Author's note: I enjoyed getting back to my favorite Westerns so I decided to right another to see how well it works. So please enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters except the ones I add and you'll know who they are when you hear their names. Also, it doesn't exactly say what year Adam was born, but I kept looking and it showed that Little Joe was born in 1848 and Adam was twelve years older than Joe. If I'm wrong, please tell me.
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"Bring that horse up here!" Ben Cartwright yelled to his ranch hands.
The owner of the Ponderosa sat atop his horse and watched as one of his favorite ranch hands rode the horse up to him. It had been a long hard couple of years. His ranch hand Candy had gotten married and settled not far from the ranch house. He now had "grandchildren" that ran around the house like heathens. Bear and Carson were his world, other than the ranch he worked.
On a sad note, he lost another son. Hoss had been crossing Lake Tahoe with his horse when he saw a child flailing the water. Having the soft heart he had, he dove in to save him. He did but at a price. When they found him, his pant leg had been caught on a log in the lake and he had drowned. It had hurt the entire family to no end. They still ached over it. When the kids asked for Uncle Hoss, they all told them he was in a better place.
Joe, the youngest son, was seeing a girl in Virginia City. Ben didn't know much about her besides the fact that Joe liked her. Joe had been having a hard time since Hoss had passed. He had no one to argue with at the dinner table because Candy spent time with his family after work. So he spent most of his time in town.
Candy and his wife Wolf were the best hands he had. Candy went on cattle drives whenever he needed him to and Wolf was the best horse wrangler he had ever seen or had work for him. After having a rough go of it when they all met, she was a welcomed sight in town when they went. Her children were also welcomed even though one was full blooded Sioux and the other a half-breed.
Other than the small family he kept around, Ben had nothing else left. He used to be afraid Candy would come ask for his final pay and disappear. Now that he had a family he was around more than he had been when he first started working. Joe was getting serious about a girl and he wasn't sure if he would have another daughter-in-law like he did in Wolf.
Candy rode the horse to him and Wolf came out of nowhere to check the horse. She ran her hands along the flanks of the animal and down the legs. She was good with the animals, speaking softly in her native tongue that always calmed the animals down.
She rounded the other side and threw her hands on her hips. "He's clean. Muscles are well formed and he's not throwing his head anymore."
"How's he ride, Candy?" Ben asked as he looked up to the woman's husband.
"Like Wind does only slower." Candy laughed. Wind was the Canadays prized stallion. Wolf had "tamed" him when she first came to the Ponderosa. The catch was he would only let the Canadays ride him. Anyone else would get bucked.
"Good. Is he ready for auction?"
"Should be in a few days."
"Very good."
"Pa!" They all looked at the hill as Little Joe came barreling down it on his prize Paint Cochise. Those two had had many adventures. "Pa, you have to come back to the house!"
"What is it, Joe? It's not the children is it?" Ben asked hurriedly. If he lost those children he would never forgive himself.
"No, they're fine. Adam's back."
Ben spurred Buck into action. When he looked back, Joe and Wolf were following him with Candy hot on their heels. Adam was Ben's oldest son. He had come back from the east after going to college and worked the ranch for a bit. When he got bored, he headed back east once again. Ben heard from him every now and then but lately the letters had been quiet.
As they came to the house, there stood Adam in all his glory. His hair was the same length as it had been when he left five years earlier. He was a little huskier than he had been at that time. His eyes were the same piercing hazel that unnerved a person when he looked at them.
Ben slid off his horse and slowly walked towards his son. He wasn't sure if he wanted to believe it, even though he was standing right in front of him. So he decided on a question only Adam would know.
"Where were you born?" he asked cautiously.
"In my grandfather's house in Boston 1836."
A smile graced Ben's face. "Adam!" The two men hugged before Ben stepped back to look at his son. "You look wonderful."
"Being back east does that, Pa. I told Little Joe not to get you but like usual, he doesn't listen."
"He's getting better."
"I saw two children running around the house. Whose are they?"
"They're ours." Candy piped up as he tethered his horse. He threw his arm around Wolf's neck as he walked up. "I'm Candy Canaday. This is my wife Running Wolf, Wolf for short."
Adam turned his eyes to the woman below Candy's shoulder. "Paiute?"
Wolf smiled as she shook her head. "Sioux."
"You're a long way from home."
"No, I'm not."
Adam nodded at her quick reply. She was at home; she looked it. "So if you're at home, why are you dressed like a ranch hand?"
She laughed as her arms went around Candy's waist. "Because I am a ranch hand. I train the horses here."
"She's unlike anyone you've ever seen, Adam." Ben stated fondly. He obviously liked the two he had hired after Adam had left.
"I'll have to watch you work." It was the best compliment Adam could give for the moment.
"I look forward to it." Wolf stated.
The oldest Cartwright son looked around. "Where's Hoss?" Everyone suddenly got quiet. Adam looked between the four as they looked at the ground. "What?"
"Ho…Hoss drowned a year ago." Joe stammered as he fiddled with his hat. "He drowned saving a little boy in Lake Tahoe."
The news hit Adam hard. He had always gotten along with Hoss; everyone had. He was just that type of person. He was good with everyone he met unless someone messed with his family. Looking at that family, new and old, he knew they all missed the big lug with an equally big heart. He would have been a good father and husband if he had been given the chance.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here, Pa." he said quietly and he meant that.
"It's all right, Son. I understand why you weren't and Hoss would understand as well." Ben replied to comfort his son.
The front door opened. Two little boys ran out laughing and a little girl followed asking them to wait. Candy grabbed the girl and set her on his hip, rubbing noses with her when she was settled. Wolf grabbed the oldest boy and tucked him between her and Candy. The other boy stopped in front of Adam. Then a young woman stepped out.
"Adam, those children are demons and that cook doesn't help with discipline." She said clearly frustrated.
"Hop Sing adores Bear and Carson so I'm not surprised." Wolf said.
Ben frowned. "Adam, who is this?"
Adam smiled. "This is my wife Amanda and my son Benjamin. Our infant son is upstairs asleep in the guest room."
Ben's face changed instantly. "Two more grandsons?"
Adam's son marched up to him and looked up. "I'm Benji. My little brother is Michael."
"Hello, Benji. I'm your Grandpa Ben. That's your Uncle Joe, Uncle Candy and Aunt Wolf."
"Pa says I was named after you."
"I guess it's true. Come on. Let's go in the house."
"Ma," Bear said as he tugged on Wolf's pant leg, "I wanna play."
"Grandpa Ben says we're going inside." Wolf replied as she pushed her son towards the door.
They entered in an orderly fashion and sat down around the coffee table. Candy let Carson down and the children ran around them, playing eagerly with each other.
"So when did the two of you meet?" Joe asked as Hop Sing served coffee.
"On the stage from Carson City to Boston." Amanda replied. "We liked each other so much we were married the next week. Benji was born ten months later. It will be five years in a few days."
"What about you, Candy? When did you start working for Pa?" Adam asked.
"It was about three years ago. They nearly shot me and then I joined them after an argument." Candy answered. "It wasn't too much into my second year that I married Wolf. Carson was born eleven months later. She'll be three in March."
"So she and your son are two years apart?"
"Yes, Bear was almost two when I met Candy and would have been three four months after Carson was born. That would make his birthday in July." Wolf said.
Adam looked at the older boy as he wrestled with his son. "He doesn't look to be half white."
"That's because he's not. " Candy explained. "He's full blooded Sioux. His birth father was killed before Wolf and I got married. The Sioux nation allowed me to raise him as my own."
"Indians aren't that civilized." Amanda stated as she took a sip of tea.
Ben frowned and looked at his daughter-in-law after sharing a look with Wolf. "Well, Amanda, Wolf is full blooded Sioux and she's civilized."
Amanda turned her gaze back to the other woman in the room. "She's dressed as a man and works as a ranch hand. She's is not civilized."
Wolf held her tongue down at her end of the table. She wasn't prone to outbursts of anger but this woman was grating on her nerves. She fisted her hands at her sides and leaned back against the couch.
"See? She acts like a man. Uncivilized."
"Unlike you, this was how I was raised. I was raised to work the land. I like to work. Get used to it." Wolf snapped.
"Women should not get their hands dirty. They should be in the kitchen making their husbands dinner and doing laundry while cleaning house. You trade your femininity for masculinity when you work the land."
"And I suppose you would rather ride side saddle like a good English woman rather than feel the power and the grace of the animal you are riding."
"I would take a buggy instead of riding a filthy animal."
Candy and Joe shared an amused look as Wolf inhaled sharply. No one had gotten her this riled ever, not even Joe who spent most of his time trying to get her to lose her cool. They could understand her anger though. She was raised to respect the land and the animals around her. Someone criticizing that was going to get her full attention.
"I will not apologize for being born Sioux and I will not apologize for loving my job. But I will apologize for your ignorance. I may be Sioux, but I am the wife of a white man like you are."
"You are sub human. That feather in your hair proves it."
At that remark, Wolf exploded. Severe Sioux erupted from her as she stood and paced to the other end of the room. Candy jumped up to block her path in case she decided to go for blood.
"Uh, Amanda," Ben said as he tried to ease the tension. "The feather was a gift from her husband after her son was born. She wears it in memory of him."
"Who gives their wife a feather after their son is born?"
"It's an Indian tradition." Candy said as he leaned against the couch arm. He held his hat up to show the woven leather around the bowl. "I was given this by the Sioux nation after I helped bring a murderer to justice. It shows we are now friends with the Sioux nation. Indians are notorious for giving gifts to their friends."
Amanda stared at the extended Cartwright family. She shrugged elegantly. "Uncivilized."
Wolf threw up her hands then stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind her. The baby upstairs suddenly started crying, prompting Amanda to go upstairs to see about him.
Adam looked from the staircase to his pa. He tipped his coffee cup in salute. "Here's to the many, many wars those two will have."
The other men laughed and agreed. The war of the wives was about to start.