Title: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Duke Alt Ending
Author: Numb3rsfan
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Violence, H/C. Tissue Warning.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes. This fic was made for the entertainment of the reader.
Summary: What if Luke had actually shot Bo before Bo could kick the gun away? What then?
Authors Notes: Alright, I know this has probably been done before, and this fic might seem similar to another, but I hope not. Please R&R.
This picks up when Luke climbs out of the General with the gun in his hands…..
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Seeing that his new friends were in trouble, Luke tightened the grip on the gun before climbing out of the General to face his cousin, who was approaching him with a slightly calm, slightly angry look to his face.
But, at that moment, Luke could care less how his cousin looked. Luke only saw Bo as an obstacle, an obstacle that he had to get past or beat down no matter what.
Swiftly Luke pointed the gun at his cousin and cocked it, resting his finger on the trigger.
Bo saw this and inwardly gulped. He prayed that the vial of genetic gunk that Luke had ingested would wear off before Luke did something stupid, like pull the trigger on that gun.
"Hold it right there Bo." Luke said in the most 'friendly' tone he could muster.
Deep down he was madder than a wet hen that Bo kept butting his nose into Luke's business time and again. Luke wished that he could pull the trigger, but something deep down told him to give Bo one more chance to leave.
"Luke, you don't want to use that gun on me." Bo said almost as if he really believed that, but in the past 24 hours, despite the fact that Bo knew Luke had ingested the genetic stuff, Bo had a feeling that Luke was quite capable of using that gun on anyone..including his little cousin.
"Ah, you're dead wrong about that." Luke replied with a sinister grin crossing his face.
"If I don't put a stop to this stuff right here and now you're gonna wind up spendin' the rest of your days behind bars. I really don't think you want to do that." Bo shot back, as he took a step closer to Luke.
Luke acted like he had been trained to do in the Marines. Squeezing the trigger, Luke watched with satisfaction as Bo dropped to the ground clutching his chest.
"I guess that'll teach you to leave me the heck alone, Bo!" Luke replied before he pocketed the gun, hopped back in the General and roared away.
Enos, who had heard the gunshot, had looked back in time to see Bo drop and Luke jump in the General and roar off with the paper money in the back.
Quickly cuffing Luke's 'friends', Enos jumped out of his patrol car and ran over to Bo.
"Oh my Lordie mercy Bo!" Enos said as he looked over his friend as the blood blossomed over Bo's yellow shirt. Bo's hands which were sticky and red with blood were vainly trying to keep pressure on the wound.
" /Cough/ Enos. /cough cough/ Luke…f..follow em'. Stuff should…wear…wear off…soon." Bo said in between grimaces of pain.
"Bo, I sure can't leave you here alone." Enos replied.
"E..Enos please!" Bo begged.
Enos saw the look on Bo's paling face and knew that he had to comply with Bo's request.
"Alright Bo. Listen I'm be back, ya' hear?" Enos replied with a nod of his head before he rose up, dashed back to his patrol car and took off in hot pursuit of Luke.
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Luke was driving down the road, already a mile away when all of a sudden everything around him grew dark, then bright then started to swim.
Shaking his head and blinking several times, Luke was forced to stop and wait until the feeling passed.
When the lightheadedness faded, the memories of what had happened just two minuets ago resurfaced in Luke's mind with a vengeance, and since Luke was back to himself, he was horrified at what he had done, to his baby cousin of all people!
Swiftly Luke jerked the General around and was about to punch it when Enos car came in to view and stopped right in front of the General.
Knowing that Bo didn't have the time to wait, Luke poked his head out of the window and yelled, "ENOS WOULD YA MOVE?! I GOTTA GET BACK TO BO!"
"Sure thing Luke, Bo wanted me to go get'cha anyway." Enos replied as he threw his police car in to reverse and backed away from the General, giving Luke enough room to proceed, which Luke did.
Flooring the General, Luke rocketed ahead and back down the road, praying that what he found on the road wasn't a corpse.
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Bo lay on the road trying to breathe as best he could. As he kept the pressure on the wound as best he could, Bo guessed it was doing little to help since he was now beginning to taste blood in his mouth as well.
As he listened to the birds chirping and the wind whistling through the trees, Bo began to notice that he was well and truly alone. Even Luke was gone from him now, and if Enos didn't hurry and convince Luke to come back, Luke would be gone from Bo forever.
That's what scared Bo the most. Having to die on the roadside so completely and honestly alone, with no one, not even Luke, his cousin, his best bud, his brother around.
Tears of pain and sorrow fell down Bo's cheeks as all he heard were the continuing sounds of the Hazzard wood, and not the welcoming roar of the General's powerful engine.
"Oh Luke…I…" Bo mumbled as breathing became harder and harder.
Bo knew he had to hold on, but he could tell that the world around him was slowly going dark.
Taking a leap of faith, Bo took one bloody hand away from his wound and slowly dug through his dirty jean pocket, looking for his wallet,which he thankfully hadn't stowed away in his back pocket like he usually did.
Feeling the worn leather underneath his fingertips, Bo painfully dug it out, and one handedly, opened it up.
By feel and memory, Bo chose one of three pictures he kept in the wallet, and slowly drew the picture up so he could see it.
The picture was one of him and Luke standing side-by-side with a bow and arrow at the ready.
Each of them had a goofy smile on their faces, like they had just won the Daytona 500 or something major like that, but nope, that smile, like so many others, was genuine. It was a love shared between one cousin and another.
A love that surpassed any and every test, be it a test of friendship, heartache, family, the good times or the bad. The love that Bo and Luke had for each other surpassed them all.
To Bo, it was a shame that Luke could have thrown it away over money.
Little did Bo know that the drug had worn off, and Luke was racing back to Bo, instead of taking off like Bo thought he had.
Dimly Bo heard something powerful approaching in the distance. Not having the strength to lift his head, Bo could only lay there and wait.
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Seeing Bo's wounded body up ahead, Luke swallowed guiltily before bringing the General to a screeching halt.
Climbing out, Luke stood there beside the car for one precious second; just staring at Bo's damaged and hurt body. Damage and hurt that Luke had deliberately caused on account of that stuff he had ingested the other day.
When the second passed, Luke took off running before dropping to the ground and sliding to a stop beside his cousin.
"Bo..BO?!" Luke called, fearing the worst. Fearing that Bo had died before Luke could reach him.
Slowly Bo opened his baby blue's and looked at Luke with his tired blue eyes which were filled with pain.
"Oh Bo..I.." Luke began, not even sure how to begin to apologize to his cousin, but Bo understood, like the good man he was, he knew what Luke was trying to say.
"S'ok…luke." Bo whispered through dry, bloody lips.
Taking one look at Bo's mouth, Luke knew that his cousin was bleeding internally. There was no other way to account for the blood covering Bo's teeth and lips, and which was now beginning to run freely down's Bo's mouth.
"No Bo, it's not ok. I shot you." Luke said, breaking down and letting the tears of pain and guilt fall as he watched his baby cousin dying because of a wound he himself had caused. To Luke, there was no way around it. He had killed his baby cousin.
"I..forgive…luke." Bo muttered in between gasps for breath.
Luke was deeply touched by Bo's words and his act of forgiveness.
Reaching down, Luke picked up one of Bo's bloody hands and held it, not caring how it made him look.
"Bo..I..I can't go on. Not without you. I know I may not say it a lot but…I need you Bo. I need you there with me. I love you Bo." Luke said as the tears slid down his cheeks.
Bo, for his part, gave Luke a small smile as he put the picture he was still holding, down and weakly raised a hand and tapped Luke's chest, right above his heart.
"I'm always gonna' be there for ya, cousin…. Right there.. in yer heart. I ain't…. gonna leave ya. Ya can't… get rid of me …that easily, Luke." Bo joked as he dropped his hand back down and weakly picked the picture back up and held it as tightly as he could.
Nodding his head, Luke couldn't stop his jaw from quivering and his sorrowful gasp for air as he struggled to get his emotions back under control.
"Jus' remember..something. I..I always have…an always..will…love you as a brother..Luke. You..you were more than just a cousin...you were my brother. Also…never forget that…I'll always be there…with ya..Luke…every…every step of the way." Bo whispered.
Swallowing his grief, Luke said, "I know, Bo." Before he watched Bo's blue eyes slowly close. Two seconds later Bo's head tilted to the side and the hand Luke had been holding went limp and slipped from his grasp, landing on the dirt road with an audible thwap.
Bowing his head over his cousin's body, Luke finally opened the floodgates of his grief and didn't try to stop the tears as they came rushing out of his eyes to mix with the drying ones on his face and on Bo's clothes.
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Right underneath the ol' oak tree, which stood right in the middle of the Duke Farm, stood three people. Jesse Duke, Daisy Duke and Luke Duke.
All three of them were standing, staring down at the lone headstone and fresh mound of dirt.
Again and again Luke read the tombstone, almost as if it were a bad nightmare come true.
'HERE LIES BO DUKE. A BELOVED NEPHEW, COUSIN AND BROTHER. MAY HE REST IN PEACE.'
Underneath those words were Bo's birth date and the day of his death.
Bo had been buried in his tight blue shirt with his favorite yellow shirt over that. Blue jeans, boots and his belt. Also clutched in his limp hands was the picture of him and Luke that he had been holding on to when he died.
Luke had found it when Jesse and Daisy had pulled up to discover him crying over Bo's dead form.
Jesse and Daisy had both been shocked when they found Bo dead, but they had nearly collapsed when Luke admitted that he had been the one to pull the trigger. He had ended his baby cousin's life like it was nothing.
Now, two days later, Daisy and Jesse had both forgiven Luke for what he had done, but Luke hadn't forgiven himself.
As Jesse and Daisy stepped back, and turned towards the farm, with Daisy leaning on Jesse for support, Luke straightened, bent down and picked up Bo's bow and arrow set.
When they had gotten them, both sets had looked exactly alike, so agreeing with what their Uncle Jesse had said, both Bo and Luke had carved their initials on the handle of the bow.
Now Luke lovingly and wistfully ran a finger over those initials before walking over to the mound of dirt and laying the wooden bow and arrow set on it.
Bo's second bow and arrow set, the metal set that Luke had given Bo for his 15'th birthday now rested in a place of honor right above Luke's bed, along with a few of Bo's more personal things that Luke would always cherish.
Placing a hand on the dried, red Duke family dirt, Luke looked down at it and said, "You said that you're always gonna be there with me Bo. Always buddy…always. I'll never forget anything about you Bo."
Luke stopped speaking when he felt his jaw quiver. He stopped long enough to get his feelings back under control.
"Man, why'd you have to die Bo? Why couldn't I have stopped? It's all my fault, and now you're lying there in that grave because of my mistake. You had to suffer the consequences of my actions. It's just not fair. Why couldn't I have died?! Why'd it have to be you Bo, why?" Luke said, before grief overtook him again and he collapsed down beside the mound of dirt, crying his eyes out.
"Aww now Luke. You know I can't stand to see a grown man cry." A familiar voice said from all around him. Not even daring to breathe, Luke jumped slightly when he felt two hands wrap themselves around his shoulders and help him to stand.
Slowly Luke lifted his tear stained eyes and fixed his eyes on the glowing image of Bo Duke!
Sniffling back the tears that still threatened to come, all Luke could do was stand there staring.
"Luke, I don't want you to blame yourself for what happened. I sure don't blame you for what you did. It was an accident. I see it that way and I sure hope you will too." Bo said as he held on to Luke, letting his older cousin cling to HIM for once.
"How can you be alive Bo? I..I saw you die." Luke said, never loosening his grip on Bo's yellow shirt.
"My body is dead, Luke. But my spirit, the essence of the man you know as Bo Duke, came back to help you move past this point in your life." Bo replied.
"I don't know if I can..Bo." Luke replied sadly.
"You must Luke. Despite this hurt that you have suffered, you have to hold on, because soon you are going to be needed. You have a bright future ahead of you Luke."
"Do I?" Luke asked.
"Trust me Luke," Bo replied, "I don't blame you for pulling the trigger, and you shouldn't blame yourself."
Luke looked down at the ground, not willing to meet Bo's gaze.
Seeing this, Bo used one hand to lift Luke's chin.
"I forgive you for killing me Luke. Now you need to forgive yourself. I'm not saying that it's gonna be easy for you, but even if I'm not here with you physically every day, I'll be with you in here." Bo said, tapping Luke's chest, reinforcing his message that he had told Luke when he died.
Nodding his head, more of in honor of Bo's words than anything else, Luke watched Bo's spirit fade away as Bo's words echoed through Luke's mind.
'I forgive you.'
Heaving a huge sigh, Luke wiped the tears out of his eyes, took one last, long look at the headstone and dirt mound, before turning and heading back to the farmhouse.
As he walked he felt his spirit's lift as he mulled over Bo's words and found himself able to forgive himself for killing his cousin.
It wasn't easy, in fact it was downright painful, and Luke found himself almost wanting to slip in to depression, but if Bo's words were true, which they usually were, Luke was going to be needed soon, by his family and perhaps others in the near future.
Stopping at the front door to the farmhouse, Luke turned back and looked at the gravesite one last time and for the first time in two days, offered one small genuine smile towards his cousin, before turning and heading inside to be with his Uncle Jesse and Daisy in the Duke family's time of grief.
THE END.