The eastbound charter was cramped and uncomfortable. Eighteen-year-old Amy Fleming sat near the rear, close enough to the bathroom to make a mad dash when the rocking motion of the bus gave her motion sickness, but far enough away that the putrid stink that wafted out every time the door opened didn't catch her and make the nausea that much worse. She sat every which way trying to get comfortable, stretching out across the two seats she had to herself and trying to sleep, but even if the creaking and jarring of the bus didn't keep her awake, her own bitter thoughts would. She sat with her head resting against the cool window, watching miles of her life fly by to be left behind her. Gone were the city lights and tall buildings to be replaced with vast open space and snow-capped mountains stretching toward the sky in every direction. Darkness had fallen on day two of her journey east and according to the driver by morning they would be arriving in an insignificant little town Amy had never heard of until she was banished there by her own family: Hudson, Alberta.

"You can't just send me away like I'm some black sheep that needs to be kept hidden!" Amy shouted at her father who had been caring for her as a single parent since her mother passed away when Amy was fourteen.
"I'm doing this for your own good, Amy. You can't keep acting like this isn't a big deal!" Tim shouted back, throwing clothes into a suitcase he'd grabbed for his daughter.
Amy was livid. "I'm eighteen. You have no legal hold over me anymore, so I'm not going!" She grabbed what her dad put in the suitcase and tore it back out to stuff into her open drawers.
"Yeah? Alright, fine. If you won't listen to me, then get out!" Tim's arm jerked toward the door. "You're old enough to fend for yourself, you say. Are you old enough to take care of a baby too? Get a job, find a place to live, pay for all of the things you'll need to take care of this child?" They both knew she didn't. She was still in college, holding a part- time job and living at home to save on the cost of on-campus housing and tuition. But even if she did drop out, she was still going to have a year and a half of loan debt to pay back.

Amy was so angry and hormonal that she burst into infuriated and frustrated tears. "You can't do this to me, Dad! Why would you send me away to these people I never even met? Why can't I just stay here with you?"
Seeing his daughter burst into tears, Tim's defensive posture relaxed and he sighed, running a hand through his dark hair. "Because this isn't the place for you, Amy. You'll both be better off out of the city. Mr. Bartlett is a good guy, you'll be fine there." Tim was desperate, but so was Amy.

"This isn't the eighteenth century. You can't just force me to hide out in a nunnery to have my baby when they'll take it and toss it down a well with the rest of the bastard children then force me to take the black, or whatever the hell it is they did."

Tim scoffed. "Stop being so dramatic. That's hardly the case."

"Then why do you make it sound like I've committed some horrible crime and this is my prison sentence. What am I supposed to do when I get there? Just hole up in their house like I've lived there my whole life? Am I supposed to raise my baby out there with total strangers? They could be sociopaths or something. How can you do this to your own daughter? I don't understand what I've done that's so bad you need to ship me off into the middle of nowhere." Amy's tears were no longer out of anger, but hurt and confusion. She felt betrayed. Tim kept saying he was just trying to do the right thing, but it really seemed like he just wanted to get rid of her and the problems she brought on by accidentally getting pregnant.
But her father's decision was an ultimatum. Either she went out to some ranch in Alberta where she would have what she needed to get through this pregnancy and care for her child, or she was getting dumped out in the streets of Vancouver to fend for herself. There was a part of Amy that seriously considered her second option, but having lived in the city for as long as she had knew the chances of her coming out of that with clean hands, a healthy child, and a good life were very slim.
"If you want to keep the baby, then this is what is going to happen." Tim told her firmly, not budging an inch even when Amy began to try and plead a bargain to earn her keep. It simply wasn't happening. She was going and that was final.

A lonely tear slid down Amy's cheek remembering the awful fight she had with her dad before leaving. How they didn't speak a word to each other at the bus stop, didn't promise to keep in touch, or wave goodbye as it pulled out of the depot. She was still hurt and angry with him for doing this to her, but she still felt guilty for ending things the way they did. She hoped her dad would come to visit as he promised when laying this deal on the table after Amy confessed her situation, at the time only to make it seem easier on her. But it all escalated to the point of blowing up when Amy was made to feel like she just became a burden her own father simply could no longer bear after having to take care of her by himself for the last four years. Adding a needy infant to the mix had just been too much for him to take.

Truth be told, Amy had been wanting to get out of her dad's apartment since she graduated. It wasn't the greatest place to live, especially not when his dealers came knocking. More than once Amy opted to stay at a friend's place rather than go home. She just didn't have the capability of quite making it entirely on her own yet, not while still in school. And now that she was pregnant and being shipped off to God knows where, her education was just placed on an indefinite hiatus. She didn't think she'd have been able to keep up with it when the baby came anyway, but she would have tried for as long as she could. It didn't matter anymore now that she was a thousand kilometers from home and just a few hours away from her life officially turning upside down.


Author's Notes: I wrote a teaser for this story last spring and have been chomping at the bit to write the full thing ever since. Remember this is an alternate universe story and a work of fiction so some details may not be "realistic" or "canon" but are that way for the sake of making the story work. So, just enjoy it and feedback is always welcomed.