Disclaimer – I do not own Christy or the Characters. I am just taking them for a ride for my amusement.

A/N: we all could see how Christy and Neil were slowly becoming close. Neither one was quite ready to admit their attraction to each other just yet but then Margaret came along and ruined everything. Here is my take on how the episodes could have gone starting in "Amazing Grace" if she had stayed dead. Some lines will be direct quotes from the TV show. Hope you enjoy this. Oh by the way in my opinion Neil and Christy's relationship was better developed than Christy's and David's. David was always trying to move too fast, Neil was taking his time getting to know Christy, so I think it will still be the end of the series when Christy will finally realize she is in love with Neil.

Amazing Grace

Christy is walking through the woods and comes across a mountain cabin. This cabin is unlike any other she had seen so far. Everything had a place and was in its place. She calls out nobody answers. She goes on to the door.

"Oh Hello, I'm sorry, I didn't know anybody was here, I called out" Christy said when she saw the older woman inside.

"I heard you out there hollering. You would be the new school teacher?" the older woman said.

"Yes ma'am I'm Christy Huddleston."

"My names Hattie"

"Hattie are you home" came a familiar Scottish brogue

"Everybody is in a hollering mood today." Said Hattie

"Well a pleasure seeing you here Miss Huddleston. I didn't realize you knew Hattie" Neil said as he came in the door.

"We were only just meeting." Replied Christy

"I have some beans here Hattie; I was hoping you could take some off my hands." Neil said as he placed some dried beans in a bowl and took them to Hattie.

"It will take a while to fix them up right, but if you cared to stay for a spell I will fix them for you."

"No I've been up all night; I was planning on going straight to bed." Neil said

"You still need to eat Neil," Hattie said patting the mountain man on the cheek.

"I could fix you some dinner before you go to bed if you want," Christy said while she thought to herself, why did I just say that.

"Well now there is an offer that doesn't come along every day, I better accept then."

Back at Dr. MacNeil's cabin, Christy is preparing dinner for Neil. They were discussing Hattie. Neil tells her that Hattie is his father's baby sister, and that her entire family had died during a typhus epidemic.

"Has she always been blind?"

"No, she has Trachoma"

Neil walks over to Christy and hands her some peppers, "I'm not afraid of a little spice" he says with a wink.

They continue speaking of Hattie, and how the cove takes care of her by trading food and things in exchange for a song or good story.

Neil picking a piece of eggshell out of the bowl, "I prefer to eat my shells later" Neil teased.

"Did you want to cook?" Christy sassed back, Neil held up his hands and walked back to the table. "I am actually very good in the kitchen doctor."

"Oh I have no doubt that you will make someone a very good wife someday. This is quite good." Neil said as he took a bite of food.

"Well it's getting late." Christy said looking outside

"I'll ride you back shortly, unless you think you can walk back?"

"It's getting dark and I'm on the side of a mountain, despite what you may think of me doctor I am no fool." Christy said

"Oh I assure you I've never have thought that.'

He wasn't his usual difficult self. Why were my feelings so confused about this man? Christy thought as she wrote in her diary before bed.

Later that night Christy could not sleep so she went for a little walk around the mission grounds. Ms. Alice finds her on the foot bridge looking up at the moon.

"Christy are thee alright child?" Ms. Alice asks

"Yes, I just couldn't sleep. It's a beautiful night isn't it?" Christy replies without looking at Alice.

"Is something troubling you?" Alice asks

"Not really Ms. Alice, I was just thinking about Neil…I met his aunt Hattie today, she is his only living relative isn't she?'

"Aside from distant cousins yes, and Neil is her only family now too. Do you feel sorry for them?"

"A little, but more so for Neil than Hattie, at least Hattie has God, Neil doesn't"

"Neil believes in God Christy, he has just forgotten that, keep him in your prayers as I do in mine, he will return to the lord in his time. Now I think you best go on back to bed, morning will come soon."

'Goodnight Ms. Alice"

The next afternoon Christy takes a Mr. Harland who had arrived the day before out to meet Aunt Hattie. Neil passes them on his way to the Mission and sees Christy on the back of the horse with the stranger. Christy and Neil make eye contact. Christy could see what appeared to be pain in his eyes; she wondered what that could be about.

Mr. Harland listens to Hattie singing 'Down in the Valley'. John Spencer is there writing down the song. Harland ask if he writes down all of the songs Hattie sings. John says he does and the music in his own way.

After leaving Hattie's Christy goes to see Neil. She felt she needed to tell him who Harland was but she didn't know why it should matter. But she kept thinking about the look in his eyes, and her own confused feelings where it came to the doctor. Neil however was not at home and he wasn't fishing. Defeated Christy returned to the mission where she found Ms. Alice in the school alone.

"I told you before about my daughter Margaret. I was so young when I had her, still a child myself. We would play together as children. God forgive me but I spoiled her. Margaret was selfish and I gave her everything she ever wanted. One day she demanded the details of her birth and I told her. Oh she tried to make it sound glamorous. Bastard child she would call herself. It was around this time that she met Neil. A handsome young doctor from this wild and mysterious place, a mountain man, she thought him beneath her, a good husband for a bastard child. Against my wishes they married and came here to Cutter Gap."

"Ms. Alice you don't need to tell me this." Christy interrupted.

"But I do Christy, you need to understand. When I realized that she meant to cut all ties, I followed them here. It wasn't long after that I realized that my daughter's marriage had a great flaw at its heart. I should have paid it more heed, but I had found a purpose here, I thought she could have too. She didn't try, she ended up resenting Neil. Neil ended up resenting her when he realized she had only married him to spite me and because she thought him fitting for a bastard child. They were miserable together. When she died I blamed Neil, but it was no more his fault than it was mine. I still struggle with it however, I know he has feelings for you Christy, and it angers me that he can move on when I cannot seem too. Margaret is dead, she won't be coming back and I need to forgive Neil and myself. I know you are not my daughter Christy, but I have come to think of you as one, and I don't want you making her mistakes when it comes to Neil.'

"Ms. Alice, I don't know what kind of relationship you think Neil and I have, but it's not a romantic one. I care a great deal for him but as a friend."

Ms. Alice just smiled, she knew Christy's feelings were more than that, but she was also sure that Christy had yet to come to that realization.

The next day Neil shows up at the school house. "Hello doctor, what a nice surprise."

"Ms. Huddleston, I've brought a book for the children." He says handing the book to Christy.

"Grey's anatomy, we certainly don't have this one. Thank you doctor. I came by your house yesterday but you weren't home. I had just taken Mr. Harland to meet Aunt Hattie. He is writing a book on mountain history, and I thought she could share some of her songs and stories with him."

"I was wondering who he was, though you did not need to explain to me." Neil answered her.

"I know I didn't have too…."Christy said. Just before John spencer came in to tell her he had found out that Mr. Harland was trying to steal Hattie's songs. The three of them went to Hattie's and confronted Harland. Hattie says he could have them if he needed them that badly, she asks John to escort her to the singing, and Christy goes with them. Neil stays behind and takes the music from Harland and burns it.

At the singing David places his hand on Christy's shoulder. For some reason she is unaware of, she didn't like the way it made her feel but she knew if she shrugged it off it would hurt his feelings. So she stayed that way for a few minutes before slipping out of the mission to go watch the sunset, Ms. Alice joins her. Together they watch the sunset as Hattie sings Amazing Grace inside the mission.

A/N: so this is how I think this episode could have gone if Margaret had stayed dead. Tell me what you think. Some of the other episodes will go pretty much the same as they were aired but only a little bit of dialogue will be changed. For those episodes I will just be posting the different dialogue.