A/N – Hi! Yes, I am doing two stories at the same time. This one has been on the computer for a long time, and in my head even longer. I don't consider it to be that great of a story, but there's a purpose behind it. There's a story within a story here – mine! When I did my profile, I completely forgot to include the story of how The Dukes of Hazzard personally affected my life:) I was going to include the story at the end (actually, I had), but I noticed on the 'new posting rules' that long author's notes about themselves are not acceptable. So, if you want to read it, you will have to go to my profile page.

I've been really trying to catch spelling errors, and I hope that I've gotten them all. My new version of Word doesn't seem to have a 'dictionary' in it, and it's highlighting words that are spelled correctly. Not sure exactly how to fix it, but right now, I'm without a spell-checker.

If the style seems a little different, it's because it's a very early version of my ff writing. I never intended on anyone reading it:) Hope you won't be too disappointed!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes and no infringements intended.

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BALANCING THE BOOKS

CHAPTER 1

IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S A CAR?

It was a beautiful, spring day in the southern part of the United States. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the birds were singing as if they were in a choir, and everything for miles was in full bloom. Living in Chicago, it was sometimes easy to miss the special things that went along with each season, except for the snow and ice in the winter and the year round wind, and those were phenomena that would have been nice to live without. It was one of the things that Jackie Johnson loved about her job. She traveled a good deal of the time, to big cities and small towns alike, and it gave her a chance to see things that she never would have if she'd been confined to a desk everyday.

She had gotten off the main interstate a few miles back as she approached Atlanta; the little town she was going to wasn't accessible by it. The only way to get there was via highways, and that was fine with Jackie, because it gave her the best tour of the area. She'd never been to Georgia, and from what she knew of the state, she was expecting to see peach trees all over. So far, she hadn't seen one, but she had been treated to a colorful variety of plant life, and it was beautiful. She just passed a sign saying her destination was about 30 miles away when she was treated to something else she would have never seen had she only worked in an office.

"What the...?" she mumbled to herself, as her eyes were taken off the road and were now focussed above her. Something was flying overhead, and she was fairly certain that it wasn't a bird or a plane. It looked like a car had sailed right over her, and despite all of her travels, flying automobiles weren't something she was accustomed to. When it landed, she saw that she had been right. It was a car, a bright orange car, though what kind she wasn't sure. She wasn't going to get enough time to figure it out, either. In the few seconds she had been distracted and the auto had descended, she had stopped paying attention to her own driving. As she approached a three way bend in the road, another car came plummeting down one of the intersecting paths from no where. It was driving at a high rate of speed, and her car was on course for a collision with it. She veered the steering wheel to the left to avoid the impact, finding herself no longer on any kind of a road. The shock of the flying orange car and the scare of almost being hit had distracted her. Once she left the pavement, she lost control of her own vehicle. She tried to regain it, but it was too late. The tree in front of her jumped out of no where, and she didn't react fast enough. She hit it head on, remembering nothing after that, as she slumped over toward the passenger side. The culprit car kept right on going; the driver not even bothering to check the rear view mirror. The flying, orange car had stopped after its landing and its occupants watched the entire accident take place.

The blonde driver already had the car turned around in the direction of the orange Mustang, now touching the tree. Even if they hadn't thought they may have contributed to the accident, they would have stopped to help. It was just their nature, and it was the way they'd been brought up. They still lived in a place where people helped other people. They could see that the car had sustained some damage, but when the door didn't open and no one made an effort to get out, nor could they see a head sitting upright, they knew that something was wrong. In a flash, they were parked next to the strange vehicle. It wasn't an everyday sight to see the orange General Lee parked next to another orange vehicle. Though not as done up as the Dodge Charger, the Mustang was also considered a classic car, and the two sat side by side looking as if they belonged together.

Bo looked in the passenger side window while Luke peeked in the driver's side. "It's a girl," Bo muttered, not knowing why he was so surprised. "She's not moving, Luke," he said with a shaky voice. He was feeling a little guilty for their part in causing the wreck, though in the back of his mind he knew that the car that ran her off the road was really more at fault. They went flying through the air on a regular basis, often causing Hazzard's patrol vehicles substantial damage, yet no one ever got hurt. They'd gotten comfortable believing that they, and everyone else, were invincible. Lying across the front seat was a young woman who had just shattered that myth for Bo Duke.

Luke was also concerned about the fact that she wasn't moving, but he was the level headed thinker of the two cousins. He couldn't fall apart or Bo definitely would, and that wouldn't help the stranger. "Let's get her out of the car, Bo." When his blonde haired cousin looked up at him across the roof of the car, Luke told him to come over to his side.

Bo nodded, following his older cousin's instructions.

Carefully, Luke slid in as best he could and sat her up, keeping a hand around her so that she didn't flop around or fall completely out of the car. He then jumped over her, getting her to the edge of the seat. Telling Bo to take her, he finished his instructions by suggesting that his youngest cousin set her down on the ground.

Bo gathered her in his arms, but Luke had to tell him again to put her down so that they could look her over. For some reason, Bo was resisting the suggestion. Luke didn't understand that the blonde liked the way she felt next to him.

Once they had her under the tree, Luke began to look her over. "She's breathing," he announced with a sigh of relief. Taking out his handkerchief, he started wiping away the blood that had gathered on her forehead and was trickling down the side of her face.

As Bo watched Luke play medic, he was mesmerized. Even with the blood, he thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on, and he was known for the fact that he liked the ladies, all of them.

Next, Luke did a quick check of her limbs. "I don't think that anything's broken. She's probably got a concussion. Let's take her back to the farm and call Doc Appleby to take a look at her. I don't think we need to take her to the hospital."

Bo nodded, helping Luke pick her up. Without being told, the blonde crawled in the passenger side of the General. He had enough driving for one day, and for some reason, he wanted to be the one to hold her. Luke carefully guided her through the window, and Bo wrapped his arms around her, supporting her head the way that Luke told him to.

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Living in a place like Hazzard had its rewards, though most big city folks never understood them. One of those perks was that the local, country doctor still made house calls, and a little while after Luke called him, Doc Appleby arrived. Immediately, he asked the boys to wait outside.

They were beginning to wonder what was taking so long, as they sat on the porch steps, waiting for the prognosis report. When the older gentleman told them to come back in, Bo practically ran over his cousin trying to get through the door first.

"How is she?" Bo asked, fear evident in his blue eyes.

"She's got a concussion, that's for sure. That cut on her forehead was deep enough to need a few stitches, too."

"Is she going to be ok?" Bo asked impatiently.

"As long as she wakes up pretty soon, I'd say she should be fine. If she doesn't, we'll need to get her to the hospital so I can run some tests. Anyway, I don't think that's going to be necessary, but just in case. When she does wake up, she's going to have one heck of a headache, and she'll probably be sick, as I'm sure you both remember from your own experiences with concussions. I'm going to give you a prescription for something that will help with the pain, and I'll leave you a couple now in case she wakes up before you can fill it. I know this sounds contradictory, but once she wakes up, the best thing for her will be rest. Just keep an eye on her, and wake her every couple of hours. I'll be back a little later to see how she's doing."

"Thanks Doc," Luke said, taking the prescription and the two individual capsules, as he walked him to the door.

"Yeah thanks, doc," Bo agreed, as he walked back into the living room and sat down in the chair, to once again start watching their guest.

After observing Homer Appleby drive away, Luke joined his cousin in the living room, thinking that he'd never seen him looking so worried. "We should go get this filled," he commented, waving the slip of paper in his hand.

Bo nodded, but didn't say anything.

Daisy wasn't home, she was spending some time with her friend. Uncle Jesse wouldn't be back until later, so that just left the two of them at the farm. Luke knew that one of them needed to stay with the girl, and logic told him that it should be himself. In the event of an emergency, he was probably the best suited to handle it. Normally, he would have expected Bo to have agreed, jumping at the chance to go to town rather than play nursemaid. However, his cousin was acting anything but normal. Luke didn't know if Bo was feeling guilty or awestruck, but he had been almost catatonic since the ordeal happened. Since he'd been driving the General at the time, it was understandable for him to be feeling some amount of guilt, but Luke knew how far the boy could push things when he was upset.

Not getting the response he was hoping for, Luke sighed. "I'll go," he said, seeing Bo nodding again while his eyes never left the girl on the sofa. "I'll stop by her car and pick up any luggage she might have, and then I'll call Cooter and have him come tow her car into town," he added.

Again, Bo just nodded.

"You stay here with her," Luke told him, knowing that's exactly what Bo intended on doing anyway. Annoyed from receiving nothing but a bobbing head, Luke raised his voice. "You gonna be ok, Bo?"

Finally, Bo tore his eyes away from the couch and looked at Luke. "Yeah," he replied.

This time it was Luke's turn to nod. "Give me a holler on the CB if you need me."

"Okay," Bo mumbled, returning his gaze upon their patient.

Luke walked out of the house. He was hoping that the girl would wake up quickly so that Bo could return to normal, whatever that was for Bo Duke. He vowed that his baby cousin was off the hook for the moment, but he was going to get him behind the wheel again as quickly as possible. He also promised that if his cousin wasn't saying more than one word utterances by the time he got back, he was going to drag him out to the barn to find out exactly what was going on inside that blonde head of his.

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As Bo was keeping watch, awareness was returning to Jackie Johnson. She felt like she was floating in a fog that only Londoners could appreciate. She didn't taste or hear anything out of the ordinary, so she moved on to the next sense. Something smelled different to her nose. It wasn't bad, but she couldn't quite think of what it was. Deciding that it was neither important nor offensive, she wanted to move on to her sense of sight, but was assaulted by the senses of feel and touch instead. The first thing she knew was that her head hurt, too much so to open her eyes.

Underneath her fingers, she felt something soft, but unfamiliar. She moved her left hand, the one between her body and the back of the couch to make sure that she was feeling it; she was. Becoming a little more adventuresome, she moved her hand a little more. The softness gave way to a texture she couldn't remember, and she moved her fingers again to confirm its presence. It was hard to describe. What she felt at first had been a fabric, and though she thought this was, too, it was moremore coarse, like upholstery. Thinking that the answer may be locked in her memory, she tried to remember what the last thing was that she could recall, and found that she wasn't sure. Though the pain in her head was still there, she knew that if she wanted any answers, she was going to have to rely on her last sense: sight.

Her head was facing away from her observer, as she slowly cracked her left eye open. Looking to her fingers, she discovered that they were resting on a couch and she was covered with a quilt. So far, she had been right. The problem was she didn't know the sofa or the blanket. Letting her eye travel a little upwards, she also didn't recognize the wall that the sofa was resting against. Pushing the pain aside, she slowly moved her head to see as much as she could. The more she saw, the more she knew that she had no idea where she was. When she finally rolled her head to look in the opposite direction, she saw someone sitting across from her looking back at her. Not knowing where she was had been bad enough, but not knowing who had been watching her, was terrifying. Her eyes grew wide and she jumped as much as her injured body would allow.

Bo was out of his chair in a flash, but he saw her cowering more with each step he took. He saw her fear, and understood it; waking up in a strange place with someone she didn't know looking at her could do that to a person. "It's ok, it's ok," he said, trying to calm her as he approached the sofa. "Don't be scared," he told her, thinking that was probably easier said than done. "You had an accident, and me and my cousin brought you here to our farm. My name is Bo Duke." Smiling at her, he gently knelt down next to her.

Now it was her turn to stare wide-eyed at him as he had been doing to her. Despite his assurances, she was still afraid. She wanted to believe him, but didn't know whether to trust him or not. It wasn't until she really looked at his face, noticing that he had a beautiful smile and kind eyes that she started to relax a little.

"How do you feel?" he asked her.

Rolling her eyes upward, she thought it was ridiculous that she had to think about that question. The fact was she felt awful. Raising her hand, she touched the spot on her forehead that was now covered with a gauze pad.

Bo reached over and took her hand, bringing it back down to her side, but not letting go of it. "Don't touch that," he said softly. "You hit your head. You've got a concussion and you had to have a few stitches."

Digesting what he told her, she allowed her hand to remain in his for a few seconds, thinking that it made her feel safe. Then removing her hand and placing it next to her, she tried to sit herself up, not feeling threatened anymore, but still feeling vulnerable. She didn't know why she wanted to be upright or where she planned on going, but for some reason, it was important. Unfortunately, she didn't make it.

Sliding one arm behind her back, Bo eased her back down. "Hey, what are you doing?" he asked in a concerned voice. "You need to stay down for a little while," he told her, brushing the hair out of her eyes, which were getting very heavy. "Doc Appleby's going to be back in a little bit to check you over again. Why don't you get a little bit more rest til he does?" Bo suggested.

His idea sounded like heaven to Jackie. She wanted to follow his advice so bad, but there was something that was preventing her from being able to. Her eyes and her body were fighting her mind. Her eyelids would close, only to shoot wide open to stare at the man sitting beside her, once again holding her hand. Something told her to trust him, but all the training she'd ever had said that it was unwise to allow yourself to go unconscious while a person you didn't know was only inches away. She didn't need training to know that; common sense would have told her the same thing.

Sensing her concerns, Bo whispered in a reassuring voice. "It's ok. You're safe. I'm not going hurt you. In fact, I'll stand guard over you. Trust me, no harm will come to you on my watch. Scout's honor," he vowed, giving her the signal.

Her eyes won out, closing as she gave a little giggle.

"What's so funny?" Bo asked.

"You don't look like a boy scout," she told him, drifting off to sleep with his laughter ringing in her ears.