Chapter 16: Killer Kaine Returns to Hazzard

Kira sat in a plastic chair that reminded her a little too much of the ones that had been at the hospital as she waited for Judd's flight to come in. It had been delayed by weather coming in from across the west. It was already an hour late as it was. She very much wanted to fidget like the kid next to her; a dark-haired boy of maybe twelve. No matter how much his mother scolded him, he just couldn't stop his need to rid himself of the excess pent-up energy he carried with him.

"Do you think he'll be here soon?" The boy asked his mother as she had tried to once again get her son to stop bouncing around.

"I don't know. Would you just sit still?" The boy's mother turned back to her magazine that she had bought with her to help kill the time the while she was waiting.

Seeing that she wasn't at all interested in talking anymore, he instead turned to Kira. "You waitin' on somebody?"

The boy's mother opened her mouth to chastise her son about bothering strangers, but Kira smiled at her as she answered the boy to let her know that it was alright. After all, what else did she have to do? She couldn't exactly pull out her case files here in the airport to read and chatting with the kid was a lot better than counting the cracks in the floor.

"My cousin. How about you?"

"My dad. He is coming in from California. Ya know what? He called and said that a REAL boxer was flying in on the same flight as him. We'd seen him the last time he had a fight here in Atlanta. He's good. Don't fight dirty like some of the others, neither. Dad says that proves you can be good at what you do without bein' crooked."

"Does he?"

"Yep. Ever heard of Judd Kaine? The call him 'Killer Kaine'."

Kira smiled at the question. "I've heard of em. Haven't seen him fight though. Why don't you tell me about him?"

For the next half hour, the kid (Ricky) told Kira about boxing and how he and his dad like to go to some of the matches together. Once Judd's plane landed and as the passengers filed in from the gate, Kira went to find her cousin. Finally, she spotted him and walked over to him.

"Sorry I'm late. There was a snowstorm over the Rockies."

"No problem. I came across a fan of yours. The little guy about talked my ear off talkin' about Killer Kaine. His dad was on your flight."

"Really?"

"I didn't know you were so well-known."

Laughing, Judd responded "Neither did I. You happened to run into my ONE fan."

Walking over to claim Judd's baggage, Kira nudged him. "There's your fan now with his parents."

"Guess I should go over and say hello. It's not every day a guy finds himself a fan."

"Unless he's a Duke, you mean."

"Maybe." Judd shrugged as he heads over to the small family and gets their attention with Kira close behind. "Excuse me; my cousin said that I might would want to meet this fella over here."

"JUDD KAINE!" The kid shouted. Where Ricky's father was speechless, he more than made up for it in volume. Looking behind Judd, he asked, "This is your cousin?"

Kira just smiled and shrugged her shoulders at the question. This was Judd's show and she'd enjoy just being a spectator.

"It seems you know more about me than my cousin there." Kira bit her lip to keep from laughing considering that just about anyone would know her cousin better than her right now. After all, they'd never met until a month ago. "Heard ya like to go to the matches, too."

Ricky bounced his head enthusiastically. "Uh-huh. We went the last time you were here in Atlanta."

"How'd you like to go the next time there's one here, too?"

"Really?"

"That's really nice but not necessary." Ricky's father had finally found his voice and tried to be polite though anyone looking could tell that he was just as eager to accept the offer as his son.

"Maybe so, but I'd like to do it. Consider it a Christmas present for my number one fan. Just give me your name and I'll make sure you get some tickets before the next fight."

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ricky was jumping up and down as his father was getting some paper and a pen from his wife and hurriedly scribbled his name and address down and handed it to Judd.

"We really do appreciate this."

"No problem. Now if you'll excuse me. My cousin and I have a long drive ahead of us."

"BYE!" Ricky hollered at them as they left.

"I don't think you could have done a better job at making his day if you had been wearing a red suit carrying a bag of toys." Kira looked behind her as she added, "And the kid was pretty impressed, too."

That caused Judd to laugh. "You never know just when good public relations will come in handy."

Hours later, Judd and Kira pulled into the hospital parking lot. Once they had gotten within CB range, Judd got Uncle Jesse on who then told them that Bo was scheduled to be released today but hadn't been yet. Once they reached Bo's room, their eyes were met with a collage of homemade get-well cards. She had been told that the kids from the orphanage had come to sing carols to cheer Bo up. The Duke family had always been a big part of the orphanage; helping the kids out at every turn. While the kids hadn't liked the fact that Bo was in the hospital at Christmas, they all enjoyed knowing that they could do something to make the fun-loving Duke feel a little better.

Kira nudged Judd as they walked in. "I don't know Judd. I think Bo just might have gotten to where he's just a little too used to all the extra attention he's been gettin' here. He might not want to go home for Christmas."

"Cute, Kira. Real cute. We've been waitin' half the day away for a nurse to come back in here to get this danged IV out. I'm more than ready to get out of here."

"Well, that thing would've already been taken out if'n you hadn't freaked out earlier." Luke smirked as Bo gave him a dirty look. "You're as bad about needles when they are trying to take them out as you are when they have to put one in. They're lucky you were out cold when you came in. They would have never had gotten it in otherwise."

Kira looked to the table and saw the evidence of the nurse's prior hasty retreat after having tried to remove the IV. Kira went and sat next to Bo and took his hand and kept talking to the others.

"Hey, I've never been fond of needles, neither," Kira said in defense of her brother.

"At least I'm not alone. What took ya'll so long?" Bo asked with a slight pout.

"That would have been the snowstorm that delayed my flight. Put us back nearly two hours," Judd said as he took a seat next to Luke.

"Yeh, but at least Killer Kaine got to play Santa to a kid that was so excited to meet him," Kira smirked.

Judd explained that he was going to get the kid and his father some tickets for the next fight to which Luke said that he hoped he remembered to get some for him and Bo, too. Judd went on to explain that the reason he couldn't come in for Christmas sooner was that his manager wanted him to put in some extra training.

"Didn't ya tell him that coming to Hazzard was better than staying in training? Especially when one of Boss's schemes goes haywire?" Luke had meant it as a joke but then remembered that Kira wasn't exactly very understanding when it came to Boss. He looked over to Kira but then forgot about Boss.

"Hey Bo, want to hold this for me for a second?"

Bo looked down at his hand and saw that Kira had already taken his IV out and had put a cotton ball where the needle had been. Kira grabbed the band-aide off of the table and put it over the cotton ball. "There ya go. Now, Luke, wanna call a nurse and tell em that we're ready to head out?"

"How'd you do that without me knowin' what you were doing?" Bo looked from his hand to the needle and shuddered slightly.

"I've always been too impatient to wait for a nurse to take my IV's out, so I started taking them out for myself a long time ago. I guess I've had enough practice that I can practically do it in my sleep."

"That's it. Next time you're in here, Kira has to deal with the needles for ya." Luke headed out the door to find a nurse.

Within twenty minutes the four were heading out to the farm. Since Bo still wasn't a hundred percent, he had to ride in the truck instead of the General since the cold air rushing in from the windowless doors wouldn't be good on his weakened lungs. So, in both vehicles, siblings rode with siblings. Judd giving Luke the third degree about what had happened a week prior after having heard about it for the first time from Kira on the drive in from Atlanta.

The next morning, the family prepared for Sunday morning service for Christmas Eve. Jesse had insisted that Bo once again should ride in the truck instead of the General since the cold air from the open windows wouldn't be good for his healing lungs. Bo was irritated but agreed, albeit reluctantly. He'd spent a whole week in the hospital and had no desire to return just because he wanted to ride in his own car. Of course, the family just about didn't make it out the door at all.

When Kira had come to the kitchen dressed for church, she was wearing one of her pants suits that she would wear to court rather than a dress. Jesse insisted that it wasn't right for women to wear pants to church. He had let it go at Thanksgiving since she had come down without knowing that she needed to dress appropriately for church. Now, though, certain rules had to be laid down if he was ever going to establish any kind of hierarchy with the youngest Duke.

"I don't own any dresses. Never cared for them. Besides, if you want to get really technical, when the Bible was written NO ONE wore pants. I'll tell ya what; I'll go change into a dress just as soon as the four of you fellas do."

Daisy turned so no one would see her laugh. She remembered her own younger years when, as a tomboy, she had hated having to wear dresses. She had never won that particular argument with her uncle. Now watching her newest female cousin, she felt a bit of déjà vu.

Kira definitely had a stubborn streak to her. Of course, it didn't hurt that Uncle Jesse couldn't really win this time anyway since Kira didn't have an appropriate change of clothes with her and she was a couple sizes bigger than Daisy so borrowing any of her clothes was out. So off to church the family all went; even if Jesse was certain that everyone in the church would be staring at the ill-dressed Duke.

Later that evening, four of the six Dukes had gone out with the church choir to sing carols as they did every Christmas Eve. Of course, that was only after Bo had insisted that there was no reason for the others to back out after promising to join in just because he couldn't go.

Kira stayed behind with Bo to keep him company. The two took the time to exchange the gag gifts that they agreed to get. The family drew names for the real Christmas presents but considering the years that they missed, they couldn't resist doing this small gesture.

Bo had gotten Kira a mug that had a person shouting I object! With a judge asking To what? The comeback had been, What are my options?

Kira laughed and pictured Bo being the one sassing the judge. Kira handed a box to Bo who then tore it open like he was a couple decades younger. Opening the box, Bo pulled out a printed shirt. Reading it, Bo made a face in mock anger before laughing.

I have the right to remain silent. I don't, however, have the ability. Along with the words was a picture of a stick figure being cuffed and stuffed.

"You tryin' to tell me something with this?"

Kira just grinned as he tossed the shirt her way. "At least it's truth in advertising."

Kira ducked and grabbed a pillow off the couch behind her and tossed it back towards Bo and an all-out pillow fight broke out. For the next several minutes the twins behaved twenty years younger. It was only when Bo started coughing up a storm that they stopped.

"I think you'd better go get that medicine that the hospital sent home with ya while I pick this room back up. Wouldn't do for Jesse to come in on this. We might both just find ourselves in a pot of hot water."

"Especially since you've already cranked it up to being lukewarm this morning."

"It's hereditary, from what I've heard. Besides, I have some catching up to do, don't 'cha think?" Kira grinned at her brother before Bo left the room in search of the awful medicine that the doctors claimed would speed his recovery.