What If part 15

Amy saw the fear in her Mother's eyes and smiled, oh, so deviously at her. She could see that this was tearing herMother apart but Amy didn't care. In fact, she could not wait to make her feel the mental pain that she had felt when she had learned of her talk with Ty and then what she had shared about her dad.

"I need to know exactly what happened between Mom and Dad, and why he left Heartland. And why don't you talk with Mom and Grandpa anymore", Amy explained to Lou who was now listening on the other end of the line."

"No" said Marion" shaking her head "don't do this please." All she could think of was Lou on the other end. She had protected her from all of this for so long and she did not want her to find out in this way. Yes she needed to be told but not by an angry Amy.

Before Lou could reply, there was a knock on her door. The door opened and in walked her boyfriend Carl.

"You ready? Where is the stuff you have for the weekend?" he asked, already feeling the excitement of the upcoming weekend. He had just stepped into Lou's bedroom and stopped, for the look on her face told him there was something far more important taking up her time at the moment.

Oh no… Lou thought to herself. This was the last thing she needed. She knew that she had to talk to Amy and yet she was not ready to let Carl in on all of her past just yet. This was supposed to be her night, but now it had all come crashing down on her.

She covered the phone with her hand to mute it and said:

"I am sorry, Carl. Can you wait in the living room for a bit? I have to take this call from Amy."

"No problem", Carl said, not seeming like he was bothered by a little hold-up. "Is that your stuff?" he asked, pointing to the suitcase on the bed. "If so, I can take it down stairs to the car then come back and get you."

"Yes it is. Thanks. I will be down in a minute," replied Lou.

As Carl had left the room with the luggage, Lou waved at him and heard Amy's voice.

"Lou? Lou, are you still there?" Amy's voice from the other end asked, prying her attention from Carl and back to the phone and Amy.

"Yes. I'm sorry, I had an interruption. Now where were we… Oh yeah", she then recalled what Amy had asked her. "Why did Dad leave and why don't I talk with Mom and Grandpa anymore." She didn't know what to say, so she just sighed and continued. "Amy, can we have this talk another time? I know I promised I'd answer to whatever you wanted to know, but I didn't expect you to go down this road… I am not prepared to talk about this right now, because it's such a complex issue and I have someplace I need to be."

Lou knew this to be the truth she was not ready to talk right now - well, never actually. She had put it all behind her and wanted it to stay there. The questions themselves had put a damper on her usual enthusiasm for going out with Carl, and she was now not even in the mood to get away with him for the weekend, no matter what the reason might be.

"No, Lou! This cannot wait," said a now very angry voice on the other end of the phone. What had brought all this on and why now? Lou wondered.

"Isn't Mom there? I am sure she can tell you what happened," Lou said, trying to get out of the conversation as quickly as she could.

"Yeah, she is. She is standing 3 feet away with a look of horror on her face, listening to me talk to you. That is the reason you have to tell me what you know, because she just told me a whopper of a story and I need to hear your side of it," Amy told her sister.

"We all know what happened. Mom and Grandpa drove Dad away," was Lou's short reply.

"Why though, Lou?" Amy asked again.

"Because they…" Lou began, sighing.

Why had he left, she did not really know, nor had she ever asked. She had gotten angry with them when they told her he was gone and had blamed them because she knew they were not happy with him. They thought he was lazy, but she knew he was hurting. So she had guessed that was the reason. Jack had always had problems with Tim because he did not help around the ranch more. So that had to be it.

"- thought he was lazy and not pulling his weight and you know how grandpa feels about that," Lou said with confidence.

"You are sure about that? I mean, there could not be another reason?" Amy asked again. She was finding the periods of silence from Lou's end disturbing. Was there more was there something that Lou did not want to tell her? Or had they both been deceived all this time?

"I am not sure what you mean by that question, Amy. I mean we have talked about this before, and I don't have any more information about that than what we have shared previously. So if that is all you need to know, Carl is waiting for me. We are going to a show, and then after work tomorrow, we are going away for a long weekend," Lou said, smiling as she thought of the possible outcome and even just spending time alone with him.

"So you would rather go with this random Carl than talk to your own sister?" snorted Amy over the phone. "So what if Mom is telling me that Dad beat her when he was on drugs and drinking, and Grandpa kicked him off Heartland when he caught him hitting her. Or the fact that your stupid school debt is going to cause us to lose Heartland!" Amy yelled at her phone as she disconnected from Lou. As a way to shut her sister out even more, she turned her phone off. She was still angry with her Mother and now with Lou as well. She glared at her Mother and started

"Where do you think you are going? We have not finished this talk yet!" said Marion curtly.

"Oh, we are finished, alright? And who knows, maybe I will sneak out and go to Jesse and do the things you seem to think we were doing anyway. Or maybe even better; I will go to Ty's loft tonight like Lou used to do when Scott lived there!"

She knew this last statement would not only shock but hurt her Mother even more deeply.

"You never saw anything after Dad left, did you? You want to know why? It was because it was always about you and your stupid horses," Amy shouted as she turned and walked into the house, slamming the door behind her.

Marion followed Amy into the house not to confront her again because she knew at the moment that would do no good. She went to the address book and looked up Lou's phone number she Amy had taken down this last Christmas when she had called and told her she had a new number. As she reached for the phone she could feel her hands trembling and wanted in the worst way for this there to have been another way. She picked up the phone and took a deep breath, almost 7 years she thought since she had heard her daughter's voice. It rang and then went to her messaging, she almost hung up but left a message instead.

…

"Let's go! We are going to be late," Carl said, opening the door and sticking his head in. He saw Lou standing in her bedroom doorway, staring at her phone with a look of bewilderment. "You okay?" he wanted to know.

Lou had not even heard Carl, her mind was 2000 miles away, still standing on the porch with Amy. Had she heard her right? Had he Mom actually told her those things? Were they true? What was all this about her debt and Heartland?

When she was able to focus again, Lou quickly dialed Amy's number, only to hear "I can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message."

"Lou?" Carl said as he reached out and touched Lou's shoulder.

The touch brought her back to reality, and she looked at him and said: "I am sorry I did not hear you come back."

"I am going to ask again - are you okay, Lou?"

"I don't know what I am at the moment…" she replied. "That was Amy on the phone, and she has just turned my world upside down, and I am not even sure why. All I know is that I have to get hold of her, but it seems she turned off her phone because I made her angry. "

"Well, let's go to the show. I have reservations at Del Posto afterwards. A show and Italian food always improves your mood," Carl replied as he tried to lift Lou's spirits.

"Maybe you are right," replied Lou. After all she had waited for 3 months to get these tickets and Del Posto was by her favorite Italian restaurant in town, and she was sure that Carl had put some thought into that as well because it usually took about a week to get a reservation at that time of night there.

Yes, she would put all this behind her. After all this night was all about her future, she would be doing the things she loved with the man she loved even more.

"Let's go", Lou said taking her hopefully-soon-to-be fiancé by the arm.

They had just stepped into the cab, when her phone rang. She started to look at the phone then decided to ignored the call and muted the phone and they proceeded to the show.

Carl had been going to ask why she had not answered the phone but considering the shape she was in the last time she had taken a call tonight he decided that maybe she knew best and he kept his question to himself. At the intermission, Lou excused herself to the powder room and when she was there alone, she looked at her phone. The call had been not from Amy as she had supposed, but from the Heartland home number. They had left a message, and she struggled with should she listen to it or not.

Finally she played the message. It was from her Mom.

"I am sorry you had to hear about all that in that way. Don't worry, we are going to be alright. Hope you don't let it ruin your night with Carl, whoever and whatever he is in your life. Love you, Lou."

Why had she felt the need to call her? They had not talked in years, and what made her think that information from the past was going to mess her up? She turned off her phone and went out to meet Carl and watch the rest of the show.

As they took their seats for the second act, the words "Don't worry we will be alright" would not leave her alone. Lou spent the rest of the show pondering what had she meant by them?

…..

Ty had finally gotten to the ranch, just in time to see Amy stomp off from her Mother and go into the house, slamming the door behind her. He had been tempted to go see what had happened, but when he saw Jack waving his arms first to get his attention, then waving him over to the barn, he figured that he and Copper had best take that route.

As he and Copper stopped next to Jack and Ty started to dismount, Jack started firing questions at him in a very angry voice, never stopping to allow Ty to answer.

"Just who the hell do you think you are? What makes you think you can just waltz into our lives and turn everything upside down? What the hell did you say to Amy anyway? Don't you ever say a thing about what you heard Marion say today to anyone, do you understand me?"

Ty had an answer on the tip of his tongue, but then thought better of letting it go any farther. He could see that he had done something that had upset Jack, and though he had asked questions, Ty was not sure Jack wanted answers - at least not the answers he was going to give him.

He looked over at the porch and saw Marion staring at the door, looking like she wanted to go in and then she did, only to reappear shortly thereafter. As she stepped out of the house she looked his way and started to walk over to the barn.

When she arrived, she walked on into the barn and said to Ty:

"We had better get him and rubbed down, then we need to have a talk", Marion said. As she said this, her face was emotionless even though her eyes told Ty she was far from it on the inside.

To be continued