A/N This is a Bonanza/Big Valley Cross over. So far Nick is the only one on the Ponderosa. Jarrod and Victoria will join the story eventually, maybe Heath as well. Sorry, no Audra or Gene. Then again, with the way I write? I suppose they could sneak in on me.

A/N This is set in the same AU as my last two Bonanza stories (Off the Record and The Vacant Chair) which means Joe is only mentioned by family members. For those of you who have not read those stories, the first story is set during the Civil War and, by the time the epilogue was over, Joe had passed away.

A/N In this story, The Barkleys are the ages that they are on The Big Valley.

Ben is pushing seventy; Adam is roughly 45, been married 8 years and has one stepson-though his wife is expecting. Hoss is roughly 37, has been married for roughly 12 years and has five children (though, I don't know how much they will be shown. So far, he and his family are away visiting her relatives).

Prologue

The sun was setting on Carson City. The majority of people living in the bustling city were asleep, or heading that way. However, sleep was being more than evasive when it came to the lone traveler who had made their camp five miles out of town…at the base of a rolling hill covered with dark green grass hill. Not that they weren't tired, they were. However, stories from the past continued to play themselves over and over again. "With all due respect, you're crazy." The traveler pulled a folded piece of paper from the pocket inside their brown, fringed jacket and spoke to no one but the wind. "He's not going to remember; he won't remember his promise."

It was that, the fear they were traveling to Virginia City for nothing, that made it so the traveler was seriously thinking to turn around and head back in the direction they had come. However, they did not. By the time the flames in the small fire died out, the stranger to Nevada had finally laid down and relaxed enough to go to sleep.

Chapter One

Ben whistled as he walked out of the house and towards the barn. The work at the lumber camp was at last running well, and Adam-along with Adam's former comrade, Nick Barkley-who had been visiting from California, had persuaded the army to get the horses the military needed from both the Cartwrights and the Barkleys. Now, Adam and Nick were inside eating a lunch Adam's wife, Mary, had cooked. Since Nick's appetite was proving to be almost as large as Hoss's, Ben was grateful that his daughter-in-law had agreed to take over the kitchen duties when Hop Sing announced he needed to go help some of his relatives.

He was just about to the barn when he heard the sound of someone walking behind the barn. He froze and listened, not knowing who it was or what they were doing behind the building.

"Pa…" Adam, who had exited the house with Nick right behind him, started to speak up only to stop dead in his tracks, as did Nick. A woman dressed in a buckskin skirt, white shirt and a fringed jacket stepped out from behind the building. The three men guess her to stand no taller than five feet two inches, and her pitch-dark brown hair hung loosely to the middle of her back.

While he was very happily married, and had no desire to be unfaithful to his wife, Adam had to admit the young woman was pleasing to the eye. On the other hand, being free of any marital strings, Nick -who had been thinking to leave Nevada earlier than planned-quickly changed his mind as he was taking a first, second and third look at the young woman.

On the other hand, Ben was sent back in time twenty-five years, a year before he'd met and married Marie.

"You should watch where your'e going." The black haired Indian maiden named Maka laughed after he'd accidentally bumped into her after stacking some of the wood that had just been split.

"May I help you?" Ben managed to come out of his shock and, on the slight chance he was mistaken when it came to whose daughter now stood before him, asked, "I'm Ben Cartwright; may ask who you are and what you were doing behind my barn?"

For a few moments, the young woman did not answer as she looked past Ben and looked at the two gentlemen who stood not ten feet behind him. The first one was rather quite handsome only she guessed him to be in his late thirties or early forties. Besides that, he wore a ring on his left hand, which meant he was married anyway. However, the second gentleman was the most handsome man she'd ever seen, he didn't have ring on his finger…and she didn't think he was a day over thirty.

"Miss?" Ben, who had realized just who the woman was looking at, did his best not to laugh.

"I am sorry." The young woman forced her eyes off Nick-who was more than flattered at the reaction he'd seen in her eyes- and turned her attention to Ben. "My name is Kimimela, but you can call me Kim. My mother was Maka." Nervously, she walked up to Ben, removed the paper she'd looked at earlier from her jacket's pocket and hesitantly held it out for Ben to take.

Ben hesitated only for a split second and took the paper. Neither Adam, Nick or Kim said anything as the Cartwright patriarch unfolded the paper and slowly began reading. As he did so, Ben was grateful he'd had years of practicing of hiding any shock he might feel. He folded the paper and put it into a pocket that was sown into the inside of his coat. "I have some chores I need to do, but," he turned and looked at his son and Nick. Knowing his son would want to know what was going on, and just how moody Mary had become lately thanks to the fact that-after eight years of marriage-she was finally carrying Adam's child, Ben looked at Nick and said, "I know you're a guest here Nick, only would you please show Kim into the house. Adam and I will come in after we get some chores done."

Nick started grinning from ear to ear. Guest or not, he wasn't going to turn down the chance to talk with the Cartwright's visitor. "Don't worry about it, Ben." Nick, who had been told in no uncertain terms that he was to call Ben by his first name, answered while keeping his eyes on Kim as he stepped aside, allowing one very nervous young lady past him.

Adam waited until he heard the front door open and close and then looked at his father, who looked as if he was deep in thought, and asked quietly, but with the no nonsense tone he was famous, "What is it?"

A/N According to submit/names/usage/sioux Kimimela and Maka are both Sioux names. Kimimela, they say, means 'butterfly' while Maka is supposed to mean 'earth or ground'. If anyone knows different, blame whoever put that link on the internet