Hi all - here's Chapter 3.
Again, thanks to everyone for reading, and double thanks to those who review.
I do not own the Dukes or any of the main charaters, and I am not making any money for this. Andy's half mine, half Warner Bothers, and the extras are just extra.
With no further adieu...
Chapter 3 – A Breeding Ground for Trouble
"Yee ha!" Bo screamed without thought to whose eardrums he might be shattering.
For once his older cousin didn't give him a hard time about it, though. He was too busy grinning and saying, "All right, Bo. Next time let up on the accelerator a little sooner though. I'd kinda like to keep my kidneys inside my body."
"Aw, Luke, you're too danged attached to those things," Bo risked and was actually awarded with a chuckle. This was precisely what the young blonde had needed: at home behind the wheel, with his cousin and mentor there to enjoy it with him, cruising through some back roads, but mostly cross-country terrain. The future 'shine runner was proving his mastery of a very important skill – weaving between trees and barreling through shrubs at high speed while keeping the car and its contents intact.
"Hey, cuz? This obstacle course stuff is great and all, but I think I've really got the hang of that. Can't we try getting some air, maybe just a hop?"
Luke laughed outright. "Bo, you ain't done with what you need to be able to do with all the wheels on the ground yet."
"No?"
"Nope. And this is why it's good that Daisy don't need us to pick her up. Starting tonight, you're gonna learn to do all this in the dark."
The youngest cousin had been trying to learn from his dark haired elder some of the finer points of being a man, so he did his best to hide his disappointment and nervousness. "Sounds like fun," he said.
Not fooled, Luke put a hand on his younger cousin's shoulder. "Don't worry, Bo. I'll let you use the headlights the first time."
Bo wondered why he'd thought he missed this kind of teasing.
Assuming she was not at work, the early afternoon was usually a time that Daisy could count on having to herself, with her cousins and uncle safely out in the fields or busy fishing or "cooking" up at one of the still sites hidden along the small creeks fed by mountain run off. So she was quite startled to be brought out of a daydream by Jesse's voice.
"Daisy-girl? You with me now?"
"What, Uncle Jesse?" Unlike the boys, she always made sure to use the honorific along with his first name. They were all brought up well, but some lessons had been better learned by the only surviving female in the family.
"I was asking why you's just sittin' here. You feelin' all right? Boss ain't workin' you too hard, is he? You been getting' home awful late." Jesse sat in what would normally be Luke's chair at the kitchen table, across from Daisy, so he could see her face.
"No, Uncle Jesse. I'm fine. I'll just go collect the eggs now, so's we can have some cake after dinner…"
"Now hold on a minute there, girl. Let me just ask you one more question."
"Sure, Uncle Jesse," Daisy sat back down but found that she couldn't meet her uncle's eyes.
"You ain't been takin' advantage of ol' Enos, now have you?"
"Uncle Jesse!" Daisy was so shocked that she forgot to be worried about getting caught stretching the truth about her nightly transportation.
"Now, I don't mean that way. I just mean, that boy's been crazy about you for a long time, an' it ain't right to make him think you're interested in him if you really ain't."
The young woman grinned at the man who had raised her, grateful that she could answer honestly: "Uncle Jesse, you don't have to worry about me leadin' poor Enos on. I can promise you, I ain't doin' that."
"All right then, be sure that you ain't. And Daisy," the old man took a moment to mentally compose what he needed to say next. "I ain't never told you, nor Bo, nor Luke who you can date. Well, other than that boy you's crazy about in the tenth grade that weren't no good. But since you been adults, I ain't never interfered in your love lives. An' I ain't gonna now, but I want you to think about this: if you do decide to date Enos, remember, we's on opposite sides of the law now. He's still a real good boy an' you couldn't find a nicer man, but he's a sworn peace officer now. An' gettin' too close to him could be dangerous. He's the son of a moonshiner an' he already knows a lot about the trade. One slip about a run could lead to him havin' to catch us whether he wants to or not."
"Oh, Uncle Jesse, Enos'd never turn us in to no revenuer. I just know he wouldn't."
"The boy he used to be would never do that, I know. But Enos is a lawman now. Wouldn't be honest if he didn't turn us in. And you have to admit, Enos is about as honest as they get. So… when you're decidin' who to spend your time with, remember that some men is more dangerous than others, and not always for the most obvious reasons."
"Yes, sir, Uncle Jesse." Once again, the young woman found her hands, which were resting on the table top, to be endlessly fascinating. This was not missed by her uncle, who now knew what he had only guessed before: this discussion was somewhat overdue.
Jesse stood and walked around to Daisy's side of the table and, slipping an arm around his niece's shoulder, drew her to him for a long moment. "Now, why don't you go get them eggs. Cake sounds mighty nice."
The Hazzard Garage was mercifully quiet when Enos made his way there towards the end of his shift. The young deputy was relieved to find the owner's son, Cooter, to be the only one inside.
"Hey, Enos, what can I do for ya, buddy?"
"Well, I kinda scraped up the side of the car in some sticks out there. I was hoping you could fix it up and maybe not mention it to the Sheriff."
"You got the dime, I got the time, buddy. But you know, ol' Rosco's dinged up a few cars himself. It ain't like you oughta have to hide this from him."
"Thanks, Cooter. It's just that I'm supposed to be helping the Sheriff, not makin' him mad. He's got so much to worry about an' he don't need me messin' up the cars, too."
"This car ain't messed up, not compared to some Rosco's brought in. But I'll fix her for you. I still think you shouldn't have to pay for it yourself, though."
"That's okay, Cooter. I messed it up."
"They treatin' you all right there, Deputy Strate? You seem kinda tensed up."
"Naw, it's okay, Cooter. It's just a lot of responsibility, bein' a deputy. You gotta keep order on the roads and in the town and keep an eye on the Boar's Nest. Plus you gotta look for kids skippin' school, watch for illegal hunting, make sure that no one goes up that old Hatchapee Mine Road…"
"What's wrong with the Hatchapee Mine Road? And why would anyone want to go up there anyway?"
The deputy pushed up his hat to scratch his head. "I don't rightly know, Cooter. It's just one of those things you gotta do. Sheriff's orders."
"Has it occurred to you that Rosco's been a little squirrelly lately?" Cooter asked, wiping greasy hands on greasy shirt, an equal transfer.
"Now, Cooter, you just mind your manners. You ain't got no call to talk that way about an officer of the law. Sheriff Coltrane's got a lot on his mind, so you just remember that before you go sayin' anything else about him."
"okay, Enos, easy now. I didn't mean nothin' by it."
"Aww, that's okay, Cooter. I guess I am kinda tensed up after all."
"Hey, you wanna go out tonight, let loose at the Boar's Nest? I'm buyin'."
Enos didn't really want to, but he found he couldn't turn down the offer. Besides, it might actually help if he could relax for a little while with one of his old friends. Lord knew he was having enough trouble at work, trying to keep his superior officer on an even keel. Thing was, he never could tell what would send Rosco off into a muttering tizzy. If only he could figure that out, maybe he'd actually be able to please his boss.
"Thanks, Cooter. That's mighty nice of you."
Luke had to admit that he'd had a great deal of fun riding with Bo over the last several days. If his pride had allowed, he might also have admitted that Bo was a much better driver than he'd been at that age, and would probably surpass Luke's own skills someday very soon. Instead, he congratulated himself on his great teaching.
Though Daisy did not need a ride, the boys had decided to go to the Boar's Nest tonight anyway, to get a drink and relax. Bo had become quite adept at handling the car in blacked out conditions, and this was cause for celebration. Doubly exciting for Bo was the fact that his cousin had agreed that it was time for him to learn how to defy gravity.
Now that they were headed into town, though, the elder Duke boy's mood was souring. It seemed that the more people that were around, the more he felt alone. He could joke with a couple of buddies, he could go out and 'play' with Bo, but in a crowd he found himself feeling that he was amongst people who would never understand him, and to whom he could no longer easily relate. These people he had grown up with and amongst understood him less than some guys he had known only a few months in Vietnam. Luke didn't want to feel this way, but it was how he felt all the same.
The Boar's Nest was a living, breathing organism that night, filled with everyone and anyone in town that needed an outlet. In other words, it was a breeding ground for trouble and the Duke boys weren't exactly a calming influence.
The first people that the cousins spied were Cooter and Enos, who had apparently gotten there early enough to snag a small table. Responding to the mechanic's wave, the boys quickly decided that their only chance of actually sitting that night lay with joining their friend at his table.
Daisy was so busy sidestepping all the various hands that reached for her that at first she didn't see her cousins in the crowd. When she did spot them, she made her way to them, hoping they planned a short stay, and that they wouldn't get into a conversation with Enos about her transportation arrangements.
"Hey, y'all, what'll it be?"
Before anyone else could speak up, an expansive Cooter ordered beers all around. Enos changed his order to coffee, having already had one beer, his limit. He'd grown up sipping 'shine like everyone else at the table, but now that he was a deputy, he considered himself always on call with a need to be alert at all times.
Daisy hurried to fulfill their order, wanting to keep an ear on conversation at the table. So far it didn't look like anything much was going on, since Bo was making eyes at any girl who'd look his way, and Luke seemed to be somewhere else entirely, but Daisy had to be sure. If the wrong topic came up, she wanted to be around to ask Enos to dance or something before he spilled the beans.
Daisy was still lingering around the boys' table when one of unsavory characters who was somewhat less than sober began demanding a refreshed drink. When the barmaid's attention was a little slow in coming his way, the rowdy patron made a grab for her, resulting in a slip that brought them both crashing to the ground.
Up in a flash, Bo grabbed the offender by the arms, pulling him upright to provide his fist a better angle at the man's face. Luke helped Daisy to her feet without ever taking his eyes off his blonde cousin.
"Bo…" he shouted, trying to prevent the inevitable. Before the name was entirely out of his mouth, Luke found himself grabbing his petite cousin around her waist and lifting her out of the way of a flying drunk man, the result of a collision with his other cousin's fist. A lot of things happened at once: Daisy screaming Bo's name, a blur coming from Luke's right, Cooter jumping up and planting his feet for a swing, and a sudden crunching sound. Before he could sort out all of the stimulus, Luke's eye caught Bo's face, now smeared with blood. There was a whooshing in his ears as he instinctively sought his weapon, without success. How had he been caught so unprepared? No time to think about that, he had to take his opponents in hand to hand combat, and doing so would require all of his concentration.
With a scream designed to stop his enemy cold, Luke jumped on the first combatant and began to wrench his neck to the left. Someone grabbed him from behind, but Luke slammed his elbow into the opposition's ribcage, and returned his attention to dispatching his first enemy, this time with a fist. Eyes narrowed, the Marine grabbed hold of the next adversary, reaching again for the neck. He was aware of someone trying to get his attention, but willed himself to concentrate on the task in front of him, disallowing any distractions. He succeeded, too, until he realized that the sound was coming from quite near his ear, was very frightened, and was his cousin, Bo, calling his name.
As Luke finally let his attention be diverted, a percussive sound rang out that brought everyone down to the floor. Enos was the first one up, and joined his boss in the corner where he'd stood, undetected, until that time.
"All right you Dukes, you Winter boys and you, Cooter Davenport and Joey Byrne, you're all under arrest. I mean it now."
Pandemonium broke out as everyone began pleading their case. However, what caught the Sheriff's ear, even though it was not very loud, was a cough from behind. Rosco turned to see Commissioner Hogg standing in the doorway between the main barroom and the back room that had been commandeered as the Boss's office. With an almost imperceptible head shake, Rosco's brother-in-law made his wishes clear.
Aiming his gun at the ceiling once again, Sheriff Coltrane threatened to fire off another round. Everyone cringed, holding their ears, and silence fell in the roadhouse.
"All right. Now, I'm gonna let you off with a warning this time. Ijit, but next time I'm gonna cuff ya and stuff ya, and then I'm gonna march ya all over to the county building and I'm gonna put ya under the jail and lose the key and yer all gonna stay there, so just you watch what yer doin', ijit, or I'll do it, I mean it now. What a mess. Yer all gonna have to clean up this mess or I'm gonna fine ya, and then I'll cuff ya and stuff ya… what a horrendous brawl. Would have killed ten ordinary sheriffs, I'm telling ya…"
As Rosco wound down, the Boar's Nest remained silent. Even Bo Duke found he couldn't argue with that kind of logic. Somehow chastised, the patrons did, indeed, start to pick up some of what had hit the floor. The Sheriff curtly instructed his deputy to keep an eye on things and stormed out the door.
Bo, meanwhile, did a quick accounting for the whereabouts of his kin. Daisy was easy to spot, in the middle of the clean up crew. Luke took a little longer to locate, still keeping low, watching the crowd with wary eyes.
"Luke?" Bo shivered slightly at the intensity of the look his cousin gave him. "You okay?"
"Yeah, Bo, I'm fine. But you're not. Let me see your face." Bo complied long enough for Luke to realize that the offending blood was only from a split lip. He held his handkerchief to the cut for a few seconds until he was satisfied that his cousin was in no real danger. "Let's just call it an early night and head home, huh? I'm pretty tired. And you could use some ice."
The boys helped right the table they'd been sharing with their friends, then said their goodbyes, after being assured by Daisy that she'd be able to get home just fine. Bo was concerned that Enos might not be able to get away from the bar to drive her to the farm, but Daisy shooed both her cousins out the door, insisting that she had alternatives if she needed them. For once, both boys were too preoccupied to wonder what those alternatives might be, and just how safe their cousin really was.
Sitting in his cruiser in a dark corner of the lot, Rosco Coltrane watched the Duke boys get into their car. They weren't really bad boys, but they had a way of getting under the sheriff's skin with their sassy attitudes. And tonight he'd had every reason to let them cool their heels in jail overnight, if not for the recent change in the balance of power in Hazzard. Now they were getting into that powerful Plymouth, likely to break a few vehicular laws on their way home, but he didn't even bother to follow them, since he couldn't enforce any charges he might make. Rosco was livid, but there was nothing he could do, at least not for now.
Inside the bar, in the dingy corner by the payphone, Andy Roach also watched the boys leave. They were good scrappers, better than he'd realized. He'd have to remember that, if it ever came down to it. They were the kind that you needed to get the handcuffs on immediately, and search the car for the contraband later. In the meantime, Andy realized, he'd still get a chance to spend some time with Daisy that night. By mutual agreement he'd been dropping her off a slight distance from the house, with headlights out, so as not to tip off her family about who was bringing her home. After watching her make her way to the farmhouse and inside, the agent generally continued surveillance for some time. So far he hadn't learned much, but he could be a patient man.
"Luke?"
"Yeah, Bo."
"Are you really all right?"
"Yeah, Bo."
"You sure?" Bo winced at the bright blue fury that turned his direction for a split second before Luke's concentration returned to his driving. But Bo couldn't keep quiet. "You kinda scared me there, cousin. I ain't never seen you go after nobody like you did them Winter brothers tonight. You could've really hurt them."
Killed them, Luke thought, sighing. He wasn't angry at Bo, wasn't even frustrated. He'd scared himself, so he understood.
"Yeah, Bo. I'm okay." For a moment Luke fought with his normally reserved personality, but then decided that this was a time that he needed to say something he otherwise wouldn't. "Bo, I love you, you know that. An' there's no one I trust more than you, but I don't wanna talk about this anymore, all right?"
Bo stared out the window at the darkness around them. "Yeah, okay."
Luke had volunteered to run off another batch of moonshine on his own. There was no reason it couldn't be a one man job, and Luke's sacrifice made it possible for two men to stay behind and work the property. Bo knew, however, that it was not out of the goodness of his heart that Luke had offered to do a solo shift at the still. His older cousin was avoiding him, and he was sure it was largely because of what had happened at the Boar's Nest the night before.
Once the heavy work had been done, Jesse and his young nephew walked the cornfield together, making sure there were no parasites or other pests infesting the crop. Bo took advantage of this relatively quiet time alone with his uncle to bring up a subject that had been on his mind for some time.
"Uncle Jesse, what's going on with Luke?"
"What do you mean by that Bo?" Jesse wasn't prying into the boys' private business; his question was asked only for the purpose of determining which of his older nephew's behaviors had bothered the boy.
"I don't know, he just, he ain't the same as he was before, you know?"
The older man nodded, and was quiet for a minute. Then he cocked his head to the side and asked, "What would you want him to be the same as?"
"I don't know, like when we was kids, he wasn't so quiet, and didn't go off by himself so much. We did mostly everything together."
Jesse nodded again. "Well, Bo, I know we've talked about some of this before, that men who experience war do come back different. In my generation they was just glad to be back, alive, and have a chance to start a life. Seems like this generation comes back to a lot less hope. Some of it is the way other folks treat them, and some of it is maybe wondering whether they shoulda been there in the first place. My generation didn't have that question as much."
"Yeah, Uncle Jesse we did talk about all that. But now Luke's back and he's different and it's not the same as just talking about it, or talking about some old guys that you once knew. It's Luke, my best friend, the closest thing I got to a brother, and he's shutting me out." Bo hated the plaintive tone that had crept into his voice, but he seemed powerless to make it stop. He looked out over the fields so his uncle wouldn't see the childish tears that insisted on coming to his eyes.
With his usual patience, the man who had raised Bo chose to ignore his nephew's impetuosity for now. He could remind him to respect his elders later, and because it was his youngest charge, he'd be genuinely sorry for what he'd said. Bo might be quick to shoot off his mouth, but he was just as quick to make amends.
"Let me ask you this, Bo. Are you the same as you were when Luke left?"
"Well, yeah."
"Really? You mean playin' football, makin' new friends in school, fightin' with the ones who said somethin' nasty about your cousin, an' standin' on your own two feet ain't changed you at all?" Jesse chuckled at Bo's raised eyebrows. "Didn't think I knew about the fights, huh? There ain't a move you made that I wasn't watchin'."
"Maybe I changed some, but not so much. I still want to be close to my family." Bo jutted his chin, both in the continued fight against tears, but also with the sense that he was on the right side of this difference with his cousin. Jesse had always stressed the importance of family amongst the children in his care. After all, they had to work extra hard to build the loyalty they had, since unlike real siblings, they'd been brought abruptly together under one roof as children.
"Now, Bo, Luke still wants to be close to his family. If he didn't, he wouldn't be here at all. He's a man who has survived some pretty rough conditions, and he could easily set up his own home, move out of Hazzard altogether if he wanted to. The only reason he hasn't is because he still wants to be here, with you, with all of us. He's just figuring out how to do it is all. Just like you're trying to figure out how to be around all of us now that you're a man. You give him time and a good reason, and Luke'll come around. And when he does, you're the one he'll turn to. Remember, you're the closest thing he's got to a brother, too."
With a wink, Jesse left his youngest child to think about what he'd said.