I'll just... leave this here, I guess.
Jan. 13th, 2013 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imbecamielWhen it comes to stories I've written, I've found that I tend to be more balanced and objective in seeing things that're good as well as things that should be fixed after some time has passed. (As opposed to immediately after finishing a story, when I almost always pretty much just... hate it altogether.) I also often find it easier to shut up my inner critic and just write when I'm a bit tired.
So, I thought this afternoon might be a good time to skim through and poke at some of my older stories, starting to gear up to get back into writing my current half-finished ones after taking a break, here.
Apparently, the same principles are not true when I'm sick, though. Instead, I wind up staring at the screen, thinking, "This is stupid. Does that paragraph even make sense? I hate this. I hate everything, forever. "*crawls off to hide under a rock*
Yeah, I don't think I'll bother trying to read any more of my stories today. XP
Anyway, I don't know if anyone else here likes Bonanza (As in, this TV series.), but I wrote a story for it some years back. I posted it on a Bonanza-specific fanfic archive then, but that site has since gone down. And I've been thinking I should at least have it archived somewhere... so I guess I'll put it here for now, and decide later if it's worth putting it anywhere else.
Prologue
“What’ll we tell Pa?”
Adam darted Hoss a sharp look. “We’re not going to tell him anything."
“We’re gonna have to tell him something, Adam.”
Adam sighed. “Look, this isn’t exactly the time –”
A soft groan decided the matter for the moment, both of them losing interest in the topic instantly. Adam shifted closer to Joe, and Hoss rested a hand on his shoulder as he leaned over to get a better look in the flickering light from the fire.
“Joe? You awake there, little brother?” Hoss kept his voice low, but Joe still grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut more tightly – whether from the noise or the unpleasant experience of waking up in his current state, it was impossible to tell.
“We know you’re awake, so you may as well quit pretending,” Adam needled. Though his tone was teasing, the edge of concern was easily audible.
“Nnn, Ad’m?” Joe mumbled.
“Yeah, it’s me. C’mon, open your eyes now.” It took a few seconds, but Joe finally pried his eyes open a crack, squinting up at him. “That’s better. How’re you feeling?”
“Like I got thrown from a horse, and stomped on for good measure.” Joe tried to shift around, testing his limits, but stopped almost immediately, wincing. “What happened?”
Adam hesitated momentarily, an odd expression on his face, before asking cautiously. “What do you remember?”
Joe frowned. Then his eyes widened as he fixed Adam with an accusatory glare. “You fell on me!”
With a sigh, Adam closed his eyes and let his head drop. “You would remember that.”
“Ow! C’mon, Adam, leave it be.” Joe tried yet again to extricate his foot from his older brother’s grasp.
“I told you, I’ve got to make sure it’s not broken before you do any more walking on it.”
“Yeah, and I told you it’s not broken.” Joe crossed his arms. “Besides, even if it is, what’re you going to do about it? Carry me the rest of the way home?”
With a rueful smile and a shake of his head, Adam finally released him. “No, but I might have Hoss do it. Anyway, I think you’re right – it’s just a nasty sprain, nothing actually broken. You’d better take it easy on that foot for a while, though.”
Brushing his hands off, he stood, turning around to look back the way they’d come.
“Take it easy,” Joe snorted, bending to pull his sock back on. “And how exactly am I supposed to do that? We’re out here, who knows how many miles from anywhere, and our horses are probably halfway back to the Ponderosa by now. And in case I have to remind you, it’s not exactly like we’ve got the option of just sitting here and hoping someone friendly happens to – oww.”
Adam turned back around. “You need some help, there?”
“Not so sure taking this boot off was such a good idea.” Joe looked mournfully down at his foot. “I don’t think it’s gonna go back on.”
“Well, I might just leave it off and wrap your foot instead, but walking over this kind of ground that’s not really an option.” Kneeling again, Adam took the boot from him and tried to ease it back onto the foot. After a moment, he added, “You’re right, this isn’t going to go back on easy. Your ankle’s starting to swell quite a bit already.” He looked up at Joe. “Try to hold yourself still, while I get it on you. I’ll try to be careful, but it’s probably going to take some force.”
Joe nodded, shifting to brace himself. Of course, getting that boot back on would be a whole lot easier if he could keep his leg stiff and give Adam some steady resistance to push against, but it wasn’t exactly easy pushing back and trying to force his foot into a suddenly too-small boot when it hurt the way it did. After a seeming eternity, which probably actually lasted less than a minute, he flopped back into the dirt with a muttered curse.
“You doing all right, there?” Pausing, Adam studied him again, taking the moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
“Just jam it on and get it over with already,” Joe groaned.
“Look, I know it hurts, but if something is broken, that’d only do more damage.”
“Yeah, well playing around like this ain’t exactly doing it any favors, either.”
Adam raised an eyebrow, unruffled. “I know it’s pain that’s got you so prickly, Joe, but you know I’m only trying to keep from making things worse than they already are.”
“Yeah, I know.” Joe exhaled and pushed himself back up on his elbows, getting ready for another try. “Oh hey, look, Hoss is coming back.”
Adam smiled wryly. “Since you can’t exactly run away the minute I turn my back, I’ll assume that’s not a childish attempt to distract me.”
Pushing himself back to his feet, Adam turned to meet Hoss, who was just starting to descend the hill they’d all come down a few minutes earlier. As soon as he was within easy talking distance, Adam asked, “You see any sign of them?”
“Not yet. But they’re still following. I’m sure of it.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t disagree with you there.”
Looking past Adam to see Joe still on the ground, Hoss frowned. “What’s the verdict? Little Joe break anything?”
“Nah, doesn’t look like it. Twisted his ankle pretty bad, though.”
“You gonna be able to walk, Joe?”
“Yeah, I’ll walk.”
“You hurt your ears too, little brother? I didn’t ask if you were going to walk, I asked if you could.” Hoss grinned, and Joe couldn’t help responding in kind. “I don’t like hangin’ around here longer than we need to, though. If you can keep going, you’d better be getting that boot back on so we can move out.”
Hoss’s expression melted into confusion when his little brother’s answer was to let out a snort of laughter that sounded more despairing than amused.
“Yeah, we’ve been having a little trouble with that,” Adam explained. “His foot’s swollen, and the boot doesn’t fit so well anymore.”
“Oh…. Well, how about letting me have a go at it?”
“Be my guest.” Joe shifted around to brace himself again, already wincing a bit in anticipation as Hoss knelt down by his feet.
“Well now, it’s been a while since you’ve needed help gettin’ your shoes on, hasn’t it?” Hoss grinned at him again before bending his head to the task. “I remember when you was just a little feller – it sure wasn’t easy helping you on with them. Never is easy gettin’ shoes on a kid, I suppose. They just don’t know how to co-operate with it right, yet. But you were near impossible, sometimes. You decided so early on that it was something you could do all by yourself, and then you’d wrestle with them for the longest time, before you’d even think about lettin’ anyone else help you. ‘Specially those stiff, good shoes of yours. Once or twice, Pa said we were gonna have to start getting you up an extra hour early on Sunday mornings, or we’d be late to church just on account of those shoes. I told him I thought maybe you should just start putting ‘em on Saturday night, before you went to bed. You weren’t none too thrilled with the idea, though. You remember that?”
Joe chuckled. “No, not really. Guess I must’ve mastered the skill pretty quick in the end, if I can’t remember the fight for it.”
“You did at that. Guess that stubborn streak of yours paid off, after all.”
“Y’know, Hoss, if you think all this talking’s gonna distract me, you’re wrong.”
“Am I, now?” Hoss glanced up at him, a triumphant smile spreading across his face. “Hang on, I think one more good push oughta do it.”
“Wha-” Joe’s eyebrows rose in surprise as he looked down at his foot. “Huh. Whaddaya know.”
“You ready?”
Joe nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”
Not giving him a chance for second thoughts, Hoss took him at his word, giving the heel of the boot a good, solid thump.
With a cry of pain, Joe curled forward over his bent knee, grasping his leg as he rocked back and forth. If some of his pained hisses might have contained sentiments which their Pa would have frowned on, neither Hoss nor Adam were inclined to make an issue of it. Thankfully, it was only a few seconds before Joe relaxed a bit, letting out one last, long breath.
Hoss reached out to give his shoulder a squeeze. “You all right, Little Joe?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m all right.” Joe’s voice was a bit strained in the attempt to sound perfectly fine. “But if I’d a known you were plannin’ to nail that boot to my foot, I’d have reminded you that I’m not a horse.”
“More like a mule,” Hoss chuckled. “I’m sure it didn’t feel so good, but you know I didn’t hit you any harder than I needed to. Are you sure that boot’s on all the way now?”
“Oh yes,” Joe answered quickly. “I’m very, very sure that it’s on.”
“Good then.” Hoss nodded. “You ready to get going?”
“Just – just give me a second longer.”
“Sure thing.” Hoss agreed easily. Rising, he took a few steps away to stand by Adam’s side. In a low voice, he asked. “How far behind us do you reckon they’re likely to be?”
Adam shook his head, answering equally quietly. “Hard to say. I think we did a pretty good job of shaking them off our trail, but not enough to keep them from picking it back up again eventually. They’ve also got horses, while we’re on foot, and now…” he stopped, pressing his lips together in worry.
Hoss hardly needed his glance in Joe’s direction to know which way his thoughts were tending: Joe could walk, for the time being, but how far and how fast were questions none of them could answer. Hoss looked toward their younger brother himself, wondering if he’d overheard what they’d been saying, despite their low voices.
Joe, however, didn’t seem to have heard. In fact, he wasn’t paying them any mind at all. He was staring thoughtfully at the hill, and the burrow that had been his downfall. Hoss was just about to ask him what he was thinking about when he spoke up.
“You know something?”
“What’s that, Little Joe?”
“I think I really hate rabbits.”
Laughing, Hoss offered him a hand up. “Well, let’s get going, and maybe if we find a good place to spend the night early enough, we can catch one or two of ‘em for dinner in revenge.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
“Adam? Adam, I think we’re gonna have to stop here, soon.”
“What?” Joe’s head jerked up. “No, I’m fine, really. I can keep going.”
Hoss frowned. If anything, Joe’s voice, strained with tiredness and pain, only proved his point. They needed to stop, and if the way Joe had been leaning more and more heavily into his support and putting less and less pressure on his hurt foot as time wore on was any indication, they needed to do it soon. Still, his putting up some kind of a protest, even a token one, was reassuring.
“Well, I’m sure you could, Little Joe, but I’m getting’ a mite tired myself, draggin’ your ornery hide across all this rough ground.”
“Oh. Well,” Joe straightened a bit, “I could always walk on my own for a while, if you need a break.”
It was all Hoss could do not to laugh out loud at the absurdity of that statement. Adam did laugh.
“Haven’t you learned by now that sometimes we older brothers just need to be humored? Hoss is right, in any case. We’re going to need to find a place to stop for the night, and it’d probably be a good idea to start looking while we’ve still got some light.” He nodded toward a rise a bit ahead and to the left. “I’ll go ahead up that hill a little and see if I can spot a likely place to head for.”
As Adam left, Hoss looked back to Joe.
“You want to sit down for a bit?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Joe….”
Joe’s expression turned a bit sheepish. “Um, better not. I don’t think I’d get back up again.”
“Dadburn it, Little Joe…. So you’re fine, are you?” Hoss shook his head in exasperation, but apparently decided to let the matter drop.
Adam returned surprisingly quickly, looking pleased enough to give both Joe and Hoss a temporary boost of renewed energy.
“Found something. There’s a shack, looks like it might be abandoned. It’s tucked back among hills and trees, and blends in well enough to practically disappear. Sheer luck I happened to notice it – from most places around here it’d probably be pretty well invisible, until you got up close to it. There’s a bit of walking still before we get to it, but it looks like an ideal place.”
“Then lead on.” Joe waved a hand dramatically. “Sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll be there.”
What with being forced to take a few short detours due to impassible terrain, it proved to be quite a bit of walking before they arrived at the shack. Though the day had been warm, the temperature was dropping steadily as night drew on, and what light they had left was fast disappearing by the time they came within sight of the place.
Adam was right – one glimpse proved that it had very definitely been abandoned for some time. Both the roof and the walls, which appeared to have never been terribly solid to begin with, had holes in them, and the door was hanging at a crazy angle.
Joe eyed the shack. “Well, at least we don’t have to deal with some crazy old hermit deciding to warn us off his place at gunpoint. I don’t think anybody’s been here in years.”
“Yeah, looks like it,” Adam agreed. “Better than nothing, though.” He shivered, pulling his jacket around himself more closely. “I think we’re in for a cold night. C’mon, let’s check the place out.”
As Hoss and Adam moved inside to take a look, Joe stayed back, leaning against the doorframe while he watched. It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested, but he didn’t feel like hopping around the place one-legged. Besides, the building – if it could be called that – was pathetically small. There was hardly room for all three of them to do much moving around in it.
Despite the cramped space, it was obvious that two people, at least, had called it home at some point. The single room was a bit longer than it was wide, and most of the wall opposite the door was taken up by a bunk bed. There was a small fireplace built into the wall to the right, and a beat-up old chest against the one to the left. No sign of a table or chairs, but if there ever had been any it was hard to imagine them fitting in there and leaving any room to walk at all.
As Adam knelt to take a look under the bed – checking for critters, seeing if there was anything useful, or possibly both – Hoss went over to lift the lid on the chest. Apparently Adam didn’t find anything, because he soon stood and stepped over to join Hoss, who was trying to restrain sneezes from the dust stirred up by his actions.
“Mmm, not much that’s of any use. Looks like this blanket’s in pretty good shape, though.” Adam lifted it from the chest, raising up another cloud of dust that set them both to coughing for a good minute before things settled down. “Guess we’d better shake it out a bit before any of us uses it,” he finally managed.
“Hey! Will ya look at that.” Hoss bent to retrieve something else from the chest. “A can of beans. Looks like someone did leave something useful, after all.”
Adam smiled. “Not much, but again – definitely better than nothing. We’d better gather up some wood before it gets completely dark.”
“You sure it’s safe, lighting a fire?” Joe asked.
“Safe enough. They won’t be able to see the smoke in the dark, and between the walls and the way this place is hidden between trees and hills it’s pretty unlikely they’ll be able to see the light either. If they’re close enough to smell the smoke… well, then they’d probably be too close anyway.”
Hoss was eyeing the fireplace critically. “You think that chimney’s clear enough?”
“If it’s not, the roof certainly has enough holes to provide ventilation.”
Joe glanced up, smiling wryly. “Yeah, you’ve got a point there. Good thing it doesn't look like rain.”
It didn’t take them long to get as prepared for the night as they were going to get. Joe had, naturally, volunteered to help gather wood, but Adam and Hoss had assured him that his hopping around on his own and likely as not managing to fall down and break one of his limbs would prove less than helpful, and instead assigned him to getting a fire started with the first load of wood while they gathered more.
By the time night was fully upon them, they all were all seated on the floor near the fire, trying to find some way to settle comfortably that didn’t involve kicking each other. The chimney was not venting the smoke well, but other cracks and holes served to keep the smoke level tolerably low, and by that point all of them were tired enough and grateful enough for the warmth that they didn’t really care.
Joe looked at the beans, which were sitting near the fire to warm up, without much interest. “Kinda slim rations.”
“Well, I suppose we could always make a try for getting one or two of those rabbits we were talkin’ about earlier…” Hoss sounded dubious, caught between the desire for a more filling meal and the bone-weary urge to just lie down and sleep.
“Nah.” Joe yawned. “Not worth the effort. I’m too tired to hate rabbits that much anymore tonight.”
They ate in near silence, then sat staring at the fire, lost in thoughts of one kind or another. It was Adam who finally spoke.
“Well brothers, it certainly is a fine mess we’ve landed ourselves in.”
“I’ll say,” Joe muttered. “Those men couldn’t have had worse timing. Two minutes earlier and our supplies would’ve been in our hands instead of on our horses, and we might’ve been able to bring some of them with us. Two minutes later and we’d have been on our horses and we could’ve ridden them out of there instead of having them run off on us.”
“It was a stupid decision on my part, taking us by that shortcut, knowing about the bandit activity in the area. I thought it’d be safer, with that being one of the few directions in which they hadn’t made any attacks. Should’ve known better.” Adam looked disgusted with himself.
“Well I couldn’t have made a worse choice in camping spots,” Hoss put in. “We must’ve spent the night practically right outside the entrance to their hideout. Lucky for us they didn’t come back until morning. If they’d a’ been there and seen us coming, I reckon we’d have hardly had the chance of escaping we did when they rode in on us without knowin’ we was there.”
“Yeah, well we’d have certainly had a much better chance if I hadn’t managed to step in a rabbit hole and slow all of us down for most of the day.”
“That weren’t hardly your fault, Little Joe,” Hoss assured him. “That hole was pretty near invisible from that direction. There’s no way you could’ve known it was there.”
“Oh. Oh, I see.” Joe raised his eyebrows. “So the two of you decided to lead us down that particular route and camp us on a bunch of bandits’ doorstep on purpose?”
“No, of course not!” Adam frowned at him.
“Well, that’s all right, then.” Joe leaned back, looking satisfied. “I just didn’t want to miss out on my share of feeling bad over things I couldn’t control.”
Hoss laughed at that, and Adam couldn’t quite suppress a smile, shaking his head. “Gotta do everything just like your older brothers, huh? I swear, Joe, some days…” He tossed a stick into the fire.
After another minute of silence, more companionable than heavy, Adam started to shift in preparation to stand up.
“We’d better get to bed before we fall asleep here.”
“Who’s gonna be on the floor?” Joe asked.
Hoss reached out and pulled the blanket they’d found over to himself. “I’d better be. I’d probably break that old bed to splinters, like as not.”
“And don’t even ask who’s on the top bunk, because you’re not climbing up there with that foot of yours,” Adam added.
“Fine by me.” Joe shrugged. “Though I think I’ve pretty much done everything I could do to it already today.”
Adam frowned. “Maybe I should take another look at it.”
“Oh no you don’t! I am not going to try getting that boot back on again. And besides, it’s not like looking’s gonna do any good anyway. You can’t really do anything about it out here.” Not waiting to see if Adam was convinced, he quickly changed the subject. “Do you think one of us should stand watch tonight?”
The look Adam gave him clearly indicated that he saw right through the ploy, but he let it go. “Nah. We’re all worn out, and I want to get as early a start as possible tomorrow. We need the rest. And I doubt that gang will be traveling after dark. With them on horses and us on foot, they’ll almost certainly feel confident enough to make camp for the night.”
“Don’t suppose you think they might just decide we’re not worth the bother and give up?” Joe sounded wistful, but not hopeful.
“With us the only ones who can tell the law where they’ve been holing up so successfully? Not likely.”
Joe pulled himself up, using the corner of the bottom bunk as leverage. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
Despite everything he’d told Joe and Hoss, Adam was on edge. He couldn’t seem to manage to do more than doze off before some slight noise outside the shack had him starting awake again, instinctively reaching for his gun before his eyes were even all the way open. If this kept up he certainly wasn’t going to be terribly rested, come morning. But it was probably just as well that one of them, at least, was alert enough to hear if anyone came calling. If he didn’t wind up getting so inured to false alarms that he didn’t even rouse at the real thing, that is. Wouldn’t that just be the way of things.
That thought was enough to have him tensing up all over again. When a rustling sound came from outside, even though he knew it was nothing more than an animal, he found himself turning his head toward the nearest crack in the wall, nearly holding his breath until he caught the rustling of light, quick footsteps that could belong only to a small animal.
Shaking his head, he tugged his jacket’s collar up further to block out the cool air, willing himself to relax. Yet when a twig snapped, startlingly close, he froze again, listening. No more sounds followed.
He might as well just give in. Ignoring it was not going to work.
With a quiet sigh, he raised himself up on one elbow, leaning over to try to see out of the crack. When the bed beneath him gave an ominous creak and groan at the movement, he stilled, frowning. It was old, certainly, but it had seemed sturdy enough… He was just about to lie back down when there was an abrupt, startlingly loud crack from beneath him.
Between the time he registered what was happening and the moment it actually happened he had a split second to recall the fact that Joe was right below him – but not enough time to do anything about it.
Adam was temporarily stunned by the landing, the wind completely knocked out of him. But only for a moment. Even as he gasped for breath, he rolled off to the side and onto the floor.
By the time he pushed himself to his knees Hoss was by his side, sputtering bewildered exclamations. Adam wasn’t sure how he’d managed to avoid rolling on top of him. Wouldn’t that be wonderful – managing to squash both my brothers in one night. Not that he was really capable of doing Hoss much damage by landing on top of him, especially from that small height, considering their relative sizes. Unlike Joe….
He could barely see anything in the dim glow from the fire’s embers. It wasn’t just being startled from sleep that had Hoss so confused about what had happened.
“I’m fine, Hoss, I’m fine. Go stoke up that fire – quickly!”
“Adam, what – ” Even as he spoke, Hoss moved automatically in obedience to the urgency of Adam’s tone.
“The bed collapsed,” was all the terse explanation Adam offered, as he turned back toward Joe. It was scaring him more than he wanted to consider that he hadn’t heard a single noise from Joe, either of pain or outrage.
Already he could see much better, as Hoss worked efficiently to get the fire blazing again, and what he could see wasn’t doing anything to assuage his fears. He quickly tossed aside the larger pieces of wood on top of Joe, and then halted abruptly, his heart leaping into his throat.
The bottom bed had a blanket, tattered as it was, and Joe was using it. That same blanket was already absorbing an alarming amount of blood, and sticking straight up out of it was a jagged shaft of wood. Joe was – God, he was impaled, a chunk of wood sticking out of his side, he was dead, he – he couldn’t possibly – Adam jerked himself out of his frozen state, tearing his eyes away from the wood and shifting his focus, one hand moving to Joe’s chest, even as he fumbled for a pulse with the other.
He wasn’t breathing – no, wait. Even as Adam thought it, Joe sucked in a stuttering breath. He wasn’t dead. He was unconscious. Wait….
Adam looked down again. Starting at one of the blanket’s already-existing holes, he tore it, ripping and pulling it back, away from the wood. He nearly collapsed in relief at what he saw. By some miracle, that sharp piece of wood had slid neatly in between Joe’s arm and side, leaving nasty gashes along both, but not impaling him, before burying itself into the mattress. He felt almost dizzy at the realization, and his hands trembled slightly as he jerked the shaft out of the mattress and tossed it aside, then pulled the blanket back.
Relief, like fear, could not yet be allowed to take over. He might’ve managed to avoid instantly killing his little brother, but there was no saying yet just how badly he was hurt. His initial fear removed, Adam set himself to do a more thorough and less panicked assessment of Joe’s condition.
Looking back to Joe’s face, he noticed for the first time a bleeding cut and the lump on his forehead. He must’ve taken a pretty good hit from something. That would certainly explain the unconsciousness.
Though the blood from the cut along his side and the inside of his right forearm had appeared at first to be far too much to be safe, closer and more rational examination proved the wounds to be much more painful-looking than serious. They were deep enough, yes, and would likely need stitching at some point, but not life-threatening.
A multitude of other cuts, scrapes, and already-developing bruises were scattered across Joe’s visible skin. None of them would merit a second thought, individually, but the cumulative effect was sure to be less than pleasant. Even as he winced at the thought of what Joe would have to say about it, at that moment Adam couldn’t help but look forward to hearing it.
A quick limb check showed nothing broken that he could find, but unfortunately Joe’s ribs were not so lucky. One was definitely broken, and a couple more were probably cracked.
By that time, Hoss had finished with the fire and was standing next to him, looking down at Joe.
“How is he, Adam?”
“Not as bad as he could be.” At Hoss’s expression, he quickly added. “He’ll be fine, Hoss. He’s not hurt too badly. The only thing I’m really worried about is that head wound. Come on, help me get him out of this mess and move him over by the fire.”
“I can carry him by myself easy. Why don’t you grab that blanket I was usin’ and lay it down near the fire, so I’ve got something to put him on?”
Adam nodded. “Good idea.”
Joe didn’t stir once during the process of being moved, nor while they were bandaging his injuries, either. They didn’t exactly have anything clean for bandages, so they’d ended up improvising by using the cleanest things they had, their handkerchiefs, to press directly against the wounds, and then tearing strips from the blanket off Joe’s bed to wind around and hold them in place. The bleeding seemed to stop pretty quickly, as did that from his head wound, which they’d cleaned up as well as possible.
Once they’d done the best they could under the circumstances, there was nothing left for it but to wait. Joe’s continued unresponsiveness to their attempts to rouse him, however, was worrisome. Chances were, he’d be fine. Chances were, he’d be awake any time now, and either grumbling complaints or attempting to convince them both that there was nothing whatever the matter with him. That was Joe for you – worry them all sick, and then bounce back faster than you could blink.
Problem was, they could tell themselves that all they wanted. It still didn’t prevent them from being worried sick. They could never know when, one of these days, something might happen that Joe couldn’t bounce back from, no matter how much time he was given.
Hoss looked away from Joe to study his older brother’s grim expression.
“Adam?”
“I could’ve killed him, Hoss.”
Hoss blinked. “Now, Adam, you know this weren’t your fault. It’s not as if you went and jumped on him. You couldn’t hardly have known that old bed was gonna fall right out from under you.”
“I should have known it would. I should have checked its soundness more thoroughly before I ever climbed up there. I thought it was safe, but apparently I’m not doing so well lately at predicting the safety of things.”
“If you’re still talkin’ about that shortcut we took, you know Little Joe’s already told you you’re not to blame for how that turned out. And I’m tellin’ you the same thing. Hindsight always makes it easier to see things we could’ve done, or should’ve done, but it sure don’t help much in tellin’ us beforehand how things’re gonna turn out. Sometimes accidents and things just happen. It’s not always anyone’s fault, and it’s not yours now. You can’t go blaming yourself over everything, or it’s just gonna drive you crazy and not do anyone else a lick of good.”
Adam favored him with a slight smile. “You may be right.”
“I am right. And Little Joe’ll tell you the same thing when he wakes up, too.”
Adam chuckled at that. “Maybe. I’m more inclined to think he’s likely to be thoroughly incensed with me. For a while, anyway.”
“Well, I reckon you might be right, there.” Hoss smiled. “But the way I figure it, if he’s feelin’ well enough to be mad at you, that’ll be a mighty good sign.”
Adam snorted softly. “Easy for you to say.”
“I can’t believe you fell on me!”
“Well I didn’t do it intentionally, Joe.”
Joe, however, didn’t appear to be heeding him. He hissed softly and wrapped his good arm gingerly around his ribs. It seemed they weren’t too happy with his little outburst. Neither was his head, if the way his eyes were squinted nearly shut was any indication.
A couple seconds later, however, Joe went on – a bit more subdued and careful about keeping his voice down, but definitely not through.
“You’re heavy, you know that? What’ve you been eating, anyway? If I hadn’t a’ known better, I’d ‘ve thought it was Hoss that landed on me.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t just me that landed on you. Half the wreckage from the upper bunk came down on top of you, too.”
“Huh. Suppose so.” Joe lifted up his right arm briefly, to get a look at the bandage. “Guess that’s what happened here, and to my side, then.”
“Yeah, that would be what happened to your arm and your side. Now if you’re through being mad at me…”
Joe gave a mock-thoughtful look, then declared magnanimously. “For now. I’ll decide if I’m done for good later.”
“Thank you. Very gracious of you.” Adam rolled his eyes. “Then can you tell me anything more helpful about how you’re feeling? Obviously you’re not any less coherent than you were before you got hit on the head. No more, either, unfortunately. How bad’s the headache? Any seeing double, or blurriness, nausea…?” He trailed off when Joe groaned and shut his eyes.
“Did you have to mention feeling sick? I wasn’t, until you brought it up. Think you reminded my stomach it was being left out of all the fun…” He swallowed convulsively a couple times, trying to convince what little he had in his stomach to stay there.
Hoss frowned in concern. “You’d better try not to throw up, Little Joe. With those ribs of yours, it sure wouldn’t feel good.”
Joe groaned again. “Believe me, I know, and I’m tryin’.”
After a minute, the urge seemed to pass. He relaxed a bit and opened his eyes again.
“Better?” Adam asked.
“A bit.”
“Well I hate to bring the subject up again, but speaking of your stomach, how’s it doing in general? I couldn’t tell if you might’ve taken any internal damage. You’ve had broken ribs before – this feel like anything more than that?” Adam tried to make the question sound casual, but it was obvious that he was tense as he waited for the answer.
“Don’t think so.” Joe started to shake his head, then hastily aborted the gesture, wincing again and raising his left hand to his forehead. “Just kinda generally bruised up.”
Some of the tension left Adam, but he pressed on. “You never answered me about your head. How’s it doing?”
“Mmm, feels like it’s gonna explode. Not seeing double or blurry or anything, though, so probably not. Just get kinda dizzy when I move it too fast.”
“So don’t move too fast,” Adam advised.
“You know me, Adam. I’ve been moving too fast since the day I was born.”
“Oh, believe me, I do know. But there’s no time like the present for turning over a new leaf.”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
“Maybe not, but you won’t be in any shape for having fun for some time. And I don’t think you’re going to be all that much fun for a while, either.”
“You can say that again,” Hoss put in. “And it’ll be an even longer while if you don’t rest yourself up properly.”
“You’re right, there, Hoss,” Adam agreed. “In fact, we’d all better see how much rest we can salvage yet tonight. We’ve still got a long ways to go, and there’s no saying what morning’ll bring with it.”
“Adam… How’re we gonna go anywhere tomorrow?” Joe asked quietly. “Yesterday I could walk, but now… I don’t know….”
Adam looked down at his hands for a moment before meeting Joe’s eyes. “We’ll… We’ll figure that out in the morning.”
“I think we’re about due for a good break.” Hoss sounded confident. “I’m sure something’ll come up by then. At least we’ll be able to think better after some sleep.”
“I don’t know,” Adam muttered softly, his eyes resting on the bandage over Joe’s side. “I think we might’ve just about used up our share of miracles for the time being.”
“Nah, Hoss is right. One way or another, something’ll come up. The Cartwright family’s had some bad breaks, but it’s always had more than its share of good luck too.” Joe offered him a lopsided grin. “How else do you explain winding up with a brother like me?”
“How else indeed?” Adam gave him a wry look. “You are impossible, you know that?”
“Yep.” Still smiling, Joe shut his eyes. “And you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Hoss chuckled. “Nah, I don’t suppose we would.”
“I don’t know –”
“Shh – Adam.”
“What?”
Hoss nodded toward Joe. His face still held some of the tension of pain, but his body was relaxed, and he was taking deep, even breaths.
“Asleep already?” Adam shook his head. “He hasn’t slowed down any, that’s for sure. When he sets his mind to do a thing, he really does it.”
“Sure does.” Hoss settled down on the floor, as near the fire as he could get without crowding Joe. “And for once, I think we’d better follow his example.”
It was a restless night for all of them. Being thoroughly shaken up in the middle of the night, either literally or figuratively, never makes it a simple matter to settle back down to sleeping, and the fact that there might yet be real danger nearby didn’t make it any easier.
Exhaustion pulled at them, trying to ease them into the rest they needed and wanted, but now both Adam and Hoss were on edge. The breeze setting the tree branches to creaking, a burned-down branch settling in the fireplace, even worse, a stronger gust of wind making the building around them groan softly – noises which, on a normal night, would be nothing more than a familiar lullaby were suddenly enough to have their eyes flying open and hearts beating faster.
As for Joe, though sleep had come to him quickly enough, it was far from undisturbed. He might not be quite careful enough to keep from jarring his injuries when he was awake, but asleep he was even less cautious. It seemed every time he shifted in his sleep he’d wind up jolting awake with a gasp.
The worst was when he’d unconsciously tried to roll onto his side. He’d been unfortunate enough to pick his right side, and between the pressure on his ribs and the cut on his side… His cry that time had been enough to have both Adam and Hoss nearly on their feet before they realized what had happened.
They must have all fallen into a deeper sleep at some point, because when the first touches of dawn became visible, highlighting the shack’s many chinks and holes as spots of ever-lightening gray, none of them were awake to see it. Until a woodpecker chose a stump a couple yards from the door as the place to find its breakfast, that was.
Joe let out a strangled whimper and covered his face with his left arm. “Hoss – shoot it, please.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Hoss growled.
“Then shoot me. ”
“No one’s doing any shooting. Anyone nearby would be sure to hear it.”
Joe lifted his arm a bit to look at Adam. “You mean you would shoot me otherwise?”
Adam just gave him a look. I was kind of hard to tell whether it was meant to say “Don’t tempt me,” or, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Joe let the arm drop over his eyes again.
After a moment, Adam spoke again. “We might as well get up. It’s unlikely any of us will be getting any more sleep anyway.” He pushed himself to his feet with a groan and stretched gingerly. Apparently he hadn’t come out of the crash last night as unscathed as he’d thought – his back felt like a mess of bruises this morning.
“Yeah, guess we had better be gettin’ a move on.” Hoss followed Adam’s example, rising and stretching, before turning to look at Joe. “How’re you feelin’ this morning, Little Joe?”
Joe didn’t remove the arm from over his eyes, but the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Never better.”
“Sorry to hear that, little brother. If that’s the case, then you’ve had a pretty sorry life.”
Joe started to laugh, then stopped with a gasp, dropping his arm to wrap it around his ribs again. He moaned. “Ow, quit makin’ me laugh.”
Adam shook his head, smiling, and clapped Hoss on the arm. “I’ll need your help finding some good pieces of wood. I think a litter is going to be our best bet for transporting him today.” Joe started to push himself up, wincing and hissing at the movement, but persisting nonetheless. “Joe – stay down. You’re going to be moving around more than you’ll like today as it is. Stay still while you can.” Adam moved toward him, as if to enforce his words with actions.
Joe shook his head. “Help me sit. I can – I can help.” He gestured toward the blanket they’d used for bandages. “I’ll start – start tearing up the rest of that blanket to tie the wood with.” His voice was tight with pain, but the look on his face was determined.
Arguing would only waste time and energy, so Adam quickly moved in to support him, helping him slide back to sit against the wall. Even that movement was enough to have Joe panting a bit, though shallowly, to keep from aggravating his ribs. Adam frowned.
“Your head still hurting?”
Joe gave a careful nod. “‘Bout the same. Hand me that blanket, will you?”
Adam pressed his lips together, hesitating for a moment as he studied Joe. Before he could come to any conclusion, he caught a sound that had him shooting to his feet and turning toward the door, his hand on his gun. Hoss was already doing the same.
Joe had heard it too. “Horses?”
He moved as if to push himself to his feet, but Adam turned briefly to look at him. “Stay, Joe.”
Joe dropped back, but the look in his eyes clearly said that he wasn’t going to be staying there long, once trouble started.
Adam and Hoss drew their guns as they eased up to opposite sides of the door, which they’d propped up against its frame the night before. It’d helped to keep the wind out and the heat in, but one good push would knock it over.
“Hullo in there! You’re safe to come out if you like, but if you’ve got guns I’ll thank you not to be shooting at us. We’ve had more ‘n enough gunplay to last us a while.”
Looking at each other in confusion, Adam and Hoss lowered their guns a bit.
“Not exactly what I’d expected those bandits would have to say when they finally caught up to us,” Hoss muttered.
“No.” Adam frowned, and called out, “What do you want?”
“Well, nothin’,” came the reply. “We was followin’ a pack of bandits, and finally caught up with ‘em last night. Our tracker said that they was chasin’ after someone else, though, so we thought this mornin’ the neighborly thing to do would be to come on after you, and tell you there wasn’t no need to be runnin’ anymore, and see if you all needed any help.”
Hoss raised his eyebrows, and after a moment’s consideration, Adam nodded. Sticking a foot out, Hoss nudged the door, pushing it till it fell outward. Gun at the ready, Adam leaned over just enough to look out, ready to pull back in an instant if need be.
Three men sat on horseback, a few yards away. A fourth, apparently the one who’d been doing the talking, had dismounted and stood a little closer. He raised his – empty – right hand in a wave. None of the others were making any moves that could be construed as threatening. They looked friendly enough, and they didn’t look like any of the bandits that had attacked them. It was hard to be certain, considering how fast everything had happened, but... they weren’t exactly dressed like bandits, either.
With another glance at Hoss, Adam returned his gun to his holster, but kept a casual hand on it as he stepped outside. Hoss moved so he could see what was happening, but stayed back out of the way, ready to provide covering fire in case Adam had to make a dive back to shelter.
“Doesn’t look like any of you’re the sheriff for these parts.” Adam kept his voice and smile pleasant as he studied them.
The group’s spokesman returned smile for smile. “Nah, Sheriff and his deputies went on toward town with the prisoners. Rest of the posse went with ‘em, too. We figured since all them bandits are dead or captured, it wouldn’t very well take all of us to come up here. I’m Jeb Brady,” he gestured toward the men behind him in turn, “and these’re my neighbors, Tom, Fred, and Rob.”
Adam nodded a greeting. “Adam Cartwright.” He gestured back toward the shack. “The man in the doorway’s my brother Hoss, and our younger brother Joe’s inside as well. Joe’s been hurt, and we sure would appreciate some help getting him to a doctor.”
“Sure thing, sure thing.” Jeb nodded, looking concerned. “Your brother get shot by those bandits?”
“No. No, he’s not shot. I don’t think he’s too badly hurt, but he can’t really move around much.”
The rest of the men were dismounting, and Jeb and Adam started moving toward the shack.
“He have an accident while you were running, then?” Jeb asked.
“Not… quite.” Adam rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s kind of a long story.”
“I could’ve ridden a horse.”
“Sure you could,” Adam agreed easily. “With a bad foot, broken ribs, nasty concussion, and gashes in your arm and side that the doctor must have put a couple dozen stitches into, all told. I’m sure it wouldn’t have given you any trouble at all. And yet, being the unreasonable person I am, I rented a wagon anyway. Sometimes, little brother, life is just not fair.”
“You can say that again,” Joe grumbled.
He looked as if he would’ve liked to cross his arms. The fact that doing so would have aggravated his right arm, the cut on his side, and his ribs, all of which were hurting enough as it was, likely only added to his irritation. Besides, the effect of such gestures tends to be rather spoiled when one is lying down. Being propped in a half-sitting position, as Joe was at the moment, wasn’t really much better.
In all honesty, Adam couldn’t fault him too much for being in a bit of a foul mood. The road was rough, Joe was hurting, and none of them had slept much at all last night. And, while the last – had it really only been a day and a half since those bandits had taken them by surprise? – hadn’t been exactly fun for any of them, Joe had decidedly gotten the worst of it.
So, while he might not enjoy it, he was inclined to be tolerant of Joe’s mood. Which was part of the reason why, instead of being up front with Hoss, he was sitting back here keeping Joe company. Not that it seemed to be helping a whole lot, at the moment.
A particularly nasty jolt as one of the wagon’s wheels went over a bump had Joe yelping and curling protectively around his injured side.
“Hoss, could you try not to find every single bump and hole in the road between here and the Ponderosa?” he gritted out between clenched teeth.
Hoss glanced over his shoulder at him. “Sorry ‘bout that, Little Joe. I know it’s kinda rough back there for ya, but I don’t see how there’s anything more I can do about it than I already am. This road’s just pretty bumpy.”
“Hey, how about letting me have a go, then?” Joe started to push himself up, but was immediately stopped by Adam’s firm hand on his shoulder.
“I think not. Trust me, it may not seem like it at the moment, but you would very quickly regret trying to sit up there.”
Joe settled back with a sigh, and Adam relaxed his restraining grip, but didn’t yet remove his hand.
“You might at least let me try.”
Adam gave him a slight smile. “I know you’ll try anything once – at least – but in this case you’re just going to have to trust my judgment. Believe me, I am not just trying to spoil your fun.”
There was only a brief pause before Joe replied quietly, “I know. Sorry.”
Adam gave Joe’s shoulder a squeeze before settling back again himself. They sat in comfortable enough silence, watching the slowly passing landscape. The quiet stretched on long enough that Adam began to wonder if Joe had somehow managed to doze off.
When he looked over to check, however, he saw that Joe was quite wide awake, though his expression had grown thoughtful. No, not exactly thoughtful – or at least, not just thoughtful. This particular expression was one he had grown all too familiar with over the course of the years, and it was one that nearly always meant mischief.
There was a glint of something like satisfaction, almost approaching glee, in Joe’s eyes, and Adam shuddered to think what might have put it there at this particular moment. It was bad enough when Joe came up with some “brilliant” scheme that was sure to work beautifully, but it seemed unlikely that even Joe could be feeling up for planning something like that just now.
So what could it be? He was fairly certain that he didn’t want to know. And yet, the prospect of being caught by surprise at some later date somehow seemed even worse. He was going to have to ask. But casually. Carefully.
“You’re looking mighty pleased. Feeling any better?”
“Hmm?” Joe gave him a distracted look. “Oh, no. Just…thinking.”
“About what?”
“I don’t suppose I’ll be able to do much now for some time.”
“Well no, I suppose not. That hardly seems like something you’d be looking so pleased about, though.”
“It’s just….” Joe’s eyebrows were drawn together, and he was frowning a bit. He looked rather concerned, now. Worried, even.
“Just what?”
“Well, Pa’s been saying that we need a new pit dug for the outhouse, and the outhouse itself scrubbed down inside before we move it. I was supposed to start working on it day after tomorrow, once we got home from this trip. I, ah, think he’s still a little mad about the, um, the little incident at the Bucket of Blood last week.”
“Ah.”
“Thing is, I’m not gonna be able to now, not for a while, anyway. And folks ’ve been saying that we’re likely to have an early winter this year. If that pit’s not done by the time there’s a cold snap and the ground freezes….” He gave a little shrug.
“I see.”
“Yeah. Guess someone else’ll have to do it now.” Joe gave him a helpless, apologetic look. The exact depth of the sincerity behind that look was quite apparent.
Adam returned the look with a calm, even one of his own. “Hmm. Pity. Guess it can’t really be helped, though.”
“Nope. Guess not.”
Well, that explained the improvement in Joe’s disposition. He’d found the bright side of things, and now he was going to milk it for all it was worth.
A very slight smile tugged at the corners of Joe’s lips, and as he opened his mouth to speak Adam fought back the urge to groan. He was saved, however, when Hoss unexpectedly reined the horses to a halt.
“Hoss? What –” Adam craned around, trying to see what the trouble was.
Instead of answering, Hoss pulled his hat off and waved it in the air. “Pa! Hey, Pa!”
“Pa’s here?” Joe started to twist as well, in an attempt to see for himself, then let out a pained grunt.
“Joe, stay down!” Adam looked at him in exasperation. “He’ll be here soon enough.”
Now that the wagon was stopped, they could hear a single horse, approaching quickly. In moments, they heard their father’s familiar voice as well.
“Hoss! When your horses came home this morning, I knew – What happened, son?”
“We ran into some trouble, Pa.”
“Your – your brothers?”
Hoss gestured behind himself. “They’re in the back.”
Even as he pushed himself up onto his knees, Adam could well imagine the look of fear and dread that must have appeared on their father’s face. His thoughts were only confirmed when Hoss hastily continued.
“It’s all right, Pa, they’re fine. Leastways Adam’s fine, and the doctor said that Little Joe will be.”
By that time, Ben was bringing his horse up alongside the wagon. He gave Adam the kind of scrutinizing look that only a worried father could give, before looking down at Joe. He was visibly relieved to see them looking as sound as they did. His concern, however, clearly still far from being dispelled, was all the more aroused by the sight of Joe’s weary, scratched, bruised, and bandaged self.
“Hi, Pa.” Joe raised a hand briefly in greeting.
“Joe, are you all right? What happened to you?”
“Adam.”
“What? Joseph, are you –” Ben glanced back and forth between his eldest and youngest sons, bewildered. “How, exactly, is Adam responsible for this?”
“He fell on me. And brought a bed along with him.”
Adam groaned and looked heavenward. No, Joe was definitely not going to let this go for a very long time.
END
So, I thought this afternoon might be a good time to skim through and poke at some of my older stories, starting to gear up to get back into writing my current half-finished ones after taking a break, here.
Apparently, the same principles are not true when I'm sick, though. Instead, I wind up staring at the screen, thinking, "This is stupid. Does that paragraph even make sense? I hate this. I hate everything, forever. "*crawls off to hide under a rock*
Yeah, I don't think I'll bother trying to read any more of my stories today. XP
Anyway, I don't know if anyone else here likes Bonanza (As in, this TV series.), but I wrote a story for it some years back. I posted it on a Bonanza-specific fanfic archive then, but that site has since gone down. And I've been thinking I should at least have it archived somewhere... so I guess I'll put it here for now, and decide later if it's worth putting it anywhere else.
By Chance
Prologue
“What’ll we tell Pa?”
Adam darted Hoss a sharp look. “We’re not going to tell him anything."
“We’re gonna have to tell him something, Adam.”
Adam sighed. “Look, this isn’t exactly the time –”
A soft groan decided the matter for the moment, both of them losing interest in the topic instantly. Adam shifted closer to Joe, and Hoss rested a hand on his shoulder as he leaned over to get a better look in the flickering light from the fire.
“Joe? You awake there, little brother?” Hoss kept his voice low, but Joe still grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut more tightly – whether from the noise or the unpleasant experience of waking up in his current state, it was impossible to tell.
“We know you’re awake, so you may as well quit pretending,” Adam needled. Though his tone was teasing, the edge of concern was easily audible.
“Nnn, Ad’m?” Joe mumbled.
“Yeah, it’s me. C’mon, open your eyes now.” It took a few seconds, but Joe finally pried his eyes open a crack, squinting up at him. “That’s better. How’re you feeling?”
“Like I got thrown from a horse, and stomped on for good measure.” Joe tried to shift around, testing his limits, but stopped almost immediately, wincing. “What happened?”
Adam hesitated momentarily, an odd expression on his face, before asking cautiously. “What do you remember?”
Joe frowned. Then his eyes widened as he fixed Adam with an accusatory glare. “You fell on me!”
With a sigh, Adam closed his eyes and let his head drop. “You would remember that.”
1.
“Ow! C’mon, Adam, leave it be.” Joe tried yet again to extricate his foot from his older brother’s grasp.
“I told you, I’ve got to make sure it’s not broken before you do any more walking on it.”
“Yeah, and I told you it’s not broken.” Joe crossed his arms. “Besides, even if it is, what’re you going to do about it? Carry me the rest of the way home?”
With a rueful smile and a shake of his head, Adam finally released him. “No, but I might have Hoss do it. Anyway, I think you’re right – it’s just a nasty sprain, nothing actually broken. You’d better take it easy on that foot for a while, though.”
Brushing his hands off, he stood, turning around to look back the way they’d come.
“Take it easy,” Joe snorted, bending to pull his sock back on. “And how exactly am I supposed to do that? We’re out here, who knows how many miles from anywhere, and our horses are probably halfway back to the Ponderosa by now. And in case I have to remind you, it’s not exactly like we’ve got the option of just sitting here and hoping someone friendly happens to – oww.”
Adam turned back around. “You need some help, there?”
“Not so sure taking this boot off was such a good idea.” Joe looked mournfully down at his foot. “I don’t think it’s gonna go back on.”
“Well, I might just leave it off and wrap your foot instead, but walking over this kind of ground that’s not really an option.” Kneeling again, Adam took the boot from him and tried to ease it back onto the foot. After a moment, he added, “You’re right, this isn’t going to go back on easy. Your ankle’s starting to swell quite a bit already.” He looked up at Joe. “Try to hold yourself still, while I get it on you. I’ll try to be careful, but it’s probably going to take some force.”
Joe nodded, shifting to brace himself. Of course, getting that boot back on would be a whole lot easier if he could keep his leg stiff and give Adam some steady resistance to push against, but it wasn’t exactly easy pushing back and trying to force his foot into a suddenly too-small boot when it hurt the way it did. After a seeming eternity, which probably actually lasted less than a minute, he flopped back into the dirt with a muttered curse.
“You doing all right, there?” Pausing, Adam studied him again, taking the moment to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
“Just jam it on and get it over with already,” Joe groaned.
“Look, I know it hurts, but if something is broken, that’d only do more damage.”
“Yeah, well playing around like this ain’t exactly doing it any favors, either.”
Adam raised an eyebrow, unruffled. “I know it’s pain that’s got you so prickly, Joe, but you know I’m only trying to keep from making things worse than they already are.”
“Yeah, I know.” Joe exhaled and pushed himself back up on his elbows, getting ready for another try. “Oh hey, look, Hoss is coming back.”
Adam smiled wryly. “Since you can’t exactly run away the minute I turn my back, I’ll assume that’s not a childish attempt to distract me.”
Pushing himself back to his feet, Adam turned to meet Hoss, who was just starting to descend the hill they’d all come down a few minutes earlier. As soon as he was within easy talking distance, Adam asked, “You see any sign of them?”
“Not yet. But they’re still following. I’m sure of it.”
“Unfortunately, I can’t disagree with you there.”
Looking past Adam to see Joe still on the ground, Hoss frowned. “What’s the verdict? Little Joe break anything?”
“Nah, doesn’t look like it. Twisted his ankle pretty bad, though.”
“You gonna be able to walk, Joe?”
“Yeah, I’ll walk.”
“You hurt your ears too, little brother? I didn’t ask if you were going to walk, I asked if you could.” Hoss grinned, and Joe couldn’t help responding in kind. “I don’t like hangin’ around here longer than we need to, though. If you can keep going, you’d better be getting that boot back on so we can move out.”
Hoss’s expression melted into confusion when his little brother’s answer was to let out a snort of laughter that sounded more despairing than amused.
“Yeah, we’ve been having a little trouble with that,” Adam explained. “His foot’s swollen, and the boot doesn’t fit so well anymore.”
“Oh…. Well, how about letting me have a go at it?”
“Be my guest.” Joe shifted around to brace himself again, already wincing a bit in anticipation as Hoss knelt down by his feet.
“Well now, it’s been a while since you’ve needed help gettin’ your shoes on, hasn’t it?” Hoss grinned at him again before bending his head to the task. “I remember when you was just a little feller – it sure wasn’t easy helping you on with them. Never is easy gettin’ shoes on a kid, I suppose. They just don’t know how to co-operate with it right, yet. But you were near impossible, sometimes. You decided so early on that it was something you could do all by yourself, and then you’d wrestle with them for the longest time, before you’d even think about lettin’ anyone else help you. ‘Specially those stiff, good shoes of yours. Once or twice, Pa said we were gonna have to start getting you up an extra hour early on Sunday mornings, or we’d be late to church just on account of those shoes. I told him I thought maybe you should just start putting ‘em on Saturday night, before you went to bed. You weren’t none too thrilled with the idea, though. You remember that?”
Joe chuckled. “No, not really. Guess I must’ve mastered the skill pretty quick in the end, if I can’t remember the fight for it.”
“You did at that. Guess that stubborn streak of yours paid off, after all.”
“Y’know, Hoss, if you think all this talking’s gonna distract me, you’re wrong.”
“Am I, now?” Hoss glanced up at him, a triumphant smile spreading across his face. “Hang on, I think one more good push oughta do it.”
“Wha-” Joe’s eyebrows rose in surprise as he looked down at his foot. “Huh. Whaddaya know.”
“You ready?”
Joe nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”
Not giving him a chance for second thoughts, Hoss took him at his word, giving the heel of the boot a good, solid thump.
With a cry of pain, Joe curled forward over his bent knee, grasping his leg as he rocked back and forth. If some of his pained hisses might have contained sentiments which their Pa would have frowned on, neither Hoss nor Adam were inclined to make an issue of it. Thankfully, it was only a few seconds before Joe relaxed a bit, letting out one last, long breath.
Hoss reached out to give his shoulder a squeeze. “You all right, Little Joe?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m all right.” Joe’s voice was a bit strained in the attempt to sound perfectly fine. “But if I’d a known you were plannin’ to nail that boot to my foot, I’d have reminded you that I’m not a horse.”
“More like a mule,” Hoss chuckled. “I’m sure it didn’t feel so good, but you know I didn’t hit you any harder than I needed to. Are you sure that boot’s on all the way now?”
“Oh yes,” Joe answered quickly. “I’m very, very sure that it’s on.”
“Good then.” Hoss nodded. “You ready to get going?”
“Just – just give me a second longer.”
“Sure thing.” Hoss agreed easily. Rising, he took a few steps away to stand by Adam’s side. In a low voice, he asked. “How far behind us do you reckon they’re likely to be?”
Adam shook his head, answering equally quietly. “Hard to say. I think we did a pretty good job of shaking them off our trail, but not enough to keep them from picking it back up again eventually. They’ve also got horses, while we’re on foot, and now…” he stopped, pressing his lips together in worry.
Hoss hardly needed his glance in Joe’s direction to know which way his thoughts were tending: Joe could walk, for the time being, but how far and how fast were questions none of them could answer. Hoss looked toward their younger brother himself, wondering if he’d overheard what they’d been saying, despite their low voices.
Joe, however, didn’t seem to have heard. In fact, he wasn’t paying them any mind at all. He was staring thoughtfully at the hill, and the burrow that had been his downfall. Hoss was just about to ask him what he was thinking about when he spoke up.
“You know something?”
“What’s that, Little Joe?”
“I think I really hate rabbits.”
Laughing, Hoss offered him a hand up. “Well, let’s get going, and maybe if we find a good place to spend the night early enough, we can catch one or two of ‘em for dinner in revenge.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
2.
“Adam? Adam, I think we’re gonna have to stop here, soon.”
“What?” Joe’s head jerked up. “No, I’m fine, really. I can keep going.”
Hoss frowned. If anything, Joe’s voice, strained with tiredness and pain, only proved his point. They needed to stop, and if the way Joe had been leaning more and more heavily into his support and putting less and less pressure on his hurt foot as time wore on was any indication, they needed to do it soon. Still, his putting up some kind of a protest, even a token one, was reassuring.
“Well, I’m sure you could, Little Joe, but I’m getting’ a mite tired myself, draggin’ your ornery hide across all this rough ground.”
“Oh. Well,” Joe straightened a bit, “I could always walk on my own for a while, if you need a break.”
It was all Hoss could do not to laugh out loud at the absurdity of that statement. Adam did laugh.
“Haven’t you learned by now that sometimes we older brothers just need to be humored? Hoss is right, in any case. We’re going to need to find a place to stop for the night, and it’d probably be a good idea to start looking while we’ve still got some light.” He nodded toward a rise a bit ahead and to the left. “I’ll go ahead up that hill a little and see if I can spot a likely place to head for.”
As Adam left, Hoss looked back to Joe.
“You want to sit down for a bit?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Joe….”
Joe’s expression turned a bit sheepish. “Um, better not. I don’t think I’d get back up again.”
“Dadburn it, Little Joe…. So you’re fine, are you?” Hoss shook his head in exasperation, but apparently decided to let the matter drop.
Adam returned surprisingly quickly, looking pleased enough to give both Joe and Hoss a temporary boost of renewed energy.
“Found something. There’s a shack, looks like it might be abandoned. It’s tucked back among hills and trees, and blends in well enough to practically disappear. Sheer luck I happened to notice it – from most places around here it’d probably be pretty well invisible, until you got up close to it. There’s a bit of walking still before we get to it, but it looks like an ideal place.”
“Then lead on.” Joe waved a hand dramatically. “Sooner we get started, the sooner we’ll be there.”
What with being forced to take a few short detours due to impassible terrain, it proved to be quite a bit of walking before they arrived at the shack. Though the day had been warm, the temperature was dropping steadily as night drew on, and what light they had left was fast disappearing by the time they came within sight of the place.
Adam was right – one glimpse proved that it had very definitely been abandoned for some time. Both the roof and the walls, which appeared to have never been terribly solid to begin with, had holes in them, and the door was hanging at a crazy angle.
Joe eyed the shack. “Well, at least we don’t have to deal with some crazy old hermit deciding to warn us off his place at gunpoint. I don’t think anybody’s been here in years.”
“Yeah, looks like it,” Adam agreed. “Better than nothing, though.” He shivered, pulling his jacket around himself more closely. “I think we’re in for a cold night. C’mon, let’s check the place out.”
As Hoss and Adam moved inside to take a look, Joe stayed back, leaning against the doorframe while he watched. It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested, but he didn’t feel like hopping around the place one-legged. Besides, the building – if it could be called that – was pathetically small. There was hardly room for all three of them to do much moving around in it.
Despite the cramped space, it was obvious that two people, at least, had called it home at some point. The single room was a bit longer than it was wide, and most of the wall opposite the door was taken up by a bunk bed. There was a small fireplace built into the wall to the right, and a beat-up old chest against the one to the left. No sign of a table or chairs, but if there ever had been any it was hard to imagine them fitting in there and leaving any room to walk at all.
As Adam knelt to take a look under the bed – checking for critters, seeing if there was anything useful, or possibly both – Hoss went over to lift the lid on the chest. Apparently Adam didn’t find anything, because he soon stood and stepped over to join Hoss, who was trying to restrain sneezes from the dust stirred up by his actions.
“Mmm, not much that’s of any use. Looks like this blanket’s in pretty good shape, though.” Adam lifted it from the chest, raising up another cloud of dust that set them both to coughing for a good minute before things settled down. “Guess we’d better shake it out a bit before any of us uses it,” he finally managed.
“Hey! Will ya look at that.” Hoss bent to retrieve something else from the chest. “A can of beans. Looks like someone did leave something useful, after all.”
Adam smiled. “Not much, but again – definitely better than nothing. We’d better gather up some wood before it gets completely dark.”
“You sure it’s safe, lighting a fire?” Joe asked.
“Safe enough. They won’t be able to see the smoke in the dark, and between the walls and the way this place is hidden between trees and hills it’s pretty unlikely they’ll be able to see the light either. If they’re close enough to smell the smoke… well, then they’d probably be too close anyway.”
Hoss was eyeing the fireplace critically. “You think that chimney’s clear enough?”
“If it’s not, the roof certainly has enough holes to provide ventilation.”
Joe glanced up, smiling wryly. “Yeah, you’ve got a point there. Good thing it doesn't look like rain.”
It didn’t take them long to get as prepared for the night as they were going to get. Joe had, naturally, volunteered to help gather wood, but Adam and Hoss had assured him that his hopping around on his own and likely as not managing to fall down and break one of his limbs would prove less than helpful, and instead assigned him to getting a fire started with the first load of wood while they gathered more.
By the time night was fully upon them, they all were all seated on the floor near the fire, trying to find some way to settle comfortably that didn’t involve kicking each other. The chimney was not venting the smoke well, but other cracks and holes served to keep the smoke level tolerably low, and by that point all of them were tired enough and grateful enough for the warmth that they didn’t really care.
Joe looked at the beans, which were sitting near the fire to warm up, without much interest. “Kinda slim rations.”
“Well, I suppose we could always make a try for getting one or two of those rabbits we were talkin’ about earlier…” Hoss sounded dubious, caught between the desire for a more filling meal and the bone-weary urge to just lie down and sleep.
“Nah.” Joe yawned. “Not worth the effort. I’m too tired to hate rabbits that much anymore tonight.”
They ate in near silence, then sat staring at the fire, lost in thoughts of one kind or another. It was Adam who finally spoke.
“Well brothers, it certainly is a fine mess we’ve landed ourselves in.”
“I’ll say,” Joe muttered. “Those men couldn’t have had worse timing. Two minutes earlier and our supplies would’ve been in our hands instead of on our horses, and we might’ve been able to bring some of them with us. Two minutes later and we’d have been on our horses and we could’ve ridden them out of there instead of having them run off on us.”
“It was a stupid decision on my part, taking us by that shortcut, knowing about the bandit activity in the area. I thought it’d be safer, with that being one of the few directions in which they hadn’t made any attacks. Should’ve known better.” Adam looked disgusted with himself.
“Well I couldn’t have made a worse choice in camping spots,” Hoss put in. “We must’ve spent the night practically right outside the entrance to their hideout. Lucky for us they didn’t come back until morning. If they’d a’ been there and seen us coming, I reckon we’d have hardly had the chance of escaping we did when they rode in on us without knowin’ we was there.”
“Yeah, well we’d have certainly had a much better chance if I hadn’t managed to step in a rabbit hole and slow all of us down for most of the day.”
“That weren’t hardly your fault, Little Joe,” Hoss assured him. “That hole was pretty near invisible from that direction. There’s no way you could’ve known it was there.”
“Oh. Oh, I see.” Joe raised his eyebrows. “So the two of you decided to lead us down that particular route and camp us on a bunch of bandits’ doorstep on purpose?”
“No, of course not!” Adam frowned at him.
“Well, that’s all right, then.” Joe leaned back, looking satisfied. “I just didn’t want to miss out on my share of feeling bad over things I couldn’t control.”
Hoss laughed at that, and Adam couldn’t quite suppress a smile, shaking his head. “Gotta do everything just like your older brothers, huh? I swear, Joe, some days…” He tossed a stick into the fire.
After another minute of silence, more companionable than heavy, Adam started to shift in preparation to stand up.
“We’d better get to bed before we fall asleep here.”
“Who’s gonna be on the floor?” Joe asked.
Hoss reached out and pulled the blanket they’d found over to himself. “I’d better be. I’d probably break that old bed to splinters, like as not.”
“And don’t even ask who’s on the top bunk, because you’re not climbing up there with that foot of yours,” Adam added.
“Fine by me.” Joe shrugged. “Though I think I’ve pretty much done everything I could do to it already today.”
Adam frowned. “Maybe I should take another look at it.”
“Oh no you don’t! I am not going to try getting that boot back on again. And besides, it’s not like looking’s gonna do any good anyway. You can’t really do anything about it out here.” Not waiting to see if Adam was convinced, he quickly changed the subject. “Do you think one of us should stand watch tonight?”
The look Adam gave him clearly indicated that he saw right through the ploy, but he let it go. “Nah. We’re all worn out, and I want to get as early a start as possible tomorrow. We need the rest. And I doubt that gang will be traveling after dark. With them on horses and us on foot, they’ll almost certainly feel confident enough to make camp for the night.”
“Don’t suppose you think they might just decide we’re not worth the bother and give up?” Joe sounded wistful, but not hopeful.
“With us the only ones who can tell the law where they’ve been holing up so successfully? Not likely.”
Joe pulled himself up, using the corner of the bottom bunk as leverage. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
3.
Despite everything he’d told Joe and Hoss, Adam was on edge. He couldn’t seem to manage to do more than doze off before some slight noise outside the shack had him starting awake again, instinctively reaching for his gun before his eyes were even all the way open. If this kept up he certainly wasn’t going to be terribly rested, come morning. But it was probably just as well that one of them, at least, was alert enough to hear if anyone came calling. If he didn’t wind up getting so inured to false alarms that he didn’t even rouse at the real thing, that is. Wouldn’t that just be the way of things.
That thought was enough to have him tensing up all over again. When a rustling sound came from outside, even though he knew it was nothing more than an animal, he found himself turning his head toward the nearest crack in the wall, nearly holding his breath until he caught the rustling of light, quick footsteps that could belong only to a small animal.
Shaking his head, he tugged his jacket’s collar up further to block out the cool air, willing himself to relax. Yet when a twig snapped, startlingly close, he froze again, listening. No more sounds followed.
He might as well just give in. Ignoring it was not going to work.
With a quiet sigh, he raised himself up on one elbow, leaning over to try to see out of the crack. When the bed beneath him gave an ominous creak and groan at the movement, he stilled, frowning. It was old, certainly, but it had seemed sturdy enough… He was just about to lie back down when there was an abrupt, startlingly loud crack from beneath him.
Between the time he registered what was happening and the moment it actually happened he had a split second to recall the fact that Joe was right below him – but not enough time to do anything about it.
Adam was temporarily stunned by the landing, the wind completely knocked out of him. But only for a moment. Even as he gasped for breath, he rolled off to the side and onto the floor.
By the time he pushed himself to his knees Hoss was by his side, sputtering bewildered exclamations. Adam wasn’t sure how he’d managed to avoid rolling on top of him. Wouldn’t that be wonderful – managing to squash both my brothers in one night. Not that he was really capable of doing Hoss much damage by landing on top of him, especially from that small height, considering their relative sizes. Unlike Joe….
He could barely see anything in the dim glow from the fire’s embers. It wasn’t just being startled from sleep that had Hoss so confused about what had happened.
“I’m fine, Hoss, I’m fine. Go stoke up that fire – quickly!”
“Adam, what – ” Even as he spoke, Hoss moved automatically in obedience to the urgency of Adam’s tone.
“The bed collapsed,” was all the terse explanation Adam offered, as he turned back toward Joe. It was scaring him more than he wanted to consider that he hadn’t heard a single noise from Joe, either of pain or outrage.
Already he could see much better, as Hoss worked efficiently to get the fire blazing again, and what he could see wasn’t doing anything to assuage his fears. He quickly tossed aside the larger pieces of wood on top of Joe, and then halted abruptly, his heart leaping into his throat.
The bottom bed had a blanket, tattered as it was, and Joe was using it. That same blanket was already absorbing an alarming amount of blood, and sticking straight up out of it was a jagged shaft of wood. Joe was – God, he was impaled, a chunk of wood sticking out of his side, he was dead, he – he couldn’t possibly – Adam jerked himself out of his frozen state, tearing his eyes away from the wood and shifting his focus, one hand moving to Joe’s chest, even as he fumbled for a pulse with the other.
He wasn’t breathing – no, wait. Even as Adam thought it, Joe sucked in a stuttering breath. He wasn’t dead. He was unconscious. Wait….
Adam looked down again. Starting at one of the blanket’s already-existing holes, he tore it, ripping and pulling it back, away from the wood. He nearly collapsed in relief at what he saw. By some miracle, that sharp piece of wood had slid neatly in between Joe’s arm and side, leaving nasty gashes along both, but not impaling him, before burying itself into the mattress. He felt almost dizzy at the realization, and his hands trembled slightly as he jerked the shaft out of the mattress and tossed it aside, then pulled the blanket back.
Relief, like fear, could not yet be allowed to take over. He might’ve managed to avoid instantly killing his little brother, but there was no saying yet just how badly he was hurt. His initial fear removed, Adam set himself to do a more thorough and less panicked assessment of Joe’s condition.
Looking back to Joe’s face, he noticed for the first time a bleeding cut and the lump on his forehead. He must’ve taken a pretty good hit from something. That would certainly explain the unconsciousness.
Though the blood from the cut along his side and the inside of his right forearm had appeared at first to be far too much to be safe, closer and more rational examination proved the wounds to be much more painful-looking than serious. They were deep enough, yes, and would likely need stitching at some point, but not life-threatening.
A multitude of other cuts, scrapes, and already-developing bruises were scattered across Joe’s visible skin. None of them would merit a second thought, individually, but the cumulative effect was sure to be less than pleasant. Even as he winced at the thought of what Joe would have to say about it, at that moment Adam couldn’t help but look forward to hearing it.
A quick limb check showed nothing broken that he could find, but unfortunately Joe’s ribs were not so lucky. One was definitely broken, and a couple more were probably cracked.
By that time, Hoss had finished with the fire and was standing next to him, looking down at Joe.
“How is he, Adam?”
“Not as bad as he could be.” At Hoss’s expression, he quickly added. “He’ll be fine, Hoss. He’s not hurt too badly. The only thing I’m really worried about is that head wound. Come on, help me get him out of this mess and move him over by the fire.”
“I can carry him by myself easy. Why don’t you grab that blanket I was usin’ and lay it down near the fire, so I’ve got something to put him on?”
Adam nodded. “Good idea.”
Joe didn’t stir once during the process of being moved, nor while they were bandaging his injuries, either. They didn’t exactly have anything clean for bandages, so they’d ended up improvising by using the cleanest things they had, their handkerchiefs, to press directly against the wounds, and then tearing strips from the blanket off Joe’s bed to wind around and hold them in place. The bleeding seemed to stop pretty quickly, as did that from his head wound, which they’d cleaned up as well as possible.
Once they’d done the best they could under the circumstances, there was nothing left for it but to wait. Joe’s continued unresponsiveness to their attempts to rouse him, however, was worrisome. Chances were, he’d be fine. Chances were, he’d be awake any time now, and either grumbling complaints or attempting to convince them both that there was nothing whatever the matter with him. That was Joe for you – worry them all sick, and then bounce back faster than you could blink.
Problem was, they could tell themselves that all they wanted. It still didn’t prevent them from being worried sick. They could never know when, one of these days, something might happen that Joe couldn’t bounce back from, no matter how much time he was given.
Hoss looked away from Joe to study his older brother’s grim expression.
“Adam?”
“I could’ve killed him, Hoss.”
Hoss blinked. “Now, Adam, you know this weren’t your fault. It’s not as if you went and jumped on him. You couldn’t hardly have known that old bed was gonna fall right out from under you.”
“I should have known it would. I should have checked its soundness more thoroughly before I ever climbed up there. I thought it was safe, but apparently I’m not doing so well lately at predicting the safety of things.”
“If you’re still talkin’ about that shortcut we took, you know Little Joe’s already told you you’re not to blame for how that turned out. And I’m tellin’ you the same thing. Hindsight always makes it easier to see things we could’ve done, or should’ve done, but it sure don’t help much in tellin’ us beforehand how things’re gonna turn out. Sometimes accidents and things just happen. It’s not always anyone’s fault, and it’s not yours now. You can’t go blaming yourself over everything, or it’s just gonna drive you crazy and not do anyone else a lick of good.”
Adam favored him with a slight smile. “You may be right.”
“I am right. And Little Joe’ll tell you the same thing when he wakes up, too.”
Adam chuckled at that. “Maybe. I’m more inclined to think he’s likely to be thoroughly incensed with me. For a while, anyway.”
“Well, I reckon you might be right, there.” Hoss smiled. “But the way I figure it, if he’s feelin’ well enough to be mad at you, that’ll be a mighty good sign.”
Adam snorted softly. “Easy for you to say.”
4.
“I can’t believe you fell on me!”
“Well I didn’t do it intentionally, Joe.”
Joe, however, didn’t appear to be heeding him. He hissed softly and wrapped his good arm gingerly around his ribs. It seemed they weren’t too happy with his little outburst. Neither was his head, if the way his eyes were squinted nearly shut was any indication.
A couple seconds later, however, Joe went on – a bit more subdued and careful about keeping his voice down, but definitely not through.
“You’re heavy, you know that? What’ve you been eating, anyway? If I hadn’t a’ known better, I’d ‘ve thought it was Hoss that landed on me.”
“Yeah, well, it wasn’t just me that landed on you. Half the wreckage from the upper bunk came down on top of you, too.”
“Huh. Suppose so.” Joe lifted up his right arm briefly, to get a look at the bandage. “Guess that’s what happened here, and to my side, then.”
“Yeah, that would be what happened to your arm and your side. Now if you’re through being mad at me…”
Joe gave a mock-thoughtful look, then declared magnanimously. “For now. I’ll decide if I’m done for good later.”
“Thank you. Very gracious of you.” Adam rolled his eyes. “Then can you tell me anything more helpful about how you’re feeling? Obviously you’re not any less coherent than you were before you got hit on the head. No more, either, unfortunately. How bad’s the headache? Any seeing double, or blurriness, nausea…?” He trailed off when Joe groaned and shut his eyes.
“Did you have to mention feeling sick? I wasn’t, until you brought it up. Think you reminded my stomach it was being left out of all the fun…” He swallowed convulsively a couple times, trying to convince what little he had in his stomach to stay there.
Hoss frowned in concern. “You’d better try not to throw up, Little Joe. With those ribs of yours, it sure wouldn’t feel good.”
Joe groaned again. “Believe me, I know, and I’m tryin’.”
After a minute, the urge seemed to pass. He relaxed a bit and opened his eyes again.
“Better?” Adam asked.
“A bit.”
“Well I hate to bring the subject up again, but speaking of your stomach, how’s it doing in general? I couldn’t tell if you might’ve taken any internal damage. You’ve had broken ribs before – this feel like anything more than that?” Adam tried to make the question sound casual, but it was obvious that he was tense as he waited for the answer.
“Don’t think so.” Joe started to shake his head, then hastily aborted the gesture, wincing again and raising his left hand to his forehead. “Just kinda generally bruised up.”
Some of the tension left Adam, but he pressed on. “You never answered me about your head. How’s it doing?”
“Mmm, feels like it’s gonna explode. Not seeing double or blurry or anything, though, so probably not. Just get kinda dizzy when I move it too fast.”
“So don’t move too fast,” Adam advised.
“You know me, Adam. I’ve been moving too fast since the day I was born.”
“Oh, believe me, I do know. But there’s no time like the present for turning over a new leaf.”
“Aw, you’re no fun.”
“Maybe not, but you won’t be in any shape for having fun for some time. And I don’t think you’re going to be all that much fun for a while, either.”
“You can say that again,” Hoss put in. “And it’ll be an even longer while if you don’t rest yourself up properly.”
“You’re right, there, Hoss,” Adam agreed. “In fact, we’d all better see how much rest we can salvage yet tonight. We’ve still got a long ways to go, and there’s no saying what morning’ll bring with it.”
“Adam… How’re we gonna go anywhere tomorrow?” Joe asked quietly. “Yesterday I could walk, but now… I don’t know….”
Adam looked down at his hands for a moment before meeting Joe’s eyes. “We’ll… We’ll figure that out in the morning.”
“I think we’re about due for a good break.” Hoss sounded confident. “I’m sure something’ll come up by then. At least we’ll be able to think better after some sleep.”
“I don’t know,” Adam muttered softly, his eyes resting on the bandage over Joe’s side. “I think we might’ve just about used up our share of miracles for the time being.”
“Nah, Hoss is right. One way or another, something’ll come up. The Cartwright family’s had some bad breaks, but it’s always had more than its share of good luck too.” Joe offered him a lopsided grin. “How else do you explain winding up with a brother like me?”
“How else indeed?” Adam gave him a wry look. “You are impossible, you know that?”
“Yep.” Still smiling, Joe shut his eyes. “And you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Hoss chuckled. “Nah, I don’t suppose we would.”
“I don’t know –”
“Shh – Adam.”
“What?”
Hoss nodded toward Joe. His face still held some of the tension of pain, but his body was relaxed, and he was taking deep, even breaths.
“Asleep already?” Adam shook his head. “He hasn’t slowed down any, that’s for sure. When he sets his mind to do a thing, he really does it.”
“Sure does.” Hoss settled down on the floor, as near the fire as he could get without crowding Joe. “And for once, I think we’d better follow his example.”
5.
It was a restless night for all of them. Being thoroughly shaken up in the middle of the night, either literally or figuratively, never makes it a simple matter to settle back down to sleeping, and the fact that there might yet be real danger nearby didn’t make it any easier.
Exhaustion pulled at them, trying to ease them into the rest they needed and wanted, but now both Adam and Hoss were on edge. The breeze setting the tree branches to creaking, a burned-down branch settling in the fireplace, even worse, a stronger gust of wind making the building around them groan softly – noises which, on a normal night, would be nothing more than a familiar lullaby were suddenly enough to have their eyes flying open and hearts beating faster.
As for Joe, though sleep had come to him quickly enough, it was far from undisturbed. He might not be quite careful enough to keep from jarring his injuries when he was awake, but asleep he was even less cautious. It seemed every time he shifted in his sleep he’d wind up jolting awake with a gasp.
The worst was when he’d unconsciously tried to roll onto his side. He’d been unfortunate enough to pick his right side, and between the pressure on his ribs and the cut on his side… His cry that time had been enough to have both Adam and Hoss nearly on their feet before they realized what had happened.
They must have all fallen into a deeper sleep at some point, because when the first touches of dawn became visible, highlighting the shack’s many chinks and holes as spots of ever-lightening gray, none of them were awake to see it. Until a woodpecker chose a stump a couple yards from the door as the place to find its breakfast, that was.
Joe let out a strangled whimper and covered his face with his left arm. “Hoss – shoot it, please.”
“Don’t tempt me,” Hoss growled.
“Then shoot me. ”
“No one’s doing any shooting. Anyone nearby would be sure to hear it.”
Joe lifted his arm a bit to look at Adam. “You mean you would shoot me otherwise?”
Adam just gave him a look. I was kind of hard to tell whether it was meant to say “Don’t tempt me,” or, “Don’t be ridiculous.” Joe let the arm drop over his eyes again.
After a moment, Adam spoke again. “We might as well get up. It’s unlikely any of us will be getting any more sleep anyway.” He pushed himself to his feet with a groan and stretched gingerly. Apparently he hadn’t come out of the crash last night as unscathed as he’d thought – his back felt like a mess of bruises this morning.
“Yeah, guess we had better be gettin’ a move on.” Hoss followed Adam’s example, rising and stretching, before turning to look at Joe. “How’re you feelin’ this morning, Little Joe?”
Joe didn’t remove the arm from over his eyes, but the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Never better.”
“Sorry to hear that, little brother. If that’s the case, then you’ve had a pretty sorry life.”
Joe started to laugh, then stopped with a gasp, dropping his arm to wrap it around his ribs again. He moaned. “Ow, quit makin’ me laugh.”
Adam shook his head, smiling, and clapped Hoss on the arm. “I’ll need your help finding some good pieces of wood. I think a litter is going to be our best bet for transporting him today.” Joe started to push himself up, wincing and hissing at the movement, but persisting nonetheless. “Joe – stay down. You’re going to be moving around more than you’ll like today as it is. Stay still while you can.” Adam moved toward him, as if to enforce his words with actions.
Joe shook his head. “Help me sit. I can – I can help.” He gestured toward the blanket they’d used for bandages. “I’ll start – start tearing up the rest of that blanket to tie the wood with.” His voice was tight with pain, but the look on his face was determined.
Arguing would only waste time and energy, so Adam quickly moved in to support him, helping him slide back to sit against the wall. Even that movement was enough to have Joe panting a bit, though shallowly, to keep from aggravating his ribs. Adam frowned.
“Your head still hurting?”
Joe gave a careful nod. “‘Bout the same. Hand me that blanket, will you?”
Adam pressed his lips together, hesitating for a moment as he studied Joe. Before he could come to any conclusion, he caught a sound that had him shooting to his feet and turning toward the door, his hand on his gun. Hoss was already doing the same.
Joe had heard it too. “Horses?”
He moved as if to push himself to his feet, but Adam turned briefly to look at him. “Stay, Joe.”
Joe dropped back, but the look in his eyes clearly said that he wasn’t going to be staying there long, once trouble started.
Adam and Hoss drew their guns as they eased up to opposite sides of the door, which they’d propped up against its frame the night before. It’d helped to keep the wind out and the heat in, but one good push would knock it over.
“Hullo in there! You’re safe to come out if you like, but if you’ve got guns I’ll thank you not to be shooting at us. We’ve had more ‘n enough gunplay to last us a while.”
Looking at each other in confusion, Adam and Hoss lowered their guns a bit.
“Not exactly what I’d expected those bandits would have to say when they finally caught up to us,” Hoss muttered.
“No.” Adam frowned, and called out, “What do you want?”
“Well, nothin’,” came the reply. “We was followin’ a pack of bandits, and finally caught up with ‘em last night. Our tracker said that they was chasin’ after someone else, though, so we thought this mornin’ the neighborly thing to do would be to come on after you, and tell you there wasn’t no need to be runnin’ anymore, and see if you all needed any help.”
Hoss raised his eyebrows, and after a moment’s consideration, Adam nodded. Sticking a foot out, Hoss nudged the door, pushing it till it fell outward. Gun at the ready, Adam leaned over just enough to look out, ready to pull back in an instant if need be.
Three men sat on horseback, a few yards away. A fourth, apparently the one who’d been doing the talking, had dismounted and stood a little closer. He raised his – empty – right hand in a wave. None of the others were making any moves that could be construed as threatening. They looked friendly enough, and they didn’t look like any of the bandits that had attacked them. It was hard to be certain, considering how fast everything had happened, but... they weren’t exactly dressed like bandits, either.
With another glance at Hoss, Adam returned his gun to his holster, but kept a casual hand on it as he stepped outside. Hoss moved so he could see what was happening, but stayed back out of the way, ready to provide covering fire in case Adam had to make a dive back to shelter.
“Doesn’t look like any of you’re the sheriff for these parts.” Adam kept his voice and smile pleasant as he studied them.
The group’s spokesman returned smile for smile. “Nah, Sheriff and his deputies went on toward town with the prisoners. Rest of the posse went with ‘em, too. We figured since all them bandits are dead or captured, it wouldn’t very well take all of us to come up here. I’m Jeb Brady,” he gestured toward the men behind him in turn, “and these’re my neighbors, Tom, Fred, and Rob.”
Adam nodded a greeting. “Adam Cartwright.” He gestured back toward the shack. “The man in the doorway’s my brother Hoss, and our younger brother Joe’s inside as well. Joe’s been hurt, and we sure would appreciate some help getting him to a doctor.”
“Sure thing, sure thing.” Jeb nodded, looking concerned. “Your brother get shot by those bandits?”
“No. No, he’s not shot. I don’t think he’s too badly hurt, but he can’t really move around much.”
The rest of the men were dismounting, and Jeb and Adam started moving toward the shack.
“He have an accident while you were running, then?” Jeb asked.
“Not… quite.” Adam rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s kind of a long story.”
6.
“I could’ve ridden a horse.”
“Sure you could,” Adam agreed easily. “With a bad foot, broken ribs, nasty concussion, and gashes in your arm and side that the doctor must have put a couple dozen stitches into, all told. I’m sure it wouldn’t have given you any trouble at all. And yet, being the unreasonable person I am, I rented a wagon anyway. Sometimes, little brother, life is just not fair.”
“You can say that again,” Joe grumbled.
He looked as if he would’ve liked to cross his arms. The fact that doing so would have aggravated his right arm, the cut on his side, and his ribs, all of which were hurting enough as it was, likely only added to his irritation. Besides, the effect of such gestures tends to be rather spoiled when one is lying down. Being propped in a half-sitting position, as Joe was at the moment, wasn’t really much better.
In all honesty, Adam couldn’t fault him too much for being in a bit of a foul mood. The road was rough, Joe was hurting, and none of them had slept much at all last night. And, while the last – had it really only been a day and a half since those bandits had taken them by surprise? – hadn’t been exactly fun for any of them, Joe had decidedly gotten the worst of it.
So, while he might not enjoy it, he was inclined to be tolerant of Joe’s mood. Which was part of the reason why, instead of being up front with Hoss, he was sitting back here keeping Joe company. Not that it seemed to be helping a whole lot, at the moment.
A particularly nasty jolt as one of the wagon’s wheels went over a bump had Joe yelping and curling protectively around his injured side.
“Hoss, could you try not to find every single bump and hole in the road between here and the Ponderosa?” he gritted out between clenched teeth.
Hoss glanced over his shoulder at him. “Sorry ‘bout that, Little Joe. I know it’s kinda rough back there for ya, but I don’t see how there’s anything more I can do about it than I already am. This road’s just pretty bumpy.”
“Hey, how about letting me have a go, then?” Joe started to push himself up, but was immediately stopped by Adam’s firm hand on his shoulder.
“I think not. Trust me, it may not seem like it at the moment, but you would very quickly regret trying to sit up there.”
Joe settled back with a sigh, and Adam relaxed his restraining grip, but didn’t yet remove his hand.
“You might at least let me try.”
Adam gave him a slight smile. “I know you’ll try anything once – at least – but in this case you’re just going to have to trust my judgment. Believe me, I am not just trying to spoil your fun.”
There was only a brief pause before Joe replied quietly, “I know. Sorry.”
Adam gave Joe’s shoulder a squeeze before settling back again himself. They sat in comfortable enough silence, watching the slowly passing landscape. The quiet stretched on long enough that Adam began to wonder if Joe had somehow managed to doze off.
When he looked over to check, however, he saw that Joe was quite wide awake, though his expression had grown thoughtful. No, not exactly thoughtful – or at least, not just thoughtful. This particular expression was one he had grown all too familiar with over the course of the years, and it was one that nearly always meant mischief.
There was a glint of something like satisfaction, almost approaching glee, in Joe’s eyes, and Adam shuddered to think what might have put it there at this particular moment. It was bad enough when Joe came up with some “brilliant” scheme that was sure to work beautifully, but it seemed unlikely that even Joe could be feeling up for planning something like that just now.
So what could it be? He was fairly certain that he didn’t want to know. And yet, the prospect of being caught by surprise at some later date somehow seemed even worse. He was going to have to ask. But casually. Carefully.
“You’re looking mighty pleased. Feeling any better?”
“Hmm?” Joe gave him a distracted look. “Oh, no. Just…thinking.”
“About what?”
“I don’t suppose I’ll be able to do much now for some time.”
“Well no, I suppose not. That hardly seems like something you’d be looking so pleased about, though.”
“It’s just….” Joe’s eyebrows were drawn together, and he was frowning a bit. He looked rather concerned, now. Worried, even.
“Just what?”
“Well, Pa’s been saying that we need a new pit dug for the outhouse, and the outhouse itself scrubbed down inside before we move it. I was supposed to start working on it day after tomorrow, once we got home from this trip. I, ah, think he’s still a little mad about the, um, the little incident at the Bucket of Blood last week.”
“Ah.”
“Thing is, I’m not gonna be able to now, not for a while, anyway. And folks ’ve been saying that we’re likely to have an early winter this year. If that pit’s not done by the time there’s a cold snap and the ground freezes….” He gave a little shrug.
“I see.”
“Yeah. Guess someone else’ll have to do it now.” Joe gave him a helpless, apologetic look. The exact depth of the sincerity behind that look was quite apparent.
Adam returned the look with a calm, even one of his own. “Hmm. Pity. Guess it can’t really be helped, though.”
“Nope. Guess not.”
Well, that explained the improvement in Joe’s disposition. He’d found the bright side of things, and now he was going to milk it for all it was worth.
A very slight smile tugged at the corners of Joe’s lips, and as he opened his mouth to speak Adam fought back the urge to groan. He was saved, however, when Hoss unexpectedly reined the horses to a halt.
“Hoss? What –” Adam craned around, trying to see what the trouble was.
Instead of answering, Hoss pulled his hat off and waved it in the air. “Pa! Hey, Pa!”
“Pa’s here?” Joe started to twist as well, in an attempt to see for himself, then let out a pained grunt.
“Joe, stay down!” Adam looked at him in exasperation. “He’ll be here soon enough.”
Now that the wagon was stopped, they could hear a single horse, approaching quickly. In moments, they heard their father’s familiar voice as well.
“Hoss! When your horses came home this morning, I knew – What happened, son?”
“We ran into some trouble, Pa.”
“Your – your brothers?”
Hoss gestured behind himself. “They’re in the back.”
Even as he pushed himself up onto his knees, Adam could well imagine the look of fear and dread that must have appeared on their father’s face. His thoughts were only confirmed when Hoss hastily continued.
“It’s all right, Pa, they’re fine. Leastways Adam’s fine, and the doctor said that Little Joe will be.”
By that time, Ben was bringing his horse up alongside the wagon. He gave Adam the kind of scrutinizing look that only a worried father could give, before looking down at Joe. He was visibly relieved to see them looking as sound as they did. His concern, however, clearly still far from being dispelled, was all the more aroused by the sight of Joe’s weary, scratched, bruised, and bandaged self.
“Hi, Pa.” Joe raised a hand briefly in greeting.
“Joe, are you all right? What happened to you?”
“Adam.”
“What? Joseph, are you –” Ben glanced back and forth between his eldest and youngest sons, bewildered. “How, exactly, is Adam responsible for this?”
“He fell on me. And brought a bed along with him.”
Adam groaned and looked heavenward. No, Joe was definitely not going to let this go for a very long time.
END
