A/N: And we move from the drama at Stillwater to the more comedic Meena. From this episode on, the list of episodes for season 11 can be found on my profile. If there's one you really want to see, but it's not included, send me a message and I'll slip it in.
Shout out to Myaroscava1860 for reviewing the last chapter. Yes, Annie does have some attitude lurking under that hat. I'd like to bring it out more often, but the situation doesn't always call for it. More than Joe, she realizes you have to finesse things sometimes instead of charging in like a bull, much like she handled Sheriff Booker back in Trouble Town. And yes, we will see it again later this season.
Anyway, I don't own Bonanza, dialogue, settings, etc. Only my OC. Enjoy!
As soon as she saw the girl on the wagon seat, Annie started counting. Within five seconds, Joe had perked up like a bird dog on point. Within ten, she could see the wheels spinning inside his head. At fifteen seconds, he made his move.
"Why don't you all go on and saddle the horses? I just remembered something I forgot." He patted Hoss' shoulder and hurried down the street towards the wagon now parked in front of Lynchville's general store.
"Need any help?"
"No, no, no, you go ahead." He scurried off and Hoss shrugged.
"Come on, you two."
"Oh, we have to go do something. We'll catch up." She waved her brother on. "Don't wait for us, we'll be right behind you." Hoss frowned, then shrugged again.
"Suit yourselves." He headed for the livery and she and Candy slowly eyed each other, matching grins spreading.
"Five dollars says he takes her to supper."
"You're on, Canaday." Annie glanced down the street and snickered. "He hasn't been out with a girl in almost two weeks, he'll move too fast and she'll toss him to the curb." They shook hands to seal the bet and sauntered down the street, stopping at the general store's hitch rail and leaned against it in unison.
Joe stood on the porch, pacing nervously. He saw them and his face tried out several of his usual expressions. Annie waved and he rolled his eyes. She fought a snort, and lost.
The girl hurried out of the store, a basket of supplies and – was that a birdcage? – in her hands, the clerk following her with a loaded crate. They walked right past Joe and he offered a nervous smile that was ignored.
"You get the wrapping on that chair, I'll get the flour."
"Yes, ma'am." The clerk went back inside, the girl turned around, and Joe stepped into her path with a charming grin and a tip of his hat.
"Hi. I'm Joe Cartwright."
"Why?" Annie smothered a snort. Candy wasn't half as successful. Joe blinked, tossed them both a dirty look, and attempted to salvage the situation.
"Why what?"
"Why are you telling me?"
"Well, I thought you might be a little interested," he said with a careless shrug. The girl pushed past him without a word and Annie struggled to contain her laughter. Candy shook with the effort. Joe turned to glare at them and Candy shook his head sadly, giving her brother a thumbs down sign.
The clerk returned with burlap for the chair and Joe leaped to help. "Oh, thank you." He looked at her brother. "Her name is Wilhelmina Calhoun, save you the trouble of asking."
"Thanks." They set to work wrapping the chair and Annie slithered past the hitch rail and onto the porch, Candy on her heels, the pair of them smirking like raccoons in a corn crib. Joe glared at them over the clerk's shoulder.
"She and her pa's got a gold mine out in the desert south of here."
"Oh? Whereabouts south?"
"Nobody knows." The man glanced up from the chair. "Plenty have tried to find it, though," he said with a laugh. "She comes to town about every three or four months to get supplies. Got this chair out of a catalog from Chicago. Sure would appreciate it if you'd help me get it on the wagon."
"Oh, sure." Joe bent to help him and the girl reappeared with a sack of flour. Annie nudged Candy with her elbow and he was off without needing a word of explanation.
"Help you, miss …?" She hesitated, then handed him the flour.
"Calhoun."
"Calhoun? That was my grandmother's maiden name."
"And if I'd said my name was MacGillacuddy?"
"Then that would have been her name," Candy said with a shrug. "Actually, I'm not too sure what her name was." The woman shook her head and climbed up on the seat. He set the flour in the wagon and Joe rushed up, finished with loading the chair, and scrambled up on the edge of the wagon seat.
"Wagon's all loaded, be happy to drive you home." Annie shook her head, seeing it coming a mile away.
"I can manage. Yah!" The horses shot forward, and Joe tumbled off the seat, landing on his rear in the dust. He picked himself up as though nothing had happened and brushed the dust off his gloves.
"She's quick."
"She likes me," Candy interjected, and Joe fixed him with a familiar look.
"What makes you say that?"
"She caught me in a lie. Nothing a woman likes more than a charming liar. Don't ask me why."
"Or me," Annie said dryly. Joe looked between them and shook his head.
"Very funny. As a matter of fact, I think she likes me."
"Really?" Annie stretched the word into four syllables. "Whatever gave you that idea?" His eyes narrowed.
"I can't explain it, of course, but women just naturally love me." Annie studied her nails.
"And you wonder why you're still single." Candy coughed on a laugh and Joe glared. Annie snickered. "You really want to give her another chance to dump you off a wagon? Let's go, big brother. Impress me."
"Well, there's where she left the road."
"Imagine that," Annie leaned on her saddle horn and studied the tracks. "Never would have guessed." Joe tossed her a scathing look and she laughed. "Lot of dry country up ahead." She flicked a glance at Candy and he grinned.
"Hardly seems worth it just for a girl, Joe." Her brother started and looked around, the dark bay he was breaking snorting at the sudden movement.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah. Not really worth it. Forget it?"
"Yeah." Candy stretched. "I think I'll ride over to Juniper Springs and look for strays. You coming, sweetheart?"
"Might as well, if big brother here is going to deprive us of our afternoon's entertainment."
"I'll … I'll meet you back at the ranch, huh?" She and Candy traded looks.
"Yeah."
"I suppose." They turned their horses and rode off at an easy lope. Annie would bet money he didn't wait ten seconds after they'd disappeared past the copse of trees before he moved. They forded a small stream and turned a little more south.
"You notice the same thing I did?"
"That wagon wasn't loaded heavy, maybe a water cask, but not much else. Joe would have realized that if he had bothered to actually study the tracks instead of daydreaming about who left them."
"How long you think it'll take him to figure it out?" Candy asked with a chuckle. Annie snorted.
"Not until he runs into the decoy wagon."
"I'm betting she left after we did," Candy said several miles later. Annie hummed agreement, eyes on the ground. "Wonder how long he'll stumbled around out here before he gives up and rides home with a wild story?"
"If we're betting, you still owe me five dollars from earlier."
"I hadn't forgotten." He tossed her that familiar careless grin. "Mr. Cartwright is probably worrying about now. Hoss would have gotten home hours ago."
"Maybe." She guided Reno around a pile of boulders, gaze still fixed on the ground ahead. "He'll take into account that it's the two of you, add me into the equation, pace a little bit, figure again, then ride out anyway." Candy laughed and she glanced up with a twinkle in her eyes. "Then, he'll get as far as Lynchville and decide we're all adults who can take care of ourselves, especially when he finds out there's a girl involved. He'll figure Joe's smitten and we're out to give him a hard time. They'll be waiting when we get home." He laughed again and she turned her attention back to the ground. "We should camp for the night, it'll be dark soon and then we'll lose what little trail she did leave."
"Mr. Cartwright isn't going to like that."
"Oh, I told you if a month in a mine shaft didn't do it, nothing would. Besides, he doesn't tack hides on the barn wall, they attract fleas." Candy laughed until he clutched at his side. Annie straightened in her saddle. "You all right?"
"Yeah. Just a little reminder from Stillwater."
"It's been two weeks, Doc said everything should be mostly healed by now."
"Healed doesn't always mean it stops hurting right then." He rubbed his side again. "I wouldn't have left that town alive if it weren't for you."
"I try not to think about that." She sighed. "This looks as good a spot as any. We'll start again in the morning. I bet we find her before Joe does, double or nothing." Candy grinned.
"You're on."
"Annie?" She turned her attention from the stars overhead and looked over at Candy, stretched out on his bedroll, staring at the banked flames of their campfire.
"What?"
"I meant what I said earlier. And it wasn't just Stillwater. I could name at least half a dozen other towns." He rolled onto his back and tucked his arms behind his head. "But this time, it was different."
"How?"
"This time, I knew I had someone backing me all the way."
"We've always backed you."
"I know, but … I don't rightly know how to explain it. Look," he rolled over and propped one hand under his head. "I only met you all in the first place 'cause I'd fled Olympus. Running's the only way a man alone can survive. But after Olympus, and River Bend, and Tin Bucket … that business with Fillmore … all the times where you and your family backed me when they didn't have to, I knew when I woke up in that jail that it was only a matter of time."
"It took you two years to realize that?" she said, her throat tight.
"Old habits are hard to break," he said with a shrug. "Trusting people, especially with your life, doesn't come easy. I learned that the hard way once."
"I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say we're honored to have your trust," she said softly. "And you have ours."
"Thanks." His voice sounded thick, and he turned over, looking back up at the stars. "You won't regret it."
"I know." His throat worked and he rolled over, putting his back to her and the fire. It almost felt like there was something else she should say, but the words wouldn't come. What had that been like, growing up knowing all you had was yourself, that no one would fight for you if you needed help?
It wasn't the first time he'd alluded to his rough past, but it was the first time he'd even halfway shown any emotion about it. She swallowed hard, but the words still weren't there. He sighed. "Night, sweetheart."
"Good night, Candy."
"I see smoke." Candy pointed off to the left. "Right over there." Annie followed his gaze and grinned.
"Let's go." They nudged their mounts to a lope and soon rode up on a small house and corral backed up to a mountain. A girl in a pink dress dropped her bucket and ducked inside the house as they stopped near a copse of trees.
"That's Ms. Calhoun."
"I don't see Joe," Annie said with a grin. They started forward, only to dive behind a couple of boulders when gunshots rang out. Candy shoved her between him and the boulder. She swatted his arm. "Get off."
"Bullets have no chivalry, sweetheart." She snorted.
"Do you even know the meaning of the word?"
"Of course I do." He peered over the rock. "Hey, don't shoot, we're friends!" The rifle barked and he ducked.
"Hey, that's my sister and a friend of ours!" Joe's voice rang out and Annie snarled under her breath. Double or nothing. She dug into her jacket and slipped Candy a ten dollar gold piece.
"Don't spend it all in one place." He laughed. Another voice, this one gruff and demanding, pierced the afternoon.
"How'd they get here?"
"On a horse," her brother shot back, sounding exasperated. "Just let me talk to them, all right?" Joe stalked up the hill and they came out from behind the boulders. Annie crossed her arms and scowled.
"You just cost me ten dollars."
"What?"
"Never mind." Candy chuckled.
"We thought she lost you back at the creek with that blind trail."
"Nah, she couldn't lose me for a minute." He glanced back down the hill and leaned in closer to Candy. "But, she's … uh … kind of hard to get to know."
"You're going about it the wrong way."
"Well, since I did get here first, I'm feeling kind of generous, so how about you take a shot?" Annie sat down on the boulder and tipped her hat back, then rested her chin in her hand. Um-hm. He had something up his sleeve, all right. But what?
"You sure?" Joe grinned and she was sure of it.
"Yeah, what are friends for, huh?"
"All right." Candy started down the hill and Annie kicked her brother's leg. He jumped and his face tried on several of his usual expressions.
"Now, what was that for?"
"I bet." Annie looked him up and down. "You stumbled across her somewhere out here because we followed that trail and you were nowhere near it. Where's your gun belt? And the bay?"
"Well, that is a long story, sis, and I don't have time to explain right now." He snatched the reins to the Honeycomb gelding and turned the animal.
"That's not your horse."
"I know." He swung into the saddle and gave her a nervous grin. "Good luck." He wheeled the chestnut and loped off.
She'd seen that same look at least a couple dozen times over the years. He turned on the charm just a hair too much and the girl started hearing wedding bells.
Annie hopped off the boulder and sauntered down the hill in time to hear the older man proclaim Candy a "fair trade". She stopped next to him and rested her arm on his shoulder. Ms. Calhoun's face fell, but she recovered her composure so fast Annie thought for a split second she might have imagined it. "Don't look now, but he stole your horse."
"What?" Candy whipped around and stared at her brother's retreating back. "Where's his?"
"He said it was a long story."
"Why – why don't you come inside? Both of you? My name's Meena." Her gaze lingered on Candy, and Annie suddenly understood the "fair trade" comment.
"Well, sure." Candy chuckled. "You coming, sweetheart?" Annie knew she wasn't wrong that time; Meena's face definitely cracked. Really, she couldn't blame the woman, living out here with only her father for company.
But that didn't mean Meena was going to get her hands on the Ponderosa foreman.
"I wouldn't mind some coffee." As long as her brother hadn't had a hand in making it. "Could you give us one minute? We'll be right there."
"Sure." Meena bit her lip and ducked back into the house. Candy turned around, shaking his head.
"What?"
"Joe heard wedding bells."
"Oh." He glanced at the house. "I guess I walked into that one."
"Yep."
"What now?"
"Have some coffee, explain the situation, and ride out."
"Can Reno carry double?"
"As long as it's not Joe. I'll fill the canteen. Back in a minute." She followed a path behind the house to a little spring and filled the canteen, then looped it over the saddle horn and tied Reno to the corral fence. She headed inside the house and walked into the middle of Meena's plans.
"And go on a picnic?" Candy set his coffee cup down and shifted his weight.
"Well, yeah. We could."
"On the riverbank?" Meena left the bucket of dish water and scurried to the table.
"Maybe." Annie folded her arms and leaned against the wall. She was repeating what Joe had told her, no doubt about it. He always used the same, tired, old lines.
"Or just talk?"
"Sure." Candy threw her a look that said help me out here and she bit her lip to hide a smirk.
"Hold hands?"
"Uh, well, we might."
"Would you kiss me?" He blinked and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Uh … well, you see … "
"Oh, don't worry if it takes a little time. We have months and months and months." Meena picked up the bucket and headed for the door. "I'll be right back." The door closed behind her and Annie snorted, unable to contain herself any longer.
"Your brother," Candy said under his breath.
"Your friend," she retorted.
"I'll just tell her I'm not interested when she comes back."
"But will she listen?" He threw her a look.
"You make town sheriffs back down, can't you handle her?" Annie laughed. "I'm serious, you got me out of Stillwater." She laughed harder.
A rifle roared and the mood changed in an instant. She drew her gun and darted for the door just as Mr. Calhoun came charging inside.
"Where's Meena?"
"Don't know."
"Somebody's shooting at me from the top of the hill." Calhoun headed for his rifle in the corner, then they slipped out the door, Candy ducking from a shot that hit the frame. They took up positions in the yard, Annie casting a quick glance at Reno. If she lost that horse …
The grulla had his head turned, watching the gun fight, and she rolled her eyes. Was there such a thing as a horse too good under fire?
"Hey, you down there at the cabin! I wanna talk to you!"
"What about?" Calhoun hollered.
"Got your girl," the stranger answered. "Cost you gold to get her back, all the gold you got."
"All that digging," Calhoun spit, "just to make that man rich."
"You can dig for more gold," Candy said under his breath.
"I know. But you don't realize how hard work it is, digging and blasting. My back aches just thinking about it."
"You'd be surprised," Annie muttered.
"Hey, you up there!"
"What?"
"Send a man down to pick up this gold! But put that girl out there where I can see she's all right, you hear?" The men on the hill shifted positions and then Meena was standing to the side of the cluster of boulders, a disgusted look on her face, and the loudmouth doing the talking was strutting down the hill, his hands out to his sides.
"Everybody be calm, now." Annie shook her head.
"How is it we always end up in the middle of something?"
"Just lucky, I guess," Candy said under his breath. Calhoun eyed them, but didn't say a word. The stranger reached the house and Candy slowly straightened from behind the barrel he was using for cover. Annie stepped back, letting the man follow Calhoun inside.
They stood back, watching while Calhoun pried a brick out of the fireplace and began to remove sack after sack of gold. The outlaw greedily accepted each bag until his arms were loaded down. "Is that all?" he asked when Calhoun stopped and looked at him. Meena's father stared at him with a look of annoyed disgust and turned back to the fireplace, then bent down and removed one last bag. The outlaw chuckled and headed for the door. "Watch where you point them guns, don't want nothing to happen to me now that I'm rich."
"You just make sure the girl starts down when you start up," Candy said, his voice hard as steel.
"She will, she will." He backed away. "Everybody be calm." The man started up the hill, and Meena walked down. She eyed him as they passed each other, then she was at the house and Candy was shooing her inside.
"You all right, Meena?" Calhoun hugged her. "What happened?"
"Oh, I was getting water at the spring and I turned around and there they were." She sat down in the new chair, arms crossed. "I'm so mad at myself I could spit."
"If we hurry, we could catch them."
"What for?" Calhoun eyed them askance. "It's just gold, much as I hate the thought of digging for more, I can. They didn't take my daughter and that's all that really matters." Candy sighed and holstered his gun.
"If that's what you want."
"It is." He went back to the fireplace and replaced the brick. "Might as well get back to digging."
"And we need to get on home." Annie holstered her gun and adjusted her hat. Meena bit her lip and looked down at her hands. Candy headed for the door and swung it open, then froze.
"Well, sweetheart, your brother's good for something after all." He nodded outside and Annie peered over his shoulder. She huffed out a breath.
"He costs me ten dollars, now this."
"What are you two jawing about?" Calhoun came over and pushed his way out the door. "Well, don't that beat all."
Joe marched the three outlaws into the house, hands high. Within minutes, they were tied up at the dinner table, identical morose looks on their faces, and Calhoun was returning his gold to the fireplace. "Come morning, we'll take these three into Lynchville and talk to the sheriff."
"Much obliged." Calhoun nodded once, collected his rifle from the corner. "We'll take turns standing guard."
Annie took the first watch, then Candy, Joe, and finally Calhoun. "I'll take over rest of the night. You get some sleep." Her brother stood and headed for the curtain pulled across half the room. Annie cleared her throat just as Meena hurried over.
"Your friend's asleep out on the fresh hay near the corral." Joe sighed. Annie threw him a devilish grin and his eyes narrowed.
"If it's good enough for a friend, it's good enough for me." He left the house and Meena dragged over a chair and sat next to the bumbling outlaw with reddish blond hair. Annie leaned back in the new chair, a well-worn book in her lap. Unless she missed her guess, Meena had changed her mind again. The woman gave the outlaw a nervous smile.
"That was sweet, what you said, Virgil, on the hill."
"Wasn't nothin'." The other two outlaws – his older brothers, as they'd learned over the course of the afternoon – rolled their eyes and traded looks of annoyance. "If I wasn't going to jail, I'd probably say a lot more."
"Would you be camping on my doorstep?" Annie rolled her eyes.
"I sure would."
"Would we go on picnics?"
"I've never been on a picnic," he said shyly.
"Well, we'd pack a lunch and go to the spring." Virgil frowned.
"And what would we do?"
"We'd talk about things, how we felt, what we thought."
"People talk about things like that?" Annie couldn't stop herself.
"Did you two raise him in the middle of nowhere or something?" The loudmouth - Jesse - swung around in his chair.
"You ain't got the faintest idea what raising that useless sprout was like. He ain't all there, I reckon." Meena threw them a dark look and Annie shrugged. Calhoun watched it all in silence, a calculating look in those knowing eyes.
"Sure, Virgil. And then we'd … I'd …" The woman looked around the room, but what she was after, Annie wasn't quite sure. "Are those ropes too tight, Virgil?" He swallowed once and looked down.
"Well, now you mention it, they are kind of cuttin' off the blood." Meena hopped up and bent to loosen the knots. Virgil's brothers rolled their eyes and exchanged long-suffering looks. Calhoun met his daughter behind the chair.
"I'll do that." He worked at the knot, then lowered his head and said softly, "Are you sure he's the one?" Meena cast a doe-eyed look on Virgil and smiled.
"Sure as I've ever been, Papa." Calhoun nodded once, loosened the knot, then took Meena's place beside Virgil. He grinned broadly and Annie closed the book. Changeable as the wind, that one. From the looks of it, Virgil might actually end up better off that he would be with those two brothers running the show.
"I'd like to have a few words with you."
"Sure, I wasn't planning on going anywhere," Virgil said with a laugh. He must not be all there, he didn't look or sound as though he had the slightest idea what Calhoun had in mind.
A chair scraped on the floor and Annie turned her attention to Meena, now sitting beside her with a hopeful smile on her face. "Yes," she said slowly.
"I was just wondering, what do women talk about? Your brother tried to explain, but I don't think he knows too well, himself."
"Well … I spend more time out on the range than I do in fancy parlors. I'm probably not the best one to ask either."
"Oh. Do you have any idea, though? He mentioned dresses and babies."
"What friends I did have, well, they did like to talk about the latest fashions. And who they thought was handsome." It hadn't done her any good to join those conversations since the young men in question had always found someone else. "And after they started to marry, babies were discussed." Annie fidgeted. "Honestly, Meena, I don't have that many friends, so I don't really know what they talk about now."
"You're lonely, too?" She didn't look like she believed it. "But you have your family and that big ranch, you've got your friend Candy …"
"And there's a lot I don't have because of that big ranch," she said bitterly. "Kind of like you and your pa's gold." She sighed. "I guess I am. Sometimes."
"Oh."
"Meena? Are you sure? Really sure? They did try to rob you." Meena looked back at the men gathered around the dinner table and nodded decisively.
"As sure as I can be." Well, that was that. Annie shrugged and crossed her legs.
"Congratulations."
She was up early the next morning, wanting to see Joe's reaction when he found out how much the situation had changed during the night. He and Candy were still sound asleep in the hay when she went out to saddle the horses. She tied them to the corral on the opposite side as Virgil's brothers. The men nodded in her direction and she returned the greeting.
They'd gotten off lucky this time, and she got the feeling they knew it. Maybe it would be enough to keep them under control in the future. And if it wasn't, Meena had said her pa was a good shot with a rifle.
Annie mounted up and waited for the activity to wake them up. She leaned on the saddle horn and rested her chin in her hand as Joe finally began to stir. "Hey." He nudged Candy and their foreman woke instantly. They took in the sight of the two outlaws saddling horses and traded glances.
"Where's Annie?"
"Hold it!" Two sets of hands shot high in the air and the outlaws turned around slowly. "Get back in the house."
"You got the wrong notion, friend."
"Get back in the house. Where's my sister?"
"She's –" Jesse cut himself off when she shook her head. He shrugged. "You'll find out." They disappeared into the house and Annie waited. She figured about five minutes, maybe seven, for Calhoun to explain what was going on, another minute for it to sink in, and then about two seconds for them to –
Right on time, they burst out of the house and she whistled. Two heads came up and she held out the reins to the Honeycomb gelding – Candy really needed to name the animal. They traded looks and ran over, Joe reaching her first.
"Why'd you let me make a fool of myself just now?"
"One, you wouldn't have believed me, and two, it's my job." He blinked rapidly.
"Your job."
"Uh-huh. Consider it an unwritten rule of little sisters. Now, get on before she changes her mind a fourth time."
"I don't ride Reno." He reached for the chestnut's reins and she snatched the animal back.
"That's Candy's horse, you lost yours."
"But –"
"Take it, or walk home." Candy snorted with laughter as he jumped into the saddle. Joe sighed and scrambled up behind her on Reno. The grulla snorted and humped his back.
"Uh-oh, he still hates me."
"It's only across the desert," Annie snickered, and they took off at a lope, Candy sticking to her right side like glue. "You said something about it was a long story how you lost your horse."
"Yeah, so?"
"We've got plenty of time."
"I'd rather not, all right?" A thought occurred to her and she glanced back over her shoulder.
"You didn't."
"What?"
"It was them. Don't think I didn't notice your gun belt suddenly appeared after you brought them back to the house."
"You know, it did, didn't it?"
"If you two grinning jackals are finished, can we go home?" Reno picked that moment to launch a buck and Joe tumbled off, landing in a puff of dust. She and Candy traded looks, mischief sparking to life.
We never did dump him.
How about now?
"Enjoy the walk!" They took off, and Joe scrambled to his feet.
"Hey!" They still didn't stop and he hollered again. "Annie!"