Summary: A brief and fanciful ‘what if’.
Rating:   G     Words:  1,240

The Brandsters have included this story by this author in our project: Preserving Their Legacy. To preserve the legacy of the author, we have decided to give their work a home in the Bonanza Brand Fanfiction Library.  The author will always be the owner of this work of fanfiction, and should they wish us to remove their story, we will.

Someone Watching

Ben had not exactly been quiet as he entered the house and set aside his hat and gunbelt, but he was amused to see that his arrival had not distracted his eldest son seated at the desk and pouring over a ledger and various other documents.

Adam laid down his pen and sat back in the chair with a low moan and rubbed tiredly at his eyes.

“Finished, son?” Ben asked, breaking the silence, knowing that Adam had put in the best part of two days on vital ranch paperwork.

“Sorry, Pa, I didn’t hear you come in,” Adam made to stand and make way for his father but Ben restrained him with a hand on his arm. Instead, he perched on the corner of the desk.

“Apparently so,” Ben agreed with a wry smile. “Like I said, you done here?”

“Nearly. The pay’s ready to go out to the men. The books balance, the bills are sorted – you just need to sign some of the cheques – and I’ve made some inroad into listing things we need, as well as drawing up a schedule for meeting orders over the next three months. There are some letters left to write but another couple of hours after dinner should take care of that.”

“You have been busy,” Ben acknowledged, wondering, not for the first time, how he could have developed and maintained the Ponderosa so successfully over the years without the skills and dedication of the young man sitting by him. Not that Hoss and Joe should be without credit but Adam … His father struggled to find adequate words in his head. Adam was in a league all his own. His reverie was broken as Adam stretched, trying to relieve the kinks in his back.

“Here, let me,” Ben insisted, rising to move behind his son and placing his hands on Adam’s shoulders. “Heavens, boy, you’re as tight as a plank of wood. You’ve spent too long hunkered over that desk,” and he started to knead the tired muscles, easing the strained knots with firm pressure. Adam began to relax and sighed contentedly as the dull ache between his should blades lessened.

Ben continued to work and, over the top of his son’s head, let his eyes rest on a small, framed portrait on the desk; Elizabeth, the boy’s mother and Ben’s first wife.

“Liz, my love, I wish you could have seen him grow up, see what he’s become. You’d be so proud of him,” Ben mused.

“Oh I am, Ben, I am proud of him – and you.” The words were nothing more than a soft breath on the gentle breeze through the open window and went unheard by the two men, just as they were totally unaware that, in the room, there was someone else watching.

Elizabeth Cartwright smiled to herself as she gazed upon this tender and private moment between father and son. Adam, usually so reserved and undemonstrative, submitted placidly to his father’s care whilst in her heart, she felt the warm, satisfied glow that spread through Ben as he relished this rare, uninterrupted time with his firstborn. From the clatter in the kitchen, Hop Sing was busy with the evening meal and at any point the front door could burst open, heralding the noisy arrival of his other sons.

She thought back to Ben’s wish and regretted that she had no way of letting him know. “I have seen him grow, Ben, and every time you’ve asked me from your heart to watch over our son, to keep him safe, I have been here.”

There had been the first tottering steps and, with his mobility, there came an inquisitiveness which had not abated as the infant became a small boy, clambering onto his father’s lap to listen eagerly to stories of the sea. She had watched him avidly studying books for years, absorbing factual information and tales of high adventure at feverish pace to feed his hungry mind. There were his tentative encounters with girls when he first realised that they could be more than just friends and she had smiled at his awkwardness. His uncertainty was short-lived as she saw her beautiful boy with his raven hair, penetrating eyes and long, lanky limbs transformed into the tall, darkly handsome man, capable of turning many an admiring female head with his sheer physical presence and intelligent mind.

Adam was no longer in his father’s shadow, and most people who knew him recognised his leadership and integrity. He had been called upon more than once to help uphold the law and, always remembering the early years when he and his father had struggled so much, he took it upon himself to champion the cause of the weak and less fortunate. He never took for granted what the family had built up with the Ponderosa; it had taken a long time and a lot of hard graft.

But there was a price that he had paid. With the responsibility, there was the pain, and Elizabeth felt a pang of guilt at leaving him so soon, just hours after his birth. He had experienced such hardship in his short life and had seen so much death that she knew, to the hour, when he had resolved to create a defensive wall around his emotions; when the outgoing and laughing child had begun to withdraw, to turn inwards in an attempt to save himself from further hurt. That determination had strengthened him and fashioned an intense young man who now succumbed to his father’s ministrations. She could not prevent him from being so hard on himself and saw not only his battle with internal fears but also those rare, private tears, and a mother’s heart wept with him.

Elizabeth had kept vigil with Ben through the long hours of the night when Adam tossed in delirium, bit his lip with pained frustration at another broken bone – an ever-present hazard in ranch life – or lost his careful self-control, crying out to his father in fevered agony as the Doctor extracted a bullet. Oh yes, she had been there, willing him to come through and he had, every time.

“That better?” Ben concluded the massage and stepped back, a hand remaining on Adam’s left shoulder.

“Much. Thanks, Pa; you always seem to know the spot.”

“And you, son, need to learn not to get so tense,” he advised, his hand gently squeezing Adam’s shoulder in fatherly concern. Their eyes met and held but there were no more words, nothing that needed to be spoken aloud.

The sound of a pan being dropped in the kitchen, followed by a stream of unintelligible Chinese broke the spell and Ben patted his son on the back. “That’s the signal for me to go and wash up before dinner. Leave that work until later,” and Ben headed for the stairs.

“Soon, Pa,” Adam conceded. He watched his father disappear from sight and turned his attention back to the papers spread across the desk.

“I am very proud of you and I love you so much, Adam, my son.” Elizabeth Cartwright reached out to caress the short black hair and stooped quickly to deliver a fleeting kiss.

Adam smiled to himself at the thought of his father’s display of affection and the gentle summer breeze through the window that ruffled his hair and briefly tickled his cheek with its light touch.