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Published:
2020-11-04
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2006-03-22
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Train Wreck

Summary:

Have you ever wondered why Luke joined the Marines?

Chapter 1: chapter one

Chapter Text

Train Wreck
by: Vinsmouse
Rating: T
Warnings: Angst; Character Death(not a main character)

I want to thank Lynn and Jade for their help and suggestions.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes of Hazzard, making no money just
cheap thrills.

 

Ever wonder why Luke joined the Marines?

 

Train Wreck

 

Eighteen year old Luke Duke was having a great time as he drove the
back roads of Hazzard with his buddies, celebrating their graduation.
Earlier that day they had attended their graduation ceremony, enjoying
the looks of pride from their parents and looks of envy from younger
siblings, or cousins. Now they were just out driving around, whooping
and hollering and generally letting off steam, six of them in Chet Allen's
old station wagon, given to him by his parents for graduation. Chet was
at the wheel with Danny Russell sitting next to him and Luke next to the
passenger door, in the back seat sat the Lawson boys, twins Joe and Jerry
and their cousin Tim. All six boys were good friends, having known each
other all their lives. They were having a last hurrah before entering
adulthood, but when Joe brought out a jar of shine Luke began to get a
bad feeling.

 

Ever since he was little Luke could remember Uncle Jesse talking about
the stupidity of drinking and driving. They might make moonshine and
drive fast when trying to outrun the revenuers, but that didn't mean
the two mixed worth a dang. Luke was well aware of the dangers, having
lost his parents to a drunk driver when he was just a little boy and he
wanted no part of this, but he didn't want his friends to think he was
a wimp either. As the jar was passed around the car and he saw Chet
taking a drink Luke decided he didn't much care what they thought, he
only knew he didn't want to be in this car anymore.

 

"Hey Chet, could you take me home?"

 

"Home? Come on Luke why would you want to go home, we're having fun,
ain't you having a good time Luke?" Chet asked, his words beginning to
slur a little.

 

"Look Chet I don't want to drive around anymore that's all, now are
ya gonna take me home or not?" Luke snapped, just wanting to get out of
this car before something bad happened.

 

"No I won't, your place is a couple miles in the wrong direction and
we ain't ready to stop having fun." Chet said, as he sneered at Luke in
disgust.

 

"Fine then just let me out here and I'll walk home."

 

Pulling over angrily Chet barely stopped long enough for Luke to
jump out of the car, before pealing out, throwing gravel in the air.
As Luke began to walk towards home he heard a train begin to blow it's
whistle in warning, it hit him suddenly who the engineer was trying to
warn and he turned, running towards the tracks. The sounds of tearing,
screeching metal reached his ears mixed in with the screams of his friends.
Coming around the curve in the road he could see the wreckage of Chet's
car a quarter of a mile down the tracks, where the train had carried
it. Luke stopped in his tracks, unable to go on as he stared at the car,
knowing nobody could have survived that and he began to shake as he
realized just how close he had come to dying.

 

Luke was still standing in the same spot twenty minutes later when
Rosco pulled up in his patrol car, followed by an ambulance and Dr.
Appleby who had heard the call on his cb and came to see if there were
any survivors.

 

"Luke, what are you doing here? Did you see what happened?" Rosco asked,
confused, why was the Duke boy here?

 

When Luke didn't answer Rosco tried again, still receiving no answer
he noticed for the first time that Luke was shaking and staring off into
space. Calling the doctor over to take care of Luke, Rosco went to talk
to the train engineer, needing to know just what had happened here. It
didn't take long to figure it out, the engineer told him how the car had
been sitting by the tracks, when it began to move he blew the whistle in
warning. His voice shook as he told Rosco how the driver looked right
at him, grinned and hit the gas shooting towards the tracks. He swore
he had tried to stop as soon as he knew what they were up to, knew without
a doubt that they were going to try to beat the train and he knew they'd
never make it. He was right, car and train had crossed paths at the same
spot, and the laws of physics took over, though he was applying the brakes
at full force the train still carried the much smaller vehicle a quarter
of a mile down the track.

 

Rosco headed over to the car next, smelling the alcohol when he was
still several feet away, shaking his head at the waste of young life, he
began the terrible task of figuring out who had been in the car. Even
with all the damage Rosco was able to recognize the occupants of the car,
or what was left of them, 'what a horrible way to die,' how was he going
to tell their parents. Just this afternoon these boys had been smiling
with pride and happiness, now their young faces were frozen in a look of
horror as they had seen death approaching them in the form of a train.

 

Dr. Appleby came over to Rosco and told him he was going to take Luke
home, he was in a state of shock and needed to get some rest. He told
Rosco he could come out and get a statement from the boy the next day
if he needed, but not tonight, tonight he was in no shape to tell him
anything.

 

Pulling up to the Duke farmhouse, Dr. Appleby guided Luke out of the
car and towards the house, not surprised in the least to see Jesse Duke
headed their way, his face creased in worry.

 

"Amos, what's wrong? What's happened to Luke?"

 

"Now Jesse don't worry, Luke's fine, he's just had a terrible shock
and needs to sit down. Do you have any coffee made?"

 

"Yeah, did you want a cup Amos?" Jesse asked, confused by the doctor's
question.

 

"Could you fix Luke a cup, with lots of sugar, it'll help with the
shock."

 

Understanding now, Jesse headed to the kitchen to fix a cup of coffee
for his nephew, as the doctor led him towards the living room. A few
minutes later Jesse stepped into the living room and handed the cup to
Luke only to have the doctor take it and help Luke to sip at the sweet
drink. Walking over to Bo and Daisy, who had stopped their game of checkers
when Luke and the doctor came into the room, Jesse wrapped an arm around
each, offering his strength as they waited to find out what was wrong
with Luke.

 

"Doc? What are you doing here? How did I get home?" Luke asked,
confusion lighting his eyes.

 

"Luke, what do you remember about what happened tonight?"the doctor
gently questioned.

 

"I was riding with the guys and they started drinking, oh God the
train, they tried to beat the train didn't they? I should've made them
take me home instead of just getting out to walk, if I had they'd still
be alive. It's all my fault, I should've..."

 

"Luke, son it's not your fault, if your friends tried to beat a train,
that's not your fault, now I want you to sit here and drink your coffee
while I talk to your Uncle Jesse. Bo, Daisy why don't you two come over
here and sit with your cousin while your uncle and I talk?"

 

Taking Jesse into the kitchen, the doctor soon explained the events
of the night, at least as well as they could figure them out. Leaving
some mild sedatives for Luke, he prescribed bed rest and suggested that
Jesse might need to get some counseling for the boy to help him through
this terrible experience.

 

Three weeks later Luke stood in front of the recruiting station in
Capitol City trying to decide which branch of the service he wanted.

 

Right after the accident Luke had barely left his room, he just couldn't
bring himself to face anybody knowing that he could have stopped his
friends from dying. He had especially not wanted to go to the funerals,
how was he supposed to face their families? But Uncle Jesse had insisted,
had told him that he needed to say good-bye, had assured him that nobody
blamed him. Surprisingly he was right and Luke just couldn't figure that
one out, how could their families not blame him? He could have stopped
them if he had just tried. Could have insisted they take him home or he
could have stayed in the car, if he had been there he could have done
something to stop them, he just knew he could have. But when he tried
to apologize to the families they all told him the same thing in one
way or another; it wasn't his fault, he didn't tell them to drink or try
to beat a train and he shouldn't be blaming himself for their decision.
God he hated this, hated going around Hazzard and seeing the looks of
sympathy from everybody he saw, didn't they understand he didn't deserve
their sympathy and the guilt, oh Lord the guilt everytime he saw Chet's
parents or any of the other boys' parents.

 

Being at home wasn't much better, the concern he saw in his cousins'
and uncle's eyes, the way Bo had taken to tip-toeing around him afraid
he would set off Luke's temper, which lately was always close to the
surface. Punching the wall after Lulu Hogg called and told him how sorry
she was about his friends and how was he doing? Throwing tools when he
couldn't get a bolt loose from Uncle Jesse's truck. Then yesterday it
had all come to a head, Bo had came into their room laughing at some joke
he'd heard and when he tried to tell Luke the joke, Luke's temper erupted.
He had attacked his little cousin, furious that he could laugh and joke
with Luke as though everything were normal and Luke hadn't killed his
friends.

 

Thank God Uncle Jesse had heard Bo's scream, he didn't want to think
about what he might have done to Bo if Jesse hadn't stopped him, as it was
he had put a lot of bruises on him and broken his arm. When he calmed
down and saw what he had done to his cousin, saw Daisy standing in the
doorway her eyes big with fear, he did the only thing he could think of,
he ran.

 

Now here he was, he knew this was the only solution, he had to do
something to make up for what he had done, had to find somewhere to put
his anger before he killed somebody.

 

Last night when he returned home he'd had a long talk with Uncle Jesse,
after Jesse assured him that Bo would be fine he told Luke that he had
to do something about his temper. He could still hear his uncle's voice
as they had sat in the kitchen discussing the situation.

 

"Luke you know we all love you, that won't ever change but this can't
go on, you could have hurt Bo a lot worse if I hadn't been here to stop
you, we both know that. Son you've got to stop blaming yourself for
what happened to your friends, nobody else blames you not even their
families. I don't know why you can't stop feeling guilty, but I do know
it's eating you up inside and you've got to find somewhere to put it
before you do something you can't take back. I can call Dr. Appleby
tommorrow if you want and arrange for some counseling for you or maybe
you'd feel better talking to the minister, I'll do whatever I can to
help you."

 

After some more discussion Luke had decided that he would join the
military, maybe if he served his country it would help make up for what
he had done, and he'd have an outlet for his temper. Uncle Jesse hadn't
liked the idea at first, afraid Luke would go and put himself in danger
in the hopes of joining his friends. Luke still couldn't believe that
Jesse would even care anymore after what he had done to Bo, but he was
grateful that he did.

 

Making a decision and taking a deep breath, Luke walked into the Marine
recruiter's office, leaving a short time later with his enlistment papers
in hand he felt the first bit of peace since that terrible night.

 

The End

 

A/N: Now that those plot bunnies are out of the way I promise my next
story will be slash.