Category: Brothers
Stories that focus on the relationship of any combination of the brothers.
Adam / Hoss / Joe / Jamie
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (by BettyHT)
Summary: Little Joe has a feeling someone has been watching and following him. Then chilling words from Hop Sing give him some idea who it is but he has to wait to find out the reason why.
Rating: T Word count: 1,445
Friendship Among Brothers (by BettyHT)
Summary: This is a prequel story, but not by much, in which Little Joe is growing up and getting advice and guidance about being a man from Hoss and Adam, but a little introspection helps too.
Rating: T Word count: 2,867
Fury (by BettyHT)
Summary: The family has a house guest for a week who doesn’t act at all as they expected. Hoss thought he would have a friend, but their guest chose to attach to another family member.
Rating: PG Word count: 2,212
The Dating Game (by JC)
Summary: The Cartwright brothers compete against one another on Virginia City’s newest game show. Will it be bachelor #1, Bachelor #2, or Bachelor #3?
Rating: T Word Count: 1717
Love Me Not: An Interlude (by HarpistforHim)
Summary: Joe’s antics and quick temper get the better of him in this fun little story based on an exchange in “Love Me Not.” Featuring a mischievous Joe, a tired Hoss, and a crafty Adam. A WHIB for Love Me Not.
Rating: G Word Count: 979
The Children Shall Lead (by BettyHT)
Summary: This is a prequel about how Ben found the spot for the Ponderosa, but it is told as a story about Adam and Hoss and how they met Young Wolf. There is also some insight into how Adam developed into the man he became.
Rating: PG Word count: 4057
The Gift of Giving (by faust)
Summary: Baby Joe has need of a crocheted blanket, at least that’s what Hoss concludes, and he has an exact idea who’s going to bring on one…enter Adam.
Written for Day 4 of the 2021 Advent Calendar
Rating: G 2,540 words
Learning the Hard Way (by HarpistforHim)
Summary: Joe has one drink too many at the Marquette’s one-year anniversary party, which wouldn’t have been such an issue with his father if he wasn’t only fourteen years old. The morning after, Adam learns a few things about his baby brother… and a few things about himself, too.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 4,730
Never Again (by HarpistforHim)
Summary: Ben’s guilt-ridden slump during the Prime of Life unearths painful memories for his oldest son. Despite this, the boys try their hardest to meet the contract deadline on their own. In the end, it’s up to Hoss to make sure his older brother gets back on the right track again. A WHIB/WHN for The Prime of Life.
Rating: G Word Count: 7,380
Buttons and Bows (by BettyHT)
Summary: it may start out looking like a serious story, but it’s a fun brothers’ story using songwriting as the major method of the two-against-one scenario and vice versa.
Rating: T Word count: 2197
What Kind of Man Would I Be? (by Annie K Cowgirl)
Summary: A bullet, a question, and the unconditional love of a brother.
Rating: K+
Word Count: 978
Not Guilty: Part Four, The Dogs (by BettyHT)
Summary: In the last of the series, the story is all about Adam, Hoss, and Joe. There’s a hunting trip with their dogs, a hero who emerges after a case of mistaken identity, and then the plot for their sweet revenge. Some of this material was originally in the previous story, but when I edited it out, I saved it to create this story. You may notice how it overlaps part of what happened in that story.
Rating: T Word Count: 10,703
Part of the Not Guilty Series, links to all stories included within
The Circumstance of His Return (by McFair_58)
A violent storm, a frightened mare, and the matter of his homecoming. My entry for the 2021 ‘Man in Black’ challenge.
Rated: PG
Word count: 10,999
Shooting Lessons (by BettyHT)
Summary: Hoss and Adam give Little Joe some shooting lessons, but the ones he learns from experience teach him that those first lessons were the best he ever had.
Rating: PG Word count: 2,194
The Twelve-Year-Old Gunman (by BettyHT)
Summary: How do you get a sixteen-year-old son or a younger brother to be careful with their first pistol? You tell them the story of the oldest son and brother and his first pistol to teach them as well as make them willing to follow the rules. Written on another site as a challenge to use cowboy lingo in a story; definitions are at the end of the story.
Rating: PG Word count: 6,749














