by: Kristy Duke

Looking around the empty  old farm house, Craig feels his muscles tightening up as he forces his thoughts to run through his well thought through plan and chills of excitement cross his body. Excitement at the thought that they had entered Hazzard dirt poor and will be leaving Hazzard rich with all of Hogg’s money. An evil smile crosses his handsome face at the thought of what Hogg’s reactions will be when he finds that he has been robbed and by the time he figures out that he was robbed by them, they’ll be long gone from Hazzard. Despite how much he hated Hazzard and the old farm house they  had been trapped in the past few days, the rewards were going to be well worth it. If only there was some way to speed up their plan…

But Craig knows that if he were to change his plans or  tries to speed them up, would only produce failure. Reminding Craig that he needed to be patient and to follow his plans no matter how he felt.

Sighing heavily he walks out of the living room and into the empty kitchen where Rory is standing over the counter making sandwiches. “Oh good,” she smiles up at him, “you can run this up this up to your idiot brother. He’s lucky I don’t make him starve to death.”

Craig shakes his head at her. He loved her, but couldn’t understand why she hated his brother for. “I’ll make sure to relay the message to him,” he grins ornery at her as he takes the plate from her, “Hey, have you looked for that old man’s ring yet?”

Rory stops from making her current sandwich to glare at her husband, irritated with his questions. “Does it look like I care about a dumb ring? He shouldn’t have left it behind if it was all so important to him!” she states before inhaling heavily, “Look Craig, I still don’t think this is going to work. I mean my uncle is over protective of his money. How are we to get past that to get his money? What you going to do with that hick kid you kidnapped? Don’t you think it would have been better if you let your brother get rid of him as he wanted to? As it is, we have him on our hands to deal with as well as all the damn interruptions from that hick sheriff!”

Craig sighs as he leans against the front door. “We have our plans, Rory. They will work. You need to stop worrying about them and just follow them. As for that hick,” Craig pauses as he glances out the window towards the barn, “Brian will handle him and be rid of his body by tomorrow. I promise, OK? I wanted to think it all through before going ahead with it so that we wouldn’t make any mistakes or leave any trails.”

Rory nods silently before turning her back to Craig and goes back to her sandwiches. “It better work out or else we’ll be facing some heavy time behind bars in the near future,” she silently utters as Craig walks out onto the front porch.

Stepping off the porch and onto the dirt driveway, Craig cusses as cold rain washes down on him and he quickens his speed as he walks towards the old barn.  Approaching the barn, Craig’s heart comes to a halt in fear and shock as he sees Brian lying face down in a mud pile. “Brian!” he yells as he bends down to check a pulse to find a steady pulse. “Brian!” he hears himself yell again as he carefully rolls him over to find his face thick of mud and blood. A moment passes before Brian moans loudly as his eyes slowly open. “Brian! What happened? You OK?”

Brian eyes Craig for a long moment before he stiffly sits up to let out a yell of pain as a sharp pain cuts through him. “I don’t know,” he gasps, “Damn. I hurt.” He goes silent for a long moment as he blankly looks around before he gives a startled look, “He took him. He’s gone.”

“He took him?” Craig questions before it sinks in of what he is talking about. After a moment of looking at Brian, he stands up to quickly runs through the barn and climbs the ladder up to the loft where he finds the loft a mess and empty of any prisoners.  “Damn it!” he cusses angrily as he thinks of the prisoner gone and free and the damage that he could bring upon him and their plans.  Panic is quick  to set in as he eyes his brother before looking back at the house. Rory’s words of worry rush through him and for the first time since they have entered Hazzard, his own worry explodes within him. Now that their prisoner has supposedly escaped from them, he is free to tell anyone and everyone what he had overheard in the woods. Which means they will have to act fast before it’s too late. Only to make him nervous. They had plans to follow. To not to follow them could produce trouble for them all. But they couldn’t just pack up and leave either. . .

“I’m sorry Craig,” Brian breaks the silence as he eyes his brother with pain filled eyes, “I tried fighting him, but then he -”

“He won. You could have yelled out to us. You could have shot him. You could have shot them both,” Craig angrily interrupts him as his anger explodes within him, “we trusted you and you failed us! Now what are we to do, Brian? Rory tol’ me we shouldn’t be trusting you and I guess she was right!” Craig stands up shaking his head as he eyes the open land around them in some hope of finding something, but finding nothing. “Who took him? What he look like? Never mind. Get up and we’ll talk about it in the house!”

Brian eyes his angry brother with his own anger. He had been eager to shoot and kill their supposed prisoner. Told them it was dangerous to keep him alive. Craig had insisted upon keeping him alive until he had been ready to kill the prisoner. He tried warning him and yet Craig refused to listen  to him and now Craig had the nerve to blame him. To be angry at him for it. Inhaling heavily pain explodes within him as he tries to stand up only for pain to scream across his body. “I can’t Craig. I think my leg’s broken. Perhaps my arm. Damn I hurt,” he finally states, “my head. Everything.”

“You damn baby,” Craig rolls his eyes before he bends down and grabs Brian’s good arm and throws it around his thick neck before beginning to drag him towards the farm house.

*   *   *   *   *

                Luke and Cooter pulls to a halt in front of the all too familiar court house as Luke remains silent in thought. Silent in thought of all that his cousin had told him that had happened to him and all that he had overheard after he had awakened after his harsh fall. And all that it could mean for the town’s commissioner that remains blinded by his greed and love of money. Turning to Cooter, he asks, “You ready?”

“As ready as I’m ever gonna be. You think Hogg’s gonna believe you?” Cooter questions as he pulls himself out through the open window.

“I’m going to have to convince him to believe me,” Luke states as he walks around the hood of The General, “now that we got Bo back, I am sure they will be in panic mode and who knows how they’ll react.”

Cooter nods as they walk into the court house and into a long wide hall way. They pass a couple of people before they reach the open door way of the police station and Cooter follows Luke into the small room.

“Hey Luke, hey Cooter, “ Deputy Enos Strait says with a wide smile on his face, “how’s the move going?”

Luke eyes the friendly deputy with impatience before forcing himself to nod at him. “Just fine,” sarcasm drips from both words heavily yet the deputy seems naïve to it. “We’re here to see Hogg.”

“Well I’m sorry Luke, but Mr. Hogg is busy at the moment,” the deputy states, the smile remains planted on his face, “perhaps I can take a message for him.”

“Well Enos, I mean no disrespect to you. You have your job to do, but some things are just meant to be given in person and this is one of them,” Luke states and boldly continues to walk towards Hogg’s closed door and as Enos goes to follow him, he turns and states, “I know, you said, he’s busy. But some things can’t wait. This can’t wait.”

Deputy Strait eyes him nervously and then at the closed door. Torn between what his friend had urgently said and the orders he was given. “I’ve got strict orders, Luke. You go in there he’ll be mad. Not just at you, but at me,” he says half pleading Luke to stop and when he doesn’t, his frown disappears as he realizes something must be wrong. “What’s wrong, Luke?”

“Ask your sheriff. He knows all about it and would back us up,” Luke eyes Enos with angry eyes before he inhales heavily, reminding himself of who Enos is. A friend who probably knows nothing of what is going on. “Look Enos. I respect you and your position. I don’t want to get you in trouble, but I have urgent matters to bring to Hogg. Matters that can not wait any longer than it already has. Bo is in the hospital after being kidnapped and beaten by a couple of bad people that Hogg is working with. We have reasons to believe that Hogg could be the next in line now that we had helped Bo escape from his kidnappers. It’s important, Enos.”

Enos’ eyes go wide with the new info and panic sets in. “Oh no! That’s terrible! Is Bo OK?” he asks.

“Should be, but you could always go see for yourself. I’ve got family sitting with him twenty-four seven  until these guys get caught and put where they belong. Sure he would love any kind of company he could get. Now if you don’t mind, we need to talk to Hogg,” Luke states as he walks past Enos Strait to the closed door.

“Yeah OK, Luke,” Enos states as he steps back away from Luke and Cooter.

Luke nods before he quickly pulls Hogg’s door open and steps in, followed by Cooter who quickly close the door behind them.

From behind the expensive oak wooden desk that sits halfway in the room, the round man dressed in the white three piece suit gasps as he sits up from lying with his head down on the desk, taking a nap. He eyes Luke and Cooter with tired and feared eyes for a long moment before realization sinks in and he yells, “Luke Duke and Cooter Davenport! What has gotten into you? Don’t you knock like normal people before entering like that? I told my deputy that -”

“That you were to have no visitors. Guess visitors would interrupt your little cat nap, huh, Hogg?” Luke angrily spits out, “Well I really don’t care if you get a cat nap or not due to the fact that your niece and her husband not only kidnapped Bo but beat him! He lies in the hospital because of the people you hired to take over our farm! Which makes you just as responsible for it as them!”

Hogg eyes him wildly for a long moment. “Now wait a minute there Luke Duke! You have some nerve to run in here like that running your mouth about some wild accusations! I may have taken your farm due to your tardiness to pay your mortgage, but no one had kidnapped Bo. Not alone someone I know. What does my niece have to do with this anyway?” he questions.

“Everything. Just ask Rosco. He’ll vouch for us,” Luke throws at him.

Boss laughs. “He will? Since when? Even if he did, it wouldn’t mean nothing since he knows nothing!” he yells, “Now if you don’t mind, you can turn around and leave where you two came from. Otherwise I’ll have my deputy arrest you both.”

“Yeah sure Boss, we’ll leave,” Luke states sarcastically, but unlike Enos, Boss is quick to pick up on his sarcasm, “and allow your own people to come back at you. After all, why should we care what happens to you? I mean it was you who had us ran off the road on our way to pay our mortgage. It was you that had plans to turn our farm into a boarding house. It is your people that kidnapped Bo after he overheard their evil plans. Their evil plans against you, Hogg. He’s hurt. He’s in the hospital because of you. And you know what he had begged me to do when he finally woke up?” Luke awaits for an answer that doesn’t come. “Was to come and help you. To help you from your own people. I guess that’s what separates us from you,” Luke pauses, feeling his adrenaline being fueled by his anger, “you are worried about you, your money, and yourself.. While Bo was able to look past what you did to him to worry about you.”

Hogg eyes the two for a long moment as he lights his cigar, his mind sharply turns within him  to force him to realize that Luke wouldn’t lie about his cousin being hurt. He himself was dirty like that, but not the Dukes. “What are you talking about, Luke?” he finally asks,

“Your niece and her husband and his brother is at our farm. They are the ones you have working for your new boarding house. Well Bo went for a walk this morning. Real early. He felt responsible for losing the farm since he was driving when you ran him off the road. He fell down that hill and passed out. When he woke up, he overheard your niece and her husband arguing over his brother being there. About their plans. The only reason they’re in Hazzard, working with you, is to rip you off and then plan on running to leave you without a penny to your name and with an empty boarding house. They’re using you, Hogg,” Luke states and pauses for a moment, “anyway, they somehow found Bo and forced him to go with them. Had him tied up in our barn in the loft. That’s where we found him barely alive and that is where we helped him escape.  I’m sure by now Craig has found out that he’s gone. He’s going to be mad. And logic tells me, he’ll panic and when people in his position panic, people will get hurt and since his plans involve robbing you, logic also tells me, that you’ll be the next person to be hurt by him and his ugly brother.”

Boss eyes Luke and Cooter for a long moment, looking for a sign of some sort of joke or trick they could be playing. “My niece wouldn’t come all this way to rob me like that. I’m her uncle. She loves me. I have helped her in so many ways -”

“Face it Hogg,” Cooter speaks up for the first time since entering his office, “she’s related to you. Perhaps greed and love of money runs in the family. Perhaps she’s learned from the best of ’em. You.”

Hogg eyes Cooter and then Luke. “Yeah. OK. Fine,” he stutters, “perhaps you’re right. I don’t know. All I wanted -”

“I don’t care what you want. What I care about is my cousin who is in the hospital because of the people you brought into our house. He was beaten and was going to be killed if we hadn’t shown up when we had. All because of your greedy plan. And now we’re here to save your sorry butt,” Luke states, disgust thick in his words, “If I had a choice, I’d still be at the hospital with Bo to make sure he’s Ok. That they won’t come back to finish their job I had interrupted, but he was insistent that I help you. And here I am. To help the man behind it all.”

“Look Luke, I knew nothing about Bo. That wasn’t in our plans at all. I had nothing to do with what happened to Bo. I really hope that he’ll be OK. He’ll be OK, won’t he?” Boss rambles.

“None thanks to you. You may not have had planned to hurt Bo, but he was hurt all the same,” Luke states and takes a step back to the door, “and since I am here to help you out, I think it is best if you come with us. Perhaps -”

“What about my money? You said they were here to rob me of my money. Not to hurt me -”

“I don’t care about your  money. Once they get your money, their focus will be on you. Now let’s go,” Luke roughly states and Cooter walks behind Boss to help him towards the door. Luke waits for them to join him before opening the door just in time for a thick and bold hand gun to be jammed into his chest with Craig holding it boldly there. Rory stands behind him with a gun of her own while Enos sits on the floor, tightly tied up.

“Rory! Craig!” Boss cries, “They just tol’ me what you did to Bo…what you plan to do to me! I can’t -”

“Shut up fat man,” Craig snaps as he shoves the gun into Luke’s chest to force him to step back, “y’all get into the room and no one else will have to get hurt.”

Luke gulps nervously before nodding in defeat and they step back into the room before Craig and Rory join them, slamming and locking the door behind them. “Look Craig. Look Rory,” Boss says pleadingly, “we were in this as a team. Teams don’t turn on each other.”

“We were no team. You only thought we were,” Craig snaps as he eyes Luke and he sharply backhands him across the face with the butt of the gun and Luke gasps in pain and surprise as he falls back into the wall before standing back up. “You’re the one that hurt Brian! You lowlife garbage!”

“Not nice to talk to yourself that way,” Luke states with a smile before dodging another blow and grabs Craig’s gun  hand before he can withdraw it to tightly and sharply pull it behind his back and grabs the gun out of his hand with one hand while with his other hand he shoves Craig tightly into the wall and places the gun to his head, “He got what he deserved. He got less than he deserved. You hurt my cousin. You hurt him real bad and I know well enough  your evil plans you had for him if I hadn’t shown up when I had. Perhaps I’ll do to you what you had planned for him. The difference is, is I won’t fail as y’all had.” With that, Luke shoves the gun tighter to his head and he gasps sharply. “Rory, give your uncle your gun and any other weapon you have. You refuse or try anything, your ugly husband will become uglier.”

Rory eyes her uncle and then her husband, her gun tightly in her hands and for a moment she aims it at the back of Luke. “I wouldn’t think of it ma’am,” Cooter calmly states, “Luke was a sergeant in the Marines. He’s been to war. He’s a legend when it comes to shooting guns. You want to gamble your husband’s life?”

She slowly shakes her head before she hands Hogg her gun as she gives him an ashamed look. “I told you this would never work, Craig. I told you and you didn’t listen! Damn you!” she cusses as Cooter boldly steps around her and unlocks the door to walk back out into the sheriff’s office. A moment later he returns with a set of handcuffs that he hands to Luke who nods while handing him the gun.

“Too bad for you,” Luke whispers as he tightly tightens the cuffs around each thick wrist of Craig’s after pulling his arms behind his back, “you’re life will be spared to spend years behind bars. Hope you have a good stay.”

Enos slowly walks in with apologetic looks at Hogg, Luke, and Cooter. “They snuck up on me,” he says in a way of explanation, “Rosco is on his way out to the Duke farm to arrest Brian and will be here afterwards.” He nods at them as he moves to Rory with another set of handcuffs. “I hate to do this to you ma’am, but you broke the law. Woman or male, you are under arrest.” With that he puts her in handcuffs as he slowly reads off of a car their rights.

“My brother’s hurt,” Craig hisses angrily before trying to head butt Luke who quickly throws him to the ground. He looks up accusingly at Luke, “because of that piece of garbage.”

“Well he’ll get treated here at the jail,” Enos states as he helps him up by the handcuffs as Cooter takes Rory and he helps guide her out of Hogg’s office and down the stairs to the two jail cells where he puts her in the first one and slams the door shut. Enos locks Craig in the empty cell next to her’s. “We’ll have to put Brian upstairs I guess.”

Boss stands still in shock as he eyes his niece in disbelief. “I can’t believe you would do this to me. I trusted you. We were in this together,” he finally states, “may you enjoy your time at the pen.”

“You jerk. How can you stand there and allow me to be arrested?! You were in on it as well -”

“Wait a minute!  I may have helped you with the plan to get the Duke farm and to build the boarding house, but I had nothing to do with you two kidnapping Bo Duke and trying to kill him! That was all you three…and now try to rob me!” he yells at her, “I may share no love for the Dukes, but I don’t want to see anyone hurt. Not even them. Don’t try putting me at your low level!”

Hogg eyes her for a long moment before he sharply turns and walks up the narrow stairs to be followed by Cooter, Luke, and then Enos. As everyone comes to a halt in the police station, he turns to eye Luke and Cooter. “I owe you a big one. Thank you Luke. Thank you Cooter. If you hadn’t shown up when you had,” he gulps nervously, “they’d have robbed me or worse.”

“Don’t thank us. Thank Bo,” Luke quickly states, “and you’re right. You owe us. You owe us our farm back.”

Hogg quickly looks away. He has always tried to get their farm, to get their land and he finally  had it, but he knew that Luke was right. “Yeah I guess I do owe you  your farm,” he nervously states looking back at them.

“Nah Boss,” Cooter speaks up to gather surprised looks from everyone, “you owe the farm to Bo. After all, it was him who found all this out. The hard way.”

“Cooter’s right. Bo earned the farm back,” Luke pats Cooter on the back, glad to see all this coming to an end, “and perhaps a reward for halting your robbery. After all, if he never had said anything, we’d be at the hospital right now while you’d be robbed by your own people. And after what you did to us, who’d have blamed Bo for not saying anything?”

Boss exhales heavily, upset at being in this position. “OK, OK, OK,” he grudgingly throws his arms up in surrender, “You’re right. I owe Bo a visit to show him my appreciation and support. I’ll give him back the farm and a five hundred dollar reward once Rosco shows up with Brian and get him arrested and situated in jail. How’s that?”

“Great, Boss. Just great,” Luke smiles and pats Cooter on the back, “Let’s go tell Bo, Jesse, and Daisy the great news.”

*   *   *   *   *

                Exhaustion heavily rushes through Jesse Duke’s aching body as he sits quietly  in an old beat up metal fold up chair, silently listening to the rhythmic beeping of the machines. The machines that gives his young nephew life giving support, machines that display how weak his nephew is after the big ordeal he had gone through. Only to send his thoughts falling back through the past couple of days events that has led them to the hospital. Of the big truck driving them off the road, to the harsh words and emotions directed at Bo, and finding Bo missing early yesterday morning that had led to the search for his nephew and brought them back home. Back home where they had found Bo violently beaten and tied in their own barn. The barn they all had been in and out of their own home. Their home, their farm that had equaled a welcoming and safe environment for all of them and now will be a constant reminder of the violent nightmare that Bo had went through in his bold attempt to get the farm back.

Only to stir violent anger within his aging body. Anger at Boss for his greedy attempt to gain their farm to gain an extra dollar for himself. Angry at the people who Hogg had hired to reform his farm into a boarding house. Angry at the people who had kidnapped Bo in their attempt to protect their evil and greedy plans to rip Hogg off and had ruthlessly beaten Bo with thoughts of killing him.

Worse yet, he was angry at himself. Angry that he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him as he had faced losing the only place he has ever lived at. Through his kids’ entire life he had preached that all they needed was their family. That family and love for one another was and is more important over any material possessions they could ever have. Including their farm. And yet, when Hogg had took their farm away from him, he had allowed his raw emotions to grab a hold of him and had shoved those teachings he had taught the kids over and over again away and had blamed the only person he could blame. Bo.

If only he had been more understanding, if only he had intruded and stopped Luke’s harsh accusations towards Bo, perhaps Bo wouldn’t have had went out in attempt to solve their problem on his own. If only he had done something. . .

“Uncle Jesse,” Bo’s weak voice interrupts the human silence within the room as the room had been plagued with the beeping of the machines, the hissing of the air machine behind his bed. Jesse slowly glances down at the bed and forces a smile to see Bo awake after been asleep ever since Luke had ran out of his room a couple of hours ago. Awake and looking up at Jesse with eyes full of pain, fear, and hope; eyes seeming to plea Jesse to help him feel better. Only to drive Jesse’s guilt deeper within him as he is overcome with the feeling helplessness at seeing the pain and fear so prominent in his eyes.

“Hey Bo,” Jesse forces a smile and attempts to hide his own emotions as he reaches down and gently pats Bo’s shoulder before he lovingly wipes a thick lock of Bo’s golden hair out from his bruised eye. “I’m right here, Bo. I’m right here.” He goes silent once more as his exhaustion seems to grow thicker and heavier within him. “How you feelin’ Bo?”

Bo eyes him with tired eyes for a long moment before looking away to remind Jesse of when Bo was younger and would avoid eye contact when he had done something he knew he shouldn’t have done. Finally Bo shrugs, looking up at the ceiling. “They say I’ll be fine,” he says almost in a whisper, “but I hurt. Everywhere.”

Jesse nods as he firmly grabs Bo’s good hand. “Bo look at me,”’ Jesse calmly states with a hint of sternness that he had forced into his voice, knowing that would force Bo to listen to him. Jesse wait’s a moment as Bo slowly looks up at him with tears building up in his baby blue eyes only to force Jesse’s heart to tighten within him. “I’m sorry, Bo. I know I didn’t directly accuse you of losing the farm, but I didn’t tell you otherwise either. I didn’t stop Luke from accusing you.  I knew it wasn’t your fault. It was that damn truck’s fault. Yet deep down, I had accused you and am sure I gave you clear signs of how I had felt. Whether I meant to or not. It wasn’t your fault, I -” he cuts himself off to clear his mind momentarily, “I just had to find someone to blame and you were in the position to blame since you were driving and all. I’m sorry, Bo.”

Bo nods slightly as he looks away once again, refusing to look at Jesse in his own guilt for his own actions. After all, if he hadn’t ran off as he had, he wouldn’t have caused his family the trouble of worrying about him, of looking for him, and fearing the worst. If only he had returned when they called him instead of continuing forward…

But despite his family’s apology, Bo had quietly blamed himself for losing the farm. He was known for his great driving ability. For his ability to avert danger and had allowed the truck to drive him off the road. There had to have been something he could have done to prevent it from happening, yet he had been run off the road to lose their farm. From the second The General left the road and it was clear they were going to lose the farm, he knew he had to do something to get it back. To right his wrong. He had to prove himself worthy enough to be called a Duke, to be in the family.

Luke had the brains of the family, he was smart and quick witted. He got them all out of the trouble that Bo himself seemed to bring them all in. Daisy was country smart and was able to keep the house and family running by her home made meals, the clean house, and her ability to look past being a woman and able to get down and dirty if need be. Jesse was the Duke patriarch who was wise beyond words, who was loving, caring, and forgiving. Always willing to listen and to help them out no matter what they had done. He knew exactly what to do in any given situation or to help anyone out in need of help. And Bo? All he seemed worthy to do was to bring his beloved family into trouble and then look to Luke for help out.

So when Boss had taken the farm, Bo knew he no longer could turn and look at Luke and expect him to help him out. He had to do something to make him worthy to his family and not just someone who was clumsy and couldn’t do anything right. So he had set off early on his own in his vague attempt to try to get the farm back on his own with little to no thought of how he was going to do that. After all, he has never been accused of being smart and quick witted as Luke or wise as Jesse, but was thought of to be a bit slow and quick to react.

And now he lies on the old hospital bed, listening to the machines beeping and hissing to help support him in attempt to regain his strength enough to walk out of the hospital. Stuck in the old hospital bed with his entire body throbbing and screaming loudly in pain at him and yet knows how lucky he is. If Luke hadn’t shown up when he had, Bo knew sooner or later, Brian would have pulled that trigger as he so badly wanted to. His body wouldn’t be throbbing or screaming at him in pain. He wouldn’t be feeling or thinking anything, because without Luke, Bo would be dead. Without Luke, they all would be mourning his death and worrying about funeral arrangements and where Bo would be buried.

The thought sends chills rushing violently across his throbbing body  and more tears threaten to melt down his cheeks. By trying to help, he had made it worse for anyone and now he is faced with having to face his family and their supposed guilt. Only to send questions of why through him. Why they felt bad and guilty? He had lost the farm. He had allowed himself a moment to get distracted with the conversation that had allowed the truck to run them off the farm.

“Sorry? Y’all need to stop apologizing for something y’all had the right to be mad at me for,” Bo finally states, “Luke was right. If I hadn’t been talking and paying attention to what I was doing, we wouldn’t have been ran off the road. I don’t care if that was Hogg’s plan or not. There could have been something I could have done. But I didn’t and we lost the farm. It is I that is sorry. Not  you or Luke or anyone else!”

Jesse inhales heavily and gently squeezes Bo’s good hand and shakes his head no at him. “Luke wasn’t right and neither are you. Hogg stole our farm away by hiring that driver to drive us off the road. End of story. Blaming each other or ourselves won’t make it any different or make it any better,” Jesse caringly states, once again noticing how Bo is avoiding looking at him, “but that’s not the only thing on your mind right now, now is it?”

Bo exhales heavily to force his lungs to explode in pain and he is thrown into a harsh coughing fit. A moment later the fit ends, but his lungs remain engulfed in pain. “I’m sorry Jesse. For everything. I just wanted to do something to get the farm back. Perhaps get some information to help us out,” Bo pauses as tears melt down his cheeks, “I didn’t know what I was going to do, but knew I had to do something. I didn’t mean for all of this to happen.”

“I know you didn’t, Bo. I just feel bad that you felt you had to do something like this on your own,” Jesse goes silent and waits for a long moment before Bo slowly looks back at him, “I’m glad Luke found you when he had, I can’t stand the thought of what might have happened. . .” he let’s his voice trail off as his own thoughts wonder off into what would have happened if Luke didn’t find Bo when he had, of the funeral they’d all be preparing right now. Forcing a smile once more he states,  “I’m proud of you Bo. For who you are. I love you.”

Bo nods slowly before muttering, “Love you too.”

Jesse smiles at him. “What you did was really brave. Might not have been the smartest thing to do, but it was brave and thanks to you, we may get our farm back,” Jesse states with a smile, “and if we do, we have you to thank. But you know what?”

Bo eyes him tiredly for a moment and shrugs. “What?” he questions as he eyes the clock and worry sets in for Luke, noting how long he has been gone for.

“I like it much better when you and Luke work as a team,” Jesse states with a smile and runs his hand through Bo’s thick hair as he had often done when Bo was a child, “I’m just glad to hear you’ll be OK. Your doctor says you’ll be out of here soon.”

“Won’t be soon enough,” Bo is quick to add.

“You’ll be outta this joint and back into our old bedroom,” both Jesse and Bo jumps slighting in surprise at the voice that comes behind Jesse and they both look back to find Luke standing in the door way with a bold smile on his face. A moment later he walks farther into the room, followed by Daisy, Cooter, Rosco, and Boss Hogg. “Boss here has something to give you, Bo.”

“Daisy,” Bo smiles at his cousin as she walks around the bed to tightly hug onto him and he hisses out in pain before she lets go and kisses him on the forehead.

“Sorry sugar, just so glad to see you alive is all,” she smiles down at him as she wipes another lock of hair out of his eyes, “you will never know just how worried we were for you. How much you scared us. Never…I say NEVER do that again. You hear?”

Bo nods. “Yes ma’am,” he finally answers fighting back a yawn, “Sorry.”

“No,” Boss steps up to the bed besides Jesse, “it is me that is sorry. I am sorry that I allowed a little greed to over come me. I don’t know what got over me.” Everyone rolls their eyes at his lie.  “Rory called me with this idea of starting a boarding house and well I instantly thought of your farm. The house works -”

“Hogg you’ve always wanted to get your greedy fat hands on their farm. Don’t stand there and lie so blatantly to them about it! As for what got over you, I’ll be glad to inform you what got over you,” Cooter states, “GREED! As it always does.”

Hogg eyes him angrily for a long moment before turning back to Bo. “OK fine. So maybe Cooter’s right,” he sighs heavily as he reaches into the white three piece suit’s coat, “but I am here to apologize and to make it as right as I can. I wanted your farm to make some extra money, but I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. That wasn’t part of the plan and for that, Bo, I am sorry. I am so glad to hear that you will be OK. You’ve got to believe me. Despite what y’all have done to me in the past and how problematic you are for me and Rosco here, I would never want anything like this to happen to you or to anyone. I’m sorry, Bo. Jesse.”

Bo nods. “Thanks for the apology, but it’s not needed, Boss,” Bo weakly states, fighting off sleep, “we know you may have been the one to steal the farm away from us by having us ran off the road, but all this,” he motions around him, “is of Rory’s and her family’s making. Not your’s.”

“Thank-you Bo. That is very big of you,” Hogg states with a smile as he pulls out a long white envelope out from an inner pocket, “and since you were so bold and brave to rescue me from -”

“I’m in the hospital, Boss. How I help rescue you?” Bo interrupts him. “That all is Luke.”

“I wouldn’t have known about it, if you hadn’t tol’ me, Bo,” Luke calmly states with a smile, “ol’ Boss would be as poor as any of us if you hadn’t informed and persuaded me to go help him. If not worse off.”

“What Luke says,” Boss says, “and it was you that had helped put an end to Rory, Craig, and Brian and their ruthlessness. So I am to reward you for your effort and for all that you went through in order to do it. It won’t undo what had happened, but at least you know your effort was recognized and since I had wrongly foreclosed your farm you are not only rewarded five hundred dollars, but am also giving you back your farm and everything on the land back to you and your family.”

Boss hands the envelope reluctantly to Bo who slowly accepts it and glances into the envelope to find a check wrote out for five hundred dollars to his name and the house keys Hogg and taken from them to the farm. “Thanks to Bo, we can move back into the farm as of now,” Luke states with a broad smile on his face.

“I’ll be glad to help out,” Cooter inserts as he readjusts his grease stained hat, “we’ll have y’all moved back into the farm before they release you outta this dump.”

With that said, everyone turns to face Bo to see his reaction to find him asleep, the keys clenched tightly in his hands. “Guess your excitement wore him out, Cooter,” Luke states as he leans over and carefully grabs a key from Bo’s hand who mutters something, but remains asleep, “and since he’s asleep, seems the perfect time to get started moving back home.”

“That’s a ten four,” Cooter states and they all smile at Jesse before Cooter and Daisy both follow Luke out into the hallway.

“I’m sorry for all of this, Jesse,” Boss somberly states, eyeing his old friend before looking down at Bo, “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Jesse nods firmly. “I know you didn’t, but maybe next time you should think of this when you decide to team up with someone for any reason.” Jesse pauses, “Thanks for coming down here and for all of this. Know it means a lot to Bo.”

“Luke’s right. He deserves it,” Boss states as he steps back towards the open door, “You know where to find us if you need anything. We need to get going back to town.”

“Bye Jesse,” Rosco states before he turns to follow Boss back out into the brightly lit hallway, leaving Jesse alone with a sleeping Bo.

*   *   *   *   *

FIVE DAYS LATER

Daisy Duke looks wishfully across the large farm kitchen, taking in the freshly cooked food that is spread across the counters and the preset table and the welcome home banners that hang from the doorway. Her cousin, not only was he being released from the hospital, but was also returning home for the first time since they had been forced to move out by Hogg and the sheriff. And she wanted his homecoming to perfect and special. After all, if it wasn’t for Bo and his bold and brave actions he had taken in his naïve attempt to get the farm back, they would still be at their old rented farm house and being forced to watch their beloved farm being turned into a boarding house. In her eyes, he was a hero and he deserved the best homecoming that he could get.

“Lookin’ good, Daisy,” Cooter grins as he walks into the kitchen while looking at the clock, “when they getting home?”

She smiles as she recounts the plates. “Anytime, Cooter,” she finally answers as she hears a car pull up and she walks over to the screen door, followed by Cooter, to look out to see the sheriff’s car pull up. A smile crosses her face as she watches Rosco open the drivers door and climbs out to walk around to open the door for Boss who slowly gets out, cautiously looking around.

“You invited them?” Cooter questions with distaste, “After what they did to you and you went and invited the enemy?”

Daisy nods. “Jesse’s idea. They may have started all of this, but Rory was Boss’ niece so he’s also lost something as well. His trust of a family member. He was being used by them, Cooter. He needs some sympathy as well for all his troubles. No matter what he done to us,” she explains.

“If you say so,” Cooter shrugs as he opens the door for Boss who nods at him as he walks past him, followed by Rosco. “Welcome to the DUKE farm, gentlemen.”

Boss and Rosco nod as Boss finds his way to the food. “Ooooh looks so good, where do I start?” he laughs and Daisy pats him on the back.

“Sorry to inform you, Boss, but no one touches a bite of food until Bo gets here. He’ll be the first one to load his plate,” Daisy winks at him as she moves over to the soup she had made and stirs it slightly before checking on a few other dishes she had made.

“Ah  man, Daisy, you’re killing me here!” Boss complains as he stairs at all the freshly made food that is lined up in front of him, “I’m starving! Can’t I have one little bite?”

“Not a chance Boss. This here welcoming home party is for Bo. Not you,” Cooter states from the front door, staring out  into the rainy afternoon, waiting with excitement to see Jesse’s old white truck to arrive, “and I highly doubt you’ll die of starvation anytime soon, Boss.”

Boss grumbles something to Rosco before he steps back to sit down at one of the kitchen chairs at t he table and Rosco silently follows him. “Well when he’s getting back?” Boss questions.

“Anytime, Boss,” Daisy says with a smile before silence slowly falls over the farm kitchen for a long moment, the aroma from all the food fills the air, and the high emotions that everyone rides upon now that the nightmare has seemed to come to an end.  “In the mean time, can I get you something to drink? We got iced tea, lemonade, and water.”

Both Rosco and Boss simultaneously ask for tea and Daisy grins and grabs two glasses from the cupboard before retrieving jug of tea from the refrigerator. “They’re here,” Cooter chimes in as Daisy pours the tea, his voice filled with excitement and he throws open t he door and steps out onto the front porch. Daisy hands Boss and Rosco their tea before she joins Cooter on the front porch to watch Jesse’s dirty truck pulling to a halt besides The General. Three shadows fill the cab of the truck; shadows of  Jesse in the driver’s seat, Luke in the middle, and Bo sitting in the passenger seat.

Cooter is the first one off the steps of the porch and he throws open the passenger door just as Jesse opens his door and slowly steps out of the truck, eying the cars in the lot before smiling at Daisy. Eyeing Cooter, he says, “His crutches are in the back.”

Cooter nods as he goes to the back of the truck to pull out a couple of metal crutches as Luke makes his way out through the open driver’s door. Luke smiles at Daisy as he walks past her and Jesse stops to give her a tight celebration hug. “Here Bo,” Luke states as he makes his way to the open door, “let Cooter and I help you out and up the stairs. At least until you get use to them crutches.”

Bo eyes them hesitantly, his body still aching and exhaustion, yet his pride screams at him from within not to accept their help or their sympathy. He can do it. Sighing heavily, he nods at Luke and allows Luke to take him under the arm and helps push himself out and Cooter catches him under his under arm while Jesse grabs the crutches from Cooter. “There we go,” Cooter says as they move forward and as they reach Daisy at the stairs she leans in and gives Bo a kiss on the cheek.

“So glad to see you finally home, Bo,” she smiles as she moves out of the way and they begin to help Bo up the steps, “Boss and Rosco are waiting for you in the kitchen. Boss states he is starving to death and was wanting to sample your home welcoming mean. But I made them wait. We tol’ them you get the first bite.”

Bo offers a smile as he takes in the welcoming banner that hangs over the door and the heavy aroma of Daisy’s best home cooked mean hits them as Jesse opens the door for them. “Welcome home, Bo,” Jesse states as Luke and Cooter help him past him and into the kitchen where Boss and Rosco both rise to their feet and offer Bo wide smiles of their own.

“Looks like you’re going to survive, after all,” Rosco says with an ornery grin, “which is good. Y’all keep me in business. Khee!”

“Glad we serve some business,” Bo states sarcastically as Daisy pushes back a chair and Luke helps him to sit down and Bo slowly and happily takes everything in that surrounds him. Exhaustion runs thick within him but his sheer happiness and excitement of being home and the bad guys locked away and no longer able to hurt anyone keeps him up and throws his adrenaline into overdrive.

“Well it looks like you didn’t eat too well at the hospital,” Luke comments as he eyes the food on the counter, “am sure all this food Daisy has prepared for you will make up for all them loss meals you skipped. “ With that he begins to grab a paper plate and a bowl and to make sure he gets a little bit of everything before he carries them over to Bo and sets them in front of him. “There ya go…gotta beat the food at the hospital any day.”

“Thanks Luke,” Bo says with a grin, as he picks up the fork clumsily with his left hand since his right arm sits rested in a sling to help ease the pressure from his injured right shoulder, “I could get use to this.”

Luke rolls his eyes as he stands up and Daisy hands Bo a glass of lemonade. “Well…don’t,” Luke states to send a wave of laughter around the room.

“Well Commissioner, you said you were hungry,” Daisy pats Boss on the shoulder, “how about you start the line through the food and we can make room at the table.”

Boss jumps up from his chair he had sat back down on a few minutes ago with a large smile on his face. “’Bout time,” he states as he makes his way to the counter and grabs a plate and begins piling everything on top of it.

“Glad to see some things never change,” Jesse states as he makes his way over to Bo and sets a comforting hand upon Bo’s uninjured shoulder, “even more glad to be back home again. But most of all, am glad for us to be a family again.”

“Couldn’t have said any better myself,” Daisy says while Luke and Cooter nod in agreement as they all get in line to get their food, “and we all have Bo to thank for it. Thanks Bo.”

Bo shakes his head in disagreement, silently still blaming himself and still wanting to take little to no credit for getting the farm back. After all, it had been Luke who had taken action. It was Luke who saved his life. In his eyes, as it is with anything else, Luke was the one who came to the rescue of him, of the farm, of everyone. In Bo’s eyes, Luke will always be his hero.

But he was too exhausted to argue otherwise and was enjoying the food too much to verbally argue with Daisy’s statement.

“Yeah. Thank you Bo for saving the farm for us,” Luke states as he brings his plate and bowl to the table to sit next to him, “just next time, please let me in on it so we can work as a team. As we have in the past. I like it better that way.”

“Ten four,” Bo nods as he sets down his fork, “I like it better that way, too.”

It goes silent as Daisy and Jesse are the last ones through the line to get their food where they take it the chairs set next to an empty counter since there is no room at the table for them. Silence overcomes the kitchen as everyone silently eats Daisy’s meal she had cooked and everyone silently thankful to be together and back in their own kitchen. Everyone thankful to be together as a family again.

 

THE END