A/N - Hi everyone! Sorry I didn't get to keep to my schedule like I wanted to on Friday. It's those best laid plans...again.

Thanks again for all the reviews.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes, and no infringements intended.

POT SHOTS

CHAPTER 18

TORNADO WARNING!

Bo couldn't remember a day when the weather had ever been stranger. It started out like any other day, except hotter and more muggy than one would expect at that time of year. The sun had been almost blinding from the minute that it rose, only increasing the temperature and the dew point with every passing minute. By nine o'clock, it was well into the nineties with a hundred percent humidity, and it was one of the most miserable days of his life.

Then, out of nowhere, the sky had clouded up and rain began to pour. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was enough to get everything wet and make it even more sticky, if that was possible. Thinking that the rain was going to last, it was unbelievable when ten minutes later the sky was blue and the sun was glaring again. Most of the late morning hours had been spent going from pouring rain to blazing sunlight, as if nature's forces were waging their own war. As morning turned into afternoon, the rain and clouds won the battle. Now, as evening approached, it was sunny again, but not as hot and definitely not as humid. It was the strangest weather he could ever remember.

He turned away from the window, thinking that the atmospheric conditions fit the day so perfectly.

"I wonder if the weather is always like this in Texas," he mumbled, speaking to no one but himself. If it was, he couldn't understand what the fascination was with the state. In Hazzard, it was much more predictable. Bo looked at the clock, thinking that the Duke family would be sitting down to dinner, if he'd been in Georgia. He wasn't home, though, he was at the Maverick ranch in Texas; Sandy's home. She'd invited him to go back with her to get her things and tell her family that they were getting married. Now, here he was.

It had been a long day, and he was tired. Bo sat down on the little sofa, put his head back, and closed his eyes while the VCR in his head started automatically.


"Sandy! You hang on now. You hear me? Help is on the way. You're gonna be ok," Bo told her, looking down into the beautiful face which now showed a mixture of fear and pain. Bo was still cradling her in his arms, and her brother was holding her hand. Luke was trying to stop the bleeding. No one wanted to admit to themselves that it didn't seem to be doing one iota of good. The red stain was expanding with each passing second, and all they were doing was causing her pain. Yet, they had to keep trying, keep hoping, keep pretending that it was helping.

"Bo," she finally said, looking up at him with emerald eyes that were crystal clear.

"I'm right here," he told her, "right here."

Though still clear, Sandy's eyes started to close. Bo and Timmy told her to stay awake. She opened them, obeying their command, but with every passing second, they could see it was getting harder for her to comply. Yet, her eyes were still clear and she was still lucid, which was a good sign.

"Bo," she repeated.

"Help's almost here, darlin. You're doing real good. You just keep fighting," Bo told the Texas Twister, praying that she had that much fight in her. Sandy's eyes drifted downward again. "Sandy, stay awake!" he echoed, more forcefully than before. Again, she opened her eyes, and Bo bent down and kissed her. Immediately, his senses caught the metallic taste of blood. When he raised up, she smiled at him, raising her hand to his face as a thin stream of red started running out of the side of her mouth. Bo prayed that the ambulance was close.

Sandy turned her head to see her brother. "Timmy, I love you."

He squeezed her hand and brought it to his lips. "I love you, too, but don't try to talk, okay?"

Ignoring what he told her, she turned again to look at Bo, and this time, her eyes weren't so clear. They had clouded over and taken on a far away look, like she was lost in a fog. Trying to push the haze away, she again raised her hand to touch Bo's face. "I love you, Bo. I'm sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he cried.

"Look at the stars, Bo," she said softly. Bo and Timmy glanced to each other. Her words frightened them, leaving them to wonder what she was seeing. There were no stars in the sky, it was broad daylight. Sandy took a ragged breath. "I'll be looking at them, too," she whispered, as her eyes fluttered shut.

"Sandy, I love you. Stay with me!" Bo shouted, hearing the ambulance approaching.

No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get her to open them again. A few seconds later, Sandy went limp in Bo's arms and her brother's hand. "No!" they both cried, as the paramedics ripped her away from the blonde.

The EMTs didn't wait for anything. They just put her on the gurney and loaded her in the vehicle, saying that no one could go with her. As they closed the doors, Bo saw them gallantly trying to resuscitate her with CPR, but he knew she was gone.

Luke put his arm around his cousin to keep him from falling over, and Tracey did the same for Timmy. Everyone else seemed to be in a hurry to get to the hospital. Bo knew there was no reason to speed. She was gone.

Their mad dash to Tri-County General only left them sitting in a waiting room. It wasn't a long wait. A doctor came out and told them what Bo already knew. She was gone.

Jesse and Luke were doing their best to console an eerily calm Bo. Tracey asked Daisy to look after a grief-stricken Tim while he went to use the phone. The oldest of the Maverick boys was the best qualified to know what to do, and Tim was in no shape to do anything. He couldn't stop crying, no matter how hard he tried. Bo, on the other hand, couldn't cry, no matter how hard he did try.

The Maverick family friend returned a little while later, informing everyone that Tommy Maverick was going to take care of all the arrangements. He would fly his sister home. Timmy and Tracey would fly back with her. Tracey would have to take care of the Maverick Siblings until he could return them to their brothers. The Dukes would have to take care of Bo.


The next morning, the Dukes left for the Lone Star state. Uncle Jesse rode with Daisy in Sandy's Camaro, following Luke and Bo in the General Lee. Bo didn't want to drive, he didn't want to go. He didn't want to eat, and he'd barely said two words. He didn't want to do anything. He didn't even want to cry. He was afraid that if he broke down, he'd never recover. He didn't have his therapist anymore to help him do so.

It was late evening when they arrived at the Southern Comfort. Under different circumstances, and in the light of day, they would have been quite impressed by its enormous size, but acreage counts were the furthest thing from anyone's mind.

Sandy's three brothers were waiting for them in the large main room that they were shown to by the woman called Louisa. Timmy they knew. He looked awful. It looked like he'd been crying since the minute that it happened, and fresh tears were still rolling down his cheeks.

Thomas Maverick stepped forward to introduce himself and his brother, Bob. He welcomed them to the Southern Comfort, then asked if they had a safe drive. Daisy took that as her cue, handing their host the keys to his sister's beloved automobile. He thanked them for bringing it back, clutching the keys in his fist. A small woman with short black hair joined them, followed by two children. After introducing the Dukes to his wife and kids, Tommy asked them if they'd like something to drink, and if they had eaten. Uncle Jesse thanked him for the offer, saying that they'd stopped for dinner, but accepted the invitation for a beverage. The Maverick patriarch walked over to a well stocked bar in the corner, asking what they'd like. The Duke patriarch, speaking for his entire family, stated that coffee or water would be fine. Sandy's two oldest brothers looked like they had already helped themselves to a little of the spirits, but it didn't seem to be helping. The Dukes had already tried that remedy, partaking in a little shot of hidden moonshine the night before. It hadn't helped them, either.

Tommy Maverick was the shortest of the three boys, and also the most worn. His features were more rugged, and he was a little on the stocky side, but he fit the part of the true Texas cowboy. Despite his years in the business world, he looked like he belonged running a ranch. He was dressed in jeans and tucked in denim shirt, though they wore no hats in the house. All of the Dukes had a hard time trying to imagine him in a business suit.

Bobby looked the most like Sandy. Not quite as tall as Timmy, he was more on the lean side. He had red hair, though not auburn like his sister's. It was more a fire engine red, and they weren't surprised to learn that his nickname was 'red.' The hardest thing to look at was his eyes. They were almost identical to Sandy's in shape and color, and if Bo had really wanted to, he could have convinced himself that he was looking into hers. With slightly different coloring, Bobby had the freckles that Sandy had been spared.

The boys were about as different as night and day, just as Sandy had said their personalities were, too. Yet, they shared one thing in common, their grief. Timmy's was the most visible, but it was clear that they were all mourning.


Bo didn't remember much about the day after they arrived in Texas; it went by in a blur. The house had an endless stream of people, starting early in the morning. He couldn't have possibly remembered everyone he'd been introduced to because there were just too many. However, many of them knew him, or at least knew about him. In every introduction, he was presented as Sandy's fiancée. Some folks were surprised, others weren't. Quite a few of them even knew Bo was from Georgia, and some knew that he'd been a patient. Sandy must have told the residents of Maverick a lot more about Bo than Bo had told the residents of Hazzard.

The shell-shocked fiancée went through the motions, going where he was told, sitting where he was told, speaking when spoken to, but his mind had shut down. His emotions had, too. He still hadn't really cried yet, and Bo was known to weep more than Daisy at times. His family was worried about him, knowing that the longer he kept it inside, the harder it would be. Luke shadowed him, afraid to let him out of his sight. It was clear that Bo wasn't thinking straight, and they feared he might do something harmful due to his lack of judgment.

Luke hadn't taken his eyes off Bo since they'd left Tri-County Hospital, at least he thought he hadn't. He turned around for just a split second to answer someone's question, and when he turned back around, he couldn't believe it. He'd managed to loose Bo. Pushing through the guests, he didn't know where to start looking. They were, after all, in a strange house in a state they were unfamiliar with.


Bo felt like a zombie. When he had first woken from his drug induced coma, he'd been unable to move, but his mind worked perfectly. Thanks to Sandy, his body had since learned to function properly, too. Now, his body worked, but his mind didn't.

He didn't purposely slip away from Luke and the others. It wasn't a conscious decision, his brain hadn't made one of those since Sandy had died in his arms. No one had told him where to go next so his feet decided for him. He found himself on the second floor of the Maverick home. His feet must have been looking for his room, but the door he was standing in front of wasn't his. It wasn't a room that any of the Dukes had been placed in. He'd never been it, had never seen what was behind that door, but somehow he knew.

Without instructing it to, his hand turned the knob and his feet moved forward. His hand closed the door behind him. Bo Duke found himself standing in the middle of Sandy Maverick's bedroom.

Bo's eyes darted around, noting that the room was still decorated for a younger girl. The decor was somewhere between the childhood and teenage years, for some reason, never being updated. Painted in a pale pink, the lace curtains and bedspread were dotted with pink and purple flowers. With its white furniture, it was all very soft. It didn't look like something that would appeal to a Texas Twister. Sandy, the woman, was strong and competent, but that room belonged to a little girl. She had told Bo that there was a lot they didn't know about each other. This was one side of her he'd never thought about, and thanks to Billy Ray, he'd never get the chance to discover.

He tried to imagine a younger Sandy, but he didn't have to try very hard. Pictures scattered throughout the room told a little of the story of her life. Photos of the girl at various ages, with different people lined the desk and dresser. Bo saw her with her parents, brothers, friends, and patients. He paused to look at each one.

On one wall, an expensive frame displayed her degree from Duke University. Underneath it were various licenses and professional certificates. On the opposite wall were several hand drawn pictures. Each one of the drawings were of two girls: one was older with long auburn hair, the other was very young with long blonde hair. In one picture, the little girl was in a bed. In another, she was in a wheelchair. The one in the middle showed her upright, standing on her own feet, holding the hand of the taller, red-headed girl. Bo didn't need to read the inscriptions to know who they were from; they were all addressed to Sandy, and signed with an 'I Love You' from Holly.

Bo closed his eyes, replaying the night on the swing when she had told him about her first patient, the one that didn't make it. He could see the pain in her emerald eyes, hear the sorrow in her voice, taste the salt from her tears, and feel her in his arms. It overwhelmed him, but still the tears wouldn't come.

Believing that his legs could no longer support him, he staggered to the bed. As he forced his eyelids up, his pupils were drawn to another frame, the only one in the room he hadn't seen yet. It was by itself, separated from all the others on a table next to the bed. He understood the significance. It was the first thing she saw every morning when she woke, and the last thing she saw at night before she closed her eyes.

He reached over and picked it up, his fingers running along the outer rim. It wasn't a photo that was protected behind the glass, it was an item; one that Bo recognized. Pressed and preserved was the Camellia that he had slipped behind her ear the day at the pond when he first told her that he loved her; when she first told him that she loved him, too. He knew that it was the flower that he had snapped off its twig because of the unique coloring on the tips. He also knew it was the one he gave her because in the corner of the frame, on the outside of the glass, was a photo of the two of them together. Bo slipped it out of its holding place. It wasn't that old, but it was already worn, appearing to have been handled and touched, a lot.

Sliding the photo back into place, he clutched the frame to his chest. Though his mind was filled with hundreds of images, he only had a few photographs of his own, and like hers, the few he had were wrinkled. He kept one by his bed and one in his wallet. There just hadn't been enough time to fill an album. Their photographs were in his memory, and if something ever happened to that, he'd lose the little of her that he had left.

Still holding the frame tightly, he laid down on her bed, curling into the fetal position. Breathing deeply, he could smell her scent as he drifted off.


An hour later, Luke couldn't keep it from his family or the Mavericks any longer. He had to let them know that Bo had disappeared. Room by room they started searching, inside the house and out. Luke almost collapsed when he opened the door and found Bo curled up and asleep on a bed. He didn't know how he'd done it, but somehow, Bo had managed to find Sandy's room. Clutched in his arms was something that the older cousin couldn't make out. Luke promised to sit with him while he slept, taking up guard from a wicker chair in the corner.


Luke Duke hadn't meant to fall asleep, but he was tired. Watching Bo every minute of the past seventy-two hours had been a twenty-four hour job since Bo didn't sleep anymore. It was just one more thing he didn't do, and except for those couple hours on Sandy's bed, Luke doubted that his cousin had closed his eyes at all. As soon as the darkness fell across the sky, Bo could be found looking up at the heavens. The night before they left for Texas, Bo sat on the porch swing all night. The two nights they'd been at the Southern Comfort, Bo had stood at the window. Luke assumed that it had something to do with Sandy's instructions to look at the stars, but he hadn't fully understood what it meant, and it was too soon to ask Bo.

The sun was already rising, so Bo wasn't looking to the night sky anymore. He was sitting on the couch gazing at nothing. Luke cursed himself for being so weak when Bo needed him, but greeted the blonde in his usual manner. He could see that the staff had already brought up coffee, so he crawled out of bed and helped himself. Bo accepted the cup he handed him, but didn't show any interest in drinking it. He was too busy staring.

When Luke was dressed and ready, he helped his cousin do the same. Despite the fact that they'd all had showers, their clothes were already sticking to them due to the oppressive heat and humidity by the time they joined everyone downstairs. Normal temperatures for that time of year were much cooler. Knowing that the house would see people coming and going all day, about nine-thirty the staff members started closing the windows, preparing to turn on the air conditioning. When they went outside to get in the car a half-hour later, the rain started pouring. By the time they got to the church, the sun was out again. As they prepared to go to the gravesite, the rain started again, but while en route, the sun came out and bore down on them viciously. Once they got to the gravesite, the sky clouded over, and that's how it had remained the rest of the afternoon.

The Mavericks obviously had a long blood line. Not too many families had their own personal cemeteries on their property, but these people did. There were probably about thirty to forty final resting places in the enclosed area that sat on a hill overlooking the house on one side and the ranch on the other. If the circumstances had been different, it would have made a perfect picture that depicted Americana in its glory. Today, no one was interested in the scenery. Their eyes were focused on what was taking place in front of them.

The three brothers stood shoulder to shoulder on one side of the grave; the Dukes stood opposite them on the other. People crowded around them, trying to fit into the small enclosed area, but there were too many to all fit. Some of the guests wishing to pay their respects had been forced to do so outside the fence.

The preacher said some lovely words about how Sandy had been loved and would be missed, the gift she had of healing, and the devotion she had given to her family and patients. That comment almost got a tear to slip for Bo, but he bit it back, not wanting to fall apart just yet. He was living proof of that remark, and many of her other patients had made the trip to say goodbye, too. Bo wasn't the only one that owed his life to her, maybe not in terms of physically breathing, but in actually living. Now, he wondered why God had given him that gift, only to take it away again, because he doubted he'd ever really live again. His body had survived through one shooting, only for his spirit to be killed by another.

Bo returned to the present only to realize that he had missed the rest of what the preacher had to say. He was done talking. One by one those who knew and loved Sandy said goodbye, throwing flowers on top of the casket and walking away until the only mourners left were her brothers and the Dukes. Everyone else was waiting outside the gate, giving them a few minutes of privacy.

Jesse and Daisy stepped forward first, completing their ritual, then moved to the side to wait for the rest of their family. Luke nudged Bo forward, throwing his own rose first. Bo held his for a few minutes. He had a rose in his hand, but after seeing the preserved Camellia in her room and remembering how much she said she liked them, he wished he had one of those instead. Bo opened his hand and let the flower fall, watching it float downward. Joining Daisy and Jesse at the gate, the Dukes left the brothers to say their own goodbyes.

As the afternoon wore on, the house started emptying; respects had been paid and rituals completed. Now, there was nothing left to do but remember. Bo felt like he was smothering, he couldn't breathe and he had to get out. Ripping his tie loose, he snuck out the back door, this time purposely slipping away. He knew exactly where he wanted to be regardless of whether it was raining or not.

Bo hadn't realized it was quite as long of a walk as it was. When he'd been there earlier, they had driven, and since you could see the house, he'd assumed it wasn't all that far. Now, he found he was wrong. He looked out over the landscape as he reached the hill's peak. The ranch went on as far as the eye could see. A stray cow or bull occasionally came into view, soon to be herded back to where it belonged by someone on a horse. Finally, he reached his destination, only to find he wasn't alone there.

Tim looked up, surprised that someone would have gotten the same idea. "Hi Bo."

"Hi."

"Couldn't take it in the house anymore," Tim mused. "I felt like I couldn't breathe."

"Me too."

Though still crying, Tim gave a small smile. "Sandy said that you reminded her of me, or I reminded her of you, depending on how you looked at. Guess she was right."

For the first time in several days, Bo actually smiled, mirroring Timmy's. It was strange that they had both wound up in the same place at the exact same time.

"She really loved you, ya know?" Tim stated.

"She loved you, too."

"I know," Tim acknowledged, looking at the fresh mound of dirt.

For a little while, the boys sat in silence. It was Tim that finally broke the quiet, sharing tidbits about his sister with the man that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Bo listened, filing the information away for later use, the way he'd stored the images from the pictures in her room the day before. Bo wanted to know everything, but knew that was impossible. They sat there for a long time, and Bo even laughed at a couple of the stories Tim had shared with him. He didn't know if he felt better or worse after listening for so long.

Timmy was taking a breath, reloading, when Bo looked up at the sky. The weather here was sure weird, he thought to himself. "Sky looks real funny," he said.

Tim hadn't been paying much attention, but now that he looked up, he knew that they needed to do something, fast. "We gotta get out of here," he said. "Come on." Unlike Bo, Tim hadn't walked. He'd ridden up on his horse. Climbing up on the saddle, he offered Bo a hand.

"Hold on," Tim told Bo, as he prompted the horse to run as fast as he could. When they got closer to the house, they saw people running out.

"Where they going?" Bo asked, as he slid off.

"To the storm cave," Tim yelled over the now howling winds.

Daisy and Uncle Jesse were among the evacuees when Bo caught up to them. "Where's Luke?" he asked, concerned that his cousin wasn't with them.

"Can't find him. He went looking for you," Daisy screamed over the winds.

"Oh no," Bo cried, not knowing where to look first. Telling Daisy and Jesse to go with the others, Bo's eyes were frantically searching. The wind was blowing so hard things were flying through the air, and Bo was scared. He wasn't prepared to lose his cousin in the same week that he'd lost his fiancee. Guided by a feeling, he glanced toward the hill he'd just returned from. Looking closer, he could make out a form. "Luke!" he yelled, taking off in the direction of the person he knew was his oldest cousin, in spite of everyone else telling him to get inside. "Luke!" he screamed, running as fast as he could toward him, while Luke was running just as fast toward Bo.

When they caught up with each other, they turned toward the shelter everyone else was seeking protection in.. The sky was a sickening green color like they'd never seen before and the clouds looked angry. They hadn't gotten too far when they heard a loud roaring. Knowing that they weren't going to make it to the designated area, Luke spotted a ditch not too far away.

"There," he yelled and pointed, in case Bo couldn't hear. They jumped into the gully as the roaring got louder.

Instead of covering his head like he was supposed to, Bo peered over the top of the ridge. Off in the distance, he saw the cyclone. It was on the ground, but he was unable to tell exactly what direction it was moving. He'd never seen anything like it in his life, and he remembered Sandy's description of being chased by a black monster. It was accurate. "Sandy!" he said, almost taking comfort in the tornado's presence. It just wasn't possible that a twister touched down on the Maverick property on the very day of her funeral by sheer coincidence . He knew that it was her way of telling him that she wasn't really gone, and despite the proximity of the tornado, Bo wasn't scared. He knew it wouldn't hurt him.

Luke, on the other hand, was. "Get down!" he yelled, yanking the blonde under the ravine. Bo and Luke covered each other as dirt and debris rained down on them. Then as quickly as it came, it was gone. It was quiet, and though it was still raining a little, the sky was just a normal, rainy gray, no longer a sickening green.

Shaking the junk off of them, they looked at each other. "You ok?" they both asked in unison. "Yeah," they both answered the same way. Luke looked at his cousin, not wanting to say what he was thinking. He, too, thought it was just a little weird to have a tornado on that day.

Climbing out of the ditch, they walked back to the house, observing that it looked to be unharmed. The door to the storm cellar opened, and a very frightened Daisy and Uncle Jesse were the first ones out the door. Seeing the boys, they ran to them, asking if they were ok. The cousins assured them that they were fine, though they did resemble drowned rats.

The Dukes weren't the only ones that had been worried about the boys. Timmy and Tommy Maverick, along with staff members and friends who were still there gathered around them. As a meteorologist, Bobby Maverick had went in search of a front row seat. Tommy suggested they get out of their wet clothes and take a hot shower. It was hard to believe that with as hot as it had been all day, they could actually be cold, but the rain and hail that pelleted them had been freezing and hard, and now the air was cool and dry. A hot shower sounded good.


Bo was in a robe provided by the Mavericks. He sat on a small couch in his room, with his head back and his eyes closed when Luke opened the door. He was dressed in a similar robe, and was towel drying his hair. Sitting down on the couch next to his cousin, he put his hand on his knee. "You ok?" he asked.

Bo gave a snort. "Unusual weather we're having," he scoffed, and Luke had to smile.

"Yeah," he agreed. "You know I heard on the TV when you were in the shower that this has been the largest outbreak of tornadoes in a single day this late in the season in Texas, ever."

"Sandy's got friends," Bo said, trying to make a joke, but choking on the words instead.

Luke pulled him into his arms. He'd done this several times over the last few days, but Bo had managed to maintain an eerie sense of composure. The oldest cousin was worried that the boy still hadn't cried yet. As Luke held him today, he could feel the breakdown coming. The breathing was fast, but he could feel Bo still trying to hold it back.

"It's ok, Bo," he told him, and that led to the shoulders shaking. "Let it out. You've gotta let it out," he told him, and that was Bo's cue to break down. He'd kept it together to get through the funeral, but with the tornado and everything else, he just couldn't do it any longer. He cried for over two hours non-stop, and Luke just held him. Jesse had come by once to check on them. When he opened the door, he was relieved to see that Luke had finally gotten his cousin to release some of his anguish. Luke glanced at his uncle, who nodded in response, silently telling him that he'd make sure no one else disturbed them until Bo was ready.

"I think you're as wet as you were this afternoon," Bo sniffled into Luke's robe.

"Not hardly," Luke replied, "and at least you don't come with debris."

Bo chuckled, and Luke could tell that he felt a little better already.

"You ready to go downstairs for a little while?" he asked.

"Yeah, I suppose we better, since we're leaving in the morning."

"I'm gonna get dressed. Luke said, giving him one more hug before releasing him.

"Yeah," he replied. "Hey Luke?" Bo called, and Luke stuck his head back inside the bedroom. "Thanks."

"No problem, cuz."

A/N - This is not the last chapter. There is one more, and I'll try to have it up within the next couple of days. I've got a couple of things to add to it that's just crept up along the way.