Authors Note

Amazingly I have nothing to say (for once)… so just you know… enjoy the chapter and review!

But about the rating, I'm thinking this one is defiantly going to be 'T', normally I just rate it 'T' to give myself some breathing room but this one is heading in the direction of 'T'. What with Ty's character being all bad ass and let's party all night I think I could have some serious FUN with him ;)

Disclaimer: All original characters, places and events are created and owned by Lauren Brooke.

The Peak

Chapter 4

A week later, Saturday, April 1st

The Baldwin house (a/n: pure and total randomness, but you gotta love it!)

"Ty," Lisa Baldwin gently pushed n her sons shoulder… or at least she thought it was his shoulder. Ty had a mountain of blankets thrown up over his head. "Ty it's time to get up," she said soothingly and glanced at Brad and Lee who were standing behind her trying, unsuccessfully, to keep the smiles form their faces.

The covers shifted and moaned. Brad covered his mouth with his hand to hold back the laugh. "Ty," Lisa said again.

"What?" came a groggy voice from under the covers.

Ty's shaggy brown haired head peeked out from under the covers. He looked around the semi light room dazedly before his eyes landed on the digital clock next to his bed. His eyes widened in horror as he saw the numbers being illuminated by the yellowish glow. "It's only 8:30!" he exclaimed outraged. "AND it's Saturday!"

"Well maybe if you didn't stay out till 4:30 in the morning than you wouldn't be complaining so much," Lee said reasonably from his spot safely behind his mother.

Ty glared at Lee for a second before throwing the covers back over his head.

"Ty you have to get up, now," Brad said.

"Later," Ty groaned. "When it's a decent hour… like 1."

Lisa and Brad looked at each other and nodded. Brad walked around Ty's bed to the other side motioning for Lee to follow him. Once they were all positioned around the bed Lisa silently counted, "One two… three." That they all grabbed Ty's covers and pulled them off him and letting them fall in a head abound the bottom of the bed. Ty groaned again as the cool air hit his body. He was sprawled out on his stomach in only a pair of dark blue plaid boxers. He looked seriously hot with his tanned skin and muscled body sprawled along the fitted black sheet that was all that was left on the bed.

"Jeez Ty, have you never heard of clothes? Or a shirt at the very least? I certainly don't want to see you with hardly any clothes this early in the morning," Lee said disgustedly.

"I can think of more who wouldn't mind at all," Ty mumbled smugly into the sheet.

"I didn't need to hear that Ty," Lee complained. "I don't want to know what my brother does in his free time."

"Than get out of my room," Ty said. He didn't wait Lee to respond. He pushed himself into a sitting position and said, "So why did you get me up at 8:30 on a Saturday?" he asked as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"Well we just wanted to say…" Brad started.

"APRIL FOOLS!" they all yelled in unison.

"Ha-ha-ha," Ty said sarcastically as he crawled to the bottom of his bed and yanked the covers back up over his head. He lowered them for a moment to say, "Never ever do that again." Than he threw them clean over his bed and not a minute later the sound of his light snores could be heard from under the mound of blankets.

The Peak

Pinnacle Peak

Later that afternoon

"So tell me again why we're here?" Matt asked. "Weren't we just here last week?"

"Yeah," Scott answered his younger brother. "But we enjoyed it so much last time that we decided to come back."

"But we've been hiking practically every day!" Matt complained.

"It's good for you, you could use the exercise," Lou said playfully.

"I play soccer," Mat retorted indignantly. "I think I get plenty exercise." He paused and than said, "We're not going off the trails again are we?"

"No," Scott replied. "This time we'll stay on the trails. Besides," Scott looked around the parking lot, "It doesn't look like they're here anyway."

"You spoke to soon," Soroya said. Just than a black Ferrari swung into the parking lot at a speed that was much higher than the 'suggested' 5 mph. The Ferrari almost mowed over a few tourists as it raced down the lot. The tourists yelled in protest but the driver ignored them and swung into a spot that received a little shade from a wimpy tree. The driver got out without opening the car door. A second later a dog followed him, it was a beagle. "Aw," Soroya cooed as she saw the dog. "That dog is ah-dorable!"

"The driver's not to shabby either," Joni said admiringly.

"True," Soroya nodded her agreement. "Wait isn't that that guy David?"

"Oh yeah," Joni agreed.

"I think you'd be a cute couple Amy." Soroya said and she turned to Amy who was kicking a rock around on the ground.

Amy looked up startled, "W-what?" she still wasn't really comfortable around the subject of who would make a good boyfriend for her or about this guy, David.

Soroya rolled her eyes, "Come on Amy. You should ask him to go to the wedding with you. Everyone else has a date except you," Soroya pointed out. "I'm going with Matt and Joni's going with Tom."

"Exactly," Joni agreed. "You should defiantly ask him."

Amy laughed a laugh that was devoid of any humor at all. "Yeah, right. I'm really going to ask him out when he's only said about 2 words to me. He probably doesn't even remember who I am."

"Nix get back here!" a voice called out loudly yanking Amy from her thoughts.

She looked over at where the voice had come from and saw that David had abandoned his place where he was leaning against his car and was walking around it. She heard the scrapping of claws and a whimper from by her feet and she looked down. David's dog was standing at her feet waving his tail wildly and panting.

"Hello…" Amy said softly and reached down to scratch his head. "Whoa!" she exclaimed as the beagle jumped up and put his front paws on her stomach so that he was standing on his hind legs. Amy smiled and rubbed his head again.

"I'm sorry," A masculine voice said from in front of her. Amy looked up and saw David standing in front of her. He gave a little smile and grabbed the dogs black studded collar and pulled him off of Amy. "Sometimes he just does that," David said 'elaborately'.

"Um it's okay," Amy said.

For the first time Ty looked at Amy. "Oh hey, Amy right?"

"Yeah," Amy answered amazed that he actually remembered who she was.

"Cool. Well this is my dog, Phoenix," Ty gestured to the beagle who was sitting by Ty's side, his pink tongue hanging out of his mouth.

"He's nice," Amy responded lamely.

Ty flashed his trademark smile and it made Amy's heart flip a little. "He's more like a little devil." He looked at his watch. "So I guess I'll see you around later?"

"Maybe," Amy said.

Ty lifted his hand in a small wave before walking back to his car with Phoenix trotting at his heels.

Amy turned around to see Soroya and Joni facing her, the rest of the group had walked on ahead and were looking at trail maps and lists of the various flora and fauna located at the mountain.

"What?" Amy asked.

"He probably doesn't even remember who I am," Soroya mimicked before giving Amy a knowing look.

"Well I…" Amy tried.

"Whatever let's just go catch up to the others," Joni said.

The three girls started walking towards the trail head where Lou, Scott, Matt and Tom were waiting for them. They were almost there when Soroya spoke up, "He does remind me of someone though…"

The Peak

Pinnacle Peak, rest area

1 hour later

"Do we have to?" Soroya complained. They were just approaching the final rest area on the trails. Scott and Lou wanted to continue and finish the last mile or so but everyone else just wanted to stop and rest.

Lou sighed, "Well if you really don't want to that I suppose you don't have to."

"Yes," Amy breathed, clearly looking relived.

"We'll wait here," Tom suggested pointing to the entrance to the rest area straight ahead of them.

"Okay. We'll meet up with you in about an hour," Scott said. Scott and Lou headed off down the trail while the teenagers walked into the rest area laughing amongst themselves. They immediately stopped, however, when they saw that there were already people sitting on the rocks bordering the enclosed rest area. They could easily be recognized as David, Mick and the rest of his friends, partly because of the beagle that was running around the rocks.

"Hey look its David and his friends…" Soroya said quietly nudging Amy in the side.

"Jeez Ty what did you do last night?" Mick asked his friend laughing.

"Okay maybe it isn't David…" Soroya said sounding confused.

They sat down on the wall and tried to carry on their conversation which was a bit challenging due to the loud voices carrying over from the rocks.

"What?" Ty's voice drawled.

"Most people would not do that," Nick commented from his rock.

"I need some fun in my life," Ty said lazily looking up at the clear blue sky. "My life is boring, nothing ever happens in it."

Mick snorted disbelievingly. "Something's been happening to you ever since you got here 2 years ago."

If Ty's back hadn't been facing the Heartland group they would have seen a smirk spread across his handsome face. "Well I guess, but I need some excitement."

"What do you call last night? You hooked up with Kerry-Anne!" Mick exclaimed with a laugh.

"Been there done all that," Ty responded lazily. "I'm tired of the Academy's girls…"

"That's because you've been with all of them already," Mick stated factually.

"Not quite," Ty said thoughtfully. "But what this place needs is some new girls, new faces, new names, new backgrounds…"

"Backgrounds as in history or backgrounds as in…?" Rob trailed off suggestively.

Ty scratched the back of his neck. "What's the difference?"

"You're too much Ty," Mick said with a shake of his head. "Ever since I invited you to the mall 2 years ago you've been the It boy, making me only second," Mick complained.

"Oh woe to you, life is so hard," Dan joked.

"Speaking so which," Ty said casually. "If I was you I wouldn't waste my time with Kerry-Anne, she's nothing special."

Everyone looked at him like he was on crack or something. "Are you serious?" Mick exclaimed in a shocked manner. "Ker is like the female version of you at Scotts Academy."

"Well than I hope I'm not as bad as she was…" Ty trailed off.

Mick shook his head in despair. "I think that car crash messed up your head man."

"Yeah what did you do again?" Rob asked. "Broken neck and internal bleeding? I think the doctors forgot to close some of that up," he joked.

"What kind of doctors you got in VA anyway?" Nick joked along with the rest of the guys.

"See that's the thing about comas, you're generally zonked out the whole time," Ty said with a shrug.

"Interesting choice of wording," Alex commented.

Amy looked at her Nike's. She was confused, Virginia, accident, doctors, coma, internal bleeding, broken neck …… Ty? Logically she knew this couldn't be her old firend, Ty Baldwin. That was impossible; she'd given up every hope of ever seeing him again. Besides, he would have contacted her to tell her he was okay and where he was and why he left, she just knew it.

She blocked out their laughter and turned back to her friends.

One minute Amy was having a mindless conversation with her friends and the next thing she knew she was being mauled by something with a wet nose and a tongue. "Ah!" she shrieked as she braced herself from falling backwards with her arms. She managed to push her 'attacker' off of her and saw that it was only the beagle from before, Phoenix was his name. Smooth Amy, real smooth, she thought wryly to herself as the dog's owner David or Ty or Brian or whatever he was currently going by dashed over to her and pulled the dog away from her.

"Sorry, again," he said apologetically. "I don't know what's up with him today."

"I do," Mick said as he sauntered over. "The dog knows a pretty girl when he sees one. Smart dog you got there Ty."

"Most definitely," Ty said with a grin and Amy blushed.

"But seriously," Mick continued looking at Amy. "Take that as a compliment, that dog is picky about who he likes."

"Um… thanks," Amy said unsurely as she stood up and brushed the dust off of her shirt.

"Hey didn't you say your name was David last time?" Soroya chirped.

Ty turned slowly to face her. "Yeah what about it?"

"Well he just called you Ty so I was ju…"

"So? What's it to you what my friends call me?" Ty all but spat back.

"Yo chill out dude," Matt said approaching Ty. "What she's trying to say is that most people have one name they go by, maybe a nickname but so far you've used three, Brian, David and Ty, which I might add are not related in anyway at all. So which one is it?"

"No you chill out dude," Ty mimicked harshly, his brilliant green eyes blazing.

"Whoa!" Matt said holding his hands in front of his chest. "Who said you owned the place?"

"I live right down there," Ty said pointing in the general direction of the bottom of the mountain. "So technically I believe I am closer to owning the Peak than you are. Where do you live again?" Ty said looking thoughtful and he looked Matt up and down. "Hick town USA?"

"Okay," Mick said as he stepped between the two. He turned to Matt and said, "First off you're a tourist, what do you know about us? Secondly you really, really, don't want to get on Ty's bad side. So I suggest that you go."

"Aw does the little rich boy need someone to speak for him? Does his little brain not hold enough vocabulary? Should I use simpler words?" Matt said indignantly.

"Fuck off," Ty snarled.

"Hey," Tom said as came and stood besides Matt. "We're just minding our own business here…"

"Stay out of this farm boy," Ty spat at Tom.

"Who do you think you are?" Matt exclaimed. "You can't just treat us like this; we haven't done anything to deserve it."

"Oh boo hoo," Ty said sarcastically.

"You know," Matt said. "I used to have a friend named Ty, you look kind of like him and I swear you could be him."

Ty gave a short laugh. "Well unless I have lowered my status in the last day than I highly doubt that I was ever friends with someone like you."

"Yeah me neither, you don't act anything like he used to. The Ty we knew," he gestured around to his group, "Wasn't an ass hole or a bastard."

Ty cocked his head to the side, "Beggars can't be choosers," he replied simply. He gestured with hand to his friends and started to walk away. When he was at the rest areas entrance he stopped and turned around to face Matt and the group again. "And I'll tell you exactly who I am, I'm Ty Baldwin, that's who." And with that they disappeared around the turn. The dog, however, stayed behind and snapped his teeth and growled in Matt and Tom's direction before agilely loping off to follow his master.

The group was left standing stock still in the middle of the rest area. "Oh my god," Amy breathed and sank down onto the bench and putting her head in her hands.

Soroya sat down next to her and tried to comfort her.

"I wasn't him," Matt said firmly.

"We'll never know now will we?" Amy said harshly. "Great going Matt," she said as a few tears trickled down her cheeks.

"You can't honestly tell me that you think that guy was Ty," Matt said disbelievingly.

Amy laughed bitterly. "Well same name, looks exactly how I imagined Ty would look now, if you were listening to their conversation he said he came here 2 years ago, he lived in Virginia before and was in an accident!"

"Yeah a CAR CRASH!" Matt exclaimed.

"Whatever it doesn't matter anyway," Amy said sadly. "If it was him he either doesn't remember me or he doesn't care about me."

"Amy that guy was an ass! There is no way NO WAY that that was Ty. Ty would never have acted like that, how he was talking before, that's not Ty! That guy couldn't possibly care about anyone."

"Well thanks to that little display you put on just now we'll never know who he was!" Amy said as more tears spilled down her face. Soroya hugged her and Joni came and sat on her other side joining in on the hug. "Sure he didn't act like Ty," Amy said through her tears. "But people change."

"Even if it was Ty," Matt said with a softer voice. "Can you honestly tell me that you would want to be friends with him again? Whoever that guy was is not for you Amy, you're better than lowering yourself to his level."

"I guess you're right…" Amy whispered.

"What's going on here?" Came Lou's shocked voice. Everyone whipped around to see Scott and Lou standing in the entranceway looking at them in bewilderment.

Tom stepped forward to speak. "You remember those guys we met the first time we were here?"

"Yeah," Scott answered automatically. "Mick, David and their friends?"

"Uh huh," Tom said slowly. "Well they were hear to and 'David's' dog jumped on Amy and he came to pull him away. Apparently his name isn't David though and he and Matt kind of went at each other. His name is actually Ty…"

Scott and Lou looked at each other, "Oh." Was all they could say.

"Yeah Ty Baldwin," Amy said from the side.

"Oh Amy," Lou said and stepped to her sisters side and gave her a hug.

"But it wasn't him," Matt insisted.

"I agree with Matt," Scott seconded quietly. "I'm really sorry Amy."

"No matter how much he looks like Ty or even if he has the same name it just wasn't him," Lou said into Amy's hair. When she pulled away she continued. "I know how much it hurt you when Ty left. How much it hurts everyday that you don't know where he is or what happened to him or even if he's alive but you have to move on. But weather you like it or not Ty's gone and the sooner you accept that the better it will be for everyone."

"I know," Amy sighed. "I just really thought it was him, that's all."

"I know you did, in all honesty that's exactly what Scott and I thought the first time we met him to," Lou said.

After a few minutes Lou looked at her watch and said. "We should get going. Remember we have that final dress fitting later?"

A/n: I know it's SHORT but that's all for now :( I could keep writing for this story but I think that's it for this chapter, it has the desired effect. In the next chapter our group from Virginia has a run in with the Baldwin's at SASSI. –Rubs hands gleefully- you readers are in for some good times :) I hoped you liked this chapter and REVIEW!