A/N: Its been over 4 years since I last posted a story and in that time several things have changed. Apparently I'm not as tech savvy as I thought I once was. Hardware, software, and programs have changed which presented a few challenges for me when attempting to post new chapters. I understand that a temporary glitch with the Fanfiction site has been resolved but I still have a few hurdles to overcome. Some of you may remember from my prior stories that I like to post new chapters often. Unfortunately the situation is such that it isn't going to be possible for me to update this story as often as I would like. I apologize for that. Some of the story I have already written has been lost and needs to be rewritten. That is time consuming. I hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter 4

"Prince Ahmed Al Saeed"

"Is that a question?" Amy asks while shifting in her seat.

"It's meant to be...Tell us about him."

"I suppose, since you asked, you already know I worked for him as his head trainer during the World Equestrian Games and I guess you already know that there was an altercation between Ty and him."

"Tell us about that."

"Not much to tell really. Prince Ahmed mistakenly thought our relationship was more than professional."

"So it was strictly professional?"

"I thought we were friends too."

"I can understand that after working closely with someone."

"Anyway, Ty got upset about that. There was an argument and Ty struck him."

"So when we asked you and you told us of those you thought might have a reason to harm Ty, why didn't you include the Prince?"

"He has his faults but I don't believe trying to kill someone is among them."

"Have you had any contact with the Prince since?"

"A little...there were some texts and emails. The last was a phone call and I went to see him to return some property that belonged to him along with a check for a horse he bought that I trained and sold."

Detective Brady is about to continue his questioning when Detective Brown interjects, "I think we have everything we need right now, unless there's something you would like to add."

"No, not anything I can think of...but, do you think you'll be able to find out who did this?"

Detective Brown answers, "Well, regardless of what your father thinks, I can tell you we're working very hard at it."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about what my dad might have said. He has a chip on his shoulder when it comes to dealing with the police. It started when there was a rash of cattle thefts, then his cattle was stolen, and then when trying to get them back he was shot. There was also the time one of his race horses was stolen."

"We know...he made it a point to tell us all about it and how little faith he has in us. You need to understand it's still early in the investigation. There's investigative steps that need to be followed and evidence that takes time to analyze. We're hopeful something will come up. You'll just have to be patient and trust us to do our job."

"You have some evidence...what kind?"

"Other than the spent casings we found we can't comment any further. I can assure you though that as soon as something breaks we'll let you know. In the meantime we may need to speak with you again."

"That's fine...whatever I can do to help."

...

Amy returns to the waiting room and surprised by how soon she returned, Jack comments, "That didn't take very long."

"Wasn't that much to say. I think I had more questions for them than they did for me. They did ask about Ahmed though."

"I think they asked all of us..."

Caleb interrupts, "Even me...and I didn't know all that much about him. When Ty told me about what happened between them, he didn't make it sound like a big deal. He said he kinda lost it for a moment and hit the guy. A head butt and punch...that was it. Hell, Ty and I have had better stories about the bar fights we've been in...of course the police wanted to know about those too."

Amy responds with a sigh, "I'd rather not talk about Ahmed anymore."

Tim speaks up changing the subject, "Okay...Listen, while you were speaking with the police we were told that we'll be able to see Ty pretty soon. I'm guessing that you'll want to sit with him for as long as you can so maybe you should get something to eat before they let us see him."

"I'm not sure I can eat anything right now."

Not accepting no for an answer he continues, "You need to eat...c'mon Amy, I'm going to the cafeteria. Come with me and maybe you'll change your mind."

Amy reluctantly follows Tim as he looks back over his shoulder. "Jack, Caleb, are you joining us?

"No, I'm good." Caleb replies.

"Me too. I'll stay here and if they'll let visitors in to see Ty before you're back I'll let you know." Jack then turns to Caleb and asks quietly, "Did something about her interview sound strange to you?"

"I was thinking the same thing. When I told them about Ahmed they were very interested and asked a lot of questions about Amy, him, and Ty. I spent the better part of the interview answering questions about him and I didn't know all that much."

"Yeah, they asked me a lot of questions too...a whole lot. You didn't happen to talk to any reporters about Ahmed did you?"

"No...never even got a call from one. Why?"

"Seems a reporter was asking the police questions about the investigation and Ahmed as well. Not very many people know about what happened, so someone who knew must have said something. You didn't happen to mention anything about it to anyone else did you?"

"Nope...not a soul."

"Keep it to yourself for now about the reporter...and don't blab about it to Amy like you did about Pike River."

...

After Caleb left, Jack, Tim, and Amy are standing outside of Ty's hospital room. "We were told we could see Ty Borden" Jack announces to the nurse exiting his room. "The nurse frowns for a moment at the sight of the number of people who want to see her patient then says "Yes...but just be careful, one at a time only." Jack nods for Amy to go in first. "You go...Tim and I can wait."

Amy swallows and nods silently. She takes a deep breath bracing herself before slowly opening the door, entering the room quietly, and closing it behind her softly. She sees Ty lying on his bed, expressionless face, hardly recognizable in bandages with an array of tubes and wires and machines all around him. She tentatively approaches the bed, sitting in the chair beside it and taking his hand in hers as she looks up at him.

"I love you." She whispers softly, her cheeks wet with tears as she strokes her thumb gently across the back of his hand. "I'm sorry you thought I didn't."

...

After Lisa arrives at the hospital, Jack brings her up to date about Ty's condition.

..."That's good to hear. Unfortunately my news isn't good at all. After your call when you told me about a reporter asking the police about Ahmed, I got a hold of a friend of mine from the Polo Club. She has a contact at the Hudson Times. They know about the internet video of Amy and Ahmed. It's worse...the Calgary Herald knows too and they're working on a story."

"Thank you for doing that Lisa. I have to say, ever since I found out about it I had a concern that video might turn up at some point. I guess we don't need to be concerned anymore about who might have spoken to a reporter."

"Shouldn't we let Amy know about this?"

"I think we should get her home first."

"And if she refuses to go?

"I won't give her a choice. Visiting hours will be over shortly so, if you don't mind, I'll have Tim take you home and have Amy ride with me."

"Under any other conditions I would complain but in this case I think you're right."

As they're leaving the hospital, a reporter approaches them and states, "I'm Frank Wall with the Calgary Herald, Miss Fleming, I would like to ask you about Prince Ahmed Al Saeed."

Stunned by the question, Amy ignores the reporter as she, Jack, Tim, and Lisa walk hurriedly to the parking lot.

The reporter follows asking, "Is the rumor true your fiancé Ty Borden broke off his engagement to you because of your romantic involvement with the Prince?"...

...

Upon arriving at Heartland, Amy walks hurried from the truck straight to the house. She quickly passes Lou who's standing on the porch and storms through the kitchen and into her room nearly slamming the door behind her. Following, Jack stops on the porch when Lou asks, "Lisa called and told me what happened at the hospital. I guess Amy's pretty upset."

"That's putting it lightly. She was quiet all the way home. From her movements though it seemed she was going back and forth from angry to sad."

"I warned her when I first found out about that video that it was out there for anyone to find. I'm surprised it took this long."

"Well, obviously someone put two and two together and the reporter tried to tie it to what happened to Ty. Tim shut him down pretty quickly though while we got Amy out of there."

"Lisa told me he managed to do it without directly threatening him or going to jail, although she said she wouldn't have blamed him if he punched the guy."

"How have things been here?"

"Peter told me that one reporter from the Hudson Times came to the door. He was pretty insistent but Peter managed to turned him away without much trouble. There's been several calls too and that's about it."

"How about Georgie?"

"She's upset over what happened to Ty. I'm not sure she's aware yet about the reporters asking questions. I wouldn't be surprised though if she was suspicious, especially after one came to the door."

"For the time being either me, your dad, or Peter should be here at all times...just in case a reporter shows up again. And Amy should not be left alone. As a matter of fact she should stay here and not go to the hospital at least for a few days until we know how this is going to play out. I don't expect it'll be easy convincing her but I think it needs to be done."

"I'll go in and talk to her."

"Let her be for tonight, Lou. We'll both talk to her tomorrow."

...

Hearing the front door open and close, Jack turns in his seat at the kitchen table and sees Lisa walk in. "Good morning Lisa."

With a folded newspaper in hand, she walks to the table. "Good morning Jack." Dropping the newspaper on the table in front of Jack she asks, "Have you seen today's Calgary Herald?"

"No, not yet. I'm looking at the Hudson Times." In an increasing angry tone he continues, "There's a story about Amy...well, Amy, Ahmed, and Ty and that damn video. They even published a picture of them kissing. I guess they somehow got it from the video. They call it a love triangle and suggest in a round about way that there may be a link to what happened to Ty!"

Lisa steps around Jack and takes a seat next to him. "I read the Hudson Times story and the story in the Calgary Herald is worse. They talk about that video and Amy's supposed romantic relationship with Ahmed being the reason for Ty calling off their engagement. They have one line about Amy that states, "From Miracle Girl to Princess"! Jeez...they try to make it almost sound like she's some kinda gold digger! They even described Ty as a troubled struggling student, living in a rented small rundown trailer, barely making ends meet with a part time job. They practically described him as trailer trash! The whole article is garbage!" Lisa forces herself to pause, takes a breath to calm herself down, then asks, "Has the poor girl seen the papers yet?"

Jack replies in a tone reflecting his concern, "She got to them before me. The stories turned her pale and she ran to the bathroom then to her room."

"How about Lou?"

"Lou is with Amy right now. She saw the stories too. It's odd though...I couldn't tell if she was angry at the articles or Amy."

"What do you mean?"

"She said that Amy should have told Ty right away about the video and then told the rest of us. If she had, then she could have explained it and a lot of this could have been avoided."

"She's probably right but it's too late now. I don't pretended to know all the facts but from what I do know it seems that a lot of the Hudson Times story is true, including the part about being seen without her engagement ring. Someone must have talked to a lot of people and with them also reporting the rumors the story is written in a way that suggests something it isn't."

"Maybe we should have talked to the reporters when they called."

"I was thinking the same thing but then I changed my mind after a giving it a little more thought" Lisa pauses briefly before continuing. "If you or anyone else had talked to the reporters then all you're doing is giving them more to write about. I don't believe for a moment that it would have made the story go away or even changed the way they reported it. From their perspective the more sensational the story the better and it's pretty evident from what they already printed that that's what they want to do."

...

"...I didn't do anything wrong Lou!...and I'm not going to hide! I'm going to the hospital!"

"Amy, there's nothing you can do for Ty at the hospital. If there's any change in his condition they'll call. Just give it a couple of days and then go."

"No! If it looks like I'm hiding then it makes me look like I'm guilty of something!"

"Okay then...but someone has to go with you. We're not going to let you go alone."

"Fine then."

"I'll let grandpa know while you get ready."

Lou leaves Amy's room and finds Jack and Lisa in the kitchen. "Amy refuses to stay here and insists on going to the hospital. She's getting ready right now."

"I'll have a talk with her." Jack says as he begins to push himself away from the table.

"I don't think you'll be able to convince her grandpa. She made a good point. She said that if she stays here it'll look like she's hiding and guilty of something. She made up her mind and I can guarantee you won't be able to change it. I told her though that someone has to go with her."

"I'll go with her but before we go I'm gonna call that doctor..."

...

"Mr. Bartlett, I addressed your concern with the staff and you can expect our cooperation. Frankly though we were already monitoring anyone who requests or attempts to see Mr. Borden, or inquires about his condition by request of the police. They have a concern for Mr. Borden's safety given the nature of the attack on him."

"I wasn't aware of that but thank you anyway."

"You're welcome and you can rest assured that the staff and security will do their best to make sure Ms. Fleming isn't bothered while on the premises. You might also want to know that there's no change in Mr. Borden's condition. It's actually is good news since his condition hasn't worsened. We're continuing to monitor him and I expect to see some improvement. I also let the nurses know that it's okay for him to have two visitors at a time as long as it doesn't interfere with them attending to him."

"That's great...thank you again."

Jack enters Ty's room. From her seat next to Ty's bed, Amy turns to Jack, "Grandpa..."

"Not to worry...Doctor Levinson said it's okay for two of us to be in here, but we have to stay out of the way of the nurses." Jack takes a seat in a chair next to Amy. "I was going to mention during the ride here but you didn't seem like you were in the mood to talk...I noticed you're still not wearing your engagement ring. Is there a reason for that?"

"After what I read in that story, if I start wearing it now then it'll look like I'm just doing it to make it look like everything is okay between Ty and me. It's not. I'll put it back on if Ty asks me to."

"You mean when he does."

"I hope so."

...

Lisa is washing dishes when Tim storms into the house.

"Good morning Tim."

Obviously agitated, he asks, "Yeah...morning. Where's Jack?...How's Amy?...Did you see the paper this morning? Something needs to be done about this!"

Lisa quickly turns away from the sink and while hurriedly drying her hands she replies, "Whoa, Tim...hold on! First of all Jack took Amy to the hospital to see Ty. We all, including Amy, saw the papers. Right now there's not much we can do other than not talking to the press."

While pacing around the kitchen, he adamantly disagrees. "No! Someone has to say something! We can't let them continue to write this garbage about Amy!"

Having overheard her father from the living room, Lou walks in. "Dad...Calm down! We all talked about this already and decided that it was best to say nothing. Talking to them just gives them more to write about and the stories will continue that much longer."

"And just let everyone continue to believe what they read!? We can't...I won't let that happen! I should have said something to that reporter yesterday at the hospital!"

Lisa responds with a raised voice. "If anything is going to be said to any reporter it's up to Amy to decide what and when! It's not your choice...it's her's!"

"Did she say that?"

Lou answers, "I talked to her this morning and that's the way she wants it for now."

"She doesn't know what she's doing...I need to talk to her."...

...

To be continued...