"Alright we are going to stop for the night," Trevor called as he dismounted his horse.

'None too soon' Adam thought to himself as he shivered with a drop in the temperature. The sun was slowly making its' way behind the far off mountains. He had noticed some clouds off to the northwest and he didn't like the look of them. This early in the spring he knew that Mother Nature could bring a surprise snowstorm. Adam hoped that it wasn't the case with these clouds.

Adam and Hoss sat waiting for the men to untie them from their horses. The one called Trevor held a gun to Joe's head as two of the others untied Hoss and himself.

"Now get over here and get your brother," Trevor said with a wave of his gun. "If you try anything I'll make sure your pa will bury at least one of his sons."

"Alright, alright! Hold your horses. Did it ever occur to you that we might be a little stiff from sitting in a saddle all day Mister," Hoss snarled at his captors. Together Adam and Hoss walked over to Joe and pulled him down. They carried him over to a tall oak tree and laid him at the base. Two of the younger men were coming over with ropes in hand to tie up their hostages.

"Come on, we are not going to do anything. We need to take care of our brother and ourselves," Adam appealed to Trevor who was sitting by a recently started fire studying Adam intently.

"How far do you think we'd get with him the way he is right now?" he motioned towards Joe. "You do want us alive, so that you can get the ransom."

"Yeah I guess you make sense Cartwright. I won't tie your hands or your brother, but you and the giant I'm tying up your feet. If you boys try anything, we will kill you," Trevor stated with finality.

He got up and walked towards the horses to tend to them. Adam watched as the youngest man went to join his brother and attend to the horses. The other two came and tied up their feet leaving Joe alone for the moment. They went over to start making supper.

"Hey Joe it's time to wake up," Hoss was talking to Joe as Adam turned and grabbed a canteen that was left close to them. He pulled off his handkerchief and put some water on the cloth.

Adam pushed back Joe's hair to get a look at the gash on his forehead. He laughed a little thinking of the battles between his brother and father concerning the length Joe kept his hair.

Though he was more concerned that Joe had yet to make a sound throughout the long ride they'd had today. Gently he cleaned the jagged wound. It was about three inches long and had dirt inside and out. As Adam started to clear away some of the grim the wound started to bleed again. They staunched it quickly and continued to clear the area to keep infection at bay. Adam was cleaning out the wound and Hoss was busy making more bandages.

"Pa?"

Adam and Hoss looked quickly down to their brother's face glad to see signs that he was finally waking.

"Pa?" Joe said louder this time.

"No Joe it's me and Hoss."

"Adam? What happened? Where are we? I want Pa," Joe rambled. Adam and Hoss exchanged a look not sure what to tell Joe.

"Well Joe what do you remember?" Adam asked with a sideways glance at Hoss.

"We were riding fence and you heard gunshots. We went to check them out and found the stage. But you made me stay behind as a look out. I remember you shouting my name and running, but that's about it," Joe finished weakly his eyes already starting to close.

"Come on Joe stay with us a little longer," Hoss pleaded. Adam grabbed the canteen and tilted it in Joe's mouth.

"Adam? What happened? Where are we?" Hoss stole a glance at Adam knowing that this wasn't a good sign.

"We've made some new friends," Adam said succinctly. "You just get some rest."

Joe caught movement out of the corner of his eyes, but he didn't recognize them. They looked like rough men that he had seen in town and out of the dime novels he read. They didn't look like friends.

Seeing Joe's confusion and then sudden understanding all in a few minutes, Hoss reached down a patted Joe on the shoulder. "It's alright Short Shanks, Adam and I will come up with a plan to get us out of this mess."

Joe looked into the faces of his brothers knowing that they would indeed come up with a plan. He suddenly noticed the blood on the side of Hoss' face and he could see the blood on Adam's collar.

"Adam, Hoss are you alright? You don't look too good right now."

"Joe in case you haven't noticed, you don't look so good yourself," Adam said as Hoss started to laugh.

"What's so funny Hoss?" they both demanded.

"The three of us," Hoss said. He was met with two dumbfounded expressions. "I was worried about the two of you and you both were worried about one another. I just think it funny we aren't really worried about ourselves."

Adam and Joe started to chuckle about the irony. Joe immediately stopped and clutched his head. He rolled over to one side and started heaving.

"It's alright Joe," Adam said looking over to the fire to formulate a plan. He had to get his brothers home to a doctor. After a few minutes of heaving, Joe passed out from exhaustion and pain.

"You think he'll be alright Adam?"

Adam cast a worried glance down at his youngest brother. "Yeah, as far as I can tell, I just can't be sure until we get him to a doctor and away from these madmen. Hoss why don't you get some sleep I'll keep watch. I'll wake you if something changes."

Hoss glared at the men sitting around the campfire eating supper. He was so hungry that he would have enjoyed stale biscuits. Just to prove the matter his stomach rebelled and rumbled loud enough for Adam to hear. He looked at Hoss and gave a sad smile knowing that if they voiced their hunger it would do nothing to alleviate the emptiness. Hoss returned Adam's sad smile and then he laid down next to Joe and closed his eyes.

Adam stared down at his brothers wishing that there was more that he could do at the moment, but knowing there was nothing to do but wait for an opportunity to present itself to them.

Looking up he stared at the men responsible for this entire mess. He knew he would be getting little sleep tonight. He was going to stand watch over his brothers all night. He wasn't going to let anything else happen to them and do everything in his power to get them home safely.

Trevor stared back at their three hostages surprised to see the oldest one staring directly at him. Trevor knew that the kid had woken up at some point. He was interested to see how the brother cared for each other. He had heard the kid ask his brothers if they were alright.

Trevor felt bittersweet as he watched them interact together. He wished that it could be like that between his brothers, but he wasn't able to be that kind. The world was a rough place and his brothers needed to know that from an early age.

"Steven, Johnny, Davey get some sleep. I'll take first watch." Trevor said in a low voice so their captives were unable to hear. Steven and Johnny went to their bedrolls and lay down without a second thought, but Davey stayed seated next to Trevor. The only sounds were that of the fire and some owls in the oak tree.

"Trevor what are we doing?"

"What do you mean Davey? I am standing guard so that they don't try anything in the middle of the night."

"I know that!" Davey said exasperated. "What I mean is why are we even in this situation? You said that this was an easy job that nobody was supposed to get hurt. We killed all those people back there and now we have them," he threw his arms indicating the Cartwrights'. "I am no doctor, but that kid doesn't look too good. Why don't we just let them go now and get away while we still can?"

Unbeknownst to Davey, Trevor had been thinking along the same lines. They needed the money, but at what cost? If a posse caught them he knew they would hang before the sun rose.

"Davey I know things haven't gone according to plan, but I promise I will let them go after awhile. This is our last job. After this we can start over buy some land, and settle down. But right now I need you; we need you to get though this together."

Davey looked at Trevor stunned. He wanted this to be over now. He didn't want to let his brothers know just how scared he was that they were all going to die. He didn't want them to know that every time he closed his eyes he saw the bodies of the men that he had killed. 'Can I live on land bought by blood?' Davey thought to himself.

"Alright Trevor, but this is the last job. I don't want to be involved in this any longer." Davey said as he turned and walked towards his bedroll.

Trevor stared at the retreating form of his brother with astonishment. He would never admit this to anyone, but to him Davey was more of a man than he himself was or would ever become.

"Pa! Pa! Where are you?"

Adam jerked to full awareness cursing himself as Joe called out in his sleep. He inched over to Joe putting his hand on Joe's shoulder stilling him immediately.

He couldn't believe that he had fallen asleep on watch. Though he reminded himself that he'd had a full day, and at some point his body needed rest.

Adam's internal clock told him they had about two hours before sunrise. Now was their chance to escape. The young kid was on watch though he wasn't doing a very good job. He was asleep and hadn't moved even as Joe cried out in his sleep.

Adam didn't know quite where they were, but he knew that they had been heading west all day towards the desert. He gathered his courage at what he was about to attempt. He looked over at his brother surprised to see that Hoss had also not woken up at the outburst from Joe. It was a testament to how tired they all really were at this point.

Adam was rethinking that maybe escape wasn't the best idea at this point, but quickly shoved that thought to the back of his mind knowing that it was now or never. Leaning over he shook Hoss and Joe trying to rouse them without waking their captors.

"Hoss, Joe, come on get up it's time to get out of here." At the sound of Adam's voice Hoss woke with a start. Rubbing sleep from his eyes "what's going on Adam?"

"We're getting out of here," Adam whispered. "Help me get Joe up and moving." Together Adam and Hoss grabbed an unresponsive Joe and started to make their way to the horses.

Adam mounted Sport while Hoss handed Joe up to him. Hoss grabbed Cochise and Chubb and led them out of the camp. Once they were outside of the camp Hoss mounted Chubb and they rode silently into the darkness.

Unbeknownst to them Davey had been watching the escape from his spot by the campfire. He smiled as he watched the brothers' head into the dark and towards safety.

DOM, DOM, DOM, DOM. Ben listened as the grandfather clock downstairs chimed the hour. He hadn't gotten a wink of sleep all night. His thoughts kept drifting towards his sons'.

It was irrational he knew, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that his boys were in trouble. He was frustrated not only with himself, but also with his boys for giving him so much to worry about. He knew that they were smart and careful most of the time, but to him it always seemed like trouble found them no matter where they were or what they were doing.

Ben kicked his blankets aside and started to get dressed. He'd have to wake Hop Sing and ask him to get some supplies ready. And he had to leave instructions for his Foreman. Ben Cartwright knew there was something wrong and he wasn't going to let anything get in his way.

Within the hour Ben was mounting Buck with enough supplies to last a week.

"Hold down the fort," Ben told Hop Sing as he swung a leg over Buck.

"Good-bye Mr. Cartwright. You bring those boys back safely." Hop Sing called to Ben's retreating back.