Adam was thankful he and Joe had decided to take the wagon into town. Joe was so sore that the likelihood he could have ridden his horse all the way to the Ponderosa was questionable. Joe sat in the back while Elizabeth sat up front with Adam. The ride home was relatively quiet; Elizabeth made tiny comments about how beautiful the scenery was before her head hit Adam's arm and she succumbed to sleep. Joe was quiet in the back and Adam suspected that Joe was most likely sulking over the fact that in today's fight he wasn't the one delivering the harsh blows. It was just past midday when they arrived at the Ponderosa. Elizabeth was woken up by the sudden stopping of the horses. Adam looked down at her and smiled. "Here we are, home sweet home." They jumped off the wagon and Adam assisted Joe into the house. Joe was laid down on the couch while Adam went to get some ointment to apply to Joe's wounds. Elizabeth sat down right by Joe and looked him over.

"I'm so sorry you went through all this trouble for me, sir." Joe sat up a bit and grinned. "What, this? I've been in worse fights than this, darlin'." And with that he winked. Elizabeth smiled a little. "By the way, what's all this 'sir' stuff about? We're family now, so I am now officially your uncle. Guess that means I have no chance of charming you then." Joe bowed his head slightly. Elizabeth began to laugh, and her laughter echoed around the living room. Adam was on his way back when he heard the sound and his face erupted into a smile; it was the first time he had heard his daughter laugh in 13 years. And especially with the morning they had had, he was extremely grateful to Joe that he had succeeded in making his daughter laugh.

"What's going on out here?" Adam asked as he entered the living room. Elizabeth smiled at him, but it was a shy smile. Joe winked up at his brother, saying, "Well, I was just saying it's such a shame the prettiest little thing to enter Virginia City is my niece." Elizabeth blushed and looked down to the floor. Adam played along with Joe replying, "Yes she is your niece, so you better stop your staring or you'll find you won't be able to sit for a week."

Just then, Hop Sing entered the room. While Adam was acquiring supplies for Joe, he had briefly informed Hop Sing that his daughter would be staying with them and to please get a room set up for her. "Oh, Miss Cartwright, I very happy to meet you." Elizabeth smiled in greeting. Adam introduced the two. "Elizabeth, this is Hop Sing, our cook." She took his hand. "Nice to meet you, sir." "Come, I show Missy Cartwright to her room." She questionably looked at Adam for a few seconds. He smiled. "What, did you expect we were going to have you sleep on the floor? You'll have a room upstairs, right next to mine." She nodded and ascended the stairs.

Adam immediately turned back to his brother. "You alright, Joe? He sure hit you hard. What happened?" Joe winced only slightly when Adam cleaned out some of his cuts. "Yeah I'll be alright. That guy just packs a lot of punch. I saw Mitch walking up to the International House, and he saw me. Started yelling at me, asking me if I was here to see Elizabeth. I told him to mind his own business, and…well you know me." Joe looked at Adam sheepishly. "Yeah, I know you alright little brother."

Joe looked upstairs for a few seconds. Then he turned back to Adam. "She seems awful scared of Mitch, considering he's her step-dad. You don't think he…you know hits her do you? I mean, I think I can testify to the fact that he hits pretty hard." He said as he glanced down at his body. Adam's face clouded over. "I don't know Joe, I just don't know. She is very frightened, and I wouldn't put it past him either." Several minutes went by as Adam silently checked over Joe's body. He growled, "She's so scared she hardly even acts 16. If he did anything unwarranted, I'll…I'lll….I don't want to think about what I'd do to him." Joe nodded in agreement.

Once Joe was all patched up, he sat up and patted Adam's shoulder. "I'll be fine Adam, go talk to your daughter." He proved how fine he was by getting up from the couch. Adam nodded, "Ok, don't do anything foolish when I'm gone. You're gonna be sore for a few days." Joe shot him a grin, "Since when do I ever do something foolish?" Adam shook his head while chuckling and headed upstairs. When he reached his daughter's room, he softly knocked on the door. He opened it to find Hop Sing helping Elizabeth finish making the bed. "Oh, hi Mistah Cartwright, bed all set for Miss here," Hop Sing declared before bowing and leaving the room. Elizabeth smiled at Adam in greeting and took a seat on the bed. Adam pulled a chair up close to the bed and sat in front of her. "So, I think our conversation was a bit interrupted," he said, grinning slightly. She smiled, and Adam thought her smile was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. Her smile reached her eyes where they twinkled.

Adam cleared his throat. "I know this is probably hard for you, but what happened to your mother?" The smile slowly drifted away from his daughter's face and there was no evidence that it had existed mere seconds before. Elizabeth shyly began, "Everything feels like it was so long ago, it's all a blur in my mind. I remember when Mitch moved in. I think I was…5…I just remember Mom and him fighting a lot, I remember hearing my name come up in the conversations sometimes…"her face was scrunched as she tried to recall the foggy memories. "Lots of the memories I have of Mom are sad, she just always seemed so tired…then I remember one night…I was 8…she told me that she was going to fix everything and that everything would be ok again…" Elizabeth looked up at Adam with shiny eyes. "That was the last time I saw her. I remember being in my bed that night wondering what she meant when I heard a shot go off in the yard." She sniffed. "I didn't realize it at the time but I think she was trying to run away…bring some help back or something I don't know…all I knew was the Mitch told me Mom went crazy and killed herself…but I think even as a kid I always knew better, she just wouldn't do that to me…" she paused briefly before looking down. "After that, Mitch raised me. When Mom was around, she tried her best to never let me be alone with him…I didn't realize then what she was protecting me from. At first he wasn't around a lot so I pretty much lived with his butler who was nice. When I got older though, he stayed around longer…he would look at me with this weird expression on his face…almost as if he was trying to imagine if I was Mom or something, I don't know." She wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and glanced up at Adam. She saw that his chocolate eyes were watery as well.

Adam couldn't believe all of what she went through. This was his daughter…his daughter, he never wanted her to go through so much pain. He pulled his chair closer and gently took her small hand in his rough, calloused hands. "I am so sorry…if I had known you were alive I would've come back for you in an instant…I….I can't…help but feel so guilty.." Elizabeth shook her head. "No, it's not your fault. I'm sure Mitch set up the whole thing to make us believe we didn't have each other anymore." Adam gently wrapped her up in his arms as he inhaled the honey sweetness of her hair that brushed up against his nose. He then pulled back and stared back at her from an arm's length. "Liz, did he do anything bad to you? I…just want to make sure you're okay." She studied his face for several minutes before responding. "I'll be fine…I just don't want to go back." Adam smiled and squeezed her shoulder. "That's not gonna happen, not while I'm around. Come on, let's head downstairs. Dinner should be ready soon." She grinned and followed him downstairs.

That night as Adam climbed into bed, he couldn't help but reflect on the day's events. He had found out that the daughter he was mourning for countless years was indeed alive. He was filled with deep remorse over the fact that he had missed about 13 years of her life, but he was determined to be the years to come memorable for the both of them. He then recited a prayer for his wife's soul; the fact that she was dead hadn't come as quite a shock. After all, he had believed she had passed away for awhile now. Although he had afforded himself a glimmer of hope that maybe she had survived like her daughter, Adam was resolved to not be consumed in mourning but to instead focus on his number one job: keeping his newfound daughter safe.