A/N:

This is the first in a series of short stories. Every chapter will be a new short story.

This is also my first Bonanza fanfic. I had so much fun writing it! :D It was very entertaining for me and I'm looking forward to writing more of them! Adam and Little Joe's relationship is one of the things that fascinate me about the show and it's so much fun exploring its less serious moments. *snicker*

Oh, and another thing... I have not seen the entire series yet and am not entirely sure how long Hop Sing has been with the Cartwrights. They say "for years", but I don't know how many years. :P If anyone DOES know and this story is incorrect, feel free to let me know. I dunno if the story is worth changing if it IS wrong, but at least I'll know for future stories. :P

So! Anyway! Reviews make my day and if you have any ideas, shout it out! I'd love to hear them! :D


Home Alone

"We'll be back before dinner, son. Mind Hop Sing and keep your brothers out of trouble."

Was that really so hard? It didn't sound hard…

Adam Cartwright, age 14, twirled his finger in the dust of the ground outside of the house. He was sitting crosslegged, leaning on his clenched fist, his elbow supported by his knee, his other hand fingering the six shooter his father had given him for his 13th birthday. Hoss, age 8, was sitting next to him, holding a chicken in his lap and petting it. Little Joe, age 2, was dipping his hands in the water trough a few feet away. Adam was thinking. Thinking about how, one day, he was going to build a house for his Pa that was fit for the land they lived on. Not that Pa had done a bad job with the house, but… Well, Adam's analytical mind was turning over the possibilities even at that young age. Sure, some of the ideas were a little unrealistic, such as having an individual library for every single bedroom with only the books the occupant of that room would want to read, but hey- what's the harm with dreaming?

There was a sudden loud splash that startled Adam out of his reverie with a jerk.

"Well, lookie there!" laughed Hoss, "Little Joe done gonna take him a swim!"

Adam leaped off the ground with a puff of dust and lunged for the water trough. Little Joe's head was completely submerged and his curls were floating up towards the surface. Adam dove his hand into the water, grabbed Joe's shirt and hauled him out with a frightened fluttering of his heart. Joe coughed and spluttered, then suddenly giggled and reached out for Adam's hair (he was always pulling on Adam's hair and it completely mortified the teenager if anyone saw it). Adam sighed with relief and set the toddler on the ground, where he dripped water into the dirt and made mud.

"Don't do that again, Joe!" he chided.

Joe giggled, liquid hazel eyes focused on Adam's dark hair. Adam found himself pushing a stray lock of it back over his ear. Great. So his sub-conscience kicks into "protect my hair" mode just at a look from a rambunctious baby. He really hoped it didn't do that when other folks were around. There was no masculinity in pushing hair behind one's ears. And he was determined to be the man Pa thought he was! Pa thought so much of him, and depended on him too! Marie was a wonderful woman, but sometimes Pa just needed another man around the house and Adam strained to be that man.

His reveries (that he hadn't realized he was slipping into again) were disturbed by a sudden splat and he jerked his hand away from his hair self-consciously (why was it still there!).

"Mud pies!" yipped Hoss and he dove into the little patch of mud that Joe's dripping clothes had created and which he had just plopped down into. Before Adam could protest, Hoss and Joe had managed to sling gobs of the mud there on the ground onto their clothes and faces. He winced and backed gingerly away from the sloppy mess.

"Come on, Adam!" cried Hoss and Little Joe gurgled and repeated Adam's name with outstretched hands.

"Um, no thanks Hoss…"

Hoss's face fell, "Them's real good pies Adam."

"I'm sure they are."

"Pies!" giggled Joe and grabbed up a handful of mud and slung it towards Adam. Adam started and leaped aside as Joe's shockingly well aimed missile splatted to the ground a foot or so behind the place he had been standing.

"Joe!"

But Joe was screaming with laughter and had gathered another handful of mud.

"Joe! No!" He jumped aside just in time. Splat. "Joe, stop that right now!"

Hoss was laughing too, "You look like a chicken that done lost its head, Adam!"

Adam glared, "I'm not the one who's 'done lost their head', Hoss!" Splat!

"Bullseye!" shrieked Hoss and fell over backwards laughing, the mud squelching around his back as he rolled in an agony of cachinnations.

Adam deliberately wiped the mud out of his eyes. "Joe…"

Joe stopped giggling and his eyes went round. "Uh ohhhh…" He squealed as Adam made a sudden move for him and up got the baby and fast went the chubby legs as he ran. He gave an ear piercing shriek that sounded like a train whistle as he tore away from his angry older brother and dashed into the house- right into Hop Sing sweeping the floor clean with a broom. Hop Sing gaped at the muddy footprints splattered on the floor, then slowly looked at Joe, who had stopped running in some amount of horror at what he knew must be coming next. Adam lunged in the door behind him and suddenly pulled up short at the look on Hop Sing's face. He winced as the torrent came.

"Leetle Joe! You bery, bery bad boy! You put footpreents all ovah nice cleen floor! Bad boy! Bery bery bad boy!" Up went the broom handle and down it came over Joe's rounded bum. Joe shrieked again and galloped away over the rugs of the living room. "Adam!" hollered Hop Sing, "Geet Leetle Joe! Bad boy! Bery bery bad boy!"

Adam didn't wait long enough to hear whether Hop Sing was still talking about Joe being "bery bery bad boy" or if the name had now been transferred by right of association to himself. He bolted after the screaming baby, nearly slipped on a muddy footprint and after a few moments of deafening chase, cornered Little Joe and snatched him up off the floor. Joe's big eyes filled with shimmering tears and his generous lower lip trembled.

"A- A- Adam?" he whimpered pitifully.

That might work with Marie, but it's not gonna work with me! "Joe! You are a bery bery bad boy! I mean-! A very very bad boy!"

Tears trailed down Joe's muddy cheeks and threatened to drip more dirty water on the floor. "Ohhh, Adam!"

Adam pointedly ignored the extra mud this close contact with Joe was smearing over his shirt and tried to hold him at arm's length as he marched out the door. "You are very naughty Joe. You know better than to throw mud! And you really know better than to run in the house with muddy feet!"

"Me bad boy!" wailed the baby, "Bad Widdle Joe! Uhhh huuh huuuuuuhhhhh!" Tears streamed down the chubby cheeks as Joe wept, "Pweese Adam! Pweese! No be mad at bad Widdle Joe? Uhhh huuh huuuuhhhhh!" Joe was hysterical.

Adam sighed as he stood on the porch. He made a quick calculation and decided his brother was more important than keeping his clothes as clean as possible. So, he brought the baby to his chest and hugged him with strong, warm arms. "OK, OK Joe, I forgive you." Hope Marie can get these stains out.

Joe flung his arms around Adam's neck and gave him a sloppy, muddy kiss on the cheek, crying, "You da best Olda' Bruder in da whole wold!" as Adam recoiled from the mud being smeared onto his cheeks.

"No! No kissing Joe!" he exclaimed and staggered back in horror at the icky-ness of Little Joe's filthy face, trying to pry the baby off his neck. He completely miscalculated the amount of distance he had left of the porch, stepped backwards off the edge and fell splat- right into Little Joe's patch of drying mud.

Joe screeched with delight, grabbed a handful of the mud, which had firmed into a thick gooeyness, and held it up. "Olda Bruder wanna play now?" he giggled, then reached for Adam's hair.

Adam lifted his mud-caked head from the ground, grabbed the searching hand tightly to keep it from achieving its object and gave the baby a dark look. "No, I don't want to play."

Joe's face fell, "But you in da mud now?"

"I'm in da mud, but I don't wanna play in da mud. I mean-! The mud." He carefully set Joe to the side before peeling his own back out of the sloppy mess. With a sigh, he put out his hand to Joe and the mud-covered brothers walked hand in hand to the barn. With one hand holding Joe, Adam lifted a coil of rope off a nail and went back to the house.

"Now, Joe. I'm going to clean up a bit, but will be right back to get you cleaned up too. You wait here for me. And don't go into the house!"

"OK," Joe smiled up at him innocently.

Adam smiled back at him, but as he smiled tied one end of the rope to the hitching post beside the porch. "Just to make sure you stay here, we're going to play a game."

"A game!" Joe's hazel eyes lit up.

"Yep! It's called 'pretend to be a horse'."

With a giggle, Joe clapped his hands and splattered mud out from between them. "Let's play Adam! Let's play!"

"OK, so here's how it works…" Adam took the other end of the rope and looped it in a figure eight pattern over Joe's chest, like a harness. "You pretend to be a horse and wait here as if I were gonna come out and ride you any minute! Don't let anyone take you away because that would be stealing my horse!" He winked at Joe and Joe giggled and tried to wink back, but only managed a heavy blink.

"Ok Adam! Me be good hoe-se!"

Adam smiled at him, "I'm sure you will. I'll be back soon!" With a sigh of relief, Adam crept into the house, looked both ways for Hop Sing and made a dash for his room. There he snatched up a clean set of clothes, then trotted out the back door towards the stream. At that moment, an indoor washhouse was added to his ranch house plans.


Joe sat on the ground and squeezed the mud through his fingers, then smeared it onto his legs. He put together a mud ball and threw it onto the side of the house. Splat. He giggled and grabbed another handful. Splat. Ooh, this was fun! Splat. Splat.

After about five minutes, he began to get bored and look for something else to do. Up he got and toddled away- but only to the end of the rope. He was moving so quickly, the sudden end to the lead jerked him back and made him sit down heavily on his rear. This startled the baby and he gave a cry to express this emotion. After a moment of sitting there frozen, he looked back. A glance at the snaking brown thing on the ground behind caused him to remember what he was supposed to be doing and he made a face. Being a horse wasn't a fun game at all. It was time to play another game. Go find something else to do.

Joe went to the hitching post and pulled on the rope tied to it. Adam's knot held and Joe's efforts were fruitless. He tugged again, leaning back into the pulls to put his weight into it. Still the knot held. The baby was getting frustrated and when he pulled a third time and still got nowhere, he fell back on his rear and began to cry.

Hoss, somewhat cleaned up now from his experience with the mud, rounded the corner at a run on hearing his little brother cry. "Whut's wrong, 'Lil Joe? 'Ya hurt, or somethin'?"

"I stu- huh- huh- ck!" wailed the baby, "I stu- huh- huh- huh- ck! Uhhh huuh huuuuuuhhh!"

"Don't worry 'Lil Joe, I'll get 'ya loose!"

The baby's wails died to sniffles as he watched Hoss examine the knot. A few moments and correct tugs later, he was free. His face lit up and he threw his arms around his brother's hips (which was all he could reach), "Tank you Hoss! I no stuck no more!"

"No, you ain't stuck no more. How'd you get there, anyway?"

Joe decided to not tell Hoss that he was supposed to be there and said instead, "I dunno… I just got dere! I no see how dat happen!"

Hoss scratched his head, "Well, that don't make sense…"

Joe nodded solemnly. "It don't."

After scratching his head a moment, Hoss shrugged, "Well, I guess it don't matter much."

Joe giggled, "Go see pond? Pweese Hoss? Go see pond?"

Hoss grinned, "OK!" He took the end of Joe's leash and together they marched off to the pond


About fifteen minutes after Adam left Joe, he returned, scrubbed clean and wearing some ratty clothes in preparation for the dirty job of cleaning Joe off. He jogged down the steps to the hitching rail and stopped dead. Where was Joe! He was right here! He stared at the post, noting that even the rope was gone… Then it hit him and he facepalmed. Hoss. He rubbed his face and sighed, then wearily set out in the direction he knew his brothers were headed.


"Ain't it purty Joe?"

"We go swim!"

"Naw, we'd best wait for Pa to do that."

Joe pulled a sad face, "Pweese Hoss? Pweeeeeeese?"

"No, I don't think Pa'd be too happy about that. Neither would Adam, now that I think about it… And he's a whole lot closer!"

Joe looked theatrically disappointed, but the fresh memory of his recent escapades told him that going swimming right now would not be a good thing for Adam's patience. Not that he logically thought it out, but little tykes are amazingly good at knowing about those kinds of things (please don't ask me how I know that). Suddenly, something else caught his attention. "Oh, Hoss! 'Ooky dere!"

There was a sharp and dangerous rattling sound as Joe giggled and reached.

"'Lil Joe! No!" Hoss snatched the baby back quickly as the snake coiled itself tighter, drawing its head back in a menacing gesture. The sudden movement of Joe being jerked back startled the reptile into pulling its head back farther and it shook its rattle harder. "Joe…" began Hoss, "I think you done made it mad."

Crack! Went the sound of a gun and the snake suddenly uncoiled with a jerk and began to whip around wildly, a bullet hole drilled through its evil head. Joe shrieked with laughter and stretched out his hands towards the convulsing animal. Hoss held the baby firmly, his breath coming rather quickly with relief. He looked up to see Adam bounding towards them, his face black.

"Uh oh…"

"Hoss!" exploded the teenager, "How often has Pa told you not to come out here by yourself!" His eyebrows were drawn down so far and so angrily that Hoss felt very alarmed at what might be coming next.

"But I ain't by myself, Adam! I got Joe right here with me!"

"He doesn't count and you know it!"

Hoss hung his head, "I'm sorry Adam."

"You could have gotten Joe or yourself bitten! Pa would be livid!"

"Seems to me you're purty darn livid yerself…"

"HOSS!"

Hoss hung his head again, but mostly to hide his guilty snicker.

"Back to the house! NOW!"

"Yes, Adam…"

Hoss dropped Joe's leash and trudged to the house, feeling Adam's eyes burning into his back. He winced a little, involuntarily. No sir, he was not likely to enjoy what Pa had in store for him when Adam told him what had happened.

Adam took a moment to breathe deeply and calm himself. He clenched and unclenched his hands until he felt he had somewhat mastered himself, then breathed out one more time and looked down at Joe. He started violently and shouted in a panic stricken tone, "JOE!"

Joe jumped and dropped the snake as if it had burned him. Tears started to his eyes at Adam's harsh tone and his lower lip trembled. Adam felt a pang of guilt, but he picked Joe up firmly, moving him away from the deadly snake. Even though it was dead, one scratch on its fang was all it took for Joe to be poisoned.

"A- Adam?" whimpered Joe and one big tear rolled down his cheek.

Why is it he always does this to me? thought Adam in exasperation as he found himself picking the baby up and for the second time that day, holding the muddy boy up close to him in a hug. "It's OK Joe. I'm sorry."

Joe stopped trembling, sighed and nuzzled Adam's neck, the drying mud on his face scratching the sensitive skin under Adam's chin, "I wuv you, Adam."

For a moment, Adam forgot about the muddiness of his brother, the humiliation he had suffered at his hands earlier and how angry he was with him for scaring him like that. "I love you too, Joe."

"MISTA ADAM!"

Both boys jumped.

"Uh ooohhh…" said Little Joe, his eyes going wide, "Adam in twuble?"

Adam winced, "Sure sounds like it…"

"MISTA ADAM!" Hop Sing was hopping mad.

Still holding Joe, Adam made a dash for the house. Hop Sing gestured angrily to the wall of the house- which was covered in mud splats.

"You supposed to watch Leetle Joe!" shouted Hop Sing, "You no do that! Joe make beeg mess! You bad boy! Bery bery bad boy!" Joe giggled and Hop Sing glared at him, "You bery bery bad boy too! You both bad boys! You clean up dees wall 'light now! Quick quick quick!"


And so, when Pa came home, he found Adam, Little Joe and Hoss (who had decided to help his brothers out just to be nice) all scrubbing the wall of the house. He smiled and turned to his lovely wife, "Well, it looks like Hop Sing found them something useful to do. Everything seems to be in order here! I admit, I was a little worried about leaving them…"

Marie smiled too, "Oh, you underestimate them Ben! They are such good boys."

Adam choked so violently that Hoss had to whack his back to make sure he didn't suffocate.

The End