










********************************** Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2003 05:10:46 +0100 (BST) From: "Katherine
Bird" <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: One of the Line... It was about forty minutes
later.
Johnny and Roy returned to base, whistling cheerfully. They had been buoyed by the
good news that Marty, the delivery man, had suffered no long term effects from his heatstroke
incident and Gage in particular, was practically bouncing on his heels as he and Roy made their
way hungrily into the kitchen on a quest for food and coffee.
What the two paramedics didn't
expect was the mortuary like atmosphere filling the warmly lit room and the sluggish sounds of
hunt and peck typing coming from Stoker, Chet and Marco as they struggled to carry out Hank's log
commandment from earlier.
Next to Kelly, was a pile of crumpled typewriter paper wads
mounded up around his place at the kitchen table and the neat organized reams of papers surrounding
the others.
Johnny and Roy skidded to a halt at the sudden reminder of their new job duty.
"Oh, that's right.." John groaned sarcastically. "And here I had almost forgotten about this..."
"Wish I had your capacity for forgetting.." Roy quipped dryly as he poured out a cup of java for
himself. He ignored Johnny's pro-offered mug that was nonverbally asking for some, and he moved
forward to see what Mike was typing for his log form up close, pretending to not even see Johnny's
move at all.
Gage made a face at his partner and filled his cup with a grimace, on his own,
from the pot.
Roy threw out a finger. "Hey,... nice neat rows there Stoker."
"Thanks.."
Stoker grinned, without looking up. He had a correcting pencil perched over one ear that hadn't even
been used.
Johnny likewise, snuck a peek over Chet's shoulder at his work and started laughing.
" You're having trouble spelling your own name?" he asked incredulously. He snatched up a random
reject discard and unrolled it. "And this one's got our call sign misspelled. How could ya have screwed
up typing "KMG 365", Chet?"
Stoker and Lopez chuckled from their seats, but didn't look up
from their work of index finger typing.
Kelly snatched the wrinkled paper out of John's hands
and he immediately began nesting the other rejected paper balls protectively into his arms. "Hey!
Quit being nosy, geesh. What do I have to do to get a little privacy around here? Build my own
personal office?"
John didn't miss a beat. "You don't have to, Chet. Just borrow Henry's doghouse
if you wanna do that."
That won Gage an even louder mirthful reaction from the guys. "Are you
even gonna answer my question?" Johnny went on, relentless and towering over Chet's chair.
"What
question?" Kelly asked with an irritated edge. Already his attention was bent on ignoring his worst
tormentor and concentrating on his newest hated chore.
Roy spoke up for Johnny. " The one about
getting down "KMG 365" wrong.."
"Oh." Chet said unenthusiastically. "I just get all these numbers
up here all confused." he said gingerly pointing at that row on his manual typewriter. "They just
don't feel right under the fingers, know what I mean?"
"Yeah..I know what ya mean." Roy said
with a mild empathy and he took another sip of coffee.
Gage leaped up and sat butt perched
on a kitchen chair's back instead of on the seat where his shoes parked. "So, whatcha gonna pay
me to do your reports each week, Chet..?"
That made Kelly blink more than twice at Gage. "Believe
me, Johnny, there isn't anything you do that's worth me giving up a single solitary dime.." he gushed
with absolute conviction.
"Suit yourself.." Johnny said and he hopped off the chair to
plunk down into the vacant nearby one that still had a brand new plastic wrapped typewriter sitting
in front of it. He grandly indicated the neighboring seat and its accompanying unwrapped typewriter
to Roy, teasing him into joining in the fun currently ongoing.
Roy just rolled his eyes and
took up Johnny's offer of a chair. "It's 'Misery loves company' I guess..." he sighed. "I might
as well join you all now while I still have the patience. I've been dreading this new log recording
assignment business the whole way back here.."
"Oh? Why so angsty?" Gage grinned, cock-eyed
and bright.
"I can't type much.." Roy growled.
Johnny cracked his knuckles loudly over
his typewriter and he pulled off its cellophane wrap. "Too bad. I feel for ya.." Then he glanced
around for the pile of logs in the middle of the table, grabbed one sixth of the stack as his allotted
portion, and his eyes fell on the unused ream of typing paper quickly dwindling in front of Chet
as he failed yet again to type out the basic information at the top of the form.
"**##&@**##!"
Chet swore, and he used both hands to angrily rip out the mistyped page from his typewriter.
Johnny
used that moment to snag a blank sheet for his own use from Kelly's pile.
"Hey... go get your
own.. I don't have that much here for myself as it is.." Chet complained.
"If you'd quit wasting
it so fast maybe you'd be able to make it last a little longer.. Here.." And Johnny lifted the
erasure pencil from Mike's ear in an easy grab and handed it to Chet in appeasement. "Maybe you oughta
learn all about having one of these then.."
Mike felt the robbing but disregarded it, eyeing up
his own close work of careful hunt and pecking.
"What's this?" Kelly asked.
"What do
you think it is?"
"A pencil.." Chet said, with "duh" written all over his tone.
|

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"A correction pencil.. It erases typing marks. Watch.." And Johnny inserted his stolen fresh piece
of paper into his new typewriter and his fingers flew through his own name on the letter keys,
typing. He intentionally typed a "Z" after the "e" in Gage. Then he showed Chet how the pencil
worked. "See? Look. There's no sign of ink where the "z" was here anywhere. Problem solved.." Gage
concluded, tossing the pencil down on top of the table.
Chet froze, blinking again. "Wait
a minute. Wait a minute. How'd you do that?"
"Do what? Use the pencil?" Johnny asked with a
smirk.
"No, dummy. How'd ya type so fast?"
"Who? Me? I wasn't typing fast. I.....I.." he
stuttered.
"Yes you were. I just watched you.." Chet fluttered a few fingers in Johnny's direction.
"You musta got out your name in .....what, Roy, half a second?"
"At least..." Roy agreed with
a yawn as he pulled off the new wrapping on his typewriter and got it set for his use.
Cap
sailed into the room, seeking coffee.. His face immediately frowned when he hefted the pot.
"What's
the matter, Cap?" Gage asked.
Cap glared at Kelly and turned the pot upside down to show its
empty state..
Chet shot up out of his chair to make a new one lickety split.
Cap rubbed
his nose as he regarded all his men sitting with the logs and the new machines. He seemed not to
see any of them, lost in thought. Then he asked. "How's our UPS man?"
"He's gonna make it."
Roy grinned. "How's the delivery truck? Were all those packages Stoker said he talked about delivered
on time..?"
"Have you ever known UPS to be late on any delivery?" Hank countered.
All
the gang shook their heads ruefully.
"I swear they had a new driver here faster than we usually
get our ambulances on scene, once I called them about his sudden illness." Cap joked. He watched
Chet pour piping java into his empty mug absently. Then he sat down at a typewriterless spot
at the kitchen table.
This time Marco spoke up. "What's the matter, Cap?"
"Hmm? Oh, nothing.
Nothing. It's just uh, my looking at all these typewriters is bringing back some memories for
me, that's all."
"What kind of memories?" Johnny asked, limbering up his fingers for the long
task ahead working on the log forms.
Hank laced his fingers together around his coffee mug and
actually looked sheepish. "The forgettable kind."
Chet's moustache twitched in amusement as images
of McConike's burning hat came to mind. But he said. "Wanna talk about them?"
"Not much to
say, actually."
Gage caught on to Chet's angling. "Sure there is.. Don't you know that your
junior-under-McConike days are one of the great mysteries all your shifts have about ya?"
"Yeah,
I know." He drew out an old insignia pin, a double bugle from his shirt pocket and he studied its
worn shape.
All the guys grew respectfully quiet and all the typing died away as Cap's face
furrowed in a memory that wasn't all that mysterious or happy. In fact.. he looked stunned and very
very lost. "Do any of you fellas know what this is?" he said, fiddling nervously with the pin on
the table top.
"Yeah, Cap. That's your rank pin for captain off your dress uniform." Gage
said straight faced and alert.
Hank didn't speak for a time, and he just swallowed while considering
words. Then he practically whispered. "That's right. I just found out I've got another time scheduled
to use this again, starting tomorrow morning. Actually, it's gonna be time for all of us to ....get
dressed up.. I ..I.. just got a call.."
Roy's face blanched when he got what that meaning
meant. "Who is it, Cap?"
The others' hearts hit their throats.
"Station 8's Captain
Stone just got back from assisting at a real bad county fire. He just told me that ..that.." his
voice broke as he fought emotions... "Uh,..the first story fell on top of the chief's battalion
car as he radioed out orders to the crews. McConike's just died at Rampart."
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***************************************** From : "patti keiper" <pattik1@hotmail.com> Subject
:[EmergencyTheaterLive] The White Helmet Date :Mon, 31 Mar 2003 02:09:40 +0000 Hank
Stanley began to twitch under the following silence coming from his men. He found he couldn't even
meet their eyes. ::If only they knew how this effects me.:: The gold double bugle pin seemed to
burn his eyes in the morning sunlight glinting off of it from the window.
Roy was the first
one to speak. "I'm ....very sorry to hear about this, Cap. Is there..is there anything we can do?"
That finally broke Stanley's terrible burden of sharing the dark news. Hank felt suddenly released
from its heavy weight. "No, no, no..I'm.. still waiting to hear back from the other companies who
are still on that fire cleanup as to details. You know how these things go. Stone only knew what his
paramedics told him when they called from the hospital. He--he said it happened only a few minutes
ago. Something about ah, his heart shutting down because of fluid building up around it..?" Cap
guessed helplessly inept at the right elusive medical term.
"Sounds like it was cardiac tamponade.."
Gage said softly, abandoning his coffee mug. "The docs probably couldn't tap it in time, especially
if there were other problems going on with the crushing inj..." Johnny trailed his voice off suddenly
thinking better of his choice of words and the subject matter. "ugh,..yeahhhh.." he said lamely to
end it. He cleared his throat and studied his shoes to avoid Cap's intense gaze following his answer
as to a possible why.
Again, all the gang muffled into silence. That simple happening suddenly
grew intolerable for Hank. Cap's eyes filled and he swung into immediate motion, standing so fast
that the chair behind him loudly impacted against the wall. "Oh, ..uh..nothing they could've done
then to save him, huh?" and he sucked in a controlling breath to quell his rising grief. "That's..
that's too bad.. I...I'm really gonna miss..." Cap couldn't complete his sentence.
Roy and
John didn't dare to say anything.
This time, the silence cut like a knife and Cap.....moved. He
darted forward, suddenly snagging the stack of logs that was their current headache and picked it
up, leafing through to the back section where they had their list of monthly fire inspection addresses..
His finger eagerly traced down the page as he read them quickly. "There.. there's one we can go to...right
there.." and he stabbed his finger down on the page at one particular one at the very edge of their
jurisdiction. Roy couldn't help but notice that the address was practically next to the fire that
had killed McConike.
The slate clattered back onto the table. "Stoker,..note number seven's
location.. We're leaving.."
All the guys startled at the highly irregular decision.
Even
Chet ejected. "Cap..we're bringing the engine to do a hazardous property inspection?"
"And
the squad....." Hank nodded curtly. "Move."
Everyone scrambled for the bay.
Kelly lingered.
"Cap, HQ is gonna think this is weird. Are you sure you wanna d--"
Hank whirled on the Irishman.
"Are you questioning your captain's judgement?!"
"No, Cap, I uh..."
"Fine. Go get your
coat on and stuff a sock in it."
"Yes, sir.."
Cap's tight flurry of firm action jolted
the men into obeying the odd order even faster and then all piled into their turnouts. Stoker put
the big engine into drive and then put both feet on the brake, waiting for Cap to board her as
the garage door opened.
Hank Stanley moved to the response mic. "L.A. This is Station 51. We're
10-19ing to 1457 Addison on a citizen's report about a fire hazard. Going to check it out.."
##10-4,
Station 51. Updating your location's status. Time out, 9 : 34.##
In the rig, Chet murmured..
"Can he do that?"
Marco slapped him on the arm sharply to be quiet.
Roy and Johnny fidgetted
in the squad for a moment putting on their helmets and peering out at the wall map for the address's
cross street until they knew exactly where to go. Then they headed out with their lights darkened.
Stoker soon followed in a likewise darkened Ward LaFrance.
As they turned left onto the avenue,
Roy couldn't hold it in. "You just had to open your big mouth, didn't you? That was probably the
worst thing you could have said to him.."
Gage's face animated. "I didn't mean to say things
the way I did, Roy... It just sort of....slipped out.."
"Yeah? And now Cap's probably gonna
be flipping out. Are ya happy?" DeSoto countered. "He's probably outta his skull right now imagining
things.."
Johnny didn't say anything and clammed up.
Roy spoke again after a full minute
of nothing. "You know what he's up to, don't you?"
Gage pulled his face away from his hand
and elbow perched out the window. "I...I....well, not exactly.."
Roy looked straight ahead,
concentrating on the driving. "He's going to the fire scene. Where it happened."
Johnny's head
whipped around in surprise and his mouth gaped open.
-------------------------------------------------------
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Benjamin Stone wearily stood on the crumbling brick crackling under his shoes as he finished directing
the engine companies to those areas of the hotel that were still stubbornly smoking over his HT
now set to command frequency.
He was surprised to see Station 51 weaving in between the
working units and to his command area that he had assumed when McConike went down. He barely remembered
finishing his radioed order as they pulled up. He didn't have to ask the reason why they were there.
One other station company from L.A. County suddenly had invented excuses to be in the barrio neighborhood
right then, too.
Ben stepped forward as the 51 gang bailed out. He didn't say anything as Hank's
eyes suddenly fell on what was left of the dusty red battalion car still partially buried in debris.
He briefly turned down his radio volume. Captain Stone saw Hank freeze into place in shock as the
whole situation suddenly slammed into ugly reality for him. Benjamin just stood quietly next to his
colleague and waited. So did Chet, Marco, Mike, Johnny and Roy.
Then Cap spoke without looking
at Ben. "You're in command now?"
Ben nodded.
"You should be wearing the white now. Departmental
policy.." Cap said waving an absent hand towards Ben's captain helmeted head.
Ben flinched,
but again, Ben nodded numbly.
"I'll go get it.." Hank mumbled tightly, his voice full of powerful
emotion.
Gage immediately stepped forward.. "No. Wait.. Cap. Let us go for it.. You don't have
to be the one to go over there."
Hank shrugged off Gage's gripping glove mutely and ordered. "Stay
here."
The others watched Cap slowly pick his way to the spot where IV papers and EKG patches
and spent syringes marked the place where Station Eight's medics had treated McConike on the ground.
|


Privately, Hank was very glad the car's paint job and interior upholstery were both red as he dug
bricks and smouldering boards out of the way until he could reach into the nearly flattened car's
passenger seat for the white battalion chief's helmet he knew one of the treating medics would
have thrown there. He found it under McConike's unused gloves and situation slate.
A sob
escaped when Hank finally lifted it out into the light and smoke. There was no red coloring here to
hide the copious fresh blood, still staining it.
Backing out of the chief's car, Captain Stanley
searched for and found a hose puddle nearby to wash it off. He bent down, peeling off his own gloves
to do the task.
Benjamin Stone immediately hurried over to help him with it. "Hank.. let me
help.."
Stanley stiffened at first, but then he nodded, meeting Ben's smoke red eyes.
He
was in the presence of an equal at last so Hank let his pain out into the open, and he began to cry,
his face streaming in rich tears.
Benjamin Stone made sure his back was hiding Cap's face
from the view of the rest of 51's men. "It's ok.. We're here together. And I just heard over the comm
that Station 127 is on the way, too."
"Good man, Captain Gorman. Glad he found a way to make
it over here." Hank sniffed.
"Yeah.." Stone sighed, holding both of their HT radios in his
lap while they crouched and washed.
Soon, the blood stains were gone and the two captains had
dried the white chief's helmet off with their sleeves. "Here..." Hank said when they were done. "You
take this until we find out who is getting it permanently. Might be you.."
Ben met Hank's gaze
and set a glove on Cap's shoulder. "Might be you, too, Hank. You've got the most seniority even over
me."
Stanley's mouth twitched painfully but he didn't make a noise beyond a terse. "Yeah, maybe."
"You know HQ won't tell us who's got the chief's job until after the funeral."
"Yeah, I
know.. But you're still at this fire scene and it's still today. And we both know the highest on scene
officer from the initial set of called out stations has to take over. "
Now it was Ben's time
to lose it and his face twisted.
Hank spoke quietly, "Put this on, Ben." he said, polishing
the white helmet once more to be sure it was clear of any sign of soiling. "He would have wanted
it that way. Procedure, you know?" Captain Stanley sighed, wiping away the tears blinding him
before any of the other firemen with the nearby hoses from County could see any of his weakness.
"McConike was all that.." And then Ben smiled as he pulled off his white crested cap's helmet
for the white chief's one. He sighed as he tightened the helmet's damp chin strap.
"He sure
was."
Together, the two captains returned to Stone's engine while Ben completed coordinating
the fire's final cleanup as temporary battalion chief.
------------------------------------------------------------------
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******************************************* From : "Cassidy Meyers" <killashandrarey@hotmail.com>
Subject : For Every Action.... Date :Fri, 04 Apr 2003 15:50:47 +0400
The rest
of the gang dared not approach Hank and Ben where they were quietly discussing the progress of
the containment on the still smouldering hotel fire.
"Are you going to go over there?" Marco elbowed
Chet. "I'm not going to go over there. It's none of my business."
"Oh? really? It WILL
be our business if headquarters finds out we're not reporting to the location we said we were
going to go to. And it won't just be Cap's butt in a sling, it'll be all of our rears, too." Kelly
complained plaintatively.
Gage, who was leaning on the squad's hood with his helmeted chin
propped on a hand, shot an irritated look at Chet, but thought better about saying anything. ::Deep
down inside, I know he's right..:: Gage thought privately. ::But d*mn it. Last thing I need is a
formal reprimand on my station record for deriliction of duty.::
It was as if Roy was clairvoyant.
He spoke aloud as if answering Johnny's private thoughts. "You know, we might get off the hook
here since it was all Cap's idea.." he murmured, matching his partner's nervous, feigned looking-bored
pose on the fender. Only difference was that Roy had his own helmet off in respect for the tragedy
which he knew was only just beginning to tear Hank apart despite his tall friend outwardly beginning
to look calm, cool and collected once more.
"Now that's a little callous don't you think?"
Gage rounded on Roy.
"No, I-I...it's not callous at all. I'm just being practical. That
IS how it'll rule one way or another if we're caught being off the beaten track like this." DeSoto
said, nonplussed. "Besides, you know I'm right because I know positively about what you're thinking.
It's a gift I've picked up after serving with you for half a dozen years." his voice cracked.
Johnny's face fell into annoyed denial as Roy's point stung home once more. "Ok, Allright. So you
know what I'm thinking. So let's just clarify a few points on that then. All right.. This is exactly
what I'm thinking.. I can't HELP thinking the worst, Roy, at this point . And I'm sure the rest
of the guys are doing it, too." he insisted passionately. "And let me add another thing while you're
digging around in my head. It's sheer craziness to think it's only us and Kelly who are noticing
that Cap's just a little bit off his rocker." he said waggling his fingers in a so-so gesture in the
air. "Just look how those county guys are whispering behind Cap's back like that. It's getting
me mad.."
Roy sighed and leaned against the squad, hanging his head down in fatigue, "Nothing
like a cold impersonal phone call to be the bearer of bad tidings. That must have been difficult for
Stone to have even called Cap on this whole messy nightmare so soon."
"I know. I know." Johnny
insisted. "And I know Stone really well, too. I mean he was MY captain before CAP was my captain and
Ben was also my paramedic partner even before you got your claws sunk into me for the duration."
Gage snorted. "Ben's handling it real good. And so are we,.." he glared at Chet.." for the most part."
he angled at the curly haired fireman taking a drink at a leaky hydrant close to the engine. "Only
what do we do about Cap in the meantime?"
"What do you mean what do we do in the meantime?"
Roy fired back.
Chet spit out his water in between Roy and Johnny to shut up their squabbling.
"Ok, here it is in a nutshell since your higher educated minds seem to be having trouble grasping
what the problem is. Let me reiterate for ya in one sentence!" he shouted. "We can't let Cap keep
us on a hotspot after hauling us off like this on a whim. It's bad for business." Chet insisted.
"Would you pipe down..?!" Gage hissed. "They'll hear you."
"Fine, Johnny. Just as soon as
you do. I came over here to tell you exactly the same thing.." Kelly said with finality, and he
immediately walked away, with his hands jammed into his pants pockets around his turnout coat and
he angrily yanked at his helmet strap until it was dangling loose.
Gage caught his breath into
an aggravated sigh and ran both sets of fingers through his hair just to have something to do.
He shook his head at Kelly's back and retreated from all of them by putting on his helmet and sitting
down dejectedly in his seat inside the squad. He punctuated his unhappiness by slamming shut the
door on its hinges.
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Roy glanced up and saw that Hank seemed to be drawing strength from the close presence of Stone and
mentally, he began amending his concern about Cap bending protocol to be at a fatality scene. ::Maybe
it's a start on his accepting the fact that his old captain's truly gone. I know how I would feel
if I had been the one digging out Hank's helmet from that car. I don't even want to imagine what Cap's
going through right now..:: he reasoned privately.
DeSoto gave a short wave at Mike Stoker
to tell him to tell the others that he would be the one to go over where Hank and Ben were, to....gently..
tell him the company consensus about being tardy for the fire hazard call, however bogus it really
was.
He waited respectfully, his helmet still off, a short distance away from the two higher
ranked men, quietly. But then his HT came to life sounding a tones out for another squad. The
loud squelching reply of the responding team caught him unawares and he jumped. Soon, DeSoto found
himself on the receiving end of two curious glances from Stone and Stanley. "Sorry, Cap... Captain
Stone....Uh, I suppose you're wondering why I'm over here against a direct order.. Umm.. so I'll
just out with it.. Cap, how are you doing?" Roy asked.
Hank had his control back on his emotions,
at least the ones Roy could visibly see and any possible reprimand he normally would have dished
out, died before aborning. "I'm ok, I guess. We're just.... I... am just.. uh.. Well, you see Ben
and his men are still cleaning up." he said lamely, trying to smile.
Roy nodded quietly. "Is
there anything you fellas want us to do back there while we...hang out?"
It was as if Cap suddenly
remembered where he was. He seemed to drag himself back as if he had been some great distance away
and he started murmuring apologies fluidly. "Oh, oh, oh.. Sorry, Ben. ohmyg*d. Sorry, Roy. I guess
I - I wasn't thinking straight when I dragged us all out here. I..."
"Don't worry about it,
Cap." Roy said, setting a hand on Cap's arm. "You had to come."
Hank's face mellowed into a
tortured acceptance and then he met Roy's eyes very like a child's for an instant, before his command
ability took over once more. "Yeah, well, thanks for letting me stay. In letting US, ....stay.."
he corrected, offering Ben an ungloved handshake of profound gratitude.
Being in front of one
of Hank's regular men, Ben didn't do anything different but grasp that handshake back, with both
palms warmly. "No problem. Uh,...I guess I'll see you both at the services tomorrow morning, Hank."
and then Ben walked away, still feeling very uncomfortable under the nods of respect coming from
all the firefighters from the city for assuming the chief's post as he had done. "Oh, yeah."
Captain Stone said, turning back towards Hank. "I forgot to tell you this earlier, Hank. Gail wants
to see you before the funeral."
Cap's mouth opened but he didn't have to say anything out
loud. He just nodded that he understood.
"Call me if you need anything, Hank. I know how much
the chief meant to you for I...know ...just how terribly much he meant to me, even if.. I'm realizing
that ..only now."
"That same thought is hitting all of us Ben. I'm just the first to feel
it, I guess. And about Gail. I won't forget. Same goes for the phone call offer. In reverse right
back at ya.." Hank said striding away at last.
Ben gave a short salute that whispered a painful
reminder to Hank of McConike, but then Ben disappeared into the veil of smoke, around the corner
of his engine.
Roy flanked Cap and he and Stanley started their way across the street back
to where the rest of the gang and the vehicles were idling. "So, what next? Going to call in to
renege that false citizen's report."
"I'm doing nothing of the sort. I'll just tell it like it
is.. Look.." and he pointed down the block towards the Addison address that he had so bogusly given
dispatch on the way out.
Roy started smiling and shook his head. "Truck 127 beat us to
it with the same idea, eh?"
"Yep. Looks like they're covering for Gorman so he can get in his
own time with Ben and this ....awful fire. Can I help it if our two calls got crossed over the airwaves
again?" he said throwing his arms up in mock mystification.
"Guess not.." Roy grinned, folding
his arms in front of himself in relief at Cap's sudden sense of humor.
Captain Stanley pulled
his HT out of his pocket. "L.A. This is Station 51."
##Go ahead, 51.##
"L.A., Truck
127 has doubled our response to the hazard call. We're returning to base."
##10-4, 51.## Spap.
Cap guided Roy on ahead of him with an affectionate grip on the shoulder as they started walking
again. "So, you drew the short stick to come fetch me?"
"More like my having the longer backbone
to do it, Cap."
"Being practical as always, eh? I've always liked that about you, Roy.
It's a strong beginning sign of a good departmental candidate..." and he strode on ahead of him
as he gestured to Stoker to put the rig in driving gear for a return trip.
Roy stopped in his
tracks at Cap's use of the past tense and the hints about a possible other future for himself. ::Now
just what in HECK did that mean?::
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