Once again, I know Paul wasn't in the early episodes, but that's one of the joys of fanfiction – you can mess with the timeline! Thank you lovely readers for your kind reviews and messages.

Chapter Five

Paul Martin sat back in the chair and nodded at the worried mother in front of him. "You're right, Annie, it certainly is measles."

Sally sat on her mother's lap, looking tired and listless. The red spots that marked her exposed skin were itching and she tried to scratch at them. Her mother pulled at her hands and tried to stop the action, knowing it was probably pointless.

The doctor kept a hand against the child's forehead, gauging the temperature and knowing full-well that it would rise some more. After issuing a list of instructions for his patient's care, he opened the door for the young mother and escorted her out into the street. He helped lift the child into her waiting buggy and extended a hand to help Annie climb up into the driver's seat.

"It'll just have to run its course, I'm afraid. Let me know if her fever develops too much higher. I'll alert the school to quarantine, but we're really too late to do much else."

"Thank you, Doctor." Annie waved a hand as she lifted the reins with the other.

Paul watched as the young woman drove out into the street and sighed. Measles symptoms appeared after the bearer was already contagious and he knew it was just the first of many cases he'd be seeing in the coming days.

Joe knew that he should be getting straight home from school. He'd had far too many run-ins with his father in recent weeks and wanted it to stop, but he knew that in less than two days, he'd probably never see his friends again. He and Mitch decided a few cents wasn't going to make or break the venture, but one last bag of sweets would be a kind of parting gift. The four of them were waiting in the mercantile while the Widow Roberts insisted on telling Mister Cass all about her latest bout of lumbago.

As she prattled on, Matthew got bored and began wandering around the displays. Derek lost track of him and figured he should find out where his little brother was. He was growing more and more nervous about the plan as each day passed, but the last drunken attack from Walter had been aimed at Matthew and he knew they couldn't stay. As he edged around a barrel of apples, expecting to find Matthew hiding somewhere, he came face to face with a display of hunting knives. The handles were a variety of materials, but one with a deep brown haft caught his attention. It was encased in a hand-tooled leather sheath and he slowly reached towards it. He had no idea how to fire a gun, but it didn't take any kind of skill to thrust a knife at an attacker. He was lost in the feel of the weapon in his hand and made a split-second decision. He was leaving Virginia City anyway and nobody would ever be able to trace it back to him.

"What are you doing?" A voice breathed in his ear.

Derek looked up to see Joe looming over him. He was half way through sliding the sheathed knife into his shirtfront. He moved back and away from the display at the same moment that Roy Coffee chose to enter the store. When he looked back at it later, Joe knew he had panicked. He could not let their plans be derailed when they were so close to the end and he grasped at the knife. It was crystal clear that it was under Derek's thin shirt and he would not let the boy get caught in such a stupid act.

"I need something … you know … to protect us if … if …"

"Get outta here!" Joe hissed at the younger boy and he shoved Matthew towards his brother. "Both of you!"

Joe quickly sized up the space around him and figured he had no chance of getting the knife back to the display without being detected. He also caught the fear behind Derek's comment and understood it only too well.

As the two younger boys scarpered from the store, Will Cass looked up to see Joe skulking out the door behind them. It didn't take a genius to see the boy had something and he shouted at Roy.

"Stop him! Joe Cartwright, what in tarnation are you doing?"

Roy grasped at Joe's collar and spun him towards him. Mitch was behind him and had no escape route. Roy glared at Joe and held out his hand expectantly.

"Gimme whatever it is you got in there." The look on the sheriff's face was almost Joe's undoing and he held his breath as he pulled the knife from inside his shirt. "You are coming with me, young man."

Roy held onto the knife and waved it in the air. "Will, you mind if I take this with me for a spell? I need to show this ta Ben."

"Not a problem, Roy." The store owner looked furious. "Your father's gonna tan your hide right off, young fella!"

Joe swallowed hard as he stared at his boots. The man was right. And then probably lock him in his room until he was twenty-one!

Roy leaned against the doorway and watched as his lone prisoner sank into the mattress on the bunk. He knew that Ben was having issues with his youngest, given several conversations recently had revolved around the boy, but he'd never expected this. After Joe repeatedly insisting that Mitch had nothing to do with it, Roy had finally dismissed the lad and warned him to get on home. What he couldn't fathom was what had possessed the boy to try stealing from right under Will Cass's nose. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it for himself.

"Now you just get yourself comfortable in there, young fella while I try and get word to your pa."

Joe's only response was to drop his head into his hands. As Roy turned the lock and pocketed the key, he thought he noted the boy's shoulders shaking. He frowned as he headed for the front door. He'd be doing a lot more than shaking when Ben Cartwright got his hands on him.

It was almost two hours later by the time Roy caught up with him and filled him in. As he'd expected, Ben was fit to explode, given his son's recent record. It took nearly another half hour before the lawman had him calmed sufficiently to make a suggestion to him.

Joe heard the front door of the sheriff's office swing open and a pair of boots thudded across the floor. He was expecting a second pair and was surprised when he didn't hear one. It took a few minutes before the boots appeared in front of the cell door and he hesitantly looked up into Roy's stony face.

"I sent a hand for your pa. Should be here soon I reckon. Now, before he gets here, don't s'pose you wanna tell me what you was thinkin'?"

"Not really." Joe's voice sounded small in the open cell and he felt his breath hitch in his chest. He knew he wouldn't have the same option once his father got there, but for the moment he had no wish to incriminate himself any further.

Joe had no idea that Roy had suggested a plan to his father that was about to play out in front of him. He expected his father to arrive and march him out of the cell, drop him on a horse and take him home to be dealt with accordingly. What he didn't expect was for his father to be so angry that he'd refuse to take him home at all. When Ben Cartwright finally thundered through the front door, Joe was still tucked away in the cell and could not see anything. He did however, hear more than enough.

"Roy! Is it true?"

"Now hold up there, Ben. Ain't no need to go shoutin' at me."

"No need? No need! What I need is to strip the hide off my son if what I've been told is true!"

Joe could hear his father's boots pacing the length of the sheriff's office and pacing back again. He shrank back against the wall, visualizing his father's face as he paced.

"Well Ben, it's true alright. Now let me get the young fella for you and you can take him on home."

"No Roy. You can keep him right where he is."

Joe held his breath as he waited to hear what was coming next.

"What? Ben, he ain't been charged with nothin' yet so I don't need to keep him here."

"Roy, you might not have charged him, but that doesn't change the fact that my son … my son is a thief. " Joe could hear the contempt in his father's voice and he felt his stomach flipping itself into a knot. "I'm ashamed to say it, but there it is. No, Roy … you can keep him right here as you would with anyone else you'd caught red-handed. I don't want to take him home."

Joe heard the door open and then abruptly slam closed. His father had just walked out of the jail without him!

Out on the boardwalk, Ben leaned against the hitching rail and tried to compose himself. Adam and Hoss had both waited without saying a word before Adam finally gestured towards the saloon.

"Can I buy you a beer, Pa?"

"I think a whiskey would be more suitable for this occasion." Ben's hardened face did not soften as he marched across the road to wait out Roy's plan.

Roy deliberately waited in his office for another few minutes before heading in to speak to the condemned. Joe was slumped on the bunk, his face as white as chalk.

"Pa left me here?" It was barely a whisper.

Roy gripped at the cell door and nodded slowly. "Yeah, son. I reckon he did. Guess he figured you could learn your lesson with a night in a cell."

It wasn't the thought of the accommodation that bothered him so much as his father's words. His pa was ashamed of him and didn't even want to see him. It was almost enough to break his resolve and he chewed at his lip to keep himself from speaking. He was so close to seeing the boys set free that he would just have to last a little longer. His father would forgive him eventually.

Wouldn't he?

Adam leaned against the bar and watched as neither his father or his brother spoke a word or drank a drop. It would be a long two hours before they made their way back over to the jail and released his recalcitrant little brother from his cell.

"Pa, did Roy say anything about why Joe might have tried stealing that knife?"

"No. I can't think what got into that boy's head! I'll have to go and see Will Cass in the morning and smooth this over."

It was clear by the grimace on his face that he wasn't looking forward to that visit.

"Maybe it was a dare. You know how Joe gets when he's showin' off to his friends." Hoss tried tossing in the only idea he could come up with to explain his brother's sudden loss of good sense.

"Roy did say that Mitch was there. It's certainly possible, Pa." Adam too was clutching at straws trying to come up with answers. His conversation with Joe was running through his mind and he wished he'd pushed harder for an answer. Joe had clearly been up to something he didn't want his father to know about and maybe if he'd acted on his gut feeling, he could have saved his brother a bitter lesson in a jail cell. And his father a bitter experience in public shame.

"When I'm done with that boy, he'll be …" Ben's hands clenched into fists as he choked down the anger that threatened to spill over. "He goes without nothing that he needs! Whatever could have possessed him to try stealing something?"

Joe hadn't moved from the bunk. His hands clenched into each other in a desperate effort to stop them shaking. He'd seen his pa angry before, but never like this.

Roy finally took pity on the boy and sauntered into the cells. He twisted the key in the lock and swung the door open before shoving a small table into the cell and plonking himself down on the end of the bunk. While Roy spread out a checkers board, he silently placed the pieces on it. It was all he could do to keep a straight face as he watched the boy's misery.

"You ready to tell me the truth yet?"

Joe stared at his boots as his thoughts raced around in convoluted circles. The truth. Oh, there was no way the truth was coming out just yet. He needed to hold out for another two days and then he could tell the truth. Until then, he needed to keep his mouth shut, no matter the cost.

"Joe Cartwright, I've known ya since ya was but a few days old and up until this afternoon I'da sworn blind you was a honest young fella. Now I might be a bit long in the tooth and not know much about some things, but I know this ain't you."

Joe swallowed hard and tried to keep a check on the tears that pricked at his eyes.

"Now from what I seen over there in Cass's store, that young fella that was with you might justa been tryin' to get away with that knife before you ended up with it. Way I see it, that makes a whole lot more sense to me."

Roy kept laying out checkers pieces as he talked while watching the boy's face contort with what looked like fear.

"That's not how it was. It was my fault."

"Hmmm … coulda sworn I seen otherwise. Must be gettin' old, I guess. Now, you wanna be red or black?"

Joe glared at him as if he had gone mad.

"Checkers? You want me to play checkers?" His tone was incredulous and Joe shoved himself up onto his feet and stomped towards the window. He gripped at the bars and leaned his head up against the wall. He wanted to be home playing checkers with Hoss, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

"Maybe you could do with some supper then."

Roy stood up and pushed the table away from him. Joe didn't respond as Roy made his way out of the cell and locked the door again. As Joe heard the front door slam shut once more, he groaned aloud as he gripped at the bars like they were some kind of lifeline.

"Pssst!"

Joe almost fell backwards when he looked up and saw a face staring back at him through the bars. It took a moment to see the face was Derek and he almost smiled, until he recalled the sheriff's accusation.

"You need to get outta here before he comes back!"

"I'm sorry, Joe. I never meant to get you into trouble."

"I know that, but it's all gonna be for nothing if you get caught here before you can get on that stage. You gotta get outta here, now!"

"We will, but I just hadta make sure you were okay, Joe. I saw your pa and brothers ride in and I figured you'd be outta here by now."

"What?" Joe knew his father was in town, but he hadn't seen or heard from either of his brothers. If his father was so ashamed of him that he couldn't bear to see his son, what would his brothers think of him? The weight of condemnation settled over him and he almost slid back down the wall.

Before Derek could answer, they both heard the door open and Roy's boots echoed across the outer room. Derek slithered back down the outside of the jail and hunkered down with Matthew in the shadows.

"Got you some leftover pie from the hotel kitchen. Smells mighty good ta me."

Joe ignored him as the sheriff unlocked the cell and sat down with two plates of food. Roy pushed one across the bunk towards Joe and began to dig into his. Minutes later, Joe heard the outer door open again and his heart raced into his mouth. His pa had changed his mind.

Roy kept chewing at his mouthful, trying to hold back a smile. Ben hadn't lasted anywhere near as long as they'd agreed. He watched Joe's face as he flicked from hope to fear and back again in the space of seconds.

"You run outta real criminals to lock up and you goin' for them before they even start shavin' now?"

Roy felt the hackles on the back of his neck rise as the voice carried across from the door. It wasn't Ben Cartwright or one of his boys standing in the doorway. It was a voice he hadn't heard in over four years, but one he would never forget. Roy's hand slipped down towards his holster as he sized up the situation.

"Don't even think about it, old man!"

Roy watched as Kent Johnston slowly sauntered across the room with his pistol aimed straight at his head. As far as he could tell, Joe hadn't yet moved from below the window.

"I've waited four years for this day. I told you I was coming back for you."

Roy slowly raised his hands into the air. "You got me where you want me, Kent, but far as I know you ain't no kid-killer."

"Can't blame me when it's you whose got the kid locked up!"

"We's just playin' a friendly game of checkers here. Now why don't you let the boy go before you make good on that promise?"

"Sure! So he can go screaming for help and bring in witnesses. You think I'm stupid, old man? I didn't spare my pa, so what makes you think I'm gonna spare anyone else?"

Kent waved the pistol in Joe's direction and laughed as Roy lunged towards the boy. He wasn't as agile as he needed to be and he barreled into Joe as Kent took aim and fired at him. The shot went a fraction wide and Joe barely had a chance to shout as he slammed face first into the wall. Blood sprayed across the whitewash as his nose and cheek took the brunt of the impact. Pain exploded across his head as he slumped onto the floor. Another shot echoed around the small cell and Joe's head was spinning as he tried to sit up. For a moment the world went black and all sound ceased.

It could have been five minutes or it could have been five hours. Joe had no way of knowing as he felt a hand slapping at his face.

"Joe! Joe! You gotta wake up! Joe!"

The frantic voices calling at him finally resolved into a coherent sentence and he looked up to see Derek and Matthew leaning over him. Tears dripped down Matthew's face and he tried valiantly to scrub them away and stop himself from hiccupping.

"Joe? You okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." As Derek helped him sit upright, Joe felt congealing blood sliding down his face. He swiped at it with his hand and almost yelped as he made contact with his nose. If it wasn't broken it was some kind of miracle. He tried to stand up until he spotted the body lying on the floor. Roy Coffee was face down with a spreading pool of blood oozing out from underneath his shoulder.

"He's dead." Derek almost whispered the news as Joe stared back at him.

"We gotta get you outta here, Joe. That man … he could come back. We gotta get you outta here before he comes back."

As Joe stumbled to his feet, he felt his heart sink into his boots. Roy Coffee was dead. He'd figured he could make his pa understand what he'd done once he got the boys away safely. He knew he'd take a licking for it and who knew what kind of ongoing punishment, but the whole game plan had just dramatically shifted. The sheriff was dead because of his stupid plan. If his pa refused to see him over a knife, what would he do over the loss of one of his closest friends?

Joe allowed Derek to pull him out into the darkness and was only vaguely aware as the younger boy dragged him towards the schoolhouse.

"We can't wait for the stage, Joe. We gotta go tonight. Now!"

Ben had been staring at the door for the better part of half an hour and his sons knew where his mind was. The same place theirs were. When Alfie Benton came barreling through the saloon door shouting something about the jail having been shot up, the three of them were on their feet and out the door in seconds. The sight that greeted them was like something out of a nightmare. Roy had dragged himself across the room and was semi-conscious when Ben dropped down beside him. A gunshot wound was still bleeding sluggishly and Roy barely contained a groan as somebody pushed a bandage over it.

"Roy, where's Joe?"

Roy tried to wave towards the cell. "He was in there."

Ben looked up again as Adam walked back out of the open cell. "Pa … there's blood all over the wall and floor."

Ben reached down again and gripped frantically at his friend's arm. "Roy! Where's my son?"