I do NOT own the copyrights to Bonanza
Authoress note: Doing this pretty much due to a comment made to me. So, I took a break from my own project, Also I got the name of Limbo off one of the episodes, and kind of mixed different ideas from bits of pieces of it, and other episodes.
Short Opening Scene
"Fredrick, you old Sea Dog!" Ben shouted for joy only to find himself falling full force into darkness…..
Scene 1
The wind was blowing hard and it was all Ben could do to keep his coat closed, and his hat on. The past year had been sheer torment. It had been nothing but a total shock to find he'd been shanghaied, and the deal for his services made by one he thought to be a friend.
"How did my sons take it? Is the Ponderosa still intact? That was just one question among many that he'd asked himself over the twelve months at sea. He'd considered it nothing short of a miracle he'd not only survived the ordeal, but had escaped a second attempt at the same thing. He'd managed to get back to Nevada, only to be injured in a fall from his horse. And now the world was doing its best to whirl the ground around in circles beneath his feet.
Ben may not have been able to focus on anything other than managing to walk, but Carolina, the woman who had found him, had no such issues. Hurrying over to the fellow she'd seen fall, Carolina hollered for her eleven- year- old son to help her get the man into the house, and upstairs. The two got Ben into the house and up into one of the spare rooms.
"Have your sister fetch some water." Carolina spoke to her son as she pulled off Ben's shoes, and socks, before covering him with a heavy wool blanket.
"Yes, mother." The youth ran out the door hollering for his twin sister to get some water for their Ma.
The young gal may have been doing as she'd been told but all Ben saw was fog, fog, and more fog. The Nevadan rancher fought to push it away, only to have faces of seamen with rugged faces, and creviced skin, and hardened souls jump out of him laughing heinously. Turning around he tried to get away only to have a mop shoved in his hands with orders to 'swab the deck'.
"I'm not a seamen, I'm a rancher." Ben mumbled over and over. "Name's Ben Cartwright. Sons….three…" Carolina felt every nerve in her bolt a million times as the man mumbled those words.
Carolina bit her lip, with a thousand thoughts flying across her mind, but managed to pull it together when her daughter came in with a basin of water. "Thanks, I think you need to go be with your brother."
"But I want to help." The young girl frowned only to be sent a stern glare from her mother. That being the case, she went ahead and did as she was told.
The small hallway was deserted as the young girl stepped into it. Her brother stood at the bottom of the steps when she appeared. "Who is he?" the young man asked.
"I don't know, Mamma wasn't saying, she just ordered me out." The auburn child sat at the bottom of the steps.
"That only means she's probably taking the man's shirt off to check for any cuts, or bullet wounds which he may have, and doesn't want you seeing them." He put his arms around his sister. "Come on, Elizabeth; let's go gather eggs for breakfast."