A/N – Hi everyone! I'm so sorry that this has taken so long, but this site has been dealing me fits the last couple of days! According to their records, I don't exist.

I really appreciate the reviews and feedback. Special thanks to T.S. Blue for her help on the last chapter and this one!

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

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BLOOD BROTHERS

CHAPTER 19

WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED

"Bo! Bo!" Luke screamed, taking his cries into the hall where he was greeted by two of the floor's nurses.

"Sir! Please, keep your voice down. You're upsetting the other patients."

"Where's my brother?" Luke asked, not even realizing that it had rolled right off his tongue.

"Your brother?" one of the nurses asked.

"The patient in 314," the other nurse told her.

"Sir, are you Luke Duke?"

"Yes. Where's Bo?"

"They need you downstairs in ER right away!"

"ER?" he asked, thinking that would be an odd place to take an in-patient.

"C'mon. I'll take you," she said, dragging him by the arm.

When they reached the desk, Luke turned toward the waiting area. "Uncle Jesse!" he called.

"Lucas," the old man called back, getting to his feet.

"Uncle Jesse, what's going on? I got to Bo's room, and no one was there, then they drag me down here. What happened, and where's Bo?"

"He's in there," his uncle told him, "which is where they need you. There was an accident."

"What kind of accident?"

"Just go with them, now! We'll explain later," the Duke patriarch instructed.

The nurse that was holding onto him transferred custody to another nurse who emerged through the doors. Luke felt like he was being dragged behind a runaway horse, but all he really cared about was why, and what had happened to Bo. Stopping when they reached a back elevator, she pushed the button. "I'm sorry, but we don't need you in ER. We just thought it would be easier to locate you that way."

"What's going on? What happened to Bo?"

"Sir, all I know is that there was some kind of accident, and they need you to donate blood for your cousin."

"Brother," Luke corrected.

"Brother," she agreed, not caring what the family tie was at the moment. She relinquished her custody when they reached a small lab set up with chairs.

"Okay, Mr. Duke. We need to get started," a technician told him, directing him to any chair that he wanted. "We're going to take as much blood as we can right now cause we don't know how much they'll need. It's a little more than we normally do, but I need you to tell me if you start feeling light headed or any other ill effects, okay?" he asked, as Luke watched him insert the needle.

Luke nodded, not caring how light headed he felt if Bo needed his blood. What really worried him was that it seemed like he needed a lot of it, and he couldn't fathom why. What kind of an accident could a person have when they were already in the hospital? He wanted to ask what was going on, but he doubted that the lab tech would know. He was just going to have to wait it out, using the time to pray. Since he'd found that it did work, he decided to do a little more.

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"Uncle Jesse, I can't find Luke anywhere," Daisy said, bowing her head to hide her tears. "How's Bo? Have you heard anything?"

Jesse had been hoping that she would show up ever since he'd found Luke. He knew that the longer she was gone, the more desperate she was probably becoming. "It's ok, Daisy," he told her, wrapping his arms around her. "He showed up a little while ago, and they took him back to get him started. I haven't heard anything about Bo yet."

Daisy nodded, letting her uncle lead her to a chair. She laid her head on his shoulder, as they waited for news on exactly what was going on.

Two hours later, a nurse appeared, helping a wobbly Luke to join the rest of his family. "Ya okay, sugar?" Daisy asked, wondering why he seemed so unsteady on his feet.

"He was an angel and gave us a little more blood than we normally take, just in case we need it. We've already given him some juice, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to give him some more. He should be just fine. Just keep an eye on him until he starts feeling a little more sure footed."

"Will do, ma'am," Uncle Jesse replied, thanking her for her help as they plopped Luke in a chair opposite the ones they were sitting in. "Daisy, go to the cafeteria and get Luke some juice," he asked, but both Luke and Daisy could tell that he really wasn't asking. They looked at each other, knowing that Jesse Duke was not happy about something, and Luke got the direct impression that he was the object of his uncle's displeasure.

"Sure sugar. Orange?"

Luke nodded, ready to agree with anything. As she walked off, he knew that the worst thing he could do was to speak first, but he couldn't help it. He still didn't know what had happened, and since they were still sitting in the ER waiting room, he assumed that Bo was still being worked on.

"Uncle Jesse, what happened?" Luke asked. "Where's Bo, and what are they doing to him?"

"Ya know Luke, I swore when I finally saw you, I was going take you out back and whoop you, and I still might, after you're looking a little better."

"Why?" Luke asked.

"Why?" his uncle repeated, raising his voice enough to attract the attention of those around them. "Why?" he asked again in a softer voice, though he didn't expect a reply. "Luke, I've looked the other way and turned the other cheek while you took your anger out on me. I looked the other way while you took it out on God. I could understand that you were hurting, but so we're the rest of us, but I let it go. This time, I just can't. Now I know that you may be upset about discovering that Robert's your father and not Louis, and I'm sorry if you think that I should have told you something that I didn't believe myself. You want to have that out with me, that's one thing, but I'm not going to allow you to take it out on Bo!"

"I don't want to take it out on Bo," Luke meekly replied, fearing what would happen if he riled his uncle any more. "In fact, I've thought it through, and I'm not even that angry about it."

"Well praise be the Lord," Jesse said sarcastically. "It's too bad you didn't stop a moment to think about that earlier, or to have at least asked for a little time in a civilized manner rather than just storming out. What did you think was gonna happen?"

"What did happen?"

"I'll tell ya what happened. Bo got so scared and was so worried about you that he ran after you. In case you haven't noticed, he may be better, but he's not quite up to one hundred percent yet."

"I know that," Luke said.

"Lucas!" Jesse exclaimed, putting up his warning finger. "Now, he barely got into the hall, going at a speed that he shouldn't have been going at, when he tangled his foot in a cart. He landed on some sharp object, and ended up cutting his arm up pretty good. I don't know how many stitches they had to give him, but cuts lead to something else."

"Oh no!" Luke said.

"Oh yes! Bleeding. The one thing they warned us about not letting Bo do. He bled all over the floor, and all over the elevator, and all over everything down here until they took him behind those doors where they've been working on him ever since. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, they didn't have enough of your blood on hand so they needed more, and we can't find ya!"

"I'm sorry, Uncle Jesse. I really am!" Luke said.

"I ain't finished! Bo said to give you a message while we was in the elevator, right before he passed out. You want to know what it was? We'll I'll tell ya anyway. He said to tell Luke that he was sorry. If he hadn't gotten sick, you would have never found all this out. Then he said to tell you that he loved ya. Then he didn't say no more."

"I'm sorry, Uncle Jesse. I really am. You can't think I'd hurt Bo on purpose," Luke cried, covering his face with his hands.

Having said his piece, Jesse calmed down. "Of course I don't think you did it on purpose, but I don't think you thought very well. You ain't gonna be able to do some of the things you were used to being able to do with Bo for a while. He can't keep up, but he'll die trying."

"I never thought he'd try to follow me," Luke explained.

"Well you should have, because he always does. He has ever since you been little kids, especially if he thinks it's him you're upset with."

Luke looked up, still not understanding why Bo would have thought he was upset with him. Of course, he knew that Bo had nothing to do with this. He hadn't even been born yet. Well neither had he, but it was his parentage that was in question, not his relationship to Bo.

Daisy re-joined them, sitting down beside Luke and handing him his juice before he could say anything else. "Here sugar," she said, keeping her hand around the cup to keep it steady since Luke's were shaking so hard.

"Thanks," he told her, taking a few sips to ease his already frazzled nerves.

Dr. Frenzi walked through the swinging doors before anything else could be said.

"How's Bo?" Uncle Jesse asked, forgetting about Luke's lesson plan for the moment.

"Have a seat," he told them. "Ya know, I'm not going to lie to ya, this is absolutely one thing that we didn't want to see happen for a while. That cut was nasty. It took several stitches, but that's not the real havoc it wreaked. Bo lost a great deal of blood, I mean almost to the point of bleeding to death. Luke, we're probably gonna need to get more a little later when you're stronger, so keep drinking that juice."

"Take as much as you need," Luke told him.

"Yeah, well, I wish it worked that way, but it doesn't. Anyway, we're working as hard as we can to replenish it as fast as we can. Bo's back up in his room. They can give him blood there just as easily as down here, but the nurses did the right thing bringing him here, instead of trying to schedule an OR room. It might have saved his life. He's gonna be weak for a while, and it probably delayed his departure by at least a week. What has to be watched now is that he tolerates this new blood. You would think he should, since he has Luke's marrow and it's producing blood identical to Luke's, but this can be touchy. We're also giving him some platelets to help the clotting process along. Try not to let something like this happen again. It will probably take somewhere between 6 months to a year before Bo's blood can clot enough so that he doesn't bleed out on the spot. He's always gonna have a little thinner blood though, from the medications and the other long-term effects."

"Is he gonna be ok?" Luke asked.

"I think he should be. It was just a little setback, and I've heard a little about what caused it. I wanted to say I was sorry about that. I probably should have asked in the beginning about the paternity issue, but I really did figure it was something private in the family. I never dreamed that the boys didn't know. I've already talked to Dr. Rashib about blurting out information like that. He's a great hematologist; we're working on his bedside manner. It can be difficult, coming from a different country. We're lucky to have him, and in time, he'll learn some of the things they don't teach in med school, too."

"So you believe that it's probably true that me and Bo are brothers?" Luke asked, confirming something he already knew in his heart.

"Yeah, I do. There's too many things that you and Bo share, traits that really would only come from within a family, and since so many of your other relatives were tested and didn't even have the right blood type, it's the only logical conclusion that can be drawn. Dr Rashib told me that you wanted the actual testing done, so you'll have an answer in a few days. I am sorry, I really figured that you knew."

"I think somehow we did," Luke said, speaking to no one but himself.

"Well, if you want to see Bo, he's upstairs."

"Do we need to go back to the masks and gowns?" Daisy asked.

"No. If something doesn't go right, the damage has already been done."

"Thank ya, doctor," Jesse said, getting up and shaking his hand. "C'mon kids, let's go."

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Bo hadn't seemed so still or so white for a long time, and the family hated seeing him that way again. He was hooked up to the monitors that had previously been removed, and there was a bottle of blood and a cloudy substance hanging on a pole next to the bed. Luke wanted to die when he saw Bo, knowing that this he had caused himself.

"Can I see Bo first?" Luke asked, sounding very much like a little boy rather than a full-grown man.

Jesse nodded, giving Luke a look not to upset his cousin. Taking Daisy, they wandered to the cafeteria while Luke tried to make ammends.

Lowering the rail, Luke shook his head, unable to believe that he had done this. He saw Bo's forearm completely bandaged up. Slipping his hand under Bo's, he brushed his cheek. "Bo?"

"Luke?"

"I'm here, Bo. I'm right here."

"Luke, I'm sorry," he said. "My fault. So sorry."

"No Bo, this is my fault. I should have never taken off like that. If I had acted like an adult instead of like a little kid, you wouldn't be here lying in this bed like this."

"That was my own fault, too. My own clumsy feet."

"Yeah, well you shouldn't have had to been chasin me."

"Don't hate me, Luke, please. I'm sorry."

"I could never hate you, Bo. I love ya."

"If I hadn't gotten sick, you wouldn't have found out. I'm sorry about your dad and everything."

"Sssh Bo, it's all right. Ya know, I didn't go too far. Just ended up at the picnic table we like to go to. I got a chance to think about it for a little while, and after I did, I figured out that it wasn't as important as I had first thought."

"Huh?" Bo asked.

"Bo, my dad is still my dad in all the ways that counts, and well, if you're dad was my real dad, then I guess I got two, three if you count Jesse. My name's still Duke. Anyway, it was a long time ago; in the past, and I realized that it wasn't the past that was important. It was the here and now. Past, present, or future, I figured out that you've always been and you'll always be the most important person in my life, and you're still here with me, so that's what counts."

"Really? You're not mad?" Bo asked doubtfully.

"Hard to be mad when you're just getting what you've always asked for, anyway," Luke told him.

"Huh?"

"Bo, I know that you think you're the one that always wanted this and I just went along with it to make you happy, but you're wrong. I can't tell you how many times I asked God to make you my brother. How could I be mad when he gave me exactly what I wanted?"

"I'm still sorry about your dad and everything, but that part makes me real happy," Bo confessed.

"I know, Bo. Me too."

"Really?"

"Really."

"I love you, Luke."

"I love you, too, brother."

"I like the sound of that," Bo said as a large smile spread across his face, followed by an equally large yawn.

"Me, too. Now get some rest, so you can get out of here and we can go home," Luke told him as he watched Bo's eyelids drift shut. He just prayed that now that he'd found his brother, he didn't lose him because of his own stupidity.