Thanks again to all reviewers! This chapter was written all today, in probably an hour and a half's time! Wow, that's fast!

So to anyone who was wondering about Uncle Jesse's reaction, here you go, nice and hot. :D

Bring in the Troops

Nervous and bored fingers tapped out a constant, steady rhythm on the tabletop, never daring to move faster nor slower. Tap, tap, tap. Click, click, click. On, on, on.

"Stop it!" Jo finally demanded of her sister.

Lou's fingers curled back until her fingernails bit into her palm. She kept timely stabbing her fingers into her palm until she couldn't stand it anymore and bounced to her feet. "Jo, I'm not sitting anymore. This is torture."

Across their small, bland hotel room, Jo sat on one of the two beds lazily reading a magazine, with a brow now raised questioningly at Lou. "Really?"

"Yes, really!" Lou insisted, already stalking towards the door. "We've been sitting here, doing nothing for two days because if we're out and about in Hazzard, someone's bound to put two and two together and then Bo and Luke would be furious. But you know what, I'm not sitting around anymore, Jo. I'm going to do something about this mess."

"What?"

That question stopped Lou in her tracks, halfway through opening the door.

Just what was she going to do about this?

Go stand in the street and shout for all the world to hear, Lou thought spitefully. Who cares just as long as word gets out! But where would that get you, Lou? No where fast, I think. So hit where it hurts, and we'll be in business. And that's when she smiled.

"You know, I promised Bo that I wouldn't tell anyone unless he failed to do so," she said. "It's been two days, and we haven't heard from either one of the 'fathers' here, despite the fact they know full-well where we are. So, I gave them time, and it's now up." She gestured widely and her grin widened. "Jo, it's time to bring in the troops!"

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For the longest time, Luke and Bo had been completely silent when alone, each one reflecting on their current predicaments. And neither had spoken a word to anyone—even each other—about Betty-Lou and Bobbie-Jo. In fact, their unusual silence had been noticed by Uncle Jesse and Daisy that first night at dinner, and had inspired inquiries. To those questions, Bo and Luke were both very quick to dismiss it as nothing.

Neither realized that their family wasn't going to believe that at all.

And now in the General, heading towards Hazzard for no real reason in particular, Luke felt oddly inclined to break the silence concerning the twins.

"How do you feel about Lou, Bo?" he asked.

Bo started answering the question by a long sigh. "She's… annoying. So very, very irritating. I wouldn't say I hate her, but I do severely dislike her."

"Really? Is she that bad?"

"She gets under my skin in a way no one else can," Bo replied.

"You sure that's not just her way of showing she likes you?"

Bo's mind flitted back to previous comments made by Lou. "Oh no," he answered certainly. "She made it all too clear what her opinion of me is. She told me flat out that she has a very low opinion when it comes to me."

Luke took that all in with a nod. "She could just be in denial."

"Would you leave that alone?" Bo growled. "I don't like Lou, Lou doesn't like me, we're just forced into a relationship that makes us both chafe each other's nerves constantly. Case closed, end of story."

"Whatever you say, Bo."

That got under Bo's skin. "Well what about Jo?" he shot back in retaliation. "How do you feel about her?"

Luke kept in thoughtful silence for a moment before answering. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? It was a simple question."

With a stare that looked like it could melt right through Bo at the moment, Luke fixed his eyes on his cousin. "It was a simple answer," he retorted tightly. "I'm not sure. I mean, I like Jo's company, but her silence is frustrating. I felt bad when I hurt her feelings, but I'm not sure if that means anything. I haven't quite sorted out how I feel."

The answer immediately cooled Bo's anger at Luke for stirring up the Lou issue. He really was beating himself up for Jo's problem, and on top of that he was struggling to figure out how he felt about the woman. And so Bo let the subject drop for Luke's sake, and let silence ring out.

But after a while, Luke was again the one to break it. "What are we going to do?"

Bo sighed, as his cousin again brought forth one of the questions he'd been so avidly arguing about inside himself. "I don't know," he replied. "I reckon the right thing to do would be to marry them like they want. But I don't really want that."

"Me neither," Luke agreed. "But since when is life about what we really want?"

"Never," Bo admitted.

"So really, we'll probably wind up as married men soon."

"Probably," Bo agreed with a sigh. Another silence hung between them, but this one much shorter than before. "I guess we probably need to tell Uncle Jesse soon too."

"He's gonna kill us," Luke said, leaning back in the passenger's seat.

"I think Lou's gonna kill us if we don't tell him," Bo reflected.

"And we probably ought to go see them too," Luke said. "It has been two days."

Bo nodded as he turned the General towards the small Hazzard Hotel.

"I guess we could take them when we tell Uncle Jesse too," Luke muttered. "Sort of an insurance-type precaution."

Already parking their orange Charger at the hotel, Bo groaned at the thought. "Lou's gonna babble on and on relentlessly. I think she's gonna be more of a hindrance than an assurance."

"We'll take her anyway."

The silence between the Duke boys was sort of strained with anxiety as they got out of the General and made their way to the reception desk. After questioning the receptionist and averting to the real cause of their visit for safety, Bo and Luke had the Johnson twins' room number.

But when they knocked and called at the door, there was no answer.

Five whole minutes they stood and knocked, but the entire time, there was no answer. And then finally, it dawned on them.

"No!" they both shouted in denial as awful realization struck. They were both back running towards the General and were there and inside in probable record time.

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The Duke farm was a place Lou had only seen a few times during her little "affair" with Bo eight months previous, and Jo had only been there once. Still, they easily located the place.

Lou felt flat-out jittery standing at the door, arm raised to knock. This step she was about to take would be completely irreparable and she knew it'd make Bo very angry with her. She was treading on territory that he'd openly expressed that he didn't want her near.

She threw a glance over her shoulder at Jo, who nodded.

Thus, with courage summoned, Lou reached out and knocked on the door.

The answer was prompt, and Daisy Duke herself was at the door in no time. It took her a brief moment, but she recognized the two. "Oh, Betty-Lou! Bobbie-Jo! What brings you two to the Duke doorstep?" Her face suddenly registered an idea about why the two were there. "Oh, Bo and Luke aren't here…"

"We're not here for them," Lou quickly said. "We're here to see you and your Uncle Jesse. If you'll let us inside, we have some news for you."

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The General was home in no time flat, hurrying along the back roads at full speed. And amazingly, no Rosco showed up to stop them along the way.

As soon as the General Lee skidded to a stop both Duke cousins sprung out like lightning and dashed inside. Both were out of breath when they blundered into the kitchen—

But they were both too late. There sat Jo and Lou with Uncle Jesse and Daisy around the small kitchen table, Lou spilling the news to the wide-eyed Dukes.

"And I told them to tell you—" she was saying before the boys' entrance cut her off.

When she saw them standing there, she stopped mid-sentence and shrunk back almost fearfully. Jo was her normal, reserved and silent self, made all the more discreet now.

"Lou!" Bo exclaimed at her. "How could you!"

"You left me no choice," she retorted.

But by now, the shocked Jesse was rising from his seat, turning to his nephews. "You two better get out of here!" he shouted angrily. "Before I kill you!"

And both boys were back out the door just as quickly as they'd entered.

Bit of a cliffie, but the net part should be up soon!