Chapter 25

Margie took the news much better than any of the others. Growing up on the prairie had a way of making its natives pull a veil courage around themselves that hid all the fear and hurt they suffered in the face of inevitable hardship.

The natural predisposition to fight anything and everything that posed a threat to any loved one of hers put the time seasoned rancher's wife to task looking for the best way to face it, but her husband was visibly crushed into a thousand pieces as he buckled under the weight of the disclosure his granddaughter had handed them.

Charlie had been holding onto Ty's hand so tightly while she let loose of her news that his fingers were turning numb, and he felt a little ashamed for the sensation of relief when she released her grip to sit on her grandfather's lap and bury her face into his shoulder while they both surrendered to the pain overflowing from two broken hearts.

A twinge of guilt ran through the self-alleged outsider for having no practical idea of what to say or how to help the family in the dreadful moment, no matter how much he wished he did. Although Ty had started to feel more comfortable spending family time with the McCrarys, being in their midst as they shared such a tragically life altering moment made him feel out of place and weak when they needed strength, useless to their needs.

The older woman noticed Ty's distress at wishing he could do more than quietly stand aside watching the people he cared for so much dealing with their sadness. It touched Margie to realize her granddaughter's new love had a genuine compassion for them as well. She had not yet had the time to consider how much his life would be impacted, much like the rest of the family, and selflessly walked up to him, took his elbow into her hand, and led him into the next room.

Not knowing quite what to expect from the matriarch of the family, Ty wisely followed along knowing he would comply with her wishes, no matter what she asked of him, but was surprised when she tugged him into a comforting grandmother's hug and whispered closely as she looked him in the eyes, "You have been so good to my girls, Ty, and to Clint and me. I just want to thank you for being here for her when she needs you the most. I don't think you have any idea how much it means to us, and to Charlene, to have you here with us right now. I know it isn't fair, to just be starting out and have something like this happen out of the blue, but life does what it wants and we just have to figure things out the best we can. It's gonna be tough, Ty, but we're going to stick together, no matter what, all of us, so if you need anything from me or Clint you just speak up and tell us, you understand me?"

Ty stood away and studied the amazingly perceptive woman, her steadfast determination reaching out to him through the unmistakable love in her eyes, and nodded. "I appreciate that, Margie, and same here," he said, "I'll do the best I can to do my part in this. Just tell me what you need for me to do."

Margie nodded back to the principled young man she was glad to have beside them in such a hard-hitting circumstance, squeezing Ty by the arm and turning to walk into the room where her husband and granddaughter continued to find security in their embrace. "Ok, everybody, we have to get ourselves together before Samantha wakes up," Margie directed. "Charlene, you and Ty need take your breakfast and go down to the cabin for a while. It will give me a chance to feed her and get her to doing something that will keep her occupied this morning. Same for you, hon! I don't need you getting' all broke up in front of her yet, so eat up and get on out to the garage, or to doing something useful until you get yourself shaped up enough for her to see you. I will take care of Sammy."

Neither of them had spoken on the ride down to the cabin. The young couple sat in silence absorbed in the quiet hum of the river wishing for some kind of reset button to push in their minds and hoping beyond hope that the best part of their brief time together was not already behind them.

The sound of the water dallying through thousands of time-worn stones was medicine to the soul, but the grim reality of their situation made even the littlest things seem hostile in consideration of the battle that lay before them. Ty was no stranger to what it means to have to fight his way back from the brink of giving up. There had been many times in his life when he thought he might have reached his breaking point, but somehow had managed to pick himself up and face whatever threatened him and defeat it, to move on through a deep-rooted hope of making something of himself in spite of his rough start in life.

This time would be different, though, because Ty knew that death takes pieces of you with it when it leaves, and you never get them back.

They sat for what must have been an hour trying to reach beyond the boundaries of fear and debilitating disappointment confining them to their own thoughts. Deciding it was finally time to begin his attempt for the healing process, "Your grandmother is probably the strongest person I have ever met. I don't see how she does it." Ty calmly spoke into Charlie's hair, his cheek nestled into the top of her head as she burrowed tightly inside his arms against his chest.

"That's just the pioneer spirit she was born with. That's what settler women had to be like," she explained. "A lot of the fifth and sixth generations are still with us and that's how they were taught to cope with life and whatever it threw at them. If they wouldn't have been able to stand up to the rough conditions like they did, well, none of us would even be here today."

"I suppose you are right," he pondered, "I wonder if I could have made it, you know, if I had lived back then. I just don't think I have the guts those people had, the inner strength that made them so determined to carry on when things got bad."

Charlie sat up and looked her confidant straight in the eyes, "Don't ever let me hear you say that about yourself again, Ty Borden, eh-veerr! You honestly have no idea how strong you are!" she admonished.

"But you don't know…,"

"I don't know what!" she roared as she knotted forward on the chair. "That you had it about as shitty as it gets when you were a kid and found a way to pull yourself out of a childhood like you had and make something of yourself? To be the kind of guy people just seem to know they can trust the minute they meet you?" Charlie sighed and retreated slightly as she began to soften her pose, "To be the kind of guy I never thought really existed, like some kind of fairy tale-knight-in-shining-armor who came into my life to rescue me when I had all but given up on believing things like that could ever happen?"

Ty was dumbfounded, not so much because of her words, but by her resolve, considering the thoughts of mortality that must have been swirling around inside her mind. "Wait a minute, how did this turn into being about me?"

"It is about you, Ty, because you are one of the few people I know I can count on when things get tough, and we both know what's coming. I need for you to understand that you can get through this, and giving up is not an option, for either of us!"

Ty thought about what Charlie had said, and then he asked, "So, what have the doctors said, exactly? What did they advise to you about starting treatments and…?"

"There won't be any treatments, Ty, at least not after..., not after I get my affairs in order and see that my daughter will be taken care of after I get to the point where I can't do it anymore."

"But you have to fight this! You have to…."

"We have already talked about this, Ty," she interrupted by softly brushing his lips with the tips of her fingers. "We both know the only effect all those treatments would have on me now is to prolong the inevitable. I have seen people I know, people I love and care about, go through this, and I thought back then if it ever happened to me that I couldn't put the people I love through watching me fade away like that, so…."

"OK, I understand what you are thinking, but let's not be too hasty with decisions this important." Ty tried desperately to think of a way to change her mind, at least to make her take the time to better consider her options, "Look, how about this? Would you at least agree to come with me to talk to Bar? Let me call her and tell her what is happening to get her up to speed, and then we can go meet with her and see what we think afterwards?"

Charlie thought she had already determined her path, but when she heard the passion in Ty's voice as he refused to accept defeat from the unseen threat that had snatched away their future, speaking as if they were a team and not two individuals in a separate struggle to survive, she realized that she wanted to do what he asked, if not for her own benefit, to help the one she had come to think of as the one true love she had always waited for to come to terms with their fate in his own time. "OK. Maybe that is not such a bad idea. We should go see her, so, go ahead and give her a call. But right now, I have other plans."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking…, since I have the most handsome and wonderful guy I know all to myself, aaannnd a little time alone, that we could go up to the cabin and spend some quality time together…, that is, if you think you are up to it?"

Ty was shocked that the idea had even crossed her mind, but when he saw the need to be loved shining so brightly in her hopeful eyes he got up out of his chair and scooped her up from where she sat cross legged next to him and carried her up the stairs.

"Don't use up all of you energy, Doc, because if there is anything left of you after I get finished with what I have in mind for you right now, we are going to go back to the house and get Sammy so you can teach her how to catch Ol' Bill's big fat cousin out of that river, just like you taught me!"

Sammy squealed when she nearly fell from the gentle push of the current against her waders as she bobbled over the slippery rocks to where Ty waited for her in the middle of the lazy river. Charlie giggled at her clumsy daughter, so eager to get out to the spot her hero had picked out to start the fishing lesson he had promised to her after the success of her mother catching Ol' Bill, the biggest fish any of them had ever seen out of this river, at least.

"Sammy! Slow down! Those fish will be still there in the two minutes it will take you to get there, if you don't fall in first!" the young girl's mother chuckled.

Charlie had brought along her new GoPro Hero waterproof camera to make videos of the eager child as she impatiently thrashed through the water toward Ty. In the silence beside Ty earlier in the day she had decided that the best gift she could give to her daughter for the years to come would be to document their best days together before she would be rendered unable to spend quality time with her like she wished would be possible. These videos would be Sammy's window into her past someday, and right now creating them was the closest thing to happiness a dying mother could find in the uncertainty of the days ahead.

The afternoon went by so quickly that before any of them noticed it a cooler evening breeze brought to their attention that the day was nearly done. Shadows from the hills dwarfing the valley below dimmed the sparkling water as it danced around the rocks lining the riverbed and the three fishermen waddled along carefully trudging toward the bank near the gazebo.

A hero already cast in stone to the five year old, the leader of the fishing party carried the impressive stringer and held Sammy's hand as the worn out little angler beamed at her first catch, and the second and third she had managed to bring in with her mother's experienced help as Ty had caught it all on camera.

Sammy held on tightly to Ty's gentle grip as she slipped for the umpteenth time trying to navigate the slippery stones that seemed much larger after an exciting afternoon spent with the people she loved showing her how to do something she thought of as being so grown up.

Charlie was already waiting at the gazebo and yelled to them from above, "If you two don't hurry up those fish are going to be too old to eat!"

"We're coming, Mom! Just hold your horses!" using one of her great grandmother's favorite quips.

Enjoying fresh caught fish sitting around the glowing fire pit alongside a beautiful river was the kind of thing Ty had always thought of as the perfect family moment. It was something he had experienced only once before at Eagle Lake when he was young. His father had made a rare attempt to spend time with him and his mom for an entire weekend of camping and fishing and sadly, it was one of the only pleasant memories he had of the three of them together.

He sat and watched as Sammy wound down from explaining how she was going to tell Clint and Margie about the many fish she caught and made her mother show her the recording to make sure she had proof since the fish were soon to be long gone as evidence.

"I think it's about bedtime, Sammy, don't you!" Charlie suggested.

"Yeah, OK!" her daughter admitted, and then she scooted out of her small chair to get up on her tip toes and give her a long hug that Charlie stretched out for as long as she could. Sammy then bounded toward Ty and gave him the same hug as she had offered her mother and said, "Thank you, Ty! This was the best day, ever!"

To be continued