CHAPTER 11

“Oh, my lord….” Jesse gasped when he saw how much blood Luke had already lost. He knew that Bo's assessment had been right. They couldn't waste any time getting Luke to the hospital and they would have to take him themselves, they didn't have time to wait on an ambulance. Jesse knew that for Luke to have lost that much blood, it had to be coming from a main artery. “What in tarnation happened?” Jesse demanded, taking a look at his oldest pale ashen face.

“He said it was Amanda. She shot him.” Bo explained

“Shot him!” Jesse bellowed. He dropped to his knees beside Luke and gently reached out to touch the younger man's face. “Luke, son….can you hear me? It's Uncle Jesse. We're gonna get you to the hospital so they can fix you up. Do ya hear me?” Luke nodded his head without opening his eyes. It was too much of an effort to keep his eyes open and concentrate too hard on what was going on around him. Jesse glanced at Bo. “We need to get him into the back of the pickup.”

“Yes. Sir.” Bo said trying to keep the fear from creeping into his voice but he was only partially successful

“Luke, son….” Jesse said, gently touching Luke's bare arm to get his attention.

“We need to get you into the truck so we can take you to the hospital. Bo and me are gonna help ya but we need for you to help us if you can….”

Jesse nodded at Bo. They both took one of Luke's arms and dragged it over their shoulder, grabbing Luke's wrist with one hand to lock his arm in place. Gently, they pulled Luke to a sitting position, each of them wrapping an arm around his waist. Luke moaned in pain when he was moved but tried to stay focused. Supported in his Uncle and his cousin's strong embrace, Luke sagged between them as they pulled him to his feet. His head lolled to the side as a ball of fire burned from the crease in his leg to his crotch, dragging a low moan from his throat. Strong arms wrapped around him, holding him upright when he would have fallen forward. His head hung forward, only half-conscious of his surroundings. “It's just a few steps, Luke.” Jesse said quietly in Luke's ear.

Luke took a faltering step, each step pure agony, a flame of molten lava that spread through his leg and his groin. He could hear comforting words of support from Bo and Jesse but he'd lost conscious track of the words, oblivious to anything except the raging pain in his groin and the hot flow of fresh blood running down his thigh. When they reached the truck, Jesse supported Luke's weight in his arms as Bo climbed into the back of the truck. With Jesse's help, they got Luke into the back of the truck. Bo scooted to the back of the truck so that he has leaning against the back of the cab with Luke's head resting in his lap. Daisy grabbed a blanket from the truck of the General and Jesse gently covered his oldest nephew for the trip to the hospital. Instructing Daisy to follow him in the General Lee, Jesse climbed into the cab of the truck and turned the key, driving as fast as the old truck would go as he headed for the Tri County hospital in Capital City .

Bo cradled Luke in his arms, trying to keep his injured cousin from being jarred too much on the way to the hospital. Luke muttered incoherently, tossing his head restlessly from side to side on the trip to the hospital. Bo managed to piece together enough from Luke's disjointed ramblings to realize that Amanda had admitted to trying to poison Luke before she shot him. Bo's face paled when he remembered Luke's two unexplained illnesses where he had been so sick. As he drove to the hospital, Jesse got on the CB to Doc Applebee and arranged for him to meet them at the hospital when they arrived so that Luke could be seen immediately. Jesse knew that time was critical. Luke didn't have that much time to spare.

When Jesse pulled up a the emergency entrance to the hospital, Doc Applebee and two orderlies with a gurney were already waiting for them outside. They quickly loaded Luke onto the gurney and rushed him into the hospital, leaving the others to wait for news in the waiting room. Luke was semi-conscious as they rushed him into the treatment area. He vaguely recognized Doc Applebee's voice and felt the hands on his body as the medical staff started examining him. He felt someone cutting off his jeans and carefully pulling them from his body. He breathed as sigh of relief as some of the intense pressure was relieved from his terribly swollen groin. Luke hated being poked, especially in an area as sensitive as the one where he'd been shot. He found himselt the recipient of concentrated attention---blood pressure cuffs, syringes, IV bags, needles, surgical packing, pulse checks, pupil dilation checks---the damn list went on and on. Fingers kept prodding, touching and nudging. But the pain was lessoning as the blissful buzz of some pretty strong narcotics seeped into his mind. Consciousness finally faded completely as he was rushed into surgery.

In the waiting room, Bo paced the confines of the room, his entire nervous system wired and on edge. He glanced at the clock on the wall but only five minutes had passed from the last time he had looked. Jesse and Daisy were sitting side by side on one of the sofas. “Bo…will you sit down? You're making me dizzy with all that pacing.” Jesse told his youngest. “Luke's in good hands….he'll be okay.”

“I just wish somebody would tell us something.” Bo complained irritably. He went back to his pacing, too restless to sit down. It was another two hours before Doc Applebee finally came into the waiting room and walked over to the anxious worried family. “How's Luke?” Jesse asked in a concerned voice “How's my boy?”

“He's out of surgery and in recovery right now. As soon as he's a little more alert, we'll be moving him to a regular room. He's a very lucky man. If you hadn't got him here when you did, he would have bled to death. The bullet nicked the main artery in his thigh and caused a slow bleed. If it had been anything worse he would have bled to death within a few minutes.”

“But he's gonna be okay…right?” Bo asked, thinking about the location of the wound.

“He should be fine. Nothing else seemed to be injured, but everything is pretty badly swollen and traumatized. He's going to be in a lot of pain for awhile but he should recovery completely in time with no permanent side effects.”

“I'm sure Luke will be glad to hear that.” Bo said with a crooked smile. Daisy looked at her younger cousin and blushed deeply as she realized what Bo and the doctor meant about no permanent side effects.

“I also did some blood tests after what you told me, Bo, about the possibility of Amanda trying to poison Luke….” Doc told the family “And there were traces of arsenic in his system.”

“Arsenic?” Jesse said softly, his face growing pale as he thought about the bouts of illness that Luke had suffered through that they had all assumed was either a bad case of the flu or a touch of food poisoning. But now he realized just how close Amanda had come to succeeding in her attempts to poison him.

“He'll be fine…..I ordered some medication to flush the remaining traces of arsenic out of his system.” Doc smiled and patted Jesse's arm. “I also told the nurses that one of you would be staying with him while he was in the hospital.” He knew that Bo would have insisted on staying with his cousin anyway so he had already approved of the arrangement.

“Thanks, Homer.” Jesse said gratefully, as Doc Applebee smiled and walked away. Ten minutes later a nurse found them and informed them that Luke had been moved to a room. Thanking her, they hurried down the hallway to find Luke's room.

Hospitals are strangely quiet places at night. There were the beeps, clicks and hissing sounds from various machinery, the soft sigh of an exhaled breath or the muted sound of rubber-soled shoes against the linoleum, but for the most part, a hush fell over the various rooms and stations. They paused in the doorway of room 116, looking at the silhouette of Luke lying on the bed closest to the door. He moved restlessly, a soft moan slipping from his lips. Jesse moved to his side and gently smoothed a hand over Luke's brow. “Shhh…..it's all right, Luke. I'm right here.” Luke's eyes fluttered and a vibrant blue appeared underneath.

“Where….” The word slipped from Luke's throat, hoarse and painfully raw.

“You're in the hospital. Surgery's all over and you're in a room. All you gotta do now it rest and get better.”

“Yeah, cuz….and I'm gonna be right here with ya.” Bo told him, gently rubbing his cousin's arm comfortingly.

Luke licked his lips and he looked at his uncle. “….ter…?” he whispered

Not catching the whole word, Jesse leaned closer “What was that, Luke?”

“Wat…ter…” Luke forced the word out over a thick tongue.

“How about some ice chips instead?” Jesse said, picking up a cup of ice from the bedside table, obviously left by a nurse. He found a cellophane wrapped plastic spoon in the drawer. Tearing off the wrapper, he fished a few chips from the Styrofoam cup, and carefully slipped the spoon between Luke's dry parched lips. “Just a few.” He cautioned, knowing that Luke didn't recover well from anesthesia, even with medication to help control the violent nausea. For the next twenty-four hours, Luke would suffer from severe nausea and post-op vomiting.

“More…” Luke said when he'd swallowed the chips. Undecided, Jesse frowned finally he relented. “Just a few…” When Luke had swallowed another mouthful, Jesse sat the cup aside. “Better?” Jesse asked gently.

Luke nodded. He tucked his chin to his chest, gazing down at his legs. The bulging outline beneath the white sheet was a clear indication that his groin was heavily packed and swaddled with bandages. “Still hurts like hell….” He mumbled. Jesse ignored Luke's use of profanity, letting it slip by without a reprimand. He figured that under the circumstances Luke had earned the right to do some swearing.

“Doc says everything is gonna be fine….” Bo told him “It's just gonna take awhile. He says you'll be good as new.”

Luke sighed, nodding in relief, unaware until that moment just how scared he had been about the possibility of permanent damage to that particular part of his anatomy. He gave a contented sigh and allowed his eyes to drift shut. Within seconds he had fallen asleep. Daisy and Jesse stayed a little while longer and then decided to go home. Bo slumped down into a chair beside the bed, content to simply sit there and watch his cousin sleep, deeply grateful that things had worked out in the end and that he would still have his cousin by his side. Jesse was going to call Rosco as soon as he got back to the farm to make a report so that Amanda could be picked up if she was still in town. In the meantime, until she was safely behind bars, Bo swore not to let his cousin out of his sight.

CHAPTER 12

Luke didn't remember too much about his first two days in the hospital. He was too heavily medicated. It was three days before his mind started to clear enough for him to become alert to his surroundings. The first thing he did was request that the medication be cut back, he hated the confused, disoriented way it made him feel. Even if it meant dealing with a little more pain, he would rather do that than feel so out of it. And there was pain but it wasn't the fiery agony he'd felt before the surgery, it was more of a deep throbbing pain throughout his groin area. He knew everything was still badly swollen and he had a catheter inserted since he couldn't do anything on his own right now. He could still barely move and could only sit up in bed long enough to eat before he had to lay back down because it became so uncomfortable. Rosco had taken a report and there was and A.P.B. out on Amanda but so far she had not been found.

Bo refused to leave Luke's side except to go to the bathroom or to take short walks in the hallway to work the kinks out of his muscles. He knew how close he had come to losing Luke and he swore that nothing was going to happen to him again. Luke still felt guilty and blamed himself for being taken in by Amanda in the first place. And he swore that it would never happen again.

Bo was sitting by Luke's bed, watching over him as he slept. For the first time in days, he seemed to be resting quietly without being so medicated that he was almost out of it. Bo knew he was still in a lot of pain and Bo couldn't help sympathizing. He could only imagine how much it must hurt to be injured in that particular area of his body and to have everything swollen to almost twice the normal size. It took someone with a vicious streak and no conscience to shoot a man there.

Since Luke seemed to be resting quietly, Bo decided to go down to the cafeteria and grab a sandwich. He stopped at the nurse's desk just long enough to tell them where he would be. Jesse and Daisy should be arriving soon. They came everyday to visit with Luke, usually staying until visiting hours were over in the evening. Cooter also came by on a regular basis. Bo went to the cafeteria and got himself a glass of milk and a ham sandwich. He found a vacant table in the corner and sat down to eat. Twenty minutes later, he headed back up to Luke's room.

As he pushed open the door and went into Luke's room, a woman wearing a white lab coat and leaning over the edge of the bed turned to glare at him. Bo's heart leapt into his throat when he recognized Amanda. ‘GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM!” Bo yelled, stepping towards her. With a sudden scream of rage at being interrupted before she could do whatever she had been planning to do, Amanda clasped her hands together, lacing her fingers, and raised them over her head. Before Bo could stop her, she slammed her hands down as hard as she could against Luke's already injured groin. A strangled scream of pure agony ripped out of Luke's throat and his body twisted convulsively. Without even thinking about what he was doing, Bo pulled back his arm and backhanded Amanda as hard as he could, knocking her to the floor and away from Luke. Positioning himself between Amanda and Luke, Bo hissed, “Uncle Jesse taught me never to hit a woman but I think he'd be happy to make an exception in your case!” Alerted both by Bo's yelling and Luke's scream of pain, the door flew open and medical staff and security guards both crowded into the room. “Get her the hell out of here!” Bo told the security guards “She's the one who shot him! Sheriff Coltrane is looking for her!” Two of the guards grabbed Amanda and pulled her to her feet, leading her out of the room. Bo immediately turned his attention back to Luke, who was curled up on his side in a fetal position, whimpering in pain and refusing to let anyone touch him.

“Hey, cuz….” Bo said gently reaching out to stroke Luke's arm “It's okay…she's gone. She's not gonna hurt you no more….let them take a look at you to see if she hurt you again….” With the help of two of the nurses and a doctor, Bo gently eased Luke over onto his back, biting back his own tears at Luke's painful cries when he was moved. Luke's face was ashen and tears of pain leaked from his eyes, his whole body shaking violently. Bo grabbed his hand and held on tightly as the doctor carefully began to examine him. Luke's whole body tensed up as soon as the doctor touched him and he squeezed Bo's hand so tightly that Bo thought he would break it. Bo swallowed hard when he noticed the blood that was starting to soak through the heavy bandages covering Luke's groin.

“We're going to have to take him back into surgery. He probably tore the incision open.” The doctor said quickly. Bo stepped aside as the medical personnel quickly pushed the entire bed out of the room. Bo's shoulders sagged as he headed for a phone to call Uncle Jesse to tell him what had happened. Jesse was angry when he found out what had happened and told Bo that he would be there immediately. While he was waiting for Jesse and Daisy to arrive, Bo told the hospital's Chief of Security what had happened. The man assured Bo that Amanda had been placed under arrest and would be held under secure guard until Rosco arrived to take her back to Hazzard. He also told Bo that the nurses on duty would be questioned and if the hospital determined that Amanda got into Luke's room because the nurses weren't properly monitoring him, then they would be reprimanded. Bo was still angry and he made sure that the Chief of Security knew it. The man stood there and calmly endured Bo's verbal abuse knowing that the hospital could be held responsible for what had happened. But Bo's angry outburst was nothing compared to Jesse's when he arrived at the hospital along with Daisy. Finally, to diffuse the situation with three very angry Dukes, the hospital administrator was called to intervene. He managed to calm Jesse, Bo and Daisy down and told them that the hospital would cover all of Luke's medical expenses until he recovered completely from his injuries. In addition, he also promised them that the entire medical staff on Luke's floor would be reprimanded and ordered to closely monitor Luke during the rest of his time in the hospital. It was a small victory that meant little since the damage had already been done.

Anxious and worried about this new attack against Luke, the family returned to Luke's room to wait for news on his condition. It was almost three hours later before Doc Applebee came into the room to talk to them. He held his hand up to silence their questions before they started . In a quiet voice he said “Luke's going to be all right. He did tear open the incision but it's been repaired. Obviously he's in a great deal of pain again and this will delay his recovery. I talked to the Chief of Security and he said that when they searched Amanda, they found a syringe in her jacket filled with insulin which we can only assume she intended to inject into Luke's IV line. Luckily, Bo came in before she could or she probably would have succeeded in killing Luke. Since she was wearing a white lab coat, we also assume that she pretended to work here so she could get into his room without being noticed.” He paused for a moment and then continued “Luke is recovery right now and should be brought back to his room in the next hour. You're all three welcome to stay with him as long as you want to.”

“As long as that woman can't get near Luke again…..that's all we care about!” Jesse growled, still seething with anger over what had happened to his oldest nephew at the hands of a crazy woman who was determined to kill him.

“Don't worry, Jesse….she won't be getting anywhere near Luke again.” Doc told him “Rosco picked her up and took her back to Hazzard. She will stand trial for two counts of attempted murder and felonious assault. Rosco said he was going to make sure of that.” Doc excused himself and left the room, leaving the family alone to wait for Luke to return to his room. When he came back, he was heavily medicated again and only semi-conscious. Even in his medicated state, Luke kept tossing his head from side to side and whimpering softly as if caught in a nightmare from which he couldn't awaken. The only time he seemed to calm down was when Bo or Jesse stroked his arm and talked to him quietly; assuring him that he was safe.

CHAPTER 13

Luke was in the hospital for ten days. Bo stayed with him the entire time, sometimes leaving for an hour or two in the afternoon when Jesse or Daisy was there to sit with Luke. (But only when Jesse made him) By the time Luke was finally released, of the swelling had gone down even though everything was still pretty tender and sore. At least the catheter had been removed and everything seemed to be in working order. Everyone in Hazzard had rallied to Luke's side when they heard what Amanda had done to him. His hospital room was filled with flowers and cards from people expressing their concern and offering their support. Rosco had stopped by the hospital to let Luke know that Amanda had been charged with two counts of attempted murder (once for the original shooting and once for the attack in his hospital room), felonious assault and kidnapping. To everyone's surprise, she admitted to everything and pled guilty to all the charges against her, sparing Luke the ordeal of a trial. In a private hearing, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Bo was the one who took Luke home the day he got out of the hospital. Luke was just relived to be leaving the hospital under his own power. He still walked slowly and carefully because of everything still being so tender but he knew that would improve in time. Thankfully, there was no permanent damages or side effects from the shooting. Luke knew how lucky he was that there wasn't. Things could have turned out a lot worse than they had and Luke knew that. Bo had the jeep instead of the General because he knew it would be easier for Luke to get into instead of having to climb through the window on the General Lee.

Bo glanced at Luke as he drove along the highway heading for home. Luke had been awful quiet since they left the hospital, lost in his own thoughts.

“You okay, cuz?” Bo asked

“Yeah….just glad to going home.” Luke sighed and glanced at his youngest cousin “I feel like such an idiot. I can't believe I didn't see what Amanda was like.”

“Hey, it wasn't your fault. She was good at covering her tracks and pulling the wool over everybody's eyes. But at least she's going to pay for what she did to you.”

“It's funny how you think you know somebody….then they turn out to be a stranger that you never knew at all.”

“Hey, it's happened to me too. Remember Diana? I thought she really cared about me but all she really cared about was her show.”

“Yeah….I guess neither one of us has a very good track record when it comes to picking our women.”

“Guess that's why we're both still single.” Bo said with a feeble attempt at humor that was only partially successful.

“Yeah….but I knew I didn't love Amanda. I was just out to have a good time. That was my mistake.”

“Yeah, and she was doing everything she could to keep you hooked so she could get close enough to you to kill you.” Bo reminded him grimly

“And she almost succeeded.” Luke said flatly

“But she didn't.”

“Only through the grace of god.”

“Well, at least she's going to get put away for a long time for what she tried to do to you.”

Luke sighed softly and fell back into silence. He might be recovering physically but the emotional and mental scars would last a lifetime. He knew that he would never be able to completely trust any woman again. He had been cautious about making any permanent commitments before and now he didn't know if he would ever be able to. Only time would tell how this incident would influence the rest of his life and his future relationships. But he knew that he would always have the support and the love of his family. That was the one thing he knew that he could always count on. And as long as he had his family, especially Bo, he knew that he would be okay and be able to go on and rebuild his life. Things were back to normal, or at least for what passed for normal, in his life.