This one, from Dukes in Danger, could as easily be gen as slash, really. Its origin was in the little warning Luke has a habit of uttering, most frequently to Bo.


After everything they've been through since yesterday, getting punched, shoved around, shot at; after thinking they might lose loved ones, the farm, each other – they're changing a tire, a simple task they've done hundreds of times, sometimes on a track with cars flying by a hundreds of miles per hour. Right now they're doing it on their own lawn after the immediate danger of the past twenty-four hours has passed, and that's when Luke says it: "Watch yourself." So quiet that only Bo hears it.

And what he means is, be careful, I'm going to shut the trunk now, and I don't want to catch your fingers. As if, after everything they've almost had happen to them (Luke caught him when Hammer threw him into the table – didn't break Bo's fall exactly, but held onto him after his landing, hands saying things he mouth didn't dare, about how Luke would never let any real harm come to him) Bo would worry about a couple of bruised fingers.

As he's setting up the jack, it comes to him, how much Luke would worry about Bo's bruised fingers. Bo might shrug them off (or try, he's not always as good as he'd like to be at ignoring pain) but Luke would stop right here, in mid-chase, to look at them, worry over them, try to fix the skin he'd broken or bruised.

There on his knees in the dirt of their front yard, with Jesse encouraging, Daisy twittering around nervously like she thinks she can help, Rosco and J.D. fussing at each other, the chickens and goats all in a fluster, and nothing to look at except the toes of Luke's boots, Bo suddenly understands.

Every time Luke says, "watch yourself," what he really means is, "I love you."

Suddenly Luke's hands are there, almost in his face. Hand me the spare, Bo. So he does that much and that little. Hands over the lug nuts, too, when that signal comes, then releases the jack. Throws it into the trunk and gets one more "watch yourself."

These guys they are about to chase down might be the most dangerous they've ever met; they could be getting ready to drive into their own death at high speed. Bo takes a second, as they're kicking up rocks in pursuit of Leeman and Hammer, to glance in the sideview mirror – and watch himself.

If he's going to die it will be with a smile on his face. Luke loves him.