lb_heartland | Fic: Quiet Sanctuary 2/14

Quiet Sanctuary
Chapter Two
Word Count: 3,056
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Tim/Marion, eventually... Lou/Scott and Ty/Amy.
Warnings: Non-graphic discussion of child abuse.
Disclaimer: I'm never going to grow up. That means... I'm not legally responsible for anything, right?
Summary: AU. Heartland is a refuge, not just for abused and neglected horses, but for all.
Author's Note: I thought that this story was fairly simple when I started out, but then it seemed far more complicated when I put it on paper, as it were, and it wasn't the way I'd pictured it in my head. It's kind of funny how that always works...

Clarity in the Morning

"Dad's gone into town," Marion began when Amy dragged the tired boy down to breakfast. He didn't seem like he'd gotten enough rest, and she wasn't surprised. He had slept restlessly after Amy finally drifted off, and Marion knew that she'd woken him when she tried to apply the herbs to the worst of the bruises. She knew she'd made a mistake, approaching him like that, but she knew that he needed treatment. The bruises she could see were only the beginning, sadly. "He'll be back later with some supplies and a change of clothes for you."

The boy looked at her and then at Amy. Amy smiled at him, and that seemed to help. He cleared his throat. "I can't pay for them."

"You don't have to worry about that," Marion assured him. "You've never lived on a farm, have you? Life here is a bit different. We don't think about money so much as what has to be done. We all do what we need to take care of our home and our land, and we help our neighbors do the same."

The boy—his name was Ty, or so he'd told Amy last night—just watched her quietly. He seemed to expect something, but she had no idea what that was. She turned back to the stove and stirred the pot. "Amy has chores, the same as we all do, don't you, Amy?"

"Yeah, I have to take care of the chickens," Amy muttered, annoyed. "The rooster hates me, and he tries to peck me. Do you like chickens? I like the little ones okay, but I don't think I like the big ones very much. The roosters are pretty, but they're mean."

"You can go out with Amy and see the chickens if you like," Marion told him, dishing up a bowl for him and setting it in front of him. "But taking care of the chickens is her responsibility, so don't let her trick you into doing it for her."

"Mom!"

Marion looked at her daughter and shook her head. "It's not nice to treat our guest that way, Amy. You know better than to play tricks. When Ty feels better, if he wants to, he can choose to help you with your chores, but he does not have to."

"Fine," Amy said, pouting a little. Her companion watched her, as though he were studying them, trying to figure out how to behave around them. Were they really so different from all he'd known? Surely his life hadn't all been like the last part. There were older bruises that Marion had managed to get a glimpse of, but few scars. The clothes, despite now being rags and completely unfit, had once been quality material. What little she knew of Ty puzzled her, and she hoped he'd be willing to trust them with answers to the questions soon.

"Start by eating up. We've got a long day ahead of us, Amy. That's if Jake is willing to let me hook him to the plow today," Marion said. She sighed. She'd been all over the horse, looking for soreness or tenderness, a reason why he was refusing to work, but she couldn't see any.

"Maybe he's just old and tired, Mom," Amy said, eating her oatmeal with a happy smile and huge mess. Ty had only eaten half of his bowl and pushed it to the side, but his table space was clean. "He doesn't want to work anymore."

"I hope not, Amy. We don't have another horse that can plow the fields right now, and we don't have much time left in the planting season," Marion said. She wished she had the time to go out to the reservation and see what Huten thought about the horse's behavior. She hadn't been able to go out there since the day after Tim's accident. She'd gone for things to help him, and she had not managed to go back since. She kept telling herself she would do it soon, but there was so much to be done and without Tim to help... "Maybe Jake told you what's bothering him when you met last night?"

The boy looked at her and shook his head. "Horses don't talk. That's nonsense."

Who had told him that? It was rather harsh, wasn't it? To take away a child's enjoyment of the nonsensical? Besides, while horses didn't talk, they did communicate. "Horses and animals have their way of communicating with us. We just have to learn the signals and listen."

Ty frowned at her, and she thought she caught a glimpse of a this-lady's-crazy look passing over his face. Amy's spoon clattered in her bowl. "I'm done, Mom. I'm going out to feed the chickens!"

She took off in a rush, and Marion shook her head. She turned to Ty with a gentle smile. "Did you want to see the chickens?"

He shook his head. He pulled at the nightgown absently. Marion wished they'd had a boy or some boy's clothes around for him. She knew that everyone disapproved of the way Amy ran around almost like a boy, but maybe if they had boy's clothes for her, they might fit their new arrival.

"Marion!" Tim bellowed from the other room, and Ty jumped out of his seat, running out of the house into the yard. She sighed and went upstairs.

"What is it?"

"Where's my breakfast?"

"Oh, today you want to eat, do you? Well, I'm sorry, I gave it to a more deserving man," she said, folding her arms over her chest. Tim frowned, and she saw he'd misinterpreted her words. It wasn't the first time she'd been accused of having an Indian lover, and it probably would not be the last. Huten was a teacher, a guide, nothing more. Normally, those rumors didn't bother Tim. They never had before their marriage, and they hadn't bothered him in all those years. It was only after his accident that she'd heard those harsh, false accusations from him. "Not in that sense, you fool. There's no other man in my life except a frightened little boy that you just scared the dickens out of, Tim. There's a bell for a reason. You need something; you can ask. You don't bellow. You never want food when I offer it, but now you do? I'm sorry, Tim, but the time for breakfast has passed. I'll stop by with lunch, I suppose."

She turned and walked away, hearing him shout, and throw things against the wall. She cringed, but she knew that she had to do this. It had to be done. She had to stand up to him and force him to see what he was doing to them. She wanted her husband back. She still loved him, would always love him, but he'd hurt her, deeply, and her father was right. She couldn't pretend this wasn't happening.

She walked out to the yard and sighed. The boy was nowhere in sight.

Marion continued to search the grounds, trying to find that poor boy. She could not believe her husband. She'd almost regretted her decision to deny her husband breakfast and gone back in to apologize to him, but her inability to find that scared and hurt boy made her blood boil, and so she just kept looking. Let Tim stew in that room without breakfast. It was not enough of a punishment for the trouble he'd caused, the hurt. It wasn't just what he'd done to the boy. It was everything he'd done to her and to Amy before this morning.

She should have done something sooner. She couldn't change what she'd done, but now that she was making a stand, she had to be firm. She would be firm. She would show Tim that he could not have his way, that he could not let his temper control him, control them.

Finally, she stopped letting the business with her husband distract her, and she went where she should have gone all along, finding Ty in the back of the barn, in Jake's stall. He was hidden back in the corner, his arms wrapped around his legs, shuddering. He'd been spooked, badly, and it could not be doing his injuries any good, sitting there. "I'm sorry he scared you."

"You said... your father..."

She nodded. "My father is in town, and it will be a while before he gets back. That was my husband."

Ty didn't move. He didn't look up at her. She shook her head. "He is not usually like this. Did you see the horse there, in the first stall? His name is Pegasus, and my husband was riding him when he fell. They both were hurt. Badly. My husband can not get out of bed."

The boy looked over at the horse, and then back at her. Marion smiled at him. "It's hard, but he can't hurt anyone. He's just angry about what happened, so sometimes he yells. You're safe. Would you like to help me with Jake?"

Ty studied the gelding. He stood, slowly, reaching a hand gently to the horse's side. She watched him work with those small circles again, and she saw a calm settle over the large horse. This child had a gift. Huten had told her that she had one, that she understood horses, but this boy could do something that she had never managed herself. She went over and got a bridle slipping it over Jake's head without the fight he usually gave her. He'd refused to plow all week, and the last two days had refused to take the bridle. Now he wasn't fighting her. "Thank you, Ty."

He withdrew his hands from the horse and stepped back. She sighed. It was not going to be easy to reach him, but they would just have to keep working at it. She gently led Jake forward, out of the stall, and he came forward a few steps, stopping to look back at the boy. He whinnied, trying to get Ty to come to him. The boy frowned.

"Remember, I told you that they could communicate. He wants you with him," she explained, and the boy continued to frown, but he came forward, and Jake walked some more. "Have you ever seen a field plowed?"

The boy shook his head. Marion looked down at his feet. "Did you have shoes?"

He looked away, and she knew the answer, even if she wasn't going to get one now. "There's a pair of my husband's boots by the back door. They'll be pretty big, but it might be better than walking through the fields with nothing, don't you think?"

He shrugged a little, but he did not move towards the house. Maybe Amy would get them for him later. Marion wasn't sure what the boy's reasons were for refusing the shoes, but she knew he'd regret his choice if he continued along with her. Jake followed her without hesitation as long as Ty was with them, so she could not thank the boy more for his help. She hadn't gotten Jake this far away from his stall in days.

Marion gave one end of the trace lines to the boy, and he frowned at it until she motioned him to the hook on Jake's bridle. He hooked it on, and she did the other. She walked around to the back and took up the handles of the plow. "Walk on."

Ty shook his head, and as he seemed to have predicted, Jake didn't move. Marion sighed. She wasn't sure what to do now. "Would you lead him forward?"

"Did he do this alone before?"

She shook her head. "No, Pegasus would work with him or Moochie did, but we were forced to sell Moochie last year, and Pegasus is lame. What—How did you know?"

The boy shrugged again. "I think he's lonely."

Lonely. Plowing was hard work, and Jake wasn't used to doing it alone. He always had company, and that would make any job easier. Of course. This child was brilliant. Now it seemed so obvious that Marion could have kicked herself for missing it. "You know, you're absolutely right. We'll need another horse to work with him, but maybe you'll be his partner for now?"

Ty started walking forward, and Jake happily followed him. They would have to get that boy some shoes, but he'd found the solution.

"I'm telling you, Dad, it was amazing," Marion went on as she brushed hair back from her face. She was adding the finishing touches to the stew that had been cooking all day, her mind clearly elsewhere as she worked. Jack hoped the meal was still edible. He had a lot to do, and he felt like the day had been wasted on that trip into town. Marion was supposed to have gone, but they both knew that the boy would be better left in her care rather than his. He'd already responded better to her, which confirmed Jack's suspicion—as was the more likely case—that the boy's abuser had been a man. "He was able to get Jake to take the bridle, to walk to the field, and hitch him to the plow. Then he looked at the horse, and he knew what Jake wanted. He understood. That gift everyone says I have? That boy has it. I know he does."

"Then he might like going with you to the reservation, and you might take him later this week," Jack offered, wondering if the boy would accept that.

"I'll ask. I don't think that he has any real experience with the natives, but the stories they tell—they're so ridiculous sometimes. I'm not saying that all the attacks are made up, but our neighbors are peaceful and intelligent, not savage primitives," Marion said, shaking her head in annoyance. She had always fought for the rights of the natives, demanding the respect they deserved. Most of the town thought she was crazy. She looked over at him. "You don't think he was taken in an Indian raid, do you?"

Jack shook his head. If that was the case, the boy would be different. He wouldn't have his own clothes, his hair would be longer... Maybe the stories were exaggerated, and it wouldn't have happened that way. Still, Jack was convinced that the boy's attacker was someone else, most likely someone in his family. "No. Much as the rest of us would like to deny that things like that happen in our world, the person who hurt that boy probably had white skin, maybe he's even someone that boy knows and should have been able to trust."

She nodded. "That's true. Unfortunately. Well, it's no use speculating on it. We just have to wait and hope he feels he can tell us, that he can trust us. Did you hear anything in town?"

"No," Jack sighed. "I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but there's no one in town missing a child. No one looking for one."

Marion took a deep breath. "I think it's a good thing. That boy needs somewhere safe. He needs to heal. If anyone was looking for him... They probably just want to hurt him. Again. And I don't think that I'm ready to let him go."

Jack smiled at her. It hadn't taken her long to adopt the boy as her own. He didn't mind, not one bit. The boy had come into their lives only the night before, but he'd quickly found a place here. He heard a noise behind him, and he looked back to see Amy pulling Ty into the room. He had put on the clothes Jack got him, and though they were still loose and a bit big, they gave him room to grow, and those shoes had to be better, even if they were a bit big, than stumbling around in Tim's old boots. Ty looked a lot better today than he had last night, and yet Marion had said that he'd been working with Jake all day. He should be exhausted.

"Well, now, don't you look fine?" Marion asked with a warm smile. "Have a seat. I'll get everyone some stew."

"I still don't have the money to pay for them."

Marion shook her head. "Remember what I said about money. We don't worry about that around here. We all do our fair share of the work, and we all get what we need. Before you go saying you didn't do anything, believe me, you did. I couldn't get Jake to work, and you did. Because of you, we were able to plow the whole north field. You told us what to do to help Jake. I'm hoping that Amy can help out with keeping him company tomorrow."

"You... don't want me to do it?"

"Oh, don't think there's a shortage of things you can do around here," Jack told him with a laugh. "Follow me around tomorrow, just for a day, and you'll see just how much work goes into a farm like this. Plus, we've got two of them to worry about. If you're up to doing some work, then we've got plenty for you."

The boy shrugged. "I'll work."

"But you're hurt! You needed my help to get the shirt on!" Amy protested, and Ty glared at her. She folded her arms over her chest stubbornly. Jack had seen that look before, on Marion and Lou, and that boy had no idea what he was getting himself into. He would learn, quickly.

"There is no need to rush, Ty. You can help when you're ready," Marion assured him, setting a bowl of stew in front of him. "You are welcome here for as long as you want to stay."

"Forever," Amy said with a smile.

Ty seemed uncomfortable, but as Amy continued to look at him, he eventually gave in and smiled back.