"I gotta go after Bo." Luke announced. Adam shook his head approvingly as Luke took off.

Luke ran into the woods, shouting Bo's name. He was able to route his direction as the vegetation was thick and his path had left a clear trail, but after awhile the low vegetation cleared away leaving nothing but the towering pine trees. Luke knew there was nothing but deep woods all the way around for miles and he had no idea which way his cousin had run. Reluctantly, he turned back to the clearing that led to the orphanage, where he intended to offer an excuse to the Sandersons and return home.

On the way home, he couldn't resist driving along the forest line, hoping to see Bo emerging somewhere, anywhere. However when dusk turned to darkness, he had no choice but to return home.

"Luke!" Uncle Jesse exclaimed as he pulled up. "Where in tarnation have you been? Elizabeth called askin' about you and told me somethin' happened between you and Bo and that Bo took off."

"Uncle Jesse," Luke began as he slammed the door to the pickup truck. "I'm completely and totally brainless." He relayed to Jesse the events that surrounded Bo's discovery of the paper that revealed his family lineage.

"I know Bo's upset with me, but I hope he has the good sense to git out of the woods." Jesse mused. "He knows how bad the wolves have been this summer. Luke, get on the CB and call anybody you know whose house Bo may have went to. I'll get on the phone and do the same. If he don't want to come home tonight, that's fine but I at least want to know he's safe."

Jesse and Luke spent the next half hour or so making calls that yielded no results on Bo's whereabouts. When they ran out of ideas, it was well past 11:00.

"Jesse, why don't you get some sleep? It's been a long day." Luke suggested.

"I can't sleep, not with one of my youngin's out there somewhere hurtin'." Jesse replied, settling in one of the rocking chairs on the porch.

"I don't think I'm gonna get much sleep tonight either." Luke admitted, sitting up on the porch rail, the fireflies twinkling around him. "Since we're sitting here anyway, why don't you tell me all the details."

"Where do I begin?" Jesse said to himself more than anyone. "I suppose you remember your Uncle Matthew served in the Vietnam War."

"Yeah. 1962 the first year of the war." Luke remembered. "I suppose he was my inspiration for going into the service myself."

"What you might not remember was that Matthew was one of the first servicemen declared KIA."

"Killed in action?" Luke asked, perking up. "I thought Uncle Matthew was killed in the fire at the church social."

"Oh he was. He, your Aunt Olivia, your parents, Daisy's parents, and about 12 other citizens of Hazzard. The banquet hall they were in was engulfed in flames in less than a minute and to this day they're not sure what started that fire." Jesse shook his head. "But I'm getting off on another subject. When we all thought Matthew had died, Olivia barely had any time to grieve before J.D. come around. I was surprised when they started courtin' a couple of months later."

"How long did they see each other?" Luke asked.

"Not long, about 4 months. But J.D. loved her. He really loved her. I ain't never seen J.D. love anything or anybody in life as much as he loved money and Olivia.

"I can't hardly believe that."

"It's true. But after they courted their four months, we found out that Matthew was alive. In short, he came home and naturally Olivia wanted to be with him again. And that tore up J.D. Tore him up real bad. I think that's when he really changed, you know?"

"No I don't know but I find it all extremely interesting." Luke had to admit.

Jesse smiled and nodded. "I suppose you do. Anyway, as I'm sure you can figure out, Bo arrived a bit later, a little earlier than one would expect."

"And they actually let Boss know that Bo was his?" Luke asked in shock.

"Not until J.D. threatened to kick them out of their house. Even back then, he seemed to own everything. Knowing that Bo was his was the only thing that kept a roof over their head. He even waived their mortgage payments, if you can believe that."

"Boss giving up money? That IS hard to believe." Luke admitted. "And Uncle Matthew just accepted Bo as his?"

"Oh yes. He was Olivia's youngin' and that was enough. And then, there was the fire. Your Aunt Mary and I were babysitting the three of you while your parents were at the party. Overnight, we became the parents."

"You mean Boss knew that Bo was his and he let you keep him?" Luke asked.

"Well, it's a little more complicated than that. You see, I knew Bo wasn't really my nephew but I loved him just the same, and I sure didn't want to see no baby raised by J.D. Hogg. But I just didn't know how I would manage to keep him until I uncovered the fraud."

"Oh this just gets better and better." Luke said.

"You see, Boss owned the hall that caught on fire. He had some insurance on it, but not a lot. You kids' parents all had their life insurance through the same company and when I was down at the office one day, I found out that J.D. was about to successfully cash in a much bigger policy than he had drawn."

"How did you find out? What did you do?"

"I don't remember exactly how I found out, but I called him on it. I told him I'd turn him in, have him arrested. Unless……"

"Unless he left Bo with you." Luke finished.

Jesse nodded his head. "J.D. never told no one that that baby was his, except for Big Daddy, and that fake policy is what made J.D. the rich man he is today." He smiled. "I tried to be fair, though. I took you kids over to visit J.D. when you were all little, because no matter how I felt about the matter, I thought J.D. at least had a right to know his youngin'. But as you can imagine Bo didn't see him every day and wasn't used to him, so he got to where he would cry for me whenever I took you all over there. Now that upset J.D. real bad. Although it was illogical, he took Bo's rejection real personal. I guess it reminded him of Olivia. He finally got to the point where it seemed as if he resented Bo, maybe even hated him."

As Luke sat with crossed arms taking it all in, Jesse continued. "If you'll notice, whenever you boys get in trouble, J.D. always picks at Bo a little bit more. I think that's why. J.D.'s still stuck on the rejection."

It was almost 1:00 when Bo walked up from the darkness."

"Bo! Thank God! Are you alright?" Jesse asked.

Bo entered the house with very tired eyes. "I'm fine, Jesse. I just came to get my things."

"Your things? What are you talking about son?"

"I'm movin' out Jesse. I ain't a Duke and I don't belong here no more."