Author's Note: And now, the conclusion to "The Ride."

Drabble 25: Surprises

Entering Tucson, John was worried about Victoria, but again wondered which: Robert Sebastian or Anna Elizabeth?

Anxiously, he met the doctor on his porch.

"Doc! How are they?"

"They're fine, John. Right inside."

Greatly relieved, John found Victoria in bed. She smiled happily but wider still when she saw Blue entering after him. They'd met in Santa Fe as they'd planned as a surprise for her.

John's questions followed hugs and kisses.

"Where's the baby? Which name did we need?"

Pointing to the sleeping baby wrapped in an Apache blanket in Mano's arms and another in Buck's, she beamed.

"Both."

~The End~

Concluding Notes:

Thank you so much to everyone who's read this story, and special thanks in particular go out to Nillis82, wotwasithinkin, Cathy, and Junebug for their kind words, comments, questions, and encouragement while this story was being written, polished, and published. I hope other readers will also leave your thoughts, comments, and suggestions as you finish reading this work. Even brief ones will be a big help as I consider any future HC undertakings.

I hope this ending pleased everyone for the most part. Many readers wanted John to make it home in time to be with Victoria for the birth, but there are a couple of 19th century realities that prevented me from doing that in addition to the intent of the story. Travel, particularly over long distances, was dangerous, unpredictable, and subject to frequent and often significant delays. The stagecoach went as fast as it could normally, so Buck's message to get there as soon as possible really wouldn't have gotten John there any sooner. In addition, it would have been very unusual for a male other than a doctor to be in the birthing room during the period, and female midwives were far more common doing deliveries than doctors. In a case like this, though, a doctor would likely have been needed or the mother, the child (or children), or both would most likely have perished.

Skipping back a few drabbles, Mano told Buck the baby was "twisted?", but in actuality, Violeta meant the babies were tangled. The base Spanish words (retorcer/enredar) aren't as similar as the English words, but perhaps Violeta used the more similar word enroscar instead of retorcer since it has a similar meaning. With one regular and one breach, it might seem as if they were tangled, and with her speaking fast and him expecting only one baby, Mano's confusion hopefully can be seen as somewhat understandable.

Blue's arrival in Santa Fe would have been by stage (hence John having Joe meet the stage that afternoon), but by this point in time, he could have traveled all but the last two hundred or so miles from Chicago by train. In actuality, he would have probably wanted to arrive in Santa Fe a day or two earlier due to the potential for delays along the way as noted above, but when you only have 100 words to explain it...

Speaking of explaining, I've tried to mix a little history in with the notes in this story, and if you haven't guessed, we're not quite done yet!

John had long had a desire to bring the railroad to Tucson. In Season 2, Episode 7 ("Ebenezer"), he mentions that the Southern Pacific Railroad would be coming east in a few years and he wanted Tucson cleaned up so it would be a stop on the route. The Southern Pacific did reach Yuma in western Arizona just a few months after this story takes place, but it was a while before it reached Tucson and about 1881 before finally reaching El Paso, Texas. Even then, the route went through Texas cattle country, meaning that it did little to open up the eastern markets as John was envisioning until it eventually connected with other eastern railroads and the populous northeastern United States.

While John's presentation in the fictional meeting with the railroad barons in this story was unsuccessful in bringing the AT&SF Railroad to Tucson, that line was eventually extended south from Albuquerque to El Paso. By 1891, a branch line had been built to the west and south from Rincon, New Mexico, going through Nogales, Mexico, and south to the port at Guaymas, Mexico. If one looks at the 1891 map, it passes through Benson, Arizona, to the northeast of the ranch and then probably skirted the north side of the High Chaparral Ranch before turning south to Nogales, possibly even going through part of the ranch. John's ultimate goal of having ready access to more markets for his cattle would have been achieved with the building of this line along with the connections made available by the Southern Pacific.

Then there's the rather embarrassing issue of blue and pink for boys and girls that Nillis questioned. The Apaches used bright colors in their beadwork, and the cloth they traded for would likely have been similar so blue and red might have been common, but it's highly unlikely that they were anything close to gender specific. While promoted (along with other pastels) as colors for babies over the traditional white/off white clothing, they did not really start to become gender specific until the 20th century. In fact, it appears that pink (as a "stronger color") was originally preferred by some for boys and blue (as "more delicate and dainty") for girls (particularly blondes) before finally being standardized along more current lines in the 1940s. There's a good article about it at

www . fastcodesign dot com /1672751/how-pink-and-blue-became-gender-specific

Therefore (and this is the embarrassing part), since I didn't discover this until after that particular drabble was published, I'm guessing the always lovely Victoria with her beautiful and almost florescent hair ribbons must have just been a bit ahead of the times on that (even though Mano thought it looked more red than pink). Ha ha!

Thanks to clipartpanda . com for use of the free art for the cover. The font is a modified version of Impact meant to be somewhat reminiscent of that used in the opening credits. At this scale, it's very difficult to see.

Finally, since I've successfully finished this story in time, please be on the lookout for my next High Chaparral Story entitled "Under a Pumpkin Sky". It's a standalone one-shot that takes place several years later with an appropriate theme considering that, at the time of this writing, it's late October...

I'm currently considering ideas for future High Chaparral stories so your input is appreciated. If you're interested in the original Battlestar Galactica or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, I invite you to check out my stories in those fandoms, too. Recommended reading order is on my profile page.

Thanks again,

VST