Once again Amy managed to dodge the truth bullet for another night by excusing herself to go to bed. She was tired, but exaggerated it a bit for her Jack's benefit. He didn't look like he was too far behind her, though. Mornings seemed to come earlier and earlier the older he got. He tried his best to wait up for Ty in order to assess the potential damage caused after he stormed off earlier, but gave up after he was startled awake from the newspaper dropping from his lap. He'd just have to catch up with his grandson in the morning, only hoping he wouldn't be giving him a rude awakening with a bucket of ice water.

As with the night before, Amy had difficulty actually falling asleep. There were a myriad of reasons and it didn't matter which was most prominent that time because no matter what she couldn't seem to have a peaceful night anymore. She tossed and turned, tried every trick in the book short of medication, and that was only because of the baby, but nothing worked. Eventually she'd wear herself out and nod off, but it seemed to happen ever closer to morning. She slept better in the middle of the day than she did at night and it was starting to get frustrating and exhausting.

Heaving a sigh, Amy tore the thin sheet from her head when it got too stuffy, staring up at the small streak of light on the ceiling from the barn across the way. She was one sleepless night away from making a deal with the devil that if he let her have a restful sleep again she'd suck it up and stay at Heartland for as long as she needed. What she needed now was rest for her growing child and was already willing to make those deals to keep him or her safe, unlike her own father's inability to keep his child safe.

Amy closed her eyes, rubbing her hands roughly over her face to try and get rid of that bitterness. If she wanted to go home she needed to stop blaming her father for everything. She needed to forgive him and show him how much she needed him, not some strangers. Ah, who was she kidding? He'd made it very clear he didn't want her back when he hung up on her. Her heart ached remembering his hurtful words and she lowered a hand to run over her stomach.
"Don't worry. I'll never do that to you," she murmured quietly. There was a time not long after she discovered her pregnancy that Amy seriously considered alternatives to becoming a mother. She was barely eighteen, broken, scarred, and terrified. Not a lot had changed since then, but she came to terms with her new future for the most part, willing to make the sacrifices necessary to be the best mother she could learn to be. But this relocation to Heartland was something unforeseen and threw her world even more off its already askew axis. Anything more and she wasn't sure she'd be able to hold on to her sanity.

Moving her hand, Amy pushed the covers aside and carefully got out of bed, navigating to the window to see if she could figure out how to open it to let some fresh air in. Luckily, it was just a case of flicking the lock and giving it a good tug. Cool country air wafted in from a slight breeze, caressing her abdomen. "Smell that? That's what air is supposed to smell like." Living in the city destroyed her senses from the pollution. Aside from the unpleasant farm animal stink, there was an obvious cleanliness of the fresh mountain air she could appreciate. She leaned out the open window, closing her eyes and letting the wind hit her face, taking in deep breaths. It was way cooler at night than during the day, she'd almost prefer to sleep outside. Except for the, you know, wildlife.

Opening her eyes after a while, Amy gazed through the shrubbery outside her window toward the barn. It looked different at night. The whole ranch did – not quite as intimidating, yet so eerily quiet.

Amy always found herself to be bolder at night while the world slept, when there was no one around to watch and judge her. She could get away with things that were frowned upon in the daylight. In recent months that whole mentality reversed and she became apprehensive of the night. She dreaded sunset because it meant darkness was falling and the world became a monstrous domain. For the first time that night in what felt like a long time, she looked out at the dark and wasn't so afraid. It was strange, almost unsettling, the sense of calm that she felt listening to the silence beckon her.

Sliding into her slippers and digging a light sweater from her half-packed suitcase, Amy moved quietly out of the house where she nearly tripped over Lobo sprawled out in front of the door.
"You poor thing." She scratched his head when he scrambled clumsily to his feet and followed her down the steps and across the driveway to the barn.

The large door was open enough for a person and dog to walk comfortably through, though within a few feet was too dark to see much. Amy could hear horses in the stalls, waking up to check out their visitor. Their breathing was so loud it made her skin prickle. They sounded a lot bigger in the dark. The manure smell was just as bad as this morning and she held her breath while searching for a light switch, kicking a bucket that clanged loudly in the quiet. A horse grunted in surprise.
"Ow." She whispered in a harsh tone, leaning on a saddle rack while the throbbing in her toe subsided. The leather was hard and smooth beneath her hand from years of wear. It smelled like a dirty shoe store in that corner of the barn. This whole part of the world was a shock to her senses, but she was beginning to realize that it wasn't all as unpleasant as the farm animal stink made it out to be.

Proceeding more cautiously, Amy felt along in the darkness for the wall next to the saddles, her fingers bumping over a switch she flicked up. A light came on in the small alcove next to her that held large garbage cans labeled with what she could only guess was some sort of horse feed. It wasn't the overhead light she was searching for, but offered enough light that she could at least see where she was going. And the five sets of eyes watching her curiously. Earlier when she was in the barn there was one horse taking up residence; now there were four filling the small space to capacity. She recognized the horse from this morning and Jack's horse, but the other two she had no clue about. At any rate, she kept her distance from them all and pushed open the door to the office, locating the desk lamp and flicking it on.
She had the tour earlier, but didn't get a very good look before things went south. In the soft yellow glow, she took a better self tour, turning around where the saw the herbs and oils laid out on the table and hanging to dry out. What she didn't notice before was the old leather-bound journal that lay open, rough sketches of some kind of plant in the corner and handwritten entries neatly scribed along with some less uniform notes in the margins. The pages were yellowed and curled from age and wear. Amy loved old things – things with history. The book drew her to it and she touched the weathered pages, trying to read it in the dim lighting. It was a recipe for something called Valerian.

Amy lifted the book off the table to bring it closer to the light. Turning, her eyes caught the shadow of someone standing in the door way.

"What are you doing?"

She jumped so bad she hit the desk with such force the whole thing shifted and tipped the lamp over. In an attempt to save it from toppling off the desk and breaking she dropped the journal to make a grab for it.

"Smooth." Ty stepped into the light as Amy righted it, walking over to pick up his mother's journal she dropped.

"Didn't anyone tell you not to sneak up on people?" Amy quickly went from startled to annoyed when she realized who it was. She really hated when people did that to her. More so because of what she associated it with.

Fixing the couple bent pages of the journal, Ty then closed it. "Says the person who's wandering around in the middle of the night," he challenged before adding, "and snooping," gesturing with the book then walking around the desk to slide it onto the bookshelf.

As he walked by her, Amy caught a strong whiff of him and made a face. "I couldn't sleep. Why do you smell like a bar?" It wasn't an unfamiliar scent to her at all and triggered a lot of old memories from home – mostly unpleasant ones.

"Gee, I don't know," Ty's sarcasm made Amy's brow furrow even deeper.
"I'm just asking," she muttered through a tight jaw, turning with him. "Jack was worried when you took off earlier."
Ty scoffed, his lip curling. "Yeah. I bet he was." Worried he'd get a phone call that his grandson needed to be escorted home, more like.
"He didn't say anything, but I could tell." Neither one of those men were the type to wear their emotions, but Amy was aware of the way Jack glanced out the kitchen window while they ate and then went out onto the porch to feed a few scraps to Lobo and take the trash out two separate times.
"Well, he had you to keep him company so I'm sure he got over it."
Amy closed her eyes, shaking her head. "Please don't say you're jealous of me, because-"
"Oh, don't flatter yourself." Ty cut her off. "Jealousy isn't part of my emotional spectrum. I'm just trying to figure out what your deal is."
"You seemed to have that all figured out this morning." Amy gave him a cool look, still bitter about his harsh assumption.
Ty pressed his lips together and lowered his gaze. "Yeah. About that. See, I have this problem where I don't think before I speak, especially when I'm upset about something."
"So I've learned. It was about Kit this morning, wasn't it?" Amy knew all along it was about that girl. There was no other reason for Ty to go off on her the way he did when the phone call had been so harmless. It was turned into a much larger issue than it needed to be and Amy sure as hell wasn't taking the blame for that.

Ty ran his hand over the back of his neck, feeling the tension still there. "Yeah. In a way." He answered after a beat, not really wanting to admit he'd been emotionally compromised when he lashed out at her but, well, he was and knew he'd been wrong in how he reacted. He just needed to face being the bigger person and apologize – in his own roundabout way.

"Care to elaborate?" Amy asked, seeking further explanation. She should have known she was reaching.
"You first," Ty challenged, cocking his head. If she wanted to play that game he could too. She shut up real quick after that, both predictable and also frustrating.
"Doesn't seem fair for me to share all my secrets if you won't return the gesture." Ty argued a reasonable point and Amy knew it.

Tired of the argument that always came when she told him to mind his own business, Amy went with a similar approach as she had with Jack earlier that evening. "No, I suppose not." The suddenly dumbfounded expression that crossed Ty's face was oddly satisfying. "So nevermind then. Just forget I asked."

Ty wasn't sure if Amy was being serious or trying to corner him into revealing something without knowing it. "Okay." He eyed her suspiciously for a moment, waiting for the punchline until she was no longer looking at him and had her attention on the table of herbs.

"What's valerian?" Amy asked, recalling what she'd just been trying to read before Ty startled her and subsequently put the journal away.

It took him a second to answer. "It's an herbal supplement."
"What's it for?" Amy inquired.
Ty was still eying her uncertainly. "It's a calming extract we use for nervous horses," he further explained.
Amy stepped closer to the table. "And it works?"
"Do you really care?" Ty raised a brow, causing Amy to send him a reproachful look over her shoulder.
"You know, I'm making an effort to bury the hatchet here even after the shit you said about me this morning without so much as an apology," she snapped.
"Well, I can't really apologize for being wrong if I don't have proof that I am now, can I?" Amy didn't exactly deny his assumption or offer an alternative and she obviously missed his indirect apology just a minute ago.
"My word should be proof enough. I'm not a whore." Her voice lowered, that old bitterness arising again.
Ty shook his head. "Unless you want to tell me the truth, why shouldn't I assume the worst?"
Amy's mouth closed as she stared at him through the dim light, her hardened expression softening so fast Ty thought she might start to cry. "If you think that's the worst, then you don't want to know the truth," she finally answered, effectively making Ty a little bit uneasy.
"So set me straight." His voice became lighter, less harsh and more inviting for her to speak up. He didn't like the way she answered him, didn't like the sudden whirl of thoughts that began to bombard his mind as a fissure erupted in his image of Amy. He began to realize that whatever he wanted to think about her and her history was probably a lot further off than he thought.
"I can't," Amy barely whispered, her stomach starting to twist with anxiety.
"Why not?" Ty pressed, taking a step closer to which she swallowed and took a step back.
Her head shook. "I just can't."
"Is someone looking for you?" Part of Ty's assumption was that the father of Amy's child was some dealer she owed money to and would be looking for her in search of payment, or retribution.
"No." Even she could hear the uncertainty in her answer. The tilt of Ty's head told her he did too and didn't believe it as he stepped closer still.
"Why don't you sound convinced?" His interrogation was making her nervous and she began to feel lightheaded and sick to her stomach, backing away from him while he pressed her physically and mentally.
"No." She tried again with more conviction, but her anxiety made her voice weak. She began to feel trapped in the office with the doors at Ty's back. He had her cornered, though still stood a respectful distance away.
He was purposely pressuring her as if she were a defiant horse in the round pen, chasing her around and around until she had nowhere to go except to join him in the center of the ring. It was standard practice there on the farm with all of their animals. Even the most stubborn of them ultimately made the choice to come to the center. He could see her walls starting to crumble, but became unsettled by the building fear in her blue eyes the more he herded her into the corner.
"If there is someone looking for you, you need to tell us. You're putting this whole ranch in danger." He stopped with her against the cabinet, watching her chest heave shaking breaths.
"I d-don't know." She finally answered, her words nearly strangled in her throat.
"You don't know? So there really could be some psycho out tracking you down?!" His voice rose, making her flinch.

"Please, can you just…" Amy glanced over his shoulder toward the open door. She needed him to back up. He needed to back up before she threw up all over his shoes.
"Just…?" Ty prompted, holding his ground. She had more than enough room to move around him but still seemed frozen despite her obvious desire to put distance between them.
"You're making me uncomfortable."
"Am I?" He could see he was, but he wanted her to tell him why. He wanted the explanation. "We're just talking. You can leave if you want. Unless there's something bothering you you want to share first."
Amy's eyes darted from Ty to the door, yet she still didn't move. She was afraid if she tried he'd grab her and the thought of that terrorized her. She should have stayed in bed. Curse her curiosity.
"Come on, Ty. Stop playing games."
"If anyone is playing games, it's you, Amy. Where the hell did you come from and why are you here? We don't harbor fugitives and we're not a halfway house."
"I'm not. I told you I-" Amy's voice rose.
"You didn't want to come here, yes, so you've said. But why did you, then? Why did your father push you on us?" Ty demanded.
Amy began to crack under the pressure. "I don't know. I don't know! I don't know why he chose you. He said it was the safest place for me, I-"
Ty cut her off again. "Safest place from what?" He stepped closer, narrowing the space between him and Amy. The way she reacted, if she could have climbed on top of the filing cabinet she would have. She didn't want him near her and Ty could tell he was really pushing things to the brink, but he wanted answers and wanted them now.
"Stop it!" She yelled at him in a mixture of anger and fear. He was freaking her the hell out, feeding off her anxiety and she knew it yet couldn't help how she was reacting. It was pissing her off just the same because he was doing it deliberately.
"Just tell me what the hell is going on!"
"What the hell IS going on?" Jack stepped into the office, making both of them stop and gape at him. Amy relaxed slightly against the cabinet when Ty took a step back out of her personal space, until her stomach turned and she folded over to retch onto the floor.