Chapter 4: The Homecoming

The loft has been vacant for some time and in quite a disarray since Georgie has been in Europe preparing for the Olympics. Amy and Lyndi went up to the loft to prepare it for Ty's homecoming. Lyndi says, ``Mom, I think we should put pictures around and the book that you created for me to read to Dad of the events of our lives when I went to the care facility." Amy replied, "Yes, Lindi, Yes. Why don't you go get those things and bring them up here. I have a few in the office that I will bring up as well."

At that time Lyndi ran back to the house and left Amy by herself to finish straightening things up. Amy stopped and began remembering the times that she and Ty spent in the loft and how special a place it was to both of them. All of the sudden she began to weep, uncontrollably. All the pent up emotion that was suppressed with the events leading up to now came out. She tries to gather herself before Lyndi comes back but she can't. Upon Lyndi's return with an armful of items, she sees her mom struggling to get a hold on her emotions and puts down her things and goes to her and hugs her tightly. "Mom", she says. "Everything is going to be alright. We are going to get Dad through this and he will remember everything. I know this mom, I love you so much and want you to know that I am here for you and Dad. We will get through this. I promise!" Amy looking down into Lyndi's deep green eyes says, "Lyndi, how did you get so strong and how can you be so confident?" Lyndi, "Mom, I am strong because I have you as my mother, I am confident because I prayed for dad to wake up and he did. Now I am praying that he will regain his memory and I know he will! Amy gives Lyndi another big hug and they finish preparing the loft for Ty's homecoming.

Amy makes the turn down the road leading up to Heartland with Ty and Jack in the back seat and Lyndi in front with her. As they approach the ranch, Ty says, "I remember this place. Look there is the barn and the loft where I stayed. Wow, look at all these horses out in the pasture, I don't remember there being that many last time I was here." Jack says, "Your right Ty, Amy has been quite successful with her business of working with troubled horses and now she has folks sending her horses for her to train for show jumping from all over the world. Thanks to her work with…."

Amy interrupts Jack and stops him from going any further in the conversation because she did not want to let Ty know that she was working with Ahmed and his horses. Ahmed broke up their engagement and the last thing she wanted Ty to remember first was that event in their lives.

Amy pulls up to the barn and Ty slowly gets out of the truck. Jack grabs his bag of personal items and they enter the barn from the office. As Ty is approaching the door, he notices the plaque with his name and Amy's engraved into it. He touches the plaque, then looks back at Amy. "You are going to tell me about this, right?" and Amy with a big smile says, "Yes, Ty. We can talk about this, but let's get you up to the loft and get you settled, ok?" Ty, "Right" Again ty touches the plaque as he opens the door and goes up the stairs to the loft.

"Wow! This is not how I remember this loft! This is awfully nice. Amy, "When we were married Jack and Tim renovated this loft and we spent our first years here with Lyndi." Ty, "Really, this is nice. I remember it to be very cold, leaky, and noisy with the horses below." Amy, "Well, we couldn't eliminate all the horse noises, but it is much more comfortable. Also, Georgie, Lou's daughter moved into the loft when we decided to move back into the house. She is away getting ready to compete in the Olympics so it has not been used for a while."

Jack puts down Ty's things and asks Lyndi if she would like to help him with some chores before lunch. Lyndi, wanting to stay, looks at Amy and realizes that they could use some personal time together so she answers, "Sure, Jack. Mom, I will leave you and Dad to it." Both she and Jack head down the stairs into the barn.

Alone together, Ty sits down on the couch beside Amy and says, "When I first got here, I remember you were very mad at me for driving my truck next to your horse and spooking him. Also, I remember you were struggling with that black horse that you and your mother rescued. By the way, I am very sorry that you lost your mom in that accident. I also remember asking Jack about you and he told me that if any part of me got within 10 feet of you or Lou, that it would be cut off! Both Amy and Ty are laughing. Ty: "How did we ever get from there to marriage and a daughter?" Amy: "That is the challenge we have in front of us. Lyndi and I have put some pictures and things around there to help you remember events in our lives, and also, I created this book for Lyndi to read to you while you were in a coma. We put those things up here so you could see and read them at your own pace. Hopefully, as the doctor said, your recollection of these events will start coming back to you as you piece your life back together."

Amy picks up Ty's hand and while holding it says, "Ty, you are my world, my everything. I loved you almost from the day we met. I am having a hard time not being able to hold you and express my love for you that I have been missing for the past 5 years. I understand that we need to take things slow, but you need to know that we were great, better than great, we had reached many of our dreams that we had planned over the 8 years of courtship and 4 years of marriage, and we were happy, truly happy! My hope is that you will remember us and Lyndi. Especially Lyndi, she has spent the last 5 years praying for you and visiting you as often as she could. Reading out of this journal. Hoping you would wake up and be with her again. I know Ty we need to take this slow, but I need you! You were our rock and when you became ill, our worlds where turned upside down and we had to quickly adjust to a life without you. Now that you are back, I hope we can get back to the place that we left. I really, really missed you Ty!"

Ty responds to a tearing Amy, "Amy, I do remember that when we first met watching you work with Spartan getting him over the trauma of the accident, dealing with the loss of your mother, interacting with your family, taking over your mothers practice, was very attractive to me. I remember thinking how kind and patient you were as you dealt with those hardships of your young life. I remember wanting to help you anyway that I could, but always seemed to be one step behind. I remember going to a party and your boyfriend was drunk and was mishandling you so I stepped in and tried to rescue you from his advances only to be scolded by you for my efforts. Then, as you were walking home, I followed you in my truck so that I could give you a lift. You were stubborn, but when I told you that I had a heater in my truck you jumped in." Amy, laughing, "Only to find out you had a heater, but it was broken'' Ty, "Well, you didn't have to walk home did you?"

Then Amy asked, "Ty, do you remember helping me get Spartan into the trailer?" Ty, "I do! I remember that your friend wanted you to compete with her in some horse jumping competition" Amy interjects, "Horse Jumping competition, that would be equestrian jumping competition, boy do we have some work ahead of us!" Ty finished his comment, "and you guys needed to get your horses to the practice facility, but Spartan would not go into the trailer. I think I might have told you to open the back door. And when you did, he eventually gave in and went into the trailer". Amy, "You are right, but do you remember what you did for me while we were working through Spartan's fear of the trailer?" Thinking for a moment, Ty could not remember. So Amy replied, "No worries, we can work on that memory later. Why don't you rest and we will come get you for supper."

So as Amy was about to leave, Ty asked, "So what happened to Spartan?" Amy said, "Follow me" and she took him down to the barn where Spartan was hanging out of his stall. He is now almost 20 years old and has been retired to pasture, but still resides in the same stall he occupied from his first visit. Ty rubbed his forehead and said, "How are you Spartan, did you miss me?" Amy, a bit stunned by how Ty was rubbing his forehead, asked "Ty, what made you rub his forehead like that? Ty replied, "I remember you told me that was called Tea touching, and I had seen you do it many times with horses that you consoled." Amy thought to herself that this could be a breakthrough. Amy, "Ok, so supper will be ready at 6. You go get some rest!"

Amy retreats to the house where Lou is fixing supper. However, Ty, before going to the loft, decides to revisit the plaque outside the office door with he and Amy's name on it. As he runs his fingers around the engraved names, he begins to recall more memories of he and Amy in those beginning years. As those thoughts become more vivid he begins to remember the strong attraction for Amy that he had back then.

Ty retreats to the loft and as he is scanning the pictures that Lyndi and Amy put on the walls, he notices a picture of a jumping track made out of timbers. He then started recalling that he had made this for Amy when she needed to practice for an event. Spartan was not trailer able so he felt that building that track would solve her problem with practice. He remembered how grateful she was that Ty thought enough about her to build the track.

Next, he scanned a picture of Amy sitting on a horse she had helped after the first Heartland clinic that was held since her mother died. He remembers at that clinic Amy was showing her work with an aggressive horse from FairField Stables that would not allow anyone to ride him. She was able to gentle the horse once she realized his previous owner was blind and rode him bareback. She was then put on the spot by a guest who thought the horse was drugged. She challenged Amy to fix her horse that she paid a lot of money for. It would not jump. So after several tries, Amy was able to convince the horse to jump and she met the challenge by the spectator. He remembered how awesome he thought Amy was after that event and realized how he was so attracted to her ability to work with troubled horses. He also remembered the after party that was held, Amy got jealous because he took Ashley for a ride on her brother's motorcycle.

It was almost six so Ty headed to the house for supper hoping to tell Amy about his new recollections.

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