Marion Fleming leaned down from the back of her horse, Pegasus, so she could get the mail from the old box that had the last name "Bartlett" written on it. The steady gray horse waited as she balanced herself to the left side of the western saddle and waited till she was done picking up the newspaper roll that had scattered mail inside.

It had been around dawn when Marion had saddled up Pegasus and decided to go for a trail ride. When she had passed the Heartland ranch gates, the sun had been setting its first rays from behind the mountains and had also cast enough light around so she could see that the postal carrier had not yet been to the ranch, though, she would have known this even if it would have been pitch black - as it sometimes was around this time of year at the Foothills if the sky was cloudy - because she had been living at Heartland all her life and nothing ever changed around here; not even the times when the mailman came and dropped off the mail.

If ever they were late, the Bartlett-Flemings would have known that something was wrong. Sometimes Marion even got in a truck and drove to see if maybe the mailman had driven off the road or been blocked by a fallen tree (or a cattle that had been able to escape from their grazing area), as that had been the case few times.

Here in Hudson, the community was everything. Everyone looked after one another since everyone knew each other and their ways of living.

As she had left the ranch behind that morning, Marion had counted that she would have enough time to go around the Mustang Meadows until the mailman would have lifted the red flag on the mailbox to let her know that their post had been delivered.

And just like predicted, the mail had arrived as she was about to enter back through the gates.

While Marion stretched her stiff legs, Pegasus waited still as the woman on him went through the mail. The newspaper for Dad, Marion talked inside her head, a horse magazine for me and... a Christmas card for Amy.

Marion flipped the card over, wondering who it was from, but deep down she already had her suspicions.

"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year", it said, "Love, Dad."

Marion looked at the handwriting and felt a sudden case of nostalgia. It wasn't that she missed Tim, per se, but something about his handwriting took her back. Back to the days when the man had been on a circuit and she had been at home, treating horses and trying to raise their two daughters. She had often gotten phone calls from Tim while he had been competing, but every now and then, he had written her an old fashioned letter.

Marion had preferred those.

It wasn't that she had not liked the phone calls and hearing Tim's voice after not seeing him for days - weeks even - but with her Dad hovering around, they hardly got any privacy.

A letter, however, had been more private, just between Tim and her. She still had all of them stored up in her wardrobe and even though she never revisited them these days, something about having them there made her feel safe.

(Or maybe she only still had them because she rarely threw anything away.)

Either way - she was not planning on getting rid of them any time soon, even though those days and those feelings were long gone now.

Back in 1997, Tim's handwriting had changed. It had no longer been as composed as he had had a hard time even holding a pen. A rodeo accident had left him with many problems, especially with his motor skills, and more importantly with a lot of pain. That had been a beginning of a string of events that had eventually lead up to Tim leaving Heartland - or getting kicked out, more like - and Marion divorcing him.

Maybe there were some things that did change after all, Marion thought to herself. But not often.

For the last few years, life at the ranch had been the same. She, her daughter Amy and her dad, Jack, had had a good thing going on even though they were still missing the old days with everyone still there, including her mother, Lyndy, who had passed away some years ago.

There was however something different about this year as Marion's older daughter, Lou, was actually coming to visit the family from New York. It had been a while since Lou had been to Heartland and even though things had been bad when she had left and many fights had been had between Lou and her and Lou's Grandpa, Jack, Marion was still looking forward to having her daughter home. Lou, or Samantha Louise as she officially went by, barely kept in touch, so it was going to be interesting to hear about her different lifestyle back in New York even though it was not the kind of life Marion could ever imagine living herself.

But seeing that Lou had lived in New York for years now, never visiting them, it definitely seemed like she was very suited living that kind of urban life.

Marion was brought back to the current moment by Pegasus, who let out a long sigh and leaned on his other hind leg, as a sign of boredom. She laughed a little because the horse was not afraid to speak his mind, even though he didn't speak a word of English. Still, Marion was able to understand what he was trying to say and wrapped the mail back inside the newspaper roll and snapped the elastic band around it.

"Alright, alright... I hear ya. Let's go", she said, clicking her tongue and making the horse move with barely any pressure on his sides.

When the screen door slammed shut at the ranch house, Marion could smell the fresh coffee coming from the kitchen. She kicked off her boots and felt a tingle on top of her toes as they were getting accustomed to the temperature that was more preferable for a human body.

"You got me my paper?" Jack asked when Marion placed her hat on the chair at the mudroom and pulled out the newspaper under her arm. She had left her horse magazine to the barn office as she usually spent more time there than inside the ranch house.

"You got me my coffee?" Marion asked in return. The woman walked closer and handed over the rolled newspaper where as Jack already had her coffee in a mug as he had seen her approach across the yard after she had been done with putting Pegasus to the stall.

"Thank you", Jack said as the exchange was done. Marion gave him a nod and sat down, fiddling the Christmas card between her fingers.

"Look what I have here", she said. Marion knew she was probably pushing her luck by bringing up Tim Fleming in this house, but at the same time she had her coffee already, so she didn't feel like she had anything to lose anymore.

Jack glanced at her and then at the card that had a picture of a bronc rider with a red cowboy hat on it. The man looked at the card for a while, his face puzzled - until he realized.

"Again...?" he asked, sighing. A line formed between his gray eyebrows.

"Well, he is her father", Marion defended. "I don't know; it makes me kind of glad he's still thinking about Amy, after all these years."

"It's one thing to be a father than to be a dad", Jack scoffed. "And I think we both know that after all these years", he sent Marion's words right back at her, "he should have done more than sent Amy a postcard every Christmas and every birthday."

Marion laughed, mocking Jack. "Not like you'd let him be any more than a postcard twice a year, even if he wanted..."

"Well, no, I wouldn't", Jack admitted without any shame in his voice. "But you know damn well why. Or have you forgotten what he did all those years ago? Or who he was?"

"No..." Marion admitted, looking down. Her eyes locked on the card as she was feeling like whatever nostalgia she had just experienced was wiped away by a dose of reality from her Dad. "But I'm glad he seems to be doing okay. That's all I ever wanted for him."

"Now, how would you know that?" Jack asked, curiously, not giving a flying duck about how Tim Fleming was doing. He was as good as dead to him. "Or has he actually, for once, written something else on the card than "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year"?"

"No, but his handwriting has gotten better", Marion said after her in-depth analysis back at the mailbox. "It's less... shaky."

"Or, maybe you're just reading too much into it. Literally", Jack said, not wanting his daughter to feel any empathy toward a man that had almost ruined their lives back in the day.

"Maybe. But you know I have good intuition", Marion pointed out, knowing Jack couldn't deny it because her whole reputation as a horse woman leaned on her having good sense of things. She then glanced around as if she was searching for something - or someone. "Where's Amy? Is she up?"

"At 10 am? Not a chance", Jack hummed. "She's really taking advantage of this Christmas break. But... she should really get up already. There's a lot to do, with Lou coming into town and everything."

"I'll go wake her up", Marion promised. "Thanks for the coffee."

Jack nodded, already sat and reading the newspaper like his life depended on it.

Marion walked from the kitchen to the door that lead to her daughter's bedroom. Before knocking, she took one last look at the card before handing it to Amy, feeling like all of a sudden Tim was more present. They weren't in contact these days and whatever communication they had had after Jack had kicked him out, had been one-sided. Sometimes Marion felt bad about it, but at the same time, she had liked to think her withholding her response had made it easier for him to move on.

For all of them to move on.

But no day went by when Marion didn't think about Tim Fleming, especially whenever she was around Pegasus. The horse was still (un)officially Tim's, but the gelding had stayed at Heartland ever since their accident with the man, as Marion had patched him up and been able to help the horse in his road to recovery - unlike with Tim. Pegasus still wasn't fully himself, but he was mostly back to health and a link that bound her to Tim even though they weren't in speaking terms.

Still, it was good to know, even twice a year, that Tim was still out there, thinking about his family too.