OTA Chapter: 12

Amy was happy when she saw the blue truck pull up, only this time it did not just keep going but pulled up and stopped and Sonya got out of the driver's seat.

"What happened to your chauffer?

Sonya smiled as she was keeping up her deal with Ty of no longer living at Heartland. She would have to tell Amy about the new arrangements so happy as she was to see her friend and as much as she wanted to share her weekend with Ty she was not ready to let it all out though she was wearing the ring and she knew that it would not be long before she had to answer questions about it. day. "Long story I will tell you about later" Sonya said.

"Ready for a ride" asked Amy? "I have some where new I want to take you this morning I found it the other day when I was out with Jack over on Dad's place."

"Sure sounds like fun" said Sonya, following Amy to the barn. As they approached Caleb walked out leading three horses.

"Hope you don't mind Caleb being along" Amy said? "He came back to help Grandpa and Dad work the cows and will be with us for a few more days."

"No I don't really know him so this will be nice to get to know him a little." She had heard Ty talk about Caleb and had seen him that night at Heartland when Amy had come home and then a couple of times since at the clinic but had not really gotten to know him. She knew Caleb and Ty had been best friends and maybe still were but the past few months had taken their toll on everyone and their relationships. Caleb had also been out of town a lot, with riding in rodeo's and livestock business he was involved in.

"Morning Sonya" he said, handing her Harley's reins. "Nice rock" he said with a smile.

Sonya smiled "yes it is thanks." He had noticed but had Amy, if she had she did not said anything or act any different. This fact both made her happy and sad at the same time. It would come to light soon and she had been trying to figure out how and what she would tell Amy when she was asked. Sonya swung up in the saddle "lets go we are burning daylight."

"You been practicing behind my back" said Amy?

"Yeah I did a little riding while I was away." She let her mind drift to the ride she and Ty had taken. It would always be a part of her, it had been such a beautiful ride and the things they shared as they had rode helped set the tone of their relationship going forward so yes it had been special. Then there had been the swim and the fishing…

They rode down the road and cut across the meadow into the woods. "So Doc what do we talk about today? How are you going to help me remember anything new? "Sonya you ok" said Amy as she rode alongside her.

Sonya jerked in the saddle and turned to look at Amy, "Sorry, I guess I was day dreaming".

"From the look on your face I wish I had not interrupted you, it must have been a special dream!"

"It was" said Sonya. "Now back to you. You asked how I am going to help you remember. I am not sure I have an answer for you, it will come but on its own and in its own time I think. What do you want to remember?"

"Everything!" was Amy's reply.

"Ok let's take Caleb here. What do you remember about him?"

"He is a friend of the family and I have been told that we are also friends."

"Is that true Caleb?"

"Yes we have known each other for about 7 years. I came to work for Jack while Ty was on a road trip."

When Amy heard Ty's name she looked at Caleb, "why is it that everyone mentions Ty this and Ty that, who is he? I have asked about him now and again but I don't get any real answers about him?"

Before Sonya could answer her Caleb spoke up. "He was my rival and he became my best friend. He came to work at Heartland because your mother wanted to give him a chance, because he had gotten into trouble with the law."

"Rival for who" asked Amy!

"You, then we became friends and then business partners with a horse and you won us $100,000.00."

"$100,000.00 how did I do that? "

"You helped us with a barrel horse we had bought and rode it in the Hudson Futurity and won" said Caleb. "Then a week later you left for Europe on Tour with Prince Ahmed."

At the mention of Ahmed's name Amy had a flash back to the tour. It only lasted a second but it was the beginning of the break through that Sonya had been waiting for and hoping would not happen at the same time.

Sonya had hoped that it would not have to come out this soon but here it was and she was not going to back away. She looked at Amy said "things might get a little intense in a few minutes, and you may no longer want me around. "

"Why would you say that" Amy replied?

"There are a few things I need to tell you and it will make a difference in our relationship going forward.

Sonya looked over at Caleb and asked him if he minded it they took different paths for a while.

Caleb was quick to grab the hint, realizing he may have opened up Amy's memories. He said he had probably get back help Tim gather some cows over at his place, excused himself and rode off down the trail.

"Does me leaving on that tour have anything to do with us to no longer being friends" asked Amy?

Sonya took a deep breath and began. "I have known for a long time that this day would come, I probably should have never asked to work with you, as I was too involved. I am also sorry because I let you become not just a client by my friend and that will probably, no it will, make it worse! "Yes it has to do with you leaving and it has to do with Ty."

"Your boyfriend?" asked Amy.

"The same, and when you got onto that helicopter and flew away to Europe he was your fiancé."

Amy pulled up Spartan and spun him around and looked at Sonya, "my fiancé?"

"Yes you two had been engaged for about 2 years when you left."

"What happened? Did you steal him while I was away, is that why I will be angry with you?"

"No Amy I did not steal him away. He went to Europe to visit you while you were on tour, and you sent him back home with this in his pocket." Sonya reached to a chain on her neck and pulled out the ring and showed it to her.

Another flash back, she could see Ty driving away in that taxi and she remembered how she was glad he was gone. She was trying to grasp any memory at all from then but there were none to be had. "Does my family know what happened?"

"Only some of it, Ty would not talk about it to anyone for a long time and took all the blame. When he came home he was a wreck and tried to leave everything he knew behind. That included friends and your family!"

Amy sat there staring at Sonya and the ring she had in her hand.

"I will to go now I will talk with the Dr. and have him send someone new over when you think you might need someone to talk with or you can go to see Dr. Murphy. I think you are about to have a break through and will need someone to help guide you through it. And Amy, Ty is not just my boyfriend, we are engaged!"

"I don't know what to say but I don't want anyone else here. I need to think this through and I will call you when I have something figured out." Amy thought of how she should be angry with Sonya for her betrayal and her family as well but she had come to know Sonya the person and knew that she would not have done anything to hurt her but she was also very confused at the moment. She had to get away and figure this all out.

Sonya took the chain from around her neck and gave it to Amy. "Do whatever you will with this, if you throw it away that is ok I understand, but if not and you don't want to keep it I would like to have it back as it has a very special meaning to me."

"This has meaning to you? How can that be! It was my engagement ring? It should be the last thing in the world you would want to see!"

"It's complicated; I will share with you someday if you want. Even if you throw it away it will have had its place in my life as well as yours Amy. I care for you and I am sorry for the hurt I have just brought into your life."

Amy took the ring; she could see Ty on one knee at the river that night and remembered saying yes. Amy looked at Sonya and said "I am going ", turned Spartan and headed down the trail."

"I know you don't want me around but please, wait a second OK." Sonya spun Harley around and kicked him with her heals and he took off at a gallop after Caleb, forgetting that she was a new rider, the fear of what Amy might do over rode all of the usual concerns fears she may have had riding at break neck speedy down the trail. He had not gotten far and as Sonya hailed him and he turned around.

"Whoa there girl I thought you were a new rider looks like you are trying to win a race or your horse was scared by a lion or bear, what is wrong" he asked.

She pulled up quickly almost falling off as she had done before but managing to hold on. She told him what had just transpired and asked Caleb to be with Amy.

"No problem" as he rode off at a gallop, trying to catch up with Amy who had continued down the trail.

"You knew about this?" she said to Caleb as he pulled up beside her.

"Yes, I did and we all wanted to tell you but you did not seem to remember anything and the Dr. said that is should come back on its own. Besides no one really wanted to talk about you guys as it was not a comfortable subject. We also did not see how it had anything to do with what had happened that night."

"Did I do what Sonya said I did to Ty?"

"Yes, from everything I have been told you did." Ty was not very talkative about, it as a matter of fact I did not seem him for months after he came home. I went over to collect the rent and found a check and a note saying he would no longer be living there."

"I need to think about this for a while."

"Ok, I have never been very good at that, thinking that is, or so I have been told." Replied Caleb, causing Amy to smile if only for a second.

"I meant I need to be alone."

"Oh, ok I will kinda stay out of site then but I will stay nearby, I have my orders as well!"

"Why should she care Caleb? I don't really know her and yet here she has become almost like family! Then I find out that she is engaged to the guy I used to be engaged to it does not make any sense. I just don't want to talk to anyone right now."

"Caleb only nodded and backed away following at a distance but with and ever watchful eye Amy. She was not just his charge according to Sonya but he was there because he cared for her and would not want anything to happen to her. He did not believe that she would do anything but he was not willing to take a chance.

Amy had change course and later she came to the old log overlooking the river, she stopped, got off the horse and sat down in the grass. She looked at the ring in her hand and memories began to come back. She looked over her shoulder at Spartan and remembered how her mom was killed trying to rescue him and how she had spent weeks in the hospital. How the first time she had seen Ty he drove by in that old blue pickup and kicked rocks at the horse she and Soraya were riding, and when she had caught up with him she had chewed him out yet! Still there had been a connection almost from the start. She remembered the time he punched out her then boyfriend at a party that he had not been invited. He had stepped in because he was trying to make her do something she did not want to do. He had always been there to protect her since they had known one other. She remembered the ups and downs of their relationship; there was the dance in the back of the pickup that broke down on the way to the prom. The time she thought she had lost him and Scott in a plane crash. One by one the memories flooded back as she sat there. She looked over at the cowboy sitting in the shadows and remembered the time they had dated and how he and Ty had butted heads because of her. Something kind of clicked in the back of her mind as she thought about that. Yes he had had his eye on Ashley but what guy didn't as she threw herself at any good looking guy who might walk by. What if Ashley had never come into the picture what would have happened then. She still remembered watching him drive away and how she felt a part of her left with him that day. She remembered how she and Ty had become best friends during the time she had dated Caleb and how they had become best friends. That friendship had continued to grow and later he had been extremely close to Caleb as well. She thought about the times Ty had not been in her life and she felt empty because he had become her shelter from everything life could throw at her. She knew that there was going to be lots of things that she was going to have to reexamine in her life as she went forward. She spent the rest of the day going over her life and trying to put it all together. This was going to take a while but at least this was the start.

That night she lay in her bed looking at the ring that Sonya had given her. She felt that she wanted to put it on but knew that would only cause more pain. The tears flowed almost continually for the rest of the night and she was not ready for the daylight as it began to lighten the curtains in her room. She wanted the darkness that she had covered herself with lately to come back as she did not want to face what was in front of her.

Lou knocked and asked her if she was going to sleep the day away.

Amy could only ask that she be left alone.

Amy heard the phone ring and realized that she had not had her phone since she had come home to Heartland. She looked around and found it on her dresser when she turned it on she saw that there were several messages from Ahmed. She was not ready for any of that now, so she just looked up the number that she really did not have to look up and dialed it.

"Hello, can I help you Amy."

"I am sorry Ty" Amy said as she began to cry, "I need to talk with Sonya if she is there."

"Sure wait one minute." Ty looked across the table at Sonya and handed her the Phone. "It's Amy and she is crying."

Sonya took the phone and said "I am here Amy what can I do?"

"Please come over I need someone to talk with."

"You sure you want that someone to be me"? After yesterday I was not expecting to hear from you for a while at least!"

"Yes there is no one else who can do for me what I need."

"Be there I a few just have to finish breakfast with" she stopped mid-sentence only to have it finished by Amy.

"With Ty, the guy who answered the phone, I do need to get your number so I can just call you; though I am glad that I was able to hear his voice."

…..

Sonya had told Ty about the day before and was sure she would never hear from Amy again yet here she was calling her and asking her to come over. They talked about Ty and Amy's relationship on the way to Heartland painful has it was for Ty and her, Sonya drug out every little detail that she could think of in the time they had about Amy and Ty's relationship and engagement.

"I am sorry! It seems like that is all I say to you anymore. These are things that I am afraid I will need answers to if I am to help her through this. If you think I really want to know these details I don't. I put us in a bad situation and now I have to hopefully undo at least some of the damage. I know what we have Ty and it is only because of that that I can even go through with this. I watched as Amy looked at the ring yesterday and it tore me up maybe as much as it did her. I am becoming more and more upset with myself for ever letting getting myself involved. Those red eyes I came home with yesterday were not because I thought had lost Amy as a friend, rather it was because I felt the loss and hurt she felt looking at the ring and knowing I was part of that hurt! I never want to feel that way again but here I am doing the one thing that makes me want to quit being a counselor. You are told never to get involved with your patient! I did not get involved with one, I got involved with both the patient and her ex. I should have my head examined. "

"You just care" Ty replied.

"Yes but that is one thing I am never supposed to do."

"Well then maybe it is a good thing that you want to become a Vet. We are to care about our patients." Ty could see the angst that was going through Sonya's body and he only wished he had never let this happen.

They pulled up to Heartland and the whole family was standing on the porch. Amy walked out to meet them and threw her arms around Sonya and gave her a hug first, then pulled away then looking at her as asked "do you mind if I give Ty a hug as well."

"You have to ask him" she said. Though she had to admit she wished that Ty had not come along. There were all kinds of emotional wounds here and she was not sure that Ty and Amy's coming together would help or hinder either of them. She put off the thought that maybe she was a little jealous as well.

"Is it ok" Amy asked as she turned to Ty staring at him, seeing him for who he was for the first time since she had come home. Tears filled her eyes as she reached out to him and gave him hug. "I am so sorry I hurt you, though I am not really sure what all of that was."

Ty slowly put is arms around her and pulled her close and just let her rest her head on his shoulder. There were no words he could say, he had dreamed of her saying that word and this embrace from the moment he had left Europe and how everything would be as it was once again. Now the hug or the words he had desired no longer meant what he had hoped for and lost so much sleep over. He had slowly, over the months since he had come home to accept as fact that dream would never come true, it was over and he had moved on. Sonya had come into his life and now he could hug Amy and accept hers, even if she had never said that she was sorry. He had loved Amy and always would; he knew he still desired to at least be friends with her, but his desire of them having their dreams were now a thing of the past. He felt a compassion that he had never known could exist in his body and his only wish was that all this hurt they had caused each other could go away.

To be continued: