When morning came, Candy once again woke just in time to get his hands on some breakfast, Adam having invited him once more to join them at the main house.
At the table, Joe asked what he had planned for the day, in a low voice which Candy was sure everyone else heard anyway. He still appreciated the attempt at subtlety and whispered back, "Meet me behind the barn, after this."
Joe'd nodded, glanced around to be sure he was the only one that'd heard, and tried his best to go back to eating his eggs as if he wasn't suddenly too excited to eat.
Candy looked around the table and was satisfied that the only face which looked at him and the guy in the sling any different than usual, was the one right across from him, and that one didn't count anyway, considering Adam was the one who'd put him up to the day's coming shenanigans to begin with.
Wasn't a bad different either. Just... more amused.
Soon as the food had all disappeared, Candy'd left to get everything in order and Joe'd settled himself at the sofa, doing a pretty good job of looking like he was actually reading the book he picked off the coffee table.
After the other Cartwrights had taken off to see to chores, Joe'd sneaked out of the big house and made his way out back of the barn. Stopping in his tracks at the sight Candy knew he hadn't been expecting.
"And he said, 'Take Joseph and the buggy and team and inspect some timber.'? Were those his exact words? Because I'm not interested in explaining why I wasn't home all day and why the buggy's axle needs regreasing if-"
"Joe, would I steer you wrong?" Candy asked, stepping up into the buggy's driver's side and checking the brake was still engaged.
"Oh, don't start with that one, Candy Canaday," Joe said at him from solid ground. "You know well as me the kind of trouble we-"
"We've gotten into together, my dear Joseph. But that was the past, and today is a fresh start that just so happened to start with your dear old pa asking us to inspect some timber. Now," Candy said, moving to the shotgun side of the buggy and offering a hand to the green jacketed guy, "are you in?"
Joe squinted right on past the hand and into Candy's face. Studying for signs of duplicity or mischief, perhaps.
After a few long seconds, Candy felt the eyes trail on down to his outstretched arm and he nearly sighed in relief when a gloved hand reached up and took his.
Not saving more then a thought to the puzzle of how he'd passed the test, deciding that Joe probably figured whatever trouble they might possibly get themselves into would be better than spending yet another perfectly good day inside, Candy helped guide his friend up onto the passenger side of the little bench and then took his own seat.
Pulling the reigns from their holder, he released the brake and gave Joe a sidelong glance. "Since when has work been so tempting?"
"Just drive."
So with a chuckle, Candy did just that, and marveled at how precisely Adam had pegged it after all.
Yep. The eldest Cartwright brother had been right. It really wasn't all that difficult to get Joe in the buggy. And judging by the affected sulky hunch; his passenger was already fast on his way to enjoying himself.
"So which section of timberline he want inspected this fine mornin'?" Candy heard drawled from next to him on the seat.
"You know how your pa can be; pointed in a thisaway direction and said to survey around and see what we could see."
"Hm. That's interesting, because I do know how he can be, and, you know, just in general, it's nothing at all like that." The disbelief was evident.
"Maybe he saw you goin' stir crazy and decided to head that off before something 'happened'," Candy offered. Knowing it would sound genuine because that was actually what had happened. Except, of course, for the fact that it hadn't been Ben who put him on the case.
Joe sat a spell, thinking it over. Before long, he sat straighter and stretched out his legs just a hair. Getting comfy.
"He did catch me trying to not die of boredom a couple times."
"See? Use yer noggin', you can find the reason to anyone's madness," Candy said, double checking he had the correct hold on the buggy team's reigns.
Wasn't often he drove a buggy. Was far more used to the four in hand style of reigning, on account of there being so many big loads to move around on a place as big as the Ponderosa, so the simpler setup always surprised him with its breezy ease.
The only noise for at least a furlong was the quiet springing action of the buggy's suspension and the steady clip-clop of the well trained team along the dirt path. Passenger looking off to one side; clearly enjoying his first taste of freedom in days. Going so far as to doff his hat and let the breeze play with his hair.
Approaching a fork in the road, the driver made up his mind that he was going to pretend he knew exactly what he was doing and not ask the guy sitting next to him which way the horse's should take them. Instead just twitching the reigns and directing the team toward the path more heavily forested.
They were inspecting timber, after all.
A ways down that path, which just so happened to have a pleasant rolling up and down about it, shotgun minus the shotgun readjusted his sling arm and moved his eyes front.
"Hm." Joe hummed.
"Hm?" Candy hummed back. Curious.
"If we weren't still too close to the house, this timber right here would be perfect for logging," pointed out the youngest of the most conscientious timber magnate dynasty Candy'd ever met.
Not that he'd met many, but the description held none the less. Considering tales of treachery and general nastiness tend to spread. Especially with the kind of far flung folks who were known to blow through the nearby towns any given Sunday. Never know who you'll run into. And, inversely, who they'd already run into.
"Yeah, wouldn't wanna be settin' off charges in your own backyard," Candy offered.
"No kidding," Joe agreed, leaning back against the backboard of the bench seat. Shoulder brushing against Candy's as he did.
Another stretch of road went by without a human voice to break up the sounds of the buggy's progress. Aside from the stray tappings of a woodpecker or the trilling call of some flitting finch.
At length, Candy looked beside himself to study his friend's face, in the interest of figuring whether the guy was still enjoying the outing.
Little tougher to tell with his eyes shut, but it looked like Joe was soaking in the sound of the outdoors and doing something in a horse drawn conveyance that he probably hadn't managed in the comfort of his own home: Relaxing.
Smiling to himself, Candy navigated them around a bough that looked like it had sheared off a magnificent ponderosa pine in a recent storm. Because it took up most of that chunk of path, it was necessary to run just a little bit off road. The feeling of which prompted Joe's eyes open and he sat forward in his seat as if checking if there was anything he should be doing to help.
When he saw that his assistance was not required, he sagged back enough to once again pass for relaxing and let his breathing even out.
Getting them back on the straight and narrow, Candy figured it was about time for a little more conversation.
"I been wonderin'," he started. "Was bein' cooped up and shielded from the perils of this big bad world as bad as it sounds?"
"No, it was a walk in the park," Joe informed. Flatly.
"Aw, c'mon, Joe; I won't make fun. Honest." Candy put a hand over his heart and gave shotgun his most angelic look. Trying to get a rise out of him.
Almost worked too.
As it was, Joe smirked at Candy's humor and tucked his chin just a hair closer to his own chest.
"I almost went crazy." Said almost seriously.
"Mmhm," Candy acknowledged, sounding as if he'd suspected as much. "What stopped you?"
Joe gave him a further amused look and offered, "Oh, I don't know. My natural resilience? And... I'm pretty sure they put in an effort."
"Who?"
"You know dern well 'who'," Joe said, playing at indignant. "Hoss, our pa, and Hop Sing."
"Ah. That who."
"Uh-huh, 'that who' indeed," Joe grumbled. Posture improving despite the tone. "Do you want to know more or not?"
"Oh, I'm all ears, Joseph. Thanks for clearing up who we was talkin' 'bout first though," Candy said. Eyes on the road as it took a sudden steeper tilt upward.
Joe scoffed, sounding like he wanted to cross his arms but realized at the last moment that the sling would really get in the way of that.
"I mean it! Would I ask if I didn't wanna know?" The two sitting on the small buggy bench shared a sardonic glance. Which prompted snorts from both.
"Fine. Let's just suppose you do care-"
"Which I do-"
"-and I won't spare the gritty details."
"That would be appreciated," Candy said with a nod.
Joe shook his head and sighed, settling in for a little story time.
"Well, let me see now," he said, giving his jaw a pensive rub. "Yes, it's coming back to me: Pa and Hoss didn't work a late day. Though that could easily be collusion on their part to keep me from having any real fun. But they put in the effort to read in the same room or- Oh, Pa broke out the Shakespeare! And some poufy hat with a giant feather stickin' off one side. Paraded around the den all, 'To be or not to be?' That was something."
"'S'pose I should'a guessed yer pa knew the bard," Candy intoned, doing his best to sound sage.
"Well, not personally." At that, the two of them ended up snorting again.
"No, I wouldn't figure."
"Good thing too; he wouldn't take it as a compliment," Joe informed. Lips tilting up at the corners.
"'Course not. Yer pa doesn't look a day over a hundred and fifty." Joe turned to eye Candy, one eyebrow raised.
"Would you like me to pass it along, or will you be giving him that complement in person?"
"Heh, maybe this can be one of those private sort of confidential compliments? Between friends?" Candy asked, pulse quickening.
The look Joe gave him in answer doing nothing to slow it back down.
After a double beat, the guy who had the power to snitch and get Candy fired cracked a grin and broke the silence. "Yeah alright. Wouldn't want it going to his head; you thinkin' so highly of him."
Candy exhaled and relaxed. About the same time he realized the guy in the sling would never do anything that had a possibility of getting him fired.
They were friends after all. Best friends.
"So, home theatre and... Hop Sing taught me how to play weiqi."
"Oh?" Prompted Candy, hoping to find out what in the world Joe'd just said without having to ask.
"Yeah, walked out of the kitchen one night, carryin' a lined board and a couple bowls full of tiny stones. From his 'personal quarters', he said. Gave me the bowl full of black stones and told me to bow, then we started puttin' them on the little line intersections. Lasted a pretty long time too."
"So you did have some fun without me!" Enthused the driver.
"Oh, not really. Time we finished, I still didn't understand the rules and he said I'd lost by over a hundred points. Not enough 'territory'. And he had a fat stack of my pieces in his bowl lid. Said he'd poked out most of my 'eyes', or- or something."
Candy laughed at the look that passed over Joe's face at the memory. Not quite afraid, but it was obvious the guy definitely never wanted to play whatever game that was again.
"Well, that sounds like what happens any ol' time you and Hoss break out the checkers board! Doesn't he usually end up owing you a whole bag of peppermints by the end of the week?"
"Yep. And he always pays up too."
"Ever get boring playing someone you can't lose to?"
"Oh, Hoss could beat me," Joe said. Playing up the pause to pique Candy's interest. "He'd just need to play me while I'm sleeping!"
"Ha!" Barked the driver, quieting some when he noticed the horse's ears flip back towards the noise.
"What about you? Have any unusual fun on the assignment?" Joe asked.
"Oh, I like sleepin' under the stars much as the next saddle tramp," Candy commented. Tone light.
"Huh?"
"Just somethin' yer pa said. A while back," Candy said, waving one hand dismissively. "But, it was something to see that brother of yours at work. Man really does expect excellence."
"Mmhm. Though, I'll swear to it: He's tougher on folks got the same last name as him," Joe nodded.
Candy gave a nod of his own and thought back over the things he and Adam had spoken about over the few days they'd worked together. On the upper pasture and otherwise.
"I got a feelin' it's 'cause he cares that much more 'bout folks what share his last name."
He looked over in time to see a small, private smile grow on his passenger's face. One that reminded Candy of a certain other Cartwright he'd had a conversation with the previous day.
The two really must've been brothers after all.
"There!" Candy said, along with a full arm pointing off road. Breaking up another stretch of... not silence, but comfortable quiet.
"What? Where?" Candy had to laugh when Joe practically popped right out of his seat with the shock. Questions coming out in a surprise laced confusion.
"There's where we should tie the team while we have lunch," Candy stated. Matter of factly.
"Lunch?"
"You are just full of questions today, aren't you?"
"Yeah? Well at least I'm not full of myself," Joe grumbled, more to himself than his driver. Who snickered as he reigned the team off road and into some sparse growing shade trees.
"If we throw a wheel, you know who's putting it back by himself, right?" Joe added with a cringe as the going got a little bumpy.
"Well, we're all in luck; this is as far as we go!" Candy declared, just as the sight of a sparkling lake revealed itself on the bottom side of a gentle downward slope, past where the trees grew just a smidge sparser.
Joe whipped his head from the wonder over to where Candy was setting the buggy's brake and securing the reigns for a smooth disembark.
"You knew that was there?"
"It might be worth remembering that I know just about everything," Candy said as he hopped down. Enjoying the funny sputtering noise the guy who hadn't made to leave the buggy yet made.
"No, truth be told, I thought I heard a duck and liked the look of this grass. Good for sittin' on." As he spoke, the red shirted chauffeur began unhitching the team, knowing, or at least hoping, that lunch was going to take a while. Pretty sure he felt eyes on him as he worked, Candy did his best not to fumble any of the buckles and in no time flat, had the two horses with a healthy glow about them secured to trees near the buggy. They blew some air at him, grateful for the time off. He rubbed their noses in thanks for a well behaved job well done.
Then he turned back to the buggy.
"What's this talk of food, Canaday?"
Candy grinned as he made his way over. "Well, just like he took the time to show you the true meaning of defeat, Hop Sing took the time to pack you lunch." At the look of bewilderment, the guy with all the cards offered his hand and helped his confused friend out of the resting buggy. Then, giving Joe a wry smile, he reached underneath the bench and extricated a pristine-
"Picnic basket? Since when does Hop Sing pack picnic baskets?"
"He made you that sling, didn't he?" Candy pointed out. Entertained when Joe's only reaction was turning away to hide a faint blush.
Giving the basket a heft, Candy indicated the body of water not far off. "Wanna eat by yonder pond, or does by the horses suit ya better?" He held in a guffaw when one half of the buggy's team snorted and dropped a hefty little 'surprise'. The other horse flipping its tail in the first one's face at the thoughtful gesture.
He went ahead and chuckled when Joe took one look at the neat little heap and took off for the water.
Candy'd been right. He had heard a duck. Where he'd been wrong, was in thinking there was only one duck. For, as it turned out, there was one full grown duck and at least a half dozen peeping ducklings all following the big one around in circles by the water's edge. Tripping over each other in their endearing clumsiness and doing their best to stay upright while trying to suck crumbs of people food out of the mud.
He looked over at a Joe who just happened to be mirroring his reclining sprawl on his own side of the blanket. The basket between them laying open and revealing the scraps of a delicious meal.
Surprising all parties, the taciturn Ponderosa chef had included a jar of sweet tea packed with care between the loaf of bread and the blanket Candy and Joe'd spread out on the sloping bank of the hillock overlooking the watery evidence of Mother Nature's genius.
Though, Candy'd done most of the actual spreading. Mostly because he'd wanted to; not because Joe was unwilling to help.
Though the guy with two working arms would admit if pressed, that his friend wasn't quite as fast at moving that fine day, what with being mindful of his sling and all, in reality, Candy just didn't want to watch Joe struggle.
So instead, he watched his friend giggle at the baby ducks as the big duck quacked at them to stop plucking out each other's feathers.
Candy found the sight, along with the sound of familiar laughter, brought about a warm feeling to compliment the full belly lunch had given him and he said another silent thanks to the man who never spoke English to him for putting the picnic together. Then sent a silent thanks to Adam as well, for having forced him to spend his off day 'working' with the guy's youngest brother, who just so happened to be his best friend.
"You get a load of those stinkers?" Joe asked, motioning with his sling covered arm to where a duckling was grudgingly giving another a piggyback ride. Which ended with both flopping over into a puddle, hopping back up covered in mud and flapping stub wings at each other.
"Ha! Those two remind me of a certain pair of brothers I happen to know!"
Joe scoffed at the comparison. Rolling his eyes in place of deigning to respond.
"You might know 'em," Candy insisted. "One's big as a hoss, other's scrawny; wears a lot of beige and green. Ring any bells?"
"Y-you can just forget about being friends if that's the way you wanna talk about my brother," Joe said, taking a break from watching the ducks by the water to give Candy a pointed look. "He is much larger than your average hoss."
Yeah, Candy thought as the two of them cackled at the middle Cartwright brother's expense, Joe was definitely enjoying himself. Things were shaping up the way Adam had predicted after all.
Huh.
Another thought entered Candy's head as that particular conversation came back to him.
Did some of that smile on his friend's face have something to do with the mind behind it making future plans for this place? With... other, perhaps, more 'appealing' individuals?
Deciding he didn't like the taste of that idea, nor of the feeling letting it stay an unvoiced mystery would ultimately bring, Candy adjusted his hat and spoke what was on his mind.
"Would you just look at that view," he started, gesturing in earnestness. "Make ya wish you had somebody else out here, sharin' this picnic? A prim and proper lady maybe?"
"No. Not at the moment," Joe said. Tone breezy.
"Yer not thinkin' of some special someone; lookin' out at that beautiful view? Look! A stork just plucked a fish straight outta the water! If this ain't the kind of place you bring a little lady, I don't know what is."
"Oh, I don't know. This feels special enough to me," Joe said. To which Candy nearly cricked his neck his head turned so quick.
"You mean that?"
"Yeah," Joe said, doing as Candy'd asked and just soaking in the magnificent view. "Yeah, I do." Then the ranchero in the sling looked over to the guy having a hard time processing what he was hearing.
"You did save my life the other day. And it turns out," he said, picking at the remnants of pie crust they hadn't already thrown at the ducklings. "Almost dying; sometimes you get yourself a better appreciation of the simple things. Like a nice meal, a good piece of land... a special friend."
Candy watched as Joe popped a crumble of crust in his own mouth and hoped the guy didn't look back at him until he was finished with it, because he could feel a redness crawling up his cheeks from his collar and they hadn't been in direct sun enough to pass it off as a burn.
All while musing that it was almost as if Joe knew exactly what Adam had told him on their ride the day before. Or, perhaps, the steadfast eldest really did know his 'baby brother'.
"Thanks, Joe. I feel the same," Candy managed. Breaking his stare to look out at the view again.
"Do you?" Asked Joe. A fond chuckle coloring his voice.
"Absolutely," said Candy. A fond seriousness coloring his.
The tone drew Joe's eyes to him, a question hidden in their depth. Evident though, to those who knew him, in the set of his brow. "I too appreciate a good meal."
To that Joe picked his hat off the picnic blanket and swatted it at Candy's shoulder. Missing by inches when the red shirted annoyance rolled completely off the gingham cloth and to his feet in the grass of their idyllic eating place.
"Why you-"
"Now, Joe. What ever happened to you appreciatin' the little things?" Candy pleaded.
"Maybe I wasn't talkin' about your off color sense of humor! Ever think about that?"
"Joe, you wound me," Candy said, making a slow return to the comfort of his side of the glorified table cloth. Making sure he wasn't about to get wounded by a hat next.
"Yeah, well you're impossible," Joe informed. Ignoring his blanketmate in favor of studying the gentle swoop of a crane landing to wade in the shallower waters near their edge of the lake.
"Yeah, well, only the best for a special friend." Disguised with the light tone, it took a beat for the exact choice of words and their genuine nature to register, but it was obvious the moment they did. It was all in the softening of his friend's jaw and, even though Joe didn't stop watching the crane, in the contented warming of his eyes.
"Impossible you may be, but... you're alright, Canaday."
"I was wondering when you'd figure it out!"
The ensuing chuckles may or may not have been to blame for the crane's premature departure, but either way, it was completely worth the feeling of weightlessness a good laugh brought.
Especially a good laugh following a nice meal, on a good piece of land, between a pair of special friends.
Not a dozen minutes into their buggy ride home, Candy noticed a little tug on one of the reigns. Felt almost as if one of the horses had missed a step. He was probably going to need to-
"Stop the buggy," Joe said. Sitting forward and grabbing Candy by the shoulder. Making the prompt stop a tick less smooth than it would have been otherwise.
"Something's wrong with Milkshake."
"I thought I felt someone miss a step. No, no," Candy said, applying the brake and handing Joe the reigns. Giving him something to do so he'd stay in his seat. "I'll handle it," Candy insisted, pulling a hoof pick out of parts storage, under the bench and near the picnic basket. Before hopping down from the buggy and taking it with him around to 'Milkshake's' outer side. Then he bent over and squeezed the back of her ankle; asking for her hoof.
She lifted it without a fuss, which was a good sign already, and after a thorough clean out with the hoof pick, Candy gave the leg up to the knee a quick rub down and patted the horse on the neck as he left her to come back around to his driver's side seat.
"Well?" Asked Joe. Before Candy'd even had time to sit.
"Oh, no worries. Just a little stone in her hoof."
"Didn't bruise her?"
"Nope. No strain neither. No heat in the muscles, and," Candy stressed the word to stop Joe asking whatever question was obviously about to roll out his mouth, "I'll check her again when we get back. Before even if she's actin' funny."
"Well. Alright then. Homeward bound, Conductor," Joe said, returning the reigns and sitting back in relief.
"Your wish; my command," Candy mumbled with a wry smile as he released the brake and gave the reigns a flick. Pointing them back towards the big house and what he hoped would turn out an evening full of nothing but more good time relaxation.
After all, he and Joe both deserved a little time off and if they could spend it together? Well, suffice it to say: The more the merrier.
The game Joe said Hop Sing creamed him at is called weiqi in China, Baduk in Korea, and go in Japan and much of North America.
It is in some ways a very simple game and in others extremely complex, and if someone is not a patient teacher, it is very easy to win against a beginner by over a hundred points.
Poor Joe. At least Hop Sing spent some time with him!