Like Father, Like Son Chapter 5
Right after Doc Appleby drew some blood from the unconscious boy, and left the room to have the blood analyized, Tyler woke up.
Slowly, and with an effort, Tyler opened his tired eyes and looked around the exam room.
The lights in the room were dimmed, so they didn't hurt his eyes, but it made looking around the room, a little difficult.
A voice asked, "Tyler, how ya feeling?"
Tyler looked around before his eyes settled on the worried face of Bo Duke, who was sitting right beside the exam room table.
After his brain processed Bo's question, Tyler tiredly replied, "Tired."
Bo gave a little bit of a smile before he patted Tyler's arm and said, "Why don't you go ahead and rest."
With conviction, Tyler shook his head.
"Don't want to rest."
"Ok, do you wanna talk for awhile?" Bo suggested, eager to try and help his young friend.
Tyler weakly nodded his assent and waited for Bo to start talking.
Bo despritly tried to think of anything to say. Coming up with nothing, he looked back at Tyler.
"So...do you wanna tell me a little bit more about you? An' then after that I can tell you about me." Bo offered.
Desiding that the arrangement was acceptable, Tyler sighed and began to speak.
"I was four before my family moved from Flordia to Hazzard. A year later ma got sick. She..she spent the last year of her life couped up in a hospital because the doc's said they could make her better! But they lied, and ma died!" Tyler broke off as several tears ran down his face.
He wiped them away before continuing.
"Four months later I got sick. Doc's said I have it too."
Unsure of what to say, Bo pulled Tyler in to a brotherly hug, letting Tyler know that he would be there for the boy.
"Tyler, what happened to your mother wasn't the doctor's fault, it was the cancer's." Bo said, finally looking Tyler in the eyes.
"They said that they could make her better! They lied!"
"Tyler, I'm sure they tried to help her. My Aunt Lavinia had cancer and they tried to get rid of it, but it was to bad and she didn't make it either." Bo replied sadly.
Wanting to change the subject, Bo wiped the lone tear from his face, before he cleared his throat and said, "Well, I grew up here in Hazzard with my uncle and cousins after my folks died when I was a baby. Me and Luke built the General Lee together and at one point in time we went to the NASCAR circuit. After winning a few races, we decided to come home."
Tyler listened with intrest until Bo finished speaking.
When he was done, Tyler said, "You really raced on the NASCAR circuit? That's cool!"
"Yep, won every race!" Bo said with a smile.
They continued to chat for several minutes, waiting for Doc Appleby to come back.
The minutes passed by like hours before Doc Appleby came back with a somewhat grim look on his face.
"What do the test results say?" Bo asked, having a feeling that he already knew the answer.
His suspicions were confirmed when Doc Appleby said, "The reason the boy fainted was because of his cancer."
Bo shut his eyes and lowered his head. He didn't want to hear those words, but he had known that they were coming.
It was such a shame to him, that someone so young as Tyler could be dieing.
"The doc said it was gettin' worse." Tyler muttered, trying to let Bo know that what had happened earlier wasn't his fault.
"I wish there was somethin' that I could do to help you." Bo said, looking up at Tyler with sad eyes.
"Yeah, me too. What I want to do right now is get out'a here." Tyler said with a sigh, having had enough of hospitals to last a lifetime.
Bo looked at Doc Appleby and asked if it was alright for him to take Tyler home.
"Yes it is alright, just make sure that he doesn't overdue it." Doc Appleby replied as he watched Bo help Tyler up and off the exam room table.
With Bo's help, Tyler managed to get outside and to the General with no problems.
Once he was inside, Bo walked around to the driver's side, slid in and started the car.
He looked at Tyler for a moment before he started the drive back to the farm, deciding to cancel the fishing trip for now.
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By the time they arrived back at the farm, Tyler was rested enough to be able to crawl out of the car and head inside without much help.
He walked to the couch and collasped on to it, while Bo went to his and Luke's bedroom. He came back out with a NASCAR first place trophy in his hands.
With a smile he walked over to the couch and handed the trophy to Tyler, who looked at it with amazement.
Bo, seeing the joy in Tyler's eyes, finally made a desision.
"You can have the trophy." Bo said.
"Really? I can have it!" Tyler asked as a small smile grew on his face.
"Yep! I figured the best little brother deserves one of the best things I got, and that's it." Bo said with a smile.
Tyler hugged Bo gratefully, for both the trophy and for the 'brotherly' acknowledgment.
When they had been driving home, they had been talking about their family's and how Bo had always had Luke to look up to, while Tyler had no one but himself to look up to.
Right then and there, Bo had made the offer to become Tyler's big brother, if he had wanted, and Tyler accepted the offer gratefully, very happy that he finally had someone to depend on.
Just then, Luke came into the room and saw one of Bo's most cherished trophy's in the hand of the twelve year old.
"Hey there kiddo, what're you doin with one of Bo's trophies?" Luke asked.
"He gave it to me!"
"He what? There's no way he'd ever give away one of his trophies!" Luke said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Well he did!" Tyler shot back, clutching the trophy tightly.
Bo looked at Luke and tried to smooth things over.
"He's tellin' the truth Luke, I did give it to him." Bo said, slightly angery that Luke would openly accuse Tyler of stealing.
Bo looked back over at Tyler to see him still clutching the trophy like a life line.
"Just ignore Luke, he can get a little naive sometimes." Bo said.
Luke crossed his arms, resenting that remark.
"Hey!"
"Well it's true!" Bo replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
Tyler shrank back against the couch, hating to hear the two cousins argueing like they were.
He was so scared that he let go of the trophy and put his hands over his ears!
Finally, with no end to the arguement in sight, Tyler lept up off the couch and dashed outside, wanting to get away. Tyler's behavior stopped the arguement immediatly.
"Look what'cha did now, Lukas!" Bo said angerily before he ran outside after Tyler.