Hi so here is my first fanfic for this fandom that I literally just stumbled across. I love this fandom I love Adam. S1-6 are hand downs the best.
This story and all stories coming from it exist S1-6.
I do plan to write series of this story so if that's something your interested in let me know.
I do have an A03 account under a different name, this story will be posted there as well in case you come across it.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine,
Please Read and Review.
And I swear in my works. If you don't like don't read.
This is part of a series, this isn't episode related. Neither is this series. Assume everything is S1-S6
Any inaccuracies please let me know.
I might add to this...I'll leave it up to you.
Please be aware...some triggers.
Running To A Standstill
AU in which Adam has a daughter (no mother) who lives at the Pondarosa and in her own way causes more trouble than any other Cartwright.
Part 1-When a young girl dies right in front of her six year old Ivy Cartwright learns about death. And then she goes missing too. For Adam…all hell breaks loose.
Chapter 1-Give Me Your Life
In which Ivy Cartwright goes swimming with deadly consequences.
The Ponderosa was a mass of sprawling land. It was so big that Ivy had yet to see most of it. She saw some when she was on her own little pony but she was not allowed out without someone supervising her. Little Uncle Joe would let her ride for miles but her little pony didn't have miles in him as Uncle Hoss said and so she would never be able to not see her house in the distance smoke rising from the chimney.
And Pa…well…Pa was unmovable.
"You don't go riding without someone with you." he would say whenever she asked. The last time he didn't even look up from his book.
Sometimes she would see the Ponderosa from Pa's horse. Or Grandpa. She would sit on the big warhorse as Grandpa took her around the land and pointed out that one day this would be hers.
"That's what land is for" he'd say. "It's a legacy. Yours to protect. This whole thing that I've worked for, that your father has worked for. One day God willing this will be passed down to the next generation, you and your cousins. If God willing either one of those boys settle down long enough to give me more grandchildren"
Ivy thought then that she'd rather that didn't happen. She liked being an only child. Her Grandpa had laughed at that thought and let her hold the reigns guiding the horse back to the house.
In truth she was an only child. She didn't have a Ma either. She knew other children in school did but she did not. She had Pa though and Uncle Hoss and Little Uncle Joe and Grandpa and Hop Sing so she thought she had gotten the better deal. The only thing Ivy knew about her Ma was that she was from Oregon and that was if Pa was telling the truth—Pa had gone out on a journey and then come back with her. Her with her blonde hair and blue eyes who looked so unlike her Pa it was almost laughable.
"Quite the surprise" Little Uncle Joe had said when Ivy had been old enough to hear this story.
"A nice one" Grandpa amended.
Pa had raised an eyebrow. "Don't recall that being what you said at the time" was all he had muttered. Grandpa had shot him a look and then Pa had turned back to his eggs grinning.
But Ivy had a good life. She had the Pondarosa, her little grey pony called Spot and her puppy dog called Puddle on account that that was what Little Uncle Joe had found him in and Grandpa wouldn't let either one of them in the house until they were both properly hosed down.
The day our story starts it was a hot day. A hot day in June and everyone was wishing that Grandpa had built the house a mile or two on higher ground so that they could enjoy the shade an hour more. Work had been forgotten in search of a cool shade and Ivy stomping back from school and wishing she could ride too and from the small school house found her Pa under the shade of a tree hat on his face and his two brothers sprawled alongside him.
"Pa?"
"Hello Ivy"
"Pa are you sleeping?"
"I was"
"Oh"
"Hello Ivy-flower" Uncle Hoss said from where he was lying on his back his hands behind his head using them as a makeshift pillow. "Learn anything interesting?"
"No. Pa, everyone is talking about May Mitchell's disappearance"
Little Uncle Joe who had been flopped on his belly sighed. "It's a bad bunch that one. Six years old and vanishes without a trace. Been two days now…I don't know how her Ma can stand it. I mean she's gotta be dead right? "
"Joe" her own Pa said taking his hat off his face. "Do you mind not talking about missing or dead children?"
Little Uncle Joe closed his eyes.
"Where's Grandpa?" she asked coming to sit next to Pa. He placed his hat on her head and she grinned as it slipped into her eyes. He wrapped his arm around her and she stuck her legs out kicking off her boots so that the grass hit her bare feet.
"Dunno"
"Ivy"
"I don't Pa promise!"
"Somewhere up by the east meadow" Uncle Hoss said waving his hand at the empty land and yawning.
"We should get some work done"
"We should shouldn't we" Little Uncle Joe said. "But it's warm and were all tired big brother so quit your yapping"
Ivy giggled.
"Pa?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I go down by the stream and play?"
Her Pa cracked open one eye. "The one that borders our land with the Mitchell's?"
"Yeah"
Her Pa blew out a breath and then looked around.
"Alright" he said grudgingly. "But you get your feet wet nothing else. You don't go swimming. I mean it Ivy I don't want you in that lake without my supervision there are deep currents in there and I want you back in half an hour too"
"Yes Pa"
The stream was deep that much was true, swimming in it once she'd been surprised to see how black the water was. Pa had been mad at her dragged her back up and told her not to stick her head under the water again even if she did know how to hold her breath.
It was like another world under there. At six Ivy Cartwright was a firm believer in sea monsters.
She let the water hit her feet and then as she splashed about she saw it.
It was something in the water at the far edge of the stream. It looked as if it had bubbled up from below and she stared at it moving around grabbing a big stick her feet getting muddy, the ends of her dress getting wet as she waded in a little bit further. She leaned forwards and poked the thing with a stick.
Whatever it was, was small and yet big all at the same time. There was wet yellow something tied up in the tree branch and she took another step before the stones beneath her feet shifted. As she slipped a little bit more into the lake the thing moved and she saw as the water bobbed it around so that it was staring at her right in the face.
It was a person.
A child.
May Mitchell.
And she was dead.
Her eyes were open and her hand was outstretched. Her mouth was twisted as if she'd been screaming when she had died. For a moment the two of them stared at each other…well…one of them stared and the other stared back unseeing.
And then suddenly it hit her that her classmate was dead.
She stumbled backwards but her foot twisted a little on a sharp rock and she fell into the lake. She stumbled backwards dress weighing her down but as she moved the body moved towards her even as she found her footing and scrambled backwards up onto the muddy dry grass the body turned again and again and then Ivy opened her mouth and screamed.
"I don't believe you three! A full days work ahead and you're here snoozing under the tree"
"Oh Pa it's too warm to shout"
"Oh I'll give you shouting my boy—"
Adam sighed and stretched out and then just as his Pa swelled like a bullfrog there was a scream that cut through the warm and happy mood and sent chills shivering down his spine.
He knew who was screaming.
"Was that—"
But he was already on his feet and running before Little Joe could finish his sentence, pushing past his Pa, his daughter's screaming reverberating around his ears, his skull, making his tired legs work harder and harder and harder until he was crashing through the brush and half down the slope towards the water.
Ivy was there…thank God…and she was wet but not like she'd fallen in wet. She was stood there completely transfixed by something even as Adam crashed to a stop in front of her.
"Ivy what in God's name—"
But her hand was already pointing and he followed her gaze and then stopped.
It was a child.
A child in the lake obviously dead drowned or maybe strangled he couldn't tell floating with the current.
And he knew the child too.
May Mitchell. His daughters classmate.
Six years old. Turning seven this weekend.
Ivy started shaking under his hand and he picked her up without even looking at her tucking her head into his shoulder so she didn't have to look. It was more for her benefit but he would not deny that he was spooked to his very core. It wasn't very hard to replace this child with his daughter. Wasn't hard to look at her and see Ivy face white, hair wet against her face, eyes open wide and mouth twisted into one last final scream for help that nobody heard.
Suddenly there was a hand gripping his shoulder anchoring him into the ground. It was his Pa and his face was grim against the warmth of the sunny day.
"Come on son" he said quietly. "Let's get the Sherriff…someone has to ride out and see that poor girls parents"
"She's asleep"
"Good" his Pa said putting down his paper. Critically he stared at him and Adam was suddenly very glad it was just the two of them. Joe was outside tending to the horses and Hoss had gone to bed early and so he poured himself a drink and then he sat down in front of the fire.
"You alright son"
"I just saw one of my daughters classmates drowned in the lake so no not really Pa"
"Sherriff Coffey seems to think it might be an accident." His Pa said and Adam downed his drink in one.
"That doesn't help. You know how many times I've told Ivy not to go down to the lake on her own? Could have been her. Could have been her who was paddling and then she slipped in and then it's one steep current and then—" he looked down at his empty glass and decided that he needed another one.
"Tragic all round I don't deny it."
"Ivy's all I got you know…I mean I know I have you and Little Joe and Hoss but Ivy's…she's everything you know?"
"I do know. I have three sons. And like you I did it mostly alone."
"Pa not now"
"Adam I didn't say anything!"
Adam took another gulp of whiskey and said nothing. He had never even told his Pa about Ivy's mother and he was not going to start now. That one was staying between him and maker.
"You don't think that maybe it wasn't an accident do you?"
"What do you mean?"
Adam shrugged. "Maybe…I mean…you don't think someone's out there killing little blonde girls do you?"
Of course you heard about such things. But crimes such as these tended to take place in the bigger cities, the larger states, Virigina City was mostly safe from such things. The deaths that occurred were often out of the saloon. Child murder was not something that happened very often and on the odd occasion it did, the very rare of rare occasions…well…Adam fully supported lynching.
It was amazing how many of your own priorities and views and principles changed when you had a child of your own to think about—and to think about losing.
And he didn't want to say that he had a little blonde girl of his own upstairs.
His Pa however seemed to understand without him having to voice the thought further.
"Nothing like that happens here" he said putting down the paper and standing up and patting him on the shoulder. "What happened to that child is a terrible tragedy, a terrible tragic accident and we will go and pay our respects as a family at the funeral. And that will be the end of that"
Adam nodded feeling his neck crack as he did it and he sighed looking back down at the fire as the flames crackled against the wood.
He didn't know why he thought that his father was wrong. But he thought he was.
He was wrong.
He just didn't know how wrong he was.
And yeah...feedback is adored. Not sure if I will add to this but depending on a response and on work...I hope to add to it soon.