Luke waited in the waiting room with word on Bo's condition. He called the farm to make sure Jesse and Yeller had gotten there ok. Jesse said that he and the girls would be there as soon as they got Yeller taken care of. Luke had been waiting for about an hour, when Jesse and the girls arrived.
Jess ran over to Luke and buried her head into his chest and started crying uncontrollably. Luke put his arms around his cousin in an attempt to comfort her. Daisy was standing beside Jesse silently crying. Not even five minutes after Jesse and his nieces got to the hospital, a doctor who looked to be in his mid to late forties came out.
"Mr. Duke?"
"That's me. How's my nephew?" Jesse said.
"Well I got some good news and some bad news. Which would you like to have first?"
"Let's have the good news first." Jesse said.
"Alright. Well the good news is there was no internal injuries and no brain damage done, considering the fact that he was thrown out in the process of the car rolling and having been pinned under the car. I am surprised that he is awake and fully aware f what is going on. I have never seen anything like it before. Normally when a person is thrown from a car and pinned under it, there is some kind of internal injury and they are normally in a coma afterwards. He was very fortunate to have come away from that accident alive. And without any internal injuries."
"What's the bad news?" Jesse asked becoming worried.
"Well the bad news is…" The doctor began. "Maybe you should come back to my office and I can show you. In the mean time the rest of your family can go see Beauregard he is in room 113. He should be awake, but he will be groggy from the pain medications that we have him on right now."
"Thank you Doctor…" Jesse began but stopped realizing he didn't know the doctors name.
"Oh I'm sorry about that my name is Doctor Alan Smith. Now if you will follow me Mr. Duke I will show you what I am most concerned about with Beauregard." Doctor Smith said. Jesse nodded and followed the doctor to his office. Luke, Jess, and Daisy looked at each other and started down the hall towards Bo's room.
Jesse followed the doctor into a medium sized office. The walls were bare except for a X-ray viewer (not sure if thats right.)on the wall opposite the door.
"Mr. Duke, the reason I wanted you to come into my office is because I have some bad news about Beauregard."
"Please just call me Jesse. Now what's wrong with my nephew that you had to bring me in here for?"
"Well we took some x-rays of Beauregard's spine to make sure there was no spinal damage. Well when the x-rays were developed I noticed that there was some damage done to his spinal cord." Jesse's face went pale when he heard the news. The doctor put up two X-ray pictures and showed Jesse a dark zig-zagging line ona coupleof Bo's veratbrea.
"It appears that when the car landed on your nephew, that it severly fractured his spine. From what the X-rays show us, it appears that a small piece of bone damaged his spinal cord. I'm afraid that it doesn't look good. He may never walk again. I have only seen and heard of one pateint who regained the ability to walk again after an injury like this."
"What are the chances of him possibly regaining the ability to walk?"
"Well the chance of him ever walking again is only one percent."
"Does Bo know yet?" Jesse asked, his voice so full of worry that he almost choked on his words.
"No he doesn't know yet. We thought it would be best if you were the one who told him. We will keep him for a whileto see if there is any more problems that haven't been found yet. And we will also do a few tests to judge the extent of his injuries. But from what I've seen so far, he more then likely will never walk again." Doctor Smith said to Jesse. Jesse looked at the doctor the sadness visible inJesse's features. He couldn't think of anything to say to the doctor other than to thank him for the news even though it wasn't good.
"Th-thank you for the news."
"I only wish it could've been better. Only time will tell if he will be able to walk again. Like I said I only wish I could've been able to give you better news." Jesse and Doctor Smith walked out of the office and shook hands.
"His room is down the hall on the right. It's right across from the nurse's desk. The room number is 113." Jesse nodded at the directions and shook the doctor's hand once again before they went in separate directions. Jesse found Bo's room without any problems. Jesse stood right outside the door trying to figure out the easiest way to tell his nephew what Doctor Smith had told him only minutes before.
He knew that the news would break his youngest nephew's heart. Jesse opened the door to the room and saw Luke sitting in a chair next to Bo's bed talking to him. Daisy and Jess were standing at the foot of the bed. Jesse could clearly see the troubled look in Bo's eyes. Jesse walked in and stood on the other side of the bed.
"Hey how ya doin' kiddo?" Jesse asked trying not to cry in front of his family.
"Uncle Jesse? What did the doctor want to talk to you about?" Luke asked. Jesse looked at his nephews for a minute still unable to think of what to say. His thoughts were interruptedwhen he heardBo speak up.
"Uncle Jesse. Please tell me what the doctor said to you. Luke told me that he wanted to talk to you about me. Please tell me the truth about what he said." Bo asked almost begging. Jesse looked at Bo not sure where to start.
"Well… he told me that, well um…." Jesse started to say but just couldn't find it in his heart to tell his young nephew.
"Uncle Jesse if you can't come to tell me, thenif Luke don't mind you can tell him and then he can tell me."
"I don't mind Uncle Jesse." Luke said. Jesse looked at his nephews and nodded. He motioned for Luke to follow him outside of the room. Once Luke and Jesse were outside of Bo's room, Jesse began to tell Luke exactly what the doctor had told him about Bo. Luke couldn't believe that his baby cousin could possibly be paralyzed. Luke looked at Jesse with disbelief in his eyes. Luke knew that it was going to be hard to tell Bo what Jesse just told him. They were just about to go back into the room, when Daisy came out. She had a worried look on her face.
"Daisy what's the matter?" Jesse asked his niece.
"Uncle Jesse, its Bo. He, he says that he can't move his legs. He wanted me to come out here and tell you."
"That's exactly what we was getting ready to tell him." Jesse said. Daisy looked at her uncle and cousin confused at what Jesse meant by what he had said. Jesse saw the confused look in Daisy's features.
"C'mon. We'll explain everything in the room." Jesse said as he motioned for his niece and nephew to head back into the room. Luke walked over towards Bo's hospital bed and sat down on the chair that was next to the bed. Jesse stood in the doorway with Jess next to him, while Daisy stood on the other side of the hospital bed. There was a long silence that was broken by Bo.
"Uncle Jesse, why can't I feel my legs?" Bo asked in a frightened voice. Jesse looked at his youngest nephew and then to Luke. Luke knew that was his queue. Luke took a deep breath and slowly released it. He cleared his throat and then looked at Bo. Bo layed on the hospital bed patiently waiting for Luke to tell him what he knew Jesse told him.
"Well," Luke began. "The doctor said that you had some damage done to your spinal cord from when the General was on you." Bo looked at Luke not wanting to believe what he was being told. "The doctor said that you may not be able to walk again." Luke finished. It had been hard for the older Duke boy to tell his youngest cousin the devastating news. Bo just stared at Luke not wanting to believe what he had just been told. No one said anything for the rest of the day.
Soon visiting hours were over and the Dukes had to be leaving soon. Luke had volunteered to stay with Bo all night to keep him company. Luke sat awake long after midnight. Bo hadn't gone to sleep either and just layed there on the hospital bed staring at the ceiling. Luke finally broke the silence.
"Hey Bo, just think when you get outta here, there's gonna be someone at home who will be very excited to see you." Luke said hoping to get a response. He was surprised when he did.
"How is he? How's Yeller?" Bo asked looking over at his dark haired cousin. Luke looked at Bo for a minute before he answered.
"He's doin' good. He just had a busted leg and a lot of cuts. But other then that he's doing fine."
"That's good. I'm sure glad he's alright."
"Ya know cousin, if'n it wasn't fer that dog, you'd probably be down in that ditch still. Who only knows how long you could've been there until someone found you."
"Ya I owe Yeller a lot. He saved my life. When the darkness was trying to over take my mind, he kept me awake. I owe him more then I could ever give him."
"You already gave him the best thing there is."
"What's that?"
"A home and a friend. If that dog didn't care about you, he wouldn't've come back to the farm to get us. And God only knows when we would've found you." Bo thought what Luke said over in his mind. He was glad to have a family that cared so much for him, and a cousin, who in his mind was more like a brother to him, and the yeller dog who if it wasn't for Yeller, he might not be alive. He was thankful for having such a great family and while he was thinking about all the wonderful things he had, he fell into a deep sleep. Luke noticed that Bo had fallen asleep.
He decided that he had better get some sleep as well. Luke turned in the chair he was sitting in and tried his best to get comfortable. After what seemed like several hours, but had actually only been a few minutes Luke found spot that was comfortable enough to fall asleep in. Within minutes he too was asleep.
poor Bo! will he ever be able to walk again? stay tuned and you'll find out! sorry if none of that doctor stuff is accurate i dont know much about that stuff. well anyways hope you enjoyed it and please R&R!