Despite the fact that the house wasn't meant for so many people, they stayed the night. Joe and Hoss had already been taking it in turns to sleep using a bedroll on the living room floor and the couch, now they were content to relinquish the couch to the patriarch of the Cartwright clan. Steve Williams also remained through the dark hours, occupying a space in front of the stove in the kitchen.

In the morning, Clint Tanner urged them to go, saying he felt alright leaving Laura for short periods now. He didn't come right out and say it, but it was obvious that he felt okay leaving the room with the dog in there. If anything happened, the dog would warn him.

"I can go out to the barn while she's awake, just to be extra safe," Clint assured them.

"Just because the dog saved the baby once, it don't make him reliable," Steve said.

"I know," Clint replied, "But... I trust him. There's just something about him."

Seeing as the Cartwrights wanted to see for themselves that Candy was alive, and that Steve wanted to go out and try to find the search parties so he could let them know their job was done, it didn't take much convincing to get the four of them to leave.

"But we'll be back," Joe promised, "Those yearlings need a lot of work."

"You don't have to do that," Clint protested, "I can't even afford to pay you."

"Consider it a Christmas gift," Joe told him, "Or a birthday gift for that boy of yours."

After that they returned to Dewton, once Joe managed to disentangle a reluctant Cochise from the intimate grooming session he and the red dun mare were conducting over her stall door.

Steve split off from them after a bit, heading in the direction his brother had taken the day before. Steve had told the Cartwrights where to find Candy.

The ride to Dewton gave them time to reiterate certain details of their experiences, and for them to mention things they hadn't wanted to talk about in front of Clint and Steve. Joe was even now reluctant to talk about his part in his own escape, but Hoss was perfectly happy to tell Ben all about it.

"Joe's talent for saying slick talkin' finally did some good," Hoss concluded.

"I didn't have much to do with it," Joe said modestly, "Cooch did most of the work," he patted the horse's neck and the horse momentarily pranced as though he were proud of himself and showing off, then he resumed a normal gait as Joe added, "I only told Mayer to take care of him."

"That sounds like a familiar strategy," Ben remarked dryly.

"It works," Joe replied.

"Yes," Ben agreed, giving Joe a glance, "It does."

"The horse that did the most good was Candy's," Hoss said, "He's the one that found the Kailen-Tanner place for us in the middle of a whiteout at night."

"Cochise and Chub were the ones that warned us it was coming," Joe disagreed, "If not for them, we wouldn't have turned off the main road in time."

"And if not for Candy's horse," Hoss persisted, "It wouldn't have done us any good to leave the road."

"What's the matter with you boys?" Ben asked, then reminding them, "You're usually so eager to take credit for your accomplishments... even if they were accomplished by someone else."

Joe and Hoss exchanged glances that looked almost guilty.

Ben caught the looks and said, "What have you boys done now?"

"Well, Pa, it's like this-" Joe began, and the fact that neither he nor Hoss denied having done something was cause enough for concern to Ben.

"Candy admitted somethin' to us before all this started," Hoss interrupted, but Joe took over quickly.

"He said it as a joke, but we both know he was at least partially serious..." Hoss took the explanation back from Joe without missing a beat.

"We know it's always been important to you that we be home for Christmas," Hoss said.

"It's important to us too," Joe put in, "Otherwise we wouldn't have started back the day after a snowstorm."

"What snowstorm?" Ben asked, for that initial storm had not gotten as far as the Ponderosa.

The boys declined to answer, instead continuing their fumbling explanation.

Hoss resumed, "From what Steve said though, it sounds as if Candy won't be gettin' out of bed for awhile, much less goin' anywhere. Certainly not a trip of several days."

"But considering what he said," Joe said when Hoss fell silent, "It doesn't feel right to just leave him, even if he is being taken care of."

Ben felt he was beginning to understand, but when the boys stopped talking over each other, he finally asked the obvious, "What was it that Candy said?"

"Pa," Hoss answered, "You know how Joe and I feel about Candy. An' we've all known for awhile how he feels about us, even though he don't say nothin' about it..." he trailed off.

Joe concluded the answer, "Well... he finally said something about it."

"Oh?" Ben inquired with raised eyebrows, refusing to ask the same question twice.

"He said family doesn't let family do stupid things," Joe said, "Not alone anyway."

"He was talkin' about us, Pa," Hoss supplied, as though that wasn't already clear.

"We were just talking and messing around," Joe persisted when Ben didn't immediately say anything, "You know how we do. It didn't seem like a big deal, except that Candy was coming home with us even though he was pretty open about how stupid he thought we were being."

"But now all this..." Hoss shook his head, "An' everythin' he did, or tried to do..."

"Pa, we can't just leave him here," Joe said.

A little over two years didn't seem like enough time to bond so strongly with someone, but for what had happened over the course of those years. In that time, Candy had trusted the Cartwrights with his life. He had fought alongside them in battles of law and survival. He'd gone along with elaborate and sometimes crazy schemes, even devising a few of his own. He'd entered into fights he knew he couldn't win in support of the Cartwrights and the things they believed in, at the same time never being too afraid to speak out if he thought something different.

Ben and Candy had once been trapped in a mine together for a long time, and through it all -though they'd learned a lot about each other in some ways, including Candy letting on that he wasn't much used to having any friends and that he considered the Cartwrights his friends- Candy had never even mentioned his real name, nor where he'd come from. It wasn't until much later that Ben found out that Candy had been an army brat, an orphan raised by soldiers, and that he really did have a name besides the one he'd given them at first.

With Candy, Ben had learned to recognize who he was by the things he did, not what he said, because he usually didn't say much if it involved who he was, where he'd been, what had happened to him or what he'd done. Thus, when he did say something -no matter the context- it mattered.

But Ben also knew that Candy wouldn't like the idea of the Cartwrights missing out on their all-important Christmas traditions on his account. He'd appreciate the gesture, but would also likely feel guilty, and try to talk them out of it. Having long since learned to be an expert fast-talker as a matter of survival, Candy could come up with more reasons in an instant as to why they should go home than all three of them could think of in a lifetime as to why they shouldn't, and they knew it.

That was why they were so dismissive about their accomplishments in Elodie. They were preoccupied with trying to solve a problem that -to them- was just as thorny as getting their captors to set them free.

They talked about other subjects until they reached town.

After they'd dismounted and tied up their horses in front of the Corner Street Hotel, Ben turned to the boys before they went inside and asked, "Are you sure this is what you want?"

Even though they'd changed subjects several times on the way over, neither of them had to wonder what he was asking. They looked at each other, and Hoss answered for both of them.

"Yeah, Pa. We're sure."

Ben nodded, and led the way inside.

There was nobody at the register, but there was a bell. They weren't looking to check in, but Ben also didn't want to just go from room to room looking for where Candy was staying, so he rang the bell.

An unfamiliar voice called from a room off to the right, "What do you want?"

They all exchanged glances, then Ben led the way towards the sound of the voice, beginning to answer that they were looking for a man named Canaday, but he didn't finish the sentence because they found him in the room with the owner of the unfamiliar voice, sitting up on a narrow bed and playing two-player poker with the stranger. From the frown on the other man's face and the serious look in his eyes behind their spectacles, Candy was winning.

"You found me," Candy said, glancing up from his cards briefly, then tossing a couple of toothpicks to a spot on the bed that was serving as their table, "I call."

Seeing as the hand was very likely almost over, the Cartwrights decided to simply wait. Though he was sitting up with his back against the wall behind him and evidently alert enough to carry on a card game that -from the distribution of the toothpicks- he seemed to be winning, Candy was clearly not up to much more than that. He was pale, and though he spoke with his usual somewhat lively intonation, his voice was unusually quiet. He was also cautious in his movements when he tossed the toothpicks, clearly protecting an injury that hurt whenever he moved. It seemed to Ben that he was also taking rather shallower breaths than usual, probably again to protect the injury.

When it came time to show their cards, Candy proved to have been bluffing.

"I knew it," said the man he'd been playing with, "You always look like a cat that swallowed a canary when you've got a losing hand."

Candy laughed softly and grinned, "So I do. It's called bluffing, and you should try it sometime, Lue."

Glancing at Candy's pile of toothpicks, the man he'd called Lue seemed to concede the point.

"Good thing it's just toothpicks we're playin' for," Lue remarked.

"I told you I was good for it," Candy said, then averted his eyes momentarily, "I just... haven't got any money on me."

"You may be good for it, Candy," Lue retorted, "But I'm not. Now, how 'bout we break for lunch?"

"Lue..." Candy sighed and started to shake his head.

"Hey!" Lue interrupted, "The doc said to get food in you regular once your fever broke. So that's exactly what I intend to do," he got up and brushed the Cartwrights aside on his way to the kitchen.

"The man's like a mother hen," Candy complained in a good-natured tone while he gathered up the cards to shuffle them, then, once occupied by the cards, he added, "It's good to see you. I thought for sure you were dead there for awhile."

"You thought we were dead?" Joe exclaimed, "You were the one who got shot."

"Well yeah, but I knew I wasn't dead," Candy replied nonchalantly, then corrected himself in a little more serious tone, "Though there were a couple of times where I thought I was."

"Us too," Joe admitted, "It was pretty close there for awhile."

"By close," Hoss said, "He means he sat on me."

"I did not," Joe protested, "I sat next to you. And anyway, in my defense, you were cold too."

Hoss nodded, agreeing with Joe's assertion, then addressed Candy, "You are alright, ain't ya?"

"Sure," Candy replied with a relaxed grin, an expression that didn't reach his eyes, "It's not the first time I've been shot and had to run for my life."

Not for the first time, Ben wondered exactly what had happened between the time Candy fled Olympus to avoid giving in to his own darker impulses and when he'd met up with Ben's unit as they transported the Indian Wabuska. About all he knew was that Candy's horse had been shot out from under him, because that was all Candy had ever admitted to. And what had happened to him before Olympus? In some ways, the man was still a mystery to him.

"I guess you'll be making it home in time for Christmas after all," Candy said to Joe and Hoss.

They exchanged looks, then both began to talk over one another. Hoss cited the fact that more inclement weather might be on the way, seeing as it had snowed again last night, and though they'd been lucky so far, there was no reason to test their luck with the weather again; meanwhile Joe began to utter some nonsense about a trial for former Sheriff Holt and his deputies.

"Snow didn't seem to bother you much before," Candy said slowly, a look between caution and amusement in his eyes, "And I wouldn't hold my breath for a trial, chances are a judge won't pass this way until the snow clears anyhow. Besides I think they've got more witnesses than they know what to do with. Two sheriffs, a couple of deputies, a business woman. Heck, Lue who runs the hotel and telegraph office here could testify to the message that was sent. And one of them has already confessed anyway, the others probably won't be far behind. If all else fails, they've got me," he sounded oddly apologetic as he continued, as though he was somehow to blame for having been shot in the back, "I'm afraid I won't be able to go back to work until... well, awhile after the first of the year anyway."

"I understand," Ben said patiently, cutting off the attempts his boys were making at coming up with more excuses and also assure Candy that it wasn't his fault that he'd been shot.

Candy nodded slightly, looking relieved.

Even after all he'd been through with them, Candy seemed unable to entirely believe the kind of people he'd fallen in with when he joined up with the Cartwrights. Even now, he wasn't used to people who were good and kind and compassionate for others, and he seemed ever afraid of losing his status in their eyes. It was clear he wasn't used to having allegiances any more than he was used to being around people who cared about others as much or more than they cared about themselves.

"However," Ben continued, and Candy looked at him worriedly, "we're not going home for Christmas."

"No?" Candy spoke the word inquiringly, curious and uneasy.

"No," Ben replied, "Aside from the weather, Joe has agreed to train some yearlings for a man living just a few miles outside of Dewton. He can hardly do that from the Ponderosa. And there's not much point in going home if most of the family is here."

Candy's brow furrowed as he tried to figure the math on that, which had immediately struck him as being off. One couldn't count Adam, whom Candy had never met, and who was probably somewhere at sea just now, and the extended members of the Cartwright clan were scattered across the continent. The immediate family of Joe, Hoss and Ben were all here, and if only one had to stay, it was hardly a majority.

"He's talking about you," Joe said helpfully, "You're family too, remember?"

Candy looked up, but he couldn't seem to find any words to say, but the look in his eyes said more than any number of words ever could. That one look was the only assurance any of them would ever need that they were doing the right thing, the only evidence they'd ever have of how much it meant to Candy that they were staying, the only proof that he understood that they had no other excuse but him.

"I... uh... don't know what to say," Candy said, dropping his gaze and swallowing.

"I do," Joe said.

Candy looked up sharply, that slightly scared but curious look in his eyes again.

Joe nodded towards the deck of cards and said, "Deal me in."

"Me too," Hoss chimed in.

"I think we would all like to be dealt in," Ben suggested.

Candy looked around the room and said, "I don't think there are enough chairs for that."

"Don't worry about it," Joe told him, "There were a couple in the lobby. I'll get them. You deal."

Candy grinned, and finally the light reached his eyes as he responded, "Sure."