The old Duke patriarch stood silently in the middle of the kitchen, the last two children he had left sitting silently, in shock, before him and Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane standing in the corner by the door, telling him about the fiery demise of his youngest charge.
Beauregard James Duke, the fun-loving trouble-prone member of the Duke Family was gone, leaving behind him nothing but turmoil and anguish. Uncle Jesse barley even registered what Rosco was saying, until the very end of Rosco's speech.
"…so you see Jesse, if these boy's weren't runnin' from us in the first place, and handed themselves over good and proper, we would…Bo would still…"
He looked ashamed down at his feet, fully expecting to get an earful from both Jesse and Luke at his words, but was surprised to find Luke's head resting in his folded arms on the table, his shoulders shaking as he cried. Daisy had her arms wrapped protectively around him and Jesse laid a gentle hand on his back.
"We know Rosco…we all knew that someday, somethin' was goin' to happen if they kept runnin' away from you's…just…hard to believe that he's gone…"
"Well I saw it Jesse, I saw the car go over and explode, and then the only one left was Luke…"
Jesse nodded slowly, sinking into his seat at the table, hands clasped in front of him.
After a few minutes of silence in the kitchen, Jesse finally spoke.
"Well…I guess this was his own fault…if he'd a just gave in like I told him to…"
Folks, if Rosco wasn't so blinded by sadness, he would notice that there is something wrong here….have y'all spotted it yet?
At this Luke's head flew off the table and burning eyes met directly with Jesse's. Rosco flinched at the blazing expression that adorned the young man's face, but Jesse barley even batted an eyelid.
"Uncle Jesse how could you say that! You know as well as I do that Bo was innocent!"
"Now Luke, we ain't got no proof of that."
"But Uncle Jesse! W – "
"There's no buts about it Luke! It's the truth! There is no evidence to suggest that Bo didn't do this himself!"
Now it was Daisy's turn to look horrified at what her Uncle was suggesting.
"Uncle Jesse please! Bo would never – "
"We can never tell what Bo is thinkin' of Daisy!"
"He would never do this to us!"
Rosco could do nothing but stand helplessly in the corner as argument broke out at the Duke table, the two cousins desperately trying to fight for their lost one, trying to cling to the last piece of Bo that they could…the fact that Bo was a good ol' boy who loved and respected his family.
"Well then, let's just ask Rosco about this shall we! If Rosco can prove that there is evidence to suggest Bo didn't do this, then I'll believe ya!"
All eyes at the table turned to Rosco, who fingered his hat nervously. Boss had told him that under no circumstances must the truth about the 'accident' be told to anyone, especially not the Dukes. But withholding this information and letting a man's reputation, dead or not, come crashing down around his family's ears was something that Rosco just couldn't do, whether it was the reputation of a Duke or not.
"I…urm…Jesse I…I have something to tell ya…"
And so Rosco proceeded to spill the beans on Boss Hogg's plans, not leavin' any detail that he knew out…friends and neighbours I smell somethin' fishy goin' on round here, and it ain't Boss Hogg's lunch neither….he hates fish.
As Rosco stuttered and stammered into silence, Luke's head returned to his folded arms and Jesse sat back in his chair, studying Rosco as he fidgeted nervously. Rosco knew there were a million things that Jesse wanted to yell at him at that moment and just couldn't figure out why he wasn't.
He jumped as, without warning, Luke rose sharply from his seat and headed over to the CB, knocking a small ornament off the table it stood on as he wrenched the handset into his hand. Rosco noticed his eyes were still red and bloodshot…but there was no evidence of any fresh tear tracks.
"This is Lost Sheep 1 calling Crazy Cooter, you got your ears on, come back."
"This here's Craaaaaaazy Cooter comin right back at ya Lost Sheep."
"Has the home team heard the score?"
"They got the score and are raring to go."
"That's great Cooter, thanks. We'll be getting' back ta ya real soon."
"No problem Buddy Roe, y'all take care. I'm gone."
With that, the handset was placed gently back in its place and Luke turned to lean against the table, folding his arms and looking down at the floor. Uncle Jesse and Daisy were still seated at the table, not at all surprised by Luke and Cooter's sudden, confusing conversation. Rosco was looking back and forth between them, placing his hat back on his head, waiting for some sort of an explanation. When he didn't get one, he opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by someone yelling from down the hall.
"Hey Luke!"
Luke turned his head slightly to half look over his shoulder as he called back.
"Yeah I'm here."
"Could you get me a glass of water and some painkillers?"
"Ah yeah, sorry I forgot about those."
Without another word, Luke crossed to the sink, filling a glass with water and pulling the bottle of painkillers from the top of the kitchen cupboard. He snuck a glance and smirked slightly at Rosco's pale face and bewildered expression.
"D...d…d…guh…uh….Did I just…hear what I….what I thought I heard?"
Jesse and Daisy looked up from the table at the startled sheriff, frowning.
"Well Rosco, that depends on what ya heard."
"From the boy's bedroom….I heard…I heard…."
Luke turned from the sink, the glass of water in his hand and a couple of painkillers clutched in the other.
"Well why don't you come take a look and see if it's what you thought you heard."
With that Luke crossed the kitchen and headed towards his and Bo's room, followed by a very hesitant Rosco. He strode into the room and crossed over to his youngest cousin's bed, placing the glass of water on the nightstand before sitting on the edge of the bed.
Rosco stood in the doorway, frozen, his face drained of all colour. He watched as Luke slipped his arm underneath the man's shoulders and helped him into a sitting position against the bed head, pressing two small tablets into the hand whose arm wasn't caked in plaster from the elbow down, and holding the glass to his mouth as he swallowed them down with some water.
He backed slightly out of the room as the young man's face turned to look at him and the bright, cheeky grin that was trademark of his character shone at him, his cheery words vibrating off the walls.
"What's a matter Rosco, you look like you's seen a ghost."
The boys watched as Rosco's back pressed firmly against the wall, looking worse and worse every minute. Luke moved to go and grab Rosco's arm before he fell to the ground, but Uncle Jesse had appeared instead and motioned for Luke to stay put.
"Come on Rosco, lets go outside and git some fresh air."
As soon as they heard the front door shut, Luke and Bo erupted into laughter.
"Did you see his face!"
"I know, I know. That was better than the last time we 'died'."
"I have to say you really outdid yourself this time cuz. That was one of the best plans you's ever come up with!"
"Why thank you Bo but it ain't over yet."
"Did Cooter record Rosco's confession?"
"Yep, and the whole of Hazzard County, exceptin' Boss and hopefully those two guys, heard it over the CB."
"I can't believe Rosco didn't see the CB was runnin'."
"Well we're dang lucky he didn't."
"Too right."
"Hey Bo…"
"Yeah."
"It's good to have you back home cousin."
Bo smiled up at Luke, taking his hand in his free one and squeezing it gently.
"It's good to be back….just do me a favour."
"What's that?"
"Make sure you come back…these two guys are dangerous, you saw….well you can see what they did to me. They're a couple of no good sidewinders and will use every trick in the book."
"I know cousin, don't worry. I promise I'll come back."
"Well if you promise then its dang near a guarantee ain't it."
"As good as Cousin."
With that, Luke ruffled Bo's bouncy golden curls and rose from the bed, heading towards the door.
"Hey Luke."
"Yeah."
"Do me a favour."
"I thought me comin' back alive was enough?"
"Well that's great but…could you get me a real long stick?"
"What d'ya want a long stick for?"
"My arm and leg are itchin' like crazy and I can't scratch it through the cast."
Luke laughed and headed back out to the front room, grinning as he saw through the kitchen window, Rosco on the porch seat trying to regain his composure as Uncle Jesse briefly explained to him what had really happened and how it was that Bo was still alive. Now all they had to work on was getting Rosco to help out with the next stage of the plan.
He gently wet a small flannel that was waiting for him on the table with ice cold water and held it firmly over his eyes for a minute, sighing as the burning that pricked at them died down. After a moment he dropped the flannel over the radiator, dropping the small canister of pepper spray that had been in his pocket into the bin.
He crossed over to the phone as Jesse gave him a quick thumbs up through the window and lifted the small piece of paper from its place in his pocket. With trembling fingers he dialled the number, casting a quick glance back to the room where his youngest cousin was recovering, praying to god that he hadn't just made a promise he couldn't keep.
A/N 2: Alright, i'm sorry I just couldn't do it! Bo is so cute and I am so weak when he pulls those puppy dog eyes one me. But, you ain't gonna find out how they managed to pull that one off. I suggest if you really are dying to know now you got a few more details, you go back and re read chapter 17 and see if you can figure out what happened. Congrats to GreyWolf who figured this out straight away. If you need more hints, looking at his/her reveiw for the previous chapter should help. Keep it 'tween the ditches now.