CONFUSING SIGNALS

"Fiancée? When have you become Enos' fiancée, Daisy?" walking to the General Lee after coming out the Police Department, Bo smiled amused, trying to ease Daisy's clear discomfort mixed with anxiety, "I suppose you finally talked to Enos 'bout you're bein' his closest relation 'cause you love him, and now he's officially your fiancé."

Daisy turned to Bo, her arms folded and her features tight, "It isn't the time to talk of me and Enos, Bo."

"Sorry, I didn't want to tease you, Daisy," Bo turned serious, "I was just trying to… calm you down, talking of something happy. I know you don't like those detectives," he looked at Luke for a confirm, "and I also have a bad feeling."

Daisy nodded, unfolding her arms and hugging Bo, "Sorry Bo, I didn't mean to be rude. I know you weren't teasing me and Enos, but I don't want to talk about it, actually, 'cause it's something really private, and, with everything happening, Enos and I have still some things to talk 'bout, just Enos and I."

Bo nodded, "OK. A lot of things happened after Enos' coming back from L.A., and it's pretty normal you're trying to come back to your old lives, and it isn't easy, both for you and for him."

"I'm glad you love Enos and Enos loves you, Daisy, but I'm not so glad Enos talked 'bout it in front of those detectives," Luke rested his back against the General Lee, folding his arms and looking at his younger cousins until they turned to him, surprised by his words, "If detective Colt and detective Molise are involved in Enos' beating, and if they want to hurt him, I'm not happy to know they think of Daisy as someone to use in order to hurt Enos. Do you know what I mean? Remember Scanlon," Luke's blue eyes pierced Daisy and Bo, making them shiver.

"Enos would never put Daisy's life in danger," Bo shook his head, "and he isn't stupid. If he had really thought those detectives could hurt him and people close to him, he'd have never said something like that, giving them the opportunity to know the person closest to him."

"You're right, cousin, Enos isn't stupid, but he could be really naïve. Besides, he looked like shocked by those detectives' presence, so I wouldn't be surprised to know he didn't even think he could put Daisy's life in danger when he talked of her as his fiancée."

Bo nodded to Luke's words, "You're right, Enos is pretty reserved about… such things, and, in effect, I was surprised when I heard him presenting Daisy as his fiancée that way. I was more surprised in hearing how he said it than in hearing what he said. He was…," Bo searched for the right word, "… absent. He was speaking 'bout such a private thing, so unnatural for him, but it was like his mind was elsewhere. No blushing, no nervous laugh, no fidgeting. Not Enos. He was so worried and scared to the point he was zoning out."

Daisy recalled Enos' cold and sweaty hand, "Do you really think those detectives are involved in Enos' beating?" Daisy's open wide eyes stared into Luke's thoughtful eyes, knowing what Luke was going to tell her but hoping she saw wrong.

"I don't know, Daisy," Luke shook his head, doubtful, "I think that, some way or another, they're involved in what happened in L.A. I think Enos knows them pretty well, but I don't know how and why he met them. Anyway, I'm not happy they know you're his fiancée," he shook again his head, in frustration, "I didn't like how detective Colt was looking at you."

Daisy shrugged, "A lot of men look at me that way, Luke," she smiled, trying to ease her discomfort and Luke's obvious worrisome and over-protectiveness on her, but his blues eyes froze her, "Ok. Ok. I understand those detectives aren't just – a lot of men – and we should be careful 'til we'll understand their attitude about Enos."

Bo nodded, "Yeah. I observed them. Detective Colt is really rude and unpleasant, whereas detective Molise is more… mysterious, but somehow kind. He looked like annoyed by his colleague's roughness."

"I don't know, Bo. He's more mysterious and… maybe more dangerous. I don't trust very much that kind of man: too much cold… and mysterious, as you said. You can't understand what's goin' on into his mind, and it's dangerous," Luke looked at the Police Department at the other side of the square, his eyes thoughtful.

Detective Colt was the same age of Enos, more or less, whereas detective Molise was older, in his late 40s, if Daisy wasn't wrong in her analysis. She agreed with Luke: detective Colt was rude and teasing, and she hated his way to look at her and to tease Enos about her staying at Enos' apartment, whereas detective Molise, maybe 'cause he was more mature, was more secretive in his emotions and thoughts, and he could be more dangerous than detective Colt, hiding his real attitude about Enos behind his coldness and apparent kindness.

"OK, it's time to go back to the farm and talk to uncle Jesse about what's goin' on," Luke got in the car, "Come on," waiting for his cousins, and Bo and Daisy followed him.

"Hey, wait! Look at the Police Department," Bo pointed at the Police Department's entrance, "something's goin' on."

In the locker room, Enos washed his face with fresh water, trying to relax.

Those eyes: he couldn't believe those eyes remembered him so much the day he met them at the Hospital. Those detectives' presence sucked him in that day: he could feel the hospital's smell (a mix of disinfectant, food, and… things he wanted to forget about), the annoying sensation of the cast on the skin of his arms and legs, the itching of needles and tubes entering his body, the pain, the voices of nurses and doctors around him, and their touching his exposed and unprotected body. Docs and nurses were kind to him, but it didn't lessen his sense of impotence and his embarrass in being as a bug trapped in a web.

He buried his face in the towel and he tried to erase those images from his mind.

"Are you OK, deputy Strate? You look pale."

Starting, he turned to detective Colt and Molise entering the locker room and closing the door behind them. His usual clumsiness turned his starting into rambling movements of arms and legs and then into an embarrassing falling because of some water on the floor, and the falling turned into a dull thud when his forehead hit the sink.

"Hey, hey, we didn't mean to scare you," detective Colt approached him, helping him to stand up, "You're a bit clumsy, deputy Strate."

His hand pressed on his forehead, Enos stood up, "Thanks," then he stared at the blood on his palm as everything around him started to expand and to contract in a confusing dance.

He nervously washed his hands, tingeing water of red as it flowed in the sink's drain while the room around him kept on its dance.

"Hey, you're bleeding," detective Molise took the towel and pressed it against Enos' forehead, "you have a cut on your right eyebrow, and I think you need some stitches. Is there a Doctor or an Hospital, nearby?"

Detective Molise's voice was calm and somehow kind, and Enos relaxed a bit, remembering where he was and pushing away the memory of another sink in another locker room.

"Where's Sheriff Rosco?" Enos pressed the towel against his forehead, having a step back from detective Molise, his usual pride awakening in him, "I'm OK, now, don't worry, just a small cut."

"When you entered the locker room, your Sheriff asked us if we had breakfast, and then he went out, telling us to wait for him just few minutes. He said we could talk better with some coffee, doughnuts and the cake your fiancée brought you," detective Colt shrugged, then he yawned, "and, in effect, after a night spent driving, I need something to eat, and I need a coffee too."

"So, is there a Doctor, nearby?" Detective Molise repeated his question, "you need some stitches, I reckon three stitches, or four. Our breakfast can wait, beside I remember I was the one driving whereas detective Colt was sleeping," he casted a glance at detective Colt, and detective Colt answered him with a teasing smile, remembering Enos, just for few second, a same teasing between his friends Bo and Luke in their younger years. Just for few seconds the blond detective turned into Bo and the dark haired one into Luke, but that strange and surprising overlapping disappeared so quickly as it appeared.

"Yeah, Doc Appleby, he's nearby, he's the only Doc here," Enos walked to the door, not at all happy to go, again, to Doc Appleby: he could hear, again (the last time just the previous evening), Doc's paternalistic reproaches about his keeping on working despite the need of convalescence.

"Look. Rosco's coming out, and he's alone," Bo turned to Luke and Daisy, "And it means…"

"…It means Enos is with those detectives, just him and those detectives inside the Police Department," Luke completed Bo's sentence.

"I'm goin' to check everything' OK," Daisy was going to come out the General, ready for the action, any kind of action, but Luke's arm reached her waist, blocking her.

"Wait, wait, Daisy, you can't go in right now, with no excuse. We can't let those detectives know we're keeping a watch on them. If they're planning to hurt Enos, for sure they won't do it inside the Police Department, so openly."

Daisy had a deep sigh and she sat again on the back seat, "I hope you're right, Luke, 'cause, if they dare to lay a finger on Enos, I'm goin' to…," her eyes opened wide as she stared at Enos coming out the Police Department, a white towel pressed on his forehead and detective Colt and Molise walking by his side, "WHAT'S HAPPENED?" She came out the car and she ran to Enos, no other possibility for Luke and Bo that just following her.

"Enos, what's happened?" she came closer him and she gently grabbed his arm, removing the towel from his forehead, "what's that cut?"

"Your fiancé is a bit clumsy, darling," detective Colt smiled, slyly, "He just slipped, hitting his forehead against the sink. He needs some stitches."

"Detective Colt is right," Enos burst out in his brief and funny laugh, "Sometimes I can be really clumsy. I simply slipped, don't worry, Daisy."

Enos' genuine and usual laughing, coupled with Luke's firm grip on her right arm, prevented Daisy to slap detective Colt. And Luke's grip also prevented Daisy to follow Enos and the detectives in their way to Doc Appleby's house.

"Do you think Enos simply slipped?" Bo stared at Luke, rage in his voice, "They won't seriously hurt Enos inside the Police Department, you're right, but they can annoying him. Maybe they tripped him, or they pushed him against the sink, and if they dared to do it…" he clenched his fist.

Luke folded his arms, more calm than Daisy and Bo, "If they had tripped him or hurt him on purpose, he'd have looked more shocked than he was. He answered us in his usual way; he didn't avert his eyes and he didn't stiff. No, I don't think he's lying, he is unable to lie and, when he hides something, it's pretty clear. And yeah, he could be really clumsy, especially if he's nervous, and he's pretty nervous with those detectives around, but he'd have been more nervous if they had hit him."

Daisy looked at her older cousin, glad he caught the things she missed and glad of his self-control. She was so angry to those detectives to miss Enos' signals, and it wasn't the first time her rage prevented her to catch important signals. She hoped Luke read Enos' signals right: Luke, Bo and uncle Jesse knew Enos very well, maybe not better than her but for sure there were no many people in Hazzard knowing Enos better than her family.

"Oh Gosh, and now what happened, Enos?" Doc Appleby opened the door, looking at Enos and shaking his head.

"Just a small cut, Doctor, but this kind of cuts bleed a lot. He needs some stitches," Detective Molise answered to Doc's question at Enos' place.

Following Doc Appleby to his office, Enos realized, with surprise, he was more calm and relaxed than he thought of; or was he simply dumb because of the confusion in his mind? He lied down on the exam table and he let Doc Appleby do his work: three stitches on his right eyebrow, detective Molise guessed right.

When he came out the office, detective Molise, sitting on the couch, stood up whereas detective Colt was standing near the window, looking outside.

"Everything's OK?"

Enos nodded, answering detective Molise's question, "Three stitches, you guessed right," he smiled and he walked to the door, "Sheriff Rosco is waiting for us at the Police Department, and you're late for your breakfast, I'm sorry."

"Enos, please, be careful. You're so stubborn you haven't even had a single day of rest since you came back from L.A. I can't oblige you to take your time for your convalescence, especially after what happened yesterday evening," Doc Appleby took his glasses off and he pinched his nose between his right thumb and forefinger, "so, please, be careful. I don't want something bad happen to you because of your weakness."

Doc Appleby's referring to L.A. and to Enos' missed convalescence (and so his implied referring to the reason why Enos needed some rest) made Enos shiver, sucking him again in that Hospital's room, those cold eyes watching him, those same cold eyes watching him now.

"Deputy Strate had a hard time in L.A., Doc, you're right," detective Molise took an invisible hair away from his jacket, his cold eyes away both from Enos and Doc Appleby, "but actually, with that bomber out there, we need him to help us. We need the whole local Law, though the whole local Law means just the Sheriff and his Deputy."

Detective Colt, still looking outside the window, finally turned to the other men in the room, "Nothing bad is going to happen to deputy Strate," he smiled, but the light entering the room from the window behind him prevented Enos to read into that smile, "or I hope so. Deputy Strate is strong, anyway, since he survived to what happened to him in L.A. Protesters during a riot can become beasts, there's nothing more scaring than a enraged crowd."

No emotions in detective Colt's voice (no teasing, no rage, no scorn, no pity, no empathy, nothing) and no visible signs on his face in shadow as he stood against the light entering the window behind him, whereas detective Molise kept on taking invisible hair away from his jacket as he wasn't interested in what they were talking about.

Did they suspect the truth behind his beating? What would've happened if he had told them the truth? Would they've done their duty, looking for the culprits inside LAPD, or would they've protected those culprits complying with the Blue Wall of Silence? What's behind those cold eyes? What were they thinking about him when they asked him about the beating? Did they think of him as a rat deserving that beating, no matter who's responsible? Or did they respect him as a colleague injured in the line of duty?

Those questions, again and again, coming to his mind: did he really want an answer?

Really?