AN This is the first chapter of a two-three chapter story that I started a while ago. Enjoy! :-)

"Joseph!" Ben Cartwright bellowed for his youngest son, for the sixth time that morning.

All of a sudden, a loud crash was heard from upstairs.

"Wonder what that was," Adam said, looking at the stairs.

"Yeah. Hey, Adam, pass some more flapjacks, will you?" Hoss asked.

Adam passed them and continued staring at the stairs. "Do you think I should go get him?"

"Yes, I think that might be a good idea," Ben said, annoyed with his youngest son. "I wonder what he was up to last night."

"I believe we all have a pretty good idea what he was up to," Adam smirked a little as he got up.

Then all eyes turned to the stairs again, as a very tired looking Joe appeared. He slowly started down the stairs, his brothers and father watching his every move. He made it down to the landing, before tripping, and tumbling down the rest of the stairs, landing at the bottom on his stomach.

"Joe." Ben rushed to his side, while Adam and Hoss took their time getting there, the smirks evident on their faces.

"Why, good morning, little brother." Adam greeted him. "Did you sleep well?"

"Well, what do you think, elder brother?" Joe said sarcastically, slowly getting up with Ben's help.

"I think you slept very well, and are ready to put in a full day's work. Isn't that right, Hoss." Adam turned to Hoss for confirmation.

"Yes, I think you're right, Adam. He sure is chompin' at the bits to get to work." Hoss grinned, joining in on the teasing.

Joe groaned, and brushed past his brothers roughly, collapsing on the settee.

"I'm afraid that what your brothers said wasn't entirely a joke, son," Ben said. "You have a full day of work ahead of you, so come eat some breakfast."

Joe jumped up, wincing at the pain in his head. "But, I can't, Pa. I have a – um, appointment in town. That's it, an appointment." Joe gave his best persuasive grin.

"Oh, you have an appointment." Ben put his hands on his hips, nodding his head. "Mind my asking with whom this appointment is?"

"Uh, just somebody."

"No, Little Joe. That won't pass. Somebody new in town?" Adam asked, immediately interested when Joe hesitated to answer.

"Well, sure. There's a new lawyer, a young couple..." Joe started.

"Joe. Who is she?" Adam demanded.

"Just a singer," Joe said, trying to downplay the lady's talent and beauty.

"You mean she's a new saloon girl?" Adam said, a little disappointed; he didn't much like the girls in the saloon.

"Oh, no!" Joe hastened to clear up. "She does work in the saloon, but singing is all she does. Señorita Isabella Fernández is so good, they hired her to sing in the upcoming Fourth of July celebrations."

"I see," Adam said, thoughtfully.

Joe groaned suddenly, realizing that in his haste to clear the lady's name, he'd played right into his brother's hands.

Then Adam shrugged and sat back down at the table. This wasn't the first time he'd seen his younger brother like this; Joe must have fallen in love with every girl within a twenty mile radius, at one time or another, so he figured the Señorita couldn't be that special. Still,he would be sure to see for himself; she was Spanish, for crying out loud. How could he totally lose interest in her?

Little Joe sighed, feeling a little relieved when Adam seemed to lose interest. He still had the problem of arriving at his date with the Spanish singer. 'I'll figure it out.' he thought to himself. Now that it seemed Adam wasn't interested, he felt a lot more confident.

"Let's go eat, son," Ben said, slapping Joe's back, lightly, and making the hung-over kid jump.

With a groan, Joe got up, and sat down at the table, trying not to through-up what little he had in his stomach, as he watched Hoss gobbling up the greasy bacon.

After breakfast, Ben started giving out orders. "Hoss, you take a couple men and go up to the North Pasture. With all the rain that's been coming down, the river might be flooded. Just check-up on the cattle."

"Sure Pa." Hoss nodded and started for the door.

"Joe, there's a fence down in the South pasture. Take two men and a wagon with whatever you need, and go up fix that. And Adam, I want you to go into town with the buckboard and get the supplies on this list. There's quite a lot of things to pick up." Ben handed Adam a good-sized list of supplies.

"I'll go right away." Adam started buckling his gun belt around his waist.

"And, uh, Adam," Ben said.

"Yeah, Pa?"

"Don't stay too long; there's work for you here in the afternoon." Ben cautioned knowingly.

Adam grinned and nodded. He grabbed his hat, smirked at Joe who was shuffling towards the door with an angry, frustrated expression on his face and went out the door.

Adam had the buckboard hitched up in a matter of minutes, and he saddled, then tiedSport to the back "in case something happened".

The ride to Virginia City took a little longer with the buckboard, but they made pretty good time getting there.

Usually, the streets were so full you had to be very watchful where you were going, at this time of the year, but there were only a couple ladies walking on the sidewalks, and a handful men building an announcing stand for the Fourth of July celebrations.

He whoa-ed the horses in front of the general store and called for the storekeeper.

"Mornin' Adam." James Brown walked out of the store. "What can I do for you?"

"Mornin' James. Pa sent me to get some supplies." Adam said, stepping off the buckboard.

"You just give me the list, and I'll fill your order so you can go check out the biggest attraction in town." James winked knowingly.

"Uh, the biggest attraction?" Adam asked, even though he had an idea what the man was talking about.

"Isabella Fernández, of course." James grinned, motioning towards the saloon.

"Uh, thanks, James." Adam handed him the list, and, tying the horses to a hitching rail, he crossed the street to the Bucket of Blood.

Entering it, he was very surprised at how full the place was. A big part of the town was there, just to listen to the new singer.

Adam slowly made his way through the crowd, ignoring the yells of "another song", as he tried to get close enough to see the Señorita. He finally got close enough, and his breath left him with a whoosh, as he caught the beautiful singer's eye. Long wavy black hair bounced around her shoulders, a single red rose behind her ear. She wore a purple dress, that seemed to bring out her fawn-brown eyes.

They stared at each other for a minute, then Isabella gave him a small smile, and started a new song.

Adam pushed his way all the way to the front, listening to her beautiful voice. He had to admit, she was pretty good, and she sure didn't look half bad either!

When the performance was over Adam clapped heartily. Isabella threw some kisses to the audience before she slyly looked at Adam and tipped her head towards the door she then disappeared through.

Adam chuckled, and, passing it off to himself as simple curiosity, followed her.

TBC