Hey everyone! Hope you've all calmed down from the last chapter, though a tranquilizer and possibly tissue warning might be appropriate here:) Thanks again for the feedback and reviews!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes, and no infringements intended.

UNCLE, UNCLE

CHAPTER 21

JUST DOING MY JOB

Bo and Luke recognized Rosco's car; they didn't recognize the one that was following it. Considering the official escort, they didn't need to know that whoever was coming for a visit, was neither friendly nor welcomed. One look at Rosco's face as he exited his own cruiser told them that something was wrong. He couldn't even look at them. The driver's side door of the Buick opened and revealed two shapely legs covered with sheer nylon. The legs belonged to a woman dressed in a business suit, who was stepping out of her car and onto private property. Though attractive, the uncles weren't interested in how she looked. They wanted to know what she wanted, and bringing Rosco along told them that she wasn't trespassing.

"Can I help you?" Luke asked, as she started walking toward them.

"Is this the Duke residence?" the woman asked back.

"Whadya think I'd do? Take ya to the wrong place?" Rosco grumbled.

"Well, you weren't exactly cooperative, Sheriff," she replied. Leaving him to mumble under his breath, she turned back to the men who obviously lived there.

"We're the Dukes. I'm Bo and this is Luke. What can we do for ya?"

"Mr. Duke. Mr. Duke," she nodded, acknowledging them each separately. "Is this the residence of Ashley Marie Duke?" she asked, glancing to the papers on her clipboard.

"Yes, why?" Luke asked.

"Lady, who are ya?" Bo asked.

"My name is Shelly Lovegren. I am a Social Worker who handles the tri county area. We received a disturbing call pertaining to the welfare of the minor child, Ashley. I've been sent to investigate."

"Disturbing call?" Bo repeated. "From who?"

"I'm sorry, we're not at liberty to say. We don't ask for names so that concerned citizens won't be afraid to voice concerns. Even if we do know who called, we're not allowed to reveal their identity."

"Don't bother," Luke told her. "We can guess."

Ignoring Luke's assurance that they had a good idea of who had instigated the visit, the social worker spoke over him. "While some of the issues will take longer to address, after reviewing certain court documents, or rather the lack of them, there's one that needs immediate clarification."

"What's that?" Bo asked, taking a defensive stance.

"Well, I couldn't find any records showing that you have legal custody of this child. Do you?"

"Our cousin listed us as next of kin, and requested that Ashley live with us if something ever happened to her," Bo retorted. He knew that they'd never really had that conversation, though the next of kin was true, but he wasn't lying. If they had ever talked about it, Daisy would have asked them to watch out for her little girl, which was exactly what they'd been doing for the last seven and a half years.

"That may be so, Mr. Duke, but was it ever legalized?"

"How so?" Bo asked, hoping that if he played dumb enough, the lady and the nightmare would all go away. Contrary to popular belief, Bo Duke was neither dumb nor naïve. He just preferred to let his oldest cousin do the thinking at times.

"Was there a will stating this? Did you adopt her, and get her biological father to waive his parental rights? Did you go to court to obtain legal guardianship, anything?" Shelly Lovegren pressed.

Bo was about to lose his temper, and Luke knew that wouldn't look favorably upon them. Placing his hand on Bo's shoulder, Luke calmly tried to answer her.

"No, we didn't. I don't think we thought we needed to. We were under the impression that what our cousin, Ashley's mother, wanted would be observed."

Turning to the more rational of the men as she saw it, the social worker nodded. "The courts always try to take into consideration the wishes of the mother in a situation like this. The problem is, the child has a living father, and his rights take priority over someone's wishes, unless it's proven that he's unfit or he's unwilling, which doesn't seem to be the case here."

"So what? We gotta sign some papers? What do we need to do?" Bo asked, trying to keep his voice as even as Luke had managed to keep his.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. Even without the other allegations, in a case such as this, the law is very clear. The child has to be removed from the home until this can be sorted out."

"Like hell we'll let you take her!" Bo shouted, thinking about going into the house and getting their uncle's old shotgun.

Luke, again, restrained Bo. "Ma'am, there's got to be something else you can do. We're the only family she knows," Luke pleaded.

At that particular moment, the school bus stopped by the drive, and a bouncing little girl came running up the dirt. "Uncle Bo! Uncle Luke!" she screamed, waving. At record speed, she ran to Bo, leaping in the air, knowing he would catch her. He did, and his grip was relentless.

"Ashley?" the lady asked her.

The little girl turned to look at her. "Hi!" she greeted their guest, not knowing she had reason to fear the woman.

"Hi!" she responded, returning a smile of her own. "My name is Shelly! Honey, I'm going to need you to come with me," she stated, reaching out her arms.

"To go where?"

"It's a nice place, Ashley, but you're going to have stay there for a little while."

"No! I don't want to. I have homework and chores to do, don't I Uncle Bo?" Ashley confirmed, rubbing her nose against his.

"You sure do, Princess," he replied, tightening his embrace while the tears welled up in his eyes.

"What's the matter, Uncle Bo?" the little girl asked, forgetting about their other visitors.

"Ashley, I know you don't want to go, but you have to," Shelly informed her, this time grabbing onto her and trying to pry her out of her uncle's arms.

"Uncle Bo! What is she doing?" the little girl screamed.

"Sheriff, I need some help here," the woman said, fearing that the girl was going to get hurt in the struggle."

"C'mon now Ashley," Rosco said in the gentlest tone the boys had ever heard him use. "It'll be ok. How bout a ride in my police car? I'll turn the sirens on," he offered.

"No!" Ashley screamed, but between the social worker and the sheriff, they overpowered Bo and wrestled her away. "Uncle Luke! Uncle Bo!" she continued to scream.

"It's okay, honey. We're gonna come get you right away," Luke told her, wondering if they'd done the right thing. He knew that if he had helped Bo, they wouldn't have been able to get her away from the both of them. The shotgun was also on his mind, too, but he knew that they'd just come back and it would be worse on them in the long run. Standing by and doing nothing had been the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life.

Shelly took Ashley to Rosco's car, following standard procedure, but Rosco was still in front of the boys. "I'm sorry bout this. Ya gotta know this is the last thing I'd ever want to be involved in."

"Well wait!" Bo called, seeing that they'd never get their niece out of the car without a genuine struggle. "What about her things? She's got a doll and a bear that she sleeps with, and her pajamas, and little tooth...brush," Bo said, unable to continue.

"Rosco, can we pack her a bag?" Luke asked, moving closer to Bo to help support him. The tears were now spilling onto his face, too, and the Sheriff's weren't far behind.

"I'm sorry, but no, it's not allowed," Rosco replied.

"Sheriff, come on," the social worker instructed him, "or I'm going to report you for dereliction of duty."

Rosco raised his fist at her, but slowly started walking back to his car.

Taking her life into her own hands, Shelly Lovegren walked back to the boys when she saw that Rosco was now in position to guard Ashley. "Look, I'm sorry about this. I'm just doing my job. We're here to do what's in the best interest of the child."

"If you were doing that, you wouldn't have ripped her away from us!" Luke finally screamed, losing his own patience and self-control. "How's that in her best interest?"

"Sir, I am sorry. It's standard procedure while we investigate the allegations and the issue of legal custody, and we will be investigating. You will be seeing me again," she promised, turning on her heel to walk back to her own car.

Letting her pull out first, Bo and Luke could only watch as Rosco turned his car around to follow. They could see and hear him trying to console the hysterical child in his vehicle, but the image they'd always remember was her looking back at them, her hands outstretched. It was heartbreaking, and all they really wanted to do was to run after her. Long after the cars were gone, the boys were still standing there, visualizing something that was no longer there.

Both uncles were sobbing uncontrollably, but Bo felt the next emotion first: anger. In a fit of rage, he threw his fist forward, driving it right through the glass window of Jesse's old pickup truck. He didn't even feel it; the physical pain was nothing compared to what he was feeling on the inside.

"Oh geez, Bo!" Luke mumbled, putting his own pain on hold for the moment. "Here, let me take a look," he said, taking hold of Bo's hand. The blonde had cut it good, and it was bleeding profusely.

Bo's legs were no longer able to support his weight, and he slid to the ground, his fall softened by his cousin's guidance. Luke didn't know whether it was the injury to his hand or his heart that had caused him to lose the will to stand upright. He was bleeding bad enough for it to be a concern, but Luke was also sure that he was in shock; a combined effect of the last twenty minutes.

"You be ok for a minute?" Luke asked his cousin.

Staring into space, Bo gave a slight nod.

"I'll be right back. Just stay there!" Luke ordered, running into the house.

The brunette returned a few minutes later with several towels. "Give it here," he requested, taking Bo's hand and wrapping the towels around it. "Okay, I need you to stand up. You think you can help me?" Bo gave another half-hearted nod, and Luke found himself having to hoist his cousin up despite his assurance that he could assist. Thinking that it would be too hard to get Bo into the General, between his mental state and cut up appendage, Luke led him to Dixie. The oldest cousin buckled up the youngest one, and headed for the hospital. Luke knew that they had things to tend to right away, but the first thing that needed to be done was to get Bo's hand taken care of.

Two and a half hours later, they were back in Dixie going the opposite direction of their earlier journey. Bo had been given a shot, a prescription for pain killers, and numerous stitches. His hand was bandaged to the point of being virtually worthless. For a minute, Luke thought they were going to commit him into the psychiatric ward. It was hard to explain how something like that could happen, and not be on purpose. Bo's refusal to talk hadn't helped, but Luke managed to dissuade them.

As they were driving along the county roads, Bo whispered, "what are we gonna do, Luke?"

"We're gonna get her back, that's what we're gonna do!" Luke informed him.

"How?"

"With a little help," Luke told him.

Bo noticed that they weren't going home; he could tell that they were on the road to Capitol City, but he wondered why. They didn't know where Ashley had been taken, but his cousin must have had a plan. He was good at those, but Bo thought that this one needed to be the best plan he'd ever concocted.

Luke laid his hand on Bo's shoulder, completing the rest of the drive in silence. Bo wasn't aware of anything until he found that they had parked in front of a building. The sign on the door said, 'David Dudley, Attorney At Law.'

"You know this guy or something?" Bo asked his cousin, wondering how Luke knew exactly where to go.

"Not personally, but I know of him," Luke answered.

Bo didn't know what his cousin knew about Mr. Dudley or why he had chosen him. Hazzard had one lawyer, but Luke must have felt that they needed someone else. Fighting the system for all of their young lives, Bo Duke didn't have much faith in it. He knew that the law in Hazzard wasn't the standard, but on some level, he believed that Hazzard was just an extreme example. He'd much rather put his faith in bows and arrows, though he knew that in this case, it would have only been a temporary fix.

Sliding out of Dixie, the two men opened the door and walked up to a lady sitting behind a desk.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"My name is Luke Duke. This is my cousin, Bo. We'd like to see the lawyer."

"Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist asked.

"No," Luke answered.

"Well, it's customary to make an appointment. This isn't a free clinic. We don't take walk-ins," she told them in a very rude manner.

"We didn't know we were gonna need an appointment this morning," Bo snapped back.

The door to an adjoining office opened, and a nice looking, young man about Bo's age entered the reception area. Sticking out his hand to each of the Duke boys, he introduced himself. "Hi! My name is David Dudley. What can I do for you?"

Luke reintroduced himself and Bo, saying that he had heard of him from a few people in Hazzard. Stating the obvious, Luke Duke admitted that they were in desperate need of an attorney.

The man pushed his glasses back on the bridge of his nose. Studying them for a minute, he could see that they were upset. Forgoing the formalities, he nodded. "Come on in," he invited, extending his hand to the doorway. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Sure," Luke answered for both he and Bo.

Shooting his assistant a look, he offered them a seat. After their beverages had been delivered, he asked her to shut the door behind her. "I'm sorry about that," he started. "I've really got to do something with her. She's a wonderful legal assistant, but she's got the personality and the manners of a dish towel. Now, what can I help you with?"

"We don't have any money," Bo told him upfront, "at least not enough to probably afford you."

Thinking to himself that Bo's admission was the first words he'd spoken since snapping at his assistant, he nodded, again. While both men looked upset, the blonde looked worse for the wear. He saw the bandaged hand, noticed that he seemed a bit out of it, and wondered if they weren't there for a personal injury case.

"Okay. We'll my first consultation is free, so why don't you just tell me what the problem is, and we'll talk about some of this other stuff later. A lot of people think that they need an attorney, when they don't." Picking up his pen, he readied himself to take notes.

Between what Luke and Bo told him, and asking certain questions, David Dudley ended up with several pages of chicken scratches by the time he was finished. To the boys, there was only one question that mattered: how to get Ashley back? Sitting back in his chair, the lawyer held the pen between both of his hands as if he were meditating over it. Looking at his notes, he looked at each of the worried faces looking back at him.

"Well?" Bo asked.

"Well," David repeated, pausing in between. "You've got a problem. I'm not going to lie to you."

Bo and Luke both started talking at the same time. The attorney knew that wasn't the answer they wanted, but this was a legal predicament, and he never lied to a client or potential client. In the long run, it wasn't beneficial to anyone.

"So we're just gonna lose her?" Bo asked. "What Daisy wanted isn't important?"

"There's nothing we can do?" Luke chirped in, not ready to accept that type of an answer so easily.

"It's not that your cousin's wishes weren't,……aren't important. The problem is, except for the hospital admission form, she never left anything really stating those wishes. Next of kin on a contact form is a far cry from naming guardians for her daughter."

"I doubt she knew she wasn't going to be coming...home," Bo cried.

"I understand that, and the court will take that into consideration, since her death was untimely and unforeseeable. Even if she had a legal document saying she wanted you two to have custody, it still wouldn't be that simple, though. A parent's wishes after they're deceased does not take priority over the parental rights of a natural parent, and Ashley has one. Unless he doesn't want her, or has some major issue that would deem him unfit, no judge will separate a parent and child."

"So, that's just it?" Luke asked, unable to believe that Ricky Samuels would be able to simply take their niece away, maybe for them to never see her again.

"Now, I didn't say that," David countered. "What you have going in your favor is you have been her caregivers for her entire life. I assume that there's no truth behind any of the 'other allegations?'" The boys shook their heads in answer to his question. "Well, that's the first thing that we have to disprove. A lot of times when Social Services is trying to investigate, they don't receive a lot of cooperation. In fact, what they usually get is hostility. Understandable, but not advisable. They're going to be the ones to determine whether or not they believe there's any truth behind the accusations. They can be your ally or your enemy, depending on your own behavior. Hard as it may be, try to be pleasant and cooperative in any dealings you have with them."

"Oh sure, let's just invite the witch to tea, why don't we?" Bo said.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about," David said, sitting forward in his chair. "I'm not telling you to like her or to socialize with her, but that attitude will only hurt you, and Ashley."

"Okay, so we cooperate, we're nice. I'll kiss her behind if it helps," Luke offered. "What then? We still don't get Ashley back as long as Ricky wants her?"

"Chances are if the father is willing to accept custody, he would be granted it. However, you have been taking care of her for her entire life, she knows you and loves you, and while you are not technically her uncles, you are a blood relative. Some type of reasonable visitation would probably not be out of the question."

"Visitation?" Bo asked. "You think that's a solution? Hi Princess, Merry Christmas. Oh, I'll see you again next summer! What kind of solution is that?"

"Under the law, the best one I can think of."

Bo and Luke didn't know what to say. That wasn't what they wanted to hear, but it was close to what the Social Worker had also told them. Bo's distrust of the system seemed to be warranted.

"First thing we need to do is to make sure that Ashley is ok. I'm sure you'd like to see her, wouldn't you?"

"Yes," they both replied.

"While they sort out this mess of finding her biological father, and clearing you of any wrong doing, they will keep her in some type of foster care. I'll file a motion for temporary visitation so you can make sure that she's alright, and to bring her some of her things. They probably didn't let her take anything, did they?" Seeing the boys' heads move from side to side, David Dudley moved his up and down. "Yeah, I don't know why they can't let them take anything with em, but it's their procedure. They think it's best to remove them as quickly as possible to avoid any trouble and less trauma, like that would be possible. Now, until you're cleared of the accusations, the visits will probably be supervised, but they're better than nothing. After that, we'll play it by ear, depending on what Social Services and Ricky Samuels decide to do. Okay?"

"Okay," the boys reluctantly agreed, since they seemed to have no other choice.

"I'm sorry," the attorney apologized, hating that there wasn't more he could do.

"You didn't write the laws, did ya?" Luke asked.

"No," he chuckled. "If I had, they'd be better."

"So, how much is this going to cost?" Bo asked, getting back to the issue of money, and their lack of wealth.

"We'll work something out," David vaguely replied, deferring the payment until later.

"Why?" Bo asked, not understanding why someone they didn't even know would be interested in helping them.

"Contrary to popular belief, I didn't become an attorney to get rich. I'm still waiting for some of the chickens I've been given over the years to lay that golden egg, but it hasn't happened, yet," he said, laughing at his own comment, and finding his new clients doing the same. "I really did become a lawyer because of the laws and the clients."

"Well, we appreciate it," Luke said, standing up and extending his hand as a gesture of thanks.

"Yeah," Bo said, doing the same, "and we won't give ya none of our hens, either. We're still waiting for that golden egg, too." As an after thought he added, "we do have a stubborn mule ya might be interested in."

The three men laughed, and David Dudley saw a different side of Bo then he had since arriving. He had liked Luke, but wasn't sure what to make of the blonde. The quick joke eased his fears. Now he assumed that he was probably a likable guy, too, just a terribly upset one.

"I'll be in touch," he promised. "And, I'll push for a hearing as soon as tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you again," they told him.

Walking back out to Dixie, they both sat for a few minutes. They couldn't believe that the little girl that had changed their lives was about to be taken away from them with little more than a wave and a wink.