A/N I know Little Joe was blinded in "A Stillness Within"; however, as you will see, I have only borrowed the blindness, along with Miss Dobbs, and had him go blind from another accident in another episode…Marie, My Love. The * I have put in this chapter is the fact that was not, or course, in that episode. I have just added it.
A/N I have a huge problem calling a grown man 'little', so it's simply Joe or Joseph in this story.
Chapter One
Joe listened as the wheels of the stagecoach went round and round. He had ridden the train as far as he could and now he was traveling the rest of the way home by stagecoach. Had it been two years already? Funny, when he had first left with his teacher Miss Dobbs, whom he'd been shocked to learn was also blind, time had seemed to drag its feet. Now, there were days where it almost seemed he had been blind forever. Since there were no other passengers on the coach, Joe drifted in and out of sleep dreaming of days gone by. Only when he heard the noise of people walking up and down the street, did he full wake up. Little Joe knew they were now in Virginia City. While he couldn't wait to be with his father again, to visit Adam and Mary, along with Hoss and Rebecca, he found himself once again more than nervous. Though, as he thought on his brothers and their wives, he had to smile.
Mary and Rebecca, Joe had to chuckle at the thought of the two dark haired sisters who his father had written to him about. It seemed like they had come to Virginia City and knocked his brothers off their feet. Of course, if you ask Adam or Hoss, they swept their wives off their feet. He knew that because of the letters both his brothers had sent him. Oh well, no matter. They were both married and living in their own homes on the Ponderosa. Truth be told, Little Joe sighed, that was the main reason he had not accepted the blind school's offer to keep him on as a permanent teacher. As much as he'd enjoyed the children, and accomplished quite a bit, Little Joe couldn't stand the idea of their father living in the house he'd built for him and his family all alone. Of course, he'd never told his father that and never would. No, he'd simply written his family and told them he'd had a wonderful experience at the blind school and was now coming home.
"JOE!" Hoss, who had dropped the little part of Joe's name after his baby brother has written to him and finally told him how it greatly annoyed him, shouted as Joe climbed out of the stagecoach.
"HOSS!" Little Joe turned his head in the direction his brother's voice was coming from. He didn't have to wait but a second before Hoss was hugging the stuffing out of him. "It's good to be home." Before he could say anything else, he heard other familiar footstep and he felt Hoss let go of him. "Pa? Adam?"
"Welcome home, Joe" Adam, who felt horrible about being away when Joe had had his accident, gave him a firm embrace before he stepped aside, allowing Ben to also embrace Joe.
"Good to see you, Little Joe, good to have you home." Ben took a step back and looked his youngest over. He was pleased to see he was as healthy as ever, though it still hurt to see his sightless eyes. "Well, come on. I know a couple of women who are at the main house cooking up a huge meal to help us celebrate your return." Since Adam and Hoss had their own homes now, they were all in the habit of calling their father's home 'the main house'.
As he followed his family down the street, Joe heard more than one person yell out their greetings to him, including Sheriff Coffee and Dr. Martin. Naturally, he returned the greetings. Joe told himself that, while all he wanted for now was to go home and rest, he was going to have to travel back to town with one of his brothers or his pa and visit those very same people soon. Though, none of those thoughts were expressed as he followed his family to the livery stable.
Joe had thought to find that his brothers had stabled their horses at the livery stable and that his father had also left a wagon there. Expecting this, Joe was surprised when they arrived at the livery stable to find that all three men had ridden into town on their horses and brought Cochise along with them.
"I figured you still knew how to ride." Ben smiled wide as he watched Joe run his hands down the horse's neck.
At first Joe said nothing as the day of his accident flashed through his mind.
"Pa! Pa!" Little Joe cried out as he and Cochise rode into the yard; he could see his father on the porch going over some paperwork. One minute his father was waving to him, and then the next moment Cochise stumbled and he fell. Next thing Joe knew he was in his bed talking to his father and listening to him tell him about his mother. *Only thing was, his father was a blurr. He hadn't told him at first, nor had he acknowledged it when his brothers had come into the room. No, not until he'd went to sleep and woke up to complete darkness did he have to admit anything to them.
"If he damaged his optical nerve," Dr. Martin had stood in his room and looked at Joe while speaking to all of them. "The blindness is permanent. If it's an emotional shock from falling off his horse? Then he has a chance to recover, just don't ask me how long that will take. I've heard of cases lasting years."
"Joe?" Adam spoke up, looking at him as they all were…with concern that he might not be up to riding after all.
Joe shook himself out of his thoughts and patted Cochise. "I'm fine." He took a hold of the reins, slid his foot into the stirrup and pulled himself up, throwing his leg over the saddle as he did so. He chuckled and said, "I lost my sight, not my ability to ride a horse. Now, let's get home." That, of course, got his whole family smiling wider than they already were as they too mounted their horses.
Ben and Hoss stayed a few feet in front of Joe while Adam hung back a few feet. He figured it wouldn't hurt his baby brother to have some watching his back.
