His Prison, Her Prison pt. 2

[BoJamesDuke]

Luke watched helplessly as Bo writhed, clutching Bo's hand tightly still battling with himself. This was getting harder and more frustrating to hear Bo's cries of unbearable pain and tortured mind.

The Doc's were all rushing around yelling at each other, trying to give Bo more pain medication and anesthiesia to stpo the croes and get moving with what needed to happen.

Before Bo could slip under though, Luke burst out, mainly because of panic and also because he was determined to say it.

"Bo....be...'kay...Bo...m'...here...Bo..."

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

That gained a couple of glances. Number one from Doc Walker, who hadn't thought Luke would be capable of something like that for many months. Clearly his family was also shocked. Both Daisy and Jesse Duke had shocked expressions on their faces. Bo was already passed out and for a moment everything froze.

Michaels was the one who snapped them out of the shock, "Common! He have to get Bo to the OR."

Walker snapped out of it before Daisy or Uncle Jesse did and immediatly went back into action.

It took a moment or so longer but ghosts of smiles etched across both Daisy and Uncle Jesse's faces. They couldn't follow Bo into the OR anyway and they stared at Luke for a moment. Just glad he could speak, if only barely comprehensible.

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Luke watched as Bo was wheeled away, praying in his head for his younger cousin, focused only on him and his welfare, not at all realising what he had done, what he had achieved.

When everyone had looked at him and silence had fallen, he had remained looking at Bo, squeezing the limp, cuffed up hand like Bo's life depended on it. If he could he would have kept that hold all the way through the operation but as it was he wasn't allowed to follow

It wasn't until things really quietened down that he finally saw Jesse and Daisy looking at him funny. With a questioning frown he took up his pen and paper and scribbled down

What?

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Their expressions turned to wonder, like something he'd just done was amazing and they were amazed he wasn't as excited about it. Motioning frantically to the simple word 'what' on his notebook again.

"Luke..." Daisy said warmly, "You just spoke...or more sylables than you could manage before."

Luke was stunned. Wow...he didn't even remember doing it. All he could recall was a rush of frustration and the frantic desire to get the words across to his cousin.

Then his sudden rush of excitement disapated as he glanced at the set of double doors the two doctors and a nurse had just taken Bo though. And it occored to him that it didn't matter. Not in the least.

All that mattered was whether or not Bo would get better.

VVVVV

"Doctors..." The surgeon said, muffled by his mask slightly.

"What?" Michaels asked. He and Walker had been allowed into the OR to monitor their patient's condition.

He leaned over to look at the insition. Then pain washed over Michaels, the emotional kind that doctors feel when they've made a terrible, terrible mistake, "How could I have missed that..."

"My god," Walker said, almost subconciously, "There's so much blood..."

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Bo breathed softly underneath the mask that was keeping sedation flowing through his bloddstream, not aware of anything that was happening.

^^^^^

Luke continued to watch the doors and was determined to as long as Bo was in there. He would not be moved, when anyone tried he determindly slammed the brakes on his wheelchair and any threats to carry him to his room earned the person making the threat a cold glare....anyone seeing it would know there would be hell to pay as soon as he was better.

He didn't need sleep, he'd had 4 years of it, 4 years of having to give his baby cousin over to uncaring hands and the cold life he had tried so hard to protect his baby cousin from. he didnt care if Bo didnt know he was there, he wasnt about to move, he wanted to be here when Bo came back out.

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

"How can so much strike one boy?" Walker asked as they loomed behind the sergeon.

"...I don't know..."

"Doctors miss things like that all the time..." She replied in an attenpt to comfort him. Naturally he wouldn't have any of it.

"We aren't supposed to. People die when we do."

"When they start replacing us with droids let me know."

He closed his eyes, she couldn't see but under the mask she'd managed to make him smile. He then began to walk out of the OR,"Someone should tell them of his condition..."

"No..." Walker said, "Not until we know for sure...As Luke's doctor I can't let you put unnessesary stress on him."

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

All the Dukes remained waiting in Bo's room as the nurse's cleared up the blood spilt on the floor. Luke felt sick just watching them clearing away his baby cousin's blood, knowing that it belonged to him and had come flowing so freely from his mouth...

This whole thing scared him witless and he got the feeling that no one was going to tell him what was happening in the condition he was in. He didnt care though, if they didnt tell him they would have to tell Uncle Jesse and Jesse would then tell Luke. That was how it worked, Jesse would tell him come hell or high water because Jesse knew that despite him not being able to do much, he could still cause enough of a rukus.

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Daisy sat alone in the hallways. She'd left behind the confines of the hospital room to sit by herself. Right then, she didn't feel like she needed anyone. Not a hand on her shoulder, or another soothing word about how it wasn't her fault. She had to face this herself. It was her crime, and she deserved to atone for it.

It was her fault. Not a force on heaven or earth could change that. Unless there was someone out there who saw fit to turn back time.

She waited. Unfortunately, no catastrophic change in the time/space continuim erased her sin. The only thing that happened was a janitor rolling his bucket down the halls and entering the room she'd left behind just moments ago. Soon the smell of disinfectant would cover up the scent of blood. Bo's was probably not the first blood spilled on this Hospital's floors. Daisy was sure they had covering up the remnants of the life substance tuned to a fine art. Well, they had to. If you don't cover up the smell of death, would anyone ever come to the hospital?

VVVVV

Right then Daisy was so lost in her own morbid thoughts. Her guilt dragging her farther with every ailment that struck her cousin...her brother. And she let it. There was no court in the world that would legally find her guilty of what she did. She would never know what it was like to waste years of your life in prison, abandoned by family and friend alike.

Her mental anguish would have to do for penance...

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Luke tapped his fingers nervously on the arms of the wheelchair he was confined to, not about to be taken back to his room by any means. He was going to be here when the brought Bo back and he was going to find out what was happening with his little cousin come hell of high water.

This wasn't a game anymore, this was his baby brother fighting between life and death and there wasn't a soul of physical imparement that was going to stop him supporting Bo as he always had done.

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Luke watched Daisy leave. She barely managed to get behind the wall before more tears fell from her eyes.

For the first time, it hit him that she might be going through even more than he was. The older Duke cousin wasn't entirely sure what had transpired in his absense. But from the way she held herself, the way her blue eyes were lost in themselves, he'd seen that look many times in his life...sometimes wearing it himself.

A prison of guilt...she blames herself for what's happening to Bo and she's trapped in it... Luke thought.

He reached out and wrote out his question on the notepad. He didn't need to be left in the dark. Although Luke loved Bo like a brother, there wasn't anything he could do now. And if Bo was a brother, then Daisy was a sister, and he had just as much of an obligation to help.

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Daisy looked up as Luke wheeled himself out of Bo's room and came out to her. She wanted nothing more than to run away from him at that moment, to run away from everybody and be left in solitude where she belonged, to be left to think about what she'd done to her little brother and pay for the crimes she not only committed against him but also against her who family.

She didn't run though, Luke was still her older brother and she couldn't bare to cause any of them anymore pain. If she ran Luke couldn't follow but he would sure as hell try and she didn't think she could handle punishing herself for that crime too.

She reached out a shaky hand as Luke showed her the pad of paper with the written question on it, not knowing how to respond to the very simple question he wanted the answer to.

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

"Luke..." She said. "Bo was thrown into prison after he hit you...You were dead to the world in all but the beat of your heart...we didn't know what to do, we'd never handled a betrayal like this before. And at the trial...what with all the witness testimonies...we just walked out. Turned our backs on him." Luke stared at her, his eyes a perfect mask to his emotions as he listened to her. She kept going, "In all those four years he was in that prison I didn't go to see him once...not me, not Uncle Jesse...nobody. I guess they just figured if we believed he was guilty he had to be..."

Luke didn't do anything for a long minute, until finally Daisy could hear the scraping of a pen against paper. She looked down:

"All because of a few witnesses?"

"Luke they were real..." She trailed off as a sudden thought hit her, "...convincing."

She followed the trail the thought led her to. Astonishment that she hadn't seen before quickly turned to anger, and even faster to rage and hand in hand with rage came the pure hate.

Yes, it was without a doubt her fault that she had abandoned Bo. And she wouldn't forgive herself for that until her dying day. But who was responsible for that to begin with? Who had taken advantage of a family wrecked with pain and loss that they wouldn't even know who was behind it until it was too late? Who pulled all the strings he had? Who? Who? Who you ask?

It was the same person it always was: Boss Hogg. The bastard of a county comissioner had to be the one behind it! The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. And the angrier she became. She'd always known he was a self-centered, money grabbing, pig of a man, but until that moment she'd never considered him truely capable of cruelty. Until that moment, Daisy had never thought Boss Hogg had the stomach for torture.

In that moment a realization came upon her. Here she was beating herself up when she could be doing something productive. The time to punish herself would come later. But there was one thing she had to do first...namely deal out some vengeance on one Boss Jeferson Davis Hogg.

"Luke," She said softly, with a reserved smile one would almost call happy. Of course she was glad, it seemed whatever divine being that was out there had shown her a way to at least repent some for her crime. "Luke, I've gotta go do something..."

Now all she needed was the bloody cuffs...

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

As Luke listened to Daisy account of what had happened to Bo, his heart thumped in pain for the lonlieness and depression Bo had to have gone through in the 4 years he had been completly alone...isolated from the people he loved the most without a hope in the world...with no one to tell him that everything was going to be okay again.

Suddenly, he looked up when Daisy went really quiet in response to his next question and saw with a slight amount of shock the anger that was suddenly burning in her eyes. Who she was angry at he didn't know....but he could take a pretty good guess as he too started to piece things together. Luke had never been slow off the mark and now he had time to think about what had happened, this time wasn't any different. His ability to speak and walk may have been impaired but his sharp mind wasn't.

Quickly he scribbled down on the pad.

"Daisy....don't you go doing anything right now okay....Bo needs us to be here for him...he's been left alone by his family for too long already...if Boss decides he wants to get you too, which he can do....Daisy just think about this properly...please..."

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Daisy just smiled, a smile that she was quite sure scared him, "Don't worry, Luke. I know what I'm doing...I have a plan. And as for helping Bo...I can't do anything here. Can't stay in the same room for more that four minutes. I've done something terrible to someone I love...The most I can do is make the person responsible pay for it."

As she walked away from him she heard a quick scribling on a notepad and a grunt that made her turn around. She read the message.

This is selfish!

Daisy smiled again. "Maybe it is...but...if I don't perform this act of penance..." She shrugged her shoulders, "I'll either die or go crazy. I ain't sure which one. Just trust me..."

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Luke shook his head. He didn't trust her, not while she was in this state and there was nothing he could do about it. She couldn't do this...she couldn't do this to Bo and she couldn't do this to Jesse...but most of all she couldn't do this to Luke....quickly he scribbled down another note before she could walk away.

"Daisy, the docs said no more stress on me right...if you walk out that door your gonna be adding to it....I won't be able to just sit here and do nothing....Daisy you can't do this to me...you know I can't follow you if you go out the door....please don't do this to me..."

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

"Luke..." she begged, "Don't make me choose...You've had to do things before that I've begged you not to. All those times you jumped the General Lee over...something! All those times someone was out to do you in! All those times you did something to foil Boss Hogg yourself! Every time you walked out the door I wasn't entirely sure the next time you came back wouldn't be in a box...but all those times I watched you go knowing that you were doing the right thing, I let you go because I knew you boys were born and bred to be that way."

She sighed, amazed with herself that she was doing this, "Well, I'm a Duke too. And for four years someone I love has been rotting in prison because of that man..."

The look in his eyes didn't change, it hit her that showing him some kind of reason would be the only way to make him see, "There isn't a jury in the world that would find him guilty. He's too slippery to have not destroyed all possible evidence by now...but he does have a concience, or at the very least Rosco does. The only reason they can stand putting somebody through something like this is if they don't have to watch it themselves...blood and true suffering make them sick...if I can make them feel just an ounce of what I feel, it'll be enough. Somehow I know I'm the only one who can succeed..."

"Luke, he needs to reap some of the pain he sewed. And I need to do Bo this one justice..." She put a hand on Luke's, "If you care for me at all you'll let me go."

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Luke shook his head, turning his hand over and gripping her wrist tightly, writing with his other hand.

"This isn't justice Daisy, this is your own personal revenge for him making you feel the way you do about yourself....if you were really doing this for Bo you would know he wouldn't want you to do this this way....And me and Bo doing it is different...no one has ever been in hospital possibly dying when we've gone and done it....we do it for the right reasons Daisy...right now your doing this for all the wrong ones..."

He wrote desperatly, trying to make her see sense.

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Daisy read it over a couple of times. "Perhaps I am doing this for myself. Maybe it is selfish. But tell me this Luke, could you really watch your baby cousin hurling blood onto the floor and not feel some need to punish the man responsible? I don't see what the big deal is? It isn't like I'm gonna walk up to him and pull a gun."

Luke sighed, and wrote quickly: Right now, I wouldn't trust you not to pull a gun on Boss...

"You're dodging the original question. Bo rotted in that prison for four years. That's four years of his life wasted...and now he could very well be dying. Can you look me in the eyes and tell me you don't want to make the man who did that to him feel even an ounce of the pain we've felt..." Another angle hit her, "And what if Bo dies in there Luke? Can you tell me you wouldn't want to take out more than just psycological vengeance on Boss 'n Rosco?"

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Luke clenched his jaw as he heard Daisy talk about Bo like that...it was like she had already given up hope of Bo even coming back alive through those doors anymore. He knew that Daisy was feeling bad, but this was just plumb ridiculous...he missed his Daisy...the one he had left behind four years ago and had so suddenly disappeared. Writing what he wanted to say, he looked her directly in the eyes before handing it to her, never once wavering.

"No Daisy...I don't....because one of the most important things you learn in 'Nam is that revenge is not the answer....if someone guns down your friend you don't go after him into the battlefield just to make him suffer the same fate....because you don't know what'll happen....same applies here Daisy...what if you lose your temper...what if you DO pull a gun on Boss and Rosco in the heat of the moment. If you go, i'll call Boss and Rosco and have Uncle Jesse warn 'em..."

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Luke stared at that cold exterior that had suddenly overcome her. Only moments before she'd been on the verge of breaking down. Now it occured to Luke that she may have broken down. Or she may have been broken from the start, and what happened to Bo was what shattered her...

And now she was rebuilding herself into something Luke didn't want to see her become. He didn't want to see her become the kind of person who put somebody else through pain just to bring a twisted ray of sunlight into her own life. In his life he'd known many people like that, they never had a happy life and certainly their end wasn't very pleasant either. Perhaps Daisy didn't plan on becoming like that, maybe she was just creating this part of herself to take on this one task then that would be it. But there was always the chance that once you tasted blood you liked the taste. And if she created it at all that part of her would always be there, waiting till she needed it again.

Daisy may have been willing to take that risk. But Luke wasn't willing to let her. If she did this, there was a chance she could become something worse than what Boss and Rosco ever were.

As it was Luke doubted her eyes would ever be completely unshielded again. It was almost impossible to go through all the pain she had and still be quick to love as quickly as she had before. Whenever he and Bo left the house from then on she would lock her soul away, like she was now, because now she knew for certain they might not come back.

But Luke could only hope that she was just locking her soul away. That this whole thing hadn't so destroyed her so deeply that part of her didn't even exist anymore.

The eldest Duke cousin realized dreadfully that there was only one way to know for sure, he didn't like doing this. He was practically giving her permission, it was a gamble if ever he'd gambled. But at least this way he would know for sure if the girl he left behind was still in there in some shape or form. He wrote quickly:

"Daisy...once you go down the road you're going down, there's a chance you won't be able to go back. That you'll go so far from the light of the sun you'll never find it again."

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Daisy took the note, getting more and mre agitated as Luke kept coming up with comments that counteracted everything she was trying to argue. The worst part of it was, deep down she knew what Luke was saying was the truth. She knew she could get so caught up in this world that she wouln't be the same once she'd got done doing what she felt she had to.

Swallowing she passed the pad back to Luke and shook her head, not knowing what to say but feeling the drive that was pushing her to get to Bos and Rosco and teach them a lesson they would never forget. Yes, Daisy could be fiesty and once or twice she had marched into Boss's office and gave them a piece of her mind....but as Luke kept looking over her, seeing her battle the two arguements inside her head, he knew that this time would be different and Daisy could get into real trouble...

Trouble was never usually something that was unusual to the Dukes...but this time, there was no Bo, Luke and General Lee to bail her out...none of them to come to their rescue...if Boss and Rosco got rid of Daisy by locking her away or even breaking her further...then there would be no more Dukes around to stop their money making plans and Hazzard as they knew it. Swiftly, he scribbled down.

"Please Daisy...look at the bigger picture here....if something happens to you there won't be any of us in Hazzard to stop Boss from doing what he wants anymore....god knows how long me an' Bo are in here for...if its revenge you want then you can stand up to him how we usually do, stop his plans before he can really start them...cousin....I don't want to see you get hurt and wind up here with us...please think longer about this before you run off and make some foolish, rash decisions..."

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Daisy whirled around. Desperate to get away from Luke before she made a mistake she would regret for the rest of her life. Didn't he see that she was the only one who could do this? Nothing Boss could throw at her would break her...

...Hard to break when you're already broken.

She stormed into the hospital room. But when she looked to find the handcuffs that her plan actually relied upon, she couldn't find them. "Uncle Jesse, where are those cuffs?"

Luke wheeled in, "Don...gib..." he managed.

"If you must know Enos took 'em. Now what in a blue moon is going on here!"

Daisy didn't hear the second part of Uncle Jesse's question. All she heard was that Enos had taken the handcuffs. She was just as bright as Luke ever was, she could easily piece together what the deputy was probably doing. But he couldn't do this...Boss would find out what he knew and would lock him up. Enos couldn't survive that.

Dag nabbit! When on heaven and earth did Enos become an impulsive person!

"Enos..." She whispered before turning on her heels and sprinting off. She had to get to him before he did this!

VVVVV

Luke watched Daisy go. Relieved to see that familiar flare in her eyes as her soul made it's way through the prison she'd built around it. It seemed Enos had been able to do what he hadn't. And proved to Luke that the girl he knew before was still in there.

He should have known. You can throw everything you had at a soul like Daisy's. Wind or rain, ice or fire. She might get a little rougher around the edges but there was no way to truly destroy her.

He couldn't help the smile. Maybe there was hope for this family after all...

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Uncle Jesse could do nothing but watch as the events transpired, looking confusedly between the two cousins as the look in Daisy's eyes changed and she ran out the room, and then as Luke started to smile. Frowning he looked to Luke, expecting an answer whether it be written or spoken.

Soon, it became clear that Luke however was lost in his own thoughts and Jesse was just about to demand to know what was going on when Bo's doctor and Doc Walker re-entered the room, both looking grim.

[Qualapec the She-Wolf]

Daisy drove faster than was healthy. Desperate to get to Enos before he did something he would regret. She could do this, nothing Boss could do to her could hurt her more than it already had, but Enos...he didn't have that immunity. If he went directly and challenged Boss with the knowledge he had, he would the thrown in prison. He wouldn't survive that.

Daisy switched gears and swerved off the high way.

Please...she begged silently. I've been such a screw up lately. Don't let me screw this up...

~She-Wolf

[BoJamesDuke]

Jesse swallowed and looked to Luke as he wondered if it was a good idea that Luke be here to hear what the doc's had to say. From the looks on their faces it was not good news...however the stubborn, determined look on his oldest son's face told him that under no circumstances was he leaving, shooting the same glare at Doc Walker who had already started to move over to him to suggest he go back to his own room. She was instantly stopped in her tracks and knew that arguing with Luke would only stress him more than hearing the news and that was not something they needed.

Finally Jesse, spoke, asking softly and worriedly.

"What's wrong with my boy?"

Doc Micheals sighed softly and scrubbed a hand down his face before answering gently.

"There's a dense layer of mucous lining your stomach and intestines, which forms an effective barrier against corrosion. Under normal conditions, the mucous is renewed faster than it's eaten away by acids and enzymes.

If for some reason the rate of mucous renewal should drop, however, the barrier slowly erodes, exposing the tissues of the stomach wall to injury: an ulcer. If the ulcer occurs at the site of a major blood vessel, it can cause internal bleeding, or if the ulcer perforates the stomach wall, the membrane lining the abdominal cavity can become inflamed....or eventually cause a hole...I'm afraid in Bo's case...the ulcer he's probably had for quite a while in prison has ruptured and caused a hole in his stomach wall...probably down to the stress his body is already under with fighting the Cholera..."