Ok, I lied, not intentionally, but I said in the last chapter that this one would also have a tissue warning, it don't. Sorry 'bout that, author mistake.

Anyway, here's the next chapter, hope ya'll enjoy!

Friends 'Til the End

Chapter 9: Another Setback

The Dukes spent the next couple of days by Bo's side. During that time, Luke rarely left his side. The only times he did was to the restroom or to get something to eat when Jesse and Daisy weren't there. Over those two days, Bo had started to slowly improve, and was taken off of life support three days later.

It was almost a week after Bo was first brought in, and two days after he was taken off life support, before he started to show any signs of waking up.

Luke had gone to use the restroom and was only gone a few minutes when Bo chose to finally wake up. Not recognizing where he was and not seeing anyone around, Bo started to panic. That's the sight Luke returned to after his small 'break'. Rushing over to his cousin's side, Luke started talking to him, trying to calm him down.

"Bo, cousin, you gotta calm down." Luke said. Bo looked up at Luke. Luke saw the confused and scared look in his cousin's baby blue eyes. Seeing that Luke was there, Bo started to calm down a little.

"Bo, ya gotta relax so ya don't hurt yourself anymore." Luke said soothingly. After a few minutes, Bo looked at Luke with questioning eyes.

"You're in the hospital, Bo. Ya were hit by a drunk driver." Luke said, knowing that was probably what Bo was wondering. Bo nodded his head as much as could to let Luke know he understood. Bo lifted his right hand as much as possible and reached for Luke's hand. Luke saw what he was doing and took Bo's hand.

"Good to have ya back cuz'. We were real worried about ya." Luke said with a smile.

"Sorry." Bo whispered, his voice hoarse from not being used in awhile.

"Ya ain't got nothin' to be sorry for. I'm the one who should be apologizin'. I should've listened to ya, you were right, Katie isn't anything but trouble. I promise ya, I'm through with her." Luke said sincerely. Bo nodded his head again as his eyes started to slip shut.

"You go ahead and rest. I'll be here." Luke said as Bo fell asleep again. A tear slipped down Luke's face, this time it wasn't a tear of sadness, but one of happiness. Luke was more then happy that Bo woke up; he just hoped that his baby cousin would be able to go home soon. Quickly wiping it away, Luke stood up to get a doctor to let him know that Bo had woken up.

Unknown to Luke, Katie had been watching Bo's room. After Luke left, Katie entered the room, a mask over her nose and mouth and rubber gloves on her hands. She had a small pill bottle with a clear, odorless liquid inside. Going over to the window, she quickly opened it before crossing back to Bo. Taking out an eye dropper, she opened the bottle and sucked up a little of the liquid with the eye dropper. She closed the bottle and sat on the stand beside the bed.

Using her free hand, Katie carefully opened Bo's mouth and stuck the end of the eye dropper in it; Katie emptied the contents into Bo's mouth. Katie looked up when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps. Hurrying out of the room so she wouldn't be caught, Katie forgot the bottle. She climbed out of the window and down the side of the hospital. No sooner had she left, Luke and Bo's doctor came in. Doctor Richard O'Brien walked over and began examining Bo. Bo woke up when he felt someone standing over him.

"Well hello there young man." Doctor O'Brian greeted. Bo looked at the doctor and brought a hand up to his nose when it started running. Luke saw what Bo was doing and got him a tissue. "Here Bo, wipe your nose." He said. Bo took the tissue and wiped his nose. No sooner had Bo finished wiping his nose, his chest started feeling like it was tightening up. He rubbed his chest and had a pained look on his face. The doctor noticed and got a little concerned. "Is your chest hurting?" He asked. Bo nodded his head and the pain got a little worse. Luke looked at his cousin with a concerned looked on his face. It was when he glanced over at the stand.
"Hey, what's that?" Luke asked pointing at the bottle.

"What's what?" The doctor asked, looking at what Luke was pointing at. Seeing the bottle, the doctor picked it up looked at it. He read what was written in black permanent marker on the side of the bottle. His eyes got wide when he recognized the word. Sarin.

"Mr. Duke, I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The doctor said as he immediately ushered Luke out of the room. The doctor ran down the hall and disappeared into a room.

Not long after Luke and the doctor left the room, Bo started feeling nauseous and having trouble breathing. He was also starting to have trouble swallowing, which made him start drooling. The doctor came back a couple of minutes later. He had a syringe filled with a liquid. He quickly cleaned a spot on Bo's upper arm and injected the liquid into his arm.

Luke had been watching through the window and was worried about his cousin. He had no idea what was going on, all he knew was that it had to bad for the doctor to practically push him out like he had and then take off running down the hall and come running back with a syringe.

After a few minutes, the doctor came back out.

"What the hell happened?" Luke asked, more worried then anything.

"That bottle you found, it has a very toxic nerve agent in it. It's called Sarin. It's a lethal poison that attacks the nervous system. Beauregard's very lucky that we caught it in time, otherwise it would've killed him. He's also very lucky that we had the antidotes, atropine, and pralidoxime in stock. However, because it's such a lethal poison, there might've been damage done to his nervous system. We will run tests to see if there is any damage." Doctor O'Brian said. Luke sighed and punched the wall with his fist.

"Damnit!" Luke yelled. The doctor didn't say anything, knowing that the oldest Duke boy needed to blow off some steam.

"You may go back in now, but just so you know, he may vomit and his arms, legs, and hands may jerk and twitch. Those are other symptoms of sarin poisoning, but as long as his body doesn't reject the antidotes, he should be fine. As for the tests, I will need to wait until the toxin is completely out of his system, otherwise they may not come out accurate."

"Alright, thanks doc." Luke said as he headed back inside the room. The doctor nodded and walked away.

Bo had his eyes closed, clearly asleep. Every once in awhile, Luke noticed Bo's fingers and hands would twitch occasionally. Luke knew he needed to call Jesse and tell him what happened, but he didn't want to risk leaving Bo alone again. Luke vowed that he wouldn't leave Bo's side for anything, unless he was forced out, even then he'd put up a fight if he had too. Luke sat in the chair beside Bo's bed and watched him sleep, his hands, and arms jerking and twitching every few minutes.

"Who would do somethin' like this to ya?" Luke whispered. He picked up Bo's hand and held it. He then smoothed some of Bo's blonde locks out of his face. "C'mon cousin, you gotta get better." Luke said. Luke sat the rest of the night keeping watch over his baby cousin.

That's the end of chapter 9. Hope ya'll liked it. The Iggy is hungry again, he needs food. Please review and help feed the Iggy!

A/N: The toxin, sarin, is a real poison. I looked it up on the web as well as the antidotes, which are also real. I'm not 100 sure that it works that fast, but the way I understood it, it works quickly. Just wanted to point that little thing out.