It really was turning out to be a beautiful late spring day. The summer heat hadn't quite made its way in yet, but the cold winter air was gone for the season, taking any traces of snow with it as new grass and foliage was sprouting and bringing life and color back to the Alberta vista. The only snow to be seen was high atop the Rockies in the distance, but once Amy and Ty stepped into the wooded trails, the mountains disappeared and it was green all around them.
"Looks like that storm last week did some damage," Ty commented when they came upon an old poplar tree blocking the path. Ty made a mental note to come out later with a chain saw to move it out of the way as he stepped on the trunk and hopped over, reaching up to offer Amy assistance as she followed.
"I got it, Ty. I'm fine," she told him, ignoring his outstretched hand and stepping up onto the tree's trunk. It was higher off the ground with the secondary branches at the end holding it up, but not so high that there was real physical effort needed. Still, the step down wasn't as easy as gravity carried her body weight down onto her leg, the shock radiating into her ribs, making her grimace.
"Fine, huh?" Ty raised a brow at her but then raised his hands in surrender when she shot him a look, backing off and just continuing along the defined path between the trees.
As peaceful as the walk through the forest was with only the sounds of nature surrounding them, there was an awkwardness of words unspoken that was making Amy wish that she'd have come out there alone. Ty surely had other things to do than keep watch over her, especially now that she was home from the hospital and on the mend. She didn't need to be babysat or waited on. A few broken ribs didn't leave her helpless, just sore.
"Have you talked to Scott?" Amy asked absently when they fell into step again.
"Uh, no. Not yet." Ty replied, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He hadn't been to work at the clinic since they day before Amy's accident and had yet to call Scott about when he expected to come back. Truth was, Ty didn't know what to tell him.
"Ty, you need to go back to work. I'm perfectly fine taking care of myself. It's just a few bruises and broken ribs." Amy didn't tell him she wanted that time to have for herself, but he really did need to get back to work. It wasn't helping either of them with him just hanging around and playing nursemaid.
"He said to take all the time I needed, and it's more than broken ribs, Amy. Don't you dare pretend like it isn't." Ty's voice was low as he shot her a tentative look.
Amy's jaw clenched as the ache seized her chest again and she was silent for a long moment before looking down toward her hands that she was absently fiddling with. "I know," was her quiet reply. Of course it was more than that, but Amy wasn't ready to go there yet and was presently okay with ignoring it. "But you hanging around me all the time doesn't help and one of us needs to be making an income. Unless you're okay with me going back to work tomorrow-"
"No. Not until the doctors say it's okay."
"Then you need to call Scott and tell him you'll be in tomorrow. I bet you're not too thrilled with Cassandra taking all of your hours, either." Honestly, Amy was surprised that girl stayed this long now that she was out of school and able to go anywhere. Apparently, she was having trouble finding another, or better, position with that whole Jeremy thing still hanging over her head, but no one was at all ready to forget about it, especially with his whereabouts still unknown.
"No, but she wasn't too thrilled with being stuck with them all by herself either, so… it was kind of a lose-lose situation." If Scott didn't have to be on-call all the time, he'd have taken them, but he couldn't always be sitting in the clinic and needed to have someone there in case he had to leave. But Ty understood that Amy pushing him to get back to work wasn't just about the income. He just wasn't sure about leaving her alone either, knowing how she was and that given the opportunity she'd be back at Heartland either working with a client horse or trying to ride. Moving around as opposed to lying in bed was recommended, but it was only supposed to be light work and what Amy did wasn't light.
There was a beat of silence before Ty spoke again. "I just want to make sure you're okay before jumping back in full-time."
"Ty, I'm fine. I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."
Stopping, Ty tried to study her when she turned to look at him. "Are you? This is the most we've talked in days. You barely said two words to me since you learned about the b-" He stopped when Amy turned to walk away from him.
"Amy, wait. Come on," he called after her, catching up in a few quick strides to stop her by reaching to grab her arm. "We can't just ignore this." He didn't want to push her into talking if she really wasn't ready. It had only been a few days, but they couldn't avoid it forever. She had to know that. He wanted to talk about it, to figure out how she was coping and if they were going to ever try again. Having children had always been something they agreed they wanted, but Ty didn't know if losing their first had changed Amy's mind or not.
Her body turned slightly in his direction when he pulled her to a stop, but her head continued looking ahead down the trail, refusing to look at him as her eyes stung from the threat of tears. "Well, I don't want to talk about it right now, okay?" Amy snapped, finally turning to throw him an irritated scowl in order to mask the anguish building in her chest.
Ty could see it. In the way her jaw tightened against the tremble and her eyes narrowed against the sting. How she turned away at the mention of the baby and then refused to look at him again right away while she got a hold of herself. She wasn't okay. She was hurting and from the look of it either didn't want him to see or thought pretending she wasn't would make it go away.
"Okay… okay. We don't have to right now, but we need to eventually. This isn't something that's just going to go away, Amy. You need to face it before you can let it go. Remember when my dad died? I was so… angry at him and feeling guilty for not being able to forgive him for doing the things that he did. But I had to, Amy. I had to forgive him before I could let him go, or else I'd still be spending my life hating and resenting a dead man, and probably my mom too." Ty spoke gently while running his hand along her arms then reaching up to tuck a loose strand of golden hair behind her ear, but Amy was shaking her head and fighting to maintain control of her emotions.
"This isn't the same, Ty. This was our…" She stumbled over the word, pressing her mouth shut when her lip started to tremble and looking away from him.
Ty swallowed. "I know." He wasn't going to make her say it. "But we're still going to need to make peace with it before we can move on. When you're ready, I'll be right here," he assured her, pulling her into his arms and resting his lips in her hair. "I'll call Scott when we get back home tonight, though, okay? Give you some time alone tomorrow. Just promise me you won't try working with that new horse." Ty knew better than to accept Amy's promise to take it easy. So as his back-up plan he was going to commission Caleb to hang around and keep an eye on her if she happened to show up at the ranch, which he had a high suspicion that she would.
Resting her chin on his shoulder, Amy sniffed and blinked to get rid of the tears that pooled in her eyes, reaching up to wipe at them before Ty would see them. "Okay. I won't, I promise." She didn't have intentions of going anywhere tomorrow where she'd run into people who were going to ask how she was coping and feeling and watching her like a hawk. She knew better. What Amy wanted was to be alone.