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The Story Unfolds...
Season Nine, Episode Fifty Six
§§ A Day In The Life §§
Debut
Launch: July 1st, 2011.
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From: patti keiper (pattik1@hotmail.com)
Subject: Sugar and Spice and Everything....
Sent: Thu
7/21/11 1:30 AM
Riinnnng!
".. Ahhh!" mumbled Dixie as she nap jerked awake on her rumpled
canopy bed as
her front apartment door bell suddenly rang. "OhmyG*d.." she groaned, her muscles
following
betraying instincts as they got her to her stumbling feet to fetch a robe.
McCall's groggy expression
gelled into an irritated scowl as the angle of the moon
through her bedroom window told her what time
it was. "Five a.m.?!" she blurted out.
Feet finding soft slippers, McCall felt her way into the living
room without turning
any lamps on to spare her sleep crusted eyes. "This had better be a fire or I'm.."
She jerked the door open.."...Hi, Mrs. Fishmeyer? What are you doing here at my
door? Are you
feeling sick?" she said sweetly, her tone barely keeping ice from casual
politeness.
"No, no..
I'm fine dearie.." said Millicent as she shoved on by Dixie and reached
out for the nearest light
switch.. "I just need to borrow a small cup of sugar."
"Oh, no..no..no. Don't-!" Dixie simpered
in horror.. Flick! "AHHH!" she grunted, falling back
against the wall as her nosy neighbor sent unwanted
light bulb illumination deep into her
headache-y brain. "Okay. I guess a trip and fall wouldn't
be so good for someone
at your age, Millie." she admitted, covering her eyes with her messy frosted
hair.
Millicent just beamed as she helped herself to Dixie's cupboard for the sugar bowl
she
knew was there. "I'm only 94, Dixie. A few more lumps wouldn't make that much
difference in my case.
I had two feet stuck firmly into the grave a month ago."
"I know. I'm the one who found you in
cardiac arrest by your petunias and called
the fire department."
Millicent's sweet silver
eyes twinkled. "I figured you owed me one since you broke
three ribs along my sternum doing that car-deal-plumbing-regurgitation
thing on me."
"That's cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Millie. C.P.R? You were dead. I had to do
something. Your eyes were still reactive to light." McCall told her, sinking miserably
down onto a
breakfast stool.
"Oh, yeah? Well, so are yours from the looks of things. Did you and Kel do
too much
hosting at your party last night? We all heard the racket." she said, digging out a
crumbled
plastic bag from her quilted sea green flannel robe pocket.
"From the community room? Millie
that's over five hundred feet away from everybody's
apartment." Dixie insisted, joining Millie in
the kitchen to help herself to a cold glass of
water she got from the tap in the sink.
"I
had the windows open. Ninety two degrees isn't hot enough for me."
Dixie eyed up her neighbor
professionally. "You're still feeling cold? And you waited
this long to tell me..." she pegged accusingly.
"It's five in the morning."
"5: 03, dearie. Look at your watch. I can't be that bad, I'm hungry.
So I decided I'd bake
some cookies. Hence the sugar loan." gestured Millie at her barely filled baggie
that she was
filling with one tiny one eighth measuring spoonful at a time, myopically.
"Humor
me, Millie. I'm going to check you out." said McCall, reaching into another
cupboard to pull out
Kel's medical bag. She dragged out a stethoscope and blood pressure
cuff. "Sit down."
"I'm
not done getting the sugar yet."
Dixie upturned the whole bowl into Millie's bag dramatically
and tied the large baggy swiftly
shut with a deft knot. "Yes you are. See?"
Millie sat, cowed
reluctantly. "My pulse rate's fine. Ever since that shock Roy and Johnny
gave me, I swear I can hear
my heartbeat inside my ears."
Dixie snorted as she wrapped a cuff around Millie's thin rosy arm.
"I'd be listening for
my pulse, too, if a bee stung me and stopped my heart cold." she scoffed, blowing
loose
bangs out of her way as she read the dial. "So, speaking of which, are you?"
"I'm freezing."
Millie peeped.
"Your pressure's normal, thank G*d." Dixie said, sighing as she released the air
on the band.
"I'll fix you a cup of hot tea."
Millie nodded her thanks, still sitting quietly
on Dixie's bar stool. Then she leaned over and
whispered in a conspiratory tone. "So, was Chet really
there at your party?"
Dixie dropped her head from where she was setting a tea kettle onto the
gas stove. "Yes, he
was. And yes, he's still cute as ever. But he's already got a girlfriend. A real
serious one."
Millie was disappointed. "Oh, yeah? Who?" she asked curiously.
"I can't tell
you that. It'd be an invasion of Mr. Kelly's privacy." Dixie told her kindly but firmly.
"Aww,
Dixie. I wouldn't tell a soul. I'll bet she's really cute."
McCall didn't rise to the bait. She
just got frank. "So why this sudden interest in a firefighter
old enough to be your grandson? You've
been at it for two weeks now."
"He saved my life. He was the one giving me octagon when I wasn't
breathing."
"That's oxygen. And you remember that?" Dixie asked, surprised.
"Sure do."
Millie blinked shyly. "I was floating all around all of you. And boy was I embarrassed
my shirt was
torn off and wide open for the whole world to see."
"It was night time and it was just the seven
of us in your garden. The neighbors didn't see you.
They were all still sleeping." McCall prompted
firmly. "Besides, it wasn't for long. I covered you
up with a blanket as soon as we got your heart
going because I knew how you'd feel about it all."
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"I still got cold." Fishmeyer mused, accepting the tea Dixie finally poured her eagerly.
"That'll
happen. So, how are you really? Something tells me that your visit tonight isn't just a simple
little
grocery borrowing call." Dixie grinned gently, patting Millie's age trembling freckled hand.
"I
think I want to become a nurse at the hospital. I've had that notion in my head ever since
I woke
up there. Is that possible?" Millie asked, grasping Dixie's folded hands.
Dixie McCall's shocked
mouth flopped open and just stayed there, the water glass in her hand
completely forgotten in her
fingers' grasp.
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*****************************************************
From: patti keiper (pattik1@hotmail.com)
Sent:
Sat 9/03/11 6:16 AM
Subject: It's Never Black and White
"She's so sweet, guys. But what am
I supposed to do?" Dixie moaned, practically
running like taffy off of her emergency desk stool with
indecision and mild anxiety.
Brackett shrugged. "What you've been doing for the last seventeen
years, Dix.
Delegate the responsibility. Mrs. Fishmeyer's request is, conveniently for us, not
your
department."
McCall dropped her head reluctantly to the side. "Yeah, but she's our neighbor,
Kel. A good one. I can't just turn my back on helping her out a little."
Joe Early just smirked,
his gray eyes sparkling beneath his silver bangs. "We
already did. We saved her life last month. Millicent's
bill has already been earned
in full for services rendered as far as obligation and duty is concerned.
Nobody
said that included hand holding a ninety four year old through a nursing degree
and training
program, no matter how well we're acquainted with the patient."
Dixie's eyes remained dubious
and full of guilt.
Kel's mouth twitched in irony. "You know.. If I recall right, only the reverse
is true."
McCall drained her coffee mug unenthusiastically. "I'm afraid I don't follow."
Brackett
moved carefully out of slapping range before he clarified. "Roy and
Johnny saved your life; they were
practically bound to it while you were
training them. Remember almost being squished by a certain
fast falling car?"
That cracked a very faint smile out of the petite nurse that was impossible
to hide. "I'm being a little ridiculous, huh?" she asked, keeping her eyes
lowered to the desktop.
"Yep. No train, no pain." Kel grinned right back at her once she had glanced
back up again at
them.
Dixie finally handed out the two admittance chart stacks she had been
preparing for
the doctors while they talked. "These are ready. All they
need are your signatures."
Early
nodded in agreement with Kel's sentiment. "Send her on to Volunteering,
or off to the nursing school
at Ojai. Your schedule's full enough as it is."
Kel snorted. "Even if it has been a little slow
in the case load depart--"
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Dixie's eyes widened from coaxed happy to horrified. "No..no..no..no. Don't
say it. You'll jinx--"
The emergency desk station phone rang immediately. The red one.
Dixie just closed her eyes in
defeat after glaring daggers at Kel acidly.
She picked up the receiver from the wall. "Rampart Emergency,
this is
Nurse Dixie McCall speaking." Suddenly, she was snapping her fingers
at Joe for an blank
doctor's notes chart sheet to write on. "Okay,..how
many?"
Joe and Kel looked at each other
in anticipation and Dr. Brackett almost
began to speak.
Dixie held up a one moment finger.
"..Uh huh....Got it. Okay. We'll be
ready in ten minutes." She hung up the phone.
Kel was all
business. "What do we got?"
Dixie reported from her notes. "That was L.A.P.D. They've just had
a prison
break and riot gone bad. Not only are a lot of inmates and officers wounded,
but one
or two felons actually got out and got away and are assumed to be still
shooting up the west side
of town somewhere in Carson. We've eighty minor,
and five critical coming our way."
Dr. Brackett
started snapping out orders. He grabbed a passing orderly's
sleeve to get his attention. "Go find
Sharon Walters. Tell her to set up all the
available rooms in the hospital with whatever general
floor staff she has
coming on shift. Right now."
"Yes, sir." the man replied and walked quickly
away for the nearest stairwell.
"Joe.." Kel prompted. "Can you call Communications and have them
tune into
the scanner in the base station and have it piped out here? We're gonna need
it for preliminary
casualty estimates. And a TV set to the news wouldn't be such
a bad idea either."
"I'm on it."
said Early, picking up a black wall phone.
Dixie's mouth ironed out into one of concentration."I'll
initiate a Code Orange.
All off-duty personnel in an all-call page?" she asked both doctors.
"Yes.
Including surgical and the residents' staff." replied Early.
"Especially Mike. He can sail that
boat of his into the harbor if necessary if he's
gotta get here fast. I have a feeling we may need
his medical command skills from the
navy in a triage operation out in the parking lot before all
of this is over." Brackett
gruffed. He watched the hallway call lights turn amber as McCall finished
speaking
with the hospital operator. Then they all heard the hospital intercom come to life.
##Doctor
Orange to Emergency. Stat. Doctor Orange to Emergency. Stat.##
Soon, those who could rendevous
from in-house first for the crisis alert, were there.
Joe Early took over as the Logistics Head,
leaving Brackett free to handle Rampart's
incident command.
Joe motioned his assembled staff
away from the desk into a close huddle along
one wall of the corridor. "Listen up, people. We have
an MCI of just under one
hundred involving blunt trauma, burns, and a whole lot of GSW's." That drew
a gasp
from the younger med students standing close by their preceptor physicians.
"Sir, what
the heck happened? Did a war break out?" asked one of them.
Joe smiled. "In a way, yes. Let's
just call it another foray into the old cops and
robbers game. And here's us, getting ready to do
all the clean up. For a
while, we won't know who's actually winning this one. And we won't care. We'll
be
treating both indiscriminately. Got it?"
A burble of affirmations met his ear.
"We
are orange until further notice. Perform your assigned tasks and get
ready to start receiving patients
in five minutes. Let's move!" Early ordered.
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Station 51's
exit bell on the door leading out to the backyard, rang just once.
"I'll get it!" said Mike Stoker,
shooting up out of his chair. The lanky, soft
spoken engineer beat Boot the dog out of the kitchen.
Hank started smiling with raised eyebrows. "Okay, who spiked the coffee
with more coffee without
telling him?" asked Cap.
Three magazine and newspaper laden hands pointed squarely at Gage.
"I didn't make the coffee!" Johnny said incredulously, his mouth still full of pilfered
donut.
Chet Kelly scoffed. "No, but you did buy the jumbo sized filters instead of the smalls.
You know
how Stoker likes to measure out grounds by knuckle depth from the bottom."
insisted the curly haired
Irish fireman.
"Not my fault he's so unobservant five minutes after waking up from a nap." Johnny
speculated, a half smile betraying the joke he was playing on the engineer.
Cap just narrowed
his scruntiny, talking louder to be heard over Boot's excited yapping
over a door bell call excursion.
"Yeah? Well if we miss a turn today in the Ward and pile
through a freeway wall into the L.A. River
bed, the two of you are gonna be coming in after
us."
Gage looked surprised in mock. "You
had some doubt about that?"
Next to them, Roy hissed out a cautionary whisper. "Down, boys. It's
the caffeine talking
for the both of ya."
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"Huh?" Johnny said, eyeing up his partner. "Oh, uh,.. sorry, Cap." he remarked sheepishly,
raining
crumbs all over Marco's sports page.
"Hey!" Lopez irritatedly shook them off with disgust.
Hank took in a deep breath and let it out again, offhandedly checking his own carotid with
a few
fingertips. "Racing, just like my mouth is. Ditto, Gage. Wow. Somebody go dump
that thing out.."
he said, pointing to the chrome coffee pot centered on the table, "..and
replace it with a pitcher
of ice water. We're gonna need it before too--" he broke off when
Boot's noisy barking suddenly fell
into silence.
Then Stoker's voice came high and squeaky. "Guys?! Get out here! On the double!"
The gang ran and skidded around the corner to the right to get there. Some of their urgency
left
as they approached when they heard Mike hook the door shut with a clever foot.
Something soft,
yellow and billowy was in his arms. "You're not going to believe this. Look!"
he said, his face still
stunned and tight with concern.
Inside of a blood sodden flannel blanket lay a naked newborn
baby, placenta and umbilical
cord still attached.
Roy's fatherly and paramedic instincts kicked
right in. "Whoa. Give her to me." he said about
the weakly squirming infant, actively shivering in
the gory mess surrounding her. He could still
see signs of fresh birth purpling, around her head,
arms and legs.
Gage immediately gripped her upper arm, feeling for the brachial artery. "Fast,
but strong." He
quickly eyed up the stains soaking up from the pool of blood cradled around the baby's
tiny body
and the amount dripping onto the concrete floor. "There's a lot of hemorrhage here, but
none of
it is hers."
DeSoto nodded, carefully tipping back the baby's head slightly so she
could breathe better.
"I agree. The cord's already drained out its volume on its own into her circulation
and sealed
itself off." He looked up at Hank in a new thought. "Cap, the mother can't be too far
away yet.
This afterbirth's still warm."
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Hank popped open the door again and whistled at Boot. "Go find momma, boy. As fast as you
can. She
needs us badly."
With an eager whine, Boot launched himself into search dog mode with a single
leap and was
gone into the brightening sunrise outside in the backyard.
"Chet, follow him!
Then get back here once you've got a lead on which way the mother
might have headed. We'll let the
police find her first." Hank ordered.
Johnny nodded. "She can't get far, Chet. She'll black out
soon from all of that blood loss."
he said, following Roy and the baby as he went running for the
oxygen and drug boxes in
the squad.
Kelly snatched a handy talkie from the engine's cab and
was almost out the door when
a shadow fell over the sunlight beaming into the bay. A gloved hand shoved
back and
slammed the door into Chet, blocking his path and knocking him backwards onto his
butt.
Cap and Marco startled.
"Not so fast, mister. You ain't going nowhere." came a deep gravelly voice
from the
sudden intruder as he forced his way into the fire station. A long muzzled gun suddenly
pointed at Chet's face. "Nobody move, or hero boy here eats some serious lead."
A very large man
stood there with a smaller male companion. And they were both wearing
Los Angeles County prison orange.
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