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| Page Eleven |
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Then there was no more time for words. Both medics lost themselves in the care of their victims and soon, Mike was tuned out altogether. "Oh, Jeremy..." Mike fretted. Then, on a thought, he whistled. Boot came running, instantly. Pulling a lead from his pants pocket, Mike attached it to his collar and he turned his bandaged eyes towards the burning building. "Boot...." he said, taking a tight grip on the leash.. "Seek. Find him. He's in the fire.." Boot dashed forward, pulling Mike effortlessly with him. Stoker counted on the dust and smoke from the fire and the cover of night to conceal his entry into the building fire. His gamble worked. No one saw him go inside. "Boot!" he coughed. "Find him.. Upstairs.." Loud crackles from the burning timbers and their self destruction's rumble guided Mike on where not to step. He relied on the feel of Boot's leash on his arm to point out the safest way. Mike slowly became aware of an intense almost surrealistic bright orange glow. ::The fire. I can see it!:: Stoker began to claw off his eye wraps as Boot led him deeper into the open garage and to the stairwell. He whined to his left suddenly and immediately turned away. Mike covered his nose. He knew the smell of a charred body when he encountered one. "oh, please, no.." he sighed. But Boot was still pulling him strongly onwards. ::Maybe that corpse back there, was the arsonist.:: Stoker's spirits raised. "I am in so much trouble.." he mumbled. The last of the bandages fell away and the bright stabbing orange light pierced deep into his retinas, making his barely healed eyes, water. "This light..My G*d. It's bright enough for me to see by!" Soon, he was wiping away the tears as perfectly clear, fire illuminated vision returned."Boot, double time.." he ordered. His shoe hit the first stair. |
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By some miracle, the front wall's collapse hadn't crushed the stairwell and its bulk had snuffed out a great deal of the fire in that area. Mike followed Boot into the blackness at the top, where Stoker froze in his tracks. Bright sparklets of light lanced into his field of vision. ::Deprivation. I still don't have my night vision back. I'm gonna have to go back or risk getting trapped up here.:: But Boot's leash went tell-taley slack and Mike heard Boot begin to bark frantically from just ahead of him. Stoker reached out and his hand struck the hard metal coils of a gutted bunk .. and..a leg.. "Jeremy??!" A small boy's moan greeted him. Mike wasted no time and he gathered up the boy into his arms and then slid him head first over a shoulder. Then Mike said, "Boot. Out. Go outside. Go..go.. go.." Stoker's fear lessened when the bright glow of the main fire granted him sight once more. Near the outer door, Mike was met by an angry team of county firefighters. "Hey.. just what the h*ll do you think you're doing??" one of them shouted through his airmask. "Take him.. Sorry. I'm with 51's. I heard him calling for help." he lied. "I'm Mike Stoker." "Yeah, I know who you are.." said the bigger one. "Is he breathing?" "Yeah.." |
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Mike let the firemen take Jeremy and used the same route he had taken before with Boot to return to the fireline. As he walked away from the fire, Mike was amazed to find that his watery vision didn't entirely disappear. In fact, as the chill air cooled him, it got better. The first clear sight he saw, was Chet, sweating over the chem panel on the engine. And then he saw the night stars. Smiling, Stoker reached down and petted Boot's sooty back in sheer joy. "Good dog.. good dog.... What a way to work.. Good boy.." As Mike suspected, no one else knew what he had done. The two men from 127 who had dropped off Jeremy near the squad, had been, luckily, mutually decided to hustle back to their fire detail instead of reporting Stoker to anyone. Mike released Boot from his lead and whispered. "Go to Cap, boy.. Move it.." He watched the valiant dog rejoin Hank at full tilt. Then he knelt down quietly by Johnny, who was working on Victoria, who was just coming to. "Relax, Vic." Mike soothed. "Your bump doesn't ...look... too bad." That made Gage glance up from the BP he was taking on her. Johnny did a double take when he saw that Mike was bandage-less.. and seeing.. "Mike!" he said happily. "You can see.." Then Gage's face flickered between watchfulness over Vic's changing status and curiosity over Mike's. "Hang- hang on there. I'll be right with you." |
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"No rush.. I feel fine." "You sure?" "Yeah.." "No flashes or..spots ..or anything like that?" "Nope..None." "Ok. Good... All right....." Gage forced himself to stop staring at the relieved tears flowing unabashed down Mike's face. "Listen, Mike.. uh, I'm dying of curiosity to see how the boy's doing. Could you go over there and just .. you know check on him for me? It's bugging me 'cause Roy hasn't said much about him yet." Stoker patted Johnny on the shoulder, "Gladly." As Mike crossed the short distance to where Ben and Roy and Jeremy were, he dried his cheeks on a sleeve. Then he couldn't resist. "Nice guage work, Chet.... Looks .....like your psi pressure's perfect..." Mike ambled nonchalantly on past him. Kelly just about did arabian handsprings at the sight of Mike walking, free of Boot, eagle eyeing everything around him. "WahhhHHhooooo Stoker.. All rightt!!!! Man, this is great.. Your eyes are-- Wait a minute, why am I cheering? I'm gonna get demoted now.." "You can live with it.." "Just as long as you can, pal.." Kelly fired back. "I'm beginning to fall in love with this job, Stoker. I may test out with ya in the fall. May the best man win.... WahhhhHHHhhoooo." he howled again. This time half a dozen firefighters rubber necked in their direction and Mike only shrugged, making crazy signs with a finger circling his ear and then a hooking thumb at Kelly, when Chet wasn't looking. Mercifully, Chet never caught on to why the other men were laughing. Mike Stoker entered the place where the triage lights had been set up above Roy and his victims. He approached his coworker, keen on surprising him with his Lazarus back from the blind routine when something about DeSoto's body english stopped him. He set a hand on Roy's shoulder. "Roy, how's Jeremy doing?" Roy looked up and reacted pretty much as Johnny had about his eyes. But Stoker never saw it. His eyes were locked on Jeremy's face. The boy was pink, breathing well under an 02 mask, and his skin was mercifully whole. But two hideous sockets existed where the boy's eyes had once been. They had completely boiled away from the heat of the burning fire. DeSoto heard Stoker's gasp of horror. "Mike, he's not in any pain. I've given him a pain med. But, I'm afraid he'll never s--" and DeSoto's voice broke. " see.. again.." He studied his hands and the spent MS syringe resting there without being aware of it. "Not ever?" Roy slowly shook his head without meeting his eyes. Stoker's face filled with salty wetness and he bent low over his favorite project kid's drugged form, and cried until the ambulance came. Old Ben, seated on the squad's bumper in a cannula and blanket, set a bandaged hand on Mike's shoulder in wordless understanding. |
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------------------------------------------------------- It was another perfect sunny summer day at the McGregor ballpark and Mike Stoker and Victoria and Susan Jordan and Maxilliam and Old Ben were at their usual places around the diamond. Jeremy Conners was sitting on Mike Stoker's lap getting a verbal play by play of the game, directly from his favorite coach. "Hey Coach.." Jeremy said, sucking on his popsicle and scratching an itch under his eye wraps. "Yeah, Champ?" "Are you sure the guys aren't missing Boot at all? I mean he makes a swell guide dog and stuff, but Boot's a fireman just like d--" his voice trailed away. "Yeah, he is a pretty good one. " Mike studied Jeremy's hanging head. "It's ok. It's all right to be sad about your father and what happened to that old firehouse. But that's the funny thing about living. Life always changes. And there's nothing in the world we can do about it... ..except..." Jeremy's face cracked a smile and he lifted a hand full of slender sticks. "...except throw popsicles sticks at it.. Yyeeahhhhhhhh!" and the red haired boy crowed at the top of his lungs, hurtling his wooden missiles down on the players below. He started to laugh when Tiny and Cruz, standing near the bleachers, complained verbally about the rain of litter landing on them. But, to themselves, the project kids made it a point not to grumble too much. Mike and Victoria, on either side of the happy little boy, smiled broadly at Jeremy, muttering in conspiracy about what they could throw next. And behind his back, the two adults timidly joined affectionate hands. Not missing a beat, Victoria spoke up. "Don't fret about the guys missing Boot, Jer. Because Boot's a free spirit. He wouldn't've stayed at 51's for long anyway. He always gravitates to those who need him the most Mike tells me. And you certainly fit his bill young man.." Jeremy giggled when she tickled his nose. She went on with a small smile. "Nah, I think Boot the wanderer's finally found a home.." "You know what, guys?" Jeremy asked, angling his head up. "What..?" Both Mike Stoker and Victoria asked together. "I think I'm finally home, too. " FIN :) Season One, Episode Four- Within Sight -------------------------------- |
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| We hope you liked WITHIN SIGHT and enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed producing it for you. Please see below to go to Within Sight's END CREDITS :) |
| Click Roy and John to see end credits for Within Sight |
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| Click Engine Dials to go to Page Twelve :) |
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