Hey, all! Thanks for your positive response to this story so far. I really wasn't sure whether I should post it or not, so I appreciate the encouragement!
That said, I have another warning to place here. Yes, the impetus behind this thing was that I was trying to wrap my head around what might make the Duke family go their different ways, like they had in the reunion shows. But even as I wrote each chapter (or Bo and Luke did, it seems - I have varying control over what I write for them, and in this case I had almost none) it became apparent that I couldn't dovetail it into ending where that first movie began. So, I pick up a lot of canon things in here, but there are others that never come to pass.
I don't own the Dukes and I mean no harm to those who do.
Chapter 2 – The Least it Could Have Done was Rained
"Take the General, Bo."
Maybe if it had come out like an offer instead of an order… but no.
"I don't want him." Stupid sulky sound to that and Bo didn't mean it. Meant the words, but not the sound of them. How could he pretend to explain that to his cousin? Slight squint, then those bright blue eyes relaxed, as if they'd always been that way, but Bo knew. That had hurt Luke (good, he started it) and that wasn't helping. "Not without you."
"Bo," again, that tone of Luke being too smart, or Bo too stupid, and either way, Bo didn't want to hear it right now.
"I said no, Luke." No, with a firmness bordering on anger in the muscles of his face, and the rigidity of a man that was ready to go another round.
Luke's hands were up, signaling truce. Another few minutes to rest before one of them said something that the other couldn't stand, and their chins went up, chests puffed, ready to give each other new bruises, and the old ones hadn't even begun to heal.
This, finally, was what made Bo decide. The knowledge that staying wouldn't stop the fighting; the only thing that would was leaving. Somehow the family farm finally had gotten too small for the both of them.
It was Daisy's fault for going like that, Bo was sure of it. Didn't know how, because it sure hadn't ever seemed like it, but she must have been the glue that kept the boys together.
The fighting and also Jesse, made him choose. A quiet walk around a comparatively tiny crop line (used to plant all the way out through the south forty, but now it's just near the house, and Jesse ain't gonna keep but a garden next year) and more words than Bo could deal with. Sounded wise, but they didn't make a lick of sense.
"You ain't hardly left Hazzard, Bo. You need to see more of the world."
Right, like Jesse had seen the world. He'd never been further than Tennessee, as far as Bo knew.
"You and Luke done sacrificed the best years of your life, what with the probation for runnin' my 'shine, and workin' this here farm."
As if there was anyplace else they ought to have been. As if it had been anything but a lot of fun for them both. No place else in the world you can jump a car over a creek and no one bats an eye.
But there was audible guilt in the voice, out-shouting the calm way in which the old man spoke. And worry, too, because when Bo pulled an arm across his chest, stretching out a sore muscle –
"You boys need to go your separate ways for awhile. You're hurtin' each other, holdin' each other back."
"Luke ain't holdin' me back." Stupid thing to say. If there was one thing Luke did, it was hold him back.
"Luke, fist fighting's only a misdemeanor - will you let me hit him?" Hating those hands holding him by the shoulders.
"Yeah, but assault and battery ain't!" Again with that I'm-working-overtime-to-explain-a-simple-concept-to-you tone to his voice.
Literally, physically, Luke held him back. From all sorts of danger, Luke held him back. He owed his life to Luke, ten times over – and that went both ways. So why was his family pushing him to leave?
Stupid cousins, first Daisy paving the way with her marriage to that jerk, and now Luke practically kicking him out of their bedroom. Like when they were kids and he'd remind Bo that he'd been there first so technically the room was more his. Then they'd divide it down the middle with tape and string, which was no fair because Luke got the door, and Bo got the closet. Luke could go for days without the closet, but Bo needed the door. I can't leave the room because the door's on Luke's side was no kind of an excuse for not doing chores, not to no-nonsense Jesse Duke.
No more fighting, the only thought strong enough to make Bo return some calls and pack a few things.
Damn Luke. He didn't even have the decency to pretend that he might miss his cousin, the shadow that had followed him through most of his life. Not followed, Bo, you done led us into trouble quite enough, thanks. And he guessed he didn't really need Luke by his side, what with the way his bossy cousin kept a running commentary going in his head anyway. Shoot, Luke, we have been sitting in the same car too long…
And now Luke was trying to push the last thing they shared, the General, out of his life, too.
"Do you hate me, Luke?" Out of his mouth before he could think. Thinking was a waste of time, anyway.
That look on his cousin's face again – too smart for this conversation with just a touch of you're an idiot, but at least you're a funny idiot. Bo's fists weren't bothering to think either, balling up at his sides again, could just feel his own eyes squinting down. Heard the puff of air that was Luke laughing at him again, and stand by cuz, incoming fist –
Never got there. Thoughtfulness might not have been Luke's strong suit, but Bo's chin had just come up again, those eyes had cooled, and muscles pulled his shirt taut.
"No, cuz, I don't hate you." All the honesty and bluntness in Luke behind those words. Every minute spent hiding out from the law, every time that he'd trusted the blonde to get them across a ravine in one piece, every drop of moonshine in Jesse's old car on that fateful night years ago, was behind those words. Anything less, and Bo would have swung.
His crummy little cousin had always assumed that these things didn't hurt Luke, but they did. The nasty words, the fists, the separations – were as bad on Luke as anything had ever been. But in these moments, logic was Luke's friend. He knew his cousin didn't have any of that to fall back on, and he felt bad about it, but he couldn't change it.
Just a nod, and Bo walked away. As if he'd really just needed to get an answer to that question. Like it was possible that he believed Luke hated him, and if that was the case, a simple reassurance would make the possibility go away.
Nothing in Luke's life was ever that simple. Cousins to be protected, always at the top of his list of daily chores. Responsibility to others above himself, the price of achieving rank, or just plain being older. The rhythm of his life since – forever. Then Daisy had gone and broken that pattern for him, marrying that loser (oh, Luke hated him too, just not in that obvious give-me-half-a-reason-to-deck-you-please way that Bo did) leaving him with only half a job. Thought he'd replace that energy with farm work, but Jesse was cutting back, spending more time in town, taking care of J.D. Hogg, of all things. Luke offered to take over Jesse's share of the work load, but the old man had pulled rank on him. No, Luke, not now. Maybe in a few years, but not now. Somehow Jesse needed to see his old nemesis off to the great beyond before letting the farm thrive again.
But Bo – Bo was still here by Luke's side, still looking up to him like he always had. And with all the force of a Marine Sergeant, Luke had turned his attentions there.
Fights that Bo was now conveniently forgetting had been the result of that. So many stupid things he'd done in life, and the stupidest of all always involved pushing Bo too far. No, they hadn't come to blows, not then. But the stench of the struggle between them was something that surrounded them everywhere they went. Even Rosco kind of wrinkled up his nose upon seeing them enter the Boar's Nest, and the sheriff couldn't smell the stink of basset hound that filled the cab of his cruiser.
The law left them alone. Hogg was letting things slip. With no system to fight, the Duke boys were fighting each other.
Jesse started to nudge them out of the nest. And his foolish cousin was acting like he didn't have wings. All that God-given talent, and he was willing to pretend he didn't have it so he could stay on the farm. If things had been different, if Luke could have brought himself to be jealous, they would have fought about that, too. But Luke had interests beyond cars; almost against his will he had come to see that the General wasn't enough anymore. More important things like farming and family and – just other stuff – nothing he'd thought too hard about. He didn't have to, not when he knew he'd be the Duke patriarch someday…
This NASCAR offer was the best thing his bratty little cousin was likely to get, and he was fighting it tooth and nail. Asking if Luke hated him when in reality, Luke loved him probably more than anyone (ain't supposed to have favorites in the family, but I do). Followed his cousin off to where he stood staring at the jagged Hazzard horizon, to tell him something to that effect.
And so Bo found himself on a bus, leaving home. He'd never left home with intent before, aside from that day or so that he'd stayed with Diane and the carnival. That was the last time he and Luke had really hurt each other. This time was worse, because no matter how many times they made up, he knew they would fight again. So he'd packed a few things and gotten on the bus. Left Luke with the General and promises that they would see each other soon, and no more fighting –
Hugged Luke for all he was worth, and it was a good thing the bus was waiting or he would never have let him go. Heard the telltale roughness of Luke's voice telling him how proud he was and that Bo would do just great. Heard himself make a small sound, close to a whimper, felt Luke pretend to ignore it in the tightness of his arms, and then his stupid cousin had thumped him on the back and let go. Let him get right on the bus and actually smiled at him, like this wasn't the end of everything. But it was.
So now he was riding, much more than an arm's length away, and staring out at blue sky. Blue, the color of Luke. The river that ran right through Bo, cooling the fire that always wanted to bubble up to the surface. Stupid blue sky. The least it could have done was rained.
"What about you, Luke?"
It had only been a couple days without the constant ruckus that was Bo. Half the noise and twice the amount of leftover food, since they hadn't adjusted their cooking yet.
"Huh?" Cooking wasn't the only thing that hadn't gotten adjusted. Luke was downright slow-witted without Bo to act all superior around.
"What are you gonna do?" Uncle Jesse talking slow, like he was a little kid or something.
"Do? Well, you know, the screens need cleaning…"
"Not today." The old man was too kind to roll his eyes. No, that was Luke's thing. Jesse was just patient, waiting for his nephew's brain to catch up. "Where are you going, what will you do?"
Luke's mind clicking into gear. "I was gonna stay here and take care of the farm." Not quite fool enough to say and you. That would only get him lectured.
Incredulous look in Jesse's eyes, and he was going to get the lecture anyway. He really had been slow. It was clear, suddenly, that now that the arduous task of helping Bo out of the nest was done, Luke was supposed to follow.
"Boy, I love you, you know that. And this will always be your home. But I expect you to find yourself something to do, something outside of Hazzard, for awhile. You can come back, but you have to leave first." That same backwoods backwards logic that couldn't be argued with. And this time, it was an order. Luke was such a twit – in all his years of living here, he'd never learned to just take those.
"Jesse, I done left and come back a couple of times before…"
"What a man does before he comes of age don't count. And Luke, you didn't come of age until just recently. You and Bo was just a couple of overgrown kids up 'til now." Nope, no leeway in that face. His uncle was telling the gospel truth.
"Start lookin', Luke. I want you somewheres else before another month's worth of water goes under that old wooden bridge up on the Ridge Road."
Should've seen that coming, Luke old boy. Losing your wits and barely past thirty.