Like Father, Like Son Chapter 7
Thirty minutes later, the farmhouse came in to sight, causing Bo to sigh greatfully.
With renewed enthusiasm, Bo practically bounded up the steps and very carefully opened the door and entered the house.
Instead of putting Tyler on the couch, Bo headed for the bathroom and put him in the tub, dirty clothes and all.
Next he went out, washed his hands and then called Doc Appleby.
He explained to the doctor exactly what had happened, and then asked for some advice.
The doctor admonished Bo for not getting the sludge off of Tyler immediatly, but he calmed down and spoke in a clear, calm manner after that.
"Clean em' up, and then do your best to try and keep his temperature at around 98.9. It will probably flucuate at the beginning, with the sludge cooling his skin, and his fever trying to overheat it." Doc Appleby said.
"Right doc, what else?" Bo asked as he glanced towards the bathroom, and the filthy twelve year old that he knew was there.
"Leave everything else to me, young man. I will be there soon." Doc Appleby said, before he hung up.
Bo also hung up the reciever and went back to the bathroom and shut the door to allow the boy a little privacy.
He turned on the hot water and adjusted the temperature.
In a few minutes, the tub was full. The crystal, clear water was now turning a muddy black, thanks to the sludge.
Finally, Bo grabbed a washcloth and some soap.
He ran the washcloth under warm water, before he lathered it with soap and began to wash off Tyler's face, neck and arms, also everywhere else that was dirty.
After that, Bo peeled Tyler's dirty clothes off and let Tyler soak for a second while he got a towel and some clean clothes, before he rinsed Tyler off.
Tyler knew that he should be embarresed, because for the past several years, he knew how to take baths and showers by himself, but at the moment, he was to tired to care, so when Bo came back and got him out of the tub, Tyler didn't flush with embarresement, he just closed his eyes as he felt the soft towel being run over his skin.
Finally, Tyler was dried off and dressed, just minutes before Doc Appleby arrived.
Bo was just carrying the now clean Tyler to the living room when Jesse let the doctor in.
"He ain't said a word, doc." Bo reported as he laid Tyler down on the couch.
Doc Appleby went over to Tyler and began to examine the boy for any cuts from the fall, or anything of that nature.
Not seeing anything, Doc Appleby drew some more blood, checked Tyler's BP and heart rate, before he gave him a shot of medicine to help bring down his fever.
"He should sleep for awhile. There's really not much else I can do for him. What he has injested has to be allowed to pass out of his system naturely.
Bo nodded his head, grateful for the doctor's assistance.
He watched as the doctor left the house, before turning his attention back on the boy who was now sleeping.
Bo wished that there was something special that he could do for Tyler, given his current condition, but there wasn't much he could do.
Bo gave a half smile as he sat in the chair, watching Tyler's fevered sleep. He felt a connection between himself and the boy. It was quite different than what he and Luke had. No, the connection between Bo and Tyler was different, it was almost a fatherly connection, but Tyler already had a father, a scumbag of a father at that, but the man was still his father.
Throughout the rest of the day, and long into the night, Bo kept watch over Tyler, even though both Uncle Jesse and Luke had begged him to get some rest, Bo had refused, saying that he needed to watch the boy.
He kept hoping that Tyler's fever would go away, and that he would wake up, but as the hours came and went, Tyler's fever rose and rose, and nothing, not cold showers, not cold cloths on the forehead, nothing could keep it down. Finally Bo was forced to fill the tube with all of the ice that they had and then stick Tyler in the tub.
That solution worked, but the very next day, Uncle Jesse sent Bo to the store to get some more ice.
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Tyler slowly opened his dry eyes. He was in a tub full of ice, fully clothed.
He tried to move his stiff joints, but the ice had frozen to some of his clothes and was very hard to work loose.
With much squirming, Tyler finally worked some of the ice loose so that he could crawl out of the tub.
He dropped on to the ground, brushing the ice chips off of his shirt.
"Well, glad to see you awake, son."
Tyler whirled around to see an elderly man standing in the doorway of the bathroom.
The old man had a pair of worn overall's on, over a slightly pinkish shirt.
"I'm Jesse Duke." Jesse said to Tyler as he held out an aged hand for Tyler to take.
Tyler looked at Jesse, and then his hand, before he reached out and took the offered hand.
Jesse smiled and led the twelve year old out of the bathroom and to the kitchen, where Daisy was prepairing breakfast.
After seating himself at the table, Tyler looked around.
He saw Luke outside, working on Daisy's jeep, trying to fix something from the look of it.
The General was nowhere to be seen, so Tyler deduced that Bo had taken it.
"Where's Bo?" He asked Daisy as she set the plate of food in front of him.
"Oh, he went in to town for a few bags of ice." Jesse explained as he sipped on his warm coffee.
With a sigh, Tyler chowed down on the bacon, eggs and toast that Daisy had prepaired for him.
The eggs and bacon were perfect, the best he had ever had, and the toast was beyond belief, in his opinion.
After he had finished, Jesse asked, "How're you feelin'?"
"Alright, I guess. Better than I was feelin' last night." Tyler replied.
He smiled as he stood up and thanked Daisy for the wonderful breakfast, before he went outside.
Taking a deep breath, he went over to Luke, who was covered in a fine sheen of sweat and grease.
"Hey." Tyler greeted as he came closer to Luke.
Luke looked over at Tyler, before he wiped some of the sweat off his face.
"Hey Ty. How ya' feelin'?" Luke asked.
"Alright. Better than I was feelin' last night, that's fer sure. Felt like I was in a sauna." Tyler commented as he looked at the inner workings of Daisy's jeep.
"Listen Ty, I'm sorry if I scared ya yesterday. I didn't mean to." Luke said as he selected another tool from the toolbox that was beside the jeep.
"S'alright Luke." Tyler replied as he leaned against the jeep and watched Luke work.
After several minutes he asked, "What'cha doin?"
"Trying to break this piece of rubber loose. It got jammed up against this cylinder when Rosco was chasin' Daisy two weeks ago, an now it's been makin' Dixie act up. So Daisy asked me ta take a look at it." Luke replied.
"There is an easier way ta do that, ya know." Tyler said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
Luke straightened and watched as Tyler slid under the jeep and easily jerked the piece of rubber loose before he crawled back out and stood up, showing Luke the rubber.
With a roll of his eyes, Luke took the rubber, at the same time that Uncle Jesse ran out of the house, his face all red with worry.
"What's the matter, Uncle Jesse?" Luke asked as Jesse ran for his truck.
"Bo's in trouble." Was all Jesse said, but it was enough to get Luke to spring into action.
He slammed the jeep's hood down before running for the driver's side.
Tyler, not wanting to skip out on the action, quickly slid into the passenger seat of Dixie as Luke fired her up and sped after Jesse.
Looking down, Tyler saw that the CB was off, so he switched it on while Luke grabbed the CB.
"Lost Sheep to Shepherd, what's wrong?" Luke asked.
"It's Bo. He's been kidnapped." Jesse replied as he turned on to Old Mill Road and headed South.
"What?" Luke asked to himself as he looked over at Tyler, who just shrugged his shoulders.
Before Luke could ask Jesse to explain it to him further, a sinister voice came on the line.
"That's right Gramps, an dear ol' Bo is gonna die unless you bring us what we want." The sinister man said.
"Don't listen to em' Uncle Jesse! Leave Ty out'a this!" Bo yelled in to the mic before the man had a chance to cut him off.
Luke and Tyler both heard this as they shot each other a confused look.
"Uncle Jesse, why do these men want Tyler?" Luke asked.
"Simple," The sinister man replied, "we work for his father, and his father want's him back in the hospital alive, if possible. If that ain't possible, he want's the brat dead."
Tyler grimaced. He hadn't wanted to discuss his dad's horrible past with anyone, but the truth was that when Tyler was sick, he only spent a fraction of time in the hospitals. The rest of the time he was helping his father, who was a gambler/drug dealer/hitman, who always got what he wanted.
It was his buisness, not his family that had driven Kyle Gorden to Hazzard, and it was buisness, not his son's life that forced Kyle to take his son, Tyler, to the doctor's in the first place.
Kyle needed a successer when he died, and Tyler was the best choice, even though Tyler was sick and would probably die before Kyle did.
"Uncle Jesse, It's time we listened to some country music." Luke said in to the CB, which was the signal to change to a different channel.
With the channel change, Luke asked, "What're we gonna do, Uncle Jesse?"
"We're gonna get Bo back, but, we ain't gonna give up the boy to the likes of them, either!" Jesse replied.
Luke nodded his head as he put the CB mic back. He glanced at Tyler, who had drawn up his knees to his chest, and who was hugging himself tightly.
"Don't worry Ty, we're gonna get out'a this. We won't let anything happen to you or Bo." Luke said, trying to comfort Tyler.
Tyler only nodded in response, while he thought about the man on the other end of the CB, and how he had hoped never to run in to him again.