A/N: Another long wait for an update! Sorry! Okay, this time I have a real excuse. I was in Ireland for 10 days. Anyway, this chapter was fun to write and now I have a real plan so I can start writing quicker and getting these chapters out. I'm getting excited to write this now!
Disclaimer: I do not own Heartland or any of its characters. I do, however, own Chloe and the plotline.
Chapter 4 - Making Memories
Life at Heartland started up again, as busy as ever. With someone to entertain Chloe and someone else to watch her, Amy could relax and devote more time to the horses, meaning they could go home faster and the next could come in. It wasn't as if she wanted them to go home, but she knew that Heartland depended on the income, and besides, she was always excited to meet the new arrivals.
Lou visibly relaxed and became more comfortable and more open than Amy had seen her be in a long while. She was back doing something she enjoyed surrounded by people she loved. She'd nearly had a heart attack when Amy had shown her the office, but being Lou, she had gotten it all sorted in a matter of days and was now well underway in taking new clients, contacting current ones, and had even had the idea to contact the old ones to make sure that the horses were still all right.
But, Amy noticed that after a few weeks that Lou started to look paler and like she wasn't getting much sleep. She seemed stressed or worried over something, so Amy cornered her one day to ask.
"Okay, what's up?" Amy asked, standing in the office doorway, arms folded over her chest.
"Nothing." Lou said, turning around, surprised. "What makes you say that?"
"Uh, the fact that you look like you haven't slept in weeks," Amy peered closely at her older sister, "and it looks like your eyes have sunken back into your skull. You're my sister and I know when something isn't right." Amy said, stubbornly. Lou sighed, and let her head drop.
"I'm just a bit stressed at the moment, that's all."
Amy raised an eyebrow. "I'm so sure. You had the finances and phone calls and everything sorted out in little more than a day. You're so efficient I should think that everything is in perfect order and up to date. What's there to stress about?" She walked across the room and lent on the desk beside her sisters chair.
Lou ran a hand through her hair, sighing. "I didn't want to say anything because it's really badly timed and unexpected, but..." She tailed off, hesitant, unsure how to proceed. Amy stayed quiet, letting her sister figure out what she wanted to say in peace.
"I think..." Lou started, "I think I might be... Pregnant." She looked up at Amy, who looked back at her with a perfect poker face. "I don't know for sure, of course, I haven't taken a pregnancy test, but it's been a few weeks so..." Lou stopped, unsure of where to go next, and looked at her sister hopefully.
"I know what you mean," Amy said, nodding. "I felt that when I got pregnant with Chloe. We hadn't planned it at all, we didn't even want a child at that point, but I just knew. And I couldn't get rid of her, no way." She uncrossed her arms and let them hang limply at her sides.
"This is about you, not me. What are you going to do?" She asked gently, resting a hand on Lou's shoulder.
"I don't know," She sighed, leaning towards her sister. "Amy, what do I do?" She asked, desperately, looking up at her. Amy smiled at the role reversal.
"The first thing you should do is get a test, then tell Scott. Or tell Scott first." Amy said, smiling softly.
"Tell Scott what?" Scott asked, walking in to the room at that very moment. He dusted his hands off on his trousers, leaving behind dirty hand marks.
Lou looked up at him, panicked.
"What, what is it?" He asked her, worried. He quickly crossed the room to stand beside Lou's chair, and as Amy moved away he dropped to his knees and took her hand.
"What's wrong?" Amy heard Scott ask, as she left the room.
Amy left the house, crossed the yard and entered the barn. Several horses whinnied as the door scraped back and Ty poked his head out of Romany's door.
"Hey," He said, smiling at her, "I think the horses have missed you!" He left the stable and walked to meet her, "And so have I." He quickly wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close. Amy chuckled.
"You haven't seen me since this morning when you left early!" She laughed, resting her hands on his shoulders.
"How's Spindle?" She asked, smiling.
"Anxious to see you." Ty said, with a low laugh.
"I've been having a think about him," Amy said, stepping out of Ty's hold and taking his hand, leading him over to Spindle's stable.
"He's so good now, I wondered what you'd think about letting Holly ride him a couple times?" She leaned on the pony's door, and smiled as he butted her.
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Ty said, sounding surprised. "I thought for a moment you were gonna say Chloe!" He added, laughing.
"Goodness, no!" Amy laughed, "That'd never work. Hey, if you can hold the fort here for a while, I could slip off and see who I can get for Chloe?"
"I don't know," Ty said, doubtfully. "I mean, I can hold the fort, but knowing you you'd come back with some starving pony who's been sold as vicious. I wanted to come with you."
Amy laughed, "That's probably what I'd do. Maybe I shouldn't go alone."
"Yes, you shouldn't!" Ty laughed affectionately at his girlfriend's mock hurt face.
"Haven't we got work to do?" Amy asked, changing the subject.
"Barn chores are done, I've worked with Lightening and Jake, and was just finishing up with Romany. You worked Ember, Monty and Hero, right? There aren't many more who need working today, if you want to go and give Holly a lesson." Ty offered, smiling.
"Huh, what?" Amy said, looked confusedly at him.
"I said I could work with the final few horses if you wanted to give Holly a lesson on Spindle." Ty laughed, "Are you okay? You seem distracted."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just Lou, she thinks... Well, she thinks she could be pregnant." Amy said quietly, looking around.
"But that's great news! Isn't it?" Ty added hesitantly.
"I don't know." Amy admitted. Then she brightened, "Are you sure you don't mind working with the last couple?" She asked him, "I won't be long."
"It's fine." He laughed, leaning over to kiss her. She returned the move eagerly, breaking away quickly to go and find Holly and offer her a lesson.
"Okay, keep your heels down, hands light and look ahead." Amy called out to her niece, from in the centre of the school.
Holly nodded and bit her lip in concentration. As soon as she'd got her heels down, she felt her hands falling, and looked down to correct them.
Amy chuckled. "Like this." She called. Holly turned her head to look at her, and watched as Amy demonstrated the correct place to hold her hands.
"Keep your elbows neatly by your side and have a bend that then forms a straight line to your wrist then through the reins to the horses mouth." Amy stood with her side to Holly, elbows tucked in at her waist and her hands hip width apart.
Frowning in concentration, Holly set her hands and heels, her head rigidly in place.
"You've got it right, but relax!" Amy laughed. "You can do heels, I know that, you just need to get your hands perfect so as not to affect Spindle's mouth."
Holly had previously had lessons in England and had got to the rising trot stage. She could manage rising trot, but her siting trot was bouncy and her hands bounced with her. Her rising trot wasn't fluid either, and she had a tendency to rise too high.
"Okay, do you want to try trotting him?" Amy called after a while, noting Holly's hands staying in the correct place. Her heels stayed level, but as long as they didn't come up, they could work on that at a later date.
Holly nodded, a smile breaking out across her face.
"Don't forget to post with his movement." Amy reminded. "You don't have to rise completely out of the saddle."
She watched her niece complete a circuit under her instruction, and smiled. Holly was a natural. She looked a bit stiff, but after a while that would fade.
"Try to swing your hips forwards rather than rising straight upwards." Amy advised, "Though don't worry if you can't, that's probably a bit much to think about right now!"
Holly bit her lip again and tried swinging her hips forwards and up. It felt more comfortable and natural than rising up and down, so she kept it up, even though she guessed she wasn't doing it perfectly.
"Keep your hands as still as possible!" Amy called to her. Holly looked down and noticed her hands bouncing and jiggling as she rose. Trying to steady them was hard, especially since she wasn't supposed to be looking at them.
Another few circuits and Amy called, "Change the rein across the middle!"
Holly completed this easily and Spindle was more then happy to listen to her. They finished another few circuits on this rein, and Amy then called for her to come back to walk.
"I think that's enough for today," Amy smiled. "I think I overloaded you with information a little bit, so we'll leave it there. Maybe next time you can canter on the lunge - provided your seat is perfect!"
Amy laughed again at Holly's horrified face, as she thought she wouldn't be allowed to canter until her seat was perfect.
"Your seat is fantastic already," Amy said, gesturing for her niece to get off. "So it won't take much work to get it perfect. But I'll let you canter anyway, it's much smoother than trot!"
Holly jumped lightly out of the saddle and patted Spindle's neck.
"Good boy," She said as she patted him, "Next time we'll go faster, okay?" She reached for his reins and began to lead him out of the ring.
"Hey, Lou." Amy called to her sister who had appeared at the ringside about 10 minutes prior. "How did it go?"
A/N: I think this is my longest? Anyway, in case the Chloe pregnancy thing wasn't very clear, Amy found out she was pregnant and just didn't want to get an abortion. Heartland was doing well so they could afford to have a baby at that stage, so they had Chloe. I'm not sure if I mentioned her name, but it's Chloe Marion. She was born in late January, and this fic is set mid to late Jan, a week or two before her birthday. So here we are, up to date. I loved writing Holly's lesson! Hoped it made sense :) Thanks for reading, see you next time!
The next chapter is coming, just bare with me!
Livy ~ xx