Vance sighed as he drove the newly black paint car down the long since familiar Hazzard terrain. He hated doing stuff like this, but neither he nor Coy believed in telling bad news over the phone and since neither of them seemed to be able to word it properly on paper, it just left going to tell the others in person. He looked over at the normally loud blond, sitting, leaning his head against the window frame, and blankly staring out the space where the window should be.
Once they'd arrived at Aunt Bessie's farm to help out, things went good, for a few years. He and Coy would do a lot of the chores and as their cousins grew older, the work became more evenly divided. They didn't need to worry about the law as long as they obeyed it and Aunt Bessie had some of the best cooking in the entire south.
After a few months of missing the General Lee, Coy had decided that they should take a leaf out of Luke and Bo's book and restore an old car into a new racing machine. The result had been a 67' Dodge Dart, painted a black, with two thin blue racing stripes going across the sides of the car and its' name above the driver's side window. Affectionately dubbed "Hazzard" for good luck, Coy and Vance had done what they could to mirror the General for safety, doors welded shut, and such.
Indeed, once the few year long project had been finally completed, it seemed like life was almost perfect for the often forgotten Duke Cousins, but…
Uncle Albert had never gotten better. The doctor's had expected him to easily make a recovery. However, his condition rarely changed, and after being discharged from the hospital for a year, in a weakened condition, it was found he had to go right back in for some surgery. It was supposed to be a simple operation but something had gone terribly wrong and he'd died on the operating table.
After that, Aunt Bessie soon sold the farm and moved to a smaller area of land. The oldest of her children, Jordon had gotten a job at a local restaurant and Bessie herself maintained a small garden to help with food. The younger children did odd jobs for extra pay. It wasn't glamorous, but Dukes rarely minded hard work. She'd figured without her husband, there was no need to keep such a big plot of land and keep Coy and Vance working with no real end to their help in sight. Neither Coy nor Vance would've minded staying a bit longer, but decided it was best to move on if they weren't needed anymore.
That had been almost two months ago, and in all of their mourning, confusion about living arrangements and selling of the farm, news had yet to be sent to their Uncle Jesse about the whole ordeal. All of them felt awful about this and Coy and Vance had offered to go deliver the sad news and possibly look for a small place in Hazzard where they could live, not wanting to burden their Uncle.
"I wonder if they'll even be home…" Coy sighed in nothing above a whisper. Out of the two cousins, Coy had been most devastated by everything that had happened. He hadn't even felt like driving, which was odd, since Coy always felt like driving.
"Coy, I know this ain't what we'd planned to do with our lives… but, well, I mean, Uncle Albert is in a better place and we're back in Hazzard. Didn't we always say we wanted to come back here? I mean, I'm sure Bobbi-Lee still misses you." His last bit was meant as a joke, but his tone didn't change, leaving Coy to take it was a serious statement.
"I wonder how she is…" Coy replied, and Vance wasn't even sure his cousin was aware he was talking, his words were so quiet and his eyes slightly glazed over as he stared at the country side.
"Well, while we're here, I'm sure we can visit her." Vance reassured as he saw the front part of a very familiar looking car, poking out from the side of the road. There was a small speed limit sign on the road that Vance was willing to bet was going to change from 55mph to 15mph as soon as he passed it. "Oh for cryin' out loud, it's Rosco…"
This seemed to slightly interest the blond cousin who actually sat up straight, the glazed look from his eyes disappearing as he watched with interest. "Are we speeding?"
"No, but that doesn't matter to him, does it?"
"Yeah, but he doesn't know who this car belongs to, might make a difference."
It really didn't. No sooner had they passed the car, did it start following them, sirens blaring.
"Should I pull over?" Vance asked, cocking an eyebrow at his younger cousin, who was actually starting to regain some colour into his pale face. Maybe an adrenaline rush was what he needed in order to get his spirits up, even if it was only for a few minutes.
Coy seemed to mull over this for a while. "And ruin the Duke name? I think not."
Vance grinned, happy that his adrenaline junkie cousin was at least in a bit of a joking mood. Amazing what a place could do for a person. He'd been sulking since they'd left Aunt Bessie's and no, one mention of a possible race and he was almost smiling. He hadn't seen him do that in at least a month.
It made sense though, a lot of good things had happened in Hazzard for the two when they were boys. First kisses, first cars, first arrests… though it was upsetting, they could fondly remember a good few dozen times when they had been arrested… He knew it must be even weirder for Bo and Luke who had a good number more years in Hazzard than him and Coy.
"All right, let's do this partner." Vance said, with a quick salute over to his cousin, who grabbed onto the window frame in anticipation. Putting the pedal to the metal, the black and blue car was off in a shot, leaving an (as always) confused Rosco and Flash sitting in the dust.
"Did you see that Flash?" He asked the hound dog sitting in the passenger seat, safely buckled up, the shoulder strap pinning the poor dog to the seat. "Oh! Naughty, naughty, oooooh, hot pursuit! I love it, I love it!" With that he stepped down on the gas, chasing after the mysterious black car.
Coy felt the sides of his mouth threatening to twitch upwards. Now this was what Hazzard was all about. He silently thanked his older cousin, knowing in the back of his mind that Vance wasn't really in the mood for all of this, and was doing it mainly for his benefit. He looked ahead as "Hazzard" hit a small bump, launching the car four feet in the air as it flew over the bridge, to land jarringly on the other side. Coy just looked back over his shoulder, amused to see Rosco accidentally attempt and surprisingly complete the exact same stunt.
He looked over at his cousin and forced a small smile. It was all his face was willing to budge on the matter.
Vance seemed thoroughly pleased by the change (no matter how slight) in the younger man's expression. "How much you want to bet Enos is gonna be on us too?"
"Shoot, that ain't a fair bet." Coy replied, sounding more like his old self.
Sure enough, a few minutes later another patrol car began chasing them. Vance laughed a little. "They don't even know we're the ones in this car."
"Aw, Bo and Luke probably haven't gone driving yet today, they've got nothin' else to do." Coy replied, feeling a bit better the more time went on. Maybe all he needed was a thrill, he and Vance didn't have a lot of those on Aunt Bessie's farm, which was strange because a gathering of Dukes anywhere, almost always attracted every bit of trouble that it could.
Flicking on the CB, they listened in on the conversations, becoming more amused as they went on.
"Enos you dipstick!"
"I'm sorry Sheriff, I'm just sayin' they drive like the Dukes, I don't think we'll catch them."
This caused Coy to chuckled a bit and Vance felt like his heart was going to explode from the joy of seeing his baby cousin laughing and smiling, no matter how small.
"Drive like the Dukes huh?" Came the all to familiar voice of J.D. Hogg. "Well, maybe they'd be willing to help me out in my next operation."
"Fat chance." Vance replied and Coy rolled his eyes.
"Maybe it is them Dukes! Just cause it ain't the General Lee-"
"I doubt it, they actually were obeying the speed limit in the beginning…"
"Want to tell them?" Coy asked curiously, turning to Vance as he sharply turned a corner, causing the car to fishtail.
"I think it's more fun this way, don't you?"
Coy felt himself near tears as he realized how much this type of stuff was out of character for his cousin and that it was all for him. "I think I got something in my eye." He excused, wiping the back of his hand over his eyes and trying to regain his composure.
"How about we lose these fellows and head out to the farm? We can see Daisy and Uncle Jesse and-"
"General!"
"Well, him too but-"
Coy shook his head, pulling on this cousin's hair to redirect his attention to the sky to see the bright red car flying towards them. "No! General!"
In a maneuver that gave Vance a reason to be called a Duke, he slammed on the breaks, swerving the car around to barely avoid being landed on by the General Lee, and stopping while horizontal to the road. Enos and Rosco weren't as lucky and ended up driving into the ditch in order to avoid the orange car.
There was a moment of silence in the black car before Coy and Vance simultaneously burst out laughing hysterically. Whether it was because of the shock or the adrenaline rush, neither was sure, but the whole chase seemed ridiculously funny all of a sudden.
"I haven't been back in Hazzard for that long yet; I'm not used to looking for flying cars." Vance sputtered out through his laughter as Coy threw his head against the back of the seat, turning around after to make sure Rosco and Enos were okay. They were both climbing out of the vehicles, Rosco complaining about how his had been "scuffed".
"I guess we should go help them." Coy sighed as his laughter started to subside. Vance, who had recovered a bit quicker from laughing than his cousin, was already halfway out the window as his cousin said this.
Stepping down, out of the car, Coy and Vance watched in amusement as Bo and Luke were being yelled at by a very shaken Rosco who was attempting to get them to show their flying permit.
"We're sorry Rosco, how were we supposed to know you were there?" Bo retorted. "You're normally behind us, not in front of us."
Luke let out a groan as he realized Bo was probably making this worse than it actually was. "Guys, we weren't going to hit you anyways, you just had a reflex reaction seeing us and drove into the ditch."
"So you admit it was your fault!" Rosco exclaimed, turning to Enos. "Arrest these Dukes!"
"Rosco-" Bo groaned.
"I think this might have been a bit of our faults too."
Turning to face the occupants of the black vehicle, Bo and Luke's eyes widened in surprised, an identical grin spreading across their faces.
"Coy!" Luke exclaimed.
"Vance!" Bo added, then frowning as he realized they'd called out the names of their opposites…
"I'm sorry about this ya'll." Enos said before moving to handcuff Luke.
Rosco was completely thrown off by this revelation. "No! Arrest those Dukes! Err… no I mean" He amended in confusion, not sure who to blame this whole thing on. He began pointing between Coy and Vance and Bo and Luke.
Enos looked horribly confused as he walked between the cousins, not sure which ones he was supposed to arrest. "Sheriff I-"
All of the Dukes used this dilemma in order to move closer to their respective cars, knowing that since the patrol cars were all in the ditch, they could easily get away. Eventually Rosco just gave up.
"Know what? Just arrest all them Dukes, I'll figure this out later…"
That was the word, and all four of the Dukes bolted towards their cars, hopping in through the windows. Engines roaring and tires squealing, "Hazzard" and "General Lee" drove off towards the Duke Farm, leaving a very confused deputy, a mad Sheriff and a very put out dog who had found a way to unclick her seatbelt and had wondered to Rosco's feet in hopes of some of the "doggy num-nums" he was always promising.
Coy followed carefully behind the bright orange car, having accidentally gone in through the driver's window, out of plain old habit and then having to drive to get away from Rosco. But it didn't really matter now, following Bo's course of driving back to the farm was enough to keep his mind preoccupied, making him almost forget the real reason he and Vance were there.
Meanwhile, Luke was on the CB, trying to raise Uncle Jesse or Daisy.
"Lost Sheep calling Sheppard or Bo Peep, come back."
It was a moment later the sweet voice of their cousin Daisy responded. "Lost Sheep, this is Bo Peep. Did you figure out where Rosco was?"
"Chasing a car for speeding, and surprisingly, it wasn't ours." Luke joked back. "You'll never believe who it was though."
"Who?"
"It's a surprise." Luke explained. "Just set two extra places for lunch."
"You got it sugar, Bo Peep out."
Vance and Coy listened to the exchange over their CB. Vance looked over at Coy sadly. Now they'd have to face Uncle Jesse and Daisy and explain the whole reason they were back in Hazzard.
A few minutes later, both cars came roaring onto the Duke's Farm, coming to a stop outside the house. Both Daisy and Uncle Jesse were setting the picnic table up for lunch, with two extra placings as requested. They watched the black car curiously, never having seen it before.
A minute later Bo and Luke climbed out of their car, while Vance and Coy got out of theirs. Daisy and Jesse's eyes went wide.
"Coy and Vance Duke, what are you doing saying hello to Rosco before me and Uncle Jesse?" Daisy demanded in mock anger, flinging her arms wide for a hug.
"Well we didn't intend to do that." Vance replied, embracing her briefly, before Coy hugged her from the other side. They then proceeded to Uncle Jesse.
"What are you boys doing here?" Jesse asked. "Why didn't you call?"
Coy swallowed nervously, looking over at Vance.
"Let's eat first." Vance suggested. "We'll explain after."
Lunch consisted of sandwiches Daisy had made, lemonade, and to finish off, an apple pie, baked by Jesse himself. They made small talk over lunch, mainly over Coy and Vance's new car and they're unofficial welcome back from Enos and Rosco. There was some talk of Jordon and Aunt Bessie, but Coy and Vance attempted to stay away from Uncle Albert's health, at least until they finished the wonderful lunch Daisy had made them, but the subject came up much earlier than either of the new arrivals wanted it to.
"So how's Albert? Is he any better?" Jesse asked while taking a sip from his lemonade.
Coy looked down and Vance couldn't bring himself to meet anyone's eyes. "That's kind of why we're here." Coy explained awkwardly. "Um… Uncle Albert… he-" He stopped and placed his hand on his forehead, unable to finish what he was trying to say.
"Passed away a few months ago." Vance finished, seeing how his cousin was struggling. He paused as he allowed this information to sink in. Bo, Luke and Daisy looked shocked, but Jesse looked the most upset. Reluctantly he continued with the story. "Aunt Bessie sold the farm and her and the kids are living on a smaller bit of land. Jordon's started working to help out around the house. She insisted Coy an' I move on, saying she didn't need our help around without the whole chores of farming… We've got a bit of money saved up, we were hoping to find a place in Hazzard-"
"You can stay here." Bo offered then realized, it probably wasn't his place to be offering the farm as a home, but this was different. These guys were family.
"Sure." Jesse quickly agreed.
"Well, thank you." Coy said. "But it'll just be for a little while until we-"
"Nonsense! You're Dukes!" Jesse protested. "You'll live here. You two can have the guest room that we've got for when J.D. decides he wants to hide out here. It's small and you'll have to share, but we've been looking to build an extension anyways-"
"Really?" Coy asked curiously. He'd love it if they could live back on the farm, but part of him was telling himself he shouldn't be a burden. "You don't have to-"
"Really, the amount of work you guys will get done around here is worth spending the money." Jesse insisted and Coy and Vance looked at each other, realizing that his mind was made up and they were going to be staying here whether they liked it or not.
Jesse finished off his lemonade. "Do you have Bessie's new phone number? I really ought to send my condolences."
"Yeah, come on." Vance said as led Uncle Jesse over to the black car and began searching through the glove compartment. He eventually pulled out a small white piece of paper with the number scribbled on it.
"I'm so sorry Coy." Daisy sighed, She, Bo and Luke really didn't know Bessie and Albert, but if Coy and Vance had lived with them for so long helping out, obviously this was a tough for two of her cousins.
There was a sad silence that hung over them and Luke felt the need to break it.
Luke grinned. "Hey, welcome back, sorry about almost landing on yah."
Coy smiled sadly in return. "It's all right, keeps Vance sharp anyways." Bo looked as if he was going to burst out laughing. "What?"
"This girl named Bobbi-Lee keeps following me around and asking if I know you every time I'm in her neck of the woods. Do you happen to know who she is?"
Coy flushed. "I pulled her out of quicksand when you guys were on the NASCAR circuit; I had to give her my shirt so she had something to wear. She was kind of sweet on me after words and kept trying to ask me out."
"A little young for you ain't she?"
Coy was so embarrassed by this. "Yeah, she is, but don't tell her that, she'll get pretty upset."
Daisy smiled softly as she realized how easily Bo and Luke were cheering their cousin up. "Come on Coy, I'll help you get settled in. You got any luggage?"
Coy nodded. "Yeah, it's in the car, I'll go get it."
Bo and Luke watched in amusement as Coy went over, grabbed Vance by the arm and went to get their luggage out of the trunk.
Vance grinned. "Happy to be home?" He asked his enthusiastic cousin.
Coy looked at him sincerely. "More than you can ever imagine." He then added cheekily. "I just really wish I could see Boss's face when he realizes there are five of us now!"
That was much longer than I intended to write, but it was so much fun to write and I love how it turned out. So all you Coy and Vance fans (all like, five of us) enjoy.These guys don't get enough fan fiction, so I'm doing my best to help out.
Please Review.