Author's Note: This is Bo and Luke's life together, from the first year Bo was with them, until when Luke leaves for the Marines, and one year after he gets back. It is all different events, but they allare tied together bymore or less the same phrase. I thought it might be fun to tell their lives together by something that keeps happening. This follows on the same line as 'It's Cold,' and some of the events are even similar with the ages. This time it is the ending phrase taht is the same, not the beginning.

Big thanks to Earendil Eldar for beta work.

Warning: The warning is placed here for vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen.

Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix….

I've Missed You, Part One

It was really strange Luke thought, for once, for the first time in over six months he could play without having to listen to a baby screaming. He should really be enjoying himself. Only he wasn't. He found it very hard to play at all. Normally he would be complaining that the one year old boy was always in the way, and he was.

Why anyone wanted a baby was above him, and never mind that they told him he had been one not so long ago, he didn't buy that. There was no way he had been like that, screaming all the time, drooling and always being a real bother.

Babies were loud, annoying and disgusting. Just the other week Bo had smeared some of his food in his hair, and that was really disgusting. He would chew something, and then he would spit it out again.

Not to mention that sometimes he ate just to throw it all up again. No, no matter what they told him he wouldn't believe that it was the way babies were supposed to be. It had to be something that they told him just so he would feel better about the baby.

Sure Luke could feel sorry for it, it didn't have either a mommy or daddy, just like Luke. He was not so mean he didn't want it to have Uncle Jesse or Aunt Martha either. That would be to mean. Besides, if his uncle was right, then maybe it wouldn't be so bad once it got a bit older.

It was the time until then that worried Luke. He had thought that it would be much better if they could just keep the baby somewhere else until it grew a bit. It should be better when it was three or four, then he could at least play with it.

He had tried to convince them of that, but no one had listened to his logic, saying that they liked the baby, and he grew to fast as it was. That was not the whole truth, they claimed they could see how he grew, but he was still almost as tiny as he had been when he got there.

At times it was annoying how they always made such a fuss over the baby just cause it was smaller. He wanted some attention to, but at times it seemed as if they only had time for the baby.

That was why he had been so happy to hear that his aunt was going away for a few days to visit a friend of hers, it meant Bo would go with her. Since he was so little, and since it would be hard for Jesse to watch him while working, Luke had stayed though, and it meant he would have his uncle to himself.

He had really been looking forward to it for a long time. He had made plans to play some games with his uncle.

Then after the first day something very odd had happened. He missed his aunt, but there was something more as well. He was so used to having Bo around that it felt odd when he was not there.

He tried to play with his cars, but he didn't really want to. It just wasn't very funny.

When he told his uncle how he felt, he had smiled and told him that he was missing Bo, but he couldn't really, could he? How could he be missing the baby he wasn't really sure if he liked?

Then they were back and Luke ran outside to meet them. Throwing his arms around his aunt. After having been told how he had grown, and having heard his uncle tell that he really had been good, Luke even took the baby in his arms.

Bo peered at him with sleepy eyes, before he waved his arm and smacked Luke in the face. "Ow, that hurt." Luke told him, but he still couldn't be angry. "Ya know Bo, Uncle Jesse might've been right." He said thoughtfully. "I think I really did miss ya."

Luke idly pushed a toy car over the floor. He wasn't really playing, he was just trying to keep himself occupied. He hadn't felt too much like playing the last few days. His aunt had tried to cheer him up, but he just didn't feel like to much for it.

Bo was two years now, and Luke would normally say that he was just as much trouble as he had ever been. Just the week before he had tracked mud into the clean clothes.

Their aunt had been hanging the laundry, and she had put the laundry basket on the ground. Bo, had found a mud puddle, and after having played in it, he had made his way over to where she was, and crawled down into the basket with the clean laundry while Martha was busy hanging a sheet. When she saw what he was doing, it had already been too late. Bo had gotten mud on almost all of the formerly clean laundry.

She had not been happy about it, but she hadn't been too angry at Bo either, she had just picked him out of there and told Luke to watch him so that he didn't do it again.

See, that was a very annoying thing with the baby, when he did things he shouldn't do, Luke wound up having to watch him. It wasn't his fault that Bo was so much trouble, it really wasn't. He had warned them that babies weren't worth the trouble.

Then two days before Bo had really done it, he was always climbing on things, always. Luke had been in the other room playing when he had heard the crash, and the scream from the kitchen. When he ran in there he saw aunt Martha scoop Bo up from the floor.

He had climbed up on a chair, and then to the table, only to fall down and take the chair with him. Getting a cut just above the hairline. All that blood had made Luke terrified, and Bo had been screaming so loud that even their uncle Jesse had heard him outside and had come running in.

Then they had taken off to the doctor, everyone telling Luke that he didn't have to worry, and the doctor had even given him a piece of candy to cheer him up because he was so scared. He had told Luke he didn't have to worry, that he had put a few stitches in the cut and Bo was doing fine.

It was just because Bo was so little that he wanted to keep him there a little, to make sure that nothing was wrong. He said it was sometimes hard to tell, so just to be safe he didn't want Bo to go home just then.

It was strange, if Bo was fine, then why did they have to make sure? He wanted Bo to be fine, he liked him, he might even love his cousin, at least when he wasn't making a mess. No matter what though, he didn't want to see him hurt.

So no matter what they had told him he was worried. Now Bo would be home any minute though, So when he heard the car he ran outside. Jesse was holding Bo in his arm, and the child was smiling with his fingers in his mouth. Most kids Luke had seen was sucking on their thumb, but Bo had the middle two fingers on his hand in his mouth. He also had a big white patch of bandage taped to the hair line on his forehead.

Trust Bo to be smiling though, and reaching out his hands for a hug as soon as he saw Luke. Squirming around in his uncle's arms until he was let down. Then he went running straight for Luke.

Luke almost stumbled as Bo collided with him and threw his arms around him.

Luke knelt down a bit so he could hug him back. "I've really missed ya Bo."

Luke felt guilty, very guilty. It had all been his fault after all. Thanks to him they had nearly lost Bo forever.

Luke hadn't meant any harm, he had just wanted to be alone for a bit, and not have the three year old after him every step of the way. Bo was always trying to follow him. It just wasn't fun to always have him around where ever he meant.

When he told him to get lost he had just repeated what one of his friends had told his little brother, and he had gone home. Not Bo though, he did get lost.

Luke had thought he would get back to the farm so that he could chase the chickens. Bo was always chasing the chickens around the farm. No matter how many times he was told that he wasn't allowed to do it. No matter who told him that he couldn't do that. Bo just never listened.

Then he had gone missing. Luke really felt bad about that, and scared, scared that he would never see Bo again.

He would even be happy to scold him for chasing the chickens if it meant he came back again.

Everyone told Daisy and him that they shouldn't worry, that they would find Bo alright, but when they thought that the two children couldn't hear, the said that if they hadn't found Bo by now, there wasn't really much hope.

Luke wondered when they would tell them that, and when they would tell him that it was all his fault.

Then they came back to the farm, and they had Bo with them. He wasn't only alive, he wasn't even really hurt. He was a bit whiny, and at first he couldn't get hugged enough, but then he got a bit cranky from always being pulled up into someone's arms. All of them who had been searching for him was there, and everyone wanted to hold him to make sure he was okay.

Then they had put Bo to bed for a nap, and Luke had found out that his uncle wasn't as mad at him as he had though. He grew up a bit there he supposed, he realized that Bo didn't think the same way he did. It was strange, but he also found out how much that small boy with the blond wavy hair, and those sloppy wet kisses meant to him.

So when Bo was put in his bed, and fell asleep Luke lay down beside him. He lay there and stroked his baby cousin's hair. It was a bit girly, but he didn't care right now, it was Bo, and he loved him. He pressed a kiss to a cheek that was just so very soft. "Don't ever go away from me again, Bo." He said softly. "I've really missed ya."

Bo sat on a rock and looked down the road. He was only four, so he wasn't allowed to go very far, he didn't have to either. He had found a very good spot to wait in. He was waiting for Luke.

It was the first day of school after the summer, and Luke had been there.

From what Bo could tell by the way Luke talked about it, school could be fun, but it didn't sound like something he really needed. Luke told him that he had friends in school that he could play with during recess, but why would he need any friends? He had Luke, he couldn't possible need any more friends than that.

Luke was great, he looked out for him, he played with him, and then of course he got angry at him and yelled at him as well. Had even hit him a few times, but Bo didn't really care about that.

It didn't matter very much, because no matter what Luke would do while he was angry, he was the best cousin ever when he wasn't angry.

It had been really lonely when Luke was in school, not as if Bo was all alone, but lonely because Luke wasn't there. That was why he was waiting for him, because if it meant he got to see Luke one minute earlier than otherwise, then he was gonna wait for him there. He would have gone to the school to meet him, but that was further away from the farm than he was allowed to go on his own.

When Luke stepped down from the school buss he was nearly knocked over as Bo ran to hug him, throwing himself around his neck.

"Luke, I've missed ya."

TBC

Thank you all for reading, I'll do my very best to reply to all signed reviews, Elenhin