Luke sipped his beer at the bar; the Boar's Nest was surprisingly busy for a Wednesday. He tried his best not to focus on his scarred wrists but continued to focus on the watered-down beer. He and Bo hadn't talked much this past week, Luke just figured it was because he was mad at him for losing it and taking it out on him. Luke didn't blame him. He decided it was best if they kept their distance for a while, and he wasn't hearing any objection from Bo.
As he stood at the bar, eventually, a good-looking lady walked up and stood next to him. She began to pick at her nails, and play with her hair. Luke averted his gaze, smiling to himself. He quickly downed the last of his beer and turned to her.
"I take it you ain't just standin' here for no reason." He chuckled.
The woman turned to him, looking him up and down, and pursing her scarlet lips. "No, and I take it you ain't just standin' here either."
"Well, I was until you showed up."
She gave a half-hearted laugh. "Funny."
"So what, I suppose you want a drink?"
"Actually, no. I saw you were over here bein' Mister Lonely and I thought I'd join ya. Believe it or not, I'm here alone too."
"No kiddin'?"
Just then, Bo walked into the Boar's Nest, standing on the other side of Luke. Luke turned to him, surprised to see him here after he'd spent the past week in this place.
"Surprise seein' you here, thought you woulda had enough of this place." Luke remarked.
"Frankly cousin, I can't seem to get enough of it at the moment." Bo replied coldly.
Luke watched as he ordered a glass of hard whiskey; the bruises on his face were still there, purple and shiny. He suddenly came to the realization that he was the whole reason he'd been doing this. Rosco was right, right about everything.
Luke turned back to talk to the lady, trying to clear his mind. This went on for a while, Bo moved down a few paces to give them their space, and the woman had introduced herself as Candice. After about half an hour, a man came up and stood on the opposite side of Luke, between him and Bo.
Luke did his best to keep his cool through the man's snarky comments about the Vietnam War.
"Y'know, no one really ever got outta there in one piece. Sure a lotta them mighta kept their limbs, but they lost their heads." The man explained. Luke's scarred wrists caught his attention, and he suddenly knew just what to say to provoke him. "Take this one for example." He grabbed Luke's arm without warning and laid it out for the bartender to see. "Like I said, all of 'em are a buncha wackjobs, lookie here."
Luke quickly pulled his arm away. "You lookin' for a fight?"
The man put an arm around Luke's shoulders. "Nah, we're all friends here."
"Not… really, no." Luke muttered, inaudible to the man
The man shook him roughly, laughing. "Oorah!"
Luke sighed, setting his beer glass on the bar. "Now, I don't normally fight unless I got good reasons, and right now, my pride ain't one of 'em."
By now, Bo was starting to inch closer, curious as to what was going on. The man took note of this and smiled. "Oh really?" With that, he briskly spun and punched Bo square in the nose. There was a sickening crack; the Duke boy cursed loudly, reeling backward, blood spilling onto the front of his shirt, flowing steadily from his nose..
"That reason enough?" The man sneered.
"Candice, darlin', if you'll excuse me for a minute." Luke growled coldly.
Luke quickly turned and swung at the man, planting a punch on his jaw. The man stumbled sideways, away from the bar. Luke pushed a bar stool aside, clearing the path between him and the man.
"I think you're makin' a pretty big mistake here." Luke growled. "Now, it's one thing to pick at my pride, but another thing to hurt my family, especially for no reason whatsoever."
"I'm the one makin' the mistake? Look at yourself, a war veteran with a temper, you oughta have yourself put away." The man taunted.
Luke scowled. "Is that a fact?"
Luke lunged at him, fueled by blind rage. The man hit the ground, Luke on top of him. Luke threw a few punches to his face, before being thrown off and into a table. The two of them got back up quickly, however, and were soon at it again, tangled up in a flurry. After a moment of this, the man punched Luke in the stomach, before pushing him into the bar.
Luke felt the edge of the bar slam into the small of his back. Before he could recover, the man was on him again, holding him against the bar by his throat. He punched him in the face repeatedly.
It wasn't long before a gunshot went off, and the bar fell silent. The man froze, Luke silently thanked the Lord. Everyone turned around to see Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane standing in the doorway, pearl-handled pistol pointed to the ceiling. He walked forward slowly, his footsteps echoing through the silent bar. When he approached the man, he pointed his gun at him and pulled out his handcuffs.
"Let go of 'im." Rosco ordered.
The man scowled and released his hand from Luke's throat.
"You gonna come quietly, or am I gonna have to shoot ya?"
The man looked from Rosco's handcuffs to his gun. Reluctantly, he held his hands out in front of him, allowing Rosco to handcuff him. Enos entered the Boar's Nest, taking the man away. Rosco turned to the Duke boys, his face wearing a steely-cold expression.
"Well, I'm glad to see you two finally made nice and can stand to be in the same room together. Let's see how long you'll last in a cell together." Rosco growled.
Luke sighed, and grabbed Bo's arm, dragging him away from the bar. Bo quickly downed the last sip of his whiskey and followed his cousin outside.
As the two of them sat in the jail cell together, Luke couldn't help but notice that Bo seemed a little off. His whole body shook, and he sat as far away from him as possible. Alright, so he's not over it, Luke thought. He sighed, wanting nothing more than to make things right between the two of them. Now or never.
Luke got up and walked over to where Bo sat, hugging his knees to his chest. He knelt down beside him, but Bo quickly pushed him away.
"Stay away from me, Luke." Bo growled.
Luke could see the blind drunkenness in his cousin's eyes. "You ain't gonna remember any of this."
"Probably not, so why don't you just go ahead and leave me alone?"
"'Cause I'm sick of this, you know I never meant to go crazy like that. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm sorry. I didn't have my head on straight, and I admit, I went a little too far, but we ain't hardly spoken to each other in a week. I just… I don't know what to do to make things right, is all."
Luke averted his gaze, remembering the look of fear in Bo's eyes. It was the same look he'd see when Russel would hit him. Luke couldn't bear the thought of becoming someone similar to Russel. However, Bo's reaction to Luke's little speech was one most unexpected. Luke expected him to maybe argue, maybe forgive him or something. Instead, Bo began to laugh.
"You… you really thought I was mad at ya for hittin' me?" Bo asked, still laughing.
"Ye-yeah."
"Oh please, I got over that right quick. Why d'you think I covered for ya?"
Luke sighed and sat against the wall next to Bo. "I guess I… never really thought about it."
Bo's mood shifted from giddy laughter to a quiet sadness. He wrapped his arms around himself, hesitating for a moment. "Did you know… Jackson raped kids?"
Luke's heart stopped, his blood ran cold. What?! Then, it occurred to him, Jackson, car, junkyard, oh God.
"The junkyard…" Luke's voice trailed off.
Bo nodded. "And here, all these years, I thought he was tryna kill me."
Luke was quiet for a moment. "Well… I can definitely see why that'd bother ya so much. I'm sorry I wasn't there to talk."
"It's fine, it ain't like I was really lookin' to talk to ya anyway. The thing is, you hittin' me like that, it bothered me for a while. But… you can at least warn me next time… 'cause… for the first time… I was real scared of you."
These words hit Luke like a freight train. He quickly, and unexpectedly pulled his cousin into a hug. "I'll never do it again, I promise. Even if ya do deserve it, after what Russel did to ya, you don't deserve to go through all that crap again. I promise, I ain't nothin' like him."
Bo sat, stunned for a second, but soon brought himself to hug him back. "Thank you."
General sat outside of the courthouse in the dark, his headlights the only thing illuminating the space in front of him. He resituated the two-hundred dollars tucked under his windshield wiper, making sure that it didn't blow away in the wind. As Rosco walked out of the building with Bo and Luke, a spark of joy flashed through him. He missed the good old days, running from Rosco, just him and the Dukes.
When they reached the car, General offered up the money to Rosco as Bo and Luke climbed in. Rosco took one-hundred dollars.
"You can keep the rest." Rosco said flatly, handing the remainder of the money to Bo.
General honked his horn and allowed himself to be driven away from the courthouse. They drove in silence for a while, until the conversation picked up again.
"Where the General got two-hundred dollars, I don't wanna know." Bo remarked.
"Same here. And the fact that we call Daisy to come get us and he shows up with bail money is a bit disconcerting." Luke replied.
She sent me. General explained.
Bo and Luke each smiled as their car rumbled and hummed.
"Now, what d'you suppose had Daisy all happy and excited while her cousins were sittin' in jail?" Bo asked.
"Had to have been important if she sent the General after us instead of comin' herself." Luke remarked.
"Oh, I'm sure."
As they pulled into the farm's driveway, they saw the house lights on and a sense of stimulation hung in the air. Bo and Luke climbed out of the General Lee cautiously, stalking up to the front steps. They exchanged glances quickly, Luke opening the door. As soon as he did, Daisy bolted through the door, jumping into Luke's arms. She screamed excitedly, a bundle of money in her left hand. Bo and Luke jumped back, startled. Luke set Daisy on the ground, pushing away from her, and holding her shoulders in his hands.
"Daisy, what is goin' on?" He asked her.
"Our crops sold big! We're goin' on vacation fellas, pack your bags!" Daisy replied quickly, running back into the house.
"You catch any of that?" Bo asked.
"Enough to know that we ain't gonna be stickin' around here for long." Luke explained, following Daisy into the house.
Bo was startled awake as Luke threw a backpack at him.
"Hey hangover, get your beauty rest?" Luke taunted.
Bo pulled the backpack off of him and threw it back at his cousin. He groaned, pulling his blankets over his head. His head throbbed and Luke's voice sounded louder than it should have been; he didn't feel too good either. This had been his mornings practically every day for the past week, and today would be no different.
"Hey, get packin', that Peterbilt leaves in an hour!" Luke called from the hallway.
That. What? Bo's eyes shot open and he suddenly remembered last night's conversation with Daisy. He groggily hauled himself out of bed and got dressed. As he filled the backpack with some clothes, his broken toy car caught his attention. He plucked it off the top of the dresser, turning it over in his hands, examining it. Sighing, he stuffed it inside the backpack along with some other personal belongings.
It wasn't long before all four Dukes were gathered in the kitchen for a quick breakfast before leaving. As they were headed outside, a horn honked, and they all looked to see Rosco's patrol car rolling up.
"What do you suppose Boss and Rosco want?" Bo asked.
"They're comin' with us, we're on probation, remember?" Luke explained.
Bo sighed. "So much for a fun little family vacation."
"Rosco I'm fine with, but Boss's a different story." Daisy chimed in.
"Yeah, I hear ya." Luke replied.
Boss Hogg and Rosco each climbed out of the patrol car. Flash and Brutus hopping out as well.
"Mornin' Dukes!" Boss Hogg greeted enthusiastically.
Luke nodded in greeting. "Mornin' Boss."
Jesse stepped forward. "Now JD, you promise not to pose a problem on this trip?"
"I promise, Jesse, you got nothin' to worry about with me comin' along. I'm on vacation too." Boss Hogg explained with a smile.
"Just as long as you're outta the way, let's go kids."
The Dukes walked off towards the Peterbilt, leaving Boss Hogg, Rosco, and his dogs standing by the patrol car.
Trigger rolled over, opening his passenger side door and folding down the seat. Flash and Brutus hopped into the back. He allowed Rosco to climb into the driver seat but rolled away before Boss Hogg could open the passenger side door again.
Boss Hogg looked at the other Defects gathered at the farm. Herbie, Stripes, and General quickly sped off, leaving Christine and Thunder.
The two Defects exchanged glances.
Thunder sighed. I'll keep tabs on the fat man so you and General can have a little fun.
Thanks, Thunder! Christine exclaimed, speeding off to join the others.
Thunder sighed once more and headed over to meet Boss Hogg. He opened his door for him, waiting patiently as he struggled up inside.
This is going to be a long trip. Thunder groaned, knowing that Boss Hogg couldn't understand him.
Inside the Peterbilt, everyone settled down inside, Luke in the driver seat. He turned around to look at Jesse and Daisy sitting in the sleeper behind them. Daisy was already flipping through the magazine she'd packed.
"Y'all ready to go?" He asked jokingly, sliding the truck into gear.
A resounding "Yes" from his family made him smile.
"Yes, please, let's go." Daisy said, looking up from her magazine.
With that, the rig started forward, headed West, into the vast countryside.