"Amy?" It was Ty. She stood back away from the door, staring at it, waiting to see what it was he wanted. When she didn't respond he knocked again, bowing his head toward the door. "Amy, there's dinner out here if you're hungry." Again, Amy remained silent for a moment before deciding to just admit defeat and open the door. She couldn't go much longer without having something in her stomach as the rumbles started to become audible and the hollow feeling uncomfortable.
But as she reached for the handle Ty's voice came through once more, obviously annoyed at her continuous lack of response. "You're going to starve if you stay in there much longer."
Amy froze, retracting her hand as she scowled at him through the door and took a step back out of stubbornness. If he was going to be like that then forget it. She'd wait until everyone was in bed. From what Ty told her of their early to bed, early to rise lifestyle that wouldn't be much longer anyway.
There were other footsteps approaching and Jack's voice was next to carry though. "I wouldn't come out either if spoken to like that. Why don't you go feed the horses, dinner will keep until then." He dismissed his grandson but not before Amy heard him say, "She's acting like a damn child. No wonder her father didn't want to deal with it."
White hot anger surged through her as hurt tears erupted from her eyes. In a fit of rage, Amy grabbed the first thing she got her hands on and threw it with every bit of force she could muster at the door – at Ty. The book slammed against the wood with a loud bang that sent Lobo barking from out on the porch.
Both men looked startled at the door, then Ty frowned at his grandfather. "See what I mean? Now she's throwing a tantrum."
Jack grabbed his shoulder and turned him away. "From what I see, you're not behaving much better. Now go."
Ty threw a reproachful glance toward the door. "Nice. Throw me out to give her the run of the place."
"Ty." Jack warned, giving him a testing look. He was beginning to skate on thinner and thinner ice the longer he lingered and was doing absolutely nothing to help Amy come out of the room in which she'd barricaded herself.
"Whatever." Ty grumbled and left to go feed the horses, making Jack cringe at the word. He hated that stupid phrase, but let it go for the time being to focus on coaxing the young girl out from behind the door.
Jack waited until he was sure Ty left the house before stepping up to take his place near the wood. "Look, I won't begin to make excuses for Ty, but he's trying to adjust same as the rest of us. But like I told him earlier, there's got to be some give and take from all sides to make this work. I know it's hard now, but I'm betting you want to find your place here along with the rest of us, even if it's just to make things seem more familiar to get by. I understand it's only our first day but if we can make tomorrow just a little bit better than today things might not seem so unbearable after a while." Jack spoke quietly to Amy who had slumped down onto the edge of the bed, shaking with an effort to calm down and dry up the hot tears that cascaded down her heated cheeks. She was flushed and didn't need to glance up at the mirror on the wardrobe to know her face was a deep shade of pink.
But she was listening to the older man on the other side of the door. Already she could tell she was going to resent him a great deal for the amount of times he was right. It was annoying already, but also got Amy to think through the bitterness that clouded her judgment. One of the biggest issues she raised about coming to Heartland was the fact that she knew nothing of the place or the people that lived there. It was overwhelming and intimidating, but by keeping herself isolated from those opportunities to become acquainted with the people and the land, she was never going to find that familiarity. If she didn't want to feel like such an outsider, or a charity case, she was going to have to put forth the effort to learn what the ranch was all about. It was going to be hard and probably strange at first, but if she wanted to feel that comfort of home, it was what she was going to have to do.
Jack said nothing else while he waited by the door for Amy to make up her mind. If she ultimately decided not to leave her room then he'd be courteous just that once and bring her a tray of food so she didn't starve herself. He was giving her a couple days of a grace period to settle in and put her mind in the right place to make the most of this situation, but after that he wasn't going to be so accommodating and passive.
Staring down at her hands in her lap, Amy closed her eyes and took a deep breath to clear her mind and regain control of herself. What Ty said wasn't at all okay and she wouldn't soon forgive him for it, but she was hungry, her child needed the nourishment, and she really hated that she gave them a reason to think poorly of her already. Maybe she didn't see keeping to herself all day as childish, but throwing her book at the door had been and she slid from the bed to pick it up and return it to the nightstand before going to open the door.
Jack looked up when he heard the knob turn, taking a step back to allow Amy the space to come out. She looked up at him briefly with red-rimmed eyes, a giveaway she'd been crying. He gave her a gentle smile. "See? Just a step at a time." He nodded, Amy's lip twitching in a small attempt at a smile that died almost instantly as she followed Jack out into the kitchen where a pot of stew was keeping warm on the stove.
"Help yourself. There's bowls above the toaster there." Jack gestured before stepping into his boots by the door.
Amy shifted down the counter to open the cabinet and pull down a green ceramic bowl, glancing over her shoulder at Jack as she shut the cabinet. "You're not having any?" She'd feel a little ashamed if her little bratty act had driven them both out of their own home.
"Oh, I'll be back. I just want to give Ty a hand with the horses. Eat up. There's plenty." And once again she was left alone.
It was strange, how she so desperately wanted to isolate herself yet hated feeling so alone. But as Amy ladled some stew into her bowl and slid into an empty chair at the table, realized her loneliness didn't stem from simply being in an unfamiliar place with people she didn't know, but rather the feeling that she wasn't wanted – by anyone. Not her father or sister, the only family she had left. There was no one she could turn to except these strangers that took her in and it was going to be difficult for her for a while to really believe they, or at least Jack, truly did care.
Scooping a ration of sweet feed into an empty bucket, Ty walked it over to the corresponding horse's stall to hook up for him to eat. "There you go, Jay. Maybe try not to throw the bucket this-" Ty stopped as the gelding immediately stuck his face into the bucket and swung it right off the hook to dump onto the ground. He chased after it, lipping up a mouthful of grain before nudging the bucket again to toss aside. "Okay, a ground feeder it is then." Ty sighed and shook his head, going in to just dump the remaining grain out for Jay to forage as he seemed to prefer. He took the bucket back to the grain bins to set aside as he went to fill the next one, trying to be quick before the impatient wall kicks became more excessive.
He stepped out of the feed area, almost running right into his grandfather. One look had Ty huffing and brushing by him, knowing he was about to get some kind of a lecture. "You don't even need to say it Granddad."
Jack's moustache twitched from side to side as he watched Ty with a disapproving expression. "Say what?"
Ty shrugged as he came back for the last bucket of grain. "Whatever it is you came out here to say about how I acted toward the girl."
"You mean Amy?" It was no wonder she barricaded herself in the bedroom. Jack was starting to feel like he was the only person who was willing to treat her like the human being she was and not some kind of inconvenience.
Ty slid his grandfather a sideways glance. "Yeah." He could see a frown that nearly matched Amy's from earlier at the depot when he failed to learn her name before picking her up on Jack's face.
"So then I guess I don't need to tell you how disappointed I am in you right now for not at all doing what I told you to do." He went over to an open hay bale inside the barn door and started throwing flakes into each of the stalls.
"I did what you told me to do. I picked her up from the depot," Ty argued, dropping the lids of the grain bins closed.
"I told you to give her some ounce of hope that she can survive here and so far I'm wondering if I need to take you to an audiologist to get your hearing checked. Or take myself to a speech therapist to perhaps learn to better enunciate. What the hell is the matter with you, Ty?" Jack launched a flake over the stall so far it landed on the horse's back inside of it.
"Me? If you haven't noticed, she's not exactly embracing your western hospitality. Not to mention you're the one who decided to offer up our house to some random girl without consulting me about it first. What happened to our agreement? I got myself cleaned up and we were supposed to be partners. That was our deal. And so far I see a lot of you making executive decisions all on your own. Not just with Amy, but the ranch, too. Who the hell are you to let Hank back on this ranch after what he did to Caleb? I wanted him gone and now we lost our foreman because of your bleeding heart," Ty spat. If Jack really wanted to start this rumble, Ty was ready to come right back at him.
Jack's jaw twitched as a flash of anger surged through him, but he bit his tongue to some of the more hurtful things he could say and instead tossed hay into the last stall. "That may be so, but without that bleeding heart of mine you'd probably still be behind bars - or dead. I may have agreed to give you more responsibility and authority in this business, but you just remember that this is my ranch until the day they lower me into the ground. And then it's Lisa's, so I reckon you'd better start straightening yourself out again right now before she gets back to do it for you."
Yes, that was a threat and Ty knew it. He had the greatest respect for his step-grandmother. Since moving to the ranch she'd taken a more serious role in the running of things, and that included Ty. She saw how he was when he turned up after his time in jail and made it her personal mission to straighten him out before Jack gave himself another heart attack trying. She played the tough love act well, and Ty would always be grateful for it. He was grateful for his grandfather, too, even if it didn't seem like it in that moment. He just wasn't at all ready to accept this intruder into their lives, into their home.
"What does Lisa think of this arrangement?" They all knew about it, but not until after Jack had already agreed to do it and Lisa had already been in France at the time so it wasn't like it was something she could talk her husband out of if she wanted to.
"She thinks the same as I do. That if we can do something to help Amy turn her life in a positive direction then we should do it. It's what we do here, Ty. It's what we've always done. Horses and criminals aren't the only people in the world who need a little guidance and encouragement." Jack brushed loose hay from his clothes while Ty finished up with the barn and the two stood in the aisle sharing a calculating look.
Ty was the first to speak up. "But horses and criminals are our responsibility. Pregnant women… that's someone else's department."
"She's just a girl, Ty. Who's going to have a baby in some months, yes, but she's learning just as much as we are. I raised a child but it's been over forty years since then. I'm not asking you to become the child's father, or to even involve yourself with it if you don't want to. I just want you to show Amy some compassion and some kindness. Maybe then she'll learn to let her guard down and we'll all get along just fine." It didn't seem like a lot to ask, but Jack knew that was going to be easier said than done from both sides. Amy made it very clear to him she wanted nothing to do with Heartland, but he could see her wariness in the way she remained guarded, shied from close contact, and didn't share too much. She was merely uncertain about whether or not to trust these people she was thrust upon, obviously having been hurt and betrayed a few too many times. Jack understood it, and hoped that he could make Ty understand it too in order to help coax Amy out of her shell, rather than send her recoiling any time Jack made some progress that Ty only succeeded in destroying.
"That would be a lot easier if she reciprocated such courtesies." Ty argued, walking toward the door to flick off the barn lights and turn on the floodlight outside the door.
"Then give her a reason to want to. You're going to have to be the bigger person this time, Ty. Show me you can back down from a fight for once in your life."
"You know that's not how I roll, pops," Ty joked, cocking his head sideways and putting a little inner city in his voice.
"Then show me you're capable of being a gentleman and decent human being. Can you do that?" Jack wasn't in the mood for wise-cracks and maintained his almost patronizing expression.
It made Ty's amused grin falter and fade. "Alright, fine. But I still mean what I said about not becoming her servant boy."
"Dually noted," Jack conceded, his mouth curving into a small half smile. "Now let's eat before it gets cold," he said, slapping a hand on Ty's shoulder as they headed across the yard to the ranch house.
"If she didn't eat it all already. I heard pregnancy turns women into bottomless pits," he mused, causing Jack to heave a sigh and shake his head in amusement.