19. First Date

November 19... two days ago Elizabeth accepted Henry's advances and now were going to have their first date! Henry was very excited and you could tell. He always had a smile on his face. Tonight was the night. When they finished their homework and their work shift they went home to get ready.————At the Thornton's home... Elizabeth's mother was curling her hair for her date with Henry. She was wearing a knee-length black dress with a black lace cover that was also knee length, a denim jean-jacket, high heel military boots, her compass locket that Daniel and Abigail-Isabelle gave her when she graduated eighth grade, and gold hoop earrings. When her mother was finished she sat down in the chair next to her vanity, put her hands on her shoulders, rested her chin on top of her hands, and smiled. "Perfect." Briar Rose said, "simply perfect." She put her hairspray on her hair so that it would hold "Like I always say," stated Mrs.Thornton slipping into her southern accent "a good curl is the key to success."—————Downstairs... Henry was sitting with Mr.Thornton, who had overprotective Daddy issues. What made it extremely awkward was that Elizabeth wasn't joking about having six other Dads. All of her military uncles "dads" were sitting in the living room arms folded staring at Henry.

Elizabeth was just about to descend the stairs when her grandmother Josefina stopped her. "Ay! El Niña! I have to tell ju something before ju go," Abuela Thornton said as she ran up to catch up with Elizabeth, she grabbed her hands, looked her in the eyes and smiled. "Ju look absolutely beautiful." She said brushing Elizabeth's cheek with the side of her hand causing Elizabeth to smile. "I know that you don't have the best track records when it comes to boys, but if he tries anything, or doesn't treat ju with respect, or doesn't treat ju the way a real man should you advocate for yourself Ay?" Elizabeth nodded thinking about her last relationship, when Daniel caught him.

Her mother came up putting her hands on Lizzie-Anne's shoulders before continuing, "but he's not her anymore so you need to say something or do something like yell 'stop' or 'don't touch me'"

"But if ju need me to I'll spring into action!" Said Abelua getting into a fighting formation.

Elizabeth laughed and said, "thank you guys but I can handle it."

"And, jour beauty is jour weapon. While ju use this against him jou'll make him think that he's in charge of the relationship, but really, ju are."

"Why can't I let him know that I'm in charge?" Asked Elizabeth.

"Oh, no, because that will make them so eh sad." She replied, shaking her head and talking in a sad tone. Elizabeth smiled and nodded for her Abulea's sake but when she was out of eyesight she shook her head and rolled her eyes. 'Classic Abuelita' Elizabeth thought as she made her way down the stairs. She saw Henry looking handsome as ever and as he smiled at her she couldn't help but growing a little weak in the knees. But when she saw her uncles as well as her Dad she instantly thought 'oh no.'

Henry gave Elizabeth a white lily and she thanked him, kissed him on the cheek again and hugged him and he hugged back. "Awww, our little baby is all grown up." Said Elizabeth's uncle Andrew 'Andy' Erickson.

"Your baby?" Questioned Jack, "I don't remember you having a courtship with Briar Rose when I was married to her." Teased Mr.Thornton.

"Well that's because we're good at keeping secrets Jack'O." Teased Andy as he winked at Briar who gave him an eye roll in return.

"Okay does it really matter who's daughter Elizabeth-Lillian is?" Reasoned David Phillipelli.

"Mine." Jack quietly stated as he raised his hand in the air.

"Well, Jack, she's as much our daughter as she is yours." Countered Andy.

"Oh for the love of God." Whispered an irritated Elizabeth. And Henry smiled at her reaction to the conversation. He was also trying his best not to laugh. "Okay, um, Henry, these are my quoteum quote, 'Dads'" she said with air quotes. "Zach Zagorski, Nick Weaver, Michael Anderson, Andy Erickson, and last but not least my actual biological uncle David Fryer."

"And we're all military!" Reminded one of the uncles.

"So we better get going," Elizabeth said trying to escape the tension in the room that her uncles were causing, "see y'all later." Elizabeth said as she slipped into a southern accent.

After Elizabeth and her date left the room and shut the door the men and the room all looked at eachother. "I wasn't too hard on him was I?" Jack asked remembering the moments he and Henry had before the ladies joined them.

"Oh Jack, you're hard on everybody." Reassured Andy, —————November 19, 1910, Coal Valley, Alberta, Canada ... in the Saloon of the small coal-mining frontier town was the young blue-eyed ginger 26-year-old Elizabeth Thatcher, the great-great grandmother of Elizabeth-Lillian Thornton. As she was erasing the chalkboard from the last lesson of the day, she heard someone enter the Saloon. She turned to see the town's Mountie standing there not in his red serge, not dressed as a constable. But as a man.

"Elizabeth, take a walk with me." Constable Jack T. Thornton stated plainly with a small smile.

She smiled back "Is there a reason for this walk?" She responded playfully.

He smiled even bigger and let out a small laugh, "There is."—————November 19, 2015 (Present Day) on the Thornton's front porch... Henry and Elizabeth smiled at each other and looked around. "This is going to make things awkward between us isn't it?" Henry stated out of the blue.

"Henry, the only thing that could make things even more awkward between us is if I was pregnant." She replied very boldly. Henry just looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"You're not like most girls are you?" He asked, smiling at this point.

"Nope. So you better get used to it as best as you can cause' I might not be around for much longer." Elizabeth started looking around recalling her sixteenth birthday that's coming up in a month.

Henry was just about to question her decisions when he heard his phone ring, "Oh, hold on it's the dinner place. Hello...yeah this is him...WHAT!!!" Elizabeth looked at him concerned. "Come on you can't do that!...but that's not fair!...no, don't you hang up on me!...I mean it! Don't yo-" Henry stopped when he heard the call end sound effect on his phone. "He hung up." He said disappointed.

"What happened?"

"They canceled the reservations I made." He replied disappointed while looking at his phone.

"So what are we going to do?" She asked, hiding the fact that she was a little upset.

As the words left her lips he felt a foreign spirit enter his body. He looked at her entirely different, but a good different. "Elizabeth," he said, turning towards her, grabbing her hands and staring deeply into her big, beautiful, sky blue eyes. "Take a walk with me."

Elizabeth froze. Those words, those words were the exact same thing that her great-great grandpa Thornton would always say to his darling Elizabeth, her great-great grandmother. Those words meant and carried a lot of meaning in her family. She played on the stories she heard. hoping that it would mean something.

"Is there a reason for this walk?" She asked with a hint of playfulness

He cracked a small smile for a small second then returned to his intense form, "There is."————The early chills of winter were starting to catch up with the residents of Swellview, Wisconsin. Thankfully Elizabeth's "Dads" weren't in the living room at the time when she quickly ran back to the house to fetch her winter coat and gloves.

Along the date they stopped for ice cream, Henry ordered vanilla and Elizabeth ordered chocolate. After their short stop for ice cream they continued their walk and sat on a bench in Swellview Park. They sat in silence for a while listening to soft music of the music box playing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" they watched some couples get up and dance to the music.

"So" Henry said, sighing trying to break the silence, "do you have dancing in Cowgirl-Cowboy town?" He said he said looking at her smiling only to make her laugh.

Elizabeth smiled and hung her head down so that her blonde curls covered her face. "Yeah, we do." She said looking back at him, then she adjusted her seating position, "but these people are just swaying."

"Okay, if you're going to join the Marines I minus well teach how to dance you poor thing." He replied, shaking his head and looking down.

He stood up and stretched out his hand and smiled, "may I have this dance Miss.Thornton."

She smiled back, flashing those dimples that Henry loves so much. "You certainly may Mr.Hart." She replied by putting her hand into his.

"Okay, you put your hand here" he said placing her hand on his shoulder, "I put my hand here like so," he said, putting his hand on her waist. Once she felt his hand she smacked him across the face. His face turned in the direction of the blow. His mouth dropped open but not as big a gauge as Elizabeth-Lillian Thornton's.

"Oh my Gosh!" She said putting her hand to her mouth, while the one that she used to smack Henry still remained in the air."Henry, I am SO sorry!"

Henry still remained in shock and looked in the opposite direction. "Well..." he said as he put a hand to his face and started to turn towards her. "You could've just said I'm not comfortable with this."

"I'm SO sorry." Elizabeth repeated for the tenth time.

"Yeah, I think you've established that." He said with his hand covering his cheek. "So...why did you slap me?" He asked calmly.

"It's just a reflex."

"Reflex?" He repeated, confused and concerned one of his now most popular emotions since he met Elizabeth-Lillian Thorton.

"My last boyfriend." She said shrugging "wasn't much of a gentleman." Henry nodded his head in understanding.

"Well, I know I'll be one for you." He said smiling, "okay, your hand goes on my shoulder." He said starting over, "my hand goes on your waist-" he said quickly jerking his head and shielding it with his arm. Only to make Elizabeth feel even worse. But she didn't do anything but smile and chuckle. They leaned into each other like all of the other dancers and held hands "now, what did you call it sway?" He asked looking at her while she nodded in response. "We sway." He said smiling while letting out a soft happy sigh.

Elizabeth's eyes were wide and transfixed on Henry's gaze, she hadn't been this close to a boy like this for a long time except for when she was acting. "You're awful close." She said, still staring at him intensely.

"That's the point."

"So is this what people do around here when there's not crimes, drama, or disputes." She asked now talking in a southern accent which she always had. Even if she didn't try, you could still hear a bit of Texas in her voice.

"Y-yeah I-I guess." He said stuttering.

"What else do you Northerners do?" She asked curiously, still swaying to the music with Henry.

"Um... we wake up, eat breakfast, people love a good breakfast." She smiled softly "read social media," once he remarked the social media comments she smirked and thought 'what ever happened to newspapers?' "Go to work, get married, have babies, grow old together." He said, his voice becoming low "I guess." He said, his voice barely audible.

Then, some mysterious white speaks started falling out of the sky and began to land in the couple's hair. Elizabeth's eyes grew wide again, her smile faded, and she began looking around seeming to be overwhelmed, causing Henry to let out a small laugh.

"Uh, it's a snowfall, touch it." He said trying to explain what's happening to a girl who's apparently never seen this before. She reached her hand out and a big smile grew across her face.

"It's magical." She exclaimed. Henry laughed again.

"Yes...it is." He said smiling just as broad, finding it a bit weird that she's making such a big deal out of this because...well, it's just snow. But then a thought entered his mind that left him slightly flabbergasted. "You've never seen a snowfall have you?" He said looking at her smiling face that was looking at the snow falling from the sky.

"No, I haven't," she said, still looking up at the sky watching the snowfall. Then she returned her gaze to Henry with the sparkling snow in his hair. Henry did the same but there was something else, besides the snow in her hair that twinkled like stars they were still dancing even though everyone else had left and the music stopped.

She caressed his cheek and he pushed back a curl from her face then brushing his fingers along the smooth soft skin of her face. She leaned in and so did he and they shared their first kiss.————After that moment Henry walked Elizabeth-Lillian home. Once she closed the door she put her back to it and sighed dreamily. "So how was it?" Asked her mother excitedly.

Elizabeth quickly jerked her head in the direction of the voice from the startle. "You guys are still awake." She said, smiling of the date and embarrassed.

"We want to hear everything about the date!"

"For the record some of us don't want to hear everything." Jack added not ready to let go of his Texas Flower.

"How was dinner? Did you go anywhere after? Was there a good night kiss?" She asked slyly desperate for details.

"That for the record is something some people don't want to know." Jack said, trying to hide his uneasiness.

"I really need to get out more often." Lizzie-Anne said walking away.

"She seems happy" Mrs.Thornton said, noticing the change in her daughter's attitude.

"I guess he isn't that bad." Mr.Thornton added.

"I can still hear you!" Yelled an irritated teenager in love.

Chris Pratt as Andy Erickson John Krasinski as David Phillipelli

Oooooooo. Henry and Elizabeth kissed! Now as any good "Immature" person there's only one thing to do. "Henry and Lizzie sittin' in a tree, ABCDEFG." So I thought that the snow-fall scene was a good idea because snow makes everything more romantic. Well...except when there's a blizzard outside then that's just horrifying. Anyway, I used some of the dialogue from the Wonder Woman movie. There's a similar scene. Nickelodeon revealed that Swellview is in the states and that it's located in Wisconsin. They also said that they live in an alternate universe to our own. I know it's a bit confusing. I DO NOT OWN WONDER WOMAN OR LET ME CALL YOU SWEETHEART NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED. WCTH Jack and Elizabeth-https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eAXwxWJuuqo Wonder Woman snow scene-https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uAaJPWgDTGc