Finally, an update! Sorry for the delay! I had a gazillion things to do this past week, and there was one stubborn part of this chapter that just wasn't sitting right...I thought I was done with it, but when I read it over I realized that it just wasn't working, and it's taken me a few days to figure out how to fix it. It's the conversation between Bo and Luke about halfway through that was giving me the trouble. (I think the boys were being difficult because they were annoyed that I'd gotten them in such a big mess.) ;) But it's done now, and I'm hard at work on the final chapter! Thanks to all of you who have been encouraging me along. I appreciate it. :)
- Flynne

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– Chapter Eight –

"A Shot in the Dark"

Well, Jesse finally got his family back together again and they're all in one piece…except Luke, who's gonna have a couple extra pieces for a little while. It's after one in the mornin' now, though—even Cinderella got herself home before that—and the Dukes are thinkin' that they can't get back to their farm soon enough.

The ride home was long and quiet. Daisy's Jeep was still at the Boar's Nest, so she and Bo climbed into the bed of Jesse's pickup while Luke rode in the cab. His eyes drifted closed almost at once. The adrenaline rush that had kept him on his feet was rapidly fading away and the pain medication he had been given in the hospital was starting to make him drowsy. By the time Jesse parked the truck in front of their little white farmhouse, Luke was fast asleep.

"Wake up, son. We're home." Jesse nudged Luke's knee with the back of his hand.

Luke came awake with a grunt, scrubbing his hand across his face. "Wha?"

"Home. Hated to wake ya, but you're a mite heavy for me to carry." He was rewarded with a small chuckle from his nephew as he hopped out and hurried around to the passenger side to help Luke out. He slid his arm around Luke's waist and supported the groggy young man as they walked slowly to the house with Bo and Daisy just behind.

The dog had been waiting on the porch, and as soon as he heard the vehicles drive up he let out a friendly bark and waited for the family to approach with a briskly wagging tail. He pushed his way between their legs when they headed inside and followed as Daisy and Jesse led Bo and Luke back to their room. When nobody bent down to pat him, he toned down his enthusiastic greeting and stepped closer, sniffing at the two battered young men with a little worry-wrinkle between his eyes.

Daisy shook her head. "He knows somethin's wrong," she said with a small smile.

"Well, animals is funny that way," Jesse said. "But I don't want him in the house just yet. We don't know if he's housebroke and right now I don't wanna have to worry about it. I got enough to worry about already." He lightly touched the dog on the head and hooked his fingers inside the new bright orange collar the boys had purchased that day. "Come on, fella. I got a nice bed for ya out in the barn." With a reluctant look at Bo and Luke, the dog allowed Jesse to lead him away.

Daisy stepped out of the room briefly and went in search of pillows she could put on Luke's bed so he could stay propped up while he slept. She decided to borrow a couple sofa cushions and headed for the living room. She had just started moving blankets and books off the couch when the kitchen door banged closed with more than usual force as Jesse returned from the barn. His face was angry and worried, but also distracted and troubled. Daisy walked to meet him.

"The boys'll be all right, Uncle Jesse," she reassured him softly as she put her arms around him.

"Oh…I know, honey. It—it ain't that."

"What, then?"

"Well, it's…it's J.D."

Daisy's pretty face hardened. "Don't you think about him now, Uncle Jesse. He's caused more'n his share of trouble tonight. I don't wanna talk about him."

"I just…I can't help wonderin' if I—"

"Don't say it! Boss Hogg deserved…" Daisy stopped short and lowered her voice as Jesse shushed her with a gesture toward the boys' room. "…He deserved everything you said to him," she continued more quietly. "We almost lost Luke tonight…and who knows what might've happened to Bo if he'd been left out there alone?"

"That's the question I keep askin' myself," Jesse replied slowly. "But Bo wasn't alone. Somehow, J.D. decided to go after him and brought him back, even though he knew that Brock fella was out there somewhere…and that helped us start lookin' for Luke as quick as we did."

"That ain't no excuse," Daisy insisted angrily.

"I'm not sayin' it is. Mind you, I'm still as mad at him as I've ever been at anybody! What he did was downright reprehensible and I ain't gonna forget that! But I also ain't forgot what J.D. is like. You know I've known him since we was kids, and even though he may be crookeder than a mountain road, he still ain't never tried to hurt people. Never did then, and he don't do it now." Jesse let out a long, heavy sigh. "So in spite of what happened…I gotta believe him when he said he didn't think Bo and Luke would get hurt."

"Uncle Jesse…" Daisy tried to speak, but her voice was shaking so badly that she couldn't continue.

"The Good Book says we's supposed to…forgive our enemies," Jesse forced out. "I don't know how long that's gonna take this time…It's hard for anyone to give J.D. anything, much less forgiveness. But if the Lord asks it of me, then I gotta try. So do the boys. And so do you," he finished quietly.

Tears were brimming in Daisy's eyes as she hid her face against her uncle's chest. "I hope someday I can be as good a person as you, Uncle Jesse, 'cause I sure ain't there right now."

"Daisy Mae, you're perfect just like you are," Jesse said gently. He took her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. Then the faintest glimmer of humor twinkled in his faded blue eyes as he continued: "And ya know, even when we do forgive J.D., we don't gotta tell him we done it. Might do him some good if he thinks he's gotta tippy-toe around us for a while, don't'cha think?"

Daisy laughed through her tears, and Jesse hugged her again, thankful to see her smile. "Now, you better get on back to the boys. They'll be wonderin' where you are, and you know it's only a matter of time before one of 'em decides to go lookin' for you."

"You're right. Why don't you say goodnight and tell 'em I'll be right there?" Daisy hastily dried her eyes and moved back to the couch to gather her armful of cushions. She heard her uncle's heavy tread down the hallway and the rumble of his voice as he spoke to her cousins. After taking a few deep breaths to be sure she was done crying, she turned off the living room lamp and headed back to join the boys.

Bo was kneeling on the floor, pulling Luke's boots off for him when she entered the room. She stepped over him and quickly arranged the extra pillows on Luke's bed. "Are you fellas going to be all right?" she asked, giving them one last look-over.

"Sure. Don't worry about us," Bo reassured her. "Go on and get some sleep."

"Okay…but if y'all need anything, come and get me, all right?"

"Will do. 'Night, Daisy." Luke awkwardly shrugged out of his shirt as Daisy shut the door behind her.

"Need help?"

"No, I got it."

Bo let out a low whistle and shook his head. "Cousin, you look like you got in a fight with the road and lost."

"That's 'cause I did." Luke looked critically at the angry-looking scrapes and bruises covering his back and shoulders. The sling obscured most of the injuries on his right, but his hard landing had left nasty-looking marks on his left arm and torso in spite of the efforts of the hospital staff to clean him up.

Bo prodded experimentally at the rapidly darkening bruises on his ribs and stomach. "I'm gonna feel that tomorrow," he said plaintively. "That guy really whaled on me."

Luke laughed dryly. "We make quite a pair, don't we?"

"I don't know what else you'd call us."

"I bet Rosco or Boss could think of a few other things."

Bo looked angry and troubled. "Nothin' compared to what I'd like to call Boss." He pulled on his pajama pants and tossed his jeans in a heap on the floor. "I'm startin' to get real tired of putting up with him. We don't do nothin' wrong but we're always runnin' from the law. We had to sneak out of our house to break our probation just so we wouldn't get framed and thrown in jail—by our probation officer. Boss don't never leave us alone—and tonight he almost got you killed! To heck with that, I almost got you killed! If I'd been able to keep the General to the center—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Luke interrupted. "Hold it right there. You're talkin' nonsense and you know it. You're just mad, is all." Bo fell silent, partly because it annoyed him to be told what he was feeling, but mostly because he knew his cousin was right.

"It ain't your fault," Luke said firmly, looking straight into his eyes. "We both know how you drive, and we both know you don't lose control easily. If there was anything you could've done, you would've done it. So what if you got knocked around? Bo, if it was anyone else at the wheel, we woulda gone right off the road into those trees, and then we'd both be dead. Look me in the eye and tell me that ain't true."

Bo's shoulders slumped as he felt his anger slowly seep away. "You're right. As usual," he admitted quietly.

"We know what we're doin' when we climb on the cars like that," Luke continued. One side of his mouth lifted in a wry smile. "Do you remember the first time Jesse caught us at it?"

"Sure do. That was even before we had the General, wasn't it?"

"Yup. We were usin' his truck."

"He was so mad when he saw us—I thought he was gonna take a switch to both of us." The memory coaxed a shadow of a smile onto Bo's face.

Luke laughed. "If we'd been a little younger, I think he would have. But he figured we were old enough to decide if the risk was worth it." He sobered and waited until his younger cousin met his eyes. "I knew what I was doin', Bo."

Bo dropped his gaze, feeling a tightness in his chest as he thought of what could have happened that night. "I know," he said quietly. "It's just…that car's just like home. Sometimes I don't think things could actually go wrong. Kind of a shocker when it actually does."

"I know what you mean."

There was a long pause where the cousins just sat on the edges of their beds in thoughtful silence. Bo couldn't think of anything else to say—and his headache and fatigue were still clinging to him like a heavy cloak. He finally gave a little sigh and said, "Man, I don't know why we're still up. I'm 'bout ready to fall over." When Luke didn't answer, he looked up and saw his cousin's eyes had drifted closed as he sat on the edge of his bed. He stood up and gently tapped Luke on the shoulder. "Hey, you need to get some sleep."

Luke shook himself awake. "I ain't all that tired…it's just those pain meds the Doc put me on. They really knock me out."

"All the same…"

"Yeah, I know. Hey, help me lie back, will ya? I've got those drugs on board but it's still gonna hurt if I drop down."

"Sure." Bo braced his arm behind Luke's shoulders and eased his cousin back against the thick pile of pillows. He pulled Luke's blanket up for him and switched off the light before he flopped prone onto his mattress.

Luke shifted around a bit, uncomfortable because of the snug-fitting sling around his chest and arm and still hurting a little in spite of the pain medication the doctor had given him. His injury forced him to lie on his back, which he wouldn't ordinarily mind, but the knowledge that he couldn't change position was more uncomfortable than the act of lying there. But his weariness coupled with the medications in his system was luring him steadily closer to painless sleep.

Bo, on the other hand, found that he was wide awake and fidgety now that he was actually trying to fall asleep. He rolled onto his side to face toward Luke's bed. "Luke?"

"Hmm?"

"You nervous at all? About those guys still runnin' around loose, I mean. Boss said they'd still be after us."

"I dunno. Maybe a little." Luke turned his head to look at Bo in the dim light from the open window. "But there ain't nothin' we can do about it."

"I know. That's what's botherin' me. Trouble ain't so bad if you can see it comin'. I hate feeling like I'm just waitin' for it to come down on me."

Luke was rapidly losing his battle against sleep as his eyelids slowly slid closed. "'S'gonna be okay," he mumbled. "Just sleep." Bo fell silent and let his cousin rest. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling, unsure if he would ever be able to drop off. But the events of the day eventually caught up with him, and without realizing it, he drifted under the heavy curtain of exhausted sleep.

xxxxx

The hands of the clock were creeping past four AM, and the countryside around the Duke farm was dark and silent. Jesse had tied a thin rope around the dog's collar and fastened it to a long-unused hitching ring just inside the barn door. The dog was curled up, a pale pile of fur nearly buried by the thick bed of straw scattered on the floor. Maudine the mule was dozing in the next stall. She had inspected her new stable-mate the day he had arrived, but since then she had studiously ignored him. He wasn't going to eat her hay and he left her alone, so he wasn't any of her concern.

The dog suddenly twitched and stirred, yawning noisily as he sniffed the night breeze. His ears perked up and he scrambled to his feet, wide awake as his senses made him aware that something outside was different than it had been before. He couldn't see the black figure that was flitting through the trees, closer and closer to the little white farmhouse…but he could hear its stealthy movements and he could smell the scent of a man on the wind. A look of intense concentration came into his eyes as he realized that he knew this scent…and it didn't bring pleasant images to his mind.

The dog's hackles rose and a low growl rumbled up from his chest as he leaned on his tether, straining toward the house. He could see the dark shape now, outlined sharply against the house in the moonlight. If he had been human, he would have realized that the masked figure was slowly—and successfully—picking the lock on the kitchen door…and he would have recognized the compact shape of a handgun clutched in the intruder's palm as the man silently slipped inside.

xxxxx

Bo shifted a little in his sleep, smooth forehead wrinkling a bit as his dream began to annoy him. He wasn't sure when it had started, but somewhere far off, he could hear the sound of a hammer. It must have been Luke's hammer. Maybe old man Maxwell was using it; they never had gotten back to his place to pick up the missing tool.

The hammering noise in his dream slowly changed pitch and tone, and eventually
Bo realized he was dreaming about a barking dog. He felt himself cross the threshold from deep sleep until he was hovering just under the surface, awake but not really, lying on his back with his eyes closed while his brain slowly came awake.

Then he realized what had woken him up was the dog barking outside.

He let out a little exasperated moan and yanked his pillow out from under his head, plopping it over his face. It muffled the sound a little, but not much—particularly when the barks became louder and more frantic. When the noise abruptly stopped, Bo let out a relieved sigh. Whatever rabbit or coyote had spooked the dog must have vanished.

He had started sinking back towards sleep when fifty pounds of snarling fur catapulted through the open window and whomped him on the chest. He came suddenly wide awake with a startled yelp, shoving the dog to the floor. The pillow fell away from his face and he opened his eyes in the moonlit room. His heart froze in his chest as he found himself staring down a gun barrel held by a shadowy figure standing over his bed.

"Luke!"

His alarmed cry was drowned out by the crack of gunfire. Luke jerked awake to see a cloud of feathers floating over Bo's bed. He scrambled out of bed, unsure whether he would need to fight or run for it. His blood ran cold when a dark figure swiveled toward him with a gun leveled at his chest—but the man paused just long enough to aim a savage kick at the barking dog. The dog let out a shrill yelp that immediately turned into an angry growl, and he jumped forward and nipped the man sharply on the leg. The man cried out in pain and surprise, stumbling back a step or two before once again lifting his gun toward Luke—but Luke was already moving.

Ignoring the pain from his injuries, Luke jumped forward and went in swinging, knocking the gun to the floor with the first blow. The stranger tried to lunge for him, but he was off-balance and hampered by the dog's interference. The shaggy animal had taken hold of his pant leg and was hanging on stubbornly, tugging at the man's foot as he growled deep in his throat.

The room was suddenly awash with light. "All right, hold it right there!" Jesse barked. The old man had grabbed his shotgun and come running. Daisy stood behind him, slender hand still poised over the light switch, blue eyes wide as she saw the chaos in her cousins' small room. The stranger froze and backed into the corner, knowing he was beaten. He was limping a little, and stumbling, trying to shake the dog away from his pant leg. The whole altercation had taken less than twenty seconds.

Bo rolled away from where he was huddled against the wall and bounced out of bed, scooping the dog off the floor and away from the intruder.

"What in the name of all that's holy is a-goin' on here?" Jesse demanded.

"This guy tried to kill us!" Bo panted, still wide-eyed and shaken. Feathers were still floating lightly through the air from the gunshot that had shredded his pillow. He hefted the still-growling dog in his arms, giving the silky ears a pat. "The mutt here woke us up just in time. I had to throw myself outta the way or he woulda shot me!"

Now, friends, that's what I call a goooood dog.

Jesse scowled at the man. "Who are you, mister?" The broad shoulders slumped in defeat, and the man reached up to pull the ski mask off his face.

"That's him! Uncle Jesse, that's the man that run us down tonight!" Bo exclaimed.

Daisy gasped. "You're Bulldog Brock!"

The man's face pulled into an angry, rueful grimace. "You're too smart for your own good, little lady."

"And you're done talkin' to my cousin that way," Bo said with a scowl. "Uncle Jesse, we better tie him up and get Rosco or Enos out here pronto."

"It'll be Enos tonight," Daisy reminded him as she started to head for the CB in the kitchen. "And y'all might wanna tie that sidewinder up with that rope there." She pointed to the dog in Bo's arms, and he noticed for the first time that most of the length of rope was still trailing from the dog's collar. The free end was damp and mangled where the dog had chewed through it.

Bo's mouth quirked into a half smile as he put the dog down and pulled the rope free. "You just took care of everything, didn't you?" he asked, scratching behind the soft ears. He picked up Luke's pocketknife—his was still lying somewhere out on Jessup Road—and sliced the rope in half. His hands were still shaking badly from his second brush with death in one night, and it took him a minute or two to complete the task.

Bo used one half of the rope to tie the gambler's arms firmly behind his back, and the other half to hobble his feet. Brock angrily told him to watch it when he felt the rope around his bruised ankle, but Bo just scowled up at him and continued working. "Aw, come on, you ain't even bleeding. You asked for it anyway, kickin' him like you did."

Jesse was keeping a watchful eye (and a hair-trigger) on Brock while Bo worked on him. Only when the would-be murderer was secure did he happen to glance over at his eldest nephew.

"Luke, are you all right?" he asked suddenly. Bo looked over and saw that his cousin's face was pale and drawn, and he was trembling visibly from the wrenching pain the sudden burst of activity had caused in his injured shoulder.

Luke took a shallow breath, voice hitching a bit as his cracked ribs protested sharply. "N—not yet. I shouldn't have been swingin' my fist like that, but I didn't have much of a choice."

"I guess you didn't…sit down now, okay? You did good—one-handed and everything. Just wait there while we get this guy taken care of." Bo took hold of his cousin's elbow and gently maneuvered him to sit on the edge of his bed.

The sound of a car approaching and a squeal of brakes alerted the Dukes that Enos had arrived. Jesse gestured with his rifle. "All right, Mr. Brock. You just walk nice and slow out to the front of the house." Brock obeyed, not speaking a word but giving Bo and Luke a scathing glare as Jesse herded him into the kitchen.

Bo looked down at his cousin. "I don't suppose it'd do any good to tell you to stay put, would it?"

"Nope." Luke extended his hand for Bo to help him up, and the pair of cousins followed Jesse and the prisoner down the hall.

Daisy, wearing a robe to cover up her short nightie, was just opening the door to let the deputy sheriff inside. Enos' eyes were even wider than usual as he looked at each of his friends in turn.

"Y'all okay out here? Daisy said there was shots fired."

"We're fine now, Enos. Just put some proper cuffs on this fella and take him away." Jesse cradled his shotgun in the crook of his arm while Enos hurried to obey. "He's that Brock fella that's been tangled up with J.D." When the deputy gave him a confused look, Jesse shrugged and said, "Just ask J.D. about it in the morning."

"And call the state police," Luke put in. "I think they'll wanna know what's going on."

"Sure thing." Enos snapped his handcuffs on Brock's already bound wrists and gave his prisoner a shove toward the door. Just before they stepped outside, he paused and turned around. "Hey, Uncle Jesse, I just wanna say…I know y'all might need a little help around here if Luke ain't a hundred percent when harvest time comes. So I wanted to let y'all know that you can call me anytime and I'll come out."

Jesse raised his brow. "I ain't your Uncle Jesse—"

"Oh, sorry, Jesse—"

"—but I wanna thank you," the old man finished in a kindly tone. "It's good of you to offer."

Daisy stepped up to the deputy and squeezed his arm affectionately. "Aw, Enos, you're a real sweetheart." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. Her two cousins just barely hid their smiles when they saw the blush rapidly rising on the flustered man's face.

"Now, you get goin'. Will I see you at the Boar's Nest for your lunch break tomorrow?"

"You bet, Daisy," Enos stammered. He awkwardly pried himself away and directed his attention to his prisoner. "Bye, Daisy. Bye, y'all." Enos gave Daisy one last grin before he pushed Brock out the door and drove away.

"Well, one thing's for sure…that fella might not be the best in the business, but he sure comes through when you need him," Jesse said. He glanced at the clock. "Nearly four-thirty. Well, I think we can sleep in just a little longer tomorrow, wouldn't you say?"

"What about him, Uncle Jesse?" Bo pointed at the dog. He had followed the Dukes into the kitchen and was now nosing around the table, looking for crumbs.

Jesse chuckled. "I'd say he's earned his house privileges for what he did tonight. Go on and take him back to your room with you."

"Just don't you let him sleep in the beds," Daisy warned. "If I have to shake dog hair out of the linens, you are gonna be washin' your own sheets."

"Yes, ma'am!" Bo grinned and saluted, dodging back a few steps as Daisy took a playful swipe at him. The dog noticed the sudden burst of activity and scampered out from beneath the table to dance around Daisy's feet.

"All right, that's enough shenanigans," Jesse stepped in. "Git on back to bed, all of you. It's been a long day and a short night, so I don't wanna hear a sound until well after sunup." He leveled a finger at the dog. "That goes for you, too."

"Yes, sir." Luke gave him a tired smile and hooked his hand around his cousin's arm. "Come on, Bo." Jesse watched as his niece and nephews disappeared down the hallway before locking the back door again and putting his gun away. He looked down at the dog standing beside him and smiled, giving the furry head a pat with his rough hand. "Thanks for watchin' over my family."

One of the boys gave a sharp whistle from down the hall. The dog's ears perked up at once and he scampered off eagerly, nails clicking briskly on the hardwood floor. Jesse watched him go, then raised his eyes to the ceiling with a grateful smile. "Thanks to You, too," he said quietly. He flicked off the light, and quiet darkness settled over the Duke home once again.

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Just a small footnote for this chapter: Under normal circumstances, if a dog—especially a stray like this one, with an unknown vaccination history—bites a person or another animal, at the very least it would need to be quarantined for ten days and watched for signs of rabies. (Laws may vary from state to state, but that's how it goes in my part of the country.)

Now, because this is Hazzard County (and because I am the author and therefore know that this dog is perfectly healthy), ;) that issue isn't going to be pursued at all in the story…but I didn't feel right posting the chapter without this little tag at the end. Thanks for reading!

- Flynne :)