BLOOD IS THICKER…

By:TNRiverRat

Disclaimer: I don’t own any part of DOH and no intentional infringement on anyone else’s fanfiction was done.

Mid-November, The Duke Farm, Hazzard County, Georgia:

Jesse Duke had always thought of himself as a patient man.

He had weathered more storms than he cared to count and had always prided himself on being able to keep his cool. However the picture he presented as he slammed his closet door shut and muttered under his breath as he shoved clothes into his suitcase was anything but that of a patient man! He finished his packing and strode through the unnatural pre-dawn quiet of old farmhouse; usually by now the whole house was up and getting ready for chores. Now it was just unbearably still and quiet. The old man took his worn watch from the front pocket of his overalls and once again checked the time.

He stopped at the closed door of his niece’s room and called, “Daisy…you ‘bout ready? Enos will be here any minute and I want us to be out on the porch waitin’ for him.”

“I’ll be ready in a few minutes, Uncle Jesse.”

“Good. I don’t wanna waste any time in gettin’ on the road,” he groused.

He knew he shouldn’t snap at Daisy…but his patience had been worn mighty thin lately. Those boys of his seemed hell bent on being the death of him! He itched to warm the seats of their britches with a hickory switch until they couldn’t sit for a week! He also had a monumental scolding planned for his nephews and intended to give it to them as soon as he could.

What did they mean…scaring the life out of him like this?

Yes, he was more upset than he had ever been…but this time it was from fear rather than anger or disappointment. Jesse was afraid that his boys had finally gotten into something that he couldn’t bail them out of. He shrugged into his coat and opened the front door, listening to the loud squeak of the hinges. He remembered Luke and Bo both promising to oil those hinges a hundred times but never getting around to it. His brow furrowed with worry once again at the thought of his boys. He just wanted Bo and Luke home safe...he would worry about the danged hinges later.

As he sat on the porch swing, waiting for his the deputy to arrive, his mind swam with worry. The past was a familiar refuge and more and more often, it seemed Jesse longed for the familiar. The old farmer briefly retreated to the calm security of his memories when his boys were still small and looked to him to keep them safe. They were grown now and he had learned all too well that he couldn’t keep all the monsters and bullies away. He smiled sadly as he thought of his boys and just how much they meant to him. His boys…no matter how old they were they would always be his little boys…

Flashback:

Bo and Luke Duke were the best of friends, first cousins and closer than most brothers. They were the exact opposite of each other in temperament, behavior and coloring but they balanced each other perfectly…almost like they were two halves of a whole. One of their teachers…a nice enough gal for one of those hippie types from California… commented to Jesse more than once at parent/teacher conferences that the boys seemed to be the “very embodiment of Yin and Yang ”…what ever that meant.

It sounded foreign, but the farmer assumed that it just meant something about how close Bo and Luke were and didn’t take any offence to the woman’s weird talk.

His boys had always seemed to have a close bond with each other and even with him, ever since they first met. Neither young man could remember that first meeting, but Jesse remembered it like it was just yesterday instead of over twenty years ago…

Jesse, as the eldest of his family, had inherited the Duke family ancestral home; so whenever there was a big gathering, he and his wife, Martha, always hosted it at the family farm. The big yard had seen the weddings of three of his sisters and the receptions after his and his six brothers’ weddings. The wakes of his grandparents, parents and baby sister had all been held in the living room of the farmhouse as had the christenings of all the Duke children since his own birth. In the spring of 1960, the Duke farm once again played host to a christening…this time a double one. Raymond “Coy” Duke was six months old before his father Raymond, Sr. received a long enough leave to journey from the Texas Air Force base where he was stationed to the family farm. Little Beauregard James Duke, (or Bo as he was called) the son of Jesse’s youngest brother, James, had surprised everyone by arriving seven weeks early and had spent the first two weeks of his life in an Atlanta hospital. Since Bo had been released from the hospital the week before Coy’s family was coming home, the parents decided to have the boys christened together and have a huge welcoming party for the two newest Dukes. Jesse was thrilled to see all of his siblings and their children. He and his wife had never been blessed with a family of their own so they simply doted on their many nieces and nephews. Jesse was close to all his siblings but he was extremely close to three of his brothers in particular. The four of them were the only ones who had remained in Hazzard and worked together to continue the family’s generations old moonshine business. Jesse, Lawrence, Thomas and James were always “carrying on like hoodlums” and “as thick as thieves” (according to their busy-body sister, Lavinia).

Lawrence and his five year old son, Lukas Keeton Duke, were the first to arrive for the shin-dig. Lawrence’s wife, Roberta, had stayed home because she still couldn’t bear to be around babies right now (it had only been a year since they lost their newborn son, Jud, in a hospital fire and she was still taking it very hard). Luke fidgeted anxiously and got a light swat on the behind for acting like he had a “bee in his britches”…but his father and uncle knew he was just excited and couldn’t wait for his cousins Jeb and Vance to arrive! The boys didn’t get to see each other often but made up for it when they did by playing like there was no tomorrow! Several cars soon pulled into the driveway and the Duke family get-together commenced.

Luke, Jeb and Vance were soon off and running across the yard and through the barn with Uncle Thomas’ little 3 year old tomboy, Daisy, trying her best to keep up with the boys and yelling at them when they didn’t let her play! The women and the older girls of the family were all “oohing and ahhing” over the babies while the men sat out on the porch smoking and catching up on old times while waiting for the preacher to get there for the christening. Soon the official festivities were over, the preacher had been sent on his way and the large family settled in for an evening of food, music, moonshine and fun. All of the Dukes either sang or played instruments and pretty soon an impromptu band had formed itself under the large oak tree in the front yard. The children danced and sang and just generally made nuisances of themselves like all kids do. Serious minded little Luke, however, was busy trying to figure out how his Uncle James played the guitar instead of joining Vance and Jeb in tormenting their girl cousins with frogs and lizards. He was receiving his first guitar lesson when he was called over to the porch by his Aunt Martha.

Aunt Martha was sitting on the swing with Aunt Miranda and Aunt Sara Jane was sitting in a rocker nearby.

“Luke, honey, come here and meet your new cousins.”

Luke was kind of hesitant. He had not really been around any small babies since his brother, Jud, had been born…and, well, he died…

“It’s ok. Coy won’t bite. Well, maybe he won’t! Just don’t let him get your finger in his mouth…he’s teething and wants to chew on everything” said Aunt Sara Jane, laughingly, struggling to hold onto the squirming, chubby baby in her arms. Luke laughed as his cousin Coy gurgled and tried to throw his bottle. The baby’s blond hair stuck out all over his head and he looked funny with his big blue eyes, one toothed smile and wet, slobbery chin!

“Come over here Luke,” Aunt Martha scooted over on the swing to make room between herself and Aunt Miranda and the boy sat down. “Coy’s a bit too rambunctious for you to hold but maybe you can hold Bo if you promise to be careful.”

Luke nodded and peered at the blanket wrapped bundle in his Aunt Miranda’s arms. The baby was so little! He looked like one of cousin Daisy’s dolls. Bo was asleep but stirred as soon as he was placed in Luke’s arms. Luke was afraid he might drop him, but he knew his aunts were keeping careful watch. The small baby and the older boy locked eyes. Bo seemed mesmerized with Luke’s face. Luke smiled, awed at the tiny person he held. He had wanted a little brother to play with real bad and he had been so excited when Jud had been born, but after his death…Luke had been so sad. He had resigned himself to playing with the kids from school and little Daisy; but maybe…just maybe since they lived close to each other…and their daddies worked together… Bo could be like a little brother to him! That would be great! Luke compared his brief glimpses of his little brother with the baby he held in his arms. Jud had had been a big baby with no hair and his eyes had been closed every time Luke had seen him. Bo had fine, white-blond curls and deep dark blue eyes in contrast to the dark haired boy with the piercing light blue eyes that held him. Luke absently began to hum “Rock a bye Baby” as he examined the tiny baby’s hands and feet. He grinned widely and laughed when Bo wiggled in his arms and tightly grasped his finger.

“OK, hon. Let’s get him back to his mama so you can go play.” Aunt Martha gently took Bo from Luke’s arms, but Bo did not like this at all! The tiny baby let out the loudest cry any of them had heard from him since he had been born. Even his mother couldn’t seem to console him. James heard Bo crying and went to see what the fuss was about. Soon the porch was filled with Dukes of all ages trying to console the distraught infant. Jesse watched as his small nephew was passed from hand to hand with no improvement in his temper. The tiny bundle was red faced and hiccupping in his misery. Jesse also noticed that Luke seemed upset that Bo was crying so hard and that Bo only seemed to calm down when he was nearest Luke. The eldest Duke reached for the frustrated baby and sat down in an empty rocker. He bounced the squalling infant in his arms and called for Luke. Jesse pulled Luke into his lap, positioned Bo in the little boy’s arms and began to rock as he held the two boys tightly. Luke smiled and began to hum to Bo. The baby instantly quieted. The sounds of the creaking rocker, Luke’s humming and Bo’s soft hiccups were all that could be heard as the Duke family watched the tender sight before them. Ready for a nap and frustrated that she wasn’t getting any attention, little Daisy soon began whining…wanting to be rocked, too. Martha scooped the little girl up, sat down in another rocker next to her husband and began soothing the tired little girl. Before long, two adorable little boys and one sweet little girl were sleeping soundly in the safety of their uncle and aunt’s arms. A few hours later, the party began winding down and the family dispersed. The day had been perfect…absolutely perfect!

Jesse had no way to know that this perfect day would be the last time all the Dukes would be together...alive that is. Not long after the christening, his brothers Lawrence and James and their wives had been killed in a car accident in Chickasaw County. Lawrence and Roberta had encouraged the new parents to go to dinner and a movie with them. James was very comfortable behind the wheel and was driving a bit faster than he should have. An overeager young revenue agent recognized the speeding car and had thought the infamous Dukes were on a ‘shine run and were trying to escape. Shots were fired, a tire was blown and the Dukes’ car careened out of control into the path of an oncoming 18-wheeler. Suddenly Jesse had lost two brothers but had gained two sons. He and Martha had been named Luke and Bo’s guardians. Jesse barely had time to grieve what with dealing with a very distraught five year old and a frail newborn. Uncle and Aunt quickly became synonymous with “mama and daddy” to the two boys. Luke adapted surprisingly well, due to his already close relationship to Jesse and Martha and little Bo honestly couldn’t remember life before the farm. Jesse had often thought it was sad that Luke barely remembered Lawrence and Bo never really knew James at all before death changed all their lives; but he could already see pieces of his brothers’ personalities living on in their sons. Three years went by before tragedy again struck the Duke family. In late October, Thomas’ wife, Jenny, had suddenly died in her sleep from a brain aneurism. Two days after the funeral, the heartbroken man, still mourning his brothers and now his wife, dropped six year old Daisy off at Jesse and Martha’s house to play with the boys and went for a walk in the woods; telling Martha he would be back after he sorted things out. Later that evening, Jesse went out to search for Thomas and found him deep in the woods behind the old farmhouse: dead from a self-inflicted gun shot. Once again, Jesse’s loss of a brother was tempered by the addition of a child to his family. Thomas’ will had named Jesse and Martha to be Daisy’s guardians as well.

The formerly childless couple now had the weighty job of providing a loving home and family for three orphaned children. Jesse and his wife went at this task as they would any other…one day at a time; praying that God helped them do the right things and that their instincts weren’t too bad! Love and discipline were both given freely and the kids thrived. The children soon became the life-force of the old farm and Jesse often wondered how he and Martha had ever lived without their kids. Luke, Daisy and Bo were theirs…maybe not through blood or formal adoption…but in their hearts. The remaining Dukes of Hazzard County, Georgia were a family in the strongest sense of the word. Brought together through tragedy and bound together with love, respect and loyalty. Jesse had been there for his kids when they lost everything they had ever known…and they were there for him when he nearly lost his whole world. This hardest blow of all came to Jesse the spring of Luke’s first year of high school when his beloved Martha, after years of suffering silently, succumbed to the cancer that ravaged her body. His kids had kept him sane and the fact that he had them to raise helped him through his loss.

After all the years that had passed, Jesse still missed his wife terribly. He missed all his family that had gone on; but he knew he had to be strong for his kids. Luke, Daisy and Bo had always depended on him to keep them protected and to be their anchoring rock in the storms of life.

Back to the present:

Jesse’s thoughts swam through his memories and reluctantly came back to the present. The events of the last few days seemed to have changed the Duke patriarch. He could hardly call himself an anchor for anyone right now. He wasn’t as strong, physically or emotionally, as he once was. He was scared and hurting and didn’t care who knew. He had always felt that losing Martha was the hardest thing he would ever go through in his life. Now, however, he faced something much worse…something he honestly didn’t know how to comprehend or handle…

The Duke patriarch had been so lost in his thoughts that hadn’t noticed the sunrise or that Daisy had joined him on the porch until she gently shook his shoulder.

“Enos is here, Uncle Jesse,” she said as she pulled her long dark hair out from under her coat as she settled it over her shoulders.

Jesse looked up to see the family friend, Deputy Enos Strait, driving through the early morning fog toward the house.

When the car stopped, he and his niece stepped off the porch, stowed their bags in the trunk and quickly got into the back of the Hazzard County patrol car.

Settling in for the long trip ahead, the old man suddenly felt every year of his age. The holidays were quickly approaching, but he barely registered what day it was. Thanksgiving was less than two weeks away, but to Jesse and his niece, it was just another day that Bo and Luke were missing. There would be no Thanksgiving or Christmas at the farm unless the family was together. Jesse realized that it had been nearly a month since his world had begun to collapse. It was when his boys had simply disappeared into thin air…and from a hospital of all places! After three weeks of frantic searching by friends, family and police, the trail of the two young Dukes had gone cold and no leads had been found. Two days ago, however, national news reports had announced that dock workers in Memphis had found two John Does, who matched Bo and Luke’s descriptions. The young men had been found in a shipping container unloaded from a river barge in route from New Orleans. The two men were barely alive when found and suffering from an unknown illness that left doctors baffled and offering little hope. The reports were asking for help in identifying the young men so their families could be notified of their condition. Cooter Davenport and Enos Strait, after hearing the first reports, immediately started burning up the phone lines to newspapers, tv stations, police stations and hospitals in Memphis trying to find out more about the John Does and their exact location. The citizens of Hazzard, even the Hoggs and Coltranes, had rallied around the family from the start of their nightmare and soon preparations had been made for Jesse and Daisy to go see if these men were truly Bo and Luke.

As he and Daisy sat in the back of Enos Strait’s patrol car, speeding toward Memphis, Tennessee with lights flashing to signal their haste, Jesse Duke found himself facing the horrible thought that he may soon be planning funerals for his boys. He swallowed over the tight lump in his throat and glanced over at his niece; lost in her thoughts and worry for her cousins and he knew for him as well. Jesse prayed to God that his boys made it…because if not, he was certain Daisy would be burying him right along with them.

The last time Jesse remembered seeing both his nephews hale and healthy had been right after breakfast one morning…just about a month ago…

Duke Farm, late October:

The crisp autumn air was just perfect for working outside and the old farm always had something that could be done. The weather might be perfect for working, but Jesse Duke’s two nephews also thought it would be perfect for a race through the back roads with their friends or for flirting with the girls in town. Jesse used his years of experience with the boys and put them to work, shortly after morning chores, patching the barn roof. This way he would get the roof fixed and his two nephews would still have enough daylight left to run wild and sow their oats.

The sound of syncopated hammers rang out across the farm as the young men worked. Each man took a side of the roof and the job progressed quickly. The old barn had really took a beating during the last big wind storm and several pieces of the rusty tin sheeting needed patching or replacing. Over the hammering, Luke Duke could be heard whistling a Willie Nelson tune “If You’ve Got the Money, I’ve Got the Time” while he worked. Normally, Bo Duke also whistled, sang or chattered away to pass the time during chores but today he was quieter than normal…he just didn’t feel good but hadn’t let on to his family…they would just fuss over him like they always did. That was one of the bad things about being the baby of the family...everybody tried to take care of you and wouldn’t let you grow up. But it wasn’t all that bad…at least he knew his family just fussed over him because they loved him. The young blonde hammered away on the old barn and grinned as he heard Luke’s whistling interrupted by a muffled curse.

“…must have hit his thumb again,” Bo chuckled to himself.

“Quit laughing, Bo…I know you are,” Luke warned from his side of the roof.

“Am not,” he lied in reply. “Sounds like you need to pay more attention to what you’re doing.”

The friendly bickering went on for a little while longer until once again the ring of hammers was all that could be heard.

Bo gritted his teeth as a sharp pain in his lower abdomen caused him to pause in his hammering. He tried to shake off the nausea that suddenly hit him and was mildly successful…at least he didn’t lose his breakfast. He wiped away the cool sweat that had popped out on his brow. He tried to think about what he had eaten in the last day or so that could be causing his discomfort and could come up with nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe it was a bug or something. Just his luck…he would get sick the weekend he had finally managed to get a date with Becky Mae Thompson.

After embarrassing himself to death in front of Becky Mae and her mama a few years ago by showing up in the Thompson’s yard buck naked…Luke had been there, too…looking for clothes after the General had been stolen while they had taken a dip in Hazzard Pond, he thought he would never be able to convince Becky (or more importantly, Becky’s parents) that he wasn’t some weirdo pervert!

Bo shrugged…maybe he would get better before their date. His stomach had started hurting the night before and had steadily gotten worse since breakfast; settling low in the right side of his abdomen. The pain wasn’t going away but it had subsided to a tolerable level and he once again began hammering down the loose tin that covered the barn’s roof.

Luke was on the other side of the roof dealing with trying to patch a hole nearly the size of a No.2 washtub and knew nothing of his cousin’s stomach trouble. He had started whistling again and absently reached behind himself for a new sheet of metal to cover the hole; frowning when he didn’t find one. He sighed as he realized he had used all the scrap pieces he had brought up the old rickety ladder with him. Not wanting to climb down and back up to the roof, Luke hollered to his cousin on the other side to see if he had any other patching pieces.

“Hey Bo! Got any more tin on your side?”

No answer…just hammering.

Luke climbed further up the roof so he could see over the ridge to the other side. He heard Bo stop hammering and yelled again as he continued climbing.

“Bo! Bo…get the cotton outta yer ears and listen to me! Have you got…?” He went silent as he neared the top of the roof and heard his cousin making odd noises.

Luke looked over the ridge just in time to see Bo drop his hammer and clutch his middle; doubling over and crying out loudly with pain.

“BO!” Luke screamed as he helplessly watched what followed.

Bo, consumed with pain, lost his footing on the metal roof. Unable to catch himself, he rolled down the remainder of the slope and over the edge; falling twenty feet to the hard ground below.

Luke scrambled down his side of the roof and down the old ladder, screaming his cousin’s name and calling for his uncle.

Jesse was cleaning out the hen house, listening absently to the typical noise coming from his nephews as they worked. He had come to enjoy the constant noise and chatter that followed his kids. Ever since they had come to live at the farm, complete silence had been rare and often signaled bad things. Jesse’s ears perked up like any father’s would when the noise abruptly ended and then his heart almost stopped at what he heard next. Luke’s panicked scream and then the sickening thud that followed spurred Jesse into motion. He moved as fast as his old bones would let him; racing around the corner of the hen house just in time to see Luke kneel down next to his immobile cousin. Jesse reached his boys seconds later and immediately began to check Bo for injuries. He knew Luke would be doing the same thing but he just had to check for himself. Bo was unconscious and lying on his right side. Running his hands over Bo’s face and neck, Jesse could tell the boy’s skin was cold and clammy and his pulse was racing. Jesse could tell by the obvious deformity that Bo’s right arm was broken and the he had a large gash on his forehead that gushed blood at an alarming rate. Luke saw his uncle’s questioning look and told him what he had witnessed. Afraid to move Bo due the unknown source of his initial pain and such a fall, Jesse reluctantly chose to call an ambulance rather than allowing Luke to rush Bo to the hospital. Luke raced into the house to call the ambulance and to alert Daisy, who had gone into work the early shift at the Boar’s Nest, of Bo’s predicament.

Daisy Duke raced over the country roads as she headed home to her family. Her nervousness grew as she was passed by a speeding ambulance headed toward the Duke farm. Daisy pulled into the yard just minutes after the ambulance. She followed the paramedics to the barn lot where Bo lay. Daisy gasped in shock as she saw her baby cousin’s pale skin, the splinted arm and the amount of blood that had been shed and still seeped from under the towel Jesse held tightly to his head. She immediately went to Luke, who grasped her in a crushing hug…neither one knowing who was comforting who at the moment. Luke once again described what he had observed for the paramedics who began assessing Bo in great haste. The junior paramedic, a skinny red haired young man about Daisy’s age, started an IV and placed oxygen over the young blonde’s face as the lead paramedic, an older heavy-set man with sandy hair, began examining Bo’s injuries…both men praising the Duke’s first aid measures. After checking Bo’s vital signs, the younger paramedic frowned and alerted his superior to his findings. The older man quickly put his stethoscope’s ear pieces in and immediately began listening to Bo’s chest and abdomen. After listening for a few seconds, he quickly placed the instrument around his neck and began gently probing Bo’s abdomen. The sandy haired man looked at his partner knowingly and the two men quickly began getting Bo prepared for transport.

Luke noticed the looks and the quickened pace with which the paramedics worked and it made him nervous.

The Duke family watched in silence as Bo was gently, but quickly, strapped to a spine board and placed on a gurney. If possible, the pale young man looked worse by the minute.

“We’re heading to the hospital if you want to follow,” the younger paramedic said to the Dukes as he tightened the last strap across Bo’s legs.

As he and his partner raised the stretcher and headed toward the ambulance without another word, Luke let go of Daisy and began to follow them. He didn’t like this at all! They were too quiet and moving too fast…Bo must really be in trouble!

“Is he gonna be ok? What’s wrong with him? What are you not tellin’ us?” Luke demanded as he none too gently grabbed the younger paramedics arm. Jesse shook his head at his nephew and placed a restraining hand on Luke’s shoulder.

The red-haired man, not at all offended, simply shook off Luke’s grasp and continued pushing the stretcher, talking into his hand-held radio to the hospital dispatcher as he walked.

Luke threw his hands into the air, fumed under his breath and then ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Damn it! What’s going on? Tell us something…please?” Luke begged, his voice breaking from fear.

Daisy and Jesse joined Luke behind the ambulance and eagerly looked to the technicians for answers.

The lead paramedic paused from opening the ambulance doors and noted the family’s concern. He cursed his own lack of sensitivity, but they didn’t have time for this! He and his partner loaded the injured man into the back of the ambulance and he climbed up to sit next to the patient while the younger paramedic ran to the front to drive.

As the engine roared to life, the elder technician took pity on the boy’s cousins and uncle.

“Look, ya’ll…I’m sorry, but we don’t really have time to discuss everything right now. We’re afraid he has some internal injuries and is bleeding into his abdomen. He’s going into shock and is probably gonna need surgery. We need to get him to Tri-County Emergency as soon as we can. I’m sorry…we’ve got to go now.”

The doors slammed and the ambulance’s back wheels sprayed dust and gravel over the barn yard as it began to speed toward the small hospital in Capitol City.

Tri County Hospital

Two hours later, the three Dukes were sitting in the small waiting room of Tri-County General Hospital’s emergency department. They were still waiting for information about Bo. All they knew is that he had been rushed into surgery shortly after arriving in the ER. Luke and Daisy had been taking turns pacing across the floor while Jesse busied himself filling out admission forms. Their silent worrying was interrupted when a very harried looking nurse dressed in green scrubs burst through the double doors of the ER; calling for the Duke family. Jesse and his kids stood and were ushered to a corner of the room where they could speak privately. The middle aged woman took a deep breath after they all sat down and began to speak.

“I’m so sorry to meet you like this…my name is Gwen Rivers. I’m a surgical nurse and Dr. Stevens asked me to come update you all on Bo’s condition. As you probably already guessed, the fall broke his right arm and caused a mild concussion. It also seems Bo was suffering from a pretty advanced case of appendicitis before he took his header off that roof.”

Jesse, Daisy and Luke all looked at each other.

“We didn’t know anything was wrong with him,” Daisy said, “…he acted fine this morning.”

“That’s not unusual. Sometimes the symptoms show up very quickly or are so mild at first that no one knows what’s going on till it’s too late. Unfortunately for Bo, it seems his appendix was inflamed to the bursting point before his fall. We don’t know whether it actually burst before or after he hit the ground. The impact did, however, rupture the large artery in his abdomen; causing massive hemorrhaging. Dr. Stevens still has him in surgery. They are trying to clean the infected material from the abdominal cavity and stop the blood loss. The bleeding has been slowed, but not completely stopped. Bo is in very serious condition right now. He’s still in desperate need of transfusion and is already showing signs of peritoneal infection from the appendix. We’ve run into another problem because Bo has such a rare blood type. We’re already using the small supply of O negative we had on hand and have made calls to other hospitals and the local blood bank…but it will take a while for it to get here and we honestly don’t know if he can…”

“Excuse me, Ms. Rivers,” Luke held up his hand to interrupt and turned to give a look to his uncle.

Without another word needing to be said, the old man knew what his nephew was going to say. Jesse nodded and Luke and spoke up, “Ma’am, me and Bo have the same blood type.” The nurse looked at him skeptically. The dark haired young man hurriedly explained, “We really do. We found out one time when we were in an accident and the doctors thought they had mixed up our records. Would it help if I donated blood for him?”

The nurse looked surprised. Only 7% of the population had O- blood and here was a donor right in front of her! The nurse smiled a little. “Yes. Yes, it would. It’ll buy Bo a little time until our supply is restocked. Dr. Stevens will be out to talk to ya’ll when the surgery is finished.” She touched Luke on his arm and nodded toward the emergency room. “Come with me and we’ll find someone to draw your blood.”

Luke had already started rolling up his sleeves as he followed the nurse into the recesses of the ER. He turned and gave his family a nod and wink. Daisy and her uncle smiled and nodded back. It was their way of saying “I love you, see you soon”, when they just didn’t seem to be able to find the actual words.

That was so typical of Luke…doing all that was within his power to see that his baby cousin survived…never once thinking that his own life could be in danger.

But in this case, who would? Donating blood wasn’t exactly dangerous…but when the Duke boys are involved, nothing is normal.

Jesse’s eyes followed his nephew’s retreating form…never realizing that it might be the last time he saw either of his boys alive.

Meanwhile, in the OR:

“Doctor! BP is 88/40 and falling.”

“Give standard dose epi IV, STAT and get the crash cart over here now!”

“He’s flat-lining.”

“Come on kid…don’t leave us now.”

“Paddles ready.”

“Full charge…Clear!”

“Damn it! Let’s do it again.”

“Charging…Clear!”

“Do we have a rhythm?”

“Yes, Doctor. It’s pretty weak, but he has a steady sinus rhythm now and his BP is rising.”

“Good. Let’s get him stabilized and up to ICU.”

Luke followed Nurse Rivers through the winding halls of the small hospital to the blood bank. Trying to break the heavy silence, Luke said with a nervous laugh, “This place is like a rat maze…I hope someone shows me how to get outta here. They might think I belong in here and try to take something I need!” The older woman looked up at him and laughed, “Don’t worry, hon …you’ve still got your regular clothes on and we can’t see your butt…we know you don’t belong here! As good looking as you are, the single nurses won’t let you wander around on your own too much!” The nurse led a slightly blushing Luke through a set of double doors and quickly introduced him to a very surly looking lab technician. “Luke, this is Harvey Kelter, he’s new to Tri-County, but he’s a grade-A phlebotomist and has been doing this for a long time. Harvey, Luke is donating a pint of O neg for his cousin, who is in OR #2 right now. This unit needs to be typed, crossed and prepped for immediate use and then sent to recovery…STAT.” She patted Luke on the arm and smiled. She acted as if she were going to speak but was distracted by the buzzing sound of her pager. Gwen looked at the device and rushed to the nearest phone. She returned to Luke, who already had a tourniquet around his arm and was frowning at Harvey as the technician poked at his arm; searching for a good vein. She took a deep breath and excused herself, “Luke, I’m not going to be able to stay with you…I’m afraid Bo has taken a slight turn for the worse and I’m needed in the OR.” She could see Luke’s jaw tighten and saw the young man’s concern for his cousin. The nurse put her hand on his shoulder and looked into his intense gaze. “Honey, I promise you…we will do all that we can to save him. Right now you are doing the most important thing that can be done to help Bo…so just stay calm, send up some prayers and give him some good blood. OK?” Luke swallowed hard and nodded. His eyes followed the hastily retreating back of Nurse Rivers as she rushed to the OR where his cousin…no, his brother…might be dying. His thoughts were so focused on Bo that he didn’t even notice when Harvey stuck him with the needle…and certainly didn’t notice the slight smile and calculating look on the technician’s face.

Harvey just couldn’t believe his luck! Dr. Wendelson would be very pleased… and he would be very pleased with his finder’s fee! He had scoffed at the idea of finding anyone with O negative blood in this jerkwater part of Georgia and had basically written off the man’s offer. From what that nurse just said, it sounded like he not only had one O negative donor waiting to go to ICU, but a perfectly healthy one, too! After assuring that Luke was fine and was quietly allowing his blood to drain into the collection bag, Harvey had called the number Dr. Wendelson had given him. He had no idea what the doctor did and why he wanted to know when someone with O negative blood came into the hospital. All Harvey knew was the man had helped him get this job and he was looking for phlebotomists needing extra cash…and after his ex-wife had taken him to the cleaners and forced him into having to work two jobs in this God-forsaken part of the world to pay child support…that’s all he cared about. The doctor had been thrilled and was on his way with the money. Harvey was thrilled too…he would get paid for finding both guys and have the cash in hand today! The phlebotomy tech finished drawing the pint of blood from the man and drew a little extra to show to his client as proof. Too bad he couldn’t get a sample from the guy in surgery, but he would have his medical chart as proof. Now all he had to do was keep this Duke kid occupied and out of sight and hope that his cousin stayed alive long enough for him to get his money!

Outpatient Lab Waiting Room, two hours later:

Luke looked around the small room where the lab tech had told him to wait nearly an hour ago. Harvey…boy, what a ball of sunshine that guy was…had told him that he needed to wait here in case the doctor needed more blood or something. Luke thought they could only take a pint at a time…but if Bo needed it then he’d gladly give more.

He flipped through an old hunting magazine and absently picked at the band-aid on his left arm while he waited. Luke jumped in surprise when the door suddenly banged open. The tiny room filled with men in white lab coats who instantly converged on him. He didn’t even have time to react before he was roughly grabbed and a needle was shoved into his neck. A strange warmth flooded his body and all coherent thought became impossible. Luke vaguely felt himself being picked up before darkness claimed him.

OR Recovery Suite:

Bo’s condition had stabilized enough for him to leave the OR suite and go to recovery.

Carrie McMay, RN was looking over the patient charts and getting room assignments ready for her charges. She looked at the blond haired young man who lay in the bed before her. He looked like he had been put through the wringer! She flipped through the chart and spoke aloud to the nurses coming on for the next shift.

“Let’s see. Bo Duke, age 23, post-op for Doctor Stevens: ruptured appendix, abdominal aortic hemorrhage, broken right humerus, mild concussion. It seems the poor fellow had an appendicitis attack and fell off the roof he was working on. He was coded once in OR, but has stabilized enough for transfer. Ok, he’s going to ICU, bed 4. He has been upgraded to critical condition. He has had 7 units of blood already, his vitals aren’t that great, he needs to be transfused again and he’s being treated for peritonitis. I’ll call ahead to give report and tell them he’s on his way up. ICU’s gonna love us for giving them a new patient right at shift change!”

While Carrie called in the patient report to the ICU nurse, who was indeed frustrated at this turn of events, she joked with her colleague and paid no heed to the two men fussing around in the curtained off area where Bo Duke lay. The coming and going of the shift change gave perfect cover for what the men had in mind. Posing as patient transport personnel, the men had no difficulty getting to Bo and the hospital even provided the portable oxygen tank and IV paraphernalia needed to move the seriously ill young man. Bo Duke was spirited out of the recovery area, down the halls and out to a waiting ambulance, where within his deeply sedated cousin, Luke, lay. Unknown to anyone, including their “finder”, the two young men were quickly taken from the hospital and transported toward a laboratory facility located across the Alabama state line. The speeding ambulance pulled out of the parking lot with little notice.

Employee parking lot, Tri-County General:

Paying no heed to the noise of the ambulance, Harvey Kelter sat in his truck, counting his “blood money” as the man who had paid him jokingly called it. Dr. Wendelson’s men had paid him good. All he had to do was tell them where the guys were and he got $500 for each! Wonder what that crazy doctor wanted with those guys? Well, whatever it was, it wasn’t his problem. He had done his job and got his pay. It wasn’t like he had sent those guys to their execution or something. Right? Little pangs of guilt started to prick at what was left of his conscience. If he had only known how close to the truth he was…

In a small section of a seemingly abandoned warehouse in Alabama:

Dr. Wendelson, as he was known now, smiled in delight as he hung up the phone. His last two subjects were on their way. He still marveled at how easily he had been able to procure his test subjects. Small town people were so trusting and so easily manipulated, especially when they were greedy like that lab tech! He looked across his research facility and sneered at the crudeness of the equipment and accommodations he was reduced to using. When he had worked at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta he had been using cutting edge facilities and equipment. He rolled his eyes as his gaze fell on his mediocre lab assistants. When he had been Dr. Thaddeus Milton, MD, PhD he had his pick of brilliant assistants and worked with some of the finest minds in the world. Now he paid an exorbitant rental fee for a glorified warehouse, used whatever equipment he could buy second-hand or steal and worked with a group of lab “rats” who could barely tell the difference between a test tube and a shot glass! His brilliant career as a geneticist and microbiologist had been side-tracked by the prudish, moralistic beurocracy of the Federal Government! It seemed they had a problem with his methods and went into hysterics when it was discovered that he used college student volunteers and indigent patients from the nearby hospitals as “guinea pigs for his mutant viruses”. What difference did it make? The patients were dirt poor and already sick and the college students were willing to do anything for a buck! Besides, in the grand scheme of things, his test subjects had not died in vain. They had contributed greatly to his research and to science. He wasn’t just mutating viruses at his former colleagues had said, he was testing the limits of creation itself. He was creating new, superior life forms! His viruses would be unstoppable…by any method other than the ones he would create, of course. He would be a god: the power to create and then destroy that creation…held in his hand! His discovery would have unlocked the mysteries of the killer diseases that plagued society since the dawn of time! World leaders would have bowed to him; the pantheon of science would have accepted him as one of the greatest men in history. But no-o-o, that would have been too simple! He had been humiliated! Publicly fired and stripped of his licenses to teach and to practice medicine; he then faked his own death in order to dodge criminal charges. His meager savings had been depleted through the elaborate methods he had gone through to change his appearance and start his new life. Without the luxury of federal funding and lobbyists supporting his cause, he had been forced to beg for funding in order to continue the research that now dominated his life. His disgrace had cost him his reputation, his home, his wealthy fiancé (well actually, he didn’t really miss her all that much…she demanded too much of his time) and some had said even his sanity, but he had not lost his research! No…that was his ace in the hole, so to speak. His research may have led to his downfall but it would soon bring him back to his former glory and beyond. Thaddeus Milton “died” a tragic death…blown to bits in a horrible explosion that supposedly destroyed all his work…disgraced and accused of barbaric crimes against humanity but Dr. Terrance Wendelson would be known world wide for his contributions to science!

So what if the funding for his research was donated from less than desirable sources in exchange for a few genetic weapons? It would be a small price for society to pay in order to reap the benefit of his genius.

The doctor paused in his mental rambling and gazed at his reflection in the mirror. He gave himself a smug smile…he was not unattractive. His tall athletic build and artificially darkened hair suited his new face. He would look good in his future television appearances. The wild, almost crazed, look in his eyes his only flaw; however, it completely escaped his notice. He turned and walked purposefully through his lab…his “kingdom”…and began to prepare the batch of serum he planned to use on the incoming subjects. The lab personnel nervously avoided him…they knew all too well not to bother the doctor when he was acting this way. The last employee that did ended up as one of his “test subjects”!

Present day,

Regional Medical Center “The Med”, Memphis, TN:

After ten hours of driving, Enos Strait guided his car through the busy streets of Memphis. This was not the bumbling, naive deputy that everyone in Hazzard knew. This was the determined professional that dwelt deep within the young man. He missed his friends and his heart broke every time he noticed the pained look in Daisy’s eyes or the lost expression that had taken permanent residence on Jesse’s face. Whoever was responsible for nearly destroying one of the finest family’s in Georgia would have to answer to him! He had taken it as his personal responsibility to protect his friends from any further heartache and to seek out the guilty party. He had assumed the role of investigator and protector and surprisingly, neither Jesse nor Daisy had questioned him. Even Rosco Coltrane had finally acknowledged that Enos was a capable officer of the law and had turned the entire investigation over to him! With only a little difficulty, he located the imposing hospital, just minutes from the Mississippi River and the dock where the “John Does” had been found. He easily found the visitor parking garage and soon he and the Dukes were entering the hospital and facing a very busy receptionist. After a brief explanation and the checking of ID’s and Enos’ credentials, the group from Hazzard was quickly ushered to an elevator and told to get off on the third floor and ask for Dr. Janet Kennedy. Enos guided the Dukes into the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor. The elevator stopped and they exited into the hallways of the Critical Care Unit of the Infectious Disease Ward. Enos shared a worried glance with Jesse and grasped Daisy’s hand to comfort both her and himself. Sooner than they had expected, the three were sitting in a small conference room waiting for Dr. Kennedy to join them….waiting to find out if their search was over.

The door opened and a petite, slightly plump woman with short red-hair entered. Jesse and Enos stood as she entered and the woman’s serious expression was broken by an easy smile.

“Deputy Strait, Mr. Duke, Miss Duke, I’m Dr. Janet Kennedy, head of the Infectious Disease Department and currently in charge of caring for our “John Does” who arrived a few days ago,” she said as she shook hands with everyone and settled into a chair. After everyone had taken a chair, the doctor spread out the documents she held and selected a file folder and held it out to the deputy.
“This is the information that we received from the officers who were at the scene after the young men were found. A detailed report is at the Metro Memphis Police Station. I’m afraid they just released basic, identifying information to us.” Dr. Kennedy paused as Enos quickly scanned the documents and a photo. She noticed the officer’s saddened eyes that he tried to hide behind his serious expression as he read further into the report.

Turning to the bearded man and the pale-faced young woman, she asked: “Mr. Duke, do you or your niece have any photos of Bo and Luke to help us make a positive identification?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Jesse dug his wallet out of his pocket and pulled out a slightly worn, but fairly recent picture of the boys that had been made after a race. He handed the photo to the doctor with slightly trembling hands.

The doctor studied the photo and compared it to her last images of her patients. The young men looked very different, but it was them! She was sure of it…but a positive ID would need to be made.

“Why couldn’t they just check their finger prints? That would have been the simplest thing…wouldn’t it?” Daisy asked in confusion.

Enos swallowed hard and looked up from the file he was reading. “They probably don’t have any finger prints to check, Daisy. It says here that when they were found, the two men had what appeared to be fresh acid burns to the palms and fingers of both hands and the soles and toes of both feet. It was done to keep them from being identified. Looks like they had it pretty rough. According to this, most of their hair had been cut off and they looked as if they had been nearly starved.” He had spoken quietly, but the effect on Jesse and Daisy was the same as if he had screamed at them.

“What? What’s happened to my boys? What kind of monster would do this to them? Those boys didn’t...” Jesse was getting angrier by the second.

“Now wait a minute, Uncle Jesse, before you get too riled up…” Enos said, “we still need to find out if these men are really Bo and Luke.” He looked questioningly at the doctor.

She stood and cleared her throat. “Well, I will say this photo has me pretty convinced of their identity, but we still need positive identification.” as she spoke, she ushered the group into the recesses of the critical care unit and toward a glass enclosed room containing two beds. The room was darkened but the forms of two men hooked up to multiple pieces of medical equipment could be seen lying in the beds. A sign, lettered in red, hung on the door. It read “Full Isolation Precautions to be Enforced at All Times. Only Authorized Personnel Allowed Entry.” Daisy gasped when she saw the sign. She turned wide eyes to the doctor, “What’s wrong with them? Is it catching?”

“Right now, we don’t exactly know what is causing their symptoms. That’s why we have enforced the isolation precautions…in case it is contagious. We do know that whatever it is, they both are suffering with it…just in varying degrees. The dark-haired man is in guarded condition and suffering from dehydration and malnutrition. The other one, however, seems to be having the worst time.”

“Well he would now, wouldn’t he?” Jesse said, his voice gruff with emotion, as he stepped up to the glass and peered in at the rooms occupants. He could barely discern the features through the dim light, but he could see short tufts of blond hair on the tall, painfully thin, young man nearest the window. A cast was clearly noticeable on the man’s right arm. It was his baby. He knew it…and next to Bo, his eldest lay, also very thin and with unfamiliarly short hair. His boys had been found! Jesse’s heart clenched as he took in their condition. Both young men had gauze wrappings visible on their hands. A respirator and other forms of life support were connected to Bo; the hissing and beeping could be heard through the glass. Luke was thin and pale but he seemed to only be hooked to IV’s and oxygen tubing.

He placed his hand on the glass and kept his pain-filled eyes glued to the bodies in the beds as he softly told the doctor the events leading to this day.

“The one closest to the window is Bo and that one over there,” he said pointing to the other young man in the room “that’s Luke. Bo would be having the worst time because he wasn’t doing none too good before all this happened. They took him right after he got out of the operating room! He had just barely survived surgery and they took him before he could be taken to the ICU! You see, he’d been working on the barn roof with his cousin when his appendix started acting up. I guess he got to hurtin’ so bad…he fell off the roof. The nurses said his appendix had burst and the fall caused some hemorrhaging.” He roughly wiped his face and pointed to the blonde. “Broke his arm, too. They really weren’t sure whether Bo was gonna make it or not. Poor Luke over there was just trying to help his cousin. He was donating blood for him…and then he was snatched up too. Right out of the blood bank. At least that’s the last place he was seen…” Jesse couldn’t speak any more. His voice choked with emotion.

Daisy put her arm around her uncle and pulled her gaze away from the men in the room. She turned to the doctor. The young woman’s eyes were bright from unshed tears and from anger. She continued where her uncle had left off.

“So there we were. Worried to death…waiting to hear if Bo was gonna be OK and waiting for Luke to come back. You can imagine our surprise when this really confused looking doctor came to tell us they had lost Bo. I nearly fainted! We thought he meant that Bo had died…not that they had actually lost him! Then, not ten minutes later, a lady from the blood bank comes looking for Luke…saying that they never got the blood he was supposed to donate and couldn’t find him anywhere! We were so mad…so confused…so scared. Poor Uncle Jesse’s been worrying himself sick! They’ve been missing for nearly a month now. How could a person just go missing from a hospital? Especially someone real sick…like Bo? I just can’t understand! They were taken from a hospital and now…thank God they’ve been found…but now they have some weird sickness that could… I just…” Daisy couldn’t go on anymore. She burst into grateful but frustrated tears.

Enos put his arm around the emotional young woman, allowing her a few minutes to compose herself. As Jesse and Daisy glued themselves to the window, he could already tell that they had made up their minds that Bo and Luke had been found. Enos was pretty sure too, but he wanted the ID to be official, especially since he intended to push criminal charges on the kidnappers. He asked the doctor if Jesse and Daisy would be allowed to go into the room in order to clearly see and ID the young men. Dr. Kennedy assured them that appropriate safety measures would be taken and that one at a time, they would be allowed to enter.

The next morning,

a renovated medical staffing office in Kenner, Louisiana; just outside New Orleans:

Terry Wendelson was livid! The past few days had been horrific. He had returned from a terrible meeting in Mexico with his investors only to find that his lab had been virtually deserted and his test subjects had gone missing! MISSING! Naturally, the few employees that were left seemed to know nothing about what had happened, but he would deal with them later. He had scoured every major Southern newspaper he could get his hands on trying to find some mention of someone finding the young men…either dead or alive. Angrily, he pushed the Louisiana and Mississippi newspapers off his desk. He glanced at a headline on the front page of a Memphis, Tennessee paper, The Commercial Appeal: ‘Seriously Ill “John Does” Identified’. The photo showed a candid shot of a white-haired old man, a pretty young woman and a young man in a police uniform smiling and wiping tears as they exited a hospital. The article stated that two unidentified and seriously ill men (his test subjects) who had been found at a dock in Memphis, had now been positively identified as 23 year old Bo Duke and 28 year old Luke Duke, cousins that had been reported missing from Hazzard, Georgia nearly one month ago! They were “…currently in isolation at the Regional Medical Center where family and friends now kept vigil while physicians worked to determine the cause of their mystery illness.” Terry cringed when he read that advisors from the CDC in Atlanta had been called in and Memphis authorities, as well as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, were already collaborating with Hazzard officials and the Georgia State Police in launching a full kidnapping investigation! He was stunned. His subjects were not only alive but they had been identified and traced back to Georgia! He thought he had taken adequate measures to prevent easy identification…but he had also never planned on them getting out of his sight before he had finished with them either! He had to get the Duke cousins (or as he referred to them, “O negative test subjects A and B”) back before those Tennessee hicks meddled with their condition and damaged the final results beyond repair. (Of all the times for someone in his employ to have an attack of conscience! He would find out who had smuggled the two young men out of the lab…they couldn’t have done it on their own, they were too sick…and he would deal with them! What were they thinking? The young men could have died before they were found…did they think they were better off dead than with him? Probably, but it was not for anyone else to decide.) Those young men and the virus that coursed through their bodies…incubating and feeding on their blood…belonged to him and he would get them back! Why was everyone suddenly getting all moral and goody-goody on him? That was the biggest thing that bugged him about working with small town Southerners! They might be gullible but they tended to be plagued by their consciences way too much. He had long since destroyed what morality he had ever possessed. The laws of science were the only laws he acknowledged any more…and even those boundaries were often pushed.

Unbeknownst to Terry, it seemed Duke Luck followed Bo and Luke even when they weren’t aware of it and now he was a victim! He continued his angered pacing, stopping every so often to throw something. Terry was once again wallowing in self pity and giving free reign to his persecution complex. Nothing had been right since he had forced from Atlanta! His investors…those insufferable foreign maniacs…had been pressuring him for months to complete the blood type experiments. Every time he started on a new type they went through the same discussions. (They would never understand. It had been a very time consuming and very expensive endeavor to create a hybrid virus that changed symptoms depending on the victims blood type…making it virtually impossible to identify or treat. It could also be determined whether the virus stayed confined to its host, went into remission, relapsed or whether it became violently contagious…just by the administration of certain proteins at key times. Whoever controlled his little creation had the power of a god…that is if everything went according to plan and it was allowed to come to fruition. His financiers were pleased with the concept and already had plans to include it in various military or para-military missions…making him a very wealthy man; if they didn’t kill him in a fit of temper first!) He explained, over and over again, to the idiots that you just didn’t find appropriate subjects on the street and this last blood type, O negative, wasn’t exactly common. His last explanation had been met with a string of Eastern European and Arabic curses and he had been left with a split lip and a multitude of threats. Now, just when he thought everything was going his way, disaster hits! Terry had originally called his newest test subjects his “lucky charms”, thinking that his luck at having two O negative young men dropped into his lap would transfer over to the rest of his endeavors. But now, everything seemed to been going against him and he found himself wondering what type of lives his subjects had led to bring him such misfortune! Thank the stars that he had bought a medical staffing franchise to use for cover or else he would’ve been out on the street…literally. The lab site and his living headquarters had been moved to this humid, mosquito infested part of the country because some imbecle tattled after being questioned heavily after the young men were found to be missing. Apparently it caused quite a stir when the one young man never arrived in ICU and his cousin never made it out of the lab waiting room! Terry laughed at his own brilliance for concocting such an escape but then quickly sobered. Ever since the two Dukes had been in his possession, all hell had broken loose! The new lab had nearly been raided for completely unrelated reasons. The staffing agency cover was constantly at risk of being blown. Constant threats from legal or civil agencies kept him moving and nervous…not to mention all the drama with his financiers! He constantly dealt with idiotic employees and his test subjects had nearly been killed during the last move due to incompetence! (That would have been devastating! Especially this close to the end of the project and especially if A had been lost! His prized incubator, Subject A, had the most perfect blood and became an easy host for the virus; allowing it to quickly adapt and grow stronger. In just a few days, the virus had mutated to its final form and was becoming more than Terry had ever imagined. A’s blood seemed to completely nourish the virus while giving the host just enough to hang on…exactly what the crazed researcher dreamed of in a test subject! The problem was that the boy had been near death when found and the lab techs constantly had to make sure that he didn’t die from his earlier problems or that they didn’t kill him before Terry was ready. Subject A, like all previous subjects, would be sacrificed for dissection and further benefit to science but only after the virus had run full course. The other young man, however, his “bonus” subject as it were, was entirely too strong for his own good. Subject B had resisted the virus longer than any other and kept trying to wake from the drug induced coma. The young man was either being overdosed with sedative and having to be revived or becoming combative when not given enough! He didn’t really know what he was going to do with B, but once infected, the young man could never be free.)

His brilliant plans...his brilliant research…all were in jeopardy of being destroyed. The virus was nearly mature and it at its strongest point yet. As long as it hadn’t been tampered with too much, he might still be able to harvest enough of the youngest test subject’s blood to finish the research and bring B back to the lab for further study.

A proper dissection of A would now be out of the question, but…maybe he would at least be able to complete an abbreviated post-mortem exam. The stronger, healthier subject would be perfect to keep as a host until a synthetic incubation medium could be devised, and then he would be allowed to expire and serve as the O negative dissection.

Knowing that he would have trouble controlling B if the young man regained full consciousness, Terry slipped a small pistol out of his desk and into a weathered, black medical bag. He went about the room and grabbed various hypodermic needles, drugs, vials and scalpels; shoving them into the bag alongside the gun. He was nervous and angry. He couldn’t believe he was actually going to retrieve his samples in an environment outside the controlled confines of his lab! The purity of the samples would be compromised…but, it couldn’t be helped. Normally he would never have dirtied his hands this way but his investors were adamant that they needed some results ASAP and he couldn’t risk losing any of his hard work to the clumsy hands of his employees! He hoped what little bit of luck he had held out. Damn it! Why did those Memphis doctors call in the CDC? The whole thing was unraveling under his nose. It just wouldn’t do for any of his old colleagues from the CDC to find comparisons between the young men’s illness and the work of the late Thaddeus Milton. No, he couldn’t leave anything to chance. Now that the CDC and multiple state law enforcement officials were involved, he had to be very careful and leave no loose ends. Terry grabbed his jacket and strode out of the office with the medical bag and a road atlas in his hands. He would go to Memphis and handle this part of the project himself.

Back in Memphis:

Enos waved good bye to the Dukes as he backed out into the busy morning traffic of Memphis. Now that Bo and Luke had been found, his real work began. He had stayed an extra day to see Jesse and Daisy settled into a small hospitality house provided by the hospital and local churches for the out of town family members of critically ill patients. It was cozy and a few miles from the bustle of the hospital. Enos had felt bad about leaving them in Memphis without a vehicle, but the hospital provided a shuttle service and he really had to get back to Hazzard to start processing the new information on the case. Jesse had eased his worries by telling him to find the “sorry so and so’s who had taken his boys and show them a little country justice”. Daisy had hugged and kissed him, begging him to be careful and telling him that she had faith that he would solve the case. Enos still had big grin on his face as he turned into the parking garage of The Med. He wanted to tell the hospital staff to keep him informed on any new details, but he also just wanted to see his friends again. The way things had been going, he didn’t really know if the Duke family would ever make it back to Hazzard the same.

The tall, very polite deputy had become a favorite of several of the nurses and if she was truly honest, of Dr. Kennedy’s as well. She and the morning shift nurses said their good byes and provided the young man with more than enough food to get him back to Georgia. After watching Enos blush a very bright shade of red from all the attention and stammer his thanks, the doctor assured him that she and her staff would take good care of not only Bo and Luke, but their cousin and uncle as well. Enos smiled and waved to the nurses as they dispersed. He entered the isolation area and quickly donned the protective garb that would allow him to go into the room to see his friends. He felt weird wearing the hooded gown over his clothes and covers over his shoes. The mask and the gloves, however, were the worst. The mask felt claustrophobic and the gloves kept him from actually feeling Bo or Luke when he touched them. It almost felt like touching a mannequin…or a corpse. Enos shuddered at the morbid thought and entered the hospital room. He jumped when the door closed and air hissed around it. He kept forgetting that the room was pressure controlled to keep germs from crossing from one room to the other! The deputy slowly crossed the open floor and stood between the two beds. He gazed at his friends that he had known since childhood; his mind flooding with memories. He was a few months younger than Luke and had grown up playing with both the Duke boys. He laughed softly as a random image of helping Luke and Cooter teach an eleven year old Bo how to drive came into his mind!

“Now I should be takin’ lessons from you, buddy,” he mumbled slightly as he looked at his younger friend.

The deputy tried to be silent, but he choked out a sob as realized how close he had come to losing two of his best friends. He went to Bo’s bedside; the young man was barely recognizable. The short hair and darker beard seemed to make the thinness of his face more noticeable…besides the fact that part of his face was obscured by a large breathing tube. Despite all odds, Bo was hanging on! He guessed that Duke stubbornness was kickin’ in. Enos spoke a few words to his friend and then gently touched one of Bo’s bandaged hands; saying a quick prayer for his recovery. Sniffing back tears, he crossed over to Luke’s bedside. Luke was still unconscious but had really started looking better in the last day or so. The short, dark curls reminded Enos of Luke’s post-Marine days and didn’t really seem as foreign as Bo’s cropped look but the dark beard stubble was so out of place on the normally clean-shaven man. His complexion was not as pale and he had been taken off supplemental oxygen. Enos pulled a chair over to sit beside Luke. He wanted to explain why he was leaving…even though he knew that neither Luke nor Bo probably knew he was there to begin with…

Luke was lying motionless, just as he had been every time Enos had seen him over the past couple of days. Settling in to talk to his unresponsive friend, Enos just began his normal, rambling way of speaking. He was looking at his shoes…at the wall…anywhere except at Bo or Luke. He was afraid he would start crying and not say what he had planned to say.

“Luke…I’m real sorry that you and Bo got into this mess. We’ve really missed ya. Hazzard’s just not the same without you fellas. Daisy and Jesse are real glad to find ya. Poor old Uncle Jesse’s just not been himself lately and Daisy…well, I’ve been real concerned about her. You see…she’s been worrying about you and Bo and about Uncle Jesse, too, and then trying to work at the Boar’s Nest. Mr. Hogg told her she could take off if she needed to, but I guess she still wanted things to be a little bit normal. Me and Cooter have been keeping up with things on the farm so you don’t have to worry about that. Cooter and L.B and B.B are taking care of things while Jesse and Daisy are up here with ya’ll…and your cousin Jeb said he’d come help out, too. The whole town’s been worried, Luke. Sherriff Rosco has been looking for every lead and he’s turned the whole investigation over to me! Can ya believe it? Guess he thinks that little spell in California did me some good.” Enos gave his typical laugh and wiped away a few tears that had escaped despite all his best efforts. He cleared his throat and continued his one-sided conversation. “I’ve been talking with the TBI and the Georgia State Police and we’re gonna pin kidnapping charges on the mangy dogs who did this to ya’ll! I promise ya, Luke…they ain’t gonna get away with it. We’ll find ‘em and throw the book at ‘em. You’ve got my word on it, buddy.” Enos absently patted his friend’s bandaged hand and stared at the floor as his emotions tried to get the best of him.

“Thanks, Enos, …your word’s good as gold,” a very weak, raspy voice replied.

The deputy jumped in shock and fell to the floor as his chair turned over.

“Possum on a gumbush! Luke! Are ya really awake or am I just hearin’ things?” Enos’ words tumbled over each other as he righted his chair and focused on the face of his friend.

Luke slowly opened his eyes and immediately shut them as even the dim lighting hurt his eyes. He groaned and slowly tried to move his arms and legs…just to see if everything worked. He had been coming in and out of consciousness for the last few hours but was just now alert enough to let someone know. From the scents and sounds, he figured he was in a hospital…but where?...and why? He couldn’t remember what had happened to cause him to feel like this. He felt like his head and mouth were full of cotton. His chest hurt and he felt like he was getting over a really, really bad case of the flu. He barely opened his eyes and tried to focus them on the blurry figure in front of him. The figure in front of him almost looked like a space man or something; but he knew that had to be Enos Strait under the surgical mask and that other stuff…he’d know that voice anywhere. “Yeah…I think I’m awake. Enos? What the hell happened? Ohhh,” he groaned again as he tried to move. “What’s wrong with me? I feel like I got run over by a truck.” Luke’s voice was painfully hoarse and his muscles were extremely sore and weak from lack of use. When his eyes finally focused and he was clearly able to see Enos garbed in the isolation suit, he gave the deputy a very confused look.

“Luke! Man…it’s so good to see ya awake!” Enos gave a joyful laugh, gently shook his friend’s hand over the gauze and in his excitement, leaned over to give him a quick, awkward hug. “Guess I look a little funny, huh?” Luke tried to smile and nodded as he tried to take in his surroundings. Enos scratched as his head through the protective covering. “Well, uh, I don’t really know where to start. It’s real strange…I can tell ya that. First of all…you’re in Memphis, but this sure ain’t Graceland!” Enos smiled at Luke’s shocked expression. He braced himself to tell his friend what he already knew; knowing it would only get worse. “We don’t really know how or why or who done it, but you and Bo were kidnapped from Tri-County the day Bo fell off the roof. You two were missing for about a month and now both of you’ve got some kind of weird virus or something. Somehow you two ended up on a barge that left New Orleans and ya’ll were found when it docked here in Memphis. As soon as they found you, they brought you here. They call this place “The Med”. Luke…I swear this hospital’s bigger than four Tri-County General’s put together! Your doctor, Dr. Kennedy…she’s awful nice…and some big-wig doctors she called in from the CDC in Atlanta…well, they think ya’ll were being experimented on or something. They don’t really know what it is so that’s why any body coming in the room has to wear this get-up. Uncle Jesse and Daisy are here, too. They’re restin’ right now. It’s been pretty rough on them. I brought them up here as soon as we got word that there were two unidentified fellas fittin’ ya’ll’s descriptions here in Memphis. We’ve been here a couple of days but I need to be headin’ back to work on the investigation. I was just coming by to tell you that and then you woke up!” Enos grinned widely behind his mask as he finished the abbreviated version of the last month’s events.

Luke’s already wide eyes got even wider and his skin paled. Enos’ smile slipped. He watched as his friend swallowed hard and tried to take in the information. “…Memphis!? …a month? …experiments!? …what kind of damned experiments?!?” The young man tried to reach for Enos’ arm and only then noticed the bandages on his hands. He gave the deputy another puzzled look. He tried to grasp what all could have and did happen to him. He had been taken away from his family, lost a month of his life and who knows what had been done to him! Luke’s muddied thoughts were suddenly assaulted with his last clear memories: his cousin crying out in pain and then falling… Bo’s pale and bleeding body being placed in the back of an ambulance… Jesse’s and Daisy’s worried faces… waiting at the hospital…Bo’s surgery… the complications… donating blood for his cousin. “Oh my God…Bo! Enos…where’s Bo? Is he OK?” Luke asked his concern doubling as he thought of his cousin.

Enos’ tried to answer but his voice choked up. He closed his eyes and gestured, moving to the side so Luke could see the bed across the room. Luke turned his head and saw a tall figure lying in the bed. Tubes of all sorts were going into and out of the man’s body. He noticed for the first time the whooshing and beeping of life-support machinery. The raggedly shorn blond curls…the broken arm…

His breath caught in his chest as he realized he was looking at his baby cousin! “What’s…? Bo…?” Luke felt a restraining hand on his arm. He hadn’t even realized that he had tried to get up.

Enos grabbed hold of Luke, trying to keep the weakened young man from falling off the bed as he unconsciously tried to get to Bo.

“Luke, now calm down. You’re gonna hurt yourself, buddy. You see…well, uh…Bo…well, he’s in a pretty bad way. You know he wasn’t doing too well after that appendicitis and surgery…?”

Luke nodded, unable to tear his eyes from his cousin.

“Well, he’s still having some trouble from all that I guess and this virus the two of ya have just ain’t helpin’ matters any. He’s on full life support and the doctor’s just don’t know if he’ll make it.” Enos’ voice was nearly a whisper as he finished. He turned tear filled eyes to his friend, “I’m sorry Luke. We tried to find ya’ll sooner…we really did…and help got to ya as soon as you were found. We’re gonna get who did this! I promise. This is a real good hospital and the doctors are doing all they can...,” the deputy stammered and rambled; trying to give Luke some explanation…some bit of comfort.

Luke nodded. He tightly grasped the hand his friend offered, ignoring the pain that seared his own hand, and bit his lip as his eyes filled with tears. He tried to stifle a ragged sob. “Who on earth would want to do something like this to us?” Luke’s face twisted in grief and rage. “Enos, if Bo…I swear…if he dies…” Luke broke down in heart-rending sobs. His weakened condition and the intensity of the news left him unable to hide his feelings as he normally did. Enos tried his best to calm his friend but was unsuccessful. Luke’s chest heaved as he began to hyperventilate due to his distress…something Enos hadn’t seen the young man do since Martha Duke had died.

A loud ringing sound was the first alert the nursing staff had to Luke’s awakening. The sound, caused by Luke’s vital sign monitors, quickly brought two nurses and Dr. Kennedy to the windows of the Isolation room. Enos, afraid to leave Luke’s side to go to the intercom located on the other side of the room, related the events of the last few minutes to the medical staff by shouting over the noise of the monitor and Luke’s loud breathing. Realizing that Luke was just hyperventilating, the doctor instructed Enos to stay calm and told him to grab one of the plastic bags used to store unused oxygen tubing and located near Luke’s bed, and try to get him to breathe into it while she donned her own isolation suit before entering the room. By the time the doctor had donned her protective garb and entered the room, Luke had calmed enough that his vital signs were returning to normal; silencing the alarms.

“Mr. Duke, it’s good to see you awake. I’m Dr. Janet Kennedy and my staff and I have been taking care of you and your cousin since your arrival. If you don’t mind, I need to give you a quick exam. Deputy, you can stay if you’d like and if it’s ok with Mr. Duke.”

Luke nodded and asked his friend to stay. Enos sidled over to Bo’s side of the room while the doctor did her work.

“Well, Mr. Duke…”

“Please, doctor…call me Luke. Mr. Duke is my uncle. Besides…you and the nurses have probably seen me naked so there’s no need to be all formal…even if you do get all dressed up to see me.” Although his speech was a little slower than normal and his voice weak, Luke’s trademark charm was coming through. He favored her with a soft smile and a slight twinkle in his eye; trying his best to disguise his fear with humor.

“OK, Luke.” She laughed and helped adjust the pillows so her patient was more comfortable. “Amazingly, other than some slight respiratory difficulty and a few weeks worth of lost memory…you seem to be doing fine. The burns on your hands and feet are healing nicely but will probably cause you some pain for a while. I’m afraid we will still need to keep you isolated, though. Until we find out exactly what we’re dealing with, we won’t know if your illness has run its course or is just in remission. If you’d like, we can move you to a room of your own…”

“No! Please don’t. I’d like to stay with Bo…that is if it won’t bother ya’ll too much. We’ve shared a room together since we were kids and Bo really hates hospitals. He’d be scared to death if he woke up in here by himself. Just send me in a few books or magazines and a radio and I’ll be fine.”

Enos…seeing the doctor’s skeptical look…came up to her side and decided to see if he could help Luke’s argument.

“Doctor, ma’am…if they have to both be quarantined…I think it would be better all the way around for both of them to be together. I seriously doubt he’d stay in another room if he really wanted to be with Bo. Believe me…it’s kinda hard to keep Luke penned up somewhere if he really don’t wanna be there! I mean…not that he’d cause you any trouble or nothing…” Enos stammered after he realized his comment might be misconstrued.

Luke gave him a funny look but ended up smiling at the deputy’s comments; knowing that his friend was referring to many a good natured prank or jail-break he and his cousin had pulled.

Dr. Kennedy smiled. She had already deduced from the boys’ uncle, cousin and friend that her patients were extremely close and protective of each other…more like brothers than cousins.

“Well, for now I don’t see any reason why you can’t stay with Bo. I assume Deputy Strait has already told you about Bo’s condition…”

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