1972. SHORT JESSE POV AT THE END. I DON'T OWN THE DUKES OF HAZZARD. IF I DID I'D HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY A GENERAL LEE BY NOW. OH WELL, ONE DAY I'LL GET ONE.. ONE DAY... also i did google some stuffsabout malaria so this is pretty acurate i think. anywho on with the story!
Luke and Daisy were having a snack in the kitchen: good ol' late night cookies and milk. It was around 1:30am when Jesse left for Atlanta, and now it was 2:15. Bo hadn't asked for anything in that time, he had a good bit of shine in his system, making it easy to ride out the pain and get some sleep.
"I don't think I can keep my eyes open much longer." Daisy yawned, stretching her arms.
"Me either." Luke rubbed his eyes and stifled his yawn.
"Luke? Uncle Jesse? Daisy?" Came the raspy calls from the boys' bedroom. Suddenly, Luke and Daisy weren't tired anymore: they both rushed to Bo's bedside, Luke on his knees and Daisy right behind him.
"I'm here, cuz, what's wrong?" Luke put a hand on Bo's shoulder.
"Gonna throw up..." Bo mumbled, not even opening his eyes.
"Get some towels, Daisy." Luke ordered as he took Bo's arm and laid it around his shoulders. Bo understood and latched on for dear life. Luke put one arm around his back and the other under his knees and carried him into the bathroom.
"Get the thermometer, too." Luke requested as he set Bo down on the bathroom floor.
"Assume the position." Luke chuckled as he helped Bo struggle to his knees and over the edge of the bathtub.
"Cute." Bo coughed, before beginning the laborious task that he hated so much, yet had to do so much of.
Luke could hear the strained sounds of pain that came with Bo's heaving and with his every breath.
"Here's the towels and thermometer. I also got a big bowl of cold water, I figured you forgot to ask for that." Daisy set the things down.
"Alright, as soon as he's done here, we'll clean him up and take his temperature." Luke decided.
"Easy, cuz." Luke calmed Bo, who was now groaning instead of heaving, but still coughing and attempting to heave. Luke didn't understand what Bo was doing, but he could tell that he needed to calm down.
"Ahhhhooww..." Bo gave Luke an agonized look before curling up into his older cousin's safe arms.
"What's hurtin' ya?" Luke ran a hand through his sweaty bed head.
"Everythin'." Bo replied, breathlessly.
"You want some more shine?" Luke asked him as he started to wipe his face off.
"Not yet." Bo wanted to wait as long as possible.
"Let's see how your fever's comin' along." Luke put the thermometer in his mouth. 101.7
"About the same." Luke stated as he took one of the large dry towels Daisy'd brought and wrapped Bo up in it, since he was shivering.
"You wanna go back to bed, honey?" Daisy ran her cool soothing fingers over the top of his sweating hand.
"Reckon so." Bo replied.
"Alright, let's go." Luke reinforced his grip on Bo and got to his feet, carrying his cousin back to bed.
Daisy tucked him in and took a wet rag to his face for a few minutes before, seeing that he was in a lot of pain, asked if he wanted the shine now, which he did.
"Luke, can you grab the shine please?" Daisy called to Luke, who was cleaning up the mess in the bathroom, and it was some mess.
"Is he alright?" Luke ran into the kitchen and brought the shine into the bedroom.
"I'm fine." Bo managed. Daisy gave Bo a few good sips and before long he was sleeping again.
Luke and Daisy took turns napping and watching over their youngest, who slept for most of the time.
By 3:30, Jesse was home. He walked into the house to see Daisy sleeping in Luke's lap on the floor in the doorway of the boys room, Luke's eyes glued to Bo, who was wheezing with every breath, but sleeping pretty peacefully considering.
"I'm home." Jesse whispered, placing a hand on his eldest's shoulder. He knew he could trust that boy. He'd done a great job: Bo and Daisy were sleeping.
"You lay down and get some sleep, son." Jesse eased Daisy off of Luke, who woke up.
"Is he alright?" Daisy's head jerked up and tangled, fluffy hair flew in every direction.
"He's fine." Luke soothed.
"When did you get home?" Daisy looked up at her uncle.
"Just now. Y'all get on to bed now, I'm gonna give him somma this and put him back to bed." Jesse said. "Thanks for taking care of him. I knew I could trust you." Jesse smiled at his eldest kids, before heading over to Bo, placing a hand on the back of his neck, slipping his fingers up through the curls on the back of Bo's head.
"I got ya yer medicine, Bo." Jesse caressed his neck until he awoke, tired eyes fluttering open before remaining at a lazy half open state.
"Uncle Jesse?" His voice was raspier then before.
"Hi, son." Jesse smiled at him. "Time to take some pills, then I'll let ya sleep." Jesse eased Bo into a sitting position and fed him the pills, sending them down with some watered down shine, to keep pain at bay for the rest of the night.
"Thanks." Bo slurred before re-obtaining his comfortable sleeping position. Jesse kissed his forehead and retired to his room.
Just because he was in his room didn't mean he could sleep...
JESSE POV:
I laid down in my bed, finally. It had been a long drive up to Atlanta, and a long night in general. I was tired but I couldn't sleep. I was so worried that it turned to anger:
Lord, why do you do such terrible things to my Bo? What's he done to You to make You this mad at him? You took his parents away from him while he still feedin' offa his mother, he was less than 4 months old! He never got to meet his parents, that he remembers. As if that wasn't enough for a body to handle, You done give him asthma. Why would You want to give anyone the burden of not being able to breathe? Of being so scared that you're gonna die on a weekly basis?
I love that boy so much. You ought to know, You're the one who done give him to me. I'm thankful for them kids, since me an' Lavinia never could have none of our own. I love them boys more than life itself! Why would You do that to him? I hate seeing him suffer so. It ain't fair to give one person so many problems. It ain't fair that you orphaned them three kids before they was even old enough to remember their parents.
I sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking of all the hard times our family had had. But then it got me to thinking: I just said that 'I love them boys more than life itself'. I reckon that's one thing this family's got goin' for it: love. Then I remembered what I always told them crazy kids when they would get to being upset about how poor we were: 'Us Dukes ain't got much. But we got out family. We treat each other with love and respect...'
I'm sorry, Lord. I got carried away in my worry and it turned to anger. Thank Ya so much for my family. My boys, my Daisy, and my late wife. Thank You for the life that I did have with my siblings, and that I get to raise the next generation of 'em.
And, with that I was so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open so, I didn't. I finally got to sleep. I good, deep, refreshing sleep.
THE END of the chapter. evry1 knows that bo gets better mm'kay? yeah, incase u noticed i stole a line from 'One Armed Bandits' if u don't know which one it is, u don't need to know. lolol. see ya next chapter!
