Thank you all for your comments! There's a malfuntion on the website that isn't letting me respond but I have been able to read them all and appreciate them wholeheartedly. Enough about me, here's the next chapter!

"Hey, Joe? I had an idea but don't know what you'd think about it," Hoss cast his fishing line out into the deep stream swollen with fish while his brother struggled to put a wiggling worm onto a hook.

"What's that, Hoss?"Joe's tongue was stuck out to the side of his handsome mouth as he speared the slimy creature at last. Taking his rod in hand, he sent his own fishing line singing through the air to allow his wooden float to bob alongside that of his brother's.

"Well, for starters, I got me a problem...for the life of me, I can't think of anything extra to get Adam for his birthday tomorrow. I normally jest give him a new book or razor or somethin' like that but...I want to do somethin' nicer this year."

Joe glanced at his big brother with surprise. "I didn't know you got something for him every year. He said a long time ago that he didn't want any fuss at all on his birthday. He's always in such a bad mood on that day that I took him at his word and left him alone. "

"Yeah, well, he says a lot o' things, don't he? It's no big deal, I jest never could seem to forget the occasion, is all..."

They remained in silence, Hoss considering his idea and Joe churning over the facts of what he'd heard until the younger man became curious about what his brother had said first. "So? What was your idea? Maybe I could help..."

Hoss jerked his fishing line a few times very gently, sending teasing ripples out into the slow moving stream from his float. " Remember Pa mentionin' that Adam and him were goin' up to check out Adam's herd up in the north pasture? With the boy takin' ill again, I have a feelin' that it's not happening. Durn shame too, Adam's been tryin' to get Pa up to look at his horses since winter but Pa never was much on takin' a likin' to what he thinks is useless critters. Only reason that Pa's been okay with that herd is because it's on Adam's section of the Ponderosa and out of sight."

Joe sighed with exasperation while scratching the back of his curly mop of hair. "Yeah, Older Brother had quite the set-to with Pa last year on that subject. I don't see the reason why Pa had to get so cantankerous about it. Jupiter is a fine horse, best from miles around in fact. Adam crossin' him with those few thoroughbred brood mares he bought in San Francisco has produced some good-looking prospects in that herd, last time I was out there."

"Do ya think it'd be hard to bring the herd down from the north section?"

"I don't know, Jupiter is a fireball and it's a long way's off but it's possible...why?"

"Jest thought if we brought the herd down, Pa could get a look at the best horseflesh on the ranch and Adam wouldn't have t' be leaving the boy for long. He could jest step out o' the house."

Hoss fell silent in trepidation of his brother's answer. Joe stayed mute as well, his face slowing spreading into a mischievous grin then he chortled in his throat. "You know what, that just might work. Hoss, you're a genuis!"

Surprised for he thought the giggling chortle was ridiculing, Hoss turned to Joe and grinned, pleased with himself at solving this dilemma in his own unique way. Hoss' fishing pole jerked violently in his hands at that moment and he was brought back to the present. By the time the huge, twenty-pound trout had been pulled in, both young men's pants were soaking wet but their smiles were as bright as the sunshine spilling through the rustling tree tops. They decided to implement their plan during the next week, it would be a challenging venture but with the help of a few hands and Sport, it should be successful.

I* * * * *I

The black lashes caressed the tanned skin as the boy awakened with difficulty, eyes blinking in the enforced darkness of his room. Dull pain throbbing in his head and his arm accompanied his trip into conscious thought and the eyelids fluttered in discomfort as an almost imperceptible groan vibrated in his small chest. Once opened though, his eyes listlessly stared up at the Ponderosa pine ceiling. His memory restored and flooding back to him, the chocolate orbs filled with tears of grief and twin drops meandered their way down his cheeks.

Jody remembered all of it, just as had been predicted...his parents lying near death while he tried to take care of their needs...the whispered promises given them before he had ridden the long ride to town for the doctor...the funeral after which he collapsed, sick with influenza himself...the scary man who had shouted at him and caused him to run out of that orphanage, never looking back...hanging on to the stolen horse's mane with a death grip as they thundered across country...the overwhelming need to reach the one person he thought could make it better...the crushing pain of falling over the side of the canyon wall, breaking his arm...the nights of cold and hunger, only dirty water at the back of the cave to drink...

Sobs overcame Jody, gut-wrenching sobs that wailed silently of a broken, little heart. Curling into a ball under the covers, his cries were such as to stun the casual observer with their racking spasms. As if in a dream, he felt the oddest and far away sensation of the blankets being pulled back, cool air hitting his bare lower legs and then a warm mass being pressed against his back. A gripping pressure on his good arm pulled him over onto his other side...into a black shirt.

Adam spoke not a word, understanding the overwhelming grief that had been paramount in his own childhood. The sorrow, the loneliness, the guilt associated with the death of a parent and the questions spinning in an innocent, young mind. He knew it all. As his father had once upon a time, he simply lay still on the bed, with the grieving boy close by in his arms. Adam's thoughts turned to those first few nights on the trail after...Inger had been killed. Both father and son had wept together, sleep alluding them both, their silent grief interrupted only by the lonely wail of a year-old babe piercing the quiet of the cold darkness.

Jody was inconsolable, only ceasing in his sobs when there was a loss of breath in his body from them. Exhausted, he soon fell back into sleep. Adam stayed with him nonetheless and any time the boy awoke enough to open his eyes, he felt the warm body heat exuding from the man by his side and it would send him back into blessed oblivion. That same man pulled the covers over them both, tucking Jody in tightly, and then Adam rested his head back on his right arm. Gazing up at the hewn support beams running the length of the ceiling, Adam let his thoughts drift to the sweet time he had shared with his fiancée the day before.

Closing his eyes, he conjured up the image of Evangeline's wind-swept countenance of joy as she took in the view overlooking his purchased property. He had found that haven shortly after Johnny had bought the Running J and Adam had been taking regular trips there to help the young man. Wanting to cut his trip even shorter back then, Adam had discovered a shortcut that ran along that grassy cliff. Now, he wished he could be back there again, watching that soft brown curl bounce beside his beloved's beautiful face.

Despising the action but having no choice, Evangeline had left to return home about an hour after Ben had left, telling Adam that she would return sometime the next day. He understood that she had responsibilities now that the restaurant was opened but...how he wished for her now, to feel her arms around him, to hear the whispers in his ear that she loved him. He had survived without a woman's touch for so long that he had begun to think he didn't need it but...the ache in his soul now spoke differently. At length, Adam slipped into sleep as well, the recesses of his heart heavy with his own grief for what had been lost. The waste of the lives of Matt and Anne and the wounds incurred on Jody's young life. So much pain, so much loss...was there never to be an end to it in this side of heaven?

I* * * * *I

When lunch time rolled around that day, Hop Sing carried a tray up to Jody's bedroom. Upon entering, he paused, seeing the slumbering Adam lying in the bed with an arm behind his head and Jody next to him. The cook suspected from the dried tear tracks on the sleeping boy's cheeks and the comforting presence of Adam that memories had been recovered and revisited. Sighing, the loyal cook left the room as quietly as he had come in, like a moving fog, here one instant then gone the next.

The rest of the family being gone, Hop Sing felt it appropriate to take some time for himself. He shuffled into his room, lit a single candle and transitioned to his knees in prayer. The candlelight flickering on the walls seemed to move in rhythm with the foreign words of Chinese rolling off of the tongue of the earnest man. He prayed to what powers he thought would hear that there would be an end to sorrow in the house, that there would be peace and new life beginning for his family. A single tear pooled at edge of his right eye and fell over the precipice to splash on his cheek.