BoJamesDuke

Daisy smiled as she listened to him, pleased to finally see the sparkle back in his eyes and the bounce back in his step. All that needed to happen now it seemed was for him to start sleeping properly and eating right again and Luke would be back to his normal self in no time. Of course, Bo saw it differently. Like Jesse, he'd been through a lot with Luke. Maybe not everything that his Uncle had but a fair amount and people had often claimed that the boys knew each other better than they knew themselves...and Bo knew that Luke while Luke may have been feeling happy after his excursion as town Santa...it was unlikely it would last to this extremity. Shaking his head, he looked to Luke and said gently. "Cousin...will ya sit down an' quit it...I'm glad that yer happy again, I am. Its what i've wanted for a long time now but...yer pretendin. Yer pretendin cause you think its what we want but its not...I don't want this to be a temporary thing and unless or until you talk about what's kept ya away from us, nothin's gonna change...yer gonna go right back to what you were like before..."

Bo watched him, shaking his head a little at the offer as Daisy went to get him the milk from the fridge. Biting his lip he sat down at the kitchen table and started taking off the bandages, finding the change in Luke almost too dramatic to be believable. Yes this is ultimatly what he and Daisy had wanted, it was true that he should be just going with it and be happy that Luke seemed to finally be where the rest of them were. But that was just it...seemed to be. He couldn't be sure that Luke actually did feel this way, it all just seemed too over the top. He had expected the change to come about gradually, that they'd finally get to talk about what was bothering him and he certainly hadn't expected Luke to be making fun of the way he had brought the change in him about. Not wanting to spoil the mood however, he just sat quietly peeling the bandages off his chest and his ankle as Daisy laughed and joked around with Luke.

Bo actually did stumble sideways as Luke took Daisy away from his side, having been leaning on her enough that her moving would cause it. Shaking his head, he put the weight on his foot properly and folded his arms. "Maybe, but you sure didn't realise that for a few days now didja? An' besides, I ain't as bad as you when you were tryin' t'pull sick days from school when we was kids...can ya blame me for bein' a bit horrible at it? Look what I had t'learn from!!" Daisy couldn't help but laugh at Luke's laughing, hugging him back as he kept his hold on her, smiling to Bo. "I think you did a great job Bo...you sure did trick Luke here even if he'll now deny it."

Bo frowned a little, not believing that Luke actually knew what was going on....he wasn't about to fall into the trap of Luke finding out because he slipped up either. Still, the sound of Luke laughing was too great to hear that he wasn't about to break it by getting into an argument about whether or not he actually had figured it out. Signalling to Daisy, he got out of bed and carefully put his arm round her hobbling out as he kept up the pretense he was really hurt. "Alright what's goin on...one minute you wont lemme move let alone get out of bed then the next yer in here, laughin like you's doin an imitation of a hyena and actin' like nothin's wrong...who are ya an' what have ya done with Luke?"

Bo glanced to Daisy, trying not to get his hopes up too much at the positive sounding voice and hearing the unmistakable rustling of wrapping paper coming from where Luke's voice was...at least it was unmistakable to him, he recognised those kinds of things more than other people seemed to. Biting his lip, keeping a hand on Daisy's arm to try and keep her calm and stop her squealing in excitement, he called out. "Ain't like i'm allowed t'get up and come peek anyways am I?"

0101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 Later that day, well into the evening, Bo was back in the bandages and set back up in the bed after being up and around all day. Daisy had re-applied the make up she was using to fake Bo's bruises and made them darker as the Doc had told them they would be and the sheets were changed so any make up that may have rubbed off was gone. Now, the cousins were just anxiously waiting for Luke's arrival, waiting to see if their plan had gone the way they were hoping or whether he was going to be worse....or if he would even come home at all.

"I hopes you can help dem Santa...cause I don't think anyone else can 'sides dere Uncle Jesse and he's not here no more..." he said a little sadly, the family not the only ones who missed Jesse's presence in Hazzard. He soon was looking back up at 'Santa' with a smile though and gave him a hug before sliding off his lap and hurrying away to his mother who was waiting just down the steps of the gazebo. Turning, he gave one last wave as they both walked across the street.

Tommy gave him a big smile as he was lifted onto Santa's lap, swinging his legs a little and nodding as Luke commented on how much he'd grown. HIs little hands were clenched in his lap, almost like he was praying, biting his lip as he prepaired to answer Luke's question. "Actually...I dun want anythin'...well I do, but I's already written ya a letter and I sent it already...I just wanted t'ask ya for somethin in person.." Luke nodded a little with a smile, encouraging him to continue. "See, I dun want anythin' fer me...I wanted t'ask if you could do somethin for some of my friends...well they's not really my friends, they're family friends...but they's real nice people. Dey's called the Dukes and dey losted their Uncle Jesse and now they's really really sad...especially Luke...and I miss them and their car cause they don't go out in it anymore and they don't come see me or mommy and daddy anymore and I miss them lots and lots. I was wondering if you could, maybe, bring their Uncle Jesse back...or if..if you can't do that could you bring them somethin' that'd make them really happy so they can come and see me again?"

Knowing that fact seemed to bring Luke even more peace than anything had in a long while. The fact his only identity at that moment was Santa made it easy for him to be around people. He didn't have to worry about the questions of how he was coping, what he was doing with himself, the questioning as to why he hadn't been around. These were questions he didn't himself know the answer to yet, and thinking about them had done nothing but make him more upset so he had been avoiding the town and the people in it completly. Venturing into it this way though, opened his eyes to how much he had been missing. The kids all seemed to be so much older than he remembered, pets had been lost and added to families, even the town itself seemed to have changed somehow. The grass looked greener, the sun glinted off the windows just that little bit brighter and its pace was even slower and more relaxing than before. That was why he was content to just sit, that was why he was able to be cheerful and able to interact with the kids in the way he knew they expected - because sitting in that Gazeebo being someone else was exactly what he needed. Eventually though, he was brought back down to reality when one very special little boy came to sit on his knee...

Bo couldn't help but laugh a little, the thought of getting punched in the mouth or any part of his body slightly appealing. It had been a long time since he'd been able to have a fight or any type of conversation with his cousin, so even that prospect was welcome. "S'long as I get a reaction, right now I don't care what it is..." he said with a smile, turning to Daisy and hugging her close. "This might actually work Daisy....it might just work..." Back in town, Luke was soon surrounded by the exitable children of Hazzard. They all swarmed round him like bees to honey, chattering endlessly about what they wanted for christmas and asking questions like what food did he want them to leave out for him and the reindeer, how were the reindeer and of course if the elves had started making the toys yet. Of course, answering these questions would have been easy one by one, but they all melded together in one exictable swarm of noise as they all talked at him together.

Bo yelped as she did, gaspng breathlessly. "Daisy my ribs are still under there ya know! When ya pull like that, it pulls it tighter!" he cried out, not yelling at her, more exclaiming in pain. "You could go down there an' see if ya want but I's been told by the Doc not t'put any weight on my ankle an' Luke'll suspect somethin if I don't do it and if you don't make me do it. He may be lookin better Daisy but we gotta be careful for a while yet." He stretched happily as the bandages finally came away from his chest, doing some small turns and stretches to loosen up again. "He better thank me fer this when all this is over..." he muttered.

Bo nodded a little and stood up once the General was definitly out of sight, taking his shirt off quickly. "I know and now that he's gone would ya please please please get these bandages off my chest and my ankle...s'bad enough havin em wrapped when they are hurt, its torture when they ain't..."

Bo shook his head with a smile. "I'll be alright for an hour or so cousin. Daisy managed t'make an agreement with Boss that he'd still get a Santa s'long as she was allowed home t'look after me while ya do it. I'm sure she'll be able t'mother hen me just as well as you can, if not better." he said with a smirk, waving his hand towards the door. "Now go already! I wanna hear all about it when you get back alright?"

Of course, Bo wasn't going to miss that. He only wished he had a camera so he could have captured the image forever. The first time Luke had smiled since his Uncle's passing...it seemed like such a monumental occasion for two reasons...one because it was something he and Daisy had thought they would never see again, and two because it meant a plan he had come up with - however devious, decietful and hard to pull off it had been - was actually working and Luke was none the wiser as far as he and Daisy knew. "You better get movin' cousin...those kids are gonna be goin plum crazy in town waitin on ya...an' ya know Boss ain't gonna take kindly t'you bein late..."

Bo swallowed hard as Luke turned to face him, nodding softly with a proud smile to him. "Just like Santa..." he said gently, looking him up and down with a nod. "You're gonna be great...you'll do Uncle Jesse proud I know it..." And he meant it. Normally he'd make some wise crack about how it didn't look as good on Luke as it did on Bo, or that he didn't need the padding to fill the suit out...or something like that but now really wasn't the time...or at least it wasn't the time to say it out loud.

0101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101 A week or so later, Bo was watching from his bed with his foot propped up on a pillow as Luke was finally putting on the Santa suit. It was hard and emotional for the dark haired cousin doing it, Bo knew that much from when he had done the same...however watching it was just as bad. It was almost like an official passing down of the patriarchal role from one generation of Dukes to the next. Luke had been named in Jesse's will as owner of the farm and, in unwritten and unspoken terms, as head of the family unit. Since that revelation however, Luke had been willing to do neither. As he stood there in that red suit that had once been the garment of his Uncle's during the christmas season though, Luke looked every bit the part. Bo could swear, even through the slight grumblings about the beard and how he really wasn't ready to do this, that he saw his older cousin's chest puff up in pride just a little. As he turned this way and that, it was almost like seeing Jesse in the suit again. Luke's shoulders weren't hunched up, his arms not folded across his chest, his eyes didn't carry the haunted, hurt look they had been. Bo couldn't help but smile as he continued to watch, hoping that this was the first step into acceptance that Luke needed...to seeing that though his Uncle was gone, he still very much lived on in Luke.

Bo squealed happily as Luke dumped the shiny tinsel on his head, splashing his hands more as if he was actually in the bath. Looking up at his older cousin with big blue eyes and red and green tinsel splayed out amongst his blonde hair, Bo grabbed his cousins hand as if reading his mind and said happily. "Wuke tooo!!! Wuke Wuke Wuke!!!" Lavinia smiled and leant against Jesse as he wrapped his arm round his wife's shoulders, shaking her head as Luke needed no more persuading to jump in the bathtub right alongside Bo. Unlike the kids Luke played with at school, Bo didn't care how old Luke was, he would always ask him to join in whatever childish game he was playing. In a lot of ways, he stopped Luke growing up in the rapid fashion he was. The two year old forced the elder cousin to slow down and just enjoy the simplest of things and for that, Lavinia couldn't be more grateful. As awful as it was that Bo too had lost his parents, the accident had brought Luke something he lost the night he lost his....fun, hope...and the chance to continue being a kid.

Bo however didn't take the look seriously, continuing to giggle a little before his expression suddenly changed to copy Luke's...or copy in a more exaggerated version of the look Luke was giving him...before bursting back into giggles again, which in turn made Lavinia and Jesse start to laugh and before he knew it, Luke was joining in too. There was just something about Bo's laugh that was infectious, just as his growing enthusiasm for the Christmas time of year would prove to be. Eventually, Lavinia moved away and started following the tinsel trail down the hallway and picking it up as she went along, prompting a shriek from Bo who toddled after her clapping his hands. As the trio made their way through the small farmhouse, Bo soon took the lead and ducked into the bathroom where the tinsel trail ended. Following him in, the small family couldn't help but laugh as they found all the tinsel piled in the bathtub, Bo having climbed up the step Luke used to get into the bath and to reach the sink to tumble into the bath and sit in the puddle of tinsel happily.

Lavinia shook her head and directed her attention towards the youngest Duke sitting at Luke's feet. If he could have had a halo round his head at that time it would sure be there, he looked as innocent as ever as he handed Luke the next decoration happily. "Bo baby....do YOU know what happened to the tinsel?" she asked him with a raised eyebrow and a smile. Of course, Bo didn't know what tinsel was, but he still looked up at his Aunt with an innocent smile but a mischievous look in his eyes. His aunt knew he had had the tinsel...simply because there were small trails of it left heading down the hallway.

And of course, there was Bo. The only times there wasn't Bo was when Luke was at school and many years on even that wouldn't stop them. Even though Bo was only little, didn't really understand what Christmas was about, the sparkling brightly coloured decorations caught his eye from the first time he saw them and from then on, he took it upon himself to 'help' in his own way. Two years old now, Bo was toddling around on his little legs and getting into more christmas mischief than ever. Bulbs that Luke hung on the branches Bo could reach were soon taken back off and put on in a different place....or rolled across the floor among giggles of glee when Bo's short attention span wandered. Luke didn't mind though, he put them in Bo's reach deliberatly just to hear him giggle and babble happily. Every so often though, there was a calm silence that fell in the room. Luke was concentrating so hard on where he put the carefully placed bulbs that he didn't even realise when it happened. His Aunt however was more observant and poked her head in everytime it happened....only to find Bo sitting exactly where she had left him doing things like looking through a box, or looking at a bulb or trying to hang something on the tree with careful concentration. It wasn't until she came in properly much later that she noticed something strange and couldn't help but give a small laugh. "Uhh Luke...isn't the tree supposed to have tinsel as well as bulbs and other hanging decorations?"

"You can't just manage Luke...its more important than that...don't you remember what sittin' on Santa's lap was like as a kid....how if it wasn't the Santa you were told about you knew he wasn't real...for some kids, yours'll be the only Santa's lap they get t'sit on at Christmas..." he said softly, trying to drag up some happy christmas memory for him and he knew Luke had some because he had shared many with him. In fact, Uncle Jesse and AUntie had told him once that since Bo had come into Luke's life after the accident that killed his parents there hadn't been a christmas that Luke hadn't participated in. Bo's enthusiasm for the time of year and everything that came with it was too much for Luke to ignore, one of the first being when little Bo had decided that the tinsel was only for him.... *Flashback*

"A...alright? You do realise what...what you have do in this role ya know? What the kids expect?" He had to ask...he hadn't expected Luke to accept so quickly. In fact he could have bet money on the fact that it would have taken Bo a few days of attempting to struggle around on his feet and keep being caught to get Luke to even consider taking the role on. Still, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth and refuse the offer now it was made...he was now just worried about what the kids in Hazzard would think. He had been reluctant initally when he had made the plan to relinquish the role to Luke because of that. He understood better than either of the three cousins what the experience was like being a little kid sitting upon Santa's lap, sharing with him your most special christmas secrets because if anyone could bring you what you most wanted then, it would have been Santa. Most of the time you didn't even ask for things for yourself...at least Bo never did. He mainly used to ask that his family had a nice christmas, that Luke got that special toy he had always wanted...that Daisy got something really nice and girly she had her eye on...that his Uncle and Aunt got more than enough for all the work they did for him. Even at a young age, the concept of his family and how much they meant and did for him was not lost and he used Christmas time especially as a way of saying thank you. Yep, some kids were like that at christmas, and it was for those kids especially that he had agreed to the job and worried so much about letting them down. Although his injuries weren't real, the worry definitly was. Still, if being Santa worked - instead of asking Santa for the miricle - to bring Luke back, he would risk that.

Bo bit his lip, resting his head back on the pillow with a sigh. "Boss asked me t'be town Santa Claus this year...." he mumbled softly, watching him carefully for his reaction. For a moment, it was af it time had frozen completly. Luke didn't move, just sat staring at a spot on the couch and Bo started to doubt after a while that he was even breathing. Swallowing softly, he raised his hand to touch Luke's arm gently, shaking his elbow softly and calling his name....worried when not even that got a response. "Luke...Luke c'mon don't get like this on me...you don't have to do it, its alright I can do it, i'll find a way..."

Bo shook his head a little, cringing as he remembered he was also supposed to have a concussion, wriggling underneath the blanket a little. "You can't...you won't do it for starters 'cause your not into this kinda thing anymore...an' 'sides...t'do it you actually wanna have t'talk t'people...children...and make them happy and be happy yerself! S'why I gotta do it!"

"I have to, there ain't no one else can do it, there ain't no one else that should do it!" Bo exclaimed right back, sitting up again. "I don't care if I do it on crutches or somethin but I have t'be there! I ain't gonna let the kids down and I ain't gonna let Uncle Jesse down neither! He started this tradition and i've been asked t'carry it on...me! That's important to me, its special! That job should stay in the family, no one outside this family should wear that suit and do that job!" Yes, Bo was being deliberatly vague although in his worried and upset state Luke wouldn't notice it was deliberate, Bo often babbled when he got upset. He was hoping however that as he spoke Luke's quick mind was piecing the clues together.