A/N Sorry it took me so long to get this up! School really knows how ta bug me right now, so writin isn't on my toppriorities list right now... But still, I can't not write! So here's a new chapter, a little more Luke in this one, so I hope you'll like! See ya!

5

"Nooooo!" the scream that had torn through the air now sounded raw and painful. But it continued.

The ball of fire should have warded her off, but it seemed to attract her even more. Slight explosions still filled the cooler night air with bursts of hot air. But she didn't care. With her child still in her arms, she ran, she ran as close as she could, until the fire scorched her arms and ember filled her hair.

The squirming shape in her arms was forgotten as she herself fell down on her knees, scraping them on the rocky ground. There was nobody there but her, her child and the remains of two vehicles, which were now beyond recognition. The heat of the fire made her eyes water as the tears streaked her face with black soot. And in that moment, she knew she would feel no more. She didn't even hear the large gulping cries her son made, as the ember burned his soft baby-skin. She only heard the roar in her ears, it could have been the roar of the fire, but she was sure it was the roar of her empty heart…

When Jesse got the call that there had been an accident near his brothers place, he didn't even falter. His big toe had been painful all day, and he knew something bad had to come out of that. Leaving a note for Martha, who was visiting her brother and sister in law, who had just given birth to little Daisy Duke, he left for Jessup road.

What he saw when he arrived there, would be forever etched on his brain. Smoke still billowed from the smouldering wreckage of two vehicles, one a large truck, the other a smaller car. And if that wasn't gruesome enough, there was another shape visible through the dark smoke which seemed to create an eerie fog.

There, only a few feet from the two wreckages, was Mary, sitting on her knees, clutching onto little Luke who was wriggling in her arms, while waving his own painful arms in the air and letting out gut wrenching wails. But Mary didn't even seem to notice. She was staring ahead, soot covering her face, while tears still ran from her almost empty looking eyes. If Jesse had to say what he felt when he touched her shoulder, he knew he only felt heartache, deep and painful.

As his own eyes filled with tears for his brothers fate, he saw the red blisters on little Luke's face, as the child kept screaming and screaming, the sounds almost sounding painful through the child's raw throat. Picking him up from where Mary was loosely holding him, Jesse saw the small burns covering the little boy's head and arms, as he soothed the small child. And in that moment, when Mary seemed to notice her arms were empty, she broke.

Large gut wrenching sobs escaped her small body as she curled up in foetal position, where she stayed until the ambulance personal took her away from the wreckage to leave her in the care of Jesse and Martha. There she stayed, most of the time fast asleep, a side-effect of the medication she had gotten to get over the shock. And as Luke seemed to bounce back over the next few days, both Jesse and Martha had to get up several times during the night to soothe the small boy after he had a nightmare, where he usually cried out for his daddy. The slight redness in his face and on his arms were the only reminder of the tragedy which had enfolded itself a few days earlier.

And when we buried him beneath the willow
The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

Five days after the tragic event, Kevin Duke was buried on the Hazzard cemetery. The Duke-plot, a beautiful piece of land on the cemetery was located on the top hill, luscious grass covered it as a large willow tree provided some shade. And that was were the entire Duke family stood that sunny afternoon. Jesse and Martha holding Luke as Mary was standing on her own, that empty look still in her eyes, as she let the first white lily fall in the freshly dug hole in which the casket was being lowered. She stayed there, until everyone was gone, until the sun lowered itself behind the hills, casting the sky in angelic colours like pink, red and blue while the birds whistled their evening song.

And there, she said goodbye to Kevin Duke, her husband, her lover, the father of her son, her dream…

The rumours flew
but nobody knew how much she blamed herself
For years and years
she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath

The year that followed was hard. Jesse and Martha who had lost a precious member of their family, were now almost constantly taking care of their little nephew. Mary had seemed to recover from the tragic event, but in that recovery she had taken a distance from her only son. During the week she mostly took care of Luke by herself, but when Friday came, she seemed to lose her energy and dropped him off at Jesse, only to appear again three days later. This went on for a long time. During the week they wouldn't hear from her as she stayed cooped up in her and Kevin's house with Luke, and after she dropped Luke off on Friday night they wouldn't hear from her either.

With Luke being three years old, going on four, he would sometimes talk about things that would raise questions in both Martha as well as Jesse.

"Unca Jesse?" The little dark-haired boy had asked one quiet evening.

"Why's you don't have tha smelly shiny bottle unda tha couch?" he asked, a childlike innocence to that strange question. Jesse wouldn't understand what Luke meant for a long time. The understanding that Luke had meant a shine bottle came only when they were cleaning out Mary and Kevin's house, when it was already too late.

The other thing Martha and Jesse had noticed from time to time was Luke's timid behaviour when he was in the house. It was as if he was always walking on eggshells, and for a three year old boy, that was strange, especially because he had always been so vibrant and loud… Martha had asked him once, why he was always being so quiet, and the answer was one she didn't like at all…

"If mommy wakes she'll be real mad. I don't like when mommy's mad…"

When Martha had told Luke that his momma wasn't here, and that he could be as loud as he wanted, the child had looked up with uncertain eyes, almost as if he didn't believe her. A small voice caught her off guard and brought tears to her eyes.

"So I's not hafta go in tha closet then?" he had asked, a small amount of fear in his bright blue eyes.

Martha had shook her head, silently giving him the acknowledgement Luke needed, and from then on he had changed a bit, playing louder and not tiptoeing around anymore.

And as Martha had spoken her worries out to Jesse, they were both always surprised how happy Luke always became when he saw his mom again on Monday or Tuesday.

The doubts were there, but Mary looked fine, as did Luke. If they had only known how much she still hurt, if they had only known how she would cry herself to sleep every night holding a shine- or whiskey-bottle, if only…

It was midwinter, more then a year after Kevin's death, when everything came out in an ugly way, a way no one had expected…

- o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o -

Luke Duke had been playing with his race cars. He was trying to be real quiet, his mom seemed to feel real bad today. He didn't even get to go to his Uncle Jesse and Aunt Martha anymore for the past few weeks. He always liked to go to his aunt and uncle. Sometimes his cousin Daisy would be there too, she was almost two now and the two were the greatest playmates. Even little Bo, the new baby his uncle Tom and aunt Stacy had brought with them the last couple of times, was fun to be with. It had lots of blonde curls and always tried to grab on to Luke's dark hair.

A bang from the kitchen caught the little boy's attention. His momma was probably trying to cook dinner again…

Making a face, Luke hoped that wasn't what she was doing. Usually when she was being all wobbly and all, she couldn't seem to make something nice. Luke always hid the food in his shirt and threw it out after dinner. She didn't notice. Most of the time she fell asleep at the table anyway.

Putting his cars away Luke decided to play outside for a few minutes, if his mom was throwing things around, he'd best get out of the way…

An hour later darkness started to settle in and four-year old Luke saw that the lights were still out in the small house he and his mom lived in. And even though he was only four, he knew that his mom always turned the lights on when darkness settled in. She even slept with her lights on. And if Luke was sleeping in the bed with her after he woke from a nightmare or something, she even allowed him to keep the hall light on.

Sauntering over to the silent house a shiver run over Luke's back so he pulled his jacket a little tighter around his tiny shoulders. Walking past the chickens he gave a slight yell, startling them into a flurry of feathers.

Grinning over his chicken-scare tactics he pulled the door open. The darkness in the house now became a little scary, and Luke carefully stepped in. All the furniture seemed to claw at him as it towered over him from were it was standing in the rooms…

Tears started to form in his eyes, but he held them back. Big boys don't cry… Biting his lip he tried to stop them. The house was completely silent, and Luke wondered if his momma had just fallen asleep again.

"Mommy?" he called as loud as he could. His voice came out all funny though, the fear in it made it tremble. Standing on his toes he turned on the living room light.

His eyes widened at the sight before him though. The reason why all the furniture had looked so weird, was because it was scattered all over the room.

Jumping over the overturned couch he tried to find his mom, but she wasn't there. The kitchen was next, but when he stood in the doorway of it, he knew she couldn't be in there. Glass was scattered all over the place and it smelled funny. Sniffing the air, Luke recognised the smell of the shine his uncle Jesse always made. Scrunching his nose, Luke turned around, maybe his mom was asleep in her bedroom. Yawning a little, Luke felt sleepy himself. As the low grumble of his stomach let itself known, he knew going to bed was probably best. If his mom had been drinking from those bottles again, there would be no dinner, again…

Small feet carried him to the door of his momma's bedroom, and he thought how weird it was that it was closed. She usually left it ajar, so Luke could come in if he had a bad dream or wanted to snuggle in with her. Reaching up, Luke turned the doorknob, wincing as is made an awful squeaking sound.

He pushed the door open a little, seeing the bed was empty. He was about to shut the door again, until something caught his eye. A few bottles littered the ground, but he could clearly see… Getting over to the other side of the bed by going over the bed, he swallowed his fear of monsters under the bed. Maybe they took his momma!

Panic settled in as Luke thought about how they would have pulled her under the bed, eating her alive. She wouldn't be able to do anything about it, cause those monsters were so strong!

Tears started to cascade down Luke's cheeks, as he slowly looked over the edge of the bed.

"Mommy?" he asked as he saw the hand, attached to his momma's arm, which was attached to her body which was lying on the floor. She was there! And in one piece! They hadn't eaten her!

Luke sighed a big sigh of relief, but then he noticed the smell. Ugh! That shiny stuff she drank almost every day. But smell or not, he felt like he had to wake her.

Climbing off of the bed, he gently nudged his mom, she would be happier if she slept in her own bed. Nudging her a little harder, he noticed she didn't even wake.

"Mommy, wake up," Luke said, seeing how she didn't respond. What little Luke didn't see in the slight darkness of the room, were her blue lips and white skin.

Seeing how he didn't get a respond, Luke yawned again, laying himself next to his mom's still body. He would just sleep a bit, and then his mommy would be awake when he woke up.

Curling up into her still warm form he stuck his thumb in his mouth, and slept…

She finally drank her pain away
a little at a time
But she never could get drunk enough
to get him off her mind,
Until the night

I'm a thinkin there's a good reason why Luke don't remember his parents real well… An' this probably had a lot ta do with it. Maybe uncle Jesse should have kept all this nasty things buried, cause I'm a guessin this 'll cause a lot a old feelins ta surface again…