
This is a text version of the original still airing imaged, music soundtracked story.

Emergency Theater Live, Episode Eight

8.   The Promise Season One- Episode  8
 
Short summary-
What matters most is what everybody wants. Johnny Gage 
learns the power of a promise to Roy when a water tower 
collapse traps them both underwater.



****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.

 


 

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.




Long Summary-
Johnny discovers Roy hiding a chest cold and treats him around
Cap at the station. Roy tries to hide his wife's third pregnancy.
The gang answers a truck crash hazardous materials call involving
freon and a search for a missing van of teenagers. A water tower
falls on Roy and Johnny trapping them underwater. An arrested girl 
Gage finds and abandons on scene for safety reasons turns out to 
be Dr. Morton's sister. Roy finds the wife and daughter of Johnny's 
deceased best friend in the heart of the disaster. Gage and Roy
make a pact to watch out for each other in a solemn promise. Johnny
learns Morton is pursuing a lawsuit for malpractice over his familial
loss. Engine 51 responds to a stabbing only to find Roy's wife in jeopardy.
Craig Brice responds to assist medically in his station's squad.
Gage writes a resignation letter and the gang goes through heroics to
rescue it from the post office network when he changes his mind.


.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Story Unfolds...

Season One, Episode Eight..  
      
The Promise
 
Debut Launch: 15 May 2003.
 
****************************************
From : "Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Working Like a Dog..  
Date : Thu, 22 May 2003 23:00:35 +0000  
   
 
It was nine o'clock.

Johnny Gage flew into the locker room whistling up
a storm. He was happy. He saw his partner, still
carefully unfolding his uniform socks like he usually
did each morning. He was sitting on the bench with 
his back to him and hadn't yet noticed Johnny's
arrival.

Gage he couldn't resist playing shave and a haircut 
over Roy's upper back and ribcage with a few well
placed finger drums in areas that sounded off musically.
On the last two notes of 'six pence,' Roy's chest 
echoes sounded off pitch sour and they made the blond 
haired paramedic cough in response. Johnny frowned.
"Ooo, Roy. You still got that bad cold? You sound
covered in your left lung, lower quadrant."

Roy just looked up and rolled his eyes. "It's not
pneumonia, just a little smoke inhalation from
that fire two days ago. You know as well as I do 
that I've been cleared for duty. And it's not a bad
cold. Bad colds on me always hit me in the sinuses, 
not my chest. You don't need to paramedic me to 
death over it. I always know how I'm doing by how 
I feel. And besides I sound a little bubbly, Dr. Early
tells me, because I'm a fireman." he grinned.

"Not like this.." Johnny said, thumping over Roy's
back once again over the tattle tailing area with
more raps. He dropped his hands into a tickling mode,
attacking his partner's waist on both sides. That made 
Roy cough liquidly when he laughed as he shifted ticklishly
away to avoid him. It soon set off a jag that got fairly
violent. "Uh, huh.. Not sitting in your chest, eh?"
Gage said challengingly with his hands angled on 
his hips. "I'll just bet this is bronchitis setting in. 
I can almost hear the precursors of rales from here, 
even bare eared."

"So now you're my self appointed doctor, too?"
Roy smirked, spitting up some phlegm into a tissue
that he produced out of his shirt pocket. He balled
it up and threw it away into a waste bucket nearby.

"No, I'm not your doctor. Just being a lookout." he
said seriously, still thinking about what he had
found on his friend.

"Yeah, well. I'll do anything to stop you from
attacking me with your trademark tickle assessment. 
You know I hate that. Took forever to get the kids
to stop doing it and something tells me you'll be even
harder to train to break ya of the habit." He said frankly,
tying his shoes neatly. "I can't miss another day of work 
since I got major bills to pay. Joanne's amniocentesis tests
alone were three hundred forty dollars. Tell you what, I'll 
work some O2 off the resuscitator before breakfast until 
the congestion eases to where you want it. Will that 
make you feel better?" he grinned in good natured 
compliance. 

John clapped his hands in celebrative success.
"Sure would, Pally. Don't wanna have to report ya to 
Cap trying to sneak to work early, still afflicted with 
water lung. Just as long as I can follow up afterwards
with a stethoscope for a listening or two." he added, 
putting on a winning smile when Roy rolled his eyes at 
the added black mail. "We can sneak the apparatus into 
the bunk room so Cap won't hear you using it. I'll tell 
him you... " Johnny said hunting for an excuse..
"...cut yourself shaving or something."

Roy chuckled. "That explains why I'll be late for
breakfast. What's your excuse?"

"Me? " Johnny gestured expansively. "Well, you know
how I always break my shoelaces. I do believe I broke 
both of them this morning, one right after the other for
trying to dress too fast yet again." he lied.

Roy got up from the bench as he threw on his shirt
and left through the door to go make his bunk up
for the day. "Sounds good." 

"Don't tuck your uniform in until we're through."
Johnny shouted after him. "I'll be right there!"

"Yes, mother.." DeSoto teased as he walked past 
Chet, who was working out with barbells in front 
of the engine on a mat. 

Kelly stopped when he overheard Johnny's comment.
Then he grinned when he figured it out. "Another
smoky chest cover up?"

"Must be to Johnny. I feel fine." Roy complained.
"So I'll play along. Don't want his sticking like a tick
syndrome to last all day."

"Yeah, know what you mean. I feel sorry for all the
victims you guys treat in the field. They have to put
up with Gage for the duration, when they're not
feeling too hot to boot." Chet puffed, beginning
another set of arm lifts from his stomach to his
chin.

Roy smirked in quiet amusement at Kelly's unique
view of paramedics. "They seem to get better faster
if I let him be the primary assessor. Why else do you 
think I'm always starting the IV's?"

Chet just shuddered. "Remind me to never get hurt
or sick when Gage's on duty, ok? That scenario's
just too unpleasant to even contemplate." he kidded.

"Ditto.." Roy said moving into the sleeping
room. "It's gonna take me all day to convince
him that I'm not infectious here." his voice
admitted, wafting out of the doors before they 
closed off his echoing reply.

Gage immediately stopped whistling as
he entered the vehicle bay and he
tip toed to the squad's side compartment
to open it. Then he reached inside after 
seeing the coast was clear. He noticed Chet
working out nearby, breathing heavily with effort
under the barbells in a difficult butterfly exercise.
"Kelly, you're blind for thirty seconds.." he
said without preamble.

"As a bat.." Kelly said, straight faced and
cooperative. "I'll even deflect Cap if we
have to rapid stow it if a call goes out."

Gage double glanced in surprise but said
 "..'kay.." to instantly cover it. ::How the heck
did Chet figure that out so fast..:: he thought.
Then he shrugged. ::I can live with Kelly
being no obstacle for once. Something tells
me I'd better take advantage of it.::
"Let me know where they are on cooking,
would ya?"

"I'll be the cleverest man alive." Chet promised.

Johnny gingerly lifted out the O2 and jammed a 
burn blanket packet or two against the usually 
clangy oxygen cylinder so he could wheel it into 
the bunk room for Roy to use. Another hand, cracked
open the trauma kit where it sat in the compartment
rack, and he reached in and groped around until
he found the balled up stethoscope by feel alone.
Two seconds later, the squad was resealed up
and Gage disappeared into the depths of the
bunk room after Roy.

Kelly kept one ear on the kitchen door for
sounds of activity. He heard Stoker throw a
few strips of bacon on the counter top fryer.
"My.. that bacon smells good. Gimme six
Stoker. I'm really working up an appetite out
here.." He shouted to the gang gathered in
the kitchen. "So's Johnny and Roy. They'll
be right in to butter the toast.."

Johnny winced at Chet's lack of subtleness
and cringed. ::Thank goodness, Cap doesn't
get scheme sharp until he has his coffee and
I'm not smelling any of that brewing yet.::
"Here.. Roy.." he hissed in a whisper, parking
the O2 where Roy was leaning over making his
bed up with neat hospital corners. "Better hurry.
Kelly says the bacon's on."

Roy turned and surprised his partner when he
had a still snoozing Bonnie draped over his
forearm. "Maybe we outta use some of that 02
on her." he joked. "Even bacon's not rousing her 
outta her sleep this morning. Found her snoring
away on my pillow."

"I'm not surprised. She must've chased after
hundreds of Kelly's off target soft ball pitches 
in the yard yesterday while we practiced."
Johnny chuckled, taking the sleeping Yorkie
from Roy so he could begin his self treatment
off the mask.

Roy took a pull off the O2, coughing when he
felt the cool oxygen work its way down through
the raspy tight spots in his left lung. "About time
you guys started in. The tournament's next week."

Johnny scoffed and not mildly. "We woulda started
sooner if you hadn't changed your mind about joining
the team."

Roy sucked in another breathful of oxygen and coughed
to force it out again. "You know I couldn't be a part
of the games this year. Both kids are entering 
the little leagues. I've got games of my own to go
to."

John reconsidered as he stroked the sleeping
Bonnie's head and straightened the red ribbon
tied on a lock there. "I see your point. They come
first." he said gently. He adjusted Bonnie's head
on his arm so her loud snoring eased off into
light sighs and he wandered over to the desk
to give her a good brushing over with her wire
brush. "I might as well get her cared for, too,
while I can still get away with it." he said.

Roy laughed. "Smart move, doing it now while
she's still dead to the world. Didn't she almost
take off your finger at the second knuckle
last time you tried to brush her?"

Johnny set shushing fingers over his lips
as he sat down on Roy's bed to work her over
cautiously like a barber with a barely contained 
powder keg. "Just keep busy over there." Gage 
whispered. "I'm watching ya closely. Breathe in 
deeper, you're not getting enough alveolially." he 
snapped in irritation that was completely faked.

DeSoto complied with drawing in lungfuls so big, 
that his ribs cracked in protest, just to tease Gage. 

Johnny's mock stern expression likewise shattered
into a bubbling look of you-got-me back.

Laughing to himself, Roy thought. ::Some day, 
Junior.. You're going to be an absolutely wonderful
father. I'll make sure to give you plenty of contact
with the kids so you can hone those skills even
more.::

Bonnie remained oblivious to Johnny's
ministrations where she lay like a rag doll
on her back across the beige bedspread, still 
snoring softly.

-------------------------------------------------------

Mike Stoker barely glanced up from his
cooking when another odd breakfast comment 
from Kelly out in the bay floated in to him. "Man, 
is he being a little too obvious or what?" he 
whispered to Marco, who was arranging fruit into 
a wooden bowl for the table.

"Yeah.." Lopez agreed. "I wonder what Gage and
DeSoto are up to."

They both shot glances at Cap, who remained
unaware of anything out of the ordinary as he 
opened the morning mail while he watched the 
daily morning show on the television set. He cut his 
finger on the edge of an envelope and cursed until 
Stoker whistled aloud to get his attention. 

Mike tossed the metal envelope opener Hank had 
left on the table earlier, back over through the air to 
him. 

"Thanks, pal. I'll get a bandaid for this later."
Captain Stanley continued to pour over the bills
while Marco and Stoker kept nervously watching
the door for the tardy Roy and Johnny.

------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.You're back a 
day early because of an amniocentesis bill?" 
Johnny asked belatedly. 

Roy nodded reluctantly. Shy.

"You mean to tell me you two are expecting again 
and you didn't bother to tell any of us about it?"

Roy pulled away the O2 mask sheepishly. "What's
to tell? I-I..I mean, a new baby on the way isn't all
that important an event to even share here
at work. Especially with this being our third."

"Whatdiya mean not important, Roy? You're forgetting
that we all didn't know ya yet when your other two kids
were born. Thanks for excluding us from the news,
buddy. Makes us feel real welcome and chummy here."
Johnny complained.

Roy played with the resuscitator in his hands. "Sorry.
Didn't think you, or any of the guys would be interested 
in family matters."

Johnny scoffed as he put away Bonnie's brush and
began the long task of untangling her head ribbon
and rubber band to replace them with a brand new 
red one, all without disturbing her rest. 
"How can we not be interested in your life, Roy? 
We know about Marco's sweet little enchilada cooking
mother. And Chet's prankster sister and Cap's nagging
wife..."

To each, Roy nodded honestly. 

But then Gage spoke again. "And and..and you 
guys even get to hear all about my dates I go on 
every week."

Roy didn't say out loud what he was thinking.
::Yeah, we sure do. Intimate details of all fifteen 
crash and burns logged to date in Johnny's
little black book. ::  What he actually said out
loud was. "Didn't think you wanted to know
about things like that. The pregnancy with new baby
thing's kinda boring to anyone who's not married."

"So.. What's that got to do with anything? So
what if Stoker, Marco, me and Chet are still
swinging single. We can still care about our crewmates
AND their wives. Geesh. Give us the benefit of
a doubt. We're friends, aren't we?"

"I get constantly reminded of that." DeSoto
quipped, hefting up the flowing O2 mask he still
had in his hands.

"So tell us all about how Joanne and the baby
are doing over breakfast when we're through here."
he suggested.. " or I'm gonna break the good news 
FOR ya." Gage said, putting on his stethoscope. 
"Now lean over with your elbows on your knees
and fold your T shirt up. I'm gonna listen to ya 
while you're taking that in some more."

Roy went through the whole rigmorale, breathing
when ordered and holding his breath too, as Johnny 
got aural information of how his left lung was faring 
under the cleansing onslaught of the O2 treatment.

Another minute went by with an edge of dizzyness 
setting in from the rich air intake, when Johnny 
announced. "Ok, you're through. That crackling's gone 
for now. We'll do this same thing tonight before lights
out and maybe post rescue once more if we have to go 
into a fire today." he said in full medical mode.

"If you say so. Bye.." Roy said, tossing down the mask.
He scrubbed Bonnie's sleeping head once and
made haste for the kitchen and the food that
was a becoming a serious siren's call in his nostrils.

"Hey! Aren't you gonna help me clean up here?"
Johnny protested, indicating Bonnie's hairy brush,
abandoned old ribbon and the O2 apparatus.

"Nope."

----------------------------------------------------------------
Roy was halfway through emptying 
his plate when Johnny ambled in distractedly for
his own morning meal.

Marco and Stoker immediately began motions of drawing
rings around their necks at Gage and looking urgent.

Roy frowned, not immediately catching on and his
active chewing slowed.

His crewmates broke off their antics immediately 
when Cap came over from the rec side of the room 
to sit down in his customary chair by the station wall 
phone. 

Johnny was retrieving his eggs eagerly from
the pan on the stove, so he missed all the warning
hints from the rest of the gang. Roy missed them, 
too, still intent on smothering the hunger pains
in his stomach that had been sharpened by his
use of the O2.

It was too late when Roy finally noticed what Marco
and Stoker and Chet had been frantically hinting 
about.

Cap didn't even blink when his eyes caught it.
He glanced down again to fill his empty plate. 
"Nice stethoscope round your neck there, Johnny. 
Just be sure to have whoever it is you saw just now, 
run by Rampart on your next resupply for a doctor's 
check up to confirm what you ruled in or out."

"Uh," Johnny stammered. He hastily pulled off the
tattling device and coiled it up onto the table guiltily.
"Yessir.."

"And next time. I wanna know about it, too. First,
before anyone else when you decide to examine
someone for signs of trouble."

Johnny nodded, rendered mute with instant remorse.

Roy admitted. "He was looking at me, Cap. 
Tamped lung. We've just cleared it out with O2."

Johnny and Chet and Marco and Stoker all glared
at Roy for blowing their carefully crafted cover.

Cap just kept on chewing. "Glad we got one honest
fireman here this morning. Gage you got the can 
detail later for hiding him from me."

"Aw, Cap.." Roy immediately protested. "It's not
his fault. I just couldn't stay home another day
without pay. My sick leave was all used up when I 
got electrocuted a month ago while that trainee was 
here. If you punish anyone, punish me. It's my fault
for not levelling with ya on the phone last night
when ya called on how I was doing."

"Ok. You got mop detail. Vehicle AND kitchen floors.
And the next time you stifle a physical symptom from
me or Gage, you'll get a formal reprimand, is that
clear?" Cap said.

"Y-Yes sir.." DeSoto nodded, not daring to chew.

"Last thing I need is a weakness in the man power 
chain I don't know about, Roy. I thought you guys knew
well enough to tell me ahead of time whenever 
someone's not feeling one hundred percent ship 
shape so I can make plans for safety to cover for ya."

"Sorry, Cap. I was thinking about my paycheck
and not my own well being for a bit there."

"Oh... New baby on the way, eh?" Cap said, 
immediately dropping his disciplinarian air.

All the guys around the table just about choked
on their eggs.

"What? Why did ya keep us in the dark about it?"
"Roy, that's terrific.."
"Wow.. number three."
"What do ya want this time? A boy or girl?"

Roy held up defensive hands to those
upset by not finding out sooner. "I- I- I just
didn't think anyone would be interested,
that's all, so pipe down and stop looking like
I kept a secret from ya. Cap. How did you know
we were pregnant here?"

"I did the same hiding symptoms stunt with
my captain when I had pregnancy check up
bills to pay too. Only I tried to hide a sore
shoulder and not a phlegmy chest. How IS 
he doing, Gage? Give it to me straight."
Hank said, glaring at Johnny, piercingly
changing the subject.

"Just fine, Cap." Johnny mewed. "Now.."
he glared at Roy.

DeSoto threw up his hands. "Glad 
we're so chummy. I'm fine. Joanne's
fine. Baby number three's fine. So can
we get back to eating now that the
hard talk and the small talk's over? 
I'm starving here."

Cap's eyebrows rose in amusement.
"Don't let me stop ya.."

Arff!  barked Bonnie as she arrowed into
the kitchen after the scent of bacon.

Cap noticed her new hairdo. "Ohmyg*d. Gage..
Pigtails? She looks like one of the Dale
Singers from Hee Haw.."

"Well... I had to make my move while
she was still out. I was rushing a little.
Had to watch her and Roy, too. You can
always try and cut em off while she's eating
but I don't think you'll get anything by her
now that she's conscious. Heh."

"I didn't need watching.." Roy complained.

"Yes you did.." Cap and Gage said together.
They both eyeballed each other and Johnny
cleared his throat uncomfortably, despite
of the fact that Cap's and his thoughts about 
Roy's health status being identical.

Right then, full response tones rippled
out of the overhead speaker.

"Saved by the bell.." Gage mumbled,
heading for the door. He was jogging for
the garage full tilt when Bonnie barked 
to remind him to pick up something he had 
forgotten.

Johnny skidded back to his seat long
enough to grab an armful of fruit to
hand out to the guys and his bundled
stethoscope.

Cap's authoritative voice rang out.
"Roy, if this is a fire call, you're
on the engine pumps. Stoker'll take
your place until you're needed with
any medical emergencies."

DeSoto sighed and just nodded.
But his humor was intact. "Does
this mean I'll get the engineer's rate
of pay?"

"Funny man.." Hank hollered back from
the alcove as he wrote down the response
call's address and type. "I'll see what
I can swing for you.."

The gang fell silent as they geared up
into turncoats and piled into the engine
and squad for the roll out as Sam outlined
details of the current soon to be reality run.

## Station 14, Battalion 9, Station 8, Station 51.
Foam Truck 127, Battalion 14. Truck overturn
and structure collapse. Pacific Coast Highway
and Ventura Freeway. PCH and Ventura Freeway.
Mile Marker 16. FD on scene reports freon is
involved. Timeout 09:23.##

"Oh, great.." Cap groaned sarcastically
when he heard what chemical had been spilled. 
The run would be a major nightmare.

"Station 51, KMG 365.." Hank acknowledged
on the radio before hanging it up again onto
its spigot. "Ok, gang. You heard the man. Let's roll. 
Get ready to gear up full SCBA and chem suits. 
No doubt Haz Mat's gonna be meeting us there."

He caught one of the oranges Gage threw at
him to eat on the way and three more for
Chet, Stoker and Lopez. He began peeling
Mike's to give to him piece by piece while
he drove so none of them would have to
go tackle a major rescue while hungry.

----------------------------------------------------------

When Station 51 arrived on scene, their jaws
literally slacked opened. They couldn't believe
what their eyes were telling them.

One look explained it all. A huge storage
tower, toppled from a roadside construction
site had landed on top of the freeway.

One of the worst motorist reactions Cap
and the gang could see had been from a 
semi driver, whose rig skidded forty five to 
the right angle and had impacted the concrete 
viaduct crossing over the PCH. 

That bridge was now partially collapsed
on top of the tower and truck. Luckily, only
three cars were involved, but many many
construction personnel were either DOA
or only slightly injured.

It looked like a triage area was only just
starting. Hank spied Batallion 14, set up a 
safe distance away from the chemical smoking
collapse scene. He was uncharacteristically
in full SCBA and suit gear carrying a plastic
wrapped HT in one hand. He was issuing commands
from his car's mic in the other over the loud
horn and radio frequency to all the arriving
units.

##Station 51. Approach upwind to the
north side. Use the right most emergency lane.
CHP reports it's been cleared of fatalities. A 
construction site manager is claiming they have 
one of their men missing. See if you can locate 
that victim, then assist Truck 127 in laying down 
a protective foam over that semitrailer. The driver
reports it's carrying liquid freon. We're still 
determining what other chemicals were stored 
in the tower. Stay clear of all visible spills and 
keep your air masks on at all times. Move any 
effected victims one half mile clear before 
rendering aid. Think of yourselves first. This
is a Hazardous Triage Priority Protocol Scene.##

##Station 51, 10-4, Battalion 14.## Hank replied.

Captain Stanley issued secondary commands to 
his engine crew and squad paramedics. Soon, 
they were all masked and roped and hose geared, 
walking cautiously, deep into the frightening grip of 
a full fledged, highly dangerous disaster scene.

Chet's face was devoid of any light hearted
mischief and he was all working firefighter in a way
that rivalled Stoker's usual quiet professionalism.

Roy began to wish he had stayed at home with
Joanne's late first trimester nausea.

Soon something happened that got Roy 
and Johnny's and Marco's immediate attention.

A man was........
-------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Bonnie with a red ribbon.

Photo : Roy and Johnny listen by the ER drugcase.

Photo : A water tower down in a parking lot.

Photo : An overturned semi under a highway bridge.

Photo : Johnny and Roy with tanks on.
 
********************************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject : In Deep  
Date : Mon, 30 Jun 2003 22:00:43 +0400  
   
 
Tandem post with Leoseven@msn.com "John Allen" and 
Killashandrarey@hotmail.com "Cassidy Meyers" via email 
tennis. 

Acknowledgements to P. Keiper NREMT for Freon Consult 
in the Theater Files and Symptomology. 
 
 
 .......staggering toward them, from about 50 yards away 
obviously dazed and confused. 

Just as Roy and Johnny started jogging 
over to the injured man, a call came over the HT. 

##Engine 51 to HT 51. Marco, this is Cap. I need 
you with me.."## 

"10-4 Cap, I'm gum on your shoe." Marco replied. 

Lopez and the sunlit glow of his yellow bottle disappeared 
deeper into the tangle of fallen metal struts under 
the rising debris dust cloud surrounding them. 

Johnny looked at Roy, shaking his head, and 
gave him a look as if to say 'where does he get 
these expressions?' as they jogged over to 
the disoriented man. 

Roy and Johnny reached the stricken man just in 
time to each grab an arm to keep him from 
falling down backwards, as he blacked out. 

"Whoa there, we gotcha." Johnny reassured him, 
shouting through his SCBA and facemask. Roy 
and Johnny cradled his upper body and head 
deftly. The two fire fighters exchanged a look in 
mutual recognition that they had once again been 
in the right place at just the right time but as quickly, 
their expressions died away into those of fear. 

A nearby high pitched hissing made Gage and DeSoto 
break out into a sweat. "Let's get him outta here." 
Roy said urgently. 

Johnny gave a head nod of silent agreement and 
they began moving with the man to a far safer, 
upwind location. Other firemen joined them from 
the road in carrying him to a hastily erected triage 
location as they hurried out of the immediate area. 

They neared the squad and the engine and 
Cap came jogging over to them. 

"Johnny, Roy. Where'd you find this man?" Cap 
inquired with concern, shouting through his 
air mask. 

"He just appeared about a 150 yards back that 
way." Roy replied, motioning with his head over 
to the spot where they had seen him first. 

"I'll just bet he's our missing construction crewman. 
Let me know when and if he regains consciousness. 
He might be able to clear up matters faster than I 
can." Cap ordered. 

"Sure thing, Cap." Roy replied as they laid the man 
down on a tarp that had been placed on the dirt 
for them by Marco. Roy proceeded to check the 
limp man's vitals and breathing status 
while Johnny went to grab the gear. 

Cap clicked on his HT. "Engine 51 to L.A." 

##Go ahead 51.## 

"On report of a missing construction worker, 
we have located one male, alive, but unconscious. 
Please advise construction foreman and get a 
description so we can verify that we have their 
man, over." Hank shouted through his SCBA. 

## 10-4, Engine 51, we copy your advisement 
and will transmit description as soon as we have 
it.## 

"Copy L.A."  Through somewhat squinted eyes, Captain 
Hank Stanley surveyed the scene and shook his head. 
Teams of firefighters waited at the edge of the accident 
scene while Hazmat crews and trucks swarmed over 
the tangle of twisted tower and truck, searching for other 
hot spots and freon sources. He saw one hazmat team 
gesture quickly for a hose team to wash down a pile of 
seagreen canisters that had tumbled out of 
the tipped over semi. Almost immediately he saw 
a curt double hand signal go out about two fatalities they 
had located by the truck and Hank felt a thrill of horror 
shoot through him even though he couldn't see anything 
from where he stood. "What a mess." he expressed with 
noted dismay and a hint of frustration.. 


Roy and Johnny were busy assessing the fallen 
man thought to be their missing worker. 

"Johnny, Roy? How is our mystery man doing?" 
Cap asked, looking away from the involved 
overpass and viaduct and back towards his men. 

Just then the man on the tarp began to regain 
consciousness where he lay on his side. 

"Sir, can you hear me?" Johnny asked as he caught the 
man's head in his gloves as he groggily rolled over 
onto his back. 

The man coughed and gasped for air as he awoke. 
"Y-" *cough* "Yes." replied the man. "Wh-?" 
he frowned at the sight of fully masked firemen 
kneeling over him. 

Roy spoke up. "Do you remember what happened 
to you? " 

"uhh-hg.." their victim moaned. 

"Sir, we need to know if anyone else was with you. 
Where were you? We've a site boss looking for a 
lost employee." Johnny said, leaning over into 
the man's face, holding his shoulders down so 
he couldn't rise. 

"And we have to find him A.S.A.P." DeSoto added.

Something of Roy's urgency communicated to 
the man and he spoke again, but in a slow slur. 
"I-I was standing over by the water tower, 
over there." the man said confusedly in his 
half out state. 

Johnny grabbed an O2 mask from a resuscitator tank 
a backup fireman in a hazmat suit had left by them 
only moments ago. He strung it, and set it around the 
man's head. "Sir, this oxygen'll help you out a lot. Just 
try to breathe this in evenly. Not too fast." 

The distressed man nodded, gripping the mask eagerly 
in trembling fingers and he struggled to breathe calmly. 

Gage shook his head and mumbled to himself. "Come on, 
wake up." Johnny looked up at Roy and tried a different 
way to get their badly needed information. "Sir, we know 
you're still groggy but we have to find out more about 
what happened around you. Others' safety may depend 
on it. What were you doing when the accident happened?" 

Still lying on his back, the man pointed wearily 
toward the place where Johnny and Roy had first 
seen him appear. But he didn't speak. He began to 
sag into a stupor. 

Gage grabbed a fold of skin on the man's neck and pinched 
firmly. "Hey,...Sir, were there any other people near you 
when the  tower fell?" asked Johnny loudly. 

The pain roused the man. "No. *Cough* I was alone. 
By a construction trailer?" he puzzled, his memory 
proving unclear. 

Roy set a glove on the man's shoulder. 
"Ok, just try to relax. We're paramedics with the Los 
Angeles County Fire Department. We're gonna check you 
out to make sure you're ok, all right?" 

The oxygen was doing its job and the man was 
into better color and mental clarity. This time, the 
nod of understanding came sooner. 

Roy began. "Sir, do you still feel light headed or 
dizzy?" Johnny asked. 

The bigger, heavily dusted man coughed. 
"Yeah, a little.  It was hard to breathe for a 
few minutes there. That gas was really strong." 

"Freon gas?" Johnny asked. 

The gasping man nodded. "Don't know what 
it's called. Just, whatever they were hauling on that 
truck!" he said, getting slightly agitated. 

"Easy.." Johnny said through his mask. "It's ok, you're 
away from there. Just take it easy." 

The man visibly fought being body uncomfortable and 
with effort, began to quell his chemical induced anger. 
Soon, he cooperated with his two rescuers even though 
it remained difficult for him to focus.  "Ugghh... smelled like 
ether. Nasty stuff." replied their victim and he began to 
shiver. 

Gage said. "Ok, we'll get you cleaned off and warmed 
up real soon. Just hang on. I'm gonna get a blood 
pressure off your arm here, all right?" 

The restless man nodded and stopped thrashing his 
limbs. "Fine. Just hurry up, mister. I feel like crap." 

Roy picked up the biophone and shouted loud 
enough to be heard through his breathing apparatus. 
"Rampart, this is Squad 51." 

##This is Rampart. Go ahead 51.## replied Kelly 
Brackett. 

"Rampart, we have a conscious male, age 35-40. He's 
recently regained consciousness on his own after heavy 
exposure to confirmed freon gas. He's experiencing some 
light headedness and dizziness. 

##What are his vitals, 51?## Dr. Brackett asked. 
A tinge of worry slipped into his voice when he recognized 
his paramedic speaking through full containment gear. 

Roy replied as Johnny called them out to him in relay. 
"Vitals are: BP 98 palpated. Respirations are 22 and 
shallow. Pulse is 100 and slightly irregular." 

Back at the base station, Dr. Brackett finished 
taking the information down into his notes. 
##Okay, 51. Put him on 15 liters O2 as near to 
100% as you can if you haven't already and remove 
any contaminated clothing for a thorough washdown. 
  But before he gets wet, send us a strip. I want to be 
sure that those cardiac arrythmias are from the freon and 
not from a newly occuring M.I. Get a detailed medical history. 
Note any preexisting cardiac or pulmonary disease. Positive 
findings on those will change my treatment plan. 
  Roy, under no circumstances, are you to use epinephrine 
on him or any other freon exposed victims at your scene no 
matter what the cardiac situation. Freon's a myocardial 
irritant and any adrenaline type compound entered into 
their tissues will have the ability to kill them in short order. 
If that kind of situation arises, I'll advise other 
parasympathetics for your use. Start an IV of normal 
saline, maintain a good airway and continue a close 
monitoring of his vital signs. Treat for that developing shock. 
Also, be sure to check him thoroughly for signs of frostbite. 
Treat any you find later en route, after you've prepared him 
for transport. ## 

"10-4 Rampart, 100% O2 with a full chemical washdown. 
Starting an IV NS. Please stand by for his EKG. " he nodded 
at Chet, who had replaced Marco to aid Johnny and Roy 
in their patient care. Kelly began cutting away the man's 
clothes for leads placement. Soon all was ready and Roy 
got Chet's all set nod about the monitor. 
"This will be on lead two, Rampart." Roy shouted. We'll 
inform you of any pertinent medical history. 10-4, Rampart, 
on the epinephrine ban, we'll treat for shock and do a 
frost bite check. Understood that further treatment is 
en route." Roy parroted. 

Dr. Brackett sighed. ##51, do you know how many casualties 
you have at your location?## 

"Not yet, doc. The area's still in chaos. But our 
numbers could be substantial. Looks like a filled five story 
water tower collapsed on an occupied construction site and 
parking lot as well as on top of part of the northbound 
freeway system here." Roy replied. 

Dr. Brackett grimaced and sighed. ##10-4, 51.## Kel finished 
his studying the down man's EKG strip and he turned off 
the machine. ##51, I'm reading nominal elevations in 
his ST segments. Looks like the 02 is easing his abnormal 
rhythm. I am confirming a lack of medical cardiac involvement. 
Looks like this is just the gas doing a number on him. 
Also, from here on out. During this crisis, you have 
my permission to treat first and ask questions later. This 
goes for all medical situations. Use the protocol you know 
for guidelines. I'll take full responsibility for your actions. 
Our radio communications will most likely get unreliable 
as operations progress over there..## 

"10-4. Rampart." Roy answered. Both he and Johnny began to 
relax as the man's potential coding risk was ruled out as 
being very unlikely. 

"Ok, Kelly, start the washdown." Gage shouted to him 
and the other firemen gathered around him. 

Chet began playing a brisk hose over the man's body 
and skin as others in waterproof suits rolled him from 
side to side to get full coverage. 

Hank kicked a sandbag back into line as the run off from 
the man channeled down in a made path to the base 
of a broad sand pile at the edge of the construction site. 
::The freon will soak into this sand and Hazmat'll be able to 
barrel it and haul it away.:: 

Gage kept up reassurances to his patient as he 
guarded the man's airway with a firm hold over 
his O2 mask and his face. The man had Johnny's 
gloves in a death's grip. "I know it's cold. Almost through. 
We've got to get any trace of that gas off your skin. Stick through 
ten minutes more of this and I promise you a pile of heated 
blankets once we're in the ambulance." he grinned cockeyed 
through his airmask. 

The man tried to laugh but consciousness fled and 
his eyes rolled up into his head. 

"Hold it! Hold it.." Gage told Kelly. He made 
sure the man was still breathing and slipped in 
an oral airway before switching the 02 mask for 
a demand valve. He began forcing oxygen into 
the man's tired lungs. "Ok, keep going, I got 
him secured." 

Chet continued the man's hose bath. 

Soon, the man was placed in a specially plastic 
lined and rigged Mayfair for his trip to Rampart. 

Johnny handed off the hanging IV and gave his verbal 
notes to the pair of paramedics inside 
who weren't wearing SCBA, being careful not to 
get the water running off his clothes onto the 
floor of the ambulance. "Careful, I'm contaminated 
with freon here." he told them. "Brackett wants 
to know of any COPD or cardiac history if he wakes 
up. Also, sweep for frostbite and treat. We found 
no injuries." 

Nearby, the air masked Cap spoke to the firefighter 
paramedics assigned to take over the man's care. 
"We've a tipped tanker that's burning over there so 
anticipate phosgene and hydrogen fluoride traces, too, 
on him." he informed, throwing a head at the unconscious 
man being carefully assistance ventilated by an 
ambulance attendant. "And get his name and occupation 
to me if you can. We've a missing man out here." 

"Right, captain.." replied the senior paramedic. 
"We'll broadband when we get in if he comes to." 

Gage closed the doors of the Mayfair and slapped 
it twice before backing away. 

As it departed, two teams of firefighters washed 
it down with hoses as it drove slowly out of 
the disaster area and onto the freeway. CHP motorcycles 
escorted ahead of it showing the traffic cleared 
route to the hospital through the maze of 
abandoned vehicles angled everywhere. 

Lopez jogged over from the Battalion Chief's car 
over to Hank, pausing first before entering the ambulance 
landing area to be briefly hosed down by perimeter 
hazmat firefighter crews. "Cap, I got our 
orders, just like you asked me to do. Chief wants 
us to enter ground zero of the water tower to start 
a victim search. The construction boss just 
told us a van filled with teens was joyriding in 
the back of his company lot just before the semi hit 
the tower. No one has seen any of them or the 
van since." 

"What does the van look like?" Hank asked, wiping water 
spray off his mask with a glove. "We might as well 
start there." 

"Uh,..." Lopez hesitated. 

"Well..?" Cap thundered. 

Marco peeped. "Have you ever watched 
Scooby Doo, Cap? The boss says it looks like 
that. Sort of purply technicolored." 

"Wonderful.. " Hank said sarcastically. "Gage. 
DeSoto. You heard him. Pack up your gear again 
and go. You're first in after the hazmat team 
checks out that end of the scene." 

"Right.." Gage said. "Chet, help me pack up this 
EKG monitor. Run it to us as soon as we're outta 
there with somebody." 

"You got it." 

Cap and Kelly started to turn back to 
the staging area when Roy stopped Hank. 
"Cap, when Johnny and I were in there. We heard 
some leaking gas. Sounded like a portable tank 
going off." 

"Where?" Cap said, whirling around to face 
the heart of the collapsed tower. 

"By a red pickup and a pile of pallets, Cap. 
I heard it, too. If I didn't know any better, I'd 
say the truck was unloading its payload AT 
the construction site when the water tower fell. 
The tanks I think I saw were already piled neatly 
outside the truck. They looked stacked about 
three or four rows high and nine deep." 

"Really.." Cap breathed in significance. "Chief'll 
love hearing this. Five times over the National 
Federal Standard trucking through the heart of 
L.A. judging from the number of tanks 
you're telling me about. Somebody's heads are 
gonna roll. But not from any resulting explosions 
from them that's for sure." and he hefted his HT 
to his faceplate. "This is Engine 51 to all units. A 
paramedic has reported leaking freon from a tank 
cache in the immediate vicinity of ground zero next to 
a red pickup truck. Watch yourselves." 

Immediately, Hazmat responded. ##HazMat Two to 
Engine 51.## 

"Go ahead Hazmat.." Hank answered via radio. 

##We've found the point source and more 
in a box car. We are cooling down with foam 
and fan spray. Your rescue men are clear to 
re enter the area.## 

"That was fast.." Chet remarked, wrapping 
the EKG leads back into the case rapidly. 

"They'd better be." Cap said. "There's too 
great a density of civilians and department 
personnel to monkey around with. Gage. 
DeSoto. Get going. Keep on your radios. 
Marco, Kelly. Go with them. If this van of 
kids was full we're gonna need a lot of man 
power. I'll have a team run with your gear 
soon as you spot anything. Carrying any will 
just slow you down." 

"Right, Cap." came everyone's reply. 


Johnny and Roy felt the hot sun on their backs 
and the wet coolness of the covering spray being 
blown on the wind from Hazmat's water curtains 
and shuddered as they retraced their steps from 
the victim decontamination area and back into 
the disaster zone. 

Gage whistled low under his breath as he 
spotted car after car that the water tower had 
levelled as it fell flat. He picked up a wooden 
board and banged three times on the hollow, still 
intact massive drum of the water tower. It answered 
back, still liquidy hollow. "Water's still in there, Roy. 
If that gives way..." 

"I know.. Just keep lookin.." DeSoto said through tight 
teeth. 

The four firemen rounded a turn after pushing aside 
metal debris and tangles of construction wire. 

They found where Hazmat was containing the leak 
Roy and Johnny had heard getting their first victim out. 
The foam was thigh deep and the water curtain thick 
over a box car full of powdered aluminum labels. 
"Oh, great.." Gage groaned. "Freon only reacts with 
metals of certain types and what do we get? A whole 
box car full of em.." 

"Think positive thoughts, partner.." Roy grinned. 

"Tryin to." Gage replied. 

Then there was a shout from Kelly just ahead. 
A gust of wind rose in a dust cloud making things 
hard to see. "On the double. Found one..!" Chet 
shouted. 

Marco, Johnny and Roy rushed forward to see Kelly 
kneeling over an asphyxiated girl on the ground whose 
hands were locked tightly over her own blue throat. 

Gage snapped his radio receiver over his mask 
and shouted. "Any available recovery team. We 
need a resuscitator to our 10-20. Now! Watch 
for my vertical hose spray!" and he snatched 
up a standby charged hose and shot a stream up 
over the debris dust cloud to mark their location. 

Short moments later. ##We see you. There 
in less than one.## came a Hazmat reply. 

Behind them, was the van of teenagers they had 
been seeking. It was partially buried by tower 
beams with a crushed roof. Looming overhead 
was the bulk of the unruptured ten thousand gallon 
water tower reservoir hanging right over the van 
and the whole mess was still creaking as its 
tremendous weight still crushed down closer 
to the ground. The moans grew louder 
when the van's flimsy roof gave way another 
six inches under its burden. 

Kelly, Marco and Roy knelt helplessly unable 
to do anything for the apneic girl with their 
SCBA masks still strapped to their faces. 

Chet started to take his off to do something 
active about that but Roy stopped him. 
"No! Your safety's first. We're downwind of 
those tanks and the burning truck. Wait. 
She's still got a carotid. We've got time." 

Marco ran the rest of the way to his gangmates 
and slammed to his knees at the top of the girl's 
head. "Roy?" He didn't like the fact that Roy 
and Johnny didn't yet have their gear nor the 
darkening cyanotic color forming over the young 
teen's features. 

"She's gotta pulse, Lopez." Roy said calmly tense. 

"Then she's only just resp arrested." 

"Looks like." DeSoto said, opening her airway 
further using a jaw thrust in prep for the airway 
and O2 that was on its way. 

Pounding footsteps and clattering O2 metal greeted 
them from the sunlit gloom. 

"Over here!" Gage said to a Hazmat man with 
the medical gear, dropping his hose and shutting 
it off. 

In no time, they had their resuscitator. 

Gage saw Kelly begin to use it around Roy's 
airway hold and he subconsciously held his 
breath until he saw the girl's chest rise. Once 
and again. A few ventilations later and the ominous 
cyanosis began to retreat. "Chet? She fighting you?" 

"Not at all." 

Gage reached into the small jumppack the firefighter 
had given him for an esophageal airway and a tube 
of lubricant. ::Thanks, doc, for the pre go ahead. We 
owe you one.:: 

As he waited for Kelly to hyperventilate the girl 
in prep for his airway insertion, John felt a sudden 
chill of recognition as the resuscitator mask was 
lifted off her face. A sudden memory flooded his 
mind's eye of a golden laughing smile and a baby 
gurgling happily on her mother's lap. 

"Oh, my g*d. I know this girl." Johnny blurted out 
to the others waiting for him to move.. 
"She's..............." 

--------------------------------------------

Photo:  A chemical victim being lowered to
           a tarp by Hazmat rescuers.

Photo:  Johnny and Roy by engine in full SCBA gear.

Photo:  Hazmat using foam and water curtains on a box
           car.

Photo:  A downed water tower in a construction parking lot.

Photo:  Masked firemen surrounding an asphixiated girl.

Photo: Johnny and Roy in masks in dusty gloom.

*********************************************************
From : "Champagne Scott" <chameleonkate@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Under the Shadow..  
Date : Sun, 07 Sep 2003 20:36:27 -0500  
   
 ...Drew's wife...! This is Kelsey...." he whispered 
in shock. 

"What?!"  Chet shouted through his mask.
"You'd better concentrate on finishing up
there, pal. Her clock's ticking down. My
last vent on her was fifteen seconds ago..
sixteen... seventeen..."

"Oh, ...right.  ... uh..Roy?" Johnny asked numbly
looking to share his horrifying news.
But his air masked partner was listening
to something being said over the HT by
Cap and he didn't hear Johnny speak.

Numb with reaction, on autopilot, 
Gage gel'd up the EOA and threaded it down 
the unconscious woman's throat. He nodded 
to Chet to give her a couple of shots then 
remembered belatedly that he couldn't use a 
stethoscope to verify his placement of the tube. 
::Gonna just haveta watch for distention..:: he 
thought. ::Ohmyg*d, :: his mind shouted in
his head ::This is Kelsey!::

Unbidden, came a memory of Drew, his
friend the police officer, lying shattered
on the margin of the freeway under
his hands, and the crackling hissing ghost
of a broken frequency coming from the 
biophone. Johnny shook his head. 
::That was two years ago. Knock it off, man!
Gotta concentrate. It's SHE who needs me 
now.::

The sweaty steam on Johnny's face mask 
covered his shocked expression and only
Chet noticed the slightest hesitation as
Gage shakily followed up his intubation
by reconnecting the demand valve to the EOA 
that he was holding stable in his glove 
from where it jutted from her teeth.

Chet's voice sounded as if from a distance
through the roaring in Johnny's ears.
"Giving her four. Johnny let me know how
it feels." Kelly said, thumbing his first breath 
into the woman's lungs carefully. "Her
color's still good." he said peeling back
her lips to view her gums.

"Ok, ready.." Johnny felt his lips say.
Gage placed  gloves over her chest
and abdomen trying to feel for telltale gurgling
under one and chest rise under the other.
He counted three more rises under his right
one as he monitored her. He found he 
couldn't find his voice to tell Chet things were 
fine.

Cap's voice came over the HT, echoing eerily 
around the fallen tower's spidery debris field and the
shouts coming from the hazmat team as they 
struggled to seal off the freon leaks they had located 
near the area where Johnny, Chet and Roy were
working on the girl.
 
 �Engine 116, lay in from the hydrant on mile marker 
117 and hit  that rising gas vapor in a covering fan from 
the south. Engine  45, stage from the cleared part of the 
freeway and hit the box car from the west. Squad 45, do 
a primary search of the involved automobiles to the west  
of this location and make sure they've been evacuated. 

Truck 127. Set up to the east two hundred yards away
from the water tower. You�re gonna assist my men in attacking 
car fires in the area.� Hank crammed the HT back 
into his pocket, barely waiting for any acknowledgments. 

He looked up, spotting a masked and chem suited 
Marco waving at him. Hank turned toward his engineer, 
motioning vigorously. �Charge up a new line over Johnny 
Roy and Chet, Mike! They're working on a victim! 
Lopez? What's up?"

"Cap, I think I spotted the van that construction boss
told us about. It's directly under the water tower's drum
about sixty meters from here. Looks like things
are already settling around it."

"What?! There's no way a flimsy van'll 
keep its structural integrity under that much weight
pressing down onto it. Most of the water's
still inside of there.." Hank muttered. His
furlative in-command glance turned into one of
deep worry through his mask as he eyeballed
Chet and the two paramedics working to ventilate
the girl.  He shouted, realizing that a ton of
of help would be needed to emergency
evac everyone from the van Lopez had
found.  "Kelly.. Front and center. Gage can 
take over for you.. We're gonna need 
a lot of manpower to get those kids out of the van."

"Right, Cap.." Kelly rose and Gage took his
place. "It's all good first time, Johnny. They're
going in nice and smooth.." he said of
his quickened ventilations he was giving
the woman. "Here.. Take this. Cap wants me
for somethin.." Chet, in his chem suit and mask, 
readjusted the heavy weight of his air bottle 
under it, with a  groan. "I'll be right back...." he 
promised.

Johnny barely looked up at Chet as he
took over the demand valve. He didn't even
see the curly haired fireman leave to join
up with the others at Cap's side.

Roy just then noticed how quiet his partner had
become. "Johnny..?" He reached out a glove,
damp from Stoker's nearby spray, and grabbed 
the arm of Gage's jacket.

"What?" Johnny looked up at him.

"What's the problem..?" DeSoto shouted
through his mask.

"Let's get her into the stokes.
We can take her with us. She's breathing on
her own." he said, rising and leaving the
oxygen valve connected to Kelsey's airway.
"Bellingham can take over her care for us.
I see him by Kelly and the van."

Roy turned, from gathering up Kelsey's torso
and upper body into his arms craning over
his shoulder to see where Johnny was pointing.
"Ok,.. I got her shoulders.."

Gage grabbed her legs and they set her
awkwardly into the metal stokes a passing
fireman had left for them. Gasping, the two
paramedics lifted their burden and walked,
straight as they could, through tangles of steel 
towards Cap and the new focus of EMS personnel 
knotting under the shadow of the water tower's 
looming bulk.  He could just make out the sounds
of creaking metal as sinking tonnage slowly
crushed all the vehicles trapped under the drum.

Swiftly, Bellingham and Brice intercepted 
Johnny and Roy and they were suddenly relieved
of their burden. Kelsey was lifted from their
hands. "We got her.. Go..." Brice said as
he placed a hand on her chest to make
sure she was still breathing.

Gage spun around in a daze still not recovered
from knowing his victim and he watched them
start to head for the safety of the yellow zone. 

"Johnny?"  Roy asked, concerned. "Your air 
running out?"

Gage grabbed his valve regulator and checked.
"Nah,... I'm fine.. almost eight minutes left.
Don't worry about me, I'll tell you about it later..
Let's go.." He picked up a second resuscitator
from the ground and curled it under one arm.

Gage and DeSoto ducked, moving closer
towards the van, trying not to pay any attention
to the moaning stressed metal sounds filling
their ears.

Cap intercepted them. "We've got six victims.
All of them are pinned by debris except for
the driver. We're gonna haveta do some cutting." 

Right then, a high shriek of friction torn metal
stabbed through Cap's sentence and
deep into the bones of their skulls.

"Look out! The tower's giving way!" Kelly 
shouted.

Everyone under the shadow began to run
for the daylight.  Only Cap, Kelly and Lopez,
got out.

The water tower's huge bulk split like
an egg and a tongue of frothy flood water
began to gush out as it flattened
partially to the ground. Roy, Johnny and
one other, were swallowed whole under
the water filled dome.

Hank scrambled.. barely getting his
legs out in time from beneath the folding skin
of the tower and he was instantly soaked by
frigid water when he was too slow getting
out of the way. He hauled Kelly and Lopez
to their feet and Hank started a desperate
head count including himself. "1, ....2, .....3...."

He saw Bellingham and Brice slowly rising
and dripping, to their feet twenty feet away.. 
Their gloved hands were empty.

::Oh, no..:: Cap thought. "Where's the girl
in the stokes?"   ::4....5...::

Brice shook the stars from his head
and almost took off his air mask. His
partner stopped him before he could
complete the move and grabbed his shoulders,
looking at his face through his mask
when Craig remained silent and slightly 
off balance.

Bellingham's gasp said it all. "She must
be under there, Captain Stanley.. I don't 
see her.. Brice got hit in the head and
we dropped her."

Cap motioned Kelly and Marco to get
Brice out of the area... "And I don't
see two of my men.." he replied grimly.

"They're gone, too?" Bellingham blurted 
out, whirling.

Hank refused to acknowledge the fact
that Roy and Johnny could have just
been killed along with the woman.
"I want a team of men with K-12's and
axes over here immediately! There's
a chance the shell fell AROUND them."

"Under all that water?"  Chet shouted
in alarm.

Cap cut him off curtly. "Get Brice
to safety. Get him seen.Then hoof 
it back here with everything you've got.." 

"Right, Cap.."  Chet and Marco swept
up Brice into a seat held carry and moved.

Cap called out the same priority over his 
HT to the available companies. "Engine
51 to all units. We've trapped victims and
firefighters under the tower. I need a full
detail scrambled, wearing full protective
gear and air bottles. We're on the south
side of the tower's drum..."

Men began to run as the massive rescue
operation around him shifted shape and 
form to accomodate. HT activity tripled.

To Cap's horror.. the gushing water
around his legs lessened and began
to die off as the dome sealed itself 
tightly to the stained ground. ::Not
enough.. Not enough..:: his mind
screamed. ::There's still too much
water in there. They won't stand a 
chance if they're not awake enough
to tread water.::
 
The last agonizing screeching sounds
of collapse trickled away into eerie silence.

-------------------------------------------------------

Photo : Cap in an air bottle.  

Photo:  Hazmat patient care.

Photo : Drew's wife with girl and Johnny.  

Photo : John with a dying police officer Drew.

Photo : Accident water tower down.

Photo : Johnny, Roy on ground fall.

Photo: Brice sets watch in squad.

Photo : Darkness under water.

********************************************
From :"Roxy Dee" <laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com>  
Subject :  ~~Red Pool~~  
Date : Fri, 26 Sep 2003 19:54:27 +0000  
 
Cap slipped and slid in the newly created ankle deep 
morass of mud and shards to start a hasty inspection of the 
water tower dome for any signs of large leaking 
breaches through which to target a rescue 
attempt. 

He didn't hesitate to rain the metal shell 
with sharp ringing blows.. "Roy! John! Can you 
hear me?! *gasp* Hang on.. We're gonna get you 
out of  there ASAP!! "  His head whipped around, 
first right then left, but no other fireman was as yet, 
near. 

He lifted his HT once again and ordered. "Move it everyone! 
I'm located on the south side, upwind! I'm twenty yards 
from the site of the second victim's initial location!" 

Cap's breaths whistled painfully inside his 
SCBA mask as he attempted to remain 
clear headed around a panicking heart which 
slammed wildly inside of his chest. 

He tossed the handy talkie aside when he heard 
multiple reply backs and didn't care that it skittered out of 
reach and into the muck at his feet. Numbly, his soaked 
gloves beat out another regular pattern to the taut 
hollow dome he hastily stretched out upon. He shouted 
once more to those trapped underneath.."DeSoto!? 
Gage?! If you're o.k., respond in any way you can..!" 

Cap first freed, then plastered an ear to the tower's 
skin after eyeballing the prevailing winds for 
safety. He no longer cared about  any 
possible contamination with the spilled freon. 
"My men come first." he sobbed aloud, with roiling 
raw emotions. The professional side of him countered 
that irrationality with instant support. 
::There was enough of a wash down from the dome's 
spillover to dilute the stuff nearest here.:: it said. 

Some small part of Hank Stanley still waited for the telltale 
burning of sub freezing temperatures to bite into his exposed 
wrists and neck, as subliming freon searched for a way to 
call him a liar. But only the hot sun was searing into anything 
he could still feel that wasn't completely wet. 

Hank's relief about not burning himself with any coolant 
exposure never materialized. A larger part of him was rapidly 
losing objectivity.  "Come on you two..Just one sign. 
Won't take much to grab a piece of scrap to wail an answer 
back.." he whispered, fogging up his face plate. "Come on.. 
start tapping!" 

Cap filled some time checking his air tank's regulator. 
"I've got nine minutes left.." Hank silenced his own adrenaline 
twitchy mouth and he held in a ragged breath as he 
willed his body to stillness as he listened. 

Seconds stretched into long moments as violated metal 
talked to itself and its mercilessly settling gravity net. 

Chink.. Ping.. Creakkkk  -kkk --kkk.  k          k..  *hisssss*.. 

Soon, waves of water lapped musically soft inside as 
the tower reached equilibrium at last in its new 
horizontal position. 


Cap's eye finally found the surface of the trapping 
pool through a ragged crack. It was staining with a 
growing red through the clear depths the sun illuminated. 

Nothing else clearly identifiable as actively struggling 
life, gurgled from the pocket of deep water that he could see 
to reward Cap's vigilance. 

Drip.. 

  Drip... 

    Drip.... 

Hank's eyes stung sharply.   "No..." 

-----------------------------------------------------

Photo: Cap feeling a door tensely.

Photo: Stoker and Marco frantically hosing down
            a scene out of view.

Photo: *animated* Dripping blood drop.

Photo: An underground pool that's clear and reddish.

*************************************************
From: "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Full Circle  
Date : Sat, 27 Sep 2003 02:30:55 +0000  

 GAASSPPPPPppp!!  *cough!*  choked Gage
as his head broke the surface of the water
inside the van. He had long ago peeled off
his air bottle in order to swim up towards what
meager light he could see.

"Roy!?" he shouted, treading water and
whirling in the frigid darkness. His hasty
shout echoed in his ears. He could hear
faint pounding from somewhere else but
that sound was the farthest thing from his
mind at that moment.

The van suddenly shifted as it began to float, its 
front end partially buoyant from its sudden 
unexpected immersion under water.  

An eerie golden light glowed through the 
shattered windshield of the van. ::So, there are
cracks out there..:: Johnny realized. ::The whole
d*mned tower must have come down in around
us..::  Gage shook away a lurid bone chilling cold
he suddenly felt seeping through his turnout gear.
::How the h*ll did I get in the van?::
His own sense of orientation drifted away.

A body floated up.
It was wearing bright blue clothes. 

"Roy?!" Johnny said in fright, remembering
suddenly who was still missing.

John pushed off the wall of the van to get to the
sodden form and he quickly flipped it over
to feel for a carotid. He immediately dropped
the young african american teenager with a shout
of horror.

Half of her features were crushed and so was
the top of her head. "Gaghhh..." Johnny blurted
out, back treading blindly. The young body of
the girl sank out of sight, leaving only a trail
of red behind.  "I'm not gonna make any
progress that way." his teeth chattered, and
he froze in place just to listen. The dim pounding
continued, but it wasn't vibrating through the chassis 
of the luckless van. "Outside help?" Johnny guessed.
"Maybe it's Cap...!"

He was just about to take a breath to reach a leg up
to kick out the windshield arching above him
when he saw a trail of bubbles coming from a shadow
near to the left side of him in the front seat. ::The
driver's still alive!::  he realized.

Gage's groping hands found a football jerseyed
young man's neck and head as he brought  
his mouth and nose to the surface of the water.
He was rewarded with sputtering gasps as
the teen quarterback blew out liquid in a spray
from his throat and lungs. "Easy.. I got you.."
Johnny encouraged, keeping the man from
sinking underneath the water again as 
he struggled to breathing wakefulness.

"I didn't mean it.. I didn't mean it.. *cough* They
made me do it..." the injured kid mumbled.

Johnny laid the teen's head against his shoulder
and immobilized his neck and forehead  
as best he could against his chest.. "Hey, take it 
easy now. No one's blaming you for anything. 
Especially not for a stupid joyride in the parking 
lot. An accident's an accident... What's your name?"

"B-Bobby..*cough*"

"Can you breathe ok the way you are?"

"What?"

Johnny Gage took that for a yes.
"Do you hurt anywhere besides that arm..?"
he said looking down. Gage saw a second
'elbow' bending below the young man's real one
on his left arm where it floated in the water.

"I'm hurt? Oh, my g*d.." and the dazed teenager
began to thrash around a bit inside Johnny's 
firm hold.

"Bobby.. Now just calm down!.. I'm feeling nothing
seriously wrong with you. Now my name's Johnny 
Gage and I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles 
County Fire Department."

"I crashed the van?"

Johnny spat some of the boy's hair and 
muddy water from his mouth. "No.. not
exactly.. A semi truck hit a water tower
near you and then it fell on us. That's where
all this water comes in.."

"What?! Aghh.HHH! Where's Angie,..
Mark...?! They were all in here with me...
Steve!! Where are you??"

Gage's head was banged painfully
as the young man panicked as he arched
his back and he saw stars. He tightened 
his grip on the teen to keep him still.

Gage knew from the roof sloping into
the water that no one else was left alive
in the back of the van. "Listen to me!
Bobby, we'll worry about them later. Now 
I'm more concerned with getting you taken
care of first.  And to do that, we both have
to keep calm and cool about all this. We 
might need to conserve the air in here. Now
I want you to slow your breathing rate down
a bit. It's probably why you're feeling
so short of breath right now."

"Ugh.. I'll...t-try..."

"That's it.. Nice and easy. Now, does
your neck or back hurt anywhere? I'm
holding you like this just in case you do."

"Uhh,.. no. They're ok.. I'm not feeling
any p--Ahhh! What's wrong with my arm?"

"I'll be honest with you, Bobby. It's broken. "

"Oh, man.. Coach's gonna l-love this.
He'll kill me when he finds out I have
to miss the rest of the seas--   n"
he said slipping into shock.

"Bobby? Stay awake. Keep your head up.
Let me tie this board here on your arm.
We need to splint this before we go
anywhere." Gage used a seatbelt that he cut
away from the van's wall using his holster's 
bowie knife. "I gotta get you into some dry 
clothes and I also gotta find my partner 
and another girl who was with us.."

"S-Someone else? Who...who is she?" Bobby 
struggled. "Please.. I gotta know about my friends."
Returning pain to his fractured arm silenced
the young quarterback and he froze into stillness
with a strangled cry. "I feel like I'm gonna puke."

"Easy. Moving around will only make you more
nauseated. Her name's Kelsey, and she's doing 
fine."

"Where is she? I- I don't see her!!" Bobby
said, gasping, falling limp, now only half awake.

Johnny felt the change in the boy's posture
and heard it in his voice.  "Bobby? Stay
with me.."

At the same time, a flicker of sunlight and shadow 
made him look up through the windshield of the van
into the sparkling underwater light reflecting there.

Peering through the raining water trails seeping 
through the spidered glass, he could just make 
out Roy's legs and shoes kicking at a second 
water surface six feet above the van with the 
comforting shape of Kelsey's metal stokes in his 
arms. Gage could see the green bottle of the 
resuscitator still nestled in between her legs.
::He's still got the O2 for her.. Good.:: Johnny
sighed in relief. ::I swear, Roy. You got more
lives than a cat.:: he grinned. Out loud he said.
"Kelsey's really fine, Bobby. She's with my 
partner. Out there. Right now."

He didn't get any reply. ::Bobby?:: Johnny
thought to himself. His fingers found the slow
thud of a carotid at the big teen's neck and
the injured teen's ribcage still rose and fell inside the 
bearhug Gage had around the young man.
"So that's where we're going, too." he said quietly
to the unconscious boy. Gage waited for
the young man to take in a shallow breath of air 
before he blocked off the man's nose and mouth 
for the trip out of the van. 

Two kicks later, they were free, popping up
beside Roy in a flood of bubbles as the rest
of the vehicle's trapped air escaped with them.

-------------------------------------------------------------

DeSoto didn't even bat an eye..
"Here's Johnny, Cap. Looks like he's got a victim
out."

"Johnny? You all right, pal?" an overjoyed Hank's
voice echoed into the hollow chamber, even through 
his air mask.

"Yeah, Cap. Just hurry it up. Neither of these guys
can wait without treatment much longer." Gage
coughed as the outside air's freon fumes began
to get to him. 

"Here.. " Roy said, disconnecting the O2 tubing
from Kelsey's EOA. "Give him some and then
take a breath of your own. We've been sharing.."

"She still breathing?"

"Yeah, she's just out, that's all. I still can't find
any injuries."

Gage improvised a seal using the positive
pressure valve's mouth port and the teen boy's
under a firm grip where he treaded in the water.
He delivered two breaths in time with Bobby's
inhalations. The teen started to moan as
he awoke, partially revived.

Johnny took his own turn on the oxygen valve.
"Cap, we could use three new air bottles down
here!"

"We're cutting a hole through to you now.
Watch for Stoker's rope. Only expect another
demand valve unit to buddy breathe on. It's smaller. 
This one's got a mask." Cap shouted. "Two minutes
more."

Right then, the hiss of O2 that Roy tried to deliver to
Kelsey's airway secured lungs, faded away. 

Their critical lifeline, had just run out.

Gage quipped. "How long can you hold your
breath, Roy?" he asked seriously.  

"As long as necessary. If we black out in
here, we'll all die of drowning. Here, I've cut away
the stoke's straps, all but the one holding her
shoulders. Use them to tie you and him to
those metal struts here. If we do fall unconscious,
at least our heads won't go under. I've already rigged 
hers and mine as well as I can." Roy said, his suggestion 
breaking off into a paroxysm of choking coughs as 
freon mist began to invade the flooded tower's 
air chamber.

Right away, Johnny could hear Roy's prior left lung
trouble flaring up in complaint liquidly.

"Great, poison air for your barely healed 
water lung." Johnny said sarcastically.  "Breathe
more shallowly, Roy. You're getting off color already."

"*Wheeze* T-That's from the cold.." DeSoto shivered,
wedging Kelsey's stokes more firmly onto the angle
of sheeting he had found to support her weight against
the tower wall. "I- I'm fine.. " DeSoto choked. 
"Worry about your own complexion instead, ok?"

Gage ignored him. "Cap. We need that spare
O2 on the double! Roy's getting into trouble here."

Gage startled as his partner's head sagged suddenly 
and Johnny lunged to catch it as DeSoto half passed out,
falling lax into his improvised strap harness tied
to the tower wall. "Oh no you don't.." Johnny said.
"Snap out of it, Roy. You're ok.. Now come on.. 
It's not that stuffy in here." he said, slapping 
Roy's damp face lightly to rouse him.
"The freon's hardly noticable yet.."

*Cough* DeSoto reacted weakly. "I...I..."

"What, Roy? You what? Come on. Don't black
out on me. I need ya conscious. I can't watch
both of these guys on my own." Gage urged tensely. A 
suffocation jag of gas drifting down, and gave him his 
own uncomfortable moments of feeling like
he was getting no air at all into his lungs.
"Cap....!" he shouted hoarsely when he had recovered.

"One minute Gage!" Hank promised.

"That's a minute too late, guys. Roy's just went out on me
here.." Johnny shouted, tipping Roy's head back to make 
sure his breathing continued unimpaired. "This sh*t's 
*gasp* awful. We can't breathe it in for much longer." 
Gage coughed.

Bobby began to turn blue when he quit trying to breathe
fifteen seconds later.

Johnny gave him a breath mouth to mouth 
and a second one before the teen sucked in some 
of his own again unaided.

The world began to swim before Gage's eyes.

-----------------------------------------------

"Gage.. Grab it!.. Stoker's lowering the tank on
a line to ya and the rest of us are K-twelving a side
hatch to drain you guys out with the water.." Cap
said urgently.

In a stuporous haze, Johnny saw the second 
resuscitator, tied in a rope hitch, swaying in front
of him. But it was as if his arms refused to work.

"Johnny. Grab it and use it on yourself first.."
Hank's voice shouted through Johnny's ringing ears.
"I can't reach you so you gotta do it on your own.
Then get to them!  Gage! Do you hear me? Take
a shot from the O2 now. That's an order!"

Some deep instinct made the thousands  
of Johnny's firefighter and paramedic training hours 
kick in. He reached for the resuscitator mask 
dangling in front of him and took one. 
ChuugghhhhhHHH!

Instantly clarity flooded back.  Johnny blinked
up into the sun. "Cap?"

"Get to Bobby. He's cyanotic, Gage." 
Hank commanded from the sunlit crack above Gage.

Gage swam over to the limp boy and worked him
on the mask until the teen began to actively cough and 
moan once more. Kelsey only need a boost, she
had never quit breathing.

Johnny sucked in two fresh breaths for himself
as he swam back the short distance over to Roy
and set the dripping mask over his face. "Nap time's
over, Pal. Wake up.." And he thumbed several
shots of oxygen into Roy's lungs.

DeSoto immediately reawakened and shoved
the mask away, thrashing his limbs in the water 
as consciousness rapidly returned to him.

Johnny ducked. "Hey, watch what you're doing..!
I'm right here. You're fine now. Here.. Do this yourself
then.. Cap's gonna let us know when they're gonna
blow the hatch real soon.."

"T-The victims?" Roy shook his head to clear
out fogginess.

"They're fine. Keep sharing the wealth.
I'm next after Bobby and Kelsey.." Johnny said
twitching shivery gimme fingers at his partner
and the mask to get him to pass it around fairly.

Roy was clear headed enough to realize
an odd thing in that second voiced name. "Kelsey?
Johnny, how did you find out our female victim's 
name? She didn't have any ID on her and
she's never been awake enough to tell us."

"Imagine that.." Johnny deflected. "How's
your breathing now?"

"Fine if I'm talking to you. Don't evade the issue.
Why am I getting chills from the sound of your
voice right now? What aren't you telling me?"
DeSoto demanded.

Johnny took his turn off the spare O2 
and fell uncharacteristically silent while he
monitored both the girl and the teen's pulses
in turn. For two passes of the O2,Gage didn't 
say anything. Then he asked one simple
question.  "Do you remember my best friend 
Drew the highway patrol officer?"

Roy's face paled from more than the cold. There
wasn't any way he could not remember that
man's death and the radio transmission that failed
to arrive from Rampart with life saving treatment.

DeSoto simply met Johnny's eyes and nodded
as his fingers reassessed the placement of the
airway resting in Kelsey's throat and felt for
the distension growing in her stomach. It wasn't
bad enough to effect his ventilations on her.

Johnny's face grew old as he unloaded his emotional
burden to his partner. Johnny's worry lines only became
worse for the telling. "Well, this is Drew's wife, Roy, 
lying right here. And I don't know where her five year 
old daughter is. I hope to G*d she isn't in that crushed 
van down there. Cause if she is, she's dead."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo:  Cap peers into a crack beneath his feet.

Photo:  Johnny looking down, thoroughly soaked.

Photo:  Roy and John treading water with a victim
             in a stokes.

Photo:  Drew's wife Kelsey and their little girl with Gage
              kneeling and offering them comfort.

Photo:   Roy peering into bright light soaked to
              the skin with water.

****************************************************************
From : "rosafleehart" <rosafleehart@yahoo.com> 
Subject :  [EmergencyTheaterLive] The Promise.. 
Date : Mon, 29 Sep 2003 17:23:57 -0000 

Roy said. "Why didn't you tell me before when you 
first knew it  was her?" 

"I thought I could handle it, Roy, ok?" Johnny replied. 

"Junior, sometimes..... I just  wish you would let me in on 
things more." he said uncharacteristically defensive. 

Gage countered, without thinking. "Look. I'm sorry, Roy, ok?" 

Suddenly, Roy started to have a little trouble breathing and 
then Johnny knew something was wrong. "Hey you ok, Pally?" 
he asked, grabbing a hold of his jacket sleeve to get his 
attention. 

Roy coughed. "I'll be fine.  Must have swallowed the water 
when the tank fell. " he replied. "Right now we've got 
other things to be concerned with. How's the boy?" 

Johnny answered. "He's holding his own right now. " 

Roy tried hiding the fact, from Johnny, that his breathing 
was starting to get worse. :: I don't want to add a further 
burden to my partner's already high stress level.:: he 
thought to himself. So he tried to handle it. ::I know 
there isn't  much that can be done until we're top 
side anyway.:: He just hoped it would wait before 
getting any worse. 

---------------------------------------------------------------- 
After nearly two hours, the rescuers finally broke 
through to them. 

The girl, Kelsey,  was handed out first and a second 
paramedic crew took her over. 

Then the boy, Bobby, was handed out and another 
medic team took over his care while the rescuers got 
Roy and Johnny out of the collapsed tank. 

Just as Johnny was hoisted up, Roy got real 
bad. Quickly.  ::I can't breathe! Hardly at all now.:: 
DeSoto panicked. 

Just as Johnny looked down, Roy lost consciousness 
and started to sink into the contaminated water. 

Johnny let go of the rescuers' rope and dove in after 
his partner.  He grabbed him by the shirt collar and 
pulled him to the surface as quickly as possible. 

They pulled him out. 
Then Johnny was, too, right behind him. 

The other medics were busy so Johnny had to treat his 
partner on his own. 

Roy was out cold and not breathing and that made Johnny go 
into instant paramedic mode. He quickly got in an intubation 
on 6 liters of 02 which got Roy breathing again. Then he 
got in an I.V. with Ringers using the open treatment privileges 
that had been given to them from the beginning by Brackett. 

He took vitals and saw that Roy was doing better. 
Johnny contacted base and Brackett took it. 
"Rescue 51 to base. How do you read?" 

Kel replied, "I read you loud and clear, 51. Go 
ahead with your transmission." 

"We have a 34 year old male. He lost consciousness 
while trapped in a collapsed water tower. He stopped 
breathing. He has been intubated and is NOW breathing. 
We have him on an I.V. with Ringers wide open. He is still 
unconscious. Vitals are:  B.P. 100/85, pulse is thready. 
Respirations are 30 and his lungs are congested. Also 
he has had some prior congestion due to water lung. " 
Gage said over the biophone. 

"51, keep him intubated. Administer 30 milligrams of 
Talwin and transport a.s.a.p." Brackett ordered. 

Johnny answered. "Ten four.  Talwin. 30 milligrams and 
transport as soon as possible. We are ten minutes 
from your location. Also be advised, we have a hazmat 
situation in effect. "

"Ten four and in transit, get me a new set of vitals." 
Brackett said. "We'll take precautions here for you and 
your patient." 

Gage nodded. "Ten four. 51 out." 

Gage looked to Cap. "Cap, we need an ambulance in 
here now. " 

"You got it, Johnny. " Hank answered and announced 
over the radio. "Battalion 14, This is HT 51. We need an 
ambulance by me. We have a code I ready for emergency 
transport." 

"Ten four, HT 51. Ambulance is on the way in to you now. " 

"Ten four." 

Johnny looked up. "Cap, I'm going in with Roy. " 
he said, not beating around the bush, challenging. 

To Gage's relief, Hank didn't bat an eye. 
"O.K., I'll see that the squad gets to the hospital." 

"Thanks." Gage replied. 

They loaded Roy up and Johnny got in with him. 

Gage was in both partner and medic mode. He got a 
new set of vitals and relayed them to Rampart using his 
radio.  "Rampart, this is squad 51." 

"Go ahead, 51. " Kel acknowledged, toggling 
a switch. 

Johnny shouted over the roaring sirens. 
"New vitals are :  B.P. is 90/65. His pulse 
continues to be thready and weak. 
Breathing's at 26." 

Kel frowned. "51, what is your ETA?" 

Johnny answered. "We are three minutes out." 

Dr. Brackett nodded. "Send me a strip." 

"Ten four. This will be lead two." Johnny said quickly. 

At the same moment, both Brackett and Johnny saw 
the same thing. Johnny reacted as a medic. He told the 
ambulance to pull over just as Brackett yelled over the 
radio. "51! We read V-fib. Defibrillate 400 watt 
seconds now!" 

"Ten four." Johnny defibrillated Roy the first time. 

There was no change. 

On the second, still no change. 

Johnny said as he went for a third time."Come on, Pally. 
Don't do this to me. Come on." he gasped.  "D*mn it, Roy." 

Finally Roy converted to sinus rhythm and his heart beat 
normally again. Johnny reported on the radio. "Converted! 
Times three. He's in sinus rhythm." he sighed. 

"Ten four, 51 bring him on in." Kel grinned. 

"Ten four, " Johnny answered. "OK. Let's go." 
Gage said to the ambulance driver by smacking 
the partition between them. 

------------ 

As the ambulance arrived, Brackett and Dixie met it 
at the doors. They were shocked. They didn't know it 
was Roy down.  The tension was over. 

But then Johnny hit the floor suddenly in a blackout. 

"I'll take Johnny..." Joe Early said quickly kneeling 
beside Gage to check  his pulse. 

"And I'll take Roy..." Brackett replied, grabbing hold 
of the blond paramedic's gurney with two orderlies. 

Soon, they were both put into treatment rooms. 

-------------------------------------------------------------- 
After a few days, Johnny was released and he 
went to Roy's bedside. He hadn't regained 
consciousness  yet. 

::It's been six days.:: Gage thought morosely. 
Johnny was worried. 

He said to Roy."O.K., Roy. It's time to wake up. 
Now everyone is worried about  you, Pally. So 
come on." he said urgently. "Wake up for 
old Johnny, huh, Pally?" 

All through that night,  Johnny stayed at Roy's side, 
refusing to leave. 

Joanne had gone home to rest at Johnny's insistence. 

As the day broke,  Johnny got up to stretch. 
He had been holding Roy's hand all night long. ::And I've 
been doing a lot of praying.:: he thought aloud, for his friend. 

He turned suddenly when he heard a whisper of a voice say. 
"You look terrible, Junior." 

Johnny leaned eagerly over Roy as he rang the room call 
button. "Hey, Pally.  How are you feeling?" 

Roy grinned slowly. "Weak. Tired." 

Gage smiled quietly, "Yeah, I'd say so.  You gave us a 
h*ll of a scare there, buddy." 

Roy studied his sheets. "Sorry." 

"Welllll....." Johnny teased. "That's ok. Just 
don't let it happen again, ok?" 

Roy was checked and it was found that he truly 
WAS going to be o.k. 

DeSoto finally talked Johnny into going home and 
getting some rest. 

Roy was released three weeks later from the hospital. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 
A month later, he was cleared to return to duty. 

Johnny had put a welcome back party together and they 
were all enjoying it, when the tones went off . 

As they climbed into the squad,  Johnny said. "Nice to 
have you back, Pally." 

"It's nice to BE back,  Junior." 

Johnny had missed that nick name over the time Roy 
had been gone. "Roy, I  hope I never see you come that 
close to being lost again." he insisted. But just 
as fast, he put on a wry grin. "But then again, I most 
probably will 'cause that's the job we both have." 
he added with exasperation. 

Roy agreed, nodding, as he drove. 
"We HAVE devoted our lives to saving others as 
ff/pm's." he said in apology. 
------------------------------------------------------------------- 

No Photos attached. 

************************************** 
From :"patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Second Thoughts..  
Date :  Wed, 01 Oct 2003 12:08:05 +0000  
   
Gage made a face as he peered at
the address on the scrap of paper
he had gotten from Cap as they had
taken off on their run. "Yeah,.. but
that doesn't mean I have to like the
fact that the people around me are
continually at risk all the time.." he
said with some real heat.

That surprised DeSoto and he glanced
at Gage's face to be sure he saw the
sharp anger mirroring there that had tinged
Johnny voice.  Roy bit down the joke
that he had rising and stifled a smile.
"You know we have a pact not to die
in front of one another if we can possibly
help it. Last month didn't count. The tower 
cheated when it gave no warning before 
dunking us into that chemical bath. 
Man, that hurt. My p*ss's still glowing
at night." he complained. 

Roy's planned crudeness worked.

It was Johnny's turn to glance over
and a shadow of a crooked grin toyed with 
his face, but only for a moment. He didn't
feel like explaining his real feelings on
the discussion and once again, a 
vulnerability that was newly born in his
eyes, stilled his lips into silence.

Roy concentrated half on the road, the 
rest on Johnny. "Hey,....
We can talk about it you know.."
he offered in a quick toothy smile.
"If we don't, Cap's bound to throw
us all into a session with the 
CISM counselors. Don't be upset
that you can't be there all the time 
to save the day like you'd rather do."

Johnny flared. "I don't need any critical
incident stress management lackies crawling
around my head! I'd rather have had it
not to have happened at ALL." he snarled 
once again. And the roaring siren over
their ears seemed to agree with him
pointedly.

The ghost of a grin on Roy seeped away
and he didn't say much of anything for
a full minute, only watching the directions
Johnny quietly indicated to him, showing them the
way to their current rescue's location. But then
DeSoto said. "Look at the bright side. I may
be a lot poorer financially now for missing
out on so much work but I've gotten in some
real quality time with Joanne and the kids.
Our third's really coming along. I felt
the baby kick real hard last night..."

That was the wrong thing to say. Gage
nearly levitated out of his seat and he
angrily adjusted his loose helmet strap a
little more snuggly under his chin. "Good.
I'm happy for you.. Your family's safe and
sound and everything's looking real nice 
and rosy for ya.." he said, saluting smartly
in sarcasm.

Roy's mouth slacked open and he
gripped the steering wheel a little tighter
even as his jaw slid sideways in puzzlement.
"Johnny, what's the matter? Wh- What's going
on with you? I don't think I've ever seen you
with so many ants in your pants before.."

Johnny huffed and thunked an elbow out the
squad's windy window to serve as a prop for 
his scowling face.

Roy then figured it out.. "It's Kelsey Richards.
Isn't it..?" The name elicted a bright spot of pain  
that Roy saw lance sharply across Johnny's 
features. ::Bingo...::

"What about her?" Johnny asked defensively.

Roy stuck out a pouting frown. "Well,..how's
she doing? I heard she got home from the hospital
ahead of me by five d--"

"She's fine.."  Gage interrupted. "Kelsey's just fine.
Somehow, she took no heart or lung damage from 
the freon like you had happen to you. She's home
and everything's good and she calls me every night
to help her get over the fact that her kid Amber didn't 
make it like she d--" his voice broke off, getting 
uncharacteristically choked up and muffled.

Now Roy understood everything plainly. "You're
hung up really bad about this, aren't you?" he said 
softly. "I had almost forgotten about what you told
me that day. About the five year old fatality you thought
was in the van..  Was she?"

Johnny shook his head minutely in the negative. 
"Kelsey's daughter died outside the tower. Another 
company found her under the pile of freon tanks. Remember 
the ones we heard hissing when we first got that dizzy 
construction worker out?"

DeSoto nodded and Johnny rubbed his face.

"Then there wasn't anything you could've done to
have prevented that now, could you?" Roy doctored.

Gage sighed and a tear ran a trail down the side
of cheek that Roy couldn't see even as his
face ironed up. "It wasn't my best friend's daughter
that's been in my every waking thought since I found
out that you were gonna make it." he said his tone
trembling slightly as his anger evaporated into grief.
"There was someone else down there that I should
have known on the spot.  A victim whom I 
should have tried a little harder to save.."

Roy turned another corner his partner pointed out
to him and the tires of the squad squealed. "I
don't understand, Johnny. Explain it to me.
You told me weeks ago that those teens didn't have 
a chance except for Bobby the driver because 
the roof had caved in and pushed them all under
the water."

Johnny's lips flattened into a thin line..
"I know. I know.. Look, would you stop prying
and let me just think a minute here!" he
snapped. "I got a lot to tell you so just---"

Just like that,..Johnny returned to a horrific 
memory that had been relayed to him by Stoker
the same day he had awakened in the  
shared hospital room with Roy at Rampart.

Johnny still remembered how chilled he
felt under the blankets when he heard.....

------------------------------------------------------------

 ......"You should have seen him, Johnny. He left
the hospital on one of the ambulances to get
to the scene the moment his instincts screamed
at him. He knew, Johnny.. He knew beyond the 
shadow of a doubt that she had been there in 
the van.."..

The hospital gowned Gage tried to steady the
ice glass and straw that Mike Stoker had been
helping him sip without drinking from it. "What
the h*ll are you talking about, Mike? Who
knew whom in the van?  My friend Drew's dead.
And there was no one else around who knew Kelsey
and her little girl, Amber, enough to worry about 
them."

"It's Doctor Morton, Gage. We found him crying
over his sister's stokes after he had found her  
black tagged in the triage morgue tent along
with the other teens who died in the van with
her."

Johnny dropped his water glass...

-------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh my G*d. I'm s- sorry, Johnny.. I- I didn't know.."
DeSoto said as he sped the final few blocks
towards their destination. "I saw all
the blood in the water with us.. But I didn't
know you had found someone else in that
van besides Bobby who was still salvagable.."

Gage made a little noise of pain.
" I guessed I freaked out Roy.. She WAS 
there. Right there in my arms.. And I just dropped her 
when I saw her facial and cranial injuries without
even checking to see if she was still alive..."

"You were in shock, Johnny. We both were.
A tower had just fallen on you and freon gas
was doing its best to suffocate us all, too."

"We're talking about not trying harder with
Morton's SISTER,  Roy..." Johnny insisted in high 
agony. "I'm negligent! I'm most likely gonna be one
of the clear ones to blame for leaving her to die 
down there..."

"You don't know that." Roy said equally
loud as he drove. "You know what they
tell us whenever we find a victim with obvious
gray brain matter showing."

"You don't have to tell me.." Johnny said
sharply.

"Well, I'm going to. In that medical situation,
it's to be taken as an obvious sign of death 
from the classic signs list right along side 
rigor mortis and dependent lividity.."

"Roy, I could have done something MORE.
I could have started breathing for her..."

"With crushing mouth and nose injuries?
How?" Roy challenged. 

"Well..."

"Even if you managed to get air into
her lungs. There was no way you EVER
could have started c.p.r effectively enough. 
You were treading water.."

"Stop it!" Gage said. "Just shut up Roy.
You don't know what you're talking about.."

"Oh  yes I do. I'm the one who taught you
everything you know as a paramedic,
remember?" DeSoto insisted, clenching
his hands on the wheel he said glaring
at his despondent partner.

"Look out!!" Gage shouted.

Roy barely swerved in time to avoid getting
hit by a motorist who hadn't heard their
sirens at a four way stop sign.

DeSoto thunked over the curb onto grass 
and their front tire ripped over a support stake 
at  the foot of a corner telephone wire.
It immediately blew out and halted the squad
cold, throwing both paramedics foward, hard.

Roy and Johnny caught themselves on the 
dashboard as best as they could.

"You ok?" DeSoto gasped.

"Yeah, I was just about to ask you the same thing.."
Johnny admitted, still gripping window frame
and roof strut.

Both men started to shake with reaction
from their near miss and a minute later,
it took both of them to steady the radio 
mic as Roy thumbed it and said, "L.A. This 
is squad 51."

##Go ahead, 51.##

"L.A. We've been disabled mechanically
avoiding a vehicular collision. We'll be
unable to respond to our current rescue call.
We are uninjured." he added quickly to
keep Cap and the rest of the gang possibly
listening on the office scanner, reassured.

##10 - 4, 51. Do you need roadside assistance?##

"Negative. My partner and I can handle it."

##Copy....Squad 51, cancelled.  
*Beep. beep. beep.*
 Squad 8, in place of Squad 51. Possible
heart attack. 309 Hunter's Place and Jackson
Blvd..  309 Hunter's...##

Roy and Johnny tuned out the rest of the
radio transmission as they both slid out
of the squad to sit on their truck's back
landing board to steady their nerves
and bodies while they took off their helmets.

Johnny was trembling violently. "I can't
take any more surprises today, Roy. 
Even ones as fun as your welcome back
party. My nerves are more than shot."

"I noticed.." Roy said without smiling.

Johnny buried his head into his hands
and wiped away the salty wetness
streaming there from his eyes and just
rested for a few moments.

Roy watched his face in steady concern.
"Wanna eat something? Your blood sugar's
gotta be low. I know mine is after that."

"Yeah, I'll eat. But where? I don't know
this neighbor beyond what I saw on
the wall map to get to where we had
to go for this call." Gage admitted.

"How about the cafeteria at Rampart..?"

Johnny startled and stopped rubbing his
face. "Uh.h,...Dixie said Morton's working today 
and I don't think I wanna run into HIM just yet.
I was only lucky that I never saw him all those
times Joanne and I came to see you when 
you were still in your chemically induced 
coma."

"We gotta go there to resupply sometime.
Most likely as soon as after our next call." Roy said
getting up to check the condition of the squad
beyond its shredded tire.

"I know.. I know. But I still have a lot of thinking
to do.."

"Do you?" Roy asked seriously. "I just told you
how it was for Morton's sister.  And you. Don't
you trust my judgement that there wasn't
really anything that you could've done for her?"

"I trust ya. I trust ya.. I just don't know if I can trust
myself anymore." Johnny said gloomily, tossing
both his helmet and Roy's into the passenger seat
while he broke out the squad's jack, wrench and 
spare tire from inside the stokes department.
"Cause I can't really keep the promises I make.
I promised Drew that I'd look after his
wife and little girl and I didn't."

"That's a lie.. You kept Kelsey alive."

"No, YOU did. I had my hands full with
Bobby and...." he rubbed his mouth with
guilt. "...and with you.."

"I was dyspneic due to fumes. Kelsey
was already safely airway secured. You had
a right to worry about me first. I was your
paramedic priority then, only one behind Bobby."

"No you weren't. She was unconscious."

"So was I ...later on. Quit hashing semantics. 
Don't deny how things happened because I 
know how they went .Cap told me everything 
when he came to visit me at Rampart."

That shut Johnny up and Roy saw a wrinkle on
Gage's forehead ease.  But Johnny's eyes stayed 
gray and suddenly full with conviction.
"I'll let you know this, Roy. I promise that I'm never
gonna let you or anyone else I know down ever 
again if I can help it."

"That's the spirit. A promise is good for the soul.."

"That's only if a promise can be kept, Roy." Johnny 
countered. "It's its own double edged sword sometimes."

"Like you learned with Kelsey and Amber?" DeSoto
said gently.

Johnny stopped hauling away on the tire lugs where
he knelt in the grass. "Yeah.." he said bitterly. "Like
that.."

"Well, you made no such promise to Dr. Morton,
my friend. So stop blaming yourself for something
you couldn't have changed." DeSoto interjected
quickly. "It was somebody else who brought
that tower down and caused the accident. Not
you. You were just a victim that time."

"It's never good for a paramedic to be a victim."
Johnny said tightly.

"Exactly right. So just be a paramedic and everything
will turn out right if it's in your power, like it always
does."

"Like it used to do.."

"Like it STILL does, partner.." he firmly glared.
"I'll let you know if you ever lose your edge. Remember, 
Brackett says you're one of the best." he chuckled. 
"And I'm keen on protecting that reputation because it 
reflects well on me. Next month's review and raise is depending 
on that. I'm also doing it because I've a lot of ground to 
catch up on with my bills and my FAMILY's bills.." he groaned.
"So I'm gonna guarantee that fatter paycheck any way
I can."

Instead of laughing, Gage frowned.
"Yeah? Well what about my reputation in the eyes
of Dr. Morton? I'd say I'm just about shot as a medic
if he decides to blame his sister's death on me
in front of the paramedic's review board."

DeSoto stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

But then, a few minutes later, as the morning 
warmth dried the sweat off their faces, DeSoto 
spoke up. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I'm sure that Brice, as head chair, would review
any case he overhears fairly in concern with
recertifying you if Morton should want an investigation
done examining the actions you took that day.
Craig is a walking rule book you know."

"And I'm a walking jobless man if I get a suit 
filed against me. How can I keep my personal 
promises then if I can't be a paramedic anymore?"

"Trust in your promises, Johnny. They're all
you've got. " he said seriously. Then he laughed,
adding. "Then trust your friends to know you 
better than you do. They'll never tell you any lies
about how you really are."

Johnny finally harrumphed in his throat with
a slight smile which admitted that he gave
Roy a point for being right on that.

"Come on. This tire's all set. Let's get
some food. Dixie says the tuna fish casserole's
incredible. I'll vouch for it. I sure ate enough of
it during my hospital stay.."
-----------------------------------------------------------

Photo :  Brackett,  Morton and Joe treating a woman
              in treatment 3. 

Photo :  The squad in a near collision.

Photo :  Johnny view of squad day drive.

Photo :  Firefighters, police and a body bag. 

*************************************************
From : "Katherine Bird" <kathbird@hotmail.com>  
Subject : Indigestion..  
Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 05:06:55 +0100  

Roy had just paid for his lunch of pasta
when Johnny crashed into the back of
his partner with his own tray full of the
same thing. Gage had to go through heroics
in order to keep from spilling his milk
and keeping his cherry jello from jiggling
out of its pudding dish.

"Would you just cut that out already.."
DeSoto complained. His tray had been
uneffected by the impact since he was the bigger
man in mass of the two and had absorbed all
of it without ill effect.

"What?"

"Quit slinking around here as if you expect
a firing squad to pop outta nowhere."

"I'm not slinking around.. I'm ..I'm..just keeping
an eye out, that's all."

"Don't tell me, you don't want to run into Mike
Morton.." he pegged in irritation in a half whisper
so the surrounding hospital staff wouldn't overhear.
He offered peace by pulling out a chair
at a nearby table for Johnny first before grabbing
and reversing another one for himself.
"I thought we had settled all that."

"...Not directly...no. Look, Roy, I mean, he's bound 
to show up looking for me sometime.."

"How do you know? You haven't yet even talked
to the man."

Gage began to gesture pointedly. "Can't
we just ...sit over there?" he pleaded half
heartedly.

"Where?" Roy said, irritated at the idea of
moving again when his stomach was complaining
so loudly. 

Johnny pointed again and Roy looked over
his shoulder to the table his partner wanted.

Roy frowned. "There's no sun over there.
You wouldn't be able to see your plate well
enough to eat from it if we ate over there. I'm
fine right here. You can move if you like. Today,
I'm gonna be part chameleon and soak up
the daylight. Let's just say that tower's rubbed off
a little too much on me. I suddenly find I
really like open spaces." and he began to shovel
it in as only a hungry fireman could.

"Roy, would you jus--" And Gage broke off when he
saw Dixie and Brice headed their way. "Oh, no..
He's bad enough.." But rather than looking like he
was retreating, Johnny sat down next to Roy
and nervously positioned his arms and posture
to look like he wasn't nervous.. He failed miserably
and Dixie McCall caught on right away.

"Oh, come on, Johnny. It's not that bad." Dixie grinned.
"Mike won't bite your head off. I've been working on him these 
last few weeks sharing with him just what you had to go 
through during the incident where Angie Morton was killed.
I even showed him your medical chart showing how low your
PO2 levels were because of those freon fumes." she
grinned.

"Dixie!" Gage said in mortification at that breach of confidentiality.
Johnny made a hushing face, but Brice seemed to be oblivious.

Craig just offered Dixie a third chair at Johnny and Roy's
table before he took the last one and began arranging
his tray and silverware just so on the china blue
formica table top. He even passed over the salt to the
head ER nurse so she could season her salad.

Johnny was beginning to relax about Dixie's
meddling admission when Craig Brice spouted off
in surprise instant support. "No paramedic could have been 
expected to keep a clear head dealing with any rapid life or
death decision making processes with the marked
hypoxia you had during that crisis. I'll stand by what I 
read.." he said matter of factly.

Johnny nearly choked on his tuna. "What is
this? Why is my medical chart suddenly everyone's
common property around here." he whined, 
unconvincingly angry. "I thought there were rules
to protect my privacy that way.."

Dixie held out a hand apologetically to Johnny
and set a warm grip on his forearm. "I'm
sorry, Johnny. But Dr. Brackett felt that that was
the best way to defuse Mike from taking a legal
course of action against you by spreading 
around just what you had to work with. "

The color drained from Gage's face. "He's
been doing  what?"

 "Nothing official, Gage.." Brice said. "So far, it
was just a meeting with Dr. Brackett, Morton and
myself concerning competency.."

Johnny threw down his fork with a clatter and
jumped from his seat. "That's it! I'm going to 
go talk ta Morton right now. This is really getting
insane..."

"Wait a minute, Junior, where do you think you're 
going?" Roy asked.
"Gage, hold on a short moment, before you take
  an action that you'll regret in the future." Brice
suggested blandly.
"Johnny.. pipe down everyone's gonna stare."
Dixie hissed. They all said simultaneously.

It took all three of them to pull the distraught 
young paramedic back into his cafeteria seat. 

"Shut up and eat." DeSoto said with finality,
handing Johnny back his fork and pulling away
the HT so Johnny couldn't leave.

"Don't think I can. I just lost my appetite."
Johnny mumbled. He toyed with the food on
his plate, pushing it around while watching the
steamy curls from his lunch waft away in the 
breezy sunlight.

"Why don't you trust Dr. Brackett to manage
Doctor Morton about all this? You're not to blame
for what happened.." Dixie insisted.

"That's what I told him.." Roy agreed in exasperation.
"Only my half witted partner here doesn't believe me."

"Wait a minute. Wait a minute.. Guys. Don't you
think all of this should be between just Mike
Morton and me?"

"And a pair of lawyers, Gage. Can't forget them."
Brice piped up, trying to interject a bit of
reality to the problem.

Johnny's face went even a paler shade of gray.

"Oh, Johnny. Knock it off. You did what you could.
I heard the whole story from Hank Stanley when
he was here to see you two back then. Now, why
don't you just sit back and let Kel handle all this?
It's his job to go to bat for his paramedics."
Dixie moaned.

"And mine.." Craig piped up.

Somehow, Brice's admission didn't feel all that
warm and fuzzy to Johnny Gage like it could
have been. He just stuck magnet eyes on Craig 
and mumbled tongue tied comments of no import 
while he twisted his brain around the convolutions of 
his current nightmare conversation.

Finally, Gage said something the others could
understand. "You mean, Brackett's cool about
all this? That he'd know if I could be sued for
incompetency over ..over.. Miss Morton's..?"

"He should know. He was handling your medical 
calls that day." Dixie said firmly. "You're just
going to have to trust your higher-ups to know
what's best for you in the long run to patch
things between Morton and the courts before
this whole thing blows up out of porportion."

"That's what I'm afraid of.." Johnny whispered,
taking a bite of his suddenly cold food. 
"I'm not in control here anymore." he said
in a way no one else heard.

While the others ate and moved happily onto 
other subjects, Johnny Gage suddenly felt like the 
loneliest man in the world.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Johnny was heading out the cafeteria doors to
rejoin Roy in the squad, when he overheard the 
clump of nurses he usually targetted for-asking 
out-on-a-date practice, speaking in animated voices 
amongst themselves.

::That's what I can do.. Get a new date to cheer 
myself up!:: Johnny thought smiling to himself. 

"Did you hear he's going to do it?" said
one pixie like nursing student, to the others.

"Who's going to do what?" asked another.

Johnny started to head over to them
wearing his best Johnny Gage suitor's 
smile, when the next sentence floating 
out to him from the entry way doors, 
made him flatten against a shadowy wall.

"Why Morton, silly. He's going after a 
paramedic who seriously let him down 
on a run."

A third nurse gasped, her breath going
wide up in a whistle of shock. "No...
I feel sorry for whoever that paramedic
is. They're all so cute."

"Yeah,.. looks like we'll have one less 
working here by the end of the week."
a third joked.

They melted away to their cars, going
off shift while Johnny stood stunned
in the corner.

::A lawsuit? Oh my G*d.::

He barely remembered getting into
the squad with Roy.
-------------------------------------------------
 
Photo:  Dix closeup in the cafeteria. 

Photo: Brice and Roy laughing.

Photo: Johnny at Rampart looking bugged.

Photo: Johnny surrounded by nurses.

Photo: Morton at the station, looking all business.

**************************************************
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:18:37 -0700 (PDT) 
From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com>  
Subject:  Rated PG for Graphic Content.. The Tiny Miracle 

*Beep* Beep* Beep*.

"Here we go.." Gage said, just to
fill the heavy void in his mind and heart.

##Station 51. Woman down. 911766 Lander's
Way. 911766 Lander's Way. Cross street,
Buena Vista Blvd. Time Out : 10: 46.##

"Looks like the engine's going to beat
us there, Johnny." Roy said as he
pulled into the drive of the hospital
and turned right under the walkway to
get to the freeway. "Hope it's a medical.
Not a trauma. They don't have that
much for gear.."

They were half way there when
the radio crackled, truck to truck.
##Engine 51 to Squad 51. We
have a s-stabbing, with arterial  
bleeding. What's your ETA?##

Gage didn't miss the odd tension
in his captain's voice. He immediately
frowned. "Now why would Cap 
broadcast a medical update over
the radio?" he said aloud.

"I don't know." Roy replied. "Let's
just get there first. Sounds bad."
He rounded a turn and then rubbed
his lips in thought. "Lander's Way.
Now why does that sound familiar to
me?"

"Gotta be a business with a street
address number that long." Gage
concluded. "Turn left here." and
Gage thumbed the radio mic and
replied. "Engine 51. Our ETA is
three minutes."

##10-4. Be advised we have two
victims. Repeat two victims..## 
Again they both heard the odd note
in Hank's voice even through the normal
tinny din of the open frequency.

Then another odd occurance happened.
They heard Cap calling out for another squad.

"Squad 8? They're farther away than us.
What the h*ll?" Johnny wondered as he
listened to Brice and Bellingham 
acknowledge the call.

"We'll know when we get there. Maybe
it's that new rule of one critical per squad
Brackett was talking about during the last
meeting coming into effect a month early."
Roy guessed.

"That's right. I remember that. It was
Brackett and Brice's idea." Gage 
replied. "And I know Cap's good with
delegating tasks when he's got his hands 
full. Even for the medical stuff."

"They've got two O2 tanks." Roy agreed.
"Those'll last well for them until we get 
there with ours."

Johnny glanced at his watch and
scribbled a note in his book. "T-minus
two minutes from arrival.."

Roy stepped on the accelerator.

-----------------------------------------------
Marco was getting sick behind a parked
car a short distance away.

Chet's complexion was faring little better. 
Kelly looked up from the dressing he held
over the woman's swollen belly and
away from the movement he was seeing 
there. "What should I do, Cap? I don't
want to tip her over onto her side to deal 
with that nausea or this fluid'll gush
out and expose it more.." he said 
softly, with high stress.

Cap continued to whisper reassurances
to the half conscious woman on the ground.
"Easy.. It's ok. Just keep breathing this in.
The rescue squad IS on its way here." he 
said, holding a passive demand valve over 
her face trying to ease the oxygen debt she 
was feeling due to her massive 
hemorrhaging. ::I sure hope it's Brice who 
gets here first..::
"Chet. Just keep her on her back. I got
the suction here if she gets ill, ok, pal?
Just keep pressure around that wound
without pressing down too much. Just
apply dressings enough to slow the 
bleeding. We have to keep any more 
contamination from getting inside of her
abdomen there."

"Where's my husband?" she moaned.
"I want to see him... Oh...hHHh."

"Don't talk right now. Please, just keep still."
Cap soothed, then he looked up with
a tight mouth. "Stoker! Any sign of
her assailant? There's more blood over
here possibly from a second person, 
by Marco. On second thought, never
mind. Go check on Lopez and see 
how he's doing. We need help here. 
She's waking up."

"The thief's gone, Cap. I just talked to a witness
over here who said he ran to the north with 
her purse. He must have mugged her when 
she came out of the grocery store." Mike
replied.

Hank nodded in agreement. "Probably
because she was pregnant. Go handle
Marco then get back here with more
dressings. Also, we can at least set 
up a burn sheet to get her off the ground.
  Get a backboard and c-collar while
you're at it. We can start immobilizing her, 
too, after we cut these clothes off. But first, 
get her covered up. There are too many 
gawkers gathering here."

The sight of the engine and four firefighters
was indeed drawing a crowd from
the shopping mart and a coffee shop from
across the street. There was as yet, no
P.D. for crowd control. Hank got on his
HT. "Squad Eight, Engine 51. What's 
your ETA?"

## Four minutes.##

"10-4, Squad Eight. Our victim's regaining some 
consciousness but is developing complications."

##Understood. We're increasing our speed.## 
came Brice's cool reply.

Cap wished he could tell his arriving people
more but didn't want to run the risk for
safety reasons. ::It's bad enough as it is..::

A choking sound drew Hank's attention
downwards. "Maam?!" he shouted. "Can
you hear me?" The woman's stomach
began to heave as she tried to quell
sudden rising bile. 

It caused some amber amniotic fluid to run 
from the gaping stab wound Chet was 
managing. "Easy.. easy!" Kelly urged. 
"Don't move down here.You'll hurt yourself 
further.." 

Hank saw the woman's eyes roll back
into her head as shock finally stole away her 
consciousness. He tipped back her head 
and looked into her mouth with practiced 
cross scissor fingers. Quickly, he suction 
wanded out some welling emesis he 
found there from the back of her throat 
until the choking sounds were gone.

When he looked up, he saw all four
of his men around him over the woman.
::Good going. Now we'll get things done.::

Cap bent low to listen for sounds
of respirations. "She's still breathing.
Marco, get a resp rate after you're
through strapping her onto that long
board. Stoker. Get another sheet over her
as soon as he's through. Her pulse's
weakening. It's 130." he said, keeping 
one monitoring finger on a deeply
sunk in carotid artery.

"Cap, I don't know about this." Chet said
from where he was kneeling with his hold
around the stab wound. "There's a lot
of air getting in around the baby. I'm getting
real worried here that I'm not doing enough."

"Just hang on, pal. As long as she
doesn't lose any more amniotic fluid,
we're fine. The baby'll share the O2 she's
getting, through the umbilical cord." And he
stepped up his care, starting to actively 
ventilate the woman when her breathing
grew too shallow for his liking. 

::Come on, Johnny, Roy. Get the lead out.:: 
Chet willed mentally. ::She's one we can't 
lose..::

Cap looked up to see an arrowing squad
flying towards them from the east. It wasn't
squad 8. ::Uh oh. Didn't want that to happen.::
"Stoker get set. Watch Roy carefully
when he gets here. And keep him away from 
me. Gage's the only one allowed to handle 
her." he said, keeping up his vents on 
Joanne DeSoto. 

"Regulations?" Marco asked.

Cap nodded his head.

All three were watching when Roy's 
horrid cry of recognition exploded from 
his lips. Mike Stoker intercepted DeSoto's
desperate charge to get near his wife 
and unborn child. "Joanne!"

Gage almost dropped the gear boxes
and O2 he was carrying. "What?!"
He ran by Stoker. "Don't you let go of
him.." he ordered. "No matter what he
does or says. Brice and Bellingham 
will be here long before I get in over 
my head." 

Mike had brought Roy to his knees to
keep him from getting into his crewmates'
way. He kept talking to DeSoto, telling
him what was wrong and what they had 
found on her.

"Joanne? Stabbed in the abdomen? 
The baby!!" Roy panicked. "I gotta
get over there."

"DeSoto. Stay put!" Cap snapped.
"Or it's your job, pal. Understood?"
he said more softly, in sympathy.

Roy nodded reluctantly, but finally
he stopped struggling with Stoker. He
tried to content himself with trying to see 
over the sheets to where Johnny, Chet,
Marco and Cap were crouched. He 
could barely make out the slight rise
and fall of Joanne's chest in between
the breaths Cap was giving her.

At a glance from Gage, Hank reported, 
"She got sick once. And I already listened.
Nothing got into her chest. It's clear."

Gage sighed in relief. ::One hurdle 
down. Let's see how far we get with
the rest of things.:: Johnny was already 
sweeping over Joanne's body in a rapid 
assessment. "Only that one stab wound?" 
he demanded of Kelly.

"Yeah, there's no exit wound. 
Johnny,...hurry. It's coming out.." Chet 
said in a tight whisper. "So's all the fluid 
bath."

"What?" Gage leaned in closer,
quickly pulling on a pair of sterile latex gloves
from an obstetrical trauma kit. He nodded
for Marco to lift the sheet a little higher and 
to place a penlight into his mouth so Johnny 
could shine it into the dark wound that way.

He could see Roy and Joanne's third
unborn child floating silently, without 
independent movement, deep within,
with his naked eye. 
::Oh, my g*d. Please be alive. Please. 
Please..:: he begged mentally, and he 
reached out carefully to a limb he saw just
beneath the surface of inner skin surrounding 
the torn uterus. A tiny hand tightly gripped his 
finger in reflex to his stroking of its palm instantly.

Johnny's eyes teared up in a relieving surge of 
glad discovery. "The baby's alive, Roy. Looks 
like the knife didn't get down that far. I'm not
seeing any bright arterial blood in here." 

Roy wilted in a relieved father's release 
and Stoker let him go. "Th- Thank you."
he said glancing up. Bright tears had
filled his eyes. "How's she doing, Johnny?"

Johnny freed the tiny hand from his
index finger and covered it with a 
damp sterile saline gauze pad carefully.
"Chet. This doesn't come off. Got it?"

"Clear as anything."

Johnny addressed his distraught partner.
"She's fine, Roy. I got pulses down
to the brachial level on both arms and
good bilateral femoral pulses. Looks like
the knife didn't hit any major organs either. 
I'm not smelling any bowel. Just the anterior 
superior uterus here seems effected in the 
central umbilical region.This laceration's only 
about four inches long but it's penetrating 
clear through to the womb obliquely."

He glanced lower and didn't find any
bloody show further down. "The birth
canal's intact, Roy. Thing's are looking 
real good." he sighed out loud. "All her
trauma seems to be extremely localized."

He peeled off his fluid stained gloves
and got out a blood pressure cuff.
"Ok, Chet. The bleeding's mostly stopped.
Your job is to make sure the baby
doesn't poke through again, ok? Put
on this second pair of gloves and 
maintain a firm barrier over the wound."
  
"I'm no nurse, Johnny. I don't want
to hurt the baby." Kelly frowned.

"You won't, the baby'll move back
away from you shortly. It's not
uncommon for free movement this
late along, during a second trimester."

Roy was nodding his head in agreement
despite his numbing emotional fog. He 
nodded every step of the way, too, during 
Johnny's biophone call to Rampart, at
every satisfactory aspect of his partner's 
examination results and vital signs report.

"....Rampart, it appears she's lost about
800 cc's of blood to the outside and 
about......" he added, lifting up the cut away 
garments forgotten and shoved into a heap 
behind Chet,  to look more closely for a better
estimate of volume. "...200 cc's of amniotic fluid 
from what I'm seeing here." he said.

Kel's firm no nonsense voice filled the air.
"51, start two I.V.'s Normal Saline and run
wide open until her B.P. comes up. Under
no circumstances are you to pack
the wound. I'd rather it drain freely. We'll
handle any major leakage when she arrives
and gets sent into surgery. Use no pain 
medications on the victim, at all. It might 
further depress the baby's vital signs. 
What are they, 51?"

Gage read his notes. "Fetal pulse is 180 
via stethoscope auscultation. Mother's 
respiratory rate, assisted, is 22 on 16 liters
of O2."

"Good enough. Watch for fetal protrusions
such as free limbs or the umbilical cord in
transit. Under no circumstances are you
to push any such extrusion back into the
uterus. Just maintain space around the 
area manually to keep good circulation 
going in the part."

"10-4, Rampart. So far, just an arm's been
visible, that only submerged, and a hand,
briefly."

Over the radio, Dr. Morton, who had been
walking by, commented. "No doubt that's
how Gage found out the baby was still
alive. The grasping reflex.."

"No doubt.." Kel agreed.

Brackett re-thumbed the talk button. 
"Keep her warm, keep her legs
elevated and get her and baby in
here a.s.a.p. Tell the ambulance 
driver to avoid potholes if at all 
possible. Oh, and don't forget to
apply an occlusive dressing over the 
wound to slow the amniotic fluid loss 
you're experiencing. That's irreplaceable 
at this stage of the game."

"10-4, Rampart. Treat for shock.
and use an air tight dressing."

Right then, Squad Eight came
tearing around a corner, screeching
efficiently to a halt and Brice
and Bellingham got out. "Rampart,
an additional squad has arrived to
help me keep her and her wound stable.
Our ETA is approximately fifteen 
minutes. The Mayfair's here."
Gage added when a second set of sirens
grew in rising pitch, from the distance.

Roy was finally allowed to sit by
Joanne's head, slightly to one
side so he didn't get in the way of
the oxygen being delivered to his still
wife and very active baby.  Already, the 
shock he experienced when he first got 
to the scene, was lifting.
"I don't suppose you saw the baby's
gender over there." Roy quipped, trying to 
smile and he gently caressed Joanne's
pale face around Cap's jaw gripping 
glove.

Johnny shook his head. "Sorry about that.
Your baby decided to not cooperate in 
that way, Pally. Relax.. They're both in 
good hands. Mine. I promised you that 
I'd be here."

"And you are.." Brice said, kneeling, as
he snatched Johnny's notepad from
his hands to read what Gage had written
down.

His speculative eye cast over Joanne
once and his head bobbed in satisfaction
over the progress of her course of treatment 
thus far. Craig waved over the ambulance 
attendants. "We're ready here. Looks like 
everything's set and good to go."
-------------------------------------------------

Photo: Johnny and Roy headed for
           the squad through the ER doors.

Photo: Joanne DeSoto in close up.

Photo: An extra-uterus fetal hand gripping
           a gloved finger.

*********************************************
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 00:52:00 -0700  
From: "Sam Iam" <lafddispatcher@yahoo.com>   
Subject:  Bull in a China Shop.. 
 

"Hey..." Dixie gently woke her two favorite
paramedics where they slumped in their
seats outside the surgical family waiting room.

Roy and Johnny both sat up, rubbing sleepers
out of their eyes quickly and they both coughed 
to get their voices back from the depths of
slumber.

"It's over. The surgery was a success. Dr.
Brackett managed to seal up your wife's
womb without losing any more amniotic fluid.
Joanne's just been extubated and is resting
comfortably. So's the baby on the sonograms,
Joe says. And there's a one hundred percent
chance she'll be able to carry your baby
all the way to full term for a normal delivery."

"When can I see her, Dix?" Roy asked.

"Oh, in about an hour or so. By then,
she'll be awake enough for visits.."
McCall grinned. "I gotta go. My shift's
up."

"See ya Dixie..And, thanks for everything." 
DeSoto said after her as she padded 
quietly down the hall towards the elevators
in the semi darkness of the nighttime hospital
wing.

"Say, maybe this's is gonna fix
everything." Gage said softly.

"What's gonna fix what?" Roy 
croaked groggily.

"This whole rescue and how 
Morton feels about me being the one
who headed it. He can't possibly
hold malice towards me now."

"Oh, that again?" Roy said rubbing tired
eyes as he almost began drifting
off to sleep right where he was
in his waiting room chair.

"Maybe if he sees how well I handled
Joanne and the baby on paper.." he paused.
"With you, of course.. that he'll have
no desire to press charges about how
I handled his sister that day. He
was there in the room with Brackett for
this one. I know. I heard him."

"Who knows what that man thinks.
I don't think anyone around Rampart
can say much about him personally."
Roy admitted. "So how can you predict
how he'll react with any certainty?"

"Yeah, guess you're right.." Gage
said, sinking into a depression once
again that outshown the joy he
felt meeting Roy's unborn son or
daughter peeking out of the womb.

He thought again about what he
had overheard from the student nurses
on his way out the ER doors the day before.
::Man.. Maybe I SHOULD bough out while
I still have my pride left. I can't take this
anymore. Gonna have to do something about
that before I'm embarrassed publicly before
everyone in a courtroom.::

Somewhere halfway to home, Johnny Gage
made his final decision.

------------------------------------
It was the next day after a harrowing 
fire call, at the resupplying  station.

"Gage, I wanna talk to you."

"About what..?" Johnny said,
stiffening up at Morton's approach.
::Here it comes, the ultimatum.::

"About missing critical vital signs
on a patient that we both took care 
of together."

"On who?" Johnny blinked in surprise.

"Baby DeSoto."

"I didn't miss any vitals signs on the baby."
he said fading from neutral into a tone
which carried a tinge of irritation.

"This here says you did. There's a blank
space glaring out at me. Caused me
and my receptionist a few headaches
transcribing my ER report this morning."

"Give me that.." Johnny said, snatching
up the run sheet xerox from Mike's hands
and reading where the young doctor
was pointing.

"I did take a fetal pulse. Apically.."
Gage insisted. "I got a rate of 180."

"Where? I don't see any notation
about it on Joanne's run sheet.
See? It isn't anywhere on here."

Johnny just gaped like a fish..

".. I'm right and you know it." 
Morton said cooly, his less than 
stellar bedside manner showing.

"No , I'm right!" Johnny insisted.
"This is a xerox, Dr. Morton. And
I just didn't press my pen down
hard enough. It's there. I can
see the ink furrows plainly."

Kel Brackett finally decided to
get into the fray. "Maybe this isn't a case 
of who was right you two? Joanne's fine.
The baby's fine. So why are
you both squabbling over the details?
You both did a fantastic job both in
the field and in the treatment room
yesterday." Kel insisted, grumbling 
stonily. But his comment fell on two
sets of deaf ears.

Johnny and Morton were still
glaring at each other like two
caged lions.

Kel smiled as he walked away
from the base station, shaking his
head ruefully. He would let his two favorite
ex-student proteges, work it out for 
themselves.

"I did an absolutely spectacular fetal
stabilization out there. And you know
it. You make me feel as if I'm being
incompetent or something here."

"Maybe I am.." Morton said, not
at Johnny, but inwardly, to himself.

"Why?" Johnny asked sharply, taking
that comment's meaning entirely the
wrong way.

"I don't know." Morton shrugged,
still thinking to himself and only half 
listening.

Johnny was still fuming and defensive.
"Then why don't you just haul me
off to court and we'll square this
whole issue away once and for all.."

"Huh? Oh, that. I don't have the money 
right now to pursue any charges 
against you, Gage."

"Now Morton, Look..." Johnny said
very hushed, fearing the worst.

"And I wouldn't do such a petty thing
anyway because it wouldn't be justified 
in the slightest to even attempt it."

Johnny's head immediately lifted.
"What?"

"I'm not blaming you for my sister's death,
Fireman Gage.  But I AM still a little jumpy
when it comes to handling rescue calls involving
any teen aged girls who are near the age Angie 
was. Something me and the counselors haven't
been able to figure out yet. That's why I got 
a little tight with you earlier, about how
you assessed the baby, over the biocom."

"You mean.."

Morton held up silencing fingers, just 
as the hospital receptionist summoned
his name over the intercom pager
and gave a where-to-report-next location.

Mike refocused on a tense paramedic
face. "That's right, Gage. I never went 
to a courthouse to file a lawsuit. 
That would've been stupid. I finally 
summoned up enough courage to read 
Angie's final autopsy report. 
She never had a chance at
surviving that accident, Johnny.
There was nothing humanly possible
that you could've done. Excuse me,
I have a lot of work to do right now.
Can we talk about all this later?"

Mutely, Johnny nodded.

Half a second later, Dr. Morton wandered 
down the hall to the nurses' station phone
to answer his page.

---------------------------------------------------

Photo : Dixie making an appearance
            for Roy and John in the nurses lounge.

Photo:  Morton squaring off with a wary Gage.

Photo:  Roy eyeing something intently in closeup.

**********************************************
From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>  
Subject :The Final Post.. (No pun intended) Heh...:)  
Date : Thu, 02 Oct 2003 12:20:17 +0400  
   
Johnny Gage rushed out of the hospital
rest room, searching for his bored,
wandering partner. "There you are! 
Roy! I did something really stupid."

"What? Did you get dressed again
without a spare set of shoelaces handy?"
Roy smirked. "Don't tell me, you broke 
yet another pair." Roy said sipping 
his coffee by the entry way doors
leading out to the ambulance ramp.

"No, you gotta listen. I wrote a letter
to headquarters and I mailed it without
even thinking straight."

Roy tipped his head in a sinking suspicion,
but out loud he asked. "What kind of letter?"

"The kind no one ever wants to write.."

"You didn't."

"Yes, I did."

"Why didn't you tell me you did something
so stupid."

"Thought I just told ya, pal."

Roy grimaced, and looked at his watch.
"Oh, Johnny..." he whined. "Which mail 
box?"

"The one by home.."

"Uh, oh.."

"Uh, oh what?"

"The postal truck picks up all
deliveries in your neighborhood
at eight o'clock."

"What time is it now? Maybe I got
time to drive down there and--"

"Can you drive faster than a hundred
miles an hour?" DeSoto squinted as
he noted what time it read on his wrist
watch.

"Oh, no.."

"Oh, yes. We got twenty minutes to
intercept that letter." Roy's face fell.
"Why'd ya do it partner? I thought we
were friends."

"Roy, would you cut that out. I didn't
mean it."

"Oh really. Tell that to headquarters when
they open up the envelope." Somberly,
he stuck out his hand. "It's been nice
knowing ya. By noon, I'm afraid
you're out of a job. You know how
McConnike feels about quitters."

Johnny Gage suddenly snapped his
fingers in the midst of a great idea.

"Roy, I think I figured a way outta this.
Bear with me." And he snatched the HT
out of his partner's hand.

--------------------------------------------------

Roy sat in the seat of the squad with
his driver's door open, looking like
the proverbial speak no evil monkey.

All the medical gear from the stow
was conveniently arranged around
the mail box in a neat ring. Johnny
even had out the jaws of life.

It had been bad enough roaring down
the freeway with lights and siren on for
no good reason at all. Luckily, they had
never run into another called out station
while they were doing it.

Johnny tried to look nonchalant
as E 51 pulled up with the rest of
the gang Code Three. "What's
the problem, Gage? " Hank said
stepping out of the cab before
the Ward was even curbside.
"Sam was a little light on details for 
this one. All we got was 'Unknown 
Type Rescue" with your squad call 
sign as the originator.."

"Uhhh.." Roy stuttered.

"Roy, Just shush.. I'll explain it.."
Johnny said and he bravely stepped
forward to provide some
protection for his partner.

"Well, uh,," Johnny cleared his 
throat nervously. "You see, Cap, it's
like this.  I sorta kinda wrote a stupid
letter this morning before I came to
work. One that I kinda regret.."

Hank Stanley caught on immediately
and dropped his head with an irritated
grimace that soon, rapidly, became a snarl
as comprehension dawned.
"Don't say anything more, Gage.
Oh my word...L*rd all mighty in Heaven..!"

He set his hands on his hips and
counted to ten..

"Cap,.. I.."

Hank held up a hand while the
gang gathered around him from
the engine's cab for orders. Then they 
noticed Hank silencing Gage with his 
trademark scathing nonverbal captain's 
gesture.

 Slowly, his face turned a bright scarlet.
Hank took in a deep breath and ...then
he let loose.."We just wasted tax payers' 
gasoline dollars to come all the way out 
here to high tech rescue a stupid 
resignation letter?!" Hank boomed.

"Uh..." Johnny peeped. "Cap, the
postman's gonna be here any second."
he insisted lamely.

"I don't believe this! Of all your crazy
lame brained schemes.. this one
certainly takes the cake, Gage."

"Yeah, but isn't it noble?" Chet piped
up, sudden admiration's stars in
his eyes at Johnny's cack handed
way of getting out of a rough spot.

Cap's face just turned a darker
shade of red.

"Breathe, Cap." Marco insisted
from somewhere out of range.

DeSoto and Gage just glared
at Lopez..

"We're saving my partner's 
career here." Roy dropped into the
boiling silence between them all.

"Say,,," said Chet, scenting an opportunity
to get even in the years long Gage/Kelly
one upmanship game. "Cap,..just think of 
how many favors you can glean off him 
for this."

Hank's glower faded away into a calculating
speculation. "Ahh. That's right. I get to pull
some serious rank AND discipline here.
Let's see, well, latrine duty for sixty days, 
kitchen chow and dish detail until Christmas.."
he said ticking off two fingers on his glove.

"Until Christmas?!" Gage sputtered, then 
immediately hushed up sheepishly.

"That's exactly right. Protest further and 
I'll double it.."

Gage was a mouse. A mute one.

Then they all heard responding sirens
from an approaching police car.

"Uh oh,'' Cap trickled.
     
"Quick! Pretend like your arm's stuck, Chet."
Johnny shouted out to the back of
the engine.

"Do what the man says Kelly and
be quick about it.." Hank re-enforced.

"What, Cap?" Chet said as he
huffed over with the equipment they
needed.

"You heard me.." Cap hissed as
the squad car squealed to a halt
angled a forty five to the engine to
deflect traffic away from it.

"Hurry up, Chet. We gotta make 
this look good." Marco quipped.

"We're going to be destroying
government property here, Kelly." Cap
clarified, looking around self consciously
at the curious passersby drawn in by 
the sight of the flashy engine and squad
in front of the bank.

"We need an excuse." Stoker said
when Kelly still didn't yet catch on. 
"Bury an arm now, Chet. "

"And moan a little.. cause here comes 
Vince to guard the loose mail that'll 
result from our steel splitting 
surgery.." Roy grinned.

"Oh,,,geez.." and the lightbulb finally 
clicked on.. "Right, Gage.. " Chet stuck his
arm into the box ."Ohh,, I don't feel so
good."

John smacked Kelly subtly on the arm
for overreacting a little too much.
"Hi Vince..." he greeted brightly.

"What's the problem here, boys..?"

"Chet's stuck. Thought we had a puppy 
fallen down a mail box, Vince. Only dork 
head over here couldn't wait for the key."

"Is that a fact?"  Vince leaned over
and planted an ear against the post
box and listened. "I don't hear anything."

"The little bugger got away..." Chet
protested admirably. "He WAS here.
Look.." and he pointed down to a 
convenient pile of doggy doo doo
steaming on a curb near where they
were standing. "He crawled right up
my arm like a cat getting out. He even
clawed my face.. See?" And he
pointed to a lac he got from a shooting
cinder the night before.

"Hmm. Ok, boys.. I'll authorize
a sawing.." Vince finally agreed.
"Just... try to keep the public's mail
intact while you're doing it, all right?"

The K-12 flower petalled the mail box in
less than twenty seconds under Stoker's
extraordinary extrication skills.

Gage subtly kicked the letter he recognized
as his into the sewer sunk into the street.

::Problem solved..:: he grinned in final relief.
::This nightmare, is over..::

FIN

--------------------------------------------

Photo : Roy and John laughing at Rampart.

Photo : Cap and Chet highly amused outside.

Photo : A very serious Johnny and Vince.

Photo: A yellow street corner mail box.

Photo : A hand delivering a letter to a mailbox.

Photo: A very smug satisfied, smiling Johnny.
 
***********************************************
Emergency Theater Live�
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

ETL Hosts : Patti Keiper and Erin James in the United States

**Theaterhost@voyagerliveaction.com
     Emergency Theater Live� "Offstory" Email Address
     For Midi Music Requests and General Inquiries
 
http://www.voyagerliveaction.com/emergency.html
Emergency Theater Live� Homepage  

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/emergencytheaterlive
Writer's Pre-Production Distribution Site

http://www.myspace.com/emergencyfans
Emergency Theater Live�/Emergency Fans Unite at MySpace

ETL's Emergency Community Forum
http://emergency.tv-series.com/

____________________________________

Mark VII Productions, NBC, and Universal owns
all of Emergency!� and its Characters. 2009�. 
All rights reserved.


=========================

 ***NOTE: All author writings submitted to the 
theater will be set free onto the web to reach as 
many readers as we can manage to find. 
 Contributing to any ETL episode means that 
Voyagerliveaction.com has permission to publish 
your work in the manner presented here on this website 
and on text versions of the stories on other sites. All web 
audience writers or volunteer consultants and their 
corresponding emails will be duly recorded and left in place 
within each show's music and imaged airing episode, 
pointing out that fan or professional EMS personnel's 
creative contribution. 
 
Theater Host-  Emergency Theater Live!�..