DISCLAIMER: THE BIG VALLEY and the original BARKLEY characters are NOT mine. This is written for writing practice only.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I will freely admit that while I am enjoying the episodes of The Big Valley (the ones offered on You Tube, I did not grow up watching the show thus-I have only recently started to 'get to know the characters' (main reason I yanked one story I had posted awhile back.) I hope I have done a better job on this one.

After watching 'The Man From Nowhere' I found myself wondering what might have happened had the Matthews left before Nick and Heath showed up etc. That is where this story comes from. Like I said, I hope I have done a better job on this than on the one I took down. Also I realize the majority of people reading any story under The Big Valley already have these facts only, for the few who don't...there is another episode 'Time After Midnight' in which a character by the name of Cunningham is the 'bad guy' along with his tag alongs...Mason and Corewell. Cunningham dies and the other two leave. So, when those names are mentioned...they are NOT my creations either. Also, I don't know which episode came out first only...for the sake of the story the events in Time After Midnight have been placed first.

LONG ROAD HOME

Chapter One

Opening Scene

The wind was whipping through the trees and sending anything not heavy enough to stand its ground through the air. Dakota pulled his bandana up higher on his face. He glanced over at his infant son, the woman he'd hired to help take care of him and his stepson, Danny. The infant was covered completely and Danny and the woman, like Dakota, had the majority of their faces covered. They had to find shelter and find it soon; the storm was only getting worse.

SCENE ONE

It took all of Nick and Heath's strength but they managed to get the barn doors shut before they hurried to get inside the house. "Shut that thing any harder and it will come off it's hinges!" Victoria looked over from where she sat talking with Audra.

"Blame that blasted wind!" Nick removed his gloves, "Pity the poor man and beast who find themselves out in it."

"What do you have there?" Heath looked at the letter in Audra's hands as he sat down in the chair closest to the fireplace; the fire that was going in it felt good.

Audra looked at her mother who only shook her head, that raised both men's curiosity.
"Well?" Nick leaned against the table.

"Fred thought he saw Jarrod on his last trip to Pine Valley so he wrote to the sheriff down there." Jarrod had gone missing after heading to Rock Springs to talk to a Mrs. Matthews about the fact that she and her family were living on land owned by the state. Nick and Heath had went looking for him only to find out that one; the Matthews had tired of the ranchers harassment and left the area and two; while Jarrod's horse had been found no one had even seen him once.

"And?" Heath wanted it to be good news but the women's reaction when he first asked about the letter gave him plenty of room for doubt.

"He says a man fitting Jarrod's description did live in the area for awhile but he had left," she sighed, "after his wife passed away in childbirth."

"Fits his description but it ain't him," Nick sighed, he-like everyone else- had slowly accepted the fact that something had happened and that their father now had company roaming around heaven with him, "I know Fred meant well, but, I think it would be best if we just tell him to stop looking...and to have other people stop keeping an eye out for him. After all; it's been eighteen months now."

The silence that fell into the room was downright deafening; finally Victoria spoke, "Nick is right. It is about time we laid Jarrod to rest ourselves. Maybe it would help..."

She never finished her sentence as someone started knocking on the door.

"Fred!" Nick let the man in and shut the door, "What are you doing out in this blasted storm?"

The lawman smiled, "Believe me, I would like to be at my office or in my own house right now only," he looked at the Barkleys, "I thought I should tell you that you have company on your ranch."

"Company?" Nick stiffened and Heath shot up from where he was sitting; naturally they figured with Fred telling them the news the person, or people, were not the kind of company they wanted around.

The lawman nodded, "Yes; a man, woman, a lad around thirteen and a small infant. They are out in your barn."

Nick headed for the door, how dare someone just come and make themselves at home; Fred quickly blocked his way, "I put them there, Nick. They desperately needed shelter and I wanted time to talk with you and the others before you saw them."

The puzzlement everyone felt shown on all their faces. If they needed shelter that bad why not just say so? Why would Fred want to talk with them first? The fact that their friend was uneasy could be seen in the way he turned his hat around in his hands and by the way he kept looking from Nick to Heath to Audra and to her. This did not help any of them relax.

Victoria was the first one to speak, "What is it Fred? Who are they?"

"Well," Fred spoke slowly as if he was trying to find 'just the right words', "the woman says her name is Angelina and that she is only the child's nursemaid; the child can not be a day over six months..." he looked more uneasy; which only served to make Nick and Heath want to run out the door and into the barn, "the man goes by the name of Dakota."

Dakota! Nick and Heath looked at each other; people in Rock Springs had said the Matthews had a man by the name of Dakota working for them, Nick exploded, "Are you trying to tell us the man out there is the one we have been looking for since Jarrod disappeared? The one folks said might actually have reason to have seen him? And,maybe, just know what happened to him?"

"Nick," Fred looked at his friend square in the eye, "Dakota is Jarrod!" He knew he blurted it out quite forcefully only he figured he better; just so it would actually sink in.

Heath dropped back down into the chair looking as if someone had pulled the rug out from under him and Nick looked as if someone had just hit him below the belt; "What?" he finally managed to speak as he felt some of the color draining from his face.

"Your brother, Jarrod, and Dakota are the same man," Fred shook his head, "He says the Matthews woman told him he was thrown off his horse after her son, Danny, shot his gun off trying to scare him away," when Nick looked as if he was going to explode again Fred hurried on, "He reassures me the boy was not trying to hurt him. What those folks at Rock Springs didn't tell you was the Matthews decided to leave after some of the ranchers came and raided the place. They figured it just wasn't worth the fight anymore. Guess you should know Danny Matthews is...his stepson."

His stepson! He'd gone and married the Matthews woman! Nick swore and Heath spoke up, "But he is going by the name of Dakota and you felt the need to see us first; that fall from his horse robbed him of his memory didn't it?"

Fred nodded, "Yes, it did. I could tell he did not recognize me in the least."

There was a good two or three minutes of silence before Victoria spoke, "That storm is not letting up any, why not make yourself at home until it lightens up and then," she looked at Nick and Heath, "one of you go tell our 'guests' we have plenty of room for them in here but," she looked at them, "do not go saying anything to him about who he is and who we are until I get a chance to talk to the doctor, understand?"

At first no one answered. "Understand?" Victoria's voice held a tone which demanded an answer; and she, of course, got it."

"Understood." Nick scowled as he left the room. He may understand but that didn't mean he had to like it.

"I won't say a word." Heath stared into the fire. 'Not that I won't want to'

"I'll keep my mouth shut." Audra's shoulders slumped slightly. 'If I have to'

"Fred?" Victoria looked at the lawman.

"Don't worry about me," Fred put his hat on the table and found a place to sit down.