Sorry about the longer than usual delay between chapters but things got a little busy with the beginning of the school year. Thanks again for reading and special thanks to those who took the time to comment. The boys don't belong to me, only crazy Laura is mine. If only it were the other way around.

Chapter Twelve

Worries in the Night

Daisy dodged Bo as she carried the freshly brewed pot of coffee over to the kitchen table to fill her uncle's cup. Jesse nodded his thanks. Daisy worried that he looked exhausted. She had roused him from a sound sleep fifteen minutes earlier. The older man was immediately alert as he always was when woken in the middle of the night to deal with a crisis or care for a sick child. She could've let him sleep till morning but she knew there'd be hell to pay if Luke wasn't home by then and they hadn't told him about their worries. As she turned to return the pot to the stove, Bo nearly bumped into her again. She quickly pulled the pot to the side to prevent it from spilling on her agitated cousin.

"Bo…"

"Sorry, Daisy. I didn't see you," Bo mumbled as he resumed his pacing.

Jesse frowned as he watched his two kids fretting, wishing the third was there with them. Daisy was trying to keep busy fussing around the stove while Bo was pacing back and forth across the kitchen quickly covering the area over and over again with his long strides. It was time to take control.

"Daisy, Bo, come sit down," Jesse said firmly, leaving no room for arguement. "We may be worrying for nothing. The sun ain't even gonna be up for another hour. Luke might be home any minute."

Daisy sat next to her uncle. "You really think so, Uncle Jesse?" she asked hopefully.

"He's an adult. I ain't happy that he ain't called but he could be home soon," Jesse answered, trying to assure his niece although he didn't believe that Luke would stay out and worry them like this. Luke knew better. Jesse knew instinctively that something wasn't right. Luke was in some kind of trouble.

"I don't think he's gonna be home any time soon," Bo muttered from across the kitchen.

Jesse looked intently at his youngest nephew. He recognized the guilt that was behind the worry. He said more gruffly than he intended, "All right, Bo. Out with it. I want an explanation and I want it now. I know I ain't heard the whole story yet. Daisy wouldn't have gotten me out of my warm bed in the middle of the night and we wouldn't be sittin' here in the kitchen worryin' about Luke if he was just late getting home. In fact, you'd be doing everything you could to cover for him iffn' that was the case. You sure wouldn't be waking me up. And I thought I told you to sit down."

Bo stopped pacing and sat heavily in the chair opposite his uncle. "He ain't coming home, Uncle Jesse. He wasn't in any shape to go anywhere on his own…including home."

Jesse looked seriously at his youngest. "I think you need to explain what you mean by that. What kind of shape was Luke in?"

Bo sighed. He didn't want to tell his uncle that Luke had gotten drunk again but he didn't have a choice. "Uncle Jesse, Luke had too much to drink. He wasn't in much better shape than he was last week when I brought him home. I left him by the General around nine and told him to sleep it off but he wasn't there when I got back."

"And what time was that?" Jesse asked gruffly.

"A little after midnight."

"If he was in such bad shape, why'd you leave him for three hours?" Jesse asked.

Bo was already consumed with guilt before the accusation from his uncle. "I thought he'd be okay if he slept for a while in the General."

"You left him sleeping?"

"Not exactly," Bo answered. He added reluctantly, "He was having trouble climbing in the General. He even tried to open the door using the handle. I guess I was annoyed at him. I wanted to get back to Marylee so I told him to get in himself and I left him standing there."

"You just left him there?" Jesse asked incredulously.

Bo hung his head. "I know I shouldn't have but I thought he'd just sleep it off in the back seat. I thought he was too drunk to go anywhere."

Jesse shook his head. "Well you was wrong."

Daisy had been listening quietly to the exchange between her uncle and cousin but it was time to set things straight. She said with certainty, "Luke wasn't drunk, Uncle Jesse."

Jesse looked at her intently. "Are you sure, sweetheart? Bo seems to think he was. Sound like he was acting drunk."

"I'm sure, Uncle Jesse. He only had two watered down beers. It takes a lot more than that to get drunk on anything Boss serves up at the Boar's Nest. I kept on eye on him and he was just fine when I talked to him at 8:30. He wasn't drunk. He said he was only having the two beers."

"Well, he wasn't fine at nine o'clock," Bo insisted. "He was unsteady on his feet and slurring his words. He almost fell down. He wasn't making a whole lot of sense." Before his uncle could comment, Bo added, "And I'm sorry I left him. I was mad that he'd been drinking again and I didn't want to ruin another night with Marylee. But I should've at least checked on him. I couldn't be more sorry."

"I don't care how he acted, Bo. He wasn't drunk. He wasn't drinking. Maybe he was sick," Daisy said with growing concern.

Bo tried to calm his cousin. "I don't think he was sick, Daisy. It wasn't like he wasn't feeling well. You said he was fine when you talked to him."

Jesse considered what was being said. "Something don't add up here. It don't make no kind of sense that Luke would be in the same predicament two weeks in a row. It ain't like him to make the same mistake twice. He didn't think he drank much last week and Daisy says he wasn't drunk this time either. If he wasn't drunk and he ain't sick, it must be something else. It sounds like maybe he took some kind of drug. That might explain his behavior."

"Luke wouldn't take no kind of drug, Uncle Jesse," Bo said quickly, coming to his cousin's defense. "I'd bet my life on it."

"Now calm down, Bo. I ain't saying Luke would take drugs on purpose. I know he wouldn't."

"But maybe he would take them not on purpose," Daisy interjected, understanding where her uncle was headed. "Laura could've slipped something into his drink if she got mad at him. I don't trust her for nothing. And she was with him last week too when this happened. I found a little white pill on the floor when I was cleaning up. It was right near the table where Luke and Laura were sitting. Maybe she dropped it."

"What kind of pill was it?" Bo asked anxiously.

"I don't know but it looked like it might've been a prescription. I put it aside in case someone came looking for it."

"Good girl, Daisy," Jesse said. "Maybe Doc Appleby will be able to tell us what it is. I don't know if it will mean anything or if it has anything to do with Luke but it's worth looking into."

When Daisy started to get up, Jesse gently took hold of her arm. "Now hold on, girl. Give the doc time to wake up. Luke might still be home any time and the pill you found may have nothing to do with him. We don't know for sure that Luke was drugged. We don't need to be waking the doc up in the middle of the night."

Daisy slowly sat down. "I guess you're right, Uncle Jesse. But it's the only explanation that makes sense. Maybe we should try to call Laura and see if Luke is with her."

"It don't seem likely that Luke would go with her," Jesse answered. "Not by choice any way. He was planning on setting her straight. Do you know if he did that?"

"I know he was trying," Daisy said. "But he said she wasn't listening to him."

"But he didn't leave with her," Bo interjected. "She disappeared when I came over to help him. Maybe she finally understood that Luke don't want nothing to do with her. I didn't see her go and I didn't see her outside."

"I didn't see her either after you left with Luke," Daisy said.

"All right," Jesse said. "Laura left around the same time Bo took Luke outside. It's possible she met up with him after Bo left since it don't sound like she was giving up easy on the idea of her and Luke. Maybe she gave Luke a ride. If he was confused enough like you say, he might've gone with her."

"I bet you're right, Uncle Jesse," Bo exclaimed. "Luke sure was confused enough to go with her. I never should've left him alone with that crazy girl lurking around."

"All right," Jesse soothed. "We don't know any of this for sure. We don't know if Luke went with her."

"I'll call her," Daisy offered. "Dang. Luke said she ain't got a phone. We can't call and see if Luke's there."

Bo stood up abruptly. "I'm going over there then."

"Now just hold on," Jesse admonished. "You can't just go banging on her door in the middle of the night."

"But, Uncle Jesse—"

"No buts, Bo. We don't know that Luke is with her. He could've wandered off anywhere or gotten a ride to a friend's house. We need to check with Cooter. It's possible he's over there or at the garage."

"Uncle Jesse, Luke might need us," Daisy almost pleaded.

Jesse leaned over to pat his niece's arm. "I have no doubt of that, Daisy girl. But we gotta go about this logically if we're gonna help Luke. We need to make sure he ain't sleeping it off at Cooter's. We can't just barge into Laura's house either. You need to get back to the Boar's Nest to get that pill so we can take it to Doc Appleby. And while we're waiting for the sun to come up and do all that, we'll drive around and look for Luke. He might've just found some place to sit down when he couldn't get into the General. For all we know he might be sleeping somewhere out behind the Boar's Nest if he's in as bad shape as he was last week. If we don't find him, we'll go to Laura's house."

Bo and Daisy saw the logic in their uncle's words. It eased some of their fears. It was good to have him in charge with a plan of action. With any luck, Luke would be sleeping it off somewhere behind the Boar's Nest oblivious to the fact that he wasn't home in his own bed and they'd be able to tease him mercilessly after their uncle got through bawling him out for being irresponsible. After that, they'd hug him tight and not let him out of their sight for a long time.