Bonanza
Fan Fiction
BEN
I do not own the copyrights to Bonanza
NOTE: in this I have Joe's wife living, not killed. And -from what I could hear on you tube her name was Alice. Course, I pushed their marriage to an earlier date than the show. And sorry, but I can't type the Swedish accent of the girlfriend I gave Hoss. So, I just wrote the way I speak.
THE HANDS OF TIME
Scene 1
"Melissa!" Kelly yelled with a hiss to her voice. "Get your fanny up here!" The wind carried her voice down to where her cousin was bent over the engine of one very stubborn - very much antique - mode of transportation. It was at one point called a pick-up truck.
"What now?" The gal muttered as she stood up and saw Kelly , her cousin , waving her hand vigorously as she beckoned Melissa to come to her.
"Hurry!" The woman's voice kept whining and hissing until Melissa finally picked up speed- if nothing else to shut her up.
"Where's the fire and who's dying?" Melissa asked with her hands on her hips only to find her arm being hooked and herself drug into an old blue Victorian looking house. Actually, it was a replica and Melissa wasn't convinced it had been done very well as one half it was leaning so badly the kindest thing would have been to shoot the building and put it out of its misery.
"No one -yet." Kelly's hesitant tacking on of the last word threw up a red flag to the one being pulled into the house, down the hall, and around the corner into the small bedroom used for guests.
Melissa hadn't known what the big deal of an empty guestroom would be…until she saw it wasn't so empty. That was bad enough, but the man lying with a trickle of blood running down his forehead was enough to make the lady feel as if she'd been pushed -no thrown- up against the bedroom's wall.
"How in all that is good, did he get here? It's the twenty-third century for crying out loud. Word was that a bounty hunter a hundred years ago ruined the only portal left to the eighteen hundreds - on purpose. And all my father's time machines were destroyed. I know because I helped dismantle them." The he she was referring to was Benjamin Cartwright. Melissa quickly cleaned up his cut and bandaged it. Praise be, the man didn't budge an inch.
"Uh, I think you need to see something else." For an over-dramatic cousin Kelly sure was in different mode today. Normally, her whole body would have been moving as hard as her hand had been outside. Maybe, she was what the twenty-first century had called Bi-polar.
"Can't it wait?" Melissa was not eager to leave a man from the eighteen hundreds alone in a room that resembled a house during his time-frame, but had vast technological differences.
"This won't take long - I hope." Those words were not encouraging, but seeing no choice -other than to follow- Melissa allowed Kelly to lead her out of the room and down the stairs into the basement.
The basement was dark -even with a light on- it was cold an dusty, but still held enough heat as not to make one think they were in some medieval torture chamber. What had met her eyes in the guest bedroom was nothing compared to what Melissa was now seeing -someone's neck needed to be relocated.
"Kelllly…" The way Melissa drew out her name let the cousin -and those present- know the gal's head was close to being put on a chopping block herself. "How - pray tell- did these men get into my house?" Kelly's cousin crossed her arms , tightened her mouth -and allowed her eyes to shoot a look which may as well have been a dagger to the female who had brought her down the stairs..
The men Melissa was shooting daggers over were Robin Hood and his band -with a few others who - thankfully- were not trying to leave. Actually, they had only to find themselves unable to get past an invisible barrier. The men -and a few women - all ranged from Hood's time up to the sixteen hundreds.
"So?" The woman's one-worded question was answered by Kelly pulling back a hanging light sea-blue sheet.
"My father said that machine had been destroyed and I didn't need to mess with it!" Melissa was furious enough to throw real darts at the man for an apparent lie. It was therefore a good thing her father had already passed on.
"It was, but…" Kelly confessed to letting her son - Jordan- mess with it after major parts had been taken out. The confession saved a dead man's hide, but not Kelly's as she was told -no ordered- out. The woman gave an apologetic glance towards the strangers and then hurried up the stairs - away from her cousin's wrath.
Melissa ignored Kelly heading upstairs and sat down on the time machine which appeared to be one of the twenty- first century's original computers. It's light green color was faded, but plenty of lights lit up the front of its frame. Melissa's hands may have been average, but her fingers flew like lightening. One by one men and women alike disappeared back to their own era. However, one name refused to budge - it couldn't, the main switch busted just as she went to flip it over; not to mention a puff of smoke flew out from the top of the contraption. The name was that of a nineteenth century silver-haired rancher - Benjamin Cartwright.
"Great. Just what a need - more stress in my life." Melissa muttered as she hurried upstairs.
Ben's eyes had been opened for a few minutes and he was having a hard time remembering what had happened when the door opened up. The woman who walked in the door looked familiar, but from where? Those eyes, he'd seen those eyes. As much as he'd have liked to know where he knew her from the man was far more concerned about the strange lights were that had gone on -surely, he was going mad. As if reading his mind Melissa spoke up.
"You're not going crazy, Benjamin, though I dare say you probably think someone's trying to split your head wide open just now." Melissa's voice held a strict business tone, but her eyes twinkled showing she wasn't cold-hearted.
"Who are you? Where am I? And how did I get here?" Melissa watched in amazement as the man managed to prop himself up without screaming out in pain -that was not the standard for someone who had traveled through any portal in the situation he had. However she wasn't shocked when he informed her - politely- most people called him Ben. "Now what about my questions?"
"First, name's Melissa Giles. Second…" She scratched her head debating whether, or not to tell him, but then figured she might as well seeing as how that stupid machine downstairs and just up and quit. "You're going to think me crazy, but…you're in the twenty-third century and you got here because of a teenager who's mother was stupid enough to let her son mess around with one of my father's old machines." Melissa wasn't surprised when the man balked, but reluctantly agreed no lights came on in his home by the wave of a hand, or push of a button.
"So, how do I get back?" Ben asked uneasy -he hated the unknown and the thought of his sons losing their father in this manner scared the living daylights out of him.
Melissa sat down on the edge of the bed and chose her words -and tone- carefully. "I want nothing more to send you back home, but right now that is not possible. People have made choices which have affected you I know. Choices you had no control over, and now you are in a situation you never dreamed of. The only thing I can do is to take you back to the place once called Nevada once my business here is wrapped up here. I happen to know they've started back up cattle ranching and maybe, the land you called the Ponderosa is available - it was a while back. Deal? " While Ben desperately hoped he'd stop being on some crazy emotional ride -not to mention wondering how his own family was doing-he took Melissa up on her offer.
Scene 2
Adam - home on a visit- scoured the northern regions of the Ponderosa and beyond- with Roy, Hoss felt as if he'd raked over the eastern sides with Jamie a million times, Little Joe searched with extreme concentration with Candy the southern sides and Deputy Foster had a few men going over every nook and cranny of the western regions.
"Dag burn it, I don't think there's an inch of dirt, rock , and hill we haven't hashed over." Hoss took off his hat and wiped his forehead.
"I reckon I have to agree." Jamie took his handkerchief and wiped his own brow. "Pa's really gone missing hasn't he?" The fact Ben was not being found was just now hitting the adopted son of the Hoss' father.
"Reckon so, but , don't you worry none, Jamie, we ain't gonna give up hope Pa will be found or come back with a very good reason as to why he up and left without sending word." It just wasn't like his father to desert his family and no-one would ever be able to convince Hoss of that.
As the two finished up their talking and found themselves back at the Ponderosa they were met up with by the rest of the men. Adam's eyes were tired and his shoulders slumped. "No luck?" Little Joe came riding up just after Hoss and Jamie.
"No." Adam would have had gone out again, but he was too tired and hungry to concentrate - as were the others.
Hop Sing had already started cooking before the men had come back. As they now entered the house the Chinese cook put supper on the table. The men - and their wives, or girlfriend- thought the food was delicious but none of the men had the stomach for talking as they were just as much drained emotionally as physically. Finally, Roy stood up.
"Thanks for the meal, but I have to get back to town." Roy looked apologetic as he really wanted to continue the search, but desperately needed sleep - not to mention his job obligations could not be ignored.
"We understand." Adam may have been tired but he still gave a gracious smile. When their friends left Adam turned to Hoss.
"We need to talk, but I think it would be wise to do so after we all get some sleep." Adam was right, but still Hoss frowned and mused about what the next day would bring - which prompted his big brother to play the Pa role. "Hoss, we will do Pa no favors by fretting about tomorrow. Let's get some rest and discuss things with rested minds tomorrow." His hand laying on Hoss' shoulder made a tear fall down the gentle giant's face.
"You're right. We all need sleep." With that all turned in -except the wives - or in Hoss' case - girlfriend- who had remained silent during the gathering.
"Do you think Ben will be found?" Alice asked as she stood up and rubbed her growing belly.
"No idea." Britta spoke in a thick Swedish accent. "For Hoss and his brothers' sake I hope so." It wasn't that the woman hated Ben that she spoke without the strong emotion Alice did - it was simply a fact that she'd not known Hoss' father as long therefore could not -naturally- have the empty missing feeling to the extent the Alice, or Celeste, did. Finally, Britta went to bed in the guest room and the other women joined their husband's in their own rooms.