I have tons of ideas for chapters after this one so I'll be working on writing this week and weekend to hopefully have another update by Monday and another one a few days after. No promises tho, cause ya never know when my crazy life'll throw a kink in my plow line. also i don't own the dukes of hazzard AND i ain't so sure on the exact recovery time for the injuries described, but its fan FICTION so i can do whatever i want lol, seeing as how i'm too lazy google it this time.
anyhow, its the same year as the last chapter, in fact the very same day. remember Daisy an' Luke'd headed back to the farm to do the chores while Jesse stayed with Bo? anyhow, its about night time an' Luke & Daisy've just gotten back to the hospital.
Luke and Daisy made their way back to Bo's room for the last time before visiting hours ended. When they arrived, they were surprised to see that Bo was awake. When they got closer they decided to stop walking so they wouldn't disturb Bo and Jesse's conversation.
Bo was crying softly, most of the wheezy sobs not making it past his throat, and Jesse was holding his hand and stroking his hair, having the hardest time not crying for Bo's sake. After a few minutes, Jesse noticed Luke and Daisy and motioned for them to come over.
"Bo, yer cousins is here now." Jesse smiled as he wiped at the flowing tears in Bo's eyes. Then he turned to the others, "He remembers."
Luke and Daisy looked at each other, and the widest smiles spread across both of their faces. Then they both turned their attention to Bo, who was wrapping his arms around Luke's neck and attempting to pull himself up into his cousins arms.
"Hey there, cousin..." Luke leaned down and took Bo in his arms as gently as he possibly could, but Bo didn't seem to care much about the pain: having his cousin back from wherever he'd been was all he wanted. Once Bo let go, Luke laid him down as gently as possible.
"aisy..." Bo wheezed, reaching an arm out to hug her with. Then Bo laid back to try and catch his breath.
"You're okay, Bo, you're okay..." Luke offered as he supported Bo with a gentle hand to the side of his head. Bo opened his eyes wider and begged Luke to help him with a direct look in the eyes.
Luke saw the fear and pain in Bo's teary eyes. He grabbed the edge of one of the chairs and pulled it as close to the bed as possible, taking the seat and Bo's hand.
"I know." Luke gently took Bo's fragile, injured head and embraced it closely to his chest. Bo reached up and gripped Luke's shoulder, allowing the wheezy sobs to come freely.
He'd been hit by a car and sure that his cousin had been too, then there was a strange blank of time that he didn't know about, a short foggy period of knowing that he was terribly hurt but not knowing where he or Luke was, and then he'd finally woken up to terrible pain. But, his family was here now, and there wasn't much else he wanted.
Jesse and Daisy'd gone off to the side to talk a bit.
"We're gonna have to talk them into letting Luke stay with him. He ain't gonna last the night alone like this." Daisy insisted as she shamelessly let her tears fall, without even wiping them away.
"Yeah, bein' as hurt as he is, I don't think his body could handle a severe panic attack. He may try gettin' out of the bed, an' that would not be good." Jesse sighed.
"We'll tell them that an' that'll just get him in restraints." Daisy added.
"I know, but he'll be safe in restraints." Jesse sighed as he placed an arm around Daisy's shoulders. "I don't want that for him neither, and as much as I wish they'd just let one of us stay with him: they are capable of caring for him."
Luke slowly walked over to Jesse and Daisy, obviously having been crying, but trying to play it off like he hadn't been. "Poor guy cried himself to sleep." he sighed.
They heard a knock on the door. "I'll bet thats Cooter, he said he'd be back." Luke went to the door.
"Hey, ya'll." Cooter whispered as he walked in.
"Hey, Cooter." Luke smiled, or tried to.
"How's he doin?" Cooter asked, glancing at Bo.
"He ain't feelin' so good, but he remembers everythin' now." Luke told him.
"Hey, that's great!" Cooter smiled.
Just then a nurse came in to check on Bo, and to give them the news that visiting time was over.
"I'm sorry but you'll all have to go now. Visiting hours are over, but you can come back at 8am tomorrow." She smiled at the other Dukes as she checked Bo's vitals.
"Can't one of us stay the night with him? He has panic attacks when he's in the hospital." Jesse pleaded with her.
"I mean there's a small couch, but..."
"Please? This ain't the ICU, it's recovery."
"I'll speak with his doctor." She said, leaving the room to do so.
"I think ya jus' might able to stay, seeing as how he ain't in the ICU." Jesse smiled hopefully.
"I hope so." Luke sighed, looking back over at the sleeping Bo.
"How longs he gotta be here? When can he come home?" Daisy asked.
"I spoke with someone about that whist y'all was at the farm: so long as he recovers like they 'spect he will, he can come home within a week." Jesse explained.
"I hope it's sooner rather than later: he hates this place." Daisy sighed.
"Me, too, girl." Jesse hugged his niece.
Just then the nurse came back. "One of you can stay the night." She smiled, setting a pillow on the small couch that was by the window.
"Thank ya ma'am." Jesse smiled as she left.
Luke looked at Jesse, begging 'please let me be the one' with his eyes.
"Luke, why don't ya get all set up. We'll see ya in the mornin'." Jesse hugged his eldest.
"Thanks." Luke whispered.
"We'll see ya tomorrow. Tell Bo we said bye." Jesse said as he and Daisy headed for the door.
"Yeah, me too." Cooter added.
"Alright, g'night." Luke waved to them all.
After sitting with Bo for a while, Luke put the plastic chairs away and set the couch up as a bed. Then he stretched out as much as he could on the small couch, keeping his eyes trained on Bo until they closed themselves as he fell asleep.
Asthma attacks wouldn't be a problem, seeing as how the hospital had him on breathing medication as well as oxygen. But panic attacks were a huge problem: Bo'd developed a fear of hospitals and doctors from having been in and around them so much since he was a small child. Having gotten asthma when he was 5, he'd had his share of nights alone in the ICU, but it never became normalized for him, it just created a phobia. The rest of the Dukes were there for him as much as they could be, but when the hospital wouldn't allow it due to Bo being in the ICU or what not, he had panic attacks.
All that to say, when Bo woke up and realized he was in the hospital, he panicked. The first thing he thought to do was to get up and find a safe place to be, but he couldn't push past the pain in his leg and chest. Since he couldn't get up and he couldn't free himself, he started shaking. Thankfully this panic attack wouldn't cause an asthma attack, seeing as how he was loaded on breathing medicine.
Luke quickly woke up and realized what was happening. He pulled one of the plastic chairs close to the side of the bed and sat in it. "I'm here, Bo. Yer cousin, Luke." he whispered as he took Bo's hand and placed his other hand on Bo's shoulder.
"luke..." Bo shut his eyes and leaned his head on Luke's hand. The shaking immediately died down as he fell asleep again.
As soon as Bo was completely asleep, Luke headed back to his couch 'bed'.
Accept for one more time at 2am when Bo was in too much pain to sleep and a nurse had to come load him back up on drugs, Luke slept the rest of the night until he awoke at 5:30 by default: he'd been waking up at 5:30 since he was 4-years-old. At first he'd hoped that Bo being hit by a car'd been a dream, but once he opened his eyes he knew that it wasn't. He looked over to check on his cousin, and was surprised to find that he was awake, staring at the ceiling.
"Hey. You okay?" Luke asked.
Bo turned his head towards Luke. "I feel a whole lot better."
Luke was happy that Bo wasn't experiencing any struggle to breathe or pain, but he knew that it was only because he was loaded on all different kinds of medicine.
"I'm glad them medicines is doin' their jobs." Luke smiled as he pulled a chair back up the the bed.
"Thanks fer stayin' with me."
"Don't worry about it." Luke smiled as he cleared Bo's messy forelock from his eyes.
"When can I go home?" Bo asked.
"A week at the most. But then ya gotta stay in yer bed with no complaints." Luke chided playfully.
"Don' worry, it'll hurt enough to remind me ta stay put." Bo smiled, something Luke hadn't seen him do since before the accident.
"I'm glad yer feelin' good now, but later on you're gonna feel real bad again." Luke warned sadly.
"Yeah, I know it." Bo sighed.
"Uncle Jesse an' Daisy should be here 'soon as they's done with the chores." Luke changed the subject.
"Okay." Bo started closing his eyes.
"Tired?" Luke asked.
Bo only nodded softly, seeing as how he was almost asleep.
"You sleep, then." Luke patted his shoulder and went back to his couch.
...
Meanwhile, Hobie'd sobered up and found himself in jail.
"Hey! What am I in jail fer?" he called.
Rosco came down the stairs. "Drunk drivin' and intoxicated assault!" Rosco shouted un-necessarily. He was mad at Hobie for hitting Bo, even though he didn't 'love' the Dukes.
"Who'd I assault? I didn't hurt no one!"
"Yeah ya did, ya ran right into Bo Duke. He's injured in the hospital so you're gon' have to be in jail fer at least a year." Rosco explained.
"I did what?"
"Ya hit Bo Duke with yer car."
"I'm sorry, I-"
"You ain't sorry 'till you've spent yer time in prison!" Rosco giggled a little as he walked back up the stairs.
...
Back at the hospital, Jesse and Daisy'd just arrived.
"Hey, y'all." Luke greeted as they came in the door.
"Ya get any sleep at all?" Jesse asked, surpirsed to find Luke awake.
"Yeah, it weren't too bad. He didn't wake up no more once he knew I was here."
"Well, thats good." Jesse smiled.
"How is he, anyway?" Daisy asked.
"He's loaded up right now so he feels fine, but last night it got to be so bad he couldn't sleep."
"He's sedated?" Daisy asked.
"Nah, jus' exhausted." Luke explained.
Six days later, Bo was all set to come home.
A nurse gave Jesse instructions and supplies while Luke helped Bo get into some sweat pants from home.
"I can do it, I know I can, Luke." Bo insisted.
"You can try, but don't you hurt yourself." Luke gave in and handed Bo the pants.
After several minutes, Bo was able to get them on.
"Alright, nice job cousin." Luke gave Bo his hand to help him up with. "Don't ya tell me you can do this yourself, 'cause even if ya can, ya ain't gonna." Luke chuckled a little.
"Okay." Bo smiled and took the hand that Luke offered, and was surprised to find that he really needed it, even just to limp two feet to get into a wheel chair. He gritted his teeth at the sudden pain that stabbed through his leg and quickly lifted it from the ground, letting Luke take him the rest of the way into the wheel chair.
"Can't I jus' walk out?" Bo laughed sarcastically: there was no way he could walk out.
Luke laughed and patted Bo's shoulder: he was glad that Bo was feeling well enough to be back to his old self.
Once everything was all set, a nurse pushed Bo out the door and the Dukes pushed him out to the pick up.
"Ready?" Luke asked him.
"Yeah." Bo gripped Luke's arms and let Luke slowly haul him to his feet.
"Hurts, hurts..." Bo gritted his teeth and fell forward onto Luke.
"I got ya, just a sec..." Luke started easing him over to the truck.
Jesse supported Bo by his back and helped Luke get him into the truck.
"You okay?" Daisy asked when Bo was set down next to her in the truck.
"Yeah." Bo sighed, after exhaling loudly.
Luke scooted in on the other side so that Bo was sandwiched between two people, and Jesse drove.
Daisy held Bo's hand and felt his tighten in hers with each bump in the road, and after about 20 minutes, Bo was pale and exhausted from the pain.
"Ohh, Luke..." Bo leaned on Luke's shoulder.
"You're gonna be okay, we're almost there." Luke took his other hand.
"He okay? We need to stop?" Jesse asked from up front.
"Nah, lets jus' get there." Bo panted, shutting his eyes to block the pain out as best as he could.
When they arrived at the farm, everyone but Bo got out. Jesse went inside to set everything up, and Daisy and Luke started figuring on how to get Bo in the house.
"We've got the cane they gave us, or I could-" Luke started, but Bo interrupted: "Yeah," he sighed.
"Okay, come're." Luke reached into the cab and pulled Bo out and into a bridal carry.
Daisy opened the door and directed them to the boys room where Jesse'd set everything up.
Luke laid Bo down in bed, slightly propped up with extra pillows. "You okay?" he asked.
"yeah, fine..." Bo panted, shutting his eyes.
"I'm gonna go run out real quick an' pick up yer medicine okay?"
"yeah..."
"Okay, uncle Jesse an' Daisy's here if ya need anything." Luke patted his shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm right here, honey." Daisy kissed his cheek. Then she sat on Luke's bed to watch over him.
Luke took off in the General, and to his surprise Rosco ignored him when he shot by his favorite speed trap. Maybe Rosco really did care somewhere deep down.
Back at the house, Jesse was figuring on how they was gonna pay for the hospital bill, but then he realized that they could sue Hobie. Hobie was kind of their friend, but hell, he'd hit Bo with his car so, Jesse felt justified to sue him.
Luke got back as quickly as he could, and by that time Bo'd fallen asleep, rather peacefully considering.
"You two better come eat dinner." Jesse said as he popped in the boys' room door, where Luke and Daisy were watching Bo sleep.
"Okay." Daisy got up and headed for the door.
"You comin' Luke?" Jesse asked.
"Huh?" Luke turned to look at Jesse and Daisy.
"You comin' to eat?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah, yeah, sure." Luke got up and followed the others into the kitchen.
After several minutes it became apparent that Luke wasn't eating.
"Ain't ya hungry?" Jesse asked, trying to open the tight drum of feelings that was inside of his nephew.
"I was jus' thinkin' about Bo." Luke sighed, setting his fork down.
"He's gonna be okay." Jesse offered, but he knew it went deeper than than.
"It should've been me..." Luke's voice cracked as he put his head in his hands.
"Luke, c'mon, son. You know that ain't-"
"He pushed me outta the way! I should pushed him but I was too selfish..."
"Luke, there weren't hardly no time to be 'selfish' in a situation like that. I'm sure ya tried yer best to protect yer cousin."
"I pulled his arm but Hobie came that way too. I shoulda been faster, I shoulda grabbed him..."
"Luke c'mon, don't beat yourself up like this. It ain't like Bo's dead or somethin'. He ain't even in the hospital no more."
"Yeah, Luke, this wasn't in any way yer fault, honey." Daisy offered.
"It was s'posed to be me, an' I let it happen to him! I failed Bo, Uncle Jesse, I failed him..." Luke slowly got up from the table and trudged out to the barn.
"Uncle Jesse, ya think Luke's okay?" Daisy asked: Luke hardly ever showed his emotions off like this.
"He'll be alright, Daisy. We jus' gotta give him some time." Jesse assured her.
After dinner, Jesse went out to the barn to find Luke.
"Luke?" He called as he entered the barn.
"Yes sir?" Luke'd composed himself and was cleaning Maudine's stall.
"You know dang well that what happened to yer cousin ain't nobody's fault but Hobie's." Jesse offered, rather sternly, to kick the guilt out of his nephew.
"I reckon." Luke kept his eyes on his work.
"Whenever anything happens to Bo ya always blame yerself. Now, why is that?" Jesse asked, although he already had a pretty good idea of why.
"Cause he's... I dunno he's... he's like my little brother, ya know? You had a little brother. Ya know what that's like, right? An' with his asthma, it's jus' always come natural to watch over him extra good." Luke explained.
"I know, Luke I know. But, that don't mean that whenever somethin' happens to him that it's yer fault."
"If I'm the one looking after him an' somethin' happens to him, how is that not my fault?"
"You don't jus' look after him, he looks after you too. Sure, ya don't got asthma ner nothin' like that, but things can still happen to ya. Like gettin' hit by a dunk driver: that has an equal chance of happening to both of ya. Bo loves ya just as much as ya love him, an' if this happened to you, why it'd be Bo blamin' his self that you got hit."
After listening to Jesse, fresh tears shone in Luke's deep blue eyes. "You're right, Uncle Jesse," he sighed, slowly approaching his uncle, "thanks." he whispered.
"It ain't no trouble, son." Jesse replied, pulling Luke in for a brief hug. "Now, lets get on back in the house an' clean the kitchen up so Daisy don't have to do it all." Jesse suggested, wrapping an arm around Luke as they walked back to the house.
"Y'all jus' left me all the dishes, huh?" Daisy chuckled.
...
Once the nightly chores were done, everyone went to see to Bo before they all went to bed.
"Daisy you get the water an' Luke you wake Bo up." Jesse instructed as he counted out Bo's pills.
Luke went into the boys' room to wake Bo, but he found that he was already awake: His eyes were shut, but he was groaning at the pain in his chest, leg, and head.
"Hey, you okay?" Luke knelt next to Bo's bed.
"it hurts, luke, it hurts..." he coughed weakly.
"Why didn't ya tell us you was in so much pain?" Luke asked.
"I couldn't talk..too loud..." Bo panted. It was becoming hard for him to breathe again.
"We won't leave ya alone again, cousin, don't worry." Luke gently turned Bo's face towards him and started brushing his thumb soothingly up and down his jawline. "We thought you was asleep, I'm sorry, Bo."
"I was...but it hurt so I...woke up..." Bo panted.
"Okay, don't try ta talk no more." Luke soothed.
"Here we are." Jesse said as he an' Daisy came in.
Daisy crawled up onto the other side of the bed and helped Luke get Bo's head up at an angle so he could drink while Jesse slipped the pills in his mouth.
"Alright, Bo, we're gonna give ya some water." Luke warned as Jesse lifted the glass to Bo's mouth.
Bo struggled to swallow for several seconds, and once it was finally down, he opened his eyes and tried to speak, but it was pretty much impossible.
"I know it hurts, I know." Luke offered when he heard Bo trying to talk. Then they all laid him back down again.
"You jus' sleep, sugar. Next time ya wake up all that medicine'll be doin' it's work an' ya won't feel so bad." Daisy promised him as she stroked his face.
Bo wanted to ask what it was, hoping it wasn't anything too strong (enough to get him high) but he decided that it wasn't worth the effort of trying to speak: he was pretty much breathless and now all he could think of was sleep. And sleep he did.
"I think he's out now." Daisy said as she got up off the bed.
"I hope he sleeps a while." Luke sighed.
"He will, Luke. Thems not only pain killers theys sedatives too. He'll sleep fer near 2 hours, an' when he wakes up he won't feel bad an' he'll be able to go right back to sleep." Jesse explained.
"Unless he's high." Luke added.
"Even if he is high, he ain't gonna be miserable like he was a minute ago." Jesse finished. "G'night kids."
"Night, y'all." Daisy headed off to her room.
"Alright, see y'all tomorrow." Luke sighed as he went to his own bed.
...
Bo woke up about two hours later, finding it much easier to breathe than it had been when he'd fallen asleep... whenever that was. The lights were out and everyone'd left accept for Luke, so that meant that it was night time. He was really thirsty and also quite hungry, but he didn't wanna wake Luke, seeing as he was sound asleep. He though about getting up to get himself something to eat so's not to disturb Luke, but then he realized that if he fell and hurt himself or if he passed out it would make the strain on his entire family worse: a lot worse than waking up to get him something to eat so, he decided to wake Luke up.
"Hey, Luke?" Bo called in the loudest voice he could make, which was considerably louder than before, but not too much louder than a whisper.
"You alright?" Luke asked rushing out of his bed and snapping on the lights as if the house was on fire. He was surprised to find Bo sitting up.
"I'm fine, Luke. I'm jus' real thirsty an' kinda hungry. If ya wouldn't mind could ya get me somethin'?"
"Sure, yeah." Luke calmed himself out of urgency mode and went to the kitchen.
Soon after, Luke came back. "I didn't know how easy it'd be for ya to eat with them stitches in yer lip, so I jus' got you a banana an' some milk."
"There's stitches in my lip?" Bo asked, shocked.
"You didn't know?"
"In my lip?"
"Yeah, jus' about 5."
"Where?" Bo's hand shot up to his mouth.
"Here..." Luke peeled Bo's lip down and away from his teeth, showing him the line of stitches on the inside of it.
"What, did my teeth go through it?" Bo asked.
"Yeah, I reckon. What's the big deal?"
"Nothin'. I jus didn't know." Bo smiled and blushed a little bit.
Luke knew what he'd been thinking: "Don't worry, girls'll still like yer lips jus' fine." he chuckled. "Here, eat."
"Thanks." Bo took the banana and milk.
Once he was done eating Bo laid back down again. "Thanks, Luke." he sighed as he shut his eyes.
"Thank you." Luke corrected.
Bo opened his eyes again. "Me? What for? I've jus' been laying here like a lazy ass while you've been serving me."
"Bo, you ain't no lazy ass! You took that dang car for me." Luke sighed as he studied the bruises on Bo's face and head, as well as the ones that weren't covered by bandages on his chest and side.
"Aw, Luke, youd've done the very same for me, an' you tried to remember?"
"Yeah, I know. But you're the one who's hurt..." Luke frowned slightly as he brushed the back of his hand along a large bruise on the side of Bo's face.
"You, uh, remember that time we was fishing one summer, and a snake snuck up on me? You shoved me away from it so hard... but you were the one who ended up gettin' bit. 'Member that?"
"Yeah, an' then it turned out it weren't nothin' but a Garter snake." Luke chuckled.
"But the point is, you gave up your safety for mine." Bo reminded him.
"That ain't nothin' compared to gettin' clobbered by a car. I should've protected you." Luke lowered his head to hide his sad eyes.
"Ya know, I'd be sayin' the very same thing to you right now if youd've been hit 'steada me?" Bo smiled.
"Yeah, you're right." Luke took Bo for a very gentle hug. He also remembered that Jesse'd basically said the same thing earlier, but hearing Bo say it made him finally able to let go of all of his guilt.
"You sleep now, ya hear?" Luke ordered playfully as he pulled the blankets up close to Bo's face.
"Don't gotta tell me twice..." Bo mumbled as he dozed off.
"G'night, Bo." Luke yawned as he turned the lights out.
The next morning, Bo woke up at 6 to find himself alone in the room with the door open. Last time he'd been awake nothing'd hurt him at all so, he figured he'd sit up. OW... that was a bad idea. Apparently everything'd worn off and now he hurt again, not to mention his lungs... Well, Luke'd told him yesterday that he wouldn't leave him alone again so, he'd probably be back really quick. Oh wait, Uncle Jesse was sitting in a chair near the door reading a book.
"Uncle Jesse?" Bo called, finding his voice wheezy and weak again.
"I'm right here, boy." Jesse replied as he set his book down and rushed in. "Whats the trouble?"
"I-I tried to move..." Bo grimaced at the ever throbbing pain.
"Alright, yer gonna be fine... jus lay back." Jesse instructed as he helped Bo ease back into a more comfortable position.
"Ahhhhh..." Bo gripped the sheets.
"Alright, yer okay son..." Jesse took to stroking his hair. "Daisy?" he called.
"I'm comin!" She replied as she came from the kitchen.
"Go get yer cousin's pills." Jesse requested when Daisy appeared in the doorway.
"Yes sir."
"Please... please, it hurts..." Bo grabbed Jesse's wrist.
"Daisy's gettin' yer pills, you're gonna be fine." Jesse soothed.
"He okay?" Daisy asked as he brought the pills and a glass of water.
"He will be." Jesse replied as he counted them out from the bottle. "Help him sit up a little."
"Easy, sugar..." Daisy soothed as she helped Bo get ready for the water.
"W-where's Lu-" Bo started, but a cough interrupted him.
"He's out doin' chores, sweetie." Daisy told him.
"Alright, here ya go." Jesse slipped the pills in his mouth and brought the glass up to his lips.
Once Bo managed to get it all down, Daisy laid him back down and took his shaking hand. "You're okay, baby..."
"P-please...Daisy help..." Bo shuddered.
"The medicine'll start workin' real soon, sweetie, I promise."
"Bo, ya need to relax. Shakin' like ya are makes the pain worse." Jesse explained softly as he ran a hand through Bo's hair.
"scared..." Bo wheezed.
Jesse smelled an attack coming and found an inhaler in the drawer. "Have somma this, Bo." he directed as he put it to Bo's mouth.
Bo managed a few breaths of the inhaler, then he opened his eyes and tired to focus them on one thing to distract himself, but it didn't work much.
Bo opened his pained eyes wider and looked directly into Daisy's eyes, begging for help.
"I know, sweetie, I know." She whispered as she began stroking his face.
"Jus' ride it out a while longer, it'll be gone fore ya know it." Jesse promised.
Eventually the pain dulled to hardly anything and Bo was able to calm down.
"There ya are." Jesse smiled. "Ya feel better now?" he asked.
"Yeah." Bo released the breath he didn't know he'd been holding.
"You'd best try not to talk too much." Jesse suggested, seeing that Bo was still having a hard time breathing.
Bo nodded and shut his eyes to try and rest.
...
Later on, Bo woke up to Luke removing a bandage from his side.
"Hey there, cousin." Luke greeted when he saw Bo's eyes open.
Bo looked at Luke's hands as if to ask what he was doing.
"I'm changing yer bandage and cleaning yer wounds." Luke explained.
Bo nodded and let his eye lids fall shut again.
Once he was finished cleaning him up, Luke took Bo's pulse and temperature. Finding everything satisfactory, he let Bo keep sleeping.
"Imma get you up fer some food and water in a while." Luke warned as he pulled the blankets back over him.
"kay..." Bo mumbled.
Luke went out to the barn where Jesse was to talk to him.
"Bo's lungs sound terrible, Uncle Jesse." Luke told him as he walked into the barn.
"Does he say they hurt?" Jesse asked.
"They can't possibly hurt right now, he's loaded." Luke chuckled.
"Oh, yeah. Well, keep an eye on him, an' if his breathing gets any worse we can call the doc for some oxygen." Jesse decided.
"Alright." Luke agreed and headed back to the house, remembering that he'd told Bo that he wouldn't be alone. Daisy was doing chores inside, but Luke wanted to make sure that someone had their full attention on Bo at all times.
When he got back to the house, he saw Daisy leaving the boys' room.
"Is he okay?" Luke asked, about to rush in to the room.
"Yeah, he's okay." Daisy grabbed Luke by the shoulder. "He just needed some water is all."
"Oh, okay." Luke relaxed as he sat in the chair by the door to his and Bo's room.
wait... wait... over 5,000 words? well no matter... why stop now? lololol i just glanced up at the word count and I was like... holy word thats not appropriate for k+ rated fanfic! I like to keep my chapters under 3,000 words. I've really gotta end this chapter, its getting waaaaay too long.
The next few days were pretty hard. It got harder and harder for Bo to breathe each day, and Jesse decided to call the doc before it got to the point where Bo couldn't breathe at all. The doc set Bo up on oxygen for a few days until his lungs were doing better.
Within a week, it was time for Bo to start getting up out of the bed now and then. The first few weeks were Luke coaxing Bo to get up, holding him up, and calming him when he was scared that he'd fall: 'I gotcha ya, Bo' was Luke's new catchphrase. The last 3 weeks, however, consisted of Bo begging to get up as often as possible, trying to unhand himself from Luke's grip to walk on his own, and trying to get up by himself when he fell over because he'd unhanded himself from Luke's grip: 'I got it, Luke' became Bo's new catchphrase.
After two months, Bo was finally recovered. The other Dukes had the hardest time keeping him calm for a week or so to prevent him from relapsing.
The Dukes did end up suing Hobie for the damages to Bo, and they collected enough to cover the hospital bills. Hobie went to jail for 2 years with the charges of drunk driving and intoxicated assault.
wow i think that was the longest chapter i ever made. soon imma be going through and editing typos again and slightly changing some dialog, but I'm also gonna write like two or three new chapters VERY soon. anyhow, see y'all next update!
