AN: Sorry for the late update. I blame this one at school . Thank for reviewing. And congrats to Teri who figured out who Pamela Isley really is. You might know her…she goes by Poison Ivy . Of course, in this fic she isn't really Poison Ivy but I still wanted to pick a really evil gal to be Jack's wife. There is an explanation for a few things in this chapter at the end including Pamela. On with the story!

Chapter 8

Since waiting around and staring the phone would only drive him up the wall, Jonathan decided to take his son into town to check L.B. Jack offered to stay at the farm just in case Barnum called. Jonathan pocketed Jack's cell phone just in case and headed into town with Clark. Jonathan pointed out landmarks and told stories to keep his son laughing on the way. Clark had heard some stories from Uncle Jack but hardly dared to believe them true. His father? The sensible, no nonsense Jonathan Kent racing around the country side and jumping cars? No way! Not in a million years. Clark tried to figure out if his father was pulling his leg or not but by the gleam in the older man's eye, he was uncertain.

When they pulled up to the garage, they saw the old chargers' innards on the cement. L.B. had obviously stripped the interior of the car. Nothing was probably salvaged. Jonathan and Clark greeted the mechanic whose head was under the General's hood.

"How's he doin'?"

"Well 'sides the inside of him, I'd say the good ol' General Lee is doin' pretty good. I just need to change a few small things that got rusted out in here but other than that he runs just like he did back when you and Luke were runnin' around."

As L.B. and Jonathan discussed car parts, which Clark had no clue what they were talking about, he decided to check out this car which his father loved so. It was ugly! The paint job was a ugly faded orange and the inside looked like a bomb went off. How his father ever loved this thing was beyond him. Clark crouched to get a better look at the dashboard. The whole dash and steering wheel were still in good condition and were left alone. He noticed a black box hanging down under the radio, a coiled wire hung under that a looped up to connect what looked like a microphone to the thing.

"Hey, dad. What's this?" Clark grabbed the mic to hold up.

Jonathan chuckled at Clark's confusion. The decade change never seemed to big as it did right then.

"That, son, is a C.B. All the cars had them back when I was your age."

"This is a C.B? Wow, very cool. Did you have a handle?" Ok, so he knew a little bit about them.

"Yeah, Lost Sheep 2. Jack was Lost Sheep 1 since he's older. Let's see if I can remember all of them. Daisy was Bo Peep and Uncle Jesse was Sheppard. Now how did Cooter's go?"

"Breaker one, breaker one might be crazy but I ain't dumb. Crazy Cooter comin' atcha." Jonathan spun around and stood in shock as he saw Cooter and Jack walking up to the garage.

"Cooter! When did you get here?" Jonathan hugged his long time friend.

"Well about just after you left. Luke wanted it to be a surprise and ordered me over here. Never been one to refuse to see the ol' garage again." Jonathan got a good look at the older man. His hair had grayed over the years but other than that he was the same old Cooter. One obvious difference was that he was wearing a suit!

"What's with the getup?"

"Well, yer lookin' at the Georgia senator."

"He was the one lookin' into my personal life," chimed in Jack. Jonathan suddenly recalled the phone call Jack had received the other night about the mysterious senator.

"That was you? Why didn't you just come out right and say it was you?"

"Cause, I didn't know if I was right an' all. Sure, he looked like Luke but I wanted to be sure before I went barging into his office and accuse him of bein' a fake. That's the General? Jeez!" Cooter ran a hand over the old car's hood, feeling as if he had abandoned him when the mechanic left town.

"He's gonna need some work but give it a couple hours and he'll be running 'cross Hazzard in no time," said L.B. "Why don't ya'll grab the paint and we can get him back into prime condition."

Jonathan led Clark and Jack into the backroom and looked along the dusty shelves for the red-orange paint. He finally found them on the bottom shelf covered in a half an inch in dust. He wiped the dust off and then cleaned his hands on his jeans. Jonathan grabbed a couple cans before Jack called him.

"Yeah?" he asked looking over at Jack.

"Well I was thinking' that maybe we shouldn't paint him orange again."

"What?! He's the General Lee. Of course he needs to be orange!" Jonathan protested.

"Look, we can't go back into the past. It's just not possible. I don't think it's a good idea for such a loud color, that can easily be seen, to be painted back on. Plus with all this stuff nowadays with the rebel flag, it just wouldn't be a great idea. How about we paint him blue? He'll still be the General just not as flashy."

Jonathan looked at the older man if he had grown three heads. That '69 charger had to be orange! Rebel flag, oh-one, and all. No, they couldn't go back into the past but they could always bring the past into the present. Ever since the car was 'born' he had always been orange (with the few exceptions of Jonathan and Jack painting him a different color for a few hours in an emergency). He just couldn't picture the car in any other color.

"Dad, Uncle Jack's got a point. If you took the car home afterwards, I don't really think it will get a lot of acceptance. Or what if Uncle Jack took him? A senator can't drive around in a car with the rebel flag painted on the top no matter how good he is."

Jonathan sighed, Clark did have a point. Well, he reasoned, this could be the new General. Not that the original orange one was old though.

"Fine."

They looked along the shelves for the perfect blue paint for the car. After looking through quite a few cans, they all agreed on a light blue color would do.

Both Cooter and L.B. were surprised when they arrived with the paint, thinking for sure that the Dukes boys would want the General Lee exactly like he was back in the day. Jack quickly explained their reasoning and Cooter agreed. L.B. just shook his head with a smile and pointed them toward the spray guns. The painting job on the car took some time. Jonathan had to show Clark how to use the gun and how to paint evenly across the car's surface. As the painting was being done, a large truck pulled up to the garage. The new interior for the General had arrived. L.B. pointed to the movers where the seats would be placed and the men put them there silently. The mechanic announced that he had finished and snapped the hood, allowing Jack to paint the hood. Cooter stood in the background, for once not wanting to get his clothes dirty. A sharp contrast to his past attitude.

Prior to the group arriving, L.B. had unwelded the driver's door (the passenger's side had gotten too messed up over the years for it to be possible to unweld it and it work), so now he was able to work around the group in getting the interior put in without too much trouble. Clark stopped his painting and gave a hand with the seats. His painting had much to be desired so he thought the extra strength would come in handy. Jokes were abound and the atmosphere was comfortable. Clark had to keep asking his father for the information behind most of the jokes going around. Finally he gave up after a while just content on laughing without understanding completely.

It was just rounding on dinner time when the final bolt was screwed and the men stood back and saw the brand new General gleaming in the florescent light. The blue paint did look good on him after all. While Jonathan had been painting earlier, Jack had quietly gone over to L.B. to discuss the bill for the whole project and paid him, plus extra for all of his time. They had a whispered debate over the pricing, L.B. thinking Jack was overpaying too much, but when Jonathan inquired on what they were talking about, the argument was dropped and Jack won.

Clark looked over at his father and Jack, noticing a gleam of pride in their eyes when they looked at the car. Clark offered to drive Jack's truck so the men could drive the General together to the farm. Jack handed him the keys with a small "thank you" and got into the passenger side of the Charger. Jonathan got into the driver's seat. It felt exactly like old times. Him and Jack racing off to a new adventure.

"See ya'll at the farm!" The General was off in a cloud of dust.

Daisy rushed out of the farm house upon hearing the familiar engine. The car roared to a stop in front of the barn, it's occupants grinning from ear to ear. They seemed like boys that got their favorite toy back. She was surprised to see that the car wasn't orange but didn't comment on it knowing that they probably had a good reason behind it. A few minutes later Jack's car and Dixie (Jack and Cooter had used her car to get into town) pulled up to the farmhouse. Daisy ordered all of the men inside with a smile. The farmhouse was filled the smell of dinner cooking. Since the table was already set, the guys didn't have anything to do so they sat around the table talking casually, catching up on the years they had missed together. Diana had peeked her head out of her room for a moment to see what the commotion was about but quickly retreated into her sanctuary.

As soon as the last of the food was placed on the table, Enos pulled up in his patrol car. The Sheriff was shocked to see yet another person at his table. It seemed every time he came home a new person would be sitting there. Enos quickly seated himself while his daughter came out of her room and sat at the table as well. Heads bowed as Enos said the blessing. A twinge of sadness filled Jonathan and Jack, thinking of their uncle who had taken up the role to say the blessing at their table. Yes, they had grieved for the man but the sadness remained in its place. Just as Cooter was telling everyone one of his more humorous stories in the day in the life of a senator the phone rang interrupting the conversation. Since Jonathan was nearest to the phone, he got up.

"Hello?"

"Ah, Mr. Kent! It's been a while hasn't it? You haven't forgotten your old buddy now have you?"

Jonathan recognized the voice alright. Anger flooded through him.

"Perry Barnum. I should have known. What do you want?"

"Now that's not a very nice tone to take with someone who is keeping your wife hostage is it?"

"What happened to your father? I thought he was the one running this operation?"

"Oh well, unfortunately while I was away, father got sick and died a few years ago. Sad really but he generously left me with the family estate. Listen, I want you and Luke Duke, or should I say Jack Jennings, to go to the old Hashbury barn. I'll be meeting you there in an hour, got it Kent? No body else and no cops." The line went dead. Jonathan replaced the handset and sat down at the table.

"Who was it?" asked Daisy.

"Perry Barnum, Lou's son. The one we put away," said Jonathan still angry.

"What did he want?" Clark asked.

"He wants Jack and I to be at the Hashbury barn in an hour, alone."

"Possum on a gum bush! Ya'll can't do that. Your bound to get yerselfs killed."

"As much as I want you there Enos, we can't risk it with them having Martha."

"Wait a second! Your telling me that Perry Barnum, the guy we put away for a life sentence, just called you?" demanded Jack.

"Yeah, I guess he broke out of jail. Don't know why we didn't hear any of this in the news."

"So what's the plan though? You guys can't just go storming in there. They'll kill you.," said Daisy.

The room was silent for a few moments as everyone thought over the situation.

AN: So what did you guys think? Before I start getting comments on the new General Lee I just want to say that one of the HUGE reasons I did have him painted blue was because of the Smallville episode "Exposed." In the episode (for those who haven't seen it) Jack rides up to the farm in a '69 charger that is blue and the passenger's door is stuck. Now about the rebel flag issue: I have NO issue with the flag but it seems that idiots in our world still do. Just look at the whole Cincinnati Pops incident recently with John and Tom. Also, with Pamela, again in the Exposed episode Jack expresses that he is in a loveless marriage so I had to portray that in my fic to make things work…see? As much as I'd love to have Jack in a happy marriage, it just isn't possible. Sorry for the long AN though. Please please plesase review! The mean a ton to me to see what you guys think.