DaisyMaeDuke

"It's gonna be okay honey...it will..." said Daisy softly.

"But he was talkin' to ya Bo..." continued Daisy. "You can't expect it to all come at once...honey he aint never shared this with ya...as scared as you probably were to hear it he was probably just as scared to tell it....it aint that he cant talk to you...it's only his first day back honey..."

"Bo you can't expect him to come an'..you be able to just work a miracle...he opened up to you honey...that's such a big step..." said Daisy as she sat beside Bo on the couch rubbing his back gently.

Eventually, Luke's voice gave out, as did his energy. He had started to say one more thing, but was nodding off to sleep before he was halfway through his sentence, more exhausted than if he had just run 20 miles without stopping.

He looked into her eyes with his own teary eyes, eventually nodding. Swallowing hard he continued. "They...they liked...inventing ways...to torture us...sometimes they'd...dehydrate us...then...let water drip out of reach in front of us....s-sometimes...they....they..."

Luke whimpered, "I can't...I can't...it hurts....make it stop...please....make it stop hurting..." he begged. His shoulders shook as he looked to her. He had thought he was better.... thought all this was behind him.

Luke whimpered the rest all unfolding in his mind, the tortures, the beatings, the fear: fear that he would not be alive the next day, but more often than not the fear that he would be... he didn't know how to voice all this, so he only sat tears streaming down his cheeks in shame rocking himself back and forth in vain attempt to give himself the comfort he so deperately needed.

Luke sighed but nodded a llittle, figuring he had might as well try. "Bullet grazed me... I...I tried t' get up...somethin....hit me...next thing I knew...was in...a cage...n'no bigger...than the bed."

"Yet." He figured it was just a matter of time. Still though, a part of him was tired of keeping it all inside. It seemed to eat away at him, from the inside out.

"What I say...hurts people," answered Luke softly.

Luke swallowed when he saw that she wasn't leaving. "You...you sure...you don't wanna go?"

Luke began his story, much the same way he had with Bo, stopping again when he came to the part about being captured, waiting for her to leave, as Bo had done.

Luke choked not sure if he could say it again. It had scared Bo away...part of him was afraid it would scare Sara too.

Luke reached shakily for her hand. Always before it seemed to have a magical power, able to soothe and calm him with a mere touch. "Had....another..." he choked out a tear escaping down his cheek.

"He-held out?" he asked with a whimper. He hadn't been home one day hardly and already she needed to come fix him. "I ain't gettin' better...makin...things worse..."

Luke choked at the familiar voice looking up tearily at her, but wiping his eyes quickly. "H-h-hi."

(knockin on the floor-what's she using a broom and hittin the ceilin'? hehe) Luke didn't answer, crying softly to himself, his whole body shivering.

Luke just watched Bo go, starting to feel that maybe he shouldn't be here...maybe he was just causing more pain. Wrapping his arms around his legs, he buried his head into his knees, tears running down his cheeks, not sure he was as ready as he thought he was.

Luke swallowed hard nodding. It was too much for him. He should have known Bo couldn't handle it. He tried hard to convince himself that Bo wasn't just passing him off, but the old uncertainty he had been trying to get rid of seemed to nag at him. He ran a shaky hand through his hair. Even with his abundance of curls that he refused to cut off he could still feel it...the scar...the blow to the head...he felt it all.

Luke simply nodded, his heart thumping quickly, his once so steady hands, trembling uncontrollably.

Luke's sharp eye caught the swallow. Fearing he said too much, he shook his head. "S'ok...s'done...never mind..."

Here's a Lulu question: Peggy Rea also starred briefly in the series The Waltons. In her words she was "so dear you couldn't stand it" What was her "dear" character's name?

"Gunshots came from everywhere...couldn't...turn around...m-most all of us was killed..them that weren't...were...were..." he choked hard his whole body shaking, drawing his knees to his chest, "c-captured."

A whimper escaped his throat before he could stop it. "Was so quiet...birds in the trees..all singin...an then...singin...just stopped..."

Luke swallowed hard his breaths quickening. "I...I didn't know it was a trap...I...I didn't know..."