"Arrested? What for?" Luke asked.
"That's what I'd like to know officer!" Uncle Jesse announced after he, Bo and Cooter had entered the examining area.
"Luke!" Bo grinned, unable to help himself as he rushed forward and enveloped his cousin in a brotherly hug. "Are you alright? Gosh, we sure have been worried about ya."
"Luke?" The officer asked with a frown on his face.
"Luke." Luke whispered even as he was being hugged by Bo. "Luke……Luke….." He trailed off as his expression morphed from confusion to realization. "Luke!" He exclaimed, pushing Bo away and pointing to himself in excitement. "Luke! I'm Luke Duke! Ha Ha!" He laughed, jumping off of the table even as the doctor instinctively moved to hold him down. Turning right back to Bo, he was the one administering a squeezing hug this time. "You're my cousin, Bo! And you……" He added, turning to grab Jesse in a hug that relieved him of his red hat. "…………., you're my Uncle Jesse!"
As Luke turned his excitement to Cooter, the mechanic held his hands up. "Hey I'm glad to see you too and I know we're at the hospital and all that, but that don't mean I'm too keen on lettin' your enthusiasm land me a room here." He advised as his mouth morphed into a grin. Luke let out a hearty, yet calm, laugh after the revelation and embraced his friend without crushing him.
"Is this some sort of a prank?" The officer snarled. "Two minutes ago I verify your identity, and all of a sudden it changes when mention of an arrest is made?"
"But I'm not Jeremy I really am Luke Duke." Luke argued. "It's all coming back to me now. I was in a car wreck, coming home from my Marine reunion………Kathleen came along, she took care of me. I didn't know who I was. She told me I was Jeremy." He rapidly explained, patting around on his pockets in search of his wallet as the officer stood there with his arms crossed. "Why did she do that?" He mostly asked himself.
"So amnesia's to blame fer what we've been through." Jesse nodded in realization
"Looking for this Luke?" Bo asked, extracting Luke's wallet that he had held on to since they found it at the old well, the one in front of the cabin where Luke had first been cared for. Luke gratefully took the wallet, frowning only a bit in confusion at it's soaked condition. Pulling out his license he noted how smeared the writing was, but it wasn't so far gone that it could prevent the officer from identifying both the image and the name.
"And I can also assure for you, officer, that when his family brought him here they identified him as Luke Duke." Dr. Lunsford added before a nurse parted the curtain and asked to speak to him outside.
"And Dr. Wilson from the Tri-County hospital could probably come here and identify him as well." Jesse theorized as the doctor made his exit.
The officer held up his hands. "I don't think any of that will be necessary. You'll definitely need a replacement license, but this pretty much proves who you say you are." He added, handing the card back to Luke. "Now the only problem is finding the real Jeremy Robinson. He's was wanted for robbery, now for jailbreak. Kid should have just sat it out, he only liked a couple of months. Now he'll go back for at least five."
Just then, Dr. Lunsford re-entered the room with a rather solemn expression on his face. "Terrible news, folks." He announced. "I've just been informed that Mrs. Robinson has died."
"Died?" Luke repeated after a few moments before he stumbled backward and was caught by Cooter.
"Easy Luke." Jesse said, reaching over to help him back to his feet. "You alright?"
"No." Luke shook his head, turning to his uncle. "Uncle Jesse I was driving that car. If Kat has died then that means that I………"
"Hang on son." Dr. Lunsford interrupted, holding up his hand. "Mrs. Robison's passing is tragic nonetheless, but it wasn't your fault. It seems she took her own life."
"She was only supposed to stay overnight for observation." A nurse said, taking over the conversation as she entered the room with Will. "There weren't any serious injuries other than the head wound. But for whatever reason, she chose to cut her IV line, which sent an air bubble to her heart."
"Patients of sound mind who choose to go that way know exactly what they're doing." Dr. Lunsford assured Luke.
"Of sound mind?" Luke asked as Will fell into his arms, having reached for the only familiar face in the room. "The woman convinced a man with amnesia that he was her husband. How sound could her mind have been?"
"Nevertheless we now have other issues to deal with, namely the placement of this child in temporary foster care until some of his family is located." The officer announced. "Can you watch him while I make the arrangements?" He asked the nurse.
"I'll watch him." Luke assured the officer.
While the nurse, doctor, and officer left to attend to matters concerning Kathleen and Will, Cooter volunteered to use the lobby payphone to call Daisy with the latest update on Luke. While they were all gone, Luke held the baby in his arms and held out his hand, which Will slapped with continuous fives.
"What's gonna happen to Will, Uncle Jesse?" Luke asked.
"Well with his daddy on the run and his momma passed, we can only hope that some of his family can take him in." Jesse replied.
"I'll be back in a minute, I'm going after a drink." Bo announced, thinking that Luke might want a few moments with Will. When he parted the curtain, he stopped short at seeing a petite blond standing there.
"Oh I'm sorry." She said, looking up at Bo. "I'm Heather Greer. This is Kate Shipman." She added, nodding to the other blonde who stood behind her. "We worked with Kathleen as nurses at the Tri-County Hospital. When we heard she had been in an accident, we wanted to come and offer our support. We're shocked beyond words to hear what has happened."
"We were all such good friends." Kate sniffed. "Seems like bad luck has come in threes, for us. First with Jeremy being on the run, then with my family crisis, now this."
Heather patted her friend then turned back to Bo. "We just heard that Jeremy had been caught and was in here. We wanted to offer him our condolences."
Bo offered the ladies a slight smile. "I'm afraid it was all a big mistake, Jeremy wasn't admitted here today. But Kathleen's baby is in here if you would like to visit him."
The ladies looked at each other for a moment before they turned back to Bo. "I'm confused. Kathleen doesn't have a baby." Heather replied, shaking her head.
But Kate's eyes widened. After she recovered from the small shock, she pushed past her friend and past Bo, forcing herself behind the curtain where Luke had been treated, where he still stood playing with Will.
Her loud gasp brought Luke and Jesse's attention away from the baby, where they saw her standing there with both hands over her mouth. In moments, excited tears appeared at the corners of her eyes. "Gregory!" She exclaimed.
The name meant nothing to the Dukes, but it seemed to spark some real recognition in Will. At hearing the name, the baby looked toward Kate, squealing and bouncing so much in Luke's arms that Luke was momentarily afraid that he would drop him. When it became more than obvious that the baby was much more interested in Kate than in Luke, he handed him off to her.
"Oh Gregory, oh my baby….." Kate trailed off, giving the baby a parade of kisses as Heather also entered and became wide eyed at the scene. "I was so worried about you, I thought you were gone forever!"
"I don't believe it." Heather whispered as the officer returned. "Kathleen……..she wasn't gone to Arizona to see her momma, she was………………"
"She was kidnapping my son!" Kate exclaimed, bringing shock to everyone in the room. "I've got to go call his father, let him know he's been found."
With that, she hurried out of the room with baby Gregory in tow.
"Well." Luke swallowed. "At least we know he's going to be taken care of." He replied while Jesse patted his shoulder.
"I never would have expected this." Heather announced. "I know Kathleen had tried for years to have children without success but for her to stoop so low as to take her best friend's child…….."
Dr. Lunsford nodded. "I'm beginning to think you're right about her stability, Mr. Duke. Seems she had dreams of the perfect family. Husband, child….." He trailed off. "And when her thieving husband disappeared and the child never materialized, she compensated by creating that family in a rather unusual way. I'm sure she knew that your arrival here at the hospital would erase that effort, therefore dashing her dreams a second time. Apparently she felt that life without a family wasn't much worth living."
"I feel sorry for her." Luke said, looking toward Jesse and Bo. "And I certainly don't condone what she did. But if that truly was her theory on life and family, I can't say that mine's much different."
After the Dukes had hugged again, Jesse spoke up. "Well speaking of family, why don't this one go home and enjoy a welcome home breakfast of pancakes and sausage?"
"Does that include extended family members as well?" Cooter asked hopefully, having overhead Jesse as he returned to the room.
"Sure, we always strive to make extended family members feel right at home when it comes to breakfast." Bo assured him with a slap on the back.
"Really?" Cooter asked in excitement.
"Yeah. Of course, when you're at home, you're usually the one that does the cooking." Bo grinned as he exited the room.
"And I got a brand new spatula. You get to be the first to break it in." Jesse added with a laugh as he steered a chuckling Luke out of the room with him.
"How exactly did I get myself into that?" Cooter asked himself, offering the other occupants of the room a slight wave as he himself exited.
And so, that's how Luke survived his brief life as Jeremy Robinson, a jailbreak father and husband.
So all the Duke men returned to the farm for a reunion with Daisy, just in time to greet the morning sun. Daisy was overjoyed to hear that Cooter had been assigned cooking responsibilities, but as ole' Cooter admits, he ain't dumb. When he presented the family with that half burnt plate of pancakes, you can rest assured that he was never invited to cook again.
And as for Will, who we now know as Gregory, he returned home to live a happy life with his mother and his father. And of course, his new 'Uncle Luke' was a frequent visitor.
I gotta admit the kid had it rough there for awhile, being away from his mom and dad. But when you look at what he got out of it, kinda made it all worth it, don'tcha think?
THE END