This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Seventeen

17.  That Latin Flair Season Two - Episode 17
 
Short summary-
A vision leaves Marco circumspect around the holidays 
and inspires Roy and Johnny to do charity work for his church group.


****WARNING****  
 
The long summary to come is very story spoiling and will take
away plot surprises if you read it now before reading the longer
story below it.

Decide now if you want to read this episode's detailed summary before doing so.

 


 

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Long Summary-
Around the holidays, Station 51 responds to a car roll over near
the L.A. River bed. They discover a passenger pinned under
power wires and a missing ejected driver. While attempting to
free the trapped man, Marco Lopez suffers an electrical shock
which accelerates his heart dangerously. Roy and Johnny are forced
to cardiovert him to prevent heart arrest. Lopez experiences a life
after death vision of his dead father during the cardioversion and it
changes him emotionally. The gang finds the second man's body
in the riverbed. A week later, the gang helps the healing Marco aid
a soup kitchen. Teenagers start a fire there and Roy and Johnny mount
multiple rescues of the children and volunteers trapped inside the fast
spreading grease fire. Chet's hands are burned getting a victim out.
Later, Squad 51 responds to a finger hammered fainted man and 
bail out a dog pinned treed postman. Dixie offers to cook the gang 
Christmas dinner at the station and pulls a mistletoe joke on Roy and 
Johnny. At an L.A. Headquarters New Year's Eve party, Marco talks
about his life after death experience with a boy who very nearly suffered
the same thing during the soup kitchen fire and finds solace.


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The Story Unfolds...

Season Two, Episode Seventeen..

 §§   That Latin Flair   §§
 
Debut Launch: December 1st 2004.

 
*********************************************************************
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   §§

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