BoJamesDuke

Bo nodded and smiled before quietly leaving the room to go and find Daisy.

Bo watched the both of them, knowing it would be best to leave it til morning to get them together to talk. Carefully he fluffed Luke's pillow up a little and gently helped him find a position to lay down in. "You better get some sleep.."

Jaime took the glass back and headed out the room, putting it into the sink and then heading to her room without another word.

Jaime handed them over gently, handing him the glass of water too.

At that moment, Jaime walked in with a glass of water and two tablets clenched gently in her hand. She looked over sheepishly and held them out to him. "Kinda thought you might need them...you get little crease lines in the corners of yer eyes when yer in pain or ya smile..."

Bo watched him for a moment before asking gently. "You need some more pain killers?"

Bo nodded back with a small smile. "Good...now you lay down an' get some sleep...i'll deal with Jaime an' Daisy tonight...then tomorrow once you's rested up you can talk to em ok..."

"Just calm down a bit an' realize what's been goin' on...yeah Daisy lied t'ya...but she was just tryin' to help you an' Jaime not to flip out at each other so much...with you on edge about everything your more irritable and eaisly infuriated...you can't take that out on Jaime an' Daisy..."

Bo nodded too, putting a hand on Luke's shoulder. "I can only imagine what its like for you to be parentin' Jaime...but I care about her too...I was ready to go out there lookin' for her an' I would have if she hadn't have come back herself...she loves you Luke..."

Bo shook his head and moved closer to Luke now he was calmed down a bit. "Jaime never says nothin' because she respects your rules an' accepts how ya treat her...she loves ya an' she don't wanna hurt ya...this is the first time since you adopted her that she's been late home...usually she's here ten minutes before her curfew is up...she don't push for more time, she don't ask for it...she just comes in when you tell her...you gotta let her have some more freedom...she should have earned your trust in that by now!"

"Jaime is getting pretty darn close to being an adult Luke and yet you treat her like she's still 14 years old...she's 16! Most 16 year olds by now have a curfew of 12 or 1am on a weekend...10 or 11 on a school night...Jaime's is 11 on a weekend and 9 on a weekday! She's growin' up Luke! You can't keep treatin' her like a kid! So she was late, big deal. Nothin's happened to her!"

"Ain't no difference...you didn't say Jesse was wrong when he said he was goin' to a farmer's convention...same thing..." Bo said, folding his arms.

Bo swallowed hard and decided to play the only trump card he had to deflate Luke completly. "Like you did to me about Uncle Jesse..."

Bo sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair. "Luke you are so stubborn I don't know how I's put up with you all these years..."

"An' what would you have done if she'd have told ya huh? By now, you would have been up pacin' the livin room floor on yer bad foot, when Jaime got in with Jason it would have been a boyfriend massacre, Jaime would be in her room cryin' after a big row with you then you an' Daisy would have gotten in an argument about how ya treated Daisy..." Bo listed, knowing he was getting at Luke.

"It ain't fair for you to take yer worry out on Daisy...an neither was it fair to treat Jason the way ya did really...he's right, you were just tryin' to get him to squirm...he passed your lil' test of character an' yet ya still looked down at him like he was somethin' stuck to the bottom of yer boot...a lesser man than Jason, an adult, would have run away at the thought of facin' a girls daddy...Jason jumped headlong into it...he's tryin' Luke..." Bo said as gently as he could.

"You don't have a daughter to deal with right now...you need to calm down...or your gonna say things that's gonna end up with both o'them in tears an' you feelin' more guilty about it..." Bo said firmly.

"Maybe not...but at the same time she is her Neice an' you are her brother...she was tryin' to find a way to appease both of ya an' keep the friction down to a minimum...your obviously stressed because of everythin' that's happenin, I am...she's obviously feelin' the strain...the last thing any of us want is fer that to reflect onta Jaime...Jaime was enjoyin' herself tonight, somethin' she ain't done in a while...its hard to be stuck in between the middle of two people ya care about Luke...even harder to try an' find a solution that'll appease both sides...in fact if Jason hadn't insisted on comin' in t'see ya an' apologise, she probably would have gotten away with it too..." Bo pointed out gently,

Bo however had been expecting it and caught it with ease, throwing it right back at him but more gently than Luke had thrown it at him. "She didn't teach her to lie an' she didn't say it was okay...Jaime knows it aint ok to lie....Daisy was tryin' to protect you an' keep you from worryin' anymore than ya clearly already are...Daisy knows Jason..she's met him before...she knows Jason can be trusted and would bring her home."

"To stop ya takin' all that uneccesary anger out on Daisy an' makin' her cry when all she had was everyone's best interests at heart..." He said pointedly, sitting down on his bed opposite Luke.

Daisy flinched hearing the tone and huddled back a little into Bo...she wasn't scared of Luke so much...it was more scared of what he would say to her. Luke was the only one who could bring her to tears with one word, when he got into a temper like he was now, he could be downright mean. Bo sighed a little and rubbed Daisy's back softly as he whispered low. "Go talk with Jaime out in the barn a while...i'll let Luke yell at me instead...I can take him easy..." Daisy looked to him gratefully and hurried out the house, not needing to be told twice. Bo shook his head and watched her go before taking a deep breath and heading inside, saying softly as he came in. "You ain't Uncle Jesse, don't order Daisy around like that."

Jason sighed a little and was about to say something else when Jaime stopped him with a soft hand on his arm and shook her head, smiling up at him a little and begging him without any words to just leave it for now and leave the rest up to her. Nodding a little, Jason exited the room with Jaime, not even seeing Daisy and Bo huddled on the opposite side of the doorway.

Jason met Luke's gaze with his own, not flinching away from the stern one that Luke was giving like he was sure Luke wanted him to. He was sure Luke wanted to see him squirm but he wasn't about to. "Yes Sir...I understand...but I don't just follow my daddy's raisin'...I say the things I say an' do the things I do because I mean them...my daddy taught me to respect women...I know from experience how protective daddies are over their little girls...i'm a brother to my younger sister an' I get protective...I didn't deliberatly bring Jaime home late...an' I'm sorry that you seem to think I have...I know its too early to earn any trust from you an' I know I didn't get off to the best start with this...but i'm not gonna squirm an' beg when I know that i've tried my best to say sorry an' had the decency to come here an' admit that I was wrong...and yes I am sorry for bringin' Jaime home late...but I don't regret one single minute of tonight that i've spent with her...not even these moments..."

Jason nodded gently. "Yes Sir...I really didn't mean to keep her out so late...and like I said...I brought her straight back here as soon as I realised we were late...I didn't try to persuade her to stay or anythin'...in fact I was the one that realised...I didn't have to come in and face you sir but I did...because I love Jaime...an' I want to earn your trust an' your friendship...I know without that...I can't be with Jaime...and I want to be with Jaime...i'll do whatever it takes to be with her..."

Jason nodded a little, not talking, just listening. He knew it would be unwise to interrupt but he also didn't want to. His daddy had always raised him to respect his elders and how to treat women and their daddies. Heck he had a sister, he knew how protective dad's could be and what could get a guy slaughtered with them in under two minutes...he didn't say things to keep him out of trouble, he said them because he meant them.