When we were little...

[BoJamesDuke]

Lavinia nodded gently.

"I know...but then again...the doc's wouldn't give Bo a week before...he's 6 months old now..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Jesse nodded. "Yer right about that."

Luke still held Bo carefully, talking softly to him. "I promise....I'll be a good helper."

[BoJamesDuke]

Lavinia nodded too, leaning into Jesse softly.

"If anyone can help Bo, Luke can...and likewise...if anyone can help Luke...Bo can.."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Jesse put his arm around his wife. "He sure seems quite taken with the youngin'. Ain't seen him so interested in somethin since he came here," observed Jesse watching Luke with the baby.

Luke was completely uaware that he was being watched. All he saw was the baby in his lap. Carefully he shifted his arm so he could better cradle Bo and stroked his little hand with his thumb. "S'ok...I'm gonna take good care of ya...I promise."

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo shifted a little as he was moved and his hand softly uncurled as he felt Luke's thumb stroking it. He stilled again a little, as if even that movement was an effort, before closing his hand again around Luke's thumb.

Lavinia smiled softly as she watched the pair, wrapping her arms around Jesse's waist. nodding genly.

"They're gonna be quite a pair when they're older.."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"That they are," answered Jesse. He didn't say if Bo lived to be older, but he thought it.

Luke bit his lip as he felt the small hand close around his thumb, an urge to protect this little boy swelling inside of him.

It was then that his heart, still closed up from the tragic loss of his folks, opened just enough, to make room for Bo.

[BoJamesDuke]

*PRESENT*

Bo smiled a little as he listened to Luke, not having realized before what an impact he had made on Luke's life, wondering what it would have been like if his parents had lived. He didn't dwell on it though, preferring to think back on the memories he and Luke had.

"Wow...never knew I was that important..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke looked at him, disbelief and a hint of sadness on his tan face. "Well, now you know..."

He didn't mean it as gruffly as it sounded. It had always been hard for Luke to express his emotions well, to anyone but Bo, and even then he still sometimes fell into the habit of hiding them, especially when something affected him. Like now. As he looked in Bo's deep blue eyes though, he found himself talking, making him more transparent with his cousin than he had been in a long time.

"You've always been important...if...if it wasn't for you...heck, I wouldn't even be alive today...don't you ever think you don't matter Bo Duke..." he added seriously, his blue eyes flashing with intensity. "You changed my life.."

[BoJamesDuke]

To say Bo was stunned by the sudden outburst was an understatement...he was downright speechless. He knew the relationship between him and his cousin was special, they were closer than brothers...but he had never really explored why Luke kept Bo close when he pushed so many others away before. Luke wasn't even this open with Jesse at the best of times.

When he managed to find his voice again, he said softly.

"I...I never thought that I didn't matter Luke..but...its hard to hear you changed someone's life...when the person you hear it from is your own hero..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Now it was Luke's turn to be speechless. "H-hero?" he managed when he finally found his voice.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo frowned a little.

"Well yeah o'course...I never needed any o'those comic book heroes all the other kids idolized...I had my own livin' with me on the farm. You always knew what to do, knew how to get me out of things...you seemed invincible t'me...still are..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke looked at Bo. Of course he knew that Bo looked up to him when he was little. But for him to hear that he still felt that way was enough to make the older cousin swallow hard, unable to speak for the lump in his throat.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo smiled a little, punching Luke gently in the arm.

"Aww c'mon now don't cry on me...you know i'll start an' I know you hate it when I start..."

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke looked Bo in the eyes, half-smirking despite the tremble in his lips. "Never could stand...t see a grown man cry," he managed though it was evident he was talking more to himself. "Dang allergies," he murmured as he wiped the tears welling in his eyes.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo sighed softly, pulling Luke into a brotherly hug gently with a small smile.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke hugged Bo readily, a bit embarrassed at being caught, but not surprised. Bo knew him better than he knew himself sometimes. "Thanks," he murmured softly.

[BoJamesDuke]

"S'alright cousin..."

Bo said softly, rubbing his older cousins back gently.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"Don't know what's got int' me lately," confessed Luke. "Guess it's this time of year...things come t mind an'...I dunno...I just..." He didn't say "break" but he thought it. Saying it aloud would make him appear weak, and he didn't want that... not in front of Bo.

[BoJamesDuke]

"It all gets too much right?"

Bo asked softly, knowing what Luke was feeling but not wanting to admit.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"Yeah...sometimes...it really does," admitted Luke softly. "So many memories...an' not all bad just..." He stopped trying to think of the way to express it.

[BoJamesDuke]

"Its like an overload of information...like trying to fit too much grain into a grain silo..."

Bo reasoned with his usual simple logic.

[DaisyMaeDuke]

"Exactly," said Luke looking at him thankfully. "That's it exactly."

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo nodded with a smile.

"See, bein' less smart means I don't complicate things like you do...I am dumb for a reason..."

He said with a wink

[DaisyMaeDuke]

Luke smiled shaking his head slightly. Bo might have had the reputation for being dumb, but he was smarter than he was given credit for. Luke knew this as well as anyone, but it was too good of an opportunity for banter to pass up. "Well, s'good t see ya use yer head fer somethin cept growin hair on," he teased.

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo chuckled, ruffling Luke's hair.

"Least mine's still growin' it instead o'losin it..."