Thanks for reading and reviewing. Also thanks to JadedPhonenixBurning for helping with this chapter. Her additions are in BOLD print. Since I have a couple of her characters on loan, I needed help to form them in a way that wouldn't conflict with any of her ideas for past, present or future stories. Thanks again. DixieDavenport.

Chapter 52

John returned to the farm just before lunch. He checked in with the other men, then went to the house.

Pauline had been busy with the twins when she heard the truck pull back in. It was unusal for John David to show up before dinner time. Pauline's protectiveness kicked in and she met her husband at the back door. He appeared fine when he got out of the truck and for that Pauline was thankful. She called out even before he reached the porch, "John David? Is everyone alright?"

John realized that she must be thinking the worst and thinking that someone was hurt. "Everyone is alright. I've just been out doing errands this morning. I just got back so I thought I'd come by the house for lunch." He said as he walked up on the porch.

Pauline smiled, "You haven't done that in awhile. I'll go rustle you something up."

"Nevermind all that. I'll just tell Karen to watch the girls." John said as he took his wife's hand.

Pauline looked at him like he had two heads. Surely he wasn't coming home for 'that'.

Once they reached the top of the stairs John told Karen to watch the twins awhile as he kept heading toward his and Pauline's room.

Karen wasn't sure why her father was home at this time of day, but his tone of voice didn't leave room for argument. She wisely went to go tend her sisters.

Once in their bedroom, John locked the door. "Pauline, I know you that you don't want to go see Doc. I know that you haven't had a cycle since the twins have been born, but Sweetheart, I need you. Everytime we are together though, you get more and more worried. Then, the more you think about it and then you worry somemore, so when I walk in I'm the enemy. I don't want to be the enemy here."

Pauline looked at John with a torrent of emotions running through her. On one hand, she wanted to be angry with John David for even bringing this up. On the other hand, she didn't want her husband to think that she thought of him as the enemy.

Finally, Pauline said, "I know I need to go. I reckon I've just been to scared to."

"I know, Pauline. So, if you know that you aren't pregnant or that you are, would it make it easier for you to go talk to Doc?" John asked gently. He knew Pauline didn't want to even think about the possibility of being pregnant, but the possibility was there.

Pauline eyed her husband and thought about what he was saying. She wanted to know, she just didn't think that she could handle the embarrassment of it all only a year after her last humiliating experience at the doctor's office. Eying John David she asked, "What do you have in mind?"

John handed her the small bag that Pauline hadn't even noticed that he had been holding since he got out of the truck. John walked to the bed sit down and waited.

Pauline opened the bag and looked inside only to see a over the counter pregnancy test inside. "John David! Oh my word! Do you have any idea what folks will think? You actually went into the store and bought one of theses things?" Pauline automatically thought to Caroline at the drugstore. If John David bought this thing, she would have been the one to ring him up.

Which means that half of the womens club at church was bound to know that either she or Karen was needing a pregnancy test.

John looked at her like she had lost her mind. "Pauline relax. It wouldn't have bothered me to bought it up town but I knew it would you so I drove out of the County this morning, just to buy this for you."

Pauline allowed herself to breath a slight sigh of relief. "Alright. I suppose that this is better than just waiting around for nature to take it's course." Pauline took the box out of the bag and started to read the instructions. She saw that John must have sprung for one of the better ones since it didn't say that she had to wait until the morning to take it. "I'll be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere until we get this settled." John said. He had to admit to himself that at least part of him actually hoped the test was negative, but he was here for the long haul, so he'd take what he got. John also knew that test came back positive that he would likely not get back out to the guys anytime soon, unless he was thrown out, which just might be possible.

Pauline headed off to the bathroom then read the instructions a second, then a third time to make sure she did everything right. When she was finished and went back to the bedroom she could she the obvious question in her husband's eyes. "The test takes ten minutes. We'll have to wait."

John reached for his pocket watch, checked the time and put it away. "Alright so we wait. Come here." He patted the place on the bed beside him.

Pauline sat beside her husband and wrung her hands. She didn't want to just sit here for ten minutes but if she went down to try to get her housework done, she'll likely be to nervous too do it anyway. Once on the bed, John David wrapped her in a hug which she welcomed. After all of this time, she was about to be given an answer to the questions that have haunted her since her's and John's first night where she knew better than to allow herself to be drawn to her incredibly sexy husband that always seemed to know just what buttons to push.

After an incrediablly long few minutes of sitting silently together, John pulled out his watch. "Well, it's time. Just exactly what are we looking for to know one way or the other?"

Pauline stood woodenly and walk toward the bathroom with John right beside her. "According to the box, if the test turns blue then I'm pregnant. Otherwise, we're in the clear."

"That sounds simple enough I suppose." John said as he watched Pauline looking at the test like it was a snake ready to strike her. "It will be alright, no matter how it turns out."

Pauline gave John a sideways glance. That was easy for him to say. It won't be HIM carrying a baby yet again at an age that it just wasn't respectable anymore. It won't be HIM that will be stared at as if he was a trollop. It won't be HIM that will be hearing the snickering as he walked by. NO! His friends will probably consider this some sort of a macho triumph.

Taking a deep breath, Pauline opened the bathroom door and walked through with John close behind her. Picking up the test, Pauline closed her eyes to delay the news for just a few seconds more.

John stood patiently watching his wife as she refused to look at the test.

Pauline visibly braced herself before opening her eyes and looked down then quickly back up at John, "John David, I just can't do this."

"Let me see." John reached for the test. He looked down and saw the window of the test. He seen the paper was wet, but wasn't sure he'd call it blue. He suddenly realized that he had no clue 'how blue' blue would be. He frowned as he tried to determine if the wet paper was just the white paper wet or if it was grey which could be possibly a light blue. "Ummm, Pauline, I ..."

Pauline heard the uncertainty in John's voice and just knew that he was trying to tell her what she didn't want to hear. Pauline then bolted out of the bathroon and left John behind her. She couldn't help the tears that started to stain her face. She couldn't do this again. She just couldn't.

John looked at the back of his retreating wife as he now stood in the bathroom alone holding the pregnancy test. He wasn't sure why Pauline had bolted like a scared colt but he knew he'd better find out. John followed her back to the bedroom where he found Pauline laying across the bed crying. "Pauline, Darlin'. What is it?"

"What's wrong? What's WRONG! John David Duke! How can you ask me that right after you looked at that test." Pauline said as she sat up on the bed. "What's wrong is that we have two infants down the hall and now...NOW!" Pauline could feel her breathing hitch as she thought of the coming months.

John frowned again, "Just hold on a minute there. You just ran off like the house was on fire. I never said it was positive."

"I know it is! Just by the way you looked at it. Don't even try to sugarcoat it!" Pauline exclaimed.

John sat down beside his wife, "I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything. I was just trying to tell you that I just figured out that I don't know enough about this thing to know what I'm seeing. Just how blue is 'Blue'?"

"It was BLUE?" That was all that Pauline had to hear. Already she could see that she could expect to be seeing Doc Greenwood a lot more often for the next several months.

"I didn't say that." John said as he pulled the test up into view. "I can't read it is all."

Pauline reached for the test and took a long look at the test as John waited for his wife to interpret the results. Pauline's hand began to shake briefly before she threw the test at John then reached behind her to grab a pillow and started to use it to hit her husband with it. "You put me through all of this for nothing? That's not blue at all. Honestly!" Pauline shouted at her husband.

"Pauline! I thought NOT blue was good!" John said as he tried to defend himself from her pillow assault.

"IT is. But you led me to believe it WAS BLUE!" Pauline said shouting. "I swear you just took ten years off my life."

"So, it wasn't blue? So you're, we're not, ... pregnant?" John asked wanting to make sure he understood correctly.

Pauline replied unable to keep her voice from raising as she talked, "No, no we're not, ... PREGNANT!"

Karen had been watching the twins downstairs, but had come upstairs for diapers. As she started back downstairs all she heard of her parents conversation was the single word, 'Pregnant!'

"Oh God! Not again." Karen groaned as she heard her mother. Here she was eighteen years old, fresh out of high school and now her mother was about to give her yet another little brother or sister or two. It hadn't been enough that her mother had been obviously pregnant at most of her senior year school funtions. Now her mother was out for a forth pregnancy. Karen muttered to herself that her parents should know better at their age. And here they'd insisted on giving HER the birth control talk.

Karen hurried back down the stairs with the diapers. She couldn't wait to tell Jeb what was going on here at the house the next time he calls from Hazzard.

John gave her the award winning smile that had caught Pauline's attention years ago. He took Pauline in his arms for a tight hug and passionate kiss, then said, "Alright, I'm going back to work now, while I still can and while you're still not pregnant. And, YOU, you are going to see Doc TOMORROW, so we can stay NOT pregnant!" John kissed Pauline again and knew if he didn't leave now, right now, that this whole test thing may have been for nothing. He groaned as he turned away from Pauline to head back out to work.

01~~~~~~~~~~~~01

As John did the chores around the farm, Pauline did her normal routine with the twins. If anyone can have a normal routine and twins at the same time, Pauline Duke managed pretty well. Emma and Emily were for the most part good babies and pretty much stuck to a schedule.

Karen had long since chosen to get up and fix breakfast for everyone instead of dealing with two wide awake infants. The way she looked at it, if her parents could 'let' something like this happen at their age, then she'd just let them deal with the infants or as much as possible. She liked her sisters and liked playing with them, but she felt it just wasn't up to her to be burdened with them. At breakfast she watched as her mother ate her normal breakfast and drank coffee with her father. Remembering the part of the conversation that she heard yesterday, Karen wondered just how long it would be now before her mother would insist on just toast for breakfast.

After breakfast John headed out for a normal day on the farms. Karen had returned to her room in pretense of straightening it. After Pauline managed to get the twins down for their morning nap, she then headed to get a bath before heading to town.

Pauline checked the time and saw that if she was going to get to town in time for her appointment with Doc Greenwood she'd best get moving. She went over to Karen's quiet room and knocked on it to ask her to watch the girls while she was gone but got no reply. She knocked a little louder (but not too loud since the nursery was right between Karen's and Jeb's room with two sleeping infant inside) but still got no response. When Pauline tried the door, she was infuriated to find that the door was locked.

Pauline had been ready to blow her stack, which would have woke the twins up. Then she remembered that her husband was a smart man. When he and Jeb had redone the kids rooms for Jeb and Karen to have some privacy and for the twins to have a room of their own, John had put a key up for just in case they would need to get into the four kids room. Pauline got the key and returned back to Karen's room.

When Pauline unlocked the door, Pauline was met by the sight of seeing her eighteen year old daughter lying across her bed with headphones on and listening to a tape on her player at a volume that was so loud she swore that she could almost make out the lyrics from where she was standing. Karen was supposed to be straightening up her room. Instead, she was painting her nails as if she was preparing for a date.

"Karen!" Pauline exclaimed as loud as she dared. When she didn't get a response she instead marched over to her daughter and ripped the headphones off of her head. "Just what do you think you're doin'?"

Karen truned to see her mother standing beside her bed. She was certain that she had locked the bedroom door. "Mother!"

"You were supposed to be cleaning your room, not painting your nails." Pauline said. Then added, "Cut off that blamed music!"

Karen reclutantly reached to cut off the music.

"The room looks fine to me." Karen shrugged. "I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal. I've been grounded to my room when I'm not helping around the house. The house is spotless so I figured that it wouldn't hurt anything to take a few minutes to myself. Geez!"

"Well, I see a lot wrong with this room. Clothes don't belong on furniture! You're privileges for the stereo were also taken when you were grounded. Furthermore, locking the door is unacceptable!" Pauline began.

"Geez, Mom. Take a pill. Just because you got another bun in the oven don't mean that you've got to take it out on me." Karen said as she sat up to face her mother.

Pauline blushed crimson! Then flew mad, "How dare you! I have no such a thing, but even if I did, that is none of your business!"

"Right. Just like it wasn't my business a year ago." Karen stood in front of her mother. "But I am the one that is constantly asked to take care of them when you are too busy to. It's my free time that is used to make sure that they are taken care of. Geez mom. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to go through my senior year with you like you were. Now you're going to do that AGAIN?"

Pauline couldn't believe this person in front of her was actually her daughter that she had raised for the past eightteen years of her life, "I'll not stand here in my house and defend myself to you, but as long as you live under this roof you will do as I say. The reason I came in here was to ask you, but now I am telling you that you will be watching the twins while I run to town. Before, you open your mouth to say anything further, I'll remind you that I wasn't thrilled about having to drag both of them to the courthouse to get you out of jail not to very long ago, so you owe me. Or, I can just call the judge and drop the bond."

Karen's mouth dropped. "I..." Karen now felt certain that her mother had to be pregnant. Now she knew she HAD to call Jeb. After all, it'll be HIM that will have to live with it longer that her. As soon as she could figure out a way out of the house, she was gone. If there was one place she didn't want to live, it was here in Tranquil.

Pauline continued, "Now, as I said, I'm heading to town and should be back soon. Then, you can do the rest of your chores that you have ignored all morning. The girls are asleep, bottles in the refrig."

Karen had a retort on the tip of her tongue but held it. With her mother out of the house, she could call her friends and check in with them. Then she could call Jeb. Karen figured that she chose the wrong summer to not go to Hazzard. But then, considering all that has happened there over the summer so far, she wasn't sure which place would have been worse. "Fine." Karen said. After all she wasn't sure that her mother wouldn't carry out her threat and send her back to jail to await her trial stemming from her night out with Danny. Karen couldn't help but wonder if he'd still be interested in her after all of the legal business was over.

Pauline was glad that her daughter had finally seen things her way. "Good. I'll be back soon. Remember, the girls schedule and that you are still grounded. No phone, friends, radio, ..."

"Yeah, Mother I know." Karen replied.

Pauline checked the twins one last time before heading on out. Karen then waited another ten minutes to get on the phone. She had planned to wait to call her brother last but considering everything, she couldn't wait to hear her baby brother's reaction to yet ANOTHER baby on the way. She only prayed that Jeb would be the one to answer the phone. If Daisy answered instead, Karen just knew that she'd spill to her younger cousin. Daisy and her always used to share gossip when they were younger but they seemed to grow apart once Karen went to high school. Now Karen was out of school and the chasm between them seemed even bigger.

Karen dialed the number to get the Hazzard County operator. She hated calling Hazzard and having to go through the operator instead of jsut dialing your number. Once the Operator came on the line she asked for the Duke Farm. She prayed again that Jeb answered. No such luck.

Daisy answered the phone, "Duke Farm."

"Daisy." Karen said trying to restrain herself from just spilling out the news that she'd just learned.

"Karen!" Daisy shouted into the line at her only female cousin. With the exception of the twins of course. "Honey, I've missed you!"

"Yeh, I know. Listen, Jeb wouldn't happen to be around would he?" Karen said while trying to sound natural. Though she supposed that calling her little brother in the middle of the day was anything but normal.

Daisy looked out the window. She didn't even see Luke who was more or less still restricted to the house area of the farm. "Sugar, I don't see any of the guys or Uncle Jesse. Is anything wrong there?"

"Well, not really. I was hoping to talk to Jeb. Imagine that. I actually miss having my baby brother around." Karen said jokingly as she then bit her lip trying to figure out if she should tell Daisy what she had heard yesterday. She really felt like she owed it to Jeb to tell him first. After all, he should know what kind of house he'll be returning to before school started back.

Daisy looked again, "Sugar, about the best I can do, is tell him to call you when they all get back in later today."

"Um... Actually I'm grounded and I ain't supposed to be usin' the phone. I don't think Mom would let me use the phone even to talk to Jeb. She's in town right now. That's why I'm callin' now and not later." Karen starred out of the window wondering just how long she had before her mother came home. "I'll try to get Jeb later. It just may take a few days."

'Ummm, ... Alright. Should I tell him that you called? Is anything wrong there other than you're being grounded?" Daisy asked.

"No, nothing else is wrong." Karen said then added, "Just tell the rug-rat that if he can. Have him try to call me without getting me in trouble. If Mom knows I used the phone I'll be lucky to see the light of day when I'm thirty."

Daisy smiled. She had been in Karen's shoes before. "Darlin', I'll sure tell him, just as soon as I see him.

01~~~~~~~~~~~~01

Pauline made it to town to see Doc. She was cautioned that since she still had not had a cycle that she and John should used additional protection for the next month or so to let the birth control to get into her system. Doc also advised Pauline that with her age she may also be starting to go through the change of life. That fact had hit her a bit harder than she would have thought. It was one thing to not WANT anymore children. It was quite another to be told that she very soon won't be ABLE to have more children. She wasn't really all that old. Every day she looked in the mirror and saw a woman that was still quite attractive, if she does say so herself. Especially for her age...Her age. When did she start adding that last bit?

Thanks again for reading and reviewing!