Chapter 55

Jeb joined Bo's wide smile at the thought of being on time at Tubby's.

Luke enjoyed the fringe benefits too, but knew that just getting through was more important than getting there on time for the added benefits, though he was never one to turn down anything warm and soft in his bed either. Those were the same added bonuses that Jesse Duke never mentioned, because he didn't know about them OR more than likely hoped that his nephews wouldn't get involved in, but they all knew that those same nephews were good old boys with hot red blood coursing through their veins.

The boys continued to talk about girls, cars, motorcycles, races and girls! while they sipped a bit of shine. Tonight Luke would be drinking far less than his younger cousins, because tonight he was in charge of making sure that nothing went wrong. The fire was out, the shine cooked and bottled, but here they were camped within a hundred feet of a still and a large shipment of shine. Getting caught here, now, meant that they would loose a still, a load of shine, Bo and Jebb would get a slap on the wrist and Luke would turn twenty one in prison. Jesse would be one still, the cost of the shine, and one driver and nephew down if they let their guard down. Luke's ribs were healing but sleeping on the ground even in a sleeping bag would not have been anywhere near comfortable, so he opted to lean against the old oak tree with the shotgun in his lap and coverup with the sleeping bag. Luke may dose off but he would be well aware of their surroundings.

John Duke was even more aware of his surroundings. The sky was getting light when he heard a very faint sound which got louder and louder until John knew that it was a truck and it was on his property and coming this way. He smiled, they were actually going to drive right up to him like he had planned.

Roy drove his pickup back to the place in the woods near Karen's house, "Don't take all night he told Danny."

"I won't." Danny said as he helped Karen down from the bed of the pickup.

John waited several feet back in the woods for Karen and her 'date' to get well away from the others before he stepped in behind them and cocked the shotgun.

Danny wanted to run, thought that he ought to run, yet his feet was planted firmly on ground.

John reached out and grabbed the young man by his ear, "Karen, get to the house and wait on me in the living room."

"But Daddy?" Karen pleaded.

John replied firmly, "Go on."

Karen knew her father's tone of voice and knew it was better for all concerned if she listened quickly to her father. She sent Danny a look of apology before she turned toward the house.

John was far enough away from the pickup that had dropped the two off, that his voice wouldn't be heard, "Now, let me guess you are Danny?" The young man in front of him nodded, 'yes'. "Good, good. Now I'd hate to think that my little girl was out sneaking around with just any guy." John infasized the word to make his meaning clear. "Ya see, I raised my girl right and I'll not let you or any one else hurt her. Do you understand me?"

Danny stuttered as he saw the shotgun and felt his ear being pulled on, "Ye, ...yes, ... Sirrr."

John grinned behind the young man's back, "Good answer. I like that. So, ... we're going to go tell your friends parked over there in the clearing that you don't need a ride home, then we're going up to the place and you can meet my Mrs.," John's smile got wider, "Then, I'll be takin' you home and have me a nice long talk with your Pa."

Danny wanted to protest but felt the barrel of the shotgun digging into his side as Karen's father told him to start walking. Walk he did right back to the pickup that they had just got out of.

Roy fused when he say Danny step out of the trees, "It's about time!"

"He was delayed." John said as he stepped out of the trees and let the breaking day light hit the barrel of the shotgun. "Now, Danny, tell them what we talked about."

Danny tried hard a couple of times before he found his voice, "Ya'll can go. I don't need a ride." He nearly squeaked.

Roy seen what was happening, "Look Mister, we ain't leavin' our buddy."

John smiled, "I like loyalty, really I do, but you've got thirty seconds and counting to get off my property or I flatten all four tires and then all four of you walk home!" John cocked the second barrel of the shotgun. John watched as Roy and the others sped off down the road to who knows where. "You have some good friends there Danny. Right stand up kinda fellas they are." John said as he started the two back toward the farmhouse.

Once she got back to the house, Karen had kicked her shoes off as she came through the door and was now sitting on the couch with her face buried in her knees as tears of embarrassment washed down her face.

Pauline had heard Karen come in so she came down, but for once she held her tongue like John David had asked her too. She took a seat across from the couch and waited on the fireworks that were sure to come.

John and Danny came in the house and John 'offered' Danny a seat beside Karen that the boy couldn't resist, considering John had 'put' him there.

Something in the way that John 'put' the young man there, told him it was in his best interest to stay right there.

As John took his chair across from the teens he rested the still loaded shotgun on his lap. Looking at the clock John seen that there was no point in even trying to go back to bed. He looked at Pauline, "Why don't you put on some coffee and get breakfast started. We'll be havin' company this morning."

Pauline wasn't sure what John David was up to but she headed to the kitchen while keeping her ears open to try to hear the conversation in the living room.

Karen was holding her breath. She knew that this wasn't going to be a normal breakfast and was likely to be a breakfast she would remember for a long while.

Danny remembered Karen telling him that he didn't know her parents when he was trying to tell her that her parents couldn't touch her. The trouble now was that her father had already showed him that he could touch him. On the bright side, Karen's father told her mother they were having company for breakfast so he could plan on living that long.

John studied the two teens before him in silence for several minutes before he spoke, "I take it that tonight wasn't just a skinny dippin' party." He looked from one to the other of the teens.

Karen was suddenly very interested in the carpet on the floor.

Danny didn't like where this conversation was going.

"So, tell me just why did my daughter slip out a second story window in the middle of the night to meet you?" John asked.

Danny swallowed several times trying to get past the feeling that his mouth was full of cotton, before he spoke up, "We will all have to go to Court soon, ..."

"Yeah, now let me see that is for the drunken, skinny dippin' party where you got my daughter out of her clothes." John interrupted. "Continue."

Danny sighed, "We've all pretty much been grounded since then. But, us fellas ran into each other, ... and, ... well, ... got the idea, ... that since we were all ready in trouble, ... that, ..."

John finished the sentence for the young man. "... a bit more wouldn't make any difference." John felt that he could finish the teens thought word for word. He had been a teen once and a Duke teen at that.

Danny looked utterly surprised that Karen's father had known exactly what he was going to say.

John replied, "Son, I was a teenager myself and I wasn't a Saint, but the trouble I caused wasn't out getting girls to get in trouble with their parents and the law."

Danny nodded his understanding.

John continued, "Now, tell me, should I be expecting a grandchild soon?"

"Daddy!" Karen exclaimed.

Danny was sure glad that his parents weren't like Karen's as he tried to come up with an answer to the man's question. He found it really hard to answer such questions with the man still holding the shotgun.

"I'm waiting for an answer." John said as he patted the shotgun in his lap.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck, "No, ... I mean, ... there shouldn't be."

Karen covered her face with her hands. She wondered HOW Danny could have answered her father like that! She felt herself turning about fifteen shades of purple from her neck up.

"Alright. Karen your mother will be scheduling you a doctors appointment real soon, until then, you are grounded, ... that means no car, phone, stereo, and especially NO going out windows in the middle of the night. And to make life real fair, you see son, I'm not so out of touch that I don't know who dates who and goes where, so I'll have my eye and ears out on you too. You will NOT be dating anyone until I know for sure whether or not we'll be havin' us a wedding. Is that clear?" John asked.

Now Danny knew that he and Karen had sex, but he also knew they were protected. Yet, protection can fail when you least expect it. He wasn't ready for marriage or even ready to think about marriage. "But, ... but, ..."

"There is no 'buts'. If my daughter is pregnant, then you better danged well hope you two love or at least like each other. I don't plan on dying anytime soon and you'll walk out on her over my dead body. Do you hear me?" John's voice got a bit louder.

Danny's eyes went wide and it felt as if his throat was closing up as he tried to reply, "Umm, ... yeah."

"I prefer, 'Yes, Sir.' for future reference." John added.

Danny hadn't ever called anyone 'Sir' in his life before tonight, "Umm, ... Ok."

John raised his eyebrows a bit while he waited for the correct answer.

"Sir." Danny added reluctantly.

"That's better but we have time to work on it." John said. "Now, breakfast should be ready, then I'll take you home and have a nice long talk with you Paw. You can also come over after church on Sunday for dinner."

Karen was shocked. Her father had just invited Danny to Sunday dinner.

John had figured that if this young man was to be his future son-in-law that at least he needed to have an understanding with him. That would NOT be accomplished by trying to keep the teens apart.

Bo was the first to stir on his way to find the nearest tree.

Luke gave him a smile, "Glad you are up. Get a fire going for coffee and breakfast while I catch forty winks." Luke pulled the sleeping bag around him tighter and finally relaxed since Bo was now up and moving about.

Jeb wasn't far behind Bo, when he started to stir in the wee hours of dawn.

Bo and Jeb worked together to get the fire and coffee going. Luke was wide awake by the time the coffee was done.

Something was bothering Jeb and he figured that he might as well get it out into the open while they were out here in the woods alone. "Luke?"

Luke was about half way through his first cup of coffee, "Yeah."

"When do you figure Dad will have to go to Court?' Jeb asked.

"He actually should be getting the court date in the mail soon." Luke said.

Jeb nodded in response, "What do you think will happen?"

Luke didn't want to give his cousin any false hope but didn't want to overly concern him either, "Well, his only charge was Fighting and the Judge explained to me that could be a fine and or jail up to twelve months. I had a couple other charges too. He gave me a ten day stay. Other than my experience I really don't have anything else to go on."

Jeb looked at the fire, "But, he could go to jail for a year?"

Luke shrugged, "He could, but I don't really think he will. Even after Green and I got into again, I heard that he was only going to give Green fifteen days until he kept running his mouth. After all that he only got ninety days in Tri Counties Jail. From what Uncle Jesse said, this isn't your Dad's first time in Court, so he'll know not to peeve the Judge off. Hopefully, he'll just get fined."

Jeb sighed, "Yeah."

Luke seen that there was something else bothering Jeb, "Something else you want to talk about?

"Karen called the other day. I don't know how official this is, but from what she said, Mom is pregnant again." Jeb groaned.

"Whoa!" Bo exclaimed.

Luke nearly choked on his coffee. "Way to go Uncle John!"

"Look, we're talking about my parents here. If she is pregnant, we all know what they did for her to get that way." Jeb shuttered at the thought.

Bo frowned, "You mean they still do that? at their ages?"

Just picturing his prime and proper aunt, Luke couldn't stop the shutter as it traveled through his body.

Jeb replied to Bo, "Well, they were at least a year ago. Emma and Emily are proof of that!"

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Sorry for the delay. Things at work getting back to normal now. Happy New Year! Please review!