The Field of Dreams Chapter 7- Let's Go Steady, a when calls the heart fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters within this story. All rights and much respect go to Crown Media, Hallmark, Brian Bird, Michael Landon, Jr., the actors, creators, and writers of the show "When Calls the Heart." Any real people or places noted in the chapter are just there for storyline purposes.

Chapter7- Let's Go Steady

Recap of Chapter 6 ending…

Pawtucket, R.I….

Jack rushed to get into the shower, wanting to call Elizabeth before it got too late. As he changed, and grabbed his belongings from his locker, he looked around for Donnie, hoping to borrow his phone again.

"Hey Donnie, may I borrow your phone?"

"Sure, it's in my locker…#23."

Jack grabbed his phone, went to a quiet spot outside of the locker room, pulled the card with her number scribbled on it out of his pocket and called her. The phone went immediately to voicemail…

"Hi, you've reached 555-721-1832. I'm sorry but I'm either away from my phone or unavailable at this time. If you would like to leave your name, phone number and a message, I will get back with you as soon as possible. Thanks, and have a great day…BEEP"

Disappointedly Jack began to leave his message…

"Elizabeth, I wish you'd answer the phone, I'd like to talk to you. I had a great game and I wanted to share it with you. Did you get the flowers? It's funny; I thought I left home early enough to get to your place and then back to meet the bus. They almost left me," he laughed. "Although, I've got to admit that I wish I was back in Baltimore with you right now. Please call me; use this number, it belongs to Donnie Hart…remember I left my phone at the motel."

Elizabeth tossed and turned all night, picking her phone up several times to see if by some chance she had missed a call or text, but nothing.

The following morning Elizabeth pulled herself from bed, again checked her phone, and seeing nothing, she went to take a shower.

Pawtucket, R.I….

Jack lay in bed much like a kid at Christmas, doing his best not to wake his parents too early. However, in this case, he glanced over at the other bed and saw no sign of his roommate, Jose Moreno stirring.

Unable to wait any longer, Jack called out, "Jose, can I use your phone?"

Jose made an unintelligible uttering before pointing to the phone on the table.

"Thanks man," Jack stated as he grabbed the phone, slipped on his shorts and flip flops and stepped outside.

Jack stood impatiently as the phone rang, and rang, and rang. After five rings, the voicemail kicked in…

Jack had become frustrated, "I had no idea that it would be so hard to get in touch with you. I really miss you, Elizabeth; I wish I could talk to you. When you get a chance, give me a call back. You can use either this number or the one from yesterday. I'm just using anyone's phone I can grab. We are free today until about 3, so please call me…"

He stepped back inside, and assuming that there was nothing else to do, he slipped back into bed and attempted to sleep.

Now on with our story…

Back in Baltimore…

Elizabeth finished her morning chores, telling herself that she was not going to let the apparent cold shoulder he was giving her ruin her day. However, in her mind all the talking in the world could not change the fact that he brought flowers to her and then dropped off the face of the earth.

It took no time for Elizabeth's mind to resort to images of women in the stands doing their best to gain the player's attention. She knew it happened; she'd seen women at The Park do the exact same thing. Maybe he'd found a cute little number to spend some time with, and in doing so he'd completely forgotten hers.

Elizabeth grabbed a cup of coffee and attempted to sit through a cycle of the morning news. She focused on the screen, but paid no attention to the stories that were being reported. Near the end of the half hour broadcast, she heard, "Good morning, please come back and join me for the Sports Moment…"

Elizabeth drank half of her cup of coffee, and feeling disenchanted with her favorite morning blend she poured the rest into the sink. As she rinsed her cup out, the Sports Report returned.

"Good morning, Bruce Radar here in the newsroom…"

Elizabeth paid no attention to the initial sports cast, but when Bruce rolled the film of the Hawks vs. Paw Sox game from the night before, she was glued to the set. She observed Jack in the outfield, and running bases after his triple. However, she didn't see him lounging by a Jacuzzi with a bevy of beauties feeding him grapes and fanning him with palm leaves as her mind would have her believe.

She grabbed her lunch, turned Lizzie inside and left for work.

Two hours later, while working on gathering the school's final testing scores to turn in, she decided to call Jack one last time. If nothing else, she wanted him to tell her that he didn't want to see her anymore; at least she'd know.

She hesitantly tapped his contact information on her phone and waited for the call to connect. The call immediately shifted to voicemail…

"Hey, this is Jack. I don't have my phone on me or I'm busy but if you leave a message, I call you back just as soon as I can… BEEP"

"Jack, this is Elizabeth. I guess you're enjoying your time with your teammates and don't have time for me. Apparently you aren't hospitalized, so unless you've been teleported to a space ship somewhere and are unable to call, please just lose my number. I'm not into the games… Bye Jack"

Part of her was sad, but a big portion of her emotions came across as anger; anger at being pulled in after she said that it wouldn't happen again.

Sylvia Foster stepped inside Elizabeth's office, "Hey, we're going out to…what's wrong; did you get some bad news?" she asked as she observed Elizabeth wiping her eyes and looking at her phone.

"No, I'm just so tired of these telemarketers calling every day. In the past few days it seems to have increased drastically," she frustratingly remarked. "I block the number and then they just call again using a different number."

Elizabeth placed her phone on the desk before continuing, "I tell you if I want to go back to school, start a new business, or have my roof done, I'm all set. I even got one recently that was a recording inviting me to participate in a revolutionary new erectile dysfunction study," Elizabeth remarked.

"Oh, now that one sounds interesting," Sylvia laughed as Elizabeth joined in. "I tell you what I do; I just block them. I know everyone's phone number that I want to talk to; anyone calls that I don't recognize and I block them."

"I thought the 'Do not call list' was supposed to keep us from getting so many of these annoying calls. But I agree with you; I used to answer them, but if it's a number I don't know I just block it. If I find out that they aren't solicitors I can unblock them later," Elizabeth commented. It was evident that she was frustrated, but at this point her frustration was more so with Jack than with the solicitors.

"Was there something that you wanted?" Elizabeth asked.

"A few of us were going out to get something to eat, but I see you brought yours," Sylvia took her lunch container and placed it back in her little cube refrigerator. "Come on, go with us."

Elizabeth felt the need to get out of the office so she grabbed her purse and phone and started for the door.

"Leave this here," Sylvia stated as she grabbed Elizabeth's phone and placed it back on the desk.

"Where are we going?" Elizabeth asked.

"The girls said something about Ruby Tuesday," Sylvia responded.

"A salad sounds good," Elizabeth replied as she closed her office door behind her.

Pawtucket, R.I….

Jack slipped on his flip flops and walked down to the front desk area to get a bottle of water from the drink machine. As he stood outside, left fielder, Bobby Tillman walked by.

"Hey Bobby, do you have your phone on you?"

Bobby patted his pockets before pulling out his phone and handing it to Jack.

"Thanks; are you going back to your room?"

"Yea, just drop it by when you're done. I'm in #117."

"Thanks man." Jack pulled Elizabeth's number from his pocket and looked for a quiet place to make his call. Finding no such place around him, he walked around to the other side of the building where he found a fenced in courtyard. He stepped through the gate and took a seat at the picnic table.

"Elizabeth…I don't know what's going on, but I'm worried about you. I told you I'd call, I've called, but I keep getting your voicemail. Are you mad at me? Did I do something that I'm not aware of? This is Bobby Tillman's number; please call me back at any of the numbers."

Back in Baltimore…

Elizabeth returned from lunch, checked her phone and found three messages from numbers she didn't recognize. She listened to one of them…

"Hi, this is Susan, and we are just following up on you inquiry about a new mortgage."

Elizabeth immediately blocked the unknown numbers but did so without listening to or deleting the messages.

As she packed up for the day, Elizabeth's phone rang. Glancing down she didn't recognize the number, so she immediately declined the call.

Pawtucket, R.I….

Jack listened to her voicemail for what seemed like the umpteenth time, but chose not to leave a message. He handed the phone back to yet another teammate before climbing up the steps of the bus and taking his seat for the twenty minute ride to the ball park.

Jack did his best to push the confusion he felt out of his head, but he couldn't deny that it had some impact on his game. In four at bats, he had one single, walked twice and fouled out. Although Jack was not completely responsible for how the team performed, it was evident that most of the players were taking their cue from him. The final score…7-2, with the Paw Sox emerging victorious.

It was now Thursday, and the final game in this road trip. Jack sat in the dugout contemplating how on earth a woman had gotten so into his head.

Mookie stepped down into the dugout and took a seat by Jack. "What's wrong, man?"

"Nothing, just thinking about the game."

"Really, because it doesn't seem like your head has been here for a few days. What's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"Did you and Elizabeth have a fight?" Mookie asked to which Jack opened his mouth and the flood waters flowed.

"Mookie, I really like her and I thought we'd gotten to where she realized that I'm not like a lot of the guys playing ball."

"So what did you fight about... or is that too personal?"

"That's just it; I haven't even talked to her. Every time I call I get her voicemail."

Mookie pulled out his phone, "What's her number?"

"555-721-1832…"

Mookie punched in the numbers and waited as the call connected. Instead of ringing, it went directly to voicemail…

"Hmm, I see what you mean. Maybe there's something wrong with her phone."

"I don't know, but I can't get my mind off of her. See you should have let me run home so I could use my own phone before we left."

Knowing that they'd be leaving to return home after the game, Jack tried his best to shelve his concerns and give his best to the team. In five at bats, he struck out once, hit two singles, took a base on balls, and a double. However, when trying to steal third, Jack was tagged out, and the Hawks lost 3-2.

Back in Baltimore…

The bus pulled into the parking lot at 7:30am on Friday morning. Jack slept all the way home, albeit not too comfortably.

Jack was the first player down the steps, but still had to wait for his bag to be pulled from the belly of the bus. He stood around as bag after bag was grabbed and the players jumped into their parked cars, or had wives, girlfriends, or just friends pick them up.

He leaned up against his vehicle as he watched those with girlfriends and wives kiss them "Hello," knowing that several of them were being deceitful, and wondering how anyone could be so deceptive. He now understood why Elizabeth was so cautious.

He wanted to drive to Elizabeth townhouse, hoping to find out what happened. However, he checked his watch and was disappointed when he realized the time and that Elizabeth would have already left for work.

He drove to the motel, threw his bag in the chair, found his phone and immediately plugged it in. He turned on the TV and attempted to pass the time as various scenarios flipped through his head, none of which were pleasant.

With a slight charge on his battery, Jack turned on his phone and immediately saw that he had several calls and voicemails from Elizabeth. He sat on the side of the bed and began to replay them…

"Jack, it's me… Uh, Elizabeth. I just called to thank you for the flowers; they are absolutely beautiful. I can't believe that you drove all the way over here this morning. Lizzie woke me up barking, so I wish I'd known you were here. I would have loved to have seen you before you left. Well, I hate talking to machines, so please call me back when you get back on the bus. Thank you again; the flowers were a lovely gesture."

"Jack, it's me…Elizabeth. I called earlier, but I guess you're busy. Good luck in the game. I won't call anymore, because I don't want to bug you. Bye…"

Jack smiled as he listened to the first message, but by the time the third one finished, he was more panic stricken, "No, no, no, I did call you."

Jack immediately dialed her number, praying that she would answer and give him a chance to explain.

Elizabeth pulled her phone from her purse, Oh so you're back in town and now I'm important enough to call. I don't think so. Get a taste of my answering machine for a change.

Elizabeth wasn't looking forward to seeing Jack this evening. Part of her felt as though she had been "had" by him, and although he never called her, she didn't want him to think that it bothered her, although it did.

She sat down at her desk, pulled her journal from her bag, and attempted to make sense of the many emotions and feelings that seemed at time to be caving in on her…

"Why do we care? When we know someone for a mere blip of time, is it even possible to feel hurt? True hurt, or is it just that no one likes to be played the fool? As the saying goes, 'fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.'

I know the games; I've seen them; I've been hurt by them, and will never be a fan of them. Although I don't willingly play, apparently getting drawn in to them unintentionally does occur. I'm surprised, angry, hurt and confused, but the fact is, he owes me nothing. I'd like to know why all the moves to get close, and then the cold shoulder, but still… he owes me nothing.

No one should be expected to be perfect; just the thought can be exhausting. However, relationships should be based on trust, honesty, integrity and mutual respect. When you have to question whether any of those characteristics remain a priority, it's apparent that you've already gotten your answer.

Truly my judgment is skewed; I thought he was different; I thought this might be different. But a player is a player whose concern is himself. He'll take without worrying about the pain he leaves behind.

As I have always heard, 'Karma is a bitch.' However, those who tempt her don't realize that she is much like a rubber band; you can only stretch and pull it so far before it pops and snaps back at you."

Elizabeth slammed her journal shut and returned it to her bag. She wasn't interested in working tonight, and if she had planned ahead, she would have taken the next few nights off. However, this was a special night at the ballpark for her, so she couldn't back out now.

When she pulled into the parking lot and drove to her spot in the back, Jack was sitting there waiting. She parked several spaces over and did her best not to look at him.

He got out of the car, "Really? Are we in high school Elizabeth? Are you just going to ignore me?"

"No Jack, I'm not going to ignore you, but apparently it was easy enough for you to ignore me. If you were just going to give me the brush off, why bring the flowers? They were beautiful by the way, but that's beside the point."

"Elizabeth, I'm not ignoring you; I wouldn't do that. I called you several times but I only reached your voicemail."

She pulled out her phone and held it up, "No messages from you, Jack."

"Well, they wouldn't be from my number anyway. I left my phone in the motel. I was using any phone I could get my hands on. I was trying my best to get in touch with you; I missed you, and I wanted to hear your voice."

"I didn't get any messages from you, Jack on any phone. You told me before that you weren't a player, and against my better judgment I believed you. But you're just like the rest of them. Do me a favor; just leave me alone," she stated as she got out of her car and started walking to the stadium.

"May I see your phone?" he called out as she turned around and begrudgingly handed it to him.

He went directly to her voicemail and saw none currently listed. "Where are all of your voicemails?"

"I told you Jack, I didn't get any from you. The only voicemails I got were from solicitors and I blocked them."

Jack clicked the button for blocked calls, and found a list of voicemails, "Listen to this one."

She pressed the button, "Congratulations, we have set aside $30,000 for your new business start up."

Jack pulled the phone away, "No, not that one. Check this one…"

Again she pressed the button he suggested, "Hi, this is April and you have just won a 7 day cruise and all you have to do…"

"No, it's not that one either"" Jack stated as he took the phone back and continued to scroll through her many blocked voicemails. "WOW, you do get a lot of these calls." What made the situation more difficult was the fact that with people coming from all over to play ball, area codes on solicitor calls could be the same as those of Mookie and the other ball players.

He looked again, and finally found Mookie's number, "This is it. Try this one…"

Ring, ring, ring… Taking the phone back into her hand she realized that the call was from Rosa…

"Hey Rosa, is everything okay?"

"Yes, it's great. Have you seen Jack yet?"

"Well, as a matter of fact we are having a discussion here in the parking lot. Why, do you need to talk to him?"

"No, no but I'll bet you were happy to see him."

"Well, that's not exactly the word I would use."

"Don't let on that I'm telling you this, but Mookie had to call me while they were gone to get your phone number for him.

"Oh really? Do tell me more."

"He didn't tell you about forgetting his phone and not having your number?"

Elizabeth turned away from Jack, "I just found out about the phone."

"Mookie said he moped around the whole time they were gone. It's so funny that he had to borrow phones from Mookie and the other players."

"He just mentioned that, but I thought it was a line. Thank you for telling me."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you why I called. I went to the Farmer's Market today and I'm bringing you some squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers."

"Thank you so much Rosa for everything. See you soon."

"So, is Rosa right when she told me that you had to use Mookie's and the other guy's phones to reach me?"

"I told you that, Elizabeth. I would never lie to you. Please, "push that button…"

Elizabeth walked back to her car, leaned against the trunk and pushed play.

"Elizabeth, it's me…Jack. I know you weren't expecting to hear from me so soon, but I wanted to let you know that I left my phone on the counter in my motel room. I'll call again, but I'll have to borrow someone else's phone, so please answer. Hey, I hope you liked the flowers. Oh, and I checked the weather for Saturday, it's supposed to be clear and in the 70's, so I'll get the tickets for the cruise. WOW, I wish you had answered; I wanted to hear your voi…"

"Do you want me to pick out a few more?" he asked as he took her phone without waiting on her answer. "Here, this is one…" he stated as he handed the phone back to her.

Realizing that she was wrong, she tried to apologize but found it difficult to complete a coherent sentence. "Jack, I believe that I…that I might…probably need to….well, I think that maybe, possibly I…"

"Made a mistake?" he interrupted.

Elizabeth quickly conceded, "Yes Jack, I'm sorry. I do owe you an apology…a profound apology. I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions, but all I could think about was the women hanging over the railings trying to get the players attention. It happens here, and I hate when I see it. The women show their cleavage and bright smiles, and the next thing you know these players are leaving the park with them hanging on their arms. It upsets me because some of these guys have girlfriends."

"So are you my girlfriend?"

"Sorry Jack, I was simply trying to make a point."

She managed a breath before continuing, "After you left, I figured that I was outta sight, outta mind, so I assumed that you forgot about me. Then I thought about my beautiful flowers, and it just made me sad," she stated as she attempted to hide the tears that began to slip from her eyes.

"Elizabeth, you may be out of my sight, but you've got to know, you are rarely out of my mind," he whispered as he closed the distance between them. His hands moved up her arms and over her shoulders as they rested on either side of her face.

As his thumbs brushed away her tears, he whispered, "Elizabeth, you captured all of my attention from the moment I saw you. Well, that is after I realized that you weren't married to Dr. Coulter."

"You thought I was married to Lee?"

"I sure did. I was excited when I realized that you weren't. But then you shot me down and wouldn't go out with me."

"You managed to talk me into it."

"Well, let me see if my luck is still good. I haven't seen you since Sunday, and I'm dying to kiss you."

His comment brought an immediate smile to her face. "I don't see anyone stopping you."

She barely finished her sentence when his lips met hers. They were soft, yet eager; bold, yet tender, and hot, so very hot that she felt the warmth spreading throughout her body as he pressed her up against the driver side door of her car.

"I missed you," he managed to whisper as his lips worked their way across her cheek, stopping momentarily to nibble gently on her earlobe.

"I missed you too," she spoke softly as she glanced over his shoulder and observed other vehicles entering The Park. At this point she was thankful that Mr. Roseman had sent her to the outskirts of the lot, for no one in their right mind would park so far from the stadium.

He leaned back in, desperate to taste her lips once again. She was nervous about others seeing their public display of affection, but cast her fears to the wind as she leaned in to meet him.

Her lips separated slightly encouraging his tongue to slip through and as she suspected, he did not disappoint. She felt her family of butterflies fluttering in her stomach as his tongue tenderly brushed across the sensitive skin in her mouth.

He held her so gently that in that moment she completely forgot where she was, somewhat startled by her own loss of control. "Jack, we need to stop."

"I don't want to."

"I don't either, but that'll be a talk for another time," she replied, realizing that at some point the "intimacy" talk would be needed.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, but you do need to go play baseball."

"Elizabeth, I'd like to revisit the girlfriend comment."

"What about it?"

"Are you?"

"Am I what?"

"My girlfriend?"

"That would make you my boyfriend. Jack, are we back in high school," she stated with a smirk.

"I'm sorry for the earlier comment, but I was worried that things were going horribly wrong. So in case there is any confusion here, Elizabeth, will you be my girlfriend?"

"Well, I am a girl, and we are friends…"

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

"I know, I'm just teasing. Jack Thornton, I would love to be your girlfriend."

"Will you go steady with me?

"Are you serious? What, no high school ring?" she giggled. "Jack, you really are taking me back in time, but I have to admit that no one ever kissed me in high school like you just did."

"Sorry, I don't even know where my high school ring is. As far as the kissing goes, I've learned a lot since then," he grinned before realizing that his statement wasn't delivered like he'd hoped.

"He began to ramble, "That's not…I mean, really I haven't had…you know that didn't come out like I meant for it to. I really haven't had that many girlfriends."

"Jack, it's okay. You had a life before we met. Besides, I had a life before I met you too, so you shouldn't worry about my boyfriends either."

Jack stepped back a step and his expression showed that he was thinking, "Right, yeah…but…how many boyfriends did you have?"

"Not many."

"Well, how many is that?"

"You know Jack they're going to be singing the National Anthem by the time we get up to the stadium."

"Well, just tell me how many."

"Maybe the same amount as you. How many did you have, Jack?"

"5"

"I had 6," she didn't know if it was actually six, but she simply wanted to beat him.

"Who were they?"

"Jack, we don't have time for this. We have to get to the stadium."

"You don't have to be there for another 30 minutes. So, who are they?"

"There were three in high school, two in college and of course Scott when I was working here."

"Who did you date the longest?"

"I dated Adam for five years."

"WOW, that's a long time."

"Can we go to the stadium now?"

"I'm just trying to learn everything I can about you."

"Knowing that I had boyfriends before, do you still want to go steady," she laughed softly.

He stepped closer as his lips met hers with such passion that there was no doubt that he wanted to continue seeing her. She could feel his full body weight as he pressed her against the car; one hand swept around her waist and the other cradled the back of her head, deepening their connection.

Her family of butterflies were never far away when they were together. She had actually gotten used to them, enjoyed them and the feeling of life she felt when they were near.

As his lips left hers, she felt as though he'd carried the air from her lungs as well. She felt lightheaded, and was thankful that his arm was around her waist to help hold her up.

He took her hand as they walked toward the passenger door of his car.

"Hey, I hear we have a live singer for the National Anthem tonight. I wonder who it is?" he asked.

Elizabeth looked stunned, "Oh crap, I'm singing the National Anthem tonight."

"You sing?"

"I guess that's just another thing you learned about me tonight, Jack."

To be continued…

Note to Katie: Hey, since I can't PM you from the fan fiction site, I'm posting this here. I know your husband played baseball for the real life team in my story, but since I don't know his name, if I happen to use his name in the story, it's just a coincidence.