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Rating: [G] Mild swearing Code: E! Canon style, third person. Guest appearances : cross over characters, Craig Pomeroy(Parker Stevenson) and Jill Riley(Shawn Weatherly) from NBC's era run of Baywatch Season One, circa 1989. (See Panic At Malibu Pier- the "real" series pilot) Summary: Roy DeSoto makes a mistake in the field and has to deal with the possibility of losing his job. The gang goes on a sea fog bank multiple car pile up rescue and run into trouble. Disclaimer: Sole property of those who made the show. All things Emergency! belong to Mark VII Productions and Universal Studios Comments: I wrote this piece for sheer joy of it after fans begged me to write more. I apparently have a very vivid style that makes my stories feel like a real Emergency episode. This series is responsible for getting me into the emergency medical field, working as an NREMT in Minnesota. P.S. I love you Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto, you are my heroes. The actors aren't so bad either. :) All the other EMS TV shows which followed in Emergency!'s footsteps, can't hold a candle to the universal character appeal of this series. Like an episode itself, I have rescues featured inside this story that are based on some I've experienced myself. I was Roy touching the charged floor and Cap, fighting to keep a child alive, without a demand valve, just like you'll read here in this story. I have taking liberties diving into the psyche of Roy DeSoto. Writing muses work your magic! If you aren't sucked into this story within the first three lines, I am not doing my job! Enjoy and may you have a wild ride, gentle readers. |
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THE FACE IN THE MIRROR It was nine in the morning at the Ojai College campus. Roy DeSoto was starting up yet another vo-tech course of CPR for public citizens. Johnny Gage was setting out the resusi-mannequin onto the blue gym mat on the floor, and setting its electronic wires in place. "Huh, you must be crazy, Roy. Working doubles, then teaching the morning of your day off.." he scoffed, part teasing, part complaining. "Don't tell me you've got a new addition on the house you're trying to pay for." "Not for the house...." Roy said, shifting on his feet, and studying his polished shoes. Gage's smile wiped into a huge grin, "Nahhhhh...." he bubbled as understanding dawned. "Yep. Joanne found out for sure last night from her family doctor." John dropped the dummy and rose, pumping Roy's arm like a happy uncle.. "Well, I'll be.. congratulations, buddy." He leaned in, hitting Roy on the shoulder, "That's great! Three's a more rounded number." When his partner frowned in confusion, John added, "They say families have 2.6 kids per household." His face fell ruefully, but amused, "But in my case, it's definitely a negative number." Roy handed John a cup of coffee from the counter by a sunny window. "Don't lose hope, Johnny, You've only had what? Five crash and burn dates this spring? Not a bad average.. And the summer's young yet." "Not a bad average.. Not a bad aver--?" John lifted the coffee to his lips. It never got there. "Yeah,...but when will I find HER..?" he sighed. "I seem to have better luck attracting hairy furballs than women lately.." "How's Bonnie doing anyway?" "Fine.. She's quiet. Doesn't mind going to the neighbor's when I'm at work. And she's the one who's been finding me those dates to begin with." John said, polishing his fingernails on his grey terry shirt. He adjusted the navy bandana tied around his forehead up a little more, drawing his mouth up smugly. Roy rolled his eyes, "They say, dogs attract girls like moths to the flame." "And this flame is hot to trot..." John said, "I've landed a date for tonight." "Oh?" Roy asked, "Who?" he said with a wide splitting yawn. "Betty..." his partner said mysteriously. "In fact, she's going to be one of your students today.. Moreno thought he saw Betty's name on your roster there.." He said pointing to Roy's slate. Roy folded his arms. "And I thought you volunteered to help me with the class today just to be magnanimous." he said levelly, sipping his capuccino. "I am being magnanimous.." John said with conviction, stabbing Roy's yellow t-shirted front with a finger. Roy didn't believe a single word, "Only as long as it takes to enforce that heroic rescuer image on her with this course work. I'll just bet you're going to volunteer to be her heimlich partner. You know, to get in real tight and personal with her right off." John's face beamed into a pleased smile, "Hey, I never even thought of that angle.. You know, for a very happily married man. You're pretty savvy.. Thanks.. partner.." He watched as Roy fell into another series of face tearing yawns. "You'd better get more sleep from now on. Even your wrinkles are getting wrinkles.. Start getting some more sleep or I'm going to haveta take over driving the squad." |
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Roy was about to launch a protest when there was the sound of a bell and the rumble of many footsteps coming towards them. John put a finger to his lips, "Later... Now you're on. Just..try to act natural.. You know.. Make me look good.." he said with a pleading look, sitting at one of the desks. He took up a hotdog from a pouch in his knap sack, on cue, and started munching loudly. Roy sighed deeply and just shook his head. He took a seat in the first of twenty empty ones ringing the demo mat and flipped his baseball cap around, looking nonchalant as he slumped there. There was the usual nervous mix of new housewives, looking to gain the reassurance of the first aid training for their infants. Or, like this month, the latest teen aged summer lifeguards chosen from high school job programs to fill needs for L.A. County's vast ocean beach front. He became one of many to introduce themselves to each other in casual social groups. About five minutes later, the class took in the air that the teacher wasn't in yet and filed into conversation clusters around him. Even Gage made a big show of saying hello and eating eagerly and chewing his food around his words. He milled about acting boisterous and very biker-ish. Until he threw hands up over his throat and knocked his chair over in surprise. He started to gasp and wheeze, staggering around. Two teens jumped up in alarm and started for the door to call for help. Another football player type teen grabbed Johnny by the shoulders and started shaking him. A blond woman in jerseys with platinum eyes did the only thing she knew, pounding gingerly on Gage's back with a few fingers as if he were made of glass. Of course, that did nothing to help. Going limp, John fell to the mat and utter panic ensued. The class of students milled over him ineffectually poking here and prodding there until... Roy got up from his place watching them all and "rescued" the choking Gage with the proper techniques in a calm manner, first listening, then checking in his mouth, then following up with back blows and one set of abdominal thrusts. Johnny promptly spat out the hotdog right into the class's shocked faces. They leaped backward out of reflex as the seemingly unconscious man made a ballistic missile out of his sausage bite. Gage opened his eyes, grabbed Roy's hand, and rolled neatly to his feet. "Thanks, man. I needed that.." and he plopped down into his own seat as if nothing had ever happened, buttoning up his shirt again. The stunned onlooking students blinked. Then some got angry or sank into chairs with shaky adrenalin reaction. One redhead man stood over John, "You mean you weren't really in trouble?!!" he shouted at Gage. "Nope. He wanted to see what you all would do for me just now." Johnny said, pointing to DeSoto. Silence filled the room. |
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Roy spoke up, taking off his hat. "Pretty scary, wasn't it? Kinda funny how higher reasoning goes out the window in the face of a true medical emergency... You,.." he said, pointing to the burly teen who had tried shaking Gage. "Could have injured him or even made the obstruction worse by doing that. You.." he said, smiling slightly at the blond woman in the jersey, "were closer to the right track.. but sometimes, it's not a good idea to just go pounding on someone's back if they're making good attempts to dislodge a foreign body. You meant well but in this case, it only made things worse and your victim went unconscious when things completely blocked off with your "tiny" tries at helping. You others, who ran for the phone, made a good decision. Sort of. Summoning help is a sound choice, but it is always second order of business in a medical crisis like this one..." "Second order..?" said the angry teen. "But I thoug--" He broke off when Roy held up his hand and shot him a diplomatic smile. DeSoto flipped his chair around, foregoing the desk, to be face to face with his class. "Let's start off on the other foot shall we?" "Morning. I'm glad you came here today. I'm Roy DeSoto and this is Johnny Gage, my department partner of six years." John nodded, all serious in greeting, once. "We're both L.A. County Firemen/Paramedics in our day jobs, when we're not scaring the bejeesus out of CPR class attendees." Roy went on. Light chuckles filled the room. DeSoto went on. "Now, if you'll allow us, let us impart a little of what we know so you can have the opportunity to make a real difference for somebody when it counts the most and to be successful at it to the point of having the ability to SAVE that life free of panic. You're here today to learn much more than just what to do for a heart attack victim or a toddler choking on a grape. You're here today to assess any given emergency situation and become an effective caregiver to that victim until professional help arrives. Minutes and even seconds count, like in the urgent scene you saw Johnny enact here." And he went on, explaining why calling for help was second in importance. He met the angry red headed man's eyes. "Your first duty to any medical emergency victim.. is to assure and establish a viable airway, do whatever you can to restore and/or maintain breathing second, then to assess and/or maintain circulation of bloodflow to the brain, last of all.. But what if the mouth's so badly cut, you can't get a good seal with which to perform mouth to mouth at all? Or what if someone's neck may be broken? How do you establish an airway then without tilting that person's head back to get one? If you don't, they'll suffocate, if you do, they might be paralyzed. What do you do? There's is much more to CPR than just pushing on someone's chest and pinching their nose and blowing air into their mouths. So let us show you what to do in many medical cases that aren't so neat and tidy an incident as the ones your text manual shows you." |
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It was two pm. The class ran smoothly, following demos of the heimlich and other moves and a movie, outlining oxygen debt and the six minute chart. Johnny learned that the shy blond woman was Betty, the one he had known was coming. They seemed to hit it right off in Roy's mind. She worked through her timidness about breathing into a dummy only after Gage demo'd it for her. He caught Johnny over lunch break and held up a compressions tape sheet from Betty's mannikin sequence. "Hey, Johnny, she's a strong one. Just look at this graph! She's in the green on those CPR compressions. Perfect." Gage smacked Roy on the shoulder, "I know, she nearly busted my ribs even pretending the heimlich. I think I'm in love." Roy sighed, "Just don't go fainting dead away in class just to get her to breathe for you or anything. Our intro demo part is over. You two are disruptive enough as it is so far.." he said smiling. "And we've still the test outs to do on them all." "Oh, puhleassee..I'm not that dumb. I want her to kiss me for my natural charms, not some foolhardy stunt like that.." "Hmmm. I wouldn't put it past you." Roy laughed. Johnny was oblivious, "She has great reactions. I mean, when I pretended a blackout with a full obstruction while standing, she had her hands right there underneath my head so I wouldn't bang it going down. Now that's sweet thinking on your feet if you ask me." "If you say so. If I were her. I'd have dumped you like a sack of potatos and let your fall knock out the obstruction.." Roy quipped. "Oh. Ha. ha..." Gage said dryly. "You're just bent out of shape because I'm using my "uniform" to win a girl. I'm not using my uniform, how can I be? I'm in a tank top, I'm....just teaching her class that's all..." Roy was skeptical, "Uh huh.." But he said nothing more, grinning behind his newspaper. "Gage, the choking Romeo.. Now there's one for the history books." he mumbled. |
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It was the next day at the station and Roy was still yawning.. Johnny rolled in whistling Dixie, and popped his locker open with a fancy butt flourish. Roy didn't even look up, pausing with his arms still stuck in his T-shirt sleeves he had cocooned over his head as he sat on the changing bench. He appeared to be snoring.. Gage turned and tapped Roy's covered head. "Hey.. You alive in there?" Snnorrreee... "Come on..." and John pulled down Roy's T shirt the rest of the way. "Man.. you need a pot of coffee if you're going to get anywhere today.. Didn't you sleep in the last few days like I told you to?" "A little. Had an unexpected amniocentesis bill slip up on us yesterday. Had to take on another class to pay for it." "Amniocen--" John guessed, "Oh. Is everything ok.?" Roy looked up at him blearily. "Huh? Oh. yeah.. It's standard to run one of those at this stage of the game. Especially with this being Joanne's third ba--- YAWWNN...---by." Another ear splitting yawn jumbled his last words.. John threw Roy's uniform shirt at him, who was too tired to catch it. It bounced off his face. "Wake up.. or I'm going to have give you some O2 to revive ya.. Time for breakfast.." and he headed into the kitchen, leaving his sleepy partner behind. "I have a feeling it's going to be a busy shift for us. It's a full moon tonight." Gage groaned. "Don't remind me.."came Roy's voice from the locker room, floating across the station's truck bay. |
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Sounds of fork scrapes and bowl slurps filled the kitchen along with the aroma of at least three kinds of morning repasts. At one seat, the happy eating got a little loud and not so harmonious. Wood chair legs squealed like nails on a chalk board as one particular man pushed backward from the table. *Spit* A large glob of Juevos Rancheros festooned Captain Stanley's paper napkin as he doubled over and relieved his burning lips of a totally unexpected attack on his tongue and throat. ".. whoa...*cough*!.." Cap's long arms shot out and grabbed a metal jug of water and drained half of it in desperate swallows from the jug itself. All eyes at the table shot up from newspapers and magazines in surprise. Johnny looked up from dishing hashbrowns onto his platter.. "Cap? You ok? " he said half rising in concern. Hank held up hands to show everything was cool and waited for his voice to come back. Then he set down the metal water pitcher with a hollow liquidy clang. "Marco, what are you trying to do?" he shouted in his best offended tenor voice. "Are you trying to kill me?" He pushed away his Mexican eggs and eyed them distrustfully. "I know. This is some kind of revenge because I made you drag and hang all the engine's hose in the tower before you left last night." Captain Stanley said regaining his chair. Marco shook his head vehemently.. "Oh, no.no . no. Cap.." with eyes widening.. Cap went on.. "I SAID, Try one of your sweet little old mother's breakfast recipes for a change of pace but I didn't mean creating a four alarm fire! Man,,, whooo wee..." he coughed. Gage sat down again, chuckling in relief that he hadn't requested eggs like Captain Stanley had done. Marco's turn at breakfast detail was always a sort of culinary roulette when he got into one of his creative cooking moods. Marco, "Don't look at me like that, Cap. Your exact quote, to clarify things, was...'How about breaking our scrambled eggs and bacon tradition and whipping up one of your mother's recipes for a new change of pace?' You didn't say what KIND of recipe, nor any limitations on any spices.." Hank mulled over that, looking a lot like the "Honest Abe" he was, "Hmm.. Guess I did say that, Marco." And he reached over and stole Gage's lone bagel. "Hey!" John protested, out ranked. But Gage quickly and craftily snatched another solo bagel from Chet Kelly's plate while the curly haired fireman laughed uproariously over something in his funnies section. |
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Kelly reached down, without looking, for his bagel ...and didn't find it. He whipped his paper away and complained to the chipmunk cheeked paramedic next to him. "Gage!!" Johnny shrugged "Snooze? You lose.." he said, chewing loudly. Soon, Chet found and walked fingers to Stoker's plate and procured the last onion bagel there. SLAP! "OWw!" Chet howled, dropping his booty and yanking his guilty fingers into his mouth. He sucked on them. Mike deftly refolded his scolding magazine into his lap and took a bite of bacon. "Never raid unless you can get away with it. Chet, you're getting sloppy. Must be because Gage finally one upped the Phantom, eh?" Chet rolled his eyebrows, frowning. "No way man. Has hell frozen over? The Phantom's sharp as ever." His next raid on Marco's pancake was thwarted with a viscious fork parry from Lopez, "Ah ah ah.." the Mexican warned. Mike laughed, thoroughly enjoying his rescued bagel. "Really? How do you figure?" Cap snickered over his milk. Then Johnny eyed the tardy DeSoto shuffling into the kitchen. He pantomimed to the guys to keep quiet about his next action, putting a finger to his lips. Then he made a big show pulling out a chair for his partner, "Hey Roy.. Here's some nice ...hhhottt.. coffee.. " he grinned hugely.. DeSoto missed all the warning signs.. Roy rubbed dry eyes and lifted the mug handed to him while he plopped down into his seat next to Chet. "Thanks but I don't think it's going to help any. Not unless you've got an IV that's pure caffeine somewhere around here." Gage clicked his tongue. "Fresh out." John said, picking up Cap's abandoned plate of steaming Mexican eggs. "Ooo, Roy.. Doesn't that smell good? Dig in, pal." And he deposited his offering in front of DeSoto, sliding several napkins towards him, too. He shoved the water pitcher to a far corner of the table, well out of comfortable reach. All eyes watched with amused horror as a sleepy Roy cut a large biteful of the eggs and inserted them into his mouth. Gage thought. ##3...2....1..## But Roy kept chewing..slowly.. his eyes more shut then open. Chet couldn't resist. "Hey Roy?" "Huh?" |
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"How's breakfast?" "Oh..." Roy said, looking down at his salsa covered hen's eggs.. "Fine.. I guess.." Gage looked at Roy incredulously.. "Roy.. Aren't they kinda hot to you?..." he said, aiming a butter knife at Roy's platter, with one cheek still big with bagel. "Uh....." DeSoto considered.. Then he mumbled "...no?" he ventured.. "Holy cow.. That's crazy.. You're tasters wwwaaayyy off... Cap here couldn't even BREATHE around em.." Gage whipped out his penlight and reached out making a big show looking at Roy's pupils. "You're not even a Glasgow six on the scale man..are you slipping into a coma or something?" Roy slapped Johnny's hand away laughing. "I'm not feeling any pain eh? Well, at least these eggs won't go to waste.. Marco...my compliments on your mother's recipe.." he repiled, forking himself another hot sauce smothered egg yolk. "Gracias mi amigo.. At least I know who to cook for now.." he glared at Cap. Cap looked up from his very mild toast and butter. "Sorry Lopez. I'm from a French neighborhood. Tame palette I guess.." he said apologetically. Roy went on... "Maybe this numb brain thing will get me through today with the miminum shift's torture." Gage scoffed, "I highly doubt that.." pocketing his penlight. Cap eyed Roy critically. "One of the kids keeping you up, DeSoto..?" John spoke up as he watched Roy drain yet another mug of java. "Yeah,, the unborn one.. Joanne had a ped bill Roy had to work off. He took on another CPR class after the one I helped him on." he said. Cap winced.."Ooo, tiring way to earn a few bucks. Nothing like four hours of CPR demos to wear out a guy.." Roy shook his stiff arms.. "I would've been spared if my buddy over here bailed me out again and helped me to teach it." "One time's enough." "Yeah?" Roy quipped, "That's only because you got yourself that date from that one student, eh? Betty I think her name was." he chewed a few times before asking, "How did it go?" Gage didn't make eye contact as he swiped his plate clean with a slice of bread. "I was at Eight's pulling extra duty, or I'd been there pal.." he said, avoiding the question. Roy just grunted, angling his jaw with an amused smile. "She dumped ya, didn't she..?" The gang erupted in giggles again. Chet voiced a score count. "That makes it... what? Six strung and hungs this year, Johnny? What a tragic track record. A real bummer." Gage said, with unconvincing icyness, "Cut it out.. Kelly. Leave your prying OUT of my love life.." "What love l-?" Kelly started to say before Cap pointed his all mighty index finger at him to cease at once. Chet amended what he was going to say. "...uh, lingers, except for later, right? For the next time around? " he smiled wanely, covering his arse and making an escape back into his paper. Cap ended his challenging glare and continued chewing. He shoved two pots of coffee in front of DeSoto. "Hey John,.. throw these in your pocket, eh..? Feel free to use them on him any time you need to, pal." He said topping off Roy's mug yet again. A pack of smelling salts plunked into Gage's hands as he reflexively caught what Cap sailed his way. He laughed, brandishing them, before pocketing them into his shirt. Roy said sarcastically, "Oh. ha. ha." An alarm sounded, a long one, through every category of callout mode tones. "Station 51, Station 8, Truck 137, Battalion 14. Multiple pileup on Hwy 101. Two miles east of Roy Rogers State Park. Two miles east of Roy Rogers State Park. Meteorological weather station reports heavy fog in the vicinity. Time out.. 07:59." Gage turned to Roy,... "Full moon's true to form yet again.." and he pushed out of his chair. The gang made their vehicles and slipped into helmets, overcoats and seat belts. "Station 51, Responding.. KMG 365." Cap said, writing down the 10-20 on a pad and handing off carbons to both Stoker and Gage. They rolled out. |
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Ten minutes later Cap thumb motioned for Stoker to slow down the engine travelling in front of the squad. He squinted through the thick musty smelling mist, boiling before him and ordered. "Lopez, get out on the footrail and see if you can see anything, okay pal?" "Right, cap." Marco stepped out of the rear cab and hung onto a spot mirror. Cap waved Mike to drive forward carefully. Then he thumbed his radio. "Engine 51 to Truck 137. We're two miles south of mile marker 2 next to the south end of the park. We can't see anything. Give a directional blast on your airhorn, will ya?" "Will do. We are at the first MVA to the north. No victims as yet. We have evacuated the area and are beginning a washdown." "10-4. Appreciate that." Cap replied. All in the cab, strained to listen. So did Gage and DeSoto in their truck. A horn bellowed from fairly close away. "That sounds like only a fifth of a mile." He thumbed the mike, "Gage, DeSoto, we're there." "10-4, Cap." Roy said. The paramedics and firemen bailed their vehicles. Cap shouted to his men, "Fan out. Start searching. There's no cliffs to speak of here. We're level with the ocean on this stretch of the freeway." That much was true. All the gang could smell the tang of sea salt and could hear distant waves echoing to them under the blanket of heavy fog. Cap chose to relegate scene triage to Battalion 14, who pulled up right behind Squad 51. Hookraider took over the task, understanding Stanley's decision was a sound one. Men were needed to search cars. Even those with captain's rank. "Battalion 14 to Station Eight. Station 51's got the south end. Position your men in the northbound lane, to mile marker three. Number of effected MVA's, unknown at this time." Gage and Roy moved out, walking fast with meager torches and their gear. Chet followed them with stokes and O2, shouting. "Can anybody hear me? Fire Department!" Gage and Roy nearly fell over the first mangled car, gray, like the smothering fogbank around it. Johnny saw a second red pickup on its side a short distance ahead through the murk. "Chet! Marco! Check out that truck!" Roy tried the passenger door of the car they had found but it was jammed. "I got it.. Go check over there.." John told Roy. John poked his head inside and saw clothes. Two sets. "Cap! Get a K-12 over here! I've got victims!" |
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Gage finished a brief check for gas, then wormed into the narrow window up to his waist. Glass crinkled under his gloves as he found the driver. Gasping loudly, he slid himself closer in the tight space next to the first victim. The smell of blood was strong and something else that was very bad. He felt for a carotid he knew wasn't there. A definite sign of fully dilated pupils made John's heart sink. What he saw in the back seat was even more tragic. Roy leaned in the window looking in on Gage, "That truck's clear. Everybody got out without injury." he said, thick with concentration. "How are they?" He couldn't quite, see inside. John curtly shook his head, vacating the crushed car. He waved Marco and Cap with the K-12 away to the next vehicle. "She's been disemboweled. Gone for too long. The toddler's DOA, too." Roy glanced back at the impossibly flat roof collapsed over the babyseat and saw two sneakers poking out. The only thing he recognized. "Johnny.." he gasped, clutching Gage's jacket as the shock of another child's death sank in. John understood it was ten times harder for Roy to see that kind of fatality, having kids of his own. He covered the mother and child up with a blanket quickly, hiding the sight. "Roy. Just move out. There's gotta be more victims around here. Only a semi could do damage like this.." he said of the gray Honda. Roy got on his walkie talkie, and mechanically, John marked the car with flourescent orange search paint. Putting an X on roof and door. Swallowing, he put the symbols for two bodies next to it. "Cap, we've got two DOA's in the first car. Second truck's clear but I'm smelling gas." Roy reported. Cap ran up waving on several stations' men with 51's K-12 to take over the head of the searching. "I'm on it. Marco! Run two inch and a halves to cover any gas spills, Stoker, you're with him. " Then a chief from Station Eight pummeled toward them. In the gray gloom, his white helmet almost appeared to be glowing.. "We've found all of them. Seven cars, one semi. Besides these two, here. One of my men's found a Winnebago upside down along the guardrail. There're two little girls inside. Their parents are fine." "We're on it.." Roy said. "Cap have the guys bring our gear..!" He put back on his helmet and grabbed biphone and oxygen and followed the Station Eight chief to the site. "I'll get it myself.." Cap answered. He ran back to the Honda to collect the stokes and IV box. John followed to get the defib and drug box. Soon, John, the station eight man, Cap and Roy followed an eerie trail of hissing cherry flares that acted as a beaconing line along the way. "Good thinking.." Gage said to the chief. " This is a faster way of getting around in this stuff..." meaning the heavy fog that was around them. |
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Roy was the first one to arrive at the rolled camper. He was met by a dazed father who only had superficial contusions on temple and cheek. The man grabbed onto DeSoto's arm and begged him to let him inside the RV.. Roy physically peeled his fingers off, deciding the man to be a low priority case. "It's all right, You're all right. They're still alive. I'm going in to check them out right now. Just sit on the curb here and take it easy! My partner will take a look at ya in a second." He handed him off to Cap and crawled into the window the chief indicated. Station Eight had already cracked it open and laid overcoats over the glass. ----------- John knelt by the wife, who was sitting supported by Vince on the roadside. He glanced at the man Cap brought over, knowing him to be the one a bit better off of the two. John asked the burly motorcop, "Any of em injured?" Vince said, "He seems ok. But the wife almost went out on me twice, though." Gage took her face into one glove and checked her over visually. There wasn't a mark on her. He took her wrist into his hand, feeling her radial pulse. It was rapid, but strong. She seemed just out of a faint, leaning heavily on the officer. "My name's Johnny Gage, I'm a paramedic with the Los Angeles County fire department. Are you feeling any pain anywhere?" The wife stayed dazed, staring at the Winnebago. John pulled an aromatic ampuole from his shirt. He snapped it and waved it under her nose. "Hey.. can you hear me..?" The slender woman gave a shudder and whipped her face away from the fumes of the capsule, coughing. She peered around blearily, then focused again on what she was looking at. Emotion flooded back in a wave, "My babies..! I have to get to my girls. They're still in there! I- I've got to help them.. The dresser pinned them inside.." And she struggled in Vince's protective grip without thinking. Johnny held her by the shoulders firmly. Her struggles jostled his helmet and it fell off. "Take it easy now! My partner's working on that. Now let's just make sure you're all right before you move around so much, ok?" Gage said. The clatter of John's helmet on the concrete made Cap, by the chief, shout for his man he couldn't see. "You ok over there?" John answered.."Yeah..!" The woman nodded, finally fully awake. She calmed down as John softly spoke to her. He told Vince, "Keep her upright. That's how you found her, right?" Vince nodded, "Yeah.. and the sergeant said she was walking around earlier before I got here." Gage strung cannulas of O2 set at six liters for both husband and wife and began to get a set of vitals for Rampart. As he worked, he glanced over to the Winnebago, wondering what Roy had. |
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Roy found a jumble of furniture in his way. Gasping, he shoved his way through and found the children. He waved the station eight man monitoring them away. The man retreated back out of the camper. A tangle of wall and sheet metal had wrapped the two girls up like pretzels. One child's head wasn't visible and three arms in pink stuck out from where they were. It was hard to tell which limb belonged to which child inside a hole in the debris for both were wearing the same kind of clothes, pink jumpers. Reaching into the gap, Roy felt up the body of the child whose head was hidden, to her face, feeling for breathing. His bare hand encountered wetness around her neck that was sticky, but cool. ##This one's not bleeding that bad.## he thought. And he was satisfied with her rate of taking in air. He made sure she stayed breathing well by slipping in a child sized airway. Roy began to search for the reason why the little girl was unconscious. Shifting around, he grabbed one of the arms he thought belonged to the hidden child. There was a strong pulse in the brachial artery that attested to a fair blood pressure , giving Roy more reassurance that she was stable and not critically injured. He shifted each girl slowly apart from the other, without jarring neck or spine, trying to find how they lay. ::They're so tangled up here.:: His effort failed. The twisting metal made him give up the attempt. He got on his walkie talkie, "Cap! These two girls are pinned in real good. We're gonna have to cut them out! I can't get good access to either one." ##We're on it, Roy. Hang tight. We're coming now.## DeSoto finished his quick assessment on his patient. He found no more blood stains on the girl. But it was bothering him that he couldn't reach all of her to know for sure, her true physical condition. Roy moved to the conscious child, who was watching him with frightened silent eyes. DeSoto flickered fingers quickly at her eyes to see which startled fingers moved in the debris so he could identify the position of at least one set of hands. "Hi.. How are you doing? My name's Roy. Pretty scary in here, huh? " She nodded, which told him her neck wasn't hurt. DeSoto leaned back, setting his handytalkie behind him while he pulled some closet partition out of his way. He cursed again in his mind how flimsy Winnebago materials were in the trailer. "Don't go!" the girl cried. She reached out and grabbed Roy's jacket. "I'm not going to leave you alone. I'm here to care for you and your sister right now." And he smiled at his small charge. "Roy?" "Yeah..!" It was Cap, making his way towards where the girls were trapped. "I got the gear.." "Hand over the IV box first. We're gonna have to get lines into both of them before we extricate either one." Cap got to Roy's side just as he spoke again to the frightened sister who began to struggle when the splintered dresser boards above her began to creak. "It's ok, honey. Just relax.. Someone's coming, that's all. Mom and dad's just outside. This is my friend, Captain Stanley. He's a fireman like me. We're going to help get you and your sister out of here.. " She said boldly. "He's not Captain Stanley. He's really Abraham Lincoln. I learned about him in school." she claimed, voice hitching with nervousness. Roy and Cap exchanged ironic looks. Hank mumbled, "Guess I do sort of look like the man.." he said, scratching his head. They spent a minute or two, leaning over their young patients while they freed what they could off the two children. But it was soon apparent Roy was right. The jaws were needed to do any more. The air in the tiny space slowly grew hot and stuffy and made DeSoto feel every second in a torrid grogginess, but soon, he bent over the unconscious sister to get a BP on an arm he had freed. He guessed it was hers because of blood spatters on the sleeve. |
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Cap touched another tiny arm at random. "Is this one yours?" he asked the tiny girl. He sing songed, moving fingers on that limb testing for neural response. "This little piggy went to market.. This little piggy stayed home.." he sang. The little girl giggled. "No, that's my sister's." Cap kneeled near her face to get closer and to get more comfortable in the small space. "Ahh!" she screamed. Hank instantly froze. And lifted a loose board from where he had been kneeling. A left leg was curled un-naturally under her chin. There was no doubt whose limb this was. "Roy.." DeSoto took his stethoscope out of his ears and saw where Cap was pointing. "Is there a pulse in it?" Hank removed a sandal and checked. "Can't tell.. Hell, all of her's cold right now." Roy said, "Hand me a hair traction splint. "First thing, we're going to straighten that limb out." "With this metal in here like that?" He said of a wound in the thigh. A three inch long stake of side chrome stripping was embedded there. "We have to. There can't be any bloodflow in the leg with it being that dislocated. I'll..think of something and work around that shard." He thought for a few seconds. "I know. Immobilize it. Keep that piece from moving around. Use bulky dressings...or, some of that wall insulation. Anything you can use." "Right." After he was through, Cap slid drug box, IV box and defib next to DeSoto. "What can I do here now?" Roy finished cutting away the pink shirt on the buried sister. "Get our awake little princess here on the monitor.. We can always use the paddles to check her sister's EKG. It's the best way we have to keep tabs on her vitals with her being buried like this." Cap nodded, and got out leads for his patient. Then he handed Roy the defib paddles, stretching their coiled cords across to him. Roy threaded the paddles through his tiny access hole and set them on bare skin, an arm and a waist; the only places he could reach well. It was enough contact; Cap and he got a wavering strip off the stilled girl. "Bradycardia.. deep. Probably from that neck bleeding. If a jugular's so much as bruised you get a reading like this." he told Cap. He got a second set of vitals on her and a set on the frightened sister while Cap initialized two tie ins on the EKG monitor using the pads and leads he set in place on the second child he was near. "What's that?" she said as two sets of beeping audios filled the air. Cap stroked the girl's cheek. "That is a heart TV. It shows us you got one around in there somewhere." He peered, tapping on her chest gently. She smiled, "And the other squiggly line is Cassie's TV?" "Yep. That's right.." "Cassie is your sister's name?" Roy asked as he positioned a hair splint by the leg Cap and he were about to move. It had completely slipped his mind to find out the girl's names and to use them. "Uh huh.." she nodded. "And I'm Robin." "Nice to meet two such pretty young ladies. Do you and your sister always wear the same outfits?" DeSoto asked, while he blindly checked Cassie's neck more closely for any lacerations he might have missed. "Not always. But today is Cassie's birthday. And we wanted to fool Grandma into getting our names wrong again." Cap said. "It's your sister's birthday? Well, we're going to have to do something about that now aren't we, Roy?" Roy looked up from his concentration, and flipped on an instant, but tight, smile. "Yeah.." "Really?" Robin asked. Another shaking of the debris around them announced another fireman picking his way into the camper. Stoker came near and passed off an O2 apparatus to Roy, "This is eight's. Johnny's using ours." "Thanks.." DeSoto got out the unit's demand valve mask and started hyperventilating Cassie to get her heart rate to speed up. Cap gave Robin a nasal cannula on a second O2 line after showing her how it worked on himself. He adjusted it around her face. Captain Stanley heard the sound of a K-12 begin to cut through the Winnebago's outer wall. A blade protruded noisily, making Robin startle, but the saw retreated the second it got through the wall. Roy's talkie buzzed, ##Cap? It's Kelly. We've gotten most of the way through. Get those girls under cover.## "10-4, pal." Cap touched Robin's arm lightly. "Let's see.. something special for a very special birthday.. Hmmmm. I know. Do you think Cassie would like to wear a fireman's helmet? We've got one for both you and her.." "wow.." Robin nodded. Cap and Roy flipped up their own overcoat collars to shield themselves from the rain of saw embers to come. Cap gave his helmet to Robin and Roy used his to make a roof over Cassie's face between two beams. Roy nodded to Cap that he was ready for both the splinting and the saw. Hank warned the little girl what they were going to do. "You let me know the moment you feel anything like an owie when we move your leg..ok? And we'll stop.." Cap told her. Robin squeezed Cap's hand as her fright mounted. She began to cry. "No.. I don't want t- to.. I want mommy.." Her EKG sped up rapidly. He leaned over Robin and smiled, "Hey, I know that. Roy knows that, too. But we have to bundle you up first all safe and sound before we get you out of here. Ok? Now those men out there are going to cut us a door. It's going to get a little loud. Think you can handle that?" But Robin was beginning to drift and didn't answer. Hank turned up the flow on her O2. Cap gave the go ahead on the handy talkie "Go ahead Kelly.. On the double!" |
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