Warning: Not-betaed. I apologise for all the grammar and spelling errors.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except for Big Mike, Pee Wee, the Hemmingways and Caster.

The next morning…

Luke threw his duffle bag into the General Lee. He wasn't planning on staying in Atlanta long, but if he had to, he would. He'll stay there until Bo came home with him. "You bring our lost sheep home, Luke." Jesse ordered as he hugged his boy. "You bring him home."

"I will, Uncle Jesse. I promise." Luke said. He reached over and hugged Daisy, "When he gets home, we'll both tie him to the bed until he understands that this is home and he ain't going nowhere." Daisy sobbed as she nodded into Luke's shoulder. This was the only chance they'll get to bring Bo home. Daisy had taken Bo's leaving hard. At times she would blame herself for not putting more effort into talking to Bo, at other times, she would tell her uncle and cousin that she hated Bo and then start crying because she didn't mean it. Luke and Jesse were at their wits end trying to console Daisy and keeping themselves from driving each other crazy. It all ends today. Luke will bring his cousin home.

Luke made good time. He got to Atlanta before lunch and finding Gary's garage was not hard. Apparently, it's been the busiest garage for the last month. Luke smiled, Bo must be doing a pretty good job. He parked the General, not too far from the garage, but not close enough for Bo to spot.

Luke walked up to the young mechanic who was under the hood of a car. "Excuse me. I'm looking for Bo Duke."

The man looked up from the engine and poked his head out. He looked to be about Bo's age. He studied Luke for a while. For some reason he looked familiar. "I've seen you before. You say you're looking for Bo?"

"That's right." Luke's heart was beating fast now, he was so close to Bo.

The young mechanic started clicking he's fingers, "You're Luke Duke, Bo's cousin."

"That's right. How'd you know?" Luke asked curiously.

"Bo showed me a picture of his family. He talks about you a lot. Says you're a better mechanic than he is. I found that hard to believe 'cause Bo's really good."

"Yeah, he is." Luke said sadly, the comment bringing back the guilt built up over the weeks since the racing accident. "He's the better driver though."

Marcus laughed, "yeah, that's what he says too."

"Where is he?" Luke liked this man already; his childish grin reminded him of his cousin.

"It's his day off today…come to think of it, he usually gets here in the morning to borrow a car and head off to Stone Mountain. He hasn't come in yet."

Luke frowned, a bad feeling suddenly settling in the pit of his stomach. "Any chance he came in before you got here?"

Marcus shook his head, "He usually takes that jeep because it handles the mountain roads better." Luke looked at the black jeep sitting outside the garage.

"Can you tell me where he's staying?"

"Yeah, 32 Portman Rd, apartment 322. It's just a block away. Drive down here," Marcus pointed to the left "and turn right on the next road. It's the red building."

"Thanks, Marcus." Marcus watched Luke disappear. A minute later he could hear a roaring of an engine and walked out to see what it was. A bright orange car with a zero one on the side and a confederate flag on the roof, roared pass.

Marcus grinned, "The General Lee. Wow!"

Luke ran up the flight of the steps to the third floor. He walked down the corridor, looking at the numbers on the door, "16, 18, 20…" He came to the door, "22." Luke took a deep breath, then knocked on the door. The door creaked open. Luke's facial expression hardened. Something was wrong. Cautiously, Luke pushed the door open. The sight he saw drained the colour from his face. "Bo!" Bo was lying there in the middle of the room, his hands tied behind his back, his ankles taped together and duct tape over his mouth. "Bo!" The carpet was soaked in blood. Luke took out his pocket knife and cut the bonds, then pulled off the tape. Gently, he rolled his unconscious cousin onto his back. There was a knife wound in the side of his abdomen. He put two shaky fingers on Bo's neck and waited for the precious beat. Luke closed his eyes in relief when he found one. He looked around the room and saw the phone. "I need an ambulance at 32 Portman Rd, apartment 322. My cousin's been stabbed and he's lost a lot of blood." Luke dropped the phone and went back to Bo. He pulled open Bo's shirt and saw that the knife wound had stopped bleeding. "Bo." Luke tapped his face, "Bo, wake up." Bo's skin was cold. Luke took off his jacket and laid it over Bo. "Come on, Bo. You have to be okay, I've looked for you for a month. You are not leaving now." Bo still didn't respond. Luke started checking for other injuries. He ran his hands over Bo's right leg and then started up his leg. He jumped when Bo groan as his hands ran over Bo's knee. "Bo?" Luke left his leg alone, knowing it was broken. "Bo."

Bo opened his eyes. There was a blurry figure hovering above him. "Who…" He closed his eyes again when pain shot through his head.

"Hey, it's okay. Don't talk. The ambulance will be here soon." Luke smoothed Bo's hair away from his face. He turned Bo's head to the right when he noticed something on his neck. Dried blood.

"Head…hurts."

"Yeah…probably because you got hit over the head." Luke said, the blood had run down his neck from a gash behind his temple.

"Base…..ball." Bo groaned.

"What?"

"Bat."

"Son of a…" Luke stopped himself from saying it.

"Luke?" Bo's vision finally cleared. "What are you…" Bo groaned again. He was hurting everywhere.

"I came looking for you, Bo. What the heck did you think would happen when you ran off?"

"Told Uncle…Jesse don't…" His body took that moment to make itself known to Bo. He wasn't sure there was a part of him that wasn't in pain. Luke eased him up and sat behind him, hugging his cousin to his chest.

"It's okay, it's okay…we'll talk about this when you're better." Luke whispered in his ear. "You'll be okay." Bo was so tense against Luke. Luke's arms tightened around his cousin. "Help's on the way."

"I was hoping…you would come." Bo managed to get out before passing out again. Luke felt Bo's weight get heavier and knew his cousin was unconscious again. You hoped I would come, you didn't know I would come, Luke thought sadly to himself. Before all this happened, Bo would've believed in Luke more. He would've told Luke that he knew he would come, because before all this mess, Bo's faith in Luke never wavered.

"I will always be here for you, Bo. I wish you still believed in that." Luke whispered. The paramedics walked through the door then. Luke looked up, "He's got a knife wound on his side and his left leg is broken. His ribs might be broken too and he's got hit in the head by a baseball bat." Luke ran off all the injuries he knew about. He was surprised that the police was with them, but the knife wound must've sounded off alarms. Luke spoke to the police officer as the paramedics tended to Bo. He didn't take his eyes off Bo when he answered the questions. Luke couldn't tell them much, so they let him leave with Bo. Luke held Bo's hand all the way down until they got to the ambulance. He wanted to go with Bo in the ambulance but he couldn't leave the General here. "Which hospital are you taking him to?" He planned to follow, but the ambulance will be going through lights.

"Emory University Hospital." The paramedic answered.

Luke waited for the doctor to come out and tell him Bo was okay. Sitting in the waiting room, Luke knew he should be calling his uncle and Daisy right now, but he didn't know what to tell them. He needed some good news before he called them. This was not the way he pictured his reunion with Bo. The waiting for news of a family member in the hospital was the worse moments. The worse scenarios tended to go through your head and then thoughts about what could've been done to prevent all this. In Luke's case, it always came down to the way he handled losing the race in Hazzard. A stupid race was all it took to lead to this. "Family of Beauregard Duke." The doctors voice pierced through Luke's thoughts.

Luke jumped off his seat. "That's me! I'm his cousin."

"I'm Doctor James Radford." Luke shook the doctor's hand, "Your cousin is very lucky. The knife would was deep, but it didn't hit anything vital. He's got a concussion and his kneecap is fractured. It's a clean fracture but I'll have to wait until he wakes up and get him to perform a test before I can determine what needs to be done. He has about four broken ribs in the back and two in the front."

Luke nodded, "The four in the back is from an injury about a month ago."

"Well, he won't be needing surgery for them. He also has a concussion. The paramedics told me that it was caused by a baseball bat?" Luke nodded. "Well, he must've been able to move just in time so that it couldn't cause that much damage, because a direct hit to the temple like that could've caused a lot of problems." Luke fumed when he heard this; it told him that the man or men who did this had intended to do a lot more damage. They probably thought Bo would bleed to death. "He'll need to take it easy for a while. Overall, he's doing well. He'll be extremely sore when he wakes up but we'll have medication for him to keep it under control." The doctor finished off his report.

"We live in Hazzard County. When do you think I'll be able to take him home?"

"I won't know that until Bo wakes up and I can do a few more tests."

Luke nodded, understanding that it was the doctor's responsibility to keep his patient's well being at the top of the list. "Thanks, Doc. Which room is he in?"

"Room 105." Luke shook the doctor's hand again and headed off, anxious to see his cousin. He was shocked when he entered the room and saw that Bo was already waking up. Luke could tell that he was disoriented.

Bo opened his eyes and saw that he was in an unfamiliar room. He was on his back, slightly inclined. Turning his head, he frowned at the tube going into his left wrist. Bo reached over to pull the offending object out when a hand grabbed his arm and gently lowered it back down onto the bed. "You don't want to do that." Bo frowned at the hand. The voice sounded familiar, but his brain was so foggy, he couldn't seem to place it. He looked up at the face that belonged to the same body as that hand.

"Luke?"

Luke smiled at him. "Yeah." He sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up Bo's hand. It's not often he shows his affections so openly when Bo's conscious, but today was different. "How are you feeling?" He decided to start with the simple questions.

"What are you doing here?" Bo asked instead of answering the question, still frowning at his hand in Luke's.

Luke sighed, "Why do you keep asking that?" Bo looked away and shrugged, then winced at the pain the small movement made. "Bo, why are you finding it so hard to believe that I came for you?" So much for the easy questions. "I always come for you when you're in trouble."

"I'm tired, Luke." He tried to pull his hand away but Luke gripped it even tighter. He was going to fix up this mess right now. "Luke…"

"No. I let you use that excuse in Hazzard and look where that led us." Luke shook his head, "You tell me what the heck is going on or we'll stay up for the rest of the day and the whole night, if that's what it takes." Bo remained quiet. "Bo, I miss the days when I knew what was going on with you. I miss the days you tell me you know I'll always catch you when you fall." He didn't expect the angry glare he got from Bo, before it turned to resignation. Luke was confused, "Please, Bo, talk to me."

Bo closed his eyes. He wished Luke would just go back to Hazzard County and leave him alone, but he knew his cousin well enough to know Luke would never leave unless he got his answer. "Maybe I shouldn't be there to catch him every time he falls." Bo whispered. He could tell Luke knew what he was talking about when Luke's grip on Bo's hand loosened. Bo took the opportunity to take his hand back. It automatically went to his side, where the knife wound was. The pain medication was wearing off. "You got your answer, you can go now." Bo turned his head and closed his eyes.

Luke stood up, numb from what Bo just told him, "I'll tell the nurse you're awake." It took every ounce of energy he had to walk out of that room. Once the door closed Luke slid to the ground. "This is my fault. All because of that stupid race. I let him down." He didn't know Bo was listening that day, but he was so angry at the time, he didn't know if he would've even cared if he did know. "Sir, are you okay?" How did he let his anger get to the point to cause all this? "Sir?" Bo, could've died. "Sir?" Luke looked up when a voice finally penetrated his self-reprimanding.

"Sir, are you okay?" A young pretty nurse was standing over him. "Are you okay?"

Luke stood up, turning his head and wiping his eyes in embarrassment. "Um…yeah, I'm fine. My cousin's pain medication's wearing off." He told her. "Can you help him?"

The nurse smiled and nodded, "Of course I can." She left Luke to get check Bo's charts and prepare the medication.

Bo wanted to go back to sleep, but the pain in his back and side was getting worse, keeping him from resting properly. Suddenly, he wished that Luke would come back. Luke always knew how to make his pain go away, but he knew Luke wouldn't be back, not after what Bo said. Luke wants him to be able to take care of himself, and now that he knew Bo knew that is what he wants, he doesn't need to be here anymore. He didn't understand that Luke wanted to be here.

The door opened and a young nurse came in. "I'm Jessica. Your cousin told me you're in pain. I've checked and you're due for your medication." Jessica checked the IV line before taking a syringe from her tray and injecting it straight into his IV line. "You should be feeling better soon." Jessica smiled at him, but Bo didn't notice. He was still confused about what the nurse had told him. Luke asked her to relieve his pain. Luke was still here and as much as he'd been wishing Luke would go back to Hazzard, it gave him a sense of comfort. Luke was still looking out for him, even after everything that's happened. Bo's eyes grew heavier as the medicine took affect. The nurse waited to ensure Bo was comfortable, before leaving the room. His eyes followed her to the door. Luke's voice broke through the fuzziness of the medication "How is he?" Bo smiled at the concern in Luke's voice before giving in to sleep.

Luke waited for the nurse to come back out. "How is he?"

"He's sleeping now." The nurse was about to go back to her post when she remembered something, "A Detective Bradley came in earlier to ask Mr Duke some questions about his attack. Dr Radford told him that he wasn't ready for questioning yet."

Luke nodded, "Thanks." He wanted some answers as well. There wasn't much he could do for Bo right now but he could at least find the jackasses that did this. However, there was one thing he had to do before heading over to Gary's garage to talk to Marcus. Luke found a payphone and made the call he's been avoiding.

Jesse was outside feeding Maudine when the phone rang in the house. He dropped everything and ran into the house. "Luke! That better be you!" Jesse picked up the phone, "Duke residence!"

Luke chuckled at the grumpy greeting, "It's Luke. I found Bo."

"How is he? What took you so long to call? When are you coming home?"

"One question at a time, Uncle Jesse." Luke hesitated, "Uncle Jesse, it ain't good news. You should sit down."

"Just spit it out, Luke!" Jesse dreaded what he was about to be told but he's been through a lot in his life and he'll be going through more in the years to come.

"Bo was attacked in the apartment he's renting. I found him this morning."

Jesse went silent at the news. He's youngest was alone in a big city and had been attacked. "How is he?" when he finally found his voice again.

"The doctor said he'll recover, but we'll know more when the doctor performs more tests." Luke answered, "Listen, Uncle Jesse. I got something to do; I'll call you again later this afternoon, okay?"

"You make sure you do or I'll drive up there and give you a what for, you understand me?" Jesse demanded, too worried about his boys to calm down.

"I will, Uncle Jesse. Take care."

"Luke, look after Bo."

"I will."

"And Luke?"

Luke chuckled at his uncle's incessant nagging, "Yes, Uncle Jesse?"

"Look after yourself."

"Yes, Sir." Luke answered, suddenly getting choked up. "Bye." He hung up the phone before his uncle could notice anything wrong. "I'll take care of Bo and I'll take care of those jackasses who did this to him!" He left the hospital on a mission.