Some of these were easier to find inspiration for than other. This one, from Sittin' Dukes, wasn't exactly a cinch. It all hinged on how Luke seemed just a little off toward the end of the episode. Luke's clearly not himself during the final chase scene. Bo looks to him for the plan, like always, and Luke snaps "Ain't you got any ideas?"
Luke's not sleeping. He might have been dozing a while back, seemed like he was settling down, but now it's not even close. The rhythm of the breathing on his side of the room is all wrong, and there's no way Bo can get any rest if Luke's going to be sighing like that.
"Go to sleep, Luke," he moans. Feels justified; it's been one heck of a hard day, starting with guns in their faces and odd demands of fealty, followed by chauffeuring two loons and a cricket (could have been the only one that deserved to live was that cricket) through a forest fire, and ending with maybe the most satisfying bust they've ever been a part of. Of course, there were a few revelations in between.
"Go to sleep, yourself." Well, that was mature. And remarkably uncreative for Luke Duke. Come to think of it, Luke's been off his game for hours now, and Bo can't quite work out where it started. He should probably ask Luke about it, but he falls asleep on that thought.
Morning chores stutter and stumble a few times; Luke's not doing his part. Bo tries to take up the slack for him, but there's a reason they usually divide them the way they do. Somewhere around his third try at splitting the same log Bo reckons it's time to start last night's leftover conversation with Luke, who is utterly failing to get the newest kid to settle down and suckle from the bottle in his hand. Then again, he still has no idea how to broach the subject, and before he figures it out, Luke's moved on tinkering with the tractor.
Long about the time they've been wandering the cotton crop for an hour, turning over leaves and checking for signs of weevils, Bo finally manages to get his mouth open.
"So, seeing Benson must have been strange."
Luke's looking at him like maybe he's got an infestation of those weevils in his brain. Bo wouldn't mind the insinuation – he gets something like it every day – except that he's worked so hard on coming up with something to say.
"Well, it must have been!" he snaps.
"I suppose." Luke's full concentration is back on the leaf in front of him. Fascinating thing, bearing no sign of any type of pest.
"Luke." He'd be nicer about this if it made any sense at all to be. But it's not like his cousin has any idea what to do with nice. "You might as well admit it was… something. You ain't been right since we drove through that forest fire." Somewhere around there, anyway. He really remembers noticing it a little later, some time after the hijacked car and the fainting driver, when they were chasing down Benson and Hixx.
"What're we gonna do if we catch them?" It was the kind of question Bo asked every day. He had no reason to expect the answer he got.
"I don't know, ain't you got any ideas?" What? Since when did he ever have to come up with a plan?
Luke's about as forthcoming with ideas now as he was then.
"What's eating at you?" It's something Jesse would ask, and he'd get an answer, too. Bo gets silence. "Luke? Was it talking about that guy Benson killed?" Must've been someone Luke knew well, sounded like maybe Luke had witnessed some part of the violence.
"Leave it alone, Bo." Don't play with big boy toys, you could get hurt. There are things you weren't meant to understand…
"No." Could have come out with smarter words, but intelligence is overrated anyway. Most of the time fixing things is in the doing, not the thinking. "I got a right to know." I've got a right to know who else might show up with a gun in his hand and revenge on his mind. Which was a better point than that other nagging thing: I've got a right to know all the things you never wanted to tell me. I'm tired of not knowing what those years of your life were like.
Luke's stalking down the next row of cotton, and Bo's considering pulling out the big guns and threatening to get Jesse involved. The old-timer would do it in a heartbeat, too.
Must be one of those mind-reading moments, because Luke stops and shakes his head, like Bo's such a tattle-tale, but fine.
"It ain't had nothing to do with Benson," Luke tells him, and Bo doesn't believe that for a second. Makes his best skeptical face in Luke's general direction, but his cousin's probably too far away to see the fine details, so Bo steps nearer to him. "Exactly." Luke amends.
Well, this sidling closer thing seems to be working in his favor, so Bo gets right up close and personal.
"Exactly," he asks, "what was it, then?" His arm's around Luke now. There's some risk he could come away with a couple fewer fingers than he started with; then again, such a thing has never happened yet.
"It was looking at you in the middle of the road, playing hurt." Luke shrugs and studies the leaves with a deep concentration. They are truly fascinating things. "With Hixx's hands on you. I didn't like it."
"Shoot, Luke, you knew I was fine." It isn't like his cousin is one to let his imagination run away with him – ever really.
He gets shrugged all the way off for that observation; Luke's moving away again. "Yeah, I knew you wasn't really hurt," he admits.
Well, if it wasn't the playing hurt that got to him it must have been that other thing Luke just said, the part about… "You didn't like Hixx touching me?"
Luke's picked another leaf to study. Pretty soon he'll be sitting on a street corner selling his leaf-reading skills. "I don't like nobody touching you, Bo."
A body would think it's some kind of sin-confessing that Luke's engaged in, the way he's looking down so hard. He's moved on from staring at leaves to studying on the ridges in his own fingers.
Interesting idea, Luke being ashamed of feeling that way. Bo's only known it to be true for his entire life, what with the way Luke's taken down half the town at one time or another for touching Bo.
He must have been silent too long, eventually Luke looks up at him. For all that his cousin's eyes are so dang blue, the color in Bo's mind is green. Luke's not angry, he's…
"I didn't want him touching me." It seems only right to make sure Luke knows this. "I wouldn't've let him, if Benson wasn't holding that gun on you."
Luke nods and goes back to the serious contemplation of fingers and leaves. Bo figures they need to be a lot closer together now. He gives it a try; Luke seems like he's going to hold still. Bo puts an arm around him again, squeezing his shoulder about a half a dozen times. His mouth is dry and his heart's hopping around in his chest like a rabbit in heat.
"I don't reckon I want anybody else touching me, Luke." Except you.
"I don't reckon I want anyone else touching you neither," Luke echoes, looking up at him again. Stays that way, staring, until Bo moves close enough that he ought to go cross-eyed. Closes his eyes instead and accepts the kiss when it comes.