Caught In You, part 3

[gilascave]

Irritated now at himself, as well as at Luke, Roscoe hauled him over to his vehicle, pulled the back door open, and helped Luke inside. Then he shut the door a little harder than necessary, and went up to radio for Cooter to come tow the Dukes' car in.

"You're in a bad mood, aren't you," Luke said casually as Roscoe got his car into gear and began heading back to town. Roscoe ignored him. A moment later, Luke sounded a bit surprised. "Wow. You *are* in a bad mood. Not even giving me a hard time."

Roscoe could hear Luke moving around in the back, and wished - briefly - that he hadn't bothered arresting him. But had it been anyone else speeding with unpaid tickets, he'd be doing the same, so he wasn't about to give Luke special treatment. Especially not if he didn't shut up.

"What's wrong, Roscoe? You feeling snippy because I ain't my cousin?"

Roscoe didn't even look in the rear view mirror. "This isn't about him. I'll thank you to leave my relationship with Bo alone." Such as it was - or wasn't. He didn't feel like talking about it. He'd lain awake too many nights, thinking about Bo, to want to discuss it with anyone...except Bo, and that was just never going to happen, was it?

There was a sound of surprise. "You want *me* to stay out of my own cousin's affairs? I don't think so." There was a second or two of silence, then Luke asked, in a calm, and very serious tone, "What do you intend to do about him?"

Surprised, Roscoe glanced into the mirror. Luke was watching him, carefully, as though he were sitting at the kitchen table instead of handcuffed in the back of a police car. Interrogating him.

Roscoe had to stifle a laugh. It was a little late for the protective older cousin to defend Bo's honor. "I got no intentions," he said simply, hoping that would be the end of it. He knew it wouldn't be, but if he drove fast enough he could get to town and get rid of Luke before anyone said anything they'd regret.

"That ain't how Bo says it. He says he loves you."

"Yeah." Roscoe wished he hadn't started this. Seen it was Luke this morning and let him get away. "Yeah, he does."

There was a longer silence, then Luke sounded angry as he demanded, "Well? Isn't this the part where you say you love him, too?"

"Does it matter?" Roscoe felt defeated. Tired, and sick of facing the same things he'd been facing and ignoring and doing nothing about for the past seven years. "Luke, you know there ain't nothing can come of it. It doesn't matter if I love him - and it'd be a damn sight easier if I didn't."

The silence lasted longer this time. Roscoe was almost hoping it would stay that way for the rest of the trip, then Luke spoke again. "Wow. I...had no idea you felt that strongly about him."

He had no idea what he'd said to make Luke think he could see just how desperately Roscoe did love Bo. How much he missed him, how much he just wanted to spend time with Bo. Any sort of time - arguing over a stupid plan of the Boss', trading pointless insults and taunts, barely saying a word as they just stood in the same room pretending they weren't watching each other.

"You know, he was talking about heading up to Cotton Creek Pass, tomorrow. We've been working on Daisy's Jeep, and he wants to test the shocks."

Roscoe didn't respond.

"I guarantee he'll be speeding."

Slowly, Roscoe smiled.