Author's Note: Chapter replaced on 07/11/05. New side-plot.

o0O0o

'To cement a new friendship, especially between foreigners or persons of a different social world, a spark with which both were secretly charged must fly from person to person, and cut across the accidents of place and time.'

-Cornelia Otis Skinner

"Come on Hutch, quit sulking."

Starsky led the way back to the small, dusty little impound office. His mind was made up and his heart was set. The Charger would never replace the Torino, but Starsky loved his new car in it's own, special way. Sure it would take some getting used to- learning to climb in and out of the windows for instance, but the car had heart.

And flair.

"I'm not sulking," Hutch argued feebly as he trudged through the red dirt. "I just think you're making a big mistake."

"A mistake would be letting that car sit in this junkyard and rot," Starsky replied, stopping to walk side by side with his partner. The office was just a short distance ahead. "Come on, you gotta admit, it is a special car."

Almost against his will, Hutch smiled. "I'll give you that one."

"There, see, I knew you'd warm up to it."

Starsky grabbed the door handle to the impound office and yanked it open. The two-room building was small to begin with, but with the amount of paperwork and furniture that littered the place, it had shrunk to downright tiny. Lou, the overseer of the lot, was currently behind his paper-covered desk and in the middle of an argument with two men.

Starsky moved aside to make room for his partner and studied the scene before him. The men were both young, probably in their mid twenties, and both were obviously from out of town. They were both dressed in jeans and cowboy boots; the taller man was blond and wearing a yellow button down shirt, the brunet in a blue checkered shirt. Their hair cuts resembled a messier style of Starsky's and Hutch's own; the brunet had shaggy, curly hair and the blond had an unruly bowl cut. Both had blue eyes to rival Starsky and Hutch. To complete the Southern look, each man had a rather large belt buckle.

Silence fell over the office as the two pair of men regarded each other.

"These guys causing you trouble?" Starsky asked stiffly, glancing at Lou.

"No we ain't causin' him trouble, we just want our dang car back!" The blond stepped forward but was grabbed by the brunet.

"Bo, calm down."

Starsky stiffened. "I suggest you listen to your friend," he said, looking between the strangers and Lou.

The blond ducked his head and glared, but kept quiet as Lou spoke up. "I was just trying to explain to these boys about release procedures." He sounded exasperated, but not upset. "There's no problem Starsky."

The brunet shoved his friend aside and moved closer to Lou's desk. "Look, isn't there anyway we can just pay a fine and forget about all this?"

"Look, I'm sorry, but if you can't provide proof of insurance-"

"Now look Mister," the blond began again, "it's like I told you before. We don't need insurance in Hazzard County. Everybody knows everybody, and we sort things out ourselves. We just want our car back."

"Hazzard County?" Hutch asked, moving next to Lou's desk. "Where's that?"

"Georgia," the blond and Lou replied together.

Starsky huffed. "You're quite a ways from home, aren't you? What brought you guys all the way to Bay City?"

Lou leaned backwards in his chair and crossed his arms, apparently giving up on the conversation. Hutch picked up the papers and began scanning them.

"Sick relative," the blond replied curtly.

The brunet laughed thinly and stepped in front of the blond. "Let me introduce us. I'm Luke Duke and this is my cousin Bo." He paused with his hand held out.

Starsky eyed the proffered hand before returning the handshake. "I'm Starsky, he's Hutch. We're detectives with the Bay City PD."

"My pleasure," Luke replied politely.

Starsky eyed Bo, who was hovering uncomfortably behind his cousin. "What's your hurry to get out of town?" he asked as Luke took a step back.

"Says here they're in violation of parole," Hutch spoke up from reading Lou's paperwork.

"Now what could two country boys do to earn parole?" Starsky questioned, and he thought he heard Hutch snort.

"They were caught running moonshine."

Starsky blinked. He hadn't been expecting that one.

"Oh come on, that was years ago!" Bo argued.

"Try one and a half years ago," Hutch said.

"I don't care how long ago it was, you're still under probation and you violated it," Starsky shot back. Boy, this blond kid had a big mouth. He turned to Hutch. "Is the car cleared by booking?"

Hutch flipped through some pages. "Not yet."

"Well, it looks like you two aren't going anywhere."

Bo shifted his weight impatiently behind his shorter cousin. "Well this is a fine mess you got us into, cousin."

"Me?" Luke replied indignantly as he turned to face Bo. "It was you who got us into this."

Starsky rolled his eyes as the two bickered. They were family alright.

"Hey, Starsk, look at this."

Starsky shook his head at the cousins and joined Hutch. Lou had long since broken out his sack lunch and had it's contents spread out before him.

"Look at what kind of car these guys own."

Starsky stood shoulder to shoulder with Hutch and looked down at the typed papers in his partner's hands. 'Luke Duke… date of birth: September 9th, 1951... six foot one… yadda yadda… Vehicle-'

"1969 Dodge Charger?" Starsky questioned out loud. He looked up when silence reigned over the room. "Oh no."

Starsky looked straight into eyes as blue as his own and swallowed. "You guys own that orange car out there?"

"Yes sir," Luke nodded.

Starsky refused to believe it. "The one with the confederate flag on the top?"

Hutch snorted, and then shuffled a bit as if feigning compassion.

"That's the General, it's been ours since we found him in a junkyard and fixed him up."

Him. Starsky felt something pull in his chest. The car was a him.

He'd always thought of the Torino as a her.

"Well, it's too bad you're missing a proof of insurance and in violation of your parole," Hutch said, tossing the papers onto Lou's desk. "Looks like you boys never should have left Georgia."

Starsky saw something fearful flicker in the cousins' eyes. He wanted the Charger more than anything, but it felt wrong swiping such an obviously precious possession from these slow country hicks. Bo was wearing that same expression of hurt that Starsky had felt on his face when the Torino died. Starsky knew what would happen; the cousins would probably spend the night in jail before being shipped back to whatever county they came from. But eventually they would get out, and taking the Charger like this felt as cold-hearted as taking candy from a baby.

Not that Starsky knew what that felt like.

He sighed. "It's alright Hutch. That car could never replace the Torino anyways." He sniffed. "It's too… orange."

Hutch looked surprised, but quickly went with it. "Good thinking, Starsk. You don't want that old clunker car anyway."

"Hey now, the General is not a clunker-" Bo started forward but was grabbed again by Luke.

"Did you say Torino?" Luke asked, pushing his cousin behind him. "What year?"

"75."

"Well how 'bout that," Luke smiled. "Hey Bo," he began, tuning his head slightly, "Isn't Cooter looking to sell that Torino he fixed up?"

"What's a 'Cooter'?" Hutch asked.

"He's just the best mechanic in all of Hazzard," Bo bragged.

Starsky looked hard at Luke. He didn't want just any 1975 Torino, it had to be his Torino. But these boys obviously knew their cars, and aside from being obnoxiously southern, they hadn't done anything to make Starsky doubt their sincerity. What if they really had a replica of the Torino?

Starsky's heart beat a little faster. "Have you seen the car? You know what kind of engine it has?"

Luke looked Starsky in the eye and said, "460 CID Engine with 4-barrel carburetor."

Starsky looked to Hutch, who looked both lost and skeptical at the same time.

"I think we need to take a little walk," Starsky said.

Hutch did that thing where his eyes got wide and he kinda rolled his head, like when he knew exactly what Starsky was thinking.

Starsky hated that.

He turned and held the door open for the reluctant cousins. They eye-balled him cautiously as they exited the building, then stopped to wait just outside the door. Hutch patted Lou's shoulder before he followed Bo and Luke.

"Don't worry," Starsky said to the open-mouthed Lou before he followed his partner, "I'll bring them back in one piece."

Starsky hopped off the step and landed in the soft red dirt. As they started walking towards the Charger, Hutch caught up to him.

"I hope you're thinking things through," he murmured in Starsky's ear. The cousins were walking behind them, having a quiet conversation between the two of them.

Starsky gave Hutch his best 'Who, me?' look. "Hutch, just look at them. They're unlucky, lost hillbillies."

Hutch risked a look behind him. Bo had his face to the sky, watching a plane fly overhead, and Luke was running his hand over the hood of a souped-up Pontiac.

"Point taken."

"So," Starsky continued, "It'll be fairly easy to sweep this little parole problem under the rug, especially with our 'connections'."

Hutch faltered. "You're willing to put your job on the line for these two? You just met them five minutes ago!"

Starsky looked at Hutch. "I'm willing to do that for my car."

For love.

"Starsky, that's… not right. That car does not mean more to you than your job."

"You're right," Starsky admitted calmly, trying to counterbalance Hutch's emotions. "But I also believe these guys are good. They just want to get home. They're not used to how we run things out here."

"Maybe it's time they actually took responsibility for their actions."

Bo and Luke watched the detectives wearily, unnoticed.

"Okay, think of it like this. If we follow these guys home, we'll get to meet the local law enforcement, maybe give them a few pointers. We'll be helping out. I know you like doing that sort of thing."

"You sound like you know these guys, Starsky."

"You're right, I don't know them. But I doubt they're going to pull out a gun and shoot us in the back."

Hutch fought back a smile. "And what if they're lying?"

"Then we haul them right back here and throw their tails in lockup." He paused and looked Hutch in the eyes. "I just got this gut feeling, like this was meant to happen."

"No, that's the burritos you had for lunch."

He was winning Hutch over, he could tell. "I wouldn't ask you if it didn't mean something to me."

Hutch sighed. "You're going out on a limb here partner."

"So that's a yes then?" When Hutch didn't smile, Starsky bounced a little. "Come on Hutch, it'll be fun. We'll take a few days of vacation, enjoy a day in some one-horse hick town, and get my new car. Don't worry, the bad guys will be waiting for us when we come back. And hey, I bet Huggy will even water your plants while we're gone. Come on, whaddya say?"

"Fine," Hutch relented, then added quickly, "But you owe me, got it?"

"Cheer up, maybe you'll find some of your relatives."

"Minnesota, Starsky, not Georgia."

"Hey, close enough."

"No, not close. They're almost-"

"Hey, look Luke, it's the General!"

Starsky watched Bo jog past them and go to the Charger.

"Sure enough," Luke replied as he joined his cousin.

Starsky felt his heart drop. That was their car alright. You'd have to be blind to miss the affection the men showed as they circled the car, checking for dents and scratches. Luke popped the trunk and reach in, pulling out a fairly small pig-shaped cookie jar. He held it up to show Bo.

"It's still here!" he exclaimed with relief as Starsky and Hutch came to a stop a few feet away.

Bo looked relieved as well as he took the cookie jar from his cousin, inspecting it carefully. "Thank goodness," he said with a twang. "Boss'd have our hides if anything happened to Lulu's antique cookie jar."

Starsky moved forward, getting a closer look at the ceramic pig. The animal was sitting on it's rear with all four legs folded against itself, like the way small dogs beg for food at the dinner table. The pig's head was removable, allowing access for storing cookies in the animal's hollow body. "What's this for?" Starsky asked, sensing that there was more to this childish cookie jar than meets the eyes.

"Uh, well, it's sorta a long story," Luke started. "We owed somebody a favor."

"Some favor," Hutch commented dryly, eyeing the cookie jar skeptically.

As the cookie jar was placed back in the trunk, Starsky asked, "So you found this car in a junk yard?"

Bo crossed his arms and leaned on the roof as Luke shut the trunk and leaned back against the car. "That's right. Me and Luke built the engine but didn't have anything to put it in. When we found The General in Boss's used car lot, it was painted black and used to be the get-away car for gold dust thieves. So we bought it and took it to Cooters'. The only color paint old Cooter had was orange, so that's what we used! The General's been ours ever since."

"Isn't that touching," Hutch muttered, low enough as not to be rude.

"Hey, tell us about your car," Bo spoke up, looking eagerly at Starsky.

"Starsky here drove a striped tomato," Hutch replied, laying a hand on Starsky's shoulder. "It was the most obnoxious car to ever hit the streets. Made it impossible to be inconspicuous." He finished with a grin to his partner.

"This coming from the guy who drives a junk heap." He looked to the cousins. "My car was specially painted red with a white stripe. All chrome, 460-V8 engine with FMX transmission, California emissions and dual exhaust. The front end was lowered just a little…"

"Well shoot, that's mostly stock," Bo announced. "All Cooter'd have to do is paint the dang thing."

"You guys know an awful lot about cars," Hutch said skeptically.

"This car's saved our tails more times than I can count. We make sure he's always at his best."

Luke took on a more thoughtful look, as if he were just now coming up with the idea Starsky had. "Are we gonna get the General back?"

Starsky shifted his weight. "Here's the deal. You guys have something I want, and I can get rid of something you don't want." He moved closer, as if Lou would hear from the confines of his office. "You get me that Torino, and I'll make sure this whole little mishap of yours is overlooked. If I find out you were just fast talking, I'll haul you back here personally and you can find out how we do justice in the big city, complete with handcuffs and bars and the works." He paused to let the terms sink in. "Deal?"

Bo hit the roof of the Charger with a smile. "Well what are we sittin' around here for? Let's go!"

Luke nodded in agreement and held out a hand. "You got yourself a deal."