The ride back to Heartland was quiet, Amy climbing out of the truck when Ty pulled up in front of the ranch house. "Thanks for picking me up." She offered him a light parting smile before heading inside.

Ty sat in front of the house for a few moments longer, watching her go inside and shut the door. His glance shifted to the left when he saw the light of her bedroom come on and her shadow moving in front of it. When it disappeared again, he looped the truck around the circle to park back in front of the barn and head up to his place in the loft.

"You're home early," Lou remarked, joining Amy in the bathroom as she brushed her teeth. "How was your date?"

Amy was glad to have a mouthful of toothpaste so she didn't have to answer Lou in so many words. "Fine," was all she replied, scrubbing vigorously and avoiding meeting her sister's eyes in the mirror.

"Just fine? Are things still weird between you two?"

Amy took an unnecessary amount of time to rinse and spit, then clean the extra foam from her toothbrush before answering. "Not anymore," she answered, wiping the corners of her mouth and booking it out of the bathroom before Lou had a chance to press for further information. However, she should have known her sister wouldn't just let it go and rolled her eyes to herself when Lou appeared in her doorway a few minutes later.

"Did you break up with Jesse?" Lou asked as if she couldn't believe it, making Amy look at her like she didn't have a clue, because she didn't.

"So what? A lot of things have changed since mom died." Amy didn't want to talk about this night anymore, afraid it would bring her to tears again in front of Lou and that was the last thing she wanted. She kept herself busy moving about her room, stuffing her books into her bag for school tomorrow and making every attempt to ignore Lou and get her to take a hint.

"Amy," Lou started, making Amy turn to glare at her.

"Lou, I don't want to talk about this, okay? My relationships are none of your business," she snapped, pulling her hair from the band and snatching up her brush to run quickly through her hair.

"Well, it didn't even seem like you wanted to try to pick things up again with Jesse."

" You know what… you have no idea about my relationship with Jesse, so stop acting like you do." Amy became rough with the brush, raking it violently through her dirty blonde locks.

"I just think-"

That was the last straw. Amy tossed her brush onto the dresser with a loud bang, cutting her sister off. "I need to do night check," she said through clenched teeth, leaving Lou with a look of contempt as she gaped at her.

Amy shoved her feet roughly into her snow boots and grabbed her coat from the hook, rushing out the door before Lou had the chance to catch up to her.

Amy loved being in the barn at night. It was quiet and peaceful with just the sounds of horses munching on hay and settling in for the night. She made her way down the aisle, peering into each stall as she passed to check that water buckets were full and everyone ate their grain and was otherwise doing okay. She turned to grab a pair of scissors to break open a hay bale to throw everyone another couple flakes when she saw Ty sitting beneath the loft steps with that guitar he couldn't even play.

"Haven't you given up on that thing yet?" she asked with a little smile, coming over to stand in front of him.

Ty looked up at her, playing a few random notes. "I figure if I play around with it enough I'll end up learning something."

Amy raised her brow a little skeptically, nodding and turning to go back and finish the rounds. "Well, good luck with that. I'm just going to finish checking up on the horses."

"Hey," Ty said to stop her. "You okay?"

Amy paused and turned around with her eyes tracing a crack in the concrete floor. "Yeah," she answered, looking back at him again, assuming he was asking from earlier. "Yeah, I will be." And she would be but was kind of dreading having to face Jesse, and everyone else for that matter, at school tomorrow. The idea of skipping had crossed her mind, but she missed so much already from being in the hospital and just generally grieving that she really couldn't afford to miss any more due to relationship drama.

"Not exactly the Valentine's Day you were hoping for, was it?" Ty asked, feeling bad that her night had been ruined the way it had despite feeling a bit smug over the fact that Jesse screwed up royally beyond repair.

Amy gave him a small shrug. "No, but I wasn't really in the mood to celebrate it anyway. Things have been kind of weird between Jesse and I since I got out of the hospital and I just…" Amy sighed, running her tongue over her lips. "I wasn't sure if I was ready to just pick up and act as if nothing had changed, you know? Everything is just so different now. I'm different."

Ty nodded, able to see her point. "And Jesse didn't fit in with this different you?"

"I guess not…"

"You could have made him fit, if he meant that much to you." Ty pointed out, which had been pretty much the same thing Lou was trying to tell her back at the house.

"Yeah… The thing is, I should probably feel a lot worse about us breaking up, but I don't. I'm not upset or… hurt. Not about that anyway." It was more the way in which they broke up that upset her, but not at all the fact that they had. Now that it was over with Jesse, Amy realized she actually almost felt relieved because now she didn't have to worry about continuing to lead him on or struggling through more strained and awkward dates when she honestly no longer had any real interest in continuing the relationship.

"Am I a terrible person for feeling relieved that it's over? That I don't have to pretend anymore?"

"No. I mean it kind of sounds like it was headed that way anyway. It wouldn't have been fair to either one of you to drag it out anymore if there was nothing left. It just kind of sucks it ended like it did." Ty still knew that if he ever ran into this Jesse kid he wouldn't be walking away with a clean shirt. Whether it had been a minor altercation or not, the fact that he didn't back off of Amy from the start was just wrong and unacceptable.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Hearing it from another person's point of view did make Amy feel a little bit better about not being upset, but she still wished it didn't happen the way it did. She liked Jesse, even as just a friend, but now she wasn't really sure how they could even continue to be friends after tonight. It would just be so uncomfortable with Amy being reminded of tonight every time she looked at him.

"I'm sorry… did you just say I was right?" Ty blinked, thinking he might have heard wrong.

Amy looked up, surprised and rewinding the moment in her head a few seconds, realizing she did actually say Ty was right. But Amy rolled her eyes and finally did turn away from him to finish doing night check. "I said, I guessed you were right, that doesn't mean that you actually were," she called back to him.

"Well, it does to me." Ty laughed, moving his guitar aside to he could stand up and follow her out into the aisle.

"Yeah, well, don't let it go to your head cause you won't hear it again from me," she tossed a flake of hay at him from the bale she'd broken open, laughing then reaching down to take two more and toss them into the nearest stall.

"Hey!" Ty exclaimed, catching the hay against his chest but getting a face full of dust and loose strands in his mouth. He took what he managed to keep in his hands when the rest fell apart and onto the floor, throwing it back at Amy.

The hay fight that ensued covered most of the barn and outside into the yard, their laughter breaking through the still winter night and turning what had started out as a disastrous Valentine's Day into the beginning of what would become a love for the ages.