Mighty Oak

[Brian Coltrane]

"Easy, Bandit! You'll see her in just a minute!" Brian held Bandit's leash tightly as the German Shepard strained to break loose and run ahead. The storm had riled the dogs who were left at home, and it seemed that Bandit could sense that something wasn't quite right. The Shepard whined through it's nose and pulled hard, not content to walk at the human pace.

"You think you have it bad?" Cully retorted to Brian. "This bassett hound must weigh sixty pounds!"

"Fourty," Brian corrected, straining against the pull of the German Shepard. "And I have to admit, you carryin' that dog makes you a dead ringer for Rosco. Yer gonna halfta explain this 'identical cousins' thing to me again sometime....whoa! Bandit, stop that!"

Bandit had changed tactics. Being unable to break free, the German Shepard had backtracked to wind around Brian's legs. The leash tangled around one human leg and Brian fell to the tile floor of the hallway. "Ooof! Damn mutt...."

Bandit gave a canine grin and pulled forward, tongue hanging from the side of his toothy mouth. The German Shepard hunkered down like a draft horse, dragging Brian down the hallway.

"Is that any easier?" Cully asked, looking down at Brian with a smirk.

"Shaddap." Brian held the leash in a two-handed, overhead grip and let the dog drag him on his back for a short distance. Maybe the exertion would take the edge off the dog.

It didn't. Bandit scented MaryAnne and Rosco through the booking room doors and started to bark loudly. Flash lifted her head from Cully's arms and let out a long howl. The dogs seemed determine to come in with fanfare.

Brian got up to his feet before Bandit plowed through the booking room doors. He held the dog back as best as he could as the German Shepard pushed through the doors. Bandit saw MaryAnne and started to wag his tail excitedly.

Would MaryAnne remember her dog, or would Bandit's friendly aggression frighten her? Dropping the leash, Brian stood back with Cully to await the answer....

(Cue MaryAnne! )

[MaryAnne]

MaryAnne looked up as the German Shephard came into the booking room, making a direct beeline for her. Although she was surprised to see the dog, she felt no fear as it came trotting right up to her and placing it's paws upon her lap in greeting.

"Hi there..." she said, grinning and rubbing Bandit around the neck, ruffling his fur. Bandit soon dropped back down to all fours and MaryAnne kneeled down from the chair and smoothed the fur along the length of Bandit's back.

Rosco was watching her....waiting...looking for that hint of recognition. But it wasn't coming. She petted Bandit and talked to him but Rosco could tell there was no recognition there.

He glanced over at Brian and Cully. Flash was squirming in Cully's arms and he bent down to let the dog on the floor. Flash then made her way across the booking room floor and joined with Bandit in greeting MaryAnne.

MaryAnne was enjoying the company of the dogs and looked up at Rosco.

"That's Bandit and Flash," he said. "You got Bandit a few years ago in Atlanta."

"K-9?"

"Yeah. When they retired him you adopted him."

MaryAnne looked at the dog while contiuing to pet it. She sighed. "I wish I could remember...."

"Well, why don't you give 'em some commands. He responds to just about anything. Maybe you'll start to remember something that way."

MaryAnne shrugged. "Awright..." She lookd at the dog. "Bandit, speak."

A hardy woof echoed in the booking room. Bandit sat at attention, awaiting further commands.

"Play dead."

Bandit dropped to his side and lay there a moment before sitting back up again.

"Good boy...." MaryAnne petted him and paused to think of another command. She looked across the booking room at Brian and Cully standing there. Although the young man in the dark clothes was her cousin, the incident with the toaster was still fresh on her mind. She wasn't mad about it but she had this all powerful urge to give the young man's chain a good yank. A mirthful look came to her face as she looked back at the dog again.

"Bandit..." MaryAnne said, turning the dog around to face Brian and Cully. She paused and then suddenly commanded, "Go git Brian!! Git 'em!!"

Bandit suddenly lunged away from MaryAnne and headed toward Brian....

(Cue Brian!)

[Brian Coltrane]

"AAAAAAAHH!!" Brian sprang into a run and exploded through the double doors of the booking room, sprinting down the hall for the exit. Bandit followed instantly, barking madly and giving chase. The German Shepard plowed through the booking room doors right behind Brian, the toenails of the dog skidding around the corner.

Savage barking echoed loudly down the corridor, amplified by the tile hallway. The outside doors of the court house banged open, announcing that Brian had at least made it that far.

If only Boss Hogg hadn't picked that moment to be walking up the court house steps. "YAAUGH!! WHAT IN TARNATION - "

Whatever else Boss had to say, it was cut off by Bandit's barking; though the sounds of the sputtering county commissioner indicated that Boss had just suffered a hard landing on his posterior.

Through the windows of the booking room, Rosco, Cully and MaryAnne were able to watch as Brian made a desperate run for the parked Chevy. Bandit was hot on his heels, and was readying a classic get-the-badguy takedown, but Brian made a flying leap for Diablo's hood. He landed square on it and scrambled for the roof of the car.

Bandit, deprived of the prey, barked and growled in complaint and stood on his hind legs, front paws on the Chevy's passenger door. Standing on Diablo's roof, Brian heaved in air and watched the dog bark at him.

Boss Hogg got back to his feet and shook a chubby fist, a smashed cigar clutched tightly within it. The exact words didn't carry, thanks to Bandit's continual barking, but the message suggested a lack of appreciation for Coltranes as a whole - including their dogs.

(Cue MaryAnne!)

[pendragon1980]

After leaving MaryAnne, Chance had gone back to her office, fortunatly the back door was undamaged by the storm. She took this time to CB the Hazzard Net to ask about any more injuries. Thankfully, there seemed be none, or the more serious ones had been routed to Tricounty and the surrounding hospitals. But she still to be prepared in case that changed, so the young doctor packed a duffel of medical supplies and her emergency bag to take back to her to the courthouse.

As she exited the office and slung the duffel over her shoulder, she was greeted by the combination commotion of barking, yelling and Boss Hogg's swearing up a blue streak.

Chance rounded the building corner and saw what the fuss was about. She couldn't help but grin as she adjusted the duffel and approached the black car.

"Brian Coltrane, you really HAVE gone to the dogs."

[MaryAnne]

MaryAnne giggled, covering her hand over her face. She stepped away from the window and headed out of the booking room with Rosco and Cully following.

A moment later the threesome came out of the courthouse. Bandit was still barking at Brian atop the Chevy and didn't cease until MaryAnne called to the dog. Bandit jumped away from Diablo and returned MaryAnne. "Good job, Bandit. Ya got 'em!"

"HURUMPH!!" Boss interjected, coming between MaryAnne and Rosco. "You Coltranes!! Between the three of ya, you'll be the death of me yet!" Boss suddenly looked at Cully and did a double take.

"GAH!! No, no, no, no, no!!! Rosco," He looked at the Sheriff sternly. "This is not funny!"

"No it's not funny. It's Cully." Rosco grinned. The ex-stuntman nodded in howdy to Boss.

"AAHH!!" Boss decided the further away from Coltranes he was, the better. He seeked his refuge in the courthouse.

MaryAnne giggled. "We are a sight, ain't we?"

"No," Cully said with a grin. "Rosco n' I are a sight!" He turned to Brian and offered a hand to help the black-clad Coltrane off the roof of the Chevy.

(cue Brian!)

[Brian Coltrane]

Brian gave his collected kin a withering look, which suggested that he might be happier remaining on Diablo's roof. The mirth of the gawking townsfolk - including Doc Walker - had taken him down a peg.

He turned his dark-eyed glare directly to MaryAnne. She watched him with a barely contained grin, holding Bandit's leash in a casual grip. For someone who didn't remember who the hell he was, the Deputy had just put him through a classic wringer. He raised one eyebrow at MaryAnne, speculating whether this experience had jogged any recollection from her...but she only gave a small, "I couldn't resist" sort of shrug and smiled at him.

Bandit barked and wagged his tail, as if encouraging Brian to come down. Having been called off, the German Shepard was friendly again, and would treat Brian with the usual chew-toy affection.

Brian accepted Cully's outstretched hand, bracing his own right palm against it. Cully braced his arm, and Brian used it for leverage as he jumped down from Diablo's roof, flexing his knees with the landing and standing up completely straight in the next instant. The dismount from the car roof had been more graceful than the ascent up to it, and he had that much to salvage his pride with.

"Awright," Brian said to the grinning faces, trying to hold his own expression of offended dignity. It wasn't quite working, and he gave up and grinned himself. "Awright! I'll admit it was worth it, 'cause we shook Boss up. KHEE!"

After a chuckle, Brian looked at MaryAnne again. She had smiled along with the joke, but didn't seem to understand why annoying Boss Hogg was a good thing. The man was her employer, after all. "Just trust me on that one," Brian told her. The moment he spoke it, he realized how silly it must have sounded. How could she trust him? She didn't remember him. And if she ever researched past records in an attempt to figure him out....without having the benefit of her own memories to balance out those past events....

Brian suddenly gave a smile that was a little too quick, and backed up a step. "Anyhow! I'm sure ol' Rosco here can tell ya all kindsa stories about Boss. Specially how him n' Boss team up on some schemes that....uh..."

There was a problem there, too. Brian shut up and his eyes darted to Rosco's. What would a MaryAnne with no memory think of the Sheriff's clouded record?

"Whups," Brian muttered to himself, seeing the Sheriff's steel-blue eyes look back at him with the same thought. Both of them could be in deep trouble with MaryAnne, if she figured out their respective pasts, without remembering all the things that went along with it....

(Cue MaryAnne!)

[MaryAnne]

MaryAnne sensed the sudden change in the atmosphere between Rosco and Brian. She looked at the Sheriff, curiously. "Schemes?" she said.

"Uh...heh, not really schemes just uh...." Rosco cleared his throat. "Uh..."

"Just what?"

"Uh...now look MaryAnne, you don't remember anything right now, and I don't want to upset ya..."

MaryAnne suddenly tugged on Bandit's leash and marched back to the courthouse.

"Jit!" Rosco did the only thing he could and followed after her. Cully followed as well. And Brian....

(Cue Brian!)

[Brian Coltrane]

....was beginning to wonder if Cully would take on renters if MaryAnne pitched him and Rosco out of the Coltrane homestead. Unwittingly, Brian knew he'd just triggered the worst. If MaryAnne snooped around, she'd find enough to dislike about her local cousins to last a lifetime.

"Gah!" Brian followed Rosco and Cully up the courthouse steps. MaryAnne was marching resolutely ahead of them, Bandit trotting along at her side.

Maybe, Brian thought to himself, MaryAnne wouldn't pull any files. Especially right in front of them. Maybe she was just going to ask them a few questions, which they could dodge easy enough, until her memory started to come back. She knew they were all kin. Surely she had to believe that, even without her memory.

As MaryAnne's determined walk took them all back inside the booking room, Brian tried making an appeal. "Cousin," he said to her with his most charming, criminal-of-the-year smile. "Ol' Rosco n' Boss might enjoy a good shuck n' jive once in awhile, but there's nothin' to worry about. Forget I said anything, eh? Listen, why don't we all go back home, n' I'll make us a big batch of my mafia chili. Biscuits and everythin'-"

The sudden, piercing gaze from MaryAnne made Brian's words stop and retreat back down his throat. He swallowed them down, and said nothing more, as MaryAnne turned her burning, acetylene-blue eyes from his face to Rosco's....

(Cue MaryAnne!)

[MaryAnne]

"Mafia chili?! Shuck n' jive?! Oh I think I've heard enough. My cousin, the Sheriff of Hazzard County has a shady badge is what I'm gettin' from all of this! It's probably just as well I don't remember anything right now. I don't wanna KNOW if there's ever been any schemes or anything that I've been involved with. Ugh!" MaryAnne turned away from Rosco just as Boss was coming out of his office.

"What in tarnation is going on out here---AH! You Coltranes!"

MaryAnne glared at Boss. "You Hoggs!"

Boss blinked. "What's gotten into you??"

"The truth! You run a crooked Sheriff's office."

Boss blinked. "Well...a man's gotta make a dollah somehow---uh..." Boss dropped his voice a bit. "MaryAnne, what's gotten into you? This is nothing new, you know all this."

"I do?! And I work for this department?"

"It hasn't stopped you." Boss made a face. "BAH!" He made a swishing motion with his hand. "I don't have time for this nonesense." He turned and went back into his office, not realizing that MaryAnne was suffering from amnesia.

MaryAnne turned to Rosco. "I *know* about all this?!"

"MaryAnne, all of this can be explained if you'll just simmer down for a minute heah..." Rosco glanced toward Brian and Cully, looking for some kind of help but knowing MaryAnne would take all three of them down a peg or two once she got going. Cully too. And all he'd ever done was jump from stage coaches, roll cars over and jump off horses.

Cully took a cautious step back giving Rosco a "sorry, cousin" expression. Cully didn't leave the room figuring he could atleast offer some moral support. But there was really nothing he could say in defense of Rosco and what the Sheriff had become. That was going to be up to Rosco himself. Although the ex-stuntman was praying for MaryAnne's memory to come back in full force....before she disowned all of them.

(Cue Brian!)

[Brian Coltrane]

Brian attempted to come to Rosco's rescue. "Aw hell, MaryAnne! Rosco ain't done nothin' that bad. What's a few fake fire hydrants? Who cares about changable no-parkin' zones an' fake speed limit signs? And so what if Rosco kicks out a brake light before writin' a ticket for a busted one? The county's gotta raise money somehow! That's all small potatoes anyway, he ain't done nothin' like railroad the Duke boys into jail for like..."

Brian paused and looked at Rosco. "What's it been, three weeks? You been slackin'. " Brian turned back to MaryAnne, giving a weak smile at her piercing blue gaze. "So ya see, cousin? Rosco ain't done nobody no harm. And hell, if you put up with me after I originally came to Hazzard to make a hit on the Dukes, well...there ain't nothin' Rosco's done that...."

With a swallow, Brian realized that he'd let more slip than intended...and in doing so, he had just slipped a rope around his own neck and Rosco's.

(Cue MaryAnne!)

[MaryAnne]

"HIT?!" MaryAnne threw her hands in the air. "Okay! I've heard enough. That's it! Out! OUT!! All of ya, OUT!!" She made a swishing motion with her hand.

"MaryAnne, wait a minute---" Rosco started to protest.

"OUT!"

"You can't throw me outta here, I'm the Sheriff!"

"Whupdee-doo! You're a shame to that badge and uniform! I can't believe I've followed in your foot steps and am wearing the same uniform! You were one of the best Sheriff's in this state, you were respected and I admired ya and went head first into law enforcement because of you. Finchburg County asked me to join the Sheriff's department because of you and I felt it was an honor to uphold such an image! Now lookit ya, you've thrown the law book out the window, yer on the take and I wonder what some of those folks think of me! Prolly figure I'll follow ya on that too. Well guess what?! Ain't gonna happen!...."

Rosco blinked. Although MaryAnne's rebuke was scathing....he couldn't help but get the feeling of deja vu. They'd had this conversation before. But more than that....she'd said Finchburg County.

MaryAnne had paused to take a breath and Rosco jumped in. "You said Finchburg County."

"Yeah, I did, got more honorable deputies over there than ya got here in Hazzard. Sheriff Jackson always told me he respected you and he seemed to have a genuine respect for me. In fact, one time I remember---"

MaryAnne suddenly stopped short and closed her eyes, looking like she was going to pass out. She steadied herself for a moment and opened her eyes again, shaking her head, feeling like she'd just awaken from a dream. Her head pounded from her injury and she turned to the chairs that sat just below the booking desk. "I think I better sit down...."

Rosco quickly sat down beside her. "What's the matter?"

"Feel a little queasy...." MaryAnne put her head down for a moment and then straightened up, taking a deep breath. "Rosco...what was I just doing?"

"Giving me hell."

"Why was I doing that?" MaryAnne glanced at Cully and Brian, and saw the dogs were looking at her too. She looked back at Rosco. "I feel like I just woke up here....what was I giving you hell about?"

Rosco hesitated. "My shady badge," he said softly.

"Huh? Rosco I gave you hell about that when I first became a deputy over in Finchburg, what was I doing it again for?"

"You remember?"

"Well of course I remember! Don't you? Although I wasn't very nice so I understand if ya chose to forget some of that---OOF!" Rosco had suddenly pulled MaryAnne into an embrace.

"KHEE! You remember!!"

(Cue Brian!)

[Brian Coltrane]

A smile broke open on Brian's face. He looked at Cully, beaming. "She remembers!"

"It would have been a lot to forget," Cully muttered, having heard Brian's references to a seedy family history. The ex-stuntman was then startled by an unexpected hug from Brian, who was laughing and pounding him on the back.

"Kheehaha! She remembers!" Brian repeated.

"She remembers," Cully echoed, chuckling at the young man's relief and sharing it. He gave Brian a thump on the back in return. At this, the dogs had enough and began to bark loudly, demanding their share of attention.

(cue MaryAnne! )

[MaryAnne]

"Well I... uh, yeah I remember. It's hell of a lot to forget! Khee!" MaryAnne hugged Rosco for another moment before he gently broke the hold and looked at her.

"You had us scared! You bumped yer head 'r something durin' the twisters and when ya got back here you didn't remember any of us."

"I didn't?"

"No. But boy I'll tell ya, I'd rather be on the receivin' end of that tirade ya just had than to have ya not know me at all."

MaryAnne didn't know what to say. She looked at Cully and Brian, who were still grinning and were approaching with Flash and Bandit. The German Shepherd's tail wagged happily, sensing the return of familiarity between his owner and her kin.

"It was a hell of a tirade too," Brian said. "Figured you'd end up disownin' us all before it was over."

"I wouldn't do that," MaryAnne said.

"Well, no, you wouldn't but not knowing any of us you probably would have," Cully said.

"The important thing now is, she's okay," Rosco said. "For which we're thankful."

"Amen," Cully and Brian said.

[Val Strate]

Days later....

An oak picture frame sat on the Game Warden's desk. Framed inside, was a picture of all of Hazzard standing around the fallen oak tree. As Val studied the photo and the frame, she remembered how chaotic it was durring that time and how eventually everything seemed to turn out in the end. Yep... no matter how deep of trouble you seemed to have in life, it always turns out in the end in Hazzard County.

Val smiled and sat the frame down, "Yep... Ya just gotta have faith that things will all turn out in the end."

THE END.

(Note: If everyone involed doesn't mind, I was going to edit this and submit it to MA for the RR's in the fanfic section. Please Email me or PM me with your thoughts. I will probably be asking you all anyhow and recording your names down for who all gets credit anyhow. Thanks.)

Val

[countrygirl1986]

Val, this is probably the only time you're gonna get a responce out of me, heck, i don't got aim right now, and all this has been done at school. I been sneeking onto Yahoo! *little angelic look* but the school has aim, aim.com, and all that blocked. I'm trying to be on at 10:40am to 11:30am, but that's hard. I have a free period. I am also trying to be on for 11:50 to 2:24 on and off (gotta do my horticulture work!) I might also be on tonight, i have fife and drum, but i have no clue if i will be or not.

[MaryAnne]

(Bump - For your reading enjoyment, this is one of our RRs recently voted on in the Voting Booth)