Train Wreck by: Vinsmouse Rating: T Warnings: Angst; Character Death(not a main character)

I want to thank Lynn and Jade for their help and suggestions.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes of Hazzard, making no money just cheap thrills.

Ever wonder why Luke joined the Marines?

Train Wreck

Eighteen year old Luke Duke was having a great time as he drove the back roads of Hazzard with his buddies, celebrating their graduation.
Earlier that day they had attended their graduation ceremony, enjoying the looks of pride from their parents and looks of envy from younger siblings, or cousins. Now they were just out driving around, whooping and hollering and generally letting off steam, six of them in Chet Allen's old station wagon, given to him by his parents for graduation. Chet was at the wheel with Danny Russell sitting next to him and Luke next to the passenger door, in the back seat sat the Lawson boys, twins Joe and Jerry and their cousin Tim. All six boys were good friends, having known each other all their lives. They were having a last hurrah before entering adulthood, but when Joe brought out a jar of shine Luke began to get a bad feeling.

Ever since he was little Luke could remember Uncle Jesse talking about the stupidity of drinking and driving. They might make moonshine and drive fast when trying to outrun the revenuers, but that didn't mean the two mixed worth a dang. Luke was well aware of the dangers, having lost his parents to a drunk driver when he was just a little boy and he wanted no part of this, but he didn't want his friends to think he was a wimp either. As the jar was passed around the car and he saw Chet taking a drink Luke decided he didn't much care what they thought, he only knew he didn't want to be in this car anymore.

"Hey Chet, could you take me home?"

"Home? Come on Luke why would you want to go home, we're having fun,
ain't you having a good time Luke?" Chet asked, his words beginning to slur a little.

"Look Chet I don't want to drive around anymore that's all, now are ya gonna take me home or not?" Luke snapped, just wanting to get out of this car before something bad happened.

"No I won't, your place is a couple miles in the wrong direction and we ain't ready to stop having fun." Chet said, as he sneered at Luke in disgust.

"Fine then just let me out here and I'll walk home."

Pulling over angrily Chet barely stopped long enough for Luke to jump out of the car, before pealing out, throwing gravel in the air.
As Luke began to walk towards home he heard a train begin to blow it's whistle in warning, it hit him suddenly who the engineer was trying to warn and he turned, running towards the tracks. The sounds of tearing,
screeching metal reached his ears mixed in with the screams of his friends. Coming around the curve in the road he could see the wreckage of Chet's car a quarter of a mile down the tracks, where the train had carried it. Luke stopped in his tracks, unable to go on as he stared at the car,
knowing nobody could have survived that and he began to shake as he realized just how close he had come to dying.

Luke was still standing in the same spot twenty minutes later when Rosco pulled up in his patrol car, followed by an ambulance and Dr. Appleby who had heard the call on his cb and came to see if there were any survivors.

"Luke, what are you doing here? Did you see what happened?" Rosco asked,
confused, why was the Duke boy here?

When Luke didn't answer Rosco tried again, still receiving no answer he noticed for the first time that Luke was shaking and staring off into space. Calling the doctor over to take care of Luke, Rosco went to talk to the train engineer, needing to know just what had happened here. It didn't take long to figure it out, the engineer told him how the car had been sitting by the tracks, when it began to move he blew the whistle in warning. His voice shook as he told Rosco how the driver looked right at him, grinned and hit the gas shooting towards the tracks. He swore he had tried to stop as soon as he knew what they were up to, knew without a doubt that they were going to try to beat the train and he knew they'd never make it. He was right, car and train had crossed paths at the same spot, and the laws of physics took over, though he was applying the brakes at full force the train still carried the much smaller vehicle a quarter of a mile down the track.

Rosco headed over to the car next, smelling the alcohol when he was still several feet away, shaking his head at the waste of young life, he began the terrible task of figuring out who had been in the car. Even with all the damage Rosco was able to recognize the occupants of the car,
or what was left of them, 'what a horrible way to die,' how was he going to tell their parents. Just this afternoon these boys had been smiling with pride and happiness, now their young faces were frozen in a look of horror as they had seen death approaching them in the form of a train.

Dr. Appleby came over to Rosco and told him he was going to take Luke home, he was in a state of shock and needed to get some rest. He told Rosco he could come out and get a statement from the boy the next day if he needed, but not tonight, tonight he was in no shape to tell him anything.

Pulling up to the Duke farmhouse, Dr. Appleby guided Luke out of the car and towards the house, not surprised in the least to see Jesse Duke headed their way, his face creased in worry.

"Amos, what's wrong? What's happened to Luke?"

"Now Jesse don't worry, Luke's fine, he's just had a terrible shock and needs to sit down. Do you have any coffee made?"

"Yeah, did you want a cup Amos?" Jesse asked, confused by the doctor's question.

"Could you fix Luke a cup, with lots of sugar, it'll help with the shock."

Understanding now, Jesse headed to the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee for his nephew, as the doctor led him towards the living room. A few minutes later Jesse stepped into the living room and handed the cup to Luke only to have the doctor take it and help Luke to sip at the sweet drink. Walking over to Bo and Daisy, who had stopped their game of checkers when Luke and the doctor came into the room, Jesse wrapped an arm around each, offering his strength as they waited to find out what was wrong with Luke.

"Doc? What are you doing here? How did I get home?" Luke asked,
confusion lighting his eyes.

"Luke, what do you remember about what happened tonight?"the doctor gently questioned.

"I was riding with the guys and they started drinking, oh God the train, they tried to beat the train didn't they? I should've made them take me home instead of just getting out to walk, if I had they'd still be alive. It's all my fault, I should've..."

"Luke, son it's not your fault, if your friends tried to beat a train,
that's not your fault, now I want you to sit here and drink your coffee while I talk to your Uncle Jesse. Bo, Daisy why don't you two come over here and sit with your cousin while your uncle and I talk?"

Taking Jesse into the kitchen, the doctor soon explained the events of the night, at least as well as they could figure them out. Leaving some mild sedatives for Luke, he prescribed bed rest and suggested that Jesse might need to get some counseling for the boy to help him through this terrible experience.

Three weeks later Luke stood in front of the recruiting station in Capitol City trying to decide which branch of the service he wanted.

Right after the accident Luke had barely left his room, he just couldn't bring himself to face anybody knowing that he could have stopped his friends from dying. He had especially not wanted to go to the funerals,
how was he supposed to face their families? But Uncle Jesse had insisted,
had told him that he needed to say good-bye, had assured him that nobody blamed him. Surprisingly he was right and Luke just couldn't figure that one out, how could their families not blame him? He could have stopped them if he had just tried. Could have insisted they take him home or he could have stayed in the car, if he had been there he could have done something to stop them, he just knew he could have. But when he tried to apologize to the families they all told him the same thing in one way or another; it wasn't his fault, he didn't tell them to drink or try to beat a train and he shouldn't be blaming himself for their decision.
God he hated this, hated going around Hazzard and seeing the looks of sympathy from everybody he saw, didn't they understand he didn't deserve their sympathy and the guilt, oh Lord the guilt everytime he saw Chet's parents or any of the other boys' parents.

Being at home wasn't much better, the concern he saw in his cousins' and uncle's eyes, the way Bo had taken to tip-toeing around him afraid he would set off Luke's temper, which lately was always close to the surface. Punching the wall after Lulu Hogg called and told him how sorry she was about his friends and how was he doing? Throwing tools when he couldn't get a bolt loose from Uncle Jesse's truck. Then yesterday it had all come to a head, Bo had came into their room laughing at some joke he'd heard and when he tried to tell Luke the joke, Luke's temper erupted. He had attacked his little cousin, furious that he could laugh and joke with Luke as though everything were normal and Luke hadn't killed his friends.

Thank God Uncle Jesse had heard Bo's scream, he didn't want to think about what he might have done to Bo if Jesse hadn't stopped him, as it was he had put a lot of bruises on him and broken his arm. When he calmed down and saw what he had done to his cousin, saw Daisy standing in the doorway her eyes big with fear, he did the only thing he could think of,
he ran.

Now here he was, he knew this was the only solution, he had to do something to make up for what he had done, had to find somewhere to put his anger before he killed somebody.

Last night when he returned home he'd had a long talk with Uncle Jesse,
after Jesse assured him that Bo would be fine he told Luke that he had to do something about his temper. He could still hear his uncle's voice as they had sat in the kitchen discussing the situation.

"Luke you know we all love you, that won't ever change but this can't go on, you could have hurt Bo a lot worse if I hadn't been here to stop you, we both know that. Son you've got to stop blaming yourself for what happened to your friends, nobody else blames you not even their families. I don't know why you can't stop feeling guilty, but I do know it's eating you up inside and you've got to find somewhere to put it before you do something you can't take back. I can call Dr. Appleby tommorrow if you want and arrange for some counseling for you or maybe you'd feel better talking to the minister, I'll do whatever I can to help you."

After some more discussion Luke had decided that he would join the military, maybe if he served his country it would help make up for what he had done, and he'd have an outlet for his temper. Uncle Jesse hadn't liked the idea at first, afraid Luke would go and put himself in danger in the hopes of joining his friends. Luke still couldn't believe that Jesse would even care anymore after what he had done to Bo, but he was grateful that he did.

Making a decision and taking a deep breath, Luke walked into the Marine recruiter's office, leaving a short time later with his enlistment papers in hand he felt the first bit of peace since that terrible night.
The End