Chapter 37:

A young Ty was sat at the kitchen table doing his homework, he and his mother were talking about his day at school. He was really happy as he had gotten a certificate for his work in Maths – the only person in the whole class to get an A. They were laughing and all of a sudden Wade came storming through yelling at them both to shut up. "Wade please don't he was telling me about his certificate!" Lily pleaded. Wade flew off the handle and back handed Lily across the face. Ty screamed "NO!" and tried to run away, but he couldn't get away in time and Wade grabbed him by the collar and flew him across the room… SNAP…

Ty was still asleep, but screaming for Wade to stop. Amy woke up suddenly and tried to talk Ty out of his dream. Once he came round he bolted upright and started crying again. Lou heard the commotion and knocked on the door, "Is everything ok?" She asked before opening the door.

"Yeah, one second," Amy replied throwing on a Tshirt, "Right you can come in now,"

Lou opened the door to see Ty in a complete state, "Ty, are you ok?"

"Y-yeah, I-I will be." Ty stammered. Amy wrapped her arms around him and he just breathed slowly quietly sobbing.

Katie came running through and ran straight past Lou and jumped up onto Ty's lap, "Are you ok Uncle Ty?" She asked while giving him a hug.

Ty wrapped his arms around her and sniffed, "Yeah, I am fine Katie. See, no need to worry. I just had a scary dream, but I promise you I am fine!" Ty reassured her, looking at Lou over her head.

"Katie, come on, lets go back to bed, Ty will be fine, won't you Ty?" Lou asked.

Ty smiled and tickled Katie, "Yeah fine," Ty laughed. Katie giggled and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Good night Uncle Ty, Night, Aunty Amy love you!"

"Night Katie, love you too," Ty replied picking her up and putting her on the floor.

"Night Katie," Amy said tiredly.

Lou looked over at the pair, "Get some sleep, I will see you when you wake up. Good night."

"Night." Amy and Ty replied.

Once Lou had gone, Ty wrapped his arms around Amy, he was so glad she was there, "Wow, that was the worst one yet. It was the time he broke my arm. He grabbed my arm and threw me against a wall, there was a loud snap, and I just remember waking up in A&E. They said I fell down the stairs. He only kicked off because me and mom were happy, I was the only one in my maths class to get an A and I got a certificate for it. Mom was making me spaghetti and meatballs to celebrate. He came in and ruined that. I am so happy you're here, I don't think you know how much it means. When I had these dreams at the trailer, I was all alone, and it took forever to calm myself down. But now, being here with you helps me calm down a lot quicker. Thank you," Ty turned and faced Amy and kissed her.

"Oh Ty, you know I will always be here for you! What brought on the nightmare tonight?" Amy asked.

"Well Stephen was talking about that he has nightmares, also he asked about my nightmare, which I lied about. I didn't want him thinking I was still having major nightmares because of it because he is in a real good place right now and I didn't want to ruin that for him," Ty explained.

"Oh Ty, you are amazing you know that? You should have told me about the nightmares, I would have helped you. I am glad I have been able to help you now though. Do you want to stay up a bit or go to sleep? It is 3:30am." Amy asked.

"Well it might take me a while to get back to sleep, but as long as you are here with me, I will be fine! I am glad we have a day to ourselves tomorrow, we can have a nice lie in and then maybe go for a trail ride? Spartan and Harley must be feeling a bit neglected at the moment," Ty laughed. He lay down and put his arm around Amy and she put her head on his chest. They just lay like that for what seemed like forever, she was just listening to the beating of his heart and she soon drifted to sleep. Ty also managed to fall asleep, luckily into a dreamless sleep.

The pair managed to sleep until 11:30am, they both got up and got dressed. They decided they would go up to the ridge for a picnic for lunch. They went into the kitchen and read a note which read:

'Amy & Ty: Grandpa is at Lisa's today and won't be home until tonight, I have taken Katie into town and Caleb is riding the fences on the south side of Heartland. Everything is being taken care of, have a nice day. See you at dinner. Lou xxx'

"Aww, right do you want ham or turkey butties for lunch?" Amy asked getting the bread out of the bin.

"Hmmm… Surprise me. Do you want me to go and tack up the horses?" Ty asked.

"Yeah, the sooner we leave, the sooner we get our lunch. I am starving!" Amy laughed.

Ty laughed and went outside to see Scott and Cass pull up, "Hey, what are you two doing here?" he asked curiously.

"We are checking out a horse for Amy, plus Jack called me last night and seen if I could give Paint a steroid injection, which I will do now. Where is Amy? I need to speak to her." Scott replied.

"Oh she is in the house, just go and let yourself in, come on Cass, I will show you to the horse Amy wants you to look at," Ty replied.

They all went their separate ways, Scott to the house and saw Amy making up some sandwiches, "Hey, I brought the paperwork for you to sign. We are going to do steroid injections in Paint's leg while we are here. Killing two birds with one stone you know."

"Hey, thank you! I will sign them now," Amy took the pen and paperwork out of Scott's hand and quickly provided the relevant information, "Are you sure your cousin is ok to keep him until the day after Ty's birthday? Buster is going to be an extra surprise, we are having a party at home, obviously you are invited, then we are going to the dude ranch for the night. I am planning on giving him Buster the morning after his birthday!"

"Aww that's sweet, you two are definitely made for each other, you know that?" Scott stated.

Amy blushed, "Thanks Scott, you best go before he gets suspicious. Tell him I have nearly done lunch and I expect both horses to be tacked up and ready by the time I am done," she laughed.

Scott laughed and nodded, "Will do!"

Amy went back to doing lunch and Scott went out to the barn. He showed Ty how to administer the injections, seeing as he lives at the ranch, he can now do the injections – which saves Scott having to come out every day, "Oh I almost forgot, you best get them horses tacked up before she gets here, she expects it done," Scott laughed.

Ty rolled his eyes, "Yeah will do, and this is the other horse Amy needed you to look at, his name is Quiggly and he won't be saddled so she just wants a vet record stating there is actually nothing wrong with his back, I would do it but I still have another 2 years of vet school before I can technically do it!"

Scott and Cass both laughed and checked out Quiggly. Ty quickly tacked up Harley and Spartan up. Scott and Cass had left by the time Amy eventually made it to the barn with the lunch.

They got on the horses and rode off to the ridge, they let the horses graze while they sat up against a fallen tree eating their lunch.

"Well, pancakes may not be your forte but Turkey butties definitely are! They were great babe, thank you for lunch," Ty said kissing her.

"You're welcome, and yeah, my turkey butties are to die for aren't they," She smirked, Kissing him back. They sat talking about everything that happened the night prior for around 3 hours. Ty had told Amy everything he was thinking and she listened, which he appreciated. He told her the stories of what happened when he was a kid, it made her shiver. Wade was a terrible man.

At around 4 O'clock, they headed back slowly. When they got back they sorted out the horses and went up to the house. Lou was busy cooking dinner and talking to Peter on the phone at the same time, sounded as if the conference was boring and he was missing them all. Amy and Ty went into the living room to see Georgie and Katie playing a game of snap at the table, when Katie saw Ty she smiled, "Hey Uncle Ty. I have something for you. I will just go and get it!"

Ty looked confused as the little girl walked out of the living room and down to her bedroom. Lou came through when she heard what Katie said, she too was curious as to what she was going to give him. She came back 30 seconds later with her toy pony 'Pogie' in her arms. She reached out for Ty to take it, "Here, I want you to have Pogie. Pogie is very good at keeping you safe so you have no more bad dreams!"

Ty smiled, he felt like crying and so did Amy and Lou, Katie really did love her Uncle Ty and didn't like the fact he had been upset in the night. Tim had walked in as Katie was talking about his bad dreams, and of course, not knowing what had happened decided to make a typical 'Tim' comment, "Wow still having nightmares at your age Ty? Aren't you a bit too old for the boogie monster?"

"Dad, don't." Lou warned.

"What? Bless him did you watch a scary movie?" Tim continued to tease.

Ty just got up and walked out. He couldn't be bothered trying to deal with Tim, it was too sensitive to talk about, even though Tim was soon to be his father-in-law, he still felt uncomfortable opening up to him about it. He went and sat down in his and Amy's room and tears started to stream down his face. Ty Borden was not ok. He had tried to convince himself he was over his childhood, but the harsh fact was that he wasn't.

"Was It something I said?" Tim said, still oblivious to the fact that Ty was upset, "He is such a cry baby some times!"

"DAD! Don't talk about him like that, if only you knew!" Amy raised her voice to Tim.

"Knew what? Everyone has 'nightmares' there is no need to be so sensitive to it!" Tim snapped back.

"Georgie, can you take Katie outside, let her go and see Pogie for a bit please? Me and Amy need to talk to dad." Lou said, ushering the girls out of the room.

"What? What is going on? I don't get how you are mad about me making a joke?" Tim defended.

"Ty's problems are not a joking matter dad, ever since what happened with Stephen, he has been having flashback nightmares about Wade. What Wade did to his mom, and to him. He has woke up screaming and crying 2 nights now, I think he has had more but hasn't told me about them in detail. Last night, he was having a nightmare about the time Wade snapped his arm, he woke up in A&E to the story that he fell down the stairs. That man is petrified of Wade and his past. He thought he was over it, but this just shows he really is not. He is struggling so much at the moment dad, and you have no right to laugh or take the mick out of him for these nightmares. You know Ty, he does not get upset over many things, so when you find out he has been having nightmares, you should have put 2 and 2 together to make 4, but no. You jumped to conclusions and made 5. Just like you always do." Amy ranted. Wow she couldn't believe she had just spoke to her father like that, but after the stories Ty had told her today, she knew she had no choice.

"Oh. I had no idea. I knew he had a bad childhood, yeah. But I didn't realise he was this badly affected. I think I should go and speak to him." Tim apologised, "I am sorry."

Tim got up and went up to the door of Amy's room, he was about to go in until he heard sobbing on the other side of the door. He immediately went and got Amy, "Honey, I think you are the only one who is going to be able to calm him down, he sounds bad." Tim stated.

Amy was worried at this point and went to her room and entered, she saw Ty sat down on the bed, facing the window, crying. She went over and gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around her and never wanted to let go.

"I- I-I'm s-o-orry Amy! I didn't mean to make a scene but I couldn't handle it. I am not ok am i?" Ty cried.

"Shhhh, it is ok. But no, you aren't ok. What Wade did to you was terrible, and you should never have had to be put through that. But unfortunately you were. I told my dad what happened and he is so sorry, he had no idea. He was going to come in and apologise to you but he heard you and knew it would be best for me to come in first. I see you have Pogie," Amy smiled, "Is he helping?"

Ty stopped sobbing and laughed, "He was a bit, but when you came in, I didn't need him no more," he sniffed.

Amy wrapped her arms around Ty's neck and pulled him into another hug, "Right, let's go back out. Will you be ok?"

"Yeah, like I said, I have you," He replied lovingly and kissed her on the forehead.

Ty walked back out after he had cleaned himself up. When Tim saw him he immediately went up to him and hugged him – wow a hug off Tim Fleming? He knew Tim felt bad, "Sorry Ty, I had no idea. Don't let that crazy son of a bitch make you feel like this. Don't let him have the satisfaction."

"Cheers Tim, I appreciate it!" Ty replied. He went and sat down next to Amy on the sofa, Katie and Georgie had returned and were on the floor, Ty gave Pogie back to Katie explaining it was ok but he wouldn't need him.

Dinner was ready and they all sat round the table laughing, Jack had appeared in the middle of the commotion, but had been filled in by Lou, so knew what was going on. Everyone was happy and laughing. Even Ty, who once again realised what it was like to have a proper family. He held Amy's hand under the table. This was all the family he would ever need.

A/N: Cheers once again for the reviews. I couldn't sleep - it is like 2am and I have finally finished this chapter. Will hopefully get another one written tomorrow, well today? But it depends on how I am feeling as my fresher's flu has come back with a vengeance! Well it hasn't come back, it has just stayed and all of a sudden got a lot worse! Can't believe it! 2 weeks now!

Let me know what you think of this chapter :D