Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters, nor making money from this; just for fun.
The Aftermath
"You ok, Luke?"
"No." Luke got up and went to get himself some coffee. Cooter walked up to him and put his hand on his shoulder. "Luke, I'm here if you need to talk."
"I know." He put the cup down and turned to face Cooter. "God, Cooter I'm so tired. But I..."
"You're too scared to sleep. Everytime you close your eyes you see the faces of the men you saved and couldn't save. Am I right?" Luke only nodded. "Listen I'll tell ya what, if I see that you are dreaming, I'll kick your foot to wake you."
"You remember that trick?"
"Yeah, come on Lukas. Let's get you to bed." An hour later Cooter woke up Bo.
"Bo." He gently shook his shoulder. "Bo." Bo slowly opened his eyes and looked at Cooter.
"Doc wanted me to wake you every hour because of your concussion." Bo nodded. "How ya feelin'?"
"My head still hurts." He rubbed his hand threw his hair and replied, "Cooter..I...don't feel...so good."
"Gonna be sick?" Bo closed his eyes then replied, "I...yeah." Bo slowly sat up as Cooter went to get the trash can. He got it to him just in time. He leaned back and replied, "sorry."
"Don't worry about it buddyrue."
"How's...Lu..Luke?" Cooter did not like how Bo's speech was slurred. "He had a nightmare earlier, he's taken this harder than I thought he would." He told him, then he realized that he was talking to himself; Bo hd fallen asleep.
"Bo?" Cooter tapped his face to wake him. Bo opened his eyes again and looked blankly at him. "Doc wanted me to keep you awake for several minutes, ok?" Bo nodded and they talked for five minutes. Then Cooter told him, "I'll let you sleep now." Bo quickly fell back asleep.
As Bo was sleeping somewhat soundly, Luke was not. Luke was standing near the rice paddies when 'Charlie' opened fire on his unit. Eveyone scrambled for cover as bullets were coming from all around them for what felt like hours, but was over in minutes. His men scrambled for cover as their angel above rained hell down upon the enemy. Silence, then their angel came back and landed in a clearing. His men helped the three P.O.W.s onto the chopper, while Luke served as their look out. As he turned to get on the chopper, one of the enemy jumped him. As they both landed on the ground Luke reached out for the landing skids. He yelled "Go!Go!Go!" As the Huey lifted up, Luke grabbed tight onto the landing skid, but he was not alone. 'Charlie jumped and got ahold of his waist. Luke was slipping, the men on the Huey couldn't really help, all one could do was grab Luke's wrist so if he lost his grip he wouldn't fall. As he strugged against the man holding him, he looked down at him. All he could see was a freightened young man. No, not a man but a boy, maybe younger than himself. Then he heard a scream as he watched the young man fall to his death.
Luke bolted up from his dream. Breathing heavily as Cooter looked at him in silence. "You alright?" Luke looked at him than Bo, "no." He took a trembling hand and rubbed his face and pushed his hair back. He looked around the room again to make sure he was still home. He sighed and grabbed his pants and put them on. As he started to leave the room Cooter asked, "Luke?"
"I won't go far." Cooter nodded, "I'll watch over him." "Thanks." Luke said as he left the room. He went outside and looked around, but he wasn't in Hazzard anymore. 'Quiet, too quiet.' Luke thought, his heart was racing and he was breathing heavily. When he felt a hand on his shoulder he spun around wide eyed, his legs buckled and he passed out. Jesse barely caught him in time before he hit the ground.
"Cooter! Cooter!" Cooter ran outside to find Jesse leaning over Luke.
"What happened?"
"I must of scarred him, I thought he heard me. I touched his shoulder and as he spun around, he looked like he saw a ghost, then he passed out."
"He had a nightmare Jesse."
"I figured as much, let's get him inside." Cooter tapped Luke's face, "come on Lukas." Luke slowly came around, he opened his eyes and looked at Cooter with fear. He didn't see Cooter, he saw John; his buddy in 'nam. He got shot in the head standing only a foot away from Luke.
"No! You can't be...No!" Luke screamed as he was backing away. He was now sitting with his back against the house, still shaking his head saying "no,' over and over.
"Sergeant Duke, what are your orders?" Cooter asked, he knew Luke was somewhere else, but he didn't realize how far gone Luke was.
"I saw you, you're dead!" He started to panic, Cooter reached out to him and Luke screamed. "Don't touch me!" Luke got to his feet and ran. He didn't make it that far though, only about several hundred yards and he was tackled by Cooter. Cooter couldn't let him leave, he wasn't sure what Luke was capable of doing when he wasn't in his right mind. Luke tried to fight back but Cooter had him pinned down good.
"No! Let me go, let me go!" Jesse reached the two men and gave Luke a sedative. Doc knew how bad some flashbacks could be, and since Luke was having a hard time dealing with everything that had happened to Bo. He decided to play it safe and leave Jesse some sedatives. Even with the sedative Luke still fought.
"No, let me go! You're dead, I saw you! Let me go, you're dead!" Cooter saw the tears fall from his eyes. He never saw Luke or anyone for that matter that scared before. He was slowly losing his fight with the medicine, but he kept repeating, "let me go, let me go." Finally he succomed to the sedative and closed his eyes.
Cooter let out a sigh of relief, "come on buddyrue, let's get you inside." He got him in a firemen's carry and took him to his room. He gently laid Luke down, as Bo woke up and saw Cooter covering Luke up.
"Is Luke ok?"
"I don't know Bo." Cooter straightend up and turned to face him. "He had a flashback, this time it was bad. He didn't come back as fast as he used to." Bo got up, "whoa, what do you think you're doing?"
"Sleeping next to him." Bo looked up at Cooter who gave him a strange look. "Don't give me that look Cooter."
"Well, what are you gonna say to Jesse or Daisy if they come in?"
"They won't think anything is strange. Now are you gonna help me stand or am I gonna crawl over there?" Cooter gave a defeated sigh,and helped him up.