Summer of Discovery

Disclaimer – anything you recognise belongs to Lauren Brooke. Besides, if it belonged to me, there is a certain person in this that would never have existed and other things would be very different.

Enjoy, and please review even if you don't like it, let me know what you think!

Chapter one - Homecoming

Amy sighed happily as she drove up the driveway to Heartland. She had just finished her first year as a veterinary student, she'd already completed four years as a pre-vet student and was glad she was now well over the half way point in her training.

She was looking forward to being a qualified vet, but she didn't like being away from Heartland as much as she had to be. Through most of her pre-vet studies Amy hadn't spent much time at Heartland at all. She had travelled a lot in semester breaks to either work with vets in other states or to work with various horses around the country. She had really enjoyed doing that, but over the last year or so Amy found herself wishing more and more that she could just be home at Heartland.

So for the first time since she had started college, she was going to spend her whole summer at home, and she couldn't wait to get back in to the usual routines of working at Heartland.

She pulled her car up next to Ty's beat up pickup and climbed out stretching her arms above her head to work out the kinks from the long drive and took a deep breath as she looked around the front yard.

There were two horses looking over their doors in the front stable block, curious as to who the new comer was. Amy smiled and wandered over toward the nearest to say hello.

The horse was a rich liver chestnut colour, with a wide blaze running the length of his face. He had kind eyes and his ears were pricked, but he was wary of her as she offered him her hand to smell. He snuffled his lips across her hand as Amy murmured softly to him, she raised her other hand up slowly to place it on his neck and gently stroked him.

"Home for two minuets and already getting as much from him as me after three weeks work" Came a warm, slightly amused, voice from behind her.

Amy turned her head and threw a smile over her shoulder at the speaker. She turned back to the horse for a moment before moving away from him again.

"I guess he's just got good taste" Amy teased as she moved to hug her best friend Ty.

"Very funny" He said pretending to grouch but hugging her back just as hard regardless. He couldn't keep the smile off her face for very long though.

"It's good to see you, seems like haven't seen you for about a year!" He said playfully.

"I know, I know, but not my fault we missed each other at Spring Break!" Amy defended herself with a short laugh. They hadn't seen each other since Christmas when Amy had come home for the holidays.

"No true, that wasn't your fault" Ty smiled uneasily, not wanting to talk about it.

"Yeah. Anyway, how is Cam doing?" Amy asked referring to the horse behind her that she's been stroking before Ty appeared. "Did you try him on a lunge line like you were thinking of?"

"Sort of." Ty responded moving closer to the gelding's head. To Amy's surprise the gelding seemed much more wary of Ty than he had been with her, and he threw his head up and backed off as Ty reached out a hand to him. Ty sighed and turned away from Cam slightly but didn't back off, keeping his body language as non-threatening as he could.

"Sort of?" Amy questioned with a small frown.

"Well, I got him in the ring and got the lunge cavesson on him but he didn't like it very much, so I just let him wander around a bit getting used to it rather than asking him to work in it." Ty explained quietly with a soft smile as Cam stretched his head out and snuffled at Ty's shoulder.

Amy smiled again, "Sounds good. Do you think it was a man that abused him?"

"Seems likely, give how well he reacted to you. He might even have been treated really well by a female before and that's part of why he responded to you like that too." Ty said as he started to gently work his fingers in circles on Cam's face.

Cam had come to Heartland three weeks ago having been rescued by a local woman who had bought him from an auction taking pity on the under weight, very nervous youngster who had obvious whip marks and open sores on his quarters and legs from regular beatings. But his new owner didn't have any experience with helping a horse like Cam, so had sent him to Heartland to be properly rehabilitated.

Over the last three weeks he had gained a lot of weight back and had gradually settled in and enjoyed being out in the pastures rather than warily snatching at the grass. And with Scott's help, the wound he had had healed up really well to a point where Ty had felt he was fit enough to try join up. That had been a little under a week ago. The gelding had become used to Ty's presence as he had had to regularly clean and dress the wounds the gelding had, but he didn't trust him. Join up had helped some, but he was still a bit wary of Ty, but Ty wasn't concerned, he knew that with a horse like Cam, real trust could take a while.

Amy smiled seeing the gelding relax and lower his head to Ty's touch. Ty kept working for a few more minuets before moving away and back towards Amy. "So," He started, "You've met Cam, wanna meet everyone else?" He smiled seeing Amy roll her eyes as she responded.

"What do you think?" She laughed before heading along the stable block, Ty laughing and following her.

Amy spent the next hour or so meeting the new horses and saying hello to her own horses and Heartlands permanent residents. She knew most of the horses stories in depth already as she and Ty had talked three times a week or more since Christmas about everything that was going on at Heartland, but she enjoyed finally getting to meet them all in person.

The good thing about being in touch with everything at home is that it made her feel like she was still a part of everything even though she was a couple hours away. So she could guess who was who without being told, like she did Cam.

There was a car Amy didn't recognise coming up the driveway as she and Ty headed for the farmhouse to grab a drink. She looked at Ty questioningly as he looked towards it, "That's Heather" He said catching her look.

"Oh, ok." Amy said trying to hide the slight disappointment she felt, and heading for the house expecting Ty to head for the car to meet his girlfriend. Ty and Heather had been together for several years now. Amy and her got on ok, but weren't really friends, Amy just tried for Ty's sake more than anything.

Amy grabbed a drink from the fridge and sat at the large kitchen table. She picked up a horse magazine and started flicking through it. She was surprised though when a few moments later she heard the sound of raised voices coming from the yard, she stayed where she was but stopped paying attention to what she was reading. A few minuets later Amy was further surprised to hear the sound of a car pulling out and jumped at the sound of the door slamming as Ty entered the kitchen.

She looked up at him slightly guilty, and was caught off guard by his expression. He was mad, for sure, but behind that he looked confused and maybe a little sad. He moved across the kitchen, got himself a glass of orange juice, and sat at the table across from Amy. Sighing deeply he looked across the table at some point over Amy's shoulder.

Amy knew she was staring, but she couldn't look away. There was something in his emerald eyes that held her there. Ty blinked, seeming to realise for the first time that he wasn't alone. Amy blushed slightly as the spell was broken and looked back down at the magazine in front of her. "Sorry" She mumbled.

Ty gave her a tired half smile before speaking. "She's leaving." Amy looked up at him shocked. Ty frowned looking at his hands wrapped around his glass. "She told me a couple of nights ago. She was offered a really good job in New York. She asked me to come with her." He added with no real emotion. He was trying to keep his feelings from Amy right now. Glancing at her, he saw that she was trying to keep hers from him too, but he could still see that she was worried.

"You know, Heather and I have been together for 4 years now" He said looking down again, "And I thought it was because we were in love. But it wasn't until she asked me to go with her that I realised that wasn't true." At this, Amy let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. If he wasn't in love with her, he wouldn't be leaving.

Ty saw the relief on her face and was surprised by the relief he felt himself at the strength of her reaction. He wasn't really sure why though. He'd been doing a lot of thinking since Heather had told him about the job, and he was pretty confused about a lot of things right now.

"I was thinking that night, about when Lou left. She left the place she called home and a job she loved, for her husband. She loves Scott enough to give this up" He said with something close to wonder. "If someone had asked me before it happened, if I would ever leave Heartland, I'd have said 'no not a chance, doesn't matter, Heather'd never ask me to' I can't really believe how wrong I was. Not only did she ask, but she expected me to say yes" He shook his head a frown appearing on his features.

Amy wasn't really sure what she should say. She'd been surprised by the strength of her feelings at the news, and she'd been surprised at the disappointment she'd felt when Heather had arrived too. Amy sometimes forgot about her, she spoke to Ty so much, but mostly about Heartland, or how college was, Heather was very rarely mentioned. She was saved having to say anything as Ty spoke once more.

"I've been wondering ever since why we've been together for so long. The fact that she asked me to come tell me that she's still in love with me, but also tell me she doesn't really know me. And as I thought she'd never ask says I didn't really know her either. How can we have been together so long and be so wrong about each other?" He asked looking at Amy again. But he didn't give her time to answer.

"I think we stayed together cause it was easy, it was comfortable. But those are not good reasons to be with someone."

"No, I don't think they are" Amy said softly meeting his eyes for the first time since the start of the conversation. She saw a lot of confusion and sadness there. But not the pain from the break up she'd expected to. And for some reason she was happy about that.

Ty smiled softly at her. "We weren't though were we? We were together for the right reasons, right? We were in love." He made it almost a question and Amy found herself getting lost in his emerald orbs.

"We were" She murmured.

Ty dropped his gaze and laughed shortly. "I still love you, you know that right?" He asked looking at her again, but the sadness and confusion was gone, for now at least, and there was a gleam in his eyes that Amy couldn't decipher.

She smiled warmly at him "Yeah I do. I love you too." She said knowing they both meant as a friend rather than romantically.

"Phew, thank goodness for that!" Ty joked, lightening the mood and Amy laughed at him.

"So, erm, why was Heather here then?" Amy asked hesitantly, not eager to lose the light mood they'd found, but she had to ask.

"Just dropping some of my stuff off, I shoved it in the back of my truck for now." He shrugged but knew Amy wasn't going to buy that as the whole story. "She's pretty mad at me, she asked me to come again. For some reason she can't see that we aren't meant to be together." He shook his head again not quite believing that she didn't see it. "Hey, do fancy heading out for a ride?" He asked changing the subject, "Jack and Nancy won't be back for a while and I want to take Sammy out. And I'm pretty sure you'd love a chance to take your brat of a pony out." He laughed and ducked when Amy threw the magazine at him.

"He is not a brat!" She said but not being able to keep a straight face kind of belayed her words and they both laughed. "Ok, I'm gonna go change first, then I'll be right out" Amy headed for the stairs both of them still laughing.

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A little over an hour later, Ty and Amy were riding in comfortable silence just enjoying the ride. Sammy was a 17hh Irish Draught/Thoroughbred mix mare who had developed a habit of bucking after throwing her teenaged rider that way and her lack of confidence in her as a result. She had been improving a lot despite only being with them for a couple of weeks, and Amy hoped she could go home soon.

Amy sighed contentedly. Ty looked over at her and quirked an eyebrow at the sound. "What?" Amy asked when she saw his look.

"Nothing" Ty said with a smile and shake of his head, he looked ahead of him again.

"No, seriously what?" Amy asked again with a small laugh.

Ty looked at her briefly before answering, "You just seem really happy is all." He caught her slight blush out of the corner of his eye and his smile grew, "I don't think I've seen you this happy in a long time. Its really good to see" He added looking at her.

Amy smiled at him, "I am." She replied think just how true it was. She laughed as Sundance threw in a small buck "Easy Sunny" she said collecting him up a bit. They had gotten to a point where they normally cantered and it seemed that Sundance was eager to get going. Amy looked across at Ty who nodded and they both let the horses out, who eagerly took off across the grassy clearing. The horses were enjoying the ride as much as their riders. Sundance's short pony stride was no match for Sammy's long horse one, but he did his best to keep up.

Amy and Ty pulled the horses up as the path started to narrow and wind back down the hill. As they did, a bird flew out of the bushes just beside Sammy. The mare shied sideways and turned to stare at the bush but after a moment she snorted and relaxed. Ty asked her to walk on again and when she did without a fuss he praised her.

"She seems like she's about ready to go home." Amy said when Sundance fell in to step behind them.

"She is doing really well with me." Ty agreed, "but Sasha, her rider, came by yesterday and rode her out, I was on Taz, and they were doing ok till a similar thing happened. Sasha panicked and in turn Sammy did and Sasha got off and refused to get back on." He explained sounding frustrated. Amy knew that Sammy's rider had a tendency to panic from pervious conversations with Ty about the pair. But Ty was one of the most patient people she knew, so if he was getting that frustrated with Sasha, then things were pretty bad.

"That's a shame. Sounds like you were right from the start, bad rider/horse combination." She said.

"Yeah it is." Ty agreed, "But she still says that she wants her right and that she wants to keep her, that there's no way she'll sell her." He said with a small frown.

Amy sat thinking for several moments before speaking, "So she's got no trust in Sammy, and Sammy knows it and is playing on it. Yesterday, when Sammy played up, did she seem nervous? Or was it more that she thought she could get out of working if she got rid of her rider?" She asked.

Ty thought for a moment before answering "I'm not sure really. She seemed really wound up and nervous, but when I got on her she settled down really quickly and she seemed fine the rest of the time. Sasha didn't seem to want anything to do with Sammy afterwards, so she ended up leading Taz back. She seemed fine with that." He shrugged.

"Hmm, when is she next coming to see Sammy?" Amy asked him still thinking.

"Saturday, day after tomorrow."

"Ok, would it be ok if I spoke with her and did a session with them both?" She asked, not wanting to step on Ty's toes, he was in charge now with Amy away most of the year.

"Be my guest! Please, maybe you can see what I missed, cause I just don't really get it." He said sounding a little less frustrated now they had a new plan.

"Great, thanks." Amy said with a smile.

They chatted happily the rest of the ride home without further incident with Sammy. They were laughing and joking as they heading in to the farm house after taking care of evening feeds, and were welcomed with the smell of dinner.

"Ohh, something smells good!" Amy said as both Nancy and Jack came through the door from the living room. She was welcomed with warm hugs from both.

"I'm sorry we weren't here when you got back Amy, I didn't think you'd be back til much closer to dinner time." Jack confessed looking a little sheepish.

"Doesn't matter!" Amy said with a smile, "Really I don't mind, I had a great afternoon on the trails!" She assured him.

"Anything we can do to help, Nancy?" Ty asked looking to the older woman now stood at the stove.

"No, no, we've got it under control, you guys just go ahead and clean up, dinner will be ready in about 10 minuets." She said with a smile.

"Ok, cool, thanks" Ty said gratefully heading for the stairs with Amy following. Ty had moved in about 3 years ago after there had been a bad storm and he'd ended up needing to drive out in the middle of the night to take care of the horses. It was decided that it would be better to have someone there all the time in case of something similar happening in the future. He had what had used to be Lou's room before she'd moved out. Amy had told him he could have had Marion's old room if he'd wanted as it was bigger, but Ty hadn't felt comfortable with that and had been happy to move in to the smaller room.

"I'm gonna take a really quick shower if its ok with you?" Ty asked turning to look at Amy as he stopped by the bathroom door, opposite Amy's bedroom door.

"Yeah go ahead, I think I'd rather wait and have a longer one after dinner!" She said with a laugh heading in to her room. Ty laughed with her heading in to the bathroom and closing the door.

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So that's the first chapter, what do ya think?