"Ty," came a whisper in the dark room. "Ty…"

"He's sleeping, darlin'. So should you." Jack's gruff voice came through the darkness to comfort his granddaughter once again like it had when she was little with a bad dream.

"Grandpa…" Jack turned a light on, making sure it didn't shine in Amy's eyes. Her color was back although she still looked as weak as a newborn calf. He put a gentle hand to her forehead; if the fever wasn't fully gone, it had dropped considerably. "What happened?"

"You scared us for a little while, but you're gonna be all right now." He tried to mask the fear he felt, not wanting to scare her.

Amy coughed and Jack helped her sit slightly elevated. "Home. I want…I want to go home." Every time she was hurt or sick, she seemed to gain strength back from being at Heartland.

"You will. Soon. We miss you too and that girl of yours…all the horses in the world can't take her mind off missing her mama." He smiled for her.

"I miss her too." She was dying to see her daughter; it felt like it had been years, at the very least months, since the last time she'd held Lyndy in her arms. "Is Ty all right?"

Jack smiled at that, a real smile. "Yeah. He'll be all right. He was up for sixty-two hours." It seemed like a lifetime; he certainly felt he'd aged a lifetime.

"Where?" She looked around the room and Jack moved the light to shine on his grandson, careful not to wake him with it. "Ty…"

"Soon." It was the first time she'd woken since falling asleep after her dream of Marion. He was worried about them both. "You need more rest. When you wake up, Ty will be awake too, okay?" She nodded tiredly, her eyes drifting closed, even as she fought sleep.

Lisa brought him a cup of coffee, one for herself as well. She'd gone outside the hospital this time, getting tired of the cafeteria or the stuff that came out of machines. "Jack?"

"She was awake, for a bit." He still looked tired himself. If it weren't for Lisa, he wouldn't have slept at all. Heartland looked like a disaster hit it, despite Caleb and Peter's best efforts, and Lyndy had been scared, clingy. The little girl hadn't wanted Lou or even Georgie, but cried every time Jack walked out the door. What sleep he had gotten was in his chair with Lyndy on his chest and the only way he'd been able to leave was by transferring her to the bed between Katie and Georgie, all three still asleep.

"And?" Lisa looked excited at that, encouraged.

"She wants to go home, wants Ty, and wants Lyndy. Not necessarily in that order." He sighed. "I can't help her with any of that."

Lisa took a seat beside him, making sure to keep their voices low so they didn't wake Amy back up or wake Ty. Lisa couldn't believe the young man was able to sleep in that position and was sure he wouldn't be able to move in the morning, but he'd refused to leave Amy's bedside so he'd fallen asleep in a chair by the window, his head against the glass. "Ty will wake up. And she can go home to see Lyndy. She already looks better, Jack, more color, breathing better…"

"I should have gotten the feed the last time I was in town," Jack said. "I thought we had more sacks than we did. With the extra horses she's wintering, we ran out quicker than I expected. I thought it could wait until next week…" He rubbed his forehead. "I wasn't thinking straight."

"You made a mistake, Jack. It's not your fault." Her heart broke for him and she hugged him, holding him.

"I shouldn't have let her go." He had a thousand and one reasons why this was his fault.

"No one lets Amy do anything, not even Ty. And you couldn't have known how fast the weather would change, how bad it could become." She lifted his face to look at her. "You can think of a thousand and one reasons, Jack Bartlett, but the bottom line is you're not God. You don't control the weather and you don't get to say what happens why. Things just happen, especially on a ranch. If it were another situation, you'd be the first person to say that. And even if you'd known about the feed, Amy might have gone into town for another reason, or gotten hurt some other way. You can't control things like this. The bottom line is we have her with us and we're going to help her fight this. She'll be home at Heartland in no time." She held his hands in her own. "Do you trust me?"

"With all my heart." He said seriously, selling it mildly. She was everything to him, just like Amy was to Ty.

"Then trust me to watch over her. She's my family too. Close your eyes, just for a little while. I'll wake you the second she needs you." He hesitated, thinking of arguing. The selling point was the fact that he wanted her to know that he did trust her, even with his family, the most precious thing he had. He settled down on the other side of the window from Ty, his head against the wall, as Lisa settled in at Amy's bedside, smiling as he drifted off.

*****

Ty woke when he smelled breakfast, coffee, pancakes with maple syrup. For a moment, he thought they were at the ranch. Although he loved working with animals, his favorite days were the days that he got to sleep in with his wife and then spend the day with her and their baby girl. He heard the machines beeping nearby and he was brought back to the reality of the situation as Amy began to stir. "Hi," he whispered.

"Ty." Amy smiled, reaching her hand up to stroke his cheek.

He kissed her hand gently and then her forehead. "Fever's gone. That's good." He managed a smile for her. "Lou?"

Lou stuck her head into the room instantly. "Amy. You're awake." She brought Ty in his breakfast. At least he'd gotten the food right. "I'll go get the doctor." She looked at Ty on the next, "Eat."

He smiled, but was much too excited to eat. He'd gladly eat cold pancakes if it meant Amy was better, more aware of her surroundings, which she seemed to be. The difference in the twenty-four hours since she'd coded until now was night and day.

"Lyndy," Amy whispered, still trying to sort things out in her mind.

"Lisa's got her and Katie riding horses today." It was the only way they could think to distract the girls, keep them out from underfoot. "Georgie, Jack, Peter, and Caleb are all on clean up. I even think your dad was going to help."

"Grandpa…Grandpa was here." She tried to remember their conversation but she could see him as clearly as she could see Ty now.

"Everyone's been taking turns. It's Lou's turn right now, but your dad had first shift, Cass and Caleb, Lisa and Jack…" He trailed off. "They've been gone for about two hours."

The nurse came in to check on Amy and Lou and Ty were once again relegated to the back of the room. "She looks better, don't you think?" Ty asked, unable to take his eyes off his wife.

"She looks better than she did when I got here, much better than yesterday," Lou answered. "Maybe they'll have good news for us. I mean, it's obvious she can't go home today, but soon…"

"Why can't she? Who's to say that rest at Heartland won't be as good as rest here? At least it'll keep her stress levels down, being at home, seeing Lyndy…I'm not saying I'd be okay if she wanted to go riding, but if she's in bed, what does it matter where she is?" He remembered having this discussion with Lou before, but he also remembered how sick he'd been before Lyndy was born and how badly he'd yearned to be at home with Amy.

"Because there's machines here, Ty, that will help her if she has…if she gets worse again. We don't even know if she's really better. Maybe we just want her to be…" Lou bit her bottom lip, watching her sister.

Amy was eating Ty's pancakes by the time that the doctor called Ty and Lou out to the hallway. "Her fever's gone and her breathing is better," the doctor told them. "I'm going to write her a prescription for antibiotics and I want to make sure she finishes the IV she's on, but having an appetite is a very good sign. I know that you have a thermometer at home, but do you have a way to monitor her blood pressure?"

Lou nodded. "Our grandpa had a heart attack a while back. His wife keeps a blood pressure monitor for him at the house."

"I'm assuming you know how to check her pulse then. What about oxygen levels? Breathing?"

Ty spoke up at this. "I'm a vet. We have several stethoscopes."

"You've shown to be a loving, protective family. I have no doubt that you could monitor her as closely at home as we could here." Ty grinned at the doctor's words, unable to wait to tell Amy, knowing how excited she would be. "But if one thing goes, not even wrong, just amiss, you bring her back here immediately."

"We will," Ty said with a grin, hurrying back into the hospital room to tell his wife.

"Are you sure, Doctor?" Lou hesitated, closing her eyes, rubbing her forehead, before opening them again. "It's not that I don't want her home. I do. We all do. I just…She's been in a wreck that took our mother's life, been blinded by a horse, shot, I'm sure there are other things that I can't even remember right now…now this. I…"

"Don't want to lose her," the doctor finished for her. "If I had any doubt at all about sending her home, I wouldn't be doing it. And the fact that you don't want to lose her, that she's so precious to you, means you'll take precautions others might not think to. She'll be all right." He smiled for her and left her watching Amy and Ty.

Amy smiled, seeing how excited Ty was. She loved this part of him, how excited he could get about things that seemed so little to anyone else. She made room for him to sit beside her, letting him finish his half of the waffles. "Guess what?"

"If you say the word motorcycle, Ty…" She teased.

"Better."

"Spartan and Harley are going to have a little sister…besides Lyndy." She teased, grinning.

"Better than that." Although it did make him think about giving Lyndy a little sister or brother. Maybe when Amy was feeling better, they'd discuss it.

"Lyndy's coming?" She couldn't imagine a present better than that at the moment.

"No. You're going to her." He grinned. "Doc says you can go home. If you rest and behave yourself. No more snowstorms." He teased, but added more seriously, "I mean it. I'm talking loft, bed, being waited on hand and foot."

"Mmm, sounds good, doctor." She smiled, resting against him.

"No riding." He tensed and then worried when she didn't argue with him, but she'd already fallen asleep again while they were talking.

*****

Amy always had trouble balancing the thought of Ty on a motorcycle while she was riding, scaring the horses, the first day they'd met with the Ty that drove five miles under the speed limit and used his turn signals now. It seemed like they would never arrive home this way; each mile seemed longer than the one before. She'd finally gotten him to agree to go home the long way and was shocked to see her truck had been moved off the tree. She could still see the place in the bark where her door had hit. It was a miracle she and Lyndy had survived.

"You okay?" Ty asked, a lump in his own throat, unshed tears in his own eyes. His girls, his whole world, could have been ended with one icy skid. It didn't make sense to him, Marion dying, while Amy and he had survived so much to be together as a family.

She squeezed his hand, smiling gently. "I'm okay."

Ty drove home safely, carefully. Although for years he'd known how lucky he'd been that Marion had chosen him for a second chance at Heartland, it took something like this to be reminded once again. He was proud of the life they'd forged together, but even he had to admit that there'd been more second, or sixth, chances than any one man should have and that miracles seemed to surround them.

"Ty?" Amy asked softly, stroking his cheek.

"Yeah." He cleared his throat, trying to stay focused on her instead of memory lane.

"Let's go home." She scooted close to him, her head on his shoulder, and he smiled, driving to Heartland.

The entire family was on the front porch under a banner that read welcome home. Caleb got Amy's bags for Ty and carried them to their room while Ty helped Amy go to where Jack and Lyndy were waiting.

"Prize, Mommy. Prize." Lyndy clapped her hands, Amy's big smile echoed on her face. "Mwah. Miss you."

"I missed you more, nugget." She kissed her gently. "It was a wonderful 'prize."

"Actually…you haven't seen the surprise yet." Lisa told her, hugging her gently.

"The girls washed your bedclothes and cleaned up, moved some things around so you can access anything you need," Lou said proudly, knowing it was mostly Georgie and Peter who had done the heavy lifting. "And…"

Ty helped her walk through the kitchen to the back of the house to see an area they'd set up just for Amy. "We thought you might get tired of being in bed all the time, so…" Georgie trailed off.

"It's beautiful," Amy said softly, seeing the wooden furniture that Jack had made. It had room for her to lay down, a back for her to sit up against, outside in the fresh air, comfortable enough she could be there all day, glided in a rocker/swing motion if she had Lyndy, and, best of all, faced the horses and pastures. "It's perfect."

"Try it out," Cass encouraged.

Amy sat, taking Lyndy, holding her as if she would never let go, kissing her blonde hair. "Mommy missed you so much," she whispered.

Lyndy nestled against her, still without being asleep for maybe the first time in her short life.

Amy looked up at Georgie. "Will you sit with me?"

"Me?" She looked around. Surely Amy meant Ty or Lou.

"You. I missed you too. And Katie." She'd gotten to see all the others, but she didn't remember seeing Georgie since before the girl had left on her trip. She was the only adult family member who hadn't been in the hospital with her.

Georgie sat beside her and tears fell unchecked from Lou's eyes as she watched them. Lisa went in to make the last touches of Amy's welcome home meal side dishes, the men having cooked the main course. Tim watched his daughter with his granddaughters and then turned to look at Ty. "Can…can we talk?"

Ty looked at Amy and back at his father-in-law. "Yeah. Yeah, we can talk." He went down to where Jack and Caleb were putting the finishing touches on the meal, always making sure he could see Amy and Lyndy.

"I was hard on you." Tim hated apologizing; he'd never been any good at it, which had largely contributed to his divorce. "I meant it. But not…not at you."

"She's your kid and she was lost, alone, and in danger. If it were Lyndy, I'd probably go off a little too."

"I'm going to say this once and never again." He paused. "You take good care of them. Thank you." Ty just nodded, too shocked to put anything into actual words.

After dinner, Ty put Amy and Lyndy both down for their naps, using the fact that the other needed rest so that both would lay down. Peter, Lou, and the girls went to spend a little more time together before Peter had to go back home. Caleb and Tim started talking rodeo and Cass got a call for an emergency vet visit. Jack helped Lisa clean up, not minding the mess. His family was alive, healthy or healing, and together. It was all he wanted, all he needed to know. He kissed Lisa's cheek. "Thank you."

She looked surprised. "For?"

He tried to put everything he felt, everything he knew, into a few words. Softly, he finally said, "Walkin me over this bridge."

Lisa looked at him, surprised at first, and then nodded with a soft smile. For once, she was the one with no words and, gently, her hands on both his cheeks where the stubble was already growing back, she kissed him.