Chapter 2:


Kira waited until after they'd gone in to see if they could get the other Dukes out of jail for the night before she couldn't hold her tongue any longer. Shifting in her seat, Kira confronted her husband about the cold shoulder that she was getting from him as they neared their home.

"You shouldn't have kept me from helpin' Bo. Ernie deserved every bit of what he got and more. If you hadn't-"

"If I hadn't kept you from joining in the fight, you'd be sittin' in that jail cell right alongside Bo and Luke," Kira shouted back at Jebb as the Stonewall Jackson careened down the back country roads.

"Dukes don't abandon other Dukes," Jebb said through gritted teeth.

"No one has been abandoned. I tried to warn Bo that he was bein' baited. He chose to slug Ernie anyway," Kira replied rather loudly.

"It still don't feel right to know that they are spendin' the night in jail and we're goin' home," Jebb said as he pulled up in their own driveway.

"Then go back and ask Rosco to lock ya up, too!"

Kira got out of the car and headed inside. She went in through the front door and stomped on up the stairs without stopping to say anything to Jesse who was drinking coffee in the kitchen. When Jebb came in, Jesse got on up and stood in the doorway to wait for him to put his coat up.

"Daisy called me and Jo came by to get Faith. Were you able to get them boys out tonight?" Jesse asked then sipped his coffee. For the last month, ever since a tornado ripped through Hazzard in the first part of November, he'd been staying with Jebb and Kira until the family farmhouse could be rebuilt.

"No sir. They won't be arraigned until tomorrow. First thing at eight o'clock," Jebb explained.

"Alright. I'll go and get them boys in the mornin'. Now, what is up with you and Kira? She just stomped on upstairs and didn't even stop to talk on her way up," Jesse said.

"We just had a little fight about what happened at the Boar's Nest, is all. When things went down in the bar, she tripped me up and made it where I couldn't help Bo and Luke," Jebb complained.

"So basically, she kept ya from actin' a fool and gettin' arrested along with the others?" Jesse asked.

"Uh, well, I guess you could put it that way," Jebb said. Somehow, having Jesse put it that way was a bit different than when Kira had pretty much said the same thing.

"I see," Jesse answered simply.

"Uncle Jesse, it's just that I felt like I should have been there to help them. I should have been fightin' right alongside them, not-" Jebb was cut off by Jesse.

"So, in other words, you'd rather be sittin' in a jail cell tonight rather than spendin' time with your wife that you only get to see for about forty-eight hours a week."

"That ain't it." Jebb still refused to admit his uncle and wife were right.

"Uh-huh. You sure Kira knows that?" Jesse asked before heading back into the kitchen to straighten it up before he headed off to the room that had been his for the last month.

Jebb watched his uncle walk away and was amazed at how his uncle could still make him feel like he knew just about as much about life as he did when he was a kid. Sighing, Jebb figured that he'd better head up and see if he could smooth things over with Kira. As Jesse had pointed out, he only got to see Kira two days a week right now. He didn't want to spend the weekend fighting with her.

When he got upstairs he saw that Kira had already changed and climbed into bed. Jebb stripped out of his clothes and slipped in behind his wife. She had her back turned to him so he tried to pull her back up against him. Jebb figured that Kira must be pretty mad at him. She wouldn't turn around or even relax up against him. He rested a hand on Kira's hip and pulled her towards him and rolled her onto her back. It was only then that Jebb realized that Kira was already fast asleep.

Rolling his eyes, Jebb fell back against his pillow. He could tell that this was going to be a long weekend.

~01~

Kim settled on the couch as she waited for Jo to return from putting Faith down for the night. She had tried going home but every time she heard a noise outside she instinctively believed that her ex-husband was in every shadow. Being out in the county instead of the city hadn't been that bad when Bo was in the house but without him at home it was a bit unnerving to be by herself. Every sound that she heard was turned into Ted stalking her once more.

He'd been bound and determined to kill her once and for all. In fact, he'd nearly succeeded just this past spring. She'd gone out to stay with the Dukes after he'd found her in town for their wedding anniversary. His present for her were a few broken ribs and several bruises. Then he'd jumped bail and hunted her down out on the farm. Ted had plunged a knife right in the middle of her chest. She'd spent time in the hospital but the whole ordeal had helped to push her and Bo together. After that, she'd moved in with her Uncle Irving Appleby and had spent as much of her free time as she could with Bo. She'd begun to feel so safe around him, which hadn't come easy considering her last relationship. But Bo being himself had torn down all of her walls and made himself right at home in her heart.

"Are you okay now?" Jo asked as she came down the stairs.

"Yeh, fine. I guess it's really silly. I just couldn't stay home tonight," Kim replied.

Jo tried to ease her friend's mind. "After what you've been through, believe me, it's not silly. You're more than welcomed to stay the night. You know that you are welcomed anytime."

"Thanks. I guess Daisy should be home soon then. Or is she staying over at Darcy's tonight?"

"I think she'd rather be staying with Darcy, but he's not home so she'll be home right after the bar closes," Jo commented before asking, "So, what happened out there at the bar? What got Bo so riled up?"

"Ernie and Kathy both came over and sat down at the next table over and started throwing some insults. He knows the right buttons to push to get any of the guys riled. And you know Bo well enough by now to know that he doesn't exactly know when to walk away from a fight. Kira tried to warn him that he was being baited but..." Kim shrugged.

Nodding, Jo figured that she might as well as change the subject so that she and Kim could relax so she made herself comfortable and leaned in toward Kim and smiled. "We'll, we really haven't had a lot of time to chat since the wedding but you have got to tell me. How was the honeymoon?" Jo cornered Kim.

"Well, it was nearly cut short, thanks to Luke," Kim said as she remembered how Luke had spiked the moonshine with saltpeter.

"Luke?" Jo said about to ask what her husband had to do with Kim and Bo's honeymoon.

"Uh-huh. It seems that Luke decided that he had a little bit of revenge that he wanted to take out on some of the men. So he put saltpeter in the 'shine," Kim explained.

Jo frowned. "Lukas put saltpeter in Bo's 'shine? I've heard of saltpeter when I was in the Marines but it can't actually work. Right?"

"Well, that's what I thought, too," Kim replied with a tone that didn't hide her annoyance.

"Oh no!" Jo was now trying hard not to laugh, "Oh come on, a Duke not really wanting to have sex. I didn't think anything could make that happen."

Kim explained, "Well, now it didn't cause him not to want sex. It doesn't affect the desire, only the ability."

Jo suddenly got a mental picture of what Kim was telling her and began to laugh hysterically. She finally managed to say, "So he couldn't? At all?"

"Well that first night I was so wasted it didn't really matter anyway. I passed out shortly after we got to the hotel," Kim started. "I was completely unaware that there was anything wrong. Too much alcohol in my system I guess. The next morning, Bo could hardly find the words to tell me what had happened. Fortunately for us, I know a lot of medical tricks. He didn't like some of them but considering that the only other option he had was to sit and cross his legs, I finally got him to think outside of the box." Kim smirked as she thought back to Bo's reactions to some of her suggestions. "By the end of the weekend he was starting to get going on his own, though. Good thing, too. A damaged Duke ego is a terrible thing. But you have to admit, doing that to Bo on our honeymoon was hitting just a bit below the belt."

Jo tried not to grin but couldn't hide the fact that she actually found Luke's prank pretty funny. "Yeah, it was, but do you know what Bo, and who knows who else, did to Lukas on our honeymoon?"

"Well, Bo mentioned pulling some pranks on Luke."

"Yeh, well, when we got to the hotel, Lukas reached for his condoms. They were not where he packed them. So he looked closely and found the packs all had holes in the entire box."

Kim knew that Faith had to have been conceived on their honeymoon, "Oh, no. Faith?"

Jo shook her head no. "I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he found them before he used any. Trouble was, there were a couple of times that they... well... weren't exactly nearby." Both women knew very well just how fast a situation could arise to make a full box on a nightstand a little out of the way to retrieve. While Jo was laughing, she suddenly thought of something, "Kim if you wouldn't have known those tricks how long would Bo have been unable to... you know?"

Kim thought a minute, "He was still showing some effects when I got my period on the night of the first. He was fine by the time I was finished with it."

Jo frowned.

"What?" Kim asked.

"I was just thinking back. There were a few days that Luke was really not himself, if you catch my drift."

Kim giggled, "I've heard that the Duke Boys do nearly everything together, but to not do things together on this level," Kim laughed some more. "It serves him right. He got caught in his own trap. None of the other men were able to enjoy themselves, but neither was he. I bet he didn't see that one coming. Just to get back at him, I ought not release you until after Christmas rather than the twenty-third."

"Kim! Who are you trying to punish? Lukas or me?"

Kim laughed as she put her hands up in mock surrender, "Alright, alright. I guess now that the fellas are married, they've thrown everything that they've ever known about birth control out the window."

It was then that Jo realized what Kim had said, "Kim you said none of the other men were able to enjoy themselves. What do you mean by that if Lukas was out to get Bo?"

Kim tried to stop laughing before she continued and swore that Jo nearly rolled her eyes. "Well, just how do you think that Bo found out what Luke had done? Jebb helped him. Jebb cooked the mash and everything to brew the moonshine. Luke just added the saltpeter to the mash. He still had to keep his word to Jesse and the government that he wouldn't make any 'shine, after all. Apparently, Luke and Jebb were supposed to have an older jug that was free from the saltpeter set aside but that jug just so happened to be the one that had been taken to the house for the rest of the family to drink out of the night of the bachelor party. Luke and Jebb were drinking out of the wrong jug!"

"But how did Bo know all of this?" Jo asked.

"Simple, Kira. She wasn't too happy with Jebb when she found out. And on her last weekend before heading out of town, too," Kim said with a slight grin.

"So Jebb was out of action, too?"

"From what I could tell, it wasn't just our guys but everyone who was at the bachelor party and wedding, too. If they drank more than a glass or two of 'shine," Kim said.

"Oh Lord! That was an awful lot of men between the two events," Jo said as she looked up at the clock. It was getting late. She had hoped that Lukas would be home by now. Just then the phone rang and nearly scared both women out of their skin.

Answering the phone, Jo heard Jesse's voice on the other end of the line explaining that the men wouldn't be home tonight. "I'm sorry, darlin'. There just ain't nothing else to be done about it. I'll go to the courthouse first thing in the morning to get them boys on out. You just go ahead and take care of Faith and not worry none. Now, I'm goin' to go ahead and call Kim, too, so she won't go to worryin' about Bo overnight."

"Uncle Jesse, Kim's here with me. I'll just go ahead and let her know. Thanks for letting us know. I'll see you in the morning," Jo replied grimly.

"Goodnight."

"Well, I guess there's nothing left to do but head on off to bed," Jo said knowing that she only had a small window before Faith would need to be fed and changed again. She could only hope that maybe Faith would wake up just as Daisy walked past her room on the way to the brunette's room. Then maybe Daisy would take care of her for her.

Getting on up, Kim figured that she'd better get some sleep. "Alright. I have to be at the hospital early anyway. Night, Jo."

The women then went on up the stairs and went off to restless sleeps without their husbands.

~01~

The next morning after breakfast, Jesse had the feeling of déjà vu. He'd gone to town to get Bo and Luke out of jail more times than he cared to remember. One of these days, those boys were going to have to learn how to settle their differences with other folks without using their fists. Bo has been married for only two weeks and was already locked up while Luke had a one month old baby girl at home. He didn't know why he assumed that getting married would have calmed any of his boys down. Jebb's been married for almost three years and he'd gotten mad because he didn't get arrested right alongside his cousins.

Jesse waited for the boys to be brought up before the judge once again to have bond set. Once they were in the courtroom, Judge Walker set bond for each of them at one hundred dollars and advised them to not be late for court Monday at eight o'clock sharp. Jesse posted the bond for the boys. On the way home they tried to justify their latest arrest but Jesse cut them off.

"I've already heard enough from the others. Let's just get on out to the farm. There are still a lot of things that need to be taken care of today. Especially if you two still plan to go and play with all of your racin' buddies tonight at the banquet," Jesse huffed.

Luke and Bo exchanged looks and smirked at one another. At least Jesse hadn't lectured them. He must figure that their wives would take care of that now that they were married. Luke just hoped that his uncle would be wrong on that assumption as Jesse pulled up at Luke's farmhouse.

Luke slowly made his way up the porch steps. He gave Jesse and Bo time to get out of the yard before he quietly opened the door just in case his roof blew off as he entered the house.

As he walked into the kitchen he was met by Daisy. Quietly he said, "Where's Jo?"

"She's upstairs," Daisy said.

Luke rubbed the back of his neck where it had a crick in it. "How dead am I?"

Daisy shrugged, "They were in bed when I got home."

Luke made his way up the stairs quietly. The door to the bedroom and the nursery were open. He checked the bedroom first. Nothing. Then, he quietly walked into the nursery. Jo looked up from rocking Faith just as he had silently approached the doorway. Luke knew most people would never have heard him, but his wife wasn't most people. She'd had the same training that he had, but she had used it a lot longer than him. Shoot, she grew up a Marine Brat so the military life had been hers right up until she'd gotten caught up in an attack on an Embassy that she'd been stationed at. It was only then that she was discharged from the Marines and she'd gotten her first taste of civilian life.

"Jo, look ... I'm-" Luke started.

"Sorry. Yeh, I know that you are. And it won't happen again; that is until the next time," Jo said.

He had to grin. She was right. He couldn't promise with any certainty that this wouldn't happen again. Not here in Hazzard. "Well how about I promise that I'll try to make sure that the next time isn't any time soon?"

Jo smiled as she stood up and handed Faith to her husband who could already smell an unpleasant aroma wafting up from his baby girl. "We'll see how long you can keep that promise. But for right now, you're on diaper duty. I'm going to take shower."