Chapter 4
Rosco stored Ralph's things, started the coffee brewing and set down at his desk with his feet proped up on the desk. He would stay down stairs for awhile then go back up and check on the Green boy. It would have been so much easier if he could have put them both downstairs but seeing how they were fighting it had been out of the question. Rosco looked up at the young man who was still standing by the window. Rosco wasn't sure but he felt that the young man hadn't viewed the sights of Hazzard Square in some time, though he was looking that way.
Rosco would have been right, had he been privileged to Luke's thoughts. Luke may have been looking in the direction of Hazzard Square but hadn't seen it since he had turned back to it after finding out that Rosco had called Jesse. Jesse had preached to him and Bo, seemingly since they had been in this world, about not fighting. What was he arrested for? Fighting. This would not go well with Jesse, even if there was a lot more to it. It wouldn't matter either that Ralph had also been arrested. Luke would have to answer for not only his crimes but his 'sins' as Jesse saw them too.
Rosco usually didn't do this, but as he poured his own cup of coffee he asked, "Want some coffee, Luke?"
Knowing that he wouldn't be sleeping and drinking the coffee wouldn't made a difference, Luke replied, "Sure. Thanks."
Rosco also knew the coffee wouldn't be what kept the young man up, but hoped that it just may calm him down a might to where he may get a little sleep. Rosco poured the foam cup full and set it in the bars. He had already set his cup on the desk to cool a bit as he returned to the pot and poured another foam cup full. He unlocked and relocked the gate going upstairs as he carefully carried the second cup of coffee upstairs. Rosco was surprised to find the other young man sound asleep. He set the coffee in the bars, then watched the man from the top of the stairs awhile to ensure that he was really asleep before returning down stairs.
Luke had been setting on the bunk staring into his coffee as if he was trying to 'read tea leaves'. The sound of Rosco unlocking the gate cause Luke to jump in surprise.
Rosco seen the young Duke jump. He knew he had been deep in his own thoughts. Rosco tired to sound indifferent as he said, "Gettin' late."
Luke merely nodded as he took a drink of the nearly cold coffee. It may be late but it wasn't late or early enough for Luke. Luke felt he'd checked out every inch of the six by eight by eight foot cage that he was in and it was still hours before the Judge and Jesse would arrive. Part of him was anxious for Jesse to get there, yet Luke knew there would be he-- to pay once he was on his way home, alone with Jesse. He knew Bo and Daisy would insist on coming with Jesse, but he also knew they wouldn't stand a chance. Jesse had been telling him since he was a pre-schooler that Bo and Daisy looked up to him. He had been expected to set the 'example'. Luke sighed, he knew this was not the example he was expected to set.
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Bo closed the door to his very empty room. He looked at the still made bed beside his briefly slept in bed. At sixteen, Bo had been in the courthouse, in the booking room but not in the jail area a story mostly below ground. He had seen the thick unforgiving bars of the booking cell in the upstairs booking room. To him, Luke had all the 'powers' the super heroes did. Bo found it hard to imagine his older cousin with super hero powers not only behind those thick bars but detained by them. He set on the bed and stared at his older cousins' bed. Then, he tried to imagine not being able to leave his room, which was much larger than the cell in the booking room. He looked at the door and it was obvious, if the door was locked he'd just go out the window. But what if the window had bars on it? Bo began to pace the room. He suddenly notice the room was stuffy, well maybe not stuffy, but he was nearly suffocating. He went to the window, opened it, taking in several cleansing breaths of fresh air. Bo turned around to go to bed and noticed the room began to get smaller. This had been the room he had grown up in. The room where 'monsters' lived under the bed at three and in the closet at five. At both ages, Luke had not only offered to do battle with them but shared his bed until Bo went to sleep, then silently slipped out of his own bed and into Bo's for the rest of the night. Bo looked at both beds and began pacing again, only to hear a thump on his wall.
Jesse had heard him up and tapped none too gently on the wall, "Bed time Bo."
Bo sighed and automatically responded, "Yes, Sir." He set on the edge of his bed, straightened the covers, layed down, covered up and starred at the ceiling.
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Daisy had also went to her room thinking of her older cousin. To her, Luke wasn't the 'super hero', he had been more the 'Prince Charming' ready to ride in and 'save the day' or kiss a 'boo boo' she had gotten while trying to follow her older cousins when she wasn't supposed to. More often than not she was following them on things they shouldn't be doing, which is why Luke was so apt to comfort her instead of letting her run to Jesse and give away his and Bo's escapades, which was usually something Luke had deviced and Bo had followed him into. Luke never seemed surprised to see Daisy behind them thought at times he'd seem annoyed that Bo had 'let' her follow him. Truth was, Daisy had learned to follow Luke, even if Bo wasn't there. Though Bo not being on Luke's heels from the time he could crawl was a rare instance indeed. Daisy made her way to the window and was looking at the stars when she heard Jesse tap his bedroom wall adjacent to Bo's room. Jesse's tone left no room for non-compliance. Daisy gently made her way to her bed and got in quietly. She knew sleep wouldn't come, but she was in bed and not adding to Jesse's problems.
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Jesse smiled as he not only heard Bo's "Yes, Sir." but also heard Bo and Daisy head to their beds. He couldn't make them sleep, anymore than he could make Luke listen to him, but at least they were in bed and hopefully sleep would find them all. Jesse, however, figured he'd still be looking out the window when day broke. Jesse sighed. He had been through all this more times than he cared to tell. Being the oldest of all his brothers, Jesse had been the one to set the example for his brothers and like Luke, his father had given their parents more than a few gray hairs. Jesse had stepped in when he could not only to save his parents the gray hairs but save his brothers a trip to the wood shed.
'The wood shed.' Jesse thought, 'That might be just what that 'boy' needs, is a trip to the wood shed.' Jesse had seen Luke for sometime now 'testing' the waters with him. Now, he was testing different waters with Rosco. Jesse had told him before he turned eighteen that Rosco would be 'gunning' for him, because Rosco knew if he could slow Luke down he'd slow down delivery for Jesse. Rosco knew that until Luke was eighteen, Jesse wouldn't let him run shine on his own. Luke had turned eighteen in April, this was May. The boy still had a few weeks of school left before he graduated high school, yet he had graduated to another 'plain' with Jesse. Jesse had let him take a few short local whiskey runs alone. Well, alone as far as Luke knew. Jesse had shadowed him all the way in case he got into 'trouble'. Jesse had figured to let him run a solo run out of state, again with Jesse nearby, shortly after he graduated high school. It was sort of a Duke's right to passage. But, now if the charges Rosco listed stuck, the boy may not only be in jail for a bit but his drivers license would also be in danger of being taken. Jesse knew that letting him run a load with no license would only draw unwanted attention. If the law got 'lucky' enough to get Luke's license then they were sure to make real sure he wasn't driving a wheel barrel and IF he was they'd make real sure to start adding more charges to have the license longer.
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Luke set on the bunk with his knees pulled to his chest. He knew the fight with Ralph Green hadn't just been because he had beat Ralph in a race, nor was it because Ralph was a sore looser and called him a cheat. No, those things had little to do with why Luke had engaged in the fight and not walked. The fact was, because Luke had dated a girl steadily. Well, OK, it had been an 'on again off again', steady for a couple of years now. Currently, they were in the 'off again' phase. Ever since last football season Robin had been tempted to go out with Ralph. She had managed not to succumb to such temptations until recently. Robin tried to get Luke to 'commit' to her, even if they wouldn't marry for a couple years now, she needed a commitment. Luke refused to give into her demands and had considered himself a 'free agent' for the past few days. Rumors had filled Hazzard with tales of Robin dating Ralph Green. These rumors were a large part of why Luke refused to back down from Ralph in the race or when challenged by Ralph calling him a 'cheat'. Again, Luke knew these things wouldn't even begin to explain things away to Jesse. Luke was setting with his knees pulled up to his chest on the steel bunk watching nothing in particular, time was passing with Rosco's occasional trips upstairs to check on Ralph though he had been gone for a bit longer this trip or at least it seemed that way to Luke.
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Jesse had been right. He was still awake when it was finally time to get up. The few hours since Rosco's call had gone by deathly slow yet it was time to get up already. He put on his house slippers and started down the hall. At Bo and Luke's door Jesse opened the door to find a sight he hadn't seem in several years, yet he really wasn't surprised by it. Bo was curled up under the covers facing the window of not his own bed but Luke's. Before Jesse could speak, Bo said, "I'll be along to start the chores since there is double to do before we leave for town."
Jesse wasn't in the mood for confrontation this early and merely said, "I'll put the coffee on."
A voice behind Jesse said, "I'll get it, Uncle Jesse." Daisy had only been in bed out of respect for her Uncle and once she heard him up she was up and ready to head to town with the men to get Luke.
Jesse knew they would both put up a fight to go with him, but this time he wouldn't let them win. He had a long talk planned for his oldest and it wasn't one that was going to happen in front of the younger two's eyes.
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Luke had been right, Rosco had been gone a bit longer than he had been staying upstairs. He had waited for the Hazzard Diner to three breakfasts to the jail. After waking Ralph up and sliding his through to him, Rosco was currently struggling to balance the other two breakfasts while getting the downstairs gate open and relocked which he barely managed to do without dropping everything. Once in the gate he sat his breakfast on the desk and then set a larger cup of coffee in the bars of the cell where Luke was and them handed the foam container through the bars.
Luke nodded, "Thanks." He knew he should be hungry for about anything since he hadn't eaten since the Dukes' early dinner the night before. Luke opened the container to find two boiled eggs, oatmeal and buttered toast. It may not be his breakfast of choice but coming from the Diner wouldn't be half bad either if he could just get the food past those butterflies in his stomach that had been growing more steadily active the closer it came time to face Jesse.
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