Brotherly Love
McRaider
Summary: For everyone who was a little annoyed with certain scenes they chose not to record/show for the episode Brotherly Love.

He sat by his cousins side, holding Luke's hand in his. His pleas had turned into faint cries as he leaned against his cousin's side. He could remember a number of times when he had nightmares and his cousin had protected him. He'd spent his entire life wishing that Luke was truly his brother, and that one day they would find that out and that Luke would call him 'baby brother'.

He knew it would never happen, and while Bo loved Judd as a member of this family, he felt lost, and sad, perhaps even scared. He feared that over time Luke would forget that he'd always had a little brother, and that eventually Luke may even want to be around his brother more. Bo knew he couldn't handle that. He couldn't lose his cousin, the only brother he'd ever had.

His shoulders began to shake as he felt the tears beginning to fall from his over flooding eyes. He didn't feel it at first, when the hand gently began to wind it's fingers through the honey blonde hair.

It registered after a few seconds, and Bo looked up at his cousin, his face streaked with tears. Luke's blue eyes fixated on him and he smiled sadly, "you ay?" Luke asked gently, his hand trailing down to the side of Bo's face.

"Ain't I s'posed to be the one askin' ya that," Bo said grinning as he reached out and helped his cousin sit up. Luke grunted as he rubbed his skull then looked up at Bo. Tears were still slipping down his usually tanned cheeks.

"Well I ain't the one sobbin' like a two year old again," chuckled Luke.

Suddenly Bo couldn't take it any longer, he reached out and grabbed his cousin in the tightest hug he had ever given him since they had been little tykes. Luke instantly returned the hug, the tight grasp. Luke smiled as he patted Bo's back.

"I'm a live coz," whispered Luke, "I'm alive."

"Don't you ever do that to me again Luke Duke," Bo said as he drew away from his cousin, his best friend and the only brother he would ever know.

"I ain't promisin' nothin', but I'll do what I can."

&&&&&

Luke watched in horror as his cousin disappeared beneath the surface of the deep pond. For every ounce of him that Luke loved his newly found baby brother, Luke loved his baby cousin that much more, and perhaps in different ways even more. He had picked on Bo at the hospital, but never once murmured the simple words they had obviously longed to hear.

A man can only hold his breath for so long, Luke had heard stories of some men holding their breath for two to four minutes. But as far as Luke knew, Bo didn't have any amazing training that would help him do this. He was just a simple boy…no he was Bo Duke, that in itself spoke volumes.

Bo broke the surface once, his face bright red a he gulped in another breath of air and dove back under. Not enough air as far as Luke was concerned. He felt Uncle Jesse's hand on his shoulder, holding him back, but he wanted desperately to help his cousin. He sat there, his mind not running through all the thing she might miss with his brother if his brother died. But all the things he had done with Bo, all the times they had gotten in trouble together, and so much more. The pain of the idea of losing Bo, it hurt far more than Luke would have ever truly imagined.

Finally one, two, Judd broke the surface; Luke's heart jumped when he didn't see Bo right away. He searched, it was only seconds in reality; but to Luke it felt like n eternity of waiting for his baby cousin to break the surface of the water and come over to them.

Finally he popped up, took another gulping breath of air. While it was obvious he was exhausted he made his way back to the edge where his family sat. He managed to collapse at his cousins' side.

"Bo!" Luke whispered suddenly grabbing Bo's face in his hands. The two eyes were filled with exhaustion, fear and perhaps even pain. His face was growing pale his he was shivering slightly from the air against his now soaked bones.

"I…" Bo couldn't manage the words, he just looked at Judd, as long as Judd was alive Luke would be happy. Sighing, Bo closed his eyes and allowed darkness to swallow him for a moment.

Until he felt someone rapidly shaking his shoulder, he slowly opened his eyes to see Harley, the ambulance driver standing over him, "he's fine, nothing more than exhaustion. He'll need some rest, in fact all three of you boys will need some good down home rest and food," Harley said grinning.

"And they'll get it!" Daisy said grinning as she hugged Luke close.

&&&&&&

Judd had left a couple hours ago, the sun had set; Bo had wandered into the room he had shared with his cousin just under twenty minutes ago. He had been preparing for some sleep. While he hated to admit it, he was exhausted, his entire body felt numb.

However, he sat at the edge of the bed, staring at the picture he had on his bedside, it was Luke and him shortly after Luke's return from Nam. Sighing Bo lad down on the bed, not bothering to strip anything further than his shirt. He closed his eyes against the tidal wave of memories as he thought about what they had been through.

"Hey…" the voice startled him out of his vivid memories, Bo turned and looked back at his cousin.

"Hey…" replied Bo softly as he turned on his other side to face Luke.

Luke came over, albeit wobbly, and sat down on the bed next to Bo, giving him a look that spoke that Luke obviously knew what he was thinking,. "everything okay?"

"Fine," murmured Bo.

"You know…I told Judd that I was his brother and that I was here, whatever he needed…"

"That's good," whispered Bo.

"Bo…Judd may be my biological brother, and fer that I will always love him. But when I came here…I was just a little kid, three or four with nothing to be happy about in life…then you came…hate to get sentimental on ya. You were so small…I remember looking at you and telling Uncle Jesse how small you seemed. He told me that you were a pretty sick kid, but that you would fight…and you did, you were in the hospital and out of the hospital more times than any of us cared to count, but it didn't matter. No matter what you had to go through or how sick you were, you never complained. I grew to not only admire you, but to want to protect that childlike innocence you had. You've got a pretty big spot in my heart as the best friend and baby brother. We're grown men, and we don't nearly say it to each other often enough: but I love ya brother, I love ya, and watching, knowing you may not come out of that pond just because you were trying to save Judd. It hurt a lot more than I thought ever possible."

"I love you too Luke," Luke reached out and pulled the young man into a hug, just like Bo had earlier that morning. Judd would always be his biological brother, and perhaps one day they would get really close. However, Bo would always be the brother of his heart.

"I've always had a brother, now I just got two," whispered Luke as he held Bo close. He would always have two brothers.

The End.