BEFORE:

Eddie and Adam's first-born son entered the world pink and screaming.

As the story went, with sweat clinging to her brow, her cheeks sodden with exhausted, mirthful tears, Eddie held him tightly and close to her chest, refusing to allow anyone to hold her son for hours after his birth. She had endured a long and difficult labor, the agonizing duration of which her mother had refused to stray from her side. Peggy came and went in the first few hours, then later, as the first day slowly transformed into the second and the infant had yet to be pushed from his mother's womb, she was instructed to remain outside of the room as the outlook of the people inside of it changed, their excitement and glee, transforming into consternation and trepidation.

It should not have been this difficult to birth a child, that was what the doctor had said, low words whispered to Lil so that her struggling daughter would not overhear. There was a warning lurking beneath the statement, one that if Lil had not been present might have gone unheard and neglected outright. As it was, it was the first thing that the woman relayed to her assumed son-in-law when he finally appeared, looking beaten up, exhausted, and fresh from the trail three days after his son's birth.

"You will not touch my daughter again," Lil said, meeting Adam in the foyer of the house the very moment he strode through the front door. "You have Peggy and now this baby. Two children are enough, more than some are blessed with. You will not tempt fate by adding another."

Saddlebag slung over his shoulder, Adam's expression sank, his heart fluttering nervously. He was already harboring a fair amount of guilt for missing the birth of his child, something this new bit of information only intensified. He had meant to be home for his child's birth. He had every intention of being present—maybe not lingering at Eddie's side, but at least in the house—when their baby arrived. But, as with so many occasions before it, fate had conspired against him, dragging him further away from her side, rather than closer. His absence had become yet another thing that could not be helped since he had become a U.S. Marshal.

"Was it bad?" he asked.

"It certainly was not good," Eddie said.

Adam could not help thinking of his own birth. The day his father had gained a child but lost a wife. "Are they…?" Throat constricting, he could not finish the question.

"They're both fine, now," Lil qualified. "But it was quite worrisome for a while."

"Eddie is alright?" Adam pressed.

"Yes."

"And the baby is alright."

"Yes."

Overcome by relief, Adam exhaled a breath he did not realize he had been holding. "Is Eddie upset?"

"Because you missed the birth of your child, or because you broke the promise you made about being back in time?"

Adam shrugged weakly. The latter had led to the former, and neither thing could have been prevented. When a man made a living tracking other men down, it was rare when he could keep to a schedule—or the promises he made to the people awaiting his return.

"Eddie's not upset," Lil said. "She would not dare. She knows what kind of challenges you face outside of this house, Adam. She's not going to make the inside of it anything other than a safe and happy place for you to come back to." She tilted her head, her eyes narrowing. "Peggy, on the other hand, you may still find quite upset, once the initial excitement of your return has worn off."

Adam assumed as much. Lil was quiet as she appraised him, seemingly taking stock of his tired demeanor, dirty clothes, the scattered scabbing lining his knuckles, and the scratches lining the side of his neck, spanning the distance between the bottom of his left ear, and extending down, hiding beneath under the collar of his shirt. He wondered if she was going to ask him the obvious, insisting he voice the inevitable: he had engaged in a fight, and he had won. On the trail, and in the wilderness, he always won, because he had too much at stake to lose.

Stepping forward, Lil wrapped him in a tight embrace. "Thank you," she whispered.

"For what?" Adam asked dumbly.

"For coming back, this time and before. I know things did not go according to plan between you and Eddie. The story I told about your marriage to my daughter is not an easy one for a man to make peace with or accept."

"There was no other choice but to tell the story. I know that."

"I know that, too, but, honey..." she pulled away from him, moving her hands to clench his forearms as she looked into his eyes. "You had a choice. You could have walked away from Eddie when you discovered her condition. You could have left us behind. But you did not. You stayed, even though that meant engaging yourself in a lie, building the future upon a farce. Telling lies is not something that comes easily to you, and this is a great, big one. It is never going to sit in your head or your heart easily. It is just about the most uncomfortable thing you will ever have to live with, I know. But you must live with it, because the alternative comes at too high of a price."

Adam wondered why Lil was speaking as she was—about things they had promised never to discuss, no less. It was dangerous to voice them and risk the threat of being overheard by an unkind ear. If that happened, scandal would rain down on the Manfred household in an instant. It would change everything, and Adam was sick of change. Still, he wondered if Lil was

genuinely worried he was having second thoughts about his life with her daughter. If the delay of his return had awoken within her an old fear that he had decided not to come back at all.

"It's gonna be fine, Lil," he said. "I'm not going anywhere. Not now. Not ever. I may leave, but I will always come back. This is my place, my home, I know that now."

"You're a good man, Adam Cartwright; a real hero, the best I've ever had the pleasure to know."

"There is no way that is true."

"It is. I know you don't believe it now, but someday you will. I intend to keep on repeating it until you do." She nodded first at his saddlebags and then his hat. "Give me those," she said. "Go clean yourself up a little and then go meet your son." Clutching his hat, she looked between it and Adam, and smiled. "I think maybe we'll keep this away from the door for a while."

Adam grinned. Their baby was a boy. He had a son.

"Awe, Pa!" Peggy exclaimed later as she held Adam's hand tightly and pulled him toward the room her parents shared. "Wait until you see him! He's the cutest little baby I've ever seen."

Adam wondered how many babies the young girl had seen in her lifetime. No matter the number, it did not make her claim any less true.

Looking at the bundle Eddie held close to her chest, Adam was overcome by a feeling he could neither define nor ignore. Powerful and immediate, it was an emotion he likened to joy and love, so pure and all-encompassing as he sat on the side of the bed and looked upon his son for the first time.

The infant's skin was pink, soft, delicate, and new. His complexion favored that of his father; he had his mother's nose and a tuft of twisty blond hair that promised to grow into eventual curls. Long, fair lashes decorated his closed eyes; he continued to sleep as Adam pulled gently at the corners of the blanket he was swaddled in, exposing first tiny hands and then feet, taking great care in counting fingers and toes. Though his presence had been unexpected and Eddie's labor was long and rigorous, the baby was perfect, his arrival an untarnished new beginning for all of them.

"What do you think?" Eddie asked softly.

"I think you did good."

"Yeah." Eddie smiled. "And what did you do?"

Shaking his head, Adam dismissed the question and the one that lurked beneath the surface. He would not talk about the roads outside of the home, where they had taken him this time around, or what kind of horrors he had seen when he finally arrived. He would not talk about his work. Not now. Not here. Never inside the safety of their home where the dangers of the outside world and those roads could not touch them. They were two separate realities, really; and lately he had begun to question if they were making him into two separate men. The kindhearted, loyal husband who loved his wife and family dearly, and a man to be reckoned with when he pinned a star to his jacket and mounted his horse. Bad things happened in the wilderness; he had always known that but recent experiences seemed intent on eternally declaring his ignorance on such matters. He did not know what he was getting himself into when he decided to keep his badge. Even so, had he known what it would be like, how much time he would spend away from his family, or the things he would miss, he would not have changed his choice. He could not have changed it, he knew that now, and Eddie had known this long before he had, it seemed.

"Does this…?" he began and then stopped, his throat constricting with emotion he was almost too tired to suppress. He cleared his throat and then tried again. "Does this boy have a name?"

Eddie looked at Peggy. "Do you want to tell him?"

Hands clenched behind her back, Peggy was decidedly hesitant as she shook her head.

"No?" Casting the girl a questioning glance, Adam wondered if the excitement accompanying his return had faded, leaving a familiar tension in its place. Peggy had not taken the news of his appointment as marshal easily. From what he was told in secret by Lil, she did not fare well during his absences. It was just a couple more things he prayed time would change, the repetition of him leaving for short spans of time becoming easier to endure and accept each time he returned as he promised he would.

"You won't like it," Peggy said.

"Sure, I will."

"No. You won't."

Adam looked at Eddie. "What is it?"

"Charles," Eddie said.

"What's not to like about that?" Adam asked. It had been the name of Eddie's father and as such he had assumed it would be a name shared by their child if it was a boy. "Charles Cartwright. Charlie," he qualified with a smile. "I really like that."

"Me too," Eddie said.

"Then what's the problem?" Adam asked.

"Something in the middle," Peggy said softly.

Adam looked at Eddie for an explanation, his brow furrowing with confusion, his stomach turning with dread. Surely, she would not have named their son after his father, too? Not without discussing it with him first, at the very least.

"His full name," Eddie said, "is Charles Benjamin Cartwright."

Adam did not speak for several moments, and he was careful with his response when he finally did. "That's fine," he lied. Lord, Eddie looked so tired; she was far from recovered from their son's trying entrance into the world. Now was not the time to be taking issue with anything, much less the boy's middle name.

"You don't like it," Peggy said.

"I don't hate it," Adam said. He did not. He only hated the symbolism behind it, the stories he would have to share with his son when Charlie was old enough to ask where the name had come from, how it had been chosen and why. And maybe that was why Eddie had picked it. It was her way of ensuring the truth about Adam's past would be shared with his son. Things like who the Cartwright family really was. Where Adam himself had lived as a boy, and why as a man he had chosen to leave.

His son, he thought, looking fondly at the infant. He had a son. Ben Cartwright had finally become a grandfather; it was a shame it was news that would not be shared with him. Hoss and Joe were bonafide uncles and neither of them had a clue that this perfect little person had entered the world. The first of a new generation that would carry their shared surname. It was almost too much to consider, so he forced himself to think of something else instead.

"I brought you something," he said to Eddie as he reached into his back pocket and presented her with a small, velvet pouch. He nodded at their baby. "It isn't much in comparison to this, but it's meaningful nonetheless."

Casting him a curious gaze, Eddie watched him pull at the opening of the pouch. She inhaled a startled breath as he presented her with a ring which he swiftly slipped upon the finger of her left hand.

The dainty silver band was neither large nor garish. The minute Adam had seen it, sitting unassumingly beneath the glass of a small general store in an even smaller town, he had wanted it for Eddie. At the time, it had made no sense for the item to be for sale in such a place, less likely that he would have stumbled upon it. Still, he had. It was just another one of those perfect moments, the ones that seemed to happen with sporadic and increasing frequency since he had begun to call Eddie his wife.

"When a man is betrothed to a woman," he said, "he gives her a ring, and as long as she wears that ring, they belong to each other. Eddie, I love you very much. I would be honored if you would wear this as a symbol of our love for each other."

"Love, honor, obey." Eddie scrunched her nose in disgust. "I kind of hate that last word." Bending her thumb, she ran its tip across the band encircling her index finger and emitted a content sigh. "But it is beautiful. Where's yours?" she quipped, smiling tiredly.

Adam laughed. "Hey, now, we may be untraditional, but we aren't that untraditional. It isn't seemly for a common man to wear a ring."

"That's funny. I didn't get the impression you were common. Buddy, you are the rarest kind of man in the world." She cast their baby a loving gaze. "Look at this perfect, little baby you've given to me."

"I was under the impression you gave him to me."

"We gave him to each other. Oh, lord," she sighed. "I did not know it was possible to love someone this quickly or so much."

Adam looked at his wife and his son. Then he looked at Peggy who was standing a few paces away, patiently lingering on the periphery of their interaction. He thought of the first day he had seen her counting on her swing and reasoned that maybe he had known such a thing was possible. Perhaps, the love he was feeling for his new son he had felt before—he had just been unaware of it at the time. The circumstances had been so different, it was impossible to truly recognize it at first. But he recognized it now.

Waving his hand, he prompted Peggy to come closer, then wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her into a close half-hug.

"I brought you something, too," he said to the girl.

"You did?" Peggy asked.

"Of course, I did. It's in my saddlebag. Aunt Lil has it. You track her down and then look inside."

"Okay!"

Peggy left the room in a flourish, excitement guiding her every step.

"You spoil her," Eddie said fondly.

"So do you," Adam countered. Carefully laying on the bed, he settled beside her atop the blanket that was keeping her warm, and admired the baby in her arms.

"You're really not upset about the name?" Eddie asked.

"There's worse ones you could have chosen," Adam deflected.

"Like what?"

"My brother's middle name is Francis."

Her expression shifted with dislike and disbelief. "No."

"Yes," Adam said, grinning.

"That's… awful."

"I know it is, and so does Joe. He's hated it since the day he became truly aware of it."

Eddie grew thoughtful. "I hope Charlie doesn't grow to hate his middle name, and I hope you grow to forgive the man it originated from." She paused. "Make me a promise?"

"Anything."

"If anything bad ever happens to me, or the life we have here, promise me you'll go home, back to Nevada, your father, brothers, and the ranch."

"Can't do it," Adam said lightly. "Not without breaking a promise I already made to you. Don't you remember? Home isn't a place, it's people. Peggy, you, and Charlie are my home. If I don't have you, then I don't have one. Not anymore."

"Your father and your brothers, they were your home once, too. They can be that for you again."

"They can't," Adam said sadly. "Buddy, that whole deal is said and done. I can't be the man I need to be if I force myself to stand in my father's shadow again. I can't really be a man at all, not when he is eternally intent on treating me like a boy."

"Who says you have to stand in his shadow? I would think that at your age you cast an accomplished shadow of your own. I'm not saying it's something that happens now. I'm not saying that we should make plans to visit. I'm just merely voicing the suggestion."

"No," Adam said evenly. "You're making a morbid request."

Eddie sighed, was quiet for a moment, then tried again. "Birthing this child was a struggle," she said, her voice soft and low as though she was sharing a secret for only the two of them to know.

There was a span of time when I was almost certain I was going to die. I thought about Peggy and how deeply it would affect her to lose another person she loved; I thought about this baby and what kind of life it would have if it was allowed to live without me; and I thought about you and what you would do. If something happens to me, I don't want you to remain a marshal, wandering road after road, trail after trail with grief as your only companion. I don't want that life for you, or our children. What works now, will no longer work if I'm gone. Forgive me for speaking of such things now, but I need to know that if something terrible happens and I'm no longer around to love my children and take care of them as they grow, then you take them to a place where others will."

"You don't know anything about my family."

"I know enough. You forget that Laura wrote to me about you, your father, and brothers, that my mother has spent time with them as well. What happened between you and your father aside, whatever it was he said or did that prompted you to pull so far away, I do not believe he is a bad man, and I don't think you believe that either."

Adam shook his head. He was no longer sure what he believed where anything regarding his father was concerned.

"You wouldn't be doing it for yourself," Eddie clarified. "You'd be doing it for our children. Promise me, Adam," she implored, voicing his name to strengthen her plea. They rarely called each other by their given names, deferring to their favored sobriquet which had become a special declaration of fondness when traded among the two. "Promise me," she repeated.

Opening his mouth, Adam had every intention of denying the request. He could not account for the words he actually said: "I promise."

"Thank you." Holding Charlie close with one arm, she extended the other, placing her hand upon Adam's cheek. "Oh, buddy," she whispered with a smile. "I just had the most wonderful notion."

"Not another one," Adam remarked flatly.

She rubbed her fingers across his beard fondly. "This can be your wedding band," she said. "As long as you hold love for me inside of your heart, then you should declare it with the hair upon your cheeks."

"That sounds a little strange."

"Well, you don't tell anybody that's why you have it. Just don't ever shave it. I have always been quite fond of a man with a beard."

"So, I've been told."

"You'll do it then?"

It was an easy request to abide by. Adam had been upholding it since the moment they had met. He knew it would not have been broken even if Eddie had not verbalized it. There was nothing that could possibly convince him to break the vow. He kissed Eddie deeply, then took hold of Charlie when her eyelids began to droop. Though his promise to his wife had been silent, the ones he whispered to his slumbering newborn son were not.

"I am going to love you forever," he said, unknowingly repeating a series of vows his father had whispered to him in the days following his own birth. "I am going to protect you from everything. I will never let anything bad happen to you. I am going to be a better father to you than my father was to me, and you are going to grow into a better man than I will ever be."

Looking at Charlie, he did not think of the past with his family or father, because the future was his son; his boy would grow to be everything he was not—he would make sure of it. Had he known how quickly the years would pass or how few his son had been allotted to live, he never would have put that baby down. He would have held onto Charlie forever. He would have changed everything, he would have given anything, if only his son could have lived.

TBC