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FULL MOON BLUES |
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"Not yet. But all are at risk I'm afraid.." Dr. Brackett said. Then he changed the subject. "Hank, are you seeing double or any flashes of light, or anything abnormal? Ringing in the ears, pain or headache? This is a pretty sizable lump I'm feeling on the back of your head." "No, doc. Nothing odd at all. I feel basically fine.." he said. "Listen, doc. Shouldn't you be with Lopez over there? I'm nowhere near the invalid everyone insists I'm to be.. . In fact, I should be getting up to help YOU.." and he tried to rise. Brackett stopped him firmly. "No. Stay. He's been seen, too. You're my second to the last stop. Gage's surgery to repair that carpal artery, is next.." Cap got through the rest of Kel's exam, showing no remarkable deviations, but he had trouble hiding a few sobs of frustration and helplessness as he tried to get through it without making a verbal sound. Dr. Brackett pretended to tune out the emotional weakness playing out on Cap's face. "Think you need the O2 some more?" Kel asked him. "No.. Why don't you save it for somebody else?" he said distractedly. "My head's clear now.." Stanley said very quickly.. Then he lifted his HT. "Station Eight this is Engine 51." "Cap, what are you doing?" Chet said, looking up from his wrapping more dressings around Gage's hand. Cap set his talkie momentarily onto his stomach and he glared at Kelly and said. "Stoker's got a right to know about Lopez and what's happening in here. It would be wrong for us to keep him in the dark about his condition.." Kel raised inquiring eyes to Roy. "Doc, Mike did have close contact with Cindy over there, and I was near him also a lot of the time, while we were treating her. He might be a quarantine candidate.." DeSoto said grimly. Dr. Brackett replied. "Then Hank's right in calling him in here.." "D*mned right I am.. And I'm not liking it that he's part of this whole nastiness either.." Cap snapped. Everyone froze when the HT responded to Captain Stanley's earlier heads up. ##Go ahead, Station 51. You're up, Hank? That's great news! I'll be sure to tell my whole crew all abo-..## "Ben, I know about the quarantine.." Stanley said cutting him off. "So don't try to buffer me with false enthusiasm. Just send my man Stoker in here. He's been pegged as a risk factor.." There was a long pause on Stone's end. Then a click. ##He's on his way in.. He's been on your engine's wash down preventative detail so he's had no direct contact with anyone else except those medical casualties in your group..## "Understood, Stone. Engine, 51. Out." Cap said, and he laid his head back down, clutching the HT as if holding it would somehow get him out of the nightmare he found himself locked inside. Hank sighed as Dr. Brackett finished taking his BP. "Take it easy.. I'll keep you up on the latest developments, captain." "Appreciate it, doc.." Gil was just giving Kel the verbal rundown on Johnny, with Gage adding footnotes, when Mike Stoker appeared in the doorway. His happy face that the earthquake hadn't claimed more than a few buildings was an image no one wanted to shatter. But then someone, finally did........ ----------------------------------- |
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***************************** From: Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> Date: Mon Oct 28, 2002 2:30 pm Subject: Reaching Out.. "Hey Mike," Chet called out as he carried blood soaked dressings from Gage's hand towards a medical waste bin. "Ever heard of the old adage, 'From out of the frying pan and into the flames?' "Yeah...." "Well, you're gonna wish you had a life net to bail out onto for this one, pal.." and he chucked his sodden bandages into the trash can with an angry overhand. "Kelly!" Cap admonished. "There are a million different ways to break bad news and only you could've picked the worst way possible.." "Cap, what's he talking about?" Stoker said mildly.. "Stone sent me in here, saying that I was to be a triage "go-for.." he said, still clueless. Then he saw Marco's shirt open and the gear for a pulmonary critical lying out on his bed; the suctioning device, the defibrillator, the running EKG monitor and the unopened esophageal airway. "He's going bad? Oh my g*d." And Stoker started over to him, pulling off his fire gloves, thinking he had been called to be a CPR standby for him. "Don't go any nearer to Marco, Stoker. And that's an order.." Dr. Brackett said, stopping him. "I won't allow it." Stoker pushed the doctor's hands away, unthinking, but Kel again held him back. Roy interceded verbally from where he was raising the head of Marco's long board up onto piled blankets to make breathing come easier. The water had long soaked into the sheets and only fast melting ice remained around him. These Roy piled into and under Marco's armpits. "Mike, it's not what you think. Lopez is-- He's not in danger of going out on us here. At least, not yet. What Dr. Brackett means is that if you come nearer, you'll be assuring a better chance of possibly becoming sick. You of all of us, are the least likely to have been exposed so far. You're here because you were in the yard earlier and because you were side by side with me after I got Marco out." Stoker's face fell and his angry look completely blanched into one of shock. "He's ill with something real bad?" he gasped as he tried to digest the horrid news. Dr. Brackett let him go. "I'm afraid so. It seems Marco recently had a small cousin die from a fast acting hemorrhagic fever type infection that's completely unknown to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. We're guessing your coworker contracted that same illness after attending the boy's funeral last week in Mexico. We find that he's exhibiting a massive systemic deterioration that is following a similar pattern to the one the boy suffered during the course of the disease." "He's going to die?" Mike said. "Not if we can help it." Stoker's haunted eyes flicked from Roy's to Cap's and back to Kel's and he fell speechless. It was Johnny who addressed Stoker's stunned silence. "Mike, Dr. Brackett's fully loaded with equipment. And the CDC's going to be here any hour to help us sort out all this mess. Marco didn't get sick until almost a week had passed following that funeral. So it'll be a while before any of us comes down with it. We have time on our side." He knew he had missed his mark entirely when Stoker erupted in uncharacteristic reaction. "Yeah?! Tell me another story. Marco may not even HAVE that Johnny!" Stoker said. "Why else would you be set up for an imminent crash?" he said throwing a hand out to Marco's equipment thick bed. "I'm not quiet because I'm thinking about myself here.." he snapped. "So spare me your platitudes..!" |
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"Hey.. Now losing our heads isn't going to solve the prob--!..." Cap said, shouting. He immediately cut off for his yell had made his head shoot pain all the way down to his toes and he winced with a strangling gurgle, that was almost a sob. Captain Stanley covered his face with his hands, in a vain attempt to gain control. That made Dr. Brackett narrow his eyes in new concern and he moved over to Hank's wire stretcher to speak quietly with him for a moment about it. Cap's inadvertant cry had cooled his arguing crew's fire better than any withering "Cap" lecture ever could. All of them were cowed and silently they all got to work preparing and setting up everything they would need to preserve the ordered quarantine. -------------------------------------- |
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FULL MOON BLUES |
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Click Rescue Squad to Goto Page Twenty One :) |
