Amelia didn't know how long she'd been running to escape the bad men who pursued her in the darkness. But it seemed like it had been forever. She could barely see the path in front of her but she could feel the rocks underneath her feet even with shoes on. Was she really going up a steep mountain or did it just feel that way?

She'd been out traveling by horseback with Ethan who had offered to ride with her to Virginia City to meet with some attorneys about the bank. He hadn't wanted her traveling by herself especially since a rowdy group of men just laid off at the mine had started harassing her. She had thought them annoying more than anything else but Ethan had believed otherwise and he's been right. The last she'd seen of him he'd been beaten and kicked by the men who'd tried to kidnap her.

Whatever fear she'd felt from them had been overwhelmed by anger at what the men had been doing to him. She'd tried to fight them to get them off of Ethan but there were too many of them. Ethan's last words had been for her to take off and run as fast as she could go.

So she'd done that and one of the men had chased after her and tried to pin her to the ground in a meadow but she'd gotten away. She'd camped out against the trunk of a tree where she'd fallen in a troubled sleep. A snake had woken her up and after she plucked it off of her she took off wandering through the unfamiliar woods wary of any sighting of those men. They must have seen her again because now she was running away from them.

She could hear their jeers behind her and they weren't fading like she wanted so she dug in deeper inside herself and willed herself to run faster, even as she stumbled over the uneven trail, even as her muscles burned from exertion. She couldn't let them catch her, she'd lose them and double back to go help Ethan…if he weren't dead. But it wrenched her gut to even imagine that, no she had to believe that he was still alive. Maybe someone riding by had helped him.

The trail narrowed the edges of each side of it dropped off more deeply into what looked like gorges carved out over thousands of years by rivers. She had to find someone who'd help her so she could get away from the bad men and go back and find Ethan…before it was too late.

But all she saw was emptiness, the only sound was that of the rivers and she knew she ran alone.

Ethan sighed as he waited for Bella to return with John Taylor. He sat next to the bedside where Amelia lay unconscious, her face pale and still. In the same room, was the owner of the cabin who he knew to be Virgil. The older man had explained to Ethan and Bella when they arrived at his doorstep that he'd found the woman lying by the river just as she appeared on the bed.

She hadn't responded to his prodding but her pulse seemed strong. She had bruising on her forehead and her clothes had been soaked so he knew she had crawled out of the river.

"I don't know anything else but what I saw."

He said that when Ethan asked him what had happened to Amelia when the man had taken her to the bedroom of the neighboring cabin.

"Her horse wound up at my ranch," Bella explained, "We came looking for her."

Virgil didn't have much else to say.

"Did you see anyone else," Ethan asked, "Did someone hurt her?"

Virgil shrugged.

"Don't know about that…just know what I saw and she was alone."

The man said he had examined her and he thought the blow to the head knocked her out but he didn't know when she'd wake up from it. Ethan knew that he had to get her some type of medical help but didn't want to go fetch Doc Carter in town. Word would get out and since he didn't know what had happened to her, he wanted to keep her location a secret at least for now. It could have been an accident, maybe her horse got spooked when she'd been heading back to Bella's ranch and somehow she fell in the river. But he didn't know for sure and wouldn't until she woke up and could tell him. So he sent for John Taylor instead.

After all, the Indian had saved his life and hers as well from removing bullets that would have killed them otherwise. He'd know what to do and wouldn't tell anyone. Until John Taylor arrived, Ethan just sat and held her hand which remained limp in his grasp. He kept telling her she had to open those eyes and wake up, that nothing bad could happen now that she'd returned to him. The man had left him to hold his vigil as long as it took. Just as he'd held her hand when it had been a bullet from his gun that had nearly taken her life…she had woken up then and she would do the same now.

Bella found John Taylor in town talking to Claire, Ben and George. She pulled him aside and told her she needed his help and when she finished explaining, he turned to Ben and George to tell him he had to leave.

Claire asked them if they needed her help and Bella said she could bring her brothers out to her ranch and have them tend to the puppies with Clara. So Claire nodded and said she'd do that and see her later. John Taylor sighed, as they went to go fetch his horse at the livery.

"Sounds like a concussion but if it's worse than that…"

Bella knew that the situation would be graver then but they could hope for the best. John Taylor shook his head.

"What happened…or do I need to ask?"

Bella shrugged.

"Don't know…she could have fallen off her horse if it spooked…"

John Taylor gave her a pointed look.

"Or someone could have hurt her…"

"That too…let's get going…"

They both got on their horses and took off riding at a gallop out of town.

Ethan looked at the window hoping that Bella and John Taylor would show up soon. It shouldn't have been too difficult for her to find him. Amelia hadn't stirred at all and he realized there wasn't anything he could do which made him feel all the more helpless. That was how she had said she felt when it was him lying badly injured in a bed. Had this been an accidental fall or had someone done this to her and if so why?

The situation was getting volatile in Paradise with Darrin Wyatt and his plans for Paradise. Then there had been the security men roughing up a suspected vandal who had been from the same city that had brought Bella, Amelia and the damn reporter to town. Was that a coincidence? Ethan didn't believe much in them and he wondered if any or all of this tied back to the unsolved murder of Warrick?

He tried to push aside all these questions for now because all he wanted was for her to be better as he sat beside her holding her hand in his own again saying a prayer.

Amelia heard a man talking, even though she recognized the voice. But she couldn't see anyone else beside her but Warrick as she walked down a tree lined street lit by gas lamps and a sliver of moonlight above them.

He had been telling her about a love that he had lost and how important it was to hold onto the important things in life and to tell the people who mattered how much you loved them…while you still had the chance.

Moments later he'd forever lost his chance to do anything at all. Just like his life had ended in a pool of blood on that street. Not the first to die there but the one that she'd remember.

Then she was back in the dark swirling water again trying to swim to the surface but something pulled her down. She kicked at it but she couldn't break free.

She had to try harder, if she didn't get away soon she'd be pulled into the depths of the water and never free herself again.

"Amelia…"

She heard the voice again and tried to head towards it with all her might.