Man of Justice

I do not own The Big Valley nor any of the original Barkleys.

Chapter One

Heath and Audra were sitting in the living room relaxing after a full morning's schedule, when a knock came on the door. Heath took the last bite of the apple he'd been eating, threw the core into the empty fireplace and went to answer it. The woman on the other side of the door looked a bit nervous, but the man standing next to her looked down right uncomfortable as he turned his hat around in his hands. "Can I help you?" Heath asked the visitors; a white haired gentleman and a dark haired woman, who looked to be in her early forties.

"We were hoping to talk to Jarrod Barkley, along with Nick and Victoria." The man stopped turning his hat, straightened up to his full height, and did his best to keep any waver out of his voice. Heath wondered what was up…the couple sure was an anxious pair. "Jarrod's not home right now," Heath answered as he stepped aside, "But, he's due in any time. Mother and Nick are here though. Come on in."

The strangers followed him in into the living room where, by this time, Audra was standing ready to meet their guests. "Hello…" It was all Audra got out as Nick, who had been upstairs, appeared in the entrance way of the living room.

Heath and Audra were puzzled Nick stared at the gentleman for a moment, as if he was trying to decide if he knew their visitor or not. Slowly, like light being allowed to enter into a darkened room where the curtain is pulled to the sides, recognition began to appear in Nick's eyes. His siblings were then shocked to see his facial expressions go from recognition to one of pure distain and revulsion. The explosion that came from their brother was louder than a whole wagon load of dynamite that had just gone off. "What in the hell are you doin' here! You were told years ago you weren't welcome back on this ranch and you're sure not welcome now!" Nick headed towards the man only to have Victoria, who had hurried into the room the moment she heard her son start to holler, step in front in between him and their visitors.

"Nick!" Victoria warned, almost shouting herself. She too looked very much out of sorts, once she realized who their visitors were. Memories from the past came rushing to the front of her mind. Memories; ones she was sure she had quite successfully hidden back to the storage room of her mind. How could she do anything else when the events had been so painful at the time? "What are you doing here, Jacob? What do you want?" There was suspicion in her eyes and anger in her voice. She couldn't help it. While she had not seen the man called Jacob Michael for many years, she still recalled how he'd thought only of himself, what he wanted and what it had cost her family.

The old man sighed. What had he come for? It's not like he could turn back the clock of time and erase the stupidity and pride that had been his main companions so many years ago; two things that had wound up bringing nothing but trials and heartache to the Barkleys. Events long passed but had drastically changed Tom and Victoria's two young sons; one into a man who hit first and asked questions later…unlike the calm, patient young boy that had once existed, the other to a man driven to seek justice, sometimes at a high cost…so different from the almost fourteen year old boy that dreamt of being a rancher like his father. He'd only found out about these changes on his way through Stockton, along with the fact that Tom had been died years ago. "To say I'm sorry," he finally spoke, "to see if there is any way at all, I can make amends."

While Victoria could see the sincere remorse in the man's eyes, Nick wasn't having any of it. He exploded again, "How do you expect to make amends? The damage was done years ago! Or have you invented some way to go back in time and change things!" He took a step towards Mr. Michael only to find his mother's hand on his arm.

Because she could see Jacob's sincerity, she was willing to make peace with the man, but wasn't sure they'd be able to do that if Nick refused to calm down. "Nick," she spoke gently, but firmly, "nothing good is going to come of this if you don't listen."

Again, Nick roared. "Listen to what? His lies, his excuses? He betrayed father's trust! Thanks to him we lost Jarrod for well over a year! Do we need to thank him for days that went on and on with Father gone looking for Jarrod? For weeks and months of having to listen to you and father crying behind closed doors because father came back empty handed? Then finally…" Nick took a breath and then began yelling again,"…FINALLY to get him back only to find ourselves with another battle on our hands…helping Jarrod re-adjust to the life he never should have been taking from and accepting the fact that he'd never be working side by side, for hours on end, with Father and me! " Nick searched his mother's eyes, as he pointed at the older man and with biting fury continued, "My word! Didn't you have enough to deal with…I mean by the time he got back not only did you have Audra to take care of but Eugene as well! The law should have left him in that prison they sent him to!" His face was full of disbelief as he continued shooting out one question after another.

While Nick's questions were being thrown about the room one after the other, without any expectation of a valid answer as far as Nick was concerned, Audra looked at her brother in confusion. What was he talking about? She racked her brain to see if she could pull up an incident where her mother told her stories when Jarrod wasn't with them; she failed of course. Heath, never having heard of Jarrod being missing for any length of time, was just as perplexed.

Victoria would have tried again to get Nick to calm down only she didn't have to. The front door opened and Jarrod walked in. The effect was immediate; Nick's rampage stopped dead in its tracks. Not seeing their guests at first, Jarrod gave Nick a grin and said, as he headed for his brother, "What's got you so riled..." he never finished his sentence as he froze in his tracks.

Jarrod was at first speechless. He couldn't believe what his eyes saw, feeling everything from shock, disbelief to rage and pity… all were fighting for every nerve in his body. Like his mother and Nick, the gate to his memories swung open and let events from long ago rush forward. He didn't know whether or not to be polite and see what the man wanted or to forget his manners and have his fist connect to the man's jaw. Though it wasn't hard to figure out what Nick wanted. If any conversation was to be had with Jacob Michael, Nick could not be in the room. Jarrod put down his brief case and looked at Nick. "McCall said he needs you outside." Okay, so McCall had said he could wait if he had to, but Jarrod wasn't going to tell Nick that.

Nick glared at Jacob and headed for the door.