AN:

This is my April contribution to the black hole characters (#hsblackhole) just in time for Mays topic!

Thanks for reading as always.

Jillian

Elizabeth moved the papers around on her desk, not looking at them but needing to do something with her hands. She was stalling. She knew it. She should have been on her way home, but instead, she was sitting behind her desk in the schoolhouse, hoping that Nathan Grant would notice the door to the schoolhouse was open and stop on his way home from rounds. It would be natural for him to walk her home to collect and collect his daughter Allie, who was babysitting for her son, Jack. Once they were at her house, inviting him inside for a cool drink or a snack would be the polite thing to do.

Elizabeth knew she had to do something about her relationship with Nathan to resolve this stalemate they had reached. She had hoped Nathan still had feelings for her, but despite it being months since her break up with Lucas, she still didn't know. After Lucas was shot by an unknown assailant, she had been busy visiting him in Capital City, making sure her ex-fiancé and newly elected Governor would make a full recovery. Once they knew he would be all right, she returned to Hope Valley and teaching her students. She hadn't been able to talk to Nathan before he was called away as part of the Mountie team assigned to find and apprehend the person responsible for shooting Lucas.

It had taken four months, but Nathan was finally home. Since his return, life had thrown them together on numerous occasions, but still, she danced around how to tell him how she felt, unsure of his feelings. Sometimes, she thought he had sought her out, finding excuses to see and talk to her, but their conversations didn't move them forward.

Jack, her deceased husband, had been her first love, and she had loved him deeply. She had loved Lucas, too; he had made her feel safe and secure. Her relationship with Lucas had healed her broken heart, helping her to put the shattered pieces back together. Unfortunately, when her heart was whole again, it didn't belong to Lucas. It belonged to her ... and to Nathan if he still wanted it.

Elizabeth looked up as she heard footsteps outside, crunching on the gravel at the foot of the stairs. She listened intently and realised she could hear two foot pairs of feet. She felt disappointed that it wasn't Nathan and sighed in frustration, wondering who it could be outside. Curious, Elizabeth stood and walked toward the open front door.

As she stood in the doorway, peering out, she frowned momentarily before her face lit up with a brilliant smile.

"Oh, my goodness," she exclaimed, rushing down the stairs toward the couple waiting at the bottom, smiling up at her. "What are you two doing here? When did you get back? I didn't know you were coming?"

Wyatt Weaver laughed at Elizabeth's rapid-fire questions and glanced at the young woman beside him.

"Do you want to explain, Gem?" he asked in his usual soft voice with a broad smile lighting up his face.

"Wyatt asked me to marry him, and we decided that we wanted to come home and get married in Hope Valley, where we met," Gem exclaimed, holding her left hand out to Elizabeth, showing off her stunning aquamarine and diamond engagement ring. "We wanted to tell you our news and thought we'd find you here."

"Congratulations to you both!" Elizabeth exclaimed, delighted for the two of them. She beamed as she remembered their first meeting when Wyatt escorted his younger siblings to school. Wyatt wasn't a student, having finished school three years earlier at only twelve years of age. From the moment Gem saw Wyatt, she had been besotted, and Elizabeth had been pleased to know that he had returned those feelings.

Elizabeth knew there was something extraordinary about Wyatt the first time she met him. She had been teaching her students about the phonograph, and when she asked if anyone knew how it worked, Wyatt answered. She discovered Wyatt was a genius. It had broken her heart knowing he had no choice but to spend his days working underground in the mine, unable to continue his studies. As the oldest child, he needed to provide for his mother and younger brothers because their father deserted them.

Elizabeth hadn't had to worry about Wyatt working in the mines for too long. Shortly after he started, he noticed the mine air was difficult to breathe, especially for the older men. After reviewing the information in one of Elizabeth's physics books, he designed and built a prototype of a fan that would circulate the air in the mine and allow the miners to breathe more easily underground. He had shown Elizabeth his design, and she had contacted her father's patent attorney; the rest had been history. One of her father's associates funded building the fan on a much larger commercial scale, paying Wyatt for the design blueprint. Wyatt and his family had remained in Coal Valley for several months until his mother moved them away to live with her sister in Hamilton, where Wyatt could attend university and continue working on his design projects. Wyatt had also secured a position working for Elizabeth's father, who had recognised his potential and didn't want to risk losing his skills to a competitor.

Elizabeth had expected Gem to be heartbroken when Wyatt moved away, and she was, but the two of them kept in touch by letter and later by telephone. As soon as Gem finished school, she moved to Hamilton, too. Elizabeth arranged for her to stay with her aunt while attending business college. After graduation, Gem secured an administrative role at the hospital in Hamilton and she and Wyatt began courting.

"I can't wait to hear all about your engagement and what the two of you are up to. How long are you staying in Town?"

Wyatt glanced at Gem, reaching out to take her hand with a shy smile. "We are here until the wedding. I reached out to Pastor Canfield, and he said he would be happy to marry us, but he wants to talk to us both first." Wyatt frowned. "He said he wanted to be sure this was the right thing for us. He wanted to make sure we understood what we were doing, even though we told him we did."

Elizabeth pressed her lips together, trying to hold back her smile. Wyatt, while a genius, sometimes struggled to understand emotions. She remembered Wyatt's confusion over his mother's tears when he showed her his prototype fan, and Elizabeth had to explain to him that tears didn't always mean sadness; sometimes, tears meant someone was happy.

"I'm sure you will enjoy spending time with Joseph leading up to the wedding; he is wonderful. Besides, this will give you time with family and old friends." Elizabeth turned to Gem and asked, "I bet your mother is pleased you are home."

"She is Mrs Thornton, and I am excited to catch up with everyone, especially Rachel. I can't remember the last time we were home at the same time."

Elizabeth smiled, thinking of her previous student, Rachel Stonehouse. Rachel had also been a student her first-year teaching in Coal Valley, just as Gem had been. While she loved all her students, those children who had been there with her as she established herself in Coal Valley were special to her. It was as though they had all been on a similar journey; her, finding her feet in the frontier town away from Hamilton and them, finding their new normal after the mine disaster had changed their lives forever.

Rachel Stonelake and Gem Fisher had always been close friends; all her students from that first year had been and remained so. Elizabeth always wondered if the shared tragedy of losing their fathers made their connection tighter than usual. Rachel and Gabriel Montgomery were like Gem and Wyatt, childhood sweethearts. Elizabeth hadn't heard of any engagement between them but wondered if that would change when they were home again.

"And you, Wyatt, who are you looking forward to seeing? Besides your family, who I am sure will come for the wedding?" Elizabeth asked.

"I am looking forward to seeing Gabe and Rachel again. I see Bo all the time, but it will be nice for us to be here together again."

Bo was another of her students. Different from Wyatt in many ways but similar in others. Bo had reading difficulties and struggled to learn. Once she had been able to understand his issues, Elizabeth was able to help him. Despite his difficulties in reading, he had always been skilled at understanding how things worked, and he and Wyatt formed a close friendship and later a working relationship in Hamilton. Bo was another success story as far as she was concerned. He was a young man who finally found his niche in life and became a success, escaping the mine and the teasing from some of his classmates.

"It's going to be wonderful." Glancing at Wyatt Gem said, "we have to head back to Town now, I am meeting my mother at the Café. We just wanted to say hello and tell you, our news."

"I am happy you did, and I am so happy for the two of you." Elizabeth reached out and hugged them both quickly. "I look forward to hearing more about your plans as you decide."

"Thank you, Mrs Thornton," Wyatt said, stepping back and letting Gem linger in the hug a moment longer.

"I was worried about telling you at first; my mom told me about you and Mr Bouchard…" Gem whispered, clearly reluctant to mention Elizabeth's broken engagement.

"No. Gem, I always want to hear happy news from the people I care about. Besides, Mr Bouchard and I are much happier now than we would have been if we had gone ahead with the wedding." Elizabeth meant every word she said. For several reasons, they would have been miserable if she had married Lucas.

As she released Gem, she caught a flash of red from the corner of her eye and saw Nathan walking toward Town. Glancing over, she saw him pause and, seeing her occupied with people, decide not to intrude. He raised his arm, waving before walking toward the row houses.

"Is that the Town Mountie?" Gem asked. "My mother said he is very nice."

"Yes, Constable Nathan Grant," Elizabeth replied. "Your mother is right, Gem; he is very nice."

Elizabeth could see the two of them studying Nathan. Her earlier students had a lot to do with her husband, Jack, and she didn't blame Gem and Wyatt for being curious about the man who replaced him after his death.

Elizabeth hadn't realised she had been staring at Nathan until Wyatt cleared his throat, getting her attention.

"Is he as good a Mountie as Mountie Thornton?" Wyatt asked quietly.

Elizabeth felt her cheeks grow warm under his scrutiny. "He is an excellent Mountie and... a wonderful man. The Town is lucky to have him." Elizabeth paused, "So am I; he has become a close friend. Allie, his daughter, is wonderful with Jack; they are very close, too."

Gem smiled, "I hope we get to meet him and Allie while we are here, I would love to see Jack as well. I am sure he has grown so much."

"He has," Elizabeth agreed. "Let me get my things, and I will walk back to town with you."

Returning to her desk, Elizabeth quickly gathered her things and returned to the young couple. They chatted about the wedding plans as they strolled back to Town. Elizabeth was delighted to see how happy the two of them were.

'Wyatt's proposal was so romantic, Mrs Thornton," Gem said, her voice full of love. "And my ring is engraved. It says, 'not easily forgotten.'

Elizabeth tilted her head, curious about where that saying had come from. Gem quickly explained it was one of the first things Wyatt had said to her. When she reminded him of her name in their second meeting, he said he remembered it was Gem, a precious stone not easily forgotten. Elizabeth sighed in delight. Wyatt might not always understand emotions, but he got the important things right.

As they approached her home, she saw Nathan standing outside the row house, chatting with Allie and Jack, smiling, and laughing as they told him about their day.

"Mommy!" Jack called as he spotted Elizabeth approaching.

Elizabeth, Gem, and Wyatt all smiled at his exuberant greeting. Elizabeth waved as she called out 'Hello' in reply.

Allie had turned toward her when Jack called out, and she smiled and waved in greeting. Nathan turned slowly to face her, his smile growing wider at the sight of her, his eyes lighting up.

Butterflies swarmed Elizabeth's stomach as Nathan's eyes found hers, and she felt an answering smile light up her face. She knew she wasn't being very subtle but couldn't help it. Nathan made her smile, and she wanted him to understand how wonderful it felt to come home to the three of them.

"What is it, Wyatt?" Elizabeth asked, turning to face him as she heard him chuckle.

"Tears can mean happiness or sadness, but a smile like that always means something good."

Elizabeth laughed, remembering giving him similar advice, "I hope so, Wyatt. I truly hope so."