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| PAGE TWENTY SIX |
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"What about me?" Gage complained. "I'm not dizzy." "No, but you were shocky post surgical. Get your BP up to normal and you can join him." Brice dismissed Gage's jibe with efficiency. Johnny cut off his rejoiner when DeSoto's quiet vocal urging began. Roy was examining Marco's eyes with a penlight. "Marco.. It's Roy. Can you understand me? If you do, I want you to open your eyes.." Lopez didn't, but he kept stirring restlessly in his fever. DeSoto took a pen out and dug its cap into one of Marco's nail beds, pressing down hard. The pain made Marco grunt and jerk his hand away and he coughed under his oxygen mask but he didn't form legible words. "Should we go get the docs? If Marco wakes up more, he might be able to tell them about how he's feeling." Stoker asked. Roy said. "No. We're gonna let him know what's going on here first. He might not even know that we were even IN an earthquake. That in itself is going to be one h*ll of a shock." Craig reached into the drug box and pulled out an aromatic capsule, holding it up questioningly. "Yes.." Roy nodded, taking it from Brice. He pulled down Marco's O2 mask so that it was sitting by his mouth on his chest. Then he cracked the aromatic in two, waving the capsule under Lopez's nose, following after his nostrils with it when Marco tried to avoid its fumes. Lopez's eyes finally opened with startled coherence. "Marco.. you with us?" Roy asked again. "Whaa?" Lopez coughed wetly, getting rid of the ammonia stench in his nose and finally, his eyes worked to focus on faces. On a thought, Hank pulled off his own O2 cannula, and he hastily hid it in his shirt collar to spare Marco some worry. Cap set a hand on Lopez's shoulder. "Easy there, pal." "*ugh.* C -Cap? " Marco asked blearily.. "W-was I in a fire?" he said. "Hard to breathe." " It's all right, Marco. We're dealing with that. You've got some lung edema but you've got O2 on. It's right here.." Cap said, placing the mask into Marco's sweaty hand. "Use it when you need it." Roy got a blood pressure as he watched Marco recover clarity. Captain Stanley went on, "Not exactly a fire Lopez. More like a ..well, an earthquake." "What?" Marco whispered, his voice cracking. "It hit the stationhouse, Marco." Chet said taking a stool by his head. "But everyone's all right. Nothing serious injury wise." |
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Marco felt night wind on his face and noticed the stars showing through the roof where the garage rafters had been. "Ohh.." "There's no roof?! H-How are the buildings on the rest of the block?? W-we gotta go help people.." he exclaimed, and tried to rise, but his board's straps prevented that. "Oh, no. no. no.." Gage warned Marco. "We've plenty of help out there Marco. About eight engine companies worth. Casualties were light. We don't have to go anywhere so relax.." "W--? Johnny. It's dark?.. Why am I still here if I'm hurt or something? Should've been to Rampart already." he gasped. Cap and the others exchanged looks. Then Stanley looked down at his dirty hands and said. "W-we can't do that Marco. Not yet. You see, there's another problem we're dealing with right now. But we've the best team around to help us out of this one. They came all the way from the other side of the country to--" "Cap. Just level with me. Don't beat around the bush. Last time someone did that to me it was the day I found out my little cousin Bernardo had died." Lopez said. Cap looked sharply pained and fought his emotion to the point of clenching his jaw to keep anything from getting out too fast. "Marco. It's not good news, just like the news was on Bernardo.." "Is it mama? Is she ok??" Marco said with alarm. Roy and Gil held him down. "She's fine. She's fine. The quake didn't reach the Palisades. Vince's already stopped in to check on her.." Roy said quickly. "Then why do all of you look like someone died?" Lopez said. "That's because, there's a very real chance that all of us just might do that, Marco." Cap said to the point and very very raw. "I don't understand.." Lopez said. His EKG picked up a little in stress and he started to gasp until Roy made him take a few breaths off the O2 mask. |
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