BoJamesDuke

Bo jerked awake as Luke tapped his cheeks, the feeling in his body very much back. He threw himself up into a sitting position, clawing at his throat, sobbing as he found himself trying to gasp for air but finding the breathing tube blocking his ability to.

We're gonna get your family boy. One by one we're gonna get them....we'll start with your Uncle...then that pretty little cousin of yours before hitting the dark one. We're gonna make your life a misery Duke. "No please....please leave them.... "No way, we told you this was gonna happen. You squealed on us, now your family's gonna pay." Bo couldn't move as the gun was drawn and pointed at his family members that were sat, tied against the wall. He watched as each person's eyes widened in fright and their breating's quickened. Bo wanted nothing more than to run forward as the gun cocked in front of Luke. He screamed out as the gun shot rang out and his best friend, his older brother slumped against the wall, blood dripping from the wound on his chest. Bo tossed and turned as his nightmare took hold, his screams and mumbles making him choke on the breathing tube.

Daisy laughed at her friend's comments about tieing Luke up. She couldn't say she hadn't thought of doing that herself and practically force the sleeping pills down his throat again, knowing that now Luke was wise to the trick he wouldn't fall for it twice....well maybe if he was really exhausted but she didn't want it to get that far. "Luke didn't really take much notice to the fact he'd been drugged, it surprised me. The first thing he asked about when he woke back up was if Bo was alright and then he asked us if we was in cohoots with the Doctor to put him to sleep. As soon as we changed the subject back to Bo though he dropped it and said no more." She giggled slightly, finding it odd to here orders to sleep from her best friend, but she complied, saying a quick thankyou and goodbye before returning to Uncle Jesser, informing him of B.L's plans to visit tomorrow and saying a quick prayer for Bo with him before curling back up next to him in the seat and drifitng off into sleep.

DAisy smiled at her friend's willingness to jump to the family's wishes if they needed it. "No its alright B.L, There wouldn't be much point. me and Uncle Jesse are beat so we're probably just gonna get some shut eye, and Luke's been given full visitng privaliges. I'm real worried about him too....he ain't slept willingly since we brought Bo in, we had to get the doctors to drug him in the end."

Daisy laughed despite herself as B.L answered the phone in a rush. "Hey to you too B.L, sorry I left this so late, its just we's all been so worried..." She held back the quiver that was threatining to show in her voice. "Bo's awake but he's still in real bad shape. He's got a bad chest infection and the flu which doesn't help none. His breathin's so bad that they's got him on a ventilator...the breathing tube hurts him to bad B.L but they cant take it out..."

Daisy sighed and pulled herself gently from his embrace. "No...I better ring her or she wont be able to sleep with worry. I'll be right back." Daisy sneaked a look into Bo's room as she passed, sighing as she saw Luke was still not asleep. She slipped a few coins into the payphone and dialled B.L's number, hoping that she wasn't going to be too mad for her leaving the update this late.

Daisy sighed and snuggled into Jesse, wrapping her arms around him and letting herself start to succumb to sleep. "Uncle Jesse, we need to ring B.L and let her know how Bo's doin'..."

As Luke settled his head next to Bo's on the edge of the pillow, Bo finally succumbed to the gentle soothing songs that Luke was singing and the gentle touch that held so much love and promises of protection. He sank slowly into sleep, nuzzling slightly more into his older cousin's hand. Daisy watched with Uncle Jesse as her two cousin's lay side by side, each comforting the other without any words. She loved those two boys, she really did, and never ceased to be amazed at how close they were. She just hoped that whatever had got Bo so seriously ill could be discovered soon so the relationship could go back to how it once was.

Bo listened as Luke recalled some old memories, gradually slipping into sleep as he did. He felt safe knowing that Luke was beside him and holding his hand. While he could feel the loving solid grip, he couldn't respond to it, but the look on Luke's face told him that it didn't matter one single bit. He jerked himself awake as his eyes slipped closed, willing himself to stay awake until Luke fell asleep, wanting to know that Luke wasn't going to get in the same state as he was at that moment by neglecting his own health through worry over him. No matter how much Luke was to tell him to go to sleep, he refused to until his cousin slept soundly beside him.

Bo nodded a little, trying to appear as happy as Luke was, but he failed miserably. He was glad he was being moved to a private room because it was a sign that he was getting better even if right now it didn't feel like it. But the fact that he still needed to be hooked up to a breathing machine, that he was so weak he couldn't do the simplist things for himself hit him hard and he hated it. The pain from the breathing tube, when he wasn't put on the sedative, was unbareable, but so was seeing Luke and the rest of his family so upset. In keeping his family away from danger, trying to spare them any physical pain, he had caused more of the worst kind. He had hurt them emotionally by getting so badly ill and he hated himself for it.

Bo smiled a little as Uncle Jesse pulled away from pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead, and turned his head slightly to lean against Daisy's as she wrapped her arms gently around his shoulders. "We'll be back to see ya tomorrow. See if ya can get Luke to sleep without us havin' to drug him tonight for me." Bo smiles again and blinked once at her, watching her and Uncle Jesse leave the room with a silent sigh, still wishing he could tell them or show them how much he loved them and how sorry he was for putting them through all this, even though he knows they already know

Daisy smiles and poked Luke sharply in his side, making him yelp quietly and jump, grinning and putting her hands on her hips. "You can quit tellin' me what to do Lukas Kevin Duke! You's ain't that much older than me and you know I can beat you up just as good as any guy can so you better just watch how you treat me Mister!" Bo couldn't help but smile slightly and roll his eyes, looking over to Uncle Jesse in a 'Tell them how stupid they sound' kind of way

At that moment, Bo wanted nothing more than to sit up and wrap his arms around Luke and never let him go. Luke always seemed to understand exactly what he wanted and more often than not could get it done for him in an instant. He wanted to show some sort of thanks to his family, wanted desperatly to show them that he was comfoted by having them here and to reassure them that he was feeling alright..even though that would have been an outright lie anyway. But the sedative the nurse had given him had knocked out his muscles, not allowing for any movement. Daisy noticed the helpless almost frustrated look that was growing on Bo's face and gently moved to stand beside Luke, nudging Luke slightly as she took up Bo's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "You'll be right as rain in no time sugar, you'll see.* She smiled gently, fighting back the urge to grab the tube still left in his throat and removing it, seeing him wince slightly everytime he swallowed.

As soon as Bo started to choke, he saw Luke scramble over instantly, gripping his hand and smoothing his hair. He tried to listen as Luke explained what was happening, but the blood pounding through his ears pracically deafened him. But gradually Luke's soothing voice broke through and he calmed a little, still choking on the tube but not as badly as he had been. He gripped Luke's hand tighter as the Doctor and the Nurse came in and they explained what Luke just had. At the doctor's explanation, he blinked once and his choking stopped as the sedative slipped into his system and relaxed his muscles. But he instantlly became panicked again as Luke's hand slipped away and he looked over to see Luke walking out the door with Jesse and Daisy. He made a weak noise of protest that aggrivated his throat, but he desperatly wanted Luke with him, he didnt want to be left alone like this. He made the noise again, crying slightly as it hurt his throat more.

Daisy was about ready to shriek with joy as Luke came out and told them that Bo was awake and was one of the first one's in the room just to make sure that Luke wasn't playing any kind of games. But sure enough there he was, blinking up at the ceiling, looking completly and utterly bewildered and scared, but he was there none the less. She flung her arms excitedly round Luke's neck and hugged him tightly Bo didn't have a clue where he was, disorientated and scared at the tubes and wires he could now see protruding from his own body....and then he got the feeling back in his throat and he choked as his body recognised something painful lodged in there.

Bo heard Luke's plea, knowing that just one squeeze wouldn't be enough to satisfy Luke. So he didn't squeeze back at all, and he felt Luke sigh and say something about not getting his hopes up. But Bo didn't hear it, the feeling in his body was starting to return more and more rapidly and he decided to go one better. Slowly...he gently opened his baby blue eyes, squinting hard against an oddly bright white light that obscured his vision.

In the darkness that Bo was happy to be in, he suddenly heard voices talking to him. At first they were blurred and made no sense as he only got small snatches of words and sentences, but by the time the third person started, he could hear perfectly clearly and he recognised the voice as Luke's. He listened as Luke started talking to him normally, laughing as he told Bo about Jesse and Daisy being in cohoots with the doctors to get him to sleep...but suddenly he stopped mid sentence and Bo heard him choke back a sob and start pleading with him to wake up. If there was one thing Bo hated most, it was when Luke cried. Luke was never one to show his emotions in front of other people, especially his family, so Bo knew for Luke to be crying now, whatever was getting at him had to be bad. That was when he realised that he couldn't actually feel any part of his body, let alone open his eyes and tell Luke he was fine and ask him why he was crying. He started to get frustrated, desperatly trying to search out something to give Luke a signal. Gradually, he felt the feelings in his left hand come back, and he could feel Luke's hand wrapped firmly around it. With all the strength he could muster, he gently squeezed Luke's hand.

Daisy nodded, kissing him on the cheek gently and smiling up at him. "I told ya nothin' would happen while you slept." Without waiting for his reply, she stepped gingerly into Bo's room, trying her best to ignore the new machines that had been put in place and the new drips that had been inserted into the other ones. She was still a little phased and upset by the fact that Bo needed all these things just to live, and she hated how an unganly length of tubing protruded from his mouth and connected to a machine to help, or make, him breathe. But she carried on, and took a seat gently beside his bed, lifiting his limp, lifeless hand from the bedsheets a little and clasping it in hers, reaching over to stroke some of his blonde hair away from his face, noticing how much cooler his skin felt. "Hey sugar, it's DAisy again. Listen, I need you back with us real soon hunny cause I can't get Luke to do anythin'. He's dead worried about ya, we had to get the doctor to drug him so he'd sleep! He needs you just as much as you need him hun....when he comes in, if you ain't gonna wake up for me or Uncle Jesse, would you please make an effort to come round for him. You don't know how happy it'll make him." But Bo remained lifeless in the bed, showing no signs that he had heard her. Daisy wiped away a small tear, not being able to stand the sight of him like this any longer than the last time she had come in. She stood up and pressed a kiss gently to his forehead before slipping her hand away and heading back outside, shaking her head and wiping away more tears, and fell into her uncle's already waiting open arms.

Daisy smiled as the doctor delievered the news, sighing, knowing not to get her hopes up but still pleased it seems like Bo is making an improvement. As Luke finally wakes and joins them, she chuckles slightly as she hears the first thing that comes out of his mouth. She expected him to be at least a little angry at the doctor's sneaky actions, but it seems like he ad forgotton what had happened. She handed him a cup of water as Jesse filled him in on the details before wrapping an arm around his waist and hugging him.

Daisy slowly opened her eyes as the cramp in her curled up legs jolted her from her sleep. She sat up, stretching her arms to see Luke still happily asleep and Uncle Jesse now asleep in his chair. She smiled at them both before standing up and stretching her long legs. She looked at the clock and found that there was only a half hour left until visitng times started again. She thought about waking Luke, but decided that the drugs would probably soon wear off on their own and Luke would wake by himself. She wasn't even sure if she could get though to him anyway. She walked over to the water cooler just opposite the chairs in the waiting room and got herself a drink before leaning against the wall, slowly sipping it.

Bo lay as still and as quiet as he had been for the past few hours as the nurses and doctor's checked him over, giving him more and more medication as things worsened and improved. He was happy here in darkness where nothing hurt him, where he wasn't worried about people overhearing him talk and where it was a guarenteed fact that not one of his family memebers could be harmed because he couldn't talk.

Slowly, Daisy fell asleep listening to the sound of her Uncle's gentle breathing and the veiwing the image of her oldest cousin sleeping worry free. She felt safe now, and she felt like there was nothing that this family couldn't do. If they stuck together and believed, they could pull Bo through this she just knew it.

Daisy looks up from Luke as the docter enters and smiles releived when she hears about some improvement. She gently leans over Luke, smoothing the hair away from his eyes and whispering "Ya see, now that he senses you's sleepin' he's gettin' better." Eventually, she tore herself away from her sleeping older cousin and curled up next to her Uncle, pulling his arm around her and drifitng gently off to sleep after whispering. "Wake me up if they come back in again."

Daisy smiles as she hears Luke's mumble, laying his neck gently against the back of the chair as he fell deeper and deeper into sleep, stroking the hair away from his eyes soothingly, still humming to him as he finally closes his eyes, succumbing to everything. She pressed a kiss gently to his forehead as the song finsihed and nodded at Uncle Jesse's comment, still gazing at her protective older cousin lovingly.

Daisy smiles as she sees the doctor wink at her as he leaves. She watches amused as Luke takes them without question and sinks back into his seat. She gently stroked the back of his neck again, humming gently an old lullaby that she remembers Aunt Lavinia singing to them when they were younger.