CHAPTER 6
Luke was starting to feel bad about the fight even as he left the farm. He knew he had overreacted to Bo's words. And he knew that he should never have thrown the first punch. He made up his mind to apologize to Bo as soon as he got back to the farm but first he decided to go to the Boars Nest and have a beer. He also knew that he was going to have to confront Amanda about the things Bo had said. Luke didn't like feeling like a fool and that was how he felt right now.
Since it was still early in the evening, the Boars Nest wasn't very crowded when Luke got there. He parked the General close to the front door and glanced in the side mirror before climbing out of the car. His nose had stopped bleeding but it was obvious he had been in fight. There was the gash on his cheek and a bruise was starting to form along his lower jaw. Sighing, he climbed out of the car and went into the bar. Luke greeted a couple of friends as he walked up to the bar and ordered a beer from Jerry, the bartender on duty. Luke saw the curious look on Jerry's face as he sat the mug down on the bar in front of Luke but he didn't ask any questions. Luke was grateful for that. He didn't feel up to telling anyone about his fight with Bo. He felt bad enough about that as it was.
Luke had almost finished his beer when he sensed a presence behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he scowled when he saw Ernie Ledbetter standing behind him with a stupid grin on his face. There was no love lost between Luke and Ernie. They just flat out didn't like each other. Luke turned his head, pointedly ignoring the other man and hoping that he would just go away. Luke was definitely not in the mood to deal with Ernie right now. But Ernie wasn't going to be ignored.
“What's the matter, Lucas?” he sneered, “Did you run into a door?” When Luke didn't respond, Ernie kept pushing it. “Or did your new girlfriend get a little too rough?”
“Back off, Ledbetter…” Luke growled in a warning tone
“What's the matter, Duke? Amanda got you pussy whipped? From what I hear….she's been bragging enough about the two of ya getting it on all the time.” He leaned closely so that he was speaking directly in Luke's ear, continuing to goad him “I hear tell she even told some of her friends that you're hung like a horse…or maybe it was a jack ass…..is that true?” That was all it took and the fight was on. Luke spun around and punched Ernie with a hard left hook, knocking him backwards over a nearby table.
With a growl, Ernie bounced to his feet and tackled Luke around the waist, slamming him back against the bar. The two men exchanged punches, each of them getting in a few good blows. Luke took a couple of solid hits to his ribs that were already sore from his fight with Bo. But Luke got in a couple of direct punches to Ernie's face. Enraged, Luke got Ernie on the floor and straddled his waist, punching him in the face repeatedly. He was so focused on the fight that he didn't see Rosco come out of Boss Hogg's private office, followed closely by the fat man in white.
“ALL RIGHT! BREAK IT UP! RIGHT NOW!” Rosco yelled but both men ignored him, still punching each other and wrestling around on the floor. Rosco pulled his gun from his holster and fired a shot in the air, effectively getting each man's attention. Luke threw up his hands in surrender and stumbled to his feet. Glaring at him spitefully, Ernie shoved himself to his feet, his hands still clenching and unclenching into fists at his side. “All right, Luke Duke!” Rosco growled, grabbing Luke's right arm and twisting it behind his back. “You're under arrest!” Luke didn't argue as Rosco jerked his other arm behind his back and snapped on the cuffs. He knew it didn't matter who had started the fight, he was still the one who would be arrested. That's the way it always went in Hazzard. Besides that at the moment Luke was too angry to care. Ernie's mocking words had made him even angrier than Bo's words had and only proved that Bo had been telling the truth about what people were saying about him behind his back.
“Get that no good trouble maker out of here!” spluttered Boss, as Rosco grabbed Luke's arm to lead him out of the bar. As Rosco escorted Luke away, Jerry headed for the payphone on the wall to call the Duke farm. He'd heard enough of what Ernie had said to know what had set Luke off. He scowled as he watched Ernie leave the bar with a smirk on his face. Ernie was a bully and a troublemaker and very few people in Hazzard liked him. It wasn't the first time he had deliberately provoked Luke into a fight and it probably wouldn't be the last. All you had to do was put those two in the same room and somebody was going to start throwing punches.
Out in the parking lot, Rosco shoved Luke into the backseat of his cruiser and drove him into town to the jail. After booking him, he took him downstairs and put him into one of the two holding cells. Luke slumped down on the thinly covered bunk with a sigh. Now that his adrenaline level was decreasing, he was starting to feel the various aches and pains in his battered face and body. Two fights within an hour's time was a record even for him. His jaw ached from being punched and he was positive he had either some bruised or some cracked ribs on his left side. He felt the last of his anger draining away. He knew he'd be stuck there overnight. Jesse wouldn't be able to bail him out until morning. And the first thing he intended to do when he did get out was to find Amanda and tell her that it was over.
Luke was still slouched on the cot when Enos came downstairs later that evening and handed him a cup of coffee through the bars. Luke accepted it with a grateful smile, settling back down on the cot and taking a cautious sip.
“I sure am sorry about all this, Luke.” Enos said apologetically “Uncle Jesse called and said to tell ya that Bo picked up the General Lee and that he'd be here first thing in the morning with the bail money.”
“Thanks, Enos.” Enos had been a friend of the Duke cousins since childhood and he had a major crush on Daisy. He always felt bad when his job came between his friendship with the boys, especially since he knew that most of the time, the charges against the them were either false or greatly exaggerated. But this time, Luke knew it was his own damn fault that he was sitting in jail.
“Ya know, Luke…I heard from Jerry what happened and I just wanted ya to know that Ernie had no call to say something like that to ya.” Enos said sincerely.
“It was true though, wasn't it?” Luke said knowing that he could trust Enos to tell him the truth. “About the stuff Amanda's been going around telling everybody…”
“Oh, Luke…..I'd rather not say. It ain't none of my business.”
“I wanna know, Enos.” Luke insisted, “Does everybody in Hazzard think I'm a damn fool? Are they all laughing at me behind my back?” Even though his voice was calm and level, Enos could still hear the hurt behind Luke's words. He knew how proud Luke was and how bad he must feel to find out what kind of stuff Amanda had been telling people about their relationship.
“Ain't nobody laughing at ya, Luke.” Enos denied, “Nobody thinks its right. Amanda shouldn't be going around telling folks the stuff she's been telling ‘em…that's supposed to private. Heck, I know for a fact that a couple of girls have already told her they were gonna knock some sense into her if she kept bragging about stuff she shouldn't be bragging about….”
“Why didn't anybody tell me what was going on?” Luke asked letting just a hint of the hurt he was feeling creep into his tone.
“Cause nobody wanted to hurt your feelings.” Enos told him “I mean Amanda has been telling people some pretty personal stuff about the two of ya.”
“I can't believe I was such an idiot.” Luke growled, “Bo was right about her all along. He said he didn't trust her.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Find her as soon as I get out of here and tell her that it's over.” Luke told him “After I give her a piece of my mind about running her mouth.”
CHAPTER 7
Enos came downstairs early the next morning to release Luke. He climbed the steps to the main floor where Bo and Jesse were both waiting for him. Jesse scowled when he saw the new bruises on Luke's face but he held his tongue. As the three Duke men left the courthouse, Jesse looked at his two nephews and said,
“I'll see you two at home.” As he turned and walked across the square to where he had parked his pickup, Luke looked at Bo with a sheepish expression and said,
“I'm sorry, Bo. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that.”
“It's okay, cuz.” Bo said with a grin “I should've handled things a little better myself.” Peace restored between them, the two boys gave each other a brotherly hug. As they walked towards the General, Bo asked “You ready to go home?”
“Not yet. I got a stop to make first.”
“Where?”
“The boarding house so I tell Amanda we're through.” Luke said grimly. Bo glanced at him but didn't comment. Jerry, the bartender from the Boars Nest, had told Jesse and Bo what had led to the fight with Ernie the night before. Bo wasn't surprised that Luke was going to confront Amanda with the things he'd heard from Bo and from Ernie both. The boys climbed into the General Lee and Bo drove to the Boarding house. He waited in the car while Luke went inside. Luke climbed the steps to the second floor and knocked on the door to room 6.
“Who is it?” Amanda's voice asked from the other side of the door.
“It's Luke. Open up.”
Amanda opened the door and looked at Luke with a faint smile playing at the edges of her mouth. “Hi, babe,” she said, stepping aside so Luke could step into the room. She started to slip her arms around his neck, a surprised look crossing her face when Luke grabbed her wrists and stopped her. “What's wrong?” she asked innocently
“Suppose you tell me.” Luke said not bothering to keep the coldness from creeping into his voice. “From what I hear you been doing a lot of talking about us.”
“What do ya mean?”
“I think you know exactly what I mean. You've been spreading it all over town about our sex life…some really personal stuff from what I've been hearing.”
“And you're upset about that?” Amanda said trying to laugh it off “Why should you care? So what if I like to brag about what a stud you are?”
“Maybe because I don't like having my personal life the topic of all the local gossips!” Luke snapped, a hard edge of anger creeping into his voice.
“I can't believe you're so pissed.”
“Well, you better believe it. It's over….I don't wanna see you anymore.”
“Oh come on….you don't mean that.”
“Yeah…I do.” As Luke turned to leave, Amanda grabbed his arm, her own eyes blazing with anger.
“It's not over till I say it's over! You're not going to just walk out of here that easy!” she said in an icy voice.
“Watch me.” Luke growled, pulling away from her and leaving the room, slamming the door behind him. Luke went down the steps and climbed back into the General. Bo immediately noticed the angry look in his eyes.
“How'd it go?” he asked
“About as well as could be expected.” Luke told him “I told her it was over…that I didn't wanna see her again.”
“How'd she take it?”
“Would you believe that she acted like it was no big deal? She said she didn't see why I was so pissed.”
“Well, at least it's over.”
“I owe you another apology, Bo. You were right about her all along. I should have listened to you.”
“Guess it was something you just had to find out for yourself.” Bo told him with a forgiving smile. “I'm just glad you did before things got too far out of hand.”
“Yeah….me too.” Luke said, turning to stare out of the window, lost in his own thoughts. Bo might have forgiven him for acting like an ass but Luke wondered if he'd ever be able to forgive himself for allowing his better judgment to be governed by another part of his anatomy. He still felt like a fool and swore that he wouldn't let it happen again. He had always hated being the subject of gossip and it was even worse when it was his sex life that was being gossiped about. He had to admit that he was embarrassed about some of the things that Amanda had told people about. He wondered how long it would take him to live this down or if it would only add to the reputation, he already had.
CHAPTER 8
Luke was in the house by himself when the phone rang. Bo was in the barn cleaning stalls and Jesse had gone into town with Daisy after groceries. Luke grabbed the receiver on the second ring.
“Duke farm. This is Luke Duke speaking.” He said
“Luke, this is Carly Mitchell.” A feminine voice said in his ear, identifying herself as a girl who lived at the edge of Hazzard County . “I need a favor.”
“What do ya need?”
“I'm out here at Willow crossroads with a flat and I can't get hold of Cooter. Could you be a darling and come out here and give me a hand?”
“Uh…yeah, sure. I can be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you so much. You're a life safer.”
Luke hung up the phone and walked out to the barn. Bo glanced up as Luke came in. “Chaly Mitchell just called. She's out at Willow Crossroads with a flat. I told her I'd go out there and give her a hand.” Luke told him
“Okay. You want me to come along?”
“No, I shouldn't be very long.”
“Okay. See ya when you get back.”
Luke turned and left the barn, walking over to the General and sliding in through the window. Fifteen minutes later, Luke pulled up to Willow Crossroads. A small tan ford was sitting at the side of the road. Luke parked behind it and climbed out of the General Lee, walking towards the other car with a friendly smile. The smile faded from his face when the driver's side door opened and Amanda stepped out of the car. Realizing that he had been tricked, Luke said coldly,
“What do you want, Amanda? I told you it was over.”
“And I told you it wasn't over until I said it was over.” She said, smiling coldly as she pulled a small revolver from her jacket pocket and pointed it directly at Luke. Instinctively, Luke raised his hands into the air.
“You don't wanna do this, Amanda. It's not worth it….” He told her
“Yeah, I do wanna do it. And it's worth it to me. Get over and keep your hands where I can see ‘em.” Luke carefully walked towards her. “Get in the back seat.” She ordered, motioning with the gun as she jerked open the back door. Luke debated rushing her but decided that may not be a good idea. She could easily get a shot off first and he wasn't in the mood to get shot. Slowly, he did as she ordered. As he slid into the back seat, Amanda pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her other pocket. “Put your hands behind your back.” She snapped, carefully keeping him covered with the twenty-two. Luke glared at her as he did what she said. She quickly snapped the cuffs in place, manacling his hands securely behind his back. “We're going for a little ride so that we can talk.” She told him. She grabbed a piece of rope from the floor boards and used it to tightly tie his ankles together. Once she was satisfied that he was bound securely, she climbed back under the wheel and pulled into the road. She drove in the opposite direction. Twenty minutes later, she pulled up to an isolated spot close to the old Indian caves. Stopping the car, she climbed out and pulled open the back door. Leaning down, she untied the ropes around Luke's ankles and pulled the gun back out of her pocket. Keeping him covered, she signaled for him to get out of the car.
“Walk.” She ordered “Over there under that tree.” Luke did as she instructed, his mind trying to think of a way to get out of this mess without getting himself shot. When they reached the tree, Amanda moved up behind him and kept the gun pressed against the small of his back while she unlocked the handcuffs and removed them. Luke rubbed his wrists where the cuffs had dug into the skin. “Now…..I have some things to tell you and you're going to listen……” Amanda said, taking a step backwards as Luke turned around to face her. “Put your hands back up where I can see them and don't try to be a hero.” Sighing, Luke did as she instructed.
“Okay…you got me out here…now what do you want?” Luke demanded. He wasn't afraid of her but he wasn't fool enough to rush a woman who was holding a gun on him and obviously angry.
“I told you,” Amanda told him with a thin smile “I have some things to tell you and you're gonna listen….” She repeated “I didn't just hook up with you at Boars Nest the night we met…..I set it up so we could get to know each other…”
“Why?”
“Because I came to Hazzard so I could meet you and then kill you…..”
“What?” Luke asked in a startled voice suddenly getting a very bad feeling about this whole situation.
“Four years ago…when you were a Sergeant in the Marines….you accused another man of stealing…..Jeffery Martin….do you remember?”
“Yeah….” Luke said slowly “He was stealing stuff out of the other men's footlockers…..He was brought up on charges and dishonorably discharged.”
“He was my brother. Did you know that after he got home….he killed himself?”
“How was I supposed to know that?” Luke asked, as some of the puzzle started to fall into place.
“It was your fault…..he blamed you for everything and so do I.”
“So you came here to kill me because your brother killed himself?”
“That's about the size of it.” She told him
“That's crazy….”
“Don't ever call me crazy, Luke.” She snarled “I don't like it.”
“Okay, I'm sorry….but I didn't have anything to do with your brother killing himself. He brought on that discharge himself…”
“He still blamed you…..he came home disgraced and angry….You could have just looked the other way. He only had a few months before his time was up anyway.”
“I couldn't do that.” Luke argued even though he knew that she wasn't going to listen to reason. She wanted revenge.
“I thought it would be so easy….but you're a hard man to kill…..poison sure as hell didn't work….all you did was get sicker than a dog….” Luke blanched as he remembered the two separate incidents where he became so sick for no obvious reason…..until now. “So….I decided to have a little fun before I brought you out here to finish you off. Get the gossips talking about you…..give you a reputation you'd never live down…” she laughed bitterly “but now it's time to finish this thing…..” Before Luke realized what she was doing, she fired two shots at him. He felt a sudden explosion of agony near his groin and his left leg buckled unexpectedly. The shock was more staggering than the awareness that he'd been hit. He heard Amanda laughing as he fell to the ground.
“Bye, Luke…..you'll bleed to death before anybody finds you. Too bad I can't stick around to watch.” Through a haze of pain Luke heard the sound of her car starting up and pulling away before the darkness started clouding his mind.
CHAPTER 9
Luke fought the darkness that threatened to overtake him. He knew if he passed out now, he would die. He pulled himself over to the tree, sagging against it. He could feel blood leaking down the inside of his thigh and spreading out across his crotch, leaving his jeans sticky and wet. The saturated denim clung to him, aggravating the inflamed area between his legs. He was afraid to look, terrified what kind of damage a bullet in that vicinity might have done. Tentatively, he moved his injured leg to the side, fighting back the fear that threatened to choke him when he realized that blood was continuing to leak across his groin, pooling in the crease of his leg. Trying to remain calm, he shrugged out of his shirt and rolled it into a ball, pressing it tightly in the corner of his leg. Luke gasped at the flare of pain that washed over his body. He took a second to control the disorienting tremor that left him feeling lightheaded and out of breath. He winced in pain, pressing harder against the shirt he held wadded between his legs. Tired, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree. The scrape of the bark against his bare shoulders and back felt rough and abrasive. He moaned as he felt the white hot fire surging through his groin. He knew that he was in trouble and nobody had any idea where he was.
Luke took a slow deep breath. He shifted positions trying to get comfortable but any movement, no matter how small, sent new waves of agony ripping through his groin.
The shirt wadded between his legs was slowly getting soaked with blood. He couldn't tell if the bullet had nicked an artery but the leak from his leg was steady, refusing to stop even with applied pressure. How long did it take a person to slowly bleed to death, he wondered. Fresh blood seeped across his crotch, plastering the saturated denim to his raw skin. A moan slipped from his lips and he folded back against the tree, grateful for the support. The blood loss was starting to take a toll on him. It sapped his strength, leaving him weak and lightheaded. If he didn't move, if he didn't flinch, maybe the slow leak in the crease of his leg would actually stop. He could feel everything else down there starting to swell painfully, taking up room in his already tight jeans. He knew that if he didn't get back to the farm soon, Bo would start looking for him. But he would start at Willow Corners where he would find the General Lee but Luke was almost twenty miles from there in the middle of nowhere. He knew he'd be damn lucky if anyone found him before he did bleed to death. Amanda couldn't have picked a more isolated spot to leave him in to die a slow death. He supposed he was lucky that only one of the two shots had hit him but that one shot had done more than enough damage. Luke didn't even want to think about what kind of damage he might have even if he did manage to live through this. Even if she didn't succeed in killing him, Amanda could very well have disabled him for life.
Luke shivered with a sudden chill in spite of the heat from the sun overhead. He knew he was starting to go into shock, not just from being shot but from the blood he was slowly losing. He tried to keep his fear under control and to keep pressure on the wound for all the good it seemed to be doing. He knew that his only chance of making it through this was if someone found him and found him soon. He couldn't believe that he had trusted a woman that was crazy enough to do something like this. He didn't want to die. Not here. Not like this. He'd had close calls before but nothing quite like this. He let his mind wander, trying to think about anything except the fact that his life's blood was slowly leaking into the ground underneath him.
He could feel himself getting nauseated and groaned deeply. He did not need that right now. Not on top of everything else. He thought back to the two times he had gotten ill which Amanda claimed was because she had tried to poison him. God, he had been so sick. He wondered if whatever she had given him to try and poison him had caused any kind of permanent damage or lingering side effects. He choked back the bile that rose up in his throat and tried to force his stomach to stay settled down. He was in enough pain, everything below his waist felt like it was full of crushed glass. And he was so tired. It was getting harder and harder to keep his eyes open. But he knew that he had to stay awake, his life depended on it.
To try and stay awake Luke started to sing the first song that came to mind. An old Hank Williams song that Aunt Martha used to sing to them when they were children called I Saw The Light
I wandered so aimless life filled with sin
I wouldn't let my dear savior in
Then Jesus found me like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord, I saw the Light
I saw the Light, I saw the Light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the Lord, It saw the light
Jus like a blind man I wandered alone
Worries and fears I claimed for my own
Now like the blind man that god gave back his sight
Praise the Lord, I saw light
I saw the light, I saw the light
No more darkness, no more night
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight
Praise the lord, I saw the light
Praise the lord, I saw the light
As he finished singing, the irony of the words suddenly struck Luke as funny and he chuckled softly. Raising his eyes towards heaven, he smiled faintly and whispered “No offense, Lord…..but I don't wanna see the light just yet…..” He shivered again. He was getting colder and his vision was starting to blur. “Bo…..” he whispered hoarsely “Where are you, cuz?”
CHAPTER 10
When Luke didn't come back for over an hour, Bo started to get worried. Finally, he went into the house and grabbed the phone. When Maybelle, the operator, came onto the line, he said “Maybelle, this is Bo Duke. Could you get Carly Mitchell for me?”
“Sure thing, Bo.” Maybelle drawled
Bo listened to the ringing on the other end of the line. Six rings before someone answered the phone, a girl who sounded like she was out of breath. “Hello?”
“Hi, could I speak to Carly, please?” Bo said
“This is Carly. Who is this?”
“Hi, Carly. It's Bo Duke. Did Luke get your tire fixed okay? He's not home yet and I was starting to worry.”
“Bo, I don't know what you're talking about.” Carly said apologetically “I haven't seen Luke for over a month.”
“You didn't call Luke a little while ago and tell him you had a flat and needed some help?” Bo asked in a surprised voice. He suddenly got a bad feeling. A real bad feeling.
“No, I'm sorry, Bo. I didn't.” she told him “Is Luke okay?”
“I hope so.” Bo said. He hung up without saying goodbye. Since Daisy and Jesse were still gone, Bo grabbed the keys to Jesse's truck from the pegboard beside the back door and ran outside. He climbed into the old pickup and gunned the engine, racing towards Willow Corners. Even before he reached the crossroads, he saw the General Lee parked at the edge of the road. But there was no other car in sight and no sign of Luke. Bo's bad feeling immediately turned to cold hard fear. Grabbing the CB in the truck, he pressed the transmit button and said “Breaker, breaker, this is Bo Duke. Uncle Jesse…Daisy…you got your ears on?”
“What's wrong, Bo?” Jesse's voice said over the radio almost immediately. He heard the panic in Bo's voice and knew that something was wrong.
“Uncle Jesse, Luke got a call a couple of hours ago. It was supposed to have been from Carly Mitchell asking him to come to Willow Corners to help her cause she had a flat tire. When he was gone for over an hour, I called Carly and she said she never called Luke. So I took the truck and came out here to Willow Corners. The General Lee's here but there's no sign of Luke.”
“Stay right where you are.” Jesse told him “Daisy and me are on our way!”
“So am I, buddyroo….” Cooter's face came over the radio a few seconds after Jesse. “Hang in there….we'll find Luke.”
“Thanks, y'all.” Bo said, hanging up the mike and parking the truck behind the General Lee. He climbed out of the cab and started examining the road and ground around the General Lee. He saw evidence that there had been another car there parked alongside the road in front of where the General was parked. He also saw tire tracks in the dirt that made it clear that the other car had turned around and headed back in the opposite direction. Bo knew that whoever had been driving that other car probably had Luke with them. The question was, how were they going to find out where they went and who had lured Luke into a trap? Within twenty minutes, Bo was joined by Jesse and Daisy in Dixie and Cooter in his tow truck. Bo told them what he had found and his suspicions. Since the other car's tracks were fairly visible in the old dirt road, Daisy volunteered to drive the General, while Bo sat on the hood watching the road and tried to follow the tracks to see where they led. In the meantime, Jesse would drive the truck and follow them while Cooter hooked Dixie up to his tow truck and hauled it back to the farm. Once he dropped off Dixie , Cooter would join them in their search for their missing cousin. As long as the other car stayed on the dirt road, they might get lucky and find the car and Luke or at least narrow down the search area.
Daisy had to drive slowly with Bo sitting on the hood. They were all worried and afraid, not sure what had happened to Luke but sensing that he was in some kind of danger. An hour later, Bo yelled at Daisy to stop the car for a minute. When she did, he jumped down off the hood and examined the road in front of him intently. Jumping to his feet, he ran to the drivers door and motioned for Daisy to slid over so he could take over the driving. “The car turned off the road here.” He said anxiously as he slipped underneath the wheel “They went cross country towards the old Indian caves.” He grabbed the CB and called back to Jesse to let him know that they were going across country towards the old Indian caves. Knowing that his old truck wouldn't be able to keep up with the General cross county, Jesse told Bo and Daisy to go ahead. He would wait there on the road until he heard from them. If they found Luke, then Jesse would join up with them.
Bo hung up the mike and hit the gas driving as fast he could across the rough terrain. Just before they reached the old caves, Daisy screamed at Bo to stop the car. “There's something lying over there by that tree” Daisy told him as he slammed on the brakes “It looks like a body.” The two cousins climbed out of the windows and took off running towards the old oak tree. Bo was in the lead and as he got closer to the tree, he could see that it was Luke lying on his back on the ground. Bo skidded to his knees at his cousin's side, gently reaching out to touch the ashen face. One of Luke's hands clutched his crumbled blood-stained shirt wadded against his crotch. His fingers were just as red and wet as the shirt and his jeans. Bo swallowed hard. Luke's groin was soaked, the left leg of his jeans heavily soaked on the inside of his thigh. The ground beneath him was already soaked in red. Bo didn't know what had happened but he knew it didn't look good. “Cuz?” he said quietly, gently stroking the side of Luke's face. “Can you hear me?”
Luke's eyes fluttered and slowly opened. In a weak barely audible voice, he whispered “Bo….”
“I'm here, cuz….I'm here.” Bo told him “Just hang on for me….a little bit longer till Uncle Jesse gets here with the truck.” Daisy had skidded to a stop a few feet away, afraid to come any closer when she saw all the blood. “Go back to the General and tell Uncle Jesse to get up here right away! Luke's hurt and he's lost a lot of blood! We need to get him to the hospital and we ain't got time to wait on no ambulance!” Daisy nodded and ran back towards the General Lee.
“Hurts….” Luke moaned, grimacing as a wave of agony washed over him. He twisted his head to one side and reached out blindly for Bo's hand with his free hand.
Wincing, he shifted positions, pressing the drenched shirt tighter between his legs.
“What the hell happened?” Bo asked in a frightened voice, clutching Luke's free hand and holding on tightly, as much for his own comfort as for Luke.
“It was Amanda….” Luke told him “She shot me.”
“She shot you?” Bo cried out sharply, his own face turning pale beneath his tan. The knot in his stomach was slowly creeping up to his chest and he felt like he couldn't breathe. The thought of losing Luke terrified him. Bo raised a hand and stroked it though his cousin's hair. With his other hand, he laid it on top of Luke's hand that still held the blood-drenched shirt and pressed down hard to help keep pressure on the wound. The press of Bo's hand was stronger than Luke's and he involuntarily cried out with pain but it helped to staunch the leaking blood. Bo felt a quiver run through the lean body beside him and knew that Luke was weakening fast.
“Hurts so bad…” Luke muttered again, “Everything's swollen. My jeans are killing me….”
“It's okay, cuz…they'll get you out of ‘em at the hospital.” A ghost of a smile played around the younger man's mouth “Don't worry, cuz…just try to relax and rest.” His tone was soft and soothing, laced with love and affection. With Bo helping to hold the shirt in place, Luke could relax his fatigued grip. Bo shot a worried glance at his cousin. Luke's eyes were closed but he seemed to be breathing a little easier. Resting, thank god.
Bo breathed a sigh of relief when he looked up and saw Jesse's old pickup bouncing towards him. He didn't think that Luke had much time left if they didn't get him to a hospital soon. Luke had his eyes closed but he wasn't asleep, he was more in a daze than anything else. He knew he was safe as long as Bo was at his side. The wound still throbbed with pain but with Bo applying pressure, the bleeding had almost stopped. He could still feel the slightest ooze every few seconds but the amount seeping from the wound was considerably less. Or maybe he was just running out of blood. Luke was too tired to think about it. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear Uncle Jesse's voice and he relaxed even more. He knew he was in good hands now.