From My Son, Bo Hogg. While the boys haven't done this before, obviously they've been headed in this direction.
Blue, the safest color of blue he'd ever seen, right there in front him. Luke had him. He closed his eyes against the swarm of other thoughts – no, less clear than thoughts, really – images, more like. Rested his brain for a minute, at least that was the plan, but those hands that had been warm on his face grew rough now.
"Oh, no you don't, Bo Duke. You are not leaving me again." So much for being safe with Luke, now he was at the mercy of his cousin. Found his own hands there at the end of his arms (seemed miles away, but the more he moved them, the more it felt like they might still be attached to his body after all) and finagled them up to catch Luke's.
"Don't." No need for Luke to get all pushy. Whatever had happened, Bo had been unconscious for part of it. Even if the law or any manner of strangers to Hazzard were hot on their heels, Luke could handle the crisis for a minute while he got his bearings.
"You just stay awake, then," Luke ordered, and it made Bo smile in spite of the fact that he had no idea where he was (and what an odd feeling it was to be grateful for knowing who he was – what was that about?) or how he'd gotten here. Nothing much had to matter yet, beyond the warmth of Luke's hands in his, and the realization that his head was cradled in his cousin's lap. Bo cracked his eyes open one more time, wanting another look at the comfortable blue that was Luke, but of course, it wasn't that simple. There was hair in his face, then the wrong shade of blue, followed by Daisy's sickeningly-sweet baby talk, the kind of thing that used to make him sit on his hands so he wouldn't take a swing at her. Now he was grown up enough to control those impulses, but apparently not his tongue.
"Daisy? What're you doing…" It was coming out all squeaky when he wanted it to be a little closer to menacing.
"Back off, Daisy, let him get some air." He'd have to thank Luke for that later. Or not, since it was definitely Luke's giant ape-paws that were pushing him to sitting right now. And there was a fuzzy white beard, Jesse taking up the space that Daisy had just vacated. Seemed like the whole family had to get in on making sure he was all right. Not that he should have minded; most days he wouldn't have. Just, right now he had all kinds of unpleasant images trying to push their way into his mind, and he didn't want to share—
"How you feeling, boy?" Jesse had ahold of his hand, squeezing hard enough to make clear that Bo better start talking or he'd be off to see doc in a second.
So he laughed, or tried, didn't even sound convincing to his own ears. "I just don't know what I'm doing here. I thought I was supposed to go boar hunting." And see, this was why he needed less family here. His blurted words could be the beginning of some kind of a confession he didn't want to make, not even to himself.
Ready or not, Luke was hauling him upright, promising explanations that Bo hadn't meant to ask for. He was hardly steady on his feet before Luke was hugging him, the real thing, not one of those Aunt-Lavinia-said-be-nice, one-armed, thump-on-the-back-a-little-harder-than-strictly-necessary kinds of things. It was so unexpected that Bo barely got around to hugging back before Luke was gone, to be replaced by Daisy, then Jesse. He couldn't remember the last time Luke hugged him like that, at least when they weren't making up for having hurt each other (and he was pretty sure Luke hadn't hurt him, but he couldn't say for sure that things hadn't gone the other way around).
Sometimes things moved almost faster than Bo could keep up with, and then there was time spent with family, which had something of a habit of slowing almost to the point of frozen. He got enough of being checked over for bumps and bruises, almost before it began. Him and Luke really needed to hit the road, just the two of them. So he hugged Jesse one last time, ignoring the way the old man used the gesture to feel around his ribcage for any kind of lasting damage, then kissed Daisy's cheek before just about lassoing Luke in the direction of their car. Wasn't in the least surprised when Luke headed for the driver's side, and that was fine. Now that the distractions were fewer, he could concentrate more closely on the headache he had. Seemed like the clanging kind, nothing so gentle as a hangover, more like his brain maybe wanted to be free and was banging around looking to make an opening big enough to escape through. Minutes of road whizzing by and no words, nothing to disrupt his deep concentration on the exact feel of brains knocking on skull.
"Turn left," he mumbled.
"What?"
Some cousins were just plain rude. Must've been an even thousand times that Luke had given him that kind of a directive, and he'd just made the turn, asked questions later.
"Left," he reminded Luke. "Now!" Because his cousin was bound and determined to miss the turnoff that would lead them up to still site four.
With a stomach turning lurch (oh, so it was that kind of headache, too) the General pulled a slick ninety, then rambled along across the old trail that they used to travel just about daily, all the way up to the remnants of the clearing.
"Tell me," he commanded, or meant to. Didn't come out terribly strong, but maybe that was because he already halfway knew what Luke was going to tell him. Those images he'd been trying not to see in his mind's eye, well, they were popping through his head like one of them slide show things they were sometimes subjected to back in high school.
Luke sighed, put the car in neutral and stomped on the parking brake. "You was brainwashed, I think. I know you had amnesia."
"And what?" Because there was more, something just out of focus in that last image, blurred and moving quickly, like a tornado plowing its way into the farmyard, hell bent on destroying everything he'd ever known.
"You didn't know me. Or you did, but… you kept saying me and Daisy was low down Dukes and you didn't want nothing to do with us." Luke was looking hard at where the still wasn't anymore, like maybe if he stared hard enough, it'd be there again. "It ain't nothing you would have said if Boss hadn't lied to you." For all that he said that with a certain conviction bordering on anger, that safe blue of Luke's eyes was fixed on a spot of ground where the past was more powerful than the present. Like once upon a time he wouldn't have questioned such a notion, but maybe now he had to worry about Bo going the way of the family still.
"I ain't nothing I would ever say to you in my right mind, Luke," he promised. Wasn't enough to have said, though. If it had been, Luke would look at him now. "It ain't nothing I meant."
Luke nodded, but his eyes didn't move. "You tried to drive us off the road, Bo."
"I'm sorry, I didn't—"
"I didn't know why. It wasn't until then that I reckoned you meant what you said, that you didn't want to talk to no Dukes." Luke licked his lips, ran a hand through his hair, making a complete mess of the stuff. "But you stopped to make sure we was okay before you drove off. So I guessed I'd made you mad, but you didn't hate me, not all the way."
"I ain't never hated you, Luke. Even when I was mad enough to spit," or leave home after a fistfight, "I never hated you."
Luke nodded, and reached out to shift the car into gear. No way, not yet. Bo put his hand over Luke's, stopping the motion.
"They're waiting for us, Bo," Luke snapped, or tried. There was a vacant tone to it, like Luke was still staring into the past and thinking it was a better place than the here and now.
"They'll wait," he answered. "At least until you're ready to forgive me."
"Wasn't your fault. Ain't nothing to forgive." The shrug that followed was about as lost as the rest of Luke.
"Luke." Bo was taking his life into his hands by reaching out to touch Luke's face, and with a quick motion, turning it toward him.
There it was, the safe blue of Luke looking right back at him, like the ocean and just as wet, and—
"Luke," he puffed, mostly air, just a little bit of rumble in his throat. Took his fingers off his cousin's face, slid them back to the soft hair on the back of his neck, pulled him forward until their foreheads came together, meeting no resistance along the way. "It's okay," and now their noses were just about in contact. "I ain't never done nothing but love you, all my life." The last couple of words came out all silly, what with Luke's lips right in the way of Bo's good diction. Slow kiss, just lips and hands: his on Luke's neck and Luke's on his arms. Stroking and exploration, almost like they had never touched before. One more kiss, then Luke's hands slid up Bo's arms and around the back of his shoulders, pulling them into a tight hug.
A minute or two later, Bo was the first to move, backing up just enough to get a good look at the most dangerous color of blue that he'd ever seen, right there in front of him.