A/N There is some minor swearing in this chapter… Ow, and lots of sadness ta come. I hope you'll like it, cause I've never written anything involving the Dukes family. I don't know the names of all the parents, but I'm goin along with what I think are nice names.
Well, I hope you like it, now on to chapter 4... Enjoy!

4

"Luke, ya know how me an' yur aunt Martha always told ya bout how your daddy was killed in an explosion an yur mom a year later in a drunk driver accident?" Jesse asked, knowing he was only postponing the inevitable.

Luke nodded, urging his uncle to go on, even though he had no idea where this was going.

"Well, things weren't as simple as they seemed. But you was so young, only four when yur mom died, and we decided ya didn't need ta know the entire truth. Cause the truth, well, it was ugly."

Luke was even more confused after that statement and he couldn't keep quiet.

"Whatta ya mean uncle Jesse? Ya tellin me ya lied bout how my parents died?"

Jesse nodded solemnly, seeing how the wheels were turning in Luke's head. Not wanting to wait till his nephew spoke, he spoke up himself.

"Look son, the truth, it ain't pretty, but ya got the right ta know. So I'm askin ya, do ya want ta know what really happened?" he asked, still not entirely sure about his decision to come forward with this.

A thoughtful look came upon Luke's face, but it only lasted a minute. After all the strange nightmares which still haunted him from time to time, about fire and loud noises, feminine screams and his parents' faces, he needed to know what really happened.

"Jesse, I think I want ya ta tell me everythin…"

And with that sentence, he opened the deep dark hole, his uncle had kept closed for years.

"When yur daddy, my brother, met yur mom she was 17. She was as pretty as could be an' when Kevin saw her singin in the Boars Nest, he was head over heals in a matter o' seconds.

From then on those two were inseparable. If ya saw one of 'em, the other wouldn't be far behind. After two years a' datin, he asked her ta marry him right here on this cliff. An' it probably was the best thing ta do, cause two months later they's told us she was pregnant. After the weddin things settled in real fine. They bought a nice house on Jessup Road, an' prepared things for yur birth.

On a hot summer night, me an' Martha got the call that you were born. Two weeks early, but you was always the impatient one. When I saw Kevin that night, he looked like he swallowed a whole bucket a fireflies. Glowin all over, so proud of that little boy with dark hair, who was lyin against his momma.

Several months later he was still as happy as ever, seein ya grow so fast, already crawlin round the house and all. But yur mom… She seemed ta sink deeper an' deeper in her feelins of unhappiness. She was so young, only 20, an' she started ta feel like she had missed somethin in life. Her dreams of goin ta Nashville were gone, since she had a family now. And it was gnawin at her each and every day that went by. Don't get me wrong, she loved ya more then ya could ever know. She was jus… missin somethin.

And then she met John, an old friend of hers who had made it in Nashville. If she felt like she missed somethin before, that feelin multiplied when he came ta visit her. An' one night, when Kevin was workin late, she made a mistake…

# FLASHBACK #

"I can't believe yur so famous John! Ya know how we used ta play tagether at the Boars Nest? You were already so good back then…"

John, the dark-haired country star from Nashville, walked to the stove, helping Mary Duke with the roast she was making.

"Ya know what I can't believe Mary? That you have a husband and a kid. I always figured you'd be more famous by now than I am. Actually, I kinda hoped you an' me could have tried it in Nasville. I have this feelin that I'm missin something now."

Looking her childhood friend in his brown eyes, Mary saw something there, something she hadn't seen in a long time. Her old dreams were there, in the brown orbs, and she was drawn to them. She saw herself through his eyes, successful an' singing. As they drew her in, she faintly heard two-year old Luke playing in his little room. It stopped her for a moment, but the dream kept calling her. And as the two people drew closer, their lips met. It only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough for Kevin Duke to see when he opened the screen door.

The look of shock and guilt on her face was too much for him to bare, and all logic sense left his body at that moment. Turning around he hurriedly left the small house, started his car and roared off.

She put him out
like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
She broke his heart,
he spent his whole life tryin' to forget

When he finally reached his brothers house, he had already downed one bottle of shine, trying to numb the pain of betrayal. He had given her everything! He worked so hard to provide for her and their son! She owned his heart, and now she had crushed it underneath her feet…

Stumbling into the dark house, he saw his younger brother, Jesse, just putting out the final light before going to bed. After seeing the pain in his brothers intoxicated eyes, Jesse knew something was wrong, but decided to just provide a bed for Kevin, questions could be asked later.

The next day Kevin told Jesse what he had walked in on the previous evening and Jesse could feel the anger and pain emanate from his beloved brother. And although he couldn't understand why Mary would do something like that, he also knew every story had two sides. So when he picked her up that afternoon, and heard her tale of the dream she was seeing when she kissed John, he understood what she had felt. He also saw the pain she was feeling over hurting her husband like that. It emanated from her, like the anger had radiated off of his brothers body that morning.

Jesse felt that if he could just get the two of them to talk to each other, things could get better, and Luke's parents would be able to reconcile. But when he saw the screen door open, revealing his completely wasted brother, his plans seemed to go down the drain.

"Whas that btch doin here!" Kevin yelled while stumbling into the dusty barnyard. Martha came running after him, giving Jesse an apologizing look, which told him she hadn't been able to stop her brother in law from drinking himself into oblivion.

As Mary stepped out, Jesse picked up little Luke who had been sitting in the backseat. He didn't get far and stood frozen by the car, as the scene in front of him enfolded itself.

"Kevin?" The small voice of Mary sounded through the drunken ranting of Kevin.

"I saw you! Kissin that-"

"Stop it!" Mary yelled suddenly, "I'm sorry Kevin, please listen ta me," she pleaded. Walking over to him, she stretched her hands out, reaching for him.

Slapping her hands away Kevin turned around, a deep pain evident in his clouded blue eyes, stumbling through the yard while mumbling under his breath.

"Kissin him… Saw it… Hurts…"

"Kevin! Please come back, I'm sorry, please don't go!" Mary pleaded, tears streaming down her face. The only other sound that could be heard were the slight cries a confused Luke was giving, while Jesse was trying to comfort the small child as the three figures kept standing in the yard, still as statues. Mary with her hands still outstretched, Martha with a look of shock on her face, and Jesse with Luke in his arms, cradling the young boy, as his family started to fall apart.

We watched him drink his pain away
a little at a time
But he never could get drunk enough
to get her off his mind
Until the night,

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger
And finally drank away her memory
Life is short but this time it was bigger
Than the strength he had to get up off his knees
We found him with his face down in the pillow
With a note that said I'll love her 'til I die

The next few days were the beginning of the end, and if Jesse had known this, he would have tied his brother to a chair while keeping an eye on him twenty-four seven.

Kevin was always away, only staying with Jesse and Martha at night, when he was too drunk too move. The shine he was still delivering became his only salvation, downing a bottle a day he felt like he could forget her, forget everything. Until that night…

Mary had been staying at her own house for the past days, feeling guilty and sorry for her actions. She had realised how her dreams would always be dreams, but that she was living the best dream she ever had. A husband and a beautiful son. So on the fifth day of not seeing Kevin, she decided to try it one more time. Picking up Luke, she was about to leave the house, when she saw the familiar truck coming up the driveway. Her heart clenched with worry when she saw Kevin falling out of the drivers side, standing up with difficulty and stumbling over to where Mary and Luke were standing.

"I came ta say ta you…" he started maliciously, but when his eyes landed on Luke, he faltered. Reaching up one hand to touch the soft baby cheek, tears clouded his vision.

"Daddy," were the only words that were heard in that tender moment as Luke smiled a toothy smile at his father, causing tears to appear in his mothers eyes as well.

"Kevin," she uttered, "Please… Don't leave us, come back?"

This seemed to wake him from his daze, and pain appeared in his eyes once again. Shaking his head he softly kissed his sons baby-soft hair, turning around and stumbling for his car. Mary saw the shine in the back and worry settled itself in her heart.

"Kevin, please, go back to Jesse! Don't make a run tanight, you's drunk, Kevin, don't go baby, please!" Her yells were drowned out by the roar of the engine as the cries of her baby boy caught her attention. In that terrible second, a second where she was watching her son, the crunch of metal made her turn her head towards the awful sound which was followed by a loud explosion.

As Kevin had pulled off the driveway he drove erratically, jerking the wheel in anger as he swerved down the road, sensing the finality of that moment. He had lost her, he had lost her to himself…

Seeing the huge gasoline-truck in front of him, he did nothing, nothing but close his eyes as Mary's scream tore through the air…

This story keeps gettin sadder an' sadder. I's wonderin what ol' Jesse got up his sleeve after this dramatic part o' that story of his…