
From the Theater Hosts, Emergency Theater Live..

Below lies the Episode Guide for all Emergency! productions 
being created at Voyagerliveaction.com

****WARNING**** These are story spoilers and will take
away plot surprises if you read them now before viewing
any of the screengrab illustrated, music soundtracked originals.

Decide now if you want to read what each episode is
about before doing so.

This list is one month behind the active episode production
schedule.


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
1. Full Moon Blues- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 1, Season1 
The gang of Station 51 loses sleep over a bizarre string of runs. The 
situation only worsens when the biggest disaster call of a lifetime 
pays a visit close to home.
 
Chapters: 2 - Words: 48683  Published: April 2003

2. Father And Son- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep2, Season1 
Dr. Brackett gets a headache when his father moves into town. The 
crew of Station 51 get a surprise on their doorstep and face a 
creepshow batch of rescues.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 38059   Published: May 2003

3. Juxtaposition- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep3, Season1 
Roy DeSoto faces every father's nightmare when his son is 
trapped in a mudslide. The gang deals with child loss up 
close.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 21406  Published: June 2003

4. Within Sight- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep4, Season1  
A late night visitor to Station 51 starts mayhem when an arson 
gang takes on the town. As a result, one of the best, may be 
leaving.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 28163  Published: July 2003

5. Integrity Game- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep5, Season1 
Johnny inherits a four footed friend and Dr. Brackett gets more 
than he bargains for on vacation.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 17125  Published: August 2003

A. The Face In The Mirror- EmergencyTheaterLive Special  2003
Roy DeSoto makes a mistake in the field and faces the 
possibility of losing his job. The gang responds to a fogbanked 
multicar pileup and run into trouble.

Chapters: 1 - Words: 23657  Published: September 2003


6. The Golden Horn- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep6, Season1 
Captain Stanley comes face to face with a real hero and a 
brush fire threatens the lives and vehicles of Station 51.

 Chapters: 1 - Words: 31775  Published: October 2003

  
7. Crazy Days- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep7, Season1 
Think you had a bad day? Just wait until you find out what 
happened to the gang of Station 51 and Rampart.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 24491  Published: November 2003

8. The Promise- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 8, Season1 
What matters most is what everybody wants. Johnny Gage 
learns the power of a promise to Roy when a water tower 
collapse traps them both underwater.
 
 Chapters: 1 - Words: 22871 - Published: December 2003

9. Green Pen Of Johnny's- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 9, Season1 
Find out why Johnny carries his green pens with him 
everywhere he goes. An airborne disaster stuns the city 
of Torrance.

Chapters: 1 - Words: 39288 - Published: Jan-March 2004

10. From Loaves To Fishes- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 10, Season2
One big mountain, one very, very small crew. The gang misses their
state of the art fire station and vehicles dearly when a firestorm 
surrounds them on a boyscout river kayak trip event.

Chapters: 1 - Words: 15732  Published: June-July 2004

B. Too Close To Home- EmergencyTheaterLive Special  2004
The gang at Station 51 enjoy Roy's discomforture over his 
superstition about DeSoto family vacations always getting 
cancelled. The gang gets sucked into another of Chet Kelly's 
half hazard schemes by getting talked into buying a racehorse.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 16211  Published: August 2004

11. Shadows Of The Past- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 11, Season2
Santa Rosa county teaches the crew of 51's a valuable lesson
on life. Then it tries to take it away again in the worst manner
possible. Vacation spells relaxation for everyone, er...to a point.

Chapters: 1 - Words: 11345  Published: June 2004

12. Crossing The Red Line- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 12, Season2
Mike Stoker feels the heat when crewmates and the engine get into
more than just a little hot water. The city of Carson suffers catastrophe.
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 10567  Published: July 2004

13. The White Engine-EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 13,  Season2
The gang tries out a prototype engine and they learn how
faithful man's best friend really is at a house fire.
  
Chapters: 1 - Words: 14582  Published: August 2004

14. Twisted- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 14, Season2
A mile long moving disaster incites life or death decisions 
for both Rampart and Station 51. 
 
Chapters: 1 - Words: 27423  Published: September 2004

15. 00:51- EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 15, Season2
Dixie's day off incites a riot of rescuing.  
A high angle recovery tries Roy and Johnny's 
penultimate paramedic skills. 

Chapters: 1 - Words: 30004  Published:  October 2004

16. Devil's Due-EmergencyTheaterLive Ep 16, Season2
Roy and Johnny inadvertantly meet two Bay City detectives named 
Starsky and Hutch and get themselves entangled in a web of intrigue 
when a criminal kidnaps the child of one of their patients.

Chapters: 1 - Words: 21012 Published: November 2004

17. That Latin Flair-EmergencyTheaterLive  Ep17, Season2
A vision leaves Marco circumspect around the holidays 
and inspires Roy and Johnny to do charity work for his church group.

Chapters:  1 - Words: 17654 Published: Dec/January 2004



===========================

 The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode One- Full Moon Blues..

 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function. 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Story in Text Form..

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fullmoonblues.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

Debut Launch :   15  November, 2002.

================================
 
*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

********************************

 From:  Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 16, 2002  3:04 am
Subject:  The Dead of Night...
  
 
It was 5 : 30 am, the slight scent of smoke lingered
still in the station house from the engine and squad
only a half hour returned from a fatal fire, and the
drone of avenue traffic outside was ceaseless. A
single light was flicked on at the writing desk in the
bunk room.

"Gage! Do you mind!" Hank hollered.

Johnnie looked up, mortified, in rumpled t-shirt
and run pants, one suspender fallen down over his arm.
"*Cough* Sorry cap. Uh, just a sec, I gotta...uh.
Gotta make a phone call.."

"Well hurry it up.." Chet mumbled even more grumpy
then Cap was.

"Shh!!!" hissed someone who sounded suspiciously like
Marco and Mike in tandem.

"Arff!!" Bonnie yapped in reply.

Roy jumped in his bed from his sound sleep at the
noise and nap jerked awake, "HUhhhHH?!
Ohmygod..*sniff*
ohhhh, it's the d*mned dog. Johnnie would you let her
out? I'm too sleepy to...too sleepyyy toooo aaaa"

"Yeah, ok. I will, buddy. Right after making a phone
call."

"Will you starting dialing already?!" Marco snapped,
flipping over on his pillow and squinting in the
light.
He immediately buried his head under his pillow in a
vain attempt to block out the idle unwelcome chitchat
filling his bedspace. His voice sounded five octaves
lower than normal and cracky.

"ok, yeah. Just hang on.. I gotta, gotta look up the
number here." Johnnie said. "Marco.. You shoulda let
me and Roy take a look at ya after that four alarm.
You're really losing your voice man. A little O2 could
fix--"

"Gage!!" Cap called out from behind another rusty
brick partition.

"uh, what Cap? I was just helping out." Gage's smile
twitched as he balanced the phone onto his ear while
he dialed his number in the dim light he was trying to
shield in vain.. "I am a paramedic after all. I mean
it's my duty to be part of a team. To look out after
the guys, 24/7 . Heh." he chuckled.

"Well, it's definitely 12/5 for me Gage. Shhh!" Chet
groused. 

"That goes for me too.." Mike added.

"Arff!!"

Johnny jilted in his chair when he heard the sound of
pissing fill the air. "No! Bonnie no!!" and he
dropped the phone on the desk in a dive to reach the
Boston Yorky squatting in the middle of the linoleum
floor. "Bad girl.. Baddd.." he hissed in a whisper.

Chet piped up sleepily, "What? That aimed at your 
date for refusing you yet again?"

Then the scent of a second Bonnie misdeed reached them
all.

"Ahhggh."
"Fah!!"
"Gage! Clean it up NOW!"
"Johnny,.. you should have hurried.."

John was on his hands and knees scrambling for a foot
locker under the desktop which held a roll of
papertowels. He flipped open the door and hastily
snatched for it, all the while stammering apologies
and short failed jokes under the guys angry barrage.

"Ow.! Ok. All right already.. " he said when a
ballistic pillow from Marco nailed him across the
butt.
"I'm hurrying I'm hurrying. Just let me flush this..."
and he hastened to the john with his steaming burden
of towels. 

Bonnie cheerfully followed him the whole way.

A brief peace reigned over the bunks except for the
desklight and snores punctuated the air.

Then Johnny came back into the room, sat down in the
wooden wheeling desk chair and picked up the black
phone receiver again.

"Oh, no you don't.." Chet warned, loudly. "We've
already lost the first five minutes of a long 
four days with no sleep."

"Get to BED!!" Cap roared.

"Groovy, Cap. Just what I was saying.."

Gage knew he'd pushed as far as he could get away
with and reluctantly set the phone down again, his
whole purpose of non sleeping going unfulfilled.

"Gage.. If you aren't under those covers in five
seconds, I'm assigning you a month's tower detail!!
Five! Four! Three!!"

Gage shot out of the chair, slid on the floor in
his boots in a dash for his cubicle.

"Gage! The light!" Marco rasped.

"Two!!"

Johnny belly slid across the floor to the light's plug
and yanked it.

The room was plunged into total darkness.

Bonnie began to howl at the rising tension from
her human family.

"Oh for Pete's sake, Johnny. Give her a snack.."
Mike exclaimed.

"One!" Cap roared.

"Gotonebymybed!" Johnny squeaked as he dove, blind,
into the air and landed on his mattress, the bed
springs squealed from his impact about two seconds
before--

"Zero!" Cap yelled. "Now not another peep outta you
for the next hour and a half until dawn."

"Sorry C-"

"Ahahah..! NOT a single word." Cap seethed.

"Ok." came Johnny's soft meek answer.

"Gage!"

"Allright all right. Sorry. Geez,, I mean all I was
trying to do was--"

"Hey Cap, should I zap him quiet with the
defibrillator?" Roy suggested sleepily..

The gang erupted in giggles.

Johnny just snorted as he hushed and petted Bonnie
quiet as she pranced on his bed while he stretched out
under the sheets, begging him for the treat he held in
his hand. Gage felt wet doggy tongue slime his finger
and the bite of tiny teeth as she grabbed it from him.
"Ow,, hey.hey hey.." he whispered to the darkness.

Then a thought occurred to him. "Hey guys? Do you
think I just reinforced her little accident by giving
her a cookie like this?"

"Shut up!!" came five instant replies.

Then the klaxon alarm went off and the house lights
kicked on automatically.

Dispatch issued the call and the gang were on their
feet instantly.

The call was....
---------------------------

Photo-   The station speaker grill

Photo- A spectacular night time fire at a warehouse
           with hoses spraying high.


***********************************

From:  "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 16, 2002  4:14 am
Subject:  Rotten Luck


>"Shut up!!" came five instant replies.

>Then the klaxon alarm went off and the house 
>lights kicked on automatically.
>Dispatch issued the call and the gang were on 
>their feet instantly.

>The call was....

 "Station 51.. Dumpster Fire. 427 Supolveda Ave. 
Cross/Street Maple. 427 Supolveda Ave. 
Cross/street Maple. Time out 0540." came LA's run.

Chet struggled into his suspenders with a long 
suffering moan. "Oh, man. Gage. You're gonna 
pay big time for this.. I could of gotten to REM 
sleep."

"Yeah..?" John said sarcastically. "Well, you 
should be thanking me. If you hit REM you'd 
be too groggy to man a hose for our fourth 
dumpster fire." he said, rushing after the 
curly haired irishman.  

Roy and John hit the squad and Cap got the 
garage door and thumbed the
callback mike, "Station 51, KMG 365."

"Hey Cap!" Gage shouted over the loud 
rumble of the garage opening onto
the street and the sounds of Stoker starting 
up the LaFrance and all the gang
slamming their doors as they piled onto 
the Ward engine.

Cap looked over grumpily, flipping up his 
overcoat collar and tightening
his helmet's chin strap. "What? Can't it 
wait, we're going on a run here..!"

"At least this one won't take long! That's 
only ten minutes away.." Gage said as Roy 
threw the truck into drive and peeled out of the 
garage top speed. The lurching almost 
gave Johnny whiplash.

Gage rolled up his passenger window and 
turned on DeSoto.  "Hey Roy, what are 
you trying to do? Kill me? I was
talking to Cap there.."

"You mean my defibrillator comment didn't 
sink in? I wasn't joking." Roy said, flipping 
on the sirens and lights. The dark streets filled
with the sirens of Station 51 soon after and 
the boulevard ahead of them emptied of 
traffic. His face was almost pure iron.

Gage set a hand on his chin. "I don't believe 
you man. You're really angry, aren't you? 
I didn't make Bonnie crap all over the station
intentionally. I was only trying to-"

"I know what you were trying to do, Johnnie.." 
Roy said, taking his eyes off their speeding 
route only in brief intervals to stab glares at 
his dark eyed partner. "It's just that sometimes 
you just don't think."  He gripped the wheel 
tighter as Johnnie pointed out the next turn. 
"I don't suppose you get the fact that we've 
been on runs for four shifts straight. And 
on none of those nights have we gotten 
a stretch of sleep longer than an hour. 
I don't suppose that the term 'sleep deprived' 
has any meaning for you.."

Gage readjusted his helmet on tighter 
when Roy thunked over railroad tracks a 
little too fast and it jostled off his head. He 
fought with it for long seconds until he finally 
tossed it onto the seat in frustration, going 
bare headed despite the Code R.

Roy just glared at him, not saying much.


They arrived, engine and squad onto a seedy 
city block that was quiet, full of sleeping 
apartment buildings with black wrought iron
fire escapes and one burning dumpster down 
a dead end alley.

Cap dragged himself out of the cab and 
viewed the sight of such an annoying 
type of fire with a groan. "Man.. Another 
one..How many does that make it Lopez? 
Four tonight?"

"Yeah.." Marco croaked in his throat. 
"One an hour since that four
alarm.." he rasped in irritation.

Cap sighed "Ok, you and Stoker grab out 
an inch and a half, we'll have this washed 
in ten minutes. We gotta make sure that alley
of junk hasn't sparked anything beyond 
that dumpster.."

"Right.." Lopez nodded.  On his way past 
Johnny, he couldn't resist a longer than 
average accusing stare.. 

Johnny felt ganged up on. "What did I do? All 
I did was get up to call Lydia. And Marco, I 
still want to take a look at your throat when 
we're done here!.." he shouted after the 
rushing Marco.

Chet smiled. "Gage. You're not popular with 
him this week. Remember he remembers 
that he lost that bet with B Shift about
how many times Bonnie messed on your 
bed."

"Very funny.." John said. "Go make yourself 
useful and pick those crates up over there 
and move them out of the way for us.."

Roy and Johnny saw Cap stand in the cab 
and report to LA that the incident was 
minor and that the station would be wrapping 
up in about twenty minutes.

Mike and Marco approached the blazing 
dumpster and tried to hook its lid shut with 
a fire crook to smother it, but the lid
had been tied back against the chain link 
fence. "Oh, man. Had to be hard.." Mike 
growled.

Marco said to Stoker. "Gage put you in a 
bad mood too?" he said hoarsely.

"What?" Stoker said over the roar of the 
fanning inch and a half raising noisy steam 
from the belching dumpster as water 
began to suppress its flames.

Cap took a sniff and asked. "Stoker.. You 
smelling turpentine?"



A huge explosion ripped through the 
dumpster and it flipped end for end into 
the air straight up into the night sky and 
then down again..

"Look out!!" Cap shouted. Marco and 
Mike abandoned the hose and its high 
pressure water stream started bucking 
in the old newspapers and trash in the alley 
the moment they let go of its nozzle to run.

The dumpster narrowly missed pinning 
their feet from where they threw 
themselves down onto the ground and 
its red hot edge landed on the hose, 
severing it.

A hose burst drenched the entire gang in 
spitting ice cold water. Cap shouted from 
where he was standing and he barely 
managed to slam the engine cab door 
shut before the water got inside.
"I don't believe this.. can we have any 
worse luck?"

Stoker got to the pumper and turned off 
the water so that a new hose could be drawn 
and filled.

A moan filled the silence.. from the ground 
where the dumpster had been.  

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute! There's 
somebody over there..!" Roy shouted. John 
ran to the squad and flicked on the squad headlights
to shine into the piles of junk in the alleyway.

As one the whole gang sifted through the 
garbage until....

----------------------------------

Photo- Roy and John in turnout in fog.

Photo- At night, firefighters battle a stack
           of burning pallets.

******************************
 
From:  "Clairissa Fox" <Canaryyello@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 16, 2002  12:38 pm
Subject: Big Troubles..

>A moan filled the silence.. from the ground where the dumpster had
>been.  

>"Wait a minute. Wait a minute! There's somebody 
>over there..!" Roy shouted. John ran to the 
>squad and flicked on the squad headlights
>to shine into the piles of junk in the alleyway.

>As one the whole gang sifted through the 
>garbage until....

"Hey I see a foot!" Marco said, thick with 
laryngitis.

"Where?" Mike said, shining his torch where 
Marco had pointed.

He saw Lopez digging in a pile of cardboard, 
and they all converged on the spot, flinging 
away water soggy debris when, another moan
filled the air, this time, from another direction.

Cap was sharp. "Hey gang, fan out."  

Meanwhile, Marco had located
his foot, it was an old boot, rank with stale beer.
"Oops not here.." he said.

The fog from the harbor began to spill into the 
alleyway, mingling with the smoke from the 
extinguished dumpster. Roy began to call
out. "Hey mister! Can you hear me?  L.A. 
County Fire Department. Keep talkin! We're 
trying to find you...."  

Another cry, this time legible.. "Over here.. 
Help me.. I--."

Cap gestured to the left this time. "Hang on, 
I got my men searching for you right now. 
Keep making noise!" then he confided to Roy, 
"That's danged odd. How can someone that
injured be in three places at the same time?"

"Don't know, Cap.."

Chet thrashed around with an old board, 
moving aside boxes, and bottles and half 
spilled steel trash cans, right down
to the pavement when--

"Ahhhh...Stop!"

Kelly froze. "Guys, over here. He just reacted 
to what I was doing! But I can't see anything 
in this fog!"

Johnny, Roy, Mike, Marco, Cap, and Chet all ran to
that area of the alley which seemed thick with rot,
and refuge under their gloves. The stench was only made
worse from the water the broken hose had sprayed all
over. The headlights of the squad were uselessly muffled
in the mist and Gage moved instinctively near Roy to
have a reference point.  

All their flashlights hit the back wall and the damp brick
work there under another fire escape. 

Gage erupted. "I can't believe we didn't find him!"
and he whirled around. 

Cap said, "All right, everybody. Back the way we
came."

Just then, came the sound of a very familiar starter,
and a motor of a truck roared to life. The ghostly
headlights of the squad wavered. Gage noticed it
right away.

"Hey!  Hey!!" Gage yelled, running and leaping over
crates and boxes. "Cap!! Someone's making off with
the squad!!"

"What?!" came Hank's voice.

"The squad.. It's just been stolen!!"

All heads raised just in time to see the two beams of 
lights from the squad flip around in a high tailed spin
as it made its get away. 

Cap raised his HT. "L.A. Respond a police
unit to our location. A carjacker has just made off with
our rescue truck.."

##Ten Four, 51. Advising L.A.P.D to your incident.##

"I don't believe this..!"  Johnny exclaimed. "Who would
do something like that? We're on a victim search here..."

Marco suddenly gathered to the others with an old
speaker rigged to a battery operated recorder in his hand. 
"How about a bunch of pranksters?" And his glove
hit the play button.  Trailing moans, just like the
ones they had heard following the dumpster's 
explosion and the same cry Chet had heard, issued
out of it.

"Oh, man.. we've been set up by drug addicts. 
Thought the address seemed familiar.." Gage groaned.
"Isn't this the same neighborhood where the San Pedro
gang hangs out?"

Roy stood leaning against an old hat rack.
"Yep.. They must be after the pharmaceutical box."
he said with a sigh.

"That tears it.." Cap said. "When the police get
here, let THEM search for more of these planted
recorders. I'm not wasting another minute on
this.." he roared.  "Why me? Why US!!" he said,
marching away back towards the engine. His
voice came floating back towards the gang. "John,
next time you have the brilliant idea of using the
headlamps. Close your door next time huh pal?"

Gage's face fell as he wiped off a trail of water
running down his plastered hair left over from
the wild hose. "Right.." 

Chet said, "I wonder if they'll trash the squad.."

"Oh, Chet..." John said sarcastically moving over 
to Stoker to help them put the hoses, the good 
and the bad one, away.

A minute later, Vince and Martins pulled up, reds
flashing. The burly officers ran out with their guns
drawn into the air until they spied the bedraggled,
soaked firefighters all lined up along the running 
board of the pumper. 

One glance of the recorder and wires Cap 
tossed him and the way Gage was rubbing 
his face in frustration and weariness told him 
the immediate urgency was over.

Vince waved his junior man to holster his weapon
and did the same. "Everyone all right?" he asked
setting his hands onto his hips. 

"We're fine. Anyone birdeye the squad yet?" Hank
asked.

Vince shook his head. "Looks like he or she made
a clean getaway. And it'll take a while to locate it
too. The seafog's rolled in for the night.."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll try to go for
a joyride.." Chet said, wringing out his drenched
overcoat around the rear hand bars of the pumper.

"Not likely.." Gage commented.
"Listen, ah, Vince. Can you give us a ride to
the station house? It's cold out here..

"Yeah.."

"Go on, fellas. " Hank said. "We'll meet you back
there. No doubt Vince has a stack of paperwork
for us to fill out for the police report.."

Roy and Johnny both grabbed blankets out of
the engine's stokes cab to use as towels
and a way to keep the squad car's seats dry 
for the trip back.

"Looks like a full moon.." Vince said as Roy,
Johnny piled in the back of his car.

They waited for the engine to back away from
the dirty alleyway. It headed off, silent reds turning
off, leaving behind two more police cars which 
had arrived to begin setting up the crime scene.

Gage heard over his walkie talkie. "LA. This is engine
51. Mark Squad 51 out of service until further notice."

##10-4, 51..##

Johnny's head banged into the window frame as
Vince drove them home, and he said closing his eyes. 
"Oh, man. If I had known this was going to happen, 
I'd have never made that phone call earlier Roy.."

"You had no way of knowing.. Just a bad run.
That's all."

"Chalk up another bad one in about four days of
bad. I'm beat.."

"We all are.." Roy said scratching his nose. "Just
that time of year I guess."

Vince spoke up from where he was driving.
"I know what you mean. The PD's been getting
odd calls and pranks all week. Must be a conspiracy
going on out there or something. But rest assured.
The San Pedro gang's got h#ll to pay for this latest
stunt of theirs. Grand theft auto is ten to twenty.
No bail in this county for any with prior felonies."

"It is? Good.." Gage said closing his eyes again, his
arms crossed together for warmth. 

Roy had already taken off his sodden trenchcoat
and had laid it on the floor behind the wire partition
separating him and Vince. Then he too, nestled 
back and uncontrollably nodded off.

Vince drove a little more gently the rest of
the way to the firehouse and Martins turned
down their radio's volume a few notches.

--------------------------------------------------

Rampart General, was a madhouse.

Dixie McCall was in high gear, one trail of hair
falling over her face as she delegated a sudden
flood of incoming through her ward.

"What now?" she said of Station Eight's paramedic
team with their burden.. 

"We've got a drug overdose.. Don't know where
he managed to get it, but this guy's got all
the ear marks of meperedine toxicity. Brackett's
already ordered us to start Narcan. And we couldn't
get in an NG tube. He's been convulsing too much."
Gil replied.

"Oh, great. Treatment two.. Uh, Dr. Morton will be
there in a sec right after he deals with another 
street gang type in with the same problem.."

Dixie was about to unwind for a few precious seconds
mentally when Station 10 rolled in. They were working
a full arrest.  "What do you got?"

"Police were chasing this guy for stealing an LA county
rescue squad. He didn't watch where he was running
by the harbor, hit his head, and fell into the water.
Took us over three minutes to fish him out."

"A squad? That explains everything. And from the way
he's tattooed, I'll just bet he's related to the other
five we've just received in house. Has the whole
world gone crazy tonight?"

"Must be.."

"Treatment Two.. Interrupt Brackett's arm laceration.
He's just making a row of stitches neat on another 
biker type. He can handle your man." Dixie
said. She watched her orders being carried out and
then got onto the red phone to staffing. "Yeah,
This is McCall in Emergency. Could you send down
a doctor to finish handling a minor laceration in
Two? We've a code in. Thanks.." and she hung
up the phone.

Dixie looked up and began to wonder when the 
night would ever end. "I hate full moons."

Dr. Early had saundered up to get from Dixie
the next patient in from the barrio neighborhood.
"Why? I think a full moon is romantic and very
beautiful. " he said in his calm soothing way.

"Not when it's turning a street gang into
a pack of wild maniacs, it's not. A bunch of
them just made off with a rescue squad and they
had a heyday with the paramedic's drug box."
she groused.

"I know. I just pronounced one of them.." 
Early said, rubbing his hand.

Both nurse and doctor fell into a somber mood.

------------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny and the rest of the gang were
all nursing steaming cups of old coffee around
the kitchen table. Only Martins seemed to
have enough energy to play tug of war with Bonnie.

"And that should do it boys.." Vince said.
"Your accounts here and the fact you finally
located a tape recorder should put the last
nail in the coffin on this gang's activity.

Gage winced. "Let's just hope its not for
a real one Vince. I don't want to find out that 
anyone died here.. Thanks buddies.." he said,
giving the two officers a small grin as they
left the station.

Cap leaned back, already showered
and in a clean uniform, from his chaise lounge.
Bonnie came running over to tug at his shoes
in play, but for once, Hank didn't shove her
away. "I don't want to even know what Charlie
found with the squad when the police called him
out to tow it."

"Was it spray painted?" Chet asked.

"Don't know. Didn't you hear what I just said
Kelly? I don't WANT to know. It's bad enough
riding shotgun with another station's squad like
we're going to have to do for the rest 
of the day..."

"Sorry Cap.." Chet said.

Marco suddenly set down the phone. "Hey 
everyone! My mama heard on the news
about the squad being jacked and she and Mrs.
Bandido have made us some breakfast burritos
in sympathy. They're on their way now to drop
them off."

"Hey hey.." everyone smiled and the kitchen
burst into a more happier mood as the sound of
a rich meal that was imminent cheered them. 

Bonnie barked, abandoning Hank's shoestrings
and ran around the table until she had
her dish in mouth. She sat up, begging.

The whole gang laughed.

It was fifteen minutes later. The burritos had arrived,
were utterly inhaled and the gang was now
splayed out on chairs and couchs completely at 
ease with the world.

Then they heard the outer garage doors open
and saw Charlie backing the rescue truck into
its usual place with his tow truck.

Johnny gasped as he saw a peek of it through 
the kitchen door.

The gang left newpapers and chairs to gather
round in the pullup garage in a cluster.

Roy opened up his mouth in shock 
and said......... 

---------------------------------

Photo:  Dixie on a red phone.

Photo : Cap crashed on a black chair.

*****************************
 
From:  "ecrewgroupie" <irosanne@tds.net> 
Date:  Wed Oct 16, 2002  2:10 pm
Subject:  "Whew!"

 
>Roy opened up his mouth in shock
>and said.........

"I can't believe it! Not a ding! Not a dent! Not a mark anywhere!"

"Whew!" his equally relieved partner exclaimed, as they finished 
circling their seemingly unscathed vehicle, "We really lucked out! 
Man! We gotta be more careful from now on, though. We may not be so 
lucky next time."

"Repeat after me, gentlemen..." Charley coaxed, as he came stomping 
stiffly up to the reckless pair. "There isn't going to BE a 'next 
time'!"

Squad 51's paramedics cringed and stood there looking like a couple 
of school boys being taken to task.

"I can't hear you..." Charley reminded the men, with a menacing glare.

"There isn't going to BE a 'next time'," the pair parroted and 
continued to avoid any contact with the angry mechanic's narrowed 
eyes.

Seemingly satisfied, the rescue truck's rescuer tossed their Captain 
the keys and began taking his leave. "Oh" he casually called back 
over his shoulder, "Before the two of you head off anywhere, you 
might wanna check out the side compartments..."

--------------------------------------------

No attachments.

****************************************
 
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 16, 2002  4:11 pm
Subject:  Helping Out



>Seemingly satisfied, the rescue truck's rescuer tossed their Captain 
>the keys and began taking his leave. "Oh" he casually called back 
>over his shoulder, "Before the two of you head off anywhere, you 
>might wanna check out the side compartments..."


Johnny and the others watched Charley depart
with a little more fear for his seemingly
prophetic comment upon leaving, then
they usually had, of him.

Cap rubbed his nose, saundered over to a random
door of the squad's flanks. And pulled.

California kelp oozed out of the repelling equipment
compartment and onto his shoes into a noodled
pile.

Bonnie started barking at it suspiciously.

Cap pursed his lips and said.
"Chet, you start on clearing out this litter
in here while Roy and John inventory what
equipment we still got left.." Hank ordered.
 
"Aww, cap.." Kelly protested.

"Aww, nothing.  Tell me you know every
single item in the paramedic inventory and
I'll let you trade places with Gage and DeSoto.
Do you?  I'm not hearing anything......"

"uh,,  not really Cap.." Chet mumbled.

"I rest my case. Now gentlemen. I suggest
we get to work. I don't know about you but
I'd rather burn some elbow grease getting
our squad compartments here back in order 
than have station 8's here with Brice and company 
aboard like they're scheduled to be doing
starting at 1300 if we can't be absolutely call
ready by then. Catch my drift..?"

"Boy do we ever.." John said. "Brice might
be coming here?"

"Yep. So get cracking.." Cap said, clapping
his hands together and then he disappeared
into his office to change shoes.
"I want to squash that possibility before 
it ever happens. Kapesh..?" his voice
floated out to them.

"Hey Cap, uh, I thought we were a team.
You know, the all together in this kind of thing.."
Gage hollered after him.. "You know. Working
through the good and the baddd.." he hinted..

Cap closed his door soundly.

Roy peeled off a towel Chet threw into his face
into one hand and he regarded Johnny thoughtfully.
"You know, Johnny,  you'd better ease up
venting like that. Cap's a cap. And what
he says, goes.."

"I know that. I know that.. But why does he always
have rank and privilege pull for him whenever he
feels like it should? Always seems to happen during
the hardest shifts. Especially full moon ones like
today's."

"Experience has its rewards Johnny. And bailing out
at will just happens to be one of them associated
with Captain's rank." Roy said with a small shy 
smile.  "Come on, I'll haul out the gear boxes
and O2 to check them and you can get the dressings
and splints taken care of, all right..?"

Gage nodded and dejectedly followed him 
to the rear hatches of the trashed squad.
Chet ducked when they opened those doors
leading to the resuscitative apparatus, as beer 
cans poured out in a musical tumble onto the floor. 

Bonnie grabbed one and started growling 
as she attempted to chew it up.

"Hey, give me that.." Gage said. "You'll
break your teeth little girl.." and he traded
slimy beercan for rawhide bone. "Here,
take that.." he said. The toy he gave her
was so big, it pulled the tiny dog's head
to the floor and she had to tug with all
her might to get to her customary spot
under the engine to enjoy gnawing on it.

Roy dug out all the cans he had 
discovered, chuckling at Chet's overstrung
nerves and got to the O2 equipment and 
dragged it out. "Well, thank heavens for 
small mercys. Looks like this apparatus is ok."

Johnny flipped open the drug box and 
found only air. "Not here. Figures.. 
All the unused syringes are gone too."

The IV and dressings boxes were untouched,
but in the stokes, they found a dummy,
stuffed with trash and wearing a sign saying,
"Thanks for being the life of the party fireboys!"

Roy heard Marco coughing as he leaned over
to scrub saltwater off the hood of the squad and
he casually said. "Lopez,  check out the 
resuscitator for me will you? Johnny and I need
to get a list together for a reissue of supplies."
And he motioned for Gage to follow him into
the kitchen with the drug and IV boxes.

"All right.. " Lopez said, raspily.

From around a corner, Roy watched 
Marco check all the psi readings and 
visualize the tubing connectors and 
regulators and then he smiled as Marco
did a draw check on the mask over his
own face with flowing O2. Lopez smiled
as the oxygen soothed his raw throat and
he took a few more thinking no one else was
watching him.

Johnny grinned, poking his partner in 
the ribs. "You crafty old.. You did that 
intentionally.."

"Course I did.. Did you think that Marco
would have let either one of us get any
where near that throat after the night we've
had.."

"No..." Johnny said, shaking his head 
thoughtfully.

"Well there you go.. That 02 will give him
relief and take away some of that inflammation
of his.." Roy said, as he sat at the kitchen 
table to check out the conditions of all their IV 
solutions and setups.   

John was considering Roy's angle of attack
on Marco."Hey Roy., I think I can trick Lopez into
drinking my mother's honey birch bark tea to 
coat that throat of his.."

"Not a chance.." Chet said making his
way into the kitchen to dump out
smeggy water from his bucket into
the sink.  "He's still sucking away
out there and loving it, but ah,
about him actually taking real 
medicine?  Uh uh, Gage. 
Ain't gonna happen. Not in your 
lifetime."

 "Oh, really." Gage grinned. "We got him
on oxygen therapy without him catching
onto us fussing . What makes you think 
I'll fail with doing more?"

Chet finishing filling his steel pail with hot
water from the tap."Because Roy here is
much better on the sly that you are Gage.
If you try anything else, let HIM do it.."
and he walked back towards the garage.
"Or, if you two are really concerned about
Marco's cough, you can tell Cap about it."

Johnny looked at Kelly as if the sky had
fallen. "And ruin a great friendship?"

"Not to mention the direct tie to a wonderful
pair of burrito chefs.." Roy quipped.

"That too.." Johnny nodded eagerly.
"No way.. Chet. We're not going to resort
to that.. Marco's not a baby. We'll just
we'll just...uh,  "

"Fuss over him.." Roy completed for
his stammering partner. 

"Yeah.." 

"Ok, have it your way.." Kelly said.
Then his head peeked around the 
corner and he added, "I'll let you
know how long he uses the demand valve ."

"You do that.." Johnny said with
firm concern.

-----------------------------------------

At Rampart, the fiasco with the San Pedro
gang, had died down. Dixie, Joe, Mike Morton
and Kel Brackett all sat around the nurses 
lounge table nursing colorfully etched coffee
mugs.

None of them were saying much to each
other.

Until Dixie took her hand away from her chin.
"Hey Kel, How did that drowning fare? You know
the one who stole the squad from the fire 
department."

"Didn't make it."

"Oh," she said, suddenly interested in the cream
swirling in her mug. "Sorry.."

Joe piped up. "Two of the five aren't going home in
body bags at least, Dix. They'll be facing trial for 
grandtheft auto and impeding official rescue 
service. Not to mention possession of narcotics."

"Ah." McCall said without much vigor.

Another long stretch of silence reigned. Until Mike
said, "Hey guys. Did you know that it was
51 whose squad was trashed?"

Dix, Kel and Joe all erupted into reaction.

"No, I didn't know.."
"Oh, my.. Those boys have seen their share
of misery this week."
"That's too bad. Anything we can do?" Joe 
added.

"I can see if I can swing some funds from
the paramedic training program to cover their
losses.." Brackett said.

Dixie added, "And I and the other nurses can
plan a party for the whole gang, to cheer them
up a little. How about this weekend? At my place?
I've a great little veranda, and a pool."

"What a great idea. It'll take their minds off
work for a while." Joe agreed.

"Then it's settled." Dixie grinned. "As soon as
I get off shift, I'll start making plans..maybe
even a surprise party angle will work.."

"Now wait a minute Dix." Kel interjected.
"How do we know Roy and Johnny's crew
haven't already made plans for the weekend?"

"Easy to check.." Dix smiled. "We have all
the boys emergency phone numbers. We
can call their friends, family and spouses to
double check. I can do it."

"And I'll make the Beef Borgenon." Early 
piped up. "What are you going to do, Kel?"

"Wait a sec, I'm being dragged into this 
whole thing?"

Dixie's look could melt steel. "And why not?
You should at least make an appearance as
the head of Emergency Services-Rampart ;  
to show your appreciation for all the hard work 
your two best paramedics and their stationmates 
have done for us.. Especially this week. Kel, have
you seen their run sheets? They been frought
with fatalities..or else, it's those crazy dumpster fires.
That's bound to be more than just a little frustrating
don't you think?"

"Oh, all right. I guess I can bring a bottle of
wine or two over for a few hours.."  Brackett sighed, 
giving in to peer pressure.

"Well all right.." Dix said. "Now we have
to come up with some entertainment."

Mike Morton said, "I can always bring my
guitar.."

"You sing?" Joe said, almost spitting out his
coffee. Brackett tossed him a napkin or
two to clean up before the dribble reached
his collar and white jacket.

"A little.." Morton said defensely crossing his
arms. But his smile was mild as he regarded
his colleagues. "I do a fair job."

"I sing too, doctor. " Dixie grinned. "And I'd
be honored if you'd let me sit in on a few
songs."

"Be my guest.."

"Then that's that.." Joe Early said. 

Everyone took his cue and rose in their
seats, eyeing the time running out for their
mutual breaks.

"I'll let you know what time this Saturday
boys.." Dixie said as they dispersed back 
into the hallway and to their own routines.

------------------------------------------

John looked up when he felt a tapping on
his shoulder. 

"A minute ten. Twenty two breaths
Gage." Chet said, whispering around his 
newspaper at the table.

"What..?"

"That's how long and how often Marco
connected with the O2 earlier man. You
said you wanted to know.."

"Oh, yeah. Right. Thanks Chet. Seems to
have worked. He's speaking more
clearly and that cough of his has been
less."

"One more assist in the bag.." Chet 
said happily secretive. "His mother will
thank us for going through the trouble
of fussing like this."

"His mother?"

"Yeah, she's the one who called Roy 
asking him to check out Marco yesterday
night before we all went to bed."

"You actually talked to Rose Marie Lopez?"
John said with amusement. "I don't even
think I've ever met her.."

"Yes, sweet old thing. And we had a nice
conversation too.." Chet said. "Seems
Marco's in the market for moving out of
the house and into an apartment for the
two of them.."

"He is?" Roy said, munching on a bagel.
"Money problems?"

"No, just getting closer to assisted care for his
mother. She says she's getting on and
would like someone to come in every
so often to help her out so Marco can
free up more of his time to live his own
life.."

"She told you that?" Johnny asked,
in a whisper. 

"Yeah, man. Like I said, she's a sweet little
old lady who'll talk your ear off just as
much as she'll fill your stomach with 
food you can die for.." Kelly admitted.

"Oh. Maybe we should  ah, should ..ah, help 
them out to find ...a place like that, Roy.." John said
when Chet retreated back into his funnies
section. "What do you think...?" he said uncomfortably
rubbing a non existent ache in his neck.

"Johnny, don't even go there. You know 
how private Marco gets with his personal life. 
If we're having this much trouble getting him 
cared for following fires, what kind of trouble 
do you think we'll get into prying into his private
affairs?" Roy asked reasonably.

"Well I don't know. I.. I just think we should
help him, that's all.." Johnny grinned and frowned
with no confidence..

"Uh huh.. Easier said than done buddy boy.." Roy
said, and he turned back to his snack, trying not
to catch an irresistable snooze that seemed to
be creeping up on him in the background.

The noon day sun started streaming through the
window onto the couch and Bonnie stretched
out underneath it luxuriously lengthening her
limbs and moaning with a contented whine.

Cap quieted her with affectionate scratches on
her belly without looking around his incident reports.
"Nice job all , on the squad. We're back in business."

Marco piped up from the water glass he was
sipping gingerly. As yet, Johnny's herbal tea,
was untouched. "Anything to keep Brice out
of the station.." he quipped. Then he coughed
a few times, clearing loosening phlegm from his
chest.

Johnny and Roy both cocked an ear to hear
how those noises had sounded. Then the two 
paramedics both pursed their lips in grins of success
behind their newspaper pages. Things sounded 
way better for Lopez.

The phone rang and Captain Stanley rose to
answer it. "LA County Fire Department. This
is Captain Stanley... uh, huh.. " he said
as he listened to his caller. "Uh,.. hang on.."

He turned to the other guys and said.....

-------------------------------

Photo- The luckless squad with equipment
           strewn about.

Photo- Black and White of the Gang in the Kitchen.

****************************
 
From : Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Big Brother..  
Date : Fri, 18 Oct 2002 21:42:50 +0100 (BST)  
 
>The phone rang and Captain Stanley rose to
>answer it. "LA County Fire Department. This
>is Captain Stanley... uh, huh.. " he said
>as he listened to his caller. "Uh,.. hang on.."

>He turned to the other guys and said.....

"Gage,.. it's a Lydia Montegeaux, calling from
San Bernadino, inside our district..."
For some reason, Cap was beaming ear to
ear.

Johnny shot up from his chair quickly to
snatch the phone away from Cap to cover
the receiver before the entire company erupted
into cat calls and hoots and whistles.

"WHeeuuueeEEEeeee, way to go Gage."

"Is this that chick you were trying to call
last night? Man she must be really hung on
you Gage to call back after you didn't."

"Another date? Hey fellas, five dollars down
he doesn't arrange dinner plans during this 
phonecall. Put your gatas where your boca is.."

"I'm in.." Mike said, pulling out his wallet and
throwing down a crisp five where Marco was
pointing on the table top vigorously.

Cap just threw up his hands. "You guys
are relentless.. Now cut that out.. Give the
man some privacy.."

They ignored Cap because he was still
grinning and even Roy threw down a rumpled
bill on top of Chet, Marco and Mike's.

John shot acid towards them all ,
hunching over around the mouthpiece
of the phone, turning his back towards the 
rest of the gang after hissing a few indignant
warnings to them all to hush down. Then
he completely changed his tone of voice.
"Uh, Lydia, Hi sweety. *Smooch* I love
you too. How's your arm today? Yeah?
The doctors give you a big cast?  Wow,
I can just imagine. " he paused and his
face beamed into a big smile as he
slipped into a bonafide protective mode
with his voice.


The guys piped down when they realized
that Gage was talking to a little girl of
all things. All their mouths hung open,
then one by one, they all retrieved their
betting money back thoughtfully as they
more or less politely easedropped.

Mike started guessing. "Is this a kid
you and Johnny had on a rescue?"

Roy shook his head and shrugged.


Chet said, "Cap, why didn't you tell us
it was a little girl on the phone.."

"Because it was none of your business,
Kelly, now was it..?" he said from around
the sports page. "I tried to warn you all
to respect Gage's privacy...."

Roy studied his now empty coffee cup
and spun it around on its base in deep
thought. "Yeah, that you did.."

Johnny turned around towards the
table again and suddenly finger snapped
for a pad of paper and a pen, his green
one still on the wordfind he had been
working on before the phone call.

All the guys hastily shot to their feet,
to give the writing pad to him and his
trusty pen..

"Give me that..." Johnny said, his voice's
bite toned down, when he saw them 
kowtowing sheepishly to aid
him because of their childish behavior
a minute ago. 

He shuffled phone receiver
to one shoulder and a chin and said,
"OK, I got something to write on Hon.
What was that again? 414 Rural route 60, 
San Bernadino Iduhapi Campground
Resort?  Yeah, so that was where I was
calling into last night . It's that
camp you told me about where the counselors 
take you into the woods and stuff for
hikes and then teach Braille.  

Yes, that's right. You said your grandfather was
sending you there this week.

Yeah, That's not too far away for
me to come visit ya.. I'll be coming..
Don't you worry..After all, I am
your "Big Brother".." he grinned, and visibly
melted as a very young voice warbled 
excitedly into his ear. 

"And I'm sorry about
not calling last night like we planned for
your cabin's sleepover in the morning 
in time for sunrise show and tell. I sorta 
kinda got interrupted..."  And he glared at
the gang for the treatment he'd received
last night trying to contact Lydia. 

"Huh?
No. no.. It's wasn't for a rescue. Just a..
just a tiny garbage fire.. Heh. "
and he laughed. "Yeah, there's a lota 
garbage in the city, that I'll admit. 

Yeah, I got it all right here. Your address
and everything. You're really close, just
a few miles away up in the mountains.
I'll write and send ya a care package for
you and the other girls all right? Ok,.
I promise I'll come visit ya on my shift off,
yeah, I'll bring my firehat. I promise.. Ok,
gotta go. ..Bye bye Lydia.."

And he hung up, smiling to himself
hugely as he made his way back over to
the kitchen table. 

The fellas were quiet, absorbing what they
had overheard. Then Chet spoke up.

"She a niece or something, uh, Gage?"

"No..no.  I.. I sort of volunteered for the Big
Brother Program earlier this spring. Lydia's
blind, and I got picked to be her sponsor for
the summer. You know.. penpalling, picnics,
that sort of thing. You see, Lydia's five and
she requested a firefighter for her sponsor. 
heh. Guess she did that because her own 
father was one and passed on when she was 
three in a car accident...And, that's also, 
how she got blinded..." Johnny said. 

Then he cleared his throat self consciously. 
"Well.. now that all your nosy curiosities
are satisfied.. I think I'll get back to my 
puzzles.." he said with a final glare of
challenge. He met none, only nods of
understanding and warmth.

Chet spoke up again. "Wow, Gage, that's
that's really something. Being a sponsor 
and all for her like that. I've heard of
the Iduhapi retreat. That's in the heart of
the San Bernadino Mountains, isn't it?"

"Yep. Halfway between us and Station Ten. 
Believe it or not, it was Brice who told me about
the Big Brother program they had going
with the camp. I mean, I couldn't look 
like a fool and not help out you know what
I mean?. He called me about it this spring.."

Mike chuckled. "You mean you got suckered
into volunteering because Brice was..."

Johnny felt pinned when that truth was
revealed. He just rolled his eyes and contented
himself with tightening his lips.

Marco coughed and said, finally sipping Johnny's
special tea.. "Amigo, when are the two of
you going to stop this one upmanship of yours.
I mean. Even your paramedic re-cert scores
were the same last month. I can just see it..
Soon, you'll start donating to the same 
charities in higher and higher amounts
just to see who'll top the other.."

"Yeah, well I draw the line there.. Brice is
Brice is.. not my idea of a fastheld friend
but there's station honor to uphold. Our
station was the only one who wasn't involved
with this Big Brother thing.. Couldn't let
that stay that way.."

"Appreciate it, Gage.." Cap said. "McConike
called about Station Ten's program and I was
very very glad that you were already on
the rosters. Only got a grunt of approval
from the chief and no inspection dates."
he said with relief..

"Glad to have obliged. I wash your back,
and you wash m--, oh never mind Cap. 
I'm having fun. Lydia's something really 
special and I'm really glad I can be there
for her.."

Roy smiled, getting up to fetch the coffee
pot. "Want more coffee Johnny?" he
said.

"Oh, no thanks." then he noticed Marco
drinking his medicinal tea. "Hey Roy..
He's doing it.." he said, holding up his
puzzle page so Marco wouldn't hear
him talking about him. "And Kelly here
thought I wouldn't be able to get
it by Lopez. Hehehe.. shows him
a thing or two.."

Roy rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, well.
As long as Marco's cough goes away
I'm happy."

"Oh, it will. It will." Johnny said. 
"Between the two of us, we'll get
him squared away."

Chet had over heard. "Yeah, that's
until the next big fire un-does all that
nice preventative work.."

"Shhst.." Gage said, knocking on 
wood.

Marco licked his lips, draining the
last of his cup and set it down 
while he read the National Geographic
article he was turned to.

Gage leaned in to Roy, "Hey Roy,
think I should sneak over there and
pour more tea for him?"

"Nah, don't over do it.. or he'll catch
on.."

"You're right." Gage said.
"We'll just keep an ear out like we've
been doing.."

Roy said, "Ummmhmmm." from deep
inside his article.

Johnny turned back to his puzzle with a 
good heart, smiling when the next word
he found in his paper turned out to
be .. 'samaritan.'

Bonnie barked when the clock struck one
pm and the cuckoo popped out from
over the couch, disturbing her nap.


All was quiet for the next half hour until....

---------------------------

Photo:  Gage smiling like a proud papa.

Gif: A District map showing all firehouses in
      the Emergency show and their locations.

Photo: Johnny's fireman's hat.

************************** 
From :  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject :  [emergencytheaterlive] Bonnie's Bad Day  
Date :  Mon, 21 Oct 2002 11:36:53 +0400  
   

>Bonnie barked when the clock struck one
>pm and the cuckoo popped out from
>over the couch, disturbing her nap.

>All was quiet for the next half hour until....

Roy noticed something strange. It made
him do a double take from his newspaper.
::What th--?:: he thought.

Bonnie had left her couch and was cowering
under it, trembling.

Roy nudged Johnny, who was deep into
writing a pen pal letter to Lydia, the blind
girl from his phone call, and he pointed Bonnie
out without saying anything.

Gage immediately frowned. "Chet, did
you go and do something stupid like
yell at Bonnie over some infraction or
anything?"

Kelly stopped working out with his hand
held barbells on the exercise mat next to
the mop cupboard. "What?Huh?" Then
he noticed Bonnie laying low too.
"I haven't moved from this mat
buddy since your phone call. I'm innocent
this time. Maybe she's mad at you. It's
your bunk she chooses to use as territory
marking post on occasion."

"Very funny.." Johnny said. He walked over
and noticed Cap watching Bonnie too from
his black recliner. "Cap, what do you make
of it?"

"I don't know. Maybe she's sick or something.
Her food's hardly touched. Why don't you two 
go check her out? You and Roy are the stationhouse
paramedics here.." he said in a no nonsense tone
of voice that was also an order and he arched an
eyebrow before turning back to his stocks page.

Johnny began a protest, "Cap I..."

Hank briskly folded his paper to another page loud
enough to drown out Gage's remark. Then he
said, "Do I hear a little bird in here? Sounds
like it's tweeting too hard or something.. Marco,
why don't you go to the shed and open the 
main doors so it can get on its merry way.."

Chet sniggered and so did Marco and Mike.
Roy just rolled his eyes at his long time partner
and was the first one to get up out of
his chair to amble over to where Bonnie was
cowering under the couch beneath Marco's legs.

DeSoto knelt on his knees and peered into
the darkness under the leather cushions.
"Come here Bonnie.. Come on, girl. I just
want to take a look at you.." he started 
baby talking when she picked up her muzzle
from the floor and dipped her head at him,
rising to her feet. "Yes, let me see you..."

The tiny Yorkie whined a bit,  and timidly wagged
her tail but came finally into his hands. Roy picked her
up, scratching her head and sat on the couch
with her.  

Johnny sighed heavily and pushed back with a
linoleum wood squeal in his kitchen chair and
made a production of joining Roy with Bonnie.

The dog was just as shy but affectionate with
Gage as she was with Roy and that puzzled 
both men when nothing seemed amiss with
her physically. Johnny said, "Now, Cap. I've
been down this doggy exam route before.
There's nothing wrong with her that we can
tell.."

"There must be Gage. Have you ever known
Bonnie to cower and hide before??" Cap
countered.

Chet piped up, "Not even after she's been 
using Gage's sheets as a latrine..."

The guys laughed.

Johnny glared at them. "Ok, all right you 
guys..So you've had good laugh off me.
Now be quiet for a sec.."Then he lifted
Bonnie's chin and went nose to nose with
her. "Bonnie..Hey, I'm not annoyed at all here.. 
At least, not with you..." and he shot a 
look at Chet. "So what's your problem 
you little wriggling ball of fur?"

Bonnie whined again and licked his nose
bashfully. Gage caught his breath and
pulled away, wiping doggy kiss off.
"Yeah,.. love you too.." and he got up
again. "Listen, Cap, I don't know what
her problem i--hey... I know, maybe 
she's sick of her food. You know, maybe 
she wants a change.."

"Yeah, a change like staying 
away from you, Gage.." Kelly said, 
unrelenting. "Why else would she
be singling out your bunk and not
anyone else's?"

Cap threw an "end of fun" look at
Kelly and replied. "Worth a shot there,
Gage. Why don't you try some of that
bacon from the crisper. There's some left
over in there from breakfast."

Mike said, "You mean, Marco didn't
finish it all?"

Lopez vigorously shook his head.
"My throat's still rawer than anything.
I only wanted a few bites.."

"Ok. All right.." Johnny said holding up
surrendering hands. "I'll bribe her,
just like I do with the cookies at night
to keep her from howling.."

Bonnie watched Johnny go to the frig,
listening to his babytalk tempting,
right up until the bacon was held under
her trembling nose. Her whine cut off
and she sneezed with tension, jumped
off the couch and retreated underneath 
it once more.

The whole gang heard her whimpering 
start up all over again..

Johnny threw up his hands in resignation
and shrugged. "I tried.." Then he looked
at the bacon in his fingers and decided
it looked pretty good so he dropped
some of it into his mouth and the rest
he slid under the couch with his foot.

Cap concluded. "Chalk it up to another
Bonnie personality quirk. Michelle did say
Bonnie would be very like her mother that
way."

"Spitting image..." Gage grunted.

Roy said, still slumped quietly on the couch.
"I don't know.. This Bonnie's got more class.
When she has a bone, even Steger on B shift
can't get it away from her."

"Heh. That's true.." Gage chuckled. Then he
put his hands on his hips. "Why don't we
just wait and see how she does for the 
rest of the day. If she's still off by shift
change, we can just have them call the 
V-E-T later.."

From under the couch, Bonnie's soft, incessant
whines shut up.

"Smart dog.." Marco said. "The old Bonnie
never caught on to us spelling that word
out l-.."

Right then the doorbell on the side entrance 
rang..

"Ah, it's the school kids.." Mike said, "They're
here with their teacher to get a tour of the
firehouse.."

"All right everyone.. Neaten up. Gage, tie your
shoe.." Cap ordered. Gage lifted a knee and 
did so, losing his balance in his haste.

Then all stood as Mike led their guests into the kitchen.
"Hello. Glad you could make it.. Everyone..this
is Miss Cindy Thorne.. and these, running around 
us in figure eights, are seven students 
of hers from the Grover Middleland school.. " 
Stoker introduced.

A short pixie like blond in a scarlet red dress
came through the door and took off her
sunglasses. "Fireman Stoker. Nice to see you
again.. I hope it's not too busy a day today for
that tour we prearranged." she said, shaking 
the hand of the man she had only heard on
the phone before.

"Not too busy.." Stoker grinned, letting go
of her palm. "Glad you made it over. Traffic
must have been a bear.."

And at the same time.. Gage spoke too.
"No, no.. it's ok. In fact, we've done nothing
much in the way of runs today.. except a few
alley burns and a bunch of thugs who made
off with the sq--" Johnny started up, but Roy nudged
him subtly in the ribs in a hint.  "Ah,..helped us
get a lot of cleaning done today..."

Cindy stayed focused on Mike, the one fireman she
knew and replied to his comment.
"The usual. I had the school van take us over
instead of using the bus. I parked it in the back
lot, is that ok?"

"Sure.. that's fine. That's where we
park our own cars.." Marco said.

"That's right.." Cap brightened eagerly. "We have
uh, milk and cookies for the kids if you'd like after
the tour... Fireman Lopez's mother brought some over 
with lunch just two hours ago..." he said thoroughly
gentlemanly. All the gang's faces lit up when the kids
excited laughter and chatter about being in a real 
station house brought back childhood memories
of their own and they gathered around the happy
throng of seven children.

"That's ok, captain. I made sure the kids had 
eaten before bringing them over. Last thing
they need is more sugar. They're rowdy enough as
it is.." the pretty teacher said as clusters of girls and 
boys ran in circles in a good natured tag game around
them all.

"Ok.. uh, would you like to split up the kids and
have my men take one or two each to show 
them around the firehouse?" Hank asked.

"That would be wonderful..Might work out
better separating them like that. They can be
a handful.." she laughed. " The kids were
so excited about coming here for their
annual field trip.."

"No problem.. They know to rejoin you
immediately if the call tones go off for us?"

"Yes. We've rehearsed that just before coming
here."

Chet picked two of the older boys and said,
"Right, You and you. We get to play with
the sirens first..Race ya!!" and the curly haired
firemen with his two shadows headed off
in a mad dash for the La France..

"Aww, man.." said one boy not picked,
watching them go..

Roy picked him up. "We'll all get a turn.
Just be patient there. What Fireman Kelly
doesn't know is that MY group gets
to wear the helmets first.... Who's coming....?"

"Me!! Me!!" came a girl's voice,  a blond child
dressed in blue and red.

"Ok, looks like we go with this young lady here
all right..?.." he said, setting down the 
disappointed boy. Roy and his two children
trundled off to the garage shed after Chet's
group of two. "Marco, why don't you come
with me?" his voice floated back. "We'll get
out our two helmets from the squad.."

"Sure thing pal.." Lopez said, giving the elementary
teacher a jaunty wave of departure. And he, too,
disappeared through the kitchen door.

Johnny took two more girls, twins, to show 
them the hoses in the back yard so they 
could play man the hose by the old engine 
parked out back. His two children eagerly 
ran up to the antique and climbed on board it.

Cap saw where they were through the kitchen 
window and grinned when they all heard the brass
bell go off as the two girls experimented.. 

Then he looked down at the final child, a 
very tiny boy with glasses, still holding his 
teacher's hand. He knelt by his side. "Hey 
son, why the long face? I'm the only fireman in this
whole station house who's the captain.."

"Wow.." he said, eyes getting really big..

"Yeah, so it looks like you and 
me are the only ones left.. That means we
get to do the best thing before any of the others..
Mike's gonna stay back and chat with Miss Thorne here
while we get to go do the tour.. 
Have you ever seen a dispatch radio before?"

Cindy, Cap and Mike all grinned, thoroughly captivated
by the cute awed expression on the boy's face when
he slowly shook his head from side to side in hushed
anticipation.  

Cap went on.."Well, I can let you talk to Sam, the man
who calls out all the firemen everywhere to
respond on rescues if you'd like.."

"Wow.. can I really do that?"

Cap winked at Cindy.. "It'll be the afternoon station's
check.." he said aside.
"Right this way.." Cap said, bending over
and taking the herostunned boy's tiny hand
into his own big one. 

They disappeared out to the garage too,
to the radio substation alcove by the big 
LA County map.

Stoker was left with Miss Thorne by the table
"Well, have a seat. This may take a while. The
gang gets pretty entertaining whenever school
tours stop on by...."

"I can just imagine..." Cindy said.. as sirens
and engine hoots and antique pumper bells
filled the air punctuated by animated laughter
from both children and firemen alike..

Then she heard a subtle whining that she
hadn't noticed before because of her student's
happy noises.....  "Do you have a station dog 
around here, Mr. Stoker? I think I'm hearing one."

"Oh, yes, That's Bonnie. She's having an off
day today. She just started carrying on about
two minutes before you and the kids arrived.
It's nothing. As far as we can tell there's nothing
wrong with her. She's right there under the couch."

"Poor thing. She doesn't sound too happy 
right now at all. One would think that she was
upset because of the kids.."

"oh, no, Miss Thorne. She's usually running around
playing tag with them full throt--" Mike broke
off his sentence when Bonnie's crying suddenly
ceased abruptly.

A subtle low rumble rose from the ground and
trembled into a great belching roar that slammed
into their ears, shaking Station 51 up to the 
rafters .

Laughter turned to screams from the children
as the full teeth of a sudden earthquake threw them
to the ground whereever they were from truck
or hose like paper dolls.

Out in the garage, the tremor burst open the
main doors and they squealed in metal
shrieks as they rose in their tracks until
the fierce shuddering split them apart.

---------------

In the fire engine..Chet grabbed his two boys and 
shoved their heads down onto the
floor as he himself ducked as the ceiling
came down in the garage, lights, rafter,
roof and all, on top of the LaFrance only
narrowly missing Roy's side of the rescue
squad.

-------------------

Roy had his two students under the squad,
and all three were choking on dust from the
walls and from the stove's ruptured gas line
pouring from the darkened kitchen. 
He hugged the children's helmeted heads 
tightly to himself and started to pray..

-------------------

Cap shouted but couldn't be heard over
the roar of violated earth moving beneath
the foundations. He yanked his terrified
student deeper into the comm's alcove 
and pushed him against the wall to cover
him up with his own body as the garage
roof caved in behind them over the engine
and part of the squad.

-------------------

Simultaneously, out in the yard, Johnny 
managed to grab the two girls with him off
the old engine and he brought them
to the ground into the only open area 
away from the yard's brickwalls, before 
they swayed, disintegrated and collapsed 
around them. 

In his worry for the girls, Gage,
wasn't fast enough to get himself into 
the clear.


---------------------------
Only twenty feet away, the kitchen was 
remaining intact, shaking and shuddering. 
Mike Stoker and Cindy crawled
under the swaying, shifting table,
with Cindy screaming all the while 
for the children at the top of her voice.

---------------------
Dust and tremendous destructive
noise filled the air everywhere, for
about a minute more, before silence fell over
the place where six firemen, seven children
and one teacher had been playing so
joyfully a short time before.

***

***

Cars on the boulevard outside Station 51,
skidded out of control and screeched brakes
as their equilibrium was thrown off as the 
earthquake sputtered and writhed around
them. Then an awful quiet fell over stopped
traffic as people, one by one, staggered
from their halted vehicles.

One driver looked up and couldn't believe
his eyes. The firehouse he normally
drove by everyday, had its garage 
collapsed down on top of its 
rescue squad and engine until only 
its outer walls were standing. 

"Oh my god..!" he said, "The crew must still in 
there!" and he and others rushed forward,
but the earthquake had sent the water from
burst hydrant out front, high into the air and 
smothering clouds of dirt and dust kept them
from getting closer to the partially
downed firehouse.

From inside.. There was no sound
coming at all until the tones for 
the California EBS system began to
issue from the place the dazed auto
driver knew was the station's radio alcove.

A dispatcher's voice took up a new 
note of urgency when his board showed
one base station horribly dark off his
channel monitor.
##Station 51. Topological Survey 
reports a Richter Scale Class ground
tremor in your vicinity. What's
your comm and station status? 
...Station 51, This is LA. Respond....##

Outside, the disbelieving 
driver didn't know if there was anyone
still left alive in the rubble he was seeing
to answer the call...

 -----------------------------

Photo : A very cute Bonnie wearing a red bow.

Photo : The Station with both doors open, getting
             a tour with kids in the yard.

Photo :  A pile of red tumbled bricks in close up.


Photo :  A crushed fire engine.

Photo : Station 51's block, levelled by an earthquake.
            Avenue and power lines in front are intact.

Gif : The Emergency! title in red.

Gif :  An Earthquake alert symbol and icon in red and         
        black.

Audio : The disaster all call speaker tones, for four             
            alarm call.
 
*************************************
 
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Aftermath  
Date : Mon, 21 Oct 2002 19:54:57 +0000  
 
>##Station 51. Topological Survey 
>reports a Richter Scale Class ground
>tremor in your vicinity. What's
>your comm and station status? 
>...Station 51, This is LA. Respond....##

In the blackness, the boy with glasses
looked up. He could see a yellow light
flashing on the radio over his head
and could hear the dispatcher speaking.

He was crying steadily in small sobs
from where he sat up against the brick
wall, and he looked out into the daylit
ruins of the garage. A steady cloud of 
water misted from the shattered hydrant 
by the street into the bay and cleared 
away some of the worst of the dust.

##Station 51. Transmit HT as an 
alternative. All bands have been cleared 
for you. This is L.A.. Respond....##

The boy looked down.
Next to him on the ground was the
fireman who said he was captain for
the others. He was lying on his stomach
and not moving. Remembering what his
mother taught him about helping people,
he got up, pushing wood chards and
debris off of himself, he quickly  
snatched the microphone off its
spigot and held it to his mouth. He knew
about CB radios because his dad had one.
"Mister... I'm in the fire house! 
The roof came down and I can't 
wake the captain fire chief.... Hurry!.." 
he sniffed, very frightened.

Around him, rising warm wind from the 
outside and sounds of frightened people
on the avenue filtered in to him. 

Gasping, the boy could see another foot 
underneath the red vehicle in front of him. 
It was Susie, his friend's, and it was 
starting to move as if someone were 
pulling her.

There was a long pause as L.A. checked
to be sure things were switched to a one 
to one frequency. Then..Sam's voice 
came back on the air.##Son. Understood. 
I've got help coming. It's on the way. ##

Robbie could hear multiple call signs going
out on the air behind the man's voice. All
he could think about was that it was alot
of numbers. 8, 10, 127 ,36, Batallion 14...
He started to memorize them in his 
shock but the dispatcher man's voice 
dragged back his attention..

##What's your name?##

"R-Robbie.. my teacher's name is Miss
Thorne.. We were here on a tour of
the firehouse. "

##All right Robbie..There's been an 
earthquake and that's why things
are fallen down. Do you think your fireman
Captain Stanley, is still alive? ## Sam asked.

"Yes.." Robbie replied. "He's making noises."

#Good. How many besides your teacher
were with you..?##

"Seven, sir.."

##Ok. Now, I want you to get out of 
there if you can. Can you see the daylight
from the main doors. Are they open?##

"Y-yeah. But its hard to see... The fire 
hydrant's on and there's a funny smell
in here.."

Sam was side keying a dispatch to the gas
company to shut off service to that block
with one hand. He turned back to his 
microphone to Robbie, still inside the shattered
fire station. Already, he was getting citizen's
reports about further damage to the
building next to Station 51 and minor reports
of some more in nearby warehouses. But none
were as bad as those coming in about the
station house.
#Robbie. Drop the microphone and leave. 
It's not safe for you to stay. Don't worry 
about your teacher and other classmates.
There are more fireman and police on 
the way who'll take care of them. Now go.##

L.A. heard the line disconnect as the child
dropped the radio mike.

Sobbing.. Robbie, gave one last look at
Cap, who was moaning as he started to
awaken, and crawled over him and over
brick piles and sections of the ceiling rafters.
He made his way through the spraying water
from the ruptured water line and safely 
outside the collapsed garage.

Sam switched to Station 51's HT frequency 
and started hailing. ##Station 51. This
is L.A. monitoring on handheld frequencies
bands. Your situation is noted and assistance
is on the way...Gas company has been
notified....Station 51, do you copy?##

==========================

Once Robbie was outside, the auto driver
who had stopped earlier, snatched him up.
"Are you all right son? Where were you?"
He cast his eyes on the still dusting, smoking
debris of the main garage. He couldn't see
where the boy had come from at all.

"I was in there..on a field trip..But I talked
to the radio dispatcher man and he has other
fire engines coming!" But then the situation
proved too much and the tiny boy fainted
in the man's arms.

The group of people from the avenue
gave shouts of dismay as the man lowered
the boy to the cracked concrete of
the boulevard to make sure he was
all right. No one had the presence
of mind to go into the firehouse, distracted
because of their concern for the pale boy.
 
=======================


Roy coughed and looked over his shoulder
just in time to see Robbie safely getting out.
His arms were full of two weeping little kids,
still in their tour helmets.  Marco, was 
nowhere to be seen. ::He was right here
next to us...:: Roy thought, peering around
in urgency. 

Overhead, he could hear the actions L.A.
was taking to aid them all. He snatched up
a handy talkie from inside the squad's
shattered driver's window when the squad door
didn't open. "L.A., This is Squad 51.. Still
here. Stand by. I gotta get some of these
children out..Will advise once I know more." 
Roy could almost hear the sound of
audible relief in Sam's voice. 

##10-4, 51. ETA of responding units is
four minutes..##

Already, Roy could hear PD sirens growing
in the distance as they wove around
scattered stopped vehicles on the boulevard.

Roy wiped away blood from his forehead 
and he shouted, "Cap!!"

"Ughhh..h.." came a moan from his
left.

Roy turned to the boy and girl, gripping their
arms. "Now did you see where that
little boy just went? He was getting
out to safety.. Now I want you to
follow him.."

"We don't want to leave you..."
one of them cried.

"It's ok to be scared. But there
are people out there who are
going to be able help you better than I
can in here. You're going to be
fine.. I'll show you exactly where
to crawl out.." Roy gasped.

He lifted them over sections of
the roof and winced as cold hydrant
water covered them all. ::At least
a fire can't start in here.:: He 
glanced down where he saw Cap
struggling to sit but Cap waved him
on even as he held his sore head.

"Go DeSoto.. Finish what you're 
doing.. I'm ok.." Hank said. "I'm
not going to go anywhere until you're 
with me.."

"All right.. Here, Cap.." and Roy tossed
him the HT he had retrieved. He
started shouting even as he picked
up each child and watched them
go through the tangle of metal
garage door sheeting to the street. 
"Marco! Chet! Answer me!"

A blast of an air horn from the engine 
under the worst of the debris pile cut
through the hiss of spouting water and
Roy smiled. ::Chester B, am I glad to
hear you. You must've gotten your
boys into the cab all right..::

Roy saw drivers intercept his tour kids
even as they clustered around the
first little boy lying in the street who
was already waking up from his faint.

DeSoto leaned heavily on the garage
frame for only a moment before
he went back towards the squad. Only
half of it was buried. He touched Cap
on the arm, who had staggered to his
feet to hang onto the squad's mirror.
"You better?" he asked as he pulled 
the passenger side door open for the 
paramedic helmets there and got 
out the two turnout coats from 
the side compartment he could reach. 
He handed Johnny's to Cap to wear
and put on his own. 

"Yeah, I think so. I think a board 
hit me in the head when I pushed
the boy out of the way..." he 
gasped, catching his breath.. "I
heard Kelly's blast just now. 
Any sign of Lopez?"

Roy shook his head. "Not yet."
Then he thought of something else.
"Mike!!" And he yelled to the kitchen
which was now dark. A part of the roof outside
had fallen over the window, blocking out
the sunlight. 

The smell of gas was very strong 
when they both got there to where the door 
was partially jammed open. Looking through 
the cracked glass window in the door, 
they saw a pair of legs on the floor...
Lopez's...

"Marco?!!"
Roy started to push on the door,
trying to break it out of its jammed
frame.

"No, you need an air bottle in there. 
Go!" Cap said, pulling him away.

Roy ran back to the squad, shoving and
kicking away debris to get to the right
store compartment. He got on his
tank in record time. He was back
at the kitchen entryway when Cap
finally got the door open with a crowbar.

Hank coughed as a wall of gas boiled
out over him. "Get him out first.
Then go back for Stoker and the
woman.." Cap ordered Roy as
DeSoto put on his face mask and
reset his helmet over it..

A small form shot out from under
their feet, from the darkness, 
yelping.. It was Bonnie..
She disappeared through a crack
leading to the backyard as if on
a mission..

Roy sighed in relief.. "Bonnie's alive.
Gas can't be too bad in there.." he
shouted through his face plexiglass.

He got to Marco and grabbed him
by the shoulders. Even as Roy did so,
he shouted. "Mike!!  Miss Thorne!!?"

He couldn't see anything at first
as his retinas still burned with sun
dazzle.. But then he saw that the 
side door had been chopped down with an
axe and opened and he caught a brief 
glimpse of Stoker carrying out Miss 
Thorne into the only direction he 
could, into the backyard.. 
She seemed out cold and he seemed
to be hurrying more than just because
of the gas danger. ::She must be worse off than
Marco if Stoker left him behind.:: Roy thought.

Then Cap's HT crackled as Roy finished
dragging Marco out near where outside
air was pouring through the children's 
escape hole washing away the
gas fumes.  Roy listened to a new 
incoming voice even as he watched 
Cap get Marco's airway secure 
for a listening check. 

It was Chet..
##I'm ok, and two twin girls and
the boys who were with me. We're
out in the yard! I don't see 
Gage. But I think I know where 
he is.. Bonnie's digging through 
a brick pile..## came Kelly's voice. 
##The woman's respiratory arrested. 
Stoker's working on her now.## 

Roy pulled off his mask and tank
and snatched up the HT Cap
had left on Marco's stomach. 
##We hear you Chet. Hang on.
Marco's unconscious, too. Let us get
a handle on his situation and
we'll be right there! We got
the rest of the kids out. L.A.'s
on the ball and the gas is getting 
shut off..##  He heard the sirens
from the approaching police car
arrive and shut down. Very soon,
Roy heard someone climbing over
the debris in the driveway and 
a face peered into the place in 
the torn main doors where the 
children had gotten out. 

It was Vince. "You boys ok in there?!
Everyone's fine out here by the road!"

Roy shouted from his place by
Cap and Marco, talkie still in hand
and to his ear, listening to Chet's
continuing report even while he
shouted at Vince.
"Go to the yard Vince.!.. Johnny's trapped
and Stoker and Chet's got an arrest
victim.. We'll get out there with
the gear soon as we can..Marco needs
us right now."
He ducked when Vince's body weight
and movement jarred tilted rafters
and made plaster pieces fall onto 
the three of them as he hastened to
go where directed.  

Roy glanced back down to Marco, 
removing his overcoat.
"Cap, is he still breathing?"

 --------------------------

Photo: Cap outside in a closeup.

*Animated gif* Flames, burning low.

Photo : The Gang in the station garage bay
             around the squad and engine. 

Photo : Close up of the Squad's gearboxes in their
            storage racks.

Gif:    The word "quick" in melted and burning metal, wafting
          smoke.

Photo : Closeup of Roy outside, wearing a stethoscope.
 
*****************************************
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 23:37:20 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Patti  Keiper" <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>  
Subject:  Digging by Daylight.. 


>"Go to the yard Vince.!.. Johnny's trapped
>and Stoker and Chet's got an arrest
>victim.. We'll get out there with
>the gear soon as we can..Marco needs
>us right now."
>He ducked when Vince's body weight
>and movement jarred tilted rafters
>and made plaster pieces fall onto 
>the three of them as he hastened to
>go where directed.  

>Roy glanced back down to Marco, 
>removing his overcoat.
>"Cap, is he still breathing?"

Hank looked up. "Barely. He's gonna
need O2 and I think something else
is wrong with him. He feels awfully hot
to me."

"Yeah well, we gotta get him out of
here first. Who knows when the gas 
company will get L.A's stop order. This
earthquake might have given them
higher priorities.." Roy said. "Last thing
we need is 100 % O2 mixing with all
the fumes in here." 

"Hey..Knock it off, t-that's my line." Cap
quipped. 

Roy grinned, which levelled, as he 
concentrated on a quick assessment of
Marco's condition.
He got a grip on Lopez's carotid, and paused
as he got an initial breathing rate visually.
"Marco's doing well enough for an evac,
Cap.. Watch him a sec.  I'm going to 
see if I can free up a stokes for him and the 
resuscitator. Stoker's gonna need it if 
that school teacher's down too deep."

"I remember hearing about her.."
Cap shook his head, trying to clear it.
"Yeah. That's right..S-Sounds like a plan.."

Roy looked up at Cap. "Hey. You
all right to be alone for a bit? You still
look groggy."

"It's nothing. I'm only a little woozy.
Go.." he said, meeting Roy's eyes
evenly with his own to show the 
truth in his words.

DeSoto studied Cap for a moment
but was finally convinced. He ran.

He got to where the squad's rear 
compartment was and started to 
lift off rafter beams and ceiling 
pieces until he got down to the 
rescue truck's heavy equipment 
locker doors. 

Miraculously, he got everything 
he needed free in half a minute. 

He set the biophone, drug box, 
defib, O2, and the IV box next to 
the squad stokes on the brick strewn floor 
in the only narrow space available. Along 
the wall map's baseboard.

On a whim thought, he grabbed
shovel. ::There's not much digging Chet and 
Vince can do getting to Johnny with their 
bare hands.::

That done he shouted. "Cap.. How're
you doing?!"

Hank didn't answer right away.

"Cap?!'

"Huh? I'm fine. I'm fine.. What do you
got over there?" Cap said.

Roy moved to check out the split
garage doors where Bonnie had run 
through to get to the back yard. 
He smiled and just about cried when 
he saw almost a two meter gap. 
:: Tipped on its side, the stokes could pass 
through that rear door fissure easily..:: 
"Found a way out. I'm coming back!"

And he ran back through the dusty mist
to the front of the garage, almost leaping
over the debris piles. "Cap..did you 
hear me? We're getting outta here.."

He screeched to a halt when he rounded
the fender of the squad.

Cap was crouched , still squatting on his feet, 
almost on top of Marco, but he was slumped 
over with his head sagging down.

Roy grabbed his shoulder, his stomach
flipping. But Cap immediately lifted his head.

Recovering from his fright, Roy spelled it 
out in no uncertain terms.
"Hey, are you going to be able to do this, 
Cap? If you're feeling hurt worse than you 
think you are, I can go get Ch--"

"No. Roy, let's just get him out now. I'll sit down 
once we're outta danger.." Cap said, looking 
at his paramedic. He grabbed onto Marco's 
feet and picked them up, while Roy got his 
shoulders. "Come on.. Let's move. Look,
his resp rate's already dropping off.
Marco won't be able to wait much longer for O2
if you detour. Besides, neither Kelly nor Vince
will want to leave trying to get Gage outta 
trouble without a fight. And that will cause 
a serious delay my friend.. Don't
tell me that it won't."

He wasn't happy, but Roy didn't protest further. 

It took several minutes, with 
Cap stumbling and sweating over boards 
and bricks for both of them to get Marco 
safely enscounced into the stokes and strapped 
in. They piled all the gear on top of him for a one 
trip carry, until they got to the split in the 
rear hanger doors Roy had found. 

Roy gestured for Cap to head 
on through first to accept gear in hand-offs. 

Soon the three of them were free from
the shattered ruin of station 51's garage, 
and into clearer air and sunlight.

Cap grunted when he saw the level of
destruction around them in the yard.
The high tan brick walls ringing the station
were completely levelled.
"My god, the epicenter must have been 
right here.." He barely got stumbling
to where Mike was when he dropped 
Marco's stokes the last few inches to 
the ground.

Roy said, "Think you're right, Cap. Now just
take it easy over there.You've done all you
can do.." he said as Cap sat painfully down 
next to Marco's head to monitor him. 

DeSoto grabbed the 02 apparatus and 
handed it over to Stoker, who was 
listening to a tenative recaptured air 
exchange on Miss Thorne. "How's she 
doing?" he asked Mike.

"Got her partially back. She's breathing one
out of three." he said, snatching for
the demand valve. He began to use
it full flow, letting her pull air when she
could but assisting and taking over 
when she lapsed.
"I got lucky. She never lost a pulse." 
Then he tossed a head back behind him. 
"You'd better get over there buddy. 
Chet and Vince are having problems 
digging Gage out."

"Is he conscious?"

"Don't know.." Mike answered.
"Sort of had my hands full here."

"I'm going over there. She'll maintain 
all right. Here's more info on them."
Roy dragged Marco's stokes near
enough to the O2 so he could
string a mask from the other port
for Lopez. "Marco's really out. Breathing
shallow. And he's febrile for some
reason. Keep an eye on Cap too. 
Possible head injury.." he said 
setting a ten liter flow for Marco
through a non rebreather. 

Mike nodded. "Ok. Got it. Roy, I think 
the woman's problem is just the 
gas exposure. Nothing fell on either
one of us at all.."

"Noted. I'll contact Rampart as
soon as we know about Johnny too.."
Roy said. He grabbed the shovel
he and Cap brought and ran around 
the antique engine towards where
he could hear Bonnie barking.

On the way, he met the four tour 
students they all had gotten out of 
the station. "It's all right kids. Your 
teacher's not dead. We're just helping 
her on some oxygen. Your friends are
safe, too, out in front. Just wait here where 
it's safe in the open. Don't go anywhere, 
all right?"

Four heads nodded. The kids were
shivering where they were clinging 
together seated on the ground, 
mousy with emotional shock. But 
Roy didn't see any critical problems
on them so he left them alone in 
Mike's line of sight.

He ran faster until he got to where
Bonnie was letting the dirt fly high. 

Chet and Vince were in high gear too, 
still trying to dig next to a frantic Bonnie. 
Vince was beginning to get desperate,
using his helmet.

Roy dropped down onto the brick
pile and laid to with his spade fighting
down unbidden fears. 
"Heard anything?"

"Not a peep." Chet said just as anxious. 
"There's NO way we can get to him, man. 
There must be half a ton of bricks here. 
This is where the hose tower was.."

"Just keep digging. There's gotta be
an airpocket or something  under there."
Vince said.

"We hope.." Chet said.
 
Kelly's shortness made Roy try to
ease his doubts even as his own grew worse.
"Part of the stack was reinforced concrete
and wire. That wouldn't collapse flat."
Roy said. ::Johnny. Hang in there.::

For several tense moments, there was
just the "chuck" of helmet and shovel
and bare hands, biting into soil and rubble.

Then Kelly said, "Hold it! Hold it! Look!"

Bonnie had moved to a different area
of the debris pile and was cocking her
head at a sound just beneath her.
She began to dig madly and the pitch of
her barking changed to one of excited discovery.

There was a small cave beneath
her and in her eagerness, dashed inside of
it.

"Bonnie. No!!" Kelly warned.
 
But the tiny Yorkie's tail reemerged 
unscathed, and soon, came the rest of her. 
When her head followed out of the hole, 
Gage's dusty sock and foot were 
tightly in her mouth.  

"Johnny!!?" Chet yelled, and he shoved
Bonnie aside to bury his head into the
hole up to the shoulders with both hands,
reaching deep. "He's alive.. I can see 
him breathing." came his muffled report. 
"His arms and shoulders are pinned pretty 
good in here. I think a small chamb--"

There was another cave in and a plume
of dust hissed out of the fissure and
Kelly let out a startled yell.

Vince grabbed onto his belt in a tackle
to keep Kelly from slipping under the
ground even further. His efforts proved
just how unstable the regolith in
their area was.

Another collapse came, this one bigger
and heavier. Suddenly, both Johnny and Chet  
started to thrash in panic as their airspace
suddenly filled up in choking dirt and brick.

Vince hauled Kelly out by his pants, with every
sinew of strength, until inch by inch,
the curly haired fireman was pulled free.. 

Chet gasped and choked on chalky grit
that had blown into his nose and mouth.
"Get him out of there!! *cough* The 
whole roof caved in.*cough. cough*"

Roy started to dig underneath where
Johnny's leg was writhing as quickly
as he dared.  

It was Bonnie who found Gage's other pinned
leg, twisted above the first just before
his struggles began to weaken. 

Vince and Roy abandoned helmet and 
shovel and quickly each hauled on a leg 
full weight backwards, sliding awkwardly 
on the slippery brick pieces.

"Come on. Let go.." Vince grunted to
the earth. "He can't breathe.."

Johnny's limp head dragged clear at last and
thunked over a few boulders when all
three of them fell on their butts. 

"Johnny. Can you hear me?" Roy
shouted. He crawled to Johnny's head,
accidently jarring him in his haste to get an
answer.. Gage's mouth gaped open. 

A rock was inside blocking off his throat.
Roy hooked it free with a couple of 
fingers.. "Johnny? Hey.... It's gone..
Come on spit it out." he said, slapping 
his partner's face, hard.

The sudden sting to the skin on his rock
rubbed raw face, drove Johnny to full 
wakefulness and he flopped over 
onto his side, coughing wetly. 

He threw up a lot of dirt and mucous 
until he gasped in; the first solid breath 
of air he had taken since he'd been buried.  
"*Hack* Whaa? Roy?....*gasp* Oh man...
I thought.. I wasn't ever ........gonna make 
it......out of t-there.. "

Roy dropped his head in relief..
"So did we... Just keep breathing
regular. You're still blue.."

Gage added more as his head cleared.
"Thanks for trying to shield me Chet. Almost worked."
and he sagged onto the ground in exhaustion, 
grateful to be seeing daylight and moving air.
Then hypoxia nausea rose up 
and he got sick again. ::Mud this time. 
Better from my stomach than from a lung 
or two..:: 

"Got it all out?" Roy asked, still hanging
onto him when he was through. 

Johnny nodded, without opening his
eyes. "Yeah.. I think so."

"Believe it or not, you're completely pink
now after all that.."

"I feel green.."

"Just lie still for a sec. Hurt anywhere
else besides your hand?" Roy asked.

"My hand?" Johnny said, picking his head
up and peering down. A bent rod was
embedded through the bones in his
left palm and was sticking out the back of it.

"Aw Roy, why did you tell him about that? 
Now he's gonna freak out.." Chet said.

"Oh, man.." Gage said, ignoring both of
them. He curled around himself as his 
eyes seemed to reconnect his nerves 
centers into a core of agony through 
his impaled hand. "Royyyy?... this just 
isn't my day...ah,  h*ll.." he grimaced.

Chet was still coming down from Johnny's
close call. "Not everyday a full moon earthquake
scores a direct bullseye on Johnny Gage..That's
for d*mned sure. " And he laughed. He stopped
immediately when Gage caught his breath,
around another spasm.."Oooo. Come on. It's time
to get up Gage. If we let you think about it too
long, you're going to have to be carried out of 
here." he said gently.. "l'll tape that immobile 
after we get ya over to the biophone."

Gage let the three of them sit him up and
then with a groan, he let the burly Vince lift 
him bodily to a very shaky pair of feet.
Bonnie nearly leaped somersaults when 
she saw her favorite fireman finally 
standing vertical. 

She barked happily, frisking in the dust, 
until she saw the huddle of frightened kids
by the old engine. She dashed off to
be with them in a cloud of dirt.. 

Very soon, the kids snapped out of 
their dazed stares to timidly reach 
out to pet her dirty back.

"Would you look at that.. Bonnie
works better than smelling salts." 
Gage grinned, halting them all.

"You owe her a ton of bacon my friend.
She's the one who found you, Johnny.." 
Kelly commented.

"Well I'll be.."

"Come on Captain Hook, let's get you
cleaned up. If we don't hurry, you just
might have to stay this way...." Roy
quipped, glancing down at Johnny's 
speared hand.  

"Oh ha. Aren't you funny.."Gage replied
sarcastically. He shifted his weight as Roy
moved his good arm over a shoulder.
Then he paled, when he saw what was 
dripping on his shoes. "What makes you
think I wanna work after this?"

DeSoto went on with his interrupted 
sentence.. "We've got three injured
patients  to attend to, not counting 
you. Don't worry, I'll let you black 
out if I have to, just as soon as 
another squad gets here to relieve
you.." 
Roy nodded for Chet to start applying 
pressure to Johnny's brachial artery 
when the wound around the rod started 
to spurt as Gage's blood pressure rallied with
his mental clarity.

"You're all heart.." Johnny grinned weakly.

As soon as they all got over to the others,
Johnny promptly forgot his hand. 
"Chet, let go of me.. Just put a tourniquet 
on this. If I have to work, I'll do it verbally,
You can at least get vitals sets.. 
Roy, what do we got? 
Looks like Miss Thorne's the worst of them.." 
he said, reaching over with his good hand to 
get the band Chet needed to stop his
hemorrhaging. Gage grabbed it out of one of the 
gear boxes Mike had flicked open for 
him, between one of his positive pressure valve
ventilations he was delivering to the 
stilled teacher.

Roy said, "Natural gas inhalation. On
her and Marco both. He's breathing
ok, but she's partially unresponsive.
Marco's also got an unexplained 
elevated temp. Cap found it assessing
him. Cap's got a slight concussion
I think. He was out for a while. I haven't
gotten a look at his pupils yet.."

"Chet you go handle that while Roy calls us in."
Gage snapped. "Stop fussing with me."

"Right. Almost got this secure.." Chet
said, giving one last yank on the tourniquet
around Johnny's upper arm. 
"There.." he smiled, biting a lip. "Going numb?"

"Not fast enough..." Gage peeped in pain.

"Good. You're set. " His eyes flickered 
downward.. "Give me that.." and
he pulled out Johnny's penlight from
his pocket to look at Cap. 
"Walk me through the neural Johnny. 
I've only seen you guys do this a few 
times.." he said seriously, then he 
beamed, full charm, smiling at Cap 
as he knelt by him.  "Hiya Cap. Great to see 
you winking those peepers at me.
Thought you were dead for a sec
in there. .." he leaned in with
his light.. "This won't hurt a bit.."

Johnny began instructing Chet by rote
what things to look for. Soon, he had the 
info needed to share with Roy when he 
was ready on his end.

DeSoto threw an eye on Miss Thorne
to count the actual times she tried to
breathe around Stoker's vents and he
shivered in utter weariness. 
The initial adrenaline he always got in a crisis,
was leaving him, letting him feel every bump
and ache the earthquake had imparted to him.
::But.....It sure feels great knowing no 
one died. It could have been worse...::

He coughed once to clear out the acrid
dust in his throat. Then he started writing 
in his note pad the findings in prep for
a medical base station hail.

Trussed up and no longer bleeding like a stuck
pig, Johnny checked the psi on the regulator
of outgoing 02 on the apparatus 
feeding Marco and the teacher's masks.
::Plenty of oxygen left here.:: he thought
with satisfaction. 
He even nodded with approval when Chet
was simply perfect getting an accurate 
BP off Marco where he lay in the stokes. 
::94/60. Not too shocky..:: Gage thought 
after Chet had told him what it was.

A minute later they all heard a chorus 
of sirens as the first of the responding 
stations rolled up to their scene. It looked
strange seeing firetrucks actually rolling 
TO a firehouse, with all their reds flashing. 

Cap got on his walkie talkie as soon
as he bird eyed the number on 
the pumper's door. "Engine 51 to 
Station Eight. We've got four victims 
in the yard. B-- -uh,...Bring three s-stokes.."

The fast reply from Eight's Captain 
Stone made it clear that they knew who
at least one of those stokes was for.
##Hank? Hang on. We're coming. Looks
clear along your south exposure. Man
what a mess. Hope you aren't bad 
yourself..##

"I'm fair.." Cap replied. "Watch it
in there. Gas leak in the kitchen.
"And don't tell me any details about
the engine or the squad. I simply don't 
wanna know..We just pulled one of 
them back from the brink only this 
morning..!" he wailed.

Nearby, Roy grinned and mentally 
downgraded Cap's medical status a 
few notches after overhearing his joking 
remark.. 

He brought the black phone receiver to 
his ear and plugged in the red comm 
box's aerial antennae.

##Rampart this is Squad 51, How do you
read?##

---------------------------

Photo : Chet Kelly sneering in jest.

Gif : A resuscitator in a green case with the PPV
       connected up.
 
Photo:  A screengrab from Snakebite with Johnny
            on top of the engine, Chet and Marco nearby.

*******************************
From:  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Fri Oct 25, 2002  7:58 pm
Subject:  Hard Run..

Special acknowledgements to Story Consult-- 
Justafan1701-  on LACoFD Telecommunications
and earthquake seismology. 


>The fast reply from Eight's Captain 
>Stone made it clear that they knew who
>at least one of those stokes was for.
>##Hank? Hang on. We're coming. Looks
>clear along your south exposure. Man
>what a mess. Hope you aren't bad 
>yourself..##

>"I'm fair.." Cap replied. "Watch it
>in there. Gas leak in the kitchen.
>"And don't tell me any details about
>the engine or the squad. I simply don't 
>wanna know..We just pulled one of 
>them back from the brink only this 
>morning..!" he wailed.

>Nearby, Roy grinned and mentally 
>downgraded Cap's medical status a 
>few notches after overhearing his joking 
>remark.. 

Mike looked down as Cindy Thorne started
actively coughing under the resuscitator.
He lifted it free to make sure she wasn't
getting ill. "Easy.." he said as she began
to struggle as some consciousness returned.
He sighed in relief when he saw that she 
wasn't sick at all.
"Miss Thorne. Keep this over your face.
It's just an oxygen mask. You took in
some gas in there from the stove but 
you're going to be fine."

"Oh,hhh... Robbie? Rachael?....I
can't see any of them.!" she said, gasping,
knocking Mike's hands away.

Cap near them turned from Marco.
"Cindy! No.." he shouted and they both
grabbed her head and shoulders when 
she suddenly sat up. Immediate dizziness 
almost made her pass out again. 
"Stoker, she's probably just worried about
the kids. Hang on there a sec, pal."

Cap took her face into his hands,
cradling her cheeks, until he made
full eye contact. "Cindy? It's all right. 
They're all out.. You are too. Now 
just lie back down and let us make 
sure that you're ok. Help's already 
here from another engine company 
and we'll be outta here just as soon 
as we can. But first, you gotta take 
in some more O2. It'll help clear your 
head. And it will make you feel a h*ll of
a lot better.  All right?"

Cindy coughed, trying to focus on
Mike and Cap blearily, but finally, 
she let them lower her back down 
to the ground when their calm reasoning 
finally registered in her brain.
Then she noticed Marco, "Oh, is
he ok? He's hurt!..." she gasped,
blinking in distress.

"He's fine. His story's the same as
yours." Mike said to her. "He's just
decided to nap a bit longer than you.." 

Cap shot eyes at Stoker and he
nodded in agreement for her benefit. 
"Now, just keeping breathing
this in. " Hank said, setting the O2
back over her face.."That's it.. Nice 
and easy. Stoker's gonna stay with 
you for a while here until you get
your equilibrium back."

"But.." she said weakily, muffled through
the mask as she tried to get used to
it being there.

"Don't worry about your students.
There's a police officer here who'll 
watch the children for you.."
he looked up.. "Annddd...right now,
it looks like most of them are playing 
tag with our station dog..They're just fine,
really." Cap said matter of factly with a 
huge grin, brushing hair and debris out 
of her face.

Cindy Thorne closed her eyes
when her shock suddenly overtook
her mental will. "Oh, ..I've
got to..reach their..paren--.."

"We'll do that soon. Just rest for
a bit. I'm sure tha--" Mike broke off
his comment when she blacked out. 
He moved a hand to her carotid as 
she went limp. Cap eyed him but 
he waggled his head. "She's all right. 
Still moving air on her own. There's 
resistance here." he said, checking 
with a test vent on the mask into 
her lungs. "Got a pulse rate about 100.
I'll get an actual draw count for DeSoto
when he's set.."

Cap sat back down onto his
rump, letting his weariness show
in his face again. He gingerly felt
the back of his head and it came
away bloodied. "Good. Keep on
her, Stoker.. I'll get back to Lopez."

Roy was only half aware of the teacher's
brief episode of awakening. He was
concentrating on listening close
to the biophone. "Rampart this is 
rescue 5-1. Do you copy?"

** Static  **

Roy changed channels on the biophone,
to the little used all call band, redirecting 
his comm transmission to HQ LA. "LA, this is
squad 51, is our channel clear to Rampart? 
We can't seem to raise them."

** Static **

Johnny looked up from watching Chet
immobilize the rod running through his
hand, trying not to wince. "Think the
repeaters are out?" he asked Roy.

"Maybe.." DeSoto said. "LA must be
scrambling to get an all stations check 
and haven't found out that our 
district's radio relay is down."

"He got through before.. I heard
him when the kids and I were
still ducking down in the engine cab."
Chet said.

"That was landline, Chet." John said.
"We were in the stationhouse."

"I know. Things can change quickly following an
earthquake.." Kelly said. "But, you know how
good those guys are about reestablishing a comm
net once a problem is detected."

"Well, Miss Thorne and Marco can't wait." 
Roy said. He lifted his HT. 
"LA, this is Squad 51."

##Go ahead, 51..##

"Our radio telemetry seems to be 
out on our biophone. Is there anyway
you can relay to Rampart General
Hospital for us? We've four victims
that need a doctor's attention right
away.."

There was a longer than average pause.
Even Cap looked up at the delay.

##Squad 51.  All channels have been
utilized for emergency broadcast
communication only. Disaster protocol
is in place. Suggest using a landline to
Rampart. If the telephone line to the 
station house has been effected, payphones 
are showing as still in service in your area. ##

"Payphones?" Gage said incredulously.

Cap piped up.. "Yeah. Payphones. They've got
underground cabling. The same dirt which
knocked out the repeaters alignment must have
cushioned the payphone network. Makes sense.
DeSoto, free up off the biophone. Let the man
work. We'll try his suggestion first.."

Roy shrugged, uncertain and embarrassed he
even bothered LA, who was now set in a higher priority
moding. "10-4, LA. We copy. We'll 10-8 to a landline."

#Squad 51..# the head dispatch acknowledged.

"Cap, why didn't you tell me not to biocall?"

"Quite frankly Roy, I'm not up on earthquake
scenario past the basics. I was in the dark just
as much as you were. First time I've ever been
in one." Hank shrugged.

"First time for me, too.." came the
voice of Captain Stone, from very near by.
He waved his men over with the requested 
stokes and they clustered around the group in 
Station 51's shattered backyard. "So, far, we've
all been using HT's. But only between units.
I found out from McConike about the landline
trick for our rescue squad."

"Who's here?" Gage piped up.

"Gil and Brice...They're getting the 02
and their gear. We figured you boys
wouldn't have had much equipment left
after that.." Stone replied throwing a thumb
over his shoulder at the rubble between 
the bunkhouse and kitchen ends of station 51.
"Cap. We've been inside. The gas is off and
we're already opening holes to ventilate. All the
fumes are gone. And believe it or not. Your 
kitchen phone is working. Gil's already got 
Rampart on the line for you.
Switch to our station's frequency on your
handheld to get him. He's set to relay."

Roy spoke up, "Thanks, Captain Stone. But I think
I should field that call personally. I've got 
all our patient info up here.." and he 
pointed to his head. "One to one, that way,
with the doctor would be faster."

"Fair enough.  I'll send Gil out here to assist
Brice on treatment." Stone shrugged.

They all turned when some of Engine 8's
crew dropped down the rest of the rear
door from the mangled garage using a
short K-12 application, offering easy 
access back into the shattered heart
of Station 51.

"Oh, man.." Cap groaned. "I didn't want to
see that.." he said as a falling rafter kicked loose
from a wind gust, and smashed into the main 
dome light on top of the Ward's cab, pulverizing it.

Vince piped up to Stone's men. 
"Ok, let's get these kids out of
here. They're students from Grover
Middleland school. That's their
teacher lying over there. Move out. 
I've got additional squad cars here so
we can evac all of them."

Firemen moved to escort the frightened
children away from the scene.

Roy rose to his feet. "Johnny. Hey.
I've got to go back inside. Take it
easy now. And try to get along with Brice,
huh? He's going to be senior assessor
here, even over you, all right?"

He jogged, gripping his handy talkie,
and ran by Brice, who was 
coming, helmeted, with gear.

"I know that. I'll be a professional!"
Johnny shouted after his partner.
He winced when the effort shot a bolt
of pain through his hand.

"That's professional patient, Gage.
The moment Squad 8 got on scene,
they bumped you out of service man.."
Chet said.

"Don't rub it in, Chet." Johnny spat.

His anger was tempered when Bonnie,
suddenly free of her children charges,
came running up. She reared up, planting
kisses of worry and affection onto his chin.

Johnny smiled in spite of himself.

Brice rushed by Roy without even looking
fully at him.. "The woman?"

Roy said, running in the opposite direction.
"Still breathing.. Marco's gas inhalation too!"
he shouted after him. Roy wheeled, reluctant
to leave the yard, until Cap re- enforced his
departure to the kitchen phone with an
arched eyebrow..

Captain Stone was on DeSoto's heels
to make sure that flashlights were 
delivered to the dark kitchen for Roy's
note dictation via landline.

He sent more men arriving from the responding
units to the surrounding area to cruise for trouble
spots beyond Station 51's scene. As an after thought,
he got his engineer to pull up 51's squad and the LaFrance
out of the garage once the worst of the roofing debris
had been pulled off of them.  Stone huffed
a breath on his sleeve and polished the door handle
of the engine when he saw Hank watching him
once the two trucks were free of the garage rubble.

Cap chuckled when he saw that little move and
lifted his HT. "Needs a lot more than a wax job,
Ben.. Appreciate it, though."

Stone added, ##I'll have my crew check em out.
Neither of them are leaking fuel.. I got a fanning
hose wash on them just in case.##

"Take good care of my boys and my station.."
Cap sighed, and he let Stone's men move him
to a stokes for a lie down and soon, he was
fitted with an O2 cannula and his turnout
was removed. Hank's HT, however, stayed 
fast in his grip by his head, where he 
could hear everything, even as he let go
physically and mentally. He felt a man move
closer to monitor him as he closed his eyes.

"Night Cap.." Gage said, lying in his own
stokes. "Don't doze too deep with that
headcrack of yours."

"I won't. Just don't gore Brice with that
hand pike of yours."

"Deal."


Moments later, Brice finished crossing the yard and
he knelt by Cindy Thorne first for a new vitals set.

He looked up to see Bonnie still bathing Johnny's chin
with kisses and Gage being too out of it to push
her away. "Getting mouth to mouth from a dog, 
Gage? Must be protocol I haven't yet heard about."

"Very funny. This dog saved my life, I'm not about
to tick her off by complaining.." he said, lifting
Bonnie into the stokes where she
promptly laid down in between his legs, setting
a worried muzzle and front paws onto his 
stomach, still softly whining with stress.

Brice curbed his banter. "What have we got here
Gage? Roy didn't tell me much.."

"Stoker revived the woman. No trauma. 
Cap's got a blow to the back of his head.
Pupils equal and reactive. Marco's out,
febrile after LOC. BP, 94/60, Resp 12,
shallow. Pulse 92. Me, I, uh.. Almost
choked in a cave-in. Puked out a lot of 
ingested mud. Chest seems clear. And 
I got this little little..problem--mm ." he 
said lifting his stabbed hand.

The sight of the rod made Brice pause and
he sank his glasses lower on his nose to
get a closer look at it from where he
was listening to Cindy's breath sounds
through a stethoscope. 

Brice asked Chet, "Blood loss.." he said.
snapping his fingers, about Gage.

"Oh, uh, Gage lost about 600 CC before
I got that tourniquet in plac--"

"Get him on a cannula, Kelly. 4-6 liters O2.
 Use our unit. Elevate his legs.
Then position your captain with his head 
raised. I'll be right with you, Gage.
Almost through assessing this woman." 
Brice said.

But Johnny didn't answer.

Gil arrived from the rubble and
took Brice's pointing hint to check Johnny's
consciousness level as Chet followed
his medical orders to a T.

The two Station 8 medics got to work..


---------------
 
Inside the dark and silent kitchen,
Roy's face was illuminated by flashlight
and he took the phone from the
Station 8 paramedic waiting for him
there. "Thanks Gil. I'm trading places
with ya.."

"Sure thing. It's Brackett on the line."
And Gil ran off to the yard.

Roy set his HT on the phone top
and nodded to the fireman with the 
flashlight to go about his business,
grabbing the torch from his gloves
as he set the kitchen phone receiver
to his face. Roy shifted the light under 
one arm so he could see his notepad. 
"Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you 
read?"

As he waited for a return, Roy had his 
first real, thinking look at the devastation 
that the quake had brought to his station.
 
He watched as a frightened 
sparrow arrowed through the airspace
where the garage roof had been. 

::Will we be able to get over all of this?::
came the thought, unbidden.

A familiar voice broke Roy out of his
fear. ##This is Rampart. Go ahead, 51. 
You're reading loud and clear..##

Roy sighed and almost sobbed when 
Kel's steady confident baritone met
his ear. "Doctor Brackett. We've uh,
four victims at our location. The earthquake
has pretty much destroyed the stationhouse
here. Trauma is apparent. 
Three of my victims are... are  Code I. 
  Victim one.
A female approximate age, twenty two. 
Found apneic from natural gas inhalation. 
Now breathing on her own on one 
hundred percent 02. 
  Victim two.
Unconscious. Moderate gas inhalation
and etiology of unknown fever on ten 
liters O2.
  Victim three. 
Cave-in. Obstructed airway now relieved. 
Ingested mud. Foreign body impalement 
of the left hand. Arterial bleeding is under 
control. 
  Victim four. 
Possible head injury with history of blackout, 
awake and oriented. Pupils equal and reactive."

##10-4, 51.## came Kel's voice. Roy
could hear the man's concern seeping through
his doctor mode even through his short
reply back. #Can you give me full 
vitals for Victim one?#

"R-right. doc.. uh. ..s-she's.." and his
voice caught; the sudden realization of what
had happened finally sinking in. "Well, she's like 
I said and..and..  I- I'm sorry doc..
I can't--"

At the base station, Dixie and Kel's faces
fell out of their professional shells at
the sound of pain in his voice. Brackett
was stunned, hearing his best medic
fall apart on the job. He felt Dix
tap him sharply on the arm and looked
up to see her give him a do something look.

##Hang in there Roy, I'm with you. 
Gil tells me that you've got a full response
already on scene so you've got plenty of
help right there. Roy, you're not alone..
Dix is right here, too. We'll get your friends
taken care of as fast as we possibly
can here by working together. So don't 
worry. All you have to do is give me one 
detail at a time. Focus on that and 
we'll get through this difficult rescue
just like we do all the others.##
Dr. Brackett heard only badly concealed
muffled sobs on the other end of the line.  
##Roy,  I guarantee it. It's just always
harder when things hit close to home like
this.##

Roy felt unbidden tears begin to run 
down his face but he didn't say anything
and he sniffled wetly, the weight of the 
phone call, reporting catastrophe,
wearing on him.

##Now go ahead on the woman's vitals..##
He heard Kel order.

Roy cleared his throat and spoke....

--------------------------

Photo:  A crushed fire engine.

Photo : Dr. Brackett, looking down on us.

Photo: Brice, smiling in a firehouse kitchen.

Photo : Roy, wearing a stethoscope outside.

Photo : An aerial view over Station 51, showing
            the block as totally levelled. Collapses            
            everywhere.

*******************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Sat Oct 26, 2002  2:14 am
Subject:  Big Time Complication


>##Now go ahead on the woman's vitals..##
>He heard Kel order.

>Roy cleared his throat and spoke....

"Hang on, we're HT to the outside here.
Relaying direct to station 8's paramedics. 
Please stand by. Vitals to follow." Roy said.

##Standing by..##

----------------------------

Five minutes later, DeSoto had his initial 
medical orders relayed to the yard to 
Gil and Brice over his hand held.

Dr. Brackett asked Roy one more question.
##What's your ETA on an ambulance ?##

"We don't know that yet, doc. Depends on
how badly the roads in our area are damaged." 
Roy said.

##10-4, 51. Get them here any way you can.
When you can. ##

"Yep.." Roy said, impatient. "Just wish I
could."

Kel added. ##I'll be frank with you, Roy. 
Gage, we can turn around, same with 
your captain and the school teacher. 
It's Marco I'm worried about. I don't like
the fact that his vitals are sinking like this 
and the fact we can't figure out his LOC
or snap him out of it with epinephren. Or
that sudden onset of fever.. And
another thing, that odd bloody patching Gil
found in his throat's d*mned pec--
Hang on Roy, Joe's telling me something.##
There was a pause and Roy could hear
the two doctors confirming a new 
development. Brackett came back online. 
##Roy, we've got word there's a battalion 
triage station setting up near you. 
Joe's just heard about it from squad 99. 
They're treating victims there, just down the 
block from your 10-20. Perhaps you can 
move out to their location as an alternate 
to transporting here if the roads prove 
to be impassable. Wait a minute, on 
second thought, I want you to utilize 
them instead of us here at Rampart, 
understood? I'm getting orders now 
from FEMA for some of us to be flown in, 
over the alert scanner..## Dr. Brackett said. 

More warbles came that Roy couldn't quite 
make out. Then an exclamation.. 

##Beautiful! That solved our problem, 
Roy. Just got my own orders to 
report out to your own area within the next 
fifteen minutes. I'll rendevous with you 
myself to see your victims. Count on me 
muscling in to be their attending MD.##  

"Appreciate it, doc.. listen, off the 
record. Just how bad is it out there?"

##My guess is extremely localized for 
the most part. All the runs coming in 
that are quake related are in the same one
mile square area. No major fires, but my 
casualty reports are still sketchy.##

A ruckus outside the kitchen caught Roy's
attention; police clashing with media types.

Roy's forehead furrowed as he gripped
the phone tighter. "Listen doc. I know
you're busy.. Could you do me a favor? Could 
you have Dixie call our families to let them 
know we're all right. No doubt they're pretty
panicked watching us on their television sets,
I see a camera crew out there right now,
bumping heads with the PD."

##Will do, Roy. Contact base again if there
are further developments. See you soon.##

"10-4. Squad 51, out."

Roy hung up the phone, and walked the
few feet to the plaster powdered kitchen
table in weariness. He wiped the sweat off his
blood caked face with a dusty towel he 
found there and slowly began recapturing his wits, 
leaning against it, until a sensation of heat 
against his back made him jump off its edge.  

It was a coffee pot, still warm and steaming 
from where Johnny had left it before the quake. 
Roy stared at its unreal normalcy, smelled its 
perfumey steam curls, delicately wafting in his 
flashlight's beam, until a shout from the 
yard caused him to hightail it back 
outside as fast as he could..

"What do you mean it's my fault he's
shocky?! I couldn't have started O2 on
him any sooner because both lines
were on Marco and the girl, who needed
the help more at the time, Brice, so back 
off ! If Gage were awake, I'm sure he'd
be agreeing with me wholeheartedly!" 

Roy got himself between Kelly and Brice.
"Hey hey hey.. Hush down! Just what's
the matter with you two? We've got
nosy press types already in the driveway.
This is no time to let personality clashes
come to a boil where they might overhear it.." 
he said. 

All the while he spoke, Roy was watching 
Gil, who was keeping well out of it. He didn't miss
Gil speeding up an IV of Ringers Lactate on Marco,
nor his slipping in an oral airway on him. 

Roy's practiced eye also saw that Cindy's
atropine, to boost her respirations, had 
already been administered from the sight of
the yellow pop caps on the ground.
    Mike was now absent.
::Stoker must have gone on to damage patrol.
Cindy's only on a light nonrebreather. At least, 
she's doing better.:: He got an OK gesture
from Gil about her, pantomimed.

 Another part of his mind dealt with putting
his two coworkers sharply into line.
"Keep it down to a quiet roar if you two 
have to argue. Or better yet, let's all 
just do our jobs here, as a team.." he 
lectured. "We'll take a vote on who was 
right over a poker game once our butts are 
safe and sound on solid ground next week,
all right..?!"

Chet and Brice both studied the ground,
then both looked sheepishly around to make
sure that Stone, nor any of his men had
overheard their petty bickering.

"That's better.." Roy said, glaring at Brice
and Chet, as he began crouching by 
Marco to look at his pupils. "Now here's 
the scoop. Brackett's on his way here. 
It's looking more and more that the roads 
might be out in our vicinity for there's 
a helicopter triage station area just down 
the boulevard. It's already up and running. 
So let's get our victims out of here and 
where we'll be able to do them the most
good all right?"

For two minutes, the four of them mobilized
and packed up all of their equipment and 
supplies.

Just then, Captain Stone returned to the yard. 
He was oblivious to the tension just evaporating.
"Ok, everybody.We're moving out. There's a triage-"

Roy cut in. "Uh, yes sir. Captain. We got word
from Brackett about it. We're set.. We're
ready to move when you are. Everyone
is stabilized and supported on O2."

"Fast work.. All right. Let's do it.." he
gestured to his men who ran out of
the station house following a very 
hasty cleanup and damage check.

The runaway hydrant had long since 
been emergency capped.

 "But there's been a further change.We're 
opening your bunk house to these triage 
victims of yours and any others who
are waiting turns to be flown out of the 
disaster area.  Only the garage bay
was unstable boys, the rest of the 
station checks out. 
You may be running a triage base station 
for this block from right here.."

"Understood, Cap.." Brice said. 
"I'll move our gear into there."

Stone looked down at Captain Stanley,
who was mumbling to himself in his
half sleep, giving random orders based
on what he was hearing in his ear through
the talkie. "Is he ok?  Saw him go out
a few minutes ago."

"He's on just a precautionary IV, 
and his vitals are fine, Cap." Roy said. 
"He won't be running any operations
but that doesn't mean he won't be 
dreaming about us doing it. He's got 
quite a grip on that hand held. He's 
hanging on every word. Even in his 
sleep." he grinned. "His concussion 
appears to be minor." 

Stone didn't move from his hands on 
hips planted position, so Roy 
volunteered to him a quick a medical 
rundown on all the others too.
"Ok.." Stone said, satisfied. 
"I'll let the triage head know what 
you got.."  

Stone got teams of men to grab the 
four stokes to haul them into
the sleeping quarters of Station 51
and out of the hot California sun.

Already, earthquake dust was making
the air hard to breathe.

------------------------------

The bunk room was surprisingly intact.
Not even dusty. A quick check showed
that they had a viable phone line in there too, 
at the night writing desk. Only the power 
and gas service was knocked out.  And 
Engine 51, itself, proved capable of 
supplying water needed for cleanup 
and first aid.

Bonnie, stuck like glue to Johnny's
stokes, sinking down underneath his
covering blanket, so she wouldn't 
be discovered lurking there. Chet
almost squished her with Johnny's
O2 tank before he remembered.
"Oh, sorry Bonnie. Keep watching him."
he said to the breathing lump,
as he transferred the D tank to 
the floor.

The bunk house outer door was
opened to daylight and portable
lamps were brought in from the triage
station for them to use. IV's were
taped suspended to the wood working
and blankets abounded. Gear from the 
two squads sat in a row on the floor
the length of the room in the aisle.
And more O2 apparatuses from multiple
companies were brought in with another set
of universal HT's and a makeshift 
command center board.

Roy heard a helicopter land nearby,
its wash sending eerie prop echoes through
the shattered roof in the bay next room over,
and he fervently hoped it was Brackett's.

Cap and Johnny's stokes were set off
the floor between chairs instead of using
valuable bedspace, but Marco had been
placed on a long board on a bed in prep for
a priority move. He was first on the 
list to go. 

DeSoto set a defibrillator next
to Marco with nervousness. He
was the only one in the room so
far who was at risk for one's use.

Roy got another vitals set on him and 
frowned. He waved Brice over..
"He's worse. Rales now, in the lungs.
And his fever's up. Help me get a temp
on him.."

"That fast? I don't understand what
the problem might be. Gage said all he
did was take in a little gas.." Brice said
checking the placement of the mask
over Marco's oral airway.

"We were in a big fire two days ago,
and before that, he had a bad cold. We've
been busting our butts fussing over him
to see a doctor ever since."

"Did he go?"

"Do pigs fly?" 

"Oh. I see. White coat anxiety syndrome."

"Actually. No. " Roy grinned. "Marco's just
a busy man. He has an aging mother
he's been caring for and lately it's been
taking up a lot of his time. "

"To the point of letting himself be sick
for days?"

"Guess so. Marco's like that. Always doing
for others over himself. He tells me that's
why he's a fireman. " he smiled. But
that smile faded. "He told us over dinner
on Sunday that the two of them just got back 
from Mexico City, after burying a cousin.
A boy I think, who had died suddenly. 
Help me here.."

Soon, Brice and Roy got a temp off 
Marco internally. Roy held it up to
the lamplight. "A hundred three?
Brice, this has got to be an infection.
I don't like it. And that gas inhalation's
just getting Marco into hot water.."

"It definitely brought out this illness
to the foreground.." Brice agreed.

Gil had been nearby, checking on
Gage and Cap and the teacher.
"Well, we'd better get him into some
cold water before his central nervous
system crashes out. His breathing response
is too level and slow as it is.." Gil said.
"Want me to patch him?"

"Yes, his systolic is seventy eight and weak."

Roy opened Marco's shirt and sheared
his T shirt in two out of the way. Brice 
got out the defib paddles, holding them
in the air above the bed. "Wait. Here. This 
is faster.." and he placed them
onto Marco's ribcage and manually
scoped him. 

All three medics looked at the tiny defibrillator
screen. It was showing tachycardia, deep. 

"Look at that.." Brice exclaimed.

"It's the fever..and partly the gas.."
Roy said. "No PVC's though. He's sure holding
well. That rate's just about 140. "

"That's the epi Brackett ordered."
Brice said. "It quickens but it strengthens
too."

"I'll get a strip off the portable monitor after
I get him patched in.." Gil said. "The doc
is going to want to see this.."

"No doubt." Brice tossed away the paddles,
leaving the unit between Marco's knees.
"I'm going to go grab some ice from
your frig. You do have some in there?"

"Yeah.." Roy said. "Two bags."

Brice left to get it.

Roy and Gil got cloth sheets wet and stuffed
them inside the plastic one they had used to 
bundle him onto the longboard. Cold
water from the station's engine was 
used and liberally pooled, soaking the bedsheets 
inside the localized cold pack. Brice's ice was 
added to the bath around Marco's torso.

"He's really out.. I'm not even seeing skin bumps 
from us chilling him like this.." Roy said,
taking another BP. "It's up slightly. Getting
a diastolic now with the systolic. 84/36."

"His color's better too." Gil said, looking
at Marco's gums and nail beds.

Next to them, Gage stirred. Roy shifted on his
knees and got a grip on his stokes. 
"Hey there." he smiled openly relieved. " Caught up 
on your beauty sleep, Johnny? Don't start
stretching now. You're suspended on top
of a couple of chairs. And you've an IV
in."

"W-Where are we?"

"The bunks room. It's now a triage station."

"Huh.. Had a weird dream. I dreamed
that Lopez went into.." then he noticed the
defib case open and saw the paddle cables
abandoned on the blankets at Marco's feet. 
"Wait a minute.. Did you guys just work him?"

"No, Gage. Just a scope.." Brice said.
"Now a water bath.."

"Bath?" Johnny asked groggily. "His fever's up?"

"It's one hundred three. And he's showing rales
in both lungs."

"Whoa.. we got to get him outta here." Gage
said. He almost tried to sit but then remembered
Roy's warning about where his stokes was.

Bonnie under his blanket, barked in warning. 

He only half paid attention to her being there.
"What the h*ll is wrong with him? I don't get it."

"Relax Johnny.. Brackett's been called out on scene. 
That helicopter you're hearing might be his.
Or maybe even Marco's already. He's gotta get a doc's 
move order before he goes anywhere." Roy said.

"I know that.. I know that..  Geesh.."
Johnny waved his good hand, shooing Roy
out of the way. "Gil,, hey, could you just ah..
Hey Gil ! Turn that monitor this way.. I wanna
take a look at it.." 

Gil raised both eyebrows from where he was
running a strip off Marco and purposely turned
the view away from Johnny's line of sight.

"Oh, for crying out loud.. I only wanted to-"

"Gage.. You're a patient here. So act like
one and just lie back and relax.." Gil said.,
crossing his arms together from where 
he sat on a stool.

Roy and Brice grinned when Johnny's face
pinked up with anger away from his original
shocky pale shade. "This is my own stationhouse,
my own district, H*ll, Marco's my own crewmate
for Pete's sake! And I'm the resident paramedic."

DeSoto made a wrong answer game show
noise sound effect.  "I'm the only official 
resident one ON duty one.." Roy said.

"Yep. You're on the injured list, Gage, by every
rule in the book.." Brice interjected.

John kept up his quiet litany of complaining.
"..I'm supposed to fuss.. It's my job.."

"Ours now.." Gil piped up.

Gage mumbled, out voted. "Ok ok ok, Got your point.
Now Gil, if you don't level with me, I'm going to skewer
you!" he said, menacing his injured hand. 

"Hey.." Chet said, grabbing Johnny's arm and 
pulling it back down again. "You'll loosen
my bandaging there buddy.. I worked hard immobilizing
that.."  Then he checked his watch and saw that it
was once again time to release Gage's tourniquet
to let in blood flow. He let go the band.

Johnny hissed in pain, glaring at Chet. " Agghh!
Why didn't you do that when I was still unconscious?"
he grimaced, watching a stream of blood well
up inside and soak through his bandages. 

"I did do that. Five times.." Kelly complained. Then
he played heavy eyes on the others.
"Man, I don't know how you guys can get
through your average workday as paramedics. Do
you always get patients who mouth off
as bad as Gage here? Talk about taking some
heat. And I thought just dealing with an actual fire 
was bad. Johnny, stop being ungrateful. This is saving
your hand. Not to mention saving your life.. And guess
who's doing THAT.." He pointed proud thumbs
at himself. "You're going to owe me big time.."

Gage ignored Kelly. "Don't change the subject, Chet.
Gil,...How's Cap?..Are you going to tell me at least that?"

"Stable.."

"The girl?"

"Stable."

"Me?"

"Grumpy.."

"Oh, haha.. And what about Marco?"


The light moment in the room, fled.

Roy spoke up. "We'll all hear about
that once Brackett gets here. I see
him coming. He's in the tan jumpsuit 
and he's brought along the big guns.. 
A huge, orange diagnostic field pack." He 
said, ducking low and peering through the 
open outside door to the boulevard.
He could just see Kel making haste in their
direction. 

Gage spoke up, as he too, could see the 
brown haired doctor coming. "Maybe
that pack's for me. You know, surgical
stuff. This rod's gotta come out of
my hand. The artery's been nicked."

"Don't count on it.. I'm seeing Atlanta
CDC labels all over it.." Roy said.

"What??" Johnny gasped.

----------------------------

Photo : Johnny and Roy looked stunned.

Photo: A defibrillator that lies open.

*animated gif *   A running EKG showing 
                          elevated ST segments
                          on a V-Tach.

Photo: Chet, at night in the bunkhouse.

*************************
  
From :  "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Deeper In....  
Date : Sun, 27 Oct 2002 21:12:20 +0000

>Roy spoke up. "We'll all hear about
>that once Brackett gets here. I see
>him coming. He's in the tan jumpsuit 
>and he's brought along the big guns.. 
>A huge, orange diagnostic field pack." He 
>said, ducking low and peering through the 
>open outside door to the boulevard.
>He could just see Kel making haste in their
>direction. 

>Gage spoke up, as he too, could see the 
>brown haired doctor coming. "Maybe
>that pack's for me. You know, surgical
>stuff. This rod's gotta come out of
>my hand. The artery's been nicked."

>"Don't count on it.. I'm seeing Atlanta
>CDC labels all over it.." Roy said.

>"What??" Johnny gasped.

The shadow got nearer, and Kel came
through the door into the bunk room.
He paused a bit while his eyes got used
to the dim lamps in the space and the
first bed he focused on was Marco's.

Roy stood from Johnny's stokes,
shoving the stethoscope waving
around his neck out of the way when
it snagged on the edge of Gage's
wire bed in his haste to get near Brackett
to give him his report,
"Doc, glad you're here. He's worse.
Much worse. We're trying to cool
him down some."

"Oh? What was his temp?"

"One hundred three, taken R." 

"Good thing for the ice down.."
Dr. Brackett said as he checked
what IV was strung and the flow
of O2 running on his patient.

Roy added more, 
"Marco's BP has become low enough 
to warrant that EKG, we've had a strip
going ever since I got a basement 
BP, about five minutes ago...
Glad you ordered that epinephren
for him earlier. I think that's the only
thing keeping him viable here."

Brackett was studying the EKG
strip Gil had stretched out on a table
top and the live one showing on
the station's heart monitor. "Ok,
I want a twelve lead here from 
this double one. See that arrythmia
in the QRS interval? That's most
likely pathological."

That hushed up everyone. Until
Brice spoke up. "We knew he
was sick. That was apparent on
initial findings."

"Yes, but have you ever seen 
someone with a cold downgrade
so fast?" Kel said.

Roy, Gil and Brice all looked at
each other in alarm.

Roy didn't even have to say anything.
Then he eyed the bag Brackett had
brought with him. "You know something
we don't doctor? I recognize the insignia
on that pack of yours.."

Brackett made sure there were no
civilians in the room near them who would
overhear.  Then his face fell into serious
doctor. "I called the CDC on Marco's
symptoms just before I flew out of
the heliport. I remembered why Lopez's
presentation seemed so familiar to me."

"Doc, don't keep us in suspense here."
Johnny said from his stokes. He
had an elbow propped up behind his
dirty head and had Bonnie on top
of his stomach, calming her fretting
with absent strokes.  He had pulled 
off his nasal cannula so he could 
get it out of his face. 

"Did you know that Marco left the
country recently?"

"Yeah,.." Gil said. "Roy just told us
here that he and his mother were
attending a funeral for a cousin. A
young boy.."

"Well that young boy is the center
of attention right now in Atlanta.
Seems he died of an unknown 
hemorrhagic syndrome that's already
claimed seven in Mexico City.."

"Have they identified it?"

"No, that's why I'm here. There's
every chance that Marco has run 
into the same bug that's killed 
the boy.. His etiology so far,
is following the same lines as
the boy's did before he died." 
Dr. Brackett said, pulling Roy's 
stethoscope off and using it 
around the EKG leads on Marco's 
chest..

Johnny Gage nearly levitated
from where he was lying.
Only the straps holding him
in the stokes, kept him there.
"Are you telling me that Marco's 
got some kind of fast acting lethal
plague?"

"That's exactly why I'm here Gage.
To either confirm or rule out just 
that scenario. Atlanta CDC's already 
on their way. They should be
here by nightfall." Kel said.


"But we're in the middle of a disaster
zone. We don't have time for a
quarantine situation." Johnny protested.

"Tell that to the bug, Johnny. It was here
days before that earthquake even so 
much as twitched."

Chet blanched. "Wait a minute, wait a
minute.. Does that mean the rest of
us might get sick from this thing?"

Dr. Brackett nodded reluctantly. "It's
a possibility, but the course of the disease
is still in the guessing stages. Seven cases
taking place in another country with a
language barrier in the way puts a
damper on fast information exchange.
We're working on it. Now my job here is
to isolate Marco best I can until we GET
those answers gentleman. And I'm sorry
to say, but this room and station is off
limits to anyone on the outside. Anyone
who's had direct contact with Lopez,
is staying right here."

Roy spoke quickly when Kel placed
a hand on Marco's chest, pressing down
the stethoscope's drum, trying to
hear breath sounds over the noise 
of helicopters landing and taking 
off just outside the station house. 
"Shouldn't we just get him out of 
here to an isolation ward?"

"He's not a flight candidate anymore Roy.
He's got rales in both lungs and they 
sound real wet. And the edema I'm
hearing is rising, right into his trachea. Get
a suctioning device. He's gonna need it.  
Standing orders you three," Brackett
threw an authoritative point towards Gil,
Roy and Brice's directions. "If his respiratory 
rate falls below eight. I want him EOA
intubated."

"Right doc.." Roy said. And he and
Gil hastened to make the changes.

"And slow down his drip to TKO. I
don't want his circulatory system overloaded.
Last thing he needs is to drown in his IV."

At that, Kelly's face screwed up in worry.
Chet spoke as Dr. Brackett moved to 
a steel bucket filled with water, and watched 
as he reached into his bag and pulled out a pint
of powerful disinfectant and poured it
over his hands. He used the water to
rinse off and a sheet to dry before
moving on to examine Cap and Miss
Thorne. "Shouldn't we all wear gloves
or masks or something?" Chet asked.

"Too late.." Gage said. "Remember when
I got that virus last year? If this germ's
similiar, we've all touched Marco directly
or indirectly already. We've all been
exposed..."

"Yeah, but Brackett hasn't.." Chet said,
nervously.

"That's his choice.." Brice commented and
moved to give Brackett the run down
he needed on the others in stokes in the
room.

Kelly slumped against the bunk wall and
leaned over, trying to absorb the bizarre
news. "Man, can our day get any worse?"

Just then, Bonnie's low moaning turned
into an agonized wailing of warning..

Chet leaped to steady Cap and Johnny's stokes
on the four chairs when an aftershock seized up
out of the ground. It lasted for more than
a few seconds before the dead light
fixtures overhead started to slow their
swaying. 

The master HT came to life on the desk and it was 
Stone who was instantly on. ##Everybody 
all right in there?##

Brice picked up the handy talkie and
said, "At least, quake wise..." he muttered.

##Squad Eight. Would you 10-9 that?##

Brice immediately suppressed his morbid 
sense of humor,  "Uh, 10-4, captain. We're fine.
But uh, we're going to have to cancel that copter 
evac on the sick fireman. The doc says 
he's too unstable for transport. And ....
the rest of us will be staying right here with
him for extenuating circumstances...." he 
said sighing heavily.. "I'm declaring a 
Condition Bio-Yellow, sir.."

## Excuse me, Did I hear that right?
A Biological Hazard alert?##

"That's correct, Cap. Atlanta CDC has
authorized Brackett in here to declare one
if he felt the need. And he has.. At no
time do any of you out there enter
back inside the station for any reason.."

##Ten four, Squad Eight. 
Understood, quarantine protocol laying 
down. I'll mobilize accordingly. Any of my 
men to report to you?##

"That's negative, Cap. Just Gil and 
myself need to..and we're already here."

##10-4, Let me know details when 
you can. Station Eight out.##

A quiet sobbing from behind them caught
their attentions. Dr. Brackett had roused
Cindy from her half state with an aromatic
capsule and had changed her oxygen mask for
a cannula. She was sitting up with her back
against the wall in her stokes.  

Brackett was giving her a glucose injection
into her IV, to help her get over some shakes. 

He had discovered she was a diabetic from her
own account. "What about my kids?" she said.
"Are they gonna get sick too?" and her face
crinkled in fear.

Kel couldn't answer that so he stayed silent.

Roy looked up from Marco's pulmonary
care and said, "Oh, no. Ma'am. Not at all.
You see, we got them all out before
we even had contact with Fireman Lopez.
They'll be fine.." and he tried to put on
a convincing smile. 

He saw Brackett nodding slowly in agreement
as he put away his syringe into the sharps
container on the floor.
"Feel better?" he asked her.

"Much. I haven't eaten since five.. I-It's been
a busy day..." Miss Thorne said bravely.

Dr. Brackett grinned for show. "That it has.
And it looks like it'll be even busier for a
while. Try to get some rest. I'll have one
of the paramedics stop back in a while to
recheck your blood sugar levels."

She nodded. "I'm sorry. I just didn't remember
to wear my bracelet this morning. It was
just ..I was so excited about bringing the kids here
That I must have forgotten it...." and her composure 
broke again despite her best efforts to shore it up.

Kel wrapped a wool blanket he had found around
her shoulders and snugged her up, brushing
hair out of her eyes and away from the cannula.
"Why don't you just try to relax.. Get some
sleep if you can. If you've family to contact,
we'll do that just as soon as the phone lines
lighten up a bit.."

"A- All right.." she said, gripping his hand.

He had to peel off her fingers to leave.
"It's all right. "he said, placing a grip of his
own over her cool one. "No one is going
to be dying. At least, not in here."

"Yeah.. " Johnny piped up. "That doctor
leaning over ya is the head of Rampart Emergency
Services and he's a d*mned good heart
surgeon too.. No one dies around Dr. 
Brackett when he gets ornery, Miss Thorne..
And right now, all of us paramedics are
duck and covering, just from the sound
of his voice alone.."

She laughed despite herself, and slowly her
eyes closed as she dozed where she was
on the wall.  Brackett switched her IV to
one of blood neutral solution and moved
on to Cap's side.

"Captain Stanley..?" Dr. Brackett said as
he took a chair near his raised stokes.
He gave Hank a little shake.

"Hmmm? Oh, hi doc.. What are you
doing here? Is it bad out there?" he
said, suddenly remembering that he
was on oxygen. He began fiddling with 
the cannula when the dryness in his throat 
from the oxygen just begged him to cough.
"Have we backup here yet? The 
damage out in the yard was bad.
There must be tons of people
in trouble out there.."

"Surprisingly, no.. So I've been
sent in here alone to look you guys over."

He saw Cap blearily frowning at the ceiling
when the familiar surroundings confused
him.
 
Dr. Brackett pinned down his deja vu.
"You're in your station bunkhouse, captain.
And there's a helicopter triage center right
outside, for your situation update."

"Does that mean we're getting out of here
soon?"

Dr. Brackett and the others exchanged looks.

Stanley didn't miss the exchange. 
"Hey, fellas, what's the problem here?
Why-- why haven't we been moved out?"

Johnny turned his head from where
he was sitting up next to Cap and sighed.
"It's another virus Cap. And the originator 
isn't a monkey this time.. It's Marco
himself.."

"What?!" Cap tried to sit up but Dr. 
Brackett restrained him. 

"Hey.. now just lie back. No sudden
moves until I check out that head injury
in a little more detail."

Cap blinked, still trying to gain focus
as Kel looked at his eyes.. "Is he
all right?"


Kel didn't say anything, reluctant to;
until someone else did.

"He's serious, Cap. Blood pressure's in
the basement. And his chest is filling up."
Roy said. "But his EKG still looks fair.."
he tried to smile for Cap's benefit
with that slim good news.

Cap swallowed hard lying completely still
as harsh reality finally sank home.
"How about us? Anyone else sick?"

"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........

 -----------------------------------

Photo: B & W, Mike Stoker.  

Gif: A red earthquake alert gif

Photo : Station 51 as it was before the earthquake.

Photo : Roy prepping a bolus..

*****************************
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> 
Date:  Mon Oct 28, 2002  2:30 pm
Subject:  Reaching Out..


>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........

"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..!"

"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.

--------------------------------------

   Dusk had fallen, and all scene responding 
helicopters had been called off until first light.
   
There was only one still scheduled to come in, 
to risk a night landing in a few minutes and 
that was the chopper bearing the Atlanta 
disease control experts.  

Dr. Brackett, and those unwounded,
chose to sit on the floor, lined up against a 
wall all on a side, as they found themselves 
blinking, and still unresting, while they waited 
for a tell tale "thwop" of helicopter blades to 
come out of the starry skies.

Their eyes similarly studied the tracing blip 
of activity on Lopez's monitor, hopelessly 
caught in its desperate amber dance, and 
the tiny light from it set their faces apart 
from the surrounding darkness.

 The only sound in the sleeping room of 
Station 51 was the wavering rhythm of Marco's 
irregular EKG as PVC's started marching more 
and more frequently across the screen.

The EOA, still lay packaged and unused, on his 
abdomen.

Dimly, in the background, they heard the 
shouts of firecrews and rescue workers 
outside, still sorting through the earthquake 
neighborhood for casualties.

Bonnie, at last, had fallen into a fitful sleep. 
And the seismology reports finally coming in 
from Geological Survey, were showing that 
the ground was doing the same as well.  

The tiny aftershocks that came, barely 
jarred them from their frightening private 
reveries.

Then there was a rustle as Roy excused 
himself verbally. He got up, stepping 
over pairs of legs and moved to the desk 
on the far side of the room. 

There he sat down in the squeaky desk 
chair turned on a battery lamp, and reached
for the phone.

The others slipped back into their irresistible 
snoozing as he began to dial out. 

Roy's face was now dust free, and the cut 
on his forehead had been tended to and 
bandaged, but the care he had received did 
nothing to ease the pain he was feeling 
inside from being away from his family. When 
the last number tumbled into the dialer, he 
did his d*mndest to keep all trace of it from 
his voice.

"Hi hon. It's me again. No, the last tremor 
didn't shake us too badly. Well, only Johnny 
complained about that one because his Bier 
block was starting to wear off. No. no. He's 
fine. Dr. Brackett did some terrific vascular
work on his hand and that metal rod came 
out without problems. Miss Thorne's coming 
along. She even had some soup earlier. Cap's 
better too. Doc finally authorized some MS 
for him after he was convinced that crack on
his head was all superficial swelling with no 
underlying problems. Heh. He's even started 
captaining again.  Well, unofficially of course.
He's driving the other engine companies nuts
asking for reports every half hour from his 
stokes. Yes, I heard. Only fifteen have died. 
We were very very lucky.."  

Roy's eyes filled at his next question. 
"H-How are the kids taking this whole 
"daddy's stuck away"thing? You didn't
tell them everything did you? Good. No 
point to doing it, really, until you and I both 
have our answers. No, they're not here yet. 
And LAX is not taking any calls about any 
rescue operation's ETA. They're saving 
themselves for emergency inflight and 
relief traffic correspondence, only for 
situations priority marked in the 
disaster zone.  Yeah. I know. Yeah, 
I-I'm agreeing with you, Joanne. The 
station's definitely in that area, but this 
virus thing is only secondary in their 
priorities."  

He held the phone away from his ear 
and actually almost grinned when his 
last statement brought a tirade of reaction 
from Joanne about exactly what she thought
of the Los Angeles County Fire Department 
/FEMA protocols..

When she was through, Roy spoke again, 
answering her next question. "No, he's 
about the same. We're keeping him 
comfortable and we've managed to drain 
some of that fluid in his lungs. I'll be frank
because we've agreed to be thoroughly honest
with each other..There's been some problems. 
Blood's beginning to show in his sputum and
his temp's going up despite the ice baths.
No, he's still breathing on his own on one
hundred percent O2. " 

He broke off actually grinning.. 
"You're beginning to sound like a paramedic 
here, with all these questions, you know 
that... And what did Chris just say, I didn't
quite hear him.. Oh. LOL! 'That's because 
mommy's married to the best one in 
the whole world huh?....'  Thanks for 
repeating that hon. That was cute." 

Roy closed his eyes trying to picture his 
wife and son in his mind sitting at the 
dining room table, on the phone with him, 
but the picture wouldn't come. "T-That was 
very cute.." and his voice cracked.

"You don't have to call Rose Marie Lopez
on his update Joanne . Vince is already there with
Marco's mom. Yeah. He went there himself
before the news broadcast the station 
as being downed in the quake on the TV.
Listen hon, I'll call you the moment we 
know anything more, all right. I've got to go.
Time for vital sets all around. And I see a 
few saggy IV bags above a few stokes, too,
that need changing over. 

"Yeah. You WILL most likely know sooner 
than I when the CDC arrives. D*mned 
press. They almost got in here once. If 
it weren't for Bonnie, we would have 
been neck deep in plague panicky reporters 
once they learned the quarantine orders 
weren't viscious  rumors. 

"On channel five? All right, I'll try to 
peek out a head at ten and wave when the
live broadcast outside starts up. No we've 
no power. But I've got a watch.
I can do this. Might cheer up the kids..

"Those reporters need a scare or two 
to get off the driveway anyway.
Cap's already crawling out of his skin
over the damage done to the station 
vehicles. It'll do him some good if
I can get them all to just to clear off. "

He grabbed a water bottle and opened
it but he didn't drink, at her next words.
"I - I love you too, Joanne. H- Hug the
kids for me, will ya? Talk to you
in the morning...Yeah, I'll let Marco know
you're praying for him. Bye."  

And he set the phone down with a soft
snick into the receiver.


Roy got back over to the populated end
of the bunk room and returned to the
others, reluctantly.

He had just sat back down to take
a sleeping Miss Thorne's BP, when 
Marco on the bed, suddenly seized 
into a convulsion.

Chet was there instantly, "Dr. Brackett!!"

Brice, Gil and Roy jumped to their feet
in moments, right behind Kel.

They scrambled, reaching for......

------------------------------------

*animated gif*  An English Paramedic Ambulance.

Photo :  Johnny popping epinephren shot caps.

Photo : A shot of the squad and turnout coat,
            with full gear boxes.

--------------------------------------------

End Part One...


******************************** 
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Tue Oct 29, 2002  6:14 pm
Subject:  Setback

Special Website Acknowledgement
for Episode Images being provided from...

Guest....KMG365 at Tigger's E Stuff Website
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/

Also special thanks to site EMS Medical Consult : 
P. Keiper NREMT Minnesota

-----------------------------------------------

>He had just sat back down to take
>a sleeping Miss Thorne's BP when 
>Marco on the bed, suddenly seized 
>into a convulsion.

>Chet was there instantly, "Dr. Brackett!!"

>Brice, Gil and Roy jumped to their feet
>in moments, right behind Kel.

>They scrambled, reaching for......

Marco's longboard and the O2 mask on
his face.

Johnny, jarred awake by the shouting,
knew immediately what was happening
at a glance. "Tip him over, guys, tip
him over!" he said from his stokes.

Brice and Gil each grabbed an edge 
of the long board and then turned Lopez
onto his side, gracelessly. 

Roy slid Marco's non rebreather mask 
out of the way and angled Lopez's head 
back, lying his cheek on an arm. In between
Marco's violent spasms, DeSoto pulled out 
the short oral airway that had been 
over Marco's tongue and snatched
up the suctioning tube lying idle on 
the bed, he paused as he checked for
signs that Lopez had vomitted. "He's
clear..." he said, throwing the probe
aside and replacing the mask down
over Lopez's nose and mouth. "Most 
likely because he hasn't eaten since 
this morning..." Roy stayed closely
by his head, one eye intently watching 
the motion fluctuating ECG while the 
others moved into action around him.
He sighed, seeing a bite stick wasn't needed
when Marco's jaw released at a touch.

Dr. Brackett nodded, agreeing about
the lack of aspiration as he listened 
to the seizing fireman's chest with a 
stethoscope. "He's clear here, too.
There's just that prior edema. All
right. Let's get him back supine. 
Easy.. and tighten those straps. 
He's working them loose."

Everyone watching, held their breaths as
Marco's breathing came in hard gasps
as his convulsions rattled the metal
bedframe underneath him. Chet did
his best to stay out of the paramedics
way while making sure Marco didn't hurt 
himself.

Mike, took a few steps nearer but  
stayed back, still uncertain and a little
frightened about getting so near to
Marco's illness.

Craig Brice looked up from where he
was pulling a backwash of blood from
Marco's original IV with an empty syringe.
"Serum glucose doc?"

"You bet. If it's below 80 mg/dL, inject
25 g dextrose D50 IVP. These seizures
might not be just febrilly induced. His
blood sugar may have taken a nose 
dive or skyrocketted."

Brice moved to a glucose monitor and
quickly got a baseline off of his red top.
"It's 62." 

"Follow up, Brice. That dex and 100mg 
Thiamine IV. I don't want him to lose a 
heart rhythm." Dr. Brackett said.

"On it."

Kel looked up at Gil. "Sheppard, run in
a second IV, Normal Saline wide open. 
We'll risk the fluid overload. We need it for
his sedation med. We'll bump it down
after we've gotten these convulsions under 
control. Ughh." he grunted, helping Roy keep 
Marco's airway open. It took both of
them to do it, when a bad series of shudders
bucked him more violently, underneath 
their hands.

Chet, meanwhile had gotten the 
resuscitator near and had set the demand
valve mask available on Lopez's pillow. 
"Thanks," Kel said to Kelly. "But he's 
doing fine so far, even breathing broken
like this."

Roy looked up. "Time for diazepam, doc? 

"Yes, draw up ten milligrams. We'll titrate
into his IV until he responds. If that doesn't 
work, we'll use Ativan, 2 mg IM. He's too 
shocky for paracetamol."

----

Miss Thorne was covering her eyes
to keep herself from looking, and Cap noticed. 
"It looks scary for Lopez with those convulsions, 
Cindy. But he's not feeling any pain with them
at all.  Marco's muscles are just kicked into 
overdrive because of the low sugar in his
blood and because of that fever. They're 
going to settle him down in just a sec here
so he can breathe normally."
 
----

Roy prepared the syringe of medication
Dr. Brackett had ordered as fast
as he could. He heard Cap's
reassurances to Cindy, but didn't look
up. "Doc, want me to do it?"

"Give it here.." Kel said to Roy,
reaching out for the medication. 
"Take over watching his airway, Kelly."

"Got him.." Chet said, firmly taking
Marco's chin and head so he wouldn't 
obstruct as Dr. Brackett let go.

Kel pushed all the air out of his syringe
needle until the diazepam geysered high
and then parked the newly strung and
running NS IV Brice handed him under his 
arm to hold it while he injected the muscle
relaxant slowly into its drip chamber.. 

They all watched for signs that
Marco's convulsions were ending.

About twenty seconds later, they
did. 

The EKG monitor bleeped a changed
beat alarm when the V-tach settled
into a more solid sinus rhythm. The
frenzied PVC's died away from the
tracing pattern.

Dr. Brackett set a hand on Marco's
chest to feel for his respiration status.
"There. That's better." he said
about the ECG. Then he looked
up again with a slight frown. "Kelly, 
hyperventilate him a few times. 
The diazepam's suppressing his 
intake a bit."

Roy removed the old nonrebreather 
mask from Marco's face,
as Chet took over with the demand valve.
Kelly made sure it was sealed well 
over Lopez's nose and mouth.
Then he thumbed the positive pressure 
trigger on the demand valve, until 
he had delivered four vents carefully 
into Marco's lungs. 

Dr. Brackett had out his stethoscope
again. "Ok, hold off.." and he listened
to the bubbling breath sounds.
"That's all he needed. A boost. He's
back.."

Everyone gasped in relief and even
Johnny let out the breath he was holding.

Dr. Brackett smiled, pleased. "At least
that was one problem easily solved.
Get Marco's head elevated again while 
you're there, Kelly would you? And 
Gil, you can TKO that normal saline 
now." The dark haired doctor moved 
to turn on a strip from the monitor to
take a closer look at how Lopez's heart 
had handled the incident.

Roy had a question. "Doc.."

"Hmm?" Dr. Brackett said, not looking
up.

"We lost all the ice around Marco.
Do you want us to replace it?"

Kel shook his head. "The diazepam
will shut off that fever parasympathetically
on its own. We can always get some
more if his temp rises again. 
Get another one for reference for now,
all right?"

Roy nodded. Soon, he had a reading.
"One hundred one."

"Down. Despite the convulsions."
Brackett remarked, satisfied. "Let's
monitor his respirations to be sure
they're stable."

Gil, was getting a new, dry blanket
for Marco when Stoker came up hesitantly.
"Need help with that?"

Sheppard grinned warmly, knowing the
mental obstacle Mike had had to overcome
to just be there. "Sure.. Tuck in that side, 
but keep his chest uncovered. We have to
eye his breathing rate for a while."

"Yes. I heard.." Mike said.
Then he looked down..frowning.. "Hey doc.."
he called out. "Look at this.. He's developing
a rash or something. It's breaking out on his
chest."

Dr. Brackett stopped his ECG reading
and bent over the bed. He felt Marco's
throat and larynx, but found no swelling
at all.  "Hmm, no signs of anaphalaxis
here yet... And his color's good. This looks more 
like an urticaria or a secondary maculopapular 
rash to me... but ah, following up
on the first angle,.... Roy, Johnny... does 
Marco have any known allergies to 
medications?"

"No, doc.. He's NKA on just about everything.
Well, everything except for an intolerance 
for putting up with one of Chet Kelly's jokes."
Gage quipped.

"Oh very funny, Gage. Would that be like
ah, say your own marked intolerance 
for any strikes aimed at you from the 
Phantom??"

Kel grinned. The banter meant the firehouse
gang was starting to relax again. 
"I heard about that whole one upmanship going
on, from Dixie, a while ago. Who finally won?"

"I did."
"I did." said Johnny and Chet simultaneously.
They made sharp stares, glaring at each other
and then let they both ..let ...loose.

"I had the last word!" Chet insisted.

"No I did! Remember my very very slick
"Are we going to eat off the table?" delivery
line? Man, Chet. You fell for that completely, 
hook line and sinker. And don't deny it. The 
whole gang were my witnesses.. Isn't
that right Marco..?" and he patted Lopez's
shoulder despite the fireman still being 
unconscious.
 
Mike Stoker piped up. "Chet was the last
one to "one up" there Johnny, if I recall."

"No, I thought he was er, I was.."
Gage cocked his jaw, thinking back. He
wasn't quite sure about that fact himself
and it showed in his eyes.

"Sorry, Gage. But the Phantom
match, I do believe, went to Kelly."
Cap said, with an amused smirk.
"I wasn't directly involved or targetted
with water bombs in that particular 
week of shenanigans, but I did follow all 
the action VERY closely, back then."

"You did?"
"You did?" John and Chet said as one.
They looked at each other once more
but this time, in complete and utter surprise.

Then Chet asked. "Hey Cap. How did you
know?"

"Well, usually, all the water in the station
is either in the Engine tanks or the sink
when I don't have someone stuck on mop
detail." he steepled his hands together over
his chest as he thought back "Annnddd  I ....
noticed the dry, hot Santa Ana air that month 
suddenly got suspicious humid, only inside 
the station."

Kelly and John both flushed red when they realized
they had been outfoxed by Cap the observer,
despite their efforts to hide the misadventure.

 "Didn't take long to find out what you
two were up to.... at all.." Cap said, pleased 
as punch.

Johnny complained after he picked
up his jaw off his chest. "Well why didn't 
you stop him from doing all that from
the beginning?"he pointed at Chet. He 
winced when that pointing hand was his 
post surgical one. "I must have spent thirty
dollars in laundering bills and re-polishing
streetside shoeshines that week." 

Chet sniggered but immediately stifled it.

"Well, Gage.. Let's just say I had money
riding on the outcome.." Hank trickled.

Chet and Gage's eyes both widened in
surprise at their captain.

Stoker couldn't wait to elaborate. 
"He made out like a bandit, boys, while 
you two were playing Phantom.
Called your every mutual moves play by play."

"Oh- oh yeah?" Chet said, gaining back a
bit of timid bravado in the face of finding
out about his superiorly ranking boss's less
than honorable conduct. " Just how
much did you win off us, Cap? We do
have a right to know..  You know, for
the loss of face we suffered,  the butt 
we must have been in every other 
shifts' table jokes as you gave them
gritty details behind our backs.."
Kelly huffed low in his throat. "Pah..
I'll just bet C shift must have been 
the ones who ran that betting pool 
that Cap cleaned up in."

Cap grinned evilly around his O2 cannula
as he suddenly shook his head slowly
in the negative.. "Kelly,.." he tapped his ample 
nose, twice at the curly haired fireman. 
"...about the winnings.." he chuckled. 
"And...hate to break it to ya fellas, but...." 
and he took in a big satisfied breath, 
"I was that all secret kingpin.."

Johnny and Chet fell utterly speechless.

Even Roy's eyes got larger and he blinked,
almost sticking himself with Marco's sedative
syringe that he was holding onto, to document 
usage spent, before he caught on to what he 
was doing, and reset it carefully back onto the 
table.

Captain Stanley smiled at his audience.
"You gotta remember, a captain's ALWAYS
on top of any situation.." Hank said
with aplomp. "At a fire, or.." he said
with mystery,...".. just waiting for one.." 

With that, he turned over in his
stokes and went back to sleep.

Dr. Brackett chuckled as he snugged
up Marco's blankets to his neck when
he was convinced the ill fireman had
good control over his breathing and
airway on his own. "Glad I work in
a hospital.."

"Oh? You mean, Morton, Dix and
Joe, don't get you with zingers like
this one every so often doc?"
Gage asked, lacing his fingers behind
his head. He grunted when he knocked
his injured hand against the wall.
He had forgotten about it.

"No. Doesn't happen. Everyone's 
always too busy to do that sort of
thing being always up to their eyeballs 
in emergency cases, Johnny." and he 
grinned.

Dr. Brackett got up from Marco's
side to make a note on his runsheet
about the new rash spreading on Lopez's
body. He made it a point to keep it 
the first thing to mention to the CDC
team, when they arrived.

And soon, the long awaited for chartered
helicopter.. zoomed over the gaping hole
in the roof of the shattered fire station
to land on the boulevard.

-------------------------------

Photo :  Chet looking worried as
             he provides resuscitation to 
             someone.

Photo : Someone preparing an IV up close.

Photo : Chet and Marco in a lighter mood.

******************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
 Subject :  [emergencytheaterlive]The Grade Four~~  
 Date : Sat, 02 Nov 2002 08:41:36 +0000  

              
>Dr. Brackett got up from Marco's
>side to make a note on his runsheet
>about the new rash spreading on Lopez's
>body. He made it a point to keep it 
>the first thing to mention to the CDC
>team, when they arrived.

>And soon, the long awaited for chartered
>helicopter.. zoomed over the gaping hole
>in the roof of the shattered fire station
>to land on the boulevard.

    In a wash of dust and debris, the
foot rungs touched earth and five
people got out, loaded to the hilt with
sophisticated supplies and from the back,  
a mobile pallet of lab equipment from the 
chopper's cargo hatch. Police got them 
all through the clamoring press surrounding 
the station and allowed them to go into
the barricaded off back yard.

Once there, two of the five member team
suited up in biohazard gear for entering the 
station, while the others stayed back to set 
up support tents and a rudimentary 
decontamination station out of the sight
of public eyes. 

Captain Stone looked up from his place
in the center of triage command and his
thoughts turned once more to his fellow 
firemen held hostage not by smoke 
or fire, but by a germ.::Just how the h*ll 
are we gonna fight this ?:: Troubled deeply, 
he turned back to his organizational
operations and tried not to feel helpless.
He mentally hoped Captain Stanley would
keep him updated on any news as it
happened.

The advance team's leader, a smallish, 
petite woman, picked her way through 
the fallen rafters and bricks in the garage 
to the bunk room. She went without 
preamble, to Dr. Brackett's side hefting
a field autopsy kit, and a heavily sealed 
liquid nitrogenated container labelled 
extreme biohazard.  This she set safely
down in the middle of a tabletop.

Kel looked up seeing them. "About time 
you got here, doctors. Marco's 
symptomology's advanced beyond your 
projections."

"Sorry. Didn't count on breaking through a
military line at the airport. The Guard
was called out to maintain order
because of your recent developing
environmental setback. " the woman
replied, grinning through her plastic
face piece.

Kel grinned. "Is that what you 
microbiologists call an earthquake?"

The ginger haired, french braided woman
looked up, setting the rest of analysis
gear onto an empty bed. "It can be, to 
us in the CDC, that can also mean the 
fact that this contagion might have
succeeded in jumping an international 
border."

Roy and Gil and Craig had looked up with
alacrity from their medical monitoring just
a minute before and were still stunned
at the sight of the fully suited doctor.
 
::My god. This is more serious than I realized.:: 
Roy thought, eyeing up the woman's white 
bio-tunic, clearly air sealed. She had on
a SCBA tank but her mask was not in place 
beneath her transparent hood. 

Then, the second member of the CDC's 
First In team joined her, having come 
from where he had placed microlab 
instruments in the lamp lit kitchen.
"Jamie, the kitchen area looks intact,
I'll have our team give it a wash down
and have it covered. I've already told them
to place our mobile lab in there.."

"Understood, Steven.." she replied,
her very blue eyes, glancing up at 
him.

Then Roy overheard something else 
which made him glad Marco was still 
comatose. 

The woman scientist eyed up her study
subject with the skill of an analyst, noting
the rash, the abnormal EKG and the fluids
hung over Marco's head, and what
percentage O2 he was on while she spoke.
"First thing, we're going to confirm or
refute the theory of Mr. Lopez truly being our
Patient X in the U.S. as the boy was 
for his country in Mexico City. 
We've brought pathological tissue 
samples from the Lopez child to verify 
any infection commonality in both him 
and Marco. 
So far, you'll be pleased to know, Dr. 
Brackett, that we've learned the disease 
most likely isn't transmitted by airborne
vectors.." she said looking up. "Three 
of the victims down with the illness have 
no sign of insect bites."

Kel said, "That's a relief, this summer
there are insects a plenty. Glad they aren't
a factor we're going to have to worry about
here." Then he noticed the others watching 
quietly from where they were. "Oh. Sorry
all. " He gave introductions to the rest of 
the room,..
"Everyone, this is Doctor Jamie MacPherson, 
head of the Special Pathogens Branch in
Atlanta.."

Roy and Johnny nodded. And so did everyone
else but their uncertain looks remained on their
faces, each looking emotionally worn in the 
dim battery light of the room.

Dr. Brackett turned to Jamie's companion, 
"And this is her assistant head, Dr. Steven Taylor. 
These two are the people with whom I spoke 
this afternoon after we concluded your rescue call
Roy..."

The others didn't have anything to say, reduced
to a slightly fearful silence by the frightening 
advancing reality of the circumstances 
surrounding them.

"Gentlemen and maam.." Jamie said.
"I know it's a little startling, having us appear 
like this, off a hightech, night flying helicopter, 
suddenly invading the scene in the midst
of an already ongoing disaster. Myself and 
my associate are both geared like this strictly 
for precautionary measures. I'm happy to 
say it's been looking more and  more that, 
whatever the contagion is, it infects 
only by direct body fluid transmission. So some 
of you who didn't handle Mr. Lopez may 
eventually prove to be uninfected. 
  This mode of transmission is collaborated 
by the fact that the seven other 
Mexican victims have all have been reliably 
reported as having physically touched 
Benardo, as they prepared him for burial."

Gil spoke up. "H-how do you explain Marco falling
sick then? He arrived there much later according
to Roy here.."

Jamie cast her eyes down. "The boy's mother
said he kissed Bernardo on the cheek before
the casket was covered.." 

"Is she one who's sick?" Johnny asked. "I--
I mean, if Marco wakes up, he's gonna wanna
know.." he said softly..

"Yes, Mr. Gage." Steven said. His suit crinkled 
as he sat on a stool at Marco's bedside, to 
read the chart Doctor Brackett and the 
paramedics were keeping on Marco. "She 
was still alive last report, as of a half hour 
ago." 

Miss Thorne timidly wrapped herself tighter
in her wool blanket. "Is there anything 
you've found that may... prevent or slow this 
disease yet?"

"Miss Thorne, we can't treat for anything yet 
beyond standard life supporting measures until 
we know exactly what it is we're dealing with here."
Jamie said. "The wrong medication or antibiotic
could alter immunophysiologic responses and
actually allow this unknown disease to run its 
course even faster instead of buying any time."
she answered.

Gil asked one more question. "Has anyone
infected held up in the face of this disease?
Any one recovering?"

Dr. MacPherson sighed. "No. That's what made
us tentatively classify this outbreak as a possible 
Grade Four."

"Grade Four?" Roy asked, "Forgive me for being
ignorant but I'm unfamiliar with that terminology." 
he said, trying to smile without nervousness. 
"It must be something my partner and I don't deal with 
in the field working as paramedics.."

"So you two are the ones who directly cared
for Mr. Lopez? I need to ask you a few more
details once Dr. Taylor and I get set up here.
But to answer your question..."
Jamie looked up from where she was skillfully 
drawing a blood sample off Marco, even with 
her suit's gloves on. "That ranking means
a germ with a very high virulence and killing 
factor, Mr. DeSoto. There are only six known 
illnesses in this category that we know about, 
that have rapid fever with bleeding with its onset. 
Machupo Plague, Lassa Fever, Nipah virus, 
Hendra virus, Junin Plague, and the last,
is one newly discovered, the Ebola virus.."

"Ebola...." Chet said with rising fright. "I've heard
of that. Oh, man.. it wiped out a whole village 
in West Africa last year.. Is that what Marco's got?"

Jamie raised a gloved hand. "No,.." she insisted.
"This body rash doesn't come with Ebola. This strain's
new or rare. All we know is that it takes effect very 
very quickly and that it is a hemorrhagic syndrome 
type virus.  Most likely in the Flavivirus family. 
Also, there's every chance that this bug may be 
another mutation of Dengue Fever, in its stronger 
variant , which is only fatal 30% of the time. 
Of those, there have been seventeen types of 
DHF discovered in the last ten years."

Cap blinked, "Ok,.. Just ah, what can we do 
here to help you doctors out? I know
for myself I want to do more than just lie
around waiting for answers." He had been
awake ever since the helicopter's motor
blade noise woke him up.

Jamie bit her lip, tilting her face inside
her biohood. "Well for starters, I want
to know as much as each of you can
tell me about Marco's illness, when he
got sick, what his initial symptoms were.
What worked in making him feel better.
That sort of thing. Details might give us
something more to work on.."

  Roy spoke up. "Well, he had laryngitis
real bad last night. It started a few hours
after we all had a bad fire. Marco complained
of a sore throat..."
 "And I noticed bloody patches 
in his nasopharyngeal area when I put in
an oral airway this afternoon, doctor.." 
Gil replied.
 "Don't forget how O2 made his cough better."
Chet added.
 "And how my mother's medicinal tea helped
out too. Honey and herbs." Johnny said quickly.

Steven shook his head and held up a glove, and
his pen poised over the chart.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute. One at a time.
Slow down. Let's start from the beginning ok?"

And they did. 

Soon,  no one had anything else to add.

Jamie read back what she had to everyone
to reiterate. "...and then, Dr. Brackett, you
said an instigated Glucose IV push, and 
diazepam along with some forced O2, 
ended his febrile seizure?"

"That's correct. And his temperature went down
two degrees from Roy's initial finding."

"Got it.. Now, if you'll excuse me, Steven
and I are going to compare this blood sample
from Marco with those we have of his deceased
cousin to begin a baseline analysis.." Jamie told them.
Then she looked at Kel, switching to all doctor.
"We're planning on using two virus isolation
methods here, Dr. Brackett. First, a polymerase
chain reaction analysis followed by an antigen
capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay."

Kel nodded. "I agree that a PCR and ELISA 
comparison will reveal any marked pleomorphism
under the microscope.."

Cindy piped up. "Pleo what?"

"What the germs are shaped like, Miss Thorne.."
Steven replied. "A vital clue which might tell
us what we're dealing with.."

"Can I help you with anything?" Kel asked.

Steven and Jamie looked around the room
at everyone in stokes. "Can you leave your
patients?"

Roy spoke up. "Doctor. He can. Besides 
me and my partner, Brice and Gil are
paramedics, too. We'll be fine."

"Ok. Let's get at it then.." she nodded,
satisfied. Kel and Jamie and Steven rose
from their chairs, leaving with the path kit
and the tissue cryo case holding the
dead boy's tissue remains.
Marco's vials of whole blood also
accompanied them to the kitchen,
where the newly erected, makeshift 
biolab awaited.

The firemen, paramedics and teacher were
left alone with their thoughts.

On his bed, Marco startlingly moved, 
emitting a low moaning noise...

Brice, Roy and Gil hurried to his side,
to determine Glasgow status.

"Marco?!" Gage called out..

Lopez reacted by....

----------------------------

Photo:  Dr. Brackett looking at your
            pupils with a penlight.

Photo : Photo of Miss Thorne, in closeup.

Photo: Of a blood filled IV bag.
   
Photo : An awake Marco with a bandaid on
            his head.

Photo: Station 51 at night.

 
***************************
From : "Clairissa Fox" <Canaryyello@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Darkest Before Dawn..  
Date : Sun, 03 Nov 2002 06:11:08 +0000  
 

>The firemen, paramedics and teacher were
>left alone with their thoughts.

>On his bed, Marco startlingly moved, 
>emitting a low moaning noise...

>Brice, Roy and Gil hurried to his side,
>to determine Glasgow status.

>"Marco?!" Gage called out..

>Lopez reacted by....

...groaning again, but his encrusted eyes,
didn't open.

"Hey! Somebody help me down from here. I
want to be the first one to talk to him. 
Now." Captain Stanley ordered. 
His voice held undeniably firm authority.

Craig and Chet lifted Cap's stokes off
the two chairs it was lying across
and set it onto the floor.  Hank grabbed
their hands as they each also gripped a
shoulder to help him sit up, gingerly. 
.
"Wait, Kelly.." Craig said when Chet
tightened the grip in one of his hands to 
give Cap leverage to get to his feet. 
Brice glanced at Hank. 
"Don't lie to me when you answer this. 
I'll be able to tell by your eyes. 
I don't care if getting you up was an 
order or not because you're officially
sidelined. Morphine still making you 
dizz--? "

"West is that way Brice!.." Cap pointed 
towards the open exterior door with his
HT's antennae. "Now get me up!.."

"Right. You're fine.." Brice said two 
seconds later. "Chet, make sure
he doesn't crash into anything." he 
replied, his resistance crumbling.

Stanley instantly pushed to his feet by 
himself before anyone could help him 
further.

Kelly hastened to get Cap's oxygen tubing
trailing behind him properly and snatched up 
his D tank to follow along as Cap made his way 
shakily to Marco's longboard on the bed.

"What about me?" Gage complained.
"I'm not dizzy."

"No, but you were shocky post surgical.
Get your BP up to normal and you can 
join him." Brice dismissed Gage's jibe
with efficiency.

Johnny cut off his rejoiner when DeSoto's
quiet vocal urging began.

Roy was examining Marco's eyes with a
penlight. "Marco.. It's Roy. Can you 
understand me? If you do, I want you 
to open your eyes.."

Lopez didn't, but he kept stirring restlessly
in his fever.

DeSoto took a pen out and dug its cap into 
one of Marco's nail beds, pressing down
hard.

The pain made Marco grunt and jerk his
hand away and he coughed under his
oxygen mask but he didn't form legible
words.

"Should we go get the docs? If Marco
wakes up more, he might be able to
tell them about how he's feeling." Stoker 
asked.

Roy said. "No. We're gonna let him know what's
going on here first. He might not even know 
that we were even IN an earthquake. That in 
itself is going to be one h*ll of a shock."

Craig reached into the drug box and pulled
out an aromatic capsule, holding it up
questioningly.

"Yes.." Roy nodded, taking it from Brice.
He pulled down Marco's O2 mask so that it
was sitting by his mouth on his chest. Then he
cracked the aromatic in two, waving the 
capsule under Lopez's nose, following after 
his nostrils with it when Marco tried to avoid 
its fumes.

Lopez's eyes finally opened with startled
coherence.  

"Marco.. you with us?" Roy asked again.

"Whaa?" Lopez coughed wetly, getting rid 
of the ammonia stench in his nose and finally,
his eyes worked to focus on faces.

On a thought, Hank pulled off his own 
O2 cannula, and he hastily hid it in his shirt 
collar to spare Marco some worry.
Cap set a hand on Lopez's shoulder.
"Easy there, pal." 

"*ugh.*   C -Cap? " Marco asked blearily..
"W-was I in a fire?" he said. "Hard to breathe."

" It's all right, Marco. We're dealing with that. 
You've got some lung edema but you've got 
O2 on. It's right here.." Cap said, placing the 
mask into Marco's sweaty hand.
"Use it when you need it."  

Roy got a blood pressure as he watched
Marco recover clarity.

 
Captain Stanley went on, "Not exactly
a fire Lopez. More like a ..well, an earthquake."

"What?" Marco whispered, his voice cracking.

"It hit the stationhouse, Marco." Chet said
taking a stool by his head. "But everyone's
all right. Nothing serious injury wise."

Marco felt night wind on his face and noticed
the stars showing through the roof where
the garage rafters had been. "Ohh.."
"There's no roof?! H-How are the buildings 
on the rest of the block?? W-we gotta go 
help people.." he exclaimed, and tried 
to rise, but his board's straps prevented that.

"Oh, no. no. no.." Gage warned Marco.
"We've plenty of help out there Marco.
About eight engine companies worth. Casualties
were light. We don't have to go anywhere so
relax.."

"W--? Johnny.  It's dark?.. Why am I still here
if I'm hurt or something? Should've been 
to Rampart already." he gasped.

Cap and the others exchanged looks.

Then Stanley looked down at his dirty hands
and said. "W-we can't do that Marco. Not yet.
You see, there's another problem we're dealing
with right now. But we've the best team around
to help us out of this one. They came all the way
from the other side of the country to--"

"Cap. Just level with me. Don't beat around
the bush. Last time someone did that to
me it was the day I found out my little
cousin Bernardo had died." Lopez said.

Cap looked sharply pained and fought his
emotion to the point of clenching his jaw to
keep anything from getting out too fast.
"Marco. It's not good news, just like the news
was on Bernardo.."

"Is it mama? Is she ok??" Marco said with
alarm. Roy and Gil held him down.

"She's fine. She's fine. The quake didn't 
reach the Palisades. Vince's already stopped
in to check on her.." Roy said quickly.

"Then why do all of you look like someone
died?" Lopez said.

"That's because, there's a very real chance
that all of us just might do that, Marco."
Cap said to the point and very very raw.

"I don't understand.." Lopez said.
His EKG picked up a little in stress and he
started to gasp until Roy made him take
a few breaths off the O2 mask.

Captain Stanley continued. "Your cousin didn't
go from some fluke fever, Marco. He was ill 
with something..." he sighed heavily.
"..with something no one's ever seen before.."

Lopez paled. "And now I got it? And the rest of
you?"

Cap just nodded. "It's a very real possibility
that we've all been exposed. The docs 
here from Atlanta are working on the problem, 
even now, right here in the station.."
he said, trying to smile. "Shouldn't be too
long before they pull a couch or two out
of the housefire."

"I'm going to die?" Marco asked.

Brice immediately replied. "No. It hasn't
been confirmed what illness you have.
So far, you've just a fever, and some
fluid in your chest and a skin rash. Nothing
we can't handle.."

Marco blinked.  "Craig? But you're working
for eight. Your station's here?"

"Yes, Captain Stone is right outside, running
triage operations, with Cap here." he said.
"Couldn't resist the call to dig out a couple
of fire engines from their own garage, know
what I mean? Had to save Cap here some 
face somehow.."

Captain Stanley hefted his HT to encourage
Marco that it was true.

Lopez didn't say anything, and he just blinked
at the ceiling, the nightmare still not yet 
accepted.

Roy spoke up. "We're doing everything we
can here, Marco. We're just under a temporary
quarantine until we get some answers. And
we've turned it into a regular campout.." he
grinned. "Look, soup stove and everything."

It faded when Marco's eyes filled and he began
to sob softly.

Roy went on. "I know things sound bad. And
Cap and I know how you feel. It feels like everything
all around you has..kinda been turned upside down
and it's not a pretty picture to be waking up to.
But know that we're in this together, Marco.
A firecrew never abandons one of their own."

"You got that right.." Cap agreed.

"There's two very very good doctors here,
a Steven Taylor and a Jamie MacPherson.
And Dr. Brackett's been telling us that they are
simply the best of the best in their field. 
I wouldn't be surprised if they...wrapped up
things here in just a couple of days.."

"But what about my family in Mexico? Are
they still safe?" Lopez asked, angrily wiping
away tears.

"Yes. Bernardo's mother is ill but holding her
own. But there are seven down there with
the same symptoms as Bernardo's.."
Roy replied. Then he looked down, fussing
with an IV that didn't need attention. "And..
yours.."

"So why didn't you bail out when you could
everyone?" Marco said, his frustration and
anger building and he pegged them all
with a viscious glare.

"Marco. Calm down.." Cap said.

But Lopez wouldn't listen. "I tried to! Only
I wasn't running for the kids when the bricks
started falling down all around me.. I just
ran for the door.. Yes, that's what I did.."
he sobbed. "Some hero, huh.?"

Stanley sharply told him. "Lopez. Stop. Getting
into self pity isn't going to solve--"

"Don't you see, Cap?.. I ran! I'm sure you
guys were real puzzled why I was in the kitchen
instead of the garage with them." he cried,
his eyes blinded by frightened tears. "And I
wish to G*d I could be running away from
all this right now..." he whispered. "Oh,
Bernardo!... Oh, Mama!... I'm sorry.. I'm so..
sorry...Lo ciento por su dolor y herido.." 
and he started to cry in heaving choking
sobs of grief and shock.

Cap hugged him, and held him tightly as
Marco finally gave in completely to his
terror and fear. "Lopez. It's all right. We're
here. And we won't be leaving you pal.
Not by a long shot.."

"I want to die.. I want to die.. Oh, Bernardo...."
Marco's sobs died away. 

At his silence, Chet moved forward. 
"He's out again?" Kelly asked with alarm, 
swallowing.. He helped Cap lower him 
slowly back down again onto the longboard.

Roy looked at the EKG and took a pulse.
"No. Just sleeping. "

"What was wrong with him? I mean, I- I've never
seen Marco act that way, Roy.." 

DeSoto met Chet's eyes. "Its nothing. He's a little
raw partly because of the fever, and the 
diazepam, and most likely, from some inner feelings 
he's been suppressing ever since his cousin's
funeral. Not the first time someone's buried family
and then not reacted to it until weeks later..
He'll be better emotionally after a good nap."

Johnny piped up. "Yeah, Chet. He's a human
being, so give him some slack.."

"I am. I am.. It was just a little frightening seeing
him come unraveled like that."

"Well you would too after surviving a funeral,
the complete destruction of your workplace,
an earthquake, and then capping it all off 
by coming down with a potentially lethal 
plague..Come on, Cap. Let's get you back to bed.."

"I'd rather stay here, if that's ok with you..
Gage.." Cap said. "I can recupe just
as well from a chair as a stokes.."

"Ok. Just have Chet put your O2 back on.."
Johnny said, rolling over to get some rest
himself.

Roy nodded in agreement and soon, Chet and he
left Cap studying Marco's sweaty face as he 
slept fitfully.

Cap was almost dozing from the heady
effects of the O2 cannula when he realized
that Marco and he were no longer alone,
on just a feeling. He opened his eyes.

Miss Thorne had gotten up and she had moved
to the chair Roy had vacated. "He's almost
my age.." she said gently. Cindy reached 
out to Marco's face to brush away a tangle
of wet hair with compassion.

Cap grabbed her hand, and shook his head,
preventing her from touching him.

"It's all right.. You firemen aren't the only ones
known for self sacrificing oneself. 
And there are two million teachers out 
there all across the country who'll agree 
with me on just that point." 

Captain Stanley smiled and let her go.
Then he afforded her some feigned privacy
as she leaned down to admit a secret to
his sleeping crewmate.

Cindy wiped away Marco's tears with a gauze
pad and bathed his face in a cool cloth as
she talked. "You know Marco. You weren't
the only one who wanted nothing else
but to run today..." she told his sleeping
features.."Stoker here had to tackle me
to keep me under that kitchen table until
the quake had ended. So I think there's
a bit of cowardice in all of us. It's not surprising
to me that the ground failing beneath our feet
brought some of that out in both you and me.
But I'll just bet there hasn't been a single fire 
that you've ever seen where you didn't just 
go charging right on into it without hesitation. 
So you're one up on a whole lot of us teachers
in the bravery department, Marco Lopez. Those 
kids knew that coming here today. And so 
did I... Just sleep...Things will be brighter
in the morning. They always become
that way, with the dawn.."

In reply, Marco's EKG, slowed into deeper rest.

---------------------------------

In the station kitchen improvised
lab, Dr. Steven Taylor and Dr. Jamie 
MacPherson made a startling
discovery on their specimen slides.

They found.......

-----------------------------

Photo: Cap at night calling on his HT.

Photo : Chet sitting up in alarm on his bed.

Photo : Marco looking very serious.

Gif :  A peaceful California dawn by the ocean.

*****************************
From: finiterider@yahoo.com 
Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 14:56:21 -0800 (PST) 
Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive ] The Red Devils-- 

>In the station kitchen improvised
>lab, Dr. Steven Taylor and Dr. Jamie 
>MacPherson made a startling
>discovery on their specimen slides.

>They found.......

...bacteriophage. Simple, unknown;
completely undifferentiated bacteriophage.

"Steve. Come look at this. I pulled it off 
the firemans' gram negative stain." Jamie 
gasped through her contamination hood.

Dr. Taylor joined her and bent down
into the microscope. "Look at that
Shepherd's Crook morphology. Could
this be an RNA filovirus?"

Jamie shuddered. "We've only hypothesized
that evolution of phage in theory as 
a zoonotic model, no known living specimens
are known to exist."

Steven was thoughtful. " Zoonosis? Mexico has 
plenty of mammalian carriers. Mice, birds..."

"Yes, but those vectors are everywhere. 
What is unique in Mexico city and nowhere 
else?" Jamie said. 

"It's tropical around Marco's family's 
neighborhood. Monkeys?" Dr. Taylor 
theorized.

"None that are native..  Bacteriophage are
weak transferring to foreign or human bred hosts. 
It would have had to evolve in one genus 
for decades to mutate to an infectious state 
strong enough to cross species barriers. 
Mexico has no native simians." 

Steve was finetuning the microscope as he dressed
his sample with an enzyme catalyst to break
down the virus into its separate constituents.

He took the slide off and shook it while
the solution broke it down.

Then he replaced the slide. "Oh my g*d.
Jamie,.. they're reassembling despite the
protein dissolver.."

"Self assembling? Retrovirus! That's a 
class neither virus nor bacterial, millions of 
years old." MacPherson said.

"Then our contagion's host will have
to be at least that old, too.."

"Insectoidal?" Jamie guessed.

"We ruled that out. No bites on half the
victims, remember?" Steven sighed.

MacPherson was undaunted.
"The Marco house is deeply inside
city limits on the edge of the mountains.
No animals crawling in from the forest would
go unnoticed there."

"Birds?"

"Too inefficient a metabolism for a retroviral
infection. It would never survive in them."
Taylor said, "I've tried on computer models."

Jamie frowned.. "Their dogs and cats, 
and pigs and chickens were sacrificed by
investigators. Couldn't have been them,
they were all clean.."

"Those animals are also young species.
None older than a few hundred thousand
years. Domesticated genetic lines. They
can't be our hosts."

Dr. Brackett had finished a toxicology
series on Marco's blood samples and
looked up when Dr. Taylor and Dr. 
Macpherson showed up in front of
his work station. "Any progress..?" 
he asked.

"Retrovirus.. Zoonotically transmitted.
Our unknown is showing marked Shepherd's
Crook pleomorphism and resistance to
enzymatic lipase breakdown.."

Dr. Brackett's eyes squinted and he blinked
in reaction. "A retrovirus? I thought those
were extinct and found only in the fossil 
record."

"Not for some.." Jamie admitted. "The genus
is rare, but can still be found in the wild.
Just like the Listeria strain of cyanobacteria 
is still found in Yellowstone's hotsprings. That
is living despite it being continually poisoned 
by our now oxygen rich atmosphere.."

"Let me take a look at it.." Kel said.

Taylor and MacPherson held out their
hands to him to sit at the stool before the
microscope. "Be my guest.." Taylor
sighed. Then he pulled off his biocontamination
hood. "We don't need these anymore..
This one can't reinfect anyone
without an animal host.."

Jamie concurred, shedding her biosuit 
too. "Totally true.."

"Then the quarantine is unnecessary?"
Dr. Brackett said.

"Completely doctor.." Steven told Kel.
"Only body fluid precautions are necessary.
Like you would do for any hepatitis or meningitis
patient in one of your wards. Anyone healthy
would be able to easily fight this off."

"Marco wasn't healthy and so he got infected."
Kel realized. "Most likely because he was
burning his candles at both ends helping out
his mother and working fires here. Roy did  
tell us that no one has gotten a lot of
sleep for the last four days.."

"Most certainly.." Jamie agreed. "And we hadn't
been able to see these spirals and hooks until
now, because when we got to the boy,
he was already dead too long to present them
clearly, except in the one splenic blood sample
the forensic doctors managed to obtain.
Your fireman's blood slide, has just made 
our problem crystal clear doctor.."
  
Brackett caught a site of the deadly,
yet ancient retrovirus on the slide. He
clearly saw the purple staining of the
enzyme lipase chemical that Steven
had added earlier, but the tiny
contagion stubbornly held together in
its spiralled stringed, oddly hooked shape. 
"Frightening. This germ is technically
not alive here. But you're telling me
that it can still reproduce?"

Jamie nodded, agreeing with the hospital
doctor. "Ummhmm. Just by latching
onto any cellular RNA and telling it to
make more retroviral capsules, with its
own RNA, instead of normal stem cells."

"Then what causes the symptoms and
the fever and the bleeding?" Dr. Brackett
wanted to know. 

Jamie said. "I have always hypothesized to
my superiors that retroviruses have a piggyback
contagion living in symbosis inside the spore 
capsule. Each, separated from the other, is harmless,
but together in combination..."

"Deadly and fast.." Dr. Brackett agreed.
Dr. Brackett lifted a handy talkie
wrapped in plastic on the table.

   It was linked to both the triage center
outside and to the CDC team working
in the firehouse backyard.
##This is Kelly Brackett inside
Station 51. I'm lifting the quarantine.
There's proof positive on further non 
transmission.##

Dr. MacPherson lifted her own. ##Confirming
the order Atlanta base. We're in the clear.
Bodily fluid protocols restrictions only..##

"How long will it take your people to
use these slide images to identify the 
organism?" Kel said.

"Only as long as it takes to take a polaroid slide
image here and transmit it over TV satellite
to the CDC.. Our specialists will peg this in
within minutes if we've seen it before.."


"Then do it.. "

Jamie started laughing..

"What's so funny doctor?" he asked.

"I just learned the best way to do that
doctor and it's even faster than our finest
military.."

"Oh?"

"Use the reporters." she said. "They'll spread
those images like wildfire. And the CDC will get
them seconds after they air.."

"Are you crazy? What about the panic that 
would cause doctor?" Steven said.

"What..." she said dismissively. "You mean the 
earthquake hasn't already accomplished that?
We can just label these pictures X Case Influenza and
they'll be none the wiser.."

Steven started to snicker too. "Heh. Clever
girl.."

"I'm afraid I don't understand.." Kel Brackett
said at their amused expressions.

"X Case is CDC code for "identify and confirm this".
Doctor Brackett. The word Influenza is bogus.
Jamie wants to add that to make any viewers
think we have just the flu in here to settle them
down."

Kel smiled too. "I'll go along with that.."

"I'll get right on it.." Jamie said.
Soon, she had a polaroid of the slide
showing the retroorganism stains and
was jogging out the kitchen to
head through the garage and the waiting
press milling about outside for the
ten o'clock news broadcast about to
go on the air. 

A minute later, she was back.

Dr. Brackett turned back to
Steven Taylor.."Uh, doctor, in your 
theory, what's the best way to treat 
retroviral hemorrhagic fevers?"

"Aggressive fluid management. I've
tested Idouroxidine, an anti-tumor
medication, against bacteriophage of
this virulence...and I've had good
results.." Steven suggested.

Jamie immediately countered. 
"That's against bacteriophage
Taylor, not retroviruses. No one's
ever seen an active retroviral
epidemic before.."


Brackett silenced her with a growl.
"Not until now.. I'm willing to try
anything.. Marco Lopez's too
unstable to wait any longer on
a solution.. Even if it's just a temporary
one.. He and seven others in Mexico
are counting on us to help them now.
Even if it's just a shot in the dark!"

Jamie sighed, but let her colleague 
continue advising Dr. Brackett.

"I'd try 150 mg IV QID for starters.
That might arrest the synergistic
bacteria in operation with the 
retrovirus's cellular division.."
Steve said.

Kel nodded his head, remembering
something. "I have some already 
here. One of my senior paramedics 
had an unknown Asian Virus last year 
and I still had some viable doses
available. I included them in that 
field bag you advised me to pack."

"You know these injections will be
stop gag at best.." Jamie said.

Dr. Brackett washed his hands in
the kitchen sink and dried them in
a sterile towel. "I know.. But until
we learn the animal who's the principle
carrier from which to isolate an anti-viral 
serum, slowing down Marco's deterioration 
that way's the only hope we've got.."

Suddenly, Chet's face peered through the 
kitchen door. His eyes got real big when
he saw that the two microbiologist
physicians were out of their containment
suits. He  shoved aside the door and
said. "Hey, Dr. Brackett. You'd better
get in here.. Marco was conscious for
bit and talking.. Roy says he's still
that way and only dozing.."

"There's our chance to find out
more clues about that carrier. Marco
must have seen something down
there that was new in his house animal
wise.." Kel said, grabbing his HT for 
a reply from the outside. 

The news story delivering the image of Marco's 
germ to the whole state began to air.

And Roy kept his promise by freaking
out the reporters by leaning and waving
from the station bunk house doorway
so that his family and kids could see him.

"Anyone wanna take bets on how
quick the CDC will call on our answer?"
Dr. Brackett said, gathering his gear
and moving back to Marco's side.

"No bets.." Steven said..

Chet was only puzzled when he 
overheard that little exchange.

Then he started laughing when
the camera man jumped back
two feet when Roy pretended a
fake sneeze into his direction.

---------------------------------------


Dr. Brackett and Drs. Taylor and
MacPherson all crowded around
Marco's bed. 

Gil and Brice both backed out of the
way.

Craig said. "Ah, progress.. The quarantine's
been lifted.." 

Gil looked at him as if he sprung a third
eyeball. Brice merely tugged on his own
sleeve to show his unbeliever that Jamie and
Steven were now out of their biosuits
completely.

Gil caught on to that fact readily and accepted
it eagerly.  He knelt by Kel, telling him how 
long Marco had been conscious and how 
coherent he had been during those brief moments.

Kel noticed Lopez was indeed, sleeping. He gently
shook his shoulders. "Marco. Marco
Lopez. It's Dr. Brackett. I need to ask
you some questions about your family's
home in Mexico.. Marco.. Can you hear me?"

Cap jolted awake in his chair but then fell
to listening when he realized an important
discussion was about to take place.

Chet joined him, crouching at his side.

Marco's face finally animated and screwed
up into an immediate liquidy cough that
he barely managed to clear away in between
breaths under his oxygen mask.
His eyes opened fuzzily. "Brack--?
Am I out yet??"

"Not yet. Marco. Listen. This is very very
critical that you hear me and answer as
best at you can.." As he spoke, Marco's 
head sagged again into a half state.

"Marco!! Front and center!!" Cap shouted. 

"Whaa? Inspection day already? Yessir!!" Lopez
blurted out in sudden reaction. He started
to give a mock salute but he couldn't lift
his arm up all the way.. but his eyes snapped
into a brighter wakefulness.

Cap grinned and added more. "Just
listen carefully Lopez. This is not an inspection
but a Q and A test. Reply to the doctors
here as best you can."

"A-all right. I'll get 100 %. I- I..don't want..
latrine detail agai---.... ohhh.."

"Marco. Concentrate.." Kel urged.

" t.......ryingggggg.." he sighed.

Jamie leaned in close to Marco's ear.
"Mr. Lopez.. When you arrived to
your family villa in Mexico. Were there 
any new pets the kids were playing with?.. 
Anything strange or new?"

"Pets?  B- Bernado te gusta jovan gatos
y..."

"En Inglez,.. Marco.." Cap said.

"Oh...hhhh uh, Bernardo likes kittens.
Always new ones from the vineyards..."

Jamie and Steven shook their heads.
"Marco. Marco. How about something
from the hills.. Something not domesticated.
A mammal of some kind.."

"Mama senora,.. ella es loco que se manana
con el Diablos Rojos en la cielo noche porque ellos
come en su flores..!" Marco wailed in his
fever, still not very coherent..

"What?" Taylor exclaimed at the apparent
spanish gibberish..

Chet said, straining to understand. "Wait a
minute. Wait a minute.. I think I understand
a bit.. Marco and I have a bet running that
I can learn enough spanish to impress
his mama by fall  to win a complete,
homecooked--"

"Chet! Now's not the time..!" Cap roared.

"Ok, ok, ok... Uh.. I think he said that the
Donya Arana or the head woman in his 
household was going crazy that morning 
because of "red devils" from the night sky 
eating in her garden.."

"Red devils from the sky?" Jamie frowned.

Then Taylor clinched it.. "Bats.. 
Can't be anything else.. Specifically,
Flying foxes!!
They are all over Mexico. There's our
sentinel anim---" he leaped up for the
phone to reach his superiors in triumph..

Jamie leaned in to Marco as her colleague
rapidly got into action with their team in
Atlanta and those outside the station house.
"Tell me more about the Red Devils.."

"Que? No comprendo....." Marco sighed
as he fever tossed on his pillow.

Jamie threw up her hands in frustration.

Chet coughed and in very bad Spanish
asked, "Hablas mas pero Diablos
Rojos. Nosotros tenemos muchas preguntas. 
Es muy importante Marco.."

Cap even knew what that meant.
"I'll say we have many important
questions.. Lopez.. Stay with us!"

Marco began to shout, delirious.
"Todos muerte! No vive no mas
en la noche. Bernardo traes uno
a mi Tija.. Soy Triste.!!! Bernardo!!"
Lopez repeated his moaning words. 
Over and over..

Chet blinked in stress as he translated
shakily.. "He keeps saying they're all
dead. That they were no longer alive
by nightfall. That the boy gave a bat
to his Aunt after it had died to show her?
Now, he's blaming himself.."

Marco's tirades continued until Dr. Brackett
finally sedated him and turned him onto
his side to rest.  Jamie MacPherson
started up on the Idouroxidine injection
into his IV after Kel had gone on to examine
Gage's status.

Roy returned from his tormenting the
reporters and said. "Man, I wonder who
gave them that germ photo? Doctor...
did you--?"

"Yes, Mr. DeSoto we did.." Jamie said,
gesturing for Brice to take another BP on
Marco. "It was an end to a means.."

"W-wait a minute. Did you find your answers?
You're both out of your biocontamination suits.
That's great. Must be if the quarantine is lifted.."
Roy said happily, folding his arms.
"So why didn't you tell the reporters that too?"
 
Chet snapped. "Because it isn't over
yet ! Yes, we learned what it is and where its
came from.. But the serum that Marco's going to
need comes from bats, Flying Foxes, according to
one of the docs here. Now tell me how in 
the world are we going to find the right ones
in Mexico from the middle of a city fringe 
jungle rainforest in time to save him eh?"

Roy's face fell into lines deeper than the San
Andreas Fault. "We can always hope, Chet.."

Jamie MacPherson looked up with a large
degree of doubt locked onto her face.

Then the phone rang. Both the one in the kitchen
lab and the one on the bunk house desk.

Jamie and Brice both leaped for it.

She was faster.
"Dr. MacPherson.. in LACoF station 51.."
Everyone held their breaths when her face
proved it was Atlanta on the line.
She listened for a while then...
"I understand sir.. I- I 'll get right on it..
Yes, mobilize the Mexico City team to
collect the vineyard specimens.. Our victim
says the dead boy played with some in
the garden in the days before he fell ill.
As you heard from Dr. Taylor, they are
very probably our sentinel animal species.
Oh, and chief.. We need one taken alive
and sent here. I need to extract a blood
serum from it.."

She set the phone down shakily and sank
into a chair at the desk by the battery operated
lantern. Gil came over and
set a hand on her arm. "You ok?"

"Yes.. I- I just am a little stunned about 
the finding. We have a name for the
contagion in our files.."

Steven Taylor came from the station's
yard and from briefing the team outside.
He saw the look on Jamie's face and
Gil crouched near her offering her coffee
and he asked. "Jamie.. What is it?"

"Steve, it's Grade Four Marburg..
Boss's just confirmed it."

"Ohhhh..no. I'm so sorry..We're too late." 
Dr. Taylor sighed, leaning against 
the wall in defeat.

Dr. Brackett was less than gentle.
"Ok. What's Marburg..?"

Jamie,s lips worked mechanically.
"Marburg.. Theorized RetroViral Infection.
Three known live cases recognized world wide
in 1975.. Incubation period of 5-10 days, 
onset of the disease: sudden.  Marked by 
fever, chills, headache, and myalgia. Fifth 
day after onset of symptoms, a maculopapular 
rash, most prominent on the trunk may occur. 
Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, 
abdominal pain, diarrhea then may appear. 
Symptoms become increasingly severe and 
may include jaundice, inflammation of the 
pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, 
liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and 
multi-organ dysfunction."  

Her last fact came in a whisper..
"No known cure.. All three reported cases
were....100% ....Fatalities...."

A stunned silence filled the darkened
bunk room.

Chet's face twitched in denial.. 
"No way.. no way man.. Not Marco.
No way in h*ll!!"

Cap got to his feet and ripped off his nasal
cannula. "Kelly, now getting upset isn't
going to help matters any.."

Kelly's face was a mask of torture and
deep deep emotional pain. It sullied his
fine boned features, making a mockery of 
them. "I don't care anymore Cap! We ...
have taken.....just about all we can here! 
And so have I. Look at us.. "  he said flinging 
his arms wide.
"Just look at us, Cap! Johnny
was almost crushed today, so was the engine
and squad. Miss Thorne over there was
almost gassed to death. You almost
bought it too! And most of us here in one
way or another.. Bonnie, too, for Pete's 
sake."

He started pacing and kicked over an 
empty water jug in his frustration and 
rage.. "I'm sick of this whole thing!
Being stuck here, watching things deteriorate
like this. So just take it back Cap.,, the whole 
g*dd*mned unlucky deck of cards we've 
been dealt over the last four days!! Cap, 
just make it go away. We gotta all return to 
base, we gotta all get some sleep, we gotta 
all be ready for a fresh start all together again,
by wake up tone time.."

Cap started to move forward..
"Chet...." he said softly. ."I would if
I could pal.. Y- you know that.."

Chet screwed his eyes shut and tears
flooded out."Ah, man..... not  Marco..pleeaaasseee
not him.. It's just not fair.." and he started 
to cry, sagging down the wall by Marco's 
head. He reached out and caressed Lopez's 
hair with a hand, sobbing. His wracking cries
panged everyone listening and soon,
Cindy rose to speak quietly with Chet 
where he knelt on the floor.

She said.....

 
--------------------------------

Photo : Cap looking very very small.

Photo : Marburg Retrovirus slide.

Photo: Chet peeking through the kitchen 
           door in fear.

***************************** 
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Tue Nov 5, 2002  11:31 pm
Subject:  Panacea...


>Chet screwed his eyes shut and tears
>flooded out."Ah, man..... not  Marco..pleeaaasseee
>not him.. It's just not fair.." and he started 
>to cry, sagging down the wall by Marco's 
>head. He reached out and caressed Lopez's 
>hair with a hand, sobbing. His wracking cries
>panged everyone listening and soon,
>Cindy rose to speak quietly with Chet 
>where he knelt on the floor.

>She said.....

"Mr. Kelly. Listen to me. Things aren't all lost.
Not yet. Marco's still alive. And of everyone here,
I've seen none who've hovered more often
in concern and caring, than you. Things look
dark. But if you've hit bottom, then there's no
where else to go but up, is there?"

Chet didn't pay any attention to her, his face
still buried in Marco's hair.

Then quiet, calm Mike Stoker said something
very profound. "100% fatalities.." he mumbled.
"I just can't believe that at all. They're just words..."

"What?" Chet said, looking up at his engineer
coworker, wiping his red eyes and face with
an arm.

"They're just words.. All of them. That complete
phone call from Atlanta. That Marburg report.
Dry. Dispassionate. Just facts. How can we trust 
its end-all be-all credibility?" Mike said, thoughtfully.

Miss Thorne began to smile. "There was
never a thesis or report born that ever
escaped revision. Mike Stoker, you're 
beautiful!" And she kissed him full on 
the cheek. 

She went rushing off to find Dr. Taylor
and Dr. MacPherson.

Chet's eyes immediately dried up
into another emotion, one of jealousy.
"Hey, how come you get all the chicks
kissing you? Stoker, did you tell her it was 
you who revived her in the yard?"

Mike said, "Nope. No one ever told her 
that she had even quit breathing." 
Then he rubbed some knuckles on 
his shirt's badge,"Maybe she just likes the
quiet rugged type of fireman.. eh?"

"Yeah?" Chet said, more like himself.
"Well, how about a fireman who's not
afraid to show his emotions openly.."

Cap piped up with a grin.. "Well, then,
everyone in the room here today would
be unbeatable Cassanovas now wouldn't
they,  Kelly, if that were true. No, Chet, I think 
it was something Stoker said that gave 
Cindy Thorne an idea on another matter."

"What do you think it was?" Kelly said,
fussing with Marco's blankets.

"Don't know. Does it look like I have
an answer to everything..?" Cap
muttered.

"Absolutely.."
"Yes."
"Yes.."
"Yep.." Roy, Gil, Brice and Chet all said
to him.

"Very funny. I think I'll quit my day job
and become a mountain guru and charge
people for my answers.."

"Just don't sit on the wrong mountain.
You may just get shaken off by another
earthquake.." Roy kidded.

"Oh, yes.. Now there's one answer even I
wish I had. I wonder what's happening
out there?" and Captain Stanley lifted his
HT to his mouth. "Station Eight, this
is Engine 51. Got an update for us? It's
almost daybreak. Your station still light
on a few hands..?"

Gil, Roy and Chet and Brice all waved  in
protest and frantic denial, anticipating
that Cap was actually going to have them
reassigned to outside disaster detail because
of the lifted quarantine. They all shook their
heads rapidly and made all sorts of negative
signs to silently block such a captain's action.

##This is Stone. Hank? We heard. The 
quarantine's over.  Good going. Rooting for
ya. Yeah, we're light staffed but upstate 
companies and crews are on their way to 
relieve us, even the Pasadena FD's on their 
way.##

"Oh,..uh....just checking to see how you 
were. Captain Stanley out.." 

##10-4, Engine 51.##

Captain Stanley parked the HT onto one knee
and levelled a look of "this better be good."
at his men.

Chet voiced their excuse perfectly. 
"Didn't I hear a particular fire house
captain among us say that a firecrew
doesn't abandon one of their own?"

"Yep.." Roy and Mike said at the same time.

Cap just harrumphed and got up
to turn off his own oxygen tank sitting
by his feet. "Man, I'm hungry.. Did they
give us some chow here anywhere?"

Three arms pointed to a nondescript
crate by the water cooler. 

"Oh, thanks.. Smelled the soup, Stoker
made Cindy earlier. Anything else to
go with it..?" Cap said, rubbing his
stomach.

"Does it look like we had time to even
think about food? Some of us haven't
even slept yet.." Roy said without sting.

"Yeah, well. I was walking wounded there
DeSoto. And I'm a glowing testament to 
your paramedic skills if I got my appetite back. 
right. Now,..who'd like some soup and whatever 
else I can scrounge up? Hmmm?" Cap asked.

Three sets of hands rose instantly..

"Fine.. I'm assigning myself chow detail 
for the day since I'm not cleared to captain
anything yet. Just called me Cook if you
want anything sooner.." he joked.

And he moved off to get his men, and 
everyone else able to eat and drink, 
some hot meals.

--------------------------------

Cindy was talking fast with Dr. MacPherson
and Dr. Taylor. She was actually getting on
their nerves with questions and nagging
for details about Marco's bug. 
".....so, your people have seen three cases
like his..That's interesting. Hhmm. What I mean
is..How truly were those cases like our situation? 
Were they in Mexico, away from professional help
and treatments?
I find it hard to believe that a bug like
the Marburg would be singularly lumped in
with Ebola, and Hanta and other virulent
strains on a whim just based on a pathology
report.."

Jamie MacPherson slammed down her file onto
the table and she finally faced the teacher
standing before her. "Listen,..Miss Thorne.
My colleague and I have been trying to work
around your prattling for the last five minutes.
Now I draw the line on a civilian who's a little
nervous when that same civilian accuses me
and my organization of not doing a proper job."

"No offense meant, doctor.." Miss Thorne said
genuinely.. "I'm just trying to plug for answers
on behalf of a firehouse full of frightened 
firefighters who are sitting on the edge of their 
wits because an earthquake jarred them out of
their normal lives like a bull in the china shop!
I'm a teacher, and teachers question everything.
Makes me very practical and worldly for my
students if I'm absolutely certain of where
I stand with any one subject. So I'm not questioning
anyone's credibility here nor the CDC's tactics.. 
I'm only digging for a wider view.. 
Since when has any paper on a contagion written by
someone else, ever stopped YOU from pushing
the envelope..?"

Steven actually smiled as he continued making
test slides of Marco's blood to find an effective
dose of Idouroxidine to slow the Marburg's
meiosis. "She's got you there, Jamie. Let see,
you bucked heads with boss, what... seven times
already this year on various subject matters??"
he poked.

"Ohhh..." she huffed. "Stop ganging up on me,
Steven Taylor. All right.. " Jamie said, dropping
her work and snatching up Johnny's pot of
luke warm coffee from the table. She poured
out the plaster dust that was floating on its
liquidy surface and grabbed a mug from the 
cupboard.

Changing her mind, she grabbed three of
them. And started pouring.. "Ok,..You got my full
attention Miss Thorne. And Steven's.. I always
claim that I have an open mind across professions,
so here's putting the money where my mouth is.
So, shoot. What questions do you have about our
poor sick fireman and his dead little cousin?
I'll answer anything that isn't classified material.."

Miss Thorne wasted no time. "The Red Devils..
Were they present for your other three Marburg
victims? Did you know about them..?"

Jamie's face registered respect and a little
surprise that Cindy went right to the heart of the
same thought that had been nagging in her own
mind ever since Marco's astounding account
of them. "What??" she gasped.

A sudden fax from a battery generator run
machine across the room, bleeped
and came to life by the microscope. It got
all of their attentions when it lit up with a
transmission.  

Steven walked over to it and waited for
the sending to complete. "Wow, the main
phone lines are up in the neighborhood.
That was fast.. Italy's last quake took
a week to reestablish full land line telephone
service.."

"Like our firemen, " Miss Thorne sighed.
"Our phone and power companies are the best in
the country. They'd have to be, being under
the gun of earthquakes all the time in our
state.."

Steven snatched up the still warm sending
from Atlanta.. "This is from Mexico.. Forensic
photos of the vineyard.. "

"Let me see.." Jamie said, taking one and
moving over to the dawn's rising light by
the kitchen window. Natural debris settling
in the night had freed up some daylight there.
"They're all adult bats.. No juveniles.."

Steven looked up from another fresh report
from the Mexico CDC team. "No fatalities as
yet. Those seven are still holding. These 
vitals sets seem to be matching Marco's so far.."

Cindy walked over to Jamie, and handed her
the cup of tepid coffee the doctor had left
behind on the table.. "Here.. May I see
that?"

"Huh.. ?" Jamie said, from a long distance
away.. "Yeah. Sure.." and she saw the cup
Cindy was handing her.." Thanks.."

"No problem.."  Miss Thorne delicately took
the color photo showing the decaying bats in
the vineyard  lying on the ground in the
Lopez garden, and immediately noticed
something.. "Doctor...."

"Yeah?"  Cindy said, looking at aerial 
photos of the Lopez villa and the surrounding
streets leading up into the mountains surrounding
the city..

"Tell me something..I'm no bat expert here.
But aren't all of these bats here males? I don't
see any sienna furred females with them..
One of my students did a report on Flying Foxes
last week and I clearly remember there being
color shade distinctions between the sexes..."

"What?!" MacPherson shouted. She grabbed 
the vineyard photo back and peered at it
with a hastily snatched magnifying glass.
Then she gasped and placed a hand on her
mouth. "Steven!! Get over here.."

"What is it? " Dr. Taylor shouted, running over
to them from the other side of
the room, he stripped off his latex gloves and
tossed them into a disposal bin near
the microscope.. "I'm coming. I'm coming.."

"Look.. Miss Thorne's noticed something
about the bats. They're all males.."

Dr. Taylor blanched. "Sex specific etiology
on the Marburg host? Ohmy.." and he
ran once more for the phone directly linked
with Atlanta..

"Miss Thorne.. I love you.." Jamie said,
excited. "Steven and I were so busy wallowing
in self pity about that standing report on Marburg
that we didn't see new alternatives... Thankyou
Thankyou Thankyou..." 

"What did I just set off? " Cindy said, genuinely
puzzled..

"Mammals first milk. Full of antibodies
that transmit to their babies in the first twenty four
hours following birth.. The female Flying Foxes must
have the ability to shake off Marburg to the extent
of being able to survive long enough to transmit
their immunity to their young. That's why the Marburg
plagues of the past didn't make the species extinct! 
They've had millions of years to adapt to each other.."

"You mean, you won't have to wait for one
of the Marburg victims to fight off the infection
on their own to get a serum?"

"No.. For that serum's already been made..
In the female bats of that stricken colony!"

--------------------------------------------

Steven was on the phone with his boss.
"That's right sir.  Find a gravid female
near parturition. Isolate her mammarian
pre-lactate and I'll just bet Marburg antibodies
are there. They have to be. There were
only dead adult males on the photos you
sent us.."

Dr. Taylor had three others on the California
team listening in on other phones too so
they were being appraised same as Boss
was.  "Yes sir.. No, don't send your samples
to me.. Send us the bat herself.. Or better, 
yet, send several.. This antibody might 
need a living metabolism to stay viable.. 
Make sure they're due to birth their young
within the next half day.. Yes sir,.. I'll let
LAX and the air force jet unit assigned to us,
know. Thank you sir.. What was that?
It was a civilian who pointed this out to us.
She's a teacher who was caught in the
earthquake here in the firehouse. Yes, I'll
get her name for you. And sir, make a rush
on this.. The fireman's nearly critical.." 
and Taylor hung up the phone..

He was almost dizzy with happiness about
the possible Marburg Achilles heel by the time
he rushed back into the bunkroom to tell
the waiting firemen and paramedics about
their serendipitous discovery through Miss 
Cindy Thorne.

------------------------------------

Dr. Brackett was all grins as he flew 
through waking Johnny, out of his shocky
sleep. "Hey.. Johnny... Rise and shine.
The sun's already getting up. So should you."

Gage coughed and he felt Dr. Brackett
remove his oxygen as he blearily awoke.
"What.. did I miss something important?
Marco ok?"

"Yes, and not yet.. I'll tell you more
while we eat.."

Johnny was immediately serious and he let
Dr. Brackett sit him up and hand him
some soup and jelly sandwiches that
Cap had made for them both.

Soon, Johnny knew about the rare Marburg
epidemic and the new potential cure for it
so ironically discovered by Miss Thorne.
"Teachers are smart. I'll admit that.." he
grinned. Then his face fell. "So, will they
manage to isolate some mother flying 
foxes in time before Marco...uh.."

"There's every chance.. Dr. Taylor told
me they have air force jets scrambling just
for us to get some here.."

"Those plague bats are coming here?"
Johnny said, chipmunk cheeked.
He suddenly lost his appetite and
set down his once bitten sandwich.

"Something the matter with your 
sandwich? Shouldn't be with a fire
department Captain on the chowline."

"No.. just not hungry.. I hate bats.."

Arfff!!

Gage smiled down at Bonnie.
"Seems she agrees with me..."
he said absently scratching her
head as she lay in his stokes. 
"Here you go, darling.. Have some.."
and he fed her his sandwich, piece
by piece. The ravenous Yorky nearly ate
his fingers. "Ow.." But he was grinning.


"You have to eat, Johnny, Or I'll have
Brice start up another D5W IV on you."

"I'll eat. I'll eat.. Just.. ..gimme that soup
bowl. I'll work on that.."

Dr. Brackett gave Gage the piping hot
tomato soup thermos from the tray.
"All of it or it's Brice over here in five minutes."

Johnny glowered, but drank every drop.
Then he set down his bowl and leaned 
in confidentially. "Say listen doc. The
other guys have been keeping me in
the dark about Marco's true condition.
Don't you think I should have the right
to be in on that? I am a paramedic after
all."

"And I am a doctor, surprise surprise. 
They aren't telling you on my orders, 
Johnny. It's a clearcut case of doctor
/patient confidentiality. Roy, Brice and 
Gil are the attending medics, you 
shouldn't have to have that excess burden
of worry.."

"It's no burden Dr. Brackett. He's my friend.
And ..and ..and .. I just wanna know how he
is...that's all.."

"He's alive.. The tones on his EKG should be
telling you that. And that, is all you need to know.."
Kel said, finishing his food and rising to attend
his next exam of Marco.

"That' great doc. Just great..!" Johnny said 
sarcastically. But inwardly, he knew Kel was
right.  

Captain Stanley made an announcement following
their meal. "Listen all, we're not needed in the
disaster station outside, but even though the
official quarantine is over, all of us have to stick 
close to base for an innoculation once one
is isolated all right? Miss Thorne, I'm sorry but
that means even you'll have to spend another 
day in the station house."

"That's ok. I've already talked to my family
and they understand. They saw the news 
broadcast last night.."

"Good deal. The water's running so we'll have
hot showers for now or later. I suggest we all get
some sleep. Gil, Roy, Brice.. Dr. Brackett has
asked for me to get a schedule from you three
about sitting up with Marco. Who's first?"

Johnny raised his hand but Cap pointedly
pretended he was invisible to the role call.

Roy got the first two hour watch over Marco.

"Wake me the first sign of trouble, Roy.."
Dr. Brackett said. He stretched out onto
one of the beds near the phone opposite
Marco. "And Gil, I want to know if the biophones
are working yet to Rampart. I'm out of
the loop as far as emergency earthquake
cases go, but I'll sleep better if I know Dixie
isn't drowning in them over there."

"Got it doc.. I'll do a check right now.."
he replied.

Gil dragged over the biophone and began a 
test rescue call. "Rampart, this is Squad 8 with
frequencies check. How do you read?"

While Gil waited for a reply, Brice, Miss Thorne,
Cap, Jamie and Steven all found sleeping bags
or beds to lie down upon.   The five of them
were asleep in moments.

Gil got his communications check from 
Dixie herself and he too, nodded off on
a portable cot. 

Roy watched over them all protectively.

 Even the sounds of the ongoing recovery and
rescue operations outside didn't wake them.

All through the morning and into the afternoon,
the outside attending firecrews made sure no 
harm befell those sleeping inside the crumbled 
Station 51 firehouse and it became something
of a jealous superstition to go HT silent within 
sixty yards of their darkened bunkhouse.

-------

Craig Brice spelled Roy three hours later.
"How is he?"

"About the same. I've only had to suction out
his airway once. The EOA went in an hour ago.
But he's still breathing. Watch that.
He's in no need of atropine anytime soon. His 
pressure's holding so far.. Eighty systolic. 
But he's nearly unresponsive to the O2 now."

"But he's still fighting this fever.." Craig said, 
trying to be encouraging. Then he noticed the 
mast trousers Roy had inflated only around
Marco's legs. His jaw dropped open in surprise.
"You know that the suit's contraindicated with 
pulmonary edema.."

"I know that. But his internal bleeding's begun
already from the virus. Only way I could
get his BP to even register.. Had no choice."

Brice bit his lip thinking, then he finally agreed
with Roy's choice. "Shouldn't harm him much 
then as long as that abdomen compartment 
is left uninflated."

"Glad you agree with me.." Roy said with some
anxiety and a slight hint of anger. His protestation 
was mild at best.

Brice actually smiled ....kindly..
"Get some sleep DeSoto. I've got him now..
And I won't tell Brackett what you did. I'll take
the blame if he finds out.."

Roy's face registered amazement.
"You don't have to do that.."

"Yes I do. This is saving Lopez's life so the
least I can do is save you from an inquiry. 
Brackett knows I'm already a stickler
for protocol. Breaking that image he has of
me on that for the first time will undoubtedly 
keep him from having it out with me officially 
until all this is over. Who knows, even then, 
he may not even remember the mast suit 
thing."

"Thanks Brice..."

"Anytime,..........Roy.."

Roy blinked. It was the first time Brice had
used his first name ever. And it actually felt
genuine. "See you after Gil's watch.."

"See you then.."

Roy took his time lying down and
for a long time, the rising sun and stress
kept him from fully relaxing..

But then, it was Bonnie and Johnny's snores that
finally gave him surrease into an exhausted
slumber.

Hours past. 

Then...........

 -----------------------------------

   Photo : Brice close in squad.

   Photo : Cap down, surrounded by gear.

   Photo : A flying fox bat..

    Gif:  Biohazard warning symbol.

    Photo:  Dr. Jamie MacPherson working
               in a biosuit with the Marburg virus.

   Photo : Electron microscope image
               of the Marburg Virus.

   Photo : Roy and Johnny sleeping the sleep
               of the dead, late at night.
 
********************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Ripples....  
Date : Sun, 10 Nov 2002 06:41:44 +0000  
 
 
>But then, it was Bonnie and Johnny's snores that
>finally gave him surrease into an exhausted
>slumber.

>Hours past. 

>Then...........

There was a creaking. A calculated sound of
cotton socked feet hitting tiled floor.

Brice heard a hasty shush and a subdued whining
from Bonnie behind his back. But he didn't turn
around until Johnny Gage had tiptoed almost
to the desk to where Marco's chart lay.
He imagined the precise moment when
Gage's hand connected with the metal
of its surface..

Then he snaked out his own hand without
looking and let loose.

Smack!

"Oww... " Johnny hastily whispered, angry.
"Whatdidya do that for?" He said rubbing his
reddening guilty hand.

Craig turned around on his stool and placed
his stethoscope around his neck from where
he sat next to a feverishly sleeping Marco.
"It seems to me that you don't listen very
well to your attending physician orders,
Gage.."

"Whatdiya mean I don't listen?.. I'm one of
the best paramedics Brackett's got. And unlike
some people I know around here, I've never
been written up.." and he pointed two sets
of index fingers at the deeply snoring Roy,
still lying under the brightening afternoon sun 
peeking through the holes in the roof.
"I was just trying to..you know.. get a better 
feeling about Marco,.. you know..really put
a finger on the pulse so to speak.."  He tried
to do exactly that and was rewarded with
another stinging slap on his good hand
for even trying to get near Lopez tactilely.

"Hey!!"
Johnny sat on the second stool and tucked 
his hand in between his knees to ease 
its smarting. "Now cut that out ! Geez..
I'd wonder if your kids aren't deathly afraid of
you by now in any discipline situations of yours 
and your old lady's at your house. You could break 
some bones doing what you just did to me." He said
sucking on his now twice throbbing hand.

"We never have discipline problems with our
children, Gage.." Brice said, still smiling
cooly and very self assured from where
he was checking out Marco's breath sounds
around the EOA tube. "Unlike you, they respect
authority..Everything is precisely orchestrated 
and everyone knows what is expected of them 
to do at any one given time."

"You know, Brice.. Of that I have NO doubts.."
Johnny threaded his own IV bag tubing 
from around his legs and hooked it onto his badge
to keep it higher than his cath's entry site.  
He also loosen his uniform shirt a tad. It still had 
dirt and blood all over it. He made his way into the 
darkened locker room and rummaged around until
he found a clean one from his own quake opened
locker and replaced it, unbuttoning and buttoning
it one handed. He was stubborn enough to
not ask for help from Craig. Finally, he said.
"You know what your problem is Brice?"

"No..but I can count on you enlightening me
on the subject.." Brice grinned closed mouth.

"You're just too d*mned.......right all the time.
I DID have no business sneaking up and reading
Marco's status chart. But man, it's been eating
me up only knowing part of the story.."
he said indignantly throwing a hand at Marco's
fluctuating EKG strip. The PVC's were back.
"He could be throwing those because of
a fluid loss intravascularly. And look, even
his IV site and blood draw sites are beginning
to hemorrhage on their own. He's got to
be losing clotting factors by the pound.. "

"I noticed that, too, Gage. But Roy's taken steps
here with these Military Anti- Shock Trousers."

That took Gage back, "He whaa?"

"Went around authority again and used them 
without the attending MD's order.." Brice said,
this time without  a grin.  "And I am going
to take responsibility for it when the time comes.."

Johnny was thoroughly taken aback.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. Roy uses questionable
protocol and you're BACKing him UP?"

"Of course. The patient was going to perfuse less
than optimally without them so I saw no reason
to deny him the choice.."

Johnny had a hard time believing his ears.
"You mean you're going to stick out your
neck...for my partner?"

"That's what firemen do, Gage.."

"But we're not in a fire.." he said, a puzzled
look on his face. It was rankling him that
Brice was looking more and more altruistic
and less and less like a rule tyrant.

"That's correct." Brice said. 

Johnny squinted his eyes in suspicion at 
Brice and didn't say anything more while
he tried to wrap his brain around the concept
of Brice actually taking a fall for another.
::It just doesn't compute..:: he thought
as he walked over to the food cooler for
a sandwich. His appetite had returned, almost
as voracious as the pain in his stitched up
hand. He grimaced slightly when lowering it
below his waist made it throb.

Craig didn't miss the symptom.
"Dr. Brackett told me to awaken him
if there were any problems so I'll.."
and he shook Brackett's shoulder
before Johnny could stop him. "get
him to look at you.."

"Brice.. Wait a minute we have to
orchestrate the whole mast suit
thing fir--- Hi doc, uh,.. Marco's ok.
At least I think he is.. You see, Craig
here saw me bump my hand and..
uh, It's ...it's nothing really, about
me, I mean.."

Dr. Brackett was already upright on
the cot and he grabbed Johnny's arm
and did a capillary refill check on
his effected fingers. At the same
time, he was studying Johnny's face.
"Uh huh..." he said skeptically. "So
that's why your pallor's matching
the color of your T-shirt eh? You know
better than to let shock promoting
conditions go untreated. And that
hand of yours has got to be putting
out some serious pain.." Dr. Brackett
said. "Time we medicated you.."

"No, doc.." Johnny started up.
"That's not necessary.. I'm fine..
I .. I ..I just got up to...." and he
hastily stopped himself from saying
he got up to visit Marco's medical
records. "Because I saw Brice had
put him into ma--" Again Gage cut himself
off.. "never mind.." he added quickly.

Kel didn't look up from the shot he was
preparing for Johnny. "See? You're
not even able to complete a whole
sentence. Johnny, I'd wish you'd show
a little bit more good judgement for
your own benefit. So far, I've had
to protect you from yourself twice.
Brice here's cool under fire as usual."

Johnny's face fell at the words,
"show good judgement" and he almost
went apoplectic. "Wait a minute, doc.
I've been the perfect angel through
this whole earthquake thing. I only
get a little devil horned about my patients."

"You mean about MY patients.." Kel
said crossing his arms no nonsense.
"You haven't been on duty since this
time yesterday. The second you took
a header into that cave-in, you turned
from Paramedic to Patient.. and into
my demenses with me as your doctor. 
Now argue the fact and this pain med's 
gonna be IM instead of IV..." He finished, at
a firm grumble.

"Ok,.. Ok.. Just.. watch him good huh?
Can't sleep a wink worrying about him."
Gage said, handing over his D5W bag.
"And don't you go slipping a sedative 
into there or I'm gonna wake up later 
more ornery than y--"  Again Gage bit 
his tongue.

Brackett glared and Gage withered
sheepishly.

Johnny really tried to be obedient, but 
then his eyes strayed to the mast suit's 
dial. "Hey Brice.. It's slipped a few psi in 
the left leg. Here let me just--"

"Ah ah ah!" Dr. Brackett held up an admonishing
finger, the meperidine syringe in between his
teeth as he cleaned Gage's IV tubing
with an alcohol pad. "Not another peep.."

Gage moused down, and sat down.

Satisfied, Dr. Brackett finished his injection
into Johnny's IV and then moved on to exam 
Marco thoroughly. "Brice, I assume the real reason
you woke me is this return of the arrythmias."

Craig nodded. "That among other things.."
he said, shooting a look at Gage as he
pushed up his glasses onto his face.

Johnny hung his head down in defeat
and sighed heavily in annoyance. Already
he could feel relief from his hand's stabbing
and he fought the med's grogginess rising 
up. ::If I can't help out, I'm gonna at
least watch. I'll sleep next week.:: he
decided. His lurid sleepies washed away.

Dr. Brackett took a pinch of Marco's skin
and noticed the fold he created didn't 
settle flat again. "He's dehydrated. And I'll
just bet his hematocrit's sky high. Brice,
D/C the Lactated Ringers for another of 
Normal Saline. His pulmonary fluid is less marked. 
I won't have acidosis set in from having 
an IV the wrong chemistry. He's now a 
circulation poor case.." Dr. Brackett 
flinched when just touching Marco's
eye lids for a pupillary check, brought 
trails of blood from his tear ducts.
He grunted in surprise.

"He's bleeding from all the IV sites too. 
Nothing yet from his GI, and there's been 
no vomiting indications at all."
Craig nodded. 

"Good. Hang in there Lopez." Brackett grinned
"You're a fighter.." Then Kel asked his next 
question, glancing over  his shoulder. 
"Gage. What's Marco's blood type?
We're gonna need to transfuse him. Dr.
MacPherson told me that this illness
causes consumptive coagulopathy big
time."

Johnny blinked.. "Its destroying his blood
platelet counts?"

"Yes. "

"A +.  I can get a few units off Roy and
Chet. They are his blood type."

"Then there's something I'll actually 
let you do.." Dr. Brackett ordered. 
"Get on it."

Brice was curious. "Why the free flow
hemorrhaging here Dr. Brackett? I've 
never seen a fever syndrome do this 
before.."

"Dr. Taylor surmises that the Marburg
uses blood splattering through its victim's
convulsions as a mode of host to host
transmission like the common cold uses
sneezing.. This surface hemorrhaging is
just the first stages." he said. He drew
up heparin from his drug box, a loading
dose of 2,000 IU. "Craig..  Who thought of
using the trousers? Good call."

Brice didn't deign to reply and he tactfully
let the moment slide.

Kel gave the blood stabilizer into the Normal
Saline IV. Then started a piggyback IV
of more into the bag and secured it with a
bright orange heparin label.
"I want this heparin loading continued over
the next twenty four hours. 10,000 IU's a day.
It'll slow the platelet loss until we get
the whole blood running into him from
the other firemen..And I want him urinary
cath'd. I want to know an exact renal output."

"Right.." Craig said.

Meanwhile..
Johnny was the perfect vampire. He 
sat quietly by Chet where he was snoring
on the bed and pinned down the sleeping man's
arm with a long board chin strap to the bed 
frames. Then he got his vein presenting with
a tourniquet and started up a line,
running the catheter's flow into a collection 
bottle. "How much should I draw out, doc?"

Chet was so exhausted that he didn't even
wake at all at Johnny's ministrations.

"To first tolerance point. Say, 750 CC. Kelly's
not injured so we'll go high. Get the 
same from Roy.." Kel suggested.

"1500 CC's isn't going to last Marco long."

"By then, we'll have our new supply
from the triage station outside." he said,
looking towards the desk where Craig
Brice was quietly ordering some from 
Captain Stone over his HT so he wouldn't
disturb the sleepers in the room.

Johnny got his half liter whole blood
from Chet and withdrew the catheter.
He handed it off to Dr. Brackett who
immediately began giving it to Marco.

Gage, patted Chet's cheek.
"Thanks Kelly.. Sweet dreams.."
he sniffed, leaving a bottle of 7up 
by his head. "You're gonna wake up
thirsty but it's for a hell of a good
cause." Reacting to an evil streak of
humor, he scribbled on the bandaid 
over the cotton wad in Kelly's
arm crook. "The Phantom was here.."
he whispered and drew a smiley face 
with fangs with an IV marker.

Johnny shifted over to his partner
and got as far as touching him when
DeSoto stirred awake. "Sorry.. I
need to get some whole blood from
ya for Marco. His platelet count's
taking a nosedive. Hold still." he 
whispered.

Roy grunted, still very sleepy.
Then he said. "All right." and he
held his arm still, blearily watching
Johnny raise and stick a vein.
"More blood coming on the way?"

"Yeah. Chet provided the first bottle.
Brice is getting additional supplies from 
the triage station outside.." Johnny said, 
taping off the collection tube and mating its
business end into the vacuum bottle he 
had set onto the floor. "You're gonna 
be a 750." The crimson flow began 
to fill it up rapidly.

"Make it 850. I'm a big boy.."

"Our secret.." Gage said without smiling.
"Here.. " and he tossed another 7up bottle
at Roy and left him to nap while the transfusion
bottle filled. Roy was fast asleep before he
could set the pop onto the table next to himself.
Johnny left him cradling it.

------------------------------


From the stokes Johnny had been using the night
before, Bonnie began to moan.

"Oh, I don't like the sound of that..."
Gage said.

He, Brice and Dr. Brackett barely had time
to secure Marco and all his IV's when
another earthquake aftershock shook
the firehouse.

Dust cascaded from the ceiling in white
powdered trails and everyone was jerked
awake by Bonnie's frantic barking as
the tremor continued.

It wasn't a severe one but it was long
lasting and jolting enough to wake absolutely
everybody past all hope of a return to 
napping. Even in the emotionally worn out 
Chet.

All the HT's on the night desk erupted into
frantic communications as individual
fire companies checked in with damage
reports and new developments in
the disaster scene outside.

The earthquake died away.

It was immediately followed with the tones
for a four alarm fire emergency through
the HT lines.

Captain Stanley was on his feet and
running for the shattered garage door, hanging
onto his IV before anyone could intercept
him. He pelted outside, but got instantly
winded before he even got halfway down the
driveway so he skidded to a halt, hanging onto 
the battered LaFrance's driver mirror and waited 
as Captain Stone rendevous'ed with him at a 
dead run. "How bad is it? I heard the alarm 
tones go off." Hank asked.
Then he sucked in his breath when LA 
identified the address of the new alarm call
through his radio. 

"Yep. It's Arco, the refinery across the street.
A pipe line has been ruptured. There's no
telling when a side fire will set it off. I've
got my men and half the assignments 
here not dealing with casualties, responding."
Stone informed him.

Cap's eyes shot across the triage tent strewn
boulevard and he squinted into the mid afternoon 
sun.

All seemed normal over there. Until he saw
a curl of steam rising from a natural gas spire
where it shouldn't have been. "Oh, man." he
groaned, sitting on the runner board of his
battered engine. "If only I had a functional
crew, I'd get my men in there.."

Stone grinned cockeyed. "Sit back and enjoy
the show. And don't even think about leaving
the driveway. I told Peters to slap handcuffs on
you the moment your feet touch the road."
he joked.

"Oh really.." Hank said, grinning back. "Well,
don't think I'll be going anywhere anytime soon.
I've got four mother hens hovering over me
constantly. Oh look, there's the worst one
coming now.."

Brice appeared in the doorway, at a run,
making sure that Cap hadn't done anything
stupid like dash off with a responding engine
company. He stood next to Stone 
and wiggled gimme fingers at Cap to give 
him his IV arm. "Let me D/C that, Cap.."

Hank didn't understand at first what Brice
meant until Stone pointed down to the IV 
bag and tubing still in Hank's grip. "oh.. sorry,
Brice. Just a little distracted here.
There's a hotspot at Arco across the street."

"I know. We all heard it on HT frequencies." 
Craig pulled out Hank's IV cath and bandaged 
the site. "If you're gonna be in public view. Look
the part, Cap.." and he tossed Cap his overcoat
and helmet. "Leave my sight, and I'll come after
you.." he said.

"Scout's honor.." Hank said, rubbing the itchy
ache where the IV had been. "My head's fine
for your reference."

"Yeah? It may feel fine for the moment. 
Just wait until your shot wears off." Craig
said seriously.

Cap's face fell at that prediction
and it remained while the two captains
watched a worried Brice jog back into the sadly
crumpled station 51.

"So that's your story.. What about your man
Marco?"

"It's bad, Ben. It's some kind of bleeding fever
called the Marburg Retrovirus. Overheard the
CDC docs clutching at straws and ordering
their team in Mexico to secure female
bats of all things. Seems they might have a 
natural serum to this thing in their mother's
milk."

"Air Force in on that?"

"I suppose so." Cap said.

"I'll keep an eye out for a convoy conveying
them here.. Anything else you need?"

From seemingly right beside their feet, Brice's 
voice boomed out. "A + whole blood!
Remember, Captain Stone? Step on it..!"

Stone and Stanley both looked around in
amazement that they were hearing Craig's 
voice outside when they looked down and 
saw an HT on the engine's runner behind 
them, set to two way intercom. 

Hank grumbled. "That !.." and he stifled
his explicative. "...mother hen..." he said
between clenched teeth., more softly.

"Tenacious isn't he?" Stone grinned.
"When he monitors a patient, he doesn't
mess around. The guys call him the Tick
for a reason. I'll keep you posted Hank..
And Brice.. I've got techs on the way with
your blood bags.. They'll be there with you
paramedics in five..!"
he said, running across the street and to 
the scene of the Arco Refinery call.

Mike Stoker appeared in full gear at the
doorway. "Cap.. Can I go?"

"D*mn straight you're going..Make
yourself useful. And keep me up on
a detailed report and I do mean detailed.
Get in there.." he ordered, and snatched up
Brice's spying HT. "Here.." he said to Mike
changing its mode back to normal setting.

Stoker grabbed it and took off running after Stone
and joined the stream of firefighters and 
firetrucks, entering the refinery's grounds.

Cap was left behind in the bright sunlight,
wearing a groove in the driveway in front
of his quake dusty engine and squad, as he 
began to pace with worry.

Birds' sweet oblivious songs mingled
with the wailing sirens in his ears and
both sounded vile to Hank.
"Oh, mother of G*d. What next?"

--------------------------------------

Photo::   View through station door of the ARCO refinery.
 
*animated gif*:  Burning flames..

Photo: Chet lying down on a bed.

Photo:  A blood IV bag.  

Photo:  Captain Stone.

Photo: Building collapses and smoke.

Photo: Cap at night with HT by laddertruck. 

Photo: Stoker and Chet in the yard. 

Photo: Johnny using his HT. 

*******************************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] On a Clear Day..  
Date : Mon, 11 Nov 2002 08:52:59 +0400  
 

Offstory-

Acknowledgements to the Modena Intergate
Emergency! Equipment Manifest Website for
the fireman's courier battalion chief car photo.

http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/


>Cap was left behind in the bright sunlight,
>wearing a groove in the driveway in front
>of his quake dusty engine and squad, as he 
>began to pace with worry.

>Birds' sweet oblivious songs mingled
>with the wailing sirens in his ears and
>both sounded vile to Hank.
>"Oh, mother of G*d. What next?"

Mike Stoker arrived, and put on his full
SCBA gear as he made his way over to
the white helmeted batallion chief directing
men where he wanted them. He said,
"Stoker, Station 51, Engineer." the moment 
he was in the man's earshot. He was slightly
surprised to see the man was Chief McConike.

The chief looked at Mike and saw his company
HT. "Take your unit to the west end. Looks
like the pipe rupture is underground, luckily
not under a storage tank. An earthquake
fissure's responsible for the leak indirectly."
The chief wasn't wearing an air bottle, but one
was set near him so he could suck a 
breath or two from its mask lying on
the hood of his truck when he needed to.

Mike Stoker took off his mask when a clearing
wind blew the mirage like fumes wafting around
them away.. "Sir,.. I'm the only one available 
from 51. The quake took out our station house."

The wizened Batallion chief's eyes narrowed
in instant sympathy. "What are you doing 
here, son? We've got more than enough 
man power to handle this.."

Mike grabbed the chief's arm. "Please,
McConike, don't send me back. Hank 
Stanley's one of those Code I under triage 
watch. He sent me here to keep him up 
on things. It would mean a lot to him and
the other guys if I stayed."

The chief took in a long breath and sighed.
"All right. Let me think. Find a place for you, huh?
I know. Station Eight. They're down one man. 
He's been sent to the airport to collect an 
animal or something for a bunch of 
microbiologists in the area working on a 
bio-yellow alert situation." 

Mike told him more about that. "That's for
us, sir. The animals are bats with a cure for
one of my crewmates."

"Oh? Hadn't heard much about any situation
over on that side of the street..except for 
someone's HT joke about the fuss that Hank 
was raising about losing vehicles in the quake.
Hookraider's got charge over that side of the 
block." McConike said. "Everyone ok over 
there son?"

Mike's face went even stonier as he hid his fear
for Marco. "For the moment.."

McConike missed nothing. He knew the
battle waging inside Stoker better than
he cared to admit.  Finally, he looked
up and met Mike's eyes.
"All right. I usually don't let lone crew 
work a scene but if it's for Hank, I'll allow
anything. Gotta show him no hard feelings
for that hat stunt he did as a probie."

"Huh..?"

"Never mind, son. Get at it.. Round off
Captain Stone's crew and head on in.."

"Right.." and Mike put on his SCBA mask
again and used his HT to find where Captain 
Stone's crew was stationed around the leak. 
"Thank you, Chief.." he waved to the older
man.  He got a heartfelt sendoff salute in
return.

Mike got to Stone's side two minutes later,
after being pointed in the right direction by
crews already on the job assessing the problem.
Ben was deep in plans of the refinery with
a team of plant engineers. When there
was a pause in orders, Mike stepped forward.
"Captain. I'm a fill-in. Stoker, engineer,
for Station 51." he shouted to him through
the breathing mask.

"Drop the formalities Mike. I already know who
you are. Everybody on my crew knows each
man in your stationhouse intimately.
We've been watching over your scene for
almost a day now, making sure nothing else
went wrong and we were the ones who went
over your building to ensure its structural safety." 
Ben said, shouting loudly to be heard through his 
own SCBA gear.
"Now, I want you to familiarize yourself with
what we got..  Two of my men say underneath
that natural gas tower spire is where the ground fissure
began. It's still settling in areas and that's how
a fireman on inspection found it. His truck literally
fell into it last tremor.. That is what ruptured the
pipeline."

Mike Stoker squinted up through his facemask's
plexiglass into the sunlight and saw three huge 
storage tanks full of petroleum ringing them in a
triangle and a water cooling facility, networked
over their heads, tying the three tanks together
into a complicated lattice of ductwork and piping, 
where the blue sky wasn't showing.  Hastily 
thrown yellow cones had been placed beneath
the open area, showing the newly discovered
patches of ground instability. From the 
fissure, rising steam rose into the air and it smelled 
pungently of natural gas indicator even through 
his airmask's filter.

The earthquake fissure had snaked its way under 
two large coolant water pipes, just missing the 
edge of concrete that was the bed for one of 
the oil storage reservoirs.  ::Great, its 
surrounded by three giant powder kegs.:: 
Mike thought gloomily.

The place where the trapped battalion firetruck 
stuck front end down into the ground, was being 
liberally foamed and washed down to keep all 
possibility of fire from occurring. Dust was still 
mingling with the steam from the fissure as earth 
and debris settled restlessly around the aggressive 
hose wash playing down into it. 

Stoker turned to Stone. "Your man got out 
of that truck, ok? " he shouted over the noise
of steam and shouts of firecrews giving and
carrying out orders.

"Yeah, he leaped out the window the second
he smelled gas and luckily managed to fight
his way out of the growing sinkhole.
  
He says our problem's a transverse pipe break 
through the mother line leading from
tank two here, clean, but entirely severed through." 
Stone replied. "It's the pooling gas that I'm primarily 
concerned about right now. Arco's engineers are 
already passively diverting all the gas out of this 
nearest substation in prep for a manual 
shutdown to this broken pipe. It's gonna take a 
bit. Even though the master valve at the top of 
this stack has been shut down, gravity will still 
cause the rest of the gas from that storage tank 
to drain out  through the break. I'd say it's leaking 
around 200 gallons a minute into the ground.
The capacity of that secondary gas holding tank
coming from the larger one, is around 
250,000 gallons total. Now the facility
designers assure me that none of this gas will 
leak into the water table because an artficial catch 
barrier lies underneath this whole refinery complex. 
It was designed that way for just this kind of 
scenario."

"Is the power off?" Mike said.

"Yeah. Been so, since the first quake. All the shutdowns
the refinery workers have been doing have been
done by hand. Work's taking six times longer 
than normal to carry out their shutdown procedures.. 
That detail is the only thing keeping us from 
getting this scene under control as fast as anticipated."

"Where do you want me?" 

"Take a front inch and a half with Stubbs. Then
you'll get a better feel for things for that report
to your captain. Keep your air bottle on. The wind's
not strong enough to keep down these fumes.."
Stone said, readjusting his helmet over his mask.

"Yes, sir.." Stoker replied, rechecking the straps
on his own bottle to be sure they were securely
fastened.

He ran over through the fire repellent foam and over
to the first hose team playing a covering wash over
the downed truck and the downhill side of the fissure.
He tapped the trailing man's shoulder and took his 
place. The departing man gave Mike a thumbs up
when he recognized the Station 51 engineer and
gave him an affectionate thump on the back of
his overcoat.

Mike grinned, feeling protected and awed once
again at the comaraderie shared between their
district stations, drawn closer together, in the 
face of adversity.::And I don't even know him.::

He and others continued to fan a soup of
gas hostile chemicals and water through their
fire engine hoses into the fissure.

Dimly, through the spray of water, Mike could
see refinery workers scrambling like ants all
over the piping station over his head, turning 
off valve after valve, in a desperate attempt 
to curb the leaking gas below.  

In between a fire engine chemical trade off 
to their water line, Mike thumbed his HT and 
spoke to Cap. "Station 51, This is Engine 51.."

Cap was on instantly. ##Go ahead Engine 51.##

"Cap. An FD vehicle falling into a ground sink caused
the pipe break. It's foamed and being washed.
But the danger of at least 250,000 gallons of natural
gas getting into the ground still exists because
the power outtages are effecting mechanized
system shutdowns.. Fumes are moderate and blowing
down wind away from the boulevard's triage area and 
you." he shouted through his faceplate.

##Casualities?##

"None so far.. And Cap, on a side note.. 
A man's been sent to the airport for the bats.."

##That's good news.. Watch your back Stoker.
Thanks for the report.##

Mike Stoker got a go ahead gesture from the new
engine's engineer to charge the hose once
more to continue their task. "Gotta go, Cap.
Let me know what happens over there ASAP."

##We will pal.. Station 51 out.##

Cap's eyes were glued to the west and towards
the refinery. "Be careful Stoker. Even fumes are
enough for a spark to ignite." he mumbled
to himself.

------------------------------------------

Roy and the others in the bunk house were
all awake and on their feet.

Chet was right there by Marco as usual
and he shivered, "Man.." he said, "..am I
cold. Anyone got a blanket?"

Kel Brackett tossed him one, smiling.

Kelly bundled himself up inside of it
and crossed his arms together to
warm himself when a finger snagged
on the cotton wad and bandaid Gage 
had left secured to his arm. 
"Hey.. What's this?" He immediately 
recognized the creator of the sinister
smiley face drawn there.
"Gage..!" he began. 

Johnny was showing Miss Thorne 
where to find shower things and
a T shirt and jeans to replace her
own dirty dress.  "Be right there,
Chet.." he shouted back from the
locker room.

Dr. Brackett  added, "Before you
go ripping into your crewmate about
another Phantom strike. Blame me.
I ordered him to take blood from you
for Marco."

Roy was just smiling where he was
draining the last of his 7up bottle
dry. "Got me too Chet. Didn't even
feel it." and he pointed to his own
cotton wadded bandaid.

Chet's eyes flickered to the wall 
above Marco's bed and saw the
blood bag hanging there. "You mean
that's my blood hanging up there
going into him?"

"Yeah.." Roy said. He wondered if
Chet was going to work himself into
a faint over it all. He started nearer.

But Chet's face widened into an amazing
smile and he said, "Far out.. we're blood
brothers, man. We're REALLY family now,
know what I mean?  Real tight like forever."

Roy smiled shyly at Kelly's sense of wonder
at a simple medical marvel. 

Johnny stepped into the room, closing
the locker room door to give Cindy some 
privacy to shower and change. "Not
forever Chet, only for about two weeks,
until Marco's spleen and bone marrow
makes more whole blood to replace yours
and Roy's."

Chet's face soured a bit, but the twinkle
didn't go out of his eyes. "I'm not going
to let you burst my bubble, pal. What
I did, is saving his life man. That's cool."

Johnny was about to say it was he who
gathered the blood donation and Brackett
who actually completed the transfusion
but he hushed down, settling for a
secondary Chet tease idea. "Hey Chet,
I know you're cold because I drained 
out all your blood. Bet you're real thirsty
too. Here, have a pop.."

Chet reached for it, and Johnny jerked it away,
holding it over his head, making the shorter
curly haired fireman grab for it unsuccessfully.
"Come on, Chet. You can do better than that.
Can't you?" And he tossed it to Roy without
looking for him first, trying to get his partner
in on a monkey in the middle game.  

Roy didn't go along with it and tossed the 7up to
Chet anyway. "Johnny. Ease up. Let him 
bask in the transfusion thing. It IS kinda cool."

"Yeah?" Johnny said, helping the teeth chattering
Chet open the 7 up bottle. "Well, I don't need
to exchange blood with anybody to know
who my brothers are. In this station, we
are all brothers. Tied just as deep in the blood 
as we are as a company's crew because of
what we do here."  He offered Chet half of
his jelly sandwich.

"Amen to that Gage.." Chet said.  Then
he looked up, feeling that someone was
missing. "Hey,.. where's Stoker?"

Cap entered the bunk room just then 
with a followup about the Arco call going
on across the street. "It's official, a natural
gas ground seep. A big one underway.
Mike says it was a fire truck inspector's
vehicle that landed on the pipeline during
the last trembler, which shattered it."

"Anyone hurt over there?" Gil asked. "You
can send Roy, Brice or me if you'd like.
I've slept enough."

"No, Stoker says that man got outta
there ok.. Sounded like he's been put
on a front wash down. He didn't sound
overly nervous. Seemed like everything's
under control. Oh, and he says the bats
are here. A crewman from Eight's has been
sent to go get them.."

Drs. Taylor and MacPherson both sighed
in relief. "That was fast. This is all new 
territory for us about this female mother
bat immunity theory, but even that chance
is better than we would have had even with
immune plasma transfusions from the victims
who've survived Marburg."

Miss Thorne came out dressed in the clothes
Johnny had provided and her head
was wrapped in a towel. "I'm out.. Who's
next..?"

"Me.." Chet said. "I gotta warm up somehow.."
And he shivered rushing around Cindy in his blanket,
clutching his soda in his other hand. On 
a thought, he ripped off his smiley face bandaid 
and stuck it onto Johnny's forehead with 
exaggerated deliberance, with a firm smack. 
"Here. I believe this fangy guy belongs to you.. 
I know I don't need him anymore."
And he grinned as he disappeared behind the
steamed up wooden door.

The guys sniggered as Gage was left to  
pull it off along with a bit of hair.
"Oww.."

Arff!

Johnny knew an amused doggy bark when he
heard one. "Quit laughing Bonnie. No
more sandwiches for you girl if you
keep that up..."

Roy pointed to his arm. "Want mine
to?" he said, pointing to his bandaid.
"Still needs an artist's signature."

"Ha ha.. very funny.." Gage said.

Dr. Brackett looked up from Marco's
EKG. He had taken a gamble and had
pumped up the last chamber on Lopez's
mast suit to its top level.  The PVC's
were gone. He was smiling when he
got up to recheck Cap. "Johnny, grab
one last vitals set on Captain Stanley
here would you? And I don't think
you need your IV anymore while you're
at it, too, Gage. You've finally pinked up."

"Thank you doc.." he said, joyfully
pulling out his IV. 

Roy was right there to put on his 
bandaid. "Welcome back to duty
Johnny."

"You have no idea....." Gage gushed,
patting the table for Cap to sit on
for a blood pressure check. He exuberantly
wrapped it around Cap's arm and pumped
it up with style.

Cap said. "Hey, am I next to be
off medical leave?"

"Give it until nightfall captain.."
Dr. Brackett said. "I usually watch
black out concussion cases for at 
least twelve hours after the initial 
injury."

Cap was crestfallen but compliant.
He sat still, letting Gage take his
BP. "Good enough for me. Maybe
that gas leak at Arco will be over
by then. One less headache for me
to worry about.." and he laughed
at his own joke.

An HT crackled to life on the desk.
##Station Eight Firewatch to Station
51.."##

Cap was still encumbered by a BP
cuff, so Brice took up the call.
"Go ahead Station Eight FW."

##This is Engineer Manney.
I got three squeaking little friends 
with ASAP shipping orders that I'm to 
give to you, priority run. I'm almost 
there. I'm just up the boulevard 
rounding the refinery. My ETA is 
one minute.##


"That's great to hear. We'll
be waiting. The CDC lab docs
are eager to get their hands on em."
Brice said. "We'll watch for your
vehicle."

Everyone in the room started 
cheering at the good news.

-------------------------------------

Over by the refinery, Mike Stoker noticed
a feeling of something not right. He again
glanced up above him and saw nothing
amiss. But an unfounded instinct made him 
look back towards the boulevard in front
of his demolished station. Then a movement
and a glint caught his eyes through his air 
mask, near the refinery's entrance next to 
Station 51. 

The lighted natural gas chimney antennae
tower where the steam had been
rising, suddenly groaned in tortured
metal and shuddered. Four hundred 
feet of solid metal and pipes suddenly gave 
way at the base, like a felled tree, from 
a hidden structural rend no one had seen.

Soon after, the entire antennae spire 
began to fall towards the boulevard and 
the triage tents.

Mike dropped the hose and went running
out of the water's spray and jerked his
handy talkie to his mouth. "Everybody
heads up!!! Falling antennae tower!!!!"

---------------------

Inside the firewatch fire department
truck, Engineer Manney was whistling, 
imitating his bats' animated calls distractedly.
Then he began humming the theme to Batman
the series in a live ongoing patch to
Station 51's desk HTs in an attempt
to cheer them further with his imminent
arrival. "Not long now, Robin. Just a 
short trip in the batmobil--"

A sudden unexpected shadow over the road 
ahead of him made him look up.

Manney screeched into an evasive turn to 
avoid the writhing crown of the refinery tower
as it crashed down, blocking the
entire road immediately in front of him. 

Massive pipes bounced free from the 
impact along the tower's crushed flanks 
and a huge oil cap ten feet in diameter 
suddenly richochetted off an empty civilian 
car's hood, rolling in his direction.

Manney slammed into reverse, trying
to avoid the crushing multi ton disk when the 
the second spire of the tower landed 
directly on top of his truck. The fireman 
had time to scream before more blocks 
of debris from the collapsing tower 
finally crushed in his windshield and 
ripped into his face.

-----------------------------

Chet had rejoined his celebrating
crewmates, the doctors and Miss Thorne,
feeling much better after his hot
soaking. He had just cracked his sodden
towel at Johnny's butt when Mike's 
frantic yell reached them.

All heads snapped up in the station
and everyone's smiles evaporated.
 
"What?!" Cap and everyone ran to
the doorway, just in time to feel a
great shuddering crunch impact
less than a sixth of the way down 
the block almost immediately to
the left of the garage's driveway. 

They ducked when metal railing shards 
began to rain down in the garage bay
and onto them.

Simultaneously.. they heard Manney,
the courier firefighter's batman themed
whistling break off into a scream. 
There was another sharp heavy noise over 
his frequency and the sound of squealing
tires.. then nothing but static when
the second half of the tower's
top hit concrete.

Cap snatched up Manney's HT
and Mike's.  "Stoker! Manney!
Sound off!!"
  His heart was thudding wildly as
he ran out into the street with
the others into the cloud of
dust left behind from the tower's
impact onto the road. Cap coughed
trying to see signs of any mangled 
tents or trapped people. 

There were none of either that he could see.
"Roy! Johnny! Gil!  Brice! Get in there!
Chet, stay with Marco!"

Then he started casting about for
other signs of danger. Dr. Brackett
burst through a cloud of dust
and he joined Captain Stanley in
searching the area. "Doctor, Stay by
my side..No way in h*ll we're safe
in this debris field." Cap ordered. "Keep 
within each other's earshot.
Let my men search FOR you..They know
what danger to look out for.."

The two rescuers began to be joined 
by stunned but unharmed triage doctors,
nurses and patients answering their shouts.

Soon, it became clear that only a few
might have been harmed; the two not
answering hails.

Again Cap lifted his HT. "Stoker!
Manney!! Report!!"

---------------------------------

Photo : :   Johnny takes Cap's BP 

Photo : The ARCO Refinery
            showing smoke and damage. 

Photo: Roy and Johnny wearing mask 
           apparatuses by the engine. 

Photo: ARCO workers shutting down
           the gas leak. 

Photo: A fire engine at the refinery. 

Photo: A rescue squad
           spotlighting through dust for survivors. 

Photo: Manney's borrowed battalion chief's car, 
           lying empty. 

Photo: A Flying Fox female bat.   

***************************** 
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Breath of Life...  
Date : Thu, 14 Nov 2002 20:32:54 +0000  
 
Offstory-

Acknowledgements to the  Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs


Back In Story--

>Soon, it became clear that only a few
>might have been harmed; the two not
>answering hails.

>Again Cap lifted his HT. "Stoker!
>Manney!! Report!!"

He was met with nothing but silence 
over his hand held. Cap let out a cry
of frustration and he cast about for
Roy and Johnny visually, making sweeps
under the choking dust and debris.
::Where's the d*mned Santa Anas
 when you need them? I can't see a 
thing!..::  Stubborn morning stillness
remained.  He directed triage personnel
to leave the area with their patients
all the while getting information in
snatches from them as they ran past.
It was confirmed. No civilians were hurt.
"Roy! Gage!" Captain Stanley called out
loudly.

"Yeah Cap?" Johnny shouted, appearing
as a ghost out of the dusty gloom,running
as he pushed aside metal debris and 
wiring from the remains of the fallen
tower.

"So far, no one's in trouble. See if you
can birdeye Manney's car. I'll get people
on Stoker's end. They're not answering 
hails."

Johnny said, "No wait, Cap. Uh, Stone 
and his men can do that. I really think he's ok. 
The way he was describing his scene earlier
makes me believe they are on the other 
side of the refinery grounds, Cap."

Just then, Mike came over the channel.
##L.A. Station 8 and Engine 51. Still here.##

Cap sighed. "Ok...., Gage. Let's move.
Manney said he was about a minute
away from the station. If he had been
coming from the airport, his vehicle 
would most likely be to the north."

Gage, Roy and Cap all looked north.
A huge pile of tower and metal debris
lay tangled, fifteen feet high across
the boulevard, almost concealing
the roadway lanes. The dust began to 
settle. Then Johnny saw red metal.
"There he is!"

Cap got on his talkie.
"L.A. This is station 51. Advise area units 
we have a man down in front of the 
stationhouse trapped in an FD vehicle. 
Send for immediate assistance.."

##10-4, 51.##

Cap only dimly heard L.A. find a company
to respond to his incident.

Johnny, Cap and Roy went running,
jumping over poles and pipes and
ducking under sheeting until they
wormed their way deep inside the
fallen skeleton of the refinery antennae
tower. Gage quickly ran to the front of
the red fire department battalion car.
All of its windows were shattered and
spiderwebbed and they couldn't see
inside.  Gage cracked open the clearest
passenger side door window with
his helmet as a battering ram.
"Manney??"

A loud squeaking erupted at his call
and something brown burst into his 
face and clambored out the window 
in a leap in prep to wing away.
"Ahhh!!" Gage yelled in surprise.
"It's one of the bats! Get her!!"

The angry flying fox didn't fly,
for one of her wings lay mangled at
her side. She hissed until Roy
captured her and bundled her up
into his overcoat and he set it onto
the ground. He weighed down the coat
edges with debris to hold her captive.

Johnny grimaced as he crawled
around the partially crushed aircrate
and he saw one more large dead
bat lying across the seat. He shoved 
her to the floor to get to Manney.
"Manney.. Can you you hear me?"
He said struggling to get further inside
the car to the front seat. All the
while the remaining flying fox inside
the crate chittered loudly in distress.
"Cap! I can't get to him."
Johnny handed the crate out
to Roy. "Make sure this one doesn't
get away, Roy, it's not injured!"

"How is he?" Roy said, leaning in.

"Don't know yet, this roof's jammed down
tight!" He grunted as he struggled
to get deeper into the car. Finally,
he said. "Check him Cap..." Gage said,
still fighting to get closer around crumbled
car roof. "I still can't get to him."

Outside, Cap climbed his way to the driver's
door and he, too, cleared away the
shattered glass. He saw that Manney was
out, with his head flopped back over the
car seat, his helmet off.  

Cap felt Manney's neck for a pulse.
His heart just about leaped and his
eyes almost refused to see the blue
tinge to the fireman's skin.
"Oh man.. Move him! Move him..! No
carotid."

Somehow, together, Johnny, Roy and 
Cap got him free and they stretched
him out onto the street, moving their
victim as easily as they could to protect his
spine. 

Johnny began mouth to mouth.

"Get the gear!" Roy shouted to
Dr. Brackett, Brice and Gil running their way
down the road. "He's asystole!" Roy
shouted as he began chest compressions 
after tearing Manney's shirt open down to 
skin. 

"Got it!!" Kel said."Keep working him.."

In between breaths, Johnny noticed an 
ugly spreading bruise over Manney's heart. 
"Could be out ........because of this blow 
.........to the chest. Cap, check his pupils!"
he said tossing his penlight to him.

Cap checked. 
"They're reactive..Thank g*d."

"All right, brownie points..........for us.."
Johnny grunted, as he continued to breathe
for Manney. " About time something went 
right.." 

Roy paused as he repositioned his hands
for better CPR. "Doc, I'm not feeling any
broken ribs here.."

"Better and better.." the doc replied,
as he and Gil got the defibrillator charged
and ready.  "Move, I'm going Epinephren, 
IC.." he told DeSoto.

Cap got out the resuscitator
and began using it to free up Johnny.

Roy gel-ed an EOA and at Brackett's
affirming nod, inserted it into place,
reconnecting Cap's ventilation valve
to it.

Brackett drew out the six inch syringe
and drove it deep, releasing the stimulant
into Manney's left cardiac ventricle.
"All right. Roy start up again. Gil, get
an IV going, D5W Wide open. 
Follow up with one amp sodium bicarb.
Gage, give me the paddles.. Brice, 
get an Isoproterenol Drip set up. If he's truly
cardiac trauma-ed, the beat's gonna be
slow.  He'll need that drip to maintain once 
he converts."

Gage called out the wattage coming off
the defibrillator. "Ok, one....two..three...
four hundred watt seconds.."

"Clear!" Brackett shouted.

Manney's body leaped from the energy
jolt delivered. Kel quickly replaced the
paddles. A rhythm revealed like something
out of a dream on the scope. Sinus tach.

"Got him back.. Nice work, all.. Captain Stanley,
start hyperventilating him. We gotta make
up for lost time." Kel ordered.

Cap doubled his venting time rate.
"Moving to twenty a minute."

As Manney's circulation recovered, Roy 
noticed something. "Doc, look. Manney's
neck veins are distending bilaterally.."

Dr. Brackett looked up from where
he was listening to Manney's irregular
heartbeat and breath sounds. "There's
our reason for finding him without a pulse."

Brice piped up, "Cardiac tamponade.."

"Yeah, but his EKG's looking good. It's
solid. I don't think it has advanced that
far yet."

"Gonna evac?" Roy asked.

"No, I'm gonna leave well enough alone.
If his perfusion drops off I'll consider a
heart centesis, but not now." Kel said.
Dr. Brackett nodded when Manney began
to breathe on his own under his hands.

Johnny's attention turned to the bats.
The one was still leaping frantically around
the crate mesh and the other one, too, 
under Roy's coat. "We gotta get Manney
and them to the stationhouse.."

Cap comm'd out. "This is Station 51. 
We need a stokes and two additional
men to move a victim. We're 10-20
at....." he looked up to see which building
front lay in the street.. "Stoffer's Warehouse
by the newspaper stand.."

##10-4, 51. This is Stone. Got assigned your 
call. I've rerouted Stoker and some of my men to 
your scene. I'll be meeting you there myself!##

Cap could hear the worry and concern in
his co-captain's voice. ::Man, he sounds
like me about Marco..::

Soon, Manney was taped and longboarded, 
IV secured and EKG linked, inside the stokes 
Johnny had secured from his station squad's
rear store.

He stopped Kel as they all got back
to the station in an entourage of
crew. "Doc. Should we even bring him
in here with that virus going on?"

Kel grinned with amusement. "Sure.
Why not? We've got Batman's
universal antitode now, don't we?"
he said, tossing a hand at the two
men carrying in the two screeching
bats.

Jamie and Steven met them on the
run. "Good. Hand them to us.."
And Jamie took the coat with the wounded
bat, gingerly, while her colleague got 
the crated one. "D*mn, this one's 
bleeding. She might not be ok for
us t--"

Something dropped out from under Roy's
coat and onto her boots. A newly ejected
bat fetus. 

"There it is then, this one will do us no 
good anymore. She's just aborted."
Then the microbiologist's head snapped
around. "Wait a minute, where's the third
one.."

"It's dead." Johnny replied. "Crushed.."

Jamie MacPherson sucked in her breath
in stress.
"Let's just hope this last bat's intact or
there's absolutely no hope for us.." 
Steven said. 

The two CDC scientists disappeared into
the kitchen lab with the crated bat
to start work collecting her milk antibodies.

Bonnie noticed the dead young bat right
away. She wandered over to it and
sniffed it, crying. She wrapped around it
protectively as if to warm it.

Gage made a disgusted face. 
"Bonnie..no.." and he knelt to dispose of
it into Jamie's pathology cryo container.

Bonnie would not be denied. She
went rushing off to the kitchen to
be with the other, still expectant female
bat.

Manney was moved next to Marco.

Miss Thorne got to her feet. 
"Oh, is he all right?" she started up.

Chet Kelly pointed to the fireman's
EKG monitor. "He is now. That's a 
good rate going there.."

Then he looked sheepish when all
the medics glanced at him. 

Johnny was frank. "He's right. Manney's
gonna be fine. He's got some
heart bruising from hitting the dashboard
but Dr. Brackett thinks the injury is
minor. We'll know more when he
wakes up.."

Miss Thorne moved to sit by Manney's
side.

Gage noticed and leaned into Roy.
"Dedicated little thing, isn't she?"

"Know any teachers who aren't?"
DeSoto rejoined.
He left Johnny pondering that as
he moved to check up on Marco.

Stoker came rushing in the door.
"Things are stable at the refinery.. No
fire. How are things in here? Got
here as fast as I could.."

Cap smiled. "Things are ok. Manney
was pulseless for a while but the
doc says he wasn't apneic long
enough to do serious damage. And we
still have one viable bat left out of the 
three. Cross your fingers.."

Mike crossed them, both hands, and
the toes in his boots. "Anything I 
can do?"

"Not a thing. But, stick around.."
Cap ordered. "You...might like to
stay a while.." and he tossed his
head at the group of four medics
clustered over Marco. Cap knew
a dire sign when he saw it. 

Mike blinked. "Uh,, ok..I think I
will.." and he sat in a chair to
watch and worry along with Stanley.

Dr. Brackett eyed his paramedics.
"Marco's quit breathing. Someone
bag him."

"Got it.." Brice said, getting an ambu
with a full flow line running to him.

Dr. Brackett looked up. 
"Now it's a race gentlemen.
Can we keep Marco going long
enough until that serum's ready?
How long can we keep up breathing
for him like this manually?"

"Forever man. We'll spell each other."
Chet said with serious conviction.
"When that ambu's O2 runs out, we'll
positive pressure vent him on Eight's O2, and when 
that runs out, we'll still be able to take
turns with us on a cannula, going mouth to 
mouth from what's left of our engine's 
O2."

Kel face was serious but he smiled
at Chet's self sacrificing mentality. 
"That last option is a last resort. 
I'll have no one directly exposing 
themselves to this Marburg bug unless 
we absolutely have to. We can always 
call the triage station for more O2 and 
maybe they can fly us in a bird ventilator
before that happens."

There was a shout outside, 
"Captain Stanley!"

It was Stone.

Hank said. "I'll be right back.."

He met his colleague outside by
51's engine, and started speaking
before Stone could fall apart.
"Manney's fine. Revived and
resting."

"And your Marco?"

Cap didn't say anything.

But Stone said......

 --------------------------

Photo: Johnny checking out an out
           Manney.

Photo: Johnny giving mouth to mouth.

Photo: Johnny and Captain Stone working
           a code.

Photo : Roy prepping an EOA airway.

Photo : Johnny with defib paddles
             and Roy with a stethoscope.

Photo: Firemen with a gear loaded stokes.

Photo: Chet looking hopeful.

Photo: Captain Stone with his men on Engine 8.

*********************************** 
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Sat Nov 16, 2002  3:14 am
Subject:  Full Moon Dues

 
>He met his colleague outside by
>51's engine, and started speaking
>before Stone could fall apart.
>"Manney's fine. Revived and
>resting."

>"And your Marco?"

>Cap didn't say anything.

>But Stone said......

"Don't hide anything from me, Hank.
You always clam up when one of
your men gets into a tight corner.
I'm with you. If there's anything I
can do--"

Stanley leaned on the engine, suddenly
weary beyond what he could bear and
he sat down heavily on a hose port.
"Ben,..I- I can't fight this. Not any more.
The whole past two days have been
a h*ll of alot more than I , even as a 
firehouse captain, can take. I -I..  I....
think I've reached my cracking point."
Hank admitted, his face lapsing into
a very vulnerable pall.
"That bug is worse than they were 
letting on. I just left my man in there
on the receiving end of an ambu bag
and there's absolutely not a g*dd*mned 
thing I can do about it to s--" and his voice
choked off.

Ben took off his helmet and set it onto
the engine's foot ledge, and drew Stanley
into a tight embrace. "Hank. You haven't
been a captain unless you care about
your men more than you do yourself.
And I've never seen a finer man for
the job.." Captain Stone released Hank 
giving his arms one last squeeze of 
encouragement.
"He'll be just fine. I've worked with
the CDC people before, during that
Legionaire's crisis of 1970. If Marco's
got a pulse, they can save him." 

Cap tossed his head in disbelief, but
Ben went on. "Now hear me out. I watched
seventeen people come back to this
Jamie MacPherson that one summer,
when by all means, they should have been 
dead. She was right there, at their sides,
not sleeping, hardly eating, face glued to 
the microscope and her spectography gels, 
until she had it licked. She's like a bulldog with 
a rag when it comes to these nastier bugs. So
have faith in her and her colleagues. I know
the methods she uses, works."

"Ben, you don't know the half of it. I heard
Dr. Taylor mention some lean odds about getting
enough serum to turn Lopez around and they
weren't in the double digits. Two of the three 
bats we managed to salvage from Manney's
vehicle are dead or nearly so. "  Cap caught
himself when he caught Ben's calming supportive
nod and gaze. "Wait a minute. We should be
talking about our jobs here Ben. Not conmiserating
in things that we can't change ourselves."

Stone smiled. "Exactly right. So why worry?"
and his teeth glowed under his dark skin.
"Here, put this back on.." and Stone gave
Hank's captaining helmet back from where
he had recovered it from the driveway.
"You left it behind going into that tower collapse,
while running to save one of MY men. What were
you trying to do? Break our tie of equal numbers
of commendation medals? " and he chuckled.
"No really, McConike asked me to reinstate you 
to active duty. Said something along the lines of
it being good medicine for the ranks. All of them."

There was a weighed silence as both captains
realized just how much the quake had claimed
of their energy. And both, just shrugged it off
by saying the first thing to come to mind.

"I'd better be getting ..." Cap began.

"...back to work.." Stone completed.

They both laughed, a little more easily after
that.  Cap raised his HT in salute as Stone made
his way across the boulevard back to the triage
station and got a returning, "All's clear." gesture
back.

Stanley took a deep breath and then went
back into the station.

---------------------------------------

It was quiet in the bunk room for the
second night. ::Deja Vu all over again..::
Johnny thought. ::Only this time, Marco's
on borrowed time.::

His good hand ached from squeezing Marco's
bag valved O2. Everyone's did. But no one
complained. Gage looked up at Dr. Brackett
only briefly from watching Gil's ventilations on 
Marco. Johnny was in his usual place of the
last few hours, acting as sentry vigilant for
signs of gastric distension.
"Doc, any word yet on the chopper with
that respirator yet?"

Kel shook his head. "I'm afraid not, Johnny.
They.....got sidetracked moving out
critical patients." he said reluctantly, knowing
that his senior medic would react.

"Yeah?!" Johnny complained bitterly. "Oh,
really? Since when does saving lives come
down to a decision based on numbers??"
He immediately apologized. "Sorry, Dr. 
Brackett. I'm always edgy when things
get outta hand. Especially when one of
those hands, is mine.." 

"I'm no stranger to red tape either, Johnny.
But with that modified airway I've got in
place, the problems we've been having
with keeping his trachea patent will be 
much less. If his varices hemorrhaging 
gets worse, I can always do a tracheotomy 
around any necrotic swelling."

"And what good will that do?" Johnny spat.
"Marco's got no way of clotting a surgical
incision. He'll just bleed to death afterwards
at an even faster rate!!"

"Johnny....." Gil admonished. "He can hear
you.." he said through clenched lips angrily,
casting pointing eyes down on Lopez from
where he sat, while still keeping the 
ambu's rhythm of breaths regular.


"I know.." he said shortly. "Sorry."
Gage left their sides and headed quickly into 
the kitchen improvised lab and there he sat
into one of the chairs, seething with 
helplessness. 

He wanted solitude. But Chet Kelly
wasn't about to let his running escape succeed.
He gingerly peeked around the skewed door's
window and knocked, still outside the lab.

Jamie MacPherson and Steve Taylor were
oblivious, deep in their work, and neither
heard the two men enter in,  nor talk.

Johnny Gage didn't even look up.
"Leave me alone, Kelly. I'm busy.."

Chet's face split into an angry frown
and he marched right on in, his earlier
respectful shyness evaporating.
"Busy doing what, Johnny? Feeling
sorry for yourself? That rod didn't
skewer you anywhere near your head,
so stop acting like one has. Man, 
even you've told me a million times never to
talk negative around unconscious
victims, so why'd do it in front of Marco?"

"Chet, you don't know what you're talking
about so why don't you just shut--" 
Johnny said sarcastically.

"Now wait just a doggoned minute
here. A lot of people around this station are
expecting the core crew to hold it all together
man. Haven't you realized what's been going
and evolving among us for the past three years?  
The station can't work without you paramedics 
being strong in situations, so just what are 
we supposed to do when you aren't?"  
Chet didn't wait for Gage to reply. 
"The answer is, you don't fall into that trap 
in the first place."

Johnny didn't reply to Chet at all. He just
continued to play with the toy ball one
of the kids had left behind on a dinner plate
and tried to ignore Kelly to the best of
his abilities.

Kelly went on, "Man, don't you know anything?"

Gage didn't rise to Kelly's bait.

Chet was undaunted.
"Ok. All right.. You don't have to say anything
but you're gonna listen to me. ..I'm gonna
let you in on a little secret Gage, a big one.
One that I've never ever told anyone.."

Johnny just tilted his head, not liking his 
lecture at all and he avoided all eye contact
with Chester B.

"I look up to you paramedics more than you
can ever possibly know, Gage."

That made Gage glance up in surprise.

"It's true..." Chet said insistently. "I've
even dreamed of one of these times going
into the paramedic program so I can make 
a difference out there, too, man. 
Like you and Roy do..."

"Come off it, Chet. This is just some dumb
speech you're giving me to cheer--"

"No, listen. I'm very serious.." Chet said
slowly, without blinking, eye to eye with
him.

Johnny was amazed that Chet's stare
didn't waver nor show any hint of 
untruth, his mouth flopped open.

Chet didn't give him time to speak.
"I- I've been watching how you guys
work for years, and it just sickened me
when you folded like a stack of cards just
now, with Marco..on professionalism."  
Chet had been spinning a coffee spoon 
around aimlessly and it spun off the table 
top to land on the linoleum with a loud crash..

Bonnie, near a seated place by the
two bats' confinement, barked, sounding
as if she thought someone was at the 
side station door.

Her mistake made both Johnny and
Chet break out of their mutual funks
and the ironic humor of Bonnie's
innocent reaction, made the two
firemen, finally, laugh hard together,
each breaking up into paroxyms of
uncontrollable mirth.

Johnny spoke, when he recovered
use of his stomach muscles again.
"B-Bet you won't last a week
in the paramedic program.."

Chet spat on his hand.
"Shake on it.. A month's
dish detail.."

Johnny grinned a cockeyed
smile and spat likewise in jest
and they sealed their bet. Then
Johnny's face turned cat with the
canary and he said, "Better count
on buying the rubber gloves, Chet.
Cause you just lost that bet. Brice
is teaching all the principle courses
this year, in the signup program and
he's known for a heavy work load,
hard on study.."  

"He is??" Chet cried out, complaining.
"Aww, man..."

"Whaa..." Johnny said, spreading his
hands wide. "Afraid of a little obstacle?"

"Brice isn't a tiny obstacle Johnny, and
you know it.. The whole station does.!"

"Shhh.." Gage jabbed teasely. "He can
hear you..." he said, mocking the very
reason Chet came in to dress down
Johnny to begin with.  Then he sheepishly
admitted. "Thanks for yelling at me about
Marco. I was outta line talking like that.
It's just so,....d*mned frustrating seeing
him dying in pieces.."

Amazingly, one of the microscope lit
backs turned around on a swiveled chair.
It was Jamie. "No one's dying around here
gentlemen, at least, among the humans 
anyway..." and her eyes made Chet
and Johnny notice the cage holding
the wounded bat. Its head was slowing
sinking into the clear impossibly limp 
rictor of lifelessness.

And even Bonnie knew it, she whined
and scampered away from the cage in 
fear at the new lack of warm scent rising 
up.

It was then Kelly and Gage noticed 
that Jamie's face was glinting with wetness
in the dim lighting.

Both firemen rose to be by her instantly.
"What is it?" Johnny asked.

"Are you ok, Dr. MacPherson?" Chet
asked too. "Don't be upset the bat died.
W-We still have the one.. Won't she be
enough?"

"I'm fine.." Jamie sobbed. "I always cry
on occasions like this..." and her tears
turned to a small smile of tired triumph
and she held up a small pressure syringe
of spun lactate proteins. Her grin brightened
hopeful, by leaps. 
     "We did it..!! Mr. Gage, Quickly. 
Go give this to one of the other paramedics
for Marco. It'll take two hands to inject
the serum into his endotrach tube."

Chet and Johnny nearly leaped across the 
lab table to grab the tiny vile of hope.
They both stopped on a dime when 
their jostling almost upset the grip
Jamie had on it. Johnny and Chet both
broke into a "no, after you" routine,...until ..

Dr. Taylor sighed and flipped a coin into
the air.., "Heads for the curly haired 
fireman, Tails for you.."

Heads won.

Chet held the tiny syringe cupped 
in his hands as if it were a fragile egg
and he hastened, with care, back
out to the others. His body was careful,
but his voice was not.. "Hey Marcoo!!
Hang in there pal... Guess what we
got done cooking here....!!!!"

Both firemen's shadows in the gloom,
eagerly left the room.

Jamie's head sank onto the countertop
where she and Steve had been working,
and just sobbed.

Dr. Steven Taylor smiled and handed her 
a kleenix from his pocket. "Knew you
were going to do that again. D*mnest 
thing I ever saw. Tears of happiness,
heh. Who'd figure..?"

----------------------------------------------

Roy sat over Marco's bed, trembling.
In his fingers, lay the precious serum shot.

"Don't even breathe..." Kelly said to him.
Then he caught himself. "Oh, Marco, I didn't
say that about YOU.. so keep trying man..
I wanna see that chest rise on its own
half an hour after this cure's in you.." he 
said close to Lopez's ear. Then he whispered.
"Even Johnny's rootin for you. He almost
started crying over you in the kitchen... "
"Remember to tease him a bit about it when
you snap out of it.. Shhhh." he said low 
enough so no one else heard.

Stoker got out of Roy's way by removing
the ambu bag after giving Marco an O2 flood
worth of vents.  

Roy began to titrate the serum's amber
liquid into Marco's airway.

"Easy.." Dr. Brackett said. "Here," he said.
"Follow that  I.T. with this saline flush. His
lungs will absorb it better osmotically."
And he handed DeSoto a 5cc saline syringe.

Roy followed up. Mike immediately reconnected
the ambu and forced O2 flow deep into
Marco's lungs to make sure the serum reached
as many spaces as possible inside his pulmonary
tree. Then he slowed and lessened, backing 
off once more into a normal vent rate for a 
light, but firm ambu maintain.

"Now, we wait.." Dr. Brackett said.

Somehow, the black night blanketing the shattered
firehouse seemed a little less oppressive to
everybody surrounding Marco's bed, than it had
just minutes before.

-----------------------------------------------

Just as the new sun was rising over the 
refinery, Marco Lopez responded to epinephren and
soon began to gasp actively, fighting his airway.

Cap thought. "Anyone's guess whose smile's 
bigger.. Way to pull it off, Marco..!" he said
rubbing his shoulder affectionately.

His last sentence was drowned out by
everyone's cheers.

In the mean time, Dr. Brackett and 
Brice concentrated on getting Marco 
extubated. Kel shouted.
"Marco!.. on the count of three, I want
you to exhale as hard as you can. Don't
swallow. I know the tube's uncomfortable,
but we had to wait until you were ready
to go solo. Ready?  One, Two..Three.."

Lopez let out a gushing liquidy breath
and Brice removed the EOA quickly,
by deflating its gastric bulb with a 
2 syringe and drawing it out with a
fast careful pull to not snag the tender
structures in Marco's throat.

Roy had a suctioning probe set and
soon, he was coughing only
sporadically as his weakened muscles
decided they could learn how to 
breathe again. Stoker helped him on 
the demand valve enough to keep Lopez mostly 
awake to work out fluid and blood still 
interfering with good air draw.

Marco's hands finally pushed away the
resuscitator a few minutes later. 
His eyes fluttered open, squinting in 
the bright sunlight through the holes in
the station roof. "Hey, gang. Mama here 
yet? "he whispered. "She'd better have 
brought breakfast, I think...I think I'm.. 
getting hungry...Maybe,, maybe even
for some b- bacon...Any left?"

At his feet, Bonnie barked, and reared up on 
her haunches with her terra cotta bowl 
balanced daintily in her mouth.

--------------------------

Three hours later, Marco was stable
enough to be flown out by air.

Johnny leaped out of the helicopter
with a dirt eating grin on his face
when Marco's mom flooded his face
with kisses for saving her son's life,
promising a whole year's worth
of Monday morning burritos..

"It's the least I can do for the amigos
of my Precious Hijo.."
Rosa Marie Lopez said.

"Hey! I heard that mama.." Marco's
voice hollered out before the copter's
chopper doors closed him off.
"Wait on that regime til I'm back at 
the stationhouse working..! I don't
want the guys to eat them all before
I get back there."

"Silly boy.." Marco's mom chuckled
in a deep warm voice filled with a spanish 
flavor. "He still thinks Mrs Bandido and I
cook on a limited budget. Just wait until
I tell him we won de big California lottery, eh?
Same day as the quake.." 

------------------------------

At Rampart, days later..
Johnny and Roy were telling the rapt
Dr. Early and Dixie McCall all about their
three day, earthquake survival story.

"Yeah.. when I woke up, I had a rod 
sticking out of my left hand.
This long.." he said to Dix, enjoying 
the willies he was driving out of her.

"Johnny. Cut it out.. Don't you know I'm 
squeamish?" she giggled.

"You are?" Roy asked., blinking in surprise.

Dr. Early mumbled. "Yep. Why do you think she's
at the front desk of Emergency so much? 
Haven't any of you noticed she only goes into 
those treatment rooms of people who aren't 
gushing blood all over the floor?"

Dix smacked Joe good on the arm
for letting out her very very old secret.

"Dixxxxx..." Johnny egged, teasing her.

"Shhhh, if Kel ever found out. I'd be mortified.."
Dixie said.

"Who'd be mortified?" Dr. Brackett said, just
leaving an elevator from an upper floor.

"uh, nuthin.." Gage said. "She was actually
saying.. "Morton confided".. Yeah, that's it. 
Morton confided that he can only sing in the
shower. So that's why he got drunk and
sang to us all on the guitar under the sprinker
like he did. He's got a great voice..man."

"Soaking wet you mean.." Kel said, ruefully shaking
his head. "I almost had to give him some Narcan
to sober him up..." he joked.

Gage waxed serious.. "Wow, you doctors and
nurses really throw a wild party. I even think Cap's
wife blushed at a few of those dance moves of
yours, Morton. Where'd ya learn em? Maybe I could
..you know.. use a couple of them going out
on dates and stuff.. Maybe I can finally snag 
a nurse who'll take me for who I really am, know
what I mean? "

Their happy chitchat made the trip up to visit
Marco in his hospital room, bright.

And Lopez was very very glad to see them all
to hear about the huge Rampart to Fire Department
wingding he had missed that weekend.

------------------------------


"And so there you have it boys and girls.." Johnny
said, "A dozen tons of red steel and chrome
with enough hose power to snuff out a whole three
story house fire in just under an hour.." he said to his 
very attentive Groverland Middle school tour children
dramatically. He made them jump by hitting the air horn,
in its richest full brassy tone."Heheh.." he laughed.
And they soon laughed along with him.
"Glad to see you all back at the station..
Quite a different place than you last left
it a month ago, isn't it?"

"Yeahh..."
A blond boy with glasses pushed forward.
"Can I see the radio mike room again?"

Johnny jumped down from top of the
engine roof and waved Stoker out
of the cab where he had been operating
lights and firing off that blast cue for
Gage. "Oh, hey Robbie.." Johnny said,
kneeling by the child's side. "I've been
wanting to see you."

"You have?"

"Yeah.." Johnny said. "I just wanted to
thank you for doing what you did the
day of the earthquake. You..probably
saved all our lives.." he said, poking the
boy in his nose. Robbie giggled.

"I know I did. Lydia Montegeaux taught 
me real good what to do in ah emergency.." 
he said misquoting an adverb. "So did 
Sam the dispatch man."

That surprised Johnny. "Lydia? 
I know a Lydia Montegeaux."

"She's my best friend.." Robbie said.
"She's right outside the station right
now. She said her grandpa was here
with her."

"Is she now?" Chet grinned. "What do you
say gang? Should we all go out and
meet Johnny's hot date?"

Chet and Marco, and Stoker and Cap 
all nodded eagerly. And Miss Thorne, too,
who was a quiet audience.

Gage let the others follow him into the 
yard. There, he knelt before his little
blind Big Brother sponsor and grinned.
"Lydia.. how come you didn't tell me
that Chief McConike was your grandfather?"

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise..."
she said timidly on her leg braces.
The sun shining down on her face
made her blind eyes sparkle the purest
azure blue.

Cap chuckled, lifting Lydia up onto his
lap where he crouched with Bonnie in
the crook of his other arm so she
could meet and pet her. "That was
some surprise girly.. Your grandfather
managed to buy us a whole new set
of firetrucks." and he winked at McConike.

McConike laughed loud and deep.
"Just wait until you make chief, Hank.
Budgeting priority reshuffling's a major
chief's rank perk.."

Lydia's face was smiling as she hugged
Bonnie. "Oh, Bonnie, you're almost as
soft as Cinnabon at school."

"Who's Cinnabon?" Stoker asked.
"I don't remember your classroom
having any pets.."

"It does now... Jamie from the CDC
flew us in a present last week from 
Atlanta. The kit from the Flying Fox
Bat that saved Marco was ready to be 
weaned and needed a home."

"He's here. He's here Mr. Gage. I know
you'll like him. I know you will." Lydia
said, tugging Johnny's uniform sleeve.

Gage started to fidget just thinking about
bats. But he didn't let his reaction translate
to Lydia. "Well, I don't know abou-- Say
Lydia.. Is he in a cage? I think I could
probably.....deal with ...him in a..crate or
something..."

"Chicken.." Chet hissed teasingly.

"No, just particular.." he said firmly.
Then he trickled.. "Uh oh......"

Robbie came running, happily
screeching around the corner with a blanketed 
moving bundle in his hands.

Sticking out of it, was the cutest furry 
face the firemen had ever seen.

Bonnie instantly began to lick the baby bat's
face, smothering him in kisses.

Johnny's bat phobia instantly evaporated
as fast as Bonnie's maternal instinct
had risen.
"Wow, you know.. I think this little guy'd
uh,, this tiny thing'd here, would even look 
cute under a full moon, don't you think 
gang?" 

"Ahhhhh!! Don't say those two words!!"
Chet said, dashing off for the safety of
the newly rebuilt station garage. "You'll
jinx us for sure.."

Laughs.. abounded.

------------------------------

That night, at the newly repaired
station house, still smelling of new
vehicles, the gang prepared themselves
for sleep.

"Hey Roy.."

"What..." he mumbled, flopped down on
the pillow where he had fallen. He didn't
even bother to take off his uniform nor
his blue over coat.

"Think I can sneak over to the phone to call
Lydia tonight?"

"You can try.. You know Bonnie'll start howling
again when you're more than ten feet away 
from her.."

"Oh.  I know. I'll carry her over there with me.
That way. She won't howl and she won't be
able to take a whiz on the floor again.."

John waited for Roy to reply but the reply 
never came.

Roy was out like a light.

-------------------------------------------

The next morning, Johnny's sheets were 
tangled up around him and Bonnie both,
but Roy hadn't even moved.

Gage's feet hit the floor and he wandered
over to grab his partner by the wrist.
He eyed his watch and then at Bonnie.
"Hey Bonnie.. Look..He IS alive.." he said to the
wriggling, all attentive Yorky looking eagerly
in play invite at him. "He's only acting
dead to the world. Gonna sleep a week 
for sure.." And he dropped Roy's hand onto
his own face to judge reaction. Roy didn't
move. "Make that two weeks and a day,
Bonnie."  A huge yawn split his face into
two and he thought about it some.
"Man,.. Roy's onto something over there.
I think I'll just.. do ...a nap. yeah. All the
other guys are still out.. Think I'll...just,
close my eyes for just a......."

Even when the full moon rose later that
evening, the fates kept smiling kindly on the
crew of Station 51 long after the silver disk
sank below the horizon. 

They got in an unheard of duration of two 
days on duty with nothing to do but 
sleep and enjoy yard basketball games..
At long last..

Bonnie, was the only one unhappy about
it. 

She couldn't get to Johnny's bunk 
unobserved long enough, for one of her 
famous sheet marking territory sessions...


                FIN

-------------------------------------

Photo: Captains Stone and Stanley by the Engine.

Photo: Chet checking in on morose Johnny.

Photo: Roy with Marco's cure in his hand, scared.

Photo: Dixie getting squeamish.

Photo: Johnny and kids by the new vehicles.

Photo: Roy with kids on the Engine.

Photo: John meeting Lydia Montegeaux.

Photo: McConike by the engines.

Photo: The Baby Flying Fox.

Photo: Roy and John sleeping the sleep of the dead.

****************************************

        FIN  

FULL MOON BLUES
Season One, Premiere...

============================
 
End Credits --  Episode One (First Season)

FULL  MOON  BLUES  

    :) This Episode is Dedicated to Debralee Wrycza
    :) Who is Fighting the Big Fight..   :) 

Guest Writers
---------------

Roxann Biggs Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Ecrewgroupie                    irosanne@tds.net
Sam Iam                          LAFDdispatcher@yahoo.com

Storyline Technical Consultants
--------------------------------

Justafan1701    Seismology and LACoFD Telecommunications.
P. Keiper           Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota

Technical Support Websites
-----------------------------

Tigger's Slide Show Central-
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs


Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/
For Techical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

All Emergency Fan Fiction at Yahoo Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/allEfanfic
For Debuting Episode Segments to the WWW.

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

Fanfiction Med Onelist at Yahoo Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fanfic_med
For Experts to Writer Feedback on EMS Medicine


**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

====================================

Music for Full Moon Blues ....
--------------------------------------

Ray Lynch from his Deep Breakfast Album
 Falling in the Garden, Celestial Sodapop

John Denver- Sunshine on My Shoulders

Police- I'll Be Watching You

-----------

Selected Midis from :

Ecco- Tides of  Time, and Ecco, the Dolphin
computer games on Sega Genesis.

**Ecco Music Midi Engineers are:
Claire Turner, Martin Skog and Meezo.

Why Midi - Author unknown

Winter Midi- Author unknown

Depeche of the Night Midi- Author unknown.

Quiet Midi- Author known.

The Last Unicorn Midi- By America

Midis-Spheare and Extasia - Authors unknown.
   
      Emergency Theater Live!
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site


To see Episode Two, Season One
Father and Son, the Online Book.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fatherandson.html

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
    Emergency Theater Live Email Address

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

   
 

The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Two..  

FATHER AND SON 


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

Debut Launch: 15 Nov 2002.

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.


********************************
From: doc51@att.net 
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 00:17:08 -0000 
Subject: Fathers & Sons.

Kel was in his office. It had been 
a crazy week. That day was no 
exception. It was enough to make 
him miss a rare dinner date with 
his dad. He picked up the phone 
and dialed his dad's number and 
waited for him to answer. 

---------------------------------------

No attachments.

******************************
From:  "Jean Yasick" <kmgage365@lakefield.net> 
Date:  Sun Nov 17, 2002  8:56 pm
Subject:  Possible Start

 
The morning tones woke the sleepy 
men of station 51. Some days, the 
tones were a welcome sound. It meant 
the shift was over and the men had 
days off to relax and catch up on 
family things.

But some days, like today, it was 
not welcomed. The engine crew had 
three runs during the night and the 
squad had five and it was only the 
first night of an 'experimental' 
two day shift the department was 
looking into to try and save money 
and maximize man power.

Captain Stanley grabbed the mike 
and acknowledged Sam Lanier. Yawning, 
he walked towards the kitchen to start 
some coffee. Hank didn't make it to 
the kitchen, however. He heard a 
strange noise coming from the front 
of the apparatus bay.

He quickly turned around to see 
what the noise was and was 
surprised to see a small basket 
laying over by the bay doors. He 
approached cautiously, knowing it 
hadn't been there the night 
before and was very concerned that 
it was there now. It meant 
that someone, somehow, had been 
able to get into the station, 
even though the doors were locked.

As he got closer to the basket, 
the noise repeated itself, causing 
Hank to jump back. Once again, he 
approached the basket and 
carefully lifted the cover. He 
jumped when he saw what was 
inside.

"Oh Man! This has to be some kind 
of joke!..... CHET! Get out 
here! NOW!"

The men of station 51 knew their 
captain quite well. And they 
knew he did not use that tone of 
voice very often, but when he 
did, you better listen!

So the men shoved Chet out the dorm 
door and followed a pace 
behind.

"Yeah, Cap, what do you......." Chet 
stopped in his tracks when he 
saw the basket.

"What the......?"

"That is what I want to know, Kelly!"

"Oh, Chet! You have gone too far now!" 
said Roy as he backed 
up a pace or two.

"Really! But you have to admit, 
Chester B... it does bear a family
resemblance!" teased Johnny as he 
pushed past Roy and headed into the 
kitchen to start the much needed coffee.

"Funny, Gage!" Chet said as he pushed 
past Cap to get a closer look at the 
puppy that was now wakening from its 
sleep. Pulling the puppy out of the 
basket, Chet hollered into the 
kitchen, "She doesn't look like me 
at all...as a matter of fact, with 
a nose like that, she kind of 
resembles your last date!"

With that, the black and brown puppy 
reached up and licked Chet 
on the tip of his nose.

"Where'd he come from, Cap?" Chet 
asked as he tried to move 
his head away from the wet tongue 
assaulting his nose.

"I don't know, but there's a note 
here. Let's see what it says."

As Captain Stanley opened the envelope, 
the little puppy moved from Chet's nose 
to his chin and ran his tongue over the 
scratching stubble.

Johnny walked back into the bay 
munching on a donut as Captain Stanley 
unfolded the letter.

"Hmm... it's written in red crayon.....

Dear, Fireman. My name is Chris and 
I am 7 years old. This cute puppy 
followed me home from the park, but 
Mom says he is ugly, and I can't keep 
him. I have seen that your fire station 
does not have a dog riding on the big 
red engine when it buzzes by my house, 
so I am giving him to you so your 
engine will not be lonely. Please 
take good care of him. His name is 
Chester and he likes to drink out 
of the toilet."

As Cap finished the letter, Johnny 
could not contain himself anymore. 
He almost spit his donut out when 
Cap read the dog's name, but the 
toilet part just got Johnny's funny 
bone.

"Well, Chester B. I see that Chester 
picked out the right person to bond 
with!!! Not only do you share a name, 
but you share an interest in latrines, 
too!"

"Funny Gage! Very funny!." Chet 
replied, his face turning slightly 
red. The rest of the crew laughed 
for a few seconds, then Roy sobered 
up a bit as he asked the all important 
question.

"So Cap, what are we going to do with 
her..uhm him..uh..whatever it is?" 
Roy asked.

The rest of the crew looked at their 
fearless leader as he took the puppy 
back from Chet. Stanley cautiously 
turned the puppy over in order to 
find out for sure what sex it was. 
When he found out, he turned the 
puppy back over and looked at his 
men. They were all standing there 
like a bunch of five-year-olds asking 
their dad if they could keep it. He 
rolled his eyes and started to answer, 
only to be interrupted by the tones going off.

-----------------------------------------

No attachments.

***********************************
From : P. Keiper <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>
Date : Sun Nov 17, 2002 10:24 pm
Subject: Merger

It was a run for their sister station,
Eight. All the gang let out
their collective breaths in anticipation.

Cap finally said. "It's a boy! I'll decide, 
tonight. Now shoo!"

And he banished his men inside, cooing 
to the little beagle pup to calm him.

The pup took to a blue laundry 
basket in Cap's office, filled 
with clean, storing, stokes ties and 
long board straps, like a fish to
water and soon, went to sleep.

Cap closed his door and said,
"Shhh. Do, whatever you're gonna
do. He'll be fine in here. Kelly. 
Get a dish of water and some chow 
for the little guy on the double. We'll 
leave it by him to find when he wakes 
up."
------------------------------

No attachments.

**************************
From:  rosanne iho <irosanne@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Sun Nov 17, 2002  8:12 pm
Subject:  Only In The Movies


It was an absolutely beautiful, balmy, summer 
evening in Southern California.

In the rec' room of Los Angeles County Fire 
Station 51, six firemen sat huddled in front of 
a TV set, watching the Dodgers and the Padres 
battling it out in a late-night double-header. 
The home team had taken the first game. 
The men cheered, as Dodger's pitcher, Don 
Sutton, struck out the Padres--one, two, 
three. The Dodgers came to bat. First baseman, 
Steve Garvey, hit a single. Outfielder, Dave 
Lopes, also singled. Sutton walked. With the 
bases loaded--and no outs--Dodger slugger, 
Dusty Baker, stepped up to the plate.

"There's the wind up...and the pi--!" the 
announcer began, only to be drowned out 
by the Station's alarm.

There was a group groan.

"Station 51..." the dispatcher began.

The television was flicked off. The rec' 
room reluctantly emptied.

"Man down...unknown type rescue...213 
East Morrow Drive...Ambulance responding...
Two-One-Three East Morrow Drive...Time 
out...23:02."

"Station 51...KMG-365," Captain Hank 
Stanley acknowledged, as his crews climbed 
into their respective rescue vehicles, tossing 
turnout coats and helmets on. He handed 
Squad 51's driver a copy of the call slip and 
then hurried over to assume his seat in the 
Engine. 

Moments later, the rigs exited the parking 
bay and pulled out onto the dark, deserted 
street in front of the Fire Station--lights 
flashing and sirens wailing.

########################

213 East Morrow Drive turned out to be 
an enormous mansion with a tiled roof and 
gables, surrounded by an ancient cottonwood 
grove. The hedges lining the circular drive 
were untrimmed, and the large lawns lacked 
a manicured look, as well. The trucks pulled 
right up in front of the place. Their drivers cut 
the sirens, and their occupants piled out. The 
paramedics grabbed some equipment from 
the Squad's side compartments and then 
joined their fellow firefighters at the front 
door. 

Their Captain pressed the doorbell. An eerie 
'gong' sound filled the air. The men exchanged 
amused glances and waited patiently on the 
moonlit porch for someone to appear. When 
nobody did, Stanley gasped--impatiently--and 
hit the 'gong' again...which resulted in several 
snorts of suppressed laughter. Hank gave up 
on the 'gong' and began banging a big, brass 
door-knocker.

'C'mon...c'mon...' Paramedic John Gage silently 
urged, 'These equipment cases ain't getting any 
lighter...' He finally set his heavy burdens down 
and took a step or two back, to stare up at the 
big, ugly abode. "Yah know...I saw a house just 
like this on the Late-Late Show the other night."

"Yeah...Me, too..." Firefighter Chet Kelly quietly 
confessed, as his feet shifted uncomfortably 
beneath him, "It was in one of those horror 
flics."

"Right!" John continued, "The butler kept a 
beautiful blonde heiress chained up in the dungeon! 
The place was loaded with secret passages and--"

"--And that's the only place you're ever going 
to find a house like that," his partner, Roy 
DeSoto suddenly interrupted, "In the movies!"

Gage stared sadly at DeSoto for a few seconds 
and then slowly shook his head. "No imagination!"

"Kelly! Lopez! Grab some flashlights and 
check the back of the house!" their 
Commander bugled, bored with his banging.
"Before we go barging in," he told his Engineer, 
Mike Stoker, "I'd better call dispatch and 
make sure we've got the right address..." 
He slipped a HT from his right coat pocket 
and thumbed the call button. "L.A., this is 
County 51..."

"Go ahead, 51..."

"L.A., request address check on our 
last call, logged at 23:02..."

"Standby, 51...51, the call reads: Man 
down...unknown type rescue... 213 East 
Morrow Drive."

"Roger that, L.A.," the Captain acknowledged, 
"51 clear." Stanley stared up at the house 
number--213--for a few seconds and then 
turned back to Stoker. "Mike, you sure this 
is East Morrow Drive?"

"Well, if it's not," his Engineer began, 
"someone's been playing games with 
the street signs."

"Man!" Kelly breathlessly exclaimed upon 
his return, "It's even creepier out back!"

His Captain rolled his eyes and questioned 
the third member of his engine crew, "No 
answer?"

Marco Lopez shook his helmeted head.

"Well, we can't stand out here all night!" 
their Commander finally determined and 
turned the door knob. Stanley smiled, 
as the heavy portal swung open. There 
would be no need for the forceable-entry 
tools. "Fire Department!" he shouted 
as he stepped into the dimly-lit entryway, 
"Anybody home?!" No answer. 

The paramedics picked their equipment 
back up and then they, and the others, 
followed their fearless leader inside. 

"This is the Fire Department!" Stanley 
called out again, "Anybody home?!" Still 
no answer. In fact, except for the loud 
ticking of a clock in the entrance hall, the 
whole house was filled with an eerie silence.

The paramedics sighed and set their heavy 
cases down again.

Stanley turned to his men. "All right, Roy...
You and Marco check upstairs! Mike and I 
will cover this floor. Gage, Kelly, you two 
get the basement! Move out!" 

"What are we looking for?" Kelly nervously 
inquired of his search partner.

"Beats me!" Gage teased, "It's an unknown 
type rescue..."

"How about the basement door--for starters!" 
their Captain impatiently prodded.

The two foot-dragging firefighters fled the 
entrance hall. They managed to make their 
way into the kitchen. John jerked a door 
open--a broom closet. Chet pulled another 
portal open--a pantry. Gage latched onto 
a third door's knob and pulled. It's un-oiled 
hinges creaked, eerily. He smiled, 
triumphantly and motioned his search-mate 
over. 

Kelly flicked his flashlight on and shone it 
down a very steep set of basement stairs.

"If there's a beautiful blonde heiress down 
there," Gage began, "I get to rescue her!"

"That's not a dungeon!" Kelly reminded him.


John stared sadly at Chet, and shook his 
head, "No imagination..."

"Oh-oh no," Kelly corrected his colleague, 
"I've got an imagination, all right! That's 
why I'm gonna let you go first. That way, 
if there's a tall dude down there--with a 
long, black cloak and a wolf's-head cane..." 
he paused to tap Gage on the chest, "you 
get to rescue him!"

John swallowed hard and started down 
the stairs. "Thanks!" he muttered, 
sarcastically. They got about two steps 
down and then stopped, hearing their 
Captain calling them. They gladly retreated 
and went racing back to the entrance hall.

"Yeah, Cap?!" the panting pair simultaneously 
exclaimed, as they came skidding to a stop 
in front of Hank Stanley.

---------------------------------------------

No attachments.

****************************
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 18:54:30 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  The Stuff of Dreams 


>Kel was in his office. It had been 
>a crazy week. That day was no 
>exception. It was enough to make 
>him miss a rare dinner date with 
>his dad. He picked up the phone 
>and dialed his dad's number and 
>waited for him to answer.

The phone rang two times and the
pauses showing his call going unanswered
between them only increased his
anxiety. ::Why am I feeling like an errant
school boy? I'm forty two years old.
Dad is just dad to me, isn't he?:: his 
thoughts rose.

-------     -------     -------  

"Because he's you're dad." Dixie's voice
spoke from his memory of a conversation
he had a week ago with his husky throated
head ER nurse on just that same subject. 
"And you still look up to him. After all, you 
did follow in his footsteps getting into the 
medical field." she said.

"Emergency medicine's a far cry from
psychiatry Dix. I didn't follow anyone to
get where I am today. Especially not him."
Kel said a little defensively when Dix's
comment stuck a little too far into the
real truth of matters. "Also, I've branched
off into cardiology, too, and that's an even 
more unrelated area than being some office
bound,  leather chair to couch side shrink."

Dix's frosted eyebrows rose in amazement.
"Oh? I'd say in that way, you and your father
are in an area a little closer together my fine, 
fretting friend. You both deal with matters of 
the heart. Only yours deals with just the 
physical aspects of things. You fix the body
whereas he fixes the mind. Quite a complimentary
pair to have in one family, in my book. You should
team up together, Kel. Even if just to compare
professional notes or something. Might be a way 
for you two to work out differences."
she said gently, handing Dr. Brackett a cup 
of coffee.

"We are. I have dinner with him once a month."

"Oh, really." Dix said, throwing disbelieving doe
eyes at Kel. "There's twelve months in a year,
Kel. And I distinctly remember setting up
reservations at Mannie's for you and your father
only twice total, since this time last year.."

Kel's chin twitched. "I've been busy.."

"Yeah, well so have I. " Dix countered. 
"Although in my case, I haven't been too
busy to see family I care about, to drift
apart from again, due to carelessness."

From anyone else, Dixie's remark would
earn a scathing sharp reply. But Kel and
Dix were the best of friends, been old flames 
even, at one time. And what she said and felt,
was still very very important to him.
"You .....really think so?" he said, studying his
hands and rubbing absently at their surgical
dryness.

Dix shoved a jar of hand cream at him across
the lounge table. "I  know so. I've seen you
two cross by my desk everyday. Brent to
his office on the ninth floor and you to yours.
I can't believe you two even work in the same
hospital. He could be in Greece for all the contact
I've seen. I can read the whole state of affairs between
you two just by the degree of scowling on your
faces. You in particular, have a certain cheek
twitch that pops up whenever you think of
your father.."

"I do not.." Dr. Brackett protested.

"You do... Ahaa!" she cried out in triumph. 
"There it is again! That's seven times today already."
She leaned forward, finely filed nails clicking
on the formica table top. "And for me, that's
a critical sign with only one treatment available
in my line of thinking.......Go call him, Kel.
Arrange one of those well overdue dinner
dates. You both are in severe need for quality 
father/son family time.....Oh,.. Just one thing
though.."

Kel's face was sheepish as he used the cream
Dixie had given him briskly to ease his chapped
aching hands. "And what's that, Dix?"

"Promise me you'll both leave your white
doctor coats at home.."

---------     ----------       ---------      ----------

The phone rang a third time in his ear. By then
Kel's cheek twitch had traveled up to his hairline.
He groaned as the anxiety reached deeply
under his skin. ::Come on. Pick up already..::

Finally...

"Hello. Brent Brackett speaking.."

"Dad?"

A pause. ."Is...everything all right down there
son? I didn't hear a disaster call go out.."
Brent asked.

"No. no no.. Everything's fine. Quiet night
in fact. So far, only one station is out on
a run. Station 51's." and he tried to sound
natural as he laughed. "I....just wanted to
say I'm sorry for missing our last dinner
plans in May. I'd ...like to make it up
to you.."

There was a longer silence and then Kel
heard Brent slip into his professional mode
like he always did when analyzing the emotional
tone of a situation. "That'd be fine son, free
on the 18th? I'll have my receptionist book us.
That will give us two days each to think of
something to talk about, other than the shop
talk like we always end up doing."

"Thanks dad. I'll see you at our usual table."

"Until then.  And son..."

"What dad?"

"Don't work so hard. I can tell by how long
your head nurse glares at me how little
you've slept.."

That comment embarrassed Kel deeper than
words. "I'll see you later, pop."

A muted grunt was a reply and the phone line
clicked with a snick briskly a second later.

"It's still a little mid artic but at least, the cracks
in the icebergs are widening.." said Dix.
"Here's to progress.." and she raised her mug
to Dr. Brackett in salute.

Kel didn't know whether to smile at his
accomplishment or admonish Dix for
easedropping on his phonecall. He chose
to move on to other matters. He cleared
his throat, taking a chart from Dixie's
hand. The red light in the base station was
still on, but not yet flashing. "51, call in
with their rescue yet?"

Dix regarded the tiny glass room and the
quiet intercom phone still sitting silent
by the recorder. "Nope. I just moved
their status magnet to Away two minutes
ago when I heard the call come in through
L.A. dispatch.." she said, pointing with
a pen from her desk to the scanner
overhead.

"Any indication what it is we got?"

"None. It's an unknown type rescue
so far. Literally.."

"Hmm" Dr. Brackett said, handing
51's blank run sheet slate back to Dix.
"Keep me posted. I think I'll check in
on a patient or two while I'm waiting.
Page me when 51 fires up."

"Will do." and then she smiled, hugely
as if with a private observation.

Kel didn't miss it. "What?"

"You're relaxed already. And all
it took was a single itty bitty
30 second phone call."
she chuckled.

Kel's face twitched. "I'll recommend you
for a Pullitzer." and he disappeared
into treatment two, shaking his
head ruefully.

--------   ----------    -----------  

At 213 East Morrow Drive, things weren't
quite as rosy, down right creepy at that. 

>"Oh-oh no," Kelly corrected his colleague, 
>"I've got an imagination, all right! That's 
>why I'm gonna let you go first. That way, 
>if there's a tall dude down there--with a 
>long, black cloak and a wolf's-head cane..." 
>he paused to tap Gage on the chest, "you 
>get to rescue him!"

>John swallowed hard and started down 
>the stairs. "Thanks!" he muttered, 
>sarcastically. They got about two steps 
>down and then stopped, hearing their 
>Captain calling them. They gladly retreated 
>and went racing back to the entrance hall.

>"Yeah, Cap?!" the panting pair simultaneously 
>exclaimed, as they came skidding to a stop 
>in front of Hank Stanley.

"Do you smell that?"  Cap asked and he started 
to walk around the room, sniffing, suspicious.

Chet and the gang started to copy him.

Johnny immediately tensed. " Cap, what is it?
You smell smoke or something?"

Cap shook his head. "No..no.. not smoke..
smells like... like.."

"Cinnamon ginger bread.." Chet said. 

"OoooOOoooo." Marco toned. 
"Do you suppose the witch from
Hansel and Gretel lives here? Maybe
we've all been called out to be someone
else's dinner.."

The gang cracked up.

"Very funny guys. Creepy house or not,
that's what I'm smelling. Gingerbread."
Kelly noticed the dubious looks on all
the guys faces..and he clarified defensively.
"You know.. the kind grandma always makes.
And it smells like it's coming from over..."

The whole crew followed Kelly's nose to
another dusty cobwebby door and he pushed
it open. A brightly lit yellow kitchen with oversized
stoves and ovens met their eyes.

The station crew's light faces fell away when they
found an old man slumped over a table, a phone's
receiver still in his hand. Johnny and Roy ran over
to him and Gage felt for a pulse. "He's alive.."

The cookies, were just starting to burn. Marco 
pulled open the oven, and yanked out the 
scorched tray, and dumped it into the old 
over sized, old fashioned pump water handled sink.

It took him a moment to figure out the pump
was the only way to get to water. He finally
pumped enough out to gurgle over the over
hot pan.

Mike turned off the gas in the oven.

Roy shouted to his patient.
"Hey,.. Mister.. Can you hear me?
We're L.A. County Firefighter Paramedics.
We answered your call.."

The man didn't move as Roy checked
his breathing, right where he was.

Cap lifted his handy talkie to his mouth. 
"L.A. This is Station 51. We have a 
confirmed medical rescue. Respond an 
ambulance.."

##10-4, 51. Timeout 23:16.##

Then Hank knelt by Roy and John as they
took off their helmets and got to work.
"Want him on the floor?"

"Not yet. We don't know what we have.
He's breathing ok at any rate. But we
will need the O2."

Chet Kelly came through the kitchen door
with it breathless. "Got it here. That and
the defibrillator." He handed them off to 
John who immediately got them set.

Mike, got leads on an EKG ready on the blue
monitor and waited to hand them to
Gage and DeSoto when they were ready.

Roy set the unconscious old man on a light
flow through a simple mask, leaving him 
slumped across the table top face
down, while John got a BP. 

"It's 90 over 64. Pulse 110 and thready."

Roy said, "His respiration rate's 22 and shallow.
Irregular.." He bent over and checked the man's
pupils being careful not to move him much.
"Equal and reactive."

"Cardiac?" Hank asked. 

"Most likely." Roy answered him. "If this were
a stroke, his eyes would've told us that. The scope
will tell us more.. Give me those Stoker. I'm ready
for them."

Mike helped Roy patch the man up.
As they did so, the old man began to moan
and awaken and he lifted his head. Chet
supported him in his chair as Roy and Hank
got him oriented as to what was happening.
"Easy there. Take it slow. How are ya doing?"
Roy said to him. "Know where you are?"

Johnny got on the biophone to Rampart, digging
out his green pen from the biobox's lid.
"Rampart, this is Rescue 51, how do you read?"

The reply was....

---------------------------------------

Photo : Dix in a medium shot.

Photo: Hank and Gage in helmets at a scene.
           Close up.

Photo: Johnny treating a cardiac victim
           with O2 and EKG leads.

*******************************
From: "Linda Taggatz" <doc51@att.net> 
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 23:27:41 -0600 
Subject: Re: The Stuff of Dreams 


>Johnny got on the biophone to Rampart, digging
>out his green pen from the biobox's lid.
>"Rampart, this is Rescue 51, how do you read?"

>The reply was...

..from Dixie. "Rescue 51, I read you loud and clear."

---------------------------------------

No attachments.

******************************************* 
From:  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Nov 21, 2002  2:37 am
Subject:  The Ginger Cookie Man and the Other Chester B

> From Dixie. "Rescue 51, I read you loud and clear."

Johnny looked up and saw that their patient was 
nearly conscious. He amended his notes on his
writing pad. "Rampart, ah. We have a male,
approximately 60 to 65 years of age. Found
comatose and unresponsive. On eight liters
of O2, consciousness is returning. Vitals are:
BP 90/64, Pulse 110 and thready. Respirations
are 22 and shallow. Rampart we do have a
strip available. Lead two."

"10-4. Relay your telemetry and I'll page Dr.
Brackett. Please stand by.." Dixie answered.

##Standing by.# Johnny answered.

Dixie got on the red phone and paged the 
inhouse operator. "Would you please page Dr. 
Brackett to the base station, stat. Thanks." 
and she hung up, writing down the information 
she had received.

Roy in the meantime, put on his best paramedic smile.
He watched as the old man looked surprised as
full awareness returned as he put questioning hands
up to his face to the mask flowing oxygen there.
"Hi there. I'm Roy DeSoto and this gentleman on
the phone is my partner, John Gage. We're paramedics
from the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Got 
your call there."

The man gave an intelligible moan and he seemed
to be hard of hearing. "Eh? Oh, my dearie. I HAVE 
caused a ruckus, haven't I?" Then he smelled wet
ginger cookies in the kitchen. "Oh, no.. there goes
all afternoon's work.." he said.

Chet smiled for the man's voice sounded for the
world like Mr. Hooper from Seasame Street. 
Kind and warm. "Yeah, well, rest easy sir. We 
got the gas turned off for ya."

Roy set his hand on the man's stomach to get
a new breathing rate. "So, what's your name?
Can you tell me that?"

"Eh? Oh, oh. It's Fajou.. Reginald Arthur Fajou.
Been living in this house since...    uh.... I can't
remember rightly.. Could have been since the
war.. or was that WW One?" he gasped.

"I see. Listen, Mr. Fajou.." Gage said. "Do you
have a history of any heart problems? Breathing
problems? That sort of thing? You seem to be
in a little distress here."

"Ohh..." Arthur said, thinking.." Martha tells me
I got asthma.. and....that's about it...."

"Who's Martha?" Roy asked. "Your wife?"

"Eh?..Ohnn no.. She's ma landlady. Heh. She's
been real nice to me. Letting me bake for the
kids working and filming at the movie studio
and all." and he started to laugh in memory,
weakily, until a wet coughing made him grip
Chet's hand tightly. "Oh, my.. Not feeling so
good today.. Little weak.."

"Well, we'll get ya to the hospital and have
a doctor take a look at you, ok?" Roy asked.

"All right. If you say I have to go.. I  I will. 
Don't want to get Martha mad at me. She's
been so nice to me, don't you see? And,..I
had a nice ...*cough* pan of cookies made
just for her..  hhmm."

"Yes,sir.." Roy said and he began to get
a more detailed medical history on Arthur
while Johnny got Kel Brackett on line.

Gage began to relax as the reading showing 
on the scope indicated only some elevated
ST segments on a sinus rhythm. Nothing
dire. He set the phone and its cord over his
shoulder while he listened to Arthur's breath
sounds. He heard only light bronchial 
wheezing. 

"Ohhhh, that's cold sonny.." Arthur said of
the metal drum Johnny placed on his skin.
"Like ice.."

"Sorry.. Easily fixed.." Johnny said with a grin
and he warmed it in his palm with a breath
before finishing his task. Mentally, he upgraded
Arthur's consciousness level to good.

Roy bumped down the percentage of O2 on 
their patient when Johnny gave him a thumbs
down gesture. Gage said, "COPD's confirmed."

"Ok, then, we'll just keep you sitting, allright
Arthur? You can breathe better this way in
the chair..?" Roy asked.

"Y- Yeah.. That's why I came into the kitchen.
Usually I stay by the fire while they bake, you
see? But then I  *cough* got a little dizzy..
and the room started spinning round and round.
I got scared, you know.. So I called for help.
Glad you boys are here, because.. I'm not
feeling so good today.." Arthur sighed softly.

His charm was irresistable to the other firemen
hovering nearby and they all broke into grins
of amusement.  Cap noticed the pictures 
on the wall. "Say,, Arthur.. I know this movie..
And this looks like your front porch here on
the poster.."

"Heh.." Arthur grinned around his mask.
"It is.. I've been baking cookies for the
studios for so long, they.. they come over
every once in a while...to make a movie..
know what I mean..?"

Chet and Marco both nodded. "Sure do."
Kelly piped up eagerly, joining in Cap's 
enthusiasm."We're great fans of most 
of them. Attack of the Ghoulies and last year's
Grandchild of Frankenstein here. Do you really
have an iron maiden in the basement down there?
We didn't really quite make it down there
before Ca-"

Lopez smacked Chet silent before Cap 
could use the eye on him.


"This is Dr. Brackett, go ahead, 51."

Johnny continued his report. "Rampart
our victim's got a history of chronic
occlusive pulmonary disease. He admits
to asthma. I've listened to him and he
does sound a little wet on the left side.
And his breathing's slightly labored.
We've amended his liter flow to four
a minute."

Kel finished reading the report Dix had
taken on him and looked up before
thumbing the intercom. "Give me his strip
51. Is he coherent enough for you
to get a oral temperature on him?"

"That's affirmative on both, Rampart.
Transmitting EKG." Johnny said, dialing
the EKG monitor to send mode.

Dr. Brackett eyed the rhythm he received.
"51, I'm reading a normal sinus rhythm over
here with only slight variations. Is the O2,
helping his dyspnea at all?"

"That's affirmative. He was slightly
cyanotic when we found him on
the table top but he's now pinking
up albeit a bit clammy and chilled."

Roy finished getting a temperature on
Arthur. "Hmm.. 97.1"

Johnny reported this in.

"All right Johnny, start an IV Lactated 
Ringers, TKO only and transport as soon
as possible. Keep him upright and comfortable
and continue to maintain O2. That drop in
temperature might be the early stages of
septicemia or other etiology. I want a new
vitals set in five minutes.."

"10-4 Rampart. IV LR TKO and O2. New vitals
in transit. The ambulance has arrived." Gage
said.

A few minutes later Arthur was warmly wrapped
in wool tan blankets and his IV was in place
in Marco's hand. As he was wheeling with the
stationhouse crew he said. "You boys are
so kind... when I get out ..you come back
and I'll bake some nice, hot gingerbread
cookies for you.. ok? You boys are so nice.."

Gage grinned all the way into the Mayfair.
It was he who rode in with Arthur the stage
kids' cookie man.

--------------------------------------------

The engine was already backed into the 
garage and abandoned by the time Roy
and Johnny had replenished supplies and
had made their farewells to the ill Mr. Fajou.
The station house was quiet after Johnny 
and Roy turned off their backing reds,
removed their helmets and left the squad.

"Hmm. I wonder where the guys are?
Are they sleeping?"

Roy walked across the bay and peeked into
the bunk house, flicking on the light for a sec.
"Nope. The bed's are still made up.. All of 
them.."

Johnny flicked a wrist up and checked the 
time. "Wow, no one's sleeping? It's almost
three a.m..."

Roy shrugged as they made their way by the
large county map and into the kitchen.
"Maybe they're watching the rebroadcast
of the game...."

"At three a.m..? Roy.. no channel airs games
at three am in the morning.. Geesh.." he
said as his calm demeanored partner preceeded
him through the door he held open for Roy.

No one was at the table nor at the frig.

Johnny and Roy both turned on a dime.
Looking towards the black leather couch
and the TV chairs. The TV, was dark.

And all the gang were on their
hands and knees surrounding Henry's old
dog house. It was still dusty and weather 
beaten from sitting in the yard. Chet was
hastily scrubbing it clean with a bucket of
water and Bon Ami. He looked up.

"Heya guys.. About time you showed up.
You almost missed the big moment. The
little fella's about to go into his new home
for the first time.."

Johnny's jaw flopped open.. "You mean,
uh, you mean Cap said Yes..?" he chortled,
trying to keep his voice down.

"Yeah, man. Guess the abandoned pup kinda
got Cap's thoughts rolling about us losing Henry.
It's been two years you know, since Henry's real 
owners showed up to claim him." he nodded.
"Maybe, uh, maybe Cap's a little dogsick."

"Maybe we ALL are.." Marco piped up eagerly,
still on his hands and knees. The gang was
carefully playing with the shy, but active 
beagle puppy keeping him in a ring before their
laps, more than one trying to get the tiny
guy to notice the doghouse doorway by
tapping it.

Roy and Gage joined them all on the floor,
abandoning themselves to the moment.
"Come on boy. Come on.. Don't you see
it? There's a nice big bone in there.." Gage
babytalked to the pup.

"Eeeoowww" Kelly exclaimed. "Do you think
we should really let him have Henry's old
bone, Gage. Kinda dirty after two years in
an old doghouse out in the yard."

"Would you just hush.. I'm trying to bond
here." Gage said.

The moment Johnny looked up, the pup's
attention wandered and he scampered over
to the nearest lap he liked. Cap's. 

The pup stumbled gracelessly into Hank's stomach
and then turned circles before settling 
down with a contented sigh after licking
Cap's face once on the chin.

"Well whatdiya know.."Roy grinned. "He
knows who to thank doesn't he?"

"Smart dog.." Hank said, keeping still
as the new puppy closed his eyes.
"uh oh,, looks like he's going ta sleep on
me. Dang.. My leg's are going to too if
I stay this way.."

The gang hastily grabbed Cap by the
shoulders and legs and Chet said.
"Don't move Cap. You'll wake him.
We'll move you to the recliner."

"Kelly! Would y--"

"ShhhhHHHH!" The rest of the gang said.

The beagle whimpered but then started
snoring again just as fast.

Hank finally tossed his head. "All right.
Lift me." he said, feeling ridiculous.

Soon, he was settled in the black chair
with the pup safely nestled like a
sleeping Sphinx in his lap.

The gang immediately made for the bunks,
abandoning Cap and his puppy in the chair.
"Hey, you're not just going to leave me
here?"

"Aww cap.. Do you really want us to make
him cranky? I mean, these early puppy to family
bonding days are crucial. You're just gonna 
haveta spend the night in the arm chair." 
Kelly reasoned.

Cap scowled but stayed quiet. "All right. Just
this once. Somebody get me a blanket." he
said, adjusting the tiny pup's snoring face until
his snores softened into easier sleeping breaths.

Marco wasn't past teasing. "You know.. he just
might have to sleep every night in your lap, Cap,
after this.."

"No he won't. Because if he needs to he can
spend the night on somebody else's lap instead,
like tomorrow night in yours Lopez?"

"Aww cap.. I can't sleep a wink sitting in a chair."

"Didn't say it was an order. But.. Lookiethatcuteface.
Can you deny him the benefit of a warm body's
comfort?"

"That's what a hot water bottle in the dog house
is supposed to be for.." Marco said.

"No dog is ever going to get into Henry's old doghouse."
Mike Stoker said. "Chet's logged more hours in
there than Henry ever did."

The gang laughed.

Johnny came back from grabbing a blanket out
of a spare closet for Hank . "Here ya go, Cap."
and he tossed it up into the air.

"Gage, would you be careful?!" he said, barely 
saving it from burying the tiny dog. "You could've
jarred the little guy.."

"Sorry..Cap."

Kelly was thoughtful. "Say, listen Cap. Now that
we're keeping him, we can't just keep calling
him Little Guy.. I mean uh, his previous owner 
says his name is uh,.." and he broke off in
embarrassement. 

"Chester.." Gage said and the gang giggled.

Cap said, "No, he's more like a "lapper" "
he said patting where the puppy was
lying deeply in slumber.

"All right. Ok. We can call him Chester."
Chet said defensively. "I just don't want 
to hear anybody and I mean anybody,
ever.. call him Chester B.."

Gage sniggered, "Why Chet? Does the B
stand for something that really gets
your blood pumping?"

"No.. It's just--" Chet said, hastily avoiding
Gage's advance on him in yet another attempt
to ring it out of Chet what the answer was
to that greatest of all Chet mysteries.
Johnny grabbed Chet by the moustache
and backed him into the wall.

"Ahhh..owww.." Chet said, freezing as
Johnny held him hostage with a twist of just
one hand. "Hey come on, let go of m--"

Johnny wrist lifted higher. 
"Once more Chet, what does the B stand
for?"

"NOthing."

"What? I can't hear you."

"Nothing at all. It's just a nickname....AhhhHH."

"I don't beLIEVE you.." Gage singsonged.

"It's trueeeEEE! Hey let go.."

Cap's voice finally cracked out. "Gage..!"

Johnny instantly let go, smoothing out Chet's
collar where it had rumpled. "Next time..
You're gonna tell me.." and he walked back
over to Cap and knelt by the tiny oblivious
pup. "So, what shall we give to stand for little
Chester here's second letter of the alphabet's
initial eh? And it's just gotta be a "B"..." he smiled
lipped fully cocked. And he met everyone's eyes.
"Any suggestions?"

-------------------------------

Photo  : Cap glaring from his recliner.

Photo : A very cute brown and white beagle pup
            looking at you, eager faced.

Photo : Chet and Johnny squaring off, Roy looking
             on shaking his head in disbelief.

********************************
From : "satchie51" <satchie51@hotmail.com>  
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Dinner Reservations     
Date : Fri, 22 Nov 2002 15:50:32 -0000  
 
Outside Mannie's Restaurant..

Kel reluctantly relinquished his car to the
restaurant's valet.  He walked toward the
entrance with the enthusiasm of a man facing his
executioner, not his own father.  Summoning his
resolve, he approached the maitre d'.

"Yes sir.  How may I help you?"

Taking a deep breath, he replied, "I'm joining
Dr. Brent Brackett for dinner."

The maitre d' nodded.  "Ah, yes.  He's been
expecting you.  Please come this way."

Numbly, Kel walked to the familiar table.  A
distinguished looking gentleman was already seated.
He glanced disapproving at his watch.  "You're
late.  I thought perhaps you changed your mind."

"I'm sorry.  Things got a bit hectic in the ER at
the last minute.  I didn't think I was going to
be able to get away," Kel apologized.

The elder Brackett appeared dubious.  "I see."

"Dad…"

"It would have been typical of you not to show up.
You've been avoiding me like the plague for ages."

Kel guiltily stared at his fingernails.  In truth,
he had initiated this dinner engagement at Dixie's
urging.  Over the past two days, however, he must
have considered at least a dozen excuses to cancel
this evening's plans.  Emotional intimacy had never
been his forte, especially with his father.  He
deliberately accepted the responsibility of two
additional patients after his shift ended in order
to stall for time.  That's why he was running
twenty minutes behind schedule.  Breaking the
awkward silence, Kel motioned to the waiter to
bring him a drink.

Brent raised his eyebrow.  "Am I that unpleasant
to be around that you need a drink?"

"No.  No, of course not.  It's been a long day,
and I'm tired and I'd like a scotch."  Noticing
the glass clutched in his father's hand, Kel
retorted, "I see you're imbibing in your usual
poison.  Do you need alcohol to feel comfortable
around your own son?"

"You're being ridiculous."

"Then stop interpreting my actions as though
there's a hidden psychological meaning behind
them.  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

"Point taken," Brent conceded.  "So how has
work been, besides busy?"

"Pretty much the same," Kel shrugged.  "The
new hospital administrator doesn't appreciate
the value of the paramedic program to the
community, so I've been having some interesting
`discussions' lately."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

The other man thoughtfully steepled his fingers.
"Why not?"

"Dad, I'm not one of your patients, all right?"
Kel was developing an excruciating headache.
He began to methodically massage his right
temple.

"Kel, for crying out loud!  I'm a psychiatrist,
not a witch doctor.  It's an honorable profession.
Unfortunately, you've always acted like you were
ashamed of what I did for a living.  I didn't get
my degree out of a cereal box.  I went to medical
school at Harvard, and completed a residency and
fellowship at Johns Hopkins, perfectly respectable
institutions.  Somehow you never seemed to accept
my vocation as a `real' job.  Sitting in a plush
office and keeping a schedule didn't seem to fit
your definition of work."

"Don't you think this conversation is a little
one-sided?  As I recall, you weren't exactly
supportive of my educational choices either.  I
wanted to put myself through school so I wouldn't
feel pressured to follow in your footsteps.  I
waited on tables, parked cars and even worked as
an evening janitor at the university in order to
put myself through school.  Granted, I didn't have
the same Ivy League education you had, but I earned
my way through my own efforts, and I'm proud of that.
And I distinctly remember how horrified you were
when I announced I wanted to go into emergency
medicine.  You called it barbaric, and said I'd
wash out in a week."  Smiling smugly, Kel added,
"Well, I'm still here."

Shaking his head, Brent argued, "You still don't
understand what this is about, do you?"

"I presume you're going to enlighten me."

The father sighed in frustration.  "You've been
so blasted determined to escape from what you
perceived to be my shadow, you've been running
at full throttle most of your life.  You thought
my occupation was boring, so you chose the most
exciting one you could imagine, emergency medicine."

Kel pondered this thought while he took a sip
of his scotch.

"But don't you see?" Brent asked.  "You're still
acting like this is some bizarre competition
between us.  It's not, you know."

Mercifully, the waiter appeared to take their
order.  Kel had little appetite, but knew he was
expected to follow the ritual.  Without looking
at the menu, he mechanically recited the desired
items.  His anxiety was mounting with each passing
moment.  Concealed by the linen tablecloth, he was
clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Dad, I simply wanted to be my own man.  That's a
normal desire."

"That's true, if not taken to extremes.  But you
never know when to draw the line.  Everything is
all or nothing, black or white," his father chided.
When you decided to become a doctor, you couldn't
settle for just any specialty.  You had to outdo me
and prove you were better than your old man.  And
what could be more dramatically different than a
field that deals with life and death issues every
minute?"

His father's words cut him with the precision of
a surgeon's scalpel.  An uncomfortable feeling in
his stomach was making its presence known.  Kel
replied, "You've never accepted the fact that
we're totally different people with different
interests.  Maybe sitting around talking to people
all day long is your cup of tea, but it isn't mine.
I thrive on the excitement of the emergency room."

"What is it precisely that you find so appealing?
Is it the power you wield of being the head of the
department, or saving people's lives?"

Kel's famous temper flared.  "Saving people's lives,
of course!"

"And you don't think I help save people's lives?"
Brent shot back.  "You may have looked down upon
my profession and the scheduled hours I kept, but
they allowed me the luxury of being able to raise
a family and participate in a healthy social life.
On the other hand, you'd rather work like a maniac
to the exclusion of all else.  You're forty-two years
old and you have no life to speak of.  You're not able
to sustain relationships, and your time is essentially
confined to the hospital and your apartment."

Color began to drain from the younger man's face.
He was furious that his father would dare to presume
to lecture him, particularly in a public setting.

Undeterred, Brent continued.  "Even though we rarely
get together, we do work in the same hospital.  I
know you're working yourself into an early grave.
Your long hours and avoidance of vacations are
legendary.  But it's taking its toll on you.  You
look exhausted.  You're pale, you've lost weight
and you look like you're not sleeping well."

Incredulous, Kel warned, "This is none of your
business."

"You're my son.  That makes it my business."

A war waged within Kel.  He was angry with his
father for pursuing this line of conversation,
and with Dixie for insisting he schedule this
stupid meeting.  Most of all, he was angry with
himself for allowing events to unfold as they had.
After all these years, he should have known better
than to discuss certain topics with his father.
It was a foregone conclusion he would always lose
these heated debates.  The throbbing in his temple
worsened.

"Dad, you have no right to make judgments about
how I choose to live my life."

Brent leaned back in the leather-upholstered chair.
"Then answer me this question.  Did you succeed?"

Kel was thoroughly confused.  "Succeed in what?"

"Did you prove to yourself you're not me?"

"I don't understand."

"Obviously you thought I was so terrible that
you went through extraordinary measures to avoid
being like me.  In personality, temperament, interests,
profession, you've tried to be my opposite in every
way.  But you're a grown man now.  You've established
yourself."  Brent's tone softened and he gently placed
his hand on Kel's forearm.  "Son, if you're still
running away from something, do you even know where
you're running to?"

Suddenly Kel felt the room was closing in on him.
Overwhelmed by nausea, he bolted from the table
and raced to the men's room.  Standing over the
toilet, he proceeded to lose what little he had
eaten earlier in the day.

A few minutes later, he splashed his face with cold
water to revive himself.  He caught his reflection
in the mirror.  For the first time, he didn't see
the cocky, self-assured head of emergency services
at Rampart.  He saw an insecure little boy wanting
to be anyone but his father.

--------------------------------

No attachments.

*******************************
From :  "satchie51" <satchie51@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Shattered
Date : Sat, 23 Nov 2002 20:54:00 -0000  
   
   
Kel sat in his darkened apartment, contemplating
the evening's events.  Past experience conditioned
him not to expect a cordial relationship with his
father.  The best he could hope to achieve was a
peaceful coexistence, and the best way to accomplish
that objective was simple avoidance.

Yes, dear old Dad managed to undermine that plan.
Kel erroneously assumed when he moved to Los Angeles,
there would be adequate physical and emotional
distance to discourage contact from his father.
He planned to make perfunctory phone calls on
special occasions, and perhaps travel home to
Boston during the Christmas holidays.  But his
father ruined that brilliant theory.  Inexplicably,
six years ago he closed his posh private practice
and joined the staff at Rampart.

Justifiably, Kel was furious when he heard the
news from the hospital administrator.  His father
didn't even have the decency to notify him
personally, which he deemed unforgivable.  Through
hard work and perseverance, Dr. Kelly Brackett had
finally attained the level of professional success
he sought.  He was held in high esteem as the
director of emergency services of Rampart General
Hospital, and he was supremely confident in his
abilities.  Unfortunately, his father's arrival
signaled the return of his long and imposing shadow.
It seemed there was no escape.

Since that time, they both performed an exotic
dance around the hospital each day.  Kel would
arrive early in the emergency room and immerse
himself in the department's activities, pretending
nothing had changed.  Brent Brackett would appear
later in the morning and wordlessly take the
elevator to his ninth floor office.  Occasionally
the two men would pass each other in the corridors.
They would awkwardly acknowledge each other with
a nod of the head or a mumbled hello, and then
abruptly break off eye contact.  As a token of
atonement for missed father/son quality time, Kel
would arrange dinner at Mannie's once a month,
although he frequently found an excuse to miss
the appointments.  Simply being in the older
man's presence was humbling and painful.

It was hard to believe there was ever a brief
period in his life when he looked up to his
father and desperately sought his approval.
But over the years, the senior Dr. Brackett
couldn't resist the temptation to mold his son
into his own image.  He became critical of
Kel's brooding, intense nature, and began to
psychoanalyze his every act.  If there was some
behavior or shortcoming his son possessed,
there had to be a hidden psychological reason
behind it.  Therefore, it became his mission to
eradicate the offending conduct.  Brent did not
anticipate Kel's reaction.  Instead of meekly
complying to accommodate his father's grand
scheme, his headstrong son rebelled.  He was
determined to do the exact opposite of what was
demanded of him.  The relationship rapidly
deteriorated, and they never recaptured the
emotional intimacy they once shared.

Tonight's disastrous attempt at dinner only
reinforced Kel's growing sense of anxiety about
the situation.  How long could he continue this
absurd charade?

He walked over to the sliding patio door and
placed his palm against the cool glass.  It was
a moonless night.  Somehow it seemed appropriate
for his increasingly dark mood.  The more he
thought about his father's words, the angrier
he became.  In a blind moment of rage, Kel
slammed his hand against the door, shattering the
glass onto the balcony.  Stunned, he stared at the
blood dripping from his arm.  Several seconds
elapsed before the significance of his action sunk
in.  He was bleeding.

The calm, cool-headedness of his profession eluded
him.  Kel was emotionally dazed by the destructive
act he had just committed.  He wrapped his arm in
a kitchen towel as he fumbled through his medical
bag.  After superficially cleaning his wounds, he
applied some 4x4s as pressure dressings and wrapped
his arm with gauze.  In disbelief, he sat on his
couch and buried his face in his hands.

He lost track of how long he lingered there, when
a loud knock interrupted his trance.

"Police!  Is everything okay?"

Kel was totally confused.  What were the police
doing at his apartment?  He slowly roused himself
and answered the door.  "Yes, how can I help you?"

The policeman took in the physician's disheveled
appearance.  "Your neighbor called in a disturbance.
She heard the sound of broken glass and thought you
were being robbed."  Glancing at the bloodstained
bandages, the officer inquired, "Were you injured
in the attack?"

Confusion was quickly replaced by mortification
as Kel realized his careless deed had attracted
unwanted attention.  "No, there was no robbery.
It…it was an accident."

The seasoned officer was dubious.  Noting the
location of the bandages, he wondered if this was
a self-inflicted injury or perhaps a suicide
attempt.  "Why don't I take you to a hospital
to have that looked at?"

"No, that's okay," Kel assured him.  "I'm a
doctor.  I'll take care of it."

The blood continued to splatter on the floor as
they spoke.  "Sir, with all due respect, you
look like you could use a little help with that.
I'm sure it would only take a few minutes."

Reluctantly nodding his consent, he followed
the officer to his patrol car.  He dreaded
the inevitable barrage of questions he would
be subjected to at Rampart.

*     *     *     *     *

Now that the initial shock had worn off, Kel
was becoming increasingly anxious.  His demeanor
did not improve when the police officer insisted
on accompanying him into the emergency department.

Dr. Morton was the first person to notice his
boss' presence.  "Dr. Brackett!  What happened?"
he asked as he guided his mentor into a treatment
room.

"I had a little accident at home.  It's nothing,
really."

The officer surreptitiously motioned to speak
to the intern.  Mike said, "Okay.  Well, have
a seat and I'll grab some blank forms from
Carol.  I'll be right back."

Soon Mike returned, paperwork in hand.  He
efficiently took Kel's vital signs and frowned
at his findings.  "Hmm.  Your blood pressure is
really high.  Has it been elevated lately?"

"No," Kel wearily replied.

"Then there has to be a reason for the sudden
increase.  Is it reasonable to assume it's related
to the injury to your hand?"

A pronounced silence was his answer.

"How exactly did this happen?" Mike probed.

After taking a deep breath, Kel barked, "I cut
myself.  Isn't it obvious?"

"On purpose?"

"Of course not!  Do I look like an idiot?
The glass door shattered!"

Mike countered, "By itself?"

Kel glared at his subordinate.  How dare he
presume to press this issue and humiliate him
further.  He had given his account, and that
should end these ridiculous questions.

Sensing they were at an impasse, Mike began
unwrapping the blood soaked bandages.  "These
cuts look pretty nasty.  There doesn't appear
to be any vascular damage, but most of them are
deep enough to require stitches."

"Yeah, I figured as much."

"I'll have Carol get everything set up.
I'll be back in a moment."

Mike made a hasty retreat and headed for the
nurses' station.  A nagging feeling tickled
his brain.  Kel's behavior and his description
of the "accident" didn't add up.  Perhaps there
was a more sinister explanation.  "Carol, who's
on call for psych?"

She consulted the schedule.  "Uh, that would
be Dr. Brent Brackett."

The intern sadly shook his head.  In the first
place, it would be inappropriate to ask a family
member to consult on a case.  But it was also
common knowledge the son and father had a
strained relationship.  Mike was certain the
senior Dr. Brackett was NOT to be contacted in
case of an emergency.

He needed help in assessing whether Kel needed
to be held for psychiatric observation in light
of the deep slashes to his arm.  Turning to the
nurse, Mike said, "Page Dr. Early.  I need him
here as soon as possible for a consult, and tell
him who the patient is."  He waved Maggie over to
the desk.  "I need your assistance in Treatment
Room 3."

They entered to find an agitated Kelly Brackett
awaiting their return.  "What took you so long?
Let's get this over with so I can go home."

Mike removed his glasses and rubbed the bridge
of his nose.  "I had a call I had to take care
of."

Kel impatiently offered his injured arm to
the intern.  "Well, get to work."

Knowing it would take about fifteen minutes
for Joe to reach Rampart, Mike carefully
cleaned the wounds and began suturing the deep
gashes.  Fearful of antagonizing his boss,
he kept conversation to an absolute minimum.
He was enormously relieved when he heard Joe's
gentle voice break the eerie silence of the room.

"Hey, Kel.  I heard you had a little mishap.
How are you doing?"

Mike concentrated on the task at hand, well
aware of the menacing gaze that was being
directed at him.

"I'm fine," Kel growled.  "Did they call you?"

"Yeah.  They're a little worried about you,"
Joe said reassuringly.

"Well, they shouldn't be.  I only need a few
stitches and I'll be on my way."

The white-haired physician sat down and folded
his arms.  "Kel, think about it from our point
of view.  A police officer brings you in.
You're stressed.  You have several deep gashes
on your arm, and you're less than forthcoming
about how they got there.  What would normal
procedure be?"

A light bulb went off in Kel's head.  "Cr*p.
A psych consult would probably be ordered."

"Do you know why this wasn't done?"

"Because I'm the head of the department and
Mike didn't want to embarrass me?"

Joe informed him, "No.  It's because your
father was on call tonight."

"I don't believe this!" Kel shouted.  "I can't
get away from that man!"  He wildly jumped
off the table, unexpectedly pushing Mike away
as he was still suturing the wounds.

"Kel, settle down!" Joe commanded.

"You don't understand.  I just spent a
miserable evening with him.  I've spent most
of my entire life trying to break away from
his grasp.  But no matter what I do or where
I go, there is he is!"

The picture was coming into focus.  Joe
needed time alone with his friend.  "Mike, I'll
take care of this.  Thanks for everything."

After the door closed, Joe began.  "Come back
and have a seat and we'll talk while I finish
sewing you up."

With the enthusiasm of a lamb being led to the
slaughter, Kel lowered his head and made his
way to the exam table.  "I'm sorry," he
muttered.

"About?"

"Causing so much trouble for everyone.  I
try to keep my personal life private.  But I
guess everyone knows my father and I aren't
exactly on the best of terms."

"What happened this evening that was so
upsetting?" Joe asked.

"Oh, the usual."  Kel tried to sound nonchalant.
"We each have our own unique perspective on
things."

"That never caused you to put your hand through
glass before."

The dark-haired man's temper quickly flared,
and then dissipated.  "Well, I think in his own
warped way he was trying to extend an olive
branch, except it was thinly disguised as a
reiteration of my faults since childhood.
Suddenly, it all seemed so infuriating."

His task complete, Joe began applying a dressing.
"You know, you're a lot alike in one respect.
You're both stubborn."

A small smile crept across Kel's features.  "I
come by the trait honestly."

"Look, this problem isn't going to solve itself.
You're here, he's here, you need to get together
and work this out."

"You sound like Dixie."

Joe grinned, "She's a smart cookie."

"Don't encourage her!" Kel laughed.  "She already
thinks she runs the department!"

"She doesn't?"

Kel's mood sobered.  "I suppose I need to tell
her about this before she hears it from someone
else."  He rose to his feet.  "I'll give her a
call from my office."

"I have a better idea.  You can call her from
my place," Joe proposed.

"That's not necessary."

His colleague firmly insisted, "I want you to
come home with me tonight.  After you call Dix,
I'll give you something to help you unwind and
get a good night's sleep.  Take tomorrow off and
collect your thoughts.  In a week or so when you
feel up to it, call your dad and make another
dinner appointment.  Maybe if you're the one
offering the olive branch, you'll find the peace
terms more agreeable."

"After all these years, I'm afraid to hope," Kel
admitted.

"But at least you'll be able to find comfort in
knowing you tried."

Tossing his coat over his shoulder, Kel followed
his friend out the door.

---------------------------------

No attachments. 

***********************************
From: "Linda Taggatz" <doc51@att.net> 
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2002 21:31:45 -0600 
Subject: Re: Shattered   


Kel and Joe soon arrived  at Joe's apartment. 
It was cozy. In one corner stood a piano.
 
"Nice place  Joe." Kel said as he looked around.
"Thanks." Joe told Kel to take the coat off and 
toss it on the chair. Kel complied, then sat down.
 
Kel  put his  head in his hands. "I don't know anymore 
Joe. I don't know what to say to him. Maybe if  we 
start talking about mom things will relax. But then, 
he never wants to talk about her."
 
Joe  got curious. "Why is that?"
 
Kel shook his head and said "I wish I knew."


--------------------------------

No attachments.

***********************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Breakfast Banter Buffet Style  
Date : Mon, 25 Nov 2002 15:21:22 +0000  
   
 
Breakfast Banter Buffet Style

>Cap's voice finally cracked out. "Gage..!"

>Johnny instantly let go, smoothing out Chet's
>collar where it had rumpled. "Next time..
>You're gonna tell me.." and he walked back
>over to Cap and knelt by the tiny oblivious
>pup. "So, what shall we give to stand for little
>Chester here's second letter of the alphabet's
>initial eh? And it's just gotta be a "B"..." he smiled
>lipped fully cocked. And he met everyone's eyes.
>"Any suggestions?"

There was a brief pause, for the briefest moment,
as Chet walked through the kitchen doors leading
to the garage bay and the quiescent fire vehicles
parked there. Kelly almost whispered his suggestion,
".....Bartholomew." and he trudged morosely towards
the bunkroom.

Gage and the others froze into place in their tight ring 
around Cap. Even Cap's finger paused, from stroking 
the little beagle's sleeping forehead. "W-W- What did 
he say?"

"Oh my G*d. I don't believe it.." Marco said. "He said
Bartholomew.."

"Yeah, but was that a suggestion for Chester or was
that in reply to Gage putting on a little elbow grease
to Chet's moustache?" Stoker asked them all.

Cap's eyes bugged out and all his smile lines smoothed
out in rapt frankness. "The world may never know.."

The gang chuckled in reply, but not Gage. 

Yipp! barked the sleeping puppy in his dream. The fellas
immediately fell to shushing each other and tiptoed 
out of the kitchen, leaving Cap the honor of spending
the first night with the new station mascot. Johnny's self 
satisfied smirk at a successful Chet tease fizzled into 
uncertainty as he pondered Stoker's musing. When they 
all were well out of the range of young canine ears, Gage 
asked his partner. "Whatdidya think, Roy? Whaa -- uh, 
which way do you think we should take Chet's answer..?"

"Careful, Johnny. Don't get into it too much. Or you just
may have a complex about it." Roy answered as he
peeled shirt and pants down to boxers and a T shirt
and sailed with an amused clunk onto his bunk. "You
know how devious Chester B can get when it comes
to getting you back for muscling around with him."

Johnny's face alternately smiled and fell as he
regarded Chet Kelly slumbering for all the world
like King Nebenezzer on his bunk with his
fingers laced nonchalantly over his chest.

Gage turned his back on the sight, not sure about
whether or not Chet was smiling or frowning.
::Can't tell behind that d*mned moustache..::
he groaned mentally, shifting irritably onto a 
shoulder to try and forget about it.

Sleep was a long time in coming.

----------------------------------------

Breakfast was spread out like a posse's 
standard grub with a partial roasting steer 
the next day. The guys, feeling guilty about
tricking Cap into spending first nightwatch
over Chester, fed him right where he was,
in the armchair. Stoker had even gone out into
the yard and had picked Hank a magnolia
for a bud vase with the breakfast tray he 
hand delivered to him.

"Guys, you didn't have to do this.." Cap said,
rubbing sleep mussed hair and his face as
he shifted his weight in the chair gingerly around
the still oblivious Chester Bartholomew lying like
a tiny sack of potatoes in his lap.

"Oh, yes we do, Cap. I mean, what fireman in
any firehouse is more self sacrificial than a Cap?
Am I right fellas?" Chet asked, shoving buttered
toast into his hungry maw. He chewed, puffed
cheeked as he added. "Made an example of
all of us, for ditchin him and keepin him all last 
night away from the comfort of Cap's own bed." 
he said. He took a gulp of his too hot coffee a 
little too fast and started choking a bit. 

Roy gave his back a thump or two as he 
reached for a green apple from the fruit basket
in front of the breakfast rib roast Stoker 
had smoking on the spit all last night. "Easy 
there Chet. Don't talk, chew." DeSoto said, 
taking a half moon bite out of his fruit.

"Yeah.." Gage agreed, his own cheeks big
with bagel. "I wanna get through chow without
a still alarm, Kelly, if you don't mind.."

"Very funny Gage. Tell me something there, uh,
buddy. What uh, what is YOUR middle name if
you don't mind me turning the tables on ya.
And I'll just ask it since you don't have any facial
hair for me to grab onto.."

Marco nearly spit out his fresh squeezed pineapple
juice chortling. Stoker rescued him with a toss
of a folded towel. When the light laughter bubbled
away into sounds of contented eating, Lopez 
said, "Yeah, Gage. You don't have anything on
the back of your turnout coat. Just "Gage".  "

"My secret.. So shush.."

Chet didn't give him any further clues to answering
Gage's Chet mystery by responding back.

Cap looked up from where he was adjusting a
china blue bowl filled with steamed water
moistened puppy chow on his breakfast tray
under a ravenous Chester's face. The little one
was eating so fast, he was snorting and almost
tipping nose up into the food. "Whoops, slow
down there Chester Bartholomew.. or you'll
end up as fat as ol Henry used to be.."

Chet looked up suddenly from his paper as
if he was the one addressed. Just as quickly,
Chet shot eyes back down to his plate.

Johnny's eyes narrowed suspiciously when he
saw that reaction. But for the life of him, he 
couldn't tell whether or not Kelly had thought
Cap was speaking about him or the new puppy.
::I coulda told that a lot better if Kelly grabbed
his stomach or something too, then, at Cap's
comment. "Man.. I'll never find out my answer.."
he grumbled to Roy.

The guys laughed.

"Yeah well, this too, shall pass. No doubt you
and Chet will live to fight another day.." DeSoto said,
regarding which piece of his sliced apple to devour
next with his milk. Then he chose two at the 
same time and followed up with a thick bite
of BBQ beef rib. He was the only one eating
with a fork. The others were eating off the bone,
including Chester Bartholomew.

"Not if he keeps eating so fast like that he won't."
Gage said cheek muffled with a beefy spear,
glaring at Kelly.

"I got a fine example of how obstructed airways
happen, too, Roy, right in my line of sight.."
Chet said, in retort back, making runway guide
motions right at his current source of verbal
torment sitting across the table from him.

"Peace you two.." Cap said, finally extricating
himself from the recliner, leaving Chester
happily diving into what was left on his tray.
Captain Stanley saundered over to the bulletin
board and snatched down the weekly rounds
chart board. He was the only one still in a blue
uniform. The gang was still in T-shirts and pullover
pants-and-boots. "The weekly fire violation 
rounds list. Today, only one on the books."

"Aww Cap, can't it wait until after breakfast? Turns
my stomach learning about folks who like living
in a fire hazard zone instead of following codes."
Chet complained.

"Shutup and chew.." Cap replied. "You're gonna hear
this one. In fact, all of you might have an invested 
interest in this case."

"Oh?" Roy grunted.

"Yeah." Cap replied. "We have an excessive brush violation
at....213 East Morrow Drive..."

All jaws stopped chewing when they remembered that
the address belonged to one very very nice old man
living in a very very creepy looking old house.

Gage's mouth crooked open in regret. "Aww, Cap. We
can't go handing out a fine to kindly ol Mr. Fajou.. I really 
like that guy. Wouldn't be nice of us to leave it tacked
onto his front door like that to find once he gets outta
the hospital.." he added sarcastically.

Stanley snapped back defensively light. "You got any better
ideas?"

"Yeah..I do." Lopez said. "Come guys, we got nothing better
to do this weekend, and I know that for a fact because
there's no games in town. Why don't we just skip out on 
our normal routines and go over there to do a little weed 
control ourselves. It'd be easy for us. We're licensed to 
do a controlled burn."

Both of Cap's eyebrows climbed up into his hairline.
"Hey, that's a wonderful idea. We can all trade shifts 
mutually with Saturday's crew in trade for Friday and
get this done for the old guy. I can have Eight's brush 
truck sent over for Stoker to use."

There came a chorus of eager yes's and O.k.'s all
around. Even another yip from Chester where he
sat in the recliner near the licked clean dish tray.

All heads turned. "Wow." Stoker remarked. "Maybe
we found ourselves a new dish washer. Just look
at Cap's tray. Clean as a whistle.."

"Heh... Don't give him any bright ideas.." Cap
said. "That's just a first morning privilege."
he grumbled. "Wouldn't want him to pick up
any really bad habits from us now would we..?"

Chet made a show of licking BBQ off his plate
by lapping it like a dog.

"Very funny Kelly.." Cap said. "For that, you get
latrine duty this morning.."

"Awww, Cap.."

"Aww, nothing. When you make Cap, you can
find ways to delegate the more unpleasant firehouse
duties in the least painful ways to your crew, too,
just like I did.." he chipped up.

"You're all heart.." Kelly mumbled.

"What's that, Kelly. Didn't quite hear you? My other
inferiorly ranked men are all laughing too hard."

"I said, uh, you're so smart." Chet said, stirring his
grits morosely. Then his eyes shot up in alarm. 'Uh,
I don't mean "smart" as in sarcastic, Cap. At least 
not in, uh,, not in...that case..." he trailed off sheepishly,
and escaped into the newspaper to hide from 
the moment in hot water.

"Let's hope not, Kelly. The hoses in the tower
need to be reloaded.."

Chet was a mouse behind the funnies section.

Stoker and Marco's hands raised up. "Give it to us Cap.
Only fair.."Mike said. "We got out of it last time due to
a timely dumpster fire call."

"Good men.. Kelly, did you see that? Lopez
and Stoker actually volunteered to do one
of the sweaty jobs." Cap said.

"Yeah, well I don't see them lining up for the 
smelly one.." Chet groused.

"Quit eating like a horse and maybe the
bathrooms would smell a little better in
the morning Chet.." Gage retorted.

"Yeah, I had to use a half can of Lysol
Disinfectant just to breathe earlier.." Marco
quipped, joining Gage's bandwagon.

"I can't help it.." Chet said. "I was born with
an efficient colon. At least I don't let them
loose while giggling at erotic dreams in my sleep
like Marco over here."

"I do not.." Marco protested vehemently.

Gage sniggered. "Uh, is that in reply to part
A or part B of Chet's previous sentence Marco.
Your crewmates would really really like to know."

Marco just glared. "You try working in a firehouse
with a mama who stuffs YOU full of beans and
enchiladas just before your twenty four hours on
shifts, I'd say you'd be tooting them too."

"I'll stick with the engine's horn thanks.." Mike
said.

Gage scored a point in the air for Stoker.
"Ok, ok, that explains the gassier aspects
of your nightly exploits. Now, tell us about
your dreams, Marco Lopez.... Is she cute?"

"I'm Catholic!" Marco protested. "I don't
have to confess to you.."

"You might as well.." Gage warned in jest.
"I see a greaaattt moustache gripping handle
there under your nose..." and he rose in
his chair.

"Cap!!" Marco squeaked.

Johnny was already in his chair and chewing his
last bite of food by the time Cap's eyebrow was
fully cocked into the firing position. Hank settled
out of his warning glare and continued chewing
the piece of apple he had stolen from Roy's
plate. "What? I see no problem here. Except
for maybe a stack or two of too many dishes.
Lopez. Dish detail."

"Awww, Cap. I thought you were supposed to
safeguard your men." Marco said.

"I just did. Do you see Gage pinning you against
the wall where he had Kelly squirming last night?"

"No."

"Good, then hop to it. Stoker was the one who
cooked today. Gage, you got floor detail, a full
wet mop job. DeSoto, vehicle buffing, chrome
only. Looks like rain today."

"Well what about you, Cap?" Lopez still singing, 
stung.

"I have a new chore. I get to show Chester here
where to go..."he grinned. And he hefted up his
little charge and wandered out cooly into the yard.


The guys all rose from the breakfast table and
fell to.

Johnny was grinning at Marco's still red face from Chet
revealing out a night secret so boldly, but even he
wouldn't poke a man when he was down. ::Well,
not a fire fighting coworker at any rate, just a victim
on a scene to learn a consciousness level. Heh.:: he
thought. Then he said, "Say Roy.. Us going out this
weekend to help ol' Mr. Fajou is really gonna be
fun. I mean, Vince's got the keys to his place, right?
Maybe we can even all go in and clean up his kitchen
too for him."

Roy angled his head skeptically as he helped Lopez
grumpily stack plates as he carried each armload
to the sink. "I don't know, Johnny. Most gourmet
cooks don't like people messing with their kitchens."

"Who's to say Mr. Fajou is a gourmet chef? Well,
maybe a pastry baking one.." he admitted. "Still wouldn't
hurt to do this good deed thing a notch or two better."
he grinned cockeyed.

Chet piped up. "Yeah, maybe we can learn what's
finally in that basement of his and in all those other
creepy rooms, man."

Johnny waggled his head. "I don't think Mr. Fajou
would appreciate us snooping around his house
now would you?" he moaned caustic.

"Gage, that place's an historic landmark.."

"You mean a haunted one.." Stoker quipped from
around the newspaper.

Kelly went on as if he hadn't heard Mike interrupt 
him. "...Mr. Fajou probably gives movie tours to the
studio kids he bakes for all the time. I mean uh,
what's the difference if it's kids or firemen getting
thrilled to death in there..?"

"A big one, Chet Kelly. The poor guy deserves
a little privacy in his own home.." he insisted.

Kelly's eyes hit the table and his fidgetting fingers
drumming there."Looks more like the old guy 
needs a friend or two Johnny.." Chet said. "We 
can always act scared and nervous when he gets 
back and gives us a tour for doing his yardwork 
this weekend."

Roy grinned, folding his arms over his shoulders.
"There's that, Johnny. Come on, give in to a little
curiosity..." 

"Nice sentiment Roy, aren't you Catholic too?"
Gage said. 

"Doing a nice thing for somebody else isn't
a sin.." he replied. 

Marco agreed firmly. "Look it up.."

John shot both of them a disgusted look.

Then the alarm went off, for a full station call.
##Station 51, Engine 18, Truck 127. Battalion
14. Truck overturn with a chemical spill on the
Pacific Coast Highway at Southbound mile marker
513. Multiple vehicular involvement.Truck overturn 
on the PCH at Southbound mile marker 513. Cross 
street Dungeness. PD reports approach with caution. 
Be advised. An unknown gas cloud has prompted 
start of evacuation action from the CHP. Timeout,  
07:10. ##

Cap's shoes came pelting by the kitchen door and
he received the call as the men moved out. He handed 
off Chester B to Roy who left the bewildered
young pup safely on the recliner. "Be good pal. See
you when we get back." DeSoto told the little dog,
rushing out.

Cap acknowledged the run. "Station 51, 10-4. 
KMG 365.."

The entire company rolled out.......

----------------------------------------


Photo: A very sleepy Beagle pup.

Photo: Roy and John getting set for resting on
          their firehouse bunks.

Photo: Chet Kelly sleeping like King Nebenezzer.

Photo : Station 51's rescue call speaker.

*animated gif*  A massive fireball explosion mushroom cloud.

Photo: A gas cloud at an accident scene enveloping two running  
           people.

********************************
From :  "SM Fortis" <satchie51@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Restaurant Confessional  
Date :  Wed, 27 Nov 2002 09:42:38 -0600  
   

Grateful to be home in his own apartment, Kel
stretched out on the couch.  Despite Joe’s
advice he wait awhile before scheduling another
reconciliation attempt, Kel promptly contacted
his father and made reservations for dinner that
evening.  Patience never had been his greatest
virtue.  His colleague was right in one respect.
If Kel dictated the terms of the meeting and tried
to keep the conversation on message, perhaps he
would feel more in control of the situation.  He
was determined not to feel powerless in the presence
of Brent Brackett again.

Since his return home, Dixie called twice to make
sure he was okay.  To combat his growing anxiety,
Kel occupied himself by spending most of the
afternoon performing errands and browsing at a
jazz record store Joe was always raving about.
After purchasing a couple of albums, he glanced
at his watch and headed back to his apartment.

He was pleased to discover the patio door was
already replaced.  One unpleasant reminder of the
previous evening’s events was now conveniently
eradicated.  Unfortunately, the stark white bandages
wrapping his right hand and arm were still grim
reminders of his angry outburst.  Kel cringed at
the memory of his senseless act.

Placing his package on the table, he headed toward
his bedroom and began rummaging through his closet
for an appropriate suit.  After a quick shower and
shave, Kel changed clothes and left ahead of schedule.
He thought if he arrived at the restaurant first,
he would feel less intimidated by his father.  He
was resolved not to leave in humiliation again.

The maitre d’ promptly greeted Kel and ushered
him to his table.  He briefly closed his eyes and
drew a deep breath, trying to prepare himself for
the exchange that awaited him.  Looking through
the windows, Kel saw a spectacular sunset.  Somehow
the scene comforted and encouraged him.  The advice
of his friends was at the forefront of his mind
right now.  The sooner he could establish some
common ground with his father, the sooner their
fractured relationship could begin to heal.

Shortly thereafter, the elder Brackett was escorted
to the table.  Kel rose not only as a point of
etiquette, but also as a token of respect.  Brent
offered his hand in greeting, and suddenly Kel
felt self-conscious about his injury.  Pasting
an uncomfortable smile on his face, he gingerly
shook his father’s hand.

Brent frowned.  “What happened to your arm?”

“Oh, I had a little accident at home.  I’m fine.”
Eager to deflect attention from himself, Kel asked,
“Did you have any problems finding the restaurant?”

“No, not at all.  Your directions were quite
specific.”  Appreciatively eyeing the premises,
Brent remarked, “This place has a very cozy
atmosphere.  How did you happen upon this amazing
little discovery?”

Kel inwardly smiled at the memories of many pleasant
evenings he shared with Dixie here.  “A friend
introduced me to it several years ago.  I hoped
the change of venue would provide a fresh start
for us.  There would be no ghosts from the past
to haunt us.”  Signaling the waiter, he ordered
a round of drinks for the two of them, preferring
club soda for himself.  He decided he could not
afford to have his thoughts clouded by alcohol,
nor his famous temper unleashed by lowered
inhibitions.  No, tonight Kel needed his complete
faculties.

His father’s brow furrowed.  “You’re not having
your usual?”

“I’m taking some medication,” Kel lied.

“I heard you took a rare day off today.  Is
everything okay?”

That was the problem with a small community like
Rampart, news traveled fast.  How much did his
father know about last night?  Kel’s answer was
evasive.  “I had some personal business to attend
to.”

“I have to admit, I was surprised to hear from you
this afternoon,” Brent said.  “I thought our last
meeting went rather badly.”

Taking a sip of his drink, Kel proceeded, “That’s
why I wanted to see you again so soon.  I think
we’ve allowed this situation to go on long enough.
Don’t you agree?”

His father sighed.  “So, has the prodigal son
experienced some glorious epiphany since we last
met?”

“Dad, I’m simply tired of this ridiculous state
of affairs.  We’ve been at odds since I was a kid.
Okay, I’m not a brilliant psychiatrist, so maybe
I’m too dense to understand the official psychobabble
explanation.  But I’m smart enough to know this
standoff has come to an end.”

“You always have been willful.”

The men were granted a respite when the waiter
came to take their order.  They sat in silence
for several minutes, each studiously avoiding
contact.  It was painfully obvious neither felt
comfortable in the other’s presence.

Finally, Brent addressed his son.  “I understand
you were upset with me last night.”

Kel shot his father a baleful glare.  “We’re not
here to discuss MY problems.  We’re here to
discuss OURS.”

“Okay, so what’s really on your mind?”

Attempting to keep his tone of voice devoid of
emotion, Kel asked, “Why DID you move to Los
Angeles?  Of all the places in the country you
could have relocated to, why did you have to move
here, and why did you choose to practice at
Rampart?”

Brent stared at the table centerpiece.  “Your mother
wanted the two of us to make amends.  Since it
was obvious you weren’t going to make the first
step, she thought I should swallow my foolish pride
and initiate the process.”

“I don’t understand.”

“When you were a boy, we used to enjoy spending
time together, as strange as that seems now.  We
went almost everywhere together.”  A small smile
escaped Brent’s lips.  “I used to take you to the
hospital with me, and you’d tell anyone who would
listen that you were my son, and you were going to
be a doctor like me when you grew up.”

The older man remorsefully shook his head.  “But
soon your youthful boasts appealed to my vanity.
I envisioned you as my own immortality, so I wanted
to remold you in my image.  Since you were always
so willing to please me, I assumed you would be
agreeable to this arrangement.  I honestly pictured
us spending quality time together over the years,
and in due time, I foresaw the day when you would
take your rightful place as my partner in my
clinical practice.”

“But it didn’t quite work out that way,” Kel said
flatly.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t.  I pushed you away
instead. In my arrogance, I refused to recognize
you as a unique individual.  You always had a
sense of your own identity.”

“I resented you dictating my life,” Kel stated.
“You never bothered to ask me if I wanted to
participate in your grand plans or not.  All I
knew is one day I was Dad’s precious son who
could do no wrong, and then the next you found
fault with everything I did.  No detail was too
insignificant to escape your exacting scrutiny.
I thought you didn’t love me anymore.”

“But that was the problem,” Brent explained.  “I
loved you too much, but in an unhealthy way.  Ironic,
isn’t it?  Here I was, a well-renown psychiatrist,
but I wasn’t able to see I was sabotaging our
relationship.  Every time you rebelled and became
angrier, I became more critical.  Because you failed
to conform, I assumed you were stupid and ungrateful.
I felt like a failure not only as a father, but also
as a psychiatrist.  My ego wouldn’t allow me to admit
I had failed.  Until the day you left, I had to keep
trying to remake you.”

Kel rubbed his face.  “Why didn’t you say anything
before?

“Saying ‘I’m sorry’ has never come easily to me.
I didn’t realize the full implications of what I
had done to you until you were gone.  By that time,
we were barely speaking to each other.  Over the
years, begging for forgiveness became next to
impossible.”

Conflicting emotions swirled within Kel.  He was
angry with his father for not mentioning any of
this earlier, but he understood how difficult it
must have been for him to do so tonight.  Kel
took after his father in that respect.  It was
not in his nature to cross emotional barriers
without significant effort.  If it were not for
the encouragement of Dixie and Joe, he would not
be here this evening having this conversation.
He knew he was hardly in a position to judge his
father on this particular point.

But he also felt a myriad of other feelings:
abandonment, betrayal, resentment, bewilderment
and surprisingly, still even love.  Kel saw his
father with new eyes.  Brent didn’t look so arrogant
and controlling now.  Instead, he came across as an
aging pathetic figure that once hoped to live forever
through his son.

For a long period of time, the two men did not
speak.  They were content to nurse their drinks
and stare into oblivion.  They were relieved when
the waiter served the food.  For a few moments
they would be spared the necessity of having to
engage in conversation.

As they began to eat, Brent looked on with genuine
concern since Kel seemed to have trouble carving
his steak due to his injured hand.  “Do you need
any help with that?” he offered.

“No, that’s okay, I have it under control.  I’m
pretty good with a knife, if I do say so myself,”
Kel grinned.

“I see you haven’t lost your sense of modesty
over the years.”

The son shrugged.  “It’s hard to be humble and
great at the same time.”

“You’re a lot like your mother in some ways, very
resilient and single-minded.  I know you tend to
think of it as a sign of weakness, but you’re more
compassionate like she is.”  Brent softly said,
“After all these years, your mother has never
forgiven me for driving you away from us.  I’m
not sure I’ve forgiven myself.”

Kel was confused.  He wasn’t sure what he expected
from this evening’s meeting, but his father’s
uncharacteristic confession certainly wasn’t it.
He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.  Recent
conversations with Dixie and Joe weighed heavily
upon his conscience.  Years of hurt could not be
easily erased with a simple apology.  Yet, they
needed to begin somewhere.  He thought of his mother,
and the years of anguish this rift must have caused
her.  Didn’t he at least owe it to her to make an
effort?

Staring at his nearly full plate, Kel tentatively
cleared this throat.  “Dad, as you’ve pointed out
before, I’ve never been good at maintaining
relationships.  But maybe now is a good time to
begin.  Don’t you think it’s time we started
behaving like two grown men and put aside our
differences, if for no other reason than for
Mom’s sake?”

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Brent said
reluctantly.

Cautiously leaning forward, Kel spoke.  “Perhaps
it’s time for you to visit me in my office for a
change.  You know, see me in my natural habitat?
It’s possible I subconsciously went into emergency
medicine to spite you or to prove something to myself.
But somewhere along the way I discovered it was
my passion.  I really love this field, and I’m
good at it.  I can’t imagine being happier anywhere
else but the emergency room of Rampart.  What do
you say, Dad?”

Brent considered his son’s proposal.  “I don’t know.
I heard the head of the department can be a real
bear and a force to be reckoned with.”

“No, those are all vicious rumors,” Kel chuckled.
“He’s a real pussycat once you get to know him.
At least that’s what the head nurse is fond
of pointing out.”

“Speaking of the head nurse, do I have your
reassurances she’s not going to bite my head
off if I set foot in the ER?  She must think
I give you such grief.”

“No, Dad.  In fact, she’s one of the reasons
I called you.  Dixie has been after me for ages
to get me to end this conflict.  She’s a
persistent woman.”

“Sounds like your mother,” Brent joked.  The two
men laughed.  For the first time all evening, they
felt genuinely relaxed.

“How about meeting me in my office for coffee
tomorrow morning?” Kel asked.  “I can give you
a tour of my department.”  With a tinge of a
little boy’s expectation in his voice he added,
“Hopefully you’ll be proud of what your son has
become.”

-------------------------------------------

Photo:  Kel in a gray suit.

Photo : A California sunset.

Photo: Posh brick rustic restaurant's interior.

Photo : Joe Early by the coffee mug shelf.

Photo : Dixie looking no nonsense and listening.

Photo : Dr. Brackett answering a rescue intercom call.

Photo : Kel in the coffee lounge, closeup. 

**********************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Mad Dash...  
Date : Thu, 28 Nov 2002 08:20:24 +0000

Offstory: 

Acknowledgements Firehouse.com HazMatZone 
http://www.firehouse.com/training/hazmat/studies/2002/03_ammonia.html
For information about anhydrous ammonia spills and detailed
hazardous material clean up procedures.

Acknowledgements to Tom Stafford  MD Firefighter/Captain 
On Foam Truck Hazmat Procedures via email. 

Acknowledgements to P. Keiper NREMT, for first aid advice
treating such exposures for characters in story and finding
anhydrous related image jpegs for me.

Back In Story:  
   


> ##Station 51, Engine 18, Truck 127. Battalion
>14. Truck overturn with a chemical spill on the
>Pacific Coast Highway at Southbound mile marker
>513. Multiple vehicular involvement.Truck overturn 
>on the PCH at Southbound mile marker 513. Cross 
>street Dungeness. PD reports approach with caution. 
>Be advised. An unknown gas cloud has prompted 
>start of evacuation action from the CHP. Timeout,  
>07:10. ##

>Cap acknowledged the run. "Station 51, 10-4. 
>KMG 365.."

>The entire company rolled out.......

----------------------------------------

Roy sped the squad down the boulevard
as Johnny doubled checked the exact
location of access to the scene in his head.
"The best exit to use for that ramp is
the PCH itself, Roy. That part of the freeway
wraps around a bend in a canyon. Let's hope
whatever the gas is coming from this spill 
doesn't float too high. There are about sixty
homes in the area on the bluffs." Johnny finally
said.

"Let's hope for the best." DeSoto replied.

The communications channel patched between
all responding units was in a flurry of activity.
They could hear Highway Patrol chattering urgently
as they continued their evacuation of the cars in
the area, and one merchant's business. Then, 
came the reassuring voice of Battalion 14, already
on scene. 
##Battalion 14 to Station 51. Approach from the
Southbound direction, downwind of the wreck,
two cars and one semitruck are involved. Wear full
SCBA turnout and stay out of the area until Hazmat
moves in. The truck involved is a NH3 nurse truck with
confirmed top tank valve leakage.## 

John and Roy heard Cap pick up the mike,
"Batallion 14, Station 51. Acknowledged. Southbound
entry in full respiratory apparatus, understood."

"Oh, great.." John moaned. "Anhydrous ammonia. All our
turnout jackets might as well be paper suits for all the 
protection they'll give us once we're in there."

Roy glanced at his partner. "Yeah, well, let's just
hope the Santa Anas keep the cloud blowing away
from us.. Shouldn't be a problem today..."

"I wouldn't bet on it. Look." Johnny said. In the sky,
rare, heavy rainclouds were blowing in off the ocean to
their left as they sped ahead of the Ward LaFrance. "If
that rain gets here. That spill's gonna go. You know 
how reactive anhydrous is to free water.."

Soon, the thickening stalled traffic made Roy slow,
and two CHP motorcycles joined up with them to show
them the twisting curving route to the accident scene
in between the stopped, now emptied cars on the 
roadway.

"Wow, they acted fast. There're no bystander victims
on the curbs." Johnny said. "Amazing.. That gas cloud's
huge.."

Through the windshield of the squad, a tenuous white
steam-like misting of gas fumes,were pooling against 
the cliffs around the truck in a long plume, carrying downwind.

Then they saw it. The involved truck, it was upright,
almost intact. But beneath it lay a sportscar and one
woman, fouled and trapped behind her crumpled
steering column. Truck 127's men were already on
scene with bottles and masks advancing on her
with mist fanning hoses into the air to dissolve away
any lingering swirls of ammonia from over her location.

Roy screeched to a halt two hundred yards from the truck.
"Gotta stop here. If that gas cloud doubles back, it'll
corrode the vehicles."

"Not to mention us, too." Gage said grimly. "She must
be alive. They're spraying a defensive pattern over her.."

DeSoto and Gage rushed out of the squad cab and met
up with Cap and the gang in a hurried group as they
all grabbed SCBA and pulled out high volume water hoses.
Roy and John had their air bottles and masks on in
less than a minute. "Cap...?" Roy asked, ready for
instant instructions.

Hank Stanley stood, his helmet off in hand, holding his
mask to his face and he motioned them all nearer.
"I want you all to take a look at where the liquid
puddles are now. Remember where they are when
you start laying down water. That is where the ammonia
lies. It's subliming into gas and it's -28 F. Watch your
step or your clothes and shoes will freeze burn to
your skin faster than dry ice! If you get any liquid on you,
start stripping off all clothing immediately and get
under a firm wash.. and don't stop hosing down. 
Only way to thaw those kinds of burns. Any fumes
will dessicate your eyes and mucous membranes
on contact. And the only thing that will help it is
water. Tons of it.  Oh, and I don't think I have
to tell any of you guys to avoid other engine 
companies hose runoff. Anhydrous is caustic 
ammonium hydroxide when diluted with water 
until its through absorbing water to satiation.
Don't worry about sparks from extrication equipment.
This stuff's not flammable out in the open.
The gas cloud will turn transparent as it spreads but
you'll be able to smell it long before you reach a
dangerous area. Remember, your safety comes first. 
If I tell you to retreat, do it sooner than yesterday. 
Ok, move out.."

The gang circled the truck widely, avoiding the deadly
cold shiny spill stain spreading from under the dripping misting
valve of the shattered semi and moved onto a narrow strip 
of dry concrete that Batallion 14 and the other crews were 
utilizing near the trapped woman's sportscar. 

Cap lifted his handy talkie to his mouth. He now had a better
idea of what they were dealing with. "Foam Truck 127. Move in.
The only leaking areas I see are immediately beneath the
semi.. Lay a full covering spread. Confirmed pressurized
anhydrous ammonia leak. The tank's got the proper labels all
over it."

Gage watched Roy sprint over to the other car, crumpled
and on the side of the road.

"Chief?" Johnny yelled through his mask. "How's she doing?"
he said to the older white helmeted man directing the water
curtain misting team holding fast between the woman and
the semi. He could hear the dark skinned woman moaning
from where she sat pinned in her seat.

"She was talking a while ago, but she's starting to
have some trouble breathing. Just get her out before
you treat anything beyond the basics. This wind may 
shift on us with that thunderstorm approaching." 
the Battalion chief replied. "Careful in there.. And do
not use any O2 at all. The moisture from it will only
burn your victim's lungs and her eyes if she takes in any 
concentrated ammonia gas to her face using it while still
being this close to the leak. Wait until you're evacuated."  

Johnny saw a pair of legs lying under the semi where
the truck driver had fallen after escaping his cab and he
started forward.. The chief grabbed his arm,
shaking his head. "He's dead.. we found his face
frozen solid to the ground. Looks like a direct
stream hit him when he tried to shut off the valve
to protect the woman."

Johnny swallowed dryly and he nodded,
firmly making himself not looking at the man's upper
torso after hearing that.

Roy and Johnny gingerly made their way over to her, wincing
as hose mist dampened their coats and hissed as minute
traces of ammonia gas sizzled on the rubber they contained.
Their breathing sounded hollow behind their masks, whistling
in their ears. Terror made them begin to sweat immediately.

Johnny shouted to the woman putting own his best
calming smile and soothing voice.. "Hey, how are ya doing?
Just relax, we're gonna get you outta here.." He said,
moving a quickly ungloved hand to her carotid for an
assessment. "You hurt anywhere besides your legs?" he 
asked. "Anything in your neck or back?"

The dashboard hid most of them from him below
her knees, but he saw no visible blood anywhere on
her pants legs.

"No, I'm fine..agh. Get me out of here.. Can't...can't..
b- breathe." and she gasped and her eyes rolled into
her head.

"Cap!! Step up that misting! The fumes are doubling 
back!!" Gage shouted, holding the woman's throat
and chin tipped up as far as he could. He could feel
her chest heave as she began to choke a bit. Gage
lifted her larynx up with his fingers and her stridor
eased off. "Hey.. You're fine.. Just keep breathing.
Nice and slow and very shallowly. Now we're gonna get
you out of here real fast. Just relax... You hear
me?" he shouted, muffled through his mask.

The woman was beyond talking, but her 
eyes never left Johnny's and her hands tightly
gripped his wrist where he was managing her 
airway for her. Her struggling eased off as
blissful clear air returned around them from
the displacing water fan's effect.

The fireteam near them added another hose to
the water curtain swiftly, and found the best
angle to utilize the clearing winds until they
pushed the wispy edges of the gas cloud away 
from the paramedics and their victim.

Chet and Marco sprinted up with a K-12 and jaws
and Roy was right behind them with news about
the other car. "The other driver's ok. Just bumps
and bruises. The CHP got him out just fine, he's 
waiting for us. Just has a simple fracture of the
right ulna. What do you got here?"

"Dyspnea. Moderate laryngeal spasming. And her legs 
are pinned. She says they don't hurt at all. I didn't
see any bleeding. Her C-Spine's clear. Can you tell 
anything down there? I haven't checked her out 
very well yet because of this.." he said angling his 
head to mean the lifting airway hold he was 
maintaining on her with both hands over her throat 
at the angle of her jaw.

Roy said, "Hang on." And he moved to the other
side of the car, crawling in as well as he could
over the woman's lap to check. "Just a panel
of the dashboard over her left knee. The jaws
should be able to handle that well enough..
Nothing seems to be broken.." he said, moving
careful hands over her lower limbs.
He straightened up, "Kelly there's a good bar
right down there to put the chain. String it
up would ya?" he said calmly. 

"Right.." Chet said. Then his eyes fell on the woman's
name tag, still on her shoulder. "Daphne, now we're
gonna pull this car off your legs, won't hurt at all
but it's gonna be real loud for a while. Just some
sounds of twisting, popping metal all right?"

"O-Ok.. ugh.." her voice rasped hoarsely.
Johnny hastily readjusted her head's placement 
when her eyes suddenly closed.

"Hey hey, now Daphne.. Stay with us.." said
Johnny.  His forearm never left her diaphragm 
nor lifted away from the breaths he could feel 
moving there. "She needs O2. Fast. Daphne,
don't...black out. We need you to- ah, h*ll..."
and he shifted position, taking the full dead 
weight of her head into his shoulder as
Daphne lapsed into limp unconsciousness.

There was a loud thudding of hollow liquid and metal 
from above and they all hunched down, anticipating
trouble..

All the firemen looked up to the nurse tank truck's 
roof when a man from Hazmat suddenly appeared above
the leaking valve in a full chemical suit to deal with
the source of the spreading cloud.  They heard his
satisfied grunt when all it took was a flip of the
tank's sealing cap and a twist of its pressurized 
valve to stop all the bad fumes.

Everyone sighed in relief. But the Batallion chief said,
"We're not out of the woods yet. That cloud will hang
around for hours before it dissipates. Only water
will carry it into the soil where it will be absorbed.
Stay away from it.. And we'd better hope it doesn't
start to rain. That will flatten the cloud like a pancake
and we'll all be enveloped before we even have a
chance to run. Get her free and move her out 
to the half mile perimeter at the minimum.."

"Yes sir.." Roy replied.

The Jaws and K-12 came to life under the assisting
Truck 127 firemen's gloves, working to free Daphne.

The sportscar was foreign made but soon, brute
mechanical strength made the front end uncrumple 
and fall away.

Kelly piped up from the front tire spot. "We got it! We
got it. Gage, DeSoto, you can pull her out anytime, 
but hang on just a sec, and let me get a wooden longboard 
for her. It won't melt down in the ammonia if it gets wet 
like a metal stokes would." And the stocky masked and 
helmeted fireman ran for the station's engine.

"Bring a C collar too! And a short oral airway! 
I wanna get one in before she swells up any more."
John shouted after him.

Three minutes later, Daphne was breathing secured,
and almost free when a new smell reached those on 
the outskirts of the evacuated area.
Rain.. on hot concrete.

"Rain!! Everybody out of there! Now!!!" Cap shouted
into his HT. "Move it! Move it!! That cloud's gonna
bloom big time..."

All the firemen around the car dropped their hoses
and grabbed Daphne's board gracelessly.
And Roy, John and they, ran with her, top speed, 
away from the semi truck.. leaving behind all else.

The cloud of anhydrous NH3 above them writhed
ominously, expanding with the gift of water,
and then hideously, it began to settle, on the way
to smothering those running on the ground beneath it.

Station 51's vehicles were nearest to the semi. 

"Move move!! Everybody on.. We're getting outta 
here!" Stoker ordered.. 

The firemen hefted up Daphne's long board onto the back
of the engine and clung to the side rails as Stoker
hastily fired up the engine and rapidly backed away 
down the freeway in a race to avoid the 
spreading cloud of gas. Roy and Johnny barely
managed to get the squad, festooned with un-chem suited
hazmat men hanging on to whatever they could, out of 
there when a wall of caustic puffing vapor occupied the place 
where they had just been..  

Roy frantically wove in between cars, driving back
wards as fast as he could, until he was convinced he
was outdistancing the rain spiked gas plume's widening
fringe.

In Roy's mind, he was intermittently terrified and 
amused when Stoker maneuvered the LaFrance 
with all the lurching grace of a drunk rhino, in reverse, 
along their same torturous route in between the maze 
of stopped abandoned autos on the highway. 

Mike almost didn't see a Harley, and he threw the steering
wheel full left to avoid it.

Chet, his grip insecure, fell off the side from the landing
when momentum flung him wide.

He impacted the road violently, and rolled with
his heavy tank bottle still on his back, in front of the 
squad. Roy slammed on his brakes when he saw 
a canvas backed body lurching in his rear mirrors. 
"ohmyg*d" Gage said, and both Johnny 
and Roy's eyes slid back the way they had come
to the rolled tanker to see a huge angry semi transluscent
wall of ammonia boiling down upon them. 

Then they both glanced back at the stunned Chet, who
was just trying for his feet. Johnny said, "Move Roy,
move.. We'll pick him up as we pass him by.."

Roy didn't speak, he acted. And the squad began to
pick up speed once more in reverse.

"Get up ! Get up, Chet! Grab onto me!!" Gage shouted,
throwing an arm through his open passenger window for
Chet to snag onto. "It's almost on us!"

Terror made Kelly get up immediately and he started 
sprinting for Johnny's hand and the squad's landing 
board like a hobo trying to catch a caboose. 

Along the way, Kelly shed his breathing apparatus in pieces,
clearly running for his life. The bottle fell away finally and Chet
stumbled only once before his running finally gained him
the ground he needed, he caught up with Roy's 
continuing high speed reversing.

An errant gust of wind caught Chet full in the 
face and it came with poisonous teeth and
rain.

Kelly's hands flew to his eyes and he screamed, 
just as Johnny grabbed his arms and hauled him 
partially into the squad, belly down. 


--------------

Others motorists in the safe area saw the engine 
and squad escaping the spreading cloud only by 
slim meters as yet unaware of what was happening 
in the cab.

They began to cheer when the two reversing
red vehicles regained their lead on it, and 
began to pull away.

Those cheers turned to shouts of horror when
they saw Chet's legs and lower half
dangling precariously out the window of
the high speed backward traveling rescue squad.

------------------------------------

Photo :  A nurse tank semi truck with
             an anhydrous ammonia topper.

Photo:   Johnny with a choking woman 
             trapped in a car.

Photo : A hazmat team member sealing
            off a top tank ammonia leak in
            a full chem suit.

Photo : Chet Kelly being supported by Cap and Johnny.

******************************* 
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2002 00:49:07 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Across the Finish Line.. 
 

Gage's arms were about ready to drop off
from Chet's dead weight in the window.
"Chet! Chet! Did you get any of that in your
eyes?" he said, gasping, straining to hang onto
Kelly's belt through his faceplate.

"Yeah. *cough* Owww.....hurry. Need 
a hose.. uuhhhGGGg. ahh sh*t!"Johnny could see 
Chet's eyes suddenly and involuntarily screw shut.

John hauled Chet over onto his back where he was 
on his lap, ignoring the rest of Kelly still half 
hanging out the squad's window as Roy continued 
to steer the squad backwards, and he forced 
Chet's eyes open between firm trembling fingers.

Gage's other hand found the two gallon jug
of water always kept under the dash by
his feet for brush fires and he sloshed it
liberally into Kelly's face, "Let's get this wash in.
Come on!.. Come on.. Don't fight me.
Open your eyes.. Chet stay still.. ."

"I'm gonna fall! I'm slipping! AhHH! My eyes!"

"You're not gonna fall out of the squad."
Johnny threw a leg over Chet's waist to
keep him from sliding back out the window.
"I got you.." and he gave a strong heave
to get more of Chet into the cab. "Chet, 
hold still. I gotta wash your face and those
eyes out good or you'll burn real bad."

Roy's hands were struck from the steering wheel
by Chet's pitching head, deep in his pain, but he 
quickly recovered control. Somehow, the men 
clinging on the outside of the squad were pure 
barnacle, and no one fell off.

"Chet, it's ok.. We're almost clear.." Roy shouted.
"Let Johnny get to your eyes! We gotta get
that stuff outta them."

"Aghh.. I'm on fire! It's so cold! Ahh..HHh." 
Already Chet's voice was raspy and deep from
exposure to the gas.

Johnny grunted, pouring more water even
faster into Chet's eyes, forcefully.

It seemed like years but finally Roy said.
"Ok, we made it. We're there.." his voice
cracked. Roy could see the gang from 
the engine already on the far side of the 
police accident barricade, watching them intently.

DeSoto hit his air horn, letting them know Chet was
in trouble beyond just his fall off the engine and
how he was riding half out of the squad.

Half of them came at a run, while another company
stayed behind to carry Daphne from 51's Ward's 
hose bed, back down to the ground. 

Gage was still irrigating Chet's eyes in his lap
desperately, by the time Cap and Marco got to 
him and hauled Chet bodily out of the squad's 
windowframe. "Cap, gas caught him in the face,
real bad." he said. "How are you doing Chet?"
John said rocketting out of the squad and slamming
the door shut. He ran to the gear compartment doors
and whipped them open, grabbing the 02 apparatus
and a 2 liter burn saline bag. 

Kelly felt Cap keep him from reaching up
to his face with his hands and he opened his
eyes. "Better.. *cough*.."

"Good now just let Cap keep washing your eyes
out.." Johnny said, handing the solution IV pack 
over to Hank. "Let me and Roy get the rest of the
equipment out of the squad..That saline won't 
sting your eyes so much.."

"See to the girl first. I can wait.." Chet gasped, 
still fighting to see around the painful prickling in
his eyes. He felt Stoker wrap one of his arms over his
broad shoulders to support him as they moved to
the staging area near the waiting ambulances.

Gage grinned. "Let us be the judge of that. She
didn't get thrown out of a vehicle like you did
Chester B."

"Really I feel fine, guys.. Just a few lumps
and these knives plunging into my eyes.."

"Yeah?" Hank said, "Well, you're in for a complete
bath." Cap said, continuing to pour saline from a pour
spout into Kelly's eyes under his grip.  "Mike,
Lopez, grab him and let's go. Engine 18's got a 
decontam area already set up over here.." And 
Mike and Marco attempted to scoop up Chet 
into a two man carry, which Kelly resisted.

"I can walk.. I can walk.. I'm just squinting cause it
hurts. Not because I can't see." Kelly complained, 
throwing off Stoker and Lopez's help. The two grinned,
and contented themselves with walking at Chet's 
side while Cap continued to wash down Chet's
face and eyes thoroughly from the oversized IV
bag.

Cap jibbed in. "Man what a close call, eh Kelly? 
Despite what happened to you, this rain's a 
blessing in disguise. It'll soak all that ammonia 
into the ground for us, where it'll dissolve into 
the rocks . A twenty minute shower
will be enough to do the trick. We'll be able to
tow away the wreckage and open the freeway
again by nightfall." he grinned.

"Lucky us.. Rain on just the day we need it.."
Chet commented, trying to be brave, he even
ran fingers through his messy curls as he
went with Cap and the others for decontamination.

Roy and John were already kneeling by Daphne's
longboard reassessing her, when Kelly suddenly
sagged in his coworker's grips. 
 
"Hey..Hey Chet?!" Cap shouted. Marco and Mike
caught him, hastily tightening their grips on Chet's
underarms and jacket. "Stoker ease him down..
Careful. Careful."

Gage shot to his feet. "I was afraid of this, you guys.
He might've taken a good shot of gas in the lungs. You
heard the way his voice was going. Keep his head and
chest angled up with something! I'll be right there."

Stoker made a pillow from his coat for Kelly who was 
still partially awake. Johnny crouched with a penlight 
checking his nose and throat for burns. "Chet.. Can 
you hear me, pal?  Still breathing ok?"

He was, shallowly.

Kelly blinked under Johnny's light. But alarmingly, he 
was no longer coughing. Gage saw that he seemed dazed,
and not really focusing on all the guys bending over him.

Johnny kept a hand on Kelly's chest and he looked up.
"Cap, we still gotta keep irrigating those eyes and the 
rest of him despite this. We'll worry about warming him 
afterwards once he's decontam'd. Right now, he needs
to get this ammonia off his skin, and a lot of O2 into his
system."

"That covers him. But I gotta ask. Get any on yourself 
helping him, Gage?" Hank asked Johnny.

"No.."

Roy sighed and said, "I did. My arm's tingling. His 
head hit me when Johnny dragged him into the squad.
He must have had some in his hair for a bit before it
evaporated."

Cap stood, rapidly motioning for a hose team to string
him a brush line for Kelly's wash right where he was. 
"Washdown, gotcha Gage." he said pointing down at Chet.
"DeSoto, you're headed for the decontam tent, right 
now." Hank ordered. "For yours."

"But Cap.." Roy started up.

"No complaints.. Gage can handle treating the woman
and Chet just fine with Squad 18's medics 
until you're done."

"Roy, just go. Kelly's breathing ok for the moment."
Johnny told him. He glared until Roy disappeared 
into the canvas emergency tent.

Then Gage bent down to listen to Chet's
pulmonary status with a stethoscope as Lopez 
began to cut away Kelly's clothes for his
hose soaking wash.
"Chet.."Johnny called out leaning down over
the shocky fireman's pale face. "Still here? We're gonna 
haveta wash ya down now. And it's gonna be cold. 
Not too fun. Also, I need to shift you onto your 
side to irrigate those eyes some more
to be sure we got it all out. We'll get you on 
some dry O2, so it won't burn your chest 
so much and breathing will come easier. Just 
relax, I'm gonna check you out closer to make 
sure your little tumble didn't crack anything 
else besides your backside, ok?" he 
said, smiling, trying to raise Chet's spirits.

But Kelly remained very quiet, his face slack, where he
he lay on the ground. He tried to moan but no sound
came out of his swelling throat, and he just wheezed 
instead in a poor attempt to clear his throat.

Johnny looked up as Station Eighteen's paramedics joined
them. "Mendelson. Get him on straight 100% O2 by demand
valve, non humidified. Force it if he obstructs.  Peters, you got his
vitals set here?  Afterwards continue that eye wash.
I'm going to go get a new set on the woman and phone
us in.."

Johnny knelt by Daphne, relieving the fireman watching
her O2 mask intake, and got a BP on her. She was 
cool to the touch following her hose washing, even under
her thick blankets on the long board, and was
still out. Johnny was pleased to find her breathing 
well through her oral airway. Gage looked up a minute 
later with just the vitals information, for Rampart.

Nearby, Cap and Stoker had already begun streaming 
a hand hose's scrubbing spray over Kelly's shivering 
bare skin, while Mendelson kept the demand valve 
in place over Kelly's nose and mouth so the lung
burned, stricken, fireman could breathe in its 
soothing oxygen flow. Peter's was working on
his eyes, irrigating them. Gage noticed Chet no
longer resisted that. ::He's going out. Might be
better for him that way in the long run. A lower
BP will mean less pulmonary swelling. I hope.::


"Fifteen minutes Cap!" Johnny shouted towards them. 
"Keep it up until then. He's sure to go hypothermic but
we'll worry about that once we're sure all the 
ammonia's off of him."

"You got it pal.." Cap replied, deftly spraying
Chet's contaminated clothing away from
him and the medics working on him. Then he
returned to the washdown, getting Chet's hair
thoroughly scoured as well. Mendelson
and Peters ignored the fact they were getting 
partially wet, their concentration on Kelly's care 
unwavering.

Gage opened the biocom quickly, and snapped
the aerial into place. He brought the phone's receiver
to his face. "Rampart, this is Squad 51. How
do you read?"

---------------------

Joe Early had just been by Dixie's desk,
working on a chart when he noticed the
red rescue light flashing in the receiving alcove.
He tapped her shoulder and the two of them
entered the tiny glassed off room.

Joe thumbed the intercom. "Unit calling in
please repeat.. " and he turned on the tape
recorder near the radio speaker.

##Rampart, this is Squad 5-1.#

"Go ahead 51. I read you loud and clear.." Joe
said.

"Rampart, we've two victims of anhydrous ammonia
gas, secondarily compounded by possible blunt trauma.
Victim One, unconscious, a woman aged approximately 
27-28 years of age. Victim of an automobile versus 
semi trailer truck. No apparent gross injuries other than
ammonia inhalation. I  haven't yet had time to give 
her a thorough secondary assessment. Vitals, however 
on her, are stable. Victim Two, a Code I. Fell from a 
moving firetruck while we were trying to get away from
the gas cloud. Expressed marked walking 
wounded syndrome, now semi comatose with 
growing moderate respiratory distress. He is on a 
hundred percent dry O2. Rampart, her hose irrigation
is complete. His nearly so." 

Joe rubbed his nose while hearing Johnny's report.
Then he toggled the reply switch. "51. Give me
a vitals set on Victim Two."

Johnny caught a sailing notepad, full of 
information, from Peters. "10-4, Rampart. 
Victim Two. Pulse 120. BP  92 / 60, 
Respirations, 24 and wheezy, breathing on his 
own. Breath sounds show moderate upper 
tracheal wheezing on the left, clear on the 
right." Johnny's face
fell when he read Peter's other medical finding. 
"Also,....showing marked guarding of his upper left 
quadrant abdomen with referring pain up into
both shoulders. C-spine and all neuro
responses intact."

"51, Apply mast trousers and inflate only the 
compartments over the lower extremities.
Any rapid boost in his blood pressure may
exacerbate his breathing and compromise his
lung function due to those probable pulmonary burns.. 
Inflate the suit's chambers until his BP is on the
low side of normal only. Then start two large bore 
IV's, 51. Both of D5W, wide open. We'll treat for
shock now and treat any resulting pulmonary 
edema later. Right now, it's more important
to keep that internal injury at bay. It may be
a ruptured spleen. 51, any indication of 
head trauma?"

"Negative, Rampart." Johnny replied.

"Good." Joe said. "If he recovers consciousness
fully, pain from his seared lungs, may keep him 
from being able to breathe on his own. Have
2 mg MS IV Push standing ready should he need it.
The more he moves air on his own, the better off
he'll be in the long run. If positive pressure is needed,
use only enough each vent for half inflation of 
the lungs. I don't want to collapse them from 
leakage from those aveolial burns."

Gage sighed in concentration and repeated back
his orders. "10-4, ah. 2 milligrams MS IV push 
as needed. Two IV D5Ws wide open and mast trouser 
application to low normal BP. Light vents on 
the demand valve on any respiratory arrest."

Joe said. "Also, guard against shock and begin 
rewarming measures once his irrigation is
complete." 

"10-4,  Treat for shock and hypothermia 
following the washdown."

Joe said, "Give me Victim number One's vitals."

Johnny said. "Victim One. Earlier laryngeal spasming.
Independently resolved on its own, following a 
return to clear air. Oral airway is in place. She's on 
sixteen liters of 02, dry. BP 130/102, Respirations 
shallow and deep alternating, at 20. Pulse 100. 
Pupils equal and reactive. No response to verbal. 
Slight to pain on the consciousness level." 

"10-4, 51. On Victim One, Keep monitoring for any 
deterioration in her respiratory status. Stridor, wheezing,
ineffective lung draws, and then treat the symptoms
when they arrive with 2 mg 1:10,000  epinephrine 
into an IV, 51, of normal saline, TKO. 

On both victims, keep them warm at as near 
normal a body temperature as possible. Make up a burn
chart as needed, showing any areas of ammonia exposure,
it usually takes a few hours after exposure for an ammonia
freezing to show on the skin. Include suspected pulmonary
involvement and any burns of mucosal membranes, such
as in the nose, surrounding the eyes, and involving
the throat. Do not cover any burns found. Keep them
open, 51."

"10-4, Rampart. Burn charting percentages, and
open air for burn protocol." Gage replied. "Rampart
ambulance is on scene."

"Ok, 51. Notify me of any negative change in 
their vitals signs and transport as soon as possible."

"10- 4, Rampart."

Johnny, Mendelson and Peters had just finished
starting the three IV's when Roy rushed back
over to Johnny's side, his hair wet, with dry night
turnout trousers on and a clean T-shirt someone had
gotten for him from the engine. "How are they?" 
he asked.

Gage handed his partner his notes from the biocom
call and said. "Chet may have a ruptured spleen
on top of his other problems." he said unhappily.
"I probably didn't help him hauling him by the belt
like I did. Doc's got him marked for light vents 
if he quits breathing on us."

"Don't feel bad, jarring an internal injury was better
than us just leaving him behind to be melted to slag by a 
corrosive cloud, don't you think?"

"I guess. We broke quite a few patient extrication rules
today. On both of them."

"We had to." Roy admitted.
 
They both turned at Cap's shout. "Gage, we're 
through. So's Peters." he said, tossing a head at Chet.
 
Stoker and Hank began to wash the runoff from 
Chet off the roadway and onto the grassy margins.

Roy and Marco helped Johnny bundle the chilled Chet 
rapidly into the mast suit and then very warmly 
inside a crush of wool run blankets from head to toe. 
Mendelson said. "He's still holding fine. Pulling his 
air adequately here." he said, of the demand 
valve he was still using on Kelly. "Haven't needed 
to trigger even once yet."

"Good, if you do, go 50% only, all right." Gage told
him.

"You got it."

Roy leaned down to Chet's ear. "Chet.. Can you
hear me? "

Chet's eyes stayed closed for they were swelling
from all the water that had streamed over them 
from Peters irrigations but his thick eyebrows rose 
slightly at the sound of his name.

Roy smiled. "We're almost on the way to Rampart
where they'll take really good care of that belly pain. 
Just keep breathing regular on the 02 like you are.
If you have trouble, we've been authorized MS if 
the pain gets too great, just let us know." 

Chet lifted his eyebrows once more before he
gave into his involuntary shivering from being water
chilled under the hose. "hhhhhmmphhh." he said
incoherently.

That worried Johnny. 

But then a touch of Chet cussedness presented
itself a few minutes later. Kelly all but broke 
Roy's hand, hanging on to it, for reassurance.

---------------------


John and Mendelson rode with Chet and 
Daphne in the ambulance while Roy drove 
behind the Mayfield. Johnny's hands were
full keeping them both on their flowing 
oxygen, double handed, while Mendelson
looked them over inch by inch for burns
for the charts. Chet had several. The woman,
none.

Dr. Early met them at the entrance doors.

Dixie was there, too. 

She pointed and said......

--------------------------------------

Photo : Chet down on the ground, hurt.
             Close up.

Photo:  Mike Stoker and Captain Stanley with
            a hand held hose in glove.

Photo:  Johnny in an ambulance with two victims.
            Holding two oxygen masks on both.

******************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Patch Job~~  
Date : Tue, 03 Dec 2002 15:25:14 +0000 

>John and Mendelson rode with Chet and 
>Daphne in the ambulance while Roy drove 
>behind the Mayfield. Johnny's hands were
>full keeping them both on their flowing 
>oxygen, double handed, while Mendelson
>looked them over inch by inch for burns
>for the charts. Chet had several. The woman,
>none.

>Dr. Early and Dr. Brackett both met them 
>at the entrance doors.

>Dixie was there, too. 

>She pointed and said......

"Treatment Three for the woman. Let's put
your coworker in Two, Johnny. Mendelson,
stay with her long enough to give Dr. Morton 
your report, all right? Joe Early's taking your
friend here."

Gage nodded gratefully to Dix for bending the
rules and allowing him to remain by Chet's side.

Roy took full advantage of the favor, too,
slipping inside the treatment room doors with his
walkie talkie on the heels of orderlies arriving with
an xray machine. Another set of them came from
nowhere with a standby bird respirator.
::That Dr. Early's on the ball. Let's hope Chet doesn't
need it.::

Dixie drew the line on the rest of the gang, still in
heavy overcoats smelling faintly of ammonia stench, 
keeping them lined up along the wall outside the 
treatment room. Gage said, "Cap, I'm all eyes. You'll
know faster than Brackett will about what's going on 
with Kelly." Johnny said, lifting his HT. "You called the
squad and engine out of service for a bit?"

Cap's grin and smiles from the rest of them lifted 
Johnny's own anxiety a whole heap,  "H*ll yeah. 
Using the close call to get ourselves all checked 
out by the docs. We might be burned without 
even knowing it, don't you know." he winked. 
"Tell Kelly his family already knows and is 
on the way if he wakes up."

"I will.." Gage said.

The Treatment room doors closed in on Cap's
face, making him wish for the dozenth time that
its wooden surface had a window to see through.
He gave the red "do not enter" sign a light smack
in frustration.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 

Dr. Early had a full respiratory therapy team there
to assess Kelly's current pulmonary status.
"Johnny, did Chet need the MS in route?" he said,
taking his otoscope and using it to look for
burns inside Chet's nose and mouth. He shifted
to his penlight to examine the membranes in
Chet's eyes.

"Yeah. About five minutes ago, just before
we pulled up here. Look doc, he's really out now.
His pressure's barely holding low normal
with that suit on." Gage said, helping the nurses 
and techs shift Chet from the portable EKG 
to the hospital one and to trade his D tanked O2, 
for the wall port source. "I decided not to monkey 
with an oral airway with that wheezing going 
on."

"Ok, Johnny, we'll take it from here." Joe said.
Then Dr. Early noticed the usually talkative Gage
growing as quiet as Roy usually was, and then 
he saw the matching looks of worry blooming 
suddenly on their faces at the idea of being 
driven out of the room. He reconsidered, saying.
"Roy, why don't you check his feet for pedal 
pulses so we can rule out descending aorta 
involvement..And Johnny, tell me exactly, what 
burns you found on him and where.."
Then he turned to Dix, while Carol took a set 
of vitals on Chet. "Dixie, page Dr. Brackett for
me would you? He's with his father. And 
call for a surgical team. We're going to have to do
an exploratory on Kelly's abdomen to see what's
going on. Carol, get a warming blanket will you?
Seems his core temp's still a little low."

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Twenty five long minutes later, Johnny and Roy
left the treatment room reluctantly, leaving 
the pre-op team scurrying to prepare Chet
for his emergency surgery. 

Cap and the gang immediately surrounded them.
Every one of them had their helmets off and
respectfully in their gloves. "How is he?" Hank
asked. "Did we get that wash in Kelly's eyes in
time?"

Johnny said. "His pupillary responses are still
reactive, Cap. That's a good sign doc says.
That means his eyes aren't burned that badly."

Roy added. "Chet's going to be wheeled into
surgery any minute now. Dr. Early seems to
think his spleen isn't that badly torn. I think
his abdominal guarding was going away."

"Can we see him?" Marco asked.

Right then, Dixie McCall stepped through the 
doors with a tray full of blood samples for the 
lab and handed it off to a passing nurse. "Take 
these to the lab, stat." she said. 

She sealed the door after herself before the 
gang could peek through. "Now boys, you 
know we're doing everything we can for your 
friend. Just give him and the doctors some 
space so they can do their work, all right? 
Chet's vitals are stabilized well enough for his 
surgery now so relax.."

Sighs of relief erupted from all the men towering
above her diminutive stature. Then she pegged 
them all with an appraising stare. "All right, who 
needs to be seen about ammonia exposure..?"

Roy raised his hand. "I do. I took some on the arm."

"This way.." Dix said to him. She smiled when the
whole station crew followed, crowded behind Roy 
into treatment four, on the hope of wringing more 
reassurance out of her about Chet. She patted the bed,
"Hop up, Roy. Kel's here and he'll take a look at
you while Chet's being readied for surgery."

"Dr. Brackett's here?" Roy said, "I thought he had 
the night off? You know, since...." he broke off, he 
even paused in pulling off his T- shirt for his coming 
exam when he realized he might be on confidential 
ground.

"Since Kel acted like a belligerent school kid and drove
his fist through a deck door window? Pretty amazing,
I know. But what son isn't prone to his father pushing
some sensitive buttons, hmm?" she quipped.

"Is Dr. Brackett all right?" Johnny asked, concerned
for the senior physician. "We were pretty shocked
when Mendelson told us what happened on the way
in with Chet and the woman."

"He's sore, with thirty two stitches, but at least, he's
got a reason to smile tonight.
Brent Brackett and Kel have decided to mend
some fences even after THIS long.. " she said with
intense secrecy. "Kel told me the news only an hour 
ago from the restaurant." she whispered. Then 
aloud. "Quit cowering, all. You fellas are all family so, 
of course, I'll tell you everything about this whole 
silly complex of Kel's. And I'll tell you more
too. Just as soon as I understand enough of it to voice
into legible words..I'm a woman, remember, and it 
usually takes me a while to fathom out father/son 
feuds. Especially when the two involved are good 
friends of mine." she grunted, partially laughing, while 
taking a BP on Roy. She finished and wrote it down.
"Any dizziness, Roy? Odd things going on with your 
eyes?"

"No. I'm fine. The hosing wash I took in the decontam
tent took care of all that."

Dix slid over a blood draw tray and tied on a tourniquet
to obtain samples from him. "Yeah? Well, Dr. Brackett
is still giving you his own once over just to be on the safe
side. I'm just the front line of defenses.."

"But..."

"Don't worry. Kel'll tear right out of here to scrub
up the second Chet's fully prepped and anesthetized."

They piped down when Kel came through the treatment
doors not alone, but accompanied by Brent Brackett,
the tyrannical father figure they had heard so much about
through Mendelson in the hall.

Dix cast significant eyes at Johnny and Roy and the rest
of the gang in the room and angled her head to show
her statement about their making amends was really
quite true. She started heading for the door.

Kel called out after her. "Say Dix, did you get Roy's 
blood samples for the l--?"  he broke off when Dix
held up the three vials already clasped in her long
fingernails without turning around. "oh... ok."

Dixie winked at the gang on her way out.

Dr. Brackett noticed the unusual presence of Roy's
coworkers in the room, trying to blend in with 
the glass medicine cabinets. "Roy, you've quite an 
entourage of fans here. Didn't know you were so 
popular. Thought Gage here was the star in your 
outfit."

"They're worried about Chet, doc." DeSoto said
without smiling.

"Nothing to worry about." Brent Brackett spoke
up instantly.

Dr. Brackett stiffened at his father's intrusion into
his patient / doctor territory, but the firemen all saw 
Kel relax a bit when Kel realized Brent was actually
bringing his own skills to bear accordingly as
was his right as senior attending house psychologist.

"We just left him and his chest Xray, young man.
Looking good. Both of them." Brent told Roy and
the rest of the firemen in the room, hanging on
to his white coat's lapels.

Johnny's eye rose skeptically, making Kel smirk
in mild amusement. "What Dr. Brackett is saying, is true. 
Chet's chest Xray is showing little edema and a huge 
reduction in swelling. Looks like the effect of the lungful 
of ammonia he took in was only temporary, made that
way, by your prompt fast action with administering 
unmoistened O2. And even his abdominal plates look 
good. I saw only minor shadowing over his spleen. 
The mast trousers did their job. All bleeding's under 
control. The surgery I'm doing on him should just be 
a patch job, gentlemen.."

"That's a relief.." Mike Stoker sighed. "It wasn't fun
seeing Chet fly off my engine like he did."

"Yeah, Chet's no superman.." Gage chuckled.

They hushed down when Kel Brackett finished
checking Roy out. DeSoto showed him the place
where the ammonia had soaked into his arm.
Only a little reddening was showing up under the
light. "Mild first degree freeze burn. I don't think
any had time to get into your blood stream, Roy.
Your lab tests will reveal that for sure in a few 
minutes. Get dressed. We're through. Just be 
sure to call me on return of symptoms, all right?"

"You got it doc.." he said.

Kel hurried out the door to head for surgery.

Brent was left in the room with the gang 
and he handed Roy his T- shirt back. "Is he
a good man to work with, Kel Brackett? 
Afraid to admit, that I've really just started 
watching him work, only tonight."

Roy answered without hesitation, but subconsciously
straightening from where he sat on the treatment
gurney. "One of the best, sir. He singlehandedly 
saved the Paramedic Program from being legislated 
out of operation during its earliest days and he 
trained not only me, personally, but my partner
Johnny here, as well, to function as efficient 
intermediary caregivers in just about any prehospital 
setting. To date, in only six years, Dr. Brackett 
created twenty paramedic teams  embedded 
in just as many firehouses across L. A. 
County. Entirely due to his own hard work and 
perserverence."

Brent laughed openly and clasped Roy's
hand warmly. "My g*d. Do we need an
introduction my boy! Seems Dixie's really
painted me out to be the worst ogre of a two
ogre pair now hasn't she?
You're practically foaming at the mouth singing
praises about my boy, son. Relax....True, I'm just
like Kel in temperment,  but I'm mellower by miles.. 
A trait of all this gray hair, I suppose. Listen..I really 
appreciate your devotion to my son's work.. 
Sounds very genuine if I do say so myself.
Mr...mr..."

"DeSoto.." Roy said, returning the handshake.

Johnny's nervous smile fell off into a sideways
grin of relief.

"DeSoto. A solid French name. And the rest of you?"

A round of introductions came after that from Cap
right on down to Stoker.

-------------------------------------------------

They ended up in the coffee lounge, away from public
view, so the firefighting gear wouldn't alarm hospital
visitors.  Brent Brackett learned a whole lot about
his son from Dixie and the Station 51 crew over
the next hour while they waited for word about
Chet's surgery results.

Brent finally couldn't stand their fretting. He rose,
abandoning his coffee mug. "All right. I've monopolized
your good graces enough folks, digging for dirt or gold
concerning my very grown son. Tell you what.. 
I've got a lot of clout around here as house psych. 
Think I'll peek in on how Kel's handling your man, 
captain." he said.

Cap looked startled. "You don't have to do
that. We know Chet's probably fine, doctor. Just
a patch surgery job, Kel said."


"Be that as it may. I'll be killing two birds with one
stone by making the round. I'll get your answer
for you that much sooner and I'll be able to see
my son in action at the same time. Fair trade off."

"Just stay in the observation room.." Dix chided.

"Where would the fun be in that, Miss McCall? I want
to see how my son works under pressure.."

Dix scowled, but it was tempered with amusement.
"Family peer pressure's dirty pool, doctor, and you
know it.."

"Kel can handle it. After all, he's handled this whole
paramedic thing and all these men behind it for six years? 
How's one more doctor hanging over his shoulder 
gonna matter?"

"Plenty..you'll both be wearing the same fake smile." 
Dix said without a shred of humility, as Brent made 
his goodbyes to the stationhouse gang and accepted 
their profuse thanks for doing what he was about to do.

Captain Stanley leaned back, lacing his fingers behind
his head and wondered when the sparks were 
going to ignite into a big fire between the Brackett
docs once again. He hope Brent's little appearance
in Kel's operating ward wouldn't prove to be a new 
catalyst for another fiery father son feud.

Dixie didn't appear overtly alarmed. She simply
reached for the nearly empty coffee pot on the table
contentedly and poured herself a cup.

That cup went right into Joe Early's hands when the
silver haired doctor showed up into the nurses lounge.

Gage said, "How's he doing?" Johnny asked Joe
immediately before the man had taken even one
sip.

"Thanks Dix. I need the pick me up. Fine Johnny.. 
His vitals are still stable. Kel's almost through with
the exploratory. We had no problems intubating
Chet after he was put under, if that's what you 
want to know. His air passages were very clear
Johnny."

Gage nodded, sorry that he was so transparent.
"Thanks doc. His earlier wheezing was kinda scary."

"That's the funny thing about anhydrous ammonia.
It either really really does a number on you, or
it let's you off lightly after a really good scare. In Chet's
case, he got the all bluff end of the spectrum. There's
no retinal damage or even corneal abrasions. No 
chance of that blinding you guys were all fearing during
the rescue.."

Mike Stoker said. "Good. Last thing we need is Chet
Kelly banging around the station with a sight cane
while he cooks fifteen alarm chow for us every night."

The whole gang laughed at the image.

Joe even chortled.

Roy asked about their other victims from the accident.
"How about the woman we brought in, Daphne? She
doing ok?"

"Same story as Chet, minus the internal injuries.
She'll stay the night and'll be discharged in the morning
if her lungs stay clear. Nice fast action Johnny on
ending that laryngeal spasm then." Dr. Early said.

"I didn't do anything. The hose team got a good
pocket of air around us and she resolved on her own."

"Lucky. She could have been that close to triggering 
a tracheal collapse reflex when her larynx cramped 
like that." Joe said, holding out miniscule fingers in the 
air.

"I know.. you could have knocked me over with
a stick when she started breathing again after I
got a good lifting grip on her throat." Gage admitted.
"I remembered at the last second that gas inhalation
reacted the same way as a liquid water drowning
with spasming like that. I almost forgot how effective
the technique was."

"Who taught you that move?" Cap asked. "That
was pretty slick considering there wasn't much else
you could do for her, wearing your SCBA mask like
that.."

"Dr. Brackett."
"Dr. Brackett." Roy and John both replied in stereo.

Dr. Early grinned. "I take it Brent was in here a while
ago."

"How'd you know?" Dix said in surprise.

"They said their answer too fast, Dix, dead give away."

"Oh.."

Johnny asked, "Doc, can you tell us about Mr. Fajou?"

Joe rubbed his hand, not remembering their patient.

"The old man from the creepy mansion who cooked
ginger bread cookies for the kids at the studio." Roy
added.

"Oh, oh, oh, now I know who you're talking about.
He did have septicemia, a mild case and we've
gotten his asthma outbreak under control. He's resting
comfortably on antibiotics and inhalants."

"Will he be going home soon? You see, we all wanna
help him out some and do some work around the house
for him before he gets back." Mike Stoker told him.

"Boys... aren't you the sweethearts. What knights in
shining armor.." Dix cooed. "Mr. Fajou's gonna love
your surprise. I'll be sure to give you a call the moment
I find out when he'll get discharged all right?"

They all nodded.

Roy piped up. "Dix, how's the other car driver? The one I
looked at briefly before handling our cases?"

"Oh, the driver with the broken arm? Fine. Peters rode
in with him in another rig. He didn't take many fumes
at all and I heard his arm was easily set and put into a cast. 
He'll most likely be discharged in a couple of hours, after 
his cast dries."

"That's good."

A loud stomach rumble permeated the air. From
Marco.. "Lo ciento.. All that running made me hungry."

"Time for a pizza run.. My treat.." Joe said.
He got on the phone to dietary, shushing them
all into silence,  before the gang's active protests 
stopped him. "Consider it part of your followup
ammonia gas treatment.." he quipped.

"Thanks doc, we owe you one.." Cap grinned.

Cap and the others literally inhaled the four pizzas 
while Dix and Joe merely nibbled.

The pizza pans had been tossed onto the dish cart
for only about thirty seconds when the wait for 
news about Chet grew once again intolerable.

All eyes started watching the clock and the house
phone for word from Dr. Brent Brackett's
sticking his nose in where it didn't belong.

---------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Chet in a treatment room, unconscious.

Photo: Joe checking out Roy in a treatment room.

Photo : Dr. Brackett looking at your pupils with
            a penlight.

Photo : Dr. Brent Brackett looking at Chet's chest
            X-ray.

Photo : John, Joe and Dixie in a treatment room.

****************************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] Of Mice and Men..  
Date : Thu, 12 Dec 2002 21:31:07 +0000  
 
Kel Brackett didn't even look up from his 
surgical field when he felt a presence at his 
shoulder. He knew right away that it was his 
father in the blue scrubs near him. "Doctor Brackett." 
he said simply and as neutrally as he could. 
Kel could feel his cheek twitching under his mask. 
But inwardly, he told himself once again in his
thoughts.::I did ask dad to see what I do 
for my living.:: he sighed. ::I just have to get
used to him taking advantage of the invite, hook
line and sinker.::

Brent Brackett knew how to observe
in a sterile ward. His ungloved hands were behind
his back and he stayed behind Kel at half an arm's 
length. "Before you say anything.. I...only stepped 
in here solely on behalf of the boys who work with 
this young fellow. They're milking this anhydrous 
exposure checkup requirement to the max and 
they're all still here, crowded in the nurse's 
break lounge. Joe Early had to feed them because 
they wouldn't even leave the staff paging phone 
unattended long enough to grab a tray from 
the cafeteria, fearful they'd miss hearing from 
you."

Dr. Brackett wasn't beneath trying to shock his
father. "The resection on the mediastinal aspect 
of Chet's spleen is a straight forward repair job. 
See for yourself.." and he intentionally sprayed
his running tube of sterile saline wash over the 
area, not caring that a part of its red tinged spray 
splashed up, catching his father's mask and his
scrub top liberally as it plumed upwards when the 
older man didn't anticipate stepping back at the
sound like all the others around the table did.

Brent flinched but then blinked, wondering if the
dousing had been a ploy to drive him away, but he 
was already more than determined to remain. 
He cleared his throat and said loud enough for all 
in the room to hear.
"Oops. Good thing gore has never bothered me. 
Please, show me what you've done so far, doctor. 
I'm all eyes." he said, hiding any trace of negative 
emotion from his voice. Brent surprised himself when
his own temper, didn't flare up at all. 

Nonetheless, a well informed, Dixie enlightened tech 
hastily suctioned away the water for Kel from Chet's 
abdominal cavity almost a little too fast. Kel had to 
hold Chet's spleen down with his forceps so it 
wouldn't plug her tube's port as she used it.

Kel glanced at her reflexively but the woman's 
face stayed looking down at what she was doing.
For her benefit, Kel said. "Sorry about that, I'll
slow down." Dr. Brackett half wondered if there
was anyone on the staff who didn't know about
the Brackett family friction. And he quickly began
feeling like an *ss for what he had done. 
::Dixie's thorough on the grapevine, I'll give 
her that. About as thorough as she is running triage. 
Everyone around us is walking on egg shells. 
That's gonna change..:: he vowed. ::Now.::
he said. He was glad for his mask when it hid
the rising red of embarrassment in his face.
He decided to show the entire room that Dixie's
tale about them was now completely baseless.
"Dad, look here. This is where Chet's fall impacted
against his spleen. See that mark? You can almost
make out lettering from the regulator valve he fell 
on top of. He must have been wearing a SCBA bottle 
when he fell and that metal piece on the harness
was what cut him internally."

"Hmm. I see it." Brent mumbled.
"Looks sort of like the artifacts that show up on chest
x-rays sometimes from drivers impacting
their sternums against the steering wheel column?"
Brent asked. Then he chuckled. "Saw a Chrysler 
logo chevron once on one from a patient of 
mine. That young man now hangs that 
x-ray on his wall." He sighed accepting a cotton wad
from a nurse gratefully so he could mop up his 
gory face. "He now shows it to all of his dates 
and tells them it's his secret tattoo that can even
be felt, for a kiss."

"Yeah? Well Chet won't be left with any such girl magnet.
This tissue isn't bone. It will heal cleanly in a few days, 
leaving no traces. Chet's external skin bruising will 
stay longer than this laceration."
Kel said, snipping off his last internal suture stitch.
"There," he said, "Good as new.." Kel dabbed the
spleen with gauze until Brent could see his work.

"Bowels clear? And the intestines?" Brent asked,
peering closer.

"Completely. All of Chet's internal bleeding came
from this site alone. The spleen's the body's
repository for whole blood so it's not surprising
this tiny tear hemorrhaged so much. The anti
shock trousers did a good job stopping it as
you saw on the films."

"So I did.." Brent said. "So, what should I tell
the fireboys?"

"That it was a piece of cake, doctor. Chet's no 
longer in jeopardy."

"Will do." and he nodded and winked to the nervous
tech across from them. Then he turned to his
surgeon son. "Coffee after you close?"

"Wouldn't miss it." Kel said. 
 
"Then I'll leave you all to your work.." Brent
Brackett leaned down to Chet. He saw 
the young fireman's eyes had been ointmented
and protectively taped shut and he carefully stayed
away from where the anesthesiologist was listening
to Chet's breathing through the endotrach
tube with a stethoscope. He spoke firmly into Kelly's 
ear. "Looks good son. Almost done. Wake up fast 
cause your friends are still hanging around 
to see you. My guess is that it won't be good 
for them later if your dispatcher has to order 
them back to the stationhouse. Oh, and Joe Early 
just told me they've saved some pizza for you." 
he said, patting Chet's sheet covered shoulder. 
"So hurry up son, before someone gets hungry 
again and it disappears."

Everyone around the table laughed when Chet's
stomach took that moment to start growling.
It was very audible as it and the organs around
it were still exposed to the air.

"That got through my anesthesia?" the man at
Chet's head joked. "Usually I have people's 
plumbing napping soundly during splenectomies."

"Yeah well this fireman's appetite is legendary, Dale. 
Don't feel bad. I hear Johnny complaining about his 
donut stealing prowess all the time." Kel shook his 
head ruefully, amused. "Dad, I know of a better 
way to wake him up if you're interested. 
Grab Johnny's walkie talkie. I'll have Doctor
Riley here on the respirator play him his station's
alarm tones after he's extubated." he joked.

"Aren't you the creative one.." Brent teased back,
just before the surgical bay doors closed between
them. "But I think I'll pass on that. Positive 
reinforcement works so much better than shock 
tactics.." he replied.

Brackett immediately regretted his little stunt with
splashing the sterile wash. Internally, Kel accepted Brent's
hidden admonishment. ::I deserved that. Now
why am I still acting like such a pig? This unspoken feud
between us is being addressed. What am I afraid
of?::

Inside his head, another voice of conscience spoke
up. ::Losing your mother because of it.::

-----------------------------------------------

Brent Brackett was still wet from his shower
when he dialed the nurses lounge. 

The phone rang, making the whole gang jump
in their seats as way too much coffee in their
systems made them overreact.

Then the babble in the room ceased when no one
moved to intercept the phone. Marco, Stoker, Johnny
and Roy all hushed up in tension, like frightened rabbits
when it was the red phone and not the black one
that was paging them.

Dixie MacCall answered the phone. "Nurse's lounge,
Dixie McCall speaking.."

Brent greeted her. "Miss McCall? Put Mr. Kelly's
captain on. I wanna speak with him directly. And 
before you ask. All things went well. Both my
visit and with Chester's exploratory. His spleen's
intact. Didn't need to be removed. So hop to,
woman."

Dixie hid her smile even from her eyes as she
handed over the phone. "Captain Stanley.
You're needed here."

"Oh, boy. Hope it's not McConike for playing hooky.
He never goes through public HT channels when he's
really mad at somebody." Cap said, leaping off the
lounge couch and wiping nervous palms on
his turnout.

Dixie couldn't help herself. She said, "Relax captain.
It's not him. Remember, I'm your solid alibi here for
all of you staying at Rampart even if the chief does call.
I already have my speech planned out."
and she broke into a reasoning voice, sugar coated with
Dixie no nonsense. "I'll just say, 'Chief, It's a little busy
today, and that's why it's taking longer than usual to
examine all of your men. ' when the time comes."

"Glad somebody's prepared for that call."
Hank sighed, and rose, taking the phone from her.
"This is Fireman Stanley." with more than just
slight apprehension.

Brent grinned."Go home, captain. Chet's already
being sent to recovery. His spleen was only
holed, not grossly ruptured. It was all just minor 
surgery."

Cap excitedly spread the good news to his listeners 
out of ear shot.

Brent heard the cheers and had to take the phone
away from his ear for a moment but then he shouted
before Hank hung up again. "Captain Stanley, one thing.
Hand that to-go box full of pizza to Dixie for her to 
take to his room or Chet's gonna personally kill ya."

"Huh?"

"Subliminal suggestion, Captain. Works everytime.
I told him it would be waiting."

"Gotcha, doc. She heard ya. Thanks Dr. Brackett, 
for everything. We really appreciate it."

"That's why I'm a psychologist, son. Take care." 
and Brent hung up the phone.

-----------------------------------------------------

  Marjorie Kelly sat next to Chet's bed as she 
waited for him to awaken from his latest anesthesia
slumber. Chet's eyes were unbandaged and he 
had already blinked away the antibiotic ointment
in them as the scent of his sister's musky
perfume woke him the rest of the way to 
consciousness.

A rodent's fuzzy face, and whiskers, met his gaze 
when focus returned from the middle of
his chest.  "Ahhh!!!" he shouted in fright and immediately
winced when his surgical staples bit back in protest.
"OoooooOOOOooo, Marjorie.. Did you have to bring
Herbert here? Animals aren't allow in at Rampart.."

"Who says? No one saw me. Besides, what better way
to make you feel better than to bring you,.. your best
bud."

Chet watched Herbert crawl further up his chest to land
curious paws on his chin as he sniffed his master's
morning anesthesia breath. 
Then he made for an immediate beeline for the open 
pizza carton lying across Chet's legs. 
"Oh, no you don't. That's mine."
and Chet pinned Herbert's tail long enough to 
nestle him into a palm to caress the brown mouse's
head and kiss his ears. Then he double taked.
"Wait a minute. Why did I say that?"

Marjorie laughed. "Dixie left this here an hour ago. 
She said a doctor in surgery told you some would
be waiting for you when you awakened. Wah la.."
she said, with a flourish at the pizza half. "It's
still warm. I just reheated it up again."

Chet watched as Herbert pushed out of his hand
with a frustrated squeak until he gained his
freedom and he beelined once more for the pizza
across the sheets. Marjorie intercepted Chet's correcting
grab with a grip of her own. "Oh, come off it, Bro. Let
him be. You share your cereal with Herbie all the time. 
I'll just keep an eye out and cut off all the parts he drools
on. No problem. I'll defend your half."

"Marj we're gonna have problems if they catch you
in here with him. And I'm not eating. I can't. I mean
whoever heard of someone right out of abdominal
surgery being allowed to eat?"

"You had a repair, Chester. And that's a whole different
ball game. Only difference between getting basic stitches
and what you had done, is the fact that yours are on
three layers with two rows inside, and those are just 
on your spleen and along your abdominal lining.  
Nice stapling job topside. Saw them when Dixie 
changed your dressing."

"That sounds so appetizing Sis. Here, you eat this." 
he said, plunking pizza carton, Herbie and all on the 
bed in between them. Herbert went right on gnawing 
at a pepperoni. Despite his feigned disgust, Chet's 
stomach growled.

Marjorie laughed and handed him a pizza slice with no
Herbert pawprints on it and a paper towel. "Uh huh.. tell
me another lie big brother and I'll restart our practical
joke war despite our vow to never do them whenever
one of us is sick or hurt."

"Ha ha. Very funny." But Chet began to eat, fussing over
his IV. "I wonder why I'm not puking my guts out. I did
last time I had surgery. Remember my broken
shoulder from that cave in rescue? Needed surgical 
reduction for that one."

"I remember, I was the one who had to listen to you
whining for two weeks while ya mended." Marj laughed
through her freckles and curly bangs. "You aren't nauseated
because Dr. Brackett told you not to be."

"Kel Brackett was here?"

"No, the other one."

"What other one?" Chet said, "Hand me that water
pitcher will you. I'm thirsty enough to drink my IV."

Marj slid the water jug over and a glass, but not
before she poured some into a toothpaste tube
cap as a water dish for Herbert the mouse.

"Kelly Brackett's dad is a psychologist. The gang
wanted to hear how you were faring in surgery so
Brent Brackett went in to find out. Then Brent told us
all on the phone that he had suggested a few things
to you while you were under to make your recovery
happen faster. Oh, Chester, did you know you 
were almost in a coma when they brought you 
in? You scared the living snot out of Johnny. "

"I did?"

"Yeah. I'd never seen him so quiet and focused 
until we got the news your injuries were only 
appearing to be more than minor. Roy told me Gage 
wouldn't leave your side at all while you were still 
having trouble breathing. Even after you were at 
Rampart with two doctors working on you."

"I remember hearing Cap's joke about the rain,
and then I remember getting very cold. Dreamed
I was drowning."

"You weren't drowning Chester. They decontaminated
you with a water hose on scene and Mendelson had you
firmly on a demand valve so no water got in. Geez Louise, even 
I know how dangerous liquid ammonia is on the skin. 
Lucky you didn't get much more than a whiff in your 
lungs or I'd be leaving my rubber chickens on your 
coffin instead of in your sh--.. 
Never mind."she broke off.

Chet's eyes narrowed as he played with a now fat, 
pizza filled, burping Herbert, making jungle gyms 
out of his fingers for the mouse. He finally 
spoke with long practice at a conversation
he had shared with Marj many many times 
before in the past.
"They gotta be in my shoes, Sis, since I'm not 
wearing any shorts on account of these lovely 
staples I've got under my sheets here. Ok, fess up. 
Which shoes?"

Marjorie was pinned, fairly. "Ok, I had the guys take 
back a set of my top end RC's, you know the ones
that spray baby powder out the moment they're 
moved, to rig into your locker shoes for you to find 
when you got back, is that such a crime?"

"The guys were here?!" Chet said mortified.

"Yeah, so? What's the big deal? They were in,
they were out. Guess they came so Roy and Johnny
could see with their own paramedic eyes that you
were truly out of hot water. They even reassured 
themselves further by taking a vitals set on ya for 
the nurses chart while you were sleeping."

"What's the big deal? What's the big deal?! Sis, tell me
they didn't see Herbert here."

Marjorie was a mouse. But Herbert squeaked in
betrayal. He wasn't a good liar at all.

"Marj!!" Chet complained, and Herbert leaped
into Marjorie's plaid shirt pocket in fear at Chet's
thundering protest. Kelly immediately gripped his
sheet covered staples. "Ow...WWWW...www ..
G*d D*mn it.. ..Ow..  ..Why me?"

"Hush, That's Captain Stanley's line. Or at least, I think
it is from what you've told me about him." Marj 
admonished.
"Dix told me if you're gonna cough, shout or sneeze,
to hug a pillow before you do so. It'll hurt less."
She said, smacking his face with one, before gently
setting it on his stomach.

"Yeah? It'll hurt more later on when I get better
and back to duty and have to face the guys finding
out I found Herbert again and kept him as a pet.. I'll
never hear the end of it!"

"So? We'll just...deflect them with another Phantom
Strikes war."

"Won't work, they're on to me." Chet complained.
"Oh Marj. Why'd ya have ta bring Herbert to see me
today of all days?"

"He knew something was up." she said defensely as only
a younger sister could. "Squeaked something awful 
in his Habitrail maze about the same time as your 
accident. That's how I knew to call in and  ...when ...
I found out  that you were really down on the ground 
out there." and Marjorie sniffled and Chet saw sudden
bright full tears fill his sister's amber eyes.

"Come here, little Sis.." Chet said, and he hugged 
Marj with a grin. "Quit it. I must really be fine if I'm 
not on an EKG and no doctors or nurses are in sight. 
Does Gramps and my little brother know about all
this?"

"Yes, Gramps and Brendon send their best, Chester.." 
she sighed into his hair. "Wouldn't be surprised if a 
bouquet of flowers wrapped in antique barbed wire gets 
sent in this afternoon to your room personally."

"Why didn't you tell them that they didn't have 
to go through the trouble?"

"Because they're just as stubborn as anyone
else in our family Chester when it comes to
reaching out. And you and I both know that
it's a terribly long distance still keeping us apart.
Might as well be light years between California
and Wyoming. Just take the flowers when they
come with good grace."

Chet released her and Marj handed them both
tissues from the bed table. Herbert poked his
head out of Marj's shirt pocket at the scent of 
tears and squeaked a question. 

Chet patted his chest and the mouse
happily ran to his chin again to nibble and cuddle
in his moustache, like a dog rubbing himself on
a couch after a bath. "Thanks Marj. I feel better
already. I'm only dreading what the guys will do
to me after I get back to work now they know
I rescued Herbert from the untamed city wilds.
I was chosen to be the station's.." he covered
Herbert's ears with two fingers. ".. exterminator."

"Oh, poo.. " Marj sighed with a mischievous grin.
"Fodder for the fires, my fraternal fellow prankster. 
It will give us an excuse to come up with more devious
jokes to play on your friend Johnny Gage, now 
wouldn't it?"

"Hmmm.." Chet said. He closed his eyes, and 
started chewing pizza while they planned.

It was just a few minutes later..
Outside the room, a nurse was walking by Chet's
hospital room. She overheard a single sentence.
"And Herbert, if you so much as squeak a word
of this prank to anyone, I'll trade Chester Bartholomew
the puppy for a cat and move you into the station!"

SQuuueeAAakKKKKK!

The nurse, thinking she was hearing things, moved
on when a woman's laughter covered up the 
odd animal noise she had thought she heard but
finally dismissed as only imagined. ::I gotta cut out 
on drinking all of that coffee..:: she promised
herself. ::Starting tomorrow.::
 
--------------------------------------

Photo : Chet in a T shirt, sleeping on a bed.

Photo : Cap, Johnny and Roy in T- shirts watching
            Chet sleep.

Photo: Chet looking caught.

Photo: Herbert the mouse in someone's hands.

Photo : Marjorie and Brendon Kelly, Chet's little brother
            and sister.

*****************************
From : "SM Fortis" <satchie51@hotmail.com>  
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Hello?  
Date : Thu, 12 Dec 2002 23:15:18 -0600 
 
Offstory-

Pictures reproduced with permission from:

Tigger’s Emergency Stuff
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/

Slide Show Central
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/

Back In Story-
 

Silently cursing himself as he entered the elevator,
Kel punched the button for the ground floor.  What
was he thinking when he invited his father to
spend time with him at work?  Did he possess
a bizarre need to validate his sense of self-
worth?  Was he trying to dazzle him with his
diagnostic and surgical abilities?  After all
these years, did Brent Brackett’s opinion still
matter?

Upon reaching his destination, Kel approached
his office with grim determination.  With greater
force than was necessary, he flung the door open.
Brent sat in one of the leather-upholstered chairs
in front of the imposing desk.  Pasting a smile on
his face, Kel addressed his father.

“Hey, Dad.  Are you ready to head to the Doctor's
Lounge?”

Brent shrugged his shoulders.  “In a minute.  I
thought we could talk first.”

The younger Brackett nervously laughed.  “You
sound like a typical shrink.  You guys always
want to talk.”

“Spoken like a true surgeon.  Always wanting to
plunge right into things.”

“Dad…”

“It’s okay,” Brent said.  “Obviously we each
have our own talents.”

An uncomfortable silence ensued.  Feeling like
a world-class jerk for his behavior earlier, Kel
cleared his throat.  “Dad, I’m sorry for that
little stunt in the OR.  It was immature and
uncalled for.  You just caught me off guard,
that’s all.”

“I know.  But when you invited me to watch you
work, you didn’t plan on me ambushing you either.”

“I did assume it would be under more controlled
circumstances,” Kel admitted.

Leaning back in his chair, Brent said, “I had an
opportunity to speak with a couple of your biggest
fans this evening.”

“Oh?”

“The paramedics that work with the firefighter
you operated on.  I believe their names were Roy
and Johnny?”

Kel smiled broadly.  “They were one of the first
teams I trained.  I wasn’t a huge supporter of
the program initially.  Oh, to be honest, I was
vehemently against it.  I thought it was dangerous
and essentially amounted to practicing medicine
without a license.  But eventually I came around
and became one of the program’s staunchest defenders.
We cleared some substantial legislative hurdles and
funding crises, and now I can’t imagine how we managed
pre-hospital care without our paramedics.”

“They were quite effusive in their praise,”
Brent commented.  “You certainly have earned
their respect.  You’re more than a mentor to these
men.”

Suddenly embarrassed, Kel joked, “Well, perhaps
they may not feel so charitable when it’s time
for their annual performance evaluations.”

“Seriously, Kel.  That says a great deal about
your character.  I would be immensely flattered
if someone thought that highly of me.”

“But Dad, you’re well respected in your field…”

“It’s not the same,” Brent lamented.  “So what
if I’ve published extensively?  Other than
impressing a handful of snobbish colleagues
and adding a few lines to my Curriculum Vitae,
I haven’t accomplished anything of lasting
significance.”

Kel rubbed his temple.  First there was the
strange confession in the restaurant, and now
there was a melancholy tone to his father’s last
remark.  This was proving to be an interesting
evening.

Staring at the carefully arranged bookcase, Brent
continued.  “Based on the hospital grapevine, I
expected you to be arrogant and overbearing, and
thought your employees would cower in your presence.
Instead, I discovered you’re merely passionate
about your life’s calling.  In retrospect, I can
see your career choice wasn’t an act of parental
defiance.  This is what you were meant to do.”

“I can’t imagine doing anything else, Dad.  I
feel complete here.”

“Yes, I can see that now.”

Resting his elbows on his desk, Kel asked, “Dad?
Don’t you think we need to forgive ourselves
too?”

Brent raised a questioning eyebrow.  “What?”

“Don’t get me wrong.  Forgiving each other is
a significant step in the right direction in
putting our relationship back on track, but it
isn’t going to help if we’re consumed with guilt
over past offenses.”

The elder Brackett buried his face in his hands.
“That’s easier said than done.  You don’t have
a constant reminder of your mistakes.”

“I don’t understand,” Kel said.

“Your mother isn’t the same person anymore.
She blames me for tearing her family apart.
Scarcely a day goes by that I’m not reminded
of my failures as a father.  You have no idea
what it’s like to go home every day, knowing
your presence is barely tolerated.”

“So when you moved to Los Angeles…”

“I was not only trying to reestablish communi-
cation with you, I was trying to save my marriage,”
Brent finished.

“Wow,” Kel exclaimed.  “I had no idea.  Mom
always sounds okay when I talk to her.”

“Of course, she would,” Brent snorted.
“You’re her precious baby, even if you are
forty-two years old.  She still wants to protect
you from all of the unpleasant things in life.”

“Oh, man.  I really messed up, didn’t I?  I
must have broken her heart when I left home.”

“She was pretty upset with both of us,” Brent
pointedly added.  “You’re not entirely at fault.”

Kel was furious with himself.  He was so anxious
to escape his domineering father, he never
considered the effect his departure would have
on this mother.  During telephone conversations,
she always sounded so cheerful.  Now it was
apparent because of the power struggle between
the two men, his mom had been cruelly deprived
of the most cherished relationships in her life.

“Do you think she’ll ever be able to forgive
me?” Kel asked earnestly.

“Hah!  You’re completely blameless as far as
she’s concerned.  I’m the heartless…well, you
get the idea.”

“That’s not fair.  It was ultimately my decision.
I could have handled the situation better,” Kel
reasoned.

“Hindsight is always crystal clear, son,” Brent
replied.  “At the time, you were so blinded by
your contempt for me, I doubt you could have
arrived at any other solution.  Besides, as much
as I hate to admit, I was relieved to see you go.
After years of yelling and screaming, I looked
forward to having some quiet time with your mother.”

The younger man attempted a feeble grin.  “I assume
that was a case of be careful of what you wish for?”

“Absolutely.  Your mother didn’t speak to me for
weeks.  The situation deteriorated to the point
where we separated for a couple of months.”

“You’re kidding!”  As Kel looked across his desk,
he realized the man sitting opposite him was a
stranger.  It was difficult to comprehend this
was someone he once shared his dreams and aspirations
with.  Was it his imagination, or did his father age
a little bit more each time he shared another
humbling personal secret?

“So how are you two doing now?” Kel inquired.

Running his fingers across his chin, Brent responded,
“We’re managing.  We’ve settled into a comfortable
routine here, and she’s made new friends.  But
hardly a day goes by that she doesn’t ask about
you.  She wants to know if I’ve seen you, do you
look well, how is your career doing…that sort
of thing.  Mainly she wants to know why I haven’t
marched into your office and thrown myself at
your mercy.”

Mentally evaluating the available floor space,
Kel said, “I don’t know, Dad.  Perhaps there’s a
spot over here where prostration might be an option.”

A chuckle was heard from across the room.  “I’ve
groveled enough for one evening.  We’re overdue
for a cup of coffee.”  As Brent rose from his
chair, Kel motioned for him to sit down.

“Wait a minute, Dad.  I want to make a phone
call.”

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?  It’s late.”

“That’s the problem.  I’m hoping it’s not too
late,” Kel explained.

Puzzled, Brent sat back down.  “Who are you
calling?”

“I want to call Mom.”

“At this hour?”

Jolted to reality, Kel pushed the phone back
to the corner of his desk.  “You’re right.
I don’t know what got into me.  Besides, I don’t
even have the number on me.”

Moved by the haunted expression in his son’s
eyes, Brent sighed.  “Do you have a pen?”

“No…she’s probably already in bed.  I’ll call
her later.”

His father seized control of the phone and dialed
the familiar number.  Thrusting the receiver into
Kel’s hands, Brent quietly left the room.

With each ring, Kel’s heart rate accelerated.
His mouth felt incredibly dry.  Oh, this was
ridiculous, he thought.  He was a grown man
calling his own mother.  It wasn’t like he was
a gawky teenager asking the prom queen out for
a date!

The ringing stopped and was replaced by a gentle
voice.  Summoning his courage, Kel tentatively
said, “Mom?  It’s Kel…”

------------------------------------------

Photo : Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early in a corridor.

Photo : Dr. Brackett being firm about a concern.

Photo : Roy telling Dr. Brackett about something
            over the ER requisitions desk.

*********************************
From :rosanne iho <irosanne@yahoo.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] It looked like a man..  
Date : Sat, 14 Dec 2002 13:39:53 -0800 (PST)  
    

It was Chet Kelly's first day back to work.

In the rec' room of Los Angeles County 
Fire Station 51, six firemen sat huddled in 
front of a TV set, watching the Dodgers and 
the Padres battling it out in the first game of 
a double-header. They cheered, as Dodger's 
pitcher, Don Sutton, struck out the Padres--
one, two, three. The Dodgers came to bat. 
First baseman, Steve Garvey, hit a single. 
Outfielder, Dave Lopes, also singled. Sutton 
walked. With the bases loaded--and no outs
--Dodger slugger, Dusty Baker, stepped up 
to the plate.

"There's the wind up...and the pi--!" the 
announcer began, only to be drowned out 
by the Station's alarm.

There was a group groan. 

"Squad 51..." the dispatcher declared, and 
the Station's Engine Crew untensed.

Paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto 
groaned again and started heading for the 
garage.

"Child down...Wonder Wheels Park...Three 
and one half miles east on Dart Lane...Then, 
two and a quarter miles south on Ridgeway 
Road...Take the first left on Coolidge...It's 
the fourth driveway on the right...Caller 
advises you go in the second gate..."

"Got it, L.A...." John acknowledged, when 
he finished his jotting.

"10-4, Squad 51..." a rather relieved relayer 
came back, "Ambulance responding...Time 
out...17:03"

"Squad 51, KMG-365," the fireman further 
acknowledged. He replaced the radio, snatched 
up their copy of the call slip and raced around 
the rescue squad. "We'll start with east on Dart 
Lane," he proposed, piling into the passenger's 
seat and pulling on his helmet. 

His partner nodded his approval of the plan.

##############################

Eight minutes of masterful map-reading later, 
DeSoto drove through the second gate at 
Wonder Wheels Park and cut the sirens.

"Squad 51...cancel," their radio announced.

Squad 51's occupants stared down at the 
dashboard in disbelief.

"We may as well check it out," Roy determined, 
"After all the trouble we went through to get here."

Gage nodded in agreement and grabbed the mic'. 
"L.A., Squad 51. We are at the scene and intend 
to follow through with the call."

"Roger that, 51..."

DeSoto parked the Squad at the edge of an 
enormous concrete lot. He and his partner 
exited the cab and started strolling off in the 
direction of a movie crew, filming skate boarding 
stunts. They watched--in wide-eyed wonder--as 
a young skate boarder went flying off the end of 
a three foot ramp, spun twice around and landed 
gracefully back onto the lot--still on her skate 
board! Seeing as how they were being completely 
ignored, Roy cleared his throat and queried, "Did 
somebody call the Fire Department?"

"I'm okay...Honest!" the girl insisted, as she 
came rolling up. "It's just a little 'road rash'..." 
she added, and pointed to her scraped and 
bleeding knees.

"You sure you're not seriously hurt?" Gage 
grilled her.

The little lady rolled her eyes and motioned 
towards the concrete lot. "Did that look like 
I was seriously hurt?"

"Looks can be deceiving," Roy reminded the girl. 
"Why don't we check you out real quick...just 
to be sure."

The film's director stepped between the 
paramedics and his star. "If the kid says she's 
okay--she's okay! Pam's a Pro!"

The thirteen-year-old nodded, defiantly.

"You didn't hit your head, did you?" Roy's 
still-worried partner wondered.

Pam gave Gage another roll of her eyes and 
shook her pretty little head 'no'.

John sighed. "Well...since you won't let us 
examine you...I...uh...guess we'll be getting 
back to the Station. And, you can get back to..." 
he glanced down at the skate board, "...that."

The girl gave herself a push and went rolling 
off across the lot.

"Shouldn't she be wearing a helmet?" DeSoto, 
the Dad, wondered aloud.

Pamela's Producer completely ignored the 
pesky paramedic. "All right, Kiddo...How about 
a backward somersault with a reverse handstand?"

The young 'Pro' picked up speed.

The two firemen exchanged alarmed looks 
and then watched, in amazement, as Pam 
flipped herself back over into a somersault.

The little lady landed in a crouched position, 
threw her feet up into the air and went gliding 
by--standing on her hands! As she turned her 
board around and went sailing by for a second 
time, she flashed the camera a beautiful, 
upside-down smile.

The paramedics released their held breaths 
and began heading for their rescue squad. 

"If this is a sample of what people are gonna 
be doing at Wonder Wheels Park," Gage grumbled, 
"Something tells me we're gonna be coming 
here...quite often."

"After a week or two," DeSoto glumly 
concurred, "we'll know the way by heart."

They climbed back into their truck's cab.

John thumbed the radio mic'. "L.A., Squad 51 
available...Returning to quarters."

"Roger, 51..."

########################### 


DeSoto backed the Squad into Station 51's 
parking bay. The paramedic team piled out 
and sprinted into the rec' room.

"What happened after we left?" Gage asked 
the guys who were still huddled in front of 
the television, watching the game.

No one answered til a commercial came on. 
Then, Chet turned and said, "You had to see 
it to appreciate it, Gage."

"See what?" the impatient P.M. demanded.

Kelly completely ignored the question and 
continued, "I mean, it was really amazing! 
Right, Cap?"

"Hu-uh?..." Stanley stammered, not turning 
his gaze from the TV's screen. "Oh...yeah...
it was amazing...absolutely!"

Gage gasped in exasperation and turned to 
Stoker, "What happened, Mike?"

"Dusty Baker hit a grand-slam homerun!" the 
Engineer obligingly answered. "I can't remember 
who else did what, but the Dodgers got ten 
runs in the second inning!"

"We missed it!" John lamented, "For a lousy 
cancelled call! We missed it!" The sportscaster 
came back on and announced the score. 
"Twelve to nothin'?! How one-sided can you 
get?!" the peeved paramedic declared and 
turned to leave.

"Where yah goin'?" his partner pondered.

"To work on the Log Book," Gage glumly 
replied, "It'll be more exciting."

His crew mates glanced at one another and 
grinned.

############################

A-shift filed into the dorm of Station 51 six 
hours and three calls later.

"Lights out in five minutes!" an extremely 
tired Captain Stanley warned his equally 
exhausted crew.

The men stripped down to their t-shirts and 
boxers and, after setting up their bunker pants 
and boots, collapsed--gratefully--into their beds. 
They were asleep the moment their pillows 
hit their heads. 

They stayed right where they laid until just 
after eleven...when the alarm went off.

"Station 51..."

Stanley and his crew threw their covers off and 
began climbing out of their bunks and into the 
bottom half's of their turn-outs.

"Man down...unknown type rescue...213 
East Morrow Drive...Ambulance responding...
Two-One-Three East Morrow Drive...Time 
out...23:02"

On the way to the garage, the firemen 
exchanged mystified glances. Then they 
shrugged their suspenders into place and 
scrambled up into their trucks, still sliding 
jackets and helmets on.

"Station 51...KMG-365," the Captain 
acknowledged the dispatcher. Stanley shot 
his paramedics a rather puzzled look, before 
crossing the bay and climbing up into the 
Engine. 

DeSoto took the copy of the call slip he was 
handed and passed it on to his partner, "I 
thought you said Mr. Fajou was in Florida..."

"He is!" John adamantly stated, "He's visitin' 
some old friend a' his from the film studio 
who's retired in Miami. Won't be back for 
another two weeks..."

Roy's look of confusion quadrupled.

"Talk about 'deja` vu'..." Mike Stoker 
solemnly stated, "The FIRST time we went 
to 213 East Morrow Drive, the Dodgers 
and Padres were playing a double-header, 
too..."

Stanley shot his astute Engineer an amused 
glance and clipped his copy of the call slip 
to the dash.

Moments later, both trucks pulled out onto 
the street in front of the Station, lights 
flashing and sirens blaring.

########################### 


And, so it was that the men of L.A. County 
Fire Station 51 found themselves--once again
--up on the ancient-looking mansion's moonlit 
front porch...waiting impatiently while their 
leader rang the eerie 'go-ong' and rapped 
the big, bronze door-knocker.

"The yard looks nice..." Hank commented, 
just for something to say.

"Thanks, Cap. Reggie's got--Mr. Fajou has 
this really cool riding lawn mower," John 
enthusiastically announced, "24 horse...with 
a three blade deck and a 52 inch cut!"

"And electric hedge-trimmers!" Marco added, 
sounding equally excited.

There followed several seconds of uncomfortable 
silence.

"This is just TOO weird!" Chet Kelly determined, 
finally putting what everyone was thinking into words.

Stanley considered saying something like: 
'Well, we can't stand out here all night.' But 
then quickly reconsidered it. Instead, he just 
grabbed a hold of the knob and twisted it. 

Just like the first time, they found the front 
door to be unlocked. "Fire Department!" the 
Captain called into the dimly lit entryway, 
"Anybody home?!" Just like the first time, 
he received no reply. "All right!" Hank exclaimed, 
throwing the door open wide and stepping 
aside, "You all know the drill..." 

The paramedics set their equipment down 
in the entry hall. Roy and Marco immediately 
headed for the upstairs. John and Chet began 
making their way into the back kitchen and 
the basement door, while Mike followed his 
Captain off to explore the first floor.

############################# 


John jerked the creaky portal open, "After you..." 
he invited with a wave of his arm. Upon seeing 
his companion's mustached mouth opening in 
protest, he quickly added,"I went first the last 
time..."

"All right," Kelly reluctantly conceded, "But I 
should probably warn you...You'd better be 
ready to get the hell out a' my way! Because...
if I see even so much as a mouse...I'm gonna 
go screaming into the night! And I'll be plowing 
through anything--or anybody--that gets in 
my path!" Chet shot his chuckling chum an 
annoyed glare. Then he drew in a deep breath 
and begrudgingly began descending the stairs. 
The two men made it down about two steps, 
and then stopped, hearing their Captain calling 
for them. "This is just TOO weird!" Kelly 
repeated as the two of them re-retreated.

############################ 


"Yeah, Cap?" John inquired as he and his 
associated slid to a stop in front of Stanley.

"Upstairs!" their Captain prompted and passed 
the pair of new arrivals the paramedic 
equipment, "First room on the right!"

Gage grabbed the cases he was handed and 
took the stairs, two steps at a time. 

Kelly latched onto the oxygen tank and the 
remaining case, and quickly followed.

They entered the first doorway on the right. 
The dimly lit room was a library--judging by 
all the books it contained. There was an elderly 
lady lying, motionless, on an ornate, oriental rug
--which covered about a third of the room's 
hardwood floor. John's partner was kneeling 
beside the nonmoving woman, performing 
his initial patient survey.

"Heart?" Gage wondered, dropping his gear 
and himself down next to DeSoto.

Roy replied with a quick shrug of his shoulders. 
"She's got a goose-egg the size of my fist," 
he announced and began opening and emptying 
equipment cases, "Apparently, she fell and 
hit the back of her head--probably on the 
edge of that thing..." he added, motioning 
to the large oak desk resting on the floor 
in front of one the room's wall-to-wall 
bookcases.

John tossed his helmet up onto the desk 
and donned his stethoscope.

His partner finished his preliminary exam and 
began reaching for their bio-phone, "Let's get 
her patched in and we might be able to 
determine what caused the fall..." 

Their Captain poked his head into the room. 
"Ambulance is here," he announced, "You 
guys got everything you need from the Squad?"

Gage gave him a nod and then frowned, as a 
sternal rub and a dose of smelling salts produced 
no results in their patient. "Cap? Can you check 
the medicine chests and nitestands for any 
prescription meds? Oh, and try to find her 
purse, too. There may not be any pills in it, 
but her wallet might contain some helpful 
medical information."

"You bet! Chet, you get the bedrooms!" their 
Commander relegated, "Marco, you get 
the bathrooms! Mike and I will handle the 
purse detail."

As the firemen exited, the ambulance 
attendants entered, towing a gurney.

########################### 


Kelly was the first man back. He returned 
empty-handed. Lopez followed, a couple of 
minutes later, with his helmet full of pill 
bottles. Gage dumped two thirds of the 
helmet's contents into an 'urp' sack, and 
then placed the paper bag on their patient's 
stretcher.

"According to her driver's license," Stanley 
stated, as he and Stoker re-entered the 
room, "she's Mrs. Margaret Bentley. No 
medical info and no 'scrip's," he added, 
sounding almost apologetic.

"Thanks, Cap!" Roy acknowledged, as he 
accepted the purse that was passed to him. 
DeSoto snatched up several cases and 
followed the attendants as they towed 
the packaged patient from the room.

"I wonder where Mister Bentley is?" Marco 
queried, and stood there, staring glumly 
down at the two plastic pill bottles still in 
his helmet: Mr.Norman Bentley's 
prescription meds.

"Yeah," Chet chimed in, "Someone had to 
call this in..."

"Chet's right, Cap," Mike Stoker concurred, 
"This is just TOO weird! The rescue doesn't 
even match the call!"

"It's the full moo-oon..." John jokingly 
determined, trying his level best to sound 
solemn and sinister. But a broad grin 
betrayed him. He picked up the remainder 
of their paramedic gear and went snickering 
out into the hall.

Stanley and his Engine crew exchanged 
amused glances. "C'mon!" Hank urged, 
"There's a bed back at the Station, with 
my name on it!"

"Maybe the Bentleys are Reggie's--Mr. Fajou's 
relatives..." Marco mumbled under his breath 
and set Mr. Bentley's scrip's down on a lamp 
stand. "O-or, maybe Reggie--Mr. Fajou had 
hired himself a couple of house sitters? " Lopez 
exhaled a resigned sigh and followed his 
fellow firefighters from the library.

########################### 


John finished stowing the gear. He closed the 
side compartments on the Squad and stepped 
up to the driver's door. "Doggone it!" he 
exclaimed and slammed his open palm into 
the side of the truck.

Hank Stanley, who was half-way into his 
seat, heard the paramedic's angry explicative, 
and winced. "What no-ow?!"

"Ah, Cap..." Gage regrettably replied, " I forgot 
my helmet...again."

"That's the third time this month, John!" his 
irritated Captain realized, "Why can't you 
just leave it fastened to your head?!"

"It gets in the way of the phone and my 
stethosco--"

"Never mind!" his Captain quickly cut in, 
"Just go get it! We'll wait for you. Kelly, 
go with him!"

"Ahhh, Cap...Do I have to?" Chet whined.

"Move it, you two! Or do you WANT to find 
out what the penalty is for making your 
Captain lose his sleep?!" Hank added, seeing 
Kelly dragging his feet.

Chet picked up his pace. In fact, the two 
helmet retrievers went running back up to 
the mansion's front door, and quickly 
disappeared inside.

Stoker turned to Stanley, looking curious. 
"What is the penalty?"

"I don't know," his Captain confessed, 
"But I assure you, it wouldn't be pleasant! 
I can get awfully cranky when I'm 
sleep-deprived!"

Mike and Marco grinned.

########################## 


Kelly halted in the entrance hall. "I'm waitin' 
right here! And, hurry it up, will yah! This place 
gives me the creeps!"

"I'm hurryin'! I'm hurryin'!" John assured 
his creeped out companion, and took the 
stairs two steps at a time. Gage reached 
the dimly lit library and glanced around. He 
spotted his helmet, setting on the desk, 
and smiled. As he crossed over and 
reached out to pick it up, he happened to 
glance down. There, on the floor behind the 
desk, was a strange, curved scratch mark. 
The mark had been carved into the polished 
varnished floor boards by something heavy. 
'Something heavy...like a bookshelf!' the 
paramedic mused, 'I'll bet there's a 'secret 
passage' behind this thing!' He examined 
the object carefully...pulling and pounding 
and probing for some sort of 'secret' lever 
or button or something! 'Nothing!' he 
silently surmised and his shoulders slumped. 

He stooped to examine the funny, curved 
scratch mark again. Something heavy 
had been sliding over those floor boards, 
all right! "It's got to move!" he realized 
aloud. He straightened stiffly back up, and 
that's when he noticed that several books 
had been removed from one of the shelves. 
He reached for one of the remaining books 
and found that it wouldn't move. Upon 
closer inspection, he discovered that it 
wasn't a 'book', at all, but a solid block 
of wood with a book's title painted on it! 
"The Mystery On Dobbin's Moor..." he 
read aloud and gave the block of wood 
a jerk. 

The bookcase moved, startling 
him. John jumped back and stared in 
wide-eyed wonder as the entire shelf 
swung slowly out into the room, 
revealing a passageway in the wall 
behind it! "Only in the movies, huh..." 
he stated rather smugly, "I knew it! 
I knew it!" He stepped up and poked 
his head into the passageway. It led 
to a descending stairway. Gage stiffened 
suddenly and blinked his wide eyes in the 
dim light. There, at the bottom of the 
stairs, he could barely make out the 
motionless outline of a man. 

The explorer immediately kicked back 
into the paramedic mode. "HEY, CHET! 
GET UP HERE! HURRY!" he turned and 
shouted. John snatched his helmet up 
before stepping into the passageway. 

The opening mechanism reached the 
end of its guide rail and the bookcase 
stopped moving--but only for a 
moment. Because the 'stopper' on 
the end of the guide rail was broken, 
the opening mechanism left the track 
and a powerful spring slammed the 
bookcase back against the wall with 
a terrific force! 

Gage heard the spring 'snap'. Then, 
something struck him in the back 
of the head. There was an explosion 
of light--then...nothing! Everything 
went _____. He and his retrieved 
helmet went tumbling down the 
hidden staircase.

######################### 

Kelly heard Gage calling him...and then, a 
loud 'BA-ANG!' He hurried up the stairs and 
into the library. John was nowhere in sight! 
"Hey, Johnny...c'mon, man! Quit the 
clowning! Cap' just ain't gonna see the 
humor in this!" he added angrily. "Johnny?..." 
Kelly nervously repeated, following a 
thorough search of the room. "I know 
you're in here...I've been watching the door, 
and I would've seen you leave..." his words 
trailed off and a tingle went up his spine. 
"GAGE! GET OUT HERE! RIGHT NOW!" 

His only answer was dead silence. Chet 
shivered, and not from the cold. 
"...please?" he tacked on rather pitifully.

########################## 


John came to at the bottom of the hidden 
stairway. He groaned and rolled onto his 
stomach. When he opened his eyes, he 
couldn't see a thing. It was pitch black. 
He picked his aching, spinning head up 
off the floor and shook it, in an attempt 
to clear some of the cobwebs and put a 
stop to the loud, high-pitched 'ringing' in 
his ears. The only thing the shaking 
accomplished however, was to increase his 
pain--tenfold! 

Somehow, he managed to make it 
up onto his hands and knees. He spotted a 
thin strip of light and crawled over to it. He 
reached up, groping in the darkness for a 
door knob. There wasn't one. So, he leaned 
against the wall and tried to stand. The 'wall' 
gave way and the paramedic went sprawling 
out of the concealed room and onto the 
polished marble tiles of the mansion's 
entryway. Gage groaned again and slowly 
picked himself back up off of the floor. He 
stood there, dazed, disoriented and very 
dizzy. He shut his squinting eyes and placed 
his hands over his ears in another attempt to 
block out the painfully loud, and incredibly 
annoying 'ringing'.

######################### 

Kelly backed out of the library and started 
quickly down the stairs. He stopped halfway 
and his mouth dropped open. There, in the 
middle of the entrance hall, stood his no-
longer-missing amigo. "How'd you do that?" 
he wondered curiously and skipped down 
the remaining steps to stand face to face 
with finally found friend. "Will yah quit the 
clowning, already?!" Chet pleaded, as John 
completely ignored him.

Gage staggered back a few feet and then 
caught his balance. He opened his eyes, 
saw Kelly standing there and quietly 
inquired, "...what's that noise?"

Kelly listened carefully. All his straining 
ears could detect was the steady ticking 
of the hall clock. He stared at Gage's 
bare head and empty hands for a few 
miffed moments and then threw his arms 
up in complete exasperation. "That does 
it!" he declared and began heading for 
the front door, "I'm out a' here! I ain't 
getting the Cap' mad at ME!"

Gage turned and watched in confusion 
as associate angrily stomped off. "What 
happened?" he wondered in a whisper. 
A sudden wave of nausea came over 
him and he slowly dropped to his knees. 

"Man, if I were you, I'd find my helmet 
REAL QUICK!" Chet chastised. He grabbed 
a hold of the knob and glanced back, 
"Before Cap' comes bargin'--" he saw 
something glistening on the back of 
his now kneeling comrade's hanging 
head and stopped. "Hey, Johnny! You're 
not clowning!" he quickly realized and 
went rushing up to his collapsed 
companion. "That's REAL bloo-ood!" 
He grabbed Gage by the arms and 
slowly straightened him up, "What 
happened?!"

John tried blinking his blurred vision 
into focus. He saw Kelly's lips moving, 
but couldn't hear a word he was saying...
on account of that dang incessant 
'ringing'! "Can you stop that noise?" 
he requested. Another wave of 
nausea washed over him. He shut 
his eyes tightly and lowered his 
throbbing head, "...please...stop 
that noise," he pleaded rather pitifully.

"Man! You must a' really got your bell 
rung!" Kelly concluded. Gage ignored 
him and started struggling back up onto 
his feet. So, Chet draped the dazed 
paramedic's left arm around his neck, 
wrapped his own right arm around 
the whoozey man's waist, and began 
heading for the exit. 

######################## 


Mike and Marco watched as their very 
vexed Commander climbed stiffly down 
from Big Red and began heading for the 
mansion's front door with long, 
deliberate strides.

The Captain crossed the porch, pushed the 
not completely closed portal open and 
shouted, "GAGE! KELLY! OUT HERE! NO-OW!...
THAT'S AN ORDER!"

"Cap!" an extremely relieved Chet Kelly 
exclaimed, "Johnny's hurt!"

Stanley rushed into the entrance hall to 
lend Kelly a hand with his burden. "Hurt?! 
What do yah mean 'hu-urt'?! How does 
someone get HURT retrieving a helmet?!"

"I don't know," came back Kelly's equally 
perplexed reply. "He hit the back of his 
head somehow!" 

"What do yah mean 'somehow'?!" his 
furious Commander further demanded, 
"Didn't you SEE what happened?! You 
were supposed to be WITH him!" They 
carted their cargo over to the nearest 
bench and sat him down. Stanley stooped 
in front of the injured fireman and 
steadied him. "What happened, John?" 
No reply.

"It's no use, Cap, " Kelly advised, 
"His ears must still be ringing, or 
something. I don't think he can hear 
us."

Hank slipped his hand-held from his 
coat pocket and thumbed it, "HT 51 to 
Engine 51..."

"Engine 51...Go ahead, Cap..."

"Mike, Marco, bring me a backboard, a 
c-collar, the spare O2 and the trauma 
box!" the Captain requested.

"Right away, Cap!"

Hank exhaled a weary sigh and handed 
his HT to Kelly. "Call it in!" he ordered 
and immediately began making a 
mental list of everything he had ever 
learned about treating head injuries. 
::Keep movement to a minimum...
apply cervical collar...maintain an airway...
administer oxygen to minimize brain 
swelling...monitor circulation...check 
for cerebrospinal fluid...dress the wound 
without disturbing the underlying tissue...
examine the patient for any other injuries.::

Station 51's Captain exhaled another 
exasperated sigh. Then he pulled the 
paramedic's penlite from his assessment 
pouch and began his initial patient 
survey.

########################## 


Roy was standing in the corridor in front of 
the Nurse's Station at Rampart General's 
Emergency Receiving, waiting for his partner 
to pick him up. 

The door to the Doctor's Lounge flew 
open and the ambulance attendants he'd 
just rode in with came hurrying out into 
the hall.

The driver spotted DeSoto and waved 
him over. "You ain't gonna believe this," 
he declared as the paramedic came 
stepping up, "but we just got called 
back to that creepy house!" 

"You can't be serious!" Roy exclaimed.

The driver nodded, "You wanna ride back 
with us?"

"I'm waiting for my partner," Roy replied, 
and pointed to his pile of equipment cases.

"You'll have a lot shorter wait if you come 
with us, " the other attendant piped up. 
"Our patient IS your partner!"

DeSoto gulped in disbelief, but then ran 
over, gathered up his gear and went 
racing towards the exit. The paramedic 
beat the attendants to their ambulance.

########################## 

"Where did you find him?" a flustered Hank 
Stanley asked, upon finishing administering 
his first-aid.

"He was standing right there," Chet 
replied and pointed to middle of the 
entryway.

"He must've slipped and fallen down 
the stairs..." the Captain concluded.

"I don't think so, Cap. The last time I saw 
him, he went into that library...where we 
found that lady with the big bump on the 
back of her head...the next time I saw him, 
he was standing right there...with a big, 
bloody bump on the back of his head. I 
heard this real loud 'ba-ang!' "

Stanley stared up at the ceiling, "Why?! 
Why can't two grown men rescue one 
helmet--without one of them nearly 
being killed!" No reply followed. He 
frowned down at the barely conscious 
fireman on the backboard, "What am I 
gonna do with you, pal?! If I ever find 
out that you got hurt goofing off, I-I'll...." 
he let his threat just hang there in the air. 

The sound of an approaching siren grew 
louder and louder and finally stopped.

Roy hurried into the entrance hall. Seeing 
the patient was packaged and ready to 
transport, the vertical paramedic told the 
two white-coated men who had 
accompanied him, "Let's go! I'll call 
it in on the way!" 

The attendants nodded. They transferred 
the horizontal paramedic's backboard from 
the hall bench to their stretcher, strapped 
it securely in place and began towing the 
patient out to their waiting ambulance.

Roy watched them wheel his partner away 
and then turned to his Captain, "What 
happened?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" Stanley 
smartly replied and passed his questioner 
his medical notes. "And that's what I 
intend to find out! Chet take the Squad! 
Mike, Marco, I want this house turned 
inside out!"

"Aye, aye, Cap!" Kelly acknowledged. 
He snatched up the trauma box and 
gladly followed Roy out of the building. 
"He took a pretty hard blow to the back 
of the head. He's gonna need some 
stitches," the Irishman informed the 
still completely-in-the-dark paramedic. 
"Says he can't remember what happened. 
Claims he can't hear anything because 
there's a loud ringing in his ears..."

DeSoto gave his moustached informant 
a grateful nod and climbed up into the 
back of the ambulance with the bio-
phone and their drug box.

Kelly closed the doors, rapped an 'all 
clear' and then watched the vehicle 
pull away. He gave the creepy-crawly 
dwelling a parting glance, before heading 
for the Squad...with a shudder. He was 
really relieved to be leaving that 'way 
weird' 'banging' abode behind him--for 
good. ::Hopefully... ::

########################### 


"What are we looking for?" Mike wondered 
as they began a thorough search of the library.

"His helmet," their confused Captain replied 
as the object of their search was not 
immediately clearly visible, "It has to be 
in here somewhere! He didn't have it 
with him when Chet found him..."

Stoker stopped in mid-search and stood 
there, resting his hands upon his hips, 
"Cap, everything about this rescue has 
been really strange."

"Yeah, Cap," Lopez agreed, "Maybe we 
should call the police?"

"What? You two think somebody hit 
him over the back of the head and 
stole his helmet?" Stanley jokingly 
inquired. He saw the looks on their 
faces and realized that was exactly 
what they thought. "That's ridiculous!" 

"First, the rescue doesn't match the call..." 
Marco muttered, "Then, Johnny gets 
'mysteriously' hurt..."

"I think there's somebody hiding in this 
house!" Stoker stubbornly insisted. 

Lopez nodded his support of the 
Engineer's notion.

"C'mon!" their Captain urged, "There's 
got to be an explanation to all this 
'strange' business. When we find the 
helmet, I'm sure we'll find the explanation--
a reasonable explanation," their still skeptical 
Commander added, suppressing a smile 
all the while.

########################### 


An hour later, the three firemen finished their 
thorough, and exhausting, search of the 
house and regrouped in the entrance hall...
empty-handed!

Stoker sank wearily down onto the bottom 
step and wondered, "Well, Cap, are you 
convinced now?"

Stanley sighed and tried rubbing some of 
the stiffness from the muscles in the back 
of his neck. "I'm convinced we're wasting 
our time here. C'mon! Let's get back to the 
Station. I wanna call the hospital."

Lopez looked tremendously disappointed, 
"You're not going to call the police?"

"And tell them what?" Hank wondered, 
"Hello, I'd like to report a missing helmet? 
I don't think that would go over too big."

"Maybe not, " Mike admitted, "But what 
about attempted murder?"

Stanley stared at his Engineer in total 
disbelief. "And I thought Gage had an 
overactive imagination! C'mon! Let's 
go get some sleep! It'll give your imagination 
a chance to rest, after running wild like 
that."

But Stoker was undeterred. "Aren't you 
curious?"

Their Captain exhaled a sigh of complete 
exhaustion. "Mike, right now I'm more 
tired than curious. We can look for answers 
again in the morning...later this morning," 
he wearily tacked on, on his way to the 
exit.

########################## 


Fifteen minutes later, Station 51's 
Commander-In-Chief found himself on 
the phone in the rec' room. "Uh-huh...I see...
Uh-huh," he paused to pass DeSoto's 
report on to his skeleton engine crew, 
"No fractures. No hemorrhaging. Just a 
mild concussion, a dozen stitches and a 
bunch of bruises..."

Stoker and Lopez exhaled sighs of relief.

"Already did! A replacement should be 
arriving any minute now. Right! Thanks, 
Roy!" the Captain concluded his conversation 
and returned the phone's handset to its 
cradle. "Thank God!" he exclaimed and 
began heading for his bunk. "Lights out 
in two minutes!" he warned.

Mike flicked off the lights and then he and 
Marco followed their leader over to the 
dorm.

########################### 


Meanwhile, over in Rampart General's ICU...

"Are your ears still ringing?" Dr. Kelly Brackett 
asked, upon completion of his very thorough 
examination of the pouting patient in Room 
602.

The frowning fireman shook his heavily 
bandaged head 'no'.

"Good! You can hear me! How do you feel?" 
There followed a long silence. Kel' turned 
to the nurse, standing at his side and said, 
"Humph! His ears are working...but now 
he can't talk!"

"I was always told if I couldn't say anything 
nice, I shouldn't say anything at all."

Brackett cleared his throat and cracked a 
smile. "Well, I'm glad to see that little bump 
on the head hasn't caused you to lose your 
sense of humor!"

"If I only got a 'little bump on the head', then 
why does my whole body hurt?" Gage 
complained, sounding every bit as grumpy 
as he looked.

"Your whole body hurts because it's black 
and blue."

"Did somebody beat me up?"

"By the location of these bruises, I'd venture 
to say you fell down some stairs..." 
Brackett paused, to study his patient's 
reaction to his little disclosure.

At the mentioning of the word 'stairs', 
a picture of a dark staircase had flashed 
through Gage's groggy memory banks. 
Then another fleeting mental image 
appeared. That of a motionless figure 
sprawled out on the floor at the foot of 
those dark steps. 

"Although Chet swears that's not 
possible..." the doctor paused again, 
"What is it Johnny? You remember 
something?"

"I'm not sure. When you said stairs, I 
suddenly saw--" the paramedic stopped 
and stiffened. "Doc! Are any of the guys 
still here?!"

"Roy and Chet are right outside. Why?"

"I gotta talk to 'em! Hurry! It's important! 
Life and death important!"

"All right. You get one minute," Brackett 
allowed, and began heading for the door, 
"But you have to promise to behave 
yourself!" he called back over his shoulder.

John nodded.

His doctor disappeared out into the hall.

"How is he?" Chet Kelly anxiously inquired.

Brackett folded his arms and frowned. 
"Right now, he's all worked up! Claims 
he has something important to tell the 
two of you. Gentlemen, it's essential that 
he remain as calm and as quiet as possible..." 

ICU's visitors nodded their understanding.

So, Kel' pushed the portal to 602 back 
open and waved them inside, "One 
minute!" he allotted and let the door 
swing shut.

Gage spotted his guests and practically 
shouted, "You guys have got to get 
back to that house! There's somebody 
hurt!"

"Calm down, Johnny!" his partner pleaded. 
"Who's hurt?"

"I don't know. It was kinda' dark. It 
looked like a man."

DeSoto and Kelly exchanged knowing 
glances. They decided to humor him. 
"Okay, Johnny. We'll go back to the 
house and rescue the man. You just 
lie still and don't worry...he'll be just 
fine..."

Gage gazed into his friends' faces. 
He could tell they didn't really believe 
him. "You don't believe me!" he 
exclaimed and tried to sit up. "You 
gotta believe me! He's layin' at the 
bottom of a SECRET stairs!"

The ICU nurse shoved his antsy, 
all-riled-up partner back down on 
his bed.

"We'd better leave!" DeSoto quickly 
determined and he and his fellow visitor 
began beating a hasty retreat.

"No! Don't go! I hafta tell yah how 
to get to the SECRET passage! It's 
behind the bookcase! Mystery On 
Dobbin's Moor! Be careful! The bookcase 
is DEADLY!" John stopped shouting 
as the door swung shut. He turned 
to his tough nurse, "Let me go! I've 
got to make a phone call!"

Brackett glanced up from the medical 
chart he'd been studying and gave 
Gage's guests an annoyed glare. "That 
visit went over well!" he sarcastically 
commented. "What was all the shouting 
about?"

"That bump on the head must've 
scrambled his brains," Roy replied, 
"He saw a Late Late show about a 
month ago, and now he's hallucinating 
houses with hidden rooms!"

The doctor cocked one eyebrow, 
"What did he tell you?"

"Why?"

"I don't think he was hallucinating. What 
exactly did he say?"

Gage's guests glanced at each other again.

Kelly went first. "Well, he said there was 
somebody hurt back at that house."

"Yeah," DeSoto chimed in, "He said it looked 
like a 'man'."

"Then he said something about a secret 
stairway and a secret passage," Kelly 
concluded.

"I think you should check it out!" John's 
doctor advised, speaking in dead earnest. 
"I examined Johnny just before you went 
in there. He was completely mentally alert. 
And," he paused,"he's covered with bruises...
like the bruises one would get from falling 
down a flight of stairs. Now, Chet claims 
he didn't fall down the stairs he was 
watching...so...maybe he fell down a hidden 
stairway?"

Roy remained skeptical.

But Kelly was beginning to come around. 
"It would explain a lot of things," he was 
forced to admit.

"What things?" DeSoto wondered.

"Well, the call for instance. Remember? 
It came in MAN down...unknown type 
rescue. And, Johnny had to get to the 
first floor somehow...and somebody had 
to phone the call in...It would also explain 
why they couldn't find his helmet!"

"That call has been bugging me all night!" 
Roy remarked and started striding off in 
the direction of a phone.

Brackett and Kelly followed along.

Roy picked up the receiver and dialed 
a number from memory.

"Los Angeles County Fire Department 
Central Dispatch," one of the dispatchers 
answered, "May I help you?"

"Yes. This is Squad 51. I need to 
speak to the person who answered 
an emergency call at around eleven. 
The call was to 213 East Morrow Drive."

"Standby, 51," the dispatcher acknowledged 
and placed the call on hold.

Two minutes later, a woman came back 
on the line. "Hello?"

"Hi. This is Squad 51. Did you receive 
the call from 213 East Morrow Drive 
last night?"

"Yes. Why? Did it turn out to be a hoax?"

DeSoto stiffened, "Why'd you ask that?"

"Some hysterical woman called, 
screaming something about her husband 
finding a secret passage in her brother's 
house. Can you imagine? A secret passage?"

Roy slammed the phone down. "Tell Johnny 
I'm sorry I ever doubted him!" he requested 
of Brackett, before tearing off down the 
hospital corridor with Chet hot on his heels. 
They skidded to a stop in front of the elevators 
and DeSoto hit the DOWN button. "L.A., 
Squad 51," he spoke into his HT.

"Go ahead, 51..."

"L.A., we have a silent alarm at 213 East 
Morrow Drive. Request an ambulance and 
Engine 51's assistance."

"10-4, Squad 51...213 East Morrow Drive...
Two-One-Three East Morrow Drive...
Ambulance and Engine 51 responding...
Time Out...2:13"

Kelly caught the Time Out time and turned 
to DeSoto, wearing the oddest expression 
on his moustached face. "2:13? How weird 
is tha-at?!"

The elevator arrived and swallowed them up, 
before Brackett could catch the paramedic's reply. 

The physician managed an amused snort and 
decided to go deliver DeSoto's message. He 
turned around and ran smack dab into his father.

"Don't you ever sleep?" the senior Dr. 
Brackett queried lightly. 

"Dad! What on earth are you doing here at 
this hour?"

"Attempted suicide. 604. What about you?"

"Concussion. 602. Since when do you 
get called in for a psyche consult?"

"Since I volunteered my services in the--in 
your E.R.. Since when do you get called in 
for a concussion at, " Brent paused to glance 
at his Rolex, " 2 a.m.?"

"Since I left standing orders to be notified 
whenever any of my family members or 
close, personal friends come through the 
doors."

"Then...you'd be called in...for me?" his 
father tentatively inquired.

"Twice!" Kel assured him, with a wry 
smile, "You made BOTH lists!" The younger 
Dr. Brackett's smile broadened into a grin, 
and he disappeared behind the door to 
ICU Room 602.

Brent Brackett chuckled and then vanished 
next door, into 604.

----------------------------------------

Photos : No attachments.

****************************
From: 'Katherine Bird' <kathbird@hotmail.com>
Subject : [emergencytheaterlive] For Whom the Tome Tolls.
Date : Sunday, December 15th, 2002.    23:22:09  GMT

Roy and Chet beat the Engine to 213 Morrow
Drive and got out. They shed helmets
onto the squad's roof, knowing that they
wouldn't be needing them inside.

Chet was bouncing with more than just
professional urgency. Nervousness was
making him babble.
"I don't know what you think I can do
once we find him in there Roy. I'm not
a paramedic." Chet whined, taking drug, IV,
and the splint box from the side compartment
as they hastened to gather all they would
need.

Roy afforded him a wry look. "You
got two arms and know how to use a
resuscitator. That's all you need to know
if CPR's needed. I can handle the rest until 
the Engine gets here. It's been a half hour,
no doubt Johnny's replacement has
already reported in. He'll be coming with
the Ward and the gang, sitting in your spot."

"True enough. I wonder who was sent as
Johnny's replacement.."

DeSoto snatched up the defibrillator, short
02 case, the biophone and two hefty hand 
held flashlights.  He freed one hand long enough
to thumb his HT. "L.A., Squad 51. On scene."

"10-4, 51."

"L.A., what's Engine 51's ETA?"

Before L.A. could answer, Cap's sleepy
voice piped in over the open frequency, punctuated by
background sirens. Roy could hear gears shifting
at a rapid rate as the LaFrance wove through
the late night traffic. "Squad 51, our ETA is four
minutes!"Cap replied immediately.

"10-4, Engine 51." Roy said. ::Man, Mike must
be breaking all speed records to get here.::

Chet and Roy hurried to the front porch
landing with all of their equipment. The full moon
had settled over the trees, making the neatly
fire station gang weeded stone path, invisible, but
Roy and Chet already knew the front garden
sidewalk's curves by heart.

Kelly asked a question. "Just what
did the dispatcher tell you about this potentially
injured guy?" he panted, as Roy and he pushed
opened the front door with their hips and 
rushed into the main entrance hall. 

Chet could still see the wrappers they had left 
behind from Johnny's nasal cannula tubing Cap had 
used on him and from Marco's left over bandaging
on the oriental rug by the stone bench. 

Roy immediately got his bearings and started
running up the main staircase to the second floor
of the vast, dark Victorian mansion. They 
both returned to the library at the head of the stairs. 
"Chet, it went like this. Dispatch said Margaret, the lady
we found, is Fajou's sister and that it was she who 
called in last night's run on her husband, Norman.
Dispatch thought her nuts when she started yelling
about him being lost in a secret passage.."

"So that explains the mismatched gender on
the call; Man down, when we found a woman. "

"Yeah.." Roy said., hurrying even faster. 
 
Chet said. "She must've panicked,
trying to find him. Don't blame her. These are
number one grade A creepy surroundings, man."
If she freaked, she could've fallen and hit her
head easily."

"That's what I'm guessing." Roy said. 

Fireman and paramedic plunked down all of
their gear on the carpetting in the dark library
and both immediately went to the rows and
rows of ornate bookshelves, seeking out
one title that Gage had embedded into their
minds so urgently....

Unconsciously, they turned protectively back
to back to each other, and turned in place
eyeing the wall to wall book shelving all around
them with their flashlights. 

Chet whistled, "Man, where do we start?"

"Anywhere.."
Roy licked dry lips, but smiled when he heard
the sounds of Engine 51 approaching. He lifted
his HT. "Squad 51 to Engine 51. We're in
the library."

"10-4. There in one.." Stoker acknowledged.

Roy turned back to a twitchy Kelly. 
"Johnny said the title of the book that activated 
the passageway's door read,..The Mystery On 
Dobbin's Moor.."

Chet and Roy fell mute when thousands of books
met their sight. And most of them were almost
too dusty to read.

"And I promised myself I'd never come back
here.." Kelly said, "That's what I get for having an
overactive curiosity about this house. We'll never
find it in time, Roy.. Geez, the guy's been lying 
alone for hours. He might even be dead already."

"Yeah, well. Third time on a run to the same location's
always a charm. I prefer to think positively." Roy grunted.
"Now, let's start shedding some light here. Literally."

DeSoto jogged back to the door they entered and 
found a long velvet pull cord set into the ceiling. He
pulled it and electric lights in Victorian glass lamps
brightly illuminated the room. "Let's assume 
Johnny didn't climb that book ladder to find it, and
that he only looked at something at eye level. He 
was looking for his helmet that he had set down. So
it makes sense he wouldn't have been looking anywhere 
over our heads." he sighed. Then he paused, thinking...
"Chet, where exactly did we find Margaret on the floor,
I don't remember. I was too focused on making sure
she was still breathing to recall."

Chet shrugged and paced to the place. "Right about
here.." he gestured. "Next to the desk, like this.."
and he laid down on the floor to show Roy how she
had been positioned.

Roy place his feet next to where Chet's shoes
lay and turned, looking at the desk. He found
hand prints on the mirror and a blood stain where
Margaret's head had impacted its edging. "Her lump
was on the left occipitally, so she had to be 
facing this way.." Roy turned to his right, 
"...when she fell against the desk."

Chet got to his feet. "Look!" he shouted, aiming his
flashlight's beam. "A larger hand print!" he said pointing
it out on a dusty tome immediately next to the mirror. 
"That's got to be Johnny's. It still looks fresh."

Roy "It is..There's the title we've been looking for."
 
Roy's hand was just about to pull it when 51's engine 
crew and Paramedic Craig Brice rushed into the room 
loaded with wall cracking equipment.

Cap rushed to their sides. "Any luck yet?"

"Right here, Cap." Roy said. "We found the triggering
mechanism. Johnny said it was disguised as this fake
book here."

"All right, stand back." Captain Stanley ordered.
"If that bookshelf's opening mechanism malfunctioned
enough to shove Johnny down a flight of stairs, it'll 
still be malfunctioning. Be careful. Things like this usually
rotate on a counter weight balance."

Chet smirked, "Hey Cap, all the sudden you're
a haunted house secret passageway expert on
top of being a fire department captain?"

Stanley shot a look at Kelly. "Not even pretending,
Kelly. Just guessing here. I'm remembering the weird 
hidden revolving stone door we found in that 
winery basement fire last month. Remember 
that fire? Well I had a chance to talk with the restaurant 
designer we rescued about it all while I bandaged up 
burns he got on his hands trying to save that hundred
year old Cabernet Sauvignon wine bottle."

"Oh yeah. What a tragedy! A two thousand dollar
bottle of bino. Poof. Up in smoke." Marco said.

Mike said. "I remember him, a real
character. Didn't know whether I was talking
to Frank Lloyd Wright or Stephen King."

Craig Brice interrupted them. "Ah, gentleman.
We can talk about all this fascinating gothic
architecture and about the old wine later, hmm? 
We're here on a rescue call. 
I suggest we stick to the matters at hand. Our
victim is expecting us to save him with all due haste."

Chet sniped back, "Yeah? Well Cap flapping his
gums, Brice, is to make sure we don't 
end up dead before we can even get to the guy. 
Patience. Strange thing with you saying that, Brice,
you usually know paramedic protocol 
better than any of us. Remember rule number one? 
'First, secure the scene?' "

Craig didn't take offense. "Indeed. Proceed all. I'll
get the gear set up." He laid out an EKG monitor
onto the rug, quickly followed by the defibrillator case.

Cap said, "Ok, Marco, get that crow bar set.
Mike get ready to jam your roof axe into the hinge 
axel that'll expose itself once the bookshelf swings open.
That should hold things long enough for us to get 
Bentley out of there."

Roy pulled the pseudobook lever.

There was a groan of stone and a loud bang which
Chet recognized. "This is the right way.. 
I remember that sound!" 

He barely waited for Marco and Stoker
to wedge axe and crow bar into the brick wall
gears before plunging into the darkness of the stair 
well. 

Sure enough, his flashlight beam caught a
dim figure at the bottom of the landing. 

The gang all shoved into the narrow passageway.

Roy was quickly down the rock stairway, with 
all the others close on his heels. "Hey sir..! Can 
you hear me?"

Kelly butted in front of him and 
reached for the figure's neck.

A large spider jumped out from around the
man's hairline in a defensive leap, guarding
its territory.

"Ahhh!!"
Chet leaped backwards with a shout, crashing
into Roy, Stoker and Cap behind him, and 
all four fell onto their butts on the stone steps.

"Kelly do you mind?" Cap said.

"Sorry Cap. I.. guess I'm more than a little jumpy."

Roy was already at their victim's side, aiming
a flashlight towards his face. 
"Hey Cap, look at this. It's a wax work figure."

All four guys crowded around Roy and looked.

"A fake body." Cap sighed. "I should have known.
This house IS a working creepshow."

Chet had already overcome his fright. "Man, Johnny's
gonna be bummed he took a fall over a dummy."
and the guys laughed.

Then a low moan attracted their attention. Every
one of them shot their flashlight beams into 
the cobwebby room beyond the stair's landing.

Shushes abounded as everyone  strained to
hear more. Cap held up a glove for silence and he
shouted. "Norman Bentley! Shout if you can hear us!"

They were met with an eerie quiet.

"Ok, gang. Spread out. Search pattern. And stay
within eyesight at all times. This place is a deathtrap
to the uninitiated."

"Seems like even the caretakers were under informed."
Brice shouted from where he was listening to the gang
from where he was waiting in the library with an open
comm to Rampart.

"Unlucky them." Lopez groaned.

At the back of the room, another figure startled them,
a huge looming, silver form standing in their light beams.

"Well, I'll be d*mned." Kelly whispered. "There IS an iron
maiden in the basement."

Cap and Roy shot him a dirty look.

Another trickling moan met their ears, weaker 
than the last, followed by an echo which 
sounded like hollow metal pinging.

They all paused in their tracks trying to pin down 
a place that would cause a moan to sound like
that. "Maybe Norman found the Maiden, too." Lopez
said fearfully. "It's the only hollow thing down here."
 
Come on!" Kelly agreed.

All the firemen hastened to open the heavy wrought 
iron case. While they shouted for Norman to answer
them, the faint, low moaning stopped.  

It was almost a full two minutes more before the 
firemen figured out the tricky old device's release 
latches and freed their victim.

Out tumbled an older man bonelessly, comatose 
and dusky blue. "Mr. Bentley?" Roy said, catching 
him. 

They set him on the stone floor and DeSoto quickly
grabbed his head and listened carefully over his 
nose and mouth after tipping his chin back.

"Move it guys. He's quit breathing.." Roy said 
and he firmly began mouth to mouth. 

Mike Stoker began opening the man's shirt hastily
for CPR.

Chet rushed to the foot of the stairs and shouted.
"Hey Brice! Toss down the resuscitator. On the double!"

Craig did so, and Kelly caught the case as deftly as a 
basketball. He rushed back and together, Mike and
Chet got the unit turned on. They both swiftly fitted 
the tubing and the moulded face piece into place. 

Roy tilted back Norman's head further on his
next breath, until a better airway was secured.
Then he set the positive pressure mask Kelly 
handed him over the suffocated man's face, 
and sent a set of rapid ventilations of pure 
O2 deep into Norman's chest with the thumb 
trigger. 

Roy's free fingers found a beat just under the 
man's jawline. He waved Mike off from his 
hands-on-waiting for-word-to-go CPR position. 
"Stoker, it's ok. He's still got a pulse.." he told 
him. "It's weak, but there."

All the gang sighed and relaxed just a bit.
 
After only a minute more supported O2, 
the very lucky Norman roused and began 
coughing. 

He weakily shoved the ventilation mask 
away with a confused mumble.

Cap attempted to get the groggy man's attention.
"Mr. Bentley? It's ok. We're with the L.A. County Fire 
Department, we got a call from your wife that 
you were lost down here. How are you feeling?" 

Norman's eyes blearily made out Roy and all the gang's
faces. "Oh my, never.. shoulda gone exploring..Ohhh..
That d*mned thing trapped me..." he said with a grimace
towards the Iron Maiden that had entombed him for a day.

"How did you ever get in there?" Cap wanted to know.

Kelly helped the man sit against the Maiden to ease
his breathing a little more, at Roy's unspoken nod to do
so.

"Oh, I've got a headache that won't quit.."
Norman groaned and gratefully took the mask Roy 
still held against his nose and mouth. He inhaled in 
a few more shots of oxygen, then blinked his eyes 
as clarity came slowly back. It arrived along 
with a healthy sense of self consciousness the 
more Norman thought about where he was 
and what had happened to him. Finally, he sighed,
answering the tall fire department captain.
"I....wanted to know what it was like being 
inside one of them. Stupid really. Didn't 
know there was no handle on the inside."

Chet sighed. "No kidding.. Didn't think a torturing device
would have one."

Marco smacked Chet on the arm to keep him quiet.

Cap sighed, rubbing his sleep mussed hair and said,
"Well live and learn from this, Norman. 
Looks like no lasting harm done. But sir, I'm 
afraid we've got some off news about your wife. 
She .. well,...panicked a bit when she didn't hear 
you answer her calling your name and slipped 
a bit, upstairs."

"Is Maggie ok?" Norman gasped. "Is she here? 
Oh my goodness.."

"She's fine, sir. Relax. She's just getting an ice
pack for her head at Rampart Emergency, most likely,
and a few precautionary X-rays. We'll be bringing 
you to where she is in a few minutes." Cap said.

"Oh, bother.. Glad she's all right. Thank you boys,
for looking out for her," he sighed, "and me for that
matter.." and took another pull off the mask, saying 
more. "Margaret doesn't have the same sense 
of adventure I do about her brother's house. 
Me, I'm like a kid turned loose in a candy store.." 
and he started laughing to the point of coughing.

"Easy.." Roy said, "Just keep using this oxygen here. 
I'm afraid you're still as gray as she is...." he quipped, 
patting the Iron Maiden next to them. 
 
That only brought more laughter from Norman
and he rapidly improved colorwise soon
there after. 

Chet and Cap had already ruled out the need for
a stokes. Roy agreed with them and he finished
putting away the positive pressure valve, trading it 
for a cannula. "Feel well enough to stand, Norman? " 
Roy asked him. "We've got another paramedic with 
all of our equipment up the stairs here. If you'd let us, 
we'd like to check ya out to make sure you 
didn't come to any permanent harm."
Roy asked him.

"You're so nice, all of you men. And for
coming all the way over here just to get
me out of my bind." he said. "Yes. I do believe
I can. " and he let himself be raised and 
supported between Stoker and Marco until he
regained shaky feet. "Say fellas, when you
were searching for me, did you spot Reggie's
wetbar?  I'm awful thirsty from being 
cramped in there all night. A brandy would 
really hit the spot right about now..."

"Amen to that sir." Chet nodded animatedly.

Cap glared at Kelly. "Just go get the gear, Kelly.
We're going upstairs."

Roy quickly diverted Mr. Bentley from the
jibbing Captain Stanley to Chet Kelly exchange.
"Let's just start with a glass of water from
the kitchen, all right? " Roy told him with
a grin. "And maybe we'll be asked to get
an IV or two going a bit later.." he said 
thoughtfully.

"An IV? What's that? Anything like a V-O?"
Mr. Bentley asked with an innocent curiosity.
"I know about those, Margaret says Reginald 
likes to drink them while he bakes things in the
kitchen."

Roy grinned and then began explaining in 
detail about what would go on with Norman 
and his prehospital care and about what the 
doctor on the other end of the biophone 
would probably order, as they all slowly 
made their way up the slate gray stones, step
by step.

On the way, and last in line, 
Chet snatched up Gage's helmet after making 
very sure no new spiders were calling it home.  

He was still unnerved by the bug he
had seen and Norman's close call, but 
his sense of humor was still completely 
intact. So was his keen entrepeneurial instinct
that always seemed to pop up after a crisis.
"Say, Mr. Bentley. Did you know you could probably
make a fortune opening up this place to school kids
around Halloween time? You three might make 
even more money then, in one month,
than you do right now giving the studios kids 
THEIR tours, all year. Reggie would still be 
able to hand out his gingerbread cookies anytime 
he feels like it. And I'm sure the guys here with me 
would love to help out this fall in costumes or
something, too."

Marco and Mike began to shake their heads
vehemently out of Norman's eyeshot but stopped
immediately when the old man noticed them 
doing something beyond helping him climb steps. 

Chet got braver as the gem of his idea, blossomed
in the wake of his spider fright. 
"Yeah, now that I think about it, my Cap would
make a GREAT Frankenstein."

"Really?" Norman chirped up, fiddling with the
cannula that had been set around his face 
as he let his rescuers sit him into a 
leather library recliner by a roaring fireplace 
that had somehow, mysteriously, lit itself.

Chet said sotto voce. 
"Oh yeah, sir. I know because he's a 
regular holy terror whenever he goes without 
sleep or when any station wide inspection 
date rolls around."

Kelly never saw the boot Cap connected with his
rear, sending him out the library door in an 
unsubtle hint to tell the ambulance attendants 
where to rendevous with them all.

-----------------------------------------------------
 
A week later, the gang sat around the 
kitchen table eating lunch, without much 
gusto.

Even Mike looked quieter than usual. 

Marco finally piped up, breaking the soft sounds
that all their forks were making as they each
half heartedly played with their food. 
"Man, I'm really going to miss the little guy."

"Yeah. And we just got the paint to dry on old
Henry's dog house too." Mike Stoker agreed.

Stoker and Lopez both let out matching sighs.

Captain Stanley narrowed his eyes at his men
from around his chilidog as he bit into it. He
chewed loudly and without apology.
"Come off it you two. You saw the way Reggie,
Maggie and Norman's eyes lit up when they saw
Chester Bartholomew run up to them when they
came here to give us all gingerbread cookies to
thank us for all we've done. It was
like twenty years of loneliness just rolled 
right off their shoulders. What else could I have
done?"

Chet groused. "You couldn't've found them 
another puppy?"

"As if I could've right at that moment, Kelly. 
Hush, and eat your food before it gets cold."

Another two minutes of no one chewing, 
stretched intolerably. 

Cap cleared his throat and addressed his depressed
crew, "Now, Come on gang. We just all have to 
get used to having a station without a mascot again. 
Won't be hard. Not at all. I mean we..we..we 
managed to survive after Henry left. Right?"

Everyone grudgingly agreed, until a voice rang out.

"Barely. We didn't sleep for a week.
Remember?" Chet insisted morosely. "I don't know about
you, Cap. But I missed him terribly. All but broke my heart.
Sort of like ..." and he lowered his voice.." the way..
I feel...." and he took a bite of biscuit to hide
what he was feeling."....right ...now..about Chester."

Captain Stanley shifted in his chair uncomfortably.
"Yeah, well, Kelly. uh... I know it's tough. It's rough
on all of us.. But, consider our giving Chester 
away a good deed and let's leave it at that."

Roy regarded Chet with a calm encouraging grin.
"He's right Chet. Just think how happy Chester will
be when he can play with all the school kids 
everyday when they come to visit Mr. Fajou
and the Bentleys to get their gingerbread cookies." 

His grin fell away when Chet's paper didn't stop
separating Kelly from the rest of those around the
kitchen table.

Gage loudly coughed, getting everyone's attention.
He wore a very serious face as he said.
"I still think you made a horrible mistake Cap. I 
really think that you must've .." and his face lit up 
with laughter."...given away the wrong Chester B, 
 You should've given them Kelly here and saved 
us a whole lotta future grief." Johnny joked. 

"Very funny Gage." Chet said, finally taking some 
bait. "I'll remember that the next time you 
get lost and your buns are roasting in a 
hot fire and I'm the one sent to look for ya."

The gang chuckled, thinking they were finally
lifting away the dark cloud hanging over Kelly's
head.

Even Cap finally got up out of his chair and 
strode over to Henry's old dog house and he 
patted its newly restored paint job. "Listen 
gang...uh, despite what I've decided here, 
it doesn't mean we can't keep our eye out, 
you know, from looking for the next stray 
to come along. Am I right? 
Heck. We see tons of em every fire. "

Gage was still frowning because it had finally sunk 
in that his attempt at humor had actually failed to 
get Chet out of his pity pit. "Yeah, Cap. 
That's... that's a really good idea. We'll uh, just,
we'll just go about our business and wait for 
another dog or something to come to us."

"Exactly Gage.. " Cap agreed. "My guess is the 
next dog to land at Station 51 will do it OUT of 
a baby basket and without any mysterious note 
attached around his neck."

"Here. here." Johnny piped up in a toast, raising
his mug of coffee. "To Chester Bartholomew.
Once a puppy lost, now a pup found, and living
it up in the coolest house a dog could ever wish for,
the Morrow Drive Movie Mansion."

The gang all joined in the toast whole 
heartedly, hooting a few whistles and cheers 
until Chet finally raised his mug, too.

Everyone pretended not to see the water 
glistening in Chet Kelly's eyes as he looked for 
the millionth time at a photo of Chester 
Bartholomew that he had carried in his uniform 
pocket ever since the first day the tiny beagle pup 
had arrived on the kitchen doorstep, as they drank
in the little dog's honor.

As if by magic, a box of tissue suddenly 
appeared out of nowhere, shoving 
underneath the funnies Chet was only 
pretending to read.

------------------------------------------------

Dixie McCall watched the three well dressed
diners surrounding her at a Manny's Fine Dining 
white topped table, and smiled.

Her wildest long time wish, had finally
come true at last.

Kel Brackett sat with his mother and his father,
all together, at one table.

Dixie grinned even bigger.
::It's been three hours. And the sparks still
aren't flying. You know, sometimes
I amaze even myself. Maybe I should 
study to become a doctor AND a psychologist, 
just to make it official someday:: she considered.

Dixie sipped her Amaretto sour and studied her
friends' faces as they shared their life
stories of the past ten years with other, in 
full, heartfelt, gritty detail. But Dixie felt she
didn't even need to listen. It was enough just
to be there.
 ::Nah..:: she thought about her future
career plans once more.  ::Why should I even bother? 
I get to enjoy the rewards of doing that kind of work 
right now. No muss, ...no fuss. And what I'm witnessing
right now is a fine, fine example of the power
of human reconciliation at its very best.::

Dixie was absolutely sure that Joe Early 
next to her was revelling too, in the fact 
that not once through the entire nine 
course dinner, had Kel Brackett's anxiety tied
face twitch, revealed itself.

::Yeah. Somedays I really love my job.:: Dixie
mused once again. :: I couldn't be any happier,
I think ever, ...than I am.....right ........now..::

Wordlessly, she clinked her drink with Joe's as
they both continued to be inadvertantly
ignored by their close companions.
 
Pleased as punch, Dixie McCall and Joe Early
both tuned back into the animated dinner 
conversation going on around them and 
nurse and doctor both, privately went on 
celebrating and watching with both eyes as
the old Brackett family circle remade
itself into something .... finally and truly,
everlasting.

-----------------------------

Photo :  Cap and John wearing helmets
             looking worried.

Photo : Chet in turnout, with an axe.

Photo : A creepy house.

Photo: Roy with an unconscious man in a dirty
           setting.

Photo : Dixie out of uniform in street clothes.

Photo : A tiny beagle pup, running in play.

Photo : Station 51, in daylight under blue skies.

************************************
  

           FIN  

 

End Credits --  Episode Two (First Season)

FATHER AND SON

    :) This Episode is Dedicated to Dee Dee Sullivan
    :) Who Is Healing from a Lumbar CNS Injury   :) 

Guest Writers
---------------
Linda                                doc51@att.net
Gene                                kmgage365@lakefield.net
Ross                                 irosanne@tds.net, irosanne@yahoo.com
Satchie                             satchie51@hotmail.com
Sam Iam                          LAFDdispatcher@yahoo.com
Roxann Biggs Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com

**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 

Storyline Technical Consultants
--------------------------------

P. Keiper           Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota
Tom Stafford    Firefighter Captain /MD on Foam Truck Hazmat Procedures
 
Technical Support Websites
-----------------------------

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Tigger's Slide Show Central-
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Acknowledgements Firehouse.com HazMatZone 
http://www.firehouse.com/training/hazmat/studies/2002/03_ammonia.html
For Information About Anhydrous Ammonia Spills.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

To Fran Catrair :P :D
taleaone@hotmail.com
For Finding Music Tracks for Father and Son
from the WWW.

To Diane Claire at Dolphin Dream's Midi Ocean 
http://www.angelfire.com/ny/dianaclaire/midis.html
For Most Midis Featured on Episode Two- Emergency 
Theater Live

To Goddess Merrilyn's Mini Midi Gallery Website
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/1277/misc.html
For Mood Midis- Various Artists.

To Jill Douglas-Hand at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

To the Phantom's Lair Mainpage Website
http://www.concentric.net/~cboyke/Phantom.html
For Facts and Background on the Character of Chet 
Kelly.

Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/
For Techical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

====================================

Music for Father and Son ....
--------------------------------------

Axel F- Beverly Hills Cop Movie Title Track- Author Unknown.
(Played during the pending episode notification period
for Father and Son on Two Chickies)

Coming In the Air Tonight Midi- Phil Collins

Only Time Midi- Enya

Be Still Midi- by Simplyserene

Boxie Midi- by Jeweleelyn

Gentle Breeze Midi- by Dolphin Dream

Dance Midi - by Silver Minnow

Atomic Midi- By Author Unknown

From Ecco-Tides of Time, the Sega Genesis Game- 
Track- City of Forever- Claire Turner

Ecco TOT- Track- Trellias Bay- Claire Turner

Bricks Midi-  Ben Folds.

Hey Jupiter Midi- Goddess Merrilyn

Mummers Dance Midi-LoreenaMcKinnett

Night Midi- By Carl Edwards

Rush Midi- By Depeche Mode

Mayuka Midi- By Dolphin Dream

Hero Midi- By Mariah Carey

-----------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    

---------------------------

To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fullmoonblues.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fatherandson.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

      Debut Production Launch of Episode Three : 15  December, 2002.

============================


 Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in the
Germany, the United States and the French Seychelles.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphic Showcase

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
Associated Clubs :

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

Email lists:
Voyagerliveaction at YahooGroups.
Voyagerliveactionwritersworld at YahooGroups. 
Voyagerliveaction at Smartgroups. 
Voyagerliveaction at LycosClubs. 
----------------------  

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= 

Paramount owns Star Trek and all of
its Associated Characters. 

Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters.  

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the theater will be set free onto the web to reach as many readers as we can manage to find. Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com has permission to publish your work in this manner. All web walk on writer credit and any author emails will be duely recorded and left in place within the work pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..
 The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Three..  

Juxtaposition

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

Debut Launch: 15 Dec 2002.

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

*********************************
From:  Fran Catrair <franniecat@voyagerliveaction.com> 
Date:  Sun Dec 15, 2002  11:57 pm
Subject:  Rainy Days and Mondays

 It was a dreary, gray day in 
Southern California, with a hint of 
rain in the air. It was the kind of 
day that made the quiet Roy DeSoto 
even more reserved than normal, and 
he sighed in melancholy, not touching 
his breakfast.

His partner looked up at the sound 
and noticed his partner's troubled 
expression. The engine crew had left 
earlier on a call, but Cap had just 
radioed in, saying they would be back 
at the stationhouse shortly. For the 
moment, though, they had the place to 
themselves.

"What's wrong, Roy?" Johnny asked 
his dour partner. ::Like he's going 
to tell me.:: Johnny thought grimly. 
It had been like pulling teeth just to 
find out when Roy's birthday was. He 
had even asked Cap to pull a few strings 
at personnel for the information, but 
Cap had refused, saying if Johnny wanted 
to know when Roy's birthday was so badly, 
he should find out for himself.

Roy continued skating his fork around 
his plate, the sausage attached causing a 
nice track in the maple syrup left on his 
plate from his now just eaten pancakes. 
"Nothing, Johnny. Just thinking." Roy 
responded absently. 

::Why am I NOT surprised?:: Johnny 
thought to himself in exasperation. He 
was about to try another tact when the 
station alarm klaxon sounded. Both men 
got up from the table quickly, sparing a 
moment to look at each other in concern. 
The longer klaxon meant the situation was 
not good. 

##Squad 51...Engine 51...Batallion 8...
overturned schoolbus....715 Dorchester 
Blvd...seven-one-five Dorchester Blvd...
Cross street Hamilton...Time out...0827."

Johnny quickly jotted the information 
down on a piece of paper and reached for 
the station mic. ##Squad 51...KMG365.## 
he acknowledged. 

Johnny immediately sprinted to the 
awaiting squad. As the garage door 
opened, both men looked out to see the 
cloudy morning had turned into a downpour. 
Grimly, Roy turned on the windshield wipers. 
As the squad left the dry stationhouse, he 
sighed again and said, "I hate rainy days...
and Mondays!"
-----------------------------------------------
Photo: The Gang hanging around the apparatus
            bay by the squad.

Photo :  The Intercom Speaker announcing a rescue.

*animated gif *  :  A flashing rack of red and white vehicle
                             rescue lights.

*********************************
From :  "Fran Catrair" <taleaone@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Mudslide  
Date : Thu, 19 Dec 2002 02:06:39 -0600  
 

Johnny wordlessly looked out the window 
at the rain coming down around him.  He 
glanced at his partner's grim expression 
and sighed quietly, looking back out the 
window.  He was trying to think what Roy 
might be thinking.  ::Kids okay...fight with 
Joanne?:: he wondered.  Well, nothing 
he could do about it until after the call.

The squad's sirens continued to wail and 
Roy's face was almost unreadable. Until 
Cap's voice came out over the Station 
frequency. ##L.A., This is Engine 51. Is it 
known how many casualties might be 
involved?"##

"Roy, what's the matter?" 

"Hmm?" Roy replied, still listening to the 
exchange between dispatch and their 
captain going over their radio.

The rain came down harder, making 
the road flood. Roy was forced to slow 
down and so did the engine behind them.

"What is it, Roy?", Johnny asked, more 
firmly this time.  

Roy sighed and voiced 
his long held thoughts.  "I've been 
having a feeling something bad was 
going to happen today.  Just a feeling.  
My son was going to the Musuem 
of Natural History for a field trip today.  
They were to leave immediately this 
morning.", Roy finished, his voice 
shaky and tapering slightly.

Johnny was stunned by the news.  "Maybe 
it's not their bus, Roy.  I mean, how 
many schools must be having field trips 
today?", he said, trying to take his 
partner's mind off the worst.

"It's them," Roy said, quietly.  
"It's them."

Sam's voice came over the radio.  
#Engine 51...casualties unknown at 
this time.  CHP is on the scene.#

Caps' voice came very fast. ##10-4, 
L.A. Our ETA is..... four minutes..##

Roy skidded a little too fast around a 
turn and the squad shimmied around 
a corner and almost fishtailed before 
he regained control.

John said. "Want me to drive? We 
can radio in to the Engine.. Tell em 
why.."

Roy looked firmly at John and shook 
his head vehemently.  His face screwed 
up in concentration, as he willed the 
squad to go on.  At last, they could 
see the scene in the distance.

The yellow Blue Bird cab was fully on 
its side and along the margin. The front 
end was buried deeply in slag from 
the rain soaked hillside. 

"Mudslide!!" Johnny said. "Roy.. can 
you tell. Is it the same bus?"

"I don't know. I don't know...." Roy 
said.

Cap's voice filtered firmly into them as 
they pulled just behind the rear of the 
bus, pulling up so the squad was acting as 
a buffering obstacle between the bus
and oncoming traffic.

##Squad 51. Stay right where you are. 
And enter the scene from there. Stoker 
pull ahead to the car and those power 
lines. Looks like they're down. L.A. Cut 
power to the north side of the freeway 
overpass at mile marker seventy four!##

A fierce bolt of lightning shot down from
the dim sky and the rain came down in torrents
as Johnny and Roy ran out of the squad's 
cab for their gear and extrication equipment.

They ran for the nearest thing they could see,
the back of the bus and the emergency exit
there. 

##10-4, 51.##, dispatch responded.

Johnny and Roy could see the bus was 
rocking slightly.  They knew with the rain 
coming down and the mud, the bus could 
be buried deeper, and rapidly.  They 
needed to act fast.

"Cap, we're gonna need the K-12.. 
Looks like the rear hatch is jammed in 
here real good!" Roy said. He desperately 
tried to wipe away the mud and steam 
on the windows, but he could see 
nothing of the interior. 

Johnny began shouting. "Can anybody 
hear me?! Fire department!!"

Weak high pitched screams met their ears 
and a bloody palm impacted the window 
right by Johnny's face.. ::Oh my G*d.::

Right next to him, Roy flinched.

Roy was trying to clear away the debris from 
the hatch to place the K-12 when he saw it.  
Number 62.  He looked at Johnny.  
"Number 62.  It's his bus.", he said.

Finally, Chet and Marco arrived with the 
K-12.  They observed the tenseness of both 
paramedics.

"What's going on?" Chet demanded.

"Ohmyg*d, Johnny..".. Roy gasped. 
"I can't do this.." and he nearly fell to
his knees.

Gage got on his HT. ##Cap! Stoker. 
On the double! We need man 
power now. Roy's kid is here!##

Chet opened his mouth and closed it, 
shocked.  He and Marco quickly took 
the K-12 to the rear hatch.  Both men 
had a look of determination on their 
faces.  This rescue had become personal.

Captain Stanley ran, slipped and skidded
in the mud until he grabbed the side of
the bus to steady himself. "Gage, take over 
primary care triage. Roy, stay out here. And
that's an order!"

Right then, the roar of water from a storm 
drain caved in a part of the road underneath 
the toppled bus and its side split open like 
a tin can, spilling a tiny body in a girl's skirt,
onto the road and into the drain in a rush.....

Gage made a leap for the tiny feet but 
wasn't fast enough. Cap grabbed him first and 
said, "No!! Get a life line first! Now.. 
We don't know how deep it is in there!"

DeSoto ran for the squad to get one.

Roy sprinted to the right compartment, 
slipping and trying desperately to stay 
on his feet. Then he slid back to the back 
of the bus, wordlessly thrusting the lifelines at
Cap and Johnny and tying one onto himself.

"Oh no! No!"  Roy said, when the feet 
slipped again just as he grabbed for them. 
The tiny body disappeared in a rage of 
flooding brown water and was gone.

Johnny grabbed Roy's lifeline and secured it, 
proceeding back to the bus area.  "Roy,
there's nothing we can do! Get up! She's
dead.."

---------


Gage approached the bus.  Chet and Marco 
were beginning to check the victims closest 
to them.  They knew they would need to 
free them first, but they needed to be 
sure it would be safe to move them.

Chet shouted. "Johnny. I got a probable skull
fracture here. I got bleeding in the ears on this
one.." he said, looking up, with a hand on the 
small boy's stomach.

Marco was speaking quietly with five others,
telling them to hurry out to Cap who was
gesturing to them. "Go to the tall man over
there. He'll take care of you.." 

----------------------------------------

Photo : Cap looking tense in helmet closeup.

Photo : Johnny in a storm drain with a child.

Photo : Roy and Johnny in full turnout by
            the engine.

*******************************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Every Parent's Nightmare...  
Date : Fri, 27 Dec 2002 21:09:34 +0400  

Captain Stanley had one eye on the kids Lopez
had directed to him, the other, on Roy. "That's it.
Come on out of the bus. Don't worry about fire.
It's raining good out here..There's no way things
are gonna burn." his voice said gently to
them as he took them one by one by the arms
and lifted them from the wreckage. When the last
walking little girl was taken by a CHP, Cap turned to
his HT. ##L.A. This is Engine 51. Respond a full landslide
detail to our scene. The freeway's in danger of a mud
avalanche.##

##10-4, 51.## and Cap sighed as he heard dispatch
call out the run also to Station 10 and 114. He turned his
attention to the long board Chet had laid out by
his head injury's side and helped Lopez and Kelly
secure and free the boy from his place underneath
the seats.

Gage was already hyper paramedic mode. Only the
slightest stress in his tone gave away the fear he
felt still having Roy's son, among those not yet found.
"Easy, Chet. Keep those sandbags on either side of his
head. He's breathing fine. Hold it a sec, Just let
me get this peds airway in." Johnny looked up. "Cap!"

"Yeah.." Stanley said, peeking through the ripped side
of the upside down school bus over the rushing river
of muddy water running down the curbside of the
road. He didn't look at the sewer grate which had
cost the little girl, her life.

"This next one's gonna need O2. Have a man
hyperventilate him until I can get to him!" Johnny
gasped, ducking around metal shards and debris.

"You got it pal.." Cap said. He looked up at Roy as
two policemen in yellow rain gear took the tiny boy's
longboard and got him out of the bus. "Roy.. Take him."
he said, shaking the pouring rain off his helmet
so he could see where Marco Lopez and Chet Kelly were
working better.

"Huh?" Roy said, still dazed by his private nightmare.
In his head, his own voice was screaming.
::Chris? Where are you??! Ohmyg*d Chris! Be ok. Be ok! 
Johnny. You find him. Find him fast..:: he thought, but
out loud  . "Right.." he said. 
"Have him set over here, I'll take a look at him."

DeSoto got out a peds BP cuff and set it around Chet's
victim's arm. He got a palpated brachial pulse of sixty.
::Too slow.. D*mn.  Brain stem head injury..:: The tiny 
comatose boy's unequal and fixed and abnormal eyes 
and his soaring BP confirmed the finding. "Keep tabs on
his carotid, Ben." he told the CHP officer who knelt with
the resuscitator Cap handed him. "Ventilate him
30 a minute on 100 % O2, ok? Time it to work with
his inspirations."

"Got it.." the highway patrol officer said, setting
the tank's smaller fitted mask over the boy's nose 
and mouth. He began using the thumb trigger.

Roy got on the phone to Rampart.
"Rampart, this is squad 51. How do you read?"

His heart just about pounded out of his chest
when it was Dixie who answered. "Go ahead,
51. I read you loud and clear."

##Rampart. We have a multiple casualty situation. Car
versus school bus. Triage is underway. So far,
I've six victims. Five minor, one comatose.
Victim one, a boy of six or seven. Under supported
ventilation on 100 % O2. BP 142/110, pulse 60. 
Respirations, are in Cheynes Stokes pattern. He is 
immobilized with sandbags and a long board with an 
oral airway. There's no apparent trauma beyond 
a noticable depressed occipital softness at the base 
of his skull.##

Dixie wrote down Roy's vitals set and motioned for
Dr. Early to come into the radio room. "Joe, it's 51. 
Sounds like a real bad one. And something else too,
I've never heard Roy so uptight before."

"Oh?" Dr. Early toggled the intercom receiver. "51,
on victim one, start an IV D5W TKO only. Maintain an 
airway, elevate his head, and transport as soon as 
possible." Then he licked his lips and asked, 
"Roy, just how serious is your situation?"

Joe's question took Roy aback when he realized that
Dr. Early wasn't only referring to the boy they had stabilized.
The doctor was going outside of protocol. ::Because
he knows something's up..:: Roy reasoned mentally.

Roy replied. "You'll know the moment I do, doc. Wish
I could tell you more. All I know is that we don't know
a lot of details right now and there's at least one fatality."

Roy cringed when Mike Stoker ran up from the car that
had caused the accident and the downed power poles. His coat
wasn't even unbuttoned as it would have been had he found
someone alive and revivable. "DeSoto.." Mike called out.
"The victim in the car's a Code F. Looks like because of 
electrical shock. He's been down too long. Pupils are 
fixed and dialated and there's already lividity showing in 
his lower extremities."

"Got it, Stoker.." Roy said.  Then he turned back to
the phone. "Rampart, raise that number to two Code
F. Victim one's loading with Squad 10. I estimate their
ETA to you around ten minutes. Please stand by for
further victims.."

##Standing by.## Joe said.

---------------------------------

Roy saw the Mayfair recede into the distance through
the noisy rain down the highway and away from
the scene of mud and multilated metal. He tried not
to  imagine the little girl who had drown down the
drainage grate.

Inside the bus, the going was slow. Johnny felt bloody
neck after bloody neck and found no signs of life.
He gestured to Kelly. "Get those seats outta there.
Forget these six, they're gone."  Gage bent down
to worm his way along the soaked floor to the next
section of broken seats. More bodies and
pieces of bodies. Nightmarish.. Then...

"Uncle J-Johnny?"

Gage's heart skipped a beat. "Chris?! Where are ya?
Now don't move around. Just keep talkin to me.. Chet!
I found him.. Give me your HT! "

Kelly underhand tossed it to Gage like a pro.
Gage caught the heavy walkie talkie and thumbed it.
"Squad 51 to Engine 51. Got another survivor..
Hey Roy... Listenup..Ok, Chris.. Say something. 
Daddy's right outside." Gage said, handing the HT 
to the muddy blond headed boy
cradled against his shoulder.

"I'm here. I'm ok. Don't worry Daddy. Just get the
other kids out. I'm fine. Really.."

Outside, DeSoto let out a half sob of relief.
"Chris??" Roy said, he ran for the bus.

Cap stopped him. "Hey hey hey.. Now listen.
It's crowded enough with Kelly, Lopez and Gage
in there. You're needed out here for triage. Hang
tight, Roy. Things sound good to me.. and now
even better in there for them..."

Roy stopped fighting Cap's hold and sagged
against the bus's shell. Through a foggy window,
he could see many many body sheets. "ohmyg*d."

"I know.. I know.." Cap said, grasping Roy by the
face. "It's bad. That's why I didn't want you in there.
Now just stick with your HT and no doubt Johnny will
be letting you know how he is, ok? Hang tight and 
just wait here.."  Stanley strode away to intercept 
114 coming in, to direct them to deal with the 
mudslide risky hill that had already claimed part of the 
school bus.

Lopez shouted. "Hey somebody.. I need help. I found
the school bus driver!"

Roy glanced around and saw Chet's caked shoes
deep in the seats and two sets of flashlights but
no one else handy. "I gotta do it.." Roy muttered
and ducked into the bus. Immediately two from Engine
10 took his place outside the tear in the side of the bus
to wait for orders for extrication equipment from
those working inside.

Roy's breath caught deep in his throat when the smell
of blood and things much worse reached his nose
from the tiny bodies Chet and Johnny had covered.
He began to fervently wish he had obeyed Cap's advice
to stay outside. He forced his lips to work. "Marco,
whatdiya got?"

"He's alive. Eviscerated partially. Looks like a piece
of the dash stabbed him and tore out afterwards.
Lower right quadrant. Also, this mud's caving in
on him. He's having a lot of trouble breathing."

Lopez ducked as another gush of mud and branches
from the hill slid through the shattered bus windshield
and onto the driver's lap. He used his hands to
scrape away the stuff from the man's nose and mouth
and he bent close down to make sure air still moved
effectively there.

Roy never got to see the wound Lopez spoke of.
It was buried in mud instantly. He shouted over his
shoulder and set his HT near his ear on an overturned
seat back. "You guys, on the double. Shovels
and a scoop stokes. This hill's gonna go!"

Roy listened closely to Johnny's heavy gasps
and grunts as he and Chet maneuvered nearer to Chris
through the tangle of shorn off seats even as
his own hands assessed the driver. "We've got to get him
out  fast..Now. Long board or no long board. 
Marco..watch his airway!"

"I know.. This mud's crushing him.."

"Just keep him breathing.. even if he quits.."
Roy said, leaning over to try and dig the muck away
from the driver's lower half with only his gloved
hands. The mud flowed in faster than he could push
it away.

Marco groaned in frustration and renewed his jaw lift on 
the unconscious man with one hand and felt
his chest with the other. "So far so good. He's still
here."

Roy continued to free the driver.
------------------------------------------------
Chet Kelly put on his best smile.

It didn't fool Chris. Something was filling all of
his thoughts beyond getting out to Roy.
"Uncle Johnny. I tried.. I tried so hard.. Ahh!" he 
grimaced, when Gage's questing hands found 
where his leg was pinned in a knot of
seat. "Yeah, Uncle Johnny, right there. My knee I think. 
But listen to me.. ugh.. I tried so
hard, I really tried keeping her awake with stories,
but Carrie got quiet on me."

"Who's Carrie?" Johnny said, "Easy, lie back down.." 

"S-She's right over..t.."  Chris tried to point but
couldn't quite remember where his seatmate was
trapped. He started to sob as a frightening memory
resurfaced. 
"I- I couldn't reach her when she stopped breathing,
Mr. Kelly.."

"Where is she?!" Chet asked urgently. 

Chris's tear filled eyes were blurred and his panic barely
veiled as an odd maturity for a boy his age took over.
"Right there.. She stopped making noises 
just before you got here. She's right under your arm,
Mr. Kelly, underneath that cushion.."

Kelly heaved a heavy seat cover away
from where Chris's shaky hand was pointing.

A tiny girl in pink lay twisted underneath it, but her
face was blue. Gage startled. "Kelly?"

Chet crawled out of Johnny's eyesight to
get close to the girl's body.
"Got her.." Johnny heard and soon there after, sounds
of rescue breathing began. Gage sighed in double 
sympathy when those sounds were separated with 
pauses for cardiopulmonary compressions. 

"Keep working her, Chet.. I'll be right there." Johnny said.
"Here.. See if she's reactive..." Johnny said and he rolled
his penlight through the narrow space between them.

Chet snatched up the light and a few seconds later said.
"Good going Chris.. She's got responsive eyes. We might be
able to bring ..........her back.."

"Heh.. " the DeSoto boy smiled. "Dad taught me a few
things about first aid. Like to try and keep a head bumped
kid conscious... But why didn't it w-work for..Car- 
didn't work for..."

John noticed Chris's head beginning to sag. "Chris. Where else
do you hurt besides that knee.. Chris?.."

But Chris went out and went very pale. Gage kept a grip
on his partner's son's arm artery. ::Fast heart rate.
Now what's causing this blackout?::

Johnny yanked a stubborn seat frame out of the way
and found a deep cut in Chris's thigh. He pulled off
his pants belt and made a tourniquet out of it, glancing
at his watch for the time he began its constricting lack
of blood flow. Then he made sure Chris was stable 
enough to be left alone.

He spoke into his walkie talkie. "Cap. We gotta move.
We've got a little girl in witnessed cardiac arrest and
a leg bleeder." Johnny amended his transmission.
"..who's stable.. " he added for Roy's benefit.

Then he slid over near Chet to help him try to revive
the girl. "You take her head. I got it here.." he said,
taking over Kelly's one arm CPR for him.

Chet looked up in between delivering breaths. "How is he?"

"Fine. Just stressed. His leg's pinned and he's got
a deep laceration on the thigh. Venous hemorrhaging
only, thank g*d. Whatya find on Carrie?" Gage grunted
as he worked.

"Her pupils constricted right off, both of them.
Equally."

"Good, a little epi will..."

"Here..." came a new voice from over their heads.

Roy DeSoto was crawling over the seats with a
one CC epinephren syringe in between his teeth.

"Roy! What are ya doing in here? Cap told you t-"

"Shut up junior, and let me at one of her arms." Roy
said, grinning. "If this doesn't work, Cap's got the
defib on eighty watts outside."

Gage kept up his CPR wordlessly. Chet didn't stop
either with his ventilations.

Two seconds after Roy gave Carrie the injection,
the girl pinked up and started coughing. Gage 
flipped her over onto her side, as she spat
fluid and blood out of her mouth, murmuring 
encouragements.

Kelly stayed nearby and gratefully snatched the portable 
O2 another fireman handed him and began holding its mask 
over the restless girl's face while Gage calmed her down.

A herd of elephants couldn't keep Roy away and Johnny
grinned when Roy lifted the heavy piece of roofing between
him and Chris as if it were so much styrofoam. 
"He's fine, Roy.. Just shaky. It's just that leg. Constricting
band went on two minutes five ago.."

Roy watched as Chris's eyes opened at the slightest
touch of his fingers on his son's carotid pulse. "Chris?"

"Ummm?,....ugh....." then his full awareness returned.
"Dad.. How is she?"

"How's who? Mom? She doesn't know yet."

"No, Carrie."

"Oh, the little girl you found. Thanks to your help,
we got her back, she's even protesting getting 
moved a little." Roy said as Carrie made a fuss 
over being lifted into the scoop stokes for her 
evac out of the overturned school bus. "How are 
you doing?"

"Fair, I guess. I'm awake, aren't I?"

"Yep." Roy said. "You hang tight. " Roy said, covering
his son up with a snug blanket. He set a cannula
over his face and into place strictly for 
precautionary measures. "I got this on ya just.."

"..Just to prevent shock.. I know.." Chris said.

Roy ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead.
"Johnny and I will be nearby until we get 
that seat cut away from your leg. 
Nothing's broken. Just.."

"..cut... I know.. I felt it earlier before I started
worrying about Carrie.."

"Yeah.."

"Dad..."

"What..?"

"You can leave me now. I'm not bad off. You're
suppose to help the ones worse off first."

"But.."

"Dad.. Go. I'm not a triage priority..."

"Better listen to him Roy." Johnny smiled cockeyed
as he finished his sweep of the seats around them.
"Honorary Paramedic Christopher DeSoto knows
what he's talking about.."

That cracked a muddy smile onto Chris's face.

His father matched it with a smirk of his own.
"All right. Chris, hang onto this and HT me if you need
anything. I got Uncle Johnny's HT with me.."

"Deal.." Chris sighed. He set the heavy firefighter's
walkie talkie by his own head and tossed his head
at his father to hustle off. "I'll let the other firemen
know where ya are."

Gage grinned as he helped the other rescue team
move Carrie out for further treatment. He had heard
every word Roy and Chris said to one another.
::Well, looks like this scary run's got a softer side
after all..:: he thought.

--------------------------------------------

Outside, the rain resurged and only a minute
later the hillside gave up the ghost and fifteen tons
of rain slicked slurry bore down on the bus and
firemen working frantically to free the children
still trapped inside of it.

Cap's voice cracked out over Chris's and Roy's
HT. "Look out! Mudslide!"

--------------------------------------------

Photo : Cap helps Johnny rig an IV.

Photo : Johnny getting a stokes out of back of the squad.

Photo : .Roy at night, giving an epi shot.

Photo : Joe on the run intercom. 

Photo :  A kid trapped in a grill.

***********************************  
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Fri Dec 27, 2002  9:23 pm
Subject:  The Mud Wrestling Angel

Johnny and Chet looked up at the dripping windows
towards the roaring hill in terror. "Everybody, brace
yourselves!" came Cap's shout.

The four from Station 51 and the one from station ten
flung themselves into the open areas of the bus
away from the gaping rend in its side. Chet barely
hauled Marco behind a seat when a huge, shuddering 
force slammed into the bus and shoved it many 
meters out onto the road as mud and stone 
cascaded wetly in the rain from the canyon's wall.

Cap and those outside the bus were running.

"Back! Get back!"  He grabbed edges of the two stokes 
holding Carrie and the bus driver without stopping as 
police and firemen alike also snatched them up with 
all the medical gear they could save.

Captain Stanley and the two crews of Station Ten
and Station One Fourteen gasped as the rest of the hill
swallowed up the school bus as if it had never been
from where they ducked behind engines and heavy
dredging equipment.

The mudslide stopped at the freeway divider 
and quieted and ironically, the rain stopped, leaving
pallid warm fog behind.

Cap's HT immediately went to his mouth. "Engine 51 to
Triage Ten and Squad 51. Do you read me?"

There was no reply.

He repeated his hail.

Still he received only static.

"Stoker! Tell Excavation Five to get over here! It'll take
at least three bulldozers to get in there. Move!"

Cap saw Mike Stoker's helmeted form skid in
the muck on the road on his side of the slide towards
the construction flatbed semi trucks just pulling up in 
response to the landslide call which had come in
earlier from L.A. headquarters.

Cap nodded in satisfaction when he saw those city 
men hustle faster when Stoker told them a bus with 
trapped kids and firemen lay beneath the pile of hillside.

He again hit his call button. "Engine 51 to Triage Ten
and Squad 51. Come in......" 

---------------------------------------------------

There were sounds of dripping in the blackness.
Roy felt a small gush of warmth brush his cheek.  
::That's breathing.:: "Chris?!"  Roy winced when he found
he couldn't move due to mud pinning him up to the waist
and his head lay on something hard near Chris's
chest. 

His voice echoed down the hollow, still bus and into pitch
inky blackness and total silence.  Roy's heard the hiss of
the 02 over his son's face and felt his reassuring pulse  
under his fingers. "Chris.. Can you hear me?"

Chris stayed quiet and didn't move. Then Roy remembered 
where he was, "Johnny? Chet?! Marco? "  

He heard a movement and a strange fireman's voice 
came near. "Easy man. I'm looking for your friends. 
Don't move. You were out for a while and it
looks like the whole d*mned hill came down on top of us. 
I made sure your boy was fine when I realized you were 
ok."

It was so dark, Roy's retinas were flashing unreal afterimages,
making him blink. "You're from ten's..?" 

"Yeah.." came the big man's chuckle. "I'm Detello, seven year 
engine crew lieutenant. I covered your butt when you went 
against your captain's orders and climbed in here. I said 
you were needed to stabilize the driver."

"I WAS needed to stabilize him. Marco and I barely got him
out of there before the front end was buried."

"I know that. Listen, DeSoto. See if that HT is still near your
boy's head. They're probably worried sick out there about us."

Roy felt as far as he could reach in the dripping ooze while 
the intense blackness made his eyes bug out uselessly 
in an attempt to see anything visually.
"It's gone.."

"Ah, well, I'll just keep crawling around over here where I saw
your buddies last..." came the calm quiet voice.. "Say,
gimme your penlight from your pocket, Roy.."

Roy felt it and handed it out until he felt the other man's
glove grope around to intercept it. "Why didn't I think of that?"
he said, setting his head down into the mud and back onto
the helmet Detello had placed there while he had been out
cold.

"You're excused, DeSoto, being you're still 
locked in Dad's nightmare numero uno, first class. 
If I were in your shoes, I don't think I'd react as well 
as you are knowing my kid was in here. 
My hat's off to you.."

"I can feel that..Thanks for the pillow." he quipped.
Roy winced as he saw a slimy form suddenly appear in
a nimbus of light surrounded by shadows which lurched
eerily in contrast, against equally slimy walls. Roy saw
six inches of mud on the floor and it was slowly rising. 
He lifted Chris's unconscious head onto his shoulder.
"Any sign of em?"

"Not yet.." came Detello's calm reply. "We could
have been separated from your partner, Lopez
and Kelly easily. The cave in has collapsed the "roof" here."
Detello rapped a piece of metal on a barrier
in front of him. Three taps.

Immediately, Roy heard muffled shouts and struggles.
"H..u..r..r..y  i..t.. u..p,...m....a...n. It's g..e..t..t..i..n..g
s..t..u..f..f..y  i..n  h..e..r..e.." came Gage's voice.

"Hang on.. Let me put a shoulder into it.." Detello
shouted. Roy saw his penlight go into Detello's mouth
and saw it being held switched on with his tongue
while the big man muscled the metal to one side. Johnny's
muddy face, lacking a helmet, met nose to nose, with Detello. 
He, too, had a penlight in his mouth that was lit.

"Roy? You ok?" Johnny said, glancing over, and gasping.

"Yeah. Any sign of Kelly or Lopez?"

"Chet's moaning over by my feet.
Don't know where Marco is.." Gage said.
"Man, it's getting even deeper in here.." he
exclaimed, keeping his head and chin out of the
rising chilling mud.

"I know.." Detello said. "If there's any more kids
in here we missed..." He didn't finish his sentence.
"Listen, Gage, you trapped too?"

"Nah, I'm just wedged in here. I can usually get outta
any nook and cranny. Just...uummgghhh..gimme a sec .." 
and he grunted. "On second thought. Gimme some leverage.."
and he let Detello pull him out of the crevice he had taken 
refuge within. 

Johnny immediately removed his overcoat in the 
more open space above Roy and Chris and turned 
right around and entered head first into the hole 
he had just left. "Chet! I'm free. Gimme
your hands.."

"...w....h....a....t..?" came Kelly's muffled reply.

"Gimme your hands. I'm getting you outta there!
We gotta go find Marco.. And if you see my talkie
in there on your way, grab it!"

"R...o..y....o.k...?  A...n..d.. h...i..s  k...i..d..?"

"Yeah, they're fine. But they aren't gonna be
if we dawdle. We're getting buried in mud out here.
Come on.." Johnny said crankily.
"These penlight batteries aren't gonna last long."

"N..o...p..r.o..b..l..e..m...G..a..g..e.   I   g..o..t....a...
f..l..a..s..h..l..i..g..h..t..."

Johnny mumbled to Detello and Roy.
"Lucky ain't he? He's got a fl.." and he grunted
when Chet grasped his hand and as Detello pulled
Johnny by the waist in the opposite direction
for Kelly's leverage.

Kelly popped out of the slimy hole without his
helmet. "Whoo, man.. the air was running out
in there."

"Yeah well just try and conserve some of it.
We're sealed off in here."

"Got that covered too. " Kelly said sitting up
in a pool of mud, wiping off the flashlight on a dry
spot on his pants. He switched it on to search
for Marco. And then reached back into the hole 
and pulled out a second portable O2 he had found 
in the wreckage. "Thanks for bringing this in with ya,
man.." he nodded to Station Ten's man.

"It's Detello, Kelly. Glad I could oblige."

"Your wreck bud get out ok?" Chet asked.

"Johnson? Yeah, he went out with Carrie."
Then the big curly haired fireman met Johnny's
eyes. "DeSoto's fine Gage. Just blacked out 
for a while. His kid's still stable.
Bleeding's stopped so I loosened that tourniquet
completely before I went looking for you."

"Smart thinking." Johnny took in a breath of
oxygen off the mask from the tank Chet 
had retrieved. "Now, where does everybody 
remember Marco being when the hill 
fell down on top of us?"

Kelly's ears strained in the darkness around the
dim circle of muddy light the meager flashlight offered
from its cracked lens. "Shh.shhh.. I think I hear
something.."

Wet slurping sounds from the "roof" glopped onto
the silent seats around them. The white covered
children's bodies could no longer be seen.

"Chet, you're hearing things.."

"Gage just ..pipe down a minute. You probably
still got mud in your ears.. Listen.. What I heard
came from behind you, from where the big
rip in the side of the bus was.."

All four firemen froze, studying the dripping 
globs of ooze raining down onto them
and the hideously sagging ceiling, that was inexorably
crushing down onto them by millimeters from the 
wet tonnage of the hillside on top of it.

The deep mud on the floor suddenly moved in a rippling
liquid way and a man's foot poked out of it, heel turned up. 

In horror, Roy realized the flat section he had 
been staring at was actually a partially 
submersed fireman's back.
"Marco!! He's on his stomach over there. Get to him.
Get to him!" he shouted. "Looks like he's pinned under
the mud!"

Gage and Detello and Chet splashed through the
icy mud on their hands and knees and 
they both felt up Lopez's body to his head. Detello grabbed the 
mask from the spare O2 Chet had found and pushed it into
the muck until he had it around Marco's face and then he
pressed it hard around Lopez's struggling nose and mouth.

Detello firmly held the back of Marco's head too, to get
around the man's unthinking panic while he willed Marco
to just blow out the mud in the mask for some
much needed breathing room.

Gage and Chet found the heavy section of "roof" pinning
Marco's head and shoulders under the now foot deep layer
of muck in the bus. It was another bus seat.
"Did ya get it to him? Is he getting air?"
Johnny asked Detello, as he and Chet fought to raise the metal
off of Lopez. The thing wouldn't move.

"Yeah, I think so.. I can feel him grabbing onto my arm.."
Detello grunted. "We gotta hurry. This mask won't hold off
the mud for long.. Water from the rain might still get in.
And he'll drown." Marco's head was still completely 
buried in mud and this, Detello tried to claw away, 
while he shouted. "Easy man. Relax.. I got ya.. Marco.
I got ya."

Suddenly, Marco stopped kicking 
underneath their hands and his limbs settled back 
down into the slime. But Detello still felt his back 
move with the small breaths the man was 
buying from the hastily placed O2 mask.
He saw Johnny's shocked look when Lopez went limp.
"He's ok. He's ok.." Detello said. "He IS breathing. I
can still feel him doing it. Just hurry and get that
thing off of him."

Chet and Gage rushed to get a piece of seat frame
to use as a lever bar. 

In a minute, the heavy debris was off.  Gage and 
Chet grabbed Marco by the hair and hauled his 
lolling head up into the air. They lifted and
supported him into a sitting position against Gage's
chest for lack of better room.

Kelly wiped away the mud from Marco's nose and mouth.
Lopez was barely recognizable.
"Hey. Lopez.. You with us man..?  Come on.. say 
something." 

Lopez stayed silent, limp as a rag doll soaked in
chocolate sauce.

"Oh man. He's really out.." Kelly groaned.

"His mouth clear?" Johnny asked.

Detello hastily looked with the 
flashlight. "Yeah.. He doing anything?"

Gage shook his head when he didn't feel Marco's 
stomach move at all in his bearhug. 

"D*mn! Wish this mask were a ventilator."
Detello said hastily wiping the muck out of the flimsy
but cracked oxygen mask in his hands with
his shirt tail.  

"Yeah? Well what ya had probably saved his life
Detello. That was fast thinking.." Roy said from
where he lay propped on an elbow. He
had Chris's head on his arm and a hand on 
the boy's neck pulse.

Kelly started to grasp Marco's nose
and chin for a mouth to mouth seal, when 
Johnny said."Hang on a minute. Hang on a minute, Chet. 
Just hold off, we still got a minute or two to assess him. 
He just may be partially obstructed with mud here. He's 
not even cyanotic yet.  Just let me check his airway first. 
Don't want you to aspirate anything into his lungs in your 
eagerness to right things." And he firmly gave Marco a 
couple of abdominal thrusts in a modified heimlich 
maneuver. 

Brown muck flooded out of Marco's mouth after the 
fourth one and the nearly suffocated man 
began to bubble actively and right afterwards, 
his arms and legs stirred in new half consciousness.

"Tip him over tip him over!" Kelly said, hanging
onto Marco's head as he vomitted frothy sand and water
out his nose and mouth. They placed him prone over
an upturned seat to drain out his breathing
passages and soon, Detello returned the tattered 
but flowing oxygen mask to the violently coughing man
when he started inhaling in air more than he was spitting
up water. He held it in place, until Lopez had the presence
of mind to manage holding it himself.

"That's it.. Welcome back to the land of the living..Marco."
Gage said. "Just keep sucking on that O2 a bit."

It was a full two minutes before Lopez sat up on his own.
Lopez gasped. "Oh, man. Thought I was drowning. Then
I felt someone push an O2 mask over my face. I ate
a lot of mud but at least, I found something to breathe.
Think my nose is broke though." Marco said, gingerly feeling
where his nostrils were bleeding around the muddy trails
under them. "Somebody had my face in a vice grip."

"Sorry. That was me.." Detello said sheepishly. "The seat
wasn't playing fair in your mud wrestling match. 
That mask was a home play advantage I couldn't resist.
Had to do something drastic to even the odds." he said, 
getting to his feet to search for a crevasse leading to the 
outside or even for one of their lost walkie talkies. 
 
"Yeah? Well keep doing it. Maybe we'll all get out of here
in one piece. *cough*." Marco rubbed the grit out of his eyes
even as Johnny got a pulse off his other wrist. 
"I'm fine Gage. Leave me alone. Everyone else
ok?  *choke* Oh no, I see Chris's out."

"I think he's sleeping." Roy said. "Though I'd feel better
if he had an IV or two running into him."

"Oh, you mean you're looking for this?" Detello said,
wandering back to the others with a very familiar mud
coated rectangular shape. Through the slime, they could
just make out the yellow letters "I V" on the still intact
gear box.

"Detello.." Roy said plainatively. "You're simply a miracle
worker, you know that?"

"Yeah.. I know." He said a touch embarrassed. 
"Had to chew phone books to get my cap
to accept me taking my promotion to engineer last year.
Had to move on,.. cause the guys on the squad shifts
were beginning to call me Angel.. Picture a guy my 
size with a radio nick like that.." he complained. "I'd get
all the missing man details then for sure if word of that
spread around and I'd use up all my great karma
bailing them all outta their rough spots."

"Yeah?, well, you definitely still got that halo in my book."
Lopez muttered, rolling his eyes. Gage firmly 
shoved the shattered O2 mask back onto Lopez's face.

"Make it in thought only man. In thought only. If I hear
anyone here calling me Angel behind my back, 
I'm putting your man Lopez here right back into
that man versus seat wrestling match, is that clear?"
There was no trace of humor in Detello's voice
as he glared at Chet, Johnny, and Roy.

"As crystal man.." Chet swallowed nervously.
"You know, " and he cleared his throat like a pinned
frog. "You should seriously consider going
for a captain's post next, you sure got that glare 
down.."

"I've been practicing.." Detello muttered noisily
slamming seats aside in the areas of the bus
not holding dead children and carefully piling others
in the areas he remembered being occupied.
"I'm going for that test next year I'll have you know."

"Captain Angel.. Got a nice ring to it.."Kelly whispered.

"Chet.." Marco complained. "Exnay on the Oopitsday.."
he said from the corner of his mouth  as
Johnny checked out his bleeding nose with a penlight.

Gage grinned but kept out of the banter. He knew
his buddies were acting what every FD man called "nuts
in a handbasket", to forget the horror in the scene 
around them. Gage fully knew how fleeting such a 
false comfort could be. But he was no one to deny 
them the attempt.

"Ohhhh. Marco.. You worry too much.
He can't hear me, He's over there.." Chet grinned
toothily confident.

Detello said silky smooth from the darkness.
"I sure can Kelly. Better listen to mud wrestler
Lopez over there."  

Both the men from 51 moused down. 

Detello went on, angling his head.
"And I can hear those bulldozers buzzing
around outside. Looks like both our caps are shedding
bricks over us being incommunicado."
And he placed hands like Atlas on the ceiling and gave it
a shove. Chet almost swore he saw the ceiling rise a few
centimeters. His mouth flopped open. "He's moving mountains
man.. " he jabbed Marco's ribs with a slimy elbow. Lopez
grimaced when that elbow caught him on a bruise from 
Gage's earlier heimlich thrusts. 

Detello pegged Chet with another stare, this time one
of brainstorming regard. "Say, you're not
hurt, Kelly. Why don't ya haul off that lazy rear of yours
and help me birdeye one of the HT's. DeSoto won't be
able to start his boy's IVs without permission from Rampart
and I know I'm starting to crave my four o'clock cappucino 
something fierce right about now."

"You got it big guy.."

"Detello will do.."

-----------------------

Photo :  A school bus split wide open, shattered,
             on a road.

Photo : A mudsliding hilltop.

Photo : Detello from Ten's talking with Brackett
            in an ambulance.

******************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : And Into the Daylight...  
Date :Sat, 11 Jan 2003 09:58:13 +0000  
   
 
Chet quieted down and he patted Marco on the shoulder
as he crawled by Lopez as the shivering man slowly
gained his equilibrium back.

Gage half glanced at him in the dimness of the flashlight
Kelly had handed him. "Marco... You need to be checked
out? That seat hurt you anywhere?"

"I'm fine, Johnny. Worry about Chris ok? Not much
you can do for me anyway without the gear." and
Marco coughed.

"Yeah?" Gage replied with a wry weary look. "Well find
something to wrap up in, you're getting hypothermic.
And keep that O2 mask on while we look for the talkies."

Marco nodded, leaning back on a pile of metal supports
behind them both and closed his eyes. He didn't even
feel Detello cover him with an overcoat.

Johnny watched Marco drift with one eye, but the other
was on Roy and Chris. "How's he doing?" he asked his
partner.

"Chris's out. Vitals are good though." Roy coughed,
raising out of the mud and leaning on his elbows, being
careful not to disturb his son's position on his chest
much. "Don't think it's much more than stress
taking hold.  But I'll feel a lot better when we both
get our legs untangled from this debris here."

DeSoto felt the cold mud crawling higher alongside
his body where he lay and he was glad his own body
heat was keeping Chris somewhat warm.

Kelly bent immediately to recheck where their legs
were trapped. "Doesn't look too bad. Nothing the
K-12 can't handle."

Detello stood after taking a quick pulse quality check
on the sleeping Marco. "That's IF.. we ever get one.."

"Pessimism from the "Angel" himself?" Kelly chuckled
to raise everyone's spirits. 

"More like a reality check..." and Detello once again 
tried his giant strength on the sagging "ceiling" of
the buried school bus. This time, the metal above
his head actually gave way under his shoulder lift.
"I take that back. Those boys with the excavation crew 
work fast. Most of the hill is already off of us.."

Kelly got to his feet and began to shout and
pound on the ceiling and yelling. "Hey!! We're in
here. Six meters from the back hatch! Hey!!"

In Roy's arms, Chris flinched and startled awake
with a sharp moan.. "Dad??!"

"It's ok, Chris. You're fine. We're just raising a 
ruckus so the others outside know where
to slice into to get us out.. How do you feel?"
DeSoto asked.

Chris blinked a few times and winced when he 
tried to test his legs. "My knee feels real big.
Tight. And I'm a little sick to my stomach."

Kelly rolled his eyes ruefully so the boy could
see him in the flashlight. "Aren't we all? Must've
eaten a pound of mud crawling around in here."

"I ate two pounds.." Marco croaked from where
he sat propped up in the darkness.

Chris laughed and winced when his father's laugh
jostled his jammed knee.  Then the sodden boy
said. "Hey.. Before the mud slid on top of us,
I only remember my left leg being held. Why
does my right knee feel heavy?"

Kelly aimed the flashlight under the seat beyond
Chris muddy jeans and a few seconds later, dragged 
out the handy talkie. "Will miracles never cease. 
Detello, you keep right on complaining ,...cause it 
makes whoever you got looking after ya work that
much harder."

"I don't like to press my luck." the big man
grumbled. "Especially with that.."

Gage and Roy both made a grab for the
talkie after Chet got most of the mud off of 
its controls but Detello was faster than 
both of them.

He snatched the HT to his mouth. "Engine
51 this is Triage Ten, over.."

The HT came alive in excited voice.
##That you Detello? Hang on, we're 
calling a cutting crew in right now. Cover
your victims against the sparks.##
Captain Stanley said.  ##We start dismantling
in two minutes.##

"10-4." Detello grinned. "Standing by. We're all
a bit slimy, but ok. Marco took in some mud
but he's stable with only minor complications.
And get a doctor on the phone. We've just one
survivor in need of an IV authorization.."

##Understood. I'll have Stoker raise Rampart.
Engine 51, out.##

-------------------------------------

Outside the crushed bus, Cap didn't even wait
for the bulldozer to leave the area before he waved
his men in with the extrication equipment.
"Ok, Move it in there.. Easy. That top chassis's
bound to be weak from the mudslide, so go
slow. Cut three quarters around only, we'll peel
it back and get them out through the roof.
I'm afraid opening the emergency hatch now will
only collapse the rest of the bus on top of them."

The men working at Cap's side nodded.

Cap shouted. "Ok.. cutting now..!!" he shouted.

-------------------------------------------

Inside, all five firemen and Roy's son winced
when the bright fountain of tangerine sparks  
from a roaring K-12 bit through the steel shell 
of the bus above them. They winced when real 
sunlight sent shafts of brilliant daylight into their 
eyes. 

"Oh, man.. Now I know how miners feel when
they've been in a cave in and we dig them out."
Kelly complained.

Roy covered Chris's face and his own with
his own helmet as the firemen outside cut
a hole into the bus. "It's a sight better than
watching that flashlight die out, don't you 
think?"

Detello flicked the coat over Marco's face
and mask and hunched down himself after
coating his own shoulders with wet mud to
keep his shirt from catching fire. "A whole LOT
better." he admonished Kelly.
     His voice was a little strained from his 
eagerness to win freedom for his companions. 
He began fussing with the cutaway section even
before the man above was finished excising
the flap. He had it accordianed out of the
way in seconds. "All right, give me the K-12
on the double. I've a trapped medic and boy
down here.."

Cap peered into the hole from where
he knelt on top of the bus. "They hurt bad?"

Roy squinted in the bright swath of sunlight
that shafted down onto his face. He peeked
around a protective arm as he spoke before
Detello did. "Nah, Cap." Roy said from 
where he lay in the ooze. "We're just leg pinned. 
Got that authorization from Rampart yet?"

Stoker said. "Here.. Morton wants to talk to
you.." and he lowered the phone receiver dangling
on its cord down to Roy so the biophone antennae
would stay in the open air so it wouldn't lose
telemetry with the doctor's base station.

Morton was succinct and to the point.
"DeSoto. Start a large bore normal saline,
500 CC's and run wide open. Give me
a vitals set when you can on the child. How's
Marco? Stoker couldn't tell me much."

Roy glanced over at Marco and Gage, who
was hovering over him, and said. "He was
submersed underneath the mud for about
two minutes. He was out until we got
some of the sludge out of his throat and
got him on simple masked 02. He's only
a little groggy."

"And chilled. His shivering's stopped."
Gage added.

"And mildly hypothermic Rampart.." Roy
told Mike.

"10-4, 51. Continue both victims on 02
and immobilize the child as a precaution 
when you get him out of there. That
bleeder may indicate fractures we don't know
about in that effected leg." Morton told Roy.

"Understood. Large bore NS, wide. O2 and
treat for shock. Long board immobilization
for Chris.."

Morton at the base station, frowned. 
"51, Could you repeat that? Did you say
a victim's name at that last part?"

Gage took the phone from Roy when
DeSoto tried to reach for the IV box.
Kelly took the kit quickly out of his hands
too.

Chet admonished him. "Now Roy, you
know Johnny's gotta be the one to
directly treat your son. Fire department
policy. Just lie back and don't move while
Detello makes that last slice by your leg
with the saw...." 

Gage said. "Uh,10-4, Rampart. He did.
Chris, the boy, is Roy's son..."

------------------------------------------

Nurse McCall, having just walked into the
glass cubicle, gasped at that last admission.
"What?!" Dixie exclaimed, She gripped 
Dr. Morton's shoulder.

Morton shushed her with a motion as he listened
to what Gage confirmed. He covered the receiver
with a palm and sighed. "Oh, boy. How the h*ll
did DeSoto get inside that bus anyway. I thought
firefighters weren't allowed to treat family members
as a standard working policy.."

"They're not.." Dixie said. "Maybe their circumstances
left them no choice in the matter.." Her curiosity got 
the better of herself and she asked. "What are his
vitals signs? His trauma bad?"

Morton answered. "Don't know. They're still
extricating both him, Roy and Marco, a fellow
engine crew man, who almost drown. 
It's a school bus in a mudslide.."

Dixie winced in sympathy and bit her lip.
"Roy must be frantic with worry being with
him like that."

"Gage won't let him get into any medical hot
water and something tells me that their captain
won't let him do that either.." Morton said.
He lifted his hand off the receiver in a quick
motion. "Contact me in route of any consciousness
level changes and I want a set of vitals on Marco 
and Chris the moment they're en route.."

"10-4, doc.." Gage said and he waved to Stoker
to hand over hand the phone cord back up again
out of sight through the hole. "Thanks Stoker..
Hand down the first stokes. We'll get Marco outta
here first.."

"I don't need a stretcher, Gage, I can--"

"...Relax and enjoy the ride, Lopez. And that's
an order." Cap interrupted. "You're a victim until
Rampart clears you, is that understood?"

"Perfectly.." Lopez sighed, then he coughed when
some lingering mud from his sinuses tried to trickle
back into his throat. He lifted his mask off only long
enough to spit the grit aside and out of his mouth.

It wasn't long before Gage and Detello had Lopez
bundled up in yellow plastic insulating sheets and 
had him ready to be hoisted out of the bus.
Marco's face showed his uneagerness to be
stretchered out, but he cooperated.  He snuck in a move
dettaching his own 02 tubing so Chris wouldn't lose
his 02 bottle.

Gage did a double take at that, frowning, but he saw
Stoker immediately compensate for his respiratory care 
once they had Marco level with the portable 02 from
the engine. Lopez did him one better by strapping
the mask to his own face so Mike was freed up
to help get Roy and his son out.

Cap had the rest of Station Ten carry Marco out of 
the deep, treacherous mud slide to a wheeled 
ambulance gurney already waiting for him on the firm
highway beyond. He crouched by Marco's side as
the Mayfair attendants covered him up snugly in
the beige blankets. "'Don't need a lift out', he says."
Cap muttered. "You're colder than an ice cube there
pal."

Marco didn't deign to reply as the head of the stretcher
was raised to make him more comfortable. "It's just
from the wet, Cap. I'm not injured."

"Hmmph.. I'll believe that once Gage gets a look at ya
to be sure. Hang tight." And he ruffled Marco's caked
hair with a glove.

Captain Stanley returned to the bus just as Roy's
boy was lifted out, complete with the IV Gage
had begun. He could see a red sodden stain through
the sheeting on the boy's left thigh and he saw 
Detello start to take the boy's shoe off to check
for a foot pulse. 

"Ok. I've got a good one here. He's ok to move."
Detello said.

He watched the boy get lowered onto the next gurney
wheeled over to them before he reached down
to grab and haul both Kelly and Gage out of the
bus with both hands at the same time.
Cap's eyebrows lifted in amazement at that.
"What a Sampson type." he said softly.

Chet hopped down, eyes tearing from the bright sun.
"He was Atlas earlier Cap. Kept the roof from caving in on
us until you guys manage to shovel the worst of the muck
off the bus.."  He padded off with his shoes slurping liquidly 
but he turned, adding. "But really he's 
a real bonfide Angel.."

It was Cap's turn to frown in confusion.
Then he shouted after his departing mud covered
man. "Were you guys short on air in there or 
something?"

But Chet was already out of earshot  as
he asked Stoker to hose down his shoes and outer
wear "really good".

When they were out, Detello subtly shook his
head to the other firemen surrounding him, that
there were no other children still alive inside.

Gage took full advantage of Roy still waiting to be
cut free to take a closer look at Chris. He kept
expression off his face when he saw the extent
of the laceration on the boy's thigh. He knew at
least, that it would require plastic surgery to fully
mend it after the deep gash was thoroughly 
cleaned of mud and sand and allowed to drain 
open for a few days.   

But he smiled when the boy's BP was only
slightly below normal. "There.. That's not
too bad." he grinned down at the boy,
adjusting the cannula's prongs into the right
place inside his nose. "Strong as all get out.
You're not even moderately shocky."

"Dad made me rest a bit while we were in
there. I think I slept once." Chris admitted.

"He sure did..." Roy said, jumping down
from the bus with the ground crew firemen's help.
One of them tossed DeSoto the IV box
afterwards. " For about half an hour there."

Roy fussed with Chris's blankets until Johnny
slapped his hands away. "I got him, I got him,
Why don't you go check on Marco in the rig?
We'll meet you in there as soon as I relay
his vitals to Morton."

DeSoto reluctantly retreated.

--------------------------------

Cap gave Gage a subtle thumbs up for
finding an excuse to separate Roy from
Chris. But a further significant glint in Cap's
eye made Johnny say, "He's fine Cap.
Nothing major's been damaged here."

"That's means good news, son.." Cap said, 
patting Chris on the shoulder.

"I know. I could tell because my leg didn't
squirt out at all when I first did it, trying to 
reach Carrie.."

At the name, and another exchange of looks
from Stoker, Cap learned the little girl hadn't
survived the trip to the hospital despite her
successful revival, so he had plenty of warning
time before Chris's next question. 

"How's Carrie?"the blond boy asked.

Johnny said. "Let's concentrate on getting you
squared away first, ok? Does your head hurt at
all? No?.... Just that knee.. ok.. now Cap
and I are going to immobilize that leg in a splint
just to keep it from jostling around.. ok?"

Chris nodded.

Once that was done, Chris, Johnny, the engine's
02 tank and the gear were all loaded up in the rig
waiting with Marco and Roy.  

Detello, following behind them, glanced up and 
saw the five children that managed to get out 
of the wreck unscathed. They looked older 
than their years. One, almost looked like 
DeSoto's son from where he stood, numb and 
confused in a muddy pool by the side of the road. 

Detello gave him a small smile he hoped would 
be reassuring and offered the glassy eyed youngster 
a salute off his crusty helmet's rim. His smile faded 
when the boy didn't grin back.  ::So many have died 
today. How is this going to effect us?:: he thought. 
::I was a medic for three years and I've never seen 
a run as bad as this. Please.. g*d. Make us forget 
the details of this one, fast...:: 

----------------------------------------------- 

It took twelve minutes to get to the hospital.

Then.......

-----------------------------------

Photo : A rumpled bus, cut open.

Photo : Roy, mud covered, on the biophone.

Photo : A boy, lying in a mud pool, in the sun.

Photo : Johnny and others carrying a stokes and
            gear.

*animated gif* : Ambulance with flashing lights at night.

Photo : A close up of Cap, looking down, wearing his 
            helmet. 

*************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] The Breaking Point..  
Date : Sun, 12 Jan 2003 08:29:28 +0000  
  
Dr. Morton opened the ambulance doors to receive
the two gurneys from Roy and Johnny. 
"We'll take the boy into Treatment One, Gage.
DeSoto, how's Lopez?"

"Fine, doc. Once we got those wet clothes off
he started to warm up. He's fully time and place
oriented; never lost it and there's still no signs
of pulmonary edema." Roy reported.

"Good. Dixie has Treatment Two set up for him
with Dr. Early. Stay with him."

"But-"

" DeSoto. Carry out my orders." he snapped. 
Then he said more gently. "I won't keep you in 
the dark about Chris, Roy. Know that as a promise. 
But you know the regulations.. "

Roy grumbled, reciting.."No treatment contact is 
allowed at all in a hospital setting for anyone 
who's kin of a victim. I know that doc." he 
said as they rapidly wheeled their two patients 
inside Rampart through the emergency doors. 

Morton angled his dark head."We'll let 
you see him once we've determined he's truly 
stable and only after he's been fully treated."

"Doc.. I don't want to leave him.."

Chet opened the door of the squad he had driven
in and jumped out of the seat. The plastic sheet
he had used to keep mud off its upholstery had
dried to his back and legs and he hastily peeled
it off, leaving it on the hood. He hurried past
where Morton and Roy where debating. "Roy,
just hush and let the man do his job. 
I'll be your eyes in there FOR you man."

Morton looked up from his quick exam of Chris's
eyes as they walked inside the hospital.
"Why are you planning on following us, Kelly? 
There's nothing wrong with you..."
Morton challenged.

"Oh, gee. Didn't Gage tell you? He and I were
sandwiched in debris pretty good when the hill
came down on us. I might keel over any second, 
doc." he said factitiously.

For once, Johnny backed him up by keeping a straight
face to support his fast talking job on Morton.

"Is that a fact......" 
Mike sighed in resignation, knowing he couldn't stop
anyone ELSE who wanted in on current news about 
a coworker's family member's medical status. 
He surprised himself by not retorting further at Chet 
as he, Gage, Chris and an ambulance attendant, 
got the longboarded boy transferred to the large
room's exam table. 

Kelly shouted before the door closed on Roy's
face. "I'll be right out and I'll meet you in 
Marco's room with an update, DeSoto!"

"I'l..l..  h..o..l..d..  y..o..u..  t..o..  t..h..a..t, C..h..e..t."
came Roy's muffled retort through the door.

Kelly gingerly held up defensive hands in
appeasement and backed away self consciously
from Roy's angry voice to carry out his 
promise to him. He strode to the foot of 
Chris's bed and quietly watched his medical 
care take place.

"Chris.. the man who's poking and prodding
you is Dr. Morton. He'll take really good
care of you.." Johnny introduced quickly.

"Hi, Dr. Morton.."

"Hello..." Mike answered. "The nurse to my right
is Carol Evans."

"Hi Ms. Evans."

"Hi Chris.." she answered. "Warm enough?"

"Uh huh.."

Carol Evans smoothly moved Chris's IV to a 
pole and switched around his O2 supply to a wall 
port while Gage helped Morton expose Chris's leg 
laceration. 

"He still tachycardic?" Morton asked.

Gage was about to reply when a voice piped
up from tiny form bundled inside the longboard.
"Yeah..." Chris said firmly. "I'm 140."

Johnny grinned at Morton's surprised look and
the dark skinned doctor said. "You won't mind if 
I confirm your findings on an EKG, son?"

"It's what dad would do..." Chris agreed.

"Is that so.." Morton said, casting amused eyes at
everyone in the room. "Well you're absolutely right 
young fella. That IS the next thing we'll do." Morton 
smiled. "You're a very smart young boy.. How'd 
you come to learn so much?"

"Classes. I hang out when dad recertifys or when
he's gotta teach the new FD trainees to become 
paramedics."

"You do?" Chet asked surprised.

"Uh huh.." Chris told him. "It's fun.. Sometimes
they use me to practice their dressings and neck/back
immobilizing. Last month, I was a play victim in a fake
airjet crash at LAX." 

Chet Kelly was very thoughtful when he heard what
Chris had accomplished and what he had learned.

"So, you wanna be a medic when you grow up?" Morton
asked, palpating Chris's abdomen for tenderness.

"Nah,.. I wanna be an architect like my grandpa. I'll just
keep what I learn now handy for when I have my own
kids. You know how much trouble we can get into at my
age." Chris said wisely.

Johnny practically burst with mirth and pride at that
little gem coming from his partner's first born.

Chris's worldly personality had finally charmed Dr. 
Morton. "Son, I can't believe you'd EVER get that way." 
Morton said, leaning close to his head with a confidential 
smiling whisper.

Chris motioned with a crooking finger, and 
when the young doc had come closer, he 
whispered into Morton's ear.
"I sometimes do. But it's my sister who always
starts it."

Morton patted Chris on the shoulder. " Yeah?
Well she's not here right now to work her mischief,
so you can let your guard down. We're going to get some 
xrays of your leg to confirm non fracture injury 
to that thigh and knee and if I like your pictures,
we'll see about getting you free of those straps 
and that C-collar."

"Fair enough. I'm tired of being strapped up
like a mummy. What after that?"

Oh,.. let me see.." Morton sighed, tapping a finger
on his lips. "Most likely, since you're doing so well,
it's up to surgery for a repair job. How does that 
sound?"

"Like I'm not going to enjoy it too much. Don't
think I wanna go."

"Ice cream after.." Chet promised.

"Ok, ok, ok.. I'll go. But make sure
the gas man doesn't give me the stuff that makes
me sick afterwards." Chris said, watching his Uncle
Gage tape EKG patches onto his chest gravely.
"I watched my sister puke for an hour after she
had her tonsils out.."

"I'll work out a deal with him.." Morton said,
with a wink and nod. Then he turned on the EKG and
studied Chris's rapid heartbeat on the live screen.
For a cross reference, he got a paper strip reading, too. 
"Hmmm. " he said after a minute or so..
"Just simple V tach here, Gage." he mumbled.

"That's what we figured, even just listening apically." 
Johnny admitted.
 
Then more loudly, Morton looked up.
"Guess what Chris? Your EKG's telling me ....
that you're just ...thirsty..." he concluded to his 
small patient, setting hands on his hips.

"Thirsty?" and a serious puzzlement filled 
the young boy's face. "I don't think I am.." 
Chris said with amazement. "I haven't been 
playing any softball today."

"You're forgetting that leg cut of yours. You 
must have bled some while you were still 
buried in the mud. Most likely, with all the 
excitement going on, you weren't even aware 
of it."

"Oh. I WAS scared a lot, doctor. But Detello,
Uncle Johnny, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Lopez and dad,
found me and then I wasn't afraid any more 
after that." 

"Good.." Mike soothed. "You're doing fine
here, too. You're very calm."

Chris DeSoto's face fell into a serious 
expression. "So, Dr. Morton...."

"Umm hmmmm." Mike replied, looking into the boy's
ears for liquids other than mud with an otoscope.

"You say I lost some fluid vul...vel...."

"Volume.." Morton completed. "A bit..
About as much as three soda cans, I suspect."
Mike straightened up on his exam stool
and wheeled it around so he could recheck 
a pedal beat in Chris's effected leg and to
test range of motion in the swollen knee.

"And that's why my heart's working harder 
right now?" the child said, carefully thinking.

"Yep." Johnny said. "You nailed it, Chris."

The tiny boy's muddy face furrowed as he thought
about his situation."Then shouldn't those drops 
be going faster?" Chris said pointing at his IV 
hanging near his head.

Kelly and Gage laughed when Morton sputtered
as he told Nurse Evans to increase the flow into 
the drip chamber.  They immediately piped down
when Mike glared at them in offense.

Chris was oblivious to the innocent commotion
he caused, suddenly very interested in the great
Xray machine wheeling into his exam room.

----------------------------------------------------

Marco Lopez was raised semi sitting on his gurney
beneath a pile of heated blankets. The torn, ripped
field oxygen mask had been replaced with an in 
house cannula on low flow. Doctor Early was carefully 
listening to Lopez's breath sounds through the
front side of his chest. 
"Take a deep breath. ......
And another one.... Good.." the doctor encouraged.

 Then he thoughtfully pulled off his stethoscope.
"I'm not hearing anything abnormal 
here, Marco. How do you feel?"

"Fine.." the fireman replied.
Dr. Early began examining his ribs and abdomen,
and Lopez flinched and caught his breath,
when Joe found a band of tenderness around his 
diaphram. "Except there. Just a little sore."

"Roy, I thought you said he was uninjured." Joe
remarked looking up at DeSoto standing near 
Lopez's head. 

"He isn't injured. I think he's just a little tender 
because Johnny had to clear his throat a bit 
when we first got him free."
Roy said timidly, crossing his arms over his 
elbows, nervously.

"Heimlich?"

"Yeah..."

Joe felt all over other areas of Marco's abdomen 
but found nothing else wrong. "Most likely, 
this is just the typical bruising from that kind of maneuver.
Marco, does it hurt when I do this?" Dr. Early asked as he
prodded and pressed on his liver and spleen.

"Not much.. Hardly at all."

"Hmph.." and he put his stethoscope back into
his ears.

Roy and Chet and Marco all waited in silence.

Joe sat back on his seat after listening to Marco's
bowel sounds. "Everything sounds normal. So, that's
probably what it is. Roy, was his orthostatic BP, 
when you checked it last, wide spread?"

"Not appreciably. It didn't sink into the basement if
that's what you're looking for.. Hardly moved ten
millibars, systolically or diastolically."


Joe's face lost his doctoring look and melted
into a casual bent. "Now I'm convinced. "
And he sighed in relief.. "You're a lucky man Lopez.
Mud inhalation has a tendency to cause a nasty
case of pneumonia. And both your lungs are completely
clear. But, I'd like to ask you just a few questions
to put my own mind at ease."

"Ok, doc." Marco nodded.

"Do you remember if you blacked out at all?"

"I didn't. Not at all. Just got a little tired when I got cold."

Roy's agreeing nod confirmed it for Joe.

Joe stood up. "Your vital signs are normal. Your
temperature is now where it should be, and you
have absolutely no indications of internal injury."
he took his stethoscope off from around his neck
and stuffed it into a copious pocket. "I'm
releasing you."

"You mean, he's going to be fine?" DeSoto asked.

"Healthiest near drowning I've ever seen."
Joe chuckled. "But I am prescribing you some
antibiotics just as a precaution. There's no telling
whether or not that mud you ingested was 
contaminated with sewage runoff or other
substances from the slide."
 
"Oohhwwk." Marco made a face. 

Joe went on, with a kind smile. 
"But I wouldn't worry about that.
Your body will excrete it naturally and maybe 
the only thing you'll notice is that you may get 
slightly constipated later on."

"Wonderful.." Lopez said sarcastically.

"I can prescribe a laxative if you're 
worried." Joe added helpfully.

"Don't bother. My mother's probably got
a recipe somewhere that'll do the trick if
things get into a bind."

Roy hid a smile. "I think your mother's 
corn tamales might be just the thing."

Marco looked aghast, "Are you saying my
mama's cooking..... " Lopez hunted around for
delicate terms. "....puts..you off Roy?"

"Honestly? At times..it does." Roy admitted,
refolding his arms subconsciously.

Lopez slumped back onto his pillow.
"Oh brother..She's not going like hearing about that.."

"Look. Lopez.. I- I- It's no big deal. Really. Listen..
Tell her it's just our intolerance for spicy
food." Roy said matter of fact. "That it runs only
in my family.." he added drolly.

"It does?"

"Yeah.." Roy said empathically and he
uncrossed his arms to present an image
of conviction.

"Oh.. Thanks for uh,.. letting me know
about that ..uh .. effect. Wouldn't want
mom to worry that her food bothered
anyone."

"Tell her it truly doesn't. " Roy said. " Tell
her we DeSotos are atypical gastronomically 
speaking. And that her reputation as Prima
Dona Cocina Senora is unthreatened. Have
no fear."

Marco studied Roy's face for long moments,
weighing his words. Finally, he slowly nodded.
His hurt feelings tamed.

"That settles it then. Marco's mom cooks Marco
some of her famous corn tamales.. and... I give
you this.."Joe rose with Marco's chart and ripped
out the form from it for Lopez with his written 
prescription. "A broad spectrum antibiotic."

Lopez nodded in tired compliance, grudgingly.

Roy turned off Marco's O2
feed, took it off his grumbling co worker,
rolled up its tubing, and tossed
it into a waste receptacle bin. "Chin up, Marco.
You could be me.."

Marco glanced up in sudden alarm at Roy's out
of character self jab.

Right then, the treatment room doors 
opened and a bustling, cheerfully whistling 
Chet, entered. He had body showered in the 
surgical locker room and was wearing a 
luxuriously clean uniform despite
his still heavily mud flecked face. In his arms, 
he carried two more sets of shoes, 
shirts and slacks for Marco and Roy. 
And even two pairs of T-shirts and boxer
shorts.

Roy recognized those right away.

But Marco remarked faster. "Hey,
who raided our lockers at the station?"

"Detello did. His company was released
off scene before Cap and Stoker and he
took a few liberties. Conned the Batallion
Chief out of his car for an hour to go
get us these."

"Wow.. what a saint." Joe said, raising his 
eyebrows.

"You have no idea, man. Detello's definitely
saint grade material. Or maybe even higher, doc."
Chet said, rolling his eyes. "He makes Camelot's 
Lancelot Du Lacque seem like a two bit wuss."

"Really..?" Joe said.

"It was uncanny, Dr. Early. Just when we needed
equipment or needed a hand getting out of a tight
spot, this Detello guy always managed to come up with
a miraculous solution. He's the one who kept
Marco from drowning with a flimsy 02 mask
until we could get him outta trouble." Chet
elaborated.

"Yeah, only thing is he probably broke my nose.."
Marco said.

"He broke your nose?"  Joe asked. 
"I thought that red on your face was just mud..." 
and he drew out his penlight to examine the inside of
Marco's nose and he soon put it away to palpate the
surrounding face bones carefully. "Canyon mud 
from Escondido.."

Roy blinked. "Yeah, we were near Escondido, off
the freeway." ::What a detective..:: he thought.

"I'm not feeling any crepitus here. Can you breathe
through your nose ok?"

Marco nodded. "Yes. It's just a little tender."

"Want us to do an x-ray to be sure?"

"Would it effect anything? I mean, what will you do
if it is broken?"

"Nothing. I'm seeing no deformity. "First do no harm."
Joe recited. "Better to leave well enough alone since
it isn't hurting enough to bother you much."

Roy grinned thoughtfully. "A symptom which seems
like no symptom IS no symptom."

"Exactly what I was thinking. My original prognosis 
stands Marco. You're free to go." Joe said. "Kel's
rubbing off on you Roy. That's Dr. Brackett's
mantra."

Roy smiled even bigger. "From paramedic training
class. I remember.." Then Roy's stress began to
poke through and he found himself growing 
impatient to hold Kelly to his promise. "Chet..."

Chet was busy at the sink and cupboard finding
a wash bowl and a stand so Marco could rinse 
off the worst of the mud off himself before 
he changed into his clothes.

"Chet.." Roy repeated.

"Hmmm?" Kelly said, after frothing up the antibiotic
soap in the bowl with a few fingers. He couldn't
resist bending over and rinsing his own face free
of mud.

"How's Chris?"

"Chris..?" Chet said, still preoccupied with the 
luxury of steaming clear water so near at hand.

"My son..? H- How's he doing?"

"Your son's here?" Joe asked quickly, looking
up from the chart he was recording.

"Yeah, he was in the bus with us.." Marco said.
"Yeah, Chet. How's he doing?"

Chet grimaced and said.  "Ahh! Roy
couldja hand me a towel? I think I got soap in
my eye.."

Roy levelled one at his face with force.
"Chet!!"

"Oww, thanks. Uh," Kelly said using the towel's
corner to twist grit out of his ear. "He's one hundred
percent  Ayee Okay, Roy. Just some surgery to
suture him up. No lasting damage.." he said mildly
to them all when he looked up.

"You're certain..."

"Does Morton ever smile?" Chet said deadpan.

Roy let down his suspicion about the validity of
his news immediately and relaxed.

But Lopez was still discontented.
"Chet.." Marco prompted.

"Huh.."

"How am I supposed to wash up with that?"

"With what?"

Roy and Lopez both pointed down.

Kelly's charitable wash bath offering was now
dark red with mud and crusty sand. "Oh,, sorry.
Here Marco, let me draw you up another one."

Joe left the treatment room, chuckling.

Roy followed him, admonishing after Marco and
Chet as he left, holding the door open with
a deep lean.
"You guys got fifteen minutes to clean up. We
can then all leave in the squad together. If
we jam in tight, we can get four in the 
cab. We've done it before.."

"Wait a minute. You're going to leave Chris 
alone here at Rampart?" Kelly asked.

"Yes.. No.. Oh, I don't know.. Never had this
happen before, don't know if Cap'll let me
remain here."

"Of course he will, DeSoto. Are you outta your
everloving mind?" Kelly frowned passionately.

"Yeah, just a little. The crisis is over and I guess
I'm finally reacting.." Roy said numbly.

"I'll say."

But Roy acted as if he didn't hear Kelly at all
as his mind was still racing.
"I'll call Joanne, let her know what's 
happened to Chris, and get cleaned up myself..
Then we can go.." he muttered, already losing
recollection of Chet's firm belief Cap would release
Roy from active duty because of his son's mishap.

"You're gonna do all that in fifteen minutes?
Man, Joanne's gonna fall apart for sure.
Nothing like the maternal instinct." Kelly
commented.

"Yeah well that maternal instinct's also
been down this route before. Joanne's
not some snivelling panicky mother who'll
faint at the slightest bad news."

"Never said she was going to faint I said
she might fall apar--" Chet began.

"Kelly..." Roy said irritably.

"What..?"

"Just go help Marco change."

Chet finally saw he was outta line.
"Right.."  He peeked out further from
the Treatment Room. "But then we 
gotta talk pal.."

"About what?" Roy snapped.

"About something your son's into, man. 
Think I might wanna get into it, too, real soon."
Chet said mysteriously.

"I'm dying with suspense..Can it wait? My life's
sorta kinda been turned upside down today if
you haven't noticed.." DeSoto said sarcastically.

"Yeah, I noticed.. And yeah. It can wait. Better yet,
I'll bring up my idea to Johnny. He might be in a 
better mood to offer an opinion. Man, at least I know 
GAGE can handle his stress.."

"Not this kind.." Roy fired back and he let the 
door swing shut between them. DeSoto felt like
an immediate terd for lashing out at Kelly but
a part of him really didn't care at the moment.

All he could think about was that phone call
to Joanne.

All through his shower in the hospital locker 
room, he rehearsed how he was going to break
the news to the family.

Then he figured it out. He would let Chris call
home himself, before he was prepped for surgery.
::Nothing like hearing news from the source:: 
DeSoto sighed. ::Maybe I'll have Dixie string
in a landline from the wall, to Chris's bed so 
he can dial out directly from a phone that isn't
the red one. Might ease the shock for Joanne
and my daughter.::

An overwhelming paternal angst gripped
Roy. His separation from his son following 
his near fatal accident suddenly felt intolerable. 

Roy couldn't seem to dress fast enough for 
comfort's sake and all he could see was the 
memory of Chris's mud covered face blending 
in with the hillside's guts, pooling in the bus, 
whenever he closed his eyes.

Something very integral inside Roy, ....finally snapped.

-----------------------------------

Photo : Morton in scrubs.

Photo : Marco smiling at you through the 
            squad's open door window.

Photo : Joe Early standing by an IV pole.

Photo : Johnny looking sweaty and tense.

Photo : Chet making a point in close up.

Photo : Roy on a payphone, looking pained.

Photo : Roy in a pool of mud, with his unconscious
            son.

**********************************
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> 
Date:  Wed Jan 15, 2003  12:10 am
Subject:  The Shell..

-----------------------------------------------

It was morning, and the day after the school
bus rescue. A-shift slowly made their way into
the kitchen for coffee after changing into their
work clothes.

Cap was the first one to the steaming coffee pot.
In his hands were the run sheet forms for the
bus's incident.  He placed them fanned out in
the middle of the table top and placed the pot
in their center so anyone reaching for it would
have to see the forms before getting a cup filled.

Then he retreated to his recliner and the 
morning newspaper folded neatly there by C shift.

He intentionally didn't read the headlines which 
covered the bus crash and the journalist sensationalism
about how many had died in the slide, moving on 
instead, to the sports pages.

-------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage rubbed feigned sleepy eyes and 
darted through the kitchen door, jostling with
Chet in a vie for the coffee pot. Both firemen
grabbed its black handle and Cap said,
"When the fur stops flying over there, eyeball
the papers you're not going to spill that coffee
on.. Take a set and fill them out before lunchtime."

Johnny and Chet's amicable mood evaporated
when they realized it was the bus run's mortality 
forms. Gage sighed glumly, "Right Cap, uh, we'll get
right on these.. uh, do the investigators want to know
complete details?"

"As best you can, Gage. And I know recalling back
to yesterday isn't going to be pleasant. Just stick
to positional details and what ya found."

Chet sat on the kitchen table and took a sip
of his coffee, still lost in the sobering feel in the room,
and poured Johnny's cup full after his own.
"What's the point of an investigation, Cap? I
mean, the guy who hit the bus was DOA."

Cap looked up uncomfortably."Its a suit against
the city in an action concerning the mudslide..
Negligience on the part of the highway department
for not shoring up that canyon wall to withstand
flooding."

"That craziness, Cap. Most of those..kids wer-" and 
Johnny's voice broke as a memory of the little girl 
who was swept away down the storm drain filtered 
into his mind. Gage fought the emotion out of his 
voice and continued.. "...most of those poor kids 
were gone even before the slide happened." Gage 
insisted. "Besides, that rainfall was abnormally high. 
Most inches an hour since the 1920's the Chief said.
There's no cause for such a class action."

"I know that." Cap said. "But these kids's parents
are grieving and you know how that goes. Any
outlet's a channel for them."

Roy had entered the kitchen quietly, and he
refused the third coffee mug Johnny offered him.
"No thanks. " he said, sitting on the table next
to Johnny. "Are we going to have to testify about 
those fatalities, Cap?"

Hank shrugged diffidently in the negative, "The 
Chief, this morning,  just asked about our run 
sheets so far. No hearings in sight for any of us yet. 
I'll,...I'll..let you know as soon as I can about that.."

"Thanks.." Roy said softly.

Marco piped up. "Hey Roy, how's your boy? Is he
ok? I didn't get to hear how he was doing after
I left yesterday. Dixie refused to fill me in when she
wheeled me out the back door."

Roy smiled a half hearted smile. "That's probably
because she figured you already had a full plate
concerning your own recovery. She most
likely, didn't want ya to worry about anything else, 
Lopez."

"Since when does asking about something like that 
constitute being a burden?" Marco complained.

Johnny grinned. "Dix was only looking out
for your best interests. Besides, I'll bet she
called ya a few hours after you got home
with the good news, didn't she?"

"Yeah." Marco said. "She did.. But mama said
I was sleeping.."

"Dix did her job then." he grinned. "She made
sure she got the news ya wanted." he 
concluded.

"Not soon enough.." Marco scoffed.

Roy thought about that remark thoughtfully
and mumbled to himself. "It's never soon
enough.." But no one else heard him.

Stoker pulled out a chair for Roy. "So,.."
he said grandly.. "..don't keep us in suspense. 
Tell us how he is.."

The squeal of the chair's legs on the tile floor
broke Roy out of his reverie and he blinked a
few times. But his face stayed flat and almost
emotionless.
"Chris's gonna be fine. He came outta surgery
with flying colors. His leg's gonna heal cleanly,
and he's handling his best friend Carrie's death as
well as can be expected..." he paused when 
the gang grew reflective for his benefit. "Joanne
and I are just glad it's all over with.." Roy 
said, trying to grin, without confidence.
"Chris goes home Friday once the drainage
shunts are removed."

Cap noticed Roy's lack luster mannerisms.
"You ok there, Roy?" he said, setting his
paper down.

"Yeah, Cap.. I- I'm fine.. Just tired I guess."
DeSoto replied.

Captain Stanley's gaze bore right into Roy's
until Roy thought he was going to start fidgetting
under their scrutiny. But finally, Hank sighed.
"Ok, you know the support panel's there if you want
to go talk to anyone sooner. I've got us all scheduled 
with the counselors for disaster debriefing this 
afternoon. The usual routine."

The rest of the gang cleared their throats and
mumured uncomfortably. They all knew they
needed to talk about the run as soon as they
could, before its impact could effect any of
them even more.

"Ok, Cap.." Then Roy noticed the last remaining
Code F report form resting on the table. "Oh. I forgot.
I'll get right on this.." he promised.

"Take your time.. These aren't due at 
Headquarters until six.." Hank said.

The kitchen fell into quiet as each of the gang
filled out the grim details of facts and the actions
they each had taken during the bus accident. 

The tension was so thick, Henry started to whine 
at their concentrated silence.


Marco and Chet got up immediately and took their
forms and donuts to the couch. Lopez took Henry
into his lap and fed him a treat. Stoker faked
stretched, without comment, studying his shoes.

"Can't hide anything from Henry, can we?"
Johnny said to no one in particular.

"Nope. He's a hot dog who's a blood hound. 
What can we hide from a nose that big?"

And everyone laughed. Everyone except Roy.


"Say, Gage.."
Kelly smacked Gage on the shoulder to
get his attention from where he was 
carefully writing on his incident form.

"Oww, Kelly now cut that out. Now I'm going
to have to start filling this out all over again."
Johnny groused. Then he rubbed his arm.
"That's a sore spot from yesterday."

"Sorry Gage.  But listen.. I almost brought this
up to DeSoto but he was too busy being a fidgetty
father yesterday to pay me any attention."

"Gee. I wonder why? Kelly, just get to the point." 
Johnny said impatiently.

"Yeah, Chet. Get to the meat of it already." 
Marco said from his kitchen seat.

Kelly glanced up and suddenly noticed that everyone,
including Cap, was paying close attention to
him.  He immediately got embarrassed.
"Now, listen fellas. I just wanted to bring up
a conversation with Johnny that was kinda private
here, you know what I mean?"

Cap's eyebrows rose. "Fraid we don't. In it
for an inch, in it for a mile, we figure. Right gang?
Anything you need to say about work, we're
entitled to know about, because we're just one big, 
close knit, happy outfit here, Kelly."

Gage and the others all agreed with animated
nods and gestures.

"Speak for yourself, Cap! uh, I mean sir.."
Kelly amended.  He whined. "Oh, come on guys.
For me..?" He sighed when no one looked away. 
"Ok, ok. I see I have no choice in the matter 
while I get an answer for myself. I see. 
Ok,.. all right. I'll just come right out and say it then..  
Johnny, do you think I got the right stuff to make 
the coursework to become a paramedic?"

Johnny had been mentally smiling as vultures
zoomed in on the summer of Chet's malcontent,
but now, Gage nearly spit out the mouthful of 
coffee he had been swallowing. "What?! "

Babble followed instantly.
    "A medic, Chet?" Stoker parroted.
"That's great, Chet.." Lopez said warmly.
    Cap's face animated in surprise. "Wow, that's
news there, Kelly. What made you suddenly
decide this?"
    Roy even perked up a little."Really?"

Chet tried to quell them all with shushes and 
self conscious hand waves. "Gimme a sec, gimme 
a second here. Let Johnny answer my question 
first, eh, guys? All right..? Then I'll let you have
at it.."

Everyone obeyed instantly, all ears and expectant,
as they all looked at Johnny. 

Including Henry.

Gage cleared his throat uncomfortably inside the
circle of faces surrounding his. "Uh, well.. Chet. 
You see, uh.. Wow, Gee. I don't know where to 
begin.." He started over on a different track. 
"You seem like a pretty good firefighter and I like 
working with ya and all. But quite frankly, I haven't 
actually, ever considered this idea before, you know.
I think you'd--"

The alarm tones went off.

========================
##Station 51. Possible drowning. L.A. Riverbed.
One half mile north of Vadnais Heights Boulevard.
One half mile north of Vadnais Heights Boulevard.
Time out, 8: 02.##
========================

In the garage, Cap thumbed the response mike 
and replied. "This is station 51, 10-4. KMG 365."

And he threw on his turnout coat and beat 
a hasty pace to the LaFrance.

------------------------------------------------


On scene, a lone hiker, muddied despite the clear
day, met them on the roadside margin. He seemed
highly agitated. "Glad you got here so fast. Hurry.
I couldn't get down there any closer. Uh, man.."
he gasped.

"What do you got?"Cap fired at him as he stepped
out of the truck's cab.

"Well, I couldn't believe what I was looking at.
I couldn't believe my eyes at first." he panted.
"I just couldn't believe it was really a--"
The biker suddenly turned green and Johnny and
Roy had to catch him when he stopped
speaking and when his knees started to buckle. 

"Whoa, whoa.. now take it easy. Hey. You feeling 
all right?" Johnny said. "Here, set him over against 
the squad." He and Roy and Cap managed to get 
the man sitting on the wet ground. Stoker went 
for the O2.

Gage said to Cap. "I got him. Looks like it's 
a syncopal episode. His pulse's normal."

"Cap, I'll go looking around. Maybe I can find out 
something.." Roy said, readjusting his helmet.

"You do that. Marco, Chet, go with him." Cap said.
He pulled out his walkie talkie. "L.A. This is Engine
51. Send an ambulance to our location. We've a 
man down."

##10-4, 51. Time out 8:14.##

Marco, Chet and Roy headed into the brush 
rimming the man made channel of the L.A. river.

The bed was partially filled with a fast flow,
and it was clogged with many many downed
trees and debris from the flooding of the day
before. 

Then they spotted an orange hiker's pack
and mountain bike and an abandoned CB radio
lying on the ground. 

"This is where he must have made our
rescue call..." Roy said.  "Let's assume
he spotted something straight down from
here."   And he waved Chet and Marco
along with him down the next decline.

They skidded over the slope of
the final levee to the top of the drop off leading
into the concrete river system and crawled 
on their bellies until they were able to see 
beyond down into the waterway.

Marco gasped.

A horribly mangled little girl lay twisted in
the bows of a flooded eucalyptus tree with
skin so dusky, that there was no doubt 
that the life signs in her had fled long ago.
One arm was broken hideously over her head
and the crushed torso was wearing a 
very familar set of school colors. 

"Oh, my g*d. It's her.." Kelly heard from
Roy. 

"What?" Chet asked. "This is who, Roy?"
he asked through a scrub bush, separating
them.

But Roy just stood there, dropping his
walkie talkie from limp fingers.

Chet and Marco didn't see him falter,
still being partially hidden in the 
overgrown field.

"Come on, Marco. Let's get closer.."
Kelly said, moments later.

Through the brush, Chet called out
again as Marco and he struggled to get
nearer the area where they saw the little
girl's remains."Roy.. we need to know 
what you know." Kelly said over the 
roar of water. "There are parents 
somewhere out there looking for this little 
girl. If you know something we don't, y--"

They heard DeSoto sob a heart rending 
incomprehensible outburst, quickly 
followed by sudden violent retching.  Kelly 
and Lopez heard the thud of something with 
weight, fall onto the dry reeds above the river, 
seconds later.

Kelly and Lopez turned from the water,
not understanding for a moment. They both 
were shocked when they jogged back the way
they had come to see Roy curled up into a ball on 
the ground. He was on his side, getting sick and
trying to hide the fact that his stomach
battle had been lost in what seemed to Chet, 
a pitiful way.

"Roy, pull yourself together man. It's ok.
We'll just get her in a few when you're better
and we'll just get the h*ll out of here.."
Kelly said. 

Lopez said. "I don't think this is just a grossing
out, Chet. I mean, this is ROY. He never lets things
like this bother him. Something's really not right 
here."

"You deal with it. I gotta let Cap know what's going on."
Chet said defensively. His face was a mixture of 
worry, disgust and frustration. Kelly went to find 
some high ground to report to the engine crew.

Marco went to Roy's side and pulled him away
from the soiling ground.  He helped Roy kneel upright
and Lopez held him while he continued to empty
his stomach. His heaves were so violent, that
his chin strap loosened and DeSoto's helmet 
flopped forward over his eyes. 

Marco took off Roy's helmet and threw
it some distance up the hill in frustration and anger
over the second unexpected horror delivered
to them yet again in as many days.
He waited until Roy was through gagging, then
he said. "Come on, Roy. Let's move away. We're
too near the edge."



Kelly pulled out his HT. "Cap. We've got a Code F.
It's a  ...  it's a ...kid from the bus rescue. Roy 
recognized her right away."

##Would you 10-9 that, Kelly. A Code F from
yesterday?## Cap queried.

"That's affirmative, Cap. And she's retrievable."

There was a long silence. ##All right. Listen.
This is first. Our hiker informant's a diabetic and 
the stress of his calling us out here has set off a 
metabolic crisis. Have Roy come up here.##

"Ah, Cap. That won't be possible."

##Kelly? What's the hold up?##

"Just get down here, Cap. On the double." 
Kelly said and he flicked the walkie talkie's 
speaker off, his face fighting powerful emotions.

-------------

Marco had gotten Roy's collar loose. 
He saw that DeSoto was no longer getting ill
in the place Marco had guided him to away
from the river's wall. But things were far from
improving. Roy lay, pale and in denial, on 
his side, sobbing uncontrollably.

Lopez patted his shattered coworker on the shoulder. 
"It's ok. Just take it easy.We'll take it from 
here. Your nausea passing?"  

He got only a moaning half cry for a reply.

Lopez moved Roy's head to his knees to keep 
the sharp grassy brambles from cutting his face. 
"I know it. Just let it pass. You don't have to do 
anything right now."

Cap and Stoker came skidding through the 
undergrowth fully loaded with ropes, a metal 
grappling hook, and a small folded body bag 
between them. 

They halted in shock at the sight of Roy, curled 
fetal, going to pieces.

Kelly and Marco didn't have to explain anything
to them at all when Hank saw the little girl they
had seen. His own face twisted in pain.  

Cap crouched by Roy and added his own 
comforting hand to DeSoto's shoulder. "Easy, pal.
You don't have to do this at all. We'll handle it.
Marco, stay with him for a moment. "
And he rose back onto his feet. 
Cap swallowed. He motioned to Mike.
"Stoker, get her down from there."  
His eyes never left the dead child's 
place in the partially submerged tree. "We're not 
losing her again." and he handed off all his gear 
to the engineer. "Kelly, go back up the hill and 
help Johnny any way you can. You're taking 
over for Roy."

"R- Right.." and Chet bounded up the hill.  "Roy, you
get yourself ok.. You hear me.." he said as he disappeared.
Chet stumbled once but then got to the highway a few
seconds later.

After a notification to L.A. for a morgue team and the
D.A.'s office, Cap shooed Marco off to help Stoker 
recover the tiny pitiful body.

Hank closed his eyes and made sure Roy didn't see 
their awkward retrieval using the hook either, by 
screening out DeSoto's sight of it with his captain's 
helmet.

It could have been ten minutes or ten years later
to Stanley when it was finally done.

The morning sun was a little bit higher in the brilliant 
sky, a few minutes later. Hank began to speak 
quietly to his heart wounded friend, sharing a like 
story of when his own shell had finally cracked 
under strain in honor of a dead child's memory. 
It did little to lessen Roy's grief. He still shook, 
gasping like a fish, no longer able to voice sounds.
  
Cap sighed compassionately and softly, he whispered. 
"Roy. We're all here for ya. It's ok. Just let it out." 
and he drew his senior crewman up into a hug.

Stanley let him cry for a long time. 

Privately, Cap let down a shadow of his past grief .
He allowed tears of his own to fill his chocolate eyes. 
Silently, unchecked, they fell onto his jacket, rolled off its 
hem, and into the L.A. river below.

----------------------------------------------
Gage looked up impatiently as Chet knelt
where the hiker now lay. He was irritatedly
biting the IV Dex bag covering off on the
solution he had been ordered to give the 
downed hiker. "Here. Get this set up."
he said thrusting the IV into Chet's hands.
"Where'd you all go to? Took forever getting 
him to settle down. Fortunately, he's deep 
into diabetic crisis now and no longer seizing."

Kelly was quiet.

Johnny didn't even think to guess the reason why. He
asked. "Where's Roy? We gotta get this man
NPA intubated yesterday."And he began to take 
another hasty BP on their victim.

"He's not coming." Chet said, stringing the IV tubing
and stabbing its port valve lance into the bag he
had set between his knees.

"What do ya mean he's not coming?" Gage snapped.
"We've got a major medical here. He oughta know
any body we find's last priority." Johnny said, pulling
the stethoscope out of his ears.

Chet held Johnny's hand that was holding the IV 
needle still for a moment, to get his full attention.
"Johnny, Roy cracked. Cap's down there now
deciding whether or not to stretcher him outta
there."

"What?! Chet, you must be talking crazy..."

"Wish I was, Johnny boy. I hope to g*d I was.
Anything,.. but the bad scene I just witnessed 
down there."

Gage fought mentally with himself, warring over
his care of the hiker and his own desire to whip
out his HT to demand of Cap how Roy was doing.
He attempted to console himself with trying to peer 
over the side of the steep grassy embankment. 
The next words out of his mouth were barely 
audible..  "Is he awake?"

"What, ....this guy?" Chet asked, looking down,
beginning to do a pain stimulus check.

Gage gripped his hand and stopped him.
"No, I'm talking about Roy.."

"Oh. Yeah, he is. But he lost his breakfast,.. and 
maybe last night's dinner, too. Johnny, he's 
not even standing."

"Gonna get shocky." Gage mumbled to himself,
suddenly redirected.

"Roy?"

"No, our victim here. Chet, pay attention."
Gage said angrily. "This next step's gonna be 
tricky. Now lube this NPA down with the K-Jelly. 
I've already measured this to be the right size 
airway. And get that positive pressure handy.
His lack of glucose is gonna knock out his
respirations something fierce."

"Gage I don't know about this.." Chet said.
"Maybe you'd better call in another sq-"

Johnny grabbed Chet by his jacket lapels
and snatched him close until he was only
inches away from his face.
"You wanted to know if I thought you were
medic material? Medic trainees follow orders
INSTANTLY from their senior trainers and they
never EVER second guess a medical order.
I ordered you to prepare that NPA tube.
Even told you how to do it. So do it! Now!" 
and he let his overcoat go.

"Geez, all right already. I'm just as worried
about Roy as you are. No need to beat me up
over it.  You'll have ta tell me more on what to do
here though. Been rocky ever since I've been 
ordered to take over to help ya in Roy's 
place."

Gage glared at him and arrowed his spent IV
needle into free flight, not caring that the 
bloody thing whistled by only a centimeter 
from Chet's ear as it clattered home into 
the drug box's waste needle catch bin.
"You've got thirty seconds.. I'm not repeating 
myself."

"Ah,, Ok..  ok.. which side..?" Chet said,
positioning the end of the soft nasopharyngeal
airway near the hiker's nasal passages.

"Try the left side nare first. Don't force it."

Chet nimbly got it into place, doing all the right
moves and techniques, sending the airway down
flat, along the palate as it should have been done.

Johnny smiled, handing Chet the positive pressure
mask. "See, you HAVE been watching us.
You'll still have to keep his head back for a clear
airway and be prepared to yank it out if he vomits."

"That much I remember Gage. What now?"
Chet said. "He's breathing fine." he said, letting
the man pull his own oxygen off the mask.

"What's his rate?" Gage said, adjusting the D5W
flow into the man's veins.

"Ten, and slowing."

"You know to ventilate him if he slips
below eight a minute?"

"Yeah."

"What's his color?" he said, drawing a blood
vial for a glucose check, for Rampart.

Chet peeled away the man's oddly sunburned lips
until he saw his gums. "Pink. Look Johnny.
I could go back down there now and see how Roy's
doing for ya you know. You are in charge of me
up here.."

It was tempting but Johnny knew his responsibilities.
"Nice try. But we're gonna have to trust the
other guys' judgement on that. Roy's probably just
reacting now because he didn't react yesterday.
It's most likely no big deal."

"You didn't see him, Gage.." Chet said in the tiniest
of voices. It was full of fear.

Johnny looked up, his attention full and frightened.

------------------------------------------------------
Cap heard a voice call out. It was Stoker's.
"Ready to move, Cap." 

It must have been some minutes later, for when
Hank blinked, he saw the black body bag nestled
in a scoop stokes that Marco had retrieved from 
the engine. The bundle was already tied and rope 
tethered for a hill climb back up to the roadway. 

Roy, was now some feet away, dry eyed, 
sitting and hugging his knees to his chest, 
with his back to the body, staring out at the 
brightly sunlit flowing river bed below.

"Stoker, you and Lopez go on ahead. Have Johnny 
go on alone in the ambulance with the hiker if you 
have to and tell Chet to take in the squad. Roy's 
coming with us." Hank told Mike. "But, you're giving
us two, a minute or so alone. Get me only if Johnny 
needs another rescue squad to finish the transport, 
and when you're done picking up after yourselves.
Tell the detectives whatever they need to know. 
I'm out of service for a bit. Understood?"

"Right, Cap." and the dry crackle of the grass
told Stanley that the grisly trip up had begun. 
Soon, even that soft rustling faded away.

The ambulance came, then went, with
the squad behind it. Soon, even those sounds fell
into the distance too.  Not long after, the mortuary 
wagon and an unmarked detective car
pulled up, to take away the child's body and to learn
the information necessary for the bus investigation
from Marco and Stoker. 

Hank's talkie came to life. ##Engine 51, to HT 51.
All the gear's stowed. Want us to put the Engine
available?"##

Hank lifted up his talkie and said. 
"When we're base bound, Engine 51."

##10-4, HT 51.## came Lopez's reply. And
the station frequency fell silent.

Rubbing his mouth, Cap could see Mike and Marco
watching them from where they sat in the idling 
engine cab, waiting. He flashed them an okay sign
without radioing back. He saw them visibly relax.  

Cap sat by Roy, not directly looking at him, 
as he took in the same spectacular view of 
the valley over the concrete river bed that 
Roy seemed to be looking at. He took in a 
deep breath of the canyon's sweet, spicy air. 
"Hear that, Roy? The birds are still singing..."

Roy swung red, swollen eyes towards him. 
"Hear what, Cap? All I hear are the sounds 
of all those school kids, screaming, as that 
hill came down on top of them. I just
wanna know why it had to happen. That's all.
Is that too much for a guy to ask for?"
But Roy didn't cry again. His face remained 
only dusty and flushed.

Cap handed DeSoto back his helmet and
slowly put on his own. "Come on, let's go."
he said, grabbing a hold of Roy's gloved hand
to pull him to his feet. "We'll take the engine 
home."

DeSoto clasped Cap's dirty hand numbly,
and then used its strong steady leverage until 
he stood. Cap watched Roy put on his helmet 
only after he seemed to contemplate the 
purpose for which it stood for long, unseeing 
moments.  Then he saw Roy sigh a lengthy
quavering breath. Roy's face was now a little 
less pale but his voice was weaker than a baby's.
He murmured. "Yeah. Let's get outta here."

Cap, threw a stokes blanket around Roy's
shoulders and together, they went up the hill
to the road.

-----------------------------------------------------

Photo : Marco feeding Henry goodies on the couch.

Photo : Roy looking sick, in the sun.

Photo : Children covered in mud in a pond.

*************************************
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:34:05 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Patti or Jeff or Cassidy" <voyagerliveaction@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Come Uppance... 


It was four hours after the L.A. river call.

Marco Lopez looked up from where he was
dishing out chow for Henry. The longish hound
was snuffling excitedly as the Rival can of dog food
filled his chrome dish. All the guys were watching
him get worked up. And some of them even had
their fingers crossed for luck while Marco finished.

Stoker, ignoring their "sport", was the first 
to see Cap enter the kitchen. "How's he doing, Cap?"

"Roy? Still resting. I did order him to take a nap.  And
yes, I explained to Joanne what happened and then 
called the crisis counselor just a few minutes ago. 
She's coming for a station visit, and she's towing 
along Roy's wife. They'll one to one with him first 
and then we'll get our session over dinner as 
planned." Hank announced. He knelt and petted 
Henry as the dog licked his lips in anticipation of 
supper.

"That's good. Maybe ..having Joanne around will
help Roy get back his equilibrium." Kelly said
thoughtfully, arching his balled up snack napkin
into a wide shot for the trash bin. It landed
perfectly.

"I know it will." Cap said empathetically, rubbing
some dust out of his nose.

The gang fell to the moment as the salty scent
of horsemeat filled the air. "Do it Lopez.." Stoker
said with anticipation. "This time it's gotta work."

Marco carefully set down the dish gingerly, as if
jarring it would cause Henry to lose interest.
"There you go, Henry. Dive in."

The slowish hound looked up, licked Marco's face,
jumped down from the leather couch, almost
on top of the food bowl, and then he kept right 
on truckin forward and straight out the kitchen 
door. 

"Hey, where are you going ya crazy mutt?!" Kelly
said from where he was sipping coffee at the kitchen
table. "What a schmo...Geez, that's two cans of
grub now, slated for the trash can.."

Hank only chuckled. "You forgot Henry's a true 
station dog there, Kelly." Cap grinned. "Can't you see
he's making a house call? It's more important than
food to him."

"Yeah, Chet. He does it all the time whenever one of us
is feeling out of it." Marco said, retucking his shirt in around
his belt. He had just come out of the shower. 

Johnny neatly rose to his feet, abandoning his
coffee mug. "That's my cue.. Excuse me guys. I'm
right on Henry's angle.." and Gage, too, exited the
kitchen for the bunk dorms. On a second thought,
he grabbed a couple of donuts on the way out,
one for him and a second one for Roy.


Gage noticed that Cap had pulled all the 
shades down around Roy's bunk and had 
even set a water pitcher on the desk
tabletop with a paper already opened to the horse
racing section next to it. 

Gage smiled when he heard Roy stir in his 
sheets to play with Henry. Respectfully, he 
knocked on the wooden doorframe first 
before he entered the room further. "Roy?" 

"Yeah, Johnny. I'm awake.." his partner said.
"Didn't anybody feed Henry yet? He's acting like
he wants his bowl now."

Gage walked into the room and grabbed the
chair from the desk, inverted it, and straddled
it to sit. "Now, Roy, you know Henry won't eat for
anyone else but you. And we're dumb enough
to keep forgetting that. He turned his finicky nose 
up again at Marco just a minute ago when he
opened a can right under his face. You sure got 
a way with dogs."

Roy's face unexpectedly fell at Johnny's comment.
and he stopped petting Henry's broad back.
"Yeah, well. I wish I had a way with children right
about now. Lately my luck's been running kinda dry."

Johnny scoffed gently. "Now what's that supposed
to mean? You got two wonderful kids who're incredibly
proud to call ya dad. You got a beautiful wife.
That's more than what I got. What more can a man 
want?"

"To turn back the clock for starters. How about
turning it back about..oh,...forty eight hours or so.
Then I'd truly be a happy man, Johnny." Roy
said, with a groan. He flopped back onto his
back and drew his sheets up to his chest as
if chilled suddenly in his T shirt and boxers.

"Roy, cut it out. You shouldn't be ashamed of
your emotions. What happened out there today,
happens to all of us. H*ll, Cap's been there. He just
told us when and why over coffee a few minutes ago. 
And I bet if we took a poll, we'd find that there isn't 
a single guy on the rosters who hasn't been 
in the same shoes you wore this morning." Johnny 
said. "I'm not immune either. I've been there.
Remember? I lost it only two weeks into the 
paramedic program.."

Roy regarded Gage quietly for long seconds,
"Not everyone, Johnny." A slight smile curled 
his lips,  "What about Craig Brice?"
 
"Oh, yeah.." Johnny chuckled. "Brice. Forgot about
him. How can a man without sense of humor
find something about our line of work that'll make 
him lose his lunch? Brice sure can't. He's an Iron Man." 
Johnny  grumbled, answering his own question. "Maybe 
he should team up with Detello at ten's for a while and 
learn something about compassion." Johnny took
a bite from his donut, then belated remembered that
he had already bitten into the first one. Lamely, 
he offered the pastry to Roy.

DeSoto took it, and began offering the pieces wearing 
Johnny's tooth marks to the snuffling Henry who had 
sprawled his heavy weight across Roy's legs. "Here, buddy.
Yeah, that's a good boy.." and he smacked Henry's hide
loudly in affection. The rest, he popped into his mouth.

"Nausea finally gone?" Johnny asked.

Roy looked up, almost as if he had forgotten his
partner was there. "Yeah, that anti-emetic you gave
me worked." he said chewing slowly. "Who authorized 
that?"

"Joe Early. He knew what you had been up against 
yesterday. And understood the need for the
hypo today."

"Does everybody know about ...what happened to me?"
Roy asked quietly, caressing Henry's ear as the dog
snoozed in his lap.

"Only those who care a whip about ya." Gage quipped.
Then he leaned forward, lacing his fingers together.
"Listen, Roy, so what if it took six years for you to
finally crack on a call. Big deal. You're a human
being. It means that you care.."

"Yeah, maybe I care a little too much." Roy said 
softly.

Johnny rubbed his mouth in frustration 
and then he got angry."Oh, boy, here we 
go again. You didn't make that driver hit the 
bus. You didn't cause that canyon wall to come
caving in on us. And unless you're really Moses,
I know you didn't cause that rain storm to
flood us out like it did. So knock off the pity pit.
A paramedic's GOT to have empathy. H*ll. You're
the one who taught me that.." he sat 
back with exasperation.

Roy was silent for a time. Then he said.
"I'm thinking about leaving the program
Johnny. I really think I can't hack it any more."
he pointed to the uniform that Cap had folded
neatly on the dresser and said. "I really don't
know if I can ever get myself to wear that
uniform again. Ever. It now hurts too much.."
and his lip quavered.

Johnny showed no sympathy.
"You're just saying that. Now what would I do
in a few months if Kelly kept good on his threat 
and suddenly became my new partner?"
Johnny asked drily.

Roy finally smiled and laughed. "You two'd 
probably, most likely kill each other the first
week out."

"There ya go.." Johnny said. "So don't leave
me in that kind of spot. And quit talkin like
that. You're just hurting, that's all. You're not
disabled. A little time taken with the family
will make it all right again."

"Now you're sounding like Cap." Roy said.

"Good, cause he's right. And that's what
he said worked for him when he cracked 
over his own child call."

Roy sat up. "You know something Gage?"

"What..?" Gage said, curling Henry's tail
and scratching its white furred tip until Henry 
picked up his head to see who was messing
with it. Henry's tail started wagging when he
saw who it was.

"You're right. M- Maybe that's all I'll need.
A little time off. Just enough ta.. get my clear
thinking back again and maybe I'll even find 
that sense of inner balance that I had before.. "
he said, grinning.

"That's the ticket.." Johnny beamed, 
taking another bite out of his donut.

"No, wait a minute, I can't go on leave."

"Why not? You got enough vacation time
coming to ya. As long as I've known ya, you've
only been on vacation twice. Once to Santa Rosa
with me, and the other time when you took
Joanne and the kids to the f--" he broke
off.

"You can say it, Johnny. Farm. I'm not mad
at you over that any more. I mean who can
control circumstance?"

"And that's it right there, Roy. On your coming
days off, hold that thought and you think about
it, real hard.." With that, Gage disappeared, 
leaving the rest of his donut abandoned on the 
bedspread.

Roy blinked, amazed that Johnny could move
so fast. And that, in itself, made him think all
the more about Roy DeSoto.  Johnny's cool advice
and Henry's warm tongue on his fingers, made 
him mull over what was really the most 
important thing going on in his life apart from 
his family.

Sighing, Roy picked up the donut and began 
doling out the correct pieces to the proper 
mouths. Then, feeling thirsty, he reached 
for the water container.

And a bit later, after a long tearful talk with
the crisis counselor and Joanne,....

...Roy DeSoto reached for his uniform..

----------------------------------------------

It was a week later. And the gang on A shift
finally felt like they were a whole crew again.

Roy DeSoto was back on the job.

But Gage sighed and didn't even turn around when
he felt Roy sit on the locker room bench next
to him and opened his locker.

"Mornin.." Roy said cheerily. He broke off into 
a jaunty whistling tune. One he knew would
irritate Johnny.

Gage didn't reply. He just changed in silence.

"What's the problem, Johnny? An explosion
knock out your ears or something? I'm back."

"Good for you Roy. I'm proud ya made
the right decision." Johnny said finally. "But frankly,
I'm really depressed right now if you have to know."

"Why? Got a reason to be?"

"Yeah. A good one. Guess who replaced you while
you and Joanne and the kids were having it
up in Florida."

"No, ..don't tell me..."

"Yeah.. Craig Brice.." Johnny said putting on his work
shoes. He was so worked up, that he broke a
shoelace.

Roy was kind enough not to laugh and wordlessly,
he handed his partner a package of new ones
that he knew Johnny hadn't had the foresight 
to buy from the drugstore.

"Thanks." Johnny said and he unlaced the old and
did up the replacement deftly. "I'll tell you
why else I'm depressed. We had a new trainee."
 
"Chet didn't.." Roy interjected, his eyes getting real big.

"No, .." Johnny sighed. "Chet didn't. He got an 
earful of just what kinds of things we paramedics go 
through from Detello and company and chickened 
out on taking any ride alongs. That delayed him enough
that he blew his chance to train in the field this quarter
with a squad. He's gonna have to wait until next year to 
enroll if he's still interested since the next batch of classes 
have already begun." Johnny said.

"Then why are you so glum?  You didn't have your
paramedic partner trainee from h*ll." Roy asked.

"I had a new .... " and he sighed. "..GIRL trainee. And 
you'll never guess who it was."

"Who?"

"Brice's cousin."

"Brice has a cousin?"

"Yeah, and she's nearly as bossy and analytical as
he is. Why, we weren't even ten feet out the door
on our first run, when she suddenly started quoting
rules and regs at me. Said my helmet was too big."

"It is. Didn't you learn your lesson when it fell off
your head after that monkey virus got to you on 
that scaffoulding?" Roy said drolly.

Johnny blinked. "Would ya look at that. Hey guys..
Would ya look at that?!" he shouted through the
kitchen door. "My best bud, my partner to whom I
entrust life and limb, agrees with the comments 
from that annoying probie!!"

Naturally, there was no reply from the gang
in the kitchen.

"You couldn't have been suffering that
badly last week,  Johnny.."

"Oh, really. Pray tell why..."

"Henry's not here.." and Roy closed his locker
door calmly and left for breakfast.

------------------------------------------------

They had just about finished the pancakes when
a station call came out.
 
##Station 51, Station 10, Truck 127. Battalion 14. 
......School fire at Roosevelt Elementary....##

Roy's heart skipped a beat. "Oh no.. Not again."

Johnny said as he snatched up his jacket.
"Roy, now you're gonna do just fine. It's most
likely just a false alarm again. Now, come on,
let's go.."

##....13000 Technology Drive. 13000 Technology Drive.
Cross street, Maple. Time out, 9:57.##

"L.A., 10-4. This is Station 51. KMG 365." Stoker replied
in communications acknowledgement.

They rolled out..

---------------------------------------------------------

Photo: John sitting in a chair with Henry..

Photo: Roy in closeup, asleep.

Photo : Roy driving the squad, looking right at you.

*****************************************
 From:  "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Jan 15, 2003  5:44 pm
Subject:  The Call of Angels~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Station 51 pushed the envelope to arrive on
on scene. As it was, they were the first.

A stumbling, smoke stained janitor ran out of the building
and was met by a throng of teachers who were trying
to control their classrooms of children calmly and
collectively. They caught him as he fell and lowered him
to the ground.

One moustached balding superintendant grabbed
him by the arms."Charlie! Now that was plumb stupid.
The building's clear. You didn't have to go back 
in there. No boiler's valuable enough for that."

Charlie, silver haired and Asian, just coughed, gripping
his chest. "Yes... I ...did...sir. The water heater and
the gas line's the next room over.. If they go.. The
northside classrooms are still evacuating
Aghh.. My chest!!" and he gasped, then gurgled.

The superintendant heard sirens and looked up to
see a fire department rescue squad screech to a halt
on the street a safe distance away from the school.


Gage and DeSoto stepped out to the nearest bunch
of teachers. Frightened kids milled about everywhere.
"What's the situation here?" Johnny asked one of
them. 

The young substitute teacher said. "There's a fire in
the basement. Boiler room according to Charlie.
There's a lot of chemicals stored in there."

Johnny ran along to the cab and shouted to Cap
and the gang who had just pulled up the red
pumper, spewing long hose. "Cap!  Substructure.
And chemicals!"

"I want everybody in full SCBA! " Cap waved on
Vince and two other police cars to begin crowd
control. Then he contacted L.A. through his hand
held radio. "L.A. We've got smoke showing from
a two story brick building. Assign a third alarm 
assignment."

##10-4, 51. ## And the fire captain heard the
dispatcher assign two other stations to the call.

Then a teacher ran up to Cap and hung onto his
arm. "Listen. They're still people trying to get
out on the north side. And we've a man hurt!"
she said.

"Where?"

"He's in the parking lot.." she coughed.

"You ok, maam?" Cap said.

"I'm fine. Just a little smoke. I gotta get
back to my kids.." she shouted and fled
his grip.

Cap looked around and saw Gage and DeSoto
already air bottled and connecting hose to
the yellow hydrants on the block. "Gage!
DeSoto! There's a victim over there. Check
it out!"   

He saw his men look up and see where
he was pointing.

Then he called for four ambulances
judging from the number of coughing 
kids he could see crying and sitting on the 
curbsides.

Johnny and Roy abandoned what they
were doing to grab their medical gear.

Chet and Marco took over their task of
charging the hoses.

Johnny grabbed the O2 and the biophone
while Roy got the drug and IV boxes.
"Cap! We're on it.." 

They soon found the superintendant with
Charlie the janitor, who was now unconscious.
Johnny reached for the man's neck. 
"Thready. Might be his heart."

The superintendant nodded. "He did say his
chest hurt him. I guess he was in the fire too
long.."

"I'll patch him in.." Roy said, unbuttoning
the man's shirt while Johnny set him on
some oxygen. He looked up while he 
fastened the EKG leads to the janitor's
chest. "Listen, sir.. Do you know if everybody
made it out?"

The superintendant, distracted by the melee
of panicking children and teachers just
mumbled. "I- I don't know. I.. some of the
staff seems to think the classrooms on the
north side were still trying to make it out."

Roy made a decision.. "Johnny. I can't wait.
You got things here?"

Gage looked up from the BP he was taking on
the man. His face filled with doubt about Roy's
plans but then he nodded when his ears picked
up the sound of Station Ten pulling up into
the smoky school yard. "Bring someone with
you.."

"Cap, I'm going in to help with the evacuation!"
DeSoto called out.

"Grab a man from 10!" Cap said, waving him
on while he filled Battalion Fourteen in on the
situation.

Roy ran to the open aired engine just pulled up.
He waved the station's medics on, "A heart case,
near the basketball court..Johnny's with him now.
Go. Move.. We have all the gear you'll need."

10 's paramedics ran.

Then he tapped the nearest fireman's shoulder from
the bunch pulling hose from the fire engine. The
big man turned around. It was Detello.

"Well, if it isn't DeSoto. What's up?, er, besides
the obvious.." he said with a fleeting smile. But
already he was all business.

"Evac.. on the north side, Come on..!" Roy said.

Detello took his cue from the men from 51 running
around with air bottles and he took his own, with
an axe and door markers. On a thought, he
grabbed an asbestos blanket.

"What's with that?" Roy asked as they ran towards
the smoking building.

"Just a hunch, Roy. Can't explain it."

DeSoto and Detello put on their face masks and
entered the building. They arrived just in time to
help one last teacher make it to the sunlight.
Detello gave her some air through his mask
as they helped her to her kids in the clearer
air.

They set her on the ground. "Just keep breathing
a few on this.." Detello told her. "You'll be fine."

The young teacher pulled it away. "I'm missing
Cindy. Oh my g*d."

A stab ran through Roy's stomach and his
world dimmed. He looked up at the building
from which flames now rose and a chemical
stench. ::Ammonia..::

He heard Detello question the woman and soon,
they got hasty directions to that classroom.

The big firefighter waved over an arriving fire
station to take care of the woman and he
and DeSoto put back on their masks and
helmets and both ran back to the door they
had just gone through getting out. Detello
still carried the asbestos blanket, like a 
football.

Roy smacked Detello's arm. "Which way?"

"Left! Down the hall. First room on the right
by the stairwell. Watch the right. It's a door
leading to the sub basement. Bound to be hot!"

Roy got on his hand radio and told the Batallion
station they were searching for a victim and
where.

They entered a third grade class room which
was barely visible in the smoke. "Hey! can
anybody hear me!" Detello shouted. 

Roy and he searched and upturned desks
hastily, crouching low enough to the floor
so they could see their boots and any
body they might find. 

The heat, was oppressive and they could hear 
the sizzle in the air from the leaking ammonia 
creating thicker gases and smoke near the ceiling.

The noise of flames and the alarm bells forced
Detello and Roy to use hand signals to communicate
while they searched both that classroom and
the next.  Roy paused at each door and closed it,
after marking it with a search slash when they
were through.

"She couldn't have gone far.. The exit's right there.."
Roy said in frustration through his mask.

Detello's head snapped around at a sound only
he heard and he pushed Roy back into the lockers
and brought both of them down to the stone tiles
in the hallway. 

There was a huge explosion that ripped through the
sub basement and blew out all the classroom windows
of the school.

Cap looked up, waving on Stoker and Marco, Chet and
a man from ten's. "Take two inch and a halfs! Get 
where Roy and Detello are searching!"

Johnny Gage came running up and Cap seemed 
surprised. Johnny shrugged. "Squad Ten took him in.
I'm no longer needed. Where do you want me?"

"Go with them!" Stanley gestured, pointing out
the hoses writhing on the wet pavement from 
his men's hose teams.

Johnny fled, fastening on his air mask. 
He knew what was going on and held his radio 
near his ear. Soon, he heard the staticky tones 
of a call button being pressed in a series of three
tones. "They're all right." he gasped, slapping
Chet's back as he and the others got a powerful
covering fan into the building to begin to combat
the inferno. "They just ran a three on the radio."

Chet gave him a thumbs up and together, the
group stormed the building. The smoke was
thick and the fire belched out of cracks
in the neat brown marble floor. The firemen played
water onto these fissures and steam rose, obscuring
their view. Slowly, they advanced northwards.


Detello hauled Roy to his feet and pulled off the
asbestos blanket he had thrown over on top of
them. The paint on the lockers around them were
melted and dripping. "Let's go, irishman." Detello
grinned toothily at him. "We won't be needed this
anymore." he said and he tossed down the smoking
ruin of the blanket which had saved them from
the worst of the explosion. "I'm feeling like that's
the worst of it."

Roy shook his hand and turned where he stood. 
They resumed their room by room search. 
Then Roy halted Detello by tapping him on the back. 
"It's really hot in here. If it was hot, and I was a child, 
where would I go in a fire?"

Detello and Roy both exclaimed. "The restrooms."

They doubled back to the third grade class room
and the stairwell, which was now fully involved.
They met Chet and Marco and took a welcome
spray onto their jackets before pressing on with
a "We're ok." hand signal.

There was door barely concealed underneath the
stairwell.
Detello pointed to it. "Hit this! Hit this!" 
Marco and Chet snuffed out the tendrils of
flame beginning to threaten that entryway
and it died with a hiss.

Roy kicked in the door. It was a faculty bathroom.
"Hey.. Anybody in here?"

Detello never got into the room when the 
ceiling came down, separating them. The flaming
stairwell soon followed, and it trapped Roy away 
from Chet and Marco and Detello.

The three on the outside frantically began to hose
down the surging fire blocking the door.
"Roy! You ok in there?!"

Roy had flattened himself against the smooth
tile wall and he felt hot moisture on his face.
"That's not from the hose.." he mumbled.
and his gloves sank into a dark section of 
the room. The showers! One of them 
was on. He dragged out a flashlight 
and scrambled on his hands and knees
towards the sound of the running water.

There he found the little girl, lying motionless
beneath its stream.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and picked
her up into his arms and carried her back
into the main part of the bathroom where
the daylight from the skylight let him see
the child he held. 

He pulled off his helmet and mask and
crouched down against the wall with her,
checking. "Come on, honey. Just take a 
breath.."  She didn't.  

Roy began mouth to mouth. He couldn't
tell if she had a pulse because she was
twisted up so badly in the sweater soaked
from the shower. Roy fumbled until he
found one.  He laid her down on a sink,
onto her back, for a moment while he
worked to keep her going.
 
In between another set of breaths, Roy
got up and grabbed a steel waste can
and used it to smash out the tiny thick, 
textured bathroom window leading to the
outside. Shouts of attention from the firecrews
manned there reassured him that someone 
now knew he was trapped right there,
with a victim.

He returned to the child, taking her into his
arms and stretched her out onto the glass
sharded floor. He alternatingly took breaths 
off his own mask to give to her using his
own lungpower to keep the ammonia tainted air
out of her system. He pulled out his radio. 
"Kelly, Lopez. Hurry it up! Now would be a 
good time!"

Images flashed through Roy's mind of the bus
crash. The wet and the dark. It felt very much
like where he was now. And the tiny living
weight of the girl he fought to save was so
like the feel of the girl from the storm drain
as the water tore her away from his grasp.
Roy began to cry, shouting. "Come on..
Cindy. Come back. It's ok.. I got you.." he 
sobbed.

He again, breathed for the tiny girl from
his air supply. He kept burning shards from
landing on her clothes and he curled about 
her, using the wet on the floor to put
out the small blazes burning around them.

Then, there was a gasp, small, choking.

Cindy began to cough, then to cry..

Roy held her close. "It's ok. I'm a fireman.
We're going to get you out of here.
Keep breathing from this mask ok?" he
told her. "I'll be right back.."

The frightened girl nodded.

Roy's relief was palpable. He
rose from the floor and went to the doorway
where he saw Chet and Marco's hose water
extinguishing the fire. Soon, there was nothing
but sooty insulation and wood beams between
them. Detello kicked these away.

"Found her?" he asked, pulling off his mask.

"Yeah.. She's ok.." Roy said, staggering against
the wall. 

Detello's eyebrows went up. "Smart idea
using the showers to keep the fire off."

"It was her idea.." Roy grinned.

Detello lifted both the air bottle and the girl
from the ground and saw Cindy looking up
and coughing at him in confusion and fright.

Then he looked at Roy.
"I believe you have a rescue to complete." 
he said, grinning through the ash on his face.

Gently, he set the tiny girl into Roy's arms
for him to guard. Then he stormed back
out through the blackened doorway out
to Kelly and Marco. "Chet, Lopez! Give
us some cover. We're coming out!!"

And soon, they did.

Roy felt the sunlight on his face and the world
narrowed down to just him and his tiny victim,
still warm, alive and full of life in his arms.

He started laughing as Detello roared his
displeasure at the crowds standing between
him and where the squad's equipment was
parked. Just like that, Roy's nightmare,
was over.. "Come on, Cindy. Let's get you 
checked out. My name's Roy DeSoto and
I'm a paramedic with the L. A. County 
Fire Department. You're gonna be just fine..."

Gage met them with fresh O2 and
a live biophone and together, Roy and
his partner made sure that one tiny life,
stayed saved.

Roy thought. ::Maybe this is the feeling 
Detello keeps banking on. This, certainty,..
that everything that's meant to be, will
always turn out for the better. I'm no
angel, but right now, I certainly feel like
I'm in heaven...::

-----------------------------------------

Photos :   None.

***************************** 

  Juxtaposition  -  FIN

*****************************
 
To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fullmoonblues.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fatherandson.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

This is the...

      Debut Production Launch of Episode Three : 16  December, 2002.

============================


 Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States and the French Seychelles.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphic Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
Associated Clubs :

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

Email lists:
Voyagerliveaction at YahooGroups.
Voyagerliveactionwritersworld at YahooGroups. 
Voyagerliveaction at Smartgroups. 
Voyagerliveaction at LycosClubs. 
----------------------  

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= 

Paramount owns Star Trek and all of
its Associated Characters. 

Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters.  

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..


The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Four..  

WITHIN SIGHT

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

http://www.voyageliveaction.com/rolespage.html
**Location to a Photo Gallery of Emergency!'s Main Characters

Debut Launch: 15 Jan 2003.

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

*********************************
From :  "desertducks "<desertducks@uneedspeed.net>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] Back Home  
Date : Sun, 19 Jan 2003 07:45:11 -0000  
    

The engine crew made it back to the station by nine o'clock that 
night.  "Might as well ruin one more person's evening."  Captain 
Stanley mumbled, mostly to himself, as he crossed the threshold to 
his office.  He left his door open - it felt wrong to close himself 
off from the rest of his crew.  He dropped into the chair, but shoved 
it back from the desk, leaned his head against the cool brick wall, 
and shut his eyes.

It sounded like Chet was finally running out of steam.  The banging 
noises coming from the locker room had diminished to a less jarring 
level.  Marco had gone to the kitchen first to start some fresh 
coffee.  Now they wait.

No - he still had to call in for a replacement engineer.


"Is Mike Stoker here?"

The young voice startled Captain Stanley.  He scrubbed his hands over 
his face before focusing on the boy standing in his doorway.  It was 
late for a kid to be out roaming the neighborhood alone.  He said the 
only thing he could.  "He's not here right now.  I'm Captain Stanley, 
is there something I can do for you?"  

His heart was pounding all the way here just to talk to Mike.  What 
was he going to say to the captain?  "I think..."  Not another sound 
would squeak out.  ::Great, I'm already shaking, figures my voice would 
crack too.:: He started again.  "I think I know who started that fire."
 
---------------------------------

Photos :  None.

***********************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Witness  
Date : Tue, 21 Jan 2003 00:29:52 +0400  
 

Captain Stanley saw the color on the boy's face
pale and saw how worked up he really was.
"Here, son, have a seat before your knees
rubber and they drop you flat. Relax, I won't bite." 
he said, rising. He guided the boy to the 
wooden chair across from the desk and 
half heartedly peered into the bay in an 
attempt to locate whoever it was who 
let the child into the station in the first 
place. He suspected it had been Marco.
::Just like Lopez to subtly channel things 
concerning touchy run subjects my way.::
"What's your name kid? Kinda feel like I'm
at a disadvantage since I don't know yours."

"I'm.....Jeremy Conners." he said quietly.

"Would you care to share just how you 
know my fire station's engineer?"

"Mr. Stoker's my coach in the Second
Chance Little Leagues. We've been hanging
out Saturdays. Been doing so all summer."

::Oh, :: thought Hank. ::That would explain it.
Mike's doing that Big Brother program with 
the juvies through the city's foster care program.
This young fella must be one of his latest personal
reclamation projects.::

"He said I could come here if I had anything on
my mind that was bothering me. And this is."
he fidgetted. His scowling eyes never left Cap's. 

Cap saw that Jeremy was an unusual child. He
wasn't rubbernecking his surroundings like any
other boy his age would. It was as if he already 
knew what a fire station was all about. 

Hank's eyebrows rose but he put his analytical
observations to the background for a while.
"Ok, you came here to see my man Stoker for 
a reason concerning which fire? My men and I
have seen three today." He cocked his head
and gestured to the milk carton he had
set near his incident report earlier to settle his
roiling stomach. "This is still cold. Thirsty?"

Jeremy shook his head despite his nervous
dry mouth. He purposely stopped fidgetting. 

The red headed boy felt the station captain's 
eyes bore into his own with an intense scrutiny. 
"Before you make a move on me, I get out at 
night all the time from the Home so don't even 
think about calling the fuzz. I know every door 
outta here."

"Fair enough. Let me let you in on a little known 
fact about firehouses. In this office I'm not
the station's captain anymore. I'm just Hank. 
Anything you say is confidential and won't 
leave this office unless it deals with someone's 
safety, property or life and limb." Stanley said. "So,
what's eating you? Must be important if it bugged
you enough to walk all the way here for what 
I suspect was about a mile or so."

The boy's face fell open in surprise. "How'd you
know that?"

"Cause that's how far it is to the nearest
residential neighborhood past the Arco refinery
surrounding us. And, the logo on your jersey was
a dead giveway." Cap spread his arms wide
in a 'Well, what is it?' gesture.

Jeremy crossed his arms in front of his
gray baseball sweatshirt and pursed his lips.
He glanced away from Hank for the first time
since he arrived. "I gotta think about this
first."

Cap sighed wearily and grabbed his glass 
of now warmish 2% and downed it. 
"Make it fast. I'm expecting my men on the 
rescue squad back with some answers I 
need any second now. After that, I'm gonna be
too busy for off hours visitors. So make up your
mind pronto. Who started what fire?"

Jeremy countered. "Why isn't Mike Stoker here?
That engine's filthy. He'd be the first one at
it with a rag to clean it off.."

It was Cap's face that betrayed him this time 
and he went from tough act to vulnerable in a pico. 
"He's..well, I gotta break it somehow since you say 
Mike's your friend, Jeremy. Our last fire injured him 
when the roof caved in and trapped him apart from 
his hose team.  In trying to get out, a steam pipe he
didn't see burst in front of him and burned his
eyes through his air mask pretty bad. Caught his
throat and lungs too."

Jeremy held really still. "That's the fire I'm talking
about then if the roof came down. Is..is..Mike going
to be blind?" he asked in a very small voice.

Cap toyed with his empty glass thoughtfully and hid
his emotion. "I don't know yet about that. I'm
just glad he's still here. It took us a while to get him 
going again. That other answer, I'm going to get 
from my two paramedics the moment they get back 
to base. "

"They were the ones who got him out?"

"Yeah. Because another man of mine couldn't
do it on his own."

".. That was..Kelly, Max said." Jeremy mumbled, 
barely audible.

Cap's eyes narrowed when he heard that inadvertant
tidbit. "You know Chet Kelly?"

"He comes to our games with Coach every other
weekend to try and sell hotdogs to the folks
who come to watch us play. He doesn't know
me, but I know him. What a weirdo."

Cap threw his jaw to the side in half irritation
and no humor. "Ok, so you were at the last
fire call or heard about it, if you knew that Chet 
didn't do so well saving the hour tonight because 
he freaked out a little. So it should be real easy 
now to tell me who torched that abandoned 
building then, wouldn't it?"

"Not gonna BE easy."

"Why not? You're here. And I won't say who
told me who. Witness/FireCaptain confidentiality,
remember?"

"Cause I may die for it, that's why. Listen high
and mighty man, forget I ever came.." and 
Jeremy Conners shot up from the chair and 
darted out the office door.

"Jeremy! Hey! Wait!!"
Hank ran after the boy but the child was faster.  
Jeremy slammed on the garage door release 
button and he logrolled on through the narrow 
space that was opening before Hank could grab 
his torn pair of blue Adidas sneakers to stop 
him. 

Cap was left standing in the driveway surrounded 
by cricket calls and summer moonlight when the 
shed doors finally snicked fully open. There was no 
sign of the boy, only the sight and sounds of traffic 
on the boulevard winking in and out 
under the blue streetlights. Cap set his hands
on his hips in utter frustration and leaned on
the flag pole to hide his emotions as they
rose to the surface yet again. ::Mike Stoker
you hang in there.::

A rising soft night wind made the flags on the
chains over him ring on the steel pole and 
Cap jumped, looking up. It hit home that Mike
might not be there anytime soon to man the 
flag pole each day as he usually did. Slowly,
Cap took down the state and department 
banners into his arms and tied off the chain.

He alarmed himself when he found his hands 
folding the flags into neat perfect memorial 
triangles. ::He's not dead yet stupid. And there's
no way in h*ll this eye thing is going to make Mike
retire if he does by some miracle, recover.::

In defiance, Cap rolled the silky flags into a ball
and sank down with them in his lap with the pole 
at his back. He was quite alone when he 
started weeping.

------------------------------------------------

Chet Kelly sat down at the kitchen table with 
the engine's small first aid kit and he cracked
it open.

Lopez set down a coffee mug in front of Kelly
with a thunk. He opened his mouth.

"Not another word, Lopez." Chet warned, 
wincing as he examined the bloody knuckles 
he had on both hands. Kelly fought with kerlix
and tape for long moments until he said. "J*sus 
Chr*st already. I give up. Just what 
kind of fireman am I turning into? I can't even 
bandage my own knuckles here."

Lopez pulled up a chair next to Kelly and took
over the task. "Let me do that. Oo, Chet, these
are going to be sore. Whydidya have to go
at the punching bag so hard? No one's blaming
you about what happened tonight. It was an
accident. Old buildings fall down when they're 
on fire. It's a fact of life."

Chet grimaced. "Ahh!. Go easy on that 
mecurachrome. It's stinging! Tell me something
Marco. Is it a fact of life that I panicked in there?
It's not like me to lose my head in a crisis, I just..." 
and he shuddered. "I just...didn't like the mess 
that pipe made of Mike's face."

"You did all the right things Chet. You kept
him breathing until we got him outta there. And
Johnny and Roy got the perfect EOA in fast
enough. Your hesitating those few moments
won't amount to anything.. It was chaos in
that room you guys were in. I know, I was
up there."

"How can you know that for a fact Lopez?
We couldn't even look at Mike's eyes to
see if they were responsive--" and Kelly's
voice cracked. Marco didn't say anything
and he put his hand on Chet's shoulder in 
comfort as he got up to go find Cap. 
"Here, drink this.. It'll make you feel better."
He said shoving his untouched coffee mug in
front of Chet.

"No thanks.. Not by a long shot. I'll puke."

"Cap said the same thing.." Marco mumbled
numbly, as he went out the kitchen door.
"I'm gonna go see if Gage or DeSoto called
Cap yet from Rampart."

Chet sat morosely in his chair and slowly
cradled his bandaged hands and nodded silently.

------

Marco saw that the boy he had let in was gone
already and that Cap's office was vacant.
The yawning bay doors were open to
the night air and Marco could just barely make out
Cap's silhouette in the drive under the station's 
front spot light by the flag pole.

Marco was heading in that direction when the squad
appeared, honking its horn in greeting. Roy waved,
turning on its reds in order to make the backup 
maneuver necessary through the busy traffic, 
to park her.

Cap rose to his feet when he saw Roy and Johnny 
returning and he wiped his face quickly before either 
they or Marco, noticed.

Johnny called out. "Hey Cap, such service."
he said gesturing to the open doors, he grinned.

"Cut the small talk Gage. How is he?"

Johnny and Roy both saw how deeply worried
Hank was and how quiet Marco seemed,
watching him. The false humor Johnny had tried to
simulate fell away instantly..

Roy paused the squad in the drive and leaned
an elbow in the window. The wash of the spinning
reds in the darkness cast harsh lines on his face 
as he said...

------------------------

Photo :  Chet Marco and Cap looking serious.

Photo : The station house at night.

Photo : A red head freckled boy with a buzz cut in closeup.

Photo : Johnny and Roy in the squad at night.

Photo : Mike Stoker on the mike near the engine cab.

********************************** 
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@y...> 
Date:  Fri Jan 31, 2003  7:49 pm
Subject:  The Spare Boots

"He's alive. He's still breathing ok. They took
him up to ICU for a full evaluation." Roy said slowly.

"And his blood gases are still good considering
the burns he took into his trachea. Amazingly, his chest
is clear, Cap. Maybe the airmask helped a little keeping 
some of that steam from the pipe, out of his lungs.
I kinda figured that when the EOA went in slicker
than--" Gage said.

"And what about his eyes? Did uh, Brackett
mention anything about his eyes?" Cap asked 
a little too quickly, betraying his worry. Then he
added, "I was told that roof coming down
was no coincidence.."

Gage and DeSoto were taken aback
by how vulnerable Hank's voice sounded. And
by the expression on Marco's face standing in
the garage bay entrance, haunted and 
worn. "Cap.." Johnny asked. "Wh- what's going
on? You know something we don't?" he
said, getting out of the squad. He tossed
his helmet into the seat and vaulted over
the hood in a butt skid to get to his side faster.

Roy stayed where he was, hands on the steering
wheel, engine idling, in the drive. He switched 
off the reds when Marco waved the outside 
spotlights a little higher so everyone could
see in the darkness and DeSoto,too, took off his
helmet, looking scared.

 Lopez joined Johnny, Roy and Cap's group around
the squad when he over heard Cap's matter
of fact comment.

The warm night wind lifted the slack chain on the empty
flag pole and the soft sound itself cut right through
Hank and he looked up at it unconsciously. 
Cap fidgetted. "Roy, just finish backing it in there.
Us gawking out here like this looks bad. I'll wait until
ya get back out here. " Hank watched as DeSoto 
parked the squad. Then he shouted. 
"Kelly, front and center!" yelled into the open garage. 
Running footsteps told him he had been heard.

Chet jogged out of the kitchen, holding a dish
towel over his hands and around the metal 
coffee pot and mug he had been drying. 

All five firemen stood in a circle by the empty
flag pole, tense and worried while Captain Stanley 
waited for the auto close shed doors to be fully 
shut over the vehicles. That rumble faded away,
leaving behind cricketsong when Cap finally 
began to speak. "We had a witness tonight.."

"A witness?" Gage said.
"Oh, so that's who he was..." Lopez said.
"Who was who?" Chet asked.
"Cap, how'd you find anybody so fast?"
Roy asked.
"That's what I'd like to know.." Gage said.

Cap held up his hands. "Wait a minute. Wait a
minute. Just hold up here.. I'm getting to that.
Everybody, just hush.. and that's an order.."

The crickets reigned once more.

Cap sighed and lowered his head, planting
his hands on his hips. "I have it on a good
source that our derelict warehouse fire was
actually a case of malicious arson.."
Hank raised his chin when his men started
to talk all at once again so he raised his
voice that much louder. "Just wait a sec. 
If I get any louder, the whole world'll
hear." Cap said, eyeing a convertible with
curious college kids driving by, rubbernecking 
at the sight of the usually invisible firemen 
standing in the drive.  

Gage noticed the car too, with startlement, and 
he quieted. He didn't even look up when one of 
the more attractive students waved a flirting 
hand at him. "Hey Johnny..." she purred.

Her innocent catcall as they passed the station
seemed vile to Cap and very soon, they were
gone. ::What a time for one of Gage's conquests
to make an appearance.:: Cap thought. 
His office seemed suddenly a more tempting 
sanctuary. He felt his mouth move. "My
information source knows the party who did
it and you're not going to like it."

"What, Cap? Was the fire gang related?"
Johnny asked.

"No, a group of minors started it."

Chet, Marco and Gage's faces screwed
up in discomfort at the news and they all hid
it badly.

"Just how young, Cap?" Chet asked, wincing
when Johnny grabbed the coffee pot and mug out
of Kelly's hands looking for a steaming drink.

"Nine or ten years old.. from what I was told. Two 
kids, at least, for sure."

Gage said, "Wonderful. Just wait until Mike
wakes up and we tell him a bunch of kids KO'd
him." He then addressed Chet's earlier
irregular reaction. "What's wrong with you...?" 
he said.

"Nothin.." Kelly said.

"Uh huh.." Roy grunted and whipped away Chet's
towel, revealing Kelly's bandaged hands. 
Chet, of course tried to hide them behind his back.

Cap oggled. "Oh, now Kelly.. don't tell me you
just broke your fourth glass. Last thing I wanna do 
is call up McConike again for another crew replacement.."

Lopez piped up. "Actually, Cap, he--"

"Just you hush up, Lopez.." Kelly squeaked.

Marco glared at Chet and finished his
sentence... "..took his frustrations out on the
locker room punching bag. Bare fisted."

Hank crooked a finger in irritation.
"Kelly.. Go inside.. And you're letting
Gage and DeSoto take a look at those hands.
Now." Cap said grumpily.

For once, Kelly didn't retort back.

The gang reconvened in the kitchen to the real pot
of full coffee. No one said anything when Roy
came into the kitchen with the squad's bandage box.

Cap said, "You take a real good look at him.
I wanna know if he can work like that.." he said,
pointing to Chet's bloody wraps around his knuckles.
"Kelly, that was real stupid. Next time, wear 
the d*mned boxing gloves.. That's what they're
there for.."

"That's what I told him.." Marco complained.

Chet's lips set into a firm line in a glare at
Marco, but he kept his peace otherwise.

Johnny said. "All right.. Chet. Let's get these off."
and he pulled out his hip holster shears and began
to cut away Lopez's wrap job. The damp, red
dressings fell away.

Roy whistled at the hamburgered skin he saw
there. "Chet, it looks like you really did a number
here.."

"No I didn't.." he complained. "It's just surface 
stuff." 

Johnny experimented. "I know how hard your upper
left cross is.." and he moved three fingers on Chet's
right hand up a smidgen. "That hurt?"  He immediately
stopped when a loud grating from the hand
almost made Chet and Johnny leap out of their
kitchen chairs. 

All the gang winced. Then Cap sighed and left for his
office to call for another man to replace Kelly for 
the still out of service engine.

Kelly complained, loudly. "Aww, Cap.. You don't have
to do that.. I'm fine.."

Hank's voice echoed back from the Cap's
room. "You aren't going to be able to tell me that 
when you can't hang onto a 450 psi
water hose next fire run tomorrow morning. 
And Kelly, I'm sure glad I won't be you when you 
personally tell the chief in the morning that your wounds 
were self inflicted. Gage, get him seen." said 
the booming invisible voice.

Johnny didn't say anything and he went out to the squad
for the biophone. There was no trace of annoyance at
all on his face when he set up the antennae and
began to hail Rampart. 

"Oh, geesh, Cap. You've got to be kidding me. I've dislocated
knuckles before. They only hurt a few days.. And they
usually work themselves back into place on their own
with a little use.." Kelly said.

Roy had spread out a dressing sheet onto the table
and he held out two hand fracture splints. 
"Not this time. That noise was crepitus Chet. 
Congratulations! We just found three
BROKEN knuckles on that hand. And judging by the
swelling and joint dislocations I see now, your left hand 
may even be worse off. Now don't move either one
of them until I'm through."

Marco sighed. "I told him they looked bad too."

"You did not. You said they looked sore."

"Same thing.." Lopez said.

"No , it's not.." Kelly snapped. He paled when
Roy made a small adjustment to one of his
fingers in the splint to get a better pulse into
it. "Oh, geesh. They're bad, aren't they..?"

"Only without treatment." Roy sighed. Then
he saw Kelly's pallor. "Do you need to lie down
there Kelly?"

"No.. no no.. I'm at least walking outta here
on my own two feet if I'm going to the hospital
tonight. No way am I going to be stretchered 
outta here."

"Then prevent that by lying down before you
faint. Marco, get his arm over you. 
We're moving him to the couch."

"I'm...not...shocky!"  Chet protested.

"You will be if you don't get flat. Now move it!!" 
Cap's voice filtered from the garage bay into 
the kitchen like a wraith's.

Kelly let Roy and Marco move him, complaining
the whole way.

Gage picked up the biophone and followed.
"Kelly just.. "

##51, this is Rampart Base. Go ahead.## came
Joe Early's voice.

Gage's retort moused down into grumbles
as he dragged a kitchen chair over to Chet's
couch to hold the biophone, near where he was
squatting. Roy got out a stethoscope and BP cuff. 
"Rampart, we've a hand case on a male, aged 28. 
155 pounds. Probable knuckle fractures. We've applied 
immobilizing splints to both hands and all distal 
metacarpal pulses are intact.." he inferred from 
Roy's silent nod. "No other injuries. Stand by for vitals."

"Gage, this isn't necessary.." Kelly said when Johnny
finished his sentence to the doctor on the line.

"Bet your BP's in the low 100's right now with all 
that excruciating pain. Bet you a month's dish 
detail."

"You're on.." Chet took up the challenge.
"And it's not excruciating. Only nauseating."
Then he realized that Gage got him to admit
that he was in pain at the same time as managing 
to wring out a current patient history account 
on top of the insult. He glared at Johnny all
the harder.

Gage winked a "got you" look at Chet and
continued when Roy handed him the notepad
of vitals.  "Rampart, vitals are.. pulse 120.
Respirations are normal. BP is.." he held off
for effect for Kelly's benefit.. "...100/60."

Chet groaned when he realized he lost the bet.

Johnny was crafty and held out the phone so
Joe could hear Kelly's groan for a moment.
"And he's in a fair amount of pain, doc. I suspect
that's why we've got the adverse BP. Hemorrhaging
is negligible."  He waved at Chet to keep moaning.
But Kelly refused to aid him.

But one overheard groan had been enough and Joe replied.
"I concur, 51.  Give him 5 mg, MS IM. Continue 
monitoring vitals and transport as soon as possible. 
I have an orthopedic M.D. standing by."

"10-4, Rampart.. Our ETA is..  twenty minutes.."

"10-4, 51."

Johnny hung up the phone. "Marco, hand me
the drug box.."

"A pain shot?! Oh, Gage, you are in sooOOoo much trouble."
Chet warned, wincing as Roy finished splinting his hands.

"How so? I'm just doing my job, that's all. Preventative
care...." he said in an exaggerated voice. "You feel that
pain much longer and you'll lose Glasgow points enough
to warrant an ambulance trip. How would that go over
with the chief then, Chet?" he said sarcastically.

Kelly's anger melted away and he regarded his
thick bandage encased hands. "I was just mad about
Stoker, that's all. Cut me some slack.."

"We are man.. That's why were taking ya in using
the squad." Gage said, "Now roll over and let me
get this MS in. Just don't move the hands."

Chet sighed and complied. Johnny pulled up Chet's
tucked in shirt and got him in the haunch.

"All right. Roll back." And Gage set a pillow on Kelly's
chest to hold his now wrapped, and splinted lower
arms up high. "Don't fall asleep. We'll get back with 
ya in a few minutes when the shot's working. We're
not leaving until it is."

Chet grunted, still pissed.

"Listen, Kelly. Johnny could have told the doc
that you did these injuries to yourself. He's probably
already in hot water for not disclosing mechanism of 
injury. The doc's gonna know that the minute the 
dressings come off." Roy insisted.

"I appreciate it. I appreciate it! Thanks for not
telling them I went crazy." Kelly insisted adamantly.

"Now why would we do that, Chet? Every one of us
knows that about you already, so notifying the 
shrink in the ER isn't necessary.." Gage said, 
"If you'd like, we can call Vince and the Bellview
monkeys to haul you off in their rubber cart to 
Rampart." he teased, ruffling Kelly's hair.

Kelly went to swipe his hand away when he 
remembered he couldn't.  His sour scowl 
faded into a giggle that got out. 

"Ah ha...." Roy said. "The shot's working."
he smiled, taking a BP. "It's up. And guess what?
It's normal now, Johnny. 132/94." 

"That's our ticket outta here. Come on, Chet.
Let's go. The faster they set those knuckles
the sooner you can cook us breakfast. I'm
starving.." Gage burbled.

Lopez and Johnny got him sitting and then 
onto his feet.

"Hey, I'm walking wounded here.." Chet
giggled. "I'm not gonna go cooking anything.."

"Sure you are.. It's your turn to cook. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah.. I think.. maybe  I can... I can manage 
to boil water for soup when I get b-- 
Hey, this shot's dreamy Johnny.."

"Now Chet, pay attention. One foot in front of
the other. You gotta WALK..." Gage told him.

Roy grabbed the biophone, but traded the dressings
box for the IV one from the hold to put onto the floor 
on Johnny's side of the squad cab.

"Close your mouth, Kelly. You're drooling on
my shoulder.." Marco complained as
he and Roy got Chet into the squad and buckled
tight and bundled into a third helmet for safety.

"Huh??" Kelly mumbled.

Roy put his helmet on and got into the driver's
seat. "Hey Cap.. This is what we did..." he hollered
out. "Johnny and I got orders to--"

"I don't wanna know the details. Just go."
Cap's voice grumbled from his open office
door. "Have the docs fix him up and get
him back here, pronto. Chief's got an eye 
on him for something he's not telling me about
and I don't want Kelly's stupid stunt to wreck
our chances of finding out just what that is.."

"You got it Cap.." Gage said. And then he
poked Kelly awake when he started snoring
into his ear from where he nestled between
Roy and Johnny in the squad.  "Kelly, no 
napping! Remember?"  And then he took a 
pulse check using the artery in Chet's arm, 
squeezing a little too hard on purpose.

"Oww, hey, hey, hey..Your turn soon for the
 bathroom.. Just a few more minutes
okay? Gotta shave my beard off.." Kelly
slurred.

Gage chuckled. "As if you had a beard.
Hey, open those eyes."

Kelly did crack his eyes open then, his clowning over..
"I do, too. And it's as red as my moustache..
Here. Feel.." and he caught Gage's hand
into his own muffed ones and stroked it
over the stubble shadow on his face.

Gage whipped his hand away in disgust.
"Cut it out.. and don't be moving those hands
like that.. Just keep holding them up higher
than your heart on the dashboard there." 
Then he mumbled to himself under his breath. 
"Huh, don't we all have beards.."

"Not you, Gage. You're Native American.." 
Kelly said. "No hair anywhere except where
you'd expect it."

"Oh yeah?" Gage said narrowing his eyes,
off on another Gage band wagon.  "Think of it 
from my perspective. It's not easy working with 
hairy gorillas as crewmates. Tell me, Chet. Doesn't 
all that chest hair make you kinda hot in summer?"

Roy, Chet and Cap said "No, it doesn't."
simultaneously from where they were.

"Oh..." Johnny peeped. "Thanks for telling me that.
Always ....wondered.." and he cleared his
throat self consciously.

Cap came out of the office and saundered out to the 
alcove mike, thumbing it.
"L.A. Station 51. Mark squad 51 out of service 
to Rampart until 0500. We're dealing with a minor 
in house medical call."

##10-4, 51. Time out. 03:12.## 

Roy and Gage were about to leave the garage
with silent reds when DeSoto suddenly screeched
to a halt. "Would you look at that?"

"What?" asked Gage and Kelly at the same time.

"That..." Roy said, pointing to the cement floor
before their bumper.

Boot, the long-time-ago-runaway-mutt, their old 
station mascot, was sitting there.

"Well, I'll be d*mned.." Cap said, setting his hands on
his hips. "Come on, boy. Out of the way. The squad's
on a rescue call for Kelly here."

Boot obediently slid over three feet and let the 
squad by.

Cap saw Roy pick up speed on the boulevard with
top red lights on, but no siren, with satisfaction, 
and then he closed the big bay doors.

He and Marco were left face to face with Boot.

"Hey, boy. Welcome back.." Lopez said, crouching
low to address the mangy medium sized dog.

Boot immediately whined and ran to the engine
to scratch meaningfully on the door latch
until he nosed it open. He leaped up.

Curling up on Mike's engine driver's seat, Boot
began to whine and glance up at the two 
mystified firemen staring at him with their mouths 
flopped open. When he saw the men didn't do 
anything to explain the situation, he started nosing 
Stoker's helmet hanging there, crying in worry and 
distress.

"I don't believe what I'm seeing.. How did
he find out about Stoker? And where did he come
from?" Cap mumbled.

"I have no idea, Cap." Marco admitted.

 ----------------------------

Photo : Cap in a worried closeup in the kitchen.

Photo: Roy and Johnny leaving the garage on
           a run. Cap, handing them the run slip.

Photo: Boot standing in the garage.

************************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Motion to Promotion  
Date :Tue, 04 Feb 2003 14:50:07 +0000  
 

Dixie McCall was on a night shift. She was
filling in for Carol Evans, who was on vacation.

The automatic doors at the end of the hall around
the corner activated and the soft rolling sound made
her look up from her patient chart. The last
three people she expected through her emergency
department's portal was Johnny Gage, Roy DeSoto
and Chet Kelly.  Her eyebrows rose in 
a questioning glance but Joe Early stepped out of
Kel's office just then and relieved her bubbling
curiosity. "Joe? What's up? I must have been on
break when their rescue call came in."

Joe said, "A code I. Probable broken hands. 
Enough to warrant a pain med. I got it from here 
Dix." he said, walking down the hall to meet
Gage and Roy who were keeping a very tripped
Chet steady on his feet. "Could you tell Rivers
that his hand case is here, Dixie? I've already 
told radiology that he was coming."

"Right..." Dix said. "Hi Roy, Johnny."

"Hi Dix... Where to?" Gage asked.

"Get him into Treatment Two. And this is...."

"Chet Kelly." Roy replied. "Chet, this is Dixie. 
You might remember her from last year 
when you were blown into those crates 
from that paint factory explosion." Gage
and he shifted Chet's weight between them
as they guided him into the exam room.

Kelly grinned, feeling the heady effects of
the MS. "Nah, don't recall.. How could I
forget a beautiful face like that, man? Hi babe."
he giggled, lifting his head from the gurney where
Gage and Roy had placed him. "Where have you
been all my life? I got the distinct feeling that
you and I could make really beautiful music
together.."

"Charmed." Dix replied, recognizing a high
when she saw one. She looked up.
"Morphine?"

Johnny firmly pushed Chet's shoulders back down
onto the table, grinning. "How can you tell?"

Right then, Dr. Early came into the room and
immediately went to examine Chet's eyes.
"Did he behave himself on the trip in?"

Roy said, "He was fine, doc. We managed to
keep him from using those hands too much."

"Yeah.." Johnny smiled. "I told him he
had to keeping holding the dashboard
to keep the squad steering straight." he joked.

"Hmmm..." Joe said, leaning in close to get
a good check on Kelly's pupils. 

Chet was now happily groggy and didn't mind
at all when Joe and Dix unwrapped his hands
onto sterile sheets on his chest for his x-rays
through the splints.  

Kelly started humming absently through the
whole exam.Dr. Rivers entered the room. 
Joe acknowledged him. "Johnny, Roy,
Chet, this is Dr. Craig Rivers, head ortho from
upstairs. He's going to be handling Kelly's case."

"Hi, doc.." Roy, Johnny and Chet echoed.

"Hello, everyone. Let's see what we've got.." And Rivers
checked out Chet's hands visually, noting the same
signs that he had read from the run sheet. "Did he take 
out some frustrations on a wall or two?" he
asked the two paramedics. "These knuckles look
like they took that kind of blunt trauma."

Roy and Johnny shifted uncomfortably.

DeSoto replied. "Close, but no walls per se, 
it was a punching bag, actually. Chet was a little 
upset about a coworker of ours getting caught 
in a roof collapse last night."

Johnny dove right in with the opportunity for
an update. "Dix, how's Stoker doing?"

Dix was helping redirect the exam table light
down onto Chet's hands so Rivers could
see what he was doing. "About the same.
You could go up and visit him if you'd like."

"Hey... I wanna come too." Chet said, 
trying to sit up. Roy, Gage and Dr. Early 
all held him down onto the gurney.
Kelly stared at the ceiling, grinning like an
idiot and he added.
"Glad my ploy worked and I got here to Rampart
so I can see him while still on duty. Thanks,
Gage. Thanks, DeSoto, for playing along..." Kelly
said, muzzily serious.

"Who's playing, Chet? Your hands are really
busted..  And Cap took you OFF duty." Roy 
informed him. 

"Now keep still."Gage told him firmly. 
Then he looked up and mouthed to Dix and the 
docs, "Want us to strap him down?" he said from 
the corner of his mouth.

Joe smiled and shook his head. "He seems
cooperative enough. And that MS will be wearing
off in a few minutes. I'll change it over to
Meperidine so he won't be so tripped out 
before we get started setting those fractured
knuckles."

"Think he'll need surgery, doc?" Roy asked
Rivers.

"No. These breaks I can manually reduce
right here. The x-rays will confirm what I'm
seeing now when they come through." Craig admitted. 
"Listen, has Chet ever broken his hands before? 
That may effect his recovery time; from a few
days to perhaps two weeks or so."

"Nah, doc. He's been living a charmed life.
No fractures, even after eight years with
the fire department." Gage told him.

Roy concurred. "It's the rest of us who
haven't been so lucky."

"Really.." Rivers said conversationally
polite. He didn't inquire further.

Gage looked up at Dix. "And Stoker's
number's up for the first time. He's the one
Chet was so upset about. Say, Dr. Early. 
Can we leave to go check up on Stoker? 
Think you three can handle Chet on your 
own down here?"

"Yeah, sure Johnny. Go right ahead.
We'll make sure Kelly behaves himself
while we get him squared away and into
a pair of hand casts." Joe said.

"See you in a bit, Chet.. Now stay put."

"Righto, Johnny boy...." Kelly giggled.

Dix mumbled to them as they passed.
"He's in ICU six, second floor." so Chet
wouldn't hear.

"Thanks Dix, we'll be back in a few.." Roy said,
holding up his walkie talkie.

"I've got a fresh coffee pot on by the call
station.." Dix added. "Help yourselves."

Roy and Johnny left the room.

"Hey, bring me some...." Chet piped up.
"I'm thirsty!" he shouted belatedly.

Dix turned back to the bed. "Sorry,
Kelly. You're NPO for a while because
of that lovely pain med you took in
the rear. " she guessed, seeing no IV
hanging by Chet's head.  Then she
looked up at the docs. "Want a line
started for that Meperidine backup?"

Joe sighed and nodded. "Looks like
we need it if he's feeling dry. Make it
a 500 cc Normal Saline Drip, wide open.
We'll crank it down when he's better
hydrated. He probably lost some fluid
volume working that punching bag so
hard."

"I'll get right on it.." Dixie answered,
moving to the Treatment Room
drug cabinet to find the proper IV and
set up. She took off the stethoscope
that she had been using to take a vitals 
set on him. "BP's steady. 126/68. 
Pulse 90, Respirations 22." 

"So he really is thirsty.." Joe concluded 
from Chet's heart rate.

"Looks like it." Rivers said from where 
he had his head band light down over his
eyes while he gently probed how each
knuckle displacement situated with each
finger on Kelly's hands.

Chet started humming tunelessly again, 
lost in his drugged stupor, while Rivers and 
Early started to set up the equipment and 
things they would need to set Chet's 
hands.

X-ray arrived to take pictures
after Dix was through starting and 
stringing Chet's IV on a pole, and 
everyone vacated the room until the 
films were finished being exposed.

---------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny felt small went they 
entered Mike Stoker's critical care room.

Despite all their know how and training,
the sight of the respirator and all the tubes
in place around Mike took them aback.

Stoker was still and ghastly white under 
the dim light of the bed's wall illumination.
The soot that had covered him had been
washed away and all his face burns were
shiny with silvadene.

Johnny nodded a silent greeting 
to the nurse sitting by Mike's bed and 
stepped forward, being careful not to disturb 
any of the connections to the machines 
monitoring him. Gage set a hand on Mike's 
arm. He was relieved to find Stoker's skin 
warm and dry, unlike the cold clamminess he 
remembered from the fire when they had 
found Kelly's report of Stoker's arrested state 
to be true.

Roy asked the nurse, "Has he tried to fight 
the airway yet?"

She shook her head apologetically and smiled. 
"Want me to leave you alone for a few minutes?" 
she asked.

Gage didn't say anything but he felt his head
nod yes and dimly, he was aware that Roy was
nodding, too.

Roy and Johnny didn't even notice the intensive
care nurse depart, leaving the three of them alone.

Johnny felt his eyes lock onto Mike's tightly 
bandaged ones and he shifted his grip to Mike's
hand, squeezing it.

Johnny just swallowed, finding himself unable to
speak.

Roy leaned down close to Mike's ear when he
saw Johnny falter, and he asked for him. 
"Hey Stoker.. It's just us. How are you doing? 
Looks like the nurses and doctors are taking 
really good care of you here.." DeSoto
smiled. "Your EKG looks good. And it's probably
not long before the docs will lift your sedation so
you can begin to wake up."

Johnny just continued to hang onto Mike's
hand, listening to his partner talk, lost in a worried
haze as he watched the respirator breathe for
his friend in its slow artificial pattern. Gage's 
uncharacteristic quietness made Roy keep up a 
running dialogue to quell his own unspoken fears.

Roy sighed, and grimaced, patting Mike's blanketed
shoulder. "Cap's made some progress on who
started that fire. Your instincts were right. That
warehouse was a case of arson. Some kids involved
so far, and for some reason, Cap's protecting their
identities, perhaps to get his witness to give up
more information... W- We'll get to the bottom of
this."

Johnny still didn't say anything.

Roy began to fidget in the chair where he sat
and he gave Johnny his privacy by not looking at
him. "You'll never guess how Johnny and I got
to come up here after visiting hours like this.
You're not going to believe this. Chet went one
on one with the locker room punching bag and lost.
Busted six knuckles as far as Johnny and I could
tell. We'll get him up here to see you as soon
as he's finished getting patched up." 
DeSoto put on a brave smile, as if the expression
would somehow translate into his voice for Mike's
benefit. "He was pretty upset he couldn't do more
for you after he dug you out. But he did a good
job keeping you breathing until Johnny, he and
I could get you outta there and to the 02 and all 
our gear. You left us for a bit then, but we managed to
shock you back after only a couple of minutes' work."

Roy's eyes were following Mike's EKG and he was 
heartened that it had picked up a bit while he 
continued to talk. Johnny didn't miss the responsive
signs either and his expression brightened. Finally,
Gage found his voice. "Yeah, we were lucky. D*mned
lucky. Oh, you might notice when you wake that
your eyes are bandaged. That's from that hot water
pipe that broke above you when the roof gave way
so you just concentrate on getting better and-- and...
and thinking positively about that because we really
want ya back at the station as soon as possible.
Doesn't feel the same without you. " Johnny grinned
tightly. "We're not the only ones who feel that way.
You'll never guess who showed up just as we
were taking Chet to the hospital to get his hands
set. I'll give you a hint. He's brown, hairy and has
four legs."

Roy chuckled. "Yep. It's Boot. Went right to the engine,
looking for ya. No doubt he's got plans to keep the
seat warm until you get better. So get better, kay?"

Mike didn't move. But the EKG didn't slow its
reactive rate either. DeSoto and Gage got to
their feet and waved the nurse at the ICU desk
back into the room, indicating that their visit was
over. She left her post and came back into the
room.

Johnny asked her. "How long has he been listening
to people like this?" he asked throwing a hand
at the overhead EKG above the bed. 

The nurse fussed with Stoker's pillows and
blankets before settling back into her
observation chair at his bed's foot. "Oh, for about
an hour now. Looks like his sedation's wearing off
early."

"That's great. That's great." Johnny said quietly.
"Would you give us a call when he's extubated? 
It would really mean a lot to all of us guys 
at the station to know he's snapping out of it, 
know what I mean...? We also want to know about
his.. well, whether or not he can.... you know."

"See? " the young nurse suggested. "I think I can
do that. You two are with 51's right?"

"Yeah.." Roy replied.

"Dixie's got your number and I can get that
easily enough. I'm here until eleven and I will call
when it happens."

"Thanks. We ah, we really appreciate it.."

"No problem.." she said, turning back to 
watch Stoker's EKG and respirator's venting rate.

DeSoto conducted his partner out the door without
saying a word, excusing them both from the room.

Out in the hall, Johnny asked. "Wow, do you think he
was really hearing us in there?"

"Johnny, now you know better than to doubt what
your eyes are telling you. Of course he heard us. Someone
would have to be dead to not hear you." he quipped.

"Very funny." Gage frowned, then he smiled. "Hey,
Chet's gonna like this news. " then he remembered.
"Ooo, but he's probably getting his knuckles set right
now. I hate being in the room when fractures are
getting reduced. Why don't you and I wait it out
in the nurse's lounge?"

An amused grin filled Roy's face. "All right. I'll give in
to your one squeamish tendency..Know that the 
coffee's bound to be old in there."

Johnny was already halfway to the elevator.
"Umm hmm.." he replied. "But it's out of earshot
of Chet's treatment room."

"Chicken.."

"No, just.. selective.. If I was a fan of medieval
torturing practices, I'd be there." Gage said,
uncomfortably rubbing nervous hands on
his shirt's front.

"Chet's gonna be given Versed. He'll
feel the initial setting of his knuckles the second
it happens, but then he'll forget about it right
away the moment it's over. That's the beauty
of that particular drug." Roy suggested.

"I know.. I know.." Johnny twitched with 
a shiver. "I just have .....never been able
to convince myself that it really works that
way. Screams are screams."

Roy grinned, but he was very merciful for
a six year paramedic partner. "Come on
junior.  Let's go hide out then, until it's over."

"Thanks.." Gage said wanly.

-----------------------------------------------------

Back at the station house, the gang was all wearing
their night pullup trousers and boots despite
being out of service for the rest of the early dawn until
their called replacements could arrive to fill Chet
and Stoker's places on the engine. They were in
a circle around the engine's open cab door.

"Now that's devotion.." Cap said, not minding Boot's
muddy paws resting where the scraggly dog
lay, dusty from the many miles he must have
travelled to get from ten's to 51's. "Looks like
we're going to have to get a prybar to get him
outta that driver's seat."

Marco plunked Henry's old bowl down full of
left over hamburger on the concrete floor and
Boot was out of the engine like a cannon shot
for the grub. Lopez grinned. "Or a bowl of vittles."

Hank closed the engine's door after brushing off
the dirt from the seat onto the stone floor with
satisfaction. Both men crouched over the dog,
caressing his fur affectionately. "Good boy, nice
to see you again. Hope you stay a long time." 
they coo-ed.

Then Marco said, "Even Mike's gonna love
seeing you ag--" he broke off, fighting a sob.

Boot stopped eating immediately and looked
up, staring into Marco's face. He whined, setting
his paws on Marco's shoulders and he licked his
face once before turning back to wolf down
his dinner.

Lopez laughed and grimaced, wiping dog food
and dirt off his cheek. "Gee, can't hide anything
from you, Boot."

"Guess not." Cap agreed, standing. "Give
him a good B-A-T-H when he's through in
the locker room tub, all right? I'll get breakfast
going.."

"You're cooking?"

"Yeah.. got a problem with that?" Hank challenged.

"No. Just never ever remember you doing that
before, Cap." Marco said, sheepishly.

"First time for everything. Sort of like Boot here 
coming back to a firehouse he's already visited.."

"I guess.." Lopez said, affectionately patting Boot's
sides until he was warned off with a don't-bug-me,
I'm-eating growl from Boot. "Ok.. ok. Uncle. Lick
that clean when you're done big fella.." he said,
standing.

Cap made his way into the kitchen and the empty 
chairs there. Through the window, he could already
see the light of dawn peeking through the cracks of
the shade pulled down there. Foregoing decorum,
Cap pulled up on the shade, letting in the rich rising sun's
light into the room until it flooded the kitchen in a
tawny glow. Its warmth felt good after a sleepless
night and soon, he felt comfortably relaxed despite
events.

Then Cap turned to the frig to plan out breakfast.
It took a force of will to taper down portions on
the stove enough for five only instead of the usual
six. ::I hope Roy and Johnny make time to run
up to Stoker's room to check up on him. I hate
not knowing how he's doing.::

Marco and Cap had eaten already and three
full plates were sitting in the oven, keeping warm,
when they heard the garage doors rumble open
with the squad's return.

Roy and Johnny wearily entered the kitchen
and sat down in the chairs. Boot immediately
went for Roy's lap where he sat, sniffing his
hands and shirt eagerly. "Yeah, boy, we all saw
him. Stoker's doing ok. " he said to both
dog and Cap. "He's even listening up when
spoken to."

"That's good news.." Hank said. "Chow's in 
the oven.. Where's Kelly?"

"Sleeping it off." Gage replied. "I sent him to
his bunk. Gonna be another hour before the
meds the docs gave him wear off enough for
him to feel hungry. Then I'll take him home if
there's time, before our replacements arrive."

"Who's coming?" Roy asked.

Cap said, "Don't rightly know. The Chief didn't 
say any names. Remind me to have Chet talk
to McConike before he ships outta here. There's
that message the Chief wants to give him.."

"What message?" Johnny said. " 'Don't forget your
gloves again, Kelly' kind of message? I fell for
that once from you, remember?"

Hank laughed. "No, actually. He wouldn't tell me
over the phone. Said it was between him and Kelly."

Johnny and Roy's face fell. They suddenly knew what it
was.

Roy finally said the unthinkable. "The chief's aiming
at Kelly taking Stoker's engineering spot, isn't he?"

Cap didn't say anything. Then he just nodded.
"Most likely, if things don't pan out for the best
with Stoker's eyesight."

Gage slammed his mug down on the table.
"Well, isn't that just lovely. Mike's not even six 
hours back from near death, and already, McConike's
washing him up..."

Cap turned appraising eyes on his fiery paramedic.
"Now Gage, you know this is just backup contingency.
No one is retiring anybody just yet."

"Then why that for Kelly's-ears-only phone call...?" 
Johnny asked bitterly.

To that, Cap had no easy answer.

----------------------------------------

An hour later, Chet arose from his recuperative nap
and made his way into the kitchen, "Oh man, I feel
like something Boot dragged in. Hiya, Boot." he said.

"How are the hands?" Roy asked, pulling up
a chair and pouring a mug of coffee out
for him.

"Thick. But they don't hurt much anymore."

"That's the Versed.." Johnny smirked with
amusement. "Wait until later when that memory
blocker starts to wear off."

Roy shot Johnny a disapproving glance.

But Johnny got out a pair of hotpads
and got out Chet's breakfast from
the oven where it still warmed and
began cutting it up for Chet industriously
with fork and knife. "Need help eating this?" 
he asked, not unkindly.

"I got it. Just cut the steak into smaller pieces."
Kelly said, fumbling with his fork in his abundantly
wrapped hands. He stubbornly stabbed an
egg onto the fork using his chin and both 
splinted palms.

Marco noticed his difficulty and said, 
"You're not driving home that way.."

"Says who?"

"Says me.." Cap said with authority.
"Gage has already offered to drive you
home. Now do you have someone around
to help you about the house until you've
healed up in a few days?"

"I can call my sister. She owes me one.
I took care of her when she busted both legs
skiing last winter."

"Ouch.." Johnny said, swiping some toast
over his rapidly emptying plate. "Did she
have fun doing it?"

"About as much fun as I had busting my 
knuckles, and thanks for asking." Kelly
said.

"Hey, how was I to know? Most people
ski for enjoyment's sake." Gage complained.

"Yeah? Well, my sister skis like I work out when
we both get upset about stuff."

"And you both get hurt doing it." Roy said
quietly.

"Not all the time, DeSoto. Just that one time
for her, and now this time, for me.." he said, 
holding up his splinted palms.

"Just make sure your brand of therapy follows
less aggressive routes next time Kelly, or there
will be h*ll to pay." Cap warned. "I had to talk
a blue streak to keep the Chief from disciplining
you about your little stunt this morning."

Kelly was properly abashed. "Thank you." he
said very fast.

"Call the Chief when breakfast is over. He
wants to talk to you."

"But, Cap, I thought you said you got me out
of hot water...."

"This is about something else, Kelly." Cap toned
back.

"Oh."

"Then get back in here and tell us what it
was all about. Sounds important."

"Right."

Soon, Chet had finished manhandling his food
into his stomach and made the call to McConike
from Cap's office. Minutes later, he shuffled back
into the kitchen, numbly sitting back down into
his chair.

"Kelly, you ok?" Roy asked.

Chet looked up and his face was devoid
of humor or pleasure. "Chief says I should start
taking a look at the red book from Cap's
office pronto like. "

"Oh really? Wh-What's the red book?"
Gage asked, pretending pretense.

Chet didn't say anything.

Cap got up and disappeared into the bay. 
He returned with an unfamiliar fat, red book in his 
hands. "This book. Chet, The chief probably wants 
you to know the basics by the time you're back
on the duty rosters.. I'm sorry, buddy. I just
didn't think the chief would really consider
this course of action so soon."

Chet read the cover and his face fell with remorse.
"Oh, Cap.." he sighed.  "I- I can't do this.. It
isn't right." Kelly's closed his eyes. "This is the 
engineer's manual.  Seems I've been chosen to
be next in line for that position on the engine 
if Stoker doesn't make it back to the actives list."

------------------------------------------

Photo : Dixie at desk looking surprised.

Photo :  Johnny with milk carton at night.

Photo: Roy in kitchen chair with Boot in his
           lap.

Photo: Chet, looking sad, with Stoker's
           engineering manual open, in his lap.

*********************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] The Long Tiny Steps..  
Date : Thu, 06 Feb 2003 06:47:31 +0000  
   

Acknowledgements to...
Tom Stafford - Firefighter Captain /MD on
Chemical Firetruck Training Procedures

Acknowledgements to..
Dr. Jeff Seltun for Pulmonary Scalding Lab Test
Orders and General Ophthalmology Medicine.

 
Dr. Brackett was paged to Mike Stoker's
room around noon. Joe Early was on hand
when the call light came on from the observation
nurse. Stoker was semi awake and beginning
to fight the respirator. Kel leaned over the bed.
"Beth, get Dixie in here." Kel ordered.

The critical care nurse used the wall phone near
Mike's head to summon her.

Dr. Brackett leaned close. "Mike. It's ok. You're
in the hospital and you've been intubated to
counteract the spasming effects of the burns
you have in your throat. Try to relax. We'll
evaluate you to see if we can let you try to 
breathe on your own off the respirator."

Stoker stopped struggling, but then his
hands went to his face. Dixie arrived just in
time to help Beth gently restrain him from
touching the burned areas on his face around
the eye dressings. "He's relaxed about having
his eyes covered at least.." she said.

Beth piped up, "That's because his station crew
mates were up here telling him what to expect 
when he woke up. Mike, besides Dixie and me,
Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early are here."
The two nurses quietly spoke to Mike while
Kel and Joe consulted after a quick exam
of his chest and breath sounds. They stood
at the foot of the bed so Mike wouldn't hear
them discuss a decision.

"What do you think, Kel? Too soon to go off
the bird?" Joe asked.

"Not necessarily." Dr. Brackett said, rubbing
his chin. "The danger of tracheal adhesion is
has passed. The initial wheezing we heard when
he was admitted has gone away. I think we
can go ahead and make him more comfortable.
If we run into any problems, we can always bag
him until we can re-sedate him for a second
intubation." 

"I agree. Let's go ahead then."

"Dix, watch his BP." Joe said and together, the
two doctors instructed Mike how to manage
himself while the respirator was turned off
and the EOA removed. Beth was right there
with a hissing suction tube to carry away liquids as
the slender airway was taken out. 

Stoker wanted to cough and he winced from 
the sting of burns deep inside. He let himself 
blank out to end the pain. He felt the nurses 
pull him onto his side to drain out his throat 
for him and his alarm grew when his diaphram 
refused to pull any air into his lungs when 
he felt the suctioning wand leave his mouth.

"BP's dropping. 88/46.." Dix reported.

Kel reached for the diazepam syringe pack on
the crash cart and tossed it onto the bed
so it would be nearby.

"Mike." Joe called out. "Give it a few seconds.
That winded feeling will ease off. Then see if
you can try to inhale on your own. Don't worry.
If you can't, we'll support you with 02 on an ambu
bag until you're ready to do it on your own."

Beth held one ready and flowing on standby.

Kel stood listening with a stethoscope as Mike's
EKG rate rose higher as the firefighter worked through
his fright and the natural cramping of his wounded 
throat in response to the airway's removal. Finally,
after half a minute, Stoker's muscles relaxed and 
he took in a ragged involuntary breath, tentative, 
but effective.

Immediately Dixie slipped a simple clear,
non rebreather mask over his face on full flow
sending Beth with the ambu bag valve mask 
away with a nod. "There."she said. "You did it, 
Mike. Now relax."  Everyone in the room sighed 
in relief. Mike's tracheal blistering hadn't harmed 
his ability to breathe at all.

The EKG settled fitfully into a normal but fast
sinus rhythm that slowed increment by increment
with each successful breath Mike drew in.

After a minute, Dix announced.
"His pressure's back up. Settling in at
120/62." she told the doctors.

Dr. Brackett put the sedative med back
onto the crash cart and hung his head in
relief.

Beth placed her hands on either side 
of Stoker's face so he knew she was near. 
"Having any pain now anywhere else besides 
your sore throat and face ?"

Stoker shook his head and gurgled when
he tried to talk.

"Don't." Dix told him. "Not yet.
Swallow. Again. Now wait a minute or two
before you even think about trying to talk."

"The rocky part's over Mike. I promise you
no more surprises like that." Kel frowned.

Dr. Brackett listened to Mike's chest and upper
trachea again with a stethoscope while Joe
began to unwrap Mike's eyes bit by bit for a
cursory ophthalmic exam. He kept them patched
until he nodded at Beth to wave the room lights
down to complete darkness except for the
pinpoint spot from his ophthalmoscope.

The saline soaked patches came away.

Stoker's raspy voice whispered to them.
"I can't see.."

Kel's face softened. "That's because we have
the room lights turned off to make it
easier on you. You also have some
swelling of the tissue around your eyes and
both of them have swelled shut. Just relax,
Mike. We'll know soon enough what's going
on after Joe takes a look at you. Does your 
chest hurt at all?"

"No..." he sighed, still whispering.

"Good. Your bronchoscopy didn't show any
major damage to your pulmonary tissues. Only
some localized scalding above your larynx.
The collapsed airway you suffered during
the fire reopened again nicely once your coworkers 
got you back outside away from all the heat." 

"I stopped breathing?" Mike asked. 

Joe and Kel hesitated. Then Dr. Brackett
ventured into a disclosure. "For a while. Enough
to lose a viable heart rate. But there was no 
difficulty in reconverting you. You were down 
for only a minute or so and Johnny and Roy got 
you back effectively enough to matter until you
got to the hospital and we could stabilize your
vital signs. You ran no hypoxia risks at all."

"I almost died?" Stoker asked again.

"Almost only counts in horseshoes and
hand grenades, Mike Stoker. And you know
it." Dixie said. "Now lie still and let the doctors
finish examining your eyes." she said no 
nonsense.

Mike stayed hushed.

Joe said. "Mike this may hurt a bit when I
shine the scope's light into the back of your
eyes. I need to see what's happening to
the deeper structures there."

Stoker gasped when the light shone down.
All was a mass of shadows and shocking
white flares which smeared together in sparking
chaotic afterimages. His head began to fill
with pulsing stabs of agony.

Mike's EKG sped up suddenly. 

Joe immediately quelled the light. "What
did you see?"

Stoker told him.

Kel and Joe glanced at each other.
Dr. Brackett said. "There may be some
fundus involvement here. Perhaps even
with the optic disc itself. But then again,
those visual anomalies could just be the 
transitory results of superficial corneal burns. 
Try it again Joe."

Once more, Joe used his scope to peer around
Stoker's red swollen eye lids into the eyes below.

This time, Mike's discomfort doubled. His
hands shot up and gripped Joe's wrist.
"Ahh.. don't...!" His sharp movement made
Dr. Early drop his instrument onto the pillow.

"All right. I'll stop." Joe said quietly. 

Kel and he and Dix and Beth all exchanged
worried looks. Then Joe gripped Mike's hands
in firm comfort and he returned them back
under the blankets. "Ok, that's enough from us for
now. We'll repatch your eyes with more antibiotic
salve and try again in a few days."

Mike didn't say anything and his heart rate 
remained fast and panicked.

Kel said. "Don't let this dishearten you at all, Mike.
Sometimes it takes days or even weeks for normal
retinal responses to return to the eyes following
heat exposure like this. But from what we did
see here, your eyes are intact. Both your scleras
are understandably swollen and red and your pupils 
are adjusting somewhat irregularly due to the
burns there, but globally, at this stage, things are
looking about as well as we all expected."

Mike let the nurses rebind his head tightly, to keep
out any more light before he spoke again.
"Doctor Brackett. Just how well is 'As well as
expected?' "

They didn't say anything.

Mike filled the silence. "You know, six years ago,
Kip Jenkins from Station 16's took a spark on
the eye just standing roof watch. And it cost
him his job when it later healed over, leaving him
with tunnel vision on that side." He swallowed. 
"Is that going to happen to me?"

Kel kept his hand on Mike's arm. "It's too soon
to tell, Mr. Stoker. Only time will show us any
final outcome here."

"I know.. I know..." Stoker said, folding his hands
over his chest, trying to pull shreds of dignity
about himself as he would a turnout coat against
the blazing heat of a fire.  "I just don't like being
kept in the dark..."

Dixie looked down.

"Sorry.." Mike apologized for the black feeling joke. 

Kel said to him. "Mike, let's see how the rest
of you is doing in the meantime. Joe, let's order
another set of arterial blood gases to see how 
well it's working out for Mike being off support 
like this. Also, I want to get a second chest X-ray to
compare it to the one we took last night. Dix, I want 
the lab to get  electrolytes, a urinalysis, a BUN, 
a creatinine series and I want respiratory therapy
to get in here to start some pulmonary function 
tests on Mike's lung performance."

"I'll get right on it.." Dix said, moving to the phone.

"I'd just wish I could find out answers a little 
faster. Not knowing anything's killing me.." 
Stoker sighed, gasping through the oxygen mask.

Brackett chuckled in his throat.
 "Trying being a doctor and compounding
that particular problem in the form of fifteen 
new patients a day. Now you know why doctors 
like me grumble so much.." he grinned wryly for the 
nurses benefit. "One step at a time, Mike. It always 
comes, one step at a time.. For you, that means
that all you have to be is a patient patient and 
the rest will follow naturally. In your future, there
may be the slight chance of corneal transplantation 
surgery. But your positive contrast vision tells me
that even that, might not be necessary in the long 
run." 

Mike stayed numbly quiet as he attempted to 
settle his labored breathing around the burns 
jabbing in his throat.

Kel sighed. "Just leave all the worrying to us. It's what 
we get paid for. See if you can get some rest, all right?"

"I'll try, doctor."

-------------------------------------------------------

It was four days later on the exercise grounds
at the L.A. County firefighting training facility.

Station 51's usual fire inspection duty assignments 
had been traded away to another sister station 
so she could report with her crew solely for Chet Kelly's
benefit. He had passed the paperwork part of
the standby engineer's test and now was entering
the practical skills testing.

A mockup of a two story apartment tower building
with a fuel truck spill at its base was the scenario
the chiefs had mapped out for Station 51's chemical
truck to handle.  And on a signal, the whole facsimile
was set ablaze along the tarmack using hidden torches
embedded from spigots in the concrete.

"Ok, Kelly.." encouraged Charlie Atkins, the replacement
engineer assigned to 51 until Mike Stoker's situation
fell one way or the other over the fence. "This is
an easy one. Think...grease. Now, what mix are ya
going to pick for your hoses?"

Chet Kelly watched Marco, Cap, Roy and John
string lines at the ready, aimed at the fire's heart, and
they all looked back towards Chet at the chemical
panel on the engine for Chet's signal to let go
the charged hoses.

To one side, the Batallion Chief was also drilling another
company as they broke in a new man on driving
a ladder truck around an obstacle course. For the
moment, the gray haired supervisor's attention
wasn't on 51's exercise.

Chet Kelly bit his lip, checking and rechecking 
the pumper readouts. "Repellent surfactant
at ....18%  per hundred gallons ppm...with
every five hundred hydrant gallons from the 
ground."

"Right. Right.. Gotta do that because fuel's
so volatile with our 21% air 02 ratio." 
Charlie said with a nod around the smoke drifting
towards them from the building. 
"Now what else before you release your mixed 
reservoir to your crewmates?"

Kelly's face fell out of concentration and his
initial self assuredness dropped away.
"I don't know man. I - I got the right chemicals
here.. I know I do.. I've been eating sleeping and
dreaming these mathematical formulas for
days now."

Suddenly a pair of calm hands came between 
the men and locked off the settings Chet had
chosen on the fire retardant soup to the hoses
and Mike Stoker's voice said. "You tell your
captain to call in the foam truck for a protective
covering spread, Chet." His fingers danced over
the dials of the engine in a ballet of familiarity.
"From what I feel here, you did everything right. 
Give them the go ahead. This was sort of a trick
situation they mapped out for you. It's not in 
the book. Just remember foam with fuel and fire."

Chet's face was a mix of emotions as he lifted his
HT to his lips. "Engine 51 to HT 51. Hoses one
and two are set and locked. Foam 127. Move in
to assist from the...." Chet paused as he rechecked
the wind direction with a moistened finger,.."north
side of the fire. You are committed.."


Charlie, and Mike, who was still eyepatched tightly, 
both smiled when Kelly said everything according 
to procedure. Even Cap, on Chet's place at a 
hose nodded appreciably before he turned back
to fight the fire.

Mike said, "Turn down your master valve two points.
Your left hose sounds kinda hissy.. That one's not getting
enough psi because your supply's been split off.
Must be because the engine's not quite on level ground.
Flows faster on the downhill side always."

Kelly squinted into the dials and wiped grime off
the dial in question. "Man.. what ears.. You're right.
Two points off my percentage setting. 
I thought we had the lock down legs on the plates
planted perfectly man. I thought we were ON a level."

"This whole valley's tilted. You had no way of
knowing that. I'm just remembering the pitch angle
from my head."

"Terrif.. Way to burst my bubble, Stoker." Charlie
ribbed. "And here we all thought you were a miracle
dowser through and through."

"Ok, I'm compensating....now.." Kelly said.
Chet and Charlie hauled on Mike's arm to get him back
against the safety of the truck to prevent him from 
getting a painful bang on the shins when Johnny's 
team's firehose bucked at Chet's minor adjustment 
to it. 

"Thanks guys.." Mike said, feeling for the cab
door. He opened it so he could sit inside to 
keep the excited Boot company.

Atkins had his own advice.
"Chet, do this too, whenever you
make an adjustment or you'll be black and 
blue before you know it."
  Charlie felt around with a foot in the standing 
runoff water until he had one shoe pinning down 
the main hose as the men worked to put out 
the mockup fire in both the semi vehicle and 
the test building. "Just like this. These hoses
are like live animals whenever anyone rounds
a corner in there or shuts off a spray or two to
move to another hotspot. You won't see
any of that. But your legs will sure make 
a note of it. Directly standing on these 
puppies will give you plenty of warning 
about a buck."

Mike said, " Yeah, that's a good pointer.
Now Kelly, I want you to watch the wind
and how all the hoses' fanning water 
may be getting diverted. I can't tell 
what it's doing by the sound. If you see 
the guys' jackets getting dry more than the 
water's cooling them off, turn up the psi and 
the chemical mix rate until 90% of the hose 
charge is getting onto target, that'll buy them 
more time on their SCBA's since they won't 
breathe as fast then due to overheating. A 
trick I learned is to get progress reports 
from each team, every five minutes about
hose patency. Listen to how they're 
breathing over the HT and that will give 
you clues too as to how well you're 
controlling their water supply based on 
need. They won't tell you if they're in trouble that 
way since things are steaming in a fire anyway."

Kelly's face fell open in surprise as he kept his
lightly ace wrapped hands on the master pressure
dial valve and watched the effect of the daylight
wind over the whole scene before him. "So that's
why you keep bugging us when we enter new
fire hotspots.."

"Yep.." Mike grinned.

Charlie even looked abashed. "You know, Stoker.
I've been engineer at 110's for five years and that
monitoring trick is certainly new to me.."

"That one's not in the book either.. I adapted
it from watching Johnny and Roy work on 
people. The higher the breathing rate is on 
anybody, the more trouble they're in. It's a
dead giveaway.  Works for working firefighters 
who aren't in medical trouble too."

"You know, Stoker?  When you finally get back on 
the job, I'm trying out your little trick at home
on the guys, at the next fire. I've always wondered
why our station's SCBA fill rates were so high.
Now I know why.. The men were too hot while
working!" Charlie groused.

Chet and Mike laughed.

Mike cocked his wrapped head at the sound of
the laying foam finally swallowing up all of the flaming
truck mockup. "Ah, ha.. We've turned a curve.
The building, next, after that truck, won't be hard to 
extinguish now that its fuel source is smothered. Hear
that, Kelly? The fire's quieting even though the flames
probably still look the same. It's dying out now."

"I hear it. It was kinda growling and hollow before,
now it just sounds like a really big camp fire."

"That's the distinction between the growth and
death of a fire. Remember those sounds." Stoker 
told him.  Boot seemed to agree and he barked.

About ten minutes later, station 51's fuel fire exercise
was over and the next scenario was set up
for the next station on the rosters to complete.

Chet was told to wrap up his hose teams and wash away
the foam for the next group to use the test site.

Station 51 was released to return to base and their
regular duties.

--------------------------------------------------
Mike was laughing with the guys in the kitchen
when Chet made his way to the engine and his
potential new station assignment at the engine
chemical panel.

Gage had come by to wash his hands before lunch
when he noticed Kelly quietly surveying that
side of the engine with his hands in his pockets.
"Chet, are you actually moping?" he joked,
his shoes skidding to a halt from his whistling
jog to the locker room sinks. "I don't believe
I've ever seen you do that before.. Well," he
amended, "maybe only once or twice before."

"Oh, hi Gage." Kelly said glumly, sitting on 
the running bumper of the engine. 

Boot seemed to notice that Chet was feeling 
blue because he bolted out of the kitchen, 
dropping the roll of paper towels he had 
stolen from Marco, and immediately
skittered across the slippery floor to nuzzle
a nose under Chet's ace wrap gloved hands.

Kelly winced a bit with the move on his still
healing hands but he immediately
ignored that and petted Boot's long back.
"Hi, Boot. Look,... you guys didn't have to 
come out here. I'll be in for lunch in a sec. I...
just got away for a moment to do some 
....thinking..."

"Oh yeah?" Johnny said, his earlier kidding turning
respectful and serious for once. "What about?
You're gonna be a richer man come Sunday when
you finally pass your finals.. An engineer pays,
what? Eighty dollars more a week than a regular
hose man? And you know, come to think of it,
you're gonna be making fifty dollars more
a week than either Roy or I. " Johnny put 
a shoe on the engine's bumper which Chet 
promptly pushed off to rub with the white towel 
that he now carried around with him out of habit.  
"Hey.. hey...  watch the scuffing! I gotta 
account for the public appearance of Red 
in spite of how much the rest of you guys 
like to dirty her up."

That surprised John. "Oh really. Now it's you,
versus us? Is all this standby engineer promotion
stuff going to your head?"

Chet looked immediately abashed and suddenly 
sheepish.. "Well,... " Then he squared his shoulders
and only flinched a little under Johnny's angry stare.
"...Yes... I guess.."

Johnny's face melted from suspiciously malicious
to a broad sh*t eating grin. "Well, good. Now you're
finally starting to sound like Mike Stoker. I'm proud 
of ya, Chet.. Come here and stop feeling guilty.
After all, this pumper man job thing's only gonna be 
temporary and we all know it.." And Johnny's 
arm wrapped around Kelly's shoulder in an 
affectionate hug which turned into a raiding 
noogie, and soon the two friends fell into a 
wrestling match on the floor that Boot happily 
referee-d and watched over with loud bellowing 
barks. 

Of course, the struggle and grunting commotion
brought everyone running. Soon, bets of who
would pin who first filled the air and even Mike got
into it despite his blindfolding bandages.


Right then, the station alarm went off .....
 
------------------------------------------
Photo :  Mike Stoker, looking dashing.

Photo : Charlie Atkins from 110's.

Photo : Engine 51's chemical dials.

Photo : Burning fire in a test building burn.

Photo : Boot and Chet, in the same small chair.

Photo : Johnny and Chet having a heart
            to heart talk by the engine.

*********************************
From :"Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Instinct~~  
Date : Wed, 19 Feb 2003 01:26:19 +0000  

   
The call came through, ending the wrestling match
in short order.

##Squad 51. Child down, at the McGregor baseball field. 
9 Greenway Pass. Cross street, Niven Boulevard.
9 Greenway Pass. Cross street, Niven Boulevard. 
Time out, 13:07##

"Cap!" Stoker said, ignoring Boot who was pulling 
on his leg to get him out of the way of the squad's 
bumper as Johnny and Roy wrote out their call slip 
and opened the rescue truck's doors. Mike grabbed 
onto the edge of the wall map to steady himself 
from Boot's  protective-of-the-one-hurt activity 
below.

Captain Stanley piped up after acknowledging the 
run on radio frequency. "Yeah, what is it Stoker?"

"That's my ball field. Let me go with them."

Stanley looked up sharply.
"I can't authorize that. Stoker. You're on medical leave.
And besides that fact, you're still wrapped up like a m-"

"Cap, I know those kids! They're on my Big Brother
program. It's gonna bug me not knowing who's in 
trouble."

Boot was still hanging onto Mike's pants leg when 
Cap finally said. "All right. Get in there. And I'll tell 
you the real reason why I'm letting you go with 
them. One of your kids may have been the arsonist 
who was responsible for your eyes getting burned."

"What?!" Mike gasped. His shock and surprise were
plain even through the white kerlix concealing most
of Mike's face.
 
Cap sighed.
"Gage, DeSoto you didn't hear this.. Stoker, the kid 
you're looking for is Jeremy Conners, he mentioned
something about Max, knowing details about the
warehouse blaze that injured you. See what you 
can scrounge up."

"Thanks, Cap..I will. " Mike said, turning his bandaged 
eyes towards the squad, but Boot still stubbornly  
held him in a firm grip by the ankle.

"Boot, let him go.." Cap ordered the hairy mutt 
"guarding" Stoker. The shaggy dog dropped his 
hold on Mike's foot immediately and sat next to 
Cap as the garage doors finished rolling up into 
their housing. Stoker climbed in fast when Roy 
stepped out of the squad to make room for him 
to sit between them. DeSoto guided Mike's head 
into the cab before he got back behind the wheel.

Chet came jogging up and he handed over 
Stoker's helmet from the engine for him to wear. 
"You let me know what happens, Mike. They're 
my kids too.."

"I can do you one better Kelly." Roy promised him. 
"Get on your HT. Listen for our med call on Rampart's 
base station channel.. It can be done. KMG 365-B, 
sub two. We'll still be in the ten mile range and open 
to you. That way, you'll know the minute we do about 
what's up. Just don't speak up or L.A. will hear you."

"Nice tip. I'll do that." Kelly said, and patted the 
squad roof to let Roy know that all feet, dog and 
human, were clear of the tires.

Roy, John and Mike drove quickly out of the 
station, turning left onto the street with sirens and 
lights on full.

Chet and Cap in the bay crouched by Boot, and both men
absently petted him. "Hey Cap, just how much trouble are
we in for letting a blinded fireman go to a rescue scene?"
Kelly asked.

"Could be plenty. But, I've special leeway when it comes 
to investigating a fire crime and that's what I'm banking 
on to bail my butt with the chief. If Stoker stays off the
radio, like I know he will, headquarters will never know 
he's out there with them." Stanley snorted.

"Glad you let him go."

"Like I had any other choice? I don't think twenty 
Boots could've stopped Stoker from riding along.." 
Hank quipped, pointing to their mascot who was 
playfully tugging on their shoe laces. "Come on, 
let's put lunch in the oven. We'll eat when they get 
back. "
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The squad arrived at the park on the north side of
the reserve's four fields. Stoker was able to tell them 
which ball diamond was the McGregor field because of 
his knowledge of the park's layout.

Roy and Johnny screeched to a halt in the parking lot
nearest a crowd of kids milling about on top of the 
rickety graffiti painted, wood tiered bleachers.

"Mike, do you know your way around here well enough?"
DeSoto asked as he pulled out the biophone, drug box
and 02 from the storage compartment of the squad.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I hear Old Ben in the concession stand.
I'll let him lead me to the bleachers so I can talk with
the kids. Just find out what's wrong. It's killing me not 
knowing what's happening here."

It soon became clear that finding someone 
to be Mike's eyes to navigate the area wasn't 
necessary. 

"Coach! Hey guys, look! It's Coach! He's all right!" 
said an older boy of twelve in a dingy baseball outfit.
Then two baseball teams of kids flooded around Mike 
Stoker enthusiastically in a cheer and even Old Ben 
lifted his head to peer myopically from the concession 
stand.

Gage was irritated by the throng, 
"Hey ...hey ...hey, now we're on a rescue call. 
Who called the station about a hurt or sick child?" 
he said lifted his medical boxes high over the 
children's milling circle around them.

One little girl piped up. "Oh, you must mean Susan."
she said snidely. "She made us call for help from 
the park pay phone because she said she was dizzy 
again."

"Does Ben know about this?" Mike asked incredulous.

"Nah, he don't know.." said another boy. "You know how
deaf he gets sometimes. He told us there's no way
he's leaving the popsicle cooler. Guess the older boys
have been stealing too much behind his back. Must
have thought we were trying to trick him again.
Why are your eyes wrapped like that, Coach?"

Roy rubbed his nose, looking at the tiny young man.
"Look just forget Coach's eyes for a minute.
Where's Susan? Least we can do is take a look at 
her to see if she's really ok." DeSoto turned.
"Mike, do you have State authorized consent 
of guardianship over these kids when you're on the 
premises? I don't see any adults nearby that look 
like they belong to any of these kids here.
We may have to treat her."

"I do... Susan's one in the Big Sister program under my
authority. This is All-Clubs week and sounds like
all my kids are here today. All I know is that she's 
a fourth grader at the Home which is only a block 
away to the north." Stoker said. "There ARE no parents 
as all these guys are fostered out through the
State Home there. Usually Old Ben has his grown 
daughter psychologist helping to keep an eye on things 
during Free Day like this. I'm not hearing her voice 
anywhere. Don't know why she's not here right now. .
If she had been, this whole situation might not 
have happened the way it's happening right now."

"Mike, your authorized consent is all we need at
the moment. Try to calm down." Johnny said. 
Then he pointed out a random kid from the noisy
bunch. "You! Son! Yeah, you! Take us to where 
Sue is, pronto like. It might be serious." he said
letting his frustration of not finding their patient
ooze out of every pore.

The strapping flame haired boy protested. 
"Gee. What a grouch. You sound like my ex-step 
dad."

"Jeremy Conners..!" Stoker admonished recognizing
the voice that he had overheard.

"S-Sorry, Coach. Bad habit."

Gage put on a grin he didn't feel.
"I promise we'll be a lot less grumpy after 
we make sure Susan's not in any kind of medical 
trouble. So lead the way and we'll be nice as pie 
through it all."

"She's under that gum tree. She crawled over there a 
few minutes ago. But she's probably faking it again. 
Like last time."

DeSoto did a double take at that news.  Then he
remembered how tall kids tales could really get 
and dismissed the remark as exaggerated.

Roy and John ran over to the tree with their equipment
to the small blond headed tom boy appearing girl lying 
face down in the shade.
 
They left Stoker and his young fans behind.

Gage grabbed for the fourth grade girl's brachial pulse. 
"She's viable. Around 100." Then he bent down to 
check the quality of her respirations. "Hey, Susan, 
can you hear me?" Johnny listened to the back of 
her chest without moving her. "She's breathing, but I'm 
hearing substantial wheezing." he reported. 
"Could be asthma since her upper airway's clear." Gage
lifted his head and shook her shoulder. "Susan ! Hey! 
We're with the L.A. County Fire Department and 
we're here to help you out. Now, come on and 
open your eyes."

She didn't respond.

Gage pinched the loose skin on the child's arm to further
fine tune test her awareness. Susan only groaned and 
didn't try to pull away from the pain or attempt to 
open her eyes. "She's groggy. About a six on the 
Glasgow, Roy." and he bent to check her eyes 
with a penlight. "She's definitely not faking anything 
here. Slight dialation on both pupils, and she's 
getting more dyspneic by the moment."

Meanwhile, Roy was losing his medical history source.
Jeremy Conners was edging away from the scene.
"Wait... wait ..wait, where are you going? I need
to talk to you.." DeSoto said to him.

"The game's going on.. I gotta get back.." the street wise
Jeremy said. He started to turn away but Roy grabbed
his uniform sleeve as he prepared an oxygen mask for 
Johnny to give to the downed girl. "Hang on. Just 
a minute more all right? Tell me about that last time 
this happened to her. Can you do that?"

The red headed boy seemed unnaturally nervous 
around the paramedics, and he squirmed in Roy's 
grip. "I don't remember. It was earlier this spring. 
I.. Uh... She forgot to bring her...onhal.. unhal.."

"Her inhaler?" 

"Yeah, that's it. Now let me go.." The boy said,
yanking his arm away and he danced out of range 
nimbly. He made tracks back to the grandstand 
across the parking lot and nearly crashed into one 
of its posts when he made sure Roy and John 
weren't following him. 

Johnny Gage had finished his assessment of the girl.
"Not a mark on her." Only then did he sit her up 
against the tree to help ease her increasingly labored 
breathing. He took the mask from Roy and set the 02's 
delivery on light before setting it firmly over Susan's 
nose and mouth. He then began to search her pockets 
for forms of ID and for the missing inhaler.

"We gotta move fast or she'll quit breathing on us."
Gage said.

Roy's face frowned as he took a BP. "70 systolic.
I'm getting on the phone early. A doc can order
epinephrine at least."

"Here, guys." a voice said and an inhaler plunked 
down onto the grass between two tree roots at Roy's 
feet.

Johnny and Roy looked up from Susan.

Mike Stoker was being led over to them by 
two of the street gang players from his baseball team. 
"I made the kids check the outfield for anything 
belonging to her thinking things she had in her 
pockets could have fallen out during a rough play. 
They say her name's on it." he informed his 
coworkers.

Gage snatched up the tiny inhaler and read its details.
"Albuterol. MDI dosage .15 ml per inhalation." He sniffed
its mouthpiece. "Looks like she didn't use this today at all,
Roy."

"Got it.." and Roy connected a link on the phone 
with Rampart.

"Thanks Mike, but I don't know if having this will do 
any good. We don't have a positive ID on her yet.
She's carrying no identification cards. No med bracelet.
No nothing! I wish to G*d that you had your eyesight 
back right about now so we know for sure that it's her."
Gage complained. He started loosening and 
freeing the girl's clothes from around her waist, chest 
and neck. He began setting up an EKG.

"What's she wearing?"

Johnny muttered. "What? Stoker, we 
don't have time for this.."

"Humor me, Gage. I don't need to see to 
positively identify her. And I'm the only one
who can. Most of these kids only know 
each other by their made up street names."

"Well.." Johnny exclaimed in exasperation. 
He held up the jersey top he had removed from 
the girl. "It's uh, sort of like a gray and blue baseball 
uniform. But she's wearing no cap."

"What number's on the front?"

"Fourteen."

"It's her. Guaranteed. These kids are very territorial about
letting others wear their team jerseys. Doesn't happen.
Susan's got short whitish, blond hair and a star shaped
birthmark on her left cheek bone." Mike said.

Johnny checked the girl for such a mark. It was 
there. "Well, I'll be.." he smiled. "Stoker you just
earned yourself a day off from dinner detail the
instant your butt's back on duty."

"I'll take it.... Anything else I can do?" Mike said.

Gage watched Roy give his medical report to 
the hospital and said. "Yeah, kneel down next
to me right where you are and help me keep tabs 
on her resp rate. We may have to switch over to 
the resuscitator. Here, the apparatus is at your
two o'clock. Think you can be a head vent?"

"I can do it blind." 

"I know you can.." Johnny said seriously. 
"Be right back. I'm going for the defibrillator.." 
and he rose and ran to the squad full tilt.
"Roy!  Pulse's 140 and rising.."


DeSoto was completing his initial report.
"...Vitals signs are showing acute distress.
Pulse 140 and bounding. Respirations 26 and
shallow. Marked wheezing even in Trendelenberg
position. BP is 70 systolic. I can send you a
strip on lead two."

Dr. Brackett replied and Roy could hear his alarm.
##Do it.##

"10-4, Rampart. Transmitting, lead two.." Roy said.

##51, what's her consciousness level? I'd 
feel better if we had a controlled airway on her.
I'm reading a V-tach of 140 with precursor
PVCs. Does she have a gag reflex?##

Mike lifted up the child's 02 mask and
slid a finger into her open mouth and down 
Susan's tongue, briefly touching the back of it. 
The little girl's stomach heaved in immediate reflex 
and he quickly stopped his move so she wouldn't 
complete the attempt to vomit.

"That's affirmative, Rampart." Roy sighed.
::Damn..::

##Ok, we'll tackle this head on, without one. 
Prepare to administer one dose of the patient's
inhaler. Rig a nebulizer of a second dose to
a humidified ambu on standby with 2 ml's 
diluted respiratory saline. Keep monitoring
all vital signs closely. 51, is a defibrillator nearby? 
Albuterol with shock sometimes brings 
about acute cardiac dysrhythmias.##

Roy saw Johnny hoofing it back with the unit
across the parking lot. He had also grabbed
a long wooden stretcher board for CPR 
and transport ease. "10- 4, Rampart. We 
have it in hand."

##Start an IV first, 51. We'll want an open line
if she crashes. Make it of normal saline, a 500 ml
bag. And keep it open only. Give me another
set of vitals after her initial medication is in. And
keep the EKG strip to base running.##

"10- 4, ah,..Administer one dose inhaler post IV 
normal saline, 500, to keep open. Standby nebulizer 
second dose with 2 cc's respiratory saline in an 
ambu bag. Preparing for possible counter shock. 
Vitals to follow post med. Continuing the EKG send.
10-4." DeSoto said. He lowered the phone. "How's 
she doing Mike?" Roy asked in worry.

"Still attempting inhalations. But her rate's up to
36."

"Tidal air?"

"Building. She's barreling out a bit."

"Johnny, let's move. She can't wait."
Roy said, taping off the IV. "She's trapping
air already."

Gage scrambled to Susan's head, dropping
the defibrillator paddles he had laid out and 
he shifted the girl from the tree to Mike's 
shoulder so she sat against him with her 
head tipped well back. 
  
Together, Roy and Johnny fitted and triggered
the inhaler into her mouth so the medicine
entered deeply into her lungs. Gage immediately 
listened to her chest with a stethoscope,
holding his breath, while Roy and Mike held
her still. Roy replaced the mask back over 
her face as she began to cough harder and 
harder. 

Stoker whispered into her ear, stroking
her hair to comfort her.  "It's ok, Susan, 
tastes bad but it'll work good. Give it a second 
or two to absorb, hon... just wait, then it won't 
be so hard to breathe. It's all right. 
Coach's right here."

Susan jerked with an involuntary cry,
suddenly stiffening, and her gasping stopped.

The EKG fluctuated and the two paramedic 
firemen froze, their eyes glued to the heart 
monitor, and Mike, as he listened, as it 
danced irregularly for one second. For two.

Gage reached for the ambu bag.

But then, Susan sighed quite normally, and
all of her respiratory distress ended. 
Her breathing deepened and eased and 
soon, the rapid heartbeat on the monitor 
smoothed out into calmer rhythm.  

A minute later Susan's eyes cracked open, 
swollen and red, as she came to fully.

Johnny sighed likewise in relief at the positive
proof of her now open lungs. "That's my girl.
Hi there. It's ok.." he said softly as she began
to cry. "The worst is over.. It's ok..
Mike, you can lay her back down again.
Mike, you can let go of her. She's fine now."

Susan's fright grew as she became more 
aware of being lowered to the ground and
the fact that strange firemen were now hovering 
over her instead of her playmates. She immediately 
screwed her eyes shut again. The heart monitor
blipped out a faster rate.

Gage took her IV free hand into his own.
"Susan, Susan. Now listen to me."
Johnny soothed as his partner and Stoker 
wrapped her in a warm blanket.   "I know 
you're scared, and I know that medicine's
probably making you sleepy. But you're gonna be 
all right now. So go ahead and take a nap. I 
promise, you'll wake up in a nice big, comfortable 
bed later tonight in a place a whole lot better 
than this nasty old root knotted lawn here in 
the ball park, ok?"

The siren of the approaching ambulance
grew louder, startling his young friend,
so Mike added. "A hospital doctor's gonna look
at you next, just so we know you're better
for good."

"Coach?" She sobbed. "I- is that you?" she
said, peering up in confusion at Mike's
wrapped eyes.

"Yeah, you're not dreaming."

"But--"

"Shh, rest. Don't talk. My answer is, 
Yeah, I'll watch your mitt for you. Got 
it right here." and he held it up.
 
"Scout's honor?"

"Scout's honor.."

"Ok, and watch my jersey, too. *Yawn*"
Susan's cheek snuggled up against Stoker's hand
where he held her face around the 02 mask
and fell asleep instantly.

Roy called Rampart, smiling from ear
to ear, with a glowing vitals set for Kel 
Brackett.

##I saw the improvement. Glad the one 
dose protocol did the trick. Now get her in here
ASAP.## he grumbled happily.

"10-4, Rampart.." Roy replied, waving
a "Come on!" to the attendants hustling it 
across the parking lot.

They arrived and positioned the gurney
near the sleeping child. Roy set the 
empty long board first onto the cot and 
Gage said, "Ok, let's load and go."
he told them. "No need to semi-elevate her. 
She's a very stable asthmatic recoveree. 
The board's only an arrest precaution." 
He said moving the EKG, portable 02, drug box,
and the defibrillator to the foot of the cot.

"Easy. " Roy said loudly for Stoker's benefit. 
"This one's special."

"Right.." One of the two burly attendants
gently gathered Susan up into his arms without
waking her, blankets and all.
 
"Is he going in too?" the second attendant asked,
gesturing at Mike with his bandaged wrapped
head.  Stoker was leaning against the tree, reining
in his reactions about the nearly soured rescue 
of the little girl.

"Him? No, no no. He's a fireman on medical leave.
He's with us. Go ahead. My partner's riding in
with you." Roy answered.

"Ok, Joe.. Whatever you say.." he shrugged
in a New York accent.

DeSoto watched the man leave after the 
girl laden gurney and Gage.

 

Then Roy walked the few yards back to the tree
where Mike rested his head.

Roy tapped his shoulder.
"You coming with, Stoker?"

Trembling, Mike lifted his head to face DeSoto.

"Oh   uhhhh.. " he said thinking hard. "No." 
Stoker said, still cradling Susan's jersey top and 
baseball mitt. "I'll take a cab back to the 
station in a while. I want to hang around to 
see if I can locate Jeremy and his friends or 
even Old Ben's daughter. I want to bend their 
ear a bit about what they've been up to lately 
since I've been gone."

"Suit yourself. If you're not back by dark, we'll
send out a search party.." DeSoto quipped.

Stoker waved a get outta here gesture at
the departing footsteps he heard. "Thanks 
Roy, for not letting her die." He called out after
DeSoto. "I don't know what I could've done 
if she.." and his voice cracked.

"Hey, just relax. She didn't die. Johnny and I make
it a point to never lose any kids on any of our 
runs as that would be a gross violation 
according to BOTH our personal rule books."

"Thanks just the same, Roy."

Roy stopped and turned back.
"No, thank YOU. Your remote consent 
to treat, power-of-attorney, over Susan made 
all the difference in the world today. I'm just 
glad you decided to ride along with us 
on your sudden instinct like that."

"Yeah.." Stoker said. "So am I."

"See ya, later, Mike. I'll keep you posted." Roy
said. 

"See ya." 

Soon, ambulance and squad left the ball park and
their sirens faded into the distance, leaving 
Mike alone in the parking lot surrounded by
wind and seabird calls.

Then Mike turned his face into the sun and
felt his way back to the grandstand where he
sat on the hot planking, pretending to be 
engrossed in the ongoing game he couldn't see, 
until.....

--------------------------------------------
Photo: Cap squinting in bright sun wearing
           full gear.

Photo : Roy looking down on a victim in a close up.

Photo:  Johnny Gage reassuring a small crying girl.

Photo: Dr. Brackett quickly scanning an EKG strip.

Photo: Mike Stoker looking down.

*********************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : The Tinder Kid  
Date : Wed, 19 Feb 2003 21:53:18 +0000  
 
"Hey Coach.. What are you doing here?" an adolescent
voice said, cutting through the sound of the active baseball
game playing on the field. "Last I knew, you were 
wearing angel wings in a flaming tin can of a factory, 
squashed flat. Heh."

:: Gotcha.. ::Mike thought in triumph. His mind raced. 
::So you were at my fire, Max. And you knew about 
the resulting roof collapse accident. Now how does Jeremy 
Conners fit into all this? ::But out loud, Stoker said. 
"Hello,  Maximillion." Mike smiled through his bandages. 
He could just imagine the dark skinned, slightly overweight
boy, taking the seats two at a time, to get up to him. 
"Can't keep a good man down I guess." :: Or a good 
fire crew.:: his mind amended.  "My crew bailed me out, 
last second, that night. Have a seat and take a load 
off for a while. I'd love to catch up on what I've been 
missing around the old dugout." 

He heard the boy's jaws cluck noisily as 
he chewed something. Mike fervently hoped it 
wasn't a tobacco plug again. He couldn't tell for 
the hot afternoon wind was blowing in the wrong 
direction. 

"Not much. Same old same old." Max drawled in 
heavy L.A. inner city accent. Then his voice changed. 
"Say..Coach, you feeling ok? You're kinda pale, 
even more than you honkys usually are." Max said.

"Oh, I see. I'm gone for under a week and suddenly I'm
demoted to being a honky instead of a hose jockey. 
Thanks alot." he teased. "What does that make you then,
Max, eh?" he said punching his friend's shoulder in jest.
"Hmm.. A darkie instead of a delinquent juvie? G*d 
forbid.." he moaned dramatically.

"No, a darkling. Get it right." Max found Stoker's 
error on city lingo very hilarious and he let out a 
rich peel of laughter. "Gonna give me a reason why
you're looking like a ghost, Coach? Or are ya just 
gonna be funny and 'burb talk me to death?"

Mike's amused grin fell away into seriousness.
"Susan just gave us a good scare down there.  
She's the reason why I came here to the park with
Johnny and Roy today before my eyes healed if 
you're wondering."
 
"Little ol Susan? What's she got to do wid
you, man?" 

"She got a little sick just now because of her asthma.
And it almost got dangerously out of hand. Didn't you
see me trying to help out?  Surprising since your 
favorite game roost in the scoreboard sign has the 
best overview of the whole parkland."

Max scoffed. "I didn't see nuthin'!  That little liar's 
been trying to wimp outta playing good all summer.
Besides, Jeremy told me she was faking it."

::Yeah, so then where were you to miss the sirens
and all the excitement of the last hour?:: his
conscience fathomed. Again, Mike spoke differently
from his mind's track. "Never mind. You had to 
be there." Stoker sighed. The callousness of the 
city kids he coached had long ago ceased to 
surprise him.  

"Here.. Hold out ya hand.." Max said. "Got somethin'
for ya.."

Mike lifted a palm, and he felt a slender stick with a 
weight pressed into it. He smelled a rich, mellow 
sweetness coming from the frozen treat in his
hand. "Ooo, banana! My fav. Thanks for the popsicle."

"No problem. Got one for me, too." the boy said 
proudly and he leaned into Stoker's arm, trying to
tip him over in a play wrestle. But as usual, Mike
was an unmoving stone on the bench. But that
didn't keep Max from testing out his young strength
on his favorite program coach.

"How'd ya pay for it?" Mike said while Max grunted
with a failing effort to budge him off his place
on the bench.

Max bristled tangibly and Mike felt him stiffen and
let go of him."Some gratitude! Here I do for a friend 
and what do I get? Snoopy questions. What do ya 
take me for? A criminal?"

Mike schooled his lips to stillness so the boy wouldn't catch
on. He thought. ::Yeah, the worst kind. One that
would burn down old buildings with a total disregard
for any possible loss of life. :: But out loud, Mike said. 
"No. I never pass judgement on anyone without proof. 
I was just wondering since your uniform doesn't have
any pockets to hold loose change and you travel light
with nothing but your bike usually, when you come here."

Max frowned and rubbed his curly ebony hair where it
itched his game sweaty face. "I.....uh,..got coins in my
roost, Coach.. Jeremy and I got a whole tuna can 
full up there from his paper route. " he lied.

"Ah, I see." And Stoker let the subject matter drop.
It would be easy enough to ask Old Ben later if
his popsicle cooler had been raided yet for the day.
"So, how's the game going?" he waved a hand 
absently in front of him.

"Going good. Smitty's on first, Tiny's on third and it's
Cruz up to bat. I'd say we'll smear da other team
next inning up." Max said, slurping noisily on 
his popsicle as it melted in the hot sun. "We're six
to nothin."

Mike ate his, too, just as fast. "Go Zephyrs!" he called
out. And got an enthusiastic round of cheer whistles 
from his kids on the field. He grinned despite himself
and then parked his licked clean empty popsicle stick 
in his polo shirt pocket. He held out his hand to Max
without saying anything for his, just as the older boy
was about to sail it like a spear onto the playing field.

"You sure you can't see?" Max said grumbling as
he handed it over.

"Not yet, but soon they tell me. Close that mouth 
before you draw flies, Maxie boy. I just know you very 
well. You should start collecting these from the other 
kids and save them for me. I collect these sticks for 
Tiny."

"Whatever for?"

"He likes to build firetrucks out of them." Stoker said.
"I already have one at home from him that looks like 
the engine from my station. It's on my mantle above 
the fireplace."

Max's voice changed. "Oh, you mean the Ward LaFrance."
he said in an admiring tone. "I like dat one, too."

Stoker angled in like a blood hound. "So you like
Big Red. Didn't know that."

"Oh, yeah, Coach." Max sighed. "I's specks there ain't a 
fire truck around that I don't know the name of...I like
the way they look."

"Oh, really? So why don't you ever come to the 
firehouse with me and the other kids for tours?"

"Man, stuff like dat's for little kids. And I'm almost twelve."
Max declared. "I got other ways of seeing them.."

Mike felt a chill. "Oh, yeah. What do you do?"

"I go to fires. Lots of em happening in the neighborhood.
Then I can get real close. And it's real odd sometimes, 
cause usually Jeremy's right dere with me even if I 
hadn't showed him where da burning building was first." 
Max said.

Stoker managed to swallow around his dry throat.
"H-how do you know when there's a fire?"

"Use your noggin, Coach. Or did that get just as
bashed up as your eyes did? From a police scanner, 
man. There's one in Old Ben's concession stand."

That snapped Mike out of his fears. "There is?"

"Yeah. He keeps it under the popsicle cooler. 
And I'm the ONLY kid who knows it's even
THERE." He said proudly. "Didn't you know that 
Old Ben used to be a hose jockey just like you? 
And just like Jeremy Conner's dad before he got
burned up!"

Mike shook his head no and didn't say anything 
for a while for a long stretch of time. Stoker didn't like
the new thoughts forming in his head. Feeling disturbed,
he tried to focus on the happy sounds of the game 
entering its final inning.

Then he heard Max trickle, "Uh oh.. Gotta go, Coach."

"Why? You just got here."

"The shrink's comin..Old Ben's daughter."

Mike said, "Victoria won't bother you. She doesn't
bother me.."

"Well dat's just you, Coach. She psycho analyzes 
us juvies all the time and it's startin to get on 
my nerves big time. She's not nice like you and I've 
given her plenty of times to get dat way. Gotta split 
before she sees me. And if she asks, I wasn't here 
talking wid ya.."

"Deal.."

Just like that, Maximillion was gone.

A half minute later, Mike heard fresh sneakers
climb the bleachers to his level. Out loud, he called, 
"Hi, Vickie.. Long time no see..." he joked.

The woman actually stopped in her tracks in shock.
"How did you do that? I could have been anyone
from the game.."

"I'm clairvoyant. You should know blindness causes
the other senses to sharpen."

"Not that fast."

"Well, guess my case's the exception to the rule." 
he replied.  He waited for Victoria to sit down 
next to him before he said, "Say, Vic. Where were 
you about a half an hour ago?"

"I went to get Dad some more ice for the popiscle
cooler from the supermarket. Why?"

That answer got Mike mad. "Don't you know you 
have to keep an eye on these kids when they're 
out of the Home?  Your father's not physically able 
to keep tabs on them well enough to matter anymore."

"Mike, why are you getting so angry?"

"Because just now, I responded to Susan Jordan's 
rescue call with the squad when she suffered a severe 
asthma attack."

"Susan? What?... Where?!" 

Mike could almost see the psychologist's face 
search around for the little girl. "Vic, sit down. Just sit
down! Most likely, she's still at Rampart getting treated
or at least waiting for the duty counselors to come pick 
her up to take her back to the Home." Then his anger
really went ballistic. "I'm surprised you didn't even 
notice she was MISSING until I told you she had fallen
ill."

"Mike Stoker, that's enough!" Victoria flared. "I am a
volunteer in this park. Not a paid employee like you
and my father are.  I only come here to lend an ear, 
to help these poor kids work out some of their 
hostile feelings about being abandoned by their families.
But only if they come to me. I'm not responsible for 
them or for what they do outside the Home."

"Yeah, well somebody should be! There are problems
I could tell you about that crop up out here
that you couldn't even dream of.."

"Try me, Coach. I'm a licensed expert." 
Vickie said in a steely voice.

Stoker hung his head in shame. "Sorry. I just get
a little possessively protective of these kids 
having none of my own."

"I get the same way I'll have you know." she
said, a little less defensive. "So, who'd you talk to
that got you so up in arms?"

"What?"

"The popsicle sticks. You've got two in your pocket
and I know you only eat one a game so you can
stay fit for work."

Stoker subconsciously felt where they lay in his
shirt pocket with a thumb, and he drew them out,
fingering them nervously in a palm. 

Then he sighed in heavy resignation.
   
From the beginning, Mike Stoker told Victoria all he
had learned from the kids and Cap about the fire that had
trapped him and about what he newly suspected about
his closest and dearest project kid. He only hoped that 
it would get the ball rolling fast enough to save him. 

"And just who is this child whom you think is so
deeply disturbed about his father's death? We've 
dozens of pyro potentials in the Home that fit
that psychological history profile."

"The boy I'm referring to is Jeremy Conners."

"Oh my G*d.." and Victoria sucked in her breath.
"He's not a pyro risk in my files."

"Put two and two together, Vic! That's the only 
conclusion we can draw here.. oh, man. His night visit
to Cap was all a sham. A cry for help. I can see that now.
And his finger pointing at Max was just afterthought." 
Stoker stood, very agitatedly, and Victoria had to 
grab his arm to help him keep his balance. "Where is he 
now?" Mike asked urgently. "Do you see him anywhere?"
 
Victoria's heart began to pound when Mike's new
found worry began to fill her soul as well. "Uh,.. 
L-let me look..uhh.. The ballgame's over, Mike." Her voice
trembled. "All the kids are going back to the Home 
from what I can see. Even Dad's closing up shop."

"You sure."

"Yes, straight back. I'm counting.... ten bikes moving
across the field."

"We're one short."

"I subtracted Susan's bike."

"Think, Vickie! The team's got twelve kids on it. Oh, Lord..
And I'll bet when we get to the Home that every bike will 
be there, but Jeremy's."

----------------------------------------------------------

Photo:    Kids surrounding home plate in a Park.

Photo:  Three inner city kids by a palm tree with a bike.

Photo: Mike Stoker looking stern.

Photo: Stoker and Victoria the psych, disagreeing.

Photo : Kids sitting on a park bench waiting turn at bat.

Photo: Jeremy Conners, as catcher, looking up.

Photo : Victoria outside, looking worried.
 
**************************************** 
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : The Pecking Order  
Date :  Thu, 20 Feb 2003 06:45:13 +0000  
  
It was shortly after the squad had gone 
10-8 to Rampart with their newest patient. 

   "WwwooooHHHOOOOooooooo!" Chet 
war-whooped in the garage. 

The resulting echo around the bay brought
Cap out of his office on the run.  "Kelly just 
what the heck is going on out here? Why'dya
yell like that? Ya scared me half to death!"

"She's ok! She's ok!" Chet singsonged, dancing rings
around Marco and his captain. He even picked up Boot's
front feet and danced a jaunty jig with him.

Hank knew immediately what he was talking about.
"Oh, the kid call." he said drawly. Then his face picked
up. "Glad to hear it turned out all right, pal." and he 
started back to the mounting paperwork on his desk. 
He immediately about faced and asked. "Just uh,.
one thing... What was wrong with her? I didn't 
quite get all that paramedic stuff over the HT."

"A COPD case, Cap. That little girl had asthma so bad her
lungs almost sealed off. Gage and DeSoto managed to 
locate her inhaler and find out who she was in time to 
use it on her. And poof! They had an instant cure for a 
potential killer annnddd,.. It's another kid save in the bag for 
the magic dream team! That's what? Twenty kid calls in a 
row, no losses? That run was a thing of beauty!" Chet 
celebrated.

"Huh.. Imagine that." And Cap started walking back 
once more towards his office.

"I'm telling ya, Cap.." Chet called out after him. "You should
start taking some of those auxillary courses the chief
makes us take for us guys who work with the medics.."
He shouted when Cap's back totally disappeared.  
"You might enjoy learning something!!" he grinned 
jubilantly.

"Uh oh...." Marco trickled to his engine mate. "Now
you did it.."

Cap suddenly reappeared and glared at Kelly pointing 
the all mighty, much afeared finger right at his face. 

Chet cringed, stooped, and instantly picked up 
Boot as a security shield. 

"Are you saying that I know nothing about my 
job, Kelly?"

"No, Cap, I.... I..." Kelly stammered. " I...meant 
about all that medic stuff..heh... I....I.. just thought that 
you might want to.... educate yourself more on all 
that medical jargon that goes on over the biophone 
between the squad and Rampart by taking the same  
classes that, uh.... we...." he voice tapered off limply.

"That's sound advice there, Kelly. But I think you may
be just a bit ahead of yourself in the hierarchy.
Now, get THIS advice from ME. I know it will behoove 
you to educate yourSELF on just exactly what the rank
of CAPTAIN means." 

Kelly winced at the word "captain" and thereafter, 
at every repeating of the word.  He shrank smaller 
and smaller behind Boot's back, whom he held near 
to his face for dear life.

"Especially if that same CAPTAIN holds a vote on 
whether or not a mere regular time firemen, YOU,
will ultimately get Stoker's job on the engine until 
he returns .." Cap's voice had been rising higher 
and higher and louder and louder until even the 
unflappable Boot in Chet's arms started to whine. 
"Is that clear?!" Cap boomed at the curly haired
irishman.

"As crystal, Cap..." and Chet tried to chuckle 
weakily.

Hank held Kelly's eye in a scathing glare for 
almost a full ten seconds. Then he looked away 
and one hand snaked up from his hips to scratch 
Boot on the head in apology for scaring him while 
he dressed down an underling. "And put Boot down 
pronto."

"Yes, sir.. Right away, sir.." Kelly set Boot slowly down
on the floor and smoothed out his coat without daring 
to look away from Cap's disapproving stare. 

The shaggy dog immediately skittered out of Chet's 
reach, all four sets of claws scrambling on the cement 
floor in his haste to get away from the currently 
Hank hexed fireman. 

"Next time.. take it like a man, Kelly. Dogless!"

"Right, Cap. Thank you, Cap. Anything you say, Cap.."
Kelly kept on saying obeisances, withdrawing slowly,
until his back impacted the kitchen door. Then he 
hastily stumbled and bolted through the door 
for the sheltering illusion of the newspaper and the 
bodily comfort of the cushy leather couch.



Marco had been quietly watching the whole fiasco
the entire time. He was nonplussed and relaxed with 
his arms comfortably folded over each other. 
"He's right you know."

Cap's iron glare shattered into one of weariness
and he admitted. "I know that... I just wanted 
to vent on somebody. And he was the best target.
The fire investigation's not going anywhere and 
it's eating at me, Lopez."

"I can tell. You chewed up Chet and spit him
out pretty good there." he said, cracking a polishing
towel at the engine's side panel loudly to make
a point.

It was Cap's turn to wince. Hank immediately 
looked remorseful and bit his lip. "Maybe I should 
go in there and apologize to him....ya think?"

Marco stopped Cap before he got two paces.
"Uh,,..I'd... wait a while for the effect to sink in 
first if I were you."

"I'm afraid I don't understand, Marco.." Cap said
blankly..

"Well, Cap, it's like this.." Lopez said thinking while he
absently polished the same spot on the engine that
he had just shined a few moments before. 
"That was the first time I've ever seen Chet cower 
sincerely at one of your dressing downs since Johnny
became a medic."

"Really?" said Hank, straightening with pride. Then he
lowered his voice to a confidential whisper, glancing
towards the kitchen to make sure Chet didn't overhear. 
"I've been watching McConike..Trying to ......imitate
him. " he said, gesturing thinking fingers to the air before
rubbing his lips thoughtfully. "That, what you just witnessed,
was how he used to ream MY rear way back then."

"Oh, I see. Displacement of aggression." Lopez 
quipped as he picked a new spot to polish on 
the engine chrome. "Turning full circle.. Maybe even...
disassociated revenge.. Clever.. Good way to deal 
with your burning hat/inspection day phobia."

Cap narrowed his eyes at Marco. "Lopez, stick to 
being a fireman. Somehow hearing Freudianisms 
coming from a man from south of the border just 
doesn't work for me.." Cap muttered. Then he 
retreated to the inbox work load that seemed only 
to have piled higher during the minutes he had
procrastinated while blowing up at Kelly.

Marco blinked several times, then he self-
consciously peered at his reflection in the engine's 
side view mirror, trying to see what Cap was talking 
about.  He saw Boot regarding him closely. 
"Hey boy. Do you think my growing a goutee' 
will help people start to take me more seriously?" 
he asked the attentive mutt while he pushed out his 
chin in an experiment.

Boot tipped his head to a funny angle and 
whined a doggy noise of puzzlement.

-------------------------------------------

Photo:  Cap dressing down Chet Kelly who's
            cowering behind Boot in his arms.

Photo : Cap's chew butt glare in closeup.

Photo : Marco, smiling and circumspect through
            the squad's open window.

Photo : Boot, barking into the acknowledging mike.

******************************* 
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 13:28:08 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>   
Subject:  Kid Talk  

---------------------------------------------

"And again......." Mike Morton ordered.

Susan Jordan took in an even deeper breath
than before as the dark skinned intern listened
to her chest with his stethoscope. "How am I
doing now, doc?" she said breathlessly afterwards.

"Uh..hmph." Morton grunted. "Sounds like they're
going to have to be removed right away..." he
said.

Susan's eyes got as big as saucers in concern
where she sat upright on the treatment room 
gurney, but that change made Roy and Johnny's
little blond haired patient seem even cuter 
than a button.

"Doc.."Johnny warned with a grin and with his
voice, smacking the young doctor's arm with 
back of his hand. "Quit teasing her." 

"hmm? Oh! oh. oh.. I wasn't talking about your
lungs, Susan. Sorry... I meant these.." he said tapping
her hanging IV and the flowing O2 cannula she
still wore in her nose. "Actually, things sound 
really good now. The bronchospasms seem to have
dissipated completely."

"Finally..." Susan said as Dixie moved on Morton's
nod to free the little girl from her tubes. "I hate it
when that happens. I feel like a beached sperm whale
the whole time."

Morton gave another grunt, then asked. "Do you
usually get your asthma attacks when you exert-
I mean run around or ride your bike ever?"

"No.." Susan said. "Not ever."

"Well, what do you think triggered it today?"
Roy asked the child from where he leaned
near the exam room door still holding his
walkie talkie in his hand.

"I don't know.." Susan said evasively. "Maybe
because I got real mad I guess.."

"Mad about what?" Dr. Morton asked gently
as he helped her put on her windbreaker that Roy
had found in the park before the trip in.

Susan zipped her lips shut and dropped her 
head and watched as Dix secured a bandaid 
on her hand where the IV had been. 
Then she shot an uncomfortable glance up 
at Morton, Johnny and Roy. "It's a secret. 
A girl's one." she declared with defiance, 
wrinkling her nose as Dixie took off the 
cannula from around her face.

"Oh, I see." Nurse McCall said, fighting a smile.
"Well," she sighed expansively.. "If you gentlemen
would excuse us for a moment. Us girls are gonna
talk privately together, if you catch my drift.."

All three men in the room suddenly caught on
and hastened to make themselves scarce. Gage
fumbled with gathering up the portable EKG 
monitor while Roy grabbed the small oxygen
tank from the foot of the gurney, handing off
Johnny's helmet to him as he struggled through
the door with his load. Morton helped the
paramedics make their exit by holding the
door open for them. The paramedics and 
doctor all waved at the scowling child as they 
left.

"Take care Susan. Coach Stoker sends his best 
to ya.. Ahh!  Oops. heh." Gage said sheepishly
as the door nearly squashed him.

Soon, nurse and girl were alone.

---------------------------------------------------
Johnny made immediate tracks to the water
fountain along the wall, against which he piled the 
medical gear. Morton followed, looking to learn 
more from the medics before they had to leave. 

"Here, hold this.." Gage said to Roy, shoving his
helmet into Roy's stomach.

Being ticklish, Roy grabbed it without thinking. 
Then he made a face when he realized that
Johnny had outsmarted him in the helmet 
carrying game. Having no better way to
carry the extra item, he parked his own
back onto his head with a frown.

Gage smirked in triumph and he took a 
long pull from the icy water stream dancing
in front of his nose. "I'm just too fast for ya, 
Roy. Someday, you'll learn." he chuckled.

Mike Morton cleared his throat. "Fun and games
over yet?"

Roy and Johnny's grins fell away they both slipped
into professional mode. "Sure doc." Roy nodded.
"Well, uh.. it happened pretty much as Susan said
it did. She felt her chest getting tight and she
just crawled away from the game and trying to
will it away by resting under a shade tree. Only
her usual trick didn't work."

"Oh? Didn't she have her inhaler with her?"

"That's just it, doc." Johnny said wiping his mouth
free of water droplets. "We think she doesn't like 
the notion of needing one. Stoker had to scout 
around a baseball infield before he located it for us."

"Thanks. That'll help me figure out what to tell
the case worker when she gets here for post visit
instructions. Oh, yeah... How's Engineer Stoker 
doing? I haven't seen him since the night you fellas 
brought him in."

"Stoker?" Johnny said. "He's doing fine. Though
I do wish I knew more details about his eyesight 
prognosis, doc. He's clamming up about it."

"Nice try Gage. But I can't tell ya anything."

DeSoto lifted his head.
"Please, Doctor Morton. Y- You don't
have to give us much. I-it would really mean 
a lot to Johnny and me and the rest of the 
guys if we had something substantial to go on." 
Roy pleaded.

"All right, all right!" Morton said holding up his
hands in surrender. "I can tell you this much.."
he said, beckoning a come closer finger.

Roy and Johnny leaned in nearer with side long
glances at the people passing in the halls and
then confidentially, at each other.

Mike Morton whispered. "Nothing he's going to
face,.....will be bad news.."  And then the young 
African American doctor was off down the
corridor like a shot.. "See ya later, boys!" he 
called out as he rapidly departed.

Gage's mouth flopped open in wide disappointment
and he bellowed, "Oh, come on, doc. That's not fair.
You could have given us more than that...!!"

Morton shrugged hands and shoulders as he rounded
the bend, "Can't.." he replied tartly amused and 
pantomimed a zipper shutting firmly across his lips
and made good his escape.

Johnny was stuck looking at the place where 
he had last seen Morton's white tunic-ed 
back, gaping like a fish.

Roy leaned on the wall and crossed his elbows
over one another with a mystified grin. "I'd say
Morton beat you at your own game, Johnny.
He's even faster on the draw than you are."

"Would you just shut up.. And carry those 
two helmets like a man, you look ridiculous
wearing one in the hospital like that." And
he swiped Roy's headgear off his partner's 
head, thrusting it at him.

Roy suddenly snatched up the gear boxes 
and rabbit dashed for the supply desk. "Ha! 
You touched it last.." he teased and got out 
of range quickly before Gage realized that 
he'd been had yet again while still holding the 
"ball."   "And that's a tag back. So accept the
full consequences.... like a man.." he smiled.

"Hey!.. You'd kick a guy when he's down?!"
Gage shouted after him.

"Sure, why not? You aren't down, you're just a
little stung for being so cleverly outsmarted,
that's all." Roy said, pouring himself and
Johnny some coffee from Dixie's warming pot.

It took a full minute for Johnny to figure out
how to carry all the equipment, his talkie, AND two
helmets. He nearly dropped his run slate. 
Finally, Gage got a handle on his ungainly load
and he let loose a long suffering groan, trudging
slowly after him. "Thanks, pal.." he said 
sarcastically from behind a wall of gear.

"No problem, Junior.. And remind me to thank
Kelly for the Helmet Game idea when we get back. 
I think we're really going to have fun with it ."

"Speak for yourself.." Johnny grumbled as he
set all the gear and hats onto the desk in front 
of him.

"Here.."

"What?!" Johnny snapped. He felt a prod and
looked down to see a coffee cup nudging his light
blue shirt.

"You're gonna get thirsty lugging all that."

"You're all heart.." Gage said, snatching the cup from 
Roy gruffly.

"It's in my nature." Roy replied, draining his own 
in two swallows.

----------------------------------------------------


Dixie had finished getting Susan set for discharge
from the ER and then she got her into her
jeans and shoes to go along with the windbreaker.

The blond haired girl had jumped down from the 
gurney to go wait for her ride in the waiting room,
when Dix said. "Hang on a minute there, young lady.. 
You forgot this.." she said, holding out the Albuterol
inhaler Roy and Johnny had said was hers.

"Oh, that ol thing.. You can have it. I don't want
it.."

"Listen, sweety. That "old thing" saved your life
this afternoon. Now I think you owe it to your
personal counselor to at least be cordial enough 
to have it on your person for the next time you
get into the weeds. Don't you think?" she said,
lifting Susan's chin gently by the chin.

"I guess.." The girl said glumly, taking it reluctantly
from Dixie's hand.

"Here. Have a seat back up." Dixie said, patting
the gurney and the sheets lying rumpled there.
She surprised the unhappy child by hopping up 
onto the gurney too, taking her into her arms
in a mothering hug.

Susan relaxed immediately and almost started
to cry because it felt so good to be held.

Dixie sensed the child's fragile state, but she went
on.  "Now.. let's have that woman to woman talk 
before you have to go. I did hold up my part of the 
bargain by shooing all the men out of the room.."

"You did.." she sighed. "Guess I have to tell you
then, huh?"

"Yep." Dixie said, unwrapping her arms from their 
hug to straighten a messy curl back to its usual
place behind Susan's ear.

Susan took a deep breath in, fiddling with the
silver inhaler in her lap, before saying, "Jeremy Conners
said that he was going to make sure no more buildings,
like the one that killed his dad, stayed standing anymore.
I got really mad because he said he wasn't sorry for the 
one that hurt Coach."

Dixie blinked a bit at that, frowning. "Just what do 
you mean by that Susan..?" she whispered, making
sure her voice stayed calm even as the rest of her 
filled with a sudden sick dread.

"Don't you get it? Jeremy's proving himself to the
Skinheads Gang. He's trying to be picked to be their 
next firestarter ace.  They told him his dad won't 
rest peacefully until he burns someone else."

Dixie gasped in shock, but quickly hid it. Numbly, 
she felt the next words tumble out. "When, wait..it's 
Jeremy ...C-- Conners, isn't it?"

"Uh huh.." she nodded, fiddling with the rings on 
Dixie's elegant hands.

"When will Jeremy Conners, .....try it again?"  

"When you can't see the moon anymore."

::Ohmyg*d..:: Dixie quailed mentally. ::That's tonight!::

-----------------------------------------------------


Mike Stoker and Victoria the psychologist were 
having dinner at the station with the rest of
the gang. Cap had insisted she stay to shed
some light on the kids in the Home.

"Now, Captain. You know I can't discuss details
of my case minors with you.."

Cap inclined his head. "I'm not asking for their
phone numbers, just a little insight or two. Look,
it's costing the city thousands of dollars, if not
millions, each time a derelict goes up in smoke.
Now that translates into budget cuts, and eventually,
those hit the fire department, and that effect,
gets US where it hurts the most. Right in the 
pocket book.."

"Here, here.." said all the gang with derision.

Victoria sent down her fork and knife with a
clatter and she looked up from her plate of
roast chicken. "Oh, isn't that so noble of you."
she said with heat. "Money first, eh? Well, your
tactics stink. I'm not the bad guy here."

"No one's saying you are, Vic.." Mike Stoker 
insisted, rubbing an itch around his wrapped eyes.
He had been silent through the whole debate but
now he found he had to speak up for his crewmates.

"Oh, Mike, not you too." she said, surprised.

"Not me what? I'm looking out for everybody here.
My crewmates, my team kids and you..believe it or not.."

"Well you have a strange way of showing it. " Victoria
sighed. "...You're abandoning me.."

The rest of the firemen around the table hushed and
fell silent. By now, no one was eating.

Victoria felt the weight of the quiet so she pegged
Hank with a hurt stare. "Is this how you work your 
investigations, Captain Stanley? By first stuffing the 
witness you want with food and firehouse hospitality?"

Confused, Cap was mute.

Victoria went on. "I get it.. Then you all start hounding 
in slyly, hunting for protected information..."

Cap snapped out of his shock.
"That's preposterous, Miss Vickie. And you know it.
My men and--"

"Spare me the high and mighty ethics speech. I've
heard it hundreds of times before from other firehouse
captains."

Cap's mouth shut.

"Yes,..I've dealt with other pyro cases where a child
has visited a favorite fire house in a sudden rush of
guilt or daring. So I do know what you and your 
men are going through. And I do understand, Mike, 
the stress you must be feeling not knowing who
for sure, was responsible for your accident."

"Vic.."

Victoria rose in her chair and all the other men rose
too, in reflex. "If you'll excuse me, gentlemen. 
I think we'd better conduct this fire investigation 
separately, Captain. I know we'll work better that 
way in the long run. And I promise you. I won't 
withhold any information that may prove a danger 
to either this crew, or anyone else. Good night.  
Mike, this was a truly memorable meal.."

None of the gang, including Roy and Johnny, knew
how to take that remark.

Victoria left quickly for the garage bay and the rear door
leading out to the back parking lot. 

"I'm sorry, Cap. I don't know what's gotten into her. Let
me at least try to talk some sense-- " he broke off
hearing Vic struggle with the complicated deadbolt on
the back door. "I'll be right back.." Mike Stoker got up 
and rushed out after her, using the willing Boot on a 
lead as a guide dog.

"H*ll hath no fury like a woman surrounded." Kelly 
improvised.

That earned him a glare from both Johnny and Roy.



No one felt like eating until Victoria was back at ease.

Mike's roast chicken and dumplings grew cold, while
they waited for sounds of return from the back
parking lot.

---------------------------------------------------------

Boot found Victoria out in front by the flagpole.
He barked, letting Mike know the woman was near.

"Victoria, I'm sorry if you got a weird impression from 
us. It wasn't on purpose. The guys are still upset
about me being blinded even though we all know
I'm not going to stay this way. Just the fact that it 
happened irks them.
And with firemen, that means turning over every 
stone until a solution can be found to prevent another 
accident like mine from ever happening again. Can 
you forgive me? And us?" he asked. 

Victoria's face crinkled into a half smile when Mike 
held out two arms out in front of him like a child
looking for reassurance. He was pointed in 
completely the wrong direction.

She spared him embarrassment by sidling into his arms
and returning his friendly embrace. "Oh, all right. I 
just get so frustrated sometimes.." she sighed setting
her chin onto his shoulder.

"So do I. Frequently."

The wind picked up just then, as the sun settled
below the horizon, and the flags on their chains 
cracked suddenly, like a pistol shot. It startled
Victoria who ducked out of the hug in reflex.

Even Boot scrambled away, pulling on 
the lead, nearly tipping Mike over in his haste to
locate what had startled him.

Mike chuckled. "Hey, Boot. Settle down. It's just 
the flagpole, not an explosion. Come here, you.."

Victoria and Mike both crouched while they petted
Boot briskly to end his fright. Then Stoker stood, 
drawing Vic upwards. "Here. This is my job, too, to man
the flagpole. Help me untie this chain from around
the hooks here and we'll take them down for the night. 
Then we can head back in. I'll reheat dinner in the 
oven." he grinned.

"You're so cute.." Vic said. "I can see why dad
chose your field to run his concession stand in."

"What? You didn't chose my field because the kids
I work with just happen to be the most troubled
kids in the city?"

"Well,.. that too." she considered. "What's your reason
for coaching them?"

"I like to keep all problems where I can see them. That
way, I can figure out how to solve or help them eventually."

"Sound principle.. I think I like it.." Victoria declared as 
they fought with the large flags, folding them up in the
rising breeze that was rushing in on the heels of the fast
approaching dusk. "I, too, like to keep things well managed."

Mike grinned and took the folded bundles of silk from her
arms. Then he put two fingers in between his lips.
"*whistle* Come here, Boot. Come on." 

The dog stopped his leg lifting "outing" around the 
red fire hydrant by the boulevard and returned, trailing his lead,
to nuzzle Mike's hand. He then sat and dutifully accepted 
the flags Stoker draped over his back for the short trip he 
knew was necessary to carry them indoors.
 
Victoria laughed. "What a good helper!" She said, petting
him enthusiastically. Boot's tail thumped the flagpole with
loud metallic pings in happiness as she scrubbed him behind
the ears. "Boot's a real sweetheart. Had him long?"

"Nah, Boot's a stray. He was here for a few days two years
ago, checking us out. Then.....Marco ...said he came back 
the night I was hurt, looking for me." Stoker said with some 
emotion.

Victoria took his hand. "Maybe he just likes to keep those
down on their luck...... within sight.."  

"Maybe. Come on." Mike said releasing her hand. " I'm hungry.."  

Woof!

"And so's Boot." Stoker laughed. "Let's go inside. It's getting
cold out here. The sooner I have some hot food in me, the
better I'll feel."

"Maybe by then, Dad'll have found Jeremy.."

"Why's Old Ben getting involved? He should be resting."
Stoker insisted.

"Dad thinks if he spends more time with the kids off duty,
that he'll win their trust. He thinks afterwards, that
maybe they'll stop stealing his popsicles."

"It'll never happen. Not in a million years. Kids are kids."

"I know that. And you know that. But Dad's like me, Mike.
He's gotta try.."

"Let's hope between all of us, that the trying will be worth
something."

"I'm sure it will be. Dad's almost a good a detective as
he was a fireman in his day."

Stoker smiled, and let Boot show them the way 
through the side yard.

--------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  John and Roy tussling over dinner in a pique.

Photo: A close up of a cute blond little girl.

Photo : Mike Stoker, manning the flagpole.

****************************************
From :"patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] One Dark Night....   
Date :Fri, 21 Feb 2003 06:13:32 +0000  
 
  **Tandom post by Cassidy Meyers and Patti Keiper
<killashandrarey@hotmail.com> 
<pattik1@hotmail.com> via Email Tennis.**

   Maximillion and Jeremy Conners ran
to the gap in the fence surrounding the old
firehouse on 223rd street. In his hand, the 
red headed boy held two Coke bottles full of 
kerosene stuffed with dull cloth wicks.

"Are you sure you wanna go through wid
this?" Max said. "I don't care what those gang
sentries say. You don't have to do this.. It's
craziness, man! What have you got to prove?"

Jeremy was bigger than his best friend and he
took full advantage of it. He grabbed the dark
boy's collar and yanked him close. "My dad's
soul for one thing. My honor for another."
he whimpered. Max was shocked to see his 
usually quiet buddy suddenly losing it like a baby. 
"I  want to belong  somewhere, Max.. " he 
sobbed."So bad I can taste it.. 
I had it once. The perfect family.. you know?"
he choked. "Then one night, my dad...fell off the pole."
His face twisted in anguish and Max could see
rivulets of water streaming down Jeremy's
freckled face. 

"What? I don't understand."

"It happened right here, Max. Right here.. 
In this old worn out firehouse!! The earthquake 
made him slip and the fire after finished him..!"  
Jeremy shoved Maximillion away and scrambled 
through the rend he had made years ago in 
the fence line. "Dad!  Dad!!" he screamed in
grief and despair.. "I'm coming..!! Just like
I promised. On your seventh anniversary..y..y...yy."

"Jer, no! Wait!" Max leaped to tackle the red haired
boy, but missed, landing in a pile of dust. He coughed,
frightened, as he watched Jeremy's striped shirt 
disappear into the bowels of the derelict station.

Maximillion froze when a rumble of motorcycles 
at the end of the deserted block drew his eyes away 
from the nightmarish scene he couldn't believe was
happening.  

It was the Skinhead Gang, officiating Jeremy 
Conners rite of passage. 

Max wailed.."Jer! Come on!.. We can still 
get out of here before they find us!! Jer!" 



But Jeremy Conners was long gone. 

The boy ran through the familiar ruins with the 
ease of long practice to the brass pole still in place 
among the dusty bricks.  He leaned up against it, 
wiping his tears away, and he called. "Benjamin..
Are you here? It's seven o'clock. " he spoke to the 
dark room and the stillness amid the rubble. "I'm so 
glad you called me tonight. Now I have someone 
to play with.." he shouted, smiling through his tears. 
Conners reached down and found the old gas lantern 
he had recovered from his dad's collapsed office 
and he lit it with a match. "I'm over here. By the 
sliding pole.."

A sound of stumbling echoed around the gutted
foundation of the old fire garage and all at once,
Old Ben was there, leaning on a half buried 
stone wall for support. "Jeremy Conners..? Is 
that you, my boy? Heh. I brought a whole box 
of popsicles we can share together. Won't 
they go down good?"

"They sure will Ben.." Jeremy said, a slight grin showing 
on his face. "I got something for the both of us.."  
He held up the two Coke bottles full of lighter
fluid. One in both hands. ::Dad, I'm coming...g..g..::
his mind whimpered.

"Sodas, eh? How nice of you to think of them. 
Just let me catch my breath first. Not easy moving 
around in here. Let me .....rest up a bit.. Then we 
can have those drinks.." he gasped, then 
Old Ben sat down on the rickety stairway littered 
with heavy timber and dead vegetation.

Jeremy was going to shift his bottles to his throwing hand 
when the other one lifted the lantern up so the old 
man could see to sit.
A sudden, unfamiliar pang gripped him and soon after,
the memory of his dad's death retreated and floated
away..

"Ah, that's better, such a thoughtful young man.
Now.. come sit beside me and we'll talk." Old
Ben said, brushing off dust and brush from
the step next to him. "Especially, about him.."

Jeremy's vacant expression...... changed.
To one of profound sadness and grief.  The 
bottles in his hand fell out of his grasp, rolling 
into a hole in the floor and out of sight. All 
thoughts of suicide in Jeremy evaporated and 
he seemed to lose years in age. "B-Ben, Is it 
true you knew m-my dad? Victoria said that 
you knew him."

"Eh? Come closer, Jeremy, so I can see you
better. Come sit with me. Don't be afraid.
I know it mustn't be easy for you to come 
here to the place where your dad met his 
end."

Just like that, Jeremy's strength crumbled and 
set down the heavy lantern, wilting in grief.  
"Oh, Ben...I miss him so much.." he sobbed.

The old man blinked and took the boy's head into
his lap and stroked his hair lovingly. "I know
you do, my boy. So do I. He was the best
captain an old engineer like me, could ever
have..."

-- -- -- -- -- -- 

Jeremy forgot time as he lost himself in the old
pain again. Dimly, he was aware of Ben relating
story after story about his father, each one more
exciting and more captivating than the last, and 
he was aware of the gentle caring voice of the 
old man sounding very much like the way his 
dad's had, until full darkness had fallen.

A brass bell began to strike richly in the stillness,
jolting Jeremy out of his foggy half sleep. "Ben?"

"It's all right, my boy.. Sort..of  a surprise.
I fixed up the old call bell again and rigged
it to sound off the hour. It's ok. Rigged it to
the city's board, too, just fer kicks... hehe hehe."

Jeremy froze when the bell stopped at eight.
"Oh my g*d.." he whispered. "They're coming.."

"Who's coming, my boy..? I don't understand."
said kind Old Ben.

"Them..! They've come to see if I have it done."
Jeremy whispered in fear.

"Have what done?"



"This!...Here!  Now!" said an angry voice. Older and 
very mad. Ben and Jeremy turned and saw him at
the head of the collapsed stairs. 

It was the Gang leader. 
"Well, well well, looks like our little stooge is 
gonna chicken out. Too bad. I kinda liked you, Red.. 
But now there's a price to pay for your miserable
failure, isn't there, little boy..?" he sneered. 

And he held up the two very familiar looking bottles.

"Where did you find those?" Conners gasped.

"Below.." he shrugged diffidently. "I figured, why 
waste a good thing?" he said evilly.

Jeremy ripped out of Old Ben's grasp and stood
on shaky feet, not caring that his shoes filled 
with mud.

"Don't you hurt him. Please.. I've changed my mind.
He's not the one, please!"

"He'll do.." said the leader. And he leaped back
up through the hole in the roof he had come
through. And the twisted teen began to sing..

  "One dark night, when we were all in bed...
Misses O'Leary.. lit a lantern in the shed..
The cow kicked it over... She winked her eye and said...
They'll be a hot time, in the old town............. "

And then he whispered a final word..   "*Tonight....*"

"no... NO ! Don't!!" Jeremy cried and in his terror,
knocked over the forgotten lantern at his feet.

Its tumble smashed against the fallen bricks of the 
derelict firehouse landing and into the rich mat of 
dried sage and grass nestled there.  

Fountains of flame sprouted up through the
vegetation and a rising blaze caught and grew
with frightening speed around Jeremy and Old Ben.


"Awww, looky that? Little Jeremy's a red cow..
No, make that a yellow one.." chuckled the
homicidal gang leader. 

"What's happening?" cried the old man.

"We're being trapped! We've got to get out of here! 
Come on! I'll show you the best way out!" Jeremy 
said, pushing Ben before him towards the outside 
door he knew was in his dad's office.

Just like that, an explosion of fuel and fire dropped
directly in their path from a hole in the ceiling. One
of Jeremy's firebombs had been thrown, narrowly
missing them.

A manic face peeked through it and the gang leader
rolled his eyes with the sick pall of fascinated insanity.
"Going somewhere? I do believe we have a false
alarm...Please.. stay ..and warm yourselves by the 
fire.." 

"Torch!!.. Don't do this!! It isn't right.." Jeremy
gasped.

"You should have thought of that before you
joined my little gang of horrors, Red."

Jeremy and Ben stumbled, but somehow, they
made it around the new patch of twisting fire.

Echoey laughter swelled over the sound of the 
growing flames building higher in the ruin.

Coughing, choking, the old man and boy were
slowly driven back by the intense heat of 
the fire eating the dry old bones of the station.

They fell back against something smooth, and
cool.. "The pole! Ben, we've got to climb up."

"I can't.. I'm too....*cough*  ...weak.."

"Come on, you've got to try..!"

"Wait.. Jeremy,.. the bell.." Ben exclaimed, his
cataract cloudy eyes getting wider. 

"What? You're not making any sense, Ben, 
just climb.. Pleas-se..." the boy sobbed 
pulling on Old Ben's arm where he lay 
against the fire pole.

"No, listen to me, boy. I know what I'm talking
about..*choke* Get on my shoulders.."

"What?!"

"Just do it. I'm going to lift you up and you
are going to ring the bell.. Just pull the string.
L.A. will hear us. Remember, I repaired the 
network.."

Jeremy cried out as the old man shoved him
up the pole. Inch by inch, the boy's fingers
got closer to the satin rope. Then ...they...
reached and Jeremy found that he had just
enough strength to pull it down . 

SMASH!! 

A ball of fire landed against the wall in the
pole space above his head, incinerating the
bell's rope instantly. 

"No, you don't! I like to see my burns through
to completion if you don't mind." challenged
Torch.

Screaming, Jeremy patted out the flames in
both his and Ben's hair as they both tumbled
back down to the stoney floor. Scrambling,
Jeremy knelt by his friend's ear. "It's ok, it's ok,
Ben, I put it out.. Get up.. Get up!.. I thought of
something else.. You've got to make it to my 
dad's office. Get to the red door..It leads into 
the yard..  *gasp*  Go, Ben, they'll find you...!"   

"A fireman never leaves his v----" But Old Ben 
started coughing violently in the heavy smoke.

"Just go!  Back the way we came.
I'll try to draw him off!" Jeremy scrambled 
away from Ben and then back up the scalding brass
pole. Half way up, he swung over to the flaming,
disintegrating stairwell and up into the bunkloft at 
the top without a second glance back.

When Ben got his wind back, he opened
his eyes. He found that Jeremy was no 
longer at his side. "Jeremy!" he called out.
"Jeremy!" 


Seconds later, the flames crawled too close 
for him to continue to look for the boy and 
Old Ben was forced to drag himself into
the office despite what he wished. 

Once, there, to his horror, he found that 
Jeremy's plan for quick escape, would 
never hold any water.  

Torch had bolted the outer door with chains
and padlocks.....from the inside. 


Hot, breathless and scorched, the exhausted 
ex-firefighter began to pound frantically on the 
door but Old Ben soon blacked out onto the 
floor and his body rolled limply against the metal 
of the barricaded door.  

--------------------------------------------

At L.A. headquarters, Sam Lanier saw a light
go on that he hadn't seen in seven years.
::What th? It's old station nine.:: He thought.
::That's an in-house emergency signal coming
from the mainpole's bell box..:

His mind flashed back to the night of the earthquake
when a fire captain by the name of Conners had
rung the very same bell ....for the last time.

By their own volition, his fingers toggled the 
tone call of the station nearest that area.

---------------------------------------------------
 
##Station 51. Truck 127, Batallion 14. Automated Fire Call. 
2049 East 223rd Street. Cross street, Wilmington Ave.
2049 East 223rd Street. Cross street, Wilmington Ave.
Time out :  18:26.##     (Get where this is? :) )

"That's d*mned peculiar.." Cap exclaimed, recognizing
the location. "Say Lopez, isn't that the firehouse that
came down in the quake of--"

"Sure is, Cap.."

"Let's go.."

Victoria rose in her seat. "Oh, no. Not there."

"What's wrong, Vic? This is probably just a milk
run. Sometimes the wires beneath the old 
buildings in that neighborhood, get cross 
connected and the random power surges do
some pretty strange things." Stoker told her.

"No, no no. You don't understand. That's where
Jeremy Conners' father died. Tonight is the seventh
anniversary of his death.."

Mike Stoker whirled towards Victoria as the guys
rolled out top speed in the engine and squad.

------------------------------------------------


Jeremy remembered leaving behind the fire
and the heat. He only had focus enough, to find
Torch.

Rats ran frantically across the floor of the second story
bunkhouse and in many places, the floor was rotting 
and unsafe. But Jeremy knew where the solid
timbers were and he leaped across to them nimbly.

He didn't speak, knowing that any noise from him
could be lethal. Torch's personality always digressed 
far beyond sanity while he was attending a burn.

Soon, Jeremy reached the place he wanted. Bunk
Ten, his father's. The mattress was gone, but the
coils were still half woven into the bedframe.
The boy quietly paced three floor boards at its foot,
avoiding the fourth and leaped the rest of the way
to the bed. 

Determined, Jeremy got up on the rusty bed springs 
and started jumping up and down, cheering at the 
top of his lungs.

Soon, Torch's voice filtered through the dark.
"What are you doing jumping for joy, kid? 
Don't you know that I'm going to finish y--"

"Yayyy! He's dead and I did it.." said Jeremy,
fiercely, bouncing closer until he was at the foot
of the bed nearest Torch.  The whole time,
Jeremy never ceased jumping.

"What?" Torch blinked, shifting a lit fire 
bottle into his other hand.

Jeremy felt his breath rattle thinly in his
chest as he made his dry lips move.
"That old man. I burned him. Burned him
good..." he hissed, dropping to his hands
and knees, to laugh openly.

That halted Torch, cold. His face fell from
murderous intent to one of confusion...
Then Torch's toothless face split into a wide
grin that came slowly and he said. 
"Well, all right. Didn't know you had it in 
you, Red." and he blew out the fire bomb
in his grip.

Jeremy watched the rebel walk closer across
the squeaking fungus ridden boards,
nearer and nearer to bed number ten.

"Well, this changes everything, Red. Welcome
to the gang. You passed my test. Put it there, man..." 
Torch said, taking another step forward towards 
Jeremy on the bedsprings. 

The boy looked up and saw a leather glove approaching,
offering a hand shake to him just inches away from
his face.


SNAP!!


The fourth floor board snapped and gave
way, dropping Torch into the heart
of the blazing inferno roaring through the
main garage below. The flames' fury 
cut off any possible sound he could have
made while falling, instantly.

    Jeremy's face suddenly twisted and 
his eyes watered with hot tears, completely 
blinding him. He felt a moan form in his throat, 
but the boy who was Jeremy Conners no longer 
cared about communicating. Somewhere deep 
inside he was deathly afraid that he no longer had 
the will to try and make it back down to Old 
Ben in the Cap's office. 

Heart and mind in pain, Jeremy collapsed on 
the wired bedframe, begging his memory to 
offer up the familiar image of his father,
Captain Conners, before it was too late. 

"Dad, " he sighed.. "..get me out of here....." 
Jeremy shivered and then his head began to 
sink lower and lower from the dwindling supply 
of breathable air.

The angry fire that had killed Torch, the gang leader,
rose through the hole in the floor, rearing up over 
the bed frame where Jeremy Conners had 
suddenly fallen very still.

-----------------------------------------------

"Marco, Charlie, Roy, John, string two inch and a halfs
and cover the west side. And be careful. Looks like
another gang related torch job. There's a Harley
in front." Cap shouted.

Then he lifted his HT.##L.A. we have a fully involved
brick and wood two story structure. Advise the power
company to kill the electricity to our one block
area.##

"Really?" Gage said as he hurried by.

Cap grinned. "Yeah, saw a spark on the power pole
over there. Looks like some half wit's jury rigged
a line into the old firehouse itself. Gage spread
the word. I want everyone in full SCBA."

"Right, Cap."

Hank Stanley saw the mess the blaze had already
made of the old gallant fire station. Already the
main tower was crumbling to pieces in a rain of
ash and sparks. Again his HT met his mouth,
##Truck 127, cover the south side. Protect 
that direct exposure. Battalion Fourteen. Cover the
cross street drive and set up your command post 
there.##

Hank heard the hail of 10-4's reply back to his orders.

Then he saw a very quiet Chet standing in front of
the pumper panel off Old Red. "Well, pal. Here's your
chance to shine.. Think you remember everything?"

Chet was watching the fire with a fascinated horror.
"I sure do. Mike didn't let me sleep last night at all
'cause he was quizzing me so hard. "

"All right, then. Have at it. Look sharp for 
problem spots. Oh, and for look for the arsonist,
too. They usually panic and bail out in the 
worst possible place for it."

Chet nodded numbly. Then he turned back to
his chemical dials and water guages. "Man, this
is humbling.. " he said to himself. "I literally have
the lives of the hose team crew in my hands.."

"Yeah, well don't let that get to your head, Chet.."
Roy grinned, jogging by with the K-12. The blond haired
fireman already had on his air bottle.

"Believe me, I have a healthy respect for Stoker's
position from here on out."

Roy chuckled. Then he shouted.
"Cap!"

"Yeah..."

"Johnny and I are going in through that red door 
right there. Looks like the fire hasn't broken through
to that room yet.."

Cap eyeballed the door Roy was pointing to.

"Sounds like a plan.. Good spot to start
gutting the building. Have at it." he nodded.

Roy waved at Johnny to follow him up with Marco
on a covering hose and he put on his mask.

"This looks good.." he mumbled as he set the blade
into the door about waist high. He cut around the
horizontal bar, creating a football sized hole 
in under a minute.
Then he reached inside and tried to lift the door's 
latch from the interior. It didn't budge.

Grunting, he took off his glove and tried again, 
feeling around for the reason why
his cutting didn't work. He shifted around to use his
other hand when he was shocked to find a smear of
red on his skin.. ::That's blood..::  He pulled off
his mask and peered through the window.
"Hey, is anybody in there?!" He looked down
and saw Old Ben lying on the ground. He
had bloodied his hands trying to claw his way to
air. "Marco, Johnny! On the double. We've a
victim in here!!"

Marco dropped the hose and came pelting
with the crowbar..

--------------------------------------------
Victoria took full advantage of Mike's status
as a firefighter to get under the fire lines
nearest the scene. She pulled up her green 
Matador on a safe part of the street and 
quickly led Stoker to his captain's side.

Barking, Boot also jumped out of the car's
open window and ran with them.

Mike Stoker immediately told Victoria to 
leave Boot with Hank and to wait by the 
car for news of Jeremy.

"But.."

"It's too dangerous. You don't know how to 
keep safe this close to a fire."

"Boot can show me h--"

"No he can't. He'll be working, watching
the guys in case they run into trouble. He's
also on alert for any potential victims
shouting from the windows. "

"But Jeremy's still in there!" she wailed.

"Hey, now. We don't know that for a 
fact." Mike said firmly.

Just then, Boot bounded across the burning
boards and hissing water puddles left over 
from Truck 127's water shield, making a 
beeline for Roy's hacked open door.

"They've found someone!!" Victoria shouted.

Mike had the good sense to keep his grip
tight on her shoulders because soon after,
she fought him. "It's my father, Mike! Oh
my G*d!"

"Stay put, Vic. They'll be bringing him here."

Sure enough, Johnny and Roy ran with Old
Ben, arm-draped between them, towards 
the rescue squad. 

"They're coming!" Vic said.

Mike shouted. "Cap!!.. Roy and Johnny got a man
out of there.."

Cap left his place by the engine and grabbed the 
medical gear and 02 tank from the squad's hold.

Gage looked up as he carefully lowered Old Ben
to the ground. "Thanks, Cap. We can take it
from here."

"Keep me posted.." And Hank disappeared into
the darkness.

Vic tore away from Mike and hurried to Ben's
side. "How is he? Oh, please.." she sobbed, 
afraid to touch him.

"He's gonna be fine. Looks like all he needs is
some 02." Roy said.

Old Ben started to moan as the fresh air 
outside revived him. "Get...Jer--"

"What?" Johnny asked Ben. "Now just
lie still." he ordered. But Ben wouldn't.
He still seemed to be struggling to talk.
Gage bent close to make out Ben's words. 
"Just keeping breathing in this oxygen..It'll
help ya focus. Now.. what is it that's so
important to tell us?"

Ben fought Gage's hands, shoving the mask 
aside with bloody fingers. "Get him out.. 
Up....pole.." he gasped.

"Ok, ok, ok.. Just lie back down and
take it easy... Cap!!" Johnny hollered.
"We've got another victim in there.. 
This man says he's on the second floor."

"I'm on it.." And Hank waved two from Truck
127's crew to gear up for an exploratory.

Just then the whole front of the firehouse
came tumbling down towards the row of
water spraying firetrucks and Victoria.

A loose stone struck her and she went down.

"Victoria??" Roy shouted. Johnny and Roy
rushed over to check her out as fast as
they could. 

Chet could only watch hopelessly.

"What happened?" Mike demanded.

"Wall collapse. Victoria took a brick
to the side of her head." Roy said.

"She ok?"

"We don't know yet.."

Then there was no more time for words.
Both medics lost themselves in the care 
of their victims and soon, Mike was 
tuned out altogether.

"Oh, Jeremy..." Mike fretted. Then, on a 
thought, he whistled.

Boot came running, instantly.

Pulling a lead from his pants pocket, Mike
attached it to his collar and he turned his 
bandaged eyes towards the burning building.
"Boot...." he said, taking a tight grip on the 
leash.. "Seek. Find him. He's in the fire.."

Boot dashed forward, pulling Mike effortlessly
with him.

Stoker counted on the dust and smoke from
the fire and the cover of night to conceal his 
entry into the building fire.

His gamble worked. No one saw him go inside.

"Boot!" he coughed. "Find him.. Upstairs.."

Loud crackles from the burning timbers and 
their self destruction's rumble guided Mike 
on where not to step. He relied on the feel of 
Boot's leash on his arm to point out
the safest way. 

Mike slowly became aware of an intense
almost surrealistic bright orange glow. 
::The fire. I can see it!:: Stoker began to claw 
off his eye wraps as Boot led him deeper into 
the open garage and to the stairwell. He whined 
to his left suddenly and immediately turned away.

Mike covered his nose. He knew the smell of
a charred body when he encountered one.
"oh, please, no.." he sighed.

But Boot was still pulling him strongly onwards.
::Maybe that corpse back there, was the arsonist.::

Stoker's spirits raised. "I am in so much trouble.."
he mumbled.

The last of the bandages fell away and the
bright stabbing orange light pierced deep into
his retinas, making his barely healed eyes, water.
"This light..My G*d.  It's bright enough for me 
to see by!"

Soon, he was wiping away the tears as perfectly
clear, fire illuminated vision returned."Boot, double
time.." he ordered.

His shoe hit the first stair.

By some miracle, the front wall's collapse
hadn't crushed the stairwell and its bulk had
snuffed out a great deal of the fire in
that area. Mike followed Boot into the 
blackness at the top, where Stoker froze
in his tracks. Bright sparklets of light
lanced into his field of vision. ::Deprivation.
I still don't have my night vision back. I'm gonna
have to go back or risk getting trapped up here.::

But Boot's leash went tell-taley slack and 
Mike heard Boot begin to bark frantically
from just ahead of him.

Stoker reached out and his hand struck 
the hard metal coils of a gutted bunk .. 
and..a leg..

"Jeremy??!"

A small boy's moan greeted him.

Mike wasted no time and he gathered up the
boy into his arms and then slid him head first
over a shoulder. Then Mike said, "Boot. Out. Go
outside. Go..go.. go.."

Stoker's fear lessened when the bright glow
of the main fire granted him sight once more.

Near the outer door, Mike was met by an angry
team of county firefighters. "Hey.. just what
the h*ll do you think you're doing??" one of them
shouted through his airmask.

"Take him.. Sorry. I'm with 51's. I heard 
him calling for help." he lied. "I'm Mike Stoker."

"Yeah, I know who you are.." said the bigger 
one. "Is he breathing?"

"Yeah.."

Mike let the firemen take Jeremy and used the same
route he had taken before with Boot to return to 
the fireline.  As he walked away from the fire,
Mike was amazed to find that his watery
vision didn't entirely disappear. In fact, as the 
chill air cooled him, it got better. 

The first clear sight he saw, was Chet, 
sweating over the chem panel on the engine.
And then he saw the night stars.

Smiling, Stoker reached down and petted 
Boot's sooty back in sheer joy. "Good dog.. 
good dog.... What a way to work.. Good 
boy.."

As Mike suspected, no one else knew what he had
done. The two men from 127 who had dropped
off Jeremy near the squad, had been, luckily, 
mutually decided to hustle back to their fire detail 
instead of reporting Stoker to anyone.
 
Mike released Boot from his lead and whispered.
"Go to Cap, boy.. Move it.."

He watched the valiant dog rejoin Hank at full tilt.

Then he knelt down quietly by Johnny, who was
working on Victoria, who was just coming to.
"Relax, Vic." Mike soothed. "Your bump doesn't 
...look... too bad."

That made Gage glance up from the BP he
was taking on her. Johnny did a double take
when he saw that Mike was bandage-less.. 
and seeing..

"Mike!" he said happily. "You can see.."
Then Gage's face flickered between watchfulness
over Vic's changing status and curiosity over
Mike's. "Hang- hang on there. I'll be right with
you."

"No rush.. I feel fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah.."

"No flashes or..spots ..or anything like that?"

"Nope..None." 

"Ok.  Good... All right....." Gage forced himself
to stop staring at the relieved tears flowing 
unabashed down Mike's face. "Listen, Mike.. uh, 
I'm dying of curiosity to see how the boy's doing. 
Could you go over there and just ..  you know
check on him for me? It's bugging me 'cause Roy
hasn't said much about him yet."

Stoker patted Johnny on the shoulder, "Gladly." 

As Mike crossed the short distance
to where Ben and Roy and Jeremy were, 
he dried his cheeks on a sleeve. 

Then he couldn't resist.
"Nice guage work, Chet.... Looks .....like your psi
pressure's perfect..."

Mike ambled nonchalantly on past him. Kelly 
just about did arabian handsprings at the sight 
of Mike walking, free of Boot, eagle eyeing 
everything around him.

"WahhhHHhooooo Stoker.. All rightt!!!!  Man, this
is great.. Your eyes are-- Wait a minute, why
am I cheering? I'm gonna get demoted now.."

"You can live with it.."

"Just as long as you can, pal.." Kelly fired back.
"I'm beginning to fall in love with this job, Stoker.
I may test out with ya in the fall. May the best
man win.... WahhhhHHHhhoooo." he howled
again.

This time half a dozen firefighters rubber necked 
in their direction and Mike only shrugged, making
crazy signs with a finger circling his ear and then
a hooking thumb at Kelly, when Chet wasn't looking.

Mercifully, Chet never caught on to why the
other men were laughing.


Mike Stoker entered the place where the triage 
lights had been set up above Roy and his victims.

He approached his coworker, keen on surprising
him with his Lazarus back from the blind 
routine when something about DeSoto's body 
english stopped him.

He set a hand on Roy's shoulder. "Roy, how's
Jeremy doing?"

Roy looked up and reacted pretty much as
Johnny had about his eyes. But Stoker
never saw it.

His eyes were locked on Jeremy's face.

The boy was pink, breathing well under an 02 mask,
and his skin was mercifully whole. 

But two hideous sockets existed where
the boy's eyes had once been. They 
had completely boiled away from the heat
of the burning fire.

DeSoto heard Stoker's gasp of horror.
"Mike, he's not in any pain. I've given him a 
pain med. But, I'm afraid he'll never s--"
and DeSoto's voice broke. " see.. again.."
He studied his hands and the spent MS syringe
resting there without being aware of it.

"Not ever?" 

Roy slowly shook his head without meeting
his eyes.

Stoker's face filled with salty wetness and
he bent low over his favorite project kid's
drugged form, and cried until the ambulance
came.

Old Ben, seated on the squad's bumper in
a cannula and blanket, set a bandaged
hand on Mike's shoulder in wordless 
understanding.

-------------------------------------------------------
It was another perfect sunny summer day at
the McGregor ballpark and Mike Stoker and 
Victoria and Susan Jordan and Maxilliam 
and Old Ben were at their usual places around 
the diamond. 

Jeremy Conners was sitting on Mike Stoker's 
lap getting a verbal play by play of the game,
directly from his favorite coach.

"Hey Coach.." Jeremy said, sucking on his
popsicle and scratching an itch under his eye
wraps.

"Yeah, Champ?"

"Are you sure the guys aren't missing Boot
at all? I mean he makes a swell guide dog and
stuff, but Boot's a fireman just like d--"
his voice trailed away.


"Yeah, he is a pretty good one. " Mike studied 
Jeremy's hanging head. "It's ok. It's all right to 
be sad about your father and what happened to 
that old firehouse. But that's the funny thing 
about living. Life always changes. And there's 
nothing in the world we can do about it... 
..except..."

Jeremy's face cracked a smile and he lifted a hand
full of slender sticks.  "...except throw popsicles
sticks at it.. Yyeeahhhhhhhh!" and the red haired
boy crowed at the top of his lungs, hurtling 
his wooden missiles down on the players below. 

He started to laugh when Tiny and Cruz, 
standing near the bleachers, complained 
verbally about the rain of litter landing on 
them.

But, to themselves, the project kids made it 
a point not to grumble too much.

Mike and Victoria, on either side of the happy 
little boy, smiled broadly at Jeremy, muttering in
conspiracy about what they could throw next. 

And behind his back, the two adults timidly 
joined affectionate hands.

Not missing a beat, Victoria spoke up. 
"Don't fret about the guys missing Boot, Jer.
Because Boot's a free spirit. He wouldn't've stayed
at 51's for long anyway. He always gravitates to those
who need him the most Mike tells me. And you
certainly fit his bill young man.."

Jeremy giggled when she tickled his nose.

She went on with a small smile. 
"Nah, I think Boot the wanderer's finally 
found a home.."

"You know what, guys?" Jeremy asked,
angling his head up.

"What..?" Both Mike Stoker and Victoria asked
together.
 
"I think I'm finally home, too. "

                           FIN       :)

Season One, Episode Four-  Within Sight 

--------------------------------

Photo : Painting of Jeremy in anguish.

Photo : Painting of a sorrowful Maximillion.

Photo : Marco fighting a night indoor blaze
            with hose and SCBA mask.

Photo : Johnny trying to hear Ben speaking.

Photo : Multiple firemen breaking into a secured 
            building.

Photo : Victoria lying injured, on cannula with wrapped
             head.

Photo : Mike Stoker smiling broadly.

Photo : Kids playing at McGregor Park.

***************************** 
 
To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fullmoonblues.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fatherandson.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------


To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/juxtaposition.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/withinsight.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------


This is the...

      Debut Production Launch of Episode Four 
             
                 WITHIN SIGHT

     Debut Launch : 16  January, 2003.

============================

Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters.  

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..

==========================

Season One, Episode Four-  Within Sight 


We hope you liked WITHIN SIGHT and enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed producing it for you. Please see below to view Within Sight's END CREDITS :)  
 

           End Credits --  Episode Four (First Season)

                              WITHIN SIGHT


    :)    This episode is dedicated to all who work in foster 
           care children's programs. May your kids all find warm,
           kind and loving families, and a place they can finally call....
           home..
    :)                                                                               :)

Guest Writers
---------------

Desert Ducks  <desertducks@uneedspeed.net>
Roxann Dawson <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>
Sam Iam          <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 

 
**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 

Storyline Technical Consultants
--------------------------------

P. Keiper             Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota
Tom Stafford      Firefighter Captain- on Chemical Firetruck Training 
Dr. Jeff Seltun     Surgeon- on Pulmonary Scalding and Lab Tests                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
  
Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

Michelle Gussow's Mike Stoker Fan Fiction Station
http://www.webspawner.com/users/michellestoker/
For Back History on the Characterization of Mike Stoker

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
and Emergency Medical Terms Guide 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

To  A. Y. Williams-Kirk :) :) 
For Assistance Researching
Character Histories on the Web.

To Lise-Lotte Bloom Borén of Skövde Sweden
For Naming Episode Four. It was perfect! :)

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

To Jill Douglas-Hand at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

====================================

       Music for Within Sight
-----------------------------------

Alt Midi- by Veldhoven and Roosendaal 
(Played on Episode Pending Page)

Behind the Waterfall Midi- Lance and Spear by Bryan Dongray

Blue Monday Midi- by Raphael Pungin

Chrome Shadows Midi-  by Michael Walthius

Danielle's Face Midi- by Veldhoven and Roosendaal

Echoes Midi- by Michael Walthius 
(Plays on the Theater's Main Characters Page)

I'm Home Again Midi- by Michael Walthius

Popcorn Midi- by Hot Butter

Sentinel Midi- from 'The Exorcist'-by Glockenspiel

Song For the Children Midi- by Michael Walthius
   
Tunes Midi- by Enya

---------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   
----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    
____________________________________


 The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Five..  

Integrity Game

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

Debut Launch: 15 Feb 2003.

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

*****************************

From:  "Linda Taggatz" <doc51@att.net> 
Date:  Fri Feb 14, 2003  4:41 pm
Subject:  A possible start for Ep 5.  


Kel  was going on  vacation. Not just any vacation. 
For the first time in years he was going on a family 
vacation with both parents. He and his dad  were 
starting to resolve their differences. They both felt 
that going to Martha's Vineyard like they did when 
Kel was a kid would help.
 
Joe had volunteered to take them to the airport. 
They had reserved a rental car to use during their 
stay. Of course Kel wanted to explore Boston, he 
hadn't been there in a long time. His mom & dad 
agreed to that. They knew that this vacation was 
important to all of them. 
 
Unfortunately a huge snowstorm hit that area hard. 
The airport in Boston had ben closed, no flights in or 
out.

-----------------------------------------------

Photos :  None.

*******************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject :  No Sure Bet..   PG-13.  
Date : Wed, 05 Mar 2003 12:44:23 +0000  
   

Dr. Brackett sat in the hospital cafeteria patio 
across from his father, Brent, and his mother 
Anna Rose at a white whicker table fully
under the bright noon day California sun.

Both men were in a foul mood as they
chewed without tasting, the tuna sandwiches
on their lunch plates. They wore matching
scowls on their faces.

"Anna, you find something amusing about
all this? Our vacation plans are ruined and
here you are...making a spectacle of yourself."
Brent told her firmly.

Anne Rose broke out into spontaneous laughter
covering her mouth with the hand not holding
the plane tickets. "I'm sorry." she gasped.
"It's just you two are reacting in exactly the
same way right now. It's not the end of the
world. Just the end of our current gameplan.
We don't have to go to Martha's Vineyard
to spend time as a family. No. We can do that
right here at home where no snowstorm can
possibly interfere."

Kel looked up sitting straighter, as he
shoved the last bite of his sandwich into
his mouth. "Easier said than done. Those
tickets cost a fortune, mom. What do you
expect us to do about it now?"

"This.." her warm brown eyes beamed
from the frame of auburn hair around her 
face. And she promptly tore their three
unused flight vouchers in half firmly with 
a flourish.

Brent and Kel both stood up from their chairs 
in dismay. 

"Anna Rose, why in G*d's name did you do that?!"  

"Mom! What the h*ll?!!" 

They both cried in outburst at the same moment.

Both father and son eyed each other up when
they both realized that had struck exactly the
same pose of ire with hands spread indignant
over the table top, leaning in to Anna in anger.

That only made Mrs. Brackett laugh all the harder
to the point of wheezing soundlessly and her
light airy voice died away as she lost her ability
to breathe.

Kel and Brent frowned, and again, father and son
took like actions of grabbing up their glasses
of water to hand to Anna to drink to gain
a quicker recovery from her mirth.

Soon, Anna wiped away her amused streaming
tears and accepted one of the waters being offered 
to her. "Oh, that felt good." she chuckled, dabbing her
eyes on a napkin delicately while she sipped the ice
water. "Getting rid of those tickets meant getting rid 
of unpleasant distractions.  Now, think of it this way."
she said patting their rough hands. "We now have 
a squeaky clean slate to work with now in regards to 
our family vacation. And do sit down. People are 
beginning to stare, doctors..." she grinned.

Kel and Brent glanced around and did see a few
subtle glances their way. They buttoned their
dinner jackets over their ties self consciously.

The older Brackett cleared his throat.
"Don't make it a habit, pet." Brent said, regaining
his chair and he honestly started to half smile. 
"If you want to throw money away to make a 
point next time, I'll have a pond built in the back 
yard and I'll hand you the sack of coins myself." 

"Amen to that.." Kel said empathetically and
downed his water glass in a salute to the
suggestion. He then began to gather up the
two lunch trays that were empty.

Anna Rose's eyes twinkled. "Your father's such
a kidder, Kel. Don't listen to him."

"Have I ever?" Dr. Brackett quipped.

Brent nearly spit out the rest of his sandwich
he had started eating again as he pegged an
intense stare at his only son. "Yes. You have."
he said, covering his mouth with his napkin.
"When I called you last week about this family
vacation plan of ours... You actually listened
to what your mother and I had to say and
then you actually said, ...yes..to it. " he grinned.

"As if I could have refused. I'd have been disowned.."

"There is that.." Brent said.

Anna Rose slapped her husband on the arm
to behave himself.

"So, what do we do now that mom's made
sure that any ticket refunding's impossible?"
Kel asked.

Brent shrugged. "Don't know. Ask your mother."
he said, mopping up some mayonnaise with
the last crust remaining of his food.

Kel raised questioning eyebrows.

It was Anna Rose's turn to lean over the table
to catch their ears in confidence. "We find
a third party to make the decision for us."

"And who would that be?" Kel grumbled.
Personal privacy was still a big thing with
the younger Dr. Brackett.

----------------------------------------------


Dixie McCall backed up against the base
station glass door, clutching an armful 
of patient charts against her chest defensively.
"Ohh noo... Anna Rose. This isn't fair.." she hissed
in a whisper at Mrs. Brackett.  Subconsciously, Dix 
glanced inside the clear glass base station where 
Kel had dragged his father in to overhear an incoming 
rescue call he was handling. "I can't take on
an important decision like that. It's taken years
for me to get those two to even begin to listen 
to each other.."

"And it shows. " she said empathetically.
"Now who better to make the next call
than a close co-working friend. H*ll. You
and Kel dated once. We all trust you."

"That's dirty pool and you know it,
Mrs. Brackett." Dix said straight faced
but unoffended.

"Who else can we turn to? Mike Morton's
never even had lunch with us. And Joe,
..." she sighed. "Joe Early's too nice
to even try to get involved in the Brackett
father/son feud reclamation project."

"Nice sentiment there. I think I'll follow
Joe's angle, too." And Dixie tried to 
make her escape.

Anna Rose got in her way innocently
by taking the charts from the head ER 
nurse's grasp, "Here, let me file these for
you, dear. I know where they go.."

And Dixie was forced to stay while
Mrs. Brackett  slowly set the patient charts 
in their metal holder on Dix's desk, one by 
one, alphabetically. McCall plastered a forced 
polite smile on her face as Anna Rose rambled 
on.

"So, what's a great part of town?
Long Beach? Heard Crystal Pier's 
simply lovely this time of year."

"I wouldn't know. I never get out."
Dixie mumbled. She again tried
to ooze away from the desk. But
Anna Rose reached for another chart
slyly and she had to freeze in place
or drop the rest of her stack.

Anna Rose said, "Neither do we.
That's the problem." she said frankly. "Ok, 
this one goes under... S.. for Smith.."she 
said, myopically eyeing the chart's proper 
slot. "We're not asking you for stock investing
advice, just one teeny tiny vacationing spot
idea for us to go to. Just pick anywhere,
Dixie. Top of your head. Whatever you say 
won't be locked in stone by any measure, I 
assure you. We're just...getting a fresh start
here." she said, filing another metal chart into 
its housing.

Dixie sighed and fought like mad not
to tap her foot on the tiles in nervousness.
::Oh, boy. Fates, I demand you get me out 
of this one. If I choose anywhere that doesn't 
turn out for the Bracketts, I'll have to live with 
the consequences of my actions for the next 
ten years working with the two doctors
locked into yet another feud.:: she bemoaned 
mentally.

Right then, the red light on the call station
over her head began to flash.. Miss McCall's
face erupted in an eager glee of reprieve.
"Hold that thought, Anna Rose. I have to answer 
that. It's a second run coming in.." And she
shoved the charts right back at Mrs. Brackett
who barely caught them as Dix fled into
the base station's sound isolation room and
slammed the door.

Dixie's hand darted onto the talk button
on the second intercom, just barely beating
out Kel's subtly reaching one. "Unit calling in 
please repeat.." she stated quickly, taking over
the run from him hastily.

Kel said. "You didn't have to come in just to
answer that." he said, looking up from
the EKG strip he was looking at.

"I sure did.." Dixie gasped. She felt Brent 
Brackett come stand by her to hear how a 
registered nurse answered a rescue call.

Dixie's caller came into voice. "Rampart,
this is Engine 51. We're on scene at
the Santa Anita Racetrack. There's been a
multiple race horse pileup on the final turn of
a stakes race with injuries.  Squad 51's en route 
on the track right now with the grounds 
crew leading the way. Please stand by." 
came Captain Stanley's voice over the 
murmuring roar of a crowd of other people on 
the frequency. Their horrified dismay was very 
apparent in the background. To Dix, it sounded 
like a bad accident.

"Standing by, 51." Dixie said. "Kel, do you 
need Joe on yours?" she asked.

Dr. Brackett looked up from his chart.
"Hmm? No, this is just a simple case of syncope. 
It's a scorcher out there today. We're bound to get 
a few heat related injuries into the ER this afternoon."
Dr. Brackett said. "This cardiac strip's precautionary 
only." Then he leaned down and finished his call.
"Squad Ten. Start an IV Normal Saline and run
it in at the rate of 30-40 drops a minute. Continue
to monitor her vital signs and transport as soon 
as possible..  Now that she's awake, you can 
D/C the O2 at your discretion."

##10-4, Rampart. Squad Ten out. Our ETA is 
ten minutes.##

"10-4, Squad 10." Kel ended the transmission.

Brent Brackett motioned Kel over while Dixie 
began filling out the run sheet for 51. She moved 
the yellow medical status magnet for their station 
from base bound to on rescue call. 
"Looks like this might be a bad one, son.." Brent 
told Kel. "It's at the race track."

Kel sighed and his face twitched in sympathy. 
"Another jockey tangle up?"

Dixie looked up from her writing. "Yes, sounds 
like it. 51's still getting out to that part of the track."

"Stick around Dix, we may have more than we 
can handle here very quickly. And call Joe in here."

"Right." Dix said handing off the run chart to 
Dr. Brackett. "Excuse me, Brent." and she reached 
over and grabbed the paging phone over the 
recording monitor above the intercom. " Operator. 
Please page Dr. Early to the base station, stat......
Yes, thank you." and she hung up.

Silence stretched in the tiny room and Brent felt 
his palms beginning to sweat in anticipation even
as Dix and Kel calmly marked notes on their 
respective charts. Finally, Brent licked his lips. "Is it 
always this hard waiting around to hear back on 
a rescue in progress ?"

"Yes.." Dix and Kel said simultaneously.

"I'm glad I'm a psychiatrist. No rescue calls to speak
of.." he mumbled to himself.

Overhearing, Dix and Kel smiled at him.

================================


Squinting into the bright sun to the south, Cap could
just make out the dust trail of the squad as it followed
the grounds crew truck along the track's outer rail
to where the chaos was happening. He could see several 
horses sprawled awkwardly on the ground, some 
still moving.  But the one smaller human body hanging on 
the rail and the several more in the dirt, were alarmingly still.

He could see at least four racehorses careening wildly
around the track without their riders with parade
outrider ponies and their unhurt, tossed jockeys,
hard up on recapturing them from their mindless dash 
away from the accident side of the track.

Hank hung the biophone receiver over his shoulder
and he slapped Chet Kelly on the arm of his overcoat.
"Chet, get a couple of hoses strung onto the apron here. 
Straight through the hydrant. Maybe we can do 
something for those poor horses out there.  Only one 
seems to have broken a leg. The others that are down 
could still be alive and only lightly heat stroked. But don't 
go out there until those loose racers are caught, all right? 
It's too risky for us to have our hoses running where 
the others, in their panic, might trip over them."

"Right, Cap." And Kelly jogged down through
the tunnel to the utility driveway where Stoker
was still idling the big engine to tell him Cap's
orders.

Hank turned to Marco at his side. "Marco. Roy
and John may need help communicating with their
victims out there. If any of those jockeys are
even half out, their english speaking abilities will go
out the window if you know what I mean."

"Understood, Cap. I'm on it." And Marco went
with another crew pickup truck, riding on the
back. They maneuvered slowly down track 
to avoid upsetting the free runners, moving 
along the outer rail to the scene of mayhem.

By the time Chet and Stoker had returned with 
the strung hoses and had charged them, the 
uneffected racers and their jockeys had all heeded 
the red lit hooter on the tote board and had vacated 
completely off the track to the backside stables or 
the test barn.  Cap could see the remaining loose 
thoroughbreds were firmly back in reining hands.

##Ladies and Gentlemen. Please hold all tickets.##
said the track announcer. ##Officials are dealing with
the situation on the track's far turn. Race Five is delayed 
until further notice. All pool, trifecta, and daily double 
betting is now frozen at all teller windows. Please 
stand by for the results of the steward's inquiry.##

Hank frowned. ::How cold is that? There are possibly
dead horses and people out there and all the track
officials are worried about is keeping the gamblers
happy?.. No wonder I hate the track..:: he thought.
::Don't get what Roy sees in playing the horses at
all.::

----------

Chet and Stoker stepped out onto the track
when the tote board light stopped flashing its loose
horse warning. Together they began dragging out
the hoses to where they could see Roy and John 
and Marco moving from fallen rider to fallen rider. 
"Coming through..." Chet said angrily, as blue 
grounds crew backs just concentrating on 
tractoring the starting gate into position for the 
next race, got in their way.

The track horse ambulance team was already 
leading away a limping foreleg shattered filly to the 
attending vet awaiting there with a syringe. Kelly 
felt sick to his stomach. "They're gonna put her down?" 
he shouted at Stoker over the noise of the tractors.

"Yeah, there's nothing they can do after a
horse's leg has been broken." Mike replied. "I've
seen this before." he said lugging the heavy
hose to the nearest downed horse.

Gage looked up from the nearly unconscious
jockey he was assessing. "Stoker. Not
that one. He's the one who caused this 
pileup. He burst a lung vessel and was dead 
even before he hit the ground. See the bright 
blood flowing out of his nostrils there? Go cool 
down that colt still twitching over by the rail. 
Hose down just his head. Be sure to loosen 
that saddle strap and take his bridle out from 
between his teeth if you can while your doing it. 
He may come around from the heat in time.. All 
the trainers will be out here in a sec to take over 
the horse care for ya.. Do whatever they ask of 
you." Then Johnny bent to work over his patient. 
 
"But what about these other jockeys?" Chet asked.

Johnny met Chet's eyes heavily.
"Roy and Marco and I have everything taken
care of on our end. There's only these two victims.
The other jockeys were killed along with
their horses. We found that most have hangman's 
fractures from their falls and that guy's been trampled 
to death." he gestured with his head behind him.

Kelly saw a lone tiny male jockey lying face 
down in the dirt not too far away. The back of his
chest bore the unmistakable crushed flat look of a 
fatality. He almost looked like a shattered marionette 
to Chet.

Stoker looked up, too, in shock when he saw
Roy only dealing with the american woman jockey
still draped over the inner rail.  DeSoto was
getting the grounds crew men to carefully hold
her neck still while he placed her into a cervical 
collar while he continued talking quietly with her.

"UGghhhHHH." she moaned. "How's Little
Bit? H-- How's my filly? She got away from me
after Charismatic went down. *cough*."

"Shh, try not to move, miss. You may have
a serious back injury." Roy told her.
"Now we're going to immobilize you and slide you
onto this long board here. Then we'll get you on 
some oxygen so you can breathe a little better, 
all right?"

Behind Roy, the sealed horse ambulance
shifted with a thud on its tires as a heavy
weight inside of it fell to the floor.

The woman didn't say anything more and
she started weeping uncontrollably, ignoring 
the men who were easing her off the railing 
inch by inch. "They euthanized her didn't they..? 
They killed my Little Bit..Oh, nooooOOOoo." 

"I'm sorry, ma'am. From what I could see
her leg was fractured too badly to splint."
Roy said quietly. "At least she's been released
from her agony."

"nnnooo." The jockey sobbed once more and let 
go her hold on consciousness as she was strapped 
onto the long board and immobilized.

The woman rider was placed on the ground
and Roy hastily placed an O2 mask over her 
face and started to take a BP on her good arm
after making sure she could breathe well enough
on her back without the help of an oral airway.

He looked up at the grounds crew men who
had helped him. "Stick around. There's no
way the Mayfair's gonna be able to come
out here like we did. This dirt's too deep.We're
gonna have to hand carry these people outta 
here once we get them treated." he told them.

The Santa Anita workers nodded.

Then Roy yelled after Johnny. "Hey Johnny! 
What do you got?"

"I got four Code F... This guy's got a ton of broken ribs 
on the left side. I'm finding signs of marked flail 
chest. And he's having a lot of trouble breathing.
The O2's not helping. Gonna have to stabilize 
this first before we move him out. Man, don't these 
guys believe in flack vests and helmets?"

"Nah, " Roy said tightly. "They don't want
to wear them because of the extra weight."

"That's gotta change. Oh, man. Look around us. This
is a just a senseless massacre..!" Gage swore.

"I don't make the rules." Roy replied.

"No, you just support the industry by 
condoning them with bets on the horses
instead." Johnny snapped as he carefully 
had some track crew help him roll the 
moaning injured jockey onto his bad side 
once he had been immobilized.

Roy tactfully didn't say anything.

The motion drove the wounded man awake and
he began to swear a stream of words that
weren't in understandable english. Marco 
calmed him in animated Spanish getting a quick
history and verbal account of injury from him.

Kelly and Stoker were hard at work with the
hose. Stoker was holding the horse's
head straight out so the heat overwhelmed colt
could breathe while Chet played a powerful stream
of icy water over his head to cool down his brain 
pan as rapidly as he could. Soon the horse 
began snorting in tight gasps and his legs 
began to kick out as he started snapping out 
of his unconsciousness.

"Look out!" said a few of the starting gate guys and
they jumped down from the tractors with ropes
to tie around the colts legs so he wouldn't hurt
the firemen trying to help him. 

A gnarled old trainer huffed and puffed his way up
to Chet and he patted him in the shoulder.
"Easy. Ok, keep it up boys, just like that. The
crew's got his legs pinned. Now, play the water
over the rest of him. Get his chest first. Then
everywhere but the legs for that will cause the 
tendons to bow permanently if they're cooled 
too fast. Don't want him irreversibly lame."

"Sir?" said Stoker, startled at the trainer's
sudden appearance. "Can we do anything
for the other racers down around us? We
have an extra hose."

"Nah. They've cooked too much in the sun.
Ain't nothing gonna wake em now. It's too late.
We can only save this young colt here."

"But.." Kelly started up.

"Just keep working young man.." the wizened
trainer told him. He sighed and got up
from his crouch and wandered over to the dead
stallion in the dirt with the blood filled nose. He
stepped on the horse's flank and pressed down
with a foot, cocking his head when he heard the 
telltale gurgle of lungs drowned in an artery 
burst. "Oh, Dusty Schraeder. Now you've gone 
too far."

Near him, Gage was writing down the vitals he
had obtained on his patient. "Don't tell me.
Skipped Lasix treatment to cut budget corners
with a little insurance money collection on the side?"

The older man in the straw hat looked up
at the dark eyed paramedic who had spoken to him.
"Fraid so. Oldest track scam in the book 'cept for
calcium stunting to cause bone failure." the trainer 
said. "You know about horses, young man.."

"I know a bit.." Johnny said. "I have a ranch full of em.
Excuse me.." and he started to relay his medical
information to Cap via his walkie talkie..

--------------------------------

Photo :  Brent Brackett looking at
             an x-ray.

Photo : Anna Rose Brackett looking soft eyed.

Photo : Kel Brackett getting smooched by Dixie.

Photo : A racetrack starting gate with an ambulance.

Photo : Roy DeSoto in helmet looking down.

Photo : Johnny Gage looking down at victim by squad.

Photo : Jockey wearing C collar surrounded by help,
            equipment, and his racehorse.

Photo : Another jockey holding down a stricken 
            horses's head.

Photo : Cap and Chet stand ready with a water hose.

Photo : Crew putting ropes around a struggling blindfolded
             injured horse.

*****************************************
From : Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Sticky Situations  
Date : Sat, 8 Mar 2003 23:16:01 -0800 (PST)  
 
Acknowledgements to P. Keiper for providing
an EMT scenario allowing for a believable
slide downhill for the downed male jockey
enough, so my plot twist idea could work.

Acknowledgements to Dr. Jeff Seltun on
giving me the doctor speak for all the medical 
want-to-happens I threw at him.

Thank you Sue Hampton ER RN/EMT-P/FF
for the IV type pointers you offered
earlier on the general writer's list.

---------------
 
"Squad 51 to Engine 51. Uh, Cap, advise L.A. 
that we have multiple fatalities here. Numbered four."
Johnny Gage lowered his voice so the kindly trainer
nearest him standing over the dead, bled out racer,
couldn't overhear. "And... ask for a police response.  
I have reason to believe this pileup wasn't an accident."
Then he spoke louder with a heads up glance at Roy 
for his history.. "Stand by for vitals on two victims,
Engine 51."

##10-4, Squad 51. .............L.A. has been notified. 
Standing by and awaiting vital signs.## Cap replied.

Johnny Gage bent over his agitated victim. "Hey..
senor..Can you hear me? Just try to relax. 
Strapping ya on this board's just a precaution. Now 
you've got some broken ribs here that we need to 
take care of.  Just try to keep from moving around
okay? Having ya on your side like this is gonna
help you breathe better. Marco, keep holding
him just like that. If you have to, get some 
of those guys over here to help you."

Marco spoke a few short words in spanish
and two members of the grounds crew 
came and knelt by them to help hold the 
injured man in position. "Como te llama?"
Lopez asked the injured jockey.

"Jose' Rivero. Aiiyy.." said the man irritatedly.
The jockey continued to swear and cuss in
spanish but his anger wasn't directed at
Gage or Lopez. It was aimed towards a second 
trainer who was staying well away from
the dead thoroughbreds. The man was
dispassionately chewing tobacco as he 
watched track officials taking photographs
of the dead horses and riders.

The fallen jockey swept off his oxygen mask
and spit in insult as he continued to glare at the dark 
dressed man. "Jefe Schraeder! Hablas usted con tu'
ahora. Por que? Mis amigos son muerto!
Por nada!!" cried the wounded racehorse 
rider and he once more tried to lift his head up. 
"Y mi caballo is infermo sol malo porque de tu!"

Gage held him down firmly by the 
shoulders. "Hey, hey.. Now settle down.
That C collar's there for a reason. Stay still. Now
tell me what's wrong? Your breathing's a little off... 
Listen to me.. Hey..Where else are you hurting
besides your chest here?" 

The jockey ignored Gage until Marco grabbed
him by the face firmly, motioning for him
to look him in the eyes intently. 
"Eschuchas!..Nosostros son ayudar. Donde 
es su dolor?!"

The jockey tried to pull away from Marco's grasp,
and locked up in agony on the long board, ignoring 
both firemen as he continued to rant at Dusty 
Schraeder standing just within range of 
eyesight. Lopez shook his head in frustration
and glanced up at Johnny. "I told him to listen
to us and that we're trying to help, but he's
not answering me about where else he's
hurting."

Johnny looked at Marco. "What DID ya
get from him? He's off in his own little
world here. Man, if I didn't know better, I'd
say he's out for vengeance." he said 
drawing out his clothes shears from his 
hip holster. Gage began to cut away the 
stained orange and brown silks from 
the man's torso for a closer survey.
"Set that 02 back onto his face again 
Marco. He's getting a little cyanotic."

 Marco nodded his head moving the
clear plastic mask back over the man's
struggling mouth. "His name is Jose' 
Rivera. He is begging his boss for a reason 
why his friends died and he's blaming him
for his horse being sun sick like he is."

"That guy over there?" Johnny pointed
to Dusty Schraeder.

"Yeah.."

Johnny looked up at the black cowboy 
hatted Texan and felt an immediate dislike
for the man. ::But he's something for 
Vince to worry about when he gets
here.::  His eyes then swept to the colt
Mike Stoker and Chet Kelly were trying
to save with the assistance of the kindly 
old trainer.

The colt was now resting on his belly, 
quivering like a newborn as he fought the rest of
the way to wakefulness under the flowing 
stream of the fire hose. His soaked coffee 
bay coat literally steamed in the sun in twisting
curls of sour smelling humidity. A thick
foam began to spread over his whithers
and flanks. Johnny heard the kindly old trainer 
murmur that they were succeeding in drawing 
the young horse out of heatstroke. "That's it.
Just kidney sweat now.. That's a good sign."

"Is he going to make it, Mr. Farley?" Chet asked.

The man he had learned was named Walter,
didn't reply and the worried look on Kelly's
face returned in force.

Gage kept his face neutral as thoughts raced
through his head. ::No, that will be up to his 
owners. Heat stroke recovery usually takes three 
months to half a year. That colt's got good lines. 
Hope his share holders make the right choice..:: 
Johnny thought glancing away from his coworkers. 

Gage looked down and swept agile fingers around 
Jose's head and down his body, looking for deformities.

He found a small oozing gash on his chest that was
alternately retracting in and burping out as the
angry man respired. The tiny sucking wound was
on the side away from the man's main ribcage injury. 
"Marco.. grab an occlusive dressing and tape 
it over this wound here. Seal it off only 
on three sides. Looks like this laceration's penetrated 
through into his chest. He must have fallen on
something sharp when his horse went down."

"Got it.." Lopez said. 

Johnny felt along the jockey's sweating chest
thoroughly but found grating, moving bones 
only on the flailed side. He snatched for his
stethoscope out of the drug box and
listened to the holed side carefully, then
compared the breath sounds he heard
there to the ones under the rib fractures.
He grunted, making a mental note and
took another set of vitals before finishing 
the rest of his survey on the jockey. 

He found no further injuries.

Johnny returned to the man's throat
and felt the cooling skin in the area
carefully and over his chest once again. 
Then he looked at how the rider's 
larnyx sat in relation to the rest of his 
neck by sight as he reassessed the man's
consciousness level and checked his
pupils.

Gage nodded at Roy, who had just
completed his secondary survey of the 
unconscious woman rider. 

DeSoto had his helpers carry the girl closer
to Johnny and the drug box until both
their victims were side by side, head to head,
nearest all the equipment. Roy crouched over 
the EKG monitor case and he opened it. "She's
stable. The 02's keeping her in good color." 
he said, handing Johnny his pad of notes. 
"Add one more thing. She's got a open fracture 
of her left radius and ulna, with sluggish perfusion. 
I immobilized her arm in the best position 
I could find and she's still got neural responses
and pulses in her hand and fingers but they're 
degrading. She may have torn an artery or vein 
internally. I'll get your victim patched in for ya 
on Lead Two."

"Okay.." Johnny relayed to Captain Stanley
on his hand held radio once more.
"Engine 51. This is HT 51. We're set for a 
medical relay to Rampart."

##Go ahead, HT 51.##

Cap Stanley watched as Vince and a detective car
pulled up. He re-established communications on
the biophone that he had perched on a track rail post, 
with apprehension. "Rampart, this is Engine 51. 
I'll be relaying from Squad 51 in 2. They are still 
inaccessible on the horse track and out of effective 
biophone communications range." 

##10-4, 51. Standing by.## said Dixie.

Once again, Captain Stanley cursed
the whole idea of Santa Anita's turf and dirt race 
tracks being set into a bowl just so two lakes could 
grace the racing infield's garden grove of Queen's 
palm trees.  ::Stupid design. Even if having that
extra water there is a boon for any future fire
call. At least Roy's EKG telemetry will get out.::

Johnny spoke into his HT to Cap.
"Engine 51, Victim One. Male, age
approximately 19 at 105 pounds.
Vitals signs are; Pulse 124, respirations
are 20 and shallow, BP is 100/62. Pupils
are equal and reactive. He's diaphoretic,
conscious, and emotionally agitated. He's 
on fifteen liters O2. I've found pardoxical 
breathing symptoms with a large flail segment 
on his left side. He has a sucking chest wound 
to his upper right chest, now occluded. I'm 
hearing rales on the left and diminished breath 
sounds on the right. Subcutaneous emphysema 
is present about the neck and upper chest. He 
has been immobilized and positioned flail side down. 
His EKG is showing sinus tach. Sending you a strip, 
lead two."

Cap relayed the information and soon Joe
Early responded. ##10-4, Engine 51. Tell
Squad 51 to start a large bore IV Normal
Saline with Lactated Ringers. Run in a 500 
cc bolus initially until his BP comes back up again,
then leave it TKO. Have them watch for signs 
of further breathing difficulty. I suspect
a pneumothorax. EKG is now showing sinus 
tach at a rate of 130. Splint the flail segment 
by taping only the effected side until his
breathing improves. Prepare to assist 
his ventilations if his resp rate increases over
24 times a minute. Treat for shock. Tell them I
want a new set of vitals every five minutes.##

Cap replied. "10-4, Rampart. Stand by."
and he shared the orders with his two paramedics
still working a quarter of a mile away down on the final
turn. He soon got Roy and Johnny's confirmation
on the orders, and he immediately, received 
information about their second victim over his HT.

Cap listened, memorizing details. Then he
called in his men's second medical data set 
to Joe Early on the biophone.
"Rampart. Victim number two. A 
female approximately 24 years of age.
Weight 102 pounds. Found prone over a rail. 
Was conscious, now comatose. Vitals signs are, pulse
90, respirations are 14, BP 100/76. Pupils are
equal and reactive, but sluggish. She's been fully 
immobilized and is on fifteen liters 02.
  My paramedic notes probable neck and back 
injuries. There's quivering in the upper extremities 
and bilateral positive Babinski's finding on
both legs. He earlier reported a growing lack of 
sensation on her from lumbar three on down. 
There appears to be no palpable spinal deformity.
   Victim has an open fracture of the lower 
left arm. Circulation and sensation is 
partially compromised despite splinting in
position of alignment." 

Cap got his followup on the woman for a 
precautionary IV and a rapid transport order.
Inwardly, he hope the girl would get to surgery
in time to save her arm and effect repair to
stop the creeping paralysis she seemed to be
suffering. 

He finished correspondence between his men
and the hospital. Soon, he waved the Mayfair
to the road where he was standing as it
arrived in full siren. "We're gonna load up right 
here. The paramedics are bringing in two victims
from out there on longboards.." he told
the attendants running to his side. "The 
dirt's too soft for your rig to handle."

The two men nodded and intently watched
the group of people, bearing the two jockeys
in between them all, walking their way.

---------

Cap wasn't surprised to see Detective Crockett
flanking Vince Howard when he had put the biophone
into the awaiting ambulance. "Vince. Detective Crockett.
My man Gage thinks our racing accident wasn't accidental.
I trust his judgement since he's a pretty good horseman 
off duty."

"We got any witnesses?" Vince asked.

Cap replied. "Two. But one is unconscious and the other
is in no shape to talk right now. Both jockeys. And I
think Johnny was hinting about learning something
from one of those trainers milling about, too. 
Nothing concrete, just a hunch I got from the tone
of his voice."

The tall quiet African American detective thoughtfully
rubbed his chin. "Ok, we'll take it from here, Captain.
Thank you. I'll have a talk with your paramedics once
they're through with their run. Call me once the squad's 
back at the station?" he said, heading off the fire
captain's worry that the detective would get in the 
way of his men.

"Sure will." Cap said. He took the card the detective
handed him and pocketted it. He started off  
towards Kelly and Mike as they headed back to the
grandstand apron.

Smiling craftily as Cap disappeared around a bend,
Detective Crockett took one look at the deep track 
dirt and then one more at his shiny black shoes, 
before he unhesitantly stepped ankle deep into the 
sandy loam to rendevous with 51's medics on the 
far turn.  

-------

Hank Stanley intercepted Chet and Stoker as 
they returned to the paddock side road dragging 
their hoses behind them. "I couldn't see what 
you were doing. Are they gonna make it?" 
he asked about the horses. 

"Only one, Cap. Our helping trainer, Walter
Farley, said we got there too late for the others. 
Apparently, racehorses cook to death internally
on hot days like this if they take a fall more than 
halfway through a race. He said it happens because
their metabolisms are kicked in overdrive."
Kelly said dully.

Cap sighed in sympathy. "Oh, I'm sorry.
I got some good news at least. Two of the 
jockeys are still alive.."

"That's great, Cap." Stoker said without enthusiasm.
Come on, Chet. Let's get these hoses packed." and 
Hank watched his two disheartened men plod 
dejectedly back to the Engine with their load.

Cap called out after them. "Stoker, would you
snag a ride with a track steward cart to go
fetch the squad? You're gonna have to follow
the ambulance with it. Gage and DeSoto really
have their hands full right now."

"Right, Cap." Mike replied and he jogged back the way
he had come, leaving Chet to do the heavy 
work. In sympathy, Cap pocketed his HT and 
helped Kelly out by climbing onto the hose bed
of the engine to be primary hauler.

--------------------------------------

"Crockett! I don't have time to talk with
you now.." Gage said distractedly as he
and the grounds crew and paramedic 
struggled to carry equipment and victims
to the far rail and the firm concrete apron
beneath the grandstand. 

"I just want to ask you a few questions."
The detective said, lifting his feet high and
stumbling a bit in the loam.

"Fine..then help me by taking over.."
he said, snatching the detective's hand and
forcing him to grab the ambu he was
using on Jose'. "Bag him when he
breathes in and also when he doesn't. 
Twelve times a minute." he ordered.

"But uh, he's still awake."

"Yeah. I know. Assisting him like this is 
helping splint some rib fractures he's got
inside. Marco tells me Jose' says it hurts
like h*ll but he's grateful for the help."

"Ok. I got it."
Crockett began squeezing the ambu bag 
after quickly picking up how Johnny had 
been managing. He opened his mouth.
"I know Spanish, too. Maybe I can kill
three birds with one stone by--"

Gage got into Crockett's face. "If you
ask Jose' any question other than, 'How 
are you doing?' I'll deck ya.."

Crockett closed his mouth.  
The tall detective nodded dutifully,
outmaneuvered, and just squeezed the bag. 

Johnny moved Jose's IV bag from under
the boy's shoulder to his own teeth 
to hold as he turned up the dial to wide
open when he saw the young teen pale 
another shade of gray. "Let's move 
faster."

Johnny felt a hand weakily clutching his
own. Gage leaned down. "Hold it
Crockett. Looks like Jose's trying to say
something."  It was a rare moment of
absolute clarity for the young teen.

Jose' met Johnny's eyes meaningfully
and he gasped as the ambu was lifted away. 
"Don't let them kill that horse. Save him, 
senor. I pay you t-" he said in very very 
broken english. The effort to speak took his 
breath away as Jose's pain bit down hard. His
lungs cramped up yet again. Gage gestured 
Crockett to help the teen breathe
once more on the bag valved 02.

Jose' was so agitated, that Gage caught the kind
old trainer, Walter Farley's attention. 
"Hey, Mr. Farley!"

"Yeah?" the old man shouted back from
where he was helping the colt stand.

"I'm that colt's insurance policy. Do
everything you can for him, ok?" Johnny
said.

Walter smiled. "For the kid?"

"Yeah.. for the kid.." Gage replied.

Walter Farley gave Johnny Gage
a thumbs up in encouragement and
a slow nod of grateful appreciation.

Johnny saw Jose' start to calm 
immediately.

"Gracias, senor." Jose' sighed softly.

----------

In the ambulance, Crockett took full 
advantage of playing an active part in Jose's
care by letting his curiosity get the best of
him.

"This is fascinating.." Squeeze. "What's
that taped to Jose's chest?" Crockett
asked from his place at the jockey's
head. "Looks like a metal ingot."he shouted 
over the wail of the sirens as they sped to
the hospital.

Johnny didn't look up from where he was
setting up yet another IV for the teen rider
sitting across from where Roy crouched over his 
own patient lying on the passenger bench. 

He ducked his head self consciously. "Walter 
Farley gave me one of the colt's lead saddle 
weights to use to splint the unstable
section of ribs here." Johnny pointed.

"Oo, I'd hate to be the groom who has
to return that saddle to the winner circle's 
weight scale." The detective quipped, 
mentally filed away the name Gage gave 
him for future reference.

Gage didn't laugh.

"Why would someone put a weight on
anyone with broken ribs like this?" Crockett
asked to lighten the feeling of tension
in the ambulance. 

Gage grimaced with impatience as
he reached for a BP cuff. "I'd love
to talk about flail chest protocol with
you all day but I'm rather busy right
now, detective.." and he buried his ears
in stethoscope to tune him out.

Crockett blinked and jerked a free thumb 
at Gage in a questioning gesture to Roy, 
offering a little what's-with-him? shrug.

Roy looked up from rechecking 
his patient's breathing and pulse
rate. "Johnny gets a little intense about 
anyone under his care. Especially if they're 
critical."

Crockett's face fell into an immediate
frown. "You mean?" he looked down
at the increasingly groggy Jose' beneath
the ambu's face mask.

"Yeah, collapsed lung. And it's getting 
worse." Roy said. "Try to cut my partner 
some slack. He's just staying focused." he said, 
quickly and sharp. Then he softened, raising 
his eyebrows. "Good bagging. Keep it up 
just like you're doing it, Crockett.
Any ease we can give Jose' now 
is a point in our favor.."

"How's the girl?" Crockett asked
DeSoto.

"Fair. She's might be trying to wake up here."
he said, readjusting her O2 mask so 
it stayed out of her eyes.

"Did you manage to get her name before
she blacked out?" 

Roy said. "Not directly. Her name's
Mary Kenner. I got it from the betting
tote board using her mount's number.
It always lists trainer and jockey."

::And another piece of the puzzle.::
the detective mused.

The rushing Mayfair ambulance turned a 
corner as it left the Santa Anita Track 
property.

Crockett noticed a change in Jose' about
the same time Johnny did. "Hey, Gage,
he's not taking in the bag breaths too well. I'm
getting a weird resistance and he's not even
trying to breathe in anymore."

"Just keep ventilating him exactly as
you are." Johnny straddled Jose's gurney
and listened close to both sides of the
man's chest in haste. "D*mn." He
felt Jose's neck and he looked at Roy.
"I got absent breath sounds unilaterally and 
he's starting to show trachael deviation.
I'm seeing jugular vein distension, too.
Gotta be a tension pneumo."

Roy reached over and ripped off the 
occlusive patch  Marco had placed 
earlier over the jockey's chest wound.
He waited a beat, then replaced it down
firmly over the jagged tear. "Did that help any?"

Johnny listened again through his stethoscope.
"Nah.. not enough to matter."

On the EKG, Jose's heart rate jolted up
into the low 140's and an alarm began to
sound. Roy took a hasty BP. "It's down.
78/52."

Johnny shouted. "Jose'..Keep trying
to breathe on your own. We're going to
help y--" He broke off belatedly. "Sh*t. I wish 
I'd taken Marco up on his offer to teach me Spanish. 
Crockett. You talk to him. Keep him calm."
and he snatched the phone to Rampart.
"Rampart this is Rescue 51, how do you read?"

Joe Early was still on the intercom.
##Go ahead, 51. What's the trouble? I note 
Victim One's increased tachycardia.##

Gage told him Jose's new development.

Brackett and Joe Early both met eyes 
in sudden worry.

Kel said to Dix. "Have a chest tube set up
in his treatment room. Looks like Johnny's
gonna do his first needle chest decompression
in the field. Joe, go ahead and give him the
order. He can handle it."

Dixie left to make the arrangements.

Joe got back on the line.##51, pull over. You're going
to have to relieve the building pressure with a 
pleural thoracotomy ASAP. Dr. Brackett
concurs with me.##

"10-4.." Johnny said and he got off Jose's
gurney and slapped the driver peek window
twice, loudly. They felt the Mayfair grind to a 
halt at a curb just as Jose' fell into deep
unconsciousness.

Seconds later, Mike Stoker opened the outer
doors, and looked into the ambulance cab. "What's 
the problem?" he asked, knowing the rig never
stopped unless it was for an invasive treatment.

"Chest tap for a tension pneumo. It's pretty 
far along. Stick around." Roy told Stoker. 
Wordlessly he thought. ::Let's hope we
don't need Stoker for some CPR here.::

Crockett cleared his throat. "Oh, boy.."
he said when Johnny drew out a long
needle and butterfly valve. "You're gonna
stick him with that?" he said.

Gage said. "Yeah. If you can't handle it,
I'll have Stoker take over f--"

"Just do what you have to, Gage."
Crockett said continuing to bag Jose'
steadily. "You're wasting time." Crockett
loosened his tie and wiped some sweat
off his upper lip.

Johnny's face cracked into a slight smile
for a moment before Roy swabbed
down the proper area over the right side 
of Jose's chest. Then his expression melted
into one of concentration. "Ok,... Roy. I'm
going into the second intercostal space
anteriorly.. Don't hold your breath..."
Gage said, doing just that. "Crockett. Hold off 
just a sec. Start ventilating him double time as 
soon as I have this thing out again."
  Johnny felt his needle punch through into the 
abnormally gaping pleural space and a loud 
rush of air hissed out immediately through it. 
"Bingo. Tension pneumo diagnosis is confirmed."
He chuckled withdrawing the needle slowly. "Ok,
Crockett. I'm through." he said, throwing
the hollow lance into the sharps disposal bin
on the wall. "It's out."

Crockett opened his eyes and smiled when
he felt an immediate change as he began to 
work the ambu again. More oxygen seemed 
to be getting into the teen's lungs.
"Hey, I think he's better."

Gage listened to his handywork. "Yep. He sure is.
Breath sounds are back. Just some new minor
rales on the right. Might be pulmonary contusion 
noise cropping up." he sat back and sighed
grabbing up the phone as the EKG settled back
into a slower, more effective sinus rhythm.
"Rampart. Chest decompression was successful."

## 10-4, 51. Is the boy unconscious? ##

"That's affirmative, Rampart.."

##What are his vital signs?##

Roy had already anticipated that need.
"BP 112/86, Respirations unassisted are
8. Pulse is 110 and regular. He was getting
pretty tired before his new complication."

##Go ahead and intubate him for more effective 
ventilations and support for those rib fractures. 
Have two mg's Diazepam IV set to use to keep him 
sedated PRN.  Return his drip rate to TKO 
following any usage.##

"Two mg's Diazepam PRN and intubate for 
controlled ventilations. IV to TKO following any 
sedation med. 10-4, Rampart. Our ETA is six 
minutes."

Roy tapped Johnny on the shoulder and
handed him an unwrapped endotrach tube to 
which Crockett said. "Y-You're going to stick him
with that?"

Even Mike Stoker cracked a grin.

=============================Part II Marker====****
Photo: Johnny Gage in a confidential
            pose with Detective Crockett.

Photo:  A jockey and horse down on the track.

Photo : Johnny taking care of two victims O2
            in an ambulance.

 *******************************  
From :"Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Covering Bases~~  
Date :Tue, 11 Mar 2003 22:52:16 +0000 
 
Dixie and Joe walked out to the main ER desk
and both sighed heavily as Jose' Rivera's rolling
gurney left for surgery. Crockett followed them out
of the exam room, trailing after Johnny as he 
headed straight for the call station coffee pot.

He was shaking his hands and massaging them
to work out some cramps. "I don't know how
you paramedics handle that bagging thing without
your fingers falling off. I don't think I'll be 
able to lift a fork by dinner time."

 Johnny laughed in sympathy.
"A typical week sees us breathing for people 
that way for hours. Especially on all the bad cardiac
runs. Guess I never noticed what a work out ambu 
ventilating is probably because we lug fire hoses 
around so much." he admitted. Then he eyed Joe.
Gage asked. "Hey, doc." he said pouring himself
a cupful and then enough for everyone else. "Do you
think that rider'll pull through?" he asked. "I know
pulmonary contusions that come afterwards 
with broken ribs that extensive, can get a little tricky 
sometimes."

"He's young and strong." Dr. Early sniffed, rubbing his 
nose in careful thought. "You saw how much 
having that chest tube inserted improved him. I 
think that a lifetime in the racing saddle will be his 
ticket to a speedy recovery. Jockeys are top
notch athletes and they're usually in terrific shape. 
I've heard it's hard to make them lose their focus 
about anything as trivial mere broken bones." he 
joked. "They stay on their game and never lose sight 
of what's important to them."

"I sure got an earful of that.. I think Jose' talked
me into an arrangement I just may regret." Johnny 
groaned.

"Oh?" Dixie commented sipping her coffee 
carefully.

Roy had rejoined them from his treatment
room where Mary Kenner was getting her
fractured arm and torn radial artery emergency
repaired by Dr. Brackett and he grinned,
leaning on the wall spinning the walkie talkie slung
on one wrist absently.  "The thoroughbred Jose' 
was riding got a little too much sun after his little 
tumble in the jockey pileup. Mr. Rivera
wouldn't relax for us until he knew he had 
someone lined up to step in to accept the horse's 
care costs in lieu of any move the owners 
might make to put him down."

Dix's face split into a wide grin, which Joe
echoed. "You didn't?"

Gage cleared his throat uncomfortably and
just sipped his coffee.

Crockett chuckled, folding his arms across
his elbows in amusement. "Now that might
be kinda costly Mr. Gage. You just might have 
entered into a binding verbal agreement which
is well on the way to actually acquiring him."

"What?! I did?" Johnny said, nearly spitting 
out his drink.  

Crockett moved in for the killing tease.
Yeah... I've seen handshake deals out there
going on all the time. No one bothers with paper
work. It's all on the honor system. Heh.
I hear that the average race horse costs, what? 
Five to ten thousand dollars for those who 
regularly bring in the purses?"

"At least." Joe Early said.

Gage's mouth fell slack in a stunned "ouch."
His mind was still working on the idea of
racehorse assumed ownership.

Crockett smoothed down his detective jacket's
lapels. "I wouldn't worry about it, Johnny. 
Who knows? Maybe you can get your other
fire crewmates to help you cover all of his
shares by splitting costs among all the
shift assignments." 

Johnny's eyes boggled out as he kicked into
scheme gear. "Say.. that's true! I mean,
we all chip in already and share costs 
for our food." he insisted. "

"Oh no.." Roy said blandly, his smile dropping
off his face into one of sheer dread. "Johnny,
I wouldn't exactly say a racehorse is the same
thing as a package of T-bone steaks."

"Knock it off, Roy. What's a few bucks up front gonna
matter? It's for a worthy cause at least. It's not like
we're going to the stock market to gamble it 
it all away."

"That's just what I'm afraid of." Roy said with a frown.
"Everything about owning a race horse IS a gamble,
Junior, in case you haven't noticed. I sure did. And I
only like to bet on 'em." he voiced in dire insistence. 


But his partner was oblivious.

"Listen, Johnny, you can talk to the guys about this 
later. All I know is that I'M not letting you talk me into 
this thing, no matter how hard ya try.." and Roy picked 
up the drug and IV resupply box Dixie had prepared 
for them and made tracks for the squad where
Mike Stoker was waiting. "See ya later, guys."
he said to Crockett, Dix and Joe.

"Hey.. Roy.. Wait a minute!!" Johnny said, 
eagerly setting after his departing partner. 
Then he remembered. "Oh, heh. Sorry, all.
Bye Joe, Dix, Crockett. Thanks for everything.
I'll be seeing you.. Excuse me here... I gotta go talk 
some SENSE into my thick headed partner. 
He's talking crazy..." he insisted with quickly 
gesturing fingers.

All three nodded and rolled their eyes as
Johnny quickly darted around people in
the busy hospital corridors in hot pursuit
of Roy DeSoto's retreating back.

"I think you created a monster.." Dixie
mumbled to Crockett as she refilled their
cups to the brim once more.

"Heh, heh, heh. Actually I think it's more along the
lines of the fact that I just created a firehouse 
full of bonifide saints, Miss McCall... " Crockett said,
rocking back on his heels. "Have a wonderful afternoon. 
Give me a call when Miss Kenner's awake, would ya? 
I'd like to speak with her about the accident today."

"Sure thing." Joe said, looking up from Jose's
patient chart where he was dictating notes.

Crockett left, heading for the police station 
to read Vince's crime report that he had ordered
the officer to gather from the track incident's 
trainers and uninjured jockeys.

-----------------------------------------------

Racehorse trainer, Dusty Schraeder, entered his barn full 
of green thoroughbreds. He immediately headed for his 
one lone groom tending to a wheel barrel full of straw 
and manure that he had just cleared out from the dead 
stallion's stall. He was halfway down the aisle leading 
to the rusty dumpster set outside for just such material. 
"Hey, Manuel! Paramiso, mi amigo.  Uno momentito.." 
Dusty called out, tossing his black five gallon cowboy
hat onto the tack tree hook holding racing bridles
as he strode into the dark, fan noise filled barn row.

The tiny old jockey Mexican native turned at his
jefe's voice, "Senor Schraeder?" he coughed as
he pulled on his cigarette and he rubbed his ripped
and soiled T shirt absently with tobacco stained
gnarled fingers clean to offer out a handshake of
congratulations. "He died fast, no? It is really a 
seemple thing to kill a horse.."

Dusty immediately backhanded the little man in
the face, sending him over the laden wheel barrel 
onto the shoddily raked earthen floor. "That was
sloppy..."

Waste soiled straw spilled onto Manuel as he struggled to
his feet in fear. "Senor? Que? No Comprendo !
I do it good enough. Did he not go down on the final turn?" 
his cigarette smoke raspy, south of the border voice 
cracked.

"You imbecile!" Dusty screamed. "I'm not talking
about Charismatic! I'm talking about his STALL!.. I'm
not smelling any Lasix in here." he said, walking into
the decrepid box stall, sniffing the air. "How
are we going to prove ourselves innocent of his
sudden death if there's no drugs showing up in his 
p*ss hole?" He angrily drew out a syringe full of the 
antibleeder from his jacket and bit the needle cover off. 
He squirted out half in a careless rain into the urine hole 
at his feet and the rest he injected into the horse's water
bucket. "Now I don't wanna have to tell you twice.
Don't TOUCH that bucket."

"Si, senor, lo ciento.. " Manuel said, immediately
recovering his battered L.A. Angels cap from the muck
on the floor as he wiped away the blood from the
side of his mouth. " The aqua is no toca, si. A-And
I not forget the next time about the shots to the dirt
like you do now." he said. "Sorry.."

Dusty's anger melted away and he tossed the spent
Lasix syringe into Manuel's wheel barrel and helped
the shaken man pitchfork its tumbled load back inside
of it. Then he drew his crooked groom under one arm.
"I didn't mean to hit ya, buddy. I....wasn't thinking.
I hate it when we have to kill a perfectly good horse just
for appearances. Let me make amends?" he said,
pulling out a fat wallet full of cash. He started counting
out bills one at a time before the small man's cowering
face.

Manuel's toothless grin erupted almost as big as his
eyes and he greedily held out his dirty hands for the
payment. 

Dusty said, "Here. Two hundred for the job. Just like
we agreed. And another fifty just for the h*ll of it. 
You did good my friend. Even your rival Jose's horse, 
Swale, got hoof clipped into a good fall. Jose was wrecked 
up bad. He won't be riding for months. Looks like its 
clear sailing for you AND me. Now go get some ice for 
your face. And take the night off. I'll finish up here."

Manual scrambled away, mumbling gratitudes and he 
quickly climbed onto his ramshackle seatless bike and 
pedalled off for the barn dorms.

Dusty Schraeder knew that by sundown,  his way ward
groom would be in no condition to talk to the police and 
track officials he knew would be stopping off in the barn 
for the standard post mortem stall tests. ::With 250 
greenbacks in hand, I doubt Manuel will be sober enough 
then to even know his own name..:: the evil trainer thought.

Humming contentedly, Dusty made sure his run down 
operation looked as finely raked and pristine as any other 
racing barn's on the row.  He set his final touch by grabbing 
some field clover from the patch of weeds under the barn's 
leaky hose faucet and shoved the yellow blooms into 
a dusty vase on top of the nearly empty, barely regulation, 
first aid kit he had hanging next to his barn office door. 
As an afterthought, he blew the dust off the cock angled
giant sized "Warning, extreme fire risk. No smoking." sign 
that was in bilingual english and spanish anchored 
on the wall, and straightened it out on its nail. Smiling,
Dusty polished it to a high shine with his black twill  
jacket's sleeve.

He went inside to the silty desk to call Swale's owners 
with a less than glowing report on the horse's condition. 

What Dusty did not know, was that Jose' had 
circumvented any further crooked race deception 
by his desperate plea for help to a certain, very special,
horse loving, firefighter paramedic. 

--------------------------------------------------------

"Nope.."

"Oh come on, Cap!" Johnny insisted. "Just look at
Swale's pedigree! Walter Farley shoved a racing form
into my back pocket while we were loading Jose'
up and now I got all his juicy statistics right here.." he
said, drawing out a sandy white booklet of the
daily races from where he had shoved it in his
belt. "Son to Native Dancer, full brother to Citation
himself.. Man, when Swale gets his wind back enough 
to run ten furlongs again, ..we'll all be RICH !"

Hank Stanley ignored his paramedic's tirade and
instead took offense at the fine track dirt festooning
the floor and table top near him. "Gage, I said no. Now
go grab a towel and a broom and go clean this up!"
he said shoving back in his kitchen chair and away  
from all reminders of their morning rescue call. 
Hank's agitated hands continued to pet Henry the 
hound dog's back harder and harder absently, until 
a loud moan of protest floated up from the lazy form 
sprawled across Cap's lap. "Sorry, Henry. My supposedly 
polished firefighting men are being bonifide twits again. 
You know how that irritates the snot outta me...
Gage, about Swale; that's IF he gets his wind back, not
when. To me, that colt looked pretty much three of four
hooves boots up into a grave this morning."

"Kelly and Stoker reversed that, Cap, with their wash
down. He came outta heatstroke just like that.."
and Gage snapped his fingers in the air derisively.

"I don't care. Once a horse does down like that, 
that trainer, what's his name again? Ah, yes, 
Walter Farley, told me it's five times harder to get 
him back up onto his feet and into racing condition 
again!" Hank countered with a slap of his hand 
on the table. "Count me OUT. Beside, I'm NOT a horse 
racing fan. Didn't you catch onto any of my attitude
towards that this morning, pally?"

Johnny sputtered ineffectual arguments.

Chet smiled and bit his lip in predatory fashion as
Johnny Gage clammed up and did what his captain
told him to do. But kernels of Johnny's sales pitch
had already sprouted under his irish skin and he 
said. "Cap.. I really think this is an opportunity of a 
life time. Even for me. And you know how picky I
can get about taking on weird deals."

"This is not a weird deal.." Johnny glared at him
through pursed lips.

"Sure it is.." Marco Lopez piped up. "I mean,
just how many firehouses do you know of who get
themselves reined into buying a broken down racehorse.."

"He's not broken down.." Johnny hissed at
Lopez. "He's still got four good legs on him."

"Yeah? You're forgetting one tiny detail there, Gage."
Cap said levelly firm with a finger pointing right
at his man's nose.  "Add THIS fact to his excellent 
boneleg status. Swale's got one very, very sun 
cooked BRAIN!" Cap said, drawing crazy circles 
around his ear for emphasis. He rose to his feet, 
shoving away the track racing form. "This is the 
end of this particular discussion with me!  Come on, 
Henry.. Let's  go hide in the recliner to get away from 
these kookheads.. "

Then he took a breath.

"You know.. I should order ya ALL to Rampart for
a checkup. Looks like Swale's not the only one
who got in a little too much sun today."

Cap hefted up the ample Henry into his arms
and stood above the recliner where Mike Stoker
was reading behind a newspaper. Cap cleared his
throat and Stoker looked absently looked up
to see who it was. He hastily vacated the coveted 
spot in a pico when he saw Cap's expression.

Hank settled in and snatched the section Stoker
had been reading for good measure, too. Cap
draped Henry onto his lap for maximum comfort
and prompted buried himself into the sports page.

Mike Stoker thought about getting his paper back
but decided that superior rank ruled. He sighed 
and took up his usual place at the kitchen table.

Despite things, ten minutes later, Gage had everyone's 
signature on the stay of execution papers for Swale, except
Roy's and Cap's. ::I'm just going to haveta work
on those two. Until then, Swale can stay at my place.
Just as soon as the vet clears him for travel.::
Johnny thought to himself with a pleased thrill.

---------------------------------------------------

Brent Brackett and his wife Anna Rose found
their son, Kel Brackett, lurking in the nurse's 
coffee lounge.

Dixie McCall was with him, and Doctor Morton.
And they were going over Mary Kenner's 
private medical case. 

The older Bracketts barged in, infected with
a healthy case of co-worker etiquette blindness, 
which abruptly interrupted their confidential 
conversation.

"Oh, there you are, my dear.." Anna Rose said
to Dixie, bending down to leave a kiss
on the mortified head nurse's cheek. "I hope you 
haven't forgotten the important role that Brent 
and I imparted to you.."

Dixie's fake smile locked in stone. "How could
I, Anna Rose? I assure you, I've been thinking 
about it every second.." she answered truthfully.

"That's good. I'll give you a call you at home tonight for
your idea run downs. Kel gave me your number."

Dixie's withering look at Kel  made the younger 
Brackett hold up his hands in defense.

Brent spoke on another matter, now that his wife's
concerns had been voiced first. " Kel, I found your
rescue base station out there in the hall simply
astounding! I must learn more about your emergency 
department. That's, uh. If Dixie allows me. I can't believe 
I've been working here for six years without 
knowing how it all works." he said incredulously.

Kel cracked a smile. "I'm sure that my best intern,
Mike Morton, here would be more than happy to
take you on clinical tours, dad, today and all
through the next week."

Morton choked on his donut he had been
eating with gusto. Dixie slapped him on the back
to get him over it before things got out of hand.

"You all right there, Mike?" Kel said.

"Yeah, *cough* I'm fine, just.. fine. Thanks, Dix."
Mike Morton took the napkin he had used and
crumpled it up onto his paper plate. "Look uh, 
Kel, are you sure that Joe Early wouldn't make 
a better tour guide for your parents? I mean he's 
got far more experience than little ol m--"

Kel shook his head slowly. "Speaking of
experience, this will just be another aspect
of medicine for you to learn about by catering to
local dignitaries." he quipped to the delight of
his mother.

It was Mike's turn to wear an expression that
didn't match his current emotional status and
Dixie felt immediate sympathy for Morton now
that he was joining her in misery. She poured him
an extra full coffee cup to fortify him.
"I'll cover the nursing angles." then she said
under her breath so only Mike could hear.
"That way it'll all go that much faster.." she said 
from the corner of her mouth.

Mike nodded his gratefulness to both the coffee
and the offer. "Great..we'll get started tomor--"

"This afternoon..." Kel countered with a smile..

"...this afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Brackett." Morton
amended smoothly without missing a beat. 

To Dixie, Mike cracked the biggest toothiest 
doctor's professional grin that she had ever seen.
::Oh, boy. He's not happy. But, rank has its
privileges. :: she said scratching an itch on her head.
She cast a dangerous calculating eye on her best friend. 
:: You know, I think I'll go to medical school after this, 
just to become a doctor so Kel won't be able to pull 
one over on me or my staff anymore.::

To Dixie's chagrin, Kel was obvious to her discomforture.

Soon, the elder Bracketts left for a late snack to the 
cafeteria and talk resumed about Mary Kenner,
the woman jockey.

Mike said. "Her ABG levels in that hand are
simply perfect, Kel. She came through that
immediate surgery of yours with flying colors."

Kel frowned and shifted in his lounge chair,
sighing. "Yeah, but that's just one of her problems
solved. I'm concerned about her continued
paralysis..."

Mike blinked. "Why? Her x-rays are showing 
clear. There's no fractures anywhere along 
her spine. She doesn't even have disk 
misalignment. Seems to me that her paraplegic
deficit might be temporary just due to swelling
from hyperflexing her back when she landed on
top of that track railing. You did tell me Roy found
her hanging there."

Kel answered. "Mike, you know how these things go.
I've seen patients who have whole vertebrae
completely shattered in two, three places who 
eventually get up and walk again. And then there are 
cases like Mary Kenner's..." and he let his comment 
hang in the air.

A feeling of subtle depression filled the room.

A few moments later, Mike's irrepressible optimism 
on things he knew little about gushed out. "The steroidal
treatments will work for her. The anesthesiologist
said he saw a few foot twitches when he was extubating
her. And I believe what he saw."

"Let's hope you're right.." Dixie whispered.

----------------------------------------------

Photo : Dix and Kel Brackett talk over lunch.

Photo : Dusty Schraeder with $$$.

Photo: Guys reading in kitchen.

Photo: Cap's lecture look.

Photo : John making a point in the kitchen.

***********************************  
From: "rampartbase" <doc51@att.net>  
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 04:12:30 -0000 
Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] Foiled Again! 
       
 
Dixie finally  gave up and suggested Catalina Island. "That sounds 
like an interesting place." Anna Brackett said. Dix just nodded. "We 
can leave tomorrow. You're such a dear." Anna hugged Dix.

The next day, the trio of Bracketts met at the dock for the 26 mile 
boat ride. They boarded with the rest of the passengers and the boat 
left as scheduled. Somewhere out at sea, the boat ran into trouble. 
One of the engines started smoking.

----------------------------------------

Photo:  None.

*****************************
From : "JOHN ALLEN" <leoseven@msn.com>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] Horses, Ferrys and Fire, Oh my!  
Date :Mon, 17 Mar 2003 08:36:53 +0000  
   

This is a tandem post by John Allen <leoseven@msn.com>
and Patti Keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> via live brainstorming
and mutual research on the web.
  
 
Dusty Schraeder exited his track camper and strode
to the nearby parking lot payphone under the row of
palm trees over looking his horse barn. ::Man, this sure ain't
San Antonio, Texas. Hotter than grits on a griddle today.
I hate Californ-I-A. With a passion.::

He dialed a number, as he slapped on expensive
aftershave. "Artie? It's done. And it looks like
Jose Rivero's on the outlist for three months, too.
You owe me more for that."

Dusty listened as the mafia man's voice
warbled in his ear for a moment. "No, man. I'm
through. There's enough police sniffing around my operation
as it is..You want another horse killed do it yourself.
I've got a boat to catch this afternoon."  And he slammed
down the phone receiver in irritation. "I hate Italians.
They should stick to drinking bad wine and twirling pasta
on their spoons!"

------------------------------------------------------

Kel Brackett and Anna Rose stood by the railing of 
the Windjammer Ferry bound for Catalina Island.

"Oh, Kel. Remind me to thank Dixie for this.
I don't think we've been to this island all
the time you were growing up." Anna Rose
sighed, breathing in the rich salt tanged air
ruffling her auburn hair.

Kel and Brent exchanged a look of confidential
tolerance at Mrs. Brackett, intensely glad that
a destination for their vacation had finally
taken shape.

Brent drew both Kel and Anna Rose under
both arms in an uncharacteristic show of 
guarded affection, and said. "I'm glad we can get 
together for this. Glad that d*mned snowstorm 
changed our minds.. I could get used to trips
like this.."

Kel smiled. "Dix has a knack for landing 
ANYone on their feet."

"Even us?" Brent quipped.

"Apparently, even us."

Anna Rose beamed at Brent and Kel
widely and said. "Let's go get some
champagne to celebrate. Shall we?"

"Celebrate what, mom?" Kel
asked wrapping her sky blue sweater
more tightly around her to stave off
the brisk seabreeze coming from the south.
She could just see the wild beach of
the graceful desert island less than
a quarter mile away from them.

"You have to ask? Isn't it obvious?"
Anna Rose asked in return peering up
at her taller son.

Brent chuckled deep in his throat and
adjusted his white golfer's hat more
firmly onto his head. "Anna Rose, leave off. 
Kelly's here to unwind. No surgical wards, 
no Dixie to come calling with medical matters,
no Rampart. He's finally on foreign territory
for the first time in years. In more ways than 
one."

Kel grunted, but deigned to comment.
He sighed grandly and said. "I sure am.
But I'm sure glad I'm here. Listen, hang around 
for a few minutes. I'm going to go get 
those drinks for us. Be right back.."

Anna Rose and Brent Brackett watched him
bound up the deck stairway to the 
upper level and the open air bar above, with
a new energy she had never noticed before.

Seabirds fluttered down over their heads
and glowed in the azure sky, only increasing
the Bracketts sense of contentment and peace.

But then, Anna Rose's nose crinkled suddenly in
distain. "Dearest, do you smell that?"

"Smell what?"

-----------------------------------------


On the Windjammer's bridge, the captain's
internal phone rang.

"This is the Bridge.."

##Sir.. we have a problem...##

"Specify.."

The engineer below decks coughed once
and lifted the receiver from his mouth and
shouted. "Get more coolant on that port
turbine! She's still running too hot!!" then
he thought angrily. The ferry engineer saved a few
choice mental words for the Santa Anita 
track trainer and entrepreneur and spit
sharply onto the metal grating beneath his 
feet. :: D*mn Dusty Schraeder for cutting 
our budget spending on transport servicing. 
Shoulda hauled her up to dry dock months ago 
for a complete overhaul. When I get to shore 
again, I'm gonna...::  

BOOM!!

The Windjammer shuddered as the sudden engine 
explosion beneath her passenger crowded decks 
shifted in massive concussion.

The Captain on the bridge shouted. "Mr.
Margolin! Get down there and see how
badly we've been damaged!"

"Aye, sir.." said the ferry's first officer, and
he gestured to two fellow officers to follow
him down below decks to the engine room.

The ferry captain's right hand nestled onto 
a little used switch on his natical tactical board
and he pulled it. The universal mariner's
distress call.

 ------------------------------------

Kel was sent sprawling off his bar stool
where he sat waiting for his order
of champagne for three.

He was thrown with terrific force into
the deck plating and the impact made him bite
his tongue badly. In wracking pain and bleeding
copiously from his mouth, Dr. Brackett lifted 
his head as he saw smoke billowing from the rear 
end of the ferry. A careless wind sent a cloud of 
suffocating bad air into the bar deck, and visibility 
shrank down to nil in seconds. "Everybody, drop 
down on the deck! There's clear air down here!"
::Mom, dad. Oh, be safe..:: he thought.

Kel helped one shaken young woman, dazed
from where her head had impacted a
fallen table, to her feet and together, they
fled towards the direction of the stairs they
could barely see and back into daylight.
::What the h*ll happened down there?::

In the murk he spied a big Texan man, lolling
on the deck, semi conscious, with a black cowboy hat  
covering his face. "Hey, mister! You ok?" Kel asked 
the fallen man, shoving the crushed hat away.
He could see a large bruise on his head.
::Might be a concussion.:: he reasoned.

Dusty Schraeder moaned and opened his eyes
under Kel's ministrations. "Oww.. *cough* what 
in tarnation is going on?!"

"There's been an explosion below decks. We gotta
get outta here. This smoke's getting thicker." Dr. 
Brackett said. "I'm a doctor and there may
be more injured people outside. Can you stand?"

"Can a racehorse run?" Dusty said.

"Fine. Let's move out." Kel ordered. 
He hefted the southern man to his feet and pointed 
him in the direction to where he knew the stairs were.

-----------------------------------------------

L.A. Dispatcher Sam Lanier coordinated the 
data he was receiving from the Coast Guard
Communications Network and decided a course
of action to handle the bounding casualty estimates
streaming through his terminal from the Harbor
Master on Duty. Then he toggled out the tones.
A long string of call signs and finally the fire disaster
LCR's rang out across the county's telecom relay
system and into the firehouses linked to it.
## Station 110, Waterboat 245, Battalion 14,
Coast Guard 9, Helicopter 8, Station 51, Marina
Cutter 27, Lifeguard 16. Ferry fire. One mile off Catalina 
Island. All fire units respond to LAX heliport. Time 
out, 11: 45.## 

Cap sidled out from under Henry and shot to his feet.
"Let's go. Move it out.."

"Sounds like a bad one.." Chet mumbled as he
ran to the rig and hurriedly pulled on his turnout
gear. "But why call out the engine, too? Gage and
DeSoto usually get the ocean runs."

" It's a catastrophic all call, Kelly. Remember those tones.
This must be a grade four multiple casualty for us to respond 
as well." Cap said, climbing aboard the Ward. Stoker and 
the others filed into place and soon, the station rolled out.

On the way, Johnny cut the tension by talking of
other matters. "Hey, Roy, guess what?"

Roy, deep into watching traffic as they sped towards
the airport, barely afforded Gage a glance as
he grunted, "Hmm?"

"Wanna play altruistic and kill two birds with one stone?"

"Whatdiya mean?" Roy said, gripping the steering wheel
and speaking loudly over the wailing siren above
their heads.

Johnny tightened the strap on his helmet and smiled.
"Well, first thing. We go ahead and buy Swale. 
You heard Crockett. I just may have agreed to a 
verbal shift of ownership with Jose Rivero the jockey.."

"What do you mean we?" Roy said frankly. "I wasn't
in on that little deal you two struck up, now was I?
Washing my hands clean of that so you can just forget
it. Joanne would never forgive me if I tapped into
what little savings we have."

"Roy, just forget about that for a sec, you're forgetting
we still have impressive collateral right at our fingertips.."
he grinned.

"Where?"

"In that old engine we have fading in the sun out back.
Kind of a shame we never found Mr. Kerner the buyer
that day. Here's our opportunity to do a good deed
with it."

Roy's face started to smile even as the squad rounded
into the gateway being opened for their vehicles onto
the airport tarmack by LAX security. "What, then? You
and Mr. Farley go into the stud business?"

"No man, nothing so selfish. I wish you'd just think for
once. I'm talking about that young gal we worked on
at the track. What was her name?"

"Mary Kenner.."

"Yeah, her. It just tears me up that her filly had to be
destroyed. What would you think about us giving her
and Jose Rivero all of Swale's ownership shares?"
Gage asked.

Roy blinked as he pulled up into the space reserved for
fire vehicles along the marine jetty fence line.
"Johnny Gage turning into a bonafide do gooder? 
I can't even begin to imagine that. But.. I have to
admit.. I'm really warming up to the idea.."

"Then sign.." Gage said, thrusting papers out at Roy
that he had folded inside his shirt and shouting
into the violent wind coming from the landing pad
just in front of their bumper.

"We're in the middle of responding to a run here!"
Roy said incredulously, squealing to a halt and jamming
the squad's transmission into park.

"SoOoooo, the faster you sign the faster we can get
out of here.." Gage countered over the roar of
Helicopter 8's rotor wash as he opened the door
and handed out the ownership signup form and his 
green pen out to his partner.

Roy grabbed the sheet, John Handcocked it, and
shoved it back inside the squad before closing the
door. "What about Cap's signature?"

"I got his after lunch in the only place where I 
could think of to corner him on equal ground.
In the john.."

"You haven't a shred of human decency, pally, 
you know that?" Roy DeSoto rolled his eyes.

"Probably not. But I get results when I want em."

They had grabbed all the gear into the squad stokes
when another set of hands grabbed one end of
the stretcher in their run towards the helicopter
and the waiting coast guard pilots.

"Detective Crockett.. What are you doing here?"
Roy asked, as he almost dropped the stokes
and the equipment in surprise.

Gage double blinked, too.

Detective Crockett said. "Got word you
fellas were on a run to the Windjammer. I've
a vested interest in that ferry. I've been ordered
to come along."

"Oh, why?" Gage said as he and Roy slipped into
lifevests and headsets in the belly of the coast guard
bird. 

"Do you remember Dusty Shraeder at all? That fine
upstanding gentleman your jockey friend from the track 
was dead set on chewing up and spitting out, despite his 
injuries?" he quipped sarcastically.

"Oh, him.. " Gage said with displeasure, light bulb going 
off. "So that's his name. I remember now. He was kinda 
shady and slimy like, if I recall.."

"In more ways than one. Not only is he dealing with
negligent racehorse fraud, he's dabbling in the
ferry business too. His company was cited for five 
maintenance violations on that boat alone 
this season."

Gage nodded. Then he toggled his headset to the 
pilots. "Helicopter 8, This is Squad 51. We're
aboard. Dave, what do we got?"

" Squad 51, We've a 250 passenger boat bound for 
Catalina. And her captain reports her engine's caught fire.
The first responding Coast Guard cutter reports she's 
already nearly fully involved astern."

"Was she at capacity?" Roy interceded into the radio
frequency through his own radio set.

"No, only to one third according to the Harbor Master."

"Understood." DeSoto said. ::More than enough reason
for the fire engine crews to come along with us..::

Roy glanced down out the window as the Coast Guard
chopper lifted off the landing pad. He could see
Cap, and the rest of the gang piling into Waterboat
245 along with Station 110's crack marine fire team.
::No doubt they'll be joining us on that fire boat for
the secondary assignment once we've handled the 
main evacuation.::

---------------------------------------------

Cap lifted his HT. "Engine 51 to Helicopter 8."

##Go ahead, Engine 51.##

"Our ETA to site is thirty minutes."

## 10-4, 51. ##

Cap grinned and patted each of his men on the
back as they boarded the swift hulled coast guard
cutter. "Time to get your feet wet, boys. "

Chet eyed the big, bobbing red and white boat
suspiciously. "Aw, Cap, do I have to? I just got done
polishing my shoes."

"Get in there.." Cap mock growled, giving Kelly a shove 
across the short plank leading from shore to the 
sleek rescue coast guard Crestliner.

Marco strapped into the life vest a guardsman handed
him and he asked. "Hey, Cap. Just how many 
oceanic runs have you logged in your day? I take
it disaster calls like this aren't common."

"You're right. I've only seen three. This is my third. Just 
consider it a four alarm, gang. The only difference is that
any firefighting will be completely on a horizontal 
plane instead of a vertical one and the hosework will be trickier 
because the waves will be shifting us up and down on the
boat's deck. We're only going to be cover for 110's 
marine firemen. Remember that. Do whatever 
they ask of you in full support."

"Right, Cap."

Soon, Waterboat 245, loaded with 110 and 51's
firemen, sped out to sea after the disappearing
Chopper 8.

------------------------------------------------------

Kel Brackett helped Dusty Schraeder out to open air 
and he shouted to the panicking, singed people around
him, handing out lifevests from inside the railing benches, 
when he saw the ferry's employees doing the same.
"Everybody, get set to jump overboard! The beach is 
right there.."

Casting his eyes around the milling crowd, Kel fought
through them as best he could, spitting out the blood
in his mouth while he searched for any sign of either of his 
parents while he put on a life vest and found three
others.

"You rest there.. I'll be back for you.." Kel gasped through
the smoke at Dusty, whom he parked onto a deck chair
reluctantly. Giving the dazed man another glance, Dr.
Brackett fought his instincts to stay and help the 
injured around him and he forced himself to listen to 
the new ones of panic he felt growing inside of
him about his family.

"Mom!  Dad!! Can you hear me?!"

A thick oily curtain of burning haze swept over 
the deck and felled seven in a suffocating grip.

Kel stumbled, choking on the stench in his
throat and he crawled over to the nearest
body and pulled it to the windward side
of the deck by feel alone.

On the fourth trip with a victim, his seeking 
hand found his father, unconscious and face
down. "Dad..!!"  His fingers found that
he had a pulse and that he was still breathing. 
Immediately Kel's head shot up. 
::She would never leave his side like this..:: 
"Mom!"

"Kel?" she gasped from very nearby.

"Over here.." he coughed. "Put this on.."
he handed Anna Rose one of the three life
vests he still had with him and quickly tied
one around his father. 

He dragged Brent over to where he could hear
the ferry personnel helping people into the water
for the desperate swim to the wave dashed 
shoreline of Catalina Island.

He snapped out an order. "Don't send a swimmer
with this man until I get back.." he ordered one 
lieutenant, pointing down to his father. "I am going 
to go get a victim with a head injury. Then we'll
leave."

Kel took a breath of the relatively clean air
by the railing on the island side of the burning
ferry and turned to go back to Dusty Schraeder
whom he had left behind. 

Anna Rose stopped him. "No, Kel. Don't leave
us! You'll never make it out again.." she sobbed.

"I'll be fine. He's not that far away." Dr. Brackett 
said as he looked up and saw the fast approaching outline 
of a coast guard cutter making a rapid headway 
from the island's small resort jetty over to
their ferry. "Just stay with dad."

 Kel disappeared, crawling back into the
dark smoke of the inner deck.

-------------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny couldn't see the ferry.
Just a column of black greasy smoke
coming from the wounded boat almost
hugging the shoreline. Roy thought,
::The engineer's must have shifted the
rudders to allow her to drift towards shore.
Smart thinking.::

Then John saw startling colored dots floating
in the water. He tapped his partner 
on the shoulder. "Roy, they're already 
abandoning ship!"

Roy spoke calmly into his radio headset. 
"Most look ok. I'm just concerned about the 
ones who are hurt and not able to swim 
away from that boat.."

Gage didn't say anything more and both
paramedics and Detective Crockett 
were silenced by the horrifying drama
unfolding like a silent movie, before them.

##Squad 51, we are touching down. You
are to disembark with your equipment
and report to Cutter 27 docked starboard
on the jetty for your rendevous to the 
Windjammer. ##

"10-4, Chopper Eight."

The massive Coast Guard helicopter hovered
only inches from the rough stoney pier
that was already jammed with newly responding
fireboats taking in sea water into their bilges to 
combat the ferry's burgeoning fire.

Two minutes later, Roy and Johnny were
fast footing it with the gear laden stokes
between them down the rocky pier
towards the landing set aside for Coast
Guard's slips at the very end. Crockett had
donned a coastguard jumpsuit, complete
with his fire arm, and was running close
after them.

Johnny could see two vessels were waiting and 
idling with their prows aimed seaward. 

Gage immediately turned for the 
sixty foot fireboat. A shout stopped
him. "51. Over here.." came a voice.

Roy and Johnny turned. A guardsman
on an eighteen foot red painted outboard
was gesturing for them to come
over to him. 

Gage's eyes got real big. "Oh, man.. Roy..
We're going on THAT thing?"

Roy cracked a grin. "Still don't trust yourself
from the last time out at sea?"

"Hardly."

"Well, you might not get seasick this time,
pally. There'll be no masts for us to climb."
Ferrys don't have any." Roy said.

"Hope you're right.." Johnny groaned.

Soon, DeSoto and Gage were heading out
in the speedy outboard towards the column 
of rising soot marking the place of the 
sea ferry's self consuming fire.

------------------------------------------------

Kelly Brackett found the large Texan 
coughing on the deck chair. "Mister..
Let's go. I've got a life vest here for you.
Easy.." he said as he flung one of the 
groggy man's arms over his shoulder
to help him gain his feet. "This way.."

The wind shifted mercifully, showing the doctor
that the Windjammer's decks were now empty 
of people except for a few near the gap in the 
railing where his father lay. 

Dr. Brackett and Dusty Schraeder had 
covered half the distance to the opening
in the railing when the Windjammer's fuel
tanks compromised.

A great force lifted both men up and
flung them outwards from the main
bulk of the boat as a massive exploding
fireball signalled the beginning of the
end for the hull breached ferry.

The Windjammer listed twenty degrees
to her side, towards land, and Dusty and 
Kel Brackett slid struggling, across the oily 
deck, each partially stunned by the blast. 

Rushing towards the ferry, Roy and
John and Crockett winced as the
Windjammer blew herself apart.

On the front of the flying debris,
a body was hurtled into the sea.

"Move it move it!! To portside.
Ten o'clock!! Someone just landed
in the water!! " Gage shouted.

Cutter 27 knifed through the waves
to where the paramedics had last
seen the man go down. 

The boat circled the area once,and
the impact rings were fast fading in the
ocean's regular toss and turn.

"Where is he?!" Roy shouted.

"There. There. Right there!" Crockett
said, pointing suddenly to the left.

Gage and DeSoto jumped feet first into
the water from the cutter with
the empty stokes. They swam
rapidly to the slowly sinking man
and hauled his face out of the water.

They struggled to pull their victim
into the stokes long enough for the
rescue boat to come forward for 
a pickup. Crockett and the guardsmen
had only just hauled the sodden man
aboard and had rolled him over when
the detective exclaimed. "Schraeder!!"

Gage, regained his footing on the
boat's rear loading platform, was
helped on board. "Who?"

A low moan came from the cut
riddled Texan in the stokes as Roy
bent down to check the injured 
man's mental status.

"It's Dusty Schraeder from the 
horse track. My team and I got
enough evidence to arrest this guy
this morning on charges of animal
cruelty and reckless endangerment."
Crockett said.

"THIS is the guy our jockey was so
keen on taking out?" Gage asked.

"Yeah.. Walter Farley tipped us off
on his Lasix misusage and led us
to some eyewitnesses who saw
exactly what Dusty and a groom named
Manuel did to Charismatic, the colt
that caused the pileup. A little dumpster
diving found the missing unused 
Lasix syringes they had been throwing away
and their barn's ID serial number was
labelled all over them."

"Means and motive.." Roy sighed.
"He's ok, Johnny. A bump on 
the head and no signs of aspiration."
DeSoto said, lifting his stethoscope
from the man's chest.

"I'll get him on some O2."

Right then, Dusty Schraeder groaned and
started stirring. He awoke to a grinning
Crockett's face. "Whaa? What are you
doing here? Didn't you get enough of me
investigating my horse barn?" the angry
man asked of the detective.

"More than enough. You're under arrest,
Mr. Schraeder.." and he slapped on 
handcuffs around Dusty's wrists. "I'll say,
your racing days are over.."

Dusty Schraeder promptly passed out.

 
Johnny happened to glance up back then
to a commotion from the Windjammer.

Anna Rose Brackett and a ferry worker was
crouched over a soot stained figure lying
on the deck. "Johnny ! Roy! Over
here.. My husband and son! They're 
hurt!"

The cutter crew swiftly darted the 
remaining distance to the gutted
Windjammer whose fire had blown
itself mostly out. Roy and Gage quickly
accepted pulling hands to come on board
and their gear quickly followed.

Roy knelt by Kel Brackett and began
to check him out even as Gage did
the same thing for the unconscious
Brent Brackett.

Johnny glanced up at Anna Rose.
"You ok, Mrs. Brackett?"

"Y- Yes.. The guardsman shoved
me down and the explosion went over
our heads. H-how are they?"

Roy spoke up. "I've got a good 
carotid."

"Same over here." Johnny said,
bending down to check Brent's
pupils for reaction time. "So far so
good."

Right then, Brent and Kel both groaned
and started to awaken.

"Easy, doc.." Gage said. "Docs.." he
amended with a grin. "Just lie still,
both of ya, and let Roy and I 
check ya out."

Kel Brackett winced and rolled over
to spit out the blood pooling in his mouth.
"What about the fire..?"

Gage turned and glanced over his
shoulder. "That last explosion sure did 
a little number. Blew out the fire and exposed 
a wanted criminal to the local authorities as well." 
Johnny quipped.

"Huh?" Brent Brackett grunted.

"Never mind. It would take too long to explain 
it to ya." Roy said, getting two cannulas of
02 set for their patients. "But I can tell ya
that it's all for the good."

"Doc.. you feeling better?" John asked
when he realized Dr. Brackett had an actively
bleeding tongue.

"I will be. Just get me off this smoking hulk.
I've had enough of vacations to last me
a lifetime.." he sighed.

"Just don't swallow any of that."

"Don't I know it.." 

"Do I need to get your permission to treat 
you an--"

"Don't ask. Just do."

"Right."

Waterboat 245 with the high pressured
water cannons, and the rest of Station 51 
and Station 110, soon arrived to board 
Windjammer along with a ferry to take
the beach survivors back to the mainland.

Cap and Chet strode over to where Roy and
Johnny were setting up IVs on Brent, Kel
and Dusty in prep for Chopper Eight's multiple
airlift maneuver for their transport.

The captain of 110's stepped forward and started
barking orders. "Let's get these casualties
stabilized ASAP. I want everyone off deck in
ten minutes! Station 51, go below and check
for petroleum leaks. Last thing we need
is an ecological catastrophe on top of 
everything else."

Hank Stanley, Chet, Marco, and Mike Stoker
all hurried with him to quickly check out
the damage left behind from the explosion
snuffed fire.

-----------------------------------------

 
Kel Brackett, Brent Brackett
Jose Rivero and Mary Kenner were all
sharing a room at Rampart because of
limited space arrangements that were 
currently in effect.  Only a curtain 
separated jockeys from doctors.

Johnny Gage, Roy DeSoto and Walter
Farley were visiting the jockey side.

Johnny was beaming ear to ear, as 
was his quiet partner, when Walter Farley
gently took Mary Kenner's hand. "Mary.
How are ya doing. You awake? Some friends
of mine are here to see you on a matter of
business.."

"Mr. Farley?" she said, opening her eyes. 
"You came.. Jose and I didn't think you'd be able 
to come today because of the stakes races going on." 
she said.  Then she recognized Roy. "Mr. DeSoto.
I've some good news for you. The doctors are
saying that I will walk again. It's going to take some
time and a lot of therapy, they tell me. But I'm more
than up for the challenge."

"Well, that's good Miss Kenner, because the guys
and I have another challenge for you to work on."
Roy said to her, smiling.

Walter Farley stepped forward and pulled the bundle
of leather he had been hiding behind his back.

For a moment Mary's face twisted with the 
memory of her filly going down the day of
her accident. But then her eyes fell on the brass
name plate on the bridle's cheek strap.
"Oh, my g*d. This says Swale? Mr. Farley..
what is this?"

Johnny said, "Well, Jose came up with the plan
and the rest of us guys at the station house made
it possible with ...well, a small donation up front...
for this.." and he stepped forward to hand over
Swale's signed and delivered ownership papers
and pedigree.
Again Mary's eyes fell on the short list of names 
of the colt's sole shareholders. She read them
aloud. "Titled owners of Swale. 2 year old. Bay
colt are hereby declared as Mary Kenner of 
Anaheim and Jose Rivero of Independence City
in the state of California, United States of--"

Her voice cracked when she realized the implications
of what she was reading. "You didn't.."

"We sure did Miss, Kenner. " Walter Farley grinned
along with the two paramedics flanking him.
"Swale now belongs to a jockey team of two. 
Utterly. Including all future stud rights and purse 
winnings from here on out."

Mary's eyes filled with tears and she regarded
the sleeping Jose on the bed next to her
briefly in thought. " We can't accept him.. I..
well, Jose and I can't afford to keep a racehorse.
We don't have the facilities off track."

Walter Farley spoke up. "Not necessarily true
young lady. You see, The Dusty Schraeder 
Racing Stables have declared bankruptcy due to
extenuating circumstances. Heh. heh heh. The 
track now has fifteen stalls set aside for
me to fill. And Swale.. now has one of them."

"Oh, Mr. Farley.." she sobbed. "I'm sure if
Jose were awake right now. He'd also thank you
from the bottom of his heart.  And I thank
you firefighters, too, for everything."

"Our pleasure ma'am.." Roy said quietly.
"Well, we'd better be going. Take care and send
us a post card once in a while from the racing
circuit."

"I will.." she promised.

-------------------------------------------------
Anna Rose sat at the foot of Brent Brackett's
bed and held his hand. "Brent, now you know
you and Kel still have plenty of vacation time
accrued. I've been thinking about this alot.
Now I've talked with a very nice young man named
Morton downstairs and he swears up and down about
spending a week in Hawaii..On Maui to be exact. 
Now, what do you say?"

Brent grunted and chuckled, holding a pillow over 
his aches. "I've seen enough islands to last me
until I'm ninety, Anna Rose. And I'm sure our
only son agrees with me."

"I concur most wholeheartedly, dad. How about
another six years of us just working, straight through."

"Sounds just peachy.." Brent smiled.

Anna Rose's face fell in complete and utter dismay.
"Oh, now that's not fair. That solves your needs.
What about mine?"

"Well, you can always go to school to become
a nurse and then come work with us.." Kel quipped.

"Oh, you.. Dixie would never agree to that.. 
and you know it."

Right then, Dixie walked in the door with the
medications for everyone in the room.
"I'd never agree to what, Anna Rose..?"

"Oh,.. uh,, nothing.." she said.

-----------------------------------------------

In the squad, returning to base, Roy
and Johnny Gage had reason to smile.
Gage stretched languidly in his seat and
said. "I feel really good about what happened to
us over the past two weeks, don't you?"

"I know what you mean. What we did was
a really noble thing I think. Saved : One horse
and two careers. Nice totals, Johnny."

"Yeah, " Gage smirked. "So, did you learn your
lesson about betting on the horses?"

"How do you mean?" DeSoto said, turning into the
station's drive. The garage door opened to reveal
that the engine had gone on a run.

"Roy, how can you be so blind?" Gage said
in exasperation. "Horse racing is all a matter of 
integrity, right across the board. It's not a game. 
Never was."

Roy studied the steering wheel and the sunlight
dappling there. "I suppose you're right, Johnny. 
I-I do feel kinda different about it all now."

"Good going, I'm proud of ya, Junior."

Roy's face split into a gentle grin and
he shyly glanced at Gage. "If you say so, pally.. 
Come on, let's hurry. Maybe Cap and the others 
left our hamburgers in the oven. I'm starved."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me.. Did we remember
to get more dogfood for Henry?"Johnny asked.

"Yeah, and you can count on this fact. It's not 
horsemeat."

             
                       FIN       :)

-----------------------------------------

Photo:  Angry Dusty.

Photo: Catalina Island and Ferry.

Photo: An ocean ferry fully involved.

Photo : Coastguard helicopter and fireboat.

Photo: Crockett and Johnny in cahoots.

Photo: Station 51 boarding a Coast Guard cutter.

Photo : Frogman reaching for lifevested victim in sea.

Photo : Johnny and Roy rescuing Dusty from the sea.

Photo: Mary Kenner and Swale very happy.

Photo : Roy  confiding to Johnny about feelings.

Photo: Henry loafing.

************************************
 

To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fullmoonblues.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fatherandson.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/juxtaposition.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/withinsight.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------
To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/integritygame.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------


This is the...

      Debut Production Launch of Episode Five

                Integrity Game
                      
                  
     Debut Launch : 16  February, 2003.

============================

Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters.  

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..
-------------------------------------------------

            
            End Credits --  Episode Five (First Season)

    :)     This Episode is dedicated to those who go out of
            their way to insure the humane treatment of
            Racehorses who are trained daily, to run for the 
            Thoroughbred  Racing Circuit nation wide. May they 
            all retire alive and well. (Horses, dedicated trainers 
     :)    and grooms, alike.)                                                 :)                                                                                


Guest Writers...
---------------
Linda Taggatz          doc51@att.net
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Sam Iam                 lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
John Allen                leoseven@msn.com

 
**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Storyline Technical Consultants
--------------------------------
Sue Hampton      On IV's and Fire Hoses- ER RN/EMT-P/FF/North Carolina
P. Keiper             Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

To  Icecat :)
For Designing a New Web Banners for the ETL.

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
and Emergency Medical Terms Guide 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

====================================

       Music for   Season One   Episode Five

                  INTEGRITY GAME

----------------------------------------------

Iomen Midi- by Windjammer.

Living On Midi- by Unknown.

Little Earthquakes Midi- by Tori Amos.

Stay Midi- by Shakespeare's Sister.
 
Leya's Song Midi- by Unknown.

I Wonder- by ABBA. 

---------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   
----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    
____________________________________


  
The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Six..  

The Golden Horn

Captain Stanley faces a pinnacle crisis regarding an old friend. A 
brush fire traps Station 51 in a canyon that may cost them dearly in 
both lives and vehicles. The Golden Horn

Debut Launch: 15 March 2003.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

*****************************

From : Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com
Subject : Morning Misery
Date : :  Sat Mar 22, 2003  10:02 pm

Johnny Gage jolted in bed with a groan as the wakeup tones
shattered his sleep, filling the bunkroom with its frequency tones.
"L.A. testing with stations 127, 36, 110, 8 and 51."

Hank Stanley rolled out from under his sheets to
the bedside radio mounted near his head. "L.A., Station
51.  You're clear, KMG 365." he mumbled and sniffed
and coughed as he hung the mike back up on its
spigot. "Gage, Kelly tells me it's your turn to cook 
breakfast this morning."

"Aw, Cap. We just got back." Gage said. "Besides,
Chet never honors his bets anyway, so why should I? 
I'm gonna just ...catch a few winks so I....I..." and 
his voice trailed off as sleepiness made him drift again 
from where he slumped in tangled sheets on his stomach.

A ballistic pillow nailed Gage on the back of the head. 

"Ow!" and Johnny shot up onto his butt glaring
about him for the one whose bed was now pillowless.
"Whoever threw that's dead meat.." he growled.

" Get up! A deal's a deal." Chet groused. "That sounded 
like a definite Cap order to me." he countered. Then he
peeped. "Right, Cap?"

Hank just glared at Kelly and pointed. "Move it, Kelly.
You may not be putting the chow on, but the coffee 
pot's calling out your name big time. I wanna smell
coffee brewing in fifteen seconds or the hose tower's
gonna be your second home for a week. 15, 14,...10"
he accelerated, "9,..  8 !!..."

Chet muffled any further retort wisely and scrambled
into boots and was gone before his sheets settled.

From where he lay face down on his bed, Roy
chuckled. "G*d, I love waking up in the morning here.
Kinda puts the world in perspective...."

"Oh, would you just shut up?" Johnny snapped, sitting
up with his legs dangling over the bed, not yet having
the mental faculty to succeed in getting into his 
pullover boots and trousers.

Hank's stenorous voice boomed out. "As for you, Gage, 
there's a mop just aching for latrine duty if I don't see 
you making tracks to the stove in five.."

The effect was miraculous. Johnny went from grumpy
sleeper to rabbit quick in a pico. 

Roy blinked in surprise when he only saw the door swing 
following his partner's sudden departure. He quirked a grin.
"Cap, some day you outta teach me that trick of yours 
that inspires such gut fearing reaction in the guys. Maybe 
then I can use it on Johnny whenever he gets outta line 
about some crazy scheme of his."

"Sorry, that's a trade secret.."

"Too bad."  Roy studied his watch closely and nodded
when the aroma of fresh coffee wafted into the bunkroom.
"That's thirteen seconds, Cap. A record. Looks like Chet 
won't have hose tower duty today."

"Fine. Marco, that'll be your morning assignment."

"Hey! That's not fair.. I didn't do anything.." Lopez
protested.

"Precisely my point, Lopez. It's a Cap's duty to keep his 
men from getting too bored between runs, by handing 
out active and fulfilling job duties." Hank said with a smile
rubbing pleased palms together.

"I'm thrilled.." Marco said sarcastically, barely a whisper, 
disguising his retort as a cough.

"Or,..would you rather a little latrine time instead so you
can stay out of the fierce summer sun..?"

Marco's face flopped open in instant fear. "The tower's perfect,
Cap. I could use a workout. At that last fire of ours,
I only ran up fifty flights of steps. What's a few more?"

"Good man. DeSoto, it's up to you and Stoker to arm wrestle
duke it out to decide who gets the chrome or the can. I'm done 
making decisions until after lunch." And Cap strolled out of the 
bunk room.

Stoker and Roy exchanged brief looks of surprise. Then they 
began eyeing each other up. Stoker cracked his knuckles with 
a feral grin.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Roy wandered into the kitchen cradling his arm and 
shaking it out to work the kinks out of it.

"What's wrong with you?" Johnny asked Roy, sliding a pan
full of scrambled eggs onto pot holders in front of the
six table settings he had laid out.

"Nothing.."

Mike Stoker entered the kitchen and quietly took his
place at the kitchen table and sat with a significant 
cough, pleased as punch.

Gage looked from Roy's self conscious face to Mike's
smug one but wasn't in the least clued in. 

Mike piped up. "He lost."

"Lost what?" Johnny asked.

"Never mind.." DeSoto said defensively.

Cap, sitting and biting into a cinnamon roll, grinned as
all get out. 

Chet finally put two and two together. "Don't be dense,
Gage. Stoker was just the better man in a wrestle, that's 
all." he smirked. "Well, well, well... Looks like the guy who 
never pulls toilet duty's finally been had." he teased.

"You're kidding.." Johnny said, forgetting that he
was pouring Roy's coffee. He caught himself before
the spill got over the table's edge dangerously,
and into his partner's lap.

Roy's mute look said it all as he watched Johnny hastily
intercept the scalding coffee with an agile towel.

Gage began to laugh to beat the band as he sat also
to wolf down breakfast. "How could ya lose, Roy? 
You must be a third bigger than Stoker is."

"Who's been doing more CPR lately?" Roy bemoaned.

Johnny gave a short nod, quite frank. "Stoker."
and he laughed uproariously.

Roy glared at him with his usual unblinking frown.

Gage moused down under the scrutiny immediately.

Sounds of aggressive eating filled the air with slurps
and silverware chinks and china dings until breakfast
was a thing of history. Then Cap leaned back and said.
"First thing after all the chores are done.." and he
tossed a slate full of unorganized run logs and fire calls
with an echoing bang, onto the table.

The packet clipped into place was nearly half an inch thick.

All the gang's faces slacked open.

"Uh, what's this, Cap?" Johnny finally asked.

"What's it look like? They're our run sheets from last
month. A new procedure's been drafted. Each company
shift's now responsible for tidying up the log book, and
making neat copies of each incident, in triplicate, for the
final send to headquarters."

Dead silence met Hank's ears.

Then Kelly cleared his throat. "Uh, Cap. There must be
some kinda mistake here. You see, we're firemen, not
secretaries. Besides, doing all those would take us all
hours, if not days to do. I'll just bet not one of us types
better than twenty words a minute."

"Tough." came Cap's easy reply. "I can't help it if that's
a secondary skill you men have chosen not to develop.
It's a requirement in the captaincy. Work it out. You have
three days to get this mess into some semblance of order."

"But isn't that the Cap's duty to record into the official
log book?"

"Not anymore. For once, McConike's finally laid the
groundwork for something I actually agree on.. It's about
time the paperwork duties are shared as equally as
the chores around here.."

No one voiced the thought every man was thinking, about
Cap never getting latrine or mop duty.

Johnny slumped, pushing away his half empty plate with a 
sigh and he buried his face into a hand as he regarded the
fat slate before him.

Cap asked. "What's the matter, Johnny? Don't like your
own cooking?"

"All the sudden, I'm not very hungry."

"Eat. Then type. And that's an order..." Hank said.
"I got the dishes." he commented, getting up and
clearing all the plates into a stack, one by one, except
the meal in front of Johnny. "Then I'll be right with
ya all, straightening out that g*d awful mess there." he
said pointing to the pile of bundled run sheets.  
"I planned ahead and got five typewriters ordered from 
HQ."

The doorbell rang. 

Cap lifted his head. "And that's most likely the courier
delivering them right now. Stoker, go answer that."

Mike moved.

"Chop, chop the rest of you. The faster we clear the 
table, the faster we can get started.." Cap said.

------------------------------------------------

Mike Stoker opened the rear door from the yard and 
hastily got out of the way as a handtruck, laden with
five heavy boxes, barreled into the station. "Oops,
sorry, young fella. Sorry to be hurrying, but I got ten
deliveries to make by noon." the UPS man said.

He wheeled the station's new typewriters into the
garage and unloaded them against the wall. Then
he leaned on the door frame, dragged out a hanky
and wiped his red face. "Man,  what a scorcher today.
Whooweee.." he gasped, enjoying the cool air of
the bay. Then he swallowed. "Say, is there any 
chance I can bum a glass of water off ya? I drank
a little too much soda today and I'm parched."

"Let me go get you one.." Mike offered. "Hang on
a minute." Then he took the man's slate pad, "I'll
go take this to Cap to sign."

"Perfect. I'll wait here." the older man sighed.

"Have a seat.." Stoker offered, indicating a bench
behind him.

"Don't mind if I do.."

Stoker went into the kitchen.

He returned with a tall glass of ice water just in
time to see the delivery man sagging down the 
wall. "Hey, DeSoto, Gage!! On the double!"

He caught the flushed man as he fainted and 
lowered him to the floor just as a tremendous
seizure gripped him.
---------------------------

Photo :  Johnny lying in bed.

Photo :  The gang surrounding the table
             eating.

Photo:  Johnny, Roy and Chet in Cap's
            office with armloads of paperwork.

*****************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Whirlwind Help~~  
Date : Sat, 29 Mar 2003 01:52:50 +0000  
  
 Roy and John looked up from where they were drying dishes
with Cap.

"Huh?" Johnny gasped.

Everyone in the kitchen ran for the garage in haste. Gage
took one look at the convulsing man and the hard time
Mike was having keeping his airway open and he said
said. "Cap! We gotta move... Marco! Get the gear.."

Johnny and Roy fell onto their knees by Stoker as they 
both reached for the fallen man. "Stoker?" Roy asked
while he felt the man's pulse. He only briefly looked at 
Mike for what he knew. "What happened here? Let's get 
him on his side. Easy.."

The UPS delivery man's eyes were rolled up into his
head and his hitched breathing sounded almost painful as 
he shook.

"He said he was thirsty and very warm. When I got 
back with his water, I found him passing out just as
you see him now. He's been seizing only for half
a minute." Mike replied. Stoker kicked a typewriter box 
out of the way that was a little too near the man's head.

Roy looked at Marco, who had first grabbed the 
resuscitator from the squad's side compartment.

Stoker turned on a high flow of 02 through the
demand valve's mask and began to use it to create 
some fuller breaths for the man in order to turn away 
his mild cyanotic color.

John nodded after his primary assessment. 
"His airway's fine now. Roy, his carotids are much
stronger than his radial pulses and he's more than just
a little warm. This flush looks like sunburn."

"Heat stroke?" Roy guessed as he loosened the man's
clothing and belt for more inspiration room. He started 
to listen to how the man was breathing with a stethoscope.

"That'd be my guess." John said frankly. "Mike, see if
you can cushion his head, but don't interfere with or
restrain him in any way."

"Right."

"And let's get him stripped down."

Chet tossed Stoker a folded burn pack for him to
use for a pillow and then he began opening a shock blanket 
immediately after. Kelly slid the defibrillator and 
biophone with a foot nearer to Roy and Johnny, while he 
unfolded the sheet as fast as he could.

Cap crouched only briefly over the man to help
Marco open the shaking man's shirt where he
lay propped on his side, then he rose. "Marco,
after you're through patching him in, grab some
ice from the yard's soda cooler and hoof it back
here with a load, would ya?"

Johnny nodded vigorously in agreement from where
he was taking a hasty BP on his patient, letting Roy
keep the stethoscope, getting a systolic reading by
guiding touch alone.

"You got it.." Lopez said. He ran through the back
door. On a thought, he opened the idling UPS truck's
cab and switched off the running ignition and threw
on the truck's emergency brake. As he hurried he
heard another order from Cap float out of the shed.

"And get out a portable smoke fan, we'll use it
to start cooling him down. Also punch up
both garage doors, the cross wind might help."

Marco snatched open the chest cooler that was humming 
outside against the back of the station nearest the hose 
tower and soccer kick guided a drying mop bucket close 
until it was handy to use as a way to transport the ice 
they so desperately needed for their stricken visitor.

---------------------------------

Meanwhile, inside, Johnny drew out the defib paddles
and took a quick reading while Roy checked and rechecked
the leads connecting from the biophone to the EKG monitor.
"He's showing sinus tach, Roy. With considerable physical artifact."
The finding made Johnny grip the man's carotid again for
quality. "Still viable though."  He tossed the paddles aside
back into the open case. He swept appraising eyes over
their victim, who was now only in briefs.

Only then did Cap move over to the radio station to heft
up the acknowledgement microphone. "L.A., this is Station 51.
We have a still alarm at our location. Respond an immediate
ambulance, Code R."

##10-4, 51. Ambulance is responding. Driver reports his
ETA as four minutes. Your time out, 8 : 06.##

"Station 51, KMG 365, 10-4." and he sighed, returning to
hover back over the working team of paramedics and firemen.

The sinus tach came on the monitor in front of Cap,
but in moments, it seemed, the man's heartbeat grew 
more coarse and wide peaked into a more chaotic tach. 

Roy snaked a hand to the man's neck pulse and 
kept it there while he phoned out. "Rampart, this is Squad 51. 
How do you read?"

Dixie McCall replied when she heard the response buzzer sound
above her head. Seconds later, she was pressing the call out
toggle on the base station intercom.## Unit calling in, please 
repeat.## and she flipped on the wall recorder.

"Rampart, this is rescue 5-1."

##Go ahead, 51. ## Dixie said getting set a chart note pad
and pencil. She tapped on the window glass to get Dr. Morton's
attention about the run. The young intern returned his reading
chart to the holder and entered the room to listen to
Roy's report as Dixie documented it in writing.

"Rampart, we have a male, aged approximately 60-62 years
of age. He is currently down with a witnessed seizure.
Duration: Two and a half minutes. Rampart, he also appears 
grossly febrile and not at all diaphoretic. Cooling measures are in
progress as well as assisted ventilations on 100 % O2."
DeSoto said to the hospital staffers as he watched
his partner show Marco and Chet where to place the
chilling ice. Piles soon appeared around the twitching man's 
axilla area, and thickly around his head and neck, ankles, groin 
and wrists inside the shock sheet the others had wrapped 
around him.  

Roy cupped the phone's receiver onto his shoulder, muffling 
it. "Stoker, keep tabs on his carotid for me, will ya?
I'm letting go. Ignore the monitor even though it's showing
a beat. Trust only what you feel. He may go sour on us 
real fast."
  
Stoker nodded, taking over his hold with a grip of his own.

Roy was now free to write down the information he had
gathered from his assessment.

Dixie asked. ##51, what are the patient's vitals?##

Gage was already biting open an IV of normal saline 
and he smacked a box of intravenous tubing against 
Chet's knee for him to open as well, in anticipation of its
use. He barely waited for a pause in Roy's account when he 
added. "Roy, pulse is, 134 and weak. Respirations are 30 and 
shallow. Pupils are slightly dialated and sluggish. BP is...
104 by palpation. Still working on the temp."

Roy parroted the vitals signs as he heard them,
scratching his nose while he watched Stoker maintain
good color on their patient. "30? And shallow?" he
doubled checked.

"Yeah.." Johnny confirmed.
 
Roy nearly dropped the phone when the man's belly
began to heave.. "Mike.. Watch it..! Watch it.
He's starting to vomit.."
 
Stoker pulled away the mask and supported the
man's head on his arm while some emesis gushed 
from his lips. Gage tossed him a syringe bulb from the 
02 apparatus case and some gauze 4 X 4's.

"Here! See if you can clear him first with this before 
anyone goes running to get the suction. This way's faster."

Cap bent to help Stoker hold the man's face firm despite
each violent convulsion, while Mike worked to keep him
from aspirating anything into his lungs.

Chet asked. "Are we cooling him too fast..?"

"No. He's not shivering yet." Johnny said tartly. 
"You and Marco, just keep doing what you're doing." 
he jogged his head animatedly at Chet and Lopez while
they hand shovelled ice into the yellow bundle of plastic 
sheeting cocooning the man.

Roy reported the event once he was convinced they were
on top of it. He also told Rampart about the feed he had
set up and about relaying his cardiac telemetry through 
to them on Lead Two.

##10-4, 51.## Morton replied.##Does your victim have
a gag reflex?## considering his options on reducing
the man's most serious complication.

Roy watched the man as he heaved a bit abdominally in response 
to Mike's evacuation attempts with the oral bulb whenever 
he reached in to sweep it over the man's tongue. "That's 
affirmative. But it doesn't look like he's bringing up much
beyond the initial amount. It appears to be all liquid."

Mike spoke up. "Roy, he did tell me that he drank too much pop."

"Soda?" Roy asked.

Stoker nodded as he moved faster to clear the man's mouth.

"I'll just bet his blood glucose's screwed up, too, on top of
his being drier than all get out." Gage mumbled. "Marco check 
those clothes over there for any sign of medical ID."

"Rampart, our witness mentions that our victim spoke
about consuming a lot of soft drinks prior to collapse."

##10-4.##
Mike Morton sighed and leaned onto the counter meeting
Dixie's eyes.##Do what it takes to regain good air 
exchange, 51. His pulse is accelerating.## he affirmed by 
looking at the monitor.

Cap got a pulse count. "It's up. Rate's 160 now." he 
told Roy to confirm what Morton had found.

Stoker finally got nothing but air into his bulb.
"I got him. I got him.." And he quickly sent some vents in,
timed with the man's own.  The fluttering pulse he
felt under his fingertips began to ease subtly and slowly
at first, but soon thereafter, by more than twenty beats 
a minute.

Morton spoke over the phone.##Good turn around. 
Did he aspirate, 51?##

DeSoto shook his head as he listened to the man's breath
sounds around the ice piled there, with his stethoscope.

"That's negative, Rampart." Roy sighed in relief.

Cap finished wiping the man's face clear with the dish towel that 
he remembered he had jammed into his pants pocket, in 
between Mike's 02 delivered vents. "Looks like we got lucky."

Morton went on. ##All right, enough's enough. Let's get a handle
on those uncontrolled convulsions. Start an IV, 51. 
A 500 cc bolus IV of Normal Saline and run it wide open. 
Administer 10 mg Diazepam IV Push. Monitor him carefully for 
dysrhythmias, 51, as it goes in. Titrate the diazepam
only to seizure resolution level. He's too irritable cardiac 
wise for any more than that.##

"An IV, Normal Saline, wide open. Diazepam
IVP until seizure is counteracted. 10-4."

"Man, I can't get a vein.. Chet.. kneel on his hand, will you?
Hold this arm still as you can.." John grunted, holding
his needle well away from Kelly and the convulsing man
until he had good room to work. "Pump up that BP cuff
again, too, while you're at it.."

Chet did as he was told and everyone held their breaths
while the blood pressure valve quietly snicked tight. It barely
raised a shocky vein. But it was enough.

 Seconds later...."I got it.." Johnny grinned, when he saw his 
catheter's flashback. Gage snatched for the flowing end of the 
hanging IV that Kelly had hung from the squad's side mirror. 
He quickly connected the two together while he taped up the 
rest of the IV and swabbed down its medication's port for Roy 
to use.

Roy slowly injected the global sedative until the man went limp
and relaxed into a post seizure turpor. His patient's color
paled and the sinus tach widened, turning a bit closer, into 
something else. Roy pulled the med needle out of the IV line. 
"That did it.." But he didn't smile. The EKG began to show 
anomalies.

"Stoker. How's he doing?" Johnny asked.

"Still got a carotid. It's easier to ventilate him now."

"It should be.." Gage coughed. "We just knocked out
most of his involuntary muscle abililty." he said 
taking another BP, this time with the stethoscope.

Roy did not look away from the monitor.

Marco looked up from his search of the man's belongings.
"There's no sign of an ID, medical or otherwise. But I
know his name's Marty Anders."
 At everyone's puzzled frowning, he said. "Oh, I read it from
a name tag he had pinned to his jacket in the delivery truck. 
I shut off its engine when I went out to get the ice."

Gage held up his thermometer he had taken R. "It's a
hundred fo--... Hold it..." he froze, studying a suddenly
off rhythm on the EKG screen. "He's in V-Tach!.......Mike?"

"I can't feel a pulse anymore."

At the same time, the radio burst into life. ## 51, defibrillate.
400 watt seconds.## Morton ordered.

"10-4, starting CPR." Roy confirmed. "Marco.." he indicated 
while the others rolled the man onto his back, whose color had
now washed into a bluish ghost of its prior shade. 

"Right." Lopez nodded and started vigorous chest compressions.

Gage gelled the paddles and waited for the charger to build.
"One. Two. Three... Four hundred watt seconds..  Clear!"

Everyone lifted their hands off the man.

Johnny delivered his first shock.

The heart monitor indicator leaped but didn't convert, instead
it fell into a course V-fib.

"No conversion.." he announced. "Recharging.." he said, hitting
the power up switch once more.

Again, he defibrillated. To no avail.

"Nothing..." Roy grunted.

Marco and Stoker instantly continued their CPR.

Roy picked up the phone. "Rampart, we've no recapture..Request
permission to insert an esophageal airway.." he said, his voice
tight with stress.

##Go ahead, 51. Then administer 1 mg 1/10,000 epinephrine IV and
then defibrillate again.##

Cap's head lifted when he heard the arriving ambulance approach on
the boulevard through the open garage doors. He saw it pull
into the station's driveway. He jogged over to them to show them
where their victim was.

Roy and Johnny worked for a very long two minutes securing
the airway and switching to an oxygen supported ambu bag.

The third countershock failed as well.  

The two ambulance attendants took over Lopez's compressions 
and Stoker's ventilations.

Roy said, "Still nothing, doc.."

Morton bit his lip. "Just what the h*ll's going on here? This is
just an environmental injury...isn't it?" he mumbled.

Dixie, overhearing, shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Morton slammed the response button down hard with a palm.
## 51, start a Lidocaine drip of 1.5 mg's and follow up with one amp 
sodium bicarb. Time we equalize his blood's acidity and give his system 
a reason to start working again. ## 

"10-4. One amp bicarb and a 1.5 mg Lidocaine drip." Roy
called aloud for Johnny's benefit.

The dark haired medic already had out the right things,
guessing ahead of time, their need, and he handed Roy the large bicarb
syringe after squirting some of it out to alleviate its trapped air.

##Then administer another milligram of epinephrine. IV Push. 
Continue CPR for two minutes then defibrillate once more.##

"An additional mg 1/10,000 epinephrine IV and counter shock
in two. 10-4, Rampart.." Roy repeated.

Johnny waited for Roy to administer the Lidocaine before he 
followed suit with his cap popped epinephrine. "Let's just hope
the lidocaine does the trick. I really don't think he'll handle
any procainamide well." 

"Let's hope so.." DeSoto grunted as he completed his
infusions.

CPR continued while they waited for the medication
to start working.

Then, after the fourth try using the defib paddles, a tentative cardiac 
rhythm bloomed on the monitor and soon Johnny felt a carotid 
weakly beating at the man's neck. "We got him back."  
he announced.

Roy lifted the phone. "Rampart, we're showing a sinus
rate of about 52 and we've regained a carotid pulse."

Johnny fed him a new set of vitals after snatching
the stethoscope from around Roy's neck. "BP's 102/58. 
Respirations are 14."  He watched the ambulance attendant 
switch the ambu attachment for the station's second 
portable 02 tank that Stoker had wheeled up from the 
squad's backup.

Roy relayed the news.

## I see it. Continue monitoring vitals and watch
for signs of overcooling. Continue the 02 and transport
as soon as possible. Call me back if his pulse rate doesn't
climb back up to normal in transit.##


A few minutes later, Johnny and Roy had the man
geared up for the gurney and together they loaded
the delivery man into the awaiting ambulance.
Johnny went with the patient with the gear while Roy
remained behind to follow in the squad. He got in
the driver's seat and leaned out the window. 
"This is irony for you.. How many times have I ever went
10-8 to Rampart on a call out of the stationhouse?"

"Twice, I think.." Chet said literally. "Once for that girl's
father with his sudden MI and then the other time when
that crazy family pulled up with the burning trailer with
the trapped kid in the driveway."

"Oh, yeah. Forgot about those two." DeSoto admitted.

Cap sighed, backing away so Roy could pull out.
"Let me know how he does. If he wakes up,
tell him I'm calling his boss to come pick up the 
delivery truck."

"That's if he wakes up while I'm with him.."
Roy grinned. "He's pretty out of it with his
meds and overall condition there, Cap."

"Yeah, I know. But he just strikes me as
the type who'll fuss over his vehicle, know
what I mean?"

"Yeah." And Roy was gone.

Chet, Marco and Stoker looked at the papers
and ice and water and plastic sheeting  strewning the
bay. "Man,.. looks like a tornado struck in here." Kelly
quipped.

"It did. A force of six. We're always like that on
a medical call so don't act like such an amazed twit . 
Go close both main doors and then you guys 
clean up over there. I'll go move the typewriter boxes 
into the kitchen." Cap said.

Soon, only a freshly mopped spot marked the place
where a man had nearly died fifteen minutes before.

=====================================onlinebook edit mark

----------------------------------

Photo : Roy with man on 02. 

Photo: Morton and dix. 

Photo: Johnny getting the gear out. 

Photo: Roy in a close up sitting in the squad.

**********************************
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 05:10:46 +0100 (BST) 
From: "Katherine Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>  
Subject:  One of the Line... 
 
It was about forty minutes later.

Johnny and Roy returned to base,
whistling cheerfully. They had been buoyed
by the good news that Marty, the delivery man,
had suffered no long term effects from his 
heatstroke incident and Gage in particular, was
practically bouncing on his heels as he and Roy
made their way hungrily into the kitchen on a 
quest for food and coffee.

What the two paramedics didn't expect was the
mortuary like atmosphere filling the warmly lit
room and the sluggish sounds of hunt and peck
typing coming from Stoker, Chet and Marco as
they struggled to carry out Hank's log 
commandment from earlier. 

Next to Kelly, was a pile of crumpled typewriter
paper wads mounded up around his place at
the kitchen table and the neat organized reams
of papers surrounding the others.

Johnny and Roy skidded to a halt at the sudden
reminder of their new job duty. "Oh, that's right.."
John groaned sarcastically. "And here I had almost
forgotten about this..."

"Wish I had your capacity for forgetting.." Roy quipped
dryly as he poured out a cup of java for himself. He
ignored Johnny's pro-offered mug that was nonverbally 
asking for some, and he moved forward to see what Mike
was typing for his log form up close, pretending to not
even see Johnny's move at all.

Gage made a face at his partner and filled his cup with
a grimace, on his own, from the pot.

Roy threw out a finger. "Hey,... nice neat rows there
Stoker."

"Thanks.." Stoker grinned, without looking up. He had a
correcting pencil perched over one ear that hadn't even
been used.

Johnny likewise, snuck a peek over Chet's shoulder at his
work and started laughing. " You're having trouble spelling
your own name?" he asked incredulously. He snatched
up a random reject discard and unrolled it. "And this
one's got our call sign misspelled. How could ya have
screwed up typing "KMG 365", Chet?"

Stoker and Lopez chuckled from their seats, but didn't
look up from their work of index finger typing.

Kelly snatched the wrinkled paper out of John's hands
and he immediately began nesting the other rejected
paper balls protectively into his arms. "Hey! Quit being
nosy, geesh. What do I have to do to get a little privacy
around here? Build my own personal office?"

John didn't miss a beat. "You don't have to, Chet. Just
borrow Henry's doghouse if you wanna do that."

That won Gage an even louder mirthful reaction from the
guys. "Are you even gonna answer my question?" Johnny
went on, relentless and towering over Chet's chair.

"What question?" Kelly asked with an irritated edge.
Already his attention was bent on ignoring his worst
tormentor and concentrating on his newest hated chore.

Roy spoke up for Johnny. " The one about getting down
"KMG 365" wrong.."

"Oh." Chet said unenthusiastically. "I just get all these numbers
up here all confused." he said gingerly pointing at that row on
his manual typewriter. "They just don't feel right under the 
fingers, know what I mean?"

"Yeah..I know what ya mean." Roy said with a mild empathy 
and he took another sip of coffee.

Gage leaped up and sat butt perched on a kitchen chair's
back instead of on the seat where his shoes parked.
"So, whatcha gonna pay me to do your reports each
week, Chet..?"

That made Kelly blink more than twice at Gage.
"Believe me, Johnny, there isn't anything you do that's
worth me giving up a single solitary dime.." he gushed 
with absolute conviction.

"Suit yourself.." Johnny said and he hopped off the
chair to plunk down into the vacant nearby one that still had
a brand new plastic wrapped typewriter sitting in front of
it.  He grandly indicated the neighboring seat and its
accompanying unwrapped typewriter to Roy, teasing
him into joining in the fun currently ongoing.

Roy just rolled his eyes and took up Johnny's offer
of a chair. "It's 'Misery loves company' I guess..." he sighed.
"I might as well join you all now while I still have the patience.
 I've been dreading this new log recording assignment business
the whole way back here.."

"Oh? Why so angsty?" Gage grinned, cock-eyed and bright.

"I can't type much.." Roy growled.

Johnny cracked his knuckles loudly over his typewriter and he
pulled off its cellophane wrap. "Too bad. I feel for ya.."
Then he glanced around for the pile of logs in the middle of
the table, grabbed one sixth of the stack as his allotted portion,
and his eyes fell on the unused ream of typing paper quickly
dwindling in front of Chet as he failed yet again to type out
the basic information at the top of the form.

"**##&@**##!" Chet swore, and he used both hands to
angrily rip out the mistyped page from his typewriter.

Johnny used that moment to snag a blank sheet for his
own use from Kelly's pile.

"Hey... go get your own.. I don't have that much here
for myself as it is.." Chet complained.

"If you'd quit wasting it so fast maybe you'd be able
to make it last a little longer.. Here.." And Johnny 
lifted the erasure pencil from Mike's ear in an easy grab
and handed it to Chet in appeasement. "Maybe you
oughta learn all about having one of these then.."

Mike felt the robbing but disregarded it, eyeing up his 
own close work of careful hunt and pecking.

"What's this?" Kelly asked.

"What do you think it is?"

"A pencil.." Chet said, with "duh" written all over his tone.

"A correction pencil.. It erases typing marks. Watch.."
And Johnny inserted his stolen fresh piece of paper into
his new typewriter and his fingers flew through his own
name on the letter keys, typing. He intentionally typed
a "Z" after the "e" in Gage. Then he showed Chet how
the pencil worked. "See? Look. There's no sign of ink where
the "z" was here anywhere. Problem solved.."  Gage 
concluded, tossing the pencil down on top of the table.

Chet froze, blinking again. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
How'd you do that?"

"Do what? Use the pencil?" Johnny asked with a smirk.

"No, dummy. How'd ya type so fast?"

"Who? Me? I wasn't typing fast. I.....I.." he stuttered.

"Yes you were. I just watched you.." Chet fluttered
a few fingers in Johnny's direction. "You musta got
out your name in .....what, Roy, half a second?"

"At least..." Roy agreed with a yawn as he pulled off the
new wrapping on his typewriter and got it set for his use.

Cap sailed into the room, seeking coffee.. His face immediately
frowned when he hefted the pot.

"What's the matter, Cap?" Gage asked.

Cap glared at Kelly and turned the pot upside down to show
its empty state..

Chet shot up out of his chair to make a new one lickety split.

Cap rubbed his nose as he regarded all his men sitting with 
the logs and the new machines. He seemed not to see any
of them, lost in thought. Then he asked. "How's our UPS man?"

"He's gonna make it." Roy grinned. "How's the delivery truck?
Were all those packages Stoker said he talked about delivered
on time..?"

"Have you ever known UPS to be late on any delivery?" Hank
countered.

All the gang shook their heads ruefully. 

"I swear they had a new driver here faster than we usually 
get our ambulances on scene, once I called them about his
sudden illness." Cap joked. He watched Chet pour piping 
java into his empty mug absently. Then he sat down at a 
typewriterless spot at the kitchen table.

This time Marco spoke up. "What's the matter, Cap?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing. Nothing. It's just uh, my looking at all
these typewriters is bringing back some memories 
for me, that's all."

"What kind of memories?" Johnny asked, limbering up his fingers
for the long task ahead working on the log forms.

Hank laced his fingers together around his coffee mug and
actually looked sheepish. "The forgettable kind."

Chet's moustache twitched in amusement as images
of McConike's burning hat came to mind. But he said.
"Wanna talk about them?"

"Not much to say, actually."

Gage caught on to Chet's angling. "Sure there is.. 
Don't you know that your junior-under-McConike days are
one of the great mysteries all your shifts have about ya?"

"Yeah, I know." He drew out an old insignia pin, a double
bugle from his shirt pocket and he studied its worn shape.

All the guys grew respectfully quiet and all the typing died
away as Cap's face furrowed in a memory that wasn't all
that mysterious or happy. In fact.. he looked stunned and
very very lost. "Do any of you fellas know what this is?" he 
said, fiddling nervously with the pin on the table
top.

"Yeah, Cap. That's your rank pin for captain off your dress 
uniform." Gage said straight faced and alert.

Hank didn't speak for a time, and he just swallowed while
considering words. Then he practically whispered.
"That's right. I just found out I've got another time scheduled
to use this again, starting tomorrow morning. Actually, it's 
gonna be time for all of us to ....get dressed up.. I ..I.. just 
got a call.." 

Roy's face blanched when he got what that meaning meant.
"Who is it, Cap?"

The others' hearts hit their throats.  

"Station 8's Captain Stone just got back from assisting at
a real bad county fire. He just told me that ..that.."  his voice
broke as he fought emotions... "Uh,..the first story fell on top of 
the chief's battalion car as he radioed out orders to the crews. 
McConike's just died at Rampart."

-------------------------------------------------------

Photo :   McConike's red car.. with its door ajar, empty.

Photo :   Marco, Cap and Mike looking stunned at the kitchen
              table.

Photo :   Roy and John looking lost, leaning against a wall.

*****************************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] The White Helmet  
Date :Mon, 31 Mar 2003 02:09:40 +0000  
   
 
Hank Stanley began to twitch under the following 
silence coming from his men. He found he couldn't even 
meet their eyes. ::If only they knew how this effects me.::
The gold double bugle pin seemed to burn his eyes in the 
morning sunlight glinting off of it from the window. 

Roy was the first one to speak. "I'm ....very sorry to
hear about this, Cap. Is there..is there anything we can do?"

That finally broke Stanley's terrible burden of sharing the dark 
news. Hank felt suddenly released from its heavy weight. "No, 
no, no..I'm.. still waiting to hear back from the other companies 
who are still on that fire cleanup as to details. You know how these
things go. Stone only knew what his paramedics told
him when they called from the hospital. He--he said it
happened only a few minutes ago. Something about
ah, his heart shutting down because of fluid building up
around it..?" Cap guessed helplessly inept at the right 
elusive medical term.

"Sounds like it was cardiac tamponade.." Gage said softly,
abandoning his coffee mug. "The docs probably couldn't
tap it in time, especially if there were other problems
going on with the crushing inj..." Johnny trailed his voice off
suddenly thinking better of his choice of words and the
subject matter. "ugh,..yeahhhh.." he said lamely to end it.
He cleared his throat and studied his shoes to avoid Cap's
intense gaze following his answer as to a possible why.

Again, all the gang muffled into silence. That simple 
happening suddenly grew intolerable for Hank.
Cap's eyes filled and he swung into immediate motion,
standing so fast that the chair behind him loudly impacted 
against the wall.
"Oh, ..uh..nothing they could've done then to save him, 
huh?" and he sucked in a controlling breath to quell his rising 
grief. "That's.. that's too bad.. I...I'm really gonna miss..."
Cap couldn't complete his sentence.

Roy and John didn't dare to say anything.

This time, the silence cut like a knife and Cap.....moved.
He darted forward, suddenly snagging the stack of logs
that was their current headache and picked it up, leafing
through to the back section where they had their list of monthly
fire inspection addresses.. His finger eagerly traced down the
page as he read them quickly. "There.. there's one we can go
to...right there.." and he stabbed his finger down on the
page at one particular one at the very edge of their
jurisdiction. Roy couldn't help but notice that the address
was practically next to the fire that had killed McConike.

The slate clattered back onto the table. "Stoker,..note
number seven's location.. We're leaving.."

All the guys startled at the highly irregular decision.

Even Chet ejected. "Cap..we're bringing the engine to
do a hazardous property inspection?"

"And the squad....." Hank nodded curtly. "Move."

Everyone scrambled for the bay.

Kelly lingered. "Cap, HQ is gonna think this is weird. Are
you sure you wanna d--"

Hank whirled on the Irishman. "Are you questioning your 
captain's judgement?!"

"No, Cap, I uh..."

"Fine. Go get your coat on and stuff a sock in it."

"Yes, sir.." 

Cap's tight flurry of firm action jolted the men into obeying
the odd order even faster and then all piled into their
turnouts. Stoker put the big engine into drive and then
put both feet on the brake, waiting for Cap to board her
as the garage door opened.

Hank Stanley moved to the response mic. "L.A. This is
Station 51. We're 10-8 to 1457 Addison on a citizen's report
about a fire hazard. Going to check it out.."

##10-4, Station 51. Updating your location's status. Time out,
9 : 34.##

In the rig, Chet murmured.. "Can he do that?"

Marco slapped him on the arm sharply to be quiet.

Roy and Johnny fidgetted in the squad for a moment 
putting on their helmets and peering out at the wall map 
for the address's cross street until they knew exactly 
where to go. Then they headed out with their lights 
darkened.

Stoker soon followed in a likewise darkened Ward LaFrance.

As they turned left onto the avenue, Roy couldn't hold
it in. "You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you?
That was probably the worst thing you could have said
to him.."

Gage's face animated. "I didn't mean to say things the way
I did, Roy... It just sort of....slipped out.."

"Yeah? And now Cap's probably gonna be flipping out. Are
ya happy?" DeSoto countered. "He's probably outta his skull
right now imagining things.."

Johnny didn't say anything and clammed up.

Roy spoke again after a full minute of nothing.
"You know what he's up to, don't you?"

Gage pulled his face away from his hand and elbow 
perched out the window. "I...I....well, not exactly.."

Roy looked straight ahead, concentrating on the driving.
"He's going to the fire scene. Where it happened."

Johnny's head whipped around in surprise and his
mouth gaped open.

-------------------------------------------------------

Benjamin Stone wearily stood on the crumbling brick
crackling under his shoes as he finished directing the
engine companies to those areas of the hotel that
were still stubbornly smoking over his HT now set
to command frequency.

He was surprised to see Station 51 weaving in between
the working units and to his command area that he
had assumed when McConike went down. He
barely remembered finishing his radioed order as they
pulled up. He didn't have to ask the reason why they
were there. One other station company from L.A. County
suddenly had invented excuses to be in the barrio 
neighborhood right then, too.

Ben stepped forward as the 51 gang bailed out.
He didn't say anything as Hank's eyes suddenly fell on
what was left of the dusty red battalion car still partially
buried in debris. He briefly turned down his radio volume.
Captain Stone saw Hank freeze into place in shock as
the whole situation suddenly slammed into ugly reality
for him. Benjamin just stood quietly next to his colleague
and waited. So did Chet, Marco, Mike, Johnny and Roy.

Then Cap spoke without looking at Ben. "You're in command
now?"

Ben nodded.

"You should be wearing the white now. Departmental policy.."
Cap said waving an absent hand towards Ben's captain 
helmeted head.

Ben flinched, but again, Ben nodded numbly.

"I'll go get it.." Hank mumbled tightly, his voice full of
powerful emotion.

Gage immediately stepped forward.. "No. Wait.. Cap. Let us
go for it.. You don't have to be the one to go over there."

Hank shrugged off Gage's gripping glove mutely and ordered.
"Stay here."

The others watched Cap slowly pick his way to the spot where
IV papers and EKG patches and spent syringes marked the place
where Station Eight's medics had treated McConike on the ground.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Privately, Hank was very glad the car's paint job and interior upholstery
were both red as he dug bricks and smouldering boards out of the
way until he could reach into the nearly flattened car's passenger
seat for the white battalion chief's helmet he knew one of
the treating medics would have thrown there. He found it under 
McConike's unused gloves and situation slate. 

A sob escaped when Hank finally lifted it out into the light and smoke.
There was no red coloring here to hide the copious fresh blood, still 
staining it.

Backing out of the chief's car, Captain Stanley searched for and
found a hose puddle nearby to wash it off. He bent down, peeling
off his own gloves to do the task.

Benjamin Stone immediately hurried over to help him with it.
"Hank.. let me help.."

Stanley stiffened at first, but then he nodded, meeting Ben's
smoke red eyes.

He was in the presence of an equal at last so Hank let his 
pain out into the open, and he began to cry, his face streaming 
in rich tears.

Benjamin Stone made sure his back was hiding Cap's face
from the view of the rest of 51's men. "It's ok.. We're
here together. And I just heard over the comm that
Station 127 is on the way, too."

"Good man, Captain Gorman. Glad he found a way to 
make it over here." Hank sniffed.

"Yeah.." Stone sighed, holding both of their HT radios in
his lap while they crouched and washed.

Soon, the blood stains were gone and the two captains had
dried the white chief's helmet off with their sleeves.
"Here..." Hank said when they were done. "You take this until
we find out who is getting it permanently. Might be you.."

Ben met Hank's gaze and set a glove on Cap's shoulder.
"Might be you, too, Hank. You've got the most seniority even
over me."

Stanley's mouth twitched painfully but he didn't make a noise
beyond a terse. "Yeah, maybe."

"You know HQ won't tell us who's got the chief's job until
after the funeral."

"Yeah, I know.. But you're still at this fire scene and it's still today.
And we both know the highest on scene officer from the initial set
of called out stations has to take over. "

Now it was Ben's time to lose it and his face twisted.

Hank spoke quietly,  "Put this on, Ben." 
he said, polishing the white helmet once more to be sure it 
was clear of any sign of soiling. "He would have wanted it that 
way. Procedure, you know?" Captain Stanley sighed, wiping away the
tears blinding him before any of the other firemen with the 
nearby hoses from County could see any of his weakness.

"McConike was all that.." And then Ben smiled as he pulled off
his white crested cap's helmet for the white chief's one. He sighed
as he tightened the helmet's damp chin strap.

"He sure was."

Together, the two captains returned to Stone's engine while
Ben completed coordinating the fire's final cleanup as temporary
battalion chief.

------------------------------------------------------------------


Photo:  Captain Stone talking with Hank Stanley.

Photo: Chief McConike with County firefighters..

Photo : Stoker and Cap in the Engine going to a fire scene.

Photo : Night hotel fire..

 
******************************************* 
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : For Every Action....  
Date :Fri, 04 Apr 2003 15:50:47 +0400  
 

The rest of the gang dared not approach Hank and Ben
where they were quietly discussing the progress
of the containment on the still smouldering hotel fire.

"Are you going to go over there?" Marco elbowed Chet.
"I'm not going to go over there. It's none of my 
business."

"Oh? really? It WILL be our business if headquarters 
finds out we're not reporting to the location we said we
were going to go to. And it won't just be Cap's butt in a 
sling, it'll be all of our rears, too." Kelly complained 
plaintatively.

Gage, who was leaning on the squad's hood with his
helmeted chin propped on a hand, shot an irritated
look at Chet, but thought better about saying anything.
::Deep down inside, I know he's right..:: Gage
thought privately. ::But d*mn it. Last thing I need is 
a formal reprimand on my station record 
for deriliction of duty.::

It was as if Roy was clairvoyant. He spoke aloud as
if answering Johnny's private thoughts. "You know, we
might get off the hook here since it was all Cap's idea.."
he murmured, matching his partner's nervous, feigned
looking-bored pose on the fender. Only difference was
that Roy had his own helmet off in respect for the tragedy 
which he knew was only just beginning to tear Hank apart 
despite his tall friend outwardly beginning to look calm, 
cool and collected once more.

"Now that's a little callous don't you think?" Gage rounded
on Roy.

"No,  I-I...it's not callous at all. I'm just being practical. 
That IS how it'll rule one way or another if we're caught 
being off the beaten track like this." DeSoto said, nonplussed. 
"Besides, you know I'm right because I know positively about
what you're thinking. It's a gift I've picked up after serving 
with you for half a dozen years." his voice cracked.

Johnny's face fell into annoyed denial as Roy's point
stung home once more. "Ok, Allright. So you know what
I'm thinking. So let's just clarify a few points on that then. All
right.. This is exactly what I'm thinking..
I can't HELP thinking the worst, Roy, at this point .
And I'm sure the rest of the guys are doing it, too." he insisted
passionately. "And let me add another thing while you're 
digging around in my head. It's sheer craziness to think it's only 
us and Kelly who are noticing that Cap's just a little bit off his rocker."
he said waggling his fingers in a so-so gesture in the air. "Just look
how those county guys are whispering behind Cap's back like
that. It's getting me mad.."

Roy sighed and leaned against the squad, hanging his head down
in fatigue, "Nothing like a cold impersonal phone call to be
the bearer of bad tidings. That must have been difficult for Stone
to have even called Cap on this whole messy nightmare so soon."

"I know. I know." Johnny insisted. "And I know Stone really well,
too. I mean he was MY captain before CAP was my captain and
Ben was also my paramedic partner even before you got your 
claws sunk into me for the duration." Gage snorted. "Ben's handling
it real good. And so are we,.." he glared at Chet.." for the most part."
he angled at the curly haired fireman taking a drink at a leaky
hydrant close to the engine. "Only what do we do about Cap in 
the meantime?"

"What do you mean what do we do in the meantime?" Roy
fired back.

Chet spit out his water in between Roy and Johnny to shut
up their squabbling. "Ok, here it is in a nutshell since your 
higher educated minds seem to be having trouble grasping what
the problem is. Let me reiterate for ya in one sentence!" he
shouted.  "We can't let Cap keep us on a hotspot after hauling us 
off like this on a whim. It's bad for business." Chet insisted.

"Would you pipe down..?!" Gage hissed. "They'll hear you."

"Fine, Johnny. Just as soon as you do. I came over here
to tell you exactly the same thing.." Kelly said with finality,
and he immediately walked away, with his hands jammed
into his pants pockets around his turnout coat and he angrily
yanked at his helmet strap until it was dangling loose.

Gage caught his breath into an aggravated sigh and ran
both sets of fingers through his hair just to have something
to do. He shook his head at Kelly's back and retreated from
all of them by putting on his helmet and sitting down dejectedly
in his seat inside the squad. He punctuated his unhappiness
by slamming shut the door on its hinges.

Roy glanced up and saw that Hank seemed to be drawing
strength from the close presence of Stone and mentally,
he began amending his concern about Cap bending protocol
to be at a fatality scene. ::Maybe it's a start on his accepting the
fact that his old captain's truly gone. I know how I would
feel if I had been the one digging out Hank's helmet from that
car. I don't even want to imagine what Cap's going through
right now..:: he reasoned privately.

DeSoto gave a short wave at Mike Stoker to tell him to tell the
others that he would be the one to go over where Hank
and Ben were, to....gently.. tell him the company consensus
about being tardy for the fire hazard call, however bogus
it really was. 

He waited respectfully, his helmet still off, a short distance
away from the two higher ranked men, quietly. 
But then his HT came to life sounding a tones out for another 
squad. The loud squelching reply of the responding team caught
him unawares and he jumped. Soon, DeSoto found himself
on the receiving end of two curious glances from Stone
and Stanley. "Sorry, Cap... Captain Stone....Uh, I suppose
you're wondering why I'm over here against a direct order..
Umm.. so I'll just out with it.. Cap, how are you doing?" Roy 
asked.

Hank had his control back on his emotions, at least the ones
Roy could visibly see and any possible reprimand he normally
would have dished out, died before aborning.
"I'm ok, I guess. We're just.... I... am just.. uh.. Well, you see
Ben and his men are still cleaning up." he said lamely, trying to smile. 

Roy nodded quietly. "Is there anything you fellas want us to
do back there while we...hang out?"

It was as if Cap suddenly remembered where he was. He
seemed to drag himself back as if he had been some great
distance away and he started murmuring apologies fluidly.
"Oh, oh, oh.. Sorry, Ben. ohmyg*d. Sorry, Roy. I guess I - I
wasn't thinking straight when I dragged us all out here. I..."

"Don't worry about it, Cap." Roy said, setting a hand on Cap's
arm. "You had to come."

Hank's face mellowed into a tortured acceptance and then 
he met Roy's eyes very like a child's for an instant,  before his 
command ability took over once more. "Yeah, well, thanks 
for letting me stay. In letting US, ....stay.." he corrected, offering
Ben an ungloved handshake of profound gratitude.

Being in front of one of Hank's regular men, Ben didn't
do anything different but grasp that handshake back, with 
both palms warmly. "No problem. Uh,...I guess I'll see 
you both at the services  tomorrow morning, Hank." and 
then Ben walked away, still feeling very uncomfortable 
under the nods of respect coming from all the firefighters 
from the city for assuming the chief's post as he had done. 
"Oh, yeah." Captain Stone said, turning back towards Hank. 
"I forgot to tell you this earlier, Hank. Gail wants to see 
you before the funeral."

Cap's mouth opened but he didn't have to say anything out
loud. He just nodded that he understood. 

"Call me if you need anything, Hank. I know how much
the chief meant to you for I...know ...just how terribly 
much he meant to me, even if.. I'm realizing that 
..only now."

"That same thought is hitting all of us Ben. I'm just
the first to feel it, I guess. And about Gail. I won't forget.
Same goes for the phone call offer. In reverse right
back at ya.." Hank said striding away at last.

Ben gave a short salute that whispered a painful reminder
to Hank of McConike, but then Ben disappeared into
the veil of smoke, around the corner of his engine.

Roy flanked Cap and he and Stanley started their
way across the street back to where the rest of the gang
and the vehicles were idling. "So, what next? Going to call in
to renege that false citizen's report."

"I'm doing nothing of the sort. I'll just tell it like
it is.. Look.." and he pointed down the block towards
the Addison address that he had so bogusly given dispatch 
on the way out.

Roy started smiling and shook his head. "Truck 127
beat us to it with the same idea, eh?"

"Yep. Looks like they're covering for Gorman so he
can get in his own time with Ben and this ....awful
fire. Can I help it if our two calls got crossed over the 
airwaves again?" he said throwing his arms up in mock 
mystification.

"Guess not.." Roy grinned, folding his arms in front
of himself in relief at Cap's sudden sense of humor.

Captain Stanley pulled his HT out of his pocket.
"L.A. This is Station 51."

##Go ahead, 51.##

"L.A., Truck 127 has doubled our response to 
the hazard call. We're returning to base."

##10-4, 51.## Spap.

Cap guided Roy on ahead of him with an affectionate
grip on the shoulder as they started walking again.
"So, you drew the short stick to come fetch me?"

"More like my having the longer backbone to do it, 
Cap."

"Being practical as always, eh? I've always liked that 
about you, Roy. It's a strong beginning sign of a good 
departmental candidate..." and he strode on ahead
of him as he gestured to Stoker to put the rig in driving
gear for a return trip.

Roy stopped in his tracks at Cap's use of the past tense
and the hints about a possible other future for himself. 
::Now just what in HECK did that mean?::

The sight of Station 127's Captain Gorman, kneeling 
before McConike's crushed batallion car in a private 
prayer, drove away all further thoughts concerning his
own well being in DeSoto and the sandy haired paramedic 
left the depressing street to rejoin Johnny in the squad.
Uncharacteristically, Gage was behind the wheel.

::Guess I'm not the only one feeling jumpy about
Cap today..:: Roy mused.

----------------------------------------------------------


At Rampart, Dixie kept looking up at the hallway which
led to the main Emergency Doors. She had just arrived
from home to start her swing shift when she had heard the
shocking news of Chief McConike's passing.

She had glanced up for the fifth time when Kel, standing 
next to her, finally commented about it. "Are you expecting
someone?" he asked. Then he quipped, "I mean apart from
the emergencies you and I usually see every day.."

McCall chuckled with a wry smile. "As a matter of
fact, yes, I am. Though I wish I weren't. I hate it when there's
a death in the FD. Seems every man on the department finds 
his way here to be with the deceased's family or with the deceas--." 
she said, breaking off, not elaborating further.

Brackett looked up and stroked her arm in support.
"Yeah, they always come. But this particular one's probably just 
striking the men a little harder and deeper than most. He was a
popular man. Maybe even infamous to some. But I do
know his sudden death's effecting even me. Chief McConike was one
of the lynchpin lecturers who helped me out in court during the
early stages of the paramedic program. I honestly believe
that if it hadn't been for him, there'd BE no paramedic program. 
And Roy would probably be just another engine fireman. And Johnny.."

Dixie grinned. "And Johnny would probably still be a juvenile
delinquent serving off probationary time as a volunteer
pumper man at Eight's."

Brackett sighed, tapping the side of his unread chart into his
palm. "Well said. And it's all true. We owe alot to what the chief
stood for and all that he's done for us.."

"But that still doesn't explain why no one's shown up yet, Kel.
Nurse Evan's told me that it's already been an hour and a 
half since he died."

"Maybe the initial shock and disbelief has a lot to do with it. 
I still can't believe it and I was there when Joe pronounced 
him. It'll take time to really sink in."

Dixie set down the coffee cup that suddenly didn't taste
good anymore. "Anything I can do for you, Kel? ...You're
the only one within my empathy's range so far."

Kel's easy smile fell away. "The Chief's still in the treatment room.
And the mortician's now ready to do his prelim death certificate 
exam downstairs. Would you mind taking him down there 
personally, for me? Joe needs me in treatment five on the 
case with ketoacidosis now that she's responding to him and
I won't have the time t--"

"Sure, Kel.. Somehow it's fitting that a friend, and not just some
nameless orderly, goes with him, to his last visited place here
at the hospital."

"Thanks, Dix." And Kel was gone in a flurry of white.

--------------------------------------------------------
Dixie McCall took a deep breath before entering the
darkened room. She was ready for just about
anything regarding the state of McConike's fatal injuries.
What she wasn't prepared for, was that Gail, was still there.
By herself. "Oh, my g*d, Gail. You're alone?"

"Dixie?" said the older woman, lifting her head from McConike's
still hand. "I-Is that you?" she sobbed.

Dixie hurried around the bed and enveloped the petite Irish 
woman deeply into her arms. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here
when he was brought in. I just got on duty about five minutes 
ago." Then her anger rose. "When I get through talking with
my nursing staff about leaving you here like this, why I--"

"Dixie, it's not their fault. I asked them to go away and to
wait on telling my family. I wanted to do it. Only, I haven't 
been able to move..." and she fell into yet another string
of crippling sobs.

Nurse McCall pulled over an exam stool for Mrs. McConike
and sat her down. She then paced over to the medicine
cabinet and located some kleenix. Then she knelt by
the distraught woman, holding her hand and set the box
of them onto her lap. "It's ok, Gail. We'll tell them 
just as soon as you've hold enough over your emotions 
to do it. Here, have some more." she said gently. Then she 
hugged Gail tightly in utter sympathy and Dixie felt 
her own eyes sting with moisture. "I know. I know.."
she soothed as Gail cried even stronger. "Your husband 
was a great great man, and I'm utterly proud of the fact 
that I had the wonderful privilege of knowing him." she said, 
her voice breaking, too..

Gail clung closer to Dixie and only then did 
the full brunt of her grief finally come rippling out.

It was a long time later, when Gail began to relax.
She sighed, looking at Dixie, but then she rose 
from the stool to take McConike's work gnarled palm 
once more into her own. "I suppose you came in here, to..."
and her breath hitched only slightly. "...to take him away.."
Dixie went to her side and gripped her hand, but she
nodded. Mrs. McConike had as level a head as her
thirty years husband once did and she said.
"Well, I suppose you do need this space for others 
now. " she sighed quietly. "Can I help you with him?" Gail 
asked, suddenly seeking Dixie's face for anything, 
any task at all just to have something to do.

Dixie's face calmed then and she smiled slightly. 
"Of course... There's only a few things we need to do first 
before I leave with him. We will be moving him to a private
suite downstairs until your family comes."

"I'd really like that.. please.."
Gail's eyes were grief bright but brave, as she beheld her
husband's shattered body when Dixie lowered the sheets
to disconnect all tubes from the quiescent machines 
surrounding him. 

"I'll make the arrangements myself.."

"Thanks.." she sighed.
"Dixie?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think..uh, do you think Melton felt anything
when the building--"

"No, no, Gail. I don't think he did. His paramedics
said that he was unconscious immediately afterwards
because his helmet couldn't provide enough prot-- uh.." she 
broke off, mentally kicking herself for talking so frankly 
medically speaking. "He was knocked out then,  Gail. Right 
away. So I don't think he was even aware of what was 
happening to him. Some of McGiven's personal notes said 
as much on his run sheet."

Gail just held a hand to her mouth, staying still, then she
spoke at last. "You two must be right, for h-he does look 
very peaceful."

"He does.." Dixie  instantly agreed.

Gail lovingly ran her hand up the quiescent Chief's arm and to 
his face before she gave him a soft kiss on his bandage 
wrapped forehead around the cervical collar. 
"Are-are you going to take that....out?" Gail said, pointing 
to the EOA still taped to her husband's very pale lips as
she smoothed down his gore crusted hair.

"I'm afraid we're not allowed to. That will have to stay there. 
I'm sorry. But you can help me with this if you like?" Dixie said,
unfolding a liquid proof satchel from a lower cupboard
that was person sized. ::Thank g*d, this looks like a 
sleeping bag.:: Dix thought. "We ...have to get him off
...this backboard next." she said gauging Gail's reactions to
all her information. But McConike's small wife was very solid 
even at the height of her despair and her color never wavered
into fainting shades.

Dixie decided to let her stay in the room for the
rest of his post care.

"Ok..k" Gail said. "Can we wash him up first, Dixie? I-I don't
want him to look unpresentable to--" she said, her voice 
breaking.

"Sure we can.. I'll go grab a basin from over there." Dix said. 
She knew from the tight bandaging on the chief's wounds 
that most places she could see on him could be cleaned without 
unnecessarily horrifying Gail with their post death bleeding. 
She had already seen the snugly taped off sites where the 
earlier nursing staff had stopped the chief's running IVs so 
those punctures wouldn't do just that in front of family members.
 
As they gave McConike his final bath, Gail began to sing
a hymn to him, very softly, and its sweetness made some
of Dixie's pain and her own, waft quietly away into the stillness
of the treatment room.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Lunch was completely untouched, but sleep still tried
to sneak up on most of the gang hanging out in the rec room
and kitchen. Cap, had secluded himself into his office, and
uncharacteristically, his door was shut to his men.

Gage had noticed that detail after he had taken his afternoon
shower. He looked up at Roy, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
He made a face when the first sip entered his mouth, cold.
But Johnny hadn't the heart to complain to Stoker to make any
new coffee despite it being his task today to cover that chore.
Johnny did it himself, without a fuss, only afterwards
saying.. "Huh.. not hungry either eh?" he asked Stoker, patting 
him on the shoulder around where the engineer 
was hiding behind his newspaper for some privacy.

"Not especially. Even Boot's not eating." Stoker replied without
taking the paper down between them.

"Really?" Gage said in surprise, looking around.
"Now, just where did Boot go?"

"He's in the office with Cap.." Chet said, looking up from a
word find that he really wasn't concentrating on with any
enthusiasm. "He kept scratching on the door to be let in 
until Cap finally did it."

"Oh."  The fact that Boot was sticking to Hank like glue began
to worry Gage big time.

Roy had overheard the conversation but decided to be just a
mousy listener for the duration. He got out a mop bucket on his
own volition and started methodically mopping the undirty floor. 
Mike dutifully lifted up his feet when Roy got to his side of the table.

"Who cooked today?"DeSoto finally asked, seeing the untouched
stroganoff pot cooling on its orange potholders on the table.

"Cap..did. He got it made and on the table in less than ten
minutes while you two were out back helping Marco hang
that hose." Kelly replied.

Roy tried a little psychology. "Man, sure smells good. It would
be a shame to let such a great meal go to waste." he said
to the room at large.

"I don't see you eating any.." Marco said from his place slumped
on the couch, pretending a snooze with a magazine over his
eyes.

Roy mildly cocked his eyebrows at being outsmarted in his
own game. "I might...." he admitted, sliding the pot of pasta with his
mop handle to a place more center on the table. Stoker
began unnecessarily straightening out a few table place settings
as Roy concluded his sentence.."..later..." DeSoto admitted.

Johnny finally moved from where he was numbly standing,
seeking a seat. He almost sat in Cap's recliner when he
changed his mind at the last second, nimbly. "Oh, no.. 
I'd better stay out of his SPOT.. He might be coming out 
any second now. "

"Wanna bet?" Chet said sarcastically. "Cap's really busted up.
Didn't you see his face out there, Johnny? I've never seen him
so hurt, not even when he was partially electrocuted from that
wire the other year."

Johnny's crafty helping grin fell away into one of worry almost
as deep as Marco's.

Even Roy stopped mopping.

"Just what do you think he's doing in there? Sounds quiet. If he
wanted to get away to let loose a few tears he could've gone
out into the yard. No one would've bugged him until the tones
went off."

"Who knows,  Chet.." Johnny said sharply. "How can any of us
say how Cap should be reacting right now? I mean he just lost
his best friend.." then he amended himself. "All right, maybe 
not his completely best friend, but McConike sure as h*ll was 
a close fellow colleague and coming to that, now that I think 
about it, McConike was Cap's old CAPTAIN, long before 
any of us even KNEW about firehouses.." Gage concluded. 
"So of course he's bound to act a little weird. I know I would 
act a little nuts myself if I had found out that Cap had been 
the one squashed in that car this morning."

No one debated Johnny's theory or voiced an opinion about
the tacky way Gage referred to McConike's grisly end.

The silence dragged almost as slowly as the afternoon sun.
Until Roy began mopping again.

Johnny rubbed his face in fatigue and parked on the couch
next to the nonsleeping Marco. "Man, what I wouldn't give
for an alley dumpster fire right about now, anything for a 
little distraction..."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Cap kneeling on the ground by a house.

Photo : Dixie and Brackett leaning into the base station
            receiver with pained looks on their faces while they
            listen.

Photo :  Mrs. McConike singing a hymn in darkness.

Photo : Johnny Gage sitting, thoughtful for once to the guys.

Photo :  Boot, waiting anxiously by his food, not eating.

Gif : ETL theater Banner, pink tones, saying, "Watch
       out for the smoke at Emergency Theater Live. Come
       get a good lungful.." featuring a hurt Johnny Gage, an injured
       cannula'd woman, and firemen fighting a hazy fire. 

**********************************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Sky Heat...  
Date : Sun, 06 Apr 2003 04:08:03 +0000  
   
 
It was as if a diety had been listening. The tones
went off and they went off long. Johnny flung his
eyes upward in a grateful gesture and said,
"Thank you.." with all the sincerity he could muster.

##Station 51 with brush assignment Station 36. 
Automobile accident. Half mile north of Topeka Canyon
on Alameda Way. Half mile north of Topeka Canyon on
Alameda Way. Engine 36 reports smoke showing off
road. Be advised Chopper Nine has been notified. 
Time out, 14:06.##

As one, the gang rushed out but not before grabbing
a breadstick or two each from a lunch basket for
fortification. Roy was nearest, so he acknowledged the
run, "Station 51, 10-4, KMG 365."

Running along the wall towards the squad,
Johnny saw Cap's office door open as Cap ran out
towards the engine. In a brief glimpse, he saw a dusty
file open on Cap's desk with official looking papers 
lying there. And Boot was under the desk, watching
Cap go. ::I wonder what in heck those are?:: Johnny
wondered. But then the door swung shut on its own,
blocking out the sight and then there was no more
time for speculation. 

En route, Cap came over the squad's radio on side
channel.##Engine 51 to squad 51. I've just spoken to
Captain Carter of 36's. He reports two victims. A mother
says her daughter panicked and left the scene; a girl of 
eleven. His men are trying to locate her but they are being 
hampered by a grass fire discovered in the area.##

"10-4, Engine 51. " and Johnny hung up the mic on its spigot 
when he heard the frequency close. "Man, that canyon's still 
gotta be tinder dry. Remember it from our visit with those
anthrax sick wool weavers from last month? I sure hope 
this one doesn't escalate into a wildfire."

"Yeah.." Roy commented as they sped towards their 
destination. "I heard from Dwyer yesterday over lunch
that all our water choppers are already busy out at the 
Murphy Canyon Blaze over in the next county. It's 
amazing that L.A. managed to find one for our call."

##Let's hope we don't need it. ## Gage said, his eyes
already tracing the horizon for telltale smoke over by
the mountains to the north. ##Last thing I wanna do
sweat to death hiking all over those hills wearing 
SCBA and then needing a sudden bath in a water drop.##

Roy made a face of mutual dislike at the thought and
waggled his head in agreement. "Don't speculate too
much. I'm not liking the picture you're painting, pally." 
he teased.

"Wow, would you look at that?" Gage said. "Looks
like there's a storm sitting over our mountain."

"Oh, yeah?"Roy said, not looking away from his 
driving. "Fat lot of good that'll do. That'll be no
relief at all. It's too hot to rain."


Fifteen minutes later,  51 arrived at the isolated spot
L.A. indicated. The squad pulled a "U"-ie so that it
pointed back towards the way out and so did
the cumbersome engine. 36 had already strung hoses
from the rural parkland hydrant system and Carter
and his men's attention were divided between staying
with the victim by the shattered car and fighting a
brush flare that didn't seemed to have been caused
by the car itself.

They gang bailed out. Johnny and Roy immediately
headed for the woman seated and hysterical on the
ground. She was being supported upright by one of 
Carter's men. She was already wearing a nasal cannula 
and was being encouraged not to move around where 
she sat upright against his shoulder. He told them
more. "She got a little too much smoke here. Don't
think she's injured. Found her walking around when
we got here."

Roy nodded.
He glanced around while Johnny introduce them and who
they were to her. DeSoto looked up at Captain Carter 
before Hank could drag him away for the fire's details. 
"Where's your paramedics?" he asked him.

Steven punched down his HT's antennae after listening
to a report from his hose team insinuated inside
the smoking tall grass. "On another call. That's why
you got one." he said with a shrug. Then he turned his
attention to his primary hose line washing down around
the car itself to dilute any spilled gasoline.

Roy grunted in sympathy and turned his attention back
towards his victim. 

Cap barked out orders. "Marco. Flank around upwind with
our brush hose and back up the beta team in there. Take Stoker 
with you. Chet, start searching for the missing girl. And this last
is for all of you. Have your air bottles glued on tight and I
mean it." he insisted, knowing the tendency of his firemen
to not want to secure any straps snugly down over their
thick coats in such hot weather.

"Right, Cap." they all replied and they scattered.

Hank and Steven locked into further planning immediately.

The woman blurted out actively when she overheard the
part about Kelly going after her daughter. "Please, find her. 
Ohmyg*d. Her name's Alex."

"Alex?" Cap asked. "Chet, you heard that?"

"Yeah, Cap." he shouted, flying into his gear and a 
search rope tied to the engine in record time. "Are you
covering my rope?"

"Yes."

"I was so stupid.." the woman gasped. "Why didn't I
expect a bolt to hit the road.. I.."

"A bolt? Bolt of what?" Gage glanced up from where 
he was carefully examining the mother.

"Heat lightning." Captain Stanley said from nearby.
"It's what started this fire. Just look at that tree. It's
peeling like a piece of rotten fruit." he pointed.

"It was s-so.. loud.." the woman sobbed. "I lost control 
of the car and crashed into the rocks at the edge of 
the road."

"All right. All right.." Roy soothed. "Don't worry about
your daughter. We'll find her. Just start concentrating
on yourself, ok?  Try to calm down. You're breathing 
a little too fast and you're hyperventilating. Just try to
relax."

The woman fought to obey, clutching at Roy's jacket.

"Do you hurt anywhere? How's your
back and neck?" DeSoto asked her while Johnny got
a BP off her arm carefully. 

"Uh,...they're o...uh, ok.. I think."

"No pain here?" Roy said palpating around her head and 
around her neck after he checked out her eyes with
a penlight.

The woman shook her head. "I'm fine. *cough* Listen,
forget about me. I have to go find Alex..!" she
tried to rise. All three of them restrained her.

"We are. We are.." Roy insisted."We have someone already 
doing that. Now you're going to have to calm down a bit and 
let us finish checking you out. Ok?"DeSoto spoke soothingly.
"If you try not to panic, you'll feel a lot better."

------------------------------------------------------
Chet felt like he was the only one in the world inside
the smoky canyon. He felt the drag of the rope
bite into his waist as he yanked it over brush and shrubs
as he called out. "Alex?! Can you hear me?" 
Already, the air mask dangling about his neck weighed 
a ton as he shoved through gnarling masses of dried canyon
rushes and oriented himself downridge. ::If I were running
from danger. Where would I go?:: he thought. Then his
eyes swept into the shadowy trees. ::Man, I sure hope
she didn't go in there, that's a high place. Totally unsafe
under these clouds.::

Right then, from the very thick copse of eucalyptus trees
he was studying, Chet heard a frightened shout. "Mom!?
Where are you?"

Chet shouted back. "She's over here by me! Fire 
Department!" Then Chet saw a glimpse of white come
towards him. ::It's her!:: he thought excitedly. "This way
honey. This way! Come on!"

Just as quickly, a tremendous jolt of lightning from the
parched sky shot down into the child's thicket in front of Chet,
knocking him to his knees. Chet reflexively threw an arm over
his eyes as the bolt's thunder deafened him and rattled
through his very bones. It died away immediately and
was not repeated. But the angry snarl of new fire
crackled into slow life in the canopy above him and flaming
sparks rained down on top of him as fresh smoke rose
to strangle him with its sharp bite. He hastily put on his mask,
crawling forward. "Alex?!"

There was no reply. Chet Kelly no longer knew which
direction he was heading in. But the image of the girl's
figure was still blazed in his mind's eye. Something made
Chet redirect to his left and uphill. His gloves hit clothing.
"Alex?"

She moaned where she sprawled on the ground, half
unconscious. Chet could smell burned flesh coming
from her arm. ::She's been hit?:: he wondered.

Kelly whipped off his air mask and gave it to her, coughing
in the growing smoke. "It's all right. I got you. Just hang on.
I'm taking you to your mother."  He crouched low
enough over the child to monitor her while his other
hand dug into his pocket for his HT. "HT 51 to Engine 51.
I found her. Help me back! And send a hose down my line.
There's another hot spot!"

##They're on their way. Do you need a stokes?## Cap's voice
acknowledged.

"Negative.. Just take up my slack..!" Chet answered back.

##10-4, pal ! I'm taking up your line now.##

Chet snatched up the girl into his arms just as he felt his
rope tighten and pull him along by the waist, guiding him
up the hill. He kept eyes on the girl's chest as she
breathed in the clearer air inside the mask as he struggled
with her to the top and the road. Once he saw vehicle red,
he shrugged off his bottle and her mask and sank down
onto a curb by the squad's fender, shouting. "Cap! I'm up!
Get Johnny over here! I think the lightning got her real bad!"

He lowered the girl to the road just as she went limp.

"Sh*t. Sh*t. Sh*t..." Chet murmured, getting a grip around
her jawline, feeling for the presence of a carotid and assuring
that she had a clear airway. He could feel how cool and diaphoretic 
she seemed despite the heat. A pulse was there, thudding 
irregularly. He slipped a hand to her stomach as he listened at her
mouth. "Alex... Can you hear me?" She twitched but failed 
to breathe adequately to Chet's liking. "Come on, Cap! Gage!
I'm over here! Get the O2 on the fly!"

Alex's lips starting turning blue.  Kelly carefully tipped back the 
girl's head more where they lay and gave her a breath of his 
own, followed by another.

Cap shot out of the smoke, dropping Chet's lifeline and
crouched by them. "She got a heartbeat?" he asked
when he saw Chet doing mouth to mouth.

"Yeah."

Together, Cap and Chet moved off the parking lot curb
and stretched the girl out flat and Stanley shoved her
white shirt up out of the way, baring her chest so they
could monitor her ventilations better. He wrapped his
hands around her torso, feeling the effect of Chet's
efforts.

After giving her another two breaths, Chet heard and felt
the girl start to cough weakly and he lifted his mouth
away as her ribcage began to seesaw slightly.

Johnny came running through the murky haze with
the clattering oxygen apparatus and the biophone.
"Whatcha got?"

"I think that last bolt grazed her." Kelly
replied. "She quit breathing for a bit. Now, she's 
dyspneic."

"Let me at her.." Gage said. He hastily set a
pediatric demand valve over her face and gave her
a couple of rich shots into her lungs. After three,
he felt her actively resist his aid, against the flow, 
and he said. "Doing good now. Take this from me. 
Looks like she's taking draws on her own."

Kelly slid to her head position, wiping the sweat off
his brow as he took over her airway care.

Cap glanced at Johnny. "Need me?"

"Nah.. she's stable enough. Don't think she'll
crash now." Gage said, yanking his stethoscope 
from around his neck to his ears so he could listen 
to her breath sounds. To himself, he was glad
the smoke was thick enough to keep the girl's
mother from seeing her daughter yet.

Cap then rose and..........

------------------------------------

Photo :   Cap holding a woman in comfort.

Photo: A scrub brush fire set by lightning.

Photo: Gang on a rural gravel road by the vehicles.

Photo : Chet with a girl victim on a curb by the squad.

Gif: An oxygen resuscitator.

Photo: Johnny with the biophone.

***********************************
 From :Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
 Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Oh For A Drop of Rain...  
 Date :Sun, 6 Apr 2003 11:56:34 -0700 (PDT)  
   
.....took a good look around him. ::This is just a
two point fire from the looks of it. Just here
by the car and then down in the grove where the
little girl was found.::

John gave him a fast glance briefly, a barest 
flickering of the eyes as he checked the little
girl for signs of lightning strike.

Cap offered a token nod. "There's no way I'm gonna
let that blaze surround us. Not if I can help it." Hank
told him.

Johnny and Kelly both grinned while they worked 
to assess Alex's true condition. Gage replied,
Cap, it's more like YOU needing to relax. We trust ya, "
he joked. "It's all that desert dry brush out there that's
gotta listen to ya now. Like we do everyday.."

Cap's returning smile was scant. "How's she doing?"

Johnny's smile dropped away in a flash when 
he got his final blood pressure reading. "Ask me
that again in two minutes..all right?" And Gage
spoke close to the girl's ear around the oxygen 
mask. "Alex.. honey, you're doing just fine. 
Your momma's coming any minute to be with ya.
Ok.. so don't worry about that. We got ya here 
with us now safe and sound." 

Watching, Hank was touched on a deep level. He didn't 
know Johnny talked to his unconscious patients like
that, on a one to one, being so personal. ::Maybe I just 
never noticed that before, being always too busy directing
a fire scene to see him do it.::

Captain Stanley's thoughts were disrupted when Steven
Carter jogged up to them from the direction of
both engines. He spoke quietly to just Cap.

Hank noticed that both Steven's gloves were wet.
"Steve?" he asked. "You took up a hose.. Is everything all
right?"

"No. The first fire's getting away from our men. We've gotta
move out."

Hank gripped his HT even tighter in worry. "Our victim
can't be moved yet, she's only just been pulled out of
respiratory arrest."

"Sorry, Hank. Tell that to the fire."

In reply, the bright hazy skies spit heavy heat lightning out
at them in an angry rumble, very close above them, making
both captains duck reflexively.

Johnny and Kelly, too, both hunched over the burned little
girl protectively, eyeing the sky uncomfortably. Chet voiced
one word. "Cap?"

"Do it. Immediate evac. The fire's winning. So we're not waiting
on the ambulance. You and Gage have five minutes to do what
you've got to do. Then I want her packaged up to be taken outta
here."

Chet nodded, and he relayed Hank's orders to Johnny when
he had a pause on the phone verbally.

The smoke only got thicker, and there was a subtle change
causing the hair at the nape of Cap's neck to suddenly prickle
in warning. The smell of pungent burning meadow had turned
tarry and Cap's eyes suddenly stung in searing steam as 
a powerful wind gust swept new ash and embers into
his face. ::That's blacktop on fire.:: he thought, even
though he couldn't see it. ::Aww, nuts.. We don't even have
THAT little time?..:: He gave a shout. "Everybody! Masks on! 
No exceptions! We've a fireline making its way up. It's
hit the road already. I want all hose teams to find that 
new phalange of burn and snuff it out. If we get trapped in 
here, there's no hope for us on having any air to breathe. 
Airway protect those victims!..These fumes are only going
to get worse."

Steven Carter of 36's lifted his HT. "L.A., this is Engine
36. What's the status of Chopper Nine? Our fire situation
is escalating more rapidly than we realized. We've fire 
on the road. We need an immediately path cleared 
along the way out of here, a.s.a.p! Respond a full
four company brush assignment."

##10-4, 51. ## There was a pause in their HQ 
transmission. ##Chopper Nine has made a 
pickup at the reservoir and will rendevous to your
location in five minutes.## dispatch answered.

"10-4. Engine 36 out." and Steven pocketted his
HT. "There you have it, Hank. It's a scoop and run 
afterwards."

"We'll be ready.." Cap replied about his paramedics
responsibilities and the extra duty his station had
to manage them.

The two captains separated to go watch over
their own company's activities while they waited
for their ace in the hole, Chopper Nine, to come 
zeroing in. Cap aimed one of the engine mirrors up
into the sun as a reflector point to catch the pilot's
eye. ::It's not like there's a ton of metal beyond
the chrome on our vehicles. He'll spot us just fine..::
he reasoned. Already, the sun was lighting up the
speeding, dancing black, gray and white smoke arching
over them from the canyon, fanned by the rising storm
winds.  



As Cap approached the engine, Alex's mother shot
to her feet, tearing out of the grasp of the fireman
sitting with her, monitoring her D tank's O2 delivery.
He started after her but Hank waved him still when
she rushed over into Cap's arms for reassurance.
"Did you find my baby? Is she all right?" she sobbed.
"Please tell me.."

Hank supported her and grasped her firmly by the
shoulders. "She's with my men and we're going
over to her right now.." He hefted up the woman's
oxygen tubing and the apparatus from 36's man 
and he lifted it under an arm. "This way.. but first, we're 
switching you to a mask so this smoke won't bother 
you so much." He pulled down the mother's cannula around
her neck and he detached it. Stanley got her into a 
nonrebreather mask. "Doing this cause the air's a bit dirty
over there." He ripped away the cannula's female end
off the regulator port and connected up her new mask's line. 
"Ok. I've got it. Ready?"

The woman fiddled with the oxygen, getting used to it.
"What about you? There's only one mask here."

"You're forgetting this.." Hank said with a smile,
lifting his air mask dangling on its connection 
from his air bottle. "I've got one right here."
And he moved his helmet long enough to put it
on. "Ok, I'm set. Let's go." he said through its face
piece, and he led the woman over to where he could
just barely make out the squad's outline in the smoke.
He led her to where they were going well away from
any swirling ember clouds to keep her flowing oxygen 
from living up to its extreme fire risk tendency.

He was more than ready for the woman to try and
break out of his grip when they got within eye
contact of Kelly's scene.

"Alex!!" her mother shouted, almost darting forward.

Cap hung onto her. "Hold it.. It's ok.  It's ok..Easy there."
he encouraged in a stream. "Alex's just out like that 
because some lightning landed near her."

"Lightning?!"  

Cap fought with keeping his grip on her again
firmly.."My men are taking good care of her.."

"Ohmyg*d. Isn't that fatal? Is she all right? 
Alex! Can you hear me honey? What are
you doing? She needs to be in a hospital!"

"Easy, easy.. Maam?.. Just listen to me..all right?
Alex IS getting treated ..RIGHT NOW ..and there's a
doctor on the other end of that phone line you see 
my paramedic holding. It's like already being in an 
emergency room. There's nothing they can't do 
now, that's normally done by a doctor, concerning 
any definitive care your daughter might need. Think 
of my men as extensions of that same ER, who just
happen to be already HERE."

Captain Stanley felt the woman in his grasp stop
trembling and she quieted into a levelheadedness
immediately as his words of reason finally sank in.
Roy, next to them, saw that he wasn't needed to
help Cap out with her and he crouched down next
to his partner to learn about the little girl's status 
from him.

Hank let the woman sink down by Chet where he
was crouched inside his own air mask, keeping the 
positive pressured one over the little girl's face.
Kelly was feeling happy with her respiration status so he
said. "Here, mama. Wanna help? Just keep this O2
over her face like I'm doing.." and he guided her hands 
to the proper places on mask and jaw smoothly.
"That's right....Set your hands,...just....like..that."

Alex's mother began to burble. "But I don't kn--"

"You're doing fine, maam. Just watch me.
Keep holding this tight over her nose and mouth to 
keep all this smoke away from your daughter.   
Johnny will show you how to punch a button on this 
valve here if she needs a little more help later on, but 
only when he tells you too, all right? She's getting 
enough passively for right now by it just sitting here 
like this. Got it ok?"

"Uh, y- yeah.." she muffled through her O2 mask.

"Good. What you're doing is absolutely perfect." 
Chet said tightening the straps on his own mask
to cut down the number of times he was coughing 
from the building smoke. Then he dashed away to
get a stokes for the little girl's rush evac.
 
Alex's mother immediately calmed down, as Cap
knew she would. Chet usually never missed on 
guessing what was up whenever Cap led a parent 
close to the paramedic's work space. Kelly had
a gift for alway inventing physical things for them 
to do that didn't get in the way of a victim's
patient care.

Johnny delivered his next data set to Dr. Brackett
on the phone, shouting so he could be heard
through his covering air supply faceplate. "Rampart.
She's responding on 15 liters of 02. She's got
perforated eardrums and positively ID'd dendrictic burns 
on the upper aspect of her left shoulder. I am getting 
that pulse rate I gave ya only apically due to vasospasms."

He watched Roy bundle a plastic shock wrap around
Alex and tape her arm onto an IV board.

##10-4, 51. Those meds I ordered should calm
her down parasympathetically in a few more minutes.
Continue the IV and strap her in on a backboard with a 
cervical collar. That active resuscitation's the best 
thing for her now, until you get her in here. Monitor 
her vital signs carefully and check her over again for any 
sign of fractures. She may have incurred some due to 
the force of the strike she took, even though it's clear
to me through your findings, that it wasn't a direct hit.##

"10-4, Rampart."

##And 51, I want you to send me a strip so I can see
how her cardiac functi---##

"Uh, doc. We can't right now. We're.." and Johnny lowered
his voice so the mother didn't overhear him. "..we're
in danger of getting pinned down by a brush fire. We
gotta evac her out first."

##By chopper, Johnny?##

Cap got Johnny's attention about his next plan of action
by nonverbally pointing to the squad.

"Uh, negative doc. Our chopper's just a water tanker."

##10-4 on that. Uh, what's your ambulance's ETA?##

"We don't h--"

##...have one for the same reason.##Brackett sighed
in frustration.. ##I see.. Radio in as soon as possible
on any LOC alteration en route when you HAVE a route 
or any other detrimental change in her vitals signs. 
Rampart base, signing out.##

"Squad 51."  Gage replied by narrowing his eyes in
concentration and he flung down the phone and sealed
it up into its box swiftly along with the medical gear
he didn't need right away. These he handed off
to Cap to stow back into the squad that Marco was
now backing up towards them.

The little girl's mother looked up. "What's happening?
Why is that fireman pulling up that fire truck near us?"

Cap spoke with a big smile through his maskplate.
"That rescue squad's gonna be yours and Alex's
ticket outta here. See that stokes, er.. metal
bed that Roy is getting set up? Well we're going
to give your daughter a lift on top of there
while you ride along with them in that cab,
to Rampart Hospital."

"Alex is going to ride on the roof?"

Kelly chuckled. "Yes, maam, with either Johnny
or Roy sitting up there with her. You see, those
bars will keep the stokes from sliding around
once we get her loaded up. Here, take my radio
and you can talk to the paramedic once we're
ready. Know how to use a walkie talkie?"

"Y-Yes, I do.."

"Here you go.." Kelly said acting calm as a
camel. Inside his boots, though, his toes were 
curling tighter than his hair.


Johnny's face erupted into a broad smile.
::I could just kiss Chet. That was ingenius!
She'll keep calm and cool the whole way now.::
"Ok.. " Gage said brightly, keeping a hidden hand
on Alex's chest under her yellow blanket 
so he could feel her continued breathing and 
heartbeat without pause. "Roy my partner here's
all done getting her into this collar of hers and onto
the board. Ready to lift Roy?"

"Yeah.."

"Ok, Alley Oop." and Gage and Kelly and Cap and
Roy lifted the small pediatric backboard and the unconscious
child and nestled her into the stokes. Again they picked up
Alex as a team with that. Two of 36's firemen followed with
the gear boxes and 51's defibrillator. Soon, Alex
was safely on board the squad's roof deck. Gage climbed
on board and sat with the biophone, butt perched on a
yellow air store bottle. He hefted his HT to show 
the girl's mother that he had his for anything she
wanted to say to him in route. Then Cap gave her
a spare helmet Marco got from the engine for her
to wear and they piled on board.

"Kelly, go with Roy and his passenger, all right pal?"

"Right, Cap." Chet answered. He knew he was going 
along in case the girl soured into V-Fib due to the jostling
she was going to have to take while in transport. 
::At least the squad's going to be a lot less bumpier than
the engine would have been for this.:: Kelly sighed mentally.

The men, calmly loading the mom and girl, made it a point
not to look up the road where the fire was eating the
pavement into ruin inch by rapid inch, nearer and nearer,
ahead of them.

::Where's our water drop?:: Cap thought. He refrained
from asking L.A. for an ETA on it because Alex's mother now
had an HT. He contented himself with rounding up their remaining
trailing hose for their rapid getaway attempt and affirming Steve
Carter's confirmation that he also, was getting his men
and engine out of there in a strategic retreat.

Cap cut away the lifeline Chet had used, still tied to the engine's 
bumper, and left it lying in the dust on the pavement. 
Then he was the last man on an engine. 

Truck 36 hit its airhorn to inform him that they, too
were ready to roll.

Hank eyed the wall of fire blocking their escape route and
wondered if they really could make it by charging through when
Steve came on the line. ##Engine 36 to Engine 51. I've got
an idea. I've got my engineer aloft in our water cannon. He's
going to provide a water curtain for your rescue squad.
Have it roll between, with us two situated at its front and 
back. My man will keep a nozzle fog on your victim to 
protect her and your man while we're moving through the 
firezone.##

Cap thumbed his radio mike derisively. "Let's do it..
We can't wait. Are you set?"

##That's affirmative.. Just give the word and warn your
medic about what we're up to.##

"10-4.." Hank said, using his mirror to watch the bucket
on Engine 36's back rise just enough to clear its own
cab like a shovel on a snorkle. ::Oh, boy. Gage is going to 
kill me for this.:: He picked up his HT.
"Engine 51 to Squad 51.." he hailed.

##Go ahead, Engine 51.##

"Looks like it's going to rain in thirty seconds from the looks
of it.  Make your victim waterproof. We're breaking out!"
Hank yelled.

Gage didn't even hit his call back, "What?!" he said
immediately getting it and glancing over his shoulder
to the looming water bucket now set and locked
overhead from engine thirty six. It was hanging only 
about eight feet above him. He got a salute from 
the man on board, signing a non verbal countdown 
from seven.. ::...when his hose's gonna fire. Who
thought of that?.. It's absolutely brilliant! And here
I was afraid that we were gonna haveta cook a little:: 
Johnny kept his grip on the little girl's body and wrapped 
her up around the mask with her sheet. Then he hastily
created an umbrella with a row of crow bars, axes and 
jimmies with a spare tarp over Alex's face and himself.
Then he gave the bucket man a thumbs up.

Hose water began to rain down on them, adjusting, until it
was just a dense coning mist and then Johnny felt a lurch
as Roy carefully matched Engine 51's speed and course
as they crept down the road towards the raging inferno 
whose flames were now as high as the tops of wheel wells.

Roy gripped his steering wheel, peering around his moving 
windshield wipers inside the driving artificial rain, as Stoker 
paused the Ward right at the very edge of the burning road, 
waiting for Cap's go ahead. He and Chet gave Alex's mother 
smiles of encouragement around the fear they were really 
feeling.

The woman just blinked and talked on the radio.
"H-Hello.. Johnny?  How's Alex?"

Gage heard the mother from under his improvised umbrella
and he lifted his plastic wrapped HT to his lips. 
"Not a drop on her, maam. The weather's fine." he quipped,
trying to keep his sense of humor. In the dark under the tarp,
his eyes were on Alex's lit up EKG screen he had going and
his stethoscope was in his ears as he monitored her inspiration
effectiveness by sound. He slipped in a nasal airway for extra
control as he spoke. "We're holed up solid and snug. Don't 
you worry." ::I'm trying not to.:: a little voice whispered
unbidden in his head as he repositioned the demand valve
back over her face to keep out the smoke that was still 
getting in. "Alex and I are ready to rock."

Kelly saw mama's eyes fill, in touched gratefulness, at
Gage's brave attempt at humor about their situation.

Ahead of them, in the cab, Cap bit his lip and looked
at Marco and Stoker. He lamely attempted the same
gallows humor as Gage. "What do ya say? Think Goodyear
tires can stand the temperature of molten asphalt and
fresh fire? We all got em on.."

Stoker's frowning doubt didn't warm his heart one bit.
And the fire before them was growing taller.

Cap and everyone in all three vehicles, except Gage,
looked up into the spiralling columns of smoke for any sign
of Chopper Nine and its precious roadsaving load.

Seconds dragged by as they idled, revving up their nerves and
engines for what was being forced upon them.

Kelly broke the strained pause building in the squad. 
"Say," he said turning to the girl's mother. "Did I tell you 
yet how well transporting folks on truck roofs really works? 
Well there was this one time where Johnny got himself bit
by a rattler...and..I just happen to be with him..And we
didn't even HAVE a squad.."

Roy rolled his eyes at the blooming tale.

Sometime in eternity, Cap lifted his microphone and he said.....

------------------------------------------

Photo: John Roy strapping in Alex onto a long board.

Photo: Gage with a stokes victim on top of the squad. 

Photo : A canyon brushfire in daylight.  

**************************************
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2003 19:20:15 +0100 (BST) 
From: "Katherine Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>  
Subject:  Fire and Water.. 

 Acknowledgments to Donald Lee, Retired LACoFD Captain about
Engine trivia on 51's truck abilities via a snail mail sent flyer
and for sending a replica of Johnny and Roy's paramedic patch 
to the theater hosts to give all of us further encouragement
to keep on writing in the spirit of Emergency.  :)
 
 -----------------------------------------------------------

......"Engine 51, to Engine 36 and Squad 51... Hold your
position.. " Cap said, yelling through his air bottle mask.
He ignored the heavy weight of his loose air bottle rattling on the
metal grate of the floor of the Ward beneath where he sat
from the rough idling of the engine due to the thinning air surrounding
them. "We're going to give the drop three more minutes to happen."

Stoker did what he could to keep the Ward running despite 
the lean combustion conditions growing under her hood from the
proximity of the low fire surrounding them. His bottle was firmly 
on a hook in the wall of the cab, leaving his feet and hands free 
to coax the pumper's clutch away from killing the motor and his 
facemask was hiding his emotions from view as he gripped the 
large steering wheel in front of him tightly, waiting for the word
"go..".

##S- Squad 51, 10-4.## came Roy's nervous voice. 

##Affirmative..## came a stronger, more experienced reply
from Engine 36 behind Cap's. Carter immediately added more
to soothe all listening ears, including L.A.'s Sam Lanier, who 
was now stuck in the waiting-for-resolution silence mode. 
::He's undoubtedly chewing on a few pencil erasers right 
about now over his inability to direct better air cover to us 
before we fry.:: Carter realized. He hid his private thoughts 
with a cheeriness he did not feel. ##No problems here, Hank. 
My bottled man aloft in the bucket's fine and his nozzle line's fog 
is still doing its job over your paramedic and victim. Looks like 
things are still plenty cool enough for them out there##

Mike Stoker grumbled. "We've got an eighth of a mile of hose,
a thousand gpm pump with a five hundred gallon tank full of 
water, just sitting here." he said in frustration, "And we can use 
none of it..?" It wasn't a stab on Cap's decision to try to run 
and save their rears at all. Hank knew it for what it was. 
An outburst given inside feelings of utter helplessness, vented in 
anger. He didn't even glance over at Mike, keeping his eyes
on the sky.

"You got that right. We're stuck staying mobile, Mike." Marco 
shrugged nervously. "Can't be mobile if we've hoses strung 
out behind us. Only the snorkel can move and use water that way 
with her bucket.." Lopez said trying to sound calm. Stoker didn't 
have the heart to tell Marco that he knew that fact better
than anyone. Marco tried some levity and he spoke over the 
tandem HT. "Say gang, we could always roll down all our 
windows and try to spit on the fire from here.."

Hank tried to grin, but felt numbness twist on his face instead
making him lift his radio. "A minute forty more seconds.... 
Stand by, gang.. Keep watching the sky..." he said through his 
handy talkie.

--------------

Roy jolted in his seat when a burning tumble weed impacted
his closed driver's window.  He saw the bucket stream
immediately move to drown it out in his side mirror. He
took a deep breath through his mask and said, "Chet, the fire's
getting too close. Better turn off that O2 on her now. The 
oxygen's building up too high in the cab for safety. Go to sharing
your air. If you run low, we'll use mine between the three of us."

"Right.." Chet said. He pulled off his helmet and calmly
began to share his mask with his passenger, holding his
breath whenever she took any of hers off it, before taking 
it back for himself to use. 

"But what about my daughter and your *cough* partner? 
She's still got pure 02 on!" Alex's mother gasped.

Roy smiled reassuringly at her. "He'll discontinue that for manual 
air. Probably right about now. They'll manage just fine, maam." 
he saw the mom's skin begin to pale in fear. "Hold that mask 
completely against your face when you breathe in, all right? 
Then this heavy smoke won't irritate you at all."
  
Kelly and Roy both saw her nod in frightened obedience.

---------------

Up on top, Johnny began to hear the angry crackling of open 
flames reaching the road near the squad. "Whoa.. That's getting
a little too close for comfort.." he mumbled. He quickly shut off the 
oxygen feed that was leading to Alex's resuscitator and threw 
its face valve aside. Gage pulled off his helmet and unstrapped 
his air mask from his face. He sucked in a good lungful from it.
He paused only long enough to seal the girl's mouth up with 
a hand before offering his breath of clear air to her through her
nose carefully, timing what he gave her to when she attempted
an inhalation. He kept up the pattern, giving her air taken 
from his mask through his mouth, keeping both his eyes 
screwed protectively shut against the acrid smoke that was 
now doing its best to make them water fiercely. Even the 
unconscious girl's cheeks were wet with tears.  

In Johnny's lap, the wrapped HT crackled in crisp warning. 
##Gage..?## asked Hank..

Johnny looked up from where he was curled around Alex's head
and he lifted his HT to his face, shouting from underneath the 
heavy tarp that was still getting a welcome pounding of water from 
36's elevated bucket line. "I know. I know. The fire's near. 
I've already shut my O2 down! We're still fine..I've figured out a 
way to keep the smoke from her." then he asked another question
changing tact. "How are you doing down there, Mama?" he said, 
giving Alex yet another following breath of air just as her chest 
rose with one of its own. "Alex is just napping up here." he 
said, keeping his eyelids shut to spare himself eye irritation. 
He used a finger to keep tabs on her carotid while he continued 
being a clean air source for her. On a sudden idea, Johnny 
taped the girl's mouth shut with an IV strip to free his 
other hand to monitor her chest movements. ::I can always 
tear this off if she gets sick on me.::

## I'm f-fine, Mr. Gage. You guys work like this often?## the 
mother quipped, trying for humor. Johnny could hear Chet 
cue-ing her to take another pull from his mask. 

"All the time. No sweat. Er,...figuratively speaking." Gage 
grinned into his radio, wiping the sweat dripping down his
face with a sleeve from the fire zone's heat. He gave
Alex another smoke free breath through her nose slowly 
to keep her from getting any of his air into her stomach.

##Mr. Chet just told me about the wild ride you took a few 
summers ago.##

"Oh, you mean when I got snake bit? Yeah, believe
me, I got deja vu visiting me something fierce right about
now. But listen, only the snake's got bad memories of that 
day , I assure you. We ARE going to get outta here. It's
only a matter of when that will be. No big deal." he chuckled.  
Alex twitched, making Johnny open his eyes to squint through 
stinging smoke at the EKG monitor. ::Tachycardia. D*mn. 
She's getting shocky despite her IV.:: He turned up its flow 
to wide open. Johnny began to breathe FOR her, as well as 
with her after that, at an increased rate. He went on laying 
down a calming transmission despite his change of treatment. 
"Kinda comfortable up here. Lotsa room.." he quipped. 
"And the view's.." he broke off, hearing a thrumming 
vibration ripple the air and felt the same against the tarp lying 
across his shoulders. "...great! Cap! Heads up.. It's the 
chopper at last. I hear it!!" 

Right then 36's bucket man thumbed through on the HT
frequency. ##HT 36 to the engines and the squad. The air crew's 
here, arching in at our ten o'clock. I can just see them above the 
smoke. They are starting their dumping run.##came the fireman's 
shout, muffled thickly by radio technology and his bottled air mask.

##10-4, bucket HT.## both Caps and Roy acknowledged.

The arriving helicopter's rotor blades buzzed almost vengefully 
over the firestorm raging its edge over the road in front of the 
three red fire vehicles. It swept down low over the engines
with a brief greeting waggle. ##51 and 36, This is Chopper 
Nine. Making the drop in ten, nine, eight,....##

"Go!. Go! Stoker! Move it!" Cap shouted as he hit the cab's
dashboard. "We gotta time it to get exactly where that falls 
to spare our tires. Anything we get will only hold for a short bit. 
The cross wind's too strong. More fire will move in instantly 
after the chopper lifts away!" Hank shouted to his engineer 
driver. 

Mike Stoker pushed the pedal to the metal and Engine
51 lurched forward, spinning ash behind it.

Cap shouted into his radio. "Roy, go! We're in motion.
Gage, hang on!"

Gage heard Cap's urgent holler and grabbed onto
the squad's roof rail above him and a bottle bracket 
as he continued to stay positioned over Alex's face to 
aid her breathing. "Here we go, Alex. We're getting 
outta here." he coughed before leaning over and
imparted to her another shared breath.

Time seemed to stand still for all of them.

-------------------

The brush fire writhed like a furious beast under the
sudden chemical onslaught released by the helicopter
sweeping above it. A rain of retardants and lake water
bit deep into the block of flames on the road and
completed just before Engine 51, the Squad, and Engine
36 sped through the place that had been tricked chemically
into turning from raw plasma to just a hissing morass of 
earth stained ground steam.

Walls of flame and rolling alighted tumble weeds shot around
them, as Chopper Nine's backwash and dump shoved the inferno
away from the vehicles. Then flames, newly pushed by the 
high storm winds still roaring above the valley, rallied, and 
suddenly, the three speeding trucks seemed trapped by the 
raw heart of the wildfire's flames once again. 

Their bid for the canyon's rim and safety was instantly
compromised when their surrounding smoke turned midnight 
black, forcing the fleeing fire companies to slow in their escape. 
Mike Stoker suddenly couldn't see the road as a 
suffocating blanket of ebony ash covered them 
in a thick pall as the wind stilled. He was forced to
hit his brakes and the engine's wheels began to bake 
on the superheated earth and shattered bones of the fire.
::No, No.. Can't stop. The tires will melt down. But I can't 
go fast enough either..:: Mike warred with himself silently.
::The smoke's blinding me.::

A blast of dust and sand filled his windscreen right 
at that moment. ##Engine 51, I am on your fender 
as a guide. Follow our lifting wire.## Chopper Nine 
notified them.

Just ahead, Mike Stoker could see a wedge cable
and bright orange basket buoy dragging along the 
road right in front of his bumper through the inky
murk. It was tantilizingly close.

He glued his eyes to it and didn't look away, trusting
instinct and the helicopter's pilot to lead them out
of the growing fire.


-------------------

Engine 36 screeched to a halt when they lost sight of 
Squad 51's tail. The bucket man barely hung on
when his truck skidded to a halt in the ash and soot. He
yelled down to his captain. ##You're all right. Keep going 
towards twelve o'clock! You're fifty feet from them. 
Nowhere near colliding. Hurry.. Gage's out from under 
my water.##

------------------

Ahead of engine 51, the chopper buoy on the ground
was eaten up by a wall of flame. Stoker gave out a cry
of alarm and warning as he flattened the gas to
the boards. "Going in!"

Engine 51 was consumed by fire.. 

-----------------------------------------------

The incessant boom and rush of 36's watering 
mist ceased.

Johnny Gage threw the tarp aside inch by analyzing
inch as he lifted his masked head cautiously to see 
why Engine 36 had fallen behind.
 
They were gone. All he could see were flames behind him..
and more black smoke. The sun was practically 
nonexistent overhead and it dimmed more, ominously, 
throwing Johnny into a surrealistic world of night and 
glowing embers.

Johnny's mouth went dry when he looked over the 
squad's hood towards his station's engine. They were 
charging, full reds on, through a fire wall taller than the 
engine. "Oh, d*mn..." he whispered and he rewrapped the 
tarp back tight around himself and Alex, before he knotted
into a ball of protection, sealing off her nose with a grip, 
just before Roy too, drove high speed, into what felt like pure 
unadulterated living h*ll.

Superheated air flooded around Johnny and he could hear
some of his hair sizzling where a lock of it stuck through a hole
in the old tarp. He slapped out the fire started there 
with his free hand, pressing his air mask as hard as he could
over his nose and mouth to keep out the burning atmosphere. 
He looked down. Alex's involuntary chest muscles rippled under 
his arm. She was fighting to breathe around her blocked off 
air passages. ::Not yet. You're gonna fry your lungs big time
if I let go. And I will too if I take this mask off right now.::

John subconsciously started counting the seconds Alex was
going without air. That number had reached about fifty five when
Gage felt the resumption of 36's cannon hose water against them
through their tarp. Johnny threw aside the smoking, partially melted
wrap and he let the rain of water drench him and Alex both in
a desperate attempt to cool off their skins and the scorching
metal that was almost searingly hot to the touch, around them. 
Johnny opened his eyes. They were in blessedly open air and 
daylight and the horrible unchecked fire was now faltering 
behind them along the road, wind carried, away from their
direction.

Gage coughed and choked, bending over Alex to reassess her 
status, using his body as an umbrella to keep the pouring 
water from reaching Alex's ghostly white face as he let go 
of her nose to let her breathe.  Right then, the water 
cascading around them was shut off and the fireman, manning 
it, shouted in triumph.

-----------------

"Look out!"
Roy stopped the squad on a dime when he realized that both 
the squad's tires had melted in front and that he was riding 
on their bare rims. The force of his emergency stop 
threw all three of them into the windshield. "Sorry. We've
no tires left.."

"It's ok.." Alex's mother and Chet both gasped.

Chet, the girl's mother, and Roy all exclaimed in puzzlement,
when the dust cleared and they saw Chopper Nine circling in 
the air just up ahead, but then they saw it hovering above the road. 
"Why are they landing?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know..  Let's go find out." Roy said without looking
at either one of them, and his voice began rising in alarm.. "Ma'am 
wait here. Kelly I think you'd better come with me.." 

"Right.." Kelly said also, without taking his eyes off where the
exiting pilot was just starting to urgently point. The two of them 
slid out of their seats shedding air bottles and opened the 
squad doors, getting out in confusion. As they watched,
the chopper pilot finally gave up on communicating something
to them and he started instead, a sudden, frantic beelining 
run to his left.

Roy finally saw Engine 51 in the thick underbrush slightly off the 
road. He saw her cab was impacted right up against the hillside
and that all of her tires were melted off and shredded.
The top row of the hose bed was still subtly smouldering.

"Ohmyg*d! Cap! Stoker!?! Marco?" Roy lifted his radio to
his lips as Chet and he bailed the squad's cab and together,
they ran towards the horrific sight. "Squad 51 to Engine 36. 
E51's off the road! Notify L.A and all our responding units!"

He dropped the HT, pushing Kelly on ahead of him urgently. 
"Chet go check em out! I'll be right there! 
I'm going back for Johnny and the girl.." he whispered.  

Kelly ran towards the engine like a shot with a door
pry he had snatched from the squad's side compartment.

---------------------
"Johnny!?" DeSoto cried out, hurtling himself up onto
the back roof of the squad. "You all right?"

He saw Gage ventilating Alex on the demand valve
to ease some blistering cyanosis. "We're ok. She didn't
take in any superheated air. But her cardiac rhythm's-"

"Johnny. Listen to me.."
The tone in Roy's voice shut Johnny up immediately.
"Stoker crashed. I'm going over there! Stay with her!" 
he shouted, leaping back down again.

"What?!"  Gage dropped the demand valve and climbed
up on his knees to peer over the squad's chrome
top bars and cab's roof. He immediately cursed 
himself for his reaction and got right back on Alex, 
snatching up the ventilator again to resume her 02. 
He snatched up his HT. "Cap! Stoker?! Marco? This is 
Squad 51. Respond!"

Another body climbed up the back of the squad, 
looming into view. A singed white crested helmet. 

"Cap?" Johnny queried.

But it wasn't him. It was the silvered haired Carter. "Gage!" 
Steven shouted at him. "We're on it. How are you and 
the girl?"

"Whaa? uh, we're fine. What the h*ll happened to them?"

"Same as you. Blown tires..Only it looks like Stoker
couldn't stop in time. Stay with your victims!"
36's cap ordered. "I don't know details yet!"

"Cap....I--"

"Just do it.. I'll let you know about them as soon as I do..!"
Carter said, jumping down to the ground. He literally flew 
to where Johnny could just barely hear Chet Kelly shouting. 
Gage couldn't make out any words.

Johnny felt a weight impact the squad's roof. He
whirled around on his knees to see 36's bucket man
lightly land the bucket on top of the squad's other roof
strut. The man climbed off of it and leaned over just in
time to help a hysterical Alex's mom up onto 
the roof with an assisting hand from where she
was reaching up to him.

"Alex! Honey? Are you ok?" she sobbed.

Johnny could see the little girl's mother had a fresh cut 
over one cheek that was inexplicable, but it didn't 
immediately register to Johnny's stunned mind. But he 
felt himself answer her. "She's all right. The tarp protected us.." 
He turned to the fireman with him. "Atkins, Alex is breathing, 
but her rate's a little fast. Only ventilate her if she tires. 
I had to keep her from pulling in any heat for a minute 
and she's still recovering from that."

"Right." 36's fireman knelt by the silent child and took
over Johnny's place on Alex's oxygen.

Alex's mom began to sob. "Alex? How is she?
And where are the other firemen? I- I thought they were 
going to get us down from here so we could meet up 
with that ambulance you said was coming.."

That stopped both Johnny and Atkins in a moment.

Atkin's silently mouthed, "She's forgotten about what's 
just happened?" about Engine 51 to Johnny concerning 
her mental status. 

Johnny's mouth just gaped like a fish twice before
he felt himself click into automatic paramedic mode. 
He tried to glance over the squad's roof towards where Roy, Kelly
and Captain Carter had disappeared as the two of them sat
her down on top of the cab. "They've uh,.. they've got 
something to catch up on." he told her distractedly.  "Just uh, 
relax a bit and let me take a look at that cut of yours, ok? 
Do you remember where you are? What's your name?"

"Andrea.."

"Do you know what day this is?"

"Uh.hh" the mother sighed, holding her head. "I'm sorry.
What did you ask me?"

Right then, Alex began to stir and cough and Atkins
lifted away the 02 to see the child opening her eyes.

Mum? Are you there?

Alex's mother didn't seem to hear her.

Mum? the girl repeated, growing scared when her
mother didn't reply back to her. Whats happening?
Why do my clothes stink?

Simultaneously, Engine 36, Squad 51 and Engine
51's radioes all started issuing Sam's voice and tones soon 
followed a frantic report that Captain Carter was giving out to L.A. 
Headquarters. On what it was, Johnny didn't know. None of what
was said had gotten through his shell shock.

Gage swallowed back his own thudding worry for his 
crewmates as he and Atkins efficiently dealt with the 
new medical situations in both mother and daughter.

As Alex's and Andrea's pulse rates began to calm with his 
reassurances, Johnny's began to rise in stress and alarm.
::Are they ok over there? Roy why aren't you HT hailing me?::
Gage's mind screamed out. 

"I can see him." Alex said." No!! " 
The little girl screamed through her simple O2 mask.

Johnny looked down. "Easy. Easy.." he told her.
"What's wrong honey? Y-you can see who?"

Atkins and Gage didn't know what she was talking about.
The little girl's eyes had been bandaged shut for burns
they had found on her eyelids.

"The tall dark haired man in the white and the black hat." she replied, 
sudden fear filling her voice with a ring of truth that chilled them both 
to the bone. 

::Captain Stanley?:: Gage wondered. ::How can she know
what he looks like? She's been unconscious this whole time.::
"Sweety. What--" 

"No!  Kelly, not there.. Somebody! Somebody! Get to him 
fast. He doesn't want to die!" the little girl wailed.

----------------------------------

Photo :  A water chopper buzzing low just in front of
            a speeding engine 51.

Photo : Captain Carter of 36's and Captain Stanley by a burn out.

Photo : A raging brush fire on a hilltop.

*************************************
From :"patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : The Little Voice..  
Date : Fri, 11 Apr 2003 16:21:26 +0000  
   

Gage rose to his feet, moving to stand directly 
on top of the squad's cab. He eyed the brush until 
he located where he heard commotion from the chopper 
pilot, Roy, Captain Carter and Chet. He made up an 
excuse to issue a radio transmission. "Squad 51 to HT 
51.." he impatiently called out, knowing that by 
procedure, Roy had to answer anything directed at 
him.

##HT 51.## came his partner's reply.

Johnny filled him in. "Roy, need ya back here.
Our adult female patient's showing a Glasgow 
percentage drop with a new orthostatic BP shift."
Gage practically shouted read-between-the-lines
in his tone as he gave his update. ::What's
going on over there, Roy?..Why the silent line?:: 
he punctuated fiercely in his thoughts.  "I'd really 
like a second opinion on the mother's mental 
status for Rampart's next report if you're able."

He jumped back down to the squad's bottle store
niche. Gage studied Andrea's dozing face once 
again, keeping a hand on her right radial pulse. 
He was still considering the odd statements the little 
girl had screamed just a short time ago. As the minutes 
stretched by with no more frantic activity through L.A, 
he began to feel sheepish for becoming alarmed by 
them. 

But some inner sense of nervousness remained. 
Johnny jumped when he felt a tap on the shoulder. 
"Ahhh!!" he said, startling. He spun about in place, 
stumbling over his air bottle that he had abandoned 
at Atkins' feet and came face to face, with Roy. 

"So how ARE they over there?" Gage demanded
of him sharply when his fright had passed.
"Nothing like a little radio silence to torment
all of us over here."

Roy only smiled. "Stoker's got a bruised nose.
And Marco will need to sit on an icepack donut
for a while.. Other than that.." and he shrugged.

Johnny couldn't believe it. "What! That's it?"

"Yep. No one was terribly hurt, pally. Mike just took the
rig into that sandy embankment to stop her
from running away once he felt the tires blow. You
know, sort of like how semi truck trailers sometimes use
those cedar piles on ramps for brake failures up
in the mountains.." DeSoto reasoned. He knelt 
and took another blood pressure on a groggy Andrea,
whom Johnny had arranged supine along the other flat
side of the squad's top. Her O2 mask was back in
place and her feet were raised up onto a resting 
sideways air bottle.. "Hi there...uh.. " DeSoto asked 
the mother. 

"Andrea.." Johnny prompted instantly.

"Andrea.." Roy parroted. "How are you feeling?"  

Andrea didn't open her eyes until Roy gently set
a hand onto her arm. He repeated his question.

"Ummm, kinda funny..." she remarked.

"She's not the only one.. " Johnny muttered under
his breath about how he felt about Alex's 
bizarre ramblings. He decided to chalk them off as 
hypoxia residue and turned up the percentage of
O2 on child's clear oxygen mask. Gage then bent
low to treat and dress the spidery lightning burns 
on Alex's shoulder.

Roy checked the mother's IV and O2 flow. "Ok.. 
My partner tells me you are a little fuzzy on 
recent details. Did you feel this funny way before, 
or after we escaped the wildfire?"

Andrea's eyes wandered from Roy's face 
and she fell to watching the D5W IV dripping
into her arm that Dr. Brackett had ordered.
"What fire?" she said. "Are there more people
hurt besides me?" 

DeSoto's smile fell away and he drew out his
penlight to examine her eyes. For the time being,
he didn't answer Andrea's questions nor inform
her that Alex was nearby to spare the woman
unnecessary stress. Her pupils were fairly equal,
only red and irritated from the smoke she had been
exposed to. He felt along her neck for telltale signs 
of stiffening or tenderness. She didn't react adversely 
to his probing. Nor did Roy find anything but ash when 
he checked out her head once more for signs of injury. 
"Still negative here." he said to Johnny.

"Yep.. So, what do you think?" Gage agreed.

It was only a few seconds before Andrea faded 
enough to want to close her eyes again. Roy watched
her breathing rate. "Don't know yet. The BP's 88 systolic 
and her resp rate IS shallowing. Just like what you've got
written down here." he said. Then he rubbed his chin, 
thinking about what else he could check for. Then he 
had an idea. "Johnny, did you take a BP on her other arm 
for comparison?"

Gage looked up from where he was wrapping 
the child warmly into a dry blanket. Johnny's 
slight look of dismay said it all. "Oops." he 
mouthed silently. Then out loud he said. "I was 
kinda distracted by all the excitement with the 
engine, Roy." he said.

Atkins was still doing his part in keeping the little girl 
awake and oriented by giving her his helmet to feel while 
she waited for her ambulance to arrive."I think we all were."

Roy turned to get his baseline BP. He nodded as he got the 
second reading. "It's different, Johnny. 110 over 84." and 
he slipped into a closer neural exam on Andrea that included 
a babinski's check and a limb movement equality exam. 
Her left side presented as weaker despite Alex volunteering 
that her mother was left handed. Roy noticed that she didn't 
seem able to grip his fingers with any great strength on that 
side nor push down with her left foot normally. His mind started 
churning possibilities. ::Did she get this way from hitting the 
squad's dash when I stopped?:: he wondered. Then he shook 
his head immediately dismissing that angle.. ::That 
facial cut's sitting on the LEFT side and it's minor. It can't 
possibly be the cause of her deficit now. These mis-reactions 
are too global and, well.. old. There's some subtle atrophy in 
her muscles on the effected side. Wait a minute. Maybe her 
symptoms are tied to a pre-existing condition that the fire 
exacerbated. That would explain why we didn't find anything 
grossly wrong with her until now.::

Roy checked the woman's pockets for ID. He found a wallet 
in her pants and he leafed through its credit card section. 
::Bingo.:: The third card he turned over was one outlining 
a handwritten course of treatment for brain cancer. It had 
her name on it giving directions to a medical clinic with a 
familiar date marked down. "Found it." he said to Johnny. 
"She's got a history of cancer. A tumor on the brain." he 
whispered, showing Johnny the card. "This is an appointment 
reminder about a chemo treatment series, scheduled to 
start today.." he said softly. 

Johnny looked up in sympathy. "No wonder she
was up here in the hills. I know I wouldn't want
to face that kind of thing on such a beautiful summer
day. Makes perfect sense . Most likely, they were going on 
a picnic or something just to forget about things for a while
when the storm came and caused their accident."

Roy picked up the phone receiver and updated Dr. Brackett
on what they had discovered. Kel gave them instructions on
how to make the mother more comfortable and he asked
for the ambulance ETA. "Rampart, L.A. reports its ETA as
seven minutes." 

##10-4, 51.# Kel replied.

DeSoto and Gage both looked up as arriving fire crews
rushed on past their scene giving encouraging blasts
from their air horns as they sped by to deal with the
expanding canyon fire.  Johnny grinned when he
saw the company that was stopping for their crashed 
engine call. It happened to be Stone's.

Charlie and Gil leaped out of their rescue squad to
assist 51's. Gil gave a low whistle at the sorry condition
of the squad as he and his partner jogged up with their
gear and replacement 02. "You fellas medium rare or
well done?" he quipped.

"Charred.." Gage said. "These two are stable. Histories
and treatments are on the notepad." he said giving it
to him from his pocket. "You relieving us?"

"Yeah." Charlie said. "Go rest up. We'll get them down
from there for ya after we switch over to our equipment
and we'll bring em in for ya since your wheels are gone."
And he laughed at his own joke.

He broke it off when Roy and Johnny didn't smile.
He cleared his throat self consciously before changing
the subject. "Are you ok, Johnny? You look kinda peaked."

"Took some heat and smoke. Nothing major. Somebody had
to ride shotgun up top. We had two too many. Oh, and
watch the girl. I had to block off her air for the worst
of the trip out for about a minute total."

"Gotcha." and the two medics efficiently took over for
Johnny and Roy's scene.

Captain Stone wandered over to them from his rig.
His reaction was pretty much like Gil's about the melted
tires on the Ward and Dodge, including the sympathetic
whistle and unbelieving head shake. "Everyone still in one 
piece?"

DeSoto crossed his arms over themselves.
"For the most part. Bumps and bruises on the engine
crew." Roy grinned. "Cap's coordinating with Carter on
figuring out the best way for the tow bed to reach
over there. If you're looking for him, he said he would 
be hanging by Engine 36 trying to figure out why their
tires didn't melt like ours did."

 Gage's face fell into alertness. "Roy. Wait a minute
Wait a minute.. You said Cap left the engine
to come back over here?"

"Yeah, he left there about a minute before I did." 
DeSoto grinned, smacking some soot off his pants cuff.

Gage's face levelled into a quiet seriousness that
sobered Roy. "Well I didn't see him. I only saw you 
when you scared the snot outta me tapping my shoulder
like that."

"That's odd." Roy said. "I-I wonder where he could
have gone?" 

"He's probably hiding in the bushes somewhere, embarrassed
to come out here to see me about the reason why he
decided he had to melt both his vehicles down like waxworks." 
Ben joked. "He knows I'll tease him about the paperwork."

All three men chuckled.

Captain Stone lifted his HT. "Engine 8 to Engine 51.
Hank, my medics are here and have relieved yours. What's your 
10-20?"

The light laughter from them died away when nothing but
static returned. 

Something deep inside gripped Johnny and he fidgetted.
His odd nervousness returned and he danced on his feet,
craning a neck over to where he could see Chet milling about
next to the engine. 

Some of Stone's men were already fully on the scene. 
They were using 51's own water to cool her steaming tire 
rims and undercarriage with one of her hoses that hadn't 
been singed during their frantic breakout. 

"Hang tight. I'm gonna go check on something.." 
he told Stone and DeSoto. And he jogged across the field 
over to where Kelly was putting a bandaid on the bridge 
of Stoker's bruised nose.

Kelly looked up and so did Mike. "Hiya Johnny. Sorry for
not answering your hail. Cap said he would take care of it."

"Yeah, well guys, answer me this. Where is Cap?"
Gage said hurriedly. "He never replied me."

"Isn't he with you fellas by the road?"

"I thought he was with you.." Gage said with a
frustrated pointing gesture.

Stoker shook his head, feeling up the patch job
Kelly did on his tender nose when he was through.
"Hey, Chet, I think you put this on crooked." he
complained, peeking in the engine's soot streaked
door side mirror.

Kelly smirked at Mike. "You look beautiful, Stoker."
*Smooch* he kidded. 

Stoker made a face. "Think I'll go get someone 
else to fix this then. I know, I'll go get one of 
Stone's medics to give me an honest opinion on 
the efficacy of your bandaging job. Roy and Johnny
just may have to re-train you on how to do it
right, buddy."

"And I think you scarred me for life, pal, by crashing
into that hillside. Just look at my elbow, 
Stoker! I freaked pretty bad running over here
to get to ya. I don't see you patching ME up..!" he 
bellowed. "Some gratitude, man.. Geesh.." Kelly said at
Mike's departing back as he flicked some dirt
out of his very minor abrasion with a few fingernails. 
"Hey, no sweat about Cap, Johnny. Didya try 
hailing him on th-"

"Yes, Chet.." Johnny cut him off. "I just told you that.
And for that matter, Stone just tried to reach him again,
too."

Marco looked up from where he was checking
the underside of the Ward for signs of oil or gas leaks.
He was moving slowly to favor his bruised behind.
No one laughed at his stiffness. "I saw him." Lopez
piped up. " He said he was gonna look over the 
front end under all that brush to see whether or 
not Stoker crumpled any chrome." he chuckled.
"We got a bet riding on it."

"Well how long ago was that?"

"Oh, about five, six minutes ago." Lopez said. "Once
he knew we were all fine, he grabbed his helmet
and headed that way." Marco indicated.

All three men turned to peer into the thick rhododendrons
covering Engine's 51 steaming front section. "Cap?!" 
Gage called out. "Got a minute?!"

Hank didn't holler back.

Puzzled, the firemen started walking towards the hillside. 
Johnny stopped in his tracks when he saw Cap's HT still 
laying across the seat of the engine through its open 
driver's door. His work gloves were still there, folded
neatly on top of the transmission live radio.

Kelly noticed that too, "That's weird. He didn't take
his gloves with him. Kinda odd, cause there's still 
a lot of superheated metal up there."

Johnny hefted them up and he shoved the gloves 
into his pants belt. Gage nervously shifted the helmet 
on his head. "Guys, come on. Let's try to find him."

"What's the big deal Gage?" Kelly asked. "Maybe
he changed his mind about checking up on you and Roy
and went to 36's engine for a bit first to check on Carter."

Johnny lifted his HT. "Squad 51 to Engine 36."

##Go ahead, 51.## Carter's calm gravelly voice replied.

"Cap, ..ah" Gage said. "Is our captain with ya ? 
We can't seem to pin down his current location."

##Negative. Stone here with me says he still
can't raise Hank either.##

"That tears it.." Johnny said. A thick dread filling his
stomach. He put on Hank's gloves and moved to the
equipment compartment of the engine for a safety belt
and a coiled figure eight of rock rope.

The other guys watched him in surprise.  Chet spoke
up. "Gage, why are you getting so worked up here?
Cap's around. He always is. He's probably just
someplace nearby figuring out a way to get the tow 
guys back in here to-"

That annoyed Johnny. "Have you ever known Cap
to wander a scene without his HT?" he insisted
sharply.

"Well,... no..not exactly.." Kelly stammered.

"It's never, Chet. Now come on and help me into 
this.." he said. "Then get yourself geared up too. 
I'm calling for a scene search."

"Johnny, don't you think you're over reac--"

Gage hit his HT call out. "Engine 51 to HT 51
and all Engines. Captain Stanley may be missing 
from the scene. His last known position was with 
Engine 51. We're beginning a search from our 
10-20. We need immediate assistance."

##10-4...## came multiple replies. Stone, Roy 
Atkins and Carter soon came running from the road to
rendevous with Gage and the others.

Stone was pacing along side Gage when they began to
cut through the underbrush, fighting their way to
the front side of the engine and into the narrow
arroyo its hood was jammed up against. Once
there, he found a hand saw on the ground where
Cap had apparently been doing the same thing. 
"Here, Ben. "Johnny shouted. "Looks like he came this way.." 
Captain Stone joined Gage and squeezed into the small 
space that was blocking their way to the open tangle 
of brushy slope angling in front of the engine. 

Johnny had just pushed through and was standing
up when his feet tottered on the edge of a yawning 
hole in the grass. He pinwheeled in panic with a shout 
until Ben pulled him back away from the weakened spot  
that had creaked woodenly beneath his weight.

The others behind them held up when Ben gestured 
for them to freeze. "Hold it! Hold it! There's a hole
here!" he snapped at them.

Ben cautiously inched forward to look where Johnny had
almost fallen and his face furrowed. "Looks like an old 
abandoned well. Careful, everyone. The shaft's lip may 
be bigger than it appears because of all this old overgrowth."

They all dropped to their stomachs and crawled forward 
until they could peer down into its darkness around the 
rotten boards they found there. Two of the boards were 
newly cracked and there was a steaming redness
streaked across one of them. Ben reached out a hand to
touch some and he brought it to his nose. "It's blood."

"Cap?!!" Kelly called out urgently.

Johnny drew out the flashlight he had snatched along
with his gear and aimed it down into the hole. He
could just hear the sounds of gurgling water far
below and his light's feeble beam caught something
shiny hanging on a root. It was Cap's helmet. "I was 
afraid of something like this." Gage said quietly 
worried. "Didn't feel right about him."

Stone got on the radio. "Engine 8 to L.A. and all
units at 51's incident. We've a man down a well
beneath a fire engine. Respond a cave specialist team
and a heavy excavation equipment detail to our 
crash scene."

##10-4, Engine 8. Your time out. 16:12.##

Tones began to peel out eerily over their talkies
as Gage and Kelly continued to shout down the
crumbling shaft. "Cap! Can you hear me?" Gage
yelled. 

Kelly's face was tight with tension and he
swallowed nervously as the echo of their voices
died away and bounced around inside the dripping
shaft without a responding reply. He looked up at 
Ben, Roy, Carter, Johnny, Atkins and Stone. 
"Sounds like there's an awfully strong current 
at the bottom. I think the lower half of the 
shaft's flooded really deep."

"Could be a well broken through into a mine shaft."
Carter suggested. "This whole park's riddled
with old abandoned digs. I personally know
of five underground passages which carry water 
towards the flooded quarry just over that hill. 
This clearing may be a place where slideouts during 
fire years occur regularly. See where rain has weakened 
the hillside here? A boulder may have broken through, 
creating this fissure into the well, when your engine 
came barreling against it, out of control."

Atkins was only just slipping into repelling gear.
He marvelled at Gage already being so well
equipped for a vertical descent. "Did you listen
to the little voice we're both thinking of to figure this
out?"

"Who knows for sure, man. I just want to get
down there, Atkins. Now."

Kelly and the others rapidly placed a ladder
over the hole that they had grabbed from
the engine.

Roy laid a calming hand on Johnny's back.
"Yeah, well we'll be down there quick enough.
Stone's tying off our ropes to the engine's front 
wench as we speak." 

Gage's heart sank into an icy chill when his 
flashlight kept finding more and more places along 
the shaft's jagged walls where bloody smears marked 
the staining that Cap's body had left behind as it 
tumbled.

He still could see nothing of Hank.

Johnny's mouth went dry as he peered into the
pitch black of the wet rotten hole. "Tie them
off faster, guys! He can't wait. I'm seeing a lot
of blood down there." he snapped at the men 
grunting and squeezing through the undergrowth 
around the hole to reach the engine's grill and 
bumper. And the power wench. "Be ok, Cap. Just 
be ok.."

----------------------------------

Photo : Chet in turnout gear, worried.

Photo : Marco, kneeling and looking down.

Photo : Johnny and Captain Stone working
           while looking down.

Photo:  Roy on a ladder over
           a cave in with Johnny looking on.

Photo:  A broken through mining well
           and boards in the ground.

Photo : Cap's helmet, bloodied.

******************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : The Inner Life  
Date : Sat, 12 Apr 2003 02:16:58 +0000  
   
  
Hank Stanley groaned as he awakened
to an eerie greenish darkness. He was upright, 
hanging on a wall by the back of his collar on a 
splinter of wood and his helmet was gone. 
"Whaa?" he said out loud. "What?" he said again
as he opened his eyes to a feeble glow coming
from below him. There was a roaring 
in his ears. ::Did I hit my head?:: he wondered 
and he took in a couple of deep breaths. ::Maybe not,
cause I don't feel any pain. ::Then Hank realized what 
the noise was. ::My legs. That's why they're cold. 
They're dangling in this rushing water up to my thighs .
Am I in some kind of riverbed?::  Then he realized that
wasn't the case. Peering about, he realized that he was in
an old mining chamber at a junction of a vertical shaft
where it met the ceiling of another flooded horizontal 
passage. Just ahead of him, he could see an ominous 
gurgling whirlpool rotating at the end of the dead end 
passage about thirty feet downstream.


He tried to shift his head but a warning creak 
of sagging nails on the shattered wood holding
his jacket, halted him. They dropped him a couple of inches 
in his precarious place. :"Ahh!." And Hank froze, trying 
to still the motion of his legs dragging in the fast flow
beneath him. ::Don't want to fall in. That water 
sounds deep and I can't tell where all that
water's going for sure...::

He spent another minute or so flexing his limbs slowly
and Hank decided that he was fairly intact, all things considering. 
Until he glanced down at his right hand and realized that 
it was red with actively streaming blood. ::Oh,..
I got an artery..:: he realized, licking his dry lips.::Gotta
s- stop that..::  Already, his head was full of fuzz and
a nauseating thirst was thickening his tongue. Moaning, 
Cap reached into his pocket and found the nasal cannula 
that he had shoved there from the little girl's mother earlier 
as they loaded her daughter up onto the squad for their 
desperate escape through the fire. He rigged a half hitch and 
looped it tight around his upper arm over his coat on his
bleeding side and did it again before he tightened it with an
adjustable knot with his teeth and other hand. He pulled 
until he could feel the thudding pulse beating in his lacerated 
arm, only quitting when he felt his fingers growing tingly 
and numb. Gasping, he let go of his tourniquet and
he drifted in a sea of dizziness.

A few minutes later, he looked down and saw that the 
fast trickle of blood was now reduced to a slow rain of 
drops that fell into the rapid flow of water beneath 
him. ::That did it.Ugh.. Hope it doesn't come loose on 
me. This plastic doesn't make very good rope.:: He 
looked around and up above him. Very far away, he 
could see a patch of daylight over his head and he 
could vaguely hear eerie echoes of..::Those are
L.A. dispatchs! I'm hearing Sam over an HT!:: 

"Hey!! "  he shouted and immediately winced when that
effort shot pain through his circulation stopped arm.
"Agh...hh." he moaned and his consciousness began to drift
as nausea rose up to sicken him. Hank barely kept his
stomach by reaching down and splashing some of
the water rushing by onto his face with his good arm.

Then he began to regret his actions when a mild shivering
set in. ::I'm going into shock. ..I....probably lost a 
fair bit of my total volume here.:: he thought. Taking a 
gamble, Hank grabbed a chrome polishing rag he had 
taken with him to the front of the engine on his trip to 
seal the bet, from his other pocket. He held it in the water 
swirling about him until it was fully wet. Gasping and
shaking, he wrung it out into his mouth and swallowed the
rank liquid slowly. ::Tastes awful. But I gotta....gotta get 
my fluid level up or I'll pass out..::

Hank drank until his sharpening nausea stopped him. A couple
of times, Cap almost lost what he had taken in and it was only
a sheer effort of will that saved him from vomitting it
all out again. Hank was rewarded a minute later with a 
clearer head and soon, the chamber he was trapped in 
stopped spinning around and around in his vision. 

"CAP ?! ..CAp ?!......Cap ?!...........cap... ?!" came
a bouncing echo from above. It was Chet's voice,
mingled with Johnny's.

But Cap's head began to sag as his BP dropped 
from his internal chilling and he couldn't respond. 
He slipped into a half state, eyes staring into the 
noisy whirlpool filled with green underwater light 
just ahead. He began to drift and dream..

----------------------------------------------------------
Captain McConike walked the line in front of his new
firemen cadets and stopped in front of one very very
tall, gawky young French looking man, who towered
a head over him. He dipped his head to read the
man's name tag.. "Henry...Stanley.." he read myopically.

"Hank.. uh, Hank. S-sir.. Only my mother calls me Henry. And
uh,...my pastor."  Hank immediately bit his lip nervously
for talking out of turn in the inspection line. He had heard 
so much about McConike's reputation on being merciless to 
any probies assigned to his station who dared break protocol
on anything. He froze at attention when his new captain gave 
him a once over glance from his hours long polished shoes to 
his starched white dress hat. "Hmm... " the man regarded Hank 
thoughtfully. Hank could just feel the other probies twitching 
in sympathy for him as he fell under the gun. 

Hank felt his upper lip start to bead with sweat.

McConike said gruffly. "Uniform's fair Mr. Stanley. You only
missed some polish on that button."

"Which button where?" Hank said looking down.

McConike immediately swept up his index finger and caught
Hank by the nose, making him lift his head in a Three
Stooges move. He began to laugh uproariously and so
did Hank's fellow newbies. The humor had just the opposite
effect on Hank, who's face flushed nine shades redder than
the engine he was standing in front of.

McConike glared at the cadets to shut them up and to
spare Hank the humility. But his dogged I'm the superior
and you're not grin stayed firmly in place as he thoroughly
drank in Hank's discomforture. "Knew that would get ya,
Henry. I never miss my mark when I pull that one." and he 
laughed loud, alone and long. The need to wipe away his
tears ended McConike's enjoyment and he said one last
parting shot before moving on to inspect the next
cadet to Hank's left. "Never liked my real name either,Henry.
So just call me Cap."

------------------------------------------------

Hank started to mumble in his half state..
"Hank, call me Hank! D*mn him..No wonder I set his
hat on fire. He never let up the whole time with
those stupid slapstick jokes of his for as long as
I was his newest man at the station. It wasn't
until I became a captain myself that he finally
started calling me Hank like he should have.."
he chuckled weakly.

"CAP?!....CAp?!........Cap?!...........cap?!.... ..We're coming 
DOWN..DOWn.......DOwn.......Down..........down..So 
HANG...HANg--HAng...Hang....hang..in there..rrrrr..e..
there rrrr..e...rre...just a little bit longer..rrrr..rrr...rr....r"  
another voice's ghostly echo floated over the loud
rushing waters ringing in Cap's ears.

::Roy?:: Cap's dulled mind ventured. ::Is that you?::
Hank coughed and then just hung limp where he
was, too tired to even think anymore.

-------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage was a bit lower than his partner in
the cramped well shaft. "Gimme more slack!" he
said looking up the shaft. 

Roy, sweating and climbing down on the boards 
one by one in his harness, spoke. "Johnny have
you noticed how much rope we've been using?
I'm at the one hundred foot coil mark already."
DeSoto kicked away the extra belt they had for 
Cap, from around his legs as he eased around 
a tangle of mining wire.. 

"I know.." Johnny said, grunting as he tipped his
helmeted head down to avoid the water streams
from the ground seeps raining down on them
in the gloom. He didn't voice the fact that a fall
any farther than thirty feet usually ended up in
a fatality. "Just keep going.."

Around Gage's belt, hung Cap's bloodied helmet.
and he kept one superstitious glove on it as
they descended even deeper into the murky
gloom of the well. He shouted again down
the shaft towards their feet but yet again,
nothing but the bubbling echoes of his own voice
floated upwards along with the sounds
of the raging water below. Johnny began to 
breathe harder as unwelcome negative thoughts 
about Cap's continued sinking survival chances 
came more and more frequently with every 
passing moment. 

They were still seeing splashes of blood on 
the walls. Roy became analytical. "All of this
is bright red. He must have gotten a cut into
an artery.. "

"We hope.." Gage said sarcastically. "Grossly
displaced open fractures do this kind of thing
too, in a fall.."

"Yeah, well I prefer to be optimistic, Junior."
Roy sighed. "Because I can't bear to think
that Cap might actually have d-" and he broke
off his line of thinking.

"I know what you mean. I'm having those
kind of doubts myself right now. Come on, 
let's keep going." Johnny said."Like you said,
we'll get all our answers soon enough."

Roy shouted back up the shaft..
"Gimme more slack!"

----------------------------------------------

Hank's breathing was coming with difficulty
now and to him, the moist cool air seemed
to be growing thinner. He could barely open
his eyes and the whirlpool seemed to weave 
a hypnotic spell over him. "I'm sorry, Chief..
I won't do it again..I promise.. Please.. Just
get me out of here....and....you can call me
anything you'd like.."

Hank lifted his numb arm in front of his
face by picking up its sleeve with his other
hand and he peered at the skin on his palm
there. "Man, looks like the mother of all
rug burns.. heh. Will take at least a graft
or two to patch that.."

::Will take a month or two to pass that Hank.
Only by becoming a captain will you find some
peace about him..What ever possessed you to
set the chief's hat on fire?:: his mental psyche 
injected into his mind. "Emily?" he gasped, imagining 
his wife's soft alto whispering to him next to
his ear. Cap's eyes closed as his deepening
hypothermia made him think the stony wall was 
his cotton quilted bed at home and his hallucinations 
real aspects of his family.

Cap finally slipped into a shadowy realm and
all trace of the chamber exited on the silent
black wings of unconsciousness. Hank's breathing
slowed to a crawl.

---------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage stopped shouting Cap's name.
"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. I see him..!"

"Where?.." Roy asked eagerly, and very tired.

"To my right.. straight down beyond that 
outcropping. Looks like he's mostly out
of the water. More slack!!!" his voice sliced
up the shaft..  

Finally, Johnny lowered another six feet.
He strained reaching for the nearest part
of Cap to his fingertips. His bloody right hand.

Gage grasped that wrist, feeling for a pulse.
He didn't find one. "What?" he startled,
eyes shooting to Cap's face for a confirming
off color. But Cap was still pink. Then Johnny noticed
the shiny coils tied around that arm. "It's a cannula,
Roy, acting as a tourniquet.." he sighed in relief.
"I thought he was dead for a second.." Gage grunted
as he angled in a little closer to reach Cap's limp head.
Johnny had to swing and grope three times before
he landed a solid touch on the side of Hank's neck.
"He's still got a carotid. But its thready. And he's
real cold. Here. Gimme the safety belt, Roy. I'll put it 
around him."

As Gage struggled nearer, his gloves felt Cap's
stomach expand ever so slightly as he worked
to place the belt around Hank's waist to secure
it to their third lifeline."Breathing's shallow. But
he's doing it."

Gage couldn't quite reach the fastener on Cap's
belt to their free rope and unconsciously, Gage
gave a tug, trying to bridge the final inch separating
them.

Captain Stanley's snag on his collar suddenly snapped
and he started sliding down the slope like a stone 
towards the creek streaming passageway below.
 
"Cap!!" Roy shouted, but he was at the end of his rope
and could go no lower.

Johnny made a grab for Cap and only got the loose end of 
the cannula tubing in his grip. It tore loose, untying from 
Cap's arm before Hank fell the rest of the way to
the bottom. He sank rapidly under the water.

Johnny didn't have time to think. He acted. "I'm
going in!" and he cut his short rope from the main
one with his holster bowie knife not even hearing 
Roy's shout not to.

---------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage was shocked by the utter icyness
of the torrent of water. He barely got his head back above
its frothy surface before his lungs shuddered into an 
instinctive involuntary gasp. He wasted no time.
"Roy.. lower another rope after I get him up!" and
Johnny began a powerful stroke down stream
towards the dead end wall. Briefly, Cap's back
surfaced as his body floated up in the grip of
the leading edge of the eddy. Gage grabbed him,
lifting Hank's pale head above the water before
he flopped it back onto his shoulder. "I got you Cap..!" 
he sputtered as he fought the rapid undertow forming
beneath them. His face filled with a sudden horror
when Johnny realized the danger.

Roy saw the underglow lit whirlpool
surge and it dragged his struggling partner
and their ragdoll captain inside a ferocious swirl 
as it hungrily sucked both of them under.
 
The submersed shadows that he could see
of their clinging bodies, spun wildly beneath the flow's 
surface for one terrifying second before they
disappeared entirely as the whirlpool suddenly 
folded noisily onto itself and rippled away into stillness.

Hot tears blinded DeSoto when he realized the 
implications of what he had just witnessed.

"Johnnyyyyy!!!  Caaaappp!!!" Roy screamed and
his terror echoed a dozen fold above the underground
river.

Roy never remembered pulling on his rope for
a hasty ascent.

-------------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny in a tight ground hole.

Photo: Johnny on a repelling rope.

Photo: Roy looking stunned outside.

Photo: A flooded under ground cave whirlpool.

Photo: Cap's helmet, turnout and boots line
          up along the wall of the station.

************************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Washout  
Date : Tue, 15 Apr 2003 20:27:20 +0000  
  

Hands reached for Roy the moment everyone 
around the caved in well could see him. 

"Captain Stone?! They fell.." his voice cracked. 

"What?!" the station eight captain gasped. 

Roy let the crew around him pull him out by the arms. 
"My partner was about to secure Cap to a lifeline 
when the debris holding him on the wall gave way. 
Johnny cut his rope and went after him but they're 
in trouble. The current had an undertow at the 
end of what I think is a dead end passage and they 
both were swept under." 

Captain Carter rubbed his chin, thinking. 
"A dead end passage did you say?" 

"Yeah." Roy coughed, catching his wind after 
the long climb upward. "Is that important?" 

"Sure is.." Steven nodded. "When these old mines 
were open, certain tunnels had sloughs specifically 
designed for discharging excess rainwater into an aqueduct 
that feeds into the main quarry just over that rise.." 
he said, pointing. "If your captain and partner are 
still alive, that's where they'll end up." 

Stone stepped back from the hole as Chet and Marco 
helped Roy out of his repelling belt and ropes. 
He thumbed his radio and said, "HT Eight to Engine 
8 and Brush 4. We've two men washed away in a 
subterranean current near our location. Send four 
men with a pair of stokes and mountain rescue gear 
to the north side of McGregor Quarry. The place 
we're looking for them to reappear is anywhere along 
that shoreline. Over." 

##10-4, Engine 8. Slope extrication and stokes 
to the north escarpment of the quarry. We're moving 
out now.## 

"10-4." Ben sighed. 

Roy's face was pale with fright for his crewmates and 
he found he couldn't think clearly at all. Chet Kelly 
grasped him on the shoulder and said. "Roy, they're 
ok man. You heard Captain Carter. That tunnel wash has an 
outlet that's not very long. You know how Johnny always ends 
up back on his feet after something like this happens.." 
he nodded animatedly. 

"Yeah? But he doesn't ever do that without injury, Chet. 
Gonna be harder this time because Cap's got more going on 
besides just shock and hypothermia. His arm was in a 
tourniquet when we found him for a very significant laceration 
and that came free when he fell. On top of the drowning danger, 
Cap may just bleed to death before Johnny can do anything to 
stop it." DeSoto said. 

Kelly's face sobered, but immediately, he said. 
"Roy, quit freaking out. You're snowballing. 
Just go with the other guys running over there. 
Marco and I will handle the squad gear and we'll meet 
you in two minutes! I see Stoker already booking for it." 

With a heavy heart,  Roy took up Chet's advice and 
jogged after the two fire captains to the edge of the 
abandoned quarry just beyond Engine 51. 

--------------------------------------------

Photo : Roy on the squad radio, helmet on.

Photo: Chet grabbing a ladder from the squad.

Photo : A flooded stone quarry near the ocean.

***************************************
From:   "Ziggy" <ziggy@zootsplace.com> 
Date:  Tue Apr 15, 2003  6:36 pm
Subject:  A Brief Return
 

"Hank."

Station 51's captain stirred slightly, but did not awaken fully.

"Hank." The voice, vaguely familiar, insisted more insistently.

Hank's eyes fluttered, but no other response was forthcoming. *Go 'way! 'm
wet, cold and tired. So tired. Just wanna sleep-*

"Henry Adams Stanley! Ten-hut!"

Hank started awake at that. Old habits faded slowly. He raised his head a
few inches off the stony ground and blinked as the blurry form kneeling
beside him. The form coalesced itself into-"Chief?" Hank knew it wasn't
possible, but the figure at his side appeared to be McConnikee. The chief
was dressed in his day uniform, including his turnout coat and white helmet.
"But-you're dead. aren't you?"

McConnikee smiled somewhat sadly. "I'd like to say the rumors of my death
have been greatly exaggerated, but I'm afraid I can't. But I'm not allowing
the same to happen to you, Hank. You've got to hang in there. Help's on it's
way. Just a short while longer."

Hank blinked. "I--can't. Too--tired."

"You must and you will. The department can't afford to lose another
experienced leader. You've got to hold on." The chief's image smiled. "God
knows Gail is a strong woman, but I need you to help her get through this."

As McConnikee spoke, Hank felt something being tightened around his bleeding
arm. In his half-faded state, he barely paid it any mind.

"Chief, I-I'm sorry f-for-"

"Burning my hat?" McConnikee chuckled. "I admit, I had it coming. Another
reason for you to stick around, Hank. You gotta let your men know the reason
for that. I forgave you for it a long time ago." The chief looked behind
him. "Help's coming now," he stated as he turned to face his rapidly fading
captain. "You were one of my best men, Hank. I'm proud to have been your
commander."

That said, McConnikee rose. Hank thought he saw him pause beside the
unconscious form of another blue-uniformed firefighter near-by. His eyes
closed briefly and when he managed to crack them open again, McConnikee's
image--ghost?--had disappeared. Again, Hank lapsed back into darkness.

 -----------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap lying on his back looking up out of uniform.

********************************************
From : "Patti Keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>
Subject : Recovering the Past..
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 23:30:14 +0000 


They had found them. Amazingly, on the only
horizontal margin possible, rimming the flooded icy
watered quarry. There had never been a faster descent
by rope than the one made by Johnny and Cap's
rescue team.

---------------

"Got that tourniquet in place, Chet?" Roy asked in 
a strained voice, crouching to check Johnny's
breathing yet again where he lay on his stomach 
semi prone.
 
"Yeah. It's tight. Thought he was awake for a second 
here. He just mumbled something."

"Just keep that arm elevated with that continued
pressure just like you're doing. When that bleeding slows,
pack it off with even more pads and then try to ease
the band loose enough to get that hand to pink up again.
If that bleeding starts up again with any substantial flow, 
tell me, and I'll come over there with a hemostat. 
Guys," Roy addressed the Station Eight firemen ringing 
above them. "Get him into these mast trousers. Cap's 
negative for cervical and spinal injuries." DeSoto said.

"It's a miracle he's not in a million pieces." Marco
said.

"The walls of that well were very muddy, Marco.
Lots of soft clay and moss. No doubt it cushioned him 
on the way down until those tree roots stopped his
fall. Only that arm's been cut by something sharp,
most likely on a loose nail or two. How's his breathing?" 
Roy asked about Cap, feeling along Johnny's still body 
for signs of misalignments or skin breaks. Roy was still 
getting over a scare concerning his partner that had 
occurred when they all had first located them.

Captain Stone was at Hank's head with 
one hundred percent O2 delivering abundantly
by demand valve. "Fast. Seems like he's panting a
little bit here. His rate's around 34 times a minute.
Pulse is up there, too."

"It's hypovolemic shock. As soon as I
finish detailing Johnny, I'll get on the line to 
Rampart for Cap's IVs. Help him vent if he loses 
color more than that lip cyanosis." Roy cut 
the chin strap of Cap's helmet free that was still 
twisted around Johnny's belt to get it out of the 
way for a pelvis fracture check.

"Right." Ben nodded. He could see Marco
and Stoker scrambling to lay out the anti
shock trousers and fit them around Cap's
legs and lower abdomen.


As soon as Roy was convinced Johnny was
in no danger, intact, and truly C spine injury clear, 
he waved the team of four Carter had mobilized, to
wrap him in a plastic blanket right where he
lay. There was still water trickling from his mouth.


Roy breathed a sigh of relief, finally daring to
think back to the first terrifying moments he had
experienced after his feet had touched stony ground 
following his rapid repel descent down the face of
the quarry cliff to the water's edge.
Roy fervently began to thank his lucky stars for
where he now was, situation wise. ::Gage's 
laryngospasm released only half a minute ago.:: 
DeSoto thought.::He's looking a LOT better now. 
Thank G*d.::

Roy still had both eyes on Gage's chest as he watched 
Carter place him on a high flow O2 mask. DeSoto 
was ecstatic that a cricothyrotomy hadn't been needed. 
Steve's obstructed airway maneuvers initially hadn't 
had any effect at all during those first few seconds of 
Roy's nightmarish recollection. 

DeSoto had just about reached for the 14 guage 
angiocatheter kit when Charlie's failed Magill forceps 
relief attempt confirmed that it was a definitely a 
laryngospasm causing Johnny's apnea. 

Once I.D.'d, the cramp was forced to pass with gentle 
manipulating. Soon after, the hasty gastric tube placement 
that water decompressed Johnny's stomach, did much to 
ease most of Gage's respiratory difficulties. It wasn't
long until they were resolved enough for good ventilating. 
Johnny had begun to gasp right away on his own, soon 
after Steve had given him a few firm breaths mouth to 
mouth.
 
::He's gonna be uncomfortable if he wakes
up with that NG in place, but breathing's better
than not breathing at all any day.:: DeSoto grinned.
Satisfied that Johnny was well seen to, Roy
turned his attention back onto Cap. "How's that 
hemorrhaging over there?" he asked Kelly.

"The band's off. It seems to be easing, though
his breathing isn't by a long shot." Chet told
him.

"I'll fix that in a minute. What Cap needs
is a lot of fluid next until he gets to Rampart
for a transfusion. Kelly, looks like you'll get to 
be his donor once we get there." Roy rubbed
his chin, considering his next plan of attack. 
"Looks like I can start his IVs here, the stokes 
rigging isn't ready yet." Roy said glancing up at 
the fast working set of firemen getting a pulley 
system set to scale the towering quarry cliff walls.

Soon, Roy had his drug treatment go ahead from
Brackett on both his patients. Roy soon inflated
all the chambers of the mast suit happily,
but Cap's systolic BP remained in the low 60's.

DeSoto started two large bore NS bolus drips 
for Cap wide open to elevate him into compensated 
shock. Roy looked up at a moan from over
his shoulder.

Johnny stirred where he lay on his stomach and 
the red haired station eight paramedic at his 
head bent over him in a new primary assessment.
Gil quickly shifted the oxygen mask away
and removed the NG tube as Johnny angled his
soggy limbs from his recovery position in a shaking 
tentative experiment of returning consciousness.
"ooooohhhHH." Gage groaned. Then he
froze when he realized that he was on oxygen
and that Cap was inches away from him 
snuggly warm wrapped and fussed over by
a very welcome bunch of firefighters.
"*cough*..Cap? " And he spat out sandy loam from 
his mouth as he drew the blanket tighter
around his chilled body. Gil sucked the rest of
the grit away with a portable suction lightly as
Gage's water irritated eyes fluttered opened
completely.

"Relax, Johnny. He's fine. We got to you both
in time. How's your chest?"

"Ooowww.. My whaa? Oh...yeah, that."  Analytically, he 
decided his own lungs were clear of water. "Uh,,," he said
fuzzily. "No edema. But my gut's more than sore. Man, 
feels like someone been squeezing me like a pack of 
Charmin."

"Welcome to the world of near drowning, Johnny.
You were a textbook case of cold water laryngospastic
syndrome." Gil quipped.

"I'll never crack another joke about pool gulpers 
ever again. I feel like sh*t." 

"Better feeling like sh*t than dirt, Gage. Start smiling.
Your fool hardy just-being-a-hero stunt paid off so the
possibility of your feeling like dirt here's not even an 
inkling. Man, Gage. We thought you both were goners 
for sure until Stoker spotted you two in your blue shirts 
and pants lying on the rocks." Chet commented, 
placing another dressing pad over the stained one he 
was leaning his weight on over Cap's cut lower arm.

Roy agreed with Kelly wholeheartedly as he monitored Cap's
breathing through a stethoscope. "Nice work on getting Cap 
and yourself to shore. Must have been hard getting your 
turncoats off so that they wouldn't drag you under.
That alone probably made all the difference in the world
on your survival."

"Waitdaminute. * cough* I did what?" Gage said, 
batting Gil's hands away when the medic tried to 
reposition Johnny's mask back over his face. 
"Roy. I didn't have time to do all that. Last
thing I remember, I was rushing along an underwater
passage, watching the walls whiz by in a sea
of bubbles with no air in my lungs, clinging for
dear life with my legs and arms, to Cap. 
Whatdiya mean I got him to shore? Geesh. I was
blacked out even before I saw any daylight.*cough*"  
Johnny set his own O2 back onto his face and
he laid a muddy arm over his face to block
out the painful sunlight streaming into his
aching eyes and head. He let Gil fuss over
him without protest.

Marco, Stoker, Chet and Roy and the other men,
fell silent. They clearly remembered seeing Cap
and Gage, coat stripped and stretched neatly
out, both face down on the beach, as if they had 
been carefully arranged there.

It wasn't until fifteen minutes into an airlift
that Hank Stanley roused and began to shout. Roy
and Chet Kelly had to hold him down in his delirium.
He seemed to be speaking about Chief McConike and
a solemn promise to visit his gravestone as soon 
as he got out of the hospital.

Roy and Chet could only shrug as to why Cap 
focused on that particular goal.

-------------------------------------------------------


Hank Stanley adjusted his sling around his
loose fitting nautical ivory carnigan and he
sighed deeply, ...just before he rang the
McConike household doorbell.

The white lacy curtain on the other side
of the pane of glass shifted briefly, as
the slight form of Gail McConike checked to
see who had come calling so early in the morning.
She was still tired from days of crying since
the funeral. But Gail instantly changed her
outward demeanor when she saw who it was
who'd come calling. "Hank.. you've been
discharged from the hospital so soon?"

Hank Stanley pulled the bundle of white roses
with a gold enveloped sympathy card nestled
inside of them, from behind his back. "I...sort
of made a pest of myself, Gail. You see.. I...
had to come here. Sort of knew I....needed to
be here, now.. For you and your daughter."

Gail accepted the perfumey blooms, taking
comfort in their heady, water coaxed aroma.
"Thank you, Hank. Won't you come in?"

Cap nodded self consciously and he
only sat himself down on the flower patterned
couch when she insisted that he do so.
"So how are you holding up..?" he asked
without preamble. "I...sort of feel compelled
to ask you that. Stop me if I'm too personal
here. I- I--I don't want to overstep my bounds."

Gail's freckled face finally beamed inside a
frame of silver white and black curls. "Now
that's Melton rubbing off on you again. Right
to the core, Hank Adams Stanley. And you know it.
When you're in this house I expect you to be yourself
and yourself only. Is that clear?" she smiled slightly.

"Yes, maam.." Cap said, falling into a moment of
remembering the Chief's last words spoken to him 
that day on the shoreline. He wasn't even sure that
it really happened. Days later, as he lay healing in his 
hospital bed, he decided that how he had come to 
experience them didn't matter. What was important 
was realizing the profound effect that the Chief was still 
having on both their lives. Cap tentatively reached out 
and took Gail's hand in warm, close friendship. 
"Hard to break a habit engrained in my very fiber. 
Melton is still very much in my thoughts. There 
isn't a day that passes when I don't think of him."

"Join the club.." Gail said gently. "Would you like
a drink? Coffee? Tea?"

"No, no thanks. I'm fine. I'm just about ready to
stop by the stationhouse and let the guys know
how I'm faring. They invited me to breakfast to
celebrate my breaking out of Rampart."

Gail laughed gently. "No doubt it's Marco's mom's
tamales again.." she guessed.

"How'd you know..?"

"It's Wednesday. Melton always used to bother
you men on A shift each month on surprise inspection 
just so he could have an excuse to eat those wonderful
tamales with you."

Cap's eyes smiled and he folded his good hand onto
his lap.

"So how are YOU doing? That broken arm hurt much?" Gail 
McConike asked of Cap's sling, misguessing what it was for.

"I just had some surgery to repair an artery that's all. 
I didn't break anything. It doesn't hurt much anymore.
Brackett's a wonderful vascular surgeon. I-I...I am
healing just fine. " Cap looked down and his eyes
fell on the coffee table to the maroon photo album
that lay there of Melton McConike. It was opened, ironically
to the days when Cap was a new firefighter under him.

On the second page, there was an unexpected shot 
from the day Cap first became Captain of Station 51. From
the first moments in fact, when he had fired off his first 
surprise dress inspection on his new crew at 51 just to 
stretch his newly appointed rank's muscle. It surprised
Hank that the photo was even there. He hadn't remembered
there even being a photographer present on that day.

But then again, six years of similar inspections and
years of runs made it difficult for recalling any great detail
of his first day as "Cap". Hank remembered feeling far
too nervous to remember much of anything.
Seeing his own men, younger, and very sharp in their
dress uniforms, gave Hank courage to return the question
back at Gail. "So, how are you healing, Gail? It can't
be easy for you to adjust at all. Again, stop me if I'm 
being too personal, please.." he insisted.

Gail noticed the picture that Cap's eyes were focused
on and she slowly drew it out of the album so Cap
could take a better look at it. "Here.." she said, after
a slight hesitation. "Then keep it. It's a gift.."

"No, no, no.. I - I couldn't take this. It belonged to
the Chief.. I."

"Hank. It's yours now. Melton frequently sent photographers
out to the stations where his first old crew each promoted 
into in order to hand those images back out to them during
a special occasion, or other moving moment such as.." 
and her voice broke off..

Hank finished her thought for her. "...such as during
a fireman's funeral.."

Gail smiled slightly. "Only with your station,Hank, he never
ever got a chance to. You were too d*mned good at
keeping all your men's rears intact.." she joked.
"Melton loved that about you. One of the only captains
to never lose a man."

"Careful, Gail, you might jinx me.."

"Rubbish.. Superstition is for fools..."

"And firehouse captains.." Hank quipped, waiting for
Gail to gather herself to answer his question.

"True.." she admitted. Then her eyes grew bright with
a sadness that only hinted the depth of her grief that was
still very much a part of her existence." I'm taking
it one day at a time." she sighed. "Friends make my
days bearable. They bring food, flowers.." she laughed,
indicating the vase that Cap had brought to her.
"But the nights are the worse. I can...almost.....feel
him in bed beside me sometimes. " she confessed.

Cap just nodded. But then he leaned forward,
taking Gail's hand once more in comfort. 
"This is going to sound crazy, but I had a chance
to ...feel ...him about me, too. I can't explain it, Gail.
And I'm not even going to try. All that kept running
through my mind while I lay there in deep shock on
that shoreline, was how much the Chief loved you 
and how much he wanted you to be all right with 
his going..."

Gail's eyes filled and she firmly placed her
other hand on Hank's and squeezed. "That's
a two way street, Hank. You see, a few days
before the accident, Melton wanted me to call you
about a gift he wanted to bring you in July
for the next annual fireman's picnic.."

"Oh?"

"Wait right here.." And Gail swept out
of the sunny Victorian parlor into the
den Cap could just barely see. She returned with
a box that seemed to be stuffed with
shredded white tissue paper.  Gail took the 
picture of Cap's first official inspection from
his hand and replaced it with her gift.

"What's this?"

Gail's face grinned. "Open it and see.
This is part two to go along with your
debut captain's photo."

Hank swallowed and opened the box.

The white delicate tissue paper fell
away to reveal an old fireman's dress
hat. It had a charred brown edged hole crowning
where its headpiece frame cloth had
been burned away and the metal worked
captain's rank front emblem was still 
holding its shape where the stretched cloth 
used to be.

Captain Stanley gasped when he realized
what it was.. "He saved this?"

"Of course he did. It was the first time a
junior man ever held him accountable for
questionable behavior and Melton always
said that it was an extremely valuable lesson
he learned that day." her voice adopted a
McConike sounding timbre. "Never wound
a newbie in an inspection line no matter
how tempting a joke might be. Or it'll come
back to bite you.." she concluded. "He saved
that as a reminder of you. Your revenge taken
by burning this had a profound effect on Melton.
He never tired of watching your career grow or
watching you develop the skills and integrity
that a true captain of the line only rarely gains.
He was so proud of you, Hank."

Cap's eyes filled likewise and he gently touched
an ashen edge of the hole in McConike's old
cap's hat. "I never knew.."

"And I never knew how dedicated you were
to him, until the day you had that courier
come to my house with his white helmet for the
funeral with a letter from both you and Ben.
I was deeply touched to learn that both of you 
were adamantly refusing the department's move
to promote one of you to the Chief's spot, 
in his honor.."

"It's the least we could have done. The way
they fill a gap's sometimes heartlessly swift."

"Well, that helmet's back in service now.
I called Ben Stone myself and asked him to accept
the post. He's been training for it all this
week while you were still in the hospital. I--I hope
I made the right decision in my recommendation
to the Department heads. I know how much you 
would miss your men if I had urged you to take it.
You would have done it in a heartbeat out of loyalty
to me and Melton, without regard for your own 
wants and desires."

"Gail.. That's not true.."

"In a pig's eye, Hank. Look, you're not even meeting
ME in the eye so I know you're lying.." she smirked.
"I've had the time I needed, Hank. It's ok for someone
else to carry on the job Melton loved so much. I'm
ready to see the Chief's spot pass on to the next man
believe me. I wouldn't have sent the helmet back
if I hadn't thought so."

"You sure you didn't do that out of some quirky 
loyalty you might have to all of us captains
that Chief McConike has trained?"

"Well, maybe just a little.." Gail admitted at last,
smoothing down her paisley china blue apron.

Hank smiled, gently putting away the ancient
hat back into its box along with the photo Gail
had given him. "Then loyalty must be an infection 
that knows no bounds for we are both afflicted with 
it most grieviously. And for that matter, so was Melton.
For it is because of him that we're both now sitting 
here talking about the future."

"A future that I thought I would never be able
to face. Yet,  now I am.." Gail said, her face
dawning with sudden comprehension.

"I'm very glad to hear that. To a degree that
you couldn't even possibly imagine."
Cap replied softly. He slowly caressed the
hat box under his hand, marveling in the soothing
feel its surface had on his skin and his soul.

----------------------------------------------------------

The sun was so far set that Mike Stoker had
already taken in the station flags. Cap
had not moved from his space at the kitchen
table. 

In front of him was a bolt of white cotton cloth,
fabric glue and a stretching frame.

Roy, Johnny, Chet, Marco and Mike all watched
with fascination as Cap completed his restoration
of the famous burned McConike hat. No one was
brave enough to ask how Cap had come by it again
after so many years. But finally, Chet came
out with it.

"So why'd ya do it?"

The room fell silent, even the sounds of four pairs
of lungs suddenly stopping their breathing in shock 
at Kelly's bold bravado.

"Huh?" Hank grunted as he carefully painted gold
leafing over the captain's rank crest on the newly
restored hat's metal working, distracted. Then
the question finally sank in. "Oh,.. uh, well. Let
me set this brush down first. Let's see. The reason
why.. Hmmmmm."

"Cap.." Gage complained.

"Oh, ok. ok. This is how it was. Well, you know
how you and Kelly got into that game one year with the
waterbombs in the whole Phantom fiasco?"

"Yeah.." Kelly said, swallowing nervously at
finally being on the verge of getting the answer
every man in the department wanted to know about
Hank Stanley.

"Well, the Chief and I got into it in the same
way.. Only we used firecrackers instead of water.."

Roy started to snicker.. "Y-You planted a firecracker 
in his hat?"

Cap grinned guiltily, blowing softly on his careful
painting, so the 24 carat gold guilding would dry 
with a rich shine. "Yeah, won that oneupmanship 
AND the running bet that HQ heads had riding on us. 
Believe me, it was worth every hour I spent cleaning 
the latrine with a toothbrush."

"So that's why you never give yourself that chore
to do. You hate it so much because it reminds
you of this burned hat.." Kelly said, putting two
and two together.

"Not anymore. In fact, as soon as I get my arm
healed and get back on the duty rosters, I'll pull
the can detail first day, like it SHOULD rotate 
through. There'll be no more of my pulling rank
around here inside the station. Things are gonna 
be fair and square from now on."

"Hey hey hey..." John and the guys celebrated.

"Does that mean when I pull a prank on Gage in
the future, that you won't be threatening me
with a hose tower detail?"

"That standing order penalty doesn't count, Kelly. 
The tower's outside the station. I said I'd be
fair about what goes on in HERE."

 "Oh.." said the gang, severely disappointed.

Upon hearing that, Chet, Roy and Johnny fell 
into age old grimaces of frustration, in three 
familiar poses of see no, hear no, speak no 
evil.

Cap never saw their dismay. He was too
busy repairing the symbol that used to be
a source of pain that was now his 
ultimate destiny.

-------------------------------------------------

The next day, a tall figure in a dress suit
fireman's outfit left his car inside the rural
Burbank cemetery whose address a new widow 
had shared with him. It was approaching sunset.

Cap Stanley walked respectfully to a recently groomed
grave and his understanding eyes fell on the name
carved there on the rosy marble. He traced
the name's lettering with a finger from his good hand
and briefly rested on the still sun warmed stone,
relishing the heat radiating there. "Chief.. I'm sorry I 
wasn't there when you were laid to rest here that day. 
But I sure know that you were there for me that afternoon
in the quarry. I can never repay the debt I owe
you for making me fight to live."

He sighed and smiled and then he said.
"I hope this makes up for it at least a little bit."

Cap brought out the chief's old cap's hat, now 
appearing like new, untarnished and crisp. 
::It's been restored with the love only two firefighters 
can share.:: Stanley wondered as he held it close.
 
Hank hung it on the flower holder attached to the 
stone marker and touched it one final time. As an 
afterthought, Cap left behind another gift for the 
man still looming so large in his life; his own 
double bugle dress rank pin of captain.

The dimming sun glinted once on the insignia
and it sparkled like the purest gold into
his eyes as his fingers set it on the top of
McConike's snow white and black dress hat. 
"Here's to that big alarm call in the sky, Chief. 
Hope you're there commanding the scene first
at every one of them. And if you meet up with 
any other of the boys who didn't make it, 
tell them I'm thinking of them, too..... 
This is Station 51, KMG 365. Over and out."

Hank Stanley began to smile as he
made his way back to his car in the
newly gathering, tender summer night.

Something deep inside of him that
had been coiled tightly for so long,
unraveled. Hank's relief was so profound,
that it drew healing tears to his eyes
that ran unchecked, down his cheeks.
 
Cap's heart, was now finally, at peace.

Hank Stanley drove back to his station
to a future that he now knew with absolute 
certainty as still belonging to him in every 
sense of the word.

-----------------

Behind, in the darkness, a wrinkle
on the hat Cap had repaired, smoothed
itself out in the moonlit wind, until it was 
inspection perfect, as if by an invisible 
hand from Chief Melton McConike.

As if in agreement, a distant L.A. county
siren answering a tones out call, wove
through the peacefully sleeping cemetery,
like a lullaby.


FIN- The Golden Horn
Episode Six, Season One
April 2003.
--------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny with drowning Cap in water.

Photo: Roy looking stressed, outside.

Photo: The 51 gang in full dress uniform.

Photo: Johnny getting after Chet in the bay
          following another water bomb. Gang watches.

Photo: Roy and Johnny and Chet. Hear no evil,
          speak no evil, see no evil poses.

Photo: Cap rushing to the scene in the Ward cab.
          Daytime.

Photo: McConike's dress uniform hat.
                 
*********************************
 
***This current episode has just completed.
***Keep watching here daily for episode
***installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

----------------------------------------------------

To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fullmoonblues.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/fatherandson.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/juxtaposition.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/withinsight.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------
To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/integritygame.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------



This is the...

      Debut Production Launch of Episode Six

              The Golden Horn
                      
                  
     Debut Launch : 16  March, 2003.

============================

Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters.  

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..
==========================

            
            End Credits --  Episode Six (First Season)

    :)   This episode is dedicated to all firefighters
         and EMS personnel who are injured or who lose
         their lives in the line of duty. May their sacrifice
         be rewarded hereafter and forever in eternity.
    :)                                                                      :)                                                                                


Guest Writers...
---------------

"Ziggy"                    ziggy@zootsplace.com
Sam Iam                  lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Roxann Dawson        laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
 
 
**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Storyline Technical Consultants
--------------------------------

Sue Hampton      On IV's and Fire Hoses- ER RN/EMT-P/FF/North Carolina
Donald Lee         On Engine 51's Abilities- Retired LACoFD Captain
Patti Keiper        Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live :)

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
and Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

====================================

       Music for   Season One   Episode Six

                    The Golden Horn

-------------------------------------------------------------

Lost Underworld Midi- by Crom Kayer

Puzzleways Midi- by Maxime Tondreau

Saga Biolab Midi- by Scryer

Empty Room Midi- By Kitaro

Deadland Midi- By Maxime Tondreau

Tarns Manor Midi- by S.C.T.

Amazing Grace Midi- by Barry Taylor
 
---------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   
----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    
____________________________________




The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Seven..  
      
    Crazy Days

Debut Launch: 15 April 2003.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

*****************************
From:   Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Sat Apr 19, 2003  3:43 pm
Subject:  Here's to Irritability.

Dixie McCall headed with a firm purpose for 
the cool caffeinated sanctuary of the main ER
nurse's lounge. Her hair was ratty, her feet ached
and she was grumpier than Kelly Brackett, 
even on his worst day.

Joe Early saw her retreating form in the relatively
crowded hallway and he called out, raising a few
fingers in a hail.  "Say, Dix.."

McCall only saw red. "What now?!Can't 
you see I'm going on break here?" and Dixie 
whirled to face whoever was interrupting her 
rare hard won personal off time. She about 
faced sharply and angrily whipped the loose 
wispys out of her eyes with the only thing 
not frazzled by the 'Day from H*ll', her 
elegant fingernails. "Oh, it's just you.."

Joe blinked in surprise and actually back peddled
a few steps."Whoa.. Is that too much coffee 
talking or did that experimental resupply 
inventory nurse screw up the paramedic drug
cupboard again?" 

Dixie sighed immediately in resigned instant
apology and buried her head against Joe's
shoulder. "Oh,.." she sighed in embarrassed
apology. "Rewind the last five seconds, Joe please."
And she lifted her head, straightening his lapels
which were just as rumpled from the morning as
hers was. "I'm snarly because I can't FIND any coffee.
What IS going on around here? I swear every
nurse and doctor's got a vendetta against me
today. I can't find a single pot even partially
full anywhere."

"Well, how about in there?" Joe said helpfully,
pointing to the nurse's lounge that Dixie had
already been beelining for.

"Thanks so much for the suggestion..."
she said wearily. "Let's go and then you
can tell me why you're here seeking me out."

Joe grinned eagerly and darted ahead to
open the door for his work beaten friend
with a gallant "no after you" gesture.

Dixie barely managed to muster a nod of
gratitude. Then she rushed over to the silver
pot glistening on the hot pad by the wall
of mugs across from the couch, beating out
a pretty young student nurse about to
reach for it too. The candy striper beat
a hasty retreat at Dixie's pounce.


Smiling and purring ferally, Dixie grabbed
onto the steamy handle.

The heft of the coffee service in her hand
made Dix double take and immediately she
started swearing like a truck driver. "I can't
believe it! I am seeing a whole wall of
employee coffee mugs stained with today's
coffee rings! Everyone's but mine.." and 
she slammed down the empty chrome pot 
back onto the counter with a bang.

"Oo. Dix. Take it easy. Isn't there a whole
can of Folder's in the cabinet above you?"

Dixie banged the back of her head without
looking into its door and the olive green 
cupboard swung neatly open behind her
to reveal a lone, much bedraggled brand new
coffee can, crushed flat like an accordian. 
"Brice's on duty today and whenever he is, 
coffee grounds evaporate like fog. Johnny Gage 
thinks he brews and drinks it all in one ten 
minute sitting. How else is Craig able to
run at the mouth so much? That man's a 
high speed walking talking," her head bobbed
" and coffee drinking, paramedic manual."

Joe chuckled. "No, I don't believe that
about the disappearing coffee thing. Brice's 
just got perfect recall and Kel thinks it's just 
coincidence about the coffee going missing 
from the rooms he's been in. He thinks
that patient visitors are doing it."

"Well, that doesn't fix my dilemma here now
does it..?" and her lower lip quivered and
she started whimpering explicatives, this
time tinged with tearful frustrated barely 
contained rage.

Joe winced. "Oo. Dix. Take it easy. Look,
I got an idea for you. How about calling downstairs
to commissary and ordering a fresh pot of coffee just
for you. You could hide it in Kel's office where
nobody else would find it.." he dangled, studying
the thick gold rings on his fingers mildly."And Kel 
could run interference using his rank to keep the 
rest of the staff away from it while bringing that 
pot directly here."

Dixie's tirade immediately broke off.
"Now why didn't I think of that?" and her
face beamed in discovery at Joe. 

Her face right away fell. "Oh, nuts..!"
she said, leaning on the wall.

"What?"

"The commissary operator on duty's currently ticked
off at me for begging ice off them for the ER
all morning."

"Why is she mad at you for that?" Joe wanted
to know, sipping his newly poured tea.

Dixie's mouth thinned with regret. "Each time 
I called, that girl waved, the you-gotta-have-
a-doctor's-order in my ear two seconds after 
what I wanted was out of my face. I must have 
called down there twelve times today, Joe, looking 
for some. For Treatment One's heatstroke. 
Treatment Three's sprained ankle. Treatment Two's 
first trimester morning sickness." Dixie shook her 
head to erase the images in her mind of the madhouse
morning so recently played out in her recent memory.
"I can't say that I was very charming to her by 
the tenth or eleventh call on hearing that same 
you-must-follow-procedure speech." Dix said 
sheepishly.

"I get the picture. And I can see her point."

"Huh?" Dixie asked not quite hearing him
for the stream of complaints still pouring
out of her lips.

"Ah, Nothing. Oh, Hey, I got it! I'll call down FOR 
you and have it delivered ASAP to Kel's office.
 I'll let him know what's up with your coffee 
exclusitivity plans. I'm on my way in there now 
to see him so we can organize both our notes for 
the all paramedic's meeting this afternoon. Yeah.. 
He can accept the order, sign for it, then run it down 
here. How does that sound?" Joe suggested eagerly.

"Like a godsen--"  The red phone went off
next to Dixie's head, making her startle off
the wall with a yelp. She caught herself
with a groan and blinked in cursing nonverbals
and she picked up the receiver. "Nurse's lounge
this is Dixie McCall."

Joe saw her face sag into new depths of
suffering as she heard the messenger on the
phone deliver news. Dixie hung up the phone 
without looking and started banging her head
against the wall. "Why why why? Oh, geez..
can it get any worse?  OOOghhhh.."

"What's up?" Joe asked. 

"Maintenance called and they're moving
room by room to scrub the ventilation ducts
in all the treatment rooms. I had forgotten
they were going to do that today and I
accidently filled every room with a patient."
She wilted and began bouncing her
head against the wall by the phone.

Thunk.

Thunk.

To Dixie, the action was ....almost soothing.

To Joe, it was a thing of worry.
"Hey, quit doing that. You'll give yourself 
a headache."

"I already got one from not finding any
coffee remember?"" she moaned. But
she stopped thudding her forehead
against the wall.  

But I thought I just figured out how to 
solve that dilemma.." Joe said confused.

"No you didn't. My breaktime's over.." 
Dixie sighed, tapping her wrist watch.
"Oh, h*ll.. See ya on the floor.." and she 
dragged herself back through the lounge 
door with all the weight of the world 
falling heavily back onto her shoulders.


"Hey Dix..!" he called out after her.

"What?!" she snapped.

"Kel can always set up that coffee IV 
push for you, and run your line in brachially."

Dix threw go away hands at him feebly
for the joke as she paced the distance
back to her chart piled desk without 
looking at him, with all the body english
of the classic down trodden, picked on 
playground kid.

Joe chuckled and continued heading down
the hall for Kel's office. 

-----------------------------------------------

"*&%@#! Look out below!" Marco hollered.

The Station 51 gang, minus Cap, clustered 
inside the base of the hose tower where 
they had been watching Marco struggle with
his penalty chore high above, scattered like 
so many chickens.

Sixty feet of soggy heavy hose spaghetti-ed
to the asphalt with a wet smack and the brass
nozzle coupling end rang with a loud bell ping
as it struck the ground before settling still.

Chet cupped a hand and grinned as he
shouted up to his coworker dangling precariously
from his life belt from the haul up apparatus
on the tower frame. "Hey Lopez, Cap's gonna 
flay ya alive if you dent any more of those 
connectors by bouncing them off the pavement 
like that."

Marco glared right back down again, swinging
comically from where he had slipped from
the footstand. "Hey Kelly, I'm gonna loop the next
one around your neck if you don't start zipping
su boca ahora!"

Roy was staying out of it, mildly discomforted by
the tension between Chet and Marco on what was
just payback on a lost bet. "Marco, he didn't mean
it. He's trying to gloat a bit to get more effect out 
of it."

"Yeah? Well you're not helping either.. You're all
staring. I hate it when people stare at me when I'm
doing something new. It makes me clumsy."

Chet was about to issue another retort on the wide
open comment Marco had just made when Gage 
smacked a firm hand over Chet's mouth to hush 
him up. "Chet, enough's enough. Let's all just get
go back inside and give the man some dignity on
figuring out how to hang those things right up
there, ok?"

Kelly turned on his heels and regarded Johnny
eye to eye. "This coming from the number one
gloater at Station 51? Amazing. Gee, Johnny. And 
I was only imitating you, pal. You've been such
an inspiration to me."

"I don't follow."  Gage said levelly.

"Your behavior during our Phantom 
Strikes war last year. Man, that was without a 
doubt, the sweetest example of a pro prankster
role model. Ya gotta gloat."

"Not that much. You've been at him for ten minutes
straight."

"Well, you're all watching. Doesn't that make
you just as guilty of contributing to my supposed
delinquency?"

"Yeah..it sure does. And I'm no longer going
to be an accomplice." Roy said mildly, and he turned 
on his shoes and left for the kitchen door in a show of
instant departure from the yard. "I'll set aside
some dry towels for you, Marco, in the locker room!"

"Thanks. Appreciate it.." the sweaty tired Lopez hollered 
back. Then he regained his feet once more on the platform. 
He restrung the hose's buddy line through the pulley
to hand over hand the errant fallen hose back up
onto the draining tower hook again. 

Marco made it a point to ignore those on the ground.

Soon, his move worked and even Chet lost his desire
to egg Marco while he toughed it out.

There were still nine soggy hoses that needed to
be hauled up manually by rope and drained from
the to do pile.

And the conditions of the bet Chet had outlined
prevented the loser from getting any help doing
the weekly tower chore. 

But soon, Stoker managed to slyly untangle a 
loop in the fallen hose with a foot when Chet 
wasn't looking..

Marco grinned when he saw him from the corner
of his eye. ::Stoker. I love you. There was no way
I was going to climb all the way back down to do
that again..:: he thought in gratitude. ::I owe
you one. Maybe even a whole afternoon's chrome
polishing. That's if I ever get my arms back..::

One by one the guys left for breakfast
and Gage made sure Chet went through the door
without another gloating glance back, with a swift
boot to his rear. "Come on, Caesar.. the arena's 
closed for the day." Gage scowled and he shot Marco
an I'm sticking up for you look before he too
disappeared into the station.

-------------------------------------------------------

Cap was reading the paper in the recliner.
"Was that another nozzle biting the dust a
few minutes ago?"

Johnny studdered. "Ah, no Cap. " he lied.
"That was, uh.. Me.." he grinned badly.
"I was testing out the bell on the old engine.
I mean, we...have to make sure it's still in good
condition after all winter under that tarp. Right?"

"Hmph." Cap grunted from behind the stocks
page.

Johnny decided the grunt was one of agreement
and that his fibbing worked. ::I'll sneak back
out there after breakfast and help Marco pound
that nozzle round again before Cap discovers
it.:: He eased down onto the leather couch
and immediately stood up again when he
realized that he had almost sat down on their
mascot. "Oh, sorry Henry.. Didn't see you there."

"How could ya miss him, Gage. He's fatter than
a turkey and he fills up that whole side of the 
couch." Kelly quipped. "I think, Henry needs to
go on a diet."

"Sounds like someone else I know.." Cap
said seriously. "You know, a rep of 200 pushups
might not be such a bad idea for you. And that's getting
off light for a fireman who's just lied to his captain."

His intended target, cleared his throat nervously.
"Sorry, Cap. I'm having second thoughts about
getting payback on our chili cooking contest bet 
like this." Gage said suddenly on the hot seat.

"Right. " Stoker said sarcastically teasing. 
"If I ever believe that, H*ll'll freeze over." 
Stoker quipped.

All the gang laughed,except Chet.

"Geez, that's the last time I ever take
up a betting challenge with you guys.
Marco's just being a sore loser that's all.
I can't believe you guys bought his I'm so
wounded act." Kelly complained.

"He wasn't acting." Gage glared. 
"Chet, there's collecting a bet and then there's
cruelty. You standing there watching him
was definitely uncool."

"Well, I didn't see any one blindfolding your
eyes shut, pal. I wasn't alone dodging those
hoses Marco dropped now was I?"

"That doesn't count. We weren't saying
anything." Roy said.

"You didn't have to, you heard Marco. He
said he that being stared was just as bad."

"Oh, Chet. You're impossible.." Gage said.

"No, I'm just right for once so live with it."

Cap finally cleared his throat, more than
a few times. "Do I detect a little animosity 
here? I mean, I know we had a little too many
weird and useless runs last night that kept
us from getting much sleep, but this is
just plain unprofessional behavior I'm hearing
now."

"Cap.. How can you say that? You're a part of
it. You were the one who judged who's
chili was best.."

"Yeah, well you didn't see me out there 
staring like an MVA gawker now, did you?"

That shut Kelly up and the feeling of tension
in the room died away.

Only the sounds of eating filled the air during
the rest of the meal. Everyone winced when
they heard another hose nozzle bite the dust out
in the yard.

------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Dix and Joe at the ER main desk.

Photo:  Marco, Chet and Johnny beneath
           the station's hose tower in the yard.

Photo:  Roy in the yard, looking accomodating.

************************************
From : "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject :[EmergencyTheaterLive] One Thing After Another...  
Date : Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:59:02 +0000  
    

Marco Lopez finally had the tower squared away.

One hand was still grooming his hair into
place with a comb while the other shovelled 
breakfast into his mouth at a rapid fire rate
when the inevitable call went out. 
"Madre dios! No otra vez.." Lopez cursed. 
"Always at a meal time." he grumbled throwing
both comb and fork onto his plate.

The rich tones from the speaker grill continued
to sound a multiple tone run.

Chet Kelly rose from his seat at the kitchen
table, wiping his mouth with a hasty napkin.
"I'm surprised you're surprised Marco. It's
always once again around here." he said
spinning around neatly in a dodge to
avoid Stoker's chair as the engineer bailed
it.

"Let's move out.." Cap hollered, abandoning
his paper and apple. "Here ya go, boy. I 
promise you an ample feeding of a lot more 
when we get back.." And he sailed a crisp
meaty missile of bacon high into the air 
in the general direction of the station's snoozing
basset hound.

Henry's slumped body suddenly animated
and his head shot up from the depths of
the couch to intercept the tasty treat with
a tail wag of instant forgiveness.

Gage gulped down the rest of his milk
and half a banana as he and Roy jogged to
the rescue squad after the rest of the gang.
He chucked his banana peel out the window
neatly into a mop bucket leaning against the 
map wall.

##Station 51 with Station 10 and Truck 127. 
Unknown type rescue at the Los Angeles City Zoo.
18 south Ramsfeld Ave. Cross street, Hollywood Blvd. 
18 south Ramsfeld Ave. Crosstreet, Hollywood Blvd.
Informant on location requests all on response,
to enter at the eastern gate. Time out, 9: 04.##

--------------------------------------------------

Station 51 arrived first to the scene.

Captain Stanley eyed where they were to go
from his place, bouncing in the cab seat and
he voiced one single solitary question to 
Mike, as he swung the wide wheel hard to
the left to turn onto the zoo property.
"Well, I'll be. Stoker. What day is it today?"

"Sunday.." he replied.

"Right. Then just where the heck are all
the people? This parking lot's empty.."
he muttered.

Chet and Marco rubbernecked out the engine
windows from where they were fussing into
their trenchcoats. The squad and engine's
sirens died away and they all piled out
of the vehicles. Only birdsong met their
ears. That and the wind.

Roy and Johnny ran up with all their
med gear and a stokes stretcher. "Cap, we got it all. 
Roy wants to know if we should pack more 
rope in with the stokes here just in case w--"

He broke off, seeing the engine gang
standing mute and puzzled at the wrought
iron gate that was ajar, next to the big
metal sculpture of mountain gorillas.
Roy and John were caught up in the 
not quite right feel of the location.

Stanley pinwheeled around in place,
his HT firmly in hand as he located the
sign labelling the gate where they idled
on the curb. "What the h*ll? This IS
the east gate... Where's our informant?"
Cap knew he had the right place since
he could see the responding fire truck
and station called with them just entering
the corner of the avenue framing the 
huge empty parking lot on their way
in.

"Hey!  Fire Department!" Gage called
out inside the gate, hefting the weight
of the gear inside of the stokes between
him and a very quiet and alert Roy. Chet 
and Marco moved to help them manage
their load.

There was no reply. Johnny's voice echoed 
eerily through the fake stony animal exhibit
cliffs and ringing eucalyptus trees dotting 
that side of the city zoo.  There wasn't any
sign of anyone at all rushing up in a panic to 
tell them exactly what the problem was.

Cap got on the horn. "L.A., This is station 51,
We're on scene. Stand by for details."

##10-4, 51.##

"Ok. Everyone.. You know the drill. Let's just...
get in there and have a look around. If this
is just a false alarm, I want to be doubly sure
of it before we call it off. Stoker charge a line
just in case this is a fire call."

"Right, Cap.." they said.

Hank led the way through the entrance gate
and into the zoo and his men followed with
the gear laden stokes.

Inside, all was eerily quiet. Even the overhead
skyway ride.

Kelly mumbled to the others. "Man. Where
is everyone? This is a weekend, shouldn't there
be droves of people enjoying themselves right
now?"

"That's my understanding of it.." Lopez muttered,
loosening his helmet strap.

Cap and the men eagle eyed everything, alert
for anything that might happen.

What they didn't expect was a galloping camel
running down the neat asphalt path, bellowing
in fear.

The gang barely got out of the way as the
dromedary lumbered by, foaming at the mouth
and gasping as it ran in the heat, past them.

They had barely registered that fact into
their minds when a low peeled threat call came 
from the direction from which the camel had run.

The stunned firemen froze as a snarling black
panther, quite uncaged and free, crouched to
hiss at them in fear and anger.

Cap lifted his HT. "Stoker.. We need that charged
two inch with refrigeration now. We've a loose
predator on us fifty meters down our path." he said 
quickly and quietly.

Mike Stoker was there in less than fifteen seconds, 
backing up his crewmates with a fizzing nozzle 
aimed at the cat.

"Easy.. Don't hit him. Just scare him." Cap ordered.

The sun glistening ebony panther fled at the sound of
the hissing barely contained pressurized water Mike 
released at a touch on his hose bar.

It headed in the direction of the
camel, uphill and into thicker cover.

"That would explain why there are no people
around Cap.." Kelly said, swallowing around a very
dry throat.

Hank frowned, very very frustrated with the way
things were going. "Open cages? No one around?
What is this? Some kind of re-enactment of the 
Day of the Animals going on here?"

"I loved that movie, Cap." Kelly chuckled.
"But I don't think there's any filming scheduled
for today. I should know. My sister lives a few blocks
from here. Besides, there's no wrangler running 
after those two."

"Somehow, I'd feel better knowing that this whole
thing WAS a movie set, Chet. But things aren't
feeling like that situation at all." Cap said, listening
to an intuition that was screaming at him.

Gage adjusted his helmet. "I know what you mean.
Something's not right here."

"Duh.." Kelly said, throwing a careless glove in
the direction the big cat had bounded. "Didn't
you notice our very large friend with all the teeth 
a few moments ago?"

Mike Stoker began to relax and just sealed
off the hose to closed again with a grin.

The other guys chuckled.

Gage said. "I saw him. I saw him. I'm...talking
about the lack of people around here. I just wanna
know how they vacated the premesis so fast.
I mean, even if there's an escaped animal or two,
there's bound to be some crazy yokel who'll want
to hang around despite things, just to watch.
Just like they do all the time at our fire calls.
But I don't even see any of them right now."

That sobered up everyone.

"What's scarier than a four hundred pound very hungry
black panther?" Hank asked frankly, still eyeballing 
where the cat had gone warily.

Roy swallowed. "Do we really want to find out?"

Hank blinked. "Gee, that's why we were called 
I suspect. Stoker, stay close with that hose
and have it set to tight stream for our security."

"It's set.." Stoker replied.

Cap got on his HT. "Engine 51 to Station 10
and Truck 127. Hold your position. Notify
Animal Control that we have a panther and
camel loose on the grounds. There may be
others nearby. We've a water line with us for 
safety."

##10-4. Standing by, Engine 51..## The caps of
10's and Truck 127 replied over the frequency.

The gang slowly moved up the path in the direction
the two escapees had come, dragging gear and
primed ice water hose behind them.

Three wild animals later, Station 51 located
the problem at a loud clattering sound
that made their hearts leap into their throats.

A man, fully clothed in jeans and nothing else,
was climbing like an ape in an empty seeming
exhibit with a row of keys and chains dangling 
from his pocket up where he darted about the 
rocks.

He spotted the firemen and began to laugh
drunkenly.

"Bingo.." Kelly quipped. "Try a zoo employee
suffering an O.D. of some kind."

"Now I've seen it all.." Hank's eyes shot up.

"Shh,, or you'll jinx us. The day's not over yet."
Marco complained.

"Ok... let's have at it." Cap said, and he
took off his helmet to appear less threatening
to the man. "Everyone, inside. And shut the
door behind ya. Believe it or not, we'll be safer
in, than out here."

No one argued and the stokes, hose and gear
quickly piled onto the yellow dirt in the animal
exhibit.

Mike Stoker tensed as a dust cloud and snorting
met them from the left. They all unlocked once
more when they saw the animals that called the
enclosure the man had invaded, home.

"Whew.. Just pigs this time..." Kelly sighed.

"They're peccaries.." Gage corrected.

"What?" Hank asked.

"Wild pigs..I remember similar ones from 
the reservation.. They won't harm us. They'll
run first. Just stay away from the piglets."

Roy was ignoring the idle chitchat going on
around him. His attention was fully on the man
swaying like a monkey on the rocky shelf above
their heads. "Hey... are you ok? We came to help
you out a bit here." he spoke softly, moving slow.

"Fat chance fire boy. You don't wanna help me.
You wanna help them..." the sweating manic man
gasped. To Roy, he looked violent. 

Then he saw the fresh oozing track marks on the 
man's arms and was assured that his first impression
was a correct one. "Heroin..or something else." 
he sighed.

Cap's eyes fell to where Roy noticed those signs.
"Looks like.. Ok,  everyone, stay still and let
Johnny and Roy handle him. Mike, make sure
the way outta here's blocked."

"We're locked in. I just closed the exhibit's
gate." Stoker admitted.

At those words the young wild haired man
in blue jeans began to wail and fret. He started
to scramble on the rocks and very nearly slipped
on loose stone up where he was.

Johnny threw out a hand. "Easy! Now we're not
gonna hurt you. Careful.. Or you're gonna fall
and hurt yourself.."

"Whatda you care?" their victim slurred.
"You justwanna come and get me so the
fuzz can arrest me..."

"Do I look like I'm wearing a pistol and cuffs?
I'm not a cop here. Just a paramedic."

At that word, the man's attention shifted from
suspicion to craving. "Y- you got drugs down
there? Really? Uh,.." and he scratched his
feverish face, swatting at the dust in his
nose. "Can I ..uh,...wanna share?"

Gage's eyes flickered only for a moment
in hesitation. Then his brainstorming began.
He crouched down over the stokes and slowly,
cautiously flipped open the drug and IV box.
"Yeah man.. Look, I got some nice stuff..
Won't cost ya much.." he grinned in an act.
"The first hit's free. Just like the west side.
A real deal.."

"I don't believe you." said the agitated man.
"I don't even know you!" he shouted.

"Does it matter..?" Gage shot back, setting
his hands on his hips. "Look I haven't got all
day. My buyer's gonna wonder where I am
with the stuff if I'm not there in...twenty
minutes.." Johnny made up. "And you know
how that goes. I'll pay for the delay.. in skin.."

The drug high man angled his head.
"Prove your worth pusher.. I ain't got all day."

Gage's face fell for one sec while the gang
around him licked nervous lips and all had a full curiosity
about what he would do next in his victim negotiation.

Roy crossed his arms in amusement.

And Cap felt confident enough to put his helmet
back on.

Johnny snatched up a saline push and unsheathed
it, hiding its label so the man wouldn't see its
non drug label's color. Then he tied on a tourniquet 
and fitted a needle onto the syringe. "Ooh, yeah. 
This is meperidine. Gives me a good rush. Especially
on boring days like today. And its clean, Mac. Not cheap 
home lab sh*t. I think I'm gonna shoot it all
for me since I don't like the way you're talking."

He fingered a vein and stuck the needle home
into his own arm and started depressing the 
plunger, sending the liquid in with a sigh.

"No! Wait man... I was only kidding.. I trust ya.."
the man fretted. "Gimme some.." 

From behind him, a Marco and Stoker he didn't
see, on ropes, tackled him from their place on
the rocks and drove him to the ground.

The man's drug enflamed rush surged into the superhuman
and Lopez and Mike were flung off like wet clothes.

The man was free again and he attacked the next
nearest person he saw. The drug crazed man leaped
from where he was on the ledge, right onto Cap.

--------------------

Photo: Cap and Marco laughing in the kitchen.

Photo: Gage pointing to a med in the drug box.

Photo: A zoo exhibit full of wild pigs.

Photo: The Engine and Squad pulled next to
          stately palm trees.

Photo: A camel in a rocky pen.

Photo: The gang looking down with gear at something
          in full turnout.
 
**********************************
Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 14:51:02 +0100 (BST) 
From: "Katherine Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>   
Subject:  Double Jeopardy, Porker Style.. 


"Cap!" Roy shouted even as he watched
Johnny pull the needle out of his arm to
fling it away from them all to help block
the coming impact.

Stanley neatly dodged the fullest weight of
his attacker but his helmet still jolted off
when super strong arms caught him
around the throat.

Marco and Mike were frantically untangling from 
their ropes as Chet, John, Roy and Cap all 
wrestled with the biting, fighting crazed
zoo worker in silent desperate gasps.

"Watch his head! Watch his head!" Johnny
shouted as they all grunted to get a hold
on the wildly aggressive man. 

Stanley's HT clattered to the dirt and
went off in a loud squelch, which startled the
nervous milling peccaries on the far sunny side
of the enclosure. The older boars began to
snort and face the humans in nervous expectation,
taking a position in front of the smaller sows
and piglets in their band and they snorted 
and pawed the amber dust in a threat display.

All this, was unseen by the firemen struggling
to restrain their victim who was still locked in 
a dangerous overdose.

Marco and Stoker had just joined the fray
when the gasping, screaming young man
noodled impossibly out of all their grips and
bounded up immediately onto very fast, 
wobbly feet. 

He took off running straight for a thickly 
bushed side of the animal enclosure. The
peccaries squealed and got out of his way,
creating a thick cloud of yellow dust as 
they avoided the running human arrowing 
drunkenly at them.

The gang pursued after him, top speed.

Roy threw his HT up to his mouth speaking
in between painful breaths as he, too, ran
full tilt into the direction where the sick man 
had disappeared.

"Station 10 on the double. Follow our hose! 
We've a fighter OD who's getting away.."

## There in one..## came a loud reply.
Roy could see several of 10's firefighters
booking down the main zoo tar path using 51's
strung hose as a guide. He heard their shoes 
scuff on the sandy trail as they raced 
over from the deserted parking lot to help out.

"In here! In here!" Cap waved at the other engine
crew. He wiped a smear of his blood off his lips as he 
ordered his own men to circle the not yet unspotted
zoo worker. "Gang, when you bird eye him, stay AWAY 
from him. Your safety is first! Just form a ring around 
this character and cut off his escape. And for G*d's 
sake, don't agitate him further. I want no one else getting
a hunk ripped outta them. Stoker, use the hose if he 
attacks us again."

"Right, Cap." Mike said.

Soon, it was apparent that their crazy drugged up 
junkie, had gotten himself into a good hiding place.

Cap issued a tight
order. "Ok, everybody. Fan out. We'll
give this five minutes. Then we're outta
here until the cops come. The danger
to us is just too great."

"Cap.." Chet said. "That guy really needs
us. It hasn't been that bad yet.."

"Just look at my face and throat and tell
me that again, Kelly. I said no more after
five."

Chet moused down.

"You ok, Cap?" Gage said, keeping his eyes on 
the brush thicket's edge where they had all 
skidded to a halt.

"Bruised only, Gage. Concentrate on him
and not me. He's first."

The gang circled around like pursuers in
a hide and seek game, separating into pairs
under the darkness of the wooded section of 
the exhibit. 

They all lost sight of each other and that made
Hank Stanley nervous. "Keep within earshot." 
he shouted. "And keep those helmets on.."

Minutes dragged by of stealthy, cautious
searching.

Johnny Gage and Roy gestured silently to each
other at a particularly loud rustle in
the thick vegetation right in front of them during
their sweep of the forested side of the enclosure.

Gage leaned over to peer over the low rhododendron.
"Roy! He's right here.. he's--" he hissed.
 
A sharp squeal of rage preceded an angry charging
two hundred pound peccary boss as the animal
flew at Gage who had inadvertantly located his 
band's hiding place.

"Whoa!!" Gage shouted in alarm, spinning away,
barely avoiding the click of pig fangs at his face.

"Johnny?!" Mike shouted, raising the hose nozzle
from the ground. Stoker fought to drag the heavy hose
through the tallish grass with two other of ten's 
firemen in a desperate attempt to have one cocked 
and aimed point blank against Johnny's 
attacking peccary. "We're coming! Turning on the 
hose in--"

"No, don't..! Wait  a sec.." Johnny shouted, scrambling 
away from the animal nimbly until he regained his 
footing in a patch of sandy dust, like a matador avoiding 
a bull. Then Gage threw out a hand and kept the squealing 
hairy animal off of him by ramming a stiff arm and hand 
against the pig's forehead to keep the gnashing charges 
the boar was launching at him firmly at bay. 
"I'm ok.. I got him.. He's not getting to me.
Just go get the guy! Don't spray ANY of that charged 
water on the pigs you hear me?! It'll drive em into a 
frenzy..You'll bring the juveniles down on us, too.
They'll gang up big time to get us just like this boar's
doing to me."

Gage was surprised by the tenacity of the enraged
boar who showed absolutely no fear as he continued 
furiously trying to get at him. "I'm not bothering your band 
you stupid thing. Cut it out!" he shouted at him, gasping
with his efforts to hold the pissed pig male away from
his body. "Get off!" he shouted at the snorting, 
slobbering peccary mob boss. 

Roy moved nearer.


"Stay back.. Roy!"
Johnny tried to push away the boar with a shoving shoe into 
a shoulder but the pig just rushed right back at him with an 
even angrier raised tail and got quickly into another pushing 
match of pig forehead versus fumbling human hands once 
again.

"Johnny! Careful! Shall I rope him?" Marco said, 
gathering one up from the ground.

"No.. It won't work, he'll just dodge it. Guys, look, I'm
fine. He'll give up once he sees I got the message here.." 
Gage panted. "Go help over there. But whatever you do, 
don't go near the sows or any of those young in there
or you'll be trampled and tusk shredded into hamburger."

"But.."

"Go.. I'm really fine." Gage said, still face to face 
with the red eyed, furious, one track minded, boar.
"He's just driving me off." 

Johnny had a healthy respect for the five inch long fangs 
that tried to slash up at his bare arm and he frequently
shifted hands to avoid them. "Guys, go. I know how 
to get out of this..UgggHHHh! " he verbally spat. "The wild 
pigs charge me all the time at the ranch when I get too 
close going to get the horses. All ya gotta do is wait 
em out.. Just give me some distance.  He'll think better
of this soon and he'll leave." he grunted, still
holding the heavy male pig away from himself.
 
Roy muttered, just as torn as Marco on what to
do for his partner. Then he decided, motioning
to Lopez. "Our OD doesn't have a lotta time left. 
He's gonna go down."

"Exactly.. I'll join up with ya.." Johnny said,
not taking his eyes off the grunting, attacking
pig still locked nose to hand with him. 
"I'm ok. Just go! This boar'll give up in a minute 
or so. I've seen this before. He's gonna fret 
about being so far away from his sows."

Roy and Marco and Mike reluctantly backed 
away from Johnny still dancing in his bizarre 
embrace.

"What a crazy day.." DeSoto muttered. "Holy
cr*p." he shook his head. Then he said,
"Come on..let's get out of here like
Johnny says." and he motioned to the others
to follow him back onto the search. "Our
victim's bound to be feeling a downer swing
by now. He wrestled with us pretty good there
and that most likely elevated his BP into 
circulating even more of that junk into 
his brain. He's probably not that far from-"

A shout from Cap brought the two of them on the run
through sixty feet of stinging, thick brush.

Roy, Marco and Mike ran towards the voice
as fast as they could.

Hank said. "He's over there somewhere!" and he pointed
to a stand of trees. "Lord all mighty what's he
doing in there?" he asked as Marco and Roy 
pelted up to his side. He was using a gauze
pad from his pocket to hold down the bleeding
from his tongue which he had bitten earlier.

Roy and Marco and another clump of firemen
from ten's all froze. Roy recognized the sounds.
"Oh boy. He's tangling with a pig."

"How do you know?" Hank asked.

"Cause I just left Johnny who's doing the same thing."

"What?!" Hank's head whipped around.
"What are you talking about? Gage's right here."

Roy saw his dusty sweating partner jogging
swiftly towards them through the tangle of
California jungle. "Never mind, Cap. Just trust
me about him over there. It's not gonna be a 
pretty scene."

"Ok, what next?" Stanley said, parking his hands
on his jacket hips.

"Water. Lots of it.." Gage said.

Marco whined. "But I thought you said not
to use a hose on them.."

"The frenzy's begun Lopez, that's why. 
It may already be too late for him.
Come on!"

And he ran in the lead towards the sound
of fighting just ahead under the tall sequoia
at the corner of the exhibit. The man had
tried to take refuge in an open whelping
shed that had a keeper's bed in it.

Both companies of ten and 51 froze
in horror at what they saw.  The OD'd young
man was down on the ground and the angry
female peccaries were taking turns using him 
as a football and punching bag.

Some of the infuriated sows were so strong
their bites actually lifted the unconscious 
man's whole upper torso a foot off the dirt 
as they tossed their heads to bite him.

Mike Stoker let loose a peel of sharply
knifed water against those closest to the 
injured man without a moment to lose.

Sows tumbled like nine pins under the
force of the water and squealed. Others wheeled 
around in place to face the new threat in
a quickly forming bunched counter attack.

"Hit the piglets, Mike! Hit the piglets.. Get em wet!"
Johnny shouted. "Their mamas will go running
for them at their screaming distress calls."

Stoker changed his hose stream to a fountaining
fan and aimed it up into the sky. An ice cold 
drenching soaked the tiny piglets bunched in
a protective circle and on cue, the tiny porkers
let loose high pitched cries of alarm and clamour.

The sows left the zoo worker's trampled body
alone, zooming out to herd up their babies and 
soon the whole dripping bunch was hastily
loping away from the humans with tails raised 
in sheer terror.

Stoker dropped the hose.

Johnny grimaced as he rolled the bluish
man over. "Oh.." he sighed in horror at
the sight of fresh peccary slashes
covering the man's chest. But he bent 
an ear close anyway to the man's
torn mouth as his dirty stained fingers
felt for a neck pulse, too.  "He's in that 
downer for sure. Brady with apnea."

"Go get the gear!" Cap shouted to Marco
and half a dozen others.

Soon, they could hear men coming
with the laden stokes they had
left in the main clearing by the zoo's
pathway fence and moat.

Gage started to breathe for the
man until Stoker handed him an ambu
bag and mask. "Thanks.."

Johnny looked up at Roy. "He's got a rate
of 40. It's not enough. Start CPR timed
with it."

"Marco.. You got that?" DeSoto asked.

"Yeah.." And Lopez starting working off
Johnny's pulse rhythm cues as to when
to apply his compressions. He kept his
gloves on so his hands wouldn't slip in
the blood on the man's skin that was
oozing down from the pig bites.

"These lacerations don't look that bad.
He's lucky.." Gage said. "There's only
that one broken arm."

"I see it." Roy agreed.  "Any sign of vomiting?"

"No.. He's out deep." Gage replied.
"Chet, turn on the audio on the EKG
monitor. It'll help Marco out to time
his pacing properly."

"Right.." Kelly replied. But he kept looking over
his back for any signs of the peccary band,
and that irritated Johnny.

"Pay attention, Kelly. Just concentrate on 
patching him in there. We don't have all day.." Cap 
snapped. "We've haven't got a lot of time left
for us to try and actually get a save in
the bag for this man."

"Sorry, Cap.." Chet apologized, ending his
rubber necking. "It's just that they might 
come barreling back out of nowhere at any s--"

Stoker spoke up louder than usual.
"Any that come near are going to eat
some serious water, Kelly. Don't you worry."
he promised.

Hank smiled around his fat lip as he
unlatched, then kicked open, the
squad's defibrillator case with a toe.
At a nod from Johnny, he turned on
the power up switch to standby.
"That's my anchor man. Stoker, you're
being wasted on the engine dials. You're
an absolute ace on that hose."

"The engine's more fun, Cap. Sorry.
I'm not planning on a demotion any time
soon."

"Such a pity.." Hank sighed.

"I'll call Rampart." Roy said smiling
as the worst of his stress melted
away. He was very very glad to have his
hands on their victim at last.  He
concentrated on getting on the biophone 
as fast as he could.
"Rampart Base, this is Squad 51. How
do you read?"

Chet bit his lip, grinning, too. 
"Ok, Marco.. it's CPR symphony time.
Pow.." he muttered as he turned on
the slow weak audio cue on the EKG
speaker. "It's show time."

Marco began coordinating his compressions
when the man's drugged slow heart rate actually
beat by listening to the machine's mechanical
blipping. After half a minute he asked
the swiftly working paramedics. 
"Should I speed up?"

"Not yet. Don't want any more of
that stuff or whatever's he's shooting
to get to his brain any worse than it already
has until we inject some Narcan. He's holding
his own ok now with you just helping out like you are. 
Stay exact with your assisting, on the beat." 
Roy told him, without looking up. He didn't even 
smile some encouragement to his crewmate, for
already his mind was considering five paramedic 
problems at once.

Again, he hailed Rampart while one of ten's
medics tried to get a viable BP off the man's good 
arm. "Rampart this is rescue 5-1..Do you copy?"
his voice angled yet again, only a little more
urgently. The heart rate on the monitor
continued to weaken and slow.

------------------------------------------

Photo:  An angry peccary charging at
           you with another photo inset
           of one baring its five inch long tusks.

Photo : Johnny with a shirtless near code,
           looking distressed.

Photo: Roy looking fight bedraggled, on
          the biophone.

***********************************
From: "Clairissa Fox" <canaryyello01@yahoo.co.uk>   
Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 20:14:52 +0100 (BST) 
Subject:  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Little Eyes 

 
The little piglet shook its head and squealed some
more until his dam nuzzled his ear. Where was the lady
keeper? There were only man things in the wood. And
another man thing who smelled funny had become an
enemy because he got too close by moving fast and
kicking the other dams in the band. The memory of the
new creatures in his pen had frightened Piglet badly
but the odd acting man thing was no longer attacking
him or his dams. He was flat on the ground and smelled
like blood now.

Piglet thought hard on what just happened. The strange
keeper man thing had been easy to fight down. The
piglet remembered how the man thing with the zoo keys
fell with only one charge from his mother.

Now other man things had come who wore canvas skins
and black head covers and they had the great water
snake with them. Piglet was afraid of that. His coat
still ran with water from the liquid that had come
from the snakes mouth and down from the sky that didnt
smell like rain.

But piglet was puzzled now. There was one man thing
with curly head fur who seemed like the keeper who
cared for them all in the rising light. The other man
things had soundings for him that sounded like the
same calling Piglets human friend had. Chuck. Only
this one was called Chet. It was all very puzzling
indeed. Piglet had never before seen so many man
things in his home before. Only on the days when the man
thing with the biting stingers wearing the white skin coat
came to put some of the band to sleep before he pawed
them.

Piglet forgot his wet hide and he snuck away from
his mothers band towards Chet and he sniffed and he
sniffed hard on the wind. Piglet checked carefully but
the man thing with the water snake didnt see him at
all.

Piglets caution disappeared instantly.

Sugar!

Piglet ran up to the human things where they were
pawing at the sick human in the dirt. He could still
smell the treat in the Chet man things black rear
cover and he nuzzled it making the Chet man thing
squawk.

Piglet dashed a short distance away at the noise but
he was hungry. He came at the curly furred man thing
again looking for the treat he usually got from the
keepers.

Hey! The tall white and black head covered man thing
pointed a paw at Piglet. Watch it. Theres one of the
baby piglets behind you Chet.

Piglet didnt smell danger from Chet or the leader man
thing so he went right on going after the treat he
could smell.

----------------------------------

Photo : A wild pig dam and one of its babies.

Photo: Chet and Marco and Cap looking
          down and surprised at something at 
          their feet.

Photo: A close up of an adorable wild piglet baby.

***************************
Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 14:22:03 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  The Short Shelf Life.. 


Chet Kelly was leaving his place by their 
shocky victim's side, making room for the second
paramedic from station ten to step in, when
he whirled in alarm at Cap's warning.
"What?" he startled as clammy animal nose 
butted into him again. "Where did he come 
from?"

Kelly watched his feet as he backed away 
on his knees so he wouldn't crush the 
miniscule piglet still nuzzling his rear pocket. 
"Hey,.. watch it buddy! You're just a 
bite of bacon but you're in the way!" Chet 
told it indignantly.

The piglet just squealed in ambivalent twitchy
reply as he warred with his instincts: to run at the 
sound of Chet's sharp voice or stay for the reward. 

The baby peccary's stomach ended up making 
the final decision. He kept on seeking out the 
source of sugar he had found with a probing
snuffle.

Beyond Chet, Cap looked up, suddenly hyper-alert. 
"Uh oh. If he's here, where's mama?" he 
wondered out loud.

Mike Stoker shrugged diffidently, but he primed his
hose to its releasing edge again and began to 
check out the trees and cover nearest to them.

Marco spoke up from where he was still
doing CPR. "Chet.....better get rid......of
that little......guy. There's no ......way his
sow's not .....gonna come investigating 
once......she's learned he's strayed." he said.

Chet Kelly quickly panicked, whipping off 
a glove and fumbled into his pocket for the 
pack of Juicy Fruit gum the tiny infant pig 
seemed to be orienting on. 

Kelly waved the wrinkled pack in front of the 
piglet's face until he was sure the baby was 
following it.."You want some? Huh? Let's 
strike a deal. Eat now, then scram. I'll give 
you this but you're gonna have to leave for 
good afterwards. All right?"

"Squeeeallll!" the baby snorted in frustration
as it fought to climb onto Chet to reach
the sugary gum he still held in his hand.

"Get down or you'll hurt yourself!" Chet
complained. Then he sighed. "Here ya go ya 
dumb thing.."  He said, hastily unpeeling a strip
of it under the baby's eager nose. 

Fast fangy teeth snatched up the offering, making 
Chet yelp. 

"Oww. Stop that! Now go get it." and Kelly grenade 
tossed the rest of his dusty pack as far as he could
over the bushes into the open so that it was well away 
from the firemen working on the nearly dead man on 
the ground.  "Shoo..!" he said waving his hands in 
the air in flurry of gesturing fingers.

The piglet was the perfect porcine, street
smart runt. He followed the gum pack's trajectory 
through the air like a pro frisbee dog and went instantly 
running for it in an attempt to get there before 
any of his other unseen siblings could. He motored
towards where it had plunked into the dust top 
speed, but he was already too late.

There was a scuffling as three other
piglets caught wind of the sweetly scented
treat and a fight broke out between Chet's
pocket nudger and the others. 

Chet winced in sympathy when his little
"visitor" got knocked down by an older baby.

"Ooo. Careful ya dummy."
Then in embarrassment at his remark, he added.
"That should hold him, Cap." Kelly said, turning
back to the scene in front of him.

Cap said. "Let's hope so. If the band discovers
us anywhere near those guys, there'll be h*ll 
to pay."

Stoker grumbled. "No there won't, Cap.
I'll push em all away if they come 
around again if I have to.." and he hefted the 
hose nozzle in his gloves a bit higher.
 
"Only as a last resort." Cap said.
"Don't want to traumatize the little 
tykes any more than we have to."
He barely contained a grin as the original 
curious piglet finally won the battle and 
loped off with the trampled gum pack in his 
mouth. The losers pursued, hot on his heels.

"And don't come back!" Chet told him. 
"A deal's a deal." he shouted.

The light moment had gone unnoticed by
the four paramedics struggling to save the life
of the overdosed zoo worker.

Roy finally got a returning hail from
the biophone receiver, ending his doubts
about the terrain interfering.

##This is Rampart." Dixie replied. "Go
ahead 51.##

"Rampart. We've a male down with
an apparent OD with clear indications
of fresh trackmarks. He's nonbreathing with
a pulse of 40. CPR's ongoing. He's got
additional injuries due to an animal attack;
a left broken radius and ulna and multiple 
wild pig bites to his neck, face and chest. 
Negative on C-spine or head injury. Vitals are..
BP...50 systolic. Pupils are pinprick and he's
unresponsive to both verbal and pain stimuli. 
He's got a Glasgow rating of four. All bleeding 
is now under control." DeSoto said as
he saw Johnny make a cut throat gesture
and then a point at the pads firmly taped
over all the wounds.

Kel Brackett arrived into the alcove
and took over the response call for his head 
nurse. "10- 4, 51. Maintain his airway and continue
to ventilate him. Continue the CPR and send 
us a strip. First we've got to determine
if his problem really is an overdose and not
some other etiology. Draw a red top for glucose.
Administer 1 mg glucagon IM if his blood sugar's 
below 60 mg %. Also follow up with 100 mgs 
Thiamine and 25 gm dextrose 50% IV if you can
get a line into your blood stick site. Use Normal 
Saline, and draw up .4 milligrams Narcan. 
We're gonna end his downer right now any way
we can. Also, be sure to immobilize
that fracture to prevent further injury."

"10-4." And Roy repeated his string of orders
and if-this-then-that instructions.

Almost two minutes went by when
Roy turned to Johnny, with a third needle 
bloodied from yet another failed attempt to find 
and stick a vein with an IV catheter. His blood
drawing had blown the last remaining clear vein
and he was reduced to blind probing. 
"He's got nothing left here." he grunted in 
irritation.

"How about a jugular..?" Johnny suggested.

"Good idea." and Roy got out a new cathed needle
to try his luck there in the man's neck.

Again, Roy's IV stick failed due to the
man's very low blood pressure. He
shook his head in frustration and abandoned
the attempt. "No good." and he tossed away 
the needle guide. "He's too far down. Is there
a place he hasn't used? Kelly, get his shoes off
and pants off. Check his feet and legs for
other veins. Use a tourniquet to raise any
if you can."

Kelly reached over and grabbed the shears
from Johnny's holster. "On it."
The jeans pants legs banana peeled swiftly 
away, revealing pale, sweaty skin.

Mike helped bare the man's feet.

Roy picked up the phone. "Rampart.
An IV may not be an option. Looks like
he's a heavy user." Roy said tersely as
he watched Chet and Marco located scar after 
scar where the druggie had shattered all his 
reachable veins while baselining his drug of 
choice.

Brackett already had an alternative plan.
## 51, go ahead and insert an endotrach tube.
I'm giving you authorization to do one in the
field. I'll accept full responsibility.## Kel
said to Roy.

Roy sighed in stress. "Affirmative Rampart.
Stand by.."

CPR was halted while Roy, the better airway
expert, got out a laryngoscope and inserted
one carefully. Ten's medics helped him get
the man's head and neck into the right position
and then took over Johnny's place on the ambu.

Things went slow, but it went. And soon
their victim was set. Roy picked up the phone. 
"Rampart the ET is in."

Brackett nodded his head in satisfaction.
##Knew you could pull it off. Now increase
your Narcan to two times the IV dosage I originally
ordered and fill it with a following bolus of
10 ml Lactated Ringers/Normal Saline. Hyperventilate
his lungs thoroughly, stop CPR, then titrate the Narcan
directly into his ET tube only to the minimum level
necessary for a return of respirations. Ventilate him 
firmly until you're sure the flush's been fully absorbed. 
You'll hear when that happens. Watch him closely, 51. 
When the Narcan starts counteracting his narcotic, 
if he's on one, he may spontaneously awaken so be 
prepared to extubate him before he has a chance to 
vomit.##

"10-4, Rampart..  .8 mgs Narcan with 10 ml
LR/NS by ET. Please stand by.." 

##Standing by..## 

Soon, Dr. Brackett's orders had been carried out
in the tense minutes which followed.

Johnny Gage was on the man's arm like
a tick and he rapidly got a new BP when Roy
indicated that the man's lungs had "dried out"
from where he listened with his stethoscope.
"There it goes. It's climbing. 80/54. He's breathing.
Pulse's increasing, too. Stop CPR." and he set a 
hand on the man's carotid for several seconds. 
"Ok, I got a rate of 90. Thready and weak."

A ripple of coughs echoed through the ET
under the bag valve mask and the man's hands 
began to flutter with voluntary movements.

"Watch him.. watch him! He's snapping out
of it." Gage said. Together, the paramedics
rapidly removed the endotracheal airway
and followed up with suction as the man
began to moan more and more angrily.

"Get a grip on him. Looks like he's going to
fight." Roy said.

Several of the firemen moved in to restrain
the revived young man as full consciousness
returned.

"UugghhhhhHHHH. Get OFF me!" the man
gasped. "AhhhhHHHHH. $##* @$ !!"

Kelly had his hands full kneeling on
the drug abuser's shoulder to keep him 
from flailing the broken, splinted arm on 
the ground. He bent low over him to
get a better grip.

The man's slow testing struggles intensified
into impossibly agile ones with
a surprising pure strength seconds later.

He threw off the two firemen laying on his legs 
with a cry that didn't sound human.

"D@mn! He's in withdrawal." Gage swore.
"Hold him ! Hold him!"

"No,, I gott....a...out of ...WHy do I hURT
so bad??! $##**!"Agony from being Narcan 
yanked out of a high surged far beyond what
was normal and the man reacted violently by
knocking all of the firm hands on him away 
as if they hadn't been there at all.

He was instantly on his feet and running 
and the EKG leads ripped away from the 
connector on the monitor when it thunked
into a rock as it dragged where he ran.

Eight firemen shot to their feet after him.

"Hey!" and Gage's grab for his victim missed.
"Sh*t!"

Three other firemen's tackles missed too.

Their hideously withdrawing patient, with his 
split jeans legs fluttering in the wind, easily
outdistanced them into the thick tree stand
of the enclosure.

The paramedics heard an impact as his
arm splint disintegrated when it smacked
into a tree trunk as they chased after him.

"Over there!" Cap shouted from a rise.
"He's heading back to the exhibit's gate!"
Hank could just see him from where he
was. He got on the HT. "Engine 51 to
Truck 127. Our victim's fleeing to the north. 
Intercept him immediately. He's a blown
Narcan."

Cap winced as the man's pinwheeling broken
arm drove him into greater speed despite 
his bare feet pelting awkwardly over the 
rock strewn ground. 

The fresh pain robbed the addict of his voice
and instantly, his pursuers lost track of him
in the desperate silence that followed.

Hank saw his men follow where he indicated,
but an instinct made himself angle into a new 
direction as he ran, back towards the main 
exhibit zoo gate. ::Damn, he's got keys. He 
better not l--::

Cap arrived just ahead of his men just in time 
to see the lurching, crazed man slam the heavy
iron gate shut behind him.

All the firemen were instantly locked inside the pig
cage..... with no way out.

"No, you're not going to stop me..." he choked. Then
he whirled as if at an unseen presence on staggering
bleeding feet. "I'm-m coming! Just give me m-- more 
stuff, please!!! I can pay..." he gasped. " Slick, I can 
get you wild animals for hunting trophys.. I'm surrounded 
by them!! Just don't cut me off...Please.. I can't
take it any morRRReeeee..!" and his voice cracked 
in pain and insane giggles. 

Cap's face fell into sympathy and frustration when
the very sick man took off running, not down the asphalt trail 
winding around the cages, but into the scrubland 
bordering it. ::The responding engine crew I called 
from the parking lot will never spot him now.:: he thought.

The men of station 10 and 51 all lined up along the bars of
the peccary cage and watched the junkie disappear into 
the distance along a ridge of thick scrub that led off 
the zoo property.

Chet was puzzled by all the men's stunned, numb faces
and he said. "Hey, don't worry, guys. The cops'll get him.
They got bloodhounds that can track him.. Should be easy
with all those cuts of his bleeding out."

Gage swiped an angry hand over his dripping
face and he kicked the solid fence between him 
and his victim in defeated frustration. 

Chet somehow knew that Johnny's anger wasn't directed
at him. "Why the long face, Johnny?"

"You just don't get it, do you?" Gage snapped.

"Get what?" Kelly asked distractedly, testing the fence for
a weak spot that wasn't there.

Roy's pale face sobered all present as he answered
Chet's innocent question. "Narcan only works for
a few minutes, only long enough to restore an 
OD's ability to breathe again. The effects of heroin or 
cocaine can last for hours, Chet."

"I still don't get it.."

Johnny set his hands on his hips and studied the
ground quietly. He spoke up softly. "Our guy's gonna 
re-overdose when the Narcan wears off and he's 
gonna go right back into another catastrophic 
downer long before we can ever hope to relocate 
him. And no one's gonna be around this time to 
catch him when he stops breathing again."

Chet Kelly's face filled with an exquisite pain of
realization and he was rendered mute when
he put two and two together. The fact 
of the fleeing addict, being actually a walking 
dead man, filled his mouth with rising bile.  
Kelly threw a hand to his face in sudden reaction
and he gasped.

Roy set a comforting grip on Kelly's shoulder.
"Yeah,.. I know. A tough break. Come on. Maybe 
there's another way outta here back the way we came.
Prepare yourself. We're gonna have to go find him 
later for recovery to the coroner's office."

------------------------------------

Photo:  Johnny looking in between
           a rock and a hard place in close quarters.

Photo:  A pack of Narcan.

Photo:  Chet Kelly looking nauseated and lost.

*************************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject :Shattered Serenity..  
Date :Wed, 07 May 2003  20:32:54 +0000  
   

Johnny Gage was eating his sandwich with
exactly zero percent concentration. Roy
only remarked about it when his partner's
teeth began devouring most of the paper
wrapping his Chicago style Italian beef
sandwich with each bite. "Hey...Johnny.." Roy
nudged with an elbow. "Pay attention.."

"What? Can't you see I'm busy here?" the younger
chipmunked cheeked paramedic mumbled loudly.
His eyes never left their particular subject matter, 
who was seated like B*ddha on Cap's usually Cap 
claimed recliner in a serene yoga stance. 
"I'm trying to figure out just what's gotten into him.." 
he said waving a few broth dripping fingers towards 
the meditating Chet he could see in plain sight.

"Yeah? Well try to focus on what's landing in
your stomach a bit there, too." DeSoto warned.
"Didn't know your ancestory included being part 
termite..." Roy quipped.

"Just what do you mean by that?" Johnny said,
his chewing halting abruptly as he looked at his
senior pal for the first time during the whole 
conversation.

Roy decided to play it out a little more, choosing 
another direction with which to break news. 
"Never mind." he said, his quiet smile growing just a little
bit bigger as a rare joking opportunity presented itself
to his exclusive territory. "Tell me something. Exactly
how much each were these sandwiches we got 
from Louis's stand after we stopped by at Rampart
to resupply?"

Gage's eyes fell into another focus and he resumed 
chewing. "I don't know. Didn't memorize it. If you need
that for the food budget I think the price tags are
still on the wrapp--" and he broke off, finally realizing 
the whole portent of what Roy was angling into. He
made a face when he realized that 3/4's of his 
consumed sandwich included 3/4's of the paper sheeting 
that had wrapped it securely inside its own juices. "Oh,,.. 
why didn't you tell me I was doing this, Roy..?" he
complained indignantly.

DeSoto's face cracked a grin. "I tried, only you were
so focused at staring holes through Kelly over
there that I guess you didn't hear me."

"That's wonderful.. Now I'm gonna get an "A" number one
gut ache on top of my willies, too."

Roy's eyebrows rose in amusement and he cupped his
mug into his hands thoughtfully. "Somehow, I doubt
that very much. My kids have eaten pounds of
newspaper, crayon wrappers, caramel apple cups 
and sausage coats, among other things, to fill a small 
wagon. They never seemed to have any problems 
with their digestion afterwards."

"Yeah? Well, I'm not a kid.." Johnny said, depositing
his oozing onion laden Italian beef sandwich onto a plate
where he gingerly began dissecting it with a forceps
from his hip holster and a fork from the broth soaked 
paper that he had been eating unknowingly. He finally
gave up when he honestly couldn't tell meat from 
wrapper. He threw his "surgical" tools down in disgust.
"I'll be right back. Thanks alot for not warning me sooner, 
partner." he said sourly, and he got up to head for the 
garage.

"Where are you going?" Roy asked.

"To the squad. I'm gonna get an oral laxative and
anti-acid before I cramp up here." he said sarcastically.

Roy just shrugged, and let him go.

Cap passed Johnny on his way out. He had to turn sideways 
to avoid a collision with Gage as he came into the room. 
"What's with him?" he asked Roy, reaching for the platter 
full of beef sandwiches, still steaming on the potholders 
in front of the hungrily eating rest of the gang.

Roy stretched in his chair and yawned.
"He thinks he's gonna die from a little ingested deli wrap.
He's gone to the drug box for a few gastronomical aids."

Hank smirked as he stripped his own sandwich free of its
covering before taking a huge bite of the delectable food.
"If I had a dime for each time one of the kids ate wood
pulp, I'd be a rich man." he said, shrugging off the incident
as trivial. "Pass me the jalapeno peppers, would ya Marco?"

Lopez neatly slid the huge jar of them from where
he sat forward with a few knuckles, without looking up from 
his sports section. "Here ya go, Cap. Bon appetite. Oh, avoid
the little orange ones or you're gonna be running out to 
the squad in fear of your life, too, like Gage is doing."

"I consider myself warned." Hank grinned, digging eagerly
into the chilled jar of peppers with a fork for a few
chartreuse ones. "Those red things are habaneroes, aren't 
they?"

"Yep." Lopez grunted, turning a page.

Cap carefully built his sandwich and then organized
the piles of onions and peppers on top of it with all
the skill of someone sculpting a banana split when he
spotted Kelly, seated like a guru in the rec room recliner.
A glance informed him that Kelly's plate was still virgin
clean. His eyebrows matched Roy's amused ones,
only his didn't yet see any humor in the situation.
"Say, Chet." he called out. "Fooood.." and he waved
the sandwich platter with a towel to waft
its aroma into the air towards him.

"Hmmmmmmm?" Kelly said dreamily from his achingly
stiff yoga stance. His palms were delicately
upturned at the wrists, both symmetrically draping 
over his carefully folded knees. He didn't open his eyes.
"What?"

"Chow's on..." Cap repeated, a little louder.

"Thanks, Cap. I can smell it. But a little meditation's on 
my menu for lunch today. I need to rebalance my karma 
before I do anything else.." and his head tipped back
into a trance pose and he began ohm'ing lowly
under his breath, until his moustache vibrated.

Henry was disturbed from his snoozing nap on the couch 
and his ears cocked forward, curiously bugged at the new 
sound. He struggled off his fat and out of the sinkhole
of cushions his weight had made to his haunches and his
usually droopy eyes widened in surprise. The rotund basset
considered his predicament for about ten seconds. Then 
he began to doggy howl in masking fashion over Chet's 
soothing "ohm's" in contrary canine agony.

The gang erupted into laughter.

Chet just cracked an eye and shot them all an irritated
look. He went back to his meditation and fell mute 
to hush them and their station mascot, up.

Cap said. "That's fine with me, Kelly. Only come dinner time,
I'm ordering you to eat twice. I'm not gonna have anyone
getting surprise hypoglycemia tonight in the middle of
a bizarre fire run later on."

"What makes you so sure we're gonna have one, Cap?"
Stoker piped up.

Hank's hands twitched as he tried to find the best
angle with which to pick up his messy sandwich. "You
mean our last run didn't clue you in? It's freaky Friday
today, or haven't you noticed..A fire call's the only thing
we haven't gone on yet."

Gage came trudging back into the kitchen. He was grimacing
and sucking down a dose or two of hospital strength pepto 
bismo straight from the bottle like a carton of milk. 

His eyes immediately refell warily on Chet as he fumbled 
back into his chair to pick once more at his dissected sandwich. 

He noticed that Roy had already separated the broth 
stained paper from the meat for him with his tools. 
"Thanks.." he said as he began to fork in lunch. All
the while, the tense edge Johnny was harboring
and the unbroken stare he was using to regard Kelly,
remained full force.

Roy's and Cap's and Henry's eyes shifted back and forth 
from the oblivious meditating Chet to the very quiet
and jumpy Gage. The three of them fell to eyeing 
them like spectators on a tennis match. 
Finally, Hank leaned over and asked Roy in a 
confidential whisper. "What's with him? Did I miss
something here?"

DeSoto shrugged, taking a bite of his neatly arranged
sandwich from its carefully folded down deli wrap.
"Your guess is as good as mine, Cap.."

Johnny's ears didn't miss a thing and he pegged Roy
and Hank with an irritated glare. "I'll tell you what's
eating me.."

Marco piped up. "No, no, no..You mean what you're
eating.." he quipped about Johnny's recent paper 
meal.

"Oh, ha ha.. Very funny." Gage shot at Lopez, shifting his
chair closer to his plate so he could pick at his sandwich
with a butter knife some more. "I'll tell you what's bugging
me.." and his eyes narrowed in fine focus. "Do any of you
know what day it is today?" he said, keeping his
voice and profile low over his plate.

Hank coughed, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and replied.
"You mean beyond the freaky runs we've been getting
all day today since midnight?"  he intoned with a straight 
face.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I mean.." Gage said,
throwing a look at Marco, when his newspaper
began to shake with his barely suppressed chortle.

"I have absolutely no idea.." Cap said calmly lacing
his fingers together thoughtfully over his plate. 

He immediately fell back to inhaling his sandwich.

Johnny cleared his throat and took another swig of
anti-acid from his bottle. Then he set it down and
leaned in confidentially to Roy and Cap. "It's our
anniversary today.." he said,  throwing a few fingers
between Chet and himself, through a cracked side
of his mouth..

"Anniversary for what?" Roy asked at a normal volume.

Johnny's fingers flew to his lips in animated quick warning
and he hissed. "Shssstt.. He'll hear you.."

Hank's eyebrows crawled into his hairline in frank
surprise at his most junior medic's off behavior. He,
chewed more slowly while he waited for Roy to 
fathom him out.

Roy promptly did so. "Oh.." Roy said, throwing down
his napkin onto his empty plate. "That anniversary.."
he said in immediate sympathy.

"Yeah.. That one.." Johnny agreed animatedly, and
he pegged alert, wary eyes right back on the B*ddha like
countenance on Chet's meditating face.

Cap chewed once more and ordered. "Enlighten me,
gentlemen, if you wouldn't mind."

Gage pantomimed an arching catapulting gesture 
from about his shoulder level down to the table top. 
He pretended that whatever had been "flung" 
landed on his own face in a disgusting liquid form, 
all without making a sound.

"Charades, huh?" Marco asked, finally peering over
his paper, just catching on to the gist of
what was going on across the table. He thoughtfully
chewed on a wonderfully orange habanero pepper.

"I get it.. I'm good at this stuff. " Stoker piped up
eagerly, before his superior could. "Cap, he must mean
it's the anniversary of their Phantom water can war."

Gage's face flew open in shock at Stoker verbalizing his
worry loud enough for Kelly to hear it and he froze in his
seat as he checked Chet out for any sign of reaction.

None was forthcoming.  

Slowly, Gage's face began to regain its color when 
Chet didn't move a millimeter where he was.

Henry didn't move either. He was still rivetted like a pointer,
standing upright on the couch, still staring at Kelly's face,
waiting for any further repeating of the funny noise from
his human companion, that had awakened him earlier.

"Oh,, so that's why you're twitchy as a venter inside
a gas leaking house." Cap grinned.

Gage sighed, and glanced at him in offended sheepishness.

Cap looked at Kelly once again where the Irishman was
sitting easily in his calming pose and said. "I still don't see
any problem here, Johnny. He doesn't seem to be doing 
anything odd, pal." he said in puzzlement.

"That's just it, Cap." Gage said, dropping his voice 
low into another secret whisper. "That's why I'm so 
nervous. And all the rest of you should get that way, too. 
Listen to this next bit closely. Just hear me out.." he 
insisted animatedly.  "Have you ever known Chet to 
act straight laced and normal longer than two hours 
before?"

"Uhh...." Cap considered.

Gage cut him off. "See? You agree with me.." he
interrupted hastily, casting watchful eyes
back onto the immobile Chet across the room.
"I know he's up to something.."

Roy got up and scooped up his plate and the one
he now knew Johnny wasn't going to eat from anymore.
"Maybe he just doesn't feel like joking around with ya
right now. I mean, finding that OD's body like we did
can throw anybody off their feed."

Johnny pegged Roy with a glower. "We see bodies
all the time, and in worse shape than that one. Bogus
point Roy. Chet's never skipped lunch because of a 
fatality retrieval, none of us have either, for that matter,
now that I think about it. He's doing it because today 
is TODAY..." he insisted meaningfully.

Roy considered for several beats before he shook his 
head in dismissal as he began to fill the kitchen sink up 
gingerly with dish water and soap. "Suit yourself if ya 
want to worry. I can't help you there."

"Yes, you can! You can watch my back, Pal." Gage fired back.

"Can't, Junior. I already do that. It's in my job description."
DeSoto replied, dead pan.

The rest of the gang chortled, all except the still
composed Chet and the intensely worried, mesmerized
Henry.

Finally, Henry had had enough and uncharacteristically,
he abandoned the couch's folds and trucked,
strangely, for the garage.

His reaction caught the whispering gang's attention and
they stopped what they were doing, to watch him in
amazement..

Roy shrugged. "Whatever's bothering you and Chet,"
he commented to Johnny, "It must be catchy.." he 
summed up.

"Very funny.." Gage mumbled as he picked up a towel
to help Roy dry the plates. "Henry's not even acting
like Henry. I tell ya, this whole day's gone completely
nuts and it's dragging us all down with it."

------------------------------------------------------

Henry was full of purpose. He panted heavily as
he slowly jogged across the quiet vehicle bay to
the far side wall where the tool locker was situated.

He spotted what he was looking for. The cord the gang
had strung down for him from the rear garage opener
switch so he'd have a means to go outside to the yard
to relieve himself whenever they weren't there to do
it for him.

His teeth yanked on the cord and he wormed his way
underneath the door as it noisily climbed up its tracks
and he paced determinedly to exactly the middle of 
the yard. He sat down on his haunches in the dust
and he pointed his nose up to the sky and began to howl.

In the kitchen, the gang noticed him immediately.
They all, minus Chet, crowded around the kitchen 
window to eye the spot mirror pointed into the back
yard to see what Henry was doing. "What the heck?"
Cap said. "Henry's acting like a wolf now, howling at 
the moon. Has the world gone mad? "

"Perhaps it's just you guys.." Chet declared in irritation
at the noise interrupting his meditation. He unfolded his
legs from the recliner's depths and clamoured to his feet
long enough to pull his lace loosened shoes back on.
"I'll be in the bunkroom, continuing where I left off.
I don't wanna hear nothing except an arriving 
tones call in there while I'm busy doing it." he said
quietly civil and he barreled passed them all on his way 
out.

Gage spun around a full ninety to avoid turning a 
vulnerable back towards Kelly as he departed. 
Only then did Johnny begin to relax.. "See what I 
mean? He's the height of oddness personified.."

No one else got the gist of what had Gage so up in
arms. They were too busy concentrating on the strange
sight of Henry caterwauling to the heavens out in the yard.

The basset hound's loud, anxiety tinged cries were 
only just heard over the sounds of the afternoon time 
rush hour traffic from the boulevard but they were loud
enough to attract a little attention from the office workers
in the building next door. Cap saw a few fingers peeking
through the blinds exactly like they were doing.

Roy had a thought that came unbidden. ::If I didn't know
any better, I'd swear Henry was sending out a message
to the neighborhood network like the sheep dog did
in One Hundred One Dalmations.::

Sure enough, an answering bark erupted from the Arco
refinery watchdog from across the street. Henry fell
into an intense listening pose in that direction. 

So did the rest of the gang.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Rampart was a mad house. 

::Nothing dire. Mind you. Just a whole slew of irritating,
putzy gomer cases littering my emergency department.::
Dixie McCall sighed in deep thought. 

Her mouth was still dry in sympathic memory of the coffee she
still couldn't track down anywhere, hospital wide.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead in fatigue until
a grip on her shoulder made her shoot to her feet
from her desk stool. 

"Ahh!" she startled.

Kel Brackett froze, his left hand still grasping the air
where her shoulder had been, his right, loaded with the 
newest non critical patient chart. "Easy, Dix... Don't hurt 
yourself. We've enough weird cases as it is today 
without handling any more from the staff."

"That's not very d*mned funny, Kel." Dix said with
some genuine heat and no trace of a smile.

Kel smiled broadly. "Caffeine withdrawal going
full swing? Sorry about not being able to procure
any coffee from dietary for you. How was I to know
that the supply truck from the city would hit the only
pothole in Los Angeles and throw an axle?"

Dixie's eyes got back into focus from her fright.
"So that's the reason why there isn't any coffee
anywhere. It's driving me crazy seeing full cups
in everyone else's hands but mine.." she said,
plunking wearily back onto her seat and taking
Kel's chart to file it away into her priority arranged
turnstyle. "How'd you learn that latest tidbit?
Can't say that news is making me feel any better."

"Sorry, Dix." Brackett grimaced. "The driver of 
the coffee truck's the man getting lip stitches in 
Treatment Three. He hit a hydrant after his axle 
cracked. 36 brought him in an hour ago and he 
told me so himself who he was."

Dixie began to groan, just thinking about it.
"I thought I smelled coffee on his clothes
taking his vital signs.. I thought I was hallucinating."

Dr. Brackett laughed before he could stop himself.

"D*mmit! This whole day is torture, Kel..." McCall 
moaned. "I honestly don't think I can take much 
more of it.."

Dr. Brackett slipped around her chair and gave Dix 
a hug, setting his chin on her head in a supportive
bearhug from behind until a cat call whistle
from a passing orderly broke them apart.

Dixie sighed at their being caught acting non 
nurse and doctor. "Thanks for the moral support, 
Kel." she said without luster. "I wish the rest of 
my staff would do more of the same for me."

"Been getting a little snarly through all this?"
he said, indicating the barely controlled chaos
of all the minor medical visitors waiting in
the waiting room before them.

Dixie's long eye lashes blinked in barely suppressed
guilt. "Just a little.."

"More like a LOT.." Carol the candy striper said
as she bustled by with fifty charts Dixie had
ordered her to take down to medical records.
She staggered by. The heavily laden girl finally
was rescued by a thoughtful Joe Early as they both
got into the elevator headed to another floor.

Dixie winced as the metal elevator doors closed. 
"I deserved that."

"Never in a million years.." Kel denied, his face kind
and warm. "Tell you what? I've got Dr. Bender
covering for me for a half hour. How about I take
a trip to Manny's down the road and order up
a take out just for you. I can get the Cappucino
Delight. Triple Order. To go."

Dixie's eyes lit up for the first time of the day.
She was rendered mute in gratitude and her eyes
misted. "ooHhhhhh.."

Kel gripped her hand and said, "Shh. No crying.
You'll ruin your makeup job. I'm on my way now." 
and he peeled his labcoat off and laid it over the 
desktop followed by his steel stethoscope. "See 
you in twenty.." he said, making sure his pager
was set to receive.

"You're an absolute saint, Kel."

"Call me that only when that hot little coffee's in your 
greedy little hand. Who knows with the luck we're having."

Dixie actually laughed. Once. Then her white uniformed
back disappeared once more into the depths of
a treatment room.



Dr. Brackett headed out into the bright daylight
outside through the main emergency doors
around the flood of bizarre minor emergency cases
coming to the department by wheelchair, on foot
or gurney. He shook his head in wonderment.
::What a crazy day.:: he thought as he fingered
his car keys he had drawn from his pocket.

He headed towards his tan Buick in its reserved spot
in the auxillary parking lot next to the helicopter
landing pad.

---------------------------------------------------------
Joe Early was remarkably unphased by the 
bustling weird day buzzing around him. He was
his usual calm quiet self as he headed up to one 
particular patient room on the fifth floor after he
helped a harried Carol to medical records with her
tottering chart stack.

He eyeballed the correct room down the hall,
grabbed the patient's chart from the nurse's desk from
its turnstyle and shouldered into the well lit room
after hearing a reply to his gentle knock on the door.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Dix and Kel talking over lunch.

Photo:  Henry peeking over the side of the couch.

Photo:  Chet in the middle of enjoying a joke
           in action, taking notes.

Photo:  Joe Early looking calm and amused in closeup.

Photo:  Roy and Johnny peeking through the closed kitchen door.

Photo:  Aerial of Rampart in black and white.

Photo:  The gang standing outside in the side drive
           leading to the yard.

*************************************
From:   "rampartbase" <doc51@att.net> 
Date:  Thu May 8, 2003  10:02 pm
Subject:  "Slippery When Wet!"
  

There should been a sign by the nurses desk 
that said "Slippery When Wet." Kel thought as 
he slipped on a piece of ice that had 
been dropped by the nurses desk, crashing into 
it. Luckily, no bones were broken. Somehow, with 
the nutty day that they'd been having, it had 
gone unseen.

They had a number of strange and unusual 
cases. They had people come in because they 
thought they were about to get sick, then did. 
There was a man who broke his toe after kicking 
a car tire at a car dealer. It was just a generally 
weird day all around. 

-------------------------------------

Photo: None.

**************************
From :"Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : The Overhaul Incident..  
Date :Mon, 12 May 2003 03:35:45 +0400  
 
  
"Come in..." came a New York accent through the door.

Dr. Early went into the room with the chart at his side.
"Hello there. I'm Dr. Early. Dr. Brackett asked me to
stop on by to review your post angioplasty film that
you had done this morning."

The dark haired man of sixty sat up a little higher
in the bed with an air of making himself presentable.

"No, don't sit up. You still have a fresh puncture site
to worry about."

"Oh, yeah. Right , doc." said the man.

Joe extended a hand out to the patient he was sent
to consult with in a gesture of welcome.

"Glad to make your acquaintance. I'm Charlie. How ya doin?"

"Fine. Fine. Downstairs is a little like a madhouse
but nothing out of the ordinary." Joe thought a bit
about that remark and amended. "No, that's not quite
right. Everything today is out of the ordinary but who's
complaining?" chuckled Dr. Early.

"Not me, doc." said the man. "They've been treatin
me real fine. I was nervous there for a while when
they told me I wasn't gonna be asleep for that
angio...angio picture thing with that balloon 
thingy in my chest. But it's over. Heh. And I'm 
feeling real good now. I lived through it."

"That was the intent." laughed Joe.

"Don't I know it?" said Charlie.

Charlie let Joe check over the area where
he had had the angio catheter inserted and
let the doctor lift up the gauze dressing
taped there to check for signs of
seepage.

Joe's face fell a little bit and he opened
the chart one more time to look at the diagnosis
that both he and Kel Brackett had agreed was
the inevitable one.

Charlie's rugged stubbled face took on a
hint of dread as he realized that his news may
not be the happy ones that he had anticipated.
"Say, doc? Uh,.. what's da matter? If ya
have ta give it to me straight, I can take it.
I haven't been a fire department mechanic 
working in the busiest district in the state
for nothin, you know.. Don't sugar coat it.
Just tell me whatever it is."


"Charlie. Your initial prognosis is excellent.
The two coronary arteries we found that were
narrowed have successfully been cleared
with the angioplastic procedure. You'll have
no more trouble with that angina and we
can discontinue your regular course of nitro
glycerin. You won't be needing it anymore
from this point forward. "

"That doesn't sound too scary, doc. So, uh,
why the long face here?" Charlie frowned.

"Well, your heart's now fixed with those two
partially blocked off arteries being fully repaired, 
but we found that your arteriosclerosis is fairly well 
advanced in other areas of your body. Your shortness 
of breath you get while exerting yourself at work is 
due to narrowing of other arteries in your lungs. That, 
we can't fix. The underlying structures there don't favor 
the usual angioplastic routes."

A sick dread began to grip Charlie and his post
surgical EKG sped up a bit as he fretted. "What?"
he joked. "Does that mean I'm gonna die tomorrow?"

Joe tried to chuckle lightly with a smile to reassure
his worried patient. "No, you can look forward to
decades more of good cardiovascular functioning.
But I'm afraid you're going to have to come up
with a means to reduce your stress levels. Immediately.
We barely have your hypertension under control with
your usual medications and already they are at
the top end of what's safe to utilize."

Charlie knew right away what the doctor was
angling at. He had figured it out in one mind 
numbing realization. "Doc.. are you saying that I'm
gonna haveta give up the one thing that makes 
my world complete? That uh, I have to ... retire
from the workplace?"

Joe looked down and rubbed the rings on
his hands thoughtfully in regret and he
sighed while he put together the right words
to say. "I'm afraid so, Charlie. There isn't a miracle
cure for your stage of hypertension. In fact, it
may not take much in your future to really raise
your chances of having a cerebral vascular accident."

"A what?" Charlie asked, rubbing his dry lips.
Then he reached over to his cup of ice cubes
and took some in to wet his mouth to moisten
it.

"A CVA. In layman's terms, a stroke."

Charlie laughed nervously and loud and he
readjusted the blanket back over himself following
Joe's cursory exam of his catheter puncture site.
"You've got to be kidding. I thought that those
blood thinners and that aspirin a day my regular
doctor prescribed, solved all that."

"They helped. But that course of treatment unfortunately
doesn't cure the underlying cause. You're getting older
now. And your particular case will only advance.
Even though it's very slowly. It's time to start kicking 
down into lower gear as you mechanics like to say."

Charlie sobered and fell still, struggling to fight 
his emotions over finding out that his life
long career was now suddenly, quietly, over.
Then he looked up with a vulnerable smile.
"What uh, just what can I tell the wife, doc?
She's gonna flip over this. It's not like we need
the income. It's just that I won't know.. what
to do with myself, ya know?"

Joe nipped that line of thinking in the bud.
"It's not the end of the world. There are a lot
of people who've been in your shoes. And I'm
not afraid to tell you that I'm one of them."

"Really, doc? Not you.. heh. You look as healthy
as an ox and you're still workin.." he exclaimed.

"Yes, I'm working but my occupation is not
the kind of job that exacerbates my history
with arteriosclerosis. I can still work. But only
in moderation. I gave up my position as
head ER doc a few years ago. Kel Brackett took
over for me while I was recovering and he's
still serving in that position. Your life isn't over,
Charlie. Not by a long shot. You're just going to
have to make a few adjustments, that all, that will
take some getting used to. But you'll work it
all out before you know it." Joe encouraged.

"Yeah, doc.. But retirin? Sheesh." Charlie
scoffed. "That's for old folks. Or really sick
ones." he said in a soft sigh.

"Charlie, think about it. Your overall condition,
if anything, has improved. Greatly. That angioplasty
you underwent this morning was a complete
success. You have gone a step forward, not 
backwards." Joe said with a gentle smile. "You should
know. Life always changes. And that can be a
blessing in disguise sometimes even if we
don't realize it right away. And your whole
changing situation here is no exception. Your time 
as an active on duty mechanic may be over, but that 
doesn't mean that you have to stop hanging around 
your old haunts like you usually do."

"Say, doc.. That's a lightbulb of an idea. I really like 
that. A lot. You're giving me some dandies already.."
Charlie chuckled. "I'm gonna go see EVERYone,
first thing, when I get released in an hour. That's
ah, only if you allow it with this groin stick and
all." Charlie fussed, gesturing to his waist
level.

"It's ok.." Joe laughed. "You'll be fully recovered
from lunch by then. Sorry for that casserole. It usually
has some coffee with it that makes it palatable,
but we're currently fresh out. Your catheter 
puncture will be fully clotted in about half an hour."

"Good. Cause Charlie the mechanic's got people
to see. Places to go. Know what I mean?"

"Yeah.. I know what you mean.." Joe said.

----------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Brackett had long abandoned his grid locked
car along the margin of the freeway for a phone.

"Dix? Yeah, it's Kel." he held the receiver away
from his ear when he heard his head nurse start
to moan about her coffeeless state and question
about his now long overdue ETA. "Sorry, Dix.
Traffic jam. Probably another fog pile up by
Long Beach. You know how are these traffic snarls
can back up around here. I'm gonna haveta take
the rest of the night off. Would you inform Doctor
Bender that I won't be coming in?" he asked.
"Thanks. You're a doll. I promise I'll get some coffee
to ya sooner rather than later. Tonight."

Kel hung up the payphone at the Shell station
and wandered back to his car for the long wait
for the jam to clear out.

--------------------------------------------------------

Charlie the mechanic knew the best ways to sneak
up on firehouses when firemen least expected it.
It was a habit he had developed so he could
really see the wear and tear the guys inflicted
on his beloved vehicles.  

He let himself in with his master key through
the rear door and he stealthily saundered
across the garage.

First thing, his eye fell on Squad 51's tires, 
checking for curb scuffs from all the sudden stops 
she had to make during each run. "There, you go, 
sweetie." he said, patting Squad 51's hood while 
another finger swept over her front grill chrome 
looking for grime.

"Looks like my tyrannical temper tantrums are finely
having an effect, aren't they? Your wheels are perfect
darlin !  Your chrome, too. But there's no way in Hades 
that I'm ever gonna stop blowing off steam on your 
behalf at those crazy firemen. You deserve the best and
don't you ever forget it. I'll make sure the new guy
learns that lesson quick." Charlie said.

A voice from the far side of the bay echoed through
the high rafters overhead. "Charlie? Is that you?
I thought I heard your voice.."  said Captain Stanley
as he exited his office door. He immediately noticed
Charlie, not wearing his department uniform.
"It's your day off? I thought you had a double inspection
load on Wednesdays." Cap frowned.

"Yeah, well. I've got some news there." Charlie said
circumspect and suddenly serious. "Looks like I'll
have a whole lotta days off from now on.."

Cap wasn't surprised, for he had been on the rescue
call that went out for Charlie a week ago for
heightened chest pain. "So, it's come to that, eh?
Your ticker ok?" he said casually inquiring.

"Oh, yeah. The docs at Rampart fixed the plumbin
real fine. I'm good to go. But I gotta get out of 
the fast lane they've been telling me."

"Retirement?" Cap asked.

"Yeah.. Hate that word. Makes me sound like I'm
being put out ta pasture.." Charlie said, reaching
for a back pocket that no longer held an oily rag.
He stopped himself before he was too obvious
in his reaction about being out of uniform. "So, I
uh, hope ya don't mind me comin over to say goodbye
ta the guys like this. Heh. Seeing my beauties I'd
done anyway." he said throwing a careless hand
at the Ward and Squad behind them. "Had to check
up one more time on my babies. I had ta come
back.. Know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I know what you what mean.." Cap grinned.
"How about coming in for a cup of coffee? Stoker
brews a mean pot."

"Nope. No more coffee. Doc's orders. 
But I could sure use some of that clam 
chowder I smell on the stove. Must be yours 
cause the cream's not overpowering the clams 
there."

Cap ducked his head at the compliment. 
"Glad someone appreciates my chowder.
I thought that Joe Early was my only 
chowder fan."

"Yeah? Well add one more. Me.." Charlie
said jerking a thumb at his chest.
"Take me to your chowder." he joked.

"You know the way.." Hank beamed.

------------------------------------------------------
Men from three firehouses turned up for Charlie's
retirement party that his bosses threw
at his old workplace only five hours
after Charlie was discharged from Rampart.

Only Cap, Johnny and Roy and Chet 
could find replacements for themselves to be able 
to attend, but Cap felt that his three from Station 51 
was a good showing considering the high density 
of runs that usually came during that part of summer. 
As for himself, he wouldn't have missed Charlie's final 
send off for the world. He still remembered the days
when HE was cringing during one of Charlie's tune
up inspections as a regular fireman. He knew he
was going to miss Charlie more than he realized.

"And this, is the main repair bay. Where we fix
all the damage you boys do to the engines.." Charlie
said, his voice rising higher and higher in a familar
tirade. He stopped himself before his blood pressure
shot too high. "Oops.. gotta watch myself. Well, you
know the speech. Ain't gonna preach to the choir
here. I'm a free man!"

Cheers erupted from the three groups of station
firefighters mingling in with station 51's four.

Charlie shot them all a suspicious look when he 
couldn't tell whether the guys were cheering for his 
newly liberated state, or the fact that they wouldn't 
be cringing over any of his hundred proof lectures 
anymore.  "Hey! Pipe it down.. There are working
joes over there. They can't hear themselves think
over that kind of racket."

The firefighters quieted down and continued
eating their cake and vanilla ice cream.

Chet's mouth was still hanging open. His eyes
were still bugging out at the long row of cracked
open fire engine chassis that were angled up
on hoists away from their motor assemblies from
the rigs lined up next to them, in the huge
space surrounding the party tables.

Charlie noticed.  "What? Did you think I worked
in a three pump mom and pop gas station on
the corner? This joint's the size of a small airport!"
Charlie said proudly. 

He proceeded to lecture to his hungrily eating
captive audience on how, his long and
varied career as an FD mechanic, began. 

He finished with an historic account of how
his plans had been turned into blueprints and 
then later eventuality with the construction 
of the half mile long pit stop facility that Los 
Angeles County now used for all of its 
vehicle maintenance.

Johnny Gage swiped some cake crumbs off of
his dress uniform tie and mumbled from the corner
of his mouth to Cap. "Say, does this mean we can
slack off a little on vehicle detail? "

Cap grimaced. "Eeooww. This is awful.." looking
down at his paper cup and then just as quick
at something over the heads of all the retirement
party guests.

"The coffee?" Johnny asked.

"No, you twit, the squad! I can see the soot
on her windshield from here.." Cap said.

Roy and Johnny then realized that maybe they
wouldn't be getting off scot free so easily with
Charlie's departure from active duty.

Roy leaned over and said. "Wanna bet Cap'll
have us polishing by sundown after we get
back to the station?"

"No bet.." Johnny sighed.

------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Brackett was just turning onto Curson Avenue
near sundown, when his emergency services CB 
radio, went off.

##Eeeee  OOooo EEeeeeeee.. Station 51. 
Unknown type rescue. 5801 Wilshire Blvd. Cross
street Curson. 5801 Wilshire Blvd. Cross street
Curson. Time out, 18: 12.##

::That's only a block from here.:: Kel thought.

He turned his wheel towards a new construction
site he could see to his left. 

::Maybe I can help out some..::

--------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Charlie the mechanic and Johnny out
            in the yard.

Photo : A row of crack hooded Crowns at LACoFD
           repair facility.

Photo : Outside the maintenance bays by gas pumps.

Photo: Johnny and Roy table sitting.

***************************************
From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Samaritan Snare..  
Date : Tue, 13 May 2003 13:39:17 +0000  
 
Acknowledgements to

Lt. Stuart C. Burrows
Hazardous Materials Team Coordinator
Paramus Fire Dept., NJ  for the information
about natural kerosene risks.. 

--------------------------------------
 
Dr. Brackett made good time down the weaving
road. He saw a man, full of black ooze leaning
heavily against a parking lot post. He was obviously
the one sent out to intercept the responding fire
unit to show them where the emergency was.

Kel made sure his car was out of the way of
any hydrants, against a fence line off the road
and he leaped out of his car, rolling up his
sleeves. He grabbed a folded blanket he
had in the back seat from a basket of clean laundry
he had there. "I'm Dr. Brackett. I heard there was 
trouble out here needing the fire department. Are
you hurt?"

The gasping, soaked man coughed. "No.. I'm fine."
he said, as Kel grasped him around the shoulders.

"Sit down here. I'll watch for them." Dr. Brackett
said. "Here. This will help warm you up." he said,
wrapping his blue blanket around the man. "What 
happened?" he said trying to find where the trouble
was near them by turning in a circle and looking.

"It's the pit. Pit number 91. I'm on an excavation
crew. *cough* I don't understand it. The construction
team told us the supports were strong enough. E..I-I..
the whole wall caved in on Aragorn, the lead archaeologist.
She was working on an incredible Bicus Gravus.."

"A what?" Dr. Brackett said, watching the exhausted
man gather his strength back. He tried not to think
what was covering the man. Already, his own clothes
were black and sticky. "Just take it easy. Help's on the
way. Who's with Aragorn right now? Anyone else involved?"

"No.. I.. Half of us left because of the danger but
half stayed with her. I don't know for sure.."

Dr. Brackett was ready when the man suddenly blacked
out. He caught him and carefully lowered his head
to the grass. He set his hand on the man's shivering
stomach to monitor his ragged breathing.

In the distance he could hear the sound of approaching
sirens and it wasn't long before Station 51 screeched up
to the curb by his side.

Chet Kelly bailed out of his seat, opening the side door
of the Ward and into a miasma of stench. "What is
that smell?!" he said, covering his nose.

Marco was equally effected and both Kelly and Lopez's
eyes located what appeared to be a small lake at
the foot of a white highrise bank on the other side
of the partially constructed parking lot. They could
just see rising steam coming from it and could hear
a loud copious mass bubbling.

Before they could wonder further, they spotted their
first concern. Two people smeared in black gel like
stuff a short distance away.

Stoker commented. "Smells like asphalt." Mike 
theorized, not even slowing down as he 
hit the anchor feet switches on the engine to ready 
her for hose work. He kicked a board under each 
piston as it lowered to the concrete.

Captain Stanley shot out of the cab after announcing his
company's arrival to the scene to L.A. "Good call Stoker.
This might be a chemical spill. String some hose, long
enough to reach that partially built building over there. But
don't prime it yet. Not until we know exactly what we're
dealing with here." He took an experimental
sniff, relying on instinct to make a judgement call. "Skip
the SCBA for now. This stuff doesn't seem caustic."
Then he paused in his tracks. "Dr. Brackett?" he
exclaimed when he realized just who was with the only
victim in eyeshot. He tersely waved Marco to go get the
spare O2 apparatus from the engine's side compartment.
"Whatcha got, doc? Johnny! Roy! Man down. Over here.
Skip the resuscitator. I had Lopez grab ours."

He watched his two paramedics nod and scramble to get 
their equipment. He noticed them making faces at
the stench in the air but they remained all business.

The Rampart physician looked up from his unconscious
patient and he rubbed his nose with his forearm to avoid
getting some dark gunk that was covering his hands, 
onto his face. "He's fine. Just fainted. His pulse's
strong and regular. He said there was a cave-in 
somewhere nearby.." Kel said. "In a location called Pit 91.
Sounded like it was an archaeological dig or something."

"Need anything more than this?" Hank asked as Marco plunked
down the O2 cylinder and rack and got out a clear flowing
O2 mask for the limp man.

"Nah.." Kel said, seeing Roy and Johnny rushing over
from the squad, heavily laden. "Johnny and Roy have
everything I'm gonna need."

"Ok." Cap sighed in relief. He cast his head about, 
looking for a likely spot for a cave in. He then 
noticed a sign saying,'Page Museum, opening June, 
1977. Come see a Woolly Mammoth.'

A vague memory tickled the back of his mind and a word
came up into recall, unbidden. "La Brea.." he mumbled.

"What?" Dr. Brackett said, making sure the O2 was 
securely over the man's nose and mouth. He gave a 
few orders for Roy and Johnny to get primary info and to look
for some ID for any possible medical history clues.
He nodded when Johnny and Roy verbalized the man's
vitals to him.

Hank swiped off some of the dark smears on Kel's sleeves
and lifted it to his nose.. "Tar Pits..." he added to
his earlier comment. "Doc, I think I know what the trouble
is now. It's all falling into place.."  Cap got on his HT, and
thumbed it so all his men could hear him. "Just identified the
chemical smell, all. It's methane, and kerosene on top
of asphalt. This place must be a newly rising museum over the site 
called the La Brea Tar Pits. Heard about it last year. Under no 
circumstances are you to run any water on any open flames 
burning on the stuff. It'll be useless since kerosene floats. 
When we find the scene, go in dry. But watch for any signs 
of fire. That lake can burn regardless." 
 
##10-4. ## Cap heard from Marco and Chet and Johnny
as they scrambled to get the work done.

Cap noticed Dr. Brackett just itching to do more from
where he was crouched over the fainted man. "I can
watch him, doc, until the ambulance arrives. Go with
Johnny and Roy and my other men to see what's up if
you'd like. They'll watch your back."

"Think I'll do that. He should be waking up any time."
the doctor said to Cap as they exchanged places crouching
by the man's head."He's starting to move a little." 

Johnny and Roy took Cap's cue to move on with the main
rescue scene assessment as he threw a hand towards the
quiet, scaffoulding covered building next to the bubbling
lake of tar. 

Chet was still gagging on the oily stench filling the air.
He mumbled under his breath. "Sure you don't want us 
to have masks on, Cap?"

Hank jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Just go.."
with a half annoyed, half amused smile.

Kelly went."I'm gone.."

He was only two steps behind Johnny, Roy and Kel
as they hastened with belts and ropes towards the
building Cap had indicated. They  were running across
a sidewalk over looking the tar pit "lake" when they
heard a shout. 

"Down here! Please! Hurry.."

Gage said, "Hold it. Hold it.." when he heard the cry.

They all leaned over the concrete railing of the bridge
above the writhing moat and peered over the edge.

Kel Brackett coughed as a wind gust drove more stench into
his lungs. "There!" he shouted pointing downwards.

They could just see another oil slicked scientist type
on the lower level of the museum, through the windows
gesturing wildly for their attention. 

Roy shouted. "All right! We see ya. Just hang on..
We're coming down!" he shouted to the man 
urgently pounding on the glass to get their
attention.

The oily figure disappeared back the way he
had come into the dark interior of the museum's
lower level.

Gage looked about for any sign of stairs. There
were none. Just a steeply dropping off shoreline at
the edges of the tar pit. "We don't have time to look
for stairs. Roy, why don't we try repelling down to
the windows and breaking through.."

"Sounds like a good plan to me.." Roy said, belting
up. He lifted his hand held radio. "HT 51 to Engine 51."

##Go ahead, Ht 51.##

"There's someone flagging us down on the lower level
of the museum, right next to the tar lake. We need
the squad to anchor repelling gear from a concrete
bridge."

##10-4, 51. Lopez is on his way with it. I'm sending
Stoker with him.##

Dr. Brackett fidgetted as he paced back and forth.
"Not much I can do from here."

"Oh, yes you can.." Johnny said. "You can help Marco
keep the lines from fraying on the concrete here once
Roy and I go over.." he said slapping the concrete
railing.  He peeled off his coat. "Here, doc. Use my coat
for that."

"Right.." Kel said, understanding the plan immediately.

Gage kept talking. "Chet, rig a line for yourself. 
You're coming along.. It's gonna take three of us to get
anyone who's stuck in this goop out of that cave in."

Kelly's face widened in surprise when he realized that
he would be dangling over the surface of the methane
boiling tar pit. "Sounds like fun." he said unenthusiastically.

Lopez arrived with the squad, backing her up until her
rear bumper was next to the turnout coat draped 
railing. He quickly helped Johnny, Roy and Chet secure
their lifelines to it with pulleys and figure eight knots.

"Need the stokes?" Marco asked Roy.

"Yeah, and send down just the O2 for now. We still
haven't seen where to go yet.." DeSoto replied.

"I'll get it set.." 


Johnny was the first over the edge of the concrete bridge.
"Gimme some more slack!" he shouted up as the firemen
and Kel on the bridge slowly hand over handed him down
over the lake. Gage twisted around until he was able
to kick off a bridge piling far enough to grab an exposed 
plastic pipe over the "beach". He untied his line, hurrying
to the window.

Roy quickly followed, doing the same thing. And then it
was Chet's turn. Kelly wasn't so agile with his repelling
and his gloves slipped on the way down.

"Chet! Look out!" Gage shouted in warning.

Kelly landed with a splash into the tar pit up to his
chest. "Aghhh!! Get me out of here before I sink!" 
Chet flailed. He rapidly began to sink under the lake's
surface, to his chin, to his flaring nostrils.

Roy yelled. "Marco. Toss me down his belt line!"

Lopez hastily flung the second rope to Johnny
and Roy so they could pull Chet out. 

Gage shouted. "Chet, quit moving or you'll go under.."

Chet choked on fumes and ignored him.

His curly helmeted head disappeared under 
the surface.

"Chet!" Kel Brackett shouted from above.

Marco got on his HT. "Cap! Kelly fell in. He's
in trouble!"

## I'll be right there! Calling in another station!##

Johnny and Roy gasped as they struggled heavily
to pull on the rope to drag Chet to shore.

They got a hand on his belt and hauled him up
onto the black edged loam and firm ground and
log rolled him over.

Chet coughed and sputtered. "Gah!! *cough*"

Roy and Johnny both ran hasty fingers over
Chet's nose and mouth to clear away the
thick tar covering his face until he could breathe
again.

Gage grabbed his head, lifting his upper body 
up to help him. "Can you breathe ok now?" he
said, pulling off Chet's dripping helmet.

Chet didn't say anything as he gagged over
and over again. Then he sucked in a huge
lungful of air and nodded.

Roy and Johnny helped him to his feet.
"Ok, let's figure out how to best crack
this window pane to get inside."

The best method turned out to be crude but
very effective. Kelly flung a fossil filled shore rock
at the twenty foot by fifty foot museum window.

A loud musical explosion of glass flooded
their sandy beach as the window came
apart. 

Roy, Chet and John wasted no time getting
inside. They untied their lifelines and
accepted new coiled ones ringed tossed
down to them by Marco and they rushed
inside the lower level after knocking away
any more lingering shards with their helmets.

The rope lowered O2 and stokes, quickly 
followed.

They immediately found Pit 91. It was
surrounded by orange helmeted scientists
fretting over another unconscious
woman who was buried neck deep in newly 
oozing tar. Gage shouted. "How deep is it?"

Another gasping exhausted archeologist
understood immediately when his
other co workers didn't reply right away.
"The lowest digging section drops only three 
feet."

Johnny jumped in and helped the panicking 
scientists encircling her to hold her face 
out of the ooze. It was slimy, hard work and
it took all of them. "Hand me the O2, guys. 
All this stuff's pressing in on her chest. 
She's suffocating."

Chet Kelly handed down the positive pressure
mask and an oral airway pack.

Gage immediately began using them while Marco
and Roy rigged another rope set up and belt
for the woman to a concrete pillar near them
for an anchor point.  

Johnny gasped. "The rest of you get out of here.
It's too dangerous for you to stay. That wall
may give in more and you're not tied onto a
rope." he ordered. "She's gonna be ok. I got her."

The tar covered archeologists accepted Chet
and Roy's hands to climb out of the fossil
excavation pit.

Kel Brackett and Cap made a sudden appearance.
"Kelly, you ok?" Hank asked when he finally
decided who was the right slimy body to ask.

"Yeah, Cap. I'm fine. But the woman's not. She's
getting crushed by all that tar pouring in. She's
gotta be dragged out. Now. Johnny down there
can hardly ventilate her." Chet replied. He looked 
almost comical, being all shiny black except for 
his eyes and teeth.

Bracket had planned ahead. He had helped lug
all the medical gear down the front ramp they
had found with the guidance of an archeologist
witness and he already had laid out advanced 
suctioning equipment. "Johnny, how's she doing?"

Gage spat as a splash of tar hit him in the
face. He angled his helmet to deflect the 
new stream away from himself and the woman.
"She's still got a carotid. Although it's stressed.
I'm getting air in but I can't tell if it's doing any
good. Her color's hidden."

"Trust what you feel. I got suction set.
We'll do an airway sweep once she's up here.
Any C spine injuries?"

All nine tarry hard hatted archeologists milling 
about the rescue team shook their heads.

"She didn't fall." one of them said. "That glop
only gushed in and pinned her.."

"Ok.." Cap said. "Get that belt on, ASAP. We'll
haul her out the fastest way possible." he said, 
leaning over the edge of the excavation site. 
He blinked when he realized his coat arm was 
leaning on a sabre tooth tiger skull. He startled 
and took it off immediately. He tried not to look 
at what fossilized bones his shoes were standing 
on.

It took ten of them to break the suction of the tar
holding the unconscious scientist's legs pinned.

She finally pulled free with a hollow slurp and
her limp body was carefully guided up the wall,
with many hands supporting her O2, head and
airway.

Kel immediately got out a laryngoscope for a
peek after he jerked her oral airway free. 
Roy helped hold her into the right position 
for the exam with one hand while the other 
stayed on her neck to monitor her carotid.
It was difficult work, the tile museum floor
made the surface under them slippery and
they were all forced to stay on their splayed
knees for balance.

Dr. Brackett said, "She's got some tar in
her right bronchial tree. But she's not
obstructed that badly." He quickly suctioned
out what he could and withdrew the
scope. "Roy.." he said unnecessarily as
the blond headed paramedic began to ventilate
her once again on the O2 to compensate
for the lost time they weren't breathing for her.

Brackett began snapping out orders for a more
secure type of airway and a precautionary IV.
"She's gonna need a pulmonary flushing when
we get into Rampart."

"Is Maureen going to make it?" one concerned 
tar blackened archeologist asked.

Kel's mouthed twitched into a smile.
"Yeah, I think so. The only hurdle will be
that secondarly pneumonia. Doesn't look like
she was poisoned too much from any methane.
I didn't see any tracheal burns."
Then he noticed another skull firmly gripped
in the scientist's grasp. "You can relax now, sir.
Maureen's perfectly safe."

The shell shocked archeologist suddenly blinked
and realized what the doctor was looking
at. "Oh.. uh, this is a closed mouthed sabre 
tooth head. Very rare. It was what Maureen was 
tugging at when the wall gave way. She'll
kill me if she wakes up and I don't have it." 
he remarked.

"Let's get her bundled up and out of here."
Cap grinned.

Soon, it was done.

-------------------------------------------------------
Dixie McCall's eyes bugged out in sheer horror
when she saw three tar black figures arrive onto
her newly waxed ER department floor. "Oh, no..
she sighed. "Treatment Q.." she amended, 
thinking fast. That was the nearest room
to the entryway portal. ::It's also a quarantine
room. No doubt we're gonna need that negative
air pressure in there to control the stench. Yuck!::
she thought, holding one hand over her nose.
"Nice choice of cologne.." she teased Kel out loud
as he helped Roy push the gurney inside as Gage
bag valved breathed for the woman. She literally
jumped when she spotted a slimy skull on the 
woman's stomach when she attempted to lay 
eyes on the area to get a respirations
count for Kel while they moved her.
"Ahhh!" McCall screeched. She rocked back 
on her heels, controlling her reactions.

Kel grinned toothily through his stinky slime.
"It's a souvenir, Dix.. Don't you like it?"
and he picked up the long fanged skull
and clapped its gaping jaws open and 
shut in her face once or twice.

She glared at him. "I'd rather it have been
a can of fresh Columbian coffee grounds." she
said icily. 

Then she held an admonishing finger up to
the two medics getting a set of vitals
using equipment she couldn't distinguish
from them because of all the tar. "You boys'd
better plan on abandoning all that stuff.
Including your clothes. Environmental will flay
me alive if I allowed you to carry that ...that
that...."

"Million year old fossilized tar?" Kel offered helpfully.

"Thank you.." Dix sputtered. "..that tar any further
into the hospital. I'll requisition a complete new
vitals kit for the squad and scrubs for you all 
right now." She gingerly moved around a puddle 
of ooze so she wouldn't get any onto her polished 
white nurse shoes as she took a step towards the 
ER phone.

Right then, Kel's nose finally had had enough of
all the fumes and he sneezed powerfully, raining 
a mist of fine tarry black all across Dixie's back.

His face fell open in instant mortification 
when she hunched up her shoulders and froze
the second she realized the stench in the room was
somehow, now attached......to her.

----------------------------------------------------------

It was an hour later, a shower reddened doubled 
scrubbed set of paramedics met Dixie at her desk 
in the ER each carrying a small bundle wrapped in 
abdominal dressings. They paused as they all considered
the reason why all three were wearing surgical garb.
Then Dixie said, "What are those? "she asked cautiously.
"If they're fossilized skulls. I don't wanna see them."

Gage laughed. "These are just our badges and name
tags, Dix. It's gonna take a whole lotta turpentine
to clean these up. Cap's stood the whole station down
for the rest of the afternoon, while we...detar ourselves
and the vehicles."

Roy sighed. "Well, there's a bit of a miracle working here.
Charlie's not gonna see the mess we made of them."

Johnny rolled his eyes in dread. "Oh, but you better believe
he'll eventually find out about it through the department
grapevine. Then there will be H*ll to pay for sure.."

Dixie smiled craftily from her paperwork she was filling out
to add a new set of stethoscopes, BP cuffs and laryngoscopes
for the squad's vitals kit to go along with the airways
and IV's they had used. "Sort of like the H*ll I have to
pay for trashing the quarantine treatment room on a
hospital inspection day?"

Johnny's face fell in instant sympathy. "Oh, tell me
that wasn't today.."

"It was today.." Dixie parroted in weariness as
she massaged her forehead.

"Ooo," Johnny sucked through his teeth. "Well,
next time the bunch of us falls into the LaBrea
Tar Pits, I'll be sure to ask Brackett to reroute
us to Mercy General instead of Rampart."

"You're all heart.." Dixie said, without looking
up. She made a face of disgust when she found
tar, under one of her fingernails. "I hate to think
what's rotted in this stuff." she said, hastily wiping
the ooze away from her nail, not caring if her finger
nail polish came away with it.

Roy answered. "I think there was a museum display
in there above us that said the pits contained
millions of animals.. all from the Ice Age.."

"Terrific.. and all I want is a can of java 
from the Modern one.." she grumbled.

Johnny and Roy began to smile when they saw
Vince, come to watch the very valuable sabre
tooth's skull, arrive from down the hall with 
a laden brown paper bag in one arm. They
glanced at each other in satisfaction and didn't
say anything as the husky dark skinned officer
harrumphed in his throat to get Dixie's attention
from her paperwork.

When she looked up, she noticed the bag in
front of her. "What's this?"

"Kelly Brackett asked me to pick this up for
the main ER desk. Said something about needing
it to control a possible caffeine withdrawal outbreak
among the hospital staffers here.." he said straight
faced.

Dixie's hands shot out and she ripped away the
paper.. "Coffee?!! Ohmyg*d.. I'll be right back.."
and Dixie danced away from the desk eagerly
heading for the coffee lounge. "I--I.. thank you..
uh, thank Kel.. Uh.. oh,  Vince? Don't go..Stay right
there and I'll come back with mugs enough
for all of you..!"

McCall almost shouldered another staffer onto
his butt when he kiddingly tried to take the 
rare covetted can from her grasp as he walked
by.

-------------------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny walked into the station washroom
where Chet was picking his wet curly hair carefully
into shape while looking in the big mirror.

Gage made a show of walking up to him and sniffing.
"Hmm. Hey Chet, is that Ode de Swamp I'm smelling?
It's very becoming.. "

"Very funny, Gage.. Can't say that you and your
smirking partner here smell any better..We had to
scrub out the engine cab almost as much as
you guys did the squad's. Cap's already tee'd
that it's gonna take two hours for the three of
us to get new turnout gear and helmets sent
to us from headquarters." he broke off when Johnny
pulled out a small slate colored object from his
uniform pocket. "What's that?"

"A fossilized Dire Wolf tooth. The museum project
head coordinator was so grateful we rescued his
best scientist from Pit 91, that he sent a box
of fossils to the station just now for us to divide
amongst ourselves."

"Oh, then you won't mind sharing.." and Kelly
snatched for the fang. 

Gage whipped it away before Chet's grab got
there. "Ah, ah ah.. Go get your own.. This is
for my tribal prayer sack. My aunt always used
to say a token earned doing a heroic deed is
very powerful medicine...." then he blinked.
"Better hurry.. Marco was shovelling up the rest
of the wolf teeth when I left the kitchen."

"What?! Why didn't ya tell me sooner, pal?
Thanks a lot.." and Chet Kelly ran out of the 
room.

Roy chuckled and leaned over to shut off the
water Chet had left running in the sink. 
"You're cruel, you know that Johnny." he
grinned. "You could have told him that ALL
the fossils were the more common Dire Wolf 
parts."

"Yeah, but where's the fun for us in that?
This way we got to watch him rabbit outta here."
he said with a sideways grin. "It'll dry his hair
a little faster."

Roy rolled his eyes. "Come on, Junior. You can 
point out the skulls and parts you think my kids
will like the best."

"All right, Pally. I know good totems when I
see them. Maybe now, our luck with the crazy
day we've been suffering will change for the better."

-------------------------------------------------------------
    
Photo :  Engine 51 and squad 51 on a run.

Photo : A tar covered victim.

Photo :  Lake of tar by a white high rise bank.

Photo :  Tar pit by a concrete pathway bridge.

Photo : The inside of an under construction museum.

Photo : Chet Kelly in his jacket.

Photo : A close up of the slime in the LaBrea Tar Pits.

Photo :  Pit 91 Excavation and hard hatted diggers.

Photo :  Firemen struggling to pull a victim out of slime.

Photo : Dixie making an embarrassed face.

Photo : Two cans of Folgers coffee.
 

***************************************
From: "Fran" TaleaOne@yahoo.com and a little bird.
Subject : Three Dogs and a Cat..
Date :  May 16th, 2003 20:29:07 CST


Cap had picked up three wolves teeth just
to look at them in horrified fascination.
"You guys are nuts , you know that?
I wouldn't want a million years old piece
of dental tissue anywhere near me."

"Come on, Cap. These are rare glimpses
into history, man. They aren't bones. They're
mineral deposits that bone left behind..Anybody
who's anybody knows that." Kelly said, eyeballing 
two of the longest fossil fangs he could find out of 
the museum box. "These will go great with my 
shark's teeth. The chicks'll really dig em.."

Lopez just rolled his eyes.

Stoker didn't even look up from the sports
page of his newspaper.

The two of them left Cap to squirm on
Kelly's questionably deep analysis.

Hank said. "I know these aren't real. They just 
have to look real. And for your reference,
my squeamishness isn't coming from me. 
It's my wife rubbing off."

"Blame it on the wife. Sure.. We all know
your hidden phobias.. Inspection days..
Doctors...Sore hands that are unexplained.."
Chet remarked.

Cap didn't dignify Kelly's jab with a comment.
He just tossed the wolves teeth back into
the middle of the table and he got up
to wash his hands thoroughly with soap.

"Don't you think you're going a little bit 
over board with the fossil phobia..?"
Kelly said, relentlessly pursuing Cap.

Hank deflected masterfully. "An hour ago
you were eating fossils according to Johnny
and Roy. And I can't imagine all that ancient
goo tasted very good." he said scrubbing 
his fingers with some steel wool.

"You got that right." Kelly said. "I think I'll
be smelling that tar stuff in my moustache
for at least a week. But getting back onto
the subject. These beauties you're passing up
don't stink.." he said, gesturing to the fossils
the gang had lined up by size on the table top.

Mike Stoker sensed a change in the feel of 
the station. He immediately pegged it when
his glance towards the couch showed that Henry
wasn't snoring there. "Hey fellas..Did anyone see
Henry come back in from outside yet?"

Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto came into the 
kitchen to see the guys rubbernecking around
and searching for Henry. "What's up? Somebody
drop one of those things?" he asked pointing to
the ancient fossil teeth.


"We lost a dog part all right. Henry.." Lopez said.

"Oh, yeah?" Johnny said going for the coffee pot.

Roy leaned against the counter, sipping the cup
his partner handed him without saying anything.

Cap wandered over to the kitchen window and
cracked a blind. "He's still out there. Same as he
was when we got that last call. He's a statue, 
still waiting for something."

Roy rubbed his chin. "I wonder what he's up to?"

"Oh, about a foot and a half.." Kelly quipped.

Johnny made a face at Chet FOR Roy.

"Kelly's too rich for me with all that scientific
analysis and one liners. I'm gonna go take a shower.
I can still smell tar in my hair. " Roy said
and he left for the locker room.

"Make it quick.. It's almost dinner time. You know
what happens then. " Marco groaned.

"Shhh, You'll jinx us.." Stoker hissed.

"Gee Stoker. Haven't you noticed? We've been
jinxed with the mother of all crazy days. How
can things get any worse?" Kelly said.

Hank just rubbed his face, knowing that Murphy's
law was about to strike again.

Five minutes later over sautee-ing mushrooms and
steak, the tones went off.

The gang gulped down their coffee, snatched a roll
or two and jogged for the squad and engine while
the address came over the speakers.

Johnny nearly choked on his when the house and
street number were announced. "Cap... I don't believe
this. That's Roy's house.."

"What?" Hank said. "You've got to kidding.. I thought
Joanne and the kids were at her mother's."

"They are.."  Johnny said, scrambling and slipping on
the floor in his haste to take the driver's seat of the squad.
Johnny's eyes shot to the locker room doorway where
he knew Roy would be dashing through, still dripping.
"What should we do?"

"Don't tell him.." Cap said as he slammed his
engine door shut as he belted in.

"But he's gonna know when he sees I'm
driving.."

Cap snapped. "Then I suggest you break it to
him gently.. Let's move.." Hank said as
he watched Roy run in front of the engine and
squad heading for the driver's door. Roy
skidded to a halt when he saw Johnny there already.
He didn't understand the look on Gage's face
as he piled into the passenger seat. He opened
his mouth when Johnny said. "I'll explain it on
the way. Just get in the squad.."
The garage door began to open in front of 
them as Johnny peeled rubber out onto the
street. He was silent as he headed left onto
the avenue.

Roy asked. "Johnny? What's going on?" trying
to sound unworried and casual.

Gage didn't answer and pretended to be
concentrating on the road in front of them.

Roy's hand snaked out and snatched the piece
of paper he knew would be in Johnny's pocket
with the address of the call they were responding
to. Gage tried to snatch it back and the squad almost
swerved out of the lane and slowed to the point
of making Mike hit the brakes a bit to avoid
plowing into the squad's rear bumper.

Cap's voice burst over the private band, truck
to truck. ##Front and center up there. Sharpen
up. Minds on the job, guys.## he snapped.

Gage picked up the squad mic and apologetically
replied, "Sorry, Stoker." and he hung it up again.

Roy's face was just radiating out of his shock when
he realized that their call was to his own house.
"A fire?! I don't get it? Nobody's home.."

"We'll know everything once we get there, Roy.
Just stay calm." Johnny said, completely not
that state himself.

"I think I should be asking that same question
of you. " Roy said agitatedly about Johnny's
driving. "I shoulda known something like this
was up the second I saw your butt in the driver's 
seat."

"Lash at me all you like.. I don't care. This isn't
gonna be fun. For any of us." Johnny whined.

He turned the corner that led to the side street
that crossed Roy's street and soon, they all
saw the problem.

The gang bailed out of the engine and rescue
squad and Cap began to issue hose
layout instructions and Stoker took the engine
down the road to peel hose off the hose bed
while Marco took a length to wrap around a 
hydrant to secure it for the pull. 

"I don't believe it..That's a brand new roof."
Roy agonized.

"Was at any rate." Chet remarked drolly as he
began to release the hydrant valve with his
wrench to screw on a hose connector.

Roy's mouth was still hanging open at the sight
of his own house on fire when his eyes fell on
the sight of a utilities van parked and open a couple
of houses down the street. "Oh, no.. Don't tell me..
The water company's here for a burst pipe."

A rippling curse erupted out of Chet when he
finally got the hydrant cap off the hydrant and
only its metal ping hit the pavement without
the sound of gushing water. "Dry hydrant, Cap!"
he shouted.

"What?!" said Johnny, Roy and Cap in triplicate.
"Impossible!"

"Look at this and tell me it's impossible.." Chet
said defensively.

Cap sighed in long suffering and got on his HT
to the engine. "Stoker. Loop her back around.
We gotta use the engine tanks. No water in the 
hydrants. Looks like the local utilities has them shut off. 
I'm also calling for immediate back up. Johnny, go 
in there with Lopez and start ventilating the 
second story."

"What? You're gonna start ripping out my ceilings?
Cap, the fire's not that bad yet.." Roy complained.

"New roofing paper and shingles huh? Best kind
of tinder.." Cap said.  He returned to the engine
cab and told L.A. exactly what they had and
to turn off the power and the gas service
to Roy's side of the street.

Roy turned his eyes back onto the sight of his
house burning. "Oh, man.. When I find out
how this got started.."

Vince Howard pulled up in the squad car and
dragged out an errant nine year old boy that
Roy recognized.

DeSoto hissed. "Butch, don't tell me. A tennis
ball can launcher and lighter fluid.."

"What's that?" Cap asked.

"A thing the kids are doing nowdays. Homemade 
rockets which shoot tennis balls off from their
cans like a cannon ball in a cannon." Roy said
aiming a glare at the defiant neighborhood boy.

Vince nodded his head. "It's all over his clothes
and the dispatcher said that it was this little guy
who called it in. Probably because he thought
it would get him off easy."

Roy sighed. "But how are we gonna get off easy?
Meanwhile, my roof's burning through to the rest
of the house."

"Take it easy, Roy. The other tanker station's only
two minutes from here." Hank reassured his more
than agitated paramedic.

"No.." DeSoto said, thinking of something else
as he panicked.

"Yes.." Cap and Johnny reassured him. As yet,
Marco and Johnny hadn't moved from the street.
They were too worried about Roy.

"Wait!" Roy said, trying to come up with a 
solution to their burning roof with no water 
problem.

"What?" Cap and Johnny and Vince asked.

"There's a pond next door. Can we rig a
water pump to it to extend the gallons we got?"
Roy asked Cap.

"I don't know. Stoker knows what the engine can
or can't do that way."

"How about a helicopter water drop?" Johnny asked
seriously.

"In the city?!" Cap and Roy both exclaimed 
incredulously.

"I'm trying to help us out here!" Johnny said
in defiance, removing his helmet and running fingers
through his hair.

Roy said. "I know that.. I'm trying, too, but I'm freaking
out so bad I can't think straight."

"Why did you think Cap had me drive?" Gage said.

"Hey, Gage. You insisted on driving. "Cap interjected.
"Point fingers where the blame really is." he said with
a half grin, the first since the crazy call went out.

Just then, a part of the roof caved in, dragging all
of their attentions back to the urgent matter at
hand.

"Cap..." Roy whined.

Cap lifted his HT. "Station 51 to Station 127. What's
your ETA? Our fire may be burning through to the second
story."

Roy quailed.
"Oh, no.. The second story? That's all our bedrooms.
All those toys! All those antiques we had in the attic!
Gone!" Roy said, running fingers through his thinning 
hair.

"Don't worry, Roy.." Lopez said, jogging by with
another hose stretched out to run to Truck 127 when
she got there. "That's what homeowner's insurance is
for."

"I don't wanna have to sue the fire department for
negligence to cover all this.." Roy panicked again.

"You can sue the fire department?" Kelly asked.

"No.." Cap said.

"Yes." Stoker said.

"Wait!"

"What?!" said all of them. 

"My house is still burning here.." Roy said.

"We know that.."

"Well, let's get cracking.." DeSoto snapped.

Roy started to go towards the house
to begin the ventilating it when Cap stopped
him. "You're sitting this one out. You're in no
shape to handle any of this.."

"What do you mean I'm not in any shape to 
handle this?" DeSoto said, pulling free of
Cap's grip on his jacket. "It's my house."

"Exactly.." Cap said. "Stay here.. Tell Truck 127
what's going on when they get here. Let's go
you three. Looks like no SCBA's are needed yet." 
and he and Johnny and Marco dashed into the 
house to see what they could do with fire hooks 
and axes to slow the progress of the growing 
roof fire to keep it from getting into the walls.

Cap trusted Johnny to know the rooms and
where the stairwell was to the upper floor.
He and Marco followed Gage, taking the stairs
two at a time to where the smoke was
billowing through the ceiling. It had not
yet broken through from the attic to the
rooms below.

A thick curtain of smoke hung near the floor
however and it brought a thought to Johnny's
mind. "Oh, no. Cap. What kinda pets does
Roy's kids have?"

"A cat. I think." Cap said.

"A cat?"  

"Yeah." Marco replied.

"I don't know cats very well. What would
they do in a fire?" Johnny asked.

"They'd hide.." Cap said. "Ours hides during
thunderstorms."

"Smoke's real thick. Roy's kids'll be real upset
if we let this roof fire kill him with smoke."
Gage said with a pained expression.

"What do you expect me to do?" Cap said.
"The house comes first."

"Cap, I can look for him.." Marco said.
"You and Johnny can stay in here and
see what you can pull down to slow
the fire up there.."

"Sounds like a plan. Keep a lifeline on
ya.." Cap said.

"What's his name?" Marco shouted over
the noise Johnny was making as he pulled down
a part of the ceiling that felt hot and ready to catch
fire.

"What's who's name?" Cap asked.

"The cat's."

"Calico.."

"Calico, like the horse from the kid books?"

"Yeah.."

Marco set off through the knee deep smoke
with his fire hook. "I'll tug if I need ya.." said
Lopez, shouting behind him as he hurried
down the hall.  He left Johnny and
Cap where they were and he set off to the first
room at the end of the long passageway. 

It was a girl's room.  Marco felt the door there 
carefully before he opened it. He also swept a 
foot through the thick smoke hanging on the floor
searching for a litter box to give him a hint
where the cat might favor as a hiding place.

He didn't feel the door was anything other than
room temp so Marco opened it. "Calico? Here
boy. You in here?"

Lopez rushed into the room, tipping over
the kid's desk and desk chair, and the kid's bed, 
looking for the cat. "Calico?"

He stumbled over a Barbie's Airplane Stewardess
Playset. He kicked it aside. He ripped the curtains
down to make more evening sunlight cast into
the room. "Hey..Gato. It's time to leave.."

On a thought, Marco deemed it safe enough to open
wide the bedroom window where he was, to provide
a way out should Roy's kid's cat be still in the little
girl's room he had found.

Marco turned around and went for a second door.
Roy's master bedroom. Lopez couldn't help but smile
when his attempt to flip the bed in his search revealed
that the piece of furniture he held was actually a 
water bed. ::Joanne's wish no doubt.::  He only blinked
once when he ripped the sheets and pillows off of it 
looking for Calico, when a silky fire engine red teddy 
drifted down from off his gloves.

Marco gulped in ultimate embarrassment and he
stuttered. "C-Calico. Come on, kitty.. Get out here.
Daddy's outside.."

Lopez again cracked a window open safely and
left.

The last room on the right side was Chris's
room. Marco again felt the door frame for heat
and opened it carefully, hugging the wall.

He entered and immediately heard a rustling
that couldn't be explained by anything else
other than a burrowing cat. "Where are you?"
Lopez said moving towards the sound.

The sound stopped and the smoke rose higher
up Marco's legs. It wasn't yet hot enough for
the smoke to rise to the ceiling.

Marco got on his HT. "HT 51 to Engine 51." he
hailed, knowing that Cap would answer from
down the hall.

##Go ahead.##

"Found him. He's in the third room on the right.
The boy's room. Somewhere.."

##Johnny'll  be right there. He's following your 
rope.##

Marco saw Gage appear almost instantly since
the paramedic knew the layout of Roy's house
very well. "Where is he? This smoke's getting 
kinda thick by this carpetting."

"Over here somewhere. Thought I heard some
rustling.."

Both Gage and Lopez dug around the murky
layer of smoke hanging above the floor and
they tossed aside.. a base ball bat, a jumping
ball, a tinker toy tower, and a toy fire engine
that blasted its airhorn in their faces when it
took to the air.  

Johnny and Marco smirked at that one, then
turned to the business at hand. "Calico?"

Their gloves swept the floor beneath where the
pile of kid's toys had been and hit a body.
"Found him." Gage said, lifting up the limp
cat.

Marco and Johnny looked up at a knocking 
on their window. It was a man from Truck 127
on a ladder leading up to them.
"And there's Calico's ticket outta this smoke."
Lopez said, cradling the unconscious cat
in his arms.

Johnny opened the bedroom window and
handed Calico out to the masked fireman
on the ladder.

"You two, ok in there? I saw the flying
toys. Thought you might need a hand."
said the man from County.

"We're fine. Take this cat. He belongs to
one of our firefighter's kids."

"He breathing?"

"Don't know."

Johnny handed out the limp Calico to
the ladder man and briefly saw him
set his airmask over Calico's face before
the billowing blue curtains shut.

Gage and Lopez reversed their direction
and got out of the house, knowing that
Cap was now coordinating what Engine 51
and Truck 127 could do with their two water
supplies to combat the roof fire.

Cap decided things looked good. The fire
had stayed in the attic.


Down on the street, Roy saw a familiar station
wagon drive up. "Joanne! " he shouted and
he left the curbside to softened the blow
for her and the kids of seeing their house
smoking and receiving two firehoses worth
of water into the attic story.

Joanne and Roy's kids met in a tight knot
of hugs as they caught up on events and soon
his daughter piped up. "Daddy, did Calico get
out?"

Roy honestly didn't know. And he kicked himself
for not thinking of him sooner. 

Right then, a ladder man from Truck 127 walked
up and said, "I believe he belongs to you, little
miss.." he said with a grin.

"Calico..." Roy's daughter sobbed and she
gathered up the smoky, now awake cat into
her arms and started crying.

Roy's paternal and paramedic instincts both
kicked in. "There. Looks like he's all right.
Why don't you let daddy check him out.
Looks like Uncle Johnny's already got some
02 and a plastic sheet already set out
for him.." Roy said to his relieved family
to calm them down even more.

He helped his daughter carry Calico over
to the squad for his smoke inhalation
treatment.

Cap nodded with satisfaction as he
watched Johnny examine and give
Calico some 02 to help him recover
faster from his near suffocation.
He tapped Roy on the shoulder.
"Looks good.."

"No, it still looks bad.." Roy grinned
about the house.

Cap grinned, too. "The fire's completely
out. We're just moving in some ppv's to
clear out the smoke in there. The stuff never
got downstairs at all so there's very light smoke
damage. And only the attic rafters and the roof
burned. We were lucky this time.."

"Yeah. I guess so. I had those attic timbers
treated last fall with fire retardant."

"Good thing.." Cap nodded. "Take your
time here. I called us out with Station 127 until
the cleanup's complete. And I made sure
those hose guys are keeping the water damage to
a minimum.."

"Appreciate it, Cap."

"No problem.. Do you need a place for you,
Joanne and the kids to stay tonight? I've
heard Johnny's place is a little too small."

"Nah, I think I'll take em to a hotel.
A Howard Johnson's with a swimming pool.
We might as well turn this whole thing into
a mini vacation."

"Sounds like a plan." Cap said. "Your cat ok?"

"Yeah, Johnny's just ventilating him a bit
before Joanne takes him to the vet's for a 
checkup."

"ok, pal. Sorry this crazy day had to turn out
like this, but if your roof had to catch fire, this
is the best outcome. I'll be right back for your
scene info on what you know of this Butch
kid and his fondness for incendiaries."

Roy's face fell into annoyance and anger for
only two seconds before the sight of his
daughter and Chris hugging Calico wiped
it away.

---------------------------------------------------------

All the guys, including Roy had just cleaned
up in the bathrooms when Chet noticed something
drifting in the air behind him while he teased his
curly hair into shape with his pick. It was a white
feather of all things.

"What th-?" he exclaimed. "Hey guys, get in here.
Either we got another pigeon in the roof top
ventilation fan or somebody here's suddenly moulting
flight feathers.."

Cap and the gang came, half dressed from the locker
room into the bathroom. Chet pointed to yet
another feather drifting down into the still night
air. All of their jaws slacked open and they all
began to follow the trail of fallen feathers slowly.

The trail ended up in the bunkroom.

"Oh, no..." Kelly exclaimed. "Not again..!
Where am I gonna sleep tonight...?" he asked.

The gang cracked up when they saw a sleeping
exhausted pile of three very familiar dogs amid
shredded sheets, blankets and a pillow lying on
Chet's bunk, haphazardly.

"Bonnie? Boot?" Cap asked. "What are they doing
here?"

Johnny cracked up. "Well now we know what Ol
Henry was up to earlier this afternoon. Looks
like he wanted a slumber party or something
and all that baying was just invitation.. Our
little mystery is solved."

The gang tiptoed out to let Henry and his
friends nap in peace. They could swear all three
were grinning. 

Roy said, "Come on, Chet. Let's go grab
some coffee."

"Hang on, hang on. Guys, we still got a little
problem here. Where am I gonna sleep tonight?"

Gage said. "I dunno. How about you taking over...
Henry's place.."

The gang cracked up as they left Chet to frown
over the three snoozing, liberally feathered
dogs.

"What a crazy day.." Kelly mumbled, but finally
he began to chuckle. "Henry, I know how you
feel. I could have been tarred...and feathered today
if you had not waited an hour or two. Oh, well.
See you guys in the morning.."

He quietly shut off the bunkroom main light
as he left.

Chet Kelly shuffled off to the kitchen, kicking
through the fallen layer of soft white feathers
like a kid through autumn leaves.

-------------------------------------

Photos : None.

******************************

***This current episode has just begun.
***Keep watching here daily for episode
***installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

----------------------------------------------------

To view the following, YOU MUST ENTER...

User ID : voyagerliveaction

Password : tunemein


After clicking the link..

**(This password will change regularly to
thwart non member visitors. Necessary
to control soaring bandwidth levels.
Watch your emails for updates.)**

----------------------------------------------------


To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fullmoonblues1.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fatherandson1.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/juxtaposition1.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/withinsight1.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------
To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/integritygame1.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------
To see the sixth episode and what we did in
the month of March. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Six
The Golden Horn

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thegoldenhorn1.html
**Location to the Sixth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

------------------------------------------------------

Special Episode 2003..
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thefaceinthemirror1.html
**Location to a Special Episode launched at
the midpoint of our first theater season. Features a
theater host's written episode with images
and screengrabs following the storyline.

The Face In The Mirror..

_______________________________________

 This is the pre-production period for..


Episode Seven

Crazy Days 

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : 16 April, 2003.


============================

Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters.  

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..
==========================

            
            End Credits --  Episode Seven (First Season)

    :)   This episode is dedicated to Calico the cat, a loyal  :)
          and faithful friend to one. And to Spice, another
          warm and loving cat who's left this earth for
          the spirit world. May they both smile reading
          this episode.                                                      :)                                                                                


Guest Writers...
---------------

"Ziggy"                    ziggy@zootsplace.com
Sam Iam                  lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Roxann Dawson        laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Linda Taggatz          doc 51@att.net
Fran Catrair             taleaone@yahoo.com
 
 
**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Storyline Technical Consultants
--------------------------------

Patti Keiper        Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota
Lt. Stuart C. Burrows   Haz Mat Coordinator  Paramus Fire Dept, NJ 
  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live :)

To Paul's Ultimate Crown Fire Apparatus Website
http://www.crownisking.org/
For images and information regarding LACoFD
repair shops and vehicles.

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
and Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

====================================

       Music for   Season One   Episode Seven

                    Crazy Days

-------------------------------------------------------------

Gemspace Midi by Amhad Cathcart 

Unlikely Midi by Maxime Tondreau

Space Explorer Midi by Junkman

Four Ways a Mystery Midi by Sami 

Rinoas Theme Midi by Alisha

Kenetic Percussion Midi by Rusty Reddin 


--------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   
----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    
____________________________________


  
The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Eight..  
      
     The Promise

Debut Launch: 15 May 2003.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

****************************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Working Like a Dog..  
Date : Thu, 22 May 2003 23:00:35 +0000  
   
 
It was nine o'clock.

Johnny Gage flew into the locker room whistling up
a storm. He was happy. He saw his partner, still
carefully unfolding his uniform socks like he usually
did each morning. He was sitting on the bench with 
his back to him and hadn't yet noticed Johnny's
arrival.

Gage he couldn't resist playing shave and a haircut 
over Roy's upper back and ribcage with a few well
placed finger drums in areas that sounded off musically.
On the last two notes of 'six pence,' Roy's chest 
echoes sounded off pitch sour and they made the blond 
haired paramedic cough in response. Johnny frowned.
"Ooo, Roy. You still got that bad cold? You sound
covered in your left lung, lower quadrant."

Roy just looked up and rolled his eyes. "It's not
pneumonia, just a little smoke inhalation from
that fire two days ago. You know as well as I do 
that I've been cleared for duty. And it's not a bad
cold. Bad colds on me always hit me in the sinuses, 
not my chest. You don't need to paramedic me to 
death over it. I always know how I'm doing by how 
I feel. And besides I sound a little bubbly, Dr. Early
tells me, because I'm a fireman." he grinned.

"Not like this.." Johnny said, thumping over Roy's
back once again over the tattle tailing area with
more raps. He dropped his hands into a tickling mode,
attacking his partner's waist on both sides. That made 
Roy cough liquidly when he laughed as he shifted ticklishly
away to avoid him. It soon set off a jag that got fairly
violent. "Uh, huh.. Not sitting in your chest, eh?"
Gage said challengingly with his hands angled on 
his hips. "I'll just bet this is bronchitis setting in. 
I can almost hear the precursors of rales from here, 
even bare eared."

"So now you're my self appointed doctor, too?"
Roy smirked, spitting up some phlegm into a tissue
that he produced out of his shirt pocket. He balled
it up and threw it away into a waste bucket nearby.

"No, I'm not your doctor. Just being a lookout." he
said seriously, still thinking about what he had
found on his friend.

"Yeah, well. I'll do anything to stop you from
attacking me with your trademark tickle assessment. 
You know I hate that. Took forever to get the kids
to stop doing it and something tells me you'll be even
harder to train to break ya of the habit." He said frankly,
tying his shoes neatly. "I can't miss another day of work 
since I got major bills to pay. Joanne's amniocentesis tests
alone were three hundred forty dollars. Tell you what, I'll 
work some O2 off the resuscitator before breakfast until 
the congestion eases to where you want it. Will that 
make you feel better?" he grinned in good natured 
compliance. 

John clapped his hands in celebrative success.
"Sure would, Pally. Don't wanna have to report ya to 
Cap trying to sneak to work early, still afflicted with 
water lung. Just as long as I can follow up afterwards
with a stethoscope for a listening or two." he added, 
putting on a winning smile when Roy rolled his eyes at 
the added black mail. "We can sneak the apparatus into 
the bunk room so Cap won't hear you using it. I'll tell 
him you... " Johnny said hunting for an excuse..
"...cut yourself shaving or something."

Roy chuckled. "That explains why I'll be late for
breakfast. What's your excuse?"

"Me? " Johnny gestured expansively. "Well, you know
how I always break my shoelaces. I do believe I broke 
both of them this morning, one right after the other for
trying to dress too fast yet again." he lied.

Roy got up from the bench as he threw on his shirt
and left through the door to go make his bunk up
for the day. "Sounds good." 

"Don't tuck your uniform in until we're through."
Johnny shouted after him. "I'll be right there!"

"Yes, mother.." DeSoto teased as he walked past 
Chet, who was working out with barbells in front 
of the engine on a mat. 

Kelly stopped when he overheard Johnny's comment.
Then he grinned when he figured it out. "Another
smoky chest cover up?"

"Must be to Johnny. I feel fine." Roy complained.
"So I'll play along. Don't want his sticking like a tick
syndrome to last all day."

"Yeah, know what you mean. I feel sorry for all the
victims you guys treat in the field. They have to put
up with Gage for the duration, when they're not
feeling too hot to boot." Chet puffed, beginning
another set of arm lifts from his stomach to his
chin.

Roy smirked in quiet amusement at Kelly's unique
view of paramedics. "They seem to get better faster
if I let him be the primary assessor. Why else do you 
think I'm always starting the IV's?"

Chet just shuddered. "Remind me to never get hurt
or sick when Gage's on duty, ok? That scenario's
just too unpleasant to even contemplate." he kidded.

"Ditto.." Roy said moving into the sleeping
room. "It's gonna take me all day to convince
him that I'm not infectious here." his voice
admitted, wafting out of the doors before they 
closed off his echoing reply.

Gage immediately stopped whistling as
he entered the vehicle bay and he
tip toed to the squad's side compartment
to open it. Then he reached inside after 
seeing the coast was clear. He noticed Chet
working out nearby, breathing heavily with effort
under the barbells in a difficult butterfly exercise.
"Kelly, you're blind for thirty seconds.." he
said without preamble.

"As a bat.." Kelly said, straight faced and
cooperative. "I'll even deflect Cap if we
have to rapid stow it if a call goes out."

Gage double glanced in surprise but said
 "..'kay.." to instantly cover it. ::How the heck
did Chet figure that out so fast..:: he thought.
Then he shrugged. ::I can live with Kelly
being no obstacle for once. Something tells
me I'd better take advantage of it.::
"Let me know where they are on cooking,
would ya?"

"I'll be the cleverest man alive." Chet promised.

Johnny gingerly lifted out the O2 and jammed a 
burn blanket packet or two against the usually 
clangy oxygen cylinder so he could wheel it into 
the bunk room for Roy to use. Another hand, cracked
open the trauma kit where it sat in the compartment
rack, and he reached in and groped around until
he found the balled up stethoscope by feel alone.
Two seconds later, the squad was resealed up
and Gage disappeared into the depths of the
bunk room after Roy.

Kelly kept one ear on the kitchen door for
sounds of activity. He heard Stoker throw a
few strips of bacon on the counter top fryer.
"My.. that bacon smells good. Gimme six
Stoker. I'm really working up an appetite out
here.." He shouted to the gang gathered in
the kitchen. "So's Johnny and Roy. They'll
be right in to butter the toast.."

Johnny winced at Chet's lack of subtleness
and cringed. ::Thank goodness, Cap doesn't
get scheme sharp until he has his coffee and
I'm not smelling any of that brewing yet.::
"Here.. Roy.." he hissed in a whisper, parking
the O2 where Roy was leaning over making his
bed up with neat hospital corners. "Better hurry.
Kelly says the bacon's on."

Roy turned and surprised his partner when he
had a still snoozing Bonnie draped over his
forearm. "Maybe we outta use some of that 02
on her." he joked. "Even bacon's not rousing her 
outta her sleep this morning. Found her snoring
away on my pillow."

"I'm not surprised. She must've chased after
hundreds of Kelly's off target soft ball pitches 
in the yard yesterday while we practiced."
Johnny chuckled, taking the sleeping Yorkie
from Roy so he could begin his self treatment
off the mask.

Roy took a pull off the O2, coughing when he
felt the cool oxygen work its way down through
the raspy tight spots in his left lung. "About time
you guys started in. The tournament's next week."

Johnny scoffed and not mildly. "We woulda started
sooner if you hadn't changed your mind about joining
the team."

Roy sucked in another breathful of oxygen and coughed
to force it out again. "You know I couldn't be a part
of the games this year. Both kids are entering 
the little leagues. I've got games of my own to go
to."

John reconsidered as he stroked the sleeping
Bonnie's head and straightened the red ribbon
tied on a lock there. "I see your point. They come
first." he said gently. He adjusted Bonnie's head
on his arm so her loud snoring eased off into
light sighs and he wandered over to the desk
to give her a good brushing over with her wire
brush. "I might as well get her cared for, too,
while I can still get away with it." he said.

Roy laughed. "Smart move, doing it now while
she's still dead to the world. Didn't she almost
take off your finger at the second knuckle
last time you tried to brush her?"

Johnny set shushing fingers over his lips
as he sat down on Roy's bed to work her over
cautiously like a barber with a barely contained 
powder keg. "Just keep busy over there." Gage 
whispered. "I'm watching ya closely. Breathe in 
deeper, you're not getting enough alveolially." he 
snapped in irritation that was completely faked.

DeSoto complied with drawing in lungfuls so big, 
that his ribs cracked in protest, just to tease Gage. 

Johnny's mock stern expression likewise shattered
into a bubbling look of you-got-me back.

Laughing to himself, Roy thought. ::Some day, 
Junior.. You're going to be an absolutely wonderful
father. I'll make sure to give you plenty of contact
with the kids so you can hone those skills even
more.::

Bonnie remained oblivious to Johnny's
ministrations where she lay like a rag doll
on her back across the beige bedspread, still 
snoring softly.

------------------------------------------------------

Mike Stoker barely glanced up from his
cooking when another odd breakfast comment 
from Kelly out in the bay floated in to him. "Man, 
is he being a little too obvious or what?" he 
whispered to Marco, who was arranging fruit into 
a wooden bowl for the table.

"Yeah.." Lopez agreed. "I wonder what Gage and
DeSoto are up to."

They both shot glances at Cap, who remained
unaware of anything out of the ordinary as he 
opened the morning mail while he watched the 
daily morning show on the television set. He cut his 
finger on the edge of an envelope and cursed until 
Stoker whistled aloud to get his attention. 

Mike tossed the metal envelope opener Hank had 
left on the table earlier, back over through the air to 
him. 

"Thanks, pal. I'll get a bandaid for this later."
Captain Stanley continued to pour over the bills
while Marco and Stoker kept nervously watching
the door for the tardy Roy and Johnny.

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.You're back a 
day early because of an amniocentesis bill?" 
Johnny asked belatedly. 

Roy nodded reluctantly. Shy.

"You mean to tell me you two are expecting again 
and you didn't bother to tell any of us about it?"

Roy pulled away the O2 mask sheepishly. "What's
to tell? I-I..I mean, a new baby on the way isn't all
that important an event to even share here
at work. Especially with this being our third."

"Whatdiya mean not important, Roy? You're forgetting
that we all didn't know ya yet when your other two kids
were born. Thanks for excluding us from the news,
buddy. Makes us feel real welcome and chummy here."
Johnny complained.

Roy played with the resuscitator in his hands. "Sorry.
Didn't think you, or any of the guys would be interested 
in family matters."

Johnny scoffed as he put away Bonnie's brush and
began the long task of untangling her head ribbon
and rubber band to replace them with a brand new 
red one, all without disturbing her rest. 
"How can we not be interested in your life, Roy? 
We know about Marco's sweet little enchilada cooking
mother. And Chet's prankster sister and Cap's nagging
wife..."

To each, Roy nodded honestly. 

But then Gage spoke again. "And and..and you 
guys even get to hear all about my dates I go on 
every week."

Roy didn't say out loud what he was thinking.
::Yeah, we sure do. Intimate details of all fifteen 
crash and burns logged to date in Johnny's
little black book. ::  What he actually said out
loud was. "Didn't think you wanted to know
about things like that. The pregnancy with new baby
thing's kinda boring to anyone who's not married."

"So.. What's that got to do with anything? So
what if Stoker, Marco, me and Chet are still
swinging single. We can still care about our crewmates
AND their wives. Geesh. Give us the benefit of
a doubt. We're friends, aren't we?"

"I get constantly reminded of that." DeSoto
quipped, hefting up the flowing O2 mask he still
had in his hands.

"So tell us all about how Joanne and the baby
are doing over breakfast when we're through here."
he suggested.. " or I'm gonna break the good news 
FOR ya." Gage said, putting on his stethoscope. 
"Now lean over with your elbows on your knees
and fold your T shirt up. I'm gonna listen to ya 
while you're taking that in some more."

Roy went through the whole rigmorale, breathing
when ordered and holding his breath too, as Johnny 
got aural information of how his left lung was faring 
under the cleansing onslaught of the O2 treatment.

Another minute went by with an edge of dizzyness 
setting in from the rich air intake, when Johnny 
announced. "Ok, you're through. That crackling's gone 
for now. We'll do this same thing tonight before lights
out and maybe post rescue once more if we have to go 
into a fire today." he said in full medical mode.

"If you say so. Bye.." Roy said, tossing down the mask.
He scrubbed Bonnie's sleeping head once and
made haste for the kitchen and the food that
was a becoming a serious siren's call in his nostrils.

"Hey! Aren't you gonna help me clean up here?"
Johnny protested, indicating Bonnie's hairy brush,
abandoned old ribbon and the O2 apparatus.

"Nope."

---------------------------------------------------------------
Roy was halfway through emptying 
his plate when Johnny ambled in distractedly for
his own morning meal.

Marco and Stoker immediately began motions of drawing
rings around their necks at Gage and looking urgent.

Roy frowned, not immediately catching on and his
active chewing slowed.

His crewmates broke off their antics immediately 
when Cap came over from the rec side of the room 
to sit down in his customary chair by the station wall 
phone. 

Johnny was retrieving his eggs eagerly from
the pan on the stove, so he missed all the warning
hints from the rest of the gang. Roy missed them, 
too, still intent on smothering the hunger pains
in his stomach that had been sharpened by his
use of the O2.

It was too late when Roy finally noticed what Marco
and Stoker and Chet had been frantically hinting 
about.

Cap didn't even blink when his eyes caught it.
He glanced down again to fill his empty plate. 
"Nice stethoscope round your neck there, Johnny. 
Just be sure to have whoever it is you saw just now, 
run by Rampart on your next resupply for a doctor's 
check up to confirm what you ruled in or out."

"Uh," Johnny stammered. He hastily pulled off the
tattling device and coiled it up onto the table guiltily.
"Yessir.."

"And next time. I wanna know about it, too. First,
before anyone else when you decide to examine
someone for signs of trouble."

Johnny nodded, rendered mute with instant remorse.

Roy admitted. "He was looking at me, Cap. 
Tamped lung. We've just cleared it out with O2."

Johnny and Chet and Marco and Stoker all glared
at Roy for blowing their carefully crafted cover.

Cap just kept on chewing. "Glad we got one honest
fireman here this morning. Gage you got the can 
detail later for hiding him from me."

"Aw, Cap.." Roy immediately protested. "It's not
his fault. I just couldn't stay home another day
without pay. My sick leave was all used up when I 
got electrocuted a month ago while that trainee was 
here. If you punish anyone, punish me. It's my fault
for not levelling with ya on the phone last night
when ya called on how I was doing."

"Ok. You got mop detail. Vehicle AND kitchen floors.
And the next time you stifle a physical symptom from
me or Gage, you'll get a formal reprimand, is that
clear?" Cap said.

"Y-Yes sir.." DeSoto nodded, not daring to chew.

"Last thing I need is a weakness in the man power 
chain I don't know about, Roy. I thought you guys knew
well enough to tell me ahead of time whenever 
someone's not feeling one hundred percent ship 
shape so I can make plans for safety to cover for ya."

"Sorry, Cap. I was thinking about my paycheck
and not my own well being for a bit there."

"Oh... New baby on the way, eh?" Cap said, 
immediately dropping his disciplinarian air.

All the guys around the table just about choked
on their eggs.

"What? Why did ya keep us in the dark about it?"
"Roy, that's terrific.."
"Wow.. number three."
"What do ya want this time? A boy or girl?"

Roy held up defensive hands to those
upset by not finding out sooner. "I- I- I just
didn't think anyone would be interested,
that's all, so pipe down and stop looking like
I kept a secret from ya. Cap. How did you know
we were pregnant here?"

"I did the same hiding symptoms stunt with
my captain when I had pregnancy check up
bills to pay too. Only I tried to hide a sore
shoulder and not a phlegmy chest. How IS 
he doing, Gage? Give it to me straight."
Hank said, glaring at Johnny, piercingly
changing the subject.

"Just fine, Cap." Johnny mewed. "Now.."
he glared at Roy.

DeSoto threw up his hands. "Glad 
we're so chummy. I'm fine. Joanne's
fine. Baby number three's fine. So can
we get back to eating now that the
hard talk and the small talk's over? 
I'm starving here."

Cap's eyebrows rose in amusement.
"Don't let me stop ya.."

Arff!  barked Bonnie as she arrowed into
the kitchen after the scent of bacon.

Cap noticed her new hairdo. "Ohmyg*d. Gage..
Pigtails? She looks like one of the Dale
Singers from Hee Haw.."

"Well... I had to make my move while
she was still out. I was rushing a little.
Had to watch her and Roy, too. You can
always try and cut em off while she's eating
but I don't think you'll get anything by her
now that she's conscious. Heh."

"I didn't need watching.." Roy complained.

"Yes you did.." Cap and Gage said together.
They both eyeballed each other and Johnny
cleared his throat uncomfortably, despite
of the fact that Cap's and his thoughts about 
Roy's health status being identical.

Right then, full response tones rippled
out of the overhead speaker.

"Saved by the bell.." Gage mumbled,
heading for the door. He was jogging for
the garage full tilt when Bonnie barked 
to remind him to pick up something he had 
forgotten.

Johnny skidded back to his seat long
enough to grab an armful of fruit to
hand out to the guys and his bundled
stethoscope.

Cap's authoritative voice rang out.
"Roy, if this is a fire call, you're
on the engine pumps. Stoker'll take
your place until you're needed with
any medical emergencies."

DeSoto sighed and just nodded.
But his humor was intact. "Does
this mean I'll get the engineer's rate
of pay?"

"Funny man.." Hank hollered back from
the alcove as he wrote down the response
call's address and type. "I'll see what
I can swing for you.."

The gang fell silent as they geared up
into turncoats and piled into the engine
and squad for the roll out as Sam outlined
details of the current soon to be reality run.

## Station 14, Battalion 9, Station 8, Station 51.
Foam Truck 127, Battalion 14. Truck overturn
and structure collapse. Pacific Coast Highway
and Ventura Freeway. PCH and Ventura Freeway.
Mile Marker 16. FD on scene reports freon is
involved. Timeout 09:23.##

"Oh, great.." Cap groaned sarcastically
when he heard what chemical had been spilled. 
The run would be a major nightmare.

"Station 51, KMG 365.." Hank acknowledged
on the radio before hanging it up again onto
its spigot. "Ok, gang. You heard the man. Let's roll. 
Get ready to gear up full SCBA and chem suits. 
No doubt Haz Mat's gonna be meeting us there."

He caught one of the oranges Gage threw at
him to eat on the way and three more for
Chet, Stoker and Lopez. He began peeling
Mike's to give to him piece by piece while
he drove so none of them would have to
go tackle a major rescue while hungry.

---------------------------------------------------------

When Station 51 arrived on scene, their jaws
literally slacked opened. They couldn't believe
what their eyes were telling them.

One look explained it all. A huge storage
tower, toppled from a roadside construction
site had landed on top of the freeway.

One of the worst motorist reactions Cap
and the gang could see had been from a 
semi driver, whose rig skidded forty five to 
the right angle and had impacted the concrete 
viaduct crossing over the PCH. 

That bridge was now partially collapsed
on top of the tower and truck. Luckily, only
three cars were involved, but many many
construction personnel were either DOA
or only slightly injured.

It looked like a triage area was only just
starting. Hank spied Batallion 14, set up a 
safe distance away from the chemical smoking
collapse scene. He was uncharacteristically
in full SCBA and suit gear carrying a plastic
wrapped HT in one hand. He was issuing commands
from his car's mic in the other over the loud
horn and radio frequency to all the arriving
units.

##Station 51. Approach upwind to the
north side. Use the right most emergency lane.
CHP reports it's been cleared of fatalities. A 
construction site manager is claiming they have 
one of their men missing. See if you can locate 
that victim, then assist Truck 127 in laying down 
a protective foam over that semitrailer. The driver
reports it's carrying liquid freon. We're still 
determining what other chemicals were stored 
in the tower. Stay clear of all visible spills and 
keep your air masks on at all times. Move any 
effected victims one half mile clear before 
rendering aid. Think of yourselves first. This
is a Hazardous Triage Priority Protocol Scene.##

##Station 51, 10-4, Battalion 14.## Hank replied.

Captain Stanley issued secondary commands to 
his engine crew and squad paramedics. Soon, 
they were all masked and roped and hose geared, 
walking cautiously, deep into the frightening grip of 
a full fledged, highly dangerous disaster scene.

Chet's face was devoid of any light hearted
mischief and he was all working firefighter in a way
that rivalled Stoker's usual quiet professionalism.

Roy began to wish he had stayed at home with
Joanne's late first trimester nausea.

Soon something happened that got Roy 
and Johnny's and Marco's immediate attention.

A man was........
------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Bonnie with a red ribbon.

Photo : Roy and Johnny listen by the ER drugcase.

Photo : A water tower down in a parking lot.

Photo : An overturned semi under a highway bridge.

Photo : Johnny and Roy with tanks on.
 
********************************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : In Deep  
Date : Mon, 30 Jun 2003 22:00:43 +0400  
   
 
Tandem post with Leoseven@msn.com "John Allen" and 
Killashandrarey@hotmail.com "Cassidy Meyers" via email 
tennis. 

Acknowledgements to P. Keiper NREMT for Freon Consult 
in the Theater Files and Symptomology. 
 
 
 .......staggering toward them, from about 50 yards away 
obviously dazed and confused. 

Just as Roy and Johnny started jogging 
over to the injured man, a call came over the HT. 

##Engine 51 to HT 51. Marco, this is Cap. I need 
you with me.."## 

"10-4 Cap, I'm gum on your shoe." Marco replied. 

Lopez and the sunlit glow of his yellow bottle disappeared 
deeper into the tangle of fallen metal struts under 
the rising debris dust cloud surrounding them. 

Johnny looked at Roy, shaking his head, and 
gave him a look as if to say 'where does he get 
these expressions?' as they jogged over to 
the disoriented man. 

Roy and Johnny reached the stricken man just in 
time to each grab an arm to keep him from 
falling down backwards, as he blacked out. 

"Whoa there, we gotcha." Johnny reassured him, 
shouting through his SCBA and facemask. Roy 
and Johnny cradled his upper body and head 
deftly. The two fire fighters exchanged a look in 
mutual recognition that they had once again been 
in the right place at just the right time but as quickly, 
their expressions died away into those of fear. 

A nearby high pitched hissing made Gage and DeSoto 
break out into a sweat. "Let's get him outta here." 
Roy said urgently. 

Johnny gave a head nod of silent agreement and 
they began moving with the man to a far safer, 
upwind location. Other firemen joined them from 
the road in carrying him to a hastily erected triage 
location as they hurried out of the immediate area. 

They neared the squad and the engine and 
Cap came jogging over to them. 

"Johnny, Roy. Where'd you find this man?" Cap 
inquired with concern, shouting through his 
air mask. 

"He just appeared about a 150 yards back that 
way." Roy replied, motioning with his head over 
to the spot where they had seen him first. 

"I'll just bet he's our missing construction crewman. 
Let me know when and if he regains consciousness. 
He might be able to clear up matters faster than I 
can." Cap ordered. 

"Sure thing, Cap." Roy replied as they laid the man 
down on a tarp that had been placed on the dirt 
for them by Marco. Roy proceeded to check the 
limp man's vitals and breathing status 
while Johnny went to grab the gear. 

Cap clicked on his HT. "Engine 51 to L.A." 

##Go ahead 51.## 

"On report of a missing construction worker, 
we have located one male, alive, but unconscious. 
Please advise construction foreman and get a 
description so we can verify that we have their 
man, over." Hank shouted through his SCBA. 

## 10-4, Engine 51, we copy your advisement 
and will transmit description as soon as we have 
it.## 

"Copy L.A."  Through somewhat squinted eyes, Captain 
Hank Stanley surveyed the scene and shook his head. 
Teams of firefighters waited at the edge of the accident 
scene while Hazmat crews and trucks swarmed over 
the tangle of twisted tower and truck, searching for other 
hot spots and freon sources. He saw one hazmat team 
gesture quickly for a hose team to wash down a pile of 
seagreen canisters that had tumbled out of 
the tipped over semi. Almost immediately he saw 
a curt double hand signal go out about two fatalities they 
had located by the truck and Hank felt a thrill of horror 
shoot through him even though he couldn't see anything 
from where he stood. "What a mess." he expressed with 
noted dismay and a hint of frustration.. 


Roy and Johnny were busy assessing the fallen 
man thought to be their missing worker. 

"Johnny, Roy? How is our mystery man doing?" 
Cap asked, looking away from the involved 
overpass and viaduct and back towards his men. 

Just then the man on the tarp began to regain 
consciousness where he lay on his side. 

"Sir, can you hear me?" Johnny asked as he caught the 
man's head in his gloves as he groggily rolled over 
onto his back. 

The man coughed and gasped for air as he awoke. 
"Y-" *cough* "Yes." replied the man. "Wh-?" 
he frowned at the sight of fully masked firemen 
kneeling over him. 

Roy spoke up. "Do you remember what happened 
to you? " 

"uhh-hg.." their victim moaned. 

"Sir, we need to know if anyone else was with you. 
Where were you? We've a site boss looking for a 
lost employee." Johnny said, leaning over into 
the man's face, holding his shoulders down so 
he couldn't rise. 

"And we have to find him A.S.A.P." DeSoto added.

Something of Roy's urgency communicated to 
the man and he spoke again, but in a slow slur. 
"I-I was standing over by the water tower, 
over there." the man said confusedly in his 
half out state. 

Johnny grabbed an O2 mask from a resuscitator tank 
a backup fireman in a hazmat suit had left by them 
only moments ago. He strung it, and set it around the 
man's head. "Sir, this oxygen'll help you out a lot. Just 
try to breathe this in evenly. Not too fast." 

The distressed man nodded, gripping the mask eagerly 
in trembling fingers and he struggled to breathe calmly. 

Gage shook his head and mumbled to himself. "Come on, 
wake up." Johnny looked up at Roy and tried a different 
way to get their badly needed information. "Sir, we know 
you're still groggy but we have to find out more about 
what happened around you. Others' safety may depend 
on it. What were you doing when the accident happened?" 

Still lying on his back, the man pointed wearily 
toward the place where Johnny and Roy had first 
seen him appear. But he didn't speak. He began to 
sag into a stupor. 

Gage grabbed a fold of skin on the man's neck and pinched 
firmly. "Hey,...Sir, were there any other people near you 
when the  tower fell?" asked Johnny loudly. 

The pain roused the man. "No. *Cough* I was alone. 
By a construction trailer?" he puzzled, his memory 
proving unclear. 

Roy set a glove on the man's shoulder. 
"Ok, just try to relax. We're paramedics with the Los 
Angeles County Fire Department. We're gonna check you 
out to make sure you're ok, all right?" 

The oxygen was doing its job and the man was 
into better color and mental clarity. This time, the 
nod of understanding came sooner. 

Roy began. "Sir, do you still feel light headed or 
dizzy?" Johnny asked. 

The bigger, heavily dusted man coughed. 
"Yeah, a little.  It was hard to breathe for a 
few minutes there. That gas was really strong." 

"Freon gas?" Johnny asked. 

The gasping man nodded. "Don't know what 
it's called. Just, whatever they were hauling on that 
truck!" he said, getting slightly agitated. 

"Easy.." Johnny said through his mask. "It's ok, you're 
away from there. Just take it easy." 

The man visibly fought being body uncomfortable and 
with effort, began to quell his chemical induced anger. 
Soon, he cooperated with his two rescuers even though 
it remained difficult for him to focus.  "Ugghh... smelled like 
ether. Nasty stuff." replied their victim and he began to 
shiver. 

Gage said. "Ok, we'll get you cleaned off and warmed 
up real soon. Just hang on. I'm gonna get a blood 
pressure off your arm here, all right?" 

The restless man nodded and stopped thrashing his 
limbs. "Fine. Just hurry up, mister. I feel like crap." 

Roy picked up the biophone and shouted loud 
enough to be heard through his breathing apparatus. 
"Rampart, this is Squad 51." 

##This is Rampart. Go ahead 51.## replied Kelly 
Brackett. 

"Rampart, we have a conscious male, age 35-40. He's 
recently regained consciousness on his own after heavy 
exposure to confirmed freon gas. He's experiencing some 
light headedness and dizziness. 

##What are his vitals, 51?## Dr. Brackett asked. 
A tinge of worry slipped into his voice when he recognized 
his paramedic speaking through full containment gear. 

Roy replied as Johnny called them out to him in relay. 
"Vitals are: BP 98 palpated. Respirations are 22 and 
shallow. Pulse is 100 and slightly irregular." 

Back at the base station, Dr. Brackett finished 
taking the information down into his notes. 
##Okay, 51. Put him on 15 liters O2 as near to 
100% as you can if you haven't already and remove 
any contaminated clothing for a thorough washdown. 
  But before he gets wet, send us a strip. I want to be 
sure that those cardiac arrythmias are from the freon and 
not from a newly occuring M.I. Get a detailed medical history. 
Note any preexisting cardiac or pulmonary disease. Positive 
findings on those will change my treatment plan. 
  Roy, under no circumstances, are you to use epinephrine 
on him or any other freon exposed victims at your scene no 
matter what the cardiac situation. Freon's a myocardial 
irritant and any adrenaline type compound entered into 
their tissues will have the ability to kill them in short order. 
If that kind of situation arises, I'll advise other 
parasympathetics for your use. Start an IV of normal 
saline, maintain a good airway and continue a close 
monitoring of his vital signs. Treat for that developing shock. 
Also, be sure to check him thoroughly for signs of frostbite. 
Treat any you find later en route, after you've prepared him 
for transport. ## 

"10-4 Rampart, 100% O2 with a full chemical washdown. 
Starting an IV NS. Please stand by for his EKG. " he nodded 
at Chet, who had replaced Marco to aid Johnny and Roy 
in their patient care. Kelly began cutting away the man's 
clothes for leads placement. Soon all was ready and Roy 
got Chet's all set nod about the monitor. 
"This will be on lead two, Rampart." Roy shouted. We'll 
inform you of any pertinent medical history. 10-4, Rampart, 
on the epinephrine ban, we'll treat for shock and do a 
frost bite check. Understood that further treatment is 
en route." Roy parroted. 

Dr. Brackett sighed. ##51, do you know how many casualties 
you have at your location?## 

"Not yet, doc. The area's still in chaos. But our 
numbers could be substantial. Looks like a filled five story 
water tower collapsed on an occupied construction site and 
parking lot as well as on top of part of the northbound 
freeway system here." Roy replied. 

Dr. Brackett grimaced and sighed. ##10-4, 51.## Kel finished 
his studying the down man's EKG strip and he turned off 
the machine. ##51, I'm reading nominal elevations in 
his ST segments. Looks like the 02 is easing his abnormal 
rhythm. I am confirming a lack of medical cardiac involvement. 
Looks like this is just the gas doing a number on him. 
Also, from here on out. During this crisis, you have 
my permission to treat first and ask questions later. This 
goes for all medical situations. Use the protocol you know 
for guidelines. I'll take full responsibility for your actions. 
Our radio communications will most likely get unreliable 
as operations progress over there..## 

"10-4. Rampart." Roy answered. Both he and Johnny began to 
relax as the man's potential coding risk was ruled out as 
being very unlikely. 

"Ok, Kelly, start the washdown." Gage shouted to him 
and the other firemen gathered around him. 

Chet began playing a brisk hose over the man's body 
and skin as others in waterproof suits rolled him from 
side to side to get full coverage. 

Hank kicked a sandbag back into line as the run off from 
the man channeled down in a made path to the base 
of a broad sand pile at the edge of the construction site. 
::The freon will soak into this sand and Hazmat'll be able to 
barrel it and haul it away.:: 

Gage kept up reassurances to his patient as he 
guarded the man's airway with a firm hold over 
his O2 mask and his face. The man had Johnny's 
gloves in a death's grip. "I know it's cold. Almost through. 
We've got to get any trace of that gas off your skin. Stick through 
ten minutes more of this and I promise you a pile of heated 
blankets once we're in the ambulance." he grinned cockeyed 
through his airmask. 

The man tried to laugh but consciousness fled and 
his eyes rolled up into his head. 

"Hold it! Hold it.." Gage told Kelly. He made 
sure the man was still breathing and slipped in 
an oral airway before switching the 02 mask for 
a demand valve. He began forcing oxygen into 
the man's tired lungs. "Ok, keep going, I got 
him secured." 

Chet continued the man's hose bath. 

Soon, the man was placed in a specially plastic 
lined and rigged Mayfair for his trip to Rampart. 

Johnny handed off the hanging IV and gave his verbal 
notes to the pair of paramedics inside 
who weren't wearing SCBA, being careful not to 
get the water running off his clothes onto the 
floor of the ambulance. "Careful, I'm contaminated 
with freon here." he told them. "Brackett wants 
to know of any COPD or cardiac history if he wakes 
up. Also, sweep for frostbite and treat. We found 
no injuries." 

Nearby, the air masked Cap spoke to the firefighter 
paramedics assigned to take over the man's care. 
"We've a tipped tanker that's burning over there so 
anticipate phosgene and hydrogen fluoride traces, too, 
on him." he informed, throwing a head at the unconscious 
man being carefully assistance ventilated by an 
ambulance attendant. "And get his name and occupation 
to me if you can. We've a missing man out here." 

"Right, captain.." replied the senior paramedic. 
"We'll broadband when we get in if he comes to." 

Gage closed the doors of the Mayfair and slapped 
it twice before backing away. 

As it departed, two teams of firefighters washed 
it down with hoses as it drove slowly out of 
the disaster area and onto the freeway. CHP motorcycles 
escorted ahead of it showing the traffic cleared 
route to the hospital through the maze of 
abandoned vehicles angled everywhere. 

Lopez jogged over from the Battalion Chief's car 
over to Hank, pausing first before entering the ambulance 
landing area to be briefly hosed down by perimeter 
hazmat firefighter crews. "Cap, I got our 
orders, just like you asked me to do. Chief wants 
us to enter ground zero of the water tower to start 
a victim search. The construction boss just 
told us a van filled with teens was joyriding in 
the back of his company lot just before the semi hit 
the tower. No one has seen any of them or the 
van since." 

"What does the van look like?" Hank asked, wiping water 
spray off his mask with a glove. "We might as well 
start there." 

"Uh,..." Lopez hesitated. 

"Well..?" Cap thundered. 

Marco peeped. "Have you ever watched 
Scooby Doo, Cap? The boss says it looks like 
that. Sort of purply technicolored." 

"Wonderful.. " Hank said sarcastically. "Gage. 
DeSoto. You heard him. Pack up your gear again 
and go. You're first in after the hazmat team 
checks out that end of the scene." 

"Right.." Gage said. "Chet, help me pack up this 
EKG monitor. Run it to us as soon as we're outta 
there with somebody." 

"You got it." 

Cap and Kelly started to turn back to 
the staging area when Roy stopped Hank. 
"Cap, when Johnny and I were in there. We heard 
some leaking gas. Sounded like a portable tank 
going off." 

"Where?" Cap said, whirling around to face 
the heart of the collapsed tower. 

"By a red pickup and a pile of pallets, Cap. 
I heard it, too. If I didn't know any better, I'd 
say the truck was unloading its payload AT 
the construction site when the water tower fell. 
The tanks I think I saw were already piled neatly 
outside the truck. They looked stacked about 
three or four rows high and nine deep." 

"Really.." Cap breathed in significance. "Chief'll 
love hearing this. Five times over the National 
Federal Standard trucking through the heart of 
L.A. judging from the number of tanks 
you're telling me about. Somebody's heads are 
gonna roll. But not from any resulting explosions 
from them that's for sure." and he hefted his HT 
to his faceplate. "This is Engine 51 to all units. A 
paramedic has reported leaking freon from a tank 
cache in the immediate vicinity of ground zero next to 
a red pickup truck. Watch yourselves." 

Immediately, Hazmat responded. ##HazMat Two to 
Engine 51.## 

"Go ahead Hazmat.." Hank answered via radio. 

##We've found the point source and more 
in a box car. We are cooling down with foam 
and fan spray. Your rescue men are clear to 
re enter the area.## 

"That was fast.." Chet remarked, wrapping 
the EKG leads back into the case rapidly. 

"They'd better be." Cap said. "There's too 
great a density of civilians and department 
personnel to monkey around with. Gage. 
DeSoto. Get going. Keep on your radios. 
Marco, Kelly. Go with them. If this van of 
kids was full we're gonna need a lot of man 
power. I'll have a team run with your gear 
soon as you spot anything. Carrying any will 
just slow you down." 

"Right, Cap." came everyone's reply. 


Johnny and Roy felt the hot sun on their backs 
and the wet coolness of the covering spray being 
blown on the wind from Hazmat's water curtains 
and shuddered as they retraced their steps from 
the victim decontamination area and back into 
the disaster zone. 

Gage whistled low under his breath as he 
spotted car after car that the water tower had 
levelled as it fell flat. He picked up a wooden 
board and banged three times on the hollow, still 
intact massive drum of the water tower. It answered 
back, still liquidy hollow. "Water's still in there, Roy. 
If that gives way..." 

"I know.. Just keep lookin.." DeSoto said through tight 
teeth. 

The four firemen rounded a turn after pushing aside 
metal debris and tangles of construction wire. 

They found where Hazmat was containing the leak 
Roy and Johnny had heard getting their first victim out. 
The foam was thigh deep and the water curtain thick 
over a box car full of powdered aluminum labels. 
"Oh, great.." Gage groaned. "Freon only reacts with 
metals of certain types and what do we get? A whole 
box car full of em.." 

"Think positive thoughts, partner.." Roy grinned. 

"Tryin to." Gage replied. 

Then there was a shout from Kelly just ahead. 
A gust of wind rose in a dust cloud making things 
hard to see. "On the double. Found one..!" Chet 
shouted. 

Marco, Johnny and Roy rushed forward to see Kelly 
kneeling over an asphyxiated girl on the ground whose 
hands were locked tightly over her own blue throat. 

Gage snapped his radio receiver over his mask 
and shouted. "Any available recovery team. We 
need a resuscitator to our 10-20. Now! Watch 
for my vertical hose spray!" and he snatched 
up a standby charged hose and shot a stream up 
over the debris dust cloud to mark their location. 

Short moments later. ##We see you. There 
in less than one.## came a Hazmat reply. 

Behind them, was the van of teenagers they had 
been seeking. It was partially buried by tower 
beams with a crushed roof. Looming overhead 
was the bulk of the unruptured ten thousand gallon 
water tower reservoir hanging right over the van 
and the whole mess was still creaking as its 
tremendous weight still crushed down closer 
to the ground. The moans grew louder 
when the van's flimsy roof gave way another 
six inches under its burden. 

Kelly, Marco and Roy knelt helplessly unable 
to do anything for the apneic girl with their 
SCBA masks still strapped to their faces. 

Chet started to take his off to do something 
active about that but Roy stopped him. 
"No! Your safety's first. We're downwind of 
those tanks and the burning truck. Wait. 
She's still got a carotid. We've got time." 

Marco ran the rest of the way to his gangmates 
and slammed to his knees at the top of the girl's 
head. "Roy?" He didn't like the fact that Roy 
and Johnny didn't yet have their gear nor the 
darkening cyanotic color forming over the young 
teen's features. 

"She's gotta pulse, Lopez." Roy said calmly tense. 

"Then she's only just resp arrested." 

"Looks like." DeSoto said, opening her airway 
further using a jaw thrust in prep for the airway 
and O2 that was on its way. 

Pounding footsteps and clattering O2 metal greeted 
them from the sunlit gloom. 

"Over here!" Gage said to a Hazmat man with 
the medical gear, dropping his hose and shutting 
it off. 

In no time, they had their resuscitator. 

Gage saw Kelly begin to use it around Roy's 
airway hold and he subconsciously held his 
breath until he saw the girl's chest rise. Once 
and again. A few ventilations later and the ominous 
cyanosis began to retreat. "Chet? She fighting you?" 

"Not at all." 

Gage reached into the small jumppack the firefighter 
had given him for an esophageal airway and a tube 
of lubricant. ::Thanks, doc, for the pre go ahead. We 
owe you one.:: 

As he waited for Kelly to hyperventilate the girl 
in prep for his airway insertion, John felt a sudden 
chill of recognition as the resuscitator mask was 
lifted off her face. A sudden memory flooded his 
mind's eye of a golden laughing smile and a baby 
gurgling happily on her mother's lap. 

"Oh, my g*d. I know this girl." Johnny blurted out 
to the others waiting for him to move.. 
"She's..............." 

-------------------------------------------

Photo:  A chemical victim being lowered to
           a tarp by Hazmat rescuers.

Photo:  Johnny and Roy by engine in full SCBA gear.

Photo:  Hazmat using foam and water curtains on a box
           car.

Photo:  A downed water tower in a construction parking lot.

Photo:  Masked firemen surrounding an asphixiated girl.

Photo: Johnny and Roy in masks in dusty gloom.

*********************************************************
From : "Champagne Scott" <chameleonkate@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Under the Shadow..  
Date : Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:36:27 -0500  
   
 ...Drew's wife...! This is Kelsey...." he whispered 
in shock. 

"What?!"  Chet shouted through his mask.
"You'd better concentrate on finishing up
there, pal. Her clock's ticking down. My
last vent on her was fifteen seconds ago..
sixteen... seventeen..."

"Oh, ...right.  ... uh..Roy?" Johnny asked numbly
looking to share his horrifying news.
But his air masked partner was listening
to something being said over the HT by
Cap and he didn't hear Johnny speak.

Numb with reaction, on autopilot, 
Gage gel'd up the EOA and threaded it down 
the unconscious woman's throat. He nodded 
to Chet to give her a couple of shots then 
remembered belatedly that he couldn't use a 
stethoscope to verify his placement of the tube. 
::Gonna just haveta watch for distention..:: he 
thought. ::Ohmyg*d, :: his mind shouted in
his head ::This is Kelsey!::

Unbidden, came a memory of Drew, his
friend the police officer, lying shattered
on the margin of the freeway under
his hands, and the crackling hissing ghost
of a broken frequency coming from the 
biophone. Johnny shook his head. 
::That was two years ago. Knock it off, man!
Gotta concentrate. It's SHE who needs me 
now.::

The sweaty steam on Johnny's face mask 
covered his shocked expression and only
Chet noticed the slightest hesitation as
Gage shakily followed up his intubation
by reconnecting the demand valve to the EOA 
that he was holding stable in his glove 
from where it jutted from her teeth.

Chet's voice sounded as if from a distance
through the roaring in Johnny's ears.
"Giving her four. Johnny let me know how
it feels." Kelly said, thumbing his first breath 
into the woman's lungs carefully. "Her
color's still good." he said peeling back
her lips to view her gums.

"Ok, ready.." Johnny felt his lips say.
Gage placed  gloves over her chest
and abdomen trying to feel for telltale gurgling
under one and chest rise under the other.
He counted three more rises under his right
one as he monitored her. He found he 
couldn't find his voice to tell Chet things were 
fine.

Cap's voice came over the HT, echoing eerily 
around the fallen tower's spidery debris field and the
shouts coming from the hazmat team as they 
struggled to seal off the freon leaks they had located 
near the area where Johnny, Chet and Roy were
working on the girl.
 
 “Engine 116, lay in from the hydrant on mile marker 
117 and hit  that rising gas vapor in a covering fan from 
the south. Engine  45, stage from the cleared part of the 
freeway and hit the box car from the west. Squad 45, do 
a primary search of the involved automobiles to the west  
of this location and make sure they've been evacuated. 

Truck 127. Set up to the east two hundred yards away
from the water tower. You’re gonna assist my men in attacking 
car fires in the area.” Hank crammed the HT back 
into his pocket, barely waiting for any acknowledgments. 

He looked up, spotting a masked and chem suited 
Marco waving at him. Hank turned toward his engineer, 
motioning vigorously. “Charge up a new line over Johnny 
Roy and Chet, Mike! They're working on a victim! 
Lopez? What's up?"

"Cap, I think I spotted the van that construction boss
told us about. It's directly under the water tower's drum
about sixty meters from here. Looks like things
are already settling around it."

"What?! There's no way a flimsy van'll 
keep its structural integrity under that much weight
pressing down onto it. Most of the water's
still inside of there.." Hank muttered. His
furlative in-command glance turned into one of
deep worry through his mask as he eyeballed
Chet and the two paramedics working to ventilate
the girl.  He shouted, realizing that a ton of
of help would be needed to emergency
evac everyone from the van Lopez had
found.  "Kelly.. Front and center. Gage can 
take over for you.. We're gonna need 
a lot of manpower to get those kids out of the van."

"Right, Cap.." Kelly rose and Gage took his
place. "It's all good first time, Johnny. They're
going in nice and smooth.." he said of
his quickened ventilations he was giving
the woman. "Here.. Take this. Cap wants me
for somethin.." Chet, in his chem suit and mask, 
readjusted the heavy weight of his air bottle 
under it, with a  groan. "I'll be right back...." he 
promised.

Johnny barely looked up at Chet as he
took over the demand valve. He didn't even
see the curly haired fireman leave to join
up with the others at Cap's side.

Roy just then noticed how quiet his partner had
become. "Johnny..?" He reached out a glove,
damp from Stoker's nearby spray, and grabbed 
the arm of Gage's jacket.

"What?" Johnny looked up at him.

"What's the problem..?" DeSoto shouted
through his mask.

"Let's get her into the stokes.
We can take her with us. She's breathing on
her own." he said, rising and leaving the
oxygen valve connected to Kelsey's airway.
"Bellingham can take over her care for us.
I see him by Kelly and the van."

Roy turned, from gathering up Kelsey's torso
and upper body into his arms craning over
his shoulder to see where Johnny was pointing.
"Ok,.. I got her shoulders.."

Gage grabbed her legs and they set her
awkwardly into the metal stokes a passing
fireman had left for them. Gasping, the two
paramedics lifted their burden and walked,
straight as they could, through tangles of steel 
towards Cap and the new focus of EMS personnel 
knotting under the shadow of the water tower's 
looming bulk.  He could just make out the sounds
of creaking metal as sinking tonnage slowly
crushed all the vehicles trapped under the drum.

Swiftly, Bellingham and Brice intercepted 
Johnny and Roy and they were suddenly relieved
of their burden. Kelsey was lifted from their
hands. "We got her.. Go..." Brice said as
he placed a hand on her chest to make
sure she was still breathing.

Gage spun around in a daze still not recovered
from knowing his victim and he watched them
start to head for the safety of the yellow zone. 

"Johnny?"  Roy asked, concerned. "Your air 
running out?"

Gage grabbed his valve regulator and checked.
"Nah,... I'm fine.. almost eight minutes left.
Don't worry about me, I'll tell you about it later..
Let's go.." He picked up a second resuscitator
from the ground and curled it under one arm.

Gage and DeSoto ducked, moving closer
towards the van, trying not to pay any attention
to the moaning stressed metal sounds filling
their ears.

Cap intercepted them. "We've got six victims.
All of them are pinned by debris except for
the driver. We're gonna haveta do some cutting." 

Right then, a high shriek of friction torn metal
stabbed through Cap's sentence and
deep into the bones of their skulls.

"Look out! The tower's giving way!" Kelly 
shouted.

Everyone under the shadow began to run
for the daylight.  Only Cap, Kelly and Lopez,
got out.

The water tower's huge bulk split like
an egg and a tongue of frothy flood water
began to gush out as it flattened
partially to the ground. Roy, Johnny and
one other, were swallowed whole under
the water filled dome.

Hank scrambled.. barely getting his
legs out in time from beneath the folding skin
of the tower and he was instantly soaked by
frigid water when he was too slow getting
out of the way. He hauled Kelly and Lopez
to their feet and Hank started a desperate
head count including himself. "1, ....2, .....3...."

He saw Bellingham and Brice slowly rising
and dripping, to their feet twenty feet away.. 
Their gloved hands were empty.

::Oh, no..:: Cap thought. "Where's the girl
in the stokes?"   ::4....5...::

Brice shook the stars from his head
and almost took off his air mask. His
partner stopped him before he could
complete the move and grabbed his shoulders,
looking at his face through his mask
when Craig remained silent and slightly 
off balance.

Bellingham's gasp said it all. "She must
be under there, Captain Stanley.. I don't 
see her.. Brice got hit in the head and
we dropped her."

Cap motioned Kelly and Marco to get
Brice out of the area... "And I don't
see two of my men.." he replied grimly.

"They're gone, too?" Bellingham blurted 
out, whirling.

Hank refused to acknowledge the fact
that Roy and Johnny could have just
been killed along with the woman.
"I want a team of men with K-12's and
axes over here immediately! There's
a chance the shell fell AROUND them."

"Under all that water?"  Chet shouted
in alarm.

Cap cut him off curtly. "Get Brice
to safety. Get him seen.Then hoof 
it back here with everything you've got.." 

"Right, Cap.."  Chet and Marco swept
up Brice into a seat held carry and moved.

Cap called out the same priority over his 
HT to the available companies. "Engine
51 to all units. We've trapped victims and
firefighters under the tower. I need a full
detail scrambled, wearing full protective
gear and air bottles. We're on the south
side of the tower's drum..."

Men began to run as the massive rescue
operation around him shifted shape and 
form to accomodate. HT activity tripled.

To Cap's horror.. the gushing water
around his legs lessened and began
to die off as the dome sealed itself 
tightly to the stained ground. ::Not
enough.. Not enough..:: his mind
screamed. ::There's still too much
water in there. They won't stand a 
chance if they're not awake enough
to tread water.::
 
The last agonizing screeching sounds
of collapse trickled away into eerie silence.

------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Cap in an air bottle.  

Photo:  Hazmat patient care.

Photo : Drew's wife with girl and Johnny.  

Photo : John with a dying police officer Drew.

Photo : Accident water tower down.

Photo : Johnny, Roy on ground fall.

Photo: Brice sets watch in squad.

Photo : Darkness under water.

********************************************
From :"Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject :  ~~Red Pool~~  
Date : Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:54:27 +0000  
 
Cap slipped and slid in the newly created ankle deep 
morass of mud and shards to start a hasty inspection of the 
water tower dome for any signs of large leaking 
breaches through which to target a rescue 
attempt. 

He didn't hesitate to rain the metal shell 
with sharp ringing blows.. "Roy! John! Can you 
hear me?! *gasp* Hang on.. We're gonna get you 
out of  there ASAP!! "  His head whipped around, 
first right then left, but no other fireman was as yet, 
near. 

He lifted his HT once again and ordered. "Move it everyone! 
I'm located on the south side, upwind! I'm twenty yards 
from the site of the second victim's initial location!" 

Cap's breaths whistled painfully inside his 
SCBA mask as he attempted to remain 
clear headed around a panicking heart which 
slammed wildly inside of his chest. 

He tossed the handy talkie aside when he heard 
multiple reply backs and didn't care that it skittered out of 
reach and into the muck at his feet. Numbly, his soaked 
gloves beat out another regular pattern to the taut 
hollow dome he hastily stretched out upon. He shouted 
once more to those trapped underneath.."DeSoto!? 
Gage?! If you're o.k., respond in any way you can..!" 

Cap first freed, then plastered an ear to the tower's 
skin after eyeballing the prevailing winds for 
safety. He no longer cared about  any 
possible contamination with the spilled freon. 
"My men come first." he sobbed aloud, with roiling 
raw emotions. The professional side of him countered 
that irrationality with instant support. 
::There was enough of a wash down from the dome's 
spillover to dilute the stuff nearest here.:: it said. 

Some small part of Hank Stanley still waited for the telltale 
burning of sub freezing temperatures to bite into his exposed 
wrists and neck, as subliming freon searched for a way to 
call him a liar. But only the hot sun was searing into anything 
he could still feel that wasn't completely wet. 

Hank's relief about not burning himself with any coolant 
exposure never materialized. A larger part of him was rapidly 
losing objectivity.  "Come on you two..Just one sign. 
Won't take much to grab a piece of scrap to wail an answer 
back.." he whispered, fogging up his face plate. "Come on.. 
start tapping!" 

Cap filled some time checking his air tank's regulator. 
"I've got nine minutes left.." Hank silenced his own adrenaline 
twitchy mouth and he held in a ragged breath as he 
willed his body to stillness as he listened. 

Seconds stretched into long moments as violated metal 
talked to itself and its mercilessly settling gravity net. 

Chink.. Ping.. Creakkkk  -kkk --kkk.  k          k..  *hisssss*.. 

Soon, waves of water lapped musically soft inside as 
the tower reached equilibrium at last in its new 
horizontal position. 


Cap's eye finally found the surface of the trapping 
pool through a ragged crack. It was staining with a 
growing red through the clear depths the sun illuminated. 

Nothing else clearly identifiable as actively struggling 
life, gurgled from the pocket of deep water that he could see 
to reward Cap's vigilance. 

Drip.. 

  Drip... 

    Drip.... 

Hank's eyes stung sharply.   "No..." 

----------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap feeling a door tensely.

Photo: Stoker and Marco frantically hosing down
            a scene out of view.

Photo: *animated* Dripping blood drop.

Photo: An underground pool that's clear and reddish.

*************************************************
From: "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Full Circle  
Date : Sat, 27 Sep 2003 02:30:55 +0000  

 GAASSPPPPPppp!!  *cough!*  choked Gage
as his head broke the surface of the water
inside the van. He had long ago peeled off
his air bottle in order to swim up towards what
meager light he could see.

"Roy!?" he shouted, treading water and
whirling in the frigid darkness. His hasty
shout echoed in his ears. He could hear
faint pounding from somewhere else but
that sound was the farthest thing from his
mind at that moment.

The van suddenly shifted as it began to float, its 
front end partially buoyant from its sudden 
unexpected immersion under water.  

An eerie golden light glowed through the 
shattered windshield of the van. ::So, there are
cracks out there..:: Johnny realized. ::The whole
d*mned tower must have come down in around
us..::  Gage shook away a lurid bone chilling cold
he suddenly felt seeping through his turnout gear.
::How the h*ll did I get in the van?::
His own sense of orientation drifted away.

A body floated up.
It was wearing bright blue clothes. 

"Roy?!" Johnny said in fright, remembering
suddenly who was still missing.

John pushed off the wall of the van to get to the
sodden form and he quickly flipped it over
to feel for a carotid. He immediately dropped
the young african american teenager with a shout
of horror.

Half of her features were crushed and so was
the top of her head. "Gaghhh..." Johnny blurted
out, back treading blindly. The young body of
the girl sank out of sight, leaving only a trail
of red behind.  "I'm not gonna make any
progress that way." his teeth chattered, and
he froze in place just to listen. The dim pounding
continued, but it wasn't vibrating through the chassis 
of the luckless van. "Outside help?" Johnny guessed.
"Maybe it's Cap...!"

He was just about to take a breath to reach a leg up
to kick out the windshield arching above him
when he saw a trail of bubbles coming from a shadow
near to the left side of him in the front seat. ::The
driver's still alive!::  he realized.

Gage's groping hands found a football jerseyed
young man's neck and head as he brought  
his mouth and nose to the surface of the water.
He was rewarded with sputtering gasps as
the teen quarterback blew out liquid in a spray
from his throat and lungs. "Easy.. I got you.."
Johnny encouraged, keeping the man from
sinking underneath the water again as 
he struggled to breathing wakefulness.

"I didn't mean it.. I didn't mean it.. *cough* They
made me do it..." the injured kid mumbled.

Johnny laid the teen's head against his shoulder
and immobilized his neck and forehead  
as best he could against his chest.. "Hey, take it 
easy now. No one's blaming you for anything. 
Especially not for a stupid joyride in the parking 
lot. An accident's an accident... What's your name?"

"B-Bobby..*cough*"

"Can you breathe ok the way you are?"

"What?"

Johnny Gage took that for a yes.
"Do you hurt anywhere besides that arm..?"
he said looking down. Gage saw a second
'elbow' bending below the young man's real one
on his left arm where it floated in the water.

"I'm hurt? Oh, my g*d.." and the dazed teenager
began to thrash around a bit inside Johnny's 
firm hold.

"Bobby.. Now just calm down!.. I'm feeling nothing
seriously wrong with you. Now my name's Johnny 
Gage and I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles 
County Fire Department."

"I crashed the van?"

Johnny spat some of the boy's hair and 
muddy water from his mouth. "No.. not
exactly.. A semi truck hit a water tower
near you and then it fell on us. That's where
all this water comes in.."

"What?! Aghh.HHH! Where's Angie,..
Mark...?! They were all in here with me...
Steve!! Where are you??"

Gage's head was banged painfully
as the young man panicked as he arched
his back and he saw stars. He tightened 
his grip on the teen to keep him still.

Gage knew from the roof sloping into
the water that no one else was left alive
in the back of the van. "Listen to me!
Bobby, we'll worry about them later. Now 
I'm more concerned with getting you taken
care of first.  And to do that, we both have
to keep calm and cool about all this. We 
might need to conserve the air in here. Now
I want you to slow your breathing rate down
a bit. It's probably why you're feeling
so short of breath right now."

"Ugh.. I'll...t-try..."

"That's it.. Nice and easy. Now, does
your neck or back hurt anywhere? I'm
holding you like this just in case you do."

"Uhh,.. no. They're ok.. I'm not feeling
any p--Ahhh! What's wrong with my arm?"

"I'll be honest with you, Bobby. It's broken. "

"Oh, man.. Coach's gonna l-love this.
He'll kill me when he finds out I have
to miss the rest of the seas--   n"
he said slipping into shock.

"Bobby? Stay awake. Keep your head up.
Let me tie this board here on your arm.
We need to splint this before we go
anywhere." Gage used a seatbelt that he cut
away from the van's wall using his holster's 
bowie knife. "I gotta get you into some dry 
clothes and I also gotta find my partner 
and another girl who was with us.."

"S-Someone else? Who...who is she?" Bobby 
struggled. "Please.. I gotta know about my friends."
Returning pain to his fractured arm silenced
the young quarterback and he froze into stillness
with a strangled cry. "I feel like I'm gonna puke."

"Easy. Moving around will only make you more
nauseated. Her name's Kelsey, and she's doing 
fine."

"Where is she? I- I don't see her!!" Bobby
said, gasping, falling limp, now only half awake.

Johnny felt the change in the boy's posture
and heard it in his voice.  "Bobby? Stay
with me.."

At the same time, a flicker of sunlight and shadow 
made him look up through the windshield of the van
into the sparkling underwater light reflecting there.

Peering through the raining water trails seeping 
through the spidered glass, he could just make 
out Roy's legs and shoes kicking at a second 
water surface six feet above the van with the 
comforting shape of Kelsey's metal stokes in his 
arms. Gage could see the green bottle of the 
resuscitator still nestled in between her legs.
::He's still got the O2 for her.. Good.:: Johnny
sighed in relief. ::I swear, Roy. You got more
lives than a cat.:: he grinned. Out loud he said.
"Kelsey's really fine, Bobby. She's with my 
partner. Out there. Right now."

He didn't get any reply. ::Bobby?:: Johnny
thought to himself. His fingers found the slow
thud of a carotid at the big teen's neck and
the injured teen's ribcage still rose and fell inside the 
bearhug Gage had around the young man.
"So that's where we're going, too." he said quietly
to the unconscious boy. Gage waited for
the young man to take in a shallow breath of air 
before he blocked off the man's nose and mouth 
for the trip out of the van. 

Two kicks later, they were free, popping up
beside Roy in a flood of bubbles as the rest
of the vehicle's trapped air escaped with them.

------------------------------------------------------------

DeSoto didn't even bat an eye..
"Here's Johnny, Cap. Looks like he's got a victim
out."

"Johnny? You all right, pal?" an overjoyed Hank's
voice echoed into the hollow chamber, even through 
his air mask.

"Yeah, Cap. Just hurry it up. Neither of these guys
can wait without treatment much longer." Gage
coughed as the outside air's freon fumes began
to get to him. 

"Here.. " Roy said, disconnecting the O2 tubing
from Kelsey's EOA. "Give him some and then
take a breath of your own. We've been sharing.."

"She still breathing?"

"Yeah, she's just out, that's all. I still can't find
any injuries."

Gage improvised a seal using the positive
pressure valve's mouth port and the teen boy's
under a firm grip where he treaded in the water.
He delivered two breaths in time with Bobby's
inhalations. The teen started to moan as
he awoke, partially revived.

Johnny took his own turn on the oxygen valve.
"Cap, we could use three new air bottles down
here!"

"We're cutting a hole through to you now.
Watch for Stoker's rope. Only expect another
demand valve unit to buddy breathe on. It's smaller. 
This one's got a mask." Cap shouted. "Two minutes
more."

Right then, the hiss of O2 that Roy tried to deliver to
Kelsey's airway secured lungs, faded away. 

Their critical lifeline, had just run out.

Gage quipped. "How long can you hold your
breath, Roy?" he asked seriously.  

"As long as necessary. If we black out in
here, we'll all die of drowning. Here, I've cut away
the stoke's straps, all but the one holding her
shoulders. Use them to tie you and him to
those metal struts here. If we do fall unconscious,
at least our heads won't go under. I've already rigged 
hers and mine as well as I can." Roy said, his suggestion 
breaking off into a paroxysm of choking coughs as 
freon mist began to invade the flooded tower's 
air chamber.

Right away, Johnny could hear Roy's prior left lung
trouble flaring up in complaint liquidly.

"Great, poison air for your barely healed 
water lung." Johnny said sarcastically.  "Breathe
more shallowly, Roy. You're getting off color already."

"*Wheeze* T-That's from the cold.." DeSoto shivered,
wedging Kelsey's stokes more firmly onto the angle
of sheeting he had found to support her weight against
the tower wall. "I- I'm fine.. " DeSoto choked. 
"Worry about your own complexion instead, ok?"

Gage ignored him. "Cap. We need that spare
O2 on the double! Roy's getting into trouble here."

Gage startled as his partner's head sagged suddenly 
and Johnny lunged to catch it as DeSoto half passed out,
falling lax into his improvised strap harness tied
to the tower wall. "Oh no you don't.." Johnny said.
"Snap out of it, Roy. You're ok.. Now come on.. 
It's not that stuffy in here." he said, slapping 
Roy's damp face lightly to rouse him.
"The freon's hardly noticable yet.."

*Cough* DeSoto reacted weakly. "I...I..."

"What, Roy? You what? Come on. Don't black
out on me. I need ya conscious. I can't watch
both of these guys on my own." Gage urged tensely. A 
suffocation jag of gas drifting down, and gave him his 
own uncomfortable moments of feeling like
he was getting no air at all into his lungs.
"Cap....!" he shouted hoarsely when he had recovered.

"One minute Gage!" Hank promised.

"That's a minute too late, guys. Roy's just went out on me
here.." Johnny shouted, tipping Roy's head back to make 
sure his breathing continued unimpaired. "This sh*t's 
*gasp* awful. We can't breathe it in for much longer." 
Gage coughed.

Bobby began to turn blue when he quit trying to breathe
fifteen seconds later.

Johnny gave him a breath mouth to mouth 
and a second one before the teen sucked in some 
of his own again unaided.

The world began to swim before Gage's eyes.

----------------------------------------------

"Gage.. Grab it!.. Stoker's lowering the tank on
a line to ya and the rest of us are K-twelving a side
hatch to drain you guys out with the water.." Cap
said urgently.

In a stuporous haze, Johnny saw the second 
resuscitator, tied in a rope hitch, swaying in front
of him. But it was as if his arms refused to work.

"Johnny. Grab it and use it on yourself first.."
Hank's voice shouted through Johnny's ringing ears.
"I can't reach you so you gotta do it on your own.
Then get to them!  Gage! Do you hear me? Take
a shot from the O2 now. That's an order!"

Some deep instinct made the thousands  
of Johnny's firefighter and paramedic training hours 
kick in. He reached for the resuscitator mask 
dangling in front of him and took one. 
ChuugghhhhhHHH!

Instantly clarity flooded back.  Johnny blinked
up into the sun. "Cap?"

"Get to Bobby. He's cyanotic, Gage." 
Hank commanded from the sunlit crack above Gage.

Gage swam over to the limp boy and worked him
on the mask until the teen began to actively cough and 
moan once more. Kelsey only need a boost, she
had never quit breathing.

Johnny sucked in two fresh breaths for himself
as he swam back the short distance over to Roy
and set the dripping mask over his face. "Nap time's
over, Pal. Wake up.." And he thumbed several
shots of oxygen into Roy's lungs.

DeSoto immediately reawakened and shoved
the mask away, thrashing his limbs in the water 
as consciousness rapidly returned to him.

Johnny ducked. "Hey, watch what you're doing..!
I'm right here. You're fine now. Here.. Do this yourself
then.. Cap's gonna let us know when they're gonna
blow the hatch real soon.."

"T-The victims?" Roy shook his head to clear
out fogginess.

"They're fine. Keep sharing the wealth.
I'm next after Bobby and Kelsey.." Johnny said
twitching shivery gimme fingers at his partner
and the mask to get him to pass it around fairly.

Roy was clear headed enough to realize
an odd thing in that second voiced name. "Kelsey?
Johnny, how did you find out our female victim's 
name? She didn't have any ID on her and
she's never been awake enough to tell us."

"Imagine that.." Johnny deflected. "How's
your breathing now?"

"Fine if I'm talking to you. Don't evade the issue.
Why am I getting chills from the sound of your
voice right now? What aren't you telling me?"
DeSoto demanded.

Johnny took his turn off the spare O2 
and fell uncharacteristically silent while he
monitored both the girl and the teen's pulses
in turn. For two passes of the O2,Gage didn't 
say anything. Then he asked one simple
question.  "Do you remember my best friend 
Drew the highway patrol officer?"

Roy's face paled from more than the cold. There
wasn't any way he could not remember that
man's death and the radio transmission that failed
to arrive from Rampart with life saving treatment.

DeSoto simply met Johnny's eyes and nodded
as his fingers reassessed the placement of the
airway resting in Kelsey's throat and felt for
the distension growing in her stomach. It wasn't
bad enough to effect his ventilations on her.

Johnny's face grew old as he unloaded his emotional
burden to his partner. Johnny's worry lines only became
worse for the telling. "Well, this is Drew's wife, Roy, 
lying right here. And I don't know where her five year 
old daughter is. I hope to G*d she isn't in that crushed 
van down there. Cause if she is, she's dead."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Cap peers into a crack beneath his feet.

Photo:  Johnny looking down, thoroughly soaked.

Photo:  Roy and John treading water with a victim
             in a stokes.

Photo:  Drew's wife Kelsey and their little girl with Gage
              kneeling and offering them comfort.

Photo:   Roy peering into bright light soaked to
              the skin with water.

****************************************************************
From : "rosafleehart" <rosafleehart@yahoo.com> 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Promise.. 
Date : Mon, 29 Sep 2003 17:23:57 -0000 

Roy said. "Why didn't you tell me before when you 
first knew it  was her?" 

"I thought I could handle it, Roy, ok?" Johnny replied. 

"Junior, sometimes..... I just  wish you would let me in on 
things more." he said uncharacteristically defensive. 

Gage countered, without thinking. "Look. I'm sorry, Roy, ok?" 

Suddenly, Roy started to have a little trouble breathing and 
then Johnny knew something was wrong. "Hey you ok, Pally?" 
he asked, grabbing a hold of his jacket sleeve to get his 
attention. 

Roy coughed. "I'll be fine.  Must have swallowed the water 
when the tank fell. " he replied. "Right now we've got 
other things to be concerned with. How's the boy?" 

Johnny answered. "He's holding his own right now. " 

Roy tried hiding the fact, from Johnny, that his breathing 
was starting to get worse. :: I don't want to add a further 
burden to my partner's already high stress level.:: he 
thought to himself. So he tried to handle it. ::I know 
there isn't  much that can be done until we're top 
side anyway.:: He just hoped it would wait before 
getting any worse. 

--------------------------------------------------------------- 
After nearly two hours, the rescuers finally broke 
through to them. 

The girl, Kelsey,  was handed out first and a second 
paramedic crew took her over. 

Then the boy, Bobby, was handed out and another 
medic team took over his care while the rescuers got 
Roy and Johnny out of the collapsed tank. 

Just as Johnny was hoisted up, Roy got real 
bad. Quickly.  ::I can't breathe! Hardly at all now.:: 
DeSoto panicked. 

Just as Johnny looked down, Roy lost consciousness 
and started to sink into the contaminated water. 

Johnny let go of the rescuers' rope and dove in after 
his partner.  He grabbed him by the shirt collar and 
pulled him to the surface as quickly as possible. 

They pulled him out. 
Then Johnny was, too, right behind him. 

The other medics were busy so Johnny had to treat his 
partner on his own. 

Roy was out cold and not breathing and that made Johnny go 
into instant paramedic mode. He quickly got in an intubation 
on 6 liters of 02 which got Roy breathing again. Then he 
got in an I.V. with Ringers using the open treatment privileges 
that had been given to them from the beginning by Brackett. 

He took vitals and saw that Roy was doing better. 
Johnny contacted base and Brackett took it. 
"Rescue 51 to base. How do you read?" 

Kel replied, "I read you loud and clear, 51. Go 
ahead with your transmission." 

"We have a 34 year old male. He lost consciousness 
while trapped in a collapsed water tower. He stopped 
breathing. He has been intubated and is NOW breathing. 
We have him on an I.V. with Ringers wide open. He is still 
unconscious. Vitals are:  B.P. 100/85, pulse is thready. 
Respirations are 30 and his lungs are congested. Also 
he has had some prior congestion due to water lung. " 
Gage said over the biophone. 

"51, keep him intubated. Administer 30 milligrams of 
Talwin and transport a.s.a.p." Brackett ordered. 

Johnny answered. "Ten four.  Talwin. 30 milligrams and 
transport as soon as possible. We are ten minutes 
from your location. Also be advised, we have a hazmat 
situation in effect. "

"Ten four and in transit, get me a new set of vitals." 
Brackett said. "We'll take precautions here for you and 
your patient." 

Gage nodded. "Ten four. 51 out." 

Gage looked to Cap. "Cap, we need an ambulance in 
here now. " 

"You got it, Johnny. " Hank answered and announced 
over the radio. "Battalion 14, This is HT 51. We need an 
ambulance by me. We have a code I ready for emergency 
transport." 

"Ten four, HT 51. Ambulance is on the way in to you now. " 

"Ten four." 

Johnny looked up. "Cap, I'm going in with Roy. " 
he said, not beating around the bush, challenging. 

To Gage's relief, Hank didn't bat an eye. 
"O.K., I'll see that the squad gets to the hospital." 

"Thanks." Gage replied. 

They loaded Roy up and Johnny got in with him. 

Gage was in both partner and medic mode. He got a 
new set of vitals and relayed them to Rampart using his 
radio.  "Rampart, this is squad 51." 

"Go ahead, 51. " Kel acknowledged, toggling 
a switch. 

Johnny shouted over the roaring sirens. 
"New vitals are :  B.P. is 90/65. His pulse 
continues to be thready and weak. 
Breathing's at 26." 

Kel frowned. "51, what is your ETA?" 

Johnny answered. "We are three minutes out." 

Dr. Brackett nodded. "Send me a strip." 

"Ten four. This will be lead two." Johnny said quickly. 

At the same moment, both Brackett and Johnny saw 
the same thing. Johnny reacted as a medic. He told the 
ambulance to pull over just as Brackett yelled over the 
radio. "51! We read V-fib. Defibrillate 400 watt 
seconds now!" 

"Ten four." Johnny defibrillated Roy the first time. 

There was no change. 

On the second, still no change. 

Johnny said as he went for a third time."Come on, Pally. 
Don't do this to me. Come on." he gasped.  "D*mn it, Roy." 

Finally Roy converted to sinus rhythm and his heart beat 
normally again. Johnny reported on the radio. "Converted! 
Times three. He's in sinus rhythm." he sighed. 

"Ten four, 51 bring him on in." Kel grinned. 

"Ten four, " Johnny answered. "OK. Let's go." 
Gage said to the ambulance driver by smacking 
the partition between them. 

------------ 

As the ambulance arrived, Brackett and Dixie met it 
at the doors. They were shocked. They didn't know it 
was Roy down.  The tension was over. 

But then Johnny hit the floor suddenly in a blackout. 

"I'll take Johnny..." Joe Early said quickly kneeling 
beside Gage to check  his pulse. 

"And I'll take Roy..." Brackett replied, grabbing hold 
of the blond paramedic's gurney with two orderlies. 

Soon, they were both put into treatment rooms. 

------------------------------------------------------------- 
After a few days, Johnny was released and he 
went to Roy's bedside. He hadn't regained 
consciousness  yet. 

::It's been six days.:: Gage thought morosely. 
Johnny was worried. 

He said to Roy."O.K., Roy. It's time to wake up. 
Now everyone is worried about  you, Pally. So 
come on." he said urgently. "Wake up for 
old Johnny, huh, Pally?" 

All through that night,  Johnny stayed at Roy's side, 
refusing to leave. 

Joanne had gone home to rest at Johnny's insistence. 

As the day broke,  Johnny got up to stretch. 
He had been holding Roy's hand all night long. ::And I've 
been doing a lot of praying.:: he thought aloud, for his friend. 

He turned suddenly when he heard a whisper of a voice say. 
"You look terrible, Junior." 

Johnny leaned eagerly over Roy as he rang the room call 
button. "Hey, Pally.  How are you feeling?" 

Roy grinned slowly. "Weak. Tired." 

Gage smiled quietly, "Yeah, I'd say so.  You gave us a 
h*ll of a scare there, buddy." 

Roy studied his sheets. "Sorry." 

"Welllll....." Johnny teased. "That's ok. Just 
don't let it happen again, ok?" 

Roy was checked and it was found that he truly 
WAS going to be o.k. 

DeSoto finally talked Johnny into going home and 
getting some rest. 

Roy was released three weeks later from the hospital. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------- 
A month later, he was cleared to return to duty. 

Johnny had put a welcome back party together and they 
were all enjoying it, when the tones went off . 

As they climbed into the squad,  Johnny said. "Nice to 
have you back, Pally." 

"It's nice to BE back,  Junior." 

Johnny had missed that nick name over the time Roy 
had been gone. "Roy, I  hope I never see you come that 
close to being lost again." he insisted. But just 
as fast, he put on a wry grin. "But then again, I most 
probably will 'cause that's the job we both have." 
he added with exasperation. 

Roy agreed, nodding, as he drove. 
"We HAVE devoted our lives to saving others as 
ff/pm's." he said in apology. 
------------------------------------------------------------------ 

No Photos attached. 

************************************** 
From :"patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Second Thoughts..  
Date :  Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:08:05 +0000  
   
Gage made a face as he peered at
the address on the scrap of paper
he had gotten from Cap as they had
taken off on their run. "Yeah,.. but
that doesn't mean I have to like the
fact that the people around me are
continually at risk all the time.." he
said with some real heat.

That surprised DeSoto and he glanced
at Gage's face to be sure he saw the
sharp anger mirroring there that had tinged
Johnny voice.  Roy bit down the joke
that he had rising and stifled a smile.
"You know we have a pact not to die
in front of one another if we can possibly
help it. Last month didn't count. The tower 
cheated when it gave no warning before 
dunking us into that chemical bath. 
Man, that hurt. My p*ss's still glowing
at night." he complained. 

Roy's planned crudeness worked.

It was Johnny's turn to glance over
and a shadow of a crooked grin toyed with 
his face, but only for a moment. He didn't
feel like explaining his real feelings on
the discussion and once again, a 
vulnerability that was newly born in his
eyes, stilled his lips into silence.

Roy concentrated half on the road, the 
rest on Johnny. "Hey,....
We can talk about it you know.."
he offered in a quick toothy smile.
"If we don't, Cap's bound to throw
us all into a session with the 
CISM counselors. Don't be upset
that you can't be there all the time 
to save the day like you'd rather do."

Johnny flared. "I don't need any critical
incident stress management lackies crawling
around my head! I'd rather have had it
not to have happened at ALL." he snarled 
once again. And the roaring siren over
their ears seemed to agree with him
pointedly.

The ghost of a grin on Roy seeped away
and he didn't say much of anything for
a full minute, only watching the directions
Johnny quietly indicated to him, showing them the
way to their current rescue's location. But then
DeSoto said. "Look at the bright side. I may
be a lot poorer financially now for missing
out on so much work but I've gotten in some
real quality time with Joanne and the kids.
Our third's really coming along. I felt
the baby kick real hard last night..."

That was the wrong thing to say. Gage
nearly levitated out of his seat and he
angrily adjusted his loose helmet strap a
little more snuggly under his chin. "Good.
I'm happy for you.. Your family's safe and
sound and everything's looking real nice 
and rosy for ya.." he said, saluting smartly
in sarcasm.

Roy's mouth slacked open and he
gripped the steering wheel a little tighter
even as his jaw slid sideways in puzzlement.
"Johnny, what's the matter? Wh- What's going
on with you? I don't think I've ever seen you
with so many ants in your pants before.."

Johnny huffed and thunked an elbow out the
squad's windy window to serve as a prop for 
his scowling face.

Roy then figured it out.. "It's Kelsey Richards.
Isn't it..?" The name elicted a bright spot of pain  
that Roy saw lance sharply across Johnny's 
features. ::Bingo...::

"What about her?" Johnny asked defensively.

Roy stuck out a pouting frown. "Well,..how's
she doing? I heard she got home from the hospital
ahead of me by five d--"

"She's fine.."  Gage interrupted. "Kelsey's just fine.
Somehow, she took no heart or lung damage from 
the freon like you had happen to you. She's home
and everything's good and she calls me every night
to help her get over the fact that her kid Amber didn't 
make it like she d--" his voice broke off, getting 
uncharacteristically choked up and muffled.

Now Roy understood everything plainly. "You're
hung up really bad about this, aren't you?" he said 
softly. "I had almost forgotten about what you told
me that day. About the five year old fatality you thought
was in the van..  Was she?"

Johnny shook his head minutely in the negative. 
"Kelsey's daughter died outside the tower. Another 
company found her under the pile of freon tanks. Remember 
the ones we heard hissing when we first got that dizzy 
construction worker out?"

DeSoto nodded and Johnny rubbed his face.

"Then there wasn't anything you could've done to
have prevented that now, could you?" Roy doctored.

Gage sighed and a tear ran a trail down the side
of cheek that Roy couldn't see even as his
face ironed up. "It wasn't my best friend's daughter
that's been in my every waking thought since I found
out that you were gonna make it." he said his tone
trembling slightly as his anger evaporated into grief.
"There was someone else down there that I should
have known on the spot.  A victim whom I 
should have tried a little harder to save.."

Roy turned another corner his partner pointed out
to him and the tires of the squad squealed. "I
don't understand, Johnny. Explain it to me.
You told me weeks ago that those teens didn't have 
a chance except for Bobby the driver because 
the roof had caved in and pushed them all under
the water."

Johnny's lips flattened into a thin line..
"I know. I know.. Look, would you stop prying
and let me just think a minute here!" he
snapped. "I got a lot to tell you so just---"

Just like that,..Johnny returned to a horrific 
memory that had been relayed to him by Stoker
the same day he had awakened in the  
shared hospital room with Roy at Rampart.

Johnny still remembered how chilled he
felt under the blankets when he heard.....

-----------------------------------------------------------

 ......"You should have seen him, Johnny. He left
the hospital on one of the ambulances to get
to the scene the moment his instincts screamed
at him. He knew, Johnny.. He knew beyond the 
shadow of a doubt that she had been there in 
the van.."..

The hospital gowned Gage tried to steady the
ice glass and straw that Mike Stoker had been
helping him sip without drinking from it. "What
the h*ll are you talking about, Mike? Who
knew whom in the van?  My friend Drew's dead.
And there was no one else around who knew Kelsey
and her little girl, Amber, enough to worry about 
them."

"It's Doctor Morton, Gage. We found him crying
over his sister's stokes after he had found her  
black tagged in the triage morgue tent along
with the other teens who died in the van with
her."

Johnny dropped his water glass...

------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my G*d. I'm s- sorry, Johnny.. I- I didn't know.."
DeSoto said as he sped the final few blocks
towards their destination. "I saw all
the blood in the water with us.. But I didn't
know you had found someone else in that
van besides Bobby who was still salvagable.."

Gage made a little noise of pain.
" I guessed I freaked out Roy.. She WAS 
there. Right there in my arms.. And I just dropped her 
when I saw her facial and cranial injuries without
even checking to see if she was still alive..."

"You were in shock, Johnny. We both were.
A tower had just fallen on you and freon gas
was doing its best to suffocate us all, too."

"We're talking about not trying harder with
Morton's SISTER,  Roy..." Johnny insisted in high 
agony. "I'm negligent! I'm most likely gonna be one
of the clear ones to blame for leaving her to die 
down there..."

"You don't know that." Roy said equally
loud as he drove. "You know what they
tell us whenever we find a victim with obvious
gray brain matter showing."

"You don't have to tell me.." Johnny said
sharply.

"Well, I'm going to. In that medical situation,
it's to be taken as an obvious sign of death 
from the classic signs list right along side 
rigor mortis and dependent lividity.."

"Roy, I could have done something MORE.
I could have started breathing for her..."

"With crushing mouth and nose injuries?
How?" Roy challenged. 

"Well..."

"Even if you managed to get air into
her lungs. There was no way you EVER
could have started c.p.r effectively enough. 
You were treading water.."

"Stop it!" Gage said. "Just shut up Roy.
You don't know what you're talking about.."

"Oh  yes I do. I'm the one who taught you
everything you know as a paramedic,
remember?" DeSoto insisted, clenching
his hands on the wheel he said glaring
at his despondent partner.

"Look out!!" Gage shouted.

Roy barely swerved in time to avoid getting
hit by a motorist who hadn't heard their
sirens at a four way stop sign.

DeSoto thunked over the curb onto grass 
and their front tire ripped over a support stake 
at  the foot of a corner telephone wire.
It immediately blew out and halted the squad
cold, throwing both paramedics foward, hard.

Roy and Johnny caught themselves on the 
dashboard as best as they could.

"You ok?" DeSoto gasped.

"Yeah, I was just about to ask you the same thing.."
Johnny admitted, still gripping window frame
and roof strut.

Both men started to shake with reaction
from their near miss and a minute later,
it took both of them to steady the radio 
mic as Roy thumbed it and said, "L.A. This 
is squad 51."

##Go ahead, 51.##

"L.A. We've been disabled mechanically
avoiding a vehicular collision. We'll be
unable to respond to our current rescue call.
We are uninjured." he added quickly to
keep Cap and the rest of the gang possibly
listening on the office scanner, reassured.

##10 - 4, 51. Do you need roadside assistance?##

"Negative. My partner and I can handle it."

##Copy....Squad 51, cancelled.  
*Beep. beep. beep.*
 Squad 8, in place of Squad 51. Possible
heart attack. 309 Hunter's Place and Jackson
Blvd..  309 Hunter's...##

Roy and Johnny tuned out the rest of the
radio transmission as they both slid out
of the squad to sit on their truck's back
landing board to steady their nerves
and bodies while they took off their helmets.

Johnny was trembling violently. "I can't
take any more surprises today, Roy. 
Even ones as fun as your welcome back
party. My nerves are more than shot."

"I noticed.." Roy said without smiling.

Johnny buried his head into his hands
and wiped away the salty wetness
streaming there from his eyes and just
rested for a few moments.

Roy watched his face in steady concern.
"Wanna eat something? Your blood sugar's
gotta be low. I know mine is after that."

"Yeah, I'll eat. But where? I don't know
this neighbor beyond what I saw on
the wall map to get to where we had
to go for this call." Gage admitted.

"How about the cafeteria at Rampart..?"

Johnny startled and stopped rubbing his
face. "Uh.h,...Dixie said Morton's working today 
and I don't think I wanna run into HIM just yet.
I was only lucky that I never saw him all those
times Joanne and I came to see you when 
you were still in your chemically induced 
coma."

"We gotta go there to resupply sometime.
Most likely as soon as after our next call." Roy said
getting up to check the condition of the squad
beyond its shredded tire.

"I know.. I know. But I still have a lot of thinking
to do.."

"Do you?" Roy asked seriously. "I just told you
how it was for Morton's sister.  And you. Don't
you trust my judgement that there wasn't
really anything that you could've done for her?"

"I trust ya. I trust ya.. I just don't know if I can trust
myself anymore." Johnny said gloomily, tossing
both his helmet and Roy's into the passenger seat
while he broke out the squad's jack, wrench and 
spare tire from inside the stokes department.
"Cause I can't really keep the promises I make.
I promised Drew that I'd look after his
wife and little girl and I didn't."

"That's a lie.. You kept Kelsey alive."

"No, YOU did. I had my hands full with
Bobby and...." he rubbed his mouth with
guilt. "...and with you.."

"I was dyspneic due to fumes. Kelsey
was already safely airway secured. You had
a right to worry about me first. I was your
paramedic priority then, only one behind Bobby."

"No you weren't. She was unconscious."

"So was I ...later on. Quit hashing semantics. 
Don't deny how things happened because I 
know how they went .Cap told me everything 
when he came to visit me at Rampart."

That shut Johnny up and Roy saw a wrinkle on
Gage's forehead ease.  But Johnny's eyes stayed 
gray and suddenly full with conviction.
"I'll let you know this, Roy. I promise that I'm never
gonna let you or anyone else I know down ever 
again if I can help it."

"That's the spirit. A promise is good for the soul.."

"That's only if a promise can be kept, Roy." Johnny 
countered. "It's its own double edged sword sometimes."

"Like you learned with Kelsey and Amber?" DeSoto
said gently.

Johnny stopped hauling away on the tire lugs where
he knelt in the grass. "Yeah.." he said bitterly. "Like
that.."

"Well, you made no such promise to Dr. Morton,
my friend. So stop blaming yourself for something
you couldn't have changed." DeSoto interjected
quickly. "It was somebody else who brought
that tower down and caused the accident. Not
you. You were just a victim that time."

"It's never good for a paramedic to be a victim."
Johnny said tightly.

"Exactly right. So just be a paramedic and everything
will turn out right if it's in your power, like it always
does."

"Like it used to do.."

"Like it STILL does, partner.." he firmly glared.
"I'll let you know if you ever lose your edge. Remember, 
Brackett says you're one of the best." he chuckled. 
"And I'm keen on protecting that reputation because it 
reflects well on me. Next month's review and raise is depending 
on that. I'm also doing it because I've a lot of ground to 
catch up on with my bills and my FAMILY's bills.." he groaned.
"So I'm gonna guarantee that fatter paycheck any way
I can."

Instead of laughing, Gage frowned.
"Yeah? Well what about my reputation in the eyes
of Dr. Morton? I'd say I'm just about shot as a medic
if he decides to blame his sister's death on me
in front of the paramedic's review board."

DeSoto stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

But then, a few minutes later, as the morning 
warmth dried the sweat off their faces, DeSoto 
spoke up. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I'm sure that Brice, as head chair, would review
any case he overhears fairly in concern with
recertifying you if Morton should want an investigation
done examining the actions you took that day.
Craig is a walking rule book you know."

"And I'm a walking jobless man if I get a suit 
filed against me. How can I keep my personal 
promises then if I can't be a paramedic anymore?"

"Trust in your promises, Johnny. They're all
you've got. " he said seriously. Then he laughed,
adding. "Then trust your friends to know you 
better than you do. They'll never tell you any lies
about how you really are."

Johnny finally harrumphed in his throat with
a slight smile which admitted that he gave
Roy a point for being right on that.

"Come on. This tire's all set. Let's get
some food. Dixie says the tuna fish casserole's
incredible. I'll vouch for it. I sure ate enough of
it during my hospital stay.."
----------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Brackett,  Morton and Joe treating a woman
              in treatment 3. 

Photo :  The squad in a near collision.

Photo :  Johnny view of squad day drive.

Photo :  Firefighters, police and a body bag. 

*************************************************
From : "Katherine Bird" <kathbird@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Indigestion..  
Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 05:06:55 +0100  

Roy had just paid for his lunch of pasta
when Johnny crashed into the back of
his partner with his own tray full of the
same thing. Gage had to go through heroics
in order to keep from spilling his milk
and keeping his cherry jello from jiggling
out of its pudding dish.

"Would you just cut that out already.."
DeSoto complained. His tray had been
uneffected by the impact since he was the bigger
man in mass of the two and had absorbed all
of it without ill effect.

"What?"

"Quit slinking around here as if you expect
a firing squad to pop outta nowhere."

"I'm not slinking around.. I'm ..I'm..just keeping
an eye out, that's all."

"Don't tell me, you don't want to run into Mike
Morton.." he pegged in irritation in a half whisper
so the surrounding hospital staff wouldn't overhear.
He offered peace by pulling out a chair
at a nearby table for Johnny first before grabbing
and reversing another one for himself.
"I thought we had settled all that."

"...Not directly...no. Look, Roy, I mean, he's bound 
to show up looking for me sometime.."

"How do you know? You haven't yet even talked
to the man."

Gage began to gesture pointedly. "Can't
we just ...sit over there?" he pleaded half
heartedly.

"Where?" Roy said, irritated at the idea of
moving again when his stomach was complaining
so loudly. 

Johnny pointed again and Roy looked over
his shoulder to the table his partner wanted.

Roy frowned. "There's no sun over there.
You wouldn't be able to see your plate well
enough to eat from it if we ate over there. I'm
fine right here. You can move if you like. Today,
I'm gonna be part chameleon and soak up
the daylight. Let's just say that tower's rubbed off
a little too much on me. I suddenly find I
really like open spaces." and he began to shovel
it in as only a hungry fireman could.

"Roy, would you jus--" And Gage broke off when he
saw Dixie and Brice headed their way. "Oh, no..
He's bad enough.." But rather than looking like he
was retreating, Johnny sat down next to Roy
and nervously positioned his arms and posture
to look like he wasn't nervous.. He failed miserably
and Dixie McCall caught on right away.

"Oh, come on, Johnny. It's not that bad." Dixie grinned.
"Mike won't bite your head off. I've been working on him these 
last few weeks sharing with him just what you had to go 
through during the incident where Angie Morton was killed.
I even showed him your medical chart showing how low your
PO2 levels were because of those freon fumes." she
grinned.

"Dixie!" Gage said in mortification at that breach of confidentiality.
Johnny made a hushing face, but Brice seemed to be oblivious.

Craig just offered Dixie a third chair at Johnny and Roy's
table before he took the last one and began arranging
his tray and silverware just so on the china blue
formica table top. He even passed over the salt to the
head ER nurse so she could season her salad.

Johnny was beginning to relax about Dixie's
meddling admission when Craig Brice spouted off
in surprise instant support. "No paramedic could have been 
expected to keep a clear head dealing with any rapid life or
death decision making processes with the marked
hypoxia you had during that crisis. I'll stand by what I 
read.." he said matter of factly.

Johnny nearly choked on his tuna. "What is
this? Why is my medical chart suddenly everyone's
common property around here." he whined, 
unconvincingly angry. "I thought there were rules
to protect my privacy that way.."

Dixie held out a hand apologetically to Johnny
and set a warm grip on his forearm. "I'm
sorry, Johnny. But Dr. Brackett felt that that was
the best way to defuse Mike from taking a legal
course of action against you by spreading 
around just what you had to work with. "

The color drained from Gage's face. "He's
been doing  what?"

 "Nothing official, Gage.." Brice said. "So far, it
was just a meeting with Dr. Brackett, Morton and
myself concerning competency.."

Johnny threw down his fork with a clatter and
jumped from his seat. "That's it! I'm going to 
go talk ta Morton right now. This is really getting
insane..."

"Wait a minute, Junior, where do you think you're 
going?" Roy asked.
"Gage, hold on a short moment, before you take
  an action that you'll regret in the future." Brice
suggested blandly.
"Johnny.. pipe down everyone's gonna stare."
Dixie hissed. They all said simultaneously.

It took all three of them to pull the distraught 
young paramedic back into his cafeteria seat. 

"Shut up and eat." DeSoto said with finality,
handing Johnny back his fork and pulling away
the HT so Johnny couldn't leave.

"Don't think I can. I just lost my appetite."
Johnny mumbled. He toyed with the food on
his plate, pushing it around while watching the
steamy curls from his lunch waft away in the 
breezy sunlight.

"Why don't you trust Dr. Brackett to manage
Doctor Morton about all this? You're not to blame
for what happened.." Dixie insisted.

"That's what I told him.." Roy agreed in exasperation.
"Only my half witted partner here doesn't believe me."

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. Guys. Don't you
think all of this should be between just Mike
Morton and me?"

"And a pair of lawyers, Gage. Can't forget them."
Brice piped up, trying to interject a bit of
reality to the problem.

Johnny's face went even a paler shade of gray.

"Oh, Johnny. Knock it off. You did what you could.
I heard the whole story from Hank Stanley when
he was here to see you two back then. Now, why
don't you just sit back and let Kel handle all this?
It's his job to go to bat for his paramedics."
Dixie moaned.

"And mine.." Craig piped up.

Somehow, Brice's admission didn't feel all that
warm and fuzzy to Johnny Gage like it could
have been. He just stuck magnet eyes on Craig 
and mumbled tongue tied comments of no import 
while he twisted his brain around the convolutions of 
his current nightmare conversation.

Finally, Gage said something the others could
understand. "You mean, Brackett's cool about
all this? That he'd know if I could be sued for
incompetency over ..over.. Miss Morton's..?"

"He should know. He was handling your medical 
calls that day." Dixie said firmly. "You're just
going to have to trust your higher-ups to know
what's best for you in the long run to patch
things between Morton and the courts before
this whole thing blows up out of porportion."

"That's what I'm afraid of.." Johnny whispered,
taking a bite of his suddenly cold food. 
"I'm not in control here anymore." he said
in a way no one else heard.

While the others ate and moved happily onto 
other subjects, Johnny Gage suddenly felt like the 
loneliest man in the world.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny was heading out the cafeteria doors to
rejoin Roy in the squad, when he overheard the 
clump of nurses he usually targetted for-asking 
out-on-a-date practice, speaking in animated voices 
amongst themselves.

::That's what I can do.. Get a new date to cheer 
myself up!:: Johnny thought smiling to himself. 

"Did you hear he's going to do it?" said
one pixie like nursing student, to the others.

"Who's going to do what?" asked another.

Johnny started to head over to them
wearing his best Johnny Gage suitor's 
smile, when the next sentence floating 
out to him from the entry way doors, 
made him flatten against a shadowy wall.

"Why Morton, silly. He's going after a 
paramedic who seriously let him down 
on a run."

A third nurse gasped, her breath going
wide up in a whistle of shock. "No...
I feel sorry for whoever that paramedic
is. They're all so cute."

"Yeah,.. looks like we'll have one less 
working here by the end of the week."
a third joked.

They melted away to their cars, going
off shift while Johnny stood stunned
in the corner.

::A lawsuit? Oh my G*d.::

He barely remembered getting into
the squad with Roy.
------------------------------------------------
 
Photo:  Dix closeup in the cafeteria. 

Photo: Brice and Roy laughing.

Photo: Johnny at Rampart looking bugged.

Photo: Johnny surrounded by nurses.

Photo: Morton at the station, looking all business.

**************************************************
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:18:37 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Rated PG for Graphic Content.. The Tiny Miracle 

*Beep* Beep* Beep*.

"Here we go.." Gage said, just to
fill the heavy void in his mind and heart.

##Station 51. Woman down. 911766 Lander's
Way. 911766 Lander's Way. Cross street,
Buena Vista Blvd. Time Out : 10: 46.##

"Looks like the engine's going to beat
us there, Johnny." Roy said as he
pulled into the drive of the hospital
and turned right under the walkway to
get to the freeway. "Hope it's a medical.
Not a trauma. They don't have that
much for gear.."

They were half way there when
the radio crackled, truck to truck.
##Engine 51 to Squad 51. We
have a s-stabbing, with arterial  
bleeding. What's your ETA?##

Gage didn't miss the odd tension
in his captain's voice. He immediately
frowned. "Now why would Cap 
broadcast a medical update over
the radio?" he said aloud.

"I don't know." Roy replied. "Let's
just get there first. Sounds bad."
He rounded a turn and then rubbed
his lips in thought. "Lander's Way.
Now why does that sound familiar to
me?"

"Gotta be a business with a street
address number that long." Gage
concluded. "Turn left here." and
Gage thumbed the radio mic and
replied. "Engine 51. Our ETA is
three minutes."

##10-4. Be advised we have two
victims. Repeat two victims..## 
Again they both heard the odd note
in Hank's voice even through the normal
tinny din of the open frequency.

Then another odd occurance happened.
They heard Cap calling out for another squad.

"Squad 8? They're farther away than us.
What the h*ll?" Johnny wondered as he
listened to Brice and Bellingham 
acknowledge the call.

"We'll know when we get there. Maybe
it's that new rule of one critical per squad
Brackett was talking about during the last
meeting coming into effect a month early."
Roy guessed.

"That's right. I remember that. It was
Brackett and Brice's idea." Gage 
replied. "And I know Cap's good with
delegating tasks when he's got his hands 
full. Even for the medical stuff."

"They've got two O2 tanks." Roy agreed.
"Those'll last well for them until we get 
there with ours."

Johnny glanced at his watch and
scribbled a note in his book. "T-minus
two minutes from arrival.."

Roy stepped on the accelerator.

----------------------------------------------
Marco was getting sick behind a parked
car a short distance away.

Chet's complexion was faring little better. 
Kelly looked up from the dressing he held
over the woman's swollen belly and
away from the movement he was seeing 
there. "What should I do, Cap? I don't
want to tip her over onto her side to deal 
with that nausea or this fluid'll gush
out and expose it more.." he said 
softly, with high stress.

Cap continued to whisper reassurances
to the half conscious woman on the ground.
"Easy.. It's ok. Just keep breathing this in.
The rescue squad IS on its way here." he 
said, holding a passive demand valve over 
her face trying to ease the oxygen debt she 
was feeling due to her massive 
hemorrhaging. ::I sure hope it's Brice who 
gets here first..::
"Chet. Just keep her on her back. I got
the suction here if she gets ill, ok, pal?
Just keep pressure around that wound
without pressing down too much. Just
apply dressings enough to slow the 
bleeding. We have to keep any more 
contamination from getting inside of her
abdomen there."

"Where's my husband?" she moaned.
"I want to see him... Oh...hHHh."

"Don't talk right now. Please, just keep still."
Cap soothed, then he looked up with
a tight mouth. "Stoker! Any sign of
her assailant? There's more blood over
here possibly from a second person, 
by Marco. On second thought, never
mind. Go check on Lopez and see 
how he's doing. We need help here. 
She's waking up."

"The thief's gone, Cap. I just talked to a witness
over here who said he ran to the north with 
her purse. He must have mugged her when 
she came out of the grocery store." Mike
replied.

Hank nodded in agreement. "Probably
because she was pregnant. Go handle
Marco then get back here with more
dressings. Also, we can at least set 
up a burn sheet to get her off the ground.
  Get a backboard and c-collar while
you're at it. We can start immobilizing her, 
too, after we cut these clothes off. But first, 
get her covered up. There are too many 
gawkers gathering here."

The sight of the engine and four firefighters
was indeed drawing a crowd from
the shopping mart and a coffee shop from
across the street. There was as yet, no
P.D. for crowd control. Hank got on his
HT. "Squad Eight, Engine 51. What's 
your ETA?"

## Four minutes.##

"10-4, Squad Eight. Our victim's regaining some 
consciousness but is developing complications."

##Understood. We're increasing our speed.## 
came Brice's cool reply.

Cap wished he could tell his arriving people
more but didn't want to run the risk for
safety reasons. ::It's bad enough as it is..::

A choking sound drew Hank's attention
downwards. "Maam?!" he shouted. "Can
you hear me?" The woman's stomach
began to heave as she tried to quell
sudden rising bile. 

It caused some amber amniotic fluid to run 
from the gaping stab wound Chet was 
managing. "Easy.. easy!" Kelly urged. 
"Don't move down here.You'll hurt yourself 
further.." 

Hank saw the woman's eyes roll back
into her head as shock finally stole away her 
consciousness. He tipped back her head 
and looked into her mouth with practiced 
cross scissor fingers. Quickly, he suction 
wanded out some welling emesis he 
found there from the back of her throat 
until the choking sounds were gone.

When he looked up, he saw all four
of his men around him over the woman.
::Good going. Now we'll get things done.::

Cap bent low to listen for sounds
of respirations. "She's still breathing.
Marco, get a resp rate after you're
through strapping her onto that long
board. Stoker. Get another sheet over her
as soon as he's through. Her pulse's
weakening. It's 130." he said, keeping 
one monitoring finger on a deeply
sunk in carotid artery.

"Cap, I don't know about this." Chet said
from where he was kneeling with his hold
around the stab wound. "There's a lot
of air getting in around the baby. I'm getting
real worried here that I'm not doing enough."

"Just hang on, pal. As long as she
doesn't lose any more amniotic fluid,
we're fine. The baby'll share the O2 she's
getting, through the umbilical cord." And he
stepped up his care, starting to actively 
ventilate the woman when her breathing
grew too shallow for his liking. 

::Come on, Johnny, Roy. Get the lead out.:: 
Chet willed mentally. ::She's one we can't 
lose..::

Cap looked up to see an arrowing squad
flying towards them from the east. It wasn't
squad 8. ::Uh oh. Didn't want that to happen.::
"Stoker get set. Watch Roy carefully
when he gets here. And keep him away from 
me. Gage's the only one allowed to handle 
her." he said, keeping up his vents on 
Joanne DeSoto. 

"Regulations?" Marco asked.

Cap nodded his head.

All three were watching when Roy's 
horrid cry of recognition exploded from 
his lips. Mike Stoker intercepted DeSoto's
desperate charge to get near his wife 
and unborn child. "Joanne!"

Gage almost dropped the gear boxes
and O2 he was carrying. "What?!"
He ran by Stoker. "Don't you let go of
him.." he ordered. "No matter what he
does or says. Brice and Bellingham 
will be here long before I get in over 
my head." 

Mike had brought Roy to his knees to
keep him from getting into his crewmates'
way. He kept talking to DeSoto, telling
him what was wrong and what they had 
found on her.

"Joanne? Stabbed in the abdomen? 
The baby!!" Roy panicked. "I gotta
get over there."

"DeSoto. Stay put!" Cap snapped.
"Or it's your job, pal. Understood?"
he said more softly, in sympathy.

Roy nodded reluctantly, but finally
he stopped struggling with Stoker. He
tried to content himself with trying to see 
over the sheets to where Johnny, Chet,
Marco and Cap were crouched. He 
could barely make out the slight rise
and fall of Joanne's chest in between
the breaths Cap was giving her.

At a glance from Gage, Hank reported, 
"She got sick once. And I already listened.
Nothing got into her chest. It's clear."

Gage sighed in relief. ::One hurdle 
down. Let's see how far we get with
the rest of things.:: Johnny was already 
sweeping over Joanne's body in a rapid 
assessment. "Only that one stab wound?" 
he demanded of Kelly.

"Yeah, there's no exit wound. 
Johnny,...hurry. It's coming out.." Chet 
said in a tight whisper. "So's all the fluid 
bath."

"What?" Gage leaned in closer,
quickly pulling on a pair of sterile latex gloves
from an obstetrical trauma kit. He nodded
for Marco to lift the sheet a little higher and 
to place a penlight into his mouth so Johnny 
could shine it into the dark wound that way.

He could see Roy and Joanne's third
unborn child floating silently, without 
independent movement, deep within,
with his naked eye. 
::Oh, my g*d. Please be alive. Please. 
Please..:: he begged mentally, and he 
reached out carefully to a limb he saw just
beneath the surface of inner skin surrounding 
the torn uterus. A tiny hand tightly gripped his 
finger in reflex to his stroking of its palm instantly.

Johnny's eyes teared up in a relieving surge of 
glad discovery. "The baby's alive, Roy. Looks 
like the knife didn't get down that far. I'm not
seeing any bright arterial blood in here." 

Roy wilted in a relieved father's release 
and Stoker let him go. "Th- Thank you."
he said glancing up. Bright tears had
filled his eyes. "How's she doing, Johnny?"

Johnny freed the tiny hand from his
index finger and covered it with a 
damp sterile saline gauze pad carefully.
"Chet. This doesn't come off. Got it?"

"Clear as anything."

Johnny addressed his distraught partner.
"She's fine, Roy. I got pulses down
to the brachial level on both arms and
good bilateral femoral pulses. Looks like
the knife didn't hit any major organs either. 
I'm not smelling any bowel. Just the anterior 
superior uterus here seems effected in the 
central umbilical region.This laceration's only 
about four inches long but it's penetrating 
clear through to the womb obliquely."

He glanced lower and didn't find any
bloody show further down. "The birth
canal's intact, Roy. Thing's are looking 
real good." he sighed out loud. "All her
trauma seems to be extremely localized."

He peeled off his fluid stained gloves
and got out a blood pressure cuff.
"Ok, Chet. The bleeding's mostly stopped.
Your job is to make sure the baby
doesn't poke through again, ok? Put
on this second pair of gloves and 
maintain a firm barrier over the wound."
  
"I'm no nurse, Johnny. I don't want
to hurt the baby." Kelly frowned.

"You won't, the baby'll move back
away from you shortly. It's not
uncommon for free movement this
late along, during a second trimester."

Roy was nodding his head in agreement
despite his numbing emotional fog. He 
nodded every step of the way, too, during 
Johnny's biophone call to Rampart, at
every satisfactory aspect of his partner's 
examination results and vital signs report.

"....Rampart, it appears she's lost about
800 cc's of blood to the outside and 
about......" he added, lifting up the cut away 
garments forgotten and shoved into a heap 
behind Chet,  to look more closely for a better
estimate of volume. "...200 cc's of amniotic fluid 
from what I'm seeing here." he said.

Kel's firm no nonsense voice filled the air.
"51, start two I.V.'s Normal Saline and run
wide open until her B.P. comes up. Under
no circumstances are you to pack
the wound. I'd rather it drain freely. We'll
handle any major leakage when she arrives
and gets sent into surgery. Use no pain 
medications on the victim, at all. It might 
further depress the baby's vital signs. 
What are they, 51?"

Gage read his notes. "Fetal pulse is 180 
via stethoscope auscultation. Mother's 
respiratory rate, assisted, is 22 on 16 liters
of O2."

"Good enough. Watch for fetal protrusions
such as free limbs or the umbilical cord in
transit. Under no circumstances are you
to push any such extrusion back into the
uterus. Just maintain space around the 
area manually to keep good circulation 
going in the part."

"10-4, Rampart. So far, just an arm's been
visible, that only submerged, and a hand,
briefly."

Over the radio, Dr. Morton, who had been
walking by, commented. "No doubt that's
how Gage found out the baby was still
alive. The grasping reflex.."

"No doubt.." Kel agreed.

Brackett re-thumbed the talk button. 
"Keep her warm, keep her legs
elevated and get her and baby in
here a.s.a.p. Tell the ambulance 
driver to avoid potholes if at all 
possible. Oh, and don't forget to
apply an occlusive dressing over the 
wound to slow the amniotic fluid loss 
you're experiencing. That's irreplaceable 
at this stage of the game."

"10-4, Rampart. Treat for shock.
and use an air tight dressing."

Right then, Squad Eight came
tearing around a corner, screeching
efficiently to a halt and Brice
and Bellingham got out. "Rampart,
an additional squad has arrived to
help me keep her and her wound stable.
Our ETA is approximately fifteen 
minutes. The Mayfair's here."
Gage added when a second set of sirens
grew in rising pitch, from the distance.

Roy was finally allowed to sit by
Joanne's head, slightly to one
side so he didn't get in the way of
the oxygen being delivered to his still
wife and very active baby.  Already, the 
shock he experienced when he first got 
to the scene, was lifting.
"I don't suppose you saw the baby's
gender over there." Roy quipped, trying to 
smile and he gently caressed Joanne's
pale face around Cap's jaw gripping 
glove.

Johnny shook his head. "Sorry about that.
Your baby decided to not cooperate in 
that way, Pally. Relax.. They're both in 
good hands. Mine. I promised you that 
I'd be here."

"And you are.." Brice said, kneeling, as
he snatched Johnny's notepad from
his hands to read what Gage had written
down.

His speculative eye cast over Joanne
once and his head bobbed in satisfaction
over the progress of her course of treatment 
thus far. Craig waved over the ambulance 
attendants. "We're ready here. Looks like 
everything's set and good to go."
------------------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny and Roy headed for
           the squad through the ER doors.

Photo: Joanne DeSoto in close up.

Photo: An extra-uterus fetal hand gripping
           a gloved finger.

*********************************************
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:52:00 -0700  
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>   
Subject:  Bull in a China Shop.. 
 

"Hey..." Dixie gently woke her two favorite
paramedics where they slumped in their
seats outside the surgical family waiting room.

Roy and Johnny both sat up, rubbing sleepers
out of their eyes quickly and they both coughed 
to get their voices back from the depths of
slumber.

"It's over. The surgery was a success. Dr.
Brackett managed to seal up your wife's
womb without losing any more amniotic fluid.
Joanne's just been extubated and is resting
comfortably. So's the baby on the sonograms,
Joe says. And there's a one hundred percent
chance she'll be able to carry your baby
all the way to full term for a normal delivery."

"When can I see her, Dix?" Roy asked.

"Oh, in about an hour or so. By then,
she'll be awake enough for visits.."
McCall grinned. "I gotta go. My shift's
up."

"See ya Dixie..And, thanks for everything." 
DeSoto said after her as she padded 
quietly down the hall towards the elevators
in the semi darkness of the nighttime hospital
wing.

"Say, maybe this's is gonna fix
everything." Gage said softly.

"What's gonna fix what?" Roy 
croaked groggily.

"This whole rescue and how 
Morton feels about me being the one
who headed it. He can't possibly
hold malice towards me now."

"Oh, that again?" Roy said rubbing tired
eyes as he almost began drifting
off to sleep right where he was
in his waiting room chair.

"Maybe if he sees how well I handled
Joanne and the baby on paper.." he paused.
"With you, of course.. that he'll have
no desire to press charges about how
I handled his sister that day. He
was there in the room with Brackett for
this one. I know. I heard him."

"Who knows what that man thinks.
I don't think anyone around Rampart
can say much about him personally."
Roy admitted. "So how can you predict
how he'll react with any certainty?"

"Yeah, guess you're right.." Gage
said, sinking into a depression once
again that outshown the joy he
felt meeting Roy's unborn son or
daughter peeking out of the womb.

He thought again about what he
had overheard from the student nurses
on his way out the ER doors the day before.
::Man.. Maybe I SHOULD bough out while
I still have my pride left. I can't take this
anymore. Gonna have to do something about
that before I'm embarrassed publicly before
everyone in a courtroom.::

Somewhere halfway to home, Johnny Gage
made his final decision.

------------------------------------
It was the next day after a harrowing 
fire call, at the resupplying  station.

"Gage, I wanna talk to you."

"About what..?" Johnny said,
stiffening up at Morton's approach.
::Here it comes, the ultimatum.::

"About missing critical vital signs
on a patient that we both took care 
of together."

"On who?" Johnny blinked in surprise.

"Baby DeSoto."

"I didn't miss any vitals signs on the baby."
he said fading from neutral into a tone
which carried a tinge of irritation.

"This here says you did. There's a blank
space glaring out at me. Caused me
and my receptionist a few headaches
transcribing my ER report this morning."

"Give me that.." Johnny said, snatching
up the run sheet xerox from Mike's hands
and reading where the young doctor
was pointing.

"I did take a fetal pulse. Apically.."
Gage insisted. "I got a rate of 180."

"Where? I don't see any notation
about it on Joanne's run sheet.
See? It isn't anywhere on here."

Johnny just gaped like a fish..

".. I'm right and you know it." 
Morton said cooly, his less than 
stellar bedside manner showing.

"No , I'm right!" Johnny insisted.
"This is a xerox, Dr. Morton. And
I just didn't press my pen down
hard enough. It's there. I can
see the ink furrows plainly."

Kel Brackett finally decided to
get into the fray. "Maybe this isn't a case 
of who was right you two? Joanne's fine.
The baby's fine. So why are
you both squabbling over the details?
You both did a fantastic job both in
the field and in the treatment room
yesterday." Kel insisted, grumbling 
stonily. But his comment fell on two
sets of deaf ears.

Johnny and Morton were still
glaring at each other like two
caged lions.

Kel smiled as he walked away
from the base station, shaking his
head ruefully. He would let his two favorite
ex-student proteges, work it out for 
themselves.

"I did an absolutely spectacular fetal
stabilization out there. And you know
it. You make me feel as if I'm being
incompetent or something here."

"Maybe I am.." Morton said, not
at Johnny, but inwardly, to himself.

"Why?" Johnny asked sharply, taking
that comment's meaning entirely the
wrong way.

"I don't know." Morton shrugged,
still thinking to himself and only half 
listening.

Johnny was still fuming and defensive.
"Then why don't you just haul me
off to court and we'll square this
whole issue away once and for all.."

"Huh? Oh, that. I don't have the money 
right now to pursue any charges 
against you, Gage."

"Now Morton, Look..." Johnny said
very hushed, fearing the worst.

"And I wouldn't do such a petty thing
anyway because it wouldn't be justified 
in the slightest to even attempt it."

Johnny's head immediately lifted.
"What?"

"I'm not blaming you for my sister's death,
Fireman Gage.  But I AM still a little jumpy
when it comes to handling rescue calls involving
any teen aged girls who are near the age Angie 
was. Something me and the counselors haven't
been able to figure out yet. That's why I got 
a little tight with you earlier, about how
you assessed the baby, over the biocom."

"You mean.."

Morton held up silencing fingers, just 
as the hospital receptionist summoned
his name over the intercom pager
and gave a where-to-report-next location.

Mike refocused on a tense paramedic
face. "That's right, Gage. I never went 
to a courthouse to file a lawsuit. 
That would've been stupid. I finally 
summoned up enough courage to read 
Angie's final autopsy report. 
She never had a chance at
surviving that accident, Johnny.
There was nothing humanly possible
that you could've done. Excuse me,
I have a lot of work to do right now.
Can we talk about all this later?"

Mutely, Johnny nodded.

Half a second later, Dr. Morton wandered 
down the hall to the nurses' station phone
to answer his page.

--------------------------------------------------

Photo : Dixie making an appearance
            for Roy and John in the nurses lounge.

Photo:  Morton squaring off with a wary Gage.

Photo:  Roy eyeing something intently in closeup.

**********************************************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject :The Final Post.. (No pun intended) Heh...:)  
Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 12:20:17 +0400  
   
Johnny Gage rushed out of the hospital
rest room, searching for his bored,
wandering partner. "There you are! 
Roy! I did something really stupid."

"What? Did you get dressed again
without a spare set of shoelaces handy?"
Roy smirked. "Don't tell me, you broke 
yet another pair." Roy said sipping 
his coffee by the entry way doors
leading out to the ambulance ramp.

"No, you gotta listen. I wrote a letter
to headquarters and I mailed it without
even thinking straight."

Roy tipped his head in a sinking suspicion,
but out loud he asked. "What kind of letter?"

"The kind no one ever wants to write.."

"You didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"Why didn't you tell me you did something
so stupid."

"Thought I just told ya, pal."

Roy grimaced, and looked at his watch.
"Oh, Johnny..." he whined. "Which mail 
box?"

"The one by home.."

"Uh, oh.."

"Uh, oh what?"

"The postal truck picks up all
deliveries in your neighborhood
at eight o'clock."

"What time is it now? Maybe I got
time to drive down there and--"

"Can you drive faster than a hundred
miles an hour?" DeSoto squinted as
he noted what time it read on his wrist
watch.

"Oh, no.."

"Oh, yes. We got twenty minutes to
intercept that letter." Roy's face fell.
"Why'd ya do it partner? I thought we
were friends."

"Roy, would you cut that out. I didn't
mean it."

"Oh really. Tell that to headquarters when
they open up the envelope." Somberly,
he stuck out his hand. "It's been nice
knowing ya. By noon, I'm afraid
you're out of a job. You know how
McConnike feels about quitters."

Johnny Gage suddenly snapped his
fingers in the midst of a great idea.

"Roy, I think I figured a way outta this.
Bear with me." And he snatched the HT
out of his partner's hand.

-------------------------------------------------

Roy sat in the seat of the squad with
his driver's door open, looking like
the proverbial speak no evil monkey.

All the medical gear from the stow
was conveniently arranged around
the mail box in a neat ring. Johnny
even had out the jaws of life.

It had been bad enough roaring down
the freeway with lights and siren on for
no good reason at all. Luckily, they had
never run into another called out station
while they were doing it.

Johnny tried to look nonchalant
as E 51 pulled up with the rest of
the gang Code Three. "What's
the problem, Gage? " Hank said
stepping out of the cab before
the Ward was even curbside.
"Sam was a little light on details for 
this one. All we got was 'Unknown 
Type Rescue" with your squad call 
sign as the originator.."

"Uhhh.." Roy stuttered.

"Roy, Just shush.. I'll explain it.."
Johnny said and he bravely stepped
forward to provide some
protection for his partner.

"Well, uh,," Johnny cleared his 
throat nervously. "You see, Cap, it's
like this.  I sorta kinda wrote a stupid
letter this morning before I came to
work. One that I kinda regret.."

Hank Stanley caught on immediately
and dropped his head with an irritated
grimace that soon, rapidly, became a snarl
as comprehension dawned.
"Don't say anything more, Gage.
Oh my word...L*rd all mighty in Heaven..!"

He set his hands on his hips and
counted to ten..

"Cap,.. I.."

Hank held up a hand while the
gang gathered around him from
the engine's cab for orders. Then they 
noticed Hank silencing Gage with his 
trademark scathing nonverbal captain's 
gesture.

 Slowly, his face turned a bright scarlet.
Hank took in a deep breath and ...then
he let loose.."We just wasted tax payers' 
gasoline dollars to come all the way out 
here to high tech rescue a stupid 
resignation letter?!" Hank boomed.

"Uh..." Johnny peeped. "Cap, the
postman's gonna be here any second."
he insisted lamely.

"I don't believe this! Of all your crazy
lame brained schemes.. this one
certainly takes the cake, Gage."

"Yeah, but isn't it noble?" Chet piped
up, sudden admiration's stars in
his eyes at Johnny's cack handed
way of getting out of a rough spot.

Cap's face just turned a darker
shade of red.

"Breathe, Cap." Marco insisted
from somewhere out of range.

DeSoto and Gage just glared
at Lopez..

"We're saving my partner's 
career here." Roy dropped into the
boiling silence between them all.

"Say,,," said Chet, scenting an opportunity
to get even in the years long Gage/Kelly
one upmanship game. "Cap,..just think of 
how many favors you can glean off him 
for this."

Hank's glower faded away into a calculating
speculation. "Ahh. That's right. I get to pull
some serious rank AND discipline here.
Let's see, well, latrine duty for sixty days, 
kitchen chow and dish detail until Christmas.."
he said ticking off two fingers on his glove.

"Until Christmas?!" Gage sputtered, then 
immediately hushed up sheepishly.

"That's exactly right. Protest further and 
I'll double it.."

Gage was a mouse. A mute one.

Then they all heard responding sirens
from an approaching police car.

"Uh oh,'' Cap trickled.
     
"Quick! Pretend like your arm's stuck, Chet."
Johnny shouted out to the back of
the engine.

"Do what the man says Kelly and
be quick about it.." Hank re-enforced.

"What, Cap?" Chet said as he
huffed over with the equipment they
needed.

"You heard me.." Cap hissed as
the squad car squealed to a halt
angled a forty five to the engine to
deflect traffic away from it.

"Hurry up, Chet. We gotta make 
this look good." Marco quipped.

"We're going to be destroying
government property here, Kelly." Cap
clarified, looking around self consciously
at the curious passersby drawn in by 
the sight of the flashy engine and squad
in front of the bank.

"We need an excuse." Stoker said
when Kelly still didn't yet catch on. 
"Bury an arm now, Chet. "

"And moan a little.. cause here comes 
Vince to guard the loose mail that'll 
result from our steel splitting 
surgery.." Roy grinned.

"Oh,,,geez.." and the lightbulb finally 
clicked on.. "Right, Gage.. " Chet stuck his
arm into the box ."Ohh,, I don't feel so
good."

John smacked Kelly subtly on the arm
for overreacting a little too much.
"Hi Vince..." he greeted brightly.

"What's the problem here, boys..?"

"Chet's stuck. Thought we had a puppy 
fallen down a mail box, Vince. Only dork 
head over here couldn't wait for the key."

"Is that a fact?"  Vince leaned over
and planted an ear against the post
box and listened. "I don't hear anything."

"The little bugger got away..." Chet
protested admirably. "He WAS here.
Look.." and he pointed down to a 
convenient pile of doggy doo doo
steaming on a curb near where they
were standing. "He crawled right up
my arm like a cat getting out. He even
clawed my face.. See?" And he
pointed to a lac he got from a shooting
cinder the night before.

"Hmm. Ok, boys.. I'll authorize
a sawing.." Vince finally agreed.
"Just... try to keep the public's mail
intact while you're doing it, all right?"

The K-12 flower petalled the mail box in
less than twenty seconds under Stoker's
extraordinary extrication skills.

Gage subtly kicked the letter he recognized
as his into the sewer sunk into the street.

::Problem solved..:: he grinned in final relief.
::This nightmare, is over..::

-------------------------------------------

Photo : Roy and John laughing at Rampart.

Photo : Cap and Chet highly amused outside.

Photo : A very serious Johnny and Vince.

Photo: A yellow street corner mail box.

Photo : A hand delivering a letter to a mailbox.

Photo: A very smug satisfied, smiling Johnny.
 
***********************************************

            
            End Credits --  Episode Eight  (First Season)

    :)   To friends of depressed and down friends
         everywhere. Thanks for being there for them.
         This episode is dedicated to Officer Benkowski,
         who took his own life when there wasn't a friend
    :(  near enough to show him that life, was still, good.   :(
                                                                             


Guest Writers...
---------------

Rosafleehart              rosafleehart@yahoo.com 
John Allen                  leoseven@msn.com
Sam Iam                    lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Roxann Dawson        laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
 
 
**Voyagerliveaction Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper        Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT/Minnesota
Lt. Stuart C. Burrows   Haz Mat Coordinator  Paramus Fire Dept, NJ 


Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"Mama Sue"  KSuth3401@aol.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 

"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live :)

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
and Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency! Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live Site

====================================

       Music for   Season One   Episode Eight

                      The Promise

-------------------------------------------------------------
 
Forest Frenzy Midi by Kitty Puff Lusion

Elm Street Midi by Zozo

Mutating Frog Midi by Isotoxin

Across The Miles Midi by James Titus

Equinox by Unknown

---------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   
----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Graphics Showcase Site

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency! and its Characters.    
____________________________________

***This current episode has just completed.
***Keep watching here daily for episode
***installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

----------------------------------------------------

To view the following, YOU MUST ENTER...

User ID : voyagerliveaction

Password : ticketin


After clicking the episode's link..

**(This password will change regularly to
thwart non member visitors. Necessary
to control soaring bandwidth levels.
Watch your emails for updates.)**

----------------------------------------------------


To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fullmoonblues1.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fatherandson1.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/juxtaposition1.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/withinsight1.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------
To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/integritygame1.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------
To see the sixth episode and what we did in
the month of March. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Six
The Golden Horn

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thegoldenhorn1.html
**Location to the Sixth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

------------------------------------------------------

Special Episode 2003..
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thefaceinthemirror1.html
**Location to a Special Episode launched at
the midpoint of our first theater season. Features a
theater host's written episode with images
and screengrabs following the storyline.

The Face In The Mirror..

---------------------------------------------
To see the seventh episode and what we did in
the month of April. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Seven
Crazy Days

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/crazydays1.html
**Location to the Seventh Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

_______________________________________

 This is the pre-production period for..


Episode Eight,  Season One

The Promise

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : 16 May, 2003.


============================

Our Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Our Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live! 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2003 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live..
==========================


  The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Nine..  
      
     Green Pen Of Johnny's

Debut Launch: 1 January 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

 
***************************************************
From: <rosafleehart@yahoo.com>
Subject : A Partner's Choice
Date: Sun Sep 21, 2003 12:27 pm

It was only hours from the end of a bad shift 
for the guys of 51's. A-shift, as usual. 

Johnny and Chet where arguing, and the rest of 
the guys were watching, when the tone went off. 

It was gonna be a big one. It was a four alarmer, a warehouse. 

They arrived on scene, met by the day supervisor.
"We have three workers missing in there!"

"Ok, we'll handle it. What kind of stuff is in there?"

"We ship high explosives to all kinds of contractors for 
demolition work. If that place goes, it will level three 
city blocks." 

"Oh my G*d." The captain calls in to dispatch. Then he calls Roy 
and Johnny over. They all talk. "Dispatch this is 51. You better 
send me another alarm. We have an explosives factory involved. 
Also, police, for evacuation of at least four blocks all around our 
location. "

##Ten four, 51.##

"Ok, now. Hey.. Roy, John! Come here. You tell these men where 
the missing employees were working at last. "

"What do we got, Cap? " Roy asked.

"High explosives and missing employees times three."

"We saw them last in the packing room on the south end 
of the building over there."

"Ok . Thanks. You know get your people back?"

The man ran to where his other employees where standing 
to wait.

Meanwhile, he said to both Roy and Johnny as well.
"How do you wanna work this?"

"We'll go in, I guess. I don't see any other way, Cap."

"Ok.... But be careful. I don't want you two
getting into anything you can't handle, ok ? 
Be careful."

"Yeah. "

They suit up and go in. Just as they reach the area where 
the missing people were last seen, there is a victim. 

A woman. 

Roy grabs her. Johnny tells him to get her out. He would 
see if he could spot anyone else and be right behind him. 

Then, just as they are starting to move, there is a large explosion 
that rocks the building. And Johnny sees danger as he looks up, 
and pushes Roy to safety along with the victim just as part of the 
ceiling came down.

Johnny couldn't get out of the way in time and is trapped under 
all the debris. Roy hands the victim off to another team of fire 
fighters who come over to them just then. He knows there should 
be another squad outside. He instructs the men to take the 
victim outside. Then he grabs his radio and says into it.
"Engine 51! This is HT 51! We have a code I in here! Fire fighter 
trapped under a fallen ceiling. We need help. "

Then Roy removed as much of the debris as he could to get to 
Johnny.

He got to him finally, but he was unconscious. 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

No photo attachments.

******************************************************* 
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>
Subject : Fireman Down...  
Date :Thu, 09 Oct 2003 23:30:54 +0400  
   
"Johnny? Can you hear me?!" he shouted
over the roaring din of fire around him.

Roy's HT crackled and drowned out any possible 
reply that might have come from him. 

It was Cap. ##Hang in there, Roy! I've got 
Lopez, Stoker and Kelly en route to you now with just
a long board. It's the fastest way of getting him out
of there! ##

Roy thumbed his reply, crouching protectively
over his partner's face and chest to ward
off the remnants of the ceiling that still spit burning 
embers down around them from the upper story.
"10-4. Tell them to follow my rope! I'm about 
thirty yards from the east entrance near a toppled 
fork lift!" DeSoto turned all of his attention to
finding positive life signs on Johnny.

Roy's first move was to pull off one of his
hose dampened gloves to slide a couple of 
fingers inside his partner's air mask to 
feel for signs of breathing. 

Immediately, they moistened from the stress 
related puffs of warm breath whistling rapidly 
in and out of Johnny's mouth. Roy bent
closer and he saw that there was a trickle of 
blood running profusely from Gage's nose, trailing
rivers onto the sweaty cracked face plexiglass 
covering it.  To his dismay, there was no sign of 
animation, at all, active on Johnny's face.

"Gotta drain some of that out now." 
DeSoto turned Gage as a unit onto his side
to lay him against his own knees to await the 
help soon to arrive. He mumbled, keeping his free 
fingers on the artery beating weakly in Johnny's neck.
"Just hang in there, Junior. You're doing fine."  
 
Roy sliced away the straps of the air bottle from 
Johnny's back using his holster's utility knife
to get him set for the spine board in two swift
slashes.

Then he kicked Gage's half empty yellow air cylinder 
clear from its usual position until it rested near both 
their heads.

"Roy?! We're here! How is he?" came Kelly's 
muffled shout. It was followed by the angry hissing 
of fire as it was beaten dark by an inch and a half's 
violent water stream.  

Marco and Stoker came running to grab
Gage by the shoulders and legs to help 
Roy keep a tight alignment as Chet slid the 
board as close against his back as he could.

"He's breathing, you guys. But he's really out. 
Watch his neck! He's got some fast facial 
bleeding." DeSoto snapped through his glass.

"I'll be careful...! I'm always careful.."
Kelly countered first gruff, then calming
at DeSoto, as he tried not to let the worry
in his eyes show through his mask.

Chet knocked away Gage's useless helmet
with an elbow while he got a good grip
with his gloves on either side of Johnny's 
head as they rolled him gingerly, to once
again supine, and adjusted him in a centering 
line onto the board.
 
Stoker grabbed the two sand bags they had 
brought to keep Johnny's head even more stable 
under the chin and forehead straps, and he
handed them off to Roy for him to apply.

Lopez quickly dropped the hose that had cleared 
a cool wet path of black through the flaming warehouse
and handily got a good grip on the board.
"I got it snuffed. We gotta move now."

"Ok.. He's set." Roy gasped. "On, three,
we'll lift him. Ready? Three.." he rushed,
tossing Johnny's air bottle onto his partner's
dusty knees carelessly. He made sure 
that Gage's shattered air mask remained in place.
::It's still doing its job keeping out the smoke.::

Scared for their lives, the four men from
Station 51 carried out their fifth as the 
warehouse rumbled in threat around them
with lurid fire while dodging many destabilizing 
burning crates as the boxes fell from their 
berths around them. 

Finally, they cleared out into the night air.

Cap met them on the run and paced along
side of them as he peeled off Gage's air 
mask to reopen his airway with a careful
jaw thrust move. Another hand buried itself
under Gage's slightly smoking jacket. 
"He's still moving air ok.. I got the 02 and biophone 
connected and already hooked up, and an ambulance 
will be here in four minutes. Roy, did you guys 
see anybody else in there?"

Roy blinked in shock when he realized that
he had nothing to report on the others beyond
his own firefighting crew's well being. "Well, I- I.. "

Stoker saved his behind. "Cap, we did a sweep 
search the whole time we water blasted over 
to Roy and Johnny's location. We saw no one else
trapped. I can guarantee that the ground floor's clear.."

"Are you absolutely certain?"

"As sure as the fact you're standing in front of 
me." Mike confirmed, stepping over a yellow burn 
sheet spread over the ground.

"Ok..." Cap sighed, taking Stoker's update seriously.

They all helped carry Johnny's long board over
to the equipment laid out on the street and soon 
they were joined by two other county firemen to 
speed up the process.

Cap grimaced when he saw the large amount of
blood continuing its flow from Johnny's nostrils. 
But he had other worries still to deal with. Hank lifted
his head to shout aloud towards the avenue, 
radio-less, because his hands were still full 
maintaining a clear air passage on Johnny. "I want 
another scout team in the warehouse immediately to 
search the second floor. Under no circumstances 
is any one going back in without a hose backup!" 
he roared.

He saw Engine 10's captain take over his commanding
order to take rapid steps to implement it. From the 
corner of his eye, Hank saw a new team arrow towards 
the burning building dragging a hose at their tail. ::Good 
going. If those people are still alive in there, we'll find em.::

Under Hank's hands, Gage gagged just as Kelly,
Lopez, Roy, and Stoker lowered his board to 
the ground. Cap saw Gage's involuntary stomach 
muscles begin to rock back and forth under his burned 
blue shirt. "Flip him! He's getting ill.." he warned.

They rapidly log rolled Gage onto his side as Johnny
began to vomit up the blood that he had taken in from 
his sinuses. "He's screwing up his airway real bad.." 
Kelly said un-necessarily, showing his current high 
fright for his crewmate.
 
"He's fine now, Chet. Just relax, ok? I got it all.." Roy 
said, applying a last bit of suction inside Johnny's 
mouth from the unit on the resuscitator apparatus.
The smothering liquid gurgling inside the tube gave 
way to a smooth patent hissing sound of sucking air
so he withdrew the wand.
"There. We just gotta get him on some O2 now. 
Marco, you handle that.." DeSoto told him, beginning to
calm down somewhat. "Put him on 15Ls and be 
prepared to breathe for him if he goes over 24 
a minute. For now, we'll keep him on his side until 
he wakes up. Cap, you can let go of him now. I've 
pushed his tongue clear. Looks like he was biting it."

Hank nodded, pulling his blood stained 
hands away from where Lopez and Roy were
settling a demand valve over Johnny's
nose and mouth.

He rose to his feet to find a hose puddle
in which to wash. He didn't have far to go.
::Only to the curb here.:: he sighed and he
cleaned up. Then Captain Stanley 
pulled his HT out of his pocket and set it 
onto the squad's roof for monitoring 
while he watched Roy and the others 
work to assess Gage.

Roy wiped his hands off on the grass and
snatched up the biophone to speak..
-----------------------------------------------------

Photo :   Chet and Marco carrying Johnny
               on a long board.

Photo:  The gang scrambling to lay hose at a fire
              scene from the engine's line bed.

Photo:  Johnny screaming aloud as a ceiling
             falls on him inside a fire.

Photo:  Roy DeSoto on the landline in closeup.

Photo:  Tight shot of the biophone's dials. 

*******************************************
From: "Cory Anda"  <andacory@hotmail.com>
Subject: Volatile Situation..
Date: October 9, 2003. 09:45:08 0007 CST


"Rampart, this is Rescue 51. How do
you read?" Roy began.

Dr. Early turned on the desk reel to reel 
recorder after he got Dixie's hint that there 
was an incoming call arriving to the base 
station. ## Go ahead, 51.## he replied.

"Rampart. We have three victims from
an incendiary factory fire. Victim three has
yet to be located. Victim one, a male 
approximately sixty years of age. He's 
suffering from mild smoke inhalation. 
Victim number two's a Code I. He's unconscious 
following being pulled out from under a roof collapse. 
He's been fully immobilized on a long board. A 
cervical collar has been applied and he's on 15 
L's of O2. Vitals are: BP, 100/82, Respirations 
are 20 and rapid, and his carotid pulse is 120. 
There's substantial bleeding from his nose that we 
have draining by placement onto his side. He 
has no signs of cerebral spinal fluid leakage nor 
accompanying Coon's eyes or Battle's sign 
showing. His pupils are equal and reactive."

## 51, On Victim Two. Start an IV of Lactated 
Ringer's TKO and get a full neural assessment 
as soon as you can.  Keep his head elevated 
and transport as soon as you've established 
the IV. On victim number one, keep him on 
six liters of 02 via nasal cannula and monitor his 
vital signs carefully throughout  the trip in.
Let me know when you've reached Victim Three.##

"10-4,  Rampart." and Roy parroted his
medical orders to the letter back to Joe
Early to confirm what he had to do next.

Right then, Marco spoke up.
"Roy, he's coming to.."

DeSoto dropped the phone and bent
close to Gage's face, tapping Johnny
on an eyelid with a finger to see if
he blinked or not. "Johnny? You back?
Open your eyes.."
   
 On the fourth tap, Johnny's face
screwed up and he coughed wetly.

"Ok, guys.. Let's set him flat again.
He's awake enough to manage all
this bleeding."

Together, the four of them twisted, then 
tilted back the long board until it rested 
head up on Johnny's abandoned air bottle 
while they watched him regain a vestige of 
consciousness.

"Johnny?" Roy said loudly once again,
gripping his face firmly between his
hands. "Can you hear me?"

A soft moan answered him, then..
"I saw a child in..in... listen, *Ugh* ..listen
to me...I saw a small kid in there.." Gage
mumbled, shoving away the flowing ventilator 
mask. Marco kept it hovering close on 
blow by over his nose and mouth
as a compromise.

Chet looked up at Roy as he was 
covering Johnny up with a shock blanket. 
"Is he still half out of it? That last bit
didn't make any sense at all."

"Probably. And no, that didn't make any
sense to me either. Easy, Johnny. 
We're gonna haul you in to Rampart
next for a thorough checkup."

Gage began to fidget as clarity crept
back to him and he tried to touch
his face and struggle free of the long
board's restraints, grunting quietly.

DeSoto and Stoker both, grabbed
his shoulders to immobilize him. Roy
bent close to Johnny's bloody ear.
"Hey,, hey.. Just lie back a sec. Let Marco 
finish up on your 02 first. You're still
kinda in La La land."

Gage seemed to understand then and he
remained silent after that, blinking slowly
at the starry sky as he rubbed the ashes out
of his eyes. A minute later, he focused 
on Roy starting an IV on one of his arms 
and something finally clicked mentally. 
"That Ringers?"

"Yeah."

"I don't need it. I'm .. I'm..not shocky."
he fussed, pushing some new blood and 
old saliva out of the corner of his mouth in 
irritation.

"No, you're very stable. But you were 
unconscious for over ten minutes, partner.
Humor Early for once and let him play doctor. 
It'll boost his ego. He's getting real tired of
all the firefighters hurting themselves
this week." DeSoto smiled down at Gage. 
"Remember, Rampart's had just as bad
a shift as we had today, Junior. " he said.
Then he added casually.. "While we're
still on the subject, Johnny, do you hurt anywhere 
else besides your nose there? Don't go
fussing with it now.  It's not broken. I checked."

Gage eyed Roy up for several seconds in full
doubt at that assessment, but then he admitted.
"Nah..*cough* Just got a smoke headache. I think 
I'm only nauseated because of the crap I swallowed 
earlier." he groaned, closing his eyes to rest.. 
Johnny then allowed Marco to hold the mask over 
his face once more without protest.

"Well, we'll know that for sure once Early
sees your skull series. Just keep clearing
out that blood like you are." he told him seriously. 
But then his voice took up an amused warning. 
"Chet's got a gauze pad handy." Roy smirked.

Johnny opened his eyes when he felt new ministrations
begin. "Ohh nooo.. gimme that, Kelly." he snapped at  
Chet who had started wiping Gage's face dry. "I can clean 
up myself.." he mumbled around the mask, snatching away 
the 4 X 4 from the curly haired fireman's fingers. 
"I'm doing fine so quit sweating the small stuff here. I was 
just getting all the sh*t out of my mouth." And he began to 
do the task of mopping up, himself.

"Uh.. huh.. " Chet agreed with feigned sarcasm. "I saw 
that. I saw that, believe me." Then he looked up. 
"Looks like Johnny's brain is basically  intact, Roy. 
He's b*tching at me already."

"I came to that conclusion fifteen seconds ago."
DeSoto laughed.

Stoker, Chet and Marco all grinned. DeSoto
leaned close to examine Johnny's face and
nose in more detail with his metallic pen light. 
"Your nasal bleeding's finally slowing." Roy 
said.

Johnny emitted a noise of doubt. "Huh..
Feels like I'm still drowning in it."

"Unlikely.." Roy countered. "You're still
talking." he quipped slyly.

"Amen to that, Roy!" Chet chattered 
enthusiastically, giggling uproariously.

Johnny glared.  But only mildly, at his 
coworkers.

A commotion drew all their attentions then.
 
The day supervisor was rushing over
to where Cap was standing and he suddenly
blurted out. "Say, Mister. I got the demolition 
experts from the plant coming from downtown. 
They say they can help coordinate an operation
to use explosives to put out the fire near the most
critical explosive production rooms."
said the manager in tan.

"Talk to that man right there." Cap interjected
and he pointed a finger at Battalion 
14, just setting up shop a short distance
away in the safe zone.

Cap watched as Station Ten's men
ran out of the building with a gasping
man supported between their shoulders.
::There's number two..:: he thought,
remembering the woman who had
been brought out earlier before Johnny's
trouble.

He started to turn away when he
saw that the smoke stained man was fine and 
conscious. The recovery team was placing 
their burden onto a waiting hearse ambulance 
gurney when Cap heard him speak, urgently
hoarse around his oxygen mask.
"Hey. *cough* My daughter's still in there."

Hank motioned for the attendants, who were
starting to wheel him away, to halt. "Wait a minute.
Wait a minute. I wanna talk to this man. Mister, 
can you repeat that? Is your daughter the third 
victim we've been looking for?"

"What? Little Megan? No way.. 
She's nine years old and cute as a button."

That last comment struck a chill down Chet 
and Roy's spines. "Johnny was right about
there being a kid in there somewhere?" Kelly 
gasped.

They both looked up from the IV they were taping 
down, sharply, and started paying attention to the 
new victim information Cap was gleaning bit by bit 
from the agitated man.

The injured worker continued his story.
"She came to see where I work, on a tour. *cough*
She's writing a school paper on what line of 
work I'm into since she's got the crazy idea 
that she wants to join a ski patrol in Colorado
when she grows up."

"Uh huh.. uh huh.." Cap nodded impatiently.
"When did you last see her?"

"About twenty minutes ago.
Heading up the steps above the 
office block to the rafters lookout level
with Howard.  He's one of the designers 
of the warehouse. I think she wanted to 
see how the crane lifts worked."
 
"What's she look like? Uhh,.. W-What was
she wearing today?" Roy butted in, thinking
how best to get the information they needed 
to mount a more comprehensive search.

" Megan's outfit? Oh, let me see.. Uhh,,.
White. All white. A little girl's T shirt and 
pants. She's got blond hair.. Real short!" 
he shouted after Roy who went running to 
the next team of searchers exchanging out
their spent air bottles for new ones. He found
them near the south entrance of the burning 
plant and he quickly told them of the unexpected 
development.

##Move it, Roy. I'll let you know when
Johnny's ready to ship out over the radio.##
Cap promised over the HT.

Johnny regarded his gurneyed, sooty
companion thoughtfully as Marco finally 
changed out his ventilator mask for a lesser 
flow nasal cannula. Johnny said to the man. 
"I hope she's ok, for your sake, mister. 
I know how it is in there. The roof's real 
unstable." he said.

The plant worker opened his eyes
and regarded the dirty paramedic
looking at him from the ground. "She's 
a good kid. She wouldn't do anything 
stupid like getting caught in a fire.."

Chet tried his best not to chortle
when Gage made a face overhearing
that comment.

"Yeah, well that doesn't change the
fact that Megan's in a whole lotta danger
right now.." Cap said with exasperation.
"The whole place might be about to go up."
he said standing over them both, eyeing
the hustling companies ringing the fire
scene.

"Doubtful.." said the man instantly.
"Howard has always said that nothing short
of an atom bomb would set off all the special
stuff we got in storage."

"What kind of special stuff?" Hank frowned.

"Oh, plastique. Timed nitrite incendiaries.
and some rocket fuel."

"Any TNT or nitroglycerin?" Hank asked.

"Nothing so archaic, Cap. What do we
look like? ACME Plant Central?"
 
---------------------------------------------

Photo :  Night fire crews working
             a suburban California fire.

Photo:  Johnny on the ground at night, hurt.

Photo: Chet and Cap discussing something
            in full turnout at night.

Photo: Cap by the engine at night.

**********************************************
From : "Katherine Bird" <kathbird@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Tightrope Act..  
Date : Wed, 15 Oct 2003 22:12:35 +0100  
 

Roy pelted towards the team headed in, refastening 
his air mask over his face. Already, he was breathing 
hard. ::A kid? I really hate kid calls.:: he quailed mentally.
An equally mental memory surfaced that had Johnny's 
signature all over it. ::Why did you think Cap let you go 
inside again anyway? He knows you're no good to him 
being held back on any kid search at a fire.:: Johnny's
voice seem to say. 

Roy wished that Gage could somehow be with him.
::Right now. We seem to search out a building better working
with the both of us, together..:: Jamming his helmet a little 
further onto his head and flipping up his collar, Roy uptook the 
back end of the fire hose and went with the L.A. city team, 
explaining about the little girl to their anchor man and his orders 
from Cap to find her.

"Where was she last seen?" said a burly man in Pasadena yellow 
at Roy. His mask muffled only a little of the man's dismay.

DeSoto pointed up. "Rafters! Around the auto lifts!"

"Right.." said the front hose man and together, the
four of them fought their way through the roaring
fire towards a set of metal stairs along one wall.

The bitter smell of soaked cardboard and burned
plastics permeated the air and seeped into Roy's
mouth and nose as they hosed down the growing
fire through the metal grating of the stairway. "This
air's hardly breathable, even with a mask on. 
I hope they're still alive.." he thought.

At the top of the landing, they found Howard. He
had fallen and Roy knew even before he peeled off
a glove for a pulse check that the man was already
dead. ::Broken neck.::  He felt the cool blistered skin
and confirmed the lack of a pulse in seconds. 
He hastily pulled his glove back on and shook his head 
in the negative at the others who were wishfully fanning
a wash over him and the body. 

One of the firemen broke away from the hose to heft 
up Howard onto his shoulders and he began heading 
towards the nearest hole in the walls where they could 
all see fire engine lights wavering in the orange glowing
darkness around the smoke.

The recovery group pushed higher up
along meshed stairs stretching towards the faraway
ceiling and the rafter walkways there. Several suspended
paths were canted and swaying, full of burning debris.
"We can't go this way. Turn around and go back
one landing. I think I remember another way up there !" 
said the front fireman.

Soon, they found themselves on a second clear landing
with two paths available. One way led into a wall of heat,
far too much for anything still living to endure; the other
dipped into unexpected night coolness. 

::This must be the open part left behind from the section 
of roof that fell on Johnny.:: Roy reasoned. He shot ahead, 
through the advancing hose spray and into that second choice
of blackness, pulling off his mask's straps. "Megan! Can you 
hear me?"

DeSoto's voice echoed around the sagging and violated,
partially melted beams, over the din of the flames, eerily. 

There was no reply. 

Roy turned a one eighty in place, keeping a hand on a fireman's
jacket for reference, and shouted again in the direction of 
the second side of factory ceiling walkways. He took a breath 
from his mask as he listened tensely for any reply.
"Megan!! Shout if you can so we can find you!"

He was about to motion the search team to move up
to the next level when a treble echo of sound filtered 
through, bouncing off angles and hollows, barely audible
over the snap and crackle of the nearby inferno.

 "Hold it. Hold it.. Did you hear that?" Roy asked
the other firemen. They all nodded that they did, 
and the lead man started shutting off the hose
to listen, too.

"Megan?!" Roy shouted again, turning slightly to
his left in the choking darkness.

Then the cry came again, clearer and more
frightened. "Help! Help! I'm over here!"

"Keep shouting! We're coming!" Roy said, pulling
on his mask again as they all picked up the heavy
hose in double time to beat out the flames between
them and the little girl.

"H-Hurry.. I .. Howard's gone.. He...He slipped and
fell away from me. I can't see him anywhere.."
came Megan's weak, strained voice.

::She doesn't know that he was killed.:: Roy thought. 
::Good.::"Megan.. what's around you?" Roy shouted at 
her. "We're trying to get nearer to where you are."

"A roof crane is hanging down. It's got a burning box on it!
I'm.. I'm  scared!  I want daddy.."

All three men whirled, studying the flame rippling ceiling
until they spotted the only ceiling lift, still swaying in the heat
with a chained payload.   It was sixty feet in front of them.

"There.. There!" Roy pointed. They could see Megan 
reaching out to them from where she lay on her stomach,
partially hidden in the smoke. Her white clothes stood
out under their flashlights.

The firemen ran. But the head hose man suddenly whirled,
dropping the spraying hose to suddenly press them all back 
into the fiery stairwell where they had just come from. "Hold it 
hold it.. The floor's gone! " he shouted, urgently peeling off his 
steamed air mask. 

The others all did the same to hear and see him better as the 
man pointed downwards with a gloved hand. 

They all had come two steps away from joining Howard
in death.

A section of the suspended metal mesh walkway was missing, 
melted clean away by the intensity of the fire's heat, burning far 
below them. Fifteen feet of yawning space separated them from 
the groggy little girl. 

"Now what?" Roy hissed in frustration. "We don't have time to go 
back for any belts or rope. She isn't gonna last that long."

"Let me think.." said the lieutenant who had been leading the hose
team.  He studied their surroundings carefully, rubbing
his chin.  Roy felt valuable seconds scrape by like an unwanted 
snowstorm.

As they watched and yelled out encouragements 
to Megan to hang on just a little longer while they figured out
how to reach her, Megan's grasping hand slowly dropped 
as she passed out from the thickening smoke.  

"Megan?" Roy shouted out to her. But the little girl's
tiny form, stayed still and unmoving. 

The swaying walkway suddenly shifted as its chains
weakened and the unconscious little girl slid along the 
grating until her head and arms flopped over the edge of 
the walkway precariously, as she rolled.

All the firemen on the other side flung out arms as if to 
catch her."Oh, no.. Don't you dare!" shouted the lieutenant,
looking up.

By some miracle, the large buckle on Megan's rainbow
colored belt caught on a torn off bolt and halted her forward 
momentum before her waist, too, could go over the edge,
and she jerked to a halt, her sooty blond hair swaying.

The firemen let out the breaths they were collectively holding.

Roy started to breathe faster in worry. He was
already sweating. "Look. Let's cut our lifeline
and use that to rig a harness. We can tie it off over 
that beam up above and swing across." he suggested,
taking another breath of air from his mask.

The lieutenant's head canted. "Cut our lifeline? It's
our only means outta here.."

"What other choice do we have?" Roy said angrily. 
"The next chain that snaps may be the one that
dumps her. Besides, she's already out and you know 
how fast kids go down when they quit breathing. One 
of us has to get over there to her to prevent that. Now."

The lieutenant no longer delayed. He got on his HT.
"HT 10 to Battalion 14."

##Go, HT 10.## came the fast reply from the chief.

"We've located the third victim and a child. He's
the fatality that came out to you a few minutes ago 
and she's still inaccessible! Chief, we're going to use 
our buddy line to reach her.."

A long pause followed over the open frequency as
Battalion 14 weighed the risks. ##All right. Do what you
have to do, men.  I'm sending in another team to meet
you with a new line that you all can follow out. What's your 
location?##

Roy lifted his HT. "About the middle of the main room,
at the top of the only metal stairway not collapsed yet.
It's right above where Johnny Gage was trapped."

##10 - 4. Watch for the others and be careful.  We're talking 
demolition out here if the fire spreads out much more than it 
already has. The high risk rooms are now in serious jeopardy. ## 
came the gruff worried reply. ## You have six minutes. Tops.
Then I'm ordering you all out of there.##

"Understood.." Roy answered. "We'll radio once we've
gotten to her.. HT 51 out.." and he pushed down his radio
antennae to shove the talkie back into his jacket.
"Six minutes..." he mumbled to himself. "That's no
time at all.."

------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Roy in a helmet looking up
              in a warehouse, worried.

Photo:  Two masked airbottled firemen
              with a hose in a closeup inside
              a building.

Photo:   Aerial view of firemen in a basket
              over fire, looking down.

Photo :  Battalion 14 on an HT closeup.

Photo :  Firemen rushing with a hose
              into a smoky building.

Photo :  A fully involved burning warehouse
              with melting infrastructure in the
              foreground.

***********************************************
From:   "Linda Taggatz" <doc51@att.net> 
Date:  Thu Oct 16, 2003  10:39 pm
Subject:  Megan's Rescue.


Outside another idea was hatched.  Stoker suggested 
using the snorkel to rescue her.
 
"How?' asked Captain Stanley.
 
"By raising it to where she's caught and lowering  
a line down to Roy and helping him get to her.
 
"Good idea! Let's try it."
 
Captain Stanley got on the H.T. and requested it.
  
The snorkel was moved into place and the line lowered 
to Roy. He hooked his life belt on to the line then swung 
across to Megan.
 
He checked her. The pulse was faint but there. He quickly 
freed her and put his oxygen mask on her. Then he signaled 
on the H.T. for the snorkel to lift them out of there.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Photos :  None.

*****************************************************
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 06:01:11 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  The Towering Inferno.. 
 
::I owe someone a huge dinner for this idea.:: Roy thought
as he adjusted the portable oxygen tank more firmly
into the lowered stokes for Megan's emergency lift out. ::Someone 
was thinking on their toes when they thought of including that 
lifebelt, too, with the stokes. I was stupid for not bringing one 
in with me::  Roy sighed in relief as he hugged her against his 
chest. A paternal pang gripped him unexpectedly. ::She feels 
just like my daughter.:: came the thought, unbidden and
his grip about her tightened protectively as he continued
to feel how effectively she was breathing.

Just as rapidly, Roy's professional side kicked in. 
::Cool it! The clock is still ticking down before the chief 
orders that complete evac of the building. Don't lose 
this opportunity for Megan by getting lost in your emotions.
Extricate her and move on...:: his practical mind
set demanded. ::Mull over it later.::

Gasping, Roy did the work. Then he lifted his head, sighting 
along the swaying rope as far as he could through the column 
of smoke disappearing into the midnight sky. "HT 51 to Snorkel 
One. I've got her strapped down and on the O2!" he shouted 
through his own air mask over the roar of the distant fire far below. 
"She's breathing and set to go! Take up the slack!" And he
started to hook his belt's fastener onto the stokes line.

The reply back from the basket was a very welcome 
surprise. Mike Stoker answered, immediately easing
Roy's rising stress over his still very real and present
danger. But that quiet calm voice was tinged with an 
unmistakable stab of worry..## Affirmative, HT 51. Hold 
up on tandem rappelling. The snorkel engineer says we're 
at maximum reach and extension and on the edge for balance. 
We can only take your victim!## his voice crackled through 
the heat from the talkie's speaker.

DeSoto could just imagine Stoker's masked
figure leaning over the edge of the basket trying
to peer down through the thick billowing smoke
rising up between them. ::I wonder how he fanaggled
that company for the ride up? Most likely, Cap pulled
some rank because I'm still in here in the hot seat.::
Roy realized. ::They must be real tippy reaching 
this far over the factory to the hole in the roof. No matter.
Megan's first and no one with me will debate that.::
   
Quickly, Roy connected the four stokes straps without
hesitation and he yanked on the guide lines firmly to
reinforce what he said open HT. "Understood. She's 
secured and good for go!" he shouted, tugging three
times on her stretcher's rope over his helmet. Then
he swung back across the gap using the snorkel's
grace line and off the rickety walkway back to his 
companions in the stairwell. "They'd better move fast.
If the rest of that roof goes, the sparking plume and
fire resulting from that will catch them." he said to
the lieutenant.

The lieutenant grinned. "I'm Irish, 51. And I've got
fifty saints watching over me that says that roof's
gonna park until we clear ourselves completely."

Roy grinned as he watched Megan's stokes get
hand to hand rope lifted out of the blazing warehouse.
"Make that a hundred patron saints, 10. I'm Irish, too.
Come on, let's get out of here before we boil."

Slowly, the three firefighting men retraced the route
down through the inky smoke along the shaky gutted stairs 
infrastructure until they met up with the second team 
Battalion 14 sent in to fetch them on a new buddy line.
 
They were six strong and moving on ground level
when a hail came out. "Battalion 14 to HT 51 and 
Snorkel 1. Got your victim clear?" 

##Affirmative!## Roy replied at the same time that
Stoker's voice echoed the same from the lowering 
basket outside. 

Then just as fast, a priority break-in-transmission shot 
over their HT open frequency with a harsh squeal.
##To all units! Get clear! Get clear! The roof's caving 
in over the labs! ##

An immediate reply from the new firefighters with
Roy and his team, anticipated Battalion 14's next
hail and beat it coming. "Team Two to Battalion
14. We're ok. We're with Team One.."

##Copy..## said the chief from outside. ##Find
a way outta there. The demolition crew's almost
completed their setup. They have to blow their
charges to snuff out that side of the fire before any 
of the labs integrity seals are compromised. I give you
two minutes..##

:: The east exit's blocked off? Oh no..:: Roy quailed
in his head.::That was our only known way out.:: The 
lieutenant and the others pounded down the stairs, 
abandoning the charged water hose like a spooked 
puppy with a live snake. Their air bottles and tanks rattled 
almost as loudly as the fire's flames as they ran for 
their lives. 

Roy didn't even think about what kind of h*ll would 
greet them when they reached the bottom of the stairs....

The lieutenant led the way to the last landing. He
paused, setting a bare hand on the door once more
and feeling around on its metal surface for sensations
of heat. He grimaced and pulled his hand away before
he dragged it twelve inches. "It's hot.. Go back up. We'll
try the dolly freight. I remember passing it just before
we found this stairwell."

The men ran, trusting their superior's memory of the
trip in. 

"There..!" said the irish lieutenant, pulling off his mask
and pointing. Only a little debris and a few flaming
timbers lay across the door. These the firefighters
kicked away and rapidly, they took out their jacket
halligans and jimmeyed the double metal doors ajar
to lift the cage barrier of the elevator. "In! In! We'll
crank her to the ground level and wait it out!"

Roy startled.. "Wait what out?" he asked. The faces
on the others reflected his dismay.

"The explosion.." the lieutenant said grimly. "According
to my watch we have less than a minute and a half
to clear, and there's no way in h*ll we're gonna do that."

DeSoto nodded, biting his lip. "If we close these doors,
all this metal will provide some shielding."

The Lt. nodded. "Uh huh.. and it won't matter if the 
shaft cables snap in the concussion because we'll
already be at the bottom.. Come on, put some muscle
into it!" he roared at the men on top of the car,
using their halligans to release the brake enough for
the car to slide with a thunk to the ground stops.
"Now, in!! Get that ceiling panel shut. Lock it off
with a tool. The back pressure may blow it free."

Soon, the freights doors were jammed tight with
tools and rope and they were flung into total darkness.
One of the team switched on a jacket torch and all
eyes focused on where ever its beam wandered.

The Lt. radioed out. "We're in the elevator shaft
under shelter. Good to go." he reported to the Battalion
Chief.

## Read you. Glad you thought of the shaft. Stand by.##
there was a pause. ## I don't have to tell you men that
you may become trapped inside of there by debris
landing in front of the doors. Your air bottles may run
out before we can cut you free..##

"Better carrion than char, Chief.. You'll get us out.
New bottles for us can be lowered down the shaft
using the snorkel after the debris cloud dissipates."

##Good luck, Lt.##

"Same to you. Let's hope those demolition experts
really know their stuff.. Team One and Two, out."

##Battalion 14, out.  Forty five seconds..##

Roy felt the countdown through every fiber of
his being. His thoughts turned to Joanne, Johnny
and his family. He only dimly heard the lieutenant
offering advice. 

"I've been through one of these once before. The building,
if it goes down, will spare collapsing the elevator shaft
like they usually do chimneys in these things. Now crouch 
down, and open your mouths and plug your nose or the 
pressure wave will shred your eardrums!"

One of the younger men looked pale behind his
air mask as they all placed their backs against
the wall. "Will it hurt much?" he said with a brave
smile.

"Only if you forget to do what I just instructed."
The lieutenant pulled off his mask and took in
an experimental breath of air before Roy could
stop him. "Air's still good. Try to conserve your
bottles afterwards." he said putting his mask back on
and hunkering down in his jacket and helmet.

::That's if we're still here..:: Roy's mind added 
mercilessly. More quiet advice, calmed him
and the others.

"Cover your face with your arms and huddle down.
Bound to be a lot of dust. Tie off with rope if you have
to. The lift may jostle more than just a little bit."

Roy hooked his gloves on a grip bar above
his head and held on.

Tick. tick. ...tick....    ::Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen..::
thought Roy. He had been counting ever since the
chief's numeric cue over the HT.

DeSoto jumped when his bottle started sounding off
a low air hooter. He shut his off and held his breath.
::I'll buddy breathe with someone else when this is
all over.::

The men fell silent, alone with only their own thoughts
as sweat fogged up their masks, rendering them blind.

Roy opened his mouth...and closed his eyes.
::See you soon, Joanne. It's just another day at the office.::

Three... Two....One.........

A horribly deep, gurgling growl of air belched like
a demonic beast around them, heralding the arrival
of destructive forces unleashed by the demolitions team.

The firemen flinched as a gust of non air ripped around 
them from all four sides inwardly towards them. The pressure
kick whitened out their retinas making them gasp in pain when
an intense searing stab of yellow light preceded it.

A wash of heat cooked the walls in a blast and made
the men recoil from their firm surfaces as the elevator
bed bounced and jerked from the brunt of the explosion.

There were five blast waves, the last of which was the most
violent. It left them bruised and battered.

Roy opened his eyes and realized that the elevator
bed had canted. "The whole shaft's been tilted. Don't
touch that panel!  It's sparking!" he said when he heard
spitting electricity from the direction of the phone box
near the floor. 

He felt an air mask being pressed into his gloves 
from a neighbor and he took a grateful breath of rushing air.
He tried to pass it back but a voice said. "No, keep it.
I'll share with Karl here. You need it more than I, being
a medic. The situation's changed completely."

"Thanks.." Roy slid the new mask back on to see through 
the choking dust.  His hands and legs were shaking so
bad with shock that he could barely move. "Sound off!" 
he ordered, hunting for casualities. He wondered why
their team leader was so quiet.

The young, scared fireman shouted. "The Lieutenant!
He's down!" 

"Where?"

"Here. Follow my voice. I got my hand on his stomach."

"Is he breathing?"

"Yeah.."

The flashlight's circle of light moved to Roy's left,
illuminating a yellow Pasadena jacket. DeSoto
felt up the man's neck and located a bounding carotid
and another sweep of the light revealed a small bloody
cut on the man's head. 

Roy's simple move to open the man's airway made him stir. 

"Easy. You're fine. You must have hit your head on a wall. 
It's over..." Roy soothed, he turned his head as if
he could see in the thick dust floating in the air around him. 
"Anyone else hurt?" he asked, taking over charge 
of the two teams. "Say yes or no.."

All "no's" spoke up in the darkness.

Roy kneeled, getting closer to the lieutenant
and he peeled off the man's air mask gingerly,
he accepted the flashlight someone handed him
and tried not to tremble. "Lieutenant?"

"Please,, call me O'Malley.." he mumbled.
"P-Patrick..." he groaned, keeping his eyes
closed from the brightness of the torch.

"Do you hurt anywhere else besides your
head? Here, breathe through this mask by
hand. I just had to loosen these straps so
I could check you out."

"I...I think I'm fine.. Just...just..not yet all there."

"You just rest easy. They'll get us out in
rapid order.." Roy sighed. "Try not to sleep.
You may have a concussion from what I'm
seeing here.."

"Got it.." the man whispered. "Am I the only one
with a few lumps?"

Roy nodded. "Yeah.."

"Good.. I'll have some battle scars to go with
my other ones.. Oooo.." he said, squinching up
in sudden pain.

"What? Your head?" Roy asked him quickly.

"No..*gasp*.. both my shoulders. Right up
under my collar bone. Hurts..."

::That's belly involvement..:: DeSoto pegged
immediately.

Roy moved the flashlight down and 
several hands unbuckled O'Malley's
jacket to bare the area. Roy found some
dark stains spreading in the dimness.
::Blood... There's trouble here all right..::

Then his bare hand found why. Patrick
had a halligan impaled through his side.

"Don't move. You've stabbed yourself.."

"What?" O'Malley groaned, breathing shallowly,
inside his mask.

"A halligan. The one from your jacket. Doesn't
look too bad. Upper left quadrant. It's buried 
only about three inches down."

"Take it out!" Patrick quailed.

"Not on your life. That may be stopping a lot
of internal bleeding and it probably missed
everything major. I still have good pulses in
your legs and the bleeding's only sluggish."
DeSoto said.

Patrick lay still. "Well, looks like I'll have to
listen to you for the rest of this one."

"Looks like. Don't worry. We both have something
in common here." Roy smiled large enough for
his patient to see through both their masks.

"What's that?"

"We're both good at not losing people. You physically
and me medically.."

Patrick smiled and laughed. He immediately grimaced
when the halligan moved. "Don't make me laugh.."

"I certainly won't make you cry.." DeSoto promised.

"I'm counting on it.." Patrick grunted.

"You're doing fine.." Roy said, then he
looked up as cool night air suddenly filtered down
inside the elevator shaft and washed away the
suffocating plaster dust they had endured.
"We're in the open, that's outside air coming in.
We can take off our masks. The rest of you not
helping me, see if you can reopen that door."

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Twenty five minutes later, all the firefighters were
free and a very dusty Roy sat next to his partner in
the Mayfair rig en route to Rampart.

Johnny Gage opened his eyes and wrinkled his
nose at the plastery sour smoke smell coming off
Roy's shirt. "Wough.. Somebody needs a shower.
Real bad."

Roy smiled. "I'll get one. Can't stay smelling like
roses when you're waiting for a powder keg to go
off under your feet.."

Johnny paled. "You were inside when those guys
blew the fire around the labs?" he said, his
eyes getting wide inside of his long board's wraps
and straps.

"Yep.." Roy grinned.

"Oh, Roy... Joanne's gonna kill you when she finds out."

"No she won't. "

"Why not?"

"Because if she does, I'll tell her the reason why I was
in there in the first place."

It was Johnny's turn to smile. "You guys found Megan."

"Sure did."

"Well, all right.." Johnny said, trying to lace his fingers
around the back of his head, but his IV line and backboard
encumberances prevented him from doing it. He grunted
in frustration, giving it up. Then he eyeballed the red stains
on Roy's jacket and hands. "Any of that yours?"

"Nope. Lt. O'Malleys. And he's gonna be fine after a little
patch up surgery."

"What happened?"

"He argued with the wrong end of a halligan while the explosion
was going on. It got him through the spleen most
likely.."

Johnny gripped his own stomach in sympathy. "Ooo,
that's gotta smart getting stuck down there.."

"Not according to him.  Patrick said he just had some 
referred pain going up into his shoulders and that's all."

"huh.. gotta remember those symptoms.." Gage said
honestly.

"Speaking of symptoms, how are you doing?"

"Fine. How's the little girl you got out?"

"You mean whom Stoker got out.."

"Stoker?"

"Yeah,... he commandeered a snorkel bucket
and we stretchered her out before the demo
guys blew out the building."

"Heheheh. That's thinking on your feet."

"Yeah.. I was impressed." Roy admitted.
"Megan's gonna be just fine. She was
just a little suffocated from all the bad air
she took in. She's headed to Rampart
with Squad 10."

"That's good. Then I'll probably get to meet
her in the hallway or something waiting to
be seen. I remember how busy the ER
was before we got this call. It might still be
that way.."

"Yeah, well, I don't think you're gonna be waiting
too long, partner. You've had a history of
vomitting and unconsciousness." Roy chided.

"I feel fine.."

"I'm not the one who needs convincing. Tell that
to the doctors.."

"I will, believe me.."

"Of that I have no doubt.." Roy said, cleaning
up his skin with some saline from a bottle.
"Try to get some rest. We're almost there."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  A snorkle extending over a burning roof at night.

Photo:  A midnight flaming warehouse.

Photo: Roy DeSoto close up in dusty light.

******************************************************************
From :  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> 
Sent :  Thursday, December 11, 2003 11:48 PM 
Subject :  Right Moves and Night Moves... 

Offstory- 
My gratitude to Audrey, WolfLynneKK@aol.com,
the ETL Pediatrics Consultant for her aid in helping
me with smoke inhalation lab work and with the temperment
and personality of nine year olds in general.

Onstory-
"Roy,.. how's she doing?" Dr. Brackett asked
as he met the rolling gurney holding the unconscious
nine year old Megan from the explosives fire in a nest
of backboard  straps, O2 lines and IV tubing.

Roy indicated Dwyer to his left. "Better ask
Stan here. He's the one who brought her in.
I had Johnny."

Kel looked up at the man from Station Ten.

"Meagan's doing fine, so far, doc." Dwyer piped up.  
"She's still pulling air. Glasgow's five though.
BP's 84 over 60. Rate off the bag here's ten.
Pulse 132. Pupils still sluggish but equal and reactive."
the other paramedic replied.

"Any head involvement or other trauma?" Kel said, glancing at
the child's face and nose around the ambu's mask looking
for swelling and redness under the ashy soot he saw there.

"None. We all saw her just pass out slowly onto a metal walkway."
Roy answered for Dwyer.

"What kind of fire was she in, Roy?" the dark haired doctor said, 
holding the door to Treatment Three open as orderlies
maneuvered both Gage and Megan's beds into the same
room together.

"In a clean flaming one, burning explosives. We found her 
amid complete incendiaries and others that were unassembled 
from labs, from what I saw. Doc, I wouldn't doubt those scientists 
had all the usual chemical building blocks necessary to make an 
entire military arsenal. A real toxic soup. You should see our hats,doc.
That smoke turned our helmet numbers green." DeSoto said 
cryptically.

"Really? Green's a good color.." Gage piped up.

"Shh..." Dwyer hissed at Johnny. "Let them work or
do I have to come over there with a bite stick." he warned
teasingly.

Brackett and DeSoto never even heard the humor going
on behind them.  Roy went on with more information.
"She was inside for about twenty minutes, near the 
ceiling of a warehouse on a catwalk."

Kel rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Hmm, bound to be a lot of nitrates and cyanide created 
in that kind of blaze if I picked up any kind of hazmat
know how from listening to you fellas all the time." 

"That's a sure bet." Gage coughed from his gurney.
 
Dr. Brackett regarded his tiny patient steadily
as he unbound Megan's cushioning C-collar and listened 
around her oral airway for breath and lung sounds. "No rhonci or
rales yet. But I'm hearing a bit of bronchiospasm on the
left side. Roy, Stan, do I have parental consent to treat this
child? I didn't see anyone here with you guys in the hallway."

"You do." Roy said. "We got it verbally at the fire. 
The father's on his way in on another ambulance for mild smoke 
inhalation.  Mr. Miller specifically told us to tell you to go 
ahead with Megan's treatment sight unseen. And Vince 
witnessed that statement being given first hand."

Kelly Brackett smiled crookedly. "Wouldn't it be
nice if all future parental care authorizations can go as smoothly
as this one has?" he quipped  ironically.  
"Dix, draw blood on her for an ABG, have the lab run 
a full creatinine series with a BUN. Also electrolytes. 
Tell them to also check for elevated HbCO  and CN levels as well.
When you're done,  run a nebulizer to that ventilator you're setting up 
and give her 2.5 mg of .5% solution Albuterol in a 2.5 ml saline push. 
I want to get her lung perfusion a little higher than what we're achieving 
manually. I'm not satisfied her capillary refill's being truthful here. 
Keep the bird's vents on the low end. I don't want atelectasis setting 
in on top of her other problems." 

"Right away, Kel." Dixie replied.

"And have the pharmacy prepare a peds dose of Sodium Nitrite
IV.  I want to chase some of that cyanide out of her
blood before any rhabdomyolysis gets a foothold. Also
schedule a session in our hyperbaric chamber. She'll
only blow out all her hemoglobin bound carbon monoxide faster 
that way I think. Anything to shorten the CO's half life inside 
her body. But first, let's see how she's managing."

Dixie nodded.

Dr. Brackett glanced at Dwyer. "Get her patched in, Stan.
I wanna see that tachycardia written out now."

Stan nodded and efficiently got a two lead EKG connected
to the comatose child.

Everyone in the room held their breaths while Brackett read
the strip that was whistling audible warbles into the bustling
silence. "She's got a stable rhythm. I think I like it all things
considering.  Gage, how are you doing?" Kel asked
of his second patient, without looking up.

"*Cough!* Nothing that an ice pack for my nosebleed won't fix.
You concentrate on that little girl there first." Johnny complained.
"My condition's unremarkable."

"He was out for a while doc.." Roy said rolling his eyes, refusing
to play coverup.

Johnny shot Roy a betrayed hurt look laced with a seething anger
that Gage immediately broke off when Kel moved over to his
bed to begin his examination. "Uh huh".. Brackett said, looking
onto Johnny's nose and eyes with a penlight. "Dix. Call X-ray...."
he said, placing an ice bag over Johnny's nasal bridge.

Roy interrupted,.." ..for a chest film on Megan and a full skull series
on Johnny."  At Brackett's and Dixie's surprised looks, he blushed 
and said, "I - I already told them on the way in here.." he 
gestured at the door. "I had nothing better to do so I anticipated
a few things." 

Brackett scowled, sourly cross. "Crazy paramedics think they 
can practice medicine without a license behind their training 
physician's back." His harsh frown fell away into a mischievious 
wink. "Good call, Roy. Exactly what I would've done. Did you also
draw up a syringe of 1 ml succinylcholine in case we have to paralyze
Megan here for an endotracheal intubation if she loses any more
tidal volume?"

Roy held up his left hand from its needle guarded position
next to Dixie's shoulder a little higher, complete with alcohol
soaked cotton ball folded under a pinkie.

Kel chortled and began laughing.
"G*d I love the paramedic program. Why did I ever think
that it wouldn't work, Miss McCall?" he sighed with amusement.

"Because you were stubborn, opinionated and slow to change
at the time, Doctor Brackett." Nurse Dixie said evenly. 
"Took everything I had to bring you around.."

Brackett cleared his throat. "Ehem.. well.."
getting suddenly uncomfortable. "I didn't
think the men could handle what a doctor
could do then, Dix. I'll be frank about that.
It took that miracle, and you, to convince me
to speak in committee to reverse my mindset
that night."

Gage's mouth flopped open. "Is that true, doc? You 
voted against us in the beginning?"  he said, pushing
Kel's hand and penlight away. "I hadn't heard anything
about that at all." he said incredulously. "Man, what
were you thinking? Roy and I were sticking our
legal necks out for you in the field, pulling nurses out
from under falling cars,... and defibrillating with experimental
equipment in mud raining tunnels,.. and -and you had
the gall to think we were out of our scope doing 
what you sent us out there to do all along?"

"Gage! Hush or I'll order an arterial blood gas on you, too."
said Brackett sternly in an attempt to be funny. It failed
miserably.

Johnny quieted down instantly. 

"Now, where was I?" he demanded of Gage.

Johnny just gaped like a fish, cowed, thinking
better of even opening his mouth.

Roy licked his lips, suffering pangs for Johnny's trapped 
status. "Secondary assessment, doc."

"Oh yeah.. that's right. Does this hurt?" Kel said
impishly light in a countering move. He began 
probing Johnny's ribs firmly with both hands, knowing
that it would fiercely tickle the ticklish young paramedic
where he couldn't stop him because of the long board's
complete arm and leg immobilization ability.

"Nope.." Johnny squeaked five octaves higher than 
normal around his oxygen mask.

"Well, how about here, down a little lower?" Kel asked 
threatening to quadrant check Johnny's belly with air 
wriggling fingers hovering inches away from their target,
his eyes flashing dangerously amused.

"ReallyI'mfinedoc.Notraumawhatsoever.Ishouldknow.
I thinkmytongue'sgoingnumbtoorightaboutnow."
he chipmunked chirped, making a face of unhappy
anticipation.  

Dixie laughed in her throat. "Nothing can torment a patient
more than ten fingers fully versed on the human nervous
system. Leave off, Kel. The first amendment's still honored 
in this country or have you forgotten about it in your old age."

"I'm not old!  But I will admit to be an expert. " Brackett
said straightening to move out of the way of the
X-ray people. "And experts deserve a little privacy.
...including what I might have thought in the past about a
certain brand new county program beginning with a "p" and 
ending in with a "c" five years ago. Do I make myself clear?"
he said to the only one wearing a white skirt in the room.

Dixie nodded in grudging agreement. "Ok, you win.
...this time." she added under her breath. "But what
happened back then is all moot anyway. Don't be
so sore about it. Roy proves his worth every day.
So does Johnny. You just celebrated an example
of it a few minutes ago."

Brackett pretended he didn't hear his head nurse at
all and he let his good natured smile fully return.
 "Gage, I'll be merciful this time." Kel said rapping a 
knuckle on johnny's chest strap buckle. "I'm gonna take an 
action that might make those inappropriate verbal comments 
I'm hearing from the peanut gallery go away. I have a new 
theory developing right now that spineboard belts interfere 
with blood flow to the brain in people not needing neck and back 
immobilization. So I'm gonna have the orderlies spring you from 
this contraption right now right after the Xray technicians get my 
chest and head films on both you and the girl.."

Johnny sighed in relief...

"And, after their one hour lunch break of course.."

Gage's eyes widened in immediate dismay.
"WhaatT ?!"

"I'm just kidding, Johnny. Really. That was a little bedside humor
working there. Dixie keeps telling me to practice improving 
upon it all the time. So I just did. Dwyer. Free him while I finish
up here on our favorite hose jockey.." Brackett winked.  " And Dix, 
see what you can do to get these two upstairs. We've a full 
waiting room outside."

McCall nodded. "I think I can pull off another miracle, Kel.
Unlike changing the mind of a doctor, that's gonna be 
an easy one."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
::A little bedside humor..:: Gage thought morosely of
his very active companion in the darkened bed next to
him. ::There can be too much of a good thing. :: And he
gave out a long sigh while he endured another round
of chatter from his tiny, now familiar roommate.
::Why did I have to be transferred to pediatrics?:: he
thought fervently shifting onto his side, pulling a pillow
over his face to shut out Megan's non stop singing
and questions. 

"And those jokes..." Johnny moaned as a crack in
the doorway to his room opened, admitting Dixie
McCall.

"What about those jokes.. I happen to like them.."
she purred, walking nearer to their beds with a silver
tray that contained a few things. "So be nice, ok?"
she addressed Johnny. "I traded a few minutes with
Cheryl so I could check up on you two.. Hiya Megan.
Feeling a bit better?"

"Oh, yes maam.." Megan said brightly. "Daddy just
left and look what he left me! More coloring books!"
she displayed her stack, thunking them noisely down 
onto her bedside tray where she began to scribble 
vigorously on the first of them with a well used green pen.

Johnny pulled the blanket down from around his head
and said, "Really, coloring books? I don't suppose you'd
like to share.." he mumbled. "I'd give anything to do
something else around here besides watching the late 
show." he said dryly.

"OK." Megan piped up. "Lady, you can give the fire
man that one with the trucks. That's boy's stuff."

Dixie raised her eyebrows in an "isn't that something"
look of her tiny new friend and she handed over the
book to Gage with a tiny bow. 

Gage glanced over at Megan. "Hey.. Psst.."

Megan looked up from the horse she was coloring
so carefully with her ink pen. "What?"

"Am I supposed to color here with my fingers?"
Johnny said crankily. He didn't care that Dixie
was asking him non verbally to distract Megan
away from another blood sample syringe
she was preparing for the child.

Megan just sighed and ignored him.

Gage sighed a likewise sigh and snaked out
a hand and grabbed out the green pen from
in between the child's fingers. "Thanks, kid."

"Hey!"

"Hey what?"

"That's MY pen."

"So?" Gage guffawed. "I happen to really like green.
It's my favorite color. Gotta problem with that?"

"Yeah. I had it first."

"Yeah, well I'm bigger so live with it."

Dixie fired a glare at Johnny for not helping
build a feeling of good will in advance with Megan
to aid her cause but immediately turned all soft 
and bubbly when the girl glanced up at her.

"Lady, tell the rude fire man it's not nice to grab."
Megan frowned.

"Mister Gage. " Dixie said. "Our little gal is
absolutely in the right." she said pleasantly.
"Now give it back.." she said heavily dark while
smiling. 

"Oh, all right.. Here.  But I doubt you're gonna
wanna hold that once she's through with you."

"When who's through with me?"

Dixie's looks could have killed Johnny, but
he had the sense to not tempt "medusa's"
gaze. "Me, I'm afraid, honey. Mister Gage told
the truth there. ...If a bit bluntly.." she hissed under
her breath at the gowned paramedic. "I have
to get a sample for the lab Megan."

Megan squealed and ran to Gage's bed and 
kneeled on his pillow, grabbing his head in a death's
grip while she put him between herself and the needle
wielding head nurse. Johnny barely grabbed her IV stand
to keep it from pulling the Ringer's line out of her arm.

"Oh come now, Megan, it's not going to be that bad.
I happen to be very good at this. Now which
arm do you want your shot in?"

"Yours..!" Megan insisted, pointing at Dixie.

Gage burst out laughing. "That is a viable option, Dix."

"Oh, stop.." Dixie half frowned and grinned.

Johnny wrapped his arms around Megan and brushed
her blond hair out of her eyes, "No chance of
taking a red top out of her IV?"

"Nope. We need another ABG."

"Ooooo." Gage said softly, pulling Megan around
until she sat on the bed next to him. Then he took
a breath and said. "Tell you what? You let Dixie get
that sample and I'll teach you some jokes that you
can tell all of your friends when you get out of here,
ok? Do we have a deal?" 

Megan grunted in protesting dismay only once but 
then her older personality began to reassert itself.
"I guess. Daddy's always said it takes some hurt
to feel better about things sometimes."

"Good girl." Dixie said. "Now park it over here."
The head nurse said, tapping on Megan's blankets.
"Mister Gage can hold your hand while I'm doing
this if you'd like. He's a paramedic and he sees
lab samples drawn by me all the time. He knows how 
to get little girls through so they don't feel much."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Ok. He can come over.."
Megan whispered tearfully, turning her head away 
so she couldn't see anything while she placed her 
left arm onto her bed stand tray. 

Gage drew himself around Megan in a bearhug.
"Hi... Guess what Megan?"

"What?" she sniffed, breathing in tight sobs.

"The snuggle monster's here."

"W-What does he do?"

"This.." and Gage snatched her wrist up to his lips and 
farted a noise from his mouth loudly against her skin. 

Megan laughed in squeaky birdlike mirth, showing a gap 
tooth in front.

"And you know what else?"

Megan's face shifted and fell from fear of Dixie's syringe to 
laughing hide and seek anticipation of Gage's next trick and 
back again, but nodded, unable to speak.

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" Gage asked.

Megan rolled her eyes nervously and sniffed.
"That one's dumb. To get to the other side."

"Oh yeah, are you calling my funnies stupid?"

Megan giggled... a little.

"Ok, answer me this.."

"What? Owww..."

"Shhh, Dixie's almost through, hon, then we can play all night.. 
Why did the chicken cross the basketball court ?"

Megan stiffened but Johnny held her arm still so she
wouldn't move it dangerously. "Ow. Ow..! It hurts."

"Why did the chicken cross the basketball court, Megan?"
Johnny said a little more insistently but still playfully
bright. "Come on, think about it.."

"I don't know. Ow..! Take it out, Dixie. I don't
want to give a blood sample. I've changed my mind..!"

Gage said,.. "Because he heard the referee calling out
fowls.."

Megan's cry of panicky pain fell into one of hysterical
laughter and she started giggling. "Where did you
hear that one?"

"From Chet Kelly.  He's the bully in my stationhouse.
I- I mean, he's a bully but he's also my friend. In a good
way. "

"owwieee..eee.."

"ok,comeonMegan.Youtellmeone, ok?" Gage whispered
in encouragement as Dixie found the artery at last.

"Okkayy..ouchie!  W- Why did the chicken cross the 
road, roll in the mud and cross the road again ?"

"I don't know. Why?"

Megan tipped her head back gasping and laughing
trying to be brave while Dixie completed her blood
tapping. "Because he was a dirty double-crosser!"

Dixie chortled at that one. "That's new. Tell us
another joke, Megan. The vial's almost full."

"Yes, *sniff* yes maam.. aghHH !  *sob*Why didn't 
t-the chicken skeleton cross the road ?"

"We give up, Megan.." Johnny said, holding
her arm and head still.

"Because he didn't have enough guts!" she
yelled. "Is it over yet?" she sobbed.

"Almost there.." Dixie said.

"One more joke Megan, tell us just
one more. Then we can color some, ok?"
Johnny said seeing Dixie working fast.

"Mister G-Gage." Megan said not looking
at her arm nor the needle there.

"Yeah, Megan?"

"Why did the turtle cross the r-road ?" Megan
hiccupped.

That stymied both nurse and paramedic.

Even long after the cotton was pressed
down and a Scooby Doo bandaid was stuck on 
Megan's arm. 

Megan sighed a deep sigh and coughed
hoarsely, sinking back into her pillow.
"Give up you guys?"

"Yeah.." Johnny said with frustration,
scratching his head.

"To get to the Shell station..." Megan said
matter of factly, grabbing for her coloring book
and the green pen Johnny was too slow to
think to claim.

Dixie's laughter echoed down the hall as
she padded away. "Megan, I promise my
next visit will have no needles."

Gage still didn't get it.

"I got another joke that might be good for
you to tell to your friend Chet, Mister Gage."
Megan said industriously coloring the grass
around her horse.

"Oh? ...what's that?"

"If H 2 0 is on the inside of a fire hydrant, what 
is on the outside?"

"I give up.."

"K 9 P."

"Oh, Megan.. That's gross. " Gage said laughing.

"But it's true.  Dogs like hydrants."

Johnny grimaced and got off Megan's bed
and clambered into his own, pulling back the covers.
"You don't gross out much at icky stuff or that kind of
thing do you?"

"Mister Gage. I got three brothers at home." Megan said
in a no nonsense duhhh tone.

"Oh, uh, ok, then I'll tell you one Chet told me the other
day."

"Ok,.. shoot.. Just make sure it isn't a shot." Megan quipped.

"Deal.. Ok, here goes. Last week,  firemen rescued a 
man who was badly injured in a car accident. 
The entire left half of his body was torn off. He was 
taken to the hospital and examined.... Ready for the 
punch line?"

Megan's mouth was hanging open and she was
grinning ear to ear. She nodded eagerly, 
thoroughly cute faced. "What happened to the man?"

"Oh,.. nothing much, really. The doctors said he 
was all right and the nurses said there wasn't ..much 
left."

Megan's squeal of delight caused more than a few 
heads in the hallway to look up from the pediatric
ward's desk.

----------------------------------------------------------

Photo  :  Roy bagging a child with doctors and nurses
               in a treatment room.

Photo :   A little girl coloring in a hospital bed.

Photo :  Gage in a hospital bed.

***************************************************
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, December 18, 2003 8:35 PM 
Subject :  Bonds and Brice and Everything Not Nice... 

    
Mike Stoker pulled E 51 neatly back into her place
in the station vehicle bay and distastfully peeled out of his 
smoky jacket and helmet.  He didn't head for the kitchen 
and the warming promise of the coffee pot. Instead, he 
headed for the showers. "Man, I stink. Remind me never to 
volunteer to coordinate a basket rescue, Cap. I swear the 
sulfur fumes dyed my hair funny colors." Mike sighed, 
coughing as he slammed the driver's door shut. He began
looking at his head and combing through his mop
with fussy fingers using the spot mirror.

"I know it did mine. The curl's gone out of it, too,
and my mustache feels awfully slimy." Chet moaned. 
 
Lopez didn't need any prompting to start washing down
all the turnouts and air bottles free of the chemical stains
affixed upon them from the warehouse fire.

"It was bad." Hank laughed good naturedly as every
one else followed Stoker's good idea to get into the showers to 
clean up. " Mike, your air bottle was stained greenish
olive. Didn't you notice it?..."

"No." he chuckled. "I guess I was too happy that we got 
the kid out." Stoker craned a neck around the corner of 
the hall into the bay to see the bottle Marco was spraying off 
in the back yard. The Latin American fireman was holding 
Boot away at leg's length with a shoe to keep him from 
drinking the chemical filled runoff trailing down the sidewalk 
to the parking lot drain.

"Hey Marco. Let me see it!" Stoker shouted.

Lopez looked up from his liberal garden hosing and held
up the offending apparatus gingerly, showing it off like a 
fisherman's trophy. "Nothing like caustic smoke for a change 
in wardrobe." Then he faked a French fashion designer's 
accent." My humble audience, let me introduce you to ..
the new mossy chartreuse shade of SCBA tank, sure to 
allow perfect camouflage in all kinds of daytime and nightime
brush fires with the least amount of eye clashing distrac--"

"Lopez..." shotgunned a voice of authority.

"Yeah, Cap?" Lopez sputtered, thrown off his joking tirade.

"Can it and let's get presentable. You're to have the chow on before 
DeSoto gets back. He's gonna hate the fact that Brice is filling 
in for the rest of Gage's night shift. I want us all defumagated 
for supper or at least in time before our next rescue call so speed
it up a little. You got five minutes to finish the wash. Comprende?"

"Perfectly. Listen Cap, is that little girl gonna make it?"

"Roy said she was breathing ok, only needing help with
a lightly used ambu, when he left in the rig. Gage was
doing fine, too, with no real signs of serious concussion 
cropping up at all, he said."

"That's good."

"What's for dinner by the way?" Cap said, shooing the 
giggling others into the locker room with get a move on 
look.

"Chicken burritos."

"Sounds delicious. I'm sure Craig will enjoy those
too, once he gets here from 10's." Cap's toothy grin
disappeared in the darkness.

Marco grumbled as he hung the last scrubbed
jacket on its hook to drain. "Double chore duty..
It's not fair. I get fire cleanup and KP detail just because
Gage gets himself winged enough to be declared
unfit for duty. My turn was supposed to rotate in NEXT week
for cooking.." he mumbled to Boot who was eyeing 
the water trickling down the sewer grill in the pavement.
The shaggy mutt began tilting his head at the funny echoey 
noises cascading upwards from far below.  

Boot whined and sat down in sympathy at Marco's feet.

"Yeah, I know how you feel.." Marco sighed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Craig..!" Cap beamed, rising in his chair to greet Johnny's
paramedic replacement.

Hastily, the gang rose in their seats, too, as Craig Brice walked
through the kitchen door, each nodding greetings and handing over
a plateful of chow or offering a coffee mug. 

"Thanks, but no thanks. I've already eaten. Meyers chili is quite
sufficient for good nourishment. And I've had plenty.." Brice said
drawly and smoothing down his spotless shirt over 
his non existent paunch. "But I will take you up on your offer of 
coffee. We've had quite a night."

"So have we.." Marco moaned. "An explosives factory fire."

Brice nodded. "I heard your run toned out. Then later, I heard
Johnny's Code I over the radio..." Craig set down his mug
without drinking from it and asked. "I know it's against regulations
to divulge information about patient conditions.." Craig
broke off, trying another way to express himself and what
he wanted to know.."But we got a fire of our own before I heard 
any news about Gage."

Chet couldn't resist. "Brice.. You? Seeking to bend the regulations?
Now this is very interesting.." he said rubbing his squeaky clean 
mustache. "I never would've dreamed that you even cared about 
Johnny in the slightest.."

"Why wouldn't I inquire about a colleague's health? I'm only asking
out of professional courtesy.." Brice shrugged, nonplussed. "So
I ask again, if I may, Captain. How is Mr. Gage doing?"

The others moused down with amused grins when Cap hesitated 
on his reply.

"Maybe I can answer that.." Roy said from the doorway, smiling as
he tossed his helmet onto the top of the squad's roof without looking.

The gang celebrated his return with congratulations and 
heart felt warm back slapping. 

DeSoto took the chair and coffee and steaming supper offered
to him graciously.   "Johnny asked me to tell you all how he's 
doing so any special rule no longer applies, Cap. He's got
a mild concussion and some smoke inhalation but nothing else
to really sweat over.  Brackett says he can be released in the 
morning for light duty. Megan the little girl's gonna be ok, too. She 
woke up off my support after five minutes under aggressive 
hyperbaric treatment and now she and Johnny are roommates in 
Room 415, pediatric floor."

Chet guffawed, "The kid's wing? Oh, he's gonna hate that."

Roy smiled slightly. "Now I wouldn't say that. I ran into Dixie
again just as I was finishing my followup exam and she said 
Johnny and Megan are getting to be fast friends. She said
their laughter's so loud you could hear it all the way out
to the nurse's desk." he giggled.

The guys fell silent. 

Chet spoke up to break the quiet. "Now are you sure she's
sure what she heard up there? The Johnny I know wouldn't usually
come within ten feet of a kid unless they were in dire need of
rescuing or something."

A chorus of agreement from all the guys, including a nod from
Brice, chimed in around Roy making him throw up his hands in
defense. "I know what Dixie said and I'm inclined to believe her.
There's something special about Megan. I felt it when I was
with her, even when she was unconscious. She made my parenting
instincts surge big time, e-even more than they usually do for
any kid I'm taking care of."

"Yeah?" Marco said, taking a last bite of his refried beans.
"That's neat." he smiled. 

Chet was solemn. "Maybe Megan will rub off permanently on
Gage and he'll run out and get himself married to some chick
 just so he can have his OWN kid."

"Stranger things have happened.." DeSoto grinned, playing
with his marriage band around his finger. "At any rate. I think
Johnny's got himself a new lifelong friend. Dixie says they're
bonding pretty tight."

"This I gotta see." Kelly piped up, reaching for the phone.

Cap grabbed him by the elbow as he passed by his chair.
"Hold on a minute there Kelly. Didn't you see what time it is?
Visiting hours are over. Now let's do the dishes before---"

 Eeee   Oooo   EeeeEEEEeeeeeeeeee.
##Station 36. Engine 10. Stations, 51, 112. Foam truck 127.
Battalion 14. Stations 8 and 99. LAX reports an airliner in
distress en route to Los Angeles from San Diego. 
Los Angeles Headquarters reports a Condition Orange
is now in effect.##

"Let's go!" Hank said, hustling his men. "We'll get where
they want us on the move.."

Roy shivered a deep chill and he and Brice's eyes met in 
a glance. "A crash is imminent..."

"Yeah, but where are they projecting one?" Brice asked 
as he handed Roy his helmet before sliding into the squad's 
seat. 

"Now that's anybody's guess.." DeSoto said flipping
on the squad's lights and siren so they cut urgently into
the night as they headed down the boulevard towards the
direction of the LAX. 

Unbidden, Boot uncharacteristically jumped inside
the engine as Chet was coming aboard her. 

Stoker had the Ward in motion before Kelly could shoo
him off. "All right ya crazy mutt, you're along for the ride.
But in you'll stay!" Chet admonished the dog from
where he sat, gripping the station mascot's chin as they
both bounced as the engine turned streetward.

Silently, the station main doors rolled shut in the darkness
as both emergency vehicles sped away.

--------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap, Roy talking with Brice in the kitchen.

Photo: Chet and Marco discussing a matter.

Photo:  The Station at night.

Photo: The Engine and Squad rushing down a night street.

Photo: An airliner in midflight, too close to the ground.

****************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, December 19, 2003 6:58 AM 
Subject :  Wing and a Prayer 

The fire chief in his speeding car, called the red phone
in the main LAX air traffic control tower over his closed
frequency CB radio. "Ground Crew Three, this is L.A.
County. What do you have? We're en route and deployed
in a full radius surrounding the airport."

Another fire department captain, manning a communications 
panel next to the air traffic controllers handling the inbound 
emergency, spoke. "A Boeing 747, suffering hydraulic malfunction
in its right wing elevators. The flight crew reported only partial control
of their aircraft. Two minutes ago, the controllers received an
automated cabin decompression warning and so far, they've 
only had a quick spotty transmission back from the pilots specifying 
the number of souls on board. 135. Apparent damage has made
all further communication with the cockpit impossible, the tower
says they're receiving, but the pilots are not answering 
comm anymore."

"Sounds like they've got their hands full just flying. Where are they?"

"Twenty nine miles out at about 2600 feet and closing on a final
approach vector,....oops a change, now turning .....070 degrees NW." 
he replied from what he saw on the screen.
Captain Robert Osby replied to McConnikee. "They're losing altitude 
more than they're maintaining a level." he said, parroting what 
his tower aide was telling him in his other ear.

"Ok.. worst case scenario applies.." Chief McConnikee. "Let's
assume they won't make the airport. Give me impact locations.
Best guesses. I have seven stations out."

Osby rubbed his lined face and studied the radar, watching
where his aide pointed. "Batallion, tower says the Torrence
neighborhood. East of the 101 expressway."

"10-4. That's where we'll be.." McConnikee said. "Keep me
posted. Good luck with your crews if they manage to land."

McConnikee relayed his new information to L.A. dispatch
and one by one, the responding stations rolling diverted 
to waiting positions surrounding the affluent suburb. The
chief himself placed his unit on an exit ramp in sight of the
airport and the main bowl of the city of Torrence. Shortly
afterwards, black and white police cars roared up his exit 
ramp to help open traffic for Station Ten, following just 
behind them.

The chief tipped his white hat when the engineer blew 
his airhorn twice in a salute as he rushed by in a flurry
of red lights.

The chief picked up his main mic. "Station Ten. Position 
yourselves east of Dwight, along Nile Street. Park and wait. 
You're gonna be spotters until she's down."

##Engine 10, 10-4. ##
## Squad 10 stands ready.##

A heavy feeling gripped McConnikee's gut when silence
finally fell a minute later when all units reported they were 
set in place and position.  He committed their locations 
and identities to memory. "It'll be a cold day in h*ll before 
we're through here."  

The chief scanned the night sky now emergency cleared of traffic 
for the out of control incoming airliner. A wavering, unsteady
point of light from a lone aircraft's transponder and alarmingly
flickering cabin lights caught the chief's attention to his left and 
he held his breath when his radio crackled.

##We've a visual on 182. Looks like they're nose down.##
came Osby's tense report. "1600 , .....1550..."

"I see them. They're above Torrence proper over the restaurant
district. They've cleared the freeway." McConnikee confirmed, 
kicking his car into gear as he sped onto a main avenue,
following the flight path he could see. Then he lost
his line of sight just as he heard the roar of over compensating
air brakes through the open window. Several buildings were in 
the way of the smoky exhaust trail he could see spinning groundwards.
The noise of jet engines in desperate compensation began to
echo around the structures McConnikee could see. "May G*d have 
mercy on their souls." he whispered softly as the plane sank lower
and lower.  

----------------------------------------------------------------

At the intersection of 38th Street and El Cajon Boulevard where
Stoker had the engine idling in wait. Chet Kelly climbed
out and carried Boot from the back cab to Cap's side of the window. 

"Guess who came along for the ride..? Hiya, Cap." Kelly said, 
waving one of Boots paws through the window pane at Hank. 

"Hey hey..Wonder why he did that?" Cap said, opening the door of
the Ward and stepping out to scrub Boot behind the ears.
"That's a good dog but you aren't winning any brownie points for 
coming with us. Yess.."  he crooned, forgetting for the moment
the disaster to come. His face lit up with the flashes of red from
the engine's lights and with a short faint smile. 

Hank looked up as Brice and DeSoto joined them to lean 
against the Ward. They still had their helmets on.
"Have you heard how long, Cap?" Roy asked quietly.

Cap's expression fell into business and he said. "Kelly, put
Boot back inside and buckle him and yourself up. Could be 
anytime, Roy. Chief said he'll broadcast once he has a better
idea of where they'll end up. He has a channel open to the tower."

Roy rubbed his arms in the night chill and glanced around at the horizon.

In the distance lay familiar outlines of buildings he knew well, with their
lights glowing brightly in the darkness amid the blue fire of the street 
lamps. "I hope at least someone manages to make it." he
said quietly to the warming wind rising from the engine's chassis.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Cap on an HT by the engine at night.

Photo: A speeding squad 51 and engine in a quiet midnight
            neighborhood.

Photo: A night sky full of stars.

***************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, December 19, 2003 11:17 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] And Then There Was One... 

Kel Brackett and Dixie McCall were
in the nurses lounge watching a bit of the Tonight 
Show on their late night break when the EBS radio
down the hall in the base station went off in a rare 
unscheduled dissident whistle tone and repeated
in a series of triple bleeps bone chillingly.

Both of them slammed down their coffee mugs
and cigarettes and ran to overhear the official 
address issuing forth from the speaker above
the main reception desk and so did a crowd of 
emergency room staff a few seconds later.

Noisy babble from people demanding to know what
was happening made the radio sound
dampened and muted. ## ...advises a confirmed 
Condition Orange. Nature of emergency is an LAX 
inbound flight Boeing 747 with 135 passengers.... ## 

"Shhh.. I have to hear.." Brackett snapped at
the milling throng of medical people around him.
"Folks.. Just pipe down.. Now!"

Dixie was a firm directive with an even louder voice
of authority. "This is a Condition Orange Alert and it's 
real and that's all you staffers need to know. 
Everybody scatter to your assigned positions and duties.
Pronto. " Dixie's face waxed pleading and reluctant. "And
try to keep those families and patients here in the ER happy. 
I don't want there to be more trouble than we already have
going on right now."
 
Joe Early, Mike Morton quieted into what qualified as 
listening while those nurses, interns and residents in lesser 
departments started scrambling for extra supplies,  and set about
preparing the still open treatment rooms for double duty.
Three student nurses began summoning more staff in on
emergency recall from off duty by telephone.

Brackett, Morton and Early leaned in once more into
the EBS address speaker. ##....evidence of cabin 
decompression. Potential heavy casualties on the ground 
are expected. Flight 182 has overshot all sparsely populated 
regions and has been spotted losing altitude over a municipally 
classed residential zone. All fire and military emergency response 
stations have been activated....Repeat...This is a Condition 
Orange Alert..##

Rampart General was kicked into overdrive and ready for
anything in the space of just short minutes. Dr. Brackett 
was equally as coolly efficient."What's our current capacity?"

Joe rubbed his hand in deep thought. "Admissions
says we're at 91% occupancy.  UCLA Harbor is
at 95%, L.A.City Hospital is sitting at 97% And Bayside 
General's the worst of all.  They're topped off completely
and redirecting all ambulance run traumas and major 
medicals to other emergency care providers."

Dr. Brackett frowned. "Hmmm, Guess we're on our own
for the majority of any potential mass casualty admissions. 
Rampart's at 91%?"

"Uh huh.." McCall nodded.

Mike's chin wrinkled firmly. "That leaves ......50 beds 
open for us. How many surgical wards do we have 
available?" Morton asked.

Dixie's answer was swift. "Seven. Room Fourteen's just
finished up on a bronchoscopy patient
left over from 51's warehouse fire from this afternoon. 
She's just arrived in recovery."

"Get that team ready to receive, too." Kel ordered.
"Joe, Mike, those rooms have priority. If those airliner
passengers are given opportunities of making it off that
wreck with a pulse, I wanna make sure that ours 
have at least one chance each of surviving the ordeal."

"Right." said Morton, Joe and Dixie. They darted in
three directions to implement the changes.

"Oh, and Dix..." said Brackett.

"Yes, Kel?"

"Let's keep all new arrivals from the crash site
out of the pediatric ward. They've dealt with 
enough noise for one night.."

A smirk played across Dixie's classic features.
"Are you referring to a certain young dashing paramedic
and his equally rivetting four foot two child accomplice?"

Brackett's face contorted. "Yes..!  It's good enough
they're mostly by themselves in that part of the wing  
because of all the new construction. There's not many 
around them tonight to suffer the consequences of being 
within earshot! Dix, send someone to quiet them down, huh? 
Send a candy stripper, an orderly,...the pizza man! Or anyone.. 
for that matter. Just get me some peace and quiet at that nurses 
station..! Dr. Mendelson from neurology says he heard the entire 
why did the chicken cross the road one upmanship contest wafting 
down through the elevator shaft without even trying hard."

"Sure. I'll have the new LPN, Cheryl Adams, pay them
a goodwill visit.." the head nurse winked, remarking 
mildly.  Then her expression turned mischievious.
"Her fifth one so far.." she purred.

"What?!" Kel said, already buried in the disaster protocol
manual from the drug cabinet. His explicative was distracted
and half hearted but still icy with anger.

"Just kidding..." Dixie said in humor, and she headed 
briskly off for the elevators to direct supply carts and newly
arriving off scheduled staffers to where they would be most 
needed. 

Kel twitched.

"I was joking..." Dixie trickled, smoothing out the wrinkles on
his shoulder.

Brackett's reply was just a long suffering growl. "Go..."

"I'm gone.." she puffed.

Controlled chaos filled all three doctors' senses
as they waited for the fire department paramedic
base station in the glass cubicle to light up in sudden
urgent multiple summons.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A deep chest rending roar bent the palm trees over Station
51's crew's heads as 182's smoking fuselage of street lit 
red and silver shot by at 360 knots barely 200 feet above 
them.

The entire aircraft was inverted upside down.

"Holy mother of..." Marco gasped.

CRASHHH-HHH-HHHHHhhhhh!!

*screechHHHh*   
 
BOOM!!!

A wave of explosive concussion slammed the waiting
firemen against the engine and making them fall to the ground
in a protective duck and cover, while the ground shifted
and shook in a outgoing wave of reaction.

Before the ugly yellow and lava colored fireball nimbus had 
faded, Cap knew where the jet had impacted. The one
building outline flared impossibly bright by raw plasma
had been unmistakably familiar to him. "Rampart!!"

"What?!" gasped Chet Kelly for the stunned others.

"Shush a minute and let me talk. "
Captain Stanley silenced him.."Do we have any injuries
among us?" he said sharply.

"Uhhh,..n-no." said Lopez for all of them while they brushed
off dirt and freshly shorn palm fronds from their backs, legs
and faces.

"Then on your feet, gang. Now!..We haven't a moment to
lose. To answer your question., *cough* Yes, they went down 
at Rampart!" Hank sobbed, barely in control.

"Are you sure?" Brice said, rising and running for
the squad two steps behind Roy. "That explosion
could have gone up anywhere. There's dozens
of office buildings in that direct--"

"I know that silhouette better than my own station's, Brice!
I'm more than sure! Now get the lead out and just go!" Hank 
shouted, sprinting for the Ward La France's side door. "Stoker.
Once around the rig to make sure she's intact! Then 
put the pedal to the metal, pal. Avoid the main drags. 
Gawkers are bound to snarl those big time. The night life
crowd's in full swing. Get us there side streets! My guess
is that kind of route's gonna put us two and a half miles out.

"I'll get us there in four mics, Cap."

"Make it three.."

"Done."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage felt the rumble before he heard it. He had
slipped into just a pair of jeans to feel more at home
when the hairs began to rise on the back of his neck.
"What th--?"  His face turned unbidden toward the 
venetian blinds in the window and a patch of fire orange
growing there.

Megan stirred in her half sleep. "What's the matter, Mr.
Gage? Is it 'nother quake like the one we got last week?"

In slow motion, Johnny's hand parted the curtains.

The outline of a disintegrating flaming jet was
cartwheeling vertically towards them as if in
a horrific nightmare, crushing cars in Rampart's 
parking lot into smaller exploding gasoline
stains as it came.

"Oh Sh*t! !! ..Megan...!  Get down!"

Johnny Gage had time enough to snatch the little
girl and her IV bag with him into a crouch behind a bed when
all the glass windows on that side of Rampart imploded
inwards in a rain of ballistic metallic debris and raw fire.

------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :   Rampart's Emergency Department driveway
               by day.

Photo:   An airliner crash explosion near a white building.

Photo:   Dixie McCall and Kel Brackett watching TV in the 
              nurses lounge.

Photo:   Joe Early on the EBS red phone with Dixie nearby.

Photo: Johnny screaming in closeup, surrounded by fire.

*******************************************************************
From :  Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, February 6, 2004 11:25 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Aftermath~~  

Captain Stanley licked his lips nervously as Stoker 
sped the Ward around increasingly damaged
patches of earth. He saw no other red lights yet in the 
area. ::Looks like I'll be the highest ranking official in the area 
for at least a little while. So I'd better have at it.::

From behind him, Cap heard Marco breathe a sigh of relief.
"Looks like the hospital's still intact. Only the windows are
knocked out. Their power's still on."

"Yeah, but is it from the main towers or their backup generators?"
asked Hank over the roar of the sirens. 

"Does it matter?" Chet retorted, straightening his helmet as
the engine wove its way closer to the forty foot wall of fire
hiding the airliner's impact crater."We'll be able to see what 
we're doing man.."

Cap snatched up his microphone and broadcast wide band.
## L.A. Station 51 is at scene, approaching from the south. Our
aircraft has impacted nose down in the parking lot and seems 
to have effected part of the adjacent neighborhood of ....Dwight 
Street and Nile. We're seeing multiple jet fuel and magnesium 
based debris fires and a dozen automobile ignition points in a two 
block radius. As yet, we have no evidence of survivors from the 
plane. Beginning initial search for ground victims and laying down
immediate water source reconnaissance. I repeat, fire is not 
evident inside Rampart Hospital. Noting window damage only. ##

Hank spigotted the radio mic and heard Chief McConnike
start his plan of attack using his reported information.  Cap
coughed on the stench of kerosene and smelled citrus trees from
the nearby yards baking in the fire. But he was relieved to hear
his superior begin the stream of relief and rescue to the disaster 
zone nightmare of scent and sight and noise that was assaulting 
his senses.

He signalled Stoker to lay in regular air blasts from the engine's 
siren apparatus to encourage survivors and notify other companies 
as to his station's position despite the choking columns of smoke
concealing their lights in the lurid nighttime darkness.

Chief McConnike's voice was still clear and calm, not effected 
by the rising fumes that marked the place where passengers from
the plane had perished, when it came over the speakers seconds
later. ##All companies approach line of sight encircling the debris field 
in a full 360 degree radius. Use the black areas away from fires' glow 
upwind of smoke to find safe places to set up your command posts. Foam 
Units 127, 36, 118, 95 and 106 move into the main crash site by Station 
51. They're near ground zero and blasting their air horn to mark their 
location. Begin your covering support and knock down any burning 
automobiles first to make a path for the second wave rescue teams.

I'm hereby ordering 51 and Station 8 to sweep first line in for any casualties 
originating from the ground. Recovery teams, keep from disturbing any 
found fatalities as much as possible. Mark and cover the remains only.

Companies moving in from the perimeter, make no attempt to use water 
on the magnesium blaze surrounding the Boeing's shell. It'll have no effect. 
Secondary stand by rescue squads and ambulance teams, coordinate with law 
enforcement authorities to keep all non essential civilians out of the 
immediate area.  This includes all the press types and military personnel
who aren't fire departmentally trained.

"Inner response teams: Prevent absolutely everyone from trying to  
leave the hospital proper. They'll all be much safer inside the structure 
than outside because of the large quantity of ignited jet fuel present
amid all of these still potentially explodable cars sandwiched around 
the south side of the building. ##

Echoes of radio hails and acknowledgements bounced off
the city light and fire reflected white hulk of Rampart eerily. From where
he stood, McConnikee could see patient faces numbly peering down at 
him from the shattered ruin of all the windows. Soon, white and blue
garbed others came to take those shocked eyes away in evacuation to
safer areas across the opposite corridors.  ::This is H*ll on Earth folks, 
I know. But not for long. Just hang tough and soon you'll see the City of 
Angels fight back for its own..::he thought fervently. ::All 406 of us.::
he calculated counting the flashers of all the engines laid out in a ring
around Rampart.

------------------------------------------------------------

Chet Kelly startled when unexpected vertical movement
amid expected carnage caught his jumpy eye. His
shock quickly turned to anger when that motion spelled
out spectator over possible victim. Fury exploded from
his lips as he adjusted the hose path he and Mike Stoker
were using off the neighborhood corner hydrant at their
assigned row of torn houses given to them to search through.

"Already they're starting!  Man.. I just hate that.
What kind of sicko does it take for someone 
to go out looting in a place like this ?" Kelly spat,
kicking up dust around his boots.

"The ones who think they can get away with
it." Stoker's quiet reply came back, equally sharp
as he moved their fanning spray over some 
violated lawn.

"Yeah? Well not while I'm on the job, they're not."
Hit  'em Stoker..  " Chet challenged. "Feel free.."

Mike jerked and shouted. When his commands to leave
immediately were ignored by the looting crowd, he let loose with 
an untapered knifesteam of icy water at all their full hands and turned
backs, scattering their ill gotten booty across the debris field. He
made sure that they couldn't retrieve anything again by
sending loudly protesting black clothed forms rolling away into 
the darkness under the naked force of his hose. A shout rose
up as one male cry marked the audible but unseen location of
a bruising impact.

"Oooo.. Easy Mike... What if you hurt them doing that?"
Kelly winced.

"What if they hurt victims' relatives even more by taking the
deceased's wedding rings and other stuff?" Stoker countered,
not letting up his barrage on those he could reach.

"Oh. Good point. Go ahead and nail it home, buddy. For them." he
said, sweeping a glove over the sad remains of the plane 
passengers lying twisted and bare all around them.

Hank Stanley's sharp retort came rapidly..
##Engine 51, I said no water near the airliner!##
crackled Chet and Stoker's HT's.

Chet peeled off a soggy glove and thumbed the talk
button. "Sorry HT 51, just...we were just, well, cleaning up.."

"Cleaning up what? We were told to disturb as little as possible."

"Cleaning up pond scum, Cap, the vilest kind."

##Oh....## came a chastened reply when Hank finally got
the message.## That's different. Keep it up then, but don't
fry your keesters in the process in a magnesium flare.##

"We won't."

##Good men.  Eerrr.. How's it coming?##

Chet fought his way over yet another pile of shattered
wood and metal smoulders which he shouldered out of his way.
"Think we found one that's a death on the ground. Cap, under
a blown in door inside the house designated B west of the main 
intersection."

##How can you tell?##

"Looked like a senior who'd been burned fatally, she's still 
holding a phone receiver."

There came a noise of pain from the other end of the HT
that was quickly stifled. ##Mark her location down on your notes
and search on you two. Keep reporting the ground and plane
DOA's like you are and wave on recovery personnel for live ones.
Squad 51's handling the fuselage vicinity on the remote chance 
anyone aboard survived the impact.##

"Yes sir. Marking...House B as ground victim number five. We're 
now on the move at... Dwight and...Victory Lane.."

## Ok, I've got your current position noted. ......HT 51?## came a 
further hail.

"Go." Stoker said tightly as he watched Chet cover the woman
in the house even as he glared at the soaked retreating looters.

##I'm sending Vince and a full support team your way to flush
out any more of those rats. Save your water for the spot fires 
when you can.##

"We'll be glad to have them. Looks like we found some more 
with full sacks just ahead." He grinned when a telltale, unmistakable 
collection of noises drifted his way on the bitter smelling night wind. 
"Sounds like the lot of them are getting sick behind the row of 
smouldering palm tree stumps by House D down the road on 
your side. Serves them right for even coming in here."

##10-4. Watch for the police from the north, Kelly. ##

"Like a hawk." he coughed quietly.

##And keep your everloving rears safe, you two.
Shots have been heard on your side of the debris field,
west of the air liner's impact crater.##

"You're kidding." Mike interjected into his plastic covered
walkie talkie, dragging the laden hose further along towards
the sound of stunned looters.

##Wish I was, pal.##

"Understood." Kelly added firmly.

##HT 51 out.## 
  
Mike Stoker and Chet Kelly could almost hear their
Cap's nod over the closing company frequency.

------------------------------------------
Roy tried not to look at the fourth floor of Rampart where
he could hear shards of glass hanging from their frames
tinkling like windchimes amid the fire thermals from the
parking lot. ::Johnny.. I wish I'd catch your face sneaking a peek
down here from your room. But, knowing you, you got your hands
full with protecting little Megan right now.::

Roy's boot was about to take another step forward around a
seat cushion when Craig Brice's touch on his back stopped him.
He pointed to Roy's left with his torchlight into the darkness.

A motionless man in the wreckage, still wearing a plane oxygen mask, 
presented himself as more or less the sole intact shape amid the separated
parts that lay strewn about from most of the other dead passengers.

Roy began using his hook to throw aside debris between him and 
the man when Brice's grip tightened on his air bottle, pulling him back. 
"DeSoto. A moment." he heard in his ear.

Still wearing hope's blinders, DeSoto gasped.
"What? He might be one who's made it. We have no time to lose 
here." he shouted behind his mask. He blinked when a swirl
of fuel smoke ruffled his hair.

Roy could see Brice swallowing deeply behind his air mask.
"Look farther down below his waist. That car's front is lying across 
his lower half and ...and...the hood's level to our thighs and the pavement.
You can see that plainly from here. He's been crushed badly.
I'm sorry. He doesn't look it color wise, but he's ..he's ..undeniably 
dead."

Roy checked once again using Brice's analyzing flashlight as
a guide, and saw that Craig's observation was the correct one,
illuminating fully dialated and blood cloudy pupils. Life had indeed 
fled for the man almost instantly when gravity and inertia had brought 
the car tumbling down onto his passenger seat.

::J*sus. Just how many fatality presentations am I gonna see
tonight that they don't teach you from a textbook?:: Roy's mind
interjected mercilessly. "How about giving me one that we
can turn around here." he mumbled at Craig in muted thanks for
saving him some useless exertion.

"Working on it. Praying for it, too." came Brice's reply. "Give me
time. I always find a live one. You know that."

"Just don't fail me partner. I need a lift right about now."

----------------------

Kelly moved forward into House C, a neighbor of the phoning victim,
and jolted his body and nerves yet again when an 8X10 
photo suddenly drifted down from the air, hitting him on the helmet. 
Reflexively, Chet caught the bit of paper and turned its soggy
gloss into his torchlight.

It was a picture of four stewardesses that could only have come 
from the ill fated airliner.  Each of them wore pink and orange
polyester mini skirts with matching gogo boots and gay, brightly
colored navy type hats amid stylish curls.

Kelly gasped and froze in horror, until Stoker felt the drag 
of the hose behind him fall slack when Chet let go of his end 
of the charged line.

"Find something?" Mike asked quietly, knocking his
annoying hanging mask yet again away from his knees.

Kelly lied.. "No. Let's just get to the next house."
he said shoving the photo into a crack almost violently,
away from him.

Chet knew right then that he had been stabbed in the heart. 
Those frozen smiling two dimensional faces plunged deep inside 
his protective mental veneer and he shivered involuntarily 
as his world suddenly swam at this confrontation of his one weakness
as a firefighter. :: No! No more reminders like that, please. :: he 
whispered to the stars above the smoke like  a litany. .::Let them 
all be faceless... Please.  I don't want to recognize anything about these
people lying around me. It'll be easier. Please.. No faces.. N-no  f--::
   
It was Kelly's turn to bump into Stoker at their next
turn bending into a collapsed garage still filled with
a shiny silver parked BMW.

"Got someone.." Stoker said gruffly. "Go look while I snuff out this
small fire.."

Chet worked his way around aircraft metal and roofing beams
until he could peer inside the car through a windshield smashed
inwards from the outside. Kelly saw pink and orange cloth on 
just a torso. "Plane..." he said, backing hastily away.

"You sure? That was awfully fast."

"D*mmit Stoker. Yes, I'm sure. I saw a photo back there in
the rubble of the last house of the plane's flight attendants.
And they were dressed like... like..." his voice strangled into
a sob.

Mike Stoker gripped Kelly's shoulder tightly while his other glove
handed Chet the trickling hose. "Here. Just hold this and don't watch,
Chet. " Kelly closed his eyes in spinning horror as he fought his montrous
inner fear and just willed himself to breathe to prevent himself
from passing out.

Mike's voice was almost soothing and cut through the 
roaring in Chet's head like a balm. Kelly anchored onto it like
a lifeline. "I'm pulling a tarp over this and someone else now. I got the 
hose fully drawn up to us. Just go. The fire's out." Mike said
gently.

"Appreciate it, man.." Chet said making tracks for the
rising daylight they could see flickering above the clouds of ash 
and soot coming from the devastated neighborhood and hospital
parking lot. He could barely contain his nausea.  "Why is it always the 
photos which get me?" he asked himself. "I'm a rock with anything
else.."

::Because you have photos of friends and family just like they do 
in your wallet..:: came his own ruthless conscience silently.

::Sorry I asked..:: his mind whispered to itself as Kelly finally
found balance in an unscathed flower pot still sitting where
it rested next to a dewy copper metal watering can on 
House D's white porch railing. Water drops from his hose
made the shasta daisies inner eyes glow in the dawn sunlight.
"Who's the second one, Stoker?"

"Pilot."

Sighing and shaking, Chet Kelly raised his HT to his lips
and reported the finding of two more air plane victims.

Then his firefighting cool reestablished itself when his
brain began working again. "Stoker..."

"Yeah?"

"If we found those two, the cockpit can't be far away.
Won't officials want to get their hands on the flight recorder
as soon as possible?"

"They sure would."

"What color is one from a Boeing? I can't remember."

"Red, I think."

"Terrific.. I wonder what the lame brain who thought
up that shade was thinking when he designed it."

"Don't be morbid."

"Kinda hard staying positive just about now. I'd do anything
to find someone with a pulse."

"Reach over and feel mine then. Anytime. I'm really glad
you're here with me, too." he said sarcastically, barely
abreast of his own fear and stress.

Kelly chuckled and groped for Stoker's carotid. "Just so
you check mine, too, periodically. I feel like I'm numb all over."

"Numbness is bliss at a disaster scene. Wish for that pure
emotional novocaine each time at one, Kelly.. What's my rate 
at now? Feels like 180 just slamming into my chest."

Chet's hand never touched Stoker's skin.
"Would you look at them?" Chet said, his grin at Mike's
rejoiner falling away once again into deep tortured pain.

"Look at who?" Stoker coughed, peeling off his hot 
helmet to let the hot wind dry his hair.

"Them..." Kelly said pointing.

A rescue searcher and his dog crouched tightly in an embrace,
comforting each other across the street on a block of concrete
raised slightly above the level of the dead.  As yet, the human
had made no sound. But the labrador was trembling.

"Come on, let's give them some privacy." Chet said.
"Looks like they've already checked that last side of
the block ahead of us. Let's try and find that recorder 
thing like good little fast firemen, hmm?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy looked up to see what row of cars they were currently
next to in comparison with the hospital's outline looming above. 

He could just see the fourth floor and Johnny and Megan's patient
room window.  It was one in the shatter zone. ::Be safe, junior.
We're coming. Just whatever you do, don't get the crazy
idea in that idiotic head of yours to move around with the girl
to free yourselves from what you think is danger. I never
versed you on the realities of a large plane crash scenario and
about the fires that come from one. Magnesium burns can't be 
barreled through, Johnny. They're far far hotter than you can ever 
hope to expect ..or survive.::

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unseen, behind a preoccupied Cap and Chief McConnikee,
Boot wormed his way out of the Ward and went arrowing towards
Ground Zero and Rampart as fast as his hairy legs could carry him.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   Cap giving an order in closeup. 

Photo : Tumbled cars by a shattered building in daylight.

Photo: Impact crater of an airliner into a residential neighborhood.

Photo: Chet looking down, sad and quiet.

Photo: A photo of stewardesses in 1970's uniforms, pink and orange.

Photo:  A rescue worker hugging his rescue dog.

Photo: Roy looking up, tense, in an air bottle.

Photo: A deceased airplane victim lying on the ground. 

***************************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, February 11, 2004 11:55 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] One Step At A Time... 

Johnny Gage coughed, and pushed a fallen bedstand 
table off his shoulders. He immediately looked down.
"Megan?" 

The tiny burden in his arms stayed quiet, her eyes half
lidded around tinges of blood. 

Gage bent close over her nose and mouth and he
sighed gratefully when he felt slight puffs of warm 
wetness dampen the stinging cuts on his cheek from 
her strong even breathing. 

He eased the nine year old off his knees 
and onto the floor gingerly, his eyes sweeping her body for
the reason why she was unconscious. Apart from places
where the window glass had sliced her skin, his
hands only found her over full coloring pen pouch bag that 
she was still wearing around her waist like a fanny pack
and no other sign of serious injury.

The hallway outside their patient room door was amass
with shouts and seniors crying down the hall. Hustling nursing
staff around the central desk were trying to regain control of
the crowd of patients awakened by the plane crash.

An orderly's voice was loudest, and it was coming nearer, 
checking the one room down the construction
scaffolded hallway that he knew was occupied and
facing the direction of the crash. "Hey! Anybody 
still down here?!" boomed an African American
voice. "You gotta move to a room across the hall
to get away from those broken windows.."

Gage wiped a trail of blood out of his eyes and looked
up at his room's door, scratched and impaled by the 
shards of glass that had been driven there from air
pressure. 

The light over Megan's bed sputtered fitfully from 
debris that had damaged its ballast. It only enhanced
the pale color of the little girl's cool skin. "Yeah!  In 415. 
Me and a little girl! Get us out of here! The smoke's 
coming in."

"All right, I'm almost there. Stay put mister!" came the
unseen voice of the orderly. "I'm coming in. You two
hurt any?"

"Megan's out but I've got a good airway on her. 
She's gonna need some serious O2. She took 
some glass into her eyes and yes, her IV line's 
intact."

"How about you?"

::Yeah, how about me?:: Johnny thought. He hadn't even
considered himself. ::I must look a sight right about now.::
He ran experimental hands over his chest, head and back 
and they came away bloodied but sharp pain or areas of
numbness didn't announce themselves. "Not finding anything 
at all. Just some leftover dizziness from a sleeping pill 
I took an hour ago. I'm not shocky in the slightest."

"Sounds like you're very certain of that." came the voice
and soon came rough aggressive noises that showed the hospital
man was pushing aside construction tarps, shelving and paint
carts out of his way right by Gage and Megan's room.

"I should sound certain. I'm a fireman paramedic. *cough* 
Hurry, the air's going to turn real bad. We gotta get her out 
of here." Gage got back down onto the floor and rolled Megan 
onto a sheet he ripped free from his bed and he started 
dragging her behind him across the floor towards the door 
just beneath the oily smoke layer that was pooling into the 
violated room.

"Working on it. Looks like people panicking out here pushed 
an equipment cart over into scaffoulding and the whole lot's
tipped against your door! See if you can crack it open." came
the man's exerted voice. "I got most of it gone."

Johnny felt once more for the quality of Megan's carotid
pulse before he crawled nearer to the wooden door that
he could see bouncing in its hinges from the impacts
the orderly was making trying to free more space around 
the door's handle latch.

New stabs of pain bit into his blue jeaned knees and his
bare palms as debris shards cut them. He moved closer
to the orderly's position getting ready to rise.Johnny kept his 
head down in the clear air pocket near the floor only long 
enough to snatch a breath of untainted air. He decided to
risk standing up into the blinding smoke's gasses to try his 
luck at speeding the escape from their room.

The rush of air that sucked in from the window when
Johnny cracked the door slightly open, rapidly caused 
an awful stench of death to gush inside the room.  
::Too close. The plane's too close to us. Aw, man..::

Briefly, Johnny saw the tangling jumble of equipment  
and the construction rack that still blocked his way
as the fetid wind from outside finally picked a direction 
to flow. It decided to flow inside the hospital, thickly.

Gage shouted, not being able to see the orderly at all
around the smoke that suddenly came billowing out of 
415's open portal that lay between them.  
"This is gonna take too long, *choke* This door 
can't stay open, the toxic fumes are flooding in and that's 
the last thing we need in the hallway with all those sick
patients out there, all right? Is there another 
way out of here for us?"

"What?"

"Just- Just think on it. We've got a minute or
so to get out of here." Gage said calmly.

" Yeah.. Yeah, I think so. In the bathroom, straight back. 
There's an adjoining access door with a lock. Yeah, I know
it for sure. Take this to open it."  Johnny felt a key ring and chain
being pressed into his hands. "After you get through that
door, go left along the service hall. It runs behind a surgical
store room. The firedoor at the end leads to the glass elevator.
You can get out that way. ..uh, wait a minute, no you can't.
D*mmit! I just remembered. That whole outside shaft might 
be damaged and non functional. It's on the crash's side." the 
invisible orderly quailed.

"Good enough for me. I'll take my chances. If not, I'll park us
in that store room and we can wait it out safely enough.
Now seal us off again so we can save what good air we 
have left. It's enough to get us out of here." Gage commanded.

"Just be careful, man. I'll tell security you'll be showing up 
anywhere along that route. Oh, and don't try to leave Rampart. 
We've been ordered by the fire department's city dispatcher 
to keep everybody inside no matter what."

"This is why. The powerlines in the area have to be down
just about everywhere. Now, go. We'll be fine. You gotta continue 
your search for others who may still be trapped. We'll get out fine 
now that we know how."

"But,.."

"Don't worry about the little girl, she's stable.. Just go."

"Ok." The door thudded shut and Gage slid gratefully back 
down into the good air around his knees to try and breathe
regularly. 

Already, biting jet fuel was swelling up his throat and
lungs. ::I'll worry about that later.:: Johnny said,
clenching the key in his teeth. ::Thank G*d I'm used
to eating smoke.:: he sighed. "Megan,...we're getting 
out of here. If you can hear me, just keep breathing real 
shallow all right?" he said coiling up a corner of her drag 
sheet around the better of his two lacerated wrists.  

Then he remembered, his station's gang would be 
looking for him just as soon as the whole disaster scene 
had been given a quick once over for survivors. "I know 
Chet, he'll try ta sneak some of the guys in here at their 
first rest break to try and look for me for sure. But d*mmit,
how can I tell them I got out ok?"

Then a brainstorm. Johnny reached and pulled out a 
handful of Megan's markers and quickly patterned
out an arrow with them on a patch of floor he cleared free
of black dust with an edge of Megan's sheet.
"That'll clue them in.." he grinned. "I remembered my
boy scouting days just fine.."

Johnny wormed his way into the bathroom with
Megan's limp crevat and slammed the door shut behind 
them, sealing off the choking fumes.
 
As promised, the other door was there.  Gage reached 
up and turned on the wall light. 

He startled when he saw himself in the mirror.

There wasn't an inch of him that wasn't dusty with black
and blood.  Quickly, he unlocked the service door with
the orderly's key and the two of them fell into the still pristine 
air of the brightly lit hall that lay beyond it. It was utterly 
quiet in there and everything was eerily devoid of any 
sign of the ongoing disaster outside.

Johnny pocketed the door key into his jeans and 
bent down to recheck Megan's status. "Megan...sweety.. 
You with me yet, hon?" He dug a knuckle into her breast 
bone. Megan didn't stir, but her chest still rose
and fell regularly. "That's all right. It's ok that you're
unconscious, I'm gonna be happy your heart's still 
beating, kid. Let's go."  

Gage gathered her up into his arms, holding her grimy 
IV bag in between his teeth as he barefooted it on tender, 
wounded feet down the corridor towards the surgical store 
room he was told to watch out for. He paused only long enough 
to make another arrow of markers showing the direction
that he and Megan were traveling in. 

As he looked for the next door, his other hand turned 
up Megan's IV port to wide open when the carotid pulse
beneath his finger skipped a beat.

The way along was not hard to find and the next light switch 
Gage flipped on, revealed a stainless steel and tiled walled 
anesthesia gas bottle store and a cart full of surgical dressings.
"Bingo.. but no phone." Gage coughed. "Oh well, Nothing
says we can't take time for a rest stop. We're safe now." 

Johnny carried Megan over to some crates and dug around 
a few of them until he found the right bandages to dress her 
eyes and her bigger still oozing wounds and even some of his 
own lacerations that refused to clot up. 

The markings on one of the huge gas bottles surrounding 
them caught his eye. "Wait a minute.. That one's green. 
I'll just bet that's oxygen!"

It took a search but soon, Johnny located a regulator
that fit the giant O2 tank. He snatched an anesthesia
mask and tubing from a blue surgical paper wrapped
bundle that he recognized from working in ER treatment
rooms.  And a child's oral airway just the right size for Megan 
from a plastic covered recharging crash cart. He
rapidly set up the apparatus and tested it on himself,
breathing deeply from the O2 to make sure it was the right
gas and that the gas flowed well. He took a short while 
longer working on the mask to clear an alarming,
rising congestion in his chest.

Then he secured Megan's airway with the oral tube
and strapped the too large adult black rubber mask 
as well as he could over her face.  Then he tended 
the child with a more thorough exploratory exam. 
"Looks like just your eyes, hon..as I thought." he 
concluded, wrapping both of hers up carefully with 
kerlix around her head until they cushioned them
thickly. "These cuts are nothing." 

He grabbed a BP cuff from the defib cart
and took a quick palpated reading on the 
child to further ease his paramedic worries. 
"72. Fair enough for me.." he sighed,
coughing as traces of acrid smoke lingered
his chest. "A few minutes of this oxygen and
I promise we're gonna get you out of here
lickety split. We got a date with our coloring 
books to keep and we sure can't do that in
here."

Grogginess from an unexpected quarter made
Johnny sway and suddenly, there were two Megans
lying sheeted swathed on top of the cleaning
boxes. "Well maybe after I treat myself too."

He set a cannula off the regulator and strung
it onto himself, breathing in the rich oxygen it
delivered to try and clear his head. 

He leaned on the crash cart as his head sagged
down to his chest. "Maybe I'd better sit down on
the floor." And suddenly, he was there, his butt
bruised from falling. "Terrific.. a smoke inhalation
downer already? D*mn.. W- wonder what my 
pressure's sittin at..."  Groping, he felt his own
wrist.

"No radial pulse.. that's ..that's...lower than ninety.."
he gasped, suddenly air hungry.  He felt a little
higher up his arm and pressed down under
his bicep at the pressure point. "Just
a weak brachial.. that puts it.. somewhere near
the low 80's ...*cough* systolic. Just...just wonderful.
Last thing I need is to black out. And Megan needs
to get to a doctor asap." ::And so do I..for that
matter..:: his inner voice added.

The bright blue tile and steel room swam before
his eyes chaotically and Johnny slid the rest of
the way down the crash cart, slumping onto his back. 

On the way down his elbow caught the cart and it 
tipped over on top of him. He grunted as a drawer of 
drugs shot out from their housing and hit him in the chin,
making him see sudden stars until he rolled over
to try and get some blood back into his head.

One packaged syringe rolled by his nose and
it begged a familiarity to his foggy senses. "What
the h*ll is that one? Can I even guess? I'm feeling
pretty crappy here..."

Johnny drew in another deep breath on his O2
and strained to read the labelling. "A..t...r...o..
*cough*..p...i..    oh, atropine.  Point five milligrams.
Easy one.." he grinned as his consciousness faded. 
"I sure could use some of that right about now.."

Gage's world went black before his hand obeyed
a mental command to try and reach out for the 
medication.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Brackett looked up from the smoky, fire lit
emergency doors as neighborhood residents
and rescue personnel brought in highway and
residential house victims in a steady stream, 
with annoyance. "Where's Dixie?" he snarled at 
a rushing candy striper, her hands full of trauma 
packs. "She picked a h*ll of a time for a coffee 
break!"

The young teenager just shrugged and fled from
his rage offering a tidbit from the hospital grapevine.
"Dr. Morton said she was headed up to Pediatrics
for some reason. Hope that helps you, doctor." And 
she was gone amid the jumble of screaming
patients and calming hospital staff in seconds.

"Yeah, I'll say it helps. It helps me raise a little
blood pressure..." Dr. Brackett mumbled. He
peeled off his pair of bloody gloves from the last 
hallway patient he briefly examined, who had been 
tagged triage yellow, and dropped them, without
thinking, onto the floor.

He spied Mike Morton standing with a puzzled look
in front of strangely quiescent silver metal elevator doors.
"Aren't these running?" he asked Kel as the senior
physician sought him out to find out why.

"Nope. Compliments of the Los Angeles County
Fire Department. They want no one getting any
bright ideas in their heads about heading down
to ground floor trying to escape the hospital. A
control measure I guess. "

"It's a d*mned stupid one if you ask me.." Mike
flared. "It's hampering our patient room checks."

"I'm on your side, doctor.." Kel said, holding up
defending hands. "Ease off a bit." Then he fell
to guessing why Morton was still staring at the 
closed doors. "Why are you here, Mike. Isn't
there plenty that you should be doing?"

"I just got a call from Security. They say they saw
someone in white getting in the elevator before
the lockdown, trying to ride it after the prohibition
on use announcement. Only now, they report
they can't tell on camera whether or not someone's
still in there."  Morton said.

"A panicking patient?"

"They don't know."

"That's odd." Kel said. "Usually the camera
has a pretty good view inside the car, doesn't it?"

"Key word, pretty good."

"What's the disparity?" Brackett wanted to know.

"Anything knee high or lower,. Probably
because some crazy designer thought the 
emergency floor phone was good enough to
cover for the oversight."

That sent a chill up Kel's spine that he didn't like.
"I now see why you're over here."

Morton nodded gravely, folding his hands over
his arms.  "Maintenance is on the way with a 
service key so I can get in there. Everybody else
is busy."

"How about trying to get a fire captain? They 
always carry universal elevator keys."

"No one's around, Kel. But someone did report
a fire dog running around our floor somewhere.. 
Is that close enough?"

Dr. Brackett made a face, "Hardly.."

Kel heard a shout down the corridor from a nurse
calling his name. He started off to handle the
problem. "Let me know what you find out."

"I'll do that.." Morton said, drumming his fingers
impatiently on the inoperative buttons in front of him.

The phone at the unattended desk across from him
started ringing. Morton tried to flag down a nurse
to answer it but everyone was too busy with patients 
or crying visitors to notice.  

The sound finally grated on him and he 
jogged over and picked up the receiver.
"Emergency. This is Dr. Morton."

##Doctor! We've been trying to reach 
anybody we could. This is Carol from
Pediatrics. Is Dixie all right? We saw
her take some glass in the arm when the 
windows blew out. I wanted to help her but 
she just wrapped a towel around her arm before
I could see anything and said she could handle 
it on her own. Then she got into the elevator
and I lost track of her.##

"How long ago? Just now?" Morton demanded.

##No, maybe ...five, six minutes ago..##
Carol reported.

"What? She never arrived down here!"

##Doctor? I don't understand..##

Morton dropped the phone and grabbed
the maintenance man he finally saw wandering
aimly through the frightening sea of
casualties.. "Come on, mister. Move it.. 
We have a nurse who may be down in here."

Mike almost opened the door through sheer
super human strength as the chastened worker
slowly cranked the doors ajar using his spanner
jack as fast as he could get his shaking hands
to turn it.

Mike jammed his skinny torso inside the growing
crack in the doors and both feet almost slipped 
on the tan carpet that was almost completely soaked 
in fresh blood.  A huddled unmoving female 
form, just as red, lay in the center of it. "Dixie?!"

"Oh my G*d." gasped the maintenance man.

Morton dropped to his knees and carefully
turned Nurse McCall onto her back as he opened
her airway to listen for any sign of breathing. She was 
doing so, very well. ::Point for us. Now..::
Just as fast, he felt her neck pulse and found it 
tachycardic. He looked up to the maintenance 
man and said, "Get in here and hold her head
back so she can breathe good enough."

"Doc, I-I can't.. There's gore all over. I'll
check out."

Mike eyed the man's name tag quickly with
anger. "Do it, Jenkins ! She's bleeding to death 
from somewhere and I'm gonna need both my 
hands to find and handle it!" 

He did so in seconds, grimacing at the warm 
sticky wetness soaking his knees.

Morton cut away the sleeve on Dixie's left
arm and located a glass shard protruding
from a gaping laceration. Blood was spurting
out of it. "The main artery's been cut."

Very pale, but still upright, Jenkins offered 
Morton his office jacket for a compress.

Mike shook his head and just pointed to the
knife of glass embedded in Dixie's arm. "Won't
work that way, don't wanna push that in anymore." 
And he lifted up her arm high enough to reach its 
pressure point and rapidly bore down with both sets 
of fingers, pressing the vessel beneath tightly against 
the bone. 

Then they both began shouting for all they
were worth to summon some very fast help.

-------------------------------------------------------------
"Mr. Gage..?  Mr. Gage? Can you hear me?
Stop playing dead and talk to me.. I'm really
scared.."

"M...Megan?" Johnny's voice was a croak.

"Oh thank G*d. I woke up and heard you
breathing funny down on the floor. What
happened to us and why are my eyes all
wrapped up?"

"Plane crash in the lot outside.. Glass dust
in your eyes. Keep those on..." he said,
trying to lift his hand to stop Megan's from
pulling them off. 

"Ok, I will.. What's that tube doing around
your face? I felt it checking you out."

"Oxygen.. I got us out of a lot of smoke..."
Gage said weakily without moving from
where he lay. " Do me a favor huh? Do
you hear that hissing sound on your right?"

"Yeah,, what is it? Gas?"

"No, it's the oxygen mask I gave you when you 
were.....uncon-- uh,...sleeping.. Give it to me
for a sec..."

Gage saw Megan's groping hand locate it
through blurry vision.  He took it, foregoing the
nasal cannula for its use instead. Johnny
curled around the mask, sucking in great
breaths from it, waiting for his head to clear 
enough and his body's resources to push his 
increasing state of shock away.

"Mr. Gage...Mr. Gage.. are you all right?
What's wrong with you?" she said, shaking
him.

"Took in some bad air hon.. I'm...just gonna be
a little sick right now for a little w--"  He face went 
slack and Megan felt her fireman friend go limp.

"Mr. Gage?.. Wake up...." She started to cry.
"Don't scare me like this.. I...I don't know what
to do..."

But then she picked up the flowing surgical
mask and held it over Johnny's nose and mouth 
when she figured out that he must have done 
the same for her earlier. "Maybe this'll help him 
get better."

--------------------------------------------------------------------

"Dixie.. 

 Dixie....

 Try to wake up."


McCall moaned, the sensation of still being alive 
coming back slowly to her spinning senses.

" We've managed to stop all the bleeding in your
arm. You're going to be just fine.." Dr. Brackett soothed 
as Dixie opened her eyes to blink up at him blearily.

"W-Where am I?  Oh... my head.."

"Easy.. Just lie still." Kel suggested, and slowed
down the flow rate of her Ringer's IV.

Mike Morton grinned, taking a blood pressure
reading on his patient. "You're in Treatment 
Three. Pressure's up to 94 over 70, Kel."

Dixie was too muzzy to analyze much
of anything. "What happened?"

"We found you in the elevator."

"How'd you find me in there?" She said through
an annoyingly dry mouth from her nasal cannula.

"Security spotted you going down on the camera.
Err,, rather, they didn't spot you passing out."

"What was I doing in there..?"

"I guess you were headed here from the fourth 
floor after you got hurt, judging from readout panel.
But then further explosions caused the FD
to use the emergency stops to control our supposedly
panicky people flow and that unfortunately trapped 
you inside."

"The fourth fl-- Oh my G*d.. 405.  Kel, I was
up there trying to find John Gage and Megan 
Miller. Their room's facing the fire. I found
their door blocked shut by fallen scaffolding!"

Dr. Brackett and Dr. Morton both grabbed her
shoulders to keep her from rising. "They got
out. An orderly who helped us with you told us
so. Most likely they're outside in the lobby 
somewhere just hanging around, waiting for 
a check up."

"No they aren't.. Because I ..." Just as fast,
memory eluded her. Dixie sighed, giving up 
trying to sit as she sank back onto the bed. 
"Because I'm certain that we---"

"Dixie, just hold on and think about the whole
thing for a moment. Do you really have cause to
worry about those two? Or is this moderate
shock kicking in? The nurses at that desk say 
everything's 10-2 on that floor. Has been for 
at least twenty minutes."

"Well,, I still can't shake this feeling, not exactly..  
It's just that...something's not ...right." she frowned
in confusion.

"Dix, you just had minor surgery to repair
that brachial artery. You lost over 1000cc's
of blood. You're bound to feel a little off kilter."
Mike Morton said with a grin and more than
a little insistence.

"Mike, I know what I'm feeling now. Do me 
a favor. Just go up and check on them, ok? 
It'll only take a few minutes.."

Kel shook his head. "Wish I could spare the time,
Dix. But the E.R.'s packed, and we're still deep
in triage mode. I'm sure Johnny can take care of 
things by himself for a while. You know how fireman
are. They're really really good at keeping on their
feet. Now no protests, Mike and I have to get right 
back at it a.s.a.p. You were something of a priority 
case for us and that's the only reason
why the both of us are here."

"Kel, Mike.. I.."

Mike looked up and said, "Are we gonna trust
her to stay parked?"

"H*ll, no. So let's encourage her strongly, 
shall we?" And both doctors, to Dixie's chagrin, 
strapped the bed belts around her legs, waist and 
shoulders to guarantee compliance.

"Guys, you can trust me. How about if I promise
to be a good patient and not go any---"

"Rest, Dix. And that's an order..." Brackett said,
tempered by a smile. "At least until your IV bag finishes
up. Then you can start to think about hobbling
around to bark orders at the other nurses all you like.
We're gonna need your bed space. Until then we're 
keeping you strapped in until that arm decides it's going 
to stay clotted up. When the chaos clears up a bit, we'll 
come back and do a neater job on those artery sutures."
 
The two doctors stripped off their gloves they had donned
for Dixie's repair job and hastened from the room into
the triage filled bustle of the outer wards.

Dixie sighed, eyeing her arm splint and wrap
job critically.  "That's just great, you two." She took
a deep breath from her oxygen and the elusive 
memory that had haunted her came flooding back.
"Oh no.. Guys! Come back!  I know what I saw in 
that back corridor now!  Children's drawing pens 
don't lie around littering the floor for no good reason..!"
she shouted. 

Feeling weak, Dixie whispered to herself in defeat.
"How can they when regular patients can't find a way
into that restricted part of the hospital without help?"

A few minutes later, she set in again for someone
to search the fourth floor loudly, but Dixie's words never 
reached any ears that really wanted to hear her out.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mr. Gage! Now I know you can hear me. I've been
telling you all my best riddles. And I'm getting tired of
doing that to a quiet audience.. I--I  DARE you to open
your eyes and laugh at them. You have to remember
them so you can tell Chet your friend when you
get home,..ok..? 

Mr. Gage..? Come on, wake up. My
hands are getting tired holding this oxygen mask. It's
so heavy and it's too big for you."

"Uh....hhhh." Johnny groaned and he coughed once
when Megan accidently bumped a painful cut
on his cheek with her elbow.

"That's it. That's it. I knew you could do it. Tell me.
Tell me what I can do to get you better faster. I
need you, Mr. Gage. I need you to get us out of
here, now.." Megan pleaded, shaking his shoulder
with both hands.

Gage pushed away the oxygen mask and rolled over
onto his side, getting ill all over the floor.

Bravely, Megan didn't back away from the sounds.
She just held his head on her lap. "It's ok, everybody
gets upset stomach now and then. Mommy says
that a little 7up always makes it better. I'll get you
some when we get out of here."

Johnny's breathing rasped, frightening her,
when he didn't speak again.

"Hey,.. are you ok?" Megan asked.

Huge wracking coughs kept Gage from talking
right away.. Then he said softly.. "No,.. I... I'm not,
Megan.  I...must have gotten ....more toxins from
the smoke ...than I had.....originally....planned on.
Chest's...*choke*..filling up fast.."

"What can I do, Mr. Gage? Come on, tell me. There
must be something I can do..." the little girl sobbed.

"I....I.. can't.....think.."

Megan's voice took on a quiet tone and she
started talking, keeping the mask tightly over
Johnny's face as he tried to pull himself together.
"That's ok... I'm nine years old. I'll do the thinking for
both of us.. I'm used to taking care of my younger
brothers and you're only just a bigger kind of brother
to me.... Only,...only.." Megan's face screwed up under 
her bandages and tears began to soak through, making 
them damp and pink.
"..I don't know what to do now, Mr. Gage. I - I just keep
right on hearing that awful low rumbling sound that
came before that jetplane fell out of the sky.  I'm scared 
Mr. Gage. I still am.. It sounded so much like something to 
be afraid of." she sobbed.

"D-don't ...be   afraid.. I ..I ...*gasp* I...know what to
do now. Megan...I...need you to find me a ...uh,  
a shot, ok.? You know, the kind with medicine in it.."

"What?" Megan said, brushing dirty hair out of Johnny's
eyes. "I don't understand."

But Johnny didn't realize he was confusing the girl.
He just blearily kept mumbling. "It's like your dad's coffee, 
only stronger..." he gasped, pushing the oxygen away... 
"It's called...a-atropine.... Go get the shot, Megan. Get
it now. It's...it's..got to be nearby.. I just ..saw it."

"Where? Mr. Gage, I can't do that.. I can't see anymore."
her lip trembled.

"It's ok, hon. Oh,...I see it right here, just out of reach 
about six feet to our right. Can you sweep around for
it? Wait a minute, d- don't reach so far, you'll
pull out your IV. Go slow.. A little farther.. There, feel
it? It's like a plastic pack of silverware from the fast
food restaurant. Yeah, that's it..."  Johnny let his
head fall back on Megan's lap and he closed
his eyes, exhausted from the effort of picking up
his head.. "Take it out of the paper and hand it
here. You're gonna have to help me take it.."

"No,.. I can't do that.. I..hate shots.. Even watching
them.." Megan protested.

Johnny gave a little laugh. "Well, we won't have
that problem now, will we? Your eyes are wrapped
up.."

"Oh, yeah. That's right. But I know it's gonna feel
gross anyway.." she reasoned.

"Not that much for you to gross out with, now
is there? You aren't going to be on the receiving 
end of it.." he coughed, trying to put a laugh
into his tone. He failed to hide his weakness.

"Oh...h.." Megan quailed.

"Now,... I gotta take this in the hip. And
I'm too beat to get my jeans loosened.
You're gonna have to help me." Johnny
said gasping.

"I'm not going to undress you!"

"Megan, you won't see anything.."
he gasped in frustration.

"No, but I will know what's going on and
that's bad enough.." she yelled right back,
more angry than embarrassed.

"Ok,...ok...ok.. *choke* Change of plans.
Calm down. I won't make you do anything
you aren't willing to do. Geesh. Relax a little."
Gage snaked out his hand until he grabbed
a pair of clothes shears that had fallen from 
the crash cart when he fell against it. "Just
let me... get my breath back ...it'll only
take a bit.."

After some time taken to use the black
O2 mask on high, Johnny spoke again.
"Ok, here's the s-scoop. Can you cut away 
my jeans pocket on this side? Here's a 
pair of scissors I got...from the cart.." 

"I don't want to cut you..!" Megan said
vehemently.

"Megan, these are paramedic's scissors.
Feel that? There's no sharp points on these,
they're blunted with skin guards. Now.. go
ahead. I...gotta....hurry....Getting h-hard to..
breathe now..." And Johnny exaggerated his 
true condition by breathing noisily to get Megan
over her qualms about ruining his jeans.

He eased off his acting when he felt cool
air over his hip after much tugging and
slicing on Megan's part. Soon the job
was done. 

Johnny began to realize that
his respiratory distress wasn't all himself
faking it. ::Edema? Too soon. Too..::
 "M--Megan.. pull off the cover from the 
needle.. Now..push the plunger until you
feel the medicine squirt out the top."

"Ooops sorry.."

"That's...o..ok.." Gage puffed. "I-I'll dry off 
soon enough when we get out of here.." Gage 
said.

The room started retreating again.

Johnny could feel his chemical burned 
bronchioles closing off despite of the O2 
and suddenly another blackout threatened
to swallow him up. ::I need the atropine..
Now.. or I'll quit br--::  "Megan..feel
where there's a padded spot on my hip 
and give me the s-shot where ..*gasp* you 
feel the skin isn't b-bony.."

"I can't do that!"

"Megan, I'm gonna faint on you ...right
now... I can feeling it ....c-coming on.. Now,.
just do it. Come on, there's a good
g---"  Johnny's laboring lungs suddenly
snuffed out his consciousness in mid sentence.

Megan felt Gage's hands fall away from
hers and she heard the mask tumble off
his face to the floor and his breathing suddenly
quieted alarmingly. "Mr. Gage? Are you
ok?.." she asked in horror. "Don't go to sleep.
You gotta show me how to do this..."
she whimpered.

Then something integral made Megan let go of 
the "child" way of thinking and a new budding
"adult" side of her kicked in. 

With only slightly shaking hands she stuck the needle 
firmly home and injected all the atropine in the 
syringe into Gage's hip muscle. Then she jerked it 
out and flung it away in absolute disgust.

Weeping, Megan Miller hugged Johnny Gage, 
listening to the rapid and weak wheezing noises 
coming from under the mask she had quickly 
returned to his face.  

"Please don't die..." she whispered.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Johnny in jeans, no shirt and hurt, seated.
 
Photo: Unconscious girl of nine, bleeding and bandaged.

Photo: Patients on beds crowding a hospital hallway

Photo: Morton treating a hurt Dixie on a gurney.
 
Photo: Airplane crash field, up close.
 
Photo: An animated syringe giving a shot to the air.

*************************************************************  
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 16:43:28 -0800 (PST) 
From:  "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>   
Subject:  A Glint In The Light 
 
An obnoxious squelch over the open frequency made
Chet Kelly startle as he and Stoker climbed over the
airplane debris field colorfully marked in fatality sheets.
"J*sus H Christ... That's too loud!" he articulated as
his hand shot into his turnout pocket to pull out his HT.
His face was hot and streaming inside his air mask
that he still wore. "Gonna be a scorcher today. Feels
like 80 and the sun's just coming up."

"Could be because of all the fires, Chet. Relax. Feel
like going for another air bottle change out yet?"
Stoker asked, wiping a sooty glove over his faceplate
so Kelly could see the glint in his eye that was an
attempt to lift his spirits.
  
Kelly stared at his radio accusingly as L.A. did its first 
communications check in with all the rescue and police 
personnel on scene of the jet crash.  ##L.A. Stations:
99, 36, 118, 12, 127, 8, 51, 10, Battalion 14, Ladder
90, Brush 5, One Adam Twelve, One Bravo Three,
One Tango Six...#... the list droned on and on...

"Man, Stoker. I'd thought I'd never be on a response 
this big. I mean, how can they ever keep track of 
everybody? It's hard enough just keeping our own
station's chatter on sub band 51."

Mike Stoker stopped in his tracks and turned a
circle in place just like he'd been doing every
twenty steps for the last two hours, looking for
magnesium hot spots that might endanger 
their boot material. He eyed the signs of carnage
and rubble alike with a professional dispassionate 
distance that Chet knew he'd never be able to 
master. "That's what the Fire Chiefs are for.
L.A. can only ferry transmissions, not organize
them all."

"I know, I know." Kelly said, hooking yet another
piece of plane metal away from a tiny fuel blaze
as they searched for their current assignment,
looking for the flight recorder. "Maybe I'm just
on edge because we haven't found a live victim.
I really didn't need to see that rescue worker 
and his dog all busted up like that. It kinda gets
a guy down. Know what I mean?"

Mike Stoker motioned that their way forward
was clear of hazard without saying anything.
He started counting out their twenty paces
out loud once again as the lead man on
the recovery team.  His left foot stumbled
on some baby clothes and he only hesitated
briefly before walking on, using his hook as
a support.

"Ah, man... I should have been a farmer.."
Chet said softly as he regarded his crewmate's
hunched over back. "This stuff's for the birds."

He hurried to catch up to Mike to give him
an affectionate pat on the shoulder.

---------------------------------------------------------------

They were on the east side edge of the triage
area outside a SafeKo store.

Roy DeSoto and Brice patted the back of the
Mayfair after sealing off its access doors. 
"Go, go go!" the weary, ginger haired paramedic
urged the driver as he stepped back away
from the tires. Then he leaned over, catching 
his breath with his hands on his knees.

Brice whistled, getting Roy's attention.
"Need this again?" he asked, lifting a
demand valve mask from a coil wrap
he had just finished making in their O2
case.

DeSoto shook his head, and waved him
off with a gesture. "Nah... I'm fine..."
and he parked his soiled backside on
a spent foam unit casing to rest. 
He rubbed his face. "It's just... that last
one really got to me.  I mean, who'd figure
a four year old boy going to his first day
care center would ever end up on the receiving
end of all of this..." he said, throwing up his
hands at the chaos around them. 

A sharp support volunteer quickly darted over
from a supply tent and handed both paramedics
plastic water bottles, already opened. They
were luke warm.

Roy and Brice nodded their thanks mutely.

Craig rubbed the dirt off his face and made a
half hearted attempt at rubbing some more off
of his usually pristine uniform. "It doesn't pay
to get emotionally involved with a patient while
treating them."

Roy flared, "Does it look like I'm treating anybody
right now, Brice?" he shouted, sharp. "No..."

Craig studied his feet and then just knelt and 
finished putting away the O2 apparatus. A long
pause seemed to isolate the two men despite
the roar of fire and echoing radio transmissions
and hissing hoses and idleing engines surrounding
them. But then, his face altered and opened up.
"Sorry. There I go again, offering stupid advice
where it isn't welcome."

Roy lifted his head and just shook it, brushing off
the apology. "We're tired. We're all tired. And 
things really seem like they can just.....go on forever.."
His eyes wandered over to ground zero where
he could just see a crane trying to lift
the tail section of the airliner away from an
alley full of body parts. "Not your fault lashing
out.." he said softly. "I just did it myself.." he said
with an unconvincing familiar smile.

Brice's back just stayed stiff as he slowly 
stowed their gear back into the squad
side compartments.

Roy got up and walked over to recollect 
his soggy coat from where it lay on the roof
of the squad in a futile attempt to dry it off.
"Come on, let's go grab some coffee. Dwyer said
they have a refreshment tent already set up. 
Anything's gotta taste better than these things."
he said draining the last of the water from his
bottle. "We'll keep our talkies with us in case 
we get any more calls. I don't know about you,
but I don't wanna be tied to the squad's radio
for that. I wanna move around a little."

Craig finally grinned and looked at Roy.
"Same here. I thought I was the only one
getting ansy."

"Not by a long shot.." DeSoto smirked.

But then Craig's face fell into another 
disturbed frown that DeSoto noticed.

"What's wrong?" he asked Brice.

"I....can't put my finger on it. But have
you been listening to all the radio 
checks? There's not one voice going
on the air that I recognize.." he told Roy.

Roy tipped his head, thinking a bit.
"Well, there are a lot of us here.."

"Yeah, perhaps you're right. But I can't
shake the willies I've had ever since
we both got here."

"Body recovery blues?" DeSoto asked.

"No..no.." Craig said carefully. "It's 
different.."

"Well, a little sugar might help. We're
both a little transparent right now. Not
hungry, but hollow. And we still have to
do our vitals sets on each other looking
for hidden trouble spots because of
all the complex smoke around here."

"We'll do that after the break." Craig 
nodded in decision.

Roy shrugged back into his damp jacket.
"Ok.." he grinned. "Let's go."

------------------------------------------------------
Chet Kelly passed by mountains of steaming
rubble, house and plane and nothing he
saw was familiar. "We've been all over
the place, Stoker. I don't think we're gonna
find it. Maybe we should let the Feddies.."

"We haven't been on this side yet, Chet.
I know, I would have remembered passing
that.." he said, pointing down to a charred
car that had a severed fire hose lying by it.

Kelly leaned in a little closer. "What happened
here?"

"Hose burst. The crew manning it must have
touched a mag fire."

"Oooo." Chet winced in sympathy, peering
into the windows of the car. "Looks like
they got out a live one. There's IV and EKG 
papers all over the place. And I'm seeing
a used suction cylinder in here. "

Mike hooted. "Whoo Hooo! There's one
LESS for ya, Grim Reaper! " and he 
celebrated by raising his fire hook in
triumph.

Chet raised his eyebrows in silence before
mumbling, "Always gotta watch out for the 
quiet types, man.." but he smiled just a few
seconds later.

Unfamiliarity reigned across the landscape 
on the ground with nothing recognizable, 
but all the fire and smoke was all too
familiar to them as they resumed search.

One section to the west under a rising column
of an as yet unbattled fuel fire caught Chet's
attention. A shape sticking out of the mess
that bothered him. "Hey, Stoker. This way."

"Kelly, we'll mess up our pattern.."

"Just come on.. I may have spotted something."

Mike Stoker followed line of sight along Chet's
arm. Then he shrugged. "A firefighter. So.."

"Stoker, think a minute.. Do you see a truck
around here anywhere. No one leaves
the hundred foot perimeter from the engine
in an unknown hazard scene."

Stoker once again eyed the figure picking its
way over the debris field, shimmering in the
early morning heat thermals. Its helmet
almost seemed to big.  "Looter?"

"I'll bet fifty bucks on it.." Kelly complained.

"Now, I'm really mad...." Stoker frowned.
The mild expression on his face hadn't changed.

"Good,  glad it's unanimous. Shall we
do a little city property recovery mission?
Not like we're really needed victim scouting
and I'm fed up with trying to locate a needle
in a haystack with that flight box." Kelly sighed.

"I'm in.."

------------------------------------------

Three minutes later, Kelly and Stoker
closed in their ambush on the lanky teen
who was saundering around the crash zone
in stolen fireman's gear.  He looked almost
comical with his bloody white Adidas
shoes sticking out of the tan pants.

"Got ya!" Stoker said, using the severed
fire hose as a lasso. 

Chet brandished both fire hooks like 
medieval lances and he framed the startled 
young man with them keeping him from running 
into one of the live powerlines twitching on the 
ground. "Stupid kid. Start stripping, right now!
And be fast about it."

"Ok, ok, What's the big deal? I was just having
a little fun ya know?  My friends couldn't get
anywhere near here because they didn't have
the right threads.." the teen sputtered, giving
up and hastily peeling off the contraband.

"Where'd you get it?" Kelly demanded.

"I don't know.. Somewhere back there.
Near the nose cone. Nobody was watching
it. These things were just lying on the ground...." 

That disturbed both of 51's firefighters into
muteness, briefly.

Mike Stoker freed the boy from his restraints.
"Now listen carefully, your life may depend on
it."

"Sir?"

Kelly threw down one of the hooks until it
connected with a hidden power line and 
livid gold and blue sparks crackled and roared
to life around it until the energy kicked the
metal end of it away.

The teen flinched and paled considerably.

"See that? This whole place is littered with
live electrical lines and fuel puddles just
waiting for some dumb kid to come along
and fry himself to death just for stepping 
in the wrong place at the wrong time. 
Kapesh?" Stoker snarled.

The kid rapidly grew terrified. "Uh, huh..uh h-..uh."
he nodded quickly. "I can see that...." he squeaked.

"Now get out of here.. Follow along on top of
that dead fire hose to the uneffected streets pronto. 
And don't come back..... And I do mean ON TOP.
You just may make it out of here alive..." Mike
said softly.

The kid fled.

"Oo, man... Stoker,.." Chet laughed once the cowed
teenager had gone considerable distance away
from them. "Remind me to never be reborn as
one of your kids, ok? You make the wrath of G*d
Moses felt seem t--"

But Stoker was no longer listening. He had
lifted the jacket from the ground and was
wiping the soot over the letters on the back of
it, away, with a wet passenger sweater.

Simultaneously, the rising sun's light 
touched the curving mass of a severed 
chunk of the airplane and glinted off twisted 
metal of red and silver chrome, something
not found on any aircraft.

Kelly gaped. "Ohmyg*d.."

Stoker's HT flew to his mouth and he
thumbed the talk button over the steady
radio traffic buzzing from the speaker.
"Break! Break! Break! HT 51 to Battalion 14.
Unit down. I repeat.  Unit down. We've just
found a fire engine under the nose cone.
ID is Station 10!"
--------------------------------------------

Photo : Crash debris field..

Photo : The severed nose of a downed 747.

Photo:  A mangled fire engine in early dawn.

***************************************************
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, March 12, 2004 1:29 AM 
Subject :  High Rescue  

 Megan stirred from where she lay across 
Johnny Gage's chest.  His hand had gripped 
the base of her throat, feeling for the big 
pulse point that she knew she had there. 
"Mr. Gage? Are you all right?" she asked 
lifting her bandaged head and eyes 
from the fast rise and fall of his breathing. 

A grunt of pain from a dry throat greeted her ears. 

"Mr. Gage? Did you hear me?" 

Finally, she got a croak in response. 
"*cough* I... was just....about to ask you the same 
thing, Megan." said his voice, muffled by the black 
rubber surgical oxygen mask Megan had strapped 
onto his face. "Are we still safe in here? I ..kinda l-lost 
track of time." he moaned, sliding the flowing mask 
off his mouth to his chin so that she could better 
understand him. 

"Sure are. I've been crawling to the door every five 
minutes to check it for hot spots or smoke coming 
from the bottom of the door." 

Johnny opened his eyes blearily and blinked away 
lingering grogginess that still fogged him from his 
exposure to the chemical smoke from the patient room 
Megan and he had escaped from. 

Experimentally, he took in a deep breath. Immediately, 
bubbling liquid made him choke in reflex but the spasms 
that had plagued him before the atropine injection 
didn't rematerialize. "Good job with giving me that 
shot Megan. I- I think I've turned the corner." 

Gage saw Megan's hands blindly grope around on his 
stomach until they located both of his caked palms in 
a tiny and sweaty grip. "I was so worried Mr. Gage. 
I- I thought your lungs were going to stop getting enough 
air for you.  It was scary hearing those noises. 
They were all whistles and squeaks and you got really 
sweaty and cold, too, for a long time. I tried to cover 
you up but I couldn't find a blanket." 

Johnny glanced with irony at the shelves of surgical 
sheeting that were folded on the linen racks just 
above Megan's eye wrapped head's height. "That's ok. I... 
feel better now. You've nursed me through just fine here." 
and he leaned over to cough and spit some thick 
mucous out of his mouth. "How'd ya.. how'd ya 
keep track of when to recheck the door again 
for fire and smoke with your eyes wrapped up like 
they are?" he asked, shifting slowly to hands and 
knees, testing his body's strength and condition to 
see if he could manage standing. 

Right then, Gage's watch went off and he startled 
as its shrill, trebled diving alarm pierced the stillness of 
the store room. 

Megan's bandaged face split into a toothy smile. 
"I recognized your watch, Mr. Gage. My dad's got one 
just like it and I knew which button to hit to set the timer 
for a five minute low air interval warning." 

"Oh yeah? Those are mighty big words for a nine year old." 
Gage scoffed, teasing her. He threw partially focusing eyes 
downwards to make sure that Megan had indeed pulled out the 
syringe needle from his hip before he turned off the 
alarm buzzing on the watch. "Don't know if I believe you." 
he said with a grin, not being able to help himself. He wanted 
to make her think of something else other than him to bolster 
her own confidence, mentally and physically. 

"Oh yeah? Well I can tell you that I checked that door five times 
since you decided to nap on me. And yes, I've been told I've 
got a mighty big brain for school learning, especially 
when I write and talk about all of daddy's diving trips to the 
Bahamas." Megan said with indignation. "You better 
believe me cause it's what happened. You were out for 
all that time." 

Gage reached out with come here hands. "Hey..I'm just kidding. 
I forgot you can't see the smile on my face.  Really,.. 
I'd have you on my engine crew watching over my rear in 
a house fire any day of the week, Megan. You really 
saved my bacon a half hour ago and I'm not going to forget 
it anytime soon. Come here. A grateful guy wants to dish 
out a hug or two in thanks, all right?" 

Megan rushed into Johnny's arms as he stood up 
on shaky legs. "There..." he said. "I'm all right and 
so are you, hon. No need for tears. Now. Let's get the 
heck out of here like we both wanna do." he complained. 

He set her briefly on the stack of boxes as he turned off 
the oxygen tank they had both used and he checked both 
their vitals signs to reassure paramedic curiosity about himself 
and his young charge's status. 

She was stable and her eye dressings were no longer 
wet with new oozing plasma under the older dried blood stains 
covering her eyes. His own B/P was in the hundred range 
palpated but all the cuts on his bare chest and shoulders and 
the areas above his jeans and on his face had clotted up well. 

As an afterthought, Gage grabbed a new D5W 
bag to replace Megan's limp one along with 
another atropine syringe package for himself in case 
his toxic gas pulmonary edema flared into crisis again. 
"Ready to go, princess?" he asked her when he was 
through fussing. 

"And how. People out there are probably wondering 
where we are." 

::I'm counting on it.:: Johnny thought to himself as 
he hefted Megan's light weight onto his good hip. 

He grabbed a fire extinguisher from a wall compartment 
on his way out of the surgical supply room after 
deciding he'd keep the route ahead hazard free with
it as a backup. 

"What's that for?" Megan asked when she recognized 
the familiar ching of metal nozzle on metal cylinder. 

Gage said. "Ever heard of an insurance policy? 
Well, this is a non paper kind. Hang on to me tight. 
We're headed out." Johnny felt Megan clench his hair 
painfully as he moved down the fitfully lit hallway and 
back into a faint bank of bitter sweet smelling smoke. 
"You're forgetting the Santa Anas are in full swing. 
They'll wrap any fire higher than a skyscraper if 
the wind's strong enough. There may be hot spots 
around where we're going." 

An orange glow at the end of the corridor showed Johnny 
the location of the glass elevator. The doors separating its 
shaft from the maintenance corridor had been ripped away 
and the nightmare vision of the burning plane and 
surrounding neighborhood gaped through like a surrealistic 
hellish painting that made a lump knot deep in his throat. 

Gage didn't let the relaxed but mute Megan know that his 
eyes and heart were already crying. ::All of them, dead?:: 
he thought in thinly veiled despair and shock. He could 
tell by the color of the smoke columns that more than 
metal and wood burned in the magnesium fires that marked 
a sickening outline where the plane had embedded its 
length into the parking lot concrete and across the yards of at 
least six homes that he could see in the distance from his 
vantage point from the fourth floor of Rampart. 

The scene was hugely bloated with chaotic ruin that 
hungrily swallowed all signs of the rescue work that was 
ongoing, for there wasn't even the slightest sound of radio 
barks nor the faintest flash of red lights from fire engines 
carrying up to where Gage and Megan slumped 
in the passageway. 

A hot wind whipped a vile stench up the shattered shell of the 
glass tube that once housed the glass viewing elevator panes. 
Rungs of metal where the broken sheets of tempered glass 
were once hung, were completely intact. "Those are 
still climbable!" Johnny said, looking down, tracing the 
route his eyes picked out through the darkness and 
firelight flickers. "We can rappel down." 

"But we're so high up.." Megan wailed. 

Gage shouted, seeing hospital figures below running triage 
in the hastily converted outdoor cafeteria just below him. 
"Hey! Up here!" But no one looked up towards the upper 
floors at all and the roar of fire and water covered the sound. 

Then Johnny spotted a familiar shape sniffing and searching 
through the rubble and papers littering the grass. "Boot! 
Hiya boy!.. Up here!  We need help!" 

But the shaggy, weary dog didn't hear him. 

Desperate, Johnny said, "Megan, gimme more of 
your coloring pens. Quick." 

The girl unzipped her fanny pack and gave him the 
last of them. The green ones. "Here." she sobbed 
in sudden fear, understanding the tactic at once. 

One by one, Johnny launched pens into the air, 
trying to hit the ground near Boot. Several 
bounced off the torn, tipped over umbrellas out of 
the dog's sensory range. 

But the very last green pen finally clattered right 
underneath Boot's front paws. The stressed dog 
startled at the impact but immediately afterwards, 
his nose started working earnestly until he located 
the thrown missile as it rolled under a canted over 
cafeteria tree pot. 

Boot whined when he recognized Johnny's scent 
mixed with blood on the pen. 

"Atta boy! It's us..  Good boy.." Gage grinned. 
"Get a good whiff. Yeah, that's me and 
yeah, I'm in trouble." 

Johnny could just barely see Boot begin a 
tracking circle around the bustling gurneys and 
moaning patients crowding the triage area in 
a concerted search for his whereabouts. 
His pacing was headed away from the ravaged 
side of the hospital. 

"No, no.. we're up here, Boot!" and he waved 
sharply, leaning over the edge of the windy precipice 
inside of the elevator shaft. "Come on.. Use that 
mug of yours. And those ears...!"   He brought 
a bloody hand up to his lips and he whistled fiercely. 

Boot's head jerked at the sound that only he could 
hear over the crash site's din and his head lifted, 
trying to pinpoint the source of echo of the familiar 
call that he knew. 

Gage whistled again and he saw Boot's black 
nose twitch in a rush of wind that swept down 
the side of Rampart's shattered face from 
where Megan and he huddled against the 
fire and sun glowing building. 

Then the two of them connected eyes. 

Johnny saw but didn't hear Boot begin to bark and 
fuss in earnest in sudden frantic activity. "Atta boy. 
Go get help! Yeah, we're up here boy. Gonna need 
a way down. Go, boy. Go! Get some help. Yeah, 
I got a victim with me and I know how much you can't 
stand not being able to reach one." 

With a last emotionally torn howl, Boot arrowed off to the west, 
shooting around doctors' legs and oblivious civilian 
casualties in search of some true fire people from an 
engine crew who would do more than just kick him 
away in irritation. 

"Go.. Boot.. get Cap or.. anybody..  That's the way.." he 
gasped, sinking down to crouch on the edge of the cold 
concrete above the elevator track, cradling a mentally shocked 
Megan against his shoulder. He laid the child on the floor onto 
her left side and covered her with a stack of plastic bags from 
an abandoned mop cart to help keep her warm in the smoke 
breezy hallway. Deftly, he hung her IV on a door jam above 
her. "Megan, stay put. I gotta rig a line of some kind for us 
to use." 

Gage crawled over to the far wall and yanked open the 
emergency fire hose panel and peeled its long but empty 
canvas'ed length away from its hanging hooks. 

Absently, his trembling hands began to fashion a safety harness 
using the fire hose; a tandem one big enough to hold both 
Megan and himself. "If they're not here in ten minutes, we're 
getting down ourselves. Can't wait long for treatment. 
Neither one of us. That O2 we shared off the tank was 
just a stop gag measure. This new smoke's gonna effect us 
being still caught up this high if we don't get underneath 
the worst of it real soon." 

When Johnny was through with his constructing, he tied 
the male end of the hose to the big red water nozzle wheel 
coming from the stout red painted pipe inside the panel cabinet. 
He quickly secured a firm hauling hitch. 

Then, he gently awoke Megan, murmuring reassurances. 
"Set to go? It's ok. I won't let you fall. I do these 
kinds of things all the time in all kinds of places and I've 
never dropped anyone from a high place without a reason." 

Megan scoffed, making a face. "What's a good reason?" 

"Uh,... When we had to use a life net." he said through 
pursed lips. 

His answer didn't alarm her in the slightest. 
"Why don't you get one of those now, Mr. Gage?" 

Johnny's hesitation was a long one. But truth won out. 
"Because no one knows yet that we're even up here. 
Except Boot." 

"Boot who?" Megan coughed weakily. 

"Our station's dog. He's a sort of mascot who's 
our pet,.. er.. well, ..he's actually a stray who shows 
up on occasion right when we need him." 

"Like now?" 

Gage felt his young charge begin to shiver as 
he tied the final hose loop around both himself and her. 
He eyed the hazardous way down the side 
of the building inside the shattered, dangerous 
glass elevator shaft. The car itself was at the bottom, 
unused, parked and forgotten in a safety measure. 
"I sure hope so. I gave him strong enough hints 
about where we were thanks to your bunch 
of coloring pens. I tossed them down practically 
on Boot's head." 

"I'm gonna miss them." Megan sighed, suddenly 
sleepy. "Especially my green ones. And 
my brother and my d--" her voice trailed off. 

Johnny was alarmed, quickly. "Hey,..Megan? 
Can you hear me? " he asked her, leaning close and 
feeling the waning strength of the pulse at her carotid. "Now 
don't go out on me here.  I need you to--"  he broke 
off when he felt the girl go limp despite of his 
shouting and pain rubs. 

A closer check proved the child still breathed but  
it was shallow and fast because of the increasingly 
acrid air swirling around them. Gage half considered 
retreating back to the surgical store room but changed 
his mind, thinking suddenly of Boot. ::He's gonna need 
something to go point onto when he gets back with some 
half convinced doubting firefighter. It's gonna be a needle 
in a haystack for him to find someone I know who'll believe 
him that there's trouble involving me, so I gotta make 
it as easy for him as possible to prove... by staying 
visible..:: he thought. 

Johnny snagged Megan's IV free from the door hook 
and turned its port wide open, tucking the bag and tubing 
inside of her fanny pack which still hung above the 
level of her loosely dangling arm. He tested her 
consciousness level and found it at an even lower 
glasgow rating of three. "Oh, no you don't." 

Gage fished the oral airway he had saved in 
his back pocket that Megan had needed earlier 
and reinserted it over her tongue carefully. 
"You're gonna keep moving air." he sighed. 

A minute later, he was breathing hard with the effort of 
easing himself and Megan over the side of 
the window ledge and into the shattered frame 
of the elevator shaft.  He scrambled his way 
down into the clearer air at the third story, and 
then a bit farther down to the fullest extent and 
reach of his jury rigged hose and there, they hung 
unseen by the overtaxed hospital workers milling 
about underneath their feet. "Boot ... I sure hope you 
got the message. There's no turning back for us." and 
he eyed the fourth floor where he had just left as another 
thick bank of smoke and fuel fumes obscured the 
doorway they had exited. "I don't think I can get 
back up there if my life depended on it." 

To Johnny's dismay, a huge choking smoke cloud swirled 
down Rampart's flank to meet them and completely covered 
them up from view from any potential spotters on 
the ground. 

Gage felt himself getting fuzzy once again 
as the hot brightening dawn wind around them 
suddenly grew too poisoned to breathe. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny caring for an unconscious girl.

Photo: A shattered high rise surrounded by overturned cars.

Photo:  A shirtless Gage next to an outside glass elevator
             at night in smoke looking down four stories.

Photo: Boot barking hysterically.

Photo: A wall housed fire hose cabinet setup in closeup.

***********************************************************
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> 
Date:  Sat Mar 13, 2004  8:11 pm
Subject:  Mascot Mayhem..

 Mike Stoker's radio sprang to life with
animated voice. ##10-9 last transmission?!##
came at least three lieutenants who were
supporting shotgun as battalion relay backups.
Static and warbles spat from both the 51 firefighters'
HT's but nothing else that was legible got through as
command voice after command voice walked on
each other trying to be the first to deal with Chet
and Stoker's emergency. 

The warbles became an unmistakable tangle.
Mike clicked his talk button in a test but nothing
happened at all when the wind suddenly 
changed, shifting the debris and plane parts piled 
up on top of the fire truck.

"D*mn. We're in a blackout area?! Must be because
the engine repeater's been damaged.." Stoker
guessed. He quickly cased the ground for danger
as he picked his way over fallout to reach the
crushed Crown where he saw her.

Chet pushed his helmet up in frustration on his head
and he ripped off his air mask to shout to anyone
from the luckless station who might be lying hurt and 
trapped in the immediate area. "Hey!..  All in ten's!  
Yell if you can hear me, man.. We see your engine!!" 
he gasped, accepting Mike's hand to haul him over 
a section of plane skin in between two small mag fires.

Only the sound of fire and scorching wind hissed by
their ears. The lack of human voices replying 
spurred Kelly and Stoker into an even more frantic 
search for 10's possible fallen. 

Kelly resealed his SCBA mask over his lips but it didn't 
conceal the anger on his face while the telecommunications 
on his HT's band fell apart when just about every firefighter
at the crash site crowded onto the channel, demanding
more information about the Unit Down call. 

Finally, L.A. broke through with a tones squelch, silencing
the clamouring talkers crowding the line. ##All units, radio
silence... All units, radio silence.. Battalion 12, go ahead. 
Your channel and HT 51's has been put on a signal boosted 
protected band.. Go..##

Numbly, Kelly clutched the fireman's turnout he still had in
his hands and he mumbled.. "This is Bob's.." he said,
his gloves twitching shakily over the grime and blood on the
jacket. Soot smeared Bellingham's name. "That stupid kid
got it away from him somehow...." he whispered in shock.
"Oh Stoker, I'm afraid this is gonna be the thing that freaks 
out the walking rule book.. Brice is gonna sh-"

"Quiet, Chet. I'm on.."
Mike Stoker's voice held no hint of the fear that was
sweeping across his face. His baritone stayed firm
and controlled as he spoke rapidly. "Battalion 12. Engine 
Ten is clearly impact crush damaged.  We are located at 
the nose cone end of the airliner. There was a looter with 
one of ten's turnouts and that's how we found the pumper. 
Also sir, as yet, there's no sign of the jacket's ...uh,...owner 
or the other firefighters.."

##Scene safety?## came the deep stonorous voice of
the assistant chief who was Battalion 14's right hand.

"Minor mag fires, live lines down 18 meters south. There's
a lot of fuel fumes over here blowing downwind of the tail
section. Air bottles are going to be critical for those moving
in." Kelly added. 

##Understood. I'm putting your situation on priority. Inform
me the second you find anybody. I have Squad 51 and
Station 8 responding..##

"10-4.." Mike replied, flinging aside the cumbersome HT
onto a multilated Samsonite luggage case. He fire hooked
tangles of framework away from Engine Ten's back grill,
the only part they could see. 

Kelly shouted.. "Hold it! Hold it Hold it!! Power line!" he
warned. Stoker froze, while Kelly threw Bellingham's
jacket over the sparking electrical cable Mike had 
uncovered. "O.K., it can't writhe free now. Go ahead!"

Stoker got to the engine and climbed into the first hole
he saw, shouting as he went as loud as he could. "Hey!
Can anybody hear me?!  It's 51's!!"

Kelly quickly joined him in the dark space Stoker
had jammed himself into. Finally, he reached the cab's
back window and he rubbed it clean with a sleeve, crushing
his nose against the spidered glass so that he could peer
inside.. "She's empty!!" he said joyfully. "They either got
out or they weren't here when the plane hit..." he sighed
through his sweaty mask.. "My G*d. Battalion 14 must be
out of his mind about this, Stoker.  No one put two and two 
together that the jet crashed where he told 10's to station 
keep!" 

"Who could have?" Mike grunted as he pushed himself back
out the way he had come carefully retracing their route off
the roof of the devastated Crown. "There's over twenty
County and City units here... It's nobody's fault. Just really 
sh*tty bad luck.."

"I know.. I know.. " Kelly said, accepting Mike's soggy glove
for balance as he, too, got down off the engine to resume
their victim search. "But my head hurts anyway. And there's
a poker jammed through my chest that's nothing physical,
about all this."

"Me, too...*gasp* Just keep looking.." Mike said. "They
gotta be around here somewhere.."

"Who says? They're probably scouting the houses like we 
were doing earlier." Kelly said, finding something to ease 
his barely contained fear for their fellow station mates.

"But how do you explain Bellingham being out of
his turnout?" Stoker frowned grimly. "He might be
one who's still around here somewhere.."

Chet and Stoker finally stumbled to the front of 
the buried engine, their eyes confirming that no
firefighters lay as casualties near the big truck.
"Man,.. I wish we could've rung it out of that kid's
neck about where he found the jacket.. Bob would
never take it off if he was healthy.."

"It could've caught fire..." Stoker theorized. "You know
how insidious magnesium burns are. Or he could've
used it to cover a live victim to stave off shock but
then forgot about it when the stokes recovery teams
moved in."

"Always nice and positive, Stoker. That's what I like
so much, about you. But my instincts are screaming,
man. Don't you feel yours? Something's wrong. And it's
about one of us..."  Kelly insisted, pale and small in
his fire gear, as they began once more, their hazard
scene search pattern's hunt for anything human in
the debris piles.  "I just can't shake it either."

Mike Stoker didn't say anything. He froze a minute
later when he spotted something embedded in the
twisted heart of the violated Crown pumper. Chet
followed line of sight down Mike's arm.. "I don't
believe it.."

"Yeah? Well, call it in and don't touch it. The feddies
will nail our *sses if we disturb anything near it." 
Stoker grunted. "F*ck, why do we find this and not 
Bellingham??"

Chet was impressed with Mike's usually hidden trucker
mouth as he lifted the HT to his faceplate. "L.A. and
Batallion 12.  No sign yet but we have located the
flight recorder. Looks like Engine Ten's hood was the
bullseye."

##Copy that.## Battalion 12 answered. ##Check in at
minute intervals.##

A sterner, foreign voice took over the line. "HT 51.
Touch nothing while you're in there. Our people are
intercepting you now for its recovery.."

Kelly's eyebrows climbed into his hairline.
"You were speaking of the Feds?" Chet said sarcastically.
"My, aren't they speedy.." he growled. "I hope they all
step on a power l--"

"Chet, they're our tax dollars, hard at work.." Stoker
teased, trying to lighten the increasing knot of dread
that he was experiencing as Chet's non-ignorable bad 
feeling took root in his stomach. "It behooves us to
let them... officiate.." he articulated for lack of a better
word.

"Why don't they concentrate on developing better
airport transportation vehicle protocols or something else
that's useful, huh? Hindsight investigation does precious 
little to help the folks we're seeing smeared all over the 
county. I'm almost half tempted to hook that power line we just 
found onto the red box just to fry it so the truth about this crash's 
human/plane maintenance shortcomings will never hit
the media! You heard how those compensators were straining
when she flew over our heads. The victims' relatives deserve better 
than a sterile statement of apology six months from now from 
the FAA, you know.."  Unconsciously, his eyes fell on a
very familiar place inside of Engine Ten.

Mike Stoker took Kelly's trembling arm and led
him away from the cab seat that was the twin of
the one Kelly usually took when on a call on Engine 51.
He noticed that it had been shredded by myriads of metal
shards the length of his arm, some of which were still 
impaling the leather sickeningly. ::That could have been
us, in E 51..:: he realized. ::Someone's watching out
for somebody today, that's for sure.:: he thought and 
he crossed himself, as Roy would've done. "Come on,.. 
we'll try and go back to where we intercepted that teenager. 
Won't be hard to find his footsteps in all this soot and blood 
to trace a trail back to where the jacket might have come 
from. If Bob's still in trouble, chances are better that 
he'll be closer to there than here.. agreed?"

Kelly nodded tightly, fighting his emotions as he
let Mike lead the way. "Glad at least one of us is
thinking clearly.."

"Let's go.." Mike said gently.

As they passed back by the engine, Stoker paused 
only long enough to spray paint her side with the bright
symbol for no bodies found for the other workers, who were
bound to come there anyway they could, just to ease 
their own minds about her current status and situation.

The two of them all but ran back to the depressing
open area where they had found the looter.

It took them four minutes to find Bob Bellingham's
length stretched out in a puddle of fuel face down,
eight meters from where they had corralled the teen
with the severed hose.

Chet and Mike carefully rolled him over onto his back
and Chet dug into Bob's shirt for a carotid. "Still
got one." he grinned. "Looks like his air mask kept
him from drowning in the stuff."

Bob groaned when Mike placed his gloves under his
head to keep his spine still and straight. "Well, that
explains a few things. He's got a goose egg the size
of a grapefruit back here."

"That lousy fink!" Chet exploded, turning his masked
face towards the neighborhood where the rebel teen
had long since departed. "What kind of kid would
mug a firefighter just to get some gear to put on to
go body gawk?"

"A thrill seeker from a broken home?" Stoker ventured.

Chet made a face. Then he turned his attention back
to Bellingham when the man's air-tank-is-empty whistle
began to sound. He pulled off Bob's mask and replaced
it with his own. "Brilliant Sherlock Holmes.. That's a brownie
point for you. This one's his now, Stoker." he said, tapping 
the face plate he held pressed over Bob's nose and mouth 
around the jaw thrust he was maintaining on the mostly out
paramedic. "Gimme yours so I can buddy breathe in peace 
and quiet ok? We'll trade off every two breaths like the usual. 
Do me a favor huh? Keep theorizing this crime scene to 
yourself. I'm so mad at that kid right now, I just might curse him 
with that hex Marco's mom once taught me that Lopez says
always seems to work for her." he cocked his geared head
in another thought. "Or I just might give the other Station
Ten guys his description when we find them and let THEM
deal out a little justice before the cops come."

Smiling and rationing his breath, Stoker lifted his HT to 
report that a Station Ten man had been found alive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Brice! ... no.." Roy said firmly, grabbing Craig's arm.

They had both just heard Mike Stoker's report on finding 
Bob Bellingham injured  soon after the stunning shock
of news announcing Engine Ten's demise. 

Now, the straight laced, usually bureaucratic eye glassed
paramedic was anything but reserved. He almost shook
free of DeSoto's hold on him ; the only thing which
kept Brice from running off into the debris field to get
to Bellingham's side. "Roy, Kelly and Stoker aren't
paramedics. They don't know the first thing about
secondarily surveying a patient! Getting that right is 
critical! "

"True, but they DO know the primary one. You remember..
the one about the A B C's..?" Roy grinned. "Bob's in good
enough hands until Squad 8 gets there. They did say they
had breathing, a regular pulse and that Bob was reactive 
to pain.  He'll get through just fine without you going barging
in there and taking over.." he said necessarily sharp.

"How would you feel if it was YOUR partner lying there
as a victim?" Craig said, not caring how he sounded to
the civilian volunteers milling about them. "I'm sure if
the tables were turned and you were in MY shoes, that
you'd try to expedite a rescue as quickly as possible
yourself, just like what you're accusing me of doing right 
now. Listen to your radio DeSoto.. Hear all that chatter?
That's the sound of three dozen other firefighters who
feel exactly the same way I do right now. "

Roy led Craig out of the food tent by the elbow to
stand near the squad. "Craig.. Craig.. " he interjected
between Brice's long drawn out speech. "Craig.. I- I
understand. But this is triage. We go where they
tell us and not a moment before. I heard Battalion
12 say he was planning on sending us out. So all 
we have to do is sit tight and wait for the word go.. 
all right?"

Right then came a harried rookie from the city
in dusty yellow with an air bottle strapped on
the wrong way. At his feet was Boot, barking
loudly.

"Hey, 51.." said the young rookie. "This your
dog? Listen, you'd better take charge of him
cause my captain's had it up to here with him
grabbing all our pant legs for no good reason.
He's really pissing the guys off.  Broderick almost
blasted him with the engine cannon to clear him outta
our space..."

"What?" Roy said, taking charge of Boot's collar.
The ragged dog was whining and carrying on.
And he was breathing oddly, like he was choking.

The rookie just threw up his hands and walked
away mumbling. "Just keep him away from us,
Truck 226, and you'll have no problems. If he
comes back and becomes the main course on
the chow line, don't come looking for me..."

Craig had already crouched down by Boot's side.
"His name's Boot?" he asked Roy, grabbing the dog
by the head and pulling his chin up to see the cause
of Boot's physical distress.

DeSoto nodded.

Brice pulled a green ink pen out of Boot's mouth
briefly before the dog fiercely retook possession of
it, only to resume his whining and pacing before the two
paramedics with even more urgency.  "I don't know dogs, 
DeSoto. But he's obviously stressed, maybe because 
of all the fatalities around here."

Roy also stooped and petted Boot's back to calm
him but it didn't work. "He's really worked up about 
something. What was that you got out of his mouth?"

Brice suffered a brief tug of war with Boot but finally
yanked the ink pen out of the mutt's maw and he held
it up before the leaping canine snatched it away again.
"Just an ink pen.. how strange.. There's thousands of
better kinds of sticks lying around. Why did he choose
that to play with?" Craig wondered.

Roy got a sudden sinking feeling in his stomach.
"He doesn't play, and when he's onto something like
this, it's because he's tracking someone."

"What?"

"Boot's done this before. When he first started hanging
around the station, on our first call, he actually found a
hiker's backpack along the roadside. Without him, we
wouldn't've ever found the victim. He was eighty feet 
down a beach cliff following a fall..." Roy said absently.

Boot suddenly pushed the pen into DeSoto's hand
and then began to tug his pants leg in earnest, almost
to the point of tipping him over. His whines and frantic
barks continued even more loudly.

Craig said. "What now? We can't keep him in the squad.
It's too hot.." Then he scratched his head. "I know, I'll
tie him up to the running board with a tow line.." And
he finished carrying out his idea.

"Let him go.." Roy said, feeling something dreadful.

The pen that he held up into the rising sunlight was
full of blood stains.

Craig shrugged and then cut the rope in two with his
belt pocket knife.

Boot took off towards Rampart like a shot, but only
along a route that the squad could follow.

DeSoto grew certain.. "He's onto someone who's
in trouble, someone no one else knows about.. Get
in. We'll follow him.."

Brice said, "DeSoto, this is highly illog--"

DeSoto slammed the driver's door after stepping into
the squad and securing his helmet. "Maybe. But we
have no reason to go anywhere else until we're 
formally authorized. Buckle up.."

Soon, Roy pulled up in a clear spot alongside the
outdoor cafeteria out of the way of the line of
ambulances and supply tents and the morgue area.

Boot hastily ran into the cafeteria's courtyard.

"Oh, boy.." Roy said. "The doctors in there aren't gonna
like that.."

But Craig and he got out of the squad, complete with
their air bottles on anyway, to find out where Boot was
headed.

Roy hesitantly stopped at the barrier sealed off entrance
and waved a sweating doctor over to his side.

The M.D. said, "What can I do for you, paramedic....."
and he fished for a name, peering at Roy's sooty name
plate.

"DeSoto.. " Brice supplied when Roy wasn't fast enough.

Roy exchanged looks with Craig in gratitude. "Doc, this
will only take a second. uh,,, H-Have you seen a dog 
in here?"

The blond haired man tossed his head over his left 
shoulder. "Oh, you mean that one?" 

Roy and Craig glanced over to a section of grass
along the brick wall that bordered the eatery. A bloody
collie lay stretched and silent in death near a garbage
can.

The doc went on. "She came in here about two hours
ago looking for her owner most likely. Died of her
injuries before she found anyone.."

Roy blinked..."Uh,, this one's living... about two feet
high, shaggy brown.."

A commotion near the center of the triage section drew
all of their eyes.

Boot was scrambling on top of a table hastily stacked
with emergency supplies and then, impossibly, he
leaped up onto an adjacent umbrella, still stretched
upright and shading patients lying beneath it.

"Hey!!" snapped the doctor. "Get down! Now!" he
yelled, fearing that Boot would slip off and land on
the stokes victims underneath the umbrella.

"Oh my G*d.." DeSoto blurted and he and Craig rushed
forward to drag Boot off his precarious perch.

As they were reaching, they saw where Boot was
staring and barking....up the side of Rampart.

"Johnny!!!!??"  DeSoto cried out.

Brice's HT was in his hand in seconds and he
was talking before Roy drew another breath.
"L.A. , we have a man trapped outside the fourth
floor above the triage area. Also a child. Both
are unconscious and in heavy smoke.. Squad 51
is at scene.."

Roy and Brice barely heard the Battalion Chiefs'
reply nor the unit L.A. was dispatching to aid them.

DeSoto started running for the doors of the hospital
when he felt a sharp jolt as strong hands stopped him.

"Roy,.. what did you just inform me about five minutes ago?
I suggest strongly that we stay put." Brice said evenly.

DeSoto let out a sigh of exasperation, but finally just
joined Boot into staring up skyward, looking for signs of life
in the two still forms dangling from a tied off fire hose, 
above him.

The doctor couldn't tell what was louder, Boot's frantic
barks or Roy DeSoto's urgent yells to the man that
they had discovered in jeopardy. All he knew was
that in a few minutes, he'd have two more victims 
on his roster to worry about.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Photo :   A red flight recorder nestled in a niche.

Photo :   Battalion 12 on a phone.

Photo:    Brice looking frantic with messy hair.

*********************************************************
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 12:29:43 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Aftermath 

Brice tapped Roy DeSoto on the shoulder to
get around the hindering sound dampening SCBA
tank the paramedic had on. "DeSoto.. Gage's line,
such that it is, looks secure. Let's go meet the bucket 
at the entrance and start clearing a path through
the gawkers for the truck to get in here." he shouted.

Roy, grabbing Boot and praising him ecstatically, 
nodded his masked head vigorously. "Ok. Sounds
like a plan." he said, aiming a powerful flashlight a
quick thinking intern had handed him from a supply
cart, up into the smoke. "I'm not seeing cyanosis on
either one of them. They've got to be breathing."
he added. "Let's go."

The two fully geared firefighters heard Battalion 12
organizing their new rescue priority around the one
Kelly and Stoker were managing, in stereo, from
their cranked volume handi talkies. The radio
commands echoed eerily up the concrete flank of
the hospital and echoed back down to them faintly
over the sounds coming from the triage station
around them. They were only slightly louder than
the moans issuing from the walking wounded lined
up by category along the cafeteria wall.

Soon, ironically, Truck 226 pulled up and Roy and
Brice were met with a familiar sight leaping off the 
rear bumper.

It was the rookie who had "returned" Boot. "Hey,
51.. " the young curly haired man shouted. "Listen..
Sorry about earlier.  I- I didn't know what your mutt was 
up to. I'll do everything I can to get your man down from 
there as fast as I can. Don't you worry. ." and he began 
to rapidly place the anchor plates down on the dusty 
asphalt for the truck's descending stabilizer legs.

"Forget it, kid.." Roy grinned as best he could. "I'll be
the first to admit that Boot DOES get annoying when
he's on full bark and tug mode."

Right then, Truck 226's captain jogged up. He noted
the air tanks Brice and Roy were using and he frowned.
"No one told me jet fumes were blowing downwind into
the triage area.."

"I think they were too busy to realize that, Cap." DeSoto
said, throwing a hand at all the frantic doctors and nurses
working on the rows of patients stretched out in between
all the tipped over dining tables and umbrellas.

"Changing all of that right now.." the gray haired captain
promised. He toggled a talk button. "Truck 226 to Battalions
12 and 14. The wind's shifted southwards from the impact
site towards the hospital and triage area. I recommend you 
set up a series of water curtains to divert the worst of 
the smoke and fumes away from all the patients inside and 
outside of Rampart. They're in a direct line of risk."

##10-4. Truck 226. ## came a dual reply.

Dimly, Roy heard Engine 8  being dispatched to his scene
with three other stations as well as his own. ::I'll just bet 
Bellingham's on his way here right now if they've been 
freed to respond to us.:: 

Slowly, 226's engineer lifted the arching white span of
the bucket's arm upwards from his place inside of it.  
He nodded with satisfaction when he saw Brice peel 
off his gloves to get the two demand valves set up for 
Johnny and the girl. The rookie firefighter insisted on 
those going up with them. 

Soon, both the basket and the three firefighters in it, 
disappeared into the smoke. Unconsciously, Roy lifted 
his HT. "Squad 51 to HT 51. Radio check.."

Craig immediately replied back and his distant figure
suddenly reappeared in a hissing gust and Roy saw him
lift an arm in an affirmation wave as he spoke. ##Loud
and clear, 51. Stand by for info. We're almost there. I
can see them.##

There was a long pause, and Boot in Roy's arms sliced
it wide open with an impatient frantic whine. "Yeah,
I know how you feel, I hate waiting, too, boy."

Then.....

##Squad 51. They're alive. Carotids on both..## came 
Brice's relieved voice.

Roy let out the breath he had been holding and he joyfully
shoved Boot into the squad before grabbing his gear out
of the side compartments. He laid them on a yellow treatment 
tarp on a section of uncluttered grass. He knew he'd be
treating long before the triage doctors even had a space
for his two victims.  He got on the biophone just as Engine 51
pulled in to begin setting up the water curtain to protect
the triage area from the thickening chemical smoke.

Roy gave Captain Stanley an indication of who one of the 
victims was by tapping the number on his helmet. He immediately 
tempered that with a hasty thumbs up to Cap without speaking.

DeSoto saw Hank visibly relax.

Brackett replied to Roy's hail.  ##Squad 51, Go ahead.##

Drumming relieved gloved hands on the squad's hood, 
Stanley nodded at DeSoto in a thanks for the news and
then he scrambled Kelly, Stoker, and Lopez into support
operations.

Roy did one double take as Bob Bellingham was
carried in by Engine 8's crew on a long board. He wasn't
even fitted with an airway underneath the oxygen mask. 
::That's good.:: DeSoto thought. He saw the still and 
wounded paramedic placed on the grass in the line of 
victims classified as red tagged to await his turn for
more aggressive treatment and further assessment. One 
of Station Eight's paramedics parked with him but soon 
automatically volunteered himself to monitor those 
victims in his same row without being told to do so by 
a doctor. 

Dutifully, the medic dragged Bellingham's gurney
into the yellow triage tagged line when the burly man 
awoke and began to ask him legible questions.

Roy sighed and replied to Dr. Brackett.
"Rampart, we've a Code I and a little girl of nine
from a previous rescue. Right now they're inaccessible
but both of them should be freed in a few minutes. 
Please stand by."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Base Station, Kel's face furrowed when he
heard about the child. "Is this the girl from the factory fire
that Joe Early handled earlier?## he demanded to know without 
giving out too much information over the very public biocom 
channel he knew the fire chiefs and L.A. were both monitoring
because of the declared disaster level emergency they
were all facing. 

"10-4.." Roy answered.

##I'm getting her chart now..## Brackett affirmed and 
he turned to tap on the window for Betty, Dixie's stand-in.

"Don't bother.." said a voice near his waist. Kel whirled
to see an arm slinged Dixie McCall in a wheel chair, 
sitting next to him. She nonchalantly held Megan's 
patient slate out to him with her good hand. "I took the
liberty of grabbing this on my way in here."

"Dixie! Just what the h*ll are you doing out of bed?! Who
let you loose?" Brackett boomed.

"Kel, do you think I'm stupid enough to even hint at that
person's name? Besides, I didn't break your orders. My
I.V. finished up just fine and my pressure's holding so here I 
am. Gimme..." and she wriggled fingers for a note pad and 
pencil.

Kel Brackett figured it out. "You sly little vixen. You turned your
Ringers to wide open, to drain it faster, didn't you?"

Dixie merely blinked straight faced at him, not admitting anything.
Then she said. "Now how could I have done that? You had
both my arms strapped down."

Kel didn't even blink back. "Someone else did it then.." he
started to smoulder.

"Ease off, Kel." she pleaded with a half whine of weariness. 
"That firefighter and little Megan both need us right now so
just can it, Kel. Shut up and let's get to work!" she said just 
as brusk, breathing hard.  But then she smiled and the faintest 
hint of pink flushed rapidly into her cheeks.

That convinced Kel as to the progress of her recovery so
he gave her what she wanted sheepishly. "Glad you're back,
Dix, we've missed you."

"Unlikely.. Now, has Roy given you any data yet?"

"Nope. Victims are still stuck high up." Kel said, checking 
the circulation in Dixie's fingers to see how his suturing was 
faring. "Any seepage?"

"Nope.." Dixie said, trying not to wince at the exam. "You
did your usual thorough job, Doctor Frankenstein. Very
neat rows. Looks like I was stitched up by a sewing machine,
instead of by you."

Kel grin's split even further. "I aim to please.." he said, gently
releasing her arm.  "How did you know I'd need this?" he said, 
hefting the metal chart of Megan's.

"Oh, Kel.. I tried to tell you and Morton both about Megan. That's
the whole reason why I went up to the fourth floor after the plane
hit. Let me fill you in. Johnny's the Code I, so get boned up.
That orderly who attended me, with you earlier in the 
Treatment Room, told me more about how Gage and she were 
trapped in their room by fallen scaffolding. Only one back hall 
leads out of their bathroom and that was the one..."

"... that leads behind the glass elevator shaft... hmmmm.." Dr. 
Brackett said thoughtfully. "There's also a supply room in there. 
Something must have happened to effect Johnny's reasoning 
ability or he'd still be in there holing up with Megan."

Dixie had an answer for that, too. "It did. There's a block long 
water curtain going up on the crash side of the building. I remember
seeing those only used to divert toxic smoke away from people
back when I was still training paramedics on ride alongs."

Brackett frowned, and toggled the switch. "Rampart to Squad 51."

##Go ahead, Rampart.##

"Just learned about the bad air outside. What are your victims'
consciousness levels?"

##Both are out, doc. Brice and another fireman's got them on 
positive pressure ventilations assisting their own inhalations.
Both have unimpeded airways, adjunct supported. They say
no signs of laryngospasm is evident . Oh, and the little girl's still 
got her I.V. line. It's intact. Brice said Johnny's signature's on it 
marking it as a new bag. Uhh,..it's I.V.#2..Timed forty five
minutes ago..##

"10-4.  51, I'm fore-authorizing you for 1 cc epinephrine, adult's, and
.3 cc's peds if that condition develops in either victim. Continue 
to update me as your rescue progresses and notify me
as soon as you have patient access. I'm assuming position
as their attending M.D. I'll be faster than those assigned out by you
in the triage area. If I'm needed by you and Brice, I'll be out 
there. Rampart out." 

He sighed and quickly read Megan's patient information
with a practiced flipping of pages. Then he leaned against
the counter with the recording machine and switched it off
to await Roy's next transmission. He regarded Dixie
thoughtfully as she jotted down the last of his orders to
Squad 51. "Just how did you know beyond just his and your
guessing, that Johnny and Megan had gotten into that hallway? "

"The orderly went down to the security office and had them
aim a camera onto the floor to look for biosigns on the tiles.
They found some blood, and an arrow of coloring pens,
pointing in the direction of the elevator shaft."
  At Brackett's puzzled look, she elaborated. "This afternoon,
I sort of...snuck up there to check on Johnny by taking over 
some of Megan's lab work and saw that they were arguing
over custody of a green pen that she had on the table.  I just
put two and two together.." she said bowing her head fractionally.

"I don't know whether to congratulate you or throttle you for
leaving the ER twice, unannounced, during a crisis alert."
Kel grimaced, waving Joe Early into the room to order him
to take over as ER head while he went to rendevous with Roy.

"I did pay the price, Kel. I argued with a window losing a battle
with a crashing airplane." and she lifted her splinted arm in
emphasis.

Kel fell silent and brooding without anger. "Pain getting too much?"

"Nope.." she trickled instantly. "This one isn't an ankle. I can take an
arm over a foot any day of the week. That time bothered me. This time,
it doesn't." she said evenly. "Besides, what's my color showing you?"

Kel stroked her cheek in a brief show of affection. "That you're hungry.
Go eat. I promise I'll call you the moment Roy calls back in. I'm clearing
you for some oral intake. If you don't spill anything on my suture job, 
I'll forget you were ever AWOL." he said marking down his
orders on the run sheet he pulled down from the file box next
to the EKG monitor.

"Deal, I'll be back with some coffee just for you."

"Good luck. All the pots are empty..." he grinned without
looking up. "As of three hours ago."

"No, they're not. I know all the hiding places.
I'll do some acting as the poor hurt head nurse and beg
some off the student squirrelers." 

The last part of her sentence was punctuated by the
sound of a fast opening door onto the busy ER.
Kel thought. ::Oh no she doesn't...::
"Hey!" Kel yelled after Dix, holding the glass door of
the base station open so that he could see her retreating
back. "You forgot your wheel chair.. And why don't you
fess up and tell us doctors about those hiding places..?"

"Nurses autonomy.. Live with it and accept that you're 
simply SOL, doctor." her voice floated sweetly 
back to him. "Thanks for lifting my chow restriction,
I'm starving!"

Kel launched the empty wheel chair out of the little 
transparent room and narrowly missed hitting Joe
Early with it as he breezed in.

Joe didn't bat an eye and deflected the wheeling
obstacle away from his knees with a foot neatly
agile. "Problem, Kel?" he asked picking 
up the orders Brackett had just finished dictating.

"Head nurses and firefighters.. Who can live with them?"
Kel said without elaborating further.

"Us, Kel. Can't live without 'em. Remember that when 
you're old and gray like me." Dr. Early smiled mildly.
"They're your bread and butter for the whole paramedic
program which you created, by the way, doctor." he said 
cheerfully.

"Don't remind me." Kel grumbled. "Better have someone
get a forklift to pull Johnny Gage's chart from Records again.
He went down while playing Batman on the side of the
building."

"What's he doing out there?"

"He got a kid out of the only patient room endangered
by that mess outside. His own. Smoke made him attempt
his current idiotic stunt gone bad, and he's now hanging,
out cold above triage instead of staying nice and safe in  
a supply room."

"Terrific.. I'll get Respiratory Therapy ready. Want a couple
of bronchoscopy trays set up for your jump bag? I assume 
you are giving me the entire ER's reins while you go play
Doctor Do Right out in triage."

"You guessed right."

Right then, a candy striper trotted into the base station
alcove with a mug of steaming coffee. She went right
to Kel Brackett with it. "Compliments of Dixie, doctor."
and she sailed right back out again.

Joe melted. "Oh!  That's real coffee! Where'd you manage
to materialize that, Kel? I've been licking the dry coffee
ring in MY mug for hours." he asked drooling.

"Go see, Dix, Joe. She's the head of a secret society 
of illegal java poolers."

"Huh?" Joe blinked.

"Never mind. Just look for the sky blue splint and you'll spot
her if you want to get some for yourself."

"Splint?! She's hurt?" It was Joe's turn to get sharp.
"Why didn't anybody inform me?"

"There wasn't time. Morton and I handled her surgery 
ourselves."

"Dixie was hurt enough for surgery?!"

"MINOR surgery, Joe. So don't get your shorts in a knot.
A brachial tear from glass. Easily repaired. Now shoo.
Go be my leader. "

"But.."

"Dixie'll tell you about it all herself no doubt before I'm
through with this call. And she'll probably yarn about 
Johnny here, a bit, too. " he said, tapping the biophone 
radio receiver and the run sheet he had scribbled
the firefighter's name onto.  "Oh, and did I tell you that the
child he had with him is actually Megan Miller? I know you 
saw her this morning but I'll be seeing her now out in triage 
after you take over for me."

Dr. Brackett wisely closed base station door on 
Early's scowling face as Roy's voice sounded in
once more on hail, grinning like a banshee at the 
sight of his colleague absorbing the double whammy
news shocks like a trooper.

He took a deep breath to fortify himself and flipped
the  recorder back on.
##Go ahead, 51. I read you loud and clear.## 
Kel toggled, answering Roy's request for contact.

 
"Rampart, we've extricated both victims. We're getting
both on EKGs on simultaneous telemetry.  The adult male's 
via the defib paddles and the girl's through the Tetronix. He's
tachycardic and I don't know why. He's got a weird 
V-Tach with a pulse."

##10-4, .....uh.. 51,....I know the identity of your Code I. Given
his past surgical history, I'm ordering you to draw a red top
for a cross match for a prelim RBC count. Then start a 500 
cc D5W I.V. on him but keep it TKO until we've determined  
the cause for his arrythmia. I'll be right out there in three 
minutes after you send me those strips.##

"10-4. Transmitting both now on Lead Two.."

##Link established..## Kel confirmed.

He was still studying the EKGs when Joe showed up and
parked Kel's favorite jump bag into the wheel chair still
partially blocking the way into the receiving alcove.

Joe paused long enough to look at Megan's strip before
he darted off to run the ER department in Kel's stead.

Brackett abandoned his post and hurried past
the security checkpoint and out into the cafeteria commons. 
He pushed the wheel chair full of gear along with him 
and also a spare O2 upright apparatus that he found 
unclaimed against a wall. 

It was still full with ample suctioning tubes and a cleverly
added tracheotomy kit around its regulator.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy DeSoto didn't even reprimand Brice about where
he placed Johnny and Megans' mutual stokes. They
were lined up in the red row adjacent to where Bob
Bellingham was lying in the yellow one. ::That's bending 
the rules a bit but if the situations were reversed, I'd be 
doing exactly the same thing by trying to get close.
He's gotta know how his partner's doing.::
he admitted mentally.

DeSoto lifted the paddles away from Johnny's ribcage,
his strip reading send now complete. Brice had already
assessed Megan and found her the more stable of
their two patients. Now, Craig was sweeping down 
Gage from his head on downwards, pausing only long 
enough to get in a fast pupillary check.

Roy decided to speed up finding out what was wrong
with his partner by beginning palpation of his abdomen.
His gloves were just about pelvis level when Craig 
shouted. "Freeze, DeSoto. That lump in his pocket
may be a drug needle. His pupils are constricted 
and that with his odd tachycardia might spell atropine.
He's smelling like anesthetic similar to a surgery store 
room."

How Brice smelled that over all the acrid 
chemical smoke leaking off Gage's blue jeans,
Roy couldn't even begin to guess at. He just
chalked it off as another quirky Brice talent.

"Johnny, self treated himself for sure?" Roy asked 
aloud.

Roy checked carefully in the suspicious pocket and 
he blinked when he indeed, found a .3 mg syringe packet 
full of atropine. Its needle was lacking a cover. Brice had 
just saved him from a nasty, unpleasant injection
and needle stick.

"Yeah.. It's almost guaranteed. His blood pressure trend
confirms it.  Up there, we got not even orthostatic changes 
happening while we were securing him for lowering. 
B.P.'s still unmoving and rock solid at 92/58." he said,
taking the stethoscope out of his ears. "That was very 
smart of Gage to use atropine. There was enough
cyanide in that smoke up there to choke a horse. Our
jacket indicators changed color right away."

Roy didn't miss Brice's quick glance towards his partner
lying so close and yet so far away in the next row of
victims.

He got up and knelt so that he was in between Megan
and Gage's stokes. Then DeSoto said, "Go, Brice."

"What?" Brice stammered, still adjusting the I.V. on 
Gage while his other hand stuffed it under his shoulder.

"Go visit Bob. I won't tell. I'll just give you a heads up when I
eyeball Brackett coming our way." DeSoto offered.

"Thanks, DeSoto." Brice said uncomfortable about
breaking a rule. But that didn't stop him from scooting
over to Bob and donning a new pair of gloves so that
he could do a once over on Bellingham himself under 
the eye of the paramedic attending Bellingham.

Roy saw Brice take Bob's hand into his own
as he spoke quietly to him, in tearful relief.

Right then, Gage twisted his head out from under
the demand valve being used on him by an Engine
8 man, and spat out his oral airway, groaning.

Roy immediately bent down close to his face.
"Johnny.. you're both safe on the ground. You gotta
tell me. How much atropine did you use on yourself?
Your rhythm's racing and we want to know why."

"Megan fir--" Johnny croaked, getting testy with 
the firefighter hovering above him when he
tried to replace the oyxgen over his face.
He swatted it away. "Megan first.."

"She's stable and breathing. No airway
problems. Talk to me about it now, Johnny.."
Roy said no nonsense.

"Ok, ok, ok.. Point Three. Once. Had to.
*cough*  I had a..*gasp* sh*tload of edema..."

"I heard the rales. You got em on both sides."

Gage moaned. "Oh nooo" he gushed in disgust. 
".. that means aspirant pneumonia in my future for sure.. 
That means two weeks more time set for me in the hospital, 
Roy." he said in a high, complaining whine.

"I know.. just let the man ventilate you some more.
Morgan. Switch to an ambu and help him on the in's.
15 liters." he ordered.  Then he smiled mischieviously 
as he moved over to recheck Megan's progress under
her vents with a stethoscope. "Brice thinks your using that 
med saved your life, Johnny. Way to go, junior. "

Johnny shifted his weight on the uncomfortable mesh of
the stokes and tried to grin. 

The smile suddenly wiped from Roy's face. "Johnny, 
keep still, you're in un-specific V-tach. Brackett's on 
his way here now to personally check you out himself.
It may be a chemical reaction from the smoke with
your blood and your atropine shot because you've no 
splenic backup volume to counteract it."

Gage eyeballed the defib paddles in between
his feet and shuddered. ::V-tachs can be tricky.
And I've never coded. That's in Roy's history. Not
mine.:: Johnny forced his brain to think quieter, 
calmer thoughts. "Is a blood transfusion in the 
works for me, too?" he whispered.

Roy's lips reclaimed his mirth. "No, probably just
a course of sodium nitrate to burn the CN out of
your system."

"Wish Boot were here. He'd make me feel a 
whole lot better about all this."

"He IS here. In the squad parked nearby."

Roy gave a nod to the nervous worried rookie
from Truck 226 still hanging around. He tossed
him the squad keys. "Here, 226. Why don't
you go let him out for my partner here."

"Right.." said the curly kid eagerly. He took
off so fast to do the task that his mask detached
from the air bottle and thunked into the dust.

Boot scrambled over, retrieved the mask
for the rookie, passed it off, and then promptly
returned to Johnny's stokes, laying his weary
head on his bare stomach with a wavering sigh
of relief.

"Ok, Roy, quit biting your lip. I'm shutting up right now."
Johnny sighed. "Pump away, Morgan. " he said when he 
saw that the Station Eight firefighter had finished setting up 
the new oyxgen equipment for him. "I'm all yours.." and he 
submitted to his assisted lung expansion treatment under
the bag valve mask with loosely closed his eyes. 

DeSoto saw Gage relax into a post atropine stupor.
"That's right, sleep and you'll wake up on a nice comfortable
bed later tonight. I promise."

A snore peeled out from under the ventilation mask.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Turning heads alerted Roy to Brackett's vectoring approach.
He whistled loudly so that Craig would hear him.

Brice slunk back like a combat soldier under fire 
to rise up at Megan's side in an immediate act of never 
having left as Kel wheeled his gear and chair next to them.

"Status?" he barked at Roy and Brice.

Both rattled off sets of vitals and treatment times
and the new finding of atropine use prior to 
rescuing, in Johnny.

"Hmm, I'll have to have a talk with him about that
later.." Kel said, resetting the paddles on Johnny's
blood flaked chest to see how his heart was doing.
"Working for now. But we're not moving him until
most of these PVC's go away."

Roy volunteered information. "He's got receding rales
on both sides, doc." he emphasized pointedly. "Those rales 
used to be loud ones. You know with that level of
edema, untreated, he would've been a dead man half an 
hour ago.." he said brandishing the second unused 
atropine packet that he had pulled out of Johnny's jeans 
pocket.   

"Maybe I won't be talking to him later about that."
Brackett suddenly amended, pulling back Johnny's
eye lids to see the extent of his smoke inhalation 
sleepies under a penlight.

Roy nodded with satisfaction.

Brackett and Roy both turned their attentions to the
little girl.

Kel nodded to the fireman ventilating her on the demand
valve and set his wheeling O2 apparatus next to him. 
"Switch to an ambu, like Gage's. It'll be easier on her
alveoli if they've been burned by the smoke. Here's a 
peds BVM and mask. Is she still pulling easily?" he 
asked the man at her head.

"Yeah, doc. She hasn't been sick. I'm
not smelling anything. Her voluntary rate's about 30 
and only a touch shallow. I've been bumping her up
to 36, while keeping everything I do light."

"Good. That'll drive out the cyanide a little faster
and clear that fluid from her bronchial passages.
Most of that is probably from the I.V. Johnny wasn't
able to turn back down again before he passed out
on that wall up there."

Roy nodded and absently lifted a sweat loosened 
EKG pad on Megan's side long enough to dry her skin 
with her cut away patient gown before replacing it back
down more firmly. "I checked for infiltration on that I.V. 
site, doc. There's none."

"Well, seems even half dead, our Johnny's a star paramedic.
His rappelling didn't even jostle Megan's I.V. out of that vein?" 
he asked again while he tried to awaken Megan with
a sternal rub.

Roy laughed. "Not at all."

Brackett afforded the sleeping Johnny a grudging look
of respect that he would never have given Gage while he
was awake, just for Roy and Brice's benefit.
"Roy, get that head wrap off Megan. I wanna 
see how responsive her pupillary reaction 
is on that oxygen."

Megan's face slowly scrunched up into pain after Dr. 
Brackett gave her the epinephrine Roy handed
him that he had prepared on his earlier orders. He tried
another rub on her breast bone and got an arm jerk.
He deftly pulled out Megan's airway and the Engine Eight 
man got a working suction tube ready in case Brackett 
needed it .The fireman set his BVM in between his knees 
for a moment when the girl started talking softly.

"...Mr. Gage?"... Megan coughed.

"Easy, hon. He's ok. And so are you..." Brackett
soothed.

Boot noticed the change in the child and immediately
padded over to lick her face in encouragement.

Megan's sooty face broke out into a terrific smile.
"Who's this?" she wondered.

"That's Boot. " Brice offered. "Mr. Gage's firehouse's 
mascot. He's the one who made sure we got
there to rescue you two off the fourth floor."

"Good boy..." she said, reaching up shakily to pet his
coat. "Good boy.." she coughed again, liquidly and that
made Kel order the girl's assisted O2 to be continued.

Right then, the station 51 gang jogged up to sneak in
a visit on their coworker like Brice had done with
his partner, the Animal. 

Megan's face burst into a wide smile at the sight of
Chet Kelly. "Oh, you're Johnny's friend! Hi! *gasp*
Don't worry. He's ok.. I took care of him real good.
I gave him the shot and he got better fast."

"You did what, hon?" Kel Brackett blinked.

Megan's face fell away in sudden worry.
"That was ok, wasn't it? He was making funny
noises and his lips were turning purple. I just 
had to do what Mr. Gage asked me to do."

Dr. Brackett, Brice and Roy's faces all beamed.
But Chet was the one who spoke. "So,.. we've
a real hero in our midst." and he crouched down
beside the little girl.  He uptook one of her damp
hands after shoving his helmet a little higher onto
his head to loosen its chin strap enough to take
it off in tribute to the child. "Anyone who saves my 
friend is definitely a friend of mine. Nice to meet 
you little lady.."

"I've jokes to tell you, mister. Mr. Gage said to memorize
them for you."

"Jokes? I collect jokes. All kinds. But I think we oughta
do that later until after you're all better. Ok?" Kelly
suggested. "These folks here look kind of busy right
now."

"Sure, mister." and Megan closed her eyes. "We can color
later, too, with green pens cause they're Johnny's favorite."
she added before drifting off again under the oyxgen mask.
 
"Geesh," Marco remarked. "Gage is sure good with
all the chicks. Even the little ones." he chuckled.
"She's absolutely tickled with Johnny. A real friend
for life.."

The gang chuckled.

Cap gestured and said. "Ok, break time's over.
Move it out. We've got a water curtain team to exchange
with. Roy, you and Brice can stay put. The prelim 
search's over scene wide and our smoke control
is working well enough just as we are for right now."

"Find anyone from the airplane alive?"

Hank's face softened in sadness. "Fraid not.
But there's good news. Only seven on the ground
were killed. And then just these few dozen in here
who got hurt."

"Thanks for the update, Cap..."

Hank started to herd his men away but Roy
stopped him.."Uh,, how's Battalion 14 handling
the Station Ten thing?"

"He's not, emotionally. But the chiefs decided 
right away that his hands were too full at the time 
to realize that unit's missing status as a possible casualty.
Nothing official will be reprimanding him, except for
perhaps, his own conscience. Besides, no harm's
done. No one except Bellingham was anywhere
near that truck when the jet crashed. And HIS lumps,
Stoker tells me, are from a looting mugger."
And he turned to leave.

Marco took charge of their mascot as they left.
"Come, Boot. Good boy. Thanks for finding
Johnny and that little girl for us. Come, on.. quit
dragging your feet. They're all right. Are ya hungry?
Thought so. Let's go get some chow and a long
drink."

Lopez didn't even have to tug on Boot's collar to
get him to follow him.

Before Station 51's gang was out of sight,
Dr. Brackett had Johnny's heart rhythm stabilized 
from the assortment of drugs in his bag.

Megan and Gage were moved inside by Station Eight's
crew while Roy, Brice and Dr. Brackett remained outside
to treat those still awaiting care in the cafeteria.

Slowly, the rising column of acrid smoke and flames
from the impact crater in the parking lot lessened
enough to stop threatening them all and those watching
from inside the broken windows of Rampart.

The sun was almost set when Station 51 was cleared
of the disaster area for some well deserved rest and
recuperation. They, as one of the original responders, 
weren't assigned to body recovery detail at any time
that night, much to Chet Kelly's relief.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soon, it was four days later, and the stationhouse
was pretty much back into its regular routine of responses.

Operations at the crash site and in that neighborhood 
continued without their having to become involved 
in them any further.

Then,..a commotion came from the vehicle bay..
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : A triage scene with ambulances and firetrucks.

Photo : Roy in an air bottle leaning over. 

Photo: A triage tag.

***************************************************************
 From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
 Sent :  Friday, March 26, 2004 8:49 AM 
 Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Above and Beyond.. 

....that got all the gang's attention. It was Johnny's voice,
accented by a lighter, happy treble one. Chet bounced
to his feet, abandoning his burger and he said,  
"Come on, you guys! I've waited days to meet Megan 
Miller officially, so let's get the lead out.." 

Kelly scurried out of the kitchen so fast that his shoes
screeched on the floor, leaving behind long, trailing black
skid marks.

Marco hissed through his teeth. "Aww, Chet! Look at
what you're doing to my floor! Cap,.. make him clean it
up.."

"I will, I will, pal." he gestured with two hands diplomatically.
"Just, let's go greet our little guest and find out why Gage's
not still flat on his back at Rampart."

Lopez moped verbally but plodded after his calm, contented 
captain dutifully.

Brice matched Hank in cool as he, too ambled into the garage.

Megan was with Johnny Gage over by the side door, and with
her was a white shaggy mop of a dog whom Boot immediately
started barking suspiciously at from the kitchen doorway.

The white dog howled once that made Boot twist his head in
puzzlement until the newcomer sank his chest onto the concrete
in an invitation to play. Boot was won over and in a flash, the two
canines were scrabbling happily, playing tag under the vehicles,
in a chase, all the while leaving chicken scratch black marks all over
Marco's nice and shiny, washed concrete.  

"Cappp!" Lopez groaned in long suffering.

Hank's charming smile for the little girl fell into one of irritation.
"Lopez, just what am I supposed to do here? Lasso them with
a rappelling line?"

"It's a start.." Marco said, flailing his arms, trying to round up
the happy dogs as best he could. "Come on, guys. Help me out
here. They'll shred my wax job!"

He was ignored.

Craig Brice squatted down in front of Megan and offered her
a handshake. "Hello, Miss Miller. Are you well?" he said
over Marco's howls and the dogs loud gleeful barking.

"Oh, yes sir. Daddy came and got me out of the hospital yesterday
and Mr. Gage was released on his own.. recom,.. recop.." she broke
off, looking to Johnny for some grammar aid.

"That's reconnaissance, half pint."

"No kidding.." Cap said, his eyes asking volumes.

Roy crossed his elbows, smiling just the same, but not
understanding Gage's glib comment either. All he
knew what that Johnny was still suffering pneumonia
and hiding it badly.

Johnny saw their questioning looks and elaborated. 
"Oh, it's gonna be the latest thing Dixie says. 
Home healing. You see, Dr. Morton asked for some volunteers
for patients to go home a little early to recover. You only
gotta do a phone check once a day to a doctor so he can
see,..er. hear how you're doing. Heh. Anyways, Dix says that I'll 
just get better faster because I'm in more familiar surroundings.."

Craig's eyebrows rose. "In that bachelor heap of yours?"

"Brice..." Johnny hissed warningly with a smile to hide his
insulted reaction. "It's a new program starting up in
the hospital.."

"You're a liar, Mr. Gage." Megan said evenly from where
she was sitting on the engine bumper and telling Chet all her 
jokes. "We were kicked out. For being noisy."

The gang laughed.

"Thanks, Megs. " he said sarcastically, like only one friend
could say to another. "But I was kinda trying to..."

"..not tell the truth. I know. But that's sooooo wrong." she
said sweetly.

"Yes,.. uh, ..yeah. I guess it is.." he stammered.

Chet suddenly let out a peel of mirth. Slowly, he
circled Gage like a sargeant conducting an inspection,
eyeing up the changes he was seeing in Johnny's
manner. "Man, she's really got you, Gage, you know
that?  Are you jumping through hoops to try to become
a decent human being for the first time in your life?"

"No.. I was just... just.." Johnny blushed.

"Keeping your friend happy, I know. I saw it. All of
us did." he said as he cracked a toothly smile.
"Right guys?"

Murmurs of agreement bubbled around the bay 
like a brook over pebbles.

Chet's eyes fell lower, eyeing up something new
in Johnny's plaid shirt's pocket. "And what's this,
might I ask?" And quickly, he snatched up a green
pen that was only one of several sticking out of it.

Roy said, "Hey, that's the pen that Boot found at
Rampart. I can tell by the tooth marks."

Cap and Marco and Stoker and Kelly were clueless,
so Brice filled them in. "Johnny threw that down from
where he and Megan were trapped the day of the
crash so Boot would go get help."

Megan piped up from  a three way tug of war
she was in with the two dogs, and a rope scrap. 
"Yeah,.. I'm slowly teaching Muffin here how to do
the same thing. "

"Muffin?" Chet eye's goggled at the large white
sheepdog bullpenning around the garage.

Megan didn't hear him, but continued her conversation.
"Those pens are Mr. Gage's lucky rabbit's feet now.
He promised me that he would keep them with him
for always so he wouldn't ever forget me."

Johnny's face blushed even redder.

Kelly dove in like a shark. "Aww, how sweet of
you, Gage. Didn't know you had it in you."

"Yeah, charming." Cap grinned warmly.

Brice nodded a tiny bit, still all professional.

Roy and Marco just rubbed their lips thoughtfully,
saying nothing.

Gage cleared his throat under the uncomfortable
scrutiny. "Listen, Cap.. I got your phone call.. you
know, about..." and he jerked his head over his
back a couple of times in a particular direction.

"What's the matter, Gage? Sudden palsy?" Chet
quipped. "Hey, Roy. I think you'd better check him
out. He might be having a relapse of lung poisoning."

The gang rippled in giggles.

"Very funny, Chet. Now, Cap.." Gage insisted more
urgently, adding fingers to his jerking head. "Remember?"

Slowly, Hank realized that Johnny meant Megan.
It dawned. "Oh, oh oh..." he said, "That's right.  My phone
call. " and he cleared his throat knowingly. "I'll be right
back." he said, smiling amicably, and he hurried off to 
his office for a moment.

"Great, Cap.. just...uh,  great.." Gage mumbled.

"What's that all about, Gage?" Marco asked.

"Shhh.. or she'll catch on.."

Megan heard Johnny and just winked at the 
other guys when Gage wasn't looking.

"You know, Johnny. I think she's already caught on.
Megan's sure is one bright cookie." Chet guessed.
"I learned that the other day."

Roy just went into another direction to fetch a certain
box from the mop closet that they touched only seldom
and he set it down at their feet.

"Hey, that's.." Marco interjected.

"Shhh." Gage silenced him with a hand over his mouth.

Captain Stanley returned, wearing his captain's hat
and gestured for everyone else to don their dress hats
in kind and to form a line standing at attention.
In his hands was a blue velvet hinged box with
gold embossing. "Would you join us for a moment, Miss
Miller?" he asked the child after they all retrieved their
proper sized hats from the box on the ground.

Megan looked up from her game. "Oh,.. certainly.." she
said, tossing the ropy shred away from her so the dogs
chased after it, instead of her. "What's going on?"

"Do you see this, young lady?" Hank said grandly and opened
the box. "This is a gold cluster, the fireman's medal of valor.
It's the highest honor that we can bestow on anyone showing 
courage above and beyond the call of duty. And the Los Angeles 
County Fire Department would like you to have it."

Megan's breath sucked in and her eyes teared up.
"For me?"

"For you." Hank said softly. "You saved the life of my
paramedic the other day, remember doing that?"

"Just because I gave Mr. Gage that yucky shot?"

"Yeah, it was a yucky shot." Gage said. "Hurt like
hel-- uh heck.. But I'm grateful.. Truly I am. And..this."
he pointed to the medal and box in Megan's hand.
"Is the only way I can show it good enough to you
that's still allowable by the fire department."

"Oh, Mr. Gage..." Megan sobbed. "I don't know what
to say.." she said, fighting back tears. "I've never won
anything so valuable in my life before."

"That wasn't won, little miss." said Brice, "That was
earned... Congratulations.." and he bent low to shake
the little girl's hand. One by one, all the gang took
and shook her palm, too, sweeping off their hats in
respect as she made her way down the line.

"Oh,.. just wait until I show Daddy!" and she rushed
off to the back lot yard where the little girl's father was 
waiting for her in an idling Grand Torino.

Muffin took off after his mistress in a cloud of white
fur. 

"Megan, wait!" Gage called out after her. "Don't
you want to stay for some cookies and milk?" he
asked shouting. 

The girl was oblivious.

"Megan?!" Immediately, Johnny bent over into
a spasm of left over chest coughing that didn't ease
until the gang helped him into the kitchen with Stoker
and Marco helping arm sling support him into Cap's 
black leather recliner.

Marco hastily handed him a glass of water.
"Here, Gage. This might help."

"Oh, thanks, Marco.." and Gage drank it down
in one gulp.

Brice asked Roy. "DeSoto. Should I go grab
a BP cuff or a stethoscope so we can listen to
his chest? That sounds like deterioration."

"I can get oxygen.." Stoker volunteered.

"Yeah, you go do that.." Cap insisted. "And
grab the biophone, too."

Roy shook his head and dismissed the question with
a short flurry of fingers. "Guys, guys.. He's fine.."

"He is?" Marco asked in amazement. "He still 
sounds like death warmed over to me. And them."

Chet wasn't buying Johnny's sick act in the least
being firmly in Roy's camp, too. "Come, on. Johnny.
Quit faking it. I don't think Megan's coming back so
you can give up this broken wing act. I think, for
her, it's a case of baubles over buddies, pally."

"Who's faking it? I'm a sick man here. Come on,
Chet. As-pir-ant  pneu-mon-ia. I know you can say it
out loud and I know you know what it is. It sucks,
big time." and he pitched over in another paroxym
of huge wet coughing that made even Roy begin to
doubt his first assessment, as Johnny's face began
to redden up.

Brice's frown began deepening, too.

....until Johnny suddenly got better and straightened 
up with a mischievious grin. "Got at least some of you
that time. Thanks for the chair, Cap. It's real comfortable.."
he said, folding relaxed arms up and lacing fingers behind
his wavy haired head. "Now I really feel like I'm back home
again."

He barely ducked in time to avoid the sheer rain of kitchen
towels and newspapers that came flying into his face.


FIN  

-------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Megan with a white sheep dog in her arms.

Photo : Marco mopping.

Photo: Brice looking analytical.

Photo: Stoker Johnny and Roy with a green pen.

Photo: A gold fire departmental medal of valor.

Photo: Boot lying down in the garage.

*****************************************************
 
            
            End Credits --  Episode Nine  (First Season)

              :)    This episode is dedicated to 144 souls who perished
                    on September 25th, 1978 when PSA Flight 182
                    collided with a Cessna airplane. They fell out of the sky 
                    into a residential San Diego neighborhood. This was a real 
                    life event which took place six months to the day after 
                    Emergency!© aired its airliner disaster movie entitled 
                    Survival on Charter 220, depicting the same scenario.                                                        :)                                                                                                    :(          


Guest Writers...
---------------
  
Rosafleehart              rosafleehart@yahoo.com 
John Allen                  leoseven@msn.com
Sam Iam                    lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
 
 
**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

USA                         Myron Ojala         areshighlander@yahoo.com       
French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

Audrey               Pediatric Medical Tests and Child Personality Traits
Patti Keiper      Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota 
 

Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  KSuth3401@aol.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 
 
"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season One   Episode Nine

                      Johnny's Green Pen

-------------------------------------------------------------

Club Paris Midi by Richard Jacques

Mission Impossible Midi by Unknown

Rainbow Path Midi by Sandra Bradley

Midnight Dancing Midi by Marlin Dea Nexton

Sad Song Midi by Jos Van Zuylen

Questionable Ethics Midi by Jeff Wise

Title Midi by Blade Runner

Aqua Under The Water Midi by Agnus Screech

Highland Lullaby Midi by Sandra Bradley
 
 ------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   
----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________


To view the following, YOU MUST ENTER...

User ID : squad 51

Password : responding


After clicking the episode's link..

**(This password will change regularly to
thwart non member visitors. Necessary
to control soaring bandwidth levels.
Watch your emails for updates.)**

----------------------------------------------------


To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fullmoonblues1.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fatherandson1.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/juxtaposition1.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/withinsight1.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------
To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/integritygame1.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------
To see the sixth episode and what we did in
the month of March. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Six
The Golden Horn

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thegoldenhorn1.html
**Location to the Sixth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

------------------------------------------------------

Special Episode 2003..
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thefaceinthemirror1.html
**Location to a Special Episode launched at
the midpoint of our first theater season. Features a
theater host's written episode with images
and screengrabs following the storyline.

The Face In The Mirror..

---------------------------------------------
To see the seventh episode and what we did in
the month of April. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Seven
Crazy Days

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/crazydays1.html
**Location to the Seventh Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------
To see the eighth episode and what we did in
the month of September. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Eight
The Promise

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thepromise1.html
**Location to the Eighth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.


_______________________________________

 This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Nine,  Season One

      Green Pen Of Johnny's

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : January 1st, 2004.


============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================

The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Ten..  
      
  From Loaves To Fishes 

Debut Launch: 1 April 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

******************************************************
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 18:56:43 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Needle In A Haystack.. 
 
 
Chet Kelly took a firm bite into his donut and ambled into
the predawn of the station's backyard. He was still sleepy
and rubbed the crusty stones out of his eyes.. Then he
rubbed them again.  

A strange pickup truck was parked in the usual spot
where Gage's land rover was usually angled in and 
Johnny was perched in the load bed, holding...

"...A pitchfork?.." Chet gaped, then he began to chuckle,
waking up more fully. "Hey guys,  come out here and get a 
load of this.. I swear, you aren't gonna believe this one bit."

Johnny just paused in his assigned chore, knee
deep in sweet smelling straw, spreading the bed evenly
throughout the back of the truck..."..wonderful..." he mumbled
sarcastically. "There goes Kelly, always sticking his nose
in things. Maybe I should've waited on doing this until later."

Kelly was soon joined by coffee wielding firemen fresh
out of bed. Henry's snores, could just be heard through the
open screened kitchen window. Chet turned around 
at a scuffle of gravel and glanced back towards the shadowy
silhouette of the station.

Stoker was running fingers through sleep matted hair and
Cap was already foaming his jawline with a cream brush for
a straight razored shave, a neatly folded white towel slung 
over a shoulder. Marco was just plain yawning and Roy was 
not far behind Lopez, buttoning into a fresh uniform top.

"Kelly?" Hank asked. "What's the problem? Did you check the
meter yet like I asked you to?"

"No, Cap. Check this out first. Just take a good look around, ok?
What do ya see?" Chet said expansively, gesturing about the yard 
with broad spread arms.

"Ahhhhh.." Cap said scratching his head. "The rush hour
on the freeway? Sounds like it's backed up over an hour
longer than normal this morning. Odd. It's not even the 
weekend. Maybe a crash just occurred. We'll know about it
in a few minutes if that's the case."

"No, no no.. nothing so obvious, Cap. Now just open your 
eyes bigger for just a second. Look what one of your 
paramedics is doing right over there.." Kelly
sputtered in frustration.

Cap's eye fell on Roy, who was immediately to his
left. "..Ok.. uhh, That one of the new uniform shirts, Roy?"

Kelly turned purple. "No.. Gawd. Aww come on, do I 
have to spell it out for you fellas? Cap, you 
usually aren't this slow. Don't tell me that
you're tired." Chet bemoaned.

"Chet, at this time of the morning. Yes, I am. You know
I haven't gotten a hold of Marco's coffee pot yet.
Not until I get myself at least halfway presentable
for day shift do I fire off enough brain cells to
matter."

Marco said, "Yeah, that's right, Chet. He doesn't."

"Stubble and java just don't go well together, Chet.
And neither will you and a mop if you don't start
cutting the chaff! It's cold out here.."  Captain Stanley
grumbled rubbing the goose bumps erupting out on
his bare T shirt exposed arms.

Chet was cowed, but only on his face. His voice was
still thoroughly annoyed at his crewmates' lack of
observational skills.  "It's Gage, man. He's up to 
something fishy, I know it."

Hank spun his gaze around, squinting into the darkness
towards Johnny, who was still pitchforking apart a
bale of straw inside the rental truck. "No, I'd say 
he's doing only what I asked him to do.."  

And with that, Cap and the rest of the gang retreated 
once more back into the oven warmed kitchen, leaving
Kelly behind with his mouth hanging open.

"Better close that real soon or you'll start drawing flies 
in.." Johnny quipped, cracking a crooked smile while he
worked. Dusting his hands off, Gage gave a satisfied
grunt and leaped down out of the truck's bed to the ground. 
Only then, did Chet see that Gage wasn't in his paramedic's 
uniform. 

Johnny ambled slowly towards Chet, swaggering, with his
fingers hooked through his jeans belt loops. "So, are you 
going to ask ME anything here, Chet? You already failed at 
getting it out of them. It would've been easier doing that
instead of harrassing the guys about it in the first place."

Chet made a face and rubbed his nose. "Would you
have answered me?"

Johnny's face fell into serious lines.. Then his
lip curled up wickedly in a grin and he headed for the 
kitchen door.  "Nope. Just go ahead and ask now. Won't
hurt you any to give in a little to get what you wanna 
know."

Chet paced a full meter behind Johnny for long seconds.
Then he almost whispered.. "You working today?"

"Nope." came Gage's quick reply.

Chet set his hands on his hips.. "Well you answered THAT
question just fine. "

"That's the only question you've PUT to me so far, Chet.
I'm not a mystic, you know."

Kelly groaned and rolled his eyes painfully, accepting
his currrent oneupmanship lump with a decent sized shred 
of grace. 

Luckily, the lack of sunlight prevented Johnny from 
seeing the meager defeat writing across Kelly's features.
"I'm gonna go shower. Remember, I'll kill ya if you grab
that last chocolate donut from the green plate."

"No ya won't,.. because you're a paramedic.."

"OK, I'll kill ya first, ..THEN... I'll bring ya back....
Slowly..."

Chet wasn't too reassured by that subtle change of detail.

He decided to keep on a low profile to learn what he needed
to learn about the new day's mystery playing out where he
couldn't reach it.

Kelly slunk back inside into a chair next to Henry and 
tickled their rotund mascot awake.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hank was completely shaven and he had a stack of papers
in front of him, twenty minutes later. "Listen up folks. What
you've all been waiting for.. Details on this year's Fireman's
Picnic Event.."

"Say, Cap." Marco inflected. "Isn't that this weekend?"

"It is.."

"Where's it gonna be this year?" Roy asked, wiping crumbs
off his shirt.

"At Bailey's Park in Anaheim."

"That's the new amusement park off the 405, isn't it?"
Stoker asked.

"Yep. And the Fireman's Board has already gotten a hold of two dozen
tickets for us and our families as well as enough for our YMCA 
sponsors, too. Food's already planned, and so's one minor detail. 
Gage is kindly providing us with a pony from home."

Chet looked up eagerly from the newspaper he was pretending
to read. ::Pony? So that's what all that straw is for..::

"Not a pony, Cap, uh,, sir.  A Falabella." Johnny corrected
scholarly and full of meek respect.

Lopez reached over and patted Johnny on the back as
he sat down. " Yeah, Good going. I couldn't remember that term
to tell the rest of the guys. Gracias, Gage. Luis is going 
to simply love you. He says it's his final Make A Wish 
request to ride a horse."

Kelly's forehead furrowed more deeply as he listened in.
::Gage is still not dressed in his uniform. The Picnic isn't 
until this weekend... so why isn't he scheduled a shift today?.::

Right then, Johnny spoke around his long ago targetted donut,
chewing loudly. "I'm gonna go out to the ranch and pick up Cochise
right after breakfast. I'm sure Henry won't mind him taking over
his pad for a few days."

Chet just about choked on his toast, eliciting a few curious
glances of inquiry from Cap and Stoker. :: How the h*ll can 
a horse fit in a medium sized doghouse?:: "I'm fine. I'm fine..
Henry just bumped me, stretching. I coughed it all out. " and he 
covered his surprise and puzzlement with a stocks section 
again before anyone else noticed him in closer scrutiny.

"Don't forget his grain, Gage. I've already cleared it with 
the chief and the city to keep your Falabella on property 
for the two days we'll have him until then." Hank reminded 
Johnny. "Provided all shifts keep up with all his uh,... bodily 
functions."

"No problem, Cap. Cochise's a stallion but he's really a 
pussycat, in all ways that matter, including that one. And
he does know how to use a litter box." he said mysteriously.

Chet's frowning expression only deepened behind the 
sports page.

"Say, Cap. On second thought, I can have my foreman
deliver Cochise for me. It's not too late to send Dwyer
back to his station. They've extra crew with that
rookie paramedic training this month."

Hank looked up from where he was scrubbing Henry's
ears affectionately. "You sure? You usually detest overtime."

"Not this week. I've a spring hayfield planting to pay for."
Johnny groaned.

"Ok, go get changed, I'll log it into the books later this afternoon."

Dwyer came in from the showers a few minutes later
and he saw Johnny with his uniform shirt on, unbuttoned
and shoes not yet tied. "Hey. Hey..." he celebrated.
"Cap, does this mean I get to go to my son's little league
practice after all?"

"Sure does. Do you mind?"

"Nope. I don't. Any extra time with Andy's a treat. He's
growing up so fast, you know?"

Cap nodded. "Have fun Dwyer, thanks." 

Right then, the tones went off.. Long ones.

Dwyer said, "I'll do the dishes..." And he jumped
to his feet. "I'll feed Henry, too, before I leave
while I'm at it."

"Good man.." Cap said, trucking out of the door
after his men. 

##Station 51, Station 36, Brush Truck 114, Engine
110. Fuel truck overturned on the overpass. 1/2 mile 
south of Turner's Peak. Mile marker 226. 1/2 mile south
of Turner's Peak. Mile marker 226. Timeout, 07:14.##

Fifteen minutes later, they all could see just what
they were heading into.. 

--------------------------------------------

Photo : Johnny and Roy in street clothes.

Photo: Chet looking bugged.

Photo: A highway fire with rescue vehicles en route.

********************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, April 16, 2004 1:11 AM 
Subject :  Quick Silver.. 
  
Captain Stanley saw that he was the first of
high-ish rank on scene. He quickly sized up the
accident while Mike Stoker took the engine in
a wide C around the fire and the dangerous spreading
ignited fuel streams spidering from the crash. He 
could just see the truck, a heavy barreled tanker, on
its flank, jammed against the mountain it must have
just passed underneath on the road, before it lost
control. No other cars were evident.

Hank thumbed the radio mic, "L.A. Station 51.
We're at mile marker 226 at the foothill exit
of an interstate bridge by Turner's Pass. We have a
lone 7,000 gallon fuel tanker on its side with a fully
involved, working fire. We'll need two additional 
pumper units with brush capability in a second 
alarm assignment. Tanker cargo is spilling burning 
unleaded gasoline into the river canyon. I'm reconfirming 
that air fire support is positively required. Curtail your
ladder response, we're in the open against a
mountain side."

##10-4, 51. Notifying second alarm with air 
support. Brush stations 19 and 26, are responding.
Helicopters Nine and Twelve are now in route. Air ETA,
15 minutes. All second in ground, in 10. Engine 51, your 
incident time is 0 plus two. Time : 07:36. ##

"Noted.." and Stanley tossed his microphone down
onto the engine's seat as Mike found a safe staging
area 800 feet away from the flaming maelstrom that
was once a metallic silver fuel truck. He plowed out
of his seat and ordered everyone into SCBA tanks
and gear. "Nobody goes in there without foam first.
Gang? Be prepared to abandon at any peep of a code 
red tone over your HTs, we don't know if the main 
payload's gone up yet or not."

"Cap? Any sign of the driver?" Roy asked donning his
faceplate and connecting his inhalation tube to the connector
over his mouth. He flipped up his collar when he felt
the intense heat of the fire blazing, even from their safe
distance.

"No.. Don't think he made it out. There's a spot in the cab
burning yellower than the rest of it.." Hank replied.

"Oh, I smell it now. Think you're right, Cap.." Johnny said
grimly. "Looks like zone protection duty for us, Roy.  Then 
rehab backup later after the others get here." he predicted.
"I'll delegate rehabilitation setup to 36's. They've been on 
duty longer than we have. We're less tired."

"That's the plan." Hank nodded, then he lifted his head when 
he caught sight of Brush Truck 114 and Engine 110 closely 
followed by Station 36, all of them roaring towards them.  

They were barely visible in the thick rolling, black smoke.  

Cap cast his eyes around long enough to spot a thin white and 
red striped pole sticking out of the chaparral off the roadway. 
"Only one hydrant?" 

Stoker affirmed. "So far. It'll take a few minutes to locate
the rest. Looks like the Highway Department's behind on
brush control again this year."
 
Cap sighed. "Kelly, get and install an eductor. Engine 36 will
be your booster tank water."

Chet nodded. "I'll get out the bins."

"Until 110 lays foam and is set for us, Stoker, a single line lay. 
Lopez, pull Stoker's inch and 3/4's WITH a Gate Valve.. Don't 
know where the other hydrants are in all this brush and no way in
h*ll do we want to tie up 110 one iota."

"Right, Cap.." Marco said, hopping into action, with a hydrant 
wrench clanging against his air bottle.

"We're not attacking this?" Johnny asked Hank.

"We were first in. I'm Incident Commander until one of
the chiefs gets here. Somebody has to direct everybody
who's incoming " Stanley said ruefully. "In the meantime, you 
and Roy, go on a Primary Survey. Case the area on a buddy
line. Get no farther than fifty feet from any working hose at
all times.  We gotta find all the hotspots ..."
Johnny started eagerly away but felt Cap's grip on his
arm that halted him solidly. ".....and keep your ever 
loving skins intact, Kapeesh? That goes double for you, 
Gage. I'm still remembering last month's medical leave
figures."

"I hear ya.. I hear ya.." Johnny grinned lopsidedly 
through his air mask. "I got Pally here to drag me out
if I do something stupid." he gestured. "Besides, this
isn't a building with a saggy roof. It's on concrete. 
What kind of trouble can we get into on that?"

Roy just rolled his eyes. "Grabbing irons.. A lot
of the wreck looks like it's off the road."

Cap gave both his paramedics a gloved thumbs up, but 
then turned back to reporting details to the fire watch
at L.A. Headquarters. "L.A., Engine 51. Send in a
Code K. At least one Code F's at our location in
the truck." 

##10-4, Engine 51. Investigations has been notified.##

"10-4, Standing by."

"Stoker get a wyed line to 110 through Chet. They're
ready."

On cue, 110's engineer and pumper man grabbed
Stoker's supply line and laid it into a triple wide,
fuel spill specific foam unit.  Slowly, the machine hummed
to life, flooding the road with its cooling repellent which
washed over the boiling flames.

"Watch it! Watch it!" shouted 110's captain. 
A tongue of ignited flowing fuel was coursing along the curb
edge of the roadway on the outside turn, narrowly catching
the boots of the advancing foam team.

The men hastily danced out of the way and smothered
the phalange with foam liberally.

Cap waved in Marco and Chet on an attack line off 36's 
engine to start washing the fuel byproduct away a few steps 
behind the foam crew.  Kelly groaned. "Geez, that was
close. And we're 900 feet away from the truck. Just how
much fuel's outside of the tank? I'm surprised that creeper
got out this far."

Cap overheard Kelly's complaining shout to Lopez.
"Most of it, hopefully. " he grinned through his faceplate.  
"Roy and Johnny are in there, checking it out."

Chet and Lopez turned their eyes to the column of midnight
black soot looming eerily into the daylit sky.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy got as near to the truck as he dared. ::Not much
of the cab left.::  and he jogged along one side of
the tanker while Gage checked the other for leakage
from the mother valve in the undercarriage of
the fuel tank. It was intact. ::Great. A slow leak.::

He lifted his HT to his mouth. "Johnny? How does
your side look? I've got a trickling main valve, but
that's all.."

Gage raised an arm over his head as a flame flare
shot out from the passenger side of the cab as
a gust of wind swept through it while it burned.
##I can't tell. I can't see anything. All I know is that
there's more fuel here than what's accounted for.##

"Let's get back together on the tail end. I'm getting
a little nervous." DeSoto admitted into his talkie.

##You and me both.##

But their plan never happened. The mountain got
in the way. A raw face of rock and blistering fire 
rose up out of the smoke before both firefighters.

##Roy?##

"Yeah.."  

##You seeing rock?##

"Yep. What I can see of it through all the smoke."

##Then why is it so windy over here?##

Right then, the column of smoke twisted away
revealing a yawning mouth of blackness in the shape
of a square, 20 feet high and the width of the road.
In the dimness, Gage could just make out a hotspot.
And it was heating the unmistakable shape of a
chassis.  ##Roy hoof it back and follow my route! There's a 
TUNNEL my side and at least one burning car located 
about  two hundred feet inside of it. ##

Roy switched over to the command frequency.
"Squad 51, to Engine 51."

##Battalion 14 for Engine 51.##

::Ah, change of personnel. Cap will be relieved
to be able to fight this fire instead of directing it.::
"Chief.. we've found more vehicular involvement.
Gage and I have just located a tunnel that appears to
go through the mountain.  Wasn't clear before
because the truck and fire were blocking sight of it."

##Survivors?##

"Still too soon to tell."

Hank Stanley joined in on a side band. 
##Get to safe ground and wait for hose
support. Air currents in tunnels are too tricky 
to mess with. Fire could backdraft a lot farther 
than you'd expect if a gas tank or something
else hidden, goes up.##

##Keep me informed, Squad 51. Go
in with the recovery team once your safety is
secured.##

"10-4, Battalion. " Roy acknowledged.

Soon, DeSoto had made it over to where
he could see Gage climbing up over
the mouth of the rocky tunnel and onto a 
ledge just above it that was clear of fumes
and flame. He pulled off his mask after
feeling the coolness of safe air against
his neck. "What do you think? See anything?"
he asked his sweaty partner, who was equally
pleased to pull off his SCBA.

"At least one car... " he said rubbing grit from
his mouth and cheeks." Roy, it's a raging inferno
only partway down, that completely fills the tunnel.
I doubt if anyone is alive in there. There can't be
air to breathe."

"Must be something if that fire is burning."

Gage squatted down, watching a hasty hose
and foam team advance towards them from the staging 
area and the engines that were preconnected to each
other from Stoker's hillside hydrant. On a thought,
he raised the antennae on his handytalkie and hailed
out. "Squad 51 to Battalion 14."

##Battalion 14... Go ahead.##

"Chief.. Do you know how long this particular tunnel
is? We're seeing active fire and are wondering about
the chance of casualties being on the other side of it."

##Still in the process of I.D.ing the exact specs. The sign
bolted to the rock beneath you has been charred beyond
recognition.##

Surprised, Johnny looked down the shallow cliff over
his feet. A wall of heat punished him for looking and
he coughed, hastily sucking in a restoring breath from
his mask as he fell onto his butt to get away from it.

Roy sighed, "You ok? That wasn't very smart, Junior.
Heat rises.."

"I know that. I know that.." Johnny coughed defensively.
"I was just.... I don't know..checking it out.. Like what we
were ordered to do.." he said, wiping streaming tears from
his face.

"Didn't include checking out the sign ..."

Johnny didn't dignify his partner with a reply but instead
thumbed his radio. "10-4, Battalion 14. Standing by for
details. So far, we've got clean smoke. Ok, for teams
to proceed."

Roy chuckled, parking his butt on a butte right next
to Gage. "Gage, the mine hole canary. Say, you could
ask Cap for more hazard pay. I think you've just invented
a new job duty.."

"Oh would you just shut up." Johnny growled.

Slowly his coughs subsided as the air from
his mask got rid of the fumes he had inhaled.

Then the mountain started rumbling..

"Uh oh.. I don't think I like the sound of that.."
Johnny peeped.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Burning fuel coursing down a rural road.

Photo: Cap and Johnny in brush on talkies.

Photo: Engines working in heavy smoke.

Photo: Roy and Johnny inside fire in SCBA.

Photo:  A fire deep inside a tunnel and an involved truck.

Photo:  Burning yellow orange tongue of fire.

******************************************************************
From :  Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Tuesday, May 18, 2004 2:25 AM 
Subject :  Heart of the Beast 

Their walkie talkies sprang to life in a treble tone
all call of an electronic heads up, piercing and sharp. 
Static spat only half of Captain Stanley's urgent shout
over the din of the flames and the hillside's new, sudden
deep belching.  ## Rockslide! Abandon location! 
Gage?!  DeSoto?! ##

Roy didn't mince words. "Move! Johnny, move!"

"Where? The d*mned truck fire's flaring over the
ledge outta here." Gage angrily said. Fear tinged
more of his face than his voice.  Johnny slipped
as the two firefighters whirled around for an escape
route. He hastily righted his balance using Roy's bigger
frame by grabbing a quick hold of his shoulders.

"Jump straight out!" Roy yelled, ducking as the first
wildly bouncing boulders sliced through the brush
surrounding them. A pine tree near them severed as
a rock the size of a car shredded it into an explosion
of dirt , twisted limbs and flying wood splinters. 

"The tunnel? You must be crazy." Johnny said.
But his feet and hands flew in that direction over
the trembling ground as his slender body skidded
over mesquite and outcroppings.

"You'd rather be flattened than burned to death?
Johnny, I'm surprised at you.." Roy huffed.

Before Gage could think of another rejoinder,
the ground before them ran out. Johnny froze,
but Roy gave him a firm push fowards into
the small of his back.

With twin shouts, both men fell over the lip
of rock over the tunnel's keystone and
down past the licking flames near its roof.

They fell heavily onto their air bottles in a graceless
back flop onto the highway eight feet below. Missiles 
of stone smacked onto the pavement in a thick rain, 
noisily annihilating themselves against the burning 
road around the fallen firemen. 

Roy lifted his HT even as Johnny dragged them both
through the dust into the very dubious shelter beyond. 

His free hand grabbed their helmets which had been 
jolted from their heads when they fell.
"Cap! We're going in!"

Then the rockslide's quicksilver bulk cut off the outside
and daylight as its bite sealed DeSoto and Gage inside
the violently burning tunnel. 

Gage and Roy dropped to their bellies as the new
interior fire reached out to grab them. 

Johnny's stunned gasps whistled under his mask 
as he fought to regain breath and bearing. "Roy?
You ok?"

"Yeah.." came a reply, just as shaky and strained.

"Did you crack anything? Your regulator? The main
valve? Your mask's steaming up already." Gage
said as both men clung glove to glove as they
maintained contact in the murky superheated black.

"My air's still good. Yours?"

"It's fine. It's ok.." Gage panted. 

Both men stayed still until their eyes got used to the 
saturine fireglow coming from the flaming ceiling.

Moments later, a furnace blast of heat boiled against
them from the heart of the multi-automobile fire they 
could both see a hundred twenty meters away. Outside 
atmosphere was no longer the cooling protection it
had been before the mountain caved in. 

"Ahh!" They both snatched their hands under their armpits
as they crawled using knees and elbows, to a tunnel wall. 

"We gotta find an access door before we cook." Gage
said.

"There's one every hundred feet if I remember correctly."

Gage groaned, "Yeah, but which hundred foot part are 
we in? Before or after one? We're at a mouth end." 
Bruises made the paramedic lag behind more
and more.

Roy grabbed his partner's overcoat collar and pulled
him along with him as he scraped his shoulder along
the rocky wall as a directional guide. "Don't slow 
down. We're nearly out of time. It's gotta be near
180 F in here already." 

"Coming mother.." Gage squeaked, exhausted.

Roy risked frying his gloved fingers as he opened 
them to feel for the recess of the maintenance door's
frame from the lumpy wall.  Sizzling metal, bit into
the material of his glove when he found it. "Aghh, here!"

And he pulled out his jacket halligan to break the
emergency key from its glass housing box by
reaching only an arm up into the boiling heat above
them. 

Gage winced as glass shattered musically onto
their helmets and a brighter bounce in front
of him showed him where the key was. "I got it."

Roy gave out an involuntary yelp and snatched his
air burned arm back down to the much cooler ground 
level.

"My turn." Gage said.

"The lock may already be warped." DeSoto panted.

"I'll get us in.." Johnny said fiercely, psyching himself
up for the punishing pain of heat up near the door's
handle. Blindly, he groped. When one arm burned,
he traded arms, stubbornly alternating them as he tried
to insert the tiny key into the lock with his thick gloves.

Then, a subtle click came over the rock echoey fire.

Gage took a breath and got up onto his knees long
enough to snatch the metal door open. ::Don't melt, 
don't melt.:: he willed to his faceplate's rubber fittings.
Johnny hit his chin on the floor when he quickly dropped 
back down into their safe air afterwards. "Go. You
first. Your mask may be damaged."

Roy went. 

Gage kicked the door shut behind them and sealed
them off into total darkness. The cooler air inside
felt like a balm against their seared jackets and pants
legs. "Hah! Not today. " he sneered at the blocked
fire. "Today's not a good day to die.."

Roy smiled as he rested face masked down against 
the floor. He could feel sweat turning blessedly cold 
against his neck. "Is that more of the trademark
Gage Indian mysticism?"

"Huh? No. I'm not Cherokee. That was 100%
genuine Anglo Saxon literal English. I just don't
want to die right now. Do you?" Johnny smiled
quirkily.

"Not if I can help it. Come on, let's find a light switch."

"Think the power's still on?"

"Yeah. That fire out there hasn't been burning long
enough for Rural Station Utilities to deal with it."

"No problem. I'll just use my innate Seminole tracking
skills to find us a light source." Johnny's voice laughed.

Roy was big enough not to laugh when he heard the
unmistakable sound of a skull bouncing off a 
stair railing. 

"Owww!" Gage said as he clicked the lights on.

"What? Don't those innate skills of yours extend a bit
of agility into the equation?"

Johnny just shot him a dirty look.

"Don't worry. I won't hold it against you. Never have
in the past. I just keep bailing your butt whenever you
can't get it out of somewhere." Roy replied cheekily.

It took a full minute before their eyes got used
to the bright industrial flourescent purple light strips
hanging over their heads.

Gage didn't deign to reply as both men rose to their 
trembling feet, using the short stairwell's banister for 
support. Above their heads, was a wide bright silver
ventilation shaft curving away into the ceiling.

Black smoke was slowly oozing out of the grilling.

"Well, " Gage sighed. "You bought us some time at
least. Thanks for shoving me over a cliff, Roy."

"Anytime." DeSoto suddenly remembered the HT 
still strapped around his wrist. He reached up
to remove his helmet and mask so he could speak
into it.

Johnny's grip suddenly stopped him. "No, Roy.
At our feet. Don't you see that?"

Roy looked down.  A hazy murk was pooling around
their ankles. "Smoke?"

"No man. It's yellowish green. Are you color blind or
something? That's chlorine gas unless I missed my 
guess."

Roy was silent behind his mask.

"You are? Oh, geesh. How did you ever get that
by the fire department qualifiers?"

"It's not a requirement of the job." Roy shrugged.  
"Let's just find out where that gas is coming from.
If there are people still alive in here, this's gonna
be real bad for them."

Right then, the hissing of Roy's air bottle, ran out.

"You were saying.." Gage said with a frown.
"Come on, before you start choking." And he
took a deep breath off his own mask before peeling
it off to offer it to Roy. "We gotta find those tanks in 
order to know which direction to go in to get away from 
them. Maybe we can shut off whatever leak's there."

"If we can. The explosion which destroyed those
cars out there in the tunnel may have damaged the
cooling lines beyond repair."

"Ever the raging optimist. Come on. My guess is
that we've got six minutes of my tank air left 
before that runs out."

Roy stopped in his tracks. "Wait a minute. This is
a rural mountain highway tunnel, isn't it?"

"Yeahhh." he said sarcastically flippant.  "We've got lots of
pine trees, a biggish lump that looks suspiciously like a 
mountain. Gee, Roy. What--"

"Hear me out. We're far from any fire station." Roy said
brightly in between their mask sharing. "There's gotta be
spare air in here somewhere. It's all in the Haz mat manuals."

"It is?"

"Junior, " Roy said craftily smart. "How did you ever
get past the fire department qualifiers without
knowing that?"

"Oh shush. I just hit my head buddy boy. I'm allowed to 
forget a few things here."

"Uhh.. That one was kinda important.."

"That's what YOU'RE there for. You're my PARTNER.
Firemen partners remember things for each other."

"Not THAT often." Roy mumbled under his breath.
"I seem to recall that I do it more for you than you do
for-"

Boomm... came a sound only a short distance away
down the access tunnel. The lights flickered.

Both firemen ducked against opposite walls and covered
their helmets with their arms.

"Where was that?" Gage asked. "Our tunnel or was
that the fuel truck outside?"

"Don't know. It's too hard to tell in here." Roy said,
peering at the ceiling to make sure it didn't come down
on top of them.

"We gotta know. If it's one, the blast may have reopened
the way out, if it's the other, any folks left in here are dead
and we've no further reason to go in deeper to check for
survivors. That was too big to live through." 

"Only one way to find out. But we've got our priorities here."
DeSoto said practically. "If we find those civilian air bottles.
We can investigate that. If we don't, it's in our best interests to
fix or block off that chlorine gas. Six minutes, remember?"

"How can I forget that, Roy?"

"Just checking. Head knock assessment."

"Save it for later." Johnny grumbled. "I feel a lump
but it's nothing big. Let's move."

Linking arms, the two paramedic firefighters moved 
deeper into the well lit tunnel after their goal.

As they went, the greenish heavy gas rose a little 
higher up their ash dusted legs. 

A few minutes later, they broke into a cabinet 
full of ventilation apparatus using brute force
and a fire axe. 

"What's the yield on these?" Roy asked of
their new white and blue air bottles slung over
their arms. Their yellow ones, they had abandoned
behind them.

"Says..  twenty five minutes."

"How many do we have?"

"Ten." Johnny counted carefully. 

"Sweet. After we deal with the chlorine, let's
stock pile them along our route. We may find
surv--" 

"Roy! Look.." Gage pointed.

A sooty maintenance man was slumped upright
against the wall to their left. Surrounding him was
a cluster of chlorine coolant tanks. He didn't look
conscious.

Gage grabbed a spare air bottle and both ran forward.

Johnny peeled off a glove and felt for a carotid.
"He's alive."  His hand dropped lower. "Breathing."

"Let's get him out of here." Roy said.

"You do that. I'll stay here to see if I can find that
gas leak. We've gotta be close." Gage replied.

"I'll meet you by the place we found the air bottles.
They may have oxygen in a first aid bag behind the
controller's desk."

"Try your HT. Maybe that's not so far inside
the mountain there. Maybe there's a wall phone."

"I'll check it out. Come on, get him up onto me."
Roy ordered. He had fitted the air mask of their
third tank over their victim's face.

Gage helped DeSoto lift the limp man over
a shoulder and wedged him in between Roy's
back and the new air bottle. He handed Roy
the man's air supply. "Be careful. I don't
like this separating idea one bit. Cap's not
gonna like it."

"No other way. He comes first.." DeSoto said,
throwing his helmeted head upwards.

They parted ways.

Gage was swallowed in silence as Roy retreated
back the way they had come.

"Ok.. first tank. What do we have here?" he said,
talking to himself as he bent down to check the
pressure guage of the chlorine receptacle.
"Full. D*mn. Onto the next.."

There were five tanks in the tiny anteroom. None were 
leaking. "Oh, boy. That leaves a coolant pipe somewhere.
Not gonna be easy finding that." 

Johnny found a flashlight in the utility cabinet and
began using it when the next room he wanted to enter,
didn't light up when he flipped the light switch. "Bingo.."
he celebrated. "Electrical damage. Bet that pipe's
in here."

Gage entered the room.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Roy placed his heavy burden onto the desk itself.
"Let's keep you away from floor level." He could
see murk drifting around his shoes that he could
only assume to be more chlorine gas.

He positioned the man onto his back and used
a stack of files underneath his shoulders piled 
high enough so the unconscious man's head 
flopped back and his airway stayed open.

His attempts to awaken the man failed.

He pulled his walkie talkie out of his jacket pocket.
"Squad 51 to Engine 51. Come in."

Static splashed instead of clear radio air after
the talk button's bleep.

"Squad 51 to Engine 51. We're ok in the south
side maintenance tunnel. We have one casualty.
Over.."

No voices came through.

"Too deep." Roy sighed.

Right then, the lights went off.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Chained chlorine tanks.

Photo: Animated gif showing a gas tank leak.

Photo: Roy near a sitting unconscious man against a wall.

Photo: Johnny peering around with a flashlight in daylight.

Photo: A rockslide over a tunnel's mouth.

*************************************************************
From:  "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu May 20, 2004  12:32 am
Subject:  Improvisation

Gage's retinas burned from lack of stimulus.
He couldn't see four feet in front of his toes.
    
"This isn't good.. " mumbled Johnny. "I hope
Roy managed to get a hold of a flashlight.." he
said, clutching tightly to his own.

He cast his light beam downwards, looking
for the telltale chartreuse fog of chlorine hugging
the floor. He found nothing off color. Moving to a 
fusebox, Johnny checked the biggest master circuit 
breaker that he could see. But it wasn't tripped. 
"Now why did the lights go off?"

His eyes glanced down to his wide black strapped 
watch. "It's been....twenty three minutes since we
arrived on the fire scene. Could it be the Rural Station 
Utility Company ending a risk for our growing disaster 
call?" In hindsight, the move got Gage angry and
he began complaining out loud as he walked.
"Don't they know that there could be motorists still 
inside the uneffected part of this tunnel? We won't 
be able to see them well for rescue operations in here, 
except by firelight and I'm d*mned sure that there isn't 
much of anything else that can burn beyond the gasoline 
still inside those cars on the highway." he reasoned.

"You're forgetting one thing.." said a voice behind
Gage that was thick with gruffness and fatigue.
"Chlorine's combustible with metals if it's got
water. And heat. Especially with the copper piping 
running through the ceiling of this maintenance tunnel."

Johnny nearly levitated and whirled around, aiming
his light towards the open door of the store room.
"Sir.. are you ok?" he finally said when he saw
that the man was wearing the familiar gray coverall
of the highway department.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing, mister."
replied the scba masked worker who seemed
near the age sixty to Gage. "You're on the wrong track,
sonny. A mountain tunnel is always graded to the south. 
Any of that leakage you're looking for will flow in that 
direction instead of pooling where you can see it."

"Thanks.." Johnny said appreciatively. "Might I ask
what you're still doing in here?  My guess is that during 
any declared emergency, all console operators 
should be the first ones to bail out of this tunnel 
for safety reasons at the first sign of trouble."

"Nothing was declared. There wasn't enough time. 
Five of us died when the cars went up. I guess momentum
kept the truck that started it all skidding long enough to
make it to the tunnel's mouth and past it to the outside."

Gage stepped nearer so that they could share
illumination as he motioned for the man to 
follow him back to the controller's booth where
Roy had taken refuge with the unconscious
worker. "Are you hurt?"

"Not physically.." he snorted, wearily rubbing
the back of his neck. "Say, listen. Did you
come across another guy dressed like me?
He's about 5 foot 2. Caucasian, with curly brown
hair styled like Mark Spitz?"

"We found him unconscious. What's his name?"

"Benny. He's one of the new kids. He was the first 
one I told to get the h*ll outta here on account of his
age!" shouted the man angrily. "I guess he just 
doesn't ever listen too well."

Johnny nodded in understanding. 
"Looks like the chlorine got to him before he
could make it out. My partner's with him now. 
That's where we're going." Johnny said matter of 
factly. "Hi, I'm Fireman John Gage and I'm with the
Los Angeles County Fire Department."

"Joe Dawson." And the man held out his
gloved hand to Johnny's. 
 
Gage grasped the worker's hand in friendship
as well as in a test assessing the man's health and 
strength. Then he pointed back down the hallway he had 
used in coming as they walked. "We're almost there.." 
Johnny said. "I know they're this way past these 
sealed chlorine tanks."

-----------------------------------------------------------

The lack of illumination that came was so abrupt 
that Roy almost felt himself lose his sense of balance.

Roy Desoto bent low immediately and
took off his gloves. One hand went to
the beat in his patient's neck, and the 
other slipped under his shirt to pause on the 
rapid rise and fall of respirations he still felt
and heard coming from the sooty man. 

It was inky. Completely. And Roy felt 
the darkness press in claustrophobically 
against his face through the scba mask
he wore.

He strained to hear anything useful
coming from down the corridor. Dimly,
Desoto heard a peculiar hissing. ::Equalizing
pressure?:: he wondered.. ::It's from somewhere 
above my head.::  Mentally, he ran through all
the possible reasons for pipes in the tunnel.
::Steam pipes? Coolant conduits? Are
the ventilation air shafts reacting to the fire 
out there? Are the waste management pipes 
from the wayside rest up the mountain draining 
out because of the rockslide we encountered 
earlier?::

Nothing seemed definite nor did anything else leap 
out suddenly as the most likely answer. 

A new sound drew away Roy's attention 
from waist level. A quiet gurgling from Benny 
faded into a loud silence.  

"Mister?!" Roy shouted, not really expecting an 
answer in the pitch blackness. His left hand still resting 
on the man's stomach, fell in height and didn't climb 
upwards again.

Roy threw away caution and pulled off his mask
once his lungs were full. Immediately, his eyes
began to burn and water perfusely. ::So, chlorine's
in here after all.:: he decided and Desoto promptly 
forgot about the gas. Screwing his eyes protectively 
shut, Roy freed the man from his breathing apparatus
and listened by his nose and mouth even as he
reconfirmed no movement in the man's chest
under his palms. ::Figured as much.::

Jamming his own mask under an arm, Roy
gave the man a couple of breaths mouth to
mouth before rechecking the fluttering pulse
in his throat. Then gasping, Roy took ample good
air from his own gear for himself before he did it 
again. And again. 

Minutes dragged by and Roy relived some
self chastisement; kicking himself mentally for 
not having any airways or any other useful stuff
in his turnout's pockets.  On a sudden thought,
he drew out his pen light from his shirt and he
checked for signs of vomit as an explanation
for the bubbling he was hearing on all his
inhalations. He found nothing abnormal.
::Pulmonary edema? Let's hope it's just
chemically induced.::  Under his anchor hand, 
the pulse in his victim's neck was growing 
irregular. : That arrythmia must be from the chlorine. 
I can't block it all off.::

Another long stretch of seconds passed
as Roy considered his options, which were
slim to none.

Roy's tank ran out and he quickly switched 
to the man's still lying abandoned in a pile at 
his feet. ::Now what? I've no epinephrine or
atropine..::

A murky spear of wavering light cut through
the haze inside Roy's midnight colored 
room. "Johnny?! Hurry up. He's respiratory 
arrested!"

"On the way!" And Johnny's sharp reply was
punctuated with echoing footsteps that
were music to Roy's ears. Gage's running 
sounded like a whole calvary's.

Roy finally glanced up in between his
breaths as a second shadow slid in
next to Johnny's. The lanky paramedic
had filed in next to Roy. DeSoto was 
immediately punished, as a new wave of 
lances knifed into both of his eyes. "Aghh!" 
he cried out. "D*mned chlorine gas!"

"Want me to take over?" Gage asked evenly.

"Just find that first aid pack we theorized
about earlier.." Roy mumbled as he
got a better grip on his patient's
face and nose. Desoto retreated back into
the shelter of his air mask, coughing.
But immediately, he shared his tidal
store in yet another breath for the very
pale young man stretched out beneath 
him.

"Joe?" Gage asked as he pivoted in the
silver haired man's direction.  He didn't like the color 
change occuring in the older maintenance man's 
cheeks. "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah.. yeah.. uh, one of the ranger boys,....
you know the sierra wilderness types from
110's? ..they left a pretty good one behind for
us for just this kind of medical emergency 
happening in the tunnel.." 

"Where is it? Are you all right? You look
like you're gonna faint." Johnny said, keeping
one glove on Roy's back, the other on Joe's
elbow.

"I-I'm fine. I just know Benny's mother. That's
all. If he dies, I'm the only one who's a friend
enough to break the news. Know what I mean?"
Joe shuddered, absently bumping his fingers
against his faceplate, trying to rub his forehead.

"The kit, Joe.." John ordered. "We need it."

"Oh, uh huh. right. It's right there, John. Under
the supe's desk in the corner. But don't we gotta
get Benny to a doctor? You two are just firemen.
And with him not breathin and all, it's gettin real
scary..real fast!" he said, his voice rising higher
in panic. "Let's just carry him outta here. Come
on, I'll do it. I'm bigger than the both of ya. So
just tell your buddy ta move out of the way.." Then 
Joe actually tried to lift Benny up into an arm carry
to remove him from under Roy's hands.

Gage snatched him away from the desk quickly.
"Joe! What the h*ll do you think you're doing?!
Benny's better off right where he is where we
can deal effectively with his hypoxia. Just go 
get the bag."

"But..." the balding man sputtered through
his mask.

"It's ok.." Johnny qualified. "We're paramedic
firefighters. We can treat him right here. Enough to 
stabilize him. Then we can think about figuring out a 
way to get us all out of here. Until Benny's condition 
falls one way or another, we're staying put!"

Clunk!  The big blue bag full of medical supplies
landed in Gage's lap.  Johnny's pen light found
his teeth as he dug through it to the bottom using
its meager beam. "This is heavy Roy, I'll just bet that 
it has--" a clanging sound greeting his ears as his
questing fingers found a fair sized oxygen cylinder
and a valve wrench tethered on a chain. "..Yep.
O2."  He snatched it out and set up its demand
valve, replete with a hard black rubber face mask. 
"Here. I got an oral out, too." And Gage gave Roy 
the two pieces of equipment. "Joe, go get my 
partner a new air tank. That one's getting too low."

Roy gratefully let Joe slide the new scba mask
back over his head and face, coughing thickly
as the clean air slowly washed away the strongest
chlorine fumes he had been suffering eyewise.
He shook his head to shake the face plate into
place vigorously around his temples. 

All the while, his hands never missed delivering a 
breath to Benny using the new positive pressure 
apparatus they had found.

"Roy?" Johnny asked, checking out the breathless
man's eyes with his light for their responses.

"I've still got a bounding carotid on him."

"Thanks for the update. But I was asking about
you. How're your eyes? And your chest?" Gage
said wrapping a bp cuff over Benny's near arm.

"Both'll pass with a push.." Roy said, his voice 
starting to grow hoarse and cracky. "I don't think 
I got a whole lotta chlorine."

"Once we get Benny going again, you're gonna
grab some of that 02." Johnny said firmly no 
nonsense.

"We'll see. So far, he's deserving all of it."
Roy rasped.

"Step it up then and turn him around, so you 
guys can share.." Gage quipped half serious.

Gage leaned into Joe and whispered to him
out of the corner of his mouth so Roy wouldn't
hear him. "Joe.. go stand by Roy and light up
his face a little. I wanna see his color."

Joe rose, smiling, but Johnny stopped him with
a tight grip. "Do it subtlely or I'll never hear the
end of it.." he hissed.

Joe nodded, his earlier panicky reactions 
finally easing down a little. He moved around
the desk to the other side. At Roy's curious
glance up at him, Joe remarked, "I wanna
see what yer doing.." And he casually aimed
the flashlight's rays down on Roy's hands
so that its icy white backwash lit up his features.

Johnny's eyes flickered up from the breath
sounds, to which he was listening, up to
Roy's features and back down again  
in a crafty scan. He feigned being interested
in searching for burns on Benny's bare chest
as he asked. "Since when did you start hiding
the fact that you've got a couple of broken ribs,
Roy?"

Desoto looked up in surprise, and the sudden
motion made him wince. "How'd you know?"

"Oh.." Johnny said matter of factly, continuing his
secondary survey down Benny's pelvis and legs,
"I kinda knew when I threw Benny here onto your
back to get him away from the chlorine containers. 
You were favoring his weight on your good side. I also  
noticed you were double timing your mouth to mouth 
to make up for your shortness of breath and now you got 
a bit of cyanosis starting up on both your lips that's not 
from any kind of chilling cause it's not cold in here. Far
from. " Johnny tilted his head in question.
"Which ones did ya crack clear through, Roy?"

Roy stopped concealing his hunched over posture.
"Floating ribs, left side, bottom three." he sighed
painfully.

"Did they get into your spleen?"

"Don't know yet. My shoulders hurt but I think it's
from wearing this scba gear for so long. Doesn't
feel like I've got any real kind of belly pain yet." Roy 
said.

Joe frowned. "Say, ah.. how'd uh.. how did he get
hurt so bad?"

Johnny and Roy both exchanged knowing looks.

Gage was the one who broke the news.
"Uh, we were forced to retreat inside from a fuel
fire at the tunnel entrance when a rock slide
took us by surprise.. Here, gimme that Roy,
I'll take over breathing for him. Take a break."

Joe paled even more and sat down on his rump
into a nearby chair. "You mean we're sealed
in here with that raging inferno out there threatening
to burn the cement wall in right through to us?"

Roy gingerly set aside the over coat he had peeled
off. His scba tank was nestled in between his
knees. He looked almost comical wearing
just the face gear in a blue paramedic's shirt that was 
torn and ripped in a dozen places from the fall he had 
taken. "That's putting it in a nutshell.." he grimaced, 
feeling out the painful locations of his own rib breaks.

Johnny was quick to optimism,, "Uh, that's if we can't find
another way outta here." Gage glared at Roy.. Then he
snapped rapidly into a sham of counseling charm. 
"Joe, there is another way out of here.." he prompted.
"Almost has to be. This is one h*lluva big mountain.
Right, Benny?!" he added shouting into the young man's ear.
An answering stomach belch from his artificial respiration
came out in reply.  "Good boy.." Johnny said, patting the 
unresponsive man's face. He had done so to break Mr. 
Dawson out of his bystander funk as much as to test
for any telltale responsiveness in Benny.

Joe's eyes stopped glassing over in emotional shock
and he actually stifled a smirk over the odd humored 
joke Johnny shared about his coworker. "Yeah, there's bunches 
of ways outta here. What does the D.O.T. look like? We're far 
from being a bunch of numb skulls. We built plenty of bolt 
holes into this monstrosity.." he said expansively waving his 
hands up at the tunnel's infrastructure arching all around them. 

"Which way to the nearest?" Roy buzzed hoarsely, barely
loud enough to be heard through his air mask.

"Down fifty meters south, right fork, three doors on
your right, then up the stairwell to the plateau overlooking
the valley. It's the same route we take every month. It
leads up to the radio tower." Joe rattled off.

Roy smiled. "We could sure use clean line of sight. Our
HTs aren't working down here." he said.

Joe's eyes got bigger and he sat up straighter in his
chair. "Well why didn't you tell me before that your
radio jobbies weren't functioning. We gotta phone
right here." And he opened up the drawer to the left
of Johnny's knee, displaying a red emergency colored
hand receiver phone that had been stuffed into it. "We use 
this to report any newly sparked forest fires while we're 
working the span. The boss says it connects with a fire 
chief or someone like that, down in the city."

Gage sighed.

And so did Benny.

Johnny's face popped wide open. "Benny?"
he said, lifting the demand valve away. "Can 
you hear me?" he asked. He slid his hands out
of the way just in time to see Benny spit out
the oral airway that was gagging him.

Roy saw that he didn't need to be tipped over 
for nausea. "Benny?"

The young man groaned at the sting of chlorine
fumes he started feeling in his eyes, nose and mouth 
while Johnny quickly strapped Benny's scba gear 
back on him with one change; he stuffed a balled 
nasal cannula line inside the young man's mask,
leaving it in a knot under the man's nose, set to a 
light flow, as a breathing booster. Johnny watched
as Benny lapsed into an adequately respiring but 
unconscious stupor similar to the state that he had 
been in when they had first found him. Johnny
reinserted another oral airway carefully to avoid
spasms.

Gage fitted the demand valve's working end
to a new feeder mask and handed it out instantly to 
Roy. "Start clearing your chest out, partner. Looks like 
we've quite a hike coming up real soon." Johnny 
grinned.

He picked up the landline phone to contact L.A. 
::I've waited a long time to relay our status 
in to Rampart and the firecrews still working on the
fuel truck. Cap's gonna smile bigger than the whole 
state of California when he hears from us.::
he smirked. 

He winked at Joe Dawson and was very happy to 
see the older man relaxed enough himself to wink 
back. 

Unknown to all of them, the hissing from above,
grew louder. 

------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : A tunnel fire and a schematic of its ventilation system.

Photo: Roy and Johnny working on a victim.

Photo: A man being ventilated mouth to mouth through a pocket mask.

Photo: A burning highway bridge in daylight with brown smoke.

Photo: Two gray coverall-ed men wearing SCBA in a flaming stairway.

*********************************************************
From: "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>
Subject: Deliverance..
Date:  Tue May 25, 2004  8:48 pm - 2048 (PDT) 


"How's Benny doing, John?" asked Joe Dawson.
"He- he-he.. still looks kinda sick ."

Johnny Gage rechecked the amount of oxygen
left in the ranger's tank by reading the valve by
penlight as he said. "Well.. he was awake 
enough to feel us fussing with his face and fight the 
airway for a bit. That's a good sign. It'll be 
up to Rampart Hospital to decide whether or not 
he'll come down with complications once we get him 
to our docs there by helicopter. I'll be on the line with 
one of them in just a minute or so." he nodded.  

Joe's dirty face beamed. "Outta sight."

Roy coughed, splinting his side with an elbow to
ease the pain as his ribs protested.
He couldn't quite hide the new agony.

Gage looked up. "That reminds me. " he said,
shouting through his SCBA gear. He held up an
incriminating finger at DeSoto. "You're victim number 
two, pally. Get a vitals set on yourself..." he ordered,
peering at Roy's face in analysis. "Or... I can do it if 
you think you're too laid up to manage."

"I'll manage. Just talk.." Roy said hoarsely. "The
O2's working." he said, taking in another shot of
oxygen from the positive pressure valve. "My 
head's clearing now and there's no more blue here." 
he said waving a few fingernails under the torchlight
in his lap. "My ribs aren't flailed."

Gage squinted, appraising Roy for a long moment 
and DeSoto was smart enough not to look away.

Johnny saw that the vitality in his partner's eyes 
remained steady and unwavering. "Ok. The job's
yours."

The indian paramedic turned his pointing arm towards 
Dawson. "How about you? Any knocks, bumps I should 
know about that you didn't share earlier?" he asked. The
tone in his voice held a partially serious jest at Roy for 
doing the same sin.

Roy rolled his eyes, unamused, and didn't rise to the bait
as he began shifting in his chair to get comfortable
enough to take a BP reading on himself.

"Pick up the phone, Mr. Gage, and call us in. Your
casualty number ...is gonna be only two.." Joe said
defiantly, holding up that count  before Johnny's face
and shaking it. "I'll be watching Benny for ya so
your partner can rest."

The rugged tunnel man sat down in the desk chair by 
Benny's head to check the young man's mask's seal around 
Gage's jury rigging and he began staring at the shallow 
rise and fall of Benny's chest to pointedly ignore Gage,
ending the discussion.

Gage was satisfied. He picked up the red landline.
"This is Squad 51 of the Los Angeles County
Fire Department. Emergency. I've updated fire
information with two people injured in this tunnel's
operations base." he shouted loud enough for
his voice to carry into the phone through his face
plate.

The voice on the other end rapidly acknowledged
Johnny's call sign and he was immediately patched
through to L.A. and onto Rampart Hospital once he
had relayed enough information to the fire dispatcher
to tell Cap and Batallion 14 of their status. Gage
heard the call frequency click into a familiar mode
as it rang the red wall phone near Dixie McCall's 
emergency desk. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The furry voiced RN looked up in surprise 
from a coffee mug when the rare critical use
line began ringing. She padded over and hefted
the phone's receiver. "Rampart Emergency."
She cocked her head as she listened closely
as she recognized Johnny's voice. " Johnny!
Are you four in a safe location?  Is there anything
you need me to tell the chief out there?... Ok. ..ok. 
Got it. Now, what do you have? I'm set here." she 
said snatching up a pencil and pad for note taking.

As she did so, she flagged down an orderly to
go fetch the nearest doctor to report to the call.

--------------------------------------------------------------

 
Johnny bent down to his note pad under penlight
and read his data.

"Dixie, it's chlorine gas on both victims one and two.
Victim One is an unconscious male who's approximately 
nineteen years of age. He was briefly respiratory arrested 
but now he's breathing on 6 L's of O2 via SCBA. No trauma. 
Vitals are : BP 88/64, pulse 120, respirations are 22 and his
lungs are wet on both sides. No signs of aspiration. 
Victim Two. It's Roy, and he's got possible fractures of all the 
lower left lateral floating ribs, sustained in a fall. He denies 
lung or abdominal involvement but he's showing a strong positive 
for crepitus.  Dix's he's been oriented times four throughout
and he's now on fifteen liters O2. He's dealing with some upper 
pulmonary tract swelling that also seems to be effecting 
his throat and larynx. I'd say his exposure was around two 
minutes despite having tanked air. He had to do some
resuscitation. Victim One's duration with the chlorine is 
unknown.  Roy's vitals are : 120/74, pulse 90 and respirations 
are shallow due to pain. Color is now good on
both. Uh,, just a side note, we've only rudimentary gear, a
ranger's pack, basic life."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie studied her note pad, writing furiously as Johnny
talked into the red receiver cocked on her shoulder.
"10-4, Johnny. Hold on, Joe's here."

Dr. Early peered over Dixie's back as he took 
the phone, reading. "Johnny. How bad's the fire? 
Are you going to be able to extricate yourselves 
soon? The faster you're all out of that gas, the better I'll 
feel." he said, chewing on his pencil.

##Soon, doc. A man with us knows a safe way
out. We'll carry the young man out on a door if
we have to. He and I can manage ok and Roy's
ambulatory.##

Joe Early nodded, despite of only being tied to the
paramedic through a telephone wire. "If you
can, get a good look in your medical pack.
If it's a standard forest rescue ranger's bag,
it should have IV's and a bee sting kit inside.
Use that kit's epinephrine on the teenager. Give
him 1 mg. IV push of that if it's 1/10,000, into an IV 
of normal saline, then set it TKO. It may bring him
around enough to stabilize him for the trip out."

For Roy, if you need to, 5 mg's MS, IM. The bag
oughta have that, too. I know the head ranger
on that mountain who's a paramedic.  Make
sure Roy drinks nothing by mouth. Not until he's 
evaluated. Chlorine turns to hydrochloric acid in the 
mucosal tissues when exposed to even a slight amount
of water so be aware of that and watch for signs of 
choking. It may develop fast in both your victims. Watch
your step around any fire hoses, too. Water fog
may be enough to cause further burns in the lungs
because of the chlorine sitting in them."

Joe rubbed his lips. "Oh, and be sure to take out
all of your loose pocket change." he added with a 
slight grin of embarrassment. 

Dixie was only puzzled.

----------------------------------------------------------------
"Pocket change?" Roy coughed. He was near
enough to be able to hear the voice on the other
end of the phone.

Gage shushed him as Joe Early elaborated, his
quiet calm voice filling the dark smoky circle
of space around all four men. The flashlight set
on the table between them fizzled fitfully as
it struggled to stay lit in the smoke.

The paramedics and Joe Dawson hung on Early's
every word.

##I've had people before stuck in a chlorine cloud. 
With a hidden complication. ## the doc
went on. ##The chlorine grew concentrated enough on the
scene to cause the copper in the pennies in their jeans 
to spontaneously ignite their clothes. So get rid of your 
coins or risk getting a hot seat. Literally. Silver change
suffers the same effect. Only they go off later on. 
So get rid of those, too.##

Joe Dawson hastily flung his vending machine money
away into the darkness. Where they landed on the floor,
little fires popped and erupted as their substance burned
under the layer of green chlorine hanging over the floor.

Hastily, Joe got Benny's pockets cleared, too.

And Roy and Johnny rapidly did the same self
purging. They all flinched when the coins rolling
around them, caught flame and melted in noisy
tiny explosions.

Gage sighed in relief. 
"We're ok, doc. That was very good advice. Thanks."

##No problem. Let me know updates at the slightest 
changes as you go topside when your walkie talkies
start working again, ok? ##

"10-4, doc." And Gage repeated his medical orders
back to Dr. Early quickly. 

##Good luck.## Joe said, and the phone in Johnny's
hand clicked off.

Gage quipped. "That Doctor Early,.. He's a regular
007, you know that.. exploding pocket change.. Geesh."
Then on a thought. "Say,.. I could have a little fun
for the future knowing that. Next time Chet and I are 
in a chlorine spill, I think I'm not gonna warn him."
He bent with industry to get his IV, laced with epi, 
going on Benny.

Joe Dawson split a gut.

Roy found a second bee kit, smiling. 
"There's more than one of these."

"Good. Put your name on it. If you get yourself 
wet, you're gonna need it." Johnny said seriously. "Man, 
first I've ever heard. Firemen avoiding water vapor like 
the plague. I wonder if Cap knows about it."

"I'm sure he does.." Roy chuckled, his laryngitis 
staying thick. He wrapped up the O2 and put it away 
for later use into the blue medical bag and put back on
his air mask. "We're under extenuating circumstances.
Normally, we aren't stuck under a chlorine gas cloud 
for long enough periods to worry about it. And any
wash downs conducted are always done under safe air 
conditions so no dangerous amounts of acid are ever 
formed enough before they're washed away entirely."

"Yeah, but it's still weird. Being temporarily allergic 
to water.." Gage snorted.

"If you can put it that way.." Roy agreed. "The allegory
fits. In a sense, Benny and I ARE sensitive for the time 
being."

"Ok.." Joe said suddenly. "Does your sweat count as water?
If it does, I'm not waiting around to find out the effects.
Benny, let's go." and he picked up the young man into
his arms. "I'm moving us out. Now." he said firmly
as he grabbed the boy's air tank from the floor as well, 
and slung it over his shoulder around them both.

DeSoto hastily handed the older worker the IV bag
Gage had begun on Benny while Johnny snatched
up the blue bag quickly to keep the man from
ripping the oxygen tubing off the cylinder inside.
"Slow down! Don't pull out Benny's oxygen!"
Johnny said. "Joe! Roy can't move that fast."

"Yes I can.." Roy said, painfully rising from the
chair.

"Oh. Uh. Ok. Guess that means you can give yourself
your own morphine. Here." Johnny said, handing over
the capped syringe to his partner with his one free hand.

Then he was yanked away by the stretched cannula
tubing between Joe, Benny and the ranger bag, into
the darkness.

DeSoto shook his head, amused even in crisis
as he rolled up his turnout sleeve as he walked to 
inject himself into the meaty part of his forearm.

He shuddered when the metal needle from the injection 
tube evaporated into flame as it hit the floor after
he was finished.

The four men moved down the dark cracked
tunnel, comforted only by the small nimbus of
torchlight as it swirled in the chlorine around
their ankles.

They reached a junction where the ceiling hissing
was louder.

"Uh oh. That's water I'll bet." Joe said, pointing
upwards. "That d*mned chlorine's eating all
the pipes!"

"Oh, I get it, acid baths for everyone.." Gage said
sarcastically. "Those pipes copper?"

"Don't ask.." Joe said, gently cradling the comatose
Benny a little more protectively in his arms.

They walked a little faster past the area.

Joe paused in the darkness. "Here. There's
a stairwell."

"How far up?" Gage wanted to know.

"Again... D--"

"Don't ask.." Roy parroted simultaneously,
smiling grimly.

Joe opened the door into the landing
and looked up. 

Right then, the pipes in the ceiling gave way
and let loose a flood of water.

The older man and Johnny leaped into
the safety of the stairwell but Roy was a 
little slower because of his injury and medication
and got water onto his arm as he jumped.

The forearm on his turnout began to smoke
from newly formed hydrochloric acid.

"Ahhh!" and he pulled his arm up out
of his sleeve and inside his jacket,
while Johnny pulled the acid singed
material away from Roy's body with
his coat halligan. "Joe! Close the door
behind us. Roy, don't move! I got it!"

DeSoto froze in place where he lay sprawled
on the concrete steps, breathing painfully
in high pitched wheezes of panic as he
remained still and watched his jacket
bubble and steam.

Johnny reached into the ranger bag and
pulled out some clothes shears. Ruthlessly,
he cut off the smoking sleeve and it dropped
to the ground. Then he knelt, cupping his
hands around Roy's face plate, "You ok?
Roy? I got it off. Can you still breathe ok?"

For several numbing seconds, Roy couldn't
reply. Then his helmeted masked head nodded.
"It didn't get to me. And my mask kept out
the water vapor."

Joe Dawson reported out loud, too. "Benny's 
still ok. He's breathing the same."

Gage, didn't doubt the man, but placed a hand on
the teenager's stomach anyway subconsciously
in a check. "We were lucky." he panted.
"Come on. Let's get to the top. Joe, if you get
tired. We'll trade. I may be scrawny, but I'm strong.
I can carry Benny.."

"You just go right on playing bellhop. I'm doing fine."
Joe said, barging past the two paramedics. He
started climbing the stairs strongly. "I can carry
him all day if I have to. I owe it to him and his
ma to do my absolute best." his voice echoed.
He turned around and just waited for the other
two to catch up to him.

Johnny Gage gave Roy DeSoto a hand up from
where he curled on the floor. "Wow. With devotion
like that, I'm surprised you never joined the
fire department, Dawson." he said.

"Not enough pay.." spat the older man.

"Really?" Gage said, stopping in his tracks.

"Yeah.." Roy gasped. Then he staggered.

"Roy?" Johnny startled, grabbing him.

"I'm ok, it's just the morphine."

"You sure about that?"

"Yeah. I'm not shocky. Come on, let's
go." Roy insisted. "Benny can't be delayed and 
it's gonna take a while for any help to get to
us once we're out on the mountain. It's 
probably getting dark already." he coughed,
and immediately doubled over in pain.

Hefting the blue bag and its precious tether
of oxygen from Benny a little higher on his shoulder, 
Johnny pulled Roy's still sleeved arm over his
neck. "Easy. Don't drop your head like that, you're gonna
make yourself black out. Now take a big breath.
That's it. Ready? Ok. Up. First this stair. That's it.
Now the next. Roy, pick your right leg up a little
higher. Ok, now you're doing it. Good."

Slowly, the four men made their way up out
of the heart of the burning tunnel and soon, they
found themselves underneath the scented canopy
of a spectacular boreal forest of slash pines.

They all threw off their air masks gratefully
and sucked in cool earthy air that was
tinged with tannin and a hint of rain.

Gage's heart sank. "We gotta go higher.
The talkies won't reach anything under here.
These trees are huge. And thick. 
Joe, where's the nearest ridge?"

Joe turned around in a circle with his limp
burden, Johnny keeping pace, as he caught
his bearings. Then he threw his filthy haired
head upwards. "Up there. That's Devil's Head
Trail. A ranger station's at the top. With any
luck, ...Tim Cassidy's still there."

"Who? " Roy asked, resting against a spicy
tree trunk.

"Tim Cassidy.." Joe elaborated. "He's the
assistant head ranger. A real short wicked kinda guy 
at times but he's got a real level head. He'll help
us out in a flash. Who knows, maybe Julie Beck's 
up there. She's working today."

"Julie Beck?"

Joe filled him in. "Remember the medic the
doc said he knew who packed out this
medical bag for us? Well she's it."

Gage's mouth fell open. "That ranger
paramedic's a..a...woman?"

"Yep." Joe said distractedly, still
holding Benny.

"And she's a ranger?"

"What's the matter with your ears, John?"
Joe asked quizzically. "You going deaf
with fatigue? Yeah, a real Sierra Nevada
forest ranger. One of the first ever stationed
at Devil's Head. You'll like her."

"I'll bet.." Johnny said, warming to the idea.

"Does that tower have a radio?" Roy asked, still catching
his breath. " We may still be out of HT range of Cap 
and the chief from up there. Our truck crash's on the 
other side of the mountain where we might not
be able to reach them."

"It's got one. You see, that station up there
is the state's best lightning research base in
the entire country.." Joe said proudly.

"Lightning?" Gage's smile fell away.

"Yeah, happens all the time. Especially this
time of year. Something to do with the way
the weather patterns fall around these parts."
Joe said.

"How long will it take for us to reach it?"
Roy asked.

"Oh, about ten minutes. It's just up that
trail that way."

"What trail?" Gage said, seeing only
massive boulders and lumpy juts
of steel colored outcrops with no level
surfaces underneath the monster pines. 

"That one. See the sign?" Joe pointed.
"It's right up that way. It's not far at all."

Johnny's hope for an easy rescue was
dashed. A tiny weathered, tilted wooden side
proclaimed the trail's head up the mountain.
The way was difficult and gnarled by car sized
playdoh ball stepping stones.

"I see it, Mr. Dawson." he said unhappy. "But 
first, set Benny down. I wanna get another set of 
vitals. On him and Roy both."

"Ok.." Joe said cheerfully. And he gently set
Benny's quiet length down on a giant mossy
log near them.

"Better sit down, Roy, while I get yours next."
Johnny said, taking the teenager's carotid pulse
as he studied his wrist watch. "Looks like we got 
a long couple of hours ahead of us. Try to catch 
your breath back." Johnny told him.

Roy just hung his head and he let the morphine take
over. It swept over his body in a rush and took the
edge off his pain. ::Just a little. Only,...just :: he
thought wearily. ::I wish I could take a nap like Benny
here.  Right now, I don't feel like I'm much use to 
anyone. I hope I can make it to the top of all that.::

--------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Dixie listening to a red phone.

Photo:  A firefighter's jacket smoking with acid.

Photo: SCBA'd firefighters supporting a man on a spiral stair.

Photo:  A ranger's tower high on a rocky cliff with stairs.

Photo:  A steep rocky trail under pine trees.

Photo: A height of stairs going up a cliff.

Photo : A ranger showing a child a jar of lake water.  

*****************************************************
From:  Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Thu May 27, 2004  8:35 pm
Subject:  Search and Rescue..

 
Gage gently shook DeSoto's shoulder, "Hey... Roy.."

"Huh?" he replied, bleary eyed from the depths of
a deep nap. He looked up to see Johnny wearing a
stethoscope and the oxygen was out again at his 
knees. Roy felt his face to find the bag's mask there 
on a flow and his shirt was flung open, his chest 
exposed to the growing chill of the late afternoon 
forest.  "What happened? Was I out?" he wheezed.

"Nope. You came around to a rub with me
barely touching you. My guess is the pain killer's
messing with you a little bit. I only got this on 
ya to make waking up a little easier. You were 
sleeping more than soundly." Gage said, repositioning
the mask over Roy's nose and mouth absently.
"So I took another vitals set a minute ago."

"What are they now?" Roy asked, tossing a 
careless hand towards the stethoscope around 
Johnny's neck.

"Better. BP 124/ 78. Resps normal at 14."
Johnny replied. "Your pupils are sluggish though 
because of the morphine."

Roy looked down at himself and started buttoning up his
shirt. He glanced up in a question about the rest
of the infomation concerning his chest.

Gage waved a dismissing hand and turned off
the O2 on Roy. "I was only listening to that edema 
you've still got. Benny's showing the same thing. Only a little
worse. He says he's bubbling on the left side
but he refused to use any of this." Johnny said,
rapping on the O2 tank with grimy knuckles.
"You still have no signs of a tension pneumothorax 
showing up. Start counting your lucky stars, pally."
 
Roy sat up a little higher against the log he 
was slumped against. His ribs ached only dully 
and it no longer felt like a vise was wrapping
around him. "Benny's awake?"

"Umm hmm and hungry." Gage nodded, taking
Roy's pulse and scribbling his reading down
on his notepad. "Seems all this fresh air out
here's all he needed to make a fantastic recovery.
He's already asked when we can begin heading
up to the ranger's station. I told him just as soon
as you felt like walking again."

"How long has it been since we stopped?" Roy 
wondered. He couldn't tell from his muted down
aches at all.

"Oh, about forty five minutes or so."

Roy struggled to his feet, pulling off the mask.
"An hour?! My G*d, Johnny. Cap must be outta
his skull with worry about us."

"No he's not." said Gage coolly. "Remember my
conversation with Dixie at all? She said she'd
relay our game plan to escape to the engine
crew and the chief. I told her that we had a sure
fire route out of there with no possibility of
any problems cropping up."

"You're forgetting the water pipe bursting in
on us making all that acid rain out of the 
air."

"That didn't get you. Only your jacket. That 
wasn't a problem at all." Johnny countered
mildly, staying calm.

"Close enough!" Roy flared. He immediately
regretted his reaction when his ribs reawoke
into agony. "Sorry, I'm not myself."

"I noticed." Johnny said, the slight smile
never leaving his face. He put away the mask 
and tubing into its pouch and began repacking 
the portable tank into the blue satchel. "Come on,
gimme the arm on your good side and I'll
help ya to your feet. You can sleep all you'd
like once we get there." 

"Can't we wrap me up first?" Roy asked
hoarsely.

"You won't be able to breathe freely enough
for all the exercise we'll be doing climbing
those rocks on the trail. You'd never make it."

"What makes you so sure I'll make it now?"
said DeSoto with a foggy head.

"Because of the sheer fact that you're arguing
with me about it, Roy. Anyone truly off their
feed would never do that."

Roy's stomach rumbled right then, betraying
him.

"So that makes four of us who're starving."
said Joe, moving nearer to the two paramedics
when he finally saw Roy maneuvered to his feet.
"Man, I hope the tower's got good chow. I've never
been up there."

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute." Roy started up
again. "If that's true, how do you know this is the right way
to get there?" he said tossing a head at the tree log
sign declaring the existence of a path in front of them.

"Those d*mned stairs tell me so, mister fireman."
Joe said with a wink, pointing.

Roy's eye finally focused on a precarious flight
of maroon stained wooden staircases meandering
through tangles of boulders and into a chasm.
He could see them all the way to the top of the peak
to which they were heading. "Oh." DeSoto muttered
weakly. "Didn't see those."

"Not surprising with that shot giving you a close run in
with the sandman." Dawson retorted. "Benny
says he can make it ok without help. How about
you? I offer you a shoulder up."

Roy shook his head after pushing off the tree
he was leaning on. "That trail's single file.
I promise I'll sit down if it gets to be too much."

"I'll be the one right behind ya." Joe said, grabbing
up Roy's tossed aside turnout.

Johnny watched Joe speak quietly with Benny,
offering the young man Roy's jacket for warmth.
Gage leaned in dangerously to DeSoto. "Want
mine?" he mumbled.

"No. I'm not cold."

"Ok.. ok.. just doing those weird first aid things you already
know about." he said smirking. "Race ya.." and he dashed
off after Benny and Joe with the blue bag and both helmets
clattering around the air bottle he had forgotten to take off
his back.

Roy shook his head ruefully and followed after.

About half way up the mountain, it began to rain.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ho.. in the tower!" Gage cried out as they mounted the
final stairway in the driving rain. The sun, to the west,
was fleeing. "I've injured people!"

Tim Cassidy and Julie Beck both, came out of the glass
enclosure of the watch tower and out onto the
balcony. They saw the four men and immediately 
recognized all the fire gear despite chlorine staining
and water marks. "Coming!" said the red long haired
woman. 

Julie Beck immediately grabbed hold of the teenager
and helped him up the final steps into the dry interior
of the ranger tower. Tim Cassidy, took over for
Johnny and helped Roy out.

Tim recognized Joe right away. "Mr. Dawson?
That truck crash was in your tunnel?"

"Don't you two monitor your radios?" said
the maintenance man harshly. "Of course
that was my tunnel. The fire department
scanner should have told you that right off."

"They had to be relocated before they could 
mobilize the two of us down there."

Gage said, "What?"

Julie Beck nodded. "Mr. Gage. Captain
Stanley told us you were coming. I'm Julie Beck,
head rescue ranger and this is Tim Cassidy,
my local side kick. I'll answer all your
questions just as soon as we've taken care
of your injured partner and Joe's tunnel worker first.
I wanna get the four of you out of those
wet things and into dry clothes." And she
opened a locker and pulled out a box
full of spare civilian fall clothes in plaids
woven with thick, warm wool.

Roy's teeth were chattering so loudly
that Gage didn't protest. He went right for
them as Roy began peeling down. 
"Just how long is it supposed to rain 
a-anyway?" DeSoto asked.

"Not long. This is just an isolated cloud
front. Maybe... another few minutes. Then
the real show starts." she replied cheekily.

"What real show?"

A sharp vivid crack of purple lightning struck
very nearby and hit the rod on top of the
tower. Thunder jolted and made everyone
except the two rangers jump.

Tim Cassidy smiled. "That one. Happens 
every two days or so right around this time
after the sun goes down."

The rain, as quickly as it had come, departed.
But the lightning only grew stronger and happened
more often.

A machine whirred into life on the ranger desk that
reacted similar to a seismograph but it went ignored as
the two rangers helped Roy and Benny change
and get under blankets.

Johnny took the opportunity to get his bearings
on just how high up they really were.

A spectacular 360 degree angled view of jutting buttes
and a broad pine valley filled the look out
and the sight took Gage's breath away. To the east,
was a dark smudge of purple pink smoke and
a tongue of fire a mile wide. "A wild fire?" he gasped.
"Is that why rescue operations at the tunnel were halted?"

Julie Beck could only nod sadly. "Yes. The truck fire
started up a minor brush burn, but then this lightning
did the rest. The whole valley's about to go up."

"What about us?" Gage asked.

"Oh, we'll be safe enough up here. There's nothing
but bare rock around us for a quarter of a mile.
Only lightning can reach us. And we're far too insulated
to be effected by that." Julie said.

Cassidy got on the short wave radio to let the
distant fire stations know that Gage and DeSoto and 
their victims had made it to Devil's Head.

Roy looked up from his blanket wraps where he
sat on the couch. "Johnny, I don't like it. We only
had two brush assignments called out. And that
bluff over there looks really bad."

Beck had abandoned the view Johnny was 
transfixed by and was digging inside another
locker for all of her medical gear and medications.
"Captain Stanley thought the same thing. He didn't
know the condition of Roy and Benny here so he
ordered your crewmates to hike in to meet you
here. Lopez and Stoker and Kelly should be arriving
in about ten minutes, last radio call."

"Can I talk to them?" Gage said, surprised yet
again. "They might be in trouble."

"They're fine. They're not even in that threatened
valley, Mr. Gage. The lightning will knock out
their HTs for a while so you're gonna have
to trust me as to their ETA. They're here because 
I've formally asked for help." Ranger Beck said.

"What for?" asked Johnny. "Not for us, surely."

Tim Cassidy shook his head. "Not you."
"There's a kid's camp at Happy Hollow along
the Verdigris River and they haven't had time,
like you four did, to get out of the way. On the
last transmission from the camp counselors,
seven kids are still unaccounted for after
the camp was evacuated."

Julie laid out her paramedic gear and two
fresh O2 tanks for Johnny. Then she rose 
and hefted a laden backpack full of climbing
and extrication gear and set it by the door.
"You can contact your hospital base station
using that short wave radio right there.
I've IV's in plenty and I've also most of the narcotics
you fellas are used to from your squad drug box.
Make use of them and your doctors." she said
and she reached for some rain gear.

"Wait a minute," Roy said. "Are you and Mr.
Cassidy planning on going out there?"

"We have to. No one but us knows the
mountains as well as we do. If anyone can
find those kids, it's us."

Gage turned from his inspection of all the medical
supplies and he quickly got to his feet.
"Hang on a minute here. Don't you think that
we'll have a better chance at finding those
kids if we wait until our engine crew gets here?"

"Perhaps." Tim said thoughtfully, pausing by
the door.

"Then let's do that.  The guys aren't slackers
when it comes to rappelling and rural extrication
operations." Johnny insisted.

"All right, we'll wait.." Julie decided, tossing
her auburn shoulder length hair out of her eyes.
"Why don't you fill us in as to your injured friends'
conditions here and we'll see about getting dinner 
on the stove, all right?"

"Deal.." Johnny replied.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Fifteen minutes later, Stoker, Kelly and Lopez,
with full brush fire gear, drip torches and portable
fire shelters, arrived at the ranger tower 
from the steep trail's steps.

The wind was hot and no longer smelled like rain,
only ozone and sky bound electricity.

"Man, Gage..what a trip in.." came Kelly's
puffing, excited and very welcome voice. "Is DeSoto 
all right? And the other guy? L.A. didn't tell us
much from Dixie's report from Rampart."

"Yeah, nothing like worrying to make a guy
run faster.." Lopez said, ducking into the 
ranger's tower and out of the raging summer
night wind. "So spill the details."

"They're fine guys. Roy's got a few broken
ribs and Benny here's over some chlorine
gas exposure. Nothing dire." Johnny reported.

Stoker didn't say anything at all but went 
straight for the short wave radio and
hefted the microphone. "Station 51 to Base.
We're situated. Gage and his victims are
all right. The new fire's completely blocked
the foot of the trail up leading here so if you send
more men, have them come up an alternate
route. Over.."

##10-4, Station 51. We read you. Stand
by for air support's report on the spread of
the ridge fire before you head out with the park 
rangers on your SAR mission. They
offer its ETA in ten minutes.##

"Standing by.." Mike replied.

Julie was fast at handing out sandwiches and
pop cans to everyone in the room as the
lightning continued to crackle in a dry rage
around them. Soon, they were all eating.

Everyone ate but Johnny, who didn't until
he reached Rampart with his update and 
new medical data on Roy and Benny. Dr. 
Early was still working on the night shift and 
he was eager to learn the details. Then,
he dismissed Gage until rescue parties
could reach the camp kids after breaking
through the growing fire dipping into
the valley below the rangers station.

Benny went right to sleep. But Roy, 
feeling much better, joined in on the plan
of attack at getting to the camp before the
larger fire got there.

Tim seemed confident. "We've been down
to this camping ground before. Earlier
this spring. When a little girl went missing
from her parent's trailer. Julie and I were
called to be guides along the river bank."

"Did you ever find her?"

Tim hung his head. "Yes, she washed over
the falls three days later."

"I'm sorry." Roy said. "Thanks for the clothes."

"No problem. We always keep spares in case
a rainfall catches hikers coming up here by surprise."
he smiled. "How are you doing? Sounds like
the gas really did a number on your voice."

"I sound worse than I feel, believe me."

"What's Benny's etiology?" Julie asked from
as she took Benny's blood pressure from where 
he slept on the couch under the watch windows.
"I placed him back on some light 02 since he was
breathing a little fast."

"Simple suffocation. He turned around right away
with a few minutes of active ventilation. That edema
you're hearing, my partner says, isn't aspirant. It's
only a chemical fluid reaction from the chlorine.
A little albuterol should clear that up."

"And we got permission to use that Miss Beck."
Johnny piped up from where he and Tim and
the other three firefighters were still planning
their plan of attack to go hike down into
the valley after the missing kids.

"Understood." Julie said aloud, then she looked
thoughtfully at Roy. "That pain med still working?"

Roy decided not to lie. "No. But I'll manage.
I may be needed on this hike, too. Having seven
potential victims leaves us a little short handed 
in the paramedic department."

"It does." Julie said evenly. "But I could call down
and have your captain ground you based on my 
findings."

"Please.. don't.  I have kids of my own and the thought
of anybody else's lost on this mountain just turns my
stomach."

"Amen to that, Roy.." Lopez piped up. 

"He's going.." Kelly said in no short terms to Beck.
"We'll watch him for ya and I'll personally make sure 
he doesn't do anything stupid climbing."

Julie Beck smiled. "How can I resist an offense like
that. You know you firefighters are really something,
you know that?"

"I already know that.." Joe Dawson piped up. "They
saved Benny when I thought he was a goner for sure."
he said from where he was watching Julie care for
his young coworker.

Mike Stoker motioned Johnny to the radio.
"Gage, it's Cap."

"Fireman John Gage." Johnny said into the receiver,
knowing it was being routed through L.A.'s monitors.

##Gage, here's the latest report. Seven confirmed 
missing. Last seen kayaking by the north shore of
the lake near the river's mouth. Now the counselors
think the kids saw the fire coming even as the 
thunderstorm broke down on them and they believe
the children may be trying to head for higher ground,
to get away from the flashfloods.##

"But the ridge fire's up there." Johnny said despite
himself.

##I know that Johnny. And that's gonna be your
conundrum. Plan accordingly. The park rangers
with you assure me that they can negotiate around
this fire and the cliffs enough to reach the areas
the kids might be in without excessively putting
you all in danger. Now I'm ordering Stoker to remain
behind with your injured civilian while the rest of
you go on this SAR assignment. Think Roy
can handle that?##

Gage replied wryly. "I believe he can do whatever
he puts his mind to, Cap."

##Good enough. Now Mr. Cassidy says that
our radio contact will be sporatic at best during
this rescue operation so rely on visual flares ok?
I'll be on the west side of the valley working in with 
a staging team and I want you five with the 
rangers to work across the east side in a search pattern. 
I have ample brush fire crews moving in and three water 
choppers are now available for your sole usage should 
you need an emergency water drop in a hot spot.##

"Cap, I.."

##You five'll do fine. I've all the confidence in
the world that you and the rangers can pull this off.
Make the department proud and impress
the Sierra team. You're all those children've got.
Engine 51, out.##

Tim Cassidy let the closing line click off the air
and he shoved the hand mic out of the way.
"I can hardly wait to meet this captain of yours
Gage. He sounds like quite a man."

"He is. Believe me, he is.." Kelly quipped.

"Are we ready to go?" Marco asked.
"I've got six bottles of spare air and
an O2 tank in each backpack along
with your portable medical gear, Miss Beck."

"Thank you. And yes, I do feel we're set
here. Mr. Gage? DeSoto? Anytime you are."

And Julie Beck indicated the door  
as a wild stab of lightning filled the sky.

--------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Tim Cassidy forest ranger walking at you.

Photo : Julie Beck, forest ranger in desert.

Photo:  Purple colored lightning bolt at night.

**************************************************
From :  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] And then there were five.. 
Sent :  Saturday, May 29, 2004 2:31 AM 


Mike Stoker spoke quietly from where he
was leaning against the radio transmitter table
on the desk. "Benny's on an I.V. Should he
be left with me, like this, while having one in?"

"We're not going anywhere just yet. " DeSoto
said. "And your answer's no. A patient with
an intravenous line can't be left unattended
by a paramedic. Looks like protocol's rubbing
off on you pretty well, Stoker." and he grinned.

"I just remembered arguments between you
and Johnny a few years ago about how 
pointless call prioritizing was for a while there
in the system." Stoker remembered. "And
Roy brought up that point about I.V.s and
how it ties up service unit availability."

"How can I forget?" Chet snorted. "It was
the first time I've ever seen Gage passionate
about anything."

"Oh ha ha.." Johnny said with a glib expression.
"The way we got calls that summer WAS stupid.
I still remember that construction worker dying
of a heart attack when I was working overtime
for Station Eight's just because we didn't have
a rescue squad and a defibrillator there on time.
I was so angry that 110 was busy with just a simple 
syncope case who's M.D. ordered a start of a 
normal saline I.V. They had to escort her into the 
hospital because of it and our man died."

There was a sound of tenor voice from the couch.
"Then take it out. I no longer want it.." said Benny,
rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Don't need this
either." and he pulled off the oxygen that Julie
had placed on him earlier while he napped. "I 
appreciate all the care you guys are giving me,..
Joe said that you did a lot to save my life.. but those
kids down there need you more than I. Please,.."
and the young, dark haired man raised his taped
arm up. "Take it out and go. Use the fact I'm
refusing treatment if you have to justify not running
this change by a doc first. I'll be fine. I feel fine. Really."

Gage blinked, torn between his sense of precautionary
protocol and the instinct of prioritizing Cap's order
to the foreground. Common sense won out. "Ok... this
will only take a second." and he knelt down by Benny
and discontinued his I.V. "This is nearly gone anyway.
But promise me that you'll keep drinking fluids while
you're here."

"I will."

"Good man." and he pulled out the catheter after 
ending the flow and taped a cotton wad over the site.
He folded Benny's arm up in half. "Hold your arm like
this for a few minutes until things clot up again."

Benny sighed, and hid a cough. 

Mike?"

"Yeah.."

"I want you to get Benny down from here the first
sign of any more trouble vitals wise on him. Use a 
helicopter pickup soon as the weather breaks if you have 
to. We've found a place a chopper can land on the map
over there."

Mike Stoker nodded assent.

Then Johnny rose to his feet, appraising the teen
with reluctant ambivalence. "Benny, Mike's real good 
taking over and keeping people's conditions stable. 
He's quiet, but he's an all right kinda guy once you
get to know him. I trust him with all my patients."

"And he's a fabulous cook.." Marco added. "Makes
my little old mother from Pasadena jealous. So ask
him to make you some more food if you're still hungry."

Benny laughed, looking away shyly.

"Julie, we're clear to leave. Lead the way.."
Roy said, licking his lips.

Gage grabbed the backpack Roy was about
to lift. "I'll handle that thank you. Unlike Benny,
you ARE still under my care. You just make sure
you don't jar those ribs. Last thing we need is to
stokes you back up here. Walk ahead of me.."
Johnny fussed. "Stoker, stay on the communications
band. We'll be trying the whole way down. These
may not be able to reach the staging area, but
they'll sure as h*ll reach the tower."

"Check in every ten minutes.." Stoker recommended.
"I tested the frequency to the camp. It's still patent."

"Good going. See ya. "
Gage nodded and opened the door.
He left following after Kelly, Cassidy, Beck
DeSoto and Lopez, ducking only twice at
the lightning zinging around the angry night
sky. Thunder drowned out his enthusiastic 
farewell for Benny, but Mike and Benny 
saw his wave.

------------------------------------------------------------
Julie paused at the bottom of the long stairs
near the trail's foot. She gestured to her left.
"This way.. I've a method to my madness.
We'll be running a risk taking the main river path
due to high water but it'll be an added safety
measure should we run into a firestorm in 
this wind!" she yelled to them all.

Roy was panting with their exertions but
Gage saw his color never paled. DeSoto
asked, "How far do we have to go to reach
the camp's headquarters?"

"About three miles. The trail's rocky and
passes through a narrow gorge, but the
lack of rain's in our favor. It won't be
muddy." Tim Cassidy replied over
the noise of the lightning and the wind from
the storm. "Are you doing ok?"

Roy nodded and shooed the brown haired
ranger onwards. Gage, kept up at the rear.

"Plan C.." Julie said to all the firemen, "..is that
we all take the horses at daybreak and leave
from the lodge stables out on search as soon
as the light's good."

"Me? Ride a horse?" Chet startled. Then
his face broke out into a huge grin. "Far out.."

Johnny just moaned sarcastically. "Yeah.. that's
if you don't get yourself tossed off or something
and break a leg, Kelly."

"I'm not worried. I'm surrounded by paramedics."
Chet said as he picked his way over the trail
with his heavy supply pack. "And with a real 
pretty one, too."

"She's married.." Tim Cassidy grinned, looking 
back.

"Oh, too bad." Gage mourned truly, disappointed.

Julie was oblivious to the exchange, intent as
she was with checking her compass for 
their orientation and coordinates.

A sudden bolt of heat lightning lit up the way
ahead and they could see the glint of water
raging over a cascade in a smooth tongue
of dark amber water beneath them.

"We're at the river. Careful now." Julie
said. "Watch your step."

They had gone down the trail fifteen yards
when Tim suddenly shouted. "There! One
of the kids!" 

Everyone glanced up from their feet to
see a sprawled boy on his back on a 
shallow water sandbar.

Tim and Julie both dropped their packs
and rushed forward. "Look around, there
may be more. The camp teaches a buddy
system..."

Soon, Gage and Roy found a little girl, 
just as wet but alive. She awoke easily 
at a shake but was very, very cold to the 
touch. "It's hypothermia.." Roy said over
the storm. "See how she's drooling?"

"Yeah.." Gage drew out a thermal sheet and
wrapped the girl tightly inside of it.

"I'll carry her.." Roy said, "She's not heavy."
he said, murmuring encouragement to
the mute and numbed child.

Gage shouted out to Tim and Julie.
"How's yours?!"

"He's alive.. He's got spidering burns 
on his left leg. Looks like a near strike's
effected him. He's got a good carotid
and respirations." Julie shouted over
the strong wind.

"You gonna backboard him?" Gage
asked.

"Yeah.. We can use a backpack's rack
and bandages." she answered.

Soon, the boy was on O2 and immobilized.

Lopez and Kelly took both ends of his
improvised stretcher and Julie followed
at his head with a hand on the boy's pulse,
monitoring him. "Let's go.. We gotta warm
him up just as badly as we need to do her."
Beck said.

Johnny and Roy started off again in a tight 
pair around the semi conscious little girl 
leaning against Roy's chest. "She's not
even shivering anymore.." Gage said,
feeling inside the blanket for the girl's arm.

"I know." DeSoto replied. "Just hurry. I'm
watching her consciousness level closely.
Go.."

Gage reluctantly picked up his packs again
and hurried off after the other five ahead of
them.

Soon, the dark bulk of a well lit main lodge
of a log cabin style campground materialized
out of the darkness and storm strobing pine 
trees.

It was a relief to get out of the wind and all
their ears rang in the silence.

Johnny Gage whipped out his HT.
"HT 51 to Tower Base. Do you read me?"

Stoker's reassuring voice crackled into being.
"I read you."

"Contact L.A. and the search commander.
We've found two of the lost children. Both
are alive. Set up a relay to Rampart. They're
gonna need treatment right away.."

"Hang on,.. I'll be set in a couple of minutes.."
Mike replied.
----------------------------------------------------

Photo:   River rescuer watching a waterfall pass.

Photo: A red haired boy lying in a mud puddle.

Photo:  A little girl in a purple dress floating in water.
 

****************************************************

From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Tuesday, June 1, 2004 12:46 AM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Let the River Run. 

DeSoto nodded with satisfaction as
Stoker's promise faded away over
the speaker. 

He carried the unconscious boy over
to the bed and began cutting off his clothes
for a trauma survey while Julie coaxed the fatigue
muted little girl out of her wet dress and got her 
under a thick pile of covers to begin the process
of rewarming her. 

Johnny tossed down his handy talkie
onto the desk with a clatter. "That's done.
Mike's getting us Brackett most likely.." he said 
to Beck and DeSoto. They nodded, knowing the 
senior physician was the top most expert on 
pediatric medical emergencies.

Gage moved to the pale little boy and
placed him on a new tank of oxygen and
checked his pupillary reaction.  His earlier smile
at Stoker's efforts waned into a frown of frustration.
"Fat lot of good it'll do having the doc on the
horn. There's not much we can do about treating 
these kids without their parent's consent."
Johnny bemoaned.

A ripping sound attracted all of their attention.

It was duct tape being pulled down from a screen
mesh.  "They knew we were coming.." said Tim
Cassidy, marvelling. He hefted up a manilla colored
cardboard folder in triumph. "This was taped to the 
lodge door and it's full of papers.These could be the 
go ahead we're looking for."

Gage said, "Chet, leaf through that.. See if
all seven kid's consent forms are in there.
Julie, I need you to help me check the boy's
reflexes, I have to concentrate on his vital
signs, and Roy's cutting corners, getting his I.V.
ready."

"Babinski's?" Beck guessed.

"Yeah. Both feet." Johnny replied. "Brackett's
gonna want to know about any keraunoparalysis.
I'm seeing bluish tingeing here on his legs."

Julie nodded. Then she turned to the little girl.
"Ok, honey.. I'll be right back. You just stay
snuggled down deep and this nice ranger will
be here to keep you company, all right?" Beck
said to her patient.  

The girl was too cold to reply. Or do much
beyond blinking a few times when Julie stood
up as Tim Cassidy took her place.

"I'll make sure she doesn't go to sleep."
he said to Beck.

Satisfied, Julie went to tend Johnny's request.

Marco had finished completing his examination
of the large pine wood panelled room. "The staff
really knew we were coming. Or at least the fire
crews. There's boxes of medical supplies and
tarps and extra hose and directions to the water
hydrants." he mentioned. "And a backup generator
for the radio to go along with the one it's attached
to already."

"Nice.." Chet said. "Johnny, to answer your question,
yeah, there are seven forms here. With a note from the
camp counselors wishing us luck and a copy of the
order the staff received from Batallion 14 to clear out."
he said, waving a transcript in the air.

"So the camp's abandoned.." Tim Cassidy said,
stroking the hair away from the tiny girl's muddy face.

"Yeah.." Marco replied.  "Would you stay behind if
you had that looming over your heads?" he asked
forking a thumb out the window to where the blood
red and orange glow of the valley fire glowed despite
of its distance away from the camp.

Nervously, the others glanced up to see the progress
of the thunderstorm fueled blaze.  Stories high flames 
across the valley tangled aggressively with the lightning's 
dry flashes and row by row, pines were disappearing
underneath them, utterly consumed.
 
"Power's been shut off.." Kelly said, checking out
the spacious lodge's fuse box. "I'll get a fire going in 
the fireplace. It's bound to get cold before it gets hot.."

No one laughed at his joke.

The radio on the table crackled into life again.
Tim Cassidy picked up the line. Mike Stoker
spoke quietly. He had their direct line to Rampart
utilizing the ranger tower's mile eating repeater in a
two stage relay. Stoker mentioned next to the paramedics
that he would be their message dispatcher to the doctor
at Rampart. 

Soon, the little lightning struck boy had his I.V.
started and a successful esophageal airway inserted.

The male child was deeply in a coma, but on the 
EKG monitor, his heart rhythm was steady and
stable with no deviations.

Julie rubbed his hair motheringly. "You'll be ok, 
sweety." she sighed in relief. "Keep fighting like
you are and try to wake up soon. We're all here."

Mike Stoker radioed in with the finishing instructions
from Dr. Brackett. ##51, do you have the boy fully
immobilized? He's concerned with blunt trauma that
hasn't begun to display any signs yet.##

"That's affirmative, Stoker." Gage replied into
the HT cocked chin tight to his shoulder. His other
hand was stringing the Ringer's line to the child's
needle port that he had started in the boy's jugular
vein. "On a back pack frame. Vasoconstriction 
seems to be confined to his limbs only. Dendrite
burns show the strike entry site was situated on 
his right shoulder and the exit was through a contact
point on his left lateral ankle about three centimeters
in diameter. A second exit burn is on his left medial
gluteus."

Roy put dressings on those, while they waited for
Mike to share their update with Brackett.

At Rampart, Kel looked up in relief at Dixie.
"That explains the great looking EKG we have
on him. The lightning didn't bolt through the heart."

Kel toggled the talk switch to the ranger tower.
"Stoker, tell 51 to elevate the boy's limbs to slow
his intimal damage. Last thing we need is deep tissue
necrosis setting in from internal hemorrhaging from
his extremity muscles.... Also, ..."

Stoker suddenly hushed the doctor with news
from the valley camp. ".. Doctor, DeSoto's
noting a change.. He's seeing nonspecific ST-T 
wave segment changes and a prolonged QT interval
on his monitor.."

Dr. Brackett pursed his lips, thinking. "Wish I could
see it.." he mumbled to McCall. "I don't like us
being in the dark on this one."

"Trust the boys," she said with a reassuring nod.
"You taught them well on how to interpret cardiac
telemetry. Rely on that now, Kel." 

Brackett studied Dixie's face seriously for a long moment,
then he opened the channel back to Mike Stoker.
"Ranger Tower, tell them to administer .3 mg's of 
magnesium sulfate I.V. push until they've reached normal
sinus rhythm. Tell them to watch for a loss of his deep tendon
reflexes in his arms as a signal to know when to halt
the drip in the port. That moment will be the indicator
of effectiveness. Do not exceed the dosage delivery
beyond that point."

##10-4, Rampart..## Stoker replied. ##Stand by..##

A long two minutes dragged by for nurse and doctor.

Finally..   #Normal sinus rhythm's been established..##
burst from the radio speaker.

Dixie celebrated with a beaming smile even as Brackett
leaned on the base station counter and dropped his
head in relief. "10-4, Ranger Tower. We read you.
Tell 51 to keep the patient warm and to keep watching 
for signs of heme pigments in his urine. I want to know
the minute any of those show up."

Soon, Mike Stoker finished his relaying information 
task and the boy was relegated to monitored status while
the report on the little girl went out.

Julie happily relayed the child's excellent vital signs
and findings and normal EKG. She even received an
order to begin warming her by mouth with hot beverages.

"How would you like some hot cocoa?" she asked
the cocooned girl.

Slowly, the petite child's eyes beamed in an
anticipatory shy smile at Beck's cheek caress
with the question. Julie was rewarded with a whispered,
"Yes, please.."

By the door, monitoring the fire's progress, Chet Kelly
was less than calm. "Gage,. Beck, we gotta move, now.
The edge's just crested the ridge top. And it looks like
it's moving in the canopy."

That alarmed all of them. Tree top fire storms were
horrible for their reputation, travelling speed
and ability to snuff out all the oxygen in the air.
 
"The danger of suffocation if we get caught
underneath all that's pretty good, I'm afraid.." 
Kelly added.

Roy said, "I'll stay behind. I'll only slow you down if
I was one to go. If things get outta hand with the fire, 
I'll radio Cap for a rush on his progress getting here."

Johnny nodded, rose, and put his helmet back on.

Julie accepted the helmet Roy gave her, and his
turnout coat. She turned to Cassidy. "You make sure
to get the calmest horses. Spook, Molly, Diablo
Dot and Flash will be the best ones to go. They didn't
go out on trails this afternoon with the kids. I'll start
picking out the first likely places for us to search
on the wall map."

"Give me ten minutes and they'll be set.." and Tim 
dashed out to saddle the horses.

Gage went out with him. "I'll help. I'm an old hand
with horses. I own a ranch."

Tim's doubt on a fireman's ability with horses
registered on his face only briefly before both
men began to run for the peach stucco-ed stable.

Just a short time later, Kelly, Lopez, Gage and both 
rangers grabbed ample climbing ropes, medical gear, 
air bottles and 02 as they went out the door.

Roy and Johnny exchanged lingering looks of worry
with each other about the remaining five kids and the
very rapid progress of the massive forest fire flowing down 
to the camp's valley floor level as the screen door banged 
shut between them.

Then there was no more time for hesitation.

They departed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wild night was inky despite the wildfire ringing
around them. Immense trunks of protesting pine
loomed on the dirt trail Julie led the rescuers upon,
heading for their first destination to search. The river.
And the kayak launching beach where the camp held
their lessons.

"It's not much farther!" Julie Beck shouted back at
the others. "The river eddies into a calmer pool here
before the rapids and the waterfall. There's no other
building around here that they could've gone to..." 

Tim Cassidy said. "There's also a cave up there on
that scrub ledge just above the boat shed. We'll
split up. Kelly, Gage, go with Julie. Lopez, come with
me. We'll be faster that way..! Don't worry about the horses,
they've been trained to ground tie.."

"They'll stay put through this weather?" Chet asked as he 
slid awkwardly from his mount, Molly, jarring his helmet 
almost off his head when his air bottle bumped off the mare's 
side.

"Like I said. Ground tied. They work with kids, remember?"

"Oh,... yeah..right.." Kelly said, rubbing his chin to dim the bruise
pang he received there.

Tim went on. "Just keep on your radios. We'll have a range
maximum of a mile until the fire's within 800 yards."

Lopez launched off Diablo's back with the same agility as
Johnny off Spook's.  

Tim's horse Flash minced his head in nervousness when
the stallion didn't feel Tim leave his back as well. "Whoa, boy.
You and I are med pack couriers for whoever finds a kid
first." he mumbled to the horse. "Easy boy." he
clicked his tongue inside his mouth to encourage Flash
forward after Marco running already for the cave's cliff.

The group rushed off in two directions before their 
flashlights calling loudly for the names of the missing five 
children. Julie remained on Dot's back for a high
vantage point as she cantered the filly after Lopez
and Johnny's swaying flashlights in the darkness.

Johnny and Kelly skidded to a halt at a bizarre sight
on the river bank. A little boy wearing a green ranger's
hat was sitting and fishing the river by the light of 
the looming fire on the ridge above. Next to him
lay an empty plastic bag of Wonder Bread.

Gage and Julie both ran to the boy thumping
onto their knees by him, while Kelly grabbed a 
blanket out of a horse's saddle bag.

Julie grasped the little boy's face to get his
attention over the blowing wind coming
from the rushing river below but the boy
angrily thrust his chin out of her hands.
"Let go.. I gotta get some fish. They'll be
better. Our bread's run out. Pete'll be getting
hungry. He's already so cold."

"What?" Julie said to the little boy. "Kevin,
what are you saying?"

"He's in shock.." Gage said taking the indian
blanket from Chet and wrapping it around the 
child. "I'll stay with him. Kelly! Go with Julie
and scout around.. Pete's gotta be nearby
here somewhere.."

Gage made no move to take the cane pole
away from the boy where he intently stared
at the bopper twisting in the river's current.
Instead, he wrapped a hand around Kevin's
wrist to take a pulse while he spoke softly to
him. "Kevin, it's ok.. Now we're here to help
you and Pete get out of here. The fire's not
going to get you. We've real strong horses 
who're gonna take us all out of here just as
soon as we find Pete. "

The staring boy didn't seem to register
Gage's presence.

"Kevin? Where's Pete? Can you tell me
that?"

Then, a flicker of recognition when the tiny
boy realized that something warm was
holding his wrist. His trembling lips spoke
so quietly, that Johnny barely heard him.
"He's hiding. He got sick after we ate all
the bread for lunch."

Johnny looked all around them hastily, but
saw nothing but wind torn forest.
"Which way, Kevin? Tell me ... which way
did Pete go after he ate with you?"

Kevin unwrapped one of his arms  from
inside the woven blanket and pointed.

Johnny lifted his HT. "The river! Head upstream!
Kevin says Pete is there!"

##10-4.##

Julie and Chet didn't go very far when the glint
of metal flared under their flashlights by the
water's edge. "Belt buckle! Over there!" Kelly
shouted.

Beck drove Dot through the marsh grass to where
Kelly was pointing and dismounted the mare,
searching and shouting. "Pete! It's Ranger Julie!
Shout if you can hear us! We're gonna get you
out of here!"

There was no reply.

Chet and Julie followed the point of sparkle
near the ground to the river's beach head.

Pete lay head and shoulders under the water,
sprawled beneath an overturned kayak.

"Oh, no...." Julie moaned and ran.

Chet Kelly radioed Gage in a pico. "We found him. 
Submersed in shallow water, face down. Hang on.."

Back at the high bank, Johnny's face didn't change
from its gentleness as the bad news reached
him as he sat with an arm around the silenced
Kevin. He didn't even turn around when the
sounds of aggressive suctioning and CPR began
in the bulrushes behind him. All his attention was
on the small child in his arms.

Kevin whimpered. "I gotta catch a fish. Bread's
not enough. Pete'll be so hungry come morning.
I don't know why he's still sleeping there.." he
sobbed weakly.

"Kevin.." Johnny said, resting a warm chin on
the boy's hat covered head that was sticking out 
of his warming bearhug.

"....a  real big one.  A brookie.. With shining spots
and ..and.. and.. a gold tail... Just like Ranger Tim 
said we'll find here in the middle of the willow pool.
See? I got my bobber out real far. Right to the very
center. I'll get one. It's only a matter of sitting real
still and keeping quiet and.. and..and waiting it o--"

"Kevin.. I gotta share something with you.. It's
gonna be some news... I'm afraid, some ....
really really bad news... about your friend..."
Gage whispered softly. He could feel the boy's
shivering grow more slight in fear.

He glanced over and saw the trouble Beck
was having inserting an endotrach tube
because of an odd stiffness in Pete's neck
and the lack of pinking in his skin from Chet's
more than ample one handed CPR. A wide 
open oxygen line hissed anew when they 
saw the lack of effective color, too.

 Kevin's voice rose in his plans for helping Pete
get food enough to eat, louder and louder, trying 
to drown out what the paramedic holding him 
was trying to tell him. "...and we'll get a good campfire 
going. And we'll cook that fat trout up real nice until it's
so juicy you can just spit!"

Chet and Julie both looked up at Kevin's
agitation, but continued to revive the cold,
blue little boy beneath their hands. Julie
switched to using an ambu bag and a
simple oral airway when the better one
failed to thread. 

Johnny saw the long IC epinephrine syringe
unsheath, and get used after a short 
conversation on the radio.

Gage held Kevin even tighter and gently
hushed him. "Shhhhh.. it's ok. We're not hurting
him. We're just being his heart and we're breathing
for his lungs because they can't do that right now.
Pete's too chilled."

Bright tears sprang from Kevin's eyes and
he flung the fishing pole away into the water
and he whirled to hug Johnny fiercely around
the neck, burying his face in the fireman's 
shoulder. "I didn't want Pete to drown.. I- I..I
told him ....*sob* we shouldn't use the kayaks by
ourselves. But he..he..he wouldn't listen.
He sneaked us away when we were supposed
to leave camp after Counselor Sue told us that 
the fire was coming. I tried to drag him out, but 
he fell back in."

"Chet, stop CPR!" Gage heard Julie shout. "I'm
getting a whole lot out of his stomach. Roll
him." 

Panting, the two rescuers turned the boy to drain
his nose and mouth. A flashlight bumped and spun
around on the ground, casting light onto Pete's
bared skin. A dull purplish stain sharply drew itself 
down the bottoms of Pete's legs, butt and back.
What it was was undeniable to both the paramedics
working on him.

Chet didn't catch it right away. "Ok, Julie, I got
his airway clear.. turn him back over."

Julie remained frozen where she was huddled on
the moss, not really seeing the signs her eyes
were looking at.

"Come on, Julie!" Kelly said, "I gotta start up
again. Let go of his shoulders now.. What's the problem?"

"Oh, no. There's pooling." Julie's shocked voice
gasped as she ran her fingers over Pete's skin
in disbelief.

Chet didn't understand. He was deep in caregiver mode.
"Beck. Turn him over. I'll take over on the bag. "

Julie's words finally made Gage look over his
shoulder at them and the signs Julie was examining.

Chet didn't hear him, intent as he was. "Beck, start
the chest compressions. We've already waited too
long here."

Gage yelled, knife sharp at his coworker. 
"Stop! It's lividity, Chet! Open your eyes and  get a 
good look at him. It's over. Can't you see that Pete's 
really g--." But  he broke off.

Stunned, Chet's face fell out of urgency to one of profound 
sadness as the suction tube slipped from the boy's
mouth and dropped to the sand from his gloves.
He lowered his head... and the curly haired 
fireman lifted his hands away from the boy.

The wind died then, and the forest filled with a smoky brooding 
silence and a strange blackness.  The grownups tensed as the 
sound of the approaching hungry fire grew, hissing and popping.
It made their ears ring with its fiery noise.

The only thing louder was the violent, choking
sobs of a little boy whose heart was broken.

"Kevin.. it's ok to cry..." Johnny said to him,
almost reluctant to touch the angry frightened
little boy who was shrinking away from him.
"Pete's in a better place now.. There's nothing
else we can do. He's not cold or hungry any more."

"..no..."

"Kevin.. we have to go now." Gage said in 
a firmer voice, rising to his feet, bending over
to grab the cocooned Kevin's shoulders.

The boy, looking up at the adults with his eyes 
red and weeping as he tore out of Johnny's grip.,
snarled. "I'm not leaving Pete! Ranger Tim says that
you never, EVER leave a buddy. I'm not going!"

He turned to run but the river stopped him.

"Kevin.. Look.." came a woman's call.
"I brought Dot with me so she can take us home.
I know it's very dark but can you see her spots?"

"What?" Kevin sobbed.

Beck held out her hands and the reins lying there.
"Show Dot how to get back to camp. She's lost
and..and I don't think she remembers the way. She 
needs you.....*sniff* .....Here."

Again Julie offered Kevin the reins of the horse.

Bravely, the tearful boy nodded and he accepted them,
mounting quickly in front of Julie on the saddle.
Beck turned her horse and galloped towards
the direction of Tim and Marco and the cave site.

Behind them, Gage and Kelly put Pete's covered
body into an uprighted kayak and launched it into
the river followed by a hastily made anchor of rock
and a long length of rope. 

Gage nodded at Kelly when they were through.
"The fire won't be able to reach him out there. A recovery
crew can come back to get him later."

The two firemen grabbed their horses and hurried
after Julie and Kevin.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cassidy and Lopez found the other three children in
a cranny deep inside the shallow granite cave at the top
of the cliff. It took very little effort for Gage and the
others to climb up, reach them, and harness them
down safely to the pine needle carpetted valley floor.

They were dirty, and scared, but uninjured.
Two fireman each took a child and so did one ranger
ranger as front passengers aboard their mounts.

The five horses were galloped quickly back to 
the trail..

But the fire had beaten them first.

Tim's horse Flash, reared as a fireball of burning tree
crashed to the ground in front of them. But he
held on to the little girl in his arms so tightly, that 
she didn't fall off.

The air immediately grew too thin to breathe.

"*Cough*! Fire storm! Get back to the river!" Tim yelled. 

"*Choke* Masks!" Lopez ordered. "Share yours with the 
kids!" he said, controlling Diablo's head so he wouldn't jar
the child sitting in front of his knees.  The air bottles
immediately provided breathing room for the humans.

But the horses began to stumble; to trip in the lack
of oxygen as sparks flew down from the fire in the
pine tops.

Julie gave a shout and smacked a rope so loudly
on Dot's haunch that it startled the other horses
into a bolt after her. "Go back! *Gasp*! We gotta
reach the river and go across. It's the only way we'll
find any breathing room for the horses." She whirled
Dot the appaloosa around in her tracks.

"What!? Away from the camp? That's nuts! We're 
leaving Roy and those two kids behind!" Kelly shouted,
trying to slow his chesnut mare's flight after Dot.

"Cap'll get em, Chet! He's on the way with
the fire crew and a stokes team remember?!"
Gage shouted.

Kelly let go of his hold on Molly's bit and started
kicking her flanks. "Ok, come on, girl. Move!"

Johnny clucked urgently, leaning down to encourage 
Spook into greater speed. "Easy boy, just a little 
*cough* farther." he said, giving his mask to the
child in front of him.

The fire became a live animal and writhed above,
boiling the air and stripping the pines into black
ember impaled skeletons of char in seconds.

But the massive fire column twisting in the sky 
did not descend to consume the rescuers
and children into its fierce dance.

A wall of heat began to burn the hides of
the laboring horses on their rears.

Then..... Sploosh!

The water's surface offered its layer of breathable air
when the five horses splashed into the river's current 
and began swimming for the shelter of the opposite 
side.

Looking behind him, Johnny could just see the orange
dot of Pete's kayak safely moored by the beach in the 
center of the willow pool. Then smoke obscured it.

Blowing hard and coughing, the camp horses bore
their riders onwards, gasping in effort and frothing.

Then they were staggering up the far side's knotty
boulders and into the peaceful forest whose fire hadn't 
yet the strength to endanger.
  
The firemen and rangers glanced back only once at the
raging inferno they had left behind. Two singed deer
stood in the river, looking back at them, frightened 
of the humans but even more frightened of the fire. 
The mulies didn't even move at all.

Julie and Tim took them all to a very high bare rise of 
rock where Gage dismounted gladly. He took out a 
cherry flare from a pocket and ignited it for the distant 
choppers. Its light burst out into a red star from the wax 
seal and the wind carried away the steam trail into the sky.

As they watched, collapsed, and holding the horses,
drop planes and water helicopters cut a hole in
the fire line with chemicals and liquid suppressants
until the way to the ranger tower was clear of flames.

Soon, they were overrun with rescuers and vehicles
and brush firemen, who rushed to take the children
to the command center down the highway where
the ambulances and flight helicopters were waiting.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


Gage coughed as he sucked in more oxygen from
a mask an aid worker had given him in Fire Relief
Receiving.

Roy sat on a cot next to him, still covered with dirt
but he was still far more cleaner than his partner was.

DeSoto smiled. "So, how did it feel to be on
horseback like that with the rescue gear on and all?"

"What do you mean, Roy? I was on horseback yesterday
at home when I worked out Eagle."

"You know what I mean. I've always wondered about
mounted firemen at forest fires... using horses to get around at
the fringes of a blaze, then using them to go on
rescues..."  he hinted. "I- I - I know rangers already have
a mounted service. I used to think that was really kinda neat.
I was just wondering that maybe I should suggest to someone
about the forest fire department maybe starting one up, too...." 
he said, very reflective. Then he smiled with shy curiosity at Johnny.
"So..how did it feel?"

"You know Roy, quite frankly, I don't remember much.
All I kept thinking about was those children and and..and..
keeping the fire off us long enough to save all our skins." 
Johnny admitted, cock eye grinned. "But I'll admit that deep
down inside, I felt a bit like the Lone Ranger because I 
had a mask on and everything." he joked.

The two paramedic firemen laughed together about
that mental image until Julie Beck and Tim Cassidy came
into the tent following their medical checkups. 

Gage smiled. "Hey.. how are the horses? I figured we
ran em pretty ragged out there."

"They're fine. Dot took a burn on the hock but the vet
says it'll heal cleanly." Julie said. "The rest of them just
have melted hair damage. No wounds."

"That's good."

Tim took off his ranger's hat in a gesture of respect
that made Johnny and Roy sit up straighter. 
"Well, we've got to get going. We've piles of reports to 
fill out about all thisback at Devil's Head. 
Listen.. I appreciate all that you guys tried to do for Pete. 
It means a whole lot to me and Julie." Cassidy said 
meaningfully. The hint of sadness about the boy's loss 
still covered his voice.

Both Johnny and Roy got to their feet and accepted
the rangers' handshakes of farewell.

"It's our job to try, Mr. Cassidy. Next time, we'll beat
death. Like we always do ....the majority of the time."
Johnny emphasized.

"It's been a real pleasure.." Roy said. "Who knows,
perhaps we'll work together again in the future."

"Count on it." Beck beamed, wiping away her
tears with a kleenix through a smile.
"Take care.."

"You two.." Gage said. "Stay gold."

The rangers departed.

Sighing, Roy and Johnny vacated the
medical tent and stood outside under the 
stars. Already, the forest fire to the east, was
dimming as cool blessed rain fell in abundance to
snuff it out as the light of a rising dawn grew brighter.

"Hey, would you look at that.." Johnny said in mild 
surprise. He started smiling ear to ear.

"Look at what?" Roy asked, crossing his
arms over his dusty uniform shirt.  He winced when 
he bumped his taped up ribs.

"Over there, in the camp evacuation block.
That's Kevin, one of the little boys we rescued
on the mountain. He's in that tent under that pine
tree playing with one of the search dogs."

"Oh yeah.." Roy smiled in pleasure. "Looks like
he's doing fine now. Looks like his parents have
found him already."

"Yeah..."

A clattering of hooves on pavement broke their 
reverie on the soothing sight of a healing child
as Chet Kelly rode by on Molly, the brown camp stable
horse. "Hiya fellas!!  " he shouted enthusiastically.
"What'ya say Johnny.. Think you can hire me out
to exercise your barrel horse once in a while? I think
I'm really starting to get the hang of all this riding stuff.
Yeehhaaaaa!" and he asked Molly to rear in a trick
he had discovered that she knew.

The mare's stunt startled several passing firefighters
on the way to the firelines and caused a water
truck to screech to a halt in alarm.

"Chester B Kelly. Get down from there!" ordered
a booming, couldn't be denied voice. "You're making
the whole Los Angeles County Fire Department
look like a bunch of cowboys.." growled Captain 
Stanley from the nearby command tent.

"That can be a good thing, Cap..." Johnny murmured
secretively, thinking of Roy's earlier views.

"Johnny, you just hush.. Kelly, down off her and
get that ridiculous ranger hat off your head. I wanna
see hooves back to the shelter corral so fast that
horseshoe sparks'll still be lit on the asphalt long
after you're gone. Or do you like the idea of being
assigned drip torch detail on the fire line for the rest
of the day before you get breakfast?"

Kelly and Molly were ballistic missiles.

Cap felt the breeze of their departure ruffle his 
overcoat as they galloped away.

Stanley grinned in satisfaction and entered the chow
tent with a happy wave at Johnny and Roy. "That felt
wonderful. Always a good thing to let off a little steam
after a bad fire.." he quipped.

Roy and Johnny moved away from the fire command
tent and accepted plates of food from the aid workers
as they sat down in front of a bon fire lit by some
of the valley camp's staff, for warmth.

Roy chewed, after finding a comfortable position,
then he asked. "So... are you gonna do it?"

Johnny was inhaling his food like a vacuum cleaner.
"Do what?" he asked, chipmunk cheeked. He burned
his mouth on some coffee that was too hot and Roy
had to grab a handful of ice from a water cooler to
put out the fire.

"Let Chet work out Eagle.." DeSoto continued.

"Oh,. Huh. That.." Gage chuckled. "Thanks for the ice.
Don't think I scalded myself more than a little bit. Heh.
Uh.. I think I'll.....I think I'll let ....Chet handle my horse.."
he reflected.

"Your prized appaloosa barrel racer?" Roy asked,
wide eyed in shock.

"No, not him. I think I'll let Chet manage Cochise,
the Falabella. He comes about knee high. He's
a miniature horse, Roy."

Roy burst out laughing to the point of crying
out in pain when his splinted ribs shook. 
"Oww.www.. Ha.! hehe. Ow..  ouch.. I don't think
Chet's gonna like that idea very much. I think Chet
had in mind that he wanted to ride some more."

"Nah uh.. no way. Not on my horses. He can just
play amusement pony ride manager for Cochise
at the Fireman's Picnic event and be happy."

"If you say so. Johnny.. Come on, let's go get
cleaned up and hit the hay.. I'm bushed." Roy said
standing up and walking away from the campfire
to make room for new hungry firefighters.

Gage said, scooping up a donut from a box as 
he hurried after his partner. "Ouch. Roy, I'm
speared clear through... That hay pun wasn't very 
funny at all. " Then.. his voice lifted in an idea. 
"Sayyyy,, " John's purred in discovery, "If I play my 
cards right.. maybe I can get Chet to be my new stable 
boy at the ranch. He'll pitch plenty of hay then for sure 
if I can convince him that it's worth it." he grinned.

"Better be prepared to pay.."

"Pay what?"

"A wage. I don't think Chet'll do anything with horses
for free unless it's strictly riding them."

"Who says?"

"I do.." DeSoto said frankly, biting into an apple.

"Wanna bet?"

Roy stopped in his tracks and set both hands as
best he could on his hips and regarded Gage through
slitted, calculating eyes. "After a full night's sleep I will."
he challenged, chewing slowly.

Johnny matched his stance, just as scrutinizing, through
equally slitted eyes. His finger came up and poked Roy
on the chest. "How much?" he asked with a cat that ate
the canary smirk.

Mike Stoker strode by, in fresh turnout, towelling
off his shower fresh, damp hair. "Don't go for it. He'll
rob ya." he called out mischieviously.

Gage never changed his position. "Don't listen to
him. He's just an engineer. How much?" he asked
Roy again, without even glancing at the gesture taunting
head shaking in the negative Mike rounding the corner 
away from them.

DeSoto studied Mike and then angled his jaw in
a final decision. "See you later this evening when our 
night shift starts." Roy told Johnny and he resumed 
his slow, rib favoring walk.

"Aww Roy, pally. Come on, what's a little bet between 
friends?" Gage asked, stepping comically as he fluttered
around his much larger companion.

"A whole lot. Night, Johnny. Go saw some wood." and 
the tent door flapped shut in Johnny's face as Roy passed 
through it.

"I'd rather burn some...." Gage said, smiling. He turned back
around to look towards the civilian tents. "..in a campfire,
roasting marshmellows, with a little boy who really really
really likes to fish. I'll just bet little Kevin'll love riding Cochise
at the Fireman's Picnic Event next month."

                      FIN    

Episode Ten..   From Loaves To Fishes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : A boy and dog in an orange kayak, in smoke.

Photo : Boy in a green ranger hat, fishing.

Photo: A firestorm bearing down on two deer in a river.

Photo: A woman crossing water on a spotted white mare.           

Photo: Chet and Johnny negotiating.

Photo: Men relaxing around a night campfire in the woods.

Photo: Roy in a cowboy hat, smiling.


*****************************************************************

***This current episode has just begun.
***Keep watching here daily for episode
***installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

----------------------------------------------------

To view the following, YOU MUST ENTER...

User ID : squad51

Password : responding


After clicking the episode's link..

----------------------------------------------------


To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fullmoonblues1.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fatherandson1.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/juxtaposition1.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/withinsight1.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------
To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/integritygame1.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------
To see the sixth episode and what we did in
the month of March. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Six
The Golden Horn

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thegoldenhorn1.html
**Location to the Sixth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

------------------------------------------------------

Special Episode 2003..
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thefaceinthemirror1.html
**Location to a Special Episode launched at
the midpoint of our first theater season. Features a
theater host's written episode with images
and screengrabs following the storyline.

The Face In The Mirror..

---------------------------------------------
To see the seventh episode and what we did in
the month of April. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Seven
Crazy Days

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/crazydays1.html
**Location to the Seventh Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------
To see the eighth episode and what we did in
the month of September. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Eight
The Promise

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thepromise1.html
**Location to the Eighth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.
---------------------------------------------
To see the ninth episode and what we did in
the months of January through March 2004. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Nine
Green Pen Of Johnny's

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/johnnysgreenpen1.html
**Location to the Ninth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.


_______________________________________

 This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Ten,  Season Two

  From Loaves To Fishes

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : April 1st, 2004.


============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================

The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Eleven..  
 

Debut Launch: 1 June 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see final music soundtracked, imaged
version after entering User ID  efan  and Password
frontrowseat . This version of the current episode
is scene delayed as compared to the most recent 
submissions shown in the text only file below.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.

******************************************************
From :  <DJSBuick@aol.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, June 2, 2004 11:19 PM 
Subject :  Re: [EmergencyTheaterLive] Episode Eleven Preproduction begins.. 


As the sun rose over the city of Carson, CA, the 6 men assigned  
to LACoFD Station 51's A-shift, were already awake, eagerly 
awaiting the end of their shift.  The previous night had been busy, 
with several MVAs and one particularly nasty warehouse fire that 
had kept the boys hopping until nearly 2AM.  But, in spite of the busy 
night, none of the men were showing signs of exhaustion.  Quite the 
opposite was true.  Captain Hank Stanley, Engineer Michael Stoker, 
Firefighters Marco Lopez and Chet Kelly, and Paramedics Roy 
DeSoto and John Gage were almost buzzing with energy.  Today 
was the start of a long vacation.  Ten whole days, and the guys were 
pumped up with excitement.  They had brainstormed and came up 
with the idea of a camping and fishing trip to the remote, but beautiful 
area that Roy, John, and Chet had gone to a few months ago:  Santa 
Rose County.  Roy, John, and Chet had visited the area and ended up 
saving a few lives in addition to some great fishing.  Everyone had 
agreed that it sounded like a wonderful idea, even Cap, who hated 
fish under the best of circumstances.
 
    "Man, I can hardly WAIT to get a lungful of that clean, mountain air!" 
said dark-haired paramedic John Gage.
 
    "Bet it tastes a lot better than the faceful of soot you ate last night, 
Gage" snickered Chet Kelly, unaffectionately known to his shift-mates 
as The Phantom.
 
    "Chet, ANYTHING would taste better than this sludge you call coffee," 
sniped Gage.
 
    "Children children, enough bickering," interrupted Cap.  "Marco, 
would you please make some drinkable coffee?  I'd like to drive up to 
Santa Rosa County without falling asleep at the wheel."
 
    "Sure, Cap," said Marco.  "Good thing my culinary skills extend to 
coffee."
 
    "Yeah, Marco," said Roy.  "Even Henry could make better coffee 
than Chet."
 
    Henry looked up at the firemen from his perch on the sofa and 
yawned, causing Mike Stoker, usually the quietest man on the shift 
to pipe up, "See!!  Even Henry agrees."
 
    "I don't think regaining consciousness is exactly agreeing, Mike," 
laughed Johnny.
 
    "Whether Henry agrees or not, can we at least have breakfast 
before we start debating?" said Cap.
 
    With that, Cap got up and walked to the refrigerator and opened 
it, looking inside to see what he could whip up for a meal.  Spying a 
carton of eggs and a slab of bacon, he pulled them out of the 
refrigerator, only to bump into Chet Kelly, who was standing right 
behind him.  

    CRASH!!   The eggs fell to the floor and broke, spreading out in a 
slimy puddle of yellow, dotted with shell fragments.
 
    "KELLY!!!  Watch where you're standing, you twit!!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.

*******************************************************************
From :  Maggie H <hutchtx@comcast.net> 
Sent :  Thursday, June 3, 2004 1:15 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Shadows of the Past -- scene 2 


"Perfection!" breathed Johnny Gage as he slipped down into
the camping chair, a beer in one hand and a sandwich in the 
other.  

In front of him, the sun was sinking behind the mountains, and the 
the pale hues in the sky promised a gorgeous sunset in a matter of 
minutes.  Orange and reddish sunlight rippled across the lake.  A 
short distance from the shore, the silhouette of a boat and its two 
occupants bobbed up and down.  Chet and Marco, who had been eager to 
get out fishing since they'd set off from Roy's house at 9am that 
morning.

Behind the dark-haired paramedic, laughter echoed from within the 
long Skyliner camper that the guys had chipped in together to rent 
for their 10-day excursion.  It was parked some 300 feet from the 
lake shore, and it could provide a fairly comfortable "base
camp" for them, as they hiked and explored the area.  Heck, 
it even had a generator that could keep a fresh supply of cool 
beers on tap for the end of each day.  And even six men could 
comfortably sleep in the huge camper.

*Pretty cool,* thought Johnny as he sighed and watched the sky blaze 
a dark orange and fiery red.  

The sounds of laughter and voices blossomed as the door to the 
camper opened, and Roy, Mike, and Hank headed out and down to the 
lake shore.  Plopping their chairs down, they settled in next to 
Johnny.  

"Do you think they'll actually catch anything?"  mumbled
Johnny after a bit.  The boat was slowly disappearing into 
the darkness as the sunset faded into night.  A lantern in the boat 
had illuminated a few minutes previously. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.
 
******************************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, June 4, 2004 2:25 AM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Things That Go Bump In The Night... 


"I wouldn't hold it past them.." Roy chuckled matter of 
factly. "You know, Chet's been working hard at reading 
all those Outdoor Life magazines. Maybe he's picked up 
a little from them." 

Hank chuckled as he sipped his icy Pabst beer in its 
plastic cup."I've never seen anyone strike a beeline for a 
boat faster than him. You hadn't even shut the motor off on 
Gage's rover here when Kelly and Lopez's rears were on the 
boat cushions, roaring off into the sunset. I wonder what they're 
using for bait though. He forgot these.."  and his foot kicked 
the styrofoam container full of swarming leeches. 

Johnny grinned, gulping half his beer before he set the rest 
down in the sand next to his chaise lounge chair. "You're 
forgetting he's still cringing about ruining breakfast for us 
this morning by dropping those egg cartons. Chet's never taken 
the steam that blows out of your ears whenever you're mad 
very well." 

"Really?" Cap wondered, his face suddenly vulnerable with 
reflection."Do- Do I really have that kind of effect on you guys?" 

Immediately, the other three squirmed in their chairs. Mike 
Stoker took this as an excuse to clear Johnny's empty plate 
full of fried chicken bones. "Gotta go wash before this crusts 
over." and he disappeared into the gathering warm darkness. 

Gage leaped at the chance, "I'll help." 

That left Roy in the hot seat, who bore it bravely. 

Around the corner of the camper, out of eye line, Gage and 
Stoker leaned in to listen to DeSoto's reply like eager playground 
kids watching a bully go to work. 

DeSoto kept sipping his lemon iced tea, considering Cap's 
question. "It depends..." 

At Hank's go on nod, Roy plunged into a man to man analysis. 

"At times, let's say the leaning in heavy is fully justified. Especially 
when you're dishing out the chorelist and the other guys have 
antsy feet about it. But then there's this morning..." and DeSoto 
trailed off, waving his dewy drink in significance. 

"Roy, I was hungry. We all were. And the stores were all 
closed because of Memorial Day. Now tell me the honest 
G*d's truth. Those BLT sandwiches minus the L and the T 
were disgusting, right?" 

"Well..." 

"Thought so. Henry seemed to enjoy what was left well 
enough. But d*mn it, Roy. Dropping those eggs was ...sheer 
carelessness." his voice rose in passionate ardor. 
"If he'd been carrying a hose nozzle and clunked it on the 
ground at a fire scene, a whole lotta guys would be in serious 
danger for lack of water because of a dented ring!" 

"Cap..." Roy informed softly. 

"What!?" Hank replied, a little red above his T-shirt. 

"We're on vacation..Can you simmer down? I think you're still 
putting the fear of the All Mighty into them." and he jerked a 
thumb over his shoulder meaningfully at the invisible Gage 
and Stoker lingering nearby. 

There was a clatter of a tin metal garbage can tipping 
over noisily as the two with their cover blown made tracks 
hastily. Gage went inside the camper and Stoker took cover 
inside the Satellite near the propane gas grill bottles. 

"Oh, uh. Right." Cap sputtered, taking a huge gulp of his 
beer to fortify himself. "Guess I should glance down and 
take a look at what kinda clothes I'm wearing before I spout 
off like that. Thanks for reminding me." 

Roy glanced at Hank askance. "You needed reminding 
when you're surrounded by all of this?" he asked in mild 
surprise. 

A sharp piercing call of a Red Tailed Hawk punctuated 
the air and a wave curled musically up onto the beach 
from a boat's wake as if on cue after Roy's question. 

"Well.. yeah.." Hank said meekly. "Do you remember 
the last time I went on vacation?" 

Roy turned his head and studied Marco and Chet's 
nodding profiles in the indigo twilight from where they 
were anchored sixty yards out on the lake. He could 
just see Kelly fussing with a fly on the end of his line. 
"Uh.." 

"Well, I don't. Emily tells me that I went to Pasadena or 
something for an expo about the time you showed up 
at the station..." Cap confided. 

"Really?" Roy's head jerked around. "That's ...that's 
a long time ago.." 

"You're darn shootin, it is.. No wonder I'm a little short 
in the wick department lately. Now perhaps, I'll get a 
chance to ..." and he sighed expansively, stretching, 
"..unwind a little." He sat in his beach chair, trying to 
look at ease, but failed miserably. 

"Yeah, well do it soon.." came Gage's voice as he exited 
the camper in his swim trucks. "We're all tired of hearing 
you pop your relief valve at every stupid tiny thing that 
happens." he counseled gently. "Watch me, Roy. I'm going 
kinda far out. The water's cooler out there." 

"Ok.." 

Gage dove neatly into the lake and swam deliberately 
away from Chet and Marco's fishing boat. 

"Maybe I should go for a swim.." Cap considered. 

"I can only watch one of ya at a time.." Roy replied. 
"Besides, maybe you shouldn't go in just yet. Four beers 
might cause a few problems." 

Cap slumped back in his chair, and looked at the finger 
full left in his glass. It had gone warm in his hand. He poured 
it out onto the beach in an out of the way spot and asked. 
"Is that Lipton stuff any good?" 

Roy's nose wrinkled just then. "Do you smell something, 
Cap?" 

Hank's long proboscis lifted and his nostrils flared. "Am 
I hallucinating? That smells like.." 

"Heyyy!!"

Both men turned out to see Chet and Marco flailing from 
the boat, and their motor kicked in immediately back 
towards the shoreline right at them. 

Roy and Cap didn't understand what Chet and Lopez 
were pointing at. 

"Behind you!" Marco shouted over the boat motor's roar. 

"Geez, turn around you guys! There's trouble!" Kelly 
yelled in frustration. 

Roy and Cap finally got the message. They turned around 
and looked back towards the camper parked underneath 
the swaying birch trees. 

The biff was on fire. 

"Ohmyg*d. Mike's in there..isn't he?" Cap asked. 

"Stoker!" DeSoto called out, rushing forward. He paused 
only long enough to grab the fire extinguisher that was clipped 
to the camper's trailer frame between it and Johnny's rover. 
"Hey, answer me!" 

"What are you guys waiting for?!" came Johnny's yell and his 
water slicked slender body booked high speed for the burning 
outhouse. He stumbled only once over the rocks where the 
beach ended and the forest began. "Just tip it over and 
he can get out that way.." 

The three firemen were quickly joined by the other two and in 
a flurry of shouts and hissing fire repellent and brute strength, 
they broke the satellite's concrete clamps enough to create a 
gap near the ground large enough for a coughing Mike Stoker 
to crawl out. 

Marco and Johnny dragged him away by the pants butt and got 
him to his feet. "Whew..do you smell... are you ok?" Gage asked 
him. 

Mike leaned over and spat stench out of his mouth and coughed. 
"Yeah, I'm fine.. How did that get started?" 

Roy stopped spraying the ABC extinguisher on some wires he 
had found touching the fiberglass shell of the biff. "I believe here's 
the problem. Some of this insulated wire on this timer valve's 
been worn bare." 

"You mean I almost fried with my shorts down because of a 
faulty propane tank regulator?" Mike said, still worked up a little. 

"Yep." Roy shrugged. 

"Why.... I....Oooo..!" Stoker sputtered. 

"Stoker... Easy, pal.." Cap soothed, taking his engineer by the 
shoulders briefly before thinking better of it because of his 
odiferous bouquet. "You gotta learn how to unwind a little.. 
Here, have my beer." 

----------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Stoker making fried chicken.

Photo:  Cap confiding in Roy.

Photo: An outhouse on fire.

Photo: A Pabst blue ribbon beer can.

*************************************************************
From :  Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, June 16, 2004 10:11 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Night Visitors 


There was a commotion in the darkness.
A rustling sound, from the woods. All six
firemen turned to face it.

It was a woman, her page style hair dishevelled from
a panicked run, that came dashing from the deeper shadows
into the campfire light. She was dragging behind her a 
running hose they recognized from the fishhouse. 
"Oh, my gosh. Oh my gosh.. Are you guys all right?!"

The gang's eyes oggled for the young woman was very
pretty for her age of twenty or so years. Roy and Cap 
immediately became politely discreet, for the young gal was
in a very short mini skirt and western blouse. Mike Stoker finally
jerked his head stupidly, answering their surprise visitor.
 "I'm fine. Not even singed."

The girl didn't stop and kept on rushing past the stunned men. 
"Good. Here, let me wash down these sparks still smouldering 
on the grass. Oh, I've got to hurry..  I don't want Beauford, 
he's the fire spotter across the lake, to see this. Knowing him, 
he'll raise holy Caine for sure if he sees a glow not inside 
a fire ring on the beach. He'll call in every fire station in the 
county for no good reason at all and having the campground 
crawling with firefighters in the middle of the night is the 
last thing I need the sheriff finding out about." she blithered. 
"I'm sick to death of dealing with fire boys. I've seen far too 
many of them this summer as it is on my resort's land. "

The gang from 51's shared looks of irony about the 
firefighter comment. Then Captain Stanley took a step
forward. "Uh,," and he cleared his throat. "..thank you Miss,
for the water. Here, let my friend Mike Stoker here finish that hose 
soaking while you sit down and take a breather.  You look like you're 
about to fall over. My friend Roy's got some iced tea chilling on 
the table over there. Help yourself. Please. You look like you 
could really use some. I'm Hank Stanley by the way."

The panting woman gave one last worried glance at
the smoking outhouse and back once more at the far shore of the
quiet lake before she accepted Hank's offer of a lawn
chair.  "Nicola Sommers. Charmed. Thanks." she sighed, 
dropping into the chair with a healthy collapse and sprawled
into an undisquised state of sweaty exhaustion. She wiped some dirt 
off her upper lip, while her other hand snatched the ice tea tumbler
Cap had offered to her from the picnic table. "Cheers. " 
And she downed Roy's whole glass of Lipton Lemon Twist as 
rapidly as she could.

The guys watched her every swallow. Especially Chet Kelly. 

The charming Nicola was oblivious. Then her head whipped
around to look back at the hose dousing Stoker was just finishing up. 
"Look, are you sure he knows what he's doing? Embers under
all this meadow grass can smoulder for hours.."

Johnny Gage came up aces.. "Stoker's a real pro, Ms. 
Sommers. You can kinda say that he ..uh....plays with water for a 
living... In fact, we all do.."

Marco smacked Johnny on the arm and he hissed under his
breath so only Gage could hear. "Don't spill the beans that we're 
firemen. We might lose her as some real good company."

Chet Kelly covered for Lopez's mumble loudly, covering
it up. "Nicola, did you come from the cottage house perched
all the way up there on the ridge?"

"Yeah. I had to. Luke, my bassett hound, starting carrying on
something fierce and that usually means trouble on the beach
so I started running when I saw the fire starting up."

"Wow, you made it down here to the lake in record time. 
You sure are in incredible shape.." Kelly continued and his eyes 
flickered downwards the length of her body, admiring her black 
leather boots to go along with the rest of her. Gage smacked Kelly 
discreetly on the back of the head for his indiscretion.

"Ow..." Chet complained, glancing back at Gage.

"Ow  what?" Nicola said, oblivious to the exchange. She
looked up from the empty ice tea glass she was returning 
to the table.

"Mosquitoes.." Gage supplied.
"Nothing." Chet said simultaneously.

They immediately reversed a verbal tumble.
"Yeah, d*mned bugs." Kelly burbled.
"He's sore from fishing." Gage admitted at the same time.

::Uh oh..:: they both thought. ::We're caught for sure.::

Cap and the other guys froze like spotlighted deer,
waiting for a defensive reaction.

But the young woman sitting across from them just
smiled sweetly and pushed out her bottom lip in acquiesence.
"Happens to the best of folks..." Nicola agreed, leaning
back and breathing expansively of the pine scented night
air to begin cooling herself further. "Especially city folks 
like yourselves. My guess is that you're all from L.A. or
very close there abouts."

Gage was surprised. Smart chicks really threatened him,
and his question popped out before he could wrest it
back inside of his mouth. "How'd you know that we were from 
Los Angeles?"

Ms. Sommers tossed her head at the Rover
still hitched to the rental camper. "Only city
cars are stained that dark from smog dust. And the only city
that's so smoggy this time of year is L.A. I spotted
your rover and camper this afternoon when you drove by my 
house on the way to the lake access road..." Her eyes twinkled
as she added more. "I wouldn't speed so fast next time.
Sheriff Bittner's new deputy is always on the lookout for
new out of towners to ticket."

"We'll keep your advice in mind. Had enough?"
Hank asked about Nicola's drink.

"I'm topped off. Thanks. That was really good."
Nicola tilted her dainty chin and high arched 
cheekbones delicately in challenge. "I'm the caretaker
of that resort you can see up there on the ridge. It's got
seven cabins and a pine log lodge and a trading post.
I sort of inherited it from my step father when he died 
earlier this past winter. "

"I'm sorry to hear about that, Ms. Sommers. " Roy
mentioned politely.

Nicola rubbed her nose absently.
"It's ok. We hardly got along as it was. It was just the two
of us for a long time. And it's taking a while to get the hang
of running the whole business. Foreign investors keep stopping
by saying they'll buy my land and everything on it to save me some
grief but the sheriff says that I shouldn't sell. I ..quite frankly, I'm 
growing to love it up here. Almost as much as the sheriff does... 

Say,.. what made you guys choose Santa Rosa County Park for a 
vacation hot spot? Can't say much about attractions around here. 
Except our sunsets, which are made to absolutely die for." Nicola 
laughed.

Hank laughed. "Sheriff Bittner recommended this campsite.
Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto over there .." the two paramedics waved,
grinning in the fire glow as they were introduced, "...went fishing with him
last year after an adventure or two while working with him and fell in love 
with the place. Myself and Chet Kelly, Marco Lopez, and the man 
you already met watering the grass over there, just had to see what 
was so magical about Santa Rosa County, this year."

"Well, glad to make your aquaintance gentlemen." Nicola
said, getting up and shaking their hands one by one in greeting.
"Thanks for the tea, Mr. DeSoto. Lipton's my all time favorite."
She brushed some weeds and burrs out of her skirt. "Well,
I think I'll be heading back since everything down here is
a. o. k. " and she folded up her lawn chair.

The gang immediately rose to their feet.

Hank said, "It's almost completely dark now. Are you sure it's
safe to wander around the woods at night? We'd- We'd be happy to
offer you one of our tents to crash in until morning.. See?
Chet Kelly's got one already set up over there.." and he pointed.

"Oh, yeah. My sleeping bag's real warm." Kelly nodded.

Nicola's askance look at Chet's school boy oggling of her
unique attire made her raise her eyebrows and that gave the
gang her unspoken answer to the offer.

Marco piped up. "Don't worry about Kelly here, Nicola. We were 
just being neighborly.  Helping folks comes naturally to us. Part of
our jobs you could say. He didn't mean anything by that."

"Yeah, Kelly usually puts his foot in his mouth at least once during 
the day. Only now, he's on vacation and had to wait until now before
he embarrassed us all by doing it again." Gage said, with a glare
at Kelly.

Nicola was not offended. In fact, in the rising moonlight, she
smiled, still at ease.

Right then, an unearthly set of howls in the distance made the
whole gang start. Chet actually took a few steps closer
to the camp fire.

"And there you have why the campsite has up the no tents restriction
sign this week. Guys, I'm suggesting strongly to you that you all
sleep in the camper at night." Nicola said, pointing toward the
park's roofed regulations board. "The ranger put up that new
notice about two hours before you got here."

"Wh--What was that? Wolves?" Chet shivered.

"Something like them I suspect." Nicola said. "As long as you stay by
the lake and keep a fire up or stick inside your camper when it's
dark, you'll stay safe and sound. The sheriff and I have been working
on this little unwelcome wildlife problem for three weeks now. It's
just a matter of time before we find them all."

The gang was too busy getting serious chills over the eerie howling
chorus bellowing at the moon to ask Ms. Sommers any more
questions. Even Hank Stanley was mute and listening.

Nicola was getting her jollies over the city folks cowering
at the night woods. "See ya fellas. Have a nice vacation.." 
And Nicola strode into the night pine forest cheerfully. 

But, just before she vanished out of the fire's light, she turned and 
shouted back at them, feeling guilty about getting enjoyment out
of their discomforture. "Tell you what? If you're too afraid to cook 
supper, eat light of sandwiches or something for tonight 
and then come hike up to my cottage tomorrow morning.
I'll put on a hearty breakfast for all of ya.. I'm turning the lodge into 
a bed and breakfast inn. Sheriff Bittner says it's a concept
that's all the latest rage in the North. You fellas can be my first 
customers to try out my new menu.  On the house."

The gang nodded warmly and waved, saying that they'd be
there by first light.

Nicola was hardly gone a minute when the six of them fearfully ran
into the camper and slammed the door shut behind themselves.

The morning couldn't come fast enough for the gang of 51's. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Say, this is gonna be a real swell inn, Ms. Sommers."
said Chet Kelly as he stuffed another poppy seed roll into
his mouth. "I mean, you got moose antlers on the walls and
everything.." he admired. Then his head nearly split in two
with a monstrous yawn that drowned out another compliment.

Nicola chuckled. "Somebody didn't sleep well last night.
Not used to roughing it, Mr. Kelly?"

"I slept just fine.." Chet said with a frown. "That's only after
those wild animals finally quit yapping at the moon around
four a.m."

Nicola whipped off her flour dusted apron and sat down
to join the gang eating. "The sheriff and I are going out this
afternoon to deal with those creatures. Don't you worry.
He's coming right after breakfast and we're going hunting."

"Is it the season for that?" Mike Stoker asked, chewing on
a ripe strawberry.

"It is when two town kids get ambushed walking in to school
from the outskirts and can't give a clear description of what
kind of animals attacked them." Nicola said. "I'll be glad to
see them gone."

Johnny Gage took a sip of his black coffee. "Were they hurt
bad?" he said, remember the tiny doctor's office that he and
Roy had used for their injured the last time they were passing
through Santa Rosa County. "Was the doc in to treat them?"

Nicola showed some surprise. "You know the doc?"

"Sure do." Roy said, wiping a milk moustache off as he pushed
his empty plate away. "We ran into him helping a few climbers,
and folks from an auto wreck and then two more from a fishing 
mishap. We met up Doc Frick three times in the same day."

Nicola set down her fork and stopped chewing. "Oh,.. so you're
the fire department boys Bittner keeps on talking about over
chili at Rosie's Bar.  He's still all hot to trot about that para.. para
medical operation he wants to set up between the area ranchers."

Johnny lifted a hand, pointing. "You mean he was serious about
what we told him last year? Roy and I thought he was just humoring
us because we didn't get in any decent time to fish like we had
planned on doing."

"Sure the sheriff was serious. Dead serious. I was even in the first
responder program for a few months. That is, until my step father
died. After that, I kinda got too busy to worry about that kind of
thing with running the resort and working on this new bed and 
breakfast business idea." Nicola said. "And I had to forget all
about that to concentrate on myself."

"Too bad. Santa Rosa could use more than just a few first aid
trained people." Johnny said. "I'm sure the doc would love 
to have all the help he can get."

"Nice try recruiting me back into the fold, Mr. Gage. But I
have to think about floating my resort and lodge first,
my college major second, before I even think about doing anything
fancy like volunteering in any spanking brand new rescue
program. No matter how good it is for the community. Learning how
to stick a few bandaids on people isn't going to pay my bills any
or my tuition. " she nodded empathetically. Then she
thought better of her distain to her guests and leaned in closer.
"Sorry. You know, about last night. You didn't have to hide the fact 
that all you were in the fire department business guys. I knew that 
the moment I laid eyes on your fishing boat moored on the beach."

"Uh oh, more detective insights.." Kelly groaned teasingly light.

Nicola's eyes sparkled in a laughing smile.
"Yep. Locals don't include fire extinguishers and first aid kits 
as part of their fishing tackle's staple gear."

Johnny nearly spit out his orange juice. "Just by that?"

Nicola waved an absent hand, smiling. "That and the way
your friend Mike Stoker over here snuffed out those
embers. He used a fanning spray and not the end of a hose's
stream like anyone else might do. Training tells, guys.."

"I'm seriously glad for that, Ms. Sommers. Being their captain,
I'd be sorely disappointed if it didn't." Hank snorted.

Right then, the screen door opened and Sheriff Bittner,
the familar personality that Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage
knew so well, entered the sunlit dining hall.

Everyone got to their feet to greet him.

But the rosy cheeked sheriff wasn't smiling. He opened
his mouth and said...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : A page haired woman in western clothes.

Photo: Half the gang sitting in chairs.

Photo: The other half of the gang sitting in chairs.

Photo: Animated howling wolf at the moon.

Photo: Sheriff Bittner talking with Johnny and Roy.

Photo: A full rural bed and breakfast dinner spread.

***************************************************************

From: "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 21:14:31 +0000 
Subject:  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Frick Frets And What Every Mother Gets.. 


"Nicola! Let me in to use your phone!" Blaine sputtered,
ignoring who was around him and barging past through
the cottage's dining hall and into the parlor where he
knew an antique phone rested on a table.

"What?" Ms. Sommers ejected. "What's wrong,
Blaine? Another attack from those--"

"Nope. But just as bad little Missy. It's Mrs. Caine.
She's hard up in labor at Ender's Pass and I can't
raise Doc Frick on the radio. I got his gear from town,
he said he'd meet me, but that was a half an hour ago."
he said loudly, picking up the phone's brass receiver. 
He bellowed to the switch board operator to try 
Dr. Frick's office one more time. ".....and don't dawdle, 
Mable!" he told her. "You know how fast Mary's kids 
come when it's their time."

All the guys listened with interest, keeping quiet, learning
more. Then Hank Stanley spoke up, gripping the chubby
law man's shoulder, getting his attention. "Sheriff,
can we help at all? My men and I are Los Angeles County
Fire Fighters and I believe you already know my paramedics,
here. This is Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage."

Blaine Bittner blinked and did a double take, throwing down
the chattering panicking operator on the phone when he
heard yet again that there was still no answer at Dr. Frick's
clinic. "Why land sakes alive, I do believe my prayers have
been answered.." the sheriff. "Hiya boys." He said to Roy 
and Johnny. "It's nice ta see ya again. You've been missed. 
Can't you tell?" and he held up the now dead phone. "Let's go.
I can use all the help I can get." and he bolted out of the door, 
slamming the cottage's screen door shut in Cap's face in his hurry 
to get on with his emergency call. "Mary sounded like she was 
screaming to high heavens. Nearly frightened old Mable half to
death when she called."

Chet said, "I'll go grab the Rover, Cap. We can all go."

Gage grabbed his arm. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
Cap, we can't just go rushing off to ..to.. see this woman. 
We'll have the same problem we had last time and not be
certified at all to work in this county as paramedics enough
to treat her. "

Marco piped up. "You heard the Sheriff, Johnny. Didn't
he say that Ol Doc Frick's on his way to this lady's
house, too? He said that he had the doc's medical
gear in his car.."

"Yeah," said Mike Stoker. "And that means, he can
be your doctor once he gets there. We can just be
first responders and have things set up for him
ahead of time."

"End of discussion, Gage. Move.." Hank crooked a
thumb towards the door.

The gang piled out onto the porch only to see
a great big cloud of dust the sheriff's car had left
behind in his haste to get to Ender's Pass. His
speeding vehicle up the interstate was nowhere
to be seen.

"Uhh,, " Roy said, scratching his chin. "Ms. Sommers,"
he asked Nicola, "You wouldn't happen to know where
Mrs. Caine lives, do you?"

"I sure do. I visited her a couple of days after her
little boy was attacked in the schoolyard." Nicola
said. "I know the way to her place really well."

Before anyone could ask. Kelly took off running.
"Wait right there. I'll have the rover unhitched 
and up here faster than you can count to twenty!"

The whole gang heard him break branches noisily
as he tore down the path back to the lakeside camp ground,
cutting corners through the hairpin red dirt turns 
weaving into the valley.

"Easy Chet! Don't break a leg ! Stick to the trail!" Cap
hollered after him. "Man, if we haveta haul his butt out
of a ditch somewhere, I'm gonna be really mad." he
said, huffing out his air in frustration when the
commotion in the pines didn't let up as Chet
made his way downhill.

Roy snapped his fingers. "Say, maybe we can call
Mrs. Caine. See how she's doing. I'm assuming there's
a telephone in her bedroom, right?"

Nicola said. "Of course, that's probably how she called 
the sheriff in the first place. I don't see her making it to
the hobby shed's short wave radio in her condition.."

Johnny Gage went all analytical. "So she's close to full
term?"

"Very.." Nicola said rolling her eyes.

"How many children has Mrs. Caine had before now?"
Roy asked as they all piled back into the picturesque
little country cottage. 

"Uh,,, two, I think."  Ms Sommers said. "She had
Jeremy.. the little boy I met last week in the hospital, and
I remember her mentioning that she had to go to town
to get some new shoes for an older daughter. "

Gage sighed, looking at his watch. "That doesn't leave
much time left.."

Nicola was puzzled. "How do you mean, Mr. Gage?"

"A third baby coming to the same mother usually doesn't
wait that long before coming out and surprising everybody."

Nicola's eyes got real big. "Oh..." she said, the concept 
dawning."Well, how long do we have?"

"Anywhere from a couple of hours.." Roy began..

"To a couple of minutes.." Johnny completed.

"Well, why didn't you guys go after Chet to get to
your car?" Nicola said, her voice rising.

"Calm down. Chet's real speedy. He knows 
we have to stay here to call Mrs. Caine.. to 
see how thing's are progressing." Roy said.

"Roy?" Cap asked.

"Yeah?"

"We'll wait for you outside. We gotta glean
some directions out of Ms. Sommers here."
he said taking the chatting woman's arm
as she kept asking questions and giving
opinions about how worried she was about
the current emergency.

He picked up the receiver and dialed out 0 for 
the operator. He immediately got a still flustered
Mable who talked his ear off. "Maam, I don't know
yet. Yes, I'm a stranger ....a paramedic from
Los Angeles County. The sheriff..."he broke off
when the operator's yammering got really loud
and frantic. "...maam, yes...I understand the need
for urgency. So if you could just..connect me up
to Mrs. Caine we can get things going here, all
right?"

Soon, DeSoto's face fell into one of relief when the 
phone against his burning ear fell into person to person
ringing.

Right then a crack of lightning came from the mountains
and the sun disappeared. 

"Wow, storm's brewing.." Lopez said.

"Yeah, they come up real fast." Johnny said to
him. "Well, a little rain never hurt anybody. And
Mrs. Caine's inside a nice warm snug house."
he grinned.

The guys leaped back for the porch overhang 
when a strong bank of rain suddenly whipped out
of the sky and wet the sandy ground in a torrential
sheet.

"Good thing I got radials on the rover.." Johnny
grinned toothily. "We'll get there in no time."

Roy came out of the house. "Well, she says her contractions
are about three minutes apart. She says she's not bleeding
at all or anything like that. But she says something doesn't
feel right inside and she's straining."

Gage grew concerned and his voice matched it.
"You told her not to push, didn't ya?"

"Yeah. I told her. And I told her the sheriff and the
doc, and us, are on the way to her."

Nicola had calmed down, a good rain soaking having 
helped with that. "Who's with her?"

"Nobody.. That's why she called the emergency operator
instead of her midwife or husband. He's in town at
the hospital with the older daughter, looking after little Jeremy."
DeSoto replied. "Mrs. Caine said that Mr. Caine will be
real disappointed if he misses the birth of their third child."

"So will we, Roy, if Chet doesn't hurry it up." Gage
quipped.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gage insisted on driving his own vehicle after the six of
them, plus Nicola, crammed aboard and they roared in a
raging downpour to Ender's Pass and up the ranch road
leading to Mrs. Caine's house.

There was the sheriff's car. But no red station wagon belonging
to Doc Frick.

"Ok, everyone. Pile out. Let Roy get out first." Johnny
said as everyone jumbled arms legs and torsos around
to free up the paramedic from the land rover.

Johnny got out next, not bothering to set a park brake
and hurried over to Bittner's squad car to see if the
man had remembered to take in Doc Frick's obstetric gear
or not. He had. "Nice.. Guys, let's go. It's all inside."

The five dripping firefighters in summer wear piled into
the warm ranchhouse after Gage.

Roy was already taking a respiration count on Mary
and she was set on O2, high flow. "Hi fellas, meet
Mrs. Caine. She's having a little trouble breathing
but her pulse's good. I haven't done much else yet,
Johnny."

"Hi..boys.. OhhhhHHHHHH! Make it stop!" said the
red haired Mary Caine, sweating and writhing on the bed.
"My first boy and girl never hurt this bad.. Mr. DeSoto, 
tell me, what's wrong with my baby?" she gasped.

"We'll know soon. Just try and pant short breaths
under that oxygen around the contractions. Don't
bear down and we'll get thing's set up to find out,
ok.."

"S...sure..." she panted. But soon, another rippling
screech parted her lips a lot sooner than the original
three minutes projected by phone earlier.

"Uh,...the three of you can wait outside.." said Cap and he
shoo'd the others out of the room, leaving
himself to help Johnny and Roy. He spread out the medical
gear they looked like they needed. ::Santa Rosa
township may have a small town clinic
and a hippy for a doctor, but their emergency medical
gear's top notch. :: he thought.

Gage dragged out the neonate
resuscitation gear and gloved up.
"Mrs. Caine. I'm gonna haveta check you out, ok.?
I'm Roy's partner, Johnny Gage of the Los Angeles
County Fire Department."

The heavily laboring woman just nodded her head, 
beyond any shred of modesty, deep in her pain, "I know.
I ...don't care. Just help me.. Please.. I'm scared for
the baby.."

Johnny draped sheeting around Mrs. Caine's knees
from the O.B. kit Cap handed him and he lowered the
bed's blanket to help get her into a delivery position with
himself sitting her up under the arm pits and Roy supporting
her knees until she was comfortable.

Cap continued to spread sterile sheets from the doctor's
kits around the foot of the bed. He helped Roy into
a pair of gloves when Roy's hands, damp from stroking
Mary's hair, made it hard to do solo.

"Johnny, I got a rate of 134 on Mary. Respirations are 26
and short. Contractions are full duration every minute now."
Roy said calmly, keeping a tight hold around Mrs. Caine's
shoulders. "Cap, take my spot." he said.

Hank did so, adding his quiet reassurances. "I'm a father,
so I know what to expect from a mother with the baby on the
way. Don't worry about breaking my hand squeezing it. I'm
immune."

Mary laughed, blowing out her air in a wavery attempt to smile.
But just as fast. She sucked it up again. "Oh, the baby's coming!"

"Don't push.. Don't push...!" ordered Johnny from Mary's knees.
"Roy, I can't see the baby's head. Only part of the cord,
preceding it." he frowned.

"Prolapse?"

"Yeah... Definitely that."

Roy and Johnny kept the bad discovery from showing on their 
faces. "Ok. Cap, get those pillows under her hips. We have
to raise her pelvis higher than her head."

"You got it." And he helped Roy accomplish it.

Meanwhile, Johnny was telling Mary what was happening.
"Mrs. Caine. Mrs. Caine.Can you hear me? Now, the baby's
getting a little over eager right now trying to be born. The cord's been
pushed out first. That's probably what you were feeling earlier.."

"oh, NnnOooo. How's the baby? Is my baby still alive?"

Johnny gently placed a glove on the shimmering purple,
white and pink cord showing outside and felt no pulsations.
"Mary, I'm gonna see. Now you'll feel a bit of pressure here. 
I'm just gonna check the baby's pulse a bit." he said loudly,
over Mary's moans. Quieter, he added. "Roy get me an O2
line, I'll get an airspace down to the baby's nose and mouth."
And he reached inside the birth canal until he felt the
curvature of the still baby's nose and mouth between
his middle and index fingers. He lifted the baby's head
and immediately, the cord draping across his wrist began
to pulsate. "Mary,.. Mary,.. listen to me. The baby's
fine. I can feel a good pulse. But you can't push and
you can't move around any. I'm keeping the cord from
being crimped off until the doc gets here. Ok.?" Johnny
grunted, sweating.

Mary began sobbing and her eyes suddenly drifted shut
and her breathing silenced. DeSoto grabbed the 
base of her throat. "She's ok. Just fainted. Carotid's
still around 120." and he tightened the oxygen mask
a little more snuggly around Mrs. Caine's pale face.
"I'll get a new BP on her and a heart rate on the baby.."
he said putting a stethoscope into his ears.

From somewhere muffled, a telephone in the house
rang. And shortly there after, from the phone next
to the bed. No one had hands free to answer it.

But on the second ring. Someone else in the
house did.

Second snicked by and Cap swallowed, still
clutching the adult ambu bag he had gotten out
from the doc's jumpbag when the mother blacked out. 

Roy smiled. "No problems here. The baby's rate is
148. And her pressure's 110/74. No shock for either
one of them yet."

All three firefighters sighed and Hank sat back
down by Mary's head to test her consciousness.
"Mary, can you hear me?" He pinched her arm 
and got a weak half groan back in response. 

Roy nodded in thanks for Hank's check as he
placed the delivery syringe bulb near Johnny's
free hand where he could reach for it if fluid
pooled over the baby's face. "Any meconium?"

Johnny spoke around the tube in his mouth.
"Not a whole lot. Her amnionic fluid's still fairly
clear." Gage admitted, straining against Mary's
muscles to keep the passage open to the air
for the baby. He had the O2 line in his teeth,
blowing its oxygen stream towards the opening he
had created in Mary's birth canal. "I'm feeling hiccups.
I think the baby's trying to breathe in there."

"Is that working?" DeSoto asked about Johnny's
hold and oxygen.

Right then, Mary began to mumble words and
feel her painful contractions again. 

"Yeah. ..Hey Mary, wake up. Your baby's
doing the Twist in here. A real dancer.." Gage
mumbled.

"That's my girl...." Mary smiled groggily,.."Or
boy... OwwWWWWW." and her muscles jolted
in a tight contraction that she couldn't control.

Johnny felt the space between his fingers and
the baby, close off. The cord went limp and white.
"Mary.. Mary.. Don't! Quit pushing. The cord's
blocking off!"

But Mary was beyond caring in her faint, lost
in her body's reaction.  Cap took control of her
head as she blacked out again, pulling her chin back
so she could keep breathing well.

Johnny tried desperately to regain an open path
but failed.  He withdrew his hand and stood,
lifting Mary's hips higher onto the pillows. He began 
pushing on Mary's lower abdomen gently, firmly around
the contraction, until he felt the baby internally slide 
backwards through Mary's skin. 

The pulse returned into the loop of birthing 
cord that he could see.

He peeled off his now dirty gloves and put on
another sterile pair before he reached in and
regained a hasty path to the outside for the baby 
to breathe in. He no longer felt the tiny hiccups
in the baby's neck. "Baby's quieter Roy. No
movement. But the cord pulse's back."

He nodded getting a new BP on Mary.
"It's down. 90/52. Something's changing."

"Not from here. There's still no blood."

Right then the Sheriff burst through the door
with Nicola, peeking his head through. "I was
in the kitchen. That was the Doc. He's on
his way."  He paled when he saw Mary
lying so silent with sweat covering her features.

"How far away?" Johnny grunted, keeping the
tenuous length of space over the cord so
it wouldn't be sealed off again.

"Stephen's Road." Bittner mumbled, staring in
shock. 

"That's two minutes away.." Nicola added, her
sculpted face equally stunned as Blaine's. "Oh, and
I forgot to tell you, Mary's a diabetic.."

"What?!" Gage said, glancing up at Sommers sharply.

Roy and Johnny and Cap saw a pair of hands drag
the two speechless Santa Rosa citizens back out 
of the bedroom and the door quickly closed shut again.

::That's a little medical history a little too late. Good riddance.
Last thing we need is another pair of fainters. Thank you Marco, 
Mike and Chet.:: Gage thought. "Smell anything on her, Cap?
Any ketosis?"

Hank bent low, lifting the moaning mother's 02 mask 
and he sniffed lightly. "No.. her breath's not sweet."

"Hypoglycemia?" Johnny said looking at Roy.

"Most likely."DeSoto said, looking at Mary's
eyes under a penlight."She's working pretty hard here."

"Yeah, and she's too out to give her any oral glucose
paste. Where's the Doc when you need him?" Gage
said sarcastically, eyeing up all the IV bags and needles
that they presently didn't have the authorization to use.

Roy's hand reached for a bag of Ringer's and tubing, 
and a glucagon syringe. 

"Roy, don't. We can't.. Not yet.."

DeSoto had almost touched them when the bedroom door 
flew open to reveal Doctor Frick himself, covered in blood.

Roy snatched up the bags in a quick report. "Diabetic.
Prolapse on the baby. Fetal heartbeat's up to 170. Hers
is at 140. Real tachy. Her LOC's dropped 4 Glasgow
points and the baby's quit moving.. What happened to you?"
he added, eyeing up the doc's soiled sweatshirt.

Dr. Frick said."IV Ringer's one arm TKO.  500 ml
of an IV D5W on the other at 200 mls an hour
and give her all of that glucagon in a push. Another
little boy got worked over by the pack of feral dogs
Nicola and the Sheriff have been trying to hunt down.
He's gonna live. I got him in the living room being
watched by your firefighter friends out there on
an oxygen tank."

"Feral dogs?" Cap asked. "Is that what we were
hearing last night?" he asked in horror.

"Yes. We've been hearing them every night." Doc Frick
said gloving up rapidly and he kneeled next to Johnny.
"What do you got?" the long haired hippy like
moustached doctor asked Gage.

"Prolapse, four minutes old. Lost a pulse in the
cord once. Felt the baby attempt respirations but
now I can't feel anything. Not one twitch since
that happened about two minutes ago."

"All right. Getting tired? We can trade off. You
can hand me supplies as I need them." said Frick.

Johnny unencumbered and stood back, peeling off
his body fluid slick gloves and trading them
for a third clean pair.

"Ok,.. Both IV's and the glucagon is in, doc.
I've marked down the time and rate on the bags" 
Roy said.

"She's an insulin dependent diabetic, fellas.
Most likely, she skipped lunch for being excited
about this being another birthday. That injection
and the IV's will bring her around shortly."
The doc took his place maintaining the baby's
birth canal and cord integrity. Then he reached in
more fingers. "Got the baby's chin." and he reached
in a tip of a pinky into the baby's mouth. Immediately,
he felt sucking. A huge smile erupted from his face.
"We got ourselves a fighter! Roy, get a new fetal heart
rate for me, would you?"

From the bed came.. "A fighter?. " said Mrs. Caine
weakily as she recovered from her blackout. "I thought
you said my baby was a dancer.." she smiled..

"Yeah well one's just as good as the other.."
Johnny smiled right back at her. "Feel like some
pushing? The doc's here."

"Oh, is he?" Mary asked around Cap's hands
cradling her face to help her breathe easier.
"Anytime. I wanna surprise Jack when he gets...
owwWWW."

Roy announced. "Doc, the rate's 220 on the baby." 
he said urgently.

"Here we go.." Doc Frick said, gently pulling as
the baby's head advanced, until it had emerged
into the open to the neck. Johnny rapidly suctioned
out the tiny baby's nose and mouth with the bulb.

The doc pulled another loop of cord he discovered
from around the baby's neck with a couple of fingers. 
He frowned when he didn't find it beating. 

"Roy, there's nothing now." he whispered without
sound about a pulse rate. Then aloud he said.
"Mary..pant now and don't push anymore.. We have to 
let the baby's head rotate around for delivery. Won't take 
long."

"....*gasp*...kay.. Just say ......when.." she groaned.

A minute went by before another powerful contraction
spun Mary's child into the proper position. Frick's eyes
jerked over to the resuscitation gear and then at Roy in
a subtle hint to get ready for some new trouble.

DeSoto rose and got things ready.

The baby's face had turned blue.

"Ok, Mary. Push.. Push as hard as you can!" Frick
urged. Cap let Mrs. Caine use his chest as a support
and he held her up as she strained one last time in
a supreme effort to finish the job.

The baby's shoulders came easily with a lift and shove
from side to side by the doctor. The baby's limp body
slid out of Mary in a rush of fluid onto the bed. "It's a boy
Mary! Nice job.." Johnny said, forcing a smile onto his face.

"How is he?" she panted. "Can I see him?" she said
through her O2 mask as Cap eased her back down onto
her back.

Again there was more suctioning. Gage quickly threaded
in an infant airway as Roy attached a neonate ambu bag to the
end of it.  They both clamped off the cord with two clips as
the doc checked for a baby's pulse quickly with a stethoscope.


"Got one." Frick said at last.
"He needs only those vents. Turn the O2 to 100%
and hyperventilate him until he pinks up Roy.  I think 
your son only needs a little brisk encouragement, Mrs. Caine.
Give us a minute to cut the cord." Frick said."What's your new
son's name gonna be, Mary?"

"Darren. Darren Joseph Caine." she sighed.

"That's a wonderful name. Same first name as my grandfather's."
he said, snipping the cord in two between the clamps. 
"Now, how  are you feeling? Your blood sugar got a little low there
at the end."

"Perfect.." Mary said muzzily, drifting into a happy sleep.

"Well so is he..." Hank grinned. "He's got all his fingers and toes
so rest easy. We'll stay to watch over you until the ambulance
arrives."

Tiny puffs of Roy's pure oxygen into Darren's lungs from the ambu 
finally drove away the deep blue from the baby's face, trunk
and limbs. He actively began to thrash his arms and
legs, gurgling, entirely flushed a healthy reddish pink.

Doc Frick tugged out the airway and drained Darren's
lungs of their remaining fluids. Soon, the baby's back was slapped 
as he hung by the ankles and that brought a thin powerful cry
out the gaping mouth. "That's more like it. Apgar 2 to
a 10. Welcome to Santa Rosa County, Darren Joseph."

And the baby wailed anew when a great peal of thunder 
crashed just outside the Caine house as he was laid
across his mother's breast in a cocoon of warm white
blankets.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : A birth fresh baby, still coated.

Photo: A passed out pregnant mother being tended.

Photo: Roy and Johnny delivering a child.

Photo: New baby on mom's chest.

*******************************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Saturday, June 26, 2004 2:17 AM 
Subject :  Guess Who's Coming For Dinner? 


Sheriff Bittner was on the phone again, trying to
get an ETA of the ambulance long overdue to arrive at
the Caine house.  His voice was growing in volume and frustration
when he learned from Mable the switch board operator, that
the storm warning had elevated to flash flood warning. "I don't
care WHAT it takes to get them here, Mable. Just do it.
I have a badly injured child now that the doc brought in 
as well as Mary and soon, her new baby, and they can't be delayed!
No sirree. Now get on it and call when you get through to
them.".. his pudgy flushed cheek twitched when he got
another wail of panic from Mable. Blaine toned down his voice
to a quiet calm level and he added."Maybe you can call up one of those 
new fangled helibirds from the southern counties to make a flight up here 
when the weather clears. Now I've got to go. The doc and
the good fire boys who came with us need me. Do the best you
can." and he clicked the phone down onto its receiver.

-------------------------------------------

Out in the living room, Chet Kelly, Marco 
Lopez, Mike Stoker and the resort owner Nicola Sommers were
all clustered around the small boy that Dr. Frick had entrusted to 
their care. 

He was stretched out on the couch on his back and his arms and 
neck were liberally wrapped in ace wraps and kerlix. Kelly was making 
sure that the oxygen he wore still flowed from the small tank at his feet. 
Marco was busy wrapping the rain soaked boy snuggly in afghans.
Stoker was taking a pulse on the boy while he slept with his father seated 
by his head.
 
The man was upset and talking, twisting the hem of the quilt covering
his son in barely contained anger. "I told Aaron not to go to the
swimming hole until the Sheriff said those pack dogs were all trapped and
killed. He knows better! As soon as the storm breaks, I swear to
G*d that I'm going to go out and put a bullet between the eyes of every 
snarling mongrel I run into. Look what they've done to him!" he 
cried.

Nicola rose from her crouch. She had been making sure that Aaron's
pressure dressings were still tight and controlling his bleeding.
"Mr. Johnson, calm down. Now I made a promise to this town and to the 
Sheriff that I'd do everything possible to make these woods safe again 
for our kids. And I absolutely mean to do that. But a hunt of this size takes
time, .." she said empathetically spreading her hands wide, "...resources.."
We're going to have to do it Bittner's way or soon there will be more than
just our town's children getting maimed out there. Stealth is the answer,
Nate, quiet stealth. These are DOGS going wild out there, not wolves or
coyotes! They most likely KNOW about people and how to avoid
traditional hunters."

"Yeah? Well that's not good enough Ms. Sommers.. Just how many
little boys have to get shredded like my son here to prove to you
and Blaine that this little domestic wildlife problem's a little more than  
just an isolated incident?!" said the angry father.

There came a moan from the couch. "Daddy?.." said Aaron sleepily.
"Are ..are they really gone? I'm so scared.." and the boy started
crying. "My arms and neck hurt so bad." he sobbed.

Nate Johnson leaned down and cradled his eight year old son and
kissed his forehead. "Shhh. Easy Aaron. The doc will be right out
to give you medicine to make that pain go away. I promise, but right
now he's a little busy with...."

A slap and then the cry of a baby came through the bedroom door that
everyone could hear audibly.. Smack! " Wahhh....*gasp*  WahhhHHHHhh!"

"Now that's more like it..." celebrated Sheriff Bittner as he returned
to the living room. "I tell you the Caines always have fine strong
children when they have a mind to.. Hehe." he chuckled.

Everyone's faces lit up with joyful smiles. Included Mr. Johnson's.
"Do you hear that son? Mary's baby's finally here. Just think. In
a few days, we can invite the Caines over for dinner and ..and 
then you can get start to get to know another future playmate. 
How does that sound?"

But Aaron was beyond consoling. His terror from the feral dog 
attack was still very fresh in his mind. He didn't open his eyes
and he began to tremble. Marco Lopez rose to start a fire
in the Caine's wood stove.

Nate stroked his son's forehead and didn't care when the rain
water from his hair mingled with his tears as he let loose
all his emotions quietly.

Bittner observed Nate and silently motioned to Nicola to join
him at his side. She did, grabbing a sweater and
jeans to slide on over her skirt and plaid top that
she had grabbed from her hastily snatched backpack on the 
way into the house earlier. Blaine's face was grave. 
"The ambulance might be delayed. Now we're gonna haveta 
figure out a way to get all these folks outta here and into town 
so the boy can get the surgery the doc says he'll need
to repair his injuries."

"Sheriff, just how bad is the weather out there?" she
asked softly.

"Bad enough. The valley lowlands are most likely to be flooded 
out. Probably already are. Mable mentioned warnings of the type."

Nicola threw her head up in frustration after pulling on
the thick woolen sweater over her head. "If only we were
at my resort. I've plenty of survival gear and a solid Power Wagon."

Blaine chuckled. "That's my girl. That's why you make such a
good sworn deputy. Always the provider.."

"Well, I'm not providing enough. Blaine, the boy's border line
shocky according to what we've found. If the doc medicates
him, he's not going to be in any shape to go anywhere." she
confessed.

A new voice spoke up from the living room door. "He'll be ready,
Ms. Sommers. " said a newly shirt changed Doc Frick. "I'm
going to start an IV on Aaron right now since my first priority's
been taken care of.. It's a boy..." he said aloud to the room.

Again smiles and celebration filled the air.

"How's he doing?" asked Sheriff Bittner with undisguised glee.

"Terrific. He's a big strapping example of the solid Caine family line."
Frick said proudly." I wouldn't be surprised if he tips the scale
at over nine pounds when we finally get a chance to weigh him."

"Mary?" Nicola asked.

"No complications. At least not birth wise. She became hypoglycemic
because of all of her labor but a good hot meal should take care of that."
Frick admitted. 

"Looks like I'll get a chance to fix one, Doc. We may be stranded. The
storm's gonna flood the area up to our eyeballs.." Ms. Sommers said
dryly.

The doctor's face fell into concern. "Really? I thought this was just
a little downpour."

"Of biblical proportions according to Mable.." Blaine huffed.

"Ok.. uh... I'll get started making Aaron more comfortable right now."
Frick said, scratching his hippy beard absently.

Johnny Gage and Cap quietly crept out of the bedroom and closed
the door behind them.

"I'll go get dinner on." Nicola said, eyeing up the black iron stove
and antique kitchette across the room where they stood.

"I'll help." Stoker volunteered. "Doc, his pulse's been in the 120's
the last few minutes. But that might be because he's still upset."

"Thanks,..uh.."

"Stoker. Fireman Mike Stoker. Nice to finally meet you. Gage
and DeSoto have told me all about you.." he said secretly,
with a wink and he took Doc Frick's hand up in greeting
for a second before joining Nicola huddled inside the frig.

Doc blinked briefly."Looks like my reputation's preceded
myself again I guess. I'll be glad to tell you the REAL stories
Mr. Stoker. Later. Just to set the records straight."

Gage paced over to the Doc's side. "Do you want me 
to start Aaron's IV? Roy says Mary's just about delivered
the baby's placenta."

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll go draw up his Versed for an IV push.
It'll be better than MS if we're going to be packing it out
of here."

"We are?" Johnny startled.

"Yeah..Flashflood's due any hour now. The roads might
wash out before the ambulance gets here." Frick said, with 
resignation.

"Marvelous.. Now I know why I moved to L.A." Gage admitted.

"Why, because of those wonderful ripping Santa Ana
winds you guys suffer every summer?" Frick asked wryly.

"No, because of the lack of Noah's flood coming every spring
like it seems to do up here." Johnny rejoined.

Hank Stanley couldn't help but overhear. He frowned.
Then he turned and got the other firemen's attentions.
"Gang. Go turn the rover around and unload all 
the camp gear we got in it. That'll be our
backup ambulance if they aren't here within the hour."
 
"Right, Cap." Marco said, motioning to Kelly go
come with him for a fast dash outside to get
the white vehicle set for travel. Then he turned to
the doctor. "Will the baby be all right in all this
rain?"

"He'll be fine. We can offset any further breathing
trouble he might have by making an incubator out
of a dresser drawer and a dry cleaner's plastic bag
with an O2 tank. Roy's keeping tabs on his 
condition while Mary finishes up with the afterbirth."

"Want that too?" Gage piped up.

"Yeah, it'll make Mary's ob gyn exam later easier.
I want to make sure she's got through delivery as well 
as I think she did."

"ok, I'll take care of it after I get to Aaron."

"Good deal." Cap said.

Hank waited by the door until a soaking Kelly
and Lopez returned from outside.

"Man, it's raining torrents now." Chet said, 
shaking off rivers of water from a raincoat he
had thrown on from the rover. "Johnny I brought
this coat and your spare for Mary and Aaron if
we need em getting out to the truck and we
parked it at the head of the driveway."

"Thanks, Kelly." Johnny said, hanging up the
I.V. he had begun on the dozing boy onto the
edge of a lampshade above his head. "Doc,
all set for ya."

Doc Frick kneeled to give the boy the medication.
"Nate. This isn't a sedative. This will simply help
Aaron,....not remember his discomfort as soon
as he feels it."

"Thanks, Doc. I appreciate it." Mr. Johnson said.
His eyes were dry and he was calmer now that
a plan of action had been formulated.

"Gage." Frick said.

"Yeah."

"Mark down.." and he looked at his watch.
".03 mgs Versed into that D5W at 16:09 hours.
After his drip runs in an initial 20cc's bolus,  
turn it TKO. He only lost around 300 cc's blood
from his bites before I bound them up. None had 
arterial damage. Have a Ringer's on standby piggy back
if his pressure drops below 80 systolic. No need
for a survey. I already know his history."

"Right." Johnny said, using one of his green pens
that never left his side. He grinned at the luxury
of having a live doctor at hand instead of just a voice
on a phone. "You'll be fine, Aaron. Just give that
medication a chance to work it's magic." he
said to the child.

Aaron Johnson sighed in his sleep and rolled over
a little deeper into his pile of blankets. Nate began to snore, 
too, from where his head drooped onto his chest in an armchair.

Gage rose and began to pack up all the
sheriff's medical gear to take with them.
::I sure hope we don't have to rely on that
ambulance. The rover's far far better at roughing it.::

The thunder booming around them began to recede,
with a drenching solid rain taking its place. Nothing could
be seen outside the windows.

Then the sounds of howls and clicking, pacing claws 
on the wood walkboards outside the house, began.

"Oh, no.." Nicola said from where she froze by the stove.
A snarling doberman was glaring at her through the window.
"Looks like we have company for dinner."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :   Roy, Chet in vacation clothes.

Photo : Roy with a neck injured boy.

Photo : Nicola in a maroon blouse, whirling in fright.

Photo: A small cabin kitchen and window.

Photo: A lunging Doberman, raving made, peering
          over a wooden fence.
 
****************************************************************
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 16:03:54 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Tooth and Nail 
 

"Dag nabbed varmit!" shouted Sheriff Bittner angrily.
"I knew I should have shot the blood hound in
the pack when I had the chance! "

Nate Johnson sat bolt upright in his chair, wrenched
from sleep from a dog's impact on the wall
behind his head. "Aghh! Aaron?" He was horrified by the 
snarling dogs milling around outside. The man picked up
a fire place poker to stand over his son nervously.

Nicola addressed Blaine's comment. "How do you mean?
Why didn't you?"

"I wasn't sure if he was Elmer Rackett's dog sent out
to work out a quail that night or not. I couldn't tell. It was too dark."

That disturbed the whole gang. Even Roy came out
of the bedroom, pulling the door open from where
Mary was nursing her newborn baby. He was immediately
drawn by the look of remorseful regret on the sheriff's face.

"Blood hounds never lose a scent. They've tracked the
boy here." Sheriff Bittner said, drawing out his pistol.

Sure enough, the dogs excited barking was punctuated
with the baying of a coon hound announcing that
he was locked on.

"That one must be the alpha male now." Nicola said.
"I shot the old alpha, a pitbull, who attacked the first town boy, 
a few days ago." Her face twisted in anxiety. "I..I..thought our
problems were ended after I did that. Feral packs always
disband and die off once they lose their leader. They
don't have the same survival instincts to save themselves 
like wolves do."  Her eyes fell on Aaron, lying awake now,
and terrified under his oxygen mask. "I'm so sorry.."
Ms. Sommers whispered, tears filling her eyes.

Nate Johnson rose nervously and immediately went to the
woman's side. "It's not your fault. No one could have predicted
this." and he caressed her arm in forgiveness.

Roy hushed Mary with a gesture when she began to
ask a question. "Cap. What's going on?"

"Remember that lovely chorus of supposed coyotes we were
serenaded by last night?" Hank asked wryly.

"Yeah. They ruined all of our sleeping."

"They weren't harmless coyotes. They're dogs gone
wild. Little Aaron here was their latest target. And
now they're here to try and finish the job." Cap said
low and tense.

"Not if I can help it." Bittner said from where he was
watching the door. "We've got protection." and he hefted
his gun.

Nicola scoffed, rubbing chilled arms around herself, through
her sweater. "Oh, please.. with six bullets? We don't know
how many of them are out there."

"Easy way to find out." Chet Kelly piped up. He turned
towards the bedroom where Mrs. Caine lay on her bed.
"Excuse me, maam?" he asked from where he could
see her. He dipped his head. "Uh, congratulations about
the baby." he broke off, uncomfortable with bothering
the exhausted new mother.

Mrs. Caine nodded, encouraging him to go on with
his question even as she hugged Darren to herself  
tighter as her fear grew.

"Do you have an attic upstairs?" Chet went on.

"Yes."

"May we go up there to look around?" he asked.

"You don't have to ask me for anything, sir.
Do what you must. Keep my baby safe." she
sobbed.

Kelly turned to Cap, who still hadn't put two and two together
yet. "We can open the upper story window and get
on the roof to see how many there are. I know there's one
over the half roof because I saw it when we got here. 
Maybe we can even secure the sheriff out there with ropes 
so he can shoot down a couple. Might scare the rest off."

"Bound to be slippery." Cap said.

"I'm willin to risk it." Blaine replied instantly.

Hank angled his jaw, nodding the more and more
he mulled it over. Then the rising din coming from
the scratching, digging, hunting pack made up his
mind for him. "Lopez help the Doc get Mary and Aaron set to
move. Gage, Stoker, Kelly, come with me and we'll get things
started in the attic. We don't want them still out there
when those ambulance attendants arrive. In fact, we're
no longer gonna wait. Bittner can radio town to cancel the call.
We'll take them out ourselves. It's too dangerous
here now with those animals and all the localized flooding 
going on."

"Right." they answered.

The five men ran up the wooden stairs as fast as
they could go with the sheriff hastily loading his gun.

"Nicola? Would you get the baby into that drawer incubator
the doc talked about.." Gage said as he rushed after
Cap.

"I sure will." she said, untying her apron and turning off
the stove. She hurried into the bedroom to join Roy
at Mrs. Caine's side. "I know my way around medical gear so
maybe I can help out that way, too." she told DeSoto.

Roy nodded. "Now, first things first. We have to get
both of them in as many warm clothes as possible."

Doctor Frick did likewise with his patients in the
living room to get ready to flee with Aaron and Mr. Johnson. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Easy now! We got ya.." Gage grunted as he, Cap, Kelly
and Stoker hung onto the makeshift line holding the sheriff
fast on his feet on the rain streaming roof. The sheriff was
soaked and bedraggled but his aiming eye was true.

He soon ended the life of the questing blood hound in
a second. The gang winced at the yelp that echoed up
to them. Bittner's face was grim. "I got five shots left.
Let me watch them for a while to figure out who are
the aggressive leader types. If I get them, the rest'll run."

Hank nodded. "Take your time. We can hold you all day."

"I know ya can.." Bittner said with confidence and an
undisguised affection for the firefighters. "I've read all
about the kind of training you guys do down in the big city."

The gang watched, uneasy, as the sheriff started assessing
the pack's members. "See that greyhound? She big, but shy.
Her tail's down. She's a follower. Now that German Shepard,
he's been wild a while, his coat's full of burrs and it's patchy
from a fire. Hasn't been one here since last winter. The huskies
are new. They're still wearing their collars. They're no threat and
just along for the game. Probably joined up with the rest of them
this morning. Now there's one. See her boys? That great big 
black dane's rallying them."

He began to squeeze the trigger with the snarling dog in his
sites who had locked eyes on him. A mat of shingle moss gave way
under Bittner's right foot and he went down, his shot going wild,
and he skidded over the edge of the roof. The milling dogs converged
into a knot, racing to where he was falling.

The gang flattened when the bullet bit a chunk of wood frame
inches away from their heads. Kelly yelped, "Don't drop him!"
And they strained to get back onto their feet. Lopez and Stoker
were the first to stand and get the rope wrapping firmly around
their wrists again to arrest Blaine's slide off the roof.

Bittner's hat fell off and hit the muddy ground below. It was
immediately torn apart by the dogs.

Cap called out. "Sheriff, are you all right down there?!"

"Yeah.. Get me up. I still got my gun!  Ahh!" he said as
the Great Dane leaped up and tore one of his pants legs.
"And be quick about it! They're reaching my legs!"

With concerted effort the four firefighters inched up Bittner's
soggy bulk, hand over sweaty hand, until the lawman could 
throw a leg up over the gutter and crawl back onto his hands 
and knees onto the rain streaked cedar shingles.

Thinking a moment, the sheriff threw his line around
the base of the brick chimney for leverage in case he slipped
again.

"You hurt at all?" Hank hollered.

Blaine wiped rain out of his face and ran fingers through
his hair to get it out of his eyes. He looked down at
his shredded pants leg. "Nah." Then he drew out the gun
from his holster again. "I anchored myself round the 
chimney. You boys got some purchase now. Hold me fast!"

And he aimed with great deliberation over a forearm.

Bang! Chinggg..... a bullet riccocheted off Doc Frick's
red station wagon and impacted dead center into the 
black dog's ribcage. The Dane leaped up, bit her side
and then he fell down into a heap and didn't 
move again. "Got you you little piece of Cain.." he whispered
with a tight grin.

"Four left sheriff.." Chet called from the window.

Blaine's sense of irony struck him and he glanced
back at the curly haired fireman with a wave. "I know.
I know young man. Thanks for keeping track.." he joked.

An emaciated Doberman looked up from the hat he
had just urinated on. He connected with Bittner's eyes
and began to growl low in his throat.

Blaine didn't break eye contact. "Sorry I gotta do this
fella. That kind of behavior's just too rude for me. 
You're next in line.." And another shot snuffed out the 
pack member's sad fated life.

Yelping, the others broke and ran around the house
away from Blaine when the Doberman died but
a German Shepard remained behind, standing guard over
her mate's carcass. She, too, growled a warning at the 
man on the roof, her white teeth dripping. 

Sheriff Bittner took careful aim.....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy was just finishing getting the baby into the dresser
drawer resting on the bed, fussing with the oxygen tubing
under the plastic in with the baby, when Mary suddenly
screamed from where she was standing with Marco's help
by the foot of the bed.

A creamy white body burst through the bedroom window in
a shower of glass and water.

The growling filthy dog, knocked the new mother to the carpetting,
attracted by the scent of blood and body fluid on her skin.

Roy snatched up the baby's drawer and tossed it heavily to Marco,
who caught it with blind luck and backed slowly out
of the room. "Mary, don't move!" DeSoto said, spreading his 
arms wide to stave off the dog's growing idea to chase after Lopez.

Mary trembled but lay still on the rug. She flinched when
the growling dog sniffed at her waist and set a paw on her. The whole
time, the dog kept his eyes locked on Roy, who was the only
real threat in the room.

Sniffing, the dog's attention wavered when it smelled the
afterbirth inside a white plastic bag set on the floor. 

There was a sharp recoil of yellow and orange and a puff of
gun powder and the white dog flew backwards into the
wall, dying.

Nicola Sommers stood in the doorway, feet planted apart,
with a gun firmly gripped into both of her hands. She didn't
stop pointing the gun until a book thrown at the curr failed
to rouse it. Then she saw Roy and Mary's frozen looks.
"Nice ranch house. Guns in every corner." she remarked.

Roy unlocked his muscles and knelt by Mary's side when
the woman began to sob uncontrollably from where she
lay on the floor. "Mary, are you all right? Did you hit your
head? Are you hurt anywhere?" 

Mrs. Caine didn't answer, lost in a hysterical outburst of relief.

Doctor Frick and Marco Lopez peeked through the door. 
"Did she get it?"

"Yeah," Roy said, sitting Mrs. Caine up and hugging her
to his chest to calm her down even as he took a pulse at
her wrist. "I think she's ok, too. The dog didn't have time
to bite her." He checked Mrs. Caine's I.V. It was all right
and still running.

"Glad I was watching you, Roy. The baby's upset but the Doc
found no bumps or bruises." Marco said. "Darren's ok, Mary.
Nate's watching him in the living room. He's ok."

Mrs. Caine just sobbed weakily, letting her arms hang limply
by her sides as Roy picked her up into an arm carry out of the
room. "Let's get her out of here. And close that door Marco.
The dog might still be alive."

"I doubt that.." Nicola quipped, rechecking how many shots
she had left in the antique revolver she had found. 

Four shots from upstairs rang out in regular deliberation
faintly. Then it was quiet. Soon the others returned down
the stairs, out of breath and sweating.

Doc Frick saw Bittner's leg and greeted the sheriff with
a warm blanket which he placed around his shoulders.
"What in h*ll did you just do, Blaine. I told you no
heroics with that angina you got.. Come over 
here and sit down!" he said angrily.

Meekly, the dripping sheriff did so. 

"Now open your shirt.." Frick ordered, slipping on a stethoscope.
"How do you feel?"

"Terrific. The worst of them are all dead. And the others
won't be coming back."

"Shh!!" Frick hissed, listening to Blaine's chest.

Chet Kelly's eyes got huge. "You mean we let a man with
a bad heart hang from the roof just now?" 

"Shhh!" Cap shushed. "Let the doc get in his exam."

"It was all my idea. You're free and clear young man.." 
Blaine said as he struggled to slow down his breathing
rate. He was smiling but then his face twisted into one
of pain as his hand absently gripped his gray maned chest.

"Hmm.. thought you could fool me, huh.." Frick said, reaching
into his pocket. He pulled out a bottle of nitro pills and he dug
out one. "Here.. Melt this under your tongue.. Gage, could
you get a pressure on him. We'll see if he needs a second once
after we get our initial BP."

"Sure, Doc. uh... Is he ok?"

"Blaine here? Oh, yeah. He's fine. Did his open heart surgery myself. 
A quadruple bypass. He's unlikely to have another M.I anytime soon. 
That is, if he ever stops thinking he's some kind of Superman. 
That was a really stupid stunt you just pulled on these boys mister
lawman."

"Sue me old bones. Those feral dogs aren't ever gonna seige anyone
else ever again." Sheriff smiled closing his eyes as Stoker set him on 
some oxygen. "All thanks ta me."

"And me.." Nicola glared with mock outrage. "What an ego.
Geesh.." and she crossed her arms together tapping a leather
booted toe on the rug.

"Ok. ok.. I'll give Annie Oakley over there some credit, too. She 
killed the original alpha male, a big rottweiler, when it dragged down
a prize steer last autumn at the Fair Grounds. That's how we
found out about the whole sorry feral dog mess in the first place."

Roy said. "Chalk up one more point for Nicola, Sheriff."

"Huh? What for?"

"She took out one that came through the window at us
in the bedroom."

"It was the cream, Blaine. I told you he was brains behind 
the whole pack. He leaped through the glass and got inside
to get at us just like I said he might do."

"Ooo. well, ok.. You called me on that particular
nasty brand of dog, too. I stand corrected."

"And I'm grateful to BOTH of you." Mary said quietly from her 
arm chair where Marco sat with her. "You get better and recover
fast, Blaine. You've got a christening to go to." she scolded.

"Thank you, Mary.." the sheriff said instantly, cowed.

Gage sat back from where he had taken the sheriff's
blood pressure. "That nitroglycerin lowered his pressure
a little bit. What is it usually?"

"140/98." said doctor and patient simultaneously.

"Well it's twenty millimeters mercury lower than that now.."
Johnny grinned.

"Fine. Blaine, have a second pill. You're still clenching
your teeth." Frick fussed. "Come on now, open wide."

"Aw, Doc. I hate the taste of those things."

"They're better than baby aspirin." Gage quipped.
"Those'll be next if your angina doesn't settle down."

"Nope. Ain't gonna."
Bittner grumbled, shaking his head and fighting 
the doc's attempts to put the pill into his mouth.

Roy smiled. "Say, doc. Got an EKG/Defibrillator 
in that red station wagon of yours? Maybe we
can jolt him into compliance."

Frick rolled his eyes. " I don't think we need it. He's just
being mule headed. I can wait a little longer." he said
parking the pill onto a napkin in his hand so that it wouldn't
start effecting him. "His pulse is very regular. And it'll stay
that way if he stops carrying on like a crazed maniac
at every little crisis cropping up in and out of town."

"Doc, I'm the sheriff!" Blaine protested.

"Who's got a sworn deputy who's so bored for
something to do, that she's redesigning a resort
into a bed and breakfast. Come on. You're sixty nine
years old. And I've already ordered you medically to start
easing off the job responsibilities. Try another little cack handed
stunt like ya did on the roof just now and I swear I'll
turn a report into the Board tendering a request for your
early retirement.." the doctor warned.

"You wouldn't dare.."

"Just watch me.." Frick said without looking away or
lowering his finger.

"Hey,, Blaine. Go ahead and do something stupid.
I kind of like the sound of my future title. Sheriff 
Nicola Sommers. It's got a nice ring to it."

Blaine stuck a tongue out at Nicola.
And Doc Frick immediately tossed in the second nitro pill.

"There's a good boy. Now stay quiet for
ten minutes. Thanks Nicola. That little
schtick works every time."

"Nothing like a man with an overblown pride for his profession."
the young woman grinned toothily.

Blaine's face screwed up at the bitter taste
in his mouth. But he obeyed and didn't say
anything else as he dissolved it and swallowed.

Hank tapped the Doc on the shoulder. "So he's stable.." 

"As a rock. All of this is just precautionary." said Frick
absently of Blaine's oxygen and the nitro pill bottle he
had in his hand.

"Ok. We'll leave when he's pain free again, splitting
up into the three cars. Mr. Johnson's just agreed to help 
get Aaron into the hospital using his vehicle."

"And I got the extra hand held radios we'll use."
Sheriff said, raising a finger, in addition.

"Sweet." Frick said. "Thanks Nate. So the Porsche'll
get a little muddy. So what? It's for a good cause."

"Speaking of cars getting messed, there's a new bullet hole in 
your car, Doctor Frick." Chet said. Mike Stoker slapped him
on the arm for his bold line.

But the Doctor was unsurprised. "Oh, another one? It's not
the first time, boys. The ding'll just add more character.
If it got on target bouncing off my fender, all is fine with me. "

"It did. The head b*tch went down without a hitch."
Blaine nodded.

"Hey, did he just swear a curse word?"
said little Aaron. "Dad, we should tell ol Mable on him."
She'll wash his mouth out with soap for sure."
And the tiny boy started laughing hysterically.

"That the Versed talking?" Nate asked Roy.

"Uh huh.." said DeSoto, burying a chin into his hand.
"Don't worry. It'll wear off in a little bit."

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Twenty minutes later, the three laden cars slowly
made their way onto the highway almost invisible
under a flowing sheet of rainwater.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : A dog snarling over a woman's stomach.

Photo: Roy hefting a child to safety.

Photo: Dead dog in front of a truck.

Photo: A woman with a gun.

Photo: Land rover driving through flood waters.

Photo: An old man on a nasal cannula.

******************************************************************
From:  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Jun 30, 2004  3:41 pm 
Subject:  Let the River Run..
 

"Geez," said Chet at one particular deep section
of water lying across the road. "I hope they know
where they're going up there." he bemoaned to his coworkers
in the land rover about the silver porsche in front of
their three car convoy. They were last in line, following
Frick's eccentric red wagon. Johnny didn't say anything, 
thoroughly concentrating on the road ahead of them. 
Already, it was barely visible in the building rain and darkness
surrounding them.

Marco still clutched the handy talkie that was one of three
that linked Nate's silver porsche, Doc Frick's red
station wagon and Gage's truck all together. 
"Johnny, Roy says that the baby, Aaron and Mary
are doing just fine. He's already gotten permission from Doc 
Frick to discontinue the two I.V.'s on the boy and the mother."

"Thanks." Gage replied, not moving his eyes from
the car in front.

Cap sighed, keeping his eye as well on the red fender of
the station wagon Frick was driving. The doc had Sheriff
Bittner as a passenger so he could keep an eye on
his heart pain.  "Nate Johnson said that he knew the high 
places to travel during storms like this. We're just going 
to have to trust him to know what he's doing men. If
you think about it, only a local would know their way 
around these parts come nightfall."

"Doesn't mean I have to be comfortable with it." Kelly
grumbled. "You should've sat with them, Cap."

"Not my place to. The Sheriff's in charge of this rescue
operation. Whether we like it or not, we're just along for
the ride." Hank added, rubbing his damp nose.

Mike Stoker gripped Cap's seat back and said.
"Let's just hope we make town as soon as possible.
I don't like the look of the mountainside to our left. 
Last sign we passed said  'Danger, Rockfall.' "

"You're a bundle of comfort, Stoker. That's my side
of the car." Kelly quipped, sinking down into his seat 
a little lower under his rain gear.

"Better than my side near the drop off." Mike replied 
cheekily.

Gage said loudly,, "Hang on!" and he swerved the
five firefighter's rover around a fallen tree trunk.

Chet hit his head. "Owww! Gage. Watch it!"

"I AM watchin it. " Johnny panted.  "Just shut up and 
let me drive or maybe you'd like to do this instead?" 
Gage glared into the rear view mirror. 

"Cut it out you, two." Cap ordered. "Kelly, he's doing
fine so hush. Make yourself busy with reading a map
or something if you're bored."

"I'm not bored.." Chet parroted. "Lopez, did I say
I was bored?"

"Not exactly, but you're a little too fidgety for my liking." 
admitted the spanish fireman.

"Thanks alot, amigo, same to you. If you roll down
that window one more time checking to see how
hard it's still raining I'm gonna--"

"Do nothing, Chet. And I mean now..!" Hank snarled.

All the men crowded in Johnny's muddy rover piped
down. They knew when they had crossed a line
when they heard that voice from Hank, on or off duty.

"Thanks, Cap. Now maybe I can avoid obstacles a little
easier.." Johnny huffed. "Is his head ok?" he asked
of Kelly.

"Right as it's ever gonna be." Hank admitted, still 
pinning Chet into vocal silence with his glare. 

"Ok. Just asking.." Johnny said, missing the joke
entirely as he fought road and water.
"Just passed a sign giving mileage distances.
Looks like we've only got nine left to go before
we hit town."

--------------------------------------------------------------

Roy continually checked with Mary Caine and
her new baby still inside the improvised dresser
drawer incubator sitting on Nicola's knees. He had
little Aaron in his lap where his body heat
could keep the child warm and away from the
chilled seat leather of his father's Porsche. 

"We've only one bridge crossing to go, Mr.
DeSoto, then we'll gain some elevation
away from all this flash flooding." Mr. Johnson
said as he gripped his cow skin wrapped steering 
wheel.

Roy nodded.

Nicola drew her wool sweater around her shoulders
a little closer about herself as night fell. There
wasn't another set of headlights anywhere on
the mountain above them that she could see.
"Do you think they've already evacuated the
valley's highway because of the warning? I'm
not seeing anybody out there."

"Check with the sheriff. He said Doctor Frick's
got a CB radio in his car that can link with the weather
station." Roy replied, handing Ms. Sommers the
police HT he had used earlier to talk to Lopez 
and the Doc.

Nicola palmed the radio, and hailed. "Sheriff, got
your ears on?"

##Yep. As if I'd EVER not have them tuned in, little lady.##
he answered back from the red station wagon behind
Nate's car. Despite some stress, his voice still sounded
cheerful to Nicola over the walkie talkie.

"How're the roads on the broadcast radio, Bittner? 
The way ahead looks deserted to us on the higher 
grades." she asked.

##They are. Just got word from Mable. No driving
is advised. People who were stuck in town are taking 
shelter at the hospital to wait it out.##

"So they know we're coming?" Nicola asked double checking.

##Absolutely. The fire department's waiting on the outskirts, 
set for an intercept. They'll be the manpower we'll need
to switch out our patient transport vehicles. I've ordered both 
ambulances to report, too.##

"Ok, Nicola out." and she released the talk button.
She tapped Nate on the shoulder across the driver's
seat. He turned his head. "Just us out here. You
won't have to worry about people coming down 
the mountain at us, Nate. Blaine's just confirmed it."

"Great. Clear sailing. Did you hear that, son?" he said. 

"Mmmm.." Aaron mumbled sleepily.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The river between the mountain and the town
was an angry morass of brown and froth. It
lapped at the foot of the bridge span hungrily
as it spun shattered debris and trees against
the girders.

Nate Johnson slowed his acceleration and flashed
his lights so the two cars behind him would know
to do the same. "No police barricades yet. Good,
we can go across."

"Nate, wait. I don't think I've ever seen the river
this high before. Something's not right." Nicola
said.

Roy looked up from where he was holding
the sleeping Aaron in concern. He drew up a hand
and rubbed out a steamy place on the window to
look out. "Do you see cracks on the bridge asphalt?"
he asked Sommers.

"No.. it's ...call it intuition guys. I don't care. I think
the flooding's higher out there than it looks."

"Let's take a vote.." Nate said. "Radio the others."

Soon, everyone knew about Nicola's misgivings.

But then Mary said. "Please, Darren can't wait.
He needs rest somewhere warm and safe. This
car's no place for a newborn. I say we go on
and into town. The sooner the better."

##All right, Mary, if it's what you want." said Sheriff
Bittner over the radio. #Nate, you heard the lady.
Vamanos.##

The three cars travelled cautiously onto the small 
steel and concrete bridge stretching across the
valley. Just beyond, they could see town.

The first car got to the other side. There, the banks 
were already overflowing the wetlands at the bridge's foot.  
To Johnson, the sheeting water just looked like a thin
veneer over the road.  He inched forward.

Suddenly Nate's car dropped into the swift water over the road. 
It was far deeper than he realized and the Porsche 
began to slide sidewise off the highway with the flood water
up to the bottom of the car doors. Mary began to scream.

"No!" yelled Doc Frick, who floored the gas on 
the heavier station wagon. His momentum missed connecting
with the Porsche in an attempt to push the lighter car 
to high ground, and he overshot Nate, screeching
across the wet exposed road just beyond.

The doc and sheriff leaped out of the red car to run to the
edge of the water where Nate's car was floating away.
"Nate! Roll down your windows. Before you sink!"

Johnny gunned his gas pedal, to reach the safety
of the far bank like Frick had done.

But the country bridge's concrete bed suddenly 
dropped on its cables, its suspended road way tilting 
sharply when an unseen submerged house hit it with its
full water logged weight. The force jolted Johnny's land rover 
over the edge and into the river's depths.
  
Soon, the sheriff and the doctor, were alone by
the red wagon, perched precariously on the drowning
highway partially swallowed by the raging river, screaming
the names they knew at the night, listening for a reply.
 
There was none returned except the full throated 
roar of the flood as it destroyed the river bridge.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Roy in a car holding an injured boy's bleeding neck.

Photo :  A rainy bridge from inside a car.

Photo :  A flooding river.

Photo :  Johnny's land rover, underwater.

Photo :   A struggling man under water.

*************************************************************
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, July 1, 2004 12:39 AM 
Subject :  Separation 

Johnny felt the land rover shift under his
hands. "We're going over! Watch o--"

But then the white truck was plummeting down
like a stone underneath the wild night river's surface.

Cap gasped when the car landed on its side
on the river's bottom. His ears hurt from
the water pressure but he could still see lightning
reflecting from the sky down to them. "Everyone
all right?!" he coughed, feeling in the pitch blackness
for movement in the seats around him. "Tell me you're all
still conscious.. Hey..sound off!" he shouted over the 
hiss of water seeping in gushes from the window 
cracks into the cab of the rover.

"Yeah.."
"oh my g--"
"What happened?" 
"*sputter choke* Still here."

"The bridge gave way and we fell in. " 
Cap said, spitting mud and water out of his mouth. 
"Gage? You ok?"

"uh,, yeah.. I'm not pinned."

"Good cause we're gonna get out of here. Now.
Before we get hung up on any debris on the bottom.
Stoker. Grab that tire iron. Take a window out. My
side's turned up. Feel it?" Hank strained as he cut
himself lose from his seatbelt with a pocket knife.

"Yeah.." coughed the engineer. "How far's the surface?"

"Not too far. I'm seeing a glow from the lightning."

Kelly was terrified, "Not....ready..." he cried softly.
"I ...can't breathe.."

Marco grabbed him by the shoulders and hauled
him into his arms. "You're fine. You aren't hurt.
I already checked ya. We'll go up together."

"No.. please just wait. I ...can't. I don't think I
can do this." Chet gasped, hanging on tight
to Lopez's arms from where he lay across the car seat.
Water rained down on his face, blinding him.

"Ok.. ok.." Cap said, floating nearer the top end of
the rover's cab as the water grew deeper around them.
"We got rope in here?"

"Yeah. " Lopez said.. "I'll go get it." and he dove underneath
the black water to the back of the rover in the storage area.
He shot back to the top with a coiled length.

Gage snatched Chet's head and pulled him onto his shoulder,
floating both their faces in the remaining air space above them.
"Chet. Start to hyperventilate yourself.. You're gonna need
to because you're getting yourself worked up."

"What? *gasp* Of course I'm getting worked up! We're
about to drown in a raging river who knows how deep and--"

"No one's gonna drown cause we're gonna tie ourselves together."
Cap thundered. "Marco, here. Get him secured and Gage too. I already 
got myself anchored in a hitch. Set? Ok, Mike, pop it open. On the count 
of three."

"Too soon.. I'm not--!" Chet sputtered, tight in Johnny's grip.

"One.." Hank nodded grimly to Stoker.

"Cap.. don't .. I--" Chet pleaded.

"Two..."

"....can't catch my breath. I'll suck down water
for sure and die.. I just need a little more t--"  Kelly begged.

"THREE!"  Cap shouted.

Stoker swung at the window above them with
all of his strength.

" AghhhhHHHHHH!" Kelly screamed as
the river flooded in. The five hapless firemen were
swept out of the under water land rover and carried 
downstream inside the twisting river's under tow. 

Swimming blindly, Cap felt a yank on his rope 
as they were all tugged and tumbled in the current. 

A hidden tree limb smashed into his ribs and he lost most 
of his air. Desperation made him kick frantically in the 
direction that his escaping bubbles were now travelling in 
the water. 

Up.

Hank's head broke the surface into a storming,
fast moving h*ll.

The pine forest rushed by as the river carried the
firemen swiftly in its grip. Near them, the great bulk
of the sunken house that had ruined the bridge, paced them 
at their same drifting velocity.

He moved away from the house, worried about
getting himself and his men crushed against it when it
finally ground to a halt on a shallow bottom.

One by one, the other heads of his men shot
to the surface, and he heard them begin to gasp 
as they struggled to replenish precious air back
into their burning lungs. "All here?" Hank asked.

Gage shouted. "Cap! Chet's out cold."

"Did he get nailed by something on the way up?" Hank 
said as all of them linked arms, passing the limp Kelly
into the center of their floating circle so they could keep
his mouth and nose up into the air more easily.

"I don't think so, nothing got me." Johnny said.
"Maybe he just fainted. He was pretty scared down
there."

"So were we all. Keep tabs on his breathing. The rest of
us'll kick for shore. Gather the rope's ends back up. I
don't want us to get dragged back under on a snag."

Johnny shook extra water out of his hair.
"Ok, Stoker,.. open his shirt. I wanna keep tabs on him 
by feel. Marco, make sure he isn't bleeding anywhere."

"Right." they answered.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nate was horribly frightened. "Freeze. Everybody don't move!"
he panicked as the vibrating lurch of his tires dragging sideways
ended. In a blur, he saw the red station wagon and Doctor
Frick and the Sheriff recede into the distance as his car 
was gripped by the flood.  "Get the baby out!  Aaron?!"

Mr. Johnson reached for his son as water spilled violently 
into the car.

Roy hefted the infant over his head, wrapping Darren 
up in the plastic covering that had been over the drawer.
"Mary.. get out the window. I've got him. Nicola?!"

The Porsche slammed into a tree trunk and hung there,
canted sharply up stream. Roy got out and found
the water was to his waist. He held Darren in his
arms and Mary waded out, terrified but watching
DeSoto holding the baby. 

A shout from the shore showed Doctor Frick and Sheriff
Bittner flinging a rope in their direction. Roy grasped it
and handed it to Mary. "Go. I'll hand him off..." he 
ordered, fighting to stay on his feet in the swift water.

Mary went and Roy tossed Darren over his head
to land safely in Bittners wide arms. The baby squealed
in fright but soon calmed down as he was taken up
by his mother's soothing hands.

Roy waded back out to the car where he could
see a partially submerged Nate shoving his
son out the driver's window. Of Nicola, there was
no sign. "She still in there?"

"I ...I...I don't know.." sputtered Nate Johnson.
"I think she got out." 

Roy made a grab for Aaron's arms and snatched
the boy up to the shore. "Take him." DeSoto told
Bittner. " I gotta get--"

Then the Porsche suddenly rolled out of sight, carrying
a screaming Mr. Johnson and an invisible Ms. Sommers 
with it. "Nate! Nicola!"  The power of the current startled him.

DeSoto dove back into the swollen river, 
tying the sheriff's rope around his waist. He ducked under
the waves, holding his breath, and felt the car slip over a 
muddy bar and away from him downstream. 

At the same time, a shard of bridge material shot by and 
sliced his safety rope in two with knifelike precision.

Roy disappeared.

Sheriff Bittner and Doctor Frick ran down the shoreline,
tracing where they could see the tumbling silver Porsche
log rolling in the rapids, calling out to them frantically.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nicola Sommers coughed and roused. She was on her back,
at the very edge of the raging river. She barely remembered 
pulling Nate Johnson free of the car before it sank into the depths.  

Dimly, she remembered that she had heard a loud sound on shore
after she had dragged a limp Mr. Johnson onto the bank.

It had been a dry rasping buzz that made her recoil in fright. 
Soon after, something unseen in the darkness had struck her 
left hand sharply.

Groggily peering down, Nicola saw only a small smear of blood there. 
The slight wound she found burned only faintly, but her heart 
was pounding.

::Where is he?:: Sommers wondered, dizzy, about Nate. She
 winced, when a lump the size of a grape on her temple, argued 
with her louder than her throbbing hand. ::And what's that awful
smell?:: she thought, shaking her head to come more
fully awake.

With her eyes, muzzy and unfocused, she realized that she
was just below the water treatment plant. It was
still  completely storm unscathed and the raw sewage stench 
coming from the reservoir pools swirling at the top of the hill 
was as strong as ever. Nicola gagged.

Sneezing, she flipped over onto her hands and knees to
clear her mouth out of foul tasting mud.

Her right hand bumped into Nate Johnson's waist.
He was lying motionless and blue next to her under a knot
of severed electrical wire. "Oh, G*d." she cried and scrambled 
for his head. "Mr. Johnson?!"

He didn't react to a firm chest rub so she leaned down and listened
over his cobalt lips, opening his airway carefully. ::Hypothermia?::  

No sounds of active breathing rewarded her. "It's worse 
than that? Nate. Don't do this." she mumbled to herself.

Nicola gave him two breaths of air mouth to mouth and then
she dug a set of fingers into his neck. She verbally snapped, 
angry, but also half fearful. "Nate. Cut it out and breathe.
You gotta live for your son. No way am I gonna let you 
stay and almost drown like this."

Seconds later, she confirmed that Mr. Johnson's heart
had stopped. "Nate! You're out of the water!" she shouted
"Come on. Snap out of it." and she began to administer CPR
after freeing him from his mud smeared shirt.

After the next set of breaths, Nicola shouted for help into the 
dripping, still functioning HT dangling around her wrist. 
"Sheriff?!  Doc?!  Nate's down! No pulse. I'm just south of 
the bridge junction about... two hundred yards. Right
below Pig's Eye Plant. He either drown or a power line 
got him."

##Any sign of Roy DeSoto?## 

Nicola shifted around, searching, as she continued her
efforts.

"No. None... I haven't seen him since the bridge fell."
Nicola gasped as she continued to maintain Nate. 
"Hurry. I don't think I can keep this up much longer.
I've hit my head among other things."

##We'll be right there!## the sheriff promised. 
##The wagon's intact..##

Nicola counted off a minute, two minutes, then five
as the world narrowed down into a tight focus until it was just 
the lifeless man lying underneath her palms. "Nate.. Come back." 
she gasped. "You picked a stupid place to die in. The air's foul.
Dead fish everywhere.  This whole beach's a complete
sh*thole. Disgusting! Pick it up, d*mmit!" she gagged,
still working hard on keeping her compressions effective.

Doctor Frick and the Sheriff came running down the hill,
skidding and grimacing at the smell of the treatment
plant, laden with all the medical gear they could carry.

"Down here! He's gonna need an esophageal. He's getting
tight with inhalations."

Frick and Bittner soon took over for Nicola who gratefully
staggered a short distance away, finally allowing herself
to get sick onto the flood soft mud as she let her roiling stomach 
take over. Then she folded into a heap, falling unconscious.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy DeSoto sped through the darkness in the river, his strength 
waning. His outdoor clothes constantly caught on trees and
debris floating around him. So he shed all of them down
to his bare skin, including his shoes, saving only his orange rain 
jacket for some protection when he finally got to shore. 

Ten minutes and many bruises later, a struggling plow horse
nearby in the water got his attention and he grabbed its mane, 
letting the exhausted but placid animal swim him to what 
appeared to be a boat landing mooring site.

Shuddering off its excess water and mud, the big brown horse fled, 
leaving Roy to stagger on his own out of the water.

 A renewed roar behind him made Roy run faster away from the 
flooding river as the bridge and the house that had pulverised it made 
the flood surge even higher up the mountain slopes. 

He fled with icy rising water lapping at both of his bare heels. 

Minutes later, after a period of unthinking panic, DeSoto realized that 
he was in town, inside a city park. A sign was posted declaring a roadside 
shelter a few hundred yards away. 

Groaning, Roy limped slowly in that direction, wondering whether 
or not his coworkers and the other Santa Rosa folks, had survived.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doc Frick worked on reviving Nate with his defibrillator
while Bittner gathered up Nicola into his arms to
figure out what was wrong with her. "Doc, she doesn't
look so good."

"How so?" Frick said, giving Nate another jolt from
the defibrillator. The second time rewarded him with a viable 
rhythm. "Gotcha." He smiled when Mr. Johnson also began to 
breathe through his EOA. "Blaine, set her down over here before 
you strain yourself into another angina attack."

Bittner shrugged and set her down, placing her head into his lap.
"She's ok vitals wise. Just not awake." he puzzled.

"I'll take a look at her as soon as I take a set of vitals
on him. Why don't you get on the horn and tell those
ambulance boys to meet us here at the plant?"
Frick suggested.

"Good idea, doc." and Blaine dug the walkie talkie out
of his pocket to hail them.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The gang had freed themselves from the flood.

They were walking down the rainy highway towards the direction 
of the bridge crossing they had been swept away from almost 
fifteen minutes ago. 

Chet had recovered fully from his misadventure and was gabbing as 
fast as he usually did to the other four firemen with him.
"So the Porsche took a dive, too?" Kelly wanted to know. "Oh man. 
If they went as deep as we did, they're goners for sure. I didn't see 
any tire iron in the back of Mr. Johnson's car when we were
loading it earlier."

The unwelcome speculation grated on Johnny. 
"Chet.  Thank you for bringing up such an unpleasant thought.
My partner was in that car."

Kelly immediately amended. "Oh, but I have every faith in
the world that DeSoto bailed all of them out. He's a big
guy, Johnny. One of the biggest. I don't see a flimsy
car window standing in the way of--"

Marco Lopez interrupted him. "I keep thinking about the
baby."

That made Chet and the others go silent.

Cap filled the pause with a quiet bit of wisdom. 
"Let's just cross that bridge when we come to it.."

"We did.." Chet said furlatively. He wasn't trying
to be funny. "And look where it got us? Roy's
missing along with Nicola, Mary, Nate, Aaron and
the baby. I just hate to think of what might've happened
to all of them, not just little Darren."

Hank studied the road and just listened to the sound
of all their soggy footfalls as their water logged shoes
paced the pavement as they walked. "Ok, let's talk
about something positive, all right? What's something
that we've never talked about before, huh?"

"Gee, I don't know, Cap." Gage said quietly, trying
to smile for everyone's benefit. "Being together so
long, there really isn't anything we haven't covered."

"Yeah, Johnny's right." Mike Stoker said.

"Ditto." nodded Marco.

Hank was firm and insistent and he sighed.
"We've got at least ten minutes walking until
we get to where we lost the others. And I'd do
anything to pass the time more quickly. Don't
you? Come on, gang. We can think of something
new.  I know.. why don't we talk about....."

---------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Family in a flashflood with plastic wrapped baby.

Photo: Man and boy in a flooded truck.

Photo: Girl doing CPR on a man.

Photo: A rattler biting in a strike.

Photo: The gang laughing.

****************************************************
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 10:25:59 +0100 (BST) 
From: "Katherine Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>    
Subject:  Fish Out of Water.. 


"..the fact that we're gonna find Roy before dawn.." said
Chet with sudden finality and conviction.

Hank blinked, actually pausing in his tracks.
"Oh, ..uh, yeah. That's a positive statement."

"And it's new." Marco agreed.

Johnny Gage rubbed his nose. "Scared me
for a minute, Chet. For a second there, I thought
we were going to have to fess up to each
other about how we all became firemen."
and he grinned a cock eyed grin.

"Now why would I do a dumb thing like that
Johnny? Knowing why you do what you do
for a living is sort of personal, isn't it?
I'd never violate that sacred trust." Kelly nodded 
solemnly. 

Gage stopped Chet with a finger. "Now wait
a minute. You mean all those years of..of..of
baiting me with practical jokes as the Phantom
and all that other stuff weren't abuses of the
trust between friends?" he emphasized throwing
fingers back and forth from himself to Chet in
a gesture to clarify his point.

Kelly mulled it over, wiping mud off an elbow.
"No.." he said mildly. "Come on, the big guy's
waiting." he said and he led the way ahead of
the gang along the road leading back the way
they had come. "Every second we delay is
a second longer not knowing what's happened to
him. Get the lead out!" he boomed over the thunder
sizzling around them and he swept an arm forward
to rally the rest of them.

"This coming from a man who was a snivelling
nervous wreck half an hour ago." Mike marvelled.

"That's because forty feet of muddy river water isn't 
flowing over his head right at the particular moment."
Gage said wryly to Cap, shrugging.

Johnny began to whistle as he nonchalantly followed
after Kelly.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Doctor Frick was satisfied with Nate Johnson's progress
out of near death. He heard only residual rales in
the man's chest. "Most of the water's already absorbed
Blaine. I won't need albuterol."

"How's his heart? Wasn't he down a long time?"
Bittner wanted to know.

"We won't know that until we run his lab tests at
the hospital when we get there. Now.. let's see how
Nicola's doing..." he said, reaching to do a head
to toe survey on her.

"Ho! Doc! I'm all right." shouted DeSoto, jumping out
of a tan police car. He was wearing dry clothes, jeans
and a gray button down shirt. "I got a ride back from
the highway patrolman coming to barricade off 
the bridge causeway. Only I told him the causeway
was already gone." Roy grinned. Then his smile
immediately fell away when he saw Nate intubated
and Nicola deeply unconscious. "What's their story?"
he said snatching up a pen light to check out Sommers
when the Doc pointed to her first. 

"Nate was nearly drown. Nicola found him in full arrest
and kept him going until Blaine and I arrived with
the defibrillator. Now, she's just collapsed after
getting sick."

"Not surprising with that around.." Roy said,
throwing a head toss towards the treatment
plant. "Gotta love that country air.." he quipped.
"Speaking of a hospital. The ambulance crew following
us encountered Mary and Darren and Aaron. 
They're already on their way into town. They'll be 
back for all of us.."


"That's a relief. I haven't checked Nicola over yet beyond 
the primary." Frick told him. "Could you finish up?"

"Sure will." Roy said, grabbing shears out of a bag.

The CHiP was speaking to Blaine a short distance
away about the ETA of the two ambulances Roy
had promised them.

"Can I help?" said another voice. It was Johnny.
"My are you a sight for sore eyes." Gage sighed in
relief when he got close enough to see who clustered
on the beach. He crouched right away and began to
cut away Nicola's sleeves and pants legs next to Roy.

"Two are faster." Roy smiled. "Her story's a mystery.
Doc here says she was lively enough to perform some
CPR on Nate over there but then blacked out soon
afterwards. Doc said that she became extremely nauseated
fairly quickly." he told Gage.

"Not the air?" he said wrinkling his dirty nose.

"Nope. It's something else.." Frick said. "Bad smells don't
make people faint."

"But bad sights do." Cap said as the rest of them caught up
with Johnny from the road.

Kelly cleared his throat nervously. "Aww, Cap. Do you have
to tell him?"

"Fraid I do, Chet.  Syncope's nothing to shake a stick at,
especially when one was under water doing it." Hank said.

"Chet fainted?" Roy frowned.

"Yeah." Marco said. "For a whole six or seven minutes.
We had to swim him ashore."

"Chet, is your chest clear? How's your head?" DeSoto
asked rapidly.

"Yes and fine. Concentrate on Nicola and Nate buddy boy.
I'm far from being a casualty." Kelly said no nonsense,
setting some O2 over Sommers face from the doctor's
satchel. 

"Hang on a minute Chet, I have to check something."
DeSoto said. He crouched over Nicola and peeled back
her lips to find cyanosis and a growing ecchymosis building
along her gums inside of her mouth.

Johnny saw it, too, holding the young woman's mask.
"A toxic exposure of some kind?"

"Who knows in that water.." Marco said.

"The water treatment plant's perfectly fine, Marco, or it 
wouldn't still be in operation." Chet told him. "Gotta be
something else."

"Bingo.. " said Johnny. "Doc, take a look at this."
and he shivered. "Thought I smelled one on her."

"Smelled what Gage?" Mike Stoker asked, kneeling
by Nate's head to monitor him.

"Snake. Looks like a bite on her left hand. And it's
bleeding freely."

"Into a vein.." Frick said, taking a look. "Most likely a
rattler. We've got a ton in the river bottoms. The flood
must've washed one out from under the bank hollows."

Frick noticed Johnny's complexion. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I...just have a bad history with snakes.
That's all. It was a rattler that nearly kept me from
reaching my twenty eighth birthday."

Frick nodded. "Constricting band. And lower her arm
below her heart. Start an I.V. Ringers on her and run it
wide open. Her vital signs are shocky and her rate's
well into the AV tach range."

Roy said. "Got it here. Want me to lance this and apply
suction?" he said, indicating the snake bite on the woman's
hand.

"Nah, it's too late at this stage of the game. She was
exerting herself and anything the venom's gonna do, it's
already well on the way to doing it." Frick sighed.
"I'll be sure to get ten to twenty vials of antivenin set once
we get into the ER."

"What kinds of tests do you want?" Johnny said
holding Nicola's head back so her harsh breathing came
more easily. "I can tell them once we get there to free
you up."

"Oh, the same as what your city docs usually order. A CBC, 
PT, a PTT, electrolytes, glucose, and a renal function 
study series." he said.

"Don't forget to marking my skin at the leading edge of the bite 
with a pen every 15 to 30 to find coagulopathy and progressing
edema.." mumbled the woozy girl on the ground.

Gage smiled. "Welcome back." he said releasing her head.
"Now don't make me have to tell you to keep still or to keep
this oxygen on your face." He held her down when she
remembered Mr. Johnson.

"Nate?!" Nicola shouted, her memory returning.

"Nate's fine. He's got a pulse and he's breathing on his own."

Nicola fixed Roy and Johnny with a stare. "Now why do
I have to keep from moving? I didn't hurt myself."

"No, but a certain scaley one did Ms. Sommers. A snake got
your hand."

Nicola let her head clunk back onto the ground. "Oh, so
that's what it was.. a diamondback."

"You certain of that?" Dr. Frick said, drawing a red top
from Nicola's arm when he started to hear the sound
of sirens growing in the distance.

"I'm more than sure. I heard the d*mned rattling before
a tree limb landed on my head." she said empathetically.
Then she winced when Roy applied a tourniquet to her
forearm above the bite. "How's Mary and Darren?"

"Safe. Most likely in a warm hospital bed as we speak."
Blaine said, turning from the CHiP officer he had
been speaking to about everyone's adventure in the flood.

"Boy that sounds good." Sommers sighed, falling asleep. 
"I think I'll doze and make it happen faster."

"Roll over on your side, Nicola. In case you get an upset
stomach again." Frick told her.

Nicola was beyond hearing already, so Gage and Roy
gently turned her underneath the blankets that the highway
patrol officer had given them.

"She goes first. Nate's stable." Frick told the paramedics.

Johnny and Roy nodded.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was four days later and it was nearly the end of the gang's
luckless vacation week.

"Boys, " said Blaine over chili at Rosie's. "Let me make it
up to you. There ain't no finer fishing guide here than Ms
Sommers." he professed.

Nicola cradled her arm in its sling, blushing."Well, what else
have I got to do but fish in the summer time. It's not like
I'm busy in school or anything then." she admitted.
"I'd be happy to take you out on the lake. I know where
all the holes are. Like lake trout?" she said leaning into
Cap.

Hank swallowed dryly. "Uh, maybe that's a question for
my men, Ms. Sommers.  They're the ones who think
they can eat em.."

Nicola redirected her eyes at the gang.

"Oh, I like them just fine, maam." said Marco.
"Sure do.." said Chet.
"When I can catch em.'' Johnny chuckled honestly.
"Only when my wife fixes em up." Roy admitted.
"Or when I do..." Stoker followed up on the cooking
comment.

"How do you boys prepare them?" asked Doctor Frick.
"You haven't lived until you've slathered them in Pabst
batter and have them deep fried on a griddle over a camp 
fire. Maybe we can do that tonight at the campsite."

"Sure.. It'll take at least until morning for the rental
car company to run another truck out to us to
haul the camper back to L.A. on Saturday." Hank
accepted for his men.

"Great. It can be a beach party."

"Just as long as I don't have to get wet or
anything like that to attend." Kelly goggled 
distastefully.

"Not unless you want to." Nicola soothed.

"Or unless the boat tips over again, dumping
us in like it did last time." complained Lopez.

"You guys tipped over that night?" Gage said,
smiling like a hawk over a rabbit.

"Yeah, off the point. Guess we must have been
out of eye range." Marco detailed.

"Kelly, no wonder you were so cagey when you guys raced
up the beach to help us with Stoker's outhouse fire.
You had just had another water scare. Explains why
you overreacted today in the river."

"Not very d*mned funny Gage." Chet said with only
half heat. "Ask anyone here. I didn't overreact at all."

"Oh yeah? Then why were you the only one who
checked out getting free of my rover?" Johnny challenged.

"I.......I... had trouble breathing, that's all. Stoker wailed
out that window faster than I could get ready for it."
Chet said defensively.

"You were breathing fine when we all hauled you
up to the top.." Stoker chipped in. "You didn't sound
like any dypsnea case I've ever heard. He had smooth 
pipes, Gage. Real smooth. The whole time."

"Thanks for sticking up for me, Stoker. I'll remember that
the next time you draw chrome detail before a monthly
inspection." Chet gestured pointedly.

Soon, the gang was debating semantics with each other
at the top of their lungs, gleefully and deadly passionate, 
while a contented Hank watched on.

Dr. Frick reached over and shook Cap and Roy's hand.
"Looks like you've been thoroughly initiated by Santa
Rosa County now. You've been baptized in our waters."

"Some more than others.." quipped Nicola, making a face
as she remembered the Pig's Eye plant.

"Well, be that as it may. I'm sure glad we stopped by." Hank
admitted. "You were just what these city fireboys ordered."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Photo : Woman fainted with two above her.

Photo: A fat brook trout.

Photo: Roy, Blaine and Johnny eating chili.

Photo: A fisherman landing a fish in a net.

Photo:  A row of resort cabins.

Photo: Roy in a cowboy hat.

Photo: Nicola Sommers with a sheepish look.

****************************************************************

FIN

                 
                       End Credits --  Episode Eleven  (Second Season)
                                      
                                      Shadows Of The Past

              :)   This episode is dedicated to the EMSLive.com website             :)
                    for providing superior online paramedic radio programming 
              :)    through out Canada and abroad.                                                :)                                                                                                                          


Guest Writers...
---------------

Maggie H                   hutchtx@comcast.net 
Deana Shaffer          DJSBuick@aol.com
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Sam Iam                    lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
 
 
**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

P. K. Johns     For Sheriff Character Name from real Emergency TV Episode
Patti Keiper    Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota 
 

Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  KSuth3401@aol.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 
 
"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To Deana Shaffer     djsbuick@aol.com
For Naming The Eleventh Episode :)

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season Two   Episode Eleven

                  Shadows Of The Past

-------------------------------------------------------------

Peaceful Village Midi  by Savanahue

Bring Me To Life Midi by Evanescence

Nightstorms Midi by Grant H Joung
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________



********************************************************************
***This current episode has just completed.

***Keep watching here daily for episode
***installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

----------------------------------------------------

To view the following, YOU MUST ENTER...

User ID : squad51

Password : responding

After clicking the episode's link..

----------------------------------------------------

To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fullmoonblues1.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.

or

http://www.itasca.net/~mstash/ETL02001/
**Location to the same episode in a turning page
book style program online.

----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fatherandson1.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/juxtaposition1.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/withinsight1.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/integritygame1.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------

To see the sixth episode and what we did in
the month of March. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Six
The Golden Horn

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thegoldenhorn1.html
**Location to the Sixth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

------------------------------------------------------

Special Episode 2003..
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thefaceinthemirror1.html
**Location to a Special Episode launched at
the midpoint of our first theater season. Features a
theater host's written episode with images
and screengrabs following the storyline.

The Face In The Mirror..

---------------------------------------------

To see the seventh episode and what we did in
the month of April. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Seven
Crazy Days

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/crazydays1.html
**Location to the Seventh Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------

To see the eighth episode and what we did in
the month of September. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Eight
The Promise

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thepromise1.html
**Location to the Eighth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.
---------------------------------------------

To see the ninth episode and what we did in
the months of January through March 2004. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Nine
Green Pen Of Johnny's

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/johnnysgreenpen1.html
**Location to the Ninth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.
----------------------------------------------

To see the tenth episode and what we did in
the months of April through May 2004. Click the link below.

Season Two, Episode Ten
From Loaves To Fishes

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fromloavestofishes1.html
**Location to the tenth Episode of the theater's
second season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

_______________________________________

This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Eleven,  Season Two
 

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : June 1st, 2004.

============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================

Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com 
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================

 
The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Twelve..

§§ Crossing The Red Line  §§
 
Debut Launch: 1 July 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see the latest music soundtracked, imaged
version of this episode after entering User ID  efan  and 
Password  frontrowseat  . This version of the current 
episode is scene delayed as compared to the most recent 
submissions shown in the text only file below.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.

******************************************************
From :  Joan <chetspet@myway.com> 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] A Test Of Wills
Sent :  Saturday, July 3, 2004 1:05 AM 


The day was a typical day at Station 51. It was 2pm 
and they had had three runs, 2 rescues and 1 fire, none 
of which were bad, without any Code I’s. 

Even Johnny came away unscathed, so far..

Chet, as usual, had drawn latrine duty, for having 
sprung a water bomb on the Cap that was intended for 
Johnny. As he mopped the latrine, he grumbled to himself,
“Man, how was I supposed to know the Cap was gonna open 
the cabinet before Gage? MAN!”

Johnny and Roy were checking through their equipment 
to make sure all their supplies were in order, while Stoker was 
polishing ‘Big Red’.

Cap was in his office trying to catch up on some of 
his never-ending paperwork, while Marco was in the kitchen 
making his famous chili for dinner. 

The guys were all able to enjoy their dinner for once.

Suddenly the klaxons sounded and it turned out to be a 
call for the whole station.

“Station 51. Unknown rescue at the Carson City 
Hall. 534 East Carson Street. Cross Street Avalon. Time 
out 1803."

While everyone ran to their assigned duties, Captain 
Stanley acknowledged, “10-4 Station 51 responding. Carson 
City Hall 534 East Carson Street. Cross Street Avalon. KMG 
365.” And he then ran to the engine.

The men arrived to find the mayor and his secretary 
waiting for them,while police and security guards were 
trying  to keep people calm and away from the scene.

Captain Stanley went up to the mayor and asked, “Mr. 
Mayor, I’m Captain Stanley of the fire department. What 
seems to be the trouble, sir?”

“Well, Captain Stanley, the thing is I am not really 
sure. All I know is I was in my office dictating a memo to 
Linda, my secretary, here when this young man came 
running into my office yelling. I thought maybe he was a
disgruntled citizen with a complaint of some kind, you 
know.”

Captain Stanley nodded and then introduced Roy and John as the
paramedics, and said, “Go on with your story Mayor Johnson.”

“Ok, well, as I said before, I thought that but it turned out he was
yelling for help. Seems he was sick or something, cause within a 
minute or two, he passed right out on my floor and started foaming 
at the mouth. After a few seconds, he appeared to wake up and yelled 
at me, “Mayor Johnson, you need to tell everyone there is a wild rabid 
dog running out right outside this building. I was cleaning the back 
up and out of nowhere he attacked me!” After he said this, he again 
passed out, and is now lying in my office and hasn’t moved since he 
said that. I called you guys right away and I hope I’m not too late.
I have the animal patrol searching for the dog now. Please go
help him, but be careful of that dog. I have no idea where he could be.”

Roy and John assured the Mayor they would attend to the stricken
man immediately and Captain Stanley had his guys assist with the 
search, telling them all to be very careful.

While John and Roy were upstairs, the animal control people had
found and corralled the dog and put him down, as he was too far-gone 
to be helped.

Their patient, although stable, had never regained consciousness
and Rampart had ordered the dog’s body brought in as well; to 
be sure it was rabies and nothing else.

With Roy in front and John in back, they began to transport the
victim. While doing this, John’s foot became entwined with some 
loose carpeting in the stairwell and he tripped, losing the stretcher. 
As it was only three steps to go, Roy was able to safely put the patient 
down. 

In the meantime, Johnny stumbled down and landed hard on his left
leg, and hearing a SNAP he fell over, saying, “Oh, Man! I think I 
busted my leg, Roy!”

“Ok, Junior, just let me maneuver around you and the stretcher 
and call for some help ok? Will you be ok for a minute?”
 
“Yeah, yeah. Man, what a dumb thing to do! You know, maybe 
I should sue city hall.”  And he laughed.

“Glad you are in good spirits there, pal. I’ll be right back.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  None offered.

***********************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, July 15, 2004 9:11 PM 
Subject :  The Unknown Factor 


Johnny watched Roy depart, wheeling the
stretcher out into the large lobby of city hall
to where he could see the gang milling about
outside with the Mayor through the paned
glass windows. The ambulance attendants who
had been outside cleared a path through
the crowd of onlookers and took over the 
fair haired paramedic's stretcher and the big 
Mayfair angled on the curb was quickly loaded up.

Immediately, Johnny saw Cap nod a few seconds
after Roy shouted something to him.  At an order, Marco
and Chet ran off to grab the splint box out of the squad. 
He almost blushed in embarrassment when he saw Cap 
plaster a face against the doors to see how he was doing. 
Seconds later, he saw Mayor Johnson lead the way to show
the firemen the stairway Roy and Gage had used to reach 
the office and the mysteriously stricken man.

Cap was right on their heels. "Gage? You ok?" he
boomed no nonsense.

"I'm fine. Just my leg. Might be a fib fracture. It
didn't sound loud enough to be anything else."

"This from the voice of experience.." Kelly nodded.

"Oh,.. cut it out. The carpeting here, came up on
the stair. See?" Johnny waved a hand at everybody to
distract them from looking at how red his face was
becoming under their penetrating eyes.
 
The mayor did see. He leaned over and told Linda
the secretary to go get an employee with a camera 
to take pictures of the area. "Don't you worry about
a thing, Mr. Gage.  I've been at the maintenance 
department for weeks about how loose that was.
I'll have your medical bills covered. I set aside
some of my own party's funds to handle all insurance 
claims filed for accidents occurring inside the building
a few weeks ago once I found out how badly I was beating
my head against the wall trying to get things done around
here fixing city hall's architectural problems, including that stair."
Just let my secretary know about your bills when they 
arrive." and he handed over a business card. "And that 
includes any lost wages on the job." he said empathetically. 
"I'll have this carpet nailed down in half an hour or my name 
isn't William A. Johnson, Jr." He waved over one of the security 
guards to stand over the spot until environmental services could
place a caution sign over the area. "It's just a shame that such
a dedicated city servant like you, had to get hurt first to 
expedite things."

Johnny took the card, meekily, in awe that he had
such a response so fast from such a high up city official.

Kelly nudged his shoulder with an elbow while
he and Marco splinted up his left lower leg.
"Start moaning. Maybe you'll get more." he
whispered, sotto voce. "Roy told us about what
you said after it happened while he was loading up
the guy."

Gage scowled. "Chet, I was only kidding about that.
Ow, not so tight! Guys, get my shoe off so I can
see how my circulation's doing under that splint."

Cap came back after radioing on ahead for
a replacement paramedic to take Johnny's
place at the station when they all cleared from
the call. "I had to let Roy go on ahead to Rampart with
the victim. He started right back into another convulsion.
Eight's is shadowing him in their squad in case he gets
into hot water. They were a minute away just off a 
cancelled call." He watched with interest while Kelly
and Lopez gingerly peeled off sock and shoe from
Gage's foot. "Is it an open fracture?" he asked,
leaning over to look for blood on the leg.

"No, closed and simple." Johnny grimaced, wiggling his 
toes in a neuro and circulation check around the air splint
Lopez and Kelly had applied. "Ok, get me on my feet."
he told them. They helped him up, slinging Johnny's shaking 
arms over both their shoulders. "Cap, I can go in the squad. 
I'm still fine pain wise."

Cap studied him closely. Gage felt a trickle of cold sweat
pour down his face, betraying him. "I'm not objected to
you calling in another squad to get to some pain meds."

"Cap, this is embarrassing enough as it is without the
entire fire department finding out yet again about another 
Gage mishap. It's a stigma I've been trying to erase for 
years now."

"This wasn't your fault." Cap reasoned.

"I know that. Neither was just about everything else
that's happened to me. But the other stations are still
keeping bets on my tally. Somehow, they've already found
out about the snake, the monkey virus, my fall off the ladder 
because of that flashover, my hit and run accident...."

Mayor Johnson piped up. "Don't forget to tell my attorney
when he calls about your pain and suffering, too. I'll not have 
that unaccounted for in your compensation figures." he said
before he hurried away to harrass the just now gathering
maintenance crew.

Gage winced when he realized how that must have
sounded to the frustrated city mayor. He immediately
felt guilty. But the queasy feeling growing in his
stomach made being tactful nearly impossible.

Johnny tried not to frown as Marco and Chet aided
him out the very crowded antehall and back outside to
the vicinity of the engine and the squad. Cap followed behind 
with Johnny's helmet and his sock and shoe. With every hop, 
Gage's bound leg felt like it was on fire. ::The splint's on right. 
What's the problem?:: he thought, thinking things through.

He made them set him down on the squad's seat with
the door open long enough for him to do a self blood pressure 
check when Cap wasn't looking. It was oddly low, and when he
weaved from where he sat, he wasn't surprised when
Mike Stoker suddenly ran up with the engine's spare 02
and clattered it open. Gage never felt himself being lowered 
to the ground. 

His companions' urgent voices swirled away
into a loud hissing that was announcing the arrival of a 
complete and utterly terrifying blackout. His heart started
pounding frantically, rising into his eardrums. Then silence
slammed down over his awareness and he knew no more.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What the--" Cap startled from his place leaning on the Ward's
doorframe. He had just finished informing L.A. of their status.
He snatched up his HT just as he saw the guys cradle
Gage to the sidewalk under the squad's passenger door.
"Kelly, what happened?" he said as he watched Stoker
set a demand valve over Johnny's nose and mouth and begin
to punch the button on its regulator, delivering fully assisted
breaths.

Chet looked up from Gage as he and Marco got Johnny's
shirt open. "Don't know. He took his own pressure, gasped,
and then keeled over. Now his heart's racing and Stoker
says he's barely breathing."

"What was it?" Cap asked of the blood pressure reading
his afflicted paramedic had found.

"Eighty palpated." said Lopez.

Hank thumbed his talk bar on the walkie talkie. "L.A. Engine 51. We 
have a Code I at our location. Respond an additional squad and
ambulance to 534 East Carson Street and Avalon."

##10-4, Engine 51. Time out, 18: 51.##

Then Cap looked down and saw a spreading rash quickly appear over
Gage's skin and across his chest and neck. "Hold it, hold it."
he ordered when he saw Kelly and Marco starting to free their hands
up for possible CPR. "Guys, keep your gloves on. That looks like 
a toxic chemical reaction."  

In horror, they both looked down.

A gust of wind rose, fluttering Gage's opened uniform shirt and cut
apart T shirt. Chet suddenly groaned and looked away, grabbing
his face. "Oww! My eyes!"

Cap shouted to the security guards to pull the crowds back
from around the firemen, firetrucks and Johnny. "Get them
back!  Way back! There's an unknown chemical effecting us! 
Start clearing out all the areas that victim we treated may have
been in contact with. And that includes the stairway! Move
out all civilians using other routes! Do that before
you do anything else!  Mayor Johnson stays on scene.
It'll be your ever lovin' rears if he doesn't. He's possibly been 
exposed to whatver this stuff is the same as we have!"

The many city hall guards hastened to follow Cap's orders.

Hank grabbed an air bottle off its exterior rack behind E51's cab
and slid it on. "Marco, get into your air gear, first. I'll get Mike's.
THEN deal with helping Chet wash out his eyes. Whatever this
chemical is, it's potent.."

"I thought something was fishy about that guy.." Chet
coughed, eagerly snatching the reel line Cap dropped
by him to start washing his face and eyes clean. "Rabies
infection doesn't ever set in that fast.."

Air masked donned, Cap got on the radio once again. 
"Engine 51, L.A.  Call in a full Hazmat Response Team immediately 
and three additional fire stations. Two firemen are down with symptoms 
of sudden toxicity. Evacuations of the first floor city hall and second floor 
office suites have been initiated by city security personnel. An immediate 
Battalion Chief is requested at my scene. We may have an unknown number
of casualties inside the building."  He dropped to his knees, pulling
up his turnout's collar and he bent over Gage to take over his
ventilation care while his engineer hastily got into his SCBA gear.

##10-4, 51. Time out, 18:54.  Response ETA of the rescue squad
is estimated at six minutes to your location. Hazmat and Battalion 
reports an arrival in ten.##

"10-4, L.A. Engine 51 out." Stoker answered for Cap on the 
abandoned HT near Cap's knees. "How are you feeling?" Mike 
asked Hank ironically as he shoved on his bottle's air mask.

"I'm fine. Calm as peaches, outwardly.." Hank joked.
"You?" he said giving Gage another breath with the ventilator
when his chest didn't rise high enough on its own for his liking.

"Nothing on my end." Stoker said. "I got him.." 
and he took over for his captain, gripping Johnny's
pale, dripping face firmly under his gloves to keep
a good open airway.

"Just keep all skin exposed areas on yourself, covered up." 
Hank said, rising, his adrenaline heightened breaths whistling 
noisily behind his SCBA's face plate. "Marco will stay in case he 
crashes further." he added when he saw Lopez's thumbs up from 
the solid wash he was giving Chet's head and hair. 

Kelly's shirt and coat were abandoned on the sidewalk
and he was down to his white T shirt, kneeling over
the curb to let the hose outwash flow into the sewer drain.

Cap went on, keeping verbal contact with Mike through
both their air masks. "If Kelly checks out ok, I'll put him on 
communications until the other stations get here. 
Need a relay to Rampart?"

"Yeah, Johnny's throat's getting tight. He may need
to be intubated before the squad gets here." Stoker
said. 

"Aren't you glad you've been cross training in the 
experimental intermediate paramedic program of Brackett's? 
That's been just as innovative this past month as Kelly's cross 
training as a backup engineer for us behind DeSoto. I guess 
now's your time to shine." he said without a smile. "I'll grab 
the spare resp kit from the engine."  

Cap rose in a hurry and tapped Marco on the shoulder,
jerking a gloved thumb over his shoulder at Gage
and Stoker. 

Lopez nodded to Kelly, who was shaking his
head like a dog to shed off his contaminated water. "I've got
to go. Gage's in the weeds. Stoker's getting a tube out."
And he dropped the hose into off before he started running.

Kelly slid into his air mask and bottle that Cap had clunked by his
feet and blinked water out of his eyes. "You, too, Cap. Go on.
I'm ok now.. That strange burning's gone."

"You sure?" Cap asked, keeping a safe short distance between
himself and Kelly.

"Yeah.." Chet voice hissed as he tested his air bottle's regulator.

"Ok. Get on the horn and raise Rampart. Stoker's gonna
need a doctor for.."

"I know.. Marco's just told me." and Chet rushed back to
the other firemen.

A minute later,  Stoker had an HT tucked under one helmeted ear on 
open talk mode to Kel Brackett when Cap said. "Ch.. r*st All Mighty. 
I forgot about Roy! He's still with the guy who started all of this." Cap 
straightened up on his knees and started to call the Mayfair, now half way 
to Rampart, speeding Code Three. He whipped up his walkie talkie. 
"L.A. Engine 51. Clear me on Tactical to Squad 51's HT. Emergency!"

##Engine 51. You are on Situation First - Go.## came Lanier's crisp
reply.

Hank shot to his feet. "Engine 51 to HT 51. Do you read me? Over...."

He barely saw Mike Stoker and Marco Lopez being talked through
Johnny's endotracheal airway insertion. He didn't envy the difficulty
they were facing being stuck inside their work gloves and wearing
their steamed up air masks.

"Engine 51 to Squad 51. This is Captain Stanley on Priority Override. 
Do you read?"

-------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  City Hall types on a carpeted stairwell.

Photo:  Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr. 

Photo:  Carson City's real City Hall.

Photo:   Cap calling urgently on the radio,
             crouched low near the squad.

Photo:  A speeding Mayfair ambulance rushing 
            down the road.

*****************************************************
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Fri Jul 23, 2004  12:36 pm 
Subject: Threading the Needle

Mike Stoker shouted into the handy talkie perched
onto his shoulder. "Rampart this is Engine 51." he
yelled through his SCBA mask. "My victim is
unresponsive to pain and under full ventilation 
support. I have access to basic airway equipment
as the squad is off scene. Victim is showing
a sudden onset rash across his torso and neck
with no evidence of hives. Chest rise is nominal.
There is no obstruction we can see.."  he said
as he got an affirming nod from Marco who
checked yet again for the effectiveness of
the demand valve's seal over Johnny's face.
The latin american firefighter was watching
closely for signs of movement in Gage's limbs
or eyelids and for bad airway trouble in the form 
of chest noise.

The engineer sighed as he watched Cap run fast
to coordinate the evacuation of city hall with
a hand held megaphone. He could see Hank was torn
between learning more about their inadvertent chemical
problem and conducting the start of a Level 1 CIS setup.
As yet, there were no other engines, nor batallion chiefs
within earshot. Stoker and Kelly and Lopez never felt
so alone as they did in that moment when Cap
disappeared in the crowd.

## 10-4, Engine 51.. uh, is this Mike Stoker ?##
came Dr. Brackett's face.


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Brackett tilted his head in surprise at
Dixie. He lifted his finger from the talk button.
"I wonder where Roy is?" he frowned at McCall.

Dixie handed him a chart. "Joe handled his call.
He's on the way with an unconscious.  A male of
about 45. Roy said he was an unknown type seizure 
with pyschotic episode with no known etiology
other than possible rabies.. Six minutes out."

##That's affirmative, Rampart.## came Stoker's
muffled reply on the radio to Kel's question.

Kel lost all doubt in the firefighter's abilities.
"Stoker. You know the drill. Have your head man start
hyperventilating him. I'll walk you through best
I can. I know you've never done one in the field but
I have full confidence in you. I should know, I trained
you. Now things'll be harder to see on a live
person than what you were used to from the
program. At no time do you hurry. The soft palate's
sensitive in some cases of collapse and the last thing 
we need is a laryngospasm clamping down and really
making things difficult. Let me know when you 
see the vocal cords, Mike.. You have a minute after
Johnny stops getting vented in order to get in a successful 
route. If you can't get one. Wait. Just hyperventilate again for 
another two minutes and then try it. Suction is critical if he
vomits from his chemical exposure. Be sure to watch out
for that."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Stoker's jaw set into a firm line. He didn't even notice
a hose dripping Chet insert himself between Marco and 
his arms to start applying crycoid pressure. "I got
this. And a flashlight so you can see what you're doing.."
Kelly coughed and he threaded his second gloved arm 
through Mike's hands to light up Gage's face.

Marco had already placed an engine block under
Gage's shoulders to keep his head fallen back.

"Are you hurt?" Stoker asked Kelly, without looking up 
from the blade of the scope he was placing carefully into
the right side of Johnny's mouth. "Give me the time."

"Twenty eight seconds since the last breath. And no..." 
Chet said. "Just handle Johnny. L.A. says that 24's is
four minutes away. Can you see them yet?" he
mumbled through his breathing gear as he kept
up the hold that now showed Mike the only 
passageway down.

Stoker's forehead began to sweat. "Where are they?"
he whispered to himself, moving the strangely 
foamy palate away with his blade, searching for the 
pearly white vocal cords. Louder he said, "Marco, hand 
me a size 7.0 and peel it.  D*mn.. Grade 2, I'm not seeing 
all the cords, he's swelling a bit.."

"Take your time, man. Gage's ok, his color's still very 
good."Lopez said quietly. "Here. I got it near your left 
hand."

Mike slid the MacIntosh blade a little lower and
groped for the endotrachael tube. Suddenly,
Johnny's throat locked up and clamped shut.
His mouth fell open in an astonished "oh.." that
translated into the handy talkie.

##What's the problem, 51?## came Brackett's
voice.

"Spasm.. It happened when I lifted the scope. I
can't see anything.." Mike said a little too fast.

##Relax Stoker. You must've bumped the superior
nerve. It'll ease in a bit since he's not chilled. You guys
haven't given him his hose bath yet. Just bag him
gently on ambu until it loosens. Bound to from hypoxia.
Flood him with O2 and try again.## Kel said firmly.
##We've plenty of time..##

"Should I let go?" Chet said of his pressure hold.

"No..." Mike said. "You're probably keeping him from
getting sick. Don't want him aspirating. Keep his
esophagus sealed off just like you're doing."

Kelly was nervous and took the suction wand up
into his free hand nonetheless. Gage's chin twitched.
"Is he waking?"

"Nah. Doc said it's all reflex in class." Mike gasped as he
kept a cross fingers scissor between Johnny's
teeth to keep him from injuring himself on the blade's
guide.

##Try pulling back a little, 51.## Dr. Brackett said.
##There'll be less stimulus..##

Mike eased back just a bit and withdrew the blade up
an inch and suddenly, a vocal cord popped into view when 
Gage's neck muscles stopped cording. "There! I'm 
threading it." he announced with more confidence than
he felt. He tried to keep his hands from trembling.

Kelly looked at his watch. "52 seconds."

Stoker slowly advanced the tube until it settled
onto its mark. "I'm in." he said. "Hand me the 
ambu.." he said, inflating the airway's internal bottom
cuff with a syringe.

Marco grabbed for it, making sure the oxygen flow
was very high and passed it off to Mike.

Stoker snapped the bag's feeder end onto the tube and
gasped. "Ok.. Check both sides. Is it all right?" he asked
quickly, giving the paramedic rapid, full breaths to
get his blood back to normal.

Kelly listened with a stethoscope. "He sounds like a
seashell to me. Nice and even, too. Left is the same 
as right."

"Stomach?"#Stomach?#" Stoker asked at the same time as
Brackett.

"Nothing.."  Kelly smiled, grinning as he pulled
off the earpieces.

##Nice work gentlemen.. Keep an eye on his pulse
and then slow your vent rate to 12 a minute in 30 seconds.
Tape it off to keep the tube from sliding out when you transport
him.## Dr. Brackett smiled verbally.

"I got that." Marco volunteered. He looked over his shoulder.
"Cap, he's pink and beautiful and both lungs are accepting." he 
shouted. "There's no problems at all.."
 
Hank visibly relaxed and stopped double taking as he issued
orders to the security guards on where to tell people to go.

Kelly left the suction tube laying over Gage's chest and rose
from knees to his squatting toes. "Radio me if he changes. I'm 
sure Cap'll want us by him if that happens." he said smacking 
his own chest and waving a hand at an already distracted Marco 
Lopez.

"Go.. I'm good now.." Stoker said, inwardly smiling at his
success. "Piece of cake." he said shakily.

Chet had to peel his fingers off Gage's throat crycoid cartilage
ring with his free glove. "Just call me a leech. Sorry, Gage."

"Worth the bruising. I'm sure Johnny won't mind when he
finds out what we all did together." Mike said.

"I don't want Gage or DeSoto's job anytime soon, thanks
anyways, Stoker."

"Yeah, but it's nice to know we're effective backup."
Stoker nodded, dropping a glove to Gage's carotid
to time its rate.

Stoker watched Chet Kelly join Hank as he tried once
again to raise Roy's Mayfair, this time, using the ambulance
radio frequency and not the HT's.

A minute later, Squad 24's sirens grew in the distance and
two paramedics swiftly approached where Mike and Gage were
in the street. The older paramedic pointed down when he saw
that Gage was intubated so neatly. "Who did this?" he demanded
through his SCBA faceplate.

"I did.." Stoker grinned. "My first."

The graying maned man's eyebrows climbed into his hairline
but a knowing smile played at his lips as he and his
partner busied themselves with getting a full set of vitals.
"Ok, genius. Congratulations. Now go play fireman and leave US
something to do, ok, Slick?"

Mike Stoker floated back to Cap's side.

--------------------------------------------------------

Photos :   None.

***********************************************
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Saturday, July 24, 2004 12:58 AM 
Subject :  The Lit Match Effect 
 
 
"Is he doing good?" Captain Stanley asked his two men
who joined him to stand in a trio as the flood of people
poured out city hall exhibiting a rainbow of emotions.
None were tempted to ask the firemen the reason for
their sudden eviction from work. 

"His pulse was regular, and full, Cap. I think so.
Won't know until the squad paramedics get done
checking him out." Mike Stoker admitted.

"Fine, fine. Go string two inch and three quarters with
a Y connector. Let's play this like Hazmat's gonna wanna
scrub everyone in sight." Hank ordered, clapping a glove
over his engineer's shoulder. "Nice job, pal." he said
seriously. "Sorry you were thrown into the deep end as
paramedic intermediate so soon.."

"I'm just glad I was there, Cap." Stoker said, rechecking
the dial on his air bottle to make sure his own supply wasn't
low because of the heightened stress level he had felt then.

"Go.." Hank said, waving Mike off. Kelly started to follow
Mike to help when Cap whistled, getting his attention. Chet whirled
and then spotted Cap waggling come here fingers with his 
command HT still pressed tightly over his helmeted ear 
around his mask straps. "Kelly. Front and center!"

Kelly had on a new jacket that he got from the rear
compartment of the Ward. He jogged over to Hank
and rested, bending over with his hands on his knees
as he listened to what he had to say when Cap leaned
in close.

"I still can't raise Roy. We gotta get em back here pronto.
I'm not about to let possibly contaminated people into a 
hospital setting."

"What about that man's care?" Chet said before he could
bite his tongue and retract it back again.

"We'll call the docs here, into the Rehab Area when it's set up.
Keep trying for me.. The other engines are arriving, I have to
go tell them and the chiefs what's going on here." Cap shouted.

"Ok." and he took out his handy talkie and turned it to the same
frequency that Cap showed him.

Hank ran to the middle of the street, orchestrating the arriving 
engine companies parking formation. He sent them to the ends
of the block on both sides of his Ward, which was positioned 
centrally.  Then he heard the tones from L.A. to change to
the situation commander's frequency for Batallion Ten and did
so.

Chet Kelly moved to set a foot on the step of the engine near
where Stoker and Lopez were tending the hydrant outside city hall
and he spoke. "Engine 51 to HT 51 on Mayfair Channel One. Over."

On the highway, speeding down the Ventura Expressway, the
driver of Roy's ambulance heard. He thumbed the mic on his
CB radio. "Mayfair Six with Squad 51." 

Kelly glommed onto the connection. "Recall back to our scene
Mayfair Six, Code Three. Your victim and paramedic 
may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals. Report for 
immediate decontamination.  Hazmat is arranging a doctor to
cover your situation at our location. Over.."

"10-4. Recalling for Hazmat decon.." said the white coated driver
and he made a controlled U-ie off the next major exit.

Naturally, Roy DeSoto opened the patient compartment window
between them. "What's the problem?"

"It's one of your people, declaring a Hazmat condition on us.
I'm heading back right now." the driver told Roy.

DeSoto oggled for a second, then nodded and shut the partition to
sit back down in the cab seat at the man's head. His patient was quiet now, 
Dr. Early's diazepam having done wonders for his convulsions. Having 
been warned, Roy began to rinse his hands from a saline bag before
donning protective rubber gloves for himself. Sorely wanting information,
he switched his HT to the paramedic scanning frequency to listen in.

He was shocked to find Squad 24 talking about a Code I and when
Brackett called Johnny by name, Roy almost slipped out of his
seat belt. They weren't yet using the biophone channel which didn't 
surprise him due to the new crisis situation preventing such a luxury. 
He hung on every word. He began to curse the benefit of the
HT private band call, which handily allowed identities to be named 
over the air.

##.. 24, is Gage showing signs of consciousness yet?##
Kel Brackett asked.

##Negative, Rampart, despite the hosedown. ## replied the
man Roy recognized as Brice's partner, Bob Belliveau.

## Has he started breathing adequately on his own yet?..##

##Negative, he's still on ET ambu. ##

"What?!!" Roy exclaimed aloud. The window into the driver's
compartment snapped open. "Nothin.." he snarled when
the attendant peered in at him.The driver shrugged and closed 
the slot again.

Roy kept his eyes on the EKG monitor and his ear to the radio
when he heard the order given for Narcan and Atropine.
"Yeah,..yeah, that'll do it. Even if it's a pesticide or something just
as bad." he mumbled. "Johnny you better start breathing again 
or I'll kill ya."

His self reassurance did nothing to make him feel better.
He could only will the Mayfair on to a faster speed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kelly shouted loudly to be heard over the crowd moving
away from them. "HO!" he yelled, getting Cap's attention.

Hank rubbernecked.  Chet drew a circling motion in the air
and saw Cap give him a thumbs up before he started speaking
with the CIS commander again about plans.

Soon, the out of service Squad 51 was moved to a side street 
and Captain Stanley motioned his men into a huddle so they
could hear each other. "Thank god for the public's tendency
to overreact. Fortune's in our favor, gang. The yokles in
city hall security not only cleared out the effected floor but the
whole place. You three sweep in and see if you can locate 
the source of the problem in lifelines."  Kelly, Lopez and Stoker
started away but Cap snagged their shoulders. 
"With FRESH air bottles, understood?"

Three masked nods greeted him.

"This is an internal search until we know more. Do this hoseless.
Stringing them'll only eat up too much time. Pull out at the 
slightest sign of trouble, got that?"

More nods and furlative glances swept toward the now empty 
tan brick building.

Cap said, "We're the only station in the middle of the block.
The others have squared off on all points north, south, 
and east of us for the primary attack set up. Only Squad 24 is still 
with us until Johnny's stabilized. Everyone else is on a block end. 
Move."

Lopez, Stoker and Kelly strung out rappelling ropes from the Engine's
store and tied them on. All three entered the building and began a
search pattern, starting with the second floor office where they had
first encountered the man. Nothing seemed amiss. Then Lopez got
everyone's focus with a whistle when he spotted a stairwell door
ajar that led into a no exit basement, incongruent with the possibility
that any evacuees could have used it. "That's open guys. Don't you
think that's a little odd?" he yelled over the hissing of his air bottle.

The other two agreed. And followed him down the brightly lit stairs
which led into the sub basement.

They searched the boiler room. It was clear. Then the electrical room.
It, too, was fine. Then they tried a storage room labelled Spare Mail
Store and found it barricaded shut despite the open lock turning
door knob. Kelly shouldered it wide open and staggered into a room
full of homemade chemical laboratory equipment. Excessive trash 
including large amounts of antifreeze containers, lantern fuel cans, 
red chemically stained coffee filters, drain cleaners and duct tape 
littered the floor and the stench of acetone was almost overwhelming,
even through their faceplates. The tables were a collection of chemical 
bottles, glassware, hoses, and pressurized cylinders, including modified 
propane tanks, and stolen city hall fire extinguishers. 

Chet took one look at the blacked out basement windows before he said. 
"It's a g*d d*mned crank lab in here."

"Should we go air it out?" Lopez asked him.

Stoker snatched them both back into the doorway. "No! There's
cooking going on. Look! I'll just bet that stuff over there's red phosphorus
and iodine! Let's get out of here.." and he pointed out the ominous 
glow of an active open flame bunsen burner.

The three firefighters suddenly knew that their lives were in
great danger. Kelly almost thumbed his radio to give a report when
Marco slammed his arm down. "Don't! A spark from your HT might set
it all off! Let's go!"

Chet went.

The firemen pummelled out of city hall at breakneck speed and down
the front steps a minute later shouting the bad news. Their panic spread
through the fire station ranks and they looked up at the motion and
sudden voices.

Cap was charting his slate by the engine. 

Stoker shouted. "Get back! Get back! Meth lab and it's still cooking!"

Hank startled and ducked behind the engine as his men joined him.
"What?! "

"It's huge, Cap.." Marco gasped, leaning down. "We guess over
a half a ton of ingredients and white gas."

"We'd better get out of here. Stoker. Drop our hoses from the bed.
We'll motor out to the other units on Big Red." Hank said calmly.
He whistled through his teeth. "Man, who'd've figured? In the middle
of sweet little old downtown city of Carson?"  He raised the engine's 
mic to call out their discovery to the HazMat units yet to come
and the fire stations already there.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Roy began to recognize the neighborhood. He tapped the window
door and it opened. "Let's head to the west side. That's where my
station was. Most likely they've been picked to be the decontam wash
truck, being nearest. Head down that way.." 

The driver turned down a sidestreet and turned off his siren, finally
spotting the familiar side of the stately building. 

Squad 51 and Squad 24 were still angled at the foot of the city hall
steps. And a body was on the ground on a yellow tarp with a cluster
of air bottled firemen over him ::Johnny!:: Roy thought. Then he
ordered. "Stop here. They're in masks. We don't wanna take in any 
fumes if there are any.." he cautioned, and the brakes of the
Mayfair squeaked metallically as it halted in the center of the road
perpendicular to the road the fire trucks were on.

Then Roy spotted something strange. Engine 51 was speeding backwards,
and away from the squads whose personnel suddenly kicked into high
gear in a desperate escape with their firefighter paramedic patient in a 
stokes, some running with him, the others piling into the two rescue 
squads. 

 DeSoto was about to turn his radio back over to the main CIS channel to find
out why, when city hall suddenly disintegrated into fragments of raw fire and 
a plume of glowing vapored debris.

A tremendous explosion ripped across two whole city blocks, rupturing subterranean
gas mains and causing side explosions to crater the street curbs into long
flaming fissured trenches deep into the earth.

A pregnant fiery orange and black mushroom loomed a hellish head
over the Mayfair, Engine 51's vehicles and Squad 24, before Roy's vision was 
knocked out from a massive concussion wall of displaced atmosphere and heat 
that roared through the open ambulance door. 

The kick slammed the rear Mayfair hatch closed and the ambulance jolted,
throwing around the two ambulance attendants,  Roy and the man
on the gurney.

Then a heavy blanket of debris, dust and roaring fire snuffed out their view
to the outside as it covered them, until they were locked into a tomb that
was completely lightless and airless.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :   A neighborhood in Carson City, skyline.

Photo :  A photo of a collapsed building with a crowd in front.

Photo :  Cap ducking behind the engine in a flinch.

Photo : A massive mushrooming explosion.

Photo: Roy and two ambulance attendants wounded in
            a Mayfair.

***************************************************************
 From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
 Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Cooler.. 
 Sent :  Thursday, July 29, 2004 7:49 AM 

Mike Stoker managed to swing the front end of the Ward away 
from the concussive wave of the methamphetamine lab explosion 
that destroyed Carson City Hall.  His gloved hands cranked on
the wheel hard to the left as the swollen belly of the building sized
fire ball swept low over the top of Engine 51.  

The engineer couldn't help it. He flinched. So did Chet, Marco,
and Cap.

"Hang on!" Hank's voice cut loudly, as a rock on rock, hollow like sucking
roar overtook their immediate vicinity. All he saw was fire out the
windows. Then a ball of heat lifted the hair around his helmet and
ruffled it and fogged out his air mask as the dew point was met,
exceeded, then water dessicated. ::Mother of--  I hope to h*ll the 
others got under some cover in time.::  

Marco Lopez instinctively pulled the four of them around Stoker's
driver's seat in a body hugging huddle that protected their exposed 
faces as the massive blast blossomed, expanded and annihilated
itself over them. "Madre Dios! Too close. Too close! We've got
to get out of here!"

"Working on it.." came Mike's gasping voice through his SCBA.
The firetruck's engine was laboring over the thin air, sputtering as
the motor dug for atmosphere to burn in. Stoker kicked it into
the lowest gear. "The air's a different color over there. Heading 
over to it!"

"Ahh! Keep your masks on!" Kelly said. "An empty water bottle by my 
feet just blew up!"

"Vacuum effect! Open your mouths up as wide as you can!" Hank 
shouted to his crew, clutching the handy talkie he couldn't see
in the lava glow darkness. Captain Stanley no sooner said that
when a second explosion rocked the accelerating Ward from
the left and pressure stabbed spears of agony through their
eardrums.

Then the way ahead was clear. A center calm in a ring of fire
at an intersection. Mike Stoker took the richer air route and
plunged them all into a parking lot, bouncing over a curb with
both axles. Equipment inside the cab jostled, and fell from
their storage hooks. Others did the same, clanging loudly 
from inside their rear engine holding compartments.

"There! There! A loading dock is open!" Kelly shouted.

"Can we clear it?" Hank yelled, gripping the dark red seat back
in a fierce hold.

"Yeah!"

"Then in we go!  Watch for Squads 24 and 51. They were 
riding in our wake."

"I see em!" Chet shouted. Two sets of flashing lights cut
through the orange cloudy murk before a roof of black
shut out the sun.

A sign flashed by that was tacked onto the building and Hank
gave a nod of satisfaction as they shot inside the loading area.
"Of all the dumb luck.."

Mike Stoker screeched Engine 51's brakes inside the low ceiling
garage and he canted her at a forty five, so that the two squads
could get by into the interior.

The last bumper no sooner cleared the edge of the door when
the retracting door descended in a bang as an emergency cord
was pulled on the door's automatic opener.  The ebony smoke
and deafening noise roiling in behind them was choked off.  

A new voice and figure in medical blue came running towards
them. "Are you guys all right? Oh my G*d. We saw City Hall go
through our windows. It was only by chance that I spotted you."
said the very fit white haired man before their bumpers.

Cap peeled off a sweaty mask as they piled out of the engine,
catching their breaths. "Appreciate the shelter, doc. Help us?
"We've got a wounded firefighter here..." he said, pointing to
the paramedic on the roof of Squad 24, checking over Gage's
airway patency and carotid status as he bagged him.

Doctor Scribbs hastened to help the Station 51 four unload 
him to the ground. 

Chet was peeling off his mask, too, staring dumbly at
the mattressless steel gurneys lined up on the wall and
the sparkling black hearse parked under the flourescent
lights. "Aw, Cap.. Didja have to pick the morgue for us
to hide in?"

Hank erupted, "I didn't think of in here! Stoker did.."

"Guilty.." said the engineer, coughing lightly.

"And a smart thing, too. " Hank grinned.  The ME office has its
own internal air and ventilation system, at least in the morgue
areas. That's where we'll be heading next. In there will
be the perfect decontam station for Gage. Scrubbing drains,
solid thick walls, a refrigeration unit so we won't cook. We
couldn't have found a better haven than this. We'll even
have our own power generator. This place needs one to 
keep the chiller running at all times for obvious reasons."

Chet's face fell into a barely veiled blend of disgust and 
apprehension. But he bit his tongue from issuing any rejoiners.

Station 24's Bob Belliveau nodded at Gil Sheppard, his partner. 
"Did he take any detriment, Gil?" he asked about Gage.

"Nah.. it was hot only for a few seconds." said the short stocky
paramedic. "His vents never quit althought I had to snuff the oxygen
off. The two assigned with us from our engine are fine, too." he said,  jerking 
a gloved thumb over his shoulder at the men gathered around Captain 
Stanley. He yelled over to the tall man from 51's, issuing information into 
his radio. "That's everyone who was with us, Cap!" he related. Then 
he stooped to reassess John Gage in a closer survey, reapplying his own
air bottle's faceplate before he did so, maintaining a barrier distance.

"Nine for a head count and all here.Thanks." Cap proceeded to report 
out to outer fringe fire stations that had most likely seen them horrifically
disappear under the fire ball.  "L.A., Engine 51. We're ok. Squad
51 and Squad 24 are with us inside the Medical Examiner's Office
Garage. All hands are accounted for. One victim and eight men.
We're sitting tight to wait it out. Note we're in a very safe place.
Make our break out priority a bit less."

##10-4, Engine 51. The Incident Commander on Foster Ave has
been notified. Battalion asks if you are attack capable. ##

"Not known at this time. My engineer's doing a walk around. Stand by."

##Standing by, Engine 51. Your frequency is being relayed to
the CIC. Transmit at need after the open channel prompt.##

"Copy, L.A." Hank said, leaning heavily on his knees as
he swept his eyes over the firemen spreading out through
the garage bay to make sure the raging fire outside wasn't
coming in.  Soon, the triple treble of an on air signal sounded
from all their HT's. "Sounds like they're linked with us out there. 
Now let's see how we're doing in here. Stoker? Is she intact?"
he asked as he carefully felt the chassis of the Ward for heat
and blistering. He kicked a tire.

Mike's hands flew over the chrome controls.
"Yes, the hoses weren't melted and the panel's showing
green on all dials. Neither of our tanks are reading as 
compromised. Fuel or water."

"Then hook her up to the water main over there." he said pointing
to the emergency stairwell leading up to second level of
the county building. Stoker could just see a fire hose accordianed
on hooks in the landing behind glass. "Use their lines for now."
Cap ordered.

"I'll leave them uncharged until we know what side of the building
we're going to attack from."

"How about from the roof?" Hank suggested. "That's where
the spot fires will be and that's well above the street gas line
ruptures. I'll just bet the CIC has a vertical attack already
planned out. I'll radio out in a few minutes to see if our building's in
the Hot Zone, not counting whatever space Gage will end up in."

Five minutes later, the task was done. A long, inch and three quarters
soon noodled neatly on the concrete floor. 

Right then, the garage door sucked out in a convex bow with
a loud smack of aluminum as the air inside the coroner's
building evacuated violently out to the fire outside. The door
groaned at the stresses being applied to it. But it held admirably.

"Everybody inside! We're out of time in our current spot.." Cap.
"That's probably a backflash encroaching. Grab what you can. 
We'll come back to fight the fire only when we're able."

"What about the spare air bottles, Cap?" Kelly asked.

"Grab just the 02 tanks for Gage." he replied. "And anything
else that's critical for triage. Later we may become a disaster
station. Doc, right now, consider us all contaminated.
Gage got into an unknown chemical exposure from a meth
lab. It was in the spare mail room in the basement of city hall."

Scribbs face opened in shock, then anger. "A crank lab
was operating five hundred feet away from here? That's 
appalling!"

"That's what I thought when Lopez and Kelly and Stoker here
found it." he smiled sadly. 

The fire fighters gathered both squads' medical equipment in
a rapid assembly line into the stairwell as the two still masked 
medics carried Gage into the morgue rooms one level up.

Chet Kelly wasn't one with Johnny's litter and he needed a strong shove
from Marco before he entered the suite, his eyes huge. "T--T-There's 
bodies in here.."

"No kidding, Chet. Out of the way. Or better yet, take this biophone
over to where Belliveau and Sheppard are setting up. They're
gonna need it."

Hank grabbed the medical examiner's arm after he was certain
that the doctor was the last one to enter the suite of rooms.
"Listen, doc. Is your staff upstairs, safe?"

"Oh yes.." said Scribbs. "I shooed them out the front doors
the moment it happened. They're all past the perimeter. It's just
me my clients left now." and he shot meaningful eyes over
to several sheet shrouded forms lying on tables at the far
end of the room.

Cap worked a miracle keeping his expression from changing.

Doc Scribbs chuckled at the curly haired fireman's reactions. 
"I only lagged behind to make sure the fire didn't get to them. 
That's why I was about to close the bay door when you and your 
singed bunch showed up. Welcome to my parlor, boys. Let's get 
down to business now, shall we?" he said as he swung the morgue's
protective heavy metal door shut with an echoey bang. "I've showers 
for everyone."

All the firefighters shuddered.

"We can set your young injured fireman here on the main table. 
We can do him first." said the energetic medical examiner.

Kelly peeped. "But, there's somebody already on that table.."

"That's all right. " Scribbs trickled. "I'm sure you two strong
fellas can manage carrying her back to the cooler. I  finished
her autopsy this morning. I'll just neaten up after a bit
before you transfer your friend out of the stokes. Oh, here. 
Let me open the cooler door for you."

Kelly and Lopez gulped.

Cap's face was about as pale as his mens'. "You heard
the man. Move.."

They went, shifting the grisly burden in their arms, ready to
lift her weight.

"Doc, we don't have to worry about anything.. uh, any
bits tumbling out, do we?"

"Oh, no. I sewed her back up again. I used just a lazy S
incision for a standard weighing."

"Oh,... thanks.." said Lopez in a small voice as they hefted
her up and disappeared with her into the dark chiller.

"Boys.. " shouted Scribbs after them. "Don't forget to put
one of the wooden blocks from the shelf under her head so she'll 
hard-- uh, present on a pillow in her coffin properly later on."

There was no reply to that.

The doc began cheerfully whistling at the novelty of having guests
who could talk back for once. 

The paramedics busied themselves with stripping Johnny down
when the doc was ready, for a thorough warm, soap and water
head to toe scouring. Afterwards, they bundled him up in the only 
thing available for insulation.  They put him inside a clean canvas 
cloth body bag. 

Cap excused himself from the proceedings once he felt Gage's
medical and hazmat care were well underhand and he drew Stoker
aside a few minutes later after hearing about a frightening development.
"Mike, go to the window and see if you can spot Roy's ambulance."

"What?!" Stoker startled, remember the h*ll they had just escaped.

Cap imposed an immediate clamp down.
"Now, don't alarm the others. Everyone's jumpy enough as it is 
with us being cooped up in here for the duration with all the cadavers.
Just do a reconnaissance from what you see. If you do spot him.
We'll be going out there so prepare yourself. We'll do the engine later.
No doubt we'll be testing the limits of the Ward's design specs when
and if it comes time for us to go back out there. No one asked how a 
Ward engine would work from INSIDE a flaming holocaust."

Mike nodded and quietly went over to the small port and sat down
with a pair of binoculars from the brush fire apparatus case
and got right down to an intense search.

Belliveau noticed him, for another reason. "How's the view?"
he said, looking up from Gage's EKG monitor.

Stoker said, "Busy. But it looks like the perimeter's been
determined. All the fires I see are roof points only, a few
cars involved. The subterranean gas mains are off. I don't see
any more explosions from the street curbs. Ah,, there's
an aerial now. Looks like they've been assigned to protect
us."  On cue, the window splattered with a few drops of
cool water, hissing as it fell. "And that means, that few
bystanders or motorists got nailed when the lab blew."

"That's a relief.."

Stoker returned a glance at the two paramedics. "How's
Gage doing?"

"Better. Vitals are improving. His pressure's coming up.
Whatever it was that was suppressing them is gone now.
Though I'd wish to heck that I knew what it was that we're 
dealing with."

"I'll try to find out." Stoker said, raising his HT.

The older medic turned away.

Mike went back to fretting about finding the missing Mayfair.

A handful of minutes later, he spotted an incongruent patch of
white and orange with a broken antennae sticking lopsidedly
above it. "Cap.." he motioned, pointing.

Hank moved to the engineer's side and took up the binoculars.
"That's him. Go shower up and meet us in the stairwell, in
full SCBA. You're the last to get one. I'll have the others 
check out the garage to see if it's still safe down there."

Stoker nodded.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Dripping and clean, the six non medic firefighters made their
way back to street level. There, Hank broke the news of the
discovery of Roy's buried ambulance on the street between them
and where city hall used to be. 

"Is he still alive?" Chet asked. "There was no air out there for a while!"
he panicked.

Cap raised appeasing hands. "We don't know. Stoker saw their
radio antennae but it was split."

"What about the biophone?" Marco asked, more calmly than
Chet.

"Out for the same reason." Cap answered. "Now check your air masks.
Switch out for fresh ones once we get down there. Stoker, charge
the stairwell water hose into the engine as a supply line. We'll take the
one you strung earlier with us when we go."

"Well, what are you waiting for?!" Kelly said. "Roy and everybody will
fry if we move any slower. Come on..."

Hank told Battalion the new situation and their plan of action.
He was told that the aerial on the other side of the building had no way
to move in as backup. 

They were on their own, working off E-51, solo.

A quick survey showed that a down draft between the sky scrapers
was creating a clear circle of air that pushed the ring of fire inside the
crater where city hall used to be away from the coroner's office parking 
lot. 

Mike Stoker shared the good news, "The way's open and workable."
he said through the crack of the warp bulged garage door. 

The fully SCBA'd firefighters set to with tools and axes to knock down 
the only barrier between them and the debris covered Mayfair under 
Stoker's cooling hose fan. He made them halt at the opening while he
shot a stream into a pile of debris in a test. No hissing or discolored
gases reacted to the water raining down on it. "Whatever was in
that lab, Cap. It's not volatile to water out this far."

"Good. Last thing we need is more outgassing." he said remembering
Chet's stinging eyes from before. "Let's advance ten feet and start
picking away this debris with pikes. Watch for power lines. Odergard!
Take over Mike's lead. I'm having him take out the Engine behind us as
we advance!"

The way before them wasn't easy. Shards of glass from the explosion
damaged windows above them constantly rained down on them and
wind blown bits of burning roof material. Foot by foot, they neared the 
place where Stoker said the Mayfair lay buried.

 A tumbled burning billboard sign sliced the supply line in two when it 
impacted the pavement and the stairwell side of the hose started bucking 
around the garage door frame opening. The half feeding the engine, went limp 
and useless, tattered and dragging on the ground.

"Leave it!" Cap ordered. "We'll pull just off the engine's tank for now.
Our recovery push has the priority!" Inside, he wondered. ::Just how
long can our 400 gallon water reservoir last in all this heat? Guess 
we're gonna find out.::

===================================================

Roy DeSoto coughed, shaking himself awake. The first thing he did
was give an order to Malcolm, the attendant in the back with him, "Shut off all
the oxygen! Do it now!" he said, groping around the spilled medical 
supplies around him for a flashlight. Roy could see active fire licking
the back windows. He flicked on the torch to find them sitting
on the side wall of the ambulance, the gurney still latch clamped
to the floor with his patient hanging there from his straps. Not surprisingly,
the man was awake. "Get me out of here! I'm gonna fall...*cough* "
moaned the man.

"The main valve's off.." Malcolm told Roy, cradling a broken arm.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I just bled the regulator by feel. It's dead." the ambulance
attendant assured him. 

Roy nodded at Malcolm's injury but the rippled haired man 
waved him off. "Check on Art. I haven't heard him at all yet."


Reaching out in the darkness, DeSoto found the yellow air bottle that
he had taken with him in his haste to leave for Rampart. It was
something he always did in brush fire season. Just to have it
between his knees, even riding inside the squad within city limits.
Now, it was going to pay him dividends. He slipped into its mask.

Roy suppressed his own fear and ignored the cut he felt throbbing on his
forehead. "We're gonna be fine." he told them both. Then he pinned
a stare at his patient, who was ripping off his EKG pads and wires. 
" I'll deal with you after I check out our driver, ok, mister....." he dug 
for information.

"..Smith..." said the worker evasively. " John B. Smith. " when he 
realized by the outside lab smell filtering in to him on just what his 
current situation was. "Let me outta here now!"

"Mr. Smith... Quit thrashing around. Malcolm's gonna free you.
Now we're much safer in here than we'll be out there so just
relax.  Let me get by to the front. You hurt anywhere?" he asked 
him. The man's head shake answered back. "Good. 
Now just hang tight for a sec. Art?! You ok up there?" DeSoto said 
pounding on the narrow peek window of the ambulance.  He
opened it.

A wall of bitter, burning smoke rushed in and all Roy got was a glimpse 
of spidered glass, twisted metal and blood where the front end of the 
Mayfair used to be.

The cab was completely flattened and so was the roof, right
over where Art had once been sitting behind the wheel. A person 
shaped charcoal colored mass fully on fire lay across the seat now.

DeSoto slammed the window shut with a gasp. His look told
Malcolm all he needed to know.

"What's that new smell?" complained their impatient patient. 
" I think I'm going to be sick." 

 Roy  covered his nose and mouth with a hand to hide
his stunned reaction. "Try to breathe slow, Mr. Smith. You're only
going to pass out again if you keep hyperventilating. How do you
feel?"

"How am I supposed to feel? Like sh*t! Now, I-- I-m trapped
in what looks like an ambulance that got caught when our
crystal meth cookery blew up. And here we are tipped ov--" 
Mr. Smith broke off when he realized what he was saying.

Roy's eyes narrowed as he took a pull off his air mask,
handing it to Malcolm so that he could breathe in a clean lungful.
" Mr. Smith. Am I hearing you right? Now I believe you better start 
levelling with me right now. A lot of lives are in danger from that 
noxious mess that you and your chem cooking buddies created
so carelessly. Now, the hazmat team handling this's gonna haveta 
know what main ingredients you were using and how much!"

"Ain't gonna talk without my lawyer." the shifty man said flatly
with only a little intelligence. "I'm choking here. Give me some
air like you're giving him."

"No, you're contaminated with something that I don't know about.
I don't wanna increase the risk to Malcolm and I by sharing with 
you." DeSoto replied quietly.

"Just what kind of paramedic are you withholding care from me?!
I'll tell my lawyer. Just how would you like a charge of malpractice on
your hands Fireman DeSoto.." he glared, reading Roy's dusty name
tag. "And I'll charge your friend here, too. He shut off my oxygen."
And Mr. Smith reached for the valve that would turn on the flow
to the mask hanging around his neck.

Roy tackled his arm away. "There's fire out there! Are you sick or
something?!"

The man nodded animatedly, yanking out his I.V. with a jerk and folding
his arm up. "Ummm Hmm and crazy.. Why do you think I staggered
into the supe's office and collapsed on the floor? I was feeling lousy. 
Mac mixed something that wasn't pure."  Again the bald headed lanky
druggie clamped a hand over his mouth to silence himself.
He immediately started coughing when the stench from the forward
cab began to leak through the cracked window. "Come on! You guys
are already contaminated from touching me because of the way
we're all pretzeled together around this gurney. Gimme some air, I--I'm
..*gag* choking on the dead guy.."

Roy's mouth pressed into a firm line as he took his turn to suck on
his SCBA tank mask.  "Not until you give me a list of everything in 
that lab, starting with the largest quantity medium first."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The six firemen watched the fires raging above them intently. The
sky had grown grayer. They first thought it was smoke but soon 
it proved to be a rare California cloud burst. 

The rain fell but was evaporated before it hit the ground in front of
them and the fire started from the building debris  began 
igniting a cocoon of fire around them and the engine.

"Into the cab! Into the cab! Now!" Cap shouted. "Get up onto
the hose bed if you have to. Kelly, Lopez ! Knock that down
before we burn!"

Two of the firemen climbed onto the roof as Stoker advanced
Engine 51 ahead. The moment the way was clear and just
steaming, they leaped onto the Mayfair patient compartment.

Hank was just as fast on HT as he was on his feet. He joined
24's men on pounding on the skin of the ambulance. "Roy!
Can you hear me?" he shouted into the HT on Roy's band.

Muffled solid pounds answered back to their great relief.

Three times, the swirling fire igniting the debris in the parking 
lot threatening the ambulance while a K-12 split open the shell 
encasing Roy and the others before Kelly and Lopez's single line
pushed it back again.

"Benzene, Cap!.. Gage got into benzene!" said, Roy thrusting
a rumpled bill of lading through the sizzling gap. "He had 
this in his pocket. The whole damned * choke* list."

"Got it.. Radioing it out." Then Cap was back reaching into
the hole for Roy's arm. "You guys ok in there?" said Cap quickly. 
"We already know about the driver. Any back or neck injuries?"
he said while his men worked to fold back the skin.

"Malcolm's got a broken arm. Just get us out of here.."
Roy said. "How's Johnny?"

"He's doing ok. Stoker intubated him."

"What?! Any complications? I mean.. d- did it work?"
DeSoto said as he was pulled outside. 

"Course it worked! I'm Brackett's star pupil remember?"
Mike grinned enthusiastically from inside the idling Ward. 

Then the water ran out and his smile faded instantly.

"Our welcome's just got jaded pal. Ready to move?
Side fires are pressing in, Roy." Hank said.

DeSoto crouched down looking back through the
hole in the Mayfair as 24's men hoisted an arm splinted
Malcolm out. "Yeah. But our crook's not cooperating. He
said he wanted to stay in there when you guys showed up."

"Oh really..." Cap said glowering.

A ladder hook to the shirt collar soon fished the reluctant
patient out.  Malcolm and Mr. Smith were given SCBAs
to wear and everyone climbed onto the Ward's hose bed
as the fire mounted around them.

"Go! Stoker Go!" Cap said, as he smacked the roof of the engine
cab. "Back to the garage. Ram the billboard clutter out of 
the way if you have to. Just get us back inside in one piece!"

Stoker reversed direction after Kelly and Lopez cast off the useless
hose. The tires on the engine began to smoulder as she was moved
slower and slower due to reduced visibility.

Mike Stoker shouted. "I don't think the engine can take much 
more of this, Captain!"

"She's gonna have to!" Hank said, huddling down with the rest
of them on top over the injured Malcolm and the blubbering Mr.
Smith. "Put the petal to the metal, Pal, even on rims!"

Everybody swatted cinders landing on everybody else for
long seconds. Then a current of white frothy liquid from an 
unexpected source covered them in a drenching cold deluge. 
A team of fire fighters using alcohol foam from the roof of a 
nearby house coated Engine 51 and put out her fires.

The Ward swept into the morgue garage moments after.

Soon, it was back into hiding for all of them while the Carson
City fire raged on.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos :    The Hazmat placard for benzene.

Photo :     Cap and another cap near engine. 

Photo :     Cap, Roy and Johnny lowering stokes.

Photo :     A building fire being attacked by foam hoses.

Photo :    Roy, livid with a face cut.

Photo :   Blood on a shattered windshield.

Photo :  A picture of an empty morgue room.

Photo :  A picture of a morgue cooler.

Photo : Chet looking apprehensive in an exam mirror.

***********************************************************
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 10:37:09 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Patti or Jeff or Cassidy" <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>   
Subject:  The Subtle Differences 


Doctor Scribbs immediately looked up as the engine crew
returned with Roy, Malcolm, and Mr. Smith. "In there." he said pointing
to a second autopsy room that had a shower ring already placed
and running over the exam table. "I've got things set up for
their decontamination. Gentlemen, I suggest you all take 
another round of scouring yourselves. I've fresh scrubs for
you all to change into." the medical examiner said no nonsense.
"Like these.." he said pulling on his own top.

"Thanks. " Roy said, immediately recognizing his
benefactor. "Hiya, doc. Thanks for putting up with us."

"Gladly, Roy. You and your patients all right?"
said Dr. Scribbs. "Belliveau and Sheppard have 
Gage well under control." he said crisply.  "He's showing
signs of waking according to them, but his pupils are still
a bit dialated and sluggish and he has decreased 
deep tendon reflexes."

"Benzene'll do that. Any arrythmias showing up on
the monitor, Sheppard?" DeSoto asked the Station
24 medic.

"No. He's one lucky b*st*rd. No pulmonary edema either."
said the tan haired man sitting by Gage's head. "He's
breathing now. Began to happen almost as soon as
we got the stuff off of him. Starting to react to pain."

Roy nodded, glancing at Belliveau who had already started 
Malcolm's decontamination after a quick vitals set and a switch 
to a new clean arm splint. Marco and Chet helped Malcolm steady
himself where he was seated under the shower ring. 
"He never lost consciousness, Bob. Did real good the whole 
time." he reported.

"Thanks.." Belliveau said. "And you?" he said, motioning to
the cut on Roy's forehead.

"I'm ok. I had a brief blackout but I'm not the least bit nauseated.
You can fuss over me once we get these two taken care of."
Then DeSoto excused himself and took the fastest scrub of
his life.

While the gang decontaminated once again, Dr. Scribbs
filled in Hank Stanley. "The Support area's been established
outside. A doc and a head nurse are coming here to handle 
our situation. Coming in by bird. Some hot shot named..uh..."

"Brackett.." Cap guessed."Good. He handled Gage previously 
with Stoker on the HT band. Although I don't know how they're 
going to get in here. Your front entrance may be in the Hot Zone 
from the meth explosion." Cap admitted.

"We're not. The chief says all LEL sensors are showing zero
on our block. There's a bunch of firemen upstairs and a Batallion 
Chief setting up a base in my office right now. They've cleared 
us." Scribbs affirmed.

"Terrific.. You don't know how good that sounds. I'll be right back."
said the sweaty fire captain. "I'm joining them after washing up. 
Keep this radio handy. I'm putting you in charge of keeping me
updated on all of my men."

Scribbs noticed and appreciated the trust 51's captain was
imparting to him. "You got it." said the no nonsense M.E. 
"You'll know faster than they will of any status changes. I'm a keen 
observer.." the doc added, jerking a thumb over at the paramedics 
tending Malcolm and Gage.

"I have no doubt about that." Hank grinned. "And keep an eye
on that turkey over there. He's a criminal of the worst kind.
He's one of the ones responsible for the disaster outside."

"Oh, really.." said Scribbs darkly. "Looks like there'll be
no pot of coffee open for him.  Nothing P.O. for any injured
patient, right?" he asked sarcastically. "I think I'll doubly
enforce that right now.." he said, moving off to verbally let loose
his two cents opinion in a furious tirade to the blanket wrapped
man about the meth lab in city hall.

Stanley cringed. "Ooo. I'd hate to be on the receiving end of
that. Scribbs'll dissect him, piece by piece, for sure!"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy sat down on a stool by Johnny Gage's side and immediately
set his hands on his chest to feel his breathing while he checked
out the shifting movements of his partner's eyes beneath their eyelids.
He felt Mike Stoker's presence behind him and the engineer's worry 
practically rolled off of him like a scent. "Stoker, you made all the 
difference in the world. Relax. Johnny's almost the way back
to fighting his airway now. The perfect one you established, I'll
remind you."

Caught lingering, Mike almost whispered. 
"Could he have hurt his throat after that spasm? I mean, I had
that scope down past his soft palate when it happened." Mike 
asked.

"Nah. His muscles would've pushed it out before any injury. I've
had that happen a million times. Not your fault he cramped up.
Benzene makes things a little sensitive to bronchospasms and
throat lockups." Roy said, listening to Gage's chest. "He's still 
clear here. No edema.." he smiled.

The quiet engineer visibly relaxed and took a place on Johnny's 
free side just to be near him. Roy didn't fail to see the grip Stoker
made to check for a beat in Johnny's wrist. "I thought I screwed up
majorly." Mike sighed as he reassured himself that Johnny's
BP was indeed on the rise.

Roy shook his head. "Here. Have a listen to where your tube is."
he offered, passing the stethoscope over to Mike to use.
"You got it just above the bronchial split and there's no gastric
bubbling at all behind it, so the endotrach's straight and not
bowing against the esophagus through his trachea like what
sometimes happens when a size too big is used. You guessed
Johnny's need for a seven french like a pro. Like I said, he's 
got an absolutely perfect airway all thanks to you." 

Mike watched his crewmates across the room get cleaned
and changed. "You know. I don't know how you and Johnny
handle all the pressure. I mean, I handle that myself, but
it's pressure of the water kind, not a gush of emotion like I felt
when Johnny went down." 

He set the stethoscope down unused.

"That's normal." DeSoto said. "I'd start to worry if you hadn't felt
that. The intensity of it diminishes with practice and in time you...
....learn to deal with it. ....and push it aside. Your training will
get you through every time. You'll be so busy thinking ...what
next? that you'll hardly have time for self doubt. Stoker, you're
just new. And what I've seen today.. Your instincts are right on
for a paramedic intermediate rookie in this stage of the game.
You didn't freeze up nor buckle under one h*ll of a snap decision. 
I think Kel Brackett knew you better than you know yourself.
You can handle it. And you did." he chuckled, pointing to where
Gage was bundled up inside the warm body bag. Roy frowned.
"Although I don't think Johnny's gonna like the choice of bedclothes
here when he wakes up. Could ya find me some blankets or
something? Maybe we can disguise the cadaver table here
a bit so he won't notice."

"Sure.." Mike said. "Thanks for the pep talk.." he said, leaning
over so Sheppard didn't hear him.

"Anytime. Thanks for saving my partner's life. I owe you one."

"Who's keeping score?" Stoker shrugged, and went off
searching the morgue's cabinets, whistling aimlessly, 
his hands in his scrubs pockets. 

Roy smiled and rechecked Johnny's liter of normal saline
drip flow rate for the millionth time unnecessarily. DeSoto
lifted his head when he heard the sound of helicopter blades
slicing the air as it landed on the medical examiner's building.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Brackett and Dixie McCall swept into the morgue with
full jump bags. "Ok, what do we got?" Kel ordered.

"Johnny's breathing and starting to fuss." Sheppard announced.

"Tidal volume without support?"

"Full and clear."

"Ok. extubate him. Gently. Benzene'll make him extra sensitive
to vagal stimulation and may cause another spasm. If he
goes into ventricular tachyrhythmias, avoid epinephrine completely.
Use a beta blocker. His pressure above 90?"

"Yeah, I got a wrist pulse.." Stoker volunteered to Dr. Brackett.

"Nice work earlier on the endotrach, Stoker. Ok, Sheppard, turn
down that I.V. to an infusion rate of 150 to 200 mL/hour. Have
Diazepam, a 5 to 10 mg i.v. dose handy in case he seizes. Repeat 
that every 10 to 15 minutes as needed when and if he does. Use a light 
metaproterenol inhaler for any bronchospasms. Benzene
has an anesthetic action on the central nervous system in high enough
doses. That's most likely why he collapsed and quit breathing on you
so fast. Now that he's washed, he'll come around fairly rapidly."

"Right.." acknowledged Sheppard with a nod.

Dr. Brackett frowned. "I just wish I could run a few tests here.." he 
mumbled.  

Dr. Scribbs overheard. "You can, doctor. This may be an L.A. County
autopsy lab, but Sam and I have state of the art analysis equipment 
that's the rival of anything you have at the hospital. Including an
electron microscope. What do you need?"

Kel blinked, watching Dixie get vitals on Roy and Mr. Smith.
"Oh...Uh. ..ok.. Think you and your assistant can handle all of these?
A CBC with differential, Hct, Hgb, serum erythrocyte count. 
Erythrocyte indices, three of them, an MCV, MCH, and MCHC along 
with a platelet count? We're gonna have to check for developing 
pancytopenia."

"Easily.." Scribbs punctuated.

"Ok, how about a BUN, blood calcium, creatinine series. Liver function 
tests of these two types,.. looking for hepatic aminotransferase levels..
..AST, ALT. A search for elevated bilirubin, and a prothrombin time. 
Also a urinanalysis check for phenol. That's a byproduct of benzene
as it decomposes in the renal system. " Dr. Brackett rattled off.
"Percutaneous absorption can contribute to total body burden."

"I'm aware of that metabolite and fact, Dr. Brackett."

"Oh. You are? Sorry. Oh, .. and  I'd like to pin down signs of 
paroxysmal hemoglobinuria."

"No problem." Scribbs fired off.

"How about checking for intravascular hemolysis? We'll have
to give him 50 to 100 mEq of sodium bicarbonate intravenously 
to his I.V. to initiate urinary alkalinization to stop it." Kel
asked, still deep in concern and concentration.

Scribbs laughed out loud noisily to get the Rampart M.D.'s
attention. "Doctor, there isn't one test we can't do here. Just 
because we deal with deceased persons, doesn't mean that
we're  limited medically speaking in the slightest way."

" Whoops. I never said you were." Kel said automatically.

Dixie McCall shot back. "How about having the ability
to make a decent cup of coffee? It's something the hospital
stinks at."

Kel made a face at Dix in conmiseration.

Scribbs rolled his eyes self consciously. "Now that's one 
procedure my assistant and I haven't been able to master."

"Too bad.." McCall grinned, getting the needed blood
and urine samples from Gage efficiently. "These boys
look like they could use a bit of something to warm up a bit."

"I'll turn up the thermostat." and Scribbs rushed off to
show Kel Brackett where the testing equipment was
located. "Uh, that's if someone would be so kind as to
shut that storage cooler door up first. Right this way,
Mr. Brackett. The lab stairway's right through here."

"Wait a minute." Brackett stopped Scribbs. "I'd like to hear
about my other two patients first if you don't mind."

"Oh, right. Sorry. I'm so used to one "patient" at 
a time. This triage concept's a little foreign to me."
he admitted.

"Nothing to it. Belliveau? How's your three?"

"Mr. Smith's vitals are a bit elevated but he has
no traumatic injuries. Roy here on the other hand,
suffered a black out when the ambulance overturned."

"Roy's vitals are normal. Pupils are equal and reactive." 
Dixie supplied to end Kel's frown about hearing that.

Kel nodded. "And Malcolm here?"

"A simple radial ulnar break I think. Circulation, sensation 
and motor ability in the hand is intact." Bob answered.
"No loss of consciousness in his history at all."

"Great news." and Dr. Brackett looked up. "We'll save the rest of
our I.V.s for walk in casualties. " Then he fell to rubbing his chin,
"Say I wonder if we can get that fracture x--"

Scribbs was quick. "We can..  I'll get Roy's full skull series going, too.
If you two gentlemen will follow me." he gestured to the ambulance
attendant and head bandaged paramedic respectively. 
"Malcolm, you stay right there in that wheel chair with that arm splint 
propped up. No one that needy ever walks in my office."

"Of that I have no doubt.." rejoined Chet Kelly.

Marco Lopez and Mike Stoker laughed at his joke.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Upstairs, Captain Stanley was only half heartened by the
solid rain falling from the clouds. "That'll end the roof fires, chief."
he adressed Batallion. "But what about any chemicals reactant
to water?"

"We're letting the heart of the Hot Zone burn. That'll decompose
most of what this bill of lading has listed. The perimeter units, Foam
127 and 110 are covering the spread of that. The only risk factor
I see is the benzene, with its outgassing ability and the fact that
it's heavier than air. It may flow into the street craters where the
gaslines blew and reignite isolated pockets of liquid gas on
lingering sparks." the chief said.

"Fill the trenches with foam. We've plenty. I just heard L.A. City's
here."

"Might work." Batallion admitted.

"I know it will." said the surgical scrubbed garbed captain.
He absently adjusted the helmet that still perched on his head.

The chief had a chuckle at Hank's clothes. "You know, you look
like a doc from a television soap opera wearing those."

Hank looked down at himself subconsciously and whirled to
see if any other of the bustling firefighters going in and out of
the building were staring. But none were. "Sorry, chief. It was
all they had."

"The hat's enough for your rank identification. Tell me. How
are those two Code I's of yours?"

"Fine,.. well, one is fine. Roy DeSoto took a knock on the 
head but it's minor. My other paramedic is.." and he shrugged
when his voice choked off.

The chief patted Hank's shoulder as Stanley busied himself
with not reading the city map festooned with the red fire point 
stick pins, spread out on the communications desk before them.
"I overheard your engineer on the radio. Tell me, does he always
play paramedic for your station?"

Cap immediately blushed. "Uh, Chief. Stoker's been fully authorized
by the head of the paramedic program, Kel Brackett. I--I'm surprised
you didn't get the memo.."

"I haven't had time. With the San Bernadino brush fire season in full
swing. I'm behind doing a lot of things."  the wizened chief's eyes
alighted on a tray of packaged sandwiches being carted past
by a relief worker. "Including finding some grub. Hungry Hank?"

Stanley was not slow. He intercepted the tray of food that
surprised the young tunic'd woman for a few seconds when
the weight left her hands. She saluted and did an about face
to head outside for more sandwiches. "Thanks, maam. Could
you run a tray to the morgue? I've several downstairs with
patients."

"How many?"

"Just under a dozen.."

"I'll be there.." flashed the young woman's smile
in the smoky lobby. "Give me four minutes."

"Appreciate it." Hank waved, munching on
a ham and cheese.

Batallion was equally engaged with a roast beef
on rye. "Umm, nothing like deli on a busy work day."

"Even inside a morgue?" Cap asked.

"Even in a morgue, Hank. Location's never stopped
my appetite before. Never has, never will." The chief
hefted up his sandwich in a mock toast. "Here's to
light civilian casualties and a rapidly dying fire."

"Here, here." Hank celebrated. And the whole room of
firefighters concurred from whereever they were.

The chief bellowed. "Get back to work all of you slackers!
We still got a full week's hazard cleanup to do.." he yelled
with an unserious grin. "Now where was I?" he asked Hank
over the map.

"Hot Zone center cleanup."

"Oh yeah.. Right. Now the best angle of attack I can see
for clean up is to continue the EMS personnel's evacuation
of stragglers for full decontamination in the Green Zone.
I'm convinced we won't need Level A barrier isolation for
either the Decontamination nor the Rehabilitation Stations.
Gloves and aprons will be enough." the chief reiterated.
"We'll just keep using polybags for the evacuee's leather
clothing articles. Benzene will stay concentrated in those."

Hank nodded. "And I have the third alarm units gathering
names and addresses and the businesses on all of
them so we can get our headcounts and check for any
other potential missing people."

"Good. Good." the chief nodded. "I've already had L.A. call
a clinical facility to handle all the hazardous waste we'll create
with our soaking sandpiles and demolishing operations."

"And I've instructed L.A. City Fire Departments Nine and
112's to continue to check for airborne contaminants down
wind."

"Their findings?"

"Mostly carbon monoxide and some tetrahydrocarbons. 
Nothing in the OSHA risk ranges yet. I'm most happy
with the fact that the benzene is dissipating. The foam units
are doing the trick. Only one backflash outside the back
alley has been reported." Captain Stanley said.

"Hmm, the one that you boys drove through getting back
here. Is your engine bad off?"

Captain Stanley was silent.

"Don't worry about E-51. I'll handle her repair paperwork
personally. I'm sure Charlie the mechanic and his lackies
will make her a priority. He loves your station's vehicles you
know."

"I know he does.." Cap complained. "The way he jumps all
over my men on every visit proves that. " and he broke
off into an imitation of Charlie's gruff New York taxi driver
accent. "You boys're gonna stop jamming the squad tires up 
against the curbs on rescue calls or I'm gonna come jam your 
skulls along side of the backyard walls the first chance I get!"
Hank parroted. 

"Ooo, " grimaced Batallion in sympathy. "He's that obssessed
with the Ward and Chrysler?"

"Yep. Almost as much as I hate getting surprise insp--" he broke 
off, suddenly pale with embarrassment.

The chief cleared his throat, pretending that he didn't hear
Hank's slipped comment. "I'll curb Charlie, too during
the repair job. Your whole station crew today has done
the department proud. I'll be issuing commendations for
each and every one of you as soon as my staff can 
get to it."

"Thank you, Chief." Hank said, lowering his head
in humility. "I'm sure my men will be thrilled see those
during the next monthly meeting."

"Keep them a surprise." Batallion ordered.

"Yes sir."

Right then, Hank's HT, connected to the one
in the morgue, came to life. It was Dr. Scribbs
with news.

##Mr. Stanley. Your paramedic's awake and talking.
The M.D. you got here's a real efficient man. Knows
his stuff better than I know mine. Just thought you should 
know. You're busy so I'll sign off now.## 

Click.

Batallion started grinning. "Hank..."

"Huh..?"

"Get down there before you burn holes in this
map of ours. Your body's home but your brain isn't.
Go see your man. You'll be no good to me until you've
reassured yourself that he's out of hot water." the chief 
chuckled. "You have three minutes.. Go....I'll assume your
command assignment until you get back."

Hank went.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnny Gage was still vocally protesting where he was.
"Oh, ughhhHHh.  I'm on a cadaver table?! Get me off of
here. A stokes suspended between two chairs'll be just
fine.."  Marco and Kelly hastened to move him but
Kel Brackett halted them.

"Ah, ah ah.. Not so fast. You're still suffering some myocardial 
sensitivity Johnny. Any unnecessary motion might send you 
into V-fib." Kel warned.

"I'll willing to take the risk. You've got a defibrillator right there.
I'll just slide over into the basket here and--"

"You just freeze right there, Johnny Gage..." Dixie glared,
pushing both her hands down onto his chest so he couldn't
rise up onto his elbows.

Mike Stoker whined. "Aw, Gage. Don't make me live through
a second endotrach on you again. The first time was scary
enough.."

Gage blinked, shifting his blankets around over his bare
body. "You..did ..did what? Where was Roy?"

"Elsewhere." DeSoto grinned.

"Oh yeah?" Gage asked, frowning at Mike. Then he
slid a tongue over his front teeth. "I think you screwed
up a bit Stoker. I feel a chip here."

Mike Stoker's face started to fade into a look of horror
when Gage smiled, letting him off the hook.

Dr. Brackett crossed his arms in a no business attitude.
"Leave him alone, Gage. Or I'll sedate you myself and let
him take another run at you. Now lie still. And that's an
order you can't ignore."

Gage realized his cause was lost. "All right, all right. You win.
Just.. gimme some eye covers or something. I don't wanna
see what's in those jars over there. And a nose plug." he mumbled
through his oxygen mask. 

Dr. Scribbs looked up from admiring Dr. Brackett's triage
chart with a wounded look. "My ward's spotless Mr. Gage.
Not a trace of odor anywhere. I personally disinfected your
table myself before you were transferred onto it."

"Charmed, doc. It's not the physical odor I'm talking about
it's the..."

"...psychosomatic one.. I know.." Scribbs sighed sadly. "I hear
that from absolutely everybody non department who comes
in here." he sniffed. "And I've even tried to cheer up the place,
too, for all the clinical residents I get visiting me each week."
and he threw a hand at a prominent Garfield wall calendar 
tacked up under a stark white, round two handed clock.
"Doesn't it help?"

Chet Kelly started an empathetic no, but Mike Stoker
stepped on his foot to silence him.

Gage let his head thunk back onto his paper sheeted pillow.
"A little... I guess.." he replied when Dix put on a little visual
pressure with a do it or die face.

"Oh, what a relief. I can only decorate so much you know.
It's because of the nature of my work."

"If you're so hung up on decor, why don't you go be
a mortician in a funeral home. That kind of place is
total lavish. Satin coffins, velvet curtains, carpetting.."
Chet needled Scribbs.

Scribbs refused to rise to the bait. "I like problem
solving too much to be satisfied with just corpse restoration
for burial. Here, I can determine cause of death and there's
nothing, gentlemen, more intriguing than that." he
said with a grin.

Mike Stoker cleared his throat. "Yes, well. Uh... Chow's
on. Looks like Cap sent us down a tray.."

Gage reached for a sandwich eagerly.

Dixie slapped his hand away. "Not so fast, Near Death Boy.
You've orders for nothing PO."

"Aw,, Dix. I feel fine.." Johnny said.

"Yeah?" Kel admitted. "Well the tests Dr. Scribbs and I
ran on you say otherwise. If your blood alkali normalizes
within the next hour, I'll see about you eating anything.
Until then, that I.V.'s all you're gonna get."

"Ok, doc, you're my doc."

"And so am I." glared Scribbs. "er... for the time being."

Johnny mock saluted them both, grumbling while
everyone but Sheppard moved away to fill their bellies. 

Malcolm declined his food saying he
might lose it when his arm was reset.

Dixie dove into her egg salad. "Suit yourself."
she told him.

Johnny threw a needle cover at Mike Stoker's
back to get his attention when the others had
gone. He didn't mind Gil Sheppard remaining
for Gage trusted the paramedic to have selective
hearing while he dove through the sports pages.

Stoker swallowed his last bite of chicken breast on
wheat and he sat by Johnny. "Need something?"

Gage studied his hands. "Yeah, your ear." he said
timidly. "Look, I didn't mean to critique all you did for
me. This chip's nothing the dentist can't fix. I have
soft teeth I'm told. And you must've had to hurry or
something."

"I did. You quit breathing less than ten seconds after
you dropped the BP cuff.." Mike Stoker said.

"I did?"

"Yeah. That must have been some benzene dose you
took. Something in liquid form I suspect." Mike nodded.

"Was anyone else effected?" he asked quietly worried.

"Chet was. Both his eyes.."

Johnny's face screwed up in complaint.. "Well why does
he get to eat?! For crying out l-- That's not fair.."

Mike hushed him. "His tests came out negative for phenol."

Johnny relented and suppressed a cough so the EKG monitor
wouldn't set off a PVC alarm and send the others running.
He just thought about what he was going to say for a minute
and then he looked up at Stoker. "Thanks for bailing my 
butt, Mike. I could've died today."

"Well you didn't. And even if you had, no one does for long
under MY c.p.r."

"That much is true.." Johnny chuckled, seriously. "Still.
Thanks, pal." And he held out his I.V. taped hand.

Mike Stoker took it into a clasp, moved far beyond easy 
words, so he didn't speak. A nod sufficed. But then he tilted
his head and he stuck out a pinning finger. "The first moment
you're back on your feet and back on duty. You're gonna drill
me on the mannikin. I wanna get a full intubation done in less
than the minute they give you. And I wanna learn how to NOT
cause a laryngospasm."

Johnny warmed up to the new subject heartily and his
cardiac monitor sped up into an excited range. "That's
easy. Here, move closer. I wanna tell you how I do all MY endotrachs.
Roy's method's good. But a tad slow. I got a few seconds on him
and he's been in this line of work longer than me.." he grinned
lopsidedly. "Now after you've visualized the cords there's
a positioning trick you can do with your elbows where you just
cock your non stylus hand up a hair.. like this.. Here let me
show you.. Gimme your hands.. Are you with me so far?"

Mike nodded.

"Ok, so you've got your scope blade in and the tongue's
pushed to the right out of the way.. now all you have to do
is..."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy DeSoto listened to his crewmates quiet babble from 
the far side of the room with contentment while he sipped 
the well deserved cup of coffee Dixie had given him. She
was with him now, helping DeSoto keep an eye on Gage's
EKG monitor and she caught his slight smile of pride.

"What?" she asked, mirroring one of her own.

"Nothing. They're bringing back some memories that's all."

"What kind of memories?" Dixie pegged, challenging.

Roy was caught like a dog on a pole and noose.
He sighed. "I remember talking shop with Johnny about
paramedic stuff, just like they're doing right now."

"Does it feel good? Or bad?" McCall asked with a mixed
look on her face, half worried and half horrified.

"Both, actually. I taught Johnny everything he knew and now
he's got a chance to teach Stoker the same thing. In one
respect, that proves that I made a good teacher. On the other
hand, it makes me feel really ...old.." DeSoto mused.

"Oh, rubbish.." McCall said. "If I felt that way everytime one
of my student nurses suddenly figured it out and became
well seasoned, I'd never crawl out of bed in the morning.
Just,.. let it happen,. and be done with it.."

Kel Brackett interrupted them from the autopsy reports he
was reading through that Dr. Scribbs was showing him
like a proud papa. "That's what I do, Roy. Look how I feel.
I'm a great grandfather now.. First I trained you. Then you
trained Gage. Now Gage is training Stoker... See? Great
grandfather. And I never wallow in an I'm getting older
pity pit."

"Yes you do.." Dix peeped.

"I do not!" Kel said, setting down his report slate.

"Sure you do. Whenever you graduate yet another
paramedic class, it happens every time. Carol tells me she
hears you doing it all the time."

"Well,," Dr. Brackett sputtered. "That's ..that might
be true.. But I try to curb it."

"Relax, doc.." Roy smiled, leaning forward. "I won't
let anyone on to the fact that we're all human beings."

Dr. Brackett frowned sarcastically and reburied his
nose into the autopsy reports.

Scribbs added his own opinion. "I know the value of
human sentimentality probably more than the both of
you put together, since I see just how mortal each and 
every person,.. truly is." And he raised his cup in
an invite. "Here's to life. And our mutual fight to thwart 
death."

Roy and Dix and Kel all raised their mugs of coffee 
and joined the medical examiner in his toast.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chet Kelly sat in his chair, well away from the others
and the corpse cooler, watching Stoker and Gage run
through an intubation call at his tableside. Something
inside of him made him get up and walk over there.
He interrupted their conversation self consciously.
"Can I listen in?"

Mike Stoker and Johnny Gage fell silent.

Chet stammered. "I ..I..I mean.. I was there, too. Maybe
I could learn a thing or three... like... like he is." he 
shrugged. 

Mike Stoker smiled and pulled up a second metal
stool. "Why don't you find a third seat for Marco. We'll 
all learn together." And Stoker's eyes twinkled in the 
lights.

It wasn't long before a newly arriving Hank Stanley was
 just as rivetted as the others to Gage's helpful hints and 
entertaining expertise on the finesse of good advanced
life support techniques.

And it seemed like no time at all before the whole quarantined 
bunch was bound for Rampart aboard the helicopter, 
soaring high above the Carson City skyline.

                          FIN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Brackett getting into a helicopter.

Photo:  Close of Dr. Scribbs, L.A. County M.E.

Photo:  Cap and a Batallion Chief by an engine.

Photo:  Bob Belliveau, fire paramedic, by a med cabinet.

Photo:  Gil Sheppard, paramedic, with his partner, seated.

Photo:  Roy and Marco smirking.

Photo: Roy smiling proudly.

Photo: The gang loading patients onto a helicopter.

*********************************************************************
 
***This current episode has just completed.
***Keep watching here daily for new episode
***scene installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

----------------------------------------------------


            
            End Credits --  Episode Twelve  (Second Season)
                                      
                           CROSSING THE RED LINE

              :)  This episode is dedicated to all personnel who deal with            :)
              :)     hazardous materials world wide. May you stay safe and well.  :)                                                                                                                                                                      


Guest Writers...
---------------

Joan                           Joan chetspet@myway.com
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Sam Iam                    lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
 
 
**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

 Patti Keiper    Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota 
Jack Russell    Retired Hazmat Captain, Prasmus NJ  USA
 

Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  mamasuelodge70@yahoo.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 
 
"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To Icecat,  <icecat62@comcast.net>
For Designing the Banner for Episode Twelve

To Hap, <elifelinecap@yahoo.com>
For Naming Episode Twelve. :)

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To Deana Shaffer     djsbuick@aol.com
For Naming The Eleventh Episode :)

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season Two   Episode Twelve

                  Crossing The Red Line 

-------------------------------------------------------------

Getting Dizzy Midi by Michael Fonos

Mystical Falls Midi by Grant H Joung

Revulsion Midi by Joris Wittenburg

Sunny Morning Midi by Bjorne Lynne
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________



To view the following, YOU MUST ENTER...

User ID : squad51

Password : responding

After clicking the episode's link..

----------------------------------------------------

To see the first episode and what we've done
for October, click the link below.

Episode One, Season One.
Full Moon Blues

 http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fullmoonblues1.html
**Location to the Debut First Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show images
following the storyline.
 
----------------------------------------------

To see the second episode and what we did in
the month of November. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Two
Father and Son

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fatherandson1.html
**Location to the Second Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the third episode and what we did in
the month of December. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Three
Juxtaposition

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/juxtaposition1.html
**Location to the Third Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fourth episode and what we did in
the month of January. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Four
Within Sight

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/withinsight1.html
**Location to the Fourth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------------

To see the fifth episode and what we did in
the month of February. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Five
Integrity Game

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/integritygame1.html
**Location to the Fifth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

-----------------------------------------------------

To see the sixth episode and what we did in
the month of March. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Six
The Golden Horn

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thegoldenhorn1.html
**Location to the Sixth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

------------------------------------------------------

Special Episode 2003..
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thefaceinthemirror1.html
**Location to a Special Episode launched at
the midpoint of our first theater season. Features a
theater host's written episode with images
and screengrabs following the storyline.

The Face In The Mirror..

---------------------------------------------

To see the seventh episode and what we did in
the month of April. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Seven
Crazy Days

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/crazydays1.html
**Location to the Seventh Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

---------------------------------------------

To see the eighth episode and what we did in
the month of September. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Eight
The Promise

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/thepromise1.html
**Location to the Eighth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.
---------------------------------------------

To see the ninth episode and what we did in
the months of January through March 2004. Click the link below.

Season One, Episode Nine
Green Pen Of Johnny's

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/johnnysgreenpen1.html
**Location to the Ninth Episode of the theater's
premiere season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.
----------------------------------------------

To see the tenth episode and what we did in
the months of April through May 2004. Click the link below.

Season Two, Episode Ten
From Loaves To Fishes

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/fromloavestofishes1.html
**Location to the tenth Episode of the theater's
second season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

----------------------------------------------

To see the eleventh episode and what we did in
the month of June 2004. Click the link below.

Season Two, Episode Eleven
Shadows Of The Past

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/shadowsofthepast1.html
**Location to the eleventh Episode of the theater's
second season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

----------------------------------------------------

To see the twelveth episode and what we did in
the month of July 2004. Click the link below.

Season Two, Episode Twelve
Crossing The Red Line

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/episodes/crossingtheredline1.html
**Location to the twelveth Episode of the theater's
second season. Features music, and TV Show 
images following the storyline.

_______________________________________

This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Twelve,  Season Two
  
     Crossing The Red Line     

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : July 1st, 2004.

============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
§ Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com §
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 
   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================


The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Thirteen..

§§   THE WHITE ENGINE     §§
 
Debut Launch: 1  August 2004.

 
******************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Saturday, August 14, 2004 4:34 AM 
Subject :  Like Kids in A Candy Store 


Johnny Gage arrived to work, automatically buzzing himself through 
the fire station's side kitchen door, while unbuttoning his shirt. 
"Morning, Chet." he greeted.

Fireman Kelly didn't even look up from the collection of gadgets
and bits of machinery strewn across newspapers on the table.
"Hmmm.. " he said, closely joining together a wire and spring
with a soldering iron. "Eat on a tray. I'm busy here. Touch nothing."

Gage skidded to a halt, naturally, to see what Chet was up to.
"What's this?" he said, picking up a small black case fitted with
a pressure dial.

"ah ahH  AHH! Gimme that!" the curly haired fireman snapped
defensively, snatching the homemade part out of Johnny's grip. 
He carefully placed it back into the order he had laid out before him.
"Boy, you sure know how to listen to directions, Gage. Cap, I think 
you oughta send Johnny to Rampart. I don't think his ears are
functioning." he complained.

Hank Stanley sniffed from where he was sipping coffee in the
easy chair, his lap full of snoring Henry . "What else's new?
Goes along with both of his feet, Kelly." Cap glared at Johnny, 
waving what he was really reading on top of the stocks section.
"Your accident report for the week is already three pages long.
Have you been getting more sleep like I ordered ya to?"

Gage forgot his curiosity over Kelly's impromptu project  and
frowned right back. "Yeah, Cap. Plenty.. I. "

"And how about remembering to take those multi vitamins Dr. 
Early suggested we all start taking." Hank added.

"As if I'd forget. Roy left a note on my bathroom mirror a foot
wide, reminding me about em." Johnny snorted under his breath.

"Good. Now eat. Stoker brought in danishes for breakfast. They're
over there on the counter." Stanley said, lifting the paper up in
front of his face to end the conversation.

"Danishes? Roy loves danishes. And there's a cheese one left."
Gage interjected as he chewed a raspberry one loudly. "How 
come he hasn't taken it yet before Lopez does?"

"He's busy.." Chet Kelly answered, penning some molten soldering 
onto his tiny invention. A plume of bluish smoke rose up and started 
off the fire detector on the ceiling. "Oops!"  Kelly shot up and
stood in his chair while he pulled the lid off to silence the alarm.

Stoker came pelting in with the fire extinguisher from the vehicle 
bay.

Kelly didn't even look up from his work. "Now there's a set of 
tightly bundled reflexes. Gage, you can learn from him."

"What?" Stoker asked. "Where's the fire?"

"False alarm, Stoker. Everything's fine.." Cap said from
the chair, still buried in his paper.

"Oh..." Mike gaped.  Then his expression fell into one of irritation
that matched Gage's when he found out the reason for the noise.
"I thought Chet fried some snow skiis again or something."

"Very funny.." Kelly told him. "Nah, what I got here is going to
revolutionize the entire fire department, Stoker. It came to
me during last Thursday's fire."

"You mean at the factory where we all got a chest full of smoke
for nothing after rescuing Moreno's abandoned turnout jacket when
we thought he was trapped in there?" Gage supplied.

"That's the one. Too bad that almost perfect recall doesn't work
so well with the rest of ya." Chet quipped, pointing his steaming
pen at Johnny in emphasis.

"Speak for yourself. You got Cap here so conditioned to your
continually setting off the fire detectors here, that he 
doesn't even blink any more."

"Wrong Gage. I blinked. I just chose not to react." Hank grumbled.
"Stoker leave that extinguisher where Chet can reach it.
Then you can go back to studying up."

"Right Cap." and Mike left the kitchen with two danishes.

"Hey, Stoker. Leave the cheese one for Roy!" Johnny admonished.

"I'm bringing it to him out back. Wanna come along?"

"You mean he's not in the locker room poring over the horse
racing column?"

"Nope." Mike Stoker said through a cheekful of pastry.

"What's he doing that's so important that he's forgetting his
breakfast?" Gage asked the station engineer.

Stoker said nothing and just motioned to Johnny to follow him.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The first thing Gage noticed was the gaping space yawning floor
to ceiling in the bay. It made the squad seem very small.
"Where's the Ward at?"

"In the shop. She needed a new water tank. It was rusting out."
Stoker said, picking up a basket ball and shooting it into the 
hoop above the shower room doorframe.

Johnny glanced over at the speaker grill and saw the glowing
ready light pulsing there on active mode. "We're on active duty?
How can we be with no engine handy to take out on calls?"

Mike Stoker just flung the basket ball over to the open door
garage button leading out into the backyard, activating it.

The screeching massive slats retracted revealing a blinding
white light. Johnny's mouth fell open. "What the h*ll is that?"

"Our loaner." Stoker said with a grin. "Roy's at the back panel
learning how to work all the new gadgetry." He couldn't help
but show all of his teeth like a kid in the candy store. "Isn't
she beautiful?"  

Johnny followed Stoker dumbly out into the morning sunlight with
the berry danish in between his teeth, remaining unchewed.

Stoker gave a running account of what he had discovered
since coming to work. "Meet the "Ambassador" Ward LaFrance 1000.
She's got a six cylinder Cummins Diesel engine with an automatic transmission, 
a 2000 GPM  two stage Hale Class Water Pump with a 500 Gallon
capacity reservoir. And get a load of this, this baby's got a IDLH atmosphere 
attacking repetoire consisting of  a FOUR inch diameter hose- 500 feet in
length, a  2 1/2" at a 1,000'.  Plus an 1 3/4" topping 450' ! Awesome
killing power."

"But..but..but...." Gage sputtered.

Mike didn't hear him. He was too deep into his stint of fire truck
admiration to pay him any heed. " ...Did I tell you that she can seat all 
six of us, including all of your medical gear from the squad? The 
chief's already authorized duplicates. See?" and he popped
open a shiny chrome door behind the engineer's cab which
revealed everything in its proper place.

Gage slammed the door shut again.

"Hey, take it easy! Do you want to damage Ivory before she's
even broken in?" Stoker said, protectively rubbing off
Gage's fingermarks with the chamois that miraculously
appeared from his back pocket. "We've got the honor
of being the first station to get her off the assembly line you know."

"Ivory? This ugly thing of an engine's got a name already?" 
John asked incredulously.

"Sure, why not? Our regular Ward's got one.." Marco
Lopez said from on top of the huge truck, startling
Johnny. He was seated in the chrome sprayer chair,
testing out the still dry cannon.

"But.. but... but... she's......*ugh*... a white fire engine.
When I signed up for the department  I was counting
on serving the kind of engine I always saw all the other 
guys working on. An honest to goodness fire engine that was
RED colored, not.. this, this frosty kind! You need a 
pair of sunglasses handy to get anywhere near her here."
he said, wiping his eyes free of bright light tears.

"Got 'em..." Hank grinned, joining his men outside, pulling
out a pair from his uniform shirt. "Here's yours, Gage."
and he tossed them to his flustered paramedic.
"Roy's already got his."

Johnny's disgust only grew when Stoker, Marco and Cap
all shoved on the beach lifeguard mirror shades before
they climbed aboard.  Gage's list of grievances only grew
and the others patiently let him vent until he was done.
"So how long are we gonna be stuck with her?" Johnny 
said in the end with his hands on his hips.

"Don't know. Chief says could be a week, or three.." Hank
smiled, enjoying Johnny's shock and dismay. "I told Charlie
to take his time with Ol Red. He couldn't blame me. Ivory here's
state of the art and he trusted no one else but Stoker to
be her test driver."

Mike Stoker was suddenly rivetted with repolishing his new
intricate engineer's panel. "Hey Roy.." and he whistled
in his teeth. "Breakfast!" and he launched the covetted
cheese danish high into the air to free up his other hand.

"Stoker! What are ya doing?" Johnny yelled. "For crying 
out----! "

A deep hum of moving parts and gears suddenly kicked
on and a part of the engine that was almost invisible because
of the snow white paint suddenly .. unfolded.

Mike Stoker drew near Johnny's elbow, chewing. 
"Did I tell you that we are now the proud loaners of
a genuine 84 foot Addison extension ladder too?"

It was Gage's turn to start to drool. All of his earlier
complaints and carrying on, melted like sugar
under water. "Oh, boy. An Addison.." 

A hand shot up from the basket of the rising ladder
sections and caught the danish neatly.

"Nice catch, Roy." Cap shouted up. 
" I'd say you got the controls on that thing mastered. Now 
come down. It's Johnny's turn. He's the last to get to 
play ladderman." Hank ordered, walking back into
the station to finish his interrupted stocks column.

"Do you forgive her color now, Johnny?" Roy grinned,
setting the ladder into neutral as the gears glided down
across Ivory's back. The basket nestled snugly behind the
passenger cab.

Johnny was speechless and he dropped his danish 
to Henry who suddenly knew to be there and flashed over
to the back control alcove. "Yeah,.. I'll forgive her.
Wow.. Is it really my turn?"

"There goes those problems with the ears again..."
Chet Kelly said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"You heard the Cap." Marco said. "Take her up."

Gage bubbled as he helped Roy down from the scoop
stand. "How do I operate this? Quick, Stoker. Help me out."

"It's simple. Just think stick shift. Forward for up. Back for
down. Left and right for side to side. Nothing to it." Mike
said laughing. "Try to touch the top of the hose tower with
the basket. All of us got it up there in less than fifteen seconds."

"But that's sixy feet high at least.." Gage stammered.

"So?" Chet scoffed, grinning. "We've got 84 feet of vertical to 
monkey with. Go for it. I'm timing ya..   3,.....2.....1.." and he 
studied his watch closely. "Mark when I say go.."

Gage shoved on the work gloves Roy handed him and
grabbed the controls just as Kelly yelled "Go!"

The gang cheered Johnny on as he got used to the feel
of the white fire engine's best feature. But then the
call tones went off and Gage's concentration wavered.

The bottom of the rescue basket bumped the top of
the hose tower and all the hoses hanging there were
jolted off their hooks. Six of them sphagetti-d like noodles
to the ground in noisy splats, making all of them duck.

"Oh, good going, Gage. Guess who gets to climb back
up there to rehang all of those." Kelly said.

Johnny shot Kelly a sarcastic look. "I'll use the basket to
redo em later."

Stoker was already in his overcoat, behind the wheel,
sliding into his helmet.

Cap ran from the station bay with his on and he began
shouting. "Let's move. Roy get that ladder down now. 
We roll in half a minute. Then it's you two, in the back. 
The squad stays behind. Chief's orders."

"What?" Johnny blurted, confused. "We're gonna need
that if it's just a medical call."

"No we won't. From now on until the old Ward gets back.
We're on every call, together. Kapesh?" Cap said in
a no nonsense tone.

Johnny nodded leadenly.

"Great, now  get in." Cap bellowed, jerking a thumb back
behind him as he opened the sparkling new engine's
door.

Gage started to beeline for the squad to get his jacket but
Marco stopped him by flinging it and his helmet across
his chest. "I took the liberty of moving yours when I 
did mine, Johnny. Here."

Johnny nodded an embarrassed thanks and slid dutifully
beside Kelly in the spacious back cab. The yellow of their
air bottles looked comical against the snowy metal.

##Station 51, Station 8, Truck 127. Structure fire. 
1700 East Beckner Avenue. Cross street Caine. 1700
East Beckner Avenue. Cross street Caine. Time out, 07:06.##

Cap thumbed the radio mic, "L.A., 10-4. Engine 51-A is responding.
We're KMG 365." And he released the talk button. "Let's get the 
show on the road gang. Sounds like a bad one. That block's
right on the marina.." Hank got in next to Mike on the passenger's 
side but his door lingered open a little longer while the rescue
call directions were broadcast. He reached down
to grab Henry's loose scruff as he hauled him aboard.
"Isn't this great? We finally got enough room for him.
Now he can be a proper fire dog.." Cap chuckled.
"Ok, Stoker. Move it out. Go through the garage and
then punch the auto down once we're on the boulevard."

"Wait a minute. Where's Roy?" Johnny startled. "He 
didn't follow us inside the cab."

"Course not." yelled Kelly gleefully. "Somebody's gotta
steer our back end. For today, Roy's designated wheel
man!"

Johnny's face finally fell into another smile, one of jealousy
as the news sunk in. "A wheel man. Just like I used to dream
about when I was a kid."

"Well, now you get to indulge yourself Gage. We all do.
Just like the big boys in the city.. Wah..HoOOooooo!"
Chet shouted at the top of his lungs. 

Henry the basset, in between Caps knees, barked like
a mad thing in excitement at finally being able to follow his
humans to whereever they were going.

"Wow, would you look at that?" Marco shouted, adjusting
his helmet over the noise of the powerful engine and 
shrill triple tone and whistle siren. "Henry's a puppy again.
He's acting like he's years younger." he celebrated.


The white engine roared down the freeway top speed. Her shockingly
bright non color was scattering the traffic out of her way like harried
chickens long before the siren's wail ever got there.

Gage smiled, noticing. "Maybe there IS something in painting
a fire truck white."

"Not to my way of thinking, Gage." Kelly said, overhearing. "You're forgetting 
how much the dirt is going to show up on Ivory's flanks when we're through.
Stoker's gonna keep us busy buffing and polishing her up for hours."

Johnny's happy little boy look faded into a look of horror.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Station 51's backyard.

Photo: Johnny in an empty, open vehicle bay.

Photo:  A white fire engine, front side out.

Photo: A ladder going up on a Ward.

Photo: The ladder's rear truck controls.

Photo: Johnny talking with Roy outside.

Photo:  A warehouse fire, full blown at night.

Photo: Cap with Henry on the couch.

**********************************************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Mon Aug 16, 2004  5:55 pm 
Subject:  Other Things Are White, Too
 
Stoker had no problem finding the fire. The tang of salt from 
the ocean was mixed with the bitter smell of tricolored smoke that 
was the signature of a spanish beach stucco and tile house fire. 
The burning plume of ash was wafting over the pacific coast highway, 
making traffic slow as gapers rubbernecked the stilted house perched
on the clifftop.  

Cap gestured, "Stoker, can you get us through on the margin?"

"Yep." and Mike hauled the large wheel around until they had by passed
the driving gawkers. The airhorn he used every hundred feet elicted
cheers each time he used it. All the people stuck in the morning 
and fire traffic did this as they passed in the usual California motorist 
reaction to seeing an emergency vehicle moving on through.

In the back, highly visible to all, Roy restrained himself and tried not 
to wave back.

Hank was relieved to find that he wasn't the first one on the scene.

Captain Ben Stone's Station Eight crew was there, already milling about
in the scrub surrounding the house for the water hydrant pipe.

"L.A., Station 51's on scene. We'll be attacking from the northern exposure."
Stanley made his arrival known.

##10-4, 51. An ambulance has been dispatched to your location. ETA 
nine minutes.## came the dispatcher's reply.

"Copy, L.A. 51, out." Cap replied, collapsing down his walkie talkie
antennae as he stepped from the engine's cab. He was about to slam the
door shut when a deep woof arrested him. Henry dropped his heavy
bulk to the smoky street and he immediately ambled over to a wide 
place on the grass where he sat himself down by a eucalyptus tree, 
to begin intently watching the fire.

Ben Stone noticed, in between shouted attack orders issued to his men. 
"Oh, so you've only just managed to spring your resident couch potato 
off his perch for this one?" he teased Hank. "It's been what? Three years
since he showed up for dinner?"

Captain Stanley shouted to get Roy's attention. "DeSoto! Ladder up! 
Unmanned bucket. We'll use the auto cannon to cover the roof. Then
get down and set up fire standby medical gear."

"You got it, Cap." Roy answered, waving a glove.

Then Cap answered Ben. "Sure. Why not? You can see how
he's enjoying himself."

"That I can." smiled the big dark skinned captain immensely.

Gage motored on by at a run, when he saw Squad 8's compartment
doors wide open which was a universal sign that a victim had been found
and was being treated. 

Johnny crouched by Craig Brice and Bob Bellingham who were both struggling 
to offer a flowing demand valve 02 mask to an old lady covered with burns.
She was sitting upright and supported in Bob's arms to make her breathing
easier.

"Now, maam. You'll feel a whole lot better if you breathe some of this
in.." Bob urged, pulling the tiny woman's arms down as she tried
to push away the mask in her fight to get air into her lungs.

Craig Brice nodded, getting out a blood pressure cuff to take a vitals set on
her. "Please, hold still. I know those leg burns are painful. We're trying 
to help you."

The woman in the paisley dress and white knit sweater ignored him,
choking and coughing louder and she fought them with all of her
small frame's strength.

Johnny gripped her arms and tried some charm which didn't work.
"Maam. It's ok. You're out of the fire. Don't worry about the house.
We're gonna knock it down. " The lady's distressed eyes caught 
Johnny's eyes desperately and she only moaned louder again turning
her face away from the mask as she gasped from smoke inhalation.

"What's the matter? Easy. Just calm down." Gage asked her."We're trying 
to understand ya. But  first breathe some of this in. It'll get rid
of that shortness of breath you got. I promise you that."

The tiny old lady yelled louder, pleading something of him in
mumbling words that he didn't understand.

Her verbal shouts caught Marco's ear as he dragged down hose 
from the white engine's hose bed. He tossed down his looping armful
to the lawn and he pulled off his work gloves. "Chet take over. I gotta 
check out that victim over there. I think she's speaking spanish."

"Ok." Kelly said, picking up the uncharged water line while running 
to the middle of the front yard.

Marco let Cap know with a hand signal what he was up to.
Hank nodded. Then he ran over to Squad Eight's flank.

Lopez tapped Brice's shoulder. "Let me try. She's frightened about 
something. Maybe I can find out what it is. I don't think she knows 
any english." And he spoke to her urgently with rapid questions in 
Spanish.

Paying attention, Henry started to bark and howl jogging up
to the firemen. After sniffing the woman's skirts once, and he 
began staring at the house, then back at the woman nervously.

"Uh oh.. " said Cap, catching on at once. "I hope that reaction 
from him doesn't mean what I think it means."

The white haired lady began to sob, hanging onto Marco desperately
and she spoke the first comprehensible words to him, in relief that
someone finally could talk with her. After a short exchange, Lopez 
looked up at Cap. "It's ok, she's not fussing over anyone else who might 
still be in the house. She's worried about her cat."

Cap relaxed his tense crouch with a sympathetic smile for show. "Tell her 
we'll do everything we can, Marco. Go ahead and ask her where she 
last saw it." he encouraged.

Marco got the information. "Back bedroom, on the ocean side,
the room above the swimming pool, second floor. A three year old tan tabby." 
and he went back to soothing the woman and soon, he got her to accept breathing 
in the pure oxygen being offered by paramedics' hands. "You need me 
yet?" he asked Cap, looking up from the frightened woman's face.

"Nah, stay with her. Brice and Bellingham may need you to be an interpreter
before she gets too shocky to talk. We're fine for now. Kelly, did you hear 
that about making that room a priority point?!" Hank relayed in a shout.

"Yep. I just radioed Roy on our band to hit that side of the house with the cannon!" 
Chet replied,  gesturing to Mike Stoker that he was ready for his hose to be
fully charged. Two from Station Eight's crew joined Kelly on his newly stretched 
line.

DeSoto diverted the bucket until it hung above the house out of flame
range and he diverted the cannon nozzle's powerful water stream until it connected 
with the second floor's veranda window. Glass immediately shattered on impact
and the fire glowing space within started to hiss clouds of steam as it
started to be smothered by water.

"Hold it right there, Roy. You're in position. Lock her down, pal." Hank shouted.
"Go help Gage, ok? Looks like they've a victim needing an extra pair of hands. 
I've already got eight's and one twenty seven covering the other three sides."

Roy waved and nodded, and froze the ladder maneuvering controls. Soon 
he was at Johnny's side in listening mode.

"Dona Arana. Nosotros estas a ayudar mirar por su gato. Shhh." Lopez
soothed as he clutched the old woman's hand tightly as she writhed in Bob's 
arms due to her severe pain.

"Go ahead and get those burn packs on, Bob. Brice's got his hands full 
on the biophone. I'll take over keeping her elevated for ya." Johnny offered,
taking over holding the oxygen valve over the restless woman's nose and 
mouth as she fought to breathe without coughing.

Roy grabbed a two liter saline bag and helped Bellingham pour the
solution over sterile sheets Brice had laid over the woman's charred
legs, as fast as he could. He knew that its relief would only be
temporary. "Does Craig have his order for some MS yet?"

Bob shook his head minutely as he worked. 

DeSoto sighed. "Must be a busy day at Rampart..." he speculated. 
"My goodness." he complained. "What's the hold up?"

"Craig's got a new doctor on the line. Someone covering for Joe Early. 
He's sure taking his time mulling over our signs and symptoms on her."

Quite suddenly, the old woman pitched over with a groan, going limp.

"I got her.." Johnny said, catching her head and neck and lowering her
to the ground carefully preserving an open airway. He began to get fuller
breaths of 02 into the woman's bubbling chest and her color immediately
improved. "She's ok.  I've still got a good pulse."

"Now there's our wish for mercy being granted." Bob confided in 
DeSoto. "I was waiting forher to black out. Hand me those shears, 
Roy. I'll get her ready for the EKG leads."

Roy reached into the trauma kit and found them.

Brice was getting miffed, his cool crumbling visibly to the others.
"Rampart, this is a repeat of our victim's LOC. Unconscious, and
yes, with a gag reflex. Request permission to insert a nasopharyngeal
airway. Marked pulmonary edema is most definitely evident.." he 
hinted with beginning irritation to a young sounding unfamiliar 
male resident on the hospital line. Craig's head jerked up and down 
and his hand swept round in some "oh come on" circles in the air as 
he mentally encouraged the man  on on the other end of the biophone 
to hustle it up.

Johnny, losing patience next to Brice, broke some rules and intubated 
her anyway after gelling the tube.

Brice startled, covering the phone receiver.  He said, "Gage, that's not 
regulation..!" he hissed.

"Neither's delaying life saving treatment. We'll say her throat was
swelling up if we have to." he remarked, checking the placement
of the tube in the woman's sooty nostril. "Just hang up on that jerk.
Make it sound like we've hit a communications failure or something.
Happens all the time this close to the beach. We've got all our critical 
orders already.  Her IVs, burn irrigation, and that atropine to boost
her respirations. Roy, did you hear the doc say go ahead?"

"I sure did. He grunted. Clearly."

"There you go, Craig. And I know you're with us on this wholeheartedly. 
It'll be our experienced three against his very youthful one." Johnny said, 
pointing a finger at the shoulder buried phone receiver in emphasis.

On cue, the woman's breathing grew striderous and noisy, but
working, because of the presence of the NP.

Brice gaped like a fish but finally he said, "Rampart, you're breaking
up.." as he dropped the phone into the box and pulled out the
radio antennae. He looked up a little stunned. "I just may be
in significant trouble now for doing that I'll have you know."

"I doubt that." Gage said. "Do you see the captains looking this way
right now?"

"Hank did. For a moment." Craig admitted, swabbing the old lady's
arm with alcohol. "He knows what we did."

"Course he knows. He saw us save her airway. He won't say anything
if we don't. Welcome to our world of little white lies, Craig. Sometimes 
you gotta do what you have to do." Johnny said, stone faced as
he kept on delivering careful oxygenated ventilations through the demand 
valve to help the woman out.

Bob Bellingham smiled and took the Normal Saline 1000 ml IV bag from
Craig's numb hands. "I'll take that, Brice. Thanks guys. Craig would've 
never allowed me to do that kind of stunt myself. Not in a million years."

Craig was still unconvinced.

So Roy reiterated. "Brackett'll back us up after he hears the transcript 
without question. That doc was dangerously slow. And that'll show
on the recording."

"I supposed you're right." Craig finally replied, rubbing the sweat and
dirt off the woman's skin with some gauze to be able apply the heart
monitor patches.

"Now there's a first.." Gage teased. "I thought I'd never hear the 
day when paramedic Craig Brice sided with someone who
wasn't following the book to the letter."

"I am capable of making amendments when somebody's life's on the line."
Brice protested mildly.

"I know. I saw you save my crewmates last year when that warehouse
ceiling caved in on them." Johnny smiled. "Thanks for that. I don't think
I ever properly expressed my gratitude back then."

"You did." Brice grinned.

"I did?" Johnny asked in surprise.

Roy mouthed silently. "I sent him a card on your behalf." and he pantomimed
a square in the air with two fingers. He quickly busied himself with adjusting 
the IV. flow when Craig looked up.

Johnny gushed in a neat cover.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot about that card. Heh. Must've slipped my mind.
I was still recovering in the hospital from my own mishap. That time was
for my leg, I think. Sorry I didn't recall it sooner, Brice."

"Quite all right, Gage. I'll forgive you for being forgetful if you forget the ...er
 deceitful atrocity that I just committed with our medical director today."

"Deal." Gage said enthusiatically, but then he thought about the word
atrocity some more and fixed Roy with a puzzled stare. "Atrocity?" he
mouthed back at Bob and DeSoto.

"To him it is.." Bob silently mouthed back, and Roy bobbled his head
in agreement.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry's frantic barking finally got Hank's attention. He knelt by
the basset hound's side. "What is it, boy? What's got ya all excited?"

Henry suddenly took off out of Captain Stanley's grip and loped high
speed around the burning house and up into the hillside brush beyond.

"Henry! Get back here ya crazy mutt." Cap shouted, starting to run after
him. But then he stopped in his tracks, rubbing his nose. Hank decided to 
delegate a solution before any other station crew noticed the new
embarrassing development. ::At least he's not at risk from the fire up there.::
he hoped.

Chet Kelly answered Cap's private band hail. "Go ahead for Kelly."

##Chet. Henry's taken off up the hill above the house. Go after him.
Make it look like you're just laying spray to protect against a brush
burn ignition from the house.##

"Got it, Cap." Kelly said. He craftily directed his hose team to
follow him while he cased the rough scrub for Henry's familiar
brown and white hide. "Just a little bit farther fellas, the grass is
real dry here." he remarked. "Oh second thought. Let's just catch 
this whole side, ok, gang?"

No one on the team caught on to Kelly's impromptu search pattern
for Henry and continued the sweep.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Behind the burning house, the wind was picking up and Henry's
sensitive nose was working full time as he paced along the ground.

He got about ten yards from the flaming structure immediately 
next to the swimming pool when...

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Fire behind a stucco beach house. Engine in driveway.

Photo : Chet on a hose closeup.

Photo: Johnny with the old woman who's burned.

Photo:   Captain Stone of Engine Eight helping Johnny
               resuscitate someone.

Photo: Henry the basset, outside and pointing.

Photo:  Brice Roy and Johnny all in dirty turnout.

Photo:  Cap sitting in the engine cab in deep thought.

*********************************************************************


From:  "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Aug 26, 2004  4:11 pm 
Subject:  Straight from the...

 
...Henry heard something. 

His ears perked up, tracing frightened high pitched sounds that were 
laced with vocal distress.  Barking furiously, Station 51's mascot lumbered 
heavily across the singed and burning ground, sneezing from the heavy 
smoke as he went closer to what had attracted his attention from the street.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Captain Stanley monitored his radio. He had sent Johnny Gage
into the house with Mike Stoker from the aerial bucket to case the 
upper story for their woman victim's cat. She had come to, 
refusing to transport to Rampart by Mayfair until her tabby was 
accounted for, one way or the other, as Lopez had put it in translation.

Hank put Marco in charge of making sure the woman kept
wearing her O2 as she watched the firefighters work. DeSoto had
long since joined the perimeter teams in preventing a spread of
the structure fire into the cliffside brush above and below the 
flaming beachhouse and had left the biophone near Lopez in case 
Brackett had more treatment to offer during their victim decided 
waiting delay.

Roy inwardly hoped that the senora would black out again
because of the deep 2nd and 3rd degree burns on her lower 
calves, giving them an excuse to transport her in legally.  

Captain Stanley reciprocated DeSoto's impatience, reading the
expression on his older paramedic's face. "I know, you 
don't have to tell me, adrenaline's keeping the fiesty ol gal awake 
and that's why you're all still here."

"You hit the nail on the head, Cap." Roy sighed, watching the water
pressure guages on the white engine cycle through as the teams inside
the bungalow used their lines off and on to suppress the fire surrounding
them inside the house. "Even Brice's no nonsense approach didn't
work with her. Nor did Marco's natural Latin American male charms."

Hank sighed. "Go see what Chet's up to. I haven't heard from his
team for four minutes."

"Still a minute early for checking in, Cap." Roy grinned, putting 
on his helmet.

"Call it an instinct. There's a reason why Henry rocketted out of here
and into the backyard and I wanna know why. Go. I'll take over the pumps
here for ya."

DeSoto needed no further encouragement, slipping on his SCBA mask
as he circled the route he remembered the basset hound taking
when he took off away from them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Vicki. Jump!  *cough* He's telling us to!" said a blond haired little boy from
the high crook of the eucalyptus tree where he and his best friends had
taken refuge when the Dona Arana's beach mansion had exploded.
Now their safe haven was aflame on top and in the grass below.

Barely visible in the rising smoke, Henry the bassett kept on barking
at the children far above him.

"I'm not jumping!" said the sports jerseyed seven year old girl. "I'll
break something." the tiny child sobbed, her face soot streaked.

"We gotta do something or the smoke'll get us for sure! *choke* Stevie's
asthma's already getting real bad.. Just use the climbing rope. I don't
think those firemen on the hill see us yet for all our waving."

Henry was enveloped with smoke and he disappeared. But
the children still heard him barking.

"Where do you think he came from?" Vicki said. "He's barking so mean."

"He's not mean. He's angry that we're still staying in the tree with the fire 
getting closer. I know that sound. That's what Apollo does when I climb up 
onto the garage roof when I'm not supposed to." said Christopher. "He's ok.
He's just trying to tell us to get down from here."

Stevie's head drooped a little lower inside the fourth child's arms.
Becky shouted to her three other friends. "His medicine's not working any more." 
the brown haired girl said, " I think it's because of all the smoke blowing up here."

Christopher made up his mind and he hung from his arms in mid air until
his ankles gripped the rope hanging from their club tree's horizontal branch.
"I'm going for help. Becky! Don't let him fall! Vicki, come with me!"

"I can't!" the tiny girl wailed.

"Yes, you can. I'll just bet this old hound dog'll let you pet him once you
get down here. Now come on!" Chris yelled right back.

Terrified by the thickening smoke, Vicki scrambled like a monkey
after her braver friend. "I'll be right back, Becky. Just keep Stevie
warm as you can. Mom says that helps with sick people."

Becky wrapped her legs even tighter around the gasping boy's
waist where they sat in the crook of the giant tree. Sparks rained
down around them, alighting tiny fires on wind whipped limbs at
their level. She screamed.

"Becky! We're all right! We're almost to the bot--" came Chris's voice from 
somewhere below under the thick blanket of smoke underneath them. 
But then the voice choked off as smoke stole his ability to speak and
started a fit of desperate coughing.

The scared, following Vicki soon fell into the same breathing trouble.

"Stevie. Hang on. I got you.." Becky squeaked. "I promise we'll stay up 
here where the air's good.  I won't let you fall."


Chris was blinded, he couldn't see. Smoke burned his throat and eyes to
the point where he lost all sense of orientation.

Then he felt a grip of canine teeth take hold of his ankle. He smiled,
gasping. "Vicki we're there! Let go! The hound's got my sock to show
us where the ground is." Chris celebrated.

A burning branch smacked down from the tree above onto Henry's back
and he yelped, letting go of the boy.  Chris and Vicki fell to their knees 
and brushed the smoking embers off Henry's coat, then they began
to crawl in the direction he led them, uphill.

They struggled to breathe but then they were out of the thick layer
of smoke on a slope.

Henry began barking in earnest at something up hill.

It was a hose team.

Chet gladly ordered the others to drop the hose to intercept them,
yelling over his radio. "HT 51 to Engine 51. Henry's led two children
to my location directly east of the house." he said, pulling off his air 
mask to offer it to the smallest child who was unable to stand.
"Both are suffering severe smoke inhalation."

##10-4. Two pediatric fire victims. Meeting you on the fly!## came 
Hank's radioed reply. ##Brice and Bellingham are with me.##

Another fireman scooped up the older boy as he fainted, making sure
that his masked offered air was being taken in with a listening check.
"He's still breathing."

"Get him outta here then. I got her.." Kelly shouted. He carried her
in his arms. Chet bent down to stroke Henry's coat. "Good boy!
*cough* You're such a good boy. Come on, Henry. Stick close
behind us." and he rose to jog to the street. "We gotta get this
little gal to Cap and some O2." his voice trailed off as he ran 
away from the dog.

Henry's happy grin fell. He glanced with a whine behind him.
Chet hadn't heard his renewed barking at all. The basset gave a 
slight cry of pain and  indecision before he loped for a second time 
back into the choking blanket of blue white fire smoke filling the tiny
hollow around the big tree.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage was just handing the senora a very soggy tan Persian
cat when Chet and his team fireman burst out of the yard with the
two coughing children under their air masks.

"Over here!" Brice called out, waving Kelly over, "I'm already set up!"

Gage smiled at Marco. "Looks like her ride's gonna wait longer.
We've more victims. Call me if she changes."

"Right." Marco said to Johnny.

Kelly set his little girl in a sitting position leaning against Squad Eight's 
rear tire. "Craig, she's still clear. Not bubbling at all. But the boy fainted
on the way back. I think he took in a little bit more than she did. His
words aren't making any sense yet."

Brice nodded, handing his partner a second flowing oxygen mask for
Christopher even as he gave Vicki her own. "Understood. Bob, would
you determine his consciousness level while you deliver this? Thank you, 
Kelly. Now if you'll excuse us. We've got to contact Rampart base now." 
and Craig bent to his work over the biophone receiver.

Chet rose in relief just as Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto ran over.
"They ok?" Johnny asked. 

Kelly nodded, testing his air regulator for remaining volume. "They're
just fine. Bit of smoke but that's all. If it wasn't for Ol Henry here, we
could've had a very different story to tell you."

Roy rubbed his nose around his helmet strap. "Henry?"

"Yeah, he found the kids and led them to my hose team, isn't
that right, Henr--" Chet broke off. "Aw guys, I swear he was right 
behind me. I even told him to follow us back out to the street."

Roy and Gage didn't lose their smiles. "Well, Henry does have a mind
of his own.  Why don't you go check for him by Cap and the engine.
Maybe he's already stretched out on the driver's seat getting praises 
galore from Stoker and Hank."

"Yeah. Maybe you're right. But keep an eye out for him, okay?" and he 
walked to where the white Ward still gleamed brightly in the sooty sunlight.

Five minutes after the kids and the old woman with her tabby shipped out
code three with Brice and Bellingham, Johnny and Roy noticed Chet 
was still frowning.

"Kelly? Problem?" Gage asked the quiet fireman. 

"Yeah. Cap hasn't seen Henry at all since he took off. Not yet anyway."

"That's odd." Roy said. "I wonder where he could be?"

Johnny rubbed his chin. "Any idea where he might've scented those
kids initially?"

"I haven't a clue, Johnny. All I know is that he came at us out of a lowish bowl
with those two kids hanging on to his hide. He had dragged them out of 
the worst of the smoke."

"He did what?" Roy said incredulously. "That's amazing."

"I know. Tell me about it." Chet's head bobbled.
Kelly glanced around where Cap was talking with Captain Stone.
"Look this fire's practically out. I'm going out back for a bit to take a
look around. Maybe he's chasing spooked jack rabbits or something
now that all the grass is gone."

"I'll let Cap know your 20." Johnny said. "Call me when you spot him.
I'll round up all the guys and we'll help you herd him back to the engine.
Until then, I think he deserves to enjoy a little fun, don't ya think?"

Chet's nod was small and uncertain.

Roy noticed. "Look if it makes ya feel any better. I'll circle around
from the other side of the house, and I'll meet up with ya, ok?"

Kelly didn't say anything and he paced off, still slightly worried.

"What's eating him? You didn't have to do that, Roy." Gage said.
"Henry's able to take care of himself. And he doesn't need Chet or
you fussing over him."

"I know that and you know that. But why am I starting to get all
nervous here? " Roy stated flatly. "He still hasn't come back
despite all of Cap's whistling."

Gage's grin faded away into a frown of doubt and concern,
"I'll let Cap know the game plan."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy DeSoto saw them before he heard them. His radio's talk button
was depressed and over his mouth before he actually knew what he
was looking at. "HT51 to all units. I've spotted two more kids trapped 
over a smoke pocket in a tree. A hundred meters south of the house."

The frequencies from Engine Eight and 51 burst through his channel.
##Their conditions?## came Cap's voice.

"One little girl's all right. She's just crying. The boy with her seems
unconscious and he's breathing with difficulty."

##What'd'ya need to reach them?## came Gage's question.

"Lifeline and belt. Bring the O2. I'm heading down." said Roy.

##A rescue party is headed your way, Roy. Keep in touch.## 
said Captain Stanley.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Roy put on his SCBA mask as his head slipped beneath the thick
layer of fire smoke and he found the tree by its shadow and
relative coolness. His shoulder smacked into it. Groping, he
found the rope and headed up in a climb.

At the fork in the tree, Roy removed his mask. The wind was
blowing fresh air off the ocean to where he and the two
children could breathe it in easily.  He pulled himself up
the last two meters. "Hi. How are you doing? My name's Roy
DeSoto and I'm a fireman. Can I look at your friend here?"

Becky nodded tearfully. "His name's Stevie."

"Can you breathe ok? Sounds like you're coughing a bit 
there."

"I'm ok. The smoke's not bad now. It was worse when
that dog first came and found us."

"Dog?" Roy asked.

"Yeah, that funny hound dog. He made Chris and Vicki leave with
him to go find us some help." Becky whimpered.

"You said when he first came by..."

"Yeah, mister. He started to bark at us again a while ago but he 
must've gotten tired of doing it. I haven't heard him for a couple
of minutes since you showed up."

Roy placed that bit of news about Henry's possible whereabouts
in the back of his mind for later. He pulled the boy's head into his 
lap where he straddled the tree trunk's fork. He found a rapid pulse
in Stevie's neck and saw retractions when Stevie inhaled, pushing
in above his collar bones. "Honey, what's your name?" he asked
the sweaty scared little girl. " Your friend's doing ok. My partner 
and others are coming to help me get you both down from here."

"It's B- Becky. Stevie's got asthma real bad. He says all it takes
is a little dust to set it off. I guess that's what happened to him.
We climbed up here to watch the fire. I thought we were
high enough. Christopher said we were." she sobbed.

Roy bent close to the boy's nose and mouth and smelled
medication. "Did you kids give him a blast using his inhaler?"
he said, replacing his air mask over Stevie's pale face.

"Yeah, Stevie told me to give him one."

"Where is it now?"

"It fell down there. That crazy dog found it and tried to hand it
back up but he couldn't reach high enough to give it to me."

Roy peered straight down and saw nothing but solid
gray waist high murk as the fire reacted to being washed down 
in the nearly extinguished house uphill with billows of steam. The
smoke layer rose to caress his ankles. "Johnny! Over here.
In the twisted tree down below. It's the only tree top sticking out
of the smoke down here."

"I see ya. Hang tight! Chet and I and Cap are getting down 
over there right now. How is he?!" Johnny shouted from his rocky 
perch in the sunlight, looking into the shadows. "I've got a stokes 
coming."

"His breathing's tight. Asthma attack. But he's moving air. He's 
gonna need a bronchiodilator a.s.a.p.!" DeSoto shouted back.
"He got some earlier but it's starting to wear off."

Roy cradled the stridorous boy against his shoulder, leaning
the boy's head over it backwards as he monitored Stevie's condition
and listened with an ear. "Just keep breathing Stevie. You're all right."

DeSoto heard a creaking rope and Johnny Gage's gloves appeared
out of the smoke layer. "Gimme him. I got the stokes right here!"

Roy handed Stevie down from the tree by the back of his collar.
Then he grabbed Becky and carried her down with him to the ground
following after. He felt Chet tie a life line to his belt as he kept his eyes
closed protectively against the air's sooty sting.

Then he was out of the tiny depressed clearing, helping Johnny
carry Stevie's stokes up the slope to the road beyond.

Cap radio'ed L.A. "L.A., This is Station 51. Respond an ambulance
Code Three to our l--"   Roy's shout stopped him in mid sentence.

"Not enough time, Cap. We can take him in Station Eight's squad 
as soon as we've stabilized him. We'll be faster that way."

"Belay that request, L.A. My paramedics will be taking in a child
with breathing trouble directly to Rampart using Eight's rescue squad."

##10-4, 51. Time out  09:32.##

Chet was peeling his air mask off, carrying Gage's unused medical
gear to put it away, when his foot struck a heavy warm body. 

It was Henry, lying completely still, covered in dark soot. 

Kelly got on his radio immediately. "Cap, Gage! On the double! 
I found Henry! He's down! Bottom of the hill along the stokes line."

Chet lifted up a leg and felt the dog's stomach for signs of 
movement and found only a weak rocking as Henry tried to breathe. 
Reaching down into the dog's mouth, Chet hooked Henry's tongue 
clear with a gloved finger until he got it hanging out between his teeth. 

Henry whimpered, choking on mucous. But then he woke up.

"Easy, boy.  It's ok, I'm right here." Chet whispered, kneeling
by Henry's face. "Stay down, boy. Stay still." he said, holding
Henry's singed muzzle. Kelly glanced down and saw Stevie's inhaler 
next to Henry's shivering front paws. "You found this boy? Good dog. 
I'll be sure Johnny and Roy get it just as soon as you're squared away
yourself."

Henry tried to wag his tail.

Chet took off his coat and covered up the nearly smoke suffocated
station mascot. "It's ok. You're gonna be fine, Henry.."

Johnny Gage and Cap pounded down the hill along the climbing 
rope with the O2 apparatus held between them for leverage.

Kelly shouted. "Over here!"

Johnny knelt quickly, taking Henry's muzzle between his hands
in a precautionary move to protect himself from a bite. 
"Did he fall?"

"I don't think so. Man, he went back for those kids," Chet
sobbed, "..and this.." he said, holding out the little boy's
tooth indented inhaler.

Gage ran careful hands over Henry's coat, looking for
liquid. "He's not burned at all. I think that smell is just his
hair. Cap, you got him?"

"Yeah." Hank said gently, taking over the hold on Henry's head.

Kelly said. "He wasn't breathing too well when I got here. Tongue
was in the way."

Cap nodded. "Johnny.... think we can move him?"

"Yeah.. I'm not a vet, but he's not tensing up anywhere with me
touching him like this. I think he's ok trauma wise. Sounds like
his only problem is the smoke he took in. I think you can let go,
Cap."

Hank did so, exchanging his hands grip for a valve mask on high
flow over Henry's muzzle. He looked up. "Kelly, Roy's ready to 
transport the boy. Go drive him in."

"But Cap.. I wanna stay with H--"

"That wasn't a request, Chet. Johnny and I'll handle Henry
and the little girl. Now, go.." Cap said, tossing Kelly
the medicated inhaler Henry had carried.

Chet went.

Captain Stone came running down the hill with a short board, 
passing Kelly going the other way. "I heard. Is he ok?"

"He will be if we can get some good air in him and 
warm him up some." Gage admitted with a grin.
"We'll take him to the V-E-T-S once we have that done.
Thanks for the doggy stretcher.." he smiled, taking
the kendrick board from Stone.

The three firemen slid Henry onto the board and strapped him
in for the trip up the hill. Cap followed keeping the O2 mask
nearby for Henry to use while he slowly woke up.


At the top, Becky met them, sitting next to Mike Stoker.
"There he is! Our superhero dog! Is he ok?" as they set
him on the ground, freed him off the board, and wrapped 
him up in thermal sheets for insulation.

"He'll be just fine, little miss. Although right now, I'm afraid 
he's got the same problem you do." Johnny said. "You both've
more smoke than air in your lungs then what's actually good for 
ya so before we get to see a doctor and the vets, you both
are gonna clean some of that bad stuff out of there, ok.?"

"Ok.." agreed Becky, brushing the hair away from her face
and the nasal cannula she was wearing.

Cap held Henry personally in his lap when Captain Stone
volunteered to take over the clean up detail on the house.
"Stoker, we'll give them five on this O2 and then we'll take
them in with the engine. We'll relay the girls vitals via radio
patch. Marco, get us set to travel."

"Right, Cap."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the trip in, Henry suddenly went limp two minutes
away from Rampart. 

Marco tried to keep the commotion up front in the cab away 
from Becky's notice as his crewmates hustled to help him.

"Are we almost there yet?" she asked Lopez.

Marco was watching what Cap and Johnny were doing
with Henry so closely, that he almost didn't hear her. "Hmm? Oh.
We've a block to go. We'll be pulling up to the ambulance 
entrance. Can you see that door yet?" he asked the child.

Becky plastered her eyes and nose and cannula against
the glass, peering out. "Not yet.."

Lopez thought. ::Please Henry. Don't be dead. Not yet.::

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Roy was hanging around Dixie's desk when Lopez and
Stoker appeared around the corner with a devastated look
on their faces. 

Chet Kelly ran over to them instantly. 
"How's Henry?"

"He's out cold. Happened a minute ago. It's something past the 
smoke inhalation. Cap's with him now."

"Where's Johnny?" Roy asked quietly.

"He's with his patient in room three. You know he 
can't leave a victim until a doc gets there."

"Show me. Maybe I can do something.." DeSoto said.

Dixie, at her desk, overheard them. She followed the sooty 
firemen to the emergency entrance doors and out
into the driveway beyond.

Her heart just about broke when she saw Captain Stanley 
trying to ventilate the limp basset hound stretched out 
on an empty gurney with a mask two sizes too big.
 
She snatched up a pediatric sized resuscitation kit from a 
crash cart and tossed it to Roy. "Roy! I'll make a few phone calls! 
The doc at the animal shelter still has a link set up tied to our base 
station."

 "Through the HT this time? That'll work." DeSoto nodded and  
he threw his handy talkie on the bed,  tearing open the airway adjunct 
bag as the doors shut between them.

The firemen experimented and a baby ambu with hastily wrapped 
bandage tape around Henry's muzzle created a good enough seal 
for them to finally pump in oxygen.  Henry's gums began to pink up once more.
Roy could still feel a pulse in the artery at the point inside 
Henry's rear thigh. But it was irregular. "What?" he said
aloud. "That can't be." he sighed, as it thudded erratically against his thumb.

Cap noticed, looking up from Marco who was bagging
Henry carefully. "What's the problem?"

Kelly looked scared. "What is it?"

Roy swallowed, "I think Henry might be having a heart attack."
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Henry barking up at something.

Photo: Four kids stuck in a tree's fork.

Photo: Chet yelling about something in the brush.

Photo: Henry down on the ground.

Photo: Henry with hands around his muzzle.

Photo:  An old lady giving a sheet wrapped Henry oxygen.

Photo : Roy looking shocked wearing a stethoscope.

*****************************************************************************
From :  Champagne Scott <chameleonkate@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, August 27, 2004 7:09 PM 
Subject :  Fast Times at Rampart Base : The Dog Day Afternoon 
   

Dixie McCall made the fastest phone call of her life.
And then she glared the fiercest that she had ever glared 
at the back of Kel Brackett's head. He was just completing an 
in house phone call with the new resident assigned to the 
paramedic base station. ::Boy, I sure wish Joe could've been
here or I wouldn't have found myself in such a ridiculous bind!::

Dr. Brackett finally rubbed the back of his head in sympathetic
heebee jeebies. He turned to find the source of his chills.
"Oh, no.." he moaned in warning at Dixie who was already
batting her eyes diplomatically. "What are you up to now?
I've lunch in five minutes."

"Nothing much." Dix demurred. "A single phone call. Just 
take it. Here." she said passing over the phone to Kel without 
meeting his eyes.

Kel took it as if it were a live rattlesnake. "Kel Brackett, Cardiology."
he said into the receiver.

##Doctor Kel Brackett! Land sakes! Am I glad it was YOU that sweet
young nurse found milling about the place. Now let's get down to
business, shall we?## said the voice on the other end of the phone.

Kel buried the red phone line on his shoulder. "Dix who the h*ll is
this? His voice sounds familiar, but I can't place him."

"That's Barney Coolidge. Don't you remember? Bah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-hhhh."
she said in a fair imitation of a Pygmy African wild goat.

Kel shuddered as the sound sent chills up and down his arms as
the memory speared home in recollection. "You didn't.." he warned.
"I thought I told you I'd tender a three day suspension on anyone on the 
staff, including you, who brings the next animal of any kind into my hospital's 
emergency ward!"

Dixie didn't ruffle one iota. "There aren't any animals in here. 
I didn't break any rules. I followed your stipulations to the letter."

"Good."

"Henry's not inside, he's outside on a gurney being barely kept alive by ambu."

Kel Brackett's face scowled into pure steel and he ground his perfectly
white teeth together. Already, the eggs from breakfast decided to sit
like stones in his stomach. "Dixie. Now cut it out."

She cleared her throat, tapping her foot and calmly indicated the live phone
on Kel's neck. Soon, Dr. Brackett's better sense of decorum 
among peer level colleagues finally won out over letting loose one of his 
legendary tantrums. "I'll deal with you later.." he promised voicelessly to his 
conniving head nurse, who hardly fought to keep a smile of triumph off of 
her face. 

Kel picked up the chatting phone and said falsely cheerful, "Ah, Doc 
Coolidge. What can I do for you this fine day?"  

Dixie smacked him on the arm for interjecting sarcasm.
Then she rapidly kicked on the speaker phone to keep Kel at bay with
civility as the conversation included any nearby overhearing sets of ears.

Dr. Brackett glared again at Dixie but stayed silent verbally when
Barney realized that he had the cardiologist's attention back. 

Coolidge gushed his needs. ##We've got to hurry. Now dogs don't
have myocardial infarcts in the same sense that people do. They simply
don't live long enough, even with their all meat diets, to build up 
the necessary plagues to cause one. Besides they all have collateral circulation 
of the coronary arteries..## he bubbled, ##..which allow the clots to "go around" an 
occlusion that would cause an MI in a human being. No, most likely
this basset hound is suffering something congenital brought out
by his sudden exposure to that fire smoke. Now what have you found, 
doctor, vitals wise?##

Kel stabbed down the speaker button until it clicked off back into phone
mode and he parked it once more onto a muffling shoulder. "Dix, how
much haven't you told him? I'm not going to look at that dog now, later,
next week, or even next year! I'm a busy man ! And a hungry one who's 
over five minutes late for his lunch hour." and he turned to leave, forgetting
about the phone.

Dixie caught the receiver as it slipped off its precarious perch.
"Kel, This isn't just a dog in need. This is Roy and Johnny's stationhouse
dog. Their beloved mascot. And he just saved the life of that asthma case
you just saw in Treatment Two. Along with three other children's lives. Now he
deserves a fighting chance! If you won't treat Henry right this instant, I'll
find Stan the new resident intern and ask him to take over."  She slammed
a hand down on the transfer button which sent the connection from
the animal shelter onto the HT frequency monitor board. Then she hefted
up a handy talkie reserved for mobile communications meaningfully.

Kel Brackett stopped her. "I'm the senior physician here! No one
is going to tell one of my residents to do anything." he groused.
"I forbid you to do it,  Nurse." he threatened.

Dixie's eyes flamed. "Ok. Shoo! Go on. Leave now for the cafeteria. I dare you.
Bon appetit. I hope your meal sits well after you're done cause later
you're gonna hear six full grown firefighters bawl like babies when their favorite
mascot dies for want of decent medical care a hundred feet away from
one of the best cardiologists this hospital has ever seen!" she hissed.

Kel's face twitched and his rage immediately simmered to non existence.
He growled and snatched away the live radio from Dixie's hand.
"Coolidge. Stand by. I'm going to talk to a paramedic who's been
with the dog right now."

##Roger that, we're standing by. Both Laura and I.## Barney beamed
through the channel.

Brackett sighed like a steam engine and bowled over half a dozen slow
staff members as he moodily plowed out the emergency entrance doors
as fast as his legs could carry him.

Roy DeSoto and the other firefighters stood shell shocked and rigid 
and there was only the sound of the hissing ambu working for Henry 
evident after Kel's stormy appearance. They all froze, locked eye 
to eye, in anticipation of Kel Brackett's wrath.

The blond paramedic licked dry lips. "Uh, hi doc. I got this Mayfair
all set up. Dix thought of i---  Uh... Let's see... I assume any care will fall around
pediatric cardiac standards.  I got alligator clips for the EKG monitor since
pads won't work,..a-a-and plenty of defib gel so a signal can get through
Henry's...thick.....coat hair.." he trailed off as Kel Brackett's face twitched
again as he took in the expressions of all of Station 51's men who were partially 
blocking his ambulance entrance with an obscene white fire engine.

"Dix.. " he finally sputtered. "This is absolutely.. the last time I ever-" he began.

"It sure is.." McCall peeped. "Thanks a bunch."
"Here, doc. I got the paddles ready so you can get a quick look for the doc." Roy said.
"He's ventilating well, doc. No aspirating." said Hank.
"Starting to twitch in his tail even.." piped up Chet.

Brackett's voice rose in a level above the babble.
"Everybody just... ShhhHHHHH! "

Everybody hushed. Except for Marco, who was being Henry's lungs. He kept counting.

"Get him inside here. And close the doors before anybody sees us.
Roy, in with me. And get Gage in here, too, from that treatment room. 
Stat." ordered Kel, embarrassed when gawkers saw the patient wasn't a child
needing a fast unload from the parked ambulance.

"I'll handle that.." said Dixie, dashing back through the automatic doors.
As she sidled past, she landed a wet grateful peck on Brackett's nearest 
cheek in gratitude. "I love you, Kel. Dinner tonight's on me!" she squealed,
slamming the ambulance door in his face after she clambered out
of the Mayfair.

##Doctor. Speak to me.." commanded Coolidge's voice over the HT.
"We haven't much time to play with from what I've heard.## came
the disembodied voice from the speaker.

"I'm here, Doctor Coolidge. What should I do first?" Kel asked over
the radio.

Roy stood by with his, as a backup source of information.

##Get me an EKG over the biophone. Now I know it already works,
since you got one off little William the goat just fine last year.##
said Coolidge.

Kel's face twitched again as he remembered his acute embarrassment
over the biophone when Johnny Gage had told him who the patient was
during that little fiasco.

Roy's face flushed crimson.

But Doc Coolidge caught none of the theatrics. ##Now from
right lateral recumbancy, place the monitor clips on elbows
and knees. Put the negative on the right arm, the positive on 
the left arm and both commons on both legs. Got that?##

"Second nature, Coolidge. Same as a small child's."

##Right you are!## Barney said. ##We'll get him squared away yet.
Now, send me a strip. I have a few theories as to what's ailing him
and I need your help to help me rule em out. Oh, and if he loses
that inguinal pulse, have your defibrillator there set to 200 J's at
the initial, then go to 300, then 360 stacked if necessary ok? The
cardiac meds are the same with lidocaine, epi and atropine. Just
use a two year old's dosages in a Ringer's IV.##

"Roy, got that?" Kel barked.

"Already on it." DeSoto replied. He hefted his talkie. "Doc.
Ringer's IV? How much to run in on the onset?"

##Best place for a puncture is the cephalic vein, top of the
foreleg halfway up. 200 mls for starters. I don't know if Henry's
been pulmonarily challenged.##

"His chest is clear." Kel said, listening to the still basset's
sooty ribcage. 

##Fine. Fine. All the better.##Barney dabbled over the radio.
##Now.. what's your strip showing on your people zapper?##

Brackett's eyes rolled up at the reference. But he dutifully applied
globs of conductive gel over Henry's shoulder and haunch and set down
the paddle rims over his body. "I'm reading some wide or tall P-waves; 
wide or increased amplitude QRS complexes and a few short-coupled 
PVC's with frequent ectopics. Hear them?"

The monitor gave a fluting bell every time the comatose basset's heart
skipped a contraction.

##Umm hm. I'm getting the same thing over here. Doctor Brackett, listen close.
I'm trying to narrow down the field of cardiac problem candidates
for Henry by being certain there's no chance of these three possibilities:
an atrial tumor, that's hemangiosarcoma to you Dr. Brackett, an electrolyte 
imbalance, such as hypokalemia from breathing so poorly during the fire, or a 
splenic tumor to get to my original suspicion of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy. 
That's fairly common in middle aged males such as Henry.##

"What's that?" Chet said from the ambulance driver peep window.

Coolidge heard. ##It refers to a recurrent or persistent arrhythmia in the setting 
of a normal left ventricular ejection fraction or an irregularity in how Henry's heart 
pumps oxygenated blood out to the rest of his body.##

"Oh, I get it." Marco said as he checked the flow of oxygen to Henry's
ambu tubing from the port in the ambulance's wall.

Cap was hunched as small as he could be at the foot of the cot where
Henry lay. "Want me to take over, Lopez?"

"Sure, my hand's cramping." Marco said.

Cap and he traded places at Henry's head.

Kel and Coolidge were oblivious to anything else around them.

Barney leaned into the radio speaker. ##Doctor, have your paramedic
begin treatment with a bit of nitroglycerin paste under the tongue.
Works wonders without the risks of Lidocaine. Oh, and have him
wear some obstetrical gloves administering it or he'll drop into
a faint when the medication bottoms out his blood pressure.##

"He knows." Kel said grinning.

##Let me know when it's been done. I wanna look at how Henry's EKG
responds.## said Barney the shelter vet.

Everyone held their breaths as Roy shoved in some nitro paste around
a hole in the tape wrapping Henry's muzzle with a cotton swab.

Everybody jumped when the rear doors flew open and Johnny Gage
climbed into an already crowded Mayfair patient's cab. "How's he
doing?"

"Got a pulse."
"Not breathing."
"Ruling out trauma specific cardiac injury." said Roy, Cap and Brackett
respectfully.

"Ok. Gimme.." he said to Cap, taking over Henry's airway care.

Hank sat back down onto his butt, sliding his helmet off onto
his lap and he just watched, biting his lip.

Kel continued his conference with the shelter vet. 
"Want a central line in to get a working blood pressure?"

##Nope. Won't help. There's already been some neurohormonal cytokines 
activation going on because of Henry's myocardial failure and continued
limited cardiac output. The EKG's pointing to that.##

"I concur. Just wanted to see if your angle agrees with mine." Brackett agreed. 
"How about initiating some cardioprotection at this stage of the game while 
we're waiting for that nitro to kick in."

##Sounds good to me. Get him armored while he's still ticking. I recommend
sotalol as a beta blocker to control Henry's tachyarrythmias. 10- 20 mg
by mouth every twelve hours...## said Barney.

"But he's still unresponsive.." Kel reasoned over the radio.

##That's no obstacle...## Coolidge's voice bubbled. ##We'll use procainamide, in
through his IV, in conjunction with that oral. Have someone inject half a mil for now. 
Slowly. Titrate it gradually after the sotalol's fully dissolved orally. We're doing so
non push, because that beta blocker is a negative inotropic. Don't want to
cause Henry to go into sudden death, now do we? He's fought so hard
today to make it to nap time.##

The firemen around Brackett chuckled.

##Don't be shy about giving Henry some taurine, Dr. Brackett. Its lack
can sometimes bring on ACM. Especially in dogs of the couch potato 
variety as these boys say Henry is.## Coolidge chuckled.

"I'm on it." Dr. Brackett grinned, injecting the vitamin into Henry's
I.V. line.

A minute later, all medications were delivered and the alarming
bleeps warning of PVC runs faded away.

"I think it's working, doc." Roy said, eyeing the monitor.
"Henry's beginning to breathe again on his own. Listen."

Brackett did, tapping Henry on the eyelid to see if he blinked.
He did, slightly. And then he yawned, craving more 02 as
his metabolism sped up.  

Johnny removed the rest of the encircling tape and left the oxygen 
tube near Henry's nostrils after he disconnected the ambu bag from it.

"Atta boy. Come back to us." he said, rubbing Henry's coat
and head briskly. His ministrations rewarded him with a moan
of anxiety as Henry muzzily came to. He was aware enough to
make a face at the bad tasting medication in his mouth.

"He's gonna live!!" crowed Chet Kelly. "All right! I'll radio Station
Eight's right now and give em the good news. And I'll tell Stoker 
to move Ivory off your door step, doc." The peek door between 
them snapped shut again.

The rest of the guys and both doctors celebrated. But Barney didn't for long.
He grabbed Brackett's ear once more. ##Now for diagnostics, Dr.
Brackett. We're going to need thoracic radiographs for his workup...##

"Chest Xrays?" Brackett said warily, knowing that no machine existed
inside the Mayfair.

##Umm hmm and a packed cell volume test.##

"A CBC.." Kel said in affirmation, using his human terms.

##Yep..and we'll have to get good serum biochemistries to rule out
congenital heart failure, thromboembolism or hidden complications in 
Henry's other internal organs. Oh, and an echocardiogram. I'll have to get
an accurate fix on measuring Henry's true LV ejection fraction to map
out future impact for a quality of life estimate for your fireboys
after today's little misadventure. Least I can do for such a valiant 
mascot.##

 
"Doctor Coolidge..."

##Oh and we'll need more taurine to add as a nutriceutical into
some new low salt food for him. If he's going to be responding
with his crew on fire calls regularly, he'll have to get in tip top shape
to prevent a repeat of this ACM crisis.##

"Doctor Coolidge!" Brackett stated more loudly.

##Yes, my boy?##  came Barney's reply.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to draw the line with
emergency treatment only here. My board of directors
will have a hey day if I do anything more. I could be in serious
trouble if any of them finds out I'm even doing what I'm doing 
now."

##Oh, I wasn't meaning for you to run the tests there..## said Coolidge
on the handy talkie. ##You can transport Henry here to me so my staff and 
I can do it. After all, you're already conveniently inside of an ambulance.
That was very clever of your ER nurse to think of doing that ahead of 
time.##

Brackett's ears began to steam.

"Doc, I know you skipped your lunch in order to help us out. " said Hank.
"Tell you what, you've a very large, very loud, fire engine at your disposal 
to scatter any traffic out of your way going to the shelter and back again.
Please stay and help us with Henry until Coolidge takes over. Deal?"

And he held out a sooty, grimy hand.

Brackett just stared at it, feeling very outmaneuvered and outnumbered.

'I'm coming along, too." said Dixie from the peek window. 
"I'm the designated driver of this outfit.." she said, wearing street clothes.
"Hang on." and she flipped on the Mayfair's reds.

"Oh, no you're not." Kel boomed, immediately apologizing to the dog
when Henry sat up in surprise. Henry bolted for Roy's arms while
the others struggled to keep him from tangling his I.V.

"Oh, yes I can. My shift ended for the day five minutes ago." Dixie
McCall stuck her tongue out at her now powerless superior. "So sit down,
buckle in and play doctor quietly, Kel.  The sooner we leave, the sooner
we'll get back."

"You aren't authorized to drive a Mayfair!"

"Wanna bet? You authorized me as a field training nurse. The state says
I can. Hang on.."

And they were off under the vanguard of the white engine. Stoker belligerently 
rendered the street clear before them with a healthy chorus of horn blasts and 
sirens.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Dixie during a do it or die glare.

Photo:  A baby African Pygmy goat.

Photo: An angry manipulated Kel Brackett.

Photo: Roy and Johnny in an empty Mayfair.

Photo: A close up of Barney, "Doc" Coolidge, the shelter veterinarian.

Photo: Henry sitting in close up.
 
**************************************************************************
From:  "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Sep 1, 2004  3:46 pm 
Subject:  The Shriek Box~~


Johnny Gage came whistling into the kitchen area and
helped himself to a hefty portion of Dale's Everything deep 
dish pizza which was Cap's meal offering for his turn at KP 
food detail.  "Must be Thursday afternoon." he said to no
one in particular, "I can set my watch by when the delivery
guy come with these."

"Speak for yourself." Roy said, overhearing from his checkers
match with Marco Lopez by the television table. "I'm getting
so good at guessing time of day by activity that I can guess
the actual minute by that pizza's physical temperature.." he 
bemoaned. "It's exactly 2:15 in the afternoon." he sniffed.

Gage huffed in amusement around a food stuffed cheek.
"Huh, don't blame me for the slow week we've had. Blame
dispatch and headquarters. They're so worried that we'll scuff
up the crown jewel of the fire department that all we've been given
is medical calls."

"I wouldn't say Ivory is the crown jewel of the department." said
Stoker from where he was doing the dishes. "She's more like..
a backup while we're waiting for Ol Red to finish up in the repair shop."

"Believe what you like. I'm just hoping you guys aren't bored and all
with being support O2 and bandaid backups for Roy and I when we
do get out of the station.." he emphasized.

"Thing's balance out, Gage. Give it time. It always does. " Hank
said from where he was working on a miniature ship in a bottle
model he was working on. "I don't know about you. But I'm enjoying
the light week of duty. I haven't seen a stretch like this since Woodstock
weekend."

The guys laughed.

"Well, at least we're getting in some good hobby time." Johnny decided.
Then Gage suffered a bout of deja vu when he spied Chet 
Kelly bent with industry over the same pile of gadetry and wiring 
that he had been working upon on the day that Ivory the white engine 
had arrived.

Being sly, he walked slowly and silent past Kelly so he could
get a good eyeful without being caught prying his nose into
Chet's self professed secret invention again.  Johnny spied
a new device that looked for all the world like a mini handy talkie
with a large red light attached to its face and a very long
radio antennae, longer than what the Battalion Chiefs used on
their high powered HTs at a fire scene.

Barely reining in an unbearable curiosity, Gage sidled away
from the table to sit by Henry on the couch to check his remote
EKG monitor on the harness he was wearing around his torso.
The holster was about to send a cardiac reading to Doc Coolidge
at the animal shelter. 

Roy noticed and excused himself from
his game. "I'll be right back, Marco. This'll only take a sec."

"Fine by me. I thought it was time for Henry's betablocker pill."

"Nah, that's at three. Forty five minutes from now." DeSoto
clarified.

"Glad you're keeping Henry's rehab schedule straightened out
in your head. I'm totally confused on what he needs and when still."
Lopez complained with a smile.

"It's a paramedic thing, Marco. " said Johnny from
where he was connecting Henry's canine EKG module to
the new phone they had rigged on the magazine table by
the brown leather couch. "To keep track of treatments and 
med deliveries. It kinda becomes second nature after a while. 
Though I'll admit, having Henry as a patient for this long's novel."
he admitted.

Henry looked up and whuffled in excitement as he saw the two
men moving to fuss over him again and he rolled over for a belly
rub, making it hard for Roy to connect the phoneline feed to the
transmitter.

"Hey you crazy hound.." Gage said, scrubbing Henry's ears.
"Back onto your belly. Roy's trying to get you set here."

Chet fixed the problem by tossing Gage Henry's favorite huge
rawhide bone without looking up from his busy project building.
He announced its airborne trajectory with a whistle.

Gage barely caught the bone with which to lure Henry's attention.

"Thanks." Roy said when Johnny only glared back at Chet for
the stunt.

The gray phone next to the couch rang. It was Barney, the shelter vet.
DeSoto picked it up and set it onto the table while he
plugged in the EKG wire from the readout into the module
wired to the send only phone. 

A few minutes later, the transmission of Henry's nightly cardiac record
completed and Roy hung up the phone receiver again. "Hope the
doc's happy with Henry's progress. I know I am. He's had no PVCs in four 
days now. I think he was right with that diagnosis of arrhythmogenic 
cardiomyopathy on him. His heart's no longer acting like an M.I.'s."

Gage disconnected the holster wire from the phone and wrapped it up
again into its bundle compartment on the side of Henry's EKG monitor
harness. "He's eating fine, drinking even better. Heck he even went
after a few of Stoker's ball tosses in the yard this morning, without getting
out of breath even once." he said, playing tug of war with Henry and the bone.

Cap smiled from where he worked. "Of course he is. He's in the best
paramedic firehouse in the whole county. I wouldn't expect any results
less than perfect from my men on a medical patient that stable."
he joked.

That brought up a question from Chet. "Hey Cap, are we getting billed
at the station for Henry's Mayfair ride to the Animal Shelter last week?"

"Nope. Doc Coolidge found some dog loving sponsors at a local
school to cover our costs. All it'll take is letting those kids visit Henry
once he's back on a clean bill of health to get the money." Hank
mentioned.

"Nice. How'd they hear about Henry getting sick?" Marco asked.

"One of the nurses walking by the ambulance that day saw us working
on resuscitating him out in Rampart's driveway, took up the cause
on her own through friends and relatives. And I believe that new medical
resident you guys tangled with the day that old woman was burned was
very instrumental in bailing our butts out of Henry's treatment bills, too."

"He was?" Gage said, surprised. "That's incredible."

"Yeah, Dixie McCall said that he felt guilty for being so new to
answering calls at the base station that he wanted to make it up to us
somehow for making us work her airway needs around him without an order." 
Captain Stanley related. "Miss McCall called and told me the whole story 
last night after we got back from that seizure call."

"And Brackett ok'd that?" Gage said, incredulously.

"Why not?" Roy smiled hugely. "Maybe that resident's on probation for
endangering his patient and finding funds for Henry could've been
Brackett's version of assigned community service as his unofficial 
penalty."

"Yeah? Well what about the official one?" Gage complained, remembering
the risk he took that day acting as a paramedic first with Brice without
a doctor.

"You know medical residents have immunity against incriminations
for their first six months working solo. That old woman suffered no
lasting ill effects." Roy reminded his partner.

"For that time, maybe." Gage interjected. "But what about the next time we
get him on the biophone line?"

Roy shrugged. "We'll just have to repeat our findings. Twice if we have to,
and...help him out. I've already talked to Brackett about having a senior
physician standing by next to him when he does take another of
our medical calls. So you can say that yes, I thought of you at the last
paramedic's meeting, you know, the one you missed for having to 
stay here with Henry on his first night back from the animal shelter."

"Thanks." Gage said appreciatively. "Brice'll sure be a lot happier
with that arrangement."

Right then the kitchen side door rang.  Chet Kelly left his work table
to go answer it.

Dixie McCall came into the station. She was dressed in earthtones
and her hair was down.

All the gang rose to their feet.

"Hi Dixie.." Roy said. "What brings you out here?"

"Oh, I wanted to see my favorite mascot.. that's why.." she crooned,
sitting down next to Henry and smooching his ecstatic freckled face
deeply. "How are ya doing, baby?" she asked, holding his head.

Henry's tail thumped loudly on the couch cushions as he ate
up the attention.

Then Dixie looked up at Roy and Johnny. "Got copies of Henry's
latest EKG strips handy? Dr. Brackett admitted to me last week that
he wanted to see how he's coping on Coolidge's rehabilitation plan."

"No kidding.." Hank said. "The way he grumbled last week, I didn't
think Dr. Brackett cared a bit about him."

"Stand corrected, Captain Stanley. " Dixie demurred. "Kel's just a big softy 
at heart once he's been proven wrong about a patient. Even if that patient's
cute, fuzzy and has big long floppy ears.." she said, smooching Henry's
silky head loudly where it nestled on her lap in between her arms. "Oh, 
he's looking a lot better today." she crooned. She leaned over to look
at the table side of the couch. "And you boys have stopped hoarding the 
spare defibrillator down here. Guess his cardiac readings are checking out?"
she guessed.

"They sure are." Roy said. "We just sent today's reading in a few minutes
ago."

"Well, I've got to go get to work. I only had a few minutes to spare."

"Here." Johnny said, scooping up the paper bag with Henry's old
EKG strips in it. "Give these to Kel when you see him. We'll pick
them back up again next rescue call."

"I'll do that. Thanks, fellas." Dixie said, leaving back out the side
door and waving.

"Wow, Dixie came all the way out here from her apartment to
see Ol Henry?" Gage said.

Chet quipped. "Yeah. Unlike some people I know, Henry's a real 
popular guy for a dog."

"Very funny. "Johnny said, squinting his eyes at Kelly.
"So what have ya been working on all week? The guys and I
are just busting out all over with curiosity over those things. Right
guys?"

No one else spoke up in support over Johnny's admission.

"Ok, ok. I'll admit to being the only one. So what is it?" he
pegged, poking a finger at Chet's shoulder in emphasis.

Chet Kelly looked up from the metal dust and oil he was
rubbing off of his fingers with a cloth rag to see all
of his crewmates regarding him eagerly for an answer.
"All right. All right, ya nosy bums. I'll let ya in on it, seeing
that none of you have the capacity nor the desire to put
any inventions on the market like I do."
Kelly motioned them over to the table. "Come on over
here and I'll explain a few thing to ya. Only don't touch
anything. Gage, that goes double for you.."

The gang gathered around.

Kelly slipped into lecture mode which actually suited him
this time since he was so passionate about what he
was working on. "You guys all remember the incident with
Moreno two weeks ago. Where we went rushing into
a vertical fire thinking that he was still in there, only he
wasn't, just his turnout coat?"

"Yeah, I remember that very well. " Hank said. "Stoker,
Lopez and Gage here took in more smoke than necessary
searching pointlessly for a man down who wasn't even inside
the building anymore."

"Exactly, Cap. That's exactly the word I'd choose. Pointless. Pointless
and dangerous. We all would've been a h*ll of a lot better off
if we knew as a department where everybody was at all times
without tying up the radio so much checking in to central command
every few minutes with position reports. That's always been real messy.
Now I was stuck in traffic the other day and I saw a bunch of surveyors
working in a ditch. You know the guys, the ones who measure how
much the roadside ditches slip after all our earthquakes we get all
the time?"

Everyone nodded.

Chet went on. "Well I had a long look at them while they were working
and I saw something interesting when one of them got himself caught
in a land sink by the legs and fell down. I was gonna rush out over there
and help him get free when his crewmates, ones that couldn't even see
him at all, suddenly arrived and got busy with their shovels."

"How'd they get there so fast?" Gage asked, entranced with the story.

"He sure as heck didn't use his radio. That got buried when the sand
gave way. I noticed something when they finally got the guy out. The man
reached down and touched something on his belt and I saw a light
go off. Bingo! I thought. That's how he did it." Chet said, sitting on
the edge of the top of a chair.  "It was a sheer revelation guys, I'm
telling ya. The whole way home I kept thinking,.. why is it that the
fire department's always be nine steps behind the other guys? It's not
fair. So I figured, we can make that kind of invention work for us, too!"

The rest of the guys scratched their heads. Johnny finally spelled it
out for Chet. "I don't get it."

"He had a locator on him, Gage. Plain and simple. About yey big
and attached to his belt with wires sticking out of it. Antennaes,
I suspect."

Hank's forehead creased. "Ah, I see, a motion detector."

Chet nodded eagerly. "Yeah, one that knew that he had become
still and sounded an alarm. That thing on his belt must have been
some kind of personal alert safety system that kicked in the moment
he got into trouble."

"Wow.." Marco remarked. "But how does what you saw apply to
us, Chet? We don't work with land surveying, not often anyways,
unless we're called to a cave in."

"I'm getting to that." Kelly said. "Just hush a minute and let me
show you what I've got." and he pointed to the two or three black
boxes on the table including the modified HT that Johnny had
noticed earlier. "Now I figured out a few things on my own.
A simple motion detector that works can run on a tiny 9 volt
battery in a nested compartment here. Reads anywhere, even
through smoke. I tested it in the shower."

"The shower?" Gage chuckled. 

Kelly held up a hand. "Hear me out. Just hear me out. Where
else was I gonna find safe smoke? Steam works just as well.
I hadta test out heat bearing ability, too."

"Well how does a motion sensor help us as firefighters, Chet?"
DeSoto asked reasonably.

Kelly held out a small box, "Here, put this on." he said.
"Now go walk around and don't stop until I tell ya. Just flip on
the little switch on the side until that red light comes on."

"Ok," Roy said and he did what Chet asked.

The guys watched Roy move around the table in circles.

"Nice invention, Chet." Hank quipped. "Now we'll be able
to tell just how many miles we cover each week to measure up
to how bad our aches become." he said sarcastically light.

"I'm not finished, Cap. Hang on a minute." Chet motioned.
"Ok, Roy. Now go down on the floor. Like you were in
 a fire and a roof fell on top of ya."

Roy crouched down and got onto his belly. "Like this?"

"Yeah, like that.." Kelly said. "Now don't move for 30 seconds."
Then he didn't say anything and simply pointed to the second radio 
like device that he had switched on that rested on the table. It had a 
yellow light that was blinking on top of it. 

Very shortly the large talkie device on the table had a loud
shrieker device go off that just about shattered all their eardrums.

Henry protested in earnest with howls of his own.

Kelly scrambled and apologized, turning down the device's volume
control. "Sorry about that, guys. Sorry, Henry.. I forgot I tested this
receiver outside this morning."

"Congratulations on inventing an airhorn, Kelly. I'm proud of ya." Gage
said thoroughly unimpressed and shaking out his ears. He moved
to the pizza platter again for seconds after helping Roy back
up onto his feet.

"No, wait Gage. Come back here. It's not done cycling yet. Listen."

A speaker came to life on the side of the unit and started a pre-recorded
message in Sam Lanier's voice that they all recognized as having
originated along a relay from the main dispatching offices. 
##Mayday. Mayday. Mayday. Detector number two has been activated.
Attempt radio communications to locate a fireman detected in a 
horizontal position and motionless for longer than 30 seconds.
May day. May day. May day. ##

Captain Stanley startled. "Wait a minute there Kelly. You mean to tell
me that you linked that funky radio gadget straight to Headquarters?"

"No, Cap. This is just a side band that Sam and I rigged on a spare
transmitter. We're off the official air. He was just as enthused about
this whole man locator device I learned about, as much as I was. In
fact, he was the one who was all gung ho making this recording
and airing it from work with his manager's full approval." Kelly said.
"We're unofficially calling these things shriek boxes."

"Shriek boxes?" Gage asked, chewing.

"Yeah, well I knew nobody would warm to the idea of
naming them Kelly boxes. Especially you, Gage."

"You're right about that." he said without barbs.

Now the gang was mystified, when the transmitter kicked
on a light on the belt unit that Roy wore, telling him that
the message had been delivered to the tower.

Cap picked up the broadcasting radio receiver and switched it
off. "Just what kind of range do your belt things have to reach
the transmitter?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't know, Cap. I haven't tested it yet in the field. Sam and I
are still pulling the paperwork to get these testers approved
by the chiefs to work at an actual scene."  Chet said.

Stoker was frank. "Cap, if the bugs are ironed out, do you realize
how many firefighter lives this device of Kelly's could save?"

"I'm trying not to get too excited." Hank admitted, peering at
the device in his hand, marveling at the simplicity of it.
Then he met Chet's eager eyes. "Can we do that live test again?
I mean, is Sam ready for it?"

"Cap, that was a pre recording on automatic frequency set to
channel nine. The same nine on our handy talkies. We're clear
to use that channel for another three days he said. That's why he
left the loop open when he went on vacation. Yeah, we can do another
live test, anytime. As long as we're under Sam's home repeater tower
umbrella. That's the only one he's allowed access to for this home project of
ours."

"How does it work with water? I mean does it still work, getting
wet? We are usually swimming in hose wash." Marco asked. 

"I haven't tested them yet that way either." Chet said. "I only got to
the level liquid mercury switch to activate on that remote announcement
setup when the bubble hits either of the terminal brackets inside.
I used old transistor radio chips to serve as triggers."

"Let's go find out, shall we?" Hank said, motioning for Chet
to gather his tester units into a bundle. "Who wants to
be the lost man to wear the belt unit? We can rig the reel
line from Ivory for a light spray out in the backyard."

Everybody's hands went up just as the call tones went off.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Dixie hugging Henry.

Photo:  Gang chatting in the kitchen.

Photo:  Chet Kelly's PASS device.

Photo:  Cap with a huge amused smile.

Photo:  Johnny with his mouth full of food.

Photo:  Chet confiding details to Gage in a close up.
 
**********************************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, September 2, 2004 10:33 AM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Markers Move 


##Stations, 18, 36, 99, 24,..51. Library fire. 12400 Washington. 
Cross street Milton. 12400 Washington Ave. Cross street Milton. 
Citizens report persons are trapped. Time out. 14: 27.##

Johnny Gage quickly grabbed some of Henry's dog food and
wrapped up his pill and tossed it to him on the way out. "Early's
better than later, Roy. He's set."

"Sounds like it's gonna be a hot one this time." remarked
Chet. "They probably had no one else to spare for a fire call. Looks
like we're going to be polishing Ivory up a storm come supper time."

Not having any place better to put them, Kelly hung onto the four
shriek boxes and radio transmitter device, bringing them with him 
as he ran for the garage.

"Looks like." said Mike Stoker, throwing on his jacket and running
over to the white engine. "I promise I won't get picky about the chrome."

Cap snapped out an order. "Gage, DeSoto. Follow in the squad. 
With all that paper, this is going to be a real fast fire with the heaviest
kind of smoke. We'll need your spare air bottles and lifelines. Go call 
us in, Roy."

"Right, Cap." and he picked up the acknowledging mic. " L.A., 
Engine 51-A and Squad 51 are responding. KMG 365."



Soon, they were charging down the boulevard to the east where
already a plume of ink stained the sky, adding a widening tail to 
the city's smog belt.

In route, Captain Stanley overheard another engine get to the
scene. ##L.A. This is Station 24. We've multiple victims of
smoke inhalation. Respond three additional ambulances and
a sixth alarm. Fire containment's a priority!## called out that
captain. ##Engine 51-A, what's your ETA on your aerial cannon?##

"Stoker?" Hank asked.

"Four minutes." the engineer replied over the roar of the engine
and sirens.

Hank gave the estimate over the air and stated that extra paramedic
gear and oxygen was arriving with Squad 51. He heard Craig Brice's
entire station called out for the sixth assignment.

Then, they were there.

People were scattering like milling pepper from the stricken three
story glass and steel structure and fire crews already on scene were
hard pressed to get them clear of exploding glass. Cap pulled out
his HT from his jacket pocket. "Engine 51-A and Squad 51, on scene."

##Station 51, Your time in : 14:36.## bookmarked L.A.

Captain Stanley spied a chief's car and he pulled off his mirrored
sunglasses. "Battalion Nine, where do you want us?" he asked
over the HT.

##Hank. Cover the west side, main entrance. Most of the victims are 
being recovered through there. Have your engineer rig your four incher 
from Engine 99 for a heavy attack and I'll send another over to man your 
ladder's water cannon. Tell your men going in to use caution. The roof is 
unstable. We've had multiple explosions.## said Battalion.

"10-4. Setting up on the western exposure." Cap nodded.
Then he contacted Roy and Johnny over their vehicles' band.
"Engine 51-A, Squad 51. Join the paramedic search teams with 
full air gear. Marco and Kelly will dog you on an anchor hose from
Ivory. I want solid life belts on all four of ya, doubly knotted."

Johnny, Roy, Chet and Lopez all copied Hank's barked order
over their radios and rushed to carry it out.

While they were gearing up in the shadow of the trucks, Kelly
jogged over, passing out his novel shriek boxes. He clipped one
onto the SCBA harnesses of each of them. "Don't rely on these at
all. This is the water test fellas. Sorry it's gonna be such a b*tc*. 
If you drop to crawl around flames, tell Cap on channel nine
and he'll reset your unit manually. I already got him monitoring the 
transmitter's band. The units are tagged one through four and will 
label themselves. I got three, Marco's four, Roy and Johnny's are one 
and two respectively. Got it?"

Johnny grinned as he fitted into his face plate and tested
the air flow out of his regulator. "We're gonna do this testing
thing around the chief?"

"What better way to sell something than to demo it
up front, eh? Cap's all for it cause this fire's just begging a
collapse chance greater than normal. He said that he'll take any 
insurance he can get. " Kelly quipped.

"Think these things are gonna work?" Gage asked Roy
on the side when Chet was busy replacing his helmet
and out of earshot.

"Who knows. Trial by fire, I guess." DeSoto smiled craftily.
"If they don't work, it won't matter. We've more than enough
fire crews milling about to bail us out. Hey, looks like Brice and 
Bellingham are on our quad's team. We're gonna be totalling 
six very soon."

"That'll be a whole h*ll of a lot safer. Now I know why I love
Battalion Nine's style of command. You take Brice. I got Bellingham." 
Johnny groaned. "I don't think I can stomach Craig picking apart 
Kelly's invention once he gets wind of it."

"Protective of Chet's little gadget, aren't we?" Roy teased.

"You're d*nmed straight I am. What happened at the station's
simply incredible. I think the idea'll spread through the whole
entire fire department like wildfire, Roy. And not only in California."

"Gage, the raging optimist." 

"I'm not the only one. Look at Chet. He's grinning like a kid
in the candy store."

"About picking a flank man." Roy teased. "You're gonna take
whom you're gonna get." 

"Ok.  Anchor's in." Marco said, passing Kelly the uncharged
four inch from Ivory's bed already laid out from Ivory where Stoker 
had mated her to the Y line from 99's. "Mike's set for us. We're 
enabled for full pressure on demand when we want it. I just verified
with 99's."

"Let's do it." Kelly said, getting ansy as he saw two more firemen
leave the stricken building with multiple walking wounded for
the ambulance crews. As yet, there were no criticals being found
to warrant immediate paramedic attention. The team of six stayed 
on the job as a point to point search team.

Roy glanced back as the blocks and feet on Ivory were extended
for the ladder's deployment. It was a soothing comfort to feel the bucket's
looming presence hanging over all their shoulders. Soon, a high
force arch of water stabbed into the fire's gut and split the worst
of the roof burn into two weaker halves. 

Desoto heard the snarling blaze's growl falter into a belch of steam. 
::One point for us. I'd rather it rain runoff on us in there instead of 
all that burning chaff from the ceiling tiles.::  He gripped his ceiling 
hook even tighter as they approached the flame pocked library.

Then, they felt the perimeter firefighters shove them in the right 
direction towards the axe gutted main doors of the library. 
Roy sighed in relief when he saw that body sheets weren't dotting 
the sidewalk before lurid smoke swallowed them up.

Craig Brice's glove gripped Roy's shoulder. "To the left.
I see some doors that aren't chalked off yet." 

DeSoto nodded, giving Chet and Marco behind them 
a sharp signal, showing them where he and Brice were 
headed to next.

To their right, Gage and Bellingham branched on the parallel
row of doors to that side of the ascending fire engulfed staircase.

Bookshelves and carpetting both, were alighted with hungry
fire. Marco and Chet had their work cut out for them. They
set their nozzle to the largest fan and snuffed out a path
for both parties to navigate through. All the while, Kelly
kept one eye on the uppermost story ceiling. So far, no smoke
seeps or heat stains were warping through the grid of
tin tiles above the darkened suspended chandeliers.

"Man, what a shame.." Chet shouted to Marco. "This is such
a classy Victorian building. Must be a hundred years old, at least."
 
"It is. We passed the foundation plaque on the way in."
Lopez replied. He snapped back into a close attention of
the way ahead when a gust of smoke visually smothered all four
paramedics' locations. Chet drove the hose fan over their
heads to push the smoke up away from them. 

When it cleared, he saw five doors were open and yawning fire 
as the two teams kicked them ajar one by one beneath
the stairway and fresh hot pink chalk marks glowed in the firelight.

Then he heard Johnny over channel nine.
"Shriek Two is crawling, Cap. I think I see something!" he
told Hank, monitoring the safety unit's transmitter channel.

Johnny didn't move until he saw the yellow reset light flash
on his shriek box. Then he dropped down to the floor 
and crept under a studying desk. There he found a man,
unconscious, lying unmoving on his back. "I got someone!" 
and he pulled off his glove to feel for a neck pulse. "He's alive.
Cap send in a team fifty feet forward. Tell em to hook 
a left ninety behind the grand stair case. I'm at the third door."

##Gotcha, pal.## said Captain Stanley. ##They'll be
there in thirty seconds. Stay inside. Roof's fine out here.
Another squad's here take over your man's care.##

Gage shared his air with his found victim while Bellingham
shared his with Johnny as they monitored the man's 
struggling breaths. Then the reply team arrived to
take him away and they helped lift him onto a large
firefighter's shoulders for the trip out. Gage let go of
his carotid reluctantly.

Johnny heard Roy give out a crawl warning just as
he had done, and he held his breath. 

But that was all that came over the radio. 
No other person had been located.

"Ok, Bellingham." Gage gasped in his air mask. "Let's keep it going."

Craig had finally noticed the changed channel on  HT and the
yellow light flashing on Roy's SCBA straps. "What's that?" he
asked.

"A lucky charm. I'll tell you about it later." DeSoto grinned.
"Something one of the guys cooked up. Now let's get out
of these study rooms before we cook."

Chet suddenly whistled, off the live frequency, and it carried over 
the crackling fire.

Immediately, Roy and Brice along with Gage and Bellingham
jogged back to Kelly for news, who was still on the main fire
fighting channel. Chet  motioned for them to lean in close
and he peeled off his mask. They parroted him for better hearing 
ability. "Second floor's been searched." Kelly coughed.
"Two found and safely out. We've been ordered to go to
the third. First floor's now clear thanks to us. You just searched
the last final areas that were left. Ready to head up?"

The four paramedics glanced up the carpet flaming staircase.
"Yeah.." said Gage. "That doesn't look too bad. Go ahead
and hit it."

Chet gave a thumbs up and slid his mask back on.
Kelly and Marco braced themselves and swathed the wide
wooden rail staircase with cold water, snuffing the fire stripe
they saw burning there until they were replaced with steaming curls.

They all jumped with a bookshelf from the second story fell over
the loft rail and down to their level. Chet hit that, too, to keep their
reverse escape route open.

Johnny and Roy poled checked each stair's surface as they climbed to 
test for weak spots. But there weren't any.  They rose past
the second floor. Then they wrapped up to the third.

A set of ornate wooden doors greeted them at the top.
Brice, in the front of the team, peeled off his glove and felt the 
door for heat.


An explosion blasted them backwards and set Craig's hand on
fire because he was reaching for the still cool door handle.

All six firemen went down. And just as quickly, they got up again to
beat back the fire in the doors with an aggressive water stream.

Gage and DeSoto and Bellingham dragged Craig into the 
raining hose water to drench him down thoroughly. After a delay,
Brice began to yell when he realized that he'd been burned.

Gage whipped off his mask and grabbed Brice's shoulders.
"Craig. *cough* Let me see you. How's your face? How's your face?
Is it ok?"

Brice nodded, moaning. Finally he relaxed his arm enough for Johnny 
to check his left hand. "Second degree on most, Craig. Third only on 
your thumb. No, quit fighting me. We've got to keep it under the water. 
We gotta get the heat out of it."

Chet Kelly shouted. "How is he? Is everyone else ok?"

Roy replied. "We're fine. It's Brice's hand. Flame caught it
just when he went for the door handle."

"Shut them back up again. Steam'll from the water I just
sent in will knock out all the fire in the room. Nobody's
still alive in there. It's too hot." Kelly said. 

Roy swept an eye down to all the 51 gang's shriek boxes. They 
were still showing steady red. ::Functioning, despite a bath. 
Second point for us.:: he thought.

Marco Lopez was watching the ceiling above them grow
molten."I'm seeing some sag. Let's hug a wall guys. Now..
We'll have to find another way out of here with him."

The six firemen dashed with Brice supported between 
to the nearest wall, just as heavy pre-flash smoke descended
to below their knees. 

"It's gonna go!" Gage shouted, looking up towards the roof.

"Yeah, but which part?" DeSoto asked, gasping. "I can't see
anything."

Chet Kelly gripped all of their shoulders. "I've got an idea.
Gimme your shriek boxes."

"What are you doing?" Johnny said.

"Hear me out, Johnny. I'm gonna use em as markers. There are four 
pillars in the room, one in each quadrant of a square around the room, 
remember? I'm gonna put a shriek on each pillar and then we'll wait until it's over
right here, where we're safer. The ones that finally holler after things are
done is where the ceiling came down. Cap can tell us which ones went
off! Then we'll be able to get out through the spot that's still showing shriek 
quiet. We won't need to see where we're going."

"*Cough* I just hope to G*d you don't get them mixed up, Chet. Or
we're bacon. One. Two. Three. Four. North. South. East. West."
Gage suggested.

"I'm way ahead of you, man." Chet said, crawling away from
the others on his life line with the four shriek boxes in his hands.

Roy radioed to the outside on channel nine. "Cap. We're gonna
sit through a flash. Looks like the ceiling's gonna cave centrally."

##Get out of there!##

"We can't. Not yet. Brice's injured and we'll be too slow to
reach the entry doors. We're along an exterior wall that's
safe enough and we've got a plan, now listen close..." Kelly
gasped, taking a breath of air out of his loose dangling mask.

A low growling rumble made the ceiling fire ripple and the 
monster backflash finally came. 

All five firemen fell onto Chet's rope as a furnace
hot belch of fire rolled low over their backs. Marco lifted it
away from them with the upturned hose water fan as it passed by, 
yelling in defiance.

Then it was over and the smoke thinned and lessened.

"Chet!" Gage called, tugging on the rope snaking across
the floor. His grip on it was tugged back. Twice. Gage
smiled. "He's all right out there."

"Thank God. " Bellingham said, holding Brice's injured hand
under water where it trembled to cool it. Brice began to droop.

"Hey. hey..hey.." Johnny shouted. "Stay up, Craig. Fight it." he told
Brice. "You're gonna haveta help us get you out. It's bound
to be a longish climbing obstacle course out there. I'll letcha black
out once we're outside."

"U- Understood.." Brice mumbled as his partner gripped his
face to encourage him back to full consciousness.

Kelly crawled back into their arms just as the ceiling fractured.
All six firemen felt the air gust and change color around them 
when all that tonnage hit the carpeting. The smoke went from 
orange brown to gray black and the temperature dropped by
dozens of degrees.

Chet pulled up his legs to his knees as a main beam from
the ceiling bounced on top of where he had just scrambled.
"OH, that was too close.. Ahh. I hate this job! " A few breaths later,
he delivered what they all wanted to hear. "It's done guys. 
Got em in place. Keep an ear out on that HT band on nine."

Soon, Hank Stanley's voice called out shakily
over the HT. ##Kelly, Units one, four and three are barking. Your
butts intact in there?##

"10-4. All six souls. Gotcha. Moving out to the south. Thanks
for the info, Cap. I owe you more than one. "

##Quite the reverse, pal.## said a very relieved Captain Stanley.

Roy added onto Chet's transmission. "Craig's going shocky. 
We'd appreciate some med gear to use when we get out there. 
It's Brice's hand and he's suffering possible explosive impact effects."

##Consider it done.## 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto finished loading up Craig Brice
into the ambulance and into Bellingham's transporting care.
The groggy paramedic had checked clear of any internal injuries 
and was only on light O2 with just a precautionary I.V.  His hand
was badly burned but they all thought it would prove fully salvagable
in a few months time.

The 51 gang watched his Mayfair depart. 

Then Captain Stanley set a supporting glove on Chet Kelly's
shoulder. "I'm sorry your pet project had to burn. But you sacrificed 
them for a very good cause. That was one of the smartest ideas I've
ever heard come out of your lips, Chet." 

"Thanks, Cap. I appreciate it."

"So do I. " said Gage as he and Roy cleaned up where
Brice had been treated to get set for the next walking
victim from the fire.

"What shall I do with this?" Cap asked Chet, holding up
the shriek box tower transmitter.

"Give it here. I'll give it to Sam next time I see him. Maybe 
he can put it up on his fireplace mantle or something as a souvenir. 
I'm done playing the mad inventor. But it sure was nice while it lasted."
he grinned, rubbing some soot off of his face.

"There's always next time, Chet. Those shrieking things were a sound 
idea." Gage smiled. "Promise me that you won't give up on it entirely?"

Chet studied the ground with disappointment showing bright on his 
weary and flushed face.

"There's always someday." Roy reassured, laying along side Johnny's 
remark.

"Yeah, someday I guess." Chet Kelly sighed, then he looked
up at the smouldering gutted building thoughtfully and
a sparkle returned to his gray blue eyes.
"Maybe when I'm older. And grayer."

"There's the ticket." Johnny quipped, turning to
greet their next victim being helped to walk by the 
strong arms of Vince Howard, the policeman.
"How does it feel to be a future millionaire, Chet?"

"Don't know. I've got too much soot in my eyes to even
think about it. Right now, the only thing I can picture is a 
hot shower, a soft bed, and maybe a rivetting chess match for 
later. Are you game? I'm officially challenging you." 

"Right after I win my match against Roy." said Johnny.

"You're on."
               

                                 FIN

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:    Johnny and Roy in air bottles, tense, looking at a fire.

Photo:    Chet in firefighting gear with another fireman.

Photo: A factory fire view from over the hood of the squad.

Photo: Brice and Roy looking at each other in the squad.

Photo:  The whole gang climbing around after a roof collapse.

Photo: Cap and the whole gang grinning in turnout.

Photo: Gage on the biophone in smoke.

Photo: Chet and Roy and Johnny recreating at the station.
 
*****************************************************************************

***This current episode has just completed.
***Keep watching here daily for new episode
***scene installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

_______________________________________

This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Thirteen,  Season Two
  
      §§   The White Engine    §§

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : August 1st, 2004.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

End Credits --  Episode Thirteen  (Second Season)
                                     
                                             §§ The White Engine  §§

                     :)   This episode is dedicated to the inventor of                        :)
                           the PASS device which saves countless firefighter 
                     :)    lives every day.                                                                       :)                                                              


Guest Writers...
---------------

Champagne Scott    chameleonkate@hotmail.com
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com



**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com


Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper    Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota
T. Bielitzki       On Canine Heart Medical Problems Advice- DVM  



Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  mamasuelodge70@yahoo.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 

"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To Icecat,  <icecat62@comcast.net>
For Designing the Banners for Episodes  

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

      Music for   Season Two   Episode Thirteen

                   §§ The White Engine  §§

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sunny Morning Midi by Bjorne Lynne

Nuclear Midi by Curtis Schweitzer

Bad Boys Midi by Inner Circle
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
    For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
   Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
   For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
   (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
    write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

       Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
       all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________

============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
§ Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com §
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 
   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================

The Story Unfolds...

 The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Fifteen..

 §§   00:51   §§
 
Debut Launch: 1 October 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**ETL Writer's Preproduction List.  

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see the latest music soundtracked, imaged
version of this episode after entering User ID  'efan' and 
Password  'frontrowseat'  at the link above. 

This version of the current episode is scene delayed as 
compared to the most recent submissions shown in the 
text only file coming up below.

You will need your Yahoo Email User ID and
your Yahoo Email Password to access the
file link below this sentence.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story


****************************************************** 
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Monday, October 4, 2004 1:40 AM 
Subject :  Dixie's Day Off... 
  

Dixie McCall stretched languidly on her raft just soaking in
the southern Californian sunshine. ::It's just been far...too... long.::
she sighed, listening to the birds nearby playing in her apartment
complex's birdbath. Max, the caretaker's cat, seemed to agree with
her, stretching a single paw down from his perch on the poolside
lifeguard chair.

Children's laughter rang like belltones in her ears as she dozed
under her sunhat and occasionally, the yips of the excited dogs 
watching the other tenants sharing the same pool, splashed and 
played on the sidelines. Sighing, Dixie let the sun fry out her aches, 
one by one. ::If I ever work another double shift like the one I had last
night, may monkeys fly out of my butt.::  she thought. "Ohhh, I hate
head colds." Dixie sniffed, ignoring yet another tickle running down
her throat. She shifted on her inflatable, easing a sudden gut cramp.
The tired nurse let the noonish summer's day work its magic, and 
ignored it. "Guess what, Kel?" she mumbled to herself, still quite
alone on her side of the pool. "I'm cancelling dinner plans. This
day is gonna be just ..for......ZZzzzzz...zzz.."

The lulling waves returned her to a state of blissful somnolence.

Dixie didn't know how long she had drifted, when an uneasy pup's
whine sliced through her dreams. McCall made a face.

Then the kids started screaming. Dixie shot up onto her hands, blinking
in the torrid sun's glare, her eyes tearing. She cast her head about towards
the frightened children, shouting in alarm. "What's the problem here?!"

One petrified boy pointed to someplace behind Dixie. McCall turned.
One of the Miller dogs was still whining, standing rigid on a second
floating rubber raft, looking at something down under the water. 

Dixie saw a wavering form shimmer, sprouting legs
and motionless, drifting arms. 

"Mr. Miller!" she gasped, twisting off the raft. Dixie swam as
fast as she could across the pool, shouting as she went, "Call
the Fire Department Rescue Squad! My patio door's open!"
she told the children. One of the oldest started running for
the phone.

Dixie plunged into the pool's depths, opening her eyes. It was
deep at that end and Gerald Miller was no tiny teenager 
when she finally reached him and started hauling his spasming
lanky body to the surface.  She kicked through a plume of red.
::He's hit his head?:: McCall analyzed.

The side cramp biting her earlier made a comeback. Dixie
grunted bubbles, cursing. But then her hand caught the edge
of the pool's rim and her chin broke into the air. The stench of
chlorine poured into Dixie's stuffy nose and she opened her mouth,
spitting out luke warm water.

"Is my brother ok?" asked a tiny blond girl in active horror.

Dixie threw an arm over Ger's shoulder and rolled his slack
face out of the water, taking care to not jar his spine. The
teenager was unconscious now and he fountained water out
his nose and mouth when she turned him. ::Drowning.:: she 
thought. Holding him still, the nurse beckoned to the kids.
"Push something over to me!" she ordered, treading water. "I need
a support surface to lie him on. Even a lounger will work."

But the chairs along the sunning area were chained to the fence.
Dixie swore. "There! Use that." and she jerked her head towards
the blue raft from which the frantic dog was barking.

Two young boys leaped in and shoved it close.

Dixie managed to get it floating perpendicular under
Ger's chest with his head splinted level in both her hands.
She didn't bother to drain him further and started right in
with a breath attempt. Ger gurgled, but his chest rose.

McCall's fingers found the groove in his neck.
::Sh*t. His pulse's almost gone.::  Dixie kept holding
the teenager's head in alignment around her jaw thrust.
She lifted rushing eyes to the panicking children surrounding
her."Kids, we gotta get him out. Now. Remember how to
do that? Like I showed ya in kidscouts.. We're gonna make
a ramp out of the pump pipe cover by the shed. All right? 
Go get it!  I gotta keep helping him." she said, blowing another 
breath through the suffocating man's chest water.

Ger's color had grayed before her eyes by the time they
got back. "No, Ger. Keep fighting!" Dixie hissed into his ear 
as she pushed air into his lungs.

The oldest boy ran back outside."The operator said that
they're on their way! I got through!"

"Terrific.." McCall grinned up at him.
 She used the other children swimming around
her to keep Miller's head and back unjostled. 

Between the five of them, the slippery teen slid off
the long piece of plastic onto the deck quickly. "Watch his
head. Don't move his neck around..." Dixie told the older
ones.

"He's bleeding!" cried the youngest.

"It's not real bad. Head cuts are just messy." Dixie said 
automatically.

"His neck beat's gone! His neck beat's gone!" shouted
Ger's brother, knowing enough to check.

"I know. He's just gone out. Don't be scared. Now. He'll need 
that CPR stuff I taught you all, so girls, dry him off your beach towels, 
especially around his chest. Then nest them about him to soak up 
all of this water." Dixie said rapidly, thinking ahead for future 
defibrillating.

Hauling on a rope of floats, McCall flung herself out of
the pool. She scrambled over to the teen's head and
reopened an airway by lifting his jaw bone. "Michael, now take
over here. Hold his chin just like this when you give your 
breaths, ok? Move nothing else. I'll start here." Dixie told the
boy, beginning compressions. "Don't be alarmed if water
squirts out after a bit. Let it come. The more of it, the better."

Dixie's cramp was a vice now, and her nose ran, so she
lifted one leg and crouched on her right foot to ease it. Already,
McCall was sweating and beads of it stung her eyes. She
glanced up as Ger's brother delivered another breath mouth
to nose. "That's fine, Mike. Give those a little deeper. Keep 
going. Good job." McCall panted, keeping up her CPR.

After each pulse check, Dixie lifted her head toward the
veranda's main gate listening acutely for the sound of sirens.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Photo :   Dixie on a pool raft, sunning with a hat over her eyes.

Photo :   Birdbath full of bluebirds.

Photo :   Panicking kids at a pool's edge.

Photo :   A dog on a raft seeing a submersed victim.

Photo :   A sunny apartment poolside with palms.

Photo :   Dixie, talking urgently.

******************************************************
From:  "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Oct 7, 2004  8:32 pm 
Subject:  The Narrow Path..

   
Dixie McCall reached down yet again to the drowned teenager's 
throat after another long minute. Her chilled fingers found a thready
carotid. "Michael! Trade places with me. He's got a pulse.
Hold his head still, in between your knees, as I keep ventilating
him." she requested, keeping in line stabilization with her hold
on his airway. "Keep talking to him, hon. He's in trouble but he can
still hear us."

Stuttering nervously, Michael leaned down to his brother's ear.
"Ger. I promise I won't tell anyone what you did in the house. 
Just wake up, ok? Dad's gonna be so mad you jumped head 
first into the shallow end like we're not supposed to."

McCall looked up at the nine year old, about to ask him what 
that house comment had meant, when the wail of sirens and 
squealing tires heralded a paramedic squad's arrival.

It was 51's. 

"Johnny! Roy! Non-breathing, but with a pulse now! 
He was under, I'm guessing,.. less than two minutes."

DeSoto and Gage flew into the yard, 02 tank clattering, with a
police officer in tow, lugging the defibrillator and a backboard.

"Officer, set those by his head." Johnny ordered. Then he 
wrapped a thick cervical collar around Ger's neck without 
getting in the way of Dixie's mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Roy moved immediately to kick the drying blankets the children
had used out of the way. "Dixie? We thought the address was
familiar." 

"Sorry for scaring you fellas but this was pressing.." she replied,
delivering another breath to the boy carefully.

Johnny felt the teen's distended stomach. "This getting in
the way?"

"More and more."

Gage got busy setting up the demand valve to take
over for the nearly exhausted nurse.

Roy finished hooking up the EKG monitor and he put the 
defibrillator on charged standby. Then he set up the 
biophone's antennae and began a hail. "Rampart, this
is Rescue 5..1.."

##Go ahead, 51## answered Brackett over the line.

"Rampart, we have a male approximately fourteen 
years of age. Victim of an apparent diving accident."

Dix waggled her head in agreement at Roy's guess
at mechanism of injury as she accepted the positive 
pressure mask from Gage and began using it.

Johnny flung open the I.V. box and grabbed out what 
he needed rapidly. 

Roy continued his report. "...He's been under active
resuscitation, non-breathing now, but with a regained
pulse following CPR. He's on 15 liters of assisted O2.
Spinal precautions have been taken. Please stand by
for the vital signs."  He set the phone onto his shoulder
as he tore pieces of IV tape off a dipenser to stick
in rows onto his leg.

##Standing by, 51.##

McCall rattled off Ger's pulse and its quality, and
his consciousness level."120 and thready. No reaction
to pain. Pupils, reactive, but sluggish."

DeSoto nodded, getting a quick B/P while Johnny
did a rapid head to toe survey after listening to
the boy's breath sounds via scope. "I'm getting rales
bilaterally." he said.

"He took in a lot of water.." Dixie confirmed catching
her breath back as she used the ventilator on their
patient.

Gage went on. "Negative Babinski's." he said after
he ran a pair of forceps points up the bottom's
of both of the teenager's feet.

Dixie sighed in relief. "One point in his favor.."

Gage rewrapped the stethoscope around his neck. He 
peered at the blood oozing from the boy's temple. 
"This looks minor. There's no depression." Then he
looked for cerebral spinal fluid out the ears and nose.
"No CSF, Roy."

"Ok, Johnny. Better call out for the engine. His B/P's
sixty over P."

Gage jerked his head in affirmation and grabbed 
his walkie talkie. "L.A., This is Squad 51."

##Squad 51.##

"Respond Engine 51 for medical assistance to
our location."

## 10-4, Squad 51. Time out, 12:51.##

Everyone ignored the broadcast tones over the
frequency, double echoed through the squad's
Motorola Converta-com and the HT as Captain
Stanley acknowledged the run and gave an ETA.

Dixie felt a wave of fatigue. "Johnny, I'm tired." she
shivered. "I gotta give it up."

"All right." Gage said, eyeing her up, a little
self conscious because of Dixie's skimpy
made-for-the-sun, two piece bikini. "Rescuing's 
hard work. Why don't you..uh,, wrap up, sit
down and rest a while. We got it."

The motorcop smoothly took over teenager's 
mechanical ventilations.

Dixie barely felt the kids throw a flannel quilt over 
her shoulders, offering her their gratitude with timid
pats and hugs as she parked on a lounger by
the edge of the swimming pool. McCall shook her
head, thinking out loud. Then she snapped her 
fingers. " Amy Miller, can you go get that consent
form your mother's got hanging on the frig? These
firemen are gonna need it to give Ger some 
medication."

"Ok, Dixie. I'll be right back, Ger!" cried the tiny
child before she ran off.

DeSoto got his first orders. 

##51, Start an I.V. Normal Saline with an insulin
drip. I'm gonna assume he was coding longer than
two minutes. I want to terminate any catecholamine
release effects before they complicate things for us.
Go ahead and administer 1.0 mg Lidocaine IV push
to control any intracranial pressure he might have from
that possible head injury. Prepare to insert an esophageal
airway and send me a strip. Add 1 mg Sodium Bicarb,
then turn his drip to TKO. Let me know when you've
secured your airway. ##

"10-4, Rampart. I.V. Normal Saline with insulin, Lidocaine
and Sodium Bicarb. This'll be lead 2."

The reassuring sound of the Ward Pumper's deeper siren grew
then fell away with the bark of her airhorn. 

##L.A. Engine 51's on scene.## came Stoker's transmission.

##10-4, Engine 51. Time is 12:55.## replied L.A. Dispatch.

The pool kids, except Michael, went running to fetch the 
other firemen to show them the way.

Roy lifted his HT. "Cap, we'll need all hands and
the spare O2. Active resus."

##10-4, HT 51.##

Ger suddenly started to seize and his stomach rippled.

Gage startled. "Is he vomiting?" he asked the police
man, with his hands full of supplies.

"No, there's nothing here yet. ....But.."

"But what?" Roy asked, impatient.

"I..don't think I'm getting a chest rise anymore.." the
officer admitted. "Just started happening."

"D*mn!" Johnny swore, feeling Gerald's throat for
the beat and double checking the jaw lift. "Try
another vent again."

The cop triggered the thumb button. Despite a
tight seal over skin, the demand valve failed
to accomplish a finished breath. The officer
shook his head. "See? Just like I told ya."

Johnny flew into action. "Roy, ask for a nasogastric
tube. He's really blocked and in a convulsion from
hypoxia. His gums are blue. I wanna drain that 
distention now."

Roy hurried and updated Dr. Brackett about
the new developments.

## I confirm rising tachycardia on the scope, 51.
Relieve that intragastric pressure with an NG tube
and watch for signs of an obstructed airway..##
Kel snapped crisply.

Working together, Roy and Johnny inserted a well
lubricated catheter into the teen's unbloodied
nostril and got it down past a sudden odd resistance.
Frothy pink emesis welled out of the tube's end and
onto the concrete in a noisy involuntary belch. Then
Ger's bulging stomach fell flatter than it had been.

"Ok, try him now." Gage told the policeman as
he quickly drew the tube back out again and suctioned
out the boy's nose and mouth. Difficult breaths went
in.

Stoker, Chet and Lopez immediately knew what
to do at a mere glance of the area. They shifted the
backboard until it lay flush with Ger's back as Johnny
and Roy log rolled him onto his side for more
active suctioning. Swiftly, the head block, chest, waist
and leg straps were settled and tightened into place.

Leaning down, Johnny examined the stain on the pavement.
It was sweet smelling. "Roy, he's been drinking...." he
said flatly, not happy.

DeSoto's face tightened. "He's just a kid."

"I know."

Roy picked up the phone again. "Rampart, we've
positive evidence of ETOH ingestion."

Brackett returned a long sigh of resignation
and sadness. ##10-4, Roy. Then we're all the better
for that insulin drip counteracting things."

Roy had the advanced airway prepped and gelled. "I'm
gonna need one of you for a Sellick's maneuver."
he told the gang.

"Me." Marco volunteered and he peeled off his coat
and gloves and kneeled down.

DeSoto had foregone the EOA for an endotracheal tube.
"Stoker, why don't you take over on the O2? Thanks,
Officer Palmer.." he read from the man's name tag.

"No problem." The officer stood back to begin his
incident report, allowing the more experienced firefighter
engineer to take over the task.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Hank noticed Dixie McCall bundled up on her chair.
"So much for the day off, eh?" he grinned for her benefit.
"Nothing like a little excitement to liven up an afternoon."

Dixie just coughed at Stanley's encouraging humor
while avoiding the bright sun beating down on
her from his direction.

She felt a glove on her shoulder that made her jump.

"You ok there, Dixie?" Cap asked. "Sorry. I didn't
mean to startle you."

Dixie afforded the helmeted captain a smile. 
"I'm fine. Just a little worried."

"About what?"

"About him." she gestured with her head.
"If we can't get that airway in......"

----------------------------------------------------------

A weak, choking jolt upset Roy's positioned
laryngoscope and the paramedic yanked it out
to prevent a sudden mouth injury. "Marco, keep
up that cricoid pressure, whatever you do. Johnny!"

"I'm on it! Rampart, our victim's seizures are worsening. 
So's his color."

##Have you established that ET tube yet?##

"That's negative, doc. We're experiencing some jaw
clenching." Johnny sighed in frustration.

##Knock him out, 51, for a rapid sequence induction.
Point one mg's of Vecuronium IV push. That'll paralyze him 
enough for you to get one inserted. Know that you'll be 
completely responsible afterwards for maintaining his 
airway with adequate ventilations.##

Roy, next to Johnny, gulped.

"10-- uh, 10-4, Rampart." Gage affirmed. "RSI
with .1 mg's Vecuronium IVP."

Stoker spoke up suddenly. "Gage! Laryngospasm!
I'm getting in nothing now."

"What?!" Johnny felt around Marco's Sellick hold. 
He felt a foreboding rock stiff hardness surrounding
Ger's adam's apple. "Roy, ...positive on that... 
Obstruction's total!"

"Rampart, standby... We've a fully obstructed airway."
DeSoto dropped the phone.

##Push the Vecuronium, now! Double it if you have to!##
commanded Kel. ## The increase may help your clearing
attempts..##

Johnny straddled the dripping immobilized teen while Kelly
hastily undid just the abdominal straps of the longboard, 
allowing Gage access to Ger's lower abdomen. The paramedic
delivered four sharp upward thrusts under the teenager's diaphragm
with both hands while Stoker and Chet pinned the boy's head 
and neck still.

Roy sent the muscle paralyzer into Ger's high flowing I.V. 
and hung it dangling on the fence. "It's in. Is it working?"
he looked to Mike Stoker.

The engineer shook his head and demonstrated the 02
gushing out around the mask quickly with some triggering.

Johnny tried a few more abdominal thrusts. Then he
scrambled to Ger's head with a long shafted pair of
Magil forceps in his teeth. He used a jaw screw to open
the shaking teen's mouth to get at the deeper part of his
throat. The lengthy, scissors like instrument was guided
down, but stopped short only along half its usable length.
Gage grimaced as he probed, biting onto a pen light
so he could see what he was doing. "There's nothing
here, Roy. I'm not seeing any vocal cords. It's gotta
be just a laryngospasm. These aren't threading down."
he said of his Magil forceps.

DeSoto nodded, licking dry lips. "Second dose then,
ready?"

Gage nodded, backing off so Stoker could use
the demand valve yet again.

Roy injected a small orange labelled syringe into
the rubber intravenous delivery port deftly. "It's in!"

Stoker and Johnny struggled to offset the teenager's
cyanosis with some chest rise, but they were 
unsuccessful, no matter what they thought to try.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

In the base station, Brackett eyed the running EKG strip
and became ansy. He had to force himself not to interrupt
his hard-at-work men just for an update.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

A dragging minute passed under the firemen's
sweaty exertions. Then Stoker detected a relaxing
jaw. "He's loose.." and then he started to force as many
feebly reaching ventilations as he could into the boy's
lungs. He kept it up until the ominous dark blue began to
fade from Ger's face and lower extremities.

Johnny snatched up the abandoned endotracheal tube
that Roy had left on the teenager's chest and said,
"Hyperventilate him a minute more, Mike. Then move
aside."

Stoker nodded.

Roy lifted the phone. "Rampart, our victim's still
partially obstructed and we can't find what it is.
The paralytic agent's beginning to work, but we're getting
vents into him only with difficulty. Johnny's attempting
another intubation. Both the boy's work of breathing and
his seizures, are now absent." Roy reported, seeing
a quiet, fully drugged stillness, settle over his patient.

Kel let out the breath he was holding. ##Avoid any
stimulus that'll trigger V-fib. He's sensitive to that
now.##

Gage accidently poked the back of Ger's soft palate
with the ET tube as he was visualizing for his vocal
cords.

Roy's head shot up when the EKG monitor warbled 
an arrythmia alarm. "Brady! Back off, Johnny!"

Gage froze and yanked out the tube, digging for
a carotid artery in the boy's neck with his other hand.
"...Stupid!  ..I'm ...stupid...." he grunted.

DeSoto flew to the open drug case when the 
boy's cardiac rate continued to sink into the forties. 
"Rampart!"

## I see it, 51. Point five milligrams Atropine. Speed
him back up again. What I'm seeing here, is vaso vagal 
in origin. It's not an adverse Vecuronium reaction.##

The betablocker soon boosted Ger's heartrate back up
into the low, irregular seventies. Everyone sighed in relief.

## D/C trying the endotrach. I'm authorizing an immediate
needle cricothyrotomy.## Brackett went on..

Gage tossed the ET tube aside.

##....Set up your supplies. Have your head man keep
hyperventilating your victim as best he can. Roy, 
you've told me in the past that you've done one of
these before ..in Nam. You've got the ball once again.##

"10-4, Rampart." Roy replied back, wiping sweat off his lip.

Johnny was a pure professional. He wasn't offended in
the least for being asked to step down during a primary
treatment action. He wanted a resolution to the problem
too badly to even care. He un-papered an adapter to a
7.5 mm sized ET tube, a 10 ml syringe, and a 14 gauge
needle catheter.

Reaching down, he slid a finger on a free hand over the hard
thyroid cartilage running down the midline of Ger's throat until
he found the soft depression of the cricoid membrane. "Ok,
Marco. Keep his trachea from moving around and put
one fingertip,.....here.." And he guided Marco's index finger
to a precise spot on the teenager's sweaty skin. "Mark
that landmark and don't lose it.."

"Believe me, I won't..." Lopez admitted eagerly.

"Ok, Roy. We're ready for you." Johnny said looking 
up, screwing together the puncture lancet."Lopez has
got the trachea splinted." Then Gage handed the whole
rigging over to his much calmer partner. 

DeSoto spoke. "Johnny, could you draw up a mil of
water into the syringe for me, please? I gotta trick
I like to use."

Johnny nodded. "Stoker, is he adequately oxygenated yet?"
he said, filling Roy's needle with a pull of its plunger into
another unused, sterile IV bag.

"As best as he's able. His pupils are still reacting but he's
a little too cold now to judge by his color."

Gage fitted the syringe back into place into the guiding
shaft, curious as to what purpose Roy was going to use
it for. ::Not for med absorption into the lungs, Kel hasn't
ordered any ET drugs yet.:: he thought.

DeSoto took over pressing a finger on the landmark Marco
was guarding. Then he moved his fingertip just enough to 
place the point of the needle directly over the membrane
he could feel. He angled the syringe, end down at 
a forty five towards Ger's feet, and advanced the needle
into the skin, all the while aspirating the plunger upwards
with his pinky and ring fingers. He stopped instantly when
the upward welling suctioning drew up pearling air bubbles.
He smiled. "I'm in the trachea.." he announced.

Roy slid a 3mm endo tube catheter inside the syringe and 
threaded it until it was well into the air passage below,
angled downwards. He withdrew the long needle, passing
it off to Cap to dispose of into the sharps bin.

Johnny flew into action once again. "Ah, now I see what the
water was for.." he said, listening to the teen's chest as
DeSoto fitted the ET adapter's  syringe and catheter's end
onto a high flow oxygen circulating ambu bag. "A better visual."

"Yep." DeSoto blinked.

Lopez helped Roy tape the inserted tenuous airway to
Ger's throat amply and then he took sole charge of
stabilizing it with both hands so that it didn't budge
a single centimeter out of place.

"You're pure cement, Marco." Gage ordered.

"Solid, man. This is going nowhere." he said, 
watching Stoker rapidly make up for lost
ventilating time. "How's he doing now?" the
hispanic fireman asked, marveling at the heavy
bag's ability to work through such a slender tube.

Johnny took the listening ports of the stethoscope
out of his ears. "He's got minimal chest rise. But it's
enough to keep him alive until we get to the hospital. 
Nice work, pal." he grinned. "Thanks everyone."

"Mike, I'll break you." Roy said. "I know just how
to get the most inside without distension happening.
It's a narrow band force of pressure with this sized catheter.
It's just like a newborn's.."

"I'll learn it for next time.." said Stoker as he traded places 
with DeSoto.

Johnny picked up the phone. "Rampart, we have an airway.."

##Congratulations, guys. Now get him in here. I want a vitals
set every five minutes in route. Keep vigilant for good or bad
lung sounds, any sign of expanding hematomas, or subcutaneous
air under the skin. ##

"10-4. We're on our way, Rampart. The ambulance has just
arrived.." Gage said with a smile.

That smile fell away when Dixie McCall suddenly sagged
backwards from where she was seated out of her blanket.
She tumbled limply into the pool when Hank Stanley failed
to catch her in time. "Dixie?!" Johnny yelled.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos : None.

*****************************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, October 7, 2004 8:44 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The A.M.A. 
  
 
Cap started to get out of his turnout and helmet to go
after her when Gage shouted. "I got her!" He swan dived
into the shallows.

Very quickly, Dixie McCall was conveyed to the surface
and to the edge by many hands. She was lifted up, set
onto the ground and rolled onto her back.

"Dix?" Johnny shook her firmly, monitoring her carotid.
He wiped streaming water away from her nose and
mouth as she began coughing and moaning.

McCall was almost as white as her alabaster swimsuit.

"She's ok.." Gage told the others. Stoker jogged over
with the engine's O2 apparatus. "I think this's just an
episode of syncope, she's waking up already." he
said. "Let's move her to one of those chairs and
get her wrapped up before you start her on that Mike."

Roy looked up from where he and Marco were
still watching and working on Ger. "Johnny?! What's
the problem?"

"I don't know yet!" he shouted, letting Stoker, Cap
and Kelly transfer Dixie from the concrete to a 
head raised sunchair. "Let me check her out."
he coughed. "Keep packaging him for transport.
I'll call a second ambulance for her if I have to."

Cap reaffirmed Johnny's plan, setting an oxygen 
mask over McCall's nose and mouth. "That's
gonna be the call."  He waved on Stoker to notify
L.A. of their need for an additional Mayfair or
Cadillac. "I don't like her breathing rate. It's labored."

"Umm hmm, something's definitely going on here.." 
Johnny agreed. "Dix, can you hear me?"

She didn't answer past a few groans.

Chet Kelly continued to try to get a legible verbal
response out of the nurse while Johnny got a B/P
off her arm.

The children were scared but they stayed out of the
way, remaining maturely silent.

Gage saw that Roy was ready to go. "You keep
the biophone."

"She stable?"

"Yeah. Her B/P's no longer low. Take Marco with you for
that airway support. Kelly can follow me in the squad
later after the other ambulance gets here."

Roy was a bulldog. "Use a landline, ok? The kids can
bring out a phone to you for you to use for her." DeSoto 
said, shuffling along behind the gurney leading attendants, 
carrying the defibrillator and the drug box.

"I know. I know.. Just go already. The sooner you leave,
the sooner I'll find out some answers on her. Don't
worry...I'll contact ya on HT as soon as I find out anything."
Gage grumbled.

"No, I'll do that.." Cap promised.

"All right." Roy replied, waving the ambulance men
on again. "I'm going..."

Johnny paid no more attention to him as Ger was carted
off Code Three to Rampart Hospital.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cap and Johnny turned back from watching Roy
hustle away to find Chet inexplicably armed with a mug
of steaming coffee, which he was waving underneath Dixie's
nose near the O2 mask on blow by so that she could
smell it.

Dixie sputtered, shifting her head from side to side.

"Kelly, cut that out this instant!" Hank boomed.

Gage gave out an exasperated shout of mild disgust and he grabbed
the cup away from Kelly. "Chet, would you knock it off!? Where did you
get such a crazy idea in the first place?!" he demanded, gently
replacing the mask as McCall's eyes fluttered open.

"From them.." Chet shrugged.

"Yeah," said the oldest child standing nearby. "It was my idea.
We do this coffee trick all the time when Miss McCall won't wake
up after sunbathing. She told us to so she wouldn't ever be late
for work."

"Well kids, I hate to break it to ya, but today is Dixie's DAY ..OFF!
Thanks for all your help. We got it from here. Now, sCRAMMM!"
Gage exploded.

The children, all three dogs,..and the caretaker's cat, took fright
and all of them ran away as fast as they could with screams, barks
and a yowl.

"That wasn't very smart." Hank interjected when the noise died away.

"Huh?" Gage double taked. "Why not? They're out of our hair..Unlike
some people.." he glared at Chet.

"We don't have our outside phone yet, you twit." Cap said, smacking 
Johnny lightly on the back of the head for emphasis on the word, "twit."

"I'll get it." said Stoker. "I think I remember a phone being in the pool
party hut from last year. It most likely has a cord on it long enough to
reach us.."

Johnny didn't even hear him. "I'm not the twit. Chet's the twit.. Geesh,
Cap. Think about it. Reviving someone with coffee fumes? Now I've 
seen it all."  He kept glaring at Kelly. "Just what were you thinking?"
he asked Chet sarcastically.

"It worked, didn't it? She's almost speaking." Chet countered.
"At least java's kinder on the old nostrils than an ammonia capsule.
I should know. You've used enough of em on me as the Phantom
in the middle of the night when I was still sleeping..."

Hank just rolled his eyes and asked L.A. for the ETA on Dixie's
ambulance.

"No...ambulance.." coughed Dixie, sitting a little straighter in
her chair. A flush of growing embarrassment was staining her cheeks
and erasing all of her remaining questionable clinical signs red tagging
problems. "I'm......fine, fellas. Really!" she protested, peeling off her 
oxygen firmly. 'I'm awake, I'm aware.. I know who I am, where I am and 
what happened....I'm not going anywhere.." she hissed with a little of 
her normal heavy guns tone. "If I see that hospital one more time this 
week, I'll rip all my hair out for sure.." she promised.

Johnny tossed his paramedic's notepad that he had been
writing in over a shoulder and threw his hands up, rubbing his face 
in exasperation. "I don't believe this is happening, Cap.." he whined.
"We gotta get her t--"

Hank held up his palms. "Now, Gage, you know the law as well as 
I do. The little lady's obviously fully cognizant enough, legally, to decide
what's best for hers----"

"Little lady?!" Dixie fumed.

Hank shrank in his overcoat. "Sorry. Poor choice of words? To me,
everybody's little." commented the lanky fire captain sheepishly.
"I apologize if I offended you but the important thing right now
is finding out whether or not you're really ok. We can hash over
how this is being handled afterwards, all right?"

Dixie drew up a glare. "Cancel that Mayfair, Hank. I have a cold....
That's all." she said dangerously.

Cap felt the back of his neck smoking from the strength of her
ire. "Ok.. canceling. ." he said reasonably and fully respectful
of her wish to end the medical call. "Gage, she's allllll yoourrsss."

"Thanks, Cap.." Johnny was thrilled. Not.

"Kelly," Cap barked. "...let's give them a little earshot distance.
Come on, pal.."

"Aww, Cap. I wanna stay and help out.." Chet whined.

"Now, Chet!" Stanley snapped.

"...coming..." Kelly peeped.

The two firemen packed up the O2 and turned for the direction
of the Ward just as Mike Stoker came panting up with the private
phone rigged onto a bright orange extension cord. "I got it..
Hang on while I dial o--"

Stanley didn't even bother to turn around. "Jolly well. The
gang's all here. Now put it back. I guess she's a refusal, Stoker."

"What?"

"Is there something wrong with your ears or mine, Mike." Cap
snarled.

"Mine, Cap." Stoker bellied up.

"Fine. Clean up this mess around here and cancel the second
ambulance while you're at it." He began to tromp away. "Oh,"
he said, retracing his tracks. "You're deaf to those two for the 
next minute or so.." he said tossing a hand at Dixie and Gage.

"I sure will be.." chirped Stoker, recognizing a pending bit of
paramedic hardball to come when he saw it. He stooped only 
long enough to use a water puddle to wash off some blood
after he had policed the area free of medical run fallout. Then
he was gone, with Cap being his bigger shadow.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gage willfully stopped drumming his frustrated fingernails on the
arm of Dixie's poolside chair. He laced his hands together in an
unconvincing show of amenability. "Ok.." he smiled, falsely fake.
"Now where were we?" he purred, ..tightly.

"Talking about how normal I am right now.." Dixie said, crossing
her arms together.

"I wouldn't call keeling over backwards into a swimming
pool in a dead faint, quite normal, Dixie. Quite the opposite."
he growled.

"Look..." Dixie purred, just as deadly serious. "I just got
done with twenty five solid minutes of aggressive, rapid CPR."
Would you still be normal after doing that?" she fired back at him.

Johnny gaped like a fish, then he pursed his lips, scratching 
his head. "Well...." he admitted, his voice sliding up a few notes
on a scale. 'I-- uh, I'll give you that...... particular point."

"Good! Then go away cause I'm telling you, I'm perfectly--"
Dixie sneezed and immediately, she gasped, grabbing
her stomach.

"Oh, really?" Gage moved in for the kill. "That was normal,
eh?.. Come on, Dix. Let me see your stomach!" Johnny said, 
reaching out for palpating check.

McCall whipped up the blanket to her chin, deflecting
Johnny's hands as she resumed her angry stare.
"Touch me, and I swear I'll bite your hand off!
Today is gonna be all MINE!" she yelled, barely 
keeping it below a quiet roar.

--------------------------------------------------------------
"Is there a problem here?" came an authoritative
voice.

Both the battling Dixie and Gage looked up, kinda 
startled for a moment. They had forgotten about
the cop being there. And his report.

"No..no.."
"Nope. Not at all." they both stuttered. 

"We're through.." said Dixie firmly. Johnny said
the same word, meekly obedient. "We're through,
officer.. uh,...I guess.."

"Okay, then you wouldn't mind if I go over a few
details with Miss McCall here about the Miller boy.
That's if.. you found that she's still medically ABLE to.."
the police officer hinted.

"I AM." Dixie punctuated, dismissing Johnny with
a wave.

Johnny cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Go right
ahead, officer." Gage postured, backing away and
wrapping up his stethoscope.

He fired off one last glare at her when the cop wasn't looking.
"You call us back if ANY of those symptoms return. Understood?!"
he hissed, stabbing down a finger at the air. That gesture 
immediately turned into a farewell wave when the police man 
glanced up at Johnny with a disapproving raised eyebrow.

Dixie celebrated. "Mother's keeper.." And then she stuck out
her tongue at him. "In...your....dreams..." 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, having chalked up one save and another one as unresolved, 
Station 51 tucked their tails back between their legs and
left the neighborhood. The engine returned to base as unavailable
and the squad remained 10-7 to Rampart until everyone was
freed up from their mutual responsibilities.

Gage continued to pore over Dixie's symptoms.

"Maybe I should let one of the docs know about her." he mumbled
to Chet on the way back.

"I wouldn't if I were you. You still have to WORK with Dixie later on,
man. Do you really want to face her once she's over that cold
of hers?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Dixie falling into swimming pool.

Photo: Johnny soaked to the skin.

Photo : Dixie in a faint in Gage's arms.

Photo:  Cap on the HT outside close by the Ward.

***************************************************************************
From :  wone3 <jwilds@prodigy.net> 
Sent :  Sunday, October 10, 2004 3:38 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Nagging Doubts 
  
  
"You are right, Chet." Gage told him with a bit of hesitation. He 
didn't want to face the wrath of Dixie. 

He had faced that wrath too many times as an injured party in 
Rampart's emergency room, avoiding being admitted for injuries 
received on the job. She would use that no-nonsense-she-was-right 
attitude, much like she did a few moments ago. 

Still something was nagging at him that she was injured more than 
she'd let on. ::Call it intuition:: he thought for a few more 
minutes, planning on stopping in to check on her after the shift 
change, as a friend. He figured that maybe he wouldn't receive quite 
as much wrath as he would've if he were on duty still. He'd run all of 
his suspicions by Roy first though, and maybe they could come up 
with a better plan together. 

The drive to Rampart moved on silently as Johnny drove and Chet 
looked out the window.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The police officer, eyeballing Dixie and deciding she still wasn't 
quite right, decided to keep his questioning short and to the point. 

Dixie was sitting a bit more straight in the chair than she had been
while Johnny was there. "Can you tell me what happened, Ma'am?" 
he asked. 

Dixie told him everything, including about hearing what one of 
the teens had said to the injured boy, of not mentioning what had
happened in the house. After finishing her story, Dixie kind of fell 
back into her chair in an exhausted state. 

The officer, seeing this, thanked her for her time after getting her 
contact information and gave her his card. He mentioned that if anymore 
information was needed, he'd come by to get it from her, and then he 
turned and left to return to his car to drive to the hospital.

After they had all left, Dixie decided, in her exhausted state, that 
she'd had enough sunbathing for one day. She was still feeling the 
gripping pain in her stomach and her cold like symptoms weren't 
letting up, so she went inside to lie down for a bit. "Maybe this 
is all I need to lessen a few of these symptoms," she said to 
herself. 

After locking her patio door, Dixie snuggled up in her bed 
and soon fell asleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy and Marco were quietly talking in the ambulance as it sped away 
from the apartment complex with Roy watching their patient closely. 

Marco asked, "Do you think  Miss McCall will be all right, Roy?"  

Roy reassured Marco,"Johnny is there to look out for her and he 
won't let anything happen that he couldn't do something about."

The entire crew of 51-A held this nurse with a great deal of caring 
and concern, as it seemed like they dealt with her frequently, due to 
injuries on the job. She seemed to always be there for them, whether 
they were the injured one or one of the waiting room party. 

Roy couldn't help but feel as though something more was going on. 

He would check on the situation once freed up in the emergency room. 

Fortunately, the ride to the hospital was a short one and their 
patient did not grow any worse from the trip. Dr. Brackett was 
waiting for the ambulance to pull up and he told them to go to 
Treatment Room 2. Roy took a look at the desk as they sped by 
and noticed Carol was busy on the phone. 

He'd go check with her to see if Johnny had called in as soon as he 
was free. 

The gurney reached the treatment room and soon the patient was 
lifted over to the examination table and the ambulance attendants 
left the room. 

Carol entered the room with two other nurses. 

Before the doctor could give out orders, Roy asked Carol, 
"Have you been on the phone with Johnny?" 

Brackett looked at Roy quizzingly about that statement. Roy then 
debated with himself about how much he should tell the doc. He had a 
suspicion there was more than friendship between the doctor and the 
nurse and what he would say would really get to the doc. He also 
knew, though, that Brackett wouldn't let it go until he heard the 
truth. So Roy hesitantly started to tell his tale.

"The run we responded to was at Dixie's apartment complex. We 
found her performing CPR on the patient with a group of kids 
assisting her as much as possible when we arrived," he 
continued. "After we had finished contacting you about the re-
establishment of the teen's airway, Dixie seemingly fainted and fell 
into the pool. I know she was coming around when I left but I know 
nothing more than that," Roy finished, knowing the anxiety he was 
causing everyone in the room. 

Carol answered Roy question, "I've been on the phone ordering tests 
and checking on patients inside the hospital and I know that Johnny 
hadn't called in when I came in here." 

That bothered Roy for a minute but he knew Dixie had been 
coming around as they left, he thought to himself. If she was feeling fine 
and stubborn, Dixie wouldn't let them bring her in for something non 
critical in her book. He assumed that was the case and figured the 
squad would be there shortly. 

Roy's story also concerned Brackett for a brief moment but he needed 
to fully concentrate on his patient. 

"I'm meeting Dixie tonight and I can check on things." he told the 
room. ::I won't leave her until I'm COMPLETELY satisfied that she's 
doing just fine:: he continued in his thoughts, and then he refocused 
entirely on the patient. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.

************************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:07 AM 
Subject :  Connections 


It was an hour later, not long after the Miller boy had been 
stabilized cardiac wise from respiratory acidosis. He had gone 
on to Broncoscopy for a thorough check on the extent of the 
alveoli damage that he sustained from his aspiration of 
chlorinated pool water into both his lungs.

Kel was very happy with the teenager's labwork, C spine
and chest x-ray films. He was being kept under the paralytic
agent to thwart another surprise occurance of intubation
laryngospasm. The boy had been reunited with his family
and things looked good on the EEG. Dr. Brackett was almost
certain that no brain damage took place while he had been
arrested. ::Helps that someone was there to work on his resuscitation
so quickly.:: he theorized. ::My gut feeling on his neurological status
will just be confirmed when he wakes up tomorrow morning.::

That line of thinking reminded Kel yet again of his short,
revealing conversation with Roy DeSoto about Dixie McCall.

The four firemen from 51's had gone back to the station as soon 
as they were freed from the Miller kid's care and paperwork, 
jammed together in the rescue squad.  He had wished that
he could've talked to Johnny Gage directly about his head nurse's
symptomatic findings, but he had been too tied up with his
teenaged patient's surgical intubation procedure.

Kelly Brackett excused himself from the Emergency Department
floor, letting Carol know that he'd be in his office for a few minutes.
His simple nod and gesture toward its ornately polished dark oaken
door guaranteed that Carol would indeed notify him the moment
another patient case announced itself either by paramedic biophone
or via the waiting room.

The babble of hospital activity was mercifully muffled when he
shut the door behind himself. Kel Brackett immediately went
to the olive green phone on the desk.

His fingers danced over a familar sequence of numbers on
the rotary dial and he impatiently sat through four telephone
rings before he finally heard a sleepy voice pick up. "Dix?
It's Kel." he began. "Talk to me."

He heard a tired groan on the other end of the line followed by
a tight cough and a rustling of blankets when McCall's gravelly
voice finally addressed him. "...hmm. Kel? For Pete's sake, what
time is it?"

"Time for your attending physician to get some answers pronto."
he said firmly. "Just what were you thinking when you sent the 
paramedics away following your little stunt nose diving into
your apartment complex's swimming pool?"

In a point assuredly in her favor in Dr. Brackett's book, Dixie
McCall immediately got angry. "Give me one good reason why
I shouldn't hang up on you right now, Kel Brackett. I was sleeping
soundly for the first time in..."

"Roy DeSoto. He was worried enough about you to let me know
what had happened to you in the Treatment Room after your neighbor
was brought in." Brackett fired back.

"That b*st*rd!" and there was a silence on the other end of the phone.
" Whatever happened to patient/paramedic confidentiality?! I didn't know
Johnny Gage was such an irritating example of a gossiping SOB!"

"Pipe down! He only did his job like any paramedic worth their salt 
should've done. He notified his attending medical director of a potential 
medical problem. The fact that he did it through his partner's a moot point 
and you know it."

Dixie quieted down, thinking of her unexpected rescue victim. "How's
Ger doing?" she asked, sitting up in bed, smothering up a wince so
it wouldn't be apparent vocally. 

The lamp turning on in her darkened bedroom did more than just stab into her eyes.
It brought on the mother of all headaches and a wave of unexpected 
deep nausea which the nurse fought down by putting a hand to her mouth.

She bore through Kel's ire bravely.

"I'll get to Gerald Miller as soon as I know that YOU'RE all right. If you
were symptomatic enough to red flag Roy and Johnny, you automatically 
red flag me. So again, I say, talk to me.." he said no nonsense.

Dixie sighed, pulling a waste can full of used tissue and half eaten cough
drops into her lap. "There isn't much to say, Kel. What's so unusual about
having a stomach virus?"

"When did that come on?"

"Yesterday morning at work."

"What are your symptoms and vital signs?"

"Oh come off it, Kel. Quit being a mother hen.  I'm not a hypochondriac
to take notes on every little incidence of the sniffles."

"Humor me."

"Kel....no." she spat tightly. "This is my day off, and it's gonna stay that way. 
We're not going to be getting together over dinner tonight. No police officer's
gonna stop by for more details on Ger's drowning. And no pesky off duty
paramedic is gonna come calling to my front door. Nada. End of story.
I know my rights as an ex-emergency medical patient."

"What about my rights as your closest friend? Does that matter any?
Forget about my white coat, Dix. That and my stethoscope are still
hanging up on the hat rack across the room!" he boomed.

McCall sighed, resting her head onto her bare knees. "I'm sorry, Kel.
I get cranky with colds. When I get them.." she bemoaned.

"Oh, so now you're telling me that you've got a cold and not a stomach
bug. Which is it?"

"I don't know.. and I don't care. All I want is twenty four hours uninterrupted
down time as is due me on my off day. Is that such an unreasonable request?
The fact that Ger Miller's accident interceded has absolutely no bearing on
the issue!"

"You're right, Dix. It doesn't." Kel agreed rapidly, toning down the frustration
in his voice. "And thank you for being there. He's gonna make it with flying
colors.."

"Paralysis?"

"None. His films are clear."

"Coma?"

"There's no signs. You guys were absolutely amazing with keeping him
one hundred percent oxygenated. Just be grateful to Brantigan and Grow for
Roy's military needle cric technique that he so kindly shared with me during
the last paramedics meeting. Miller's already been decannulated and 
there's no indication of any subglottic stenosis at all. Now enough about him."

"Kel, read my lips, or at least listen to them. Go away. I'm fine. I'll call
you after sundown in an update. Just keep Johnny and Roy outta my hair
tonight and I'll think about staying your best friend. Goodnight or good 
afternoon and good riddance!" and she slammed her elegant white and 
gold Victorian phone receiver down and cut off the connection.

Kel Brackett winced at the vigorous slam of noise into his ear. He
held the phone in his palm for a few seconds, half considering calling
Dixie back again. :: Do I have the right to bother her any more? She 
sounds like she knows what she's doing. And I'll get my second phone
call in five hours.:: he thought, looking at his watch.

McCall barely made it to the bathroom in time before vomiting and
suffering a bout of miserable diarrhea. "Oh, god I hate the flu bug.."
she groaned. Long minutes later, wet from the shower and naked,
Dixie crawled back into bed and pulled the covers over her head.

Making a decision, Dr. Brackett decided candor was the better part of 
valor and he dialed the number out to Station 51.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Los Angeles County Fire Department, this is Fireman Mike Stoker. 
Can I help you?" Mike glanced up, "Gage. It's for you. It's Brackett."

"It is?" he said, his mouth full of burger. "It's about time I heard from
him. Roy, did I ever tell you I love you for spilling the beans about Dix's
little fainting stunt to him?"

"No. But I think you can refrain from expressing yourself. Joanne
might get a little jealous." DeSoto quipped. 

Johnny jogged to the phone, dodging around all the gangs' shoulders
in his hurry to cut physical corners to reach the doctor. "Dr. Brackett?
Johnny Gage."

"Gage. I talked with her."

"And?"

"And...there's nothing more I can do at the moment. She's adamant about
refusing to see me or any other doctor for her illness."

"That's sheer craziness, doc." Johnny said, spitting out his mouthful of
burger into a napkin. "She's gotta be seen sometime. You weren't there.
I was. She was paler than anything once I rolled her face out of the
water."

"Did she breathe any of that in?"

"No. She woke up too fast for that."

"Did her BP stay bottomed out?"

"No. It got back up into the low hundreds."

"And that was sitting up, right?"

"Yeah, doc. Look. Now you know as much as I do. So 
bottom line. Are ya gonna do anything about her?"

"I can't. Not by law."

"I'm going over there."

"No you aren't. You'll only get hauled off for
trespassing. Dixie mentioned something to that effect."

Gage threw up his hands. "Wonderful. Now how are we gonna
have any guarantees that she's all right?"

"I sort of got one."

"How...?" Gage asked sarcastically.

"She's gonna call me at sundown with an update."

"Fair enough. I'll call off Roy, too, from going over there only so
long as we hear from you as soon as you hear from her."

"Consider that a promise."

"Thanks, doc."

"No problem. I'll hear from you next rescue call. I got 
the floor from lunch time through the rest of the night."

"Bye, Doctor Brackett. Talk to you then." 

Johnny hung up the phone.

He wandered back over to his chair and sat down,
ignoring the bowl of potato salad that Chet pushed over
to his end of the table to cheer him up.

Cap inquired finally. "So, how's she doing? Is she gonna
get checked out?"

"No."

Roy looked up from his lunch. "You're kidding."

"Wish I was, pally. Kel just made me promise that
you and I won't stop by over there in between calls."

"On the strength of what guarantee?!" Chet whined.

"On the fact that Dixie's promised to keep phone tabs with
him every couple of hours."

"And Kel Brackett bought that line of malarkey?" Cap
sighed sarcastically.

"Yep." Johnny said, balling up his napkin and tossing
it onto his plate in irritation.

Roy had some input. "You know, fellas, this could be a case of
personal feelings getting in the way. Those two did date once
you know. Maybe they're dating again. It could explain the doc's
lack of medical bulldog tenacity because it concerns someone
he truly cares about. He doesn't want to offend her."

"That's just stupid, Roy. If you were Dixie right now, being sick
and all, stepping on eggshells is the last thing I'd be doing
about you. I'd be busting down your door with a full med kit."
Johnny interjected loudly.

"I don't think it'll come to that." DeSoto grinned reasonably.
"After all, Dixie's a veteran registered nurse of twenty years.
She'd never let an illness go on untreated if it were truly serious."

"I'm still not comfortable." Gage said, narrowing his eyes.

"Neither am I." said Chet, fully in agreement. "I think we should
go around the both of them and let Joe Early in on this. No one
will be held accountable if he's the one who suddenly shows up
on Dixie's doorstep. He's gotta go over there tonight anyway."

"How so, Kelly?" Marco asked.

"To deliver a box of tickets for the Fireman's Annual Picnic
Event. Dixie's one of the primary sellers this year since Gage
didn't come forward and volunteer himself for it like he did
for last year's."

"Why should I have? I'm a rotten seller." Johnny defended.

"Ummm hmm, but you're too good a paramedic not to
meddle with a friend who might be in trouble and I'm too
good a fireman to let someone burn themselves unnecessarily.
I'm gonna go call Joe right now." he said, getting up. "Look, you
two have done your job, and so has Dr. Brackett. It's now my
turn to go to bat. Calling Joe'll only take a minute. Excuse me.
And Gage, if you touch my burger, you're dead meat.."
Chet warned as he dialed the phone without turning around.

The others laughed when Johnny snatched his creeping hand  
back into his lap.

Roy leaned over the table. "This sorta compromises the patient
paramedic confidentiality thing. You feel good about Chet
getting Dr. Early involved, Cap?"

"You bet your *ss I do. Somebody's gotta take a stand. Cause who's 
gonna watch out for Dixie's, if we don't?" Hank replied, biting into a 
potato chip. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Kel Brackett on the office phone.

Photo: Dixie in off duty clothes.

Photo:  Mike Stoker, answering the station phone.

Photo:  Chet Kelly in close up, serious.

Photo: Johnny stuffing his mouth with food while Hank watches.

Photo:  The gang eating lunch under a sunny kitchen window.

******************************************************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 13, 2004  4:17 am 
Subject:  The High Angle Woodie..


The dishes were just about done when the overhead speaker
mounted above the payphone in the kitchen, issued tones.

Errr! Uuhhhh! Eaggghh! ##Station 51, Truck 99. Unknown type 
rescue at the Colossus County Fair. 24500 Town Center Drive.
Cross street.. the Valencia exit of CA Interstate 5. 24500
Town Center Drive. Cross street,  the Valencia exit of
CA Interstate 5.  Park operators recommend arrival
to the West Gate. Time out 15:06. ##

The whole gang abandoned towels and newspapers and
left for the vehicle bay on the run. 

"So, whatdiya think, Cap? Another ferris wheel accident?"
Kelly shouted as he pulled on his turnout gear. "If it is,
that'll make it the fourth time this year."

"Hard to say, pal. L.A.'s details are sketchy. Or he
would've told us more. Sam can only go on what's reported." 
Hank said. Then he picked up the alcove mic. "Station 51, 
10-4. KMG 365."

Marco countered. "We've never gone here before, Chet.
I know that for sure. I remember because Mama lives
out near there. She can see the coasters from her front
porch." he said getting into the Ward.

"Ooo, yeah, gosh. Now I remember this place. Isn't that
the home of Colossus, the western United State's tallest  
roller coaster?" Mike Stoker asked.

Kelly nodded as the squad ahead of them pulled out to
lead the way. "Yep. I know that ride like the back of my hand.
The highest point on it is 125 feet. Its largest drop, of fourteen hills,
is 115 feet. The track's 4325 feet long with a maximum speed of
62 miles an hour with a rated G force of 3.2. Enough to make
you lose your lunch if you aren't prepared."

"You sure know a lot about that ride, Chet."

"When something scares the bejeesus out of you,
you remember everything about it, Marco. I took a date
there last month. I don't know who was more scared, me
or her." Kelly shouted over the sirens as the engine picked
up speed.

Cap had been listening and grinning like a feral cat.
"Who says this is a coaster incident?"

The radio barked into life. ##L.A., Station 51.##

Hank snatched up the microphone. "This is Station 51."

##Station 51. Civilians report an unconscious woman. With additional
information. Your situation has been outlined as a high angle rescue 
on a wooden structure. No mechanical failure or fire is involved.##

"10-4, L.A. Station 51's ETA is nine minutes."

##Station 51.##

"Oh boy." Chet gulped. 

"What?" Marco asked.

"That's where we're headed, guys."

"To where?" Stoker asked, hitting the air horn 
to scatter a particularly stubborn motorist putzing in front
of the light blazing fire engine.

"To Colossus. She's their brand new coaster. Opened
last June. Solid wood, man. She's the only ride in the 
park made of it."

##So, out goes another ferris wheel extrication and
in comes a problem with real sphincter value.## quipped
Gage to Roy, who had been listening on live cab to cab
band. ##Outta sight.##

All the firemen laughed, easing tensions.

Hank barked out authority. "Ok, you clowns, pipe
down. Chet, what else can you tell me about this
Colossus ride."

"Well, she's got an up to four person capacity to each 
passenger car, with six cars per train. "

"Twenty four people, huh? I wonder if I should request
additional help?" Hank scratched his chin around
his helmet's strap as he bounced around in his seat.

##Let's wait until we get there. ## Roy suggested. ##We'll
get a better picture of it all once we've talked to somebody.##
he said over the radio mic.

"Oh, yeah, six trains are always running at any one time."
Chet added, licking his lips.

"Not now they aren't. Not if that woman was spotted out
cold as a rider." Cap interjected. "That coaster operator must 
be smart. He's realized that bringing her train down would  
only increase risk of injury. She can't guard against 
hard knocks or jolts to her head and neck anymore."

Johnny Gage finished the thought. ##...so he left the train
in a semi level area and called for help.##

"Most likely on top of one of those hills Chet mentioned."
theorized Marco.

"And into that high angle rescue profile L.A. told us
about."

"125 feet... Do we have rappelling gear enough to handle that
height?" Stoker asked.

"What we don't have, we can grab from Truck 99. They are
strictly a rescue rig." Hank resolved.

"So that's it, then." Chet said. "We're set."

## I sure hope so. ## replied Gage. ## For the victim's
sake. ##

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  The gang doing dishes and cooking.

Photo: The Ward roaring down the freeway.

Photo:  Cap on the radio mic.

Photo: Roy, and Johnny on the mic, in the squad.

Photo: The Colossus coaster in a panorama.

************************************************************
From:  "wone3" <jwilds@prodigy.net> 
Date:  Wed Oct 13, 2004  10:38 pm 
Subject:  Joe's Visit

Meanwhile across town, and oblivious to all of the excitement that had
gone on that day, Joe Early was enjoying his day off. He was spending
it mostly out of the house and therefore he missed Chet's urgent phone
call. He had the boring, home maintenance chores to do, like paying
the bills and mailing the checks and weeding and mowing touch ups;
but he also had some fun things to do, too.

He had stopped off at the bookstore to get a book from his favorite
author that he knew had just come out and he was coveting. Instead of
just running in for it, he spent like two hours exploring the store and
looking at other books and he bought a few more besides the one he 
was looking for.

He also stopped off at his favorite liquor store and had gotten
several bottles of wine, including a few of Dixie's favorites. He was
planning on stopping by her place on the way home to give her a
bottle of it as a thank you for a few things she'd done for him in
the past few weeks. He was just about finished with his errands.
So he headed for his next-to-last stop, at Dixie's place. He left his 
last stop next, to be the grocery store, because he wasn't sure how 
long he'd be staying at Dixie's.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He arrived shortly in her parking lot and stopped his car. He grabbed
the small bag that held the single bottle of wine and the box of tickets 
that he'd promised Chet that he'd deliver, and Joe walked to her front door. 

He knocked on the door pretty loudly the first time, not announcing 
himself. He was surprised when Dixie hadn't heard him. He
tried a second and after a few minutes, later, a third time.  And each
time, Dixie didn't answer the door. Joe tried the door one more time
and still, he didn't get an answer. 

Joe grew a bit concerned, since he knew that it was her day off, too, 
and he that knew she'd planned on doing nothing but relaxing at her place.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside, Dixie was shivering, though her forehead, if it were touched,
felt like it was burning up, under the covers of her bed. She thought 
she'd heard the door but she chose to ignore it, knowing that
none of her friends would be showing up after the warning she'd
passed onto Kel Brackett. 

She heard the second knock and opened her eyes. 

Her nasty headache was still with her, and as she started to sit
up, a massive wave of nausea hit her. She managed to get to the
bathroom and vomited for a few seconds as it turned into dry heaves.

She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. She hadn't felt like it.
That had come up earlier. 

She heard the door the third time and cleaned up in a hurry. 

She was going to yell at either Johnny and Roy or Kel for coming over 
even after she'd stated her demands to Kel. She started to open the 
door, wincing a bit from the pain that was still with her.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long ago, Dixie had entrusted Joe and Kelly Brackett with a spare key 
to her front door to be used in case of need only situations. Joe was still
digging for it, just as Dixie angrily opened the door.

Joe said, "Hi Dix.  Sorry to surprise you like this. Did you just get
up?" as he took in her appearance. He noticed her sunken, dark, but
glassed over eyes, her pale ashen skin that looked like it had a wet
sheen to it and the red nose of being sick. :: She must have caught
something quickly:: he thought. He knew she hadn't looked like this
yesterday during work.

Noting the surprise in Joe's face, she reasoned that he was here of
his own free will, and not because he was asked by two busy body
paramedics and one mule headed doctor. Dixie let her guard down
significantly, but not completely, as she answered him. "Hi Joe, this
is a surprise to see you. What's up?"

Joe answered, "I stopped by to drop a few things off. Chet asked me
to drop this box of tickets for the fireman's annual picnic. He told
me that you were doing them a favor by selling them. I also wanted to
drop off a thank you gift for the things that you helped me out doing
the past couple of weeks." he said as he held up the bag. "Are you 
feeling OK? I won't stay long since you look like you are absolutely 
miserable." 

He'd seen her hiding a bit of a wince as she'd opened the 
door but he didn't feel entirely right about pressing the issue with her. 

While Kel Brackett was the type to play hardnosed with Dixie, Joe 
treated her with 'kid gloves' and respected her to have some 
knowledge as to when she needed medical attention.

Dixie answered him, "Thank you for dropping the tickets off. I did
promise the guys that I'd help them out. Also, thank you for the gift.
You didn't need to do it, Joe. I was very happy helping you out. Also
you are right, I feel miserable from this flu bug. I have been
sleeping for a bit, and I probably should go back and catch a bit more
sleep. Otherwise, I AM fine and I just wish to be left alone." 
She said that last bit, with a touch of defensiveness, as she knew Joe 
would want to examine her further if he felt any doubts.

Joe took his cue from Dixie. He knew that while he wasn't happy with
what he saw, he shouldn't press the issue with her. He told Dixie
that he'd see her later. He also asked her, if the symptoms got worse
or didn't dissipate soon, to please call one of her friends, either
Kel, Roy or Johnny if she didn't feel she could drive in to the hospital, 
or himself. 

Dixie reassured him that if that was the case, she'd make the call. 
And she stressed that she didn't feel like it was needed right now.

Joe then took his leave as Dixie gently shut the door. 

She headed for her bathroom as the nausea returned. As soon as it 
dissipated, she grabbed two more aspirin, hoping they'd stay down 
and rid her of her headache, and headed back for her bed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe decided not to stop at the store right away, instead he headed
straight home to place a call to Kel and see if he knew what was
going on with Dixie. He had Kel paged and waited somewhat 
impatiently as Kel got on the line.

"What's up Joe?" Kel asked.

Joe answered him, "Have you talked to Dixie recently today?"

Kel told him that he had especially after a call the crew from
station 51 had been on. Kel then went through the details of the day
including Dixie's "nosedive" into the pool, the deal he had made with
her, and his conversations with Johnny and Roy about what they saw.

Joe said, " You might want to rethink it. She looks like h*ll. I bet
she's worse than when Johnny saw her last. Someone needs to push her
to get medical attention though she won't do it unless she feels like
she needs to." Joe then went into detail about everything he
observed. He told Kel about how she looked and the wince that she
tried to hide from him as she opened the door.

Kel said, "You know how she is when she's in that stubborn, no-
nonsense mood. We aren't going to get her to change her mind. We need
to think about this and figure a way to get her to realize that she needs
help worse than she thinks right now."

They both stayed on the phone for a few minutes thinking, but soon
Kel was getting called for a case. They agreed to continue thinking
on their own and to call each other once they had a potential plan.

Then they both hung up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

************************************************************************
From :  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 
Sent :  Tuesday, October 19, 2004 10:56 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Domino Effect 


Cap stepped out of Engine 51's cab even before
it rolled to a halt. The two fire department vehicles were
flanking the massive back turn of the roller coaster's structure
next to the towering white bulk of the ride's main wooden 
track.

They had followed an amusement utilities department vehicle 
to get there.

##L.A., Station 51's on scene. ## Stoker said into the 
engine's radio mic.

## Station 51. Time out. 15:22. ## L.A. replied.

##Truck 99, break out your rappelling gear. Looks like
we're gonna need it.## Hank Stanley requested on his
hand held.

All the gang bunched together in between the squad and
engine and looked up.

The Colossus's rails were silent, and two of its six red and yellow roller 
coaster trains hung eerily suspended and stationary, on the 
tops of the two highest hills. It seemed glaringly unnatural in
the middle of all the normal crowd noises and amusement park 
cacaphony.

Cap pulled off his working gloves. "Looks like that's our
target up here. The nearest one's people are waving us down.
Marco, go find the ride operator. Tell him to make sure the
emergency stop is fully activated. And tell him I wanna track
walker, double checking the manual braking bandit arms on
both of these coasters, ASAP. Radio if you learn any medical
details."

"Right, Cap." and Lopez jogged off towards the ride's primary
colored, circus themed entrance.

Hank turned, "Ok, the rest of you. Johnny, Roy, head on up.
Best way you can. I'm sure there's an open gate around
here somewhere."

DeSoto was studying something intently. "Cap, I think
I spotted her. She's in the front right side car. She's not
moving at all."

Hank shielded his eyes from the mid afternoon sun's rays
and peered in the direction Roy was pointing. "Man, they're
really high up there. Climbing's gonna take way too long, guys."

"What other choice do we have?" Roy asked, tightening his 
chin strap and putting on a life belt.

Johnny Gage spun a circle in place, looking at their 
surroundings. He stopped suddenly with a jerk of discovery.
"Cap, what about using that Sky Ride? Those gondolas are
running right by the trapped train we need to get to."

Hank turned and considered the viability and safety of
Johnny's suggestion. Then he nodded, "You know the
Park Director isn't gonna like having two rides shut down
at the same time."

Gage sniffed, "He'll live with it." he said dryly.

"That he will." said Cap. He lifted his HT. "Marco, 
we need the Sky Ride's operator over here pronto.
I don't care how you do it. But find him. We're commandeering
a gondola for a rope launch and tandem rig over to the 
roller coaster."

##That might take a few minutes, Cap. ##

"That's good enough 'cause the alternative is us taking 
twenty minutes going it on foot."

Johnny Gage already had the stokes out and he
and Roy were loading it up with gear.  He didn't
stop looking up at the unconscious woman six stories
over their heads. One of her arms was dangling over
the side of the coaster car and he thought he could
see it swaying slowly back and forth. "She's still
breathing. Her arm's moving and there's no wind."

Roy and Cap nodded. "Let's hope so. Our delay's
already been too long." Hank said with conviction.

The Sky Ride address system suddenly gave an 
announcement via its music speakers about the rescue
operation to come that would require a halt in all the gondolas.
No one complained. And all heads that were already turned
towards the fire departments' flashing trucks nodded
encouragingly without any protest.

A shrill whistle got their attention. Cap and the others
not gathering up rope coils and pulleys cast about for
the source of the sound.

"Hey, firemen! Up here!" It was the Sky Ride operator.
He had a white painted gondola halted on the roof of
a nearby shed. "I got this one set for ya. No people!"
the gray haired Swedish accented park worker shouted.

"Mister, we'll be right up there." Cap said through the 
bullhorn. "How much weight can one gondola carry?"

"Your whole g*dd*mned fire truck if it had to. And I'm not
talking about the little flashing red one. This ride is
top quality Swiss craftsmanship. She's not from some 
cheap American made, one of a kind, assembly line."

Hank and the others grinned. "No insult intended, sir.
Just looking out for safety measures!" Cap gestured.

Chet Kelly got a small house ladder from
the side of the Ward and jogged it over to the small
shed under the eucalyptus trees. Roy and Johnny
got into the gondola with the operator and took
the rope gun launcher and plenty of rope inside
with them before they moved off on the restarted 
ride.

"You help her young fellas! She looks bad.." said
a granny from a nearby red gondola as it
passed the white one the two paramedics were in.

"We will ma'am." Roy said, tipping his helmet. "As
fast as we can."

Then the two gondolas separated too far for
hearing or talking. 

Gage and Roy kept their eyes rivetted on the woman
as the Sky Ride operator took them up higher
and higher towards the roller coaster track's far
turn hill, the one the unlucky train was on. Roy finally
got a closer view. "Yep. She's breathin. But something's
not right beyond her being passed out. She's awfully 
flushed for the temperature out here today. It's not that hot."

"Oh, yeah?" Gage said, ducking his helmet down to see 
around the roof's edge of the gondola. "What do you
think the problem is, Roy?"

"I don't know. When we get closer, we can ask the other 
riders."

"Good idea." Johnny said, putting on his lifebelt.

Right then, there was a snap when the emergency 
trackwalk worker, on a loop two hundred yards farther up
the ride, leaned in on the second coaster train while telling 
its passengers what the hold up was.

He fell onto his face when the coaster suddenly jerked
into motion because of a downward slope and gravity.

The worker went running desperately, trying to catch up to 
the slowly speeding up train to flick a brake switch and
bring it to a halt again. But the coaster was too fast.
 
"Roy! We've got a runaway!" Gage said, pointing,
his voice growing tense and rising into a higher register.
"I don't think that track walker's gonna make it to the
next junction in time to throw the brake before it 
gets away from him!"

The Swede gave his control bar a kick and all
the Sky gondolas jerked and picked up speed.

Gage gritted his teeth, helpless. He watched, as the 
horrified passengers on the out of control line of cars,
suddenly discovered, that they were barrelling down on 
the other stalled coaster. They started to scream in panic.

"We can do it ourselves if we get over there!" Johnny
shouted.

"We're not gonna make it in time!" Roy shouted.
"We're rising too slowly!"

----------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   A gondola sky ride, passing overhead.

Photo:  A sky rider operator, waving.

Photo:  A roller coaster on a track, out of control.

Photo:  Roy looking up apprehensively.

*******************************************************
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 04:34:24 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>   
Subject:  Outside Aid.. 


A zooming roar filled their ears, making Roy and Johnny
wince and duck.  A raucous voice filled their HTs full
volume. ## Chopper 19, HT 51. Halt your cable ride. Pilot
is soft touching onto the tracks. We have a ride operator
on board!##

The Swede peeked over the edge of the fireman's
gondola, still covering his ears. "Holy mother of..
Vat is dat?!"

Gage grinned from ear to ear. "That... is a Firehawk H-60!
You better do as the man says." he told the frightened 
sky ride operator."You ok?" he asked, setting a hand
on the old man's shoulder.

"Ya. Are dos tings always so loud?" he chirped, bringing
the gondolas to a gentle stop. He was still gripping his
chest.

"Yep." Roy said, smiling huge. Then he turned to Johnny. 
"I wonder who brainstormed up the chopper idea? That's 
gonna make all the difference in the world."

"And I wonder if those braking things can stop a train going 
full tilt?" Gage asked.

"We're gonna find out." Roy replied, watching the yellow,
black and white Firehawk gingerly maneuver itself sideways
towards the crest of the hilled rails near the coaster train holding 
the distressed woman.  The Los Angeles County craft barely
got one rung on a strut on top of a maintenance hut jutting
out from the coaster course, when the sliding side door
opened.  A young man wearing a white cloth visor in
a maroon, navy and white polo leaped out of the hovering
helicopter into a crouch. He put his head between his
knees and waited for the powerful bird to pull away.

Then he got up and ran to a ladder that led to
the main track below. All the while the youngish man kept
his eye on the second train bearing down on them. He didn't
go to a brake along the rails, he went to a special one
on a platform sheltered by a hut at the top of a bend just 
before a steep dip and fall of the rails.

He quickly powered up a console and ansted until all
lights were green. Then he grabbed a long ratchet arm
controlling rod attached to wires beneath the track and
threw it backwards like a bandit's as soon as the train
passed by a lighted yellow beacon.

All the firemen watched the runaway lurch, jerking the 
riders heads forward as the emergency brakes below
the wheels of their train bit down on the steel rails. Sharp
sparks flew from the coaster's underside as all the
pads on the cars strained to stop the train. But it was
still coming fast, full of kinetic energy left over from
a large hill it had gone down.

The coaster man threw the bandit controller back one
more time. Again, the sparks beneath the flying train 
arched out in a noisy squeal of metal on metal.  The riders 
heads jolted even harder despite the bracing of many locked
arms on the padded bars in front of them. A chorus of frightened
cries burst out from the coaster's people at the second jerk.

Then the roller cars hit an uphill and reverse inertia began to
work. The sparks trails shooting out lessened as the train
started to finally slow down below sixty miles an hour.

One hundred yards, ninety yards, eighty....

The distance gap between the two coasters was still
narrowing dangerously.

"Come on,...come on... " mumbled Johnny through 
gritting teeth. "Come to a stop..."

The swede next to him got into the moment and shouted,
too. "Put some muscle into it, Ivan, or I'm not worth the
time and energy I put into trainin ya!"

Roy looked away from the dramatic spectacle despite of
himself, "Who's Ivan?"

"He is!" declared the Sky Ride operator at the brave teenager
braking the runaway. "My first born son. If anyone gets hurt up
there, it'll just tear him apart. He's got the best safety record
of all of them. His riders have gotten nothing worse than a
bruise or two for trying to stand up on all the dropoffs. Ivan!
Do you hear me?!" he roared.

The young man seemed to. He opened terrified eyes below
a sweat beaded forehead and glanced at his father's gondola
very quickly. Then he threw his whole body onto the brake.

The runaway protested, screeching chalkboard sounds as
it went by the teenager at nearly forty miles an hour.

Twenty. Ten. Seven yards. Six...

"no....." grunted the teenager through slitted eyes. "You're
still too fast..." he said, leaning on the control bar. His
back was nearly level onto the track and his arms
knotted and shook with the effort. "Slow down!"

Five yards. Four. Then... bang!  An emergency crash stop
flew up from the  track in between the two roller coasters
as the runaway finally reached a critical twenty miles an
hour.  The train slammed into the short barrier in a sudden 
stop three feet before it collided with the unconscious woman's 
train. 

So did the riders, into their shoulder bars. The force knocked 
some of them out and their heads hung limply in between the 
padded bars and a few hands fell limp.

"Good boy, Ivan!" shouted the Swede across the sixty
feet of air separating them. "You did it.

Roy and Johnny winced in sympathy, immediately assessing
them visually. "Ouch.." DeSoto. "That had to hurt."

"Yeah, but they didn't pancake. Count your blessings, partner.
Getting the wind knocked out of ya is better than dying. Okay, 
sir. Let's go! Let's go!" Johnny urged.

"You don have to tell me twice.." said the Swede and once
again the Sky Ride gondolas began their ascent to Colossus.

Roy lifted his HT. "HT 51, to Chopper 19. It worked. Thanks
for your assistance."

##Anytime, 51. We're touching down in the north parking lot
for your injured to come. Standing by, running hot.##

"10-4, Chopper 19. 51 out." DeSoto said, breathing heavily.

The firemen's white gondola reached its highest point and
Roy and Johnny got to work. They shouted instructions over
to Ivan to protect himself while they fired the head of
the rope launcher over to the coaster platform and how
and what to tie off the heavier corded rope onto. Thankfully,
Ivan was a farmhand and got a handle quickly on the knot
tying directions.

"You go first." Roy said. "I'll string the stokes between us."

"All right." said Johnny.

Beyond them, Ivan quickly got to his feet again after locking 
down the electrical emergency braking panel and he ran out
to the trains with a fire extinguisher just in case friction
had set any wood aflame.

Gage attached his belt hook and feed line to the aerial
Ivan had tied off after testing it thoroughly. The Swede
threw open the gondola's door. "Be careful, fireman.
That's six stories to fall if you aren't."

"Believe me, I'm well aware of that. My partner and I
work in places as high as this all the time."

And with that, Johnny stepped off into air, letting go
of the warm metal of the sky gondola.

**********************

Photo:  An H-60 Firehawk Helicopter in the air.

Photo:  A roller coaster operator.

Photo:  Stunned people sitting in a roller coaster.

Photo:  A man hitched to a rappelling harness.

Photo:  A rappeller inching down an aerial rope bridge.

************************************************************
From :  Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, October 21, 2004 3:47 AM 
Subject :  The Angry Cloud~~ 


Johnny Gage grabbed the stokes and jerked it along
the pulley line behind him. "So, how are we
gonna manage this? You take one coaster, and
I take the other?"

Roy DeSoto grunted a reply, pulling himself along the 
horizontal rope tethered between the sky ride gondola
and the Colossus' hilltop track structure. "Yeah, that's
the way I figure."

Another helicopter appeared from the direction of the
parking lot. Gage could see four heads inside its 
windows. "Looks like we won't be alone for long. Cap's
thrown some men in a second chopper." He pulled
out his walkie talkie from his pocket. "HT 51, Chopper 11.
What kind of gear and personnel do ya have on board?" Gage 
shouted into the radio to be heard over the sound of spinning 
rotors.

## Three spinal immobilization boards, six stokes, the full
contents of your rescue squad's medical and trauma store
and four firefighters. L.A. reports another fire department rescue
squad has been dispatched to our location.## answered the
pilot on the headset patched into Johnny's frequency.

"Good deal. Good deal. Tell the guys we want the drug box
and airway gear out first!" Johnny said as he continued to
pull himself one handed along the line.

## I copy, 51. Relaying your message.##

"I'll keep touch with ya on HT, Roy." Gage said, out distancing
the more methodical paramedic on the horizontal rappelling line.

Johnny began to hurry even more when he saw a frantic panic
start on the first coaster. "Hey, just calm down over there! 
Tell me what's happening!" he shouted over to them.

No one even tried to answer him and five people from the 
woman's train suddenly lost it and wormed their way out of 
their seats.

Ivan noticed from his vantage point. "No! Stay put! It's
not safe to walk on anything but the center boardway!"
And he began running, to intercept them.

He ran smack into the center of a pack of bees.
"AhhhHHHh!"  And he, too, started to swipe and slap
himself, trying to get them off.

"What the h*ll?!" Johnny mumbled as he completed
tranversing the distance to the rails. He unhooked himself
and immediately took action. He turned back towards his
partner. "Roy!  Yellow jackets! A whole swarm of them!"

And he ran over to where Ivan was flailing. Gage picked up
the fire extinguisher that the young teen had dropped and
used it on him to freeze the bees off of his body. He did
the same for anyone under attack.  Then he set the red 
cylinder aside, upright for Roy to find when he caught up to 
him.   "Ma'am..?" he asked the original dark skinned unconscious
girl as he shook her. "Can you hear me?" He bent quickly
to listen to her breathing while he got a grip on her carotid.
The woman had one, but it was thready. And there was
a new symptom beyond the flushing he had noticed
earlier. Swelling and bumps were erupting on her face,
neck and upper arms and signs of blood bright urticaria. 
"Anaphylaxis!"  

Johnny positioned the girl's head so she had the best airway 
he could manage on her and then he got on the HT, wide band. 
"I've got a full blown allergic reaction on Victim One, Train One. 
I need a drug box and a clear access to Rampart, right now.."

## Establishing the link, 51. ## said Chopper 11's pilot.
## Fire personnel are en route to you with a biophone
and your drug box from the east track. ##

"10-4.." Gage said, glancing up quickly for their progress
and Roy's, looking away from the sun.

The older lady next to the girl began to calm down from
the fright she took from the bees. "Ohmyg*d. They came 
back..." she gasped.

Johnny immediately took notice. "What do ya mean they
came back?" he asked the rider next to his top priority
patient.

"The bees... Our coaster passed by a nest back there.
We all saw it. They were so angry. They must be worked
up because of all the trains rumbling by them every couple
of minutes. We passed through a cloud of them and they
started stinging us. Then this woman here suddenly gave
a shout... I couldn't understand her.. it was Pali or something
from India, and then she slumped over."

"You mean she passed out right after the bees got to
you the first time?" Gage asked.

"Yes. Almost right away.." the lady nodded shakily.

Gage lifted his head. "My name's John Gage and
I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles County Fire
Department. Now there's a whole buncha firefighters
coming and we'll get you all down from here just
as soon as we can." Then he told the coaster operator
he had helped out. "Hold this woman's head, just like that. 
I'm gonna be letting go so take over. Keep tabs on her 
breathing. I'm gonna talk with these other folks to see if anyone 
else is allergic to bee stings. I'll be right back with ya in less 
than a minute.."

He jogged to a central point along the train's length
and yelled, "Is there anybody who's sensitive to
insect bites or stings here who's gotten stung?"
 
None of other fifteen people on his train spoke up.

"How's she doing mister?" said one man with 
three bee stings around his eyes.

"She's alive and help's coming fast. You can stay 
standing there but don't go too far from the train." Johnny
said. Then he ran back to the roller coaster operator,
while he got out his radio to deliver a casualty number report 
to Cap waiting below once he got some initial info from Roy.
 
He read the young teenager's name tag. "Ivan. Is she still 
breathing ok?" he said working down the line of people 
to give them the same orienting speech. "Go ahead and listen
to her chest if you have to. I'm wondering about any
funny noises, like wheezing, or any signs of choking.."

Ivan listened. "I hear whistling Mr. Gage. Is her
throat swelling up?"

"I won't lie to you, Ivan. And I don't wanna scare you. 
Yes, it is. But it's very important for you to not panic. I need
you to tell me the first second her gums or nail beds lose color
and start to turn blue. That'll happen if she begins to quit trying 
to breathe on us. She'll get a shot that'll fix all of that, in less 
than a minute, once the others get here. Just keep calm
and keep close tabs."

The trembling ride operator nodded animatedly,
unable to speak. He was still coming down from his 
adrenaline peak that had surged through him while he was 
desperately braking the second train. He adequately
managed the black haired girl's airway despite his shakes.

DeSoto had already started his quick checks of
the motionless people on the second coaster. He had two.
And four others in his train who were in varying degrees of 
wakefulness.

"Roy! Whatcha got?" Gage shouted.. 

Roy started his list of severity in worst order first.
"Two in the front car are out cold, good airways. Possible 
coup contra coup on both. I got unequal pupils with blood 
out the nostrils. Pulse and breathing are slowing on one
of them. Two cars back, a forty year old female has some 
dyspnea and is reactant to pain. Broken left collar bone. Her 
abdomen's also distended. The other three in the back are 
uninjured or just minor. " Roy said eyeing up the last few visually 
as they regained their bearings and started asking him questions.

He vaguely wondered what physics had come to bear to
save those farther back from getting as hurt as those in front. 
And a mental ghost of an answer touched on the idea that
the hitches between the cars had shock absorbed the impact
energy successively. 

"I'm leaving all six of them in their seats. The cushioned shoulder
bars are doing a good job of keeping them immobilized. And 
it'll be easier to treat them this way, too, until we can get em 
out of here." DeSoto concluded.

Johnny pressed his talk button. "Cap? We've got seven
victims! Including the original woman."

##Affirmative. Turning back three ambulances and
keeping one. ##

"Johnny?!" came Chet Kelly's voice. "I got the drug box."
he puffed, gingerly tire stepping over the wooden slates
and air spaces. "Rampart's on channel two on relay from
Copter 11. And Stoker's right behind me with the
O2 and airway kit. Marco's got the IV box. Loaded
with Ringers."

"Great. Let me see the drug kit." and he took the handle 
from the firefighter. "Here, change the radio over for me and 
get a doc on the line. I'm grabbing her epi."
Gage tossed open the lid of the black box and snatched
out a prefilled white papered syringe and tore it open
with his teeth.  "Ivan?"

"She's still doing it." said the teenager, still carefully
holding the woman's swelling head back over the
seat pillow. "But I think she's breathing worse.
It's definitely faster. Around 22 times a minute."

"Ok. Just hang on. I've only gotta get a say so
from a doctor. Then it's instant solution time.." he said,
holding up his needle covered epinephrine syringe.

A man from Truck 99 came with the three light wood
backboards and three C-collars. The helicopter pilot 
and his crewman were busy hovering a distance
away, lowering a half hitch on a safety with the six stokes
sandwiched and bundled together on a fall line.

Mike Stoker jogged in and knelt by Johnny, only long 
enough to slip in an oral airway on the unconscious bee 
stung girl of Gage's along with a high flow oxygen mask before 
he ran to Roy's side to set up the rest of the three tanks of 02
that he carried with him.

Johnny cursed under his breath after Chet had given
a hail to the base station in Torrance twice. "Come on,
doc. Get the lead out."

----------------------------------------------------------

Gif :        *animated* A restless yellow jacket bee.

Photo:    Roy and Johnny working on someone
               in a stokes.

**************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Tuesday, October 26, 2004 7:34 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Cupid....Draw Back Your Bow.... 

Johnny Gage elicited Marco's help. "Lopez. Grab
her legs. I wanna get her to the ground now. And
stick around. She may need some help with breathing
by demand valve. I'm gonna have epi going in as soon
as Chet gets Rampart notified."

Marco nodded, and he carefully took the slight woman's
shoulders, and together, paramedic and firefighter lowered
the allergic reacted young woman to a flat area in between
the roller coaster's tracks. Lopez automatically took
the woman's head and checked her status. "Thanks."
he said to Ivan, the ride operator. "I got it from here.
Why don't you go over to my coworker and see if he
needs any help waking those other people. His name's
Roy."

"O-Over there? uh, ok.." said Ivan. "Mister, is she gonna die?"

"No.." said Johnny with conviction up at the teenager.
"We caught her early enough. This med will turn her around
quickly and we'll avoid any chance of cardiac arrest." he said,
putting the unused epinephrine syringe on the girl's stomach while
he grabbed out the Normal Saline I.V. components he'd need for
maintaining her hemodynamic stability.

Ivan offered a weak smile before he jogged over to the impacted
roller coaster.

"Chet? Anyone on the line yet?" Angrily, Johnny pulled off a bee
that was still stinging the Khmer girl with his bare fingers. Then he
hastily got a set of vital signs on his patient after cutting her shirt
open down to her elastic tube top with the shears from his holster.

Chet shook his head. Then he shouted a little louder into
the biophone's black receiver. "Rampart, this is HT 51." said Kelly
into the biophone for a third time. "Do you read?!"

Marco gave Johnny some information. "Her airway's
still clear from what I can feel, Johnny." he said triggering the
thumb pad on the positive pressure O2 mask that he had
pressed over her nose and mouth. "Respiration's thirty,
irregular and shallow."

"Keep up supporting her inhalations. That's too fast a rate to do
any good." Gage ordered Marco.

The helmeted firefighter nodded, licking dry lips.

Finally, Dr. Brackett's welcome voice toggled into the frequency.
##Go ahead, 51.##

Johnny waggled gimme fingers at Chet for the phone. He got it.
"Doc, analyphalaxis. Small female early twenties. From multiple
bee stings." he said rapidly.

Kel immediately understood the need for haste. ## 0.3 mg of
epinephrine 1:1000 solution sub Q. Then a large bore IV Normal
Saline wide open for follow up boluses of epi 1/10,000 for a minute.
Stat.##

Johnny dropped the phone and snatched up the syringe, delivering
the badly needed adrenaline into the soft tissue of the girl's abdomen.
He continued to listen to Dr. Brackett's orders issuing from the phone
receiver by his feet while he established a very fast I.V. from the set up
and bag that was hanging from his teeth.

##If she's non reactant to pain, go ahead and insert an esophageal
airway. Especially if she hasn't turned around after a minute or so. Give
me a set of vitals when you can.##

Kelly anticipated and picked up Johnny's notepad from on top of the biophone
lid. He also propped up the girl's limp blue jeaned legs onto a gear box to
offset the increasing signs of hypotension he saw developing in her.
"Rampart, vital signs are: Blood pressure, 70/48. Pulse is 140. Respirations
are ..." he paused, setting a hand on the woman's stomach for a count...
"..30 and irregular. She is under active ventilations on 100 % O2 at twelve
times a minute." reported Chet.

##Standing by, 51..## answered Brackett.

Johnny handed off the running I.V. to the girl's seat passenger to hold and
he crouched over her chest to listen to her breath sounds around Marco's
hands. He froze there, waiting for the slight sounds of stridor and wheezing
to go away, listening intently with his head lowered, through a stethoscope.

They finally did after fifteen very slow seconds.

Johnny Gage smiled. "Rampart, Squad 51. Her dyspnea's actively
easing and there's no signs of laryngo or bronchial spasms forming."

Dr. Brackett let out a long sigh of relief and he straightened up out
of a worried two palmed lean on the base station's counter.
##All right, Johnny. Guess we're gonna get lucky. Belay that EOA
and send in a strip as soon as possible. Start an aminophylline
push,.....5 mg i/v then .5 mgs on a slow drip. I want to prevent a
biphasic reaction even before it happens and I wanna lock out
any refractory bronchospasms permanently for this exposure.

If you feel you need to give her another covering dose of epinephrine
as a bolus, make it 1/10,000 at .5 mg intravenously every ten minutes
as necessary. Also, if pulmonary edema shows up or any multilocal
ventricular tachycardia, have 2 mgs propranol IV standing by.
Remember if arrythmias develop, subsidence of the ventricular
effects may be followed by atrial tachycardia and atrioventricular
blocks. So watch for that transient bradycardia as a secondary
epinephrine overdose earmark. Don't be afraid of it. Preserving
her airway and ending any adverse vasoeffects are paramount
in this stage of the game.##

"10-4, Rampart. Stand by for an EKG on Lead Two."
Gage replied.

He pulled over the blue Tetronix monitor and opened it.
Then he wiped down sweaty places on the woman's
shoulders and ribs skin with her own shirt before attaching four of its 
electrode pads. He deftly snapped on their sensor wires. Gage 
plugged the EKG in to the biophone and adjusted a dial in the 
red case to a good send frequency for their apparent altitude 
above ground. "Rampart, transmitting now." he said to Brackett.

Dr. Brackett read his feeding cardiac strip. ##So far
so good, 51. Give me a second vitals set after you've
delivered your I.V. meds and transport as soon as possible.##

"10-4. We'll be bringing her in by chopper. ETA's approximately
ten to fifteen minutes, doc."

##Understood. I'll consider myself on hold for any preflight info.##

Under Marco's hands, the woman coughed and the fingers of
both her hands, resting on the hot sun lit railwood slats, twitched.

Johnny immediately bent close and pulled out the short
oral airway in her mouth before she could gag on it. "Heyyy.. How 
are you doing? Can you hear me yet? What's your name?"

The girl sputtered, shoving away the O2 mask vaguely, moaning.
"....hhghhh.  Can't....br--"

"Marco, raise her up..." Gage told him. Lopez did so, leaning
the girl's weight against his chest. He switched out Marco's hand
held ventilator for an elastic banded simple clear mask. "Is
that better, hon?" Johnny asked her. "What's your name?"
he repeated.

"...*gasp* Lathika.." she whispered. "...oh, those horrible..
*cough* things. My father said they could kill...me..." she
sobbed softly, with a heavy India accent. Some wetness 
ran out of both her eyes. Sweat and tears. 

"Yeah? Well, this time they didn't." Marco smiled. "Just relax,
Lathika. You've been given some medication that's ending
your allergy attack. You'll feel better soon. The swelling's already
going down on your face and neck."

"Is....he right?"...Lathika asked Johnny. "I still can't open
my eyes all the way."

"Absolutely.. Now don't move around too much. I got an
I.V. started in your arm."

Startled and still very shaky, the girl looked down. "Oh!"

"Shhh, it's ok. It's ok. You're doing fine. You were only out
for a little while.." Gage lied. "You've nothing too serious
going on. Now we're gonna get you comfortable and to the
hospital so the doctors can check you out, all right? You're
going to be flown out to them. Ever been on a helicopter
before?" he grinned encouragingly while he took her wrist
pulse and eyeballed her breathing rate.

"No.. " she gasped.

"Well, it's pretty fun. Noisy, but fun." he told her. Then
he slipped into paramedic again. "How's your breathing
now? Is that suffocating feeling going away yet? Your voice
doesn't sound as hoarse as it did just a few seconds ago."

"I...I think I'm ok..." she coughed wetly. "How's my heart? I've
got some problems there. I had rheumatic fever as a child."

Gage and Marco exchanged a flickering glance and both
their eyes fell on the EKG screen, but only normal sinus
tach was registering. "What kind of problems?" Johnny
asked quietly, holding still.

"Father says I've got a murmur. He's a doctor back home
in New Dehli."

Gage relaxed. "Oh... ok. Thanks for mentioning that. Lathika,
your EKG looks pretty good for becoming the one of the first
human ballistic pin cushions in the whole entire history of the
Colossus County Fair." he joked about the bee attacked
coaster accident she had nearly been in.

Lathika laughed weakily. "Where am I?" she whispered
hoarsely.

Ivan had returned and he was kneeling by the girl's feet.
"Still on the highest hill of the roller coaster ride. I'm
the one who spotted you blacking out and called the fire
department."

"Thank you...sir..uh,.. Mr.." said Lathika shyly, suddenly
taken by her new, unexpected attentive guest who was
more her own age than the helmeted firemen around
her.

"Svenson..But, please, call me Ivan." offered the 
Swedish accented teenager.

"Thank you, Ivan. For watching out for me. And all
of you other men as well. Father will be grateful. And..
so am I..."  she said and then she smiled the whitest
smile Johnny and the others had ever seen. No one
noticed the hives or any of the swelling at all on her face
and were thoroughly dazzled by her emerging exotic
beauty.

"No problem.. " they all said, surprisingly effected by
the charismatic Khmer girl.

Ivan was tongue tied.

Then Gage took firm charge again. "Lathika, we're gonna
get you set up into a stokes. We're gonna carry you up to the
chopper hovering at the top of the coaster hill. Just relax and let
us do all the work, ok?"

The first frown appeared on her face. "I'm....so cold."

"We'll get you covered up in a second. " Marco said. "There's
a blanket right here."

"That'll pass." said Gage. "The epinephrine I gave you made all
your blood vessels constrict while making your lung passages dilate.
It's bound to make you lose some heat. Its what's making your heart 
beat so fast right now."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that.." said Chet, sotto voce to Gage.
"Just look at those two love birds."

Ivan and Lathika were locked eye to eye, both grinning, with gently
clasped hands. Their eyes were full of the undeniable, heart felt look
of love at first sight.

Johnny smacked Kelly. "Go radio the pilot that we're ready for her
pickup along with four of these other coaster riders." he said warningly,
half in a smile. "We'll load her off with the new paramedic on board
before we go help Roy out."

"Roger that.." said Chet, still politely admiring the two oblivious
teenagers in between them.  Kelly rose and helped Marco and
Gage lift Lathika into the yellow plastic wrapped nested stokes.

Johnny hurriedly gave Dr. Brackett a second BP
and other vital signs along with his news of the nearly
complete turn around in the girl.

Then he was busy with Ivan, Marco and Chet, with carrying
Lathika's gear loaded stokes into Chopper 11.

Soon, the rest of the roller coaster rescue operation began
in earnest.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Johnny, Chet, Marco, looking down.

Photo: Johnny with an unconscious girl, pupil check.

Photo: A winningly beautiful Khmer teen girl.

Photo:  A shy Swedish teen boy.

Photo:  Cap, Roy and Johnny lowering a laden stokes.

**************************************************************
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 27, 2004  11:28 am 
Subject:  Evac

The bee stung girl's complete name was Lathika Senaveratani. 

Gage made sure to turn down her I.V. to TKO before the co-pilot 
took over her head. He helped Johnny load her up onto the rear deck 
of the hot running H-60.  Marco and Kelly each set gloves on Johnny's 
back as the three of them backed away from the aircraft, crouched 
down low to avoid the rotor wash. Vocal communication was 
impossible. So, as the chopper sped up its top blades for liftoff 
for the parking lot, to let out the first batch of uninjured riders, Gage 
gave the paramedic on board her, Lathika's treatment plan and care 
history via HT. Then he took his medical gear back after a transfer to 
110's. 

"HT 51 to HT 110," said Johnny into the walkie talkie as Chet, he
and Marco were bent over while jogging back down the hill towards Roy 
and his victims.  "Her rhythm's stable. I gave her only one dose .5mg epi I.V. 
1/10,000 on the way up to you at 15:41. She's chilled somewhat and just a 
little anxious. You've got a copy of my care notes under her shoulder, wrapped 
around the I.V. bag.  The victim's father is out of the country but,...she may 
have a new friend she'd like to contact once she's at Rampart . His name's 
Ivan Svenson." he said. "Do me a favor and hook those two up if
you can." he said with a grin at Kelly, who gave Johnny a thumbs up.

"Johnny the match maker. Didn't know you had it in you, Gage." chuckled
Chet. "I'm sure Dixie'll learn about this pair of turtle doves on her next
shift and who to thank for it.."  he yelled over the helicopter's noisy
preparations.

Gage just rolled his eyes. "Who am I to argue with true love, Kelly? I
just wish that someday, it'll happen to me." he yelled back, smiling huge.

##Chopper 11 to HT 51, paramedic signals message has been received.
You're clear of my danger zone. Good luck with your other victims.## 
said Chopper 11's pilot as Lathika's flight took to the air.

Hearing that they were in the clear, Marco, Johnny and Chet began to
run back down the hill in a controlled descent along the tracks to
the second, still occupied roller coaster near DeSoto.

Gage set down his tank of oxygen with a clang. "Ok, Roy, which one
first? Kelly, start putting C collars on all the ones Roy has opened
the shirts on." he said.  Then he looked up, "Stoker? Any not 
breathing well?"

"This one." he said about a young teen aged man in yellow with
a bald head. "He's worsening. Breathing's Cheyne-Stokes. Carotid's
forty two. Roy's already got an intubation order and another for atropine." 
Mike replied, giving the boy another carefully assisted breath with a
demand valve. "He hasn't vomited any more. Last time was two
minutes ago and that was only liquid. No food."

"Go to Stoker's teenager!" replied Roy, giving his victim albuterol.

Gage hurried over and eyed the young man's already hanging
Ringer's approvingly. "He's perfusing good enough, cardiac wise.
Ok, let's get him going. Endotrach, Roy?"

"Yeah. Size 7 French. It's on his lap along with the larygoscope."
DeSoto said. "I got an asthma case here turning around with
a poor airway with a palpable deformed alignment at C-5. She's 
my top priority." and then he was on his HT once again to
Dr. Early at Rampart.

"I'll be right with ya.." Johnny said. 

Marco had already recruited Ivan to help hustle the uninjured 
passengers away and to a ladder where climbing teams of
firefighters from Truck 99 were ready to show them the
way down.

Stoker kept up the boy's ventilations manually as Johnny
impatiently waited for Kelly to immobilize the teen's neck. 
"Man, how am I gonna do this? The impact bars around his 
shoulders are keep him fully head upright." Gage mumbled.

"You need him flat, sir, to help him?" asked Ivan, running up.

"Yeah, can you do that without jarring their C spines?" Roy 
asked. "He and the man next to him have bad head injuries."

"Sure, I can. Like this..stand away for a moment." and Ivan set a firm 
foot on the edge of the coaster car and released a hidden spring. The 
whole car smoothly angled feet up along a rocking cradle and in seconds, 
the teen's whole passenger row was "seated" horizontal. "That is how we 
get the riders out at the loading terminal. Just let me know when you want 
me to release the shoulder restraint bars. They all lift off at once for every 
seat on the train."

"Thanks, Ivan." said Johnny and then he and Mike Stoker quickly got the 
boy airway secured and fully support medicated. 

His color improved at once. Johnny left him under Mike's watchful eye and 
moved to DeSoto's side to help him with the asthma case with the broken 
neck.

Five minutes later, the three seriously wounded, in stokes, were on the 
way to the hospital in the belly of Chopper 19 with Roy DeSoto, Johnny
Gage and 110's second paramedic aboard. 

The rescue helicopter arched its trajectory into the setting sun,
heading for the Torrance city skyline. ##Chopper 19 to Rampart Base, 
we've three serious landing at the pad in four minutes.## said the flight 
commander. ##Three minor are arriving via ambulance in eight.##

All the rescue personnel heard Dr. Brackett and Joe Early's voices
in triplicate over radios, headsets and HTs as the doctors 
acknowledged that they were ready to receive all incoming victims
to their emergency ward at Rampart General Hospital.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:    Loading Chopper 19.

Photo:   The H-60 helicopter pilot.

Photo:   The Colossus roller coaster as viewed
               from the air with Station 51 and choppers.

Photo:   Roy and Johnny Gage putting on life vests
              inside Chopper 19.
 
Photo:   Chopper 19, LaCoFD's firehawk helicopter, in the air.
 
*************************************************************************
From:  "killashandrarey01" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Oct 27, 2004  5:05 pm 
Subject:  After Hours..


Rampart remained busy with the Colossus County
Fair accident victims until long after sundown. Dr.
Brackett and Joe Early were so deep in their diagnoses,
and stabilization surgeries, that they had forgotten about 
Dixie McCall, still lying sick at home.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie McCall awoke to a full darkness, broken
only by the pale moonlight streaming in through
the lacy curtains of her bedroom window. Her bleary
fever dry eyes, made out the time on her nightstand
clock.  00:38.  She tried to move, in a reach for a
half full, luke warm water glass, when the sharp belly pain
doubled her up making her grab around both knees, 
in a surge of choking nausea.

"Owww..." she moaned. "Ok, enough's enough.." she
grunted, half sobbing. She hugged herself under the 
blankets in suffering, burning agony. "I give up. I give in.
I'm going to see a doctor. I promise....Just...just
ease up and let me dress." she said to her stomach.

Her belly pain, had moved. It was now pinpointed, in a 
spot between her right hip bone and her navel. 

She frowned, unable to make the significant connection
with that new finding. Her mind was too muddled. 

Dixie had pulled on pants over her pajama shorts and had 
snatched up her car keys from the dresser, 
when the pain toppled her onto the rug.

She lay there, curled in a ball, soundless, as wave after
wave of pure agony swept over her. Her bedroom
furniture and the moonlit ceiling blurred. "No, not gonna
black out. Oh, boy. Kel's never gonna forgive me for
trying to wait it out." she cried, leaking tears of misery.

Dixie crawled trembling fingers across the rug until they
reached the phone cord trailing from the Victorian receiver on
her nightstand. With a jerk, she pulled the phone down
from the table. It clattered in a tangle of cord around
her head. "...ohhh..hhh..." McCall moaned, dragging
the phone and its hand held receiver to her face.

She dialed seven numbers, leaving the phone tipped 
over sideways, out to the only number she could remember
entirely.

A male voice came on the other end of the line, questioning,
and concerned, when Dixie didn't answer.

Dixie passed out close to the receiver, where her strained
breathing could be heard clearly, in fevered distress.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.

****************************************************************
From:  "wone3" <jwilds@prodigy.net> 
Date:  Wed Oct 27, 2004  1:40 pm 
Subject:  The Call out

The number Dixie remembered and dialed was Station 51 and 
she had been really lucky as the whole station was just returning 
from a vacant house fire with no injuries to be transported that had
occupied all of them for the last hour or so.

Mike Stoker had just pulled the engine in place and raced to pick up
the phone beating Captain Stanley to it.

He heard the distressed breathing on the other end and when he tried
to get the person to talk, he received no answer from the other
end. "Can you please tell me who you are? " he said into the phone.

Suddenly, Johnny realized that they hadn't heard anything about Dixie
since being called out for the coaster incident. "Do you think it is
her?" he said aloud. "Ask the person if it is Dixie." he said.

Mike called into the phone, "Dixie, Miss McCall is that you?" He
heard a quiet groan on the other end.

Roy, who was right beside the receiver heard the groan, too, and grew
concerned that it might be Dixie.

Roy called over to the Captain, "Cap, can you call us in a silent
alarm for Dixie's place? We should go check it out to be sure. Could
you also call over to the hospital? Doctors Brackett and Early will
want to know what's going on, we promised to keep them in the loop as
they promised us."

Cap reassured them that the docs would be called as he hurried to
call the alarm into dispatch. "Dispatch this is Station 51, calling
in a silent alarm for squad 51 to 213 Elm Street, Apartment 6."

Dispatch answered, ##10-4…. Squad 51, time out, 00:51.##

Captain answered, "10-4, KMG 365." He went over to the squad with 
the call slip as the guys were waiting in it. Marco ran over to open the
bay door for the squad to exit.

Cap told the guys, "Be careful, but get there quickly. We'll make the
call. If you need to take her in, you can stay available from the
hospital. Call us once you find out anything though, OK?"

Both Johnny and Roy echoed, "We will, Cap, and thanks." They 
then sped out of the bay on a speed trip to Dixie's apartment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.

********************************************************************
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
with "Patti Keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 01:26:32 -0700 (PDT) 
Subject:  Hindsight is NOT Better Than Foresight... :)
  

On the way, with lights and siren running, Roy DeSoto
had a thought. "Johnny, do you think we'll need PD for
this call? We might freak out a lot of Dixie's neighbors
if we force our way into her place without alerting em
ahead of time."

Johnny let out a big sigh, crumpling up the address slip.
"It is the middle of the night, and you know how we need
the police for most of our other calls like this. I'll raise em 
on the horn." said Gage with a nod.  He lifted the mic,
"L.A., this is Squad 51."

##Go ahead, 51.##

"Send out a squad car to our silent alarm's location. We may 
need official authorization for a break in." he said and then he 
hung up the microphone head onto its spigot.

##10-4, 51. LAPD says their ETA is fifteen minutes.##

"What?!" Johnny said in exclamation. "That's sheer craziness!
What if Dixie's condition's serious? We can't wait that long just
hanging about outside her patio...." he empathized out loud
as he listened to L.A. notifiy a police patrol car about their
medical emergency private home entry request.

Roy said. "If we can't see her in the window, that's what
we're gonna haveta do, junior. A phone line with a history 
of heavy breathing doesn't mean a life or death situation."

"But it doesn't negate it either." Gage said, very unhappy,
as he clunked a jacketted elbow down on the open edge 
of his passenger window. "You told me you and Stoker
definitely heard a groan on that line."

"It IS near Halloween, Johnny."

"Yeah, but why would kids prank call a firehouse? Usually
kids think we're really cool and...leave us alone." Gage
said.

"I can think of half a dozen crank calls B shift's had over the
last two months that started up just like this one."
Roy just shrugged. "We'll have at least some answers 
in...." he looked at his watch in the glow of the bar lights
reflecting off the squad's hood. "....four minutes....."

"I got a better idea....." Johnny said with a finger snap.

"What?" Roy asked, glancing away from the road.

Johnny picked up the radio mic again.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Engine 51 roared off the freeway ramp and pulled up behind 
the squad in front of Dixie's apartment complex. The noise
of her arriving Code Three woke up everyone within ear shot
to a distance of two hundred yards.

"Is this your idea of a brilliant idea?" DeSoto asked Gage
while they wound through the night clothed crowd of people,
now milling about the pool area, fully loaded with gear.

"Yeah..." Johnny grinned. "Now we have witnesses..."
"And Cap's just as concerned about that phone call
as we are. He's not gonna yell. Not in the slightest."

"You're right about that." Roy considered. "It's not like
it's a busy night for firehouse calls. Being available here
or at the station's pretty much the same thing I guess."

"Exactly.." Johnny said.

As they neared apartment six, the gang piled out
and went immediately to the front entryway to ring
the doorbell while Roy and Johnny covered the back 
patio facing the moonlit pool to see what they could see.

Johnny upped his ante. "Would someone turn on the lights
out here? We gotta see what we're doing!" he shouted to
the babbling, gossiping crowd of residents around them.

The off hours overhead suddenly kicked on over the
party hut at the far end of the pool, lighting their way 
through the thick palms and bushes surrounding Dixie's
patio. 

"Thank you!" shouted Roy. Then he mumbled. "Geesh,
talk about an abundance of bystander help."

Johnny's HT came to life in his jacket pocket. He
pulled it out. It was Cap. ##No answer at the front door
at the bell or with the knocker. And we've no windows
to look inside. How about on your end?##

"Still getting there. I wouldn't say Dixie's a premiere..."
he grunted as he forced O2 tank and com box through
the hedges.." gardening type. It's a sheer jungle over
here, but we're getting there." Johnny told Hank.

"She does like her privacy.." Roy grinned.

Gage sighed and finally his shoes reached the concrete
slab of her patio. "You know, there's another reason
why I used the engine to wake everybody up."

"Why's that?" Roy asked as he, too, fought through
the bushes to join his grinning partner on Dixie's 
back yard landing.

A commotion on the sidewalk of fast stepping slippers got
their attention and a thick, hidden ivy covered gate
that neither Roy nor Johnny knew was there, suddenly swung 
open onto the patio where they were, revealing a woman in a 
robe of quilted pastels with a thick ring of keys in her hand.

"That's why.." Gage pointed at her. "I figured one of these 
crowd folks just had to be the land lady.." Johnny said, tilting 
his head. "Dragging out the Ward, too, just bettered our 
chances in finding her.."

"Will wonders never cease.." Roy sighed with a half smile,
pulling off his helmet. He quickly explained the situation to
the land lady about Dixie McCall.

"Oh, sure.. Here, let me let you in. The poor dear. We all
thought she was just tired from saving Gerald Miller. The
kids saw her go back inside right after you fellas left."

Johnny was still peeking through the windows, shining his
flashlight. He couldn't see anything. "Thanks, Ma'am, for
coming. You see, the cops are delayed a bit. And this can't
wait."

"No, of course it can't.." said the landlady. "Here you go boys.
Can I come in? I'll be your entry witness.." she volunteered.

"That's what we had in mind, Ma'am.." Johnny said as
the landlady opened the glass patio door with a flick of
a long skeleton key.

Roy and Johnny immediately went inside, shouting Dixie's
name. The landlady trailed behind and turned on the lights
for them.

"She's not in here.." said Roy, leaving the bathroom.
"Looks like she's been vomiting." he said about an
unflushed toilet. "Some diarrhea, too." He flushed it
away after Johnny had a look at it.

Johnny let in Cap and the others through the front door
and quickly, the gang cased the living room, den,
the closest bedroom.... 

Finally, they found her on the carpetting, face down with a 
phone receiver in her hand, in the farther one.

"Cap, we'll need an ambulance.." Roy said.

"You got it, pal. I'll be right back."

Johnny unwrapped the phone cord from around Dixie's 
body and hung up the phone into its cradle, setting the whole
thing back on the nightstand while DeSoto knelt down, feeling 
for a carotid. "Dixie? Can you hear me?"

Together, he and Johnny gently rolled her over onto her left
side from off of her stomach, supporting her head and neck in 
a line, carefully, leaving her legs bent up to her stomach as they 
checked to see if she was breathing. She was, shallowly.

Dixie just moaned at an arm pinch. "Altered level, Johnny.
Marco," he asked looking up. "..can you get her on some O2?"

"Yeah."

"Make it high flow."

Hank returned after his HT call outside and
crouched down, "Can we move her to the bed? It
might make it easier for you two to work."

Johnny got done sweeping Dixie's head, neck and back
for any blood or misalignment. "Yeah, I'm not finding anything
here. She didn't hurt herself falling at least. Her c-spine's clear."

The gang lifted her to the bed with a sheet, leaving
the others pulled down. She was placed onto her back and
Roy and Johnny piled the gear around her after the O2 was
set over her face.

Stoker thought ahead and placed pillows under
Dixie's knees to keep them bent, remembering her
unexpressed pain from earlier in the afternoon.

Cap began a hail out to Rampart while Johnny loosened
Dixie's clothes and pants for breathing's sake and got an initial 
set of vital signs. "Chet, see if you can wake her past groaning. 
I don't know why she's not conscious yet. The oxygen should've 
helped her regain more awareness a full minute ago."

"That's if this is just another syncopal episode." DeSoto said
as he got a blood pressure off of her. His expression changed
into a more serious frown. "78/52. She's real warm, too."

"Sepsis?" Johnny guessed.

"Maybe. Check her abdomen. You remember what happened
to her this afternoon better than I do." DeSoto admitted.

"Not really. She wasn't very revealing." But Johnny checked.
He found mild rigidity in the lower right quadrant and
he heard noisy bowel sounds through his stethoscope.

"Ok." Kelly began talking to McCall loudly. "Come on. Dixie,
can you open your eyes for me? It's Chet Kelly from Station
51. We got your call ok. Everyone's here. Hey, open those 
gorgeous peepers of yours and say hello to your house guests. 
Millie the land lady's here, too. Johnny, hand me your penlight.
I'll check out her pupils for you."

Gage tossed Chet his light. "What'dya got?"

Kelly reported a finding after a few seconds. "P.e.a.r.l."

"Figures." Johnny huffed in frustration. "Keep at it.
We'll need her talkin to learn anything more."

"And... she's starting to flinch." Chet continued.

"That's a little better. Just don't kiss her. She may get 
mad at ya." Johnny said with volume, trying a bad
joke to get any kind of a cognitive reaction out of 
the sick nurse. 

"Why not? She's pretty enough.." Kelly quipped,
going along, equally loud.

Dixie blinked and then she coughed. And then the
pain returned, full blown. "Oh, guys. I ..thu  you'd nev ...here.."
she moaned, drawing her knees up even higher than
the pillows. "Oh ..gaa ..make it sto-- p p.." she sobbed,
with the emotions hardly reaching her features as much as
it did in her voice.

"Dix?" Johnny asked, "Open your eyes.." he said,
shaking her. "Tell us what's happening.." he
ordered firmly.

She just made a non-sensical noise and shuddered
in a fever chill.

Hank got a reply on the biophone. It was Dr. Morton.
"Stand by, Rampart. I'll pass you off to one of
the paramedics now. We've got a thirty two year old
female with an acute abdomen, non traumatic." he
informed. Then he mouthed the word "Morton" at
his men when they looked up from getting a Normal
Saline I.V. ready.

Roy took the phone. "Rampart. Our victim's semi-conscious.
Non responsive to verbal commands. B/P's 78/52, Pulse's 90. 
Her respirations are 20 and shallow and both pupils are equal 
and reactive. There's no signs of falling injury but there is evidence 
of gastric and intestinal upset with a fever. We found mild guarding 
in her lower right quadrant. She's on fifteen liters of O2."

Morton nodded his head and then he pressed the talk button
in the base station. ##Maintain her O2. Start an I.V., 51. Normal
Saline. Administer a 250 to 500 cc's bolus and titrate until her
pressure's at least 90 or better systolic. Then turn it TKO.
Conduct a head to toe survey and get a better neurological
assessment. Look for any abdominal distension or signs
of pulsatile masses. Palpate her flank on the effected side for 
any CVA tenderness. Also, draw a red top for analysis. She's 
been vomiting and losing digestive material intestinally, so I'm 
gonna assume it's been a while since she's eaten anything. Give 
her some Dextrose at 50%. 25 gms in an I.V. push. Let's hope her 
stuporous state's due to hypoglycemia and that it isn't septic 
involvement. 100 mgs Thiamine won't hurt either. In fact, give her 
some. And get an oral temperature for me if you can, 51. Monitor 
her on EKG for any altered rhythm. Report back to me in two 
minutes with any new details. If not, transport her as soon as 
possible. ##

"10-4, I.V. Normal Saline titrated to the hemodynamic status 
margin minimum. A red top followed by 25 gms Dex50 I.V.,
and 100 mgs Thiamine. EKG check followed by a condition 
update and immediate transport."

Millie wanted to know. "What's all that stuff?"

Cap answered, "Salt water and sugar, with one of the B vitamins,
a heartbeat reading, and then a fast ticket outta here."

"Huh...Whatever happened to the good ol smelling salts and
patting the wrists routine? That worked fine in reviving folks 
awake in my day.." Millie interjected.

Johnny and Roy just smiled.

They got down to business re-examining Dixie for problems
visually and by feel and found only a few bruises on her palms
from the CPR she had given Ger and a few minor scrapes
on her hips from when she dragged the boy out of the pool.

No masses or pulsations were found anywhere in her abdomen
beyond the rigidity that was just starting to become apparent.

After they had given her a good once over and had connected
Dixie to the heart monitor, they covered her up with a sheet
for warmth.

A minute later, following the energizing Thiamine,
all the sugar and the actively pushed fluid bolus, Dixie finally showed 
some mental life. Her eyes  fluttered open. For good measure, 
she jerked her hand out of Kelly's concerned one." I heard that 
joke, you two nutcases. I just couldn't answer.." she growled. 
"Not yet, anyway.  Just how much is all this attention gonna cost
me? I've never needed an ambulance before.."

"Hardly anything and ...we're glad you liked it.." Johnny said.
"And everybody ELSE'S glad that you're conscious. Now you
know the routine. Quit griping and answer my questions already."
 
Dixie sighed under her O2 mask and lifted her knees a little
higher at a particularly viscious pain stab. "Go.."

"What are your symptoms? We already know about
the fever, diarrhea and the vomiting."

"Abdominal pain. Surprise!" 

Roy and Johnny made a face. Chet just laughed.

"Do you have any allergies?"

"No."

"Are you on any medications or have you taken anything
for this?"

"None and no."

"What kind of abdominal history do you have? Anything like a 
past incarserated hernia, intussuception, cholecystitis, cystitis, 
duodenal ulcers, diverticulitis, abdominal aortic aneurysm, 
kidney infections, kidney stones, pancreatitis, 
pelvic inflammatory disease...."

Dixie just rolled her eyes at the last one.

"Sorry.. And I know you haven't had any kids recently.."

She glared at Gage indignantly.

"..ever.." he amended self consciously, clearing his throat.

Dixie let him off the look-that-could-kill hook.
"None on all counts, Johnny. All I know is that I hurt.
Horribly. And I'm so hot I feel like I'm gonna die." she
whimpered instead.

"No you're not. Your pressure's sitting at an even 100
now. Up twenty millibars." Roy grinned.

"Speak for yourself. You aren't hurting." she snivelled.

"He could be if you punch him one.." Chet suggested.

"Don't tempt me.." she spat.

Right then, Johnny tested for rebound tenderness over
her stomach and found a definite positive finding
when she shoved his hand away with a sharp intake of
breath and suddenly grew five shades paler. " Uh huh.. 
And right over McBurney's point, Roy.."

Dixie met both the paramedics' eyes with a blank stare.
"You've got to be kidding. Appendicitis?" she pegged.

"We don't know that and none of us will. Not until after a 
battery of testing.." Roy admitted. 

"Cap, how long on that ambulance? She's.. VERY..
stabilized now." Gage asked, putting a bored chin into a 
hand on an elbow lean. 

"Let ME find out for ya, Cap." and Kelly neatly exited the 
apartment to avoid the storm to come. "I'll....just.. show them
the way through darkest Africa out here..." he said.

"My garden's not THAT bad! Oww.." Dixie fired back,
doubling over when her shouting irritated her side again.

Gage returned to his questioning. "Last oral intake?"

"Uhh,, I don't remember.." she sighed weakily from the pillows.

Roy rubbed his nose. "Morton called her diminished 
LOC right on the nose. Hypoglycemia.."

"Not him, too...?! Ughh!" Dixie denied. "It's bad enough having Kel
and Joe snooping around and finding out about this.." she winced.
"But to have that beside mannerless automaton knowing
about it.."

"Shall I relay that message?" Johnny quirked, holding out
the biophone receiver. "He's listening.."

Dixie paled even further.

"No, he's not. I covered the phone when you started up
about him. Aren't I nice?" Gage sniffed. "Events leading
to your illness?" he continued, scribbling into his note pad.

Dixie sputtered, recovering on all tracks but the physical.
"Let's see, over work, under pay.." she ticked off on her
fingers.. " a tiny head cold and now I've got a big problem 
with a certain bunch of real pesky firemen.." she blathered.

Johnny ignored her. "When was the onset of your pain?"

Dixie finally got intimated by the proceedings and started
answering without bristling. "Started mid line bilaterally
around 11 am, right after work, yesterday."

"What provoked it?"

"Moving." she snapped.

"What does it feel like?"

"Awful."

Now it was Roy's turn to roll his eyes.

Now Gage poured on the purest kind of paramedic mule headed 
cussedness. "Does it radiate anywhere?" he asked through gritted 
teeth, staying outwardly professional beyond that one anomaly.

"Not anymore. You found the X that marks the spot."

Johnny bit his lip. "How severe is it?"

"Bad."

Cap started chuckling and had to amble away.

"Does anything make it better?" Roy tried when
Johnny began boiling.

"Unconsciousness did, Roy, and I got you two to 
thank for dragging me kicking and screaming out of it." 
Dixie said quite honestly, ripping off her oxygen mask.
"Excuse me, I'm going to go puke.." and she started
to get up.

Both Johnny and Roy.... and Cap... stopped her by
grabbing and laying across her chest, knees and
legs. "You're not going anywhere, Dixie! You've lost
your right to make a judgement call." Hank thundered.

"Who says?!"

"We all do!" Gage shouted. Then he narrowed his eyes
in a challenge. "Let her go, Cap. Roy, you too."
Reaching over, he shut down Dixie's running I.V. to TKO. 
"Ok. Prove it."

Dixie eyed Johnny suspiciously. "Prove what?"

"Prove that you're fully medically competent to handle
this health matter..." he said firmly stabbing a finger
down on the bed sheets in between them. "If you can
stand up on your own two feet, without blacking out,"
he said waggling a finger in her face."...all of us will just 
pack up.....and we'll leave..."

The silence in the room was palpable.

Dixie's hand snaked over and dialed up the I.V. to a fast 
gush in the drip chamber. 

"Ah, ah ah.." Johnny said, jerking the tubing out of her hand 
and he redialed it back down to TKO. "Without any outside help 
or adjunct." he clarified.

Then he pulled her sheets down and invited her to swing her legs 
over the side of the bed.

Dixie froze like a deer in the headlights. 

Then her jaw clamped shut and the insult she was about to 
hurl died aborning. She yanked the covers back up to her chin 
and her teeth started to chatter. "You boys make sure neither Kel 
nor Joe does my surgery.."

Johnny relaxed his finger pointing stare and he planted the 
abandoned O2 mask that was hissing around her neck to back 
over her face. 

She didn't protest. "Promise me..." she asked of her two hands on 
hips posturing paramedics.
 
"Ok.." Roy shrugged and he turned up her I.V. to a shock fighting 
level again.

Feeling a bit like the devil, Johnny added, "We'll let Morton do it."

Dixie nearly levitated off the bed.

Right then the elegant Victorian phone on Dixie's nightstand
rang. 

"Uh oh." trickled Cap.

Johnny picked it up, reluctantly, after it rang six times. "Oh, hiya doc. 
Uh, what do you mean what am I still doing over here? Uh,  that's kind 
of a long story. You see...."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Photo :  Gang around a Dixie on a bed.

Photo:  Chet with a You've got to be kidding look.

Photo:  Johnny infuriated.

Photo:  Morton casually listening on the landline.

Photo: Roy chewing his nail.

Photo:  Cap with Johnny on a Victorian phone.

**************************************************************************
From :  wone3 <jwilds@prodigy.net> 
Sent :  Saturday, October 30, 2004 1:55 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Kel's Call 
  
 
Kel Brackett had just finished with his last patient from the 
fairgrounds, stretching and yawning after the long session of 
patients he had dealt with during this crisis. He checked with the 
staff to make sure the patient was going to be moved to a room 
shortly and started to leave the room for the elevators. Joe Early 
had just finished with his last patient shortly before Kel and was 
waiting by the elevators for one to arrive when Kel walked up. They 
engaged in small talk about their patients until the elevator door 
opened and the bell rang. They both stepped into the elevator with 
Kel pushing the button for the first floor ER and Joe abruptly 
changing the subject. 

"I wonder how Dixie is doing? Have you heard anything? I haven't and 
asked Carol if Dixie called to just let me know." Joe asked.

Kel answered him, " I haven't received a call either. I'm hoping that 
Carol did and we were all too busy to deliver the message. We can 
check once we return to the floor or call her from my office if she 
hasn't called in. Dixie has too many symptoms for it to be minor and 
I'm concerned that she doesn't realize it."

The elevator arrived at their floor, the bell rang as the doors 
opened and they walked out. They headed straight for the nurse's 
station. They both saw Mike Morton in base station apparently talking 
to a paramedic team. 

Carol saw both of the doctors arrive and before they could ask the 
question said, " No, Dixie hasn't called in and Dr. Morton is on with 
51's at their silent alarm. I don't remember the address but I think 
it was an apartment." 

Joe asked, "Are we that predictable?" 

Carol just rolled her eyes and laughed as she returned to the 
paperwork before her. Dixie had taught her well about the doctors. 
Both doctors just laughed as Kel said, "I guess so." They walked back 
to his office to make the phone call.

Joe followed Kel into his office and shut the door behind him. Kel 
sat down at the desk and dialed the numbers from memory to Dixie's 
place. The phone rang and rang. Kel was growing concerned as the 
number of rings climbed up to 6 and then someone picked up the phone. 
It was Johnny Gage and that confused and concerned Kel even further.

Kel asked, "What are you doing there?"

>Johnny answered with hesitation, "Hi ya doc, what am I doing here? 
>Well it is a long story. You see…"

Kel interrupted Johnny, "You mean she finally came to her senses and 
called for help?"

Johnny answered, "Well sort of, she must have blacked out after she 
dialed our station number. We couldn't get a response from her over 
the phone and came over. The landlady let us in and we found her 
collapsed beside her bed. She got lucky to get us; we had just come 
back from a house fire that had taken us away from the station for at 
least an hour. We have been talking to Morton to treat her since 
then."

Kel could hear Dixie yell from the background "Kel, you and Joe, and 
I know Joe is with you, aren't going to perform surgery on me when I 
get there."

Kel acknowledged Johnny by stating he knew because he had checked by 
the nurse's station before calling. He then asked Johnny to give 
Dixie the phone and Johnny did. Dixie stated, "Did you hear me Kel?"

Kel interrupted her, "We tried to do things your way, and you haven't 
gotten better but instead worse. Now it's our turn, and you are going 
to have to deal with things the way we want to do it. You are the 
patient and nothing more from here on out until this is finished." He 
growled at her. Joe tried to get him to calm down in the background. 
She quietly acquiesced, she knew she had caused too many problems by 
his time, her fight nearly gone, and her fever-reduced haze was 
playing tricks on her mind, and handed the phone back to Johnny.

He told Johnny that he'd check with Mike about everything that had 
been done thus far and asked why they weren't on the way yet. Johnny 
told the doc that the ambulance wasn't there yet and was delayed a 
while, once it was there they were more than ready to go. Kel 
acknowledged it and told the paramedic that he'd see him once they 
got here and hung up. He went to find Mike Morton.

Just as Johnny hung up the phone, Dixie's eyes rolled back and she 
blacked out dissolving into unconsciousness once again.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  None.

***************************************************** 
From:  "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Sun Oct 31, 2004  7:17 pm 
Subject:  Here's to Jack O Lanterns and Internal Organs..

 
Johnny Gage noticed, "Dixie?  Hey--" and he reached
out to touch her chin when Roy DeSoto stopped him.

"Why don't we let her be, Johnny?" he smiled. "Looks
like she's finally given in to that long rest her body's been
demanding that she'd better have. She's comfortable
enough and breathing fine on her side just as she is without
us messing around with an oral airway. We'd be disturbing
her if we did any further monkeying."

"But--" he bit his lip, considering, and checking a sudden retort.
"Ok, convince me. What's her pressure now?" checking McCall's 
pupils again in a search for how far down she'd gone.

"116/72.." he said pointedly amused. "The I.V.'s HAS done its work. 
And see? On the monitor...." Roy invited with an eye glance.

Johnny studied Dixie's tracing EKG reading on the scope and his 
critical analyzing frown slowly turned into a light smile. "Sinus rhythm... 
finally." he sighed. 

"Yeah, her rate's about 58." Roy agreed. "Not stressed any longer
at all.."

"Now that's what I call sleeping.." Kelly remarked.

"Chet, what would you know?" Gage commented. "You're not a paramedic 
like us." The irritation on giving into his partner's low impact patient care 
plan was still festering a bit under the skin. He liked his victims awake 
and talking when they didn't have vitals that disfavored maintaining that status.  

"No, but I know good vital signs notes when I hear him." he said, unoffended. 
"I got the smarts when I need em, Don't you worry yourself about that, pally." he 
said, winking at Roy to let him know he was in a needle Johnny Gage 
mode again now that all the excitement was over.

Gage rapidly starting cleaning up and tidying while Roy readied 
Dixie's apparatus for gurney loading. "No, you're definitely pumpkin positive, 
Chet..." he mumbled.

"What? I didn't quite hear ya, Johnny? What the heck's pumpkin positive 
mean?" he grinned, giving motions of a gimme more gesture behind Gage's 
back where the dark haired paramedic couldn't see it.

The gang just folded arms together to watch the verbal tennis match with 
the same grins on their faces.

And Johnny walked right into the baiting, hook, line and sinker. "If a doctor 
writes 'Pumpkin Positive' on your notes, Chet, they mean if they shine a penlight 
into your mouth, they would encounter a brain so small that your whole head 
would light up."

"Oh, uh huh." Kelly said, mildly, completely unruffled. "Gee, that's really interesting, 
Gage. But what IQ scale fits your place at the shallow end of the gene pool...?
You didn't even see that Dixie's just snoozing right now until Roy here, pointed 
it out to you."

"Chet---"

"Ok, enough's enough." Cap intervened, chuckling. "If you two carry on in here 
much longer, you just might DO what Roy says not to do and you'll wake her up. 
You guys can go play debate team after the call's over. Come on, Kelly. Back 
to the engine. Stoker and Marco are already waiting for ya. "

"But--"

"But nothin, I'm only lagging behind because I wanna make sure that Dixie's 
place get's locked up again once the PD gets here. You know my signature's
needed on the house entry form. "

"That's all right, sir. I can take care of that.." said Millie the land lady..

Cap blinked and her comment didn't register under the hard thinking and 
discipling he was still embarking upon. " I'll take the squad in so Roy and 
John can fuss over her at much as they'd like on the way in. Now, shoo.." 
Hank said, jerking up his chin in a firm, I'm the captain look.

"Cappp..." Chet whined. "Are you gonna let Johnny keep 
picking on me?" he said in jest.

"No, I'm gonna let YOU take a time out on HIM. That wasn't 
a request, Kelly.."

"No, it was an order, I know.. I know." and he trudged out the door, 
putting on his helmet again over his smoky curls. "Why spoil my fun? I was 
just trying to lighten the tense mood radiating out from a certain someone 
still leaning over the bed. And Dixie hasn't been disturbed. She
hasn't moved since Roy tipped her head back."

"Go.." Cap pointed, his stenorous baritone cracking out.

"Yes, sir.." Kelly said automatically at the undeniable
tone of command. He snapped his fingers in self chiding
annoyance when he realized that he was still so well 
conditioned, that he actually jumped to attention at it.

"Weellll, maybe there's a few seeds in the jack o lantern
after all." Gage shot back after him. "You understood
that ok.."

All the firemen raised their heads when the sound of 
the Mayfair responding to their rescue call appeared
and finally pulled up just outside. 

"Gage, zip it." Cap coughed, trying to hide a smile.
"You're falling behind. DeSoto's got the I.V. box
already put back together and the attendants are
only seconds away."

Millie rubbed her chin. "I guess all the acid banter means
that Dixie's really ok?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"It sure does.." Roy said, standing up from one last
check on Dixie's respirations. "I'll leave a note with
her about your involvement in resecuring the apartment.
The policeman coming is just a formality. Cap's only 
got a few lines to fill out on the officer's report."

"All right. Thank you, gentlemen, for helping Dixie like
you have. It really was sitting in the back of my mind, that 
something wasn't right. I was just too timid to inquire and 
intrude, you know?"

"Yeah, we know." Johnny said. "It's a trait of being
American, that respect for any individual's home privacy. 
No harm's done, ma'am."

"Thank goodness."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Dixie..

 Dixie.. Can you hear me? Look what I brought..." said firm
 but quiet male voice.

Dixie opened her eyes and peered around a flowing oxygen
mask.

And saw a grotesque swollen pink and purple worm, floating
in a jar of preserving fluid..

"GahHH!" she jerked, throwing her hands up. "Get that thing
away from me." and she immediately winced when stitches,
external and internal, snagged on her innards. "Ooo.."

"What? It's not a prop from the little shop of horrors, Dixie." 
said Joe Early with a chuckle. "This was part of you fifteen
minutes ago."

"I know what it is, Joe. It's just so... yyuck.." she shuddered, coughing
up a plume of anesthetic gas from her chest as she got a radar
on how truly awake she was becoming.  Her nursing side finally
got the better of her. "Ok, so what did ya find?" she gave in.

Kel Brackett, to Joe's left, also seated on the bed, answered her.
"Well, your appendicitis was uncomplicated. We found no fecaliths, lymph 
node involvements, or any signs of appendiceal perforation. You just had 
some moderate suprefaction of the mesentery that didn't effect the
peritoneum. We did a WBC and a flat plate, which was negative
along with a UA for blood which came completely clear of red cells.
Your kidneys,..are fine."

Dixie blinked, still very groggy. "Would you explain that in plain 
english? I think I'm still a little hollow in the head right now."

"Rest, Dix." Kel said, getting up. "We'll just leave your souvenir
on the bedstand for you to analyze later."

"Don't forget to use a pillow on your abdomen when
you have to cough up some of that phlegm. And yes, we
made sure the incision was made below the bikini line." Joe added.

"You're all heart." she grumbled, rolling over to sleep some
more. "And if I hear one crack about the mickey mouse shaped
beauty mark I know you saw down there coming from the nursing staff,
I'll personally feed you both half of my appendix floating around
in that specimen jar."

"She's awake, Kel. I think we can leave now. No one who's too
sleepy to breathe ever musters up a threat."

"You're right, Joe. Sweet dreams, Dix, and get better fast.."

The only reply was a blissful mumble followed by a rub of
a few fingers on her nose.

The two Rampart doctors left the recovery room on scrub paper
covered shoes, gingerly.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo :   Kel Morton looking down to treat someone.

Photo:    Joe Early in a suit and Kel in scrubs, talking.

Photo:    Appendix surgery in progress.

Photo:    A removed infected appendix specimen.

Photo:     Dixie, Johnny, Roy and Joe Early around a vending machine.

************************************************************

***This current episode has just ended.
***Keep watching here daily for new episode
***scene installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

_______________________________________

This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Fifteen,  Season Two
  
         §§   00:51    §§

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : October 1st, 2004.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


            
                            End Credits --  Episode Fifteen  (Second Season)
                                      
                                                          §§  00:51  §§

                      :)  This episode is dedicated to the Epipen. Created to                   :)
                           save literally thousands from dying of anaphylatic shock, by
                           putting the power of an instant cure in the hands of everyday
                           folks.                                                                                                    
                      :)                                                                                                              :)


Guest Writers...
---------------

Jill                               jwilds@prodigy.net 
Champagne Scott    chameleonkate@hotmail.com
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Sam Iam                    lafddispatcher@yahoo.com

 
**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

Chrissa Danielle    EMT-B/ EMT-P Student    
David Epling    Paramedic/AS-MICP - Southern California
Patti Keiper     Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota
   
 
Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"David Epling" ccrails@sbcglobal.net 
David E. (Paramedic, AS-MICP, PHTLS, ALCS)

"Chrissa Danielle"  danielle.w@wildmail.com
Chrissa D.   (EMT-B/ Paramedic Student)

"Bob" BobsBrush@aol.com  
Bob. (FF/Fire Chief)
 
"Medic" medic1979@yahoo.com 
Medic. (Paramedic/Firefighter)
 
"Craig Gidley" fachi_gidley@yahoo.com 
Craig G. (Firefighter/EMT)
 
 "Emlacofd" emlacofd@yahoo.com 
Em. (Paramedic/Firefighter)
 
"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  mamasuelodge70@yahoo.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 
 
"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To "Heidi B." <spiritkeeper792@yahoo.com>
for EMS and Fire Images for Episode Scenes.

To Erika and Rozane of Emergencyfans.com
For Linking to the ETL Website

To TV Tome.com
For Linking to the ETL Homepage

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Icecat,  <icecat62@comcast.net>
For Designing the Banners for Episodes  

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season Two   Episode Fifteen

                    §§  00:51  §§

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sundown Midi by Joris Wittenberg.

Raindrop 2 Midi by Pack Rat Mike.

The Dream Of Betty Midi by Free Brick. 

Emergency Drama Music Wav- From the TV Series

Visions Midi by Andy Klapwyk

-------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________



============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
   
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================


Season Two, Episode Fourteen..

§§   Twisted   §§
 
Debut Launch: 1 September 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**Theater Writer Site

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see the latest music soundtracked, imaged
version of this episode after entering User ID  efan  and 
Password  frontrowseat  . This version of the current 
episode is scene delayed as compared to the most recent 
submissions shown in the text only file above.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.


****************************************************** 
From: "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>    
Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 07:24:13 +0000 
Subject:  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Dr. Orange to Emergency STAT~~ 


Dixie McCall sighed expansively as she took an
elicit sip from her cup of ice cold coffee. ::This tastes 
absolutely heavenly.:: she thought, as she dragged yet
another chart from the stack carousel out for viewing.
Not even aware of it, she began mumbling. "Let's see...
an ankle in Room Three. X-rays ...Ordered. In Two,
an arm laceration that Joe's suturing as of..." she
peered at her delicate silver banded watch. "..five
minutes ago... Kel's in Radiology viewing the latest
chest films on Station Eight's downed fireman. Who
was that again?.." She flipped a few pages, checking on
that.

"Paramedic Craig Brice. Smoke inhalation from his playing
the hero game. And no, he won't be needing a bronchoscopy
session with Dr. Irons." answered Carol Evans as she
returned from answering a patient light down the hall from
the emergency ward's main desk.

McCall startled, then caught herself when her coffee spilled
over her hand and onto the formica desktop.

"Oh my word! Dixie! Did you just burn yourself?" Carol gasped.

Dixie smiled. "I know better than to hang onto a cup for too long
around here if it's still piping hot.  This, is nowhere near that."

Carol made a face. "Ugh.. How can you drink it then?"

McCall looked up at her senior nurse over the bridge of
her nose. "When you inherit my head nurse's position someday,
you'll find out the answer to that one." She didn't skip a beat,
"What was the light for? I saw it but I knew you were closer." 

"Bedpan, Room Four. The Iverson boy needed some help
using it. He's the left tib fib fracture that's still waiting to be set."

Dixie's smile fell into one of self admonishment and she snapped
a couple of fingers in sudden memory. "I knew I was forgetting
something." And she reached for the phone.

Carol stopped her. "I've already called Orthopedics. Dr. Allan
will be down to cast him up in ten minutes."

Dixie sighed, patting Carol's hand in gratitude. "Thanks. You're
a dear. I'm just horrible with organizing anything on slow days like
this." she said, mopping up her hand and the desk counter with a
wad of tissue.

"Now that's something I understand completely, Dix. How about
we mosy into Five and see how Dr. Morton's doing with that
fever case? We still need to do a full chart on her."

"Sounds like a plan. Then, afterwards, it's two cups of HOT coffee
for the both of us in the nurse's lounge." Dixie promised. " I gotta
jump start the inside of my head sooner rather than later. My right
big toe's itching and that means we're gonna get busy.."

Nurse Evans laughed. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. I've learned to read the tiny little signs I get physically
when all my intuitions and instincts slam shut upstairs on the
slow business days." Dixie said, closing her chart and returning 
it to the carousel.

"Gee. I don't think I ever know what my feet are doing, unless
they're barking at me for covering a double shift." Carol conmiserated.

"Doubles? Heh. Try working a 36 hour shift. Then, you'll learn the
true meaning of foot agony." she quipped. "I usually have to crawl
home."

The two nurses had almost passed by the bulky corner of
the all glass paramedic base station when the seldom used
red phone on the wall rang by the paramedic line's reel to reel 
transmission recorder began to buzz urgently. Dixie
waved off the student nurse supplying the drug cabinet to pick
up the call herself. "Rampart Emergency. This is Nurse McCall."

Carol watched when Dixie's face lost all expression and took
her cue from that. She got on the white phone to the operator.
"Yes, this is Carol Evans from Emergency. Could you page Kel
Brackett to report down here stat? We've a major in the works.
Thanks." and she hung up the phone about the same time Dixie
did.

"It's a train wreck. One of those new fangled Amtraks or whatever
they're called. The DOT says that each hospital in the district could
expect to see up to a dozen patients incoming." McCall reported.

Carol nodded. "I've put out the page about it."

"Really? How'd you do that so fast? I just told you what we're gonna get."

Nurse Evans scoffed. "You may be the guru when it comes to
stomaching evil concoctions from the brewing pot and feeling
the ER weather with your digits. But no one is better than me
at reading coworkers. Your poker face firing up gave it all away."

"Hmm, I'll have to work on that." Dixie said without grinning.
"Who did you get?"

"Brackett. He was only going over films, remember?"

"Good choice. His grumbling over the disaster alert will
be the best medicine I can take to get over my brain fog."

"That's why I picked him. Two birds with one stone." Carol 
agreed.

"Perfectionist." Dixie teased with feigned indignant sarcasm.

"I learned from the best." Carol smiled sweetly.

The two nurses flew in two different directions to bustle
the staff into shape for a full blown Condition Orange.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Mike Morton was helping a restless, sweaty young African
American woman back down onto the gurney from where she had 
sat up in a moan from malaise caused by her very high temperature.

"Easy maam. Why don't you just ....lie back down again. Just
like that. That's it. I don't want you to hurt yourself." Mike 
soothed. "Now, does your head hurt at all? How's your neck?
Does it feel like it's tight or cramping up on you?"

The stricken woman on the bed made eye contact but
didn't make an indication that she had understood him.

Morton frowned, looking up at the orderly attendant with him.
"Hmm. She's borderline on delirium now. It's ok. I got her, Malcolm.
Why don't you call us a nurse to set up an immediate ice bath?
First thing, that fever spiking's gonna be stopped. We'll do
it after the spinal tap."

The burly blond orderly nodded and moved to the treatment
room phone.

Morton pulled the thermometer out of the woman's mouth 
where he had been holding it alongside a jaw spreader. He
held it up to the light, peering at the tic marks over the mercury.
"It's 104. Tell them to hurry it up some."

Dr. Morton moved the still wrapped spinal  tray closer to
get it set for the staff that was coming to help him with it.
To kill some time, he began to speak to his patient. 
"Now don't you worry. I've got people on the phone lines
trying to find out who you are right this minute. The sooner
we know that, the sooner we'll get our answers."
he sighed, still clutching her restless hand across her
chest to partly monitor her breathing and partly to keep
her flat. 

The woman's eyes never failed to leave his over
the oxygen mask she wore and she moaned again in
unconscious misery. 

"Shh.. It's ok, honey. I'm a doctor and I promise you that I'm
gonna find out what's wrong with you just as fast it's 
humanly possible."

Dixie's head poked in the door. 
"Mike?"

Morton didn't look up. "Coming to help us out?"

"Don't I wish. Trouble's brewing, doctor. Big trouble.
The fire department dispatch's just notified us of a 
train wreck east of here."

"Do they have any casualty numbers?"

Dixie minutely shook her head. "It's too soon to tell."
Then her practiced eye noticed a trembling in Morton's
patient's legs. "Want some diazepam for that seizure?"

"It's mild yet. Her BP's yo yo-ing and I don't want it to take 
a dive."

"How about some quarantine control?"

"Yeah, get that going. This might be meningitis in full swing."

"Oh, boy. You know you two have been seriously exposed."

Morton huffed. "Yeah, we know. And so was half the waiting
room when she stumbled in here from the outer doors. We'll
decontaminate in the next room and slip into a couple of masks
to help out there just as soon as we're through managing her
in here."

"I'll tell the bath and spinal tap people to gown up before entering." 
McCall said, letting the door shut between them as she turned 
on the negative air flow button in the treatment room next to the cabinet.
 
Morton shouted after her. "How about a sign for.."

"The infection warning's already hanging on your door."
came Dixie's rushing voice. "I had a gut feeling."

Rampart General Hospital began shoring up for a large
disaster response. Administrators immediately started   
calling all their available off duty hospital staff to report in for 
emergency triage work. Multiple med evac helicopters 
were summoned to the parking lot's landing pad.

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe Early burst out of Treatment Two, peeling off his bloody
suturing gloves and he tossed them into the hallway
biohazard receptacle. "Dixie?" he inquired.

"The base station's quiet yet. Apparently, all this has just
happened. I have FEMA's radio frequency called up on
the scanner and all the senior staff's been properly notified.
We'll have everyone but Dr. Morton."

"What's tying him up?"

"Spinal Meningitis in Treatment Room Five. He didn't spot it 
fast enough to get covered up. Malcolm's been exposed, too."

Dr. Early rubbed his hand and the rings there thoughtfully. 
"That shouldn't be a problem. They're both young and strong. 
The chances of them catching it at their ages and conditions 
are low."

"Still. They're gonna work in masks and gloves when they get
out here. For OUR protection." she teased. "We're the oldsters
in this outfit."

"I can order some interferon boosters for everyone you think's
been exposed."

"Don't bother, there's too little time left. The bell's just about
ready to go off on the train pileup." she said, throwing a hand 
over her shoulder towards the buzz light over the glass paned 
paramedic radio  room. "Let's just hope Jane Doe's germ is a 
weak one. Cross your fingers and coffee up, you're gonna need
it." she said gulping down hers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I concur. There's absolutely no sign of solid aspiration. No ash.
No glass dust. Amazing."

Kelly Brackett smiled. "That's Craig Brice for you. He's a h*ll of
a fireman. Almost as good as he is a paramedic. I suspect he
got some SCBA gear from that roof line as soon as his victim's
stokes was pulled free from it. It's just like him to haul his bacon
out of a fire at the last possible moment, unscathed except for
a few minor things. Another paramedic of mine's green with envy
over his almost one hundred percent non injury track record."

"A charmed life." Dr. Michaelson of Radiology interjected, 
peering at the films of Brice's lungs closely.

"So far. And I'd like to think it's gonna stay that way."
Kel admitted, crossing his elbows.  

"It will. I see nothing here that indicates a future risk for 
secondary pneumonia."

"Great news. I'll tell him after he's transferred upstairs."

Michaelson nodded.

Dr. Brackett suddenly heard his name called by the house operator.
##Doctor Brackett. Report to Emergency Stat. Doctor Brackett,
Report to Emergency Stat.  You've a conference with Dr. Orange.##

Kel and Dr. Michaelson both stood from their stools and ignored
the row of Xray films hanging under the purple white light in
front of them in alarm. 

"Now just what kind of disaster is it this time?" Brackett asked sharply 
as his worry suddenly exploded. He headed for the exit across
the darkened viewing room.

"I'm coming with you." said Michaelson, grabbing his white lab coat.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dixie heard a commotion coming from the outer doors and she 
and Carol and Dr. Early hurried to meet whoever it was as
fast as they could get there.

The emergency ambulance entrance doors parted to reveal....

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Joe, Dixie and Kel frantically at work at the base station.

Photo:   Morton tending a young African American woman.    


Photo:   Dixie reading a chart near another nurse.  

Photo:   A Mayfair Cadillac ambulance backing up to
              the ER doors at Rampart.

Photo:  A helicopter view of a massive train wreck with
             EMS and Fire crews on scene.

******************************************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Sep 9, 2004  10:08 am 
Subject:  The Best Laid Plans of Mice and ....

.......a fire department squad backing up in the space 
reserved only for resupplies pickup.   

Dixie snapped a cord mentally. "Oh, for crying out loud,
don't they know what's happening?!" she groused, turning
on a heel and disappearing back into the hallway.

Carol didn't exactly throw up her hands but she frowned, too,
at the bit of normalcy arriving in the shape of Johnny and Roy.
"No victim?" she asked Dr. Early half heartedly.

"No victim.." Joe replied, smiling.

"I guess I'd better go cool Dixie down. Already, she's wound
up tighter than a top." Nurse Evans admitted.

"You do that. I'll take care of the boys here to bring them
up to date." Joe leaned into the squad. "Hiya boys."

"Hiya doc." Roy said. 

"Wow, that was some welcoming committee. First Dix, then 
Carol, now you, heh. Won't be long, we just came for a couple 
of Ringers that we both forgot to grab that wasn't on our last
run's paperw-" Johnny started to explain. 

"You mean you haven't heard anything yet?" Joe interrupted.

"Haven't heard what?" Roy asked, his face going slack.

"There's a condition orange in effect as of right now.
An amtrak derailed a few minutes ago." Dr. Early told them.

"No kidding. You're serious.." Gage shook his head.

"Very serious. Dixie has all the staff scrambling. I'm surprised
your station hasn't been called out yet to respond to the accident."
Joe said scratching his nose.

Gage immediately got out onto the running board and checked
the antennae on top of the squad's roof. The aerial, was missing.

"D*mn it. I knew we were in kinda tight on that last fire hazard call.
There was enough mesquite on Old Man Foster's property to choke
a horse." Johnny exclaimed. "We must've knocked it off when we
left."

Roy immediately turned on his walkie talkie to hear a hail of
out going tones for  L.A. and Los Angeles County's outlying stations.  
All three of them listened carefully but the tones for 51 didn't sound off.
"Maybe we can learn more by listening to your emergency scanner, doc."
DeSoto said.

"Be my guest. Not much going on yet. It's too soon."
Joe nodded and opened the squad door so Roy could get out.

Quickly, the three of them went inside and soon were gathered around
Dixie's main desk. Dr. Brackett was there watching Dixie pull out
the disaster management book from its storage envelope for him
to read. "Evening, boys." he greeted.

Johnny and Roy both waved half heartedly. Gage got down to
business. "Doc, what have you heard? Our squad radio was
knocked out. But apparently, we haven't been missed yet. Our
station's still at the station." he laughed at his pun.

"Not much." Kel frowned. "You know as much as I do."

"Anything we can do around here to help out?" Roy said as
nurses, doctors, orderlies and patients all in motion, 
milled about because of the soon to come emergency traffic.

"Yeah, help me load up the helicopter with supplies?
You can grab yours while you're doing it." He said noting the
empty box that Roy held under his arm. "I'm dragging Dixie
along with me to the scene. There's absolutely no doubt that
we're gonna be needed, and in a hurry." Brackett
said. "I'm just doing a little anticipating gentlemen." he said
hefting up the disaster protocol manual. "I suggest you do 
the same thing."

"Where's the wreck located at?" Gage said as they moved
to the entrance and the outer pharmacy.

"West side of town, but east of here, still in the suburbs." Kel 
pointed as they bundled up boxes of medical gear onto a 
gurney. Once it was full, the two paramedics and single doctor, 
hurried outside, pushing the fully laden stretcher before them.

Johnny craned his neck into that direction, shading his
eyes from the brilliant late evening sun. "I don't see any 
smoke."

Roy shook his head. "You don't have to see any to
have a really bad situation, Johnny. An Amtrak has no 
cargo to burn."

"Oh yes it has. You're forgetting all the people." Johnny said 
grimly, fiddling with the strap on his walkie talkie where it 
dangled on his wrist.  He was the very picture of frustration
as station after station, all but 51's, was called to respond.

They got near to the landing pad so they ducked
as low as the gurney's mattress to protect their heads from 
the whirling blades and so did a rushing Dixie, now wearing
a heavy field sweater emblazed with her medical staff emblem.

Kel Brackett helped Dixie inside the roaring chopper.
"You boys better get back. We're good to go. Thanks for
the loading help. No doubt we'll be meeting up again." he 
shouted over the wind and rotors of the rescue helicopter.

"You can count on that for sure, doc." Gage promised
with fervor.

Roy and Johnny back stepped until they were well away
from the launching pad, each holding a walkie talkie to
their ear as fire units continued to be deployed to the site
of the crashed train.

A full minute after Brackett's helicopter disappeared,
there was still no word for their engine or squad.

"I don't get it.." Johnny complained. "Did L.A. forget
about us? Maybe we should just head on out there
and be done with it."

"I think we should stick tight. Who knows? We may
be just assigned to cover someone else's service
grid. Not all of us can go." Roy said reasonably.

"Maybe that's true, but I don't have to like it." Johnny
said as they went back into the busy emergency
room that was in full preparation for a massive influx 
of patients.

Joe Early was reading his own copy of the mass casualty
incident manual by the paramedic station when Gage and 
Roy got to the main reception desk. The silver haired doctor 
looked up. "Still no word?"

"No." said Gage crankily. "Roy seems to think we're being
held back in reserve."

"Good thing you were. Your antennae was out. It could have
been very bad if you were called out and hadn't answered."
Joe reasoned.

Johnny refused to be placated and just harrumphed in 
his throat, pushing aside the full coffee mug that Roy offered
to him from the pot. "I'm not thirsty. I'm mad. Thanks, anyway.
But, no thanks."

Joe chuckled. "So, paramedics feel just as much like the
preverbial football with superiors as we doctors do."

Gage wasn't angry enough not to smile at Joe's glib comment. 
"Doc, you mean to tell me that you have a boss to worry about?"

"Yep. The big man upstairs. And I'm talking about the one
smoking the expensive cigars wearing suits by Georgio, 
not the one surrounded by harps and angels." he joked.

"Huh, I didn't know that. I thought that once you become a 
doctor, you become your own boss with nobody to pay
attention to but yourself and your patients." Gage gaped.

"Maybe someday. But as long as my salary is paid by
what the hospital charges for my services and skills, I'm
always going to be at somebody's beck and call."

"You know, that- that's not right. It's not right at all. 
There's something fundamentally wrong with that idea." 
Johnny scoffed. "I mean, you save lives and all.. I mean, 
yeah, Roy and I do, too, but not in the same way. I think you 
should form a physician's union doc, and force a few 
changes or two to gain a little independence."

Joe quickly picked up the white phone. "Want to suggest 
that to the big man upstairs? I can put ya through..." he
said dialing up.

Gage sputtered and grabbed the phone from Joe's hand.
"Funny man. A real comedian."

"I try to be. It keeps me from going absolutely nuts around
here sometimes. Oh, by the way. Did your captain remember
to cook some extra clam chowder for me and the missus?"

"Huh?" Gage said, still digesting the doc's logic. "Whaa? Oh.
yeah. Stuck it in the freezer for ya. You can pick it up in the
morning."

"That's if we're allowed to be 10-8 in the morning." Roy reminded
Johnny. 

Gage looked at his partner without comprehension.

Roy elaborated. "Someone has to let Dr. Early IN to get to
the refrigerator."

"Oh, yeah, right." Johnny sniffed, pulling un-necessarily on his
utility belt. "We'll try to have someone there for ya, doc. But
seeing that everyone's at the train wreck..." his face retwisted
into a seethe at the thought of being excluded from such a major
run. "...we may not be able to accommodate you."

"I can wait. Chowder keeps a week, Hank tells me, if it's
flash frozen."

"His was." Roy nodded.

Carol Evans, who had been busy answering phones and directing
staff to their assigned areas, piped up. "You know, Craig Brice
is still here in Room 512. Maybe you boys can kill some time waiting
for word from your dispatcher by visiting for a few minutes with him. 
You know how annoying getting over a chest full of smoke can be. 
It's compounded ten times over when one is confined to absolute 
bed rest."

Joe's eyebrows rose. "Now that," he said stabbing a finger at
Carol. "...is a fine example of the manipulating I regularly suffer.
And she's not even my boss. I know a thinly veiled dismissal
when I hear one, boys. Feel offended."

Evans face quirked. "That's right. Now you paramedics know
who's the real head of the emergency department." she said 
without batting an eye. "How can I get any work done around
here with that idle chatter of yours distracting me. Oh lord,
I'm starting to sound like Dixie already and I just took over
for her."

Roy and Johnny laughed.

"512 did you say?" Gage asked.

"512." Evans answered, dipping her neatly coiffed brunette head 
elegantly. 

Joe Early slipped into melodramatics. "Oh adieu, my fair maiden,
parting is such sweet sorrow, I should cut my body to pieces to
call you once by your name.."

"Just Nurse will do, Doctor." and she made shooing motions. 
"I'm sure your missus wouldn't want you to call me anything other 
than that." she said dryly.

"How sharper than a serpent's tooth!" Early postured.

Carol hissed at him making cat's claws.

Joe fled, feigning fright, into a treatment room whose
patient needed his attentions.

Carol's claws turned into a friendly double wave as she
watched Gage and DeSoto disappear into the elevator.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnny Gage inched up onto his toes, peering out the fifth floor
window blinds, at the end of the hall next to Brice's assigned
patient room.

Roy smacked him. "Would you cut that out? We'll get
there when we get there."

Gage rubbed his sore arm vigorously. "Ow. I was only
trying to get feelers out on what we're heading into."

"Who says we're heading into anywhere?" Roy argued.
"The HT's still quiet on that issue!"

"Yeah? Well YOU'RE not so quiet about it, that's for sure.
And not so quiet vocally either." said Johnny, popping a chocolate 
he found abandoned in a half eaten box on the hallway crash cart. 
"This is a hospital. Show some respect would ya? There's a lot 
of sick people around here."and his angry scowl turned into 
one of amusement when he realized he got Roy's goat yet again.

It was Roy's turn to seethe, feeling royally had. Then he started
laughing. He barely got things under control when Johnny snatched 
up the box of sweets on his way in to Brice's room and shoved 
them behind his back as they entered.

"Hi Craig. How're ya feeling?" Gage asked. "It's not every day ya get 
to receive a little mouth to mouth from your own station captain now 
is it?"

Roy stepped on Johnny's foot, who promptly ignored him.

Craig Brice, decked out in a white gown replete with blue florets,
set down his magazine. "Gage. DeSoto. What a pleasant surprise.
Why aren't you at the railway accident scene yet?"

Johnny's grin fell away into one of disgust. "Now, see?" He pegged
a glare at Roy. "Why do I get the feeling that everybody who's 
anybody knows about that wreck and how incongruent WE are for 
not being there?"

Roy pretended that Johnny wasn't even there to help curb his
high flowing embarrassment. "Hiya Craig. Carol Evans thought 
bringing him up here to see you would cheer him up. Have some 
chocolates." and he yanked the open box away from Johnny's 
concealing hand and offered Brice the lot by sliding it across 
his bedside eating table.

Brice blinked around his nasal cannula. "I should think that by now,
you'd know that John Gage never cheers himself up unless he's 
ready to do so on his own, DeSoto. Thanks for the confections."
and he helped himself to the smallest piece, chewing carefully.

Johnny didn't know whether to be insulted or to agree with his
old nemesis. He opted on stuffing another candy into his other
cheek. "Well, how are ya anyway? Any pulmonary edema?"

"No."

"Any laryngospasms cropping up?"

"No."

"Any arrythmias fluttering in your chest?"

"No. Do you see me wired to an EKG monitor?"

Gage flared. "You mean you don't even have so much as a
sore throat for your troubles?"

"I don't. Thanks for inquiring." 

Gage sputtered indignantly, remembering his own miserable
symptoms whenever he was laid low by smoke exposure.

Roy covered for him. "I guess he means that he's really glad
you're feeling better." DeSoto said mildly.

"I fathomed that angle a minute ago, DeSoto. Thanks. I
am almost back to optimal conditioning. I'll go home this
evening Kelly Brackett says. And I've been cleared to 
return back to work tomorrow morning."

Gage turned apoplexic and he couldn't speak.

Brice rose from his bed and only stopped because he
still had an I.V. line in. "Are you choking?"

Roy shook his head and then did a double take at
his color changing partner. "Are you?!"

Gage nodded, finally grabbing his throat with the
universal crossed hands sign subconsciously.

Both Roy and Brice smacked a fist into Johnny's back,
bending him over the snack table and two mostly chewed
squares of caramel and chocolate flew out of Johnny's
mouth.

Johnny straightened, sucking in huge breaths as he
regained a hard won equilibrium. 

Brice calmly got back into bed, pulled the covers back over
his knees and peeled off his cannula. "Want this?"

Johnny batted it away with a glare and finally coughed.
"Funny man. Never let it be said that Craig Brice doesn't
have a sense of humor. You and Dr. Early should get together
sometime on that." he rasped, leaning a head into his
hands against the tabletop.

"You ok?" Roy smirked, still hanging onto Johnny's belt.

"I'm fine. I was just a little hungry I guess." he said lifting
his head.

"No, you were more like a little jealous I'd say." Roy said.

"Of what?" Johnny said, cleaning up his spit out candy from
the sheets and magazine cover on Brice's lap with a kleenix
from the table top tissue box.

"Of my faster than normal recovery period, Mr. Gage. It's
not often I'm in the hospital like this. The only other time
was when I had the roof fall on top of me after I pushed
your partner out of the way from under a fire weakened 
section at the Gilmore Factory Fire on June 8th, 1975.
It's nothing to be ashamed of.  I, in turn, admire you, too."

John blinked in surprise. "Uh, you do?"
Roy said the same thing in stereo. "Uh, you do?"

"Of course. John Gage's a prime example of what an ex-juvenile
delinquent can become when given the proper chance. 
The paramedic program's been an absolute boon for you.
You're almost a model citizen when it comes to true character."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I oughta go back there and KILL him once and for all."
Gage spat.

"Why?" said Roy in amusement. "And undo all that nice work
the docs did for him? That'd be a waste of energy."

"Not in my book." Gage grumbled.

"You should be happy. We've been called to respond to
the train wreck."

"Finally.."

"Well, why aren't you happy now?" Roy asked.

" Because NO paramedic should get to an accident scene a whole
half hour AFTER the nurse and doctor does. It's bad for business."
he said, staring out the window of the speeding squad.

Roy just rolled his eyes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 
Photo:  Dixie Roy Johnny and Brackett in hallway.

Photo: Roy in a waiting room closeup.

Photo: Johnny looking cheeky at Rampart.

Photo: Brice in a hospital bed wearing a cannula.

Photo:  Johnny Gage in a helmet, seething, in the squad.

Photo: Roy grinning in the lounge.
  
***********************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, September 9, 2004 6:49 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Red, Green, Yellow or Black... 
  

Roy pulled up the squad two blocks away from 
the intersection to which they had been assigned.
It was four blocks away from the first aid station
set up near a high school foot ball field that was
large enough to accomodate the medical helicopters.

Engine 51 was already parked at an angle near a
hydrant but her hoses were still in her hose bed.

Roy and Johnny got out, grabbed their gear and
reported in. Johnny spoke into his hand radio.
"Squad 51 on scene at Vajalla and McGinty."

Immediately, Hank Stanley intercepted them on
the frequency. ##Engine 51, Squad 51, we've been
ordered to search all the train cars between Vajalla
and Hwy 9. Use triage protocols and set up your
gear in a safe area. We're working at car forty five.
Cars one through forty four have been cleared and
evacuated. Do you copy?##

Gage frowned. "10-4. Loud and clear." he replied, pressing
the talk button. They started walking fast with absolutely 
everything that they could possibly carry from the squad
towards the train tracks. 

Roy looked at Johnny, ignoring the dangling air bottle mask
swinging around his knees. "Car forty five? Just how big
is this passenger line? I'm not seeing many fire crews
past ours here." he said throwing a head towards
the Ward La France where she was sitting idle. 

They rounded the next corner of the block and stopped
dead in their tracks. "Oh my word,  would you just look
at that?" Gage exclaimed. Ahead of them, they could see
accordianed silver and blue trains cars indicative of Amtrak
knotted eerily like some bizarre kinked snake above the 
railroad tracks. Hundreds of people who had been on the train 
were milling about, trying to leave towards the first aid station
or for the line of police cars that they could see trying to
coordinate rescue activities, paralleling the railroad tracks.

"Could have been worse." Roy commented. "Looks like
most of the cars are still basically near the tracks and
fully intact. Tipped over, but not on fire."

Johnny began to hit the fringes of walking wounded
that police officers were escorting towards the high school
to their right. He shouted to a motorcop in the middle of
a huddle. "Hey!" he said, getting the officer's attention,
by pointing to the green number on his helmet to identify
himself as a paramedic. "You got any victims that need
immediate attention?!" he gasped shifting the heavy weight
of gear in his hands. 

The cop shook his head. "Nah, these folks are minors and
can walk. Here." he said, clipping a bundle of white tags
that had green, yellow and red strips on them onto Gage's
air bottle straps. "A nurse working up ahead asked me to 
give these to you." and then he was gone into the crowd.

"That must have been Dixie." Roy exclaimed, searching 
with his eyes over all the heads of dazed people and shouting 
cops for any sign of her and Brackett. He couldn't locate them.

Johnny looked down at the wires and tags swinging
from his belt. "Triage tags. The train must've cracked
open somewhere along its length."

"It would have only done that if it hit an obstacle before
it derailed."

Johnny spun about, searching for more signs of trouble
past the row of pitch angled passenger cars jutting 
out in every direction from the railroad tracks along
the row of neatly tiled houses in the neighborhood.
"How about that highway to our right? Could the locomotive
engine have hit a car?" Johnny theorized as he stuck his
head above the crowd of frightened, but mostly uninjured
people moving away from the twisted train to try and spot
a reason.

"Possibly. I think that intersection's a ground level crossing.
Come on, I think I see Cap's helmet." Roy puffed as he moved 
the O2 cylinder from his side to his shoulder for easier 
carrying. 

Then they were there.

Gage heard a shout from Lopez to his left. "Over here! We've
got a woman down, bleeding very badly out of her legs, looks
like something heavy crushed them." the Latin American 
fireman said. "Follow me. She's over by the Mayfair, on the 
ground."

Roy and Johnny hurried over and crouched over a twenty 
something year old. A young man with their victim was upset 
but coherent and he held her hand. "She your girlfriend?" Roy 
asked him, reading the red margined triage tag fluttering in 
the wind on her shoulder. 

"Yeah. Her name's Cindy. Ohmyg*d. Is she gonna be all right?"

Johnny made himself smile once he recognized Dixie's work
of double tourniquets tightly bound above both the girl's knees.
"We're here to give her every chance. Have you had first aid 
training of any kind?"

"Some. Uh, a few years ago. I'm a boy scout pack leader."

"Fair enough. My partner's gonna start Cindy on some oxygen.
It'll help her get her breathing under control. That panting's just
from some blood loss which we're gonna build up again by 
starting a couple of I.V.'s Keep tabs on her pulse and breathing
rate, would ya? We're going to be busy down here for a bit."
Gage said, indicating the area of Cindy's badly broken legs.

"Anything I can do.." said the frightened young man.

Marco kneeled on the ground and helped Roy cut away
the woman's shirt sleeve so Roy could get access to
her arm for a blood pressure. Johnny got on the land line.

"Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?"

Joe Early came on the phone almost immediately.
##Go ahead, 51.## 

Johnny skipped preliminary information. "Triage victim, number sixty
three." he read from Dixie's hastily applied tag. "A female approximately 
twenty years of age. She's semi conscious due to crushing injuries to
both legs. Double tourniquets have been applied to her mid thighs. 
Stand by for the vital signs."

Gage buried the phone onto his neck and glanced over to where he
could hear Cap and another paramedic crew working on what
sounded like a steering wheel being bent with a K-12 and chains.
He couldn't yet see the car through the throng of people and
rescuers shifting around the silent train through the growing evening 
fog.

Marco said, "Johnny, that driver's not bad. We're putting him on a long board
just as a precaution. His leaking gas tank made him something of a
priority . I guess a train car clipped him when it jumped off the tracks."

Johnny nodded as he took the note pad from Roy containing what
he had found on Cindy during his secondary survey.

Marco spoke, shifting his head to the right to where the many rescuers 
beyond Rampart's doctor and nurse had not yet reached.
"I've got to go. Dixie's three cars from here, working her way
towards the locomotive with Dr. Brackett. They're on the leading
triage tag team." 

"Go." Roy told him.

"Wait." Johnny contradicted. Lopez skidded to a halt.
"Just how many cars are on this train?" Gage asked. 

"The DOT counted 102 from the air. The middle section's
on fire a half mile from here. Those Amtrak cars impacted
a light industrial propane tank. Most of Los Angeles City's fire
departments are handling that. Our units from the suburbs are on
just triage and extrication detail."

Gage nodded, waving him on. "Radio us if you find another red
tagged victim." he shouted. "We'll be done here in five minutes."
he said pointing to the two ambulance attendants waiting next
to the Mayfair that was shielding the girl victim from the milling 
crowds.

Lopez took off at a run.

"Well there's a tender mercy. We'll be nowhere near the fire."
Johnny said to his partner. Then he began relaying vital signs
to Rampart from what he read off the small pad of paper.

Two large bore I.V.s later and a neat feat of carefully positioned 
splinting kept the woman's circulation going into her feet. Johnny and
Roy had to fight instincts to let city paramedics be the girl's main
caregivers to the hospital.  A yellow jacketted paramedic from
Pasadena said, "We'll take real good care of her. She's got the first
row for a helicopter flight in." And then they were gone in the rig
with her, reds flashing, for the impromptu high school football field
landing area.

Roy and Johnny quickly packed up their gear again and headed
north on the strength of Marco's news about Dixie and Kel Brackett's
whereabouts.

A yellow tagged man with a splinted broken forearm grabbed Roy 
as they went by. "Please, you gotta look for my son. He was in
car number 49. Please. I can't find him...."  

DeSoto set down his gear and supported him. "Easy, mister.
Now where did you come from? You're headed in the wrong
direction. Medical help is that way."

"He slipped away from me.." said Vince Howard, running up to them.
"I got distracted by a couple of red tags. I can tell you more. His son's 
name is Jeffrey Mathers." he said taking the father's shoulders. 
"Come with me, maybe he's at the First Aid Station already. Let's 
go look for him. Stop bothering these two gentlemen."

"Please. Firemen. He's about eight years old, wearing a blue T shirt
and y- yellow pants. I just gotta find him.." mumbled the injured man.

Johnny and Roy watched him get swallowed up by the fog until
it seemed that it was only just the two of them alongside the twisted
bulk of the train. DeSoto broke out a flashlight to locate the search
marks crews ahead of them were leaving on the skin of each car
to show the ones cleared of people. 

"Sun's going down. It's gonna get cold. Man.. I hope we find 
everybody in time." said Gage. "This fog's getting thicker by 
the minute."

Roy found another rectangular shape jutting eerily up
into the indigo sky. "Car 49. " he read on the side door. 
"And there's no search mark yet. Let's check it out."

Roy and Johnny left their gear on the rail road rocks by a lit cherry flare
and together, they pulled open the train car door and went inside.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Brackett was a whole train car ahead of Dixie, and he was 
shouting and calling. "Is anybody in here? Shout if you can hear me. 
I'm a doctor from Rampart Emergency!"

Dixie, too, was calling for anyone to hear, but she started to lag
behind the much bigger Kel as she struggled over seats with
her flashlight.

She had just climbed over a tangle of them when a ghostly figure
ahead of her blocked her path. "Bellingham?" she said, stunned,
recognizing the off duty paramedic. She grabbed his arm in
the darkness. "Are you ok?" she asked, seeing blood running
from his mouth and the large bruise on his head. She couldn't
work it through her head that he was actually a passenger
on the luckless train. 

"M-My daughter. S-she was caught under me." said the bloody
T-shirted man. "She.. she was fine a minute ago..."

"Where is she? Easy, Bob. Everything's gonna be ok." Dixie gasped.

"I'm keeping her...warm..but..." he said numbly, in heavy emotional shock.

Dixie McCall looked down to find an infant lying limp in
his arms, her lips, feet and hands already turning blue. Dixie snatched
the tiny baby's body from him and into her arms and pressed a couple of 
fingers against her chilled upper arm. "Kel ! Can you hear me?!  
I got a pulseless infant back here." she shouted out loud. 

There was no reply from the way ahead.  

"Kel! Answer me!"

Nothing but echoes replied in the horrible silence of the Amtrak.

Dixie fell into an upright seat and set her flashlight until it aimed at
the metal ceiling, filling her arms with a bright white light so she
could see clearly what she was doing. Right away, she tipped 
back the baby's head and tried to gently get breaths inside of the 
still, clammy chest. Nothing went in.

Bob began to sob. "I-- I know about that.. I...can't seem to.......move."

"She's obstructed. I'm going to clear it." Dixie said quietly, rapidly
turning the limp infant over and beginning back blows and chest
thrusts. On the third attempt, Dixie's shaky puffs of air finally got in.
"Just sit there and relax, Bob. I'm sure help is on its way."

The Rampart nurse began the baby's CPR while her shocky 
paramedic father simply sobbed, watching them, with tears in his eyes.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Johnny Gage startled when the third train door parted under their collective
tugs to reveal a conscious victim, blinking up at them from the murk,
under his flashlight.  "Blue and yellow he said?"

"Yeah." Roy replied. "Jeffrey Mathers?"

The boy began to cry from where he lay in the rubble and he
stuck out his arms towards DeSoto, reacting like a frightened boy 
half his age. "Help me...  I can't find Daddy..."

DeSoto's paternal instincts soared and he reached out, gathering
the damp shivering boy into his arms. "It's ok. Your father's fine.
The doctors are taking care of him at a First Aid Station. How
are you doing? Do you hurt anywhere besides that cut on
your arm?"

The boy stayed mute, frozen with fear and he kept his eyes shut
tight and his arms locked in a death's grip around Roy's neck.

Gage ran a flashlight over the boy's head and body. "There's
a lot of blood here, but I don't think much of it is his at all." he said
reaching around and taking the boy's carotid. "Pulse's fast but strong 
here." He pulled out a green tag and wired it to the front of Jeffrey's
T-shirt with quick notes on the boy's injuries and his name.

"Whose is it?" Roy asked cradling Jeffrey's head on his shoulder,
softly calming the boy. "Shhh.. You're all right. We're going to 
someone who can take you to your father right now."

Jeffrey nestled into Roy's arms a little deeper and he sighed,
but his trembling didn't ease.

Gage cast his flashlight around in the fog.  It alighted on a young
shirtless teenager sitting upright in the next car with his head
thrown back. Johnny hurried over, his mask dangling air bottle clanging 
as he crouched down and felt for a pulse at the teenager's pale creamy 
neckline. He shook his head and pulled out a penlight, showing Roy the
fixed and dilated pupils he knew were there. Sighing with disappointment,
he tipped the teen over, looking for the reason why he died. 
He found it when a hole six inches wide became visible in the small of
his back. Blood still dripped from the wound. "Looks like a seat
brace or something impaled him through the lower abdomen. It must've 
drilled right through his lower aorta."

"Come on." Roy said, making sure the young child's head was 
turned away so that he wouldn't see the dead train passenger.
 "Let's get Jeffrey outside. We can wrap him in some sheets from 
the burn kit to deal with this mild shock of his."

 Johnny nodded, and gently returned the teenager's body to
the position he originally found it in before he attached a black edged
triage tag to its shoulder.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marco Lopez was bounding ahead in the treeline in a short cut back
towards the train when he spotted movement in the brush. A blood spattered
woman in navy walked out from under a pine tree. "Hey! Maam.. Are you
ok?"

She gave no sign that she had even heard him.

Marco ran to her side, gripping her arms, "I'm a fireman. Let's get you
out of here to some help."

The woman began to struggle and flail at him, screaming incoherently
and Lopez was forced to protect himself by restraining her wrists.
"Hey, hey hey. It's all right. You're out of the train and you're safe.
I got you..." he told her. 

Sobbing, the woman sank to the ground and her head drooped in
unrelenting grief. "He's dead... Ohmygod..." she cried. "They're all
dead.." 

"Listen to me. You're ok and that's what's important right now.
I'm Marco and I'm with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. 
Shh, easy hon. What's your name? Can you tell me that? Once you let 
me check to see if you're ok, we'll think about finding your people  
on the train, all right?" he said, keeping a light arm around her 
shoulders. "Come on, can you tell me what it is?"

The woman gave a deep sigh and some of the dazed look left
her eyes. "C--Candace Mallory..I'm from Santa Barbara..." and
she started to cry again actively.

Marco penned down her information onto a green labelled
triage tag for he could see no other injuries past a face
cut and some scratches on the woman's arm. "Candace? My
neighbor's named Candace." he smiled. 

"Really?" she smiled.
Candace felt an itch and reached up to scratch her face
and startled when her hand came away bloody. "Oh, my g*d,
I'm bleeding! OH!" she sobbed, starting to panic again.

Marco grabbed her hand and covered it with some gauze,
wiping it clean. "Candace, you've only got a small cut on your
lip. You're ok, really. See? I'm taking care of it. It'll stop very
soon if you hold this right there. Yeah. Hold that 4X4 
over your lip just like that."

"Ooohhh." Candace sighed, calming down. "What happened
to us? One moment we were laughing and the next, the cars 
were screeching and...lurching.. " her face grimaced into fresh
tears as torturing recollection returned in snatches..." We 
crashed, didn't we? What made it happen?"

"I don't know for sure. But I do know that everyone's getting help
as fast as we can get it there. That's why I'm here." he
reasoned. " And I can get some help going for you, too."

The woman smiled, suddenly seeing Marco as the firefighter he
said he was. "You're from the fire department..?"

"That's right."

Candace suddenly gripped her leg. "Ow.."

"What is it? Your ankle?"

"I-- I think so. Hurts.." 

"Here, let me take a look at it." Marco said, gently feeling the joint.

Candace winced slightly but that was all.

"Not broken. Do you think you can walk on it?  I'd like to get
you to some friends of mine down in that neighborhood below us."

Candace immediately panicked. "No! NO! I-- I can't go back down there!
It's too dangerous!  Crashing! There's so many people .... lying hurt... or 
much worse! Please, don't make me go back down there...." she begged.

"Easy, ok. ok. We'll find a way to go around." said Marco, planning ahead, 
checking out the terrain around them. He could just see Cap clearing from the
automobile wreck from his vantage point. He pulled out his walkie talkie.
"HT 51 to Engine 51." he hailed.

##Go ahead, Lopez.## came Captain Stanley's reassuring voice.

"I found a walker up here on top of the hill. I'm bringing her down.
Green tag."

##10-4. We'll keep an eye out for ya. Watch yourself in the fog. It's
getting pretty thick down here. Engine 51 out.##

Marco shrank down its antennae and started to stuff the HT back into
his jacket pocket.

Candace was looking at it with fascination. "You mean, I'm really going
to get out of here?" she said reaching for it.

Marco let her have it. "Yes."

The shocked woman hung onto the radio tightly as Marco helped
her to stand. She wobbled, but then walked with more assurance
faster and faster as she clung to the chattering radio like a life line.

"Come on, let's go this way.." Lopez told her quietly, placing his
jacket around her shoulders.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dixie kept on working on the baby. And somehow, she had managed 
to get through to Bob Bellingham that Dr. Brackett was on the train
with them.  Bob's voice rang out louder than Dixie's.

"Dr. Brackett! Come quick. It's my baby daughter!" he yelled in
full emotion. Fear gave him volume that Kel finally heard from where
he was.

Kel Brackett returned back the way he had come. "Bob Bellingham?
Is that you? Where's Dixie?!"

"Over here. Pulseless nonbreather. About twenty weeks old." she
gasped as she worked, her fingers pumping firmly over the baby's
breastbone.

"Keep going. Let's get them both out of here and to a chopper.
You ok to continue her CPR?" Kel asked his nurse as he gave
Bob's eyes a quick check where he sat numbly on the floor next
to Dixie's passenger seat.

"I'm fine. Just move.." Dixie told him. "Just heard Johnny and
Roy in the area. I think they're right outside!"

Brackett tried to peer out the train windows but fog made it
impossible to see through them.  Brackett pulled out
a cherry flare, lit it and tossed it outside. Then he took the whistle
from around his neck and blew on it hard, three times in several
triple series. "That should bring em cracking with their full 
medical gear. Just keep going on her. Her pupils are reacting."

Kel helped Dixie navigate through the darkened car with words
while he guided Bob by the shoulders through the same route.

Then they were outside under the night sky.

Leaping at his communications pack, Kel Brackett grabbed
his walkie talkie the Base Commander from the Fire Department
had given him. "Car 51. Baby down. Full arrest. Get a crew in
here for a chopper run, fast!"

Then he bent to put a nasal cannula on Dixie so that she
could give the baby more oxygen with each breath she
delivered by mouth. "Let me know when you get tired. I'm
going to go give Bob a once over, looks like he's going to
black out on us."

"I will." she promised.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cap met Marco and Candace in a backyard. "I got her Marco.
Go north! I just got a call from Stoker and Roy at Car number 50.
They've a woman pinned under some debris and she's gonna need
full spinal immobilization. They've got their hands full keeping her
airway clear. Go help them out."

"Right, Cap." and he dashed off after taking his radio back
from Candace.

Cap gently guided the slightly wounded woman towards the 
street where the rescue operations were ongoing.

"Wait.. where's he going?! I need him to help me get out of here!" 
she said with rising panic. "Please!" she struggled with
Hank, not knowing who he was.

"It's ok. He's one of my men. I'm his captain. I'm taking over
for him. Shh. It's ok. I got you. See? There are ambulances
over there. There's no problem. " he promised. "Just calm 
yourself down a little. You're ok. You're going to get out of 
here right now.."

The panic slowly died out of her eyes but hot tears returned.
"I am?"

"Yes, right now. Chet!" Cap said to a running form he
recognized in the darkness.

"Cap?"

"I've a walking wounded. Take her over to the triage line, pal.
Go easy with her. She's still a little confused but I don't think she's 
hurt seriously. Marco has her green tagged."
 

"I've got her." said Kelly. He aimed his flashlight on her triage tag.
"Candace Mallory.. Hiya Candace.. My name's Chet. Right this
way and I promise to lead you to some warm blankets and
a soft bed. Would you like that?" he asked.

Like a child, the emotionally traumatized woman nodded
yes and let herself be guided.

"After you get her over there head north. Stoker and Roy
have a tricky one needing extrication." Cap ordered.

Chet waved his understanding as he took Candace's uninjured
arm.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Photo: Train wreck residential - An Amtrak.

Photo:  Johnny Gage and Cap treating many in a  triage setup.

Photo: Triage tags.

Photo: Roy and Johnny treating victims near the train by a Mayfair.

Photo:  Bob Bellingham in a T- shirt with a pulseless infant in his arms.

Photo: A victim in the train, a boy, looking dazed and bloodied.

Photo:  Marco sitting in the woods with a walking wounded.

Photo: Cap giving an injured walker over to Chet in heavy fog.

Photo:  Stoker, Roy and Chet working on a badly injured lady under debris.

 *********************************************************************************
From:  Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Tue Sep 14, 2004  7:27 pm 
Subject:  Fast Track..


Johnny Gage ran from out of the fog heavily
laden with medical gear. "Hey! Whoever blew
that distress, give a yell! I'm coming!"

"Johnny?!" Kel Brackett shouted. "It's Brackett! Get 
over here! Dixie's got an infant CPR."

Gage ran, shifting his medical gear until the drug
box was in his right hand. He spotted Dixie,
sweating and bent over a very young baby in her lap.
He slammed down onto his knees and clattered
the drug kit's lid open. "You ok there?" he asked her as
she worked. "How's your O2 supply?" he said
seeing the glint of a cannula tubing around Dixie's
face.

"It's fine.. Just hurry.." Dixie puffed.  "I'm still
not getting a pulse from her."

Kel looked up from where he was cutting away Bellingham's 
shirt to look for injuries. Bob was mostly out, and moaning
and there was a fresh pool of vomit near his head. "Glad
you're one who heard us, Johnny. Where's Roy?"

"On an entrapment. Two cars from here."
Gage did a double take when he identified the man on the ground
as being Craig Brice's fire paramedic partner. "Bob? I thought
he was on vacation..." Johnny said, digging through the
drug box for what he knew Brackett would order for the baby.

Dixie gasped, trying to smile. "So did we.." She shifted 
her position until the baby lay across Johnny's splint box, using 
its hard surface to help her efforts. "Come, on honey.. Breathe." she 
encouraged the limp infant under her compressions.  "Daddy's 
really missing you." her voice begged. "And so am I."

Kel gave Gage the info he needed. "Bellingham's got nothing serious 
yet. Concussion maybe. But first things first. Johnny, skip the baby's 
airway, she's handling fine without one. We need to bump her heart
into course V fib or better and we need to do that right now. Go right to 
her .01 mg epinephrine I.V. 1/10,000 into a 10ml Ringer's bolus line, without 
the bag. Scalp stick would be best.  Follow it up with a two milliequivalent per 
kilogram of .5 bicarb in a push. Then take over for Dixie and get that baby 
onto that chopper ASAP! " he hollered over the roar of the helicopter 
landing in the street near their location. "Joe will take her first thing once 
you fly in. I just got done talking with him. He's got an endotrach set up and 
rewarming measures already waiting with a team. He'll deal with any 
hypoglycemia once she's intubated."

"Right, doc." Gage said, biting the plastic off a lactated fluid syringe.
He angled his head around Dixie's and established the l.V. line during
one of her ventilation pauses. "Epi's going in..." he shouted to Kel, grabbing 
up the baby's arm to feel for a brachial beat. His other hand taped 
up the Ringer's catheter port against the baby's temple."Ok, hold it a 
second, Dix." he nodded and then he plunged the medication's needle into 
the injection bulb, depressing the syringe's plunger. "I'm checking her!" 
he updated Brackett.

The nurse and paramedic held their breaths as they studied the
infant for any reaction. The baby pinked and twitched. But
her chest didn't rise at all. "Got her back, doc. But still no breathing."
Johnny told Kel as Dixie once again took that over. "Bicarb's next."

"Good enough first step for me. Get that done and I'll be
more than happy. Great going, you two. That's the chance we've been 
hoping for." Dr. Brackett smiled as he waved over some firemen who 
had run in top speed after hearing the distress whistle. "Over here!" 
he told the arriving crew trying to find them with their flashlights. 
"Adult male. Full C spine and a backboard. And all the spare O2 you 
got!"

The Pasadena men hustled over, speaking quickly into their radios.

Johnny stuck two EKG monitor pads over the baby's chest and abdomen
and wired the infant for a quick peek and punched on the unit with a 
smack, breathing fast. Then he smiled. "Rate's just over 140, doc. 
Terrrrrific.." he celebrated.

"Sustainable." Kel agreed. "Any distension we need to worry about?"

Gage swept a couple of fingers over the baby's stomach. "Not
much. Dixie's vents are still working ok."

"What's she at?" he asked about Dixie's rescue breathing rate.

"24 or so a minute." Johnny replied.

"Get a BP for me and then get her out of here." Kel ordered, nodding
his satisfaction.

Johnny rushed, scrambling, and soon, he got one. "62 Systolic."

"That's flight adequate. Stable enough. All right. Dix, let him take over." 
Dr. Brackett said, getting the firemen's 02 to Bellingham through a 
non rebreather as others fitted the now unconscious man with
a cervical collar and got him ready for a log roll. "Gage, run..." 
he ordered. "Leave without us. I'll call a ground ambulance for him."

The exhausted RN pulled off her nasal cannula as Johnny continued
where she left off with the baby's mouth to mouth and nose ventilations,
and she fitted it around his face, tucking the O2 bottle under his
arm. She pulled the EKG patches off the baby girl's sweaty skin, tossing
the wired leads aside and then she nodded. "Johnny, you're set. I'll help you 
carry your gear." she panted, shouting over the roar of the rescue 
chopper, blowing leaves and debris over them, as it sped up rotors
after Dr. Brackett waved a signal for its pilot to get ready for a fast 
priority lift off.

Johnny wrapped the baby into a blanket and ran, maintaining
careful ventilations. Dixie followed him with the drug box and Gage's
HT. "Dr. Brackett's now on your channel." she told him. "Use him
if she worsens again. I'll keep an ear out, too."  she promised,
transferring the baby back to him after he leaped high enough
to board the hovering helicopter.

The last sight she had of Bob Bellingham's tiny daughter and Johnny
was when their two silhouettes merged into one as the focused 
paramedic gave the baby the breaths she so badly needed as 
gently as he could without harming further, her already resuscitation 
bruised body.

Then they were gone in a swirl of dirt into the night sky.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Gage giving mouth to mouth to a baby.

Photo: A rescue chopper buzzing the squad.

Photo: Brackett in an intense closeup.

Photo: Dixie holding something in a yellow shock sheet.

******************************************************************************
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@y...> 
Date:  Wed Sep 15, 2004  9:43 am 
Subject:  The Flip of a Coin..

 
Roy DeSoto glanced over his shoulder to where
Jeffrey Mathers lay on a burn sheet. "How are ya doing
over there?" he asked the boy in the blue shirt and yellow 
pants who was just a lighter shadow in the middle of a darker
one on the ground about thirty feet away from the tangle
of metal that held Roy's current top priority.

"I- I'm ok... Where's dad?" the eight year old blinked up
into the darkness. "Why aren't we going to him right now?"
he said, still afraid of moving on his own.

"Because we're a little short handed." Roy replied, looking down.
Stoker and Chet were handling his trapped victim's airway 
suctioning while he held the badly injured woman's head still. 
"And we've a lady here who needs our help just as soon as we 
can get it to her. Just keep wrapped up like you are and you'll warm 
up soon, I promise. Someone IS coming for you." hissed the fire 
paramedic when his knotting forearms started cramping up.

"ok.." said Jeffrey Mathers.

The three from Station 51 were worried.

Chet grunted. "Ughh.. I can't get it lifted any higher. Something's
really wrong down here. I think this whole section's attached to
the strut pinning her under here. We're gonna need a portapower or a
K-12 to make any progress at all.  "

Roy nodded in agreement as another fireman fitted the woman with
a cervical collar to free up DeSoto's hands. "This train car is buried too 
deep. Nothing short of heavy equipment is going to do much of anything."

Mike Stoker glanced up at his crewmates with a frustrated look.
"That won't work either. The ground's too soft around us. Something else's
gonna have to be done."

Roy dragged over a battered suitcase with a free hand and used that
to hold the woman's head in alignment with her body. She lay
partially under two heavy crossbeams from the chassis of the train 
car on her left side and her face was pressed almost completely 
against the train car's skin.

Stoker dropped the suction wand onto the woman's chest and
quickly replaced the oxygen mask over her nose and swollen mouth.
"I got her clear. She's breathing fast and shallow but well enough."

"Is her jaw fractured?" DeSoto asked, as another trail of blood
started dripping down to the dirt. 

"No, I think she just bit her tongue. All of her teeth are there."
Mike replied.

Chet Kelly got on his HT from where he was jammed up between
the beams and the semi conscious woman while he supported her 
torso with his knees to ease her labored breathing. "HT 51 to Engine 51.
Cap!" he hailed loudly over the sound of hammering and hand tossed debris
as the rescue workers around them tried to dig down to the trapped
woman's level from the other side.

##Go ahead, 51.## said Hank.

"We're gonna need all the tools ASAP. A bobcat is definitely out.
Stoker says we're over a sand pile."

##10-4, Marco and I will run a set of em to ya ourselves. Two minutes!"

Chet coughed and set the radio down quickly next to his head on
a metal sheet as he tried once more to lift some mass off the
woman's stomach. He failed.  

The woman's breath gushed out of her mouth at the return of weight 
and she moaned when she couldn't inhale any more. Her eyes rolled
up into her head.

"It's slipping!" Chet gasped. 

Immediately, two diggers wormed their way under the creaking car
to Chet's location and joined him in a desperate attempt to stop
the tipping, barely counter balanced, car. The edge of the train 
chassis lifted up six inches.

Roy helped the woman revive by helping her breathe with
an ambu bag until her eyes started regaining focus once more.
"It's ok now. We stopped it. Just relax. We're gonna get you outta
here." he said insistently into her ear. 

Soon, the woman pushed the face mask away and struggled to
blink clarity back into her vision."S--Something's  squeezing.... 
*gasp* ...me." she gurgled. "ahhhHH!"

"I know. I know.. We're trying to get down below your waist to
see what it is and deal with it." Roy said. "And about your pain,
I've a doctor on the way who'll take care of that just as soon 
as he gets here. What's your name?"

The woman didn't answer, working hard to breathe. She spit 
continuous blood out of her mouth. Roy helped her once again
on the bag from where she hung face sideways.

He motioned for another fireman to take over for him while
he got another blood pressure reading on her free arm. It
was ominous and matched her rising tachycardia.

He climbed out of the hole and grabbed two I.V. bags of
Ringer's and started to prep them. He shouted down to
Chet. "Kelly, see if you can find any I.D. on her. If we have
a name we'll have a chance to learn what her blood type is
off some medical records to pave the way for a possible 
transfusion."

"Will do.." and the curly haired fireman's feet disappeared
back into a hole at the diggers' feet. He came out with
a battered tan wallet, passing it off hand to hand until
it got into Roy's grip. "That was in her front jeans pocket." came
Kelly's muffled voice.

Roy flipped it open and startled.
 
"Mathers?"  his eyes involuntarily shifted back into the direction
of the scared little boy resting out of sight nearby. He bent close
to the woman's ear. "Julie.. can you tell me if you have a little
boy or not?"

"I.... yes. It's Jeffrey." she said muzzily during a lucid moment. "The 
three of us just wanted...*cough* to take a little trip..." she groaned.

Mathers screamed when something on top of her under the train car, 
shifted. Immediately the men around her, froze, listening to the creaking 
mass around them.  Bloody tears leaked out her eyes and Roy saw 
tiny blood vessels start to burst in them.

::Traumatic crush injury..:: DeSoto identified.
"Julie," said Roy urgently. "Listen to me. We've got your
son out. He's ok. And so's his father. We...Jeffrey's right here at
the top of the hill. Do you hear me? Jeffrey's ok.. And Mr. Mathers
only has a broken arm. He's waiting for us at the First Aid Station."

"J---ff?  And Jared?" she gasped hoarsely. She began to fade again
and so did her brief smile. Mrs. Mather's eyes began to close as
breathing suddenly became more difficult.

"No, no.. no. " ordered Roy. "Julie? Open your eyes. Can you hear me?"
he said, rubbing some knuckles into her breast bone. "You've got
to stay awake as long as you can. We need your help."

Julie jerked and blinked. "W-where's Jeffrey?" she panted, then a jolt
of pain made her cry out.

"Thirty feet away from us. He's safe." Roy replied, cupping her face 
into his hands. "Just keep focusing on me and not the train, all right?"
replacing the lighter oxygen mask tightly over her mouth. "We'll have
it off of ya as soon as we can."

"I--I want to see him." she bubbled, gripping Roy's hand tightly
with her own bloody one. DeSoto didn't know what was best.
::Should we spare the boy? By not letting him see his mother
like this? Or should we bring him down here? In order to give 
her a good reason to live?::


Right then, Dr. Brackett and Dixie McCall arrived. "Roy, what do you got?!"

Roy's head shot up. "Traumatic chest or abdomen." he answered
instantly. "B.P.'s 104. Respirations 26 and shallow with active oral 
bleeding. She's positioned left lateral, recumbent. Something's 
pressing her down badly. There's petechiae all over. Scleral, too." 

"Two large bore Ringer's Lactate I.V.s, wide open. But only if her
chest's clear."

"Got them right here. Her lung sounds are still dry. That blood's
from a tongue bite."

Brackett's face twitched. "Ok, get em in and running."

DeSoto had to peel off Julie's powerful grip on his hand, which had
left bruises behind.

"How's her consciousness level?" Dixie asked from
another direction above him.

"Awake, groggy. Drifting when she gets tired of trying
to breathe. We've been helping her. Also, she's feeling a fair 
amount of pain here." Roy said, swabbing down places on
Julie's arms for the I.V.s. 

"I'm coming down there with some MS." Kel said, aiming 
a flashlight at Julie's face. "Keep that ambu handy. How soon
until she's extricated?"

Roy looked to Chet.

"Don't know Dr. Brackett. She's in here real tight. A whole
crew was radioed a few min-"

Cap's shout interrupted him.

"They're right there." Kelly amended, continuing to dig with his
gloves at Roy's feet, dog paddling dirt away from a hole as fast 
as he could so a circular saw could fit inside of it easily.

Kel leaped into the space Chet had made and soon
injected the pain medication. "What's her name?" he asked Roy.

"Mrs. Julie Mathers." said four people.

Brackett glanced around with a nod and he crouched down next
to Roy. A firemen handed him a helmet to wear and he put it on.

"Mrs. Mathers. I'm Doctor Brackett. I just gave you something to
help with the pain. Tell me, can you feel your legs or anything below
your waist?"

Julie nodded. "I feel....everything." she grunted with effort. 
"Where's Jeffrey? Please.. I want to see my son right n--" and she 
stiffened as another shift in the car jolted through her.  Mather's eyes 
bugged out when an inexorable pressure landed on her stomach. 
She started to purple and her consciousness suddenly struggled, 
desperately.

Brackett yelled. "Get it off her now!" he shouted, gripping her chin
around the cervical collar as two sets of hands began using the ambu 
bag to try to get oxygen back into Julie's lungs. Animation left
Mather's features and she started to convulse as blood flow
began to cease going into the lower half of her body.

"Anything getting in doc?" Roy asked, snatching up an endotrachial
tube.

"No tube! The problem's because her lungs are being compressed.
Get it off her guys ASAP. We've no ventilations!" Brackett yelled.

Captain Stanley and Marco worked the fastest K-12 cutting arcs they
had ever made, one from each side, until they met in a semi circle
at the top. Many hands punched the severed piece in and then lifted it
out as soon as it cooled enough to touch.

Julie's chest rose suddenly when the wall section's heaviness left it.  
She was quickly hyperventilated until her color returned to normal 
and until she began to resist it once more, moaning in feeble complaint.

A floodlamp from above then illuminated the newly freed gap 
leading inside the train.

Dixie gasped.

Brackett and Roy and all the rescuers paused in shock.

A four inch by four inch pole had been driven through Julie's 
stomach just below the level of her diaphragm on her right side.

Kelly's voice shouted bright and scared. "There's another victim 
in here! He's been impaled on this thing, too! Through his lower 
abdomen." and he grabbed the nearest body part to him, a 
man's bare foot, that was jutting out from under a chunk of metal, 
to test for circulation.

The new victim's voice began to scream. "I'm here. I'm alive! Agh..
Get me out. Please. Get me out of here! I've been s-stabbed."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kel Brackett's mind was racing. He had done everything he could
to arrange things. Julie Mathers merited an emergency surgical attempt
to save her life lying right where she was. But so did the second 
man lying beneath her.

The Rampart physician took the stethoscope cups out of his ears
slowly. ::What should I do?::

Scott Kincaid was dozing fitfully under his two I.V.s and he
was still mumbling, begging for escape.

The firemen had asked Kel repeatedly if he wanted them to cut the pole
between the two with their saws in order to get them out of the train
but he refused to let them.

"The vibrations and movement from any cutting will most likely kill
both of them! You know as well as I do that the pole is acting as
a tourniquet internally. No, we're gonna have to operate on them
as soon as we get it freed using something with less impact, an
arc welder perhaps. Then we can slide them both off it when it 
collapses." Brackett outlined to the fire and rescue crews.

All the men looked at each other uncomfortably.

Roy grabbed Kel's arm. "There's only one of you, doc. They will both
bleed massively once they're freed. And there's no way you can operate
on both of them at the same time...not fast enough.." he urged, the 
situation was already very clear in his mind in a surge and Brackett 
saw that his senior paramedic's eyes were painfully haunted.

"I know that. This is triage, Roy..." he said, filling the noisy hole
with a sudden calm horror. "Pick one."

"Don't ask me to make that kind of choice, Doctor Brackett." DeSoto 
whispered hollowly, stepping away from the bloodied doctor, angling 
his dusty head. "I can't. " he gasped. "Not ever."

"Then let me make it for you. You are relieved of the responsibility."
Kel said firmly, hardening.

"You can't play god with their lives..." Dixie said to Kel forcefully,  
her face paling. "No one should."

"What other choice do I have?" Kel said a little loudly, crouching
between his two now stabilized, gravely injured patients. He swept
both his hands out into a frustrated shrug.


From the ground below them, a weak feminine voice sighed.
"You can let US decide who. It's our lives, doctor. Not yours. "

Julie Mathers and Scott Kincaid were lying quietly and both their
sets of eyes were silently watching them all, glazed from pain medications.

Between them, their hands were clasped calmly together for comfort 
as if Julie had never uttered such a horrible statement.

"But first, let me see my son." the mother requested.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Cap with a porta power.

Photo:  Marco crouched with a crowbar.

Photo:  Victim getting a C collar.

Photo:  Man's foot sticking out of debris.

Photo:  Roy feeling a carotid on a woman.

Photo:  Brackett with bad news.

**************************************************************************
From:  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Sep 16, 2004  10:08 am  
Subject:  Miracle Baby..

Dr. Early and Dr. Morton met Johnny Gage at the emergency
desk at a run. They both were in blue surgical gowns, but
Mike already wore his blue mask while Joe's was still dangling 
around his neck. Johnny puzzled at that odd observation for a 
total of two seconds. Then Dr. Early spoke, breaking his curiosity.

"Treatment Four, we're already set up, Johnny." Joe told
the busy paramedic. "Has she started breathing on her
own yet?"

Gage spoke between the puffs of air that he was giving 
the baby and he let himself be guided to the right place. 
"About one every four, doc. She's really cold. But her 
pulse's hanging in there." he said, pulling off the cannula he
wore for the infant. An orderly took the oxygen cylinder
out from under his arm just as it fizzled out the last psi.

The doors to the treatment room opened on a surgical 
setup.

"This isn't sterile, Johnny. Set her down." said Joe, patting
the exam bed while he gloved up and put on his mask.

Mike Morton got busy with a warming probe and
he started calibrating a respirator to the baby girl's 
size and age. "She's young.."

Gage nodded. " Dix said she's about twenty weeks old.
This is paramedic Bob Bellingham's little girl. He was on 
the train because he was off duty on vacation. My guess is 
that he was on his way into the city for a pediatric doctor's 
visit."

"H*ll of a way to get one." said Morton through
his surgical mask while he flicked the baby's feet 
to test for her awareness level.

Gage carefully set the limp baby girl down on the
treatment bed, supporting her head and spine.

Joe Early immediately listened to her chest with
a stethoscope while Morton set a neonate positive
pressure O2 mask over her face. "I've a rate about 150. " 
he said, looking at Johnny for a reason why it was so high.

"I looked her over really good. Her sternum's
swollen but intact." Johnny said. "That tach's not trauma related. 
Brackett ordered some serious epinephrine. That might be
why she's racing."

"How much?" Morton asked.

".01 mg  of 1/10,000. " Gage replied, as he stuck baby sized
EKG pads and leads onto the distressed infant lying
between them under the exam light.

"Ok, thanks Johnny, we got it from here. Nice work
bringing her back."

"No problem, doc. Bob'll be flying in to you on the next trip. 
He's been in and out of consciousness. I just thought I'd
warn you. He might be a handful trying to find out where
his daughter went to."

Mike nodded. "I'll tell Carol once we've stabilized her
condition."

"Is it bad out there?" Joe asked Johnny.

"Yes. We're still doing Initial Triage, with Dixie
and Brackett at the head of the main team. We're 
at Car 52 out of 102."

Morton whistled through his mask. "That's a big
passenger train. Get set for massive casualties
once you hit the sleeper cars."

"Sleeper cars?" Gage said, watching the two doctors
examine the baby for injuries beyond the obvious ones.

"Yeah. Amtrak commuters pay a premium for a two
by five foot cubby bunk recessed into a wall."
Mike gave a shudder. "I never get a ticket
for one myself. Reminds me too much of a coffin."

"Maybe those provided some protection to
the riders.." Johnny thought. "Being that they
weren't in a lot of space to get thrown around
in too much during the derailment."

Morton shook his head in disagreement, making
a noise of negation. "Most likely that snugness backfired.
Doesn't take much to crush in the roof of a train car."

Johnny frowned at that. Gage sighed, mentally letting 
go of his tiny patient. "I'd better get back. Chopper's waiting.
You're sure she's gonna be all right?" he said pointing his
talkie antennae at the bed as he backed up reluctantly,
not wanting to leave his patient.

Joe grinned. "I guarantee it. She's checking out over 90%"

"Good. That's real good, docs. Thanks." Johnny said,
looking very paternal.

"Say, Johnny.." said Dr. Early.

"Yeah?"

"When you get back, check in with Dr. Brackett, ASAP.
He mentioned something about emergency field surgery
at Car number 50."

"That'll be Roy's case. He was working with an entrapment.
I'm on it." and then Johnny turned with an effort and was gone.

"Devoted, isn't he?" Morton remarked.

"That's what makes him one of the best." Joe commented.

The fluting tones off the EKG monitor rose another
ten beats a minute and Joe ordered the baby sedated
to rest her metabolism and heart. He got down to
business and started to intubate the tiny baby.

Mike blinked around his surgical cap and mask.
"Will she need the crich?"

"No, a 2.5  worked just fine. Let's get her hooked
up to the bird." he ordered. "Set it to fifty percent in
case she's got some pulmonary bruising from the 
CPR."

Joe smiled and stroked the sleeping infant's face with
a finger. "What a lucky little girl. Six fragile pounds against
400 tons of crashing locomotive and all she's got to worry
about is a little hypothermia.. Absolutely amazing.."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Joe in scrubs talking to Gage in a treatment room.

Photo:  A baby on positive pressure vents under a stethoscope.

Photo:  A baby getting intubated in a surgical setting.

Photo:  Crowds of people around a crashed Amtrak.

Photo:  A crashed train car can spray labelled as "empty".

*************************************************************************
From:  "Champagne Scott" <chameleonkate@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Sep 16, 2004  2:02 pm 
Subject:  How You Leave the World Behind...


Dixie lowered her head so the sudden tears erupting in
her eyes, wouldn't be seen.  She waited to see how Kel
reacted to his patients getting involved in their own life
saving or death decision.

Dr. Brackett immediately addressed Julie's concern.
"I have no intention of keeping you separated from your
son, Mrs. Mathers. In fact, I'll send my paramedic right now
to go fetch him." and he nodded up at Roy to leave the hole
and get the boy.  "We were just simplifying things until we
learned the physical conditions of both you and Mr. Kincaid."

"Simplifying.. Yes, " Scott coughed into his oxygen mask.
"That's what we're going to be doing, isn't it?"

Brackett remained silent, as he took first Scott's blood pressure,
then Julie's to mark the new readings on their triage tags.

Julie started weeping and Dixie went immediately to her
side to hold her hand. "Shh,.. we'll figure this out. I-It doesn't
have to be this way.." she whispered. "Let Dr. Brackett think a
moment."   Mrs. Mathers' weeping created spasms along the 
pole spearing her and she grasped at it reflexively in a choked
silent scream. Dixie helped hold it still, along with Marco.

"Give the morphine time to work." Kel said. "Another five minutes."

Scott was shocky and bitter. "Is that how long we have? Another five
minutes?" he gasped, helping his attending firemen hold Julie's
pole that was impaling him, too, steady, while others bound his
wound to control his bleeding. "Forgive me doctor, for a little
gallows humor on my part. It's just that these circumstances are
more....*choke* than bizarre. I'm a lawyer and so this strikes me
as just a bit......funny. I didn't expect to go this way when I got 
up this morning."

Julie almost started laughing through her grief and fear
because of shock and the morphine. But then she filled
with uncontrollable sobbing when Scott's joke silenced.

Mr. Kincaid caught her grief and magnified it.
Scott kept tight hold of Julie's hand the whole time he spoke to
his rescuers. "We're perfect strangers," he said of himself
and Mrs. Mathers. "And yet I feel like I can't ever let go of her."

"Mr. Kincaid.." Kel began. "I'm so sorry. But we have to hurry.
The hemorrhaging you both are experiencing will soon reach
a critical point. Surgery will have to begin immediately."

"Scott. We can't let them go through....*gasp* what we're going through.
It's..not right for us to make them choose........who lives......and who
dies.." Mathers groaned making eye contact with the man.

Kincaid's face twisted in sudden remorse and sadness.
Then he mumbled. "Can you all leave us alone for a moment?"

Reluctantly, the firemen, nurse and doctor retreated out of the hole.

When they were gone, Scott drew a bloody coin out of his pocket 
and he opened up Julie's fingers one by one tenderly before he set it 
onto her trembling palm. "This is the only thing I can think of for us to 
do. I guess I can live or die by the outcome. Money always talks anyway. 
*cough* Heads or tails?"

"Heads." Julie said woozily. 

"Ok, I've got tails. Ready?" and Scott hefted their joined hands up for a 
toss of the fateful quarter into the air...

"Ready.." she replied.

*Pingggggggg......*

The flying piece of bloodstained silver glinted in the light.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy arrived back with a bundled Jeffrey Mathers following along
behind and he knelt by the boy and told him that his mother
was under the train. "Don't be afraid, Jeffrey. Your mother's
been given some medicine and she isn't feeling her injuries.
She's... she wants to see you."

"Is she going to get out of the train?"

"We're still working on it." DeSoto answered truthfully.

"Yes, sir.." said the frightened boy.  He took Chet Kelly's hand long
enough to climb down under the lantern lights and into the hole.

At the sound of her son's approach, Scott and Julie both covered
where the pole had gored them with a free blanket so the child
would not see it. And then they both let go of their desperate 
stranger bonding hand clasp.

Julie quickly dried her face and held out her arms to her son. "Jeffrey?"

Jeffrey rushed into them and into a deep hug. "Mom. I was so
scared, but they took really good care of me. Dad's ok.  A policeman
is trying to find him right now so he can come see you, too, but they
said it might take a long time to find him."

Julie started crying anew at the mention of her husband.
"That's ok." she said smothering him full of kisses and she smoothed
his hair down around the dried blood and dirt that had crusted there.
"And soon, you'll get to the hospital where you can get cleaned up.
Won't that be nice?" she said, hiding a grimace of pain from the pole
getting bumped by Jeffrey's back.

Jeffrey looked up from his mother's embrace. "Who's that?" he
asked pointing to Mr. Kincaid lying nearby.

"That's Scott, another train passenger. He works in the city as
a lawyer, just like what you want to be when you grow up."

"Hi Scott. "

"Hi Jeffrey.." said Mr. Kincaid. "Are you ok?"

"Yes." replied the dirty, bloody boy. Then his fingers found his mouth, 
"Are you and mom ok?"

Julie and Scott suddenly met eyes and rejoined hands and they
both couldn't stop the tears from flowing down their faces. 

"Jeffrey, honey. I have always told you the truth about things
whenever we talk right?" Julie began.

"Yes." the boy said, touching the oxygen mask around his
mother's face.

Scott blinked and a fit of coughing interrupted mother and son.

Then Mrs. Mathers spoke. "Well I'm going to tell you something
now,...that is going to be very very hard for you to understand or
even to think about. But,... I have to say it now while I still can."

Jeffrey started to cry, instinctively sensing the worst. 
"Are you hurt very badly, mom?"

"Yes, Jeffrey, I am. And so's Mr. Kincaid. And ...and..the doctor 
here can help only one person get better because we're so
far away from the hospital."

"...no..." murmured Jeffrey, clinging to Julie's neck. "Shut
up, Mommy. Don't say that. I don't want you to."

"And Mr. Kincaid and I have decided.... who ..stays behind."

Next to them, Scott's head began to sink lower and lower
as unconsciousness began to set in.. and he
whispered over and over again. "I'm sorry, Julie.. I'm
sorry............Julie...."

Jeffrey's mouth gaped open in wordless grief when he heard
Scott's faint admission and he began to wail and cry desperately. 
"NO.. make them save YYyoou, mom.. Please...Make them save--.."
and he began to hold tight to Julie's shoulders, tangling his fingers
into her damp hair.

Julie felt bad jolts of pain but she managed to speak.
"Shhh, Jeffrey. You have to go, so the doctors can start  
to work on Mr. Kincaid.  I...just wanted to say goodbye.
And to tell you how deeply I love you ..and Daddy." she weeped.

"Noo, MOm..... no..!" Jeffrey wheezed, trying to bury his
mother's words under the oxygen mask with his cheek and hands.

At his cries the rescue personnel returned. And Johnny Gage
was among them. No one had to ask what the outcome of the 
private decision had been.

Quietly, crews swirled around Scott Kincaid and Dr. Brackett
barked orders for more I.V.'s and a new one of whole blood
of Scott's blood type.

Julie said to Roy as he approached, "You take really good
care of him...." she demanded, hot tears burning her cheeks.
"Jeffrey.. I  love you..." she whispered into her raging son's ear
and then he was torn away from her grasp by the firemen.

Julie lay back down in shock as a numbing darkness began
to nibble at the corners of her awareness and she watched 
Jeffrey's struggling form under the paramedic's arm as if
it were a silent slow motion movie.

The doctors were ready to drape Scott's abdomen when 
Dixie noticed that Scott had Julie's hand once more in an 
unbreakable grip.

"Hold it. Hold it.." she snapped and McCall leaned close to Scott's 
ear. "What is it, Scott?"

"Help her instead. I........have no family...." and then he fell unconscious.

Dixie's face fell under a flood of tears with high emotion and she shouted. 
"Dr. Brackett! Did you--?"

"I heard." he said bruskly, already transferring positions to crouch over
Julie Mathers while he threw on a surgical gown, mask and sterile gloves.
"Everybody. We're gonna cut her free without waiting for the arc welder. 
Don't worry about spinal immobilization. This is life saving measures first. 
Get set for heavy bleeding and have hemostats standing by. I am almost 
one hundred percent certain that only one lobe of her liver is involved. 
There's no time to lose! " he snapped. 

Then he paused briefly and looked at Chet after studying Scott Kincaid's 
slack face with an unreadable expression. "Fireman Kelly, please stay with Mr. 
Kincaid after we move him out of the way." he ordered gently. "Have him brought
out to a paramedic team. There's always a remote chance that somebody else,
apart from us, can still save him."

Julie Mathers didn't hear any of the last two minutes. Her eyes had closed
and she drifted away into a deep coma under Dixie's hands.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy and Johnny laid Jeffrey Mathers down onto the ground.

DeSoto felt for his pulse. "He's fainted." the emotionally overcome
paramedic said hoarsely.

"Cover him up." said Gage, equally effected. "Dr. Brackett's going
to need me in there. Joe ordered me to help him."

"Go.  I'll stay until the boy's father arrives.." DeSoto said protectively
cradling Jeffrey's head while he monitored the boy's shallow breathing.

::A nightmare. I can't believe this is happening.:: Roy thought.

But then the radio next to him crackled.  ##HT 51 to Squad 51##

"Squad 51." Roy acknowledged. It was Johnny and he said four
simple words. 

##They went with her.##

Roy dropped his head into a grimy hand. "10-4." And he started
breathing faster. His chest hurt in sympathetic pain, as the great
emotional burden that he had been an unwilling witness to, suddenly lifted
away at his partner's terse statement. The radio fell bonelessly from
his hand.

A few minutes later he began to gently stroke Jeffrey Mathers forehead
to wake him gently, as his father would have done had he been there.

Roy hastened the boy's recovery with a soft lullaby that only they could hear.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Firemen over a bloody boy on a ground stretcher.

Photo:  Woman being given oxygen by a rescue worker.

Photo:  A man with a flail chest and petechiae flecking on his skin.

Photo:  Brackett and Johnny Gage gowning up into surgical clothes.

Photo:  Dixie, Roy and Johnny listening to an HT, looking left.

*******************************************************************************
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@y...> 
Date:  Mon Sep 20, 2004  10:23 pm 
Subject:  Salvage


Hank Stanley gripped Chet Kelly's shoulder when
he saw the stokes carrying Scott Kincaid being lifted
from underneath the train. He noticed how unusually drawn
the fireman's face was as he verbally stepped up the
pace of the silent extrication team.

51's captain was about to ask him about it when Roy
DeSoto, ambulance loading a young boy, gave his head 
a miniscule shake. "That man's downgrading into a black tag, Cap."
the paramedic said, pointing to the bundle of triage tags swinging 
from his jacket's halligan tool for clarity. "Brackett's asked Chet 
to stay on a one to one with him...until there's an outcome, one
way or the other."

"You mean those paramedics working on Chet's victim won't be 
able to save him?" Captain Stanley asked.

"Probably not.  He has a penetrating abdominal hemorrhage 
that only rapid surgery can rectify."

"But isn't Dr. Brackett working down there with you guys?"
Hank puzzled.

Roy looked down as he closed the ambulance doors containing
Jeffrey Mathers and his father.  "He's operating on a woman
who has the same thing. This is her husband and son right here." 
he replied softly, smacking the back doors of the Mayfair to let
the driver know that he could leave for Rampart. "That man told
our team to rescue her instead of him. It was.... incredibly brave,
what he did."

Hank didn't know what to say and he watched Chet kneel down
beside Scott Kincaid's head when the man began to stir as
the high flow IVs started performing their function. "How long?"
Cap asked, feeling sympathy for Chet and his difficult task.

"Any time now." Roy DeSoto answered. Then he grabbed up his gear 
and joined Dixie, who was just as pale and emotionally glazed as 
Chet, for moving on to the next train car for triage categorizing.

Hank caught Chet's eye and held up his radio and tapped it with
a finger in supporting emphasis before he returned to the Command
Post to get word on the next extrication site assignment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott looked up and saw a fireman crouched over him.
"So you're the lucky guy, eh?" he coughed.

"Sir, just try to relax.." Chet said, taking off his helmet.

Kincaid started to laugh weakily, in acceptance of his situation.
"It's really not so bad, you know."

"What isn't?" Kelly asked.

"Dying." whispered Scott, trying to focus his eyes.

A paramedic from Ninety Nine's working over Scott's stomach
immediately spoke up. He did not yet know how bad Scott's
injury really was. He made a sound of negation. "Wrong
answer, man." he warned his victim. "Nobody speaks the D
word when my partner and I are on the job. It's a real downer."
he firmly aimed at Scott.

"Would you tell him how it is?" Kincaid tossed his head at Chet.
"Better to burst their bubble now then later, kid." 

Kelly licked dry lips and interjected a reply when the Asian paramedic 
asked his partner about mechanism of injury findings. "Guys,
Mr. Kincaid was freed from a four inch diameter pole that was
driven completely through his body. This injury has a large exit wound 
which is hidden from the packing Brackett tried to use to staunch the 
bleeding. You can't see it because of the stokes sheeting. Kel tagged
that black color for a reason. It's far too late to do anything."

The paramedic didn't even acknowledge Kelly's input and he mumbled
to his partner. "Everyone's an expert." and then he tuned Kelly out as
they took vital signs readings on Scott and opened up a biophone channel
to their hospital.

Mr. Kincaid lifted a hand to the glove Chet had placed on his shoulder 
and he gripped it. "Promise me you'll get Julie to her son and husband."

"Sir.. " 

"Promise me, fireman."

"I will, Mr. Kincaid."

"Tell her that it was worth going. Ladies are ....always first into the life boat." he grimaced 
sharply. Then his eyes widened and the shallow breaths under the O2 mask quickened. 
"My G*d, It's beautiful over there." he said looking at a point beyond his feet at
the train. "Do you see all those people? I wonder who they are..."

Chet looked up and saw only the damp fog and cherry flares lying on the ground
in front of the Amtrak car. "Where?" He saw no one. When he looked
down, the animation had faded out of Scott's eyes.

"V-Fib!" shouted one of the paramedics, studying Scott's monitor.

"I got the paddles.." answered the other.

Kelly felt a smack against his stomach. It was an ambu bag.

The blond paramedic said, "Do I have to show you how to use this?" he
snarled.

Chet reluctantly took Scott's face into his hands and began bagging
the arrested lawyer.  Aggressive CPR soon followed with multiple shocks, 
including an IC epinephrine order, but the look of peace never left Scott's 
bloody face. It was that expression that Chet concentrated on until he was 
shoved aside when it came time for the ambulance doors to be closed by 
attendants.

The Cadillac hearse ambulance bearing Kincaid's body lurched onto
the roadway and filled the night with its obnoxious lights and siren.
It retreated around the fire trucks into the distance.

Chet watched it go for a long time before he rubbed the tears out of his
eyes. Then he peeled off his work gloves one by one methodically and
left them abandoned on the bumper of a fire truck.

The smoky fog swallowed Kelly up as he turned to go look for Marco, 
Stoker and Captain Stanley.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was two days later at a rehabilitation check point. Station 51 had been
on duty a full forty eight hours with only brief periods granted for rest and 
recharging in a nearby tent next to a chow trailer. All the passengers on
the Amtrak had been located and processed. Dr. Brackett and Dixie
McCall had gone back to Rampart as soon as all the train cars had
been cleared.

Johnny Gage rubbed his dirty face and nudged a dozing Roy with a foot
where he was slumped uncomfortably on some boxes. "Want to go back 
to the First Aid Station and make a phone call?"

"To ask about Julie Mathers ?" DeSoto wondered, fatigue lining his face.

"Yeah. 
Day before yesterday, it looked like she was being resuscitated 
when they got her onto that chopper."

"That was because of the anesthesia, Johnny. Not because she crashed."  
Roy mumbled, reaching for a wrinkled pear from a food box. "She's
doing fine."

Johnny frowned in irritation. "And you know that for a fact huh..." he
said with mild exhausted sarcasm.

"I do. I saw the EKG monitor when they passed by. I saw nothing
atypical in her rhythm. She was just being breath supported."

Johnny shot to his feet. "Yeah, well. That call will lift a whole lotta
weight from my shoulders, and yours. Let's go."

"Johnny now hold on. Y-You don't even know to which hospital she
was flown."

"I can guess." Gage answered after a short pause. "Didn't most
of the victims from that section of the train go to Bethseda?"

"The non critical ones did, yes. And most of the bodies we're
recovering now are going there, too. But I heard all the priority cases 
went to other places. They rerouted randomly on to the next available 
trauma department when any hospital reached its capacity. First Aid 
won't have that information attached to any victim names. It's too soon." 
DeSoto reasoned.

Johnny sat down heavily and set his head against the wall, closing
his eyes. "I hate this aspect of my job. Not knowing how people turn
out."

"It's the price we pay for being first responders I guess." Roy said,
getting up. "Come on, we better resupply the squad and go on
stand by for the salvage crews in case there are any injuries."

"I'm so tired, I can barely register how many fingers I'm
holding up." he groaned, not moving.

"We'll grab some more coffee once we get there."

Johnny slowly followed Roy out to the squad.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Captain Stanley was positioned by the two Amtrak
locomotive engines when his walkie talkie beeped with
an emergency call.

##Engine 51, L.A. ##

"L.A., this is Engine 51."

##Engine 51. Recovery crew spotters report an accident dust
cloud near your vicinity. Possible vehicular. At the intersection
of Court Crossing and Hwy 38. ##

Hank scratched his chin, waving over Chet, Stoker and Marco,
giving them the sign that they were moving out on an active engine
call. "Any ideas on how many people are involved?"

##Negative, 51. You will be first on scene. Time out : 11:17.##

"10-4, Engine 51. KMG 365."

And they loaded up and moved out full lights and sirens.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   Amtrak double engines. 
 
Photo:   Cadillac ambulance on the road.
 
Photo: Fire gloves on a bumper.
 
Photo:  A victim getting ambu bag cpr.
 
Photo: Roy and Johnny near a Mayfair 
  
Photo: Chet with Dr. Brackett.  

******************************************************************
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@y...> 
Date:  Wed Sep 29, 2004  10:59 am 
Subject:  Seat of the Pants

Craig Brice sat in the nurses' lounge with Dr. Morton,
puzzling over an observation that seemed like only he
was noticing. Brice sipped his plain hot black coffee.
He watched as staff members by the droves came and went
from the room calmly despite the disparity leaping out
at them. 

Finally, Brice just had to ask. "Dr. Morton..." 

"Hmm.." said the young interned resident without looking
up from the top patient chart he was reading from a 
stack of a dozen.

"May I ask a personal question of you?"

Mike's eyes shot up in surprise.

Craig immediately amended. "Stop me if I over step
any boundaries."

Mike grunted, giving the on duty paramedic his whole
attention.

"Why are you wearing a surgical mask?" asked Craig.

"Oh, this.." Morton said, feeling the blue paper covering
subconsciously. "I've grown so accustomed to wearing one 
these last few days that I had forgotten it was still on."
he sighed, reaching for a beverage mug that naturally,
wasn't there. "I was exposed to an unknown strain of 
meningitis from a patient with no I.D. The train crash 
emergency slowed up my being able to get a hold of her lab 
results before she was shipped out to another hospital. 
This is locally imposed isolation by Brackett's order 
until I get the information."

Craig frowned. "You mean you can still work, even though
you've been exposed to her illness?"

"Sure, viral meningitis is very hard to catch, unless you're
a care giver examining someone like I was for her. I'm just waiting 
to hear back whether or not Jane Doe's bug is Neisseria 
meningitidis or Haemophilus influenza Type B. The first is highly 
contagious through the air, the second, isn't, and other strains
are usually unremarkable."

Brice nodded his head, taking a bite of the pecan pie chunk 
he held poised on a fork prong. "Neisseria can kill in less
than a day, I've read."

Morton shrugged. "Dr. Brackett's given me some covering 
antibiotic. A cephalosporin called cefonicid. If it's viral,
I'm not worried. I'm not geriatric or pediatric aged."

Craig carefully considered. "Cefonicid. Dosage, 500 milligrams 
to 2 grams every twenty-four hours IM or IV."

"That's right." Morton replied, unsurprised at Brice's encyclopedic
memory. "And, I've been instructed to stay away from Johnny Gage."

"Oh?"

"He's had his spleen removed. If I'm a carrier, he'll be susceptible
almost one hundred percent to any meningitis germ if he gets into close 
contact with it."

"I didn't know that." Brice said. "Thank you for informing me of that 
fact."

"Any time."

Then it was Morton's turn to ask Craig about Bob Bellingham
and his baby daughter's conditions.

"They're both stable. Bellingham suffered only a moderate concussion.
His little girl was just hypothermic and hypoglycemic. Dr. Early said
she turned around vitals wise almost immediately after rewarming measures."
 
"That's a relief.. Usually train wreck neonates fair poorly, even when
they're not injured physically." Morton replied.

Right then the white phone rang on the wall over the coffee machine.

Craig got up and answered it, being closest. "Nurse's Lounge,
L.A. County Firefighter Paramedic Craig Brice." He angled
his head glancing up at Morton. "Doctor Morton, it's for you."

Morton took the receiver handed to him as the other man returned
to his seat and snack. He listened for a moment, and soon hung up.

Then Mike peeled off his isolation mask and balled it up into
his lab coat pocket.

Brice smiled. "So, it wasn't Neisseria or Viral meningitis."

"Nope, hers was Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterial form
that's the least deadliest. The Bethseda lab boys have just told 
me that my prescribed antibacterial med bailed me out of the spreading 
risk category yesterday afternoon."

Sure enough, two new nurses filing into the lounge noticed Morton's
liberation and they both said, "Congratulations, doctor. How's
Jane Doe?"

"Alive, she lost some hearing but she's gonna make it.  The 
PD took her finger prints this morning. They said they'll have an 
answer about who she is by nightfall."

"That's wonderful." said Carol.

Brice looked up at the assistant head nurse. "Ms. Evans. Is
Miss McCall around?"

"Yes, she's back at her desk. You still need your supplies from
pharmacy.." she guessed, squinting at him in a calculating look.

"I do." Craig nodded.

"Not anymore, Mr. Brice. I anticipated a bit and they're all set for you. 
I went around the supply nurse downstairs. Geez, she's got all the winning 
personality of a snail. I don't know how you boys deal with her at all. "

Morton chortled over his coffee cup. "It's only ingrained training
and a re-enforced sense of etiquette that holds us at bay, Carol.
Trust me."

"Well, I certainly don't trust her. Craig, your squad supplies are 
all in an ambu box on Dixie's desk, including that IC epinephrine 
you used on your last run. Now you better eat that last bite and then 
scoot before.."

**Beep. Beep. Beep.. Squad Eight. Stand by for response.**
came L.A.'s rich radio voice over Craig's handy talkie.

 "Thank you, Nurse Evans." Craig said. "And you, too, Dr. Morton.
Doctor, we should get together soon so you can tell me more about
the clinical aspects of spinal meningitis. I'd like to be prepared
further for any future field encounters with it." He rose and ran 
from the room to grab his squad's supplies.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Craig tossed the box to Belliveau, his temporary partner in
the squad's driver's seat, as their call came through.

Brice got into the truck, buckled up, and strapped on his helmet.

**Squad Eight. Unknown vehicular accident. At the intersection
of Court Crossing and Hwy 38. At the intersection of Court 
Crossing and Hwy 38. Time out 11:19. Engine 51 is responding
to your incident. Their reported ETA is three minutes. **

"L.A., Squad Eight, 10-4. KMG-356."

Brice and Belliveau spun tires out of Rampart's ambulance
bay driveway and onto the freeway.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Morton and Brice talking in the Nurse's Lounge.

Photo:  A grumpy supply nurse.

Photo:  Brice putting on his helmet in a rescue squad.

*****************************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, September 29, 2004 10:44 PM 
Subject :  Intersect 

Mike Stoker hit his airhorn to startle the mass
of bystanders away from their response scene as
he brought Engine 51 down to a hissing crawl about
thirty feet away from the rising steam they could see
from the accident site.  The crowd parted with shouts
and waves of urgency. Others, fearing incrimination,
ran.

Captain Stanley jolted when he recognized the shade of
red glinting under the bright sunlight.  He shouted immediately
out his window even as Chet Kelly and Marco Lopez beat
him out of the Ward.  "Get an inch and a half on that smoking engine 
right now! No wait, it's not that bad. Let's check it out first." 

Squad 51 sat in the middle of the intersection, its windshield
smashed and spidered with its cherry red hood V folded up from 
a front end collision.  A motorcycle lay a short distance away
from the rescue truck, with a casualty, whom Mike Stoker 
immediately crouched down beside to check for lifesigns.

Cap got on his walkie talkie. "L.A. we have a fire department 
vehicle involved in a motorcycle versus rescue squad. As yet, there 
are no signs of fuel leaking. Respond two ambulances to our location."

##10-4, 51. Ambulance ETA is nine minutes. Time out 11:23.##

Squad Eight came back with an immediate follow up. ## Engine
51, we are four minutes away. Just crossing Williams. Heading 
onto the Hwy 38 on-ramp.##

"Engine 51, 10-4." Captain Stanley replied. His voice had cracked,
but it went unheeded by anyone.

Hank pelted over to the squad's driver's window, pulling on his
work gloves, shouting as he leaned in. "Johnny?! Roy?"

No one was inside the truck. 

Captain Stanley whirled around, yelling at the crowd of neighborhood 
people on the curb. "Did anybody see the two paramedics who were 
driving this squad?!"

No one stepped up to reply.

Marco yelled again to the others, "They're firemen, dressed like us!.. 
Where did they go?" Seeing the nationality majority of the onlookers 
surrounding the fire engine and the accident site, he switched to spanish,
barely containing his fear and anger.

"Chet, see if you can find where either of them went. There's blood 
all over the cab." he said as the Irish fireman ran up to him
with O2 for the victim on the ground. "Stoker.. Is that man alive?" 
Cap demanded.
  
Mike sadly shook his head from where he was crouched
over the man's face. "The biker's dead. Broken neck.
I'll go call the cops in. Looks like he was looting, Cap. Must've
been hit trying to leave on a fast getaway from the train."

Kelly hit an idea. "Cap. Maybe they still have their radios if 
they got their jackets on. " 

"Worth a shot..." Cap said, waving him to it.

Chet lifted his HT and started a hail.. "Engine 51 to HT 51, 
do you copy?"  

Marco gathered near his coworkers, shaking his head
about his lack of success with learning anything new from
the bystanders.

Kelly hailed yet again. Only fresh static met his ears.

Then Captain Stanley noticed something. A cluster
of heads bending over together in a group on the opposite
curb under the shadow of the intersection's tall trees.

He started running.  He found a bloodied Gage bending
over a collapsed older woman, trying to talk to her, over
his own severe grogginess.

Hank announced his find to the world over the HT frequency
and he heard footsteps running and saw that Marco was 
coming fast to his aid.

Cap crouched beside Johnny and grabbed his shoulders.
"Johnny? Hey.. It's Captain Stanley..." Gage didn't seem
to understand him and fresh blood ran down the side
of his face from his hair. Cap took off Johnny's helmet
and took his face into his hands. "Hey.. pal. Can you 
hear me?"

Johnny mumbled, not able to focus his eyes. "I...gotta... 
check her out.. She...that was her kid on the bi...  I think 
she's..  shhhe's got......some crushing chest p--"

Hank shouted. "Stoker!  Grab the resuscitation 
gear from the squad. We've a female victim here.
Possible coronary.."

"..Ugh....gotta get..." Gage groaned, shaking uncontrollably.

"Easy. Don't move your head around. Just stay
sitting like you are. I got a hold of ya. Gage, listen to me.  
Where's Roy? Don't worry about the woman. Stoker and Marco 
are here and they're taking over her care. Eight's on
the way.  They'll be here in two minutes. You just relax."

Shuddering, Johnny tried to pull Hank's arms down away
from him, and he was looking at the woman in muzzy confusion. 
"Her pulse's off.. Irreg...u... Let me over there!" he said
weakly angry. He was trembling.

Cap sat down on the grass next to Gage, never looking away 
from his eyes nor did he let go of the support he was giving his 
wounded paramedic's head and neck. 

Hank pulled his captain's HT close to his lips. "Kelly, any sign 
of DeSoto yet? Johnny's conscious but out of it."

##Still looking. Found a blood trail behind a house
over here. I'll let you know. The cops are here. I've
told them what's up and they're helping me look around
now!##

Marco scrambled over to Hank and gave him a flowing
oxygen mask from their supply for Johnny. "Cap,
I'm needed over there. The lady speaks only Spanish
and Stoker's busy hooking up the EKG monitor on her.
I've got to get the defibrillator set up in case she goes bad."
 
"This'll do for now. I'll just have to wait on a collar for him. 
He's cooperating with me." Hank said holding the clear plastic 
mask up to Gage's nose and mouth where he sat rigid against
Cap's supporting hand with his eyes closed. "Go.." he
ordered.

Cap lifted his eyes to the annoying crowd that was blocking his 
view of their distant surroundings. ::Chet. Hurry. I don't like this 
one bit.:: 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:    Engine arriving, men pointing up.

Photo:   Squad 51 with a crushed front end.

Photo:   A motorcycle flattened in the grass with an ambulance
              in the distance. 

Photo:   A crashed motorcycle fatality on his back.

Photo:   Cap helping a wounded Johnny away from a scene.

Photo:   Chet Kelly yelling in urgency in hillside brush.

*************************************************************************** 
 From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
 Sent :  Thursday, September 30, 2004 3:28 AM 
 Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] When in Rome... 


::It feels like a riot brewing.:: Hank thought, eyeing the
restless crowds around them. 

Vince Howard came running. He had his pistol out
and it was aimed up into the air in visual warning. He was 
the only policeman moving in the open areas. 

Vaguely, Cap saw him run to the fire engine, and open one
of her side compartments for an asbestos tarp. The fire captain 
saw him use this to cover both the dead hispanic teenager and 
the pounds of jewelry which lay strewn around his body.

Hank saw another police officer take a position behind
a squad car to cover Vince as he made his way across the
street at a dead run, to Captain Stanley side. He had a 
weapon out, too. One with a spotting scope.

Mike Stoker looked up from the woman he was taking
a respiration on. "What's happening?" he asked the
street officer when he got there, his eyes getting bigger.

Vince Howard flanked them, his gun once again drawn
and displaying at the subtle angry crowd around them.
"Put your back to mine, and keep a close watch on the
people around us. I've backup coming. They'll be here in 
moments. For now, Schaffer's got us covered with an assault
rifle."

Hank shifted position until he had done what the policeman 
had asked. "Vince? What's going on?"

"How bad are they? Give me that, then let me relay the
information to my sergeant. Then I'll tell you. For now, don't 
make any sudden moves. " the freckled African American 
street cop ordered. "For the moment, none of us are going
to be allowed to leave."

"Johnny's got a possible head injury. This woman's the biker's
mother and there's a good chance she's having a serious heart 
attack. Where's Roy DeSoto? He's gone missing, Vince."
Hank asked. He bit his lip while the police officer contacted
his boss.

Howard met Cap's eyes reluctantly. "This crowd thinks Johnny 
and Roy hit the San Pedro gang's leader on purpose. We're in the 
heart of their territory.  We think the rest of the gang dragged
Johnny and Roy out of the squad when they saw it happen to
get even. This woman tried to stop the gang from lynching them,
but then she went down. Another bystander, a recovery worker, 
called us out here when they saw the gang attacking your paramedics."

Hank glared up at the crowd around them angrily, but Vince regained
Cap's attention urgently. " Don't provoke them. Here's how it is.
A neighborhood elder, like this lady, holds a lot of sway over the gang. 
They listen to her. That's probably the only reason why you
fire boys are still here in one piece. They want you to help her."

Cap eyed up the pipe wielding young Hispanic men with a new light. 
One of them set his length of chain down when Cap met his eyes.

"Is Roy all right? Have you seen him?" Hank asked Howard
urgently. "He may not be the only fire fighter in jeopardy. I just sent 
one of my men over there to try and find DeSoto a few minutes ago."

"One of my deputy's has your man Kelly taking cover behind a 
squad car. We're holding Squad 8 back as a bargaining chip in 
order to be given Roy DeSoto in exchange.." Vince said.

"What?!" Hank bellowed. "You know where he is?!"

Johnny moaned in surprise at the shout and started struggling
anew in his half conscious state against Cap's shoulder. Hank
immediately shushed Gage quiet again and told him to
remain still. A part of the injured paramedic understood Stanley,
and soon, he obeyed the snap of authority in his ear.
"Yeah, never m- move any...trauma.." he whispered. 

Hank looked once again to Vince. "What can we do to
help you and the other officers bail us out of here?"

"Just keep your cool. We'll definitely get out of this whole nightmare 
situation without any more injuries, I promise you.The gang's used to our 
style of ..official negotiating." he said with a smileless good humor. 
"It'll just take a little time to play the game to their liking to fit their 
current mood." Howard said evenly.

"We may not have the time to spare, Vince. She needs cardiac 
medications and a paramedic. Right now, " Marco protested. "This 
EKG's not normal." he said, tipping the Tetronix up so the police 
officer could see its restless uneven track.

"Do the best you can until my superiors finish negotiating.
Keep her breathing or we'll find ourselves in the middle of a 
shoot out with Roy DeSoto being the hostage in danger."

"Is he injured badly?" Cap said.

"I don't know. We spotted him on someone's front porch
six houses away from here being watched by some gang
members. I'm afraid he's on his back and he hasn't moved yet.
Our line of sight's horrible so we can't tell if he's still breathing
or not."

Cap grabbed Vince's arm. "Is Roy still in his turnout?"

"What?"

"Vince, is he wearing a tan jacket like this one?" he said,
tapping himself on the chest.

"Yeah, I think a detective gave that in a description for him."

"Then he's got a radio like mine. And most likely, it's
still on. Can I try to talk to him?"

"Hang on.." Vince said and he contacted his senior onlooker.
"Go ahead. Roy's arms aren't tied from what we can see."

"Stoker. Open a line to Rampart. Get a doctor up to speed.
I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. I wanna get Roy's
health status and if he's able, I want to use him to determine
how bad SHE is." Hank said, pointing to the sweaty, grimacing
dark haired lady lying on the ground. "Marco, you interpret anything
said for the woman's benefit. Got that?"

The fire engineer and hoseman nodded.

"This is the last time I'm ever gonna be caught in the middle of 
an unsafe scene. Smashed vehicles are fine; easy to figure out
for safety's sake. Man, I didn't expect any nearby PEOPLE to 
become my potential powder keg." Stanley grumbled. 

Vince rubbed his sweaty forehead and he glanced at
51's captain in sympathy. "It happens. How often do you
fire boys find yourselves in the city?"

"Not often enough, I guess. We never saw this coming."
Stoker admitted, setting up the squad's biophone.

On the ground, the woman groaned suddenly in fierce
pain, and her skin turned a darker shade of gray around
her mouth.

Marco gripped her hand and he tightened the O2 mask
around her face. "Esto vá  a aydarle a respirar. ¿Le falta aire?"

"¡Sí!" she moaned. "AhhhHH."

Marco smiled at her in convincing confidence.
"Respire profundo para dentro y afuera." Then
he looked up and his smile fell away the moment his
face was turned toward Cap.

"What's the problem?" Stanley asked Lopez.

"She's getting short of breath. I told her the oxygen will
help her even more if she breathed in and out a little 
deeper." Marco replied. "We have to do something
for her. Now."

Vince offered advice. "Make it sound like it's fire fighting
business or they might not let DeSoto answer you."
Howard snapped his fingers. "Better yet. Mention your new 
victim. It just may allow Roy some conversational freedom if
they realize we have an Elder's treatment ongoing."

Cap got on the HT. "Ok, here goes.... Engine 51 to Squad 51.  
I require an immediate response on HT. We've a woman
down at our original location. An Hispanic female, aged 
approximately fifty. Possible heart attack." and he bit his
lip as he lifted his thumb away from the talk button.

They all poised waiting for a reply over the open line.
The silence was only broken by occasional taunts from
the onlookers and moans from the elder lady.

Then... *Spap* ## Engine 51,...I read you, ...*cough* Loud 
and clear. I'm....10-2. Situation ..ok..## Roy's voice
was thick sounding as if from a swollen lip but no one
minded at all.

The firemens' expressions were ones of great relief and
they had to fight themselves from moving joyfully. Hank 
motioned for them to tone it down. Vince upped their ante 
by putting his own gun away and clearing his hands to the 
watchers near Roy's porch.

Cap started relaying information to DeSoto over
the radio. "Two victims. Victim One, Code I, non urgent." 
he emphasized, letting a hint about Johnny worm into
the transmission craftily. "Victim Two. Conscious, collapsed 
with chest pain. Cyanosis about the mouth and fingernails. 
Difficulty breathing. On 15 liters of O2. Vitals are : " and he 
slowly took a notepad from Stoker in plain crowd sight to 
read the finding. "Pulse 130, weak and irregular, respirations 
are 22 and shallow, B/P is 158/106." 

Captain Stanley could almost see Roy absorb the patient
information like a sponge. Heavy breathing on the line showed
that Roy had some pain he was currently dealing with, but
his voice's tone was lucid, unlike Johnny's disjointed comments.

##Victim Two. Find out .....what kind of pain she's feeling. This
isn't necessarily a cardiac case. Could be a pulmonary embolus, too.
Ask her when the pain started and whether or not it travels away
from where it is now. Find out its severity. Then ask about any taken 
medications, get a medical history if you can, and ..and ..and, ask 
about any allergies. My status, I was 10-7 for about 10 minutes.##

"10-7?" Vince asked.

Cap made a gesture, "That means out of service. I'm taking it to
mean the period of time of how long Roy thinks he was passed out
after he was beaten up.." he began once more into the radio. 
"Vitals on Victim Two.."

##¡No otro hombre! Ella solo!## came a furious reply over Roy's radio. 
(No other man! Her only!)

Marco hissed. "Cap. Stop! Talk only about the woman.
Someone over there's figured out what we're doing with 
all the ten codes."

Hank preceded more cautiously. "Comprendo. I understand."
he radio-ed back. "Squad 51. Please stand by."

Roy cleverly kept the talk button down so the others could
hear the police negotiating in the background at his location.

Marco immediately turned to the woman. "¿Le duele más cuándo
respira profundo?"   (Is your pain worse with a deep breath intake?)

"No, es mismo." she gasped.  
(No, it's the same.)

"¿Ha tenido alguna vez un ataque al corazón?" Lopez asked gently.           
(Have you had a heart attack before?)

"Sí, en la primavera." she admitted.  
(Yes, in the springtime.)

"¿Cuándo empezó el dolór?" he asked about her pain.  
(When did this pain begin?)

"A las once en la manaña."
(At eleven this morning)

"¿Qué tipo de dolor tiene?" he questioned.
(What does this pain feel like?)

"¡Mi pecho es apretandó! Y presión!" 
(My chest's squeezing. And pressure.) 

"¿Se mueve para algún lado?"
(Does it go anywhere else?)

"Alrededór mí izquierda brazo."
(Around my left arm)

"¿Ha tenido nauseas?"
(Do you have any nausea?)

"¡Sí. Tiene mucho!"
(Yes. A lot)

"¿Toma medicinas y tiene alergias a alguna medicina?"
(Do you take any medications and are you allergic to any?)

"No. AhhhHH!" The woman suddenly arched off the ground.

"¿Qué le pasa?" Marco asked her. 
(What's the matter?)

"Siento que me estóy ahogando.." 
(I feel like I'm suffocating..)

"Ok,..no tenga miedo. Nosotros hablamos a el doctor ahorita."
(ok, don't be afraid. We are talking to a doctor right now.)

Lopez quickly handed Cap the note pad he had transcribed.
"She's dyspneic now. I think you should tell them both that fact 
first."

Cap told Roy everything and then he handed Stoker
Marco's interviewed information to read off to Dr. Morton, 
who was waiting on the phone line.

A minute later, both paramedic and physician said the same 
thing over two sets of speakers. ##Try nitroglycerin for now until 
the other squad is allowed in. ##

Stoker had been walked through on how to connect the 
woman's EKG leads into the biophone.

Morton took responsibility so Marco and Stoker could give the woman 
the angina medication orally. ##That's only if her pressure's above 100 
systolic..## Morton punctuated over the speaker. 

## Repeat once every five minutes up to three tablets as long as that 
B/P reading stays there, fellas. ## added Roy.

Lopez dug around the drug box until he found the tiny brown
pill bottle marked NTG. Then he tapped one out onto
his hand and crouched over the woman. "Senora. Habre los ojos.
Esta medicina vá debajo de la lengua. Venga en, abra la boca. Esta 
siente mejór después de tomar la medicina."  (Maam, open your eyes. 
This medicine goes under your tongue. Come on, open your mouth. You'll 
feel better after you've taken this medication.) 

The woman gagged for a moment on the nitroglycerin tablet but
then her face smoothed after half a minute and her cheeks flushed a 
more healthy looking ruddy color. They all saw the rhythm on the heart 
monitor even out just a touch. Marco felt her hand, gripping his own, 
ease off completely before she finally let go.

"¿Se siente mejor?" Marco asked once she had relaxed.
(Do you feel better?)

The sweaty woman nodded. "Gracías bombero."
(Thank you fireman.) Then she reached up and grabbed
Cap's radio. "Primos. No pegaron el gringo paramedico no mas. 
Vamos al hospital Rampart, el y yo. Necesitamos ir ahora. Ellos me 
han ayudado. Usted debe sentirse la vergüenza para sentir la 
necesidad para la venganza. Carlos ha pagado el precio para su 
falta de honradez cuando él robó del tren. Su muerte era el hace de Dios.
Permita que mí apene con la honradez. " (Cousins, don't hit the white 
paramedic anymore. We're going to Rampart Hospital, he and I.  We 
need to go right now. They have helped me. You should feel shame for 
feeling the need for revenge. Carlos has paid the price for his dishonesty 
when he stole from the train. His death was the will of God. Let me grieve 
with honesty.)

All around the street, weapons were dropped to the pavement
as the elder's weeping plea was echoed around the police's
and Squad 51's HT frequencies. Seconds later, Squad Eight
roared up with an ambulance following close behind.

Hank snapped an order. "As soon as she's stabilized,
bring all three in together." he ordered the paramedics
from Station Eight. "This is Vince's suggestion so
we're cleared away from here as fast as possible."

"Understood, captain." Craig Brice replied.

The elder's IV was quickly started by Brice and Belliveau 
and heart meds soon leveled the arrythmias shooting across
the EKG screen. 

Johnny Gage was lowered onto a backboard once a cervical 
collar had been applied and then he was tucked into a handy stokes 
for a side bench transport. Captain Stanley personally carried 
Johnny's I.V. bag during his packaging and loading until
it was time to hang it on the rig's wall hook. 

Hank leaned into Vince. "You know we didn't really need
Roy to treat the woman. We could've gotten permission
from Dr. Morton directly. We had the biophone right there."

"I knew, Hank. I knew. " said Howard. "The ruse worked. Didn't it?"

"This time. What about for the next time?" Cap wondered morbidly.

Vince sighed. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."


Roy DeSoto denied any head symptoms.
He was allowed to ride to the hospital sitting up, once his
many cuts and bruises had been poked and prodded and
covered up and after he had his vital signs checked out.

Marco, was busy until the very last minute. "Lo siento, pero no 
podemos llevar mas personas atras. Ella vá estar bien." (I'm sorry, 
but we can't have any more people in the back. She's going to 
be fine.) he told the elder's claimed next of kin.

The double doors on the Mayfair closed, leaving Brice alone
with a sick woman, a dazed paramedic and a second, very 
very  very,..quiet one. 

Roy was mute the whole way in as he let Brice do all the work
of keeping his goose egged partner awake and within the realm 
of verbally responsive consciousness. 

Finally, DeSoto said something just before the interns and
orderlies opened the ambulance doors up for wheeling them
all into the treatment room hallway. "I really...hate ...the city now. 
I'm gonna move Joanne and the kids a little farther out towards 
the high country just as soon as I can. I think I'll start making plans 
next week."

"Thinking about leaving the department, DeSoto?" Brice
asked him.

"No, just the ambience of the sadder part of Los Angeles.
Thank you very much." he said sarcastically.

Brice took that to mean that Roy DeSoto wasn't too physically
hurt to feel a real true anger over the attack he and Johnny had
just suffered at the hands of unthinking people.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"So, this is a reversal.." said Gage from his hospital bed at
the street clothes garbed DeSoto and Brice and surprisingly,
Chet Kelly. "Didya bring me any candy like I brought for you
last week, Craig?"

"Nothing you can choke on." Roy quipped. "Have a taco.
Marco cooked up those special,  just for you." he said,
handing his head bandage wrapped partner, a tupperware 
full of steaming, south of the border, delectables.

Johnny made a face. "I'm just about latin american-ed out for
a while. Between accidently killing one, to getting beaten
up by a whole gang of em, to being saved by one, I've had
just about all I can stomach on that theme for the rest of the 
year."

"Don't tell Marco Lopez that. He might get offended." replied
Craig Brice seriously.

"Brice, I'm just not hungry yet. They just ended my D5W  I.V. 
a couple of hours ago, you know."

"Good." said Chet quickly. "Then you don't mind if
I dig in a little, pal? Thanks. I'm still starving." he said, grabbing 
the yellow container out of Johnny's hands and opening it. "You 
fellas want some? Here, let me grab some paper towels from the 
bathroom." he said chewing noisily. He held up the food so Roy and 
Brice could partake in a second round of feasting, too, before
disappearing into the depths of the rest room for a roll of towelling.
    "Man, Gage. You've been missing out on some radical fire duty. 
We may be done with the Amtrak wreck and it's....uh, associated 
resident gang members, but we sure as heck have been starting 
a record week of station burn calls. We've been roaring, non 
stop, for just about every kind of fire imaginable. Dumpster fires, 
brush fires, mine fires, stove fires, even a pool fire when some dork 
mistook a can of charcoal starter for a jug of dechlor solution. 
Geesh, what an idiot he was..." Chet rambled on. 

Gage swore he could feel another near coma coming on,
just listening to his enthusiastic coworker. ::But I'd rather feel some 
nauseated, twisted insides over some as yet too early food, than 
experience anything like that twisted train or gang, ever again.:: he 
concluded. ::At least, not until I've been well fed, well slept. And not
until I'm completely without a single aching muscle or pulsating bone left 
anywhere in my entire body. Only then will I think about re-tackling the 
big stuff. But, ..not  today. I deserve a break more than they could ever 
possibly know.::

Gage reached for one of Lopez's mild green salsa tacos with 
a good heart and he bit off one end, very carefully.

                                           FIN

              Episode Fourteen, Twisted,  Season Two

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Vince by a house looking alerted.

Photo:  A dazed propped up, Johnny Gage.

Photo:  Cap on the biophone line behind a car.

Photo:  Marco and Stoker, pleased, by the engine.

Photo:  Roy under duress in smoke, crawling.

Photo:  Marco with a cooking pan, smiling.

Photo:  An old lady being gurney loaded by a caregiver.

**************************************************************************

            
                            End Credits --  Episode Fourteen  (Second Season)
                                      
                                                          §§  Twisted  §§

                      :)    This episode is dedicated to Fire Chief James O           :)
                             Page who was often noted as the father of modern 
                             emergency medicine in the fire service. He served 
                             as technical consultant and writer for the "Emergency!" 
                             television series. In 1979, he founded JEMS (Journal 
                             of Emergency Medical Services).  Jim was found      
                             unconscious in a swimming pool at a spa. A nurse in 
                             another swimming lane started CPR and 911 was 
                             activated, but the spa had no AED available for the
                             bystanders at his side. Please support installing 
                             AED defibrillators in your work place and learn the skill. 
                             Absolutely anyone can take the class and kids as
                       :)    young as twelve years old can safely operate one.         :)                                                              


Guest Writers...
---------------

Champagne Scott    chameleonkate@hotmail.com
Roxann Dawson       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com
Sam Iam                    lafddispatcher@yahoo.com

 
**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

Paul Maxwell   On EMS questions in Spanish- Paramedic/California
Patti Keiper     Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota
   
 
Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 

"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  mamasuelodge70@yahoo.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 
 
"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To Paul Maxwell  <paulmaxwell@epicmedics.org>
For the EMS Guidebook - Rescue Spanish

To Erika and Rozane of Emergencyfans.com
For Linking to the ETL Website

To TV Tome.com
For Linking to the ETL Homepage

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Icecat,  <icecat62@comcast.net>
For Designing the Banners for Episodes  

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season Two   Episode Fourteen

                    §§  Twisted  §§

-------------------------------------------------------------

    After The Storm Midi by  Bruce DeBoer

    Afterglow Midi by  Bruce DeBoer

    Enchanted Melody Midi by  Savanahue

    Evening Star Midi by Bruce DeBoer

-------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________
 
This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Fourteen,  Season Two
  
         §§      Twisted      §§

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : September 1st, 2004.

============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
§ Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com §
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 
   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

=^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^= =^=

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================



The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Sixteen..

 §§   Devil's Due   §§
 
Debut Launch: 1 November 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**ETL Writer's Preproduction List.  

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see the latest music soundtracked, imaged
version of this episode after entering User ID  'efan' and 
Password  'frontrowseat'  at the link above. 

This version of the current episode is scene delayed as 
compared to the most recent submissions shown in the 
text only file coming up below.

You will need your Yahoo Email User ID and
your Yahoo Email Password to access the
file link below this sentence.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

*************************************************************************
From :  Champagne Scott <chameleonkate@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, November 3, 2004 6:35 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Cooped Up Cage Jitters.. 


"Man, I am soooo bored.." sighed Johnny Gage as he emptied
the waste paper basket in the wire bin onto the couch for the
fourteenth time, to retrieve the wadded up paper balls that he had
been arching into it from various distances around the rec room.

He chose a place from over by the strategies chalk board
as his next launching point. As usual, Bonnie, the Boston Terrier
watched Gage with intense doggy puzzlement, half torn between
trying to chase the flying overhand tosses, or not to.

"Careful, Johnny." said Roy DeSoto, intently reading the stocks
section of the newspaper. "You just may jinx us." he said rubbing 
his nose.  The fair haired paramedic looked up when Marco Lopez
set another full mug of coffee down in front of him. "Thanks, Marco."

"How can I jinx us? The rain's already doing that for us.." Gage
complained, finally missing a basket. He jerked a restless head
out the window where the blinds were retracted to let in some
feeble gray tinged daylight to offset the flourescent bulbs 
in the ceiling to show the others, that the steady downpour that
had started when their weekend began, was still with them.

Chet Kelly ambled into the rec room, still yawning from a short nap
that had turned surprisingly into a long one.  He was still disoriented
and rumpled. "Ack,...how many tones calls did I miss? I woke up and
I found you guys were gone and the beds were already made."

Mike Stoker calmly intercepted Chet's trajectory toward the coffee
pot on the stove in the kitchen and redirected him before he cracked
a sleepy shoulder into the wall by the payphones. "A big fat zero, Chet.
Open your eyes before you give Roy and Johnny something to do, 
all right? Your higher motor skills are still out to lunch."

Chet got to the stove safely, then he peered at his watch, eyeballing
the time. "Holy cow. Five pm Saturday? I slept for fifteen hours?!"

"Yep. And we enjoyed every minute of the resulting peace and quiet,
too." said Johnny, as he kept up his basket making shots with the
paper wads.

"It wasn't for that full time, Chet. I admit I snuck in there around one
last night to feel for a pulse on ya. You were lying so still that you were
scaring Bonnie.." Roy admitted.

"Arf!"  said the diminuitive Boston. She caterwauled a few happy whines
and then she skidded across the floor on slippery running claws to
go trapse around Kelly's stocking socked feet in an enthusiastic welcome.

"Geesh, you think Bonnie thought I was away forever, man." said Kelly,
rubbing the sleepers out of his eyes. 

"Wish it had been forever, Chet. That'd make my working life just a bit more
tolerable." Johnny grinned, looking at the other guys for brownie points.

No one bothered to participate.

"Oh, ha ha, Gage. Very funny. I won't even go into how I feel about having
you as a working bud." said Kelly, gulping his coffee down despite its
boiling temperature in order to wake up faster.

"Kelly! Where are your shoes?!" admonished Cap, arriving from the
vehicle bay with his journal log book. Coffee was on his mind. For
he stole Roy's outright and started sipping while he glared at Chet's feet.

"Uh,.." he said looking around sleepily, " Ehheh. Right where I left em?"
he replied meekly.

"Go put them on. Then its another session with the manikin for all of 
us in ten minutes.." Hank frowned. Then he turned on his heels and 
retreated back into his office.

Gage gave up the shooting game and pulled up a chair from the table, 
reversed it, and then sat down on its back edge with his feet on the seat 
support.  He studied the direction Cap had gone analytically, not smiling. 
"Has he always been such a task master during slow shifts?"

"Yes.." replied Marco, Chet, Roy, and Stoker, all at the same time.

Even Bonnie barked.

"Count your blessings, Johnny boy. We could be cleaning every inch of
the station instead." Marco admitted.

"Nah, we did that yesterday. Remember?" Chet said. "Or was
that the day before?" Kelly frowned, remembering his long coma
of a nap.

Johnny didn't hear them.
"We've retrieved that Annie from the roof, under the engine, we worked
her code, splinted every limb, probed every inch of her, and now he wants
us to run another scenario? What have we got left to do now?"

"An OB case.." supplied Roy, not looking up from his newspaper.

"Ohh  ho.. lucky us.. Let's hope it's just another obstructed
airway with a broken neck scenario or maybe even a femur
fracture exercise." Gage said unenthusiastically, setting his chin 
onto a palm. "I hate getting powder on my hands from pulling
that doll baby free."

Still ansy, he got up and walked over to the payphone. He picked 
up the receiver, listened on the line for a moment. Then he hung up 
and walked back to sit back down at the table.

"What'd do that for?" asked Chet.

"Just...checking for a dial tone. You know how these winter
rains sometimes knock out a repeater or broadcast tower.
If I didn't hear one, we'd have the perfect reason for why we've
been so dead on business for the last past two days."

"A repeater failure wouldn't effect a payphone, Johnny."
said Roy. "They're hard wired underground and wouldn't
be effected by it."

Johnny got defensive because he was embarrassed that his
telecommunications knowledge wasn't as good as Roy's.
"Well then how ELSE do you explain the fact that we haven't
gotten a single run, for anybody, since early Friday morning?"

Roy lowered his paper and grinned. "The law of averages..."
he said, squinting meaningfully. "The means balance out
the extremes eventually."

Johnny's face twisted in incomprehension that made
the other guys chuckle from whereever they were.

Gage scooped up Bonnie and started massaging her 
head for some moral support. But the Boston Terrier wormed 
her way out of his grip to go follow Chet on his actively searching 
mission to relocate his shoes.

"Gage, did you-?" Kelly asked from where he was
checking out the space underneath the leather couch.

"I didn't touch your shoes. How could I? They were
on your feet the whole time you were sleeping."
Gage answered.

"They were? Oh, ok. Then I think I know where they are
now then. Thanks, pal." and he jogged out of the kitchen.

Lopez said, "You actually helped Chet out of a bind? What's
the matter with you, Johnny, you sick or something?"

"Yeah, I'm sick. I'm sick and tired of being cooped up in this joint 
for forty eight straight hours with absolutely nothing better to do. 
Especially with you guys. It's worse than a high school lock in party."

"Welll.. " commented Roy. "You could always stop drinking coffee.
So far you've inhaled three whole pots just by yourself in a little
under three hours. That might explain the feelings of claustrophobia 
and anxiety you're suffering."

"Roy,.." complained Johnny. "You're such a.......a.... paramedic 
sometimes, you know that?" Gage said pointed an animated finger 
at his quiet partner.

"All true. And you're such an interesting case study in the mis-
management of a potentially healthy lifestyle that I just haveta keep 
right on analyzing ya." DeSoto said, leaning back and stretching in 
his chair.

"Well, stop it. If and when I do get addicted to caffeine, I'll be the first
person to let ya know about it."

"You just did, with all that pacing and abundant running commentary.
Why else would you have such a nasty track record when it comes to 
your on the job injuries frequency rate?" debated DeSoto easily.

"You know, I think I'm gonna go take the squad into Rampart on
a supply run. By myself.." Gage said, leaving the kitchen area.

"What about that session with Annie the manikin coming up?!" 
Stoker needled, thoroughly enjoying the sniping banter.

"She can go stuff herself!" came Gage's voice out of the vehicle 
bay.

He almost collided with Chet, coming back towards the 
kitchen replete in his newly found squeaky shoes.

Roy got up with a sigh and followed after his partner so that they 
wouldn't get separated. "I'd better go with him. He might get strange 
ideas and want to drive the squad or something."

"Nothing wrong with that. Go ahead and let him. Then when he 
plows you two into a telephone pole, that'd give the rest of us 
guys an engine run to go on." Chet said mildly.

"I'd rather let Annie drive.." Roy said plainly, the smile wiping off his 
face as he accented the statement with a finger jamming Chet's chest.

"Better hurry up, Roy.. I think I hear the door opening up."
Marco offered helpfully.

Roy got into the squad with Johnny, passing by Cap's closed
office door without incident or interception from him. He decided to 
not announce their supply run to L.A. until they were out of sight of 
the station. He turned the wheel of the rescue truck into the slightly
lighter rain soaked western sky, towards Torrance and
Rampart, and they drove off together.

Roy chuckled. "That was brilliant, Johnny.. I knew acting
irritated and wired loudly enough would cause Cap to
let us leave to go on an unnecessary supply run."

"I wasn't acting.." Johnny said through pursed lips.

Roy began to watch Johnny more than he did the road
the whole trip into the ER. 

He only hoped that happenings there would keep Johnny 
entertained long enough to survive his accessive java intake 
symptomology. ::A huge fire will dry him out like a prune if he 
doesn't come down from it before we get a call for one.:: he 
thought.

He decided to temper Johnny's jitters against the only person
who could tame them. On Dixie.

-----------------------------------------------------

Photo:   A bored Roy in closeup.

Photo:   Stoker and Marco playing chess.

Photo:   Gage and DeSoto in a chess war with Chet
              watching from the TV counter.

Photo:  Cap lecturing Roy and Johnny at the veggie sink.

Photo:  A resusciAnnie manikin.

Photo:  Bonnie the Boston Terrier closeup.

Photo: The squad rolling out from the POV of the engine.

*******************************************************************
Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2004 21:08:01 +0000 (GMT) 
From: "Katherine Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk>  
Subject:  The Other Department... 
 

Dixie McCall sized up Johnny Gage in about two
seconds when they were still over thirty feet away from
the Emergency Room front desk. She leaned over to
the two guests visiting with her and mumbled. "Ok,
you two officers are looking for something to do, right? How
about keeping a couple of bored firemen out of my hair
while I get some charting done? That way, I won't have both
public service departments breathing down my neck at the 
same time." she said to her charming companions. "The worst
of this pair is gonna be from the dark haired one. I don't have
to be a doctor to know that he's been sucking down the 
Sumatran Dark a little too much lately."

Reed chuckled, glancing back at his partner Malloy. 
"He sounds like the Sarge on slow days, Dixie. What's
his name?"

"Johnny Gage, Jim. Just get ready. He'll be an earful.
Excuse me..." the demure nurse said, turning her back
and pretending to organize the rescue reel to reel recordings 
next to the pharmaceutical cupboard.

"Howdy, fellas." said Pete Malloy to the two approaching paramedic
firemen. He waved a greeting with the antennae of his HT
which looked very much like the ones Roy and Johnny carried with
them, dangled around their jacketted wrists.

Gage actually turned a circle in his tracks, thinking the dark uniformed
police officer was speaking to someone else. "Oh, you mean us, hi
officer. Uh, officers.." he amended, dipping his head. "How are the
streets faring today?"

Roy deviated his arrival time and went over to the chrome drinking 
fountain alcove for a sip of cold water.

"We've been absolutely hopping, hose jockey." Reed lied. 
"Please, call me Jim. This is my partner Pete. How are the 
firecalls going today?"

Johnny sighed, trying to look over the two officer shoulders to
get Dixie's attention. "They aren't. We haven't heard a peep over
the intercom except for a wakeup call test, since Friday night. 
I'm Johnny Gage and that camel sucking down the water over
there is Roy DeSoto. We're both paramedics with th--"

"We know. We get to clean up after you folks all the time."
Pete beamed.

Johnny didn't quite know how to take that comment so he
changed the subject. "Hi Dix.." he said, arcing up onto his toes 
to see her better. 

Malloy and Reed tightened the gap between their shoulders
so Johnny wouldn't be able to nudge through.

Gage frowned and couldn't figure out why he was doing so.

Roy immediately caught on and he started to laugh. "Johnny.
Don't you recognize a couple of body guards when you see
them? Jim and Pete are running interference.."

"Oh, really.." Johnny said, his voice getting a little less cordial.

"Yes, really." said Dixie, turning around with an empty I.V. box
full of sound recorded clear plastic tape reels. "Thanks Pete.
Thanks Jim, for trying. But I'll handle him from here."

"No problem. Thanks for the coffee, ma'am. It went down swell."
said Jim. "We gotta go. We're on a break from a stake out 
assignment. A pair of detectives are covering for us while we're
on lunch."

"No kidding." Roy said. "Are you gonna get the bad guy?"

"Yeah, mostly likely before sundown. Snipers usually give up 
by then because of poor target visibility." replied Pete.

"Snipers?!" jolted Johnny. "We didn't hear anything about
a shooting spree going on..."

"That's because we've been very good at not alarming
the general public about this character. So far, he's
only taken a couple of pot shots at our squad car lights
and a few park squirrels. No one's been hurt yet." Jim Reed
answered Gage.

"Ooo, stay safe out there guys." said McCall. "And give these
donuts to those two covering for you. I can't stand police types
who decide their work's more important than their stomachs."
she said, shoving over a box of them across the desk counter.
Johnny made a grab for the lid but Dixie slapped his hand away.
"Ah, ah ah. You two already had your lunch."

"How can you tell?" asked Roy mildly.

"Johnny's got mustard on his chin and you still have potato 
chip salt on your shirt." she grinned, handing over the pastries
to the Adam-12 pair. "See ya fellas.."

"Later, Dix.." they replied, walking out the ER door entrance
to return to their beat.


Roy and Gage got the chills. "Now I know why I became a fireman."
DeSoto said, refusing Dixie's silent offer of coffee.

"Oh? Why's that?" asked the frosted bunned nurse.

"Police work's just far too dangerous to monkey with. Joanne
made me promise years ago that I'd never consider becoming
one."

"Now firefighting's just as dangerous as police work, Roy." said
Gage.

"Not really. At least with firefighting. You can see the danger coming
and can avoid it." said Roy.

"Usually." Johnny agreed finally.

"Not in your case, Johnny Gage." replied Dixie, wide eyed."You've 
been banged up what? Six times already this past year. And I'm not 
counting the monkey virus nor that snake bite. Those were 
unavoidable consequences."

"In who's book, Dix?" Roy teased. "Not misplacing an HT could've 
prevented that bite and wearing a pair of rubber gloves could have 
made all the difference in the world whether or not that contagion took 
a hold."

"Now, Roy. Don't start in with that scene safety first and that body 
substance isolation lecture again with all that unnecessary glove 
wearing and stuff. I tell ya, adding those as permanent changes to 
our paramedic protocols is never gonna wash. I mean, that's like 
saying the art of mouth to mouth resuscitation's gonna become 
passe.  Not in a million--"

"Don't you get sick of getting all sticky and soiled head to toe 
on runs all the time?" Roy said, folding his arms over his elbows mildly 
in conversation.

"Well, yeah, sometimes it gets a little annoying changing out uniforms
so often. I only got four sets.." he grunted in consternation.

"This topic of conversation's absolutely rivetting gentlemen, but I've got
charts stacking up higher than my-"

"Sure, Dix. We were just leaving.." Roy said, grabbing Johnny's arm.
"We only wanted an excuse to get out of the station for a while. Cabin
fever don't you know." he grinned toothily.

Gage protested the whole way back to the squad. "Now, Roy. We could've
at least grabbed a cup of coffee.." he growled. "That wasn't polite leaving
her in the lurch like that."

"She wanted us to, Johnny. Didn't you get any of the hints thrown our
way?"

"Uh, what hints? I'm so wired I'm surprised I'm even seeing straight."
Johnny coughed.

"Then aren't you glad I got us out here again." Roy said, opening the
door for his partner and guiding his back inside the squad. "Coffee's
the last thing you need."

"Well, how about a chili dog at Max's? I'm starving.." Johnny said, putting
on his helmet.

"Max's it is.." Roy conceded, getting behind the wheel. "You're paying."

"Why am I paying? I thought I bought lunch for us both last time!"

"No you didn't. Your forgot your wallet at home. I-It ..it was the same morning 
you broke both your shoelaces.." DeSoto said, thrusting a finger out in
a telling gesture.

"Oh, yeah. Last Thursday. I always remember when I break my shoelaces."

"So do I. Because I'm the one who always has to hand ya some replacements."
Roy complained. "Geesh, I'm getting jittery and I haven't even had more than
ONE cup of coffee.."

"Want me to drive then?" Johnny said obliviously.

"No."

"Then buy us lunch and I'll shut up. Both actions'll be good for your nerves."
he told Roy, closing the maneuvering trap, that he'd been calculating and laying
down to spring upon DeSoto, all the way to Rampart.

Roy sighed a sigh of long suffering, feeling black. "All right. But I get a little
peace and quiet starting right--"

Beep! Beep! Beep!
##Squad 51. Stand by for a response. L.A. P.D. requests paramedic backup
at the corner of La Monte and Shelby. Details to follow en route.##

"Here we go!" hooted Johnny. "And we got one before the engine! I win
that bet, too. The guys haveta fix the dinner chow for us now and not the
other way around. Wa...Hoo."

"Wait a minute! Johnny, you got me involved in a chore bet that I didn't
even know about?"

Johnny nodded animatedly, eyes twinkled and bright.
"And we won. Doesn't it feel great?"

DeSoto glared at him for long seconds and then he let
out a long resigned sigh. "Silence is golden, huh.." Roy mumbled to 
himself as he turned the squad around from the hospital pull up and 
flicked on the red lights over their heads. "Why am I the only one who 
treasures that?"

"What?"

"Nothing. Put your helmet on." 

"Oh. ok." said Johnny a little too fast and it took a few
tries for him to fasten on the chin strap properly.

"You sure you don't need some Narcan or something?" Roy 
asked aloud.

Johnny gave him a dirty look. "I'm fine. This adrenaline rush 
I got from finally getting a call'll burn off all the coffee. Thanks
for caring about me, pally. " he said sarcastically. "But no
thanks."
 
"Suit yourself. And I'm going to be starting any I.V.s that might 
come up so ya won't be in danger of poking yourself."

"Fine." and Johnny clammed up, reaching for the notepad
to scribble down the tenative neighborhood address they
needed to reach. "I'll do the easy stuff just to please ya 
and to keep Cap on an even keel about me sneaking us 
off like this. He can't yell if I don't do anything wrong."

"And they say never to say MacBeth right before a performance."
whispered Roy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Dave was running full tilt, as fast as his blue and white Adidas could
carry him after the man running away from him.  His Smith and Wesson 
39- 9mm was out and pointed up to the sky in his right hand as he 
pounded the alley he was chasing through.

Ken had the red unmarked car with the red flashing dome light on top
speeding right on his heels.

"Metford! Give it up! We got ya surrounded!" Dave bellowed around 
painful sucking gasps of air that he pumped in and out of his chest as he
leaped over the trash in his way and around obstacles.

"Never copper!" said the man, turning and firing back from behind a telephone
pole.

Ken angled the car sideways and flung open a car door for his partner to
hide behind as the bullets riccocheted off the tin garbage cans around them.

Three shots from the sniper ex con spidered the windshield, making Ken
duck and swear. "Oh, man..! Not another window bill!"

"It could've been the paint job, buddy boy. Quit complaining."
said Dave to Ken as he curled up behind the car door. "Thanks for
getting me some cover."

"I wouldn't've had to if you hadn't gone off after the guy when
you knew he was armed to the hilt." spat Ken.

"Yeah, but that was only because I know Metford likes taking hostages. 
We're already too near the college campus to make me comfortable."

"If Metford was gonna take pot shots at the students, he would've
done so already, partner. Not just singed the hair off a few squirrels."

"Yeah well I don't like anything parallelling up to the Watch Tower 
Massacre of 1970. That day still leaves a real bad taste in my mouth."
Dave shored up a line of sight across the open window rim of
the door with a primal scream of frustration and he let loose a volley 
of shots that soon ended those winging back at them. He thought he
heard the sound of a body hitting concrete. "Got him!"

"Get in and I'll get us there." shouted Ken, peeling the rubber of
the red car in a squeal.

Dave dove into the front seat and slammed the door shut as
Ken smashed over a rack of garbage cans to get them there
faster.

Ken and Dave both threw the dome flashing car into park and dashed 
out of the car after divesting it of her keys in the direction they thought 
their shooter had gone in.

Dave puffed to a halt and went instantly pale as he neared the
spot that had echoed the sound of collapse they had both heard.
"Oh, g*d, no." he groaned, rushing forward to crouch over someone
lying in the scraps of paper and newsprint littering the alleyway.

It was a woman, with a fresh gush of blood coursing down her
left temple.

He dropped his gun in disgust after engaging its safety to reach
gingerly for the young woman's carotid while Ken jogged
a careful check around them looking for Metford. 

"He got away. D*mm*t!" Ken swore. Then he turned to crouch near 
his shaking partner.

"I shot her, Hutch. Ohmygod." said the curly haired detective.

"Who's to say that's a gunshot wound, Starsky? Quit snowballing
things. This girl was around the corner so how could your
shots've been anywhere near enough to score on her? Metford
could have done it just to get us to stop chasing him."

"There's enough metal around here t--"

"Shh.. Is she breathing?" Hutch asked, reaching for the still
woman's wrist.

"Uh,.."

"Tip her head back, without jarring her neck and have a listen. I'll
go call for an ambulance. She's still alive. Do you hear me Starsky?
She's alive. Do what you can to help her." Ken Hutchinson shouted.

Kenneth leaped toward the white striped tomato Gran Torino and snatched
up the radio mic. "Zebra 3. Zebra 3 to Headquarters. We've a woman
down in the alley at...." he looked around for roadsigns."...6th and
Parsons. Over. We've lost Metford! Roll all units in a point by
point grid search for him immediately!"

Nearly under the sheltering bumper of the white striped red orange car,
the other plain clothes detective was almost crying.
"Sweety? Can you hear me? Hang in there. We've got help
on the way. Just hold on. I've got you." begged a very frightened
David Starsky. 

Starsky felt a very poor answering gasp brush his cheek out of the 
girl's lips and he gripped her head even tighter when an unnatural
blue shade began covering her face. 

"No..don't die on me, miss. Come on.." and he began to give her 
fast breaths mouth to mouth to turn back some of the lifeless coloring 
he saw in her skin and eyes. "Hutch! Get down here and help me stop 
all this scalp bleeding. She's not trying to breathe for me anymore."

It wasn't long before Squad 51 heard from L.A. about the woman
down from a possible shooting.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   Dixie with Jim Reed and Pete Malloy from Adam-12.

Photo: Dixie with Johnny and Roy at the ER desk.

Photo: Close of Pete Malloy.

Photo: Close of Jim Reed.

Photo:  Roy and Johnny leaving out the hospital entrance.

Photo:  A sniper, kneeling and shooting.

Photo: Dave and Ken in a red car chasing and pointing.

Photo:  Hutch and Starsky ducked behind the car.

Photo:  Starsky with gun up checking cautiously near
              the Gran Torino.

Photo: Starsky reacting seeing a woman on the ground,
             shot in the head.

Photo:  Hutch radioing out for help while peeking undercover.

****************************************************************
From :  Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Friday, November 12, 2004 3:03 AM 
Subject :  Starsky Stresses 


Hutch reached into the back seat of the Torino 
and grabbed up his black street clothes duffle bag and 
tossed it onto the roof of the car. He snatched out a folded 
T shirt that lay within and ran with it back over to his partner 
working on the girl. "Ok, I got this.." he said, pressing the 
shirt gently against the gushing wound on her temple.

Starsky gave the woman another breath and the last
of the dusky cyanosis on her face disappeared a few
seconds later. "Her heartbeat's real slow, Hutch."

"I noticed that. Just keep going." Ken said. "Metford
was here. She's been roughed up. There's bruising
on her throat."

"A hostage who fought back?" Dave said after his
next breath.

"Probably. This doesn't look like a penetrating bullet 
wound or even a graze. There's no friction burns."

"Let's hope so or .............Captain Dobey's gonna kill 
me..............Temporarily blinding one girl once with a bullet
was ........................definitely enough for me partner." 

Quite suddenly, the girl gasped through her unconsciousness, 
as if breaking through a resistance.

Startled, Dave let go of her face. Then he caught hold of 
himself emotionally and started carefully relifting her jawbone so 
that the girl could breathe freely. "Hello. She's back.." he blurted 
out in his nervousness. 

"Good job." Hutch reached a hand around Starsky's to a neck 
pulse that wasn't under a bruise. "Pulse's still very slow."

"How's that bleeding?"

"I've got it controlled. She isn't losing any more."

"From there..." Starsky snorted.

"Yeah, well, the paramedics can figure out her other problems 
once they get here. Just keep up that airway hold."

"You don't have to tell me twice.." Dave said empathetically.
"Hey, miss.. Can you hear me?"

The woman twitched and started to moan, breathing shallowly
but well.

"Easy, hon. Don't try to move." said Hutchinson.

Welcoming sirens grew in the distance and the two plain clothes 
detectives could make out the familiar red outline of a Los
Angeles County Fire Department rescue squad heading into
their direction from the side street. They saw its front tires
thunk over the slight curve leading into the alleyway once they 
spotted the Torino and its red flashing light. They were aided 
on where to go by one or two officers in front of L.A. City black 
and whites starting to cordon off the area with crime tape.

"G*d I hope they remember their crime scene approach
protocols.." mumbled Starsky.

The driver of the rescue vehicle followed the Torino's
direction of travel and skid marks perfectly. 

"He has.." smiled Hutch. "At least this pair's smart enough
not to disturb anything." he raised his voice. "She's breathing
now! Semi conscious.." he yelled out to them. "So far, possible 
head and neck injury! We think she was in a struggle."

The two detectives watched as the paramedics gathered 
medical equipment that matched the situation, the 02 
apparatus, defib and EKG, a wooden long board and C collar, 
along with their usual biophone, drug and I.V. boxes.

The two paramedics hugged the chain link fence tightly,
off the beaten track, until they were even with the Torino,
then they cut over to the woman's side.

Johnny Gage immediately knelt down with a pen light
after setting a high flow oxygen mask over her nose and
mouth which Starsky held on manually. "Hi. I'm Johnny
Gage and this is my partner Roy DeSoto." he said to
the two police officers.

"Detective Ken Hutchinson.. Homicide. And my fretting, pale friend 
over there is Detective David Starsky. Also with Homicide." he 
teased, trying to make his partner more at ease with it all. "And
we're trying to prevent another one here in the girl."

Gage nodded. "I assume we're all safe now..and that we're 
not about to get our heads shot off by some crazed thug type?" 
Johnny asked quickly.

At that comment Dave cringed slightly, a subconscious 
gesture that only Hutch saw. "We're safe.." Starsky said quietly. 
"There's enough cops around here now to fill a barn."

"Ok. Just checking. Gimme some history on her, Detective.
But keep her head still just like you're doing." he ordered
Starsky.

"We think she was roughed up by a real low life with a history
of violence who was trying to get away from us. She may have
been in the middle of our exchanging gunfire."

"Male or female assailant?" Gage asked reasonably.

"Does it matter?! Just help her fellas. Fast." Dave flared sarcastically,
his adrenaline rush still making him jittery.

"It could. And we are." said Roy calmly. "Just take it easy. What you're 
doing is making a huge difference on how she's managing now.
But a few questions answered will let us provide care that targets her
medical problems quicker. So humor us a bit ok. She's stable now
from what I can tell so far." he said, taking a quick respiration count
with a hand on her stomach.

Johnny waggled his head in agreement as he slipped a cervical collar
around the girl's neck after a brief examination of the bruising Hutch
pointed out to him that was now taking the shape of a large man's
finger grips. "It was a man. She's been strangled. And this head wound's
probably the result of her being pistol whipped." he said, briefly lifting 
up the shirt Hutch was holding over her left temple. 

Starsky sighed in relief. "You sure about that?"

"Pretty sure.." Johnny said, smiling. "An x-ray will tell that for certain.
There's no bullet path cratering. I can see the edge of a gun grip's
impression on her skull where the skin's torn... Roy, negative on 
Coon's eyes or cerebral fluid out the nose or ears. Hmm, her pupils 
are equal, but sluggish."

"Late hypoxia? I'll ask Rampart if we can hyperventilate her with
that possible meningeal artery involvement.." he said pointing to the wound 
on the girl's head. "Dave, you can let go now. She's maintaining ok on her 
own and the collar'll keep her head and neck still. Dave? Did you
hear me?" Roy said a little louder.

"He answers better to Starsky.." Hutch said, slapping a free
hand against the dazed detective's arm. "Starsk.."

"Huh? Oh, ok." said Starsky, finally catching up on the 
conversation. He reluctantly let the girl go, and used part of Hutch's 
T shirt compress to wipe the girl's drying blood off of his hands.
"Sorry. I was...just thinking.."

"Yeah, about the ways we're gonna nail the b*st*rd who hurt
her." said Hutch.

"So right.." admitted the curly haired detective. "Uh,, she wasn't
breathing so hot when we got to her. Her face turned kinda blue."

"For how long?" Johnny asked, rechecking the flow of oxygen
to her mask for a good seal.

"Half a minute or so. I had to help her out for a few minutes. Then
all of the sudden, she sorta gasped ...like she only just then, caught 
her breath back." Dave said, trying to explain it well.

Roy grinned. "She probably got the wind knocked out of her. 
Happens sometimes when victims are shoved to the ground
hard enough by an attacker. "

"What about the strangling?" Hutch wondered. "Could that
have caused her to quit trying?"

"Most likely not. You said this man was running to get away
from you. He wouldn't have had time enough to suffocate her."

"But that is why her pulse's so slow." Gage added, taking a blood 
pressure."Roy, 64/40. Pulse's 42. Respirations still 18. Her carotid 
sinus must've been contused."

"Say what?" asked Starsky.

Johnny began to explain while Roy started cutting off the woman's sweater 
and pants. Both detectives averted their eyes and looked around anywhere 
but down in typical bystander self consciousness.

DeSoto noticed. "Here, cover her with this shock sheet once
I'm through. I'm just gonna look her over for a fast check for other 
injuries she might have."

He saw the detectives relax once he was through and had her
bundled up again, neck to toes, in the plastic blanket.

Gage went on.." .....the whole area inside the carotid artery
along the side of the neck's richly innervated with the sensory
bundles that regulate the body's blood pressure so that
it doesn't have wild swings one way or the other. Now hers
has been injured on one or both sides and that has brought on
vasovagal responses, that slow heart rate you felt and the low B/P
we're getting on her now."

"I see.." said Starsky, clearly not understanding the jargon.
"But she will get over it?" he pressed.

"Eventually." Roy said of the carotid sinus syncope syndrome.

Starsky smiled in relief.

Gage rubbed his chin. "...It also depends on what her 
head injury involves, too. That laceration of hers is very
large."

Starsky's grin turned into a frown as he sagged in relief
into Hutch's arms. "At least she wasn't shot. Namely by
me. Oh, Hutch. I don't think I could've lived through that
again. Thank heavens for small mercies."

Both paramedics exchanged puzzled looks but then 
they politely ignored the detectives' private conversation
while they got busy with the rest of the woman's patient care.

All four of them heard a light cough and right then,
the woman's eyes fluttered open.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   Starsky and Hutch asking questions in a closeup.

Photo:  The torino pulled over on a city street.

Photo:  The squad in an alleyway shed.

Photo:   Roy and Johnny giving care to a victim on the ground.

Photo:   Starsky, Hutch, DeSoto and Gage with the woman
              on the ground with a backdrop of palm trees and white sky.

**********************************************************************
From: "Patti" <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com> 
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 14:08:06 -0800 (PST) 
Subject:  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Complications 


Johnny Gage bent close to the woman's face, holding her shoulders 
to prevent their muzzy patient from trying to sit up. "Hey there. Can you 
hear me? What's your name? Can you tell me that?"

The girl groaned wetly, closing her eyes, still coughing weakily.

Gage moved the O2 mask aside and cross scissored her mouth open, 
using her teeth, looking for blood or any other fluid that might be there. He 
accepted an active suction line that Roy shoved over to him with a foot but 
Johnny soon found that it wasn't needed.

"Nothing's here Roy. Her airway's doing fine. Ma'am? Hey! Can you answer 
me?" Johnny asked again, letting go of her mouth.  He dug several  
knuckles into her breastbone. 

The girl immediately shoved his hand away with only her left arm and her face 
screwed up at the painful rub. *choke* Ugghh.." and she took a deep breath 
from the mask Starsky replaced back onto her face. "Aaaah..." she sobbed. 
"My...hea..d-d.."

Johnny rocked back onto his heels. "I know. Easy. Just lie still. Can you tell me 
what happened?"

" I...mmmgh.." and fright suddenly filled her dirt crusty eyes as the rest of the 
woman's words faded into incoherency.

"Just try to relax. My name's Johnny Gage and I'm a Los Angeles County paramedic. 
We're gonna take real good care of you, all right? Keep holding still until I can 
check you out a little better. Tell me where your pain is besides your head. Can you 
tell me that?"

The woman, looking groggy and heavily stunned, didn't reply, but tears leaked 
out of the corner of one of her eyes as she finally tracked Johnny's.

"You're still waking up a bit. Don't be scared. Try and take as many deep full breaths 
from this oxygen as you can, ok? It'll help you focus a little better." Gage suggested to 
her as he rechecked the status of her pupils. "I'm just gonna take another look here 
with a flashlight to see how you're doing. Just relax."

Hutch picked up the girl's cut away clothes and started searching for a wallet in 
a jeans pocket. He found one. "I've got a name. Mary Malone. Age 22 from 
14 North Crescent in Anaheim. The photo I've got here matches her in a 
positive I.D. Starsky, California driver's license." he told the paramedics and 
his partner. "There's also a student's pass here to the University down the block."

Gage nodded while Roy called Rampart Base on the biophone.

After a half minute or so of watching Mary take breaths under the mask, 
Gage spoke again. "Mary. Talk to me now. Do you hurt anywhere else 
besides your head?"

Johnny noticed that she was growing more and more agitated. Finally,
her lips opened and she let out a fully coherent sentence. But it wasn't
a reply to his insistent question. It was about something else entirely
different. "...Tob... He's... Toby?!" she started calling out. "Where  are  
y---!?"

"Toby? Who's Toby? Mary! Take it easy. Don't move around so much. 
You're gonna hurt yourself!" Johnny grunted, keeping her shoulders pinned 
and immobile while Hutch kept firm hands across her forehead and over 
the dressing on top of the gaping wound ripped open on her temple.

"Mary..." Hutch started in, being closest. "Who's Toby? Easy hon. Just 
answer the question without fighting us.."

"My...my son.  He took him.." she cried frantically. "Ohmyg*d. That man 
had a gun!" and she started wailing and struggling in her panic. Johnny 
and Hutch both restrained her tightly.

Starsky took the wallet Hutch had dropped on the ground and leafed 
through its photograph section. He found several of a young boy with blond 
hair. "There's a couple photos of a kid in here,.... about four years old. He 
looks a lot like Mary. I'll put out an APB." and he got up to radio headquarters 
from the Torino.

Hutch nodded and then he looked down once more."Mary.. Mary! Lie still! 
We've got nearly a dozen police officers in the area and we'll look for him 
immediately. But you've got to start cooperating with the paramedics here so they
can start treating you! I'm Detective Hutchinson and I promise you that I'll do 
everything I can to find your son, but my first concern right now is you, and your 
injuries. Let these firemen get you to a doctor and to some help at the hospital. The 
best way for me to help find your son is for you to start answering their questions 
about what happened to you, ok?"

Mary Malone went limp, sobbing in resignation. "Please...I'll do anything you ask. 
Just find my little boy...."

Hutch sighed and so did Gage. Ken let go of the T shirt over Mary's temple. 
"The bleeding's pretty much stopped here. I'm letting go." he told Johnny. "I've
gotta go help my partner get out that possible kidnapped hostage bulletin. I'll 
be right back to help you with Mary's spine board. I'll also make
sure an ambulance is well on the way."

Johnny nodded to the fair haired policeman and got to work over Mary.
"Thanks, Detective Hutchinson."

"Please, call me Hutch. It's easier, Mr. Gage."

"O.k.." replied Johnny. "I'll remember that." 

Ken got up and joined Starsky by the Gran Torino and a couple of other 
officers who were heading up the grid search for the rifle armed Metford.
He also helped Starsky give Captain Dobey a preliminary report
of the chase and circumstances surrounding the girl's assault,
over their car phone.

Johnny bent close to Mary's face once more, wrapping a Coban elastic 
wrap around her head to hold the blood soaked T shirt and dressings 
into firm place against her temple. "How are you doing, Mary?"
 
"I...feel so dizzy, sir..."

Gage smiled at her. "Well then it's a good thing you're still lying down 
now, isn't it? How's your neck?" he added quickly.

"Sore."

"How about back here?" he said, gently feeling the bones in the back 
from the base of her skull and down to the top of her shoulders.

"It hurts just in front where he grabbed me. The left side of my neck's 
burning." and she pointed over the biggest of the angry fingermarks 
wrapping around there.

Gage checked gently for equality on both carotid pulses with a
couple of fingers. "Can you still breathe all right? Is your throat swelling 
up at all?"

"No.. I think its ok. It's just my head. It hurts real bad." she gasped.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, if one's nothing and 10's the worst, where's your 
pain right now, Mary?" Johnny asked.

"A  nine.."

"Are you nauseated?"

"Yes.."

"Ok, just let me know if you think you're gonna get sick and we'll tip you 
over."

"O.k.." and she grimaced rubbing her right arm with her left hand.

"What's wrong?" Johnny asked.

"I.. can't pick up my arm."

"This one here?" he said, gripping her hand on that side.

"Yeah.. it feels ...kinda tingly and numb."

Johnny got both her palms in both of his. "Squeeze my hands. Hard
as you can." he encouraged her.

He noticed her grip was weak but still there on the right
but her ability to keep her arm uplifted above her, was absent.

He moved down to test both her legs' strength, moving the
shock sheet aside.  "Ok, can you feel me touching you
down here?" he said pulling out a scissors point and tapping
her shins and the tops of both her feet.

Mary nodded yes.

Johnny put the scissors back into his hip holster.

"All right. Push both feet down onto both my hands. Ok, good. Now try and 
lift your legs against my holding them down, hard as you can. Good. That's 
fine." He looked for a Babinski's. Her toes curled down to his forceps point 
sweep check, normally, on both sides. 

"I'm ticklish." she said, trying to smile. The grin was nonexistent on the left 
side of Mary's face.

"Sorry." Gage grinned, looking up. He didn't miss seeing
the face droop and he didn't alarm Mary by mentioning it.

He went on to get a full medical history, which he wrote down onto a 
small tablet with his neurological findings. Gage handed it to his partner.

Roy had reached a physician through the biophone line. 
"Rampart. We've a  22 year old female. Victim of an assault. She's got 
a large left temple wound due to a blunt force blow to the head. Bleeding 
has been controlled. I estimate her blood loss at under 500 cc's.
Rampart, it seems she was a victim of a near strangling.

"She was respiratory arrested for a couple of minutes but was aided
by a bystander to spontaneous recovery. She's now awake and oriented 
to 12 on the Glasgow on 15 liters of O2. There's signs of non invasive 
crushing injury to the soft tissues of the neck. She's complaining of marked 
tenderness in the left anterior throat without airway distress. She's been 
cervical spine immobilized. Apparent restlessness has proved to be
emotional in nature.

"She's positive for vasovagal signs. Carotid pulses are equal. BP 
initially was depressed at 64/40. Pulse's now 50 beats a minute, up 
from 42,  and regular. Respirations are 18 and shallow. Pupils were 
equal and reactive, but sluggish, when we first arrived, but now the ipsilateral 
side's dilated. She has contralateral hemiparesis of only her right arm with 
partial sensation and face drooping on the left. Negative on Babinski's. 

"There's no indication of further injuries or allergies. Nor does she have 
a prior history of medical problems. She's negative for any medications."

Dr. Early replied back. 

## Start a large bore I.V., 51, of Normal Saline. Run in 500 ml's to offset her 
carotid hypotension. Then turn the intravenous to TKO. Give her mannitol 
IV 1 g/kg in a rapid push once you're in transit. After she's been long board 
immobilized, raise her head up. Closely watch for signs of a deteriorating 
consciousness level.  If she develops Cushing's, administer 1.0 mg/kg of 
Lidocaine slow IVP.  Use 5mg diazepam for any agitation.

##If her Glasgow drops below 8, hyperventilate her, 51, and make preparations 
for a rapid sequence induction ET intubation.  I'll advise you on what to use for
a paralytic agent.

##Give her .5 mgs atropine IV for that bradycardia. Get a strip for me, 51, I want 
to look for any arrythmias. Monitor her vital signs every five minutes and transport 
as soon as possible, without sirens, to prevent possible seizures.##

Roy repeated back all of Joe's orders and then he and Johnny, along with 
the two plain clothes detectives, got Mary situated onto a backboard.

A minute later, the Hearse ambulance arrived and Mary was gurney
loaded onto it with DeSoto and all the gear boxes. They used the squad's 
splint box turned onto one side to lift up the spine board's head end 30 
degrees.  Roy repeated to Gage. "Johnny. Doc wants silent mode in."

"Ok.." said Johnny, putting on his helmet onto his head.

Starsky looked at DeSoto, holding the ambulance door so the paramedic 
wouldn't have to shut it himself. "Traffic's not gonna do anything to get out 
of the way with just your ambulance reds flashing by themselves."

"We've no other choice in the matter. Mary has to stay perfectly quiet 
and calm. She's got an active intracranial bleed ongoing and any further 
excitement, like loud noises, are liable to complicate things for her." 
answered Roy.
 
"Mr. DeSoto, you have an alternative. We'll go ahead of the ambulance. 
Our siren faces forwards and isn't heard past the rear of our car. Now 
where's the girl headed?" Hutch asked, his question sounding more like 
a demand.

"Rampart General Hospital in Torrance." said Roy.

"Let see, that's.. 6th to Ventura Freeway North, to 101 North to 226th 
Street. Hang a right... Right?" Starsky asked the paramedic quickly 
after his mental map drawing. 

"Yeah, that's the shortest route. And if I can't talk ya out of an escort, I'll 
take it." DeSoto grinned and got on board the ambulance. 

"We gotta go anyway to talk to Mary for more details before she heads 
into surgery. We may not get another chance to learn from her about what 
actually happened if she doesn't make it." Hutch said grimly.  

Roy frowned when his hidden paramedic worry was stated so openly.
"If Mary's got just an epidural hematoma, she's got every chance in the world
to survive it. The neurosurgeons at Rampart are absolutely the best
surgeons around these parts."

"DeSoto, we're counting on them to do their d*mned*st to save her.
Those doctors, and my partner and I, are little different. Little Toby's now 
counting on the both of us,...to save HIM." said Hutch with conviction, 
meeting Roy's blue eyes evenly with his own.

"Let's go. Time's wasting." said Starsky gently. "Be sure to let that attendant 
know that he's following our unmarked police car. It's the striped candy apple
over there."

Roy nodded. "I'll let him know."

Hutch shut the door until it latched. He then patted the glass to let the driver 
know that he could start turning around back towards the main drag.

Starsky sprinted ahead to the Torino to precede him in the same move.
Then he picked up his partner in a spin of tires and dust and soon, the 
siren blaring Torino and silent, lights only running squad and ambulance, were off 
to Rampart as fast as Starsky and Hutch could scatter the city traffic.


In route, Roy set up an EKG tracing off Mary. She had fallen into
a litany of calling out her son's name. She no longer opened her
eyes to Roy's questions nor followed any of his suggestions.

Roy picked up the phone. "Rampart this is Squad 51, how
do you read?"

##Go ahead, 51.##

"Our victim's LOC is 9. Stand by for a Lead Two and vitals."

##Standing by.##

The paramedic sent on the telemetry to Dr. Early and
waited, biting his lip. Roy picked up his HT to Johnny. 
"HT 51 to Squad 51."

##This is Squad 51.## answered Gage driving behind
the ambulance.

"She's slipping into unconsciousness. We might have
to pull over for that intubation before we get there."

##10-4, 51. Watching out for a curbside. I'll let the detectives 
know that we might emergency halt on their Tach Two. ##

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the striped Torino, Starsky had one eye on the ambulance
behind them and the other on the road. He shouted to 
a slow driver in front of him. "Come on, buddy! Move it!"
he shouted, hanging his badge out the open car window
for the startled motorist to see. "What part of the color
red don't ya see?! Maybe this badge'll talk better!"

Hutch ducked down in embarrassment. "Starsky, go easy on them. 
Scaring the other drivers'll only make'em slower in pulling out of our way. 
We're making good time. I estimate Rampart's only three minutes away."

"More like six minutes, Hutch. Did you forget the seven o'clock coal train 
already? I'm speeding because we're a minute away from it cutting us off 
at the pass. Look over there buddy boy." and he pointed out to their left, 
where two city blocks sideways from their own position, the guard rails 
of the train crossing intersection, were already lowering and flashing red.

Rows of cars were damming up in front of them in anticipation of
their own street's train rails coming down. 

Then Gage's transmission about Mary's potential future ambulance 
emergency stop came over the radio through their police dispatcher. 

"O.K. Nobody's stopping for anything else that's as unnecessary as
a freight train here." said Starsky and he drove onto the sidewalk to get 
around the halting cars. Then he threw the Torino into a sharp left onto the 
railroad tracks wooden rails as he waved on the ambulance and squad to 
start coming towards the tracks normally, via the street.

Starsky jerked the wheel and spun the Torino sideways until the locomotive
conductor was sure to see the red car obstructing his way. He pounded
on the dashboard happily when he heard the blast of the train's klaxon bite 
down in rapid succession and when blue sparking arcs started to fly as
the train's emergency brakes were frantically applied.

Hutch paled, seeing that his passenger door was the side facing
the oncoming train. "Starsky, what the h*ll are you doing?!" he
shouted in a high panicked voice.

"Slowing him down. The gates won't flash for our street 
until he's an eighth of a mile away. Remember your train stats? 
I'm buying us an extra thirty seconds. At least." said Starsky.

"You're crazy! Are you sure you didn't jam the tires into the rocks?!
We might not be able to work free again in time."

The smile of success faded from Starsky's face into a white wash.

Until he tested the stick and the forward and reverse gears until the 
Torino rocked in response comfortably. "We're not stuck, Hutch. And 
we only gotta stay here long enough for the squad and ambulance to 
work past the traffic jam and get past that R/R crossing. Then we 
can rocket outta here.."

Hutch just stared at his partner and back at the oncoming train again
in a panicked flurry of glances. "St...ar..sk..That train's going over 
forty miles an hour!" he shouted.

"Just a few.....seconds.....more..." said Starsky, watching the  
intersection crossing the avenue they had just left for the Hearse ambulance
and rescue squad, in the rear view mirror. "There goes Mary.." he 
wiped his hands on his jeans. Then he started to re-grip the Torino's
steering wheel, ignoring Hutch's shouts of alarm.

The train's next horn blare all but split their eardrums.  

"StarskyyyYYY!" said Hutch.

"....and there goes Johnny..." said the curly haired detective with a 
crow of delight. "They did it.." he laughed, highly pleased. "They beat the train!"
Then he caught sight of the immense train bumper scoop and a whole lotta 
of steam boiling down on them less than ten yards away from Hutch's
passenger door.

Hutch was scared into completely frozen immobility.

"GaahhhHH!" gasped Starsky and he punched the gas pedal to the metal 
with all the strength he had in his leg. The Torino scooted off the tracks mere 
feet before the train barreled by in a high speed squeal of sparking brakes.
He caught the barest glimpse of its terrified train conductor before the 
young stripe hatted man in the locomotive was swept past and then
beyond them.

Clouds of dust roared into the detectives' car in an angry wind and
made both men cough and choke violently.  When the dust
cleared, they both eyeballed each other from underneath a thick coating
of grit and sand. The dusty assault had snapped Hutch out of his freeze. 
"....Starsk... if ..you ...ever...." he began, holding up a now trembling
finger. Then he sneezed.

"I promise. I won't. Not ever again. Hey, let's catch up with them now, 
Hutch. I can still see them on the merge ramp leading onto the freeway."
And he spun the car's tires until they dug them off the soft soil of
the intertracks and back onto a sidewalk. He cut over onto the merge
lane and boiled up onto the freeway in long peels of noisy rubber.
A plume of dust accented their departure from the car's interior.

Belatedly, Hutch fastened himself tightly into his seat's lap belt.
"I should turn you in for reckless endangerment Starsky! I'm sure
the captain will LOVE to hear about this latest stunt." he said,
trying to brush off the dust coating his tan leather jacket in vain.

"How can you rat on me? It'll have no credibility at all. There were no 
witnesses visible for the last fifteen seconds. The dust cloud was too big 
for anyone to see through."

"I saw everything just fine with perfect one hundred percent 
clarity. That's all I'll need you big lummox!"

"You mean you'd doom our six year long partnership to a dissolvement? 
Hutch I'm thoroughly surprised at you. I only made that move to save a risk to
a life. Mary's."

"By risking ours?!"

"I had everything perfectly under control."

"Let me tell you something Starsky. If you wanna go around rescuing
lives, do it with your Wesson 39-9mm. You're far better at shooting than
you are at playing chicken."

"I am?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

Hutch was still fuming when he killed the siren long enough for them 
to slide past the speeding squad and ambulance to get back into the
leading escort position they had before the train crossing. 
"Or better yet. Why don't you join the firehouse guys to do that sort
of thing and work it out of your system?!" he snarled angrily.

"You know, that's not such a bad idea, Hutch. All this ambulance
and emergency medical stuff's addicting." And he flipped their forward
siren back on with a fancy florish. "I wonder if those two paramedics' 
stationhouse ever takes on police volunteers...." 

Hutch just stared at his partner in utter disbelief. "I was kidding,
Starsky."

"I don't think I was." Starsky replied back, keeping tabs on their
two tails in the rear mirror. "When I was a kid, I always dreamed of
becoming a fireman."

"You've got the wrong kind of badge for that kind of work. Forget
about it."

"Guess you're right, Hutch. Ah, here's our exit." And he calmly
signalled his right hand turn off the freeway.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
##Did you see that, Roy?## Gage came over DeSoto's HT.

"See what, Johnny?" answered Roy over his radio 
as he counted Mary's pulse at her carotid.  The woman had quieted 
significantly verbally and had accepted a simple nasopharyngeal airway 
without a fuss. So far, her Glasgow rating was staying a solid 9.

##That police car. It just took on a train so we could get across.##

"I hadn't noticed. Mary's fair. Still a 9. And Joe's still going over
her EKG. She's showing inverted T waves, and non-specific ST 
depressions. Pressure's rising."

##How high?##

"In the hundreds palpated. She's still breathing ok. I put
a nasal airway in and she took it."

##Keep me posted.##

"I will."

##See you at the entrance. We're gonna make it in without
that stop.##

"That's my call, too. Whatever those detectives did back 
there bought Mary a whole lot of time."

##I'm sure they knew that, doing it. Man, I wish I could've
become a policeman. Seems like a d*mned fun profession.
I wonder if their department ever takes on fireman ride alongs.##

"Policemen are useful sometimes, Johnny. But a lot of them
are hot headed risk takers who'll do anything for the shortest
outcome. They're not your kind of people."

##Who says? I won't know if I don't try..##

"I've never heard of volunteer fire in a police station."

##Oh. That's too bad, Roy. I'll see you in one.##

Soon, the Torino, ambulance and rescue squad were lined up
at the emergency entrance and powered down. 

Mary Malone was quickly bustled inside to Dixie awaiting there.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   Hutch on the radio mic in the Torino. Starsky driving.

Photo:   A Hearse ambulance. Stuck in traffic.

Photo:   *animated* A freight train passing a crossing at night.

Photo:   Hutch panicking in the car with Starsky.

Photo:   Johnny driving the squad.

Photo:   Roy on the biophone in the ambulance looking
              at his watch. 

******************************************************************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@h...> 
Date:  Mon Nov 22, 2004  7:11 pm 
Subject:  Hallway Duty


"Treatment 3." said Dixie quickly as she took the hanging I.V. from
Roy DeSoto's hand so he could manage his chattering HT radio. 
The two other men, she recognized as police detectives. " Gentlemen, 
Dr. Early's called for a neurosurgeon and I'll be the one helping you fill 
out your crime report after we're through examining Mary. Johnny, 
could you stick around and help x-ray out with her films? I've already set 
out an extra lead apron."

"Sure, Dix."

"How's she breathing?" Joe Early asked as Gage and DeSoto wheeled
Mary's gurney into the indicated room. 

"All right." Roy replied. "Still reacting to pain on both sides of her body. 
All except that one arm. She was talking a minute ago, but now she's
 just mumbling." And the three of them disappeared inside the treatment 
room.

Detective Hutchinson sped up his walk until he was parallel with Dixie.
"Ma'am. Is there any way my partner and I could ask Miss Malone a few
questions? She's not unconscious yet."

"That's seriously doubtful." Dixie said, as she whirled to prevent the two 
men from entering after Mary and the two paramedics when they tried to 
follow them. "Excuse us. We've films to get and then she's going straight 
into a ward for an immediate craniotomy."

She nodded to the two policemen she had anticipated needing to thwart
the detectives' meddling, to stand fast on either side of Mary's door.

"Miss.....McCall." said Starsky after reading Dixie's name tag 
quickly.  "You don't understand the urgency of the situation! Malone's four 
year old little boy has been kidnapped by her attacker and only Mary 
knows the critical details.  This'll only take a couple of minutes. If she dies 
before we find out anything...."

Dixie's hand slammed into the frame of the treatment room's door.
"She'll die for certain if you two delay us or her treatment for even a minute..." 
she snarled.  "Please! Go sit down in the waiting room! If she says anything 
during her exam and stabilization, I'll send Johnny or Roy out here to let you 
know about it!" 

The richly varnished set of doors swung shut into their faces. 

Starsky was about to go barging in after Dixie, when Hutch grabbed 
his shoulders, and stopped him. 

Starsky knocked his hands away. "What are you doing?" he said with a 
low warning glare. "You know we've gotta get her side of it for the boy's sake."

"Starsky. Think about it. Just how much could Mary've learned from Medford 
during the brunt of the attack? He was strangling her."

"Adrenaline sometimes does some pretty powerful things on memory, partner. 
I'm banking on Mary having had a total recall effect because of her mother's 
instinct firing off for her child's protection." and he started to push on the doors 
around Hutch's larger frame.

The two very large officers started to tense up their well muscled arms.

Hutch once again prevented his smaller partner from moving. "Don't, Starsk. 
Be happy. We've managed to save Malone long enough for the doctors to 
get their shot at finishing the job.  Let's go grab a cup of coffee."

"No way in h*ll, Hutch. I'm not getting the wool pulled over my eyes 
by skipping an interview with another material witness against Metford again. 
Not this time. We lost the last one when he died on the surgical table."

"I insist." said Hutchinson, spinning his partner around toward the front
reception desk of Emergency's ward. "Sorry officers. He's a bit gung ho
when it comes to cracking female victimization cases.  Come on, Starsky.
I smell coffee brewing over here and you look like you could seriously use 
some right about now."

Starsky let himself be herded, finally realizing that he should retreat 
rather than embarrass them both with a public scuffle with two fellow 
policemen. Then he shivered. "I am kinda cold."

"Stress'll do that." said Hutch matter of factly, grinning at the nurses
who hurried by them, going about their business. He absently patted  
Starsky's shoulder reassuringly as he guided him away from Mary's
room and the two head nurse appointed guards. "We've been hunting 
Metford down like an animal for ...what? Two days straight?"

"Three. I remember that because that's how long it's been since  
either of us got any sleep." Starsky grumbled unhappily. Then
he shrugged out of Hutch's grip, cooperating at last, and he adjusted
his brown leather jacket back into comfortable place around his fatigue
slumped shoulders.

"Homicidal maniacs always give us a run for the money. It's the price we 
haveta pay before we get to nab the bad guy." Hutch reasoned. "Haven't
you ever noticed that?"

"No." Starsky reached out an arm in a grab and collapsed his weary butt on an 
empty gurney stored along the side of the hospital hallway with a sigh, before 
they had even walked thirty steps. He toppled over onto his side, nesting a cheek 
on an elbow and then he closed his eyes. "Wake me when those two fire monkeys 
get back out here, Hutch. I want a decent prognosis on Mary for Captain Dobey 
a.s.a.p. You know how he makes our life a living h*ll until he hears the final results 
or at least some decent progress news on any of our felony cases."

"That may take a while. They've got to clear her C-spine before they
can even move her."

"That's ok by me. Why don't you grab the other end of the bed and lie down. 
This feels....absolutely....divine...."  he murmured sleepily, curling up under 
the wheeled gurney's antiseptically clean white sheet.

"Starsky?" Hutch inquired, staying on his feet. "I don't think you should 
be doing that.. I mean, what if it gets busy later and they need this stretcher?"

A loud snore peeled immediately from Starsky's lax face. 

"Starsk?"

There was no answer.

Hutch finally yawned uncontrollably and then he gave in to a mild grin. "All 
right. I guess you deserve a nap, pal. Looks like we've a long night ahead of 
us." he said angling Starsky's chin, so he slept silently without noise.

To keep nosy hospital staff at bay, Hutch threw the sheet over his partner's
face, took over a chair, and snatched up a magazine to read. Then he sat 
next to Starsky's gurney as if on a corpse watch.  

The shining detective's badge that he put out on his shirt's lapel kept anyone 
from asking any questions about either the man shaped lump under the 
crisply pressed sheeting on the bed, or him.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   An x-ray of a linear skull fracture with a parietal epidural hemorrhage.

Photo:   Hutch muscling up two guards in front of a hospital room door
              as Starsky watches.

Photo:   Dixie inside a treatment room in front of a centesis tray.

Photo:   Dr. Joe Early frowning beside a surgical emergency door.

******************************************************************* 
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 15:20:34 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>    
Subject:  The Lead.. 


Dr. Brackett was already in the Treatment Room on the phone.
"Joe, I've got an anesthesiologist coming right now to get
her squared away with an endotrach tube."

"Thanks, Kel." said Joe as he began a funduscopic exam on
Mary. "The sooner the better. There's retinal petecchiae in
evidence."

"Intracranial changes?" Dr. Brackett offered.

Joe nodded. "At the very least, a linear skull fracture. I'm feeling a crack
that's non depressed right along her parietal bone just above the left ear. 
With that same side dilated pupil and partial hemiparesis that Roy found, 
I'll bet there's a strong possibility that she's got an active epidural bleed 
going on." 

"No bet." said Kel. Then he turned to Dixie while he continued waiting for
the X-ray tech to lay out the lateral and frontal cranial film series on the light board.
"Dix, I want you to set up a foley before she hits the OR. Take care of that once
she's under and intubated. Also draw blood for electrolytes, blood urea nitrogen, 
creatinine, glucose, a complete blood cell count with platelets, prothrombin time, 
activated partial thromboplastin time. Have the lab do a toxicology screen and 
serum alcohol level and get a blood type and crossmatch. Her chart's not up from 
records yet." said Brackett. 

"Right away, Kel." and she went to the wall phone in the back of the room.

He moved to the woman's right side and uptook her hand and fingers. 
"Johnny, what's her pressure?"

"It's up, Dr. Brackett. 150/98. Respirations are only ten now. The heart 
rate you already know." he said pointing to the audible cardiac monitor
that they all could hear pacing off a slow beat.

Joe completed his physical check of Mary's head and he moved to
her legs to test their reactions with a reflex hammer. He looked up
when the anesthesiologist arrived with his equipment.

Brackett pressed his thumbnail on top of Mary's middle finger nail bed, 
sliding it along until his clicked over the end of hers at the finger tip. The
rest of Mary's fingers on that hand flexed, transiently exaggerated. "Joe,
I've a positive Hoffman's response."

"Both sides?"

Kel checked. "Yes."

Dr. Early frowned. "That means there's a problem at C5 or above
in addition to her head injury."

"Good thing she was collared." Dr. Brackett said. "Did you get cervical
plates, too?"

"Yeah, they're almost set. Hang on."

"Mike. Get her ready, fast. Cushing's is just around the corner." Kel
said to the anesthestist.

Right then, Mary moaned. Roy, by her right side, leaned in close. 
"Mary... can you hear me? The doctors are right here. They're gonna
take real good care of ya. We're at the hospital now."

Mary got more agitated, as if feeling Dixie's tap for the lab's arterial blood,
and she started to fidget restlessly. "Tttt----Ttttoobbbb "

"Keep her down." Brackett warned the two paramedics to hold her
still. He drew up a 3 mg syringe of pentobarbitol and injected it into Mary's
I.V. "Mary. Mary. Listen to me. You hurt your neck when you hit the
ground. It's very important for you to lie as still as you can and don't move."

"TTttttt---oob. Money's on the dress...e..r. Tooower's  Plaazzz-zz."

"Shhh.." Kel soothed holding her forehead. "Don't try to talk. We've
given you some medication to relax you."

"Brrrrriing....ittt  th---"  Mary's face slacked off with a sigh as Brackett's
sedative took effect and she quit fighting actively. 

Mike deftly took out the nasopharyngeal airway and 
suctioned the blood and saliva out of her mouth and nose. 

He prepared for an in-line intubation with the endotrach airway tube he 
had ready to place. He nodded to Kel to signal that he was ready for the 
doctor to inject the second syringe full of succinylcholine to paralyze her 
the rest of the way until her breathing stopped.

Gage pulled the sheet down so the anesthesiologist could see her
chest for landmarks and its eventual rise for when the ventilator was turned 
on. He read off the numbers on the billows gauge. "She's got 
mild hypocapnea..   I'm reading,...30- 35 mm Hg, doc."

"That's fine, Johnny.." said Joe Early. "That carbon dioxide level will
prevent any severe vasoconstriction and it'll eliminate her existing cerebral 
ischemia. Do you have good breath sounds yet for Mike, Roy?"
he asked as the tube doc finished his work.

Roy listened carefully over both of Mary's lungs and her stomach
with the stethoscope he still had around his neck.
"There's no gastric gurgling. You've got your placement right first time." 
he shared. Mike nodded and taped off the breathing tube so it wouldn't 
move around during her transit into surgery.

"Ok, let's go. Dixie, make sure the lab results and those X-rays meet
up with us while we scrub up. We'll stall with starting Mary's tapping
burr holes as long as we can."

Dixie nodded as the two paramedics bundled Mary up again in
warm heated blankets and helped the orderlies gather all her
tubes and IV from around the wheeled bird vent.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hutch rose immediately from his chair hopefully, as Mary was wheeled
out into the hallway. But his smile died when he saw that she
was tubed and not breathing on her own, hooked up to a machine.

"Do you need us any more, docs?" Gage asked Joe Early and Kel Brackett
from alongside her bed.

"We got it from here." Kel said, helping to keep Mary's airway from jostling.

"Tell those two detectives we'll give them a call as soon as Mary hits the
Recovery Unit." Joe added as they put some fast distance between
them.

"Will do.." said Roy and the two fire paramedics slowed their pace as
the surgical entourage entered the metal doored elevator.

Hutchinson met up with them as the doors snicked shut on the sight of
Mary's pale, still face. "Gentlemen? Did she speak anymore?"

"Hmm?" Gage said, looking up thoughtfully. "Oh, oh.oh. Uh. Let me
think back. We really had our hands full. Uhhhh. She was
really worried about her son, Toby." he offered.

"Yeah, she called out his name a few times." Roy agreed. "And..and
and.. she mentioned something about some money.."

"About what money?" said Hutch starting to walk back down the hall
to where he had been reading. The two firemen followed, next
to him.

Gage blinked a few times. "She didn't specify.. but 
I think she said something like, 'It's on the dresser.' "

"Yeah, and about a place that it had to go to." DeSoto frowned, rubbing
his head wearily.

"Did she give an address?" Hutch asked, pausing by the gurney along the
wall.

"Not exactly. We had a hard time making it out." Roy admitted.
"She was getting doped up pretty good by that point. It was
just a few syllables."

"Where?" asked Hutch amicably.

"Well,... it sounded like Tauser's Pass or... Tower's...Pl..." Gage
broke off, trying to remember.

Hutchinson snapped his fingers. "Tower's Plaza?"

"Yeah, that might have been it..." Roy nodded.

"Thanks fellas. We'll get right on it."

Gage stopped Hutch before he turned away again.
"Uh, who's we? I don't see your partner around here anywhere."

Hutch took his radio out of his pocket and said, "Zebra 3 to
Headquarters. We've a lead on the Malone kidnapping. Tell
Captain Dobey to call us on our automobile phone in two minutes.
We're headed to Mary's residence right now. Come on, Starsk, rise 
and shine..." he said, tickling something on the gurney. "We've a 
ransom to deliver."

Johnny Gage startled badly when the "body" moved and became
Detective Starsky pulling off the sheet in a tangle of bleary panic.

Roy steadied Gage as the two hastily departing detectives 
ran quickly down the hallway for the ambulance doors. "Easy,
pal. Don't have a coronary. We've got that dinner bet to collect
on, so don't die of fright on me. I don't wanna work that hard."

"D-dd-ddid you see that?" Gage said, breathing fast and pointing
down the hall. "Why'd they pretend a body was a sleeping guy like
that? What a nasty trick."

Roy shrugged mildly. "I don't think it was a trick. More like an inadvertant
crash. I've seen you do it enough times around here."

"What?"

"Nothin. Come on and walk it off. Let's go, I'm getting hungry." DeSoto said,
thinking about how bad the end of rush hour traffic was going to be
and how long their ETA back to base was gonna take. "L.A., Squad
51's available."

##Squad 51.## Spap.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   Roy and Johnny at Rampart looking overwhelmed.

Photo:   Starsky and Hutch figuring it out.

Photo:  Joe Early in close discussion.

Photo:   Kel Brackett looking intent.

Photo:   Doctors operating on a patient in surgical blue.

***********************************************************************
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, December 1, 2004 1:57 PM 
Subject :  Mary's Deal  


Starsky and Hutch ran up the stairs leading to Mary Malone's
spanish shingle house and to its vine wrapped front door. 
In their hands, they held a property search warrant, fresh from Captain
Dobey's hands. Lock picking the door, they went inside steathily, guns 
drawn and hugging the walls.

They put them away when they saw that things were completely
undisturbed in every room they could see. Together, the two
detectives sighed in relief.

"Metford hasn't been here yet." said Hutchinson.

"How could he come around to look for the ransom money?
He's got a kid in tow. And one who probably isn't very happy 
about being apart from Mary right now. Besides, Metford still 
knows he's got every cop in the city looking for him." said Starsky.

Hutch frowned. "There's one thing about this whole affair
that really stinks." he said, as he and his partner searched every
dresser in each room for anything resembling something that
could hold hidden money. 

"And what's that, Sherlock?" smiled Starsky.

"If Metford kidnapped Toby on the spur of the moment, how
could Mary have had time to make arrangements to have
money available on hand to try and get him back so fast? We've all
been assuming that attack on her was a first meeting between 
the two of them." reasoned Hutch, leafing through the stack of mail
sitting on Mary's desk for clues.

Starsky didn't like the feeling that washed over him. "A prior
relationship of some kind?"

Hutch nodded. "Not necessarily a romantic one. I can't see a college 
student getting involved with a man Metford's age. He's old enough to
be her father. Perhaps she knows him as some shady, obscure family 
acquaintance?"

"I'll buy that. But if that was true, why didn't she tell us about knowing him,
when we were there, right up front?"

"She had a head injury Starsky." said Hutch. "I speak from experience
that you can't always think clearly having one. I was amazed that Mary
could even talk after coming to like that after not having been able to 
breathe at all."

"She sounded pretty lucid talking to that dark haired paramedic for
those few minutes. What was his name again?"

"John Gage." supplied Hutch, moving on to the next room.
"Let's try looking in the bedroom."

"Ok, Hutch,  I'll go along with your line of thinking. So, ....You're saying,
she changed her tune, once she woke up the rest of the way in that alley, because 
she wanted to try and handle the situation with Metford on her own. I'll buy that. She was 
scared for her boy." Starsky surmised. "But then, at the hospital, the seriousness of her 
condition must've convinced her to change her mind about getting some help with him 
when she realized that she was heading into surgery. She must've figured out that going 
under the knife would run over being able to keep Metford's ransom delivery deadline."

"Most likely." 

Both detectives stopped when they spied a very masculine black briefcase,
sitting on a nightstand by the bed that didn't jive with the rest of the
floral or child's home decor around them. They rushed over to it and
flipped open the lid. Jewels and a large sum of money sparkled up at them.
"Bingo." said Hutchinson.

Starsky picked up some documents lying next to the case and started reading
out loud. "I, Mary Malone, co-signer of the contents of of this safety deposit 
box, so avow, affirm and agree that I have made this withdrawal in good
faith and sound mind...."  He looked up at his partner. "Metford coerced her
to get  her dead grandmother's savings withdrawn."

Hutch had found a notepad next to the phone, written in a curling feminine 
hand that was also shaky looking with stress. "This says eight o'clock, tonight, 
Starsky. At Tower's Plaza.. the 1010 Interchange Building." and his face fell into 
shocked angry lines. "This whole day's turning out so like Metford's usual MO. 
A targetless shooting spree for kicks to celebrate a heist going his way...."

"He's gonna conclude this deal and then go back into deep hiding again where we'll
never find him. We're taking all of this with us! Who's to say Toby won't get on
his nerves and get beaten up like Mary did?" Starsky said, shutting the briefcase 
and snatching up both the bank withdrawal papers and the phone notepad along with
the money and jewels. 

"No one." said Hutch. "That little boy's still in danger even if it isn't deadly danger."

"We don't have time enough to go to headquarters to get the FBI in on this whole
deal.  It's 7:10, Hutch."

"We're gonna haveta find time," he said. Then, in a burst of an idea. "I know, we'll make 
arrangements on the way to the Plaza through Captain Dobey and call all the watch
dog units to close on in." agreed Hutch. "Most of those offices in that tower 
are empty now and unoccupied. It's way after their business closing hours."

"We'll startle Metford out of any target practicing on the streets by calling in
the fire department."

The two detectives ran out of the house, secured its front door tightly, and 
raced for the red Gran Torino as fast as they could in the falling night time 
darkness.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Photo:  Starsky and Hutch on the steet in a night time neighborhood.

Photo: An arrest warrant in close up.

Photo:  A briefcase full of money and jewels.

Photo:  Starsky and Hutch in their car on the radio at night.

*************************************************************************************
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> 
Date:  Tue Nov 30, 2004  4:50 pm 
Subject:  Ring of Fire

Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage skidded into Station 51's kitchen,
each doing fair imitations of Bonnie scampering claws on the slippery
floor, but with their shoes, in their hurry to get to their plates.

Marco was grumpy, having just finished peeling twenty potatoes to
go along with the steaks Kelly had grilled up. "Hey, watch it you
guys, you'll scuff up the tiles! I just got done mopping that."

Gage and DeSoto ignored him as they scooted their wooden
chairs a little closer to the table and their silverware.

"Ah, I can't wait to sink my teeth into... Sorry for winning the bet, Chet. 
This looks absolutely fabulous." he said tucking a napkin around his neck.
"What didya sautee them in?" he said reaching for the steaks platter for
a taste of the marinate glistening there.

Chet smacked his fingers. "Shittake mushroom and yellow onion. Mitts
off until you get served." he said. "Cap wasn't too pleased about being
suckered into the bet.  But he did his part. He's got a couple of bowls
of salad chilling in the frig."

Johnny looked around, stuffing a dinner roll into his mouth as Kelly
forked over two steaks onto the paramedics' blue and white swirled
china plates. "Where is he? Usually he'd be here pulling rank on all of
us to get the biggest steak."

Mike Stoker looked up from some carrots he was shoving into his
mouth as quick as he could. He mumbled. "He's on the phone
with somebody named Captain Dobey from the Bay City Police 
Department. Do you know anything about that?"

Gage and Roy exchanged glances. "A fair amount. That police
medical standby call turned into an assault and kidnapping. Our
victim was a mother and her four year old son's now missing.
The cops think he's being held by her attacker."

"Ooo, that's rough. She gonna make it?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah. Rampart was really on the ball today.  Her anesthetist was
already in the room when we got to the hospital. She's got a head
crack that seemed to be just epidural in nature. Easily mended." Roy 
replied, cutting his steak calmly and chewing on a center piece stabbed 
onto a fork. "Pass me the pepper, Stoker. Thanks."Johnny was eating so 
fast that Roy was amazed that he didn't choke.  DeSoto frowned a little 
and tried not to watch.

Johnny added his two cents worth. "The whole run was just plain
weird, guys. Bullet casings lying around us like scattered acorns. Cops
running around everywhere. Our two detectives' car had its
windshield shot through with a couple of bullet holes. "

Marco's eyes got real big. "We're you in danger?"

"Nah. It was over by the time we got there." Roy reassured Lopez.

"The shorter cop reminded me a lot of you, Chet. Complete with moppy 
hair and tennis shoes." Gage interjected.

"No kidding..." Kelly said with feigned interest. "Didn't know I had
a twin out there. What'd he do for you guys?"

"He got our lady breathing again. She'd been choked and thrown too hard
onto some concrete. Starsky did pretty well considering the fact that he 
thought he shot her with his gun the whole time he and his partner were
helping her out."

Stoker chuckled. "Starsky. What kind of name is that?"

"It's probably Jewish." Marco guessed.

"Probably. His taller partner was named Hutch." Roy nodded reflectively. 

"As in a piece of furniture?" Chet laughed, stuffing a pile of potatoes into
his mouth.

"I think it was a nickname." Roy said. "But I sure appreciate them both
and what they do for a living. They ran escort for us on the way in and
played chicken with a train to slow it down long enough for the squad
and ambulance to get over the tracks before the gates came down."

"Now that took guts." Gage agreed. "They seem like a real crazy
pair of partners. Funky and impulsive."

"Kinda like the pair of partners sitting in front of me right now, huh?" 
Chet quipped.

Johnny nailed Kelly in the shoulder with a towel. "I meant that in a good
sense."

"So did I." Chet said, mildly, tossing the kitchen towel right back at
him. The whole thing turned into a tossing war between the two,
until Cap's entry into the room, suddenly ended it.

Nonetheless, Cap's eyes had missed nothing. Hank hurried to his chair 
and sat down. "No horseplay at the table, you two. You know the rules."

"Not unless you can get away with it.." Chet said under his breath to
the others.

Cap was too busy filling his plate with food to notice him.

Hank ate half his steak, before he flipped open a file filled with hand written
notes that he had hastily scrawled onto a blank log sheet. "Johnny.
Roy. Gang. We're all on special duty for the rest of the day. Apparently
there's a man hunt going on downtown for some nut case the cops
want real bad. They think they've cornered him in a high rise office
building somewhere near Tower's Plaza and we're gonna be part of a
fire back up response crew in case any tear gas's needed."

"That's probably our kidnapper.." Johnny snorted, chewing his third
dinner roll loudly.

"What?" Hank asked. 

"Nothing, Cap. When do we move into position?" Roy wanted to 
know.

"They'll call us just as soon as they get a bead on their perpetrator. He 
could be anywhere inside that building. And sixty stories is a lot of 
ground to cover manually. We'll probably make it through dinner."

"Knowing the pace our two detectives like to work at, better
hurry up with your steaks everybody. We're bound to be called
out sooner than you'd think.." Roy warned.

The tones went off. 

All the firemen stood bent over their food and they shovelled in a few
last hasty cheekfuls, before they fled for the vehicle bay and their trucks.

##Station 51. Truck 99. Foam 127. Battalion 14. L.A. and Bay City 
Police request a non code R multiple station response to 1010 Tower 
Plaza Drive. Cross street Interchange Blvd. 1010 Tower Plaza Drive. 
Cross street Interchange Blvd. Time out: 19:12.##

"10-4, Station 51, KMG 365." said Cap into the alcove mic.

They rolled out.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:   A steak dinner.

Photo:   Gage with his feet up on the kitchen table.

Photo:   A police MO file on a suspect.

Photo:   Starsky and Hutch reading and investigating 
              at their office.

Photo:   Captain Dobey, Starsky and Hutch's superior,
              looking stressed and angry. 

********************************************************************
From: "Patti or Jeff or Cassidy" <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com> 
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 11:34:03 -0800 (PST) 
Subject:  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Conference Scene Shots I - V... 

 
Starsky and Hutch beat the responding fire departments to the Plaza 
Tower. They pulled up well away from the police barricades surrounding
the one block radius around the skyscraper and both detectives
got out with the Malone ransom and the two evidence documents and
soon met up with the central police command trailer sprouting antennaes
and hastily wired telephone lines snaking up to the telephone pole next to it.

They flashed their badges to the uniformed cop guarding the command
post's door and went inside. Once there, they met the rotound, dark skinned
Captain Dobey, seated at a small cramped camper table, across from a 
very familiar figure that they all knew very well. It was Huggy Bear.

Without ceremony, Hutch threw the case down in front of the two
of them and flipped it open. The street wise African American informant's
eyes got real big at the sight of all the riches. "Whooo wee, Hutch! What
cat did you knock off to procure these shiny baubles and greenbacks?"

Starsky, out of impatience, grabbed the front of Huggy's threads.
"These came from the dead grandmother of one very frightened
young mother whose child's is now in very grave danger up in that skyscraper
right outside, Huggy. Now tell us what advance knowledge you know
about his kidnapping! You'd better have a very good reason why you
didn't tell us about it before Metford went on his little shotgun, joy riding
foray this afternoon or I'll--"

Captain Dobey reached out and yelled right back. "Starsky! Let go of
him! He knew nothing until he saw Metford dragging Toby by the arm past
his night club down the street, twenty minutes ago. His involvement in it this
time, is as a first hand witness only. Lay off!  Now! .....or I'lI LET him press
charges of illegal harrassment AGAINST you."

Starsky's face fell from crafted fake rage into one of grinning apology.
"Oh. Sorry, Hug. I'm a little worked up right now." And he let the street
toady go.

"That I can tell." Huggy Bear said, straightening up his stylish flashy
outfit. "No hard feelings, man. I'm just as mad at that dude as you are.
He's way uncool. Captain Dobey was kind enough to fill me in and I'm kind 
enough to offer my services with the next stage of the game already scoped 
out!" he said proudly.

"Services? Doing what?" Hutch asked, leaning back to let a uniformed
officer by him as a phone rang up in front of the command trailer.

"I'm your delivery man who'll go to Metford,.." soothed Huggy. " with these..." 
and he slid over the briefcase full of riches closer to where he sat, licking
his lips in anticipation and reaching for its contents.

Starsky slammed down the lid of the case forcefully, making Huggy yelp
and yank both of his hands back in alarm. "Ok, I consider myself ordered to
go along with this entire, absolutely ridiculous charade, Captain. But you,..." 
and he whipped up a finger in front of Huggy's nose, ".. don't haveta go 
fondling the goods unnecessarily. It hasn't been counted yet." And he 
cooly passed the case off to an FBI type whose job it was to do just that.

"Don't you trust me, Starsky? They all do.." Huggy gestured at the rest of
the fuzz milling about inside the trailer.

The panting and exhausted detective, said nothing. Then,..
"Cap, I assume you're gonna wire him." Starsky said, not breaking 
off his angry eye contact with the naturally fidgety street informant.

"Not a chance, Starsky. Metford'll be onto that angle in an instant. He's
not your average unintelligent city joe. I was thinking of using all those firemen
coming to pretend a precautionary fire evac to throw him off long enough for
you two to get a bead on him anyway you can. Both of you are gonna 
be dressed up just like them, going along. And Huggy here can be the panicky
witness who spotted the smoky room in the building."

"What?!" Hutch said. "Cap, that's ludicrous! There's no way in h*ll Starsky
and I can pull off acting like real firemen!"

"And why the h*ll not?" snapped Dobey. "That fire captain of theirs said that
you four got along real chummy like while you cared for Mary, just like
you were the best of friends. Why won't it work? They can coach you
on what to do while you hike it on up there to the thirty fourth floor." he
roared, pointing to the ceiling.

Starsky quieted instantly, and blinked. "T-T-To the thirty fourth floor?! 
On foot!? Whatever for?"

"Because we've been receiving threats from Metford from a phone line
coming from up there that's defying any closer trace and because during
a fire evacuation, elevators are never turned on for public use. You're
gonna haveta keep up the proper appearances!" roared Dobey.
"Man, I'm roasting in here. You there! Yes, you! Bring me a desk fan
A.S.A.P in five minutes or consider yourself demoted!" he shouted to
a very very young police cadet to instill a fear of compliance into him.

"Yes sir!" and the young cop fled clumsily for the supply truck outside.

"Cap..." said Hutch.

"What?!"

"You can't demote a cadet. They're already the lowest ranking
police officer you can have."

"It worked didn't it? Just shut up and let me finish getting you
up to speed here." and he mopped his overheated chubby face. 
"Any questions before you guys go outside and meet Captain Stanley?
And I do mean questions! Not complaints!"

"Aww, Cap, we've been up for over forty six hours. Straight!" groaned
Starsky. "I'm never gonna survive climbing up that many flights of stairs
wearing an oxygen bottle."

"That's air bottle, Starsk. SCBA tanks are always full of just air." 
Hutch whispered sotto voce.

"I don't care, Hutch. I'm gonna need oxygen if you two make me do 
that.  I'm tired. I'm worse than tired. If I climb those stairs in
all that turnout gear I'm gonna hurl worse than your sickest smelliest 
curbside wino! I'll die, sure as sh--" the curly haired partner protested. 
But he was cut off by a move that made his vision swim.

Huggy had grabbed Starsky's leather jacket and he hauled the detective a
little closer to his taller, sweating face. "Think of that poor little kid, Starsk. 
He needs ALL of us right now to guarantee his very survival. And very 
badly, I might add. Now will you go along with us?"

Starsky froze defensively, resisting ripping the hands off of his
lapels. Then he smiled wanly. "How can I refuse, Huggy? You ask so 
nicely. " he said sarcastically. "Ok, Hutch. Let's go." and he checked his
weapon to see if it was still fully loaded.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starsky squared his shoulders as he and his partner walked
bravely over to the fire engine numbered 51. "Which one is
the captain, Hutch? I feel ridiculous..." he said, shoving up his
helmet once again so that it didn't flop down into his eyes.

"The Batallion Chief said that Captain Stanley would have a
skunk stripe on his helmet." said Hutch, still trying to figure out
how to rig his gun holster underneath the tan fire turnout he
wore over his usual clothes.

"Skunk stripe? What the h*ll is a skunk stripe?" Starsky
grumbled.

Hutch pointed as a tall man in fire gear came striding over
along with Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto. "I believe that
would be it.." Hutch said with amusement.

"Oh. So that's a skunk stripe.." mumbled Starsky, eyeballing
the bright white crest on top of the black plastic of Stanley's 
helmet. It was glowing under the street light. "You do all the
talking. I don't feel like chatting right now. Maybe later. I
gotta conserve my strength for the big climb." he snapped.

Hutch frowned at Starsky and rolled his eyes with a sigh.

"Captain Stanley?" introduced Hutch as four firemen left the side
of one fire truck and started moving in their direction. "I'm Ken 
Hutchinson and this is David Starsky. We're the detectives Captain 
Dobey spoke to you about concerning the storming operation
that we're gonna do into the Plaza building....." 

"Oh, yes. Hello." and Hank pulled his gloves off to shake both
detectives' hands warmly. "I hope that anything the Los Angeles 
County Fire Department can do tonight will be good enough to 
get that young woman's boy down safe. I believe you already 
know paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto."

"We remember." said Hutch, smiling.

"How can we forget...?" whispered Starsky, complaining.

Hutch jabbed his partner in the ribs sharply.

"Your Captain Dobey has already briefed them on the 
situation and what they're gonna to do up there during the ransom
delivery. They know to keep out of sight if and when bullets begin to fly."
said Hank. "We're good at duck and covering." he joked.

Neither detective caught the humor in it.

 "Eh. Hmmm." Hank cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Shall we get the show on the road?" smiled Hutch for both himself 
and his mute partner. "First, did we get these SCBA bottles things 
on right? Could you check em out? Can't say my partner and I have 
ever had the pleasure of wearing anything like these in the past."

"Oh, that's easy. Here." said Chet Kelly, moving on around Starsky
and jerking on the straps animatedly to test their attachments.
He goosed Starsky with the two leg straps, accidently. 

"Hey! Careful.." said Starsky, grabbing his crotch.

"Now those two are in the wrong place, Mr. Starsky." said Kelly to 
his curly haired companion, shaking his head. "Want me to redo 
em?"

"No..no..no.. I'll handle it. I got em.. Just ....show me how you did 
yours on you, Mr..."

"...Kelly.  But call me, Chet. Please." said the fireman cheerfully. He
was the same height as Starsky. "Glad we're gonna be working 
together. Don't worry about a thing. You're always gonna be safe
with a crew of firefighters workin with ya. Here, this is how I did mine."

"Ok,..Chet.. I think I got it." said Starsky tightly, making the corrections.

Eventually, the two detectives were geared up properly with a few
adjustments to their outer coats so that they'd be able to reach their guns 
easily in an instant's notice.

Mike Stoker showed them a fast run down on how to hold coiled hose
on a shoulder for stairclimbing, with one side of the loop bunches
slung over the air bottle tank's top, above their helmets.

Captain Stanley handed the two detectives a couple of fire HTs. "Use these
to contact any of my men. They're set to the frequency our engine operates on
and I'll be listening, too. Your captain says he'll be tapped in as well,
monitoring, from the FBI trailer."

Gage noticed Starsky's tired condition. He leaned over to Roy while testing
his air mask for show for Metford in case he was watching from far above.
"You know, I think we're gonna haveta shoulder carry the short guy the rest of 
the way up before we get to the tenth floor, Roy."

Roy watched the smaller detective shake his head to rid it of mental cobwebs.
"We can always give him a couple of shots of O2 so he can make it to the top. 
We will be carrying our medical gear with us for when we find the boy."

"That's gonna slow us down some." Johnny sighed.

"Not by much. There's a lot to be said about honor between departments.
Looks like the boys in blue are gonna have to muscle up to the men in brown.
He'll last, all right, probably without us even interfering."

"I hope you're right, pal. You trail behind Starsky. I'll keep an eye on Hutch. He
looks the stronger of the two and seems like he'll be easier to manage." Johnny 
said. "Oh, by the way, ya got those fake smoke canisters handy for when we get 
up there?"

"Yeah. I showed Huggy Bear how to light one off, too. In case we're still 
separated when he flushes out Metford with the briefcase." said Roy. "He's
the one over there dressed like a business executive holding the ransom
payment."

Soon, Johnny, Chet, Roy, Starsky and Hutch along with Huggy Bear, were
climbing up the stairs of the west side of the Tower Plaza Building following 
a loud, bold announcement that Batallion Fourteen gave over the megaphone, 
as he would've done to any evacuating sky scraper population. It was their cue
to go.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By floor twenty two, Detective Starsky was weaving, and Roy DeSoto
had both hands fully against his back, pushing him up stair by stair.

Gage was losing patience. "Detective Starsky. We can always rest ya know. 
It's only twenty til." he told the dark haired policeman. "A minute either way isn't
gonna kill us."

Starsky could only puff. ".....* pant * ..I'm..  * pant*... fine... *gasp* In fact, .....I even
think I'm ...* cough* ..waking up a little.." he said, pausing at the top of a landing.

Chet just grinned, "Ok.. but keep in mind that we firemen do snort oxygen
from time to time in real life for a stair climb. There's no shame in doing it. Here. 
Gimme your hose. Just hand it on over. I'll carry it up the last twelve stories for ya."

"No. *gasp*" said Starsky.

Hutch grabbed Starsky's other glove and he started hauling. "Sorry he's so 
stubborn. It's what makes him a better than average cop."

"Please, don't apologize. My partner Johnny here tells Captain Stanley exactly 
the same thing all the time about being a paramedic." chuckled Roy.

At the next flat landing, Starsky eyeballed Huggy Bear, still bounding stairs 
easily ahead of him. "How come you're not dragging your ever lovin rear like I 
am?"

"I dance. A lot. How else can a night club owner impress all the ladies?"

Hutch and the three firemen laughed.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A sharp burst of static from the handy talkies in all their gloves,
arrested them. It was Hank Stanley. ##Engine 51 to Squad 51.
Condition Red! A bomb threat's just been made by Metford! And
the FBI says that he has the know how necessary in order to make
and set one. Use the utmost caution and your elevator keys if and
when you have to get out of there in a hurry. Whatever you do, don't 
make a descent. Go up towards the roof! Metford claims it'll go
off if you're late even five minutes. The call came from the same
general area as the others.##

"Oh boy.." sighed Chet Kelly. "Where is it?" he asked fearfully.

"Isn't it obvious?" Johnny said to him. "Somewhere between the 
ground floor and Metford's hideaway on the 34th floor. You sorry
you decided to come with us, Chet?"

"I wouldn't miss out on all this for the world." he interjected 
sarcastically. But he was grinning.

Starsky at once pulled himself together. "34, let's see....
That's one floor above us. Ok, Huggy. Go out here and get into an 
elevator. Use your fire key to reactivate it. Take it up one to floor 34. 
And for Pete's sake, keep your hands out in the open. Keep talking 
until Metford hears you. See if you can find out where the boy is.  
Remember Metford likes to bully more than he likes to kill. He's usually 
all bluff."

"That's small comfort. Psychopaths are always crazy." Huggy said.

"Go." said Hutch. "Send the elevator back down to our floor if you
spot him or back down to the ground floor if you don't. We'll wait 
here for your signal after we set off the smoke canisters. Make mention
that you smell smoke clearly."

"Got it."

"Time?" said Starsky. "Set your watch, Huggy."

All three firemen looked at their watches and said. "7:52 pm."

"Ok, go!" said Hutch.

Chet Kelly and Johnny Gage started setting up their hoses and attaching
them to the one coiled near a water valve behind glass in the stairwell. They 
did everything but prime it.

The firemen gathered behind Hutch and Starsky as the two detectives drew
out their weapons and entered the darkened floor on 33. "Ok, it's clear."
said Hutch, waving everyone else on in.

Chet launched a smoke canister right under an air vent, putting on his mask
and motioning for the others to do the same. Then the five of them moved
into clear air, watching the indicator on the elevator to see where it stopped.

The doors opened on their floor. Getting a ladder from a closet, Gage set it up
near another ceiling vent where loud conversation could be heard through it from 
Huggy and unmistakably, another man who was growing desperate. The talking 
went on for several tense seconds. 

"Now I delivered the money and jewels in good faith. I owe it to Mary to get
her son back. She's my dearest friend, Metford. Where's the boy?!" said
Huggy.

"Stay right there, company man." snarled Metford. "I have the controls to 
the bomb right here so no funny business!"

"I'm unarmed. See? I just want to see the boy."

"The boy's safe. He's only a few rooms from here. Go
get him and bring him back here."

"Where? There must be at least two dozen doors in this hallway alone."

"Then you're gonna haveta search for him in a hurry. You've only got six minutes 
until we both go out in a blaze of glory, money man. Make the best of it."  

"I'm telling you, I smell smoke. I was wondering why the fire department was
here." Huggy said. "We don't have time for this. Look." and he pointed to
where smoke was billowing out of a floor vent at their feet. "The fire's
all around us now. We have to find the firemen coming our way 
to get out of here safely."

"To each his own destiny...." said Metford. He set down the bomb's control box,
after activating a peculiar set of switches on its face, onto the carpetting at 
their feet. And then he fled into a stairwell that wasn't the one the others 
were hiding in. Huggy couldn't tell if the criminal had gone up or down. He didn't
really care at that point. It was the farthest thing from his mind. 

The thin black man snatched out an HT from his suit pocket and he started 
yelling. "Starsky! Hutch! We've got trouble! Metford's gone, but the bomb box 
isn't. He says the boy's on my floor!"

The stairwell door burst open and Huggy barely shoved Hutch out of the way
before his fire booted foot stepped on the bomb controller. Chet Kelly stood by
while Starsky and Hutch pulled off their air masks and knelt down by the red
glowing device. "It's count down says twenty minutes to zero." said Hutch.

"No problem. We'll get the boy and clear out using one of these highspeed
elevators." smiled Starsky. "Piece of cake." Then he dashed off after Johnny 
and Roy to go kick down a few doors to locate Toby.

Hutch whipped up his talkie. "Captains Stanley and Dobey. We found the 
bomb's controller. It shows T- minus nineteen minutes. It's a touch trigger.
Metford's gone with the money to somewhere else in the building..."
his voice trailed off when the power suddenly went off.

##We copy you. Have you found the boy yet?## replied Stanley.

"Oh, brother.." said Chet in the pitch blackness. "Now we know where
he went. The generator room." He strode over to the wall map, carefully
overstepping the countdown device, and read its index by handlight. "He's 
two floors below us."

Hutch got right back on the radio."Negative, 51 and Command. We've
a problem. We've just lost all our electrical power. And we can't tell how
many floors this effects."

##All of them, detective. The entire building's just gone dark.## said
an unfamiliar voice from the FBI's end of the frequency.

There was a pause and then came a tight shout from Captain Stanley.
##Tell my men up there to get out their elevator brakes! They know how
to raise an elevator car up manually. You all can get to the roof an--##

##Belay that Hutch! It'll take too long.## came Dobey's equally concerned 
voice. ##When you find the boy, run! To a window! We've got a police
chopper on the way that you can jump into using ropes..##

The banging doors kept on moving down the pitch black hallway.
Then a shout. "I found him!" said Roy. "He's alive!"

The others saw the paramedic's wavering flashlight as he and 
Johnny and Starsky ran back to the elevator lobby area. Roy was carefully
carrying the boy in his arms. "He's pretty dehydrated. We found him on an 
overturned mattress under a blanket in an office." he said. 

Johnny snatched out a pen and checked his eyes.
"This's just a faint. He'll maintain ok without an oral."

"Ok, let's get going then.." said the two detectives. They went in
one direction and the firemen went into an elevator.

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute! What are we doing here?!" asked
Starsky. "We can't split up." 

All of their flashlights lit up the lobby in eerie black and white
shadows.

"Detectives. I strongly urge you to come with us. In fact, I'll tie you
up if I have to." said Johnny Gage seriously. "The elevator car will
give us some protection if that bomb goes off.  Being near that window
at the end of the hall's sheer craziness. A chopper pilot won't be
able to carry away all of us."

"You're right." said the dark haired detective and he bent over
offering up his laced fingers for a boost so someone could
reach the car's roof access panel above their heads.

Hutch set his watch to match the timer on the bomb control and
then he and Chet manually shoved the elevator doors shut with
their hands.

Roy crouched on the floor and monitored the boy.

Gage got to the top and reached down to pull up Starsky
and then Hutch into the elevator's shaft to the pulley jimmey
there. "Here. This halligan fits here. We'll take turns."

"Up or down?" asked Starsky, pulling his fire helmet a little tighter
over his head.

"Up. Because explosion debris always falls." decided Johnny."My 
captain was right about trying for the roof. Put your air masks on.
And detective keep giving us a countdown! If it gets too close we'll
leap back in and cover up with the rest of ya." he told Roy and Chet.
"How's he doing?" he asked about Toby.

"He's breathing fine." said DeSoto, holding an oxygen mask over
the boy's pale face. "There's no signs of bleeding or trauma. I'll wait
on getting vitals for obvious reasons."

"Kinda figured that." said Gage with a grunt as he and the two
detectives worked to raise the car, foot by foot with their jimmeying.

"T-minus fifteen and seven seconds." said Hutch with a glance
at his watch in the torchlight coming from inside the elevator.

They were nearing the fifty first floor and passing it, 
when their time ran out.

A muffled BOOM shook the shaft around them.

"Here it comes!" shouted Gage, "I sure hope that brake
holds! Everybody, hang on!"

Starsky, Hutch, Chet, Roy and Johnny all huddled on the
floor of the elevator car cradling the boy and watched as the
ceiling panel above them puffed in with displacing air as
the fire created by the bomb, roared up the elevator shaft
to meet them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the street, onlookers startled as the thirty fourth floor of
the Plaza Tower disintegrated in a ringing nimbus of fire. All the 
windows of that story blew out in an explosive rain of glass and 
debris. The police helicopter, still waiting by a window, hastily
banked away to safety.

"Holy, mother of---!" shouted Batallion Fourteen. "Get back!
Everybody, get back!"

Fire crews had already been prepared and had taken cover.

Captain Stanley immediately got on the walkie talkie.
"Engine 51 to Squad 51, what's your status?" he said into
the live channel. Static met his transmission. He waited
agonizing seconds, before hailing again. Still, nothing came.

Looking up, the firefighters heard a muffled hissing begin
from every shattered window over the flames.

The building's internal water sprinklers kicked in, quickly snuffing
out the flames as they were designed to do and kept on pouring water
by the hundreds of gallons per second. They would keep on showering
until the floor's internal heat sensors, registering points in the red for 
high internal temperatures, gave out an all clear and cease order.

Metford lost the race to get the master generator restarted on
the thirty second floor. His plan to ride an elevator down using
Huggy Bear's fire access key, wasn't even a faintly possible option. 

He went running, passing by some exterior windows, when a rush of air 
and fire coming down the stairwell he had used, simply expelled him out 
of the building in a ball of fire. He was dead before he hit the ground by 
the lush courtyard fountain.

The ransom briefcase fared better, it bounced on the carpetting as it 
was dropped and it rolled to a stop under a desk as the fire suppression 
system activated around it, putting out the flames in the room. It remained
dry and sealed tight.

"Engine 51 to Squad 51, do you read?" came Cap's quiet, urgent voice.

Dobey and the agents in the trailer remained silent on their end, letting 
the fire department take a lead over the air waves, trying to reach the 
group in the elevator car.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The elevator car shuddered, throwing the three firemen and two detectives
and Huggy back down onto their hands and knees. The brake above them 
squealed and sharp, frightening metallic pings and snaps echoed above them
as the ascension cable unfrayed and gave way. It parted in two, tangling
around the pulley block they had been using to rise. The car dropped ten
feet in free fall, then caught against the passive wall brakes on either side
of the elevator shaft's track grooves.

"What was that?!" shouted Starsky through his air mask.

"One of the cables gave way! I think it was the lifter! Stay down!" shouted
Roy through his.

The elevator car groaned in tortured metal and started a slipping, jerky
descent as its mass surrendered to gravity. It dropped, plummeting a few
feet, and then it would catch again on the brakes long enough to lose 
some dangerous momentum. Sitting up proved to be impossible without 
everyone getting jarred.

Hutch managed to lift an HT to his faceplate. "Engine 51, we're falling!
The emergency brakes aren't catching smoothly. We're in elevator number 
three!"

Johnny saw an orange glow through the cracks of the jilted metal doors.
"Here comes the 34th again. Cover Toby against the heat!" he shouted
in painful whistling gasps around his air regulator.

Sparks flew through the top of the roof access panel as the tangle
of steel from the parted cabling melted with friction and grew brittle.
Pieces of it flew apart and their fall speed suddenly increased, carrying 
them safely by the burning, hissing floor and beyond it.

Roy let out the breath he was holding. He had been afraid that
the elevator shaft would be warped on that floor, trapping the car
in the middle of fire. He reported in over his radio. "We're still sliding. 
Below the thirty fourth! Still somewhat controlled by the braking system 
we set manually! Our fall speed's about a quarter floor a second!"

## 10-4! We're on our way to the basement to get you out!## yelled 
a relieved Captain Stanley. ##Injuries?!##

"None so far.." shouted Johnny into his own HT. "A little rough going.
We'll see you at the bottom..." he joked tightly.

"We're dead.. we're dead!" Huggy gasped, in a whisper, through
his air bottle's faceplate.

"Not yet we aren't." said Hutch, trying to smile through his.

"We're good at elevator ditching. We aren't going to die."
promised Gage, patting the soaked street informant on a shoulder.
"Just keep your helmet on."

The firemen were caught unprepared by the amount of water pouring in
from the bombed floor's level. It gushed on top of the car and into it
rapidly. It also made the emergency brakes clenched in the car's tracks, 
steam angrily.

Hutch coughed, even though his face was protected from the deluge.
"Where'd all this come from?"

"Be glad its there.." said Roy as he clung to the boy's head, shielding
it from the wet raining water cascading around them. "That water
kept us from frying on the 34th."

"It's the sprinklers, They've kicked in.  We're getting inundated 
because they're designed to drain their discharged water into all the 
elevator shafts to minimize water damage." Johnny told him.

"Isn't this a very large amount coming in?" Starsky asked them.

Neither firemen answered right away. Then Roy said, "A little bit.."
he shrugged, trying to calm the detective.

"What happens if we don't stop on the street level?" asked
Hutch.

"We'll fall into the sub basement and into the impact cushions there."
Gage answered. 

"That doesn't sound very comforting, does it Hutch? I guess
we'll get to find out what the preverbial sudden stop feels like 
after a freefall." joked Starsky morbidly.

"What if all that's underwater, my man?" Huggy Bear asked quickly, still
hanging one hand onto the grip bar above his head and the other 
over his air mask.

"Then we swim." Gage replied. "Don't worry. We're good
at that, too."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bubbles. And a deep penetrating cold, with a bitter taste of crude oil.
That's all Starsky felt and knew after a numbing jolt slammed him to the 
floor of the elevator car. He flailed and swam about blindly as he tried
to hold his breath far past the point of consciousness. 

But then he blacked out.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Did ya find him?" shouted Roy from where he clung to
the side of the flooded elevator shaft. Toby was awake
and floated easily in his arms. Huggy Bear was holding
a dazed and wounded Hutch in his grip, keeping his face
above water as the blond haired man tried to come to.

"Not yet..." said Chet Kelly and then he dove once more
under the surface of the water. Johnny Gage did one better
and entered the flooded car going all the way to the carpetted
floor, sweeping around with his arms. But he found just their abandoned
air bottle tanks which knocked painfully against his fingers. His head hit 
the squad's medical gear boxes floating near the roof, more than once.

Gage exited the submersed car, breaking the water's surface 
in a gasp.

"My turn again." said Chet Kelly. "I'll check inside the track grooves
next. Gimme your flashlight! Mine shorted out."

Johnny handed it off as he swam to a shaft wall where they all
floated, almost at ground level. He could hear banging as
fire crews started to force open the elevator doors above them
and a deep part of him wished that they could do more than
just bang on a pipe back at them for a current status report.

Chet took in a huge breath and went under.  Seconds later, he found 
Starsky's blue striped Adidas shoes sticking out of a dead end service 
door that had opened for him into a tiny room that had unfortunately 
been flooded completely with sprinkler runoff. He grabbed the unconscious
detective's waist and shoved him up into the air as high as he could 
over his head, so the others would see him. Then he kicked for the 
surface.

"There!" shouted Huggy. "Right there!"

"Where? I don't see anything.." Gage coughed and shivered.

"Right there. In the very middle!" said Huggy Bear.

"To your nine o'clock, Johnny!" shouted Roy.

Johnny spun around in a circle, treading water until he saw Starsky's
head breaking the top of the water where Chet had pushed
it. Starsky flopped face down into the water for only a moment as
Kelly swam himself up to the air. His pair of hands righted the detective's 
slack face and lifted it onto a firm shoulder and at the same time, he
tipped Starsky's head back.

Johnny swam over to help. "Is he alive?"

Chet spat out water in a half nod. "But obstructed! I got nothing in
down there."

"Want me to--"

"Yes!"

"Watch him!" Johnny ordered. Gage reached around and began modified
heimlich abdominal thrusts, with his arms wrapped around Starsky's waist, 
pushing up in sharp forceful movements. 

Kelly continued to hold the detective's head backwards over Gage's
shoulder until a gush of water spurted out of his mouth. Then he 
attempted a breath, mouth to nose. It went in with an abundant 
chest rise.

"Keep going!" Johnny told him as he swam both of them to
a wall where a narrow beam made a ledged surface. They
heaved the rag dolled Starsky up onto it as fast as they could 
onto his back. They began freeing up his chest out of the fire turnout 
and shirt, when Johnny thought of something important.
 "Hold it! Hold it. Not so fast. Let me get rid of this."
And Gage drew out and tossed away Starsky's 9mm. 
It sank with a splash.

"How is he?" shouted Huggy from the other side of the shaft.

They didn't answer him.

Roy did. "He's drowning. But they're clearing him out and he's
got a pulse." 

Chet had given Starsky another two breaths more, when water poured 
out of his mouth. It was followed by a weak bout of coughing. Together the 
two firemen rolled the shuddering policeman onto his side to drain 
and they let him vomit up all the water he had swallowed. The effort woke 
the chilled detective up the rest of the way.  

"Easy, man. You're gonna be fine.." mumbled Chet. "Are you hurt 
anywhere?" he asked as Starsky tried to struggle up into a sitting 
position. He couldn't control his muscles. Gage and Kelly helped him 
up the rest of the way and held him against the wall firmly, 
so he could breathe more effectively.

"* cough* ....no.... *groan* ..Hutch?"

"He's waking up with just a few scratches." answered Kelly.

Starsky leaned over and started coughing violently. "I don't
feel so good. What was it Charlie the Tuna said on all those
TV commercials?...Chicken of th--- *choke*.. That's me, ..
oooh..hh. I hate.. the water. Now I know why Mama told me
to take a land job."

"Just relax. Breathe deeper breaths and that shortness you're feeling 
will go away faster. We'll be outta here in a few minutes. A stokes crew's
right above us." said Johnny. "Huggy, why don't you swim Hutch
over here. " the paramedic said, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Sure thing, bro." said the street man.

"....then I can check them both out a little better. Kelly, keep the
detective upright even if he passes out again. He can't sit up on
his own, he's too cold now."

"I got him." said Chet, hauling himself out of the water next
to Starsky where he could keep monitoring his pulse at the wrist.
He wrapped an arm around the policeman's shoulders and he set the
groggy man's head onto his shoulder. "It's all right. Sleep if you
have to, man. I promise you'll wake up in a nice warm..--"

Starsky drifted, feeling supported and off danger's hook.

The last thing he saw was Hutch's scuffed face staring back at him.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I believe this, is yours, little lady.." smiled Detective Starsky
at Mary Malone from where she lay on the hospital bed. 

Her son Toby sat curled up in her lap and his eyes got real big when he
saw all the money and jewels that were piled inside the smoke stinking
briefcase.  "What's that, mommy?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, where did you find it?" Mary sighed, running loving hands over
a particularly old but lovely brooch.

"I didn't find your grandmother's heirlooms. The coworkers of these 
three fine gentlemen to my left, found it." said the curly haired policeman 
from his outpatient wheelchair. "I just thought I'd do another good deed on my 
way out. I'm just the messenger. Captain Dobey ran your briefcase here 
from Headquarters in a squad car as soon as he could swing the paperwork."

"Oh, how can I ever thank you?" Mary said, hugging Toby and smiling up
at the plain clothed firefighters. "Now I'll have enough to pay for our
medical bills."

Hutch, from the next hospital bed, cleared his throat. "What
medical bills, Mary? The guys on the force...."

"...and at all the stations...." added Johnny Gage..

"....gathered up some donations after they'd heard your story
and we kind of sorta ...paid for everything.." finished Starsky, 
grinning from ear to ear.

Mary started sobbing, holding her bandaged head.

"Ooo, sorry..." said Johnny, almost reaching out
to steady her. "I know that still hurts."

"I'm not in pain. I'm h-happy.." she said tearfully.

Johnny, Roy, Chet, Starsky, and Hutch, took to blushing in 
abject humility under the power of her beautiful smile.


END   Episode Sixteen, Devil's Due..

FIN     TV Series Crossover Special One

***************************************************************************
 
***This current episode has just ended.
***Keep watching here daily for new episode
***scene installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

*******************************************************************
 
This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Sixteen,  Season Two
  
         §§   Devil's Due    §§

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : November 1st, 2004.

============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
§ Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com §
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 
   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address


            
                            End Credits --  Episode Sixteen  (Second Season)
                                      
                                                          §§   Devil's Due   §§

                      :)     This episode is dedicated to police detectives everywhere
                              who risk their lives to save others in the line of duty.                                                                                              
                      :)                                                                                                              :)


Guest Writers...
---------------
Champage Scott    chameleonkate@hotmail.com
Roxy Dee                 laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com 
 

**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------

Mkmg365         Police Scanner  Hobbyist, CA.
Judy H.              Police Officer/Fire Fighter/EMT
Lynn                  Police Officer/ Evidence Technician
Patti Keiper     Emergency Medical Advisor- NREMT-B/Minnesota
   
 
Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 
 
"Lynn"  <ElsandraDarkweav@aol.com>  
Lynn      ( Police Officer, Evidence Technician)

"David Epling" ccrails@sbcglobal.net 
David E. (Paramedic, AS-MICP, PHTLS, ALCS)

"Chrissa Danielle"  danielle.w@wildmail.com
Chrissa D.   (EMT-B/ Paramedic Student)

"Bob" BobsBrush@aol.com  
Bob. (FF/Fire Chief)
 
"Medic" medic1979@yahoo.com 
Medic. (Paramedic/Firefighter)
 
"Craig Gidley" fachi_gidley@yahoo.com 
Craig G. (Firefighter/EMT)
 
 "Emlacofd" emlacofd@yahoo.com 
Em. (Paramedic/Firefighter)

"Judith Hoffman" JudithAH@comcast.net
Judith H. (Police Officer, Fire Fighter, EMT, Haz-Mat Technician,
 OSHA and worker related Safety & Health issues) 

mkmg365 <mkmg365@yahoo.com>
Mk.  (Police Scanner Radio Talk)

"Todd F." todd@godawful.zzn.com
Todd F. (NREMT-P, EMT-B instructor, ACLS, 
PALS, brand new PALS instructor, PHTLS)

"Mama Sue"  mamasuelodge70@yahoo.com  
Sue H. (EMT-D/FF/ER RN) 
 
"wildfire_15_sta1" jowens796@msn.com
Nickie  (EMT-B/FF/HazMat/RN)

"Sam the man"   lafddispatcher@yahoo.com
Sam Iam (911 Dispatcher)

"Audrey"  ParamedikChic@aol.com, WolfLynneKK@aol.com  
Audrey (EMT-B, senior year nursing student)

"johnnygagesgirl" danielle.w@wildmail.com  
Danielle ( EMT-P student )

"Barb"  Polgana54@cs.com 
 Barb   ( Radiologic Technologist/Medical Sonographer )

"Lorraine"   LorraineKMG365@earthlink.net  
Lorraine  (Fire/Police Officer/CNA)


Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To "Heidi B." <spiritkeeper792@yahoo.com>
for EMS and Fire Images for Episode Scenes.

To Erika and Rozane of Emergencyfans.com
For Linking to the ETL Website

To TV Tome.com
For Linking to the ETL Homepage

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Icecat,  <icecat62@comcast.net>
For Designing the Banners for Episodes  

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season Two   Episode Sixteen

                    §§    Devil's Due   §§

-------------------------------------------------------------

Water On Europa Midi by Joris Wittenberg

Blue Morning Glories Midi by Bruce DeBoer

Lady Eboshi Midi by Princess Mononoke 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2004 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================

The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Seventeen..

 §§   That Latin Flair   §§
 
Debut Launch: December 1st 2004.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**ETL Writer's Preproduction List.  

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see the latest music soundtracked, imaged
version of this episode after entering User ID  'efan' and 
Password  'frontrowseat'  at the link above. 

This version of the current episode is scene delayed as 
compared to the most recent submissions shown in the 
text only file coming up below.

You will need your Yahoo Email User ID and
your Yahoo Email Password to access the
file link below this sentence.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

*********************************************************************
From:  "Robert Gutheim" <rguthei1@twcny.rr.com> 
Date:  Thu Dec 2, 2004  9:00 am 
Subject: Green Christmas  

Chet as usual checked around for a certain dark haired paramedic
before he went and filled a balloon with water intending to rig the
paramedics locker so that it would spring out and get him wet when he
opened the door. 

He was having a little trouble setting up the spring
mechanism though when he heard a voice behind him.
"You do realize, Chet, that a certain white bearded man in a
red coat is watching. You wouldn't want to get a stocking full of
coal on Christmas morning. Or worse, latrine duty, if Cap finds out
about you trying to pull a phantom act on me yet again," a voice said
causing Chet to startle and the water balloon to fall on top of him.

"Gage, you don't actually believe in that whole Santa Claus
bit do you. After all, your wha? Almost thirty? Plus you are half
Native American." Chet pointed out.

"I know. But we celebrated Christmas using the non-religious
aspects like other human beings," Gage said as he started to put 
on his uniform.

A few minutes later, they were gathered with the others for roll call.

"OK, everyone, let's start with a few memos from various
Headquarters." said Cap. "First off, no egg nog is to be found 
on any departmental property by order of Chief Houts.

"The Departmental Christmas Party is at Headquarters in the main commissary 
on December 22nd all firefighters off duty are required to attend and on duty 
firefighters are encouraged to stop in, so long as their rigs are on hand.

"McConikee wants me to remind everyone to keep a careful eye out for
any holiday related fire hazards. Now the fun part, daily chores. Cooking, Stoker, 
Dishes, Lopez. Apparatus Bay, DeSoto. Hose Tower,Gage. Latrine Duty, Kelly."

"Ah, Cap, why am I stuck with latrine duty? Isn't it obvious I'm the one
that is wet, not Gage?" Chet moaned.

"I know how you tend to be, Chet. Now get going, or I will stick you
with latrine duty from now until Christmas." Cap threatened him.

The tone box went off right then.

##Station 51. Car crash with injuries. 2300 E 223rd Street. 2300 E 223rd
Street. Cross Street, Alameda. Time out, 0810.##

"Station 51 KMG365," Cap said, before the engine and squad rolled out
of the station.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None. 

*******************************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, December 16, 2004 11:30 AM 
Subject :  Snap! Crackle and Pop.... 


Station 51 pulled up at a curb deep in the heart of Carson.
The accident had occurred as reported, but involved only one
car and a power pole on the outskirts of the landfill /junkyard 
which flanked the L.A. river bed. The pole was down and
sparking. Cap kept a nose and eye out for gas pools even
as he informed Headquarters with what he had. "L.A. Engine 51."

##Engine 51. ## 

"We have a single vehicle overturned on the boulevard. Lines are
down. Have the electric company cut power to the east side
block of Alameda between 223rd street, and Franklin."

##10-4, 51.## came a reply after a short pause on the air
over both the station's vehicle radioes and all of their HT's. 
## Power utilities says electrical power will be cut in five minutes.##

"Copy that. Engine 51, out." and he threw the HT onto the seat of
the open door of the Ward LaFrance. "Gang, circle and look for
any victims a safe distance away. Stoker, draw out the reel line
and wash down all this grass only when those lines have been
powered down."

"Right, Cap." said Mike Stoker.

"The rest of you. See what you can see without getting too close!"
advised Stanley, yelling over the angry hiss and crackle of violated
powerlines from the toppled pole which leaped and tangled with
themselves on the pavement. 

Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto walked to the down wind side of
the wreck with a healthy thirty feet between them and the downed
pole and writhing wires. It was a tan car, resting on its roof, in the 
middle of a grass island which split a fork in the road into a Y. A 
man lay on his stomach and his legs were pinned by the heavy 
weight of the crashed car. It didn't seem like any live wires were 
touching the car or the man. 

Gage sniffed carefully in the breeze blowing in his face as he 
pulled on his gloves. "Can't tell if he's still alive. There's too
much wind moving his clothes around. No gas, though. We're
lucky that way at least."

Roy shouted to the victim. "Hey! Can you hear me?! Don't try to
move! There are wires down all over the place. We'll be right
in to get ya, just hang on a bit and don't panic!"

The two paramedics circled the wreck site even as the rest of the 
gang laid protective hose and got the heavy extrication equipment 
lined up in a safe area. Johnny picked up a flashlight and aimed
it onto the man's face in spite of the bright sunlight. "I see sweat
beads. He's gotta be alive still. Anyone dead would've been dried
off already in this wind." 

The two pacing firemen backed away from the accident site even
further when the wind rolled a bucking wire into their direction.

Johnny threw an axe on top of it to pin it to the cement, and then
leaped out of the way.  Cap's head snapped up at the clanging
noise, but then he gave Gage a solid thumbs up of approval.

Roy had taken the flashlight from Johnny and he was trying to
see into the dark recesses of the car's compartment. "Where's
the driver?"

"What?" said Johnny, from where he stood, resting his gloves
on his knees, as he studied how they would begin to get
their victim free once the area was safe.

"Our victim's the passenger. See? That seat belt is still 
around his waist. Broken free, but still around him." said
DeSoto, as he played the light over the bluish belt and into
the car. 

"I think you're right. Even if the car flipped, there's no way he
could've slid over fast enough if he were driving to get pinned
like the way he's pinned now. It doesn't add up." Johnny
rubbed his nose.

"Cap!" shouted Roy over the angry spitting from the wires.

##Go...## said Cap from the other side of the scene, by
the station trucks, over an airwave.

Roy belatedly pulled out his walkie talkie and hit the talk button.
"We're a victim shy. This is the passenger, Cap. Belt confirms
it."

##Ok,  I'll assume a possible ejection and call out a search. 
Stand by for news..##

Roy could just make out Cap verbally sending Chet and Stoker 
into wider and wider scouting patterns, looking for blood and other 
traces the driver might have left behind. Cap himself jogged over to 
the police officer keeping away the public to see if any of those 
people had seen anything about what might have happened.

Marco got ready with a plastic tarp and extrication gear. He
left a stokes next to a longboard in case the man's legs were
too badly broken for easy securing once they got him out from
under the car.

Then he stood waiting by an idling K-12 for signs that all
the electricity was turned off. It was hard to tell in the wind which
lines were hot and which were not. It seemed like all of them were
swaying. So Lopez used the spot where Johnny's axe was
connecting and kept an eye on the blue orange sparks dancing
around the head and handle.

Chet came back with a clump of hair in his glove and he showed 
Cap. "It's human...too fine to be dog.. and I think I smell
Johnson to Johnson's on it. "

"Where'd you find that, pal?!" asked Hank, shouting over the noise
of the electrical wires.

"Between us and the river bed!" replied Chet, dropping the clump of hair 
to the ground.

Hank sighed, turning so he could see the long barb wired wall of
fencing marking proximity to the river spillway. "Oh, boy. Better start casing along 
the edge. The brush's pretty thick down there. The driver could be anywhere if he 
flew out of the car in that direction." Then he rubbed his face. "Tell you what. You 
and Stoker grab some ropes and rappel down on in. The flood gates won't be released 
until noon for this part of the city. See what you can see and keep in touch by walkie. 
Johnny, Roy, Marco and I will handle the passenger ourselves. It'll take at least
ten minutes for more help to arrive on this."

"Will do, Cap." said Kelly and he jogged off to the engine to get two harness sets.

Cap called out onto the rescue channel. "Engine 51, L.A."

##Engine 51.##

"Respond an urban rescue truck and air support to our location for
a victim search. We may have one in the river bed."

##10-4. UR reports an ETA of four minutes. Chopper 10 has been informed.
Pilot has your canyon in sight. He reports an arrival time in two.##

Marco, Johnny and Roy all stood by, antsy and restless, all staring hard
at the man on the ground for signs of life beyond the cold sweat pouring
off of his pale skin. Then a hand twitched and his lips moved in a gasp of pain
as some awareness returned. 

Cap shouted, getting their attention. All three firefighters whirled towards the
engine. Hank gestured a cut throat motion across his neck and then pointed to
Johnny's axe. It had quit dancing and there was no sign of high voltage fire 
encircling it any longer.

"Ok, let's move out. Marco.. grab the K-12. We already know there's no
gas leaking. Try and get that weight off of his legs while we stabilize his
C-spine for his extrication...It won't take long. He's already laying in a line." 
Gage mapped out.

"Ok, Johnny." said Lopez, hefting up the seventy pound tool onto a shoulder.

The three men carefully stepped over the wind swaying wires in case the 
power came back on. They could see Cap talking with a police officer, trying
to find any witness to the moment of the crash to help pin point the river bed
search.

In a test, Roy leaned over and spit on a wire. Nothing happened. "So far 
so good." he said, pulling off a glove to test the quality of the man's carotid.
"Johnny, 126 and thready. Breathing's real shallow at 22 and he's diaphoretic."

Gage nodded, running his hands over the man's back and arms until
finally he reached in to see if he could locate the man's feet to see if
they were still attached. They were. "I got pulses in both ankles."
and he started to cut away the man's shirt, sleeves and pant legs to 
look for further injuries. He found a few pieces of glass embedded 
in his hip. Those he left alone. 

Roy got the man onto some oxygen, right where he lay on his stomach, 
and contented himself with getting an initial set of vital signs while
Johnny worked to get a more complete assessment. All the while,
the fair haired paramedic talked to his victim. "Easy, mister. My
partner and I are gonna take real good care of you. Just try to relax.
We're looking for your friend right now. Just don't try to move around
too much. We're gonna get you splinted up here in a minute or so
once a firefighter's cut you free. So get ready for some noise.
I'm gonna cover your face for protection, all right?"

The man on the ground moaned a reply and his fingers crawled
on the grass in affirmation. Roy took off his turncoat and 
lay it over the man's head and body. He used the edge of the biophone
to keep an open view of the man's face to watch for any color changes
there. 

Marco Lopez fired up the circle saw and tapped Johnny on the shoulder
to get out of the way. Gage scrambled to join Roy by the gear boxes
at the man's head and there he busied himself with getting a double
set of I.V.s  laid out and ready for a doctor's go ahead.

Lopez lowered his face shield and dug the blade into the car door's
hinges to slice them apart.

A loud crackle made everyone yell.

A brief repowering surged through the power pole wires and one of
them touched the car and sent Marco flying. The K-12 spun into
high gear where it was wedged into the car and sang angrily.

The electricity also made the man cry out and twist up in a spasm.

Johnny and Roy jerked away from the car and the man. Gage took a risk
and used both his gloves, wadded up, to flick off the K-12 so that it wouldn't 
cut itself free and fall on top of the man. 

Roy whirled, crawling around the once again live wires to Lopez's
side. "Marco?!" The hispanic firefighter was on his back, cradling his 
hands into his lap where he lay. Roy crawled on top of him to protect him
from any more wires. "You ok? Did any of that power get to you?"

"Ahh!... yeah. A little bit. I'm ...kinda short.....of breath.. And..
Ow!..*gasp*  I think I jammed one of .....*gasp* ..my fingers." 

Roy looked down and saw an index finger jutting out at a ninety in
a direction that it wasn't meant to bend in. "You did more than that.
Just try to keep your head down!" puffed Roy.  He held Marco's legs still
with his own when a muscle spasm jerked through the fireman's
body involuntarily. He kept a hand on Marco's wrist to monitor the 
bounding pulse there. "Easy.. Don't move. I can see Cap running
to call the power company back. I'll help hold you still. You managed
to land in the only safe spot in the area..."

"Roy?! You guys ok?!" came Gage's voice. 

Roy didn't dare lift his head. "Yeah... Marco's conscious..
You?!"

"We're fine. G*dd*mned power company. I'll kill em as soon
as we get out of here!"

Roy chuckled, "Let's just concentrate on getting out of here first
junior! Worry about the rest later.."

There was a pause around the hissing popping noises. 
DeSoto didn't dare try to see where they were coming from.

"How's he doing?!" Johnny asked from that direction.

"Some cardiac changes. He's SOB." Roy said, burying his
face a little deeper into the smoky grass. "Awake for now."

Marco's face contorted as another series of muscle cramps
shot through his thrumming body. An involuntary groan slipped out.

Then the radio snapped into life from Roy's pocket. ##Hang in there
fellas. The power's going back off. A construction crew down the road
didn't realize that we were on emergency shutdown. I see you're
all ok and that Marco's still awake. Just keep still with your helmets 
on and I promise you a solution in less than a minute. ## came Cap's 
welcome, amazingly calm voice.

::Guess that's why they pay him the big bucks.::
Roy tried to lighten the mood where the two of them huddled on the ground.
"Hell of a way to earn a little vacation time, Marco, you know that?" he said, 
flinching when a snaking wire swung a little too close near their heads.

Marco tried to laugh but a convulsion got in the way. Roy turned
him onto his side and just hugged him closer, loosening his turnout
and uniform shirt collars away from his neckline. "Keep still. Just
a minute or so longer.."

Lopez began to fight to breathe as his muscles cramped up from
the voltage's earlier violation and the pulse under DeSoto's fingers
started to skip beats.

"Marco?"  Roy asked from where he lay across the fireman's stomach.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  A car accident with downed powerlines.

Photo:  The L.A. river bed, choked with brush.

Photo:  Marco carrying jaws.

Photo:  Roy over a downed Marco.

Photo:  Johnny and Roy stunned, and lying on their backs in smoke.

Photo:  Roy huddled down close on top of something, scared stiff.

***************************************************************************
From:  "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Sun Dec 19, 2004  4:22 pm 
Subject:  The Other Side...

offstory-
 
Medical Researched Material Linked to  M.D. Consultants : 

BENOIT BAILEY, MD, MSc, 
PIERRE GAUDREAULT, MD, 
ROBERT L. THIVIERGE, MD
Paris, France
  
onstory-

Marco's eyes weren't seeing anything, staring and seemingly
sightless, pointed upwards to the sky in an unfocused gaze.
His whole body spasming took on a unified tetany and then, 
he froze that way, extending every muscle. "R---r,  g-get off 
my chest.  Cru---sh---ng me."

Roy, keeping low and away from the lashing wires spitting
electricity so near them, subconsciously glanced down in worry,
even as he held down Marco's shoulders to keep him from
touching any of the swaying power lines buzzing angrily around
them.

DeSoto was nowhere near Lopez's upper torso to cause any pressure 
there. Not with any part of his body. "Marco...can you hear me? Are 
you having chest pain right n--?"

Marco hissed, the color draining from his face as
he contorted at its unexpected arrival. "Y---sss!!" he gurgled.

The pulse Roy held at Marco's wrist, disappeared and Marco
gasped, suddenly air hungry.

Shifting onto his stomach, the flax haired paramedic immediately 
reached higher up on Marco's arm, grabbing for the groove where 
Marco's brachial artery lay. He found the pulse again. It was 
fitful and way above 150 beats a minute; his rhythm, oddly disjointed.

Tipping his head way back didn't help with Marco's shortness of breath
in the slightest. His attempts to breathe were still hitched and irregular,
barely adequate.  Roy tore away his shirt, tearing off buttons as
he got down to Lopez's heavily sweating skin.

DeSoto put an ear to Marco's ribs. He heard the liquidy rubbing
gravely sound of rales beginning to take an ominous hold inside 
of the fireman's lungs.

His head whipped up. "Johnny,... Marco's V-tachy! Over 150 with
irregularities, with marked rales. No radial pulses. LOC's way down.
We have to manage something for him...now! I've no head room 
to work if he goes into cardiac arrest!" he said, keeping shifting,
panicky eyes on the swinging cables sparking around him.

Gage tried shouting over the roaring ping of raw power zinging
in cabled tangles over his helmeted head to Cap. He couldn't
move or get eye contact because of the crumpled bulk of the
automobile. He had to stay laying over his own victim, the dazed car 
passenger, to fend off the wires as best he could with a piece
of the splintered telephone pole. "Cap!! Hey!..We gotta get
Marco out of there, now! He's unstable!"  

But Hank's back was momentarily turned, shouting orders to 
the growing neighborhood crowd, to get further away from the 
area.

As yet, there was no sign of Chet and Stoker reappearing 
along the ropes cast over the riverbed's wall. Johnny wasn't even 
sure if they could hear the snapping and popping of electricity 
shooting into the downed powerlines.

Fruitlessly, Johnny searched his turnout jacket for an HT.  But he 
didn't have one with him. The squad radio was in the hands
of his partner, who couldn't let go of Marco's head at all or
risk losing a tenuous open airway.

Yelling in frustration, Gage's gloves shot out and he dragged the 
biophone on the grass nearby into ready reach. Then quickly,
he hailed out. "Rampart, this is Squad 51! Come in!"

A long space of fifteen seconds passed before the voice of Dr.
Brackett replied. ##Unit calling in, this is Rampart. Go ahead..##

Johnny abbreviated his out transmission. "51! Male Code I, electrical shock.
Fall : standing to the ground. Unstable V- tachyarrythmias. 150 plus. BP 
under 90. Conscious! I'm separated from Roy, who's on him. I'm with all 
gear under loose live voltage wires out of direct access! Orders?"

Dr. Brackett shoved the phone a little closer to his ear. He squinted
and straightened up in alarm at the hair raising din of energy howling
almost completely over Johnny's voice. ##Are you within tossing
range?## 

"Affirmative!!"  yelled Johnny, as he pinwheeled an arm round and 
round, until Cap finally noticed him.  He whistled, pointing to Marco,
making a cut throat gesture, then jerked a thumb over his shoulder
to show that Lopez needed an immediate out.

##Ok, Johnny. Now listen close......## said Kel over the phone.
Johnny plugged his other ear in order to hear him better. 

Gage saw Hank's head cast around rapidly for a ready answer and 
he held up a hand in a hasty I got it, wait, move.

Johnny heard Hank recalling Chet and Stoker to the engine distantly
over Roy's radio. It echoed around the houses on the block, lacing
through the spits and whines and howls of power curling in the air
around them.

Then he did something else which made Johnny nod in complete
and total agreement.. "Yeah.. yeah.. That'll work. Bring it on in!"

Brackett's voice over the landline was terse, focused.
## Six milligrams, adenosine rapid IVP into a Normal Saline line! Flush
through 10ml NS bolus. Then recheck for conversion. If none in 1 to 2,
double it with a second flush!  Get him out of there, 51! I don't care 
how you do it. With those findings, his crash potential's a guaranteed 
certainty in as short as five! Forget about any C-spine precautions! 
Saving his life's more important! His contact with a wire at ground level, 
most likely didn't break anything critical. ##

"6 of Adenosine in NS IV. Push 10ml's same solution. Double in 1 to 2!" 
Johnny spat back in intense concentration.

##Confirmed. Move, Gage! Re-contact only when you guys have him!##
shouted Brackett.

Kel heard the clatter of the phone onto something made of metal and
the line went dead, or so he thought, but then the liquid lava spit of electricity
burned his ear. He gripped the phone in frustrated anticipation.

Johnny Gage snatched a hand each into the IV and drug boxes and
pulled out tubing, a fluid bag, needles, and three packs of pre-mixed 
adenosine in the right dosages. 

He stripped off his belt and bundled the pack together tightly. 
Then he swung the medicines around his head like a bolo
and he horse whistled, piercingly, until Roy's head shot up
again from where he crouched over Marco's chest and face.

Lopez was no longer blinking, nor moving,.. and his color was
almost completely, the washed gray of old river mud. Only his
chest rising and falling in unregular jerks showed that he had 
any shred of fighting life inside of him. Thin choking moans
trickled out of his mouth, which Roy soothed away with fast
encouragements and what he was doing to help him. 

Johnny let the bundle fly at the top of an arch and it arrowed
through the maze of snaking power lines through the air
at Roy....

The bag of I.V. saline slipped out and impacted a wire
in an explosion of steam, which made both paramedics flinch
sharply. But the rest, Roy caught with all the skill of a practiced
soft ball catcher. ::Thank you, Chet.:: Roy thought, ::For making
me be your soft ball umpire in the backyard all summer long.::

Johnny swore, and grabbed up a second bag, which he
threw it like a football into a gap between the wires.
It got through and sailed into Roy's chest, and bounced, undamaged
into his hands. Then Gage crouched once more over the biophone 
while his other hand kept tabs on the car victim's carotid.

Roy moved until he could keep Marco's head tipped at the proper
angle with his knees. He began to work leaning on his elbows
over Marco's shivering body.

"Marco. I got help right here. Keep still while I start your I.V."
said DeSoto, breathless and strained. Lopez didn't act like he 
heard Roy and he screwed up the arm Roy wasn't pinning down 
with a shoulder, against his chest in renewed pain. "No.. don't 
fight me Marco!..." Roy grunted. "Can you hear me?!"

"AgggGG-gh! *gasp* Make...it.....st-----"
Something in Marco's eyes shifted, moving from agony, to fear
and all of his muscles loosened, just a tad. It was all Roy needed.
He spoke again as he pushed a fast needle into a vein using
a strip from Marco's torn shirt as a tourniquet.  He strung a line,
barely bleeding it fully of air before he injected the internal cell 
energy hormone into the infusion chamber followed by the plasma
bolus wash. The increments on the two syringes couldn't empty
to zero fast enough for Roy and he yelled in frustration at the slowness
at which they were delivering. He killed the time by talking, urgently soft.

"This'll med'll do that.. As fast as I can get it into ya... Try to do something 
else for me that might ease that pain in your chest." Roy urged. "Take a 
deep breath and blow it out against your nose and mouth without letting any 
air escape...."

Marco sobbed, unable to control the muscles of his lips to obey Roy. 

"Take another breath in. Bigger.. That's it...now...hold it." And Roy covered 
Marco's nose and mouth firmly so air couldn't escape. "Blow it out, hard,
against my fingers. That's it.. Do it for ten seconds and I'll let ya go."

Roy followed up the valsalva attempt by leaning an arm over Marco's
abdomen to increase the pressure just enough inside of him internally,
to make Lopez tighten his face with resisting effort, but not with any pain.

"Ok...let it out... let it out...easy....." said Roy, pulling his hand away.
His other one monitored the racing tachycardic pulse in Lopez's neck.
".....blow it out slow... Now breathe, best you can, like normal..."

The skipping beats underneath Marco's skin slowed, almost to normal, 
for long seconds.. But then the crushing chest pain and shortness of breath 
and the dangerous rain of rapid beats, returned to reinstate themselves
with a vengeance. Lopez choked as he re-immersed into difficulty.

Roy turned him over onto his left side. "Ok, ok...it didn't work. Just relax.
I got you..That move usually resolves any tachycardia on the first try. We
won't do that again. Sorry for giving you nausea... Johnny! Tell Brackett! 
Valsalva and first dose. No effect!.. I'm timing it for the second!" he
shouted, looking at his watch while he held Marco's head still in his lap.

"Got it! Stand by!" hollered Gage.

DeSoto's head snapped to the right as a new sound of power filled his
ears. It was the squad, thunking tires up onto the curb, with Cap behind
the wheel. He was coming to get them. "To your left! Your fenders will
push the wires away! Then I think I can get Marco into the cab with
us!" ::Smart idea.. the tires'll insulate us from any wire he drives over.
I can tell him when none are in contact with the chassis for the rest of it.::
Roy decided.  He shouted directions until he was absolutely sure
the rescue squad wasn't getting infused with electricity. 

Then he snatched open the passenger side door in a guts move.
Cap's eager hands grabbed Lopez by the collar and back of pants
and dragged him into the squad belly down. He shifted him upright
against himself into a hug and caught the I.V. bag and line Roy was 
protecting as Lopez moved. "Get in!" Hank shouted. "Then roll up
the window, tight! Use this asbestos tarp to insulate yourself and 
Marco away from all the exterior metal, Iike I did with mine.

Roy did so, flopping Marco's head back over his shoulder,
once he was done. Hank had had the foresight to grab an ambu
bag and this Roy began using to help Marco with his inhalations.
The IV bag continued running,  just over KVO, hanging from DeSoto's 
teeth.

Lopez fought the mask over his face but Hank and Roy managed to
pin down his arms enough for it to work and some of the worst of the grayish
blue coloring began to recede.  One handed, Captain Stanley
made a U- turn away from the crashed car so they wouldn't endanger
Johnny with the wires they were accumulating in tangles against
the hood and light rack of the squad.

Hank pulled far enough away to break all the wires knotted around them
from the energized transformers. Then he got out, and between him
and Roy, they shoulder walked Marco to an open space and lowered
him to the ground as carefully as they could.

All the motion roused Marco enough that he managed without the
ambu breathing support but Roy didn't count on that lasting and hurried
to connect it up to some oxygen from the engine's apparatus.

Johnny had completed getting his medical orders for the man 
under the car so he accepted the rope Kelly tossed in order
to tie off the biophone so that it could be dragged into the safety
of the street for Roy to use. The same went for the drug box
and other gear.

Right then, the power went off in the main neighborhood line
and all the writhing lengths of electrical wire dropped into 
smoking, stinking stillness.

Chet and Stoker wasted no time in helping Gage get
the car accident victim's extrication by K-12 going again, 
followed by a thorough long boarding evac complete
with a C-collar and the one hare traction splint that they had
found that they needed for a left femur fracture.

Roy re-established contact with Rampart in seconds.

##Johnny's already told me about the valsalva maneuver and the 
adenosine not working well enough. Any further improvement? ##
the worried doctor asked.

"None.." replied Roy, as he watched Cap start to hook Marco
up to the EKG monitor. Marco, was only gasping, no longer
trying to speak, on his back under a flowing oxygen mask.
"He needed assistance breathing a few minutes ago."

Roy couldn't wait... He kicked open the defibrillator with a foot
and got out the paddles for a quick peek, and he settled them
onto Marco's panting chest. He spoke into the phone receiver
that he had perched onto a shoulder. "Rampart, I'm reading 
gross multifocal ventricular bigeminy with a rate of 160.
Stand by for telemetry on your end to confirm it." DeSoto, said,
shoving the I.V. bag under one of Marco's shoulders. 
He bumped it up into wide open to get set for more meds.

There was a long pause as Cap and Roy both fumbled to set
the EKG Tetronix's controls on strongest signal and to wire
the unit into the biophone output port. 

Johnny kept looking up at them as he and the others worked
to free the man completely from under the car. He only vaguely
heard Chet acknowledge that Chopper Ten was starting a run
along the riverbed, looking for the car's tossed out driver. He
was very concerned by the audible chaos coming from Marco's
cardiac tracing. "Roy? What does it show?"

DeSoto told him.

"Man, Brackett's gonna order a cardio--" Johnny started to say.

## I concur with you wholeheartedly, 51. Unstable ventricular
tachycardia. What are the rest of his vital signs?"

"B/P ......." Roy spoke, breathing fast,....." ..'s  78 over P. Rate's
still the same with barely palpable carotids. Respirations are irregular
and work of breathing's marginally poor on fifteen liters of O2."
 
## Looks like we have no choice, 51. You're gonna have to
give him a shock to cardiovert him into a more stable rhythm before 
you transport..##

Cap's eyes didn't like the sound of that. They filled immediately
with alarm. "Can you do that while he's still awake?"

Roy licked his lips and nodded reluctantly. "When we have to.
It won't be too fun at all. For him, or for me."

## 51, is your victim still conscious?##

DeSoto lifted up the receiver once more. "That's affirmative, doc. Very. 
And he's feeling....a lot." cracked Roy's tired voice.

A long thoughtful, I don't like it sigh was heard clearly over the
biophone line. ##....ok, Roy. Let's get the job done. Now I don't have
to tell you twice. Get set for a full blown ET intubation in case this doesn't 
work out. Prepare for v-fib, the worst case scenario. Make sure you have
enough personnel on hand to handle it...##

"10-4, Rampart...uh, we do." Roy said quietly, looking to Cap, who gave a
silent command for Kelly and a policeman to peel off their coats in order
to provide CPR help. Hank himself, crouched at Marco's head, setting the 
waiting, clear rubber, O2 filled ambu bag, onto his knees.

DeSoto didn't like the idea. 

::Who knows how badly his heart's already been damaged by all that electricity. 
Simply adding more might throw him into unconvertible fibrillation due to 
excessive energy induced ischemia. :: Roy thought.

Roy found his eyes being met by Marco's in a strange moment of
clarity.::Do it...:: Lopez seemed to say through them.::I trust you, Roy::

DeSoto looked away from Marco's face and almost started pumping up the 
BPcuff again just to bury his burgeoning negative emotions into such a familiar 
task. :: In less than two minutes, I might be cutting Marco's life short, permanently.::

Kel Brackett broke him out of the frightening, nightmarish possibility.
##Roy, I'm now seeing a wide complex tachycardia in the range of 170.
We can't wait. We can't allow this to go on. His system won't tolerate it
much longer.##

"Doc, I've never done one of these before in the field. Johnny's gutsier,
maybe he oughta be the one t--"

##Johnny isn't here. He's up to his elbows in extrication gear trying to save
the life of our victim number one. Now bone up and save victim number two
and push any personal feelings you may have aside. If you haven't learned to 
trust the orders of your attending MD in eight years working as a full fledged 
paramedic, you'll never learn it.  I'll walk you through the whole thing, as it
happens, just like I do any first year resident physician. ##

"I'm not a physician."

##No, you're an extension of one. A fully authorized, long arm coming
directly off of........me... So quit stalling.  Listen carefully...
The difference between defibrillation and cardioversion is 
that the countershock is synchronized to the QRS complex which 
allows the electric current to be delivered after the R wave and 
before the period associated with the T wave. There's a toggle 
I didn't show you in training on the back of the defibrillator. Switch
it on now.  See the yellow flashing light on your monitor screen?
You've just  engaged the synchronization button. That blinking yellow dot
is a marker that appears only when your victim's heart reaches the R wave
of the heart beat cycle. When you deliver your shock, do it only when that dot 
appears. This will insure that counter shock is delivered during the QRS 
complex, the most optimum time to regain a normal sinus rhythm. 
Now keep your strip on. I wanna see what you get through the whole thing.
Set your charge to 100 watt seconds and gel up. We'll perform the
actual cardioversion once we get your patient prepared properly.
Any questions?##
 
Roy was speechless.

##Fine. I'll take that as a no. Do your standard first. 100 mg's Lidocaine
IV push and let's see what happens.##

Roy gave Marco the medication as fast as he could, as pure nervous
adrenalin made his fingers fly. "No change, doc. He's still the same."
DeSoto reported shakily.

##Ok, let's abandon that approach. Give him some Propofol 2.5 mg/kg IV
...on my order only.  Now this sedative will be extremely short acting. 
Four or five minutes tops after the initial sixty seconds following its delivery into
his blood stream. His breathing will be suppressed, so help it along.
This dose will buffer him from recollecting the pain that'll come from the 
countershock but it won't knock him out. We need him awake because he'll 
be less apt to vomit during the counter shock : a complication from which he could
die due to aspiration. He'll recover from the propofol momentarily if we're
successful, but his BP will fall below where it is now. Bradycardia might
set in afterwards, too. But don't worry, we'll cross that bridge when we come to
it. Give him another 100 mg's Lidocaine at your next five minute mark.
After we cardiovert, switch over to a ½ Lidocaine dose of 50 mg's every
five because he's still in shock, up to another 100 mg's. I'll allow you
to attempt synchronized cardioversion up to four times. First
the 100 joules, then 200, then 300 and finally 360. If he doesn't catch,
we'll try something else medication wise. Remember, if your clinical
conditions go critical at any stage of the game, go to unsynchronized
shocks like you normally do for v-fib. Ready?... Give him the propofol, 
Roy.  His R on T's are greater than 6 per minute now. Roy,..remember all 
that I've told you...you .....you................you....##

In a haze, Roy gave Marco the sedative through his gushing, richly flowing I.V.

Then he reached for the defibrillator paddles and held them up for Cap
to gel once Marco stopped tensing and began swallowing mechanically.

Cap gave the lightly sedated Lopez two breaths on ambu, then
he lifted its mask up in the air to get out of the way..

Roy set the paddles down onto the framing positions around
Marco's heart.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
::Mama!  I don't want to die!::  cried Marco, deep inside..

A warm rush of energy lifted him up that was almost a noise
and the horrid thudding in his ears faded away into silence.

Puuffffhhhhhhh....  Air went into his lungs. Effortlessly.

Puuuufffffhhhh..  It was getting easier. He didn't have to work so hard anymore.

Puuuufffffhhhhhhhhhhh..... So Lopez .....gave up and just let it happen.

Marco opened his "eyes" into a bright white light that offered
the purest peace and comfort...and saw.......and ............saw.........

.......  ::Papa?::

Tears filled Marco's eyes at the sight of the man he hadn't seen
since the night he died just two days after his tenth birthday.

Lopez reached out to touch his face lovingly.

JOLT!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marco's body arched upwards under Roy's hands, accepting
the gift of change, reacting to the conversion energy and
the sedative with a myoclonus effect. A flood of tears poured
out of both Marco's eyes.

It surprised Cap, who almost didn't offer Lopez another
breath on the bag while it was happening.

"Dr. Brackett..." started Roy in alarm over the phone on his
shoulder.

##It's all right on my end. I think it's working. Pay no mind
to that muscular reaction. Keep maintaining his airway
and breathing. He'll come out of it.##

Immediately,.. an  innocent innocuous unadulterated sinus rhythm 
of fifty started knitting itself across the defibrillator's EKG monitor.

Roy sighed........and smiled the most heartfelt grin Cap had
ever seen on a fireman.

Marco soon after, started breathing well enough, on his own.

Just in time for Gage to see as he trudged by with a 
patient loaded stokes headed for a Mayfair.
"Did it work?"

"You have to ask?" remarked Chet. "He's doing absolutely terrific
now. Look......."And Kelly pointed out the regular and clockwork squiggles on 
Marco's rhythm strip. "And we got Roy and Doc Brackett to thank for it, too." 
Kelly added.

"Don't forget the big man upstairs..  You forgot Him again, Chet,
I'm a professed Lutheran." Roy reminded him.

"Oh, yeah, Him, too.." and Kelly hastily crossed himself.
"Man, I wonder if Marco realizes how close he came to biting the big one..."

Johnny smirked as he walked by. "Guess we'll have to ask him once
he comes to mentally in the ambulance. Nice work, Roy. I couldn't have done
better myself."

"Oh yes you could. Brackett's one hell of a doctor. He'd make Kelly here
raise the dead if it was possible." said Roy, taking another blood
pressure reading on Marco.

"I shudder the thought...." muttered Cap, switching out the ambu bag for
a regular non-rebreather. "Lopez's set. He's at 18 a minute again. 
I better go head up the search for the third victim...... Kelly.."

"Hmm?"  said Chet.

"Come with me."

"Oh, uh, ok, Cap."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

********************************************************
From :  Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, December 22, 2004 3:59 PM 
Subject :  The Christmas Gift~~ 


There was a distant, high pitched wailing in his ears. 

Frowning, Marco coughed and opened his eyes in
puzzlement. He found himself staring at a double set
of sunlit windows over his toes from where he was
sitting. He was propped upright on something soft and 
yielding, under his butt and legs. ::An ambulance cot.:: he 
realized. Two I.V. lines were swinging against the side of 
his face and bumping his cheek, so he lifted a hand to
push them away. ::I don't understand...where is he?::
he thought muzzily. :: Father was right here..::

"Marco...." said a masculine voice. "Are you with me yet?"
it asked and then Lopez felt a warm grip stop his hand from
touching the I.V. tubing.

Lopez blinked. He knew that voice and tried to speak, but
it came out as a nonsensical liquidy groan. A face leaned
in and blocked out the bright glow from the windows and
tugged on something hissing until it cupped around his nose
and mouth more tightly. ::This's O2. I'm hurt?:: Surprise
registered on Marco's face and he finally formed a question.
And a name finally popped into recall of who was sitting above him
along with half a dozen emotions. ::That's Roy..:: and he shifted
restlessly under the beige blanket, feeling straps snugged
across his body. Anger and fear, coursed through him.
"How'm I ...d-doing?" he gasped.

"Easy. You're still coming out of sedation. Don't be surprised
if you feel agitated inside emotionally. That's normal. Did you 
feel me shock you a few minutes ago?" asked Roy.

"Didn't...feel a thing." Marco said, still clearly remembering the
soft lines of his father's face that he had seen in that strange 
soothing nether light when he had given up. "Roy..."

"Yeah.." Roy said, looking up from the blood pressure he
was taking on Marco.

"Did I die?"

DeSoto's eyebrows went up at the question but the smile
he offered Marco on his face, didn't shift a single millimeter.
Roy shook his head. "We never lost a pulse on ya. You went
from VT to NSR instantly without a hitch. Cap only had to help
you breathe a couple of times on the bag when the sedative's
full effect hit ya. There were no complications at all." he grinned.
"That chest pain left yet?"

"It's gone." Marco sighed. 

"Figured it was just that rapid heartbeat doing it..Let me listen
to your chest to see if your lungs have cleared up yet."

Marco blinked, nodding. "What have you got me on? I still feel
kinda strange.."

Roy chuckled. "Doc ordered a little MS for ya. You got a little
combative when we were loading you up because you were still
a little out of it. And you're on a Lidocaine drip to keep a normal
rhythm...Ok, take a deep breath.."

Marco did.

"And another one.." said Roy, sliding the drum of his stethoscope
over to his left side along the side of his ribs.

"And again." Roy said, leaning him forward so he could listen
to Marco's back. Then he rocked back onto the caregiver
seat and jotted down a few notes. "Your edema's clearing
nicely."

"What was that from? I wasn't in any smoke...." Lopez coughed.

"Sometimes when your heart races too fast, fluid can build up
in your lungs. That was one reason why we had to slow it down
pretty quick."

"So I'm all right now?" Marco asked, keeping still and 
studying the tape holding his arm straight on an I.V. board.

"You're stable." Roy admitted. "Dr. Brackett will give you a 
good going over once we reach Rampart to see if there are
gonna be any secondary cardiac side effects from the shock 
you took from the power lines. He'll look for signs of internal
damage coming from other areas. Your muscles might have
suffered circulation problems that won't pop up until later. You
remember those spasms that kept coming?"

"How can I forget? They hurt like h*ll. Now I know what Cap
went through when he messed with a power line."

"That's a good sign."

"What, that my pain was so bad?" Lopez grinned faintly.

"No, it's the fact that you remember what happened to you 
at the scene that's good." DeSoto replied.

"Oh..." said Marco. "I remember a few other things, too."

Roy shifted in his seat, staying respectfully quiet while
he kept an eye on Marco's live EKG monitor. Not a single
PVC was marching across the screen as it had been doing
by the dozens before his emergency cardioversion. Feeling
confident on the strength of the turn around, Roy closed up
and packed away the defibrillator resting between Marco's
legs and set it onto the rider's bench next to him. Then he
folded his hands together and just listened, meeting Marco's
eyes gently with his own.

"Do you believe in the afterlife, Roy?" Marco said after
a few seconds.

"I do. You don't grow up going to services once a day and twice
on Sunday without having a pretty strong faith in an idea like
that." Roy grinned.

"I'm Catholic. Maybe not as devoted as you and Joanne
are to the Lutheran faith. Mama and I go to church once a month, 
maybe twice if we can afford it, and go cook for the congregation. 
In fact, we've  just finished organizing a dinner benefit ....for Christmas
coming up in the next couple of days. But what I'm saying is.... 
I think I died, Roy. Maybe just for a split second. Because 
whereever I was..I saw my father, as clearly as you and I are 
seeing each other right now. And he's been dead for twenty five
years. It was so real. I could smell his cologne...I could feel the heat 
coming from his cheek when I tried to reach out and touch him,
and it made me cry, Roy."

"Hypoxia does funny things to the mind when a person's in shock.
You had a short time in the squad where you weren't getting
enough oxygen. We had to hold you down to force some
air into ya until your color pinked up again. You didn't die, Marco. 
You were conscious the whole time I was with you. This EKG strip
shows that you had a constant heart beat throughout your
treatment. Take a look..."  and he pressed the red gridded white
paper roll into Marco's hands and he helped him scroll through it
to the point where the bigeminy was shocked into a sinus rhythm.
"But it doesn't matter if you were clinically dead or not. That's not important. 
If you know you saw your dead father, then you did. Perhaps it was your mind's 
way of getting you through a life threatening crisis that was at the time, extremely 
unpleasant physically. A self preservation instinct, if you will. But the experience 
you had holds the same significant meaning regardless of what brought it on, 
Marco. And you're gonna have to figure out what its impact is gonna be and find 
out why it happened to you in order to understand it fully through a way that
works best for you."

"What did you feel, Roy?" Lopez said, fingering the place on the EKG 
strip where the tracing had gone from a life threat to a normal state.

"I'm afraid I don't understand." DeSoto admitted, leaning on his knees
with his palms.

"Last year, you were dead for several minutes after you hit that line
and fell off the roof during that house fire. Karen the trainee said that
you had no heartbeat at all when she found you and brought you back
using the defibrillator. Did you see anything like what I saw, during it?"

Roy looked down at the question, studying his shoes, when he got
Lopez's reference. He laced his fingers together thoughtfully in front of 
him. "I remember feeling scared for the woman in that bedroom
with me. I wasn't thinking clearly about the fact that the ladder under
my foot wasn't one of ours. It was a stupid mistake. I was surprised
I wasn't written up for it later on after I recovered."

Marco heard the sirens over their heads shut off as they entered
Rampart's back driveway from the boulevard. "Roy..." he insisted,
wanting an answer before it was too late to get one.

DeSoto replied. "Easy, don't get worked up. It'll mess up your blood pressure.
I'll answer your question." And he started to take down Marco's I.Vs. 
from the ceiling hook, transferring them to the cot pole. "I saw someone 
that day, yes." he whispered. "And ...it was just a little boy. A stranger,
with...with....with red hair, about four years old. And this is the odd part, Marco...
I knew ...without a shred of a doubt, that that little boy standing in front of me...
was going be my future son in two years time. A second son for me and 
Joanne, slated to be born on Christmas Eve.....1977."

Lopez's mouth flopped open. "That's next year.."

"How's that for a mysterious life after death experience....?" Roy 
asked seriously. "Count your blessings, Marco. You could've had a 
vision like mine." he said quietly. "Joanne and I still don't know
what to make of it."

Lopez crossed himself and said a silent benediction.

Soon, no further talk was possible on the subject because rushing 
orderlies pulled open the doors of the Mayfair once it completed its 
backing maneuver, to wheel Marco into Dr. Brackett's awaiting 
treatment room.

---------------------------------------------

Photo:  Roy bagging a patient inside a Mayfair.

Photo:  An overhead shot of the squad and ambulance
             parked in the emergency entrance lot.

Photo:  Rampart's ambulance entrance door, open next
             to the squad.

******************************************************************
From:  "Champagne Scott" <chameleonkate@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Mon Jan 10, 2005  6:31 pm 
Subject:  A Matter of Perspective

Captain Stanley collapsed the antennae of his walkie 
talkie radio and he put it into his pocket with a sad sigh 
of discovery.  

The helicopter pilot had found the third car victim. 

He lay face up and battered at the mouth of a culvert 
in the shallows one fifth of a mile away from the accident 
site.
 
There was no mistaking the pale china blue rictor
of death and his fatal color. "Kelly! Stoker! Let's give it up!" He shouted 
to his two searching firefighters struggling through the river
channel's brush and debris islands with probe poles lofted straight
up over their heads. "He's been spotted by Chopper Ten.
And there's absolutely nothing in the world we can do for him." he 
motioned grimly, peeling off his helmet and gloves.

Hank tried not to look at the heavy disappointment that bloomed over
his men's faces. 

Cap knelt down near the high edge of the spillway
over the rappelling ropes hanging over the concrete wall.   
"I've been ordered to let L.A.P.D. and the coroner's department 
handle his body's recovery. They say they're gonna need the area 
around him intact and undisturbed for photos." he told Stoker and 
Chet quietly. "They just found a pack of cocaine in the trunk."

"We hear ya, Cap. Where is he?! We don't see him. " Chet yelled back. 
"Don't wanna step too close." he frowned, fighting to get out of the thick 
bulrushes and rhododendron tangles choking the riverway.

"In the storm drain, pal. To your one o'clock. Up on a small waterfall.
Looks like your way back to me's entirely clear of automobile debris so
don't worry about that." hollered Cap.

Kelly nodded, finally finding an open space in the wild growth
to push through. He took both Cap's offered grip and the rope and 
hauled himself up onto dry land.

Mike Stoker climbed onto the rusting gate covering the water redirect to 
catch a glimpse of the dead man for reporting's sake. Then he accepted 
Chet and Hank's firm hands for a pull out of the river basin.

"How's Johnny's victim?" Mike asked Cap, scraping the scummy mud off 
of his shoes on a twisted rock as he retrieved their climbing ropes into
potable coils.

"Stable. His rig left for Rampart soon after Roy's did. Marco's still doing fine.
He's awake now, and talking..."

Chet started to open his mouth. 

Cap stalled his question with a pointed index finger. 
"And yes, we'll be taking the engine there. I told L.A. that  we'll be 10-7 
for an hour and a half until Lopez's replacement can join up with us at the 
station."

Chet grinned, wiping muck off his chin. "Cap, taking the pumper to
the hospital without an official reason to? I'm surprised at you." he chided
teasingly.

Hank's eyes demonstrated being put on the spot and he cleared his
throat subconsciously. "I don't need one. I'm a fire department captain.
My station can be anywhere I put it in our service area. " he gruffed. 
"Unofficially, I'm doing it for a short welfare visit for morale's sake to cheer 
myself up. Now get moving and drive the squad in. Stoker can finish stowing 
the gear. He's a little faster than you."

"Yes, sir."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sleep would claim him, if he let it. Marco had only to close his
eyes and lean back against the softness of the gurney's pillow.

But he couldn't. 

He felt Roy's hand on his stomach, taking a count of his respirations 
yet again as he drifted.
  
Marco studied the age lines wrinkling on his coworker's forehead as 
DeSoto tipped his watch into a better viewing angle but they
blurred into nonsensicality. "..ohh...." he groaned, his arms and
legs jumping underneath the covers.

Biting his lip, Roy held Marco's I.V.s in the other hand so the ambulance 
attendants would be free to transfer Lopez onto the treatment bed that 
Brackett had already wheel locked into position. "Easy, Marco.
Almost there.." he said with another gentle touch on his patched in
shoulder.

Marco barely heard him.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More than anyone else knew; more than he himself knew, so much 
had changed within him, in ways that Lopez was only beginning to 
understand.

The need for rest weighed heavily across his chest. But Marco knew why he
put it off, why he tried to forestall its inevitable approach.

When he had been between twisted heartbeats, there had been the 
smallest possible glimpse, as his heart had passed through chaos back
into shocked order, of an instant that had been both remembrance and eternal 
non-time. For just that brief flash of consciousness, he had seen that which 
had been shown to him, so long ago in early childhood. Warm, happy
experiences of being snuggled in the firm security of his
father's loving arms as he laughed, while being tickled to death.

Lopez closed his eyes, ignoring Kel Brackett's questions and shaking, willing
himself towards that memory path again.

He had seen his father, his mother's beloved, inside of there. In a moment 
snatched from those years forever lost to him, in those few seconds, when
Bernardo had still been alive.  Bernardo had turned to Marco, one hand reaching
back to his, smiling as if he were about to say something...

There hadn't been time enough to hear what his words would have been. 
The vision of his face had gone as quickly as it had appeared; Marco hadn't
really even been conscious of it, until the jolting shock of the defibrillator  
came shooting through his body.. 

Only now, when he could allow his thoughts to sort themselves out, had
he remembered completely, what he had seen. What had been granted
to him. 

Marco wondered what it meant. Perhaps nothing, an oxygen and blood starved 
hallucination, perhaps a gift, a blessing.. Marco smiled ruefully, to appease a 
suddenly worried Kel and Roy before they resorted to a pain check. "I'm o.k...I'm 
just a little tired. Gimme a sec to get myself together." he whispered.
"And then I'll try to cooperate..." he grunted.

He saw their faces move away into a paramedic/doctor consultation.

It would have been just like Bernardo Lopez to have given him something
like that, something that would enable him to go forward and accomplish 
what he had to afterwards.

Falling now, Marco let himself sink. Toward that bright world, the other one,
inside of him, where he could hear the tender words that had been-- and
always were-- about to be spoken to him.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Kel." said Dixie, lifting her head. "Looks like he's going out."

Dr. Brackett moved to Marco's head, peeling a penlight out of one pocket.
He ran its white beam over his pupils lightly before he stepped
closer to examine the extruding EKG strip running out of the monitor.
"Go ahead and get another pressure, Dix, but I think he's ok. His eyes 
seem like they're in rapid eye motion, like they do when someone's
in a deep sleep state." he remarked in surprise. "Hmm, that's something 
that getting an electrical current overload won't account for."

Roy crossed his arms over his elbows, fidgetting, but he let himself smile.
"It's ok, doc. Marco always falls asleep like this after an injury. Even
for minor ones. He did this the last time he was in here, too."

"Really.." Brackett chuckled.

"As I recall...Last time was just last year from that accident at the gas station?"
Dixie remembered.

"Uh huh." Roy replied. "Marco never seems to ever pass out at all. He only 
does so when things are getting really bad like when his air bottle runs out in a 
really hot fire." 

"Oh, now I remember Marco's strange tendency. Mike said he snored up a 
storm. Morton said he got overly frustrated, until he finally tipped Marco's head 
back over the end of the table long enough to finish examining him." Kel
shared about Morton.

Roy just nodded, doing the same action to prevent any problems
after he transferred Lopez's oxygen supply line to the humidified
port in the wall.

"Ok." Kel sighed.. folding up his stethoscope and putting it back into
his lab coat. "His lungs sound almost entirely clear now. Dix, call the lab.. 
I want a chest X-ray and a full twelve lead cardiac study. Draw blood 
enough for a BUN and creatinine, CBC, cardiac electrolyte serum, 
blood glucose, and have them get some clotting indexes in case he 
needs surgery for that finger reduction later. Also, grab a UA by centesis 
after I get done giving him this sedative to calm these tremors down."

"Right away, Kel. His pressure's 100/76." Dix reported before moving to
the phone to order the tests Marco needed.

Kel glanced up. "Roy, you say he wasn't thrown far? I'm not noting
any signs of abdominal tenderness or guarding here." Dr. Brackett said 
palpating Marco's stomach carefully.

"That's right. Only about ten feet backwards from the car, onto some 
patchy grass and dirt. He was using the K-12 when it happened."

"Hmm, we got lucky there.." he said, moving on to look at the fractured
finger on Marco's hand. "This doesn't look so bad either. The burns on
his hands aren't even blistering."

"How's his neurological status?" said Dixie, returning to the bedside.

"Good to excellent. We got pretty philosophical on the way in."

"About what?" Kel asked.

"Marco thought he had a near death experience, doc. He said
that he saw his dad. Is such a thing possible with his kind of situation? 
I mean, his heart rhythm didn't ever stop on us."

"It is. He couldn't have been breathing too well with a tach rate that
fast. Slight hypoxia is all that's needed to cause changes in the brain
enough for someone to feel they've had an out of body experience."

Roy grinned. "Are you saying that you don't believe in all the stories
of people seeing things after they've been dead a short time?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Kel said. "I'm too practical, I guess,
to believe in such nonsense."

"Don't knock it until you've been there, doc." Roy said, without looking
away from Kel's skeptical eyes.

"You mean, you had a life after death encounter Roy?" asked Kel,
raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"I did. When I was in his shoes, last year." DeSoto said, gesturing
at Marco's sleeping form.

"I didn't read anything about that on your chart, Roy." 

"That's because...." Roy started up loudly..."..that's because.."
he whispered so he wouldn't wake Marco up." I thought I was
nuts at the time."

"Why would you think that? Who did you see in yours?"

"My future son." DeSoto said with tightly clenched lips. "And I'll also 
tell you, doc, that my experience wasn't entirely all warm and rosy 
like Marco's." Roy had to force himself to get out of Brackett's 
light while he completed Marco's care."I felt very uncomfortable
seeing him."

"Oh.. Uh...Sorry about that.  Well...don't worry, Roy. It's over
and done with. Uh...We'll keep up both of Marco's I.Vs. at a rate 
sufficient to offset myoglobinuric renal failure. I'm not going to allow 
any fasciotomies that might be needed on his arms because of 
compartment syndrome developing later on just because
of an unstable B/P that we can easily stabilize now. Here, help me 
turn him onto his side for those coming chest plates. Then we can 
get his course of meds going before he transfers to the ICU."

"The guys'll wanna see him, doc,.." DeSoto insisted. "..before he goes
upstairs."

"I'll allow that. There'll be time while we wait for the x-rays to develop."

"I guess I'd better collect Johnny and go meet the gang outside before
they get crazy ideas into their heads about trying to pile on in here." said
Roy, excusing himself.

 "I'll let you know when we're set." said Brackett. "Tell them Marco's
gonna be fine in a couple of weeks. Especially since he has
no keraunoparalysis."

"I will."

Roy left the treatment room to go stand by the ambulance entrance
to meet the rest of the gang. A quick status check to L.A. showed
them as already en route to Rampart Hospital.

He flagged down Johnny as soon as he reappeared from his
treatment room and moments later, DeSoto was 
telling him the good news about Marco.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo: Doctor Brackett looking uneasy about a subject matter.

Photo: Roy in a treatment room in closeup.

Photo: Dixie bending over a bed near an I.V. setup.

Photo: Engine 51 driving right at you.

**************************************************************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Mon Jan 17, 2005  7:33 pm 
Subject:  The Gift of Life..
 

"Guys...Set the kettle down over there on
the back stove. Yeah, that's right. Then Marissa can
get the soup going and still have the front burners
free for saute'ing." suggested Marco from his comfortable 
chair in the center of the spacious room at Father Murphy's
Catholic Charities Soup Kitchen. "We are gonna be cooking 
for a hundred people before sundown, and not just 
for a few dozen or so."

Johnny mumbled around the fake smile he wore for
show for the hovering chattering church women who were
volunteering for the charity's dinner. "Roy,..are you
regretting helping out as much as I am right now?" he said
as he and Roy grunted under the heavy weight of the
enormous soup kettle that they were maneuvering between
them.

Roy, chided his partner, flashing a one hundred percent
genuine grin. "Where's that holiday spirit Johnny? I know
it's in there somewhere. You know we were the only ones able 
to help Marco out like this on such short notice. The rest
of the guys are still pulling a shift at the station. He's still 
under exertion restrictions, remember?"

Johnny's face locked down even tighter on his glued in
smile. "For a tiny jolt taken from a power pole? Roy, your 
defibrillating counter shock mixed up more of his brain 
and cardiac cells than that ever could of done."

"Shh, do you want him to find out that meeting his father
in the afterlife was actually an artifact from the paddles?
That'd doom any faith he has in the church and then some."
DeSoto reasoned, keeping his voice down to a quiet 
friendly sounding whisper. "Just pipe down and let's get
this done. They're opening the doors to the streets in an
hour and we'd better be ready with things on time."

"Ok, ok. Just...just let me get better leverage down here. 
Ugh.. Tip it back.. I got it on the bunsen coil. Right in the
middle." Gage strained. Then he said a little louder, "How's
this, Marco?"

"Perfect, amigo. Gracias." he said amid a chorus of gratitude
from all the women.

Soon the massive metal cauldron was surrounded by the bright
colorful aprons of the shelter volunteers descending in mass,
as they began dumping pounds of chicken, noodles, vegetables and
boullion into the pot. Rapidly, the gas line fire was poofed into
life underneath it.

Marco Lopez looked up from the hot chocolate one of the
church ladies had given him to go along with the afghan
now wrapping around his shoulders. "Thanks guys. the
neighborhood women and I really appreciate you coming out
tonight.." he said sipping from his steaming mug. "Here, 
take a break. Looks like I got a whole pot to myself.." he 
said shoving the cocoa tray and mug stack closer to Roy
and Johnny with a slippered foot. He plunked down his own 
mug and Marco reached over to begin peeling potatoes at top 
speed with a paring knife.

"Ah,, easy with that..." Gage said, pulling the blade out of
Marco's hand. "You're gonna cut yourself rushing like that.
Here, I'll do it.."

"Thanks, Johnny.." and Lopez rose from his chair painfully to
move over to the floor bound soup pot to do some light stirring 
with its three foot long steel cast ladle while the ladies around 
him filled it with delectables.

Roy grinned. "He's not on Valium you know." he said sotto voce
to Gage. "Just some Tylenol 3 for his muscle aches."

"Oh, hush. He's was napping five minutes ago. He might still be
groggy enough to get a little clumsy."

"Yes, mother Gage.." teased DeSoto, taking up a second peeler
to help Johnny add to the pile going into the soup pot. "Your
paramedic side's showing itself again."

"So's yours. You kept him from doing any lifting at all today."

"Then we're in the same boat now, aren't we?...Relax, Johnny,
in an hour, we'll be eating a truly well cooked meal with 
all the street folks and their families and we'll forget all about 
our sore backs."

"Do me a favor and keep reminding me of that, ok? Right now
my back's talking something fierce, all over that supposed 
angelic little voice of mine that's trying to praise me for doing all 
of this on our only day off." Gage said, stretching out a 
kink or two.

"Consider it done."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Darkness was falling softly over Los Angeles County when Father
Murphy finally threw open the doors of his charity to the line
slowly straggling in from the avenue. He laughed heartily in his
Santa's suit for all the kids shyly coming in with their guardians
to share the rare seven course feast.

Marissa, a red haired bubbly helper, threw off her apron just in
time to fan out coloring books and crayons for the youngest comers
along with a wrapped present or two for each, containing toys that
would survive their lives spent on the move and on the streets. 
"Here you go, loves. Come on in where it's warm. Dinner's almost 
ready." she said.

And soon, the tiny brick hall was filled with people sitting down in
front of the many plates and silverware lined up along the
simple folding tables setting in rows before the kitchen's
open counter.

Roy and Johnny and Marco were just about to duck out of the
way of the volunteers running by with steaming foil pans full
of food when Father Murphy dragged all three of them to the front
of the room before a tiny rainbow lit white Christmas tree.
"Folks, please. Can I have your attention for just a bit before
the nightly prayer?"  The Santa garbed padre held them firmly
in place with a friendly arm over their shoulders.

Ski capped heads looked up everywhere and all three firemen 
immediately flushed at being an unexpected center of attention.

"Now for this year's Christmas feast, we've been blessed with
the presence of some of Marco Lopez's closest firefighter friends, 
who've been helping us tirelessly all morning and through 
most of the day. Everybody, a big warm welcome for Roy 
DeSoto and John Gage, from Station 51 located in the suburb
of Carson. This is their first year volunteering with us and I'd like
to say, I couldn't have asked for a more dedicated pair of workers
than they. It's been said no one works harder than a firefighter
and I've been overwhelmingly ...moved.. to find that this wonderful
sentiment, is an absolute G*d given truth. Roy and Johnny 
everybody.."

Marco Lopez, with tears of gratitude in his eyes, starting clapping
first for them with warm nods of appreciation, which only increased
his coworkers' embarrassment at the memory of their earlier
grumbling.

Soon, shrill cheers and applause from all the volunteers and diners
alike, nearly brought the hall down. Roy and Johnny found that they 
couldn't escape fast enough into the sanctuary in back of 
the kitchen to recover their inner dignity.

Marissa, the street child activity coordinator winked at them as she
handed them two full plates, "Welcome to the family, boys. Here,
eat up and refill your plates as often as you like. Nobody goes
hungry on Christmas Eve."

"Wow,..." said Johnny.. "I...we., I mean, Roy and I ..sure 
appreciate this, Marissa. Thanks."

"My pleasure.. Excuse me fellas, but my place is with the kids.
I'm nanny to them all whenever they come to Father Murphy's 
so their real parents can relax and take a break for a while.
And now, this is time for yours. Don't worry about doing any dishes
at all. We've hired out some of the city's crime serving teens for 
that task. It'll be part of their community service obligations 
debt to the police and Ju-vee Hall to help us out tonight."

Johnny and Roy nodded their thanks and they settled in 
to the folding chairs Marco managed to petal in around 
the warm soup pot. It was almost surreal to have
a three foot high cauldron of food steaming fragrantly in
front of them and they revelled in it. "Thanks, Marissa.
Glad we could be here." said Roy. "This is a wonderful
charity you're offering up to all these street folks." he said 
shyly. "I've driven by this hall everyday on my way to work  
and I never even knew this place existed. We're....
very touched by your intense sense of dedication and
commitment, ma'am."

"Ah,, it's G*d's work, not mine, that I do, Mr. DeSoto. 
I'm just a messenger and caregiver to the youngest ones
and I, just simply, try be there whenever I can. It's folk like you 
and your coworkers who are the real life savers. I just keep 
people on track going about the business of wanting to live that 
life day to day, in truly bad times." Marissa said thoughtfully. 
"If you would excuse me now?.. Little Stevie's flagging me 
down."

All three of the Station 51 gang rose marginally from their chairs
as the cheerful young woman departed for the main dining
area and the children.

Soon, well fed and content, the three off duty firefighters
joined all the volunteers in handing out presents to
those who didn't have any yet from Father Murphy's red
velvet Santa's bag.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the kitchen, two scruffy teenaged boys ate from the serving
platters greedily.

"Is he watching?" said the first to the second.

The dark haired teenaged parolee casually eyed the police officer
standing in the main hall against a wall. The officer was laughing 
along with the others as presents were opened and displayed.

"No, man. He's feeling the Christmas spirit too much to notice us."

"Cool.. Then we can have a little fun." said the first, taller teen.

The second eyed his juvenile hall roommate distrustfully. "What
kind of fun?"

"The walking on fire kind. I betcha you can't do what I can do..Let's
see what kind of cajones you have, Punto."

"Hey, who are you calling Punto, Gordohead? I can do anything you
can do."

"All right..." and the oldest reached into his jeans pocket around
his sink apron and pulled out a dime. Lightly, he tossed it into
the deep french fryer that was full of boiling liquid lard. "Get it, and it's
yours. A symbol that earns my protection for you from the others
who are beating you up every night in the exercise cell."

Familiar with gang initiation and pledging, the second reached
for a scoop wire spoon for the task.

The first boy grabbed the second boy's wrist. "Not with that..
With your bare hand."

The second teen's eyes got real big. "Are you plain loco? I'll
get seriously roasted!"

"No you won't. You see, I'm sharper than your average jefe, caballero.
Use this on your skin first. Watch me, and then it's your turn."
said the light eyed leader boy.

He reached up onto a spice shelf over the cooker and pulled down
a jar of vasoline. He liberally spread it thickly over his arm
and fingers, until he was wearing a glove of goo. Then, lightning
fast, he plunged his hand into the hot bubbling vat of grease.

The leader's companion gasped, but the boy's hand came up
rapidly, with the dime, dripping but unharmed. The silver coin 
plunked with a flip toss onto the countertop, following a string of 
mirthless laughter. The leader had enjoyed horrifying his audience. 
"Your turn, amigo. Nothing to it."

"You're pure loco, man. I'm not doing it!" gaped the younger
of the two toughies.

"Does this feel burned to you?" said the oldest, gripping the younger's
hair in his greasy hand. "I'm offering you a one time only...offer for my 
personal kind of protection against your enemies. You know you'll die 
without it, despite of a fuzz being your shadow. This is your last 
chance and I suggest you take it,.."  he spat into his ear. "..friend..."

"Ok.. ok. ok.." bubbled the second teen, in fear, and he pulled
his head free from the leader's grip just before the police officer's
eyes glanced once in their direction in a bored presence check
and away again.

He reached for the jar of vasoline with a shaky hand.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A blood curdling scream from the back kitchen sent the adults into
a scrambling flurry for the kitchen annex.

Johnny, Roy and Marco were just in time to see a young teen aged
boy dropping a steam scalded dime limply from his fingers 
right after he violently pulled his arm out of the french fryer. 

A plume of grease arched onto the floor and splashed the simmering
soup kettle's burner and the amber liquid immediately
caught on fire and crawled rapidly along the floor tiles, igniting an
even bigger puddle pooled there in front of the grinning
older teenager.

"Somebody get a fire extinguisher!" yelled Johnny.
"Marco, call the fire department!"

Roy tackled and then flung a towel over the screaming boy's arm
to snuff out the grease burning there that hadn't yet reached
any skin.  Then he pulled him away from the flaming part
of the floor to the water sink where he quickly flooded the
teen's fingers with a stream from the cold tap.

"What a stupid monkey!" celebrated the leader teen. "You
forgot to let go of the dime and it burned ya anyway!" he 
laughed at his younger companion.

Johnny heard a commotion from the hall and accepted the fire extinguisher
that Father Murphy tossed him, quickly ripping free its nozzle tie. 
He was about to use it when he saw what kind of extinguisher it was. 
"Roy, this is a water can.. We can't use this at all.." and he threw it 
away in disgust, dancing away from the flames. "We gotta get everyone 
outta here. If that soup ring's gas line flares...."

"I'm on it." and DeSoto rush guided his stunned, only finger 
seared teenager out of the room on Marco's heels.

Johnny threw away the useless extinguisher and  
whirled to push the laughing teen ahead of him into the police
shaparone's arms; ultimately to the front exit of the dining hall.

"Merry Christmas, Mister Cop and Fireman. " mocked the leader 
teen. "Hey, Father! How's that for a holy light?" he chuckled, 
maniacally pleased, throwing a hand back at the spreading grease fire.
"I kinda like it better than that paltry excuse of a Christmas tree
in the dining room."

Father Murphy's face barely contained a puzzled incomprehension
before an urgent panic to evacuate the street folk diners took it
over.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marissa stood by the doors, holding them open as panicking people
fled the smoke filling charity hall. As men, women and children ran by,
she made sure she silently head counted.

Father Murphy had already lined up the first group along the far side 
curb, checking on how bad some might have been effected by the
thick smoke. He had torn off his Santa's hat and beard and was 
running from person to person, who was sitting or lying on the 
pavement, or coughing violently.

"Is that all of them?" Marco shouted to Marissa over the screams.

"Oh, my G*d..Meghan and Stevie are still inside. They were at 
the head table!" and Marissa struggled to get past Marco to go 
back inside to look for them.

"No.. get out of here. Johnny and Roy are checking for any
stragglers."

"But.."

"Just go, Marissa. We know what we're doing!"

She back away, reluctantly and was gone.

Right then, Johnny and Roy shoved the officer and the two
juvenile delinquents out the main glass doors and into Marco's arms,
exiting, too, from the black smoked cloud still regurgitating from
the kitchen with a vengeance. "Did you manage to get to
a phone, Marco? Here, grab him. He's getting all worked
up emotionally."

"Yeah. I got through.*cough*  I got him. Is that everyone?"

"We think so. Getting too hard to see anything."

Distracted, Marco and the two paramedics bore the grease 
singed boy away from the hall and suddenly to the ground 
when the overwhelmed boy fainted from psychogenic shock.

When no one was looking, Marissa ran back into the kitchen,
full of fear for the mother and child still missing on 
her own initiative.

Using her damp apron as a mask over her face in a 
desperate attempt at helping out best as she could,
she disappeared into the murk, unwitnessed.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Roy and Johnny's heads snapped up from the teenager
lying on the road when a soot covered mother, carrying 
a kicking little boy in holiday green in her arms, 
staggered against the glass of the door.

"Marco..make sure he wakes up..." said Roy, pointing down
to the silent shivering teenager still cradling his fingers.

Gage and Johnny pulled open the superheated door and
dragged out the gasping mother and writhing child, both 
pulling them away from danger. Fire was now becoming just 
visible on the roofing tiles, glowing over the rusty bricks.

Sound of sirens covered those of the hungry flames 
eating the interior.

Johnny tried to snatch the child out of the woman's hands.
"Let go of him! Let me take a look at him!" He said peeling off
her fingers one by one, trying to reach his head and 
neck. "He's having trouble breathing!"

The mother coughed violently. "He..'s....might be
choking! He was eating potatoes when the scream
and smoke startled him! I tried...* cough* to do what
I ....." Her voice cut off as smoke inhalation strangled
her into speechless silence. Her own breathing trouble 
loosened her grip and the purpling boy tumbled into 
Johnny's arms.

Father Murphy ran over and drew Meghan's panicky attention 
to his kindly face while Roy and Johnny worked swiftly on
the little boy.

Scooping Stevie in front of him, Johnny began firm
thrusts with closed fists repeatedly on the boy's abdomen, 
trying to dislodge whatever food was blocking the boy's airway,
dangling him in front of his own legs in a back to stomach
hug.

Nothing worked.

A squeal of tires rousted DeSoto's attention from the boy
when he recognized the sound of rescue squad doors slamming.
"Over here! Foreign body obstruction. We need the peds kit!"

Engine 51 had come along with Squad 18.

"Roy's he's out...." panted Johnny. "I'm not getting it.
Catch his head. Catch his head. Get him down."

DeSoto helped his partner straighten the now unconscious
boy onto his back and he quickly got to the boy's head,
looking to see if he could spot anything in the glare of the
engine's headlights in the boy's mouth. "Nothing yet."

Johnny continued to apply sharp heimlich maneuvers,
even as he pulled up the boy's shirt for clearer access.

"Magills! Small! And suction!" Roy shouted to the
paramedics rushing to their side. He got the gear box
he needed.

Snatching up the long scissor like snubbed instrument, 
Roy threaded its gripping shaft down Stevie's throat after 
nodding to Johnny to stop his clearing attempts for a moment.

He pulled out a chicken bone.

Gage pressed down on the boy's ribcage and air hissed out
sharply. "That was it. Pulse?"

Roy felt for one even as one of Squad 18's medics 
grabbed an oxygenated child's ambu bag and oral airway 
and started using them to get effective breaths into the boy.
DeSoto shook his head. "No carotid."

Gage began one handed chest compressions, while the
second medic began to hail Rampart on the biophone.

Captain Stanley ran up to Marco by the teenager. "Who
else is there besides this teen boy and the child and mother?"
he said laying down an O2 apparatus for Marco to use
on the young man.

"Maybe a few minor SI's on the curbside, Cap. I think
we got everyone out." Lopez said. "Careful in there.
Grease fire and an active floor gas line from a soup
cooker! We didn't have time to get the main breaker shut
off.."

"Ok, pal. Hang tight. I've another two alarms on the way.
Including L.A. City. We're on the edge of their jurisdiction 
out here." he said eyeing the brick church like building that 
housed the burning soup kitchen. Hank then called for 
the gas company to shut off service to the entire city block 
over the engine's radio microphone.

Right then, Father Murphy looked up from where Meghan
was sobbing and reaching for Stevie. "Captain.. I...I- l.. don't
see Marissa.. She...she'd never abandon a child in trouble.
In fact she'd be the last one to leave them.."

"Are you saying that there might still be someone inside of
there?" Cap clarified.

"Yes!" said the padre.

"Chet, Moreno...gear up! There's possibly one more victim inside
the building. Keep in mind that there's still a flowing gas line some
where near a soup set up and a grease fire along the floor. Be 
extra careful searching around in there! You have two minutes."
Cap ordered. "Then we pull out and wait for backup. This one's
going vertical by the looks of it. Stoker! Back her up a hundred 
feet. This building's got a false front!"

"Right, Cap." said the engineer.

Kelly nodded at his orders and the pair of firemen swiftly geared 
up into SCBA bottles and masks. With a charged inch and a half, 
they knocked out the front window glass and entered the dining 
hall following a covering fan of protective water.

Gage and Roy traded tasks, back and forth, on the boy's CPR while 
they let Squad 18 handle the child's main care treatment, working 
quietly through all his resuscitation medications after they'd received 
terse medical orders from Dr. Joe Early. They paused only for three 
quarters of a minute in their efforts when Cap had them all evacuate 
the front sidewalk for the opposite one to get them out of a potential 
debris zone.

##Squad 18. Defibrillate. 100 watt seconds. As many times
as it takes. Don't wait for an ET intubation. Sounds like you've got 
more than enough hands helping out.## the doc said as he heard 
an off duty Roy and Johnny confirming and reaffirming verbally how 
they were coordinating efforts on the child.

"10-4, Rampart. Stand by for an EKG if we're successful."
reported Squad 18's head paramedic.

"Roy..still getting a pulse with my compressions?"
Gage asked in the background.

"Yeah. They're going good. His airway's still clear. No
food matter down here at all. Ok, Marv. We're standing off 
for ya." Roy replied, raising the ambu off Stevie for the 
countershocking with the low powered paddles. Johnny 
lifted his palm away from Stevie's sternum, making sure 
that Meghan wasn't touching her son with his other one, 
for the first shock to come.

"Oh!" cried Meghan, gripping her oxygen cannula'd face in
her hands in worried despair at the sight of her boy jumping
convulsively. 

Father Murphy hugged her tightly.
"The Lord's working through these men, Meghan. If they're
granted, Stevie will be returned to us very soon. I've seen
these kind men working before."

On the second shock, Stevie gasped and his hands twitched
on the cool gritty sidewalk and Roy's smile announced the
presence of a very viable heartbeat under the grip he had
on the boy's neck.

Meghan immediately began sobbing in relief and Father
Murphy bent his head in a prayer of thanksgiving.

Roy swiftly patched the almost suffocated boy into
the heart monitor and Johnny helped Marv spike an I.V. for
the child's continuing maintenance meds.

Then they stood up, "You good here now, guys?"
asked Gage.

The two medics nodded. "Yeah. Thanks, fellas. See you
later at the station." answered Marv. 
"Stan, why don't you check on the teenager over 
there. The fireman with him's indicating that he's awake
and fully conscious now." replied Squad 18's head medic.

Marv's partner left to start the teenager's care.

"Ok.." and Gage and DeSoto rose to stand by Cap,
who was studying the building, intently eyeing the
hose feeding into the shattered window frame. 

Marco had already joined Hank, too. And he was biting
his lip.

Lopez said, "Roy, Johnny.. Carlos Moreno 
and Chet have gone in after Marissa."

"What?!" Gage said, whirling around. "I didn't
see her go back inside...I thought I saw her out here
with you, Marco."

"You did. She was out here at first. Father Murphy 
gave Cap a run down on her personality type about not 
ever leaving behind any kids. So everyone's assuming 
she went back in to look for Meghan and Stevie here.
And for you two. " Lopez said, filling Roy and Johnny in.

"That crazy, stupid girl. She's gonna get herself killed. That
fire's hotter than anything..!" Gage fretted. "Cap, do
you mind if Roy and I throw on a spare set of coats and 
tanks at all to be your second team in stand by?"

"Can't harm anything. I'll add you to the board. Gear up
but hang back for now. Put on trousered boots over those 
jeans! Lopez can help me keep watch."

"Thanks, Cap." Gage replied for both Roy and himself.

An ominous rumble made Cap's head snap up.
He brought his walkie talkie to his lips. "Kelly, Moreno.
Out. The upper story's about to go!" he ordered.

There was no reply. Cap immediately frowned.
"Can't be that noisy in there. It's all one room, right?"

"That's right.." said Roy, buckling up his turnout.

"Kelly! Moreno! Respond HT!" Hank tried again.

A small roof explosion flattened Marco, Cap, Roy and Johnny 
against the engine in a tangle of protective crouches. He was
about to send in Roy and Johnny when the false front
of the building finally gave way under the heat of the fire
and came tumbling down onto the front sidewalk in
a pile of sparking black bricks.

Roy was about to go rushing inside when he saw 
Chet Kelly, helmetless and gloveless, carrying Marissa
in his arms towards the open air. Her white kitchen
clothes were in shreds.

Hank and Stoker both rushed forward to help their
dazed coworker walk over the fallen building
debris with his unconscious burden.

Roy reached for her head and chest for signs of life.

Kelly wasn't feeling his reddened and blistered palms 
one iota, even as the others were wincing for him. 
"Roy, she's alive. Breathing, too."

Where's Moreno?" barked Cap.

"He ducked out the back way. He was too far from
the front door. I was closer." Chet mumbled, stumbling
slightly, licking a contused lip."Father Murphy.. I got her 
out.."

"That you did, son. Now sit down and let me bundle you
up until your paramedic friend's ready to see you."
the father replied.

"Johnny! Tank up and go check out Kelly's story. Meet
up with Moreno. Radio me immediately the first second 
you find him." Cap called out behind him. "Then clear
the h*ll out of there until the other alarms get on scene."

"I'm gone.." said Gage.

And soon, he was.
 
-----------------------------------------------------

Photo: Soup kitchen store front.

Photo : Bums eating dinner at folding tables.

Photo: Kids piled over coloring books and art stuff.

Photo: A bowl of chicken soup in the hands of someone.

Photo:  Kitchen charity workers slaving over a stove of food.

Photo: A collapsing false front at night on fire.

Photo:  Woman doing CPR on a boy.

Photo:  Roy, Stoker and Cap helping Chet get a woman out.

**********************************************************
From:  Katherine Bird <kathbird01@y...> 
Date:  Tue Jan 25, 2005  10:21 pm 
Subject:  That Molten Snare...


Johnny Gage darted quickly around the burning brick city building.
He kept one eye on the roofline, making sure that nothing that
had a wall was gonna fall on top of him. He sang out over the
HT frequency as he went. "HT 51 to 51-Moreno. What's your
10-20? Over..." he shouted over the roar of the fire jutting
from the lower windows. His voice sounded muted through
his air mask.

Water fog from the overhead ladder nozzle from Pumper Eight 
broke out into a steaming bouquet over his head, and followed
his progress. Gratefully, Johnny tucked his radio under a flap
of his jacket and continued broadcasting and sweeping a
flashlight from side to side in front of him to attract Moreno's
attention.

A smudge slightly less dark than the rest of the fire lit 
surroundings separated itself from between two cars, 
shedding brick fragments.

"Carlos?!" shouted Gage, hurrying to that location. "You ok?
Kelly said you bugged out to the rear..."

Coughing, the air masked fireman ripped off his own face mask
when the air fizzled out on his tank, giving a cut throat signal
to Gage with some fingers across his neck. Johnny offered him 
his mask for a few clean breaths of untainted air. " *choke* I'm fine. 
D*mned grease slick. I slipped following Chet and ran out of 
escape time or I would've helped with getting her free. She still 
alive?"

"Yeah.. Roy's got her. What happened to Chet's hands?" said,
Gage, guiding the exhausted Moreno safely back to the path
he'd found under the water bucket.

"He got down on the floor to see better and crawled right into
that hot grease in the kitchen. It set his gloves on fire. We got
them off as fast as we could. What happened in there? I thought 
you and Roy were working a dinner."

"We were, pal. Only a pair of obnoxious teen gangers decided to turn
stupid with some kind of twisted initiation rite and there you have it...." 
he gestured grandly to the now fully involved structure.

"What did they do?"

"Dared each other to stick their hands into an active french fryer
using vasoline."

"Stupid!"

"I know. That's what Roy and I thought. And look what it's
gonna cost Marco's congregation and the city to repair.."
He took a breath himself off the SCBA before he broadcast
out to Cap on the curb down the alleyway. As they went, both
firefighters gave the bucket man a thumbs up for the 
water curtain along their route. 

"HT 51 to Engine 51."

##Engine 51.##

"We're in the clear and heading out."

##10-4. Your two victims have medical orders from
Rampart already set.##

"10-4. I'll be right there!" shouted Gage over
the noisy water raining down onto them from above. 
"Moreno's completely uninjured."

##I copy that.## came Cap's highly relieved voice.

Soon, Gage and Moreno made the safety of the main
street and separated, patting each other on the back
with the parting. Moreno jogged over to the engine for
a new air bottle and to give a fast report to Cap about
the status of the interior fire degradation.

Johnny peeled off his dripping coat, air bottle and helmet.
He tossed his HT to Cap as he ran by, heading towards Roy 
and Marissa. She was now lying on her back, on a rich O2 flow, 
with both her feet perched up on top of a fire hydrant. He quickly 
got to work assessing her consciousness status. "She shocky 
a whole lot?"

DeSoto shook his head from the I.V. he was starting on
the shelter worker. "Nah. Pressure's still in the nineties.
She's beginning to cough and she never needed the demand
valve."

"How's her chest sounding."

"Wheezy, but open."

"Ok..." sighed Johnny. "Guess we're in business."
He quickly got to work on raising her consciousness level.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marco was cooling down Chet's burn sheet covered
hands with a bottle of saline where Kelly sat on
the engine's bumper. "Oo, Chet. Do they hurt yet?"

"I definitely feel like a french fry, Marco. **Ummhff!* but
I can wait. Help Roy and Johnny out with Marissa first.
I'm fine. I'm only worried about what Cap's gonna think 
when I tell him I lost my helmet again."

"He's not gonna say anything, Chet, you were rescuing
someone. Besides, you've just waded through an edge 
roofed wall collapse. Your helmet probably got knocked 
off by a brick or two hitting your head."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I do remember a few
louder than normal noises from the usual. Oww.."
grimaced Chet and he coughed wetly.

"How's your breathing? Do you need some O2?" Lopez
asked.

"Nah. I'm phlegmy, but ok. Probably gonna be hoarse
for an entire week. Tell Roy that I'm lung clear once you're through 
wetting my hands down, cause I am." Chet insisted, leaning his sweaty 
sooty haired head against the chrome grip bar. He closed his eyes in 
exhaustion and just concentrated on thinking cool thoughts to
ease the throbbing fire shooting through his hands.

"Ok,..but I'm leaving the oxygen tank here in case things
change. Cap'll have my hide if it's not offered." Lopez
said.

"Man," said Chet, grinning. "You in working mode already? Get
outta here and go be a civilian again. No doubt the cops are
gonna need a statement from ya about what went on in there
so you'd better act the part, pal, before Cap notices ya fussing
with me."

"See ya later."

"Yeah..." grunted Chet as his irrigated, blistered hands were 
slowly chilled to blissful numbness in the foggy night air.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gage began a fast sweep, looking for burns and wounds on Marissa
after cutting away her seared clothes. He found none. A log roll to 
expose her back, revealed nothing except dirt also. Johnny set
down a burn pad underneath Marissa to insulate her from the cold 
pavement then he covered her lightly with a plastic sheet to help 
preserve her body temperature when the fainted girl began to shiver 
from the cold.

Johnny picked up the resuscitator and began using it in
time with Marissa's inhalations to stimulate her awake once
Roy had a flowing I.V. going.

The sensation of being ventilated woke the groggy girl up
the rest of the way and she began coughing violently. Her
panicked thoughts continued where they had left off from 
when the smoke had snuffed out her consciousness. 
"Meghan?! Stevie?! Ohmyg*d! Get em out!"

"Easy...easy.. Marissa? Marissa!.. They're both fine. Understand 
me?" Roy said, holding her shoulders down. "Meghan and Stevie 
are already on the way to the hospital,ok? Just try to relax."

"*choke* What happened?" Marissa blinked when she realized
that she was on the street with a dozen bystanders gawking
at her amid the flurry of red fire department lights.

"You ran back inside and got overcome by a little smoke."
grinned Johnny, taking her blood pressure from where he
crouched over Marissa's head. Roy palpated the result from
where he was on the biophone, reaching across Marissa's 
waist and relaying it to Brackett on the phone.
"Now I'm not gonna lecture you on how stupid a stunt that was. 
I think you've learned your lesson." said Johnny. "How's your 
chest feeling now?"

"Like I was chain smoking rubber bands.." she rasped.

"That'll go away in a bit. Just keep taking in deep breaths
on this oxygen and it'll happen faster." he said switching out 
the demand valve for the clear mask again.

"How's Stevie? Meghan said he was choking!" Marissa panicked.

"We got it out. He's fine. He's fine. Now don't get worked up
fussing about that. Meghan and Stevie are gonna be just fine.
No one is hurt bad, including you. We're gonna be taking you
to Rampart for a checkup in just a few minutes to be sure
you're all right, ok?"

Marissa's lip quivered. "Oh, Father Murphy's gonna be so sad.
We just found that office space for our soup kitchen. Tonight
was our grand opening.." she said, bright tears in her eyes.
"It'll be a miracle if the church raises all those funds a 
second time. We're not rich at all."

"Insurance companies can work miracles themselves nowdays,
Marissa." Roy reassured her. "Try and get some rest. Johnny and
I promise. We'll stay and watch you the whole trip in so you won't be 
alone. In fact, I'll ask Marco to join us, too, to keep you company."

"I'd like that." coughed Marissa, "We have so much to talk about
....rebuilding....everyt-...."  and her eyes drifted shut.

"Marissa?" Gage asked in a gentle check.

"Just napping..." Marissa sighed. "I'm feeling....so tired...Let me sleep."

Roy checked the rate and visual on the EKG monitor. Then he said, 
"Sure. Sleep will only do you a world of good." DeSoto said. "Night,
Marissa."

"...n-night, ...*yawn*...fellas."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photos: None.

********************************************************************************
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2005 09:23:58 -0800 (PST) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Pavlov's Dogs 
 
It was Thursday, one week after the soup kitchen fire.

Captain Stanley stood by the station's main chalkboard. 
He was the image of no nonsense authority as he outlined 
station's business briskly with some speed before an incoming
run interrupted. "Ok, is everybody perfectly clear on their duty 
assignments? Marco, welcome back. You're on the engine, light 
duty. I want no direct attack fire fighting from you. If there's a 
call for a victim search, pass it off to someone else. At no
time do you go into a fire scene."

"Aw, Cap. I feel fine. The doc says I'm almost one hundred 
percent." Lopez protested.

Hank's coffee brown eyes and bushy eyebrows rose in
consternation. "Almost's a word, in my book, that means
ain't gonna happen, Marco. Not in a million years. There's
a reason for the pickiness of the clean bill of health order 
from McConike. Gee, fellas," he remarked sarcastically, 
"I guess the Order Nine's just window dressing. Marco, you 
know as well as I do that the chief kicked out that to prevent 
the sidelined from doing anything dumb before they're healed 
enough to handle it. Just look at Chet, pal. He's not grumbling 
being my look out and chart man."

"Oh yes he is..." mumbled Johnny Gage, from where he slumped
on the couch, laughing.

Hank, still deep in his fire suppressing strategy lecture, missed
the low banter going on behind him.

Kelly elbowed Johnny in the ribs to shut him up. "Says who."
he hissed in annoyance. "I've been a perfect angel in spite
of these." he said, holding up his water proofed bandage 
wrapped hands. "My burns are already crusting over."

"So's your mood, Chet. Shhh. I can't hear the Cap.." 
mumbled Murphy, Chet's stand in replacement on the engine.

"Arf! " barked Boot in a tattle tailing woof.

Cap swept down his map pointer in an exasperated huff.
"All right. Who's flapping their gums?" he moaned in long
suffering. "I told Boot to keep an eye out for chattering, so 
consider yourselves caught red handed."

Gage and Murphy and Kelly looked everywhere but
at Cap's directed gaze.

Roy raised amused eyebrows. "I don't think Boot can
point out the perpetrators, Cap. He doesn't have any fingers."

"Yeah, well if I hear another bark from him, None of you are
gonna have any fingers left, cause you'll be scrubbing the 
vehicle slab by hand with toothbrushes! Kapeesh!"

No one even breathed.

"Now let's finish the usual monthly yada." he said, smacking
the chalkboard with his stick, "and let's get done with it. I'm
getting just as hungry as the rest of you. Whatever Dixie's
cooking smells absolutely divine..." moaned Cap.

"Don't rush on my account.." came the smoky voiced reply from
the nurse bustling around the station kitchen. "This is Roy's
Beef Borgeaunon recipe. It only gets better the longer it simmers."
and she licked the gravy off of her finger tips.

Hank swallowed in sheer torture, and his stomach growled. Loudly.
"Yes...well..ok, now...where was I?"

Chet burst out eagerly. "Engine assignments just wrapped up and
you were showing all of us how you contain an east facing interior 
warehouse magnesium fire under Santa Ana wind condtions exceeding
fifteen knots,.. hypothetically supposing that the source material's ignition 
point was actually a multiple story high stack of wooden crates containing 
self heating military rations, Cap."

Hank's eyes waggled in sheer amazement. "..wow.. I'm glad
somebody was paying attention here. Cause there's a test on
it after lunch."

"What?!" exclaimed Marco, Murphy and Gage.

"Gotcha.." said Hank. "There's more than one way to flush out
cover hiding birds. And I don't have to be Boot to do it. You three,
consider yourselves on garage floor detail the rest of the week for 
talking at a meeting."

"Aw, Cap.."

"Wanna make it two weeks?"

Silence reigned.

Cap eyed the three firefighters shifting uncomfortably on the
cushy leather couch and smiled, real big. "Thought so. Guys,
I'm almost done. So bear with me, huh? Then we can dive into
that wonderful New Year's eve meal that Dixie, bless her heart,
so kindly made for us. Gimme thirty seconds more.."

All eyes finally rested on his own. Including Boot's.
Cap nodded with a sigh and held up his last update report.
"Marco, this one might be of interest to you. This is the coroner's
report from that car accident where you got injured. Turns out
that the driver's friend wasn't a friend of his after all. The passenger
was a murder victim. Killed the night before. The driver was
going to dump him in the river course anyway when he hit that 
telephone pole getting there to get rid of him."

"Those two were drug handlers?" asked Gage.

"Yep. The cops found some cocaine in the trunk, remember?"

"Yeah..." said Johnny aghast, his memories of saving the man
pinned under the car slowing turning into something ugly. "I
remember. I remember.. it's just that.. He seemed like such
a nice guy. He didn't strike me as the murdering type."

"Tell that to the passenger we went hunting for in the river bed."
said Mike Stoker. "I'm sure if he were still alive, he'd tell you the 
same thing." Mike sighed, crossing his arms over his elbows.

The stunned look didn't lessen on Johnny's face as he absorbed
the news, until Boot's suddenly offered comforting tongue washed 
it away.

"That about wraps it up. Let's eat.." said Cap.

The gang rose from their chairs and the couch when a run of 
short tones went out for the squad.

"Oh, man..." said Johnny, eyeing up the steaming bowl of
delectable meat stew that Dixie was centering on the table.
"I'm gonna starve to death..."

"No you won't. Just think..it only g--" started Dixie.

"I know, I know. Only gets better the longer it simmers.."
said Johnny as he followed Roy out of the room at a fast jog
for the squad. He tried not to drool on his shirt as he ran by
the others settling in at the table.

Dixie called out after them. "Oh, boys.. avoid the locker room
when you get back if you know what's good for ya.." she warned
with a wink. She wasn't beneath priming her favorite paramedic 
pair for a surprise or two.

"Huh?" gaped Johnny, skidding to a halt at the remark.

Roy's long arm jerked him into motion again. "Come on, Einstein.
You can analyze that one on the way. Let's go.."

Soon, the speeding rescue squad was roaring code three
onto the sunny, holiday traffic sparse boulevard from the drive.

##Squad 51. Man down. 1414 North Pacific Boulevard...##

"Left, Roy, left." pointed Johnny.

"I know. I know. Kinda figured it wasn't gonna be anything
in the business district today. Everybody's all at home because
of New Year's eve, remember? That's why Dixie took sympathy 
and came out here to cook lunch for us on her day off."
complained Roy.

##1414 North Pacific Boulevard. Cross street Cocoa Beach.
Time out: 1355.##

"I realize all that. I was just trying to help ya navigate Roy, geesh.." 
snapped Johnny.

"Yeah, well you should know I'm never too terribly 
accommodating on an empty stomach."

Johnny cracked a grin. "You and me both. Say, here's an idea.
There's no cops out today to catch us speeding in a school
zone. Step on it."

"Too right." Roy thumbed the acknowledgement microphone 
from the dashboard derisively."Squad 51. 10-4. KMG 365."

##Squad 51.##

-------------------------------------------
Photo:  Dixie at the station, close, smiling.

Photo: Boot, barking.

Photo:  Cap giving a lecture to the gang.

Photo:  Johnny laughing on the couch.

Photo:  Roy on the squad mic.

Photo:  A grumpy Gage and DeSoto driving
            to a rescue.

************************************************
From:  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Wed Feb 2, 2005  9:10 pm 
Subject:  How the Mighty Fall...

Johnny and Roy rushed down the sidewalk leading
to a rustic suburban house loaded with their complete
array of medical equipment. And then some.

"Roy, did L.A. give us any more information about what
we got?" puffed Gage, hurrying to the front door of
the house a little faster.

"Nope. You know as much as I do." Roy said tightly.

"Man,...*whew* Getting a call about a man down can 
mean just about anything.." Johnny sighed in frustration
as their shoes clicked quickly on the cobblestones.

"Tell me about it..." grumbled Roy. So did his stomach.

Johnny laughed as they climbed the stone steps of
the residence. "Was that you?"

"Fraid so. I'm so hungry, just the idea of these sugar
I.V.'s being in my hand are setting me off."

Johnny split a gut. "Really? Just don't embarrass yourself 
in front of whoever..." Gage quipped. "The fire department 
has a professional image to uphold you know."

Roy didn't deign to reply to that comment. He set down
the defibrillator, resuscitator and trauma box and briskly
knocked on the front door loudly. "L.A. County Fire
Department!"

There was no immediate reply.

Automatically, the two paramedics split up to peer into the
nearby curtained windows to see if they could see anything.

A monstrous barking greeted Roy's sharp knuckle raps on
a stained glass window pane.

A woman's frantic voice soon wove itself over the large dog's.
"I'm coming. Hurry. Please. It's my husband. He won't wake up!"

"Open the door, ma'am. It's still locked." Gage shouted.

"Oh,,...." the housewife trickled. "I- I'm sorry.. I.. There! It's
open!" And the door flung wide open on a living room of olive
green shag carpeting and beadstring doorways.

The huge slathering maw of a gigantic canine launched in a leap past the
two paramedics heads when the way to the outside porch was clear.

Gage and Roy flinched as they each got an impression of a great
St. Bernard in full motion. But then the dog was gone in a flurry
of scrabbling claws. 

"Faust! You come back here! Oh, bad dog! BAD dog! Not the
mail man!" the petite flower aproned, red haired woman quailed.

Johnny and Roy gulped down the scare in seconds, barely registering
the sight of a mailman across the street rapidly making for a sturdy tree
to scale, trailing flying envelopes and bills. Faust cleared the yard's 
white picket fence easily, in pursuit of his daily quarry. 

"Oh no!!.. Not again. Uh, I'll worry about Faust later. Please.. Hurry.." 
begged the very young housewife and she disappeared in a frantic 
run for a den workshop located just to the right of the front door.

"I just about had a heart attack seeing him. Didn't you?" Gage 
whispered to his equally rattled up partner.

"Can't say that we weren't tipped off. Keep breathin'. You'll survive. We'll 
rescue the mailman after we're done here. Either that, or we can call in 
the engine to get him down." Roy shrugged, not even giving the dramatic 
fiasco of dog versus mail carrier a second glance.  

"Oh, nooo.. I can do without a hungry Cap breathing down my neck."
Gage said. "Whatever you do, don't call for the engine."

"Ok." Roy agreed.

------------------------------------------------------------------

They found a young man lying face down, slumped under a
running buzzsaw on a bench. Not knowing if the man's
problem was electrical shock or not, Johnny used an uncut 
pine board to knock the tool's plug out of the wall. "What 
happened?" he asked the housewife.

"I don't know! Jerry gave a yell and I ran in here and found him 
like this. He- he- he wouldn't wake up, no matter how hard I
shook him. Oh! Is he ok?! I thought he fell down stone
dead." she sniveled, still very hysterical. "He's so pale."

Roy and Johnny moved the woodworking bench away
from their patient and they both bent close over him, feeling 
for signs of life.

"He's got a pulse." DeSoto said.

"He's breathing.." added Johnny without moving him and he went
straight into a head, neck and spine check, running his hands over
the husband's body and along his limbs, looking for trouble spots. 
"Doesn't seem like he fell. I'm not finding any blood anywhere and 
nothing's out of alignment here."

Roy nodded, setting up the biophone after getting the man on
some oxygen.

"Hey!" Gage yelled in the man's ear. "Jerry, can you hear me?!"

Jerry didn't move.

Reaching down, Johnny tried something else.

The man finally moaned weakly with a firm sternal rub.

"Hey, Jerry.. Open your eyes. Come on. Can you do that for me?!"
Johnny shouted.

He didn't open them. Nor did he moan again to anything 
that was just verbal.

Carefully, Johnny turned the passed out husband onto his side and 
opened his shirt up, checking for problems down the front part of 
Jerry's body. "Ma'am. Does Jerry have any medical problems that
you know of? Diabetes, old injuries, any breathing problems?"

"No, nothing like that..." she sobbed. "Jerry's a very healthy man. In
fact, last night, he was telling me how pleased the airforce doctors
were with his physical. He's just been approved to be a test fighter pilot.
Oh, my G*d. What's wrong with him?"

"Ma'am. We're gonna get some answers real soon. My partner's
getting a doctor on the line right now. Just calm down a little. I think
you'll do a little better sitting down on that chair over there, don't you?"
Johnny suggested. "No need to get worked up. He's doing fine so
far."

The tearful housewife listened and immediately took a seat when her
rubbery knees finally failed on her. "Please help him. I didn't know
what to do except get on the phone to the operator."

"You did fine doing that. We're here now. Missus...." Johnny fished.

"Mrs. Kaftan.,  uh, J-Joyce. I'm Joyce."

"All right, Joyce. I'm gonna take a set of vitals on Jerry here
for our doctor on the phone and we'll all get at least some clues
about what's causing this blackout of his." Gage told her.

"O-Ok.." she sniffed.

"Rampart, this is Squad 51. How do you read?" said Roy calmly
into the receiver. Outside the window, Faust was still woofing
angrily. Roy hoped the carrier outside had reached a safe height
in the tree in time.

Joyce was torn between watching the two paramedics assess 
her husband and yelling reassurances to Clarence the mail
carrier who was glaring death's daggers at her from the eucalyptus 
tree in the neighbor's yard. "Just hang on, Mr. McFeely. Jerry's sick. 
It'll only be a minute and I'll get out there! I'm so sorry Clarence. 
Please don't be mad at me...Faust. Get down!" And she horse 
whistled piercingly. "Bad boy! You're a very badddd boyyyy!"

The dog went right on ignoring her, raining showers of foamy
slobber all over the ground beneath Clarence's refuge as he
leaped and jumped, trying to clamp a full set of teeth on
a pants leg cuff or any other body part dangling from the flimsy
tree.

DeSoto cupped the receiver to cut down the noise surrounding
him. "Rampart this is Squad 51, how do you read?"

Finally, Morton's mellow reply answered him. ##Go ahead, 51.##

Roy filled in the resident with what he already knew.

Johnny meanwhile, discovered some more medical 
history on Jerry from Joyce. "Are you sure about that last 
part?"

"Yeah. The airforce doc said that he only had an acute subungual 
hematoma from getting pinched last week in a hanger door."

"Roy, did you get that?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah.. I think so... doc did you hear that last bit? An acute
subungual hematoma from one week ago? Whatever that is,
we're not finding any signs of cranial or body bruising on him 
anywhere. His pressure's 88 over 62." DeSoto reported.
"But his pulse and respirations are normal."

There came a long sigh from the biophone receiver.
##51. Check the patient's hands. A subungual hematoma
is a blood bound fingernail. Your man's blackout could be
syncope if he smashed it again with ..say a hammer. You did 
mention that he was working with chemical-less tools. His vital
signs and lack of obvious injury fit that pattern. Wake him up
with smelling salts and advise him to visit his family doctor
to trephine the nail to release some of that pressure for pain
relief." Morton said firmly with a trace of irritation.

Blushing with embarrassment, Johnny located the offending
implement lying just to the right of the man's waist. He held it
up to Roy. "Oops."

DeSoto soon located the dark maroon colored swollen nail on Jerry's
left hand. "So that's what subungual means." he smirked covering
the phone. "10-4, Rampart. Advise a trip to the family doctor."
and he disconnected the line as fast as he could before they
both received a lecture about brushing up on medical terminology.

With an amused florish, Roy broke out an ammonia capsule and 
very soon, Jerry was among the world of the living once
again. "I think you can manage from here, Johnny. I'll
go check on Clarence to make sure he didn't have
a coronary or something waiting for us to bail him out."

Johnny didn't know what was funnier, the sight of a very
beefy air force pilot cradling his pinky finger in his lap, moaning,
or the sight of Roy attempting to cage the cagey Faust against 
the picket fence long enough to snatch a grip onto the massive 
dog's leather collar so the silver haired mailman could climb safely
on down to the street.

----------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

******************************************************* 
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, February 3, 2005 3:01 AM 
Subject :  The Nursing Elf.. 
 

Johnny and Roy couldn't get back to the station fast
enough. They decided not to spoil their healthy appetites
with gas station candy bars, opting instead to gorge on
Dixie's wonderfully exquisite station cooked meal.

Soon, all the gang were either slumped in chairs or snoring on
beds in the bunk room, trying to digest the food they had 
practically inhaled like air.

"Geez, you would think firefighters would know how to
feed themselves. What am I? Manna from heaven?" she
said of the guys settling in around her with magazines and
sections from the daily newspaper.

"You sure are..." grinned Cap. "We all harbor a passionate
hate for leftovers so we couldn't let your good food go 
to waste."

"But you fellas ate four whole gallons of Beef Bourgenon!"

"A little padding never hurt any firefighter. I promise you that we'll
burn off the extra weight easily in a couple of days. All it takes 
is one three alarm fire to trim a body down in mere hours. Have 
no fear for our cardiovascular health. We've been down that road 
before.." Cap said, glaring at Chet meaningfully.

"Geez, Cap. When are you gonna let that dates and vitamins diet
craziness I once tried working for Morton, die?" Kelly complained
out loud.

"When I'm old and gray." replied Hank. 
Gage opened his lips in a rejoiner for the left wide open comment 
from his captain, but Hank beat him to it. "Never mind. You never 
heard me say the when part of that last bit.  Gage, you just hush."

Johnny grinned and said, "I wasn't gonna say anything about 
anything. Besides, all of us already know how you're getting along 
in years so any further commentary on that's a moot point."

Cap cleared his throat dangerously.

Roy saved the day."Say, uh, Cap. Did the paperwork go through 
on that latest requisition sent in by Marco and I?"

"What paperwork?"

"The holiday dinner charity form. The one Marco needed approval on
in order to help out his ch--" DeSoto replied.

"Oh that form... already done. The event's tomorrow night and I'm
now ordering all of you to attend. You know where it is. Be there at six
o'clock sharp. Bring a party hat and kazoo for the stroke of midnight
everyone. It's gonna be a great time for everybody."

"Am I not invited?" Dixie mused, looking pouty. "I think I've done my fair
share for the department."

"Ok,.. you can come." said Chet Kelly teasingly. "Under one stipulation.
That you let all of us do the cooking."

"I hope you fellas remember to bring the stomach pump if that's the case." 
McCall teased. "Which way to the head guys? I've forgotten."

Stoker, Lopez, Gage and DeSoto rose to point out the way, each of
them giving her directions at the same time. "The other side of the 
vehicle bay, straight ahead, and then turn left first door. Go through 
the shower room to the stalls." they said at the same time in a jumble.

"The one on the end's specially made for women.." Johnny said
awkwardly, still pointing over his shoulder. He won only disapproving
frowns from the gang for the odd comment.

Dixie rubbed her nose in apparent confusion.
"I don't think I quite got it fellas. You were all talking over each other
too much. Would someone ..be so kind as to show me the way there?"

The guys fell over each other to be the one to guide her. Soon,
everyone accompanied Dixie to the locker room entry door.

Gage was the first one over the threshold and quickly, Dixie
darted forward, grabbed his head in between her elegant
hands, and kissed him full on the mouth.

She quickly did the same thing for the second-in Roy DeSoto 
before he caught onto her amourous intentions.

Johnny pulled away from McCall's long nailed grip in a scramble. 
"Whatja do that for?! Ya kissed me!"

Roy just chuckled good naturedly, rubbing the lipstick off his lips.
"Oh, my.... Johnny? I think we've been thoroughly had."

"Sure you were." shrugged Dixie. "And you had no choice in the 
matter, Johnny."

"Oh, really..." Gage chided. "Why is that?" he said in dismay at
being lip covered in ladies' makeup.

Hank cracked up and so did the rest of the guys who strangely,
hadn't stepped over the portal leading to the bathroom's hallway.
"Gage...."

"What?!" the Native American Indian snapped.

"Use your legendary paramedic's skills of observation and look up."
Cap commanded, still laughing.

Johnny and Roy both glanced up and only then did the two of them see 
the huge clustered sprig of fresh mistletoe that Dixie had tied there 
while they had been gone on their  rescue call.

"I did warn you two." Dixie soothed, rubbing off the lipstick stick
on Johnny's chin. 

He waved her away, fully in the wounded male's
self consciousness mind bent. "Cut that out, Dix. I can wash 
my own face." Johnny fluttered."Now are ya gonna get by me 
for the toilets or not?"

"Don't have to. I went earlier. Ciao..." and she left the station
through the yard's rear exit, followed merrily by a scampering
well-fed-on-beef-bourgenon stuffed Boot. "See ya at the party
at Headquarters tomorrow night. And captain, I promise to leave 
the rest of my mistletoe at home." she grinned cattily. 
"Thanks for letting me pull one over on Roy and Johnny. It was fun."

"Any time the mood strikes you." Cap said cheerfully. "I'm sure
my men enjoyed every minute of it."

"Says who?" giggled Roy. "I'm a happily married man."
And at the same time,.."Says who?" moaned Johnny. 
"I'm a tragically single bachelor."

"My work ....is done. Happy New Year's fellas." Dixie purred.
Then the still Christmas infected imp from Rampart, was 
gone.

Who's to say who smiled longer, Cap for getting a joke
in enough to score on his paramedics using Dixie, or 
Chet, for not being the butt of the preverbial joke this 
time around.

Gage wiped that smile off Kelly's face with a single
comment as he passed by Chet to go wash his face. Johnny 
winked at Roy to pay attention to what he was about to say 
next so that he could feast fully on the outcome, too. 

"Man is she a great kisser. I still got goose pimples!"

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  A sprig of fresh mistletoe.

Photo:  Johnny getting smooched by Dixie.

Photo: Roy getting smooched in a closeup.

Photo:   Cap standing by a still shell shocked Gage and
             DeSoto in the vehicle bay.

Photo:  Chet and Roy standing in a station doorway.
 
**************************************************
From:  Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Thu Feb 3, 2005  5:42 pm 
Subject:  The Bond Beyond Kinship... 


Marco Lopez separated himself from the others engaged
in lively conversation at the Year's End party at L.A. Headquarters.
It had been many days since his near death experience, but 
it hadn't, as yet, left him free of introspection for a single solitary 
moment. And his lined, tired face, reflected it.

Casting a glance around the room, Lopez found an open space
where he could sit down by himself, away from the noise and 
oddly jarring gaiety.

He found solice in a pocket of quiet inside a room full of unused chairs 
behind the dispatching station. Gently, Sam Lanier, the dispatcher, still 
on duty, turned down his scanner radio to deepen the quiet that Marco
was seeking. 

And there, in the brightly lighted store room, he found another small
person seeking the same kind of balm. 

Lopez saw his own complex expression perfectly mirrored on a 
hispanic boy's face and instantly recognized it for what it was. 
His tiny features, too, were blanketed with a pale sadness.

"Stevie? Are you ok?"

Without looking up, the nine year old sighed. "Yeah, Mr. Lopez. I'm fine.
I guess I'm just tired, that's all. Tonight I think I need some time to just go
over the things painted in my head instead of celebrating, you know?"

"Kind of what I was picturing for myself, too. May I join you?"  Marco asked, 
indicating the plastic chair next to the despondent boy. 

"Sure. Have a seat..." Stevie gestured absently.

Several minutes passed and the two of them just stared at the walls,
perking up only when the familiar buzzing notes of a rescue call
came out from Sam's board for a nearby fire station.

Then Marco felt a tiny hand slip into his own. 
"Wanna talk about it?" asked a treble whisper into his ear.

Marco nodded in quiet acceptance, laying his other hand over
the tinier one. "Yep. No one else understands at all what I'm 
going through. I figured that you would, seeing that we both
have gone through nearly the same thing."

"You mean the bit where we almost died last week?"

"Yeah." Marco said, moving an arm over the boy's shoulder to
draw him nearer into a warm embrace to end his shivering. 

Stevie did the same, and for more than just mutual comfort's 
sake. He was reaching out, to the only one capable of understanding
the unique angst that was still dominating his very soul.

"I sure wish I got a note from the other side. Clear as pictures, senor.."
muttered Stevie, his own deep brown eyes connecting slowly with
Marco's. "Father Murphy says he can't tell me what what I saw means,
since he wasn't there. Now isn't that the craziest thing you ever
heard? A man of the cloth being totally clueless about the afterlife."
the boy scoffed.

"He hasn't seen the other side like we have." Marco said gently,
lacing his fingers into the boy's. He offered him a Coke from
a chilling cooler nearby but the child shook his head no.
Marco sighed, not feeling very thirsty either. At least, not
in a physical sense. "Stevie, what did you see out there?"

The boy's eyes filled with an emotion that Marco couldn't identify,
yet Lopez seemed to feel the child, inside of his heart, in an inexplicable
way that usually wasn't possible with complete strangers who
hardly knew each other.

"You first..." said the vaguely troubled boy.

"Well, " sighed Lopez. "I saw ...my dead father...and...I was absolutely
overwhelmed by something that I can only describe as a pervasive,
all encompassing sense of peace. It was as if Bernardo and
I ..suddenly had the same mind and body...for an instant. "

"I could feel what he felt...and hear what he was saying. I was seeing,
what he saw around him, effortlessly, and thinking what he thought.
And- and and it was a two way street. He could experience my life's
events as acutely as I had lived them. And I saw how he had lived his.
But soon, it was if he began weighing my life's worth, and deciding 
whether or not I should go on into the light with him."

"Then I was pulled away from Bernardo's arms while in between
a heartbeat. I think it was then my friend Roy gave me an electrical 
shock to get my heart beating well enough so that it could sustain 
me again. "

"The first thing I heard was Captain Stanley saying that I was finally
breathing ok for them. Then I knew nothing for a while until I woke up
in the ambulance."

Throughout his tale, Marco saw Stevie's eyes get bigger and bigger
as parallels eerily lined up with his own sharp memories. The boy's eyes
watered in grief and sadness. "I should still be out there, Marco!" 
he sobbed. "My being down here with everybody still alive 
is so painful to me...  I don't think I can stand it.."

Marco drew the boy deeper into his arms and kissed his hair. "Shh, querido.
It's ok. I think that this pain's just us, getting used to our bodies
again. It'll go away. It has to, like everything else bad always does:
I think it'll be a little like falling until we've figured out how to walk again."

Silence stretched between them, but there was no distance at all.

Marco broke the stillness. 
What happened to you when you found yourself...'outside'?"

The child's face flushed red with distress and he shifted 
violently on the chair."People don't know how much those 
who've gone on are still a part of them!" Stevie cried. "My abuela 
was over there and she said to me that it wasn't my time to go yet. 
She said that I had to stay with mom and my brother, until I've
done something I'm supposed to do. Only she couldn't tell me 
what that was... I felt like I knew, Marco, absolutely everything."
his face twisted. "But now I've forgotten it all and that's now 
the pain I got in here..." and Stevie pointed to his head, 
"and here.." and his shaking fingers rested on his chest. 
"And if I don't figure it out, I know it's gonna kill me again...." 
he choked.

"It's ok, querido. I think the pain's supposed to happen, so you
can learn from it."

"How?!"

"Just talk to me. And tell me what you know...." Marco
whispered.

Stevie slowly relaxed and his eyes seemed like they lost their focus.

"Grandma was an angel, and she was so bright!" shared
Stevie. "I didn't want to leave her."

"I didn't want to leave my father either. But now, I see that
I'm not ready to go where he is now. Don't you feel that too?"

"Yeah.. a little. I can feel that it's in your mind and it's 
making that awful pain leave you. Bit by bit." sighed Stevie, 
wiping his tears away with a hand. He snuffled in the way
of the very young and that endeared him to Marco 
instantly.

"That's right. And I think I know the reason why. When I 
think of my father, I can see what's truly important now.
Family, love, creativity, was the impression I got." he
smiled. "It's really hard to have a bad day now since then.
Frankly, I simply can't have one because I realized that
I had awakened, still breathing. All because of what my
father said to me in those last moments."

"He said, 'Marco, go live your life as I have lived mine. I will 
still be here, watching over you and your mother, every step 
of the way until we are meant to be together once more. 
There's nothing to fear from death. It is simply a change in you
where your body recedes and your mind grows up. Don't 
worry about any of it. Everybody who loves you will support your 
needs fully when the time comes around for good.' "

"Stevie, your grandmother probably told you the same thing, but
you've had a longer way to travel to get back to your mother.
Abuela's message will come when your body's settled again.
I know it will."

The small Hispanic boy sighed and stopped crying, still nestled in
Marco's warm arms. "You know what? I’m not afraid to die now."

Lopez threw on a wry look for his benefit. "I sure don’t want to quite
yet, even though it was a very wonderful thing."

"I think everyone should do it." Stevie voiced with finality. 
"Well, ...at least, ...someday."

"Don't be afraid to talk about all of this with your mother
like we are doing now.  No one will ever look at you strangely
for doing this. Tell her especially the part about your grandmother
being an angel."

"I will Mr. Lopez. I'll try real hard."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the weeks that followed in church, Marco Lopez often heard
Stevie tell his friends about the time when he was dead. Hearing
the child's tale, each time, helped him connect with his own story
and it got stronger and stronger, easier and easier with each telling 
to the support counselors or to his fellow firemen at the station.

At first, Marco was fearful that the folks around them wouldn't
understand their stories and become withdrawn after the listening. 
But that didn't happen. 

Rather, they got a profound, softened look on their faces that 
always came with a smile.




FIN   
Season Two, Episode Seventeen..

 §§   That Latin Flair   §§

******************************************************************************

***This current episode has just completed.
***Keep watching here daily for new episode
***scene installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

************************************************** 
 
This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Seventeen,  Season Two
  
         §§   That Latin Flair   §§

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : December 1st, 2004.

============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
§ Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com §
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 
   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

 -------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2005 All rights reserved.
 

=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================
 The Story Unfolds...

Season Three, Episode Eighteen..

 §§   A Fish Out Of Water   §§
 
Debut Launch: February 1st, 2005.

-------------------
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
**ETL Writer's Preproduction List.  

*Cut and paste any link that is highlight broken into 
your browser address bar and the link will function.

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live Homepage.

Click the TV set at the top of Emergency Theater Live's
homepage to see the latest music soundtracked, imaged
version of this episode after entering User ID  'efan' and 
Password  'frontrowseat'  at the link above. 

This version of the current episode is scene delayed as 
compared to the most recent submissions shown in the 
text only file coming up below.

You will need your Yahoo Email User ID and
your Yahoo Email Password to access the
file link below this sentence.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EmergencyTheaterLive/files/OurTheaterTale/EmergencytheaterTaleinOneFile.txt
**Location to the Complete Current Story

*********************************************************************
From:  "Maggie H" <hutchtx@comcast.net> 
Date:  Sat Feb 5, 2005  2:50 pm 
Subject: An Angel's Fate
 

"Carly?"

Bright blue eyes gazed up into Julie Hanson's face, and cheeks
bloomed with a smile.

"Carly, are you ready for lunch?" The teacher pointed to the
small group of students already waiting with their assistant, 
Lisa, at the door.

"I'm ready for lunch, Mrs. Hanson?" The girl answered, her
words correct, but her tone imitating her teacher's question. 
She stood from the rocking chair, where she had been sitting 
after finishing a lesson with Julie. "I'm ready for lunch!" This 
time the intonation was perfect. Carly trailed behind the group 
as they exited the classroom, repeating to herself, "I'm ready 
for lunch, Mrs. Hanson. I'm ready for lunch, Mrs. Hanson."

As Julie followed the four students down the corridor towards the
cafeteria, she watched Carly, especially, thinking how nice it was
to finally have her back. The girl had had a rough time over the
holidays and had missed the first two weeks of school. Like her
three middle school classmates, Carly had autism, but unlike the
others, she also had a seizure disorder and took a combination of
medicines to stable her moods and prevent her seizures. Lately, her
medicines had not been working quite right. She had had several
explosive episodes, putting holes in the wall in the classroom and
the hallway, as well as a fair share at home. Thus, the doctors had
placed her in the hospital to try to figure out a better combination
of medications.

After being back for a little over a week, now, things had been
good, Julie reflected. Her mood has been much more stable;
although, the new meds tended to make her sleepy in the afternoons.
That, at least, they could work through by taking frequent, short
walks.

Lunch was uneventful, and the group returned to the small, self-
contained classroom, where they would work on leisure skills by
playing a group game, after a short break. Carly's favorite break
activity was a wooden puzzle of the United States. She could do it
repeatedly without getting tired of it and she could do it in
about two minutes flat, when she wanted to. Today, as she sat down
at her desk, though, her eyelids drooped a bit.

*Better watch her,* thought Julie. *She's got that sleepy look
again.* She was usually fine up until lunch. But then she would
practically nod off on her feet. She gazed at the girl as she
slowly picked up the puzzle pieces, examining each, tilting it left,
then right, before placing onto the puzzle board. Soft blond hair
fell about her shoulders, and Julie could see that Carly was smiling
slightly and humming to herself. For all the world, she looked like
any other pretty 12 year old.

The phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She glanced around to
see Lisa busy with another student and moved to her desk to pick up
the receiver. A question from the counselor. It took only a few
minutes.

When Julie turned back around to check on Carly, she noticed that
her back was slumped slightly. ::Dozing already,:: the teacher
thought to herself as she placed a hand on the girl's
shoulder. "Carly, wake up," she said firmly.

The girl did not move.

Julie felt her heart beat accelerate as she took a closer look.
Carly sat, eyes practically closed, Tennessee gripped between her
fingers and poised over its location on the puzzle board.
"Carly," she said, "open your eyes. We don't sleep in middle school."

The girl blinked and murmured something.

"Let's put the pieces in together," Julie said, guiding
Tennessee to its spot. Carly glanced at her teacher, but 
then gaze away, her eyes staring off at nothing.

Julie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Carly, look at
me," she said firmly.

The girl did not move. And there was no mistaking the rigid lock to
her eyes as they gazed off to her left. Her lips hung open and drool
pooled at the corner.

"Lisa!" Julie stood upright and motioned to her assistant.
"Call the fire department, and then get the nurse! Carly's having a seizure!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Photos : None.

*********************************************************************
From :  Pam <miladyjag@yahoo.com> 
Sent :  Sunday, February 6, 2005 10:47 PM 
Subject :  Chapter 2     
  
Lisa ran and called the fire dept.

::L.A. Fire Dept. What is your emergency?::

"L.A. School for Learning Disability. A child is having a seizure." 
Lisa stayed as calm as she could knowing Carly needed her to be so. 
After she gave the address to the dispatcher, she hung up.

The new dispatcher, training with Sam Lanier, placed the call to the 
units needed.  

::L.A. RESCUE 51-POSSIBLE SEIZURE. L.A. SCHOOL OF 
VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION 1157 CROSSWIND 
ROAD. ELEVEN FIVE SEVEN CROSSWIND ROAD,  
CROSS STREET CARSON. DRIVE TIMEOUT: 0722. SHERIFF'S 
DEPARTMENT HAS BEEN DISPATCHED TO YOUR LOCATION. 

Roy responded from the rescue squad. "Rescue 51,KMG 365." Johnny 
wrote the address as Roy replaced the mic into its cradle and began 
giving directions to the school, avoiding the detours caused by road 
work from a broken water pipe under the street they would normally 
travel.

"10 calls and we haven't been on shift for 5 hours; man looks like 
the full moon curse is early this time." Roy could always tell if 
Johnny's superstitious side was showing-especially if he saw a black 
cat...something that really caused a miniature rant to begin.

"It's not that, and I know it, it's this abnormal heat wave we're 
having." Roy was glad "The Phantom" had yet to play a joke on 
Johnny...opps "Pigeon" as Chet called him.

"Turn here, should be on the right." Both saw the school and were met 
at the door by the principal and Vince Howard.

"It's Carly, she's had a seizure in class. This way!" She began to 
run with the medics and officer as they went towards the classroom in 
question.

Soon as they were inside, they saw a child laying on the floor and 
furniture moved away from her. Several of the children were swiftly 
moved into another classroom soon as Lisa and Ms. Hanson saw what was 
happening, and to minimize the possible trauma of seeing this happen 
to a friend; also giving the men room to work swiftly.

"Sweetheart, can you open your eyes for me?" Johnny knelt beside her 
and began to take her vitals.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:   None.

******************************************************************
From :  Cory Anda <andacory@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Wednesday, February 9, 2005 5:25 AM 
Subject :  The Other Rescue Service 


Dawn was just past. The sea was choppy. It sucked 
greedily at the slender kelp strands shimmering in the warm 
morning sunlight while fleeing tendrils of fog still drifted over 
the newly reborn shoreline. The restless surf almost drowned 
out the sound of  vehicle navigating the beach. C.B. hails and 
responses punctuated the endless  song of the waves.

Garner Ellerbee was on patrol.

Garner looked like any other cop wearing a light blue polo 
shirt enblazoned with an iron on "L.A. County Police Department" 
badge. His three wheeler bike was similarly marked in white and 
gold paint. There, the comparison to regular police dress ended.
Garner's ebony legs poked naked out of navy Bermuda shorts 
and into navy knee socks and high top Nikes. His dark face and 
sharp crew cut contrasted with his mirrored shades and the soft 
blue of the sky. Garner scoped the shore up and down the long
line of light blue lifeguard towers running north and south.

They would be coming soon. A lot of them.

The stocky black man chuckled to himself. It was going to be 
another beautiful June day in southern California. Every day for 
the past twelve years, Garner made this morning survey of his 
sandy beat before the tide of public people came. His department 
worked in close conjunction with the mammoth lifeguarding 
operation of the Coast Guard network.

   Garner's beach was home to its headquarters, a high, gray 
planked building at the very midway point of an eight mile section 
of sand declared Roy Rogers State Park along the PCH.Huge one 
way glass windows cocooned the tip two stories and a single, white 
sign adorned its seaside face, "Baywatch Headquarters" it said in 
neon orange blocking. The watch windows were masking the hubbub 
of activity within.

   Garner soon noticed a fleet of yellow beach patrol trucks filing 
out of the base's garage bay. His eyes drew seaward. Already, the 
bright yellow rescue boat cruised a quarter of a mile out, covering 
the off reef waters with its usual visual surveillance. He waved to the 
vessel and was rewarded with an enthusiastic return of greeting.

Garner knew them all. He knew every lifeguard team on assignment 
personally. He hefted and thumbed the C.B. mike, "Mornin' to each 
and everyone of you lycra clad bodies. Ready for some fun in the 
sun today? Garner stats coming your way...."

The radio suffered a multitude of groans and moans from boat and 
trucks from all the lifeguards within them. 

"Surf's swell is lovely with 4 to 6 foot crests and the in-reef water 
temp is steady at seventy two. Headcount; Beaches are clear. 
Truck seven, you have four or five cart people in the tunnel between 
towers 14 and 15. I rate them a mild headache on the nuisance scale. 
They'll be no trouble for your flockers. Hey, hey,.. I almost forgot! The 
San Pedro gang's on vacation in the beautifully rustic city jail sunshine. 
Aren't we lucky ducks?"

Some hoots and cheers kissed his ears.  "That about wraps it. " Garner 
went on, "I hope happy, uneventful guarding fills your day."

A tenor voice piped on line, "Hey, Garner! Aren't you forgetting something?"

Garner Ellerbe felt about two dozen binoculars target him.  "Whaa?  Oh 
yeah."  He got off his bike seat stretching the mike's cord behind him. With 
his back to his motorcycle, he whirled the mike in the air like a lasso, 
grumbling to himself. He bit his lip in concentration. At a crucial
point, he let go...

The mike arched high, bounced once off of the black leather seat  
and up again. The mike tail spinned and neatly hung itself up on its 
own dash spigot clip.  Snick!

A thunder of applause, whistles and hoots drifted across beach 
and water and from the radio.

Garner bowed graciously. Then he sat on his trusted "chariot" 
to reflect.He had lost count of exactly how many water rescues, drug 
busts, gang fights and missing craft calls he had under his belt. 
The burly cop only knew that a lot of his reports or testimonies
proved to be the glue of making his criminal cases stick. A few of 
them had even become his closest friends.

The C.B. radio came alive in excited voice, "Way to hang it, Garner! 
What was that? Twentieth in a row?"

Garner smiled. It was Jill Riley, a veteran Lifeguard of thirty. He could 
almost see her strikingly fresh smirk and flaxen ponytail.  "Yeah.." he 
answered her. "Something like that. Where are you posted today?"

"Backside rim, D@mn it all. If you are here in three, maybe I'll still 
have enough chocolate eclairs left for you...."

"Shush, woman! My gut heard that. Don't you know I'm on a diet?!"

Jill answered knowingly, "Sure I do. That's why I'm having so much 
fun trying to break it."

"You demoness..!" he moaned.

"Weakling pawn!" she taunted, "Try not to drool on your shirt."

Click.

Garner chuckled again, patting his stomach. That shrewd woman 
would be the death of him sooner or later. He headed out to her tower 
with a chorus of seabirds smoking over his head.

It was going to be a beautiful day indeed.

-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
South, at the very edge of the public beach, was Jill Riley's  
vision of h*ll.

Right next to her assigned tower was the exclusively private, 
Billingsly's Club. Its peach adobe grounds and Queen's palms 
smacked of the very eminence of money.

The beach there was filled with neat white metal tables and chairs, 
shadowed under black and white striped umbrellas. An outdoor 
bar nestled in between them on an island of black marble tiles.
Closest to the water was a decrepit, sun-peeled watch chair of white 
wood seven feet in height.

Jill groaned aloud at the sight of it for the chair belonged to the 
club's very own, personal, Australian lifeguard.

"Trevor Cole.." she said aloud. The name was an oath in her mouth. 
The man was attractive enough with his short, curly blond locks and 
laughing green eyes,....but,.. Jill groaned again, even louder. The fact 
that he was short was no comfort. The man was a walking gonad.

Trevor charmed every pretty thing on the beach with his greek physique 
and Aussie drawl. Teenaged girls would fake a sprain in order to 
have him pay attention to them. And he gladly embraced them all,
literally. Jill had even heard Cole had had one or two statutory rape 
charges in his past; it was why the county would not let him 
become a lifeguard on the public beach.

Jill looked at her watch. It was nine o'clock. There was already a 
crowd of swimmers in her water...and his.... She looked about.. 

No Trevor.

Jill sighed and shifted her chair to give herself a clear view of the 
club's ocean front as well as the county's area waters.

"Mornin babe?  Missed me?" a colorful voice asked.

Jill turned. It was him. She didn't miss a beat. "Can't say that I 
did. I'm sure THEY missed you." She indicated the people 
wading in front of his watch chair.

Trevor ignored the barb, "My..my..my. Don't you look lovely in a 
red bathing suit."

Jill regarded Trevor's black and white striped boxers with a 
grimace, 'New dress code, eh. Can't clash
with the umbrellas now can we?"

Trevor's smile never wavered, "How about dinner tonight?  A 
little wine..  a little music...."

"..A little PEACE.." she countered, "You've been trying to ask 
me out for over two months. Give it up, Trevor. I'm not 
interested." Jill put on her sunglasses and looked out to sea.

Trevor laughed and strode over to his chair and climbed up into 
it. He made a big show of flexing all of his visible muscles 
noisily, affording Jill a sideways glance every now and then. He 
caught her looking at him stretching his deltoids. "I know you 
want me. So why don't you just face the facts..?"

Jill gave him a double take in utter disbelief and gagged in disgust. 
She promptly picked up her director's chair and put a whole tower 
wall and two hanging beach towels between herself and Trevor 
Cole. "This is definitely the tower assignment from H*ll...." she 
muttered.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Across town, many miles from the ocean, a museum got a 
nasty surprise. It was missing a crate of artifacts for its 
new exhibit, Atlantis, Myth or Fact?

The curator turned on the UPS delivery man in a barely 
contained fury,"Why does this always happen?! Whenever 
we pay for a rush in advance, we always get shortended! 
This is the third time this month, now,... I want  you.. to 
go back to base...and tell your superiors that they have 
two days to find it or else they are going to be minus one 
very big client!"

The man snapped to attention without thinking, "Yessir!" He 
turned on his heels and left.

The curator took a deep breath and regarded his now cold 
pasta rigoletto and rumpled cot in one corner of the 
receiving alcove.  He put a hand to his sweat drenched brow,
"I have to stop living like this.."  

Resigned to his fate, he turned back to his shipping order.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Boy.. I could live like this forever.."

Eddie Kramer leaned out over the west rail of tower 34. 
Water kissed sunlight glinted from the ocean and dappled his 
tanned face and chest with vivid gold sparklets, "This is where 
I belong. Right here. In the sun. Right now." he thought with 
smug satisfaction. It was an easy day. Eddie had only had to 
go out to warn two little boys away from the pier's barnacle 
encrusted pilings. And that had been three hours ago. He bent 
over and pulled a cold St. Croix with lemon out of his cooler and 
tore the cap off with a twist. Its cool wet iced his throat with a 
silky caress all of the way down into his stomach. He shivered 
with a delicious chill, "Ooo.. that hits the spot."

Two girls lounging under the shadowing ramp giggled at his 
antics. Eddie smiled and politely ignored their idle interest. 
Secretly, he reveled in it. To his ears, that sound made the usual 
beach babble dance. Life was definitely going easy on Eddie 
"Buns" Kramer these days. It  hadn't always been that way.

It had taken Eddie most of his life to get the inner city 
Philadelphia rebel out of his system. Eddie was an ex-con. As a 
teen, he found himself thrown in prison for what he thought was 
a healthy venting of steam built up from living in a shattered home.

At nineteen, Eddie Kramer was going nowhere. He was nobody.

Eventually, he learned that his old man had taken up with 
prostitutes and drug dealers and his world became an endless 
stream of failed suicide attempts. When Eddie was released from 
prison, he was ordered to do community service. The only thing 
that appealed to him even slightly was working at the municipal 
public pool. He chose it solely for the fact that it was out of doors. 
He figured he had spent too much time behind far too many locked 
doors as of late.

Once there, Eddie's life took an unexpected turn. The pool 
was a place of ...magic. People from all walks of life untouched 
by abuse sought refuge in its cool waters. They did nothing but 
screech and splash. A few just floated on their fat. But they were 
happy...

Slowly, as a lifeguard, a beaten down half Chicano, half German 
kid became a true guardianover their long hours of liquidy delight. 
Eddie learned no misery could ever exist for long in that warm 
crystalline blue. Some days, burnt red from the sun and stinking 
of chlorine, all he wanted to do was quit and never come back.

But he didn't, because finally, Eddie Kramer had become.....somebody.



Eddie Kramer sighed contentedly and carefully sighted his target 
with his frigid bottle of ice water.  He flicked a wrist and casually 
sent an icy stream squarely down the center of a tawny back. A 
high pitched screech rewarded his efforts.

Shauni McLane sat bolt upright barely securing the ties of her 
sodden halter top,"Eddie Kramer!  That was the most....low down... 
rotten sleazy trick you have ever pulled!"

The accuse just snickered from behind his binoculars. It was fun 
pulling a fast one on a fellow rookie. Eddie scoffed and just 
smiled some more. He liked what he saw. Shauni was a real 
looker; she was an ex-model gone athletic. Her hair never ceased 
to fascinate him. It was platinum and was always twisted in a 
french braid in defense against the sea winds.

Best of all, her eyes were light filled, with the warmest shade 
of the purest crystalline blue.


"That was nasty and you know it." Shauni breathed, gasping 
from the chilling river still running 
into her shorts.

"Oh yeah?" came a new voice from the tower. Craig Pomeroy 
stepped outside the door carrying a director's chair under one 
arm, "So's sunbathing half naked for all the eligible bachelors 
on muscle beach to see right in front of your fiance.."

Shauni's jaw dropped in utter astonishment, "Craig, I can't 
believe you said that!" She made sure her sodden towel she 
was shaking out flung wet sand all over the pair of them.

Eddie reached down over the top rail of the deck and caught 
her in an affectionate bearhug, "He's right darlin'.. You've got 
me insanely jealous of every man who merely flicks a tiny muscle
at you."  He smooched her lips dramatically.

Craig smirked, "You're gonna haveta get used to it, Eddie. It's 
part of the package that goes along with one of these.." He 
waggled the finger tht held a wedding band significantly.

Eddie cocked his maned head, "Is that so?...." he leaned 
farther back on his chair's legs, "Well,....maybe I should......
take it BACK!" He charged Shauni down the angled ramp 
grabbing for her engagement ring.  

She shrieked in mock fear, "No you don't! No way am I ever 
going to part with this! I've had you on my line long enough, " 
she grew soft and let herself be captured, "And... I'm not ever 
going to let you go..."

"Oooo , that sounds so romantic.." Eddie crooned.  They kissed.

Craig smacked his forehead and looked skyward, "I can't 
believe these two were voted the most professional lifeguard 
team of the summer's rookie crop, I mean looked at you ... All 
gritty and smoochy..  Eeooww..    You are definitely behaving 
like ....juveniles...I'll have you know.."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
A raw blob of hamburger sailed through the air and plopped 
with a wet splat into the frying pan."And he SCOORRREEESS!! 
Yes!  Hobie Buchannon is breaking hearts all over the basketball court
tonight, folks. That's two for O, dad. Go for it."

Mitch Buchannon smoothed his brown touseled hair and flashed 
a withering look at his eleven year old son, "Now you're a 
heartbreaker and Wilt Chamberlain? Well, prepare to  eat....my....
dust...."

Hobie planted his brown eyes into the most doleful expression 
he could muster, "Dad, do you know how ridiculous a thirty seven 
year old man looks balling up a chopped up wad of slimy cow guts
into a snowball?"

Mitch tried to ignore the innocent comment and failed at the 
last second. His ball of hamburger decorated the kitchen 
window in lovely strings of meaty gore.

"Got ya!" the boy smirked.

"No fair psyching out the competition!" Mitch laughed as he 
pinned Hobie into a headlock and messed up his blond hair. 
Mitch's hazel eyes reflected Hobie's energy and love of fun.

The petite boy broke free of the hold and plunked himself 
down into a dining room chair in front of a food laden table, 
"Rule number nine: No horseplay at the supper table unless 
you can get away with it. Dad, your elbow twitched that time."

"No it didn't."

"Yes it did." Hobie reminded him again. "Same as last week."

"No way..." Mitch said dishing up a serving of potatoes onto 
his plate, "I had everything under perfect, " he thunked another 
scoop of mashies onto his platter, "control.."

Hobie pounced, "So why'd you miss?"

Mitch regarded his son over  Sports Illustrated, "Smart Alec. 
Aren't you going to be late for Junior Lifeguards today?"

Hobie rolled his brown eyes, "Dad, as a lieutenant at work, 
aren't you supposed to know when programs like junior life 
saving, end for the week? Eddie called here last night to remind
you."

Mitch Buchannon laughed to himself, thinking.

Lieutenant, he thought. Newly promoted, kicked out of thongs 
and shorts for a desk and phone. Was it all worth it? Was it 
worth missing all of the action as an ex-beach guard? Mitch 
glanced over to a framed eight by ten of Jill Riley, Garner 
Ellerbee, Eddie Kramer, Shauni McLane, and a few others in 
formal lifeguard uniform, all pouring champagne over his head 
from their bottles. 

They sure threw him a good party when they'd heard the news.

Still, being in charge of Baywatch Operations was fascinating..
Mitch was the one who handled tower and boat assignments 
and coordinated water rescues. It was a far cry from just watching 
water for ten hours a day. And two weeks out of a year, Mitch 
could stilll get his feet wet manning a tower with a rookie-in-training.....


"You're right, Hobie. I did forget your courses ended today. I 
guess I have to eat more of these things.." Mitch stuffed a 
huge forkful of fish sticks into his mouth. 

Hobie chuckled, "Yeah.. mom used to be really good at keeping 
you on track with stuff like..." he broke off with a pained expression, 
looking up t his father with wide eyes, "Since...you know."

Mitch put down his magazine and put it away, "It's o.k., Hobie.
Talking about mom even though we're separated isn't  forbidden 
or anything. Besides, open communication is the "in" thing now days
and yeah, she was good at that.  Have some milk."

Hobie was silent.

Mitch felt his discomforture and spoke just to fill the quiet, 
"Listen Hobie. I'm....thinking about inviting her over for a while 
to stay a few weeks in August before school starts. Gail's 
already said yes, and.."

Mitch noticed how hard his own fingers were gripping the table's 
edge. He forced himself to relax them, "You can't know how 
much she misses you.. Have you read any of the letters she's sent
us?"

"No.." came the sharp reply.

Mitch tried not to show that his son's answer stung, "Wh-- 
Why not ? Hobie,,, Wh--"

"Because I didn't want to. " he replied. Hobie couldn't help 
glancing up at his father's face. He saw the hurt barely concealed 
in his eyes. A sudden stab of guilt coursed through him and he 
found himself saying, "She can come here. That is, if she can 
stop drinking so much."  The boy's tears flooded forth, unbidden, 
"I- I- I miss her too, dad. But it gets so hard acting normal around 
her. When she's here with you, I can't help but feel like some 
kind of football being bounced around between you guys whenever 
you fight over me."

"Hey...hey..hey.." Mitch wiped a tear away from Hobie's cheek, 
"It doesn't have to be that way any more now that I've...got 
custody.  Maybe this visiting thing will be a chance for us to try to
become friends again. At least, it can be a start..."

Hobie thought of all the bad times the three had experienced 
going through the divorce. And now, he was just about sick 
of facing it any more. But...he thought, people do change for the 
better. It was something both of his parents had taught him.

Hobie looked at his shoes, "O.k...let's.....give it  a shot.."

His dad's smile washed away any remaining doubt in Hobie's 
mind, "Let's go for it!" the boy shouted.

"One for O, Hobster... Come here..." Mitch embraced his son.  

Hobie tapped him on a shoulder.

"Hmmm?" Mitch mumbled from inside their hug.

"She can come on one condition..."

"And what's that?" Mitch asked.

"Hamburger rallies are our secret.."

"Deal."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 

Photo:  Dawn at a lifeguard tower.

Photo: Empty L.A. public beach.

Photo:  Baywatch headquarters and a banana tree.

Photo:  Lifeguard Jill Riley from NBC's baywatch show.

Photo:  Lifeguard Trevor Cole from NBC's baywatch show.

Photo:  Eddie Kramer from NBC's run of Baywatch.

Photo:  Shauni McLane from Baywatch first season.

Photo:  Hobie Buchanon from Baywatch. 

Photo: Mitch Buchanon, from Baywatch.

Photo: Baywatch beach cop Garner Ellerbe on a four wheeler.

**************************************************************
From:  "lafddispatcher" <lafddispatcher@y...> 
Date:  Wed Feb 9, 2005  2:19 pm 
Subject:  Confluence...

>"Sweetheart, can you open your eyes for me?" Johnny
>knelt beside her and began to take her vitals.

Immediately, Carly folded up into a grand mal seizure at just
a touch of his hands. "Roy, gimme the resuscitator. She's
gonna need it.." he said sharply, turning the convulsing twelve
year old onto her side to drain her mouth of food. Then
he looked up once Carly was ventilating well enough under the
positive pressure. "When did she eat last? I'm getting more
than just a bit under this suction."

Julie Hanson flushed red with stress and trepidation.
"We just finished having lunch with the other children. Is she
gonna be all right?"

"Ma'am, we're doing everything possible. Now, what
can you tell me about her medical history? Tell me everything
you can." Roy said, listening to her breath sounds over the
skin of her chest. Inside, he was happy the teachers had
had the foresight to remove her clothing down to her
underwear for safety. "Johnny, her lungs are clear. She
breathing?"

"Not very well. I've taken that over." Gage replied,
struggling to keep adequate oxygen pushing into
the girl's shaking body without injuring her.

Julie Hanson spoke quickly, moving her very upset
assistant, Lisa, to a chair to steady her. "Her name's
Carly Davison, and she's twelve. She's autistic because
of early seizures from a time when she had stopped
breathing. She's had none now for almost a year, until
today. This one is..is real bad.." she whispered, her fright
making her voice tremble.

Roy looked up from where he was laying out an
endotracheal tube in advance, even as he set up
the biophone to call Rampart Base. "Has Carly had
any other history of previous metabolic disturbances? Has
she eaten anything strange or new? Or played with a new
kind of school supply, like paint or with latex based clay?
Has she taken sick, developed a fever recently?" Roy probed.

"No, nothing like that. Her mother Cory's been scrupulous about
keeping her daughter well cared for despite of being a paraplegic
and jobless, herself.." said the school nurse.
"Can you stop the convulsions? Carly's doctor told me that they
shouldn't be allowed to last any time at all. We were given these
to use in case Carly ever had a seizure while at school. But I haven't
had time to administer them yet." And she handed Roy a plastic
baggie full of torpedo shaped white capsules. "And here's the
authorization form signed by Mrs. Davison and Carly's doctor."

Gage took the bag and read the inscription on back of the silver
foiled packet and only glanced at the consent form.
"Valium, suppositories. Point four milligrams." Then he looked to
Officer Howard. "Vince, take over for me. We're gonna be busy
trying to get an I.V. started. She'll manage easy enough for
you in spite of these muscular contractions. Whenever her head
flips backwards between your knees, give her a shot from the valve."

"Got it." said the large sized African American policeman. He took 
off his helmet, tossing it onto the lunch table and got to work.

Lisa, nearby, started trying to hide the fact that she was beginning
to cry. "Oh, Julie, things were going so well. We were supposed to
leave to go to the Santa Monica Beach tomorrow for the kids' yearly 
Junior Lifeguards camping trip."

Johnny's head snapped up in surprise at their destination, but
he couldn't afford to comment. He got right down to getting
a second blood pressure off Carly as best he could while Roy
got on the line.

"Rampart, this is Squad 51. Come in."

##Go ahead, 51. ## said Dr. Joe Early, almost immediately.

"Rampart, we have a twelve year old female, with a history of
a prior severe seizure disorder which has led to early childhood
hypoxic autism. She's currently in a grand mal under active
ventilations on one hundred percent O2. Uh, Rampart, her air
passages are free of spasming and clear of any gastric debris."
reported Roy. "And her last bad seizure was over a year ago.
BP's at least 90. I'm getting a radial. Pulse's real tachy."

##10-4, 51. Do you have parental consent?##

"That's affirmative, Rampart. A written note from a school
RN via a doctor to treat for this condition."

##Understood. Does she phase clonic long enough to initiate
an I.V, 51?##

Roy looked up at Johnny, who shook his head in an answer.

"That's negative, Rampart. The convulsions are now growing
too violent for needlework. However we do have the child's
prescribed rectal Valium. Its dosages are in .4 mg/kg increments."

##Ok. Use a first and second, 51. But don't exceed more than
1 mg per minute trying for her sedation. After those two doses,
wait it out, until you can establish a Lactated Ringer's I.V. TKO.
See if her breathing returns. If it doesn't, sedate to paralysis by
any route Valium to get her ET intubated and supported
on ambu. Keep in mind that she may just as quickly regain
consciousness after the postictal state into a full recovery.
Be prepared to handle that particular outcome if you do
utilize that airway. Treat her for shock. I want vitals every five
minutes and transport as soon as possible.##

"10-4, Rampart. Rectal Benzodiazepine times two.
On apnea after cessation, ET intubate following
full sedation; otherwise, manual ambu only. I.V. Ringer's
to maintain." Roy looked up at the sound of an ambulance
approaching. "Rampart, looks like our ride's here. Our ETA 
will be ten minutes."

##Bring her in without sirens, 51. Draw a purple top
for a glucosal analysis, anticubital A.S.A.P., and an ice
slurried red for an arterial blood gas. Bring both of
them, Carly's forms and any other medications belonging
to her along with you. Send an EKG en route.##

"Affirmative..Draw a purple and iced red, transport consent and
prescriptions. Lead two is coming in ...two minutes.." said Roy. 
He set down the phone to help Johnny glove up and position 
Carly best to sedate her.

 Soon, the medication started working and Carly relaxed
out of her active seizuring and she immediately began to
sigh occasionally around Vince's gentle mask placed breaths.
Her chest started to move with a regular rhythm that everyone
could see.

"She's finally breathing." Gage said, placing a hand on the child's
stomach. " We'll get by with an oral just fine.." and he reached
over to the oxygen case for a short oral. He placed it deftly over
Carly's tongue and traded out Vince's ventilator valve for a
simple plastic non-rebreather mask. "Thanks Vince. You're
as handy as always."

"Anytime.." and the cop stepped back to begin filling out
his report and taking an account from Julie Hanson.
"Ladies, if I could just get a few words from you before she
goes to the hospital..."

Soon, the tiny white blond girl was bundled warmly, dried of
all moisture, and strapped onto a long board inside of a cervical
collar to keep her safely secured for the trip across town
to the ER.

On the way out the door, following the ambulance attendants,
Johnny leaned into Lisa curiously. "Did I hear you correctly
that all your students are headed out to Malibu beach
tomorrow to attend some kind of lifeguard program for kids..?"

"Yes, that's right.." said Lisa. "Little Carly was so looking forward
to bringing her mother to the beach."

"Carly's got a good chance of going along. She's had no serious
complications today that a good night's sleep won't cure. Everything
we did was just supportive, uh..." and Johnny held out his free hand
out around all his packaged up medical gear.

"Oh,, Lisa.. Lisa Gibbons." and she returned his handshake.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Gibbons." he smiled graciously,
"Perhaps my partner and I will see you out there.
You see, our whole station's been assigned to help out
that program with teaching CPR to all the kids coming in
for a week...Well, that's along with attending a firefighter
convention at the convention center in town in the 
evenings."

"Julie and myself won't be going..." blinked Lisa, wise 
his flirting already. "There are lifeguard teachers at Baywatch
who will be substituting for us and serving as parental
guardians while our school kids are there."

"Oh, I see.. Well, I'll be sure Roy, uh, that's my partner
and me, my name's Johnny Gage, will keep a really close 
eye on Carly while she's attending all the activities."

"Thank you." said Lisa politely. "We and Mrs. Davison
would really appreciate the extra paramedic eye 
watching over her."

"It'll be no problem at all." smiled Gage toothily, still 
locked and lost in Lisa's brown liquidy gaze. He didn't
care if they were still red from stress.

Roy whistled, loudly. Johnny looked up. "Let's
go, Dudley Do Right. The horse can't wait for ya." DeSoto 
said, already most of the way across the school's expanse of 
sunny lawn, following the attendants swiftly. They were towing 
Carly's gurney to the street.

Johnny startled, and dropped his helmet, which Lisa
stooped down and promptly returned to him. Then Gage
dropped his green pen from the notebook he stuck
between his teeth in order to retrieve his navy jacket
from on top of the drug box. "I'll be right behind ya
in the squad, Roy. I know the way, remember?!"

But the ambulance had already loaded up and
was moving away silently with only its lights flashing.

When Johnny Gage turned around to thank Lisa for
his helmet and pen, she had gone to go comfort a now 
visibly sobbing Julie, sitting frozen in a desk chair. 
Scooping up a business card from the occupational school's 
entryway, Johnny said, "Don't worry. I'll call both of ya with 
progress reports on how much fun Carly's having. We both 
promise to... Ok?"

Both tired, numb women finally offered a pair of slight grins. 

Johnny left the school at a fast run, hurrying to stow his 
equipment fast enough to catch up to Roy's rig without 
speeding drastically. 

Vince gave him a wave as he returned to his own squad car. 
On the passenger's seat of the car, was the same convention 
flyer that Station 51's men had received along with their orders 
from Headquarters to go do community service and get in a bit 
of career shadowing with a sister service at the lifeguard network 
hub. Howard's assignment on the beach, was going to be a little 
different. He was assigned to learn how Malibu actually polices a 
ten mile long stretch of soft powdery sand and pounding tidal surf
zones that regularly saw the feet of over half a million people 
each day of the Caifornian summer.
::Maybe there'll be even more folks showing up because of
all this heat we've been having lately. A little swimming time to
cool off while I'm there's definitely in the cards. But it'll sure be 
weird trading my uniform pants out for a pair of bermuda shorts:: 
Vince thought ruefully.

Vince Howard's night shift was just over, so he made
his way home eventually after grocery shopping
to pack a very full suitcase for the upcoming convention
event called Trading Stations.

---------------------------------------------------- 

Photos:  None.

*********************************************
From :  Roxy Dee <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, February 10, 2005 6:47 AM 
Subject :  Beach Shennanigans~~ 
  
On the beach, things were heating up. 

It was the longest embrace Craig had ever seen. Craig Pomeroy 
smirked. "Three minutes! That's got to be a record or something. 
Hey, Eddie.. Maybe this year, we can hold a kissing contest at 
the big picn--" He broke off. 

They were ignoring him. 

He tried again. "Guys, don't you come up for air at all? 
Shauni?? Hey--"  ::Yep. Deaf as doornails. :: 
Craig looked skyward. Then he got a devil of an idea. 
He thought of a particularly nasty lifeguard captain who was 
notorious for firing rookies on the spot for the slightest infraction. 
He gasped. "Uh oh. Thorpe alert. Thorpe alert." 

The results were spectacular. The two entwinees sputtered 
and flew apart rearranging various items of intense concern 
such as loose hair strands and clothing. "Where?! 
Wh--??" Eddie blurted. 

A towel cracked inches away from his face. Its master, Craig, beamed. 
"Sorry guys. I just played a mean dirty trick on you BOTH. Aren't 
you lucky that ol' Thorpe is on vacation for a whole month!!" 

Eddie's face looked rather pale from his initial shock but then he 
began to grin dangerously. The couple collapsed in limp relief into 
each other's arms. "Would you mind not doing that?! You know, 
this joking thing might turn into something you may not like buddy, 
ol' possibly-ex-partner-of-mine." 

Craig was candid. "Yeah? Right. No horseplay on deck now. Listen, 
I'm serious." (He wasn't) Guys... it's pretty hard watching the water 
alone, no offense Shauni, but when you're around, Eddie's 
useless to me." 

"I am not!" Eddie protested. 

Craig grinned evilly. "Prove it." He tossed over a pair of binoculars 
to Eddie, who barely saved his face from eating eight inches of 
black metal and glass. 

Then he glanced up at the ocean. He immediately frowned. He 
tossed a second pair to Shauni as well. "But I'm not on duty..." 
she stated. 

"You are now. There's the start of a rip out there. Let HQ know 
about it." 

"Right." Shauni said and jogged up the sky blue ramp into the 
tower and picked up a phone receiver just inside the frame doorway. 

Sid, the switchboard operator answered. "Baywatch, HQ." 

Shauni was brief. "Rip at 34. We need backup surveillance. 
Swimmers are clear." 

In the nerve center of the watch station, Sid affirmed his latest 
call. "Righto, Shauni. I'm on it." He hung up, writing the info 
down on a piece of paper. He swiveled in his chair at the sound 
of approaching footsteps behind him. He greeted Mitch. 
"Boss, we've got a potential hot spot." 

"Where?" 

"Tower 34." 

"Who's manning it today?" 

"Craig and Eddie." 

Mitch thought hard, "Ok, no biggie, ah... keep me posted. I 
wanna know the minute something does down, " Mitch 
started away, then he turned back, "OOo, no pun intended." 

Sid smothered a laugh, "Of course." 

Mitch left neatly. 

Sid turned back to his switch board, quietly giggling to himself. 
"I hear ya." 
--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- 

Craig hefted a red neon rescue can onto a shoulder, "I'm going 
on patrol. Eddie, check with the other towers, see if they've got 
heavy water developing, too. Shauni, get the flag up." 

The two nodded and watched Craig jog down the ramp and begin 
a scouting run along the water's edge, keeping his eye on the muddier 
water of the abnormal current he had spotted and its relation to where 
the sea bathers were. So far, things  were normal. 

According to his wife, Craig was the only transplanted Manhattan 
lawyer whose closet was half filled with power suits and half with 
ragged beach wear. He had to admit, even the maid scoffed at 
umpteen paris of sandy toe thongs lying alongside three hundred 
dollar eelskin shoes. 

Craig combed some fingers through his salt powered, light brown 
hair as he ran. So far, he was lucky. As well as he could tell, the 
bay was still behaving herself and was cooperating with her usual 
fair day swells. There were no surprises, .......yet. 

He returned to his thoughts. 

Craig couldn't give up lifeuarding for the life of him. He took the 
gentle jabs dished out by fellow colleagues at his law firm in food 
humor, He chuckled at some of them" The surfer who never grew 
up, Hey sea bum! Ya do any heavy breathing to a gorgeous babe 
today? 

Pomeroy made no excuses. He loved the work. It was in his blood. 

He had come a long way. 

  Mitch Buchannon and he had been old college roommates back 
in the early seventies. Back then, the two were avid surferheads desiring 
nothing but a rad wave and an occasional one night stand. Together, 
they had the dubious honor of throwing the best beach parties around. 
Craig laughed to himself as he remembered all of the swimming races 
he and Mitch used to hold to see which one of them was the stronger. 
It seemed only natural for both of them to wind up as lifeguards with 
the county. The job suited their spontaneous egos. 

They were one of the best lifeguard teams for many years. 

Beach bathers, especially junior high aged ones, came to know them 
as the "Dynamic Neon Dudes". It must have looked funny seeing a 
tall, brawny Mitch next to a tall, but lithe Craig, running down the 
beach in tandem with matching black shades and red neon trunks. 
many female eyes were turned and it wasn't long before one particular 
black-haired girl carried Craig's heart away to the altar. It was Gina 
who took him to New yark to finish his PhD in law. 

But the lure of the ocean remained and he soon returned.... to 
his beach. His sand. 
It felt good under his feet. 

Craig's eye followed the curl of the rip current flowing against 
the incoming surf.  All of the swimmers were safely away from it, 
a good six hundred yards distant from the dark trough of out 
going muddy surge. He'd make sure that no one ventured into it... 

He signalled the tower by waving his hand and gesturing with 
his life buoy by drawing a line straight above his head and down 
again three times. 

Shauni saw him through her binoculars and signalled back, raising 
the red and yellow flag to half mast on its pole. One by one, the 
bathers heeded the cautionary and moved away from the rip. They 
moved north of the flag to where safety remained. 

Craig relaxed a little and let them stay in the water. 

--  -- --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- 
Cory Davison drove her motorized wheelchair along the ocean 
view walkway.The ocean gave her the tranquility that was so absent 
now from her life. Cory found herself watching the snorkling instructors 
and their students learning the art of diving way out among the waves. 
She brushed an errant red strand of hair away from her eyes as tears 
threatened suddenly. 

No, Cory Davison, ex-dolphin instructor for the Point Loma Naval 
Cetacean Institute, would never know the joys of swimming again. 
Thanks to a stupid accident, her legs were dead.  Oh, it really wasn't 
the fault of the institute that an orca was turned loose by an animal 
rights activist into the tank she and her dolphins were training within. 
No, security had been as tight as it had always been that day. 

Cory shivered against the memory. 

She had reacted reflexively, without thinking, and she had put 
herself between the confused semi wild whale and her dolphin 
charges.  The powerful wake left by the whale's flukes as it veered 
off sucked Cory into an open running filter grate and her back was 
broken in two pieces. Full restitution had followed naturally and the 
settlement had been a big one.... 

So now, Cory had her life back. 

She was without the freedom to pursue her life's ambition. Eight 
years of cetacean research had gone to waste. 'What a shame..' 
her colleagues had said in the hospital when they thought she 
was too sedated to hear them. "What a shame..." Cory the 
current quadraplegic echoed out loud. Quickly, she blinked 
away the sea and turned up the radio she had on a special mount 
by her head. It was the news of the hour and the weather report 
was next,  "...This just in. The Naval Institute is missing a dolphin 
this afternoon from their highly classified testing facility. Charles 
Isaac, co-leader of the Greenpeace movement, was caught releasing 
the animal to the open sea while chanting animal rights slogans. The 
County Court House is expected to hear the case on Thursday. The 
amount set for bail is not yet known.... Moving on to the weather..." 

Cory caught her breath, "Koko?  Gone?" 

She began racing her chair down the boulevard to the stony point of 
land reaching far out into the water. Once there, Cory began searching 
the breakers eagerly for any sign of dolphin.    But only a wild pod 
of them were schooling fish beyond the reef in their usual fashion. 

Cory's heart sank. But something inside of her would not die. 

She took out a slender chrome whistle of high tech design on a 
matching chain from around her neck thoughtfully. 

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  -- 
It was one o'clock in the afternoon. At 327 South Seventh Street, 
sunlight poured through a tiny flat's bay window that over looked 
the ocean. Its beams washed over therapy equipment against one 
wall and then onto a light walnut table. 

There, a sun-warmed walnut frame glinted in the sun revealing a 
portrait of a slender girl in a wheelchair and a medal of valor from 
the Navy draped on a ribbon across its edge. Next to it was
a picture of a smiling twelve year old little girl, Carly.

This was Cory Davison's home. A place where her sharp realities 
could be escaped, if only for a little while, through the creation of 
pastel drawings. Hundreds of chalk dolphins etched on paper 
swam in a river of pages over the tan bedspread. 

The papers were weighed down by a small crate of wood which lay 
on a pillow. An address label on its nearby lid read, "Attn. El Cajon 
Museum of Cultural History, 327 North Seventh Street, La Jolla, CA." 

A rich treasure trove of artifacts lay within the box, glowing under 
the light, only partially packed in shipping sawdust. 

No one was home. 

Suddenly, a shadow marred the harmony of sunbeams inside the 
small cabana. A figure was standing at the window. 

Black gloved hands tested the window latch and found it unlocked. 
White lamay curtains billowed in the wind, concealing the figure 
as it stepped inside the room. Paper dolphins flew everywhere 
and into the intruder's face as the crate was lifted into black 
clothed arms. 

The robber grunted and nearly dropped the precious find in surprise. 
The eyes did not see a heavy object fall onto the bed from the crate 
before a drawing tumbled in the seawind from the open window and 
covered where the artifact fell. There was no time to waste. The 
crook had what was sought by so many. 

The dark figure left the way it came. 

A last breeze from the closing window cleared the bed of sketches, 
revealing an object of beauty which sent the sunlight sparkling into 
all corners of the room. 

It was a foot high sculpture of a dolphin leaping within a curling wave 
and the light it cast so brilliantly from the sunlight, graced the bed 
richly. The ancient statue was made of the purest gold. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Craig Pomeroy, lifeguard, smirking.

Photo: Lifeguard rookie 
           Shauni McLane, standing over a watchtower railing.

Photo: Lifeguard rookie Eddie Kramer, sitting, embarrassed.

Photo:  Riptide warning flags on a beach, with a surfer in background.

Photo:  A woman in a wheelchair, cruising the shoreline.

Photo: A gold dolphin statue of great age.

*************************************************************************
From :  Cassidy Meyers <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Thursday, February 10, 2005 12:13 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] Foggy foggy dew and lifeguards, too. 


Johnny Gage hefted up his knapsack and blinked into the
misty morning. He was toes deep in ocean sand and feeling
more disoriented with every passing second.  A loud
rawkious noise assaulted him and he ducked as a pair of
bold seagulls dive bombed his head, looking for handouts.

"Ahh! Go away...!" he snapped at them, flailing his arms
over his head in irritation.

"Can't go away, we're supposed to show up here at
Baywatch Headquarters to greet all the kids as they come in."
Roy's figure appeared out of the murk and he calmly drew out
a portable airhorn from his pocket and kicked it off, frightening
away the birds.

A treble screech of surprise made Johnny look down to
about waist level towards the noise. "Chris DeSoto? What
are you doing here?"

The boy just smirked and watched his father peer about into
the fog making sure the birds were gone for good. "Heh.
Dad figured the camp children would be intimidated by
seeing men firemen teaching em something and too awe struck 
hero worshipping the life guards to concentrate enough to learn 
anything, so that's where I come in. I'm gonna show those guys
all the CPR steps and help teach it along with dad."

Gage rubbed a sleeper out of his eye. "Huh, might work. Roy,
you'd better hit that airhorn again to get someone's attention up
there through all this fog. Cause my knocking hasn't been doing
anything yet so far. Besides, my heart's pounding so fast from
that air attack that I can't move my arms yet."

"You're kidding.." laughed Chris. "I love seagulls. They never
take any crud from anybody. And they sound neat, too. Their
calls can put me to sleep at night."

"I can't see seagulls as calming unless it's at a distance." Johnny
admitted, ruffling Chris's hair.

"I love the brassy noises gulls make. Nothing but positive memories. 
Not many sounds give ya that kind of effect." Roy countered.
"Ready?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe this'll wake you up more, too, while it's being our doorbell.
You've never been much of a morning person." Roy let loose 
another wail from the horn, making sure it wasn't in a set of three 
blasts that would cause an emergency to be declared by the watch 
guard.

Finally, the lifeguard station garage door opened.
"Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage?" a beaming Jill Riley greeted
quizzically.

"And son." said Chris DeSoto, taking the lifeguard's hand warmly.
"Yep. We're your first aid teachers for today."

"Great. Captain Stanley told me to expect you. The rest of your
station crew's already inside with us having breakfast. Come on in.
Don't worry about being late. The fog's delayed the student busses
arriving from the Hotel until mid morning. We've plenty of time to
work out a teaching itinerary."

Gage shook the woman's hand. "Glad to meet you, Jill. Tell me,
is there a Carly Davison on your list of kids for our CPR class
today?"

Riley checked her lifeguard slate. "I believe she is. Do you know
her?"

Roy smiled. "In a matter of speaking. We took care of her
yesterday in school on a run and we've promised her teachers
that we would keep an eye on her."

"That'll be all of us watching then. We got the heads up on
her seizure disorder and we'll have a beach truck nearby in
case anything happens to her again." the tall blonde ponytailed
lifeguard sighed. 

"Let's go. I didn't know where to put the CPR manikin so I left
it in our rover." Johnny said.

"That's ok. I'll send down one of the rookie guards to collect
it after we eat."

Shivering in the early morning chill, Johnny began to anticipate
putting on a lifeguard jacket over his fire uniform. "Man, is it
always this foggy at six am? This stuff's thicker than pea soup."

Jill Riley laughed, showing them the way upstairs to the main
Headquarters area in front of all the spot windows. "Only on
days that are gonna turn out to be real scorchers. It's called
a land/sea breeze. It'll burn off by eight thirty or so. Don't worry.
We'll still be able to hold class on the beach as we planned."

"Good deal. Come on, Chris. I'll bet they have your Wheaties already
on the table." Roy said, shoving his son forward ahead of them
on the gray blue painted wooden stairs.


In the main rec room, all the lifeguards not on towers were
there along with the rest of Station 51's gang. Chet greeted
Roy, Johnny and Chris by saying....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photo: A fog bound coastline.

Photo: Johnny and Roy in the squad, lost in fog.

Photo:  Attacking seabirds.

Photo: Chris DeSoto in a blue T shirt.

Photo: Jill Riley, lifeguard, inside Baywatch headquarters.

************************************************************************* 
From:  "chameleonkate01" <chameleonkate@h...> 
Date:  Sat Feb 12, 2005  3:36 pm 
Subject:  Breakfast Banter
  
"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to put in an appearance. 
I think I'm gonna haveta talk to the dispatcher here and see 
about hardwiring your hotel room's phone into L.A. so you guy'll 
start receiving our usual station wake up morning check. Say,
Chris, did you throw those pillows I told you to try to get these two 
sleeping beauties out of bed?" Kelly grinned.

Gage and DeSoto, stuck in the presence of strangers, had
to be politely civil and curb their first instinctive sarcastic replies.

Chris DeSoto smiled toothily. "Yeah, sure did. Took three
pillows to get "Uncle" Gage up. Thanks for the suggestion."

"Anytime. Keep those good ideas coming, Chet. I know how the 
vacation syndrome works, first ya can't slow yourself down, and 
then you can't get moving again, for days..." said the dark haired 
boy.

Johnny cleared his throat loudly in embarrassment to atone for
he and his partner being late. "Must've been all that good sea
air druggin' us into a stupor. Our lungs didn't know what to make
of the absence of all the usual city smog.." he grinned. 

Baywatch Captain Thorpe, sitting to Hank Stanley's right, wiped
his mouth free of scrambled egg and pushed his empty plate aside.
"It's quite all right, young man. I saw the kind of business your 
firehouse pulled in the last twenty four hours. The two of you went 
on more rescues in a day, than my whole lifeguard tower crew force 
did in three days. You were bound to crash hard and that, is something
that's entirely excusable."

"Thanks, Mr. Thorpe. At least somebody understands the workload Roy
and I have been handling." Gage said, smiling  and throwing eye 
daggers at Kelly.

Hank nodded. "17 runs in 20 hours. That's definitely a station record..."

"For what, Cap? What about our fire engine's record day?" asked Chet. 
"In 1970, we did a 25-er that year; when we got all those brush fires 
in the hills. While Roy and Johnny were messing around with that baby 
goat call, we put in at least a dozen hot spot appearances."

Stanley afforded Chet a no nonsense, don't cross me glance, highly 
tempered."....for any shift's paramedic squad, Kelly. You didn't let me finish 
my sentence. Please clam up and eat. Our guest hosts are going to be 
splitting us into our teaching and tower shadowing assignments before the
sun clears the horizon. Eleven's when all the kids come in for guard camp."

Chet bobbed his head in cooperation, giving up on needling his two
favorite targets.

Jill Riley changed the subject, but she was grinning. She fully understood
what ribbing meant. "We've some clock radios handy gentlemen, if
you think the Tropical Paradise Syndrome'll KO young Mr. DeSoto here,
too."

"Those'll work.." said Gage quickly, glomming on to a solution to a serious
problem. "Thanks, Miss Riley."

Roy shoved a milk carton near and opened it for his son, before
he winced and caught himself in the act for being too parent-y.
"Chris's all green lights. He pulls CPR sets even cleaner than we do."

"Ain't that the truth. Mike Stoker here's the one who drilled him."
Johnny said through his food full mouth.

Mike Stoker cracked a few knuckles in unabashed pride, staying
silent.

Lt. Mitch Buchannon walked into the room holding a sheaf of papers
from his office desk. "It's all set people. Oh, hiya guys. Looks like our
two guest paramedics finally got here. Hobie. Go eat." he said.

Chris's eyes got real big at the sight of another boy his age, wearing
a junior lifeguard's outfit. "Wow, is that you, Hobie Buchannon? I saw you
in the newspaper a couple of months ago for saving that little girl who
fell off the pier..." he said with big eyes. "I don't know how you did that.
I would've completely chickened out jumping off from so high a place."

"The secret's keeping your feet together and folding your arms around
yourself when you hit." said Hobie, instantly bonding with Chris DeSoto.
"Here, let me tell you some other pointers.." and the two boys fell into
animated conversation much to the amusement of all the adults.

Chet split a gut and kept on chewing.

"It'll sure be nice having some medics around this week without having to
wait for an ambulance on all our surf victim calls." said a rookie girl.

Captain Thorpe held up his hand. "Now, now now. Station 51 is here
to learn from us and us from them in a kind of....cultural exchange while
they're here for their firefighter's convention. They aren't here to pull
a full working shift."

"No, but we'll help out whenever possible. We have to by law anyway,
We're still in Los Angeles County." Roy said matter of factly.

"Ok, but only for the serious ones right in and around HQ. I won't
have you fellas overextending yourselves unnecessarily." Don said.

"Spoken like a true captain.." said Stanley. "A man after my own
heart. Glad to make your acquaintance, Don.." Hank said, offering
Thorpe his hand. "I think we'll keep all our people in sharp enough
order easily enough without them playing too much in the sand."

"So we will, Hank. I've already sent for someone who'll be able to
spy on them to keep tabs on how they're getting along with the 
kids. He's teaming up with your own service area's Officer 
Vince Howard. A Sergeant Garner Ellerbe. A good man and a very solid
dependable sort of beach cop. They'll be cruising around on all terrain
bikes every day while all the children are here." Don teased. "My
lifeguards'll have their hands full enough just watching the public ones."

"Where is Vince now?" asked Hank.

"Getting fitted into his beach uniform downstairs. I heard his voice 
asking Garner about what colored socks'll go best with Bermuda 
navy shorts." Don said. "I've already given him a radio set to the
same frequency as the towers and to our camp staff's active channel.
Also, after you and your men, and...little Chris DeSoto, here, get fitted
into your lifeguard jackets,..Sid Malone, our dispatcher on
the switchboard'll hand out one to each of you."

"Looking forward to it.." Cap smiled, speaking for his hungrily eating
men.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos : None.

************************************************************
From :  patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Sent :  Saturday, February 12, 2005 4:58 PM 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Mirage.. 
 
It was noon, exactly.

Trevor Cole, the private club's Australian lifeguard, 
was having an excellent day. He was looking for the day's 
perfect ten. 

He scanned his water and saw her.... a gorgeous blonde 
almost lost in the foamy breakers. He smiled and waved at her. 
She waved back, all teeth and golden tresses.

Trevor cat called.

Jill, still stuck in the tower next to him, rolled her eyes with a look 
of long suffering. Totally avoiding a glance at Jill, Trevor checked 
the angle of the sun and noticed it was lunch time. He signalled 
his replacement, a zitfaced eighteen year old named, Matt Brody. 
"Yo, Matt! Front and center." he drawled in his Aussie accent.

The knobbed kneed kid grabbed his sunglasses and started 
jogging in macho style over to his partner and promptly tripped 
over his huge feet. He scrambled upright and managed to make 
it to Trevor without losing too much face, "Shift change?" he 
drooled eagerly.  

Trevor shook his head ruefully. Whoever hired this dolt for 
lifeguarding surely had little in the brains department. Trevor 
figured he'd better tread lightly, though, for the kid might turn 
out to be the club owner's son for all he knew. At any rate, he 
couldn't resist a barb or two, "Stop sticking your chest out, kid, 
or you'll wind up cracking a few ribs."

"Oh,... ah, " Matt articulated, "I remembered my binoculars 
today, Trev."

Trevor smiled blandly, "Good. Every good lifeguard ought to 
have 'em, don't you think?" 

"Heh, heh, heh." I know, buddy boy. That's why I brought 
them."

The Australian decided not to press the issue, "Fine."
The blonde barbie was still giving him the eye so Trevor 
decided to pay his bathing beauty a personal call. He tossed 
his head seaward, "Hey Matt. Ain't she a looker?"

The freckled teen looked and saw no one in the water except 
Mrs. Fishmeyer. "Her?" he laughed, "You must have a thing for 
grandmotherly types."

Trevor glanced out again and saw his perfect ten still smiling 
at him from the seafoam."Matt. Quit kidding with me, all right? 
Tell me you see a young, blonde woman out there by the reef buoy."

Matt searched again. "No, man." he frowned. "You must have 
been in the sun too long or something. How about going in for a 
swim to cool yourself off?"

Trevor, still seeing his dream girl, nodded confusedly, "Yeah, 
right. I I-I think I'll do just that."

He jumped down out of his chair, letting Brody take his place and 
he waded out into the water in front of them. He swan dived into 
the waves marveling at how well the woman was holding her own 
in the large, white breakers out there. She was both head and 
shoulders out of the water, beckoning to him with both arms. 
Trevor shook his head. "Oh, well." he thought. "She's a mystery, 
but I'll soon find out." 

He swam powerfully out to sea. "Hey,..what are you doing way 
out here?!" he shouted. She didn't reply but wavered tantilizingly 
close, flashing him a winning smile. Trevor tried again with an 
even bigger smile. "What's your name, doll?"

Trevor was very near her when she laughed and ducked beneath 
a wave. "Hey!" he cried. He waited expectantly for dainty hands 
to pull at his trunks. A minute past. But still, he felt no fingering 
caresses. Trevor grinned like a cheshire cat, "So, it's hide and 
seek, eh? Two can play that game."

He dove under for a peek and saw a figure swimming masterfully 
over the coral shoals far beneath him. He caught a glimpse of 
shimmering green, and a......tail?!

Trevor shot upwards. Now he really WAS confused. It was far too 
shallow for tuna to be around. And just where did the girl disappear 
to?  Then he heard silvery laughter behind him. Whirling, he saw a 
mass of hair and an incredible smile beneath the water.

Her beautiful face was framed by the noon day glare from the 
surface and his eyes watered heavily as he tried to look past it. He 
squinted, and suddenly, she was gone. "What th--?"

Then a huge whirlpool sucked him away. 

He had forgotten about the rip current! Its strength was terrible 
and Trevor was helpless within it.

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --
At tower 34, Shauni McLane had just finished changing into her red 
lifeguard suit. She was starting for the door when the phone on 
the inside door frame started ringing. "I'll get it Eddie!" Shauni 
shouted, and answered it, "Tower 34, McLane here."

A voice babbled into her ear.

"A WHAT was sighted by Crystal Pier?!" she exclaimed. The voice 
reiterated details."Ok, I'll let him know. Oh, one more thing. I got 
shanghai'ed into duty because of the alert, would you put me active? 
Thanks."  She hung up the line.

Outside, Eddie Kramer was in a director's chair keeping tabs on the 
bathers and noting where his partner was patrolling the shoreline. 
He saw that Craig Pomeroy was still jogging slowly south in a very routine 
sweep. So far, everybody was playing it safe by not going into the 
rough water. Still, Eddie could remember past alerts where one or 
two people, who thought they were being macho, ended up getting 
stuck within a rip. Maybe this time, things would be different. 
Heartened, Eddie relaxed his vigil a notch. 

Shauni came out to lean on the rail near him, "Hey Eddie. You're 
not going to believe this! HQ just called with a very weird story."

"Oh yeah? Try me. There's not much going on out here." he said. 
He took a swig from his water bottle and set it down next to a 
chair leg. 

Shauni took that as an invitation and sat down in the chair beside him.
"Apparently, HQ saw a Coast Guard clipper out in front of Crystal 
Pier chasing something in the water. At first, they thought the boat 
was going after some hot shot jet skier. A closer look revealed 
that they were actually trying to capture a dolphin with
a noose! Imagine that!! Chasing an animal with a rope and five 
hundred horses of screaming boat engine. How cruel can 
anyone get?"

"Imagine that..." Eddie said as he fell into a paroxysm of chuckles.
Shauni cocked a confused eyebrow, "Eddie, I didn't get the joke here."
Eddie elaborated. "Oh, ha, ha (Choke).. It's Flipper.. Making a run 
for it. Maybe he got tired of all of those slimy sardines his trainers 
were feeding him."

For Shauni's small size, she slugged him a good one. "Eddie, the 
poor thing must've been terrified having those men roaring down 
after it like that... I hope it got away."

Her fiance' was slowly recovering, "What would the Coast Guard 
want with a dolphin?"

Shauni speculated, "Maybe it was coming too close to the 
leisure craft lanes and they were afraid of it colliding with a 
speedboat."

"That's pretty far fetched wouldn't you say?" he commented. 

Shauni's face soured, "Oh, and I suppose you can think up a 
better reason..."

"No, I probably can't. Wait a minute. I know why headquarters 
was watching them so closely so far out of jurisdiction.."

"All right. I'll bite. Why?"

Eddie began to laugh helplessly again. His smile was infectious. 

Shauni grinned. "Spill it funny boy.."

"Well," Eddie howled, "A dolphin taking out a cruiser would certainly 
give us a little business to take care of, now wouldn't it?"

Shauni surprised him by saying nothing. "Finishing the story..." 
she continued distantly, retrieving something off of the floor, 
"..the watchman also said she gave them quite a run for their 
money.."

"Now "it" is a "she"? Why can't Flipper be a "he"?"

Shauni only looked at him. 

Eddie humored her, "Ok, ok, What was Flipper doing during 
the big chase?"

"Oh,..." she said, seemingly only half interested, "She 
was seen weaving in and out of the pier pilings getting 
everybody thoroughly..." She flung something at him. 
"...SOAKED!!!!" 

A flood of water from Eddie's own bottle cascaded down his 
front. Eddie jumped to his feet, "Aggghhhh ! I guess I 
deserved that."

"You sure did. It's a shame that was WARM water." Shauni 
burbled, "The bottle I wore this morning was slightly colder."

Blinded, Eddie coughed and groped for a towel, "And here 
I thought I was getting it for the crack about the dolphin..."

"I never forget a slight, dearest.." Shuani waved the towel 
just out of reach, "Looking for something?"

Eddie groaned and stopped groping around. He wiped his 
streaming face on an arm, "Ha. I can't stop laughing.." he 
said sarcastically, "Can I sit down now, Pool eyes? Thanks.." 
      
He sat.

Nearby, Shauni was laughing so hard, she couldn't breathe.

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --

He couldn't breathe. Trevor tried to reach the surface of 
the water, and failed. Darkness swept him away.....


On shore, Matt was laughing with a few of Trevor's flockers 
when he looked up, sighting for his partner. Trevor was nowhere 
to be seen. Matt stood up in the chair, scanning with his 
binoculars to the rip. He saw a flailing leg break the surface 
once and sink again. "Jill!!!"

The tall woman shifted away from her water irritably,
"What now?" she snapped.

"It's Trevor! He's in the rip!!"

Jill glassed the area and saw Trevor's hand reaching feebly 
into the air. His head wasn't visible. ::Oh, sh*t. And I got
one of the firestation's medics here to babysit through this.::

She shot an urgent glance at Roy DeSoto sitting in a chair next
to her and said. "Trouble."

"What?" asked Roy.

"It's our local beach pest who thinks he's a lifeguard. Rip's got him.
Go ahead and kick the phone, Roy. Take it off the hook. It'll alert
Sid at HQ to our location." she said rising and peeling off her
jacket.

"Got it. I'll get the gear set up from the responding beach
truck once it arrives. Anything else?" Roy said calmly, reaching
for his radio.

"Not yet.." stressed Jill, as she glassed the curling rip 
intently to get an accurate placement of Trevor's location
as he was pulled out to sea.

Matt Brody, stumbly with panic, started for the water.

"No, Matt! You don't have a can. Call in the details on your radio!" She 
grabbed a rescue can from its hook on the roof corner of her tower 
and hit the breakers, porpoising powerfully out to the dark tongue of 
ripping water. The huge waves made it difficult for her to 
keep sight of Trevor's location, "Hold on!! I'm coming, Trevor!"


From the beach, Craig saw Jill go in from the corner of his 
eye. He unraveled his lifeline and slipped the elastic band 
over his shoulder. He spotted her target victim. 

"Trevor." he said through clenched teeth, "If this is a joke, 
you owe me two plane tickets for Gina and me, for an entire 
Las Vegas weekend."

Throwing his tethered life buoy behind him, he rapidly
swam out after her.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eddie and Shauni were now aware of what was happening in the 
Yacht Club's waters and called Sid for the rescue boat and a 
beach unit. They began watching all other areas for other trapped 
people. There were none. The two guards sighed in relief. They 
divided their attention between the oblivious crowds and Jill 
and Craig's run, being thoroughly stuck with staying put at
their post.

"Come on, hurry..." Shauni urged. She couldn't even see where 
Trevor's body was hitting the top anymore. The siren from the 
beach truck grew from the north. She could see Mitch coming 
fast and Roy DeSoto, running down Jill's tower ramp, to meet him.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jill Riley treaded water at the last place she saw Trevor Cole go 
down. The currents were very strong and they were pulling 
her farther and farther out and away from the safety of the beach
head. 

She let them, knowing the launch would pick them all up beyond 
the coral reefs. Jill took a deep breath and dove deep, hoping to 
catch a glimpse of pink skin or striped shorts.

She saw nothing.  Jill resurfaced.

Craig was stationing nearby looking further out along the rip 
streaming out past them. "Jill! Do you see him anywhere?"

She shook her head, "No, Where did he go? Chr*st, " she looked 
at her watch. "...it's been four minutes already."

Craig cursed, knowing that they were now well within the brain 
damage window time frame and he urgently looked out towards 
the kelp reef again.  He saw the launch already scanning its outer 
edge beyond the rough water where the rip's energy was dying. 
"The boat's covering the rip outlet. Standard search pattern. 
Go!" 

And he dove deep to the left.

Jill searched to the right.  A long half minute passed and they 
both saw nothing but murky brown blue. They resurfaced, 
gathered sustaining lungfuls before trying again. And again. 
Unsuccessfully.

Jill said, "Corkscrew. Up rip. From the bottom. We've got to risk 
it before we get too tired to try!"

"Ok.." Craig said. He knew the added risk she referred to was 
one he willingly gave on many rescue attempts. "Let's do it. I'm 
with you.." He gave the corkscrew sign to the launch so that they 
would plan for the lifeguards' safety as well with scuba geared 
backup if something should go wrong. He got his thumbs up 
from Newman in affirmation.

Jill and Craig began their dangerous free dive to the base of the 
rip's belly. Arching their sweeps in ever widening circles, they 
past each other from opposite directions thirty feet below the  
surface and each spiraled upwards in a column back towards 
the sunlight glimmering far above, letting the rip's force sweep 
them along its submerged tongue. Long seconds later, the sinking 
cap of current flattening his hair finally eased. They were almost 
at the terminal outlet!  Trevor most likely was already cast out of 
it ahead of them near the rocky seafloor.

Craig's lungs burned as the silence of the cold water around him 
turned the blood in his head into a shrill ringing in his ears from 
oxygen debt. He would have to come up for air soon. The pain 
in his chest was almost ruling him when a blessedly darker 
shape crossed his eyes.

 Jill's arm struck Trevor's limp body about the same time Craig's 
did. They each grabbed a pale purple arm and bore the Australian 
hastily to the surface.  The long trip up seemed to take an eternity and 
each moment that passed was a living hell for both the senior 
lifeguards as they ascended as fast as they could go. Was Cole 
dead? They saw no sign of motion in Trevor's limbs at all through 
the murk. 

The loud seawind's whine and the blinding white noon day sun 
immediately greeted Pomeroy as he broke the top. He shook 
stinging salt out of his eyes and he hyperventilated desperately 
to end his own frantic air hunger demand. Then he willed strength 
to drag Trevor up next to himself. Jill,  just moments later, pulled 
both their red rescue cans close for their buoyant, supporting help.

His trembling hands fouled on something cool and heavy 
around Trevor's neck as he rolled the man's unconscious face 
out of the water. "What th-?" Craig blurted out in surprise. A 
strange, intricate pearl and kelp necklace adorned his throat, 
not the fishing net or other sort of similar debris he had been 
expecting. ::This thing doesn't float at all.:: "Somebody had to 
have put this here." he coughed. "Might explain why he couldn't 
get out of the rip on his own or lift his head out."

Jill was nonplussed, "Forget it for now. Is he breathing?" she 
said, pulling the odd glimmering jewelry away from the front 
of Trevor's neck and chest. They were heavy. The gold filagree 
chain they were woven into, was too well made for either of 
them to break or even lift free from their victim. Gasping with 
effort, she helped Craig tip Trevor's head back over one of 
their rescue floats so that they would get the clear airway they 
needed. 

Craig listened carefully by Trevor's mouth and was surprised that 
he didn't see any of the deep blue of suffocation on his lips. 
Seconds later, comforting breath's mist warmed his cheek and 
below, he felt good movement in Trevor's chest from the tight 
bearhug he had around him. "Yeah. He's... uh... he seems to 
be fine. He's just out, that's all. Weird.. He's not even aspirated. 
There's no water in his mouth." he said, looking up at Jill 
with utter surprise. "I don't get it. He was under for five minutes! 
He shouldn't be breathing,.. But he is.." He laughed in sheer 
amazement.

"Are you sure?"Jill asked. "It's pretty wavy out here. Maybe the 
bumpy water's tricking you." and she stared hard at Trevor's 
mouth and chest trying to see what Craig could feel. She didn't 
trust the pulse she felt under her fingers to be one that wasn't 
in danger of fading away. 

"See for yourself. He's not even cyanotic." Craig shrugged and 
he waved unnecessarily for the launch's pickup approach.  Jill 
did another kind of check and covered Trevor's mouth with hers 
while sealing off his nose with a pinch. Almost immediately she 
felt a resistance to a test puff of air she blew into his lungs. An 
exhalation from a breath already healthily drawn met her own 
going in, with a conflicting rush of pressure. Jill released Trevor's 
face and looked up, wide eyed in disbelief.

Trevor WAS breathing easily, in no distress at all. 

Craig smiled and trilled the twilight zone theme spookily. "And 
the spectre of death shall have no power over any man 
who has no fear of the briny deep."

Jill set her mouth in a firm line, "Oh, ha ha.. " she said dryly, "Let's 
get Aquaman here ashore. If air exchange isn't his problem, this 
cold water sure will be soon enough."

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --

Mitch and Matt and Roy met the launch as it ground to a halt on the beach.
Mitch hardly looked at Trevor as he grabbed him under the arms,
"We've got the resuscitation equipment laid out by the truck. If
we hurry, we can--"

"You won't need it. " Craig drawled.

Mitch hesitated., shifting his grip as they carried Trevor over to a
backboard waiting on the sand. Craig sounded more...bored than 
anything else. "What?" Mitch blinked.

"He's breathing regularly like clockwork, Mitch. Only he's out like
a light."

The four of them eased Trevor onto his back and centered him on the
long board. Mitch put an 0/2 mask over his face and secured an 
airway. He felt for a carotid pulse in Trevor's clammy neck even
as Roy DeSoto started setting up a portable suction unit near
his easy reach.  

It was there. Mitch looked up, his face full of question marks. 
"I've got a pulse?"

"We can't understand it, either." Jill commented. 

Roy DeSoto, checking out Trevor's pupils for signs of hypoxia,
sighed. "Maybe he was getting to the top longer than you expected."

Matt hovered close, "How is he? I'm the one who spotted him. 
I got Jill a-and.."

Mitch couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. Here was a man
who had been caught underwater for over four minutes. And he was
still breathing... He shook his head, "I don't know.. I...he's...breathing
just ...fine," he didn't meet Jill and Craig's triumphant conspiracy of smirks.
"We'll have to wait until the rest of the paramedic gear gets here to be sure 
he's out of danger."

Roy DeSoto saw Trevor was deeply unconscious but in good shape otherwise.
He wasn't dyspneic even slightly and there was a new unnatural bright shade
of red rising into his face and chest. :: Acute sunburn?:: he wondered.
::I wonder if he heat stroked out there.::

Mitch cleared his throat, meeting his lifeguards' eyes in all serious business.
The anger rose up only then, "Just what the h*ll was he doing in the water?!
Matt said that there was no one in the area who was in trouble!"

Jill and Craig fought to keep straight faces.

Craig spoke up, combing some fingers through his hair, "Beats the
h*ll out of me.. Maybe there WAS someone else going down out there. I
don't know. I sent the launch back out on another sweep just to make 
sure."

Matt had noticed the strange necklace around Trevor's neck. He pulled
it free and held it up and his mouth flopped open, "Will ya look at these?!
They must be worth a fortune!" He pointed to an ornately marbled pearl 
that was the central piece, "Wow! This is a black pearl. Look at the size
of it!"

The pearl hardly fit into his hand.

"That bauble isn't our concern right now." Mitch told him, "Trevor is. Now
put that thing in the truck for safe keeping and go get a thermal blanket,
will ya?"

Matt blinked, "Oh, yeah, ..uh, right."  He went.

Mitch's walkie talkie crackled. It was the launch boat, 
##Tower 34, this is Rescue One.##

"Go ahead, Rescue." the lieutenant replied.

##Yeah, this is Kip here. Ahh, ...We've circled the perimeter of the rip,
and...there's..no sign of another victim.## The voice sounded sad and
uncomfortable.

Mitch reassured him, "Kip, tell the guys that there was a good chance
that this one was an error, that the club guard may have been ill, ok?"

Kip was heartened, ##Will do. Returning to base.##

Mitch wrapped up the run, "HQ, our man's ashore. Water sweep's clear.
Recall all responding lifeguard units to base. Tower 34 out."

Craig crossed his arms together, "So there goes that theory. If anyone had
been in trouble, the patrol would've found them by now." He frowned,
"Matt, what did Trevor see out there?"

The teen had finished laying a foil blanket over his partner's still form, 
"A perfect ten." he answered.

"Hmm?" Mitch queried.

Matt clarified, " 'A gorgeous blonde.' " he said. I didn't see anyone 
except Mrs. Fishmeyer. And all of us know that Mrs. Fishmeyer is
far from being blonde, or a perfect ten."

The men laughed. Jill kicked Matt in the butt, "Cute, Matt, Th-that's 
real cute." she said sarcastically.

Matt went on, ignoring Jill, " I figure he got a little too much sun. He 
was acting a little funny."

"He ALWAYS acts a little funny." the rest said as one. Everyone 
exchanged surprised looks at their mutual outbursts echoed out
of everyone else.

Mitch shrugged off the jinxed moment, "Well how do you explain
that strange necklace?"

No one had an easy answer.

Roy nodded for Mitch to move his body out of the way while
he listened closely to Trevor's ribcage for breath sounds with
a stethoscope from the O2 bag. "He's still clear. So far so--"

Under Mitch's hands, Trevor began coughing and struggling wildly.
The 0/2 mask went flying. It took all of them to hold him down.

"Hey, hey. Hey." Craig yelled, "Just take it easy. You're out and 
on the beach."

"NO!" Trevor screamed, "You don't understand! SHE'S out there.
Y-You've got to get her out of there!! *gasp*"

"Stop fighting us a second, Cole." Jill shouted firmly.

Trevor quieted, rolling over onto his side to spit out some salt.
"..oh.." he moaned.

"Easy.." said Roy, helping him get it out.

Everyone else, except Mitch, began talking all at once.

The whole situation was a little too weird, even for the one who
was supposed to have seen it all before. Mitch rubbed his face with
a hand in irritated frustration, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute! Just..
Shhh!" he hissed.

Everybody moused down. Silence reigned except for the waves
and seabird cries. 

"Not you, Trevor! I want you to shed some light on this whole
thing!"

Trevor croaked meekly, "Well...what do you want to know?"
he said, turning back over onto the board.

Mitch let out all of his breath in one long, controlled sigh,
"Trev,...WHO'S out there?"

"A girl. My girl, uh..." he changed track. "A dreamy blonde.
She was out there by the reef buoy.." Trevor answered dutifully.

"Annnd?" Mitch encouraged with irritation.

"A-and she wanted me to go out....."

Mitch smiled, "That's better." Honey dripped from his voice.

"....there." Trevor finished, pointing out to sea.

"WHAT?!"

Jill piped up, "Whoa. Whoa. Mitch, ....let me try." Jill was dubious. 
"Trevor, when we got to you, you were alone. The launch just
confirmed it."

Cole looked at all the faces riging around him one by one, "No
way. No way!" his voice cracked. "Guys, I KNOW what I saw..."

Jill stood, "Yeah? Right! This is probably just another stunt of yours
trying to get me to start paying attention to you. Well, I've got news
for you. It's not going to work. "Going out into that rip was really
stupid, Trevor. You know that?"

"Jill, keep it down." stage whispered Craig. "You're gathering a crowd."

"We ALWAYS gather a crowd, or haven't you noticed?" she tossed
back, acidly sweet.

Mitch was determined to keep things civil, "Uh,.please don't..." he
pleaded. Craig and Jill stopped. Inwardly, Mitch gawked. His two senior 
guards actually listened to him for once. Mitch could've gaped at them 
all day..but there was pressing business at hand. "Trevor,..from the top..."

Trevor dropped his head, with a hollow clunk, back onto the long board,
"I tell you, I saw her. There was something.. a big green fish or--... You
see, ..there was this tail....a-and..."

Craig speculated, "It was pretty choppy out there. It was hard to see
much of anything, let alone fine detail. Perhaps one of your teenaged
devotees was playing a practical joke on you..."

"Good for her.." Jill quipped. "She almost managed to end your 
useless l-"

"JILL!" Mitch roared.

The blonde woman stifled into tolerable rumbles.

By now, Trevor was nearly overcome with shaky exhaustion,
"I tell you.. I-I never saw that girl before in my life!" Tears
threatened to burst free, "She w-was so beautiful.."

"Try and relax now." Roy DeSoto comforted, feeling Trevor's wrist
for an updated pulse quality check. "Help is on the way. You'll
feel much better if you don't try and move around too much."

Trevor grabbed his arm, "So beautiful.. like a siren from Greek
Mythology."

Jill had had enough. She wasn't buying another minute of such
b*llcr*p. "Oh for Pete's sake! You're not really going to BELIEVE
him? Next, he'll probably tell us he saw a frickin' MERMAID!...I'm
going to go wait for the ambulance until it comes. Call me if
you need me."  She stormed off.

Mitch was muttled. He tried a different tact. "Listen, Trevor.. we all
know how sometimes a skipped workout or forgetting to take in fluids
can sometimes cause a cramp. So, why don't you just drop the charade
and adm--"

The distraught man nearly levitated, "I haven't missed a single morning's
workout and I never, EVER go on duty without drinking PLENTY of water 
before, during, and after my working shift. Just ask Matt here!"

Matt Brody smiled in unconvincing support.


::Uh oh.:: Craig thought. ::Mitch absolutely hates conversations like this.::
He decided to sit out the coming ringside rounds by putting away the
0/2 apparatus. Craig was securing the last strap in its housing when
something glittered into the corner of his eye from the sand at the 
waterline. 

Curious, he strode down to the hard pack and scooped up
the object before the next wave scurried it away.

Mitch and Trevor were still at it when he sauntered back over to them.

Roy gamely got a blood pressure off of the downed lifeguard despite all
the noise. He chose to keep out of the conversation wisely.

"All right, already!" the shaken Australian shouted. "Perhaps the sun
WAS a little too warm today. Perhaps I didn't see anything. Perhaps....
I was hallucinating! But I tell you, it was the most realistic hallucination
I've ever seen. I mean, I could HEAR her, smell her perfume.."

Mitch narrowed his eyes, shrugged, and mulled over it, licking dry lips.
Finally he said, "You'd be surprised by what sunstroke can lead you
to believe.."

Trevor was incredulous, "Sunstroke? Sunstr--?!" he broke off, miffed.
"All right, have it your way, guys. I didn't..see..a thing. To Jill, I was 
playing up to her. To you Mitch, I had a cramp brought on by too much
sun! Ok. Fine! I didn't see ANYTHING real at ALL!"

Trevor let his head fall back, ( Matt missed catching it) with a heavy
clunk (Roy winced) and folded his arms crossly.
  
"Then how do you explain this?" a voice interjected. It was Craig.
He tossed the object he had found onto Trevor's chest.

It was an exquisite ivory comb encrusted with what could only be
myriads of emeralds, rubies and more of those eerie black pearls.

The group was stunned. 

Trevor stuttered. "Q-Quit joking with me, guys. This isn't funny."

"Well, neither is this!" Matt said flinging the intricate pearl 
and seaweed shell necklace to Cole. "We found THAT, around
your neck."

Trevor paled at the heavy weight and undeniable reality of the
crusting jewels held in this hands.

Mitch extricated the delicate comb from Trevor's numb fingers.
He gave a low whistle of appreciation. "This has got to be worth
millions..Craig, I think we should give Garner Ellerbe 
and Vince Howard a call."

"Yeah.." he entoned, slinking off to the Venice Beach skate 
path to do the errand.

Trevor laid back down again, "I-I-I don't feel well all of the sudden.
uh...This isn't happening to me." and he started shivering even as
his rich tan washed into transparency.

Mitch pulled the blanket more snugly around Trevor's shoulders,
"Whoops, it's shock closing the gap. Don't fret, mate." he soothed.
"Maybe that girl you saw WAS a mermaid."  He laughed heartily
as he replaced the fallen resuscitator mask back onto Trevor's
face.

Trevor Cole didn't smile. 
For once, Trevor Cole had nothing to say.

Roy DeSoto picked up his radio and notified Sid in dispatch
of the vital signs he had taken and asked for the ETA of
the ambulance coming to the beach tarmack parking lot near
their lifeguard tower. "Baywatch, I've a male, around 24 years of age.
Submersion blackout, now conscious with possible associated 
sun poisoning. Vitals signs are : BP 90/54, Pulse 120. Respirations
are normal at 16 on ten liters of O2. Notify the attendants that
we may need cooling measures."

##Copy, Baywatch 7. Relaying to Malibu General Dispatch.##

--  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --  --
Photo: Craig Pomeroy swimming.

Photo: Jill Riley running with a rescue can. 

Photo : Jill searching underwater for a victim. 

Photo : Mitch on a close rescue on the sand.

Photo: Roy DeSoto, on the beach. 

Photo: Matt Brody, spotting trouble. 

Photo: Trevor Cole, choking on the beach. 

Photo: A mermaid girl. 

Photo : A lifeguard huddle giving beach care, aerial shot.

 
****************************************************************
From:  "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Sun Feb 13, 2005  5:36 pm 
Subject:  Something Fishy..

 
Hobie was free.  It was Saturday; he didn't have to worry 
about anything at all. No chores, no junior lifeguards,..
nothing except the smooth ribbon of concrete weaving under
his lime green roller blades. And about his two new buddies, who
were an infuriating fifteen feet in front of him, "Chris! Carly!
No fair ducking underneath couple's arms. We race the straight
way, up the middle!" Hobie sucked in the wind between his teeth 
and skated like mad down the asphalt path after his two friends.

Carly laughed, doing a 360 around a bikini clad, walkman 
infested jogger, "What's the matter Hobie? Getting old? Let's go!"

"Yeah!" Chris DeSoto echoed, "Hurry up or we'll miss her!"

"Miss who?" Hobie wheezed as the three of them hit the top
landing of the Fifth Street stairs starting the descent down 
to the beach sand dunes below. They vaulted over the edge....

"AhhhHHHHHH!!!" Their three kid voices sang in terrified treble.

Plastic wheels vibrated down the stone steps, threatening to
rattle the neon helmets off of their heads. Rocketing momentum
carried the trio bladers down and across the sidewalk flats at the
bottom, startling a mob of frisbee players collected along the 
ocean wall, "Hey, look out!" one of them yelled, "What are ya
doing? Trying to kill someone?!"

Hobie sliced up the sharp curve with ease, "That's the idea, mister.."

"Yeahhh!" Carly hooted. 

"You guys are only worth ten points, though." Chris added.

"How come only ten?" a blonde stud asked.

Chris howled, "Because you look like a Neanderthal, man. My
dad's got better lookin legs than you do."

"Why you--!!"

The brown-headed boy easily dodged a low flying beer can.

Hobie smirked. He was pulling ahead, "Come on you slackers! Get
the lead out!!"

The seabirds were getting louder by the second now. Hobie looked
down the path in eager anticipation. Deadman's Curve lay ahead
and he knew he was going too fast... He couldn't help it, a blood
curdling scream got out, "OhhhHHH  SHHIIIII---------!"

Fortunately, his skates banked the sharp left through no volition
of their own. Hobie felt his right skate clip the leaves off an
overgrown border hedge inches away from the retaining wall's steep
drop off. He opened his eyes and was amazed to find that he was 
still alive. Buoyed, Hobie surged ahead. "Ha!" he thought, "Now I'll
show them. It's time for the grand finale."

A second flight of stairs neared. Hobie swiveled, backwards,
"Top this, dudes!" he challenged.

He was airborne.

Chris and Carly gaped as their friend spun once, high in 
the air. Hobie landed neatly at the bottom. Still grinning, the blonde
boy smiled at his own tenacity. He saw that his two pals had chickened
out at the last minute, buzzing the stairs nose forward. Hobie
Buchannon crowed, "Scud wads! I'm champion of the world!"

Hobie turned ahead, pleased with his success, when the sidewalk 
ran out. 

He had a brief impression of tan sand and blue sky. Twice. Then
he hit like a ballistic brick. A huge plume of granite crystals sprayed
high into the air. And down in a powdered arch of golden color..

Two teenagers sat up from their towels with a cry, their piled backs
festooned in earthen khaki sparkles.

"Bummer, man." Carly called from the safety of the landing. 

Chris squeaked in mirth, unable to talk. 

Hobie was further humiliated when two highschool aged girls rushed 
up to him, "Oh!" they fluttered, "Are you ok, little boy?"

Hobie sat up, spitting out sand, "Yeah," he said holding up his detached
red helmet, "Saved by five pounds of fiberglass." Hobie faked a moan. The
girls huddled in closer. "Do me a favor, huh? Would ya kiss my owie?" he
pointed to a scraped knee.  

His would be rescuers straightened, "We're not that stupid. Don't 
press your luck, kid. Why don't you flag down that more attractive 
lifeguard over there?" They jogged off. 

Hobie looked toward the nearest tower with brightening eyes, "Hey, yeah,
I never thought of that ang--"

A huge Arnold Swartzenegger type was assessing Hobie's status 
through his binoculars. Hobie shot to his feet and waved his healthiest
hand vigorously. The lifeguard turned away.

Carly and Chris died on the sand, 
"Crashed and burned!"
"Strung and hung!"
"Shut up!" Hobie scowled.
"Ooo, we're quaking." Chris teased.
Carly looked up from the skate she was unlacing, "Are you two snagwads
finished yet? Look, uh, Hobie, when you're done feeling sorry for
yourself, she's right over there."

Hobie chucked off his last skate, "Where?"

"Over by the jetty, man. You blind?"  

Carly was already light years ahead of the two of them, stepping
over the rocks at the foot of the jetty. She began gesticulately wildly,
"There she is! Come on you guys!!"

Hobie stood, but he didn't move.

"What's the matter, Hobe?" Chris asked.

"I-I can't go out there.."

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous."

"Awww, who says?"

"My dad does. He says the rocks are loose out there. You could
fall in."

"Oh," Chris huffed, an irate hand on a hip, "And for that we're
just supposed to forget the whole thing? Not me. Suit yourself."
The irish boy lugged his skates onto a shoulder and took off for
the jetty.

Hobie fidgetted. If he was spotted on the jetty by the lifeguard,
his dad would probably find out about it. Most likely, he'd be
grounded for a whole month! But he really wanted to know who
"she" was....

Gingerly, Hobie looked up and down the beach. He saw that his
lifeguard sentinel had gone into the water for a workout. And
there were no beach patrol trucks in sight... Maybe if he was only
out there for a minute.. then immediately back again..

Hobie made up his mind, and ran after his friends.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Garner was eating lunch. A huge chili dog and onions, insisted on
spilling all over his shoes. He groaned, trying in vain to stuff two
thirs of it into his mouth as he walked the beach. A seabird dove
low at his face."Akk! Get away!" Garner only succeeded in losing 
even more cheese onto his shirt, "Ah, wonderful. Just.."

He heard the sound of truck tires behind him. He turned. It
was Craig Pomeroy on pier patrol. With him was Vince Howard.
The slender lifeguard grinned in recognition. "Hi, Garner. How's 
it hangin'?" His eyes flickered to the mess running down the 
policeman's shirt. 

"Very funny. Did you see that? I nearly lost an eye to one of
those d*mned seagulls!"

Craig shrugged, "Well, you are eating on their beach.. and you
do look well fed and kinda slow."

Garner stopped chewing. "What does that supposed to mean?"

"Good pickings. You were easy to steal from."

Vince Howard stifled a chuckle. "A paramedic friend of mine
considers them just as foul feathered as you do."

"Glad somebody shares the sentiment. They're an absolute menace!
They should trade places with the Passenger Pigeons, man,
and become extinct!"



A commotion drew away their attention. They heard thrashing
inside some bushes from behind a retaining wall in one of the
beach front backyards. It was followed by furious watch dog 
growls and sounds of struggle. There was a hollow thud, and
suddenly, the frantic barking ending in a keening whine and 
silence. 

Garner instinctively ducked behind Craig's truck. He opened 
the passenger side door, keeping low, "Something definitely
odd's going on over there."

Vince drew out his gun and set it muzzle forward onto
the dash board, leaving the safety on. "Let's get under some cover."

Craig nodded, waiting for Garner to get inside of the cab. Then
he drove the yellow truck into the shadows beneath some low
fronded palm trees a short distance away from the beseiged house. 

They all froze as a wooden slated crate dropped right in from of 
the truck's bumper. Two black trousered legs inched down the wall 
and a unmasked robber dropped onto the beach sand. The figure's 
eyes were so intent on the beach crowds that he never noticed the
beach truck behind him. Hands picked up the crate and the
prowler started creeping down the fence line. Garner motioned
Craig to sink down into his seat. Then he too, drew out his gun. 
"Freeze, mister! Police!"

The intruder whirled and saw Garner shielded behind one truck
door, Vince behind he other, and the wink of two badges. 

He ran out into the bright sunlight.

Garner flew out of the truck, "He's unarmed! Call it in!" he shouted
after putting his gun away. Ellerbee took off after him, motoring
powerfully. "Halt! Or I'll shoot!" he said anyway. Vince followed
him close on his heels, holstering his weapon as well.

The robber ignored him, gaining speed in spite of having the heavy
crate in his arms.

"Aww, man." This was just what Garner hated. An unknown assailant
loose in crowds of innocent people. He forced himself to go faster.

"What's the problem?!" Vince shouted to him as they ran side by
side together in chasing pursuit.

"A far too common tactic. He's trying to ditch us in the crowd!"

Craig saw them chase onto the sand along the water. He grabbed 
the C.B mic, "Baywatch! This is Pomeroy! I'm just shy of the seventh
street cul de saac. Garner and Vince are in pursuit of a man in a black 
jump suit. It looks like a robbery in progress. A pet dog was probably 
killed. Roll police jeeps my way on the double! The suspect's heading 
north."

"10-4, Craig, " Sid answered, "They're on the way."

Craig spun tires as he went after them. He didn't know what to
do except be a visual reference for the coming police units.
He followed the chase a short distance away, clearing the beach
with his lights and siren. Beach flockers fled to either side of the 
activity with startled cries. Garner felt more confident with each 
passing second. So far, the robber either had no other weapon, or
he wasn't planning on using it. And the man didn't appear to be in
the greatest of physical shape either.

The intruder stumbled and grabbed a child. He hurled him into Garner
with one arm, holding tightly to the crate with the other. Garner caught
the screaming little one and absorbed the impact by rolling with him
onto the sand. He sat up cradling the boy's head, checking him over,
"You're ok, son." Garner ferociously waved Craig on ahead to intercept
the burglar. "He's ok. He's ok! Craig! Vince! Go on!"

When Craig saw the tiny boy go down, something inside of him 
snapped. "..No.." The he saw Garner wave that the child was
uninjured and to stay on the man. 

He did so, literally. He cranked the sirens to full volume and
sped inches away from the man's heels...

Garner was left behind.
 
Vince jumped onto the landing of the lifeguard truck, hanging on
by the mirror so Craig could get him closer. "Get me closer!
I'll try to tackle him!"


Up ahead, breathing hard, the running crook saw the red flashing 
lights up the beach from the other responding police units coming 
toward him from the north.

He swerved away from the ocean, making for the pedestrian tunnel.

"Oh, no you don't!" Craig cut him off and the robber's hip bounced 
glancingly off the truck's fender.

It was time to end this chase, once and for all...

"Hang on Vince, I'm about to try something.." he warned
the Los Angeles County cop, clinging like a leech, to 
his passenger door.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hobie negotiated the last of the salty stones at the end
of the jetty. 

"There she is!" Carly called in triumph.

Hobie couldn't believe his eyes.

A small, gray dolphin frolicked in the water. Her
body was fully covered with steel blue freckles from
nose to tail and a light pink flushed her belly. She
was quite near the humans, chuckling merrily.

"Close your mouth, Hobe, or you'll gather fruit flies." 
Chris quipped.

"Huh? I wonder if she's tame."

"Of course she is, Dumbo. Why else would a dolphin
like to follow people?" Carly smiled. "When we left
her this morning, she hung around by us all the way
back to the beach."

"She followed you?"

"Sure. Watch!"

Carly and Chris started down by the water's edge to
a ledge traversing the length of the manmade jetty. It's
width was very narrow.

"Be careful you guys." Hobie cautioned, as a wave sprayed
them all in a cloudy mist.

"We will." Carly said, "But you're going to have to come
with us or she won't go along."

Reluctantly, Hobie jumped down to the ledge, clinging to the
back wall like glue. The waves made him dizzy.
"Come on!!" His friends yelled over the sea's crashing din.
Hobie went. Deep inside, he was thrilling at the nearness of
the cavorting animal. She seemed to stick closest to him, 
chattering to herself all the while.

They made it to the pathway at the foot of the jetty near
the concession stands in three minutes.

"Whew," Carly sighed, "I'm thirsty. Let's go get something
to drink."

"Yeah!" Chris cheered.

Hobie stopped them with a hand, "Wait a minute." he
beamed. "I've got a great idea!"

"What?" came two echoes.

"Let's go get some fish to feed Suzy."

"Why did you name her that?" Chris asked.

"Because I liked it. Well, how about it?"

His two buddies agreed, "Let's do it."

They ran around the concession stand to the bait shop
behind it. The three children had barely enough money to buy
fifty small mackerels in a styrofoam bucket.

"Must be a good day for fishing, eh, kids?" the baitman
laughed, "Gonna catch a big one for sure?"

"We already have." Chris said seriously.

"Oh, yeah? How big?"

All three of them stretchd out their arms as wide as
they could reach. "Bigger than THIS!" the blonde haired
Carly claimed, as they ran away excitedly.

"Yeah, sure." the fat man mumbled as he turned back to
his work, "Everybody's a storyteller these days."


Hobie and his friends had a wonderful time feeding Suzy.
They were so absorbed in their task, that they failed to
notice a shadowy figure sheltering under the concession 
stand eaves. The figure spoke. "She's being a pig, guys, 
but I'd go easy on the mackerel. She might get a sore 
stomach if she overeats."

The children whirled about. The dolphin started a happy
chorus and began leaping in huge archs over and over 
again in a noisy spectacle. Hobie couldn't figure that out.
Suzy wasn't acting that way before the woman came,
"Boy, she really seems to know you.." he exclaimed.

The seated woman smiled and began braiding her long
blonde hair, "Coincidence, I'm sure. See the ripples next
to the sea wall? The dolphin's spotted a school of scalpin
there. That's why she's excited."

Carly and Chris were a shy act and stayed by the dolphin.
Hobie went nearer to the skinny lady. Only then did Hobie
see that she was confined to a wheelchair. He didn't ask
about it. "What's your name? I'm Hobie Buchannon."

"That's a solid sounding name. Glad to meet you, Hobie.
I'm Cory Davison."

"Hi. The two rude ones over there are Carly and
Chris."

"I know. Carly and I are very acquainted with each other."

Hobie went on eagerly, not really hearing what Cory had 
just said. "They're the ones who found Suzy..."

The small woman frowned, "Su- Suzy?"

"Yeah, the dolphin. I named her." Hobie clarified.

"That's not her name." Cory said softly.

Hobie didn't quite catch what she said, "Pardon me?"

"Oh, nothing."

Hobie smiled politely and went back to his friends. Chris
poked him in the ribs with a discreet elbow, "She's
a little on the weird side, wouldn't you say?"

"Her?!" Hobie asked, jerking his head over to Cory.

Chris nodded. 

"Nah,..she's just a little preoccupied, that's all." said
Hobie. "Something's made her very very sad, I think."

---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Photos: None.

*************************************************************
From:  Sam Iam <lafddispatcher@y...> 
Date:  Wed Feb 16, 2005  11:00 am 
Subject:  A Story To Tell..
 

Craig decided to get the man into his element. He pulled hard 
on the beach truck's wheel to the left, forcing the fugitive to
either head for the water or get run over by two tons of Chevy
truck.

A high wave tripped the robber, making him drop his precious
load. Pounds of jewels and museum artifacts poured out onto
the sand and kelp piles.

Craig's eyebrows rose, "Just look at that, will you?" he mumbled
to Vince as dozens of beachgoers scooped up the glittering booty
in greedy handfuls.

Two black and whites burst into the circle of looters,
"Don't move an inch, people!"

The arrival of the police jeeps froze everyone in their tracks.

The treasure hit the sand musically as people abandoned their
finds.

Vince and Craig and a third police unit stayed on the thief's trail,
keeping track of the man's whereabouts even through the ensuing
hubbub of the excited crowds.

Craig timed the waves and drove the truck as far onto the hard
pack as he dared.

Quite suddenly, the man dove directly into the sea, heading out.

"Got you!" Craig said as he screeched to a halt, flicking off the siren.

He stepped out of the truck but kept the rover's lights flashing 
brightly for Baywatch backup to see from the tower.

Garner caught up with them, puffing badly, "He's getting away..."

Craig just smiled. "Not in those clothes he isn't." he sighed in
effected boredom, "Shall I go get him?" he asked, putting on the 
elastic band of his rescue can, "You're too tired to go for a swim."

"Ha. Ha. Just be careful. He may have a knife or something."
Garner said.

Vince, just stood there, laughing. "I get it. He's as good as sunk.
Literally."

"You guessed it." said Craig. "I'll be right back."

Pomeroy went in, neatly diving under the huge waves. The man
in black, on the other hand, was taking the full force of each wave
into his face.  The man sputtered, feeling the pull of his weighted 
clothing , trying to bear him down.

Craig noticed his troubles. "Hey mister!" he shouted across the
twenty feet separating them. "You're gonna haveta kick off your
boots and pants soon, or you're not gonna make it."

The robber coughed, "I'm doing * choke* fine.. Just stay away, ok?"

"Look, uh, sir, either you can come back to the beach now or I'll
get you after you sink in a few minutes."

"Just shut up, lifeboy. I'm trying to concentrate here."

Craig shrugged amicably, "Suit yourself.." He waited patiently, floating
easily on his can.

The exhausted robber took in a mouthful of seawater and nearly lost
his fight to remain at the surface.

Craig hovered near, pushing his float towards the man, "I think you
oughta take this now. You get any more water into your lungs, and
you'll end up getting pneumonia for sure."

"I said shut up!" He lunged for Craig, who neatly pinned him in 
a shoulder tow grip. The robber was effectively immobilized.
All the fight went out of the man and he went limp, out cold, from
emotional stress.

Craig kept the man's head out of the water as he swam him to
shore, "Why do you thief guys always do this the hard way? You can't
win." He tightened his grip, "Hang on, we're almost there." he said
out of pity into the man's ear.

On the beach, a second lifeguard team had seen Craig begin his
game of wait and fetch and was now set with a warm blanket for
the comatose crook. 

Johnny Gage was with them, standing over medical gear. 

Craig couldn't help but snicker at his leisurely accomplishment. 
He would be sure to not let Garner hear the end of it any time soon.
The lifeguard looked down and felt a surge of compassion for
his victim. "I wonder what drove you to steal that stuff?"

On the hot sands, Garner Ellerbe wasn't so nuturing, he just itched to 
slap on a pair of solid steel handcuffs around his quarry's wrists. "Did 
ya have ta hurt him at all?" he asked Craig, pausing before he even 
touched the robber's limp hands.

"Nah, he fainted before any blows were needed." Craig answered.
"Go ahead and restrain him."

"Simple syncope?" Johnny Gage asked Craig, waiting for the cops with him
to search the man for hidden weapons or more jewels from the museum
crate.

"Most likely. His pulse's real regular. But he might be a bit bubbly. He 
was breathing in water more than he was hurtling threats. I'd say a 
mouthful or two got in."

On cue, the man woke up, rolled over, and promptly puked on the sand.

Gage scrambled backwards a few feet and moved to the man's other
side to take a blood pressure. He grinned, "Sir, never ever swim on a full 
stomach. It'll always come back and bite ya. Didn't your mother ever tell you 
that?" His next question to the groaning crook was straight to the point, "How
are ya doing?"

"Just peachy.. thanks. I want my lawyer. Now!" he gagged.

"You'll get one, mister, have no doubt of that. Can you tell us
your name?" asked Vince.

The robber buried his cheek in the dry sand, trying to rub some
of the wet sand off his mouth and lips. "I've a right to remain 
silent.. I've a...*cough* right to an attorney. Anything I say can
and will be used against me in a--"

"..court of law. Yeah, yeah. Ok, Johnny, you can go ahead with
that oxygen.." said Vince. "I'll get his I.D. from the wallet they
just found in the yard next to the home owner's.. 
*he winked at the others*..dead dog." he said listening to his radio.

"That mutt's not dead!" came the robber's muffled angry reply. "I 
only tranquilized him with a dart gun." he spat through his oxygen
mask.

Vince crouched down near the man's head. "Thanks for the confession, 
bud. Let's see, evading arrest, assault of a minor, and now ARMED 
robbery added as an upgrade." he said, writing into his report book 
with a delighted flourish. "Keep it coming, mac. Honesty's real good 
for the soul."

The robber clammed up, gritting his teeth hard for flapping his
gums too much.

Vince went on, "Craig, they doubly tied up the dog. According to
a neighbor, he's a watch dog tracker, who might decide to come 
after a few pieces of this guy as pay back."

"That's fair enough justice in my book. Turn him loose!" Garner said sharply,
smiling hard. Then he guffawed loud and long to beat the band.
"I recognized the crate, boys. I ran by it where it was sitting on the hood
of a police jeep, while getting that kid back to his mother. It's from the 
La Jolla Museum's Atlantis exhibit. Those artifacts were on our photo 
briefing board at HQ as merchandise to watch out for on the black market 
and in Venice Beach pawn shops."

"No kidding. Anything missing?" Vince asked him.

"Don't know yet. My boys are going over the sand with metal
detectors right now. We'll check that house out later, too,
for any more stolen items." Garner replied.

Gage cared for the man until the next set of paramedics
on the arriving street ambulance took over. "Simple faint. Mild
seawater ingestion. Elevated BP. Negative on cardiac symptoms.
The O2's precautionary for the syncope.." he reported.

Then he stepped back and the robber was carted off.

After the rig's sirens had died away, he turned to Garner, smiling, 
"Any bet on your lunch still being intact on top of that picnic table? 
I saw the birds harrassing you from the watch tower."

"You fellas were watching me?" grumbled Garner, trying to be happy.

"What else were we supposed to do? We're firemen trying
to learn about your trade. Of course we were watching you, we're
supposed to be acting like lifeguards, remember?"

Garner wasn't pleased that anyone saw the reason why his chili 
spilled down the front of his shirt so he said nothing, concentrating
instead on getting the sand out of his shoes, socks and shorts
by brushing his hands over them and much body shaking.

Craig crossed his arms over his chest and just waited for
the outcome of the current conversation. This was deep into Garner 
pet peeve territory. ::If Jill Riley were here, she'd think this
was funny as h*ll.::

The Los Angeles County firefighter paramedic stopped needling
Garner immediately and surprisingly turned politely accommodating.
"Tell you what. Let Vince and I buy you a replacement lunch.
We've learned more about beach policing today than we're ever
gonna learn at our convention. Maybe you and Craig here can
share a few more beach tricks of the trade. Like that herding stunt 
both of you used to end the chase. Chet Kelly was literally rolling 
on the floor because he was laughing so hard at the sheer simplicity 
of it." Johnny smiled. "You should've heard him. The lifeguards thought
he was having a down and out coronary." he chuckled.

Craig Pomeroy blinked in utter astonishment when Garner Ellerbe 
took them up on the offer, chattering animatedly. "O.k. Done. 
Who's this Chet Kelly fellow?"

"Uhh, you'll like him. Needles worse than I do and he's a master
prankster. And he really looks up to authority figures. Cap makes
him cower all the time." Johnny related. "I tell you, he'll be the 
perfect listening audience for all your stories, Sergeant Ellerbe."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

 
***************************************************************************
From:  "Cory Anda" <andacory@h...> 
Date:  Wed Feb 16, 2005  12:30 pm 
Subject:  Girl Talk and Guy Talk
 
It was busy in the breakroom. Two radios were going at the
same time. Most of the male lifeguards were clustered around
the coffee machine, listening to the Oakland A's game and they
were getting louder by the second. 

Shauni McLane turned up the volume on her own radio. It was
a news update on the status of the escaped dolphin last seen
around Crystal Pier.
 
##...........Coast Guard officials lost the marine mammal when the
animal disappeared into a coral cove too shallow for the 
capturing clipper vessel to continue following. ##

"Yeyy! She got away!" Shauni celebrated.

Jill looked up from her Smithsonian magazine, "Hmm?"

"The released dolphin some crazy guys let go from the Naval
Institute. It's still free.."

"Oh, oh. oh. ok." Jill sniffed, figuring it out. "It's a shame 
it won't live for long."

"Won't live f-- Jill, what do you mean?" Shauni asked.

Jill chewed on her reading glasses, "Think about it. All this
creature has known is the confines of an eighty by three
hundred foot tank. There, it knew no sharks, or fishing nets,
or even the reality of a large, open area. The sheer size of the
sea has got to be overwhelming to the poor thing. Yeah, I'd
say the odds are stacked against him."

"Her." Shauni corrected, clearly becoming distraught at her
friend's speculations.

"Whatever. Shauni, it sounds like this is really getting to you.
Maybe you should stop listening to all the new flashes until 
things settle down."

Shauni sat a little straighter in her chair, "I don't think I'm over
reacting. It's just that dolphins are ...so....cute.."

Jill stifled the broad smile threatening to surface, "Uh, huh. And..
you want to know what uses the Navy might have planned for her
in case she ends up back at the Institute?"

"Well, that thought did cross my mind." Shauni admitted.
 
Jill relaxed into her seat, once again amazed at people's
curiosity over dolphins. 

---------------

As a graduate student, Jill Riley had once been as attracted to them. 
In fact, Jill had spent four years on an exploration vessel traveling 
the world, filming the friendly animals.

And she had past up one or two marriage proposals because of her
rich devotion to her work. Jill liked to think that those failed 
relationships hadn't effected her; she was wrong. Eventually, Jill
linked up with a biology professor at the University of San Diego
as a teaching assistant. 

One day, Dr. Croft and she were in his office, grading papers, when
he suddenly collapsed from a massive heart attack. Jill was horrified.
She didn't know what to do for him. She had never taken a first aid class
in her life. It took only two minutes for CPR trained people to arrive but
nothing seemed to help. Dr. Croft was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Jill never forgot that day. She felt herself entirely at fault. She couldn't
stop thinking that somehow, her own ineptness could have possibly
contributed to her mentor's early death.

She abandoned her job at the college and enrolled herself into every
first aid class she could find, vowing never to be caught unprepared in 
such a situation ever again. Her new schooling took her into the budding
paramedical field with Karen, the first female paramedic in Los Angeles,
and then onto beach lifeguarding.

That had been seven years ago; but she never forgot her time with
the dolphins. They were always going to be a part of her, like Professor
Croft had once been.

-------------------------------------

Jill Riley smiled at her young friend, "Uses for dolphins,.. oh, let me see now."
She met Shauni's gaze with a reluctant look, "What do you want first? The
good news or the bad news?"

"Give it to me straight, " Shauni breathed, "I can't stand it."

"Well, ... the navy has been known to...strap bombs on their backs..and--"

Shauni sucked in her breath, "Ooo, they don't!" she fervently wished.
 
Jill bit her lip, nodding. "Yeah, they do. I once saw some photographs
from Pig's Bay, Cuba, where a dolphin took out a passenger ferry
liner accidently instead of his target dummy boat. I mean, there was
absolutely nothing lef--" she broke off. "I'm sorry, you didn't want to
hear that." Jill frowned.

Shauni held up her hands in supplication. "No, no. It's all right.
I asked for it." She took a huge gulp of her coffee and grimaced;
it was cold.

Jill was at a loss for words. She opted to remain silent. 

Shauni frowned in a sudden thought, "How can our government 
let this stuff go on? It IS still going on, right?" she answered her
own question, "It HAS to be or why else would the Institute be so
secretive and their training programs for dolphins.. There's got
to be a reason why those activists have been causing trouble over
there for so long... Man, there's got to be an easier way than using
animals for military research and development."

Eddie Kramer came walking by with a bag of popcorn. He had overheard
part of their conversation. He held out the rare snack. "Found a packet
that no one else knew about.. Want some?"

Jill dug in eagerly. Eddie noticed Shauni's unusual lack of interest
in the buttered morsels, "Shauni?"

She didn't hear him, eyes growing full and moist.

Jill spoke up around a crumbly mouthful. "She's worried about
the dolphin."

"Oh, " Eddie nodded. He turned to his fiancee and hugged her
from behind, waving the steaming bag under her trembling chin.
"MMm, don't these look good?" he snatched up a few and held 
them to her mouth, "Come on, eat me." he said in a tiny cartoon
voice, pleading in baby talk, "Eat me, Shauni, plleassse..."

Shauni's face showed a whisper of a grin. 

"There you go, " Eddie said in a normal tone, "Got one out of you
that time. I love your smiles. I never get sick of them. Come on,
quit worrying about poor ol' Flipper. She'll soon be safe at home."

"At home just in time to be a living bomb!" Shauni countered.
 
Eddie scratched his head in confusion, his attention was already
half back onto the Oakland game, "Shauni, don't make such a big
deal out of all this. Some animals.. are... are just meant to serve man."

Shauni scoffed, eyes blazing. "As pieces of meat to torture
and maim all for the sake of science?"

Eddie covered his mouth in horror. ::Oh, boy.:: he thought. ::Now, I 
really opened up a can of worms.:: He tried to reiterate, "I didn't
mean that. I-I- I'm just as opposed to rabbits and mice being used
to test new make up products as ..as..as you are." He smiled at
his own reasoning ability, "And I'm sure that there are plenty of
roles that dolphins fill that are good, too. Am I right, Jill?"

The blonde woman looked up from a volley ball game on TV, "Hmm?
Oh, yeah, uh, plenty. The Navy had a dolphin in the sixties, named Tuffy,
who was actually a deep sea "lifeguard" of sorts. He used to carry a rescue
line to divers who became lost in the murk around a sea station and showed
them the way back to Sea Lab in just a few minutes. Tuffy was creditted 
for saving twelve lives."

Shauni brightened measurably. "Really?" she sniffed.

Jill nodded vigorously. "Absolutely."

"Maybe that's what our dolphin does and maybe that's why they
want her back so badly. Cause she's so valuable."

"Could be. Could be." Jill touted, happy that Shauni was perking
up.

Shaui began eating what was left of Eddie's popcorn. She
got a far away look in her eyes. "Yeah, that's what she does.
She saves lives. Just like me.."

Sitting behind her, Eddie got a little too enthusiastic over the game.
"Way to go, team! What a way to blow them to smithereens!!"

Shauni's smile paled into a shocked look and she erupted into
tearful, sobbing keens.

Jill slugged Eddie with her magazine, "Way to go Mr. Psychology,
now you've REALLY cheered her up a whole bunch!"

Eddie regarded his co-workers with a genuine dismay and he
promptly enveloped Shauni in a deep hug, stroking her hair and
murmuring reassurances. "What?! What did I say now?
Shh, baby. Easy. Don't cry. You know I hate it whenever you do
that."

"It's the old social foot in the mouth again, Shauni, so give him
some slack. Guys are completely clueless to that genetic blunder
because a little of their gray matter was sacrificed solely for
the inclusion of more muscles. They know not what they do."
Jill sighed, in whispered confidentiality to her young rookie 
lifeguard.

Shauni laughed and nodded, reaching for a kleenix.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.
 
***************************************************************
From:  "Clairissa Fox" <canaryyello01@yahoo.co.uk>   
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 07:53:06 +0000 (GMT) 
Subject: [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Shirt Trick... 


Shauni had made it back to Tower 34 just in the nick of time.
It was three o'clock on the nose. Eddie had gone on patrol and
had left her alone for a short time. She glassed the water with a 
practiced sweep. The rip current had died to harmless swirls. 

The alert, was over. It was easy to relax. Even the swimmers sensed
the sea had become calmer, for they laughed and splashed louder
than ever among the tide's incoming waves. Shauni scanned for
trouble spots and looked to the slate stone jetty in a routine check.

She delighted in what she saw. The errant dolphin was there
spouting streams onto three kids at the jetty's foot. A woman in
a wheelchair was with them but she remained well away from the 
edge of the steep rock piles. Shauni noticed that one of the boys
was Mitch Buchannon's son, who wasn't supposed to be out by
that part of the beach. Shauni shrugged, she didn't know why
Hobie wasn't allowed to hand around the jetty neighborhood.
He was playing it safe enough by staying on the cement causeway.

The blonde lifeguard put on her sunglasses and refocused her
attention back to the shallows in front of her tower. She made a
mental note to ask Hobie how much fun it was to play with and
feed a tamed dolphin. She couldn't help but feel a little envious.
::Oh, well.:: she thought. ::There'll be time for that later.::

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They had run out of fish from their third bucket. Hobie felt that
Cory had enjoyed feeding the dolphin more than the rest of them
put together. Suzy acted differently towards her. Between mackerels,
she always returned to a certain spot, just touching Cory's outstretched
hand with her head, before racing off again after a tossed fish.

It made him feel a little jealous. Chris and Carly had already become bored
and had left for Baywatch HQ. He considered doing the same thing.

"Wait a minute. Want to see something neat?" Cory asked him.

"Yeah, sure."

Cory looked around in her hand bag, not finding something,
"I wanted to show you a trick that all dolphins can do with a little
encouragement. I need something to wrap up one of these rocks
down here by my feet."

"You mean this rock?" Hobie asked as he hefted a grapefruit sized
chunk of stone.

"Umm. Hmm. " she accepted the boulder. Her grip was surprisingly
strong, "Yep. Now I need a piece of cloth to put this in. Find me a 
scrap, and I'll show you something that'll knock your socks off."

Unceremoniously, Hobie peeled off his shirt and presented it to 
his new friend.

Cory blinked, "I can't use this. It's going to get wet."

"That's ok, I can always dry it when I skate back home
again for dinner." 

"All right." The crippled woman bound the stone within Hobie's red
striped shirt. When she was through, she tossed the stone into the 
water beside the dolphin. "Now," she breathed. "Raise an arm over 
your head and pretend that you're throwing a baseball. Then tell
Suzie to fetch the toy. She'll do it."

Hobie was skeptical. He couldn't even believe he handed over
his favorite shirt. He figured it was gone for good, so he had
nothing further to lose by humoring her and doing what she asked,
"Fetch, Suzie! Fetch the toy!" He swung an arm out over the water.

Unseen, Cory put something to her mouth and blew. 

The dolphin moved.
And dove deep, disappearing for several seconds. 

The sodden mass flipped out to land by Hobie's feet. The dolphin 
chattered happily.

"Wow! How did she do that?" Hobie said, retrieving his soaking shirt.

"Dolphins are really intelligent animals. Rather like a family dog."
Cory replied.

"But dogs have to be TRAINED to do tricks." Hobie insisted.

"You've forgotten. Koko is tame."

Hobie spent a minute wringing out his shirt. "I know SHE is, but
..what I want to know is h--?"

A scuffle of thongs on pavement broke his concentration. It
was Eddie Kramer, "I see you found the little daredevil everybody's
been looking for. She gave the Coast Guard boys quite a chase."

Hobie looked up and grinned, "Yeah.. Cory here says th--"

"Who?"

Hobie looked around. Cory Davison was gone.
"She was here a minute ago."

Eddie fixed Hobie with an all business glower,
"Uh, huh, and your shirt just happened to blow into the water
way over here by the jetty on its own while you were just roller
blading." 

"Well, ..ah,...no."

"I'm waiting, then how did it get wet?"

"The dolphin fetched it for me. She's real smart! Er,.. That
woman, er, who's gone, ..wrapped my shirt up around a stone
and.."

Eddie was unmoved, "Sounds like a line to me..."

"No, really! It's the truth!"

"Hobie..." he warned.

Hobie shut up.

"I thought you were supposed to be a junior lifeguard. You know
the dangers out here by the jetty better than anybody. Your
dad isn't going to like this."

The remorseful boy looked at his stocking feet. "So you're
going to tell him?"

"Maybe," Eddie said, hefting his can onto a shoulder, "Maybe not."

Hobie looked up, a desperate hope in his eyes, "You mean?"

Eddie interrupted him, "Provided that you are out of here in five
seconds. I'm counting.. one,.....two...."

Hobie scooped up his skates and made tracks, "I'm gone. Bye, Eddie."
The boy disappeared instantly.

Eddie shook his head ruefully, "Kids today; they'll do anything."
He turned toward the sea and was greeted by a treble warble. He
crouched down, "Hey ya, girl. Are you going to cause trouble for me?"

The dolphin chirped companionably.

Eddie smiled. "Yeah, well, I think I'll stick around for a little while."

His instincts were right on. It wasn't too long before he was nearly
run over by a cluster of excited children, cheering over their 
discovery of the famous dolphin from the new flashes.
"Hey, hey, hey. Be careful, " Eddie warned, "Those rocks are
slippery." He looked to the hyperactive creature by his feet.
Then he laughed, "It looks like you're gonna be a pied piper to 
every kid in the neighborhood." 

The marine mammal leaped happily.

"Ok, guess I can stick around and make sure you all stay safe."
Eddie retreated to an open space to keep an eye on things.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.

************************************************************************
From:  Jeremy H <skydivingstreaker@y...> 
Date:  Thu Feb 17, 2005  2:44 am 
Subject:  The Dawn Spell


  
Trevor awoke the next morning in a cold sweat. All night he
had dreamed of swirling water and of the beautiful woman in the surf.
He turned to the clock on his nightstand and found that he had only slept
three hours. He laid back down again..

Sleep came next to impossible. Finally, he got up and threw on a flannel shirt 
and a pair of Levi jeans.

Trevor Cole walked to the beach to listen to the calming sound of the waves.

He sat on a well known rock to watch the newly rising sun. The sky was a 
brilliant pale red behind him and the seafoam was dashed pink at his feet.
He looked around him, surprised that so few people were enjoying the dawn,
as he was.

Trevor heard a splash to his left. With a sudden start, he peered out into
the water. He was just in time to see a tail slide under the surface. He ran
closer to the waterline, his heart hammering in his chest. ::Not again.:: he
thought. 

But he saw nothing else. "A sea lion, yeah. That's what I saw." he said aloud.
His head still hurt from his near drowning two days ago and a cough
came up unbidden from deep inside Trevor's lungs. He sat down once
more, shivering. The doctor had said Trevor had been very lucky. He had
only suffered a mild case of sun poisoning. 

It was his fever that had driven him into the water. The Australian suffered
another chill, recalling that day. The whole numbing experience still had a 
very powerful hold on his emotions. There was a dim fear that wasn't ever
there before.

The off-duty club lifeguard stood and began to walk, ghosts hounding every
step.

He ended up at Crystal Pier. Here, too, was devoid of people. The restaurant
at the end of the walkway was still closed. Trevor leaned over a rail and looked
deeply into the sea. Warm winds caressed his face, making his eyes water.
Slowly, a semblance of peace settled gently over him.

He thought he was alone, until he saw her.

A blonde haired woman sat, almost obscured, in one corner of the deck.
She was staring at the horizon with a far away expression on her face.

"Hello." Trevor smiled.

The woman jolted, a shocked look on her features."Oh, hi!..I- I didn't hear
you approach."

"I didn't mean to frighten you, sorry."

The young woman brushed away the hair from her eyes, "You haven't. 
I just didn't expect to find anyone up so early."

Trevor smiled politely but didn't say anything in return. He rested his forehead
on top of his arms propped along the white railing. The headache was
back again, and growing. 

"I've come to this place every day for the last ten years, and I've never 
seen anyone so depressed by the beauty of a dawn on the ocean. 
Want to talk about it?" Cory finally said.

Trevor sighed. "Am I so transparent?"

"Yup."

He regarded this stranger in a new light. She had long hair the color
of the purest fire. Her eyes were the greenest he had ever seen. Her 
oval face was set with a quiet patience and she had wrinkles by her 
mouth that told of an almost perpetual smile. She was wearing a jacket
that matched her eyes and a blue plaid blanket lay, covering her lap.
Strangely, Trevor found himself spilling out his soul to her. He discovered
she was hanging on his every word, intently.
"....so then I got a clean bill of health and was released from the hospital.
You know, I still can't figure out who or what I saw out there."

"Maybe your friend Mitch was right.. Perhaps you were seeing things.."
Cory whispered.

"No chance of that, the other lifeguards found a weird piece of jewelry
around my throat when they dragged me out."

The small woman said nothing.

It was beginning to cloud over; California was going to get its share of
rain. Trevor looked at the sky. "Say, it's really getting dark. How about
I walk you home?"

She looked up with a wry smile.

"What's so funny?" Trevor asked.

"That's going to be a little difficult to do.." she said, folding up her
blanket.  That's when Trevor Cole realized she was in a wheel chair
with her legs locked tight into it. Taken aback, Trevor apologized and
offered to push her home."Thanks, but I'll manage. Say, listen. If 
you ever want to talk again,I'm here this same time just about every 
morning." She turned to wheel away. Just then, a shaft of sunlight 
burst through the cloud cover and bathed the both of them in a golden haze.

"Hey, do I know you?" Trevor asked.

But the woman was already out of earshot and blending into the fog
as she moved away.

Trevor succumbed to the wishes of his body and sat down once
more on his favorite rock to rest a few minutes later. His eyes closed.
He blinked and a frighteningly vivid hallucination of a wolf, sniffed
at his bare toes buried in the sand.

Sweating, Trevor screwed his eyes shut until the growling stopped.
He finally acknowledged that his fever was back once again to plague
his very thoughts.

A truck pulled up along side of him and he snapped from his reverie. He
recognized Craig Pomeroy from the public beach and Roy DeSoto, 
the paramedic from the suburbs who had taken care of him the
day he had fallen sick, "Hi.." he ventured.

"How are you feeling today, Trevor?" Craig asked, genuinely concerned
for his former charge. "We saw you out here by yourself, looking a little
green."

"I'm not going swimming again if that's what you mean." he smiled weakly. 
He frowned. "Maybe I am still sick.." Trevor looked up with worn eyes. "I
imagined I saw something in the water again today."

"No you didn't." said Roy DeSoto, answering easily. "There's a tamed dolphin
loose. He's been wreaking havoc on us for three days. People keep drowning
themselves to see him."

Trevor had to smile at that.

Craig opened the door of the yellow beach truck. "Come on, How about coming
to HQ with us for a cup of piping hot coffee? It looks like it's going to rain
any second now."

Trevor felt the first drops fall onto his shoulders. "Sounds like a plan." He stood.
"Are you sure all the women won't lynch me once I'm there?"

Craig grinned. "Been that much of a pest to the lifeguards, eh?"

Trevor slowly eased himself into the cab seat next to Roy. "Guess I must've
been a big one. Say, fellas, on your way here, did you happen to see a blonde
haired woman in a wheel chair leaving the pier's beach area?"

"Nope. She a friend?" Roy asked Trevor.

"Nah, I just met her this morning. But I swear to you, I've seen her 
somewhere before."

"Did you catch her name?" Craig asked. "Maybe I know it."

Trevor frowned. "That's funny... I don't KNOW what her name is." He 
moaned in frustration. It was one more thing to worry about. 

"Don't get worked up about it." Roy soothed. "A few aspirin to lower 
your sun fever and two cups of caffeine ought to jar your memory. If 
you'd like, I'll take a look at you to see how you're really doing once we 
get there."

They drove off.

Behind them, the song of a dolphin mingled with the rain.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Trevor in the arms of Cory Davison.

Photo:  Wheelchair view of a pier and ocean water.

Photo:  A wolf running the beach near a man's bare feet.

Photo:  Roy and Craig Pomeroy with a beach truck.

**************************************************************
From:  "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Feb 17, 2005  10:45 am 
Subject:  Life's Lessons~~


Cory wheeled up the ramp of her apartment. It was the first time
she had been home for days. She had stayed with her old friend
Linda and helped her dog whelp fifteen Labrador puppies while
her daughter Carly was away at junior lifeguards' camp.
  
There was an official notice on the door frame. Cory ripped it
down with shaking hands. It outlined a search warrant and a 
copy of the police report telling of the robbery that had occurred.
And of the drugging of her dog, Kujo.

Cory unlocked the door after reassuring herself that Kujo was
fully recovered and well fed. She hurried inside frantically. 
Inside, she found all of her things were undisturbed, except 
for the crate. It was missing.

Cory eased herself onto her bed. Her dolphin drawings had been neatly
stacked in a pile and a handwritten note from one of the visiting officers
lay next to them. It scrawled how much he had admired her artwork
how he had personally made sure the house was re-secured with locked
windows.

Somehow, that innocent intrusion was nerve wracking. She hugged
one sketch tightly to her breast. It was a pastel of the little golden
dolphin statue.

Cory's will snapped and she started to cry swollen tears without
a sound. The drawing swam before her eyes, "Oh, Koko, they've
found me. I-I was going to give all of the treasure back. It..it was
wrong to keep it for so long.. I wasn't thinking.. I  wasn't !!"  Cory beat
her dead legs in frustration with hard fists. The pain in her hands
finally made her stop.

She lay back down on her pillow, staring deep into the eyes of
the dolphin drawing, "You are the answer to all my dreams. 
Koko, I won't let them take you away from me!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The rain had completely burned away in the brilliant sunlight.
Mitch's office glowed in yellow warmth. Mitch Buchannon got up
from his filing and twisted the venetian blinds shut.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in.." Mitch invited. He looked up.

A black and white photograph appeared in the open doorway.
"Look familiar, Mitch?" Garner said as he stepped into the room
with Vince Howard.

Mitch made his guess, "Yeah. Isn't that a photo of the jewelry we
pulled off of Trevor Cole's neck? And that's the comb Craig found."

"Right on." said Vince. "The stuff is priceless. The comb alone is
worth a cool 2.6 million."

"Whoa...." Mitch's boggled. "I wonder who's losing sleep at night over
these things."

Garner smiled. "The La Jolla City Cultural Museum. They reported one
of their shipping crates as missing earlier this morning."

"No kidding." Mitch said, "Why'd they wait so long to report it?"

"Now that's the interesting part of the story.." replied Vince, shuffling
through the arrest folder he had brought with him.

"Try me. Coffee, gentlemen?" he held out a cup to Garner first.
The ebony policeman shook his head vehemently, "No thanks. You 
lifeguards keep feeding me enough as it is.." He split a gut, remembering
the chase Mitch had only read about. "Ha! Mitch you should have seen
Craig pulling out our man, looking as smug as you please."

"You mean the robber who dumped all of his goods out onto the beach
while trying to get away from you guys?"

"Umm hmm. Trevor's necklace, comb and that crate belong to a new exhibit
opening up next week. The missing artifacts were accidently SENT to the wrong
address by courier. Our robber had a serious beef with the UPS system and he
figured he'd right things properly, once and for all, on his own." Garner related.

Mitch gawked. "Not the museum curator?!"

"The one and the same." said Vince. "All he had to do was check out the only
other address in town that was nearly identical to the museum's own address.
N. Seventh Street as opposed to S. Seventh Street.. All of the stuff was there
except for one thing, a small gold statue of a dolphin."

"And you found the statue in the house."

"Yes," said Garner, "And before you pounce all over me, the search and seizure
we did in your district on the beach was legit, although the owner wasn't home
at the time. We're still trying to locate her. The residence belongs to a one
Cory Davison, an ex-Navy scientist of eight years."

"It gets stranger.. and it's probably nothing. But my boys, Johnny Gage
and Roy DeSoto treated her daughter, Carly, the other day in school for a 
near fatal flare of a preexisting medical condition."

"Small world. She ok?"

"Who? The house owner or the daughter?" Garner asked.

"Both."

"They're fine. Carly's at Baywatch right now in camp and the watch tower
says that they saw house lights go on over at the Davison house
earlier this morning. Cory's finally returned home. At least, she was
there then. They haven't seen signs of her since."

"Gonna go talk with her?" Mitch asked. "What does she look like?"

Vince Howard handed him a dossier and a photo of Cory.

"She's beautiful. Are you going to press charges for mail theft?"

"No. During the search, we found a letter she had written to the museum.
She was going to send the crate back to where it belonged when she
was ripped off." Vince said.

Mitch set Cory's photo down onto the corner of his desk.

There was another knock at the door.

"Come in." said Garner and Mitch in stereo. They looked at each
other in a mild double take. 

Two Coast Guard officials entered. One of them said, "Excuse me, lieutenant?"

"Buchannon." Mitch finished for him, taking his hand in return greeting.
"What can I do for you?"

"One of our helicopter pilots has sighted an escaped naval dolphin in your area.
I'm sure you've heard about it."

Garner piped up. "We sure have. He's been running these lifeguards completely
ragged."

Mitch agreed wholeheartedly with Garner. "As he so bluntly put it. Yes, we have.
We've heard and seen the results of your dolphin's encounters especially."

"Yes, sir. It, unfortunately, got away from us. We were wondering whether or not
a joint operation could be set up to recapture the animal using our trainers and your
lifeguards. You see, we were thinking about using nets and--"

"Look out!"

Hobie Buchannon skated into the room and collided with his father's desk. He
came nose to nose with Cory's photograph and read the name typed in bold
print at the bottom, "Cory Davison, huh.." he breathed. Then he saw the military
men with the Naval Institute's logo all over their uniforms. His heart took a leap.

They were coming for the dolphin! He tried not to show the trepidation on his face.

Mitch was startled. "Hobie? What are you doing here? Can't you see that I'm
a little busy right now?"

Hobie was crestfallen, "Gee, dad. I thought we were going to have lunch
together with all the firemen, both paramedics and Chris DeSoto."

Mitch edged around the desk, "Excuse me gentlemen. This will only take
a moment." He grabbed Hobie by the shoulders and started wheeling his
son out the door, "How many times have I told you not to skate inside
headquarters? You'll scuff the floor." Mitch smiled politely over his shoulders
at his visitors.

Hobie was oblivious to the finer points of etiquette, "You'll never guess what I
found yesterday...."

"A dolphin."

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I'm clairvoyant. Now would you mind getting out of here? Tell Station 51
to take a raincheck. Craig'll be more than happy to take them all on the 
noon day sand sweep in my place. Besides, he makes a better cross
occupational ambassador."

"Sure, no problem. One more thing, dad."

But his father was already half inside the office again. "I don't have time
to talk right now, Hobie.."

Hobie called out after him, loudly. "It's about the picture of the lady on your
desk. I ran into her a few days ago. I think she's a dolphin trainer who's
worked with the escaped dolphin!" 

But Mitch wasn't listening anymore. "Later!" came the faint reply.

Hobie shrugged and skated for the front door. He nearly ran into
Shauni around the corner.

"Whoa there!" she burbled as she caught him and saved them both
a tangled fall to the floor. "Where's the fire?"

"Sorry, Shauni." Hobie wriggled out of her arms and got out of there.

She preceeded on to Mitch's crowded office.

Hobie's voice floated back towards her, "I wouldn't go in there if I were
you..." he warned.

::Uh, oh.:: she thought. Another father/son disagreement. 
She knew well, how those went. They still happened between herself
and her OWN dad.

--------------------------------------------

For twenty one years, Shauni had had to butt heads with him.. over
everything: Which school she would attend, which cheerleading team to 
join, what clothes she was to wear. It was all very nauseating. She had
absolutely no sense of individuality because Daddy had created her in
the image that he wanted to see. Just to appease her own frustrations,
Shauni started carrying out interests of her own, secretly. Like her modelling.
::Now that had fit well with Daddy's wishes.:: she thought ironically.
::Not.:: Shauni didn't even bother to tell him the amount of money she landed
as a clothed exotic dancer in a nightclub her senior year in high school.

The real problems began when she had started dating. Every guy had to be a
doctor or a lawyer straight out of Yale with a six digit paycheck. ::Daddy
was always the perfect matchmaker.:: Shauni frowned.

But it was plain ol' Eddie Kramer who encouraged her to break away from
the well do to Mr. McLane's devices to become whomever she wanted to be,
no matter what. One of the first things they did away from Daddy McLane,
was to go through lifeguard training together and then she moved out,
despite a storm of protests. Only the law and the fact that Shauni was
already a three years legal adult that kept Daddy McLane from 
pursuing them and taking her home again with him to the McLane Mansion.

Naturally, Shauni fell in love with Eddie. For he was the first person who 
had ever respected her as the separate, living, FEELING individual she
was who still had hopes and aspirations going on that were very different 
from those of his own. And he had never, ever stifled her; not even once.

And that made Shauni feel truly loved for the first time in her life.
::Now the true test'll actually be marrying him and then having children of our
own.:: she mused. ::Will we allow our kids the freedom to be themselves
too?::  Shauni hoped that she had learned that lesson well enough in
time for them.

She smiled, thinking how wonderful it would be if they would turn out
as free as Hobie Buchannon seemed to be.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shauni steeled herself and entered Mitch's ready room.

Four heads in close conference looked up. 

"Shauni, what can I do for you?" Mitch piped up.
She handed him a stack of index cards, "Here are the rescue
cards for the last past week. You requested only those ones
that involved the tame dolphin in some way."

"Ah, great." Mitch smiled in relief, "Just in time." He took them from
her and slapped them into the palms of the highest ranking navy official.
"Nine people have nearly drown because of your freed dolphin. One of them, 
was a beach front lifeguard. I'll do anything to get rid of it." he said
firmly, his eyes sparkling with anger.

The big man aquiesced, "Ok. Let's get to work then. Here's what I've
got outlined so far." and he started to recite his plans coordinating
lifeguard clippers and coastline helicopters.

Shauni turned to leave, then she turned back again after a slight hesitation.
"Uh,, Mitch?"

"Yes?!" he whispered, in barely contained fury.

"I saw Hobie hanging around the jetty neighborhood yesterday."
she said, thinking she was being protective of the child. "I thought you'd
like to know that."

"Hobie? He knows he's not supposed to go there. Where is he?"

Shauni pantomimed rollerblading, shrugged both shoulders, and left.

Mitch really had a hard time concentrating on the schematics of the 
huge dolphin "safari" operation after that.

The official's voice droned on, "So, would this course of action be
acceptable to you, Lieutenant?"

Mitch looked up, "Hmm?"

Garner and Vince nearly choked on their donuts, laughing hard 
behind his back. 

They retreated to the sanctuary of their beach four wheelers before
they could destroy any more of Mitch's dignity.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Hobie, minus his skates, dejectedly tromped up the ramp leading to 
Eddie's tower. He slumped wordlessly into the canvas chair next to
him.

The older red trunked man mimicked the boy's actions and slumped
just as low into his own chair. Hobie was mildy surprised when Eddie
didn't ask what was bothering him. In fact, it looked like Eddie was
feeling a little down, too.

The boy broke the silence. "Did you lose a swimmer today?"

"Nope." Eddie said, not looking at him. "Lover's quarrel."

"Oh."

Hobie killed a moment by juggling with Eddie's sunglasses,
binoculars, and a civilian CPR book.

"Neat trick." Eddie said unenthusiastically.

"Thanks."

Pretty soon, Hobie got bored with counting all of the gorgeous babes
he saw walking by in front of him. "Wanna talk about your problem?"

"If you talk about yours." Eddie countered. "You first."

"Ok, pretend that you are dad."

"Shoot."

Hobie took in a deep breath, imagining his father's face in front
of him. "Dad, you told."

"He did?!.....uh, I mean. I did?"

"Yeah! Two muscleheads are with you now going over the big dolphin
hunting trip details!"

Eddie ran some fingers through his hair, "Oooo, rough, uh.. *cough*
What can I do, son? She has to go. People have gotten themselves in 
a lot of trouble trying to get closer to her. Would you want to be held
responsible for their lives?"

"No."

"Well, I am, Hobie. I have to worry about the thousands of people who
come to the beach every day, expecting me and my guards to keep 
them safe."

Then, a big, almost grown up, eleven year old boy, started to cry.

Eddie startled, pulling his feet down from the tower railing. "Oh, geesh.."
He put a reluctant hand on Hobie's shoulder. He hated it when kids cried
too. He saw at least ten of them every day. He hated it especially when
one of them was a close friend. "Aww, Hobe. Show some backbone.
Just think, she'll be going home soon now and won't be starving anymore."

Hobie's tears flooded anew. "But I wanted mom to see her!!"

"Look, I know how difficult this is for you; when you want something so
bad.. that...that ..that you can almost taste it." He nodded encouragingly.

"No you don't. *sob*"

"Sure I do. Listen.." Eddie guided Hobie's head to his red jacketted shoulder
and held him close. "When I was nine, I found a puppy that didn't belong to me.
I had him for two whole months before my dad located his real owners. My dad
then told me, that I had to give him up..  That night, they came to take him away.
I ran to my room and locked the door so I wouldn't hear them come inside the house
to get him. When the front door closed for the final time, I couldn't resist peeking
out my window. There I saw that the pupply belonged to a little boy, even younger
than I was, and that he was crying...because he was so happy to see his
Little Lucky again. Later, in school, I kept picturing how many nights that boy must've
stayed awake worrying about Lucky and wondering whether or not he'd ever see him
again. ...Then I understood, Someone ELSE needed that puppy more than I did and
that it was very wrong to keep him apart from those who originally loved him."

Hobie slowly stopped crying and just sat there, nestled in Eddie's arms.

Eddie didn't want to move, "So you see, Hobe. That dolphin has a place
where she belongs and it's up to all of us as lifeguards, to take her back there."

Hobie thought hard about the boy, and the puppy, ...and Suzy.

Finally, he found his inner peace.

------------------------------------------------------

Photos:  None.

***********************************************
From:  "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandraRey@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Thu Feb 17, 2005  10:57 am 
Subject:  The Glow in the Water..


Captain Stanley and the rest of the gang was enjoying
toying around the strand in their beach trucks, paired
off by twos together and shadowed by trucks, driven each, by
a Baywatch team. Stoker was driving the sand hose truck,
a sort of lifeguard fire jeep that had compressors that could
pump out seawater from the ocean and turn it into fire
supressant foam from short nozzles anchored onto
a frame on top of the yellow truck's rooftop.

They were surprised by how large Baywatch's service area
was, ten whole miles running north and south along a narrow
stretch of beach.

Soon, the gang stopped at the far north end of HQ territory,
where the public beach ended and the private neighborhood's
began.

Six beach trucks pulled up for lunch near a large affluent 
storm drain sticking out of a cliff face at the surf line.

"Phew.." Cap complained to Craig, the senior guard who
was heading up their roving day trip on the beach. "Do
your storm drains always smell this bad?"

Craig Pomeroy shrugged. "That's part of the reason why I brought
you and your men out here. We're to collect water samples
from that to see what kind of effect it's having on the
reef out by the jetty. We typically test for fecal coliform 
counts, too. Once a week. The last samples of hair collected
from surfer fatalities from this spring has shown elevated 
levels of heavy metals coming from this pipe."

"Yeah, but I'm smelling something different today." said 
Captain Stanley. "It's more like raw petroleum runoff."

"Really?" asked Craig, "I can't tell. My nose's still plugged up from
hitting the water so much pulling people out from around that
dolphin yesterday."

"Would you mind if me and my men take in some equipment 
from the trucks and go check it out?" Cap wondered. 
"Something's not right here."

"Be my guest. Assessing pollution leaks, aren't exactly, our forte'."
Pomeroy admitted. "I'll radio in our plans to HQ after we've
got lunch grilling. Then, I wanna check out that jetty. There are
kids out there again who're ignoring the high sea wave warning
signs. Can your pipe inspection wait until after lunch?"

Cap turned his head into the wind appreciatively and was
soundly fooled by the ocean's salty tang. "I guess another hour 
won't hurt any. Let's eat. Mike Stoker's already volunteered to fry 
the chicken."
 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hobie was on the jetty.

He didn't know why he was there, it just turned out that way.
He was on the storm ledge again, working his way out to sea.

The violent waves made him dizzy, splashing on either side of him.
He closed his eyes to steady himself. When Hobie reopened them, he
saw that he had found what he was looking for.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mitch walked onto the main deck of Baywatch. He went over
to the main duty watch guard at the windows, "Bird eye my son,
would you? I need to talk with him. Real bad." His foul mood
permeated the room.

Every lesser ranked lifeguard tried to disappear behind slates and
retaining walls. Mitch split the air. "Have any of you guys seen Hobie?!"

Jill and Trevor Cole looked up from their coffee cups. Jill responded,
"I saw him at Eddie's tower a half an hour ago. He looked pretty upset."

"Upset? I'll show him upset.." Mitch growled. "Trevor, you're with me.
Jill, go call Eddie and see if he can spot him, will ya? Hobie's got some
explaining to do." He grabbed up the required red rescue can he had to 
keep with him into his palm. Mitch turned on his walkie talkie and hooked it
to his belt, "We'll be on the boulevard, Jill. Buzz me when you find him.
Come on, Trevor.. Move it!"

A rookie spoke up to no one in particular. "Eee, I feel sorry for Hobie."

"Hobie?" jibed her companion, admirer's hearts in her eyes, "I feel
sorry for Trevor.."

Jill spit coffee all over her newspaper.



Trevor had to run to keep up. "Why are you using me as a partner on
foot patrol?"

"Because the rest of my men are with a group of firemen on the far side
of the beach taking water samples, that's why.."

Mitch didn't even hear the bustle of the crowds whizzing around him
on their bikes and skates. His binoculars were glued to his head. 

Trevor peeled off his shirt as their fast walking pace drew sweat. "Why
are we going to see Hobie?" he asked.

Mitch told him, "Because I just found out that he didn't level with me
about being at the jetty a bunch of times this week with his new camp
friends. My son's never lied to me this badly before." He jumped when 
his radio beeped. He answered it, "Riley? Go ahead."

##Eddie said he left to the north about five minutes ago.##

"Ok, thanks. I owe you one." he turned to his companion, "How much
do you want to bet he took his friends out to go see that dolphin again?"

"He's spotted it?"

"I'll say, Shauni's said that he even fed the thing fish to keep it around."

They continued toward the jetty neighborhood. Mitch put down his binoculars,
remembering something. "How are YOU doing? I forgot that you're still on
the sick list.." and he slowed down his ferocious walking pace to a crawl, out
of deference to Trevor's less than top notch condition.
"Going back to work soon?"

"Day after tomorrow. I figured that going back to work as soon as I'm cleared
will help me get my mind off that woman I saw."

"Still think she was real?" Mitch wondered.

"I don't know. That memory's still a real fuzzy mystery."
Trevor admitted, wiping sweat off of his brow. He only 
faintly started puffing, out of breath from their exertions.

This time, both of them jumped when Mitch's radio beeped
again. 

"Buchannon. Go ahead."

It was Manney, the watch guard in HQ. ##Lieutenant. We've
found Hobie.##

"Where?"

##Climbing on the 5th Street Jetty at the beach terminus with
Carly Davison and Chris DeSoto..##

Mitch scowled. "That tears it.. I'm gonna kill him.."
He walked faster.

They were almost there when Garner Ellerbe and Vince Howard
flagged them down..

----------------------------------------------------------------

She was there, swimming in the last place Hobie had seen the
dolphin. It was a woman with long blonde hair in a shimmering green
bathing suit. Her back was to all three of them.

Chris DeSoto went closer to her, "H-Hey there.. H-Have you seen
a dolphin around here anywhere?  We saw it yesterday and--"

The woman turned to face the three children, a look of surprise on
her face. It was Cory Davison!

Carly was shocked. "Mom, you're the one Hobie says the police are looking for?!"

Cory shook her head in desperate denial, moving away from them.
A sleek dolphin erupted to the surface, blowing powerfully.

The paralyzed woman was sitting on its back!

She cried out. "Oh, no!  Carly, take your friends home! This was
supposed to be OUR secret!" and she tapped Koko's head with
her hand and blew on her whistle, making the dolphin turn around
to start heading for deeper water and the concealing late
afternoon fog bank that was forming there.

Hobie scrambled along the ledge, trying to keep up with Cory
and Koko, "Hey, Cory! Wait a minute! I just want to help you--"

At that moment, a stench of strong fuel from the nearby affluent pipe
filled his nose and made him gag. His foot slipped on a slick boulder
and he tumbled head first into the deep froth. He had no time to cry
out.

"No!" Cory screamed. "Koko! Forward!" She and the other kids tried
to grab him but a wave swept him away out of sight. Cory guided Koko
nearer to the jetty. The animal swam with great strength over the next
wave's crest and down.

But Hobie was gone.

Just then, a nearby street jogger on top of the beach cliff, tossed down
a lit cigarette carelessly to dispose of it into the ocean.

Instead of landing on water. It landed inside the drainage pipe.

And ignited it.

A huge explosion ripped out of the five foot high tube of concrete
and fire spread on a gushing oil slick spurting out onto the surface
of the sea. It surrounded the jetty where the two frightened children
were standing. They started screaming.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey Garner? What's up?" Mitch asked, tossing his can into the air.

Garner puffed as he caught his breath, "I just wanted to tell you
that we found out more about Cory Davison. Apparently, she's
a dolphin trainer who knows the escaped animal."

Mitch stopped in his tracks, "Hobie KNEW that. He tried to tell me.
I wouldn't listen." He started moving again. "Hobie's probably with
her and the dolphin right now trying to fix things up."

"Great! Perhaps she can help us capture it.." Vince said. The four of
them rounded the last bend leading to the overlook.

Trevor went white as a sheet, looking through his binoculars, and
stumbled.

"Trevor?" Mitch asked. 

Garner and Vince grabbed the Australian's shoulders in support.

"What's wrong? Are you ill again?"

Cole stared blankly ahead, letting the binoculars fall through numb
fingers. "It's her.." he pointed to a far distant woman in the water
near the jetty. "She's the one I saw in the surf the day I almost drown."

They all beheld what looked for all the world, like a mermaid. Complete
with a gray tail.

Then the walkie talkie sound an alert.  A swimmer was in trouble somewhere.
Sid the dispatcher's voice came over the radio. ##To any available unit.
We've a boy off the jetty. Who's rolling?##

Mitch choked. "Hobie!!" He started running, dropping his radio, using
his can as a barrier to protect his legs and face as he slid down through
a tangle of bushes choking the length of the sandy cliff's face, to the 
beach below.

He didn't hear Eddie come over the line, but Garner and Vince did.
##Truck Two, responding. We're on our way. Baywatch, we see 
a 10-92 at the same location. Repeat, a land and sea 10-92 in 
progress at the jetty! Multiple casualties in the water!!##

"A fire?" Trevor gasped, staring down the beachhead where Mitch
had hastily descended. "From where? There's nothing but rock
and concrete out there!"

"Come on, we'll give you a ride!" shouted Garner and Vince.
"We'll get there faster than Mitch will, using the four wheelers!"

Without thinking, Trevor Cole scooped up Mitch's abandoned radio
and leaped on board Vince's sand bike. "Ok, let's go.."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The whole 51 gang, on the beachhead, flinched and hit the sand
when the affluent pipe lit up in their faces with the angry explosion 
of fire violated fuel. The air over the beach soon filled with burning 
fuel droplets that rained down onto all of them from far above their 
heads.

"Into the water! Go.. go ..GO!!" shouted Craig and the other lifeguards.

Chet Kelly shouted when his curly hair caught on fire. A nearby
lifeguard tackled him under the water and snuffed it out.

Another lifeguard had grabbed a special navy blue meshed bag
full of tiny yellow cylinders before all of them were forced to abandon 
the six beach trucks as the oil slick fire slithered onto both sand and
water, growing dangerously larger by the second.
 
Suddenly, a new burning outpouring gush from the pipe cascaded
down into the water and a burning sea of flames surged towards
all the lifeguards and firemen desperately splashing water 
over themselves by the shallow end of the jetty.

It encircled them, rushing towards their faces.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the jetty, Carly Davison and Chris DeSoto 
were terrified out of their minds.

Between them and the safety of land, the entire sea was
catching on fire.

"Mom!  Swim away! Swim away! It's too dangerous!" shouted
Carly. Already, in her head, that odd buzzing aura that always
made her mouth go dry and sour, was rising. "Chris.. I think
I'm gonna black out!  Help me!"

Chris DeSoto leaped into action, tearing his eyes away from
the last place he saw Hobie Buchannon go down. "Carly?!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

*******************************************************************
From:  Constantinos Bouras <kb9ora@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Thu Feb 17, 2005  11:49 pm 
Subject:  The Drama Continues

   
Meanwhile, back at Baywatch HQ, Sid, continued to send
additional units to the scene unfolding, and picked up
the phone and pushed the speed dial button for L.A.
County F.D. Dispatch as the force of the explosion
rocked the building and knocked him out of his chair.

"What the- ??????" He yelled as he got up and looked
out the window, seeing the growing plume of smoke.

At that moment, the radio traffic went into overdrive
as all the units in the area reported they were
rolling. He pushed the speed dial button on the phone
a second time.

##L.A. County F.D. State your emergency.## 

The call taker responded. "This is Baywatch HQ, we have 
a explosion and fire at the 5th Street storm drain, in Malibu.
Stand by... Ok, we have petroleum products involved,
that's spread to the ocean. We also have some kids on
the jetty there. Give me everything you can!!!!!! We
also have reports of lifeguards and the county
firefighters that are with us involved!!!!!!!!!"

##Copy, help is rolling.## came the reply as he got
the appropriate box number from the sheet and passed
the info to the dispatcher at the console. "Better
get boat 110 and whatever L.A. City boats they can
send." he said.

"Right." was the reply.

##Station 69, Station 65, Station 70, Station 71,
Station 88 Station 99, Squad 67, Squad 51, Copter 11,
Boat 110, Boat 310, Battalion 5...Respond to the 5th
street storm drain in Malibu for an explosion and fire
with people trapped. L.A. County lifeguards are
on scene. Time out : 1230.##

##Battalion 5, L.A.##

"Battalion 5."

##Be advised, L.A. City F.D. is sending Boats 2, 3, 5 and 4 to
assist. You also have 4 ambulances responding.##

"Battalion 5, 10-4. Start move ups and start the Coast
Guard in also with their chopper to assist."

##10-4, Battalion 5.##

Meanwhile, back at the jetty..

Craig turned on the canisters of emergency air and
passed them around to the firefighters of engine 51
and the lifeguard escorts, and included a mask.

"Ok guys, this should give us some clean air to
breathe, while waiting for the backup to arrive.
Should last 15 minutes, and there are more in the bag.
Just time your breathing right and you can make it
last longer, just like your SCBA tanks that you wear."

Just as they were preparing to dive under, they heard
a scream from the end of the jetty from Chris DeSoto,
who had spotted them, "HELP!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!! HELP
US PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Look!!! Down there at the end.." Marco yelled. "Isn't
that Chris DeSoto???"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photos: None.

***************************************************************
From: "Patti or Jeff or Cassidy" <theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com>  
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 12:21:54 -0800 (PST) 
Subject: Inch by inch.. Second by second.. 

As they rushed over the sand, Vince and Garner and
Trevor could see the lights of Eddie's truck
as he sped through the wave splash to join them.

Mitch made for the beach, stripping off his tan uniform
as he ran. Now, they could all see that Cory was on
the back of a dolphin and that she was screaming
for them, "Hurry!! I can't find Hobie! He was right under
me..!"

Buchannon backstepped to a halt before the flaring flames,
not seeing anything but the sea ...on fire.. and Cory. He made his
choice and peeled shoes and pants down to his red trunks.
"Hobie?!"  He unraveled the line on his rescue can and slipped 
into its band. He hit the breakers, swimming in powerful strokes
towards her. Mitch's plunge into the water, upset the dolphin. 

Koko went wild with fear when fire splashed near her eyes and
Cory tumbled off, "Kok-- Come h--" A wave slapped her in the face.
She started to drown.

On the beach, leaping off the police bike, Trevor saw her fail, too.
He, too, shed shoes and shirt. He knew that Mitch needed help now,
for Hobie was nowhere in sight. He dove in.

Garner and Vince snatched up fire extinguishers and fought for
clear paths over the smoking sand to the ocean. They saw that the beach
was empty of bodies. "Where are they? *cough*" Vince choked
over the smoky fumes. "I thought Mitch said all the fire boys would
be down here somewhere.."

"They are.. Look!" said Garner, pointing to the water. "But I don't
know how much longer they're gonna last. The fire's closing in on
them! Hey!  Duck under! Now! The fire's coming fast!" he warned
them.

Roy Desoto, coughing hard on fumes, shouted towards shore.
"Vince! Get to Chris! He's holding Carly up. Something's wrong
with her!"

"Got it! Now save yourselves!" shouted Howard through the smoke.
He leaped and jumped over burning sand to get to the jetty
and he started running towards the two kneeling dots of white
that were the children on the far end, dancing quickly over the rocks
as fast as he dared. "L.A. and Baywatch has the whole calvary coming!"
he said, listening tightly to his radio pressed to his ear.

Johnny Gage let out a shout and forced his own and his partner's
heads down into the next wave before Roy had a chance to
refill his lungs again. A hissing caressing bubbling sheet
of orange skinned over the surface of the water they had
just left. Fire was now burning directly above them on a thick
oil pool.

Roy DeSoto kicked out of Johnny's arms, trying to head out
to sea to outswim the spreading fire, but Johnny grabbed
his ankles, holding him in place. He pointed into
the murkiness to their right.

Another baywatch lifeguard, wearing a mask of glass, swam
over to them and thrust the mouthpieces of two yellow
emergency spare air cylinders into their mouths, and 
hovered there, waiting for them to signal that they were
all right and breathing ok.

Roy thought that air had never tasted so good.

He felt an underwater Cap, Chet, Marco and Mike join them,
with linked arms, similarly sucking on the tiny spare
air tanks that the lifeguards had handed out, and
one by one, they all gave the guards the ok signal.

Then they began the long submerged swim up current 
to reach the part of the sea that was away from the fuel fire
to get plucked out by the rescue boat.

Two guards stayed with the firemen while four others kicked
back towards the jetty to help Mitch and Trevor Cole locate
Hobie Buchannon's drowning form.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Mitch kept his eye on the woman. She was having a lot of trouble
staying afloat. He was torn between diving to search for Hobie, 
and helping her. He chose to go for Cory.

"Here! Hang onto the buoy!" he commanded her.

"Can't! Paralyzed..Too tired.." She slipped under.

Mitch took a breath and went down after her, dodging clumps
of burning oil. He grabbed her waist and pushed her to the surface.

She sputtered, sucking in huge lungfuls of air, choking on the acrid
smoke around them. 

"Easy, I got you." he encouraged.

"*choke* Carly! How's Carly?. She seizes whenever she gets too excited...."

Mitch shot a look over to the jetty. "She's still on the rocks. A
policeman's there with her, she's still ok." Mitch said as he brought his 
float in front of them.
The swirling water was deafening. He agonized over leaving her, "Cory!
Listen! You've got to try and hang onto this. I've got to go after my son..!"
He tried to release her but she had no strength left. Mitch couldn't leave her.
He spun them both around to drive away the fire, searching desperately 
for any sign of clothing. "Hobie!"

"Wait!" Cory shouted, growing more clear headed with her renewed ability
to breathe while in his arms. "Koko can find him." She blew her whistle and the small
dolphin surfaced next to them. Cory commanded her. "Koko. Seek! Retrieve the
toy!"

Mitch was beside himself, "What are you doing?"

"Just trust me! Koko, now!" she sobbed. She made a sweeping gesture
and the dolphin suddenly dove under the burning waves.

Trevor Cole got to them both, seconds later. His hair was singed but
he was still very very full of adrenalin. Cole saw that Cory was in
pretty fair shape, managing to keep her head above the water despite of
her paralysis. "Take her!" Mitch said. He took off the lifeline float and gave
it to Cole to use for Cory. "Look for the dolphin!!"

"What?"

"Just do it!" Mitch twisted in a circle in agony, still searching for Hobie.

"I'm so sorry. I did it again.. I'm....s-sorry.." cried Cory.

"Shhh.. Just relax. Let me do all the work. Concentrate on breathing
lightly. This smoke can still knock us both out." Trevor hissed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Photo:  Cory drowning.

Photo: A dolphin under the waves.

Photo: Mitch Buchannon grabbing a rescue can.
 
****************************************************
From:  Jeff Seltun <finiterider@yahoo.com> 
Date:  Tue Feb 22, 2005  4:03 pm 
Subject:  Beached!

 
Ten feet away, the dolphin broke the surface of the sea, bearing Hobie
in her mouth by his shirt. Trevor spotted them, "Mitch! Over there!"

Mitch got to his son and turned him face up. The boy was limp and unconscious.
He tried to see if Hobie was breathing, but a wave full of fire suddenly swept
over them and he was forced to cover up Hobie's nose and mouth with a hand
to keep them submerged until the danger passed. Mitch held his breath, hearing
his own heartbeat thud rapidly, waiting for the deadly swell to pass by. 

It pushed them nearly to the sharp rocks. He and Hobie burst into the air
a few seconds later. Rocks loomed at them horrifically. Without thinking,
Mitch grabbed onto Koko's close offered dorsal fin and the animal tail kicked
them away into some calmer, fire free water. 

There was more time between the waves.

Mitch tipped Hobie's head back over the dolphin's flank and listened. Hobie
wasn't breathing. After the next wave, Mitch gave him a breath. "Oh, G*d. Breathe!"
He couldn't tell if Hobie had a heartbeat.

Mitch began to swim to shore, looking behind him for incoming swells or other
lifeguards. He found his rhythm, giving Hobie two breaths in between each wave's
duck and cover move.

He got him ashore just down beach of the oil fire. Garner helped bear him out
of the water, "Is he breathing?"

"No.."

They stretched Hobie out onto the stained hard pack. Garner felt Hobie's
neck after the next breath. "He's still got a pulse."

Mitch nodded, continuing his efforts. "Come on, Hobie! Breathe!"

The boy remained still.

Eddie and Shauni arrived and the siren ceased. They skidded to a halt
a few feet away from Hobie. They leaped out of the truck, grabbing 
equipment they would need.

Johnny Gage dropped to his knees with an ambu bag and oxygen. He
tapped Mitch on the shoulder. "Ok, Mitch, I've got him.'

Mitch was in unreality. Hobie was going to die if he stopped and 
all he knew was that someone was now trying to pull him away. 
He fought back, grabbing at his son's head again.

"Mitch!" Eddie cried out, "Let us use the O2 on him! He needs it!"

Garner dragged his friend away forcefully, using an arm lock to 
control him, "Listen to Eddie and Johnny. They're going to help 
Hobie.."

Mitch shook violently and came back to himself. "All right.. I'm 
all right.. Let me go..."

Garner released him.


Eddie and Johnny Gage worked desperately. Shauni took the boy's
hand into her own. "Hobie? Can you hear us? Hobie. Come on, honey.
Take a breath. You're out of the water.."

They all looked at his fingers. They were motionless; only the ambu bag
hissed as Johnny Gage delivered breaths. 

Then Hobie squeezed her hand.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Trevor had Cory near the beach. He picked her up and carried her to
the sand by Eddie and Shauni's rescue truck. She was coughing violently.
"You're going to be ok. Both of us are. Concentrate on breathing slowly."
He laid her down just before he had to lay down himself. He felt Roy DeSoto
offer him oxygen even as Captain Stanley gave some to Cory as she blacked 
out.

Mike Stoker and Chet Kelly helped Vince carry a limp
Carly Davison in all their arms, in a line, and then into the clipper 
boat tethered to the smoking rocks. 

Koko leaped over and over again in concern for the humans
and for her missing trainer until the boat finally ground itself ashore 
near where the others were working on Hobie, Cory and Trevor.

Then Koko just lay quietly on the hardpack, squeeing softly on
her belly as she watched everything going on.

"She's ok, Roy." said Vince to DeSoto about Carly, the little girl.
"Just a faint from smoke. No signs of convulsions at all. 
We gave her some 02 on board the launch."

"Set her down over here. I'll take her vitals as soon as I've taken
Cory's. Chris.. nice job keeping Carly from falling into the water.
I saw the whole thing. You make a pretty good junior lifeguard,
you know that?"

"Thanks, dad. What happened to you? You're all wet.."

"It's a long story. I'll tell you about it on the way back to Baywatch.
Can you start getting blankets for anyone who's lying down?
I'm sure Garner and Vince'll help you before they have to fill out
their reports." Roy suggested to his son.

"Ok. I'll get things started." smiled Chris. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gage and Buchannon bustled Hobie onto a backboard after 
immobilizing his neck with sandbags. Things looked good. Hobie
was breathing on his own, taking oxygen well. And he could move
all of his limbs. Hobie was loaded onto Eddie's beachtruck for the 
short trip to Headquarters to await an ambulance while Gage
and the others tended to his I.V. starting and crash recovery
medication delivery.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You have some hard explaining to do, young lady.." Garner
gruffed. 

Cory looked up from the sanctuary of her blanket, "Yeah,
I guess I do." She was lying propped up on an ambulance stretcher.
Cory felt better. Her head was clear again.

Her daughter, Carly, was sleeping lightly under a lifeguard's
careful scrutiny on the passenger bench in a stokes stretcher.

Trevor appeared from around the rig's door. "You?!" Cory gasped.
"You're the one I saw on that beach that day?.. I didn't mean to
get you in trouble. It was just....I was so happy to be swimming again."
She looked away, uncomfortable.

"With the dolphin?" Roy asked, puzzled, he had already discovered
Cory's partially paralyzed state in the few minutes it had taken
her to decide to wake up again.

"And a scuba tank. I used to work at the Institute before...."
Cory looked down at her legs in shame.

Trevor bit his lip from where he was getting some minor burns
attended to on his forehead. "Look, it was my fault for getting caught
in that rip current. Not yours."

"But I distracted you.."

"It's not your fault!" He said angrily. He pushed away Roy's hands
and walked away to deal with the crowd gathering to watch 
the firemen from 51's fighting the fire with foam alongside the lifeguards
they were already familiar with.

Garner fixed her with a stare. "It's about time you were straight with us. 
What really happened out there? Why did you do all this?"

Cory sighed, caressing her sleeping daughter's damp hair. "After I heard on
the radio that Koko had been freed, I went to look for her, with this..." 
She showed him and Vince Howard the silver chrome recall whistle and 
chain she clutched tightly in her hands.

Silence stretched for several seconds. Cory shifted, restlessly, and pulled
off her oxygen mask. "Officers, you can't know how much I've missed being
in the ocean. I had to know that feeling again. Do you understand? With Koko,
I was free.."

Vince was a study in seriousness. "Talk about Trevor."

"I was feeling good that day. I had found the crate at my doorstep.
I couldn't believe what I saw inside. Such beautiful things. And the statue
of Koko. I wore the comb and necklace to celebrate my first swim since
the orca whale accident. I don't get the attentions of many men anymore.
That's why I teased Trevor. I thought he was cute." she looked away embarrassed.

"Go on." Garner said.

Cory looked up at the brightening sky, "But then he got caught in the current and was
swept away. I thought, My G*d, I can't let this man drown. He was almost
unconscious when I managed to get a hold of him. I gave him air through my
regulator, but he passed out. He looked so beautiful in the water, like an angel.
Before I knew what I was doing, I put my necklace around his neck and I kissed him.
Then I saw the lifeguards coming and I pushed him into their arms."

"Why didn't you stay with them?" Ellerbee asked her.

Johnny Gage shoved past Garner. "Excuse me, Sergeant Ellerbee, We've
got to go. The boy's already left for the hospital."

Garner relented and so did Vince and they both stepped back as Roy
got out and closed the ambulance doors. They saw a last glimpse of 
glistening green eyes as Cory began to cry for a great many things that 
would be no more.

"What will happen to her?" Shauni wanted to know. Vince and Garner had
forgotten that she was still there. Garner smiled at her. "Oh, I have a sneaking
suspicion that the courts will go easy on her."

Vince nodded his head, agreeing with his colleague. "After all, she did help
save two lives."

Shauni nodded and together, Roy, the two officers and Johnny Gage watched 
the manned Malibu paramedic ambulance disappear into the distance up the tarmack.

The firemen and lifeguards didn't know what sounded more mournful,
Koko's crying distress whistles at being separated once again from
Cory Davison, or the wind blowing through the dying waves.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:    Mitch diving underwater.

Photo:    A child being supported in the water by the belly
              of a submersed dolphin.

Photo:    A lifeguard and his victim being dwarfed by monster waves.

Photo:     Closeup of a girl listening to a child swimmer's airway.

Photo:    Johnny Gage, soaked to the skin.

Photo:    A lifeguard diving off a rescue boat in huge seas.

Photo:    Roy soaked to the skin in close up.

Photo:     Cory Davison out cold, being breathing checked by hand contact.

Photo :    Chris DeSoto, standing in frothy water, dripping.

****************************************************************
From:  "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> 
Date:  Tue Feb 22, 2005  6:28 pm 
Subject:  Pure Fishy-ness

 
Mitch and Hobie were at the zoo along with the whole gang from Station 51.

Dolphins leaped in their enclosed pool. The water danced in the sunlight. They
chattered excitedly, begging Hobie for more fish. Mitch hiked up his son so he
could more easily reach over the fence. His son threw in a sardine and three
dolphins played tag with it.

Hobie grinned. "Wouldn't it be neat if all dolphins were as smart as Koko?"

Mitch laughed and set his son down, "Yeah, it sure would. Maybe the dolphins
are the smart ones and we're the ones who need to do all the learning."

"Think so?" wondered Chet Kelly.

"Yeah," said Chris DeSoto. "Aren't their brains larger than ours or something?"

Hobie looked up from the dolphins, "Jill says it's too close to tell."

All nine of them leaned on the rail, watching the light play on the dolphins'
faces.

Hobie chuckled, reaching up to hug his dad's neck. "You know, I think mom's
going to like it here."

"I know she will Hobster, I know she will."

The firefighters of station 51 smiled broadly, recognizing that a small
rift had been mended between the burly lifeguard and his son.

Gage grinned. "Hey, Roy.."

DeSoto didn't looked up from the sardines he was feeding the milling
hungry mouths in the pool below them. "Yeah.."

"You know what?"

"What.."

"I think we oughta.. sign up for a tour with these Baywatch guys again.
I never got to hold one of those big red rescue can things and actually use
it going after a victim.." Gage frowned.

"You aren't a certified lifeguard.." Roy smirked.

"Well between that nasty drain pipe oil fire, and treating all the drowning
cases hauled in by em, I certainly feel like one." he chortled.   

"Can you do a pier jump? Or leap out of a hovering Coast Guard 
helicopter? Or make a 1000 meter swim out and around a reef buoy
at full waxing tide?"

"..no.. Roy, that's not the point." Johnny sighed. "The point is..."

Captain Stanley broke into the conversation, nipping the escalating
debate in the butt before it was overheard by the Buchannons.
"..the point is.. that ya had fun. We all did and the best part about
it, is that nobody died. Now quit yapping, ya twits, and enjoy yourselves,
or I'll make a few heads roll. Consider that a ..friendly order from
your directly supervising superior. Gimme those fish, Roy, I wanna try
that."

Chet's eyes boggled. "Cap, I thought you hated touching fish, or  
the thought of even looking at one."

"Not any more. Cory Davison's been.. conditioning me with handling Koko. 
I can even pet her now." smiled Hank.

"Cap, Koko's not a fish, she's a--"

"SHhhh!" Cap said. "Quiet, Chet. You'll ruin all her good hard work
getting me over my fish phobia. Don't say it's not working, Kelly.
Can't you see that I actually have a food fish out by the tail?"

"Quit cheating and open up your eyes, Cap." teased Stoker.

"Give me a minute.. I'm working up to it.. It's just that a sardine's so...
slimy.."

"So's a fire hose in a brush fire and that's never stopped you.."
Roy interjected.

"Telling point.." Cap said, cracking one eye open to look at
the fish he was moving over the dolphin pool. "Thanks, DeSoto,
for your vote of confidence."

"Anytime. Sorry for these guys, Cap. I do keep trying to teach them
em all the finer points of reverse psychology, but it's kinda hopeless
sometimes." Roy smiled.

Gage and Kelly glared in mild irritation at him, but held their tongues,
because they'd been ordered to.

"Keep at it. I like the thought of that end goal when they'll become
as tactful as you about my personal affairs and the odd quirk or
two." Hank sniffed.

Marco snuck up behind Cap and said very loudly,
"BOoO!"

Hank leaped up about six feet, and the fish went flying.
It was snatched up by a hungry maw in seconds even
before it hit the water.

"Lopez! Would you ..CUT..THAT...OUT?! I'm trying to
concentrate here...." Cap sighed, catching his breath as he
leaned heavily on the zoo railing.

"What, I didn't do anything.... Maybe the Phantom followed
us all to the convention."

Cap sighed, deciding to ignore his man, and he bravely reached
into Roy's steel bucket for another fish.

Lopez leaned into Roy, "Hey, how was that for a bit of psychology?
I was thinking it was sort of like how you scare someone to forget
about the fact that they're hiccupping..." he whispered.

"Crude.. but I think this situation calls for more ....subtlety.."
Roy admitted.

"Oh. I'll keep working on it."

Gage started laughing so hard, that he had to sit down.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mitch Buchannon and Hobie glanced over their shoulders
and saw that the Los Angeles County firemen were finally
relaxing out of the stress filled tension that they all
had when they had first arrived at Baywatch. ::A grueling set of
workshifts'll do that to ya. I knew the balm of the ocean
would set em all to rights. I'm glad I invited their crew out.
I think I'll do the same for the other shifts at that station.::

Hobie Buchannon coughed lightly, clearing his still raspy
chest and he felt his father's hand grasp his shoulder protectively.
To reassure Mitch that he was ok, Hobie reached up with a 
grip of his own and squeezed it affectionately.

To his thoughts, Hobie gave. ::Koko. I'll never forget you.::

In his head, the memory of the dolphin's smile, seemed endless.
 
------------------------------------------------------------------------


                 FIN

                 Episode Eighteen..

                 §§   A Fish Out Of Water   §§


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Photo :    A dolphin leaping out with a camera mounted on a flipper.  
  
Photo:    Mitch and Hobie in a heart to heart talk by a railing.
 
Photo:   Gage brandishing a fish at Cap.
 
Photo:   Baywatch headquarters front.
  
Photo:   Baywatch TV logo.

Photo:   Emergency TV logo.
 
******************************************************************** 

***This current episode has just ended.
***Keep watching here daily for new episode
***scene installments.  To see other episodes
***we have produced, please see the links
***below. Music and screengrabs accompanied.

**************************************************
  
This is the pre-production period for..

Episode Eighteen,  Season Two
  
         §§   A Fish Out of Water   §§

Debut Writing in Progress Launch : February 1st, 2005.


            
                            End Credits --  Episode Eighteen  (Third Season)
                                      
                                              §§   A Fish Out Of Water  §§

                :)     This episode is dedicated to lifeguards everywhere who      :)                              
                        save lives by the multitudes from the worlds unpredictable
                        rivers, lakes and oceans with a devotion bordering on the
                        obsessive. May all the victims in their arms right now...survive.
                                   
                :(                                                                                                    :)


Guest Writers...
---------------
Constantinos Bouras     kb9ora@yahoo.com 
Jeremy H                       skydivingstreaker@yahoo.com 
Maggie H.                      hutchtx@comcast.net
Pam                               miladyjag@yahoo.com
Sam Iam                        lafddispatcher@yahoo.com 
Roxy Dee                       laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com 
Champage Scott           chameleonkate@hotmail.com
 

**Voyagerliveaction©  Staff Writers...
-------------------------------------

French Seychelles    Cassidy Meyers     killashandrarey@hotmail.com
England                   Katherine Bird       kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk
Germany                Dr. Jeff Seltun       finiterider@yahoo.com
USA                        Patti Keiper           mimic@usgo.net
England                   Clairissa Fox         canaryyello@hotmail.com
Germany                Cory Anda             andacory@hotmail.com

 
Active Storyline Technical Consultants
----------------------------------------------------
 
Sue Hampton, EMT-D/FF/ER RN,   Fire Station
In North Carolina, USA
 
Patti Keiper, NREMT-B, EMT-I,  Emergency Medical Services
In Minnesota, USA
   
 
Standby Consultants
----------------------------- 
 
Sue Hampton
mamasuelodge70@yahoo.com
RN - 30 years Occupational Health and Emergency Department
EMT 30 years 
FF   Driver Operator
Rescue Technician Instructor
NC TaskForce 5  (like FEMA team on the state level)

Judith Hoffman
JudithAH@comcast.net
Hazardous Materials Instructor
Emergency Medical Technician
Retired Police Officer
Retired Fire Fighter
Technical Consultant for Entertainment Industry

David Epling
ccrails@sbcglobal.net
Paramedic, AS-MICP, PHTLS, ALCS

Lorraine Serfoss  
lorrainekmg365@earthlink.net
First year associate degree program RN 
 
Audrey Lynne
wolflynnekk@aol.com
EMT-B, RN
Pediatrics and psychiatry a specialty

Lynn 
ElsandraDarkweav@aol.com
Police Officer, Evidence Technician

Patti Keiper
pattik1@hotmail.com
EMT-I/Security Officer

Dr. Jeff Seltun
finiterider@yahoo.com
M.D./Thoracic Medicine/Surgeon
 

Special Thanks - Technical Support Websites
----------------------------

To Rescue House . Com
For sponsoring a link to Emergency Theater Live
http://www.rescuehouse.com

To Lorraine from Australia
for Midis for Future ETL Episodes
http://www.wtv-zone.com/ladyl605/midis/midi.html

To "Heidi B." <spiritkeeper792@yahoo.com>
for EMS and Fire Images for Episode Scenes.

To Erika and Rozane of Emergencyfans.com
For Linking to the ETL Website

To TV Tome.com
For Linking to the ETL Homepage

To all the Guest Fan Writers who've Contributed
their Talents to this Episode of Emergency Theater Live® :)

To Icecat,  <icecat62@comcast.net>
For Designing the Banners for Episodes  

To the EMSLive Online Paramedic Radio Show..
For Giving the ETL Live Airtime on June 22nd, 2004.

To Firehouse.Com
http://www.firehouse.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
in their links for web visitors.

To  Paramedic.Com
http://www.paramedic.com/
For featuring Emergency Theater Live®
on their top EMS sites list and for
providing real paramedics to help 
write with us for our upcoming ETL
episodes.

To All E TV Links
http://www.geocities.com/alletvlinks/
For hosting Emergency Theater Live®

To Jill Douglas-Hand  :) at
Two Chickies Classic TV Fanfiction Website
http://www.twochickies.com
For Hosting the Full Moon Blues Premiere Episode 
and Others on their Site for All Visiting Web Readers 
to Enjoy.

To Debi Jenkins :) at About.com
http://classictv.about.com/cs/emergency/
For Hosting Exposure for the ETL to the WWW.

AAA Screen Savers.com
http://www.aaascreensavers.com/preview.phtml?TV+E+1759
For Incredible Audio and Visual References to Emergency!©
Characterizations and Behind the Scenes Sneak Peeks
on a ScreenSaver by Screensaver Man.

Erika and Rozane's Emergency Site
http://www.emergencyfans.com
For Main Character Role Histories 
And the Emergency Medical Terms Guide
And the Theater Intermission Account of
Engine 51's 1972 Nationwide Tour 

Emergency!Shrine
http://dogwood.phpwebhosting.com/~tvshrine/ephotos.htm
For In-Character Rescue Scene Screengrabs.

Wojo's Boys of 51 Webpage 
http://members.tripod.com/~wojospage/
For Screengrabs of the Station Crew.

Love Emergency! Style--Kel Brackett & Dixie McCall 
http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/dixbrackett/ 
For Dixie and Brackett Screengrabs

Johnny's Green Pen
http://www.johnnysgreenpen.com
For Episode Images from the Series.

Tigger's Slide Show Central
http://exit3.i-55.com/~ffaller/emergency/
Main Site
http://lovegage.topcities.com/slide/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Nexxie's E Site
http://www.nexxie.owns1.com/index.html
For Episode Screengrabs

Modena Intergate Emergency!© Equipment 
Manifest Website 
http://modena.intergate.ca/personal/pl8s/E!Manifest.htm
For Technical Facts on all FD Equipment on the Series

Hollywood Images Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com
For Talent Agent Work on the Staff Writer Cattle Calls.

To Wormsworth :)
* Keebee Programmer / Voyagerliveaction® Narrator,
For Providing a Location for our Theater Episodes in 
a Turning Page Book Style Program Online.

Voyagerliveaction® Star Trek Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
For Sponsoring the Theater Writing Staff , the
Los Angeles Guest Writer, and Hosting the
ETL's Online Fanfiction Books of the Episodes,
and for Advertising Theater Promotions

PBEM News
http://www.pbemnews.com
For Advertising the Emergency Theater Live® Site

====================================

       Music for   Season Three   Episode Eighteen

              §§   A Fish Out Of Water   §§

-------------------------------------------------------------

Dire Docks Midi by Teck

Baywatch Season Two Midi by Unknown

Golden Eye Surf Midi by Robert Krzeminski

Secret Vow Midi by Yanni

Enter The Dark Midi by Icy Guy

Select A File Midi by Jarel Jones

Save Me Wav File by Peter Cetera for Season
One Baywatch NBC Title Sequence

 -------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________

All materials from the television series Baywatch is 
© 1989 - 2001 The Baywatch Production Company 
and All American Communications. 

-------------------------------------------------------------



============================

Theater Homepage is :
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html

Theater Author/Writer Interactive Email Site is :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
 
============================
 
§ Emergency Theater Live!® 
  is a division of Voyagerliveaction.com §
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
 
   Via Hollywood Images, Inc.
http://hollywoodimagesusa.com

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Offstory" Email Address

** emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
     Emergency Theater Live!® "Send To Story" Email Address

 -------------------------------------------------------------
**If you'd like copies of any of the donated music midis from our 
Episodes, contact the Theaterhost email below and specify the Episode's 
Title. Please include the word "Music" in the subject line of your email.**   

Or visit the ETL Homepage in the following location below.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Emergency Theater Live®
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

Hosts- Jeff, Patti, Cassidy in 
Germany, the United States, and the French Seychelles.

** Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live® "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries

**emergencytheaterlive@yahoogroups.com
    Emergency Theater Live® "Send To Story" Email Address
    For Sending in a Story Contribution to the Current Episode
    (You must join the preproduction list here in order to
     write for Emergency Theater Live®)

http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live® Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

____________________________________

        Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
        all of Emergency!© and its Characters.   
____________________________________

Voyagerliveaction Star Trek Theater and
Emergency Theater Live!® Hosts..
--------------------------------------------

Patti Keiper GM Western Hemisphere Moderator pattik1@hotmail.com 
United States

Jeff Seltun GM Eastern Hemisphere Moderator finiterider@yahoo.com
Germany 

Cassidy Meyers GM Central Axis Moderator killashandrarey@hotmail.com 
French Seychelle Islands

---------------- 
 
Voyagerliveaction Fanfiction Theater
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com
Main Theater Showcase Site

 
Mark VII Productions and Universal owns
all of Emergency! and its Characters. 
© 2005 All rights reserved.
 
All materials from the television series Baywatch is 
© 1989 - 2001 The Baywatch Production Company 
and All American Communications. 


=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
Contributing to this story means Voyagerliveaction.com 
has permission to publish your work in this manner. 
All web walk on writer credit and any author emails 
will be duly recorded and left in place within the work 
pointing out those fan reader story installments.

               Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!®..
==========================





 =======================================

Title:    The Face In The Mirror
            
Author:   Anotherjaneway 

Contact Consultant:  pattik1@hotmail.com

Series:   Emergency!

Part:     Episode Complete.

Rating:     [G] Mild swearing

Code:       E! Canon style, third person. Guest appearances :
               cross over characters, Craig Pomeroy(Parker Stevenson)
               and Jill Riley(Shawn Weatherby) from NBC's era run of
               Baywatch Season One, circa 1989. (See Panic At 
               Malibu Pier- the "real" series pilot)  

Summary:   Roy DeSoto makes a mistake in the field and has
                to deal with the possibility of losing his job.
                The gang goes on a sea fog bank multiple car pile up 
                rescue and run into trouble.

Disclaimer:   Sole property of those who made the show.
                  All things Emergency! belong to Mark VII Productions 
                  and Universal Studios

Comments:  I wrote this piece for sheer joy of it after fans begged
                 me to write more. I apparently have a very vivid style
                 that makes my stories feel like a real Emergency episode.
                 This series is responsible for getting me into the
                 emergency medical field, working as an NREMT in
                 Minnesota. P.S.   I love you Johnny Gage and Roy
                 DeSoto, you are my heroes. The actors aren't so
                 bad either. :)  All the other EMS TV shows which
                 followed in Emergency!'s footsteps, can't hold a
                 candle to the universal character appeal of this
                 series. It is airing on TV Land in reruns. Watch 
                 for it. Like an episode itself, I have rescues
                 featured inside this story that are based on some I've
                 experienced myself. I was Roy touching the charged
                 floor and Cap, fighting to keep a child alive,
                 without a demand valve, just like you'll read here
                 in this story. I  have taking liberties
                 diving into the psyche of Roy DeSoto. Writing muses
                 work your magic! If you aren't sucked into this story
                 within the first three lines, I am not doing my job!
                 Enjoy and may you have a wild ride, gentle readers.

             THE FACE IN THE MIRROR  


It was nine in the morning at the Ojai College
campus. Roy DeSoto was starting up yet another
vo-tech course of CPR for public citizens. 


Johnny Gage was setting out the resusi-mannikin
onto the blue gym mat on the floor, and setting its
electronic wires in place. "Huh, you must be crazy,
Roy. Working doubles, then teaching the morning of
your day off.." he scoffed, part teasing, part
complaining. "Don't tell me you've got a new addition
on the house you're trying to pay for."

"Not for the house...." Roy said, shifting on his feet,
and studying his polished shoes.

Gage's smile wiped into a huge grin, "Nahhhhh...." he
bubbled as understanding dawned.

"Yep. Joanne found out for sure last night from her
family doctor."

John dropped the dummy and rose, pumping Roy's arm
like a happy uncle.. "Well, I'll be.. congratulations,
buddy."  He leaned in, hitting Roy on the shoulder,
"That's great! Three's a more rounded number."

When his partner frowned in confusion, John added, 
"They say families have 2.6 kids per household." His 
face fell ruefully, but amused, "But in my case, it's 
definitely a negative number."

Roy handed John a cup of coffee from the counter
by a sunny window. "Don't lose hope, Johnny,
You've only had what?  Five crash and burn dates
this spring? Not a bad average.. And the summer's 
young yet."

"Not a bad average.. Not a bad aver--?"
John lifted the coffee to his lips. It never got there.
"Yeah,...but when will I find HER..?" he sighed. 
"I seem to have better luck attracting hairy furballs
than women lately.."

"How's Bonnie doing anyway?"

"Fine.. She's quiet. Doesn't mind going to the neighbor's
when I'm at work. And she's the one who's been finding me those
dates to begin with." John said, polishing his fingernails on
his grey terry shirt. He adjusted the navy bandana tied
around his forehead up a little more, drawing his mouth up 
smugly.

Roy rolled his eyes, "They say, dogs attract girls like moths
to the flame."

"And this flame is hot to trot..." John said, "I've landed a date
for tonight."

"Oh?" Roy asked, "Who?" he said with a wide splitting yawn.

"Betty..." his partner said mysteriously. "In fact, she's going
to be one of your students today.. Moreno thought he
saw Betty's name on your roster there.." He said pointing to
Roy's slate.

Roy folded his arms. "And I thought you volunteered to help me
with the class today just to be magnanimous." he said levelly,
sipping his capuccino.

"I am being magnanimous.." John said with conviction, stabbing
Roy's yellow t-shirted front with a finger.

Roy didn't believe a single word, "Only as long as it takes to enforce
that heroic rescuer image on her with this course work. I'll
just bet you're going to volunteer to be her heimlich partner.
You know, to get in real tight and personal with her right off."

John's face beamed into a pleased smile, "Hey, I never even 
thought of that angle.. You know, for a very happily married 
man. You're pretty savvy.. Thanks.. partner.."
He watched as Roy fell into another series of face tearing 
yawns. "You'd better get more sleep from now on. Even 
your wrinkles are getting wrinkles.. Start getting some more
sleep or I'm going to haveta take over driving the squad."

Roy was about to launch a protest when there was the sound
of a bell and the rumble of many footsteps coming towards
them.

John put a finger to his lips, "Later... Now you're on.
Just..try to act natural.. You know.. Make me look
good.." he said with a pleading look, sitting at one
of the desks. He took up a hotdog from a pouch in his
knap sack, on cue, and started munching loudly. 

Roy sighed deeply and just shook his head. 

He took a seat in the first of twenty empty ones ringing
the demo mat and flipped his baseball cap around,
looking nonchalant as he slumped there.
 
There was the usual nervous mix of new housewives, 
looking to gain the reassurance of the first aid training 
for their infants. Or, like this month, the latest teen aged 
summer lifeguards chosen from high school job programs 
to fill needs for L.A. County's vast ocean beach front.
 
He became one of many to introduce themselves to each
other in casual social groups. About five minutes later, the 
class took in the air that the teacher wasn't in yet 
and filed into conversation clusters around him.  
Even Gage made a big show of saying hello and eating 
eagerly and chewing his food around his words. 
He milled about acting boisterous and very biker-ish.

Until he threw hands up over his throat and knocked
his chair over in surprise. He started to gasp and 
wheeze,  staggering around.

Two teens jumped up in alarm and started for the
door to call for help. Another football player type
teen grabbed Johnny by the shoulders and started
shaking him.  

A blond woman in jerseys with platinum eyes did
the only thing she knew, pounding gingerly on
Gage's back with a few fingers as if he were made
of glass. Of course, that did nothing to help.

Going limp, John fell to the mat and utter panic ensued.
The class of students milled over him ineffectually 
poking here and prodding there until...

Roy got up from his place watching them all
and "rescued" the choking Gage with the proper
techniques in a calm manner, first listening,
then checking in his mouth, then following up
with back blows and one set of abdominal thrusts.

Johnny promptly spat out the hotdog
right into the class's shocked faces. They leaped 
backward out of reflex as the seemingly unconscious
man made a ballistic missile out of his sausage bite.

Gage opened his eyes, grabbed Roy's hand,
and rolled neatly to his feet. "Thanks, man. I needed 
that.." and he plopped down into his own seat as if 
nothing had ever happened, buttoning up his shirt again.

The stunned onlooking students blinked. Then some
got angry or sank into chairs with shaky adrenalin reaction.

One redhead man stood over John, "You mean you weren't
really in trouble?!!" he shouted at Gage.

"Nope. He wanted to see what you all would do
for me just now." Johnny said, pointing to DeSoto.

Silence filled the room.

Roy spoke up, taking off his hat.
"Pretty scary, wasn't it? Kinda funny
how higher reasoning goes out the window in the face
of a true medical emergency... You,.." he said, pointing
to the burly teen who had tried shaking Gage. "Could have
injured him or even made the obstruction worse
by doing that.  You.." he said, smiling slightly at
the blond woman in the jersey, "were closer to the right 
track.. but sometimes, it's not a good idea to just
go pounding on someone's back if they're making
good attempts to dislodge a foreign body. You
meant well but in this case, it only made things worse
and your victim went unconscious when things
completely blocked off with your "tiny" tries at helping.
You others, who ran for the phone, made a good
decision. Sort of. Summoning help is a sound choice,
but it is always second order of business in a medical
crisis like this one..."

"Second order..?" said the angry teen. "But I thoug--"
He broke off when Roy held up his hand and shot him a
diplomatic smile.

DeSoto flipped his chair around, foregoing
the desk, to be face to face with his class. 
"Let's start off on the other foot shall we?"

"Morning. I'm glad you came here today. I'm Roy DeSoto
and this is Johnny Gage, my department partner of six years."

John nodded, all serious in greeting, once.

"We're both L.A. County Firemen/Paramedics in our
day jobs, when we're not scaring the bejeesus out
of CPR class attendees." Roy went on.

Light chuckles filled the room.

DeSoto went on.
"Now, if you'll  allow us, let us impart a little of what we 
know so you can have the opportunity to make a real 
difference for somebody when it counts the most and to
be successful at it to the point of having the ability 
to SAVE that life free of panic. You're here today to 
learn much more than just what to do for a heart attack
victim or a toddler choking on a grape. You're here today
to assess any given emergency situation and become
an effective caregiver to that victim until professional
help arrives. Minutes and even seconds count, like in
the urgent scene you saw Johnny enact here."

And he went on, explaining why calling for help was
second in importance. He met the angry red headed
man's eyes. "Your first duty to any medical emergency 
victim.. is to assure and establish a viable airway, do 
whatever you can to restore and/or maintain  
breathing second, then to assess and/or 
maintain circulation of bloodflow to the brain, last 
of all.. But what if the mouth's so badly cut, you 
can't get a good seal with which to perform mouth 
to mouth at all?
Or what if someone's neck may be broken? How do
you establish an airway then without tilting 
that person's head back to get one? If you don't, they'll
suffocate, if you do, they might be paralyzed. What
do you do?
There's is much more to CPR than just pushing on 
someone's chest and pinching their nose and blowing air into
their mouths. So let us show you what to do in
many medical cases that aren't so neat and tidy an
incident as the ones your text manual shows you."


------------


It was two pm.

The class ran smoothly, following demos of the heimlich
and other moves and a movie, outlining oxygen debt and
the six minute chart.

Johnny learned that the shy blond woman was
Betty, the one he had known was coming. They seemed
to hit it right off in Roy's mind. She worked through
her timidness about breathing into a dummy only
after Gage demo'd it for her.

He caught Johnny over lunch break and held up a
compressions tape sheet from Betty's mannikin 
sequence.  "Hey, Johnny, she's a strong one. Just look
at this graph! She's in the green on those CPR compressions.
Perfect."

Gage smacked Roy on the shoulder, "I know, she nearly busted
my ribs even pretending the heimlich. I think I'm in love."

Roy sighed, "Just don't go fainting dead away in class just
to get her to breathe for you or anything. Our intro
demo part is over. You two are disruptive enough as it is so
far.." he said smiling. "And we've still the test 
outs to do on them all."


"Oh, puhleassee..I'm not that dumb. I want her to kiss me for 
my natural charms, not some foolhardy stunt like that.."

"Hmmm. I wouldn't put it past you." Roy laughed.

Johnny was oblivious, "She has great reactions. I mean,
when I pretended a blackout with a full obstruction 
while standing, she had her hands right there underneath
my head so I wouldn't bang it going down. Now that's 
sweet thinking on your feet if you ask me."

"If you say so. If I were her. I'd have dumped you like a sack
of potatos and let your fall knock out the obstruction.."
Roy quipped.

"Oh. Ha. ha..." Gage said dryly. "You're just bent out of shape
because I'm using my "uniform" to win a girl. I'm not using my
uniform, how can I be? I'm in a tank top, 
I'm....just teaching her class that's all..."

Roy was skeptical, "Uh huh.." But he said nothing more, 
grinning behind his newspaper. "Gage, the choking Romeo..
Now there's one for the history books." he mumbled.


-------------------------------------

It was the next day at the station and Roy
was still yawning.. Johnny rolled in whistling Dixie,
and popped his locker open with a fancy butt flourish.

Roy didn't even look up, pausing with his arms still
stuck in his T-shirt sleeves he had cocooned over
his head as he sat on the changing bench.
He appeared to be snoring..

Gage turned and tapped Roy's covered head. "Hey..
You alive in there?"

Snnorrreee...

"Come on..." and John pulled down Roy's T shirt the rest
of the way. "Man.. you need a pot of coffee if you're
going to get anywhere today.. Didn't you sleep in the
last few days like I told you to?"

"A little. Had an unexpected amniocentesis bill slip up
on us yesterday. Had to take on another class to
pay for it."

"Amniocen--"  John guessed, "Oh. Is everything ok.?"

Roy looked up at him blearily. "Huh? Oh. yeah.. It's
standard to run one of those at this stage of the game.
Especially with this being Joanne's third ba--- 
YAWWNN...---by." Another ear splitting yawn 
jumbled his last words..


John threw Roy's uniform shirt at him, who was
too tired to catch it. It bounced off his face.
"Wake up.. or I'm going to have give you some O2
to revive ya.. Time for breakfast.." and he
headed into the kitchen, leaving his sleepy partner
behind. "I have a feeling it's going to be a busy
shift for us. It's a full moon tonight." Gage groaned.

"Don't remind me.."came Roy's voice from the locker
room, floating across the station's truck bay.


-------------------

Sounds of fork scrapes and bowl slurps filled
the kitchen along with the aroma of at least
three kinds of morning repasts.

At one seat, the happy eating got a little loud
and not so harmonious. Wood chair legs squealed
like nails on a chalk board as one particular man 
pushed backward from the table.

*Spit* A large glob of Huevos Rancheros festooned
Captain Stanley's paper napkin as he doubled over and
relieved his burning lips of a totally unexpected attack
on his tongue and throat. ".. whoa...*cough*!.."  
Cap's long arms shot out and grabbed a metal jug of water 
and drained half of it in desperate swallows from
the jug itself.

All eyes at the table shot up from newspapers
and magazines in surprise.

Johnny looked up from dishing hashbrowns onto his
platter.. "Cap? You ok? " he said half rising in
concern.

Hank held up hands to show everything was cool and
waited for his voice to come back.
Then he set down the metal water pitcher with
a hollow liquidy clang. "Marco, what are you trying to do?"
he shouted in his best offended tenor voice.
"Are you trying to kill me?"  
He pushed away his Mexican eggs and eyed them distrustfully.  
"I know. This is some kind of revenge because I made you drag
and hang all the engine's hose in the tower before you
left last night." Captain Stanley said regaining his chair.

Marco shook his head vehemently.. "Oh, no.no . no. Cap.."
with eyes widening..

Cap went on.. "I SAID, Try one of your
sweet little old mother's breakfast recipes for a 
change of pace but I didn't mean creating a four 
alarm fire! Man,,, whooo wee..." he coughed.

Gage sat down again, chuckling in relief that
he hadn't requested eggs like Captain Stanley had
done. Marco's turn at breakfast detail was 
always a sort of culinary roulette when he got
into one of his creative cooking moods.

Marco, "Don't look at me like that, Cap. Your exact
quote, to clarify things, was...'How about breaking our 
scrambled eggs and bacon tradition and whipping up 
one of your mother's recipes for a new change of pace?' 
You didn't say what KIND of recipe, nor any limitations
on any spices.."

Hank mulled over that, looking a lot like the 
"Honest Abe" he was, "Hmm.. Guess I did say that, 
Marco." And he reached over and stole Gage's lone bagel.

"Hey!" John protested, out ranked. But Gage quickly 
and craftily snatched another solo bagel from Chet Kelly's 
plate while the curly haired fireman laughed 
uproariously over something in his funnies 
section.

Kelly reached down, without looking, for his bagel
...and didn't find it. He whipped his paper away
and complained to the chipmunk cheeked 
paramedic next to him. "Gage!!"


Johnny shrugged "Snooze? You lose.." he said,
chewing loudly. Soon,  Chet found and walked 
fingers to Stoker's plate and procured the last 
onion bagel there.

SLAP!

"OWw!"  Chet howled, dropping his booty and
yanking his guilty fingers into his mouth.
He sucked on them.

Mike deftly refolded his scolding magazine into his lap
and took a bite of bacon. "Never raid unless
you can get away with it. Chet, you're getting
sloppy. Must be because Gage finally one upped
the Phantom, eh?"

Chet rolled his eyebrows, frowning. "No way man.
Has hell frozen over? The Phantom's sharp as ever."

His next raid on Marco's pancake was thwarted with a
viscious fork parry from Lopez, "Ah ah ah.."
the Mexican warned.

Mike laughed, thoroughly enjoying his rescued
bagel. "Really? How do you figure?"

Cap snickered over his milk.


Then Johnny eyed the tardy DeSoto shuffling into
the kitchen.  He pantomimed to the guys to
keep quiet about his next action, putting a finger
to his lips. Then he made a big show pulling out a 
chair for his partner, "Hey Roy.. Here's some nice
...hhhottt..  coffee.. " he grinned hugely.. 

DeSoto missed all the warning signs..
Roy rubbed dry eyes and lifted the mug handed to him                              
while he plopped down into his seat next to Chet. "Thanks
but I don't think it's going to help any. Not unless you've
got an IV that's pure caffeine somewhere around here."

Gage clicked his tongue.
"Fresh out." John said, picking up Cap's abandoned plate
of steaming Mexican eggs. "Ooo, Roy.. Doesn't that
smell good?  Dig in, pal."

And he deposited his offering in front of DeSoto,
sliding several napkins towards him, too.
He shoved the water pitcher to a far corner
of the table, well out of comfortable reach.

All eyes watched with amused horror as a sleepy
Roy cut a large biteful of the eggs and inserted 
them into his mouth.

Gage thought. ##3...2....1..##

But Roy kept chewing..slowly.. his eyes more
shut then open.

Chet couldn't resist. "Hey Roy?"

"Huh?"

"How's breakfast?"

"Oh..." Roy said, looking down at his salsa
covered hen's eggs.. "Fine.. I guess.."


Gage looked at Roy incredulously.. "Roy..
Aren't they kinda hot to you?..." he said,
aiming a butter knife at Roy's platter, with 
one cheek still big with bagel.

"Uh....."  DeSoto considered.. Then he mumbled
"...no?" he ventured..

"Holy cow..  That's crazy.. You're
tasters wwwaaayyy off... Cap here couldn't
even BREATHE around em.."
Gage whipped out his penlight and reached
out making a big show looking at Roy's pupils.
"You're not even an Apgar Three on the scale man..are
you slipping into a coma or something?"

Roy slapped Johnny's hand away laughing. "I'm not feeling
any pain eh? Well, at least these eggs won't go
to waste.. Marco...my compliments on your mother's
recipe.." he repiled, forking himself another hot sauce
smothered egg yolk.

"Gracias mi amigo.. At least I know who to cook for
now.." he glared at Cap.

Cap looked up from his very mild toast and butter.
"Sorry Lopez. I'm from a French neighborhood. Tame
palette I guess.."  he said apologetically.

Roy went on... "Maybe this numb brain thing will get
me through today with the miminum shift's torture."

Gage scoffed, "I highly doubt that.." pocketing his 
penlight.

Cap eyed Roy critically. "One of the kids keeping you
up, DeSoto..?"

John spoke up as he watched Roy drain yet another
mug of java. "Yeah,, the unborn one.. Joanne had
a ped bill Roy had to work off. He took on another
CPR class after the one I helped him on." he said.

Cap winced.."Ooo, tiring way to earn a few bucks.
Nothing like four hours of CPR demos to wear out
a guy.."

Roy shook his stiff arms.. "I would've been spared
if my buddy over here bailed me out again and helped 
me to teach it."

"One time's enough."

"Yeah?" Roy quipped, "That's only because you
got yourself that date from that one student, eh? 
Betty I think her name was." he chewed a few times
before asking, "How did it go?"

Gage didn't make eye contact as he swiped his plate clean
with a slice of bread. "I was at Eight's pulling extra
duty, or I'd been there pal.." he said, avoiding the
question.

Roy just grunted, angling his jaw with an amused smile.
"She dumped ya, didn't she..?"

The gang erupted in giggles again. Chet voiced
a score count. "That makes it... what? Six
strung and hungs this year, Johnny? What a tragic
track record. A real bummer."

Gage said, with unconvincing icyness, 
"Cut it out.. Kelly. Leave your prying OUT of my
love life.."

"What love l-?" Kelly started to say before
Cap pointed his all mighty index finger at
him to cease at once. 
Chet amended what he was going to say.
"...uh,  lingers, except for later, right? For the next 
time around? " he smiled wanely, covering his arse
and making an escape back into his paper.

Cap ended his challenging glare and continued
chewing. He shoved two pots of coffee in front 
of DeSoto. "Hey John,.. throw these in your 
pocket, eh..? Feel free to use them on him any time
you need to, pal." He said topping off Roy's mug
yet again.

A pack of smelling salts plunked into Gage's
hands as he reflexively caught what Cap sailed
his way. He laughed, brandishing them,
before pocketing them into his shirt.

Roy said sarcastically, "Oh. ha. ha."

-------

An alarm sounded, a long one, through 
every category of callout mode tones.
"Station 51, Station 8, Truck 137, Battalion
14. Multiple pileup on Hwy 101. Two miles east of
Roy Rogers State Park. Two miles east
of Roy Rogers State Park. Meteorological
weather station reports heavy fog in the 
vicinity. Time out.. 07:59."

Gage turned to Roy,... "Full moon's
true to form yet again.." and he pushed
out of his chair.

The gang made their vehicles and 
slipped into helmets, overcoats and 
seat belts.

"Station 51, Responding.. KMG 365."
Cap said, writing down the 10-20 on a pad
and handing off carbons to both Stoker 
and Gage.


They rolled out.


==========================


Ten minutes later Cap thumb motioned
for Stoker to slow down the engine 
travelling in front of the squad.  
He squinted through the thick musty 
smelling mist, boiling before him and ordered.
"Lopez, get out on the footrail and see if you
can see anything, okay pal?"

"Right, cap."  Marco stepped out of the
rear cab and hung onto a spot mirror.

Cap waved Mike to drive forward carefully.
Then he thumbed his radio. "Engine 51 to
Truck 137. We're two miles south of
mile marker 2 next to the south end
of the park. We can't see anything. Give
a directional blast on your airhorn, will ya?"

"Will do. We are at the first MVA to
the north. No victims as yet. We have
evacuated the area and are beginning
a washdown."

"10-4. Appreciate that." Cap replied.

All in the cab, strained to listen. So did
Gage and DeSoto in their truck.

A horn bellowed from fairly close away.

"That sounds like only a fifth of a mile."
He thumbed the mike, "Gage, DeSoto,
we're there."

"10-4, Cap." Roy said.

The paramedics and firemen bailed their
vehicles. 

Cap shouted to his men, "Fan out.
Start searching. There's no cliffs 
to speak of here. We're level with
the ocean on this stretch of the 
freeway."

That much was true. All the gang
could smell the tang of sea salt 
and could hear distant waves
echoing to them under the blanket of 
heavy fog.

Cap chose to relegate scene triage
to Battalion 14, who pulled up right
behind Squad 51.  Hookraider took
over the task, understanding Stanley's
decision was a sound one. Men were
needed to search cars. Even those with
captain's rank.
"Battalion 14 to Station Eight. Station
51's got the south end. Position your men
in the northbound lane, to mile marker
three. Number of effected MVA's,
unknown at this time."

Gage and Roy moved out, walking fast with
meager torches and their gear. Chet followed
them with stokes and O2, shouting.
"Can anybody hear me? Fire Department!"

Gage and Roy nearly fell over the first 
mangled car, gray, like the smothering
fogbank around it. 

Johnny saw a second red pickup on
its side a short distance ahead through 
the murk.
"Chet! Marco! Check out that truck!"

Roy tried the passenger door of the car
they had found but it was jammed.

"I got it.. Go check over there.." John
told Roy. John poked his head inside and saw
clothes. Two sets. "Cap! Get a K-12 
over here! I've got victims!"

Gage finished a brief check for gas,
then wormed into the narrow window up
to his waist. Glass crinkled under his gloves
as he found the driver. Gasping loudly, he
slid himself closer in the tight space 
next to the first victim.

The smell of blood was strong and something
else that was very bad. 

He felt for a carotid he knew wasn't there.
A definite sign of fully dialated pupils made
John's heart sink.

What he saw in the back seat was
even more tragic.

Roy leaned in the window looking in on Gage,
"That truck's clear. Everybody got out without
injury." he said, thick with concentration.
"How are they?" He couldn't quite, see inside.

John curtly shook his head, vacating the crushed car.
He waved Marco and Cap with the K-12 away
to the next vehicle. "She's been disemboweled.
Gone for too long. The toddler's DOA, too."

Roy glanced back at the impossibly flat
roof collapsed over the babyseat and 
saw two sneakers poking out. The only
thing he recognized. "Johnny.." he
gasped, clutching Gage's jacket
as the shock of another child's death
sank in.

John understood it was ten times
harder for Roy to see that kind of
fatality, having kids of his own.

He covered the mother and child up
with a blanket quickly, hiding the sight.
"Roy. Just move out. There's gotta be more
victims around here. Only a semi could do
damage like this.." he said of the gray
Honda.

Roy got on his walkie talkie, and mechanically,
John marked the car with flourescent orange 
search paint. Putting an X on roof and door. 
Swallowing, he put the symbols for two bodies
next to it.

"Cap, we've got two DOA's in the first car.
Second truck's clear but I'm smelling gas."
Roy reported.
 

Cap ran up waving on several stations' men
with 51's K-12 to take over the head of the 
searching. "I'm on it. Marco! Run two inch 
and a halves to cover any gas spills, Stoker,
you're with him. "
 
Then a chief from Station Eight pummeled toward 
them. In the gray gloom, his white helmet almost
appeared to be glowing.. "We've found all of them. 
Seven cars, one semi. Besides these two, here. One of
my men's found a Winnebago upside down 
along the guardrail. There's two little girls inside.
Their parents are fine."

"We're on it.." Roy said. "Cap have the guys bring 
our gear..!"  He put back on his helmet and grabbed
biphone and oxygen and followed the Station Eight
chief to the site.

"I'll get it myself.." Cap answered.  He ran back to the Honda
to collect the stokes and IV box. John followed to get
the defib and drug box.

Soon, John, the station eight man, Cap and Roy followed
an eerie trail of hissing cherry flares that acted as a 
beaconing line along the way. 
"Good thinking.." Gage said to the chief. "This is a faster way
of getting around in this stuff..." meaning the heavy 
fog that was around them.

-----------

Roy was the first one to arrive at the rolled 
camper. He was met by a dazed father who only had 
superficial contusions on temple and cheek. The man 
grabbed onto DeSoto's arm and begged him to let him 
inside the RV.. Roy physically peeled his fingers off, 
deciding the man to be a low priority case. "It's all right,
You're all right. They're still alive. I'm going in to check
them out right now. Just sit on the curb here and take
it easy! My partner will take a look at ya in a second."
He handed him off to Cap and crawled into the 
window the chief indicated.

Station Eight had already cracked it open and laid
overcoats over the glass.

-----------


John knelt by the wife, who was sitting supported by
Vince on the roadside. He glanced at the man
Cap brought over, knowing him to be the one a bit 
better off of the two.

John asked the burly motorcop, "Any of em injured?"

Vince said, "He seems ok. But the wife almost went out
on me twice, though." Gage took her face into one glove
and checked her over visually. There wasn't a mark
on her. He took her wrist into his hand, feeling her radial 
pulse. It was rapid, but strong. She seemed just out 
of a faint, leaning heavily on the officer.  

"My name's Johnny Gage, I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles
County fire department. Are you feeling any pain anywhere?"

The wife stayed dazed, staring at the Winnebago.

John pulled an aromatic ampuole from his shirt.
He snapped it and waved it under her nose.
"Hey.. can you hear me..?"

The slender woman gave a shudder and whipped
her face away from the fumes of the capsule,
coughing. She peered around blearily, then focused
again on what she was looking at. Emotion flooded
back in a wave,
"My babies..! I have to get to my girls. They're still 
in there! I- I've got to help them.. The dresser pinned
them inside.." And she struggled in Vince's 
protective grip without thinking.

Johnny held her by the shoulders firmly.
Her struggles jostled his helmet and it fell off.
"Take it easy now! My partner's working on that. Now let's
just make sure you're all right before you move 
around so much, ok?" Gage said.

The clatter of John's helmet on the concrete
made Cap, by the chief, shout for his man he
couldn't see. "You ok over there?"

John answered.."Yeah..!"

The woman nodded, finally fully awake.
She calmed down as John softly spoke to her.
He told Vince, "Keep her upright. That's how you
found her, right?"

Vince nodded, "Yeah.. and the sergeant said she
was walking around earlier before I got here."

Gage strung cannulas of O2 set at six liters for both
husband and wife and began to get a set of
vitals for Rampart. As he worked, he glanced
over to the Winnebago, wondering what Roy
had.

-----------------

Roy found a jumble of furniture in his way.
Gasping, he shoved his way through and 
found the children. He waved the station eight man
monitoring them away. The man retreated back
out of the camper.

A tangle of wall and sheet metal
had wrapped the two girls up like pretzels.
One child's head wasn't visible and three
arms in pink stuck out from where they were.
It was hard to tell which limb belonged to
which child inside a hole in the debris for
both were wearing the same kind of clothes,
pink jumpers.

Reaching into the gap, Roy felt up the body of the
child whose head was hidden, to her face, feeling 
for breathing. His bare hand encountered wetness 
around her neck that was sticky, but cool. 
##This one's not bleeding that bad.## he thought.  
And he was satisfied with her rate of taking in air. 
He made sure she stayed breathing well by slipping 
in a child sized airway. Roy began to search for
the reason why the little girl was unconscious.

Shifting around, he grabbed one of the arms he thought
belonged to the hidden child.

There was a strong pulse in the brachial artery
that attested to a fair blood pressure , giving Roy
more reassurance that she was stable and not
critically injured. He shifted each girl slowly
apart from the other, without jarring neck or spine,
trying to find how they lay.
::They're so tangled up here.:: His effort failed.
The twisting metal made him give up the attempt.
He got on his walkie talkie, "Cap! These two girls 
are pinned in real good. We're gonna have to cut 
them out! I can't get good access to either one."

##We're on it, Roy. Hang tight. We're coming now.##

DeSoto finished his quick assessment on his patient.
He found no more blood stains on the girl. But it was
bothering him that he couldn't reach all of her to know
for sure, her true physical condition.

Roy moved to the conscious child, who was 
watching him with frightened silent eyes. 
DeSoto flickered fingers quickly at her eyes to see
which startled fingers moved in the debris so he could
identify the position of at least one set of hands.

"Hi.. How are you doing? My name's Roy. Pretty scary
in here, huh? "

She nodded, which told him her neck wasn't hurt.

DeSoto leaned back, setting his handytalkie behind
him while he pulled some closet partition out of
his way. He cursed again in his mind how flimsy
Winnebago materials were in the trailer.

"Don't go!" the girl cried.
She reached out and grabbed Roy's jacket.

"I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm here to care
for you and your sister right now." 
And he smiled at his small charge.

"Roy?"

"Yeah..!"

It was Cap, making his way towards where
the girls were trapped. "I got the gear.."

"Hand over the IV box first. We're gonna
have to get lines into both of them 
before we extricate either one."

Cap got to Roy's side just as he spoke
again to the frightened sister who began to
struggle when the splintered dresser boards 
above her began to creak.
"It's ok, honey. Just relax.. Someone's coming, that's all.
Mom and dad's just outside. This is my friend, Captain 
Stanley. He's a fireman like me. We're going to help 
get you and your sister out of here.. "

She said boldly. "He's not Captain Stanley.
He's really Abraham Lincoln.  I learned about
him in school." she claimed, voice hitching with 
nervousness. 

Roy and Cap exchanged ironic looks.
Hank mumbled, "Guess I do sort of
look like the man.." he said, scratching his head.

They spent a minute or two, leaning over their
young patients while they freed what they could
off the two children. But it was soon apparent 
Roy was right. The jaws were needed to do
any more.

The air in the tiny space slowly grew hot and stuffy
and made DeSoto feel every second in a torrid
grogginess, but soon, he bent over the unconscious 
sister to get a BP on an arm he had freed. He guessed
it was hers because of blood spatters on the sleeve.

Cap touched another tiny arm at random. "Is this one yours?"
he asked the tiny girl. He sing songed, moving fingers
on that limb testing for neural response. "This little piggy
went to market.. This little piggy stayed home.."
he sang.

The little girl giggled. "No, that's my sister's."
Cap kneeled near her face to get closer and to get more
comfortable in the small space. 

"Ahh!" she screamed.

Hank instantly froze. And lifted a loose board from where
he had been kneeling. A left leg was curled un-naturally
under her chin. 

There was no doubt whose limb this was.

"Roy.."

DeSoto took his stethoscope out of his ears
and saw where Cap was pointing.
"Is there a pulse in it?"

Hank removed a sandal and checked.
"Can't tell.. Hell, all of her's cold right now."

Roy said, "Hand me a hair traction splint.
"First thing, we're going to straighten that
limb out."

"With this metal in here like that?" He said
of a wound in the thigh. A three inch long stake of
side chrome stripping was embedded there.

"We have to. There can't be any bloodflow
in the leg with it being that dislocated.
I'll..think of something and work around that shard."
He thought for a few seconds. "I know. 
Immobilize it. Keep that piece from moving around. 
Use bulky dressings...or, some of that wall insulation.
Anything you can use."

"Right." 
After he was through, Cap slid drug box, IV 
box and defib next to DeSoto. 
"What can I do here now?"

Roy finished cutting away the pink 
shirt on the buried sister. 
"Get our awake little princess here on 
the monitor.. We can always use the paddles
to check her sister's EKG. It's the best way we
have to keep tabs on her vitals with her being
buried like this."

Cap nodded, and got out leads for his
patient. Then he handed Roy the defib paddles,
stretching their coiled cords across to him.

Roy threaded the paddles through his tiny access hole 
and set them on bare skin, an arm and a waist; the 
only places he could reach well. It was enough
contact; Cap and he got a wavering strip off 
the stilled girl.

"Bradycardia.. deep. Probably from that neck
bleeding. If a jugular's so much as bruised
you get a reading like this." he told Cap.

He got a second set of vitals on her and a
set on the frightened sister while Cap initialized 
two tie ins on the EKG monitor using
the pads and leads he set in place on the 
second child he was near.

"What's that?" she said as two sets of beeping
audios filled the air. 

Cap stroked the girl's cheek. "That is a heart 
TV.  It shows us you got one around in 
there somewhere." He peered, tapping on 
her chest gently.

She smiled, "And the other squiggly line is 
Cassie's TV?"

"Yep. That's right.."

"Cassie is your sister's name?" Roy asked as he
positioned a hair splint by the leg Cap and he
were about to move. It had completely slipped
his mind to find out the girl's names and to use them.

"Uh huh.." she nodded. "And I'm Robin."

"Nice to meet two such pretty young ladies. Do
you and your sister always wear the same outfits?"
DeSoto asked, while he blindly checked Cassie's neck
more closely for any lacerations he might have missed.

"Not always. But today is Cassie's birthday. And
we wanted to fool Grandma into getting our names
wrong again."

Cap said. "It's your sister's birthday?
Well, we're going to have to do something about 
that now aren't we, Roy?"


Roy looked up from his concentration, and flipped on
an instant, but tight, smile. "Yeah.."

"Really?"  Robin asked.

Another shaking of the debris around them
announced another fireman picking his way
into the camper. Stoker came near and passed off
an O2 apparatus to Roy, "This is eight's. Johnny's using
ours." 

"Thanks.."  DeSoto got out the unit's demand 
valve mask and started hyperventilating Cassie 
to get her heart rate to speed up.

Cap gave Robin a nasal cannula on a second O2 line
after showing her how it worked on himself. 
He adjusted it around her face. 

Captain Stanley heard the sound of a K-12 begin to
cut through the Winnebago's outer wall. A blade
protruded noisily, making Robin startle, but the saw 
retreated the second it got through the wall.

Roy's talkie buzzed, ##Cap? It's Kelly. We've 
gotten most of the way through. Get those girls
under cover.##

"10-4, pal."
Cap touched Robin's arm lightly. "Let's see.. something 
special for a very special birthday.. Hmmmm. I know.
Do you think Cassie would like to wear a fireman's helmet?  
We've got one for both you and her.."

"wow.." Robin nodded.

Cap and Roy flipped up their own overcoat
collars to shield themselves from the rain of saw
embers to come. Cap gave his helmet to Robin 
and Roy used his to make a roof over Cassie's 
face between two beams.
 
Roy nodded to Cap that he was ready for both 
the splinting and the saw.

Hank warned the little girl what they were going to do.
"You let me know the moment you feel anything 
like an owie when we move your leg..ok? And we'll
stop.." Cap told her.

Robin squeezed Cap's hand as her fright
mounted. She began to cry. "No.. I don't 
want t- to.. I want mommy.."

Her EKG sped up rapidly.

He leaned over Robin and smiled, "Hey, I 
know that. Roy knows that, too. But we
have to bundle you up first all safe and
sound before we get you out of here.
Ok? Now those men out there are going to
cut us a door. It's going to get a little loud. 
Think you can handle that?"

But Robin was beginning to drift and
didn't answer. Hank turned up the flow 
on her O2.

Cap gave the go ahead on the handy talkie
"Go ahead Kelly.. On the double!"

The sawing resumed, and showering orange 
sparks began to fall from above them 
that lit up the camper.


Roy was in his own private world. His mind
was racing with priorities and he was fighting
his own fatigue.  Wisps of oxygen from
the girls' masks would give him seconds of
clarity but they didn't last. ::Why didn't
I sleep a little longer last night. One more
hour would've done it..  Now.. Concentrate.
You aren't going to be able to contact 
Rampart until you're out of this confined
space...::he told himself. ::Focus..
Maintain Cassie's positive pressure ventilations
for a minute longer. Then get that circulation 
back into Robin's fractured leg.::


Roy gave Cassie a few more assisted forced air
shots then left the demand valve on passive, so 
that it fed a healthy stream of oxygen to her 
when she breathed in, automatically.

He turned to Cap and together they drew
Robin's hideously broken leg out from under her
face and down her body as easily as they could.

Robin screamed at one point and passed out. 
Her EKG sank into shocky sinus rhythm. A minute 
later, the task was done. The metal shard
in Robin's leg under the Cap's dressings
began to pulsate with each heartbeat
on Robin's monitor.

Roy smiled, "Ok, that's it. We did it, I think."

Cap checked his end of the splint,
fastening off the tension straps 
holding Robin's leg straight. "We did. Foot's
warming. "

DeSoto's smile faded, "Where's the
break at in that leg." he asked Cap.

Hank cut away the girl's pink slacks
around the straps. "Looks like
there's an exit wound in the middle
upper thigh. Femur.. and...another one
lower down by her ankle. There's a
deformity there, still."

Roy nodded, head back in Cassie's niche
as he resumed her forced O2, "So far so
good. That sounds like it was an open
fracture, which we reduced. That ankle
I'm not so much worried about. Is her thigh
any bigger than the other one?"

"No."

"That's good. At least she's not bleeding 
out inside that leg. Last thing we need is
an arterial bleed. We can't exactly get
a pair of mast trousers in here, now can
we?"

Cap caught the note of exasperation in 
his paramedic, "Easy Roy. We've done
what we can here. Now Kelly and the whole 
gang should get us out inside five minutes. "
He eyed the rain of sparks and their location.
"He's 3/4's the way around making us that door
right now."


--------------------------------------------- 

Outside Chet was sweating with effort behind
his face plate. Marco was anchoring his
shoulders while he cut into the Winnebago's 
side.

But then the rasping buzz of the K-12 
soured somehow with a sound of something
very much like static...

Marco smelled ozone..

"Chet! There's a live power line nearby!"

Chet turned but didn't stop cutting.
"One more second and I'll be through.."

"Chet!!"

A hanging wire from a broken, leaning telephone pole
that no one could see in the fog, swayed
in the rising wind of coming daylight.

A thick cable sparkled with blue fire, ionizing the air
before connecting with the wall of the Winnebago.. 

Current passed through Chet's sweaty gloves like
water and into Marco.

Both men were thrown backwards by the shock and fell
onto the road.

From where he was, Johnny Gage heard a crackling and
looked up, horrified, as a massive blue arch illuminated
the contorting forms of Lopez and Kelly.
"Chet!!  Marco!!"

He ran as close as he dared to where he thought 
they went down. He couldn't see them through the fog.
And he didn't dare move any closer. Ozone
nearly choked him.

He thumbed his talkie, "LA, this is Squad 51. Cut all
power to the Southbound Highway system, now!!"


-------------------------

In the RV, the sound of sawing stopped. Cap looked up
at the cutting outline and saw the job wasn't yet
complete. It had gone quiet out there. 

Roy met his puzzled gaze. "Must've hit a beam or something."
He was about to ask what was happening on the talkie
when the EKG on both girls soured suddenly in a downward
wave.

"What th--?" It almost looked like resolving defib on 
the monitor. His bare hand brushed the metal floor.
It tingled and he suddenly felt short of breath. He
jerked his hand away with an effort of will. "Cap!
The RV's being electrocuted! Get on your shoes' soles"

A sickening wash of ozone flooded the tight space Cap
Roy and the girls were in. They could now hear 
the crackling power striking the RV. They could
see lightning blue through the cracks of the sawed
wall.

Cap gasped, "What about the girls?"

Roy began grabbing the strewn dresser clothing 
around them. "Stuff insulation under them! If
we get a direct hit from that wire. It'll kill them.
They're touching this wall directly.."
He frantically put on his gloves again, avoiding the 
twisted metal around him and shoved sweaters,
pj's and towels under his patient. Cap did the
same for Robin. But before they could finish, a bright
flare of fire buzzed and the bucking powerline 
wire wedged in the crack the K-12 had made 
at the top of the wall.

The girls caught the whole backwash of 
electricity for a brief second before they
were insulated from the floor by Cap
and Roy.

The EKG rhythms plunged again, more deeply,
but they didn't flatline.

Roy ducked involuntarily and so did Cap 
at the angry energy snapping so near their 
heads. It was a near thing.

Then under DeSoto's hands, Cassie's chest 
failed to rise. "Cap! Check Robin. 
Her sister's just arrested."

He redoubled his ventilation efforts 
again, using the demand valve on Cassie, watching 
her EKG monitor intently. But there were 
no further downward spikes at all.

Their desperate mats of laundry had worked.

Captain Stanley caught something of Roy's sudden 
urgency over the hideous noise from the powerline. 
He reassessed Robin, and she too, was apneic. 
"Roy, she's going down. No breathing."


DeSoto handed Cap another pediatric oral airway and
told him how to insert it. But there was a problem.
Only one demand valve was available.

Hank improvised, starting to breathe for her, wearing 
the cannula in his own nose, using his own lungpower 
and the flow of O2 through him to keep oxygen in her 
body.
 
But there was a blessing even in the fetid darkness.
The two EKG's on the defib monitors still 
sounded off, like music to his ears.  

Roy didn't admit it, but part of the tingle he got
touching the metal floor underneath him had
jarred him physically. His eyes blurred as he
worked over Cassie. ::Shake it off. Shake it off.
It's just a headache.::

He knew the girls needed IV meds. And they needed them
right now. 

Cap got on his walkie talkie, crouched around Robin's head.

In between delivering breaths to Robin, he spoke, shouting. 
##LA, this is Engine 51. Emergency!##

"Go ahead 51."

##We're...........pinned down surrounded by 
live power lines. Cut power to the area immediately. 
Multiple victims.............are involved..##

"The power company has been notified. Two minutes to
shut down." dispatch replied.

Cap gave Robin another breath and looked up.
"How are we going to get med authorization?
You've got your hands full with that demand valve!"

Roy backed out of Cassie's niche. 
"Relay. Then get Gage in here!"

But before he could get back on his handytalkie he heard
a frantic Gage contact him. ##I heard ya on the horn! 
Hang tight. Chet and Marco are down! **a large
crackling of power**   Dammit!! I still can't get
to you or them! You're going to have to make
due without me!##


There was thudding sound as John threw away the talkie
in another attempt to circle around to get to his
fallen coworkers. 

Roy heard only static follow on his radio.

Cap and Roy were left alone, underseiged by the powerline
in the camper, but they kept working to maintain the girls.



Outside, Gage spotted another EMS crew appearing from the fog 
a few yards from the camper. He made sure he was heard and
seen by picking up and throwing one of the road flares in their direction. 
He pointed at the camper when the men turned to face him.
"Get my partner! He's in there! Live power line!!"

Then he jumped the guard rail, moving up onto
a hilly bank just visible to him in the mist. It was on a level
with the top of the rolled Winnebago.


John leaped on top of it, mindful of his fog damped shoes,
quickly dancing until he got his overcoat under his feet
insulating him from the deadly electricity surging under him.

Stoker, who had come running at Cap's frantic radio call,
handed him a shepard's crook. "Use it on them! Not the
cable!  Or the polymer will melt on you!"

Gage nodded, leaning on his stomach, over the edge of the camper's 
caved in roof. Mike tossed him a rope which he looped around the 
end of the crook.  He extended the pole, and snagged Chet's hand, 
the only thing sticking in the air against a piece of debris.

He jerked the line, tightening the noose and flung the line
back at Mike on the ground. Station eight's men dragged 
Chet out of the hose watered danger zone to safety.

Gage glanced over only long enough to see them roll 
him over onto his back before catching a new rope 
from Vince. His toss at Marco's foot, missed. His next 
toss caught him across the face, awakening him 
with its rough sting.

"Ughhh!"

"Marco, Listen to me! Grab the rope!"
Marco contorted with each shock from the wire but he still
had wits enough to hook an elbow around Gage's looped line.

Johnny leaped back onto the grassy rise and hauled Lopez
towards him away from the watery pavement. 
He got Marco to his feet and they got out of there.
"I got ya. I got ya.."

Lopez locked into an involuntary spasm just as Gage and others
got him back over the guard rail. He dropped in their arms
and was quickly lowered to the ground and held carefully
so his head didn't abrade on the concrete while he shook.
"Ah.. it hurts so bad!"  His breath was squeezed out of his 
body by a great steel band of his own muscles. *choke*......
The world retreated for long seconds before the convulsion left 
him as quickly as it came. His vision came back. Marco
saw a ring of faces over his. And one he recognized.
"..ugh.. Johnny.?..*gasp* H-How's Chet.?"

John looked over across the road from where he was crouched over
Marco. He could vaguely make out the outline of a Pasadena FD 
back bobbing up and down. "They're working on him." 

"uh no...." Lopez said, slinging an arm over his face.

"They got to him fast enough now just worry about yourself
for once, all right?" John said sharply. " Mike.. Get the stokes!"  
Gage shouted. "I want him near me and the gear boxes!"

John tried some levity as he undid Marco's overcoat and cut
through his shirt with clothes shears from his hip holster 
when he saw that its buttons had fused together.
"If your breakfast wasn't hot enough this morning. It sure is now..
Your hair's curlier than Kelly's."

Lopez groaned. Gage wasn't all sure that it was laughter.
He kept a hand on Marco's chest. "Can you breathe, ok?
That was some jolt you took there." 

"*cough* y- yeah.."
Marco tried to straighten out his body.  But then an even stronger
muscle spasm curled him up into an agonizing ball.. "Ahhhh!! 
Gage..Make it stop!!... It's killing me..." he sobbed.

"Easy, Marco.. There's meds I can give ya to do just that
But you're going to have to wait..You've been one upped by Chet
here. Stone!" he shouted to a Pasadena man he recognized, 
"Get him on some O2 will ya..?" 
He said, pointing at Marco. "Put him on fifteen liters, non 
rebreather. Bring a bite stick. His convulsions won't resolve."
Johnny turned Marco onto his side before the next spasm
could make him ill. "The O2 will deal with some of your nausea
ok?"
 
Marco lost focus and stopped writhing as the spasm 
quit shaking him like a dog with a rag. He drifted.

"Hey.."
John looked down at Lopez's pale face. He was now half out, but still
moving air. "See you in a few minutes." He lingered only
long enough to see the new EMS team insert a bitestick and
start up his order of O2. "Marco. Hang tough. I'll be right back!"
Johnny shouted as he stood up.

Gage took off at a run to get to Kelly's side. 

Stoker, Vince, Station Eight's chief and Vince's partner,
Garner got Marco into the stokes and brought him
across the road to where Chet lay on the ground. Station
eight's men were performing CPR on Kelly and using their
own resuscitator to give ventilations.

John thunked down onto his knees and checked out Chet's 
pupils with his penlight around the demand valve mask without 
getting in that fireman's way. "They're reactive."

He knew things weren't going to be easy. Roy had
the squad's defibrillator. "Damn..if only we had another
defib box." he mumbled. 

Then Vince spoke up. "There's one in the lifeguard tower
station on the beach.." Vince peered about. "We're at mile 
marker two, aren't we?"

The Chief nodded. "Where exactly is that station?"

Vince thought hard. "It's about twenty five meters off 
the park entrance at the south end. It's a base station. 
There should be guards there now."


"Well what are you waiting for?!"  Gage said, listening to 
how the oxygen from the positive pressure mask was 
perfusing in Kelly's lungs with his stethoscope around the 
CPR man.

The Chief ordered, "Get a move on....!" he pointed to two men. 

"Yes sir..!"  Two firemen ran towards the direction of the 
ocean's waves. They disappeared into the fog.

Gage shouted suddenly, "Hold it.. hold it..!"  gesturing to the ventilator.
"Chet's distending too much. I'm not getting any good 
volume in his lungs at all now. On the count of three, we'll roll him.."

At the end of a set of chest compressions, Kelly was turned on his side,
with his head tilted back.  John pressed Chet's hugely air swollen
stomach carefully, and the lung constricting air expelled back out 
of his mouth. When he finished, John swept inside Chet's mouth 
with a finger. It came away clear.
"All right.. back over. Back over.. He didn't get sick."

CPR continued. Gage nodded at the return of vents inside Kelly's chest.
He pulled off his stethoscope, and sighed.

John saw the powerline still arching in the Winnebago wall.
He saw Truck 127's crew circling it, still separated from
Roy and Cap. They were stymied.
"Damn it. I wonder why the power company's taking so long.."

He saw one of Eight's men plunk the squad's biphone right
in front of him and another unit's drug, trauma and IV boxes.
"Where did you get that?! " he said incredulously happy. 

One of the men answered. "Station Eight's. But they've gone
with the defib, They had a touchy OB in labor to the hospital. 
Stone said you might be needing this." 

"Good enough."
 
He picked up the receiver and hailed Rampart.

"Rampart this is squad 51. How do you read?"

As if on cue, the power was cut to the writhing wire 
above them and its burning end went black. It settled
to the ground.

A new saw advanced on the camper immediately.

John nodded with satisfaction, thumbing his walkie talkie.
"Roy, they're coming in!!"


-----------------------

The base station next to the front desk was empty,
until the red light began to flash.

Dixie McCall looked up from her slate at the sound
of the incoming transmission's double buzz. She flagged
down Joe Early coming out of treatment three.
"Joe.." and she pointed with her pen.

Dr. Early went into the glass enclosed room and
toggled the switch on the radio after starting 
the recording machine. "Unit calling in, please repeat."

"Rampart this is Squad 51."

"Go ahead 51."

"Rampart, we have six victims at a multiple MVA. 
Two Code I. Two are still inaccessible.  Two superficial.
Victim one and two are victims of electrical shock.
Victim one. Negative vital signs. We're administering CPR. His arrest
was witnessed. Victim two is semiconscious and suffering from
severe muscular convulsions with moderate respiratory distress.
He is stable. Victims three and four are children, trapped inside a trailer. 
Roy is with them now with a hand held radio, linked to you via 
dispatch. Victims five and six have minor cuts and abrasions." 
John reported.

Joe early read the notes he took down. "Go ahead with victim one."

Gage looked over to the men working on Chet.
"10-4,Rampart, " Johnny swiped sweat off of his lip as he talked,
"Chet's CPR has been ongoing for four minutes. We've had problems 
with distension, request permission to insert an esophageal airway."

"Go ahead 51. Then defibrillate at 400 watt seconds."

John lip's set into a frustrated line, "Negative on the defibrillator, 
Rampart. We don't have one. A lifeguard station is nearby. We're 
waiting for beach lifeguards to respond with their equipment."

Joe saw Kel walking by and motioned for him to come into the room
curtly then added,  "10-4, 51. Start an IV D5W, TKO. Continue CPR.
Administer one amp Sodium Bicarb. Then 5 cc's 1/10,000 mg 
epinephrine IV Push. "

"10-4. IV D5W TKO, one amp Bicarb, 5cc epinephrine IV. Inserting
an esophageal airway.." Gage repeated to his attending doctor.

"Standing by." Dr. Early replied. He nodded to Dr. Brackett and
handed him his notes and a transcript of the first minute
of 51's call.  Kel continued reading intently.

Joe said, "There's no defibrillator there. 51's working on it. They
said they'll have one soon."

Brackett said, "Six victims? Must be a bad one."

Joe grunted and waited for his paramedic to come back online.

Slinging the phone receiver and cord over his shoulder,
Johnny grabbed a laryngoscope and an EOA. He 
bit his lip as he threaded it into Chet's throat, down
the scope's guide groove and into his stomach. He was 
almost afraid that there'd be swelling from his evac earlier 
but there wasn't any at all. 
The tube settled to its end mark, effortlessly.
 
"Ok."  He said to the man with the respirator. The valve 
was reconnected to the airway tube a second later. 
John listened to Chet's ribcage. 
"Ok, give him a shot." 
Kelly's chest rose. Gage heard good breath sounds on the left side. 
He shifted his stethoscope over to the other side. 
"Again." he nodded.
He heard pure air sounds there too and no gastric bubbling. 
The tube was in place properly, he inflated the airway's gastric
bulb. "We got it. Continue the CPR."

He got an IV line in on sheer blind luck into Chet's inner arm vein
at the crook of the elbow. He ran the D5, and then squirted air
out of the epinephrine needle before injecting it into the IV's
rubber port. "Anything?" John asked when he was through.

The fireman at Chet's head checked for a carotid. He shook his
head.

Gage cursed with more than a little frustration,
 "You're making it hard for us... Chet, I was only kidding about 
the full moon thing." he said, setting the IV bag under Chet's 
shoulder.

John then got out the Bicarb ampoule and prepared and injected
that blood neutralizer into the IV line. "He'll need a truckload. He's
been down forever." he mumbled. "Where are those lifeguards..?"

On cue, two people, a man and a woman in red shorts and jackets
ran up to them being led by the chief's men. They had a white box
with them. They crouched by Gage and the crew. The youngish
athletic man spoke, "I'm Lt. Craig Pomeroy. This is Jill Riley, senior
lifeguard. Heard you needed this."

John smiled and grabbed it. "You're beautiful!" He flipped open
the lid with a flourish and his face fell. "What th-?"

He got out the phone in the same motion.
"We have a defibrillator, Rampart. But it's a type I've never seen
before."

"What model is it?" Joe asked, puzzled.

"I couldn't tell you, doc..." Gage said quite honestly.
He heard Kelly Brackett emit an oath in the background.

Dr. Early went on, "Any chance of finding another defibrillator?"

Craig spoke up to the fireman/paramedic. "I'm authorized to use 
this pack, sir. It's an automatic unit. It'll assess whether or not 
he's receptive to countershocking."

John shouted eagerly, "Hold on, Rampart!" He set the phone down
setting fingers on the woman lifeguards' arm. "Wait a sec. You said
it determines heart recapture optimums?"

They both nodded.

"Rampart, ah,.. The Lifeguard lieutenant here says he's fully 
trained on it. And that it has conversion analysis.
What should I do?" Gage asked, breathless.

Brackett slammed the button down, "Do whatever it takes, 51. He's
running out of time!" he growled.

Johnny nodded. "10-4." Then he looked to the Baywatch lifeguards.
"You heard the man. Do it."

Quickly, Jill and Craig threaded two huge padds that were attached
to the strange looking monitor. There was no EKG screen to speak of,
Gage thought. Until he saw a digital one pop on a screen the second the leads
hit skin. Then they touched a green switch on the side of the device.

A computerized synth voice spoke,
---Stand Clear. Stand clear-- analyzing patient.. --

Johnny took the lifeguard's cues, motioning, and all the firemen lifted 
their hands from Chet.         

--No signal. Continue CPR.--

The team resumed their resusitation.

"What's that mean? Why didn't it fire?" Johnny asked.

Jill reset the device.. " It means your bicarb hasn't had a chance to 
neutral this man's acidosis. When did you give it to him?"

"Three and a half minutes ago."

"Then it won't be long until the pack determines viability and defibrillates.
It won't shock a heart in the wrong chemistry. Saves damage to the
patient. Back off everyone." Craig ordered.

Again the crew stood off.

---Stand Clear. Stand clear-- analyzing patient--

Everyone held their breaths.

--Countershocking.--

        *Shock* 
Chet Kelly's torso lifted only slightly, almost gently
under the box's new kind of direct delivery system.

---No Pulse. Continue CPR.--

Johnny's patience hit a breaking point. "Damn it!" Gage sharply
motioned for the CPR team to begin working again.

Jill reassured Johnny.
"The bicarb is working. Soon, his blood will be prepped enough
for the pack to deliver another shock. It'll be another ten seconds."

Gage grabbed her arms, "Wait a minute. Are you saying that 
right now, Chet's system is still too acid for that thing to work?
    
Craig put his hands on his knees, "Yes."

Gage smiled, "Hang on....  Rampart, There's still no conversion 
after one countershock. We're showing deep flatline on the pack."
::Come on, docs, guess what I'm guessing..::

"Hmm,..Sounds like his blood is still too acid. Give another amp 
Sodium Bicarb." Joe said finally. 

::Yes!:: Gage thought happily. But then Brackett came on.
 
"Gage, we'll need to bump him up into coarse V-Fib again. 
I am personally authorizing you to give 2 cc epinephrine 
Intracardially."

Johnny's face fell and he gaped, slowly, "Hold on. Rampart, IC?  
I've never done one in the field."

"I have full confidence in you, Johnny. You've seen me do it enough
times."  Brackett said.

Gage licked suddenly dry lips. "Uh,..10-4, one amp Sodium Bicarb, 
then 2cc epinephrine IC. Stand by."

The bicarb load was in and empty when John got over
being stunned about what he was being asked to do.

Johnny drew open the paper off the premixed syringe. He 
motioned with his head to the firemen around him. "All right.
Stop the ventilations." He fingered the proper position into the 
cartilage between the third and fourth ribs and cleared the six
inch needle of any air.

Jill Riley looked away as the long needle plunged down.

Gage advanced the cath until he felt one pop, then two.
"All right, I'm through the chest wall, nnghh.. and 
the pericardial sac.." then he felt a tenuous 
third resistance in the needle, ventricle tissue! "There.!"

He pushed the plunger until all of the amber fluid in
the chamber was gone. He held his breath and withdrew
the needle back the way it came and looked at the tip 
of it. It was all there. Nothing had broken off.

He sighed, passing off the spent syringe to the needle
bin in the Drug box. Then nodded for CPR to resume. 
John sat back onto his butt, rubbing his mouth in relief. 
"I did it. I actually did it."

The lifeguards continued where he left off.
The green button was pressed again.

----Stand clear. Stand clear--analyzing patient--

More than one man crossed their fingers.

--Countershocking.--
    
       *shock*

----Pulse detected. Pulse detected...  Detach unit's power source.--

The last line of the computer's voice was drowned out by 
cheers from all the rescuers over Kelly as his chest began
to rise and fall.

Johnny snatched the phone to his mouth.
"Rampart. We have a Ventricular rate of about 30."

It was Brackett's turn to sigh and tremble a tad. "Good work
Johnny. You saved both my professional reputation, and
yours. Think we should add that little trick to the 
Paramedic manual?"

Gage just grunted in the negative.."Hell no. My nerves are shot!!"

But he could almost hear Brackett grinning through the biphone line.

Joe early added, "51, start an IV of an Isoproteranol Drip, and the rest of 
the bicarb. Continue O2 and monitoring. Transport as soon as possible.
Send us a strip lead two."

Jill turned a toggle on the pack for Gage and a few other
dials he didn't understand and said, "This will be lead two."

=========================================>

Brackett and Early grinned at the unfamiliar voice but
bent over the paper roll feeding out of their
relay monitor. "Looking good, ...maam. " Kel joked. 
"Johnny, Increase the drip until his rate's around seventy, will you?
We'll wait on his vitals until you've treated victim two."

"Affirmative, Rampart."  He finished his med order on Kelly and
then turned his attention to Marco behind him.  


-------


Lopez still had good color and was moving slightly.

Gage looked to the Pasadena man who was carefully watching 
Marco's breaths steaming under the mask. 

"Is he still having spasms?" Johnny wanted to know.

"Yes."
  
On cue, Lopez twisted up, in one arm and leg on the
same side.  "Tonic convulsions now?" Gage wondered.
John shouted, "Marco! Can you hear me?"

His coworker's face didn't change. 

Johnny got closer to his ear. "Marco!"  But Lopez
didn't react. Johnny checked out his pupils. Then on
a thought, rubbed a knuckle into his sternum.

Marco twitched and fingers moved slightly on
the relaxed hand. But that was all.

Johnny relayed what he had found, "Rampart Victim 
Two's Marco Lopez. He's semi conscious and
diaphoretic. Respirations are labored at...." he paused
to check. Then Gage was surprised to see the two
lifeguards stringing a different patch from the auto
defib unit of theirs to Lopez's bare shoulder.

Pomeroy shrugged, "Your doctor is going to 
want to see how he's doing..too."

Johnny smiled, "Fair enough." he said, muffling the
phone mouth piece. Then he finished his report,
"Respirations are 26 and irregular. He's having 
frequent seizures in his lower body and extremities. 
The spasms started all over him when we first got him 
free but now seem to be confined to the left side 
of his body. He's on fifteen liters of O2. Additional 
vitals to follow.."

Early wanted to know. "51, Sounds like the electricity
travelled down his central nervous system from the
contact point and has disrupted neural
activity on that side. I want a BP from
that arm. What's his heartrate?"
 
"Pulse is...120 and irregular,
BP is....*sigh* .. Stand by for the BP."

Gage got a reading quickly by stepping his foot
on the twitching hand  on Marco's left side while Jill
and Craig helped hold the arm still for him, restraining
it at shoulder and wrist.
"....BP is......Hold him,... 92 over 50." He reported,
pinning the phone to his ear between his shoulder and face.

Marco began to gag slightly in his stupor. But there was
nothing left in his stomach to lose. He only had weakened
dry heaves as he lay on his side, gasping tightly around
them.

John slid his free hand to Marco's neck, pulling his larynx
up a bit in his thumb and fingers to see if his breathing 
evened out. It didn't.
Johnny added. "Rampart, Marco's getting stridorous.
I think the petite mals are having an impact. And he's 
really nauseated and he's getting a bit cyanotic."


"Try an esophageal airway, 51.." Joe ordered.

"Negative, Rampart. He has a gag reflex." Gage said.

"What's his response to pain stimuli?" Dr. Early asked.

"Somewhat to pain, nothing to verbal cues. And he's now 
showing no signs of voluntary movement on his 
uneffected side."

Joe considered, then asked, "51, is he still vomiting at all?"

"Negative.. his stomach appears to be empty."


Dr. Brackett laid down the plan. "Hmm. Johnny, sounds like he'll
tolerate a naso pharyngeal airway. Go ahead and intubate
him. It should help his air intake and keep him from 
aspirating any bodily fluids."

"10-4."
Gage nodded as the lifeguard Craig anticipated his need
and handed him one already out of its wrap. He nodded
thanks, while he listened to the rest of Kel's instructions.

"....Send us a strip. I want to see what's happening
to his cardiac functioning."

Jill took off Marco's O2 mask and held it near but out
of Johnny's way.

Johnny gel-ed the nasal airway and guided it through 
one of Lopez's nostrils and down, until it was in place
fully. He checked its positioning in the back of his throat
with a penlight, peering into Marco's mouth.
Then he replaced the bite stick in between his involuntarily
clenching teeth.
"All right. Get that O2 back on him."...

Jill complied.

He listened for a moment, molding the mask carefully
around Marco's nose and mouth and the seizure stick, 
then smiled as his labored gasps eased off and began slowing. 
"Ok.. he's set. It's working."
He picked up the phone, "Doc, his breathing's levelling
off. Respirations are 14 and deep." he nodded with satisfaction.
"He's in better color too."

 Gage pointed to Jill, and
she sent Marco's telemetry to the hospital as she had done 
with Chet's readings.

Brackett eyed Lopez's strip as the audio feed danced
in its soft wavering pitch, filling the base station's tiny room. 
Dix held her breath, and so did Joe. 

Kel finished reading the strip, and one
of his eyes twitched as he toggled the sending talk button.
"51, I'm getting only minor ventricular irregularities. Your fireman's
one lucky man. Looks like the jolt he took was only
of moderate intensity. His nausea's not cardiac related. It's most likely
due to pyschogenic shock. Give .5 mg Atropine ,  IV, 51. 
And start an IV of D5W, TKO to get him out of it."

Johnny replied, grateful at the news, "10-4, doc, .5 Atropine
in a D5W IV to keep open."  He tore a bag out of its paper and
strung a line in after nabbing a vein.
He splinted the tubing and the catheter in Marco's arm 
with an IV board, so it wouldn't be torn free in his seizuring.
Then he added the atropine.

Lopez began to shiver differently 
and the convulsions on his left began to spread to his other side. 

Jill cushioned his head in her hands but other firemen replaced her
gentle manual restraint with two sand bags that worked even better.

Gage got on the phone quickly, "Rampart. Atropine is in,
but ah,.. his convulsions seem to be getting worse.
And more frequent."

Dr. Brackett, "It's a tough tradeoff, 51. Atropine for 
that good air exchange. But increased tremors."
He mumbled off phone to Joe. "Damned if
you do, damned if you don't.."  He got back on the line.
"All right Johnny.. We're going to find middle ground.
Draw up 25 milligrams Diazepam..for an IM only."

Gage frowned, rocking back on his heels, grumbling
at his only viable option. He knew what the doctors 
were asking him to risk. ::Great.. first Kelly's IC, now
this..::

Kel went on, "Watch him closely. The Diazepam's going to
depress his breathing every step of the way.
You're going to inject five cc's at a time until he's just at
the point where the tremors cease. Got that? Five cc's
for every fifty pounds body weight. You lose lung draw
and we're in trouble."

"10-4. Diazepam IM. Five cc per fifty. Stand by."

"Standing by."

Johnny wasn't happy. He knew the risks of losing
Marco's respiratory ability were high due to 
his shock; let alone those incurred from his having  
a downer drug used on him.

Coma couldn't be far away if Gage over shot
his mark.
 
He closed his eyes, holding the needle and shot of 
muscle paralyzer up between his chilled hands
as he tried to recall what he had heard Lopez joke 
about his weight a week ago while he was standing on
the station's scale. "Now what did you say Lopez..?
185?..190 pounds?"  He couldn't clearly remember.

"Damn.." he cursed, grabbing up his talkie. "Squad 51 to
Engine 51. Come in."

Captain Stanley answered, "Gage? Is that you?
Hurry up.. We've got two respiratory 
arrested girls in here."

"Hold on, Cap. I'll be right there. But Marco needs
treatment right now more than they do. You've got
the kids maintaining just fine from the sound of it.."
Johnny said. He could hear Roy's positive pressure vents
 and Cap's mouth given breaths plainly. "Right now I 
need to know Lopez's exact body mass.."

Cap grabbed up the radio closer to his
free ear, "What did you just ask?
The saw's too loud in here!"

"Roy .. Cap!.. how much does Lopez weigh? How heavy is he?
Brackett's got me anesthetizing Marco to control
petite mals. Now...How many pounds do 
you remembering seeing in his file from last week,
Cap? I can't do this at all unless I am absolutely 
right on or he'll get real sour on us real fast."

Cap said, "I don't honestly know, Gage.... Roy?"

DeSoto wiped sweat from his eyes. His head
was pounding from the remnants of the electrical surge
he took through his fingers on the floor.
His mind raced, then he snatched the radio away from
Cap and hollered, "Chief, get one
of your men in here right now to take over for me.
My partner needs me out there ASAP.. Johnny I'll
be right there..!."

A minute later, Stone wormed his way to Roy's side
and took over Cassie's resuscitation effort.

Roy put a hand on Cap's shoulder as he worked
over Robin. "I'll be right back. Call me if either
of their EKGs so much as twitch.."

He left his radio on Robin's stomach, within
Cap's easy reach.  Hank nodded as he placed
another seal over the child's lips and blew her
another careful breath.

Roy made sure Cap had enough oxygen 
flowing through the cannula on his face
to go through him and then to the child.
"Got to remember your trick for the books."
he quipped.

That simple statement made Hank
relax a whole nine yards.


Roy felt comfortable then with leaving the 
four of them in the camper.

==========


DeSoto stumbled out into the fog. He found
Gage and Kelly and the Pasadena group by following
the flares glowing on the road.

He arrived too fast and banged into Gage. 
He lost his balance.. squatting down
near him over Marco's writhing form.

Gage looked at him "Hey, easy! I almost stuck you..." He
said, whipping the needle away from Roy.

"S-Sorry.." Roy coughed, rubbing his eyes to clear them.

Johnny looked a little more closely at
Roy, "You ok?  I know you're better than me at this,
but if you're too tired...."

"I- I'm fine.. Give it here." 

Gage studied Roy's sweaty face for a moment, and noticed
a stench coming from him. Burned flesh.. "Hey.." he took
up Roy's arm, "Where did you get that burn..?"

"It's nothing.. I... touched some hot metal when I got
too near the K-12.." he lied. Marco needed him to act.
Now.

"You sure you're all right?" Gage said, still hanging onto
Roy's jacket.

"Yeah.. I'm fine.." DeSoto said.

Something about his conviction fooled Johnny. He
studied Roy's face a moment longer,
then slowly handed DeSoto the syringe. "ok.." he said.

Johnny picked up the phone. "Rampart, Roy's going
to do it. He's got a better idea of how much Lopez
weighs."

"Get on it, 51. Every minute with those convulsions is
another minute too many." Brackett said.

Roy's brain fuzzed as he swabbed down the fleshy part
of Marco's flank. "He said... he weighed.. 81 kilos..
in the gym.. Joked about how it was the same weight
as our punching bag..." he whispered to himself.

"What?"

"Shhhhh" Roy said, wiping moisture from his 
upper lip. "He said.. 81 kilos... I'm certain of
it.. that's why he looked so funny working out with 
it. It kept knocking him around..
.. Yeah.. I remember laughing at him trying to 
keep on his feet.."  

Gage nodded, smiling slightly."He's not much of a Mohammed 
Ali, I take it, eh? Only 81 kilos? " then he clammed up.
Johnny occupied himself with taking another BP 
on Marco's still arm, mentally kicking himself for 
distracting Roy. He began pumping up the BP cuff.

Even that small snicking valve sound
intruded badly upon Roy's concentration.
He took a deep breath trying to ignore it.
::..now, how many pounds is 81 kilos..?::
He did a mental calculation and then said out loud
to Johnny with a short nod of his head.
 "Injecting.. .. Inj  uh,..25 cc's...Diazepam..IM."
And he stuck the needle into muscle, pushing
the plunger to drain to the zero remaining line.

Gage looked up, ripping his stethoscope out
of his ears.. "Roy?! Did you just say 25..?"
He whipped up Roy's hand off the syringe 
still impaled in Marco's hip, gasping.
He jerked out the needle and flung it away 
quickly,  but it was too late..."Roy..
81 kilos is only 178.5 lbs!  The dose should have 
been dif---!.."

The absolute horror that rose in Roy's face 
transferred to his own. 
Roy began to tremble, but automatically,
he felt Lopez's chest for air movement. 
Marco breathed still, but shallowly.
He got out his penlight and looked very quickly
at Lopez's eyes. The pupils were fixed and dialated.
He pointed to them, his face a tortured mask,
dropping his shining pen light. The bulb 
shattered on the pavement.

Gage knocked Roy's hands
away fiercely using his own light to see
and saw the undeniable sign there too.

Coma..

Johnny was stunned, but brought the phone 
numbly to his mouth, "Rampart.. we have
a problem.. I think..we made a...a ..mistake.."

Brackett looked up sharply from his notepad.
"What do you mean, Johnny? Talk to me.."

Simultaneously, Roy reacted.
"Oh my god.. Johnny, what have I done..?" 
The moment proved too much. DeSoto's 
head fuzz reared up as he tried a futile denial.
Then his brain refused to function any longer.
Roy slumped to the ground, letting the rising 
black from his near jolt of electricity claim him.


"Roy?!"  John shouted. He flung out a hand.


But Jill and Craig were faster. They caught
the fair haired paramedic before his head hit
the ground.

Craig told him. "He's fine. He's fine. I got him."
he said after a check of his carotid. "He's just
out cold. I don't see anything more than that.."

Brackett's demanding voice shouted at their
feet. "51! What's going on over there! This man's
EKG has just hyperbolically levelled. He's overdosed.
He's down too deep."

Gage picked up the receiver. "Doc.. Roy ...
injected 2.5 cc's. Way too much.."

Joe didn't hesitate, "2.5 cc Narcan..Push it."

"Doing it.." Gage got the universal drug
antidote from the box and used it. "Come on,
Marco.. Snap out of it.. Nap time's over.."

He watched a fireman increase an ambu bag's 
delivery of controlled 100% O2 to Marco 
a few more notches. The Pasadena man 
had begun using one when he had first heard 
the word "overdosed."

But the EKG remained at its suppressed
eerily slow, uniform sinus rhythm, the earmark
of the coma state.

Brackett announced over the landline, "No conversion.
Keep hyperventilating him, Johnny. And put DeSoto
on the line, I want to talk to him."

"I can't doc,.. He's out cold. He may be injured
from his trying to get to the other victims.
He's got a burn I didn't check out very well."
He groaned in anger as he saw other marks of charring
soot on his skin that Craig had uncovered as he opened Roy's 
shirt to monitor him.
"I think he might have tangled with the 
same powerline that took out Chet and Marco."

Joe toggled the speaker when Kel didn't 
respond to Gage right away. "10-4,
51. Monitor DeSoto and treat for shock. 
Listen to me.  I want you to stay focused.
We'll work out all of this later.
Give me another set of vitals on Marco
and get him set to transport. Now...
I want to know about victims 3 through 6 in
triage priority.."

"10-..10-4.. Rampart..."
Johnny said mechanically. "Cap's with
victims 3 and 4 now, I've just learned,
they're two girls in respiratory arrest."

"Give me a man with them who can get
me their vitals.." Early said.
 
"Stand by.." Gage once more got on his radio.

======


The rest of the rescue was a blur to Johnny.

The tremendous load on Johnny
as senior assessor was soon halved shortly after
Roy collapsed.

Gage remembered the side of the Winnebago 
being finish cut and pulled free and then a new station's 
paramedics rushing in to relieve Stone and Cap's
ventilations of the two girls. With a firm tie to
Rampart, the injured children's conditions were 
stabilized rapidly, and Cassie and Robin, with their 
parents, were transported out by Mayfair rig 
ten minutes later.

That completed,
Johnny could focus on the full implications 
of events with Marco, Roy and Kelly.


==========


In a second red lighted speeding rig,
Chet awoke enough to spit out his
airway en route. Johnny leaned over
him just in time to hear him complain about 
his head aching and about his chest that somebody
had used both as a trampoline and as a stone
for the preverbial sword..

Gage winced, rubbing his own chest, imagining
what it must be like for Chet, having a fresh 
six inch needle puncture wound down heart deep. 
"You have no idea the trouble we had 
to go through to save your butt, Chet. Just be grateful
you're still breathing.." he grinned lopsidedly.
 
"Ohhhh...ow."
Then Chet asked about Marco as his memory
returned. "How's Lopez? My god, I swear I could hear
his mustache sizzling just before I blacked
out." he laughed a short laugh before the
painful reminders of his rescue, shut him up.

He turned his head, seeing his familiar 
coworker firefighter lying next to him on 
another stokes.

Gage deflected masterfully, with his smile 
locked in cement with all the skill of the 
paramedic hiding bad news.
"Worry about yourself and that halo you
narrowly avoided, Chester B." Gage said,
firmly planting the O2 mask back over
Chet's face.  "That's your first concern."

Kelly blinked, twice, shoving his O2 mask onto his 
forehead, thinking.. "Ok, Lopez is entitled to a little 
confidentiality. But what's HIS story?" the curly haired 
fireman said, pointing to a third stokes Johnny
was leaning his rear on in the crowded ambulance. That
one held Roy's dusty, limp form. Kelly saw that
he, too, was on precautionary O2, but no IV hung over
his head.

Naturally, Chet assumed the lightest possible
outcome to that scenario.
"Don't tell me the sandman caught up with DeSoto
during my rescue?" Chet laughed weakly. "Now
that would be REALLY embarrassing..Glad I 
wasn't awake for that little blunder.." he chuckled.

Kelly actually saw Johnny suddenly wince at his words
and look away..

The haunted look in Johnny's eyes sobered
Chet more than the water did from the Phantom's
revenging can sprung a year ago.
 A sick feeling gripped Chet that had nothing to do 
with his near brush with death. "Gage. What is it that 
you aren't telling me?"

John fiddled with both Chet and Marco's EKG
settings before he replied in the softest of voices.
"I don't know how in the world I could possible
begin to tell you what happened Chet.. I
can't believe it really happened m- mysel--.."
he admitted, his strong baritone cracked
with emotion. "You see.... Marco needed
a drug to stop his seizuring. Roy was
so tired.. and I didn't see how tired he was..
I let him take over.. And... he .." Gage 
looked down at his soiled hands, "..gave him..
too much..."  

Kelly rose up onto his shaking elbows. "What?"
in utter disbelief, then a few seconds later,
in denial, 
" Johnny.. even with an OD, I've seen you 
use that stuff, what is it called? Narcan..
Yeah. Like you use with the cocaine addicts all the
time. That will fix Marco right off as soon as we
get to Rampart,.." he smiled desperately.
But his eyes on the stretcher next to his
only revealed a deathly still man, and an oddly
mechanical heart rhythm, unnaturally 
slow for lifesigns, scrolling on the screen 
next to his own. "..right?"

Johnny's eyes filled and he set his hand on
Marco's stomach just for the reassuring rise
and fall of his breathing in another attempt 
to delude himself.
"Chet.. That tiny OD put Marco into a coma,
one from which he might not ever awaken."


The sirens above Chet's head began to
alter in pitch, its urgency mocked, as a new 
sound mingled with its wail and began to grow.

The sound was of two completely grown 
professional firefighting men, starting to cry.


------------------------------------------


"Roy....."


A voice.  It was someone he knew. He
was certain of that while he worked
around the pain and fog in his head.


"Roy..... Open your eyes.... It's me."


 Roy DeSoto opened his eyes to a bright light 
which was instantly angled out of his eyes by
a nimble hand, which cocked the overhead light 
away from his face. Roy coughed..

A gentle smile resolved into focus.
Dixie McCall sat on a stool by the side of his 
treatment room gurney. "How are you doing?"
she asked. "You took long enough snapping
out of it." she teased. "Thought I might have
to light matches under your fingernails just to
revive you."

The joke didn't make Roy laugh.

Roy tried to rise but she was instantly there,
restraining him. "Easy. Dr. Morton will be along 
to check you out in a moment. Now you just lie 
back and wait for him. Do you remember what
happened to you?"

Roy groaned, fighting dizziness and swept fingers
to his nose, feeling the flowing cannula resting there,
but it was only his expression that conveyed his 
next question because he couldn't yet talk.

"You passed out. Johnny brought you in here
himself, twenty minutes ago."

"I did?"
He took another deep breath from the oxygen
tubing and his stubbornly foggy head cleared.

Emotion wracked DeSoto cruelly as full recall
of what he had done dug into the pit of his
stomach. "Marco! Ohmygod.. Dixie.. I-- It's Marco.
I-I.. gave him an overd-- "

He cut off when he saw her small slow nod.

The room swam nightmarish in his mind's eye
as he returned to every paramedic's idea of a living hell.
He sucked in a choking sob and demanded. "How is
he?"

Dixie's doe eyes lowered fractionally but she
met Roy's gaze again right away even as
her caregiver's voice deepened into a note of
seriousness.
".....He's the same I've heard....  Dr. Early's 
with him now. He's ordered an EEG scan on him."

Dixie held up an admonishing finger when Roy
started to protest, started to leave the bed. 

She snicked up the bed's side rail, preventing him.
"Now you listen to me Roy DeSoto. We'll get
answers soon enough. But those won't come
any faster if you go barging in there like some
guilt ridden, self sacrificing Don Quixote. Besides,
you have no idea which treatment room he's in
right now at all, do you?" she said, folding her arms.

"Dix.." he started to say.

She ignored him, "Chet, on the other hand, is asking
about YOU." she said significantly. "There's
a fireman who's got his priorities straight. He's 
concerned right now with Roy DeSoto. And so am I. "  

She changed the subject a bit to deflect him,
"Did you know that your partner brought Kelly back
with his first IC ever? Chet converted right away.
Gage nearly wet himself when Brackett gave him
the order, but he did what had to be done, flawlessly.
Shows his skills as a paramedic are gr--" she broke
off, uncomfortable when she realized what she
had been about to say.

Roy let the comment sting. "But what about 
my OWN skills as a paramedic, huh?" he 
said with some heat. "Yeah, I trained Johnny,
so did you, and he now saves a hell of a lot of lives.
because of us.." he said sarcastically, 
"But tell me this, Dix...When did I lose track of
managing my own stamina and judgement?
Can you tell me that? When did I lose my edge?" 
Tears filled his eyes as he absently picked at the burn 
dressing someone had placed on his arm while he
had been unconscious.
"How can I get up tomorrow morning to even shave?
I can just see it, pretending all's well.. Staring at my own
face in the mirror...." His voice was intensely bitter,
"A little lost sleep and I blow all propriety out 
the window with a fateful misinjection that 
turns one of my best friends whom I've known 
for almost six years into one of the living d--....."

"Roy..." Dix admonished. "Now you listen to me and
you listen to me good. Dragging yourself over
the coals about this thing isn't helping one bit.
It's not helping you and it's not helping me.
And certainly that attitude's not helping Marco."

The mention of Lopez's name made Roy look away.
Dix grabbed Roy's chin to make him look at her.

She said frankly.
"You know as well as I do that it's still way too
soon to know if the Diazepam caused
permanent harm yet or not.. You know the
findings in this scenario are unrevealing for
a week or two at the very least... So don't go writing
off any people so soon. Neither your friend, nor
yourself." She let him go.
"So you made a mistake. A terrible one.
One that will most likely have a lasting effect no matter
the outcome. But let's face it, together. You
don't have to be alone with this. Not at all."

She angrily brushed loose hair from her eyes 
and took his hand, 
"That's why I'm here, Roy. That's why we're all here.
So don't you forget that. Your family loves you
and so do your crewmates. Don't let them down by
giving up on anyone. And I won't have you giving up
on yourself so start dealing with it right now, Roy 
DeSoto."
 
She rose, moving the exam tray Mike would need 
for Roy in a few minutes.

She gave Roy time to absorb her words.
Dixie's own eyes were full and watery,
but she didn't let any tears fall. 
She felt too much conviction to let 
emotion rule her. Especially when someone 
needed her to be a firm strength. 
Especially during times like
this one.:: A friend in need.....:: she thought.
"Joanne and the kids are on their way. I called 
them myself."

Some of her strength finally transmuted to DeSoto.

Roy nodded, quickly drying his face. Internally, 
he felt horrible, being weakened in body physically,
and emotionally, down to his very soul.
But if he had to be vulnerable. He could 
think of no one better suited to share his pain outside
his immediate home or working family,
...than Dixie. "Where's Johnny?" he asked, his
voice a little clearer.

Dixie answered truthfully, "With Marco. He's been
glued to him ever since he ....went down."

Roy's chest tightened and he clenched his 
teeth, denying the physical injury there, but one 
hand moved up to his chest unbidden.

Dix didn't miss his symptoms. She wrapped a grip
around his wrist checking. "Short of breath?"
She paused a few seconds, counting his pulse.
"Uneven. I'm getting you on an EKG."

She was still patching him up to the monitor when
Dr. Morton entered the room. Without a word,
he went to Roy's side, checking his pupils and overall
condition in his trademark gruff manner. 
He spent a minute studying the strip Dixie produced from Roy's
leads, then he spoke. "Residual elevation on your T waves.
That's typical with excessive electrical contact. They should
resolve in an hour or so. You'll be fine there without the 
necessity of me medicating you."

He began a belly probe and chest percussion exam.
Both Dix and Roy were puzzled at his silence during
it.
Morton sighed and eyed the both of them 
before saying, "I am breaching doctor/patient
confidentiality by saying this to you both, but Marco's EEG is
showing plateau levelling with a negative Babinski
finding.."

"Mike.." Dix scolded.

Morton was frank, "Dixie, Roy doesn't want to be coddled.
Isn't that right, DeSoto..?"  He said, turning to his patient.

Roy nodded his head in tiny agreement but was deathly afraid
to hear more.

"Do I go on telling you anything, Miss McCall?" Mike asked.
"If you don't trust yourself to hear this, you can 
leave the room right now." He said, taking off Roy's oxygen 
feed so he could look into his nose for dust or blood.

She held her tongue. 

Dr. Morton went on, "I didn't stay in the treatment room 
long enough to hear all of what Dr. Early and Dr. Brackett 
were discussing on Lopez," he indicated DeSoto, "for they 
told me YOU were still out cold then and needed to be 
seen. But I will tell you this. It's too soon to tell
anything with absolute certainty. There are steroidal
treatments we can use to try to induce a return of frontal
lobe functioning. But it's going to take time to clean
out all the Diazepam toxins from his system.. Until then
Marco's coma is being streamlined and deepened
with anti-inflammatorys and his body core temperature's
being dropped until his brain tissue begins to heal itself. 
Now,.. let's just finish up here and stop talking about Lopez." 
He smiled slightly.
"You didn't hear this news from me. Is that understood?
My butt could be canned even discussing him."

Two heads nodded.

Dr. Morton went over Roy with a fine tooth comb
and then he drew a red top. "Nurse, run this to the lab.
Have them run a cardiac creatin series, CBC and
electrolytes." Dixie took the phial and headed for
the door. "Oh, and have them look for renal proteins.
I want to make sure your kidneys fared as well as
your heart did, Roy."

But Roy wasn't listening to him.

Dixie shifted her gaze from Roy to Mike, reluctant
to leave, but finally, she did.

The closing door returned silence to the
treatment room.

Doctor and paramedic went eye to eye when the
rest of the exam was over. Mike rubbed his chin 
for a moment, and considered something.

Without saying a word, Dr. Morton pulled down
the bed's side rail and handed out to Roy his T shirt 
and uniform that had been resting across a 
nearby chair. He swept a gesture for Roy to get
out of bed, uncharacteristically .....kind.

Roy looked at Mike questioningly, coming out
of his deep thoughts.  "Doc?" 

The "get vertical" and go invite was not standard for 
one in Roy's condition.

"I'm releasing you.." Morton said, peeling off EKG
patches and the BP cuff off Roy. "No point in you
lying around here worrying about all this, 
now is there?"
He held up the rolled EKG from his chart."There's
nothing I'm seeing here that warrants an admission."

Roy sat up, testing his own balance and took
the shirt, taking and then pulling on the T and 
then the uniform.

Morton held up a finger. "But I am ordering you
away from Marco."

That stopped DeSoto.
"Why?" Roy asked. "Don't tell me it's for my own
health.." he said a little defensively.

Morton moved to the door, and opened it.

Vince and his partner Garner stood there 
leaning against the wall. They had been standing
outside Roy's treatment room waiting. And they
were on duty. "They asked me to inform you
not to see him." Morton told DeSoto.

Mike wished he could say something encouraging,
but nothing more needed to be said. All four of
them knew why officers were present.

Vince studied his shoes.. and both he and Garner
whipped off their helmets in respect. "Sorry Roy. Standard
procedure.." Vince said uncomfortably.

Roy buttoned his shirt, moving out into the hall,
a horrifying thought coming to mind, 
"Am I being arrested?"

But Vince didn't say anything more.
Garner said, "Dr. Brackett would like to see you
in his office. He'd like to see you right away."

Dr. Morton set a gentle hand on Roy's shoulder.
"I'll call you with your lab results. Take care."

"Appreciate it, doc." DeSoto said as Morton
walked away down the bustling, busy noon time
hospital hallway.

Roy's mind was numb. He was highly aware of
the presence of the two police officers flanking him.
It made him feel like the worst of criminals.
::Maybe I am one. One of the worst kind. 
Hurting Marco like this is unforgivable..:: 
he thought.

The short walk was soon over and he turned to
the left, first knocking, and then settling a still dusty
hand on the chief physician's rich maghogany and brass
door knob until he heard a reply of, "Come in."

It took all of his concentration and will
to finally open the door.


----------------------------------


Gage was inches away from Joe as he worked over
Lopez. He fussed with the bird's link to Marco's
mouth, watched the respirator pump beyond
his taped airway billow adequately, and handed 
Early medications and equipment before the 
doctor even asked for them. Finally, Dr. Early said. 
"Johnny. Thing's are well under hand here. Why 
don't you go grab a cup of coffee?"

Johnny looked up from an unconscious grip he
had on Marco's brachial pulse that he was 
using to monitor Lopez closely. "Hmm?" he 
said distractedly.

Dr. Early saw the firm grip Gage had on Marco.
And the palpable fear he had of even considering
letting Lopez out of his direct care.

Joe nodded tightly and then reconsidered sending
the dark eyed paramedic from the room.
"Hand me the cooling blanket will you? 
I'll rig an internal thermometer. We're going to lower
his core body temperature to ninety four degrees."

"Right doc.." Gage moved into activity.
They rolled Marco's bare body onto the plastic
coils and bundled him up inside of it snuggly once
the doctor had his internal thermometer probe in
place. He switched it on..

Dr. Early watched the degrees indicator drop
and adjusted a dial until the reading showed 94.

A bleep made both men jump. It was the EKG,
reacting. A random PVC.

Johnny ran to the display his face brightening.
"Is he feeling that cold, doc? Look.." he said,
pointing,.. as another PVC inserted itself,
breaking the abnormally slow beat tracing
on the monitor..

Dr. Early bent over Marco's chest, listening manually
with his stethoscope.

Johnny held his breath.

Dr. Early shifted his listening to Lopez's
abdomen and to the intestines lying just beneath.
He lifted his head, eyeballing Gage. 
"There's no sounds of bowel movement, Johnny.
He's still in his coma.. It's possibly the steroids
Dr. Brackett gave him to reduce cranial swelling 
that is causing that arrythmia. Steroids have a tendency
to do that quite often. It's just a random aberration."

The PVC mocked them by not repeating.

"Damn.."  Johnny said, standing up and walking away
a few steps, hands on his hips. He then felt his
long aches and fatigue..and the weight of his job
like a ton of bricks. He leaned over, hands on knees,
coughing hoarsely at phlegm he suddenly felt strangling
him.

"Took in a little dust?" Dr. Early asked.

Johnny nodded without looking up. "Just a bit. 
The camper blew up a few minutes after we got
the two little girls out safely."

Dr. Early pointed to the O2 port on one wall 
with a pen, a silent order.

Wearily, Gage rose and sat on a stool by it, moving his
seat so he could still be close to Marco's head and grabbed
a demand valve from the basket for himself. He began using it,
sucking in its pressurized oxygen to clear his lungs
in several cleansing breaths.

He startled, looking down when he saw that one
of the attending nurses had already put protective
ointment into Marco's eyes and had taped them
shut. Only patients moving to the Intensive
Care Unit or to surgery got that done to them.

Highly disturbed, he took in more O2, coughing when 
the cool oxygen made the dusty snot in his chest bubble, then
he spoke, "He's not going to wake up anytime
soon.. is he?"

Dr. Early was studying Lopez's EEG monitor
intently but he looked up at Johnny instantly.
"I am not going to lie to you, Gage. Marco's
condition is very serious. Diazepam is poisonous
in high dosages. It kills cerebral tissue very quickly if
it's not counteracted fast enough. These Narcan
drips can only do so much. Marco's system
was already weakened from the electrical shock
he received. His heart was racing then, because
his blood pressure was depressed and from those
involuntary seizures. Most likely, quite a bit of the 
paralyzer made it to his brain before 
you injected the counteragent."  
  
Johnny buried his face into his free hand and rubbed
tired eyes. "Oh, man... Roy's gonna freak out over
that.." He took in more O2.  Then he spoke
again, blinking without seeing, at the posters
on the wall proclaiming the success of the
fledgling LA County paramedic program to date.
"I should have seen he wasn't up to it. 
He hasn't slept for close to two days."

Dr. Early just listened while Gage vented, "Hell,
even Cap dismissed Roy's tiredness at
breakfast.. he even gave me these.." he grinned,
pulling out the smelling salt pack Cap gave him.

The sight of one missing, the one he had used
on the woman made his grin wash away and he 
tossed them onto the bed. He couldn't bear to look 
at them for they had been an eerie premonition 
of what was to come.
"I should've stopped him. I should've seen 
the warning signs." he said, watching the respirator
fill Marco's chest with air before it released it
again in electronic uniformity. Up and down,
automatically doing its work with perfect 
machine like precision.

Gage ruffled fingers through Marco's hair, picking
off the bits of debris, clinging to it.

"What's going to happen to the both of them, doc?"
He asked at last..
At that thought, Gage lost it. Tears sprang out.
He sank his face into his arms, caressing Marco's
head and began to weep.

Joe took the O2 mask out of Johnny's hands and 
just sat with him. An arm over his shoulder. 
He sent the nurses out of the room.

John cried for a time.

Then the two silently fell to watching Marco's slow
EKG and the even slower brain wave EEG monitor 
without needing to speak anymore. It wasn't 
the time for words any longer. It was time
to start praying.

A chaplin entered shortly thereafter to do
just that.

Johnny had to leave the moment he saw
the purple cloth around the chaplain's neck.
::Oh no. Lopez isn't going to get Last Rites if
I have anything to do with it. I'll find Brackett.
Yeah. Maybe there's a more aggressive treatment
out there he knows about.::

He stood, swiftly, hiding his thought from the doctor.
He mumbled to Dr. Early.
"Gotta go find... Roy... You keep me posted,
you hear?" he said, fiercely wiping his face dry.
"Call me at home, or the station.. Hell call
me via dispatch if Marco changes even if I'm on 
another run...Promise me that, doc.."

Joe looked up, very somber, "I will."


Johnny left to go find Brackett.


---------------------

Roy turned the brass knob.

Kelly Brackett, he expected to see, framed
by his golden leafed medical books lining the
walls of the rust colored office and
sitting behind the broad desk with its 
nameplate displaying on one edge of it.

But he didn't expect to see another
man in one of the visiting chairs.

"Cap?" Roy exclaimed in surprise.
He let Vince and Garner into the room 
behind him, so shocked that he almost
forgot they were even there.

"Would you close the door, Roy?" Brackett
asked. "And have a seat.."

"Sure,doc."  Roy did so and took the chair
next to Captain Stanley. Hank was still
in his trenchcoat, and his helmet was
on the floor.

Roy thought, ::He didn't even leave it
in the engine cab?:: thought a ridiculous
ramble. ::I hope Marco's ok. And Chet.::

The distraught paramedic looked around 
the room, not getting anything from the 
unreadable expressions from the man who had
taught him emergency medicine nor from 
the man who was his station's captain.

He broke the awkward pause that followed by
asking, "How's Kelly doing?" with a falsely 
encouraging smile.

Hank shifted uncomfortably in his seat, sniffing,
and didn't find a position that made him feel 
better, "H- he's just fine, pal.., " he said,
clapping his gloves together with a cheeriness
that was forced. "ah,..He woke up in 
the ambulance according to Johnny,and.. and... 
and spit out his EOA." he laughed slightly.
" Heard he complained the whole
way in. The doc here says he's been moved to CCU 
just as a precaution for a couple of days."

Roy smiled bigger, a bit. It fooled no one.

Hank added, "Kelly's been asking about you.
Said something about wanting "the" pinup for
his room.. ah,.. know anything about that?"

Roy scratched his head, "He meant Johnny's Smoky
the Bear poster, Cap. They've been stealing it from
each other ever since their Phantom stunt war
ended. It's in Gage's locker."

"Fine, Roy. I'll.. have one of the guys bring it
to him.." Cap said. 

Roy refused the icy feeling that seeped into
him.::Now why does one of the guys have to do
that? What's going on here?::
 But he felt his mouth mechanically say,
"I can do that, Cap. Morton's just released
me medically.."

Cap actually looked away from DeSoto and
that frightened Roy more than anything else
he had seen since the OD occurred. 

Kelly Brackett steepled his hands, looking very
tired. "Roy.. there are detectives here, working
with these two police officers.."

"What?" Roy asked, stunned.
He then noticed the angry red on Cap's face.
And the same color on Brackett's a moment
later. ::Have they been arguing about me?::

Brackett met Roy's eyes squarely.. "I've been
ordered to have you step down as your station's
paramedic pending a full investigation.. by orders
of a Detective Fielder, coming from FEMA itself.
You know the organization is like the FBI for
the EMS service."

Roy stood, and anxiously began to fidget.
"Why, doc? I mean, I know I made a horrible
mistake out there. But don't you have to have
criminal charges before--"

A new man entered the room, fully in a three
piece power suit armed to the hilt with 
official looking papers. "We have those charges
sir. Gross Nonfeasance, Mr. DeSoto.. 
Your lack of professional judgement almost killed a man 
and these two officers over here were witnesses to it."

Cap's look at Vince and Garner almost burned them.
Cap shot to his feet, "What!? This
is getting ridiculous Doctor Brackett." he rounded on
Kel, "You only told me Roy had to take a leave
of absence, You never said anything about this
kind of thing!"

Brackett looked shaken.. "My hands are tied,
captain, as are yours.." he said severely. Anyone
who knew him knew the head ER physician was
highly worried, not angry.
Kel stood and turned to his first, best paramedic.
"I'm sorry Roy, But I am going to have to ask
you for your badge and departmental ID."

Cap stabbed a hand on Dr. Brackett's desk. "In a
pig's eye! You said nothing about resigna--!!"

Roy shook his head, "Cap.. Cap.. ".. he said,
setting a hand on Hank's coat.  "Stop.." he
said quietly. 

Captain Stanley still had soot on his face.
And there was a look of helplessness there
that Roy had never seen before coming from him.
But he knew that emotion. It was an emotion
any firefighter worth his salt got when 
things suddenly rocketted out of firm control.

Roy repeated himself. "Just.....stop.."
He looked around the office, smelling the
sweat coming off him, Vince, and Cap and the
musky civilized cologne off of Fielder and
he felt suddenly old and worn. It was serious
this time. Nothing that could be fixed or
patched up, ......or forgotten.

Without another word, he unpinned his uniform's
shield and threw his wallet medic's identification
card with it onto Brackett's desk. The badge bounced,
falling onto its front and rang as it rocked there on 
the shiny wood, until Kelly Brackett's hand 
stilled it.

Cap wouldn't even look at it, instead settling
his eyes on Roy's, in apology.

DeSoto nodded to Cap in acceptance of all
and he turned to the detective.. and
raised his wrists...palms up, together.

It was Vince's turn to look away. He motioned
to his partner to attend to DeSoto instead.
He himself couldn't bear to do it.

Garner brought out his metal handcuffs,
and opened them reciting the beginning
of the Miranda Rights all of them had only
heard on TV. "You have the right to remain
silent.. You have the right to an attorney.
If you cannot afford an attorney one will
be appointed for you for your trial in a 
court of law....."

Cap dropped his head as he saw Roy's
dusty and bloody hands bound behind his back.
::Hero's blood. From those he's trained to save,
God damn it..::

Even Dr. Brackett was speechless.
But then he said as Fielder opened the office
door to let Vince and Garner lead Roy out,
"Roy.... I'll do everything in my power to 
handle this..." he promised,,, " Absolutely
everything.."

Roy gave him a pained look before he was
led away.

The door shut.

Cap slammed his gloved fist into the desk.
"It isn't right! Roy doesn't have an evil bone
in his body..."

Kel reacted, "I know that. In fact, I wouldn't be 
surprised if this entire hospital knows that too.
Believe me when I tell you now that I AM on your side captain..
But technically, what DeSoto did to Marco is legally
construed the same as an attempted murder.. accident or not 
with just the facts in black and white, on paper alone.." he 
said angrily.
Then he sobered. "Now it's up to us, to 
convince the courts to see just what kind
of man we already know DeSoto to be.
One of the best paramedics you or I or this county has 
ever seen."


---------------------------


Out by the Emergency entrance,
Johnny saw the back of Roy's head out by the squad
and was overjoyed that he had his blue uniform shirt
back on and was ambulatory.

"Roy!" he shouted.. But then he cast his eyes lower
and saw metal cuffs around his wrists behind his
torn and soiled back.

In a sudden haze, he saw Vince guide Roy's 
head into the back of their squad car before he, 
too, climbed into the front seat. 
The police car started pulling away and Johnny 
saw Roy's face lean against the window, 
drained, with eyes closed.

A pure fury gripped him, "No... Roy!!"

Gage started running dodging around patients
and nurses and doctors who were wondering what
the paramedic was shouting about."Please..
I have to get through.. My partn-- Who the
hell released him from hospital custody? 
He's injured!" he demanding of the passing 
doctors around him.

But no one spoke up or answered his loud
demand.

A sharp impact stopped him in his tracks.
It was Cap, wrapping powerful arms around
him in a bearhug."No,, Gage.. Let him go..."

Johnny broke away and again they jostled.
"Cap, they just can't DO that.. I gotta tell
them the truth.. I was th--"

Cap whirled Gage around, his helmet's strap
dangling under his chin, "I know that, pal.
But you have to let him go. Don't embarrass
him further. He's completely devastated as it is.."
he reasoned.

Gage stopped trying to leave. But he didn't take
his eyes off of Roy's police car until it turned a
right turn under the hospital walkway and was gone.

Johnny turned back to Cap, suddenly seeing how
incongruent a completely outfitted firefighter seemed
inside Rampart. Already eyes were drawing to 
Cap and whispers beginning.

Cap noticed this, "Come on, pal. We're sticking out 
here like sore thumb. Let's grab some
coffee and go see Kelly, ok? Would you like that?
I know I would. I've already cleared
it with dispatch that the station will be out 
two hours. Lord knows we need some breathing
room after all this hellish business."

Johnny still looked stunned. 

Cap lightly tapped him on the face, "Hey.. 
pull it together. Joanne and the kids will be 
here soon and we're the ones who are going 
to have to tell her what's going on...
Dix has already agreed to stall them until
WE'RE ready for them. So let's go."

Cap guided John by the shoulders and into the 
nurses' lounge. "Tell me about Marco. What's his
current condition..?'' he said, sitting Gage down.

Mechanically Johnny began telling him and he felt
a steaming cup of coffee thrust into his trembling
hands. The odor of java that was so inviting
that same morning smelled suddenly like the most
vile substance on earth. He closed his eyes against
the world, denying everything but the feeling of
his captain's glove still on his shoulder while he talked.

Unbidden, he saw a vision of Marco's cross taped 
eyes sunk in a pale face behind his own closed eyelids
and his own shot right back open again and
he gasped.

Cap was still urgently talking to him, not taking
eyes off of his junior man, now awfully partnerless 
for an unknown length of time.
He knew it would be even harder for Gage when
he got back to the station and saw Gil already
in place as 51's temporary paramedic fill in.
"Easy, pal. I know this going to be hard for the whole
gang. Just hang tough. Before you know it, we'll
be right back together soon sharing another of Marco's
four alarm breakfast recipes. And that will be during a 
very, very routine A shift, ok?  Gage? Drink up. 
Things will be normal again if I have anything to say about
it. You can be absolutely assured of that, pal."

Deep inside, Gage knew things weren't going to be normal
again for many many days. Not by a long shot.


--------------------------------------


An hour went by slowly, and soon, he found he was 
back to base at the station house.  

Johnny Gage pulled the squad back 
into the garage about half way, then stopped, staring
at the brilliantly blue California sky overhead.
::Seems so unreal. That fogbank might have
been a mirage for all I'm seeing here.:: he thought
squinting in the sunlight.  ::It caused a whole
lot of heartache for such a short lived thing.::

For the third time, he glanced over at 
the passenger seat in reflex. It felt odd being
in the driver's seat, the most profound
sensation was knowing the reason why he
was there. And he couldn't ...quite get over it.

But Gage pushed his troubling feelings aside 
when he saw that the engine had beaten him 
back from Rampart.::They're going to need 
me to be the same Johnny Gage I always am, 
with my joking and complaining. Somebody has to
be the one to act normal around here. 
We're a station crew with three men down.::

Sighing, he turned off the lights and put the truck in 
park, took off his black helmet, and got out. 
He headed straight for the showers.  

Gage whistled a tuneless measure to 
cheer himself up with a shouldered towel and 
shampoo and soon, he found himself walking by 
the sinks. He was shocked to find another 
fireman with ginger hair shaving by one of 
them. He stopped whistling.

The other man turned around.. "Hey Johnny.."

Johnny didn't move.. but he replied, "Hi, Gil.. "
He hid a reaction of resentment. Roy's fill in
had already been summoned. It was the way of
a 24/7 fire department.  He curbed any sharp 
tone by lowering his eyes and mumbling.. "Who
else came out with you?"

Gil, was bright, free of worry. "Oh, Moreno from
Eight's and...uh, I think Odegard from 14's."
he said, carefully carving a path through the 
foam on his face.

"Good man Odegard," Johnny remarked, "Heard
he just got his rear pumper lieutenancy last month.
Got promoted the same time as Lop--" he broke off.
He studied his shoes, tapping one toe against
the tiled wall frame.

Gil caught a bit of John's reluctant acceptance of
him filling Roy's place and nodded, "Listen..uh, 
Johnny. If it means anything at all.. I rushed
ahead of the line and volunteered myself  
to make this reassignment a little easier for you."

Gage said, "Gil.. don't pay any attention to
my face right now..It's not listening to me at all at the
moment. What you think you see there, isn't about you.
It's about me not being able to cope fast enough."
he said, irritated at himself. "My whole world's been
turned upside down in.." he looked at
his dusty watch,.." a little under four and a half hours."
And he threw him a dry look and frown. "My brain's
seriously fried."

But Gil Sheppard went on, feeling an explanation
would make himself feel more comfortable.
"I barged on ahead of Brice thinking I was the lesser 
of two evils...heh."  he said wiping off the last of
the foam on his face. "Look, I know I can't fill
your partner's shoes one hundred percent, a close
working team doesn't spring up well oiled over night.
I figured I'm less caustic that HE would've been."

Johnny walked over next to Gil, and leaned two hands
on a sink. "Sheppard.. " and he held out his hand.
"I'm glad you're here.. Welcome to Station 51,
partner.." and he actually smiled on one side.

Relieved, Gil broke off and took Gage's hand. "Been a long
time, Johnny. We haven't hung out since Pam died.."
He shook a calloused firm hold,  then let go, turning back to
the mirror. "It's been what? Five years?"

John, too, studied the mirror and saw the soot and
wear of the morning on his forehead and clothes.
"I look like a sight for sore eyes." he sighed heavily,
"Yeah. Something like that. What've you been up to, 
lately? I thought you took that cush job up north in 
the Sierra Nevadas with Station Ten's,  riding shotgun 
with their elite high country rescue helicopter unit.."

"I'm still there. But it's not exactly fire nor tourist
season. Things are slow. And then when we all heard
your run go out this morning and then your radio transmissions
about Chet and Marco and Roy on the scanner, I knew
I had to come and help you guys out, you know..I've got
too much history with this station house to just do nothing."
Gil said as he absently rinsed the sink. He gave an exaggerated,
short polish to one particular carved grafitti heart near his sink, 
still displaying the faint initials of G.S and P.B. and eyed Johnny
from the corner of his eye to see if he noticed the teasing move.
Gil and Johnny once competed dating wise for Pam. Gil was the 
one who eventually won her hand.

Johnny dropped his head and put hands on his hips
smiling even wider. He was caught. Gil's maneuver had worked.
For the first time Gage felt good feelings
since the pile up call. "Yeah, Pam always did link us all up
together, and between you and Roy,.. and Pam, you three finally 
fanaggled me into entering the medic program and got my rear 
off being a rescue man on the engine. How could I refuse the challenge?
I didn't stand a chance, a zitfaced teen fireman, standing alone,
against two paramedics and a flight nurse telling such tales of 
heroism and bravery? Not a chance in the world.."

Gil laughed.

John patted his arm in appreciation, "Thanks for being there
for the both of us." He meant Roy and himself. 
"Then ...and now.. See you in a bit."
And he left to clean himself and get into a new
uniform.  Before he got all the way into the water
room, he stopped, "Oh, and Gil..."

"Hmm??" the tall red haired man grunted around his
toothpaste.

"Thanks for upstaging Brice.. I might have murdered
him on the very next run we went on..."

"No problem."


-----------------------


The county jail physician had noticed DeSoto's 
arrival through the main doors of the LA county 
PD, and grunted at the dusty look falling over 
the minor burns that were still half treated on Roy's  
arm and chest. He followed Roy through his search, 
fingerprinting and clothes changing process, attending
him silently.

Nervously, Roy told him that he had been treated
and released by Rampart General officially due to 
extenuating circumstances, most likely from the detective's
eagerness to take him into custody, but the older 
grizzled man would have nothing to do with that excuse. 

He treated and covered Roy's blisters with several 
two by twos and Silvadene.  To Roy's dismay, the
handcuffs were not removed the whole time.  Finally, 
as the older doctor was putting away his supplies, 
Roy spoke, "I've been through a lot today. I don't 
usually have a pair of handcuffs locking my wrists 
together like this. I've a wife and two small kids
coming. If you'd just take them off.. I'd sure 
appreciate it.." he requested. 

The old doctor didn't look up, and quipped wearily, 
"That's what they all say.." He took Roy's measure fully.
But then said kindly.."You don't strike me as a felon 
Mr. DeSoto, quite the opposite in fact. I'm sure
whatever it is you're in for will straighten itself out.."

Roy didn't say anything contrary, but nodded noncommitally. 
"I sure hope you're right, doc."

"Keep them dry..." the jail physician said. "I'll see 
what I can do about those restraints." And then he 
left Roy to his solitude. The attendant guard helped him 
to change the rest of the way into his overalls 
without saying a word.

Roy's apprehension grew at the cautious manner in
which the man handled him. ::As if I were a powder keg,
about to go off.::

Ten minutes later, another guard returned and freed Roy
from his bonds without questions and he was taken 
away. The doc was as good as his word.

----------

It was sometime later, Roy was staring at the ceiling 
of his jail cell, tracing a crack in its official steel gray
shine, drawing along it with a finger from 
his place on the cot while lying on his back.

His own mind haunted him.

Sunlight through the shadow of leaves
from the window made shapes of a checkerboard
that flickered on one wall. Its cheerfulness seemed
vile to him and he couldn't bear to look at it.
 
Roy sighed, shifting onto his side, to avoid it 
and scratched at an itch, then winced when he 
caught a blister's top accidently with a fingernail.
::Just how did I wind up here?:: 

The memory he had of the ride in was from a protective 
haze that had divorced him from his surroundings. 

Now the gray cell's quiet was restoring his senses.

He smelled disinfectant and chlorine from the toilet.
And heard the echoes of bar gates slamming as people
were moved about around him.

Slowly, he forced himself to run over events in his 
mind of what had taken place that morning.

DeSoto folded his elbows above him on the pillow
and rested his head on his arms, very sobered by 
the enormity of how quickly things had changed.

::Why didn't I see I was unfit to handle Marco's med? I
just won't buy the excuse of a headache from the jolt 
in the floor. I've taken harder knocks than that and still
carried out a rescue afterwards. Just where in the hell
did I go wrong here?:: But answers eluded him as easily 
as smoke on the wind. A lurid grogginess rose up,
masking out his thoughts again in a protective pall.

Even before his eyes drifted shut, Roy fell into an exhausted 
and troubled sleep.

------------

He awoke to a gentle caress on his cheek. Lily of the valley
perfume told Roy who was with him. "Joanne? "  he whispered.

Roy's wife of seven years placed her head on his nearest
shoulder and just layed there, smoothing out its loud orange
jail colored material from her place on a chair. 

She had been watching him sleep for half an hour until her 
need for contact made her wake him. "Honey, I heard, I'm so 
sorry about Lopez. It's awful.  Are you ok?"
Joanne didn't even begin to imagine the guilt Roy
must have been feeling, for volumes of it filled his
eyes, making them cloudy.

But Roy kissed her head tenderly, and set his hand on
the two of hers. "Physically, yes. Emotionally, well, 
the count's still out on that one. How else can you 
feel on the day you almost kill one of your coworkers?"

Joanne covered her mouth, blinking to shut out her 
tears and she just wrapped her arms around her 
husband as if to drive out all of his pain and remorse 
with just the warmth from her body. 

Roy closed his eyes, letting silent tears fall but he 
didn't, couldn't make a sound.

Joanne soothed away his chills when he started shaking 
and gave him her own light jacket to use, pulling it up 
around his neck. 

Roy coughed, sitting up, and got a  grip over his fear, 
studying her eyes, "A-Are the kids here? I don't want
them to see their father like this..."

Joanne replied, "Don't worry. When Cap and Johnny 
told us you had been arrested and were no longer at 
the hospital, I came here alone. Bernice from down the street 
has them until we get back home."

Her last sentence jarred through Roy's senses.
"Until WE get home?"  He sat up and they broke apart.

"Yes, didn't you hear? Johnny's met your bail. I was 
allowed back here to come get you." Joanne said with 
consternation. "Didn't the authorities tell you anything about
being released?" 

"No. No one's told me a thing. Not even the jail doctor. He 
treated my burns, but kept cuffs on me the whole time."

Joanne got a little angry. "Well, they're off now. And I wouldn't be
surprised if the officer outside comes in here to open the door
any second now. He told me he'd come get us as soon as we were 
ready to go. I told him to wait so you could rest a little more and
to come back when you were awake and talking again."

Sure enough, Joanne's guard heard conversation and
entered the jail block. He unlocked Roy's cell door, leaving it 
wide open. "You're free to go, Mr. DeSoto. Detective Fielder 
is releasing you into house arrest custody until your extradition 
hearing tommorrow morning. A Mr. Gage covered your bail for 
you."

And the young man left them alone again.

"Let's go home, Roy. I don't like it here."
Joanne said.


---------------


Gil and Johnny were spit and polished for their
shift and they made their way around squad and engine
to the kitchen, talking animatedly.

A voice called from the captain's office. "Gage, Sheppard.
A moment if you will."  It was Cap.

"Right there.." Johnny said. His short lived good mood
evaporated immediately. It was Hank's official business
tone showing in his voice.

"Coming, Cap.." Gil said. 

The two paramedic friends entered the office.
Gage spun around and almost left again when he
saw who was with his captain.

Detective Fielder rose to his feet, "Johnny Gage?"
and he offered his hand. "Detective Fielder, from
the Investigative Office, FEMA."

John took the hand, blank faced, eyeing the wall. 
He was intently aware of Cap watching his reactions.
"Yes. I'm Johnny Gage. I'm Roy DeSoto's partner with
the paramedic squad here." he dropped the detective's
hand quickly and sat in a chair, putting his feet on Cap's desk,
at once challenging and sarcastic,.....barely civil.

Hank surprisingly, grinned at John's body english, and  
didn't mind the feet sitting on his papers at all. He inwardly
depised this Fielder almost as much as his paramedic did.

Gil, instinctive firefighter to the last, sat with Gage, folding
his fingers with elbows on knees before him, leaning in on 
the conversation to show his unswaying support nonverbally.


Johnny looked at Fielder and didn't look away. "Exactly what
can I do for you, sir? Quite frankly, I'm mad as hell you
even had him arrested!"

Fielder raised his palms in surrender, not at all phased by
the accusation. "Now that wasn't my call at all. The PD saw an 
illegal offense taking place. By law, they were required to act.
It was my job to get him to take a leave of absence and
to investigate the why and how of what happened.
It's the knee jerk protocol of the PD alone that even had Mr.
DeSoto cuffed and hauled away without an actual crime 
scene statistic."

"Crime scene statistic..." he grunted angrily. "huh.. You're talking
about the fact that Marco Lopez hasn't died yet." John said 
incredulously.

Fielder inclined his head. "No body. No crime."


Gage scoffed, "Oh, that's nice and tidy, now isn't it? My
partner is figuratively hanging himself already over this
overdose and then you come along, making him feel like
like ..like he's Hilter's Dr. Mengele' or something by taking away his
paramedic's badge. That's real class, man. Real class.." 
and he kissed his fingers sarcastically in an Italian salute.

Fielder sighed deeply from his place, leaning on the wall and he
studied his shoes, setting his hands on his hips.



The phone rang, interrupting them all.

Hank grabbed it up a little too fast,
"LA. County Fire Department. This is Captain Stanley.."
"Yeah...?"  And he wrote down some information on
a notepad." Yeah.. I'll tell him."
Then he hung up the phone, smiling just a bit, "Just heard 
from Joanne, Johnny. Your bail went through. 
DeSoto's home now. The kids are at the neighbor's
down the street."

"Good." Johnny said, glancing briefly at his captain. "At least
something's going right today.."

Fielder wasn't blind to the fire crew's need to vent. He knew
how close an engine crew's company could become. It was
a little how he considered his own family of detectives to be at 
the head offices. He gave the men in front of him the 
benefit of the doubt.
"Listen to a voice of wisdom here.  A little bird always tells me
this when I'm cornered in a plaintiff's own bailiwick."
He drew quotations in the air, " ' I- am- not- the - bad -guy'..
hmm?" And he flung his hands wide.

Gage and Cap instantly regretted their attitudes.

Fielder went on. "In fact, I am here to show that Roy DeSoto
isn't one either. The mistake itself is being investigated. Not
the man.  Roy DeSoto's fitness for continued service lies with 
this fine gentleman seated to my left, Mr. Gage." 
and he gestured to Cap.

Johnny and Gil looked up in surprise. "Cap, is this true?"

Cap didn't change his expression much but he did look
pained.  "In part." and he started to quote a departmental 
regulation. "Section nine, paragraph 14 in the county's 
captain's manual. 'In the light of an error of judgement in 
the field from crewmen under a captain's command, 
resulting in police action, it is up to the station captain 
to determine the continued fitness of the effected 
crewman to perform in his assigned role and course of duty."

"So what are you going to do, Cap?"  Gil asked. He
saw that Johnny was beyond words.

"What the man says. Investigate." and he leaned
back against the wall, with fingers laced behind
his head, "Now I'm not a whiz on this paramedic's 
stuff, I don't pretend to be. So I've asked Kel
Brackett to be my adjudicator..."

Johnny nodded with satisfaction, pleased with the 
choice.

Cap threw a gesture at Fielder. "Sound fair enough?"

"The head ER MD?" Then he nodded. "That's acceptable.
I'll make arrangements."

But Johnny still had a question. "But how are you going
to "check" Roy out?  He's been suspended. Can't investigate
the work of a paramedic out of uniform." he said, still a touch
defensive about the whole affair.

Cap made the move of a batter hitting a pitch from home plate.
"That's Brackett's department, now isn't it? I have
full confidence in the very doctor who trained
DeSoto to know and determine, if he's still got the right stuff ...
or not.."

Then Captain Stanley rose, concluding the meeting.
"Come on, lunch is getting cold. Odegard's trademark
stew on the stove..  Join us, detective?"  he invited Fielder.

"Don't mind if I do, captain. That's if... Gage and
company are amenable...." 

Johnny forced himself to grin and gallantly indicated
the door. "I am.. Eat with us. And I promise not
to beat you to a bloody pulp." His grin went bigger.

Gil smacked Johnny's shoulder. "That's what we got
a punching bag out back for, Gage. For those
oh, so macho aggressive protective tendencies of
yours.. You should start using it right after you 
tame that growling stomach of yours. I could use
a partner in a better mood as fast as I can get one."

"Oh. ha. ha."  He was the last to trail out of Cap's
office. He mumbled to himself. "I think I will..."



The four men were walking by the wallsized map
of L.A. county by the wall when a jarring shimmy
came up from the ground, unbalancing them..

The dispatch mike came off its spigot on the wall
by the intercept alcove and bounced on the floor.
It jittered there, and all eyes watched it.

"whoa.." John exclaimed, "Now that's what you call
a tremor..." and he grinned at Fielder's suddenly pale
face. "Happens all the time this far south."  He explained
to the detective. "Guess your city of Malibu's spared 
this kind of excitement at FEMA headquarters, huh??" 

It wasn't past him to torment the detective ...yet.
He easily "surfed"  the cement floor's subtle undulations.

Fielder sighed at his show of weakness with a little frustration.
"It doesn't get anything this bad. How strong do you think
it is?"

Gil checked the width of the power cords swaying back and forth
near the garage's ceiling. "From the look of it, only a 2 on 
the richter's scale.."

"Only ...a 2." Fielder echoed.

Gil slapped him on the shoulder. "It's nothing. Come
on, let's eat. You can still walk during one of these,
just, bend your knees a little bit. There. That's right."

Cap was stooping to replace the microphone when
the overhead grid toned a station's check. It
gave the Earthquake Alert Call Sign tones, then
the familiar dispatcher came online.##L.A. County 
to all stations. Topographical survey confirms a level
two earthquake spike. This is a communications check.
All stations report in.##

Captain Stanley toggled a switch. "L.A., This is Station 51, 
Communications are patent and clear. You read just
fine. 51, out, KMG 365."

The sounds of the other stations and units in
the county were still coming on the overhead
speakers in the kitchen when everyone finally
sat at the lunch tables.

Around them, the station house creaked and groaned
audibly, complaining while the slight tremor continued.

Odegard was wiping off some gravy that had
spilled at the start of the ground shake.
"Ooo, no earthquakes on my shift.. you hear me?!
This gravy's is too good a batch to go to waste... so Knock it
Off!!" he said, shaking a fist at the window across the kitchen.

The ground stilled.

"Thank you very much..." and he tossed a pinch of salt
over his shoulder for luck.

All the guys laughed at his comic relief.

The station 51 gang and the Malibu detective
began to share their meal and talk, dismissing the minor
earthquake from their minds in moments. They turned
to filling the hunger in their bellies soon after.


-----------------------------------------------------

Roy and Joanne were disturbed from their hard won, peaceful
afternoon nap soon after they had comforted each other 
physically. It was their malamute, Shania, howling a 
short series of yaps from the yard. 

At first, Joanne thought it was Bernice, escorting the kids
back home early. 

But then the house began to rock, very slightly.

Joanne cracked an eye, watching the tassels on the 
lampshade dance. She buried her head in her pillow.
"Oh, for Pete's sake. Hon.. it's another tremor.."

"What?" Roy mumbled sleepily, he was still groggy but
relaxed from the aftermath of their lovemaking.

He shifted from his back from how he had been slumbering,
to his side, snugging up close to Joanne once more, wrapping
protective arms around his wife's barely rounded,
pregnant belly.
"Oh. The ground's shaking. Yeah, I can feel it. Nothing
to worry about. It's just a .....just a... " and he
began to snore. His breathing levelled off once more.

Joanne was instantly comforted by his lack of concern.
"Just so you're ok.. And the kids.. That's all  I need to
know...." She too, soon, drifted off to join him in dreams.
 

  
Rampart General was alerted through the same
agency that ran the fire department dispatch
in all of their emergency paramedic calls.

About the Richter alert, she herself didn't feel
anything. Rampart had backup generators and
backups to those backups in a redundant three
way linkup. And the main hospital building she
was in was too big to even twitch for a level
two. Needless to say, she entered the base 
station as per protocol, reaffirming city
wide communications with all nine firehouse
paramedical units.

Dixie picked up the land line confirming full band
transmission to them first, through the fire 
department's dispatch manned base.

Then waited to see if any rescue squad wanted 
to check out their equipment afterwards.

There was only one call ; from Station 36,
in Anaheim. They wanted only a session 
on the radio monitor to test their defibrillator's 
EKG relay readout.

The head nurse obliged them, getting a perfect
EKG series from 36's equipment from their location
at their station.
Including a mock defib against their unit's
test plating, remotely.
"36. Your defibrillator's output calibrates green.
You're good to go. All four leads register fully."

"10-4, Rampart. Squad 36, out."

Shrugging, Dixie McCall left the tiny room
and she turned on the red lined radio above her 
work station. It was tuned to the state's 
official EMS bulletin scanner frequency. 

Soon, topographical data began issuing on the 
ground tremor's progress across Los Angeles.

She saw Dr. Morton walking by and he
raised an eyebrow when he saw the disaster
scanner turned on. "Oh, it's nothing, Dr.
Morton. A minor tremor , topping only a  2.4 peak
in Anaheim, which lasted, in any one spot, for 
only 20 or so seconds. The EMS room is quiet." 
she said jerking her nurse's capped head at its 
status board, showing all stations at their bases. 
"Not so much as a peep so far from any  
of them.." she meant of the firehouse 
rescue squad departments city wide.

"I see. That's the third alert this month."

"Yeah.."

"I'm feeling lucky, Miss McCall.." he muttered,
changing the subject and he hefted his chart 
in her direction, meaning the patient whose 
data was contained within it.

"Oh?" she toned, up a scale, looking for 
good news. Dixie caught the name of the chart 
Mike was looking at. "Marco Lopez.."
she read aloud,  "How's he doing?"

"Swelling's going down. He's still comatose and
the aberrations on his EKG have gone away.
He's off the respirator, breathing on his own." Mike
said with a half smile.

Dixie looked up still serious, "Is that good?"

Morton's face fell. "It's hard to say.. His
pupils are still fixed, showing deep coma, but
it's encouraging to see he's off life support.
That might be a sign that Kel's steroidal 
treatments are having a positive effect
and that the Narcan has begun to clear
out all traces of Diazepam from his cerebral
tissues."

"When will you know more, doctor?" Dixie
asked. 

"The neurologists say if there's any rallying to be done
by Marco, he's got to show further improvement by nightfall.
If he doesn't respond to stimuli appreciably then,
we'll have to start speculating that this toxic 
coma of his might be permanent."

Dr. Morton walked away after leaving Marco's chart in
the wooden carousel on her desk.

Dixie was left only with immeasurable sadness.
Unconsciously, she looked at her watch.

It was 3 pm..

::Marco Lopez. You've got four and a half hours
to wake up. Or you're never going to, ever.::

Dixie turned back to her work.


--------------------------------


Joanne shook out of a featureless dream, 
jolting awake and she sat up.

Around her, the house was sunny and silent and
the birdsong outside the window soothed her spirit.
Mrs. DeSoto pulled back the curtains and saw
that Shania, too was resting, curled in the sun,
by the dog house outside, oblivious to the jays
bathing in her water bowl.

Grinning at her pet's somnolence, she shifted in 
bed, and saw Roy's broad back as he slept next to her. 
She reached out to caress him once more to reassure
herself of his physical nearness but changed her 
mind. ::It's better he rests. Tomorrow's only going 
to be hard on him, too.::

She looked at the time. It was 4:47 pm.
::Oh my. I've got to go to Bernice's before
her company comes over. What time were they
arriving for her party again? Oh, yes. Five o'clock.
I still have time. ::

Rising carefully, Joanne got on some clothes,
undergarments followed by a soft plaid shirt.

She had just buttoned her jeans when Roy
shifted, complaining that he couldn't hear the 
radio, calling in his sleep that he was "available."

A familiar mothering pang made her go into
the living room for his walkie talkie. She returned
to the bedroom and switched it on to a universal
frequency, so he could hear the usual babble between
the fire departments corresponding with each other
and with dispatch as they went about their day.

She set the radio on the night stand near him but 
turned it low enough so that it wouldn't wake him
if a call went out for his station.

At once, Roy settled down and stopped mumbling.
He grew still again, sinking back into slumber.

::He's most probably listening to it right now.:: she
mused. ::That's just fine. The station is his second home.::

Joanne kissed him and hurried down the street to collect 
the kids from Bernice's.


----------------------------------------------


The lunch dishes had just been piled by Mike who had
been assigned that detail when a knock on the outer 
door caught all of their attentions.  

Puzzled, Cap rose from his chair, leaving the newspaper 
he had been reading on the table. He went to the kitchen's
side entrance access door and opened it.

Kelly Brackett stood there in flight fatigues with a folded
bundle under one of his arms. "Hello Captain. 
Thought I'd drop by and start doing some of
that adjudicating I promised you I'd start doing." and
with that, he barged into the kitchen. He had a field
medical pack with him, a teaching one.

Grinning, Cap got out of his way. ::Time for Operation
WakeUp.:: he thought happily.

"I thought this was your scheduled day off, doc?" John
remarked.

"It is. I'm not really here if anyone asks. Kapeche?"
Brackett challenged.

"Clear as crystal.." Gage said, getting back to his plate
of food. John had an inkling of what his superior was
planning, but hadn't quite yet pegged exactly what
it was yet.

Cap ambled back over to his chair. "Coffee's right over there..
doctor. Have you eaten yet?"

"Heavily.." Kel answered, he grabbed the cup Moreno
hastily pro-offered him after he received a less than subtle 
cue from Cap to give him one.  

Detective Fielder was rolling up his sleeves, his suit coat
over the back of one chair when he noticed the doc
standing next to him, "Oh, hello, Doctor Brackett. Come
to do some paperwork? I was just going to help out here
some.." and he smiled hugely.

"Don't let me stop you. In fact, I just might keep you on
the job, Fielder, afterwards.."

The rest of the gang already knew what was up and gathered
around to watch curiously. Finally, the light dawned on Gage
and he began to chuckle, too.

The detective felt being ganged upon but to his credit, didn't
let it effect him. He stayed relaxed and friendly, "Oh? How,
so..?"

Brackett reached up and pulled off Fielder's expensive clipon
tie and tossed him his folded bundle. "Put these on.. I just
heard from your superiors that you have to listen and follow
every request I make of you..."

Fielder caught the clothes, dropped his dish towel on the counter
and opened them to see what they were. It was a tunic
identical to the one Brackett was wearing. "Well, yes. Technically
that's true..within reason." he answered truthfully, but confusion
still marred his voice.

Brackett grinned diplomatically back, "Oh, believe me. I am being
very reasonable, Mr. Fielder. You see, I've just authorized 
you to be allowed to participate on a paramedic ride along for 
an entire eight hour working shift. That way, you can see what 
our front line medical men do up close and personal. Maybe by 
the end of the day, you'll see just what kind of stresses and 
pressures that men like Johnny and Gil here, face everyday."

Fielder nodded, "If this has something to do with your man
DeSoto... I can't reverse his rescinded license without due
cause."

But he got into the suit without protesting further.

"Fair enough. I am only asking you to ride along with us just
as an observer. Captain... That creates a problem. The squad
can only hold three men.."


Captain Stanley didn't even hesitate. "Sheppard, take the 
rear pumper slot on the engine next call, you're a water man
until situations change it."

"You got it, Cap." Gil said instantly..

Cap held his hands up in a there you go gesture...and got
back to his paper. "Problem's solved, Dr. Brackett."

"Oh." Kel said, blinking a few times, "That was easy.."

Cap muttered from his pages, "Always is when you're captain."

The guys around him laughed until a glare from Hank over
the paper stopped them.

"Need anything else?" Cap asked Kel cheerfully.

Brackett pursed his lip, thinking but Gage finished his
eventual thought. "No..no no.. no... We're set. 
Now all we need is a r--" 



A two tone call went out over the intercom. ##Station 51.
Citizen reports a smell of gas on the 1800 block of Supulveda
Ave. The gas company has been notified. On the corner of Mitchell
and Supulveda. Mitchell and Supulveda.. Time out 16 : 49.##


Moreno remarked, "Hey I know that area.. It's a warehouse district
on the edge of an apartment complex. The site's an empty lot
if I remember correctly."

"We all know that area, Carlos." Cap said, "That's the edge of
the Streger factory wing. Remember them guys? There's a 
track worn in their frontage road from our squad pulling in 
every week to hand out pipeline violations."

"Oh, that's why they're so familiar." Moreno groaned.

The guys got up and moved out. John shouted when Fielder
just stood there.. "Let's go. Let's go. That's us..Get the lead 
out, Fielder..I gotta fit you for a helmet for you to wear..too."  

And he shoved the man to hurry him along.

Brackett took his pack with him.

Cap acknowledged their response, "Station 51, KMG 365."
And then he got on his overcoat.

There was some initial elbow jostling as the bigger Fielder
squeezed into the squad with the smaller Brackett in 
the middle with Johnny taking the wheel but they made
good time and still pulled out ahead of the engine.


Station 51 activated lights and sirens which cleared the busy
boulevard of traffic and both rescue vehicles 
turned left to head north into the suburb district of 
West Lake Village.


----------------------

They stopped about 800 yards from the corner they
were given and halted their vehicles. 

Cap stepped out of the cab of the engine and ordered.
"Everyone put masks and air on until we find 
the problem. I don't want to put anyone at risk 
until we know more.."


"Right." they said.  

Gil got his apparatus on quickly then jogged
over to the squad with a gas spigot wrench.
He tapped Johnny, who had geared up just as
quickly, on the shoulder. "Do you want me to help
him get this on?" He pointed to the detective 
turning straps over, trying to see how
the harness went on.

Gage nodded, and handed his spare tank to Gil
to give to Fielder.  Awkwardly, the tall civilian 
man put on the strange equipment with the fireman's help.

Brackett, already trained and equipped, was ready to go. 
He stood by Cap as Stanley coordinated plans for a search.
"Stoker. Moreno, head east to that substation. See if
you can find anything.  Odegard, Sheppard, head north.
Doctor Brackett, hang back with me. Johnny, take Fielder.
He'll be an extra nose here, pal. Tell him what to expect
and keep..him...safe.."

"Got it, Cap.."

Gil said, "What about me?"

"You're with us. We'll head south. I see yellow gas line
flags over there down in that ditch.. O.K. move out people
and keep in contact via radio at all times. Check in every
five minutes. Move out."


The men split up into their four groups and headed into
four different directions.

Five minutes walking distance from the trucks, the stench
of the nitrous oxide indicator grew stronger.

It was Johnny who found the leak. It was coming from a fresh
crack in the earth. Luckily, a nearby valve was downpipe from
it,  sticking up in the open field.   He had spotted it easily.

The day breeze was blowing the deadly gas downwind, away from
the nearby apartment houses to flow harmless over the LA riverbed.

Breathing heavily inside his mask, he brought his radio to
his mouth, "Cap! We found it. Looks like the earthquake disrupted
this line. There's a new erosion crevasse intersecting the pipeline
over here. I have found the shutoff valve.. But I'm seeing clear
signs of further substrate instability.. Over.."

He gestured to Fielder to hand him the pipe wrench.

Dimly the radio in his hand replied. "Got that, Gage.
We've just been notified that the gas company is turning
off service for the whole area in less than a minute."

Gasping through his regulator mask, Johnny tightened the 
emergency valve until the hiss of gas ended.  Then he
pulled Fielder back with him to the road.

Back in clear air, Johnny removed his hazard helmet
and pulled off his face mask.

Fielder joined him doing the same thing.

"Wheow, That was close.. Another five minutes and
that whole neighborhood would've gone up into smoke.."

"How so? It seemed to be such a small leak."
the detective said, eyeballing his unfamiliar breathing
equipment.

Gage watched the indicator on the valve station sink
to zero as Cap's promised gas company shutdown,
happened before his eyes.
Johnny's expression grew very serious. "Fielder, that's natural
gas. It hangs together on the ground like fog and is very
violatile. Even a leak that small can spread for hundreds 
of yards until it encounters someone's open window well. 
After that it's just a matter of time before the gas bank 
encounters a pilot light in the basement. Then, " And he 
gestured a huge explosion..

Fielder paled. "How often does this kind of leak occur?"

Gage sighed wearily, "During every earthquake man, during 
every single, solitary one of them.. This part of town lies in a 
fault line.. My station's been handing out pipeline violations
to this land owner for years. Nothing gets fixed. He's rich
enough from those warehouses to keep up paying all the 
fines."

The detective thought on it. "You think the city would
have planned ahead and not put in those warehouses
over there so near the fault. Even I can see it along
there... and there.."

"Tell me about it.. What you see before you is a good 
example of your typical inane land developer's ignorance 
at work." Gage said sweeping a glove over the landscape 
showing the factories and the riverbed and the field they 
had just escaped.

He stood a moment wiping the sweat from his eyes before
sighing. "All right, looks like the gas has dissipated. Let's
start heading back."

Fielder, unknowingly, stepped back into the field near
the crevasse.. heading towards where the unseen rescue
trucks were parked.

"Fielder! No!! That ground's unstable!!"

But the fragile ground gave way under the big man made
even heavier by the forty five pound breathing apparatus
strapped to his back.

He plummeted into a fast yawning hole.

Johnny leaped and by some miracle, caught him. He grabbed his 
arm at the elbow, "Hang onto me! Hang onto me.."

Fielder gasped, yelling.."Ahh!"

"Give me your other hand, Fielder. Your other hand! Ughhh!!
I got ya..!!" He tried not to watch the earth sink and disappear
underneath the detective's dangling feet. "Don't look down.
Just hang on! I got ya.."

Gage could hear the ground still caving in underneath him
beneath the ribbon of road. Slowly, over agonizingly
long seconds, he hauled the detective out of the 
growing sinkhole and crevasse using the straps from the 
air bottle and finally, using his pants belt, dragging Fielder 
onto the solid concrete road beyond the gaping edge.

Both men collapsed on their sides, gasping for
a minute while they got their wind back.

Then they helped each other to their feet.

Gage looked at Fielder carefully, "You ok?
I just about tore your arm off grabbing ya.."

Fielder shook his left arm, "Good thing I 
work out with weights every morning. Or
I would've been missing that arm.." he leaned
over unsteadily but grinning.

Gage said, "Here, we won't be needing these things
anymore. The gas is off.." And he helped the shaken
detective out of his air bottle equipment.

The radio, by an odd stroke of luck, hadn't
been swallowed in the cave in. It still lay on 
the frontage road. Johnny scooped it up again.

A cloud of dust rose into the air from the crater where the
field had been. "There's no way Cap's going to miss seeing 
that. He's going to come running. Man, that's a big cloud
of debris... I wonder what's happening down there...."

No sooner than the words escaped his mouth, than the 
spidering crevasse grew, sinking in a new crack
straight towards the row of houses and the trees
lining the yards there. 

"Oh, no.." 

He got onto his talkie, "Cap! Cap! Looks like we got us a full
fledged sinkhole in progress. Fifty yards across and 
growing.. It's headed for those homes over there!"

"We're checking it out, pal. Do the same!!" he ordered.

Gage pulled off his apparatus and started running down
the only safe place he could, the concrete road, trying to follow 
where the rumbling crevasse was heading.. Fielder kept up..


Then he saw a large Eucalyptus tree containing
a treehouse. He briefly saw a head in its window
looking up in horror before the whole tree toppled over
from its roots losing purchase in the loosening ground.

Gage heard a male scream just before the rumbling ended.
It cut short just as the massive splintering tree settled
to earth. Silence reigned, the sinkhole was finished
eating. For the moment.

He took a risk and leaped over the crevasse into the effected
backyard.  He turned right back shouting at Fielder, "Go back
to the squad. Get the guys and the medical gear!!  Right
rear compartment. Grab the white, red and black boxes..
We've got a man trapped in here!  Go!!"

Fielder disappeared over the rise pelting away strongly.

Johnny pulled out his radio as he fought his way through 
the jumble of branches. He made sure his helmet stayed
on his head, feeling vulnerable among the cracked tree
limbs jutting all around him.  He got to a heavily
shaded section and saw a nailed wall, partially
crumpled. The treehouse!
"Hey!  Can you hear me?!! "

Only the wind filled the backyard and birdsong.

"Hey!!" Johnny yelled even louder. He couldn't see
anything through the leaves.

Then a moan. To his left.
Gage scrambled over a thick fork of the tree and
down into the shattered house.  His victim
was a teen aged boy, wearing a blue football
jersey.

Johnny got onto his radio.. "Squad 51 to engine
51. I have a casualty." He looked around at the
surrounding houses for an identifying landmark
or house number, none were apparent from his
angle. ::Damn.:: He reached for the boy's neck 
for a carotid. It was there, but fading fast. 

Nor were there any cars or people about in 
the neighborhood. ::Everyone's still at work.::he 
speculated. ::Fat lot of good it'll do me now.
I need someone to tell me where we are...::

"Go ahead, Johnny!" Gil answered back on the 
radio.

Gage got an idea.. "Hang on for a 10 -20.."
he gasped, crouching nearer the teen's head.

He set the radio on a branch and leaned down.
"Hey.. can you hear me?" The boy moaned and 
opened his eyes. "Listen.." Johnny said, holding
his face carefully to keep the boy from moving 
around. "Help's on the way.. but I need to know
what your house address is here."
The young man began to sag in shock.

John dug a pen cap into the top of one of the boy's 
fingernails to rouse him further. "Listen to me.. 
What's your address?? Hey..we're going to need help
getting you out of here."

The teenager gasped at the inflicted pain and didn't 
open his eyes.  But Johnny thought he had been
understood. He moved near the boy's mouth to listen 
as he began to move his lips. "Sev-- nn,  ni.."
The effort wore out the injured teen, he fell
silent, just trying to draw breath..

"All right.. All right.." Gage said, keeping a hand
on the young man's chest. "Just take it easy.
We'll find another way to let them know where we are.."  
he said, beginning to cut open the football jersey to expose 
a soft spot his fingers had found from his assessment, with his
shears. "Just try to relax.."

Gage didn't like the way the teen was breathing.
It seemed that he had broken ribs on that 
discolored left side and a distinct sound of bubbling which
attested to fluid building in his chest. Johnny
mumbled to himself. "Oh great. Pneumothorax.."
::His lung's collapsing..::

But his sweep of the boy's legs showed no fractures
and his back and neck were fine and in proper alignment
the whole way down his spine from what he could feel.

He got back to Gil, clicking the talk button, "Gil,
He said something like.. seven or seventeen or
seventy nine... I can't be absolutely certain.
We won't be able to get a definite address of this house."
Then, he remembered. He fell onto his backup plan.
"Watch for Fielder!! He knows where we are!!"

"I'm on it!" A few seconds later.."I think I see him
a quarter of a mile up the road. Hang on!!"

Johnny could hear Cap and Moreno and the others
calling back and forth to each other, both live and
on the talkie trying to find him. He had done all
he could. He had to start concentrating on keeping
his victim alive now.

He crouched back over his patient. "Hey.. how
are you doing?"

The teen focused uncertainly on Gage's face,
but the nail rub had definitely brought him
more to consciousness.

"I'm with the L.A. County Fire Department..
Saw your tree go down.." he joked. "Quite a sight."

The teen smiled a bit, then winced in pain as something
sharp dug into his side again. "Ow.. something's busted.
I..."

A low rumble made him cut off what he was saying.

A sudden new shift in the ground made a new dust cloud
roar up around them. The shattered tree began to 
"crawl" around them as the sinkhole shuddered into life
once more. The ground sagged beneath them. 

Gage threw himself on top of the kid's face and chest
as a huge section of tree came down on top of them both.


---------------------------


Gil and the other men got together to swap
info. Breathlessly, Fielder shared the news.  

"You say Gage was near the leak on the other side of
the field..?" Cap said, leaning out of his cab, looking
toward the rising dust cloud. He didn't think either the
engine nor the squad were light enough to drive onto
the weakened frontage road. Only the concrete's
rock hardness kept the road in one piece. A lot
of the earth under it, had vanished.  "All right.
Grab your gear, all. We go in on foot. Show us
where he is Fielder.. " He raised his talkie to
his lips. "Engine 51 to Squad 51, come in.."

There was no reply.

"Engine 51 to Squad 51, Come in..."

Still nothing. And Captain Stanley didn't like
the fact that the ground was rumbling again 
from over where Fielder had come running.

Cap leaned in the cab and flicked on the air
horn, hitting it twice in a summons. Then he
shouted over the loud speaker.."Gage!! If you
can hear us... Hit your squelch, buddy.."

They all looked at the Cap's handy talkie,
waiting for the double squeal that was the 
standard reply for any man lost.

The static remained.

Cap got onto his CB radio. "L.A. we've got
a search and rescue operation on our hands.
Roll an additional responding unit to our location.
We've multiple caveins. Casualties involved.
Tell them to use the east road only upon 
arrival.."

"10-4, 51." 

Cap hopped out of the engine and ordered
all to grab extrication and medical gear and
two sets of stokes as he heard the new rescue call
roll out from dispatch following a new set of 
summoning tones.  Station eight was
rolling out to aid her sister station.
"Engine 51. This is station 8. Our eta is...
ten minutes.."

"A long time.."
Brackett who had been listening intently, had
his medical bag. "Would it help if I tried to find
a way in down that lane in front of those houses?"

Cap looked where Kelly Brackett was pointing.
"Couldn't hurt.. Fielder.. You go with him."

Gil handed the detective the biphone and
trauma kit. "You got airways in there?" he
asked the doc about his satchel.

"A ton. I got a D tank in here, too."

Sheppard nodded. "Good, then we'll keep our
O2 on this side of that crevasse. That way will
have a double chance on one of us reaching Johnny
with one of them."

Brackett and Fielder left on the run towards the
tree filled neighborhood's entrance road.

Cap, Gil, Odegard and Moreno ran back down
the frontage road to the site of the leak.
The dust made it hard to see much so they
ran north a bit more until they got into clear air.

The sinkhole was huge, stretching more
than sixty yards across and its far edge had
eaten more than six large trees. Gil's heart
sank. ::I hope Johnny's not down there. He
doesn't stand a chance..::


--------------


Roy woke up, tightening every muscle.
He wasn't yet awake, but he could've sworn
he heard Johnny nearby. Then his eyes
focused past the clock to the walkie talkie
beyond and he heard a pain wracked voice 
again.
"Squad 51 to L.A. Do you ....c- copy?"

Roy flung himself across the bed to grab the
radio.. "Johnny! It's Roy.. Where are you?" 

But Johnny's dry voice just repeated its hail.
"L A. Over.. I'm with a victim.. caught in a
landslide....*ugh*.. I've been injured, do
you read..?"

Roy tried again to contact his partner but
it was horrifyingly clear that Johnny could only send
and not receive on his radio.  DeSoto dressed as
he had never dressed so fast before, into a T and jeans,
and then switched the frequency to dispatch 
headquarters. "L.A. This is squad 51. 
Repeat Engine 51's 10 -20. Emergency.."
He knew dispatch would react to his call sign
anyway, being ignorant of personnel shift assignments
for each paramedic at each station. Roy would get
his information regardless of whether or not he was
on duty.
 
"51, the address was reported as being on the 
1800 block of Supulveda and Mitchell.. Last update,
Engine 51 reported a resolved gas leak, then 
multiple cave-ins. A paramedic is transmitting
but isn't replying to incoming hails. His location
is unknown."

Roy's voice cracked, "That's six blocks from
here..."

He lifted his talkie to his mouth. "10-4, LA. Out."

It was 5:45.  

At the door he caught Joanne and the kids 
coming in."Oh hi Roy.. Bernice offered the kids hotdogs 
at the party and I couldn't resist her fondue." She held
up a crock pot, "Saved you some.."

 Michael launched himself in a child's
greeting at his father and so did the younger
Jessica. Roy caught them into an automatic hug,
but set them down immediately. "Kids, not right now,
Daddy's real busy."

His urgency caught his wife right away.."Roy, what's 
the matter..?" she said, setting the pot on the hallway
table.

"It's Johnny. He's at a rescue just over the hill.
There's been a cave in and I think he's trapped."
As he spoke his fingers twisted the radio back to Johnny's 
frequency.. showing her what he had found.
"My patient's vitals are worse... I think my arm's broken..."
They all heard a pained soaked Gage report.

Roy took off at a dead run around the house after 
snatching up a sweatshirt John had forgotten at his 
house a week ago. 

Joanne ran after him, telling the kids to stay in 
the house and to wait for her.

She met Roy, oddly, in the back yard. He was
undoing Shania's chain.  
"Roy,, I know it sounds bad. But you can't leave
here!.. Aren't you under house arrest?  The
other men on the crew can get help to him.."

Roy looked up from the knot he was untying around
Shania's collar. She was whining picking up the human's
sudden distress. She began howling.
 "I'm going, Joanne! I'll deal with the 
legal consequences later on.  I know that neighborhood.
I've got the best chance of reaching Johnny. Our
house is on the other side of the hill from the cave in..
I've got clear access from this side!"

He knelt by the excited Malamute, grabbing her collar.
"Shania.. "  He thrust Gage's sweatshirt he had 
snatched up under her nose. "Find Johnny.. 
Go. Seek.. Find Johnny. Now.."  He let her
go as the dog latched onto something on the wind
and lifted her head. She took off running uphill towards
Mitchell Road.

Joanne called after Roy, shouting desperately, 
"Oh Roy,, be careful..!"

"Keep the kids inside, Joanne. Don't let them follow
me."

He fought to keep up with Shania, regretting that he had flung
her leash off in his haste to start her tracking Gage.

As he ran, he listened to the radio pressed next to
his ear for more clues.... ::Come on , Johnny. Keep talking.
I'm coming..::


------------------


In the wreckage of tree, Gage was leaning against
a huge limb, favoring his left arm. He suspected
a humerus fracture on himself. ::A simple one.
But enough to cripple me..:: he cursed. He curled
around the teen's head once more as he sent
another radio transmission out on his station's frequency.
"I'm at a treefall, inside a collapsed treehouse." he
cast his eyes around the hidden tangle. "I'm hearing
...water, so I can't be that far away from the riverbed."
he gasped. 

He didn't know if the radio was even working.
A heavy limb had cracked its casing in the last
cave in. 

A moan from the boy drew his attention downward.
"L-Lissst-n.. to  me.. If ...I...on't make it--" the
teen panted.

"Hey, who said you're going to die now?" Gage
told him, adjusting the boy's head and neck to
give him the best airway possible. "Just stay
with me.. all right. You're going to have to keep
awake from now on. You think you can do that for me?"

The teen coughed, and bloody froth bubbled
out of his nose. 

Johnny cursed. ::Yep. Definitely a pneumo. 
A tension pneumo from the looks of it.::
"Hey, what's your name? I see you are
a Pittsburg Steelers fan here." and he
pointed to the teen's cut open jersey,
and nodding.

The teen smiled, "Steven-n.. S- Sure am..
Best team in the whol--" his eyes began to
roll in the top of his head.


Johnny dug his pen back into one of Steven's
nails.. "Hey..   Wake up.."

Steven's eyebrows rose but he didn't open his
eyes.

Johnny told him the reason to fight harder.
"Steven.. you've got to keep awake. I know
how hard it is. But we've got a problem
if you go out on me. I've only got the use
of one arm here." ::If he codes. I won't be
able to do his CPR. :: "Not much I can do
after that to help you. So keep listening
to my voice and try to concentrate on 
staying with me. Ok ? Help is on the way.. 
But you're going to have to just hang in there 
as long as you can. It won't be long now." 
::I hope.:: he amended.


Another nearby rumble created another cloud of
dust and twigs and more branches rained down
on Gage and Steven. 

One caught Gage across his broken arm. 

He blacked out.


-------------------


When he came to, the dust was only slightly less.
::I couldn't have been out long.::

Frantic, he looked over to Steven. A thick tree
trunk about six inches in diameter lay across
Steven's throat. His face was blue.

Groaning, Gage dragged himself over to the boy
and used his legs to push it up and off of
his neck.  He flopped down in agony around his
arm at the pain the effort cost him and gasped
for long tortured seconds.
::Come on. Check him..:: he told himself.

Gage found a weak heartbeat but there was no
sound in his lungs. ::Not even trying to breathe
anymore.::

He dug a hole in the dirt with his good hand until 
Steven's head flopped back opening his airway 
again.  Gage tucked his broken arm into his shirt 
with his other hand, swallowing around his own pain,
then leaned over, giving the boy a couple of short 
breaths mouth to nose, using the grip of his good
hand to hold his jaws shut. It was the best he 
could do with the use of only one arm.
"Come on, Steven!  Don't give up on me now."

The chest beneath his hand didn't rise.

Again, a series of short breaths, this time more
of them, more forcefully, but not enough
to exacerbate the torn left lung.
"Hey.. wake up..!!"

Steven jerked, and began to cough and wheeze
weakly, Johnny used a shred of jersey to soak up 
the blood in the boy's mouth as he began to breathe 
once more. "That's it. Be a fighter.."

He slid his fingers to Steven's throat to monitor the
thudding pulse there.
::Come on, Cap. Find us. We don't even have that golden
hour for this one. We gotta make every second this boy
has count.::


------------------------


Dr. Early and Dixie McCall were bent over Marco's bedside
with an aural scope and penlight. It was almost
six o'clock. The deadline the neurologists had said
would mark the demarkation between a miracle and a
tragedy for Lopez's future prognosis.

It was time for a change.

Dixie handed Dr. Early his different scopes as
he checked inside Marco's ears for the color and perfusion 
of his eardrums.  "They're pink. His parasympathetic nervous
system's made a comeback. Open one of his eyes and shine
this light in it...I want to see if he reacts."

Dixie did so, peeling away the protective tape, soon,
noting again the awful dialation of  Lopez's pupil from the 
norm.  

Dr. Early ordered. "Observe his pupil closely." He raised
Marco's metal chart and brought it sharply down on
the bedside table inches from Lopez's ear creating a
very loud impact sound.

Dixie saw the black circle shrink sharply, then relax
back into its normal size.. "Joe! It's reactive!"

Dr. Early freed Marco's other eye and saw the same
result, "He's coming out of it." And one of his hands
found a waiting epinephrine syringe from a nearby 
crash cart and quickly injected a few cc's of it into 
Marco's IV port.


Joe and Dixie held their breaths.
Then the EKG monitor began to speed up 
into a blissfully normal sinus rhythm.


"Uughhhhhhhhhhh......" Lopez said and blinked.

"He's awake." she grinned.

"Yeah, but does he have any frontal lobe damage?"
Joe wanted to know.

Dixie leaned in, "Marco.. Marco.. Can you hear me?"

His eyelids twitched and he sighed, a rich wonderful
voluntary sigh.. "..w-who wants to know??" 

Then his eyes opened and he smiled with a full intelligence
behind his look at doctor and nurse. "Oh, it's you guys..
Though you were mama calling to me for a sec, Miss McCall."

Joe straightened. "Well. I guess the answer to my last
question is a very resounding,.No." 

"No !!" Dix said simultaneously beaming happily.
"I guess Gage finally gets his dream phone call after all.
she said. 

Dixie reached for the landline on the wall, "Yes,
hospital operator? Patch me through to the fire
department's dispatch. I need to get in contact
with a Fireman Gage at 51's in a relay as soon
as possible. Yes.. I'll hold."

"Hey, what's going on?" Marco asked.

--------------------------------------------------

   
Roy's lungs were near to bursting. He could see
the dust cloud coming from a backyard in the next
row of houses down from where he was running.

In order to make time, he'd have to find a short cut.

Shania seemed to agree. For she took a low hedge fence
in a giant leap into precisely the most direct descending 
yard, whose last fence framed the one the sinkhole
had claimed.  Roy held onto his radio a little
tighter, and shouted into it. "Hang on, Johnny, I'm
coming..! Shania.. locate Johnny. Find him. There's a 
good girl.."

Together, dog and paramedic ran towards the
fallen tree and the debris they could both see
inside of it, 500 yards away. There wasn't any more
dust rising from it, nor were there any more transmissions 
from Gage.

"Johnny!!"


-----------------------





"Mr. Gage?" It was the detective.  "I got your
doctor here."

Brackett leaned over the edge of the sinkhole,
"Johnny how are you? You sound bad..."

Gage looked up even though his head was
beginning to spin, "I'm fine.. Just my arm.
It's this kid I'm worried about.. A 
possible tension pneumo.. He's already
quit breathing once on me.. Get down
here!"

"How? We don't have a rope." Fielder said.




"Use this!" a new voice said, and a good solid 
clothesline was flung down into the hole, 
already tied to a secure tree. 

Fielder gaped, "DeSoto? What are you doing
here? You should be in house custody."

"Yeah well, there's two people who need me
more than any court justice does so I'm going. 
Arrest me later." he said, "Come on, doc. You 
first. You've got the equipment. Me and Fielder 
will hold on to your line until you're down there."

Shania showed her fearlessness and negotiated 
the loose earthen wall, showing the men the 
most solid places to put their feet. She leaped the
rest of the vertical drop and ran to the object of
her search, Johnny. She sat by him, and pawed 
his leg once to show she completed her task.


Roy quickly rigged a seat rope web and 
Kel stepped into it. "Use the same footholds
my dog used. Her instincts are always good 
whenever I rock climb. Should work here."


The malamute rose and went over to Steven, 
staring into his face, whining. She licked
his chin once and barked at Johnny.
"I know. I know...." Gage muttered. "Just
hold on there girl, we aren't as nimble 
as you are.. kay?" he grinned, pushing her
away from his patient's face with his foot,
to make room for the doctor to land near them.
"Ok, doc!! Come on down..."

Kel was lowered to the bottom in record time.
He dropped the rope and unslung his pack, 
opening it.  He paused near Johnny long
enough to see how shocky he was. He
ordered, "As soon as I get this kid stabilized,
I want you to get on a cannula, Johnny.
You'll be more comfortable. Without it, 
you're fair game for passing out. I wouldn't give
you ten minutes more before that happens. 
I don't want the guys to have to stokes you 
out too. That'll slow us all down getting the kid
out."

Gage just nodded wearily. "I will. See to
him first."

"Spoken like a true hero...." Brackett said.

The words weren't lost on the detective 
watching them. He grew thoughtful.

Kel got to work.

Johnny spoke from where he was folded on
the ground, "His head and neck's clear.
No abdominal guarding, no fractures
apart from the ribs on that left side.
His pulse's rising. He's breathing shallow
and he's got rales in that lung, doc.
And I think I heard some crepitus under
the skin over that spongy area."

Brackett felt the site of the rib breaks.
He heard and felt the plastic bubble
wrap like patch Johnny mentioned right 
where he said it would be, "You're right 
Johnny, He's leaking a lot of air here.
Definitely a tension pneumothorax."

But Johnny wasn't listening. He was
watching Steven. "Doctor Brackett..
Check him. I think he's--"

Kelly felt for a neck pulse. He didn't find one.
"He's arrested. Roy! Get down here!! 
Johnny's not going to be able to help me.."

Fielder shouted, "Wait a minute, I can't
authorize that!!  DeSoto can't treat a
man without a license..and letting him
could cost not only my job, but yours!"

Shania began to growl at the nervous stranger
above her. She didn't understand why her
dislike of him grew. Only that it did.

Brackett looked up from delivering 
a breath to Steven before he shifted
to his chest, beginning CPR.
"Do you want this kid to die, Fielder?
Cause most assuredly he will.. in very short
order! Hurry up, Roy."
He shifted his hand position again, keeping
his compressions even to mimimize the
damage internally. "Gage, you stay put.."
he snapped when Johnny tried to move closer.
"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen.."

Then Johnny and Roy's radio came to life.
It was Dixie. "Rampart to Squad 51, guess
who's wide awake and asking for breakfast?"
They all could hear Marco's voice talking
in the background.

Brackett turned eyes on Fielder as soon as
he finished delivering another set of breaths.
"Looks like you no longer have a case, 
detective. Let him pass!! NOW!!!"  

Fielder sobbed, relieved that he was legally
freed and he moved aside, grabbing
the rope. Soon, Roy got to where he
most wanted to be, down to where two lives
could be saved by the skill of his own two 
hands and...a little bit of luck.


--------------------------
"So did he make it?" Lopez wanted to know.

"Of course." Kel said, folding his arms together.
"I was his attending physician."

From the bed next to Marco's, Johnny protested.
"Hey, who was the first rescuer on the scene?
Huh?  Me..." he said. "I should get at least partial
credit for Steven's save."

Chet looked up from his funnies from a third bed,
"Yeah, Johnny, but it was all of you, as a team
that really saved that kid's life.  Even your dog,
Roy."

Everyone chuckled, infectious giggles spreading.

Roy smiled, pleased, and rubbed the sweater he 
was wearing over his arms. "I would have brought 
Shania here to our little get together. But,.. it's 
against hospital rules..now isn't it Dixie?"


Nurse McCall felt put on the spot and
interjected, "Well,.. I didn't make up the rules
now did I? But.... I seem to remember a time where
a certain ER doctor I know once operated on
a goat he himself let into the hospital...
isn't that right Dr. Brackett? Now that,
was an infraction..." she emphasized the last
word.

Brackett wore his best snarly grimace,
"No dogs. Period."

But that ploy just set everyone off again.

A knocking at the private patient room door 
got all of their attentions. Johnny
said, "Hey, maybe it's Cap and the 
rest of the gang.. Come in!" he shouted.

Detective Fielder entered the room with
a box wrapped in gold ribbon.

Immediately the mood in the room chilled.

"I ....uh, hope I'm not disturbing you, fellows..."
he began..

"Who's he?" Marco and Chet piped up simultaneously.

"Shhhh!" the rest of them said.

Finally, Johnny relented, "What do you want
detective.." It was not a question.

"I... wanted to apologize to you, Mr. DeSoto
for my....out of line behavior at the cave-in. I
was more concerned for my own financial health
than I was for the health of that teenager
or your partner here. I..... wanted to make it up
to you fellas somehow.." he set the box
on the bedside table over Gage and slid
it near Roy.  "Just a...small token.."

Chet, Marco, Dixie , Brackett and Johnny,
all looked at Roy to see what he would do
next.

Roy, graciously,  unwrapped the golden
ribbon and opened the lid, looking
inside.  He pulled out a check and read it.
"For the US Firefighters Fund, a sum of
twenty thousand dollars.. Mr. Fielder, I'm 
speechless. This is... this is Station 51's
disaster charity. How did you find out about
it?"

"A little bird told me." he said sharply, right
before it melted into a full warm smile..

Roy looked at Fielder then offered him his
hand in friendship, truly touched. 

Detective Fielder returned the grasp and
smiled slightly. "Put that money to good use.
And... use any extra for, " and he pursed his 
lips, thinking,....".... a sleep 
deprivation awareness class for the next 
fire fighting seminar coming up, ok? Your case
could teach other paramedics about the 
dangers of that risk. Look at what 
we've learned from it."

With that, he left the room. 

Gage fumbled for the box trying to
reach the check with his unencumbered arm.
"A twenty thousand dollar check? No sheet....."
he said incredulously.. "Let me see that..
I've never seen a check for so-"

Something inside the box thunked around
underneath the tissue paper folded there.
"Hey, Roy.. There's something else in
there. I think you'd better take a look."
Johnny said.

Roy unfolded the wrap further and saw...


...his badge and wallet ID.
"Well I'll be... He managed to get
the police case thrown out of court."
A shaft of sunlight sparkled on the badge's
back, making Roy look down. He brought
it up closer to his eyes, "Hey, an inscription's
been put on the back on a tiny plaque."

"What does it say?" Chet said, his funnies
column long abandoned..

Roy tipped his paramedic's badge into
better light and he read..

"To all the heroes who save lives
by their countless thousands at the 
peril of their own. May our need for them
dwindle and become no more."

His eyes misted over, and he said, "Never
knew Fielder was such a poet." 
     

Marco said it all in the end, "Never knew we
were such a tight knit group to even be 
stupid enough to consider doing that kinda hero 
stuff, yyuck.." he said, holding fingers
against his own weepy eyes.

Johnny laughed so hard, his cast hurt, giving 
him the perfect alternative excuse, for his crying.

Dix and Kel left the room quietly to let them heal,
together.


==============================


FIN



=======================

From P. Keiper NREMT consult for storyline..
 
I made a webpage as a tribute honoring all the EMS personnel who served and died on September 11th 2001 in the United States terrorist attacks.Page portrays real events so view with care around young eyes.


Please visit and honor them by signing the guest book.

http://www.geocities.com/voyagerliveaction/tribute.html 


Title:    Too Close to Home

Author:   Anotherjaneway 

Contact:  pattik1@hotmail.com

Series:   Emergency!

Part:     Complete episode

Rating:     [G] Mild swearing

Code:       E! Canon style, third person.

Summary:   The gang at Station 51 enjoy Roy's discomforture
                 over planning for a vacation before rotten luck
                 snuffs out those plans once again. Chet is up
                 to a money making scheme and convinces the
                 gang to get in on purchasing a racehorse.

Disclaimer:   Sole property of those who made the show.
                  All things Emergency! belong to Mark VII Productions 
                  and Universal Studios

Comments:  I wrote this piece for sheer joy of it in the 1980's.
                 This series is responsible for getting me into the
                 emergency medical field, working as an NREMT in
                 Minnesota. P.S.   I love you Johnny Gage and Roy
                 DeSoto, you are my heroes. The actors aren't so
                 bad either. :)  All the other EMS TV shows which
                 followed in Emergency!'s footsteps, can't hold a
                 candle to the universal character appeal of this
                 series. It is airing on TV Land in reruns. Watch 
                 for it. Like an episode itself, I have three rescues
                 featured inside this story. Heh. heh. heh. Two, 
                 I have based on rescues, I myself, have responded 
                 to. I just put our favorite characters in place 
                 in those scenes and took the names of the victims 
                 and medics, out. Believe me, it was tempting to 
                 leave myself in the story. But I am paying tribute here, 
                 not writing a log for the base station.


Free online medical term spell checker
http://spellex.com/speller.htm

 
                             Too Close to Home


The ball smashed into the far wall with blazing force 
and riccochetted back to hit John hard, in the ribs. 
He looked skyward. "Oh no! It was good! it was good... 
You win the match, Roy.."

Roy jogged across the floor and retrieved the racquetball, 
pulling a sweaty terry cloth band off of his forehead to 
scratch an itch. "Are you sure you don't want to go for a 
rematch?"

"I'm POSITIVE!" John said as he wiped his streaming face. 
"Roy, you've got an edge over me here, you realize? After 
all, you were THE Ojai College All State Champ in 
Racquetball for three consecutive years. No, I don't 
want another game. I'm giving up while I still have some 
dignity left."

Roy DeSoto laughed, "Yeah, I guess I haven't lost the 
knack yet."

"I'll say you haven't.." John's mouth twisted into a 
mischievious smirk. On the way off the court, he shoved
forcefully through the double doors off the court leaving 
Roy to clumsily block their rebound. He chuckled at Roy's 
cry of muffled surprise. 

"Ooff!  Almost got me but not quite good enough, buddy. 
Try harder next time..Anyway...." Roy said, toweling off, 
"Do you want to play again next week?"

John arched both eyebrows. "What?! And get humiliated 
again?! Oh yeah, I really love getting badly beaten everytime 
I come to the club. I pay good money for membership, just
 like you do. So I should enjoy the emotional benefits 
too, like winning...." he hinted.

Roy slung his towel over his shoulders. "Quit being such a 
sore loser, Johnny."

"Listen, Roy,..I've been coming here for the better part of 
...what? Three months? And I've never even come close to 
winning a racquet ball game over you. It gets kind of degrading 
after a while.."

"Now I wouldn't say that.." Roy reasoned once they were in 
the locker room, They peeled off white T-polos and shorts 
and grabbed shampoo bottles and more pastel towels from 
a stack set aside on a rack. "How about in swimming? You 
finish your twenty four laps in nothing flat and plow me
under doing it, too."

"Yeah.." John said, reflecting back on a more gentler note, 
"I guess you're right."

"There you go, Johnny Gage. You DO excel in something 
better than I do.." Roy smiled. He good naturedly took a 
towel crack to the back of his head.
"Let's go shower up or we'll be late for work."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Fifteen minutes later, the two came out of the club and 
headed for Gage's jeep. John suddenly laughed to himself 
as he shut the car's door.

"What's so funny?" Roy grinned.

"I head you and Joanne are finally cutting loose for a while 
and are going an escape to the San Bernadino mountains 
next month."

"SHhhhhh! Not so loud!" Roy exclaimed, as John backed 
them out of their parking space, "You remember what
happened last year. The subpump failed and flooded the 
basement. The year before that it was the dog, going 
into labor two minutes after we finish packing the car. 
We missed our flight, as you recall. Please,.. Keep quiet
on this thing until after I'm gone. I don't want anything 
to jinx us and have something go wrong
again."

"Well, you know.. They say bad luck comes in threes..
and you're only on your second year for cancelled 
vacations.." John grinned evilly.

Roy shot him a look that could kill.

John glanced back at the road, "Easy! Ok., man. Don't
 get so worked up about it. Nothing will happen. All 
right, no more. I won't even mention or THINK about 
your leaving on "...he mouthed the word vacation, 
"..again."

Satisfied, Roy concentrated on combing his hair.

But just as they pulled into the back lot of the Station, 
a sudden thought entered his head. "Hey, Roy..?"

"Yeah?"

John bent close in a stage whisper. "Where are you 
stashing the kids?"

Roy glared at him in utter disbelief. He rolled his eyes 
heavenward.

-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=

In the locker room, the gang was engaged in their 
usual prying into yet another one of Chet Kelly's 
brainstorms while they got into their uniforms.

"No, really, Cap." Chet exclaimed. "This is a really 
good deal. I just know it is. Listen..." he gestured 
pointedly.

"That does it.." Marco said, closing his locker door 
with a slam, "I have another one of those feelings 
again, guys." Marco moaned, "Look out! guard your 
pocketbooks with your lives!"

The gang erupted in laughs.

"Very funny, Lopez.." Chet frowned, "Maybe you 
should listen to this, too."

Marco cut Chet off, "Uh uh. No way." He gestured 
to the guys for support. The guys chimed in. The
room chorused negatives.
"You got to be kidding, Chet.."
"Even my mother knows better than to play one of 
your deals." Mike Stoker piped up.
"Nope, not a chance.." Marco agreed.
Cap remained silent.

"Please?!.. Guys.. " Chet said over the din. "Just listen 
for two seconds. What harm can come for just listening 
to a guy, huh? Do I have a say?"

There followed a long silence. Cap's eyes met each 
of his men's eyes in turn. "Guys,.. how about it?" he 
toned evenly. He encountered no opposition so he 
took a deep breath and gave a small nod. "Go for 
it Kelly.."

Chet hooted and, rubbing his hands together, flashed 
an open for business grin. "Ooo! You're gonna love 
this this deal!"

Someone growled, "All right.. Spill it, Chet.."

Chet said, "I'm coming to it. I'm coming to it..Just 
hang on.. Geez..Well, you're not going to believe this 
but I have a friend who's uncle is interested in buying 
Conquistador Cielo's first filly, Cielo Madre. Remember 
her?"

All heads shook no.

"The only filly to ever win a Preakness Stakes by 
fifteen lengths!"



"What about the Preakness Stakes?" A voice interrupted. 

Chet broke off his idea pitching as Roy and Johnnie 
walked through the door. "Oh, hi, Gage,  DeSoto...." 
Chet said, " As I was saying before,, this uncle is.."

"Get on with it!" Mike prompted. His stomach growled 
audibly.

"Yeah,.." Marco agreed, "I'm getting hungry for 
breakfast. And it's your turn to cook, Kelly.."

"O.K., you two turkeys, pipe down. I'm getting 
there. Just.. just hold your pants on.."

Marco shot a glance downward and grabbed his 
suspenders as if they had suddenly gave way.. 
Everyone cracked up. 

Even Chet laughed, in spite of himself. Much 
encouraged, he went on, "I got a phone call a 
few days ago and he asked if I wanted to invest 
in Cielo. I said, Sure.. after an hour's research 
on her history. Did you know she breezed the 
mile and three quarters in just under 1:52 flat?
Anyway.. I told Unc that maybe you guys'd be 
interested in investing with me in the deal and 
to hold off the purchase til this afternoon 
after I gotten an answer from you all. Are you in?"

Silence.

"Fellas!" Chet agonized..

"Well,.." Roy broke the silence, "Wait a minute there, 
Chet...ah, are you absolutely certain that this filly is 
real and legit?"

Chet beamed and let loose a kick at his locker's 
door. It swung open smoothly to reveal a sleek, 
red horse in racing gear hung in a frame propped 
up on Kelly's shelf. The gang crowded round.

John had been quiet throughout the entire 
exchange. Now, he eyed the photograph critically.
"What about her pedigree?"

"Yeah.." the guys agreed.

Chet smiled cooly and pulled out a bundle of 
papers. "Here you go.." he said, handing out 
xerox copies of it to eager hands. "...And here's
the contract of agreement I've brought for 
scrutiny. You fellas can uh,, co-sign with me 
if you want to.."

Roy cleared his throat loudly and got 
everyone's attention. "Chet, uh.. Where's this filly 
going to stay? I mean, it costs a lot of money 
to feed and train a thoroughbred. You'll need a 
good stable, trailer to haul her, a vet, a farrier.. 
Who's going to cover those costs?"

"No problem, Roy, my man. My sister's got a ranch 
in Rock Creek Canyon. Remember? And her hired 
hand is a retired veterinary and an honored
race horse trainer who'll foot the bill for feed and 
board until Cielo's first purses roll in.."

"Hey. hey.." Marco said, "Sounds like the first real 
deal I've heard yet from you Chet. Sounds like a 
golden opportunity, Roy..I'm in!" He snatched the 
contract away from Chet and signed it with a flourish 
with the pen Kelly gave him. "If I strike it rich, maybe 
I can take mamma to Hawaii.."

"Rich?"
"Sounds good to me.."
"O.k."
"Oh boy!"  The room was quickly filled with the sounds 
of "me too's" and pen scribbling. Roy was the last to 
get the contract. He waited, pen over paper over 
the signature line. "How much money Chet, did you 
just con out of these guys just now? Can you tell me 
that?"

Chet looked distinctly uncomfortable. He answered in 
a meek tone, "Ah..only *cough* ...$425 dollars a piece. 
But fellas--!"  When they started to growl.

Roy through up his hands, "That's precisely my point. 
There's always a deposit first.. This is TOO easy guys. 
Think about it. Do people really buy racehorses everyday 
of the week? I think you guys got suckered, no offense, 
Chet, on this deal." Roy turned, dropping the pen without
signing.

John gripped his arm, "Just wait a minute.. you mean 
you aren't going to do this. It's a sweet deal, Roy."

Roy sighed an incredulous sigh. "If you've never even 
seen the filly yourself, how do you know what her 
temperment is like, huh? Do you know how she'll 
react on the track after being coached by strange 
people..?" He pointed to Chet..

"Oh. Ha. ha." Kelly protested.

Roy went on.."Also, that Preakness she was entered 
in was a fluke. Three of the favorites were scratched 
for influenza and the rest of the field was a bunch of 
green colts. Those odds weren't all that hard to beat. 
And those fast workout times really don't tell us much 
about her ability because the element of competition 
with a full sized field is something Cielo Madre's
never faced!" 

Roy's words fell on deaf ears.. 
The whole gang was clustered around Chet Kelly as 
he proudly displayed the computer statistics on his 
filly and her workout times. Roy threw up his hands 
in the air and finished changing.

John tapped Chet on the shoulder, "Hey Chet? When 
does the deal get underway?"

Chet's eyes gleamed.. "Today.. After my sister buys 
her, we'll trailer her off to the ranch where the trainer 
will work her out. This afternoon! Man, I can hardly 
wait to ease myself onto that saddle! She'll be like a 
dream, I'm sure.."

"Hey" Marco crowed, "That's right. It's your day off 
today..."

Chet was very pleased with himself. "Yep. Moreno 
from 36's has to make up some hours so he's covering for me."

John regarded Chet thoughtfully, "Hey, Kelly.  Have 
you ever ridden a racing thoroughbred before?"

Chet turned to him collecting checks and contracts 
from the gang. "Hmm? Oh, my sister Marj and me grew 
up on horses. I've ridden ever since I was a kid. Well, 
gotta run or I'll miss Unc at the auction! I'll call ya all 
after the first workout..!"

"See ya, man.." John waved.

Chet breezed for the parking lot.

The rest filed into the kitchen where 36's Joachim Moreno 
had already  spread out eggs, bacon and toast.

Mike Stoker said, "This is our lucky day.. Not only do 
we get a chance to get rich on a racehorse, we don't 
have to suffer Chet Kelly's cooking.."

John chuckled, "Don't say that in front of Kelly when 
he's here or we'll die for sure next time from his OVER
burning food. I'm almost getting used
to his sushi slash bacon.."

All the guys laughed.

John followed Marco, setting plates at the table and 
silverware. He handed Roy his blue and white paisley 
mug of coffee. "You don't know what you are missing 
Roy.." and he stuffed a whole muffin into his mouth, 
sitting down.

Under his breath, Roy replied as he studied the newspaper,
"Oh, yes I do."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=


At Rampart General, in Treatment Room Three, a man 
sat impatiently on a gurney. A prim nurse adjusted the 
flow of his IV's flow rate and marked it in her chart. He 
watched her dispassionately. At last, he grumbled, 
"Is Brackett coming soon? I know he's on today.."

The nurse blinked, "I suppose he knows about you and 
is on his way to see you right now, Ron.."

"Mike!" he snapped and immediately regretted the action. 
"Oww!" He slumped back onto the table seriously considering 
biting his own left foot off at the ankle. The RN deftly slipped 
up the side rail on the bed as he reeled  about. "What did 
you do that for? I'm not going to fall out." he frowned.


"That's what they all say..." she burbled sweetly and 
adjusted his covers.The man slapped at her hand. She 
stepped back, shakened.

Finally, Brackett really did open the ready door. He was 
met with a complete surprise. He did a double take folding 
his arms across his elbows in amusement. The crabby 
man he had heard bellowing out in the hall, was Dr. 
Morton..!   "Well. well. well... Look at this.." he chided 
sympathetically. He took in Mike's angry expression and 
one very sore, air splinted ankle. "What has fate brought 
your way today, Mike?" he delivered casually.

"Don't ask, Kelly. I don't want to talk about it." Morton 
grumbled, shifting uncomfortably on the bed.

Brackett simply grinned, "Fine. I'll get your story from 
her. Please read the run sheet to me, Nurse."

"Yessir.. Apparently, doctor,.. the young patient--"

"Young patient?  Young patient! Let me inform 
you, Nurse,   Nurse.." he  snapped his fingers irritably 
at her, "Your name!" Morton said gruffly.

Startled, the RN blurted out, "Evans!.. Carol Evans.."

"Evans." Morton snapped, "I inform you now , since 
you are new to this floor and this hospital. I am on 
the resident staff in this department and I expect to 
be called by my full name DR. Morton at all times if 
..you..don't...mind.." he said dangerously.

"Yessir! I...I mean, doctor..uh...?"

"Morton!" he boomed.

"Dr. Morton!" She stifled sudden tears.

Finishing up the BP reading he was getting on Mike, 
Brackett frowned when he saw the tears on his 
nurse's face. He had missed something truly harsh he 
guessed. "Mike, lie down."But it wasn't hard to figure 
out just what had occurred while his ears had been 
blocked by his stethoscope.

"What?" the young black doctor said, still fuming.."But 
I have to tell this newbie nurse that.."

"Mike.. For all practical purposes, she outranks you, 
for you ARE a patient now. And as your acting 
physician, I ORDER you to be quiet and stop 
harrassing Miss Carol." he said, pushing his voice 
louder than Mike's, "You'll aggravate your 
condition..! Already, your BP's a little high.." 
he shook himself, "Nurse, clean out that cut 
on his forehead, will you please?"

"With pleasure, doctor.." she said vehemently and 
she bustled some peroxide into a sterile basin.

Dr. Morton glared at Brackett but he complied  
and laid himself flat and off of his elbows. He let 
out his breath in a hiss. "I'm sorry, Kel. I really 
don't need to be here. Just get me a bandaid 
and some ice and I'll be just f-- Owwww!!"  Mike 
swatted at the cotton dabbing his head.

"Ah, ah ah.." Brackett warned, waggling a finger.

Morton snorted. He sat on his hands dutifully.

"Now..." Brackett began, thoroughly amused at 
Morton's sour social mode. He began by beginning 
an assessment, checking out his injured co-worker's
 bruised body by probing belly and tapping on his 
ribcage for percussion sounds.  "Tell me what
 happened, Miss Evans.. Since our patient would
rather not disclose any information at this time. Tell me 
what Mr. Morton told you before he got surly."

"That's Doctor Morton.. Not Mr. Mort--"

Kel silenced Mike with a gesture and a challenging 
look that bordered on serious professional 
discipline. "Go ahead, nurse."

Confident under Brackett's protection, she relayed 
the details."Well, about an hour ago, the paramedics 
brought in the PATIENT with a probable left fractured 
ankle due to a fall. He was found unconscious with 
no indication of spinal or neck injury. He promptly 
regained consciousness with a sternal rub and
complained of soreness to his head as well as 
that ankle. Patient remarked also that he had 
fallen on his b--"

"Wait just a damned minute here..!" Morton 
interrupted, sitting up. Brackett pushed him down 
again with a practiced hand, not caring
about the pain Morton received from the jarring.

"Go on, please.." he said to Evans.

"On his pos-ter-ior, sir. There were no apparent 
injuries I could see other than the bruising on those 
three areas. He was in considerable discomfort in 
that last region but his vitals are  stable.. and 
intact.. I checked." she said acidly.

"You better mean, blood pressure, lady!" Morton 
spat.

"Of course, mister. What else would I mean?" she 
said levelly.

Mike reddened, caught off guard. Brackett choked 
down a laugh, "ahh,,from what distance did he fall?" 
He pretended to be busy writing in his chart.

"According to the paramedics.., Mr. Morton slipped 
on a peel--"

"Newspaper!!"

"..BANANA peel and fell down eleven stairs, about 
nine feet, onto a bark path. The stairs themselves 
were wooden, Doctor. He  refused a pain hypo at 
the scene."

"Thank you , nurse. You may go."Brackett said.

"Anytime, sir." she fairly fled out of the room, wiping 
away smeared mascara and some of her tears.

Soon, the two doctors were alone.

Morton propped himself up on an elbow, highly 
miffed. "Did ya have to do that?" he asked of his 
colleague.

"Of course..!" Brackett yelled back. "You were 
acting like one of those "gomers" you hate so much."

Morton's eyebrows retreated into his hairline in 
surprise. His anger melted away. "I was?  Hmmm..   
"G-et....O-ut...of  M-y E-mergency..R-oom; GOMER."
Morton reflected.. "Nice acronym.. Sorry... I guess 
I was a bit of a gomer to her."

"Umm hmmm." Kel grunted in affirmation, holding
 Morton's splinted foot in his hands. He studied 
the blood oozing there. He was still visibly 
charged about  Morton's unprofessionalism and 
rudeness.

Morton watched him and said at last, "You know.. 
I'm really sorry I treated her like that. I..just don't 
like pain, nor being helpless like this at my own work 
place."

Brackett grunted again, shining his pen light into 
Mike's eyes. "Your pupils are equal and reactive. 
Guess that was just plain natural surliness. Instead of
cranial complications, DOCTOR."

Morton actually looked cowed.

"Follow my finger.." And Kel watched how Mike's eyes 
tracked the pattern he drew into the air. "Good."    

He turned his attention back to the clear plastic 
splinted ankle. Gently, he tested its range of motion.
Mike looked away, trying not to flinch.

Brackett arched an eyebrow, "You're sure you don't 
want a pain med?  You don't have a concussion from 
what I see. The medics were right about that."

This brought a stormy battering of protest from the 
prone man, he bolted upright, brandishing a finger 
in Kel's face about to let loose some blistering  
thoughts.

Kel folded his arms levelly."I'm ordering one.. You're
lips and gums are already two shades lighter than 
they were five seconds ago."

Morton sputtered on, but stifled himself from saying 
any true words.

Brackett moved to the phone and made a call. A 
second later, the double doors parted, revealing 
Nurse Evans, brandishing a hypo and a cotton wad 
for viewing. "Into the upper gluteus maximus Nurse, 
if you wouldn't mind.." Kelly said, smiling at her and 
winking.

Morton choked, "Kel, you're not serious.. I'm one solid 
hematoma down there."

Brackett made for the door coolly with his chart, not
 looking nor answering back.

"Kel, wait! No.." Morton said, "You know damned well  
I can get that med through my IV line. Please.. I'll be 
more polite! I promise.. Kel, don't go! Kel!!  OWW!!!!"

And the swinging doors snapped out the sound as 
Brackett left the room. Dixie McCall turned toward 
the blood curdling scream curiously, as Brackett 
handed  her the chart, "Just desserts.." he remarked, 
and left.

Dix puzzled over that comment a moment until she 
read the name on the  face sheet. It took her only 
moments to put two and two together as it was she 
who handed Evans some tissue just a bit earlier as 
she emerged from that treatment room.  It took 
five minutes for Dixie to stop laughing and compose
herself enough to return to her head nurse desk 
station.

-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Dispatch clicked a two toned alarm for station 51. 
It brought everyone on the run into the garage.
##Station 51. Truck 127, Battalion 14, Unknown 
type rescue. At the Everest Stadium Complex. 4000 
Kenwood Boulevard Cross street, Marquette. 4000 
Kenwood Blvd. /c/  Marquette. Manager requests 
assistance to the second level tiers grandstand, 
east side. Time out 08:47.##

Helmets and jackets pulled on as Cap 
acknowledged their running status, "Station 51, 
10-4, KMG 365."

Moments later, the squad rolled down the 
driveway closely followed by the  engine. Their 
reds activated and air horns blasts cleared the 
highway of traffic. They sped towards their 
destination....

-------------------------------------------

TITLE   SEQUENCE

-------------------------------------------

Brakes screeched to a halt before a high tech 
modern building. A very hassled man in an 
orange shirt and tie ran outside to meet 
them.

"What's the problem here?" Cap said as he 
stepped out of the cab of the engine, "Is there 
a gas leak?"

"No sir, ..ah, nothing like that. I'm one of the 
janitors. You people  are going to have to come 
with me and see for yourselves. The 
police are rather busy right now...."

Everyone followed with their gear. Roy and John 
with their O2, Defib, IV, Splint and Trauma boxes. 
They kept on their overcoats to save time. Roy
 looked at John with a what's this gesture.
Cap shrugged, mulling over the mystery while he
 adjusted his walkie talkie to a receiving sending 
mode with the engine's radio. No one knew what
 to expect.

John Gage was the first onto the second level
deck when he hollered, "Look out!!"

He promptly kissed dirt.

A well aimed beer bottle shattered musically on the brick wall 
near his face. The glass caught him and he sat up, gloves
over his face.. Pissed, John yelled aloud.."Ahhghh ahhh!"
He sounded more disgusted to Roy than in pain. 
He ran to him. "Johnnie? Are you all right?" He crouched
down, pulling Gage's hands away.. John's face was streaming
red.. (Marco winced..) with stale Killians beer...!

"Agh!!  *cough* " Johnnie shouted, thoroughly grossed out
at the sour smell, "This has got to be the worst!" he sputtered.
and he spit some of the foulness out of his mouth.

"What th--?" Cap scratched his head, looking about. Men
and women were fighting in the stands while hoards of police
officers tried to stop them in any way possible.
he gestured and all of his men slapped down their face shields
on their helmets as two more beer bottles, hit the wall 
near them.

Roy rocked back on his heels, visibly relieved. "Here.." he 
began "You'll need this.." he clapped down John's helmet 
shield. Gage grinned sardonically, "A little late wouldn't you 
say?"


A cry ripped the air..

A new voice shouted, "Watch out!!! Incoming!!"
CRASHHH!! A vending machine narrowly missed flattening 
Mike Stoker, whose log roll out of the way was barely 
executed in time.

The owner of the voice mounted the grandstand stairs 
and observed all the firemen lying belly down, with 
their gloves over their necks, staring at the machine 
which had nearly landed on their engineer.
He cleared his throat, chiding them..

It was Vince, with a handcuffed gang member.

Everybody clambered to their feet.

Vince chuckled, "Some war zone huh? Stick around boys. 
The fun is just beginning.." Vince dragged his charge 
behind him and stopped before Lopez. He rapped a 
knuckle on the plexiglass shield over Marco's face. 
"Wish I had one of those...."

Pputth! A rheumy glob of spittle caught Vince in the 
eye just then. He wiped it away with a glove, shooting 
an acid look at the spit's source. The Cuban suspect 
grinned dangerously and chewed his tobacco some 
more.

"He might be your first victim,, fellas!!" Vince exploded.
He pushed the kid ahead of himself, none too gently..
"Come on!!: They disappeared noisily through the gateway.

Cap made a small noise in the back of his throat. "Why me?"


Vince's partner made the top stair. John and Roy approached
him cautiously, widely avoiding another handcuffed thug 
in tow. "Blake.." John asked, "How did all this get started?" 
Roy could only gape at the melee  around them.

"It appears one gang leader got insulted by a rival gang 
leader's girl. He slapped her. Her boyfriend then slapped 
the gang leader.. Then..."  And he threw up his hands 
dramatically,.."The rest is history in the making! yes , 
folks. An instant all nighter for half the police force in 
LA county. Have fun!!"  

He, too disappeared to the street but soon returned 
with fifty handcuffs minus the prisoner. The cop 
regarded the dumbstruck  firemen wanely.."They 
all met here for a rumble,, to 'Even the score.' A
 pause.. "Hey, listen... We're having a hard time 
subduing this thing, Captain Stanley.." Blake 
admitted. "Do you have a suggestion on how to 
go about doing that? As you can see, physical 
restraint has no effect.."

A huge brute was pounding the face of another man 
to a pulp nearby. A county cop vaulted onto the 
aggressor's back, confident his action would distract 
the fighters.. Oh it did, all right. Both combatants 
hefted the hapless cop over their heads and heaved.

The young officer sailed over rows of seats to thunk
hollowly on top of a closed concession stand. The 
sound of the impact could be heard even over the 
noise of the crowd riot below.

Roy winced openly and the two paramedics brought 
their gear over to the dazed rookie cop while Blake 
gave them some cover with a riot tear gas rifle and 
some mild threats to anyone who came near them.

Cap looked around and gathered recently interrupted 
thoughts.He bit his lip and made a decision, "Ah, Marco?"

"Cap?"

"How far would you say we are from the engine?"

"About 400 yards."

"Terrific.. That's a short enough distance. Do me a favor
huh? Would you and Mike rig two inch and a half's and 
bring them up here? And turn on the refrigeration unit!"
he shouted after his men's retreating backs.

Blake frowned, "What for?"

"Pest control." 

Blake split a gut at that.

The nearby Batallion chief strode through the doors and
calmly surveyed utter chaos. He radioed out.
##LA, this is Chief Blachek. Dispatch three more 
additional fire units and send six ambulances to our
location.. We're gonna need them.##

##This is LA. 10-4, Battalion..##

A short distance away, Roy and John checked out the 
unfortunate police man they had just stokes rigged
to the ground.

"Did you see how far that stinking offal threw me?! I'll
tell ya.. NO ONE assaults a law enforcement officer and
gets away with it..!"

The kid ripped out of his stokes straps and rose
to his feet shakily, shedding shards and a BP cuff.
He went for the grappling leaders. Roy and John
dove, each grabbing for a leg and tackled the
hot headed kid cop back to the ground.

Johnnie shouted as he struggled to hold his
patient still, "Come on now! Do you really want to get 
MASSACRED? Just stay put and let us do our job." 
He readjusted his helmet out of his eyes. It slipped
down again on the slick beer in Gage's hair. He finally
gripped the whole thing in his hands and flung it off
to Blake.

The zit faced kid rolled over painfully, facing his two
paramedics. He gave way into a cute fit of temper.
"Fine!! I'll stop! But just how do you suppose we'll
stop them?"

Roy simply smiled and pointed toward the infield. 
"Just watch.."



Several teams of firefighters appeared in a ring around
the riot. They spouted jets of cold ice water onto the 
crowds below. Whole gang clusters tumbled about like
nine pins.

Vince's voice floated around the stadium PA system.
"People! Listen up! "  Marco's voice followed his words
a second after with a translation in Spanish..
"You're all under arrest! Put down your weapons
and surrender to the police officer nearest you. Comply
instantly, or get another free bath, compliments of the LA
county fire department.."

Knives, chains and broken bottles dropped to the turf.
Droves of cops herded the worst offenders via handcuffs 
to paddywagons peppering the infield.

John and Roy finished assessing the dazed rookie and began
to gather up their gear. "Well outside of a few scrapes and
contusions.. You're in pretty fair shape.." Roy said.

John added, "You should schedule an appointment with your
family physician just to be on the safe side if you begin to
feel shaky again, all right?"

The cop was sheepish. "Thanks, guys.. I'm sorry if I caused
so much trouble." he said, wincing as Roy put a dressing onto
a minor cut on his temple.

He stood as soon as Roy finished, offering his hand to John
and Roy. They shook it, "Don't worry about it. Take it easy
now, you hear?"

The young kid waved, heading down towards the field to 
help in the round up. "Right.."



Suddenly, a large woman broke away from her officer right
behind the firemen. She lunged at another nearby rival who
was also handcuffed and being led away. The force of the 
blow bowled the man over the rail of the tiers. Restrained,
he failed to counterbalance and save himself from
falling. He landed thirty feet down onto the astroturf below.

The woman was furious.."You gringo!! Come back here!!"
she screeched at the fallen man. Four cops led the struggling
Cuban away as John and Roy pelted down the steps to the 
field. Mike Stoker was right behind them.

John smelled blood but felt for a carotid. He looked up into the 
grandstand. "Cap! Get a backboard and some sandbags!. He's 
going to need a C-Collar!"

Marco yelled down to him. "I'll get the O2!"

Roy made sure the man had an open airway by pulling up his jaw 
carefully without moving anything else, neck or spine.
Mike took over the hold.

John began to check for fractures at the man's head and worked
his way down quickly.

The cop, who had been apprehending the gang member, frowned,
"You mean he's still alive?" He didn't bother to conceal his racial
distain at all.

"I'll just bet that spoiled your day..!" John spat with open sarcasm.
Gage tried to get the leather coat off to expose a chest wound
but the cuffs interfered. "Would you mind?? " he prompted to the
hate filled cop.  

The officer stiffened up "No way! This guy's the ring leader!" 

Beneath the paramedics hands, the man heaved, choking on blood.
His ragged breathing cut off abruptly. John placed a hand on his 
chest.

"Roy? He quit breathing..."
John frantically set up a suction tube and turned it on, 
passing it over to his partner. 

DeSoto took it, but soon, shook his head. He couldn't see 
anything in the way inside the man's mouth as he probed 
with the hissing tube, even with Mike helping him expose 
the area to light. "He must be obstructed deeper down, 
Johnnie."

"I got it..."
Gage straddled the leader's legs but couldn't get a firm 
positioning to  start a Heimlich attempt, because of the 
cuffed and hobble chained limbs in his way over the man's 
stomach. John looked up angrily at  the cop who just 
watched him struggle. "Get over here! What's  the matter 
with you?! These damned chains are in my way..! 
Do you want him to die?"


The gang leader's skin started to purple with hypoxia.

"He's not going anywhere, man!!" Roy shouted at
the obstinent cop.

Running footsteps approached. "Release him!! Do it , officer!"
It was Vince..

The other cop hesitated. 

"NOW!!"

He didn't move.

Vince ripped the keys away from the officer's belt and 
freed the  choking man's cuffs being careful not to jar 
him around.

Johnnie was able to clear the man's airway seconds 
after he was able to reach his abdomen. He forced 
out the obstruction with a few well placed thrusts 
and felt the blocked off lungs finally give way into 
a release of air moments later.

Roy's suction tube did the rest of the work, removing 
teeth and blood from the man's torn mouth and throat.

Marco arrived, running, with the O2 apparatus, handing 
off a demand valve mask to Stoker.

The man began to gasp once again. He drew in Mike's 
forced oxygen through the respirator well without much 
assisted positive pressure from Stoker. His face and 
hands began to pink up again. Roy and John sighed 
in relief. The crisis was over. 

"That was too close, Vince.. He almost killed this man!"
Roy exclaimed, pointing a finger at the prejudiced cop. 
But that was all he had time to say before the task at hand
drew him to work quickly to preserve his patient's life.


Vince whirled into the face of the obstinent cop. 
"I'll deal with you later lieutenant!"

The lieutenant's jaw tightened. He said nothing. He turned
and walked away.



Vince turned his back on him. "Need help?" he asked the two 
medics, his voice toned quietly as he kneeled beside them.

"Yeah.." Roy said, "Could you support his head? Mike can't do
that ventilating him. We've got to roll him onto the backboard."

"Right."

He did so, and soon, the Station 51 crew had the unconscious
man safely immobilized. Cap set up the biophone while Roy examined
the man's pupils. John got a set of vitals and phoned it in to Rampart.
##Rampart, this is Squad 51, do you read?##

----------------------------

At the substation, a red light began to flash. Dixie set aside her chart
and entered the glass enclosed ready room. She acknowledged the 
call, hitting a toggle switch. "Unit calling in, please repeat.."

##Rampart, this is Squad 51. We have a male, approximately twenty
four to twenty five years of age. He took a fall from the second tier
of a stadium box. I'd say he fell about twenty eight feet onto the 
astroturf field. He's unconscious. He has multiple fractures of both 
arms and five ribs along his left side. Both limbs are profusing well.
He had an airway obstruction. Now breathing on his own. 
Victim has been immobilized, C and lumbar spine, and is on 15 liters of O2. 
Vitals are: BP 68 over 42, respirations striderous and 
irregular at ten, assisted. Pulse is thready and weak at 140. Stand by for 
pupils..##  He pointed at Roy who began to relay him the information.

"Standing by, 51." Dix replied.

Dr.Brackett walked in. "What do we have?"

"51's got a heavy trauma case. A man who fell about thirty feet onto
an astroturf field at the Stadium. It doesn't sound good." 

Brackett skimmed over Dixie's notes intently while Johnnie filled him in.

##Rampart.. The pupils are responsive but the right one is slightly 
dialated. There's also evidence of bleeding from both ears. Also, I 
have noticed a soft spongy region on his lateral left side. There
is a wound but it is non penetrating. Rampart.. ventilating him
is proving somewhat difficult due to mouth injuries. We've already
suctioned around 400 cc's bright red blood and dental debris. Request
permission to insert an esophogeal airway.##

"Go ahead on the airway, 51. I suspect a tension hemo-pneumothorax
due to that flail chest on the left side. What kind of breath sounds
do you note?" Brackett asked.

Roy listened to the man's breathing carefully with a stethoscope while
John intubated the man. Roy picked up the phone and watched as
Mike connected the demand valve to the airway in the man's
throat. The bleeding there was slowing somewhat. Marco was getting
little if anything into the suction reservoir now.
##Rampart, the esophageal airway's in place. I hear bronchial rhonchi
on the right side. Absent breath sounds on the left.##

"10-4 , 51. Start two large bore IVs, both 1000 cc Normal Saline and 
run wide open. Run in 500 cc's then continue TKO. Apply a five pound
weight to the victim's left side and reevaluate breath sounds." 

##10-4. Two large bore IV's 1000cc NS, One to 500 cc, then TKO.
Applying an immobilizing sandbag now.## DeSoto reaffirmed.

Marco got a sandbag from the stokes and taped it right over the broken
section of ribs on the man's chest. Roy checked out his lungs once more
once it had been secured and smiled. He picked up the phone.
##Rampart, breath sounds are now present on the left side. Victim's 
color is improving.##

Brackett sighed visibly. Dixie echoed.

John had finished starting the IV's and handed them up to a pair
of waiting hands.

"10-4, 51. Uh..Draw a red top for a type and cross. Continue to 
assist ventilating and transport as soon as possible. Keep your
patient's head elevated for that possible skull fracture and splint
any additional dislocation breaks you find."
Kelly said. "Give me another set of vitals and send me a strip
once you're en route."

"Ten four, Rampart..Our ETA's twenty minutes.." Roy concluded.


Vince watched all of this in amazement. "That trick with the
sandbag.." he said to Cap. "How did that help him? I mean,
who'd put a weight on someone's chest with broken ribs
and all?"

Marco stood after helping load up the gang member onto the
ambulance attendant's gurney and covering him up.
"The guy couldn't breathe well because
most of the ribs on that side were caved in. Every time he
breathed out, that area would push in and vice versa when he
inhaled. His lung couldn't fill easier because of the lack of 
pressure inside. The sandbag splints the flail section even 
with the rest of his ribcage, so that lung can expand normally
again."

"Huh." Vince reflected, "I learned something new today.."

Ambulance attendants bundled the man, Mike with respirator,
backboard and all into their rig which they had backed
into the infield. They secured the stretcher straps while
John took over for Mike and maintained the O2 vents
with an Ambu bag while they switched tanks to the 
ambulance's oxygen supply. Mike exited the ambulance.
Roy set the bi-phone and the drug box and defibrillator next
to John afterwards and closed the doors. The second attendant
remained inside. 
Finally, he handed off the squad's O2 apparatus back to Cap.
who hustled Marco to run it on ahead to put it away for Roy's 
follow along trip behind the ambulance.

"Think he'll make it?" Vince asked Roy.

"He'll have a tough time in surgery with all of those fractures.
But, hey,, he's a gang leader. You can't be weak willed to do
that. I think he'll make it.."  Roy slapped on the back doors,
sending the ambulance off to speed its way to Rampart through
the main gate leading to the outer streets.

Vince watched it diminish. Cap ambled up next to him..
"Yishhh.. What a mess.."

Vince agreed, "You're telling me.. That odd officer boy's gonna 
face attempted murder one, right behind that gang's woman."
he promised. He drew out his handcuffs to go get 
the cop who hated too much.

Cap drew out his walkie talkie and nodded  sadly.
"L.A., this is engine 51. All units out hour.."

##10 -4, 51.## ( Spap.) 

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 The emergency reception desk was quiet for the middle of the day.
John and Roy had cleaned up and they cradled their supplies while
nursing coffee cups. Dixie McCall refilled all of their mugs to the
very brim.

"Whoa!" Johnnie said, almost upsetting his loaded box, holding up
a hand, "Sounds like you're having just as trying day as we are."
he laughed, his mouth crooking up on one side.

Roy smiled tightly, "We had a rookie lieutenant who wouldn't
uncuff our choking victim. He almost coded right there on us."

"Really..?" Dix said, horrified. "How so?" 

"Johnnie here couldn't get good access to clear the obstruction
because of all the man's  hobbling body chains. That officer
actually left him to turn blue rather than help us."

Dix sighed deeply. "Sounds heavy. Are they going to press charges?"

"Oh, yeah,," Gage said, "And I'm first to their witness stand by choice,
believe me. It's scum like that I can't stand. And he's an officer 
in the force for Pete's sake. He made our gang leader victim seem
like a saint by comparison."

She nodded appreciatively, "Yeah.. it seems like we BOTH
had troubles with authority figures this morning."

John blinked, "Authori-- ?  Who'd you tangle with?"

"A doctor..."

"Brackett?" John snorted.

"No..no no.. Nothing like what you're thinking, or with him."
She thrust her jaw out with thoughtful amusement. "Maybe you
fellas should see for yourselves.."

"See what?" Roy wondered.

Dixie merely crooked a finger, motioning for them to follow her
to....

"Treatment room three?" John exclaimed.

Dixie nodded, "Uh huh. Though you'd better leave your coffee 
cups out here, or he's bound to tear your throats out getting to
it."

"Oh?" Roy toned, up a scale. They placed their boxes on the floor 
and coffee cups in a drinking fountain alcove. "I wonder who?"

"SHhh!" Dix turned, a finger to her lips. "You'll wake him."

They all peered inside.

The room was slightly darkened and a familiar form snored on
the table. One foot was in an exterior fixation frame, all wrapped
up in fresh, wet dressings.

"Morton!" John gasped, grinning from ear to ear. 

Dix nodded knowingly, "Right from surgery.."

Two orderlies arose in their chairs in the back of the room
looking sleepy and concerned. Dix waved them back 
reassuring them. "It's just us, guys.. Checking in on Mr.
Congeniality.. Has he stirred yet?"

Two heads jerked side to side. 

"Oh. See ya.." she burbled, and closed the door.

Roy and John barraded her with questions as they retrieved
coffee and supplies..

"Hold on guys. First things first. Mike had a little accident
this morning on the way to work. Slipped on a banana peel."

"What?" John laughed. 

Dix held up supplicating hands, "It's true, Johnnie. Knocked
himself cold. Anyhow, did he raise holy heck around here.
Drove half my nurses batty. Brackett was nearly out of 
his skull, too, with him. That ankle had to be set in surgery. 
Morton said, "Surgery? O.k. Just so long as it's set and put in a 
cast and I'm out of here, tonight!! I work in a hospital,.. I don't
need to be here when I'm hurt, too." She gave a high laugh.
"Oh! The ego of the man." She was laughing so hard she didn't
hear Roy's next question. "And what's that?" she said to
him, breathless, sipping her coffee.

"Why is he down here?" Roy said, "After recovering in PAR,
shouldn't he have gone to one of the floors?"

John added another one, "And why were those two guerillas
in the treatment room with him?"

Dix broke down again, almost falling off her stool with mirth.
"Oh! *gasp* His ankle was broken in four places.. He needed
pins and that fixator to keep the bones straight for healing.
Just picture what his reaction will be when he finds out that 
he has to stay here for twelve days.."

Roy and John looked at her uncomprehendingly.

"Brackett figures that that room is the most shielded place
in the whole house. Those two monkeys in there are going
to sit on him when he flies to pieces over the news. Don't
want to undo all that nice surgery, now do we?"

Dix laughed hysterically, streaming tears, all the way down
the hallway to her next destination.

John and Roy exchanged confused expressions. John emitted
a small courtesy laugh. "Heh." His forehead furrowed.

Roy piped up, a grin growing, "You mean his temperment
has gotten that far out of hand with his under rank staff? 
Dix was practically crying with glee over his predicament.
I mean, I knew Dr. Morton was a little short in the bed side
manner department.. but,.. how do you explain that?" 
He pointed to the door behind which slumbered the object
of their discussion.

John shrugged, "I'd hate to see him when he was awake,
that's for d*mned sure."

Roy looked at him strangely.

"You know.. With him dismantling that ankle thing and all."
John elaborated. 

Roy reflected, then they both spoke what just popped in
their minds aloud.

"We'll send him a card."
"We'll send him a card."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Dr. Joe Early had joined the two paramedics in the cafeteria.
"You mean to tell me that you all bought this filly, sight
unseen, based only on pure conjecture?"

John sputtered, expecting a tirade after his answer,
"Well, I.."

Roy grinned evilly, "Johnnie did. I didn't." And he forked a 
bite of his salad, chewing enthusiastically, letting his
partner sink or swim.

Early....smiled.
"Good for you! Want some more coffee?"

John blinked. He stopped cringing. "Ah..yeah.. Sure...
thanks..." He leaned forward, watching the doctor
pour some into his mug. "You mean buying a share
of this horse was a ...was.. a  smart idea?"

"Of course," Doctor Early breathed grandly, "We all
should have an opportunity to hang ourselves financially
at least once in our lives. It helps to build character."
And he bit into the hamburger.

Roy snorted, choking on his milk, partly in a laugh.

John shot him a withering look.

"Sorry." Roy offered, but he couldn't quite fight back
a smile.

John stared and Roy dropped the grin only until John
looked back at his food and changed the subject, 
"Thanks, partner..for your vote of confidence...."
he said under his breath.  "Say ah, doc.. heh. How's
that gang member we brought in?"

Dr. Early wiped his mouth with a napkin, "Much better
from what I hear. The neurothoracic surgeons are optimistic
on a completely normal recovery. They found no spinal
damage anywhere.

"Good, that's good.. but I wonder if that cop still gets it."
he mumbled.

"What?" Joe asked. 

"Oh Nothing.. just a pighead we ran into at that rescue.. heh."
Johnnie sighed.

"Well, it's been real, doc. We have to go available.
Johnnie?" Roy said.

They both rose, grabbing their walkie talkies. 

"See ya fellas! And stay away from any more Chet Kelly scams.
He's a sure drain on your wallet.." Joe called after them.

Johnny mouthed sarcasm silently parroting Joe's parting words.

Roy designated their status as available on his radio.

Dispatch replied, ##10 -4, 51.##

They started down the hall. They heard a disturbance in a room
to his left so he investigated. "Hey.. someone's fallen or something
in there."

Roy tried to stop him in vain, "Johnnie.. No... That's where Mort--"

But it was too late and the door was already open.
Johnnie did an abrupt about face when he saw who it was but he 
wasn't fast enough. 

"Hey, Johnnie Gage.. Come here....." a sleepy voice rasped.
A clammy hand gripped his wrist and Gage's foot hit the
bedpan that had most likely been the noise he had heard when it
had fallen earlier. John steeled himself mentally. 

Then he turned and faced the music. His instinct for self 
preservation lost out. ::All right. I'll go out joking..::
"Ah, Morton my man, what happened to your ankle? Slip
on a banana peel?"

Roy kicked his partner sharply on the shin without wiping the idiot's
grin he had on his face. Johnnie's smile tightened but he did not give
in to the pain he felt. He looked confused.
 
Morton only chortled, "Hghf!"

Roy stooped to picked up the empty bedpan at his feet to set it back
on the foot of Morton's bed.

Morton blinked, "I took a free tour of my front steps via the Los
Angeles Times. Thanks, Roy.."

John shifted off his throbbing leg to the other foot. "I thought the
paramedics run sheet said you slipped on a  Banan--"

Roy erupted into a huge fit of coughing jags. "Sorry, post nasal
drip again. Damn fires. Always screws up your sinuses..." *Sniff*

It dawned on Gage, finally.... He mentally retraced steps. He spoke
cautiously realizing the risk of Dixie's feared Morton reaction was
a hairsbreadth of being triggered.
"Ah.. it seems like everyone is falling and getting hurt today."

Roy felt an odd shiver of premonition at his partner's comment
and he didn't know why.

Morton roused again, "What'ya boys, in for?"

John spoke while Roy fought chills.
"Oh, there was a riot between two rival gangs at the stadium this 
morning. One gal pushed another guy over the side up on
the second tier. He must've fallen sixty feet!"

"Thirty.." Roy added, sotto voce'.

"Ah,, thirty feet.. but ah,..they say he's doing all right. ..That he'll
be ok.."

"Hmphhf." came Morton's reply.

Roy and John began to wonder when the powder keg would go off.
Then..

"oh oh..." Morton trickled.

The door swathed bright light and the nursing supervisor flicked on
the overhead light, heedless of making the three men squint
painfully. She pushed in her TPR cart. "Good afternoon, Mr. Morton.
Time for your temperature and vitals again..." she purred.

Morton covered his head with his covers. "Spare me,, Pleassseee..."

John and Roy were shocked. Gage pointed at Morton, doubting the
fear he heard there at first. Roy just shrugged, but then he joined
John pointing in pantomime to Morton and then looping a finger around
his ear in the "crazy" gesture.

The nurse understood. "Oh, that's right. You two haven't heard the
rest of Dix's counterplan yet for Mike here. " She smiled sweetly,
"Double sedative.. Enjoy it while it lasts."

John's face lit up.

"Come on, doc.." she added a bit louder over his whimpers. "You want
to get well don'tcha? Now let Guinine take your tempy. Come onnn."

John emboldened, piped chimed in.. "Yeah Mike. Why don't you be
a good boy and let the nice nurse take your temperature. She might
decide to go the other route if you don't cooperate.."

The blankets whipped off. "Gage! I'm warning you! One more cr--"
His threat was cut off by the glass rod shoved into his mouth.

"Thanks fellas." Nurse Guinine peeped. "You know the old saying,,
Doctors make the worst patients."

"Glad to have obliged." John grinned, waving fingers at the
muffled, miffed Morton. 

Morton mumbled something unintelligable, shaking a sleepy fist.

"Bye, patient!" Roy teased.

The door closed on the sight and Roy and Johnnie laughed uncontrollably.
They were squad bound when they could both think enough to speak
without setting each other off again.

"Did you see his face?" John guffawed, "I tell you, Morton couldn't have
looked any more trapped in a million years.!"

Roy wiped streaming eyes and spoke around his sore stomach. "Ugh.. 
I haven't been that uptight about anyone's personality fallout in a lonnngg
while. And when Morton didn't do anything about your banana jabs...
Oh!, that was too much..."

Johnnie coughed, "You know he was like that because of the medication
Brackett and Dixie pumped him full of.. Those orderlies probably went
offshift for the day so they extended his sedation period out a little
longer than normal.. Oh,, what a move!  I thought I was busted."

"Yeah.. It reminds me of the time when.." Roy said..

##BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!..
Squad 51 with Engine 51. Man down. A half mile north of Rock Creek Canyon
Rd. A half mile north of Rock Creek Canyon Rd. Time out. 15:48##

 A wisp of the dread Roy felt earlier in Morton's room returned and seeped 
into the cab. It formed an idea in Roy's head. "Hey, isn't that Majorie Kelly's
place?" he asked.

John put on his helmet. "I think so. " He thumbed the mike, "Squad 51,
responding.."

##10-4, Squad 51.##

The engine's reply crackled over the P.A. "Squad 51, this is engine 51.
Did I hear that right? That's Chet's family address. He's supposed to
be there today, isn't he?"

John picked up the mike while Roy drove a little faster. "Yes, Cap.
He is." he replied after a bit.

"Right. We'll be there in fifteen."

"Us, five minutes before that, Cap.."
Roy flipped on their sirens and they both secured their chin helmet straps.

John  said. "Chet old pal. What didja do this time?"

Roy glanced over at him, startled. He gripped the wheel more tightly.


---------------------------------------------------------------
 
TITLE MUSIC

---------------------------------------------------------------
The squad pulled up at the fork of two unnamed roads and the spicy canyon
dust cleared before the two LA County paramedics.
"D*mn!" John swore.. "Which way?!"

"I'll try dispatch.." Ry fingered the radio derisively. "LA, this is squad 51. Do
you copy?"

##Go ahead, 51.##

"Could you 10-9 the address of our current response destination?"

##A half mile north of Rock Creek Canyon Rd.##

John shook his head in frustration, hanging his head out of his window trying
to find a road sign or anything at all.

Roy spoke again, "LA, could you clarify? We're on the only road into the
canyon at a Y junction. I don't see road signs of any kind.. Over.."

The dispatcher toggled some keys at his terminal and pulled up an
aerial photograph of the canyon. ##51, which canyon rim are you
located upon?##

John leaned out the window again, noting the angle of the sun.
"West side."

"The west side rim, LA, over.." Roy told dispatch.

##Proceed down the right hand fork for 1/8 of a mile, 51. Aerial
shows five buildings in that direction.##

John called out nervously, "Let's go.!!"

Roy spun gravel. They went. "10-4, LA. We copy. Moving down
right hand fork.."

##51, Will advise Engine 51 of your 10-20.##

"Squad 51 , out." Roy finished. Hanging up the radio phone.

The narrow road opened out into a wide tree filled mesa. A barn
in great disrepair stood in a meadow at the right. There was no sign
of an off road.
"Here?" Roy wondered.

John looked about. A glint caught his eye, unusual for a remote
Californian canyon. New car painted metal. "There! on the left.
about 400 yards down. It could be a parked car."

There was an automobile, half concealed in the tall grass, a creme
colored station wagon.. Chet's. A little ways beyond, a paved driveway
wound itself into a hillside. Roy sped up. It was a good two minutes before
they saw the house.

John whistled through his teeth, "This is some spread!"

"Yeah." Roy breathed. He pulled up. There was a sign over the road.
It said :   KELLY-K  RANCH
              ~~~~~~~~~~
"This has got to be it." John was sure now and his fear returned as
they got out of the squad and assembled their gear. 

They ran to the front side of the house. "Where is everybody?" John 
said. 

"Don't know.." Roy said.

"You think that with a ranch this big, they would have sent people out
to fetch us.."

They went swiftly to the main entrance. 
They both knocked loudly "LA County Fire Department!"

A heavy oaken door swung open. 

A woman who could only be Chet's sister spoke up. "Oh thank god!"
she sobbed. "I thought you'd never get here."

"Marjorie Kelly?" Roy began.

"Yes. Please, this way.. It's my brother. .."

A sick emotion hit both Roy and Johnnie as their unspoken dread
was realized and given a name.

Majorie said. "We warned him! But he just wouldn't listen!"

"Easy Ms. Kelly. Just tell us what happened.." John said.

"A new filly came today, Chet,... he figured he could handle her.
She tossed him!"  She wrung her hands, overwrought.

"Where is he?" Roy asked.

"In back!!" Margorie indicated the sixth path to the right. She ran
down the flowered, richly trellised way. "Hurry!!"

The three wound down the yard to a wooded area. They rounded 
another tight curve between some hedges.. to  
a riding corral next to a huge red barn. Near a perimeter fence, 
a demolished bird coop was strewn about.
Marj called out, "They're here, Max!"

And older man peered over some of the broken boards but he
did not stand up. Roy and John headed in that direction. 
"Agh. guys.. I can't stop all this bleeding.."


Chet was on his back sprawled six feet away from the outer fences
inside the horse corral. His head lay awkwardly on top of  a jumble
of splintered boards. His eyes were closed and he was almost 
completely covered in tangled shed.

John and Roy vaulted the outer fence and handed over
their equipment to the roof of the demolished coop, looking for
a way to Chet. There was too much wood blocking
the way.

The gear couldn't follow them in there.
So Gage and DeSoto left all of it, just outside the ring of debris.

"Chet?! Can you hear me?" John flung away some tangled chicken
wire, fighting to get gear and himself near Kelly.
Chet moved a little, not opening his eyes.  Gage clambered over 
the last of the debris. DeSoto beat him there.

Roy put on a smile he did not feel. "Hey, Chet.. How are you doing?"
He put a grip on Chet's coratid artery, studying his face.

Chet stirred and coughed. "Eh, Roy? What took you so long?
Where've you been?"

"Oh,.. joy riding.." John said, clearing more debris away so he
could get closer to where Chet was lying. There was a lot
of blood on the ground. It seemed to be coming from
below Chet's waist. "...and you?"

"I..I decided to take a snooze under the trees, can't you tell?
Oww..!" Kelly grabbed his leg.. "Something's  somethin...cracked..!"
I think I'm dying here."

John restrained him, nodding curtly to Max to keep up the pressure
on the effected leg. "Easy now! Just take it easy.. We'll figure this out
and find a way to get you out of here."  He knew how close Chet's 
quip really was, deadly shock was closing the gap, fast. He knew
that it would take more man power to bring Chet into the open
where he could be treated. 
"Just lie still."

"I know.. I know that just as well as you do.." Chet gasped.

John peered under the makeshift dressing Max had made of his
own shirt and was pressing against Chet's thigh, he quickly set 
it back.

"Roy, I think the femoral artery's been nicked."

Roy nodded grimly, taking a stethoscope out of the drug box 
and slowing picking his way through the debris again to use
it on Chet. "Chet..Where else do you hurt besides your leg?"

Chet sagged limp. "Chet!"  Roy dug a few knuckles into
the bone in the middle of Kelly's chest and rubbed hard.
Kelly jerked, driven awake again by the pain stimuli.
"Huh?" 

Roy repeated his question.

"N-No, where else really.. I.. I'm just a little..dizzy.. Listen,
we've got to get out of here.. Cielo's a killer, something just
made her snap right before I was thrown.. If she sees us, 
she'll trample you like she did me and this coop."

A shrill scream of anger pierced the air. It came from the far
end of the pasture.. Staccato hooves paced nervously.

"There..." Chet gasped, "See that dust cloud over there?
She's scented us.."

Marjorie glanced up in alarm from the outer fence, "Oh, no.
Not again... Shall I get the rifle, Max?"

John thought hard.. "Just hold on here, everybody, Calm down.
No one is going to shoot any horses. First things first. Cap'll be
here in a few minutes . We'll let them handle her., O.K.?"

Chet began to pant with air hunger in a reflex he could not control.
A symptom of severe blood loss.
"But...you don't understand.. She'll charge!" Chet sat up, and 
hung onto Roy's shoulder, trying to stay upright.. "NO! It's dang--"
He gagged in agony and nearly passed out. Roy caught his head as
Chet fell back again locking all of his muscles around the pure agony 
erupting from his leg. "Ahhgg!"

From twenty feet away, Marjorie quailed, "Oh, Chet!
Don't do that to yourself.."

"Hey! Hey! Chet..." John grabbed Kelly's face in a glove. "You're bleeding 
badly from your leg and all of this moving around isn't helping matters
any! Now keep your cool.." John ordered.  He pushed Max's trembling hands
off of the gaping wound and pressed his own down firmly at a pressure
point farther up. He didn't like the amount of blood he saw around him.

Chet gasped. He slung an arm over his shaking face.."All right..all right."

Roy took some vitals. "BP's 80 Systolic. Pulse 140."  He looked at
Max and Marj. "Listen.. Someone's got to show the engine crew
where we are. And we'll need some blankets from the house."

John nodded, agreeing with the distracting tactic. The less
Chet saw of his family's panic, the better off he'd be.

"...can you do that for me?" Roy asked..

They both nodded and Max crawled out of the debris
pile, under the outer fence and together, they ran into the 
house and inside the rustic building.

Roy watched them enter the house.


Suddenly, Cielo Madre exploded from over the hill, right
at the gap John had created for Roy and him to get
to where Chet was lying on the shattered coop.
Top speed.

"Ahhh!" John covered Chet with his body while Roy
picked up a timber and brandished it over his head,
yelling..

The infuriated filly drew up short twenty yards away.
Her ears flattened against her skull. But she kept away.
She was shaking her head and her skin was trembling
in an odd way. John rose slowly back into his
crouch and repositioned his hands over his pressure
point on Chet's leg.  He noticed the
horse's strange behavior.."Hey, Chet.. Did you
two run into any bee hives during your workout?
That horse's coat is just crawling with hives and 
bee stings."

"I thought I heard something.." he winced as John
bore down on his leg again, stopping the 
the feeling there along with the blood flow out of
his wound.  "nngg..." he closed his eyes.
 
Roy's voice came close to his ear. "Chet?"
he began quietly, not upsetting the horse in 
any way. "You hurt only in your leg, right? Not
your neck or your back?"

"Yeah... "  Chet moaned, "I'm sure everything bad
is just there.."

"Ok,.. because we're going to have to move out of 
here before she gets any more bright bee sting 
crazed ideas.. and that means moving before
the engine gets here."

Chet looked up and saw the horse glaring at him
with a growing anger in her eyes. "Oh, wonderful.."
His face was very pale and sweaty. 

Roy indicated the outer fence. "If she breaks again,
you're going to have to roll underneath that fence
on your own. We'll try to ward her off you."

"Good luck." he croaked. He swallowed with a dry mouth.
"uh,.. " his breathing shortened,.."..I..I think I'm going to
be sick."

Roy and John eased Chet onto his side and held him. Chet
vomited. John spoke, "Easy,, it'll pass. You're getting shocky
and this sometimes happens."

Chet relaxed at the end of it, gasping.."Terrific..Hope it's
over. "

"It is.."  John felt Kelly's BP slip lower in the pulse hold he had
on one of Kelly's brachial arteries, monitoring. 
It disappeared all together. ::Damn! His systolic's dropped 
to seventy..::
"Come on, Cap,.. get the lead out.." he whispered, 
lifting eyes to the empty yard. 

Roy pointed towards the biphone near the edge of
the coop pile. "I'll get Rampart." He crawled slowly over 
the wooden boards and under chicken wire to set up the 
aerial antennae and turned on the power.

John nodded, "You're going to have to risk it. Chet needs
an IV, now.."

Never for a moment did Roy's eyes leave the filly's. She
snorted and pawed dust up while she shivered off 
the venom from her many stings. He held the phone up
to his face, shielding the receiver in his hands.

John began to gather up the half conscious Chet up by 
the shoulders, getting ready to pull him clear. He 
swallowed hard, watching the filly watch them.

Roy's lips moved. He spoke quietly to hail Rampart.
"...rampart. this is squad 51. ...do you read...."

The returning reply boomed, "Go ahead, 51..."
It was Dixie's voice..

John and Roy froze as the horse whipped in a full circle
and shifted a defiant head in their direction. She snuffled
loudly, catching the scent of the men. She trumpetted low
in her chest.

Suddenly, she bolted low and fast, at them.

"LOOK out!!" John cried.

Roy abandoned the biphone and together, he and John
heaved Chet Kelly gracelessly through the coop's tangles,
ripping their own clothes in their haste to get away 
with him safely. Together.. they rolled Chet under the
outer fence. Chet yelled aloud in pain when he landed, but
he was safely on the other side.

Roy glanced back over his shoulder in fear.
"Let's get out of here!" he shouted at Gage.

They vaulted the fence just as punishing hooves raked 
the air inches away from where they had been.

-----------------------------------------------
At Rampart, Dixie frantically tried to raise the squad.
Early looked up. "What happened?" as he entered
with Dr. Brackett.

"I don't know. I was answering 51's rescue call when
I suddenly lost contact.. I heard John yell. Then..
nothing.."

Joe thumbed the board. "51, This is Rampart. Do you
read? Over.."

More thuds, then a crash. The line buzzed static.

"Nothing." he said. 

Dixie tried once more, "51, do you copy? What's your
status?"

More static. No reassuring voices.

Brackett straightened irritably, "Dix, notify the fire 
department dispatch about this. I want to know
what the hell is going on over there!"

--

Having silenced the red box, Cielo Madre then
vented her fury on the other strange boxes left
abandoned by her feet. Then she took off running
around the far side of the barn.


---------------------------------------

The force of their momentum had flung Roy and John
hard to the ground. Roy shook his head, clearing away
stars. He recovered and saw Chet face down, motionless,
a short distance away.  "Chet!!"

John stirred too, climbing to his feet. "Roy?"

"Chet! Can you hear me?" Roy shouted again. He didn't 
move. Together Gage and DeSoto ran over to Kelly just as
the engine crew flew across the yard with the O2 apparatus.

"Chet?" John called urgently. Roy and Johnnie rolled him 
over as a unit. A fresh blood stain discolored the grass 
underneath him and was spreading out slowly. His face 
was grayish looking. Roy covered the gash with his bare 
hands, bearing down on it.

John listened by Chet's mouth for breathing. Cap ran up 
and knelt by Chet's head, "We heard you ran into trouble 
through dispatch. Rampart got worried.. How is he?"

John frowned, straightening, "He's in deep shock, we had 
to get away from the horse as quick as we could and it's 
torn the femoral artery completely. Marco.. help him on 
the O2, will you? He's breathing too shallowly right now 
to do much good."

"Right.."

Marjorie and Max had returned only moments before with
blankets. Chet's sister stood, transfixed, tears welling up 
into her eyes."What's wrong with him.?" she demanded. 
"Why isn't he awake?"
Her brother's ashen color terrified her. "Tell me!"

Mike Stoker got up from the ground and led her away, 
trying to calm her down.

Roy spoke in a dry voice, "Cap, we've lost all of our 
equipment. Is the ambulance on the way?"

Marco nodded, giving Chet mask assisted ventilations 
in time with Kelly's own weaker attempts at breathing 
using the demand valve thumb button. "Last check, it's 
ETA was six minutes." he answered Roy.

Cap wiped his mouth. "Anything we can do?" he asked John. 

"Yeah, go get a stokes and the engine cab's first aid kit. 
And the mast suit.. And the defibrillator..!"

Moreno went with him.

"Johnnie.. This isn't working.." Roy said, looking at his 
bloodied hands and a fresh welling making its way up 
around them. "How's his BP?"

"60 systolic.. I can barely get a carotid.  Marco, start 
hyperventilating him. Last thing we need is him crashing 
on us. Go to 30 a minute and see how he does." Gage 
suggested.

Marco nodded, stepping up his delivery rate of pure 
oxygen into Chet's lungs.
 
Cap and Moreno soon returned, laden with the mast suit 
case and the defib box.

Roy saw his equipment lying around in the sun just out of 
reach. He identified a few things that were still intact. 
"Maybe I can go back into the corral and get a hemostat 
or something to clamp off this artery. " he said urgently. 
His fright was growing.

John nodded.. "Marco.." He gestured. Marco relieved Roy 
at his pressure point while Mike took over the O2 vents 
without missing a beat.

Roy arose. Max joined him back by the corral, as Roy 
slipped on some gloves over his soiled hands, listening 
for signs of Cielo Madre's return.

Max tossed his burden of blankets on the ground, "You're 
not going back in there."

Roy shrugged, "Somebody has to. Chet can't wait for 
treatment much longer." He watched  as Johnnie, Moreno, 
and Cap moved Chet onto the mast suit trousers and 
fastened it up everywhere but where the artery wound 
was. "They can't pump up that mast suit to buy him some 
time until I clamp off that bleeder first. If I can't get that 
clamp, nothing we do will do any good."

He ran back to the squad and got out the cab's fire 
extinguisher. He lugged it back with him.
"Listen, Max.. Have you ever worked one of these 
before?"

"Sort of, once at work, for  a safety test."

"Here's your chance to shine. This is simple. You pull out 
this ring here and just squeeze the nozzle, see?"

A puff of CO2 streamed out.

"I got it.." 

"O.K, let's go.." Roy glanced over and didn't like what he 
was seeing by Kelly. Cap was seated and waiting with 
his jacket and gloves off over Kelly's chest which was 
now bare.  ::Cap's getting ready to work if Chet codes.. 
Come  on Chet.. Hang in there.::  Roy amended his snatch 
list to include an endo trach tube along with the hemostat, 
and dressings.

"Let's hurry.." he told the trainer.



Moreno had linked LA dispatch through a landline talkie 
into the ranch phone which Marjorie had threaded 
through the yard.  Cap relayed vitals to Rampart at 
John's direction.  Desperately ordered by Brackett, John 
finally got his authorization for the use of rotating 
tourniquets in an attempt to keep oxygen flowing to 
Chet's brain despite his critically low blood volume 
level.  The EKG they had on the monitor was wrought 
with shuddering PVC's brought on by the blood loss.

It wasn't resolving into normal sinus rhythm, despite 
the tourniquets and the hyperventilations.
 
John was worried, Chet wasn't even trying to breathe 
anymore, and John could do nothing else to help him.
It was now entirely up to his partner to get 
that hemostat clip from the corral.
"Roy... get that clip.. He's starting to cave.."

Cielo met Max and Roy at the perimeter of the fence 
with reddened eyes. She snorted, facing them. "You 
circle left, I'll go right. If she charges you, use the
extinguisher. The vapor and the noise should spook 
her long enough for me to get that trauma box."

Max nodded, licking his lips. They climbed the outer 
fence, sitting on its edge for a moment. Then they 
started creeping forward towards the coop and the 
scattered medical equipment. 

"Easy, girl.." Roy soothed. She charged. Max 
discharged a plume of vapor directly at her head. 
She reared.

Roy bolted for the equipment. He snatched up 
everything he came for. On a second thought, he 
ran over to the IV kit and started scooping up IV bags 
and tubing boxes.

"Come on!!" Max shouted, "She won't hold for long."

Roy grabbed the trauma box up again and retreated, 
shedding packets and meds along the way. He got 
outside the corral in seconds.

Max gave a roar and threw the extinquisher bottle 
itself at the beast. He rolled under the outer fence 
in the nick of time. Both were safe.

Max helped Roy carry his armfuls back to the others.

"Fancyfoot work, guys.." John grinned.  The firemen 
gathered around in a concerned group as Roy knelt, 
biting off the paper wrapping of the hemostat. He 
probed the wound for the bleeder. He found it and 
clamped the torn ends. The horrendous outflow
of blood there ceased. 

Quickly, John and Roy pumped up the mast suit to its 
max levels. They got three IV's of D5W running full 
volume through Kelly's carotid arteries, the only ones
not collapsed by Chet's basement level BP.

Roy held aloft his prize find he had gotten from the
battered corral, a syringe of epinephren, at just the
right concentration, 1 to 10,000 dilution for a man
Chet's size. He squirted its front load into the sky
to dispel any air then added it IV push as fast as 
he dared.

John looked at Mike by Chet's head. "Is he 
breathing now?"

Everyone waited without moving for his answer.

Stoker nodded, feeling resistance beginning
against his demand valve triggering, "Yes.. 
and he's pinking up." 

Gage grunted, taking a BP. He smiled, "It's up, 90 over 
60.." Marjorie and Max hugged each other. 

The EKG settled into a normal beat moments later.


Cap was estatic. "Way to take it out of the woods, 
Kelly!!" he shouted, ruffling his unconscious crewman's
hair affectionately. His relief was infectious.
And everyone smiled for all they were worth.

"Come on you guys....Move!" Cap roared as he saw 
the ambulance  attendants enter the yard.. 
"On the double..!!"

---------------------------------------------------------
"And the rest was easy..." John Gage said. "Once we were 
in the ambulance, Roy radioed ahead to dispatch to maintain 
contact with you guys via the C.B. radio in the driver 
compartment..."

He leaned back in his chair and stretched, a cheshire's grin 
on his face.
 Dixie nodded appreciatively, "And after another injection
of stimulant, Chet did nothing else but improve.." she 
smiled. "You boys amaze me with the exciting rescues you 
find yourselves in so often. They make events around here
seem like a walk in the park!"

"Now I wouldn't say that.." Roy countered, "What about that
gang fight earlier today? All those cases came here, right?
You must've had fun keeping them from killing each other."

Dixie laughed.

Dr. Early had been listening in while he ate his apple.
"Say, How's Chet Kelly doing now? I heard from Kel
that he lost almost 4/5th's of his blood volume in the 
field and didn't arrest. Now that's what I call one
lucky b--"


Dix shushed him,.. "Doctor.. There are young ears here.
Frankly,..mine. "

John sighed chuckling at the good natured banter around 
him, "We just heard. He's in recovery. The surgeons
found no internal hemorrhaging apart from that right
femoral artery. He will be up and around on crutches
in about a week."

"Well, give my regards to him for me will you?" Early
said, walking away.. "I've got rounds."

"Sure thing, doc.." Roy replied. He tapped John on
the arm, "Maybe we should phone the guys and let 
them in on the good news."

"Ooo, yeah..., Well, gotta go, Dix."

"See ya fellas.."

------------------------------------------------------------
A few days later over lunch, the gang carried on lively conversation.

The B Shift was just getting off and the two crews shared their
week's highlights. John gestured grandly, concluding his story.
"And there we were, one crazed horse and a lot of smashed
equipment.."

Gil chuckled. "You got us beat, Gage. The most I've ever totalled
was my helmet, last year, in the McGuire warehouse blaze." He
sipped his coffee adding, 

"How much did it cost to replace all of the squad's gear?" Bryce 
interrupted.

"Plenty!!" It was Cap. "Chief MacConike still won't look me in the eyes
when I told him why I needed a complete refit inventory. I've been
trying to live up to his expectations.. Really I've tried. But this
oddball rescue has undone years of careful kissing up, ever since
I was caught setting h-"  he broke off, embarrassed about something.

John grinned wryly. "Cap you have to remember that he may NEVER
forget that you set his hat on f--"

"Don't say it Gage! Now's that's an order!!"

John and Gil snapped dutifully into attention. "Yes sir..!"

Cap glared at them a second or two before he went through the 
double doors leading out of the kitchen. Gil let out  long string of
giggles he had barely managed to contain in front of John's Cap'n
Stanley. "On fire?! You mean Cap torched that ol geezer's hat?
Boy, he must have had a death wish or something."

John shooshed, trying to silence Gil to no avail. "Shh, He still might
hear you.."

Gil was dying against the wall. John eyed him critically. "I gotta live
with him, you know.."  The glower faded into a smirk, "Yeah.. he pulled
that when he was still a wet behind the ears cadet looking for a 
promotion a month early. MacConike has a memory like an elephant!"

Gil was still tearing up, "W - What's he like?"

"Who?"

"M- MacConike?" 


"Oh, oh. oh. The old goat still dishes out holy hell come inspection day.
And WE suffer the brunt of it. You should see Cap before one of these
things. He's a basket case."

Gil laughed harder and started to leave. "Serves him right, Johnnie. See
ya next week.." He left for the locker room.

"Take care, man.." John said grabbing a plate and piling on breakfast high.
"Mornin.." he drawled.

"Did you hear?" Mike spoke excitedly, "Chet leaves the hospital tommorrow."

"All right!" Marco cheered.

"About time.." John nudged Roy's elbow. "I'll just bet he's sick of all those
bedbaths, eh?" He sniggered evilly.

Roy waxed stone faced.

John's face fell, "Sorry I keep forgetting that you are a married man and
can no longer appreciate the fin-"  He trailed off, uncomfortably caught
in Roy's baleful stare. He swallowed, "Forget I even said it." he sniffed.
"Forget I ever even mention bed b-- Marco..!  You look like a man who
could use some more potatoes. Here, have some more. They're great!
I try to eat some every w--" Marco was staring at his plate. John
quit spooning out the spuds. A pile of them five inches high overflowed
the edge of the plate, running onto Marco's fingers.

"OOps! Sorry, Marco, I---Here.., have a towel." John retreated from
the table.

Roy chuckled, following, a bowl of oatmeal in hand. "Johnnie, you've 
got to ease up on all of that caffeine. You're gonna kill someone 
one of these days." 

"Oh, Ha. ha." John dripped sarcasm, "Very funny.."
he defended himself neatly, "So,..." he smacked his hands together.
"When's the big day? For your trip, Roy?"

Roy acted as if he had smelled something vile. He spoke out of the side
of his mouth, "Day after tommorrow.." he whispered.

"You're leaving when?" John said a little too loudly.

Roy leaped up from his chair, "Oh, come on Johnnie.. Shhhh! You know
I don't want word of this spread around."

John basked in his success. "Ok. ok. Mum's the word." He looked around,
bored. "I wonder what's on TV.."

He flicked on the tube.

##BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Station 51. Shed fire. 6560 Montezuma Road..."

Roy paled suddenly. "My god! That's my--"

He took off running. The implication of what he had said struck John
with a sick weight. "Cap?  Cap! That's Roy's place!"

"Wha?! Desoto's ?!! John, you drive!"

They left at a dead run.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The squad, squealing, slowed. Roy was out the door and into the
yard before Johnnie could even bring the truck to a complete stop.
Roy didn't pause to put on his overcoat.

"Joanne?" he fidgeted in a panic in the driveway. Then he took a hold
of himself a little, looking around. "T-The car's gone. Maybe Joanne
and the kids went shopping.."  He ran back to the truck. The engine 
screeched, pulling up. The sirens faded. Cap stepped out of the cab.
He smiled when he saw that the fire, was indeed, only involving a 
small backyard shed.
He tried to alleviate some of Roy's stress, "When I meant you could 
invite us all to a BBQ, I didn't have this in mind, DeSoto.."
and he grinned...

Roy didn't grin back.

Cap got serious, "Roy? What's in there?"

On the lot, was a gray two story structure. Its roof was under
repair, only tar paper covered it with stacks of roofing tiles
piled at one end. A half built porch surround the front door
of the little house. A small garden shed ten feet from the house
was totally engulfed in flames which threatened a nearby telephone
pole.

"Roy!" 

"What? Oh,, uh... I have about five pounds of termite repellent in
there. And two five gallon jugs of gasoline.." his face furrowed,
"And my BOAT!"

"Easy there, Roy, ah.. we'll try." Cap offered. 

John had his coat on and he was trying to give Roy his.

"Johnnie..., I gotta know....What if... one of the kids?!" Roy
looked stunned.

John made sure he had eye contact with his partner, "Go ask the
neighbors. And Vince. He's over there." He called, "Vince!!"
The big cop turned.

John urged, "Go ask him, Roy.."

Roy moved leadenly.

John noticed that he was still holding Roy's overcoat in his hands.
"Ah,, R--?" He gave up, letting it fall to the ground.

He sprinted over to Mike and Marco, setting up the hydrant. 

----

Roy was in despair. Vince had said he hadn't seen his kids. Roy
cast about into the crowd.

----

A hose was dragged across the yard. Marco and Moreno twisted
on its nozzle head.

"You men!" Cap directed, "Use a medium spray.. Protect the house!"

"Right, Cap!"

"LA , this is Engine 51. We have a burning free standing garden 
shed. It contains insectides and two cans of unexploded gasoline.
Please notify the gas company to cut their service to the entire
block. This fire might upgrade."

##10-4, 51. Will stand by.##

Cap surveyed the scene and noticed DeSoto shifting among the
onlookers. ::Oh, well.:: he thought to himself.::He's gotta reassure 
himself that his family was nowhere near that shed when it went
up. I'll let him.::

"Mike! Set up the second hose for the shed. I'll have Roy help you
in a moment!"

----

On the outside of the firefighting trucks, Roy was only half scared.
Inside, his reasoning warred, making him jumpy. Then he saw 
someone he knew. "Carrie!"

A slight, young girl clutching a teddy bear turned toward the 
sound of her own name. She gave a cry and started to run 
when she saw who it was who wanted her.

"Carrie! I have to talk to you.." Roy shouted. He easily overtook
her. He kept a hand on her shoulder. "Carrie, you and my daughter
are friends, right?"

She nodded. And started trembling.

"Are you scared?"

Carrie's face pinched and she began to cry without a sound.

Roy knelt down. "You don't have to be frightened.. I -I just want
to know ab--" Roy paused, not wanting to frighten the tiny girl
unnecessarily, "You and Jessica and Michael had a sleepover
at my house last night.. Right?"

She squeaked, still petrified, in a soft voice, "Yes.."

"Do you know where Mrs. DeSoto and Michael and Jesse are now?"

Carrie suddenly cried harder.

Roy became alarmed, "Carrie? What's wrong?"

"I" she looked at the ground. "I was playing in the shed..I- I found
the matches in the street and  and they started the fire.." 
She rushed into Roy's arms, bawling, "I didn't mean it!" She cried in 
catching, wet sobs, "Mr. DeSoto, I knew... I knew it was wrong.
Jesse and me,  w--"

"Jesse?! Where is she?"

"She.." Carrie screwed up tight. 

Roy held Carrie away from him gripping her arms firmly.
"Did they go shopping?"

Carrie became quiet. Four fingers found her mouth. 

He repeated his question. She studied the ground,
then she nodded, "Yes, Mr. DeSoto." 

"Thank you, Carrie.....Cap!! She says they're not home!" 
He turned to her and knelt again.  "Carrie, Would you tell
that policeman over there that I sent you to him? That he's 
supposed to watch you until the fire's out?"

Another nod. She ran off.

Roy sighed, returning to his company's engine. ::What a day::,
he thought, straightening his helmet.. ::My boat, torched!::


Mike handed Roy's overcoat to him, "Rough,eh?" he asked.

Roy nodded. He placed his jacket between his knees to hold
it while he adjusted chemical guages. Cap called from
across the yard. "Well, so much for that vacation, eh, Roy?"
He grinned broadly..


 
  ***          **            **           **          **        *
 *     *      *   *         *    *         * *        *  *        *
 *      *     *    *        *     *        *   *     *   *        *
 ****       *     *        *     *        *     * *     *        *
 *     *       *   *          *   *         *       *      *        *
 *       *      *  *           *  *         *               *       
 *       *         *               *          *                *      
  ****                                                                  *


 
Every head ducked. One of the gas cans finally had enough.
The shed sprouted a fire ball which sent a viscous black 
plume, high into the air.

John and Cap regained their feet and redirected their water
stream onto the shed.




Roy winced. "Oh, well, I've always said I wanted to rip down 
that old shack anyway.." 

Mike chuckled.


  ***          **            **           **          **        *
 *     *      *   *         *    *         * *        *  *        *
 *      *     *    *        *     *        *   *     *   *        *
 ****       *     *        *     *        *     * *     *        *
 *     *       *   *          *   *         *       *      *        *
 *       *      *  *           *  *         *               *       
 *       *         *               *          *                *      
  ****                                                                  *


The shed went again and this time, the telephone pole toppled..
onto the house! It sprayed sparks. Embers fell and caught
on the exposed tar paper on the roof. Stray bits caught on
the naked timbers of the porch's virgin framework. 

The house was threatened. 

"Oh no.." Roy whirled back to the dials, connecting hose 
couplings to their ports rapidly.

"Stoker! DeSoto! On the double!!" Cap hollered.

Then a strange thing happened. No one saw it. A burning bundle 
of roofing tiles cascaded off the top story. It fell and hit the 
ground, splattering sparks. Several of these sparks wafted
into a open basement window.

A colossal explosion ripped through the house's bottom story.
It spewed columns of twisting fire from all of its foundation 
windows.

Every one was stunned. What had happened was a  freak
occurance. The furnace had blown.

"LA, We have a fully involved two story structure fire. Roll
an additional unit to the scene. Advise the Power company
to terminate power to both 65th Avenue and Montezuma
Road!"

##10-4, 51.##

LA's backup call echoed in between the houses all the way
down the block. A four tone sounded over the PA system.

Station 38 got called out.

"Mike, Roy!! Cover that shed!!"

Roy was whipping on his over coat when a Chrysler station
wagon thunked over a curb across the street.
It was Roy's wife. The overcoat dropped.

Joanne DeSoto rushed out of the car. "Oh my god, Roy!"
she ran to him. Roy's son, Michael, followed.

Roy tried to reassure his family, "It's all right honey. You've 
got the kids."

Numbed, Joanne only sobbed. Then, 

"Daddy?" Michael called out.

"Yes, Michael.." Roy answered his eleven year old son.

"Jesse didn't go to the store with us today. She stayed
back to eat lunch over at Carrie's house."

"What?!"

Joanne started nervously. She put a hand to her mouth.
"Roy, where is she?"

He whirled to the house.



"Roy!!!" A man's voice. It was Vince. He was hustling
Carrie ahead of him, holding her arm. "Go on, Carrie.
Tell the fireman what you told me!"

She started bawling.

Cap ran to the little girl. "Listen, honey.. We're not angry.
We just need to know where Jessica went when the fire
started." 

Carrie wouldn't look at Cap, even when he hefted her up
in his arms. 

Furious, Roy looked at her, "Forget about the lying! Please,
tell us!!"

She was crying weakly now, "I didn't mean to start it.. The
match fell..and  and..."

"Where?!!" Vince demanded.

Carrie jumped, She blurted in a rush, "She went to get kitty out!!"


Joanne screamed, "Jesse! My baby..!" She fainted. Roy automatically
caught her and eased her to the ground. He made a small noise of 
pain in the back of his throat, checking her.
"She's all right... Vince!!! Stay with her!"  

Vince nodded, taking Carrie from the captain's grasp.

Standing, Roy faced the house. Cap knew what Roy was going to do.
"No!! DeSoto!!"  He missed catching him.
Roy ran, fast. John noticed him, "Hey.. Where are you going? Wait a 
minute!"

"Jesse's in there!"
"What?!"

"I've got to get her out! Jessica!!
John lunged and he and Roy grappled, "Are you crazy, man. You need a 
mask in there.. An over coat..!"

"Let-- me-- GO!!!" Roy heaved away, breaking free of John's hold doing his
best racquetball court spin. He ran.
John stumbled.
Roy disappeared into the smoke. 
John ran towards the house. "Roy?!!"

Cap shouted aloud, "Gage!  No! Get a mask and belt on.. Moreno,
with him!!"

"But.."

"NOW!!"


Marco and Mike helped Gage and Moreno put on their apparatus,
tying lifelines to them. Johnnie and Joachim tested their mask's 
seal patency. Someone tossed Roy's overcoat to them. Johnnie
snatched it. Marco drenched the two with a fanning inch and 
a half as they entered the house. Greasy black smoke billowed
out into the yard. The heat was oppressive. It pushed out
in palpable waves.

On the street, Mike sat by Joanne's head. Vince crouched
nearby. "Mrs. DeSoto?"
Lying there, she moaned.

Cap flew to the cab. "LA, we've one or more victims
at the scene. Respond with an additional rescue squad
and ambulance."

##10- 4, 51.##

Cap shielded his eyes against the inferno, "Come on!" he 
hissed.

---------------

John stumbled over the front door landing.  He couldn't see.
"Roy?"                 "Jesse!"
     
     "Where are you?!"

The din of the flames was maddening.

---------------
In the kitchen, Roy was blinded. Even on hands and knees, he choked.
       "Jesse!"

He crawled further along, heading towards a certain corner.
    "Jessica! Can you hear me?"

His hands struck a hard object. Pieces flew into his face. The litterbox!!
It would be here that Jessica would try to aim for first. "Jesse!"

He groped, and found a soft body.  Soft fur. The kitten, it was dead.

--------------

John gasped. Behind him, Moreno had reached the limit of his hose's
length. He tapped the back of Gage's jacket. Gage turned. Moreno
made a cut throat gesture.John shouted through his face plate.
"All right.. Cover me!! Grab my lifeline. Give me a lot of slack. I'm
going on ahead!"

Moreno shut off his useless hose He grabbed onto John's rope.
"Ok, go!!"

There was very little flame. The smoke was ink in the air. John 
could feel the fire's heat seeping through the floor boards beneath
his feet.   "Roy?"   "Jesse!"

----------------

Roy reeled, dropping the kitten. He was suddenly dizzy. A hallway
opened to his right. "Jesse!"

The darkness ate up the sound. Then, ''Daddy?!" It was clear,
unmistakable. Roy choked violently. It was getting very hard
to breathe. He hugged the floor. "Jessica?! Where are you?"

No answer. "Jessica!"

"Daddy.....!!"
"I'm coming!"

Roy's mind raced. He needed help. Part of the ceiling creaked 
above him. He faced the kitchen again."Johnnie I found her!! 
She's in h--"

A collapsing timber smashed into his face just then. Roy
tumbled bonelessly.

----------

John froze in midstep. He thought he heard Roy to his left.
"Roy? Where are you?"    He got down onto his hands and 
knees, sweeping the hot carpeting. "Roy??"

He rammed a shoulder painfully into a frame of a door. His
hand sank into tile. The kitchen!  "Roy!!" He didn't hear anything
except the popping of the flames. 

John advanced, running a glove over his visor to clear away 
a film of soot. He saw a dark
form. He reached. Whatever it was pushed and slid away from
him when his glove hit it.
"Aghh!"  He looked. It was a dead animal, a young cat.
"Roy!! Can you hear me!" 

John was near exhaustion. He rested, sucking in huge lungfuls.
How long had he been inside? Two minutes? Ten?  He sank
down to his belly and peered down a hallway. Some fallen
debris blocked his line of sight. He shoved it away. Then he
saw blue on the rust tiles in the smoke. A shirt?!
"Roy!!" He scrambled on all fours. It was him. Pulling off a 
glove, John felt for a carotid. It was there. And moist breath
flowed across his knuckles. John looked up.. "Jessica?!"

The sound fled. Flames crackled, growing louder.

SNAP!!!!  A rumble grew.

The ceiling started raining shards. John threw the coat over
Roy and stretched out over him. He froze, breathing in tight
painful gasps. The vibrations ebbed as quickly as it had come.
John moved.
He jerked twice on his lifeline and began lugging Roy backwards
by the arms. 

Moreno met John at the entrance into the kitchen. The heat grew
intolerable. He helped John hoist Roy onto one shoulder in 
a fireman's carry and picked up his hose. A cooling spray steamed
off their overcoats and hissed onto the floor. "Let's go!" John cried.
"I got him!"

Slowly, they inched their way to the outside.
Finally, John burst out of the smoke with his burden and into
sunlight. Mike and Marco dropped their line to aid him.

"He's breathing!" John shouted "Take him!"  They did.

John ran back into the flames. 

-----

The overcoat slipped off onto the lawn and halfway to
the street. Roy's shirt was only blackened and not burning.
Cap had seen them coming. Already, he had set up the O2
and had spread out a foil blanket on the grass. They laid
Roy on it, wiping away soot and cinders from his nose
and mouth.

Joanne ran from her place on the curb to him. "Roy!"

Moreno hurried back to his place on the front door. He
began to spray it down, watching for signs of Johnnie 
re- emerging with the girl.

Mike placed the respirator mask over Roy's face and
began to demand feed him pure oxygen. Marco
rechecked for a heartbeat. 

"Roy..." Joanne knelt down and began to shake her
husband. "Roy... Where's Jessica?"

Cap pulled her away, "Johnnie's getting her out right
now! You've got to believe me.."

Joanne sagged in his grip and sobbed weakly. Cap let
her go. She sat where she was and reached out, calling
to her husband. "Roy...?"  Marco held a four by four
over the gash on Roy's forehead.  "Roy!" she cried.

"Joanne.." Cap said, "He'll be all right. He just got 
knocked out, that's all. We're just aiding his breathing
with the demand valve until he wakes up. He's ok."

She wept, lowering her head. Marco touched her arm. 
She looked at him. "Do you want to help?" he asked her.
Joanne nodded.

"Here, hold this dressing tight, but don't get into Mike's 
way. O.K."

"Sure.."

Marco moved over. She took over applying pressure to
the head cut. Mike glanced at her, "You're sure 
you're ok? " he asked again, carefully 
holding Roy's head back while he delivered the O2.

"Yes, I am. I just want my Jesse." 
She started weeping.

Marco sprinted back to support Moreno at the main
hose.

-----------------------
Inside, John crawled quickly back to the litter box. He went 
into the hallway beyond it. "Jesse!"

Five doors displayed themselves.He kicked in the first one. 
It was the bathroom. "Jessica?!" 

No answer.

Randomly, he passed by three doors tried the one on the end.
It banged open revealing a child's room. Dolls!
"Jesse! Can you hear me?!!"

                                   "here!"
 
Muffled. It came from the closet. John whirled and tried the doors.
They were locked. "Jessica !  It's Uncle Johnnie ! Get up! Open 
the doors."   John took off his mask and unbuttoned his overcoat.
The door cracked open a little bit. John kicked it ajar. Jesse 
coughed. She was on her hands and knees. "Mommy! I 
want my mommy!!" She stumbled.. 

John caught her, "I got ya..." He wrapped her with him, inside
of his overcoat. He stood, carrying her. "Here. Put this on
your face..." He gave her his mask. She held it.
"Breathe in!"

John put his helmet back on.  He found the path leading to the outside.
He tugged on his line, coughing.

The ceiling spat sections free around them. John choked, running, 
covering the girl's head with an arm. 

They got out of the house..


----------------------
Moreno and Marco rose to help. "She's all right.. I got her.."
He waved them away.  The two fireman remained behind.

John sat Jesse down over by the silver blanket. She ran to her
mom. Joanned enveloped her inside a big huge. "Jessica..My 
girl. Mommy's so happy to see you!"

"Mommy, the kitty's dead.." she trilled.
Then Joanne simply cried over her.

-----------------------

John shed all of his apparatus. "Mike?"

"He's coming around." 

Roy half moaned, half out. He didn't cough.

John looked at the little girl and turned her face
in his hand. Her skin was very dirty, but not burned. Her
crying attested to clear lungs. She was stable.

"Cap! Could you get the biphone and set it up?"

"Sure thing, pal." 

Sirens wailed and engine 38 skidded in front of the house.
More hoses were stretched. Vince helped Cap carry over
the other gear.

A new voice cried out; a child's. "Mom?"
Joanne turned. Michael peered fearfully out from around
the corner of the engine. "Michael!!" Joanne held out
her arms to her son. 
The boy hesitated when he saw his father lying so still.
Joanne understood at once. "It's all right. They're taking
good care of him. Daddy's going to be ok." she reached
out again.  Michael ran to her, crying. Joanne hugged
both of her children tightly to her.

------------------

John didn't notice them. He got out his penlight and checked
out Roy's eyes. "Roy? Can you hear me?" Roy remained unmoving.
"He's out again."   
John glanced at Mike, "Is he pulling any air at all?"

"About one every three."
Johnnie nodded, taking a BP. "Marco, could you get his actual
respiration rate and his pulse?"

"Yep."

John pulled off his stethoscope and slid it around his neck. He picked
up the bi-phone. "Rampart, this is squad 51, do you read?"

Dr. Early clicked on, "Go ahead, 51."

"Rampart, I've two victims of a wooden structure fire. Victim one's
an unconscious Code I, Victim's two's a little child. She's about
five or six year's of age. Conscious and alert....."

At the hospital, Dix bit her lip.."A code I?  A downed fireman!"
Early frowned.
"51, Go ahead on victim #1."

"Rampart, ah, Victim one's Roy DeSoto. He's unconscious due to a blow
to the head. He's also suffering from moderate smoke inhalation. He's
got a weak breathing response.. We're giving him fifteen liters of O2
via positive pressure/ assisting. He has responded somewhat to
ventilations. There's a large hematoma and laceration on his forehead.
Pupils are equal and reactive."

##51, What are his vitals?##

John looked to his notepad, reading what both he and Marco had written
down. "Vitals are " BP 100/74, Pulse 94, Respirations unassisted are at
6 per minute. Request permission to start an IV."

##Go ahead, 51. Start an IV of 500 ml D5W TKO. Give him   .5 
1/10,000 mg epinephren IV push. Let's see if he'll take an interest
in breathing on his own.##

"Ten four, Rampart, Victim Two appears to be very frightened but not
at all shocky. No burns are evident. Do you want a set of vitals?"

##51, How's she perfusing?##

John looked down at Jesse who was still gripping her mom tightly in an
embrace. "She's crying strongly, without coughing, Rampart, without
distress."

##51, Supervise Victim two for any changes in respiratory status and
use 4 liters of O2 when necessary. I want a new set of vitals on
Victim one in five minutes. Transport both victims as soon as possible.##

"10-4, Rampart. IV. D5W TKO with .5 1/10,000 mg epinephren IV Push,
Victim one. Supervise pulmonary status, use four liters O2  on symptoms,
Victim two. Vitals to follow."

##Standing by, 51##

John tore open an IV package and box of tubing. He strung it and got
a line in and running. He handed the bag to Vince.

He drew out an epinephren syringe. He looked to Mike. "Watch his pulse
when this goes in."

Stoker nodded.

John injected the drug slowly into the IV port. A minute passed.

Mike spoke up, "I'm getting some arrythmias."

John checked Roy's carotid.  "He's fine. A few odd beats with epi's
ok."

Roy started coughing. Mike removed the mask. 

Joanne reached out. "Roy?!" Her husband relaxed again and became
still. Mike replaced the mask.

She looked up, worried, at Gage. John noticed her concern. He shrugged,
"He's thinking about it.."

Joanne gave  teary smile and a small laugh. She wiped away her running 
mascara.

Roy began breathing regularly.

------

John felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Jessica. "What's wrong honey?"

"My throat hurts and my mouth is all dry.." 

John noticed the child's breaths had become a shade shallower 
and labored. "Trouble getting air?"

"Umm hmm.."

"OK. I'm going to give you some oxygen through a tube in your nose.
It will get rid of that stuffyness you're feeling, all right?"

Jesse nodded.

John adjusted a nasal cannula around her head and brushed some 
hair out of her eyes.

"Will this make me all better?"

"Sure will. Now you go sit down by your mother, ok?" He poked her
in the nose.. She giggled and nestled back into her mother's arms.

The radio crackled.  ##51, what's the status on Victim #1?##

John picked up the receiver. "Rampart, Victim One's still unconsc--"

Roy sat involuntarily, sitting bolt upright, upsetting Mike's hands with the O2
mask. "Jesse!!"

John and Cap flew at him, trying to restrain him before the IV was torn
loose. "Roy... Roy...!" John yelled. "You're out and on the street. Take 
it easy.. Jessica's right here!!"

Roy struggled, still muzzy.

-----------

Early was frantic, "51, do you read? Over?" It went ignored.

John and the others  really had their hands full. "Roy! You'll tear out
your IV! For Pete's sake... Do you want to scare her?"

The wild look on Roy's eyes faded and he slumped back down. Mike
caught his head, so he wouldn't bang in on the ground. Roy's breath
caught, he choked hard.. "Wha??" He voice cracked. Then he turned 
his head and saw his daughter in front of him. "Jesse?" 

She ran to him. 

John rocked back on his heels running a hand through his hair, "It's
about time you woke up.."


Joanne chortled.

John angled an ear, he heard jarbles or something by his
knees. "Ooops.!" He snatched up the landline "Ah, Rampart,
Victim One's now breathing on his own. C-Color's returning
rapidly. He moves about voluntarily without any signs of 
impairment."

"I'll say..." Cap said rubbing out a bruise he got in
Roy's struggle to consciousness.

John started to laugh and he couldn't stop.

The landline to Rampart was strangely silent through
the open line.

Then Dix's and Joe's laughter joined in.

-------------

  END

-------------

 



