AN: Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate. Happy Sunday to any that don't! For those missing updates on my other stories, I do plan on getting back to them. For now though, this and a couple of drabbles, are what I have been able to manage. Oh, that and starting a contest piece for the contest Eion started for a Nathan/Faith pairing. I know, I don't need another story but I love a good writing challenge and writing Nathan and Faith is a challenge for me. I hope you enjoy this chapter. We find out a little more about Tom's past in this "universe". I also attempted to get a little closer to history with the RCMP. Hope I didn't just much things up worse. LOL!

Happy Reading!

Still holding his nephew, Tom stared after his sister-in-law in shock. Jack always had said that Elizabeth could be feisty. He had even seen a bit of this emotional reaction directed toward Julie but this was the first to have it directed at him. Still angry with his big brother for trying to 'father' him, Tom hadn't responded to the invitation to Jack and Elizabeth's wedding. When he had heard about his brother's death, anger and guilt had kept him from attending the funeral. Anger that his brother had felt compelled to follow in their father's footsteps, even in death. Guilt because he finally recognized and appreciated that his olders brother's actions toward him had been done out of love. Jack had never tried to tell him what to do with his life - his brother had simply wanted him to find something worthwhile to do with his life and keep out of trouble.

After Jack's death, the keeping out of trouble part had seemed even harder.

"You all right, Uncle Tom?"

Tom looked at the little boy he held in his arms. Troubled eyes that reminded him of his brother looked back at him. It was almost as if Jack Sr. was watching him through Little Jack's eyes.

Putting a smile on his face he answered his nephew. "I am just fine, Jack," he assured the boy.

"What did you do to upset, Mama?" Jack asked, looking away from his uncle and into the direction Elizabeth and now Nathan was hurrying off in. Tom was glad that someone was following his sister-in-law as he had a feeling him doing so would only upset her more. Elizabeth needed some time to sort through her feelings before she would be able to hear anything he said.

"I think seeing me in this uniform was a bit of a shock to her, Jack," Tom told his nephew.

"That's the understatement of the year," Bill muttered beside him. Tom chose not to bring attention to the musing as he knew the judge was probably right. Bill had wanted to break the news to Elizabeth before he came to town, but Tom had wanted to be the one to tell Elizabeth - just not like this.

Jack looked down at the uniform his uncle was wearing. "It's like Daddy's but the wrong color."

Tom chuckled. "The Mounties are in the process of changing uniforms. I guess they thought they wouldn't give the bad guys such an easy target."

Jack looked from Tom to Gabriel. "I like the red," he pronounced getting a chuckle from all four men.

"Let's get the two of you settled," Bill said when the laughter subsided. "I got an extra bedroom in my apartment that one of you can stay in. Gabriel also got some of the men to finally empty the living quarters, of this place," he said, point his thumb over his shoulder at the building behind him. "Seems the mining company had used it for storage of things that were no longer being used for one reason or another. No one ever bothered clearing it out but with more Mounties in town, it seemed like a good time."

"And this sling seems to make people so much more willing to help," Gabriel commented, a smirk on his face. "Wasn't much more I could do than supervise with only one good arm."

Tom and Harold chuckled at the comment.

"Well, I have a feeling it is no coincidence that my first assignment is Hope Valley, so I will make Judge Avery and my mother happy and board with him," Tom said, looking at his training officer. "Besides, I have a feeling you would pull rank for your own place anyway, sir."

"The kid picks up on things fast, Judge," Harold commented. "I'll give him that," the man said with a wink at the younger Mountie.

"Frankly, I didn't put much hope in him graduating," Bill admitted. "I told his mother that the most I was hoping for was to teach him a little respect for rules and regulations and some self-discipline."

Tom noticed the apologetic look on the older man's face and spoke up before Bill could say anything else. "I knew that going into the academy," he admitted. "I overheard you and my mother talking. I know the two of you didn't intend for that conversation to reach me, but that and my mother telling me that at least Jack and my father died doing something worthwhile with their life is what pushed me to actually put an effort in at the academy. So, thank you."

"You're welcome," Bill replied holding out his hand. As Tom took it, the man spoke again. "I am proud of you and your father and brother would be as well. I hope your mother has told you that."

Tom smiled at the words. Though the older man's words were gruff, there was no mistaking the emotion behind them.

"She did at my graduation," Tom assured him as he let go of Bill's hand. "She also told me to fulfill my contract and then take what I learned and apply it elsewhere," he admitted, casting a sheepish look at his two fellow Mounties.

"Given what Charlotte Thornton has already sacrificed in the name of the force, no one will blame her for that attitude," Gabriel replied.

"And as long as you give your all while in that uniform, no one will condemn you for doing just that, Tom," Harold assured him.

"Yes, sir," Tom said. He looked down at Jack. "In the meanwhile, I get to watch this one grow up for a little bit. Are you going to like having Uncle Tom around for at least the next six months?"

Jack's head started bobbing before he said an excited "yes."

With that settled, Gabriel picked up Harold's ruck sack and headed into the RCMP office while Tom handed Jack over to Bill. Then, taking his horse's reigns, he let Bill lead him to the Office of the Judge at the end of the street.

As he followed Elizabeth, Nathan soon realized where she was headed - Jack's land. Given that his wife's emotional reaction was clearly related to her late husband, the direction didn't surprise him. As he knew her direction, he purposely stayed a little behind her after closing the distance between the two of them. Elizabeth was going in the direction her heart needed her to go right now. If she could find solace on Jack's land, then Nathan did not want to be the one who changed her direction.

Reaching the land, Elizabeth headed for the log on which Jack had carved the heart and their initials. Dropping to her knees, Elizabeth folded her arms on the log and hid her head. Seeing her shoulders shake with her tears, Nathan's heart hurt for her. He couldn't imagine what she was feeling right then but he hoped that once she got her tears out she would share with them. Tom had wanted to come see them after he had a chance to change out of uniform. He thought his news would be less shocking in civilian clothes. He had clearly been right on that account. Nathan had been about to go intercept Elizabeth in the mercantile when she had joined them.

If only the timing had been a little better.

Approaching slowly, Nathan sat down on the ground next to her as Elizabeth knelt, weeping. "Go ahead and feel what you need to feel, Elizabeth," he whispered softly as he gently brushed his hand over her hair. "Just know that you are not alone. I am right here, however you need me to be here for you."

Lifting her head from her arms, Elizabeth simple moved to cling to him. On instinct, Nathan wrapped her in his own arm and then settled them both comfortably, allowing Elizabeth to hold on to him. He said nothing for now, letting her cry out her emotions for now while simply offering his strength and comfort.

Eventually, the tears started to lessen, though Nathan could feel the dampness of his shirt. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a clean handkerchief. As Elizabeth lifted her head and shifted in his arms, he handed her the piece of cloth.

"Thank you," she murmured, moving so that she could settle next to him, her back leaning against him.

"Are you ready to talk about it?" Nathan asked softly, gently brushing damp tendrils of hair away from her tear-streaked face.

"I guess you all think I am being over emotional," Elizabeth lamented.

"No, we all figured we were going to get an emotional reaction from you," Nathan told her. "We were making plans for it not to be in the middle of the street, but we weren't quick enough for those plans."

Though Elizabeth's cheeks were already red from crying, Nathan watched as that red deepened. With the arm around her, he pulled her a little closer to his side. "You had less of an audience this time than the time you threw yourself into my arms in the middle of the street," he told her softly.

"I should have never let you go then," Elizabeth said.

"Well, we have each other now, and you and I can sit up here for as long as you need," Nathan told her.

"No, we can't. We have two kids to get back to," Elizabeth said, before suddenly sitting up straight. "Jack! I just ran off and left him."

Nathan gently pulled her back to rest against him. "Relax, it isn't like you just left him some random place. He was with his uncle and Bill and I was also nearby. Bill is going to keep an eye on Jack until you and I go to claim him."

Reassured that her son was safe, Elizabeth leaned back against her husband again.

"It was such a shock to see Tom in that uniform after hearing and seeing first-hand how little respect he had for authority in general and Jack in particular. He and Julie crashed one of Gather's cars in Hamilton. They were going to charge him for theft along with blame him for the accident but Julie was the one driving. I never was sure which one of them came up with their escapades. Julie and Tom's reckless behavior seemed to feed off each other. Jack tried to help him but Tom just pushed him away. I think he may have resented Jack's choice to follow their father's footsteps."

"Perhaps he did," Nathan said. "We all deal with grief in our own way. There is nothing right or wrong about those choices, though some things work better than others. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own grief that we can't see beyond it." He looked down at Elizabeth. Placing a few fingers under her chin, he gently lifted her face to look into her eyes. "Perhaps your own grief is fueling your anger toward Tom. You lost Jack and maybe the thought of losing Tom is just reopening that pain."

"Well the Thorntons don't exactly have a high survival rate with the Mounties," Elizabeth countered.

"You make a good point, but Elizabeth, Tom had his reasons for taking this path. Before condemning him, perhaps you should let him explain things. He wasn't trying to keep this from you. Tom just wanted to be able to tell you in person."

"Well, he could have done that before entering the Mountie Academy."

"Sometimes our lives move in ways we don't expect so quickly that there is no way to give people prior warning. Our marriage probably came out of the blue to many in our family," he reminded her.

"Just like my union to Jack, marrying you is one of the things I will never regret."

"I am glad to hear that," Nathan told her, a smile on his lips as he brushed a quick kiss to her lips. "And I am here for you no matter how you need to vent your feelings about the current situation but Beth, perhaps you could cut Tom and Harold a little slack. Tom cares for you and Little Jack. As for Harold, that poor guy is probably wishing he had taken the office job they had told him he would get if he refused the Hope Valley posting. He had a feeling you seeing him would stir up old memories, but they wanted him to train Tom and I got the feeling Bill wanted Tom nearby. It is never easy having to deliver the news of a death to a loved one, I know that from personal experience, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth nodded, wrapping her arms around him as she rested her cheek against his coat. "I will try but I don't think I can face either one of them again tonight."

"Fair enough," Nathan told her. "But can I get you home and out of the cold and then I will go into town for our son, groceries and poor Cosmo, who probably thinks we abandoned him."

Elizabeth's cheek moved up and down against his coat. Nathan placed a kiss on the top of her head and then helped her get to her feet, noting that her arms never loosened their hold on her. He was relieved. He would much rather have her clinging to him rather than pushing him away.

Tom straightened his tie as he looked in the mirror of his toiletry kit that he had on the dresser of the second bedroom in Bill's apartment. Though Nathan had informed him that Elizabeth wasn't quite ready to see him again when he had come for Jack, Tom had still gotten a dinner invitation. As Nathan had opened the door to leave, Rosemary had breezed past him into the apartment. The fact that neither Nathan nor Bill seemed phased by the entrance had told Tom that Rosemary Leveaux had not changed a bit despite changing her name and becoming a mother. As Nathan had left, his brother's one-time fiance had invited him to supper, an invitation that Tom had happily accepted.

Looking at the still crooked tie, Tom quickly undid it. He never had been able to figure the stupid things out. Whenever he wore one, someone always ended up fixing it when he arrived. The last time it had been Elizabeth before he had walked her down the aisle to marry that Bouchard fellow, something he had regretted now. However, after boycotting his own brother's wedding in anger, Tom felt he owed it to Jack to be there for his widow in his absence. He had thought he was doing a good thing. Perhaps the fact that both Elizabeth's father and Bill had refused to come to that wedding should have been the warning sign he had needed. Instead, he had walked his sister-in-law down the aisle to a very unhappy life. That had been all too clear when he had come to Hope Valley with the intention of seeing Elizabeth and Jack back in March. However, he never had visited. Approaching the house he had heard a man's voice shouting within. When the door had opened, Tom had ducked behind a tree unsure of who was coming outside. It had been Elizabeth, and the tears and the red mark on her cheek had told Tom all he needed to know about what had taken place indoors.

Tom had stayed behind that tree until Elizabeth had gone inside and then he had fled. That was the life he had given Elizabeth away to. In his mind, it didn't matter that it had been Elizabeth's choice to marry Bouchard. By going to the wedding and giving her away, it felt like he had condoned what was happening. He had failed to look out for his brother's widow and son. The guilt, which he had thought he had moved past, of how he had spurned his older brother's attempts at helping him stay out of trouble came flooding back. Feeling as though all he would ever be was a failure, Tom had fled instead of helping. Even as he had taken that first drink in the Buxton saloon, Tom had felt Jack's disapproving eyes on him. By the end of that first drink, Tom could imagine their father had joined Jack with watching him. Even death had not let him escape their condemnation.

Turning from the mirror, Tom cast the silky, offensive piece of material onto his bed and walked out of the room. Rosemary probably would have laughed at him for showing up in a tie anyway. He remembered tagging along with her and Jack when they were all kids, much to his brother's annoyance.

"If you plan on inspecting my bedroom, there is a tie on the bed," Tom said, when Bill looked up from the papers he was looking at.

"As long as you contain the mess to the bedroom, I don't care what you do," Bill replied evenly.

"Sorry," Tom said, feeling a bit contrite. He would probably still be serving jail time if it wasn't for Bill Avery. "Guess even the instructors at the Academy couldn't take all the rebellion out of me."

"Maybe not," Bill agreed. "However, the academy did mature you, Tom. That much is evident. It's up to you now to maintain the path going through that training set you on. No one is saying that being a Mountie has to be your life, but remember the lessons and values that you learned and you will be a person that those who care about you can be proud of."

Tom nodded, unsure what to say.

"As Rosemary is going to want all the news, I am not going to bother waiting up for you. You have the key I gave you?"

"Yes," Tom replied. He started toward the door leading to the steps down the back of the building but paused after a few steps. Turning back, he spoke again. "I regret what I said in the hospital, Judge Avery. I am grateful that your relationship with Jack was strong enough that it wouldn't let you turn your back on me when I didn't realize just how much help I needed. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Bill replied. "And if ever you want to talk about what led you to that low point, I am willing to listen."

Tom nodded. "Perhaps soon. I think I need to talk to someone else first."

"Fair enough. Try not to let Rosemary talk your ear off," he added.

Tom chuckled. "Rosemary I am used to dealing with," he said, turning and this time heading out of the apartment and down the steps.

Perhaps being in Hope Valley for his probation period wouldn't be so bad after all. Having people he knew nearby was kind of nice. He had never really gotten close to many people after his childhood friend had drowned the night they had graduated from school. That had been the first time Jack had tried to 'father' him. In his grief, Tom had resented it, especially as Nick's death had caused the pain of losing a father he barely knew feel fresh once again. He had thought that if he kept people at arms' length that they couldn't hurt him. Instead, all it had accomplished was to leave a hole inside him that all the 'adventures' and alcohol could never seem to fill.

It wasn't that being at the Academy had filled that hole. It was still there. He could feel it, though it didn't seem quite so big and overwhelming now. Hearing stories about his Dad and Jack while at the Academy had helped him establish a sense of family pride. His mother had been right. When his Dad and Jack died, they left behind a legacy with the lives they had lived. The only stories people would share if he were to die, would be about how much of a pain in the butt he had been. However, he was a part of the legacy that Tom Thornton Sr. And Jack Thornton had left behind. He wanted to be a worthy part of that and perhaps leave his own mark behind as well.

Making his way to the livery, Tom tacked-up Coal Dust for his ride out to the Coulter's home for a supper he knew would be full of questions.

AN2: So along with helping me polish this chapter for you, I do have to credit Katie with the "Thornton survival rate" line. It was a good point and it fit well. Thanks for the addition to the story Katie!