Forbidden Love

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


Warnings: Angst, Slash, Established Couple


Rating: FRAO


Forbidden Love
Chapter 9


After Bo left with Rosco, the rest of the Duke family remained frozen in place for several minutes. "I don't know about you kids, but I don't see any reason to put off talking about this," Jesse said. Turning away from the door, he walked back into the living room and sat down in his favorite chair. He didn't have to wait long for Luke and Daisy to join him, the moment they took their seats, the conversation began.


"Uncle Jesse, I don't really want Bo to move out of here permanently, but I plan to support him no matter what he decides. I know you and Luke haven't known about Bo for very long, so I expect it'll take y'all longer to figure out where you stand. I just thought I should be clear from the start, where it is I stand," Daisy firmly informed her uncle and cousin.


"Now Daisy, there ain't no reason for you to be taking that tone. I know I didn't do right by Bo when he first told me the truth, but I've told you why I did that. I'll allow that it's gonna take time for me to get used to the idea of him and Rosco as a couple. Truth be told, it'd probably take time if it was you and Rosco. I hope we can talk him into to coming back here though, mostly cause I don't want to see him get hurt..."


"Uncle Jesse did you listen to anything Bo or Rosco said? Do you still think Rosco would hurt him?" Daisy interrupted angrily.


"Daisy Mae Duke!"


"I'm sorry Uncle Jesse, but..."


"But nothing. I ain't worried about Rosco hurting him, not now, I was talking about other people. It ain't gonna be easy for me to get used to the idea, and there's probably always gonna be a part of me that's uncomfortable. But I'll work on it and I'll get used to it, cause I love your cousin and I want him to be happy. Now how many other people do you think will be uncomfortable with the idea of Bo and Rosco? Only they don't love either of them and could care less about their happiness, those are the people I'm worried about. Even if Bo moves back in here, if him and Rosco decide to let everybody know about them, there's still gonna be problems. The thing is, if Bo still lives here, then a lot of those people who will be uncomfortable can ignore the facts of the matter. Then all they'll have to worry about are the ones who are gonna be trouble no matter what, and I doubt there are many of those in Hazzard."


"Oh," Daisy said in a small voice, "I didn't think of that, guess you got a point."


"Everything you said makes sense Uncle Jesse, but where he lives is Bo's decision. What are we gonna do if he decides to live with Rosco? Will we support his relationship with Rosco, or do we only do that if he comes home?" Luke asked.


"Y'all already know where I stand, I'll support Bo's right to love whoever he wants to, no matter where he lives."


"I agree with Daisy, if Bo had fallen in love with a woman we wouldn't even be talking about it. Even if she was a lot older than him, we still wouldn't be against it for that reason. I think the only fair thing to do is support his right to love who he loves, even if we have to stand with them against the whole town." Luke told his uncle, leaning forward in his seat, waiting for his uncle to say his piece.

"Alright then, if that's how y'all feel, I think you're both right. And after what I did, complete support may be the only way I can convince Bo that I truly am sorry for my actions that day. I think we need to talk to both of them together, and since Rosco will probably be working until this evening, we'll go tommorrow. I'll just call Evelyn and tell her that we'll be bringing her some produce tommorrow about ten in the morning, just like we promised." Jesse told them, standing up and going to the phone.


"Uncle Jesse wait a minute, will she know what you're talking about?" Luke asked.


"Evelyn Coltrane is a smart woman Luke, and if Bo is staying there, then you can bet she knows what's going on. She'll figure out quick enough that we plan to come by to talk and she'll make sure Bo and Rosco know when to expect us. Trust me boy, besides it's the only way I can think of to keep Mabel from figuring out the truth before Bo and Rosco are ready for people to know," Jesse told him with a grin.


The next morning at ten o'clock on the dot, the Duke family pulled into the driveway of the Coltrane home. Climbing out of the truck, they walked to the door, with Jesse in the lead. Knocking on the door, they only waited a moment before the door was opened and Evelyn Coltrane invited them inside. Stepping inside, they were surprised to see that neither Rosco or Bo was present. "Um...Evelyn? You did tell Bo and Rosco that we would be here didn't you?" Jesse asked, confused by his nephew's absence.


"Yes Jesse I did, Rosco will be here in about thirty minutes. Bo is upstairs, I asked him to let me speak to you alone. He's a good boy Jesse and was nice enough to give me a chance to talk to you privately. Now, why don't y'all come on into the kitchen, we'll have some iced tea and a talk?" Evelyn asked, though it was obvious it wasn't really a request.


Following meekly after Rosco's mother, the Duke family found themselves in a large, comfortable kitchen. Taking seats around the small, cozy table, they waited for Evelyn to begin speaking. Evelyn took her time, taking glasses out of the china hutch, she added ice, pouring tea over it. "Lemon? Mint?" She graciously asked, adding a sprig of mint to Daisy's tea and a slice of lemon to her own before carrying the glasses to the table. Sitting down, she sipped at her tea, finally setting the glass on the table, she turned to Jesse.


"I don't know what you plan to say to Rosco and Bo today Jesse, and I'm not asking. That's between y'all, but I wanted to say a few things before you talk to them. When Rosco brought Bo home with him the other day, I was certainly surprised. Not because I didn't know about them, I knew, Rosco never could keep anything from me. No I was surprised and concerned by the bruise I saw on Bo's face and the look of shock in his eyes. After Rosco got that boy settled and calmed down, he had to go back to work, didn't have any choice. Bo assured him that he would be okay, a couple of hours after Rosco left, Bo woke up screaming. Rosco doesn't know about that one, but he knows about the others. Jesse Duke, I don't know what you were thinking and I don't care. All I care about right now is my boys, that's right, as far as I'm concerned Bo is family. He woke up last night from another nightmare, that's how nervous he is about today. I thought you should know just how badly affected he's been by all of this and to tell you. ...I stand behind my son and the choices he's made. If Bo makes him happy, and he does, then I'm going to do everything I can to support them. Before you talk to Rosco and Bo; I'm warning you Jesse Duke if you do anything to hurt either of them you will regret it. Now I've said my piece, I'll just go and let Bo know that you're here," Evelyn announced, before leaving the room and heading upstairs.

Jesse sat at the table in the middle of the Coltrane kitchen, staring at the spot where Evelyn had been only a moment before. Watching him, Luke and Daisy weren't at all sure how their uncle would react to Evelyn's speech, laughter was the last thing they expected. "You know, ya got to admire a woman like that. Dang, I'd forgotten how fiesty Evelyn could be," Jesse told them through his laughter. Swiping at the tears of laughter, Jesse looked at his niece and nephew with a grin. "What are you two looking at? Don't you think I can take the truth?" The twinkle in his eye offsetting the gruffness of his voice.

Rosco walked in through the kitchen door, just as Bo came in from the living room. For a moment nobody moved, "Oh, this is getting ridiculous," Daisy cried out. Going to her younger cousin, she took his arm and led him to the table. "Come on Bo, why don't you sit down here? Rosco?" She called to the older man, motioning to the chair next to Bo. When Rosco came over to the table and sat down next to Bo, he instinctively reached for the younger man's hand. As soon as Rosco had taken his seat, Daisy went back to her own chair and sat down. "Now then, Bo we all talked about this after y'all left yesterday and we're all in agreement."


Taking a deep breath, Bo nervously squeezed his lover's hand, "What did y'all decide Daisy?"


"Maybe it'd be best if Uncle Jesse told you," Daisy suggested, giving her uncle a pointed look.


"Bo, Rosco, Daisy's right we did come to an agreement. We love you Bo and all any of us want is for you to be happy. After talking it over, we decided that because of that there's only one thing we can do. We'll support you Bo, and your right to love whoever you choose to, we'll be there for you whatever you decide."


"Thank you Uncle Jesse, that means a lot," Bo told him, his eyes glistening with tears.


"Before you decide to stay here with Rosco though, there is something we'd like y'all to consider. Bo we're your family and we love you, which means we want you to be happy. Even so it's gonna take us time to get used to the idea of you and Rosco together as a couple. Now there's gonna be plenty of folks around here that ain't gonna be comfortable with the idea either, but they don't love you so there won't be anything to hold them back. If y'all live together openly, a lot of those folks are gonna cause trouble. But if Bo comes back to the farm and you let people discover your relationship gradually, most of them will get used to it. Then the only ones you'll have to worry about will be the ones who would cause trouble no matter what you did. The thing is by that time, you'd have enough people on your side that they wouldn't get to do much without facing the anger of the whole town."


"Jesse makes a good point Bo, maybe that is the way we should handle this. You could go home and we could just stop hiding our love. It's a small town sweetheart, we won't have to shout it from the rooftops, half an hour after we kiss or hold hands in public the first time and everybody in town will know."


Bo couldn't help grinning at Rosco, "You got a point there cowboy, alright we'll do it that way then. So you want to go out this Saturday for dinner?"


"Well it's short notice, but since I love you, guess I'll have to say yes," Rosco replied, blushing slightly as he remembered who else was here.


"Y'all are just too cute," Daisy teased, grinning at the blush that flooded the faces of both men.

"Alright, that's enough of that," Jesse gruffly ordered a stop to the teasing. "Rosco, you said that you plan to tell Boss you ain't helping him anymore. Do you still plan to do that?"


"Yeah I do, I ain't taking the chance of something else going wrong. I don't know if the doctor told you or not, but I spoke to him and he told me." Rosco paused, a shudder running through him at the memory. "He said that if the angle had been just a little different, Bo would've...died," he finished in a whisper. "That's why I can't keep on pretending to help Boss, the next time something goes wrong it could be a lot worse than it was this time. You don't have to worry about that Jesse, I ain't dragging Bo into Boss' schemes and I ain't gonna let that fat marshmallow hurt him either," Rosco assured them.


"That wasn't why I asked Rosco. I ain't worried about you dragging Bo into Boss' schemes, he might have feelings for you, but he's still a Duke. And now that I'm thinking sensible again, I ain't worried that you'd ever hurt Bo or let anybody else hurt him. I asked cause I wanted to know if you had thought about how you were gonna tell JD?"

"Well I just figured I'd go into his office and tell him that I'm through helping him with his schemes..." Rosco trailed off when he saw Jesse and Luke shaking their heads. "No?"


"No, well not exactly anyway. Rosco if you just walk into Boss' office and tell him you ain't gonna help him, what do you think he'll do?" Luke asked.


"He'll probably tell me...to quit being a dipstick and get back to work," Rosco had to admit that maybe his plan wasn't the best. And if I don't, he'll probably threaten me or...Bo just as soon as we let people know about us. So what do you think I should do?"


"Well, I don't think you should just tell Boss you quit helping him. I've been thinking about it and I've got an idea about how you can get away from Boss and there won't be anything he can threaten you or Bo with either." Luke answered with a grin, leaning forward Luke laid out his plan for them.


TBC


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