Jebb and Kira were expecting his parents to come in today after lunch. They would be stopping off at the other farm to eat with Jesse and the others before finally getting out to their farm. Looking outside, Jebb watched the rain pour down on this stormy day. The girls are going to be suffering from cabin fever by tonight. Spending the day cooped up in the car and then not being able to go outside in the torrential rain. And it wasn’t supposed to slack off for a couple of days.

Turning from the window, Jebb popped a video into the VCR and went to sit with Kira on the chaise lounge to watch a movie with her while they waited after he put a couple more logs in the fire place. He might as well as enjoy the lazy, rainy day the best way he could. As the movie started, the steady beating of the rain on the windows and the warm body snuggled up against him began to pull at him. Before long, he began to get drowsy. When he noticed that Kira had already drifted off, he let her steady breathing while lying against his chest lull him to sleep.

When John and Pauline came in later with the girls, he shushed the girls and told them to go on up and unpack. He grinned over at his wife as she headed up with the girls to help them. After they went up, John looked over at the T.V where the credits were rolling and then added a log to the dwindling fire. That told him that his son must have fallen asleep shortly after the movie had started. He couldn’t remember the last time he and Pauline had spent a rainy day curled up together like those two. After stoking the flames, John noticed that his son was starting to stir.

“When did y’all get here?” Jebb asked softly, not wanting to wake Kira up.

“About five minutes ago. I didn’t want to wake you up.”

“It’s alright. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Where’s Mom?”

“Right here.” Pauline came down the stairs and sat on the couch tired from the long drive. “Is she alright?” Pauline took a long look at her niece and noticed that she seemed to be retaining more fluid than she had a month ago. Her face looked slightly swollen to her.

“Yeh, she’s just been gettin’ more tired, lately.”

Pauline nodded, “She’ll probably keep gettin’ that way from here ‘til the baby comes.”

“The nursery’s done now. Ya want me to show it to you?” Jebb carefully got up from the chaise as he spoke.

“Why not,” Pauline stood to follow her son up the stairs with her husband right behind her.

Once upstairs, she saw that all of the furniture was in place along with the curtains made with the racing themed material. Over on the crib was one of the quilts that she knew that Kira had been working on. Over by the window in the corner was a new rocking chair that looked far more comfortable than the one that she’d spent countless hours rocking her own four babies throughout the years. “It really looks nice. It’s a little hard to believe that my baby boy’s about to be a daddy though. Maybe you’ll finally get around to growing up now.” Pauline blinked away the tears that threatened to fall.

Jebb grinned at the comment since there really was no way to answer it. He watched his mother as she examined each and every piece of baby equipment and clothing before giving her approval. While she was busy doing that, Jebb asked where his little sisters were.

“In their room, pouting,” His dad answered.

“Pouting? Why?”

“Because I wouldn’t let them bring their dog with them,” Pauline answered from across the room. “I wasn’t about to ride all this way with a wet dog in the car. Your Uncle Carl is watching the pup until we get back.”

“I guess that they’re a bit bored, too, with it raining. I think I’ll go tell them that they can go watch T.V in my room. It’ll be better than nothing.”




“Jesse tells us that you still haven’t settled on a name yet. When are you two goin’ to get to work?” All of the adults were sitting around in the living room after dinner talking about the goings ons of the last few weeks since Jebb’s parents had last been out to Hazzard when Pauline brought up the baby.

“Don’t push them Pauline. Jebb didn’t even have a name until he was sittin’ in the crib for two days.”

“What do you mean I didn’t have a name for two whole days?” That definitely peaked Jebb’s interest.

“Jebb, you know that you were named after my Uncle Jebb, right?” Jebb nodded his head in response. “Well, your mother and I only named you Jebb after we’d discussed why we shouldn’t name you after HER uncle. And only after the rest of the Duke family backed me up did she agree to let me name you Jebb.”

Kira glanced at her husband sitting at her side. “She wouldn’t?”

“Wait a minute? What’s wrong with Pauline’s uncle?” Kira asked not liking the fact that everyone in the room knew something that she didn’t.

“That’s what I asked at the time. I thought that it would have been a wonderful name.” Pauline crossed her arms as she still felt justified in the name of her choice all of these years later.

“Pauline wanted to name Jebb after her Uncle Donald,” John said with a mix of a sour expression with amusement.

“Oh no!” Kira started to laugh as it dawned on her just why John didn’t want to name his son Donald.

“What?”

“Mom! Donald Duke? Don’t you think that’s a bit too much like Donald Duck?” Jebb asked mortified as he thought about what his name COULD have been.

“All he would have needed then would have been a cute little blue sailor’s suit.” Kira couldn’t stop laughing even though she tried once she saw Pauline’s face.

“I think that we have a picture of Jebb when he was little wearing one somewhere out at the house,” John said from the couch. That comment caused Kira to laugh even harder as she tried to picture Jebb dolled up like Donald Duck.

“Just wait until Bo hears this,” Kira said between the giggle fits.

“He ain’t got to know, Kira.” Jebb could already hear the comments being hurled his way; especially since he’d always teased Bo when they were younger about his name.

“Oh yes he does.” One look at Kira and Jebb could tell that she was already telling her twin through their link. “Just wait until you see him again.”

“Well I still think it’s a fine name. In fact ...”

“NO!” The other three Dukes shouted as one.

“Mom, I’m not goin’ to give my son a name that even I’D make fun of.”

“If that’s the criteria, that boy will be lucky to have a name by the time he’s eighteen.” Pauline said quite offended that her name of choice had once again been turned down. Kira smirked at Pauline’s observation of Jebb sense of humor.

“I’ll just give you one bit of advice, when you’re going over names. Make sure you go through the motions of hollering for your child.”

“What?” Jebb asked in response to his father’s comment.

“If it rolls off your tongue, then you’ve got a keeper. You don’t want to get tongue tied every time your son needs a good down the county.”

“Like Jebb Stewart Duke?” Kira grinned, “I’ll bet that you got a lot of practice spitting that out over the years.”

“That we did,” John confirmed. “Just like I’m sure that you two will get the same kind of practice with your own Duke Boy.”

“Maybe we can get some of the old albums out to get ideas for y’all to pick out a good name.” Kira turned to whisper in Jebb’s ear, who gave her an odd look then nodded his head.

“Well, we were hoping to wait until Kira gives birth to tell everyone, but it just so happens that we HAVE picked out a name, Mom.”

“Really? Well what is it?” Pauline asked from the couch sitting beside her husband. “Why all the secrecy?”

“You better tell her, son, before she gives you the third degree.” John laughed at his wife’s reaction.

“Well, we decided on Jonathan Kyle Duke.” Jebb watched his parents’ faces for any reaction to the name. Kira was right, they still had another surprise in the works for everyone so it couldn’t hurt to go ahead and tell everyone the first baby’s name. Maybe then they could work out the second baby’s name in peace. One thing was for sure, it wouldn’t be Donald.

“Son, I’d be honored.”

“Why Kyle?” Jebb closed his eyes so she wouldn’t see him roll them.

“To honor Ben; since he was a lot like a guardian angel for Kira.” Jebb wrapped his arms around Kira as if that alone could ward off the unpleasant memories that he knew that the discussion was bound to dredge up.

“I don’t understand? Who was he? How did you meet him? How..?”

“Mom.” A one word warning to stop. She couldn’t just approve the name without knowing every detail behind it, could she?

“It’s alright Jebb. I’m sorry, Pauline. I guess you have been kept a bit in the dark. No one ever wants to talk about it in front of me because they don’t want it to bring back bad memories for me. Then they won’t talk about it without me because they don’t want to talk behind my back.” Kira held onto Jebb’s arms to draw a bit of strength from him so that she could make it through the telling of the story. “You know that I had cancer as a teen, you learned that last year.” Pauline nodded but stayed silent since it was clear that her niece was about to share something that wouldn’t be easy to tell. “Well, before that, I lived on the streets off and on since before I was ten. Every time I was taken off, I’d bide my time and then run off again.”

“Why didn’t you just stay in the homes that Child Services found for you?”

“Because it was safer on the streets.” Pauline was taken aback by the answer. “Anyway, the fall before I turned sixteen, I started to get sick; a lot. I figured that it was the food that I was eating. You don’t get a well-balanced diet when you go dumpster diving.”

“Garbage?”

Kira nodded then continued since she knew that she needed to finish this story as fast as she could. “At least by then, I was a little older so I didn’t have to wait as long to hunt through it. The younger you are, the longer you have to wait for others to pick through to get the more edible stuff out first. Once it started to get cool at night, I was just getting sicker. So I eventually let the social worker find me and take me back in. I knew that they always took the kids they found on the streets to the doctor before putting them in group homes to make sure that they were healthy so that the other kids wouldn’t get sick too. Anyway, when I was taken in for a wellness check, it was found that I didn’t just have the flu or some other virus. I had Blood Cancer.” Kira paused before continuing as she remembered not just one, but two battles with the disease. “Well, I’d been in the hospital for a couple of weeks when I got a visit, by none other than Santa Claus.”

From there Kira went on with her story of her first meeting with Ben Kyle.

Looking out her room Kira watched as the doctors and nurses that had ended up having to work on Christmas tried to brighten the day of their patients. To a young Kira, she really didn’t see what was so special about it. At least this year she wouldn’t go hungry. Some of her previous foster parents had drank away the holiday. They had been the better ones, too.

Now here she was nearly sixteen and was too old to believe in magic or miracles. The only reason she had let the woman from Child Protective Services find her and take her back with her was because it had gotten really cold outside. She hadn’t felt right in a while either. Always seemed to be far too tired and had been getting sick a lot too. And the bruises she had gotten several weeks ago from a fall still haven’t faded.

Like always, once brought back off of the streets, Kira had been taken to be checked out for a clean bill of health before being placed with other kids. This time had been different though. The doctors had said something was wrong with her blood. Instead of being sent back to the group home until a single family home could be found for her, she had been admitted into the hospital.

That had been almost three weeks ago. Each day she seemed to feel sicker, not better. Her hair had started to come out too. One nurse had told her it was from the medicine. She had been angry that someone would give her something that would make her hair fall out. Of course, many of the kids in this section of the hospital had lost their hair.

Looking out her door now, that a nurse had left open to encourage her to participate in the special activities of the morning, Kira watched as families came to visit the other children. The nurses had started to pity her since she had no family to visit her. Her case worker had dozens of other children to check in with and had only been able to come twice since her arrival. She had wanted to tell them exactly where they could stick their pity and would have is she just had enough strength to do it. So instead, she sat in bed, staring out the door. Wondering what was so Merry about Christmas.

As Ben Kyle was going down the hallway of the hospital, he couldn’t help but be disgusted as he thought on the scene with his kids that morning. Every year since his kids were little they knew that he and his partner Tom Callahan and his wife Michelle visited the kids in the hospital on Christmas Day. It was something that had never even been an issue. It was just a fact. Though for the past few years, he knew that they had begun to resent all the time he spent on “the charity cases” at the hospital. He had volunteered in various ways over the years. For which he knew that his ungrateful children had begun to refer to him as an “old fool”; getting soft in his old age. Maybe he had given them too much when they were growing up. Made it where they didn’t appreciate what they had, just how fortunate they were.

Now they still acted as if they were in their early twenties with the parties they constantly threw and attended instead of each pushing forty. His son-in-law and daughter-in-law were just as bad as his own kids when it came to being spoiled by the money he had acquired over his life. He had already given up on ever having the grandchildren that he had so wanted too. Shoot, if his kids had given him them grandchildren, they’d be getting close to getting out of high school now. Instead, the closest thing to grandchildren it looked like he would ever get were the kids he visited here at the hospital.

Getting to the nurses’ station, Ben saw Michelle’s sister Susan. The head nurse on staff in this wing. She had a few of the kids of various ages all lined up waiting on Santa to arrive to bring them their presents. They had been told that HE would be making a special trip just for them today. Looking at all the kids, his heart just about broke as they all started to happily scream when he walked into view.

“Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!”

Behind him, Tom and Michelle helped pull the other bags of presents that he himself couldn’t carry. He had practically bought out a small toy store of whatever toys that they had left on the shelf the night before to add to the toys that he had already bought to bring today. Another reason for his kids to be so upset with him this morning. They were upset at how he was wasting THEIR inheritance away. Well, he ain’t dead yet. So it was still his to spend however way he wanted. After all, it was he that had built up the wealth over the years, not them. If he wanted to buy out toy stores and candy shops on occasion, then no one was gonna stop him.

Kira watched from her opened door as an old man in a Santa suit was surrounded by the kids in the wing each practically screaming to the point of going hoarse. She should have known that the hospital would pay someone to visit all the kids. A part of her wished that she was still young enough to believe in Santa Clause and the hope that he seemed to bring with him as he was handing out the presents that he’d brought with him. From where she sat in her room, she was impressed that the toys that were given out didn’t seem to be the factory rejects that she had sometimes seen given out by the various charity groups that had tried to collect toys for the kids at the orphanage over the years.

Despite herself, Kira climbed out of bed and stood by her door to watch the goings ons a bit better. Everyone was having such a good time. It was as if for an hour, the kids and their parents were able to forget that they were in a hospital where the kids were in a very real fight for their lives. Standing where she was, she could almost, ALMOST, believe in miracles. After all, everyone else in the wing seemed to believe it, if just for a little while. But she then reminded herself that her life itself was enough to disprove such foolish thoughts. If miracles existed, she certainly wouldn’t be here with no family or spent all her life in various foster homes and then bouncing back and forth on and off the streets. So instead of joining in with the Christmas fun, Kira closed her door to the smiles and laughter that seemed to be running rampant in the hall.

As Santa had just finished talking to the last kid that had waited eagerly for his turn, Tom and Michelle had handed out most of the various toys to the children along with the many types of candy that had been brought for the children. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a sad teenager with thinning red hair who had been watching the morning activities from her room close her door. He had seen a stark contrast in her room from the other children’s rooms. Their rooms had flowers, balloons, toys, and other personal touches to make their rooms feel like less of a hospital room. He had seen none of that in the teen’s room. Making his way over to Susan, he asked about the teen.

“She’s the saddest case I’ve seen in a while. Doesn’t have any family to visit her. Her own social worker referred to her a “Throw-away Case”. Just was brought back off the streets before she was brought in here. Hardly ever says two words to any of the nurses either when we go in there to check on her.”

Ben watched Susan leave to respond to a call in another room as he thought about the teen. Heading across the hall, Ben slowly made his way to the only room with a closed door. Once at the door, he knocked and waited for permission to go in. When it didn’t come, he opened the door anyway and poked his head in.

“Mind if I come in?”

“You gonna leave if I say I do?”

“Maybe.”

Kira looked at the man in red for a minute before resigning herself to the intrusion. “Knock yourself out. Don’t you think I’m a little old for a visit from Santa though?”

“You’re never too old for a friendly visit, regardless of who that visit is from.” Closing the door behind him, he walked over and extended his hand while offering his name. “I’m Ben.”

Kira looks at his hand distrustfully before taking it. “Kira. Aren’t you supposed to lie and say your name is Kris Kringle or something?”

“Well, you’re the one who said that you’re too old for Santa Clause. And since you didn’t come out I figured I’d come to you. You may be too old for a doll, but you’re never too old for candy. We brought all kinds. What’s your favorite? I’ll bet we have some for you.” Kira just shrugged her shoulders. She really hadn’t had many sweets; one was the same as another. “Well, I’ll just bring ya in a mixed bag. How’s that?”

“Fine I guess.” Kira tried to go back to reading an old book that the night time cleaning woman had left her. It was a text book that she had used last semester
in college. The school was using a different one this semester so it was just lying around.

“What ‘cha reading?” Ben flips the book up to see the title and was surprised. “Western Civilization. Isn’t a college text book a little old for you?”

“Not really. I’ve always liked reading about history anyways. And there ain’t much else to do while stuck in here.”

Ben got Kira to tell him about what she’d been reading. Currently she was reading about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Ben was impressed by how bright she seemed to be, both in the book learning that she seemed to be keeping up with despite not having been in school on a regular basis and with her natural quick-wittiness. Even the fact that she was almost constantly sarcastic seemed to endear her to him. Ben spent over an hour talking to the snappish teen until it was clear that she was becoming overly tired. He left with a promise to return the next day. Kira didn’t really believe she’d see Ben again. After all, she’d heard that promise before from others that had yet to return.

“Right after I went into remission, Ben legally adopted me and took me on a trip to see some of his friends in Ireland then had me take a test to find out where to start back into school. I’d gotten far enough ahead from my own studying that I was able to go ahead and get my GED instead. He pushed me to go to college and even put me in his will; a fact that his kids hated. It’s because of Ben that I was able to go to Law School. It’s because of Ben, that you even have to put up with me at all.” Jebb tightened his hold a bit on his wife as she fell silent.

Pauline stared at the young woman in front of her as if for the first time. Anyone could tell that Kira had skimmed the surface of her childhood to make it easier to tell. The inner torment was evident on her face. She also saw how her son reacted to the telling. Right now, he looked like the man that she’d always hoped that he’d grow up to be. Not the boy pretending to be a man that he’d been when he was off running around the country-side, dating any girl that crossed his path. When did she blink and he change so much? Looking back at Kira, she had tears threatening to roll down her cheeks.

“Well, I think it’s a fine name.” Pauline took her husband’s hand. “It’s a name that your son will be able to be proud of.” John squeezed Pauline’s hand in approval of his wife’s actions.

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