Misunderstanding

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes of Hazzard, not making any money, just cheap thrills


Warnings; Angst, Violence


Rating: FRM


* indicates thoughts


Misunderstanding
Chapter 3


Turning away from the hallway, Luke saw Jesse dialing the phone. "Uncle Jesse, who are ya calling?"


"Rosco," Jesse replied, continuing to dial.


"Rosco! What good is he gonna be?" Luke demanded, his worry for Bo making him snap.


"Don't you take that tone with me! Now I know Rosco ain't much, but he's the only law we got," Jesse said. "Rosco, this is Jesse Duke I need you to come out to the farm."


"I don't have time for your piddly problems Jesse," Rosco protested. Pulling the receiver away from his ear, Rosco winced at the volume and tone of Jesse's voice.


"Don't have time? Rosco Coltrane you're the sheriff and we've got a problem we need to report. Now I don't give a dang what JD has you doing, you get yourself out here and do your job!"


"Alright Jesse, there ain't no need to yell. I'll be out there in a little while," Rosco said. Hanging up the phone, Rosco stood up and straightened his hat, before marching out the door.

"I ain't waiting for Rosco, I'm going to find them jerks and give them a lesson they won't forget." Moving towards the back door, Luke was brought to a stop when his uncle grabbed his arm.


"Now you just hold on a minute Luke. What are ya gonna do by yourself? You think it's gonna help Bo any if you get hurt?"


"But Uncle Jesse, I got to do something," Luke protested, trying to pull away from his uncle's grip.


"You want to do something? Go check on Bo, make sure he's okay and let him know that Rosco is coming. Go on now, git!" Jesse ordered.


"Yes sir," Luke replied, turning around and heading to the room he shared with his younger cousin.


"Bo? How you doing cousin?" Luke asked, as he sat on the bed and laid a supportive hand on Bo's back.


"How do you think I'm doing?" Bo snapped, rolling to his side and looking at Luke with tear clouded eyes.


"Dumb question huh?"


"Awwww dang it! I'm sorry Luke, I ain't got no call to be snapping at you," Bo apologized.


"It's okay Bo," Luke assured him. "Is there anything I can do for ya?"


"Can you turn back time? Luke what am I gonna do?" Bo begged his older cousin for answers, as he lost the battle and the tears began to fall down his cheeks.


"I wish I could Bo...I can tell ya this; it ain't what are you gonna do. It's what are we gonna do? You ain't alone in this Bo, ya got your family, don't forget that."


"Thanks Luke," Bo said, pulling a handkerchief from his pocket and wiping the tears from his face.


"You're welcome cousin. Um, Bo there is something I need to tell ya, Uncle Jesse called Rosco. He'll be out here soon," Luke explained.


"No, I can't talk to Rosco. Please Luke, tell Uncle Jesse to call him back."


"Bo I know it'll be hard, but you're gonna have to. We can't let those jerks get away with what they did today. I know ya don't want to hear this Bo, but you're probably gonna have to tell Rosco what happened last night in Cedar City."


"Why? It ain't like he can do anything about it," Bo protested.


"Maybe not, but he needs to know the reason for this attack and he can contact the police in Cedar City. You really ought to file a report with them."


"No way, I ain't, you want me to tell a bunch of strangers what those men did? I'd have to tell them what that one did, I can't do that Luke. I won't do that!" Jumping out of the bed, Bo ran outside, with Luke following closely behind him.


"Bo stop! Come back here and talk to me," Luke yelled as he chased Bo outside. When he saw Bo headed for the General, Luke knew he had to stop his cousin. Between his physical injuries and being upset, he wasn't in any condition to be driving. Even though Bo had a head start, due to the younger man's injuries, Luke was able to overtake him. "Bo, ya ain't in no shape to be driving," Luke said, grabbing his cousin's arm in a vice-like grip.


"Let go of me Luke," Bo snarled, trying to jerk his arm out of the older man's grasp. "Dang it Luke Duke, I ain't kidding, now let go!" Bo demanded, puncuating his order with a hard shove to Luke's chest. The shove knocked Luke off-balance, breaking the grip he had on Bo's arm and Bo quickly moved towards the General again. Climbing into the seat, he fired up the powerful engine and tore out of the yard before Luke could again catch up to him.

"Bo!" Luke hollered, turning on his heel and running to Daisy's jeep, he stopped when a hand fell on his arm.


"Leave him be Luke," Jesse gruffly ordered.


"But Uncle Jesse..."


"You mind me Luke. Now I know you're worried about Bo, so am I, but if you go chasing after him he's just gonna get mad." Turning away from the jeep at the sound of a car, Jesse smiled when he realized that for once he was glad to see Rosco. "Good, you come on with me and we'll tell Rosco what's going on."


Reluctantly Luke climbed back out of the jeep and followed after his uncle.


"Alright Jesse, now what is so all fired important that I had to come out here?" Rosco demanded, getting out of his patrol car and moving towards them.


"How about somebody throwing a rock through the window and making death threats? Is that important enough for you?" Jesse snapped, already exasperated with the county sheriff.


"Death threats? Well who are your boys threatening?"


"Rosco, now you know darn good and well that Bo and Luke ain't threatening anybody. Now just a little bit ago, we were all in the house when somebody threw a rock through the window. Luke ran outside to try and stop the fellas that done it, but he wasn't fast enough. That there rock had a note tied to it, here it is," Jesse told him, holding out the paper towards him.


Rosco paled when he saw the ugly words written on the scrap of paper. "This have something to do with the rumors I heard about Bo?"


"Yeah, but those rumors ain't exactly got it right," Jesse explained.


"You dang right they ain't," Luke snapped.


"Now Luke calm down," Jesse cautioned, laying a hand on Luke's arm as he spoke.


"So Bobby Jensen didn't see Bo in Cedar City?" Rosco asked.


"Yeah he did, but Bo wasn't in that alley cause he wanted to be." Jesse replied.


"Huh, what do ya mean?"


"Bo went to Cedar City to meet a friend of his. Now this friend is gay, and wanted Bo to meet his, well his boyfriend. So Bo went there and they met in a bar, a gay bar."


"So Bo's gay?" Rosco asked, getting confused.


"No he's not Rosco. His friend is, but he just met them in that bar so they'd be more comfortable," Luke said. "When he was leaving though he was grabbed by five men. They thought he was gay and dragged him into an alley, so they could beat him up."


"Now Luke, that ain't what Bobby Jensen's been saying," Rosco protested.


"Guess he didn't see it all then!" Luke snapped. "After they left, one of them came back and held a gun to Bo's head..."


"Oh, ohhhhhhhh," Rosco interrupted, understanding dawning. "Well now Luke I'm real sorry to hear that, but there ain't nothing I can do about something that happened in Cedar City."


"We know that Rosco, we just thought you should know the truth," Jesse told him. "Now just before I called ya, a group of fellas threw that there note and a rock through the window. I didn't see them, but Luke may have when he came outside."


"Luke?" Rosco asked, pencil poised over notepad, ready to write down the description.


"I didn't see much, they were already part way down the drive when I got outside. They were in a pick-up, dark blue and pretty beat up. I'd say there were five or six of them in the bed of the truck, and oh the left tail-light was busted."


"You didn't recognize any of them?"


"No, they were turned towards the front of the truck at that point, sorry," Luke apologized, wishing he'd been more help.


"Well it's not much, but it's a start. Look, um...would y'all tell Bo that I'm sorry he had to go through that?"


"Yeah Rosco, we will, thanks," Jesse replied.


"Alright, I'll tell Enos to keep an eye out for this truck and y'all call me if anything else happens. By the way, I saw Bo in the General, where was he going?"

"Just for a drive, with everything that's happened he needed to clear his head I guess," Luke answered.


"I can understand that. Y'all might want to stick together for a while," Rosco kindly suggested to Luke.


"Thanks Rosco, I'll tell Bo."

"Well that was a surprise," Luke remarked, standing beside Jesse and watching Rosco pulling out of the yard.


"Just goes to show ya, there's still a good lawman hiding in there somewhere. Just gotta dig deep to find it," Jesse said with a chuckle.

*I should've fought back! Should've just let him kill me, now everybody's gonna know. I ain't sure what's worse, everybody thinking I'm gay or everybody knowing I was forced to...suck that man.* Bo's thoughts were racing as he recklessly drove the General along the dirt roads of Hazzard county. He was so intent on his thoughts, that he didn't notice the dark blue pick-up that suddenly pulled in behind him.


Bo had no idea they were there, until he felt the first jolt as the truck slammed into his rear bumper. "What?" Bo cried out in surprise. Glancing in the mirror he saw the truck, filled with several men. Focusing on his driving, Bo did his best to lose them. Between his driving skills and the General's more powerful engine, he was soon leaving them behind. The sudden popping sound caught him by surprise. As he tried to figure out what it was he'd heard, he saw something in his mirror that filled him with fear. An arm sticking out the passenger window of the truck and extended forward, a gun held in the hand and he knew what the sound was. Pressing down a little harder on the accelerator, he pushed the General to widen the gap between the two vehicles. Bo almost made it, just as he began to take a trecherous turn onto Ridgerunners Road, a bullet found it's target. The sudden lurch to one side as a front tire blew out caused Bo to lose control and he found himself rapidly traveling down a small incline, coming to rest against a tree.


"Ya think he's dead?" One of the young men in the truck asked when there was no movement from inside the General.


"Who cares, damn faggot," the gunman snarled.


"Yeah, who cares?" The driver and several of the others agreed, causing the first man to be quiet.


"We better get out of here though, don't need to be here when they find him," the gunman suggested.




Ten minutes later, a tow truck came down Ridgerunner Road, having just taken old Mr. Dalton's car to his house. Slamming on the brakes, L.B. Davenport stopped at the sight he saw at the bottom of the small incline. Throwing the truck into park, he climbed out of the cab and ran down the hill. "Bo! Bo, wake up buddy," he called, gently shaking his friend's shoulder as he tried to wake him.


"Ohhhhhh, my head," Bo moaned, slowly pushing himself away from the steering wheel and leaning back in the seat. Looking to the side, he jumped slightly when he saw a figure standing next to the General. Shaking his head slightly, he forced himself to focus..."L.B.? What are you doing here?"


"Was just heading back to town when I saw the General parked against this here tree. You okay?" L.B. asked, concern evident in his voice.


"I think so," Bo replied, sounding confused.


"Can ya get out on your own?"


"Yeah," Bo said, moving to pull himself from the car. Biting back a moan of pain, he slowly got out of the car. As his feet hit the ground, he stumbled, his earlier concussion having been made a little worse by the second hit to his head in as many days.


"Whoa there buddy, maybe you better sit down for a minute," L.B. suggested, catching him as he stumbled.


"Can't, need to get home," Bo mumbled.


"Don't you worry about that, I'll get you home, you and the General. How'd this happen anyway?"


"They shot at me, hit the tire," Bo explained.


"Shot at ya? Who?" L.B. demanded. "They do that to ya too?" He asked, gesturing to the bruises he could see and the busted lip.


"I don't know who they were. This," Bo said, vaguely moving his hand towards his face, "happened last night in Cedar City."


"Something to do with what Bobby Jensen's been saying?" L.B. asked, his voice tight with controlled anger.


"It's not like what he's saying, please don't be mad at me L.B.," Bo said, afraid he was going to lose a good friend.


"I ain't mad at you Bo. I'd like to kick Bobby Jensen's butt, I know you wouldn't do what he's saying ya did." L.B. assured him, laying his arm across Bo's shoulders and giving him a quick, supportive hug.


"Thanks L.B., but I did do what he's saying, just not like he's saying. Sorry, guess that's kind of confusing...."


By the time Bo finished explaining the events from the night before, L.B. was as ready as he'd ever been to commit murder. "You don't think them fellas that shot at ya are the same guys do ya?"


"No, oh God no!" Bo cried out, the thought that they might've followed him to Hazzard terrifying him.


"Calm down Bo," L.B. soothed, worried by the panic in Bo's voice.


"Sorry, I'm pretty sure they're local boys," Bo finally calmed down enough to say. "There was a group of them at the farm a little while ago, threw a rock through the window. It had a note with it, said; the only good faggot's a dead faggot, leave Hazzard now. I'm pretty sure they're the ones that shot my tire out. What am I gonna do L.B.? I can't stay here and put my family in danger, but I don't want to leave..." Bo said, his voice laced with loss and defeat.


"Aw Bo, I don't know what you're gonna do, but ya can't leave. If you leave, you let them win and not just them idiots today. Bo, they ain't the only people in Hazzard," L.B. tried to remind him.


"Maybe not, but you know they won't be the only ones who'll believe the rumors. Even if I tell everybody in town what happened, there's some that'll always believe I was in that alley voluntairily. And what about girls, Cindy already came to the farm and told me not to come near her again. How many other girls are gonna figure that the rumors are true?"


"Bo, them girls like Cindy ain't no better than the ones in that pick-up. Heck in some ways they're worse than them fellas last night."


"How do you figure that?" Bo asked, curious about what L.B. meant.


"Well the way I see it Bo, them fellas last night they didn't know you. Now that don't excuse what they did, but as far as they knew you were gay and they thought, wrong-headedly, but they thought they had the right to hurt you. But, Cindy and them fellas in the pick-up, shoot anybody in Hazzard, they know you. They're your friends and neighbors, they should know that even if ya was gay, there ain't no way you'd embarass your family like that. So I figure that makes them worse, cause they should know you enough to know better," L.B. explained.


"I hadn't thought of that, thanks L.B.," Bo said, giving L.B. a quick hug. "Guess I better get home, huh?"


"Yeah, come on, we'll get the General hooked up," L.B. replied, pulling Bo to his feet and leading him up the hill to the tow truck.


TBC

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