Author's Notes: Glad y'all liked Ch. 8 - it was fun to write. This pain in the butt chapter, I rewrote four times before I got a scene down that I liked, four completely different ways - it's like looking at the outtakes and alternate endings of a movie. Enjoy!

Chapter 9: At The Worst Possible Time

Leaving the television and the waiting room behind, Daisy stopped at the nurse's station to relay Bo's request for food, and then quickly went back to his room. The guard was watching her curiously. Thinking he might listen in, she put on the most somber expression she could manage as she walked through the door, shutting it behind her. Bo, who had been nodding off, blinked and sat up straighter against the raised head of the bed, while Jesse looked up and frowned at her sober expression.

"Uncle Jesse, Bo, you're not gonna believe what I just saw on the news," she said, shaking her head sadly.

"What happened?" Bo asked worriedly.

Daisy sighed. "The state police found Luke this morning, and chased him all across Choctaw and into Hazzard. They stopped him, but he got away, and…and I'm afraid he's taken some poor tow truck driver hostage."

Bo and Jesse stared at her, open-mouthed, not sure if she was joking or serious until she nodded towards the door and the guard just outside. Then Bo grinned, realizing what and who she meant.

"Oh, that's terrible!" he said, trying not to snicker as Daisy covered her mouth and stifled a laugh.

Jesse stared at the both of them, slightly longer in catching on. Then he smiled himself. "What the heck's gotten into that boy?.!" he asked loudly for the guard's benefit, containing his own mirth. "Taking hostages? If the police don't catch 'em, he'll regret it when I do!"

The joke was cut short by a knock at the door. Smiles were wiped away, and Daisy answered it. A gray-haired severe-looking man in a suit-jacket with a badge stood there, with the guard at his shoulder. Both walked in silently past Daisy. The older man looked at the guard, clearly annoyed.

"Is this your idea of no visitors?" he asked in an angrily calm tone.

"Sir, they…" the trooper began, just as Jesse rose from his seat saying, "Hang on a minute, now…"

The gray-haired man waved a silencing hand. "I don't care. Out – all of you."

A chorus of protests followed.

"Sir! …"

"Hey mister, just who do you think…"

"We've got every right…"

"I didn't do a danged thing…"

"…can't treat him like this! …"

"…honest enough to me! …"

"…doesn't deserve…"

"ENOUGH!"

Doctor Meadows stood in the doorway of the room, holding a clipboard and looking fit to be tied.

"You, out! You, out! You, out! You, out!" he ordered, pointing to the guard, the detective, Daisy, and Jesse in turn. "I don't want to hear any arguments, pleas, or police orders. This is my ward and this is my patient and if this room isn't empty of everyone but him in three minutes I'll have the lot of you arrested! And Detective Perkins, I already told you not today! He needs rest, not an interrogation! Out!"

The detective scowled at every person who met his gaze and strode from the room, followed by the guard. The doctor looked pointedly at Daisy and Jesse, who got the hint – he wasn't doing them any favors. Jesse sighed and turned to his nephew.

"We'll be back, Bo," he said, leaning over to give him another bone-aching hug.

"It's okay, Uncle Jesse," Bo found himself reassuring his uncle.

"Now, don't you forget, if'n that detective comes back, you don't have to say a thing without a lawyer present," Jesse reminded him.

Bo smiled. "I know. 'And should I choose to give up that right'…" he quoted, trailing off.

Then Daisy said goodbye, with a gentle hug and a kiss on his forehead. "Take care, sugah."

The doctor waited until they were out the door, then gave Bo a similar meaningful look. The blond took the point and reached his good hand over, carefully lowering the back of the bed down, and leaned back against the pillows with a sigh. The doctor shut the lights off as he closed his eyes, and the door shut with a soft click.

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Luke breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the cruisers disappeared from sight behind them, and he headed into the thick forest where the helicopter would have no advantage.

"Cooter, I don't know what I'd do without you!" he laughed as he drove.

"Don't mention it, man! I'm sorry I was running late, I had a hard time sneaking out of town without Rosco noticing." Carefully, Cooter leveled his bolt cutters and snipped the cuffs from Luke's wrists.

"Yeah, I'll tell ya, I was worried there for a minute – I didn't think they'd let you through."

"You kidding? One of 'em called for me not two minutes ago, to tow the General to impound. They were just surprised I showed up so fast."

Luke just chuckled, keeping a nervous watch on his mirrors as sirens wailed behind him. Cooter hit his arm and pointed towards a right turn. Luke took it, winding deeper into the warren of trails and roads that criss-crossed the forest. Many were logging roads that were old even when Uncle Jesse was a boy, certainly older than the thick tall trees that covered the land now. Even a Hazzard-raised boy could get lost back here, which was exactly why Luke had asked Cooter to meet him out here on the C.B. when he was having trouble shaking the relentless state police. The mechanic looked out the back window, appraising the fading sound of the sirens, and smiled that Davenport smile.

"Here, take this next left up here. Let's keep in here for another few minutes or so, then we'll go back an' fix up the General."

"Don't you think they're gonna have someone guarding 'em?" Luke asked, surprised. The original plan had just been to get Luke out away from his pursuers and sacrifice the General, like giving up a rook to pull the king out of check – temporarily of course.

Cooter shook his head. "Naw, the lot of them came after us like dogs on a rabbit. I'll bet not one of them stayed behind to guard the henhouse."

Sure enough, once they had thoroughly lost their pursuers in the forest, Luke headed back for the road and they found the General Lee sitting lonely right where he'd left it. The pair wasted no time changing out the blown tire. They also checked the other three tires for pressure and wear, and quickly opened up the hood to check on the radiator, which was in need of water. While Cooter filled it from a carton he kept on the tow truck, Luke leaned in the driver-side window to check the gauges.

"Dang! Cooter, hang on! The General ain't gonna get very far without some gas. I wasn't watching the gauge."

Cooter smiled, shaking his head, and shut the hood. "Guess it's a good thing I've got two five-gallon jugs o' premium on the truck, huh?"

Luke grinned. "Thought of everything, didn't you?"

Cooter replaced the water carton and hauled down the gas containers from behind the truck cab. "Everything for the General. You, on the other hand – well, I was gonna bring ya some sandwiches from Mel's, but I forgot."

"Aw, you had to mention food!"

"Sorry, buddyro'. Like I said, I forgot. Hey! Speaking of forgettin' – I keep forgettin' to tell ya…"

Luke looked up expectantly as he poured the gas into the General's near-empty tank.

"When me an' Anna was at the hospital yesterday…Bo woke up, at least for a couple of minutes."

"How was he?" Luke was almost afraid to ask.

Cooter shrugged apologetically. "He was pretty out of it, didn't say more than a few words and then conked right out again. He was lookin' for you, though," the mechanic added, realizing a moment later that it probably only hurt Luke worse to hear it, and he could see his friend trying to hide it.

"Did Uncle Jesse call you today?"

Cooter shook his head. "Nope, nothing. I was in the shop all morning. Tried calling you on the C.B., though, you didn't answer."

"Ah, yeah, that was right about when this all started," Luke replied, not wanting to try to explain that he'd turned off both C.B. and police scanner in his sleep, as he'd discovered during the chase. He finished emptying the second gas canister, then handed them back to Cooter and shut the gas cap. Distantly he heard the faint wail of a siren. "Here, you'd better get on back to the woods so you can act like I let you go – they catch you with me they'll arrest you too."

"Alrighty, Lucas. Where you reckon on going next?"

"Well, I figured I'd lay low for a little while at least, maybe wait 'til nightfall to get back on the road. I'll figure something out."

"Listen, you stay safe. I'll see ya around."

"Thanks again, Cooter!"

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It wasn't enough for Jesse and Daisy to leave the room, either, it turned out. The imperious doctor sent them out of the hospital entirely.

"Listen, I can't make you folks do anything beyond these halls," Meadows told them earnestly, "but I strongly recommend that you go home, get a good meal, and sleep in your own beds for a night. He'll still be here in the morning, and I'm leaving instructions with Security not to let you back in until then, so I advise you to make good use of it. Good day, Mr. Duke, Ms. Duke."

Jesse was still grumbling epithets as Daisy walked with him, hand on his arm, all the way outside to where Dixie was parked. He climbed in reluctantly, and Daisy could see he was more worried than angry - worried about everything and anything that might happen in his absence.

"Come on, Uncle Jesse, the doctor's right. Bo will be just fine without us, and we could both use a little bit of home," Daisy observed, pulling the white jeep onto the roads.

Jesse continued to frown, but he stopped grumbling.

"Hey, I've got an idea. How 'bout we invite Cooter over for dinner?" Daisy suggested. "I'm sure he'll have news on Luke." She picked up the mike and called for Cooter over the C.B., though she wasn't sure if he'd be available, a little under an hour after his 'hostage situation'.

"Crazy C comin' atcha, Daisy, free and clear of ol' Smokey. What's on yer mind, darlin'?"

"Well, the doctors kicked me an' Uncle Jesse out of the hospital, so we're headed home, an' we thought you might want to come over for dinner later on."

"That's mighty kind of you, Daisy, but I gotta get back to the garage. Someone in this county's gotta do some work. Hey, how's Bo doin'?" Cooter asked, knowing Luke was listening somewhere out there.

"He's doin' great, Cooter. Listen, give us a call when you get a chance. We aren't headed back until morning."

"Will do. Keep it 'tween the ditches, y'all. I'm gone."

When they reached the Duke farm a while later, Daisy stopped long enough by Enos's patrol car to invite him inside. Surprisingly, he refused, looking both aloof and embarrassed - he still thought Bo and Luke were actually guilty. So Jesse and Daisy went on inside, and Enos continued his surveillance, though all he'd seen in five days was the comings and goings of the Keller boy tending to the animals.

Mrs. Keller had been through the farmhouse at least once - the dishes were washed, the beds made, the living room tidy. The plate from Luke's toast on Monday sat on the drying rack among the other dishes, and Daisy remembered briefly how surprised she'd been to see him on his feet at the hospital that first night, pale and fevered but obstinate. She frowned as she started dinner, cutting up chicken to fry, wondering where Luke was now.

The house was quiet without the boys - too quiet - and while Daisy worked, she could hear her uncle's footsteps walk down the hall around the corner and stop to look through the door to Bo and Luke's bedroom. A moment later Daisy jumped at the shrill sound of the telephone cutting through the silence. Before she'd wiped her hands off to pick it up, Uncle Jesse was back in the kitchen answering it anxiously.

"Hello?.!"

Daisy saw him relax some as the voice on the other end spoke, and she guessed it wasn't the hospital.

"Jesse, this is Thomas Sutton. I'm sorry to bother you, I know it isn't a good time right now, but…" Sutton hesitated with a strained tone in his voice, "…one of my heifers is in a bad way, and I'm not sure…Jesse, I need your help. Please."

Jesse was silent for a moment, closing his eyes and trying to untangle his own worries and frustrations from the added problem that had just presented itself. This was a bad time for this, but then again, Thomas Sutton was an expert on husbandry himself, and he never called for Jesse without a real problem.

"Alright, Thomas. I'll be out there within the hour," he promised.

"Thank you, Jesse. I owe you."

Daisy raised questioning eyebrows as Jesse hung up the phone and sighed.

"Thomas Sutton needs help with a heifer," he explained, reaching for his wool jacket and the red cap he'd hardly just hung on the hook by the door.

"Well, hang on Uncle Jesse, I'm coming too," Daisy said, quickly covering the chicken and putting it in the fridge. She washed her hands and grabbed her own denim jacket, and followed her uncle out the door. As they drove off in Dixie, Enos radioed in to Rosco.

"This is Enos callin' Sheriff Rosco. Y'know how I just told you Jesse and Daisy were home? Well, they just left again. Do you want me to follow them, Sheriff?"

"No, you dipstick, I don't want you to follow them! We're looking for Luke Duke, not Jesse and Daisy. You just sit there at the Duke farm and tell us if he shows up – he's got to come home some time. Besides," Rosco added, listening to something Boss Hogg was telling him in the background, "May-belle says they're just going to help some cow. Now, I don't want to hear a word from you until you see Luke, y'hear!"

"Yes sir, over and out!" Enos settled back in his seat, resigned to several more hours of boredom at least.