by J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Slash Fan Fiction (Bonanza)
Rating: PG-13
Link to Part One
~
Joe frowned at the prison bars. Really, Roy Coffee could have been more understanding. He was only defending a saloon girl from a drunken customer.
He sighed and glanced over at David, who was sprawled on the bench with a black eye and an annoyed expression on his face. Joe’s frown deepened—and this time it was tinged with a little bit of guilt. David was not happy to be in here.
Joe walked over to him and sat down next to him. “Sorry about this,” he said with a tentative smile.
David glared at him. “I paid two saloon girls to keep you out of trouble,” he spat.
Joe shrugged apologetically. “Waste of money—girls get me into trouble, not out of it.”
David glared at him again.
But Joe was undaunted. His grin broadened as he gave David a sympathetic look. “Is this your first time?”
“Spending the night in jail?” he returned. “Yes—I must confess that it is.”
“That’s a miracle,” Joe commented. “I know you’re handy at picking locks. Heck, Adam told me about the time you broke into that flat—”
David rolled his eyes. “Since I grew up in the theatre, I’ve worked with a number of stage magicians. That’s why I know how to pick locks. As for breaking into that flat—you know that was a special circumstance. And Adam was right behind me.”
“Still,” Joe said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, “you’ve played fast and loose with the law when it comes to bookkeeping too. Isn’t that why Adam made you swear to stay on the up-and-up at the Ponderosa?”
The ghost of a smile crossed David’s face. “I’ve done some morally questionable things as far as accounting goes—but I’ve generally stayed within the limits of the law.”
He paused and his smile deepened—reluctantly, Joe thought. “To own the truth, Joe, I’ve done any number of underhanded things in my life,” he admitted. “Adam makes some valiant efforts to keep me on the straight and narrow, but I doubt he’ll ever be entirely successful.”
“Yeah, I doubt that too,” Joe agreed, returning David’s smile. “But that’s okay. In case you haven’t noticed, Adam has a soft spot for people he can take to task. Why do you suppose I haven’t driven him crazy yet?”
David laughed. “Yeah, I’ve noticed. Well, Adam’s a dictator at heart—but at least he’s a good one.”
Joe winked at him. “I bet it doesn’t do you any harm to have a high-minded dictator acting like your conscience.”
“None at all,” David admitted, still smiling.
Joe leaned back against the wall, satisfied. “Adam must be a good influence over you,” he commented. “You came right to my aid in that fight. I’m just sorry that we were the only two Roy arrested.”
“Well, you did throw the first punch,” David reminded him.
“Yeah, but the fellow deserved it.”
David nodded. “You’ll get no argument from me.”
“Roy’ll let us out by morning,” Joe promised.
“I know.”
Joe stared down at his hands for a moment and then back up at David. “You looked like you were getting along with Patrick Kelly in there.”
“I was.”
“So, ah, did you fix things?” Joe asked.
He nodded again. “You’re going to pay those Irish boys a thousand dollars instead of the five thousand.”
Joe considered that. A thousand dollars was five hundred more than he actually owed. They had swindled the rest from him. Still, it was a lot less than five thousand. And maybe he deserved to lose an extra five hundred—he’d been an idiot to fall for their scheme.
“How’d you convince Kelly?”
To Joe’s surprise, David actually blushed a little as he answered. “I threatened him with the law by implying that your father has every judge in the territory in his pocket. Then I let him know that he could make as much money, at least, working for me and for the Ponderosa without having to skip town afterwards to look for a new mark.”
Joe stared at him with reluctant admiration. “Ah, I wouldn’t tell Pa any of this—especially that part about you implying that he has all those judges in his pocket.”
“I don’t intend to,” David agreed.
“Are you really going to hire Kelly and his boys?” Joe demanded.
David shrugged. “Why not? There’s plenty of work they can do on the Ponderosa. And I can use a man like Kelly on occasion for my own business.”
Joe sat up and narrowed his eyes at him. “What sort of business?” he demanded.
David gave him another smile—one that was almost apologetic. “You’ll figure it out eventually. And you won’t be so much in charity with me when you do.”
Joe grinned at that. “You can’t be doing anything really bad—you wouldn’t risk Adam’s disapproval. So you must be using Kelly to try to keep me out of trouble.”
“Something like that,” David owned.
Joe rolled his eyes as he leaned back against the wall. “Yeah—I’ll figure it out eventually. And we’ll pummel each other over it but then we’ll both forget it. That’s how it goes with family—especially brothers. And anyway, I appreciate you having my back. I might as well say that now, `cause I’ll forget to say it when I’m angry.”
There was an odd expression on David’s face by the end of that little speech. Joe was pretty sure he could guess what it meant. Joe smiled again and then made his way to his own bench, wrapped himself in the flea-bitten blankets and faded off to sleep.
~
David sat up a long while after Joe had fallen asleep. He thought back to the time when Joe had despised him—and the moment that Joe had put his anger aside and decided to accept David as part of the picture of the Ponderosa.
Yes, in retrospect, David thought he could pinpoint the exact moment. They’d been in San Francisco at the time, along with Adam. Joe wasn’t hard to read and he wasn’t good at keeping his thoughts to himself.
And he didn’t do things by half-measures. Once Joe had decided to accept David, he accepted him completely and adopted him as family. As a brother, even. That was gratifying—but there was also something humbling about it.
Even Adam didn’t accept David to that extent. When Joe gave his love and devotion, it was with his whole heart—but Adam always stayed guarded. He had let down a good deal of his guard for David, but he’d never let down all of it.
David sighed. In Adam’s mind, David still didn’t have ‘permission’ to find fault with Joe or to worry about the kid. Joe was Adam’s darling—a cross between a younger brother and a son—and Adam didn’t care for an outsider to criticize the kid or to see a problem that Adam himself hadn’t yet identified.
Sooner or later, Adam would have to decide whether David was or was not a full member of his family. And if he was a full member, then he’d have to allow that David might notice a problem that had escaped Adam. And if he wasn’t a full member—well, David didn’t like to dwell too much on that.
Meanwhile, David would just have to deal with Joe on his own. Or perhaps he should enlist Hoss’s aid after all—that was also a possibility. The one thing he wouldn’t do was go to the boy’s father. That would be a breach of trust.
Things would certainly be easier if Adam would get involved. David suspected that Adam’s combination of brotherly love and fatherly authority could get through to Joe where mere brotherly concern had failed.
David sighed again. Ultimately, he supposed, nothing would help Joe until the kid decided for himself that he’d lost enough money to poker. All David could do was to minimize the harm that Joe did to himself in the meantime.
And with that thought, David wrapped himself in his own flee-bitten blankets and drifted into an uneasy sleep.
LINK TO PART FOURTEEN
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