Summary:  Life hadn’t been going exactly as planned, nor as dreamed.
Rating:  G   1,530 words

Written for the Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar

Bonanza
~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~
* Day 20 *

Dr. Martin frowned as he watched Adam come into his office and take a seat. The eldest Cartwright “boy” didn’t shuffle or limp, precisely, but there was no spring to his step, and he didn’t settle into the chair. Instead, he treated the piece of furniture like something he couldn’t trust not to hurt him.

All as bad as Hoss had warned him, or possibly even worse.

It wasn’t surprising, after the year Adam had suffered through. He’d finally found–or thought he had found–a future for himself, with a wife to cherish and protect, and a daughter to adore. For them he’d been making a home away from the Ponderosa at last…but a careless moment working on that new house had nearly crippled him. The wife-to-be had turned into a smothering nurse and (however innocently) found  love with his cousin instead. Worst of all, in resolving that tangled affair, he’d had to encourage the child of his heart to tear herself away from him. When Peggy had gone with her mother and her new father, she hadn’t looked back. That was how it needed to be for the girl, of course, but for Adam….

Well, Adam had apparently given up all hope of happiness on the day his cousin’s wagon had rolled away from the ranch. He’d done his best to hide it from everyone around him, and for the most part the doctor supposed he had succeeded. But he hadn’t fooled Hoss Cartwright, not for long.

“Ya got ta do somethin’ fer him, Doc,” the big man had mumbled, twisting his oversized hat in his hands. “He don’t listen to anyone else.”

Which was Adam Cartwright in a nutshell. Dr. Martin wasn’t convinced he even listened to his doctor. An attempt had to be made, though; no one knew better than a doctor how quickly a man without hope could fade away. He knew he couldn’t say that directly to his old friend (well, he thought of Adam as a friend, but who knew how Adam saw things?), but even Adam could be maneuvered, if one took care to be subtle. And who better to make subtle maneuvers than the best surgeon in Nevada?

Admittedly, an operation would be easier. Much, much easier. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an operation Adam needed. Whatever he, or his father, believed, his back was now as sound as could be, at least until the next time he fell off a building.

He was also getting somewhat impatient. “Hoss told me you wanted to check up on my recovery, so I came in with him today. In the back of the wagon, at Pa’s insistence. I hope there’ll be room there going home, with all the supplies we’re getting for the party.”

Salvation arrived like a radiant angel–though perhaps Ben Cartwright wouldn’t see it that way. Serve Ben right, though; he could be as smothering as Laura Cartwright ever dreamed of, and towards a man of Adam’s age it wasn’t decent. “Let me get a listen to your heart first,” he stalled as he reached for his stethoscope.

[Dear readers–surely you now suspect that “stethoscope” is my prompt? Oh, but that would be too easy. Please read on!]

“It’s true travel isn’t a comfort for the body,” Dr. Martin tossed out as he shifted the instrument’s cold bell across Adam’s flinching back. “Wagons, stagecoaches–even the train has its problems, with all the soot and the smuts….”

“I rode the train from Sacramento to Reno last spring,” Adam growled. “Still couldn’t stretch out my legs properly. Don’t know how I’d ever manage now on a journey that took more than a few hours.”

Dr. Martin straightened up and came around to face his patient, smiling with satisfaction. “Oh, but they’re working on that. Did I tell you about my trip to Ogden?” Safe to assume the answer was no, since clearly Ben hadn’t let Adam off of the Ponderosa since the accident. Sure enough, Adam shook his head cautiously.

Was he making a misdiagnosis of the problem? “Your neck isn’t bothering you now, is it? Trying to avoid some other pain can do that sometimes.”

“Nothing hurts, not really.” Adam’s growl was even fiercer this time. “I just can’t get past expecting things to hurt.”

Ben’s overcautiousness wasn’t helping with that, either. Time for the bold incision. “Good. Well, on my way back from Utah, they’d laid on some of those fancy new railcars like the ones that were used for the last leg of President Lincoln’s funeral cortege.” He paused a moment to see Adam’s reaction, but there was no flicker of interest in his patient’s eyes. Why on earth had Ben not seen what he was doing to his son? “Elaborate Pullman Palace sleeping cars, a whole slew of them, with carved and inlaid walnut paneling, plush upholstery, damask hangings…they looked like a fancy parlor by day–”

“Fancy as the International House?” Adam was finally relaxing in the chair, looking intrigued.

“Fancier. And at night the porters folded down the upper bunks and turned the sofas into beds. Long enough beds that even a tall fellow like you could stretch his legs–though a big man like Hoss might not want to climb up into a top bunk.”

“Bet Pa would like one, though. Remind him of the old days on shipboard, I reckon.”

“Could be,” Dr. Martin allowed. “Anyway, it was quite the experience. Certainly more interesting than anything I learned at the conference. And to boot, I hear they’re coming up with even more special cars for the long-distance trains. Elegant restaurants, daytime parlors, some sort of little connecting thing so you can walk up and down the train even when it’s moving…pretty soon you won’t have to do anything but relax and enjoy yourself all the way to your destination. Think what it would be like, going back to Boston in style like that!”

“I’m thinking.” Adam’s smile had broadened enough to show the dimple that got all the ladies admiring him.

“Meantime, even if the seat isn’t upholstered in silk satin, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t drive the wagon home.” Dr. Martin raised a warning hand. “Whatever your father’s been telling you, it’s time you began to exercise again. Lying flat on your back doesn’t do you any good–besides boring you silly, I’d imagine.”

“I will say I’ve caught up on my reading,” his patient admitted, “but there can be too much even of a good thing, and I’ve had it. Never thought I’d miss being able to ride out on Sport whenever I wanted.”

Dr. Martin chuckled. “Oh, riding would be helpful for your back. Of course, so would other things: dancing…fencing…ice skating…swimming, most likely….”

“I wouldn’t mind a regular course of dancing,” Adam smirked. “But Pa would likely prefer putting me back to work, if I gave him those options.”

And, as quickly as that, the brightness drained out of his expression again.

“Oh, well, if that’s what you’d rather be doing,” the doctor said with utterly deceptive breeziness. Losing Adam to the world beyond Nevada might be painful for Ben–for the whole family, no doubt–but the alternative would be worse. Adam was no canary, to chirp out the rest of his life in a cage of his father’s expectations.

Watching the lines that gradually formed on Adam’s brow, he decided Adam might be realizing that for himself. It seemed, for good or for ill, his “operation” was being a success. Now if only the patient–all the patients, Dr. Martin corrected himself–could manage an equally successful recovery….

When Hoss arrived to collect his brother, the doctor caught at the big man’s elbow while Adam strode past them both to the wagon. “I think I’ve stirred up his wanderlust,” he admitted quietly. “Come next spring, he may not be staying very long.”

“Don’t matter,” Hoss said firmly. “If gone’s what he needs to be, he should go. ‘Sides, I couldn’t of stood watchin’ those dead eyes of his all through Christmas. Seein’ that sparkle back again is the best present anyone could give me this year. Blessings on ya, Doc. Gotta hurry!” True enough, Adam had begun to make urgent gestures with the whip.

Dr. Martin watched the cart bounce away with a suddenly lighter heart. Having Hoss Cartwright’s blessing made for a special Christmas all by itself, and the future would take care of itself. In any event, the strength of the love the Cartwrights would always bear each other surely ensured that matters would always turn out as well as they might.

Prompt: Pullman sleeping car, 1865.

But note: Pullman cars couldn’t have reached Nevada before the Golden Spike Ceremony on May 10, 1869, when the track of the Union Pacific, coming from Omaha, Nebraska (which railroad was using Pullman cars by then) met the rails of the Central Pacific, coming from Sacramento, California (which, as far as I can tell, did not before this date) to complete the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah. This unfortunate fact really complicated the timeline of my story! Oh, well, it’s Christmas…and a merry holiday (whichever one you celebrate) to everyone at Bonanza Brand!

Link to Day 21 of the Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar – The Telegram by BettyHT