Man of Justice

I do not own The Big Valley or any of the original Barkleys.

Chapter Two

Nick was resting his arms on the top of the corral fence sitting near the barn and leaning forward slightly, when Heath walked up beside him. Somehow, he wasn't surprised his blonde haired brother had seen fit to come and join him instead of staying with Jarrod and his mother. "Guess you want to know what happened and why I reacted so strongly to that…" he paused and clenched his fists, "…that man, if I have to call him that!"

Heath was curious; however he was more concerned about his brother. He too leaned on the fence, though his back was against it and his elbows resting on top the fence. He was face to face with his brother and followed his brooding gaze. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here. If not, we can just as easily do something else."

Nick gave a small snort and lifted his hands to his forehead. "Keep in mind, a lot of what I am going to tell you is what Jarrod himself told us after it was all over or from discussions he and I had on more than one occasion. Mind you, it took him years to tell us a lot of it."

Heath simply nodded and waited. What else was there to do?

Once Heath nodded, Nick began speaking again. "Jarrod was almost fourteen, I had just turned ten and Audra," he pulled his hands away from his head and looked at Heath, "She had just turned one and had just began to walk." He turned around, looked at the house off in the distance, his eyes taking on the look of a man looking through a glass window into another time and place.

The wind was starting to blow in front of the three bedroom home Tom and Victoria, or Torie as her husband called her, shared, along with their children, Jarrod, Nick and Audra. Victoria was inside with her beautiful blonde hair little girl, while almost fourteen year old Jarrod and ten year old Nick played outside. Jarrod was too busy practicing roping a "steer"…actually a wooden cow his father's new foreman, a twenty-five year old man by the name of Duke McCall, had built for the children. Nick was right beside him doing his best to do the same.

"Jarrod…" Nick said as the rope he threw landed on the ground only inches away from "cow", "think I'll ever get the hang of this?"

Jarrod grinned from ear to ear, "Sure, you're already getting closer to it every day." It was a fact; Nick had missed by miles for weeks and then feet, now it was almost there. His older brother was excited that Nick was making such rapid progress. "You'll have it down in no time at all; you're a natural." It made his heart sing as he saw the grin that came upon his little brother's face.

"Father says we will be movin' soon." Nick gathered up his rope, rolled it up, leaving just enough to so he could begin twirling it in the air, "Think we'll like the new house?" The words came out of his mouth as the rope flew through the air and actually landed around the "cow's" neck. "YIPEE!" Nick's holler could be heard from one end of the ranch to the others. Jarrod grinned and their mother came flying out of the front door.

"It's okay, mother!" Jarrod hollered the moment he saw her. "Nick just roped his first cow!" He had to stifle a laugh at the way their mother threw her hands up in the air, turned around and went back inside. If his mother ever went gray, white or started sporting silver hair, he was sure he or his brother would be the cause of it.

"So, do you think we'll like the new house?" Nick retrieved his rope and looked at Jarrod unable to keep a slight trace of fear out of his voice.

Jarrod heard the fear and sighed. He knew where his brother's fears were coming from. Young Nick had the patience of a saint; that being the case, why was he letting mere dreams frighten him so much? "Have one of those dreams again last night, huh?" Jarrod asked.

Jarrod started walking to the house,as the wind was really beginning to pick up, the older Barkley figured it as best to get indoors before it got worse. Nick was right behind him.

"Yep," Nick didn't like it; he didn't like it. He wanted them to go way, "It keeps changing my plans!" The small humph from Nick had Jarrod smiling.

"Why don't you tell me what the dream is about? Maybe, I can figure out what's bothering you." It's not that he thought he was an expert at interpreting dreams; he didn't. Though, if it helped Nick to talk about it; it wouldn't hurt to listen to it either.

Nick thought it over as the two boys climbed the stairs to their bedroom. "Well in my dream, I'm ridin' with father and you; we start out ridin', but within seconds you're not there. It's just father and me. You finally show back up, but you're different…and you're not. Don't make no sense!"

"It doesn't make any sense." Jarrod smiled as he corrected Nick's sentence. He wasn't surprised when his younger brother simply brushed it aside and, with his next sentence, proved just how much he cared about proper English.

"That's what I said! Weren't you listenin'? Anyhow, it ain't nice for the dream to take you away like that…" he paused and took a breath. "So, what ya think?" he was curious as to what Jarrod might think it meant, if he thought anything about it at all.

Jarrod had heard his father talking about the fact that he was thinking takeoff taking Nick on the next cattle drive. While it wouldn't be for awhile, and would only be a very short one, the only thing Jarrod could figure out was perhaps, Nick had the first time jitters. "I think you need to relax and stop worrying 'bout your first cattle drive. Things will be all right." Even as he said the words, Jarrod had the funniest feeling come over him, and that worried him. Though, he didn't say a word to Nick. The last thing he needed to do was upset his brother.

Nick stopped talking and, keeping his eyes on the house, said, "Only thing was, something did happen, thanks to that man, that's now back, in our house," his voice rose, "Something did happen!"

Heath said nothing as he watched and listened. It was the best thing he could do for this brother, who obviously needed to get it out. He spied a crate sitting up against the corner of the corral and, pulling it over, sat down. When Heath did that, Nick grabbed the one next to it and did the same. He then picked up the story where he left off.