Authors Note—I absolutely HATE this chapter but oh well… there's like two (possibly three) chapters left. Review!

-Steph

Disclaimer: Lauren Brooke owns anything recognizable.

The Peak

Chapter 18— No Time like the Present

Thursday, April thirteenth, 2006

Amy could see her whole family standing by the gate that led to the private dock. Her father looked particularly livid.

She was highly tempted to just tell Ty to turn the boat around and go somewhere else, but that would be running away from her problems and Amy was tired of running away from her problems. All she'd done since Ty's accident was run away. She'd found Ty now and she wasn't running away.

Ty took longer then necessary to direct the speedboat back to its mooring spot and Amy was grateful. Her new philosophy may have been to not run away, but that didn't mean that she was anxious to face her father.

Ty finally pocketed the keys to the boat and stepped off onto the deck to tie the boat to the dock. Amy stayed in her seat on the couch.

Ty came back on the boat and sat down next to Amy. They were silent for a moment, both lost in their own thoughts.

"So," Ty broke the silence, "I guess you should be getting out there before I get you in anymore trouble."

"Yeah, I guess," Amy said softly, staring out across the lake towards the distant mountains, admiring how the bright sunshine glinted off the glassy surface of the water.

Ty stood up and reached down a hand to help Amy up. Amy looked up at him and had a quick thought.

"Do you have a pen?" she inquired.

Ty lowered his hand. "Yeah, why?"

Amy shook her head. "Can I see it?"

"Sure." Ty wouldn't show it but he was slightly confused. He didn't like being confused and, even more confusing was the little fact that Amy was the only girl that confused him. Ty pulled out a little drawer that was built into the side of the boat and extracted a black Sharpie. "Is this good enough?" he held it up to show Amy.

"Yeah," Amy quickly nodded her head.

Ty handed her the Sharpie and watched her curiously to see what she'd do with it. Needless to say, he was more then a little surprised when Amy grabbed his hand and scribbled a series of ten digits on his palm.

"There," Amy said once she was done. She released Ty's hand and snapped the top back on the Sharpie. She looked up at Ty and smiled, "That's my cell number," she told him.

"Ah," Ty grinned, "gotcha."

They lapsed into a silence that was, surprisingly, not awkward at all.

"Hey," Ty finally said, "when are you leaving?" His voice wasn't rude, it was merely curious.

"Tuesday," Amy said softly. "My sisters' wedding is on Saturday."

"Oh."

There was another short silence before Amy said, "Come."

"What?"

Amy turned to look at Ty. "Come, please," she almost pleaded. "To my sisters wedding, I gave you the invitation, remember?"

Ty did remember, it was stuffed in one of his desk drawers; he hadn't quite been able to throw it away before. "I don't think I can."

"You don't have to come for the whole thing, you don't even have to come to the ceremony, just come for a little bit of the party. It will be fun."

"I meant," Ty said, "that I don't think I'd be quite welcomed there."

Amy was silent for a second before replying, "I invited you, didn't I? Therefore, you are welcomed."

"Look," Ty said gently, not quite sure how to let her down, "I don't think I'll come."

Amy was silent again as she fiddled with the Sharpie in her hands. "Will I see you again?" she wondered aloud.

"You're here until Tuesday and, besides, we seem to have a way of running into each other, don't we?" Ty grinned down at her, attempting to lighten the mood. To his utter relief, Amy smiled.

"Yeah, you're right," she said. "But my dad will never let me out of his sight now."

"You can sneak out," Ty suggested helpfully. "It always works for me," he added.

Amy laughed. "I'm not very good a sneaking," she admitted.

"You managed it today quite well."

"Well, I suppose I could give it a go," Amy laughed up at Ty. "Though, my dad might kill me if I disappear one more time," she warned him.

"Well I guess that's a risk we'll just have to take," Ty joked.

"Hey!" Amy exclaimed and hit him in the arm, laughing the whole time.

Amy and Ty were both laughing when someone jumped into the boat, making the boat rock back and forth.

"Hola, amigos," Mick announced himself. He leant back against the cushions comfortably and casually, as if just jumping onto to peoples boats was something he did everyday.

Amy and Ty stared at Mick. Mick looked up and caught their gazes.

"What?" he asked innocently. "Did I interrupt a moment or something?" Amy blushed. "Don't worry," Mick assured her with a grin, "I made sure you two weren't doing anything naughty."

Amy's blush deepened.

For once in his life, Ty was at a lose for a comeback and that fact was not left unnoticed by Mick. And it was that fact that rendered Mick speechless. All in all, Ty's lack of words at the moment left them all stunned, needless to say Ty was included in that statistic.

"Yeah, so," Mick cleared his throat, "your dad looked ready to murder me when I walked past him."

Amy nodded thoughtfully but found her thoughts elsewhere.

"So, are you going to, you know, go and tell him that you're okay or something?"

Amy nodded thoughtfully once again. She seemed to snap out of whatever world had previously been occupying her thoughts. "Yeah, I should go." She stood up and looked towards her family. The look in her dads' eyes made her almost want to sit back down.

"I'll come too," Ty offered, standing up next to Amy.

"Yeah, me too," Mick seconded, "we'll be your bodyguards," he joked.

Amy looked back up to her group of family and friends once again. "Yeah, I might need a couple of those," she joked wryly.

"Well," Ty said after a moment of tense silence, "like I always say, there's no time like the present so lets—"

Ty was cut off as Mick exploded with laughter so intense that he was forced back onto the couch. "What a load of shit, you lazy ass," he howled in laughter.

Amy watched Mick with alarm. Ty took her arm and turned her to face him, "He has a slight problem, just ignore him," he advised her.

"It's not just that," Mick choked out, not seeming to realize that he was more or less insulting himself, "it's the combined affect at spending the day at a bar and knowing that Ty has never once stuck to his little saying 'there's no time like the present'. I swear, Amy," he managed to stand once again as he faced Amy, "you've never seen suck a lazy ass in your whole life. He doesn't do anything unless he feels like it and—"

"Thanks for that, Mick," Ty smirked.

"No problem, buddy," Mick hardly seemed to realize that Ty had just cut him off mid thought.

Ty turned back to Amy, that glint she had come to know so well in his eyes. "So, do you want to go back with your family? Because, you know, I'm sure I could manage to sneak you off again."

Ty's offer seemed much too appealing to Amy. "Oh yeah?" she decided to joke around too. "And just how would you do that?"

"Well," Ty began, taking a step closer to her, "I could think of a few ways off the top of my head, the simplest being to just… run…"

Amy laughed and Ty joined in. Mick sat back down on the couch and rested his arms along the back, regarding his friend and Amy with a look of curiosity. Oh yeah, he thought, Ty's so gone.

"That offer is much too tempting, Mr. Baldwin," Amy laughed.

"Oh, I see how it is," Ty faux huffed. "Its Mr. Baldwin now, is it, Miss Fleming?"

"Alright, not that you two aren't just so sickeningly sweet," Mick cut in their playful banter, "I really think that something needs to be done about the situation on hand."

"What a time to be serious." Ty looked down at his friend.

"Betchya didn't know I could be serious, did you?"

"I had no idea."

"He's right," Amy cut in regretfully. "My dad's ready to kill me but I'm sure he could put in a call to the police beforehand to have to arrested for 'kidnapping' me."

Ty glanced at Tim quickly. "Yeah, I guess my dad wouldn't be too happy if he had to pick me up from the station, would he?"

"The expression 'dead man' would have a whole new meaning, my friend. I mean, if you get into trouble one more time…" Mick trailed off his thought but added a whistle for good measure.

"Well," Amy said, drawing the attention back to herself and, therefore, the situation that was currently on hand, "I'm sure that that conversation could go on in some quite interesting ways but I think that I have to go."

Ty nodded silently. He jumped up onto the side of the boat and then stepped out onto the deck, reaching out a hand to help Amy out of the boat.

Amy walked in between Mick and Ty as they made their way along the dock. It seemed to be sooner then Amy had hoped that they were standing in front of her father.

Tim looked livid and couldn't seem to find any words. The rest of the "gang" stood silently, slightly scared of directing some of Tim's wrath towards themselves. Amy, however, tried to keep her spirits up by pretending to be cheerful.

"Hi, dad. You remember Ty, right? And Mick Laurence? Remember you met him at SASSI?" Tim didn't say anything and Amy shifted nervously. "Remember, dad?" she echoed feebly.

Tim sighed tiredly and suddenly looked drained of all energy. "I remember."

Ty, never being a fan of awkward situations yet always being able to find an amusing way out of them, grinned at Tim. Tim didn't look too pleased with Ty's grin but Ty didn't care.

"We are leaving now, Amy," Tim said suddenly and the silence ended. "Would you care to come with us?"

Amy glanced up a Ty quickly before looking back to her father. "Are you giving me a choice?" she asked hopefully.

"No."

"Oh." Amy looked back to Ty. "Well, I'll see you later I guess… you too, Mick."

"See ya, Amy," Mick grinned.

"Bye," Ty nodded before he and Mick walked away towards the parking lot where the famous black Ferrari and hunter green Corvette were parked in the bright sun.

As she watched them leave, Amy suddenly felt very alone. Now she had to deal with her father and the inevitable grounding.

She followed slightly behind her family and friends as they walked back to the cars they had come in, all the while fiddling with something in her hand. She looked down and realized with a start that she had forgotten to give Ty back his Sharpie. She grinned as new thoughts formed in her head. Sure, Ty probably could careless about one little Sharpie but…

"Hey, dad?" she said in her most innocent voice as she waited to get into the navy Dodge Durango.

Tim turned around slowly from the drivers side door and looked at her. "Yes?"

"I forgot to give this to, Ty," she held up the Sharpie, "so I'm just going to go and give it back to him. Okay?"

"You're not going anywhere, Amy," Tim said.

"But, dad," Amy argued, "I'm stealing someone else's personal property if I don't give it back to him."

"It's a Sharpie, Amy, I'm sure the boy can survive without it."

"Dad, please," Amy begged. "What's it going to hurt? I'm just going to go over there and give him his marker back and then come right back. I won't even talk to him," she attempted to bargain with her dad.

"If it is so important that you give the boy the Sharpie back then you can mail it to him."

"Dad," Amy groaned. "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal, Amy, is that you have run away from me and lied to me twice already today." Amy almost argued that she hadn't technically run away from him the first time but she thought better of it. "You are in serious trouble, young lady."

"Yeah, okay I get it," Amy said. "So I'll just be giving Ty back his Sharpie and I'll come right back, I doubt I can get into anymore trouble, right?"

Amy started to walk over to where Ty and Mick were just getting into their respective cars.

"If you leave now, Amy, them you'll have to find your own ride back to the hotel because we're leaving now." Apparently, Tim had given up on trying reasoning with his daughter.

Needless to say, Amy hardly believed that he would just leave her there (not that it would be a big deal because she was sure that Ty would drive her back) and kept on walking, not even realizing that by doing so she was just digging herself in deeper.

"Ty!" she called out and ran forwards as to alert Ty's attention to her before he started to drive off.

Ty looked up and saw Amy running towards him and shifted the car back into park. Mick and his Vet idled behind Ty's Ferrari.

"Hey," he called out as she approached him in slight confusion. How had she managed to escape from her father again? Ty was beginning to think that Amy really, really wasn't the good girl type he had first picked her out to be.

She stopped by the Ferrari and held out the Sharpie. "Here," she said, "I forgot to give this back to you."

"Oh, right," Ty laughed as he took the Sharpie from her. "I'd forgotten all about it," he admitted as he dropped it into the glove compartment.

"Yeah, I'd figured as much but—" Amy began but was cut off by the loud honking of a horn. She looked up and watched in some form of fascinated horror as the two cars her family had rented drove right out of the parking lot, not even stopping to get her. "He left without me!" Amy gasped incredulously.

"Who?" Ty asked even though he already knew.

"My dad," Amy looked around just to make sure that it had, indeed, been them. It was. "Oh, man," she groaned, "what am I going to do? He's going to kill me and I don't have a way to get home and—"

"Have you forgotten that you are standing right next to two people who have cars and are going the same way as your father and who would be more then happy to give you a ride back to your hotel?" Ty interrupted her with a grin.

Indeed Amy had forgotten that little fact. "Really?" she questioned hopefully.

"Yes. In fact we could even beat your dad back to The Princess. What do you say?"

"I say…" Amy thought for a brief second, "that that sounds like a whole lot of fun."

"Good. Get in," he ordered her and unlocked the passenger side door.

Any walked around to the other side of the Ferrari and slipped into the cool leather seat. Was it even possible for the leather to still be cool after sitting out in the blazing sun all day? Quite frankly, she didn't really care.

Amy knew her dad to be a good driver but also a safe driver that never went one mph over the speed limit. Even is the speed limit on the long, empty road was 65mph, Tim stood no chance against Ty and Mick's safe yet reckless driving. Amy tried to remember if she'd ever been in Ty's care when he had gone the speed limit.

The wind rushed through the Ferrari's opened top and blew her hair around wildly. She finally just gave up trying to keep it in order and let it fly around. Where would the fun in tying it up have been?

It was more the driver of the Ferrari that looked irresistible though. There was just something about a guy driving a Ferrari, wearing no shirt, being perfectly tanned and toned and having his hair flying around his face.

Amy figured it could have been more then five or six minutes before she could see the Durango up ahead.

"Ready to have some fun?" Ty asked over the wind as they neared the Durango.

"Yes," Amy laughed aloud.

Ty grinned and briefly looked in the rearview mirror. He made a gesture with his hand and Mick caught it. Mick grinned and nodded, already knowing what was going on.

Ty's foot expertly lowered onto the gas pedal and the speedometer gradually ticked upwards, nearing and then surpassing 100mph. Amy laughed aloud as the engine grew slightly louder and wind rushed faster. The Ferrari didn't so much as jerk as Ty shifted it up into a higher gear and gave it a little more gas. Who needed gas guzzling SUV's when Ty was behind the wheel?

This was a moment that Ty waited for. He lived for the opportunity to completely and thoroughly piss someone off. And, needless to say, he wasn't very fond of Tim and Amy was laughing so he assumed that all was good. After all, Ty lived to serve a pretty lady…

Amy watched the Durango rapidly grow closer through a daze. She could hardly believe that it was actually her sitting next to Ty in the speeding Ferrari, her that had gone from the perfect daughter to the rebellious one in less the twenty-four hours. He friends at home would never ever believe what she was doing when she told them. Amy had the slight feeling that she should feel bad or at least a little guilty at what she was doing but she… couldn't.

As far as she believed, she hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't her fault that her father didn't like Ty, was it? Of course not! Ty was different a few weeks ago and even though he still wasn't exactly the same as he had been several years ago, Amy still liked him. It wasn't her fault that her family and friends just insisted on seeing the worst in him. And maybe not all their prejudices on Ty were necessarily untrue… they just so happened to be mostly true but just put into the wrong context! Just because Ty was a partier didn't mean that that was the only reason he was tolerating Amy.

And so she didn't do anything extreme as they flew by the Durango, it wasn't as though she even had time to do more then wave and laugh. They passed the other can her family was using before they got back onto the right side of the road.

Amy was entirely convinced that they reached The Scottsdale Princess much too fast. Ty and Mick offered to come in to keep her company while she waited but Amy told them to just leave, it would be safer that way. She was fairly certain that Tim really did not need anymore encouraging to call the police.

It turned out that Amy didn't even need to wait long before her family and friends got back. She briefly considered hiding from them and settled on going up to her room. She wasn't technically hiding, she could be found at anytime.

She was found quite fast in fact.

Tim threw the door to her room open, several of the braver members of his group standing out in the hallway.

Amy slowly got up off of the couch and faced her dad.

"I don't know what you think you are doing here, Amy, but it is, quite frankly, shocking," Tim began. Amy shifted her weight from foot to foot as she listened to her father. "When we got here three weeks ago you were the daughter I had always known but you found that boy and I'm afraid that he's been a bad influence on you! I don't even know you anymore, Amy."

"Dad," Amy began slowly in a calm voice. "I haven't done anything wrong. I just—"

"Haven't done anything wrong?" Tim near howled. "Is that really what you think? So just disappearing and disobeying direct orders are doing nothing wrong?"

"All I've wanted since the accident is to find Ty," Amy defended herself. "And now I have. So what if he was different at first? He may not be exactly the same even now but he's still my friend and there's nothing you can do to stop him from being my friend!"

"That boy—" Tim began but Amy cut him off.

"That boy has a name, dad. It's Ty and you know it."

"Fine," Tim said, "Ty then. Ty has some serious work to do on his morals and you do not need to be with him at this time. You are still a minor and I intend to protect you."

"Protect me from what, dad? Just because Ty may have some of his priorities mixed doesn't mean he's a bad influence or that he wants to hurt me. Ty's only been nice to me," she chose to forget about before and concentrated on the present. "He's only tried to protect me if I needed it," Amy remembered Ty's anger at the way Tony had spoken to her the previous night.

"And why would you need his protection?" Amy looked down at the ground; she knew she couldn't answer that question. "You would not even have been in need of protection if you hadn't been with him!"

"Anytime that I was in danger, and I never was really in danger," Amy quickly added at the look on her dads' face, "was because it was I that insisted that I go with Ty wherever he was going. You can't blame everything on him when it's more my fault. I've done everything I have done by choice."

"Do you know what that boy could do to you, Amy?"

Amy ignored the fact that her dad had called Ty 'that boy' again because the implications of his words made her blush and look at him furiously. "I know what he could do to me, dad, but he hasn't and never will do anything like that to me unless I agree." Amy's words caused an awkward silence as Tim tried to think of something to say. "What do you think he's going to do to me, dad?" Amy continued with a harsh laugh. "Drug and rape me? Well guess what? He hasn't, he's never even tried anything like that. We've kissed once and that was only when I kissed him!" Amy clamped her mouth shut, horrified that she had just admitted that.

"I don't know where this new attitude has come from, Amy," Tim warned her, choosing not to comment on her previous statement, "but I can, however, assure you that it will not go unnoticed. You are on punishment until we get back home and you will be there too! For the remanded of our time in Arizona you will never be without the company of at least two people. You will not see that boy again."

"Do you think you can stop me from seeing him, dad?"

"I will also be confiscating your cell phone until further notice," Tim finished.

"What?" Amy gasped in shock. "You can't do that!"

"I can because I am your father and I most certainly will. Now give it to me," Tim held out his hand expectantly.

Amy yanked her phone out of her shorts pocket and slammed it into his opened palm. "There. Are you happy now?"

"I will be happier once we are back home and I have almost the whole country between you and that boy."

a/n: told you it was bad! Oh well, this past week has been crazy… well, horrible and I'm just glad my mom is coming home today. I wanted to post before she got back so that's why it's kind of rushed. Hope it was kind of okay though. REVIEW! -Steph