1/30/2020 A/N: For any readers who have read this chapter previously, I apologize for the continuity errors I have corrected - for everyone else, you won't know what they were'cause I fixed 'em.

Chapter Forty Six:

Sunday, November 2, 1997 – Los Angeles, CA

Soonie bent her head under the hot water streaming down from the showerhead, both hands pressing against the tiles, unsure if she was keeping the wall upright or the wall was keeping her from sinking onto the floor.

Amidst thoughts of all that had happened over the past five days, she thought of four year old Eun-soon. Born to one parent who had loved her, like the 'graceful gem' her brother believed she was when he named her, and to the other parent who had abandoned her when she was only three months old. Jae-sung had raised the child on his own. His leaving for the Congo while Gem was so young was, to Soonie, an unfathomable choice no matter how noble the cause. Gem must be feeling abandoned again and so alone.

Soonie's father was still not taking her calls. Whenever she phoned, the housekeeper was profusely apologetic and asked her to understand. She understood - too well. Her father had been distant to her after the divorce. He had avoided her at Jae-sung's wedding. He had refused to speak to her at all after she became an American citizen. Yet, she continued to hope that, someday, the love he had for her when she was young would overcome ingrained tradition and archaic notions about family honor.

Finally stepping out of the shower she heard her mobile phone ring in the bedroom. She threw on her robe and was still tying it, long strands of wet hair dripping on the carpet, as she dove for the phone next to the bed.

"Hello…Hello," she said, breathless from the effort.

"Kyung-Soon," her uncle Sang-jun said on the other end.

"Uncle." There was an unmistakable tinge of disappointment in her voice.

"Are you not well, Kyung-soon?"

"I am as well as can be managed, Uncle. May I call you back? I am expecting a call from Enos."

"You may. However, it is most important that I speak to you as soon as possible."

"Yes, Uncle, I will. Please forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive. But you must call me as soon as you can."

"I will, Uncle. Thank you for understanding."

Soonie hung up the phone and slumped over onto the bed, her heart thumping fast in her chest from the hot shower, the phone still in her hand. She could wait for whatever new and weighty news her uncle needed to impart.

It was Daisy who answered Turk's knock at the door and she couldn't remember how long it had been since she'd needed to see a familiar face. They hadn't seen each other in more than eleven years.

"Hi, Daisy. Long time." As proxy for his best friend, he pulled her into a hug. She looked like she needed one.

"Yeah, I guess that's my fault," she said, pulling away so she could see his face. It was eleven years older but still with that mischievous gleam in his eyes that confirmed he was still sowing a few wild oats. It had never surprised her that Enos and Turk were buddies. Turk would be as 'at home' in Hazzard as he was on the streets where he grew up and proved it when he visited a month or so before Enos returned to Los Angeles, in '87. She narrowed her eyes and studied him.

Turk misinterpreted her puzzled look as her need to know how Enos was doing. "Where's Kay? I need to talk to both of you."

Still mulling something over in her mind, and wondering why she had never thought of it before, she pointed over her shoulder to Kay's closed bedroom door. "She took a shower. I expect she's finished by now. Should I knock on her door?"

"Not yet," he said. "Daisy, how the hell did you manage to find yourself here…at Kay's apartment, I mean. For that matter, why did you get on a plane to L.A. without calling first?"

Turk was never one to mince words or tip-toe around a subject. And, as far as she could remember, no one else had asked that question since she arrived, not even Enos. Of course, their conversation had not really amounted to diddly squat, except to confound her, in the hour or so at his apartment, or the drive to the airport, or at the airport.

"I'm beginnin' to wonder that myself. Seemed like a good idea at the time," she said, palms up, pulling away from the hug. "How's Enos?"

Turk flashed her a weak smile. "He's doing as well as he can be right now. I'll give you as many details as I can when Kay…"

"It's okay. I understand."

"Do you?" he asked, with more than a bit of doubt hanging on the question mark.

"Let's say I'm trying."

He always thought Daisy, completely lacking guile, was as easy to read as anyone he had ever met. Shuckin' and jivin' the local Hazzard constabulary didn't count. He had met Rosco and Boss Hogg. What a pair those two were. Never could understand Enos's deep affection for Rosco, but then, some people would never have put him and Enos together either.

Soonie took an inordinate amount of time to finish drying herself. When she heard Turk's voice through the door, she pulled a pair of capris and a sleeveless top out of the closet and dressed. She'd been putting off the inevitable of being in the same room with someone with whom she had only have one thing in common at the moment – they were both waiting for a phone call.

Turk was asking Daisy how she came to be at her apartment. Earlier in the day Inez was explaining the logistics to them; owing to the need for both privacy and a safe environment. Daisy couldn't stay at Enos's apartment; it was still part of an active crime investigation. Inez would allow Daisy to stay with her, but that might cause more speculation about her role in the events of the past three or four days. The same would be true of any of the other detectives. It looked like a hotel and might be the only solution where they could provide at least medium security. But that would still leave her too exposed and too easily accessible by media, or anyone who might want to get to Enos through the people he cared about. And that would only be a very temporary solution.

That's when Soonie, although she could not have told anyone why, suggested Daisy stay at her apartment for the duration or until a more viable situation could be found. Or until Daisy could get on a plane back to Hazzard.

Kay lived in an already secure building, with coded entry and its own internal security, and would require only one unmarked police detail to be assigned. It was logical. Inez even had to admit it would help to contain the situation while involving minimal LAPD resources. Suspecting Kay's motives? That was an occupational hazard. When Daisy accepted, Inez was as surprised as she seemed to be at herself. What her motives were in accepting the offer, Soonie could not have guessed, and she didn't delude herself that it would give them a chance to bond or become friends.

After a moment's pause, with her hand on the doorknob, she entered once more unto the breach, reminding herself that Daisy had walked into something she neither imagined nor bargained for.

Turk didn't sugar coat what they knew so far or what they suspected. He told them about the messages on Kate's machine, the pre-paid phone, everything they knew so far that might help them fill in any blanks in the events that precipitated Kate's disappearance and Enos's attack.

"We believe, at the moment, that he called Kate sometime earlier in the evening, in response to a message she had left on his machine, before he took you to the airport," he said to Daisy. Then to Soonie, "He can't get his phone records until tomorrow morning and we have a tech working on his home phone to see if we can pull any outgoing calls before then; but we're not counting our chickens. We picked up the one message from Daisy telling him that she was in L.A. at," he flipped the folder open, "6:05 p.m. Friday night and one from Kate at 8:56 p.m. Do you remember him being called to the phone while you were at the Halloween Ball?"

"No, but I was playing with the ensemble or doing a solo most of the evening. I saw him talking to Mr. Walsh for about ten or fifteen minutes, but most of the time he was talking to prospective donors or volunteers. But, I am extremely focused when doing solo performances. I might have missed something."

"He remembers most, not so much in detail but bits and pieces, up until he picked you up Friday evening and that Kate wasn't at the ball because she was 'pre-committed.' And he didn't say anything to you about a phone call with Kate while you were at the ball?"

"No, nothing," Soonie said.

"And he didn't seem concerned about anything?"

"And I When we left, the only topic of conversation was my brother's plane crash," she paused only for a moment, "and he asked if I wanted to drive up to San Francisco then instead of waiting..."

"That much was in your statement," he said and pulled a photo out of the file folder he'd brought with him. "Do you recognize this man?"

"He is the man that Enos was talking to outside his apartment building Friday night. He knew him."

"Enos identified him from the sketch made from your description. His name is Warren Underwood, but we called him 'Squiggy.' Back when we knew him, he was a low-level gopher for street thugs and pimps mostly. He was a confidential informant of ours that even Enos thought was unredeemable. And that's saying something. Neither of us has seen him in, gotta be, sixteen years. Why he approached Enos where he lives after all this time is still a mystery."

"Enos still doesn't remember." Daisy said, flatly, rather than asked.

"No, at least not that part. Anything on Friday close to the time he was attacked is still a blank slate. But we think Squiggy," Turk tapped the face on the photo, "may have been what started setting off his alarm bells and then it just escalated from there into him making a beeline to her apartment after the second message. Still trying to locate Squiggy but the slippery little weasel's gone underground."

Soonie asked, "Turk, do you want some coffee?"

"No, thanks, Kay. Daisy. I know you declined to say anything about what transpired between you and Enos after Kay left his apartment Friday night, but now, we need to know. If for nothing else, to help jump start Enos's memory. Did he say anything that made you think he was concerned?"

Kay interrupted. "I need to call my uncle and will be in my room when you need me." She focused her attention on Turk.

So did Daisy.

"Thanks, Kay."

After Soonie pulled the door shut behind her, Daisy started relating the strange exchange between her and Enos after Kay left. Strange then, but starting to make some sense now, at least in part. As sudden as that thought was, memories of, what were at the time, puzzling, conversations throughout their adulthood, back when he was still in Hazzard, started making some weird sense.

After Kay bolted out of the apartment like somebody set her petticoat on fire, it had just been awkward. Except for the time between April and August when they didn't talk at all, she had never had a problem knowing what to say to Enos. He had sounded fine on the phone a few days earlier, not that they had talked about anything but the stuff memory lanes are paved with. Now, she didn't know where to start.

"When did you get here, Daisy?"

"A couple of hours ago. I left a message on your answer machine when I landed. Then I decided to come to your apartment and wait. You weren't home and I met Mrs. Huang in the hall. Enos, who is that woman you were with?"

"Possum on a gum bush, I'm glad ta' see ya, Daisy. You want somethin' to drink? You must be parched. This Los Angeles air will dry you out fast. Spent my first week or two with a bloody nose…"

He had kept on like that for at least another twenty minutes, rattling on about Uncle Jesse and Bo and Luke. She couldn't get a word in edgewise. Or maybe it was that he was the Enos Strate that left Hazzard almost eleven years ago and not the Enos Strate she had been talking to on the phone for the last couple of months. Out of the blue she wondered which one was the real Enos and which one was the actor.

"Did I ask if ya' wanted somethin' to drink?"

"Yes, you did. I had enough tea with Mrs. Huang that my eyes are floating. Can I use your bathroom?"

"Course ya' can Daisy. It's right through there." Starting to pace, he pointed to his bedroom. That's when she noticed that he hadn't sat down the whole time.

She got up from the couch shaking her head. Closing the bedroom door behind her, she leaned with her back against it and wondered, certainly not for the first time that day, if she had made the right decision to come to L.A.

She'd had no idea why she felt so nervous being in his apartment, let alone in his bedroom. After all, she'd slept in his room one night, way back when. Thoughts of who Kay was were replaced by taking in the surroundings. Had he become a cloistered monk? The bedroom was sparse, except for the neatly made double bed, a night stand, and a dresser with her picture on it. The same photo of her that had been on his dresser the night she'd had to sleep over behind that silly 'wall of Jericho,' and the day they almost got married – the first time. There was nothing else. No pictures hanging on the wall, no other photos in the room, no personal items sitting about.

She used the facilities and washed her hands, seeing herself in the mirror for the first time since she had used the restroom at the airport. She had changed a lot since that photo on his dresser was taken.

When she went back into the living room, he was on the phone talking to someone about flight schedules and plane tickets. Things just went downhill from there.

"Daisy, you have to go home."

"Why? What's wrong? Something's going on you're not telling me. What is it?"

"I can't explain right now, but you need to go," he said. It was that masterful voice she had heard earlier when he ordered her to stay.

He wouldn't take no for an answer. Before she knew it, they were on their way to the airport. In complete silence.

When they got out of his truck at LAX and he pulled her luggage out of the bed, she tried again to ask him why she had to leave.

All he said was, "Please, Daisy. Please do what I ask. I'll tell you when I can, but I need you to go home."

That was the point at which she unlocked the chain around her neck and removed the ring. Putting it in his hand, she looked up at him with every question imaginable and undisguised hurt on her face.

"I'm so sorry, Daisy. I didn't want it to be like this. I promise I didn't. I was plannin' on comin' for Thanksgiving. We can talk about it then. There's just things goin' on right now that I need to take care of. Things you shouldn't be involved in. You keep the ring. I gave it to you. I don't want it back."

She closed his hand around the ring with hers and said, "Keep it. Bring it with you Thanksgiving. If you still want me to have it. Ask me then."

"It didn't even register at the time," she said as she finished relating the events of Friday night. "But looking back...I've known him long enough to know when he's scared. And he was scared. I think it was the only reason I agreed to let him pay for the ticket. The only reason I agreed to go. That's it, Turk. He left the airport and the next time I saw him was in the hospital late last night," she said. She had her hands in her lap and was staring down at them. "I can see now he had good reason to be scared."

When Soonie was back in the room, she asked if they would be allowed to go back to the hospital to visit.

"Here's the thing," he said, clearing his throat. "He checked himself out of Cedars earlier. I dropped him off at the office so he could help with the investigation. He's going to stay with Thompson, at least until he can go back to his apartment."

When Daisy noticed that 'checked himself out' might not be the same as 'released,' she asked about it.

"Doctor thought it would be a good idea for him to stay another night. He disagreed. End of story. Once he gets something into his head," he started to say 'only a bullet will stop him,' but said instead, "there's not much that will stop him. Inez and their team will keep an eye on him," he said and hesitated. "Until we know more, you will likely not see him for a while. He won't put either of you in harm's way. Before I go, though, I have to tell you something…about Kate. By tomorrow, it's going to be all over the news and eventually, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually they will unearth her past…and her association with En…"

"Turk," Soonie said, putting her hand on his arm. "I will tell her."

Turk turned to her, his expression asking, 'Are you sure?'

Soonie nodded.

"Can I talk to you in the hall for a sec? Sorry Daisy."

Kay had given her the privacy she needed. Uncle Jesse would tell her it would be unbecoming of a Duke, and not how Aunt Lavinia taught her to behave, for her not to do the same. Lordy – this was one strange week.

"Didn't know you knew that much about Kate...or their therapy sessions, until Enos told me this afternoon."

"All the time we spend together, we have to talk about something."

"Uh huh. Shawnee and I don't talk about stuff like that."

"Perhaps you should," she said.

"Maybe," he grinned sheepishly. "Are you sure you're prepared for what's coming? I mean, he's not going to stop until he finds her, alive hopefully. But if she's dead, he's going to hit a low point that…" he couldn't finish the thought out loud. "The last time he hit a really low point, it took six years to get my best friend back. You willing to deal with that possibility? Cause if you're not, leave him now. Don't wait until it'll be on top of worst case scenario that he feels responsible for."

"I cannot guarantee I will be good at it, but why would I leave him for the very reason I fell in love with him in the first place?"

"That's what I wanted to hear. Always knew you were a keeper. You and Daisy going to be alright here together?" he asked. "She really is a nice person and in her own way, she does love him."