Season 2: A Different Version of Events

Chapter 1: At the Train Station

[My new fan fiction story starts at the end of the episode in Season 2 when Jack and Elizabeth have just quarreled at the Hamilton Train Station on their way back to Hope Valley. Jack is angry, first, that Elizabeth continues to believe his brother, Tom, is a troublemaker and, second, that Elizabeth seems to want Jack to give up being a Mountie to join her father's shipping firm, which he has no interest in doing. Jack has refused Elizabeth's offer to sit with her in First Class, and announces instead that he is going to sit in coach since he has "a lot of thinking to do." Jack hands Elizabeth her luggage and walks off, leaving Elizabeth, astonished, standing alone in the middle of the train station.

What if things had turned out differently at that point – what if Elizabeth was so mad at being stood up that she concludes that Jack is not the right man for her? What if the couple lets their bruised egos push aside their true feelings for each other? Read on if you want to explore this storyline . . . .]

Elizabeth, startled, watched Jack turn his back on her and walk determinedly towards the train, leaving her alone in the middle of the train station to fend for herself. Elizabeth felt her face grow hot with humiliation – no man had ever treated her like that before . . . no one. Elizabeth looked around, embarrassed, worried that others may have seen her being stood up. Elizabeth heard the conductor's announcement that the train was about to leave, but remained frozen in place, unable to move.

Luckily, a porter hurried up to Elizabeth and asked if she needed help with her luggage. At first Elizabeth couldn't answer, still flustered at Jack having left her so abruptly, but when she heard the "Final Boarding" announcement, she nodded to the porter and the two of them hurried to the train.

Elizabeth followed the porter as he led her towards the First Class car at the front of the train. The porter showed Elizabeth to her compartment and stored her luggage in the overhead shelf. Elizabeth sank into her seat and unbuttoned her coat, settling in for the long ride.

Elizabeth stared out the window as the train slowly pulled away from the station. Elizabeth couldn't stop thinking about how hurt she had felt when Jack had abandoned her at the train station. "That is not how a gentleman behaves to a lady!" Elizabeth mumbled under her breath. "Even if he was upset, he shouldn't have left me all alone like that!" Elizabeth harumphed.

Elizabeth usually appreciated that Jack treated her like a strong, independent woman, but in this situation, she felt that Jack had been deliberately unkind to her. "I do not deserve to be treated like that!" Elizabeth thought to herself, tears welling up in her eyes. As Elizabeth kept replaying the scene in her mind, a hard shell started to form around her heart. "Maybe my family is right – maybe Jack isn't right for me . . . ." Elizabeth let the nagging doubts about her and Jack's relationship seep into her consciousness.

Elizabeth recalled the events of the prior week which had led up to her and Jack's confrontation at the train station: Tom and her sister, Julie, wrecking her father's car; her father threatening to have Tom criminally charged; Tom's injuries and his stay at the hospital; Jack recruiting Tom's nurse, Faith, to help him prove that Julie had been driving the car before it crashed; Julie trying to run away with Tom once he was out of the hospital. "No wonder Jack feels there's a rift between the Thatcher and Thornton families!" Elizabeth thought to herself, folding her arms across her chest.

On the other hand, Elizabeth was dismayed that Jack hadn't even considered the job her father had offered Jack at his shipping company. "Jack dismissed the offer out-of-hand, without even discussing it with me! I guess being a Mountie is more important to Jack than anything else, even me." Elizabeth concluded dolefully. Elizabeth sighed – not only were her and Jack's backgrounds so different, it appeared that their visions of the future were diverging as well.

In the meanwhile, back in coach, Jack was starting to have second thoughts about leaving Elizabeth at the train station. Not that Jack wasn't still angry at Elizabeth . . . he was. Elizabeth had (again) insulted his brother and appeared to want to mold Jack into a version of her father - Jack wanted no part of that plan. "Elizabeth is used to getting her way about everything," Jack grumbled to himself. Jack had been realizing for a while that he didn't like the "Hamilton" side of Elizabeth, but he hadn't been able to admit that to himself or to Elizabeth. Now the question was whether there was another side of Elizabeth – and their relationship – that could be salvaged.

Jack sighed dejectedly and looked out the window at the passing landscape. Before the train had started, Jack had been too proud to check whether Elizabeth had made it into her compartment. Now Jack had to admit he was a little worried about whether Elizabeth was okay. "I should have at least walked her to her compartment," Jack chastised himself. Jack rose from his seat and walked through the coach compartment up to the First Class car.

Just then, a uniformed train employee stood up to block Jack's way. "Your ticket, sir," the man said. Jack showed the man his ticket. The train employee said haughtily, "I'm sorry, sir, you must have a First Class ticket to enter the First Class car." Jack tried to explain, "I just want to check on a young woman I was accompanying, Miss Elizabeth Thatcher." The train employee shook his head and repeated, "I'm sorry, sir. No one can enter the First Class compartment without a First Class ticket." Jack started to protest, but then thought of another idea.

Jack returned to his coach seat and pulled out a piece of paper, an envelope, and a pencil from his knapsack. Jack wrote a quick note to Elizabeth, sealed it in the envelope, put her name on the front of it, and then returned to the First Class car. The train employee rose, but before he could speak, Jack thrust the envelope into his hand. "Could you please give this to Miss Elizabeth Thatcher in First Class?" The train employee looked at Jack skeptically. Jack continued, "Please, I'm a Mountie. I don't have my uniform on today, but I need to make sure that Miss Thatcher is okay." The train employee looked at the envelope and then back at Jack. "Okay, I'll deliver this to her, but you need to return to your coach seat sir. I'll let you know her response." Jack nodded and returned to his seat.

A little while later, the train employee found Jack at his seat and handed him back the envelope. Jack saw that it hadn't been opened. Jack asked anxiously, "This envelope hasn't been opened . . . weren't you able to find Miss Thatcher?"

The train employee smirked. "Oh, I found Miss Thatcher, alright. She told me to tell you that she is perfectly fine, that you don't need to be checking up on her, and that she does not wish to receive any communications from you during this trip." The train conductor tapped his finger against his temple as he tried to remember the rest. "Oh yeah, and she said she has a lot of things to think about too, and like you, she is going to take the opportunity on this trip to do that. . . or something like that. She was talking so fast, I'm not sure I caught it all." The train employee chuckled.

Jack reddened in front of the train employee, embarrassed that his and Elizabeth's troubles were now fodder for this stranger. Jack nodded and said tersely, "Thank you for your trouble." The train employee wagged his finger at Jack and scolded, "Sounds to me like you got yourself some female trouble, young man. That's not a good thing to be sitting separately from your sweetheart – you shouldn't be leaving a pretty woman like that all by herself, you know." Jack stared at the train employee and replied curtly, "Thank you." Then Jack turned away from the employee and looked out the window. The train employee chortled as he walked away.

Jack looked at the unopened envelope in his hand and shook his head. This latest go-round with Elizabeth did not bode well. At least Jack knew Elizabeth was safely on the train. But Jack also knew that the distance between him and Elizabeth at this point was more than just a few train cars. Jack sighed and put the unopened envelope back in his knapsack.

From outside the train, one could see both Elizabeth and Jack staring out their respective windows, far apart from each other, yet both wondering whether they were meant to be together after all. Only time will tell . . .