It had been six weeks since Adam, his family and Sally Cass had buried Ed Payson. Adam had been sitting in the Bucket of Blood playing poker with a bunch of strangers for about five hours. At this point he wasn't sure how much money he had lost, but he knew it was well into the thousands. He didn't really care. Between the gambling and the never ending flow of liquor all thoughts of Ed Payson were slowly being lost. Adam's head had become foggy and his body relaxed, he leaned his head back grinning from the liquor which had taken over his senses. He relished in the loss of control. It took Adam a moment to realize his bottle of whiskey was empty when he tried to refill his glass.

"Gentlemen if you'll excuse me" Adam said as he pushed his chair back from the table and slowly rose to his feet. "I seem to be out." Adam clumsily made his way to the bar; his feet didn't seem to want to cooperate.

"Hey Sam! Get me another bottle of whiskey!" He shouted.

Even Sam the bartender was thrown off by Adam's behavior. Never once had he seen Adam drunk in fact Adam usually remained sober so he was able to tote a drunken Joe or Hoss out of the bar. "Celebrating Adam?" Sam asked.

Adam let out a bitter stilted laugh. "Yeah Sam I'm celebrating. I'm celebrating freedom and life and love all the other shit people talk about." Adam yanked the bottle out of Sam's hand and stepped back stumbling towards the ground. He thought for sure he was going to hit the floor, but he had somehow managed to stop halfway there. Someone had caught him and was settling him back up onto his own two feet.

"You all right there cowboy."

Adam turned to peer in to the blue eyes of a tall stranger.

"Uh yeah, thank you for uh not letting me fall and I'm sorry for stumbling on to you." Adam said straightening himself back up.

"Not a problem, just watch where you're going ok."

"Yeah." Adam said. The man was thin and lean perhaps slightly younger than Adam, but not by much. He's clothes revealed that he was a man of little means, but Adam could tell he took pride in his appearance. His blond hair was in desperate need of a trim, but tidy under his black hat.

Adam let his mind wander as he admired the man, grateful for yet another distraction from the pain in his heart.

The next morning the light from the bedroom window seemed to slice through Adam's head like a knife. He groaned in bed rolling over in an attempt to hide his face from the sun.

"Did you sleep well cowboy?" A voice asked.

Adam lifted his head from his pillow noticing for the first time that he was not in his own bed he wasn't even in his own home. Lying beside him was the blond stranger from the saloon. Adam sat up in bed startled, he was about to climb out when he realized that he was completely naked and judging by what he could see of the stranger, so was he.

"What happened?" Adam asked, although he was sure he already knew the answer.

"You really don't remember Mr. Cartwright?" Another voiced asked.

Adam turned startled to see another man; this one fully dressed lounging in the settee in the corner of the room. "What's this about?" Adam asked climbing out of bed and wrapping a sheet around his waist, careful to leave a blanket covering the other man.

"Well Mr. Cartwright we seem to have here a bit of a problem. You obviously have a secret here. One that I can imagine you don't want to get out. I find myself now burdened with this secret. The question is what do we do about it?"

"Who are you?" Adam asked. His head was pounding with a hangover and his muscles were tense with nerves, but he kept his expression blank and calm.

"You can call me Truman." The man grinned. Adam took a moment to look him over he appeared to be about his age, dark hair and dark eyes. His skin was pale as if he hadn't spent much time in the sun and judging by the high quality of his clothes he wasn't a man who had known manual labor.

"And what is that you want from me Truman?" Adam asked.

"Well, I just need you to make yourself available to me in anyway and at anytime I need you. I just bought a rather larger ranch right outside of Virginia City. Not as big as your spread of course, but its well on its way. If I need you to back the Ponderosa out of timber contract you do it. If I need water brought onto my ranch you do it. If I need someone to come to scrub my floors you come and you do it."

Adam took a deep breath examining his situation. He looked at the blond stranger he had woken up with. The man was now leaning up against the head rest his hands laced behind his head and a grin spread across his face. It was obvious now that the man was working with Truman. Adam could not remember what they had done last night, but he knew either way the situation he had been found in was not a good one.

"And if I refuse to give in to your blackmail?" Adam asked.

"Well than I may just have to let your secret slip. You're family will probably disown you. Not to mention there are sodomy laws in this town. Something like this might even get a man hanged."

Adam grinned. "I can't say I care too much about my hide at this moment." Adam said scanning the room for his clothes. "Not enough to let you take advantage of my family's ranch."

"Well you see Mr. Cartwright this isn't just about you. What do you think a secret like this would do to the name Cartwright. No one will want to do business with any one with that name. Folks here in Virginia City will know it's Adam Cartwright, but what about cattle buyers in Texas or railroad companies in California. They won't touch a single Cartwright. Your family will probably lose the Ponderosa."

Adam stopped the search for his clothes and looked at Truman, he wanted to laugh, it sounded ridiculous to him, but he knew what the man was saying was plausible. Intolerance and prejudice ran deep in people's veins and there wasn't even a word for people like him. He knew that it would hurt his family's name. He had never thought of telling his father and brothers his secret and the idea was now making his stomach churn.

Truman stood up from his chair. He grinned at Adam knowing very well that he now owned him. "I'm going to let you get dressed now Mr. Cartwright. Zachariah grad your things." He said to the blond stranger who quickly hopped out of bed and threw on his clothes.

"As for you Adam, get dressed, go home, get something to eat and I'll summon you when I need you. Don't make wait on you either, I may forget about our agreement if you do." With that he walked out of the door.

Zachariah began following him out the door and turned to grin at Adam. "Thanks for the fun night." He said winking at him and then shutting the door behind them.