One Long Night (2)
*As I stated before, "One Long Night" is simply more than one short shot involving either Ben, Joan or their infant daughter, Faith. In this case, only Faith is mentioned out of the three.
~oOo~
As the crackling sound of the wood continued to fill the living room Adam, who would soon be leaving home for awhile, rocked back and forth in the rocking chair holding his half sister in the crook of his left warm while holding her bottle in his right one. Her tiny hands held onto his as if to make sure he didn't drop it. The child would still be fed by her mother only Joan had fallen rather ill, and her milk had dried up. While he was happy when Joan pulled through and was now simply getting her strength back, Adam would never admit a portion of him was glad Faith had to be fed by a bottle. As his sister sucked loudly on the bottle's nipple, Adam's mind wandered back through time.
"Hold him like this." Tabitha Donavan, the blonde haired woman who his father had hired to help take care of his sons, laid Hoss in Adam's one arm and then laid the bottle in his free hand. "I will warm up another bottle when this one is empty." The woman shook her head. She'd never seen an infant gulped the milk down like young Eric Cartwright or "Hoss" as his family called him.
Young Adam did as he was told, though he was silently mouthing off to the woman. He'd held his baby brother since the day he was born and fed him more than a thousand times before she ever came into the picture. What made her think he needed to be told what to do? Maybe someone had blown out her lantern. Of course, fear of incurring his father's wrath kept Adam from saying anything to Miss Donavan.
Seeing Faith finish her bottle, Adam set the bottle down on the coffee table and held his baby sister up and against his shoulder where he had laid a rag. He'd gotten a stark reminder a few months before how important it was to have that rag in place before trying to burp Faith. He'd had to change shirts after the little reminder. As he patted her back, Adam's mind again wandered back through the years. This time he was thinking about Joe and having to help with him when Marie was also sick in bed.
"He's makin' a lot of noise." Hoss watched as Adam sat down on the couch with their baby brother. Joseph was crying, but Marie was sick and Ben was on a business trip. If it wasn't for those two facts, Adam would have been outside mending some fences. As it was that chore had been left to some of the ranch hands his father had hired a few weeks ago.
"You did too." Adam answered as he began rocking back and forth. Since his brother had been fed and his diaper was clean, Adam figured the rocking might help settle his baby brother down. It worked; soon the small boy was fast asleep in Adam's arms.
When Faith let out a rather loud burp, Adam couldn't help but smile. How many times had he heard that sound while tending to Hoss or Little Joe? As he continued rocking, Adam began to realize better than he'd ever had before just how fast he'd had to grow up, and how a portion of him had resented it.
He closed his eyes and began humming. He knew it was getting late, hadn't the sun gone down hours ago? He could tell by Faith's steady breathing and motionless body that his little sister had fallen fast asleep. So, why couldn't he get himself to move? Why did he continue to rock back and forth, forgoing the sleep he could be getting. How come he just knew it was going to be one very long night for him?