Black Arrow was still standing before them, hands on hips and chest heaving. His breath was slowly coming back to him, and Vanessa knew that when it did, he would most likely attack again. She'd seen Adam fight before, knew that he'd had plenty of practice back home. He'd taught Hoss and Joe how to fight and had taken plenty of lickings from either of them and still come out on top. But she'd also seen how Black Arrow fought, the man was low and fought dirty. She knew that somewhere beneath those pants he wore was a small throwing knife...a knife she'd felt the taste of once before. She took a deep breath and tried to stare Black Arrow down.
"What are you doing here?" she seethed, keeping her grip on Adam's belt. Black Arrow smirked, "I came to be sure that this brute does right by you." Vanessa's eyes widened and one hand slipped from Adam's waist, "What are you talking about?" Black Arrow dropped into the one chair that hadn't been destroyed or overturned and leaned his elbows on his knees, "Vanessa, you really think that you and you're Aunt Sarah are the only ones who know about that hot spring on her property?" Vanessa's stomach flipped, "What do you mean..."
Adam knew, and he growled angrily at their attacker, "You filthy..." Black Arrow held up his hand, "Oh no! I didn't do nothing of that sort. I arrived here about two weeks after you did, sister, and I've been watching over you ever since. I was at the ball last night, I saw your face when this brute grabbed you up, and I also saw how you were acting when you came back inside from talking with him." He gripped his hands together tightly, and glared at Adam, "I know what you did to her, Adam Cartwright. Both back at the Summerset and here, in New Orleans." Adam stiffened, and Vanessa glanced at him. "Adam..." her voice was warning. Black Arrow continued, "Well, aren't you going to tell her, Mr. Cartwright?" Vanessa looked up at him, "Adam, what..."
Adam set his jaw, and turned away from her, "Vanessa, you get out of here." he growled again, but she didn't move. Just let him pull out of her grasp as he walked to the fireplace and braced his arm against it, wiping his nose with his shirt before putting his hand on his hip. Vanessa watched him pull away from her, and keep his back to her. Her heart sank, in the course of twenty-four hours, her life had turned around a full three hundred and sixty degrees. When she'd come to New Orleans, she'd thought she'd seen the last of Adam's back to her, and then the ball...and that night in the cave, she'd honestly thought that he'd come back to her. But now, as he stared into the kitchen fire and ignored her insistent stare, she knew it had to be too good to be true. Swallowing her tears, she kicked at a downed table, and stormed out of the room, fighting the racking sobs that threatened to erupt any moment.
Black Arrow watched his sister leave the room, but didn't follow. She wouldn't get far anyway, Maria would stop her soon enough. His primary problem right now was the cowboy leaning against the mantle, his shoulders taut with anger. Adam took three deep breaths, exhaling each slowly, before he turned to Black Arrow, "She never mentioned a brother." he hissed, folding his arms defensively across his chest. Black Arrow smirked and looked at the floor, "I'm not really her brother. Not by blood anyway." Adam waited, and Black Arrow looked back up at him, "When Vanessa was sixteen, she'd been fool enough to go riding her blasted horse into Paiute country. It was known amongst my people that she was a daughter of our tribe, but the Warricks had taken her in as their child. She would often accompany Nicholas on trips to help the chief with the local authorities, and even in the bringing of food for the winter when times were hard. The command from the chief was that she wasn't to be hurt if she was ever found on our land...but apparently one of the younger braves failed to...understand the message." Black Arrow paused, letting his meaning sink in. Adam blew out his breath and kicked up a chair to sit in, "The scar on her back." Black Arrow nodded, "You've seen it? She's usually protective of showing that to anyone." Adam gave him a look, "Do I really have to answer that?" Black Arrow nodded, "All I saw last night was her and then you entering that cave, nothing more. I waited all night for someone to leave...and when you both left so close together, I could put the pieces together." He sniffed and rubbed a hand across his chest, "You can sure hit..." he half chuckled and shook his head, "I should have known Vanessa would choose one of you Cartwrights." That caught Adam's attention, "What do you mean?" Black Arrow grinned, "Whenever she came home, it was all she could talk about. Especially this tall dark one that would chase her around the ranch as though he wanted to kill her for some thing or other."
Adam raised and eyebrow, and ruefully rubbed his cheek, "She did, did she?" he stopped and looked up at Black Arrow again, "Finish your story, Black Arrow?" Vanessa's brother nodded, "Alright, I should." He took another breath, "I came up on her as she was riding through a patch of trees with Hades, when that brave pounced on her. Just fell from the trees like a..."
"A mountain lion." Adam whispered, and Black Arrow nodded, "It's how he got his name. In English, that braves name was Cougar Blood." Adam nodded, the anger for being lied to subsiding slightly, "so when she says she got that scar in a mountain lion attack..." Black Arrow took over, "It's not much of a stretch. And if anyone doesn't ask for clarification, all the better." He rubbed the sheath on his leg where the knife sat against his skin, "Anyway. Like I was saying, I came across them, watched him drop on her and well, I had to do something. I raced at them, and had pulled Cougar Blood from her body, but not before he got this knife into her." He pulled the weapon from his leg, breaking the skin enough to draw blood, but not much more. Adam saw it, and asked, "Why'd you do that?" Black Arrow shrugged, "I do it to remember."
"Remember what?" Black Arrow sighed, "Remember that because of me, my brother nearly killed Vanessa." Adam's muscles tensed, and his jaw started ticking, "Because of you? Your brother? Boy, I think you'd best start again from the beginning." … … … … …
Black Arrow knelt next to his brothers bed, the heat from the summer fever radiating even at his distance. The Healer Lady had already come and gone, and her words hung heavy on Arrow's ears, "They're both bad, Black Arrow. At this point, you have to make a choice. We can help one or the other, but not both, not this way." She'd grabbed her daughters hand then, and led the young lady from the tent. Arrow had followed them, and asked, "Who would you choose,Jennifer?" the woman had stopped, and glanced at her daughter. She'd turned to him, "When my sister died there was little I could do. Your brother in there is bad, real bad. If he'd let the doctors near them sooner, perhaps we could save them, but since he didn't you've got an awful choice to make. Your sister in law's pregnant, and there isn't a thing I can give her to break that fever and save that baby. Even if I did, that child would be changed." she drew a shuddering breath, "I don't envy you your choice, Black Arrow. I've given them something for the pain for tonight, nothing that will hurt that baby. You'd best make up your mind quick, because the way that fevers going, they may die tonight without any help from you or me." As she climbed into the wagon, Vanessa had grabbed his hand and looked up into his face, "Black Arrow, if you need someone to stay with you, I will." Jennifer had huffed slightly, but said nothing. Black Arrow had patted her shoulder, then said, "No, Vanessa. You'd best be going home." Vanessa had nodded, and scrambled to getting into the wagon seat beside her mother. Before Jennifer could get the horses to move, Vanessa had grabbed onto his shoulder and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "I'll be your sister, Arrow. If you need one."
Adam leaned back in his chair, "So that's how she became your sister." Arrow nodded, "I'd given this knife to my brother to protect his wife, but when I chose him over her and the baby, Cougar Blood lost all sense of reason." Arrow flipped the knife in the air and caught the blade end in his palm. Adam nodded, "I'd appreciate it if you'd put that thing away." Arrow chuckled and did as he was asked, "Anything else you want to know?" Adam stared at him, "You said you knew how I hurt her at the Summerset. How would you know about that?" Arrow grinned, and rubbed his thigh, "She's my sister, and just like you know what your brothers are feeling, I know when Vanessa's heart hurts. I saw her first when she returned from that fight you got into when you left..." Adam put up his hand, "Ah, Solomon told me all about it already." Arrow raised an eyebrow at him, "Did he now? Did he tell you that Vanessa cried for a hour straight when you left like that?" Adam's jaw dropped slightly, "She what?" Arrow nodded, now completely solemn. "You left her with an ultimatum, Adam Cartwright, remember? Either come back with you then, or forget the whole thing?" Adam just watched him, dumbfounded, "Well, she did what she thought was right. She chose you over her home, the land she's known her entire life. She gave that land to a pair of folks that she knew she could trust it with and went to Virginia City to find you, and let you know. The day she arrived was the day that your little Laura Dayton had that incident with those men and horses. She was on that horse you gave her when she watched you rush out to her, and carry her into the hotel. She watched every move you made that day, even snuck into the hotel to listen to what had happened...and gave you up. She denied her own heart that day, Adam. Bought passage on the stage and then came here." Arrow folded his arms again and glared at the man his sister had given up everything for. "You have anything to say to defend yourself? Or do you deny that you deserve every hit I gave you just now?"
Adam swallowed, "You're right. I deserved every last one." Arrow nodded smartly and stood, offering his hand to Adam, "Alright then, let's get you to Vanessa so you can confess your love and save her from doing something foolish."
Vanessa sat in Mary's private parlor, in the rocking chair near the fire holding the newborn Nicholas as he slept. He was so tiny...and so perfect. His hand reached up, and let her finger get caught in his soft grip. The boy yawned widely and she couldn't help but smile. A poem her mother often quoted to her came to mind, and she whispered it to the boy as she slowly rocked back and forth;
"Is love a fancy, or a feeling?
No It is immortal as immaculate truth
'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as Youth
Drops from the stem of life for it will grow
In barren regions, where no waters flow
Nor ray of promise cheats the pensive gloom--"
Adam knelt beside her chair, "Hartley Coleridge, isn't it?" She smiled softly, she hadn't even heard him come in, "His seventh sonnet." she said, not taking her eyes of the child. Nicholas had a light dusting of his mothers brown hair, and a shock of it was peeking out from the blanket that Vanessa had him wrapped in. She brought up a hand to brush it back, and tightened the blanket around the baby. "How could something so small give someone so much trouble." Adam whispered, his eyes roving over her face. There was a softness there that he'd never seen before, a gentleness that made him smile. She giggled, "You'd be surprised, Adam." she was whispering, trying not to wake the baby, then she sighed "All my life I've watched other people with siblings play with them, tease them, protect them. And then I watched as those same people grew up, got married and had children of their own." She looked at Adam, a hurt hidden deep in her eyes, "you should consider yourself lucky, Adam." Adam's brow wrinkled, not following her train of thought, "Lucky? For what?" She smiled, and cuddled the baby closer, kissing his forehead, "For having brothers. Don't forget, I was an only child. All my life my mother helped other women have their babies, expand their families, and not once did she complain that she could ever have one for herself." Mary stirred on the bed that Vanessa had helped her set up in the room, and Adam watched as she walked over to the mother and laid the babe in her waiting arms. Mary whimpered something that he couldn't quite hear, and Vanessa's voice soothed whatever fear the woman had.
Vanessa straightened, then waved to Adam to get him out, "They're asleep now, come on." He moved over to her, and waited just outside the room until the doors closed before he grabbed her arms and pulled her to him, "Vanessa, I want to apologize about earlier." Vanessa smiled at him, and shook her head, "You've nothing to apologize for, Adam. I should have told you about Arrow, and the real story about this." she pointed to her back, "I'm the one who should be asking forgiveness." Adam smiled, "Alright...now, can we get on with our life?" Vanessa raised an eyebrow at him, "Our life? Adam, we're not married yet." His smiled widened.