“Jesse,” I hear Daisy’s soft and caring voice calling my name as her gentle hand lands upon my forearm to force me to jump in surprise at her touch before gasping awake. Looking around the small waiting room with blurry eyes, it takes my mind a moment to catch up and I slowly realize that I had fallen asleep to force a thick wave of relief to rush over me. Relief that Bo’s and Luke’s funeral that had been so vivid and real had only been a dream that had came  from the events that had unraveled in the past couple of weeks. Of the harsh fear of losing my boys at the violent hands of the gang had brought upon while they had been gone, of the several nights I had laid awake visioning their funerals. Once had been a large possibility now only seems to be a thing of the past now that both their doctors seem sure that they should be fine. “It’s only a dream.”

I glance at the clock that reads it is now one in the afternoon before glance over at Daisy who smiles at me before resting her head on my shoulder. “Was I that loud?” I slowly question.

“Not at first. Just now you started yelling something about them being too young,” she looks up at me with a smile and sits back up, “let me guess, you were dreaming about the boys.”

“Their funeral more like it,” I slowly reply while rubbing my neck that slowly stiffens and grows sore from falling asleep sitting in an uncomfortable chair, “Dang, I didn’t know I even fell asleep, why didn’t you waken me?”

She shrugs. “You haven’t slept much at all since the boys had been kidnaped and even you need your beauty sleep. So I decided to let you sleep,” she responds, “I hope you don’t mind, I left you for a while. I visited Cooter, Luke, and even Bo.”

“Bo?” I question, my mind falling back to pushing Luke to Bo’s door, worrying how Bo would react to seeing Luke who he had been sure had been dead, “How was he? He let Luke talk to him?”

She nods. “Yeah. In fact, Luke was in there a lot longer than his doctor had told him to be in there,” she pauses slowly to watch a doctor walk past to a family that sits across the room from us, “He was sleeping by the time I got there, but when he awoke, he was asking to talk to you.”

“To me?” I ask slowly in surprise after how he had so angrily yelled at me to leave last time, “Why didn’t you come get me?”

“As I said, you haven’t slept a wink since they had left the farm so many days ago. You need your sleep Jesse,” she firmly responds, “And yeah, he asked for you. Whatever Luke said to him has seemed to help.”

I slowly nod as I stiffly stand up as my mind flashes vivid images of the nightmare in my head of Bo and Luke badly beaten and a deathly blue color, lying in their coffins. Taking a deep breath, I fight back the images to smile at Daisy and say, “Well then. I better go see him before he goes and changes his mind again and decides he don’t want to see me.”

She grins and nods. “I don’t think he will, but tell him hi for me.”

I nod before I slowly begin to walk down the wide and brightly lit hall way that leads to where both my boys lie in separate rooms only a couple of rooms apart from one another. As I reach a couple of steps away from Bo’s room, his door slowly opens and Doctor Weaver steps out of his room and closes the door behind him. “Oh,” he grunts as he turns to nearly run into me, “Mr. Duke.”

“Doctor Weaver,” I smile at his doctor, “sorry about that. I saw you there but couldn’t move out of your way in time.” I pause my eyes wondering away from him and back to Bo’s closed door in anticipation of seeing him again, “How’s Bo?”

A broad smile flashes across his thin face as he follows my stare to Bo’s room and back at me before he responds, “Well, he’s doing a lot better than the last time we had talked,” he pauses to move out of my way to Bo’s door, “in fact, ever since Luke had visited him, his breathing has grown stronger and he seems to be in a better mood, more calm. He’s not a hundred percent better and his breathing is still a concern, but he’s gotten a lot better and stronger a whole lot sooner than I had thought he would.”

I sigh in relief. “That’s great to hear, Doctor,” I smile at him as my visions of his funeral slowly fades from my mind, “I was hoping that seeing Luke would help him. . .he looks up to Luke. It’d kill him if he were to lose Luke as he thought he had.”

“Well, it seems to have done the trick,” he smiles as he takes a couple of steps back, “I’ll let you go so you can go visit him, hopefully he won’t get upset as he had before when you first went in.”

I nod as he turns to slowly walk down the hall before stopping several feet away to talk to a tall and slim nurse and I slowly open Bo’s door to welcomed by loud annoying beeping of the monitor. Closing the door behind me, I slowly say a small and silent prayer of gratitude for Bo and Luke still being alive after all he went through, for this horrible nightmare coming to an end. Ending the prayer, I slowly take the couple of steps to reach Bo’s bed to find his eyes closed and his chest working slowly up and down to create a soft wheezing noise. Though only half as bad as it had been a few hours ago when I had been in here and he had gotten upset at me and the lines on the monitors seem to move more regular, all as Doctor Weaver had said a moment ago.

After a long silent moment of watching Bo sleeping, I slowly move away from his bed to walk to the window that over looks the dusty dirt road that drives by, leading from Hazzard to Capital City. An open field with cows lie across the road with trees and large rock scattered about while the large hills wave on in the distance. A couple of old cars slowly drive by on their way into Hazzard to remind me that beyond these hospital walls, life continues to move on for everyone, life returning to normal to Hazzard now that the threat of the gang has been removed.

“I’m sorry,” Bo’s weak and wheezy voice breaks the silence behind me to force relief to flood through me, the sound of his own voice confirming all that his doctor had said, “Uncle Jesse.”

Turning away from the window to face him, I feel a smile crossing my face as I quickly walk back to his bed where he has now pushed himself up, watching me with fear-filled blue eyes. Fear-filled despite the fact that he is safe in the hospital and free from Max and his gang. “Bo,” I slowly state as I brush back his hair once more to eye his ugly cut, “you have no reason to be-“

”Yeah I do. Plenty of reasons to be sorry,” Bo interrupts me as he nervously glances around the room before he eyes me with reluctant eyes, “I’m sorry for yelling at you and telling you to leave. I really didn’t want you to leave, I just -“ he cuts himself off as he fights back his emotions, his emotions that has always had control over him with his emotional disorder, “I just was too ashamed and upset at myself for what I had done to face you, to see the disappointment and shame you must have for me. After what I had done, I knew I didn’t deserve you to be there for me.”

I shake my head at him as I slowly sit down in the chair set up besides his bed before I say, “Disappointed and ashamed of you? Look Bo,” I pause for him to look at me, “I know you wouldn’t do any of that unless you were forced into doing something like that.  I know you and I believe in you,” I pause once again to think, “and whether or not you think you deserve it, I will always care for you, will always support you, and will always be there whenever you want or need me. I’m here for you, Bo, whether it is to help you with something or just to listen. I’m here, no matter what.”

Bo slowly nods before looking away and up at the ceiling to allow silence to build between us for a couple of long awkward minutes. After awhile he glances over at me and I am startled at the tears glimmering in his bruised baby blue eyes, sadness and fear hauntingly crosses his face. “I didn’t know what to do,” he finally breaks the silence, his voice quivering slighting in emotions as he breathes in deeply in an attempt to control his emotions, “they beat Luke and made me watch it from their TV. Told me if I didn’t do what they wanted that they,” he pauses as he quickly looks away from me, “that they would torture him to death. That it was up to me. So I did it.” He goes silent once more and I begin to think he is done when he continues, “I robbed the banks and the people at gun point and threats. Broke into that weaponry store with that note,” tears stream down his cheeks as he lies back down in bed and stares at the ceiling, silently reliving the nightmare, “and then Rhuebottom’s. I froze when I saw you, but Randal reminded me of Luke.

“I had to do it, but then the FBI showed up just as they all had predicted they would. I was to shoot and kill Agent Mueller, Keith’s dad, because he had supposedly shot and killed Max’s son in an raid,” he takes a deep breath to force him to cough harshly for a moment before he stops and looks at me, “I couldn’t do it. . .I couldn’t kill him even knowing they were going to kill Luke. I’m sorry.”

“Shhh Bo, it’s OK. There is no need to be sorry,” I slowly say after a moment of taking in his chest heaving in and out now that emotions have wrapped control of him, “you did what you needed to do. For Luke.” I pause to place a gentle hand on his shoulder, “And you did right by missing Agent Mueller on purpose even with the threat over Luke. Luke wouldn’t have wanted you to kill anyone for him or anyone for that matter. I’m proud of you, Bo. Proud of all three of you.”

He eyes me doubtfully before slowly nodding with a small smile. “That’s what Luke said,” he finally says, his attention goes back to the ceiling

***GARRETT DUKE***

Staring blankly at the open magazine that rests upon the old ratty cot, my thoughts slowly run through the events the past month has brought me. From breaking into Gary’s Auto Store to placing the gun to Max’s head and threatening him into releasing the kid and to confess of my innocence of all their activity. Yet I remain in jail only because of my involvement with breaking into Gary’s store and the other charges that were brought upon me while I escaped from Durbank and his men.

“Garrett,” Kristy’s voice breaks my thoughts and I slowly glance up to watch her walking towards me, “I would have came sooner, but I had to find someone to watch the kids and since everyone was at the hospital, I had to wait. Daisy is with them now. How are you doing?”

“I’m alive,” I slowly comment, remaining sitting on my cot while she reaches the bars, “better now that I’m not accused of beating that mechanic.”

She nods. “That’s good,” she pauses for a long moment, “Daisy told me what you did. That it was you that helped the FBI find Bo and Luke, how you held Max at gun point to release the kid and how you got him to tell the truth. That was brave and very stupid! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“I could have,” I nod in agreement, “but I didn’t. I had to do something, Kristy…I mean I couldn’t just sit here with the two guards killed upstairs and knowing they were going to kill them in order to escape. Escape to kill others. Plus,” I slowly stand up to walk to her, “it may have been my only chance of clearing my name from beating that mechanic. I had to do it.”

“I know,” she silently confesses as the main door opens and the local sheriff walks in with several FBI agents before turning to me, “thank-you for what you did for them, for the kid, and for yourself. As I said, it was very brave and they all have you to thank.”

“Indeed we do,” Sergeant Mills comes behind Daisy with his partners, leaving the local law behind with a few of his other agents, “if it wasn’t for you, Garrett, Bo and Luke would be dead as of now and probably Keith, the kid as well. Not only that, they would most likely be a hundred miles away as of now with us still searching clueless for them. Leaving them free to cause more harm to other cities and to kill and hurt other innocent people. We, the FBI and the Hazzard law, thank-you for what you did.”

With that they all start to clap and I slowly look from agent to agent in attempt to see if this is some sort of a joke or if they are sincere in his speech and applause. “Yeah well,” I slowly state as they stop, “I’m glad I helped you all out along the way, but I had to do something to free my name from those false charges you placed on me. I didn’t beat that mechanic and there is no way I’m going to do hard time for something I didn’t do.”

“All the same, we thank you,” Mueller states speaking up, “you brought my kid home to me and my wife. Something we thought would never happen, and thanks to you, it did. Thank-you.”

I nod at him, uneasy with all the attention they are giving to me. “Yeah, sure,” I slowly reply, “I’m glad to hear he’s OK. I had almost thought of pulling the trigger afterwards just for what he had done to your kid…nothing makes me more upset than when people hurt innocent children.”

The room goes silent once more as Mills eyes Mueller and then his men behind him and then back to Kristy and I as he pulls a white rectangle shaped thin paper. “Max had a reward held over him for whoever would have information leading to him, you not only had information for us, but also is the one that had him stopped,” he smiles as he hands me the check and I eye him cautiously before looking down at the check to find it made out for a thousand dollars, “I think you are well deserving of it.”

“Well,” I slowly state, still looking at the check in shock and in awe of it all, “thank-you.”

Mills nods. “We were also discussing amongst ourselves of your little situation and we all,” he pauses to motion around the room, at his men and at the local law, “came up with the conclusion that for your inconvenience of being arrested and in jail for how long you were and all you did to bring Max into our custody,” he pauses to eye me, “that you are deserving to be let go.”

I eye him suspiciously as my surprise continues to build within of what he had just said as my thoughts return to Knoxville and escaping from Durbank and his heavy charges. “You got to be kidding, right?” I slowly ask.

“I don’t kid. You can ask everyone in this room,” Mills states and Mueller nods in agreement, “I have never done this before, to set a man with such thick and obvious evidence linking him to any crime, especially assaulting a fellow policeman as you had. And I’ll admit, I didn’t agree to it at first, but Mueller’s right,” he points to his partner, “you saved his kid and those two local farmers. That should account for something.” He shrugs as Rosco steps forward and hands him the keys which he holds up for me to see. “As of an hour ago, Sergeant Durbank was told that you had escaped while we were trying to transport you from here to Atlanta and that we heard from someone close to you that you were talking about Los Angeles. Somewhere crowded and somewhere where the least expect you to be.” He goes silent as he works the key into the hole and unlocks the door with a solid metal clinking noise. “As we said, we thank-you and appreciate what you had done in your efforts to capture Max. You are free to go.”

“I just wouldn’t start heading out to California,” Mueller adds as the door falls open, “Durbank still seems very upset at you and very eager to capture you and bring you back to Knoxville where, as he said, deserve to rot in jail with all the other hardened criminals.”

I nod. “Sounds like Durbank,” I slowly take a step out of the cell, half expecting Durbank to rush in to handcuff me and haul me back to Knoxville as he had just said, “thank-you. For this.”

“Well it does come with a catch,” Mills says sternly, “we had no help in your escape. Durbank or any other law enforcement catches you, you’re on your own. It’ll be your word against ours if you dare say anything to them about it. With little evidence of this happening, it’d be hard to prove that we helped you do so.”

“Understood,” I nod slowly, “thanks for the tip, Sergeant. Agents. This is very much appreciated.”

They nod. “Well enough chatting,” Mills sternly turns to his men, “we’ve got work to do and the sooner we get Max and his gang to the pen, the better. Let’s do it.”

They all nod as they turn to walk downstairs where Max and his gang remain positioned and ready to be transported to Atlanta to leave us alone with the local law. “I can’t believe there would be a day I’d help any Duke escape jail,” the sheriff slowly states, “but there are exceptions to everything, I guess. Welcome to Hazzard.”

“Thanks Sheriff,” I smile at him and we shake hands. “Well,” I take a couple of steps back with Kristy right besides me, “I guess I’ll be seeing you around.”

The sheriff nods while his deputy waves with a large grin on his face before I slowly turn around and walk out into the wide hallway that leads to the outside world. Through the glass doors that lie several feet away, bright sunlight shines upon the ground and the buildings to send more excitement to rush wildly within me. I am once again free and this time, but this time with no threat of being returned. “Wow, I can’t believe that just happened,” Kristy dares a smile as we step outside, “I mean, they let you free even with the charges from Knoxville hanging over you.” She pauses as I nod to glance around the new town that surrounds me, the new town that I’ve been trapped in for a few weeks, but haven’t seen it with free eyes. “Let’s go to the hospital. I can introduce you to your brother and the rest of our family…and perhaps to the mechanic you supposedly beat.”

*                      *                      *                      *

Disbelief continues to run through me as I reluctantly follow Kristy through the bright halls of the local hospital, my mind flashing from being arrested to what had just happened minutes ago. I feel a smile slowly crawling across my face as the feeling of freedom rushes through me, freedom that I don’t deserve due to all I had done in Knoxville. Yet, here I am, walking free in the local hospital with my whole future lies freely ahead of me. Something I didn’t think possible a day ago. A day ago, I had hoped to clear my name, knowing with my name cleared of the false charges, I’d still be sent to the pen for what I had done in Knoxville.

“Do I actually see a smile on your face?” Kristy tauntingly asks and I quickly turn to her as she comes to a stop only feet away from the waiting room and I quickly hide the smile that I felt cross my face. “I do believe I just saw a smile on your face. What you know, there is a first for everything.”

“You think you are so funny, don’t you?” I quickly throw back at her as she crosses her arms across her chest before giving me a smile, “Well, I got news for you, you’re not.”

Her smile quickly fades into a pouty face as she looks at me with hurt-filled eyes as she says, “I was just making an observation, that’s all.”

“Yeah sure. A lousy one,” I remark with a smile before my attention is drawn away from my sister as a doctor walks down the hall to send my thoughts to on why we are here. To meet my brother, the brother who had accused me of beating the mechanic as the sheriff had led me away in handcuffs.  His blue eyes shone with tears and with vivid accusations based upon the cuffs on my wrists and the sheriff leading the way to the small hick jail without even giving me a chance to explain myself. Yet I am here to visit him and to get to know him. “Well, we’re here,” I finally say, turning back to Kristy, “let’s go get this over with.”

She slowly nods before she leads me to the small waiting room that only a few people are scattered around, looking at magazines or talking to someone. After a short moment we are through the small waiting room and walking down another brightly lit hallway that is lined with doors leading to hospital rooms. “Here we are,” she says stopping at a closed door while pointing to the white name tag that is posted besides the door that reads: BO DUKE. Turning to the door she softly knocks on the door before slowly opening the door to find the elder Duke standing at the foot of the bed while a dark haired man in a wheel chair besides the bed. “Sorry to interrupt,” Kristy softly says embarrassedly.

“No interruption at all,” the elder Duke offers a friendly smile as I recognize him as the uncle who had visited me in jail and had gotten upset at me, telling me I deserved to be where I am by my attitude. “Ah Garrett,” he turns to me, his crystal blue eyes are accepting and understanding, “I am glad to see you here. I owe you a huge thank-you for your bravery and courage you displayed while you had saved my boys. Without your help, I’d be preparing their funeral right now and perhaps be putting on their wake,” he goes silent as his attention goes to the bed and up at the dark haired man in the wheel chair who has now turned to face me, “instead I’m visiting them in the hospital and watching them grow stronger with each visit. Thank-you.”

I nod as I eye the dark haired man in the wheelchair, his face is ugly bruised and cut up as is his hands that lie restlessly in his lap, his bruised bright blue eyes look back at me. “Uncle Jesse is right,” he finally says, his eyes goes to Kristy and then to me, “me and my cousin would be dead if not for you. Thank-you.”

I nod again as I nervously glance around the room before eyeing Kristy as she moves past me to walk to the bed where Bo lies hidden behind Jesse and the dark haired Duke. “Yeah,” I finally speak up, “no problem.”

Kristy smiles at me as she motions me behind Jesse’s back to join them and I reluctantly take a couple of steps forward to be standing besides the dark haired Duke and Jesse, both eyeing me as I do so before their attention goes back to the bed. Lying on the bed lies the blond haired man who had stared accusingly at me as I had been ushered out of the garage, the same man I had spit upon in anger before I had been dragged across the street. His smooth and handsomely young face that I had seen only a couple of weeks ago is now darkly bruised, swollen while his arms lying upon the thin sheet are darkly bruised and cut up as well. Deep dark indents circle both of his wrists to send my thoughts flashing back to finding him tied upon the floor of the living room of the hideout, of the awkward position that he had been tightly tied up in, tying is arms together as well as his legs together before tightly tying his tied arms to his tied feet. He lies asleep despite all the people that surrounds his bed, his thin chest slowly lifts before falling and a loud wheezy sound escapes as he roughly breathes with the help of a small tube in his nose.

“This is our Uncle Jesse,” Kristy says to break the silence, pointing at the bearded man who stands besides me before pointing to the dark haired Duke in the wheel chair, “and that’s our cousin, Luke. Daisy is back at the farm watching Jamie and Shay as I had said earlier.” She flashes a smile before she points at me, “and that’s Garrett.”

We awkwardly shake hands, both Jesse and Luke telling me thank-you once again before silence settles back in and everyone glances back at Bo who begins to twitch and moan in his sleep. “He’s having another nightmare,” Jesse slowly states, his voice thick in worry as he tightly holds onto the foot of the bed, his crystal blue eyes set focused on Bo.

Luke slowly nod as he pats Bo’s shoulder with a bruised hand, a look of worry and dread covers his face while he nervously watches Bo who lets out a small and breathless gasp of a mixture of fear and pain. “Yeah,” he slowly responds as he reluctantly looks away from Bo and onto us, “which usually sets off his asthma into a bad attack.”

Jesse worriedly nods while continuing to watch Bo as his breathing heavily quickens as he begins to struggle to breathe and his monitors go sporadic while his wheezing grows louder. A long moment passes before Bo breathlessly yells out, his bruised eyes spring open to wildly glance around in pure fear and panic. “Shhh Bo,” Luke soothes as he reaches over to Bo’s night stand to get a red cased inhaler and as he turns back to Bo, Bo begins to breathlessly cough harshly, tears begin to melt from his eyes. “Here Bo,” Luke says as he places the inhaler into Bo’s mouth to spray a couple of sprays before taking it out, counting silently before he sprays it a couple more times into Bo’s mouth. Bo’s coughing slowly resides while he continues to wheezily breathe, struggling for air to send my thoughts back to when I had found him, how he was obviously painfully fighting to breathe. “It’s OK, Bo. It was just a dream.”

Bo eyes Luke questionably and in disbelief before he skeptically looks at me and the fear in his eyes increases before he eyes Jesse and relief slowly enters his eyes at the sight of his uncle. After a long moment of eyeing his uncle, he slowly looks at Kristy with uncertainty and more fear before Luke brushes his thick blond hair out of his eyes to draw Bo’s attention back to him. “But they,” he gasps wheezily, “killed you.”

“They almost killed me. They almost killed you,” Luke says, his full attention on Bo, “but they didn’t thanks to Garrett there and the FBI finding us in time.  It was just a bad dream. . .it’s all over.”

“All over?” Bo questions as he slowly and cautiously eyes everyone in the room once again before he looks back at Luke who nods.

“All over. You’re safe, we’re all safe now,” Luke confidently confirms as he pats Bo on the shoulder once again with a protective hand, “You remember Garrett and Kristy?”

Bo eyes me and then Kristy with skeptical and fear-filled eyes as a lone tear once again falls from his bruised eye and down his swollen and cut cheeks. Looking at Luke, he reluctantly nods. “Yeah,” he slowly responds.

“They’re here to visit you,” Jesse slowly speaks up and Bo looks back up at him, “to get to know you.” Jesse goes quiet for a long moment as he continues to watch Bo with worried blue eyes, “I think it would be best for us to leave you all alone for a few minutes.” Jesse slowly finishes to receive an harsh look from Bo to force Jesse to defend himself, “I think it would be best if we would leave for a little while. Besides, Luke needs to get back to his room and get some sleep himself. His doctor gave him permission to visit you for a few minutes and he’s already been here for over a half hour, way over his few minutes he was instructed to be here.”

“OK,” Bo slowly grasps, the fear in his eyes seems to intensify as he looks from Jesse to Luke who nods with a small smile.

“I’ll be back,” Luke reluctantly responds as he pats Bo on the shoulder, “meanwhile, perhaps you could talk with and get to know Kristy and Garrett. They seem like good people, after all, if not for Garrett, we’d both be dead.”

Bo eyes me for a long moment, looking back at Luke he slowly nods while watching Luke slowly wheel himself backwards before Jesse catches the handles of his chair. “OK,” Bo slowly nods as both Jesse and Luke waves at Bo before turning around and moving to the door where Jesse opens it and begins to wheel Luke back into the brightly lit hall way. As the door slowly closes, he silently eyes Kristy and me with a look of uncertainty and a hint of childish fear. “Thank-you,” he finally says, directing his attention onto me, his breathing is harsh and wheezy, “for what you did.”

***BO DUKE***

Rough and rugged emotions race rapidly within me as I silently watch the wooden door slowly falling closed behind my uncle, entrapping me alone in the small room with my half sister and twin brother. Up until the beating of Cooter, the only time I had heard about my half sister and twin brother had been in an old newspaper article that had been tauntingly taped to my locker by a couple of bullies. Jesse nor anyone else had ever mentioned them or my parents other than to say they had died in a car accident when I had been a couple of months old. Instead I had been abandoned upon my uncle’s porch as I had been unwanted and too much work for them to handle. My twin brother remained healthy and stronger than I despite being born premature and addicted to drugs as I had been, much easier to control and much easier to love.

Sighing heavily to reinforce the fiery pain within my lungs a wave of gratitude runs through me as I am reminded of the article I had been forced to read and the taunting shouts I had received upon finding the article. Gratitude towards my uncle and the life he had given me, of the life I had in Hazzard compared to the life I would have had living with my true parents and my brother in the big city.

“Thank-you,” I finally say as I direct my attention onto Garrett, to break the awkward silence that had built between us upon Luke’s and Jesse’s departure, “for what you did.”

Garrett eyes me with cold and hard gray eyes as his hand nervously moves to his neck and begins to trace the thick ugly scar that runs from behind his right ear and down his neck. “I did it for the kid,” he finally says, his arm falling to his side once again, “not you.”

“Garrett,” Kristy elbows Garrett in the side before she walks around him to come to a halt besides my bed, “sorry for our brother’s rudeness. He has poor social skills. Perhaps a life in Hazzard will help him not be so rude.”

“Very unlikely,” Garrett throws back at her, “but you could always hope.” Silence quickly fills the room as they both seem to eye each other harshly before Garrett breaks eye contact to turn his back on us to walk to the window.

Kristy nervously glances from Garrett and then at me with caring soft green eyes as she brushes a thick wave of strawberry blond hair out of her face. “Sorry. Garrett’s not too happy about being in Hazzard and him getting arrested for something he didn’t do,” she pauses for a long moment, “didn’t help any. He’d prefer to stay in Knoxville with his gang to create more trouble so he could be arrested for something he actually did. But,” she goes quiet for a long moment as she looks back at me, “he’ll get used to it. He may even find he likes it, though he won’t let anyone know that.”

I nod silently. “I wouldn’t think being arrested would help him like Hazzard,” I force a smile as my pain slowly begins to build within me to alert me of the painkillers dying off, “plus, new situations are always hard to adjust to. I’m sure he’ll find things he likes to do around here…there’s plenty to do in Hazzard.”

“I somewhat remember,” she nods at me with a smile, “from when I had use to come here on my weekends with my dad after dad and my mom divorced. Then dad just disappeared and I no longer was able to see him or come here to hang out on the farm.” She pauses as a look of excitement crosses her pretty face, “I sure miss the simplicity of Hazzard, of the peace and open land. It’s the kind of place I had always wanted my kids to grow up in, so they can know their neighbors and don’t have to fear too much of their safety as you do in the city.”

“Yeah,” I slowly respond as exhaustion once again begins to build within my throbbing body while my mind abruptly displays the nightmare I had just woke up from. Vivid scenes of robbing Rhuebottom’s store and finding Jesse standing there with hurtful eyes to being forced to watching Max torture and shooting Luke for my failure. When I had awaken, I had been startled to find Luke sitting next to me and Jesse standing at the foot of my bed with Garrett and Kristy standing next to him, startled to be alive and away from Max and his men.

“Well,” Kristy smiles after a short moment of silence, “we should probably get going and let you rest a little, you are starting to look tired,” she states to look up at Garrett who turns from the window and they both look at me, “we just wanted to stop by and let you know that we are sorry about what had happened to you and Luke, we hope you both will get better soon. Jamie and Shay are looking forward to meeting their uncle.”

I eye her for a long moment before realization slowly sinks in that she is talking about me as being the uncle before glancing over at Garrett as he joins Kristy, stopping a foot behind her. “Thanks,” I slowly respond, “and even if you didn’t do it for me or Luke, Garrett, thank-you for what you did. You risked your own life to save Keith and in doing so, you also helped Luke and I. Thank-you.”

Garrett uneasily nods as his finger goes back to his thick scar before he says, “Yeah. OK.”

“We better let you get some sleep, it was nice getting another chance to talk to you,” Kristy slowly replies as Garrett walks to the door just as Dr. Weaver opens the door with a young nurse, “bye Bo. Get feeling better.”

I slowly nod as my emotions once again get entangled within me of the events that has led me to here while I watch them leaving out into the brightly lit hallway. “Hi Bo,” Weaver smiles at me as he closes the door behind Kristy, “Jesse said you had another attack, how you feel?”

TWO WEEKS LATER

The warm sun brightly shines upon the red and white checkered table cloth that rests upon the old picnic table that is decorated brightly with warm and welcoming food. For a long moment, I sit upon the old porch swing taking in the picture while allowing disbelief to thickly course through my aging body. Disbelief at the sight of Luke, Bo, Cooter, and LB sitting on the ground near the right front tire of The General Lee talking amongst themselves while Kristy and Daisy busily works around the table getting everything together. Garrett sits several feet away from everyone else with Shay in his lap while Jamie sits several feet away as they bounce a small ball back and forth. A sight that I had longed to see for so long yet had thought it would never happen as I had been certain that they would lose their lives at the hand of Max and his men. Despite the probability of the boys losing their lives to Max, here we all are together again, celebrating life as a family after they all had been released within the last week. A couple of days apart from one another.

“Hey Jesse,” I glance up as Daisy climbs the steps to slowly come over and sits besides me, “what are you doing up here by yourself?”

I grin at her as I place an arm around her thin shoulders. “Just taking it all in,” I finally reply as Cooter laughs loudly from something Bo had said to catch my attention, “It’s great to be a family again. Together again.”

“Yes it is,” Daisy grins up at me as she rests her head upon my shoulder, “A family again.” She slowly states before raising her head from my shoulder to jump to her feet and takes a couple of steps to the steps to the driveway before looking back at me. “Come on, Jesse.”

I give her a smile as I once again take in the scene that is spread across the front lawn of the farm to be filled with emotions of pride, joy, and excitement for all the possibilities that the future holds for everyone. “I’m coming,” I slowly say as I stiffly stand up to join her at the steps to slowly step down and Kristy immediately walks over with two glasses filled with lemonade. “Thank-you.”

“No,” Kristy solemnly responds before she glances over her shoulder at Garrett and her two young kids that have moved from playing with the ball to Garrett placing them in a red wagon they had brought along. Turning back to us, she slowly continues, “it is I that should be telling you thank you for all that you both have done for us. Especially during such a rough time that you were going through with Cooter in the hospital and then your boys missing,” she pauses for a moment as she stares over my shoulder where the boys sit and talk with both Davenport cousins and with Ethan. “Thank-you for your hospitality, for your time you spent with my kids, and for giving Garrett another chance. I know his tough guy attitude and his appearances can be deceiving at times and his past friends and records don’t help him much.” She sighs heavily while shoving a stray strand of strawberry blond hair out of her cool green eyes, “Which was why dad wanted him to come down here with me. To take him away from his gang like friends and perhaps a chance to turn his life around before he spends any more hard time behind bars.”

“We’re just glad to see you again and in Hazzard,” Daisy grins as she leans over and gives Kristy a tight hug before letting go, “and it is great to see your kids. They are so cute and well behaved. And if what he went through to help Max get arrested is any indication of who Garrett is, he could be handy to have around in Hazzard. Plus, it is nice to meet another Duke. Attitude or not.”

Kristy laughs momentarily before growing serious while once again looking over our shoulder in the direction of the boys and as I slowly look over my shoulder, I find Luke at the grill with the others remaining sitting on the ground.  “I’m sorry if us showing up here like this has gotten Bo upset,” she slowly states to bring my attention back to her.

“Don’t be, he’ll be fine,” Daisy quickly states before I can say anything, “it just takes him awhile to adjust to changes, especially something like this. Just give him time, he’ll warm up and accept you as he does everything else.”

“Yeah,” she nods before glancing back at her kids as Garrett pulls them around while talking to them playfully. Turning back to us, she says, “it’s just hard for Jamie to understand why Uncle Bo doesn’t like us. She may only be three, but she understands a lot more than what anyone gives her credit for, she picks up on everything.”

I slowly nod. “Luke was a lot like that when he was young, you could never put anything past him. Still can’t,” I slowly speak up as I move over a little while to watch the boys who all now circle around the grill, “But like Daisy said, you have nothing to be sorry. I should have explained the truth behind him coming to the farm and about you along time ago instead of trying to shield of the truth. Apparently he already knew, but he would have accepted it a lot better if I had told him when he was old enough to understand.”

“You were only trying to protect him,” Kristy smiles understandingly at me, “which is perfectly understandable. Probably would have helped if I had called or written to say we were coming down, but as it was, we really didn’t have time to do that.”

Surprise registers within me at her last statement of not having time to write or call in advance before coming to Hazzard to send questions of worry if she is hiding from something or someone. “No need for that,” I finally smile, deciding it is up to her as to whether or not she wants to open up to us and to tell us what she is running from, “family is always welcome. Anytime and for however long they wish.”

She smiles. “Very kind of you, Jesse,” she says as Jamie laughing loudly catches our attention for a moment, “Garrett, LB, and I met up with Cooter at his old parents’ house he’s renting before we came to the farm,” she smiles excitedly, “and we’ve decided to rent it together. The three of us and the kids. There is plenty of room inside the house and outside the house. Rent is reasonable and we’d be out of your way for the most part.”

“Oh you’ll love that place,” Daisy grins, “Wait a minute,” she grows serious, “you, LB, and Garrett?” Kristy nods with a smile, “You mean, LB is moving to Hazzard?”

“Yep,” she quickly responds as she eyes LB over our shoulders and then back at us, “Guess him and Cooter got things worked out at the hospital, Cooter says he could always use an assistant and LB is looking for a change. He’ll still own his garage in Capital City so he’d be traveling back and forth a lot, but has placed a good friend in charge of it all that already works there and knows everything.”

“Wow…Bo’s gonna love that,” Daisy quickly responds, “him and LB really seemed to get along great when Cooter left for that convention or what not. Which is very unusual of him, it usually takes him awhile to warm up and get to know anyone. LB he warmed up right away…he was glad to see Cooter return, but sad to see LB leave all at the same time.” Daisy goes quiet while eyeing LB’s friend that he had taken from his garage as Ethan emerges from the farm house with a tray full of beer bottles, “What about Ethan?”

“LB pleaded Cooter to accept him as well,” Kristy shrugs, “so he caved in and agreed. Guess he has got an apartment rented above the hotel. He says it’s not the best he’s lived in, but it’ll work.”

“What about that…Hazzard goes from one mechanic to three in a matter of a few weeks,” I shake my head, “glad to see them in Hazzard.”

“Just as long as they don’t get in the way,” Kristy states, “though they already got their assigned positions within the garage for the most part. Ethan will be the main guy to be sent out on tow jobs with LB as a back up in case more than on is needed while LB’s main job will be help at the garage while running errands. Either LB or Ethan will do the errands, matters on who’s in the garage at the time and who wants to do it, I guess.”

“Sounds like they got it all figured out,” Daisy smiles, “though, how will Cooter be able to pay them both?”

She shrugs. “Well,” she pauses, “they both will be getting a pay decrease from what they had before in Capital City, but I think they’ll make it work. LB will still be getting his percentage from his garage where he has sold forty-nine percent of the garage to Ethan, so he too will be getting some money from the garage. So it’ll be as if they work two part time jobs I guess, making it so Cooter won’t have to pay them as much.” She goes quiet once again before adding, “And by what Cooter had told LB, Hogg took back his threat of increasing his mortgage as he had threatened right before he found that parked car that led to his beating. So, he can afford the garage once again plus to pay them a little bit off the side for their work.”

“Raise his mortgage?” I ask as anger at the thought of it rushes through me, “If he had raised his mortgage any higher he wouldn’t be able to pay it at all!”

“Part of Hogg’s plan, I guess,” Kristy adds as Jamie runs over to her and gives her a hug, “but with all that has happened, Hogg felt bad and put his mortgage back to where it was before. Still high, but doable, according to Cooter. Plus, he’s lowered the rent on the house so all three of us won’t have to pay as much, though we told him he didn’t have to do that.”

“Sounds like Cooter,” I slowly smile before taking a couple of steps back, “I’ll let you chat instead of interrupting girl talk.” They both smile and laugh, “I’ll go talk to the boys for a little while.”

Slowly turning away from them I walk to where they stand looking over the grill where thick hamburgers lie on the rack covered in thick melting cheese with a few potatoes wrapped in tinfoil is spread around. “Hey Uncle Jesse,” Bo smiles up at me as he is the first to recognize my presence and once again I feel a smile briefly cross my face. A smile at the sight of the bruises and cuts slowly disappearing along with the pain and fear that I had began to worry if it had become a permanent fixture to his baby blue eyes. His thin chest slowly and continuously heaves up and down in it’s endless struggle for air while his asthma is still acting up on a daily occurrence, but have been treatable. “You want hamburger or cheeseburger?”

“They all look like cheeseburgers to me,” I smile up at him, “so what if I would say I wanted a hamburger?”

“See Luke,” Bo quickly turns to Luke who stands in front of the food, “I tol’ you, you should have asked what everyone wanted instead of just assuming everyone wanted cheeseburgers.”

Luke rolls his dark blue eyes at his cousin. “Well, as I tol’ you cuz,” he throws back in a kidding voice, “if they don’t like the cheese, they can scrape it off. Easy as that.” He sends a playful nudge into Bo’s upper right arm before turning back to me, “Though if you want a hamburger, I can always make you a special order of one.”

“Nah. Cheeseburger is perfect with me,” I smile back at him, enjoying the presence of my boys around me with Cooter, LB, and Ethan. Turning to LB and Ethan, I slowly say, “I hear you two have just became a permanent fixture to Hazzard and the garage. We’re glad to have you.”

Bo’s eyes widen with excitement and I instantly realize that they hadn’t told anyone else as of yet of their news while Bo looks questionably at LB who nods while smiling crazily, his right thumb tracing the hint of a beard that runs under his thin chin. “Uncle Jesse,” Cooter begins to whine, “you weren’t suppose to say anything. It was gonna be a surprise.”

“Sorry Cooter,” I shrug at him, “I couldn’t cover up my own excitement at the news. Just to show you how sorry I am, I’ll allow your Uncle Jesse go by. Just this time though.”

Everyone laughs to bring a smile once again while disbelief runs through me at the sight as it had only moments ago. “I tol’ you Cooter,” LB slowly says as he readjust the red ball cap back onto his head of curly brown hair, “you shouldn’t have said it in front of Kristy if you didn’t want it known. Woman have a tendency to talk and let things like that slip when you don’t want it to.”

“What’s the difference,” Ethan slowly joins in, his copper brown curly hair a shade darker than LB’s with bright and intense green eyes, “they woulda figured it out sooner or later. I mean after a couple of weeks, they’d begin to wonder why these two goof balls were still hanging around Hazzard instead of returning home to LB’s garage.”

“We may have questioned it,” I slowly nod as Jamie quickly runs towards us, hugging my leg and I slowly bend down to pick her up, “but we would still have enjoyed your presence in Hazzard and would have enjoyed the surprise. . .which I had enjoyed the surprise when Kristy had brought it up.”

“Uncle Jesse,” Jamie quickly speaks up as I finish what I was saying, “I was told to ask you when dinner will be ready. I’m hungry.”

“Well Luke,” I turn to Luke, “you hear the girl, when will dinner be ready?”

“Any minute by the look of things,” Luke grins up at the girl as she struggles down where she runs over to Bo to send him a tight hug, almost knocking him down in surprise. We all seem to watch him as Bo tensely bends down to return the hug to receive a kiss on his cheek

“Can I have a ride in The General?” she slowly looks up at Bo with begging eyes, “Cooter says it’s an awesome car…that you built it!”

Bo eyes Cooter while silently saying a sarcastic “thank-you” to quickly receive a sarcastic reply of “welcome” from a smiling Cooter. Turning to Jamie, Bo slowly shrugs. “That’s up to your mom,” he says standing back up, “not me.”

“Well,” the girl continues to smile up at Bo, tugging at his jeans, “she told me that it’d be fine by her as long as it was something you wanted to do. Though she doubted you would.”

Bo uneasily eyes everyone before Luke comes to his rescue, “Sure sweety. Right after we get done with dinner, Me and Bo will take you for a little ride through the country. Perhaps find some more farm animals to look at.”

“Yay!” the girl screams in excitement before she begins to run back to her mom, her light brown hair flops back and forth in her pig tails. “Mommy! Luke says we can go after dinner!”

Kristy eyes Luke questionably and Luke nods before she hugs Jamie and says, “Well you’ll have to be on your best behavior.”

“Like always,” Jamie grins broadly to receive a wave of laughter amongst everyone.

“Well y’all,” Luke speaks up after it grows silent, talking loud so everyone can hear, “everything’s done and ready.” With that he carefully removes the cheeseburgers and potatoes from the grill and placing them on two different large plates Cooter holds. “It’ll be on the table.” It goes silent for a moment as everyone but Bo, Luke, and I, move for the small picnic table that holds the rest of the food and drink. As everyone leaves, Luke gets out a paper plate and hands it to Bo who looks at it blankly, his baby blues instantly seems to cloud over with doubt and fear. “You said you were hungry, so,” Luke goes quiet, seeming to notice the abrupt change in Bo’s demeanor as well, “I fixed you the biggest cheeseburger of them all. Better take it before I give it to Jamie. She seems pretty hungry.”

“Well then,” Bo hastily says as he throws the plate back at Luke who catches it with his free hand, “give it to her. I’m not hungry any more.” With that, Bo quickly turns and walks up the stares to disappear within the kitchen a moment later, letting the screen door slam shut behind him. All the muttering and talking amongst themselves come to a halt as everyone looks at the door to see what that all was about.

“What’s that all about?” I slowly ask though knowing the answer. Despite the bruises and cuts slowly fading from his skin, emotionally he remains darkly bruised by all that had happened causing him to turn from happy to angry and withdrawn with little notice.

Luke shrugs as worry clouds his dark brooding eyes. “I assume it has something to do with what Max’s gang had done to him. One minute he’s fine and acts like nothing’s wrong, the next minute he explodes and doesn’t want anything to do with anyone,” he pauses, “I can go check on him if -“

”No,” I shake my head, “I think I better go. Save a plate for him.”

“Yes sir,” he nods worriedly as I quickly turn to walk up the steps and into the hot kitchen before walking through the house to the last and smallest of the two hallways that leads to the room Bo shares with Luke. Reaching the door, I softly knock on the closed door before saying, “Bo, it’s Jesse. I want to talk with you.”

I grip the handle as I wait a long silent moment before Bo reluctantly replies, “I don’t want to -“

Taking a deep breath, I slowly open the door to find him sitting on his bed staring out the window that lies in between his and Luke’s bed before he turns to face me in surprise that I’d just walk in. “I’m sorry,” I slowly say as I walk over to Luke’s bed and sit down on the edge of the bed, “but I want to talk. Understand?”

He eyes me with haunted eyes before he nods while biting his lower lip and looking down toward the hard wooden floor. “Yes sir,” he mumbles, his long thick blond hair falls in his eyes.

“What was that all about?” I slowly ask to receive a shrug, his breathing is slow and wheezy, “About giving Jamie a ride in The General?” I pause awaiting for an answer, when I don’t get one, I continue, “Because if it is, you don’t have to go. Luke can give her a ride. . .no one is making you do anything, Bo. Though,” I sigh as I silently watch him for a moment as he refuses to look at me, “it would be nice if you’d give them a chance to get to know you and for you to know them. Jamie is excited to get to know you, to play with you. Would it hurt to give them a chance? Who knows, you may gain a couple more friends.”

“I don’t need any more friends,” he quickly responds stubbornly, his breathing becomes more forceful with his emotions.

“Everyone needs friends, Bo,”I continue, “We got to know Kristy while you and Luke. . .” I drift off as my thoughts fall back to when they were gone, reluctant to say it out loud.

“Gone?” he questions angrily, eyeing me with hurt-filled eyes, “Or perhaps while I was off robbing banks and grocery stores!”

“Bo,” I gently say struggling with my temper as his breathing grows worse, “you’re going to give yourself an attack. Calm down,” I pause to watch him as he begins to take a couple of slow and painful breathes, “You know what I mean, Bo. Don’t go switching my words around,” I sternly respond to force him to look up at me for a short moment, “I just want you to give them a chance, they want to get to know you, it is up to you now. Don’t you think they deserve a chance? I mean after all that Garrett had done for -“

”For me? Y’all talk about him as if he’s some damn hero!” he yells angrily, his eyes seem to darken with hurt and anger, “He did nothing for me nor for Luke! He did it for his own self and for that kid. End of story! He could care less about us, we just happened to get saved in his effort to free himself of the charges.”

“How can you say something like that?” I accusingly ask him, my voice quivers in emotions as I eye him, watching him and his thin chest heaving up and down.

“How? Easy,” he shrugs as he slowly seems to calm down, “he told me so.” I eye him questionably and as I go to ask him when, he says, “At the hospital when Kristy made him come see me. I told him thank-you for what he did and he plainly stated with all his attitude that he did it for the kid. Not me.”

I sigh heavily as his words sink in, my mind lost in thought of what the last couple of weeks had brought upon him, from harsh and intense nightmares to sudden mood changes. Of the continuing resentment he holds towards Kristy, Garrett, and her kids.  “OK. As I said earlier, no one is making you do anything,” I slowly reply, knowing the more we press the issue the more he’s going to fight back against it, “I have to ask though,” I pause as he slowly looks up from the floor, “how’d you find out your parents and Kristy and Garrett?”

He sighs as his body goes from looking tense with emotion to relaxed, drained from the energy from his emotions that seems stuck within him as it always has.  He slowly looks up at me with pain-filled baby blue eyes before he slowly answers, “From Kobe, Vince, Ben, and Wyatt,” he sighs harshly to send him into a brief coughing fit and he quickly glances away and towards the floor under his feet, “they taped the newspaper article to my locker so when I walked in that day I’d see it.”

“I’m sorry, Bo,” I slowly reply as he finishes to receive a questioning look from him, “it should have been I that told you the truth, not some crummy newspaper article that a bunch of bullies taped to your locker. Why didn’t you talk to me about it?”

He shrugs. “I don’t know,” he lets out a long breath, “I guess,” he slowly looks away, “I really didn’t know how to feel or what to say or why you didn’t tell me the truth about it. It was easier to just ignore it all.” He forces a small smile. “At least after the fight with them all and getting suspended for supposedly starting it…it was easier to ignore.”

I slowly nod in understanding before I follow Bo’s stare through the open window that faces the front yard and from where I sit, I get a good view of the picnic table that sits crowded in front of the porch. Kristy sits on the back bench of the porch with her kids surrounding her while Garrett and Daisy sit across from her, all three adults talking amongst themselves and with the kids while they eat. Meanwhile, Luke, Cooter, LB, and Ethan sit upon the porch with their plates upon their laps and their drinks sitting next to them; eating mainly in silence with a few interruptions of momentary talk. Sighing heavily, I slowly glance back at Garrett’ broad back that faces me, while my thoughts flash back the past few weeks I’ve gotten to know him. Of the little I know about him to his attitude and how he treats others while I silently once again begin to compare him to Bo while comparing their backgrounds together. Born to the same parents within a few hours of each other yet hold very little in common with one another and look very little a like. Looking at them, you could guess them to be related either by being cousins or perhaps brothers, but no one would pick them out as being twins. The difference of country life and city life, the difference between lifestyles and by different people raising them with different expectations and rules.

“If you want to talk about it, Bo,” I slowly state to break the silence while directing my attention back to him, “I’m here to listen or to help in any way I can. So is Luke and Daisy. They both would be glad to listen as would Cooter or LB.”

He slowly glances away from the window to look up at me with emotion-filled baby blue eyes to send my attention back to Garrett’s muscular back at the thought of how empty and cold Garrett’s gray eyes seem to be. “I know,” Bo slowly responds and I quickly glance back at him as he flashes a short smile at me, “but there’s nothing much to talk about.”

I shake my head in disagreement. “There are a lot of things for you to talk about regarding them,” I motion out the window at Garrett, Kristy, and her kids, “or your parents or how you got here or of me lying to you the way I did. I can only imagine how you feel -“

“There’s nothing much to talk about, because all of that don’t matter any more,” Bo thoughtfully interrupts me as he confidently looks up at me, “I mean, yeah, when I had first read that article and learned the truth behind why I was born, why I had been so sick, and how I came to live here,” he shrugs slowly as he glances around the room he had shared with Luke since he had been abandoned here, “I was upset. I was upset at my parents for what they did to me, to learn the true reasons of why I was born, why I was alive. Because of their drugs. I was upset to learn why I had been so sick and in so much pain the first eight years of my life, of why I was almost killed several times due to the disease. Because of their drugs.” He pauses for a long moment while taking a deep breathe and he coughs a couple of times before continuing, “But it don’t matter no more, because I am much better off here with you, Luke, and Daisy than I’d ever have been if they hadn’t left me on your door step.”

I smile proudly at him as all that he had just said slowly sinks in while my mind pictures how he must have at first felt while reading the article and afterwards when it all had began to sink in. Of how emotional he must have felt knowing the truth behind his life and yet had remained calm enough not to alarm me that he had found out the truth. “Well,” I slowly state, “when Luke had found you at our porch and had shown me, I guess I can’t say I was much surprised. It was very much like your dad to give up when things got hard. To walk away and not accept the consequences to his actions,” I pauses for a short moment, “but it is to their loss that they did so. That they gave you up and never got to meet or know you. I never regretted taking you or Luke or Daisy in. Y’all gave me a reason to live after Julianna died.”

Bo nods while eyeing me silently as he normally does when my late wife or son gets mentioned in his loss of words or knowing what to say. I sigh sadly for a moment as I once again think of their death and the loss I was so devastated by only a couple of months before Bo had been born, leaving him to be the only one of the three that never knew them. Julianna had adored Daisy and Luke, taking them in and treating them as one of her own and they both took to Julianna well, looking forward to her night time stories and running to her for comfort and support. Noah had been fifteen months older than Luke and had shared rooms with one another until Noah had been killed in the accident with Julianna at six years of age.  They had been close and good friends, Noah looking out and protecting Luke as Luke has always done for Bo.

“Uncle Jesse,” Bo slowly speaks up to break the silence and I reluctantly look up from Bo’s bed that had been Noah’s when he had died to look up at Bo who eyes me with worry thick in his eyes, “you OK?”

Numbly, I feel myself nodding as his simple question slowly sinks in while I feel a couple of tears slowly dripping from the corner of my eyes to run down my cheeks and into my beard. Wiping my eyes with my index finger, I silently look at Bo for a short moment as my thoughts abruptly switch back to the present of having Bo and Luke safely home once again and out of the violent grasps of Max and his men. “I’m perfect now y’all are home,” I smile as I slowly stand up, “though I’m hungry.  How about you?”

“Of course,” he smiles as he stands up to join where I stand at the foot of the bed before reaching over and giving me a hug. Letting go, he smiles and says, “Thank-you…for everything.”

***LUKE DUKE***

A heavy sense of disbelief and pride heavily ripples across my exhausted body as I stare across the front lawn from the porch at Kristy and her kids eating at the picnic table with Garrett and Daisy. Disbelief to be sitting upon the porch of the old farm surrounded by family and friends instead of being dead and surrounded by wood and dirt from Max’s evil bullet that he had planned to kill me with. After being shot from climbing out of The General with Bo and watching them brutally beat and drag Bo away, I had been strongly convicted of the bleak future that had laid ahead for the both of us; death at the hands of the enemy. I held strongly onto hope of help or a way to escape but as time passed and the more Max and his men talked of torturing Bo to death, hope had slowly faded into strong conviction that I would never see home again. That leaving home in search of evidence of Max and his men would have been the last time we would have saw or talked to Jesse or Daisy, that my last words to Bo would have been to climb out of The General. Yet we sit upon the front lawn celebrating our freedom and our lives with the broad future that lies ahead for us both.

“You’re quiet today, Lukas,” Cooter states to break the silence between LB, Ethan, Cooter, and I that had built within the past few minutes. “You OK?”

I slowly nod while taking a long silent drink from my bottle of beer before placing it back down upon the weak wooden boards that make up the old porch. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I slowly reply glancing over at Cooter who sits next to LB and Ethan, “just taking it all in.” I motion around me while I take a bite out of my cheeseburger, “After sitting in that shed, tied in that chair,” I pause Jamie laughs loudly to bring everyone’s attention onto her. As her laughter fades into silence, I slowly continue, “I never thought I’d be seeing any of this again…or anyone again. It’s just great to be home again.”

They all nod in agreement while either eating something or taking a drink of their beer while eyeing the crowded picnic table and the surrounding farm land that is set aglow with the warm sunlight. “Yes it is,” Cooter slowly agrees with me as he tosses his empty beer can into a metal garbage can that Jesse had moved out here before company had began to arrive. The empty can taps the edge of the can with a loud bang that seems to echo before falling into the can and Cooter claps momentarily at his basket. “Hey,” he slowly turns to me, turning serious as the excitement that had momentarily ago been entrapped in his light brown eyes fades into worry, “Bo’s been gone for awhile now,” he goes silent as his attention falls upon The General that lies parked behind the grill before he looks back at me, the worry growing across his face, “how’s he doing?”

My own attention falls upon the parked orange car as my thoughts fall upon Bo and how quickly his attitude had changed a few minutes ago while I was fixing the cheeseburgers and of his abrupt departure as he had escaped back into the house. “I don’t know, Cooter,” I sigh heavily as I turn back to Cooter, “He just gave everyone an example of how he’s been the past couple of weeks just a few minutes ago. One minute he’s talking and joking around as if nothing’s wrong and the next minute he’s withdrawn and emotional with little warning of the change.” I go silent for a long moment as I sort through my thoughts, my mind rotating through the past couple of weeks and how badly Bo has taken all that he’s been through. “He has yet to go a night without a nightmare. Some are worse than others.  Either way, he wakes up having a bad asthma attack and not being able to breathe. His attacks just seem to get worse as time goes by,” I slowly shake my head in disbelief as the worry builds within me, “I don’t know, Cooter. All I know is how he acts, he refuses to talk about it to anyone. He just closes himself off and it’s like trying to talk to a wall when he gets that way. I just wish he would talk or something. I feel so damn helpless when he gets like this, especially in the middle of the night when he wakes up with one of his attacks. He refuses our help, won’t talk to anyone. Just sits there with his inhaler fighting to breathe and refusing to go back to sleep.”

“Just give him some time, Luke,” Cooter places a comforting hand upon my tense shoulder, “he’ll open up and accept your help. He just needs to come to terms with all he’s been through and in order for him to do that, he needs to do it alone. As he always has done. Y’all will get through this.”

“Yeah, I know,” I sigh heavily as I slowly empty my bottle of beer before tossing it into the metal garbage can and once more the metal hitting glass seems to echo around us, “I’m just worried, I guess.”

“Imagine that, Luke worried,” Cooter sarcastically says to me, “that’s what you do best, Luke. If you weren’t worried, we’d all be worried.”

“Ha, ha,” I quickly remark as I over at him to sarcastically laugh at him, “you think you’re so funny, don’t you Cooter?” I pause for a short moment, “But guess what. You’re not.”

Cooter lends me a pouty face before the squeaking of the torn screen door penetrates the silence that had began to build within the last few moments to send everyone’s attention to the front door.  “Hey Bo,” I quickly jump up from where I had been sitting as Bo hesitantly walks out onto the porch with Jesse right behind him, Jesse holds a gentle and caring hand upon Bo’s left shoulder. Bo eyes me silently for a long moment before he eyes everyone else on the deck and then across the crowded picnic table as everyone stares at him. “You hungry?” I slowly join him and Jesse where they have stopped a couple of steps away at the few steps leading down to the driveway. He eyes me cautiously for a long moment with his fear-filled baby blue eyes before slightly nodding his head, his thick blond hair falling into his eyes. “Well then,” I smile at him as I walk down the stairs and motion him to follow and he hesitantly follows me, “you’re in luck. I saved you and Jesse a plate.”

“Thanks, Luke,” Jesse grins at me from behind Bo who tiredly eyes me, still lost in his emotions and thoughts that had encouraged him to run and hide within the house, “it all looks real good.”

“Haven’t had any complaints so far,” I grin at him before handing him his plate and then hand Bo his plate who quietly accepts his plate before offering me a slow and small smile. I nod at him before glancing around to find everyone talking amongst themselves or playing with the two kids that has finished their dinner. Looking back at Bo and Jesse, I slowly ask, “Is everything OK?”

Jesse glances at Bo with worried eyes before slowly nodding while Bo takes a large bite out of his cheeseburger and places it back down upon his plate. “I’m fine,” Bo quickly answers, his mouth still half full of food, “everything’s fine. The food’s good, Luke. Thanks.”

I nod slowly at him while offering him a smile at how easy it is for him to switch the subject when it comes across to something uncomfortable to him. “Anytime. Wanna join us?” I ask while motioning up to the porch where Cooter, LB, and Ethan sit. LB and Ethan seem to be in a conversation between themselves while Cooter watches us with concern and worry.

“I think I’ll catch up with Daisy and them,” Jesse slowly points to the picnic table where Kristy and Daisy sit at while Garrett is up chasing Jamie around with Shay in his arms. Jesse offers us both a small smile while he attempts to hide the worry that remains clouded in his eyes before he turns around and walks to the picnic table.

Turning to Bo, I place a gentle hand upon his tense left shoulder and he glances up at me from staring at his food to find a hint of wetness trailing down his cheeks from tears he had shed a few minutes ago. “I just want you to know that I’m here for you,” I softly say while fighting the urge to hug him and tell him it’ll be ok as I had so often had done in the past when he was little, “if you ever need anything. To talk to or for help or to beat someone up for you.” A small smile crosses his face at that. “But seriously, I’m here for you. . .just as I had been before I left for war. I’m here.”

He nods silently as I feel the tension seemingly leave his body from my hand that rests upon his shoulder. “Yeah,” he finally responds as he flashes a genuine smile at me for a short moment, “I know.”

“OK. I just wanted to let you know,” I say as I place my arm around his shoulders to begin walking to the porch, “Now then, let’s go make sure Cooter, LB, and Ethan are staying out of trouble. You never know what they are up to. . .never can trust them alone.”

“Hey!” Cooter feigns a hurt look as he sits back, “I heard that and I want you to know that we all resent that very much!”

“I agree with Cooter,” LB responds looking at us from where he sits, “we resent your implications behind your statement.”

“Resent it all you want,” I grin at them as I sit back down where I had been before and Cooter pushes himself farther away to make room for Bo, “I’m only speaking the truth. Ain’t I Bo?”

“Of course,” Bo slowly responds while accepting a bottle of beer from Ethan and opening it to toss the lid into the garbage, “y’all might as well as give it up, we know you too well to believe otherwise.”

LB and Cooter both feign hurt faces while Ethan and I laugh at Bo’s comeback before a wave of laughter ripples across the picnic table from Jesse, Kristy, and Daisy to catch our attention. Once again, I am lost in the perfect scene that continues to unwind around me, the perfect scene of calm and peace; all of which had been robbed so violently by Max and his men. For the first time since the Hazzard State Bank had been robbed, a sense of normality builds around me to prove that things will be OK, that despite all that we all had went through, life will resume as it had done several weeks ago. This time, our family has expanded with Kristy and Garrett moving to Hazzard along with LB and Ethan for Cooter.

“What you so happy about, Lukas?” Cooter sharply asks and I glance back at him as he opens another bottle of beer, “I can list several instances why you and Bo are not to be trusted. For starters, y’all are in trouble more than you are not in trouble, y’all are always drinking up all of my good beer, and taking advantage of my loyalty to y’all.”

“Taking an advantage,”I shake my head, “how’s that Cooter?”

“Y’all are always asking for car parts just because y’all think that ugly orange car I so special,” Cooter mimics before turning to LB, “you two better watch out for those two when they show up at the garage…they’ll badger you until you help them with whatever is wrong with that piece of junk of a car of their’s.”

With that, Bo smoothly and quickly splashes Cooter with the rest of his beer to make it look like an accident. Bo quickly drops the bottle while covering his mouth and says, “Oops, did I do that?”

Cooter wipes at his wet face giving Bo a surprised and angry look as he eyes his full bottle of beer while making a move to dump it upon Bo and Bo quickly moves out of the way as Cooter moves the bottle away to take a long drink. “You’re lucky, Bo,” he slowly says setting his beer down next to him, “I like my beer too much to waste it on you.”

Bo smirks at him before tossing his empty beer bottle into the metal garbage can and says, “Well, perhaps next time you’ll know better than to go talk about General like that.”

“Well as Luke had just said,” Cooter points to me, “I only speak the truth.”

Bo eyes him angrily for a moment before taking a deep breath and relaxes next to me as he looks away from Cooter and out towards the front lawn as he falls into silence.  “You’re just jealous,” Bo slowly glances away from Garrett and the kids to look back at Cooter who looks at him in expectancy to continue, “because it was us that built The General and not you. Making us better mechanics than you.”

“Very untrue,” Cooter shakes his head, “if memory serves me correct, which it is, I helped y’all with The General and have over the past couple of years. And this is the gratitude I get.”

“With your attitude towards him -“

”Uncle Bo!” Jamie interrupts me to force us to look forward as Jamie runs towards us with a broad smile across her face, “Luke! You’re done eating.”

I slowly nod before glancing over at Bo in worry of what his reaction will be as last time she had called him Uncle Jesse he had immediately tensed up and ran into the house. He eyes her for a short moment before looking up at me and around the yard once more with uncertainty, his thin chest heaving up and down. “Yeah,” he finally responds, forcing a smile at his niece, “we’re done eating.”

“Yay!” Jamie jumps up and down in excitement, “So can we go for a ride in The General? Uncle Garrett don’t think it’ll work. . .he says it’s too old and too junky to work. Does it work?”

Bo glances up at Garrett who gives us an ornery smile as he sits on the ground with Shay several feet away, eavesdropping on us. “Well Jamie,” I slowly hop up before glancing up at Bo who eyes me hesitantly before he stands up besides me and he follows me down the steps to where she stands watching us, “how ‘bout we show you just how well The General works.” She grins as I go quiet to look at Garrett who stares at us with cold gray eyes, “You wanna come and see how good The General works?”

He laughs sarcastically. “I’ll be dead before I get caught anywhere near that piece of junk,” he snarls at us, “if it were up to me, I’d tell Jamie not to get close to that orange pile of junk. If her mom, knew anything about cars, she wouldn’t let her either…but she don’t.”

“Look, if you are gonna sit there and talk trash about The General, then you should get off your lazy butt and get in, just so we can prove you wrong,” Bo says, pointing angrily at Garrett, “or are you chicken?”

“Bach, bach,”Garrett sarcastically makes chicken noises while moving his arms like wings as he grins evilly at Bo. “I’m not chicken,” Garrett grows serious, “I just know better than to get in a broken down car like that.”

I eye Garrett for a short moment before placing an arm around Bo’s tense shoulders to motion him forward and Bo reluctantly follows me with Jamie hugging onto his free arm. “Don’t listen to him, Bo,” I whisper into his ear, “he’s not worth getting upset at.”

He nods as we reach The General and he gently takes his arm from Jamie’s hold to walk around to the driver’s door to leave me by the passenger door with Jamie. “I’m driving,” Bo states as he climbs into The General.

“So it seems,” I say as I lift Jamie up to help her into the open window and she giggles as she kneels down upon the passenger seat before I point to the back seat and she slowly makes her way to the back. “Just so you remember that you can’t drive crazy like you normally do,” I state as I climb into sit besides Bo, “we do have a kid riding with us.”

“Cute, Luke,” Bo slowly responds as he places the car into reverse as I lean back to help Jamie fasten her seat belt as she sits in the middle in the backseat. “Where to? This was your idea.”

“I’ve never gotten into the car through the window,” Jamie quickly points out as Bo backs out of his parking spot, “that was fun.”

“We can’t open the doors because they are welded shut,” I slowly reply as I glance out my window and wave at everyone who watches us back out of the driveway and out onto the dirt road, “like a race car.”

“Wow. Like Dale Earnhardt!” Jamie giggles in the back seat, “Uncle Garrett likes Dale Earnhardt even though he don’t race no more. He likes watching Junior now.”

I nod as I glance back at her and she eyes me with excitement thick in her green eyes before she glances out the window at the scenery that flashes by. “Yeah, just like Earnhardt or Jr’s car,” I slowly respond before turning back around to eye our surroundings before taking Bo in as he drives silently.

“Look!” Jamie yells as she points out the right window behind me at a green pasture filled with horses of assorted colors, “Horses! Look at the black one running!” She giggles as she watches the horses with excited interest while leaning forward in her seat as we pass the field to be surrounded by thick wooden area on both sides of the road.  “Uncle Garrett lied.” She blankly states after a long moment of silence, “He said your car wouldn’t work and that it was junk, it seems like it works well enough to me.”

I give her a smile while nodding at her before turning in my seat to glance over at Bo who continues to study the road ahead of him, fighting to hide the emotions that continues to tear him apart towards his extended family. “Well, Garrett doesn’t know a good car when he sees one then,” Bo breaks his silence to defend his pride that builds from the strong engine and sturdy car that surrounds it, “it’s the best car around.”

Jamie goes silent in the back seat for a long moment to build silence thickly within the car as Bo makes a turn upon another road that will lead us back to the farm. “Why don’t you like Uncle Garrett?” Jamie asks to break her silence and I glance back at Jamie who looks at Bo in search of an answer and I slowly glance back at Bo. Bo stares ahead as he reverts back into his silence that he had built once we had left the farm and had broke to defend the General. “Uncle Bo,” Jamie says impatiently and Bo takes a deep breathe to cause a short coughing fit as he struggles for his own patience towards Jamie. “I asked you a question. Why don’t you like Uncle Garrett for?”

Bo shrugs from his seat as he stares ahead as the farm house stands proudly several feet away surrounded by parked vehicles and people scattered around the front lawn. “I never said I didn’t like Garrett,” Bo slowly responds as he glances over at me, asking silently for help before eyeing the farm once again, “I’m just glad to prove him a liar,” he starts to say before going silent, “about The General, that is.”

Jamie sighs heavily and as I glance back at her she says, “There’s your farm, ain’t it? We’re there already?”

“Yeah, we’re there,” I smile at her as Bo turns into the dirt drive way, “but there’ll be lots of chances to ride in The General with us now that you are living in Hazzard. So there’s no need to get upset about it.”

She nods as Bo places The General into park next to Jesse’s parked truck and Kristy’s expensive new truck and unfastens her seatbelt as Bo takes the keys out of the ignition. “OK Luke. Thanks for the ride,” she smiles at me as Bo pulls himself out of the car and I follow him before helping Jamie out of the car. She offers me another smile before she runs over to Garrett who stands next to Kristy and yells, “You lied, Uncle Garrett! It was a great ride!”

“I’m surprised,” Garrett forces a smile at her.

“I’m not. In fact, it is as good of a ride as Spittin’ Cobra,” she says pulling on his hand, “and guess what?”

“What, Jay?” he patiently asks though his eyes show aggravation towards her praise over our car.

“They welded the doors shut,” she laughs, “just like a race car. . .Just like Earnhardt’s and Jr’s cars!”

“So, I saw,” he responds as I tap Bo on the shoulder and motion him to the porch where Jesse sits with Cooter, LB, and Ethan.

Bo nods quietly at me as he eyes me with emotion-filled blue eyes, emotions that he struggles to hide from everyone around and I sigh heavily as I once again am lost in thought over all he has been through over the past month. I place a comforting hand upon his shoulder as we reach the porch and I struggle for ways to help to get through his emotions and through all that he’s gone through. “That was very nice of you,” I slowly say and he eyes me questionably, “to give her a ride. I know it’s hard for you to accept, but it’ll be OK.”

He nods before he walks on and Jesse stiffly stands up from sitting on the porch swing to join us while giving us a broad smile despite the worry that flashes in his eyes. “You’re home. That was a quick ride,” he states, “but Luke’s right. That was a nice thing for you to do, she really enjoyed it, it looks like.”

Bo shrugs as he makes his way around Jesse to join LB, Cooter, and Ethan where Cooter hands him an bottle of beer and Bo silently accepts it. Glancing back at Jesse and the concern that fills his eyes, I slowly say, “He’ll be OK, Jesse. Just give him time.”

“I know,” he smiles at me as his attention goes back toward the front lawn where Daisy bounces the ball to Jamie while Kristy sits with Shay and Garrett. “Everything will be just fine,” he smiles genuinely at me before motioning around us towards everyone on the porch and across the front lawn, “You, Bo, and Cooter are home and healing. Kristy has returned to Hazzard with her kids and Garrett while LB returns to Hazzard with a friend. Hazzard has began it’s healing process and life has resumed back to as it once was. It’s more than fine,” he grins at me before taking a moment more to take in the scenery of everyone talking and laughing around us before turning to me and saying, “it’s perfect.”

I smile at him as I nod in agreement before taking in the scenery he had just pointed out to me before I glance back at Bo whose tension has seemed to melt away once again as he laughs at something LB had said. He takes a long drink from his bottle before he says something back to LB who laughs in return before Ethan and Cooter join in. “It’s perfect,” I repeat turning to Jesse.

THE END