Authors Note

Hello everybody! Don't mind me I'm like high on painkillers or something for head/neck. I have advice for you guys: when you're riding your trainers 16.3 hand high horse, DON'T fall off! Also don't ride outside when it's windy and there are tarps near the ring. Tis not a good mix! The horse will likely spook and you'll end up on the ground and the next morning you'll have a killer headache that won't go away (I've had mine since Sunday! And it won't go away! Just keeps getting worse!) Totally not fair because I can no longer say that I've only fallen once in close to seven years of riding. Nope now it's gotta be twice. Oh well I won't bore you anymore and just get on with the chapter. Review! –Steph

Disclaimer: Based loosely off of characters and events that were created and are owned by Lauren Brooke

Chapter 15 (the last chapter should have been chapter 14, this is chapter 15)

Same day, Monday, night

Baldwin House

Nobodies POV

Brad Baldwin was sitting in his living room with his wife, Elizabeth Baldwin, more commonly known as Liz. There was a fire blazing in the stone fireplace adjacent to their couches and Brad was enjoying a relaxing conversation with his wife after a long, hard day out on the yard. There'd been much to do and clean up from the storm last night. Though, Baldwin Ways had fared fortunately, unlike some, in the tornado they were not left unscathed. There were down braches, trees and several crushed paddock gates and fences that needed attention.

Despite any inconveniences Brad had ordered that the mile long race track on his property be cleared off straight away. He wouldn't miss a day of training his new obsession, Baldwin Prince. The young colt was regally named and was living up to his name quite nicely, as Brad would tell you. The Prince, as Brad affectionately called him, was going to win the Triple Crown that spring, Brad would confidently tell you. There was not a dot of doubt in Brad's mind that his flashy colt was the one. Though, Brad could close down Baldwin Ways that very minute and be able to live the same life style he was basking in now, support his two children, and never sell any of his possessions, he'd never lost his competition spark. Brad got a thrill at the racetrack, which was what turned Baldwin Ways into, primarily, a racing stable. He didn't need another Triple Crown win; he'd already had, possibly, more than his fair share of those and was willing to show you the trophies for added proof, but he could never give it up and every spring he found him self thirsty for more. As soon as the foals started being born he'd stalk through the aisles of the barns, appraising the youngsters that were just days old, fillies and colts alike, looking for the one that, in Brad's eyes, had the making of a champion. It was like he was on the hunt, and didn't stop until he was firmly set on one, more often than not he was correct in his assumptions on who would be their next great runner.

"Hmmm," Liz said as she savored a sip from her wine glass. She looked at the fire that was crackling in the elegant stone fireplace next to her. "This is nice," she said with a glance at her husband.

"It is," Brad responded dazedly, once again he'd been consumed in his dreams of Baldwin Prince in the winners circle with the blanket of white carnations draped proudly over The Prince's sleek, muscular, jet black back. The jockey was sitting tall in the saddle and wore the Baldwin Ways silks proudly.

"It's so quiet," Liz said. Though, the mansion was so huge that you'd easily get lost if you didn't know your way around there was always something happening. Her youngest son, Lee, had taken a liking to blasting music around the house and thanks to his state of the art, top notch sound system in his room it meant that everyone was listening to his music. "Where are the kids?" Liz asked suddenly.

"Lee's in the field house with some friends, playing basketball I believe," Brad answered his wife. Adjacent to the main house there was a separate building that contained two full size basket ball courts, several tennis courts, squash courts, one of those tanks that propels the water towards you and you swim against it, an indoor pool and hot tub, a mile track, a weight room and every kind of exercise equipment you could possibly fathom. Of course locker rooms and showers were a given and Brad had specially added an in home spa, complete with workers, for Liz as a birthday gift the prior year. "Ty hasn't been back since this morning," Brad finished.

"At Amy's, isn't he?" Liz questioned even though she already knew the answer that was coming.

"Yes," Brad responded. "What the poor girl must be going through," he shook his head sadly. "Loosing her mother like that." He looked at Liz and met her blue eyes, "Ty's a good boy, he'd never hurt her."

"No," Liz said with a small smile. "He wouldn't."

"You should be more supportive of him," Brad suggested after a moment.

"What do you mean?" Liz asked primly as she took another dainty sip from her wine glass.

"About him and Amy," Brad supplied. "He cares about her a lot," he paused and looked steadily at Liz before continuing. "In fact," Brad began, "I would go so far as to say he loves her."

Liz was silent for a moment and she swirled the wine around in her glass, moving her hand in light circles. She stared into the rocking, deep red liquid. "I do believe he does," Liz said finally. It was hard for her to admit something like that. "But you know?" Liz uncrossed her long, perfectly toned and tanned legs and set both of her long and skinny but still dainty feet on the lavishly carpeted floor. "I'm beginning to think the Amy may not be so bad for Ty."

A wide smile broke across Brad's face. He leaned over and kissed his wife enthusiastically on the cheek. "That's a girl!" he exclaimed.

"It's just that…" Liz trailed off and stared into the fire as if the jumping yellow and orange flames held all her answers. Around the edges of the flames there was a light blue coloring, that was the color of Liz's eyes. Messing with her was like messing with fire. "Oh I don't know!" Liz sighed exasperatedly and threw her hands up in front of her chest. "I was wrong I suppose," she finally said.

Brad grinned even wider. "Amy's a fine young lady," he said. "I can't think of someone more suited for Ty than her if I tried."

Liz nodded. "I'll… I'll try to get to know her a bit better. What's say we invite her and her father and brother over for dinner soon? We'll wait a respectable time to invite them of course," Liz added, "Given their resent lose," she concluded.

"Wonderful idea love," Brad said from his place on the couch.

"But," Liz began again, "I know how Ty cares for her but," she paused, "I'm just not sure about how I do yet."

"Well that's fine," Brad reasoned. He leaned forwards and rested his elbows on his knees. "Just give her a chance; I think you wrote her off too quickly when she was here."

"Yes," Liz said.

"The most important thing, however," Brad started, "Is what Ty thinks of her. I know he'd never dream of doing anything to harm her and…" Brad paused as he heard the front door slam shut from a distance. The sound of feet stomped down the hallway, getting ever closer to them. "Ty?" Brad called out after determining that it was most likely his oldest son. Lee would no doubt have been flanked by an army of his friends and Brad only heard one person.

A few seconds later Ty appeared in the archway. "What?" he asked irritably.

"Is everything alright honey?" Liz asked in concern. Normally her son was so calm, patient, understanding, now he looked mad and… she saw a mix of conflicting emotions spread across his face, it was impossible to target just one.

"Fine," Ty answered tersely.

Brad noticed his son's odd behavior too but he figured, if Ty didn't want to talk about it than he wouldn't push it. "How's Amy doing?" Brad stopped abruptly from continuing with his questions. As soon as he said Amy's name Ty's face darkened considerably.

"She's fine," Ty responded without a hint of emotion in his voice.

"Ty are you sure everything's alright?" Liz asked again in concern. She stood up from the couch, set her wine glass on the coffee table and stepped towards her eldest son who was still lingering in the archway. "Did something happen with…"

"Alright fine," Ty said, cutting of his mom mid-sentence. "I broke up with Amy." The room was completely silent for a moment. Ty turned on his mother, his eyes blazing with a fire dancing of emerald green. "You should be happy mom, I know how much you hated her." With that Ty stomped off down the hall and several seconds later a slamming door echoed into the sitting room where Brad and Liz were.

"Oh dear," Liz said worriedly. "What do you suppose happened?"

Brad pushed a hand through his thinning brown hair. "I don't know," he said wearily. "I suppose one of us should talk to him." He shot a meaningful glance to his wife, "I think it should be you."

Liz nodded her head, her light brown hair bobbing around her face. "Where do you suppose he went?" Liz asked. As soon as the words left her mouth she knew where she would find Ty. She looked at Brad and at the same time they said, "The library." There were several libraries in the Baldwin manor but Ty had chosen one that he preferred over the others. It was the one where he had taken Amy to help her understand about football. There was a silent understanding within the Baldwin family that that room was Ty's, every member of the family had a room in the gargantuan house, other than their bedrooms, that was 'theirs', in a manner of speaking.

Liz walked down hallway after hallway until she finally reached the end of the seemingly never ending maze of hallways. She faced a door at the end of the maze. Liz reached out and turned the door knob. She opened the door and caught sight of Ty flopped on the huge leather couch with his feet on the table in front of him. He was flipping through the channels and his eyes were focused on the large screen in front of him, though, his eyes didn't seem to be seeing what was on the screen.

"Ty?" Liz said hesitantly as she walked into the room. Ty didn't normally get this angry but when he did, watch out.

"What?" he asked in a hard voice, he never once looked over at his mother, turned the volume down or looked away from the TV screen.

"I think," Liz began, "That we need to talk." She moved around the couch and sat down at the corner of the sofa, a fair few places away from Ty. In the 18 odd years that she had been married to Brad she had learned a thing or two about horses. The first was that when there is an angry horse you shouldn't try to force it to come to you or obey you. The horse should decide on its own that it wants you near it. Over the years, Liz had found that when you applied this method to people it worked much the same way.

"What about?" Ty asked, his gaze never leaving the television screen that was flickering and changing images every time he pressed the buttons on the remote.

"You know what about Ty," Liz said calmly, unfazed to Ty's cold and hard tone of voice. "What happened with you and Amy?" she pressed.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ty said briefly. He landed on a news channel where they were, again, reporting on last nights storms. A picture of Marion Fleming popped up onto the screen. Ty flicked the television off and tossed the remote to his side with a sigh. Finally, he turned his head briefly to his mother. "Why do you want to know or even care for that matter? You never liked Amy and you're probably only in here right now because dad made you come." He turned away and stayed forwards at the blank screen of the TV.

"Ty I'm your mother and I care about you. I don't like to see you hurt because when you are I'm hurt too," Liz said with feeling as she watched her son closely. "You're hurt now," she said softly. "Tell me what happened," Liz persisted. "Please Ty," she added gently.

Ty sighed and raked his hand through his brown hair. He shook his head around as if he was trying to clear images or memories from his head. "It was so stupid," he said eventually. "I…" he paused, "I don't even know what happened."

"Were you talking?" Liz guessed. "Or…" she trailed off.

Ty snorted. "Talking? Not so much. More like 'or' I guess," Ty stopped abruptly and clamped his mouth shut feeling as though he had shared too much information with his mother.

"Ty, what happened?" Liz asked again. "I just want to understand."

Eventually Ty's jaw loosened and he spoke. "We were uh…" he trailed off. "I don't know what happened. One minute she was crying in my arms and than… you know. I said no because I knew she wanted it for the wrong reasons and that she was hurting and than…" Ty stopped and his expression looked pained.

"Go on," Liz encouraged him.

"And than," Ty repeated, "I don't know what happened. Amy turned everything over to me and Ashley and kept criticizing herself and I just… lost it I guess. I didn't mean to break up with her though," he added. "I was just so mad," he said softly and dropped his head in shame.

Liz scooted along the couch until she was sitting neck to Ty. She had determined that Ty was now willing and ready to accept her presence and rubbed his arm comfortingly. "I'm sorry Ty," Liz said. "I know you cared about her a lot."

"Actually, mom," Ty began hesitantly. "I think I loved her."

Liz smiled lightly, "Well did you tell Amy that?"

Ty grimaced but nodded anyway. "I more like yelled it at her."

"Well at least she knows that," Liz reasoned.

"I don't know," Ty began. "That's not how I wanted to tell her." He glanced over at his mother, "You know? I just wanted it to be perfect," Liz nodded understandingly. "I really screwed things up," Ty sighed and dropped his head back against the leather cushions.

"You can call her," Liz urged Ty. "She loves you just as much as you love her," she insisted.

"How do you know? She probably hates me." Ty groaned. "Her mom dies and than I break up with her, all in one day. I'm an ass," Ty berated himself.

"No you aren't Ty," Liz said forcefully. "You were upset and just acted, you didn't think about the consequences just acted. It happens to all of us," she assured her eldest son. "Call her, you can fix everything."

"I can't," Ty said suddenly. "I… just can't call. Not now. Maybe later."

Liz smiled sadly at Ty. "You call when you're ready." Ty nodded lightly. "Just don't wait too long," Liz warned. Ty remained silent and Liz was determined to cheer him up. "Hey I've got an idea," she said enthusiastically. He faces Ty and put a hand on each of his forearms. "Let's go to Heartland, on Thursday, and I'll see about Chief," she offered.

Ty looked up at his mother and offered her the slightest of smiles. "Thanks mom."

Liz nodded firmly and stood up. "Come on," she said to Ty and gestured for him to stand up. "Let's go see about dinner."

"Okay," Ty said and stood up. He had almost followed his mother out of the library when he remembered his phone, it had vibrated in his pocket while he had been talking to his mother and he had ignored it. Now he pulled it out. "I'll be right there mom," he called to his mom's retreating back.

"Alright!" Liz called back to him before continuing down the hall.

When Liz disappeared around the corner Ty stepped back into the library and closed the door softly behind him. He leaned his back against the door and flipped opened his phone. The screen flashed at him, indicating that he had one new voicemail. Beneath the alert it said 'Amy'. Ty was tempted to snap the phone closed and forget about it but, as if on its own accord, his finger pressed the accept button. Ty entered his password into the phone and pressed the number symbol.

The recorded female, slightly robotic sounding voice played into Ty's ear. "You have one new voicemail in your mailbox," it alerted Ty. "To listen to your voicemail press one. To…" Ty pressed 'one' and soon he was listening to his message. Just as he had thought, it was from Amy.

Her voice was quiet and sad. It made Ty's heart clench in his chest. He'd caused that pain, at least some of it.

"Hi Ty, it's me. Uh Amy," she quickly added. She sniffled before continuing. "I just wanted to say… um…" she paused before saying in a rush, "I'm really sorry," her voice cracked on the word 'sorry'. "I was wrong, really wrong," she said with a sharp, humorless laugh, "About everything. You were right, of course. You always are," she mumbled. "I was stupid, wrong, whatever you want to call it. I was upset… about my… my mom and…" she stopped again and Ty could tell that she was openly crying now. "Just, it's my dad, he's…" she sniffled hard. "Sorry," she said quietly. "I'm really sorry though Ty, I shouldn't have said what I did. It was wrong and I had no right. You didn't deserve that and I was um wrong… I've said that already," she mumbled. "But uh Ty? I really don't want us to be over. What you said… you weren't wrong, about any of it," she insisted. "And um you said you loved me and the truth is…" Amy paused and took a deep, shaky breath before continuing. "And the truth is… the truth is I think…" finally she was able to get what she wanted to say out. "I think I love you to. Actually I know I love you to…"

There was a click and than the robotic female voice spoke again. "End of messages. To save this message press…" Ty snapped the phone shut and just starred at it in his hands. He sighed and leaned his head back against the door. He felt like he'd been punched in the gut and couldn't breathe.

Ty opened his phone again and scrolled down the contacts list until he found Amy's name. He pressed accept and than stared at the numbers he had stored for her. He finally decided that he should call her home phone. His finger was poised over the send button…

"Ty dinner!" his mom's voice called from down the hall.

"One minute!" Ty called back. He eyed the phone again. It was easy, just press the green button and talk to her. He could make it all better, just like that. He was thisclose to pressing send when the other part, the smaller part, of him made him change his mind and he snapped the phone shut. He instantly regretted his decision and was tempted to call again.

He opened his phone back up and found her number again but…

He found he couldn't do it. He didn't understand why he couldn't call her, he wanted to call her. But there was something stopping him. After five minutes of just standing there he realized what it was that was stopping him:

This wasn't something that he wanted to, or felt he could, handle over the phone. He needed to talk with Amy, face to face. He needed to fix what he had messed up, Amy was wrong. He wasn't the one that was right, he was wrong. If had just been able to do what Amy had wanted him to do than everything would be okay. They'd still be together and…

"Ty?" Liz's voice came from the other side of the door. The doorknob turned under Ty's back and he stepped away just as the door started to open. He perched on the arm of the sofa. "Ty what's wrong?" Liz asked when she saw his face.

"I was wrong," Ty said. "If I had just done what she wanted everything would fine. If I had just…"

"No!" Liz said so forcefully that Ty stopped talking and stared at his mother in confusion. "I thought I'd taught you well as you'd grown up." She looked meaningfully into Ty's green eyes. "I taught you and your brother to always make your own decisions, to do what you feel is the right thing. If you had gone ahead and done that earlier today, yes you'd most likely still be with Amy but you'd always feel that it was wrong." Liz put her hands on Ty's shoulders. "Don't blame yourself," she said in a softer voice. "I think that both of you are partly to blame for what happened but blaming yourself isn't going to fix it. If you really do love her and she loves you back than you will find a way to fix this. All relationships have their bumps Ty, that's what makes you stronger, as a pair and as an individual. Call Amy later, if you feel up to it, or you can wait a day or two and give her some space, let her come to terms with her mother's death. But remember, we are going to Heartland on Thursday, in four days."

Ty sighed and threw his arms up in the air. "Okay, okay! You're right!" he laughed lightly and the sound warmed Liz's heart.

Liz smiled at her son affectionately. "Come on," she said and pulled him to his feet. She put an arm around his shoulders as best she could with Ty being so tall and led him out of the room. Ty briefly thought about his cell phone that he had left lying on the couch. He decided to forget about and go eat dinner with his family. Despite all his problems, things with his mom were starting to look up.

Back on the couch, Ty's cell phone buzzed and vibrated against the leather. The little screen on the front flash. After about 30 seconds the phone became quiet and another voicemail was added to Ty's mailbox. Several minutes later the phone buzzed again…

But Ty wasn't there to accept the call and it would go unnoticed and forgotten until he remembered he'd left his phone there and retrieved it.

The phone buzzed helplessly on the couch for the third time. Finally stopped, again, and it became still. The phone didn't buzz again, it remained still and silent.

a/n: short. Oh well my mom's making me go put a heating pad on my neck, again, and I should go do that, unless I want to get thrown off of the computer which would result in you not even getting this update… okay, well on Friday I'm going to my house in AZ for spring break so I don't know if I'll update for about a week. I have a computer there and can check fanfic and whatnot but I don't know if I'll have much updating time. I'll update TP tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday, definitely. I hope you liked this chapter, there wasn't much point to it but it needed to be done. Review! -Steph