WOOHOO! I've been waiting to write this chapter ever since I started this story. Seriously.

K, to everybody, please review this chapter especially.

To all who've been waiting for more Jo/Luke love than Lou/Bo arguments, here you go.

To all: Alright, the two people who currently know who's gonna wind up in jail later on are me and my sister.

Anyway, read and review.

Tender Tears

"Guess what I found out today," Bo said, striding through the front door. Sitting side to side on the living room couch, Jo and Lou both looked up questioningly. "Well, I found out that there have been several rumors about us and our situations going around town. Everybody thinks something different."

"What kind of things?" Jo asked.

Luke, who'd come in the door behind Bo, answered first. "Well, some people have the pairings all screwed. They think I'm with Lou and you're with Bo."

"Lou and Luke, Bo and Jo," Jo stated. "If you look, that is a sort of odd coincidence."

Nodding, Luke continued. "Some people thought you two had already had your babies. Some people thought that Lou was having twins instead of you two being twins. And then most people thought me and Bo didn't know the babies were ours, and so they were avoiding us!"

"Lived the outcast life for once, huh?" Lou grumbled, rolling her eyes.

"Well, what's your problem?" Bo shot back at the mother of his child.

Dropping her eyes back to her book—the same one she'd been trying to get through for the week and a half—Lou simply grunted, "Nothing."

"Uh-uh, there's a fly in your butter," Bo pursued. "I can tell."

"The only 'fly in my butter' is you," she retorted, still keeping her eyes glued to the book, even as her tone got angrier.

"What's the matter with you?" Luke asked, defensive on his cousin's behalf.

"Didn't I just answer that question?"

"Betty-Lou, what is your problem?" Jo almost shouted.

"Why does everyone think that I have some kind of problem?" Lou cried. "I'm just fine, thanks everybody!"

"You're acting stupid, Lou!" Jo yelled with intense frustration at her sister. "Would you just stop it and tell us what the heck is bothering you?"

"My gosh, how many times do I have to say this!" Lou finally slammed her book down in anger and bellowed her anger to the ceiling before turning her smoldering eyes to Jo. "I have no problem. I'm just fine, drop it now."

"Was it something I said?" Bo pressed.

"Yes, dangit!" shouted Lou, popping up to her feet. "It was all your fault." The sarcasm in her voice was as deep as the sea—as was her anger. "You coming in here and proclaiming 'Oh, I found out there are rumors.' Yeah, real big discovery there, Bo. We knew people were talking all along!"

"Well, so-rry!" he hollered in return.

"You know, just forget it," she scoffed. "Forget it." And she took her angered self with hard, thumping steps off into her room, slamming the door closed behind her.

"What was that all about?" Bo asked Jo after Lou had sealed herself away. "What in the world has gotten into that woman?"

"God only knows," Jo replied quietly. "She hasn't been herself for the past couple of days."

"How so?" Luke asked.

"She's too irritable," she replied, staring off at the door that separated them from Lou, as if she were Superman and had X-ray vision to see right through. "And she's too… introverted. She won't explain herself either—like you just saw." Closing her eyes, Jo sighed.

"Do you have any idea what it is?" Bo said, also looking at the door.

"If I didn't know no better, I'd say pregnancy hormones finally got to her," Jo said, standing and placing her hand over her own swollen belly. "But she's Lou, and even hormones couldn't do all that." She paused, sighing again. "Something emotional has hold of her and it's driving her crazy."

"Maybe," Bo said.

This is great, Jo thought. On top of a wedding coming up in a week and a baby to be delivered a week after that (if she doesn't decide to come along sooner), I have to deal with a psychotic sister. "Just give her time," she said aloud, walking out the front door to the porch. Neither of the boys followed her, and she dropped herself into a rocking chair with a sigh. "Because as they say," she whispered to herself, "time changes everything."

-+-+-+-

"Well, this is a lovely mess," Bo said, throwing his hands up. "We'll be married in a week, and our wives-to-be are both crazy."

"Not crazy," Luke replied. "Pregnant and worried."

"Not a good mix, apparently."

"You should go apologize to Lou," Luke said with a pointed look towards Lou's door.

"What?" Bo cried. "I didn't do anything!"

"Doesn't matter," Luke replied. "It'll make her feel better."

"You don't know that."

"I'm guessing," Luke admonished. "But you know I'm right."

For a moment, Bo just simmered. After all that he'd been through, forced into a marriage and forced to care for his fiancée and soon his child—neither of which he wanted—he was going to have to sink down and say sorry to the woman he hated for causing all of this.

"Fine," he finally grumbled. "I'll go apologize for something I didn't do, since apparently it's gonna make everybody feel better."

Because his back was turned, Bo didn't see Luke's nod and half-smile.

Gently, he knocked on the door. Inside, Lou gave no response. So he knocked again, but got the same result.

"Lou?" he asked.

Still, she gave no reply. Not a sound.

So he warily opened the door and called her name again. She was sitting there on her bed (well, his if you wanted to get technical), with her back to the door, staring out the window silently. He was almost scared to go on further, scared that she might be just sitting there simmering in anger and waiting to fly off the handle at anyone who interrupted.

But he edged on anyway, reflexively pushing the door closed behind him. "Lou?" he asked again. Still, she didn't turn.

So he walked across the room to her and laid a hand on her shoulder.

That time, she did turn to face him.

And he saw silent tears just running down her cheeks, leaving wet trails across her face and making her makeup run.

And instantly, his heart softened. "Oh, what's the matter, Lou?" he asked gently.

"Everything," she whispered in return, voice breaking lightly through her tears. "Things aren't gonna work, Bo. You don't want this baby, I don't want this baby. But he's coming, and we have to deal with it. And it's not gonna work."

"Yes, they will," he gently reassured her.

"I'd run off and go, and you'd never have to worry about the baby at all. But I don't think I'd be able to take care of myself and little Xavier. And then when he asks me who his father is, I'm gonna tell him. I'll tell him his daddy is Bo Duke. But do you want his next question to be 'Who's Bo Duke?'?"

The words hit Bo in the heart… hard. Lou had the nail on the head knowing he didn't want the child, but really, he didn't think he could now stand knowing that out there somewhere was his baby, not knowing his father. "No, I don't, Lou," he replied truthfully.

"See? You couldn't stand that situation either."

"We could put him up for adoption," he suggested lightly. "There are lots of people out there who'd want a little baby boy—people who couldn't have kids of their own."

"I thought about that too," Lou said. "But I've already gotten attached. I couldn't go on with life knowing that someone else was holding my baby. The baby that I carried around in my body for nine miserable months—the one I suffered for."

"I understand," he replied, nodding.

Her sobs intensified. "Oh, this is a mess!"

"I know, I know." Reflexively, Bo reached out a hand and was gently rubbing along her back. She didn't flinch or stop her sobbing.

"Bo, I'm sorry for coming back and getting you tangled up in this. So sorry."

"You don't have anything to be sorry for, Lou," he replied gently. "Nothing at all to be sorry for."

Still racked by sobs, Lou turned to Bo and practically threw herself against his chest. His arms tightened around her, and he held her tight until the sobs died away.

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Jo had been sitting on the porch for almost an hour before Luke came out to join her, taking the other rocking chair.

"Out here contemplating the meaning of life?" he asked.

She smiled lightly. "Just the way mine is going."

"Well, is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"A little of both," Jo said with a sigh. "I'm glad to be finally settling in to a good, steady life for once. But then I'm also sad to see the single life go."

Luke nodded once. "Your life's been rocky?" he asked.

"Daisy didn't tell you?" One of Jo's brows was raised questioningly, and when Luke shook his head, the other one went up in surprise. "Well, I guess there's not much reason to keep it from you…" She paused. "Lou and I…are broke. We have no money, and basically we have next to nothing."

"You have nothing?" Luke was genuinely surprised.

Jo nodded. "Not even family to care for us. The only family we know is our dad, and he wants nothing to do with us. We really have no one."

"You have me," he reminded her.

"Yes, I do," she agreed. "And I thank God for that. I couldn't have asked for a better man to care for me and my baby."

Blushing, Luke looked for a way to respond to that. It wasn't long before he found the words. "And I couldn't have asked for a sweeter woman to have my children," he said with a smile. "You really are one in a million, Bobbie-Jo."

Now it was Jo's turn to blush. "Aw, shucks. I'm nothing to gawk at, Luke."

"Yes, you are," he insisted. "In fact, I think this whole mess just made me fall in love with you all over again."

That surprised Jo, and touched her heart. "What?" she asked softly. "What did you say?"

"I love you," he repeated.

"Oh, my." Quickly, she turned her eyes away from Luke, shaking with a sudden surge of emotion. It took her a moment, but she worked up the courage to say something in return. "You know, there've only been two people in all my life that have told me that and I believed them—before now that is. Lou and my mom." So she wasn't ready to tell him the same yet… Well, she'd get to it sooner or later.

"Well, I don't think I've ever meant those words more than I do now."

Now Jo was really at a loss at how she could respond to that… So she just kept her mouth shut.

Until Yvonne decided to kick. And at that, Jo let out a startled gasp.

"What is it?" Luke asked, alarm evident in his voice.

Closing her eyes, Jo wrapped her hands around her belly and felt her daughter move from the inside and the out. "I'm alright," she assured Luke in a whisper. "Come here."

She opened her eyes just long enough to glance at Luke walking slowly towards her.

"Give me your hand, Luke."

He did, and she reached out and took it, guiding it down. And she laid his hand across her swollen belly gently, reveling in the tingling goose-bumps that his touch induced. He could feel the movement, and she knew it.

"Luke, that's Yvonne moving," she said quietly. "That's your daughter."

"No, Jo," he whispered against her ear, breath blowing across her cheek. "That's our daughter, Jo. Not mine. Ours."