Like Father, Like Son Chapter 4
Days went by, and Bo kept bugging everyone from the doctors, to his own family, to get them to release him, with no results.
A time or two, he even complained to his new friend, Tyler, who came to visit him every single day.
After three days, Tyler finally decided to help Bo 'escape' from the hospital by taking him to the backdoor of the hospital.
With this decided, Tyler put his plan in to action.
He went down the hall to a closet and quickly 'borrowed' a doctor's lab coat and brass name tag. Pocketing the name tag, Tyler folded the lab coat and walked back to Bo's room, where Bo lay, or rather sat on his bed.
Without saying a word, Tyler turned off the heart monitor and carefully took out Bo's IV before he handed Bo the lab coat and brass name tag.
"What's this fer'?" Bo asked, looking at the items in his hands, before looking back up at Tyler.
With a slight roll of his eyes, Tyler replied, "This are to help ya get out of the hospital, unless ya want to stay!"
Bo paled slightly at the mention of staying in the hospital, so he slipped the lab coat and and attached the name tag before he stood and followed Tyler out of the room.
With an air of confidence, Tyler and Bo strode down to the back of the hospital and towards the rear entrance.
"There's the door. Now, I already talked to yer cousin, he's waitin' on the other side." Tyler said as he stopped by the big metal door that led to the outside world.
Bo also stopped before he flashed his famous Duke smile at the twelve year old. He was very grateful that Tyler had done this for him with no hassles.
"What about you? You comin' to?" Bo asked as he put a hand on the door to push it open.
Tyler lowered his gaze as he replied, "I ain't got nowhere to go."
What he said was the truth, he did have nowhere to go except back to his bed so the doctor's could stick him full of IV's like a guinea pig.
For the past six years, Tyler had been suffering for a type of cancer. No matter what the doctor's did, they couldn't get it to go away, and since the cancer was in a very delicate place, they couldn't operate, and Tyler's father, Kyle Gordon, wouldn't let the doctor's put Tyler through chemotheropy or radiation.
Bo, seeing the look of depression in Tyler's eyes, slowly put a hand on the boy's shoulder, causing Tyler to look at him.
"You do have somewhere to go, Tyler. You can go home with me...if you want." Bo offered.
Slowly, the sparkle returned to Tyler's eyes, as a small smile came to his face.
"R..really?" He asked, slightly disbelieving.
Bo offered another smile as he nodded his head.
"Really." He replied.
Without another word, Tyler closed the distance between them, and hugged Bo fiercly as he blinked back the tears.
Bo quickly hugged Tyler back before he released the boy and opened the door.
Sure enough, Luke was leaning against the General Lee, which was parked right outside the door.
"That's yer car!" Tyler asked, looking at the General Lee in absolute amazement.
He had never seen a more obvious, yet wonderful stockcar in all his life.
"Yep! The one an' only General Lee!" Bo replied as he put an arm around Tyler's shoulders and led him over to the car.
"'Bout time you two got out'a there." Luke said jokingly as he stopped leaning on the General.
Bo shot him a look as he replied, "Oh, hush up Lukas!"
With a little help from Bo, Tyler managed to climb in to the backseat.
The process was a little difficult, because he was a little short for his size, but finally he was in the car.
"Why don'tcha ride shotgun." Bo suggested to the boy, who looked up at Bo in amazement.
"Can I?" He asked, shocked that Bo had even suggested it!
"Sure! Luke can take the backseat this time." Bo said as he slid in to the General's driver's seat.
With a smile on his face, Tyler immediatly climbed in to the passenger seat, while Luke got in to the backseat.
Once everyone was settled, Bo fired up the General, and raced away, back towards the farm.
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On the drive back to the farm, they began to talk about their families.
Bo told Tyler how he and Luke had grown up with their Uncle Jesse at the farm, and had helped him run moonshine, while in turn, Tyler told them all about his life.
"I was five when my mom was first taken to the hospital. I watched her as the doc's treated her, but nothing they did ever seemed ta help, so she died. Next year, I got sick. The doctor's did tests and found out that I was sufferin' from the same stuff that killed my mom." Tyler said, looking out the window at the passing scenery.
Bo grimaced as he drove down the road.
He felt really sorry for this boy, who seemed so full of life, and yet who probably wouldn't live to see his 16'th birthday.
Several times he glanced at the boy, expecting him to keel over any second. When nothing happened, Bo sighed.
"Can't they operate?" He asked after several minutes of silance.
Tyler shook his head before he looked at Bo.
"Doc said they couldn't get to the tumer without killin' me, so my dad said it wasn't worth it." Tyler replied.
Bo and Luke's jaw dropped.
"Wasn't worth it! What kind of father is he!" Bo nearly roared.
Tyler didn't reply, instead he just looked out the window, not wanting to argue because he was growing increasingly tired.
After allowing himself a few minutes to calm down, Bo thought of an idea.
"Want to go fishin' with me once we get home?" He asked the boy.
Tyler thought about Bo's request for a second, before he turned to look at the blondie haired Duke boy.
"Sure, I'd like that." He replied with a small smile.
Bo reached over and ruffled Tyler's hair, before he pulled the General Lee to a stop at the farm.
Luke immediatly got out of the General and went inside, while Bo slid out and sat on the General's door frame, while Tyler did the same.
"Let me jus' run inside an tell Uncle Jesse that we're goin' fishin', then we can grab the stuff an' go." Bo said, before he climbed the rest of the way out of the car.
Tyler nodded his head, but didn't get out of the car.
"Kay. I'll wait out here for ya." Tyler said.
Bo smiled before he turned and entered the farmhouse to confer with his Uncle Jesse.
While Bo was gone, Tyler looked around the farmhouse.
It was quiet, if you didn't pay attention to the animals out front.
A small smile came to Tyler's face as he imagined living there, and he decided right away, that doing so, wouldn't be a bad thing, in fact, it would be kind of cool.
Slowly, Tyler finally got out of the car, but the moment his feet touched the ground, Tyler felt light headed and the roaring in his ears was something that he couldn't ignore.
Tyler had a feeling that he should stay and rest, since all of the treatments and medicines the doctor's kept pumping in to him always left him tired, but Tyler shook his head. There was no way that he was going to skip out on the fishing trip with Bo!
With great effort, Tyler made it to the porch and sat down, but not two minutes later, Bo came back out and jumped off the porch.
"You ready to go, kiddo?" He asked as he smiled at Tyler.
Tyler returned the smile as best he could as he shakily stood.
His legs nearly buckled, forcing Tyler to practically hold on to the farmhouse to keep from falling down.
"You ok?" Bo asked, as he put a supportive hand on Tyler's shoulder.
Once Tyler felt like he wouldn't pass out anytime soon, he flashed a smile at Bo.
"I'm alright, jus' got a little dizzy fer a second." He replied.
Bo looked at Tyler, slightly disbelievingly. "Ya sure?" He asked.
Again, Tyler nodded his head.
Bo squeezed his shoulder before he put his hand down.
"Well, if yer sure, why don'tcha wait in the General, while I go an get the stuff." Bo suggested.
"Kay." Tyler replied as he walked over to the General's passenger side.
He waited till Bo was out of sight before he struggled to climb in to the car.
It took a little longer than he thought, but he was finally in, but the strain of climbing in to the car left his arm muscles shaking with exhaustion.
Two minutes later, Bo came back with the fishing stuff, which he stashed in the backseat.
With practiced ease, he slid in to the car and turned to look at Tyler, who had grown a little pale, and who looked like he was shaking a little!
"You sure yer alright?" Bo asked with genuine concern written all over his face.
Tyler turned tired eyes to look at Bo before he replied, "I'm fine, let's jus' go."
Bo sat there a moment, not really knowing what to do, before he fired up the General and began the drive to the fishing pond, while every once in a while throwing glances at Tyler, who had, by that time, fallen asleep.
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With Bo's nerves getting the better of him, he decided to make a little side trip to see the Hazzard County doctor, Doc Appleby, who's office was a few miles away from the fishing pond.
When Bo got to the doctor's office and turned off the General, he reached out a hand and shook Tyler's shoulders.
Tyler didn't respond for several minutes, which really worried Bo.
"Tyler, come on buddy, wake up." Bo urged, continuing to shake Tyler's shoulder.
Finally, Tyler opened his eyes, sat up and yawned before he turned tired, blue eyes to look at Bo.
"What's wrong?" Tyler asked, seeing Bo's slightly worried gaze.
"You don't seem like yer alright to me, so we made a little side trip to Doc Appleby's." Bo said, hoping against hope that Tyler wouldn't get mad at the fact that he had brought the boy to a doctor.
"A doctor? I don't need ta see a doctor! I'm fine!" Tyler said as he got out and sat on the doorframe of the car, but Tyler's small jump to sit on the doorframe, actually made him fall out of the car and on to the ground below.
"Tyler!" Bo said, getting out of the car and rushing over to the boy, just as Tyler sat up and put a hand to the back of his head.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Tyler replied as he, with the help of Bo, stood up.
Not two seconds later, Doc Appleby burst out of his office and asked, "What in the blue blazes' goin' on out here!"
Bo turned to address the doctor, while Tyler crossed his arms, clearly not to happy.
"I was wonderin' if you could make sure Tyler's alright. He acts like he's not feeling to well, but he won't tell me if he is or not." Bo said to the doctor.
The doctor turned to look at the twelve year old, who was practically glaring at the ground, though from what Doc Appleby could see, the boy did indeed look a little sick.
As Doc Appleby moved out to lead Tyler inside, Tyler shrieked and batted the older man's hands away.
"Get away from me!"
"Tyler, listen to me. Doc Appleby's saved my hide more times than you know. He won't hurt you!" Bo said, trying to reasure the frightened boy.
With uncertantly shining in his eyes, Tyler spared a glance at Bo.
"You..sure?" He asked, his voice clearly wavering.
"I'm not only sure, I'm positive." Bo replied with a smile on his face.
Tyler looked down for a second, before he began to feel a little sick to his stomach.
He was keenly aware of the roaring in his ears growing louder, before a weight seemed to settle in his ears, closing off all the sounds from the outside world, except for the roaring in his ears.
Tyler blinked several times and stumbled forward, before he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Bo watched Tyler fall, before he rushed over to the boy.
Even though Doc Appleby reached Tyler's side first, he allowed Bo to pick the boy up, which Bo did without so much as a grunt.
Swiftly, Doc Appleby led Bo, with Tyler in his arms, inside the building and to the exam room.
"Put him on the table." Doc Appleby instructed as he grabbed some gloves and snapped them on.
As carefully as he could, Bo laid Tyler down on the exam table and stepped back as Doc Appleby examined him.