Betrayal

     Luke woke up from another nightmare, the same dream that had plagued him the past few nights. He opened his eyes, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He looked around the dark room, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light. He was sitting in a very uncomfortable hospital chair. His eyes slowly began to adjust to the darkness of the moon, a pale beam of moonlight now shone through the window. Luke adjust his position in the chair, and looked at the person that lay on the hospital bed, his younger cousin Bo. Bo lay perfectly still on the hospital bed, his complexion was quite pale. He was hooked up to many machines to monitor his condition, such as a breathing tube, and a heart monitor. An IV slowly dripped into his left hand. Most of his body was covered by bandages or casts. Luke looked at his cousin, his eyes full of sadness and worry for his injured cousin. He sighed deeply and sat forward on the edge of the chair. He found he didn't know what to say, he laughed silently to himself at that, it was the first time that he could ever remember not knowing what to say to Bo. He sat quietly listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor, and the sound of the respirator. He felt tears start to burn his eyes and bit his lower lip to stop them.
     "I'm sorry Bo." Luke said softly, and leaned back in the chair. He couldn't believe what he had allowed to happen. He realized his mistake had almost cost Bo his life, and still could.
     Luke stood up and walked over to the window and stared out the window. The crescent moon occasionally shone through the clouds. His mind started to drift back to what had happened only a few short days ago.


     It was a bright and sunny summer day. Tomorrow was the day of the big race at the Hazzard fairgrounds. Bo and Luke were entered in two separate cars. Luke was driving a car that his brother Judd had brought, when he came to visit for a few weeks, and Bo was driving the General. Luke and Judd were working on the car, over by the barn. Daisy was helping Bo wash the General over under the large oak tree near the house. Luke was working under the hood, Judd stood looking over at Bo and Luke and narrowed his eyes towards Bo. Luke looked up and noticed Judd glare.
     "What's wrong?" Luke asked.
     "Nothing I was just thinking is all brother." Jud replied.
Jesse called them all in for lunch. Luke looked at his two younger cousins.
     "You were suppose to be washing the car." Luke said jokingly, as they were both soaking wet.
     "He started it." Daisy said.
Bo laughed, and smiled at Daisy. Jesse shook his head, though he was smiling.
     "You two go dry off, I don't want you to get everything all wet." Jesse said.
     "Yes sir." Bo and Daisy said simotaneously.
     "How's that car coming?" Jesse asked.
     "It coming along great." Luke said.
A couple moments later Bo and Daisy walked back into the kitchen.
     "In fact there is no doubt that I'll be winning that race and Bo will be eating my dust the whole way." Luke said jokingly.
     "Real cute Luke, but you got it backwards cuz." Bo said as he sat down at the table.
    The day of the race the boys took the cars to the time trials. Luke had the poll potion and Bo was a couple lanes back. They had towed Judd's car to the track.
     "Having problems?" Luke asked Bo, he had figured they would both be in the starting row.
     "Yeah the General seemed to be running funny." Bo said frowning. "I gotta go get Uncle Jesse and Daisy. Could you look at it?"
     "Yeah, okay. See ya in a while cuz." Luke said.
Bo drove the tow truck back to the farm.
     Judd had been standing in the shadows, and almost sinister smile on his lips. After Bo had left he walked over to Luke. Luke was just about to pop the General's hood to look at the engine to try to find the problem.
     "Hey brother. I think there is a problem with the car." Judd said.
     "Is it serious?" Luke asked.
     "I don't know. I think you should come look at it." Judd said.
     "Yeah okay. I'll look at it then I'll look at the General." Luke said and followed Judd over to the car.
     There were several wires and parts that needed replaced in the car. The distributor cap had been cracked. It took Luke about forty-five minutes to fix everything in the car, by which time he had forgot about having to look at the General.
     Bo got back to the track about an hour after he had left to get Jesse and Daisy. The race was going to start in twenty minutes. There wasn't time for Bo to stop and ask Luke what had been wrong with the General. The cars all lined up for the big race. About twenty minutes into the race, Luke was still holding first place. Bo had dropped back in the pack. The General's engine started acting up even more, suddenly the engine burst into flames, and Bo lost control of the car. The General slammed off the high bank wall, then went into a spin hitting another car, which caused the General to flip end over end twice, then rolled on it's side flipping several times, then skidded along the road on it's hood, and slammed into the concrete barrier by the pits. Jesse and Daisy had watched the accident in horror. Judd who was in the pits, watched with an almost gleeful look in his eyes. The red flag was waved stopping the race. Luke looked at the wreckage in horror, as it slowly dawned on him that he had forgot to look at the General, before the race. He got out of the car and rushed over to the wreckage, the firefighters had the fire out, and the ambulance attendants were trying to get Bo out of the wreckage. Bo was in a semi conscious state, the attendants kept talking to him trying to get him to stay awake. Luke bent down by the General to help get Bo out.
     "Bo . . ." Luke said, trying to get Bo's attention so that he would stay awake.
Bo barely acknowledge Luke's presence. After a moment he opened his mouth as to say something then gave a small cry of pain, then passed out.
     Jesse and Daisy had come down from the stands and were standing over by the ambulance, as was Judd. After ten minutes they finally managed to get Bo out of the General. Jesse got into the ambulance to ride with Bo to the hospital. Jesse stood watch the ambulance sped off with tears in her eyes. Luke stood next to her and but his arm around her shoulders to comfort her.
     "How'd the accident happen?" Daisy asked, as the tears started to streak her cheeks.
     "I don't know." Luke said. He felt tears burning his eyes but he held them back.
Judd walked over to them. "The race will be starting again soon. You are going to finish the race aren't you? After all you are winning."
Luke shook his head. "I can't race now. Not with what has happened." Luke said, he didn't want to say about it being his fault.
     "I think you should. I mean I think Bo would want you to finish the race." Judd said.
     "I can't. If you want your car to finish you can drive it. I'm going to the hospital with Daisy." Luke said.

     Luke came back to the present and looked over at Bo and sighed. He remembered it was almost three hours before the doctor had finally came out to give them the news . . .
       "How's my boy, doc?" Jesse asked, his voice was fraught with worry.
The doctor shook his head. "His injury's are quite severe. It is a wonder that he lived through that accident."
     "He will be okay though, right?" Daisy asked, her voice slightly shaking.
The doctor took a deep breath. "It is too soon to tell yet. He was severely injured. He is in a comma now. I hate to have to say this but chances are very slim that he will ever wake up."
    All the Dukes paled, Luke most of all. They went into Bo's room, and they all sat around his bed, trying to talk to him to get him to wake up. After an hour Luke told Jesse about how he had forgot to look at the General.
     "How could you forget something like that?" Jesse said angrily.
     "I just got working on Judd's car . . ." Luke said his voice trailing off.
     "If you had looked it, the accident wouldn't have happened." Jesse said harshly.
     "I didn't mean to. I made a mistake, and I am sorry. I'd never mean to let anything happen to Bo." Luke said, his voice slightly shaking.
Jesse's eyes softened and he went over and hugged Luke. "I'm sorry Luke, I know you wouldn't mean for anything to happen to Bo. I am sorry I snapped at you. I am just so worried about Bo."
    Luke walked over and stood by Bo's bed. He looked down at Bo. He wiped the tears from his eyes. "Sorry Bo." he said softly.
     He had seen the footage of accident, he knew with an accident like that it was a wonder that Bo was even still alive. Their mechanic friend Cooter Davenport, had said he would try to fix the General back up for them, Luke prayed that there was reason for it to be fixed. Luke knew that if anything was to happen to Bo that he could never drive their car again. He started to think about the dream that had plagued him every night since the accident. He could see the accident in slow motion, then the events that occurred after that seemed to pass by in blur, as though someone was pressing the fast forward button. Then Bo didn't pull through his injuries and died. He could see someone standing in the shadows laughing about it, but didn't know who, and when he tried to rush at the person they just kept getting further away. Then B came back from the grave to haunt him for his mistake, and to let Luke knew that he thought the accident was all his fault.
     Luke sighed, and looked away from Bo. He decided to go and get some coffee to drink, he wanted to stay awake he didn't want to go back to sleep for fear of having the dream again.
     A figure dressed in all black, slipped into the room after Luke left. He walked over to the bed and looked down at Bo and smiled. The person, was Judd, who took a needle and small vile out of his pocket. He slowly filled the needle with the contents of the vile.
     "You were suppose to die in that accident I went through a lot of trouble to mess up that stupid car's engine." Judd said, flatly.
     Luke had a suddenly feeling in the pit of his stomach that Bo is in danger. He rushed back to the room, fearing that Bo's condition had grown worse. He turned on the light in the room, and saw Judd preparing to inject Bo with something.
     "What are you doing?" Luke asked.
Judd spun around to face Luke, and said nothing.
     "What are you doing Judd?" Luke asked.
     "Simple I went through a lot of work to have that accident happen . . ." Judd started to say.
     "What? It was your fault the General crashed." Luke said disbelievingly.
     "Yeah, I figured that would be enough to get rid of him." Judd said.
Luke looked at Judd hatefully. "Why?"
     "So I could replace him." Judd said flatly.
     "Wh . . . hat?"  Luke said, he couldn't believe what he was hearing.
     "Simple you treat him more like a brother then you do me. I figured to get rid of him and take his place in your life. I didn't plan on you ever finding out." Judd said.
     "You couldn't ever replace Bo in my life. Nobody could replace what he means to me." Luke said. "He is more a brother to me then you."
Judd glared at Luke hatefuly for a moment, then gave a sinister smile and turned back to Bo, and quickly injected Bo with the needle before Luke could stop him. The drug took an instant effect on Bo and the machines went crazy, and flat lined, setting off the alarm.
    Luke rushed at Judd, and grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him back away from Bo, and turned Judd to face him. He punched Judd in the stomach. Judd dropped to his knees gasping for air. The doctors rushed in with a crash cart to try to restart Bo's heart. The doctor's tried to ushered Luke and Judd out of the room.
Luke stopped by the door, and called back.
     "Don't you dare die Bo." Luke said his voice was firm but full of caring.
    Judd tried to make an escape Luke grabbed him.
     "Call security." Luke said to one nurse, who nodded and went to call security.
     "You ain't gonna get away with what you did to Bo." Luke said.
The security guard arrived just moments later and took Judd away to a holding room, and called the police to come get him.
    Luke went and sat down on a chair across from Bo's room. A few moments later the doctors came back out. Luke stood up as one walked over.
     "Is Bo okay?" Luke asked.
The doctor nodded. "We got his heart going again, but he is still in a comma."
Luke gave a small sigh of relief. Luke went in and sat by Bo's side for a few minutes, until the police arrived and questioned him about what had happened, He told them everything and about the accident not being an accident. Judd was taken to prison and was going to be tried for attempted murder, which would be upgrade to first degree murder if Bo died.
Luke figured to wait until morning to call the farm, figuring there was no sense in worrying them over nothing.
     The next morning Luke called the farm, and told them about what had happened. They came to the hospital. Luke told them everything that had happened and the accident had been Judd's fault. They were shocked to hear that Judd had tried to kill Bo, out of jealousy for the close friendship that Bo and Luke had.
     The next week Judd was sentenced to twenty years for attempted murder with no parol. The judge also suggested that Judd have psychiatric help because he seemed mentally unstable.
     Two weeks later, much to the surprise of the doctor's Bo woke up from the comma. He was still not out of the woods yet, though was upgrade for serious to stable condition. Luke told Bo about what had happened. He only seemed mildly surprised to hear it. He said that he had suspicions about Judd but never said anything since after all Judd was Luke's brother, and he had no proof. Luke apologised for forgetting to look at the General. Bo said there was no need for him to have apologised because it wasn't his fault. Two weeks later Bo was released from the hospital, though he still had to take it easy, to allow the injuries to completely heal.