Hi everyone! Well, I'm still trying to balance these two stories:) (Fool!) This thank you is extra big - for everyone who has contributed ideas and suggestions for this story. The good news is - it now has a set ending. It's been a combination of so many ideas, but I guarantee, it would have been very different if it hadn't been for you guys!

Disclaimer: I don't own the Dukes, and no infringements intended.

BALANCING THE BOOKS

CHAPTER 10

WAITING

The General pulled to a screeching halt outside the bank, and Bo was out of the car before the engine completely shut off. Taking the steps three at a time, Luke was on his heels. They burst through the doors to find a crowd gathered in the back. Bo pushed his way through the people, only to freeze a second later. A teller and a customer were kneeling on the floor; lying in between them was Jackie, covered in blood.

"Jackie," Bo cried, falling to his own knees beside her.

"Bo?" she asked. Though didn't seem to be seeing him, just hearing his voice was a comfort.

"I'm right here," Bo said. While Bo took her hand, Luke was trying to aide the good samaritans that didn't appear to know what they were doing. "Just hang on. You're gonna be ok," Bo told her, trying to get her to agree.

Boss Hogg joined them, returning from calling his deputy and sheriff. "They just shot her for no apparent reason," he stated, visibly shaken by the incident. In all the schemes and double crosses that he'd pulled in his day, no one had ever been hurt and this was something that Hazzard had never seen before.

"She wasn't doing anything," Margaret added. "She was just standing there with her hands up in the air like the rest of us. That's what they told us to do, and we all did it."

"This is terrible," Boss said, sounding sincere.

Bo could feel Jackie's hand getting weaker and colder as he clutched it. He could hear what the others were saying, but his eyes only briefly left her face to see if the steady stream of red had slowed down. To his despair, it hadn't, and he could feel her slipping away. "C'mon Jackie, hang on. Just stay with me. Jackie, I love you," he confessed. Though he hadn't planned on saying those three little words for the first time under these circumstances, he didn't know if there'd ever be a time when they'd matter more.

"I love you, too, Bo," she whispered back.

The youngest Duke smiled and nodded, having believed that she returned his feelings, but glad to finally be sure. Hearing them made him happy, but there was still plenty to fret about, and tears were now streaming down his face. As if answering his prayers, he could hear the wail of the sirens getting close and knew that help was just seconds away. "Hear that, sweetheart? Help's almost here. You're gonna be ok. You just hang on." Bo didn't know whether she heard him or not. As the ambulance pulled up outside, the hand he was holding went limp and her eyes closed as she lost the battle with consciousness.

"No! Jackie, don't you do this. Don't you dare die!" he screamed, as Harvey and another attendant reached her side.

After doing a quick check, the EMTs agreed that they didn't have time for the standard procedures. They lifted her onto a gurney, aided by Bo, who made it clear that he was riding along, ignoring their pleas that there wasn't enough room. He promised he'd stay out of the way, but he was determined that he was going. Not having time to argue, they gave in. Luke promised to meet him at the hospital and to let Uncle Jesse and Daisy know what had happened.

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Uncle Jesse and Daisy couldn't believe it when Luke informed them of what had taken place.

"This kind of stuff just doesn't happen here in Hazzard," Daisy cried. "Who'd have imagined she was safer in Chicago?"

"C'mon," Luke urged. "We need to get there. Bo's gonna need us," and with that, Daisy and Jesse hopped in Dixie and followed the General to Tri-County Hospital.

Bo was sitting in the waiting room looking lost and very alone when they arrived. He was the only one in the room, but Luke had to call out to him three times before his blonde cousin registered that someone was talking to him. When Bo did look up, he didn't say a word. He didn't have to, his blue eyes told Luke the entire story, but the brunette could tell that he hadn't received the worst news. His cousin was scared, but he wasn't devastated. Taking a seat next to him, Luke slipped his arm around him and pulled him close. Bo fought against the tug, but eventually gave in, letting his head rest on Luke's shoulder while Luke's arms encircled him.

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Minutes turned into hours, and several people had already come and gone. After securing things at the bank, Boss Hogg arrived, accompanied by the FBI. Rosco and Enos lost the suspects, as usual, but whenever a bank was robbed, it automatically fell under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Considering that it was one of their own colleagues who had been gunned down in the robbery, there was no doubt that these bank robbers would be pursued undauntedly. Cooter arrived within minutes of being ordered to abandon his own pursuit and to leave the police work to the police. Rosco and Enos stopped for a progress report, praying that they didn't have to amend the charges to Murder rather than Attempted Murder. Margaret, the teller that tried to help, some of the clerks that worked in the stores and the diner, and Jackie's landlady had also put in appearances, saying that they were praying for the girl, and that it was such a shame that something this terrible could have happened in their fair town.

It wasn't until almost seven o'clock that evening that anyone came out to tell them anything. When a younger doctor, wearing green scrubs, called for Mr. Duke, three people responded. Bo had listed himself as Jackie's fiancee, believing that otherwise, they would neither tell him anything or let him see her.

"How's Jackie?" Bo asked.

"Mr. Duke, why don't we go somewhere where we can talk in private?" the doctor suggested.

Bo was immediately filled with a sense of fear. Not wanting to be alone, he asked if his cousin could go along, and the doctor agreed. In addition to not wanting to be by himself, Bo knew that he could trust Luke to later translate anything he missed or might not have understood. The doctor nodded and led them to a small office, where he closed the door behind them.

"Is she? Is she?" Bo stuttered, not being able to actually verbalize the words.

"Mr. Duke, please sit down," the doctor motioned, and Luke practically pushed him in the chair. "She's alive," he then added, and Bo let out the long breath he'd been holding. Putting up an x-ray on the screen, he turned it on. "The bullet hit a main artery which caused a massive amount of blood loss. It also nicked the lung. Getting the bleeding to stop is what took so long. Of course, there's some muscle and tissue damage in the area, but that should be able to be overcome in time. The good news is that a fraction of a centimeter over," and the doctor indicated a smidgen with his fingers, "and she would have been killed instantly."

Thinking that the medical professional was already talking about overcoming muscle and tissue damage, Bo asked, "so, she's going to be all right?"

"Mr. Duke, it's too soon to be able to say that yet for sure. The damage was severe enough, and complications could always arise. She's been with us now for several hours, and it's been touch and go. I'm afraid that all we can do now is wait and see. Some of this is up to her and to God." He knew that wasn't what the young man wanted to hear, but he never lied to the families of his patients. It did no one any good in the long run to make false promises. "I'm sorry."

Bo was doing his best not to cry, and feared that it was a battle he was going to lose. "Can I see her?"

"She's in recovery right now, and she'll probably be there for at least an hour. After that, they'll be taking her to ICU, and though we normally only allow visitors ten minutes each hour on that ward, I'll tell the nurses that you can stay as long as you stay out of their way, okay?"

"Thank you."

Nodding, the doctor moved toward the door. "You can stay in here a few minutes, if you like," he told them before exiting.

Luke sat back down next to his cousin. When Bo felt the strong arms go around him, knowing that it was just the two of them in that room, he finally gave himself permission to let go for a few minutes. Luke could feel the sobs start softly, then felt them build. "It's ok, Bo. Just let it out. It's gonna be ok," he told him, hoping that he wasn't promising something that he couldn't deliver.

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It was almost two hours before anyone came out to get Bo. The nurse told him what room he could find his young lady in, and as Bo walked the corridor, he could have sworn that it grew longer with every step that he took. He stopped before he reached the doorway. In the critical care unit, there were no doors separating the hallway from the rooms. They would only be a hindrance in the event that speed was required, which it often was in that part of the hospital. Therefore, Bo wouldn't be able to compose himself behind a wooden door before going in, not that he was expecting her to be awake. Still, he needed a second to get himself together. He was scared, and he didn't know what to expect. No one he knew had ever been in the ICU before. Taking a deep breath, he stepped inside the room.

The first thing that he noticed was that it was very small compared to the normal rooms in the hospital. Whether it was because they were crowded with more equipment or they were just smaller, he didn't know, and he wasn't going to take the time to try to figure out. It was also dark, with only the light over the bed turned on very low. The next thing he noticed was the sounds that he heard, or rather lack of them. A few of the machines hummed, and there was a slow, but steady beeping. Other than that, it was eerily quiet. There were no voices, and that seemed odd. Everyone in this part of the hospital was extremely ill, not up to talking, but there was no conversation coming from visitors, and even the staff seemed to be mute. There were also no sounds coming from television sets or radios. It was like he had been transported to a planet where only medical machines were allowed to make noise.

Shaking his head and blinking to clear his vision, Bo forced his eyes to the bed. He hardly recognized what he saw. When Jackie had hit her head after the accident, she hadn't felt well, but it was different from the way she appeared now. There were no visible bruises, and except for the tiny remnant of the cut on her forehead, she looked physically unscathed in her face. After sustaining the concussion, she looked a little green from the nausea. Now, she looked as white as the sheets that were covering her. He knew that under her gown and blankets, there was at least one bullet hole and incision, but unless you were looking, you couldn't see it. He could see the IV and blood running into the tubes in her arms, and he saw the wires running out from under the blankets, but the massive amounts of blood had been washed away. If he didn't know the details of what had happened, Bo would have said she almost looked better than she had after she struck the tree. Yet, he did know better. After her accident, Doc Appleby assured them that she'd be up in a day or two. She may have looked better now, but this time the doctors couldn't even say whether or not she'd ever wake up. His eyes filled with tears at the thought of never seeing her pretty eyes or hearing her wonderful voice again, and it was almost too much for him to be able to bear.

"No," Bo said defiantly. "You're going to be ok," he stated, partly to himself, partly to the patient. Looking down at her face, despite the terrible coloring, she was still beautiful and he loved her with all his heart. His only regret was that he hadn't told her sooner, but he wasn't sure he'd come to terms with it fully himself. If Bo Duke wasn't in love with someone, it was a rare occurrence. Yet now that he knew that he'd never really been in love before, it had scared him. It was almost as if he knew that his romances in the past wouldn't last, leaving him a little hurt, but free to move on. After loving Jackie Johnson, moving on wouldn't be that easy, if it was even possible. Knowing that she could die, Bo told her what his heart already knew, but his brain hadn't been ready to accept. Having verbalized the words, there was no going back. Bending down and lightly kissing her on the lips, he hovered above her face as he told her again that he loved her. Taking her hand in his, he pulled up a chair and sat down, praying that it wouldn't be long before she'd wake up.

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Bo fell asleep with his head on the bed, holding Jackie's hand in his. After sending everyone home, he'd taken up watch in the chair. Finally laying his head down, he drifted off. As his senses began to return, he found himself disoriented by his surroundings. He thought he felt something, but he wasn't sure what. Bo sat up and blinked, glancing at the clock before turning toward the window to confirm that it was early morning. Suddenly, he felt the movement again. Glacing to see what it was, he realized that it was Jackie's fingers. It had only been a slight twitching, but she was waking up.

"Jackie," he called to her. "C'mon sweetheart, you can do it. Open your eyes. You've been asleep long enough."

Bo saw that she was trying, but it looked to be very difficult. With the continued effort, the blonde knew that it was only a matter of minutes before he would again see those beautiful, blue eyes. Bo continued coaxing her. Finally, the blue eyes he'd been yearning to see fluttered open, only to close immediately. Repeating the process several times, the eyes stayed open a little more each time.

"Oh Jackie. Am I glad to see you," Bo told her, caressing her cheek.

"Bo?" she slurred.

"Yeah sweetheart, I'm right here. You're gonna be ok. Everything's gonna be ok, now," Bo soothed, bending down and kissing her. "I love you, Jackie," he repeated, his voice cracking as his said the words.

"Bo? What's the matter? What happened?" she asked, becoming fearful of the waiver she heard.

"Nothing's the matter," Bo said, not wanting to upset her. "Everything is fine, now. It's just that you really scared me."

"I'm sorry," she apologized, though she couldn't remember what she did. Slowly, she became aware that she was in a hospital, and she was in pain, so she knew something must have happened. "What happened?" she asked again.

Bo looked down at her to see if she really was asking. "What do you remember?"

Trying to recall, her memory slowly returned. As it did, her eyes became wide with fear. "He just shot me," she said, becoming agitated, which caused a chain reaction in wildly beeping monitors.

"I know, honey. I know, but it's gonna be ok. You're safe now," Bo told her, as the doctor came running in to see what was going on. He was pleased that his patient was awake, but didn't want her to deal with any type of stress for the time being. The doctor told the nurse to give her something to calm her down. Jackie tried to resist the immediate effect of the liquid that had been injected into her IV line.

"Jackie, don't fight it. Let yourself go to sleep," Bo soothed. "You need the rest, and I'll be right here," he told her.

Having no choice but to succumb to the drug she had been given, she felt herself being pulled under.

Bo sat down and watched her. He'd been so worried about her physical injuries that it never occurred to him how she might react emotionally. Not having been present at the time of the shooting, he had to rely on the information that was being relayed by those who were. By all accounts, some looney tune just walked up to Jackie Johnson and shot her, for no apparent reason. Bo never stopped to think what must have flashed in her mind as she saw the gun pointing at her, then felt the bullet rip her apart. Now that the doctors believed that she would be all right physically, he wondered if she was going to be all right emotionally. Bo repeated the promise to keep her safe, and told her that he'd do anything that he could to help her get through it. He also pledged to find the person responsible and make them pay.