Amelia opened her eyes but they still felt heavy. Her muscles ached and god, her head hurt. Moving it certainly didn't help matters but as her vision sharpened she wanted to see her surroundings.

An unfamiliar bedroom inside what looked like a cabin, perhaps? She'd been out in the woods she remembered that much. Riding back to Bella's ranch most likely and then what had happened…wait a minute, another image flashed in front of her. She hadn't been just been riding towards some place she'd been riding away from another.

Oh god, she thought to herself. There'd been someone coming after her. She remembered hearing the hoof beats behind her getting ever closer and her own breath coming harshly along with that of her mare. Scenery mostly trees and brush but sometimes open meadow flashed right by her. She couldn't turn her head to look at it, she just had to keep her mare moving quicker and quicker because if she didn't get away…

Someone was going to kill her.

The reality of that hit her hard so that her breath became caught in her lungs. She remembered that she'd gotten onto her horse so quickly; the horse had started to prance because of her sudden pressure on the reins. But what happened before that, what had she seen…or rather who?

It's been the man she'd been running away from all this time without realizing it. She'd come back to Paradise to reunite with the man she loved and the children she'd loved too but she'd also been trying to get away from the men who'd hurt her back that night in San Francisco. Paradise proved to be more than just home for her but a haven and she lived with Bella on her ranch and worked it each day with the other women, at the same time hiding away.

Just like they'd hidden Clara away from Dylan Daggett and his gang who might be out there looking for her…had the men who killed Warrick right in front of her before taking her away been out looking for her? Then she remembered all the strange events…like Ernie the reporter showing up in Paradise also from the city she'd left.

He had said it was to write about Bella, moving from outlaw to respectable woman but had that been true? He'd been asking all those questions about what really happened to Warrick that night as if he'd cared. When all it had been about when it happened was to get good headlines to make a name for himself at the newspaper…at her expense…and then he showed up wanting to do different?

She didn't believe him on that but when another young man also from San Francisco had wound up dead in a jail cell after he'd been captured by two of Wyatt's security men…Burke was one of them and something about the man…

Then it hit her, the stark fear that had always been a part of her since she last crossed paths with him. Burke was the man who had killed Warrick with another man…so no one would witness them kidnapping her and taking her away to where…she closed her eyes again…no point returning there. Nothing to be gained and she didn't want anyone to know.

So it had been Burke who had chased her on horseback and then….she'd wound up in the river, had she fallen…no she'd jumped. It had been a choice between facing Burke or escaping him with a sheer drop behind her.

She'd taken that leap, resurfaced in the icy water and floated downstream until…she'd been able to climb out onto the damp bank and then...she flinched because she remembered who'd been waiting for her.

A sound like a gunshot only it wasn't that at all. It'd been something else, something hard and unyielding hitting her head and then….darkness.

Her breathing came fast again, her heart pounding as the memories hit her all over again. This time she sat up even though it felt like her body was weighted down.

Then she saw Ethan looking out the window and he turned around when he heard her movement.

"Good morning…"

She looked at him confused.

"Morning….?"

She saw that his eyes were reddened and he looked tired. Had he stayed up all night with her.

"You were asleep for a long time," he said, "John Taylor said you'd wake up. He left you some tea to drink."

Ethan left to go get it and she lay back on the bed looking at the ceiling. She didn't know how he'd found her, had Bella and the others known what had happened to her? Were they worried?

He returned with a steaming mug and she sat up to drink from it with his help. Damn it tasted bitter but she drank it down and found some of the pain in her head receding.

"Better?"

She nodded…almost in amazement."

"I don't know what's in it but he said it'd help with the healing."

"Thanks…so how did you find me?"

"I didn't…a man who owns this cabin found you by the river," he said, "He brought you here but Bella and I, we were worried when your horse came back to the ranch without you so we went out looking."

She remembered vaguely someone telling her this already, maybe him but her memory felt so fuzzy right now.

"What happened to you Amelia? Do you remember?"

She didn't want to answer because she didn't know what he'd do. She'd felt intense fear when she woke up again and the emotions hit her hard but it started to ebb and something replaced it just as intense, anger.

She knew that Burke had to pay for what he did but she wanted to make him pay herself. She wanted to stop running and face him, and if she had the chance, rid the planet of him. That shouldn't be left to Ethan who'd spent time avenging other wrongs and trying to rid the world around him of villains, sometimes paying a high price. He had four children to raise who needed him but she knew that once he learned what happened, he'd go after Burke with a vengeance.

She couldn't lose him that way. Not for something that was her fight. So she knew with some weight in her heart what she had to tell him.

"I fell off my horse…that's what happened…she got startled and I couldn't hold on."

He looked at her and she knew her account surprised him but she just looked back at him giving nothing away.

"Amelia…how did you wind up in the river then? It's off the trail a ways."

"My horse got spooked Ethan," she said, "There's not much else to say about it. I'm sorry if I caused any worry."

He sighed.

"Nothing to be sorry about, I'm just glad you're okay…you're going to have to get some rest so you'll be staying here for a couple days."

She frowned.

"Ethan really I'm sure later on I'll be fine…"

He didn't look like he believed her. Damn it, he was always very perceptive about people even her. She wondered if he even believed her account…he had to believe it and she had to do a better job selling it to keep him out of trouble.

"Then a day or two resting here won't hurt," he said, "You had a bad blow to the head that knocked you out for hours…lucky it wasn't worse."

"I know…and I'm relieved that you found me," she said, "and staying with me all night…that was really nice of you."

He stroked her face mindful of the bruising.

"Amelia I love you," he said, "and that's a fact. Where else would I be?"

Her heart swelled as she heard his words, music to her even though her head still hurt a bit and she felt woozy.

"I love you too…I always did you know."

He smiled and rubbed her shoulder before getting up.

"Better go check on my horse this morning," he said, "Get some sleep…"

She nodded and closed her eyes listening to his footsteps as he walked away. She felt so much safer with him here but she knew what she had to do.

She had to get better, go hunt down Burke and stop him before he claimed another victim.