From the time that it had been clear that the race was illegal to the time when he had to tell Bo about it, Luke still wished he could come up with another way to keep Bo in the race and keep him alive. He had tried desperatly to find a way…but there just wasn't one.
Bo was allowed up and about now, Jesse had told him to take it really easy, and Bo had muttered something about having taken it easy enough for the last few days. He just found the thought of bed rest a little too close to torture.
He had tried to convince Jesse to let him up just about every day when he was stuck in bed. In the end his uncle had told him that if he didn't have more sense in his head than to take it easy with a concussion, then it was important he kept what little was there.
Bo had given up at about that point, he hated it when his uncle played the 'use what little common sense you have' card. It always made him feel stupid and would always end up with him abandoning whatever plan he had had. He had still done a lot of sulking about it though, and Luke could understand that, he hated it as much as Bo did. Normally the other would stay around for company, but Luke had been too preoccupied with the race to hang around much. He felt guilty about it, but he had been doing it for Bo's sake.
He walked in into the living room where Bo was sitting reading a car magazine, still confined by Jesse to taking it easy, even though the Doc had been round to say that Bo was almost back to full health.
"Hey, how ya feeling today?" Luke asked sitting down in an armchair.
"Fine, just like the day before, and the day before that." Bo didn't even look up, his voice showing every bit of the frustration he was feeling. A Bo Duke cooped up and frustrated just wasn't the nicest one to deal with.
"Bo we….uh…we need to talk about this race…." Luke began softly.
Bo looked up, dropping the car magazine at the look on Luke's face. He knew that look, it meant that something was coming his way that he wasn't going to like and he just knew what it was going to be.
"Now hold it there Luke! I've been doing what y'all said; I've been doing it even though I'm fine so don't ya dare sit there and tell me that I can't race cause there ain't nothin' wrong with me now, Doc said so his self!"
Luke shook his head.
"Look Bo, this has nothing to do with you having a concussion…"
Bo fixed him with a firm look.
"What is it about then? I don't like that look on ya face Luke, I ain't stupid ya know. Out with it."
Luke steeled himself inwards.
"Bo…Me and Cooter checked around, it ain't a legal race. It has nothing to do with NASCAR, and it seems to be even worse, because it seems to be about illegal betting."
Luke couldn't help but inwardly groan as Bo shook his head.
"Will ya stop being so dang paranoid Luke! I know it ain't no real NASCAR race because they're trying to put a team together for NASCAR, and ya can never really stop the betting, can ya? It's a race!"
Luke shook his head.
"Bo, me and Cooter has been checking around all this time. Now, ya know I'd never tell ya not to do it unless I was dang sure and I am. Ya can't enter this race Bo, I'm really sorry."
Bo jumped to his feet, towering over Luke, pointing an accusing finger his way.
"Ya can't tell me what to do Luke and ya ain't got no right to go behind my back on it either. I asked ya to join me as a co-driver 'cause I didn't wanna do it without ya, but I ain't after this. Why can't ya just leave me alone and let me do what I want for once?"
Luke sighed heavily; it was going about the way he had expected.
"Because if I did ya could get hurt Bo and not just a bump on the head either! I mean really, seriously hurt cousin, Tri County Emergency hurt if not cemetery!"
That was when it started to dawn on Bo. His cousin wasn't trying to stop him racing because he was seriously worried….he was stopping him because he thought Bo wasn't up to the challenge…and he could just guess who it would be to take his place in the driver's seat of General Lee.
"Yeah right Luke. And I suppose it'd take a better driver than me to handle that kinda race won't it cousin?"
Bo glared at him.
"No, nothing like that at all." Luke shook his head. "Listen to me Bo, you're one heck of a good driver, but can ya win even with a sabotaged car? 'Cause that's what we're talking about here. These guys are so desperate to win the bets that they's gonna use every dirty trick in the book to make sure they do."
Bo looked up at him, and for a moment Luke thought he might be listening to reason.
"What kind of proof have ya got?" he asked.
Luke bit his lip for a moment, here was the tricky part.
"Cooter and me over heard some fellas at the Boars Nest; they were talking about a race, and how they had a 'hic' they were gonna put up as competition to other drivers. Only they also mentioned they were in a fix 'cause too many drivers had wound up both in the hospital and at the pearly gates. They were talking about being sure of the winner cause the others wouldn't make it. How does that sound to ya?"
At the word 'hic' Bo's jaw tightened.
"Really? Well what if I don't believe ya?"
Luke felt his temper flare.
"What, ya say I'm lying! I ain't never lied to ya before, why would I now, 'specially 'bout somethin' as important as this!"
Bo shrugged, he couldn't really say. Too much time spent cooped up, and all the frustration he had felt while confined to 'rest' was just becoming too much. While he normally knew that Luke would never lie to him, it was all just starting to become more than he could deal with. When too many emotions surged through him, anger tended to take over the most strongly.
"I don't know! Jealousy? Pride? Anger? Revenge? Pick one! I'm gonna do this Luke, and there ain't nothing ya can say to make me stop."
"Bo ya gonna get ya'self killed!" Luke threw up his hands in frustration.
"I'm gonna win." Bo jabbed his finger at him.
"Oh no ya ain't. Not without a car and I'm saying ya ain't using the General." Luke glared at him.
"Ya can't tell me what ta do." Bo flared up fully at the tone of voice Luke used, as well as to hearing he wouldn't be allowed to use the General. "The General belongs ta me too ya know."
"Oh I know that, but I'm saying ya ain't taking my half to that race. Now, unless ya plan to split him in half ya ain't racing."
"Ya can't do that ta me Luke; ya can't do that ta Uncle Jesse!" Bo burst out shaking his head, he just couldn't understand it. "Don't ya understand, I told ya how much money I'd make, we'd make, we could pay of the mortgage, get a new tractor, everything we need. We'd never owe as much as another dime ever again. Don't ya understand that?"
Luke swallowed, he really hated doing this. It was all out of good intentions, all of it.
"Bo, I know, an' I want for it as much as ya do, but it ain't worth risking ya life for, it just ain't."
Bo found that he just couldn't listen anymore. He couldn't believe that his cousin was willing to let an opportunity to save the farm slip away like this. He hadn't even done that when he was forced to fight in a boxing match for Boss Hogg. Luke had gone against everything he believed in to save the farm….but now he was telling Bo to give up. He didn't want to hear that.
"I thought it was ya an' me Luke, I thought we's gonna do it together. I wanted ta do it with ya, why can't ya just let me?" He shook his head as his voice got thick and he couldn't carry on. He pushed past Luke and ran outside, sliding inside the General as he angrily wiped tears from his eyes, unsure as to whether they were tears of frustration or despair. He reached to turn the key even as he put his foot on the gas…it wasn't there. They always left the keys in the General back at the farm, and the only reason why they weren't there now had to be that Luke had taken them. Bo felt his blood burn hot as he realized what that meant.
He climbed back out of the General again; too furious for words, this time Luke had gone too far. He glared at his older cousin where he stood just outside the porch.
"Give me the keys!"
Luke shook his head. "No Bo, I ain't gonna do that."
"Give me the keys!" Bo was next to Luke in an instant.
"So ya can go off and get ya self killed!" Luke flared. "It ain't gonna make nothing better for nobody. Do ya really think that Uncle Jesse wants a new tractor if he loses ya ta get it?"
"Just ya shut up, and give me the dang keys!" Bo demanded shoving him hard so Luke fell against the post of the porch.
Once more Luke's temper flared and he leapt back to his feet pushing Bo in return. Bo stumbled backwards and as he came back to his feet, threw a punch that landed solidly on Luke's jaw, hard enough to knock Luke backwards while his jaw flared with pain. But, even as he struck a blow in return he aimed it for Bo's chest since he had only just gotten over the concussion. However Bo fell backwards against the General.
The thud he heard made Luke feel sick and he was worried that he had just given his cousin another concussion. If he had, he just couldn't think about taking Bo back to the doc saying he had knocked him out.
He looked over as Bo pushed off the General so he was standing on his own two feet and reeled slightly in shock at the glare that Bo was giving him. Luke had only ever seen him get that angry over two things before. One was if a rowdy customer had one too many beers and started to give Daisy some trouble, or if someone hurt her. The other was if someone hurt his family, and that included both the General and Cooter as well as a few others. It made Bo furious….and it made the other person bleed.
Luke had never had all that anger directed against him, never from Bo, from others sure enough but never from Bo. To Bo however, it didn't make any difference who was on the receiving end, and Luke could feel a trickle of warm blood slipping down his neck.
When Bo got that angry someone started bleeding, this time it was him. Bo punched him squarely across the eye and it split his eyebrow open. He fell backwards, stunned both from the blow and from how hard Bo had hit him.
Bo stood there looking at him for a moment, and it was the most heartbroken look Luke had ever seen. It really looked as if Bo's fist had crushed his heart as he struck his cousin, and for once the old saying about 'this will hurt me more than it will hurt you' seemed to be true. Bo looked as if he was just about to cry, then he slowly backed away from Luke while shaking his head. As the back of his legs bumped into the General he spun around sharply. Leaning his arms on the roof and dropping his head down to rest on them. He pounded one fist on the roof, and then got up and slid back in through the window.
While Luke had gotten so far as to his knees and was trying to shake the daze out of his brain, Bo had hotwired the car and taken off down the dirt road. There was no point in following him; he had no car at hand that could keep pace with the General.
He could only pray that Bo wouldn't drive head first into a tree at the pace he was driving. Bo always drove fast, always, but now he was so upset and angry that Luke was really worried.
He was at a loss about what he could do about it now, and so he just stood there looking down the road after his heartbroken, misguided cousin , dazed.