Hoss and Clay bump into each other again, with some brotherly conflict to work out, in a What Happened Later for The First Born.\u00a0 Written for the 2026 Brothers Day Challenge.<\/p>\n
Rating: G | Word Count: 994<\/p>\n
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Hoss glowered across his beer.\u00a0 There weren\u2019t a lot of familiar faces he wouldn\u2019t cross a saloon to say howdy to, but the one currently approaching his table \u2013 well, if he hadn\u2019t already been sitting down in the back corner when the man came in, he well might have walked out the door to avoid him.\u00a0 The odds of bumping into him here<\/em>, a hundred miles south of the Ponderosa\u2026probably even Adam couldn\u2019t calculate those odds, but they had to be long.<\/p>\n \u201cHello, Hoss,\u201d Clay Stafford said, stopping in front of his table.\u00a0 \u201cYou in town selling cows?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMebbe,\u201d Hoss rumbled.\u00a0 \u201cYou here cheating at cards?\u201d<\/p>\n Somebody else might\u2019ve winced.\u00a0 Clay, the dadblasted charmer, just smiled that cool, collected smile, said, \u201cThat was never proved,\u201d and sat down across from Hoss.\u00a0 \u201cLet me buy you a beer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want another beer.\u00a0 And I ain\u2019t playing cards with you, I ain\u2019t loaning you money, I don\u2019t want to hear a sad story\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow\u2019s Joe?\u201d Clay asked quietly, eyes giving nothing away.<\/p>\n Hoss hesitated.\u00a0 He was mad<\/em> at the man, but unfriendliness didn\u2019t come natural to him.\u00a0 But what right did Clay have to be asking about Little Joe anyway?\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRibs healed up?\u201d Clay pushed.\u00a0 \u201cAnd no more trouble with the miners?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNah, that all blew over after you left.\u00a0 And Little Joe\u2019s gotten hurt worse falling off horses before.\u201d\u00a0 The words slipped out natural enough, but Hoss felt as though he\u2019d conceded something by answering.\u00a0 He retreated to repeating, \u201cHe\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n Clay just nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t imagine you\u2019d believe me if I told you I was trying to do the right thing by him.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhich part?\u00a0 When you popped up outta nowhere claiming kinship, when you got Joe tangled up in a feud with a bunch of angry miners, or when you abandoned the family again?\u201d<\/p>\n It stung, when a new brother turns up and then just rides away again.\u00a0 And Hoss could take it for himself, but Clay\u2019d hurt his little brother real deep, and that wasn\u2019t so easy to get past.<\/p>\n Clay exhaled slow.\u00a0 \u201cThe last one, mostly.\u00a0 I knew I was just going to keep bringing trouble.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to get him killed.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss fiddled with his beer and tried not to soften.\u00a0 Only, he was pretty invested in the idea of Clay not getting Little Joe killed too.\u00a0 He summoned up the view he\u2019d had from the top of the stairs, the night Clay\u2019d rode off and Joe\u2019d come back home all battered and bruised and clung to Pa like his life depended on it.\u00a0 It hadn\u2019t been a scene to step into, but he\u2019d got a glimpse.\u00a0 \u201cJoe really doesn\u2019t like it when people leave,\u201d Hoss said, making his voice gruff.\u00a0 \u201cNot since he was a little fellow and his mother died.\u201d<\/p>\n That one did make Clay wince, just a trace.\u00a0 \u201cI imagine a lot of things would be different, if our mother had lived.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah.\u201d\u00a0 And thinking about Marie, the only mother Hoss could actually remember, did not make it any easier to stay angry with her son.\u00a0 He sighed.\u00a0 \u201cPa says we ought to be glad you sent Little Joe back to us.\u00a0 And I am<\/em>, you know. \u00a0It would\u2019ve been a lot worse if he\u2019d gone haring off to Mexico or somewhere with you.\u00a0 But it sure tore him up bad.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to do it better.\u201d\u00a0 And then Clay smiled, but it was a forced smile.\u00a0 One that looked an awful lot like how Little Joe looked when he knew he was in the wrong but hoping somebody\u2019d let him off the hook anyway.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t have much experience being an older brother.\u201d<\/p>\n And being Little Joe\u2019s older brother could be a tough job even with a lifetime of experience.\u00a0 Keeping him out of trouble, well, that was pretty near impossible.\u00a0 \u201cReckon we all do the best we can,\u201d Hoss conceded.\u00a0 By now, all of his natural instincts to look out for people, to look out for family especially, were overriding the last traces of his anger.\u00a0 \u201cJoe\u2019s all right now anyway.\u00a0 What about you?\u00a0 Are you living here, or\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n Clay shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cNo, just passing through.\u00a0 Just going where the trail leads.\u00a0 Might head back to Mexico.\u00a0 I have friends there.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss hesitated first, but the words still felt right when they came out.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ve got friends other places.\u00a0 Family.\u00a0 If you ever decided to have another go at the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Clay stared at him, a kind of confusion on his face.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t imagine I\u2019d be welcome at the Ponderosa anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cCan\u2019t say it\u2019d all go perfectly smooth.\u00a0 But, you know, Little Joe hates people leaving, but he really likes it when people come back.\u00a0 Reckon there\u2019d be some dust to settle, but we\u2019d none of us say no to a brother coming in the door.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not your<\/em> brother,\u201d Clay said in a low voice.<\/p>\n \u201cI dunno, I don\u2019t figure it that way.\u00a0 Maybe you ain\u2019t by blood, but it seems to me that my brother\u2019s brother is still my brother too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou were pretty mad when I first sat down, though.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss rolled his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWell, yeah.\u00a0 Nobody scraps like brothers either.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t you know that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot really.\u00a0 I never had brothers before.\u201d<\/p>\n And wasn\u2019t that a thing to think about.\u00a0 There were still things about Clay that Hoss wasn\u2019t so sure he liked \u2013 but who would any of them be, him or Joe or Adam, if they hadn\u2019t had each other?\u00a0 \u201cCome on back home, if you want to explore having brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a long moment before Clay shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think I should.\u00a0 Not now, anyway.\u00a0 Maybe some day.\u201d<\/p>\n