Spring Thunder |Heartland|

|I|

Alex was sitting on an upside down feed bucket and she was staring at the stall that was Winter's once just as she often found herself doing. "How could I have missed how much pain he was in?" She asked herself quietly and the clearing of a throat from the doorway to the barn, interrupted her solitude of self-blame and questions of who it was, that the blame actually belonged to.

"Hey Alex. You wanna come and help me out with mucking out, a couple of stalls, maybe even a few stalls?" Caleb O'Dell was the new ranch hand and as usual, he was a pain in the ass for a hell of a lot of reasons.

But he was most importantly a hard worker, which was mainly what Jack had been looking for, when he hired him on as a ranch hand, and a stable hand. "No thanks Caleb. I have work to do." Alex spoke up and she slipped her headphones on over her head, as she walked out of the barn and ran right into Keys.

"Caleb O'Dell stupido, giving you a hard time again?" Keys asked and she laughed, and she shrugged as she was pulling off her headphones.

"O'Dell stupido? Keys! I thought you were smart." Alex joked and Keys was shrugging a little, as she leaned into a hug and he moved his arm across her shoulders.

"I do need to come up with some better nicknames then that for him but Alex, seriously, is he hassling you again?" Keys asked and Alex looked at him.

"No, he isn't Keys. I swear to you that there is nothing going on. I get that in your mind, I'm still sensitive about all sorts of stuff... but I'm still tough. This is the girl who punched Carl in the face, remember? I broke Jesse's nose, twice. I would have killed Ben at our first meeting, if you hadn't intervened right in the middle of it first." Alex said and Keys chuckled at all of the memories, as he kissed her quickly.

"I know. I just worry about you, Alex and the fact that you have not ridden for months. Frankly, I just don't want another "Lou" running around here. I think one is enough." Keys murmured and Alex laughed a little at that as she kissed his cheek quickly. "It's legal on Saturday." He murmured and Alex hit him playfully in the stomach.

"Didn't we agree to wait?" Alex reminded and Keys nodded a little bit as a slow smirk spread across his face and she groaned. "You bastard! That was a horrible joke!" She shouted and Keys was laughing at her face, as she shook her head at him.

"You want to meet your birthday present?" Keys asked and Alex raised her eyebrows at him. "Follow me Lex, come on." Keys insisted and Alex was sighing, as she jogged after him.

Keys brought her around the shed and there was a horse standing there and Alex's eyes widened at the sight of the black arabian stallion standing there and it whickered at the sight of them.

"Keys... you got me a horse?" She asked quietly and Keys nodded and she moved slightly closer to the arabian who stood stock still, as if they weren't there.

"I figured that it would be easier for you, if it was a horse that had a story and with a new, and unridden horse, it would be much harder. So, I finally decided to get you Spring." Keys said and Alex walked over to Spring, who was looking at her with a whicker.

"Spring?" She asked and Keys chuckled a little, as he nodded and he held out a carrot to Alex, who fed it to Spring and the crunching of the carrot was heard.

"Full name is Spring Thunder, but everyone that I spoke to, they all just called him Spring. He is known as the calm one. Everyone else that knew his personality, knew his name, they used to call him, the calm before the storm, and it was a name, well earned." Keys noted and Alex raised her eyebrows a bit at him.

"Everyone else?" Alex asked as Keys quietly held out a file folder to her as she flipped through it. "Holy shit, he is a former Grand Prix jumper?" Alex's eyes widened when she spoke it aloud and Keys nodded slightly.

"Damn right. My mother bought him and she quickly learnt, that he would refused to jump with them at all, if he didn't want to. They tried to use their lunge whips and one of them got a hoof to the stomach, broke three ribs from that one. I bought him off of her for-- well, you don't want to know the price that I paid." Keys said and Alex shut the folder. "Happy birthday." He said as she hugged him quietly and in a small look, she nodded a little and he knew exactly what she was saying.

"Thank you Keys." Alex spoke quietly and he nodded, as she walked over to Spring again and he neighed. "Can he run?" She asked and Keys chuckled at her, as he nodded.

"Like the wind." He said and Keys whistled quietly, as his jumper was Thunder and he loped over to them. "I guess you wanna race?" He asked and Alex scoffed.

"Really? I'll win, I always do." Alex spoke up as Keys raised his eyebrows and Alex looked at Spring, who was at last attentively listening.

"Let's go." Keys said and Alex jumped up into the saddle, as they both raced off and Alex was cheering, laughing at the familiar feeling of the wind in her face.