A/N - I have a fairly good layout of the rest of this story, but it's hard to say how many more chapters there will be, so I can't answer that with a definite number. However, there will be plenty more to come and, yes, the melancholy feel will eventually be lifted and the ending a happy one - for those that might have been concerned with the depressing rut it fell into.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to take it easy," Caleb asked when Amy pulled up in front of the barn and climbed out of the truck.

It figured someone would be around the ranch. Amy didn't expect the place to be deserted, especially when she was supposed to be out of commission for a while and the slack needed to be picked up. But hopefully that someone knew better than to open his mouth and start asking her how she was feeling and coping and other things she didn't want to discuss. She was here to get some work done, not talk about her feelings.

"I can't be in that tiny little trailer anymore. I'll lose my mind sitting in there. I needed to get out and do something productive. How is that new mare settling in?" Amy quickly redirected as she wandered over to the paddock off to the side of the round pen where Caleb had turned Chloe out, the mare that arrived the morning of Amy's accident.

Ty had warned Caleb that Amy might show up and to be vigilant and stick around the farm if she did to ensure she didn't do anything stupid that would get her hurt. Glancing toward Chloe, Caleb then realized he probably should have turned the mare out in one of the back fields where it wouldn't have been worth Amy's time to try and catch her, but considering she was a new client, it was safer to leave her on her own for now.

"Seems to be pretty mellow. She didn't eat all of her breakfast this morning, but that's not unusual when a horse is in an unfamiliar place." He followed after Amy as she offered her hand for the mare to sniff, jumping when she pinned her ears and bared her teeth in attempt to bite, resulting in Amy instinctively smacking her across the mouth. The mare leaped back in fright, Amy taking a startled step back herself when she realized what she just did while Caleb gaped at her in astonishment.

"I… I'm sorry… I don't know why I did that." She stared at the mare that was watching her warily from the far side of the paddock.

"Not gonna say that's not how most people handle that sort of thing, but I've never seen you hit an animal, even when they deserve it." That definitely wasn't an Amy thing to do and now Caleb really understood why he was going to need to find a reason to hang around the ranch if Amy was going to be there.

"That's because they don't ever deserve it." She frowned at Caleb, but was more disgusted with herself for reacting like she had.

Amy returned her attention back to Chloe, reaching up to take her halter from the post it was hanging on as she opened the gate. "Hey girl." She spoke soothingly to her, standing just inside the gate for the mare to get used to her being in her space.

Caleb stood on the outside, holding the gate closed but not latched in case he needed to open it for Amy to make a quick getaway, watching her uncertainly. "Amy, I don't think you should be in there with her right now." If she managed to get hurt on his watch, Ty would kill him and Caleb rather liked himself.

"It's fine, Caleb," Amy told him over her shoulder, keeping her attention on the mare.

"You're a pretty little thing, aren't you? I'm sorry a struck you. I didn't mean it." She inched closer one slow step at a time, watching the horse's ears swivel back and forth and her tail flick.

"Good girl." Amy continued her approach, able to make it within arm's length. Caleb held his breath as she reached out to offer her hand for Chloe to sniff, the mare's nostrils flaring as she watched Amy, who was then realizing she should have brought a few peppermints with her. They were often and effective bribe. Typically, she had them stuffed in her pockets, but it slipped her mind until then.

"Easy… good girl." Amy's movements were still very slow and deliberate as she started to raise her arms to slip on the halter. The mare threw her head away from Amy, backing from her again until she bumped into the metal panel of the pen, which startled her into lunging forward.

"Amy!" Caleb rushed into the pen as Amy stumbled back, tripping over her own feet in the process and landing hard on her butt, gritting her teeth as her ribs smarted on impact.

"I'm fine," she told him when he'd shooed the horse away from her, taking slow breaths against the ache in her side. Getting her feet back under her, she got up again, brushing dust from her backside and looking up at Caleb who stood between her and Chloe.

"You shouldn't be doing this, Amy. If Ty knew-"

"Well he doesn't need to know, does he? Just catch her and bring her into the round pen, okay?" Amy shoved the halter in his hands as she left the paddock with her hand applying pressure to her sore ribcage. The painkillers were supposed to have kicked in by then, or soon, hopefully, but just in case Amy reached into her pocket to take out the bottle and swallow two more.

Amy moved toward the barn as Caleb started walking toward the pen with the horse in tow. It was obvious Chloe didn't want to follow, but with a few tugs and clicks of the tongue she begrudgingly let him lead her into it. Amy stepped in after them when Caleb had Chloe to the center of the ring, shutting the gate and watching as he made an attempt to unclip the lead.

"Are you sure about this?" Caleb stopped when he saw the look of contempt on Amy's face, conceding. "Okay, but I'm staying here." It was a hard decision to make between whose shit list he wanted to be on – Ty's or Amy's. Neither one of them would be good, but at the moment he figured Ty's would be easier to reason his way off of when he brought up Amy's stubbornness and apparent lack of self-preservation.

"Fine. Sit on the fence and don't move," she instructed, taking the lead from him to use to drive the mare to the perimeter. Caleb obliged, climbing up the six feet of fence to perch himself on top of it where he had a nice view of both girl and horse.

"Get up," Amy called to Chloe, tossing the end of the lead at her to get her to move forward. The mare broke into a fast extended trot, snorting, with her tail flying high. Even though her trot was fast and Amy had to jog every few paces to keep up, it was easy enough to keep up with the horse and continue to drive her on.

And on.

And on.

Amy lost track of how long she was chasing Chloe around, first one way then the other, then back the other, but she was growing tired as could be seen by her open-mouth breathing and slow reaction time when the mare would try to turn out toward the fence or find a corner where there were none. The only positive thing about it was that the pain killers had kicked in, numbing the soreness of her ribcage.

Caleb's butt went numb long ago and he shifted every which way on the rail to get some feeling back again, growing bored and dizzy with watching Amy chase this horse relentlessly. Join-up was definitely a sight to see when it happened, but until that magic moment it was really dull and uneventful unless the horse was psychotic or something, which Chloe wasn't. Still, Caleb kept his word to Ty and kept his eye on Amy even though he probably had something else he needed to be doing. If Jack caught him hanging out like he was, he'd surely get a tongue-lashing, but the older man was out running cattle with Tim and wasn't due to be back until, Caleb glanced down at his phone, soon. Morning was over and it was afternoon, moving onto one o'clock, which meant Amy had been at it with the mare for close to two hours.

"Hey, why not give that horse a break and come to Maggie's for lunch? I'm starving," Caleb suggested, lifting himself from the rail and getting ready to climb down to help Amy get Chloe back into her pen.

"You go. I'm not hungry," Amy told him between lungfuls of air. She knew she needed to eat something, having skipped breakfast, but she didn't feel hungry. Instead, she was getting flustered that Chloe refused to show signs of wanting to join up. Her ear was turned toward Amy, but that was all she offered. Each time Amy took the pressure off, she'd turn away and try to do her own thing rather than stop and look in toward her.

"Amy, come on. You're not going to get anywhere with that horse today. Let it go and try again tomorrow." Or in a few weeks, but he left that part of the thought in his head.

Slowing to a stop, Amy sighed and watched Chloe come to a halt as well, nostrils flared and barrel heaving as she too took large breaths from being forced to run in countless circles for hours. Still when Amy moved toward her, the mare again took off.

"Fine," she mumbled through gritted teeth, storming over to one of the gates that led into another enclosure and shoving it open to chase the mare through. That would be easier for next time so she wouldn't have to rely on Caleb, or someone else, to handle Chloe if she still couldn't get near her.

"I don't understand what her deal is. Usually it's men that they tend to shy from because they are bigger and more aggressive, but she was perfectly okay with you." The frustration was evident in her voice as she left the round pen to join Caleb on the other side. She still didn't want to go out to Maggie's, but he was right in saying she wasn't going to get anywhere with that horse and she was tired of running in circles and not getting results. Amy knew that it could take time, but it was discouraging when there wasn't even a hint of the horse wanting to give in.

"Then maybe it was a woman that messed her up some. I know some pretty rough 'n' tumble ladies around the rodeo circuit, and I'm not talking about hoity barrel racers. They're like female jockeys, rare but tough as nails and don't take no crap from nobody, especially patronizing cowboys."

"You mean like you?" Amy smirked, remembering a time several years ago when Caleb insisted she, being a girl, wouldn't be able to break Ghost, the appaloosa Mustang that still roamed the mountains somewhere with his established herd. He hadn't been wrong, but Amy had been stubborn enough to try her damndest to prove herself.

"I wouldn't say that after I tried training a female bronc rider, remember? She wasn't half bad either. She had the skill to make those guys eat their feet for breakfast and the attitude to serve them up right, just not the drive. Shame, really." He shrugged, disappointed it hadn't worked out with Kelly and getting her on the circuit, but at least they had a damn good time trying.

"Yeah, okay, but the owner is a woman and didn't say anything about rough handling or abuse in her past." Amy looked toward Chloe in thought.

"Have you ever had a client that was one hundred percent up front and honest with you?" Caleb asked reasonably. Sometimes it was small things, things they thought were insignificant and not worth mentioning but made all the difference in Amy's job to help their horse. Other times it was deliberate because they didn't want to let on how it was their own fault the horse was acting out.

It wouldn't at all be the first time the truth was withheld and in the rush that Amy was in to get the mare settled so she and Ty could be on their way to Calgary it was possible she might not have asked all of the necessary questions, or caught on to something that would have been of help to her now. "I'll be in the office."

"Wait, you're not coming to Maggie's?"

"Tell Nicole I said hello," Amy called from inside the barn, leaving Caleb stare after her and debate on feeding his empty and grumbling stomach or continue to keep his word to Ty. He couldn't sit around all day, though, and if Amy was going to be making phone calls then he should be okay to leave for like an hour or so.

"I'll bring you back something!" he called after her, thinking that maybe getting her to eat would earn him some bonus points in case Ty learned that Amy had been in that pen with a horse instead of resting.