Trapped

By: Rona Y.

“Adam, you and Joe head over in that direction and see if there are any strays left amongst the trees,” Ben suggested, pointing. “Hoss and I will go down this way.”

“See you at the bottom of the hill then,” Adam replied, dryly. He knew only too well why Ben was sending him off with Joe. The two of them had had words that morning and there had been an icy distance between them ever since. Joe had not said two words all day, which was unlike him, and he had made sure to keep both Ben and Hoss between him and his oldest brother.

For a moment, it looked as though Joe was going to protest the situation, but seeing the look on Ben’s face, he decided to keep quiet. Turning his horse, he rode in the direction Ben had indicated.

Sighing, Adam gave Ben a half smile and followed his brother, thinking how odd it was to see him riding something other than Cochise, his usual mount. The pinto was as much a part of Joe as his green eyes and curly hair. But then – Adam glanced down at his own mount. Perhaps it was just as strange for Joe to see him, Ben and Hoss on different mounts, too. They had been especially busy with round-up this year and to give their preferred mounts a break, they were all working with their second horses. Adam was riding a grey gelding called Max. Joe had a tall bay with a white face called Blaze, appropriately enough.

Catching up to his silent brother, Adam glanced at the set face. “Joe.” There was no response, so Adam tried again. “Joe, there’s no point in blanking me, little brother. I’m not going to go away.”

“What do you want?” Joe asked, coldly.

“Oh come on, Joe, stop sulking!” Adam snapped. “I was in the right and you know it!”

“Really?” Joe shot back. “I don’t happen to agree.”

Taking a grip on his temper, Adam said, more calmly, “Joe, that stallion is never going to gentle. You’ve got to geld it before someone is hurt.”

“I don’t see where what I do with my horse is your business,” Joe replied. “The stallion is plenty gentle enough when I’m handling him.”

“We don’t need one-man horses on this ranch,” Adam stated. “We need horses that can work for anyone, not just you!”

“And when I’m finished, he will work for everyone,” Joe growled. “Adam, I’ve had the horse barely a month. What do you expect? Miracles?”

Goaded, unable to stop himself, Adam snidely remarked, “I thought this new way of working the horses was a miracle, Joe. At least, that’s what you’ve led us to believe!”

Halting his horse with an unusually hard tug on the reins, Joe just looked at Adam wordlessly. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say, he was so hurt by his brother’s comment. “I hate you,” he murmured and put his heel to his horse.

“Joe!” Adam cried, and kicked his own mount into action. “Joe, wait! I didn’t mean it!” He urged his horse to a faster pace, intent on catching Joe and apologising for his harsh words.

It happened without warning. Blaze suddenly stumbled and Adam saw Joe move in the saddle to keep his balance. But it was no use. With horror, Adam realised that the ground beneath his horse’s feet was moving – not sideways like a landslide but down. There was a dull roaring sound and Adam and Joe disappeared from sight.

*****************************

“What was that?” Ben asked, pulling his horse to a standstill.

“I dunno,” Hoss admitted, screwing his face up to listen harder.

The sound didn’t come again, but the echo of it lingered in their ears. Ben gave Hoss a worried look. “I think we’d better go and find out,” he suggested. “It didn’t sound too good and Adam and Joe are over that way.”

With anxiety dogging every step, they rode cautiously towards where they thought the sound had come from and were met by a wall of dust. Ben’s horse shied and it took him a moment to get it back under control. “What caused this?”

“I’d’ve said a cave-in,” Hoss replied, puzzled. “But there ain’t no caves here about.”

His eyes suddenly wide, Ben glanced frantically around him. “Bob Summer’s mine,” he gasped. “The tunnels extended this way, didn’t they?”

“Oh no,” Hoss muttered, and Ben didn’t need another answer. He had bought this land from the old miner years before, taking on trust that the Bob had shored up the tunnels as well as he said he had.

Hastily dismounting, they crept through the thinning dust cloud with caution. Ben gasped, and clutched a drunken pine tree for support when he saw the full extent of the devastation. One of the old mine tunnels had given way and pulled trees and bushes down with it. A huge gash ran up the hillside.

“Adam! Joe!” Ben cried. “Adam! Joe!”

There was no answer.

“Look!” Hoss cried, pointing down into the new ravine. “Ain’t that Joe’s jacket? An’ there! Ain’t that Adam’s horse?”

For a horrible second, Ben couldn’t spot the things Hoss had seen and he feared that his middle son was only seeing what he wanted to see. Ben blinked the tears away and the world came into focus again and he saw the scrap of green that was undoubtedly Joe’s jacket and the grey leg of Adam’s horse sticking up into the air.

The horse was dead – that was only too obvious – but what about his sons?

“We need to get help!” Ben declared. He could see at once that the walls of the ravine were too steep to scale without ropes. “Adam! Joe!”

“Ya stay here, Pa,” Hoss suggested quickly. “I’ll go an’ git help.” With one last glance at the ravine, Hoss hurried back to his horse, mounted up and rode as though all the devils in hell were on his tail. It was a good thing his mount was sure-footed, for Hoss’ vision was blurred with tears. Were his brothers still alive? And if so, would he get back with help in time?

*****************************

Consciousness came back on a wave of pain. Groaning, Joe tried to move, but found that he was trapped beneath his horse. For a moment, Joe couldn’t remember what had happened, but as he blinked his vision back into focus and glanced around, memory came back with a rush. “Adam? Adam!”

There was no answer from his older brother, but a familiar voice floated down from above. “Joe? Are you all right?”

“Pa?” Joe called. “I don’t know. I think so.” Peering upwards, Joe was able to glimpse his father’s white hair at the top of the ravine. It was immensely comforting.

“Can you see Adam, Joe?” Ben called, relieved that his youngest son appeared to be all right. He would be happier when he could actually see Joe for himself.

“Not right now,” Joe called. “Wait a minute.” Joe paused to catch his breath. Blaze stirred and agony rushed through Joe’s trapped foot. He bit his lip to prevent his cry reaching his father’s ears. It seemed to take forever before the pain subsided slightly, but when it did, Joe realised that Blaze had moved enough that he was able to free himself. Every movement was agony, but Joe eventually was leaning against his horse’s warm bulk.

There was no doubt that the animal was badly injured. Joe knew he should put Blaze out of his misery, but his groping hand encountered only an empty holster and his prime concern was finding his brother. Patting the horse consolingly, Joe braced himself for the pain that moving would cause.

“Joe?” Ben had grown worried at the prolonged silence. He looked down at the sides of the ravine once more, hoping that he might see a possible way down, but nothing had changed. As Ben leaned over, the edge of the lip crumbled away, sending more stones and earth into the chasm. “Joe? Are you all right?”

“I’ll be okay,” Joe called back, but the thinness of his voice told Ben that his son was only putting up a brave front. “I’m looking for Adam.”

“Be careful, son,” Ben replied. “Hoss has gone for help. We can’t get down without ropes.”

“All right,” Joe responded, to let Ben know that he understood. He drew his uninjured leg towards him, in preparation for standing, but a ghastly twinge from his injured leg told him that standing was not going to be an option. Glancing down at himself, Joe realised that his right leg was broken just below the knee. Joe swallowed. He knew the pain was going to be awful, but he had to find Adam.

Dragging his prone body carefully over the fresh earth, Joe soon spotted Adam’s grey gelding. The horse was clearly dead, its neck broken. But where was his brother? In a rush of remorse, Joe remembered his last, hateful, words to his brother. How could he have told Adam he hated him? It wasn’t true. He’d just been trying to hurt back, which was childish of him. Joe would have given anything to take back those awful words.

Blinking sweat out of his eyes, Joe suddenly saw movement and realised that it was his brother! Mingled hope and relief gave Joe added courage to drag his injured body a few more yards so that he could see Adam clearly and touch him. Adam had a gash on his head, but had his eyes open and was looking at Joe with recognition.

“Pa!” Joe called, excitedly. “I can see Adam!”

Up above them, Ben closed his eyes for a second, overwhelmed with relief. Adam was alive, Ben knew from Joe’s tone. Hoss would be back with help soon and his boys would be safe again.

Eagerly, Joe reached out for Adam, smiling despite his pain. He put his hand on a large stone and transferred his weight onto it. But the ground beneath them wasn’t stable. With a muffled ‘whumph’, the ground gave way again.

******************************

“Joe!” Ben screamed. He leant as far out as he dared, but all he could see was dust in the air. More earth crumbled beneath his hands and Ben had to move quickly to avoid falling into the ravine, too. Much as he longed to be down there with his sons, helping them, he knew that falling in would not help the situation. “Please hurry, Hoss,” Ben prayed as he anxiously scanned the ravine, hoping that one or other of his sons would call to him to let him know they were all right.

***************************

Coughing painfully, Adam Cartwright fought to drag in a breath of air that was not laden with dust. He managed to turn his head slightly and found a relatively clear space under the weight that kept his body pinned to the ground. It was only as his head cleared that he realised the weight on top of him was Joe. His younger brother’s eyes were closed and his face was pale. “Joe?” Adam whispered.

There was no immediate response. Adam struggled to free one of his arms to gently cup Joe’s cheek with his hand. He was relieved that Joe was quite warm to the touch and that moving didn’t cause him too much pain. “Joe?” he repeated, rubbing his brother’s cheek. “Come on, Joe, wake up for me now.”

After a few moments, Joe stirred and winced. He blinked groggily and finally focused on Adam’s face. “Adam?” Joe swallowed. “You all right?”

“I think so,” Adam replied. “What about you?”

“I’m fine,” Joe responded quickly – too quickly, Adam thought. He eyed his brother doubtfully, seeing the too-pale face and fine lines etching themselves around his mouth as the pain from his broken leg reasserted itself. Adam didn’t know what was causing the pain, but he recognised the signs.

“What happened?” Adam asked, deciding not to challenge Joe at once.

“The ground collapsed underneath us,” Joe explained. He swallowed hard again, fighting back the nausea that threatened to overwhelm him. He suddenly realised that he was still lying on top of Adam. Although the thought of moving was abhorrent to him, he couldn’t stay there. He might be hurting his brother. Moving cautiously, Joe slithered backwards and found that there was a clear area behind him. He sat down too abruptly on his butt and bit back a scream that rose in his throat as the movement jarred his leg clear down to his toes.

As the world settled down again, Joe became aware that Adam hadn’t actually moved at all. Concern spiked through Joe’s gut and he looked at his brother.

Before the second slippage, Adam had been lying beside his dead horse, miraculously flung clear in the fall. Now, he was buried to the waist in earth and rubble and momentarily paralysed by fear that his back was broken. He wasn’t feeling any pain, but he wasn’t sure he could feel his legs, either.

“Adam?” Joe queried, fearfully. “Are you all right?”

“I don’t know,” Adam responded. “I can’t really … feel my legs,” he admitted, as though it was shameful. His eyes cut sideways, looking at Joe with barely controlled panic. “Joe – what about Pa and Hoss? They weren’t…”

“Oh lord!” Joe exclaimed, horror in his tones. “Pa! He’ll be frantic!” Drawing in a deep breath and looking up, Joe sought to locate his father. But they were lying deeper in the ravine and Joe couldn’t see Ben at all. “PA!” he cried. “Pa!”

“Joe!” The beloved voice came floating back. “Joe, are you all right? What about Adam?” Ben was relieved that his voice didn’t sound as panicky as he felt.

“He’s here!” Joe called back. “But he’s trapped under earth and stuff.”

“Is he all right?” Ben asked, fear catching in his throat.

“I think I’m all right,” Adam called back. He found a tight smile for Joe, who was examining him anxiously once again.

“Hoss should be back soon with help!” Ben called down. “Don’t move! We think this was an old mine tunnel.”

“We ain’t going anywhere,” Joe returned, somewhat shakily. Joe had no idea how long they had already been in the ravine, but he didn’t think it was really that long, although it felt like forever to him. It would be some considerable time before Hoss got back with help. He would have to do everything he could to keep Adam comfortable and cheerful. “Pa, you got a canteen?”

“Canteen?” Ben repeated to himself, quietly. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of that?” Raising his voice, he called back, “I’ll just get it, Joe!” Retreating carefully from the crumbling edge, Ben went back to where his horse was patiently cropping the grass and retrieved the canteen. It wasn’t as full as Ben would have liked, but he wasn’t going to waste time finding a stream and filling it. He hurried back to the edge. “Joe?”

“Right here, Pa,” Joe called back, cheerfully. He stretched his arm above his head and waved vigorously. “Can you see my arm, Pa?”

“I see you,” Ben returned. “Here it comes, Joe.” He could barely see his son’s hand against the gloom in the ravine. Taking careful aim, Ben threw the canteen into the depths.

It was a remarkably good throw. The canteen appeared with shocking suddenness and Joe fumbled his catch, so the heavy canteen struck him in the face. With a cry, Joe covered his face with his hands. The canteen bounced to a stop beside Adam, the stopper still miraculously in place.

But as much as he wanted a drink of water, Adam’s first concern was for Joe. He reached out and put a hand on Joe’s thigh. “Joe, are you all right? Joe!”

Slowly, Joe dropped his hands to peer at Adam. His left eye was already swelling and the embryonic discolouration of a bad bruise was showing across the cheekbone. “I’m all right,” Joe asserted unconvincingly. “It just startled me.” He avoided Adam’s eyes. “Got it, Pa,” he called up.

“You’re not all right!” Adam declared.

“I’ve had black eyes before,” Joe brushed him off. He forced himself to pick up the canteen and moved slightly to hand it to Adam. “Here, let me support your head.” He lifted his brother’s head and shoulders up and slid his uninjured leg beneath Adam’s back. “You’re cold,” Joe noted.

“You’re not very warm either,” Adam retorted. “It’s cold down here, in case you hadn’t noticed. The sun doesn’t reach down here.”

Looking up, Joe saw that the sky had darkened dramatically. Even as he thought it looked like rain was on the way, a huge, cold drop hit him right on the nose. The next moment, rain was pouring down in a soaking deluge. Whipping off his green jacket, Joe tented it over his head and leant awkwardly over Adam, sheltering them both as best he could. He knew that his arms would soon tire, but he vowed to keep his brother as dry as possible, regardless of the cost to himself. He tried not to think of the potential consequences of the downpour.

Up above them, Ben prayed fervently that the rain wouldn’t further loosen the dirt and rocks.

*****************************

Several hours had passed before Hoss returned in a wagon, with another wagon following him and as many hands as he could muster. In typical Hoss fashion, he had brought not only rope, but shovels, blankets and food. He wordlessly handed Ben a rain slicker, for his father was soaked and shivering. “Have…are…?” Hoss didn’t know how to word his request.

“They’re alive,” Ben assured Hoss, clutching his middle son’s brawny arm. “There was another slip and they’re further down the ravine than they were.”

“We’ll git them out,” Hoss vowed, looking determined. “Come on, you men! Let’s git at it!” Hoss began to organise the men. Ben thanked the Lord for his son’s stalwart courage and went back to the edge of the ravine.

****************************

The muscles in Joe’s arms were cramping painfully, but he doggedly tried to keep them up so that his jacket sheltered Adam’s face. He was soaked through, shivering violently, and he was almost beyond speech. The pain from his broken leg was getting worse. Joe wished he’d tried to take his boot off earlier.

“Joe.” Adam’s soft voice broke the strained silence. “Joe, rest, please.” Adam could see the strain on Joe’s face. “Look, your jacket is soaked anyway. The rain will soon be getting through it. Joe, you must rest.”

Even as Joe shook his head, his arms rebelled and collapsed. For a moment, Joe slumped further over Adam before collecting himself and lying flat on the sodden ground. Adam twisted his head, but couldn’t see more of Joe than his legs, as Joe was now lying behind his head. “Joe? Are you all right? Joe!”

“Yeah,” Joe muttered. He knew he ought to offer Adam some more water, but the canteen was almost empty. The rain was coming down harder than ever and Joe was lying in a puddle. It didn’t seem to matter any more. He couldn’t summon the energy to move.

Worried, Adam bit his lip. He wondered if he ought to try once more to free his legs. Joe had attempted to push some of the debris off, while still keeping Adam sheltered with the jacket, but it resisted his efforts and Joe was afraid to move too much. So far, he was sure he had kept the knowledge of his broken leg from Adam, but if he tried to dig Adam out, he would be bound to give himself away. Besides, Joe admitted to himself, he wasn’t sure he could face that amount of moving about, when his leg throbbed painfully to every beat of his heart.

From above, they could hear the men working. Every now and then, Ben shouted encouragement down to his sons, and assured them it wouldn’t be much longer, but Adam estimated that they had been there for about five hours. Darkness might well fall before they were rescued, and it would be too dangerous for the men to continue working in the dark. Ever realistic, Adam knew that neither he nor Joe would survive a night in the ravine with the rain falling the way it was.

The same thought had occurred to Ben. He wanted to urge his men to hurry, but he knew they were working as fast as they could. Anxiety was eating away at Ben. He felt as exhausted as if he had been running all day, yet he felt as though he had done nothing at all. The sky was growing darker and the rain looked set for the night. The wind was picking up, too, cutting through protective clothing with a cold edge reminiscent of winter time.

Suddenly Hoss was at Ben’s side. “We’re ready, Pa,” he said. “I figgered ya’d want ta go down first. Come on.”

Taking Ben over to where they had been working, Hoss pointed to the rope harness that lay there. The harness was attached to a tree well away from the edge of the ravine and the lip of the ravine was covered in several old horse blankets. The area Hoss had chosen was slightly downhill from where Joe and Adam were lying and the sides had more rock in them, making them more stable.

“We’ll lower ya down first, Pa,” Hoss explained, while fitting the ropes onto Ben. “Once yer down, we’ll send down them blankets, food an’ water. When ya find Adam an’ Joe, ya c’n let us know how they are, an’ one o’ us’ll come down ta help ya if’n ya need it.”

“All right,” Ben nodded. He clasped Hoss’ arm. “Thank you, son.” He raised his voice. “Thank you, every one of you.”

The embarrassed cowboys muttered replies under their breaths. Each one moved to take up his pre-arranged position. Hoss pulled on his gloves, then grasped the rope firmly. “Pa’s comin’ down!” he bellowed.

The descent was much as Ben imagined the descent into Hell must be; just colder. There wasn’t much he could do to help the men working the ropes – just keep himself away from the sides. For the millionth time, Ben wondered how his sons really were.

At last, his feet touched bottom, and Ben found a secure place to stand to free himself from the ropes. A few moments later, the blankets, food and water appeared beside him. Ben picked everything up and looked around. It was much darker inside the ravine. “Joe? Adam?” he called, quietly, not wanting to set off another landslip.

“Here,” Adam called back, sounding much closer than Ben had expected.

Even though no more than twenty feet separated Ben from his sons, it took him almost half an hour to negotiate his way across the debris. But at last, he could see them both and his heart rose to his throat to choke him.

Adam was lying on his back, partially buried in debris. He raised a smile for Ben and Ben took some reassurance from that. Apart from some dried blood by his hairline, there were no other injuries on Adam that he could see. But Ben feared what he might find under the debris. “How are you, son?” he asked, warmly, grasping Adam’s hand.

“All right, Pa,” Adam answered, although the strain was apparent in his voice. “How’s Joe?”

“I’m just about to find that out,” Ben replied, smiling. He moved the few feet to kneel by his youngest son. “Joe?”

Raising his eyes, Joe found a painful smile for Ben. The pain was fast reaching the point where Joe was unsure how much longer he could control it. One minute, he was cold and shivering, the next, he was sweating profusely.

Horrified by Joe’s pale face and pain-dulled eyes, Ben did a visual check of his son. He had, of course, seen the black eye and swollen cheek at once, and now he hunted for other signs of blood and found them on Joe’s right pants leg. He immediately took a closer look and realised that the leg was broken.

“Joe.” Ben’s voice drew Joe from the twilit world that beckoned to him. “When did this happen, son?” Ben’s voice was a warm caress and Joe took comfort from the hand stroking the wet hair back off his forehead.

“When we fell,” Joe murmured. “It was trapped under Blaze.” It was the first time Joe had thought about his horse since the second collapse. He realised that the horse must be dead – he had heard no sounds of distress at all. He wondered how he could have forgotten, not realising that survival tended to take over the sub-conscious mind, too.

“All right,” Ben soothed. “We’ll have you out of here soon.” He exchanged a wordless glance with Adam, who had also realised the implications. Joe’s leg might have swollen so much inside his boot that there was a chance his circulation was already compromised beyond saving.

Sitting back on his heels, Ben looked up. “Hoss, we need men with shovels down here and something to make a splint with.”

“Comin’ right up, Pa,” Hoss called back.

******************************

Of course, coming right up was optimistic on Hoss’ part, but within two hours, Adam was being hoisted to the top of the ravine. When the debris was cleared away, Adam was smitten with dreadful pins and needles. Amazingly, he had no injuries beyond cuts and bruises and managed to walk, with some support, over to where Hoss was waiting impatiently to haul him to safety.

It was another hour after that that Joe was brought up. Ben had got Fred to help him get Joe’s boot off. The break was nasty, and somewhere along the line, probably during the second collapse, the bones had pierced the skin. Joe’s leg was swollen and dirty. Ben was terrified that infection would set in and Joe might lose the leg. His son had fainted while the boot was being removed and Ben was concerned about how long it had taken him to come round again.

But at last, both Joe and Adam were safely back at the house. Adam had already been there for a while when Joe arrived and was tucked up in bed with a hot water bottle. Dr Paul Martin was there, too, and had checked Adam over. Apart from being cold, and covered in innumerable cuts, bruises and scrapes, Adam had come out of the ordeal pretty much unscathed. After a good night’s sleep, he’d probably be almost as good as new, if a trifle stiff.

But one look at Joe was all Paul needed to know that this was going to be a long night. He ordered Ben to go and change into dry clothes and have something to eat. He knew that there was no way Ben could be kept very far from Joe when his son was ill but Paul didn’t need him collapsing.

Reluctantly, Ben did as he was told and soon he and Hoss were sitting down to steaming bowls of soup, followed by a warming stew. As the warmth spread throughout his chilled body, Ben could feel some of the tension oozing out of his muscles.

“Are you all right, Hoss?” Ben asked, suddenly realising that he had been unfair to his middle son. Hoss had been a pillar of strength all day and Ben hadn’t even thanked him for everything he had done. “Hoss, I wanted to thank…”

“Don’t, Pa,” Hoss interrupted. “There ain’t no need. I love Adam an’ Joe jist as much as ya do. Ain’t no need ta thank me fer doin’ anythin’.”

“I tend to disagree,” Ben told him, his voice husky with feeling. “I’d have been lost without you today.”

Blushing, Hoss replied, “Plenty o’ times I’m lost without ya, Pa.”

Smiling through the tears that sprang to his eyes, Ben gave Hoss a hard hug. “We’d be lost without each other,” he smiled.

***************************

Over the days that followed, as Joe fought a persistent fever, Ben reflected on how true his words were. Adam had told them how Joe had tended to him, barely drinking any water himself, but practically forcing it on Adam, and never mentioning his own injury. Adam felt guilty that he hadn’t pressed Joe any harder about what hurt. He felt he had been selfish, being preoccupied with his own predicament. As Ben pointed out to him, that was perfectly understandable and only selfish with the rather dubious use of hindsight.

All three of them took turns sitting with Joe, who spent most of the time in a drugged sleep. Until the infection had gone from his leg, Paul couldn’t put on a plaster cast, and he was afraid that Joe would move and dislodge the delicate bones. They couldn’t risk Joe thrashing around if his fever rose any higher.

Between doses of the drugs, Joe would rouse enough to eat something before being helped back into slumber once more. Ben particularly hated seeing Joe like that. Normally, Joe was a bundle of energy; even when sitting still, he exuded vitality. Now, it was as though he had been extinguished, like a candle. He lay still and pale, apart from a hectic flush that rose and fell in his face as his fever rose and fell.

After almost five days, the fever broke in a drenching sweat. Examining the wound, Paul declared himself satisfied. Joe’s circulation seemed to be all right. His foot was warm to the touch and reacted when Paul lightly dragged his finger up the sole.

Straightening, the physician looked pleased. “Let’s get the cast on, and we can let Joe waken when this sedative wears off,” he announced.

The relief almost brought Ben to his knees. He waited patiently beside Joe’s bedside until at last Joe stirred and opened bleary eyes. “Pa?” he muttered, frowning. “What happened?”

“There was an accident,” Ben told him, one big, warm hand holding Joe’s, his thumb rubbing comforting circles on the back.

“I remember that,” Joe mumbled. His hand squeezed Ben’s. “But the last thing… I don’t remember being here.”

Slowly, Ben explained and then showed Joe the cast on his leg. It reached from mid-thigh clear to his toes. Reflexively, Joe wriggled them. It hurt, but not as much as he had feared. He sighed with relief and then stiffened again. “Pa, where’s Adam?” he demanded, his eyes wide with agitation.

“Right here, as it happens,” came the unexpected reply. Neither Ben nor Joe had heard the door opening. Adam sauntered across the floor and gave Joe a smile. “Nice to see you awake at last, little brother.”

“You’re all right,” Joe breathed, quite forgetting that he had lost five days. Adam looked as though nothing had happened to him.

“Yes, thanks to you,” Adam replied. “Joe, why didn’t you tell me you were hurt? You gave me all that water, and tried to keep the rain off me. You needed looking after, too.”

Suddenly forgotten, Ben watched as his sons repaired the breach between them, neither of them realising that it had already been mended while they were trapped in the ravine. “You were in a worse position than me,” Joe objected. “How were you going to help me? You were stuck there, Adam.”

“I’m sure I could have thought of something,” Adam replied, frustration clear in his voice.

“You didn’t need to,” Joe murmured, suddenly exhausted. “I’m not a little boy any more, Adam. I can be responsible sometimes, too. You needed me and that’s all there was about it.”

“Thanks, Joe,” Adam capitulated, sitting abruptly on the bed, suddenly overwhelmed by the love that was inherent in that simple statement. “And I’m sorry we fought. I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

“I’m sorry we fought, too,” Joe apologised. He placed his hand on Adam’s thigh and after a moment, Adam’s hand came down to lie on top of Joe’s.

They were still sitting like that when Hoss came in a few minutes later with some coffee for Ben. He looked delighted to see Joe awake. “Hey, Shortshanks!”

“Hoss!” Joe reached a hand to his big brother, sliding it out from under Adam’s. He knew his older brother would understand, and he did. “I have some thank yous to make,” he began, but Hoss waved that away.

“No thanks needed,” he insisted. “Jist get better.” He shot a glance at Adam. “I see you two made up. Good.”

Yawning, Joe mumbled something that no one caught. “What?” Ben asked, perplexed.

“Until the next time,” Joe smiled.

“Don’t let there be a next time,” Ben scolded, lightly.

“Aw, Pa, Adam an’ me thrive on our fights, don’t we, big brother?” Joe smiled at Adam.

“Speak for yourself,” Adam retorted and the brothers grinned.

“Nothing changes,” Ben sighed, rolling his eyes.

The End

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