Like Father, Like Son Chapter 8
Luke and Uncle Jesse pulled to a stop at the intersections of Miller's Bend and Old Mill Road.
Right on Miller's Bend was a black sedan, and beside the black sedan were two men and Bo.
Bo was in between the two men, and the taller of the men held a shotgun pointed directly at Bo's head.
Both the Dukes and the men stared at each other before Jesse left his truck, and Luke left Dixie, but not after telling Tyler to remain there.
"Well, well. I see ya brought the kid." The man with the shotgun said to Jesse.
"Yeah we brought em', but you ain't gettin' em'!" Jesse replied calmly as he eyed the men.
"Oh come now Mr. Duke. What's more important to you? The boy, or yer nephew?" The man asked.
Jesse opened his mouth to reply, but an acorn thrown from a squirrel, came down and hit the gunman in the head.
The man flinched, and that was all the time Bo needed to grab the gun and bash the first man in the head with it.
Bo dropped the gun and took off running, toward's Dixie, while the second man dove for the shotgun.
"Come on Bo, hurry up!" Tyler and Luke yelled in unison, from the safety of Dixie.
With frightened eyes, Tyler watched as Bo ran for all his was worth, while Jeffery McCandles, the man with the shotgun, cocked it and started to aim it.
Reality struck as the shotgun went off and Bo fell to the ground, clutching his leg.
Not thinking, Tyler scrambled out of the jeep, ran over, and began to drag a protesting Bo over to the jeep, while Jeffery was recocking the gun.
Tyler grunted and groaned as he dragged Bo closer, and closer to Dixie, while glancing up at Jeffery from time to time.
A small gopher hole actually saved Tyler's life, because the second his foot hit the hole, he fell, at the same time that Jeffery fired the shotgun.
The round flew through the air, embedding itself in a tree just behind Dixie, while Tyler picked himself up and finally dragged Bo the rest of the way behind the jeep.
Luke immediately fell down next to Bo, checking his baby cousin over, looking for any other wounds besides his leg, while Tyler joined Uncle Jesse, who was crouched beside the jeep, watching Jeffery who lept behind his car.
Standing up, Jeffery aimed his gun and began firing at Dixie, hoping to chase the Dukes out from behind it, but they didn't budge, knowing that he would kill them all if they moved from the safety of the jeep.
Looking up ahead, Tyler saw Jesse's truck, but more importantly, he saw that the driver side door was still open on the truck!
He looked over at Jesse, who was still watching Jeffery, who was still firing at Dixie.
Not thinking twice, Tyler took off for the truck, blocking Jesse and Luke's voices from his mind. All he was concentrating on was the truck, and how he needed to get to it.
Dimly he heard gunshots and felt the dirt spray his legs as the bullets embedded themselves in the ground, right next to him, but this didn't deter Tyler, because he kept running.
The truck was almost within reach, just another few seconds and he would be there. Glancing over at Jeffery, Tyler dimly realized that he might not have a few seconds, because it was obvious that he was in Jeffery's sights that very moment.
Tyler closed his eyes, expecting to hear the sound of the gun going off, and the biting pain of the bullet hitting his skin, but nothing happened.
Opening his eyes, Tyler barely stopped himself from running in to the door of the truck.
Glancing around, Tyler saw Jeffery, his gun in the air, being marched somewhere by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane and Deputy Enos Strate.
Tyler breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Jeffery being placed in the back of the police car, and when he heard the wail of an ambulance siran off in the distance.
With a shake of his head, Tyler walked back over to his new friends and stopped in front of Luke, who glanced up at him.
"Jus' what were you thinkin' Ty? You could'a been killed!" Luke said, rather nastily.
"I...I'm sorry...I jus'..." Tyler stammered, the clear reason he had being pushed from his mind by the angry stare of Luke Duke.
"Jus' what? You had a death wish, is that it!" Luke asked.
"Luke that's enough!" Jesse said, seeing how much Luke's words were upsetting the boy.
Luke nodded his head as he said, "Sorry Uncle Jesse."
With a slight glare, Luke returned his full attention to Bo, who had his eyes closed from the pain in his leg.
Finally, the ambulance pulled to a stop and the attendents got out. Quickly they placed Bo on the stretcher and loaded him up in to the ambulance.
While one attendent drove, the other checked Bo over, recording his stats and things like that.
Jesse, Luke and Tyler watched the work, and then drive off, the cloud of dust the ambulance left, spurring Jesse in to action.
"Come on, we best follow em'." Jesse said as he headed for his truck.
Luke nodded and was about to jump in to Dixie when he saw the bullet holes in the side, plus the flat tires. There was absolutly no way he would be driving Dixie to the hospital, so there was only one thing left to do. Ride with Jesse and Tyler and hopefully reach Cooter on the CB and ask him to pick up the jeep. Maybe if he got it fixed in a hurry, Daisy wouldn't even notice!
Tyler got in to the jeep and pressed as close to Jesse as he could, while Luke got in after him. He slammed the door, wishing that Tyler had chosen to ride in the bed of the truck instead of the cab. With a glance at them, Jesse started the drive to the hospital.
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The drive to the hospital was short and sweet, but it was to long in Luke's opinion. The moment the truck stopped, Luke lept out of the truck and walked inside, followed by Jesse and Tyler, who cringed, hoping that his nurses wouldn't see him, because he knew that if they were to see him, they would just march him back to his room, put the IV's back in, and maybe this time they would slap on some restraints to keep where he was supposed to be, which was in a hospital bed.
Jesse and Tyler sat down in the waiting room while Luke went to the reception area and asked about his cousin.
The nurse at the desk assured Luke that a doctor would be out to talk with them soon, so Luke turned and went back to the waiting room.
He sat down in a chair, on the other side of his uncle, away from Tyler.
"What'd the doctors say?" Uncle Jesse asked Luke, who never took his eyes off the hallway where the doctors were.
"The receptionist said that a doc'd come talk to us soon." Luke replied evenly.
Jesse nodded and settled in to wait, but the wait was not long.
Within fifteen minutes a doctor in her mid to late twenties walked down the hall and stopped right in front of them.
Quickly Luke, Jesse and Tyler stood up, looking at her.
"How's ma' cousin?" Luke asked, not wanting to beat around the bush.
"He's going to be fine. The bullet was through and through and didn't damage his bones or leg muscles." The doctor replied with a small smile.
That news made Jesse and Luke sigh with relief and shut their eyes for a second.
"May we see em'?" Jesse asked after a minute.
"Yes of course, I'll take you to his room." The doctor replied with a nod of her head.
She was about to lead Jesse and Luke to Bo's room when she glanced down and saw Tyler standing right beside Jesse, with a strange look on his face.
"Tyler Roy Gordon, what the heck are you doing out of bed!" She asked.
Tyler cringed before he looked up at the doctor.
"Hi Dr. Kim." He greeted as Dr. Mary Kim took him by the shoulders and marched him back to his room, with the Dukes following.
Once back in his room, Dr. Kim picked Tyler up and put him back in bed before she stuck his arm's full of IV's and placed the dreaded, plastic restraints on him.
The restraints connected Tyler's wrist to the bed and made it impossible to leave the bed.
With a sigh Tyler laid his bed back and stared at the ceiling, wondering how he was going to get out of this one, while Dr. Kim took Luke and Jesse to Bo's room.
Bo was sitting up in his bed with a cast on his leg when Luke and Jesse entered the room.
Bo greeted his cousin and Uncle with a smile, and gratefully hugged them.
"Bo, were you tryin' to give me a heart attack, back there?" Luke asked, thinking back to one hour ago.
"Sorry Luke, things jus' happened." Bo replied sheepishly.
Luke smiled and ruffled Bo's hair, while his baby cousin batted Luke's hand away.
"What did happen?" Jesse asked, wanting to get Bo's story.
"Well I did get the ice but them two guys stopped me after I left the store. They didn't tell me nothin', they jus' shoved me in to the backseat of their car an drove off." Bo said.
While Jesse was mulling over what Bo said, Bo realized that Tyler wasn't there.
"Where's Tyler?" He asked.
"Dr. Kim took em' back to his room." Luke replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
After he heard that, Bo started trying to stand up on his good leg, while falling back down on to his bed, several times in the process!
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do ya think yer goin'?" Uncle Jesse asked, putting a hand on his nephew's shoulder.
"I'm going to see Tyler. He hates hospitals and don't trust the doctors." Bo replied, looking up at his uncle.
Uncle Jesse, catching the gleam in Bo's eye, quickly left the room, returning moments later with a wheelchair.
Bo smiled gratefully and quickly settled himself in to the wheelchair, and allowing his uncle to push him from the room.
Bo, Luke and Jesse went up one floor and down a hallway before they stopped at a door. Luke opened the door and waited as Jesse pushed his wounded nephew in to the room.
Tyler, who had been trying to fall asleep, instantly opened his eyes and sat up when Bo was pushed in to the room by his uncle.
"Bo!" Tyler said happily, as a smile grew on his face at seeing his friend and brother.
"Hey kiddo, how ya doin'?" Bo asked as his uncle pushed him over to Tyler's bed.
"Ok, sept fer these." Tyler said, moving his arms to show Bo the restraints that attached him to the bed.
The restraints were starting to make his skin itch and they were mighty uncomfortable whenever they got warm from his body heat. But they were also impossible to remove, except by a doctor.
Reaching out, Bo started to fiddle with one of the restraints, trying to loosen it, when a passing doctor looked in to the room and saw what he was doing.
"What are you doing?" The doctor asked as he entered the room, hands on his hips.
"Taking these things off. He don't need them." Bo replied as he finally got the one restraint off and started working on the other one.
"Yes he does! We can't have him running up and down the halls He even disippeared earlier this morning!" The doctor replied, getting slightly angry.
"He does not need them. How would you like it if he put them things on you and restrained you too?" Bo asked.
"I'm sorry, but orders are orders."
With a sigh, Bo looked at the doctor and asked, "How about if I stay here with em'? I don't think he'll be up and about if he has someone to keep him company."
"Well, I suppose that will be fine for awhile, but, we will need to take him back for another round of tests." The doctor replied.
At hearing the word 'test', Tyler started to breathe faster as he shook his head and shrieked, "No!"
He hated tests because he was always poked with needles, the doctor's hands were cold, and they weren't very friendly. Plus, some of the tests themselves really hurt.
"Oh an' I'll go with em' when he goes for his tests." Bo said, in a tone that left no room for arguments.
The doctor shook his head and said, "I don't think I can allow that."
"Sir, I don't care what you say, I'm gonna go with him." Bo replied in the same tone of voice.
The doctor sighed, turned and left the room, while Bo turned his attention back to Tyler, who was calming down now that the doctor was gone.
Bo and Tyler talked for a few minutes about the farm, Hazzard in general, and about the General Lee. It never occured to Bo that the doctor actually might tell someone about his desision to accompany Tyler to his next round of tests.
But, that thought came to mind when a big, hulking man in a buisness suit, and a black, leather coat entered the room and crossed his arms.
"Son, why are you interacting with these local hayseeds?" Kyle Gordon asked his son.
Kyle Gordon, the gambler/drug dealer/hitman. He was a dangerous man who would just as soon put a bullet in you, than talk to you.
He had no love for anyone, not even his son, well, maybe a little for his son, but the only reason he was paying to have Tyler in the hospital, was because he would need the boy later on, even if the cancer was still going to kill him.
"Dad, they're not hayseeds!" Tyler replied, looking at his father for a second.
"He's yer father?" Bo asked, also looking at the man before he looked back at Tyler in time to see him nod his head.
"Yeah."
"I don't mean to sound rude but, he's scary." Bo said with a slight chuckle in his voice.
What he said was the truth, but he had meant it lightly, but apparently Kyle didn't like what Bo had said, because he gave Bo a dangerous, angry glare.
"I know, but.." Tyler began, but he was inturrupted when his father yelled, "SHUT YER MOUTH!"
"Hey, don't be yellin' at him!" Bo said, also getting angry at Kyle's behavior.
Kyle was seconds away from clobbering Bo, when a passing nurse said, "No fighting in this hospital."
"Yeah, you heard the doctor. No fighting in this hospital!" Bo said, repeating the nurse's words.
For just a second Kyle was at a loss for words, when suddenly an idea struck him.
He pointed a finger at Bo as he said menacingly, "Say goodbye while you can, HICK! I'm takin' my son out'a this hospital where he can't be influenced by stupid ol' hicks like you!"
With an icy glare, Kyle left the room to fill out the release forms.