The last thing Ty remembered hearing before he lost consciousness was a scream. He didn't know how long he'd been out, but when he woke, something was pressing against his chest, making it hard for him to breath. His head was throbbing, and his one leg was numb.
He tried to focus his memory and recall what had happened. He'd been at the movie theater with Caleb, Cass and … Amy! Oh, my god, the scream came from Amy!
Ignoring the pain in his head, he looked frantically to the seat next to him. Amy's motionless body slumped halfway off the seat. He could feel her hair tickling his hand. He touched her, hoping for a response. He tried to move but was pinned in by the steering wheel pressed against his chest. Reaching for the light knob on the dash, he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He moved his arm back and the pain subsided. With his free hand, he searched for a pulse point. When his hand found her neck, he pressed his fingers down and waited.
It took a minute, but he could feel her pulse. It wasn't strong, but it was there. He let out a sigh of relief. He let his hand slowly move over her head and chest, feeling for any outward injuries. He needed to know if she was bleeding anywhere.
"Amy, can you hear me?"
She moved a little but didn't respond to him. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, but he couldn't see all of her. Panic set in as he knew he could not move, and had no idea how seriously Amy was hurt. What was he going to do? He put his hand on her shoulder, brushing her hair back just enough to see a portion of her face. It scared him to see her so pale and still.
His movements causing his breathing to become labored and it was difficult for him to keep his focus. But he had to; he was their only hope in surviving. His head was throbbing, but he didn't find any cuts or bleeding. His one wrist was hurting, which made him think he broke it.
He started looking for his cell phone, finding it in his jacket pocket. The phone lit up when he pressed the button, giving him enough light to check their current situation. The dash of the truck was pushed back by the impact, pinning him in behind the steering wheel. Amy's legs were pinned under the dash, but her upper body was lying on the seat. He couldn't see all of her legs, so he had no idea if she had cuts that were bleeding. He pressed the call button and put the phone to his ear. No dial tone. Great. Now what?
He remembered turning on to the road that led to Heartland, which met there wouldn't be much if any traffic at this time of night. Ty wasn't sure anyone would even see them as they had gone off the road and down a small embankment. He was trying to recall how far they were from the ranch. If he started blowing the horn, someone at the ranch house might hear it.
His concerned for Amy was growing. She was still unconsciousness, and he couldn't see her very well. His mind wandered to the fact that she could have internal bleeding.
"Amy, I'm here. Can you hear me?"
His voice was shaky and tears began to roll down his cheeks. He couldn't lose her. She was the love of his life, the woman that believed in him. It was her belief in him that had made him into the man he is. He didn't want to go there, but how could he go on without her?
Just then he heard a shaky voice. "Ty?"
His hand moved slightly on her shoulder."I'm here, Amy, right here."
Amy felt his hand on her shoulder. She relaxed, knowing he was close. She couldn't see him, but she knew he was there. They were together, and that's all that mattered. She took a couple of breaths and then tried to speak again.
"Ty, what—what happened? Where are we?"
Ty didn't want to fighter her, so he thought a moment before saying, "We're in the truck, Amy. We went off the road to avoid hitting an animal. Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?"
Amy tried to recall what happened. As her memory slowly came back, she remembered watching Caleb and Cass making out. There were zombies and a big robot, which was weird? She said to Ty.
"I remember zombies and a big robot. And Caleb and Cass making out. It was gross."
Ty laughed. "We were watching a movie, Amy, and yes, Caleb and Cass were making out big time. Are you okay? Do you hurt anywhere?" He didn't want to keep asking, but he needed to know if she was hurting from an injury he couldn't see.
"My head is throbbing." Amy paused for a moment. Something wasn't right, but she didn't know how to explain it. It was dark in the truck, and Ty could only see part of her face, but not her eyes that always told him what he needed to know. But he knew. He knew she was hurt, probably more than either of them knew, and that's what scared him the most.
"Amy, it's okay. We are going to be okay. I'm here with you."
"Ty, don't leave me."
He took a breath and with as calm a voice as he could muster, he softly caressed her hair.
"I won't, Amy. I will never leave you. I love you."
She slowly sank back into the darkness. She could feel Ty's presence, and she felt safe.
Ty laid his head back against the seat and closed his eyes. How was he going to get them help? He couldn't move, and the phones didn't work. Then he had an idea: maybe a text would work. Sometimes text worked when phone calls didn't. He reached for his phone, pulled up Caleb's number, and started typing.
"Hey man, need help, had accident, Amy hurt!" He pressed the send button. Ty waited, hoping to feel his phone vibrate. He had just about given up, when he felt the vibration.
"Ty, where are you?" Caleb responded.
Ty texted him the location of where he thought they were and told him to call 911. Caleb responded.
"On my way, so are paramedics. Hang on, be there soon!"
Ty sighed in relief. "Amy, wake up. Help is coming." He touched her gently, but there was no response. His thoughts went to a place he didn't want to go. Ty pleaded, "Amy, wake up! Please wake up!"
He heard her cough several times, she was vomiting. Her head was tilted down, so he knew she would not chock. He pressed the phone screen again and shone the light on the seat and her. He didn't have to see it to know she was coughing up blood, he knew the smell well. Amy was bleeding internally!
Fear griped his heart. Amy needed help and he couldn't help her. His temper took over as he slammed his fist into the steering wheel, swearing from the pain. Just then, he heard the sound of a truck coming. He pressed the horn, hoping the noise would alert whoever was coming to where they were. Caleb slowed down, crawling along the edge of the road looking for signs of Ty's truck. He rolled down his window and was about to yell when he heard the sound of a horn blowing ahead.
Caleb sped up to the spot and saw tire tracks that went off into the grass. He threw the truck in park and jumped out, grabbing his spot light and running into the grass.
"Ty? Ty, where are you, man?" he yelled.
"Over here, Caleb! Over here!" Ty screamed. "Hurry! Amy needs help now!"
Caleb ran to the sound of his friend's voice and tried to open the truck door. It wouldn't budge. He gave it another shot, but still no luck. He went around to the passenger door and gave the door a jerk.
It opened, nearly sending him backwards into the weeds. He righted himself and shone his light into the truck. He could see Amy lying on the seat, blood on the floor, her body pale and lifeless.
He shot Ty a look. "Ty, man—?"
"She's alive, but she's got internal bleeding. How much longer till the paramedics get here?"
"They're on their way. Are you all right?"
Ty shook his head. He was more concerned for Amy. She needed help now! They both heard the sound of a siren in the back ground, and Caleb took off for the road to flag the paramedics down.
The next thing Ty knew, there were people everywhere. He kept telling them to take care of Amy first. He was fine; he just needed his wife to be okay. They pried the dash up enough to get Amy's legs out from under it. She was carefully placed on a backboard and then onto the stretcher. They placed an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth to help her breath. Her pulse was week and her blood pressure was low, which would indicate she was bleeding internally. They called for a medical chopper as they needed to get Amy into the hospital quickly. Ty understood and motioned for Caleb to come over to him.
"Caleb, I need you to go with Amy. Don't let her out of your sight, please!"
Caleb nodded. "Don't worry, man. I will guard her with my life. See you soon." He took off running.
It took them a while to extract him from the truck as his leg was wedged under the dash. He found out later it was a good thing: he had a big gash on it that would have bled out if not for the pressure of the dash resting on it.
The paramedics suspected he had several cracked ribs and maybe a collapsed lung. His injuries were bad, but he was in no immediate danger. He kept telling them he needed to get to the hospital to see Amy, but it seemed like no one was listening to him. Finally they loaded him into the ambulance. He was so anxious to get to the hospital that the paramedic told him to calm down or he would have to sedate him. Ty lay his head down, closed his eyes, and prayed that Amy would be okay.
They arrived at the hospital about 25 minutes later and he was rolled into emergency. He kept telling anyone that would listen he needed to know how his wife, Amy Fleming, was. Finally a nurse told him she would check on Amy's status and be back shortly.
Amy was in a room down the hall. She was in and out of consciousness and continued to vomit up blood. She could hear voices but nothing familiar. Her thoughts were confused and didn't make any sense. She saw Caleb and Cass kissing and zombies with this huge robot waving its arms.
Where was her husband? Where was Ty? Why was he not here with her? They gave her some medicine to prep her for surgery, and she sacrum to the darkness.
Ty was getting more upset with every passing moment. He needed to know where Amy was—and more so how she was. He kept asking, but no one was listening to him. He was about to let them know just how upset he was when he heard a familiar voice.
"Ty, how are you, man?"
"Caleb, where is Amy? Is she all right?"
Caleb explained, "The doctors are prepping her for surgery. They have her stable for the time being, but they're going to be taking her to surgery ASAP." He shrugged. "That was all they would tell me. But Jack made it here, and he's with her now."
Ty tried to get up. He needed to be there for her; he'd promised her he wouldn't leave her.
A nurse pushed him back down on the bed. "You need to lie here quietly. We need to get an x-ray of your chest."
He looked at the nurse. "I need to see my wife now, before she goes into surgery. If you don't take me to her, I'm getting off this bed and will go find her myself, do you understand?"
The doctor walked in just then and said, "Mr. Borden, please relax, Amy is okay. She is just down the hall, and we will take you to see her as soon as we are done with the x-ray. Okay?"
Ty nodded and lay back on the bed. The x-ray was done in short order, and they wheeled Ty to Amy's room.
As they headed down the hall, Ty asked how Amy was doing. The doctor gave Ty all the details of what they had done since Amy arrived at the hospital. He could see she was breathing easier but still looked very pale. Ty motioned to move him closer to her bed and asked if he could hold her hand.
The nurse smiled. "Yes, but just for a minute. They're ready to take her to surgery."
Ty reached out and gently took Amy's hand in his. "Amy, I'm here, right here." Ty kissed her hand.
Amy stirred. She knew that voice, that touch. She tried to wake up, but her brain was in a fog, the drugs pulling her into a deeper sleep. She focused all her energy on squeezing his hand.
Ty felt it, and his eyes filled with tears. He wanted to see those blue eyes of hers open and looking at him, but he knew that couldn't happen right now. So he squeezed her hand and said, "I love you, Amy. I'm here waiting for you. Please come back to me."
They took Amy off to surgery and admitted Ty to the hospital as the x-ray confirmed he had several cracked ribs and a broken wrist. It turned out he didn't have a collapsed lung; it was just the pressure of the steering wheel on his chest that had made it hard for him to breathe.
Jack made it to his room along with Caleb and they waited for news on Amy. Ty rested some as they had given him painkillers to relax him. But he was still very aware of what was happening to his wife. Jack and Caleb both took turns pacing the hall and keeping Ty calm.
Hours passed with no word on how the surgery had gone or how Amy was. Ty was getting anxious. He needed to know about Amy. Jack was being Jack and telling him that she would be fine—she would be just fine. Caleb didn't look much better than Ty.
He had seen Amy in the truck, and it scared him to death. He didn't want to think about losing Amy or, even worse, what it would mean to his best friend to lose the love of his life.
About the time they were all going crazy with no news, the nurse walked into the room. She explained that the surgery was over and that Amy was in recovery. The doctor would be in shortly to explain everything to them. All three let out sighs of relief and smiled at each other.
As Ty started to relax a little, his whole body started aching. He hadn't really given much thought to the injuries he sustained in the accident. But now that he had news of Amy, the adrenaline high started to fade, and he was in pain.
Jack had been keeping a watchful eye on his grandson-in-law because he knew Ty would worry more about Amy's health than his own. He saw Ty wince as he moved in bed.
Jack walked over to him. "Ty, I think you should call the nurse and ask for some pain medication."
Ty shook his head and told him he was fine. Yes, he had some pain, but he wanted to be alert for when the doctor came in and to see Amy, if they would let him. He'd already made up his mind that he was going to see his wife one way or the other. He'd made a promise that he wouldn't break, so he needed to be there when she woke up.
The doctor came in a few minutes later and went through all the details of Amy's surgery. She explained to them that Amy had ruptured her spleen and had lost a lot of blood but was in recovery and doing well. She would have several weeks of recovery with nothing but rest—no working or riding, nothing but lying around sleeping and getting her strength back. All the guys made a face; they knew Amy, and this was not going to be an easy task. But they knew it was for her own good, so they would make it work, even if she didn't think so.
Ty asked if he could see her. The doctor was going to say no, but then looking at Ty she knew that was not an option. She gave her approval, with the stipulation that Ty would be taking a wheelchair ride to the recovery room. Ty smiled. "That's fine as long as I get to see my wife."
Before Jack and Caleb left, Ty ask them to see that there were no client horses left at the ranch. He didn't want any of them there when he and Amy came home. If she had nothing to work with, it would make it easier to convince her to rest. They both nodded their heads in agreement and told him they would handle it. Jack said he would make sure that Lou understood not to take on any new horses until they had received an okay from Amy's doctor.
The nurse came in with the wheelchair and some pain medication, which Ty wasn't too happy about but took it anyway. He was then wheeled down to recovery and told he had to remain in the wheelchair or they would make him go back to his room. He nodded; it was okay as long as he could stay with his wife.
As they wheeled Ty down the aisle, he was focused on finding his wife. The curtain was open just enough for him to see her lying in bed. He grabbed the wheels of the wheelchair and quickly rolled himself into the area and up to the side of the bed, ignoring the pain in his broken wrist. He reached out, took her hand, and sighed. Finally, he was back with her, touching her and seeing with his own eyes that she was alive and breathing. All the noise and sounds faded around him as he looked at his wife sleeping peacefully. He brought her hand up to his month and kissed it tenderly.
"Amy, I'm here, right here." he said softly.
Amy was floating in the void of induced sleep when she felt his touch and heard his voice. The voice she would know anywhere. She needed to wake up. She wanted to see his face, his green eyes that were the windows into the man she loved. She focused on clearing the cobwebs from her mind and coming back to reality. Slowly the fog cleared and her eyes started to flutter open, blinking from the bright lights. She could see his face becoming clearer and the smile on his face. She needed to see his eyes. Finally everything came into focus and she was looking directly into those green eyes that told her everything she needed to know.
"Ty, you're Ok?" A tear sliding down her cheek.
"I'm fine Amy." As he brushed the tear away and told her to get some sleep.
Amy whispered "I love you." Slowly drifting back into the drug induced sleep.
"I love you too, Amy."