Thy Will Be Done
By
Chapter 1
The bright orange stock car raced along the back county road, its powerful engine roaring. The General Lee was as well known in Hazzard County as the two boys who owned it. With its bright orange paint job, the big black 01 trimmed in white on each door, the confederate flag painted on the roof and the name General Lee painted above each doorframe, it was a hard car to miss as it roared along the highway. It was the fastest car in three counties and could outrun anything on wheels. Some folks claimed it was half-human the things that car could do when one of the Duke boys got behind the wheel.
The blonde man behind the wheel was one of the infamous Duke boys, Bo Duke. He was a real charmer with a slow easy smile and baby blue eyes. With his lean muscular build and boyish good looks, he had all the girls in Hazzard County chasing after him. Riding shotgun beside him was his cousin, Luke Duke. Luke was four years older than Bo and just as handsome with dark brown hair and sapphire blue eyes. He had the same lean muscular build as his younger cousin from his years of working on their Uncle's farm and he was just as popular with the local girls. Closer than brothers, it was unusual to see either one of the boys without the other one right there by his side.
With their day's work done on the farm, the boys were on their way to the local honky-tonk, the Boars Nest, to relax and have a little fun. The roadhouse was located on the main highway halfway between the Duke Farm and town. It wasn't much to look at just a long cinderblock building with a dirt parking lot out front but it was the focal point of the social life in Hazzard County . Bo pulled into the dirt lot and parked close to the front door. Laughing between themselves, the boys climbed out of the car and walked towards the main entrance.
Inside the bar, it was smoky and dimly lit. There was already a crowd as the residents of Hazzard gathered to drink, to gossip and to raise hell. Several friends called out greetings as soon as the Duke boys walked in the door and the unattached girls started plotting to snag one of the boys for the evening. The boys spotted their best friend, Cooter Davenport, sitting at a table near the back of the room and made their way through the crowd towards him. Cooter owned the local garage in town and had been a friend of the Dukes since childhood. His last name might have been Davenport but he was a Duke at heart. He grinned broadly, as the boys sat down at the table across from him. “It's about time you two got here.” He said with a slow easy drawl, “Every girl in the place has been looking for you two.”
“Well, now they can stop looking ‘cause we're here.” Bo said with a huge grin on his face. He was young, in his prime and at the age of twenty still a mass of raging hormones. He was having the time of his life and showed no signs of settling down anytime soon.
Bo and Luke's cousin, Daisy, worked at the bar as a waitress. As soon as she saw the boys come in, she walked behind the bar and drew two mugs of the watered down beer that Boss Hogg served to his customers and sat them on her tray. Picking up the tray, she started making her way through the crowd back to the table where the boys were sitting with Cooter. She deftly sidestepped the hands that kept grabbing at her backside as she passed by. The crowd had been particularly unruly all night, trying Daisy's patience, and making her wonder why she even kept this job. The truth was half the customers in the bar came in there to flirt with Daisy. She was the prettiest girl in Hazzard County with long chestnut colored hair, big blue eyes and a smile that could melt the heart of any man. She could drive like Richard Petty, shoot like Annie Oakley and knew the words to every Dolly Parton song. She was by far the most popular girl in Hazzard County .
Smiling brightly at her two cousins, she sat a mug of beer down on the table in front of each of them. “Now don't you two drink more than you can carry out.” She warned them in a teasing tone. She knew she didn't really have to worry about that with Bo and Luke. They both knew their limit and generally stuck to it. Besides, with Boss Hogg's watered down drinks it would take quite a few to even get a good buzz going. She chuckled as she turned and went back to waiting on her other customers.
“You two entering that race on Saturday over in Chickasaw?” Cooter asked, as he took a swig of his beer.
“You bet we are.” Bo said with a confident smile “And we're planning on winning too…..that five hundred dollars prize money will come in really handy.”
“Sure will….” Cooter said with a sly grin, “Now you can pay me for them parts ya'll got on credit last week.”
Before either of them could come back with a reply, Rachel Armstrong interrupted their conversation. She was one of the local girls who had a major crush on Luke. “Hi, Luke…” she said with a shy smile “You wanna dance?”
“Don't mind if I do, darling.” Luke told her with a charming smile as he slid to his feet. He took her by the hand to lead her over to a small section of floor by the bandstand where they could dance. No sooner had he walked away then Susie Hayes, another local girl who had dated both of the Duke boys from time to time, grabbed Bo by the hand and pulled him to his feet. Cooter smiled when he found himself sitting alone at the table. Just another typical day with the Duke boys.
On the dance floor, Rachel went weak in the knees when Luke pulled her into his arms and began swaying to the music from the jukebox. She loved the feeling of his strong arms wrapped around her waist as he held her close. It was like a dream come true. She wished he'd ask her out sometime so she could get to know him better. She was so close to him that she could smell a combination of his aftershave, the shampoo he used on his hair, and his own unique masculine scent. She was bitterly disappointed when the music ended and he thanked her for the dance, then turned and walked back towards his table. Dejected, she walked back over to the table she was sharing with three of her girlfriends, trying to ignore the way they looked at her as she sat back down. She didn't want their pity. She wanted a date with Luke Duke.
Luke sat down across from Cooter and took a swallow of his beer. His eyes automatically scanned the room looking for any potential problems. As the oldest of the three cousins, he was very protective of both Daisy and Bo. Whenever Daisy was working and the boys were there, they both watched out for her, ready to intervene if anyone got out of hand or tried to harass her. Everyone in Hazzard knew better than to mess with Daisy if her two cousins were around unless they wanted a fight on their hands.
Luke glanced at Bo who was still dancing with Susie and obviously having a good time. A Conway Twitty song Slow Hand was playing on the jukebox and Susie was cuddled in Bo's arms, nuzzling her lips against the side of his neck. Luke couldn't help smiling. Susie wasn't shy when it came to letting a man know that she was interested. His attention was diverted to a ruckus from the other end of the room.
He turned his head in time to see Daisy dump a pitcher of beer over some man's head. When the man jumped up and grabbed Daisy's wrist, Luke and Cooter were both on their feet and headed in that direction. Luke got there first and said in a firm, carefully controlled voice “Let her go friend…” The other man, who was obviously drunk, and at least five inches taller than Luke's six foot one, turned to glare at Luke angrily. In a drunken voice he growled,
“I ain't your friend….and this is between me and the little bitch here…”
The words were no sooner out of his mouth than Luke reacted with a hard right cross to the man's jaw, catching him by surprise and knocking him off balance. Daisy pulled away from him and stomped down on his foot with the spiked heel of her shoe. The man yelled in pain and rage. Ignoring Daisy, he charged at Luke, tackling him and taking him to the floor. He got in a few good punches before he suddenly found himself pounced on by both Cooter and Bo as they came to Luke's aide. A solid left from Cooter, followed by an equally solid right from Bo, sent the drunk sprawling to the floor. Daisy quickly helped a dazed Luke to his feet and moved him away from the brawl as Cooter and Bo soon evened up the odds. They grabbed the man who had started the fight by grabbing Daisy and hauled him to his feet, throwing him out the front door none too gently. With the brawl over, they turned their attention to Luke who sitting on a bar stool nursing a split lip and a nasty cut above his left eye. Luckily, neither Boss Hogg nor Rosco was there or there was no doubt that the boys and Cooter would have been spending the night in jail for starting the fight.
“You okay?” Bo asked his cousin, who was holding a bar rag filled with ice against his lip to keep down the swelling.
“Yeah…..” Luke said, his voice slightly muffled from the rag he was holding against his mouth. “That guy packs a mean punch.”
“Yeah, well he's gonna be hurting himself when he sobers up. We made sure of that.” Bo told him with a satisfied grin.
“Thanks guys.” Daisy told them all gratefully “But y'all best get out of here before Rosco shows up and still tries to toss y'all in jail for fighting.”
“Daisy's right.” Luke said, lying the rag down on the bar and shoving himself to his feet. “Let's go, Bo.” Bo nodded and the three friends left the bar together. As Luke walked out of the door ahead of Cooter and Bo, an angry male voice yelled out of the darkness “Hey, asshole!” Suddenly, several gunshots rang out and the people inside the bar started screaming and ducking for cover. But for Luke there was nowhere to go as he was caught directly in the line of fire.
Chapter 2
The force of the bullets hitting his body at close range knocked Luke backwards into Bo who was standing directly behind him. Instinctively, Bo caught his cousin in his arms even as he dropped to the ground and scooted back into the relative safety of the bar, pulling his injured cousin with him. Cooter had already retreated back into the room.
Inside the bar room it was total bedlam. People were still screaming at the unexpected attack and scrambling for safety even as the sound of the gunshots died away. Bo had thrown himself over his cousin's body, protecting him from any further attacks, while Cooter shook his head, trying to get the ringing sound out of his ears from the noise of the gunshots being fired into such close quarters. Once he was sure nobody was going to take any more shots at them, Bo quickly straightened up and turned his attention to Luke. What he saw made him gasp in alarm. He tried to push aside the panic that rose in his throat, choking him, when he saw that the front of Luke's shirt was soaked with blood and so was the right side of his head. The blood was matting his hair and between the hair and the blood, Bo couldn't tell how bad the wound was. All he knew was that Luke was lying there with at least one bullet in his torso and a possible bullet in his head. The front of Bo's own shirt was soaked with Luke's blood where Bo had thrown himself over top of his cousin to protect him.
Bo gave a strangled cry as he gently pulled his gravely wounded cousin into his arms, holding him tightly. He barely noticed Cooter kneeling beside him or the curious crowd that was gathering around him now that the danger was over. All of his attention was focused on his fallen cousin. Cooter's hands were trembling as he cautiously reached out to press two fingertips against the side of Luke's neck. He didn't really expect to find a pulse and he nearly didn't. The pulse he felt was slow and weak. He frantically prayed that Luke wouldn't die in Bo's arms before help arrived. Someone in the crowd yelled that an ambulance had been called and that the sheriff was on his way.
Cooter glanced up as Daisy pushed her way through the crowd, screaming when she saw her two cousins, both with blood all over them. She didn't realize that all the blood was from Luke. Cooter jumped to his feet and quickly slipped an arm around her waist, holding her tightly and keeping her from getting too close. She didn't need to see just how badly Luke was hurt. She would find that out soon enough. “Cooter…is he….is he…” she stammered, tears streaming down her face, as she clutched at the front of Cooter's shirt desperately. She couldn't say the words afraid if she said them aloud, they would turn out to be true.
“Shhh….he's still alive.” Cooter reassured her in a quiet soothing voice. His own voice cracked with the emotions he was struggling to keep under control. “Bo's okay. Luke's the one that got shot.”
“All right….what in tarnation is going on here?” said the voice of Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane as he came storming through the front door of the bar. The call he had received had simply said that there was trouble at the Boars Nest and he came in expecting to find a brawl going on. He was completely unprepared for the sight that met his eyes as his gaze settled on Bo Duke sitting on the floor just inside the room with Luke cradled in his arms and both men covered with blood. “What in the devil happened here, Cooter?” Rosco asked the mechanic who was standing at the edge of the crowd with his arm around Daisy, who was crying softly..
“Some nut started shooting as soon as Luke opened the door to leave.” Cooter told him grimly “He was right in the line of fire.”
“Did anybody see anything?” Rosco asked the crowd in general. People shook their heads at his question. They had all been inside at the time of the shooting and hadn't witnessed anything they had just heard the sudden volley of gunshots.
“Did anybody call an ambulance?”
“Yes, Rosco. There's an ambulance on the way.” Cooter told him in a slightly irritated voice. It seemed like a stupid question under the circumstances. Luke was lying on the floor, most likely dying, and Rosco wanted to know if anyone had thought to call an ambulance or not.
Rosco shifted nervously from one foot to the other. Things like this just didn't happen in Hazzard County . Rosco may be a poor excuse for a sheriff most of the time but he knew how to function in an emergency situation. And this was most definitely an emergency. He may act as if he didn't like the Duke boys but he sure didn't want to see either one of them hurt either. “All right, I want everybody to find a seat and sit down.” He ordered “There ain't nothing to see here.” As the folks in the crowd slowly dispersed to do as he instructed, Rosco looked at Cooter and Daisy “Has anybody called Jesse?” he asked quietly
“Not yet.” Cooter told him, keeping his arm around Daisy and remaining where he was. These were his best friends and they needed him right now. He wasn't going anywhere.
“I guess I better do that.” Rosco said not looking forward to calling the Duke patriarch with the news. He turned and walked across the room to Boss Hogg's private office so he could make the call in private. As the door to the office closed behind him, the sound of siren could be heard outside of the bar as the ambulance arrived. Two paramedics burst through the front door and took in the scene in one quick glance. Quickly determining that the dark haired man being cradled in the other man's arms was the one who had been shot, they knelt down beside the two cousins and reached for Luke.
“NO! DON'T TOUCH HIM!” Bo screamed, tightening his grip on his injured cousin. Realizing that Bo wouldn't let the paramedics near Luke unless someone intervened, Cooter helped Daisy to sit down at a nearby table and then quickly crouched down beside Bo. Gently touching his shoulder to get his attention, Cooter said quietly,
“Bo…they need to take care of Luke and get him to the hospital. They're not gonna hurt him….” Bo turned his head to look at Cooter, his eyes so filled with pain and fear that it tore at the older man's heart. “Come on, Bo….let ‘em take care of Luke.” Cooter said again. Finally, reluctantly, Bo loosened his grip on Luke and let Cooter help him to his feet so that the medics could attend to his wounded cousin. Cooter could feel the younger man trembling violently as he watched every move the paramedics made as one of them tore open Luke's shirt while the second one started checking his vital signs. Once Luke's chest was exposed, Cooter could see that he had been hit in the torso at least twice, once in the right shoulder and in the stomach. He knew that along with the obvious head wound things didn't look very good for the oldest Duke boy. One of the paramedics jumped to his feet and ran back outside to get a stretcher and a backboard out of the ambulance, while his partner worked on getting an IV started in Luke's left arm. When the second paramedic returned with the additional equipment, the two men gently rolled Luke's body to one side so they could slide the backboard underneath him and then they picked up the backboard and put Luke on the stretcher.
Bo, Cooter and Daisy all followed the paramedics out of the bar as they rolled the stretcher with Luke's body on it out the front doors to the waiting ambulance. The loaded the stretcher into the back of the ambulance. One of the paramedics climbed into the back with Luke while the second one ran around to climb beneath the wheel. When Bo started to climb into the back of the ambulance too, the paramedic caring for Luke barred his way. “I'm sorry, sir but you can't ride in the ambulance.”
“I'm going with him and you ain't gonna stop me!” Bo growled fiercely, his eyes filling with a cold dangerous rage at the man's refusal to let him go with Luke. The paramedic started to object but quickly decided against it. He realized that if he didn't let this man ride with his friend, that he'd cause trouble. There was nothing the paramedics could do on the ride to the hospital anyway, except to monitor Luke's condition. So he finally nodded and let Bo climb on board.
“We'll be right behind ya, Bo!” Cooter called to him as the paramedic reached out to pull the door shut and the ambulance took off for the hospital with the siren screaming.
Cooter grabbed Daisy's hand and ran over to the General Lee. Daisy climbed in on the passengers side while Cooter slid beneath the wheel. As usual, Bo had left his keys in the ignition and the powerful engine roared to life as Cooter started the car and took off after the ambulance. He knew they would be able to keep up with the ambulance easier in the General then they could in his truck or in Daisy's jeep. He prayed silently that Luke would live long enough for them to get him to the hospital.
Chapter 3
Jesse Duke had just turned out the living room light and was getting ready to go to bed when the telephone rang. Grabbing the receiver, he said “Duke Farm. Jesse Duke speaking.”
“Jesse, it's Rosco.” The Hazzard County Sheriff's voice said in his ear
“Now Rosco, you better not be calling to tell me that you arrested my boys on some trumped up charge again!” Jesse growled “You know them boys didn't do whatever you're trying to pin on them!”
“Jesse…that's not why I'm calling.” Rosco said, the tone of his voice instantly silencing the elder Duke. “There's been an accident….Luke's been shot.”
“Shot!” Jesse bellowed “What do you mean he's been shot?”
“Now Jesse, I don't know all the details yet but Luke got shot and he's on his way to Tri County Medical.” Rosco told him. Jesse hung up before Rosco could say anything else and grabbed his keys off the nail beside the back door as he ran out of the house. He climbed into the cab of his old pickup truck and started the engine. Dirt and gravel flew from beneath the tires as he pulled out of the drive. He pushed the old truck for all it was worth as he raced towards the Tri County Medical Center in Cedar City . It was normally a forty-five minute drive but old Jesse made it in thirty. He saw the General Lee parked in the lot in front of the medical center as he pulled into the drive and parked his old truck beside it. Climbing out of the cab, he ran into the hospital through the emergency room entrance.
As his eyes swept the faces in the waiting room, he spotted Cooter sitting on a sofa at the far end of the room. Daisy sat on the sofa beside him, her head resting against his shoulder and Bo was pacing back and forth in front of them. Jesse's breath caught in his throat, his heart pounding in fear, when he saw the blood that stained the front of Bo's shirt and his jeans. Way too much blood to suit Jesse. Since Bo didn't seemed to be hurt, Jesse knew that it had to be Luke's blood staining Bo's clothes.
“Uncle Jesse!” Daisy cried out when she saw her Uncle, jumping to her feet and throwing herself into his arm, crying softly. Bo stopped his pacing and looked at his Uncle with such a terrified look on his face that Jesse automatically reached out to the young man and pulled him close with his free arm. Bo buried his face against his Uncle's shoulder and started to cry too. As Jesse comforted his niece and nephew, he looked at Cooter and said “How's Luke?”
“We don't know yet, Uncle Jesse.” Cooter told him solemnly “They told us to wait here. Said they'd let us know something as soon as they could.”
Jesse nodded knowing that it could be quite awhile before they heard anything about Luke's condition. Gently, he eased Daisy back down to the sofa beside Cooter, then sat down himself on the other side, easing Bo down beside him. Bo sat there, hunched forward with his face buried in his hands.
“What in the devil happened?” Jesse growled, his fear for his oldest nephew making him more gruff than usual. He had raised the three cousins since they were young and to Jesse, they were his kids even if he wasn't their natural father. And Luke was his oldest, the one who was the most like Jesse himself. He was the one who was more independent, more sure of himself, and who loved the land as much as Jesse did. He had spent three years in the Marines, two of those years in Viet Nam , and had even survived for three months in a prison camp and still made it home alive. Now he could be dying, shot in his own hometown, by a crazy man with a gun. Somehow, that just didn't seem fair.
“We're not really sure, Uncle Jesse. We all got into a fight at the Boars Nest with this dude that was hassling Daisy and then when we started to leave somebody started shooting at us. Luke was right in the line of fire….he never had a chance to get out of the way.”
“How bad is it, Cooter?” Jesse asked in a carefully controlled voice, asking the question he wasn't sure he really wanted to hear the answer to. From all the blood on Bo's clothing, he already knew that it was bad.
“Pretty bad.” Cooter confirmed reluctantly “He was hit at least three times that I could see….and one of those shots was in the head.” Jesse felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach when he heard Cooter's description of Luke's wounds. It was even worse than he had anticipated. This was one time that Duke luck might not be on Luke's side.
Jesse turned his attention back to his two other charges. Cooter was comforting Daisy, so Jesse turned to Bo who was rocking back and forth in his seat, his sobs muffled by his hands. Jesse gently began to rub the young man's back. He knew how close the two boys were. Luke was just like Bo's big brother and Bo idolized his older cousin. To see him shot right in front of him and then to hold his body in his arms until help arrived had almost been too much for the younger man to handle. Now that his adrenaline level was crashing, he was in danger of going into shock himself.
“It's gonna be okay, sprout…” Jesse said soothingly, using the childhood nickname for Bo. “Luke's strong….he'll make it through this….you have to believe that.”
“He's hurt so badly, Uncle Jesse…” Bo said through his tears “I'm scared….I'm so scared…”
“I know you are. We all are….but all we can do is pray that God lets Luke stay here with us….” Jesse said, automatically falling back on the faith that had sustained him most of his life. Jesse had lost so many people who were close to him through the years. His parents, six of his seven brothers, one of his two sisters, and his darling wife, Martha. But through all the heartache and grief he had been through, he had always relied on his faith in God to carry on. But even though his faith was strong, it faltered when he thought about the possibility of losing one of his kids.
“He can't die, Uncle Jesse! He can't!” Bo sobbed. Jesse gathered the young man into his arms for a comforting hug, holding him tightly. Bo leaned heavily against him, taking comfort from his Uncle's embrace. When he was a child, Bo had always thought that Uncle Jesse and Luke could fix anything and make it okay again. But he knew that this time, neither one of them had the power to do that. Only god did. Finally, he pulled away from his Uncle's arms and stood up, starting to pace the floor again, too anxious and nervous to sit still for long. He didn't even notice the curious stares from the other people in the waiting room who couldn't help but notice the blood stains on his clothes. He didn't even notice the blood stains on his clothes or Luke's blood on his hands. But Jesse did. “Come on, sprout.” Jesse said, shoving himself slowly to his feet “Let's see if we can get you cleaned up a little.”
Bo let Jesse lead him down the hallway to the men's room. Stepping into the bathroom, Jesse led Bo over to the sink and turned on the water so he could wash his hands. Bo started sobbing again when he realized that he had Luke's blood on his hands. He washed off the blood, watching the water turn red as it swirled down the drain. When his hands were clean, he cupped his hands under the water and splashed some on his face but it didn't help much. He leaned his hands against the sink and hung his head, the tears streaming freely down his face as his Uncle stood by his side, rubbing gentle circles on his back. Chocking back his tears, he excused himself and went into one of the stalls. A moment later, Jesse heard him throwing up what little he had in his stomach and then the sound of his pitiful retching for several more minutes after that. Finally, the door to the stall opened and he came back out. His face was pale but he seemed to have himself under control at least for the moment. He walked back over to the sink and cupped his hand under the water again so he could rinse the bitter aftertaste out of his mouth.
“You okay?” Jesse asked him gently. Bo nodded slightly but didn't respond. He turned to go back to the waiting room to wait for news about Luke with the rest of his family. Jesse followed and they resumed their anxious vigil.
Chapter 4
Jesse glanced up anxiously each time the swinging doors that led into the emergency room opened and a doctor came into the waiting room, hoping it was someone who could tell them how Luke was. But each time, the doctor always called out someone else's name. They had already been waiting for over four hours and they were all stressed out and impatient. But Luke had to still be alive or surely someone would have told them something by now. Daisy had stopped crying and was sitting beside Cooter with her head resting against his shoulder. Bo alternated between pacing the floor nervously and fidgeting in the chair next to Jesse. The waiting room had thinned out until there were only a few people left besides the Duke family and Cooter.
Finally, after almost five hours of waiting, the swinging doors opened and Doc Applebee, the Duke family doctor, came out of the emergency room. Jesse jumped to his feet and Cooter and the rest of his family gathered around him as Doc Applebee walked over to them.
“How's Luke? How's my boy?” Jesse asked anxiously, looking into the face of the family doctor and one of his oldest friends.
“Jesse, why don't y'all come with me so we can go somewhere and talk privately?” Doc suggested gently, ushering the family down a short hallway to the left.
“Is Luke still alive?” Bo asked, grabbing Doc's sleeve as he started to walk down the hallway. His eyes pleaded for an answer to the most important question to all of them.
“Yes….he's still alive.” Doc said, refusing to tell them more until they reached a room at the end of the hallway and went inside. He quietly closed the door behind them and motioned for them all to sit down. After they were settled, Doc Applebee looked at the faces of the folks he had known for years and sighed softly. This was the part of his job that he hated the most, telling people he knew bad news. As they all looked at him nervously, with the fear showing plainly in their eyes, he cleared his throat and said, “Luke is still alive but his condition is critical. He's been in surgery for the last four hours and I wanted to make sure he made it through the surgery before I talked to you about his condition.” Doc told them. “He was hit by four bullets. Two of the bullets didn't cause that much damage, one that hit his right shoulder and one that grazed his right hip. The other two bullets are what caused the most serious damage. One bullet hit him in the abdomen and caused a great deal of internal bleeding, there was some damage to his liver and the bullet lodged in his right kidney. The damage to both organs has been repaired but we'll need to keep an eye on the kidney to see if there is any permanent damage to that organ. Even if there is, Luke could still live a normal life with just one functioning kidney.” Doc paused waiting for them to absorb what he had told them so far before continuing “The most serious and dangerous injury was the bullet that hit his head. The bullet fractured his skull and it shattered on impact. Some of the bullet fragments did penetrate the skull. We were able to remove them but we have no way of knowing how much brain damage Luke may have suffered because of it. We do know that they caused severe bruising in certain areas of his brain. Right now, he's in a deep coma and he may or may not wake up.” He paused as he waited for the questions he was sure they would have.
“What are his chances?” Jesse asked in a tightly controlled voice
“I really can't say at this point. It depends on a lot of things but if I had to give you odds right now….I'd have to say that Luke has about a 25 percent chance of surviving.”
“Just how bad do you think the head injury is?” Bo asked anxiously
“The biggest thing we have to worry about right now is keeping his brain from swelling from the trauma of the shooting. If it swells, it could kill him. The brain is protected in most cases from injury by the skull but if the brain swells because of an injury then the skull actually keeps the brain from having anywhere to go when it swells too much and that causes more damage to the brain.”
“How can you keep his brain from swelling?” Cooter asked interjecting a question of his own
“We'll be giving him medication through an IV to help keep any swelling down as much as possible and we'll be monitoring his condition at all times.” Doc Applebee explained, “He's in the Intensive Care Unit where he can receive constant monitoring and attention.”
“What do you think, Homer?” Jesse asked, using his old friends first name “Is Luke is gonna pull through this?”
“I'd have to say that his chances aren't very good…..and the next seventy-hours will be the most critical ones.” Doc Applebee's voice reflected his own sadness at Luke's condition and his inability to give the family much hope. And his own inadequacy as a doctor to do more than he already had for the critically injured young man.
“Can we see him?” Jesse asked his voice cracking with the emotions he was trying to keep under control at the news about Luke's condition.
“I can let each of you see him for fifteen minutes and then I would suggest that you all go home and get some rest.” Doc told them solemnly “You're going to need it.”
“NO!” Bo said sharply “I wanna stay with Luke. He needs one of us with him so he won't be alone!”
“There's nothing you can do for Luke right now, Bo.” Doc Applebee said gently “And they won't let you stay with him in the I.C.U. The best thing you can do for Luke right now is go home and get some rest.”
Bo started to object but Jesse cut him off. “Now, Bo….settle down. Doc's right….Luke needs you to stay strong and besides you need to go home so you can clean up…..and we all need some rest. We can come back first thing in the morning.” Bo nodded resentfully. He knew from Jesse's tone of voice that it was no use arguing about it. But if anything happened to Luke while they were gone, Bo knew he would never forgive his uncle for making him leave the hospital. Jesse looked back at the doctor. “Can we see Luke now?”
“Yes….I'll take you up to the I.C.U. I know you've been there before so you know that Luke is hooked up to a lot of machines and monitors. But I do want you to be aware before you see him that his face is badly swollen and bruised and his head is heavily bandaged from the surgery.” Once he was sure that they had no more questions, Doc opened the door and led the way to the elevators. He pushed the button for the third floor where the Intensive Care Unit was housed.
“You go in first, Uncle Jesse.” Bo told his uncle as they stepped out onto the medical floor. As the doctor led Jesse down the hallway in one direction, Cooter, Daisy and Bo walked over to the small waiting area and sat down to wait their turn to see Luke.
Even though Doc had done his best to warn Jesse what to expect, he was still shocked beyond words when he saw Luke for the first time. He was lying on the bed surrounded by the various machines and monitors with different leads attached to various parts of his body. His skin was deathly pale but it was his face and head that was the most disturbing. His head was swollen to almost twice its normal size, giving his face a pudgy appearance. Both eyes were black and blue, the bruising extending down both cheeks. And the swelling was so bad that his eyes were mere slits in the center of his face. His entire head was wrapped in bandages and only a few locks of dark hair showed at the back of his neck. There was an IV running into the back of his right hand and his right shoulder and most of his midsection was heavily bandaged.
Jesse walked up to the left side of the bed and carefully took Luke's hand in his calloused ones, gently rubbing his thumb over Luke's knuckles. His skin felt colder than normal and was dry to the touch. Swallowing hard past the lump that rose in his throat, Jesse said “You hang in there, boy….ya hear me? You gotta pull through this….We're all praying for ya.” Jesse spent his fifteen minutes talking to his oldest nephew and gently rubbing his hand. Daisy went into see Luke next but she was so upset by his appearance that she could only stay for a few minutes before running from the room in tears. Cooter declined to see Luke, feeling that it wasn't his place since he wasn't actually family. Bo was the last one to go into the room.
Bo was as shocked and upset as Daisy at Luke's appearance but he remained in the room, holding his cousin's hand just as Jesse had done. “Come on, Luke…you can pull through this.” Bo whispered “You can't leave me alone….I need you…..and you promised a long time that you'd never leave me…..well I'm holding you to that promise…do ya hear me?” When his time was up, Bo leaned over and gently brushed his lips across his cousin's forehead before leaving the room.
When he rejoined his family in the waiting room, Jesse decided they should go home. Daisy rode with Jesse in the pickup while Cooter volunteered to drive the General Lee with Bo riding shotgun. When they got back to the farm, Bo had to drive Daisy and Cooter to the Boars Nest so Cooter could pick up his truck and Daisy could get her jeep. They were all silent and solemn, each of them saying their own silent prayers to God to spare Luke's life.
Chapter 5
Bo threw away the clothes that were stained with Luke's blood and took a shower, cringing as the water turned red as it washed off the blood that had soaked through his clothes and clung to his skin. Drying off and slipping on a pair of sweat pants, he walked back to the bedroom he had shared with Luke since childhood. He felt the tears stinging his eyes as he looked at the empty bed on Luke's side of the room, praying that Luke would be able to use that bed again soon. He lay down on his own bed but couldn't sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he relived the shooting in his mind and could see Luke's body lying in his arms as his life's blood seeped out around him. Bo didn't get any sleep that night and was up before dawn. He already had the coffee on and the eggs cooking when Daisy and Uncle Jesse came downstairs. Jesse knew that Bo hadn't slept or he wouldn't be up so early. Bo was not a morning person and it was usually a chore left to Luke to get him in the mornings and moving. Jesse hadn't slept very well either for worrying about Luke.
Daisy smiled as she took over finishing breakfast and Bo poured himself a glass of milk, sitting down at the table beside his Uncle. “Didn't get much sleep, huh?” Jesse observed as Bo took a sip of his milk.
“Not much.” Bo admitted, hanging his head “I just kept thinking about Luke.”
“Me too.” Daisy said from the stove where she was busy frying bacon.
“That makes three of us.” Jesse said somberly. He looked at his youngest charge “We'll go to the hospital as soon as you git the chores done.”
“Yes, sir.” Bo answered. After Daisy had breakfast on the table and took her seat across from Bo, Jesse bowed his head and said grace adding a special blessing for Luke. They ate in relative silence, each of them lost in their own thoughts. When he was done eating, Bo excused himself to go and do the morning chores, chores that he usually shared with Luke. It seemed so strange not to have Luke by his side laughing and joking between themselves as they worked. By himself, it took almost two hours to finish all the chores. When he was done, he quickly washed up and the family climbed into the General to go to the hospital to see Luke.
At the hospital, they immediately went to the third floor. They had to wait for a half an hour before they could go in to see Luke since the nurses were changing his bandages. Finally, a nurse came out and told them they could go in, one at a time for fifteen minutes each, same routine as the day before. Jesse went in first. There was no noticeable change in Luke's condition but Jesse took his hand and talked to him quietly reassuring him that the family was there and that the doctors were doing everything they could to make him better. He knew that Luke couldn't hear him but it made Jesse feel better anyway.
Daisy went in next. She was still upset by Luke's appearance but this time she was able to stay in the room with him instead of running out in tears. She gently ran her fingers down his cheek and begged him to get better and come home where he belonged. Before she left, she gently kissed him on the forehead as she said goodbye.
Bo went in last. Crossing to his cousin's left side, he took his hand and held it tightly. He pleaded with Luke to open his eyes even though he knew that wasn't about to happen any time soon. He talked about the General Lee and the different girls the boys knew. All too soon, his time was up and he had to leave. It hurt to see Luke in the condition he was in and to know how badly he was hurt. Bo swore to find the man who had shot him and make sure that he paid for it one way or the other.
Since they could only see Luke once every two hours, the family wandered down to the cafeteria where they got some coffee and made small talk to pass the time. Waiting is the worst thing in a hospital. It seems like you wait for everything and nobody seems to be in much of a hurry to get anything done. Time passes about as slow as molasses on a cold winter morning. When they were able to see Luke again, they talked to him about their everyday lives, held his hand and continued to whisper words of encouragement. The Dukes might not have had much in the way of material things but they had more than enough love to go around. They were a close-knit family bound together by that love through the good times and the bad. And even if he were in coma, they knew that Luke could still feel that love and be comforted by it.
They stayed until late that evening then they had to return to the farm to take care of the animals and do the evening chores. Although Bo wanted to remain at the hospital with Luke, Jesse insisted that he come back home with them. He didn't see much sense in Bo staying, no matter how much he wanted to, when he could only be at Luke's side for fifteen minutes every two hours. Bo reluctantly obeyed since Uncle Jesse's word was law and always obeyed, out of love and respect, but always obeyed.
Two weeks passed with no change in Luke's condition. The only positive sign was that the swelling in his face and head had gone down and his features were recognizable once more. Although the doctors had run several tests, which showed brain activity, Luke showed no signs of waking up from the coma, which worried the family terribly. They knew that the longer he remained in a coma, the worse the outcome could be. Friends of the family had flooded his hospital room with flowers, stuffed animals and cards, showing their love and support for the family and for Luke himself.
After three weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, the doctor finally moved Luke out of that unit and into a semi private room on the first floor of the hospital. That meant the family could sit with him the whole day and most of the evening. It also meant that Bo could finally stay by his cousin's side at night. After talking to Doc Applebee, who was well aware of how close the boys were, he had given Bo special permission to stay with Luke at night as long as he didn't get in the way when the nurses needed to tend to Luke. Since there was no one using the second bed in Luke's room, Bo would be able to use that bed when he needed to sleep. The nurses had been hesitant about the arrangement in the beginning until they saw how devoted Bo was to his cousin and realized that he could actually help them to monitor Luke's condition. He was so attuned to his cousin's needs that he could notice any change in his condition before they did. He may not have known what most of the monitors that were being used did but he soon became accustomed to how they should look when the readings were within normal ranges or how they should sound. He had actually alerted the nurses more than once when one of them registered a change in Luke's breathing, blood pressure, or other vital signs that needed to be attended to.
Rosco was actually doing his job for once and trying to find the man who had fired the shots at Luke, Bo and Cooter as they exited the Boars Nest that evening. Even though none of them had actually seen the shooter, they were all positive that it had been the man who had been harassing Daisy shortly before the shooting occurred. But it seemed as if he had dropped out of sight, although Rosco did find out that his name was Scott Drew and he was a drifter passing through Hazzard. Boss Hogg had even showed some compassion for what had happened. He surprised the entire family by volunteering to pay for all of Luke's hospital bills. Although, he did have an ulterior motive, he didn't want to be sued since Luke had been hurt at the Boars Nest. Even Boss Hogg had his code of honor; he didn't condone any type of violence in his county. He might not have cared for the Dukes but he didn't want to see any of them get hurt like that either. He wanted them in jail not dead.
Luke had survived the initial seventy-hours that Doc Applebee had warned them was a critical time period. Although Doc was still cautiously optimistic, he did find himself hoping that Luke would beat the odds and survive. The biggest danger was still the head injury and the possibility of brain damage associated with it. Unfortunately, some of the tests that needed to be done to determine brain damage could only be done once Luke came out of the coma. There was still some bruising and mild swelling of his brain and Doc felt that was what was keeping him in the coma. He hoped as Luke's body continued to heal, then Luke would start to show signs of waking up. He had already beaten the odds more than once by surviving as long as he had already without any further complications.