It was 3am in the morning on a chilly Christmas Day, Ty and Amy were sleeping peacefully when they were suddenly woken up by Ty's phone. Ty groaned and grabbed the phone off his bedside table, "Mhm Hello?" He mumbled, sitting up. He listened to the voice on the other end and sighed, "Oh… okay. I'll be there as soon as I can. Alright, Bye Cass."
"What was that about?" Amy asked, sleepily as Ty got out of bed.
"I have to go into the clinic, there's been an emergency with one of the horses and well, he needs surgery asap and it's a two-man job. Scott is visiting his family and it's like a 3-hour drive for him… So, I need to get there," He explained, getting some clothes out of the cupboard.
Amy sighed and sat up, "Wow, so much for a nice Christmas Day together…"
"I know, I am really sorry. I thought I would have the full day off as there was nothing major going on at the clinic," He explained.
"I guess work comes first. I know it's not your fault, but with it being our first Christmas as a married couple and being in our new home… I was really looking forward to spending the morning with you," Amy said, feeling deflated.
"I know that… and I am going to try and be as quick as I can. Luckily we have a locum coming in today to take over from Cass. I'll keep you updated. I really do love you, you know that?" He said, walking around to Amy's side of the bed and sitting down.
"I know, and I love you too. Keep me updated," she replied, giving him a kiss.
"I will, I'll text you at every chance I get to let you know what's going on. Hopefully, I'll be home before breakfast," he said, standing up and kissing her forehead, "See you later."
Amy looked at him and smiled, "Oh Ty?"
"Yeah?" He asked, looking back at her.
"Merry Christmas," she replied.
He smiled and said, "Merry Christmas, Amy. I'll see you later."
He turned back and headed towards the stairs and walked down to his truck and set off to the clinic. Once he left, Amy lay back down and slowly managed to get back to sleep.
The sun shone through the barn windows, which woke Amy up. She looked over at her clock and saw that it was 7am. She picked up a phone and saw a text from Ty 'doesn't look like I'm gonna make it home… this horse is seriously ill and well, I think it's gonna take a good few hours of surgery before I can even think about coming home. I am so sorry xxx'
Amy sighed and text back 'it's okay, I'll go over to the house. Keep me updated. Love you xxx'
She got out of bed and grabbed a hoody and put on some shoes. She knew the rest of the family would be up by now – seeing as Katie had been getting up between 5&6 for the past 3 days just "double checking" that Santa hadn't come early. She made sure she had her phone and walked down the stairs and over to the house.
"Hey Amy, what are you doing over here so early?" Lou asked as Amy entered the kitchen.
"Oh Merry Christmas to you too, Lou!" She laughed.
"Merry Christmas! Sorry, it was an early morning. Katie has been up for 2 hours already… So, what's going on? I thought you and Ty were doing Christmas morning, together, alooone?" She teased, as she put the kettle on.
"We were! But he got called in at 3am for emergency surgery, and I got a text saying it was going to be a long one and he probably won't be home for a while," She sighed.
"Oh Amy, I know how much you two were looking forward to it…" Lou replied, "I'll make you a tea. You go through there and see the others."
Amy smiled and took a deep breath. She wanted to put on a brave face for everyone, because she didn't want to make people feel miserable, especially on Christmas.
"Auntie Amy! Look what I got!" Katie exclaimed, running over to her, shoving a toy in her face, "It's a toy horse! It looks like Spartan! I'm going to call him Spartan. He can play with Pogie!"
"Ah that's amazing Katie! What else did you get?" She asked.
"Well…" Katie started but Jack interrupted her.
"Why don't you go and help Georgie tidy up the wrapping paper, and let Amy sit down?" He suggested. Katie nodded and ran back over to the fire place and started putting wrapping paper in the bin bag, "Merry Christmas Amy," Jack said.
"Merry Christmas everyone! Seems like you've had an early start!" She laughed.
"Yep, we sure did! Where's Ty? I thought you two were spending Christmas Morning together?" Jack asked.
"Oh well…" Amy started, but was startled by a pair of hands going over her eyes, she smiled, "How come you're back?"
"Oh thanks! Merry Christmas to you, too! But basically, the surgery went really well. The horse is fine, so the locum who came to relieve Cass said we could both leave," he explained.
"Ah that's brilliant, by far the best Christmas present, ever!" Amy replied, giving him a kiss. The pair of them walked over to the couch and Ty filled them in on his hectic start to the day.
A couple of hours later, Ty and Amy were in the barn, sorting out the horses together. They had decided to do all the chores, so everyone else would get a break from working on the ranch, "I'm so glad you managed to get here. It has been an amazing morning. Thank you so much for my bracelet! It's beautiful!" Amy said, walking over to Ty and wrapping her arms around his waist.
"You're welcome. I loved my new supplies box, it was lovely. At least now, I will be able to pick it up without the contents flying everywhere! You're the best wife that anyone could ever ask for," He replied, giving her a kiss.
"It's my pleasure! I was sick of hearing you swearing all the time and then grumbling about how the boxes catches were on their last legs," She teased, kissing him back.
Ty laughed and looked at his watch, "Come on, we best get back inside so we can help prep for the dinner. You know how Jack likes to give everyone their own jobs."
Amy groaned, "I know… he's almost as obsessive as Lou when it comes to the Christmas Dinner!"
Ty laughed, "I know. He can be… I wonder what he's got your dad and Peter doing this year, I hope nothing like he got them doing last year! Those two, cooking in the same proximity of each other!"
"I think grandpa is putting dad on potato peeling duty and Peter on table setting duty – so at least they're not in the same room," Amy laughed, "I do wish we could have our dinner together though, you know? Just the two of us?"
"I do too, but at the end of the day, we have spent every year having dinner as a family," Ty reasoned, "I'll tell you what, after dinner, we can do a few of the usual Christmas games, and then make our excuses and leave. We can come back over here; I'll build us a fire and we can just spend the rest of the night – alone. How does that sound?"
"Now that, Dr Borden, sounds wonderful," She replied, leaning in for a kiss. Ty reciprocated the move and just as their lips met, they were interrupted by Georgie making fake throwing up sounds.
"Oh god you two! Get a room!" She exclaimed.
Ty rolled his eyes, "What's up Georgie?"
"Jack wants you both in the house… He needs the two of you on peeling duty – Tim was useless, apparently. So, he is now on chopping duty – and he has nothing to chop seeing as no one is peeling the potatoes," She explained.
"Alright, we'll come over now," Amy groaned, taking Ty's hand in hers and the pair of them following Georgie to the house.
The family all worked together in prepping the food and the dinner for everyone and everything was going smoothly, even Peter and Tim had been getting along. Ty and Amy were just finishing up some stuff in the kitchen, when Katie came running through, "Uncle Ty! Your phone just rang," She said, passing him his phone and running back through to the living room.
"Thanks Katie," Ty replied, taking it from her and looking at the screen and sighing.
"Who is it?" Amy asked.
"It's the locum, I best go and give him a ring to make sure everything is okay, I'll be right back," He replied, walking out.
"What was all that about?" Lou asked Amy.
"I don't know… but I doubt it will be anything good," Amy sighed, "Just one day. All I wanted was just one day where work didn't get in the way."
Lou gave Amy a hug, "I know, it's the worst. I'll leave you two to it."
"Thanks Lou," Amy replied as Lou went to walk into the living room to see everyone else.
Ty walked in a couple of seconds later, "I'm really sorry, I have to go back in. The locum's wife has been taken to the hospital, Scott is on his way but won't be back for a good few hours. I am so sorry… I really wished we could have just had this day," He explained, walking over to her.
Amy gave him a hug, "So did I…" She sighed, "Wait, why don't I come with you? I know I can't exactly do anything but, at least we get to spend some time together today… That way, we can have our Christmas dinner together."
"Amy, you don't have to come with me, I mean, you don't want to be stuck at the clinic on Christmas day. Spend some time with your family, I'm sure it'll be much more fun than being stuck there with me," He replied.
"No, I really want to come with you. It's Christmas day, and Christmas is about family. Guess what Ty, you are my family. I want to spend today with you, more than I do any of them," She explained.
"Are you sure? I don't want you missing out…" He asked.
"Of course I am sure. I want to spend today with you," she replied, "Come on let's go and let everyone know."
"I can't see this is going to go down well!" He laughed as he followed Amy through to the living room.
"Who was on the phone?" Jack asked, looking up from the instructions for one of Katie's new toys.
"It was the locum, I need to go to work, straight away. The locum's wife has taken ill and Scott is well, like 3 hours away. He is on his way, but I need to go. Sorry guys," Ty explained.
"Yeah, and I'm going to go with him," Amy replied and everyone bar Tim nodded.
"Amy, you can't leave us on Christmas Day! Today is all about being with family!" Tim exclaimed, "Wow… another idiot son-in-law choosing work over family."
"Hold on Tim…" Jack started to say but Amy interrupted him.
"Dad. If you hadn't noticed, Ty and I are married now, he is my family. I can do whatever I want! He isn't exactly choosing work over family. There is no other option. What if it was the other way around, would you want Ty to be able to get off work if I was in hospital?" She asked and Tim didn't reply, "Yep I thought so. I'm sorry everyone, we'll see you tomorrow."
Lou followed Amy and Ty into the kitchen, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, what else would we expect from him though?" She replied.
"Right, we best get going. We'll see you tomorrow," Ty said.
"Alright, see you both," Lou replied as Amy and Ty left.
Peter walked through with Georgie and Katie, "We are going to go and do night check… Jack is reading Tim the riot act through there..." He said, as Katie and Georgie went and got their shoes on.
"I'll come over with you, It's the least we can do for Amy and Ty… Ignore dad by the way," Lou replied.
"Oh don't you worry, I am doing. Today is about, you, me, the girls and family. I am just so glad we can all celebrate Christmas together. Now come on, before the girls pick up on any of their language…" Peter laughed. He and Lou put their shoes on and the family of four all went over to the barn.
As soon as Amy and Ty got to the clinic, the locum quickly informed them of everything that was going on and rushed off to the hospital.
"So Scott should be here within like 2 and a half hours," Ty said, looking at his phone, "Nothing majorly needs doing until then. Are you okay? Your dad was pretty harsh before…"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know why I even bother with him sometimes. Although, I do think some reason for his mood is because of everything that's gone on between him and Casey," She explained.
"Amy, you can't be making excuses for him…" Ty replied, putting his arms around her.
"No, I'm not making excuses, but to be honest Ty, I don't blame him. When we were on our "break" a couple of years ago, I was horrible to everyone. So, I honestly can see where he is coming from. But, I just don't like the fact that he doesn't give you a break…" She sighed.
"It's okay Amy. Tim is never going to "like" me, he will always put his two cents in where it isn't needed. Right, come on, let's get all the animals fed and watered and hopefully let this two hours go by fast!" He replied.
"I'm sure it will go by faster seeing as I am here with you. Now this is a very unusual Christmas!" Amy laughed.
"It really is!" He said, filling up the water tank.
Once Ty and Amy had got all the work done, Ty checked his phone, "Scott said he should be about half an hour," He told her.
"Ah that's good. Lou has just text me, saying they've left us dinner in the oven in the loft and her, Peter and the girls have done night check – so we don't have to do anything when we get back," She said, putting her phone in her pocket.
"Sounds good. At least we can spend some time together then tonight! Thank you for coming with me, it's not exactly the best kind of Christmas," He replied.
"Ty, any Christmas I get to spend with you is the best kind of Christmas. At the end of the day, I'd rather be here with you, working with all these cute animals, than on my own – without you, with the family. I know that sounds kinda harsh, but, I really just want to spend Christmas day with my husband," She said, wrapping her arms around his neck, as he wrapped his around her waist.
"I love you," He replied, leaning in for a kiss.
Amy smiled, "I love you too."
It was almost 7pm when Scott finally turned up to relieve them from animal sitting duties, so Amy text Lou, asking whether she could turn the oven on in the loft – ready to have the food warmed up. Ty was exhausted, he had been on the go since 3am, so Amy decided to drive back.
As they pulled up to Heartland, they parked in front of the barn, where they noticed that smoke was coming out of the chimney, "Aww that's nice. Grandpa must have built us a fire," Amy pointed out.
"Oh good, that's one thing less for us to sort out! Wow, I'm starving…" He laughed, "Come on, let's go and get some food."
They walked upstairs and were amazed by what they saw, their dinners were plated up on the table and all the Christmas lights were twinkling, along with a warm fire crackling. Tim and Lou were stood making the finishing touches to the table.
"Wow, what is all this?" Ty asked.
"Well… I wanted to do something nice for the pair of you… seeing as I wasn't exactly Mr. Happy this afternoon. And well… I'm not exactly creative when it comes to decorating and making things look nice so, I enlisted Lou's help," Tim explained, "I really am sorry for everything I said. I guess after me and Casey broke up, I've been a little, well… grumpy."
"You can say that again," Amy mumbled.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am just really sorry for everything. I just want to say how proud I am of the pair of you, giving up your Christmas day to help in the clinic? You are both amazing. Now both of you, sit down and enjoy your dinner. I will see you both tomorrow," Tim said, pointing to the table.
"Thanks Tim, it means a lot," Ty said, shaking his hand.
"No problem Ty, I really am proud of you," Tim replied.
Amy gave her dad a hug, "Thanks dad, I love you."
"I love you too, honey. Have a nice night," Tim said as he went down the loft stairs, leaving Ty and Amy to enjoy the final few hours of Christmas together.
After the pair of them had finished eating, they both got changed into their sweats and put on a film on the laptop. They got into bed and snuggled up together. When the film was over, Amy sighed and sat up to turn the laptop off, "Well that was a lovely end to Christmas. I love you so much!"
When she didn't get a response from Ty, she looked back and smiled, he was sleeping peacefully she laughed and got back into bed. Ty woke up momentarily and put his arms around her, "Merry Christmas, Amy," he mumbled incoherently.
"Merry Christmas, Ty," she replied.
Even though this Christmas wasn't the most conventional Christmas, she knew that this was one of the best Christmas' she had ever had. She still had a secret of her own to tell him, but wanted to keep it a surprise for a little while longer. She lay there thinking about the little baby Borden growing inside her and smiled, 2016 was doing to be the best year yet.