The First Time

by DixieDavenport

This was orignally posted as a one shot reply to a challage, but is expandable. This is about phone call in the middle of the night and everyone in the Duke family's 'First Time' at dealing with such things.

19. Settlin' in

Chapter 19

Jesse was glad to see Doc just returning from his daily trip to local diner for lunch followed by his normal trip to the Post Office.

Doc turned as he seen Jesse park his truck. "Afternoon Jesse. Is there something I can do for you?"

Jesse set the park brake and replied, "I'm afraid so. Seems Bo had a run in with the side of the truck."

Doc wasn't sure what Jesse meant but figured he'd get the long version soon enough. "Well, Bo let's get you in here."

Bo was still cradling his right arm as Jesse went around the truck to open the door while Daisy jumped out on Jesse's side.

Doc could see the swelling and bruising even before Bo got into the office. "Just exactly how did you manage to do that? It looks like you punched someone, but it's not even the weekend yet."

Bo dropped his eyes before replying, "No, Sir it ain't. I did punch the truck though."

"Now what on Earth could that pick up of Jesse's do to you to make you that mad?" Doc continued as he began getting his equipment ready to check out the young Duke.

Bo felt even more embarrassed than he had been as he replied, "It didn't do anything to me Doc. I was just jumping to the wrong conclusion."

Several minutes later Doc said, "Well, it looks like you jumping to conclusions is gonna be keepin' that arm out of action for the next six weeks."

"Six WEEKS?" Bo questioned. "But I gotta work on the farm, and... and there's a big race in a couple weeks that I was gonna drive in, and... Awww, shoot." With that, he started to move his arm, and couldn't stop the whimper that escaped him as the pain hit him again.

Doc put the X-Ray up where Bo and Jesse could see the clean break in Bo's wrist. Then he began getting out the supplys to cast the arm up to the elbow.

01~~~~~~~~~~~01

Luke took a seat on the hard bunk with only the paper thin mattress covering the steel. He only now noticed the food container that Peggy had placed in the door of the cell. Luke was by no means really hungry right about then but had always been taught not to waste food. He reached for the container and began picking at the chipped beef, bread and fried potatoes. Just as Luke had set the empty container back in the bars and had set back on the bunk he heard Rosco at the top of the stairs, ...

"Alright, You. Just move on down them stairs and don't try anything fun!" Rosco was instructing.

Luke wasn't the only one that heard Rosco coming down the stairs. Peggy got up and unlocked the gate to let the two men pass, then relocked the gate.

Luke wasn't exactly sure what he was feeling right about then as he watched a handcuffed Ralph be taken over the desk to evidently be booked in the same manner that he had been a short while ago. He wasn't sure why Rosco would bring him down here to do the booking when he had done so upstairs before. Luke had to admit that he enjoyed the fact that Ralph would also be paying the 'Piper'. From where Luke sat, the handcuffed Ralph didn't look as if he was near as 'froggy' as he had been the night he leapt at Luke.

Neither Peggy or Rosco missed the look that passed between the two rivalries.

After Ralph was booked, searched and had changed into an orange jumpsuit like the one that Luke was wearing, Rosco instructed, "Alright that should be it. This way to your home away from home. Git, git, git. Ain't that right Luke? See how comfy Luke looks there."

Right then if looks could kill, Peggy was certain Luke would have killed Rosco. She was certain that part of the reason for the look from the Duke boys was due to the housing arrangements more so than Rosco's comments.

Rosco locked the cell door behind Ralph Green which was right beside Luke's cell. In fact it was only separated by a set of bars. Rosco began, "Now boys the judge has made it clear that, ..."

A commanding voice behind Rosco interupted, "I'll explain myself what the Sheriff is trying to say, if he'd be so kind as to let me through this gate."

"Judge, Judge Hardcastle." Rosco studdered in total surprise.

Peggy moved to open the gate for the judge.

Luke stood up and moved to the bars to see why the Judge was there.

"Yes, Sheriff it is me." Judge Hardcastle said. "Now boys, as I told you both upstairs, I was very understanding when I sentenced you two. I have also suggested that you two use this time to work out your differences. I have seen you two go at each other since high school football and it hasn't gotten any better. Rosco and Peggy have been instructed to call me any time day or night if either or both of you give them any trouble at all. Is it clear that you two will be housed beside each other and I will not tolerate any trouble or disturbances?"

Luke didn't like it, but he knew he was against the man that held all the 'aces' in this particular 'hand of cards'. He also knew the game wasn't nearly over. There would be another time another day. He replied, "Yes, Sir."

Ralph rolled his eyes toward Luke wondering if Luke could actually be serious or just sucking up to the Judge.

Judge Hardcastle was now looking right at Ralph.

Ralph turned his gaze from Luke to the Judge as he had felt the look even before he seen the man looking at him, "What?"

Judge Hardcastle replied, "I'm waiting for your answer. Did I make myself clear?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah, clear. Got ya." Ralph said with little respect for the man or his position.

Hardcastle gave the young man a hard stare as he said, "I hope for your sake that you 'got me'." He turned and gave Rosco and Peggy two business cards. Here are the numbers I can be reached at most any time. If I'm not at any of these there is an old fallen Oak tree about a mile above the old mill. Sheriff you'll likely find me there. I hear the trout have been biting good up there."

"Git, git, git! Ohh, Ohh, Ohh! I know that place. There sure are some mighty big trout up there for sure." Rosco agreed.

"Good." Hardcastle said, then added as he watched Peggy open the gate, "Have a good day all. I hear those fish calling me now."

The Judge headed out in pursuit of the big trout and Rosco to find himself some lunch before going on patrol.

Peggy locked the gate behind them.

Luke set side ways on the bunk with his feet propped on the edge. He was thinking about how this was NOT going to be a good day and about how he would much rather be on a cool creek bank than in the hot cell as the heat of the day was making the temperature rise.

Peggy settled in for the long haul waiting to be relieved only to go home for a few hours, pull her shift at Tri Counties and return here.

Ralph stole a glance at Luke and said, "Ya know the Sheriff was right, you do look right at home there."

Luke glared at Ralph, thinking of at least a hundred things to say to him, but Luke saw Peggy watching him, waiting for the two to get into it. She was more than willing to call the judge. Luke thought about it, counted ten, then recounted to ten again before saying, "I might deserve to be here, ... this time, ... but something tells me that you'll be behind bars a lot more than I will ever be."

The Judge headed out in pursuit of the big trout and Rosco to find himself some lunch before going on patrol.

Peggy picked this exact moment to bring over the second lunch tray to Ralph.

Ralph looked at the container that had been waiting on him and said, "So you knew I'd be here?"

Peggy shrugged her shoulders, "It was a pretty safe bet on my part. I got a call last week to be here at noon. The County doesn't call me for overtime unless they are pretty sure they'll need me. Besides they told me the Judge had two hearings today."

Ralph took one quick look at the Hazzard special and closed the lid of the container. He was trying to get himself together. Sentenced to ten days in the Hazzard County jail hadn't set well with him and the fact that Luke Duke was only feet away wasn't helping. Ralph was sure he could work this to his advantage, but it would take some thought. Then he remembered that he was supposed to meet Robin later. He had been convienced he'd have a large fine to pay but that he'd be able to meet her. She had wanted to take a drive to check out the lay out of a couple colleges near Hazzard. Ralph had been hoping to get her out of town and have sudden car trouble. He swore to himself, then asked, "Can I at least make a call?"

Peggy nodded and replied as she brought the desk phone over, "I can do that, ..." then she cautioned, "But, calls are limited to once a day, five minutes. So make it count." She then added, "You can have underwear, socks and a couple magazines at a time as long as they are not pornographic. Visitation is thirty minutes a day and afternoon or early evening is better."

Ralph was not happy. "You are kidding?"

"This is not the Holiday Inn, Mr. Green." Peggy said as she handed the receiver end through the bars and set the phone on the floor.

Luke was a bit surprised at some of the rules, but kept his reactions to himself. Well, at least he hoped that he did. 'This was not going to be a good week and a half with Ralph right there.' Luke thought.

Ralph had the operator connect him to Robin's.

Robin answered on the second ring so as to not look too eager, "Hello." She had showered, dressed, done her make up and was just putting the finishing touches on her hair.

"Robin," Ralph began as he gave Luke look of confidence.

"Oh, good! I'm glad you are done in town." Robin said. Ralph had told her he had business in town but shouldn't take long. "I'll be ready by the time you get here. I've got a couple places to check out and a real nice place picked out to eat..."

Ralph turned his back to Luke and kept his voice low, knowing that Luke could likely hear his end of the conversation, "Maybe we can do that next Friday. I've ran into a snag."

"Snag?" Robin repeated. It usually meant that a guy had better things to do when they said that.

"Yeah, come to town and I'll explain." Ralph said.

"Where should I meet you? The diner? Ruebottoms? The square?" Robin asked eagerly.

Taking a deep breath, Ralph knew he couldn't get around the truth any longer, "The jail. Seems you Ex has some connections with the Judge."

Setting on his bunk, Luke could indeed hear most parts of Ralph's conversation with Robin. Luke was glad that he had never had to make that call to her. He knew her well enough that she'd not set foot here, but that Ralph would likely try to get her to. Luke thought, 'This might just be a bit of entertainment after all.'

"Ex? Connections with what Judge? What are you talking about?" Robin asked, blindsided by all this. Ralph had down played the situation with Luke and told her he'd just pay a fine. "Tell me this isn't about Luke. Ralph ya'll aren't into it again are you?"

"No, we're not, but yes it's about Duke. Just get down here." Ralph said in a low tone hoping that Luke didn't hear. His tone made his wishes more than a request.

"You're in jail? Over the race? How long?" Robin asked.

Ralph gritted his teeth as he replied, "Yeah, that's right. Until next Wednesday, but since you are all dolled up I'd love to see you right now."

Robin looked at the phone like it was an alien. "Surely you don't think that I would come down to the jail do you?"

"Sure. Why not?" Ralph said.

Robin looked at the phone like he had lost his mind, "Because that is just not somewhere I can go, Mom would have a cow and you don't even want to know what Daddy would do."

Ralph wasn't happy in fact he was getting pretty mad. "Look are you my girlfriend or their daughter?"

Before Robin could answer she heard a female voice say, "Times about up."

"Who was that?" Robin asked having no idea about how or who ran the jail.

Ralph nodded to Peggy, but replied to Robin, "That was the officer, guard, whatever. Just get here, OK?"

"There are women that work THERE?" Robin asked in disbelief.

Luke was enjoying Ralph's distress and shot Peggy a bit of a grin.

Peggy picked up the phone from the floor, "That's it."

Ralph wasn't done trying to convience Robin to come see him and said, "Yes. See so you can come."

Just before the phone went dead, Robin replied, "No, I can't."

Ralph looked at the phone, not believing that she had refused to come see him and the fact that Peggy had hung up the line. As he handed the now dead phone over to Peggy he uttered the words, "You -tch."

Peggy glared at him, "I certainly hope that wasn't directed at me."

The look on her face made Ralph reply, "Uh, ... no, ... not at all." Though he wasn't sure in his own mind if he had directed it more at her or Robin.

Luke had a grin on his face that equaled the one of the cat that just ate the family canary. He could almost taste the feathers, but said nothing.

Ralph turned around and sat on his bunk that faced Luke, "What? What is so funny to you?"

"For starters just the fact that you considered that Robin would come here to see YOU." Luke said.

"Well, she sure as he- won't be coming to see you." Ralph tossed back.

Luke shrugged, "No, she won't, because she won't come here. It is 'beneath her'."

Ralph looked confused, "What are you talking about?"

"It's simple. She comes from a 'good' family." Luke saw Ralph about to jump in and held his hand up, "They don't get in bar room brawls, fist fights, run moonshine, or nothing like that. They ain't never had a reason to be here and likely none of them will, well, maybe her younger brother."

"Far too good for you then." Ralph stated.

Luke surprised the man when he replied in truth, "Absolutely. I've told her that on many occassions."

01~~~~~~~~~~~~~01

The Dukes came out of Doc's office. Jesse checked his pocket watch for the time. It was mid afternoon and next to none of the the chores had been done at the farm. He saw the wishful look on Daisy's face and that Bo's chin was nearly dragging the ground. Bo's right arm was casted to his elbow. In fact due to where the break was Doc had went to just above Bo's elbow and had put his whole arm in a sling until the plaster could completely dry. Even if Bo had thought that he might have been able to change gears before he knew it would be next to impossible now. Jesse asked, "Would ya'll like to go see Luke now, so when we get home we can get some work done?"

Daisy beamed, "Yes, Uncle Jesse. Could we?"

Bo to go see Luke in the worst way, but now he knew he'd be explaining his arm to him. May as well be now as later he concluded. "Yeah, sure Uncle Jesse. I just don't know how much help I'm gonna be in this thing."

"Well you're not gonna be doing much of nothing today anyway." Jesse replied as they headed to the Courthouse.

01~~~~~~~~~~~01

Luke's reply to Ralph had taken him so much by surprise that he couldn't reply to it.

Peggy heard footsteps on the stairs leading downstairs to the jail and went to the gate to see Jesse Duke coming down the stairs.

"Can we see Luke?" Jesse asked. He had instructed Daisy and Bo to wait until he checked with Peggy before coming down.

Peggy nodded, "Sure thing, Mr. Duke." She unlocked the gate.

Jesse motioned for Daisy and Bo to come on down.

Daisy was carrying the package they had gotten on their way from Ruebottom's.

Jesse took the package and gave it to Peggy. "I believe these are the things you said Luke could have."

"I'll check them out while you visit. You'll have thirty minutes." Peggy replied.

Jesse nodded as he checked his watch while Peggy locked the gate behind them.

As soon as Luke saw Bo's arm he was on his feet and as close to the bars as he could get, "Bo? What happened?"

Bo dropped his eyes to the floor, but didn't answer right away.

Luke looked at Jesse, "Is he alright?"

Jesse nodded 'yes' and said to Bo, "Bo, Luke is talking to you."

"Alright, when I seen you weren't in the pick up, I sorta jumped to the wrong conclusion and thought you wouldn't be home for a year." Bo said while still looking at the floor.

Luke sighed and for a brief time forgot all about Ralph being beside him, "Bo, look at me."

For the first time Bo looked at Luke standing behind the bars of the cell, dressed in all orange. He didn't know why but he had expected to see Luke in his own clothes. The sight of Luke in that cell was not the image of his 'Superman' cousin. In fact it looked like he had been exposed to way too much krytonite. Bo couldn't stop the tears that formed in his eyes that he was fighting to keep from falling down his face.

Luke began, "Bo I tried to tell you this was possible. You just wouldn't listen. It's not as bad as it could have been anyway. So what did you do to your arm?" Luke asked only being able to see the sling that held Bo's arm where Doc had wanted it.

Bo point to his bad arm, "Doc said I broke it about here."

"Dang it Bo! How did you manage to do that?" Luke asked.

Bo had managed to get his tears back in control but now looked at Luke sheepishly, "I took a swing at the pickup."

"So how long do you have to wear that thing?" Luke asked.

"This one for a couple weeks, then Doc said he'd make it shorter." Bo added, "I'm not gonna be able to drive in the Tri County race like we planned." It would have been the first big race that Bo would have been driving in.

Luke nodded, "I'll be home by then and there are more races this summer."

Daisy had been standing back to Jesse's side. Not taking the time to change before they brought Bo to see Doc, she was still dressed in her 'house clothes' that she was doing her chores in. Her shorts were shorter than she normally wore to town. The haulter top was last years and Daisy had been growing since last year. Daisy almost never felt uncomfortable around the boys or their friends but she felt that way now but wasn't sure why. She told Luke, "We brought ya somethings from Ruebottom's."

Luke looked at his 'baby' cousin who was never as shy as she was now. He hoped it wasn't because of his situation. "Thanks Daisy. Come here I won't bite."

Daisy moved closer to the bars. This was not her image of her 'Prince Charming' but it was Luke. She took his out reached hand and held on to it like it was a life line. As she looked up at Luke she got a glance at the man beside him. He was looking at her and the way he looked at her made her feel as if he was undressing her with his eyes.

Luke was watching Daisy and missed Ralph's eyes glaring at her. He was trying to think of something he could do to cheer her up. Grasping at the wind he said, "Come now Sugar, I'll be home in a few days. Tell you what we'll pick a night and we'll go skating just the two of us." It was something Daisy liked to do, but Luke didn't let her go with him and Robin often. In fact he never went skating unless it was Robin's idea.

Daisy perked up a bit, "Really? We will just us?"

Luke knew Bo wasn't a big fan of skating and now with his arm in a cast Bo wouldn't mind not going. "Sure we will."

Jesse watched as Luke struggled to make this situation better for his younger cousins. It reminded him of how Luke used to scoop Daisy up and make her skinned knees better. Jesse was so interested that he also missed the stares that Ralph was giving Daisy.

Daisy may not have seen Ralph staring at her but she sure felt them.

As Jesse watched Daisy and Luke, he could see she was very uncomfortable. He looked up in time to see Ralph look away. For the first time he noticed Daisy's outfit. He turned to Peggy, "Can the kids go out? I'd like to speak to Luke."

Peggy replied, "Sure whenever they are ready."

Luke thought that it was strange that Jesse wouldn't talk in front of Bo and Daisy but figured he'd find out why in a few minutes. "Ok Sugar, Peggy is waiting. I'll see you next time."

Daisy nodded and struggled to find her voice, "I picked out the word search for you. I hope you like it."

Luke assured her, "I will."

"I picked out the Mopar magazine. It's got this big section on the hemi. Figured to let you read it then you can tell me about it." Bo said. He knew he'd never set down long enough to read the whole article.

After Bo and Daisy went upstairs, Luke asked Jesse, "So what was that about?"

Jesse replied, "I just thought they had been here long enough. As they said we got you somethings on the way over and they each picked you out a book."

"Thanks, Uncle Jesse. Ya'll didn't have to do that. So how long is Bo out of commission?"

"Doc said about six weeks total then a couple weeks of light stuff." Jesse said. He looked over at Ralph who had now taken a seat on the back of the bunk. Jesse knew better than to draw Luke's attention to what had happened. He and Luke talked a bit more before Peggy told him that time was up. Jesse said, "I expect well be by sometime tomorrow."

Luke nodded, "Alright. Ya'll be careful." He watched as Peggy let Jesse out the gate and he made his way up the stairs. Luke let out a sighed and set back on the bottom of the bunk.

Ralph waited until Peggy was busy before he said, "Sure was a sweet thing that came to see you earlier." Ralph had seen Daisy around, but being from Placid County didn't know her or her relationship to Luke.

"She's my younger cousin." Luke said with a bit of an edge to his voice.

Ralph smurked, "She sure is hung up on you Duke. You sure you ain't closer than cousins? With ya'll going out alone and all."

Luke was on his feet and at the bars, "You'll eat those words!"

Ralph continued while setting on the bunk where Luke could not get at him, " I can see why you let Robin get away with a sweet thang like that at home."

"Firstly, Daisy is my cousin and a kid at that! Secondly, you are just mad cause you can't get no where with Robin." Luke stated the later as a known fact and truth did hurt.

Now Ralph was on his feet but keeping his distance, "What makes you think that?"

"I don't think it. I know it." Luke glared.

Peggy had about heard enough, "Look, both of you. Cool it. Ain't neither one of you need to worry about a girl fro the next ten days. So this ends now or I call the Judge." She paused to let that sink in before adding, "Besides standing behind those bars dressed in all orange, neither one of you look real intimidating."