A/N: Hello, readers. This is where I start to add my own flare to what I WISH happened on the show with Henry and Abigail had Lori not had to leave. Let me know what you think in the comments/reviews please :)

April 1916

"Bye, Mom!" Cody waved to Abigail as he headed outside the back door of the cafe with Robert.

The boys had had a sleepover planned for the night so Abigail thought it worked out well when Rosemary and Lee asked her over for dinner. She finished cleaning up the kitchen in the cafe before heading upstairs to get washed up, chuckling at herself as she saw the dusts of flour patted on her cheeks. She had placed an apple pie in the oven downstairs just before going up to her bedroom and she hadn't realized just how much of a mess she makes sometimes.

She quickly bathed before putting on a nice white blouse and one of her lavender skirts. She had begun to put her hair up into a nice bun with a shining hair clip when she suddenly remembered that her hair was a bit too short to fit it all up together. She watched as chunks of her hair fell back down around her neck and she sighed before pausing and looking at herself in the mirror like that. Half of her hair up and half of her hair down actually looked quite nice and she smiled a bit at herself before releasing the clip to hold just the top half of her hair up. She fixed the bottom half to look less of a mess and pulled a few strands at her temples down over her ears. With another smile she knew she found a new way to wear her hair from time to time and decided to wear it like that to dinner tonight.

Once she had finished with her hair and her outfit, she placed a thin line of eyeliner on and some natural colored lipstick. Smoothing down her skirt with one last look in the mirror, she nodded with approval and headed downstairs to grab her light jacket and removed the pie from the oven.

"Elizabeth. Hello." Abigail said with surprise when the brunette opened the Coulters' door following Abigail's knock. "I didn't know you would be here."

"Yes, come on in." Elizabeth smiled and stepped aside for her to enter. "I will take your coat." The teacher said before helping Abigail out of it and hanging it up with her own on Lee's coat rack.

"Oh, Abigail, don't you look lovely!" Rosemary exclaimed from her kitchen.

"Thank you. Dinner smells wonderful." The mayor said as she took a few steps further inside. Elizabeth then gently took the apple pie from Abigail and brought it over to the kitchen.

"I know." Rosemary said confidently.

"This worked out quite well actually. Cody is having dinner with Robert and his family before having a sleepover."

"Oh, I know." The actress smiled and sent her husband a knowing look.

"You do?" Abigail asked, a bit confused.

"Mhm." The other blonde nodded before they all heard the second knock on the door.

"I will get that." Lee said, rushing passed Abigail to open the door. "Hi there, Henry."

Abigail spun around to see for herself if it was truly Henry Gowen standing in the doorway. It was.

"I hope I'm not late." Henry's voice carried through the rowhouse as he stepped inside, a bouquet of flowers displayed in his hand.

"No, not at all." Lee closed the door.

"I, uh…brought some flowers." Henry told him, feeling a bit awkward considering he hadn't been to a 'friend's' house for dinner before….Let alone his boss' house.

"Oh, Henry, they are wonderful." Rosemary said from the stove. "Sweetheart, can you place them in a vase for me?" She said the word 'vase' with a fancy pronunciation like the actors in Hollywood do, the word rhyming with 'boss.'

"Sure thing, darling." Lee nodded at his wife with a smile, taking the flowers from Henry and going upstairs to find one to place them in.

"Hello, Henry." Abigail smiled softly at him from in front of the couch whilst he stood roughly behind it.

"Hello." He took off his bowler hat and nodded toward her.

"Oh, Mr. Gowen, I can take that." Elizabeth said, going to the man and taking his hat and jacket from him before hanging them up.

Abigail watched her do that with curiosity, wondering why she was acting as if she was one of the hosts for the evening but she brushed it off and looked back at Henry. "You look nice." She quietly told him.

"And so do you." Henry said to her, though not as enthusiastically.

"Would either of you like a drink?" Elizabeth asked them. "Some wine maybe?"

"Hm, yes, I will take some." Abigail softly smiled, deciding to let herself relax a little tonight since she finally had a little break from motherhood.

"I'll have a glass. Thank you, Mrs. Thornton." Henry nodded to the teacher.

"Please. You can call me Elizabeth." She told him.

"Then you can call me Henry." He said to her before she smiled a bit and turned to go into the kitchen.

Abigail watched Elizabeth and Rosemary start to whisper to each other briefly before she brushed it off and looked back at Henry. "How has your day been?" She asked him.

"It was good. And yours?" He stood uncomfortably by the foot of the stairs.

"It was busy, but lovely." She told him.

"Here we go." Lee said, coming down the stairs with the flowers in a nice glass vase now. He went to where they kept a bucket of their water inside and poured some of it into the vase before placing the vase on the center of the dinner table.

"Thank you, dear. Dinner is almost ready. Please…make yourselves at home." Rosemary told Abigail and Henry…but mostly Henry since he had still been standing around like an out of place guest.

"Come. Have a seat with me." Abigail offered, gesturing toward the couch.

Henry almost protested but soon walked around the sofa to sit beside Abigail to her left. He looked at the fire in the Coulters' furnace and just stared at it for a bit, unsure of what to say.

Abigail studied him, wondering why he was having a hard time looking at her. "Those were very pretty flowers that you brought. Where did you get them?"

"Just a little place I know in the woods." He told her.

"Maybe you can show me some time. I think they are very beautiful." She tried to dip her head in some way as if to force him to look at her, yet it didn't work, his eyes staying on the fire.

"Here you are." Elizabeth stepped in front of the sofa to hand Henry and Abigail their glasses of wine.

"Thank you, Elizabeth." Abigail smiled up at her friend and watched as Henry looked up at the brunette as well to thank her himself. The mayor internally sighed when she saw how easy it was for him to tear his eyes from the fire to look up at the school teacher yet he wouldn't look at her.

"You are welcome." Mrs. Thornton smiled down at them before going back into the kitchen to pretend to help Rosemary.

"Are you alright, Henry?" Abigail finally asked him after sipping her wine.

"Hm? Yeah." He finally looked at her beside him, forcing out a smile.

"You seem a bit…disconnected." She told him.

"Oh, I'm alright." He sipped his wine and looked back at the fire.

"Have I done something wrong?" She asked him.

"Alright, everyone. Dinner is served." Rosemary said boisterously.

Abigail looked over her shoulder at the already set table before she stood up from the sofa. "Oh, Rosemary, this looks wonderful." She stepped around the couch with her wine in hand. "Are you expecting anyone else to arrive?" She looked toward the front door with curiosity.

"Oh, no. This is everyone." The actress grinned. "Have a seat."

Everyone obeyed her, taking a seat around Lee and Rosemary's table.

"Shall we say Grace?" Rosemary asked, taking Lee's hand to her left and Elizabeth's hand to her right. Elizabeth took Abigail's left hand and Abigail offered her right hand to Henry who looked to his left at hers and to his right at Lee's hand. "Is there a problem?" Rosie asked him.

"Henry is not religious." Abigail stated.

"No, it's alright." Henry said, taking Lee's hand followed by Abigail's.

Rosemary couldn't help but smirk once he took Abigail's hand and she looked at Elizabeth who smirked a bit as well. They both closed their eyes and Rosemary said a prayer thanking God for their food and their time together before they all began to eat.

Henry was quiet for most of the dinner and Abigail or Lee would try to include him in their conversations, but he still wouldn't say much as they all enjoyed Rosemary's meatloaf and carrots with a side of seasoned rice.

"Mm, Rosemary that was so good." Elizabeth told her as she wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin.

"Yes, sweetheart, I must say you outdid yourself with the meatloaf tonight." Lee agreed.

"Yes, it was quite good." Abigail nodded.

"Thank you, thank you. No need for all the praise." The blonde said ironically and they all laughed.

"Hm…I better go and check on Laura and see if Little Jack is doing alright." Elizabeth said as she stood up.

"Oh, may I come with you? I feel like I haven't seen him in so long." Rosemary stood as well and looked at the others at the table. "Excuse us." Both women left the rowhouse and went next door before another word was said.

"Excuse me." Lee said, standing from the table as well. "I forgot to ask Rosie something." He then left the house as well.

The air was stagnant and quiet in the Coulter home for quite some time as Abigail and Henry both sat, just staring at their empty plates on the table.

"It's a lovely evening so far." Abigail soon broke the silence.

"Yes, it is." Henry agreed before smiling at her beside him.

She felt his eyes on her and she looked at him with a smile as well. "You've been very quiet." She told him.

"No. Just don't have much to say." He argued.

"That can't be true."

"You wore your favorite color tonight." He said, remembering that the lavender in her skirt was her favorite.

"Yes, I did."

"You haven't worn it in a while."

"I hadn't noticed." She said truthfully, feeling a bit elated that he really paid that much attention to her. She smiled at him as he hummed and looked back at the table, fiddling with the bottom of his wine glass and spinning it in his fingers. "Are you sure you aren't upset with me, Henry?" Abigail asked him again.

"No. Why?"

"You have barely looked at me all evening and you seem…cold toward me."

"I don't mean to be." He said to her.

"What's on your mind?" Abigail tried to reach for his hand on the table but he pulled it away, lifting the wine glass to drink it.

"How long do you think they have been planning tonight?" He asked her once he finished the wine in his glass.

"Oh." Abigail chuckled a bit. "Probably since Christmas."

"Why?" He asked her.

"I am not sure. They're our friends. I am sure they just want us to be happy."

"They are YOUR friends, Abigail." Henry corrected her. "Do you think I would even be here if it wasn't for you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" Abigail's smile faded.

"Do you know how many times I have been asked to dinner in this town? Do you know how many times I have even stepped foot in one of these rowhouses with an invitation?" He finally began to look her in the eye as he spoke. "Never." He set his wine glass back down on the table. "I thought Lee invited me here tonight because he actually wanted to be my friend. Ridiculous, I know. But once I saw you and the candles, it was obvious what was happening."

"Henry, I am sure that's not true. Lee is fond of you." She tried to convince him.

"Nobody in this town is fond of me." He argued.

"I am." The mayor rested her hand on his knee.

"Then why not just tell me in private instead of coaxing up some strange fantasy dinner with your friends?" He pushed her hand off his knee and stood up from the table, heading toward the coat rack.

Abigail stood up as well, following him. "You think I planned this dinner?"

"Well, it certainly wasn't them. Was the Mistletoe your idea too?"

"What? Henry-"

He grabbed his coat, draping it over his forearm before placing his hat back on his head. "You're the town's hero and I'm the villain." He said bitterly. "I doubt your little friends would want us to be together." He went to the door, grabbing the door knob.

"Believe what you want, but at least stay." Abigail said, though his last few sentences made her chest feel tight. "Stay for me." She stepped closer to him, her chest almost touching his back, and she placed a hand on his shoulder before she spoke again. "I know there is a chance that I have a place in your heart. Stay and show me that I do."

He looked at her over his shoulder, their faces close enough to kiss if either of them were brave enough to lean in. "I am sorry, Abigail." He turned and opened the door, leaving the Coulters' house and heading back toward the center of town to grab a few drinks at the saloon before bed.