Clearing all up
Amy woke up, after having a hard night. She had lots of thoughts, that she couldn´t sleep over. She had broken up with Ty two weeks ago, and she had a pain inside that revived every night. She simply could not carry on like that. Fortunately, they weren´t fighting anymore. They wer just fine together, talking and working, but they both missed the past when they were much more than friends. Ty and Amy were waiting for the right moment, the right day in which everything will be a fairytale once again.
Amy turned of the clock alarm with her right hand, while she tried to open her eyes. It was a brand new day.
"Good Morning Lou" she said.
"Hi Amy" Lou answered. "Are you taking Spartan for a ride? ". She didn´t receive any answer, she kept a suspicious face while she thought, Where´s she going? She´s in a rush!
She watched Amy running to the barn with her breakfast in a plate she had just gave her.
Jack arrived to the kitchen when he said "Your sister seems to be in a hurry". "I wondered what happened between her and Ty yesterday night".
"Amy didn´t seem too happy" Lou said. "Coffee?".
"Fine". "Anything can happen between ´em at this stage". "But I´m sure they´ll figure it out, they always do". "No matter how much time it takes".
Amy had a plan in her hands. She just wanted to surprise Ty with breakfast as a start. Just to clear things up. She missed him like crazy, and after last night´s talk, she knew he missed her too.
She entered to his room and sat in his bed.
"Ty… Ty are you awake?"
"Amy?" he said, still as sleep. He turned around face to face with Amy.
He´s dreaming, Amy thought. She touched his arm and moved her hand to his neck. Ty still was still asleep with his face stuck in the pillow.
He slowly moved his head with opened eyes and saw Amy seating near. "Hey!" " Don´t tell me, I look like hell" he said in a low voice. Amy smiled "pretty much". Both laughed and stared at each other´s eyes for a second.
"I brought you breakfast!" She said smiling.
"Oh, that´s good" "Muffins! ... Even better".
Amy took a Muffin and gave it to Ty. Ty, laughed and bit the Muffin in Amy´s hand. Amy smiled at him and took out of a corner of his mouth a little of chocolate he had. Ty looked at her "Amy, may I ask you something?".
"Yeah sure, What is it?"
Chapter 2
"Well in fact are a few things." "Amy I…I miss you and I´m in love with you." "I´ve been for three years…and…I don´t want to lose you…I want to be your boyfriend again… I´m sorry for everything I´ve done…I´ll do anything to be with you the more time possible."
"I don´t know Ty"
"Yes you know, this is a decision you should take, that we should take, we can´t keep on avoiding this".
"We have reasons why we are not together". "I mean… I love you, a lot, but we´ve done mistakes, that maybe won´t let us go on".
Ty took a deep breath, and looked at Amy. "I can´t believe you just said that" "You just don´t want to be with me". Don´t you want to figure out what´s been happening between us?" "Didn´t you realize the way we´ve been acting?". " I understood you still felt something for me, with that signals you gave me".
"I … I just don´t know what it´s going to happen between us". Amy said as she left the room.
Ty and Caleb where talking in the barn some hours later.
"Can´t belive you man!" "You are still stuck with Amy". Said Caleb.
"I´m not stuck" Ty answered.
"Whatever"
"No it´s not what ever, I need to solve this as soon as possible"
"If I were in your shoes I´ll try to convince her, not only talking but doing something really special, so she won´t deny your offer".
"Like, I don´t know... calling her attention maybe?"
"Yeah, whatever you´re thinking of" "like when you went up to that crazy bull just so she could see you were more man than me" Caleb laughed while Ty tried to look for an intelligent answer.
Ty had a brilliant idea. He started planning everything for the following night. He always repeated to himself: "an offer she would not deny".
In fact he had many ideas, but as he couldn´t decide, he put them all together. He asked for some help to the Bartlett-Fleming family, everybody was happy to help and anxious to know what would happen.
Ty worked hard all day, thanks to Jack, he had the weekend free just to spend it with Amy. Finally, there was just an hour left to surprise Amy. Ty was so nervous that he couldn´t stop walking around he´s bedroom.
Chapter 3
Ty in his blue jeans and blue shirt went to the kitchen. Jack was there by surprise; Ty smiled at him and said "It´s time!"
"Well all I gotta say is have a good time" Jack said.
"Thanks" Ty answered while he walked into Amy´s bed room. There, Lou was trying to keep Amy busy until Ty came in. Ty knocked the door and waited for someone to say come in. He didn´t have to wait too much.
"Hey girls" said Ty while he walked towards Amy. "Amy, can I talk to you for a second?" he asked looking into her eyes.
"Yes, sure" She replied.
"Let´s go" He said in a low voice. Lou gave Amy a hopeful look and when Amy turned around she whispered to Ty "Good luck" lower enough so Amy couldn´t listen.
This was their opportunity to figure out everything what they were gonna do with their relationship and go on. Ty was sure he would get it but Amy still didn´t know why this time it would be different.
"Where are we going?" Amy asked Ty.
"Is not far from here, I know the right place to talk"
Amy had no idea what he was doing or where they were going. She felt safe by his side, and it didn´t matter where they were, because she knew everything was going to be OK.
"Ty, I was thinking…"
"What?" Ty said and put his arm around her waist.
"I was thinking…that maybe it isn´t so difficult…"
"So difficult to what?"
"You know, us… to be together" "I mean we´ve been thorough a lot and maybe this is just another step in our relationship"
Ty thought and then spoke. "remember what I told you last time you said maybe?"
"There are no maybes" said both of them. They laughed and kept on walking.
"So, what are we going to do?"
"I guess we can solve it"
"How did you get so positive?" Ty asked.
"So you think I´m pessimist?"
"No, No… I just… I didn´t meant..."
"Fine" She stopped for a second and then continued "I don´t know… today, I took time to think. Because you magically disappeared after we talked in the morning".
"Oh! Yes! About that…" Ty took Amy by her shoulder and led her to her left.
Amy, after asking Ty a thousand times where they were going, saw a light and asked him what that was.
"Keep on walking" He said and closed her eyes with his hands. "You can see now"
"Oh… How? … Oh my god this place looks awesome!" she said when she saw the lake full of light candles in its shore, she couldn´t believe her eyes. Everything was so perfect! Amy couldn´t even blink, this was the biggest surprise that someone could have ever give her.
"Did you do all this?"
"Yes, Is it the right place to talk?"
"oh, yes! Yes!"
"How did you do all this?"
"I received some help… Mallory, Caleb, Jack, even Lou chose the candles!"
"It's so beautiful!"
"Thanks"
"Thank you!" she laughed.
They sat near the brilliant lake, and they started talking.
Chapter 4 – The tragedy
Suddenly, they both heard a noise and turned around. "What was that?" Amy wondered.
"I don´t know. Maybe just the wind" Ty answered a little unsure.
Ty started coughing and Amy realized why. "It´s smoke!" She shouted. "From where is it come…" "Oh no!"
Ty stood up and tried to step over the candle that was burning. It was not useful, this candle burned some leaves that were near and the fire continued burning other four or five candles that were beside. The wind started blowing the smoke to the south.
Amy began to panic. Ty, tried to stop the flames but it was worthless. The fire was taking over the shore of the river faster than they expected. The burned grass was becoming dark as the color of the smoke that was turning black and making the grey invisible.
Both of them were now shocked, they couldn´t speak or shout. Ty´s mouth was covered by smoke, so much that he couldn´t breathe too much.
"Get out of there" Amy screamed. She pushed Ty´s arm and took him out of the smoke that was covering him. "It´s worthless, we can´t make it stop now"
"We have to ask for help!" Ty said and started coughing badly. Amy was so shocked and scared that started crying. She took Ty by his back and started running as fast as possible. Ty´s face was turning violet as he could barely breathe. His coughing and Amy´s crying mixed with the smoke. She ran faster, but her legs hurt. She felt dizzy and almost couldn´t breathe, she knew she had to get home now, anything else mattered. Ty couldn´t move but just cough and cough.
"Ty, please! We can do it!" she screamed. She felt her voice echoing in the mountains. "We will survive" she thought.
Chapter 5
"His life depends on me" "My life depends on me" "Our future depends on me" Amy though. She was carrying Ty in her arms, she almost couldn´t lift his back. He was unconscious and his breath was short.
Amy´s throat was dry and she was sweating a lot. Ty´s shirt was all wet, but she didn´t matter, it wasn´t disgusting. His hair was wet too, but his face was terribly cold.
Ty was in his worse conditions. Amy couldn´t say a word, she cried and coughed, she only wanted to save him. She ran faster but accidentally fell to the grass when an old branch of a tree made her loose balance of her body and Ty´s too. Her knees had touched some ashes that had been blown by the wind. She screamed even louder than she did before. Everything seemed unreachable but Amy repeated to herself that she couldn´t give up. She grabbed Ty´s waist and took them to some bushes near. They would be safe there for a while, at least they would be protected of the smoke. She needed to think how to escape from the fire without running, her legs and arms hurt, her left leg hurt more. "Maybe I have a broken leg" she thought.
Suddenly, she felt like she had low pressure and she fell to the floor. She couldn´t open her eyes.
Back in the ranch:
"Mallory stay here with Lou" Jack said in a nervous voice. "Tim´s coming to help me"
"He's right there" Lou said almost in tears.
"Come on Jack" Tim shouted.
"Stay in the house" "If we don´t return in an hour, tell Caleb to go and give us a hand" Jack said to Lou.
"He´s coming with Ashley, they saw smoke from the trailer, the fire is growing too fast" Lou replied.
"I just called the police, the firefighters, for an ambulance, they are getting here" Mallory informed. "I´m in panic" she said as she hugged Jack.
"We´ll find them" "They must be just fine" "I´m sure Ty has already got a plan to return safe" Jack said to make Mallory feel better. But in fact he thought he couldn´t be so sure about it. He wished so.
Jack and Tim grabbed some horses and ran near the fire to look for them. Minutes later, more than a dozen firefighters started surrounding the fire. It was a too dangerous and the fire started growing too big. After ten minutes, other fifteen fire fighters joined them with their trucks. Finally, they decided to take Jack and Tim to the house and keep on looking by their selves. There was a lot of equipment necessary to be in the mission.
Chapter 6
A police man went to the place where all the family was waiting. "It´s been forty minutes" he said looking to each one´s terrified faces. "The firefighters could stop one part of the fire". "They found something near the lake" he said while he pulled something from his truck.
"Ty´s suit" Jack said in sadness.
The jacket was half burned, full of ashes and ripped.
"At least we know he has his pants on" Jack said trying to calm the rest of the family.
When the police man grabbed the suit with the other hand something small felt from its pocket. It was a small bag. The man picked it up and opened the bag. Inside there was a brown box. He opened it and found something shinny, a diamond, a ring. It had it´s own light, the diamond shined in the dark.
"So, what about this? The police man asked.
"No idea" Jack smiled.
Each one reacted in a different way. Mallory smiled and let a short laughter escape from her mouth. Lou put a hand on her mouth and said "Oh my god" a couple of times. Tim said "What? How?" he was so surprised and shocked at the same time that he couldn´t speak. He felt like something coming through his throat, he started sweating a little, but he realized that no one could explain what was going on. He stayed in mute for a long time. Jack felt almost like Tim, but he knew that some day it was going to happen. He had seen her daughter grow, his granddaughter too, he had seen Amy growing up too, and Mallory for sure.
Lou was surprised too. She couldn´t believe her sister would get married so fast. Lou thought to herself, "… I got married a year ago, and my ten-year younger sister get´s married a year later?" She felt happy and proud of her sister too. She started thinking that she would be the one to prepare their wedding, that was exciting for her.
Mallory thought "finally". She had been there to whisper all their relationship, and knew it was a fairytale.
Everything was interrupted by a noise that came from the barn. Like something crushing and breaking.
Everyone turned around and saw a dark shape moving and running.
"What´s that?" Mallory asked.
The police man turned on his flashlight and pointed to the moving shape.
"Spartan" said Jack.
Caleb, who had just arrived in his truck, saw the horse running and jumping. He took his rope and tried to catch Spartan, but he couldn´t.
The black horse ran scared to the forest. Everyone began to follow Spartan, but they couldn´t catch him. He was lost in the smoke and the ashes.
Meanwhile, Amy continued lying on the floor as Ty did. They were lost and fainted on the ground.
The floor started moving. It was like a nightmare. Everything went fast trough Amy´s mind. "It´s just my worst dream", she thought. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and saw the grass moving and disappearing under her feet.
She looked around, and saw what was really happening. The ground wasn´t moving, in fact she was the one moving. She was running, and jumping, she felt free and unstoppable. "Wait a second" she thought, "I´m horse riding". Amy thought she might had lost memory, because she didn´t remember anything at all. The last think she remembered of was when she was carrying Ty through the smoke, and how painful it was.
"Ty!" she shouted. When Amy turned around, saw Ty´s legs about to touch the floor. She took Ty by his waist and sat him on the horse. She was terribly scared when some thoughts came to her mind "What about if he is…" "No!" She started crying. Amy touched his heart, and realized that it was still beating, and he was breathing. "He´s just faint" She thought. She was terrified.
"It´s Spartan" She smiled. "Thanks buddy" "Come this way" said and took him by his mane. Amy couldn´t believe her eyes. How could he get here? How could he save her? How did they get to his back? And other questions mixed in her mind.
Spartan was going to the ranch. He was an intelligent horse, and Amy knew he was more than just a horse, "he is unique" She thought to herself.
Chapter 7
Spartan was just meters away when two firefighters that were near heard his footsteps.
Then, a tree´s branch fell on his the horse´s way. It was quite big, so he needed to run fast, gain impulse and then jump. When he got to the other side, Ty´s head hit to Spartan´s. Ty open his eyes and saw everything dark. He didn´t know where he was or what he was doing. Seconds later, he remembered that he was running from the fire´s flames, and the burned candles.
"What? How?... Why?" he modulated those words in his mouth.
"In fact in a long story". "Are you OK?" Amy asked.
"Depends on what OK means" he laughed. "I don´t remember anything at all" "I´m kind of lost" he said.
"My jacket!" he shouted as he put his hands on his head.
"That´s not the most important thing now". "We need to save our lives before looking for your suit" She said. Then she realized that she was being quite rude, so she added "We can look for it later, when the fire stops, OK?"
"Ah, yes sure" said in a low voice. He knew he had to find it, their future was in his jacket.
Ty took her hands. "We are near!" he said.
Spartan continued galloping trough the smoke. They were just meters away. They realized about it because they saw some police men looking for them. The officers could not even blink after seeing suck a miracle. That´s what it was, a miracle.
Lou heard a noise that sounded familiar to her. It was a horse´s steps.
"Spartan" she shouted.
All the family Bartlett-Fleming got shocked as they saw Spartan returning with two people.
"Ty and Amy" said Mallory.
Everyone went running where the horse had stopped. Amy tried to go down of Spartan with Ty´s help, and so did he with Amy´s help. They were all dusty and full of injuries and bruises all over their body. Their clothes were full of blood and ashes, their jeans were ripped, her knees were naked, and Ty´s shirt was almost nothing, just pieces of cloth. When Amy saw him in the light, her cheeks turned reddish, she just smiled and looked at him.
Chapter 8 – After the After
After some hugs, kisses and tears, they were all sitting in the living room, including Caleb and Ashley. Everybody was laughing about Ty´s dangerous date, but Ty was nervous. "What about if we died there?" he thought to himself. He stood up and sat in the sofa next to Amy.
"I´m so sorry" he said.
"No Ty, it´s OK." "There was a lot of wind, it isn´t your fault."
"I know, but I should have thought about it from the beginning" "I´m really sorry."
Amy smiled and hugged him. Then, she put her hand in his forehead and took the blood from the cut he had there.
It had been just a few hours since the incident, and they had already taken a bath and changed their clothes.
Amy took Ty´s hand and said "Come with me, we have to say thanks to someone." Ty followed her as they left the house.
They went to the barn and sat next to Spartan´s stall.
"Hey boy" said Ty as they hugged Spartan for a second. "You saved our life" Amy continued. "You are really special for us… we don´t know how to thank you, anything in the world would be enough."
The horse put his nose in Amy´s head. They hugged him again and touched his mane.
"It´s the miracle horse and the miracle girl." Said Ty and then laughed.
"And the miracle boyfriend" said Amy.
Ty got closer to Amy and then kissed her. She closed her eyes and kissed him back. Then Ty kissed her again but this time more intense and Amy smiled and kissed him back. They hugged for a while and then Ty said "So, you´ll be fine if I am your miracle boyfriend?" He said emphasizing in the word miracle.
"More than just fine." She said and kissed him again.
"Great!"
"Great!"
They kissed another time and they returned to the house while Ty hugged her from her back leaving his hands on her waist. He kissed her neck while Amy laughed.
When they opened the door everybody looked at them and their romantic scene. When they realized that everyone was looking at them they smiled. Amy tried to get away from Ty´s arms softly but he was stuck watching them watch them.
"Well, well, well!" "What do we have here?" Jack said with his western accent.
"Finally!" said Mallory and then remembered the last time she said it to Ty and Amy.
"That´s the way!" Caleb added.
They sat in the sofa and Ty put his arm over Amy´s shoulders. Then they were bombarded by a thousand of different questions.
Tim didn´t talk since they got to the room, he remembered what he had gone through that night, not the fire but the ring they saw on Ty´s jacket. He didn´t know what to do, if to stay quiet for the rest of the night, or tell Ty about the ring in front of Amy, or just give him the jacket and shut up. What was he thinking, he couldn´t shut up! He needed answers to many of his questions.
Chapter 9
"Dad, Is everything OK?" Amy asked as he saw Tim staring to Ty.
"Yes, yes" He answered.
Jack looked into Tim´s eyes and moved his head pointing to the kitchen. He stood up and went to the kitchen followed by Tim.
"What?" Tim asked.
"I´m pretty sure you know what" said Jack and grabbed Ty´s jacket from a chair and showed it to Tim. "Here´s the deal, If you tell anything to Amy or Ty about it you will just make more problems, untold problems. You better not…"
"What am I supposed to do Jack, if I realized out of the spot Ty´s intentions were to not only be his boyfriend but to marry her! " Tim interrupted. "Why didn´t he asked me first?"
"Calm down Tim" "Who knows, perhaps he was gonna tell us"
"What am I supposed to do now, ah? He repeated.
Suddenly, Ty walked to the room. Tim and Jack stopped talking and looked at him. Ty saw his Jacket in Jack´s hand.
"I heard everything" said Ty slowly.
Tim and Jack were speechless.
"Come on, sit down, I´ll tell ya" said Ty before Tim and Jack could speak.
"Just one question, you want to marry her right?" Tim asked.
"Well, I just…"
Tim looked at him waiting for his answer. Ty was nervous, a little shocked, but although he tried to look for the right answer, he should say something to keep Tim and Jack relived, to convince them and make them feel that everything was just fine. He was in trouble. The only thing that Ty could think about was how was he going to fix this problem.
"In fact is a long story."
"Go on"
"I bought the ring some days ago. I wanted me and Amy to get back together, but every time we talked about it, something happened. So I saw the ring and thought that that would be the perfect solution. I always have it with me since the day I bought it. I´m just looking for the right moment, right place and right words." Ty said and then stopped talking for a while. "I don´t know how to do this" he added.
Tim took a breath, and Jack looked at him.
"Well, I guess is not a secret any more.
"Does anybody else know?"
"Just Lou, Mallory, Lisa, and us." "And I think that Lou told Peter too"
"Oh, no!" Ty said.
"A policeman found your jacket, and guess what dropped from one pocket?"
"The ring."
"So, what are you planning to do? Jack asked.
"Just, please don´t tell Amy about it." "If she accepts and we decide to get married I´ll tell her the entire story" "Then we´ll talk to the rest, and we will give the news."
"Do you think you can handle it?" Ty asked.
"Can you at least wait a year or two?" Tim asked. "She´s young to get married!" "Then you have to suffer the consequences, early age marriages always end bad!" "I understand you like her! But you need to feel much more than that"
"You can tell me everything you want, but you can´t tell me how I feel. I don´t like her, I love her! And a lot! She´s the only thing that matters in my life" "University, jobs and money don´t mean anything to me if I don´t have Amy" "I don´t want to lose her again" Ty yelled.
Neither Tim nor Jack didn´t know what to answer.
"Ty, we can´t tell you what to do." "If you get married or not, that´s not our decision." Jack said more calmed. "If you have that feeling of marring her, It´s because your feelings for her are the strongest you could ever feel for a person" "Tim shouldn´t have said that" Jack said.
"I still think she´s too young" Tim said.
"Fine"
"Can you at least wait some more time?"
"Maybe" "That my decision" Ty said and left the room. But this time, he took his jacket with him. When he was leaving, he found Amy going to the kitchen.
"Hey!"
"Hey!"
"Where were you? I was looking for ya!"
"I was… just talking to your father and to Jack." He said and smiled. "Nothing, just work"
"Where´s everybody?" he said as he saw the living room was almost empty. "Lou is talking to Peter at the phone, Mallory is helping Lou with the baby´s room, Lisa is at the computer and Ashley and Caleb had already left that´s it" she said.
"Come", she said and sat next to him in the sofa.
"I still can´t believe we were almost burned this night" she said.
"Yeah, right." "That was because we´re hot!" he laughed.
"Nice joke!"she laughed.
Amy moved her head to Ty´s shoulder. She put her legs over the sofa and put her head over Ty´s legs.
"I´m so tired!"
"Me too."
Before any of them could speak again, they felt asleep.