Author's note: In the story I mention a P.O.W. camp in Vietnam, this camp is real and I don't mean any disrespect to any P.O.W. or service member that was in Vietnam, I only wanted to make Luke's story a little more real.

At Home

The drive home was mostly silent as Bo laid his head on Luke's right shoulder and fell asleep.

"You gonna be alright Luke?"

"Yeah, now that Bo's safe."

"That's not what I meant Lukas." Luke sighed, "don't know." Several minutes later Cooter hit a dip in the road and Bo got jostled awake.

"Cooter,...stop."

"What?"

"Gonna be sick." Cooter pulled over just in time for Bo to get to the side of the road to throw-up. Luke knelt next to Bo in an attempt to steady him; so he didn't fall over. Bo leaned back on his knees and Cooter asked him. "You alright, buddy?"

Bo just replied, "so dizzy." Cooter grabbed his shoulders before he could fall over.

"Come on buddy." Cooter helped him up to his feet. As Bo looked at Luke he replied, "don't Luke, don't think for one minute that this is your fault." Luke nodded; he had a habit of being over protective of Bo and often blamed himself if Bo got hurt. Even if there was no way Luke could of known if Bo would get hurt.

"Come on, let's go home. Before Cooter has to pick both of us off the road." Replied Luke. Cooter helped Bo get into the truck and Luke sat in the middle.

"Can ya take it easy?"

"I'll try Bo."

When they got to the farm Bo was so dizzy that Cooter almost had to carry him in. When they got Bo into bed and situated, Luke went into the kitchen to make some coffee.

"Luke why don't you rest? I'll stay here tonight to check on Bo every two hours like Doc wanted." Cooter told him.

"Thanks, I think I'll take you up on that."

"Luke can I talk to you?" Jesse asked him as he sat at the table. Luke nodded as he sat down as well.

"I know you don't want to talk about what happened in Vietnam but you weren't exactly honest with us about your leg wound now were ya?"

Luke didn't even look at him when he replied, "no, sir I wasn't."

"Why?"

"Didn't want your pity, or for you to worry. So many things went wrong that night, I didn't want to relive them."

"You think you can talk about it now?" Luke just shrugged. "What happened Luke?"

"I was in a unit designated to free P.O.W. camps that were considered deserted by the Vietnam government. We knew that they moved P.O.W.s from camp to camp. The time I was there we freed about a dozen American prisoners. The last camp we got to before we were to be sent home was a camp called Camp Faith, it was located 9 miles west of Hanoi. They said it hadn't been used since 1970 but we had evidence of a hand full of men there. We searched everywhere in the camp, found nothing. When we were leaving a sniper got us separated, I got caught. I was brought to a small cabin that we were just in. They were hiding in a tunnel that was under the cabin." Luke looked around not sure if he should continue. He stood up and got a glass of water to drink. With shaky hands he set the glass down and turned around to continue his story.

"There was five V.C., Phil, George, Vince and another man. Vince was unconscious and it looked like they were going to question Phil when they brought me in. When they saw that I out-ranked him, they decided to question me first. When I didn't answer their questions, they took a hot poker and put it in my thigh. When I didn't scream," Luke started laughing, "boy did they get mad." For some reason Luke couldn't stop laughing. They all waited patiently for Luke to continue.

Luke sat down and rubbed his hands threw his hair and continued. "Before anything else could happen my men arrived. I got lose and snapped 'Charlie's' neck, slit another's throat."

Daisy let out a little gasp at that last comment. Jesse was a little surprised on how unemotional Luke was while telling his story. Cooter was leaning against the wall, trying not to cry.

"Like I told ya, I had no choice. We lost so many good men, too many, we just wanted to bring as many back as we could. Well, we got out of there and we were sent to a military hospital. Then we were medically discharged. You know the rest." Jesse nodded, then put his hand on Luke's shoulder.

"You gonna be alright Luke?" Luke shrugged. "Won't sleep much tonight." Jesse and Cooter both knew it wouldn't be because of his concern over Bo. It would be because of the nightmares that he most likely would have.

Luke looked up at Daisy and replied, "Daisy, if you knew what they did to P.O.W.'s over there you wouldn't be looking at me like that. My God, Daisy, when I saw Bo down that well. All I could see were the faces of the men we freed."

"I'm sorry honey, it's just..." Daisy was near tears.

"Come here hon." Daisy went to Luke and he held her close. Several minutes later Daisy kissed Luke on the cheek and replied, "love ya cuz, good night."

"Love ya too, Daisy."

"Luke don't worry about the chores tomorrow." Jesse looked at the clock, "uh, today, just rest."

"Thanks." Jesse went off to bed himself.

"You want me to stay and help with Bo?" Luke was nervously tapping his fingers on his knee and looking around.

"I tell ya what, I'll sleep on the couch. If ya need me, ya know where I'll be." On his way to the couch he turned back to Luke and replied, "try to get some rest, alright?" Luke nodded then watched Cooter go to the couch. After turning out the lights he went to bed himself. Only to wake three hours later to one of many nightmares that were to plague him that week.

One hour later Cooter went to check on Bo. When Bo didn't wake up Cooter called Doc.

"Hey Doc, this is Cooter, I'm over at the Duke farm helping with Bo. I tried waking him but he won't wake up."

"I'll come over."

"Thanks Doc."

"You're welcome Cooter." Cooter hung up the phone, then went to the boy's bedroom to stay with Bo. Luke was still sleeping when Cooter saw the headlights from Doc's car, fifteen minutes later. Cooter met him at the door.

"Hey Doc come on in." Doc went straight to the boy's room and took out his light and looked into Bo's eyes. "Well his eyes respond to the light the way they're supposed to." So with that he pinched his arm hard. Bo responded by moving his right hand over to where Doc pinched it; in order to stop the pain. Doc then shook Bo's shoulder.

"Wake up son." Bo slowly opened his eyes and starred at Doc.

"Doc?"

"Cooter was worried when you didn't wake up for him." Bo just looked at him, then closed his eyes.

"Bo." Doc shook his shoulder again and Bo opened his eyes. "I need you to stay awake for several minutes. Can you do that for me?"

"I'll try."

"You want something to drink?" Bo pushed back his hair and replied, "I don't feel so good."

"You gonna be sick?" Bo didn't reply, he was trying not to throw up. "Bo?"

"Yeah." Bo slowly sat up and Doc got a trash can to him. When he was done he laid back down.

"Bo I'm gonna give you an I.V., there's no way you're gonna hold liquids down." Bo nodded. Doc got out his supplies as Luke was waking up.

"Doc?"

"Sorry if I woke you, Cooter was worried when he couldn't wake Bo." Luke sat up at that. "Relax, Luke. He'll be fine, I'm giving him an I.V. He's very nauseated, won't be able to hold anything down." Doc got the I.V. in and was looking for a place to hang it. He removed a small picture and hung it up on the nail.

"I'll wait here until the I.V. is done."

"I'll keep ya company Doc." Replied Cooter. Luke got out of bed and went to the bathroom. When he was done he went into the kitchen to join them.

"You ok, Luke?" Cooter asked. Luke just shrugged as he sat down at the table. Luke fell asleep at the table, so Doc and Cooter just left him. Doc removed the I.V. and quietly left. Several minutes later Luke suddenly woke up with a jolt.