Thanks to all who are following and especially those who take the time to review. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Long Live BRUCAS - you should see what that shine was for in this chapter!
Vector 426 - We also got a new system in May along with trying to learn it we are trying to train new employees and had major storms here this week. At one point 8000+ was without power in a heat wave! So I feel for you. I think Bo and Jeb will live from their injuries, not sure about Pauline's doctoring! Thanks for the review.
010101010101010101
Chapter 65
"Alright, girls out of the kitchen. Bo drop what's left of those jeans." Pauline said in her most authorative voice.
Bo should have known better but, protested, "Now, Aunt Pauline!"
Pauline seen Daisy and Karen had started out of the kitchen but were now hanging back. "Girls I mean it." She said sternly, then to Bo, "Beauregard DUKE! Now, there is nothing that you have that I ain't seen before. Off with the jeans!"
Daisy motioned to Karen and they wisely went back to Daisy's room.
Bo looked at Jesse hoping to be saved. One look at Jesse and he seen there was no rescue to be had there. "Here's you a towel, Bo."
Pauline took the scrub brush and Ivory soap from Jesse and promptly lathered the brush up at the sink. "The longer that dirt stays in there the harder it will be to get out."
Bo seen he was fighting a losing battle. He took the offered towel from his uncle, finally dropped his jeans to the floor, as he wrapped the towel around his waist.
Luke had taken his time driving home. He was thinking about Ruby and how she just by chance ended up running into him while he was at Robin's, as well as Robin all of a sudden agreeing to go out with Patrick Edwards. Luke had heard through the Hazzard net that she had turned down every date since Ralph had been locked up. But, the first time he'd been at her house since they had broken up, she goes out with someone who'd been trying to get her to go out with him for years. He couldn't help but wonder why the sudden change of heart as he parked his car in its usual place. As Luke got close to the back door he could hear Bo and his Aunt Pauline.
"Sit still." Pauline said.
Bo was trying to sit still but couldn't help move when she got a little carried away with her scrubbing, "Owe!"
"We're almost done I just need to get this place on your shin." Pauline said.
Bo watched as the places on his legs that had been only scratches were now readily bleeding from the scrubbing. The place on his shin was a bit deeper but had stopped bleeding long ago. "It's fine really. It's not even bleeding."
"It's not fine, it needs cleaned out. Besides if it bleeds it will get the germs out. You don't want your leg to get infected and fall off do you?" Pauline had used the same argument since Karen had been in this world.
It had been long time since Bo had gotten a 'boo boo' cleaned up by Pauline and he didn't miss the attention at all! "Owe!" He yelped again.
Luke came through the back door and seen his cousin in what was left of his shirt, his underwear and a towel. Seeing what was going on, he looked from Bo to Jeb he had to wonder what he'd missed, but Pauline's doctoring wasn't it. "What happened to your two?"
"Never mind that, be a Dear and get me a towel will you? I'm almost done here." Pauline said to her oldest nephew.
"Sure." Luke said as he leaned in closer to see how bad Bo was hurt. Just the sight of his Aunt Pauline's scrubbing made him grimace a bit.
When Luke returned with the towel, Pauline dabbed the bleeding cuts and scrapes gently then reached for the jar of shine that John had brought in.
Bo asked, "What's that for?"
"We don't want infection to set up and this is the best antiseptic that I know of." Pauline explained.
Bo threw his hands out in front of himself, "Now wait just a minute!"
"Now if you are big enough to get yourself hurt doing whatever fool stunt you were doing to get hurt then you are big enough to get doctored up without all this fuss." Pauline shamed Bo like she had since he was two. "Acting like this in front of everyone on. Tsk, tsk, tsk. I bet Luke there wouldn't be carrying on like that."
Luke, himself wasn't so sure about all that, but if it worked to get Bo cleaned up he'd go along with it.
Bo did just what he'd done in front of Luke since he was two, took a deep breath, moved his hands and sit back in the chair. He resisted the urge to sit on his hands like he had when he was younger. The next thing he knew his legs were on fire as the nearly hundred percent alcohol hit the all open wounds on his legs at once. Bo tightened his hands into fist and really had to bite his tongue to keep from asking Luke or Jesse to blow on the burning sores.
"Now off to the tub you go for a good hot bath, then we'll rinse those places again for you when you get done." Pauline said proudly of the cleaning job she had done on her nephew.
Between the pain of the cleaning, disinfecting of his wounds and the stiffness that such scratches and cuts get, Bo wasn't at all sure that his legs would carry him out of the kitchen, but he was afraid to stay there any longer and risk Pauline seeing more dirt. Moving slowly and limping badly he made his way toward the bathroom.
The above process was repeated on Jeb, who was used to his mother's ways. Being used to them didn't make him anymore agreeable than Bo had been. Pauline worked on the deepest place on Jeb's arm first, then his elbows and knees. Pauline then dosed his knees elbows with the shine. She looked closely at the cut on his arm, "John David does this look like it needs stitches to you?"
Jeb looked at his father and nearly begged with his eyes to avoid a trip to see Doc.
John moved closer to look at his son's arm. It was deep and Pauline's scrubbing had the blood again flowing. Considering what was best for his son as well as Jeb's unspoken wishes, John replied, "Nah, I think it will be alright. Jesse?"
"I think it will be fine. We'll check it after he gets cleaned up." Jesse said.
John nodded in agreement.
As if on cue Bo opened the bathroom door hoping to make his escape to his room.
"Run along Jeb and get cleaned up." Pauline said then turned to Bo, "Bo come on in here and let me rinse those cuts again before bandaging them for the night.
Bo gave Luke a begging look.
Luke shrugged, knowing that there was nothing that he could do to save Bo from another round of doctoring.
After everyone was cleaned up and ready for bed the boys headed out to the hayloft of the barn. Once they were safely in the barn away from the adults, Luke didn't waste any time asking, "Now what did you two to end up looking like this?"
Bo winced as he sat down on a bale of hay causing his jeans to rub against the bandages that his aunt had insisted on putting on his injuries. "We started out looking for the girls, when we got up near the river bed. We got the idea that a race would be a good idea."
"Was that a race with a grizzly or on motorcycles across the Grand Canyon?" Luke asked.
"No it was just a foot race with each other." Jeb admitted.
Luke frowned. He'd been all over the farm and in many a race with those two but had never came home looking like either of them did right now.
0101010101010101
Once the boys had headed out to the barn for the night and John was certain that Pauline had put the kitchen back together from all the doctoring that had taken place in there, he left Jesse to his coffee on the porch to seek out his wife. Pauline was just coming back into the kitchen from taking the night's dishtowels to the washer.
John asked, "All done?"
"Finally." Pauline sighed, "I've got the girls bottles all made for tonight and tomorrow. I put what's left of those boys' jeans to soak. What on Earth could they have been doing to look like that?"
John saw she was about to start in on a rant and hoped to stop her before she got good and started. He put his arms around her, "I just checked in on the girls. Daisy and Karen have them." He kissed her cheek, "How about us taking a little ride? I could use some air."
Pauline had watched John all day. He had seemed a bit nervous all day, yet he had been trying to act like nothing was wrong. She knew when something was bothering him he liked to take a drive. There was something about his need to be behind the wheel of a vehicle that she never could understand, but it usually put him in a better mood. Pauline was tired and any other time she would have likely said no, but she'd agree to go with him tonight. "Alright. I'll just tell the girls we are going."
John reached for her hand, "I've already done that."
As John stepped on to the porch, Jesse looked up. He saw his younger brother holding his wife's hand. Jesse couldn't stop the slight grin he gave John even before John opened his mouth.
Seeing the look that Jesse was giving him, John cleared his throat then said, "We'll be back in a spell. Daisy and Karen have the twins."
"I'm not waiting up." Jesse said as John and Pauline left the steps heading for her car.
John glared at his brother for only a split second, before he promptly chose to ignore Jesse and head for the car.
Jesse shook his head and grinned as he watched John and Pauline getting in the car.
010101010101010
In the barn, Jeb heard his father's car start and pull out. He looked out the loft door and could make out the forms of his parents as lights from the house lit up the car.
"Who was that?" Bo asked. He didn't think anyone was planning to go out yet, he'd heard his aunt's car pull out.
"My folks." Jeb replied with a frown. "Wonder if everything is alright?"
Luke asked from his place on the hay, "Jesse still on the porch?"
"Yeah." Jeb replied.
"Then everything is alright or he'd been out here my now." Luke said confidently as he took a sip from a partial mason jar that he'd talked Jesse out of.
010101010101010
It was a warm summer night and John enjoyed wind through his hair as he drove the familiar back roads of Hazzard County. Pauline was sitting quietly by his side as he drove. This is how he liked to drive, not too fast, not too slow without a particular route in mind. John was just letting the car and the roads take him where they wanted him to go.
This sort of drive also took Pauline's mind back to when John David and she were first dating. He'd often pick her up and they would just ride for hours without purpose or direction. Often she had not had a clue as to where they were or where they were going.
John too was remembering those rides when he and Pauline were dating. He knew that she had no clue that some of those drives were actually to check out new routes that he may need to know when he was running shine. John smiled to himself as he thought, 'What she didn't know didn't hurt me a bit either.' They drove on in comfortable silence for a while, before John finally turned toward his ultimate route out by the lake.
John found a nice secluded spot that over looked the lake and parked the car as far off the road as he dared to take his wife's car that seemed at times to have more muscle than it had good sense. "Care to take a walk down by the lake?"
Pauline replied, "Why not?"
As John got out of the car he picked up paper bag from out from under his seat and a jacket from the back to take to the lake with him. Once they were at the lakes edge John put his jacket down for Pauline to sit on, then he took a seat on the ground beside her. With his arm around his wife they sat and enjoyed the night sounds of the lake with the moon reflecting on the water. After a few minutes, John opened the paper bag, then the jar inside and took a long drink.
"John DAVID!" Pauline exclaimed. "Don't tell me we've been riding around all over creation with THAT stuff in MY car."
John bit his tongue. He could think of several replies especially about just who had bled and sweat to get her the car she considered as hers, but now wasn't the time. "Come on Pauline, relax. Trust me. Let's just enjoy some time out here alone. Why the last time we came out here ..."
Pauline blushed crimson. John David didn't have to finish that statement for her to remember what happened the last time they were here. "I remember it very well, John David."
"Do you regret it?" he asked.
Pauline replied, "Of course not ... it's just that ..." It was too late to finish that thought as John had now cut off her sentence with a most passionate kiss. Pauline knew very well the last time they had come to this lake on a night very similar to tonight that it was only about nine months later they were staying up all night for a completely different reason. Karen was a colicky newborn.
Pauline not regretting the last time they were here was a good thing for John, but he knew better than to push her. As the kiss ended, John took another rather large drink of shine, "Join me?"
"John DAVID!" Pauline said appalled at the offer, "You know that I never!"
"I know that you ... almost ... never." He couldn't stop the grin even if he tried as he remembered the few times that he'd talked Pauline into having a taste of shine. "Come on, Honey. Trust me."
Pauline looked into John's eyes and saw him nearly pleading with her. Taking a deep sigh, "Alright, John for you."
John handed her the mason jar.
Pauline merely touched it to her lips, then licked the contents off them.
"Oh, come on, Honey. That's not enough for a fly to taste." John laughed.
Pauline glared at her husband, then finally took a decent drink of the clear liquor.
"See there, now that didn't kill you." John smiled.
No, it may not have killed her, but she was trying hard to keep her eyes in her head.
John pulled her closer, "There, now that wasn't so bad was it?"
"John David, why are we out here?" Pauline asked.
John thought about it for a long minute before replying. "Tomorrow. I may not have been perfectly honest with you, Pauline."
"What are you talking about?" She asked with just a bit of a raised voice.
John replied, "Now you know me better than think that I'd lie to you, so just stop that right there." He paused for a full minute before adding, "I told you what the Judge said that I could get if found guilty. I also told you that I didn't think it would be anywhere near what it could be. Pauline, I was wrong. I know I was wrong and there isn't anything else for me to do but to admit that and hope that pleading guilty helps me instead of there having to be a long drawn out hearing where I'm later found guilty. But, I want you to know going in, that I am not innocent ... and I don't really see this Judge letting me walk out of there tomorrow."
For several minutes, there was a silence between them that was so loud, that it hurt both their heads.
John continued, "I mean, he said it could be a fine, jail or both. Now, everytime I've had to go to court over here in the past the Judges were looking to gain money for the County, this one though, I'm not so sure of. He's known to be a hard nose." He held the mason jar closer to Pauline and was a taken back when she took it and took a healthy drink out of it. "Easy, Honey."
"John David, are you telling me that I'm going to have the kids and the farm for a year without you?" Pauline asked as she took another drink of the shine in her hand.
John wasn't sure how to answer that question, but tired, "I really don't think it will be a year. More like a few days, but I don't really see us on our way home together this time tomorrow night."
"You have been thinking about this all along, that's why we brought the car and the truck?" Pauline asked.
"Guilty." John replied. "But, you didn't need to worry about all that, all this time." John had taken a sip of shine and passed it back to Pauline.
Pauline took a drink of the shine, "So, you brought me out her tonight to tell me this?"
"Pretty much." John admitted.
"John David, what am I supposed to do about the farm? Say to my family? Everyone we know?" Pauline fretted.
"Carl has already agreed to take care of the farm. He's been wanting his chance to prove himself for fifteen years now. Let him do it. As for your family and the others, tell them the truth. It is public record anything that happens in court." John said.
"And what about Karen's court date?" Pauline asked.
"If I'm home I'll go with her, if I'm not, then you'll have to make your own choices. Just like tomorrow. Are you coming with us?" John asked.
"John, you have never asked me to go with you before. Usually, you call Jesse and I'm never included. The question is, do you want me there?" Pauline asked.
John thought a long hard minute as they started back to the car, yes; he wanted her there for moral support. He also knew how much of a fit she could raise when things didn't go her way. He finally replied, "Pauline the difference is, before I knew I was going to end up paying a fine. I'd like to think that will happen this time, but, I just don't see it from what I know about this Judge. Maybe with you and the girls there, he'll see me as a family man that is needed at home and change his mind." John warned her, "But, you have to remember that IF you go and things go badly, anything you say or do could make things worse for me. Which means you and the girls will be alone longer."
"John David, I just don't know. I'll think about it." Pauline said as she got back into the car. She wasn't at all sure that she could keep her composure if things went badly for John David in court.
John sat the open mason jar in the console as he leaned over the seat, not letting her begin to think and promptly kissed her.
Before Pauline knew it, her bra was unhooked, John's hands were caressing her breasts, and he was well on his way to undressing her.
John knew that he'd have no chance at being with Pauline once they got back to Jesse's. She had never let him get this far at Jesse's so tonight would be no different. He wanted / needed his wife tonight, it would be here, now or who knew when.
Pauline saw where he was going and objected, "John David!"
John kissed her more passionately. "Come on Pauline, it's not the first time we ever ..."
Pauline blushed five shades of crimson, "John ... DAVID, ... DUKE!"
John merely grinned at her and nipped her neck as he dropped his jeans into the floor board.
0101010101010101
Rosco grumbled as he made his way around the still County. He knew he had to be in Court early tomorrow morning with John Duke and Steve Campbell. Deputy Petticord should be working this shift but had called in sick. There was no one else to work the shift so here Rosco was. He would not leave Hazzard unpatrolled even with Sunday nights being known to be quiet. For once Rosco wouldn't mind flushing out a moon runner. 'At least a good chase would make the night pass quicker.' Rosco thought to himself as he turned off on the lake road.
John was just getting his breath back when he heard the distant sound of a car. He handed Pauline her clothes as he grabbed his jeans.
Rosco was just about past the wide spot when he caught a glimpse of light off of chrome on a vehicle. He swung the patrol car wide and pulled in just behind the dark colored Chrysler just as John Duke was stepping out of the back seat of the car.
John had seen the lights of the car and hoped to buy Pauline some time to get fully dressed. He actually hoped that the car was some teens looking for a place to park themselves. John had managed to get his jeans on but that was it as the car pulled in closely behind Pauline's car. It didn't take but half a glance at the car to see that the car was a police car. John shook his head and cursed under his breath. Only now did he remember the open jar of moonshine in the console of the car.
Rosco was getting out of the car as soon as it stopped, "John Duke? What are you doing out here at this hour?"
Pauline was praying that Rosco didn't look in the car. She had just now spotted the open jar of shine in her console and tossed John's shirt over the mason jar.
John glanced to see that Pauline had managed to finish dressing, "I was just out here talking to my wife." John said as he emphasized the word 'wife'.
"Wife?" For the first time, Rosco noticed Pauline was in the back seat of the car, then he took in John's appearance dressed only in jeans. It didn't take long for Rosco to put together just what had been going on here just minutes before he pulled in. "Git, ... git, ... git, ... I could, ... should, ... run you in." Rosco felt himself blushing just thinking about how embarrassing an arrest such as this would be for him, not to mention for the couple in front of him. "But, I'm not going to this time, because of Miss Pauline and the fact that you already have to see the Judge in the morning."
John really didn't need Rosco's reminding him of his court appearance just a few hours away but was glad to hear that the Sheriff wasn't planning on trying to give him any more charges. John was also glad that Pauline seemed to have learned something from there last run in with the State Police. At least she was staying in the car. "We was just getting ready to head out, Rosco."
"Yeah, well ... You just do that. Just get dressed and get on out of here." Rosco tried to make it sound like it was his idea to let John go.
As John got back into the car, Pauline asked, "What are you going to do about the jar that is under your shirt?"
"Just as soon as Rosco backs off my bumper, I plan to empty it." John said seriously.
0101010101010101
John pulled up into his spot at Jesse Duke's several hours after they had left for their drive.
Pauline was still blushing crimson just thinking about what they had done as well as coming home to Jesse's at this hour with her four children all there, not to mention the Sheriff had shown up at the lake. If word got out about her and John being at the lake, she would be mortified. Pauline was glad that she had been on the birth control this long and prayed that she had nothing to worry about after a night of passion with John David. She shook her head; it would be just her luck to end up pregnant again.
On the other hand, John prayed that she had been on birth control long enough to keep his wife from becoming pregnant after just one night of passion, after all that is what birth control was for was to prevent women from getting pregnant.
They slipped into the house and to their room like a couple of teenagers. John hoped that Jesse was long ago asleep, yet he knew that Jesse rarely went to sleep without all his charges at home, safe and sound.
010101010101010101
Let me know what you thought. Thanks again for reading!