Author's Note: A normal day in Hazzard is when the Duke boys get run into the pond. Not so much normal when one Duke boys get run into the pond, and can't get out of there.

Big thanks to JordynD for beta work and Gray Wolf for all the help.

Warning: The warning is placed here for Vinsmouse, who wanted a spew warning here, claiming it might be a bad idea to drink while reading the funnier parts. So please keep in mind that drinking any kind of beverage while reading this, might be hazzard'ous to the health of your screen.

Disclaimer: The Duke Boys are not mine, I don't own the Duke boys, nor the General Lee. I promise that once I'm through with them, there will be nothing broken that a trip to Cooter's garage can't fix….

The Days After The Night Before

Chapter 3: If you would all kindly wait…..

Once Jesse got there, they finally found out that Bo was still waiting for treatment in the ER. Not much more than that, but at least they admitted to that much. They had evaluated the seriousness of the injury, and would shortly take care of his leg. At least Jesse got a promise that if they sat down someone would come to them and show them to where he was so that they could wait with him.

It was more than Luke and Cooter had been able to get, and it made Jesse angry that they couldn't have seen fit to tell them as much.

It was a bit more than just a few minutes before a nurse came and showed them to a small curtained off area in the ER room where Bo was. If he hadn't been so desperate to see Bo, Jesse would have given them a tongue lashing about what he thought their promise was worth.

They were told that because the ER was extremely busy at the moment, Bo with a not to severe injury would be forced to wait until they could take care of him. However they would be allowed to wait with him, to comfort him before they could take care of his leg and set it.

It didn't help much to hear he was fine, a broken bone, he had been in the water for a long time though. Don't expect him to know what's going on; don't be surprised if he seems a slight bit confused, don't be alarmed if he doesn't seem very responsive. It's perfectly normal for his condition. He was lucky, it could have been far worse. Only to be expected the way some country boys drive.

What right did they have to say that? The last thing was said as they left the room and the left two Dukes and one Davenport alone with their kin. Cooter just caught it, and felt inclined to give them a piece of his mind for it.

What did they know anyway?

He didn't though, he wouldn't, because he was not about to leave the room at this moment.

Bo was so pale. Oh lord how pale he was! Luke was white as a ghost from the shock, from fear for his cousin, but still how much paler Bo was. Jesse sat on the other side of the bed. Grim, nothing at all like the old man Cooter loved dearly. He looked like a man who was just a fraction of an inch from reaching the limit of what he could take. Seeing those two boys in trouble of any kind, seeing them hurt always wore so hard at Jesse.

How many times had Cooter seen that?

He had watched when Bo was just a kid, about knee high to a grasshopper. Bo was just a small child and so when he hurt himself only his uncle was good enough to comfort him. When Bo fell out of the tree and broke his arm. He was clinging to his uncle, and the look of Jesse's face was so sad. Because there was no way he could just magically take all the pain away from his young nephew.

It never changed when they grew: never, Cooter had been there so many times when something was wrong in the Duke family. Boss Hogg never even bothered to count him separately to the Dukes anymore. They were all the same to him. He was there when Boss Hogg used hypnosis to lure Luke to get rid of the General. He was there when Bo had temporary amnesia and Boss Hogg tricked him into running shine. He was there when Bo went missing and no one knew where to find him. When the two boys and Daisy were just going to help a retiring moon shiner, and it had been one of the worst times ever.

They had always gotten through it sure enough, but it cut just as deep every time he saw Jesse suffering like that from it.

Cooter stood beside the chair where Jesse sat. Bo seemed to be asleep, he hoped that he was. He hoped that he was asleep because he was just so afraid that if he was awake he would just be in so much pain. Because as long as Bo was asleep he could pretend that it was nothing more than that. It was when he saw the pain in Bo's eyes that he couldn't pretend that anymore, and he hated that. He nearly turned around rather than see that. It just wasn't possible, he couldn't do that Bo.

"Uncle Jesse."

The voice was quiet, a mere whisper. Not at all like what Cooter was used to hearing from him.

"I'm here Bo, I'm here." Jesse wrapped both his hands around the one he had been holding.

"Don't go." Bo squeezed his eyes shut as soon as he had uttered the words.

"I'm not going anywhere." Jesse said softly. "Luke's here too, Bo and Cooter, and we ain't going nowhere."

Bo didn't answer. He said nothing more for a long time… long enough that the silence worried Cooter. Bo wasn't sleeping. He could tell by the occasional groan and whimper. He wasn't sleeping. He was just plumb worn out and terrified, too badly shaken to say anything. The doctors might claim that it was all well and normal, but it wasn't. It was far from normal for either of the Duke boys.

"What happened, Bo?" It was Luke who finally broke the silence once Bo opened his eyes again. "Can ya tell us?" No demand, he could never do that to Bo. He wanted to know, he needed to know, but he could never put a demand like that on him.

"He hit me, an' I couldn't do anything. I never even saw 'im. Just ran me off the road." There were three sharp of intakes in the room, as three people found the news equally disturbing. They had been prepared to hear about most anything, going just a tad too fast, a flat tire at the wrong time. Cooter had even dreaded to hear that it was one of his repairs that had failed at a critical time. Just not that someone had run him off the road.

"When was it?" Luke asked, hating himself for voicing the question. He didn't think he could stand to hear the answer.

"Last night when I headed home," Bo turned to him. "He just ran me off the road and kept going, an' I couldn't do nothing. I couldn't get out Luke."

Luke didn't know what to say. He just clasped Bo's free hands in his own.

"Ya ain't gonna go are ya?" Bo turned pleading eyes to them. "Please promise me y'all ain't gonna go."

"Bo, they're gonna have to force us to leave here." Cooter said grimly. "Ain't no way we're leaving out of our own free will. We won't until they get back here an' take care of ya."

Bo closed his eyes for a moment. "I was alone there the whole night, an' I thought I wasn't gonna make it. There was water everywhere, an' I couldn't get out."

"It's gonna be okay now Bo, you's safe now." Jesse lifted the hand he held to clutched it to his chest. "It's all over now."

Bo turned moist eyes to him. "I'm cold Uncle Jesse, an' it hurts real bad." It didn't feel like it could be okay when he still felt as if he was so cold, and when it still hurt so much.

Jesse nodded looking around the room to see if there was another blanket close by, but he couldn't spot a single one. He looked over at his oldest nephew. "Luke, could ya go see if ya can make someone git the boy an extra blanket?" He could see how Bo was starting to shiver slightly.

"Sure thing Uncle Jesse." Luke nodded as he got up and went to find one. While he was gone Cooter took the chair he had vacated. Bo clung on to Jesse until Luke returned and told them no one had told him where he could get a blanket for his cousin.

"They just told me that someone would be here to check on him, an' they'd get him one then if he needed it." Luke reported.

"That ain't exactly helpful." Cooter stated. He was just about fed up with how the hospital staff had been acting.

Luke shrugged. "All I could do unless I wanted to start looking around in cabinets to see where they keep them. I asked them to get someone here to look at him then, and all they'd say was that I needn't worry and someone surely would."

Jesse nodded grimly, "They would say that." He frowned as Bo was still shivering, obviously still cold. The boys eyes were moist, as if he was barely keeping himself from crying. Considering what he had been through Jesse couldn't blame him. He couldn't imagine the horror of being stuck in a car, up to your neck in water, for a whole night. Bo was shivering now, biting at his lower lip as if he tried to be brave about it. He would try that Jesse thought. He always tried to be brave no matter what, even when he turned to Luke or himself for guidance.

Ah he wished that he could just take away that fear out of his eyes. He tried to chafe some warmth into the hand he was holding, hoping to give him at least some warmth back. Bo turned those big puppy eyes of his to his uncle. Oh the lord knew how he had perfected that look through the years. There wasn't a housewife in the county that was ever able to resist giving him a cookie when he turned that look to them. It always annoyed Luke that Daisy was the cute little girl, and that Bo had that puppy eyed look that worked so well for him. No matter if Jesse pointed out to him that Bo wasn't really doing it consciously, and that when they gave him a cookie, they always gave Luke one as well.

"It's so cold Uncle Jesse." Bo whimpered. "I'm so cold."

"I know, Bo, I know." Jesse shook his head. "An' I'll be danged if they's gonna tell me I ain't gonna worry about it." He laid down Bo's hand and pushed himself to his feet. "What kind a place is this if they can't even get ya a blanket?" He turned to Luke. "Ya keep an close eye at him now, an' I'll have me a talk with them."

Luke nodded gratefully. It would take a brave doc to tell Jesse he needn't worry the way they had told him.

Three arguments and one calm reasoning later Jesse returned carrying a blanket over his arm, muttering about the stupidity of some people at the same time as he draped it over Bo with extreme tenderness.

"There, ya'll be warm soon," he said softly, "nn' I'm here to watch over ya."

Bo nodded. He still felt ice cold. The blanket hadn't had time to help him warm up yet. His fingers and toes were so cold he could hardly feel them. His feet were worse, because with his uncle holding his hand at least he could feel that warmth. In truth he couldn't feel much more than pain in his broken leg either, and he didn't like it. It was all still just as frightening, and for a moment all he could do once more was to keep himself from panicking was to think of music. He got two mumbled lines on 'He Stopped Loving Her Today' before he realized they were giving him odd looks. He shook his head trying to clear it.

"I'm still scared," he admitted, looking up at this uncle.

Jesse nodded. He hadn't really expected anything else. Why Bo was mumbling out random lyrics he wasn't quite sure, but he didn't doubt that Bo had a reason for it. "It's okay Bo," he said softly. "It's okay ta be scared."

Bo shook his head. "I don't wanna."

"I know Bo, I know ya don't want ta be scared. But it's okay ta." Jesse took the hand he was holding and wrapped his other hand around those cold fingers. "Ya had something really bad happen to ya, an' we all feel so very sorry for ya."

Bo nodded slowly. "How's, how's the General?" He asked wanting to focus on something other than his cold limbs and the fear that still clutched at his stomach.

"The General's fine." Cooter grinned. "I hung him up ta dry, an' as soon as we take him down, we'll have him as good as new in no time."

"Ya can fix him then?"

"Oh yeah, good as new in no time." Cooter grinned.

He really was no help, Bo had hoped to lose his fear in a talk of crankshafts and spark plugs, hammering out dents and cleaning out the carburetor. He wanted to be distracted from what had happened to him, and just hearing Cooter say it would be good as new didn't help any.

He tried to ask them about the chores that had to be done, but instead of telling him about them Jesse only told him not to worry about it.

It almost seemed as if his uncle wanted him to think about his pain and fear for some reason he couldn't even understand. He wasn't getting any warmer either, and everything just added to his misery. He gave Luke a pleading look, but it seemed he didn't understand either.

It was all good and well for Jesse to sit there and assure him as he held his hand, and he didn't know what he would have done without him there. Most certainly he would have either been screaming his throat raw, or gone over to list all the words to all the Dolly Parton songs, even thought that was really Daisy's thing to do.

It was just that the reassurances weren't any good anymore. Jesse told him that he would be fine, but that didn't stop it hurting. Luke assured him that everything would be okay, but he was still so very horribly cold. Cooter said that it was all over, but he was still terrified.

He just couldn't take it anymore. His uncle tried to reassure him again, but it was just too much. He wanted to pull away where he wouldn't hear them anymore, somewhere so far away that they couldn't reach him, where he would never feel the fear or the pain again. He wanted to just curl up and shut out the world, but something inside him told him that it would be a mistake. Instead he directed the frustration outwards. Pulled his hand loose from his uncle's hand.

"No, it ain't all okay!" He shouted angrily at them. "I ain't okay! It hurts so bad, an' I'm so cold! I ain't okay, I'm scared, an' I want it ta stop hurting, an' I don't want to be so dang cold!"

"Well, I can't say I blame the boy, an' I ain't gonna either. I reckon if I were him I'd be feeling exactly the same way. At least now he's got his family there to take care of him."