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Jack returned to Lisa's room. When he went inside, it appeared that his wife was sleeping again. He really didn't want to wake her up, but he also knew that they needed to have a conversation about this. Jack cleared his throat as he sat down by Lisa's bed.

Lisa opened her eyes and turned to look at Jack. "I'm having surgery on my elbow tomorrow," she said softly.

Jack nodded, "Yeah, I heard. So listen…we need to have a talk."

Chapter 5

Lisa looked unsure even though she suspected what this conversation would be about. It was one thing to suspect and hear something second hand or third hand, but it was another thing to hear it directly from the source. She noticed that Jack looked nervous and it gave her some measure of comfort to know she wasn't the only one.

Jack was nervously playing with a thread on his shirt while gathering his thoughts. He wanted to tell the story of their relationship before telling her they were married. He didn't know how much time he had so he had to stick to the important stuff.

Lisa got his attention. "What do we need to talk about?"

Jack sat up straight and looked at his wife. "I know we haven't talked about it, but I also know that you are probably guessing about things. I want to tell you the story of our relationship. We don't have time today to cover everything in the last 17 years. I could just tell you what's happening currently, but I feel like context will help you understand everything."

Lisa nodded to signal Jack to continue. She could just ask him directly if they are married, but she's curious how that happened, if it happened, so she doesn't say anything.

"I told you yesterday that we met 17 years ago at a barbecue at Heartland after my granddaughter, Amy, worked with one of your horses. She was struggling back then. Her mom, my daughter, had passed away not long before that. My daughter, Marion, had a gift when it came to horses, and Amy has the gift as well."

"Was your daughter Marion Fleming?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, she was," Jack responded sadly.

Lisa's face lit up. "I have friends who swear by her work. How old was Amy at this point?"

Jack looked proud at the mention of Marion's reputation. "Amy was 15 at the time. Lou was about 25 and had been living in New York City. She came home for the funeral and ended up staying to help us get back on our feet. We were struggling financially. Part of the reason for the clinic was to get the word out about the work Amy does."

"That's a lot of pressure on a 15 year old," Lisa commented.

"It was, but she loves working with horses. Like I said, she inherited Marion's gift." Jack looked equally as proud about Amy.

Lisa smiled and said, "You are very proud of them, aren't you?"

"Yes, and not just because they're family, but because I've seen them work miracles with horses that everyone else just wrote off as a lost cause," Jack responded passionately.

"I get the sense that family is very important to you," Lisa said.

Jack was glad that she was beginning to understand how important family was to him. "It is. It's one of the most important things. My dad wasn't the best, but the rest of my family was good. I take great pride in caring for my family. That's why I'm here."

Lisa looked surprised at the last statement. "Are we family?" she asked.

Jack realized what he'd just said. "Yes, but I've considered you family for a long time. That's kind of what I was working towards telling you about with this conversation. So where was I? Oh right, we met at that clinic Amy was putting on. The first time we really talked was at the barbecue after. You came over to the grill to say that my burgers were the best you'd ever had. You also complimented me on how I was handling the girls. It led to you telling me about your nephew who was staying with you at the time. I offered to help in any way that I could and you said every boy needs a good man in his life and insinuated that everyone does."

Lisa blushed hearing this first story. She knew she could be forward when she wanted to be, but it's different hearing it about yourself. She was also surprised about Ben. "Why was Ben staying with me?

Jack was so focused on the story that he missed Lisa's reaction to hearing about her flirting and answered her question. "Your sister was going through a divorce and your nephew wanted out of the house for a while. He could still train for show jumping there. He ended up staying at Heartland for a bit as well."

"I'm not surprised about my sister getting a divorce. I saw it coming before they ever got married. Ben coming to stay with me is a surprise. He knows that I've always been a sucker for him, though. He was such a cute little kid. How did he end up staying with you?"

"You wanted him to not be too spoiled. You thought he should have the experience of working at a ranch. He struggled a little at the beginning. He thought he was above everyone else at first, but he started to come around. He was still able to practice jumping. You bought him some jumps to use while he was with us. They are still out in the jumping ring to this day. This was when we started to get to know each other. We'd chat when you came to visit Ben or at Maggie's if we happened to be there at the same time." Jack chuckled at the memory of Mallory bugging him about if he liked Lisa. That girl drove him crazy, but she also pushed him to take Lisa seriously.

Lisa noticed the amused look on Jack's face. "You look like you're remembering something funny."

Jack shook himself out of the memory. "I guess I was. There was a young neighbor girl who spent a lot of time with us at Heartland and she pestered me a lot trying to find out if I liked you. Mallory, that's her name, overheard you asking me to accompany you to a horse sale because you said you valued my opinion and she was like a dog on a bone.

"Hmmm…do you know a lot about horses? I know you've obviously been around them a lot, but I'm just curious why I would ask you to a sale for the kind of horses I buy. I mean a good horse is a good horse. I don't mean that you wouldn't know that…" Lisa trailed off. She felt bad that she had insinuated he wouldn't know about expensive horses.

Jack knew what she was trying to say and wasn't offended by any of it. "You're right that I didn't know much about the kind of horses you like, but I've learned over the last 17 years what you look for in a horse. It's not that different from what I look for, but our horses are definitely at a different price point. I was a rodeo cowboy for a long time and have been around horses my entire life. I generally know when a horse is good or not, but you didn't really know that then."

"So was I basically trying to ask you out without asking you out?" Lisa asked. "It kind of seems like a roundabout way to get a date."

Jack smiled at the memory. "Yeah, it kind of was a date. You brought a picnic to have after the sale, but my old truck broke down and we ended up having the picnic right there on the side of the road. It's one of my favorite early memories of you. We sat there and chatted over sandwiches and coffee. After our picnic, we went to the sale, but Dan was there and the afternoon went downhill after that. You went off to see where they were in the sale and Dan said something to make it seem like the two if you were still married. I felt stupid and then acted stupid. I drove off and left you there."

"Dan!" Lisa sounded exasperated. "That man only forgets we're divorced when another man is around. If a younger woman is around he forgets that I ever existed. I guess you didn't know Dan if that's how you reacted to him."

"Yeah, the only thing Dan and I had in common was you. You know, he once said that my 600 acre ranch was small potatoes compared to his operation." Jack had a sour expression on his face at that memory.

Lisa rolled her eyes and laughed. "That sounds like Dan. I hope you ignored him."

"I did, but the petty part of me always hated the small potatoes comment," Jack admitted. In the back of his mind, he knew he'd need to tell Lisa that Dan had passed away, but he didn't want to give her that information just yet. She had too much to deal with already.

Lisa felt the need to reassure Jack. "600 acres is nothing to sneeze at. Dan just likes to make people feel small if he thinks he can get away with it."

"Oh, I know. He always loved needling me. I mostly got over it. After you cleared up that Dan was your ex-husband, we started seeing each other. It was pretty great getting to know you." Jack smiled and looked lovingly at Lisa. "I couldn't fathom why this young, beautiful woman was interested in me, but I wasn't about to fight it."

Lisa looked down, feeling uncomfortable with Jack's feelings for her.

Jack continued, "After we dated for a few years, we were briefly engaged."

Lisa's head popped up. "We were? Did we get married?

Jack looked at his wife intently. "No, we didn't. Lou was engaged and planning a wedding, and she was upset about us stealing her thunder. We hadn't even officially told anyone, but word got out. We also realized that we weren't ready for that big of a step. There were things that we couldn't work out at the time, like where we would live and all of that. We were in love and you wanted more of a commitment and I wanted to do that for you, but you'll learn pretty quickly that I hate change and I think I was kind of scared about what changes marriage would bring. Plus, I proposed to you while we were fighting about the fact that Val kept showing up at Heartland. She had cancer and after treatments decided she was going to do things that made her happy. She always mistakenly believed that I would make her happy which drove you crazy. You said I wasn't committed to you so I asked you to marry me in reaction to that accusation."

"Gee, I can't imagine why that didn't work out," Lisa said in a sarcastic tone.

"Yeah, it wasn't one of our better moments, but I think it did get us to have a conversation about how serious we were about each other. We continued seeing each other, but I think that whole marriage thing was always hanging over us. You thought I was still carrying a torch for my late wife. Maybe I was in the beginning, but as I told you a long time ago, "I miss Lyndy sometimes, but I love you all the time."

The last sentence brought tears to Lisa's eyes. It was strange to her because in some ways she wished that she could remember their story because it sounded pretty amazing, but at the same time she didn't have those kinds of feelings toward Jack. Looking up, she saw that Jack had tears in his eyes as well. Knowing that they were emotional for different reasons only added to her guilt. "That sounds like a special moment."

"It was. We had been arguing. Again. You wanted me to go to France, but I was scared and kept putting off buying a ticket. You called me on my BS like you always do. I did eventually go to France. I hated it, but I didn't tell you. When you found out, it tore us apart. You had visions of me coming to France more often and us owning property together there. I wanted nothing to do with France. I was and generally am happiest at home. We ended things then although I don't think either of us really wanted to. We just couldn't figure out how to deal with our issues. A while later, you left for France for several months and didn't come back until I had a heart attack." Jack looked away remembering how hard it had been to be away from her and how his heart was already broken when he had his heart attack.

"You had a heart attack? If we were broken up, why did I come back? Was I hoping to rekindle something?" Lisa was leaning forward in anticipation of the answer. She realized she may look a little too eager, and not wanting to give Jack the wrong impression about her feelings for him, leaned back.

Jack noticed, but ignored how much interest Lisa had in their story. He knew it was because she was curious about the memories she was missing. "Yes, we both were. I got a letter from you before my heart attack that asked if there was a bridge we could cross. I was so happy when you came back after my heart attack. We had plans to go to Arizona together. The doctor wanted me to go somewhere warm for a bit to recover, but then you fussed over me and I got scared and pushed you away. It wasn't your fault. That was entirely my doing. Our age difference suddenly seemed even bigger than it was and I wanted to protect you from a life of having to take care of me. It's funny because I told you later that I saw us ten years down the road and what I saw was me in a bed and you spoon feeding me mashed potatoes. Here we are, over ten years down the road and I'm healthy as can be and you are in the hospital with amnesia. If you had gotten hurt more, I might be spoon feeding you mashed potatoes. It's strange how life works out. I had always hoped we could get back together, but this breakup after my heart attack felt a little more final."

Lisa was getting caught up in the story. "What happened after that?"

"You went back to France for a while and both of us were heartbroken. I think we were both just trying to move on with our lives, but neither one of us was very successful. You came back a while later with the intention of selling Fairfield and…"

"Wait!" Lisa interrupted, "I was going to sell Fairfield? I always planned to retire in France, but I always figured I'd pass it on to Ben. I can't believe I was going to sell it."

"I couldn't believe it either," Jack admitted. "I knew how important that property was to you. You admitted later that you were trying to cut ties to Hudson in an attempt to move on from me. When you came back to Hudson to sell Fairfield, you had an issue with one of the horses you were trying to sell so Amy was working with it. You didn't want me to know that you were back in town, but then I saw you getting your mail. My ex son-in-law, Tim, tried getting us together. He told you the truth about coming to meet me, but he mistakenly didn't think I'd show up if I thought I was meeting you, so he told me I was meeting a guy about cattle and it didn't go well. Amy convinced me to not let that get in the way. I called you and you came over, but the house was busy so we didn't really get a chance to talk the way we wanted to. We drove the horse Amy was working with to the seller together the next day. Or we tried anyway. Let's just say it didn't work out. We ended up down a logging road with no gas, and then lost in the woods with your horse trapped in a gully. We had to sit and wait for Amy and Ty to come rescue us, but it gave us a chance to finally talk and clear the air. On our way back to Hudson, I finally got my act together and begged you to stay. I told you that I loved you and wanted us to work. You came by later that day to tell me that you had taken Fairfield off the market.

"I feel like you're leaving a lot out of that story. You'll have to tell me about it in more detail sometime." Lisa paused and looked around the room as she tried to gather her thoughts. "You know, it's strange to hear a love story about yourself that you have no memory of. So, we got back together. How did we work out our differences?"

Jack smiled and leaned back in his chair. "Part of it was getting out of our own ways. We both had concerns. Neither one of us wanted to give up where we lived or how we lived our lives, but we also wanted to be in each other's lives permanently. There was a weekend shortly after we got back together when we had a bet going for something. I don't even remember what the bet was about now, but we ended up at Heartland sitting in front of the fireplace drinking hot toddies very late one night. It was there that I proposed to you and you said yes. I gave you my grandmother's ring. It was a beautiful moment."

Lisa looked expectantly at Jack. "Did we get married this time?"

"I'm getting to that. We talked until almost dawn about what we wanted in our marriage and what was important to us and what wasn't. Being married and committed to each other was important. Living in the same house wasn't as important. We decided to elope at the dude ranch that Lou owns and runs on my property. It was so beautiful there. The weather was freezing as it always is in Alberta in the winter, but the snow and the pond made everything magical. The only part that wasn't magical was my ex son-in-law crashing the wedding. Really though, once I was standing there exchanging vows in the snow with you, no one else existed. You looked like an angel and it was one of the happiest moments of my life."

"Wow. That sounds really beautiful." Lisa looked down as she tried to figure out how she felt about the latest revelation. Straightening up and looking at Jack in a way that she hoped gave nothing away about how uncomfortable she was feeling, she asked, "How did your family take the news that we eloped?"

"We didn't tell anyone for a while. Amy was leaving for Europe to work with a prince and his horse and there just wasn't a good time to say anything before she left. When Amy got back, you were so excited to tell everyone and I was too, but then Lou made comments about not thinking of you as family because she didn't know that we were married. You two were butting heads at the time, but I'm not sure you knew. For some reason, Lou wasn't saying anything which was unusual for her. It made me scared to tell her we were married, but I think the change scared me a bit as well. We were so happy having this thing that was just ours and I didn't want other people's opinions to get in the way. I was kind of right. Lou didn't take it well that we got married without the family and was hurt by it, but what's worse is that I hurt you by not standing up for us as a couple."

Lisa was surprised at how protective she was feeling about her relationship with Jack. She didn't love him or even know him really, but she knew he was someone important to her. Her concern also extended to how Lou would be once she got out of the hospital. Would she try to control their lives? "What does the two of us getting married have to do with her?" Lisa inquired. "Why does it matter so much to her?"

Jack laughed. "That's Lou. She can be a lot, but she means well. I'll admit that the two of you bump heads more often than I'd like, but you're both strong, independent women who have a lot of opinions about how things should be. Lou is a little more intense than you, though. When you two work together, I don't have a chance. I've learned to just accept my fate when the two of you get an idea together. Remind me to tell you about the birthday party and the party we had to celebrate getting married later. I think you'll enjoy both of them."

"You two said before that we've bumped heads, but I thought it was just because I was spoiling Katie too much. I guess it was more than that. I'm sure we both mean well." Lisa pauses and thinks for a minute. "I got distracted by part of your story, but we can't just skip over the biggest part. So…we're married? I'm not sure what to do with that information. Also, it seems like we don't live together?"

"We didn't the first few years, but then you had some financial problems. The economy was tough and people weren't buying expensive horses as much. You decided that you wanted to live full-time at Heartland with me. Being on your own is fine when everything is going great, but when things are hard, you need your family around you. My family is your family." Jack looked pleased that Lisa was living with him at Heartland.

Lisa wasn't sure how she felt about it. "I've been on my own for so long. I can't imagine living in a house full of people and not living at Fairfield."

"It's not always full. Georgie lives in Florida, Katie and Lyndy go to school and have activities, Amy is out with the horses a lot and Lou runs Maggie's and the dude ranch. Plus she's running the business side of Heartland Beef. Lou's husband Peter lives in Vancouver part time. Tim and Jessica live above the barn. They're usually just around at some meal times and when Tim decides to go grocery shopping in our fridge instead of the store. We're both busy with our own work as well." Jack knew he should admit that the house could be chaotic at times, but he also had faith that she would fall in love with his family again even if she didn't fall in love with him.

"That still seems like a lot," Lisa commented.

A doctor and nurse Lisa hadn't seen yet came into her room. "Lisa Stillman? Hi, I'm Dr. Choi. I'm a neurologist." Dr Choi turned to Jack, "And you are?"

Jack reached out to shake the doctor's hand, "I'm Jack Bartlett. I'm Lisa's husband."

Dr. Choi accepted Jack's handshake. "Okay, so I take it you have talked to Lisa about her life a bit."

Jack nodded his head. "Yeah, it was going to get hard to explain why I kept showing up at the hospital and why we were together in a vehicle when the accident happened."

Dr. Choi came further into the room and addressed Jack. "Okay, so I want to talk to Lisa alone and then I want to talk to you together. Jack, why don't you go out in the hallway? My nurse will come and get you once Lisa and I are done talking.

Once Jack left the room, Dr. Choi sat down where Jack had been sitting. "So, I'm sure the last couple of days have been a lot. You seem to be doing well. I've been in contact with Dr. Narayan since you arrived in the ICU so I'm very familiar with your case. I've looked at your scans as well, but I want to get a sense of where you are with everything. Have you had any old memories resurface?"

"No," Lisa said sadly.

"Are you comfortable with your husband at all or is it very awkward?" Dr. Choi asked Lisa.

"Both. In many ways, I feel comfortable with him. He's kind and he clearly cares about me a lot, but that can make it a little awkward. I don't know how to be his wife. He's never said that I have to act like it, but it's hard. He just told an abridged story of how we got together and how we got married. It's a lot to process." Lisa didn't know how to express what she was truly feeling at the moment, because she wasn't even really sure. Feeling confused and overwhelmed were her biggest issues at the moment.

"I can only imagine. So one of the things that I am worried about when you leave here is being alone. I understand that you still have your residence from before you were married. With your head injury and your arm and elbow, I don't want you to be alone. You need to have someone around. We don't want you to turn on the stove and forget it and burn the house down. Your husband is happy to bring you home with him from what Dr. Narayan said. It would definitely be safer. As your head injury heals, your memory may very well come back. We just need to know that you have a safe place to stay before we discharge you. We can revisit where you are living at a later date." Dr. Choi gave Lisa a brief examination.

Lisa sighed after hearing that she couldn't just go home. She wasn't sure how she felt about going home with Jack. Everything was moving too fast and she just wanted to slow it down. Ultimately, she knew what she needed to do to get out of the hospital. While Dr. Choir was examining her, Lisa said, "Okay, I'll go home with Jack, but he can't expect me to be his wife. I mean, I am legally, but I don't want to act like his wife. He's still practically a stranger to me."

To be continued