"Maybe he got kicked out," Soraya guessed before taking a bite of her pizza.

Amy shook her head pensively, pushing her salad around her plate. She looked across at her best friend and frowned.

Amy had spent the first half of the day wondering to herself over the meaning of Ty's words. She didn't have any class with Soraya until the afternoon so she had been left to her own assumptions for the morning. Already deciding that Ty had not been kicked out of his home, Amy was at a complete loss.

"Well how do you know he wasn't?" Soraya demanded, raising her eyes as she stared over her soft drink.

"Its just not possible," Amy shook her head again. "That, he would have mentioned."

"Well what else could he have meant?" Soraya asked with an exasperated sigh.

Amy just shook her head and focused on her drink.

"How was the massage?" Soraya asked, changing the subject.

Amy looked up quickly to see that her friend wore a perfectly masked expression. She appeared uninterested, but Amy knew better. "Good," She said simply. Two can play at that game.

"Anything interesting happen?" Soraya's voice was so casual that it was all Amy could do to keep from laughing at her.

"Actually, after we went to sleep Ty had a bad dream. He woke me up so I –"

"That bad huh?" Soraya said, a small giggle escaping her. Amy joined her though her own was a more embarrassed laugh.

"We didn't do anything," Amy said seriously, taking a drink of her water bottle and setting it down with a deliberately finalizing sound.

"He had a bad dream?" Soraya asked.

Amy smiled slightly and remembered just why Soraya was her best friend. She never pushed things.

"He said he had a bad dream – but you know Ty – it's impossible to get anything out of him," Amy rolled her eyes.

"Any theories?" Soraya demanded, not missing a beat.

Amy speared a piece of chicken from her salad and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "Could have been anything, I guess."

&

Amy's mind was turning over for the rest of the day. She had trouble paying attention in her classes, missed answers when she was called on and received numerous disapproving looks from all her teachers. When the final bell rang she had actually mentally planned her evening and as the bus stopped at Heartland she ran – as she hadn't done in a while – to the house. After changing into her yard clothes and greeting her grandpa who was sitting on the porch fixing a bridle, she hurried to the feed room.

The half full vial of cypress was sitting on the bench when she entered the room. Pushing it out of her way, Amy selected and pulled down a few of the notebooks. She was just flipping through the pages of one when Joni entered the room.

"Hey," Joni said brightly, going to one of the bins and grabbing a handful of horse treats. "Didn't get your fill of books at school?"

"I knew it!" Amy excitedly jabbed her finger at the page in front of her. Joni moved to look over the book.

"Repressed anxiety?" She read in confusion.

"These all say the same thing, cypress brings out repressed anxieties," Amy said, pointing to the different pages.

"Oh… Ty," Joni said with a knowing nod. "He's been a bit moody today," She added at Amy's raised eyebrows.

"Well that one was a dud," Amy observed, emptying the vial's contents and rinsing it.

"Any other ideas?" Joni asked, leaning against the wall, thumbing through the pages of one of the books.

"Well," Amy started to close the books she had been looking at when she paused, her finger falling beside the word invigorating beside cypress's class. She smiled to herself before closing the book. "I was started thinking about things like Bergamot, Neroli or Sandalwood, but those all were because of his nightmare so I guess I'll have to look for physically relaxing oils, not mental ones."

"Hm," Joni looked thoughtfully at the essential oil bottles. "Fennel's a good circulatory system stimulant," She suggested, pulling down an almost black tinted bottle.

"Thanks," Amy grinned, taking the bottle and reaching up for the Basil.

"Well I have a certain spoiled pony waiting for me," Joni patted her pocket, which was hiding the horse treats.

"Would that be Jaz?" Amy teased, knowing how fond Joni was of the old dressage pony who had been a permanent Heartland resident several years ago.

"I'll never tell," Joni replied, raising her chin and giving Amy a mischievous grin before she departed.

Amy picked through one more book and decided to choose only one more, a third oil for Ty to choose from. When she had finally found one that acted as both a muscle relaxant and a circulatory stimulant, she pocketed the bottles and went in search of Ty. She wasn't surprised to find his wheelchair outside Mercury's stall.

Leaning over the half door, Amy saw Ty's head bowed as he worked T-touch over Mercury's neck. His mouth was moving as he kept up a steady stream of low spoken words. Amy admitted herself to the stall and coming up behind him, wrapped her arms around Ty, her hands snaking up to rest on his chest. She buried her nose between his shoulder blades.

"They're picking him up at four-thirty," Ty said, quickly picking up Amy's hand to kiss her the back of it before replacing her palm on his chest and returning his fingers to Mercury's neck.

"Right," Amy nodded. "Where's that leave you?"

"I'm fine," Ty replied in an honest voice. "It's time for him to go home."

Amy nodded again and dropped her hands. Moving beside Ty, she pulled a bottle from her pocket, opened it and held it up.

Ty looked down at her in surprise. "What ab–"

"When I left, Grandpa said he trusts you, didn't he," It wasn't a question.

Ty nodded and Amy gestured to his nose with the bottle.

With a final pat, Ty turned away from Mercury and led Amy to the door before he took the bottle from her and without glancing at the label, smelled it. Without a word or change in expression he handed back the bottle and held his hand out for the second. Amy didn't comment as she complied, recapping the vial and handing him the fennel.

When the third bottle was returned to Amy's pocket she looked expectantly up at Ty. She knew by the exaggerated thoughtful expression he was wearing and the grin he was hardly suppressing, that he was being dramatic.

"Rosemary," He said with finality.

"Rosemary?" Amy echoed.

&

Joni stayed for supper that evening and with Lou out again with Scott, the atmosphere was light. As always, time had taken the edge off the anger Amy felt towards her sister but she decided that it was probably a good thing that Lou wasn't around. I'll be better tomorrow.

After the meal Amy cleared away the supper dishes and while she was pulling out desert bowls and a big serving dish full of pudding, she felt her heart plummet as Ty started explaining to Jack in an extremely quite serious tone, Amy's intention to give him a massage that night.

Apparently Joni found her expression comical because she started laughing as Amy passed her a desert bowl. Amy stole a quick glance at Jack who looked at a loss for words but he quickly covered it by reaching for the bowl of pudding and rearranging his expression into a thoughtful one.

"Well thank you Ty, for telling me. That's very mature of you," Jack said, his eyes flicking up to meet Ty's then Amy's. Almost a full minute of silence passed before Jack spoke again, "I didn't really need to know that though."

Amy looked at Joni who was struggling to compose herself and couldn't help it; she burst out laughing and was joined by a relieved Joni. Across the table Ty was wearing a slightly embarrassed smile while Jack continued to eat his pudding.

Ty retreated to his room after the meal while Joni and Amy washed the dishes.

"Ty's not mad is he?" Joni asked cautiously as Jack went to the living room and turned the television on to a football game.

"I don't think he is," Amy answered, shaking her head. "But he has to admit, that was pretty funny."

"Poor Jack!" Joni said though humor was still in her voice. "Like he wants to know what you two are doing!"

Amy laughed with Joni but was relieved that the conversation switched seamlessly to the horses since she couldn't think of anything to say.

Joni left after asking Amy again if Ty was really upset since he hadn't emerged from his room the entire time.

After putting away the dishes by herself, Amy went to Ty's room and knocked timidly on the door. When she got no answer she started to worry that Ty really was upset with her. She opened the door a crack.

"Ty can I come in?" She asked. He saw that he was lying in the middle of the bed as he had been the previous night, clad in only a pair of dark green boxer shorts, apparently staring at the ceiling though his eyes were closed.

"Mmhm," He nodded slightly.

Amy moved slowly towards the bed and paused looking down at Ty. He opened one eye, and after seeing her standing over him, patted the bed beside him with his hand.

"You're not mad right?"

"I'm a bit embarrassed, I'll admit. But not mad," Ty answered, both his eyes closed again.

"You had Joni worried," Amy explained, sitting cross-legged on the bed beside Ty.

"Were you worried?" Ty asked. Though his eyes remained closed, his expression was worried.

"Not at all. You didn't look mad," Amy answered, playing with the vial of diluted rosemary oil in her hands. "What were you doing?"

Ty was quiet for a full minute. "Thinking," Was his simple reply.

"About…?" Amy prompted when it became obvious that he wasn't going to elaborate.

Ty sighed, raised his hand to his face and after rubbing his eyes he opened them and stared at the ceiling. "Jack, Lou and Scott, Heartland, Marion, you, me, us." He said in a rush.

Amy's eyes widened and she looked down to see Ty's eyes had found her face and he was looking anxious as he waited for her response.

"Mom?" She repeated softly then cleared her throat. "Us?"

"Its stu–" Ty started, his hand coming up to cover his eyes again.

"Not if you've been thinking about it for three quarters of an hour," Amy interrupted him, taking his hand and gently lifting it from his face, holding it in her own. "And its probably been bothering you for a lot longer, hasn't it?"

Ty looked up at her, his eyes roaming her face as another long silence fell between them. Finally he squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips.

"You're right," He mumbled against her knuckles. He held her hand, suspended in the air in front of his face. He meticulously inspected her hand. "Its been bugging me since the storm."

Since the… she mouthed slowly, but when Ty brought her hand to his mouth again and kissed each knuckle slowly she stopped and looked down at him. He released her hand and she traced her fingertips over the contours of his face carefully until her fingers were running through his hair.

"What if I'd died?"

At Ty's whisper Amy gasped, her fingers trailing back to his lips, her eyes meeting his.

"You would have never known how much –"

"Ty I –" Amy started but Ty cut her off.

"No. Amy you don't know," He shook his head and reached for her hand, once again inspecting it. "I don't tell you half as often as I should. I resolved after I came back last time that I would show you just how much you mean to me and I was going to during the ride but I chickened out," He looked up. "I almost missed my chance."

"Ty what –" Amy started but stopped suddenly when Ty's other hand came up and she saw a small piece of metal between his thumb and index finger.

He sat up slowly, her hand still hostage in his. "You don't have to promise anything right now, just know that I love you this much," He pressed the small ring, still warm from his touch, into the palm of her hand and closed her fingers around it.

Amy looked up from her hand and into Ty's eyes. Oh. My. God.

"Ty did you just…"Amy didn't finish her question but opened her hand and looked at the little ring that lay in her palm. A perfect silvery loop, broken where the two ends held a golden gem. "Its…"

"The style is called 'embracing' because of the way the ends hold the stone," Ty explained, lifting the ring from her hand and slowly sliding it onto her second finger. "It's a bit unconventional, but I thought it was perfect for you. 18 carat white gold, that's a golden sapphire…" He trailed off as he looked up from her hand and realized that Amy was staring at him – not the ring – open-mouthed.

"Amy you're starting to freak me out, say something," Ty said slowly. Raising his hand to her face he cupped her chin and brushed his thumb over her lower lip.

"Ty…" Amy breathed. Leaning towards Ty she wrapped her arms around his neck as he pulled her to him.

"I know we're so young, but I just…" Ty paused as Amy pulled back. "– really wanted to…" He paused again as Amy shook her head moved close so her forehead was against his.

"You're rambling," She pointed out, pressing a kiss just beside his mouth.

"I am a bit nervous," He admitted, dropping his hands to her lower back.

"Time for a massage," Amy whispered, kissing his lips quickly before she pulled back and picked the oil bottle from where she'd dropped it on the mattress.

"That's a yes, right?" Ty asked, cocking his head to the side.

"You even have to ask?" Amy laughed and threw her arms around him again. A sudden thought struck her and she pulled back again. "Does grandpa know?"

"That thing's been in my pocket since the ride," Ty said with a small embarrassed smile. "I even called Tim to ask his permission."

Amy suddenly remembered something from that morning. "Ty, where are your parents?"

It surprised Amy at how fast his expression fell.

"Ty?"

"I don't know," Ty answered, running his fingers through his hair, a frustrated gesture.

"You said they were visiting family in Utah, right?" Amy remembered from when she first visited Ty in the hospital.

"I called there, apparently Brad had to go to further west for business and Mom and Lee kept with him. They didn't leave a number," Ty answered. Amy could tell by the edge in his voice, he wasn't very happy about this.

"Look on the bright side," Amy said with a grin.

Ty looked up at her, obviously struggling to find something good about being abandoned by his parents.

"The longer they're gone, the longer I get to have you," Amy finished. With the oil bottle she gestured for Ty to lay down. He complied after pressing a kiss to her forehead.