A/N: I'm really sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. I didn't mean to keep you waiting. But I would like everyone to take a deep breath. Just because I added one teeny character to this story does not mean it's ruin. It really hurt when some of you said that. I wish I could reply to each of you separately, but most of you signed in as guests, so I'll say it here. Ahmed is not going to be major character in this story. Most of the chapters to come, will be Ahmed-free, he'll just flicker in and out, like a ghost, throughout the story. He is not the villain or antagonist in this story, he is a minor minor character. I want everyone to stop assuming that you know what's going to happen just because I put one character in. Please trust me when I say that I know where I'm going with this story, I have a plan and Ahmed is only on the side. He's not really that essential to the story, I just needed him to do one thing, that's all. So what, Ahmed gave Amy a job, I never said that Amy couldn't find more work on her own. It was just this opportunity fell into her lap during a time when she felt like she was losing the life she had before the kids came around and she grabbed it. It really hurts and angers me when people say that I've ruined a wonderful story by reusing an old storyline, which I am not, I know what I'm doing. Please don't give up on this story, you won't regret it. Ok, I'm done now. Enjoy this chapter. :)

Chapter Six

Daddy Daycare

Ty grunted as he tightened a part on his truck's engine, from where he was hunched over the hood. It's been a week and a half since Amy took Ahmed's offer and everything's gone relatively good so far. They've hired a part-time nanny; Jessica was a twenty-one-year-old, fresh out of college, where she studied child psychology and development. The twins seemed to really like her, especially since she always plays games with them and she never yells. Every night after Jessica leaves, they ask when she's coming back. Amy was happier now too, Ty could see it. When she was home, she enjoyed the twins more and generally seemed less stressed.

Straightening up, Ty wiped his hands on a towel he had thrown over his shoulder and put the hood of the truck down. Just as he did, he heard the sound of crying. When Ty turned around, he saw Jessica, her thick, black hair pulled into a low ponytail that was draped over one shoulder, approaching carrying a very upset Lily. Ty put the towel down and met them halfway. Lily held her arms out when she saw her daddy, her cries getting more hysterical.

"What happened?" Ty asked, looking at Lily, but really addressing Jessica.

"There was an accident," Jessica started to explain. "Lily took one of Jackson's toys, and Jackson retaliated by pushing Lily off the couch. I checked her over and she looked fine to me, but she keeps saying her arms hurts from where she banged it against the coffee table. She said, she wanted her daddy to make it feel better."

Ty gave her hug and then sat her up on the hood of his truck. "Where does it hurt?" he asked Lily. She coughed from her hysterics and pointed to her left arm, right above her elbow. It was only a small scrape, no blood. "Oh, that tiny thing," Ty said, his voice light. He dropped a kiss on her arm, and wiped her tears from her face. "You're okay." Lily sniffed loudly, and wrapped her arms around Ty. She sighed into his shirt as he hugged her back.

There was a tug on Ty's jeans and then came a small voice. "I sorry, daddy," Jackson said, his voice low. He looked down at the ground when he said it as if he couldn't look up at him. Ty let go of Lily and lifted Jackson up, so that he was sitting on the truck as well. Lily whined and scooted away from her brother.

"Jack, you know, we don't push others, especially off the furniture," Ty said sternly, lifting up the little boy's chin, so that he was looking at him.

Jackson nodded, wiping his eyes. "She took...my toy!" he exclaimed, pointing at Lily. "I get mad!"

"Then you come tell me or Jessica, you don't hit or push," Ty told his son. Jackson nodded again. "Now, tell your sister you're sorry and give her a hug and a kiss."

Jackson wrapped his arms around his sister, who whined again, but hugged him back. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and said, "I sorry."

"That's my good boy," Ty replied, ruffling Jackson's blonde hair. "Hey, I have an idea. How about we get out of here and go for a drive?" His question was met by cheers. Ty smiled and put them down, one by one, on the ground.

"I was going to ask," Jessica spoke up. Ty looked over at her. "If I could have the rest of the day off? My boyfriend is coming in from out-of-town and I wanted to meet him at the airport."

"Yeah, sure, go ahead," Ty answered. "Thank you for all you help. We really appreciate everything you've done for us."

"It's really no trouble at all. They're both wonderful," Jessica said, smiling down at the twins. "Here are their sweatshirts and they've both gone potty recently." She handed Ty the two sweatshirts.

After catching wind that Jessica was leaving, both twins rushed over to her, throwing their arms around her legs. They begged her to stay and Jessica laughed, kneeling down to their level. "I'll be back in two days, I promise." she told them, even though they didn't quite understand time. She gave them each a hug and stood up when Ty came over to pry them away from her.

When Jessica left, Ty put on the twins' sweatshirts and lifted them into their car seats in the truck. Normally, Ty and Amy would take them in the SUV they bought shortly after the twins were born, but seeing as Amy had taken that car to work, Ty was stuck with the truck. The twins were silent as Ty jumped into the truck and turned it on. He backed down the driveway and turned onto the road, not sure where exactly they were going.

~OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~

Fifteen minutes later, Ty unloaded Lily and Jackson from the truck in front of Caleb's trailer. Jackson immediately went over to a yellow, toy tractor that must have been left by AJ, and started playing with it. Lily stayed next to Ty and slipped her little hand into his after Ty shut the truck door. The trailer door creaked open and Caleb stepped out onto the porch.

"Well, you're not who I was expecting," Caleb said, leaning against the wooden post of the sun porch.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Ty replied as he approached with Lily in hand. "But we were going for a drive, and I thought we'd stop by. You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not," Caleb said, shaking his head. "It'll make it easier on Becky, now, she won't have to drive up to your place."

Ty furrowed his brow for a moment. "What do you mean? Was she going to stop by today?" he asked. Lily started tugging on his hand, so he let go of her. Lily plopped down on the deck and started making her toy horse 'gallop' on the deck.

Caleb seemed to notice his mistake. "Whoops, guess she didn't ask you yet." he said.

"Ask me what?" Ty asked, completely curious now.

Caleb hesitated at first, unsure if he should say it now or not. "Okay, you know that Rebecca's been looking for her own place." Ty nodded. "Well, she's found a place and she wants me to come with her to check it out. The thing is, it's really hard to look at everything you need to look at with a two-year-old running around..." Caleb let the sentence dangle between them.

"So, you wanted to know if I could watch AJ?" Ty finished the sentence for him.

"Could you?" Caleb asked. "It will only be for an hour, at least."

"Alright, sure," Ty answered after a moment in thought. He walked over and sat down on the couch. "So, how did your trip with my sister go anyway?"

Caleb grinned. "It went really well," he explained. "I was able to buy two horses, and Jack is allowing me to keep them at Heartland, for a small price, while I train them. As for me and Becky, I think the trip brought us a lot closer."

"I'm happy for you, man," Ty said, honestly. "You may be my friend though, but Becky is my sister and if you hurt her, I'll have to hurt you. Understand?"

"Completely," Caleb replied, grimacing.

Caleb sat down next to Ty on the couch and the two talked and laughed as they watched Lily and Jackson play. Lily had stuck her toy horse halfway in the dirt and Jackson was using the toy tractor and a piece of string to pull the horse out. It was cute, the small games they could come up with. About eight minutes later, Rebecca's royal blue car pulled up behind Ty's truck. As soon as Rebecca lifted AJ from the car, the two-year-old took off running toward the twins, to join in their playing.

"Hey, sis!" Ty greeted her. "Sure, I'll watch your kid for you!"

Rebecca ducked her head as she approached the two guys. "I'm sorry, I meant to call you last night," Rebecca apologized. "But AJ didn't go to sleep til late last night and by the time he did, I was half-asleep myself."

"It's no problem, really," Ty told her, smiling easily. "I was just looking for something to do with the twins, maybe we'll go out for lunch."

"That sounds good," Rebecca said, then she turned to Caleb. "You ready?"

Caleb nodded and stood up. "Sure am."

Ty watched Rebecca say goodbye to AJ and then she and Caleb climbed into his pickup truck. He waved as they backed down the driveway and onto the road. Ty looked over at the kids, deciding to give them a few more minutes of playtime before he left too.

~OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~

At lunchtime, Ty sat at a table inside Maggie's with the three toddlers. The three of them sat in booster seats, coloring quietly on the kid's paper menus as they waited for their grilled cheese sandwiches. As Ty settled a small dispute over a red crayon between Lily and AJ, his phone buzzed with a new text message. The phone vibrated against the table, causing Jackson, who was sitting on Ty's right, to stare at it. He, then, pointed at it with the green crayon in his hand.

"Phone, daddy," Jackson said.

"Thanks, Jack," Ty smiled at the little boy and picked up the phone. Jackson watched him as he looked at the message. It was from Amy.

Be home in 30 mins., I'm not alone.

;)

"Who that?" Jackson asked, before Ty could even try to contemplate what Amy meant. Ty quickly typed out a reply, telling Amy where they were and that they would probably be home around the same time. He slid his phone into his pocket and looked up at his son.

"That was mommy," Ty said to him. "Right after we finish our lunch, mommy's going to be home, and I think she might have a surprise."

"A prize?!" Lily exclaimed, dropping her crayon.

"That's right," Ty told her. "So, eat all your lunch and you can see what it is."

Lily beamed just as the waitress brought over the three grilled-cheese sandwiches. After Ty cut the sandwiches so that they were easier to eat, all three toddlers dug in.

About ten minutes later, they were all finished. The boys had cleaned their plates, while Lily had left one bite of sandwich left, claiming she was all filled up.` Ty cleaned their hands and put their sweatshirts on, since it looked like the wind had picked up outside. Dropping some money on the table for the bill, Ty herded the kids to the door. Lily didn't want to walk, so he carried her and the boys each had a finger of his left hand.

It took a few minutes to get everybody settled into the truck. Lily wanted to sit next to Ty, Jackson didn't want to sit next to the window, and AJ's seat buckle was hurting him. Finally, Ty sat in the driver's seat and started up the truck. The ride was mostly silent with the occasional garbled sentence of a two-year-old. It didn't take them long to arrive back at the ranch and Ty immediately saw the new truck and trailer parked in the driveway. It belonged to Ahmed.

The kids were mostly quiet as Ty unloaded them from the truck and led them down to the barn, where he was sure Amy would be. So far, there was no sign of Ahmed and the closer they got to the barn, Ty could hear Amy talking in her soothing-horse voice. There was a shuffle of hooves on concrete, then the bang of a stall door closing and the lock sliding into place. Lily started walking faster, straining against Ty's hold, when Amy came into view.

"Mommy!" Lily called.

Amy turned and smiled when she saw that it was them. Ty let go of Lily's hand and the little girl took off running toward her mother. Amy knelt down and caught Lily in her arms, lifting her up as she stood back up.

"I missed you," Lily said.

"I missed you, too," Amy replied. "And look what I brought home." She turned so that the little girl was facing the stalls. Ty and the boys were now in the barn and Ty could see the two new horses in the stalls across from them.

"Who are these two?" Ty asked, after giving Amy a peck on the lips in greeting. He looked at the stocky, bay, quarter horse mare, definitely not one of Ahmed's grand-prix showjumpers. The other mare, a chestnut thoroughbred cross, looked more the prince's style.

"This is Lana," Amy said, walking over to the quarter horse mare. "Her owner has a daughter who takes lessons at Ahmed's stables. She saw me working with the horses and mentioned that her reliable trail horse has started being aggressive with other horses while under saddle, making trail rides with her daughter difficult. I asked if she wanted me to take a look at her and she seemed so relieved and grateful."

"That's great, Amy," Ty exclaimed, putting his arm around her. "Pretty soon this barn will full of horses." Amy smiled, looking down at Lily, who was playing with the zipper of her sweatshirt. Ty nodded toward the chestnut mare in the other stall. "What about her?"

"Oh, that is Autumn Falls," Amy said, walking to the next stall over. Ty followed her, taking Jackson's and AJ's hands, after they had been in the midst of throwing loose hay up in the air. "She's one of Ahmed's newest jumpers. She's only six, but she has a lot of talent and spirit." Even as she spoke, Autumn stood tall and proud, looking over the stall door. Her eyes shining bright with eagerness and intelligence as she watched them. "It's just the last show she was at, she had a complete meltdown and had to be sedated just to get her back onto the trailer."

"Ahmed actually agreed to let you bring Autumn here?" Ty asked.

"Well, it took a little convincing, but I wanted to work with her in a less stressful environment." Amy answered, shifting Lily over to her other hip. Lily reached her hand out toward the mare. Autumn stretched out her nose toward the toddler, blowing a little in her face. The little girl pulled back her hand and buried her face in her mother's shoulder. Amy laughed. "She likes you."

At that, Lily looked back up. Feeling braver this time, she reached up and touched the mare's velvety soft nose. "Nice horsie," she said, and giggled when the mare touched her. Then, Lily leaned forward until her cheek was touching the mare's nose. For a moment, neither horse nor toddler moved. Smiling, Amy looked over at Ty, who smiled back at her.

"Ok, I think it's time we go inside and take a nap," Ty said, looking at Lily and then down at the boys.

"Mommy, come back?" AJ asked, looking up at him.

"She'll be back soon," Ty nodded.

"Where is Rebecca anyway?" Amy asked him.

"She and Caleb went to look at an apartment today, Becky is thinking of moving out of Heartland," Ty said simply. "Do you want to help me put them down?"

"Actually," Amy started, and handed Lily to Ty. "I wanted to stay out here a little longer, just to make sure the mares are settling in okay."

Lily seemed to realize that Amy wasn't coming and started to whine. "I stay, mommy! I stay, mommy!" Ty gripped her tighter as the the two-year-old tried to reach for Amy again, almost falling out of Ty's arms in the process.

"They seem fine to me," Ty commented, glancing at the two mares, after he readjusted Lily in his arms. "It will only take a few minutes."

"I know, but I only have a limited amount of time with Autumn," Amy said, and Ty got the feeling she was just using any excuse to stay at the barn longer. "Ahmed doesn't want to take her off the team and the next show is in a couple weeks, so every minute counts."

"Ok," Ty finally replied, after a long pause. Ty turned to leave, which only caused Lily to cry. The whole way back to the house, Lily called out for Amy until her voice was hoarse. Ty had stopped trying to explain to her what Amy was doing because it only made her cry harder. He had only looked back at the barn once, but Amy had disappeared into one of the stalls. He wandered if his daughter's unanswered cries were breaking Amy's heart as it was his.

~OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~

Later that afternoon, Ty sat in the living room with Jackson, who was on the floor playing with his matchbox cars. He had only just woken up, while his sister was still sleeping. It had taken a while to get Lily to calm down after he had brought them all inside, but when she finally did stop crying, she had gone right to sleep. Rebecca and Caleb had picked up AJ a half hour ago, during which Amy had made an appearance in the house. She was now back outside, having wanting to check on the horses again.

Now, Ty listened to his son make car noises while lining up all the cars and making them crash into each other. Ty leaned forward watching him. It seemed to give Lobo an invitation, because the dog got up from where he'd been lying by the front door and came over to him. Ty gave his fur a ruffle, realizing a little too late that the dog was standing in the middle of Jackson's mass of cars.

"NO!" Jackson growled and threw two cars at the dog. Lobo let out a loud cry as one of the toys hit him in the side and bolted from the room. Ty looked at the little boy and saw him sitting with his arms crossed and a sour expression on his face.

Everytime Jackson had an outburst like that, Ty's chest clenched with the thought of his son possibly going down the same road he had. He hoped that these outbursts were just apart of the terrible twos, something that he would grow out of. Ty didn't want his son to experience the same kind of hardship and pain he had. That's why, Ty was determined to be a different kind of father to his son, then his own father, or Wade, had ever been to him.

"Jack, hey," Ty said. Jackson kept staring straight ahead of him. "You know, we don't throw our toys like that."

"Lobo step...toys!" Jackson replied, angrily, throwing open his arms. "I get mad!"

Ty leaned over and pulled Jackson up until he was standing in front of him. "I know you got mad when Lobo messed up your cars," Ty said. "Lobo didn't mean it, and you hurt him when threw the car at him. I know you didn't mean to hurt Lobo."

Jackson shook his head, and looked up at Ty, his own green eyes staring back at him. "I sorry, daddy," Jackson apologized.

"It's okay, buddy," Ty told him, patting his arm. "Next time, somebody makes you mad, you come and get me or mommy, ok?"

Jackson nodded, "Ok. I say sorry,...Lobo." With that, Jackson ran from the room in the direction Lobo had went, toward the kitchen. Ty knelt down on the floor and started to rearrange the matchbox cars in lines, the way Jackson had before. The toddler returned a few seconds later, and before Ty knew it, the little boys arms were around his neck. "Love you, daddy."

Ty dropped the cars he was holding and wrapped his arms around his son. "I love you, too," he said, honestly. His heart warmed, thinking that he must be doing something right. "Hey, do you want to help me fix your cars now?"

Jackson nodded again. Ty sat on the floor with his son as they lined up the cars and took turns crashing them into each other. He laughed right along with the little boy, sharing his excitement. Even when Lobo decided to come back into the room and join in the fun, Jackson didn't mind. They were having too much fun to care.

A/N: Again, I'm sorry for the long wait, but I hope this chapter was worth it, though. Please review! :)