Chapter 8: Nick of Time

"Let's try this one more time."

The sheriff's department was empty, but for the handful of men and the two prisoners standing and sitting outside the jail cells in the basement. Rosco and Enos had gone home at seven, an hour earlier, convinced that nothing more was to be done today. Boss Hogg was at the Boar's Nest, counting the previous night's profits. That left Cooter and Daisy alone, with Agent Derek Brown and his men. Both prisoners sat, tied firmly to chairs against the wall, and the severe faces of the so-called agents made a half-circle around them. Brown drew his gun, and pointed it at Cooter's knee.

"Where are the Dukes hiding?"

Cooter mutely stared at the men's feet. BAM! He flinched as the bullet blasted into the concrete floor, passing within an inch of his leg. Brown moved the hot muzzle back against his knee.

"I won't miss a second time, Mr. Davenport. We know you spoke with one of them. Where are the Dukes?"

Daisy looked on in horror. She couldn't watch Cooter get shot for his loyalty. "They're at the lake," she blurted suddenly. "They're at Wyle's Lake."

Brown scrutinized her with cold eyes. "I think you're lying," he decided. He moved the gun from Cooter's knee to his temple. Daisy gasped, and Cooter shut his eyes tightly. "Are you lying?"

"Don't tell them, Daisy," Cooter urged hoarsely.

Tears flowed to Daisy's eyes. Her friend or her family? "Jackson's Hollow." Her voice was broken and heavy. She looked down and the tears spilled onto her cheeks. "They're hiding at Jackson's Hollow."

Brown lowered the gun and smiled a cruel smile. "Now that's better. Lock them up," he ordered his men, "And bring in the others. We're going hunting."

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Not a half-hour later, Brown and his men reached Jackson's Hollow, with guns drawn. The men assigned to trailing Cooter confirmed it was the area they'd lost him in earlier. They charged in on the peaceful clearing with the gurgling stream, disturbing only a mourning dove from a shrub. Brown snarled in anger as he realized the trick, while his men fanned out and searched along the branching trails.

"Sir!" one of them called. He walked over to the man, who pointed to two clear and fresh sets of hoofprints and dung in a patch of mud, one set coming, the other set going back the same way.

Brown smiled that same cruel smile. "Bring down the dogs. They were here."

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Jesse Duke had a decision to make.

While Bo's arrival seemed to bolster Luke's strength, and he'd lost that dazed expression when talking with his cousin, Luke had only gotten worse since Bo's departure. He blazed with fever, and instead of sweating, his skin was hot and dry. Jesse tried cooling him off with a wet cloth, wiping his forehead and cheeks as he muttered and talked in his sleep. After a few hours, Luke had woken up as his breaths became rapid and shallow, trying desperately not to cough in the painful fits that robbed his strength and brought up unending amounts of blood-flecked green phlegm. He stopped asking about Bo or Daisy in the sleepy tone from earlier in the afternoon, and instead sat upright against the stone wall with his eyes closed, concentrating on nothing but the breath going in and out of his lungs. When Jesse stood or moved, Luke would open his eyes and watch his movements without a word. Jesse had quietly explained Bo's plan, that help was on the way, that Jesse would take care of him. He even managed to coax Luke to sip honeyed tea, but Luke refused more when the warmth only made him cough again. Jesse paced anxiously from Luke and the fire to the cave entrance and back, watching the road for some sign of Bo returning with the cavalry.

He'd come running at Luke's last coughing fit, which left him red-faced and clutching his chest in pain - he'd broken a rib with one deep hacking cough. Jesse knelt next to him, searching for the wound, breathing hard himself as he could only watch his nephew's misery.

"It hurts, Uncle Jesse." Luke's voice was a raspy whisper, almost pleading, eyes closed again as he leaned back against the cool wall.

That made up Jesse's mind. He couldn't wait any longer. Bo would understand.

The waning moon was high overhead, leaning down towards the western sky in the velvet field of stars, as Jesse left the black cave behind, carrying his eldest nephew wrapped in warm blankets. He walked slowly and carefully, trying not to jostle the young man in his arms, down the path and across the field towards the Downing farm. Wanted or not, arrested or not, Luke needed to go to the hospital and Jesse Duke would get him there. He hadn't long entered the woods when Jesse heard the baying of dogs somewhere in the night, somewhere close. God, no, not now. Let him get his boy to safety first.

Jesse turned and looked through the trees to see three bloodhounds, one after the other, break out of the trees on the far side of the field, followed by a dozen armed men and the two handlers in cowboy hats. The men made straight for the cave as soon as they saw it, charging in with guns drawn. Jesse didn't wait to see any more. Holding Luke closer, he moved as quickly as he could through the trees. Only a half mile. Just a half mile. Luke's rapid breathing matched his own by the time he reached the road, not a thousand feet from the Downing farmhouse. He was halfway across the road when the sound of an engine approached and headlights flooded the dark thoroughfare. Jesse froze, knowing he couldn't get away fast enough to escape the grey sedan. Then the car pulled up beside him, and he saw Jed Hawkins at the wheel. A middle-aged man climbed into the back seat and opened the door, helping Jesse to lift Luke inside before climbing in himself. He slammed the door shut, and Jed was off, leaving the cave and the hunters behind.

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"Jesse Duke, John Hawkins," the doctor quickly introduced himself before looking at the young man who sat between them. One glance told him enough. "Dad, hospital, on the double."

Luke looked up towards the source of the voice, and Hawkins noticed his gaze. He took Luke's wrist in one hand while he spoke, taking his pulse and counting the pace of his breaths. One was too high, the other too fast.

"Luke, my name is John, and I'm a doctor. Your cousin Bo sent me. I don't want you to try to talk," he instructed firmly when Luke moved his lips to speak. "Bo is fine and safe. We need to get you to a hospital, though. Do you understand? Just nod or shake your head."

Luke nodded weakly.

"How long has he been like this?" John asked Jesse, reaching over into the front seat for a satchel of supplies. He pulled out a stethoscope and a blood pressure cuff, placing one in his lap and the other to his ears.

"The last few hours," Jesse answered, watching the doctor warm the stethoscope bell between his hands before pulling aside the blankets to reach behind Luke's back. "He's been running a high fever all day, and sick since he got up yesterday." The doctor nodded - Bo had explained his earlier symptoms.

"Has he seemed confused at all? Out of it?" John asked, listening intently to the sounds in each part of Luke's lungs as he breathed. He frowned at what he heard.

"Yeah, on and off. I think he broke a rib coughing a little bit ago too. I didn't know you were coming, I had to get him help - I was taking him to the farmhouse across the road."

"Has he been coughing things up?" John was finished with the stethoscope, and picked up the BP cuff as Jesse answered affirmatively. "Luke, I need your arm for a minute. This is going to get tight." Velcroing the cuff into place on his patient's upper arm, he held the stethoscope at the joint and pumped up the cuff. Slowly he released the pressure, watching the needle and numbers on the dial. 100 over 66 - low. He removed the cuff and left it aside, turning back to his patient. "You still with us, Luke?"

The young man nodded, eyes closed. Jesse looked out the window, and saw that they were close, only just outside of the city. "They're probably going to arrest us the moment we come through the front door," Jesse informed the Hawkins gravely.

"No, they're not," John told him, and quickly explained Bo's earlier revelation. Jesse looked shocked, amazed, horrified, and happy all at once.

By the time John finished, they were at the hospital, pulling up to the emergency room entrance. John got out first, jogging inside, and soon appeared again followed by a trio of nurses and another doctor bearing a stretcher. Jesse helped them move his nephew onto the stretcher, and then they quickly moved inside, John with them. Jesse was left alone with Jed and the now-empty car.

Leaving the car running, Jed got out and walked up beside his old friend, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Jesse? Let's go on in. They'll take care of him. You wait inside while I park the car." Jesse snapped out of his shock when Jed gently pulled him towards the admittance doors, and numbly followed his friend inside to the waiting room. With a few words to the nurse at the desk, Jed left him there and went to move the car away from the emergency entrance for the next son or daughter or father or mother who was rushed there by family or ambulance.

When Jed returned a short while later, Jesse was still in the waiting room, staring at a stack of papers in his hands handed to him by the nurse. He looked as exhausted as Bo had, and it was obvious that he wanted nothing more than to be at his nephew's side. Jed asked that request of the nurse, but she shook her head apologetically.

"I'm sorry, sir, but there's no word yet on that patient. If his father could fill out that paperwork…"

Jed didn't listen to the rest. He picked up a pen off the desk and sat down next to Jesse, taking the papers from his hands. He filled out as much as he knew, and asked Jesse the details, copying the same information over onto other pages. He got up and handed the pen and papers to the nurse, and sat back down again.

"Bo was sleeping when we left, otherwise we'd have brought him. Henry, our…our servant, is looking after him."

Jesse nodded and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Thank you, Jed. This means more to me than I can say. If I hadn't left with him when I did…if you hadn't gotten there when you did…they would have had us." Jesse told him about the dogs and the men who arrived just after he'd reached the woods. "You and your son were heaven-sent, Jed. Heaven-sent."

Jed shook his head, astounded at the burdens on his friend's shoulders in the last few days. It was obvious how deeply he loved his nephews.

"Mr. Duke?" Jed looked up to see the desk nurse standing next to them. Jesse looked up as well.

"Yes?" he asked softly.

"I just received an update on your nephew Lucas. He's been taken to the intensive care unit on the third floor. They should have more information for you there." She directed them to the elevators, wished them luck and left.

When Jed and Jesse arrived at the entrance to ICU, they were stopped by another nurse at another desk. Through the glass in the doors, they could see John Hawkins talking with another figure out of view. He glanced at the doors and saw them there, and broke off his conversation, walking out to meet them.

"Dad, Mr. Duke! I'll take them from here, miss," he informed the nurse, though he did not lead them inside, but to a cubbyhole of a waiting room around the corner. When they had all sat down, he said, "They've got him in ICU, and he's resting. He's getting fluids and antibiotics through an IV, and he's…Mr. Duke, he stopped breathing in the ER. They had to insert a chest tube - he's still not breathing on his own." Jesse closed his eyes tightly, a knot of pain in his own chest. Gently, John continued. "It's already helped quite a bit, and his vitals have improved. By all accounts, it's pneumonia. The x-rays showed it filling most of his right lung and part of his left, and we think it's bacterial, which is good, because he should respond well to antibiotics. That's also why it hit him so fast and hard - the shock to his immune system Friday left him vulnerable, and everything since then only weakened him further."

"Can I see him?" Jesse asked.

John exchanged a look with his father before answering. "I can probably convince them to let you see him for a few minutes, but not for long. His vitals have improved, but he's not stable yet. He needs to rest, and you need to rest too."

Jesse started to object, but stopped. The middle-aged doctor was probably right. "All right. A few minutes, then."

The two older men followed John back to the nurse's desk and waited while John went inside to speak with the right people. A few minutes later, he came back out with a note for the vigilant nurse, and motioned Jesse to come in. Jed waited outside.

The intensive care unit was set up with two rows of large doorless rooms down each side. Some of the rooms held several occupied beds, while other smaller rooms just held one patient. All were stocked with an abundance of medical equipment that Jesse could only guess at the function, and all had a great deal of space for the teams of doctors and nurses to occasionally intervene with death. Along the middle of the ward, John stopped at one of the smaller rooms and gestured for Jesse to step inside. Nothing could have prepared the Duke clan patriarch for the sight that met his eyes in the darkened room.

Luke lay amidst the jumble of machinery Jesse had seen in other rooms, attached by tubes and wires to most of it. A curving white tube snaked out of his mouth, taped in place, and his chest rose and fell with the hiss of the pump on the wall behind him. Three bags of IV fluids hung on hooks, dripping through long tubes into his bloodstream through needles at the backs of his hands and the inside of one elbow. John explained that the dozen wires snaking out from under the hospital gown were EKG leads, and gave an image of the activity of his heart. Another wire came from a clip on one finger, which John said read the oxygen content in his blood. Were it not for the equipment, Luke looked like he was sleeping, pale with red-rimmed eyes.

Jesse watched him silently for a space of time, trying to control his own thoughts and feelings. Then he looked to the doctor, and asked him to explain the numbers and readouts on the screens. Jesse wanted to know exactly how Luke was doing.

"Well, this one is the EKG. It's complicated to explain, but basically his heart's functioning normally, just a little fast. Any change in this pattern will tell us if he's in any trouble. This is his heartrate here," John pointed to the number, "110 beats per minute is high. Normally it should be around 80, but this isn't too high for now. This here is his blood oxygen content - this is what we're most concerned with right now, and this is why he's on the chest tube. It's around 70 now, and it should be higher than 90 - it's much lower than it should be. His blood pressure will be taken every ten minutes or so - the last reading was 110/80, which could be a little higher, but isn't bad - it's better than it was in the car. 120/80 is textbook normal. His fever's gone down a bit too - 102 now, from 104 when we first came in. And that's…that's pretty much it. We'll watch how these numbers and readouts change, and keep an eye on him. He's very lightly sedated, as well, to keep him from fighting the chest tube."

Jesse stepped close to the bedside, gently picking up his nephew's hand, careful of the IV line. He leaned over and kissed Luke's hot forehead, stroking his hair. "I'm here for you, Luke. You just rest and get better, let these machines do the work." He received a flicker of an eyelid as his only response.

"I'm sorry, John?" a male voice spoke behind them. Jesse and John Hawkins both turned to see a red-haired man in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, Mike, we were just leaving," John apologized. He'd let Jesse visit for much longer than he should have. Jesse let go of his nephew's hand and kissed his forehead once more, then turned to go.

"Jesse Duke, this is Dr. Mike Walters, the doctor overseeing Luke's case," John introduced. "We went to medical school together."

Jesse shook the man's hand, thanking him for his efforts wholeheartedly.

"Yes sir, Mr. Duke, we'll do all that we can to get your nephew back on his feet," Dr. Walters assured him.

Jesse thanked him again, and Walters showed them both out, back to the waiting room where Jed Hawkins rose to meet them.

"Jed, John, I can't thank you enough for what you've done," Jesse said, sitting down again. Father and son both looked at each other, wishing there were something more they could do.

"I asked the nurse, Jesse, and she said you can sleep in here if you like, or we'll happily pay for a hotel room across the street," Jed offered.

Jesse shook his head. "No, I'll stay right here, thank you, Jed."

"You should try to rest, Jesse. We'll wake you up if…if there's any changes," John promised.

Jesse nodded agreement, though he couldn't imagine sleeping at a time like this. Both Hawkins moved back a little and sat down, giving him space. For a while, he sat leaned forward like that, propping his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. He prayed, for Luke, for Bo, for Daisy, for a happy ending to all this mess. It wasn't too long, though, before John Hawkins went in search of coffee, and came back to find both his father and Jesse sleeping soundly, if awkwardly, in their chairs. He sat down and sipped the brew, his heart breaking for the kind old fellow, knowing it would be a long day ahead for all of them.

Friends, I think I'll be throwing in my own prayers for ol' Luke tonight.