side of her." The kindly old doctor said as he moved to open his bags. Jack complied quickly, and Abigail quickly came to kiss her forehead.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" She asked.
"No- Oh, if you'd get me some water?" Elizabeth said meekly.
"Of course dear. I'll be right back." Abigail said as she ducked out of the room.
"Now tell me Mrs. Thornton, when did you start feeling these pains?" The doctor asked, feeling her stomach.
"Off and on since this morning-"
"Since this morning? Why didn't you say anything?" Jack asked suddenly, his brow creasing.
"I've always got some sort of pain, I'm pregnant." She sighed tremulously. "It really wasn't so bad until very recently."
"And when was the last time you felt the baby move?"
"An hour ago?" Elizabeth frowned. "No, it was more recent than that- it was while we were dancing...Oh goodness, she's usually a lot more active than this- something's wrong Jack, something's wrong!"
"Shh, dear, no use fretting." The doctor said with a kind smile. Abigail entered with the water, and handed it to Elizabeth. "Take a drink." Elizabeth frowned, but complied and took a drink of the icy water. Only mere seconds later, she gasped, and spit out her second mouthful of water as she felt the baby kick rather hard against her ribs. "The baby moved then?"
"Yes- oh thank god!" She sobbed in relief, and Jack smiled at her.
"Now, Mrs. Thornton, you've had a bit of a strenuous pregnancy so far, and it seems there's no rest for the weary." The doctor said. "Have the pains stopped, then?"
"I haven't had one since just before you came."
"Very good. Now, I'm no gambling man, but I'd be willing to bet that this was a false labor. It happens sometimes when an expectant mother spends too long on her feet at such a late stage of the pregnancy." The doctor said. He pulled his stethoscope around, and placed it on her stomach. "Very good, a strong heartbeat! Just what we like to hear. Now, provided the pains have stopped, I don't see why you shouldn't be alright with some bedrest." Elizabeth frowned. "I know you must be tired of hearing that word by now, but you must think for your own health, and your child's health. Sometimes, women just have a rough go at a pregnancy, but that's no indication of a larger problem."
"Thank you, Doctor." Elizabeth said, already letting out a sigh of relief.
"No trouble Mrs. Thornton." He smiled and closed his bag. "Now, Constable Thornton, if she has any more pains, come fetch me immediately. I wouldn't recommend moving her tonight, her body needs a rest, so if Mrs. Stanton has no objections-"
"No, of course not! I'll fetch a few more blankets and pillows to be sure you're comfortable." Abigail said.
"Very good! Now, just rest, drink plenty of water, keep off of your feet, and I'll be by to check on you in the morning." And with a few kind words, and warm thanks, he left.
"Oh Elizabeth, I'm so glad everything is alright." Abigail sighed, and came to kneel next to her. She took her hand, and Elizabeth flushed.
"I'm so sorry to have been so much trouble."
"Are you kidding? You're never any trouble." Abigail said. She squeezed her hand, and went to the closet to pull out some blankets and pillows. "I'm just so glad everything is alright. Is there anything else we can do for you?"
"No, no, I'm alright. Please, just, go back down to the party, have a good time!" Elizabeth insisted as Jack arranged a pillow behind her back. "Oh, hows Cody?"
"I've got him all set up with a big plate of food downstairs. I should probably go talk to him."
"He said something about a sister, when I was with him, before…" Elizabeth sighed. "Jack, he was rummaging through the trash- do you think that maybe he could be the little thief?"
"You know, he just might be." Jack said with a furrowed brow. He was clearly torn between his work, and the desire to stay with his wife.
"It's alright if you want to go talk to him. I promise I'm not going to go anywhere. I'll stay here in bed, I won't even get up to look out the window." Elizabeth said, gently stroking his chin.
"Why don't you stay up here with Elizabeth, Jack? I'll take care of Cody. The boy is all skin and bones- I'll see if I can get him talking. If he's got a sister, I'd imagine she isn't doing so well herself." Abigail sighed. "Again, I'm really glad everything is alright."
"Thanks Abigail. For everything. I really don't know what I'd do without you." Elizabeth sighed. Abigail squeezed her hand, and opened the door. She gasped as Rip bounded past her nearly knocking her off of her feet in his quest to find Elizabeth. The dog sniffed her hand, and then hopped onto the bed and laid his head protectively on her knee. "Well, it looks like someone's over his aversion to you!" She laughed. "I'll be back up to check on you when the party is over."
"Thanks Abigail!" Elizabeth called as she closed the door. Elizabeth gently scratched the dog behind the ears, and let out a long sigh. Jack went to caress her belly, and the dog let out a low growl. "Well how do you like that- he doesn't like me, he just is obsessed with the baby! Of course he is, it's your baby, and he loves you!"
"Well, that may be, but he's never growled at me before now!" Jack chuckled. He took off his jacket, and his vest, and draped them over the bedpost before settling next to her. She shifted, and leaned into his side. He did not hesitate to wrap his arms around her, despite the quiet growl Rip let out. "Hey now, Boy, that's my baby and my wife there. No need to be protective, I'm not going to hurt them." Elizabeth laughed, and settled in even closer to him.
"I'm sorry about the scare over a false alarm." She sighed.
"Don't apologize Elizabeth. Never apologize for things like this."
"I was so worried, and you, you were so calm!"
"Calm? Are you kidding? I was terrified." He chuckled.
"Really?"
"Really! Elizabeth, you know that you're everything to me, and when I saw you like that...I was terrified." He admitted, and kissed her forehead. "I guess it was just all of the training kicking in."
"I feel so foolish." Elizabeth sighed. "I made such a fuss over nothing."
"It wasn't nothing Elizabeth. I know you- you hate to have people see that you're in pain. I know that it had to be something serious. It scared me half to death." Jack said. "You had this look on your face...I was scared, Elizabeth."
"Well, actually, I'm glad that I wasn't the only one." Elizabeth laughed breathlessly. She ran her hands over her stomach, and felt the fluttering of life. "You're going to make me stay in bed for the next three months, aren't you?"
"I just might." Jack said. He looked around, and then chuckled.
"What's so funny?"
"I'm in Elizabeth Thatcher's bedroom."
"Oh? Is that new to you? Then, where have you been spending your nights for the last six months?" She laughed, taking his hand, and playing with his fingers.
"That was in Elizabeth Thornton's bedroom, and don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade what happens there for anything, but I would be lying if I said I hadn't imagined what the inside of your room looked like."
"Why Jack Thornton- how scandalous!" She laughed, turning a little pink.
"I love the fact that you still blush. I mean, you're six months pregnant with our baby, we make love almost every day, and yet...all it takes is a few words and you start to blush." He smirked and kissed her warm cheek. She looked at him dubiously. "What? Are you overly scandalized?"
"No...I suppose not." She sighed, and her face turned an even deeper shade of pink. "There were times when I had thought, well, that it would be nice if you were here with me."
"Really?!" He asked, intrigued.
"Now don't say it like that, I never had such...inappropriate thoughts!" She insisted, though the impossible deepening of her blush said otherwise. "Sometimes, I just would think that I missed you, even though I'd just seen you, and wouldn't it be wonderful if you were here with me now? Or I'd be writing things in my journal, and I'd remember something that I'd wanted to tell you, and I wished I could just call over my shoulder to you and you'd be there, ready to discuss it with me. Things like that. Though, I will admit, I did occasionally imagine how it would be to have you in my bed- but not in an intimate way, really! Just...when it was very cold, I thought of how you're always so warm, and I thought I'd like to be able to warm my feet on your calves." She teased, and to prove her point, she lifted her feet and pressed them gently on his legs.
"Well, I'm glad I'm good for something, even if it is only as a bedwarmer." He laughed.
"You're good for a great deal more than that, Jack. You said earlier that I was everything to you- well, you're everything to me. I didn't know it was possible to love someone as much as I love you. And…" She pressed his hand against her stomach, ignoring Rip's glowering, and briefly kissed his cheek. "You've given me the greatest gift I could ever imagine. You've made me a mother. And, you know, before I was pregnant, I always thought that I would have to love you less, to make room in my heart for someone else, but I was wrong. My heart has grown, to an impossible size, and I love you both so much that it aches. When I thought that I was going to lose her...I just felt like I was failing you both."
"Hey- you could never fail me." He insisted. "Even if you had lost- well- even if you had, it wouldn't have been your fault, Elizabeth. But you didn't, and I knew you wouldn't. You're my fighters, the both of you, and any man willing to bet on your failure is a fool." He kissed her deeply, and she sighed and laid her head against his chest. "You should rest. Get some sleep."
"I can't sleep. I'm still too worked up." She grumbled. "Tell me a story."
"What?"
"You heard me, Jack. Tell me a story, talk to me." She laughed. "I love the sound of your voice. It's comforting; you might think it's silly, but when I hear your voice, I know that I'm safe. I know that everything is going to be alright. So please, just, tell me a story."
"Well, how can I say no when you put it like that?" He asked with a smile. "But I'm no good at stories, so I'll just talk. I know we said we'd never talk about this, but you remember the whole Billy Hamilton debacle? Well, I've got to tell you, before we were married, and you kept having all of those fainting spells and pains, that's the most terrified I've ever been." She propped herself up on her elbow and frowned as she looked at him.
"Really?" He nodded. "Explain."
"Well, Elizabeth, I think it's obvious that from the moment I met you, I knew that you were an angel."
"I don't know that that's obvious, Jack. I thought you hated me."
"Hated you? Ha, no, quite the opposite. I thought you were the most beautiful, stubborn, courageous woman I had ever met. Of course, I was still smarting a bit from being left by Rosemary at that time, and I'd decided as well you know, that I was never getting married."
"If the mounties had wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one, yes, I remember." She smirked. It was a funny notion now, resting here in her underclothes in his arms, the swell of her belly, of their child between them, but at the time the words had been spoken, they had stung like a slap across the mouth.
"I'm never going to live those words down am I?"
"Nope." She said, kissing his lips briefly. "Keep going."
"Well, I was determined not to fall in love with you, which was incredibly stupid, because I'd fallen in love with you within the first month of our acquaintance."
"Oh Jack!" She sighed dreamily, kissing him again.
"I'm never going to finish if you keep doing that. Not that I'd complain." He shrugged. She gently slapped his shoulder, and settled back against the headboard. "Well, when Billy Hamilton came around, when I saw him flirting with you, courting you- I'd never been so angry at any man in my life, which is saying something, considering the fact that I work to catch criminals. Now, I didn't know at first that he was doing anything wrong, or that he was even a bad man. He seemed perfectly nice, and you seemed to get along perfectly well with him, but I was so incredibly jealous, that I started looking for something that was wrong with him."
"I'm glad you did! Can you imagine if I'd have married him? Ugh!" She shuddered.
"I did imagine it, Elizabeth. Don't you see, that's why it was so terrifying." She looked at him curiously. "I was terrified that you were going to fall in love with him, and marry him; that I'd have to spend the rest of my life seeing him hold your hand, knowing that he was kissing you, holding you at night. And I was more terrified, because I realized the only reason that would terrify me is because I loved you. I wanted to be the one who got to kiss you, I wanted to come home to you every night, I wanted you to fall asleep in my arms, not his, not anyone else's. I thought I was going to lose you, and you'd never even really been mine."
"Oh Jack!" She kissed him soundly, her fingers twining in his hair. "I want you to know that I never could have married him, never could have given him my heart; because it already belonged to you. Almost from the first day we met, when I realized that you were the most handsome, most brave, most wonderful man in the world! And honestly…" She bit her lip and looked a bit shyly down. "I only took up with Billy in the first place because I wanted to make you jealous. I mean, I did like him afterwards, but originally, All I wanted was to see if you really cared about me."
"Oh Elizabeth, I cared so much!" He laughed, kissing her again, until they were both breathless.
"Do you remember, after our first date at Abigail's, when you told me you had something to discuss with me?"
"Yes?"
"I thought- well, Julie thought, that you were going to propose to me." Elizabeth laughed. "And I thought, no, it's too soon! But then, I thought, how could it be too soon, when I already knew in my heart that I wanted to be with you forever?"
"I wish I'd known what you were thinking that day. I'd have just proposed then and there and saved everyone a lot of heartache." He said, and they laughed.
"I don't know. I don't think we were ready then. I'm glad we had a little more time to grow together, to face our fears together. Don't get me wrong, I think we could have gotten married then, and been perfectly happy, but I think it's better that we waited. It certainly saved us a lot of arguing after the wedding, any how." She smiled.
"Mm. Maybe we should have saved some fights."
"What?"
"Well, I really like the way that we make up now that we're married." He said with an irresistible half smile.
"Hm, well it seems to me that we don't have to fight to do that sort of making up, now do we?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. She kissed him tenderly, and was surprised when he was the first one to pull back.
"Don't get me wrong Elizabeth, I'd love to make up with you right now, but I don't think it's the best idea, considering the fact that you're supposed to be taking it easy? Not to mention the fact that there is a party going on downstairs, and if Rosemary catches wind of your little scare, I wouldn't put it past her to break down the door to see you."
"Oh- right." She blushed again, and cast her eyes down. "And we've got Rip in bed with us, and I can't imagine that would be pleasant for any of us." He laughed at the suddenness of her joke, and kissed her softly, once, twice, three times.
"I love you, Mrs. Thornton." He said, cradling her chin.
"I know." She smirked, kissing him one last time before she settled back down in his arms, and drifted off into a comfortable slumber.
AN: So there it was! I told you everything would be fine! And to make up for the scare, I put in an extra dose of Married Jack and Elizabeth Fluff! I'll try to have the next update up soon- I'm waiting very anxiously for the next episode as well!
Your reviews make me smile! Until the next time, dear readers!