Elizabeth's Secrets

What if on Elizabeth's birthday she reveals to Jack some secrets in her life, one from her past and one from her present and future. What if Elizabeth had a brother, a twin?

Elizabeth woke up to the smell of coffee and bacon cooking. She stretched and then put one hand to her stomach and the other to cover her mouth. The bacon was making her nauseous. She guessed that Jack was making her breakfast in bed because today was her birthday. Wouldn't he be surprised when she shared with him a present of her own? She smiled as she thought about the look on his face when she confessed that she was finally pregnant after almost two years of marriage. They had been waiting for this moment since getting married and had been disappointed several times. Now it was finally happening. The smile quickly turned to a frown when she thought about the other secret she needed to tell him, something she knew she should have told him when they were courting but couldn't bring herself to do so due to the pain she felt.

Finding out about the baby so close to her birthday brought back so many memories of celebrating her birthday when she was a child, with Eric, her twin brother. Being the only boy in the family, William Thatcher had wanted to groom Eric to take over the family business, but Eric had other ideas. He wanted to join the Canadian Army. From the time Elizabeth and Eric had been ten years old, all she wanted to do was become a teacher for a small town in western Canada, like her Aunt Elizabeth, and all he wanted to do was fight for his country. William had assumed that both his children would grow out of such outlandish ideas for careers. William had no problem if Elizabeth wanted to teach but he expected her to do so in Hamilton. As for Eric, he expected, no demanded that Eric join him at the family company. Once Elizabeth and Eric hit their teens, things became troublesome for Eric and William. They fought constantly with each other over Eric's career choices, culminating in Eric running away from home shortly after their sixteenth birthday, lying about his age and joining the Army.

Eric's departure had left a big hole in the family. William took it as an insult to the entire family. He ordered everyone never to mention Eric's name, he demanded all of Eric's things be removed from the house and he told his family never to try and contact Eric. Elizabeth was devastated by this; she and Eric had such a close bond between them, even closer than the bond with Julie and Viola, their sisters. She figured it was because they spent so much time together in the womb. They always knew if something was bothering the other one. Because of this, Eric has arranged it so he could get letters to Elizabeth without their father knowing. He made Elizabeth his only next of kin. When she left for college, she made sure he has her new address so he could get in touch with her. She almost wished she hadn't though. Right before midterms in her second year in college, she received word that the plane her brother had been piloting went down near Prince Edward Island. The wreckage of the plane was located and the body of his co-pilot but Eric's body was never found. He was reported missing in action and presumed dead. Elizabeth's heart felt like it shattered in two. She had sensed something was wrong with Eric but did not expect it to be so serious. Elizabeth pressed the Army to keep looking for him because she didn't feel like he was dead. She just knew that her "twin-sense" as they like to call the bond between them, would tell her if he was dead. The army appeased her for a while, but the case grew cold as they had other things they needed to take care of. Today, while she was ecstatic about the baby and her new life with Jack, she couldn't help but be sad that Eric would never know his niece or nephew.