I Am Not Yours

The End Of The World

A/N: This is where I start to take some liberties with what happened canonically in the show, starting at season 2 during the trial against Noah Stanton and when Abigail was upset with Bill for not telling her about his wife. Enjoy! Let me know in the reviews what you think so far.

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September 1912

It wasn't until the trial against Noah Stanton and the Pacific Mining Company began that Abigail began to wonder if Henry's bitterness at her being married was the reason he made Noah his right hand man. Yes...Yes, ordering Noah around and giving him a management position was exactly something Henry would do in order to force the Stantons to stay in town at the rowhouses so he could still see her around at times. As she sat at the front of the saloon during the trial, she realized that Henry had raised the price on their dream plot of land so they could never buy it and Noah had to stay as a miner all these years.

She looked over at Henry at his table, narrowing her eyes at him with anger as she finally put it all together. He was punishing her for being married when they first met. He was punishing Noah for being her husband. And he was punishing everyone else for admiring Abigail even after she had to turn him down.

When Abigail learned about Clara Stanton, her supposed daughter in law whom Peter never even mentioned, all of her anger toward Henry vanished and she felt a new emotion. Bewilderment and a hint of betrayal all wrapped into one feeling. Something she had never felt before. She decided to ignore her negative feelings for Henry once the trial ended and put all her focus on Clara. Peter would have wanted that.

When days passed since Clara left to head back to Hamilton and she hadn't wrote Abigail yet to let her know she had arrived safely, she took it upon herself to go and find her, writing Elizabeth, the new school teacher, to let her know that she would be in the teacher's home town soon and needed a place to stay. Elizabeth wrote back to agree and Abigail and Bill Avery, the new "so-called" Mountie in town who refused to leave Abigail alone despite her protests when he insisted he go to Hamilton with her.

She was not only angry with Bill for not telling her about his wife but angry with herself for now being a hypocrite...since he was only doing exactly what she had seemingly done to Henry all those years ago. Her anger toward Bill was only exaggerated so, as she was just as angry with herself.

Once she and Bill finally found Clara working for Mr. Fletcher still, even after all of her payments to him in labor had come to a conclusion, Bill insisted that he find a way to prove Fletcher was breaking the law and Abigail refused his help, deciding to go to someone else instead. Someone whom she trusted less to do the right thing but knew would not be caught in doing so. She trusted Bill and that was what she did not want. She wanted someone as crumby as Fletcher to work against him.

Ignoring Bill's insistence to help, Abigail went back to Elizabeth's parents' house and wrote a heated, yet desperate, note to Henry Gowen, asking for his help.

Henry was, of course, shocked to find a letter written to him from Abigail after the trial, yet intrigued to open it. He hadn't even reached his study yet by the time he had opened the envelope with her handwriting on the front of it and began to read it.

She wrote about how she was not ready to discuss the trial or the events leading up to it but that she would, in the future, like to have lunch with him, yet again, following her return to Hope Valley from Hamilton to sit down and have a civil conversation about it if he was up for it. She also stated in the letter that the said lunch would not mean that she could forgive him. She went on to tell him that she had no knowledge of Clara herself nor that Peter had given her the mining report. She genuinely apologized to Henry for any hurt she may have caused him or his career and went on to tell him about Clara and Mr. Fletcher, asking him for his help.

He, of course, grimaced as he read her request, crumpling the note up in his large hands and throwing it toward his trash bin near his desk at home. It laid on the floor there by the trash for about thirty seconds before he went over to it, picking it up and smoothing it out again. Re-reading Abigail's handwriting and thinking of all the ways he could NOT help her.

Once he had thought of every solution to his problem...Abigail Stanton....he picked up his quill and a piece of parchment...writing to one of his rich friends in Hamiton to learn more about this Mr. Fletcher fellow.

Only two days had passed and Abigail returned to Hope Valley with Clara, free from Fletcher's illegal contracts. All thanks to Henry Gowen...whom no one knew had helped. Besides Abigail, of course.

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November 1912

Everyone cheered for Lee Coulter inside the saloon after he and Rosemary had successfully beat Henry at his own game in cheating at Poker. The people surrounding Lee hadn't noticed Henry sneak off, leaving the building and defeatedly placing his hat on once he set foot on the street.

Nobody knew it, so he couldn't blame them for cheering on Lee, but Henry was broke. When the judge had ruled to have the mine closed down for good and Henry lost the trial, the Pacific Mining Company fired him on the spot. The only money he had left was in his spot of land that he needed the railroad to run through and Abigail's Cafe. Losing to Lee in Poker lost him his land and he was left with his shares in the Cafe, which unfortunately, was not enough to keep himself afloat. He was beginning to feel like that fourteen year old kid again, struggling to make ends meet and to even pay his home staff anymore. He had let his cook and his butler go, thus leaving him with no one to make him his food nor fetch him his things anymore.

They seemed like petty problems but for Henry, it felt like the end of the world. He hadn't had to cook himself anything sustainable in decades and had an old leg injury from one of his first jobs that prevented him from strenuous activity such as cleaning his own house. Which he could do without.

But the food. He needed food. And he hadn't the money to continue eating in the saloon or the cafe every day.

He was desperate. And without the help of a friend, which he had none, he decided there was only one solution....to sell Abigail's Cafe in full for a large pay out.