A/N: Hey all! New Chirstmas Dukes story for you as challenged to me by my very own mother...who doesn't even really love dukes...wow... lol. Anyway hope you enjoy, lets get started. Anyone got any one shots they want to write quickly before christmas? I got a couple of full length challenges i'm working on but any one shots people want me to write are welcomed. :-)
Read and Review!
Bo whistled joyously as he hung the Christmas decorations in the living room with Luke, not being able to stop glancing over at his older cousin every few seconds. This was Luke's first Christmas back home after 4 long, hard years of war in Vietnam, 4 Christmases where he had been dodging bullet's and bombs and watching the members of his platoon dying in pools of blood in some forgotten forest somewhere in the mass battlefield.
In all the years that they had been living with Uncle Jesse and going to church, Bo doubted, as did any other member of his family, that they had ever believed in God harder than over the past 4 years. To have Luke home after everything he had been forced to go through, everything he was still suffering in nightmares and funny turns, was a complete miracle. It was the best Christmas present that any of them could ever have hoped for.
Luke smiled and stepped back to look at their handy work, glancing to Bo as his younger cousin's long arm draped over his shoulder lazily but carefully, grinning widely with the same childish glint in his eye that Luke could always remember being there. With a nod, Luke patted Bo's back and started packing away the boxes, only to find himself suddenly on his knees as long fingers worked their way into his sides and he was shaking with laughter, twisting to try and get away as they tickled him mercilessly, Bo's laughter ringing through his ears.
And that was the site that Jesse and Daisy walked through the door to. Empty boxes scattered around the brightly decorated, glistening room with his two boys wrestling on the floor; both in peels of laughter as they tickled and grappled with each other. At first, Jesse was intent on stepping in, knowing Luke was still not back up to par completely on the health side to things…until he was stopped by Daisy's gentle hand on his arm, shaking her head. Luke was a grown man now, he knew as Bo did, when things were getting too out of hand and he needed to stop. For now, Luke needed this connection to his past with Bo to re-build their still slightly shaky relationship, to cheer him up and really get him into the Christmas spirit that he just didn't seem to be feeling.
As expected, it wasn't long before Luke broke away panting and chuckling still as he shook his head at Bo and signalled him to stop as he caught his breath, something Bo complied with instantly as he too sat up straight and did the same…still with the same cheeky grin as he patted Luke's back gently and stood up, helping him to his feet before heading out to do his chores.
It was with that sudden reality though, that Luke's cheerful demeanour fell slightly before he could catch it and he wished more than anything that he could follow Bo out there and do the evening chores as before. But Uncle Jesse still insisted on keeping him rested up, and even though he knew that it was the best thing for him to do as his feet still weren't healed, not by a long shot and neither were his ribs really although they were a lot better than they had been when he had first come home nearly 2 months before…it just frustrated him. All he wanted was his life back, and 'Nam was still taking that away from him.
But, the gloomy thoughts could not be kept for long as Daisy soon replaced Bo at his side and dragged him into the kitchen to help her with the dinner….well…actually just to talk to her while she made the dinner. 'Nam hadn't improved Luke's cooking skills one iota and while she would always appreciate his help, even he knew no one wanted burned food. And so, he would sit there and banter with her, tell jokes and hear some more of the tales of what Daisy and Bo had been up to while he was away,
And yet somehow, when in the previous years nothing had been better than to hear those stories…this year he couldn't contribute with his own because none of his past 4 Christmases had been worth mentioning. How could you dampen the spirit that the other people in the house had by telling them he had been sitting in a shell hole in the middle of a field with his dying friend that first Christmas…how could he tell them that he had been laying in a hospital bed with a bullet wound through his shoulder the second Christmas…how could he tell them in those 4 Christmases, he had seen more people die than he cared to count.
He soon found that he had missed completely what Daisy had been saying, and only tuned back in when he heard her calling his name. She was used to this, Luke suddenly tuning out of conversations…but what she wasn't prepared for was the haunted look in his eyes as he looked up to her startled. It had been there ever since he had come home, but now it was so much more pronounced that the dark circles that were only just starting to fade made him look so weary and showed his tortured young soul once more.
She swallowed as he looked away again and stood up, mumbling his apologies as he walked past her and out the door, crossing to the fence that overlooked the vast stretch of land that the Duke family owned, known to them as the Back Forties. He closed his eyes as he heard the rustling of the trees, hoping to find some inner peace and hear the soft words repeated from the bible by his Uncle Jesse or the local Hazzard preacher to soothe his troubled mind.
But as had happened back in 'Nam after the second year running of bombs, bullets and bloodshed, he found that he just couldn't bring himself to recall them…he found that his mind just wouldn't let him keep clinging to something that he no longer truly believed in. He had heard when he went out of men that lost all faith in the God they had strongly believed in when they went away and he had sworn that it would never happen to him. But even the strongest of men can crack under the pressure and the sights of war and cracked Luke had.
He could remember how it had happened too….he had been running back to base with a group of other Marine's through an ambush of Vietcong, praying desperately for all of them to get through it and make it back safe after the hell they had just been a part of only hours before. For a while it looked like his prayers were answered as one by one, each Marine ran out of the forest ambush and made it back to base. All…but the youngest of the platoon…a kid barely older than his 15 year old cousin Bo.
He watched helplessly as the young man's eyes widened in shock and pain as a sniper hit caught him in the back, watched as he fell to his knees, in Luke's head at least, in slow motion. He had immediately, despite the shouts and protests of the other members of his group, ran back out there to get to him, firing shots in the direction that the sniper shot had come from and feeling extremely satisfied when he heard a distant thud of a body falling from a height somewhere around that area. By the time he reached the young man however, he knew it was too late. The pool of dark red, almost purple blood around the weakening, trembling body made his breath hitch in his throat as he could so clearly see Bo dying there instead of this young man.
With no regard to his own safety, Luke had dropped down beside the body and cradled the young man's head as he slipped away, promising to fulfil his dying requests to let his family know what had happened, even if it was just by letter. He held the shaking young man's hand tight as he drew his last agonised breath, before the gurgle of his blood filled lungs filled the air and the youthful brown eyes lost all light as they rolled into the back of his head.
Luke had stayed out there for a short while, unaware of all the bullet's that were whizzing narrowly by his own ears, as he looked up at the dark grey sky, seeing planes piercing through the ominous dreary clouds. But his thoughts no longer remained on where he was, only on throwing as many insults as he could to the supposed God that had abandoned them.
It took a long while for him to actually realize where he was again, only being jerked out of his reverie as a hand touched his shoulder and he was met but the sight of his Corporal's face. He swallowed as he saw the small, reassuring smile and felt the hand pull him and the body he cradled in his arms, to his feet, helping him to stay covered in his dazed and helplessly lost state and safely back to base.
After that, Luke couldn't remember what had happened. The next thing he could remember was waking up in the Infirmary, no wounds, but being told he was recovering from a severe case of shock. He took the short time that he had off to write the heartfelt letter of condolence to the young man's family, finding his own tears finally sliding down his cheeks as he did.
He was one of the few of his original group to live to make it back to see another Christmas with his family…and back then, he would have given his own life if it meant he could have saved the young man and given him the Christmases he so deserved.
Luke never revealed his feelings to his Uncle or Cousins, not knowing and not really wanting to find out how they would react. He forced himself to go to church with them on a Sunday, where he still heard prayers for other soldier's safe return. He knew some of them were still locked away in the hidden POW camps and that he was very lucky to be in one of the ones that had been liberated at the very end of the war. But still he found himself wondering, as his mind drifted from the sermons, how a God that was supposed to be great enough to be worshiped by millions of people all over the world, could abandoned the human beings he had created to such an awful fate.
Luke jumped sharply and spun round as he felt a hand on his shoulder, instantly defensive in a reflex that he had yet to learn how to stop happening, but relaxed slightly as he found it only to be Bo, who had come to him to make sure he was okay. Suddenly, Luke found that it was very very hard to look at his youngest cousin, so innocent with a naivety that he wished he still had. Because Luke had been to war, it meant that the chances of Bo now being called up for another were very unlikely, and his heart and head agreed that even after everything, he was very glad he had been called up if it meant he could preserve that innocence in Bo he had lost and allow him the life he wished he still had in Hazzard for just that little bit longer. He knew one day, Bo would learn of what had happened in 'Nam from other people, possibly even Luke when he felt brave enough to tell him, but until then Luke was determined to protect Bo from those horrors as much as possible.
Bo never said a word as he regarded his oldest cousin, noticing the slight glimmer of tears that could not be shed in his eyes and the mental anguish that had returned in the facial expressions. Opening his arms, he pulled Luke into a comforting hug, knowing that it was probably the last thing Luke wanted, having never been one of showing any public display's of affection but still doing so all the same. Little did he know, that at that moment, Luke wouldn't have cared if the whole US Marine Corps was watching. He felt safe in his younger cousin's arms, reminded him that he was back with people who cared and would protect him if he so needed it.
Luke lost track of how long they stayed like that, what could have only been a few brief minutes seemed like an eternity that he didn't want to let go of. But eventually, they did break away and he sighed as he saw Bo's gentle smile. He nodded and smiled slightly back, patting Bo's back by way of non-verbal thanks before heading back to the farm house with him to join back in with the celebrations in a way that only Bo knew how to stir in him.
But before he could reach the front door, he turned as the sound of a car reached his ears and saw Rosco's patrol car pull to a stop. Forcing a smile onto his face, he stepped forward…only to be met by a grim expression and a soft tone.
"Luke…there's uh…there's something I need to tell you…"
