PROLOGUE
RATED 'M' FOR MATURE READERS ONLY!
This story will be rated "M" because it will be FOR MATURE READERS ONLY! There will be some violence, language, and sexual content. As dramatic as that sounds, that basically describes any weeknight of prime time television, only with the necessity of using words to convey the plot instead of pictures.
If the reader cannot cope with a truer to life representation of the characters described in a more dramatic fictional format, such as having to suffer much less than positive repercussions for the consequences of their actions, then I would suggest that it may be best to move on and not even start this story.
This will NOT be the typical Heartland argue, kiss, and make up kind of fluffy fairytale, rather it is going to be told from a much more realistic and definitely darker perspective which may not always put the characters in warm fuzzy places with the assurance of a happy ever after. Nothing is guaranteed, so the characters will have to deal with whatever is dealt to them.
I welcome reviews, pro or con, but if you must rant at me for not telling the story YOUR way, then I can only suggest you publish your own version! If you find this story makes you too uncomfortable to tolerate it, I have an instant cure for that, use your mouse or keypad and click it away! Problem solved!
I do not own any part of the characters or content of the CBC Heartland Television Series and I do not make any kind of profit from them.
That being said, enter into chapter one at your own risk!
We begin the story during the middle of Amy Fleming's European tour for the World Equestrian Games in Europe, set sometime between seasons seven and eight of the Heartland TV series. She has broken her engagement to Ty Borden and now the two of them may have to learn to carry on with their new lives, separated by one too many broken promises.
OneLoneWolf56
Chapter 1
The days had become unbearably drawn out for Ty Borden. He muddled through most days by going through the motions of finishing his classes at the University of Calgary or at his job at the Hudson Veterinary Clinic thinking it had to be later than the time indicated on his watch. Even worse was the dread of six o'clock and time to enter the void waiting for him at the sparingly decorated house he had just rented. The walls were still bare and a strange echo reverberated when anyone spoke in the house, but it didn't matter because there was no one to talk to except for two coed neighbors and their friends when they came to borrow this or that or ask for help with something that needed fixing.
Going home alone to unfamiliar surroundings in the modest little house on a big city side street was not the kind of feeling he would ever look forward to, but staying at his little trailer out in the country near Heartland Ranch was no longer an option.
Ty had been near to giving up all hope of ever achieving his perception of normality before his arrival at Heartland as a teenager, sent there to finish his probation period until it ended with his eighteenth birthday, but a blue-eyed little horsey girl had knocked his senses for a loop and brought him back into the game of life. She motivated the almost seventeen year old ward of the juvenile system to try to be a part of something good instead of being in the middle of one kind of trouble or another. The beautiful golden haired free-spirit of a girl had changed his way of thinking, totally transformed his sense of self-worth, and because of her he had learned to be more attentive to others' wishes and needs instead of playing the part of the self-serving jerk he had mastered by the time he was thirteen.
The portentous nearness of that horsey girl, Amy Fleming, his ex-partner in the train wreck that used to be his engagement, suffocated his existence to the point of having thoughts he never believed he could personally experience. Did he only imagine it, or had she said that he was the one who made her happy enough to spend the rest of her life with him? Ty was tired, not only from the lack of sleep, but hopelessness had a way of chewing its way through every ounce of energy his body had in it. He could not get past the present to begin thinking about the future. How could he even pretend that the cared?
This rainy Sunday morning had been a waste of time. It was stormy outside and his plans to take a ride through the foothills on his Norton went down the drain with the torrent coming from the darkened sky. The motorcycle had been his lifeline, one last thread tying him to anything in life that gave him any real pleasure, hanging on through the weeks of nothingness to ride and revive his disposition to queue up another Monday morning and push through it. Ty thought if anything could soothe his mind enough to make it give up and rest after another sleepless night, the steady drumming of rain on the roof would do it, but he just laid there, and the more he tried to capture sleep, the farther it eluded him.
One particularly excruciating stormy evening alone with those shattered memories in the compact little trailer he had rented from a cowboy friend of his had nearly sent him over the edge. He tried in vain to navigate his thoughts away from the endless loop of images that played over and over of Amy being waited on hand and foot by royal servants in that fairytale palace, basking in the glow of never ending gifts and attention from Ahmed al Saeed, the prince of some nameless country on the other side of the world who had managed to wedge himself between the couple and tear them apart at a strained time in their relationship. He imagined the prince having already installed a new golden throne sitting beside his own in that goddamn kingdom of his, where ever it was, to show off his new princess to the world. Muscles in his gut stayed tied up in knots from the out-and-out devastation he felt when he perceived them alone together, entwined in the throes of royal passion, the son of a bitch haven taken his place in giving her the pleasure that she had only shared with him. Had every kiss, every promise, every hope he shared with the woman that had agreed to marry him been a lie? How could he have misread the messages she had sent him with her entrancing blue eyes when she looked at him the way she did when they were alone? How could he have felt the tenderness in her touch if it wasn't really there? What the hell was he going to do with the rest of his life now that the road to his future had been plowed under?
That night was merciless to every will that he tried to summon to make him want to go on. He was saved only at the last possible second by a God-sent lightning strike as it tore its way through the tall Aspen only feet away from the converted travel trailer, its impact jarring him back from giving away his very existence. The jolt affected him so much that he knew extreme changes were necessary for him to maintain any semblance of sanity, and one of the changes would be to remove himself far away from anything that reminded him of her.
Two weeks had not diminished the sting of Amy's absolute rejection during his disastrous trip to Europe. He had gone there to reconnect with his fiancée after she had been on tour for two months with the prince's jumping team during trials leading up to the European Equestrian Games and had seemed to be growing distant in her phone conversations with him. Her mysterious new attitude had been worse than any nightmare he could have imagined and the weight of their sunken relationship weighed him down like an anvil tied around his neck. He didn't see it coming, and it left him at the end of a dream that had once defined the next stage of his life.
Ty lay there exhausted and alone in that dreary, bare little bedroom surrounded by only the failures that were trying to destroy him, and he knew that needed another miracle to save him.
Amy Fleming stood in the center of the D'Ornano Stadium's arena, located in the city of Caen, France, watching one of the riders from the royal equestrian team make another run at a series of medium jumps she had set up hoping to help the exasperated rider with the timing of his strides, something he had been lacking in the last two competitions. "Keep your heels out of his sides! He is confused with what you are asking him to do when he feels that!" the aggravated trainer shouted. She caught the unappreciative glance he gave her as he circled around again, and when the stallions hoof nicked the next pole and knocked it to the ground, "Ohhh-Kaaay, Anwar, why don't we call it a day! I think we all need a break!"
After jerking the horses' reins a bit too harshly, she thought, the well-groomed rider cut across the course and the pair disappeared through a gate that led to the lavish stables lining both sides of a stone lane that separated rows of individual stalls. "Gonna have to see about calming that jerk down before his horse refuses to even let him in the saddle!" she mumbled to herself as she walked across the soft dirt to exit the arena.
"Amy! Come! This way!" The stressed head-trainer looked up to see Ahmed motioning her through the smaller gate at the middle-front of the ring with a hyper wave from his right hand, the gate held wide with his left.
"It does not look as though Anwar has made any progress today. I was hoping to see some improvement, but it appears there is more work to do!"
"Yes, Ahmed, the session could have definitely gone better," she said. "I am going to have to find a way to get through to him soon, or it will take longer to fix Izzat's willingness to cooperate with him than we have available to us."
"Keep me posted, please," Ahmed said as he pursed his lips and evaluated his options. "I have a proposition! I am prepared to organize a team retreat to my villa outside of Paris. Perhaps a weekend away from the pressure of work will help the morale of everyone, including you! I have noticed that you are not yourself, Amy. Is there anything that I can do?" he offered.
"No, Ahmed, it's just that, I have been out of sorts since Ty went back to Canada."
The prince raised a brow, suddenly curious, and he asked, "Is everything alright, Amy? It's been two weeks and it seems that you are disturbed by what has happened. You only need to tell me whatever it is that you need, and I will make it happen!" he offered, showing off his million dollar smile.
Amy's shoulders dropped with the confession, having had no other confidant to share her emotional baggage with, and she sighed, "We had a serious argument, just before he left, and, I ended our engagement," she sulked, maintaining her focus on trying to push the memory of Ty's face out of her mind from when she made the snap decision to take her ring off her finger and slap it in his hand. "We didn't part on good terms, and I regret that things ended the way they did. I know now that I really hurt him this time. Even if we can't work it out, he didn't deserve what I said to him. I've tried to call to at least say I was sorry for the way it all happened, but he hasn't answered any of my calls since that day, so, I guess what is done, is done."
"It is for the best, Amy!" he perked up at the news. "Things have changed very dramatically in your life! You should never have been tied down in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere with a stable hand as a husband!" he prodded, always keen with any opportunity to put her ex-fiancé in a demeaning light.
"Ahmed! That's not fair!" she snapped at her ex's defense. "Ty had a tragic childhood. His parents treated him terribly and put him in more hardships than any child should ever have to endure! He is a good man, with a kind heart, and he has managed his way through school and done well at it, without any help from anyone, and I know that he will be a successful veterinarian someday!"
"Amy, he could have never provided you with the life that you deserve, and will now surely achieve! Do you see yourself as the wife of a veterinarian, in a place like, that, having babies and scratching your way through life, working for nothing? You should be thinking of the opportunities that have presented themselves to you since you came to Europe with me! You have only seen a small portion of what is ahead, I promise you!"
The exchange had riled the true cowgirl at heart, still loyal to the ways of her previous life back in Alberta, but she had learned to bite her tongue and behave as a leader of an internationally competitive team of the highest caliber, constantly under the scrutiny of a worldwide press, although the fiery temper of a rancher's daughter was still hard to manage at times.
"Maybe not anymore," she ruminated.
Ahmed placed his hand on her shoulder to show support to his obviously torn head trainer, "Think about it! You will see! It is for the best!" as she turned away and walked to the exit.
The limousine was parked in its usual place in front of the stadium and she greeted the driver as he nodded and opened the door for her to climb in the back seat. She usually did her paperwork on the way to the hotel, or made calls to her team's staff to give directions, or to ask questions about any of the horses she might have concerns for, but today she sat and looked out the window absent mindedly watching the nameless people and landmarks as she passed by, blurring her distinction between her past and her future.
She had managed to stay busy enough with her job that when she finally made it back to her room each evening she was content with a long, hot shower and having a five star meal in her silk pajamas and studying her notes before crashing into bed for a much needed rest. There was no time to concern herself with her new status as a single woman away from home or to harbor any regrets over her extinct relationship. The only thing that mattered to her now was to focus on the team's problems and employ the solutions to fix them. Winning four pre-games meets in a row was satisfying enough, for now, justifying her reasons for moving here and starting the career she only dreamed of as a girl. This job would place her as one of the most sought after female trainers in the world, if the team was successful in the games, and she had every intention of making sure that is exactly how it was going to happen.
