Disclaimer: All rights go to Crown Media, LLC, Hallmark Channel. I do not own the story at all and I only write for fun, not profit.

Heart Of The Matter: Chapter 1

Elizabeth was busy shopping in the mercantile to pick up some supplies for dinner. It had been a long day after her non date with Lucas to celebrate her book deal last night. Her time with him had been extravagantly fancy and he had pulled out all the stops to entertain her from the champagne to the chicken cordon blue created by his chef. He had been charming as usual, but there was always something about him that kept her from wanting to move forward with that relationship and then there was Nathan, tongue tied, could never spit it out Nathan. He had been like that from the first day they had met, but after their argument in the woods and eventual apology from him something had changed. It was four simple words, but those four simple words meant more to heart coming from Nathan than anything Lucas had ever said to her. "You matter to me," not just you matter, but "you matter to me." She knew the kind of courage that it must have taken him to say those words. He didn't speak much, but when he did it was heart felt and sincere.

It seemed over the past couple of days like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, he was much more jovial again and was back to teasing her in his own special way, but also being attentive to her, taking the saddle off of Sergeant for her. She knew he had been trying to ask her out in that moment and if another man with his horse hadn't come into the barn at that precise time, he might have asked her then. She had felt a stab of disappointment when he shied away from asking, but then earlier today he had finally asked her to dinner at the cafe. She wanted to yes right away, but the mention of the cafe had reminded her of her first date with Jack and had caused a hesitation in her reply. She knew that this would suddenly become real with this man and that he was asking her for a true date. Before she could answer, being the gentleman that Nathan was, he had let her off the hook by telling her to think about it. She had decided that when he returned she would tell him yes.

Elizabeth brought her basket to the register and lifted it onto the counter to check out. No sooner had she done that when the door flew wide open and Fiona came running in frantically asking for gauze and medical supplies, "Someone's been shot," she blurted out.

Elizabeth froze as Fiona ran past her and she could feel her heart quicken it's pace. Hope Valley was not a place where things like this usually happened and of course it would happen with Nathan out of town. She turned to Fiona, "Who," she asked her eyes wide opened with concern. Fiona couldn't bring herself to answer her and Elizabeth immediately saw the sympathetic look on her face, "Fiona..." Before she could ask the question again she heard the words that made her heart stop beating all together and all the color to drain from her face. "I think it's Nathan, he's been shot!" At the sound of his name she dropped everything and ran out of the mercantile.

Coming out of the Mercantile she paused at the top of the steps and spotted the prisoner transport wagon in the middle of the street. She could clearly see Carson inside of it hunched over, examining the gunshot victim. She ran down the steps, worry lines etched into the soft features of her face. As she approached the back of the wagon she froze as Carson was exiting it, she knew she didn't want to see his body laying there because if she looked then this nightmare would all be real and then as if in slow motion the whole world stopped turning and the words, "He's gone," came stumbling out of Carson's mouth.

Elizabeth stood there in shock and her mouth flew open and she could feel her head start to shake in disbelief. It couldn't be true, she had just been talking to him not even two hours earlier in front of his office. She thought back to his dinner invitation and now wished that she had told him yes when she had the opportunity, at least he would have known that she had been interested, but now that chance was gone. She felt her throat tighten and the hot sting of tears threatening to fall. Her stomach was in knots and her breath felt constricted, making it hard to breathe. Before those threatening tears could fall she slowly turned away from the wagon in disbelief not wanting to face Bill or Carson or his body inside the wagon.

Her mind went back to the day that she had received news that Jack was dead and all of those same feelings were coming back to her now. 'This could not be happening again,' she thought. Catching a blur of red out of the corner of her eye, she looked upwards and her eyes locked onto the tall figure listlessly walking towards her, his shoulders slumped over in defeat. Without thinking and before her mind could fully comprehend what she was doing her legs carried her at full force to Nathan.

When she reached him she threw her arms around him so forcefully that it caused his body to jerk backwards, but she held onto him clutching at his back and drawing him to her as tight as she could hold him. She laid her head against his chest, needing to hear the soothing sound and consistency of his heart beating and to feel the warmth of his body to be assured that it was really him.

It had all seemed so routine. Nathan didn't know how it could have gone so wrong, but they had been ambushed on the trail and now a fellow Mountie had been shot and killed. He blamed himself. He had grabbed the cool metal barrel of the shotgun and had deflected the bullet upon doing so. He had never witnessed anyone die in the line of duty like that before and he was sure that he never wanted to see it happen again. He felt numb inside as the shock of how close he had come to dying and not coming home to Allie settled in and he slowly moved in an aimless pattern back into town.

As he stumbled toward the wagon his eyes through the haze fell on Elizabeth. He could see her chest rise and fall in heavy breaths and the countenance on her face etched in pain, but then their eyes met and that look lifted slightly into shock and the next thing he knew she was running towards him and had thrown herself into him as her arms wove tightly around his torso, pulling him in close to her. Her arms were holding onto him tighter than he had ever been held by anyone and he could feel her hands clutch at the fabric of his red serge tunic.

When he finally realized that she was embracing him he moved to put his arms around her and he rested his chin on the top her head finally allowing his body to relax into her. The shocked state he had been in finally gave way to fresh hot tears.

Lucas had run out of the saloon to see what all the commotion was about. He thought he had heard someone yell that Nathan had been shot. Buttoning up his coat, he looked on with concern at the scene unfolding in front of him. His eyes roamed over the faces that had crowded around the wagon until they fell on Elizabeth. He could see a vast ray of emotions wash over her features. He watched in confusion as she slowly turned in the other direction and he caught sight of Nathan meandering slowly in the street. Before he could register what was happening he saw Elizabeth run to Nathan and fling her arms around him with an intensity that stunned him.

He knew the Mountie had feelings for Elizabeth, but he had never thought of him as an actual threat to his advances with her. Elizabeth seemed to enjoy their time together and he had worked very hard to make his intentions known to her, but there was a sudden realization and blow to his heart over why she kept putting him off and using the friends line. He knew in that moment that she was feeling more for Nathan than he had initially thought. He watched as the pair embraced and then not being able to stomach anymore of it he turned and sunk back into the confines of the saloon.

Elizabeth could feel the damp heat of his tears as he buried his face into the top of her hair, the silent sobs causing his body to shake. She tightened her grip on him and the memories of that fateful day with Jack came flooding back into her head and she realized how close she had come to losing Nathan as well. Her tears soon followed his and they stood like that in the middle of the street for what seemed like a very long time just holding onto one another. Finally the tears subsided and gave way to even breathing.

Nathan suddenly became aware of their surroundings and loosened his hold on Elizabeth, but she only clung on harder when he tried to release her. he was finally able to find his voice and swallowing hard softly spoke her name, "Elizabeth." When she didn't respond he spoke her name a little louder, "Elizabeth."

She finally lifted her head from his chest and looked up at him, but seeing his face and those steely blue eyes, that she never thought she would see again, looking down at her caused fresh tears to form. He studied her face as one of the tears slid down her stained face. He sighed and tilted his head slightly in concern and casting a sympathetic and worried look over her face he removed his gloves behind her back and then carefully and tenderly reached up to wipe the tears away gently with his thumb across her cheekbone.

She closed her eyes trying to calm her racing mind down. The gentle touch of his hand on her face had caused her heart to speed up and she felt like her lungs would burst at any second. It had the calming affect she was searching for and she slowly opened them back up. "Nathan," she chocked back, "I thought you were..."

Before she could get the rest of the words out he had pulled her back into a tight embrace, "I know...I know," he answered in between soft sighs. "Elizabeth, I have to go put Newton in the barn. As much as I need this right now, you're going to have to let go."

"I can't, I don't want to." She buried her head into his chest.

"Elizabeth, I'm ok...it's ok. Please, I need some time alone." She finally released him and took a step backwards. He silently looked down at the ground before speaking again, "We will talk later, I promise. I just need time to process all of this."

Looking back up with creased eyebrows and a small frown on her face she said, "Ok." She then watched his silent form move across the road until it disappeared into the barn.

TBC- I love getting reviews and I thank you all for reading my story.