"At the Hospital"

"The medical technician suggested that I take KK to the emergency room just to make sure that all the debris is out of those cuts and scrapes." Uncle Jesse said.

Cooter spoke, "Listen, I'll take the General back to the garage and then meet you at the hospital."

KK awoke from her dead sleep and asked, "You can fix him, can't you Cooter?"

"Yes, sweetheart, I can fix him," Cooter told KK. KK then fell back asleep.

A few moments later when Uncle Jesse was assured that she was back asleep, "You're not pulling her leg, are you?"

"I wouldn't do that to her. No, it needs some body work, but I think it won't be that much to fix him."

"She's already stated that when she turns 16 it's hers, much to chagrin of Bo and even Luke," Uncle Jesse chuckled at the statement he had just made.

"So I will see you at the hospital as soon as my patient is tucked in for the night," Cooter said. He put the finishing touches of hooking up the General to his tow truck and proceeded to go into Hazzard to his garage.

After Cooter left, Matt asked, "Is she every really sleeping?"

"What do you mean Matt? Who's every really sleeping?" Uncle Jesse inquired.

"KK. That's the second time that we all thought she was sleeping when she asked a question that dealt with what were talking about. How would she know we were talking about the General coming out of a dead sleep?"

"Who knows Matt? But I get were you're coming at," Uncle Jesse commented. "Steve, I'll take KK and you take Daisy and Matt. I'm gonna have her checked out and then we'll meet in the emergency room waiting room."

The gang was in agreement and soon was off to the emergency room.

KK was not too sure of this. She had not liked the emergency room physician that was in charge of her care. He was not particularly nice or patient and that was one thing that KK liked in people. She couldn't wait for this to be over. Uncle Jesse could even read it in her eyes every time she looked at him, like this was somehow his fault. She knew it wasn't but it just felt better to blame someone.

When the physician left the room, KK had to asked, "When in the world can we get out of here?"

"As soon as he lets' you go. I know KK, you don't like him. Neither do I, but put up with it for a little bit more and then you should be done."

"You know when the boys get better, they're gonna owe me!" KK laughed.

Laughing with her, Uncle Jesse said, "I know kiddo, I know."

"I know what the price will be."

"What's that?"

"Currently, it has a little bit of body damage, but it's this bright orange-red color and has the number '01' written on the side."

"Very funny KK."

Suddenly the physician came back into the room.

"How much longer will you be with me?" KK asked.

"Until I check you out completely."

"What do you mean check you out completely?" Not knowing if she really wanted to hear the answer to this question.

"I need to make sure that your fit to go. That could mean a number of tests," the doctor said.

"Listen, doc! She just needs to make sure that all the debris from her dive on a dirt road is removed," Uncle Jesse stated.

"When you have a medical degree, you can play doctor. Right now…"

"Listen mister, I don't give a care what type of degree you have. I have more pressing issues going on right now and don't need you're egotistical attitude about how great you think you are because you have survive school long enough to become a doctor. And no one talks to an elder like that unless you're thriving for a whipping. No matter how annoyed you get with them. Now I think you owe my Uncle Jesse an apology," KK stated.

Both Uncle Jesse and the doctor was shocked. Uncle Jesse didn't know what to say after that speech and the doctor was shocked by what had come out of her mouth.

After a few moments of silence, "Well, do I have to call a supervisor or can you quickly finish what you're doing, give me some antibiotics to make sure an infection doesn't develop and we'll consider that we never met. Deal?" KK suggested.

All the doctor could do was nod. He couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth. He wasted no time in finishing checking KK over to make sure that there wasn't any more debris in her body and gave her a prescription of antibiotics in order to make sure no infection would develop.

By the time KK and Uncle Jesse appeared in the emergency waiting room, a bit after 7:00 p.m., Cooter had arrived.

"Any news yet?" Uncle Jesse asked.

"No, nothing yet. They told us they were still working on them and preparing them for some tests. As soon as they had some answers they would let us know," Daisy said.

KK went over to a long bench that sat underneath the windows of the waiting room. She knew she was being stared at by those in the room, but she just ignored them. She couldn't believe that this had happen. "What in the world had happened? " she began to think to herself as the sun set on another day in Hazzard County. "If this is foul play, then who and why?" There wasn't much going on in Hazzard – Boss nor Roscoe hadn't been after them for something that they didn't do and they would never not stop if something had happened. This just didn't make any sense to KK.

She hadn't even recognized that they sun had gone down, much less that it was now after 9:00 in the evening until Uncle Jesse walked over to talk to her.

Jesse sat on the bench, trying to get her attention. "Hey K, what ya thinking about?"

"Oh, Uncle Jesse," KK said like she was being awaken from a sound sleep. "I didn't even recognize you were even there. I was just thinking about the day's events. Something doesn't add up Uncle Jesse. Why would the General just hit a tree? The road was in fine condition – why didn't they even try to brake? Am I thinking too much on this one, Uncle Jesse?"

"No, darling your not. Now that you mention it, they would have tried to stop or at least swerve out of the path of tree."

"But there was no signs of that either. What gives?"

"I don't know right at the moment. Listen, Steve is going to get something to eat. Do you want to go with him? I'm staying here to hear for any news."

"No, I just don't want to leave them."

"KK, there's…"

KK interrupted him, "I don't want to go, okay?" KK said beginning to cry and walked away, to the other corner of the room. She didn't care that she was making a scene; she just didn't want to be too far away from either of them.

Uncle Jesse didn't know what to do. He was worried about her and how this would affect her. When her autism would kick in, Luke would be her rope back to reality. Now he wasn't able to provide that and he didn't know if he had the power and the strength to do it. He decided to let her be and told Steve and Matt to pick something up for her as well. "She's gotta eat sooner or later," Uncle Jesse commented.

"Steve, are they going to be okay?" Matt asked as they drove down the road.

"I don't know Matt. I don't know what the severity of their injuries is," Steve responded.

"What if it's never the same again? What if Luke isn't able to be there for KK? What would happen to her?"

"Matt, we have to pray that they'll be alright and leave it up to the Lord's hands. If its their time to go and then we have to accept it. It will be difficult, but it will work itself out in the end. As for KK, we have to make her strong enough to fight her own fight. That's what childhood is about. You learn how to make the right decisions and how to be your own person without your parents guiding you."

"Steve, do you think KK is special?"

"What to you mean by that?"

"Do you think that KK has a special gift? Is she able to predict what will happen in the future?"

"You mean a psychic?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't think so Matt."

"Why is everyone so negative about this? Steve," Matt said pleading, "How did she know that the tree was going to fall? There was no way by visually looking at the tree that it would have happened."

"Matt, you have been through a lot today. Are you sure your mind wasn't playing tricks on you?"

"Listen, KK has some type of ability. I don't know what, but whatever it is, God's knows when to tap into it."

Steve and Matt returned from buying dinner for everyone. Matt took his and KK's dinner to her, hoping to get her to eat. Steve found Uncle Jesse and Daisy.

"Steve, I'm worry about her KK. She's never been "alone" in this world. Luke has always been by her side."

"Has she moved since we left?"

"Not an inch. She just seems to stare off to space. She probably doesn't even recognize it's after 10 now. I'm afraid that with all the work that everyone has done to help her, will go down the drain if Luke isn't okay.

Meanwhile, over at the opposite corner, Matt was trying to enter KK's world.

"Hey, K. I've got something for you to eat," he said as he twirled the bag of food in front of her. He waited for a moment and tried to talk to her again. "KK, come on now. You've got to eat something." Still, no response.

Matt put the food down and picked up KK, put her in his lap and gave her a big bear hug. He tried to console her as best as he could be whispering in her ear that they would get better soon. Suddenly, she had gone limp in his arms and he knew that she had fallen asleep. With her in his arms, he stood up and laid her on the empty couch that was in the middle of the room.

Walking over to where Daisy, Steve and Uncle Jesse were, Matt said, "She just fell asleep in my arms. I felt that the couch would be more comfortable than that hard bench for her."

"It's been a doozy of a day for her. I could tell by watching her that she was struggling not to let her autism bother her," Steve commented.

"Yeah, she's probably exhausted and will hopefully sleep for a little while," Daisy said.

The group was eating and chatting away when the doctor came to look for the Duke family.

"Mr. Duke," Dr. Jorgersen asked.

Jesse wiped his hands on his napkin, stood up and put his hand out to shake the doctor's hand. " Yes, I'm Jesse Duke. This is my niece Daisy," who shook the doctor's hand as well, "the little one on the couch sleeping is my other niece KK. This is Steve Gleason and Matt Matthews, friends of the family. So what's the verdict?"

"Well, Mr. Duke," their conditions are critical. Both of them have internal injuries that are being repaired in surgery right now. Also, both are unconscious. I am really concerned with Luke because from the looks of the tests that we have run he probably has a closed-head injury. What the unknown factor is how much damage was done."

Uncle Jesse couldn't believe it. What in the world would he tell KK about Luke's condition? How would she cope if Luke wasn't the same Luke that she saw when she left for school this morning?

"Dr. Jorgensen," Steve inquired, "What is the worse case scenario for Luke?"

"Well, death would be the worse-case, but also he could be in what is called a vegetable like state."

Everyone was stunned and looked to the peacefully sleeping seven-year-old who was on the couch.

End of Part 2