Hi Ya'll! Thanks again for all the reviews.

Unfortunately, recovery and background info isn't quite as exciting as intrigue, mystery, and danger, but I had to give the poor boy a rest! I apologize, in advance, if some of my therapeutic techniques aren't one hundred percent accurate.

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

POT SHOTS

CHAPTER 7

REPORTING FOR DUTY

True to her word, Sandy returned the next morning a little before eight. The Dukes were still sitting at the table finishing their coffee and breakfast when she walked up to the door. Unlike the previous day, it was open.

"Morning," she called to them through the screen.

"Hey! Come on in!" Daisy invited her, and she did.

"How bout having a cup of coffee with us before you and Bo get started?" Uncle Jesse asked.

A lot of her colleagues would have refused. Such a distraction could put them behind schedule, making the therapist work later or cheating the patient out of their full allotted time. Others felt it just wasn't a good idea to get too involved or too friendly with the patient or their loved ones. They were reminded that whatever importance their role might be in a person's recovery, they were still the equivalent of the hired help, and it was best to seperate business from pleasure. That's where Sandy was different. She believed that a personable relationship helped promote trust and confidence, and that helped in the recovery. Most of her patients and their families didn't view her as the hired help. She was often revered like a savior, their only and last hope. Except for one, she had always developed some type of personal friendship with the people she worked for. She didn't really try to, she just didn't fight the little things that she knew would lead to it the way others did. If they ran a little past twelve, for Sandy, it wasn't any big deal. She only worked with one patient at a time, so she wasn't expected anywhere after she got done with Bo. Professionals who kept rigid appointment schedules didn't have that luxury. However, she'd always felt that every client deserved her undivided attention, and she couldn't provide that working with several at the same time. Even when she wasn't working with them in person, she was working on their case, developing a plan.

Bo's eyes lit up when she accepted the offer, saying that if they pointed her to the cups, she'd help herself. Coffee in hand, she took a seat next to Luke, and for once, Bo wished that Daisy had been sitting there instead.

In a few short hours, something had already happened. There had been a certain level of excitement in the farm house since first meeting the Texas Twister, a sense of hope.

Bo was wide awake when Luke went to get him up that morning, as if he were looking forward to the day, another first since the shooting. He carefully watched Luke dress him, making sure that he looked somewhat decent, sighing when he moved his head so that his right side was visible in the mirror. As he looked at the reflection bouncing back at him, he scowled. Luke saw it, and wished that his cousin's hair would hurry up and grow back, so that the scar wouldn't be visible. It may not have been the biggest thing they had to worry about, but it bothered Bo, and he'd be a lot better once it could no longer be seen.

"It'll grow back, buddy, and the scar will fade," Luke told him, looking at him via the mirror. "See, it's already getting longer," he told him as he held a strand in his hand. Half of an inch compared to several was hardly making progress to Bo, but he smiled at his cousin, thanking him for his encouragement. Luke put his hand on Bo's shoulder, and Bo laid his head on it. "I love you, Bo."

Bo nodded. "Luke."

"Luke tells us you're from Texas, ma'am," Uncle Jesse commented, bringing his eldest nephew back to the present.

"Yes sir, I am," she confirmed.

"What part of Texas?" Luke asked, not getting the impression that she was from Dallas or Houston.

"Maverick," she replied.

"Any connection to your name or just a coincidence?" Luke asked her, keeping up an exclusive two-way conversation.

"My great-great-great grandfather settled the town," she laughed.

"What are you doing all the way in Georgia, honey?" Daisy questioned, voicing her own curiosities.

"I'm a travelling therapist," she giggled. "I work with certain types of clients, and I go to them."

"Like Bo?" Daisy asked, finding herself fascinated by the thought of such an occupation. She loved her home and her family, but Daisy Duke dreamed of someday having a career. She just couldn't quite decide what field she was interested in, loving music, but understanding how unrealistic that was.

"Just like Bo," Sandy declared, winking at him and noticing that he was turning red again.

"You mean that you came all the way from Texas just to work with Bo?" Uncle Jesse asked, quite surprised.

"Not exactly. I've been working in Atlanta with a teenage girl for the past few months. I'd just finished up and was getting ready to head out when the agency called and asked if I wanted to stay a little longer."

"Oh!" they all uttered, glad that she was with them, but happy that she hadn't driven all the way from the middle of Texas just for them.

"Shall we get started?" Sandy asked, looking at Bo, who nodded. "Ya'll know where to find us if you need us," she told the family, taking hold of the reigns like she took hold of everything around her. "Have you popped any wheelies in this yet?" she leaned down and asked Bo as she pushed him into the living room. He looked up at her with a surprised expression. "You haven't? Well, you will be!" she grinned.

"Oh lordy!" Uncle Jesse exclaimed, wondering why it was that his youngest nephew was always in a device with wheels that he couldn't manage to keep on the ground.


Keeping to her original outline, their sessions were divided into four different segments, and it seemed to be working out quite well. It didn't completely tire Bo, and if they hit a snag, they didn't have to concentrate on it too long before they could move on to something else or be done for the day entirely. The family watched her work with the blonde, thinking that she was a teacher to him like Annie Sullivan was to Helen Keller. She wasn't anything like Battleaxe Bertha, in fact, she wasn't anything like anyone they'd ever met in a doctor's office or hospital before. She made the entire learning process almost fun, while never forgetting the purpose behind it. She was wonderful with Bo. She treated him like he was the most special person in the world, and it didn't take long for her to have him believing it. The faith she displayed in Bo started showing up in his own confidence. They wondered if she was like that with all of her patients or if it was just something special with Bo Duke. One thing they knew, it wasn't an act. When she looked at him, her eyes gave away the fact that she did care very deeply for the young man, and his eyes revealed strong feelings for her, too.

Also, unlike her predecessor, she welcomed family participation. There were times that she said that it did need to be just her and Bo, but most of the time she not only liked it when they wanted to be involved, she encouraged it. Somehow, she always found the right way to include them. Luke told her that he worked with Bo in the afternoons and evenings, and she was more than happy to share with him things that he could do that would greatly help his cousin, and Bo was working harder than anyone had ever hoped he would. She promised him that it would pay off in the end, and he believed it just because she said it was true.

Their time often went a little beyond the four hours, but she didn't mind. The family started asking her to join them for lunch. At first, she said she didn't want to be any trouble, but they convinced her that she wasn't, and she agreed, bonding with all of them. They looked forward to their coffee in the mornings and lunches together in the afternoons because it gave them a chance to talk about something they were interested in, her. Though not wanting to seem nosey, they were, and they were curious about her personal life as well as her professional career.

"Do you have any family back in Texas?" Uncle Jesse asked, wondering if she were all alone and that's why she traveled so much.

"Yes sir, I sure do. My father passed away a few years back, so my mama runs the ranch now, and I've got three brothers, a niece, a nephew, plus a whole peck of aunts, uncles, and cousins."

"You're family owns a ranch?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, the Southern Comfort," she replied, then told him how many acres it was and how many head of cattle they kept.

"Wow!" Uncle Jesse, whistled. "That's a big ranch. You're mama runs that all by herself?"

"Well, we've got a foreman and hired hands, but yeah, she oversees everything."

"What about your brothers?" Daisy asked.

"Unfortunately, none of the boys really love ranching. My oldest brother, Tommy, or Tom as he likes to be called now, he's a business exeutive in Phoenix. He's married and has two great kids, and he's real smart, but he's always so serious. Bobby, the middle brother, he's a meterologist in Houston, and he's probably the happiest out of the boys, really doing what he loves. Timmy, the youngest of the brothers, well, Timmy's Timmy. He a good guy. He got through school, and now lives and works in Dallas as a marketing executive, but he always says that's just his day job so he can eat and so that daddy would be proud of him. He went along with it to make my father happy, but Timmy is a gifted musician, and his heart is in Nashville at the Grand Ole Opry. He plays in a band at night, writes songs, and I think someday he'll make it big enough so that he can leave the business world behind."

"Where do you fit into this family?" Luke wanted to know.

"Me? I'm the youngest."

"You're family doesn't mind you travelling all over?" Uncle Jesse asked, thinking that he'd be worried if Daisy had that kind of job.

"It bothers my mama, but I think she's getting used to it."

"Well, it would bother me, too, if one of mine did that," Uncle Jesse affirmed, then reminded himself that if she didn't, she wouldn't be there helping Bo right that minute. "But, I'd be real proud of them," he told her, "as I'm sure your family is of you."

"Thank you."

"So, you got a husband, or fiancee, or significant other, or boyfriend back at the Southern Comfort?" Daisy asked, changing the subject, and both Bo and Luke's ears perked right up.

"Nope! It'd be kind of hard to do that when I'm gone most of the time."

"You got one stashed anywhere else?" Daisy pressed, leaning forward as if she was sharing some secret just amongst the two of them.

Sandy imitated her action. "No!" she giggled. "How bout you? You got a line of em outside your door on Saturday night?"

"Yeah, I sure do," Daisy said. "All waiting for a beer, down at the Boar's Nest."

"The Boar's Nest?"

"It's a little place on the outskirts of Hazzard owned by none other than Boss Hogg. I work there. I'm a waitress."

"Boss Hogg?" she repeated. "Is that like some kind of a motorcycle?"

Everyone started laughing, including Bo, and proceeded to tell her about the illustrious J.D. Hogg. The Texas Twister truly believed that the character they were describing to her was no more than a figment of their imagination, finding it difficult to believe that something or someone so absurb could really exist.


By the end of their first week together, Sandy had learned that up until a few years back, the Duke family business had been moonshining. At first, she thought they were kidding, having always believed that most stories about moonshiners had been made up or really only took place during the Prohibition years. Despite understanding that the liquor may have been of superior quality, she admitted that she couldn't understand anyone taking the risk of making illegal alcohol when you could buy it in the store. Uncle Jesse and Luke pretended to be offended, saying that the old man's was better than anything you could buy off a shelf. When she found out that they weren't kidding, she asked why, if it was that good, he didn't make it the legal way, and sell and distribute it.

"Now, why didn't I think of that?" Uncle Jesse mocked, and the family laughed, obviously knowing the answer that she did not.

As an afterthought, they hoped that she didn't think poorly of them for knowingly breaking the law. It was their way of life, but not everyone else understood it. Luke hoped she didn't see them as petty criminals, putting themselves above the laws of society. She assured them that she didn't, then told them that she'd had some long, lost, distant relatives who'd been hanged for cattle rustling, so her family had its own skeletons.

Besides learning about their families' histories, Bo had learned some things that week, too. She always gave an update to the relatives and kind of like a show and tell performance at the end of the week. As the Dukes sat around and listened to what she told them, she asked Bo to demonstrate. It might not have seemed like much to people who could do it without thinking, but Bo was now able to control and command the opening and closing of both hands. Luke had already gotten the feeling that he was getting close to being able to do it since he worked with him so much, but the younger cousin had hid how proficient he really was, wanting to surprise him as well as their uncle and other cousin. He had a lot of work to do to before he'd be able to maneuver each finger in order to perform tasks, but he could reach for something that was large enough and pick it up, and that was progress.

He was also able to move his feet, as he demonstrated, but his lower extremities's functions were not quite as far along as his upper. The day before, Sandy had received a delivery which she promised was going to greatly aide in that. She'd asked Luke if he could put the box in the barn until the next day, and asked him not to peek. As soon as they were finished in there, she promised she was going to get it out.

There wasn't anything noticeably different about Bo's speech. His favorite and really only word that he said on command was his cousin's name. They'd heard Sandy working with Bo in that area, but weren't quite sure of what she was trying to accomplish by some of the things she had been doing with him. Rather than trying to get him to talk, she had spent most of that week having him do nothing but make noises. She made him close his eyes and then told him to make a sound, any one he wanted, reminding him that she knew his vocal chords worked and that he could do this. She assured him that which sound he made wasn't important right then. She just wanted him to make it and concentrate on it, with his ears and his mind. It would make sense later.

Wrapping up their little talent show, she moved aside so that his uncle and cousins could be with him. She'd seen a lot of loving families with her patients before, but there was something very special about this one. She was touched when they hovered over Bo, and one by one, he reached for and grabbed their hands. When he grabbed Luke's, the older man returned his grasp so tightly that she was surprised the blonde didn't cry out in pain, but sometimes patients would welcome pain rather than feeling nothing at all. As they sat there with their hands joined, the look that passed between them was indescribable, and it only re-confirmed that she got almost as much out her job as her patients.

Having faded into the background, wanting this time to be for Bo and his family, she was surprised when she found two arms wrapped around her. Daisy was hugging her tight, thanking her for everything she'd done. Before she knew it, Uncle Jesse had done the same followed by Luke, and Luke's embrace was as crushing as his grip on his cousin's hand had been earlier. "Thank you," he whispered in her ear, and she patted his back, as Bo watched with a certain amount of jealousy. He wanted to be able to do that, too, but he couldn't. When she walked by him, he settled for grabbing her hand. She looked down at him, taken by surprise, but recovered immediately and flashed her smile as she put her other hand on top of his.

"You're welcome, too."


There was one more thing Sandy needed to do before she wrapped up their first week, and that was to tend to the item in the box that had been stored out in the barn. She asked Luke if he would help her get it, and he agreed. He was surprised when she informed him that she didn't want him to take it into the house. Kneeling next to it, she removed a pocket knife and sliced the cardboard in half. There were a lot of poles and pieces, and Luke could see that it was going to have to be assembled. Sandy went to the trunk of her car and came back with tools that he didn't find women using too often. Even though she looked quite capable of putting the contraption together herself, he offered to help, and in no time, there was a platform with two bars sitting in the Duke yard. When it was done, she asked Luke to go get Bo. He came back a couple of minutes later with his entire family.

"Bo, this is your new toy, and I just bet it's something you've always wanted." He looked at her sarcastically, then grinned before turning to look at it again, some amount of fear in his eyes. "This is the key to getting you out of that," she said, pointing to the chair. Turning to Luke, she told him that she was going to need his help, at least in the beginning, and she offered to schedule time around whatever was convenient for him. He said he'd be happy to assist, and that all she had to do was tell him when to be there and he would. "Now Bo, you're looking a might peakid and this thing is rather big for the house, so I thought we'd leave it out here. There's a cover for it so it won't get wet or damaged, but this way, you can get a little sun! Does that sound ok?"

He nodded.

Then she bent down and took his hand in hers, smiling when he gripped it. "We've had pretty good days so far, haven't we?" With childlike eyes, he agreed. "But remember I told you there were going to be some bad days?" Again, he nodded. "Some of those days are going to be coming up. Out of everything that we're going to do together, this is going to be the most physically demanding, and at first, this is going to be real hard. I'm not going to lie to you about that. You probably aren't going to like this real well, but if you ever want to walk again, we have to use it. Are you ready for this Bo? Are you ready to really dig down and stick with me so that you can kiss that chariot goodbye?"

Bo looked at her, studying her face, then looking into her eyes. When he gave a determined nod, the whole family let out the air they'd been holding in their lungs. Luke gave a 'yee-haw,' telling his cousin that they'd be running from Rosco again in no time. Sandy straightened a little, then hugged Bo. She hadn't intended on doing it, but her hand gently went to his right cheek, just below the scarline, and she kissed him on the left cheek. As soon as she did it, she scolded herself. It wasn't that she had never hugged a patient or given them a friendly peck before, but it was usually after she'd been working with them for a while or as she was saying goodbye. This had been in response to a feeling she couldn't quite explain. She pulled back, and this time, she was the one who was blushing, and that made Bo feel very good.

As they covered up the torture device, Luke pointed to her license plate so that Bo could see for himself the personalized saying. He laughed. She looked to see what he was laughing at, and he raised his hand and pointed. No one else realized the significance of that action except for Sandy. He had separated his index finger from the rest in a correct gesture, and that showed finger control, which was coming up on her lesson planner. It was a very good sign. She was so excited that she forgot there was a reason Bo was pointing in the first place. He put his arm down, thinking that she wasn't following what he wanted, and he was right.

"He wants to know where you got the name Texas Twister," Luke informed her, lending his voice to Bo's inquiry.

"Oh! I got it after I lived through one," she replied, making it sound as if something like that happened everyday.

"What, a real tornado?" Luke asked, not speaking just for his cousin anymore. She nodded, not thinking anything strange about it. "Wait a minute," he smirked, thinking that she was really pulling his leg. "Do tell," and all of the Dukes perked up their ears to hear the story.

"I don't really remember much, cause I was only three, but me and Bobby were playing and wandered off. All of a sudden, he started running, pulling me behind, but I got away from him and turned around to see just what the heck we was running from, and there was this black monster chasing us. The next thing I knew, I woke up in my room. They told me that I got picked up by the twister, but by some stroke of luck, it set me down in a tree. Like I said, I don't really remember."

"Are you serious, sugar?" Daisy asked, not knowing whether to believe her or not.

"Yeah," she said, seeing the same doubt she always saw when she told that story. "I can have my mama send you a copy of the newspaper article."

"That's ok. We believe you," Uncle Jesse said. "Don't we kids?"

"Yes sir, I mean ma'am," they replied, thinking that even a tornado couldn't find it in its heart to tangle with this one.

Picking up her tools and putting them back in the trunk, she wished them a good day, and told Bo to be rested up by Monday morning.

"How bout you have dinner with us tomorrow, being's it's the Lord's day and you shouldn't have to eat alone?" Uncle Jesse asked.

She was about to refuse, but the younger Dukes were begging her to come, sounding like little kids, and Bo reached up and grabbed her hand, begging her with his eyes.

"Only if you let me help with dinner, and only if we agree that we're not working tomorrow. God's not the only one that deserves one day of rest."

They agreed to her terms, and she told them that she'd see them the next day. They watched the Camaro speed down the road, thinking that the black, swirling dust she was kicking up really did resemble a tornado.