Thanks so much for all your lovely comments, and in particular to the guest who left a wonderful review after the last chapter. You keep me going!

As the journey across the desert continued, Adam no longer urged his horse ahead of Hoss and Joe. They rode together, talking more easily about what had happened to them all over the last two years. And for the first time since they'd come together in the small sheriff's office in Darwin, the men began to feel like brothers again.

At night, Joe was still subjected to restless bouts of sleep, and it seemed the further into the desert they travelled, the more agitated he became. He had no knowledge of his nightmares; Hoss and Adam having decided it would do no good to tell him of the torments afflicting his dreams. That is, until several nights later.

It began with his customary light whimpering, the incomprehensible muttering that settled down after a short while. He had woken both his brothers every night since the dreams had started. They would wake, prop themselves up on their elbows and wait until he'd fallen back into a dreamless sleep. This night was different though. The whimpering became words.

"No…no…please don't…no…stop please…God, no!" And as the words continued to pour from his lips, he flipped roughly onto his back, his hands scrabbling at the air in front of his face. Hoss was nearest to him and clambered on his hands and knees to Joe's side. He took hold of Joe's shoulders in an attempt to shake him into awareness. But the terror playing out in Joe's mind would not be interrupted by his brother's actions or his voice. Joe could only formulate one word, a repeated plea which grew louder and louder as he tossed onto his side and curled into himself. "No! No! No!" Hoss kept his arm on Joe's shoulder, hoping his touch would bring his little brother back to his senses. But then Joe started to pant out a new word. He began to call for Adam, again and again.

Adam had watched Joe's ordeal from his place by the fire, but at the sound of his name on Joe's lips, he brushed his blanket from his body and strode quickly to Joe's side.

Hoss threw Adam a worried look. "He's never called out for you afore, Adam."

Adam frowned and dropped to one knee besides Joe, bending low over him.

"Joe!" Adam's voice was harsh. "Joe, you gotta wake up!"

"Adam… where…gotta find…"

"Joe!" Adam pushed Hoss away and grabbed Joe's shoulders, pushing him over onto his back. "Come on, Joe, wake up! It's Adam, I'm here!"

Joe's eyes flashed open. He blinked as he looked up into his brother's face hovering over his.

"Wha...what's going on?" His voice was gruff, and he cleared his throat as he shuffled onto his elbows. He eyed, foggily, the concerned faces of his two brothers staring so intently at him. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Adam sat back and breathed a heavy sigh. "You were having a bad dream, Joe."

Joe looked puzzled. "A dream?" He pushed himself upright.

"You were calling for me."

"Calling…?" Joe shook his head. "I…I don't remember…"

"It's okay, Joe, you're okay, just…go back to sleep." Adam rose to return to his bedroll.

"Have I had them before?" Joe's tone betrayed his worry.

Adam turned his head towards his younger brother. "One or two."

With shoulders hunched, Hoss heaved himself to his feet. "The sooner we get outta this god-forsaken, dried-up cesspool of a desert, the better." And with that he threw himself down on his bedroll, turned onto his side and wrapped his arms tightly around his body. Joe watched him, his face displaying his confusion.

"Adam?"

"Go to sleep, Joe. We'll talk about it in the morning."

Joe lay back slowly, his eyes flicking between his brothers who had both lain down and turned onto their sides. He stared at the blanket of stars above him, his mind uneasy with the knowledge that his nightmares had returned. He screwed his eyes closed, desperate to remember his dream, but there was nothing but a cavernous hole where those missing memories were. He suspected it could only have been caused by one thing. And the realisation he hadn't laid to rest his own experience of the Juniper Gorge Massacre was disturbing. Sleep would elude Joe for a long while that night.

But what Joe didn't know was that he was not alone in his sleepless night. Hoss hugged himself tightly, feeling a rage he hadn't known in over a year clawing at his emotions. His little brother was clearly suffering from being back in the hellhole where their trials had begun. He lay on his side, staring into nothingness with eyebrows drawn low over blazing eyes and every muscle in his body tense. He wanted nothing more than to lay his hands on the men who had done this to them; to make them pay for the suffering they had caused. It was a rage Hoss thought he'd put behind him. As Adam's absence had increased from weeks to months to a year, the family had grown accustomed to his not being there, and with it came an uneasy acceptance. The unspoken acknowledgement that Adam was most likely dead helped each man in his own way. For Hoss, his anger and hate for the perpetrators had eased and he was able to think back to that dreadful day without feeling the need to take his anger out on the woodpile, or the barn walls, or items unfortunate enough to be close at hand. Hop Sing had spent a lot of time clearing up broken crockery in the early days. But the simmering anger hadn't gone away, and, like Joe, it would be a few hours before sleep claimed him.

As for Adam, it had been a rude awakening. Witnessing Hoss's angry exclamation and seeing the turmoil that raged within Joe, it had brought home to Adam that he wasn't the only one who had been so badly affected by what had happened. He saw with newly-opened eyes that his brothers had never completely recovered from the ordeal of the attack, the wounds they had suffered and the trials that his own disappearance had inflicted on them. He fell asleep sooner than they did, but only after much deliberation and a decision had been made.

The following morning the brothers were quiet and irritable. The succession of sleepless nights was bringing out the worst in them. Joe demanded to know how long he'd been having bad dreams without being told. When he received his answer, his frustration at having that fact kept from him spilled over into an all-out row with Hoss over the mere triviality of how the plates hadn't been properly wiped over the night before. As Joe raged about having to pick dried beans off his plate with his fingernails, Hoss drew himself up to his most formidable height and told Joe in no uncertain terms precisely where he could shove his plate. Joe had squared up to his brother, pushing his face into Hoss's and ramming the plate against Hoss's chest. Hoss re-joined by shoving Little Joe so hard that he stumbled backwards and nearly fell over his upturned saddle. It took Adam forcing himself between them without a word, and keeping them apart with his arms outstretched, before the two men calmed and turned their attentions from each other to him. It was then, and only then, that Adam told them of the decision he'd come to the previous night.

"We're gonna speed things up. We can be out of the desert in a couple of days if we hurry. I know the horses will struggle, but…" he paused, shaking his head. "This place isn't doing any of us any good." He looked up, moving his gaze from Joe to Hoss. "Agreed?"

Hoss nodded. "You won't get no argument from me, brother."

Adam looked to Joe who peered down at the dirty plate still raised in his hand. With a slight shake of his head, he let his arm drop. "Sure, Adam."

Ten minutes later, they were on the move.