Mitch and Amy find an unexpected connection due to absent lovers. Set around season 11.

A/N: I didn't have a beta for this story, so hopefully there won't be too many grammar errors.

Mitch drove his truck towards the place Tim and Casey had bought for themselves some months ago. Even though he recognized the tiny ranch by its name and somewhat knew where it stood, he was still unsure about his whereabouts when he passed the gates. Neither Tim nor Casey expected his visit, so that probably also played into his insecurity.

After laying low for few days, Mitch had decided he couldn't wait anymore for the future to sort itself out, he had to actually do something to make sure he would even have one - and that was why he was here, looking into talking to Tim Fleming, even when he would have rather done so many other things than that.

Luckily for him, it seemed like the man was at home.

After he parked his truck, Mitch saw Tim walking his and Casey's horses, Champ and Cody, to the paddock and looking surprised upon seeing a familiar vehicle coming in.

Stepping out, Mitch was greeted by Georgie's dog, Remi. The Shepherd had stayed over the couple's place while Georgie had been absent, and Mitch had heard that Casey was teaching her herding skills that could become useful later on with the cattle.

"Hey, Remi..." Mitch said, giving her few scratches on her side and neck. "Who is a good girl..." The dog was over the moon from the attention she was receiving, and it was hard to say if the dog was wagging her tail or the tail was wagging her.

"She is", Tim answered to the rhetoric question as he walked closer. "But she makes a lousy guard dog. Should have had her attack you for even stepping into my property after what you did the last time I saw you. You could have popped out my bad elbow, not to mention you refused to answer my questions, and it seems like you're siding with Jack about the business plan. You must be the world's biggest idiot for coming over after all that."

Mitch got serious and felt the wave of embarrassment wash over him as he stretched himself back up to face the man in front of him. Something about the way Tim chose to deliver his thoughts gave him an automatic reaction to get annoyed, but that was probably exactly the reaction he was looking for; it was his way to gain power over him because he knew that if it came to a physical fight - which it almost had because of him - he wouldn't stand a chance. So all he had were his words and the way he had a gift of making people feel crappy about themselves.

Instead of giving him that, Mitch decided to stand behind his actions and explain himself, if only for Tim to get a better understanding why he had done the things he had done - if he would even choose to hear him out, that was.

"That's kind of the reason why I thought I'd just stop by, unannounced. Figured maybe you wouldn't want me here", Mitch said. "But we need to talk."

"You would have been right; I don't want you here", Tim hummed. "But... now you are here. So..." He gestured Mitch to tell him what had brought him here.

"Well, first of all", Mitch began, "I'm sorry if I hurt you. I tried my best not to. In my defense - literally - you were being pretty rough with me, so I was just trying to prevent anything bad from happening. Maybe I've become a bit jumpy after Ty attacked me, who knows, but I wasn't about to let anyone put hands on me again."

Tim sighed. "Fine. Whatever. That's in the past. - Anything else?"

"Well, I think we need to talk about the business plan", Mitch replied.

"Yeah, we do. More than that, we need to assure Jack that he is making a huge mistake by stepping down", Tim still insisted.

"See, I don't think he is. I mean, I get why he wants to retire. He almost had a heart attack", Mitch said, even though Tim knew this since he had been there too. "I don't think it was an easy decision for him, but it is the decision we need to respect."

"Oh, come on", Tim said. "Not this thing again..."

"Okay, so why don't you want him to step back then?" Mitch directed the question toward Tim this time. Clearly there was something he didn't understand. "Is it because you don't want to be in business with me?"

Tim stayed quiet and seemed almost annoyed Mitch had thought to make this about him. "Because..."

Mitch waited, his brows slowly going up the longer the silence continued.

"Because him admitting that he is old makes me older too", Tim finally admitted. "Because if he steps back, that means I'm the next in line. That I'm the oldest."

Mitch thought about it. "But... that doesn't change your age. You're just as old as you are now - whether he is in or not. And if you're afraid that you don't know the business like he does... maybe you don't, but you know it like you do. And I think that's enough."

"It's not just about the number... It's about the mindset", Tim said when Mitch wasn't getting it. "Ever since they showed me the shadow in my brain, it made me realize the time hasn't just stopped. It goes on and my body is changing, without me even realizing. And now that I'm aware of it, I'm starting to feel it. With Jack admitting the fact that he is too old for this... It just makes it all the more real."

"Well, the way I see it is that you can either live in denial or accept it and embrace it", the younger man spoke. "Jack seems happier now. Like he's relieved."

"Easy for you to say", Tim scoffed. "You're what? Thirty?"

Mitch nodded. "Yeah, around thirty. - But my point is, even if you want to keep living in denial, you can't force Jack to live there with you. He's chosen to accept his situation and make the best of it. We should give him that freedom."

Tim stayed quiet for a while, looking around. Mitch felt like there was still more to this story.

"What...?" he finally asked. With Tim, it was almost unheard of that he felt the need to stay quiet. That's when you knew something was seriously wrong.

"I can't become an equal partner with you", Tim finally said.

Mitch figured he knew where this was coming from. Lou. Amy. Either of them or both. "Okay, so you want to buy me out", he said it before Tim could, just so it wouldn't maybe feel so bad.

"No", Tim shook his head. "The thing is... I'm fine; there is no longer that shadow in my brain, but... the doctors said that I need to slow it down. That I need to make choices. That I can't have my rodeo school, run Maggie's and look after the herd all at once because my brain's been through hell. I need to give it time to heal. At my age and with my history, it needs it more than before. But how can I? Lou's going to New York, I'm left with Maggie's. She trusts me with it. And I love the kids at rodeo school, that's my passion project. That's what keeps me sane now that I can no longer do rodeo."

"And the business...?"

"It's more like a necessity. It's never something that excited me, challenged me", Tim admitted. "I do like it, but... maybe I liked it so much because... I got to spend time with Jack. - And if you ever say that to him, I will take you out", he stressed.

Mitch raised his hand in front of him, as a sign of defeat.

"I won't", he promised, even if he didn't understand why it was so hard for Tim to admit he liked Jack so much. After all, Jack was easy to like. But maybe it was a pride thing for Tim. Something that threatened his masculinity.

"So... what does that mean for the business then?" Mitch wondered.

"That's the thing. I don't know", Tim replied.

"We find a third partner?" Mitch suggested.

"Like? And don't say Caleb. If you say Caleb, we might as well quit altogether."

Mitch thought about it for a while. "Casey?"

There was a beat until Tim spoke. "I don't know if she'll be interested..."

"And you never will, if you don't ask", Mitch said. "Or the other option is that I buy Jack's share and own 66,66% while you are left with 33,33%."

"Okay, I'll ask her", Tim said even before Mitch could finish his sentence. He didn't like the thought of Mitch having more than he did.

"Okay... So... will you let me know what she says?" Mitch asked.

Tim nodded, feeling a little nervous. He didn't know what it would be like working with Casey, but at the same time there was no one he trusted more than her.

"Okay. Good." Mitch felt like things had shifted at least a little bit, and now he knew more about what mind frame Tim was in and why the man was so hesitant about letting Jack do what he wanted. "Thanks for talking to me."

Tim nodded, absentmindedly.

"Hey... there's still something you didn't tell me", Tim remembered. "Why was Lou so upset?"

So, Tim still didn't know. Mitch sighed.

"She didn't tell you?"

"I wouldn't be asking if she had", Tim mocked Mitch's question.

"Amy and I... We kissed", Mitch figured there could be no partnership without honesty and if this was what was going to take him out, then so be it. He had to own up to his actions.

"Wh-what...?" Tim could barely say.

"Yeah, but Amy told me she wasn't interested in having anything more, so that's... that", Mitch said before Tim could make a bigger scene about it. He didn't want Tim to think he was trying to do anything Amy didn't want him to do.

After Tim had processed it for a while, his eyes narrowed a little bit. "No wonder Lou was so mad at you then - and kicked you out. Good for her", he said. "Should have punched you when I had the chance..."

"Is that how you solve things...?" Mitch had to ask after a moment of tension. "Violence? Threatening with it?" This wasn't the first time he had come face to face with it, but it was beginning to dawn on him that it wasn't the first time anyone in the family had used it as a way to solve things either. It was like an automatic reaction, something you didn't even stop to think before you did it.

Tim shrugged. "You deserve a punch for that. What kind of guy kisses his ex-girlfriend's sister?"

Mitch wanted to say that he had not just kissed Amy, they had kissed each other in mutual understanding of the situation, and at the end of the day, it had been a moment shared by two adults, without any titles of the past. But that was probably not something Tim wanted to hear nor was he probably ready to have that conversation, especially now that it had not even lead to anything further.

Instead, he chose to focus on what the real problem in this situation was.

"I know, as a father of both Lou and Amy, you might feel like you need to protect them, and you are in your right to do so", Mitch had to say, "but just know that both of them are capable of taking care of themselves. Amy told me to back off, so I did. Lou asked me to leave, so I did. You don't need to threaten me with violence to teach me some lesson about your authority. Both Lou and Amy had their own authority, and I've respected that. Threatening me - or anyone else for that matter - with violence is a crime. Give your daughters a little bit more credit."

He then got into his truck, feeling angry for the way Tim chose to handle things. It was times like these where he wondered why he even was in the partnership with this guy, but he was also determined not to run away from things anymore when they got hard or uncomfortable. He had to at least try to make a change. He wasn't going to therapy to follow the same old pattern that had kept him in his place for so long but to change the things he could.

As he started the engine, Mitch thought back to the time Amy had fallen off the stairs. Back then everyone had assured him that it had been an accident, and maybe it had been, but Mitch still felt uneasy about it, especially knowing from his own experience that Ty had chosen to assault him over some feelings he felt like he couldn't deal with any other way.

Now he had been threatened by Tim, so casually that most people probably wouldn't think much of it, in fact they would probably write it off as nothing, but having had that moment with him at the ranch - after Lou had told him to leave - made Mitch think that if it came to it, Tim wasn't going to pull back his punches either. Something about it all, the casual way of it, rubbed Mitch the wrong way.

As an outsider, it was almost shocking to realize how much this type of tension was hiding in plain sight, just waiting for someone to snap. Maybe there was not much physical violence around the family, not like there was in some families at least, but there was a promise of it in the air, which also made it emotional abuse. The fear of something that might happen - or not - the probability of it was enough to keep someone "in line".

When Mitch passed the gates, his mind went to Amy and the moment between them at the bottom of the stairs.

The way Amy was trying to please everyone else and how she didn't want to upset the rest of the family or other people by causing waves or wanting something for herself. How everyone else's happiness was more important than hers.

It really worried Mitch.

Where was all that coming from if not from some type of trauma or emotional abuse? Did Amy even realize it herself?