Caught In You, part 2

[gilascave]

Roscoe was glaring hard at the car ahead of him. He was annoyed, but not because of anything the car was doing. Oh, he should have been - it was speeding like no one had ever invented a speed limit, and was completely failing to pull over despite the police car behind it that had its sirens blasting.

He was annoyed because Luke was the one behind the wheel.

Roscoe had been sitting at the bend in Corner's Lot Road, knowing that the General Lee would be by sometime that morning. He'd overheard Daisy talk about a quick errand to the old Bixby place to see Ma Bixby and drop off a care package from Uncle Jesse. The road between the Duke farm and the Bixby place was little traveled, and a sure temptation for any Duke to drive faster than necessary. It made a perfect set-up.

If it had been the right Duke driving. Roscoe glared again at the car ahead of him, and thought about just letting Luke go. Thought about arresting him just to get his frustrations out. The second had more appeal - certainly made him feel better - so he pressed his foot down on the accelerator and aimed his car for the General.

It took a bit of maneuvering, and the presence of a convenient new pothole in the middle of the road. Luke swerved to avoid it and Roscoe caught up, slamming on the brakes as he whipped around ahead of the other car. Between Roscoe's vehicle and the trees, Luke was trapped.

When Roscoe got out of his car, he didn't even bother pretending. He glared at Luke. Luke just grinned as he came around to meet him. "Sorry, Roscoe-"

"Uh-huh. Save it, Luke. Speeding, resisting arrest-"

"You ain't just mad because it's me, and not Bo?" Luke grinned.

It took Roscoe a second to even be able to reply. Despite what Bo had said, he wasn't used to the idea that anyone knew. He wasn't surprised it was Luke who'd finally found out; he'd always half-expected Luke to show up one day to confront him. On guard, he just looked back and didn't respond to the question. "I'd consider just writing up a ticket, except for the fact the last three haven't been paid."

Luke's eyes went wide. "What?! Not paid-"

He was only pretending to be surprised, Roscoe knew. He'd checked their files just yesterday, and seen three - mostly legitimate - tickets unpaid, on their records. Not even the fake ones he wrote up for Bo, as an excuse to say *anything* to him, even words he didn't mean. He got out his handcuffs, and Luke's expression of surprise turned genuine.

"You're kidding. You're arresting me? For speeding?"

"I'm taking you down to the courthouse where you can pay your tickets. Including today's." He spun Luke around, got the cuffs on with practiced ease. It helped that Luke was too stunned to resist, until it was too late.

"Roscoe...is this just some plot to get Bo to-"

"This ain't about him. You think I'm suddenly not required to uphold the law because I'm in love with someone?" He narrowed his eyes at Luke's expression, feeling suddenly more annoyed. Bad enough he had to miss seeing Bo, now he had to spill secrets that weren't secrets anymore.