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The Story Unfolds... Season Three, Episode Nineteen.. §§ Sacred Ground §§ Debut Launch: March 1st, 2005. ******************************************************************** From : katalyia <katalyia@aol.com> Sent : Tuesday, March 1, 2005 10:19 PM Subject : Sacred Ground-opening scene Johnny slowly opened his eyes, wondering what had awakened him. After a few moments, he realized that he was thirsty. Slowly, he sat up and stretched a bit, before swinging his feet over the edge of his bed and standing up. Quietly, he shuffled his way through the dorm, across the apparatus bay, and into the kitchen. Even though he was still half asleep, he didn't have any trouble finding a glass and getting the necessary drink. Once he was done, he placed the glass in the sink, turned and made his way back to the dorm. As Johnny was making his way across the bay, his foot bumped against something in the dark. He paused as he tried to make out the slight noise it made. Deciding that he would find out what it was in the morning, and wanting to get back to bed and catch a few more hours of sleep, he started once again to the dorm, unaware that the object he knocked over was directly in his path. A moment later, Johnny felt the surface under his right foot move and realized he had knocked over the slide board for working under the squad. As his foot went out from underneath him, he turned and tried to grab the railing that ran along the top of the squad. But the fact that he was tired prevented him from reacting quickly and he missed as the momentum threw him into the side of the squad. Johnny heard the crack that his jaw made as it connected with the edge of the squad and the bang that followed as his head and shoulder met the side as he headed toward the floor. He hit the floor, as his hands went to his jaw and the air was knocked out of him with a whoosh. |
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-------------------------------------------------------------------- Roy jerked awake as he heard what sounded like a bang come from the bay. Looking around he noticed that the others were also awake, trying to figure out what the sound was. Except for Johnny, who was not in his bunk. Deciding that his partner had probably tripped over something, and that was the source of the noise, he started to lay down.... started to, as the next moment a muffled pain filled scream, echoed through the bay. Roy bolted out of bed as the light was slapped on by Stanley. Reaching the door mere seconds before his Captain, he saw that Johnny was down, that he had been holding his jaw, and that blood covered the lower portion of his face. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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******************************************************************** From : Cassidy Meyers <killashandrarey@hotmail.com> Sent : Friday, March 4, 2005 10:35 PM Subject : How Sharper Than a Serpent's.... "Oh, L*rd, what now?" Cap exclaimed, rubbing frustrated fingers through his hair when he spied Johnny lying flat on his back just past the hallway leading from the bunkroom into the large vehicle bay. He had just about stepped on one of Johnny's outflung hands. DeSoto hurried forward, bending low. Gage failed to move at Roy's touch, shout or to a sharp knuckle rub to the chestbone. Chet's eyebrows rose in concern. "Seriously beaned, man." He leaned forward to crouch down by Johnny's head. "Looks like he wiped out on the mechanic's creeper, Cap. It's no longer leaning against the tool locker by the mop bucket. It's by his foot." Hank sighed, "Now who managed to bump it down out of the rack and onto its rollers like that?" He kicked it away under the squad in irritation and it clattered metallically on ball bearing wheels as it hit the far wall in a scooting ricochet. "Probably accidental." Stoker replied. "Maybe Boot horsing around in here again, jarred it free. You know how he likes to go after the damp mop heads hanging in the cleaning closet to dry. Roy, is he breathin' ok for you? Carotid pulse's fine." And he reached for Gage's jawline with two sets of spread fingers to get a cleaner airway on him. Roy stopped him, "Wait a minute. There's more than just a bit of blood here around his mouth. Let's stabilize his head and roll him over onto his side instead to get him opened up better. Kelly, go get the O2, a C collar, the backboard, and the biphone." Cap wasn't worried much, yet. "I don't think he's deeply unconscious, guys, he's not snoring any. I'll go call in a still alarm." Hank said, rising. DeSoto stopped him. "No, Cap, not yet. It'll take all of us to turn him without bending his neck at all until I get this collar on. It'll only take a minute..." Carefully, moving firm but smoothly, the five men tipped Gage's quiet form onto his side, keeping everything about him in a line while Roy gingerly secured the soft cervical collar and fastened its straps. Johnny's mouth sagged open then and a flow of bright tinged saliva and blood bubbled out from between his lips. |
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"Is that blood coming from his tongue?" Lopez said, getting a hasty demand valve on full passive flow ready for use. Roy and the others finished getting Gage strapped securely onto the light oak spineboard. Kelly didn't let go of Johnny's face until Gage's head was fully sand bag blocked and strapped firmly still. "No,.." said Roy, settling a hand on Gage's stomach to monitor the change in his breathing following a deft bulb suctioning. "His lower lip's not split either. I think just the upper side of his right jaw impacted hard on something. It's just beginning to balloon up a bit here with a bruise right at the cheekbone by his ear." "Look at your squad door, Roy. That dent's the same size as Johnny's face." Marco said in exasperation, wincing. "At least that part of the chassis's hollow. " Roy sighed. "Ok, get that O2 going, he's clear enough now, but don't tip him off his side until I'm done checking out his head here." Marco held the mask firmly over Johnny's nose and mouth and let the stunned paramedic breathe it in on his own without any thumb triggering, which wasn't needed. Roy was finishing a set of vital signs, when Gage moaned and coughed weakily, trying to move. Everyone began talking all at once, urging five different kinds of encouragement, or stern warning, to keep still. It made Johnny screw up his eyebrows in irritation as he came to. Angrily, he choked on something, startling Lopez, who dropped the mask. Gage spit out a bloody tooth, complete with its double forked yellowing roots. It rolled like a playing di across the shiny cement and clicked against Kelly's shoe. Chet picked it up. "Well, I'll be darned. It's a whole complete molar!" "More like a wisdom tooth.." said Roy squinting with expertise. "His upper right one." he sniffed. Chet cocked his head like a dog twerking to an oddball sound. "He's just as pale as us, man. Is he doing ok?" Roy glanced down between his backboard supporting arms to get nearer to Gage's ear. "Hey.. Johnny. Talk a little. We got your C spine. Where do you hurt?" Gage sucked in a catching breath and his eyes fluttered opened. "Whaa.. happhh..nd? I can't moou--bb!" he blinked from around the demand valve's face mask. "Oh..spineborth?" Roy grinned. "Yeah. You fell. Again.." he rolled his eyes. "I told you that you needed to get some sleep to avoid hitting your trusty ol klutz in the dark button. Now answer the question. What hurts besides your jaw here?" "Nuffin..." "What?" "I saith..nuffin!" Johnny winced. "Owww.." and he closed his right eye. And his tongue probed around a little. "Hey, Roy? I think I losth a toof..!" he said in high alarm. DeSoto straightened up in sudden, relieved, exasperation. "I think we can set him on his back now, fellas, don't you? He got that one right." he added dryly. "Cap, go ahead and call Rampart. He's doing good enough neurologically now to manage without the gravity aid." Chet was thinking about Johnny's last horrifying self discovery comment. "You sure did you lucky son of a--- Johnny, ....Roy here says you lost one of your wisdom teeth..See? It's right here." Chet said, holding it nearer to Gage's eyes like a fine jeweler would a precious gemstone to a watching buyer. "Eeooowww. Get thath away frob me or I'm gonna puke on ya!" Johnny yelled half in a mix of horror and genuine anger. "Why? It's just a tooth..." Chet said reasonably and puzzled. "It's not just any toof.. It's MY toof! Uoohh no.." And he turned green. "Here I goOOOU.. GAAAAAuhgghhh......." And he fake vomitted, jutting out a gory tongue, just to shock Chet into dropping the thing out of eyesight and fingers reach. He stopped pretend gagging before Chet hit his own personal gross out point. Then he started laughing at how successful he was in getting Chet's face to wash ghostly white. He let Kelly off the hook."Of all the wayths to thave a little money by avoidin a thit to the dentith, guyths. Oh,, maaannn *Cough*" "You sure you're all right?" Roy asked him after exchanging a few words and sentences with Dr. Brackett on Johnny's almost completely normal vital signs. ##How's his Babinski's?## came the firm bass voice of Kel. Roy licked his lips, "Doc, I haven't got that far yet. Hang on a sec." and he quickly covered the jarbles of irate physician with his other palm, deciding quickly that preventing hurt partner from getting irate was a far lesser evil than any mere doctor rage. "I'mm no-- hurth!" Gage insisted around his fattening cheek. "Jus hath the win knockth out--me." he wiggled in the C collar. "You weren't even twitching when we all found ya. Stoker, here.." and DeSoto tossed Mike his penlight. "Go check his eyes for any mismatching or misreactions.." Gage sighed around the 02 mask. "Lope... I don't nee thisth..!" he said plainatively. "I'b fine.." Roy sighed, too, rubbing his tired face with his free hand. He froze for about a quarter of a minute, meeting Gage's staring eyes that were singularly boring through his own. They didn't even blink or wince once, even when Stoker checked their pupillary responses with the overly bright pure white glowing L.E.D. illumination. "Perfectly p.e.a.r.l., Roy. I checked twice." said Stoker seriously. ##Transport, 51! If you can't give me all the details now, transport, and we'll definitely be talking about him and how you've managed my transmission later!!## "I'm.......not......GOING!!" hissed Gage so vehemently that both the pink and the black and blue cheek puffed out in passionate obstinance around the demand valve. "It's Friday, around three am ...and I'm lying on the friggin floor in the middle of Station 51.. in the heart of industrial ... Carson City!" he rattled off, in barely contained apoplexy. Derisively, DeSoto plugged his phone receiver ear to block out Brackett's booming beratement while he said, "Gage's refusing, doc. One hundred percent. Sorry about that. Disregard this whole patient contact call. Squad 51, out." And he hung up the black phone in seconds. Click. A loud silence overtook the vehicle bay. Hank didn't know whether to fold his arms in a glare or mince his fingertips with worry in front of his suspender-ed T shirt. "Roy... can he--" |
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"He can. He just did. I can't treat him if he refuses. Any more than I can treat any patient who's awake, conscious and fully aware of his surroundings. Guys, set him free.." he said, getting up from his knee aching squat on the hard chilly cement floor. "And let's save that O2 for somebody who really needs it, huh? Lopez get a ice bag for that face purpling from the freezer. I'm sure he won't argue THAT recommended treatment to death any. I'm going back to bed." he grumbled. "Thanks, Johnny, that was real funny...." he said deadpan sarcastic."Can't say it was one of your best gigs. It stank. Royally." Roy's sleep dishevelled shadow shuffled sleepily back into the bunk room. His was followed by Boot's and the methodical click of bored claws. All the rest of the guys watched them go, all wearing the same expressions of sheer dumbstruck muteness, including the strap and block immobilized Gage. Then, one by one, all the gang got equally in a huff. Grinning secretly in unspoken sudden conspiracy, the four of them swept up Johnny and his long board into their arms... and hung him on the wall off a jacket hook. Yawning, they turned to go, imitating Roy to the point of actually leaving John in the dark with the flick of the light switch...... for several minutes. "HeyyyyYY! Ya aren't just gonna leave me here!?" Johnny rattled against the bricks. "I didn't plan anything.. Well, maybe the fake chunk blowing part.... Guys.. I'm getting real uncomfortable!!! If you don't want me going into shock for real, you'd better g--!" Laughing at his ire, the guys hastily returned and laid him back down on the ground to undo his arms and legs and pull off the collar. Stoker and Marco helped Johnny up with a double grip of their hands, chuckling evilly. Kelly said, "If you're feeling well enough to call off an ambulance, why don't you go put the gear away like a good little non-patient before you shower up to wash all that blood off." Then the gang DID leave Gage alone, exiting stage center, full back. In irritation, Johnny got rid of the last of his throbbing jawline sinus headache with a few snorts from the oxygen tank mask. Then, in a re-inflamed case of the willies, he started cleaning up all the rescue apparatus, all the while cringing in anticipation of one of his bare heels suddenly crunching down onto his now truly lost, luckless tooth. To add insult to injury, Boot didn't even leave his warm place curled at the curve of Roy's butt, to help him find it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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*************************************************************** From: Roxy Dee < laterrapincabesa@hotmail.com > Sent : Wednesday, March 9, 2005 3:46 PM Subject : The Sacred Ground Gage was the last one to breakfast. He had spent the better part of a half hour poking and prodding in his mouth using the bathroom mirror in and around the gap his knocked out tooth had left behind. The cheek bruise, he wasn't worried about. It was the fact that nothing behind remained of his tooth, that did. He sat, holding the long since warmed ice bag Marco had given him last night over his bruised face self consciously, as he sank down in his chair. Roy immediately zeroed in on him while he spooned out a hefty portion of hashbrowns onto his plate. "Headache gone yet? If it's not, you've earned yourself another mandatory vitals check. Cap's orders." DeSoto said. "Yeah, it's gone. My face doesn't even hurt anymore." "Then why the long face, Johnny? You're not the one who's going to get the shop bill when Charlie comes to pop out that door panel on the squad this afternoon." Kelly ribbed, taking a sip of milk. "Man, nothing like taking a midnight header into a solid object.." Johnny frowned in irritation at Chet's light humor, tossing the spent ice bag into the trash so that it narrowly missed smacking the curly haired fireman on the shoulder. Kelly dodged it easily without even looking up. Gage waited for a reaction, but didn't even get one. "So," Johnny said. "Didja find it before ya mopped the garage out this morning?" he demanded. Kelly kept on chewing.. "Hhmm. Chewy omelets, Cap. Glad I got enough teeth to manage it..." "Chet!" Marco chastised. "Knock it off.. You know how much this is bothering Gage. Quit teasing.." "All right.. all right.. I'll give. Geesh.. How else can a guy get his fun around here? Yes, I found it. It's in a glass of water by the stove over there..." Kelly pointed with his fork. "But I already called the dentist's office. They said it's far too late to do anything about saving your tooth. Nothing short of an ambulance ride to the dentist chair would've saved it in time and that trip...you nipped in the butt before anyone could say anything about it last night." Chet admitted honestly. "So, what'cha gonna do with it? Raise it on animal skin scaffolding out in the woods somewhere to dispose of it? I know how much the physical body and its parts mean to your people." Gage flared. "Chet, you don't know what you're talking about. I don't have to bury or burn it. I just have t--" he broke off, getting even more self conscious. Cap wiped his mouth with a paper napkin while he munched on buttered toast. "To do what, Gage? Now don't clam up. You've got us all curious about it. Might as well 'fess up because you owe me one for not filing a report on that header you took out in the vehicle bay." Hank said no nonsense. Gage looked properly abashed, even though his eyes rebelled against it. Cap went on . "Beside that, I let you sleep in to recover some. And.. I'm not subjecting you to any of the usual A.M. chore details. Heck, Stoker even made you some soft boiled eggs so you could actually eat something this morning." Johnny accepted the plate pushed in front of him meekly. "Thanks, Mike, Cap. But I really can't talk about it. What I gotta do is something that's.. real personal and private." |
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Hank stabbed Gage with a piercing glare. "I almost threw it out for being a biohazard in the station." "What?" Johnny said in shock. "Cap, you know where I'm angling and yet you're trying your d*mnedest to make me talk about it." "D*mned straight I am. How many times have I told you to turn some lights on in the garage at night when raiding the refrigerator." Cap countered. "I wasn't raiding the frig. I was getting a glass of water." "Moot point. Your accident, was totally preventable." Cap replied. "So's just about every other one Johnny's been in.." Chet chuckled. "Hush." Hank huffed at Kelly. Then he simply turned eyes on Gage in firm insistence, to spill the beans. "I...have to make a personal totem offering to the Spirit World." Gage mumbled. Chet didn't miss a thing. "A what? You mean you have to burn your tooth up in a bonfire or something while dancing naked under the moon in warpaint?" Gage just made a face. "No,, Chet. You make it sound as though my people were still living in the dark ages. I just have to make a prayer sack and wear it for a couple of days. No big deal.. Uh, that's if I can wear it under my uniform, Cap." "Sure.. Why not.." Hank said throwing up his chin. "No different than Marco wearing his gold crucifix under his t-shirt. But I absolutely prohibit any noxious weeds or other highly offensive olfactory offerings going into the bag. We've a public image to uphold." "I think I can get Nakoma to make me one that's subtle." Gage said. Stoker lifted his head from the paper. "Who's Nakoma? Some sort of medicine man?" Gage started to look uncomfortable. "No.. he's an elder in my family who has the sacred responsibility of burying us when we die." Kelly laughed. "Ah, I see where this is going. He'll even bury just a tooth?" "Yes." said Johnny seriously. "That especially. My tribe considers the head to be closest to the Creator Spirit. It's where our soul truly rests while we're alive." "Well what about the fighting spirit?" Marco asked. "I remember reading somewhere that Seminole warriors believe that aspect lives in the blood and heart." "It does. But I'm not a warrior. So I don't have to worry about my blood when I lose it. Only..." he broke off. "Only physical body parts.." Kelly continued where he left off. "I get it. Radical, Johnny. I never knew you were such a religious fanatic." Gage sighed while he gingerly slurped down his steaming eggs. "Very funny. I got an appointment with Nakoma to get my prayer sack today. I gotta go get it before the sun hits noontime or there'll be h*ll to pay with my Aunt." "She already knows about your tooth?" asked Roy. "Yeah.. I called her last night after you guys went back to bed. I had to. It was my duty as her nephew to let her know that a part of me had just died." "Gage. That's so morbid.." Kelly squirmed. "Chet. I didn't expect any of you to understand any of this so why don't you just shut up and forget about it. Let Roy and I handle this ourselves." DeSoto, set his jelly knife down onto his saucer with a clatter. "What do you mean let me handle it with you?" "Roy.. you're my oldest friend.. And...whenever there's a sacred ceremony on the Grounds with Chief Elder Nakoma, a non married tribesman always has to have his closest friend in attendance..to...show that he's lived his life honorably by having someone who's already proven themselves to be a ..true soulmate." Johnny blushed. "I mean, what else can we be to each other? We've saved each other's lives a dozen times over." Roy smiled. "I'll be happy to stand with you, Johnny Gage. Wouldn't have it any other way." he said sipping his coffee. "Just so long as I don't have to run around naked, wearing beads around my neck or anything like that, roasting my skin off in a sweat lodge." "You won't have to do anything but be there and smoke a pipe briefly...Thanks." Gage said, without looking up. The rest of the gang continued eating in respectful silence...until Chet piped up. "So, you both gonna have to wear face paint for this tooth memorial ceremony thingamabob going on today?" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was ten A.M. and Johnny clutched the saline filled jar holding his tooth in his hand nervously. "Roy, I hope to G*d we don't get another squad run.." he said, pulling off his helmet while he and his partner drove for a resupplying stop at Rampart. "There's only two hours left until my spiritual appointment's deadline." "Easy way to fix that. We won't eat any food. It seems we never get a run when we're not eating..." Roy joked. Gage surprisingly didn't laugh. "There is that.." he said seriously. "You're really worked up about all this, aren't you?" Roy asked. "Of course I am. All these years since leaving the reservation, I've never even once had to visit Nakoma. When I was a boy, he used to make me nervous..." Johnny said. "Why? It's no different than say, me, meeting my pastor." "It's a lot different.. Nakoma just doesn't oversee tribal religion. My aunt says that he can see into you.. Directly. Up close and personal. And he doesn't even have to know anything about you..." Gage sighed. "I guess I'm afraid that my life so far won't measure up. I haven't done anything for back home.. since..since I left.." he said, throwing up his hands and pulling off his overcoat. "A dereliction of duty, huh?" "You can call it that.." Gage said uncomfortably. "Well, no matter what happens. I'll be with ya." DeSoto nodded. "After we've restocked I.V.s we can go to Nakoma's shop, ok.?" "Ok.." said Johnny nervously..." ok." he said to reassure himself mostly. "Oh,...man.." He fumbled setting his tooth jar into a cup holder and almost dropped it onto the floor. Only a hasty catch saved it. "Relax.. or do I have to get Dr. Brackett to prescribe you a sedative?" "I'll be relaxed once I have that prayer amulet sack and things are under way. This whole process will take a week. We gotta fast, and be outside during certain times and the whole works.." Gage admitted. "We do?" "Yeah..." |
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"Cap isn't gonna like this fasting part.." he scratched his nose as he drove the squad into the hospital's driveway. "And I don't think I'm gonna like it much either. I think we oughta grab some chow in the cafeteria while we're here because we still can." Roy said evenly. "No! No.. Roy, you said it yourself. We'll get a run then for sure.." "I was joking.." Johnny didn't hear him and immediately flung his squad door open the moment Roy had backed it to a halt near the ER's ambulance doors. Gage rushed inside, seeking out Dixie McCall.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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********************************************************** From: "Cory Anda" <andacory@hotmail.com> Date: Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:40 pm Subject: Body Part Paranoia Johnny Gage made his way through busy bustling Rampart with all the skill of a medical worker to the ER's front desk. "Hey Dixie.." he said without preamble. "Oh, hiya Johnny. How's it going? You fellas made good time from Anaheim for this time of day. Traffic must be real light. I got the supplies you requested right here. Double check me. Two bags of Ringers, six Travenol set-ups. An ET sized 7.0 French. Two epinephrines, at 1/10,000.. Three MS adults, and a box of cardiac electrode pads." she said. "Missing a peds Narcan dose." Johnny said, fidgetting with a couple of pens like a drummer would a pair of drumsticks on top of Dixie's latest metal patient chart. He didn't look at the relaxed nurse, nor did he beg off for a cup of coffee from her. That got Dixie's attention faster than a fainter in the waiting room. "Ok, what gives, Johnny Gage? You're jumpier than an addict on heroin this morning." "Whaa.. say, listen, Dix." Gage said, still rubbernecking down both ends of the hallway. "Are Early and Morton nearby? I gotta talk with them. It's kinda urgent." "I'm not replying to that question until you actually show signs that at least one of your ears are still working." she said, noticing the deep, dark bruise purpling the right side of Johnny's face. "Dix.. this is important!" Johnny insisted, leaning in on her. "I gotta track down my last M.D. surgery notes A.S.A.P. before it's too late to do anything about it." A puzzled frown knitted itself across Dixie's face. "That might take a while. Your patient records are buried somewhere in the depths of Medical Records, inactively status-ed , because you're currently 100% perfectly healthy." "That'll change in....an hour. Exactly." "Are you hexing yourself for some reason or do you just love me so much that you want to get that nasty face bruise looked at right away?" McCall squinted suspiciously, reaching for it, trying to use humor to curb her own sudden, rising worry about him. Gage jerked his face away from her long fingernailed grip. "I'm fine. This is nothing." "No it's not.." offered Roy, finally catching up with his partner."I think that cheek bump is the first case of frontal brain pan concussion in the history of modern medicine..." DeSoto quipped. "Trip and fall last night. Minor." he confided to the head nurse. "Relax, Dix. I already gave him a once over before he pulled a refusal on me." "Oh. So his fidgetting here, like a five year old in a dentist office, is normal?" "Yeah, he's got an appointment he doesn't want to go to.." Roy said, collecting the box of medical supplies from Dixie after signing off on a requisition form. |
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"With Morton or Joe Early?" Dixie asked, watching Johnny mince uncomfortably. "I noticed the tooth jar in his hand and he's asking where they are right now." "Neither. He's got a date with a close relative concerning a personal matter. At noon." "What can be so personal that's got Johnny wound up this bad?" Dixie wondered while they both watched him get a drink that he didn't need from the hallway drinking alcove. Then she remembered what he had just said to her. "Locating a surgical record...?" she mumbled, answering her own question with an even deeper puzzle. "Huh?" Roy jerked his head around. "Johnny was plugging me to drop everything, including today's admitting chartwork to snag the surgical notes from his last visit here when he was under the knife..." Dixie said. "Specifically, Joe and Mike's surgical notes..." "He was?" "Uh...huh." Dixie blinked slowly with a confiding nod. An uneasy light flickered on in Roy's eyes. "I think you'd better humor him and get them. This may get ugly." "What'll get ugly?" Dixie demurred. "I don't think I'm allowed to talk about it." "Shh. Here he comes again...Keep it down." DeSoto hissed. "Hi Johnny. Cup of coffee?" Roy asked brightly, feigning a cheerful casualness. Dixie McCall got busy on the phone. "Nah. No thanks." said Johnny glumly. "I'm not thirsty.. Dix.. any luck in finding them yet?" he said grasping the tooth jar so tightly that his fingers were turning white. "Careful! " Roy shouted, snatching the jar out of Gage's hand. "Or you'll shatter it and earn yourself a place in the waiting room." "What? Oh, sorry.." Johnny said, still searching worriedly for Joe Early and the young African American resident. "Dix?" "Working on it. Betty says she's calling an orderly right now to run it up personally. A burly one." she joked. "Oh. ha. ha. My chart's not that big..." "Oh, yes it is..." said Roy and Dixie together. Johnny pursed his lips, refusing to be cajoled into a better mood. "Just so I get that sheet." Right then.. Dr. Morton left Treatment Room Five, drying his hands with paper towelling. He tossed it away into a medical waste bucket. "Just the man I wanna see..." Gage muttered and he quickly crossed the few steps between them with Roy and Dixie tagging along behind, trying to stop him. "Doc.. you gotta help me..!" he began. Morton took one look at Johnny's face and took Gage under the arm. "What happened here? Orderly! Get a wheel chair! Stat..." "No...not for this thing. It's just a bruise." Gage said, feeling up his purpling face and under eye. "H*lluva bruise if it knocked one of your teeth out. Roy was smart to bring it in with you.." Morton said. "Now sit." Johnny shrugged and tried to deny the need for himself be wheeled into a nearby empty treatment room. "I don't need to. I need you for ANOTHER reason real bad.." "Sit down. Shut up. We'll talk about it." Morton commanded darkly. "Or do I have to call in another musclehead to get you in order?" The orderly pushing Gage's summoned wheelchair flexed his biceps meaningfully. Johnny sat. |
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Embarrassed, Roy and McCall both followed doctor, orderly, and Johnny into the darkened room. Morton flicked on a light switch with an elbow and immediately started probing Johnny's tender face. "What'dja stop with your face? A truck fender?" "Yeah..The squad's." Roy said firmly sarcastic. "Mind explaining that one to me? How the h*ll did he get under your front tires?" Morton jibbed. Roy minced in frustrated irritation. "Doc. He's not here to be seen. He's here to..." Morton interrupted him, pulling out his penlight. "I'll be the judge of that. Roy, I'm surprised at you. His pupils are showing that he had a black out about eight hours ago. Why didn't you bring him in as soon as this happened?" he snapped at the blonde paramedic. "He didn't want to go. This is all nothing! Really! Just ask Dr. Brackett. He'll vouch for me." "I'm gonna do that..Right now." Morton withered them both with a trademark glare. "Johnny, don't move outta that chair.." He made his way over to the phone on the wall and started dialing. "Dix, get a left arm blood pressure reading." "But.." "That's an order, Miss McCall!" the young physician resident pointed a sharp not to be denied finger at her before turning back to the operator. "Right away, Doctor Storm." Morton ignored the jibe. Dixie's mouth was still hanging open in confusion. "You both lost me minutes ago at the front desk. Care to clarify?" she said wrapping a BP cuff around Johnny's arm. "He's gonna kill me..." Gage mumbled, reclaiming the jar that Roy held, into a tight protective cradle of laced fingers. "Oh, come on.. Morton's not that bad.." Dixie breathed. "Well,..maybe that bedside manner of his is. He's never been a good listener." she sighed. "However I AM, so spill it Johnny. The whole sordid tale.." Gage swallowed. "I need my spleen back.." Dixie nearly dropped the stethoscope in her hands. "What kind of crazy comment is that? And I thought I'd heard everything." "Look, do you think it's still in Pathology Store from this spring or not? I know how you guys like to save organs for teaching all your medical students. Plleeaaasse say that it might still be down there." "Johnny. Calm down.." Dixie she said, patting his arm, trying to get a BP around his wild gesturing. "It might be. Though I can't be sure that you even signed the right forms for that then. You were pretty out of it the night that car hit you." "I remember signing a donor form when I first signed up for the fire department!" Johnny yelled, his voice getting louder. That made Morton, in close discussion with Kel Brackett, look up. "Is he getting combative? I'll be right there...." Roy and Dixie both denied that observation vehemently. "No..no no no no no no.. He's fine. Just mad. Emotionally mad. Uh, he's just...fine doc. Heh. Look I'll prove it. His pressure's 140 over 96, doctor.." "Hmph." And Morton turned back to the phone, getting the rest of the details about Johnny's accident and jotting the notes down in his pocket notepad. Johnny was still plenty worked up, biting his fingernail. "I gotta fix everything.. Make it right before I go over there." he mumbled. "Just what the heck are you talking about?" Roy asked. "I thought you were angling being hurt to get a new nursing student in here to fuss over you so you could cheer up a little. I wouldn't put a stunt like that past you." Johnny grabbed Roy's collar and hauled his face down to his level. "I gotta get my spleen back or prove that Joe and Morton cut out my spleen knowingly in writing or they'll be h*ll to pay. He's gonna know, Roy!" Now Roy was looking at his partner askance, the same way the doctor and nurse were. "Are you feeling ok? Maybe I missed something on you last night." "I'm fine. Roy. I just need either of those two things within...within..." he looked at his wrist watch. "ohmyg*d forty minutes, or I'm dead meat.." Johnny panicked, fussing in the wheelchair. His activity earned another sharp glance from the rapidly talking young doctor across the room. Dixie frowned, setting a gentle hand on his heaving chest. "Who's out to get you?" "Nakoma. And very soon after that, my aunt'll be." A light bulb went off inside Roy's head and he buried his head in his hand against the wall. "Oh no. Not the burial rites thing..." "Yes, the burial rites thing. Roy, the more I think about it, the more trouble I think I'm in. No one has ever not atoned for a body loss before in my family. And now I know I have. I allowed a splenectomy done on me." "You were in life threatening shock, Johnny. You had no choice. It was either that or...." Roy began. "I know that. Dixie knows that. And so does Morton here. He and Joe are the ones who cut it out of me..." Gage said with exasperation. Then he froze still in discovery.. "Say.. maybe Morton can come along with us today and confess what he did to me. Or..do I need Joe Early too? As his co-murderer?" |
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Roy's face twisted in searching, very unwelcome, disbelief. He couldn't quite fathom what his ears were telling him. Dixie was a little faster absorbing details. "Won't that chart entry be enough? Joe nor Mike can't leave the ER right now. Kel'll more than have a fit." Dixie insisted. "Take it easy, Johnny...I think I can put a rush on it.." Johnny clamped down on Dixie's arm in a vice grip. "That might not be fast enough, guys!" he agonized."Nakoma's traditional to the last. He might not even know how to READ a chart entry let alone accept one from the outside world." "Johnny.. this is the 1970's. Everyone reads. Especially curio shop owners in this day and age, or their taxes would never get done." Roy said no nonsense. Johnny froze, considering. And then he relaxed a whole nine yards. "Oh, yeah. You're probably right. I must be snowballing..." "You are.." said Dixie and Roy in one breath. "Enough to freak out Dr. Morton here. And that's not easy to do.." McCall quipped. "Oh. I am? Gee, I guess I'd better let him off the hook, huh?" Johnny said mildly. "Hey doc.." he called out.. "Doc..." Morton barely looked at him. Johnny horsewhistled sharply between his front teeth. "What?! I said I'll be right with you, Gage." said Morton in irritation from his phone conversation. "Malcolm? Watch him. Closely.." he snapped to the orderly. "I'm almost done." Gage poked Malcolm the orderly in the stomach. "You can't touch me. That would be assault and battery. Hey doc, guess what? I'm refusing again... Bye.." and then he, Dixie and Roy hurried out of the room as fast as the wheelchair could move. Morton was left behind, helplessly tied to a highly re-annoyed Kel Brackett who had overheard Gage's parting shot over the phone line. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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***************************************************************** From: Katherine Bird <kathbird01@yahoo.co.uk> Date: Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:35 pm Subject: Elder Encounter Johnny Gage didn't trust himself to not fidget. "Roy, did ya remember to bring my chart log?" "Right here. Relax, junior." Roy sighed as they left the street where they had parked the squad curbside. He held up the surgical notes that Dixie had copied for his partner up in the air as he ambled up to the door of Nakoma's curio and trading shop. He tried to peer inside around the ornate gold lettering and tribal designs stenciled on the door's glass. "Hasn't he opened yet?" "Not to the public. This morning is reserved all for me..." Gage said nervously. "Oh, man. I'm wound up worse than what I was for my first day morgue clinical for paramedic's class.." "That's good." Roy said. "Then you won't say anything you might regret. You have a tendency to clam up when you're really flustered. Just think, now your foot won't be able to get wedged so tightly in your mouth once we're standing in front of him. Ready?" "No.." "Open your eyes, Johnny. I'm reaching for the door knob right about....." A sharp tone on both their belted HTs, came to life. ## L.A., Squad 51.## Johnny jumped and was shaky enough to not be able to reach his radio's release clip fast enough to reply. Roy answered the hail. "Squad 51.." ##Squad 51. Message from the L.A. Shop Office. Standby for communications patch.## "Standing by..." said Roy, with a puzzled look. "Oh, no.." groaned Johnny. "What?" "That's Charlie I'll bet. He's probably itching to get at the squad to pop out your door." "The sooner the better. " "I don't know who's gonna be worse.. Charlie the mechanic or Nakoma here.." Roy was a friend enough to not laugh. "I promise I won't tell him exactly how it happened or who was actually responsible for the dent.." Gage completely missed it. "Roy, Charlie'll never yell at Boot. He loves that dog more than his own mother. Didn't you know that Boot camped out at the Engine Shop for a whole two months and got so good at anticipating Charlie's fire department repair routine, that he started being able to hand out the tools Charlie needed to work with before Charlie realized that he was even thinking about using em.." ##Squad 51, I have your patch to 602.## "Copy 602.." Roy told L.A. ## Hey slackers! Where the h*ll are ya?## came Charlie's irate New York sounding taxi driver's voice. ## I got my truck idling in the back yard waiting for ya..## "Grab some lunch with the fellas, Charlie. It's Cap's chowder today.." he dangled. "We'll be around in..." Roy looked to Johnny for a time estimate. Gage silently mouthed.."One hour." "...an hour." DeSoto said over his talkie. "See Stoker for the damage photos. They're on Cap's desk so you can guess how much time you're gonna need in order to--" ##Already saw em, fireboy. Just get your butts back at the station with my poor abused squad in an hour, five, or there'll be Hades to pay. Don't think there won't be any because I'm a smidgeon away from accruing overtime that I don't need! And do me a favor that I won't regret...## boomed Charlie. "What's that, Mr. 602?" Roy said with an amused expression on his face. ##Be sure to wash the blood off Lil Red's paint job before it cakes on any worse in the sun before ya get here. Next time, slow down enough to nail the d*mned squirrel with your front bumper, not with the door with any speedin' up trying to get away from it.## "Squirrel?" " * squeak..squeak..* " Roy teased Gage, covering the speaker. "Well, well well. Will wonders never cease? Looks like Chet managed to turn your dramatic escapade last night into something mundane enough to chill that temper of Charlie's. Good for him. I think you owe him one, Johnny." Gage was too nervous eyeing up the curio shop's dark animal taxidermied and artifact filled windows to pay any attention to Roy. ##602, Squad 51. Did you two bozos copy my last transmission or not?!## "Squad 51 to 602. 10-4. Squad 51, out...." DeSoto replied. "Our ETA is confirmed at an hour, five." ## It'd better be. ## snapped a barely mullified Charlie. In the background, Roy could hear dishes being served up onto a table and sounds of bubbling. In spite of itself, DeSoto's stomach growled. :: I'm missing chowder! :: Then the open line cut out and Sam Lanier's voice came back onto the frequency. ## 602 signals automated termination at his location. Do you affirm?## "We do, L.A... Squad 51's now 10-8 at the 1100 block of Lerner and Oseola." ##10-4, Squad 51. Noting your change on the grid. L.A. out. * Spap.* ## |
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Gage startled at the severed line click from Headquarters. Then he squared his shoulders and said, "Let's get this over with..." His hand reached down and turned the intricately Seminole pictogram carved door handle. The two paramedics made their way into the shop. A low growl met their ears. Turning, Roy and Johnny came face to face with what looked like a wolf lying in the doorway leading to the back of the trading post's counter. Unbidden, Johnny's left palm came up into the air in a respectful benediction before his own forehead. "Ko-wah-yah- lot to chené pahén empom. Numpagalaale laknalon." The hybrid dog's hackles slowly fell and it sank back down onto its belly, and licked its lips in resumed boredom. Roy unfroze.. "What was that all about?" Johnny shrugged a shiver of incomprehension. "I dunno.. It just came to me without my even thinking about it. Seemed right to say that somehow.." he said, licking suddenly dry lips. "Not quite right, Ya-laahe Kowechobe. You just told Nageela that flowers are yellow and that three horses are eating hay in your gift mother's tongue." said a voice, stepping out of the shadows. It was a shorter older Seminole man dressing in colorful beads, silverwork, ribboned pants and an airy mauve speckled shirt opened at the chest. "You should be ashamed of yourself to let your native language slip so badly. It dishonors all your ancestors." Johnny paled to almost Roy's skin tone. "Nakoma! I meant no offense. I'm feeling a little off balance here. Look, can we go outside for some air? I-I..I was working a house fire this morning and haven't yet cleared out my lungs good enough yet to think straight." "So you now fight Ee-te Yo-ga-hé, Orange Panther? She said as much. That, at least, is a step in the right direction. Fire is an enemy not many men are brave enough to face. But that is no excuse to shun your aunt's desire to impart some wisdom about your heritage through Speaking." "I'm sorry, Nakoma. I haven't had much time to keep up my lessons with Kehayke." Johnny said like an eight year old school boy in front of a chastising school teacher. "I could honor my pledge to gain knowledge if only Snow Hawk wasn't so stubborn about moving into my ranch house so I could take better care of her..." The wizened old tribal elder simply held up a gentle hand to silence him. "She is a piece of the West Wind, Johnny Roderick Gage. And I now see that the same wind is in you, too. No one can tame such as that easily. Not even one whose birth embraces it. This speaks much to me of your life, Panther." Nakoma studied Roy closely with a wrinkled, piercing gaze that sank deep. "So, your closest companion is Miccosukee, Johnny. Honorable that you've chosen him of the Other People whose homeland now dances with our own. Nakoma bids you welcome, Roy DeSoto..." Roy blinked in surprise when his name was spoken out loud without an introduction. "I read your name tag, son.." said Nakoma with a toothy grin. "And I see you carry the spirit proofs I'll be needing." he said, indicating both the tooth jar and the folder containing Johnny's patient notes in Roy's hands. "Uh, yes sir.." sputtered Roy, rubbing his nose in embarrassment. |
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"Come. Nageela will show you the way into my Sun Circle.. uh, my personal garden. I've already set aside some refreshment.." he said with a slight angle of his whitening head. "After we've eaten and are filled from the pool's waters, we can begin your purification rites. I have Young Opa Henle, helping me today. He is a most promising initiate." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was forty minutes later, Johnny was almost completely untensed after the simple meal of palm hearts and fried corn cakes. The sun felt warm on his back as he listened to Opa and Nakoma say the sacred chant of Atonement for his behalf. He hadn't even coughed when the ceremonial pipe of herbs passed between the four of them. ::Guess all this fresh air's finally doing something for me.:: he thought. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, fending off a slight drowse. A steamy puff of summer wind made him open them... And he came face to face with a slabbering, roaring maw of a six hundred pound grizzly bear. "YahhhhHH!" he shouted, flinging himself backwards off of the coarse, brightly colored woven prayer mat. Nakoma, Opa and Roy fell to laughing as the tame bear began snuffling Johnny's outflung hands, begging for any shred of leftovers. "Where did that bear come from?!" Gage gasped. "From under that tree, Panther." said Opa, the young indian man. "She was lying under it the whole time to keep herself cool. You mean to tell me that you never saw her there? Miccosukee did, right away.." Roy chuckled. "You'll have to forgive my partner. He.. injured himself yesterday enough to addle his brains. Always takes a day or two for Johnny to sort himself out." Nakoma patted the affectionate giant bear's dusty coat fondly. "Yes, I saw the battle marks on his face that showed how his tooth was taken from him." he gestured with a ceremonial ribbon dressed hawk's feather. "And Coo-Wah Shoke here knows she might get some food from one who's still slow from his wounds.." he said. Gage laughed. "Big Pig? Is that what you call her?" "Yes, for that is her nature. How she gets with food and her love of wallowing in the mud. The city says I can have her as long as she never goes into the shop and stays behind my gated fences. Are you still frightened of her my boy?" Nakoma asked. "A little. Let's just say bears and I haven't ever gotten along. Lions and tigers don't like me much either.." Johnny said, uneasily. Clucking his lips, Nakoma sent Coo-Wah Shoke away from the food fire on the tiny willow tree ringed shore of the garden's pool. "Go for a while. This one needs my healing without his fear of animals rising, my old friend. He'll be all right.." the old man told the bear. |
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Roy and Johnny looked at Nakoma thoughtfully until the elder explained. "She worries about those who're heart sick and is drawn to them. I'm afraid you were enough to break her sleep, Panther. Tell me of your old transgression that effected you here.." he said, motioning to the general area of where a spleen would be located. "You will not be judged by me for that is not my place in the World.." said Nakoma. "I see that part of you has been missing for a half circling of the sun." Roy handed Nakoma the medical records Dixie had managed to scrounge up. "I don't know if we have time for you to read all of these doctor notes. Johnny was hit by a car and had to have emergency surgery to save his life. I was there when it happened." "We will have time. The Creator will send those who might need your medical healing and fire fighting to the others in your House. It always happens that way." said Opa with certainty, briefly touching the broad cast monitoring HT that Roy had set on a rock by their blanket. Gage blinked and so did Roy. "We did eat without getting a rescue call. Think it'll last?" he joked to the young man. "Until we are done here. Yes." said Opa with fervor. "Wish I had your confidence.." Johnny murmured, as Opa took away his grass woven food plate and pottery fired water cup. A cloud passed over the sun, and its shadow chilled the air, making the pleasant sweat on Johnny's face turn uncomfortable. Nakoma's eyes opened and he fixed Johnny with a sad stare. "I am sorry.There is little I can do to restore your Spirit's balance, Johnny. It is because the circles that you move within have been disrupted for too long." "Disrupted? How?" said Johnny, his old apprehensions about keeping the tribal appointment coming back in a flood. "Your body takes on its hurts and pains often. Does it not?" "Well, yeah, but.. I've always sort of had a klutz gene." "Not always. It is only since then. When you did not see me when the first Loss of Body happened. It does not matter that it was the Miccosukee doctors who took your body's spleen without your knowledge then. What does matter, is that you did not atone for its loss, until now." Nakoma said. "I can erase that old transgression now. But the harm that comes often to your Great Circle, will stay near for a time." Gage felt uneasy. "I'm sorry.. I didn't think that my surgery was a critical matter for the tribe to have to worry about." "There is always a serious cost for delay when the spirit/body is concerned. You as a city healer, as a paramedic, should know that. But, what's done is now done and I cannot lessen the imbalance. I'm afraid I can see that you will suffer more in that which surrounds you, before your spirit circles come into balance again." said Nakoma. "For every neglect, comes a price," said the old tribal elder,.." In blood or in its ties.." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The warm sun had fled, and a dreary, inadequate rain fell on Station 51. All the gang only half heard a complaining Charlie the mechanic banging away on the squad door, finishing up its restoration work out in the vehicle bay. Johnny Gage thought that sipping a mug of Cap's chowder would cheer him. It didn't. So he started talking instead. "Roy, what do you think he meant by that?" "Do you mean Nakoma's doom and gloom statement that he shared with us before we left him or Charlie's last oath in Italian?" Roy grinned. "I'm talking about Nakoma.." said Johnny quietly. The smile on Roy's face died. "I don't know. I'm not good at understanding mystical stuff....and about what happened earlier today.. I understand, even less. Maybe he was just trying to scare you into spending more time with your Aunt to learn your native language like she wants you to." |
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"Roy, Nakoma's a respected elder. He wouldn't stoop to such pettiness to get anybody back in line. "Johnny said. "A man doesn't become a Spirit Elder by being manipulative. There's only one born in every generation, and that is earned with years and years of dedication and study. Nakoma's the free-est spirit I've ever encountered." "I've heard of one freer.." smiled Roy, looking up at Johnny. "What?" "Nothing. I wouldn't worry much about what Nakoma said. No one is subject to manifest destiny. We all have free will. I sincerely believe the choices we make in our lives are always made free and clear from anyone's influence, except perhaps, sometimes, our own." "You really think so?" "Yeah." Johnny didn't say anything and just toyed with the steaming soup with his spoon. "You look hungry again," Roy said gently. " Eat your soup before we get called out on a---" The tones went off.. and the call that followed them began to transmit over the speakers as the whole gang piled out of the kitchen. Charlie the mechanic grabbed Boot's collar and got both himself and the shaggy station mutt, out of the way of traffic. ## Station 51.... ## |
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