Wish You Were Here (english)
Source: Bonanza
Genre: AU + Songfic + Deathfic + Family
Disclaimer: Neither the characters nor the song are mine !
Sentences in bold are the song lyrics.
And those between asterisks mean a character is reading.
Summary : The Cartwright family is now reduced to two members only. Roughly two years ago, Ben died - as for Joseph... It'd been a while he had left the family ranch.
Author's Note : Hello ! This is my 2nd OS on the Bonanza universe ! I hope you'll like it.
I want to thanks RosalindAnnaBorelli for her help in translating my fanfiction.
Enjoy !
One shot.
So..so you think you can tell?
Heaven from Hell?
Already five years. Five long years ago the family broke. The reason ? An argument between Adam and his young brother. It wasn't the first one, but this one was more violent because at 17 years old Little Joe wished to be seen as an adult but the words spoken by his elder brother had hurt him more readily than being stabbed right in the heart would have.
Blue skies from pain?
Can you tell a green field
From a cold steel rail?
Then Joe had left, deaf to his father and Hoss' calls. It was on January, 2nd, 1861.
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Three months later the richest family in Virginia City learnt that its youngest member had enlisted in the nordists' army to fight for his country.
During two years Ben deployed much energy in writing letters after letters to convince his youngest son to come back home while praying the Lord expecting He'll protect his child, but all his letters except one came back without any answer..
And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
*To Dad and Hoss,
I am sorry it took me 18 months to write back, but it is very difficult to me to answer to all your letters - but I want you to know that I think of both of you everyday.
Take care - I send you my love,
Little Joe*
This short letter, far to be reasuring for Ben and his other sons, had worried the family even more because despite their efforts the younger's absence became apparent.
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
While reading the name of his young brother on the checklist of the young boys enlisted to go fighting, Adam had understood his mistake, but Joseph had never answered to his mail.
Did you exchange?
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?
On May, 24th in 1863, Ben felt critically ill.
How I wish,
Despite the numerous cures of the doctors and his stay at the hospital, Benjamin Cartwright succumbed a week later without seeing his youngest once again. He had 62 year old.
How I wish you were here
This trial made Adam and Hoss closer than ever, even if they kept hope that their brother comes back, at least for the funeral, but once again their wish wasn't granted.
We're just two lost souls
Other people would have been mad at Joe for his very long silence but neither Adam nor Hoss felt anger towards their little brother. A lot of sadness, of questioning and of fear, but neither anger nor hatred.
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
During the three years of the war, the two brothers worked body and soul to keep Ponderosa dignified and prosperous. April, 9th, 1865 stayed carved in their memory as the day their brother will come home.
Running over the same old ground
Indeed, two months later, a diligence stopped at Virginia and a few unknown faces got out - but one of them struck them right in the heart
What have we found?
In five years, Joseph did not change much if it wasn't for the fact that the round shapes of childhood had vanished, that he had grown up and that his hair was longer, but that was not so much the physical aspect of the youngest that struck his eldest brothers but the lack of emotions he displayed and most of all that he was seated in a wheelchair.
The same old fears
Wish you were here
They learnt from a man who fighted at Joseph side that the latter had been injured by bullet fragments in the head, which made him mute and unaffected by the world around him.
"This brother of yours, he's just an empty shell now ! We can only wonder how our superiors could accept a kid like him in our ranks !"
These two sentences costed a magnificient blow from Hoss and an acerbic remark from Adam to the soldier with a wounded left arm.
Back home Hop Sing restrained himself from crying in fear when he recognised his young master.
During a year, the three men multiplied their efforts without giving up to make Joe come back amongst them.
A few paltry hints allowed them to keep faith in the future because a family acquaintance went to have dinner with the brothers and when he found out Joseph was mute and still in his armchair didn't recognise him.
But when he talked about Benjamin and apologized for not making it for the funeral Adam and Hoss saw something they didn't think possible : a tear had rolled down the left cheek of Little Joe.
What Adam and Hoss didn't know was that Joseph could see and hear everything around him but that his mind broken by the numerous wounded and dead people because of the war had marked him for life and kept him from moving a single muscle.
If Hoss was the one who had to rise Joseph and put him to bed, Hop Sing fed him when his two masters weren't at home (or this task fell to Adam or Hoss according to which one stayed at home), Adam - thanks to his medical books and the various opinions of Dr Martin, organized different exercises in order to "awake" his little brother or did some reading for him.
Assisted by Hoss, the eldest washed, put clothes on his little brother and perfumed him, remembering with a pang in his heart to what extent Joseph liked to take care of his looks.
Every evening, after putting his brother to bed, Adam stayed a whole hour looking his little brother sleep, revealing his regrets of that day when they fought to him. To not have understood his craving for independance. With a lump in his throat, his voice full of remorse, he said again and again the same words :
"I refused to believe my baby brother had grown up, that the days when you looked for me to ask for my help had been over for a long time. I've never said it to you, but-Your big brother loves you."
Their efforts were rewarded on Adam's birthday because that day Joseph pronunced his first word.
"S-sor-ry."
This first word, this apologie, had brightened the hope flame in Adam's and Hoss' hearts who had redoubled their efforts after having honorably celebrated the start of Joe's awakening.
Today, on April, 15th, 1874 the Cartwright's brothers sat down at tthe table, celebrating properly Joe's 30th birthday.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BRO!" Hoss cried out, truly joyful, raising his glass.
"Happy birthday, little brother." Adam smile, raising his own.
Clinking their glasses against each other's, Adam, Hoss and Joe promise to always stay united, no matter what the future holds for them... under Ben's pleased and loving smile, who, from Heaven, looks at his sons.
Translator's Note : If something seems off in the text, isn't as fluid as it should be or anything of the sort, please contact me by PM on my own account, RosalindAnnaBorelli.