Ty let go of Amy as he heard footsteps come near the barn door. "You, stay," he ordered her.

She looked annoyed at the command.

"You got me into this," Ty reminded her. "It's only fair that you stay."

"Since it was all my fault you're in trouble, you'd think you'd want me to go away," Amy sniffed. Still, she used Ty's shoulders to boost herself onto Spartan's stall, throwing one leg over each side of it, making sure that her dress was settled modestly between her legs. "But, fine, I'll stay right here."

Ty stayed close to her side as Lou entered the barn, arms crossed over her chest. Ty was unsettled by the harsh look in her eye as she swept her gaze around the barn, settling on the brushes that were still strewn around in front of Pegasus' stall.

"Do you want to start or do you want me to?" Lou asked him.

"I don't know what you want me to say! I didn't do anything! You even told your father that I didn't move! I don't know what happened here anymore than you do."

Lou didn't look like she believed what he was saying. "The thing is, I clearly heard you say 'stop'. Except, there was no one there."

Ty glared at Amy out of the corner of his eye and she had the decency to look contrite. Ty bit down on the inside of his cheek and quickly answered, "I wasn't saying it to anyone in particular. The brushes were hitting all three of us. I didn't want to get whacked with a hoof pick any more than your father did."

Lou walked over to the space that Amy had been standing in during the ordeal. "You looked over here."

"That's where the brushes were coming from! Why wouldn't I look there?" Throughout the years, Ty had gotten used to lying about his gift. He'd half-assed explanations to acquaintances as spirits hung off his arm and held his hand up to his ear like he was talking into a small cell phone while having conversations. Those things had never been hard to do. Lying like this was hard to do. He'd never been so closely involved with the victim and her family. He'd never had to look a grieving woman in the eye and claim ignorance, when the spirit was sitting calmly behind him. Ty wished that he didn't have his gift and that Amy had never died.

"You're a horrible liar," Lou accused. "I don't know what you're hiding, but you're hiding something. Need I remind you that you are here on probation? The last thing that this family needs is to be toyed with and if you are going to be disrespectful, then I will have to call Clint Riley and explain that this is not the place for you."

"No," Ty gasped. The thought of returning to Clint Riley was completely unfathomable; not only was he comfortable here – dare he even say, he liked Heartland – but there was Amy. Ty couldn't leave her behind in limbo. "Lou, I wouldn't do that! I'm not trying to be disrespectful and I really don't want to make your life harder. I don't know what happened with the brushes."

"You're a horrible liar," Lou repeated, and then her shoulders sagged forward. "I don't think you're a bad kid. I like having you here, but I have to protect what's left of my family. Can't you understand that?"

Ty started as Lou said the same thing that Amy had only minutes before. Unlike Amy, he couldn't draw the thorny woman into a hug. Still, he understood Lou almost as much as he understood her deceased sister, and he nodded. "I'd explain if I could, but I can't."

Lou wiped a hand underneath of her eyes. "Do you want to hear something crazy?"

Ty nodded, speechless as he saw tears line her lashes.

"It looked like those brushes were coming out of nowhere and my first thought was 'Amy'. For a moment, I was so convinced that she was here." Lou let out a half-bitter laugh. "I'm getting to be as crazy as Mom. Dead is dead."

Amy jumped from the stall door and Ty froze. She picked up one of the hoof picks near Ty's feet. He desperately wanted to hiss 'don't' but was paralyzed. If he said something, Lou would only call him out on it. If he stayed silent, perhaps then he could claim complete ignorance. Looking completely unsure, Amy stood between Ty and her sister and then she opened her hand, offering Lou the hoof pick.

Lou's eyes locked on the floating hoof pick. She screamed once and then fainted.

"Lou!" Amy cried, the hoof pick clattering to the floor.

"What did you do?" Ty hissed. "What were you thinking?"

"She thought about me!" Amy cried. "I just … I wanted her to know."

Ty rolled his eyes, thoroughly annoyed with Amy. He gently shook Lou's shoulder. He hoped that she'd wake up immediately. The floor was made of hard stone and he worried about what he would do if Lou had managed to knock herself out. How would he explain it to Jack? Just as Ty started to become terrified at the thought of the old man, Lou's eyes began to flutter open.

"Are you okay?" he asked anxiously, crouching over her.

Lou frowned, slowly sitting up. He watched her look around the barn and then she shook her head. "I have to go inside."

"Let me walk with you," Ty insisted as Lou hefted herself to her feet. She stood there, tilting from side to side. There was no way that she could make it to the house okay. "You might have a concussion."

"I don't want you anywhere near me," Lou snapped. "Now, I'm going inside. You … just … clean up this mess!" she ordered.

Amy tagged along behind her sister as she walked toward the house. Ty stood in the door of the barn, watching Lou cross the yard. He didn't want to get yelled at if he followed her, but he was worried for her safety. After all, Amy couldn't catch her as she fell. But Lou was stubborn enough to make it to the house without falling. Once she had closed Heartland's front door behind her – and in Amy's face – Ty turned around to face the interior of the barn. He quickly picked up Amy's mess, organizing the grooming kit and placing it back in its proper spot. He even remembered to hang his helmet up like Mallory had warned him to.

Unsure of what else to do, although Ty was sure that there was something productive that he could be doing, Ty sat down on the floor of the barn. He felt the drop in temperature as Amy walked in.

"You can't do things like that."

"It's –"

"Hard," Ty completed for her. He looked up at her youthful face, trying to comprehend just how hard it was for her, but he couldn't wrap his head around that kind of pain. "I know. But, Amy, you … They … Look, the spirit world doesn't exist for people."

"It exists for you!"

"Normal people," Ty corrected.

"What do you want me to say? That I'm going to ignore my family? That I'm going to pretend I'm not here?"

"Yes!" Ty exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Amy, you're dead. You're not supposed to be here."

Her face collapsed. "What? Do you want me to leave? Do you think they want me to leave? Do you think I want to leave?"

"This isn't about me!" Ty cried, quickly ignoring the fact that it wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to know her. "Amy, your family is already grieving for you! Think of what it's going to be like if you give them a sense of false hope and then you move on and take it all away? It'll put them back to square one."

Amy shook her head at him, looking positively livid. In this moment, Ty was more scared of Amy than he had ever thought of being of Lou. "Do not make it sound like I haven't thought about my family! Do not make it sound like I'm completely disregarding them. I just want to be able to say goodbye!"

"You don't get to!" Ty roared, getting into her face. "Dead is dead, Amy. It's just as Lou said! You've been dead for months! There's no such things as second chances. You don't get a goodbye from the grave! All you get to do is move on and see them all on the other side!"

"I hate you."

Amy pushed him out of the way and stormed to Spartan's stall. Staring at the back of her head, watching her delicate hands shake as she opened the bolt, Ty felt regret flood through him. He couldn't speak so impulsively. He knew he wasn't the right person for this job, but he didn't think that he could get it so wrong. He'd just crossed so many lines that he didn't think that he could recover.

"Amy, please –"

"Shut up! You don't get to talk to me! Just because you're the one person that can see me doesn't mean you get to treat me like that! I didn't think that I was a 'spirit' to you, Ty! I thought that I was your friend and I thought that you understood! How can dead be dead when I'm standing right here?"

He peeked into Spartan's stall.

"How can dead be dead when I can still do this?" she asked, running her hand along the length of Spartan's neck. "How can dead be dead when Mom can know that I'm in the house and Mallory starts singing the same song that I just finished? It doesn't work like that!"

"It does," Ty said, his voice impossibly soft, although Amy remained irate.

Before he could react, Amy had pitched herself onto Spartan's back. The black horse snorted as Amy lay on his neck, the ceilings too low for her to be in any other position. Spartan took an uneasy step backward, and Ty could see the uncertainty in his eyes.

"Go!" Amy screamed, and for a moment, Ty thought that she was talking to him – that she wanted him out of his way.

Then Spartan tore from his stall.

"NO!" Ty shouted, reaching out a hand that Spartan clipped with his hindquarters. Wrist smarting, Ty took off after the horse on foot, only getting so far. Spartan's wild gallop far outpaced any gait that Ty could manage. "Come back!"

It did no good, but he'd known that it wouldn't. He watched the horse and rider speed out of sight, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do now. Lou was already angry with him and now Jack was going to crucify him for losing Spartan. He stood in the middle of the icy yard, feeling a ridiculous urge to break down, when he saw his saviour.

"Mallory!" Ty shouted, running up to the girl and her horse. "Mallory, I need your help."

"Did I just see Spartan?" Mallory asked, as incredulous as Ty felt.

"We have to get him back before Jack realizes he's gone."

Mallory shook her head. Nothing happened without Jack knowing. "I'll help you. Hold Copper."

Ty grabbed the horse's reins as Mallory kicked her feet free from the stirrups.

"Take him to the barn, put him in his stall, but don't untack him. Then, tack up Paint. I'm going to go tell Jack I'm taking you on a trail ride and we're borrowing Paint for it."

"You're a genius," Ty complimented her, sighing in relief.

"Um, tell me something I don't know."

Mallory scampered off toward the house and Ty brought Copper into the barn. He quickly turned the gelding into his stall and grabbed Paint, who he'd already groomed early this morning. Ty tacked the horse as quickly as his inexperience would let him. While it would be easy to track Spartan through the thick snow that still covered the Albertan countryside, it was going to be tough getting him back without Jack noticing. Or, at least, getting him back as close to as when Jack noticed as possible. At least Ty knew that the horse wouldn't get hurt; Amy would make sure of that.

At the thought of Amy, Ty had to clench his hands together and take a deep breath. He couldn't believe he'd said the things he had to her, and he had to make it right.

He'd find a way to make it right.

I don't own anything recognizable.

~TLL~