Slowly, his senses started to come back to him. He felt like he had the world's worst hangover, except the pain wasn't designated to any one area. Everything hurt. He felt like he had been asleep for only a few minutes. He tried to recall the last thing that he remembered, but even trying to think made his head throb like a steady heartbeat was pounding beneath his skin. With a concentrated effort, Ty tried to open his eyes, but found that it was difficult. They would open only long enough for him to get a tiny glimpse of what was going on around him only to shut again.

Though muddled, as if his head was underwater, Ty could hear voices. He couldn't quite make out what was being said, but he was fairly certain that he heard his name once or twice. It was like they were trying to call him back to the surface. He fought with everything in him to clear out the muddiness of his brain and hearing, so that he could at least figure out who was trying to wake him up.

With everything in him, he hoped it was Amy. He knew it wasn't right because of Kit, but he couldn't help what he felt for the beautiful blonde, horse crazy girl that he had long since fallen in love with.

Slowly the murkiness started to clear away, and he could pull out one voice. The other's were merely background noise, compared to her almost angelic voice.

"Ty." She called, and he tried to fight his way back to her.

With one last attempt, Ty's eyes fluttered open and didn't slip back closed. His breathing hitched, when he noticed the breathing tube in his mouth. Amy stood up from the chair that she had been sitting in. Softly, she brushed back his unruly brown hair.

"Hey, it's okay. You're okay. The doctor is going to take the tube out, alright?" She waited a moment as Ty simply blinked at her. He was becoming nervous at the fact that his body wasn't responding to his commands the way that it was supposed to. He tried, and failed to remember what had happened that would cause him to end up in a hospital. "Okay, good. You have to stay calm, Ty." He blinked again.

Amy made a move to step back, but Ty's hand clasped hers just a little tighter. He stared at her, willing her to not leave his side. It terrified him that he needed her so badly, but it was the truth. He needed her to tell him that everything was alright, because in that moment everything did not feel alright.

"Ty," Dr. Cartwright called, trying to gain his attention. Ty's eyes reluctantly moved from Amy's calming blue eyes, to the murky brown ones of Dr. Cartwright. "Here's how this is going to work, okay? When I tell you to, you need to breathe out hard, so that I can pop the tube out, okay?" Ty merely blinked his acknowledgment, as the doctor nodded. "Amy, you're gonna need to help keep him calm. Sometimes patients freak out when the tube starts to come out."

"I understand," Amy answered, as her thumb rubbed circles on Ty's hand.

The doctor turned his attention back to Ty, "On the count of three, Ty. One. Two. Three." On three, Ty breathed out has hard as he could handle and watched as Dr. Cartwright pulled the tube from his throat. He felt tears form in his eyes as his throat burned with the intensity of being on fire. "The nurse is bringing you in some ice chips. I'm going to leave you be with your loved ones for a little while. I'll be back in about an hour to discuss somethings with you, and your family, okay?"

Everyone nodded, as the doctor turned to leave. After the door closed behind him, everyone in the room pulled their chairs a little closer to Ty's bed. The doctor had informed them to leave out any details of the accident and his potential injuries until he could be there to answer questions.

"How're you feeling?" Amy asked, her thumb still tracing circles on the back of Ty's hand.

Ty looked around the room, and felt a tear slip down his cheek. Their entire family and friends were scattered around the room, even Caleb was there. It was more than Ty could have ever asked for, and he didn't even know why they were there.

"Pain." Ty forced out, before grimacing as a new wave of pain washed over him.

They all shared looks of either pity or sadness, Ty wasn't exactly sure which. "Look, you're going to be okay. I promise. For now, just rest. We'll have the nurse give you some pain medicine when she brings in your ice chips." Ty stared at Amy, and almost fearful look in his eye. She smiled softly at him, "And don't worry. I'll be here when you wake up."

Slowly, almost painfully so, Ty woke back up. It wasn't as difficult as it was the first time, and Ty plans to find out why it was so hard for him to wake up the first time around. Looking around the room, Ty notices that the room has thinned quite a bit. In fact, only three familiar faces remain, but there was only one that he truly cared about seeing in that moment.

"Amy." He squeaked out, his throat burning dry again.

"See, I told you that I'd still be here." She smirked at him, as she glided up to the bed and lifted a cup to his lips. "Slow sips, Ty." She chaste as he tried to gulp down the ice cold liquid.

"Sorry," he mumbled, his voice sounding a little closer to normal after he had slowly drained the small cup.

"The doctor will be in shortly. He came by earlier, but none of us wanted to wake you up. You were sleeping so peacefully."

Ty yawned, the last tendrils of sleep releasing it's grip on his psyche. He turned his attention to Amy, tears edged into his eyes. "Amy, what's wrong with me?"

The look on Ty's face coupled with his words broke Amy's heart. She had never seen him look so vulnerable. So utterly broken. Her mouth bobbed open and closed a couple of times, at a loss of what to say. Just as her mouth edged open again, the door to Ty's room opened with a squeak. Everyone turned their attention to the new member in the room. Amy sighed in relief at the sight of Dr. Cartwright.

"Mr. Borden, it's nice to see that you awoke on your own." Dr. Cartwright said, as he jotted down a few notes. "How're you feeling?"

Ty attempted to shrug, but the movement caused pain to flair in every ounce of his body. "Sore, I guess."

Dr. Cartwright nodded, "That's to be expected. I need to ask you a few questions, Mr. Borden." He waited for Ty to acknowledge him before continuing. "First, on a scale of one to ten, how severe is your pain?"

Ty's eyebrows rose, "A seven?" He questioned.

Dr. Cartwright just nodded, and scribbled so more notes on his clipboard. "Okay, good. The next few questions might scare you, Mr. Borden, but I do ask you to remain calm."

Ty's eyes widened, his heartbeat already starting to speed up. He turned his wide eyes to Amy, who merely grabbed his hand. "I'm right here, Ty." She murmured softly.

He seemed to relax under her touch, and waited for Dr. Cartwright to continue. "Mr. Borden, can you feel this?" He asked, as he ran the edge of his pen against Ty's foot and waited as Ty shook his head no. "Alright. How about this?" The doctor asked, as he ran the edge of his reflex hammer against the bottom of Ty's foot.

"No. That's not right. I should be able to feel that!" Ty's voice grew louder with each word.

"Please, Mr. Borden, stay calm. I will explain everything just as soon as I finish with my examination."

Ty sighed, as he settled back against his pillow. "Sorry." He mumbled softly.

The doctor seemed to ignore him as he took his reflex hammer and tapped against Ty's Achilles tendon. He frowned when his foot didn't kick with the added pressure. Pausing long enough to jot down something else on his clipboard, Dr. Cartwright then used his hammer to tap Ty's knee. An almost gleeful expression crossed his features when Ty's leg jerked slightly. It wasn't a great reaction, but it was a reaction. He quickly did the same to Ty's left leg and received a slightly better reaction than his right. Once he seemed to be happy with his examination of Ty's legs, Dr. Cartwright moved on to Ty's head. He looked at Ty's eyes and forced him to follow the light, before humming and writing down more notes.

"Will you please tell me what's going on now?" Ty practically begged. The mere fact that he didn't even know why he was in the hospital was causing him distress, but to know realize that he had practically no feeling in his legs was causing his heart rate to continually raise.

"Of course, Mr. Borden. Is there anything that you can remember about your accident?"

Ty glanced around the room, before staring at the doctor. "What accident?"

Dr. Cartwright nodded, "That's quite alright. It's actually perfectly normal for anyone with a head trauma to not remember the accident that caused it. Please, Mr. Borden, don't be alarmed. Your examination actually went much better than I was expecting. You are by no means completely healed, far from it, I'm afraid, but you are doing much better. You had an accident involving a horse that caused pretty major trauma to your head, midsection, and spine..."

"What kind of accident?" Ty asked, pleading with him for answers instead of more wordplay and mind games.

"I am not sure of the details of the accident. All I know is that involved a horse. You are more than welcome to ask your loved ones questions about that once I've finished up." The doctor spoke softly, pausing to look over his notes before continuing. "When you were brought in, we had to rush you into emergency surgery to stop some internal bleeding. Afterwords we ran you through an MRI and CT-Scan to check out your head and back. The swelling on your spine was too great to see if there was any damage to your spine, however your brain had some fluid and swelling. Because of that and the fact that we weren't sure what kind of spinal injury we might be dealing with, we put you into a medically induced coma. We had to leave you in that state for a little over a week, until the swelling and fluid on your brain went down."

Ty merely stared at the doctor, "Uh – okay. I – uh – what does all this mean?"

"Well, it could mean a few different things. We were finally able to get a decent look at your spine, and there is some damage. Obviously we weren't able to know what that damage might have done to your body until you woke up. Now, because you do have some reflex in your legs, I'm pretty sure that you won't need surgery to repair the damage. If we're very careful with your rehab and take it slow, I'm fairly certain that you will get feeling back in your legs."

"Can I walk?"

Doctor Cartwright shook his head, "I'm afraid not, son. Not right now. In a year? It is quite possible. I honestly don't believe that your paralysis is permanent. At least as long as you don't injure your spinal cord any worse than it already is. If you try to do too much too quickly, you will cause yourself far more harm then good. You have to be gentle when dealing with spinal injuries like this. Another thing is that we will have to monitor the swelling on your brain. The fluid has completely receded, which is great, but there is still some swelling. Again, the brain is a very fragile part of the body. If you try to do too much, try to recall what happened to you, it'll cause more harm then good. It is better to just let that stuff come back on it's own, and too be completely honest, some people never regain the memory of what happened to them and that is completely normal."

Ty sighed, "Is that all?" His face dropped, any hope that might have littered his face was completely gone.

"For now, yes. A nurse will be in shortly to administer some more pain medication, and I'll be back to check on you in a few hours before I leave for the night. Trust me, Mr. Borden, this is the best case scenario considering how severely you were injured."

Ty merely nodded, and waited for the doctor to leave. "Jack, Lou, can I have a moment alone with Amy please?" Ty asked softly.

Both nodded, before vacating the room. As soon as the door shut behind them, he turned his tear-filled eyes to Amy. "Please, tell me what happened."

Amy nodded, "I'll tell you what I can, Ty. I was still in bed when it happened." He sat still, the only movement was a lone tear that slid down his cheek. "From what I could gather from how we found you. You had tried to get Davidson ready for his training session..." Amy let her sentence trail off. The sad look on Ty's face broke her heart all over again. "It was my fault, Ty. None of this would have happened if it weren't for me. So please, just be angry with me."

Ty's brow furrowed. "What are you talking about, Amy?"

"Davidson, he had some pretty funky behavioral problems. In fact, most of the time he was a perfectly well behaved horse. That is until you tried to attach his bridle or place a saddle on him. His owner had no explanation for the behavioral issues since Davidson used to be mild-mannered. I should have written on his stall what behavioral issues that he had. It was my fault."

Ty squeezed Amy's hand. "I don't blame you, Amy. This isn't your fault. From the way it sounds, it was just a freak accident. That is not your fault."

"Then how's come it feels like it is?" Amy asked, as she wiped away the lone tear that slid down Ty's cheek.

"Because, Amy, that is just who you are. When someone is hurt, and you feel like there was a way you could have prevented it, then you blame yourself. Even if the blame doesn't belong to you."

Amy sighed, "I made you a promise while you were unconscious, Ty. I don't know if you heard me, I was here every single day talking to you. Just sitting here with you, so that you didn't think that you were alone. The day that you were brought in, I made you a promise, one that I vowed to never break. I am here for you, through all of this. We all are, but I want to be there for you every single step of the way. No matter what. You can count on me."

Ty offered Amy a weak smile. "I never doubted that for a minute, Amy. I've always been able to count on you."

Amy squeezed his hand reassured. "They'll kick me out soon, but I'll be back tomorrow."

Ty's brow wrinkled, "You don't have to, Amy. I'm sure you've gotten behind on your work."

Amy shrugged, "I've put a hold on client horses for the time being. At least until your back home."

Ty smiled more genuinely, "Home. That sounds nice."

Ty chuckled lightly at the television before glancing at the clock on the wall. Today was the day. He was going home. Overall he had been in the hospital for a little over two weeks, and the doctor finally felt comfortable enough to let him go home. Ty was pretty sure it had something to do with worry about him falling back into a coma or something, but he couldn't be completely sure. When the door to his room squeaked open, Ty turned his head toward the new person in his room. He had been expecting Amy, it was like a daily ritual. She would come not too long after visiting hours started and stayed until they were over. Sometimes other people would pop in from time to time, but mostly it was just the two of them hanging out. It became familiar, like their relationship had been before he screwed everything to hell when he left her behind.

So when he looked up and saw Jack enter his room instead of Amy, to say that he was disappointed would be an understatement. He faked a smile, it wasn't that he wasn't happy to see Jack, because he was.

"Hey, Jack." Ty mumbled quietly, as he fumbled with the bedside controller to turn off the television.

"Ty." Jack answered, dipping his head slightly.

Ty watched Jack closely, as the older man sat down in the chair closest to Ty's bed. It was the closest that the two of them had been since Ty had woken up and Ty could see what his hospital stay was doing to Jack. His face was drawn, and almost complete look of exhaustion covered his face. His eyes were drooped slightly and red-rimmed.

"Jack, have you been sleeping?"

Jack chuckled, and shrugged. "As well as I can. Just been busy with chores and such."

Ty frowned, of course Jack was picking up the slack. He hadn't lost one person, he had lost two since Amy spent most of her days with Ty.

"I'm sorry." Ty mumbled.

Jack waved his hand. "No need for apologies, Ty. I'm just glad that your well enough to come home. You gave us all quite the scare..." Jack sighed, as his sentence trailed off. "How're you really?"

Ty raised an eyebrow, as he stared at Jack. "What do you mean?"

Jack removed his hat and perched it on his knee before settling back into the chair. "You know damn well what I mean, Ty. You can lie to those girls and Caleb. You can put on that brave face, and act like what has happened isn't bothering you. What you can't do, is lie to me. So spit it out. How're you really doing with all of this?"

Ty sighed, "I'm fine, really. I just – it sucks. I mean, that's the truth. I'm partially paralyzed, but it's not permanent, so I just have to play the take it easy card for a while. Since when have I been a 'take it easy' kind of person? I don't do easy. I don't do, sitting in a chair or bed all day either. I like to do stuff, I like to stay busy, so it's going to be hard..."

Jack shook his head, "Okay, that's all well and fine, but you're holding back, son. Just talk to me. Whatever you say, it's between us. No one else has to know, but you can't just bottle it all up. It's not healthy for you."

Ty groaned. He most definitely wasn't a talk about his feelings type of person either, especially when it came to other guys. "I'm nervous and scared. I'm worried. I mean, Doctor Cartwright said it's not permanent, he says that I'll be able to walk again. I just – what if that's not the case? I just hate to think that one little mistake might determine my entire future."

Jack nodded, "See, don't you feel better?" He quirked an eyebrow.

Ty merely chuckled before groaning, his arm draping over his midsection tenderly. "Yeah, except for the pain."

Jack sighed, "On our way back to Heartland, we'll stop and fill your prescription."

Ty nodded, "Thanks, Jack. If you don't mind me asking, where is Amy?"

Jack chuckled this time. "I was wondering how long it would be before you asked. I made her stay behind and help finish up the preparations for your return home."

"What preparations?" Ty asked quizzically.

Jack shook his head, "Now, don't get too awfully upset." Jack paused, taking in Ty's expression before continuing on. "Aside from the things that we needed to change around or fix to make your living situation more comfortable, Lou is planning a big dinner celebration for your return."

Ty rolled his eyes, "Of course she is," he chuckled. Honestly, he was flattered that Amy's family was going to so much trouble to make sure that he was comfortable. "So, I suppose I won't be living in the loft room any longer?"

Jack laughed loudly, "You think you can wheel that chair up that many stairs?" Jack raised an eyebrow. When Ty merely shook his head no, Jack continued. "You'll be staying in the guest room until further notice. Mallory was going to take the loft room, but I didn't feel comfortable having her sleeping by herself, so far away from anyone in case she needed something – or something happened. So, she'll be sleeping on the couch."

Ty frowned, "Well, now I feel bad. I'm kicking her out of her room."

Jack shrugged, "She offered. We were trying to figure out how to fit a cot into the living room for you, since I know that couch wouldn't help your back none."

Ty nodded, "Still. I don't want to inconvenience anyone."

"Ty, you're never an inconvenience. You hear me?"

Ty nodded, as the room slipped into a comfortable silence as they waited for Dr. Cartwright to release Ty from his hospital stay.