When Kira woke up, it took her a moment to remember what had happened; which explained the ache in her lungs. Looking around her, there really wasn’t much to see. She was in a small store room with dirt floors and the air even smelled of dirt. A root cellar maybe? Getting up, she felt her way around the room with her hands since it was so dark. It would take a while for her eyes to adjust to the near pitch darkness of her small enclosure. Finding the hatch like door, her belief that she was in a root cellar was confirmed. The door was barricaded so she couldn’t get out. Being in a root cellar, Kira suspected that there was probably food stored down here and began her small search. She didn’t know how long she’d been down here but it must have been some time by now since what little bit of breakfast that she’d eaten seemed long forgotten. Instead of food, though, all she found were jugs of whiskey hidden away with her. There wasn’t any other clue of where she was to be found anywhere in the room.

Tired from her small exploration, since she’d not been allowed to move around much in quite some time, Kira made her way back to the dirt floor to sit back down roughly facing the door to the outside. The twins both seemed to be as upset as she was by their situation. Absentmindedly, she tried to calm them down as she wondered just how long she’d been missing now.

“It’s alright. By now everyone’s looking for us. We just have to be patient is all,” Kira said, trying to reassure herself more than her unborn babies.

“Kira! Dammit! Will you answer me already?”

“BO!”

“Kira! Are you alright? Where are you?”

“I’m alright. I just woke up. I think that I’m in a root cellar.”

“Thank God you’re not hurt. Any idea where they took you?”

“No, like I said, I just woke up. I haven’t seen anything.”

“If you get a chance to see the outside, let me know. I might recognize something if you do.”

“How long, Bo? How long have I been gone?”

“It’s been about ten hours, Kira. Don’t worry; we’ll get you out of there. Okay?”

“Alright. Just keep checking in with me. I don’t like being down here in the dark alone. It’s a little too much like Selma’s.” Kira usually tried not to think about her first foster mother. About the harsh, violent treatment that she received while under her care, but being trapped in a darkened prison wasn’t exactly helping her to NOT think about a time in her life when such things were common place.

“You’re not alone this time, Sis. I’m here and we’re all tryin’ our damn-dest to find you. You just remember that. Try talkin’ to the baby to keep your mind off of it as much as possible.”

“Just hurry.”

ira let out an involuntary shudder as something crawled up her arm. She swiped at it not really wanting to know what it was. Bo was right, this time her family was looking for her. She just had to wait patiently. She moved around to try to get comfortable, trying to relieve the pain in her back. She must have hurt it somehow when she was struggling to fight off the man that broke into her bed room.




“A root cellar, do you know just how many root cellars there are in Hazzard alone? And that’s assuming that she is even still IN Hazzard.” Luke was glad that Bo had finally gotten through to their missing kin but they still didn’t know where she was or where to start looking. But at least they knew that she was alive. That had to count for something.

“I know it, but it’s all we got. We’ll just have to pick a place and start searching. Maybe some old still sites that no one uses anymore, hunting lodges, abandoned farmhouses...”

Luke looked at his cousin in surprise; he was using his head instead of his emotions for once. He was right; the men would have gone somewhere that wasn’t used often so that could eliminate a lot of homes and such since they’d want to stay hidden.

“At least we can tell Jebb that Kira and the baby are alright for right now. That’s better than nothing. It’s dark Bo. Everyone else packed it in hours ago. Let’s check in with Jebb and get something to eat. We’ll be back out at first light.” Already, Luke was steering towards the farms as he spoke. He almost said so they could get some sleep but he had the feeling that no one in the Duke family would be getting any sleep tonight.




Daisy walked into the living room to find Jebb still staring at the phone, much like he had stared at the door to the emergency room last year when Kira had been taken into surgery after being run off of the road. As if merely staring at it, willing it to ring, could make it happen. A tap had been put on it just in case the men called to demand a ransom and an officer was left to operate the machine.

Daisy was worried that they hadn’t called yet. She couldn’t stand not knowing anything. She wanted to be out there with the fellas looking for Kira, too, but Uncle Jesse pointed out that with Pauline and John at the hospital, someone needed to watch the girls. And Jebb. It looked like he was just barely hanging on by a thread, stuck here waiting to the phone to ring. Knowing that the longer they went without the ransom call, the worse it looked for Kira and the baby. Pauline was being kept overnight for observation since she did indeed have a concussion. Daisy was certain that if Pauline was here Emma would be doing better. She wasn’t getting through to her at all.

“Sugar, why don’t you sit down and eat some supper? I can warm it up for you.” Daisy slipped an arm around Jebb’s waist giving him a hug.

“I ain’t hungry.” Jebb stayed stubbornly rooted to the floor where he was standing when Daisy tried to steer him to the couch.

“I tucked the girls in but I don’t think that Emma’s goin’ to be getting any sleep tonight. She’s still so scared.” Looking up at her cousin, she added, “She thinks you’re mad at her.”

“Why would she think that?” Jebb looked down in confusion at Daisy’s statement.

“Because you’ve not said two words to her since you came home. She thinks that she was supposed to do something to stop those men from taking Kira.”

“That’s ridiculous. She’s only eleven, what could she have done? Kira told her to hide under the bed; that’s all she was supposed to do.”

“Maybe you should go up and tell her that.” Daisy watched as Jebb’s eyes returned to the phone. “You’ll be able to hear the upstairs phone if anyone calls.”

Reluctantly, Jebb headed on upstairs as Daisy went on into the kitchen to heat up some dinner for Jebb and the boys since they were bound to come in soon as well. When Bo and Luke came in, they both collapsed into the kitchen chairs looking defeated. After Daisy put a plate of chicken in front of both of them they looked around the room and saw that Jebb wasn’t downstairs.

“Where’s Jebb? We wanted to tell him that we know that Kira and the baby are okay, even if we can’t find them yet.”

“I sent him upstairs to talk to Emma. She’s not doin’ so hot after this morning. I thought that he needed something to do other than staring at that phone, too. So you finally got through to Kira?”

“Yeh. All she knows is that she’s in a root cellar. The men came down a while ago to take her to the outhouse which means she’s somewhere without plumbing. It’s too dark outside for her to get a good look around to tell us where she is.”

“At least she’s alright. Jebb should be back down in a while. He hasn’t eaten since all of this started.” Daisy bit her lip. “I’m worried about him.” Daisy started to clean up the kitchen as the boys ate their dinner.

When Jebb still hadn’t come back down when the fellas left out to go back to the other farm for the night, Daisy went up to check on her cousins. Once upstairs, she found Jebb sitting up on Emma’s bed with her hugging tightly to her brother looking like she’d cried herself to sleep. Both were cuddled up together, sound asleep along with Emily in the next bed.

Without waking anyone up, Daisy grabbed a spare blanket from the closet and covered up Jebb and his sister. Daisy hoped that this would be the only night that they didn’t know where Kira was at. She wasn’t sure if Jebb could survive many more of them.




The next morning, the Dukes all were out searching before the sun was all the way up. Cooter had recruited most of the town’s folk into helping with the searching. Luke had come up with a logical explanation to search old farmhouses and lodges without raising too much suspicion. Everyone hoped that finding the young soon-to-be mother would be as easy as searching the old abandoned homes in the area.

Jesse set up a central command at his farm for everyone to check in, not really wanting to worry Jebb more than he already was by constantly hearing that no one had yet to find his wife. Knowing that Bo had reached Kira helped a little but it still wasn’t enough. He needed her home.

The state police questioned Shawn Kyle along with his sister in Atlanta but both claimed to not know anything about the kidnapping. Not that Jesse believed either of them. He’d like to have just two minutes in a room alone with them. He’d get the truth out of them then.

In between check ins; John let him know that he and Pauline were back over with Jebb. At least he’d have his parents there. Daisy had been doing the best she could over there, but those kids needed their parents with them right now; even Jebb who thought that he was too old to be mothered. Fussing over her kids was good for Pauline, too.

Freed from her duties of watching over her cousins; Daisy joined Cooter while he searched the county for her missing cousin. It seemed that everyone in the county was on the move, looking for the missing Duke. Just like they had done decades earlier when the Duke in question had been taken from a very different sort of bed, from her crib. In all the chaos, it was hard for anyone to remember that New Year’s Eve was the next day. Right now, no one felt much like celebrating.




Kira reached across the large table to try to grab her juice drink. The table was too big to reach the glass without getting up on her knees. Climbing up, Kira took a sip of her drink and went to put the glass back onto the table when SHE hollered at her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kira flinched as ‘Mama Selma’ chastised her for having such bad table manners. When she jerked, Kira lost her grip on the slippery juice glass and dropped it, sending shards of glass everywhere. “Look at what you’ve DONE! How many times have I told you not to sit on your knees at the dinner table? Has no one ever taught you decent table manners? You are old enough to know better than that now!”

Selma jerked the young charge up from the table and yanked her behind her as she headed down the hall. Why couldn’t Child Services send her kids that didn’t need such a firm hand? But then, she was good at what she did. Maybe that’s why they kept sending her these delinquents for her to straighten out. She knew just how to drill discipline into these kids. Opening the door to the basement, Selma pushed the girl into the stairwell.

“If you can’t make it through just ONE dinner without making a mess, then you can just stay down there for the night. Only good kids deserve a bed to sleep in.”

Kira tumbled down the stairs and felt sick to her stomach when she felt her right arm explode in pain when she landed hard at the bottom of the stairs. Later she’d learn that it was broken, but that was only after it was broken for a second time and was reset after never healing properly from the first break. She spent all night crying in pain as she clung to her injured arm. Somehow, she’d thought that she would have gotten a toy (a doll perhaps) for her fifth birthday, not a broken arm. That was just the first of many long, dark nights locked away in the basement of ‘Mama Selma’s’.

Kira bolted up as she felt her heart race at the memories that the nightmare invoked. She wanted out of here. It was hard for her to breathe down here in the darkened prison. She couldn’t even tell what time of day it was; or is it still night? Who knew? Hearing voices outside, she backed away toward the dirt wall. When the door opened, one of the men came down to walk her up to the outhouse while the other man stood by the door with his gun trained on her.

“Let’s go.” The taller man said impatiently as he reached down and jerked his prisoner up by the arm when she couldn’t move fast enough for him.

Kira guessed no one ever told him that it’s a bit difficult for pregnant women to get up off the floor in a hurry. Once up the stairs, Kira tried to get a look around but all she saw was trees. There was an old shack, which must be where the men were staying, that was situated on the side of a mountain. There was a steep slope heading down into a ravine below the house and a sharp climb up to Lord knows where.

After a quick visit to the outhouse, the men sent her back to the hole in the ground that had become her prison. The whole time, the two men refuse to answer any of her questions about why they were doing this. Why had they kidnapped her? Who hired them? What they wanted? When she could go home? The smaller man seemed to waver on the verge of answering her when the taller man cut him off with a look. So much for getting any information that she could pass on to Bo. At least she knew that she was in the mountains. That narrowed down possible places to look just a little.




Pauline walked back out into the kitchen to find her son still sitting at the table with the phone’s cradle in front of him where he’d been all day; ever since he’d woken up this morning. Now he was sound asleep with his head resting on one arm and the other arm around the phone. Still waiting for it to ring so he could bring his wife home. It had been nearly impossible to keep him home two days in a row.

Once Jebb was again told that if the kidnappers called, that they would only talk to him, he’d set up right here in the kitchen. Now, with the searchers packing it up for the second night in a row, without finding his wife, Jebb was to the point of panic. Only after John had gotten him to drink more than just a little of Jesse’s finest, did he relax enough to sleep; even if he refused to leave his place by the phone.

Brushing some of Jebb’s hair out of his eyes, she watched him sleep like she hadn’t done since he was a small boy. Pauline’s heart was breaking for her son. She’d never seen him in pain like this. She just didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like when he was a young boy and fell off of his bike after trying a stunt that was too dangerous for his age. Or when he’d had his first broken heart when the girl of his choice decided to go to the spring dance with the captain of the football team instead. It wasn’t like any other problem that she’d ever helped him with throughout his life. His wife and unborn baby were in mortal danger and they didn’t even know where they were at. Looking out the window at the moonless night, Pauline sent up a prayer for both her daughter-in-law and grandchild. Praying to God above to bring them both home safe, and for her son’s sake, soon.

“He finally went out I see.” John walked up behind his wife and hugged her as she continued to watch their son sleep.

“Knocked out about half an hour ago.”

Pauline moved the nearly empty glass of moonshine off the table. She’d never seen anyone drink so much of the stuff in one sitting. Jebb was going to have a monster of a headache when he woke up. And to add to the whiskey, he’d barely eaten in two days. Her baby was going to be so sick in the morning, but at least it got him through the night. But what about tomorrow night, or the night after that?

“I’d better move him into the living room. He can’t exactly stay like that all night. Go get some blankets for me.”

Pauline went in search of the blankets while John stood his son up and supported his weight as he slowly moved Jebb into the living room and dumped him onto the couch. He was getting too old for this. Jebb began to mumble about his wife and how he needed to go find her. John did his best to pacify his son and ended up having him finish the nearly empty glass of ‘shine before Jebb once again passed out. If anyone had ever told him that he would intentionally get his son so drunk, he would have thought them crazy.

Coming back into the living room with the blankets, Pauline covered her son up. “What did you learn when you went over to Jesse’s for the ‘shine? You said that you’d tell me later. Rosco’s been checking in with Jesse every couple of hours by CB during the day but I know he went out to see him in person after supper. Have the police found anything?”

“No.” John shook his head. “They spent hours questioning Shawn but he just kept saying that he didn’t know what they were talking about.”

“You told me that earlier. There’s something else.” Pauline stared into her husband’s eyes as he battled with what he was about to tell her.

“Rosco said how it’s not a good sign that we haven’t gotten a call yet. He thinks that it may not be Jebb that they were planning to call. That maybe they decided that they could squeeze their boss for a bit more money before they... Before they kill her. As soon as their boss, whoever it is agrees...”

Pauline closed her eyes to what her husband was saying. That the men still planned to kill their son’s wife without even trying to contact them first. If there was a ransom, there was no question that Jebb would give every dime he and Kira had. But for the men not to even ask for it?

“I’m scared John. If Jebb loses Kira and the baby, I’m afraid we’ll lose him, too.”

John pulled his wife to him, fearing the same fate for their son. Jebb was quickly falling apart and John didn’t know if anyone other than Kira herself could help put those pieces back where they belong.

“You head on to bed. I’ll stay in here just in case he gets sick.” John kissed his wife and sent her on to the guest room while he made his way to the recliner and fell into a light sleep, keeping one ear out for any movement from his son. “Lord, I’m scared too. Look after them. All of them.”

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