Feeling a bit better, now that she hadn’t gotten sick in two whole days, she still was forced to eat what was left of the soup in the fridge for quite a few reasons. Though Jebb was at the forefront of a couple of those reasons. He was insistent that she shouldn’t put too much solid food on her stomach just yet. And as much as she hated to admit it, when she had tried to eat some cereal instead for breakfast, it hadn’t set well on that very same weakened stomach. Of course she didn’t have to admit it since that all-knowing smirk just sat there as she suffered through the effects of the cereal until it had been time to eat once again. Jebb then just shoved another cup of soup in her hand without actually saying anything about the incident with the cereal.

Now it was late into the evening and the two were cuddled up on the couch discussing Kira’s plans for her very first Christmas in Hazzard. She had wished that Jebb could have been there but it would make coming up with an excuse a little difficult since his mother still didn’t know about them. Jebb stated that after Christmas they were going to have to finally come out about their relationship to her. Especially since they had probably waited too long as it was.

“Speaking of my mother, what was mom doing here anyway, when she came to see you?” Jebb pulled Kira over to lay with him as he stretched out on the too small couch.

“She came to ask me a few questions. About you.”

“Me?”

Kira laughed as she remembered the brief conversation with Pauline. “Uh-huh. She wanted to know if I knew anyone from the circuit that you’ve been dating.”

“Why would she-?”

“She says she was putting away your laundry and found a RING. That’s why, Jebb.”

“How did she...But it was…Of course she would find it.” Jebb closed his eyes as he leaned his head back on the arm of the couch.

“So, are you gonna tell me who she is?”

“Very funny, Kira.” So much for trying to surprise her with her Christmas present. “Well, what would you say if I asked you to marry me?”

“I guess you’d just have to ask to find out.” Kira snuggled down to hide her grin.

“I will, huh?” Jebb reached down and started to tickle her as she started to laugh. He pulled her higher up on his chest and gave her a deep, long kiss before saying, “Will you marry me?” Kira pretended to be deep in thought at the question.

“Considering that I doubt I could find anyone else that would put up with me, or my recently acquired family, I think I’d better. Especially since there is this one particular blond cousin of mine that I can’t seem to keep my hands off of.”

“Does Coy know that you find him irresistible?” Jebb grinned as hugged her.

“Now look who’s trying to be funny.” Looking at Jebb, she couldn’t help herself, so she added, “Although...He is kind of cute.” Jebb gave her a look at that. “But not as cute as you,” Kira added as she laughed at him.

“He better not be.” He gave Kira another long kiss and knew that they wouldn’t stay on the couch for much longer as he deepened the kiss. He’d much rather take this conversation into the bedroom.




Pauline had been so busy since she had returned from Atlanta. It was only now, Saturday morning, while all of the men in the family had gone out to get the Christmas trees for their homes, that she was now able to search Jebb’s room. With John out of the house, and Jebb not due in until after lunch, Pauline set about to looking for clues as to who Jebb’s mystery girlfriend is. This time, she didn’t plan to limit herself to accidentally finding clues while putting away laundry. If Jebb wasn’t going to tell her who this girl is, she’ll just have to find out for herself. She’d checked the sock drawer again and found that the ring box was missing. Which means that he plans to give it to this girl before he comes home today. So it means that he’ll be able to stop by on the way home from Kira’s.

Pauline figured that the only place that Jebb could have met this girl was when he was off racing. Under his bed, Pauline found a small collection of video tapes from the various races that he had competed in. Grabbing the cassette that recorded the last one that he’d won, she figured that if he had a girlfriend at the race, she certainly would have been caught on film congratulating him. Popping the tape into the player, she fast forwarded through the race until she reached the end of the race.




Jebb headed home just as soon as he’d put Kira’s luggage for her stay in Hazzard into her truck. He promised to call her on Christmas and pulled out in the opposite direction of where she was driving. When he’d gotten home everything seemed quiet enough. His dad’s truck was gone but his mom’s car was in the drive even though he’d not seen any sign of her.

Slipping into the house through the kitchen, he made his way to his room to put his knapsack up. Inside his room, he saw the clear evidence of his mother’s snooping. Usually she was more careful about how she left things after she’d gone through a room cleaning. Scanning the room, he noticed that his racing tapes were out. His mother couldn’t care less about racing. She didn’t get them out so she could admire her son’s talent on the track. Turning around, Jebb headed towards the den and stopped in the hallway.

There on the television, in a frozen frame, was him and Kira on the screen. It was from a race that he’d won and Kira was giving him a kiss for winning it. His mother was staring at the screen with her mouth wide open.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Pauline turned to face her son. “I was going to ask you the same thing.” Pauline points to the screen on the frame that was still paused on the scene between him and Kira. “THAT IS YOUR COUSIN!”

Jebb leaned against the door frame as he answered, “If you’d check the date on that tape, you would have seen, that was nearly six months ago. We’ve been together for a lot longer than we’ve known that we were cousins.”

“I noticed that you took that ring. You gave it to HER didn’t you?”

“Yes I did. I bought that ring for KIRA nearly two months ago. I love her.”

“WELL OF COURSE YOU LOVE HER. SHE’S YOUR COUSIN! YOU DON’T GO MARRYING YOUR COUSIN THOUGH. IT AIN’T RIGHT.”

Jebb’s jaw was working over-time while he tried to keep his patience with his mother. Right now his upbringing was the only thing that kept him from matching his mother yell for yell. Holler for holler. But he’d been well taught. You didn’t yell at your parents.

“Mom, I’ve known Kira for a lot of years. I AM going to marry her. Whether you like it or n-”

“I FORBID IT JEBB! FORBID! Such a relationship is downright sinful. If you marry that girl, you’d better take a good hard look around. Because I’ll not have you setting a bad example for your sisters. Do you hear me? As long as you live in this house, you’ll not -” Jebb turned around and headed back to his room. “WHERE ARE YOU GOING?” Pauline followed her son as he walked away without responding.

Once inside his room, Jebb went over to the closet and grabbed a couple of suitcases and threw them on the bed. He then started to haphazardly reach for his clothes in the dresser and tossed them into the cases.

“WHAT do you think you’re doing?”

“In case you’ve forgotten, Mom. I’m a grown man. I don’t have to live here. You don’t want me here if I’m with Kira, FINE. I’ll leave.”

Pauline stared at her son and tried to convince her son that he was making a mistake. But right frankly, he couldn’t hear her anymore. Eventually, Pauline stormed out of the house, leaving Jebb to pack in peace and quiet. Shortly after his mother left though Jebb heard his father make his way to the door way to his room.

“What’s going on?”

“Ask mom.” Jebb finished putting his clothes in the suitcases and now was trying to figure out what to do with his trophies and video tapes (along with the other what-nots that one forgets that you have until you have to pack them up).

“I’m asking you.”

Jebb let out a heavy breath before looking up at his father. “Mom went snooping. Found out about me and Kira. She freaked. So here I am, getting my stuff together. Getting out.”

“I told ya not to wait too long.”

“We were going to tell her right after Christmas. But she found the ring I’d bought Kira which sent her snooping into high gear.”

“A ring? Should I be congratulating you?”

“It’d be better than what mom did. She FORBIDS me from marrying Kira.”

“Everything will be better once she calms down, Jebb.”

“I doubt it. You know that right now she’s over there with the rest of her family, and by now, have made a whole list of reasons why Kira and I shouldn’t be together. When she gets back she’ll be even more keyed up and ready to argue her point.”

John would like to say that his son was over reacting, but he knew that he was right. Jebb took after him. He was a Duke through and through. That had always put him at odds with the Loftlin side of the family quite a bit; even when Jebb had gotten busted running ‘shine some months before he turned eighteen. John was a little disappointed that he’d been caught but his wife and her family had been ashamed of the fact that Jebb had been running the ‘shine at all. John had said that there was nothing to be ashamed about the same business that had kept his family in clothes and food since before this country WAS a country. He’d been in the minority though. I hadn’t helped matters later on when Bo and Luke was caught running whiskey as well after Luke got out of the Marines.

Looking at his son, he knew that he’d not find any understanding from his in-laws about the current situation. “You’ll need help then. It’s not like you can get any of this stuff out of here on your bike. Load it in the truck. I’ll help ya get it where you want it.”

Jebb looked at his father for a minute before nodding his thanks and got back to work packing up his room. Most of his stuff his father would simply move to the attic until Jebb had more room to keep it. Once the truck was loaded up, with the bike included, father and son headed out with the father trying his best to give support to his son in his awkward plight.




John and Jebb went into Atlanta and took his stuff to Kira’s apartment. It hadn’t taken long to carry in what little Jebb had brought with him. He hadn’t wanted to do this quite this way but his mother hadn’t really given him much choice in the matter.

“When I get home, I’ll call Jesse and tell him to expect you for Christmas after all,” John said as he headed for the door ready to leave his son with a heavy heart.

John should be happy right now about his son’s impending marriage. Jesse had always put ALL of the Duke boys in the same category. About as likely to settle down to start a family as it was for hogs to produce beef. It looked like Jebb would be the first to prove the older Duke wrong. Jebb had been ready to marry the girl of his choice since October. If he and Kira had married then, would his wife still be making a scene now? Maybe. Well, she should have been careful what she’d wished for. She’s wanted to marry Jebb off for a long time; now he’s ready to get married.

“Don’t bother.”

“I don’t think that you should just show up with no warning.”

“I ain’t goin’.”

“You ain’t? Why not? I know that Jesse wouldn’t mind. Plus Kira’s there, so-”

“That’s WHY I ain’t goin’. I ain’t goin’ to be responsible for ruinin’ her first Christmas with the others.”

“You’re goin’ to have to tell her what happened eventually.”

“And the day after Christmas will be soon enough.”

John saw the set look on his son’s face and figured that he’d not be able to talk any sense into his only son. “Alright, but I say that Kira’s goin’ to kill ya when she finds out how you plan to spend your Christmas.”

“Maybe so, but at least by then she’ll have spent HER Christmas with everyone. She ain’t ever had one with her own brother. I aim to make this one a good one for her.”

John clapped his son on the back before he left, “That’s a nice thought, son. But I still say that she ain’t goin’ to like it. But if you don’t want me to call, then I won’t.” With that, John left to head back to Placid to go talk to his wife. They were going to have a long chat about her behavior today.




Jesse enjoyed watching the five younger Dukes as they picked around with one another. All of them had finished with the presents hours ago and now were all having fun in the living room telling old stories. Well some of them weren’t all that old. Daisy had insisted on Kira telling how Jebb had finally proposed, she’d been curious about it the moment Kira had gotten out to the farm two days ago; ever since Daisy spied the small ring on Kira’s hand when she had gotten out of the truck. The guys didn’t let the curiosity show but Jesse knew that they, too, wanted to know just as much as Daisy. Especially Bo. Even though Jebb and told him that he planned to give Kira a ring for Christmas, seeing the small band still gave him a bit of a shock when he saw it. Somehow, a part of him just didn’t think that Jebb was really serious about getting married. It looks like this was really going to happen after all.

When the phone rang, Jesse got up to answer it as the others all seemed to be too wrapped up in what they were doing to hear it ring. “Duke Farm. Jesse Duke speakin’.”

“Hey Uncle Jesse. Merry Christmas.”

“Jebb! Merry Christmas, boy. How’s everything goin’ in Placid?”

“You know how Christmas with my mom’s family is.”

“Yeh, I do. Well, I suppose you didn’t call to talk to me, did you? Let me get that little girl on the phone for ya.”

“Thanks Uncle Jesse.”

Jesse put Kira on the phone and went to sit back down in his chair. As he kept glancing towards the phone, Luke came over to talk to him.

“Something wrong, Uncle Jesse?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t know where Jebb is, but it ain’t home. Christmas there is like Thanksgiving is here. There wasn’t enough noise in the background for him to be in Placid.”

Luke eyed the others who were oblivious to the conversation between him and his uncle. “What do you think happened?” In the other room, Kira hung up the phone and headed back to join the others.

“I don’t know. But I aim to find out.” With that, Jesse got back up and headed to the phone to call his brother.




Jebb was going over his conversation with Kira. It sounded like she was having a great time. As usual, Daisy had been the first to notice the smallest clue of a very big change in their lives. She had insisted that Kira tell them all everything. If he knew his cousin, she was already planning the wedding in her head right now. All he or Kira would have to do is just show up. Which might be a good thing since he knew that even as understanding as the Duke family had been so far about his relationship with Kira they would never hold still for him living here with her without being married to her first. He hoped Kira hadn’t planned for a long engagement.

Jebb was pulled away from his thoughts by the sound of the phone ringing. He didn’t bother getting up since he knew it wasn’t for him. He’d let Kira’s machine get it. No chance of him lousing up the message that way. He was more than a little surprised then when the machine kicked in to reveal that the caller was his Uncle Jesse.

“Jebb, you know I hate these infernal machines. Now pick up.”

Jebb got up and picked up the phone, “Hey Uncle Jesse. How’d you know I was here?”

“After you called out here, I called your daddy. He filled me in on everything that happened Saturday. Of how you plan to be an idiot and spend Christmas all by yourself.”

“I just wanted to-”

“I know what you wanted. Your daddy told me. Now that was a noble thought son, and if you want to still wait until tomorrow to let Kira know just what happened, then I suggest that you have your butt at this table by the time we say grace for supper. Otherwise, I’LL be tellin’ that girl what’s happened myself and she’ll kill ya for bein’ a fool.”

“Uncle Jesse I-”

“You’re wastin’ time Jebb. By the time we say grace.”

“Yes sir,” Jebb gave the required response before hanging up. Looks like he’d better get his knapsack out and pack.




Jesse was watching the clock as it got closer to supper time. Despite the threat, he really didn’t want to be the one to tell Kira what had happened in Placid. He understood Jebb’s desire to give her one Christmas with her family without the realities of their situation creeping in. So that boy had better get here in the next ten minutes so Kira wouldn’t have to know until tomorrow about Pauline and her stubborn declaration. Jesse had made sure that there would be plenty of pot roast for one more Duke Boy at the table. As he was staring out the window, Daisy came in and started to set the table for six. Looking down the drive, Jesse smiled.

“Daisy, you’d better put another place setting out. We’re going to have one more for dinner.” Daisy gave her uncle a bewildered look until the distinctive sound of a motorcycle made its presence known out in the yard.




After breakfast, Jebb and Kira took off in her truck for a drive so he could talk to her alone. He only drove as far as the old Hansen place, figuring that once again, it would be far enough to talk in private. This time, though, he didn’t take Kira to the mines since it was considerably colder that it had been a month ago. Instead, He pulled the truck into the old barn that hadn’t been used in years. Once the two climbed into the truck bed, Kira insisted on Jebb telling her just what was going on since obviously something was wrong.

“When I got home Saturday, Mom had done her usual snooping. She found some old racing tapes where we were both together on it. She wasn’t pleased, to put it mildly.” Jebb pulled Kira up closer beside him as he spoke. For one, to have the physical contact, and for another, so that she couldn’t see his face when he told her that his mother had disowned him. “Mom threw a fit. One thing led to another, she forbade me from marrying you, and so I packed my stuff up and left.”

Kira pulled back enough to look at Jebb. She saw the torrent of unspoken emotion in his eyes. Wrapping her arms around him, she couldn’t imagine what he was feeling. She’d never known the closeness that Jebb had taken for granted all his life that his family shared on both sides. Now, half of his family was turning their backs on him, because of her. He explained that he had tried to call home only to have his mother hang up on him. His voice had hitched a bit at that.

“Jebb, I don’t want to be the reason that-”

“Stop thinking like that.” Jebb cut her off. Afraid that she’d think that she was doing him a favour by breaking off the engagement. He wasn’t going to let his mother’s narrow-mindedness take this away from him. “We’re goin’ to get married. Period. If my mother doesn’t what to be there, then that’s her problem.” He pulled Kira tighter to him as if that alone could make things right. “In fact, I was thinking that we may want to take care of that sooner rather than later.”

“Why’s that?” Kira asked.

“As understanding as everyone here in Hazzard has been, they’re not goin’ to like it if we head back to Atlanta together without being married. I don’t see no reason to really put it off, no how.”

“You don’t want to wait for your mother to come around?”

“If we do that, we might NEVER get married. And before you say anything, I can’t even ask Pop to come if Mom won’t. It would only put a bigger wedge between them if he comes and she’s so set against us from the start.”

“The way you’re talkin’, it sounds like you want to go and get married right now.”

“Why not?” Jebb looked down to Kira, checking to make sure that he wasn’t scaring her. “We can have the others meet us over in Chickamahoney; we could get married today if we want.” Kira looked at Jebb as she considered what he was saying. Get married today? Looking back up at Jebb, she knew that she really didn’t need to think about it. So much for all of those plans that Daisy was trying to come up with. But she doubted that Daisy would mind very much.

Previous Chapter

Story Index

Next Chapter