(A fill-in for the
episode)
by Pearl
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program
"Big Valley" are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and
have been used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended by the author. The ideas expressed in this story are copyrighted to the author.
Synopsis:
This is a fill-in for the episode ‘The Lost Treasure’. It starts when Heath is leaving the Barkley
family after telling them he is not a Barkley but a Sawyer. It ends before Heath goes looking for water
with a peach tree twig.
“Thanks for everything,” Heath said then he
left.
“Mother!” Audra cried with tears and
desperation in her voice.
Victoria stood still. She couldn’t believe what had just
happened. It was a bad dream, and she
expected any time to wake up. She
hadn’t realized it, but she’d been holding her breath. Suddenly she felt dizzy and started to
sway.
Nick didn’t notice. His eyes were glued to the door.
Any minute he expected Heath to come back through the door. Finally he said, “I’m going after him and
bring him back if I have to tie him up to do it. You coming?” he said to Jarrod, but Jarrod was hurrying to catch
his mother before she fell.
He got there in time to catch her before she
fell to the floor. As he carried her to
the divan he said, “Audra, get me a cold cloth and a glass of water.”
Nick came to stand beside them as Jarrod
lowered her gently on the soft cushions.
Victoria was starting to come around. Her eyelids fluttered open and the first word
out of her mouth was, “Heath?”
Jarrod and Nick exchanged looks. “I’m going after him,” Nick said, and he
walked to the door with quick heavy steps.
He stopped to put his gun belt on.
“I will use this if I have to,” he said through gritted teeth.
Jarrod started to say something to Nick. He didn’t like the tone of Nick’s voice at
all, but about that time, Victoria spoke Heath’s name again and tried to get
up.
“Just lie still, Mother. AUDRA, WHAT’S KEEPING Y...,”
“I’m right here,” Audra said coming up behind
Jarrod.
Jarrod glanced at her, and saw she’d been
crying. He gently touched her arm, and
whispered, “It’ll be all right. Nick’s
gone after him,” then he turned back to his mother. He turned back around when he heard Audra hurrying away.
“Where are you going?”
“With Nick after Heath!” she yelled back.
Jarrod shook his head. He knew better than to try and stop
her. Oh well, Nick would take care of
her, and she just might be able to keep Nick from doing something drastic. He sure wished Nick hadn’t taken his gun,
but he did want him to bring Heath back no matter what it took - short of
killing him. He turned and started
bathing his mother’s face. Already his
mind was churning on how to get him back in case Nick wasn’t successful. With his legal mind, his first thought was
to hire the Pinkerton Agency to find him, and then he’d drown Heath with
documents proving he was Tom Barkley’s son.
Should of done it before now, but he hadn’t seen the need. As far as he knew, there had been no doubt
in anyone’s mind of Heath’s parentage.
How could Heath believe that old coot was his father?
“Jarrod?” Victoria sat up and brushed Jarrod’s
hand away.
“He left didn’t he?”
“Yes, he did.”
With her voice breaking and tears forming in her
eyes, she said, “I’d hoped it was a bad
dream.”
“Don’t worry Mother; he’ll be back.”
“No, he won’t. Didn’t you see the look in his eyes? That Barkley stubbornness, he has it. I felt sure I could get him to stay.” Victoria’s eyes took on a pleading look, and her voice sounded
desperate, “Oh Jarrod, he is Tom’s son.
What would make him think otherwise.”
“He said something to Nick and I about Hannah
verifying it.”
“Jarrod, Hannah’s old. When I met her, her mind didn’t seem too
clear then and that was a year and a half ago.
Surely Heath could see that?”
“Maybe not.
It’s hard to see someone you love slipping away.”
“We’ve got to do something.” Victoria was
sitting up now.
“Nick and Audra have gone after him, and
something tells me they’ll bring Heath back.”
Fifteen minutes later they heard a horse that
had been running at full speed stop in front of the house. Before they could get up, Audra burst
through the door. “Heath’s coming. A man’s been shot, and Heath is bringing him
here. Nick’s gone for the doctor.”
“Let’s get a bed ready,” Victoria flew into
action. Her eyes brightened. No matter the reason, Heath was coming home.
When he rode into the yard, Jarrod recognized
the man Heath was holding in front of him as Charlie Sawyer. He helped Heath get Charlie off the horse
and into the house.
As soon as they got him settled in the bed, he
started calling to Heath. Heath made no
move to go to him. Victoria stood
before Heath, and with a motion of her head for him to go to him. Heath reluctantly did, at which time,
Charlie Sawyer confessed he lied about being his father.
Victoria and Jarrod heard the whole
thing. They couldn’t see Heath’s face
as his back was to them. No one moved
for several minutes after Charlie took his last breath. Then Victoria moved and put her hand on
Heath’s shoulder. Without looking
around, Heath rose and hurried out of the room. Jarrod started to follow, but Victoria stopped him. “Give him a few minutes.”
Heath headed down the stairs and out of the house. He didn’t know where he was headed; he just
needed to be outside. He couldn’t
breath.
Audra had been waiting in the parlor, and when
she saw Heath, she called to him.
He paused and looked at her. She saw tears falling down his face before he
turned and left the house.
He didn’t remember walking there, but the next
thing he was aware of, he was in the barn.
So many emotions were running through his head. He’d just lived through two of the hardest
days of his life.
When Nick and the doctor arrived, Jarrod met
them in the foyer. “I’m sorry you’ve
had a hard ride for nothing, doctor.
The man died a little while ago.”
Jarrod saw the questions in Nick’s face, but he didn’t want to say
anything in front of the doctor.
“Don’t worry about it? I’ll just go on up and see if there’s
anything I can do to help prepare his body.
Is Victoria up there?”
Jarrod nodded his head.
“Where’s Heath?” Nick asked before the doctor
had gotten very far away.
Jarrod pulled Nick out of the house and away
from anyone’s ears. “Charlie Sawyer
confessed he lied to Heath about being his father before he died.”
Relief washed across Nick’s face.
“Well, where is he?” Nick asked again.
“I don’t know. He rushed out of the room shortly after Charlie died.”
“And you didn’t follow him?”
Jarrod raised his eyebrow at Nick.
“Ok, ok.”
Jarrod looked around. “He’s around somewhere. Charger’s still here.”
Nick turned and saw the horse. Another look of relief crossed his
face.
“I’m going back in to help Mother and Doctor
Merar,” Jarrod stated, and he patted Nick on the arm as he walked away.
Nick stood where he was and let the feelings
of relief wash over him. Suddenly he
got angry, very angry. He wanted
nothing more than to punch that little brother of his for putting him through
hell. Breathing heavy, he mounted Coco
and headed away from the ranch. He
needed some time before he faced Heath.
Heath heard someone ride out and went to the
barn door and caught a glimpse of Nick as he rode off. Spying Charger standing in front of the
house, he went and got him and walked him to the barn. He went through the motions of brushing him
after he unsaddled him. He couldn’t
feel. He couldn’t think. He felt as though he was in a haze. He felt sort of like he was standing outside
of himself seeing things happen but not feeling it. When he finished with Charger, he sat down on a hay bale.
“Heath.
Heath.”
Heath opened his eyes, and for a minute, he
didn’t know where he was.
He looked up, and saw Victoria Barkley, the
woman he’d come to think of as his mother, standing over him with a worried
look on her face.
“Heath, honey, are you all right?” She watched Heath’s face as it dawned on him
where he was and why. She saw such pain
there.
Heath nodded and started to get up.
“No, wait.
I want to talk to you for a minute.”
Again Heath nodded and settled back down.
Victoria moved to sit across from him on
another bale of hay. She took his hands
into hers, looked into his eyes and simply said, “I love you.” She saw
tears forming in his eyes. “And you
scared me like I’ve never been scared before.”
“I’m sorry.
I didn’t want to hurt you - any of you.”
“Don’t be, but I’m very worried about
you.” She hesitated - not knowing quite
how to go on. “I don’t believe you’ve
ever heard any of us say it, but Heath, you are Tom’s son. Please don’t ever doubt it. You look so much like his brother Jim it’s
uncanny, and you have so many of your father’s mannerisms which is remarkable
because you never met him. I guess none
of us ever said anything to you about these similarities because well, we never
thought of it, plus we didn’t think you had any doubts. But you must have had some, or Charlie
Sawyer could never have gotten you to believe him.”
Heath started to speak, but she put her finger
to his lips to stop him.
“I’m so sorry, Heath. We should have talked to you about these
things.”
Heath thought hard and then spoke up, “When I rode
onto the ranch that day, I was an angry, young man, and all I really had on my
mind was to attack Tom Barkley’s memory and his fine, outstanding
reputation. All I knew of him was what
I read in that newspaper column like how fine a man he was, and what a great
loss his death was.” Bitterness was
coming through in his voice. “Sorry,
sometimes I still get angry. Despite
what I said in the library about wanting a part of it all, I never expected
anything other than a boot off the ranch.
I never dreamed I’d get a family.
I suddenly had a life you read about in fairytales. Even now it’s still hard to believe it. I guess that, more than anything, is why I
believed Charlie Sawyer so readily.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I always figured it would all be taken
away from me. And then Charlie took it,
and I let him since I was already waiting for it. I don’t expect you to understand, but coming from where I’ve been
to where I am, well, it’s too good to be true.”
Softly Victoria answered. “I think I can understand that, Heath. But know this, you are a Barkley. You have been a Barkley your whole
life. I just wish...” Victoria shook
her head. There was no point in wishing.
“I’m so glad you found us,” she finished, “and I love you so very much
and not just because you’re Tom’s son, or Nick, Jarrod and Audra’s
brother. I love you for the man you
are.”
Heath looked into his mother’s eyes and
smiled.
They sat quietly next to each other for quite
awhile. Realizing that Heath was
through talking, she took his arm.
“Come on; let’s go in. I know
three people wanting to see you again.”
Heath allowed himself to be escorted to the
house. On his way out of the barn, he saw Coco in his stall.
Nick was in the house pacing. He’d seen Heath asleep in the barn, and had
thrown things around trying to wake him, but hadn’t succeeded. Then he realized Heath must have been worn
out to able to sleep through the noise he was making. Suddenly, he had compassion for what Heath must have been going
through the last couple of days. He
went to the house to get a blanket and was going to bring it back to cover him
up, but his mother stopped him. She
wanted to go out there.
He heard the front door open and whirled
around. His heart jumped when he caught
sight of his brother coming through the door.
He stomped towards him, and drew his arm back. Heath squared his shoulders to take the hit he knew he deserved. Nick stopped, then said, “Don’t ever, ever
do that to me again,” then he pulled his little brother into an embrace as
Victoria, Jarrod, and Audra looked on.
* * * * * * * *
A few days later, Nick and Jarrod rode out to
the north meadow where Heath was looking for water with a peach tree twig. And ... the rest is history.