| |||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Page Five Note: Music soundtrack is high quality and slow loading in some cases. Patience. :) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Captain Stanley's gaze bore right into Roy's until Roy thought he was going to start fidgetting under their scrutiny. But finally, Hank sighed. "Ok, you know the support panel's there if you want to go talk to anyone sooner. I've got us all scheduled with the counselors for disaster debriefing this afternoon. The usual routine." The rest of the gang cleared their throats and mumured uncomfortably. They all knew they needed to talk about the run as soon as they could, before its impact could effect any of them even more. "Ok, Cap.." Then Roy noticed the last remaining Code F report form resting on the table. "Oh. I forgot. I'll get right on this.." he promised. "Take your time.. These aren't due at Headquarters until six.." Hank said. The kitchen fell into quiet as each of the gang filled out the grim details of facts and the actions they each had taken during the bus accident. The tension was so thick, Henry started to whine at their concentrated silence. Marco and Chet got up immediately and took their forms and donuts to the couch. Lopez took Henry into his lap and fed him a treat. Stoker faked stretched, without comment, studying his shoes. "Can't hide anything from Henry, can we?" Johnny said to no one in particular. "Nope. He's a hot dog who's a blood hound. What can we hide from a nose that big?" And everyone laughed. Everyone except Roy. "Say, Gage.." Kelly smacked Gage on the shoulder to get his attention from where he was carefully writing on his incident form. "Oww, Kelly now cut that out. Now I'm going to have to start filling this out all over again." Johnny groused. Then he rubbed his arm. "That's a sore spot from yesterday." "Sorry Gage. But listen.. I almost brought this up to DeSoto but he was too busy being a fidgetty father yesterday to pay me any attention." "Gee. I wonder why? Kelly, just get to the point." Johnny said impatiently. "Yeah, Chet. Get to the meat of it already." Marco said from his kitchen seat. Kelly glanced up and suddenly noticed that everyone, including Cap, was paying close attention to him. He immediately got embarrassed. "Now, listen fellas. I just wanted to bring up a conversation with Johnny that was kinda private here, you know what I mean?" Cap's eyebrows rose. "Fraid we don't. In it for an inch, in it for a mile, we figure. Right gang? Anything you need to say about work, we're entitled to know about, because we're just one big, close knit, happy outfit here, Kelly." |
 |
 |
 |
|
Gage and the others all agreed with animated nods and gestures. "Speak for yourself, Cap! uh, I mean sir.." Kelly amended. He whined. "Oh, come on guys. For me..?" He sighed when no one looked away. "Ok, ok. I see I have no choice in the matter while I get an answer for myself. I see. Ok,.. all right. I'll just come right out and say it then.. Johnny, do you think I got the right stuff to make the coursework to become a paramedic?" Johnny had been mentally smiling as vultures zoomed in on the summer of Chet's malcontent, but now, Gage nearly spit out the mouthful of coffee he had been swallowing. "What?! " Babble followed instantly. "A medic, Chet?" Stoker parroted. "That's great, Chet.." Lopez said warmly. Cap's face animated in surprise. "Wow, that's news there, Kelly. What made you suddenly decide this?" Roy even perked up a little."Really?" Chet tried to quell them all with shushes and self conscious hand waves. "Gimme a sec, gimme a second here. Let Johnny answer my question first, eh, guys? All right..? Then I'll let you have at it.." Everyone obeyed instantly, all ears and expectant, as they all looked at Johnny. Including Henry. Gage cleared his throat uncomfortably inside the circle of faces surrounding his. "Uh, well.. Chet. You see, uh.. Wow, Gee. I don't know where to begin.." He started over on a different track. "You seem like a pretty good firefighter and I like working with ya and all. But quite frankly, I haven't actually, ever considered this idea before, you know. I think you'd--" The alarm tones went off. ======================== ##Station 51. Possible drowning. L.A. Riverbed. One half mile north of Vadnais Heights Boulevard. One half mile north of Vadnais Heights Boulevard. Time out, 8: 02.## ======================== In the garage, Cap thumbed the response mike and replied. "This is station 51, 10-4. KMG 365." And he threw on his turnout coat and beat a hasty pace to the LaFrance. ------------------------------------------------ On scene, a lone hiker, muddied despite the clear day, met them on the roadside margin. He seemed highly agitated. "Glad you got here so fast. Hurry. I couldn't get down there any closer. Uh, man.." he gasped. "What do you got?"Cap fired at him as he stepped out of the truck's cab. "Well, I couldn't believe what I was looking at. I couldn't believe my eyes at first." he panted. "I just couldn't believe it was really a--" The biker suddenly turned green and Johnny and Roy had to catch him when he stopped speaking and when his knees started to buckle. "Whoa, whoa.. now take it easy. Hey. You feeling all right?" Johnny said. "Here, set him over against the squad." He and Roy and Cap managed to get the man sitting on the wet ground. Stoker went for the O2. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Gage said to Cap. "I got him. Looks like it's a syncopal episode. His pulse's normal." "Cap, I'll go looking around. Maybe I can find out something.." Roy said, readjusting his helmet. "You do that. Marco, Chet, go with him." Cap said. He pulled out his walkie talkie. "L.A. This is Engine 51. Send an ambulance to our location. We've a man down." ##10-4, 51. Time out 8:14.## Marco, Chet and Roy headed into the brush rimming the man made channel of the L.A. river. The bed was partially filled with a fast flow, and it was clogged with many many downed trees and debris from the flooding of the day before. Then they spotted an orange hiker's pack and mountain bike and an abandoned CB radio lying on the ground. "This is where he must have made our rescue call..." Roy said. "Let's assume he spotted something straight down from here." And he waved Chet and Marco along with him down the next decline. They skidded over the slope of the final levee to the top of the drop off leading into the concrete river system and crawled on their bellies until they were able to see beyond down into the waterway. Marco gasped. A horribly mangled little girl lay twisted in the bows of a flooded eucalyptus tree with skin so dusky, that there was no doubt that the life signs in her had fled long ago. One arm was broken hideously over her head and the crushed torso was wearing a very familar set of school colors. "Oh, my g*d. It's her.." Kelly heard from Roy. "What?" Chet asked. "This is who, Roy?" he asked through a scrub bush, separating them. But Roy just stood there, dropping his walkie talkie from limp fingers. Chet and Marco didn't see him falter, still being partially hidden in the overgrown field. "Come on, Marco. Let's get closer.." Kelly said, moments later. Through the brush, Chet called out again as Marco and he struggled to get nearer the area where they saw the little girl's remains."Roy.. we need to know what you know." Kelly said over the roar of water. "There are parents somewhere out there looking for this little girl. If you know something we don't, y--" They heard DeSoto sob a heart rending incomprehensible outburst, quickly followed by sudden violent retching. Kelly and Lopez heard the thud of something with weight, fall onto the dry reeds above the river, seconds later. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Kelly and Lopez turned from the water, not understanding for a moment. They both were shocked when they jogged back the way they had come to see Roy curled up into a ball on the ground. He was on his side, getting sick and trying to hide the fact that his stomach battle had been lost in what seemed to Chet, a pitiful way. "Roy, pull yourself together man. It's ok. We'll just get her in a few when you're better and we'll just get the h*ll out of here.." Kelly said. Lopez said. "I don't think this is just a grossing out, Chet. I mean, this is ROY. He never lets things like this bother him. Something's really not right here." "You deal with it. I gotta let Cap know what's going on." Chet said defensively. His face was a mixture of worry, disgust and frustration. Kelly went to find some high ground to report to the engine crew. Marco went to Roy's side and pulled him away from the soiling ground. He helped Roy kneel upright and Lopez held him while he continued to empty his stomach. His heaves were so violent, that his chin strap loosened and DeSoto's helmet flopped forward over his eyes. Marco took off Roy's helmet and threw it some distance up the hill in frustration and anger over the second unexpected horror delivered to them yet again in as many days. He waited until Roy was through gagging, then he said. "Come on, Roy. Let's move away. We're too near the edge." Kelly pulled out his HT. "Cap. We've got a Code F. It's a ... it's a ...kid from the bus rescue. Roy recognized her right away." ##Would you 10-9 that, Kelly? A Code F from yesterday?## Cap queried. "That's affirmative, Cap. And she's retrievable." There was a long silence. ##All right. Listen. This is first. Our hiker informant's a diabetic and the stress of his calling us out here has set off a metabolic crisis. Have Roy come up here.## "Ah, Cap. That won't be possible." ##Kelly? What's the hold up?## "Just get down here, Cap. On the double." Kelly said and he flicked the walkie talkie's speaker off, his face fighting powerful emotions. ------------- Marco had gotten Roy's collar loose. He saw that DeSoto was no longer getting ill in the place Marco had guided him to away from the river's wall. But things were far from improving. Roy lay, pale and in denial, on his side, sobbing uncontrollably. Lopez patted his shattered coworker on the shoulder. "It's ok. Just take it easy.We'll take it from here. Your nausea passing?" He got only a moaning half cry for a reply. |
 |
|
 |
|
Lopez moved Roy's head to his knees to keep the sharp grassy brambles from cutting his face. "I know it. Just let it pass. You don't have to do anything right now." Cap and Stoker came skidding through the undergrowth fully loaded with ropes, a metal grappling hook, and a small folded body bag between them. They halted in shock at the sight of Roy, curled fetal, going to pieces. Kelly and Marco didn't have to explain anything to them at all when Hank saw the little girl they had seen. His own face twisted in pain. Cap crouched by Roy and added his own comforting hand to DeSoto's shoulder. "Easy, pal. You don't have to do this at all. We'll handle it. Marco, stay with him for a moment. " And he rose back onto his feet. Cap swallowed. He motioned to Mike. "Stoker, get her down from there." His eyes never left the dead child's place in the partially submerged tree. "We're not losing her again." and he handed off all his gear to the engineer. "Kelly, go back up the hill and help Johnny any way you can. You're taking over for Roy." "R- Right.." and Chet bounded up the hill. "Roy, you get yourself together, ok.. You hear me.." he said as he disappeared. Chet stumbled once but then got to the highway a few seconds later. After a notification to L.A. for a morgue team and the D.A.'s office, Cap shooed Marco off to help Stoker recover the tiny pitiful body. Hank closed his eyes and made sure Roy didn't see their awkward retrieval using the hook either, by screening out DeSoto's sight of it with his captain's helmet. It could have been ten minutes or ten years later to Stanley when it was finally done. The morning sun was a little bit higher in the brilliant sky, a few minutes later. Hank began to speak quietly to his heart wounded friend, sharing a like story of when his own shell had finally cracked under strain in honor of a dead child's memory. It did little to lessen Roy's grief. He still shook, gasping like a fish, no longer able to voice sounds. Cap sighed compassionately and softly, he whispered. "Roy. We're all here for ya. It's ok. Just let it out." and he drew his senior crewman up into a hug. Stanley let him cry for a long time. Privately, Cap let down a shadow of his past grief. He allowed tears of his own to fill his chocolate eyes. Silently, unchecked, they fell onto his jacket, rolled off its hem, and into the L.A. river below. |
 |
 |
 |
|
---------------------------------------------- Gage looked up impatiently as Chet knelt where the hiker now lay. He was irritatedly biting the IV Dex bag covering off on the solution he had been ordered to give the downed hiker. "Here. Get this set up." he said thrusting the IV into Chet's hands. "Where'd you all go to? Took forever getting him to settle down. Fortunately, he's deep into diabetic crisis now and no longer seizing." Kelly was quiet. Johnny didn't even think to guess the reason why. He asked. "Where's Roy? We gotta get this man NPA intubated yesterday."And he began to take another hasty BP on their victim. "He's not coming." Chet said, stringing the IV tubing and stabbing its port valve lance into the bag he had set between his knees. "What do ya mean he's not coming?" Gage snapped. "We've got a major medical here. He oughta know any body we find's last priority." Johnny said, pulling the stethoscope out of his ears. Chet held Johnny's hand that was holding the IV needle still for a moment, to get his full attention. "Johnny, Roy cracked. Cap's down there now deciding whether or not to stretcher him outta there." "What?! Chet, you must be talking crazy..." "Wish I was, Johnny boy. I hope to g*d I was. Anything,.. but the bad scene I just witnessed down there." Gage fought mentally with himself, warring over his care of the hiker and his own desire to whip out his HT to demand of Cap how Roy was doing. He attempted to console himself with trying to peer over the side of the steep grassy embankment. The next words out of his mouth were barely audible.. "Is he awake?" "What, ....this guy?" Chet asked, looking down, beginning to do a pain stimulus check. Gage gripped his hand and stopped him. "No, I'm talking about Roy.." "Oh. Yeah, he is. But he lost his breakfast,.. and maybe last night's dinner, too. Johnny, he's not even standing." |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Gonna get shocky." Gage mumbled to himself, suddenly redirected. "Roy?" "No, our victim here. Chet, pay attention." Gage said angrily. "This next step's gonna be tricky. Now lube this NPA down with the K-Jelly. I've already measured this to be the right size airway. And get that positive pressure handy. His lack of glucose is gonna knock out his respirations something fierce." "Gage I don't know about this.." Chet said. "Maybe you'd better call in another sq-" Johnny grabbed Chet by his jacket lapels and snatched him close until he was only inches away from his face. "You wanted to know if I thought you were medic material? Medic trainees follow orders INSTANTLY from their senior trainers and they never EVER second guess a medical order. I ordered you to prepare that NPA tube. Even told you how to do it. So do it! Now!" and he let his overcoat go. "Geez, all right already. I'm just as worried about Roy as you are. No need to beat me up over it. You'll have ta tell me more on what to do here though. Been rocky ever since I've been ordered to take over to help ya in Roy's place." Gage glared at him and arrowed his spent IV needle into free flight, not caring that the bloody thing whistled by only a centimeter from Chet's ear as it clattered home into the drug box's waste needle catch bin. "You've got thirty seconds.. I'm not repeating myself." "Ah,, Ok.. ok.. which side..?" Chet said, positioning the end of the soft nasopharyngeal airway near the hiker's nasal passages. "Try the right side nare first. Don't force it." Chet nimbly got it into place, doing all the right moves and techniques, sending the airway down flat, along the palate as it should have been done. Johnny smiled, handing Chet the positive pressure mask. "See, you HAVE been watching us. You'll still have to keep his head back for a clear airway and be prepared to yank it out if he vomits." "That much I remember Gage. What now?" Chet said. "He's breathing fine." he said, letting the man pull his own oxygen off the mask. "What's his rate?" Gage said, adjusting the D5W flow into the man's veins. "Ten, and slowing." "You know to ventilate him if he slips below eight a minute?" "Yeah." "What's his color?" he said, drawing a blood vial for a glucose check, for Rampart. Chet peeled away the man's oddly sunburned lips until he saw his gums. "Pink. Look Johnny. I could go back down there now and see how Roy's doing for ya you know. You are in charge of me up here.." It was tempting but Johnny knew his responsibilities. "Nice try. But we're gonna have to trust the other guys' judgement on that. Roy's probably just reacting now because he didn't react yesterday. It's most likely no big deal." "You didn't see him, Gage.." Chet said in the tiniest of voices. It was full of fear. Johnny looked up, his attention full and frightened. ------------------------------------------------------ Cap heard a voice call out. It was Stoker's. "Ready to move, Cap." It must have been some minutes later, for when Hank blinked, he saw the black body bag nestled in a scoop stokes that Marco had retrieved from the engine. The bundle was already tied and rope tethered for a hill climb back up to the roadway. Roy, was now some feet away, dry eyed, sitting and hugging his knees to his chest, with his back to the body, staring out at the brightly sunlit flowing river bed below. "Stoker, you and Lopez go on ahead. Have Johnny go on alone in the ambulance with the hiker if you have to and tell Chet to take in the squad. Roy's coming with us." Hank told Mike. "But, you're giving us two, a minute or so alone. Get me only if Johnny needs another rescue squad to finish the transport, and when you're done picking up after yourselves. Tell the detectives whatever they need to know. I'm out of service for a bit. Understood?" "Right, Cap." and the dry crackle of the grass told Stanley that the grisly trip up had begun. Soon, even that soft rustling faded away. The ambulance came, then went, with the squad behind it. Soon, even those sounds fell into the distance too. Not long after, the mortuary wagon and an unmarked detective car pulled up, to take away the child's body and to learn the information necessary for the bus investigation from Marco and Stoker. Hank's talkie came to life. ##Engine 51, to HT 51. All the gear's stowed. Want us to put the Engine available?"## Hank lifted up his talkie and said. "When we're base bound, Engine 51." ##10-4, HT 51.## came Lopez's reply. And the station frequency fell silent. Rubbing his mouth, Cap could see Mike and Marco watching them from where they sat in the idling engine cab, waiting. He flashed them an okay sign without radioing back. He saw them visibly relax. |
 |
 |
|
Cap sat by Roy, not directly looking at him, as he took in the same spectacular view of the valley over the concrete river bed that Roy seemed to be looking at. He took in a deep breath of the canyon's sweet, spicy air. "Hear that, Roy? The birds are still singing..." Roy swung red, swollen eyes towards him. "Hear what, Cap? All I hear are the sounds of all those school kids, screaming, as that hill came down on top of them. I just wanna know why it had to happen. That's all. Is that too much for a guy to ask for?" But Roy didn't cry again. His face remained only dusty and flushed. Cap handed DeSoto back his helmet and slowly put on his own. "Come on, let's go." he said, grabbing a hold of Roy's gloved hand to pull him to his feet. "We'll take the engine home." DeSoto clasped Cap's dirty hand numbly, and then used its strong steady leverage until he stood. Cap watched Roy put on his helmet only after he seemed to contemplate the purpose for which it served, for long, unseeing moments. Then he saw Roy sigh a lengthy quavering breath. Roy's face was now a little less pale but his voice was weaker than a baby's. He murmured. "Yeah. Let's get outta here." Cap, threw a stokes blanket around Roy's shoulders and together, they went up the hill to the road. ************************************* Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:34:05 -0800 (PST) From: "Patti or Jeff or Cassidy" <voyagerliveaction@yahoo.com> Subject: Come Uppance... It was four hours after the L.A. river call. Marco Lopez looked up from where he was dishing out chow for Henry. The longish hound was snuffling excitedly as the Rival can of dog food filled his chrome dish. All the guys were watching him get worked up. And some of them even had their fingers crossed for luck while Marco finished. Stoker, ignoring their "sport", was the first to see Cap enter the kitchen. "How's he doing, Cap?" "Roy? Still resting. I did order him to take a nap. And yes, I explained to Joanne what happened and then called the crisis counselor just a few minutes ago. She's coming for a station visit, and she's towing along Roy's wife. They'll one to one with him first and then we'll get our session over dinner as planned." Hank announced. He knelt and petted Henry as the dog licked his lips in anticipation of supper. "That's good. Maybe ..having Joanne around will help Roy get back his equilibrium." Kelly said thoughtfully, arching his balled up snack napkin into a wide shot for the trash bin. It landed perfectly. "I know it will." Cap said empathetically, rubbing some dust out of his nose. The gang fell to the moment as the salty scent of horsemeat filled the air. "Do it Lopez.." Stoker said with anticipation. "This time it's gotta work." Marco carefully set down the dish gingerly, as if jarring it would cause Henry to lose interest. "There you go, Henry. Dive in." |
 |
 |
 |
|
The slowish hound looked up, licked Marco's face, jumped down from the leather couch, almost on top of the food bowl, and then he kept right on truckin forward and straight out the kitchen door. "Hey, where are you going ya crazy mutt?!" Kelly said from where he was sipping coffee at the kitchen table. "What a schmo...Geez, that's two cans of grub now, slated for the trash can.." Hank only chuckled. "You forgot Henry's a true station dog there, Kelly." Cap grinned. "Can't you see he's making a house call? It's more important than food to him." "Yeah, Chet. He does it all the time whenever one of us is feeling out of it." Marco said, retucking his shirt in around his belt. He had just come out of the shower. Johnny neatly rose to his feet, abandoning his coffee mug. "That's my cue.. Excuse me guys. I'm right on Henry's angle.." and Gage, too, exited the kitchen for the bunk dorms. On a second thought, he grabbed a couple of donuts on the way out, one for him and a second one for Roy. Gage noticed that Cap had pulled all the shades down around Roy's bunk and had even set a water pitcher on the desk tabletop with a paper already opened to the horse racing section next to it. Gage smiled when he heard Roy stir in his sheets to play with Henry. Respectfully, he knocked on the wooden doorframe first before he entered the room further. "Roy?" "Yeah, Johnny. I'm awake.." his partner said. "Didn't anybody feed Henry yet? He's acting like he wants his bowl now." Gage walked into the room and grabbed the chair from the desk, inverted it, and straddled it to sit. "Now, Roy, you know Henry won't eat for anyone else but you. And we're dumb enough to keep forgetting that. He turned his finicky nose up again at Marco just a minute ago when he opened a can right under his face. You sure got a way with dogs." Roy's face unexpectedly fell at Johnny's comment. and he stopped petting Henry's broad back. "Yeah, well. I wish I had a way with children right about now. Lately my luck's been running kinda dry." Johnny scoffed gently. "Now what's that supposed to mean? You got two wonderful kids who're incredibly proud to call ya dad. You got a beautiful wife. That's more than what I got. What more can a man want?" "To turn back the clock for starters. How about turning it back about..oh,...forty eight hours or so. Then I'd truly be a happy man, Johnny." Roy said, with a groan. He flopped back onto his back and drew his sheets up to his chest as if chilled suddenly in his T shirt and boxers. "Roy, cut it out. You shouldn't be ashamed of your emotions. What happened out there today, happens to all of us. H*ll, Cap's been there. He just told us when and why over coffee a few minutes ago. And I bet if we took a poll, we'd find that there isn't a single guy on the rosters who hasn't been in the same shoes you wore this morning." Johnny said. "I'm not immune either. I've been there. Remember? I lost it only two weeks into the paramedic program.." Roy regarded Gage quietly for long seconds, "Not everyone, Johnny." A slight smile curled his lips, "What about Craig Brice?" "Oh, yeah.." Johnny chuckled. "Brice. Forgot about him. How can a man without sense of humor find something about our line of work that'll make him lose his lunch? Brice sure can't. He's an Iron Man." Johnny grumbled, answering his own question. "Maybe he should team up with Detello at ten's for a while and learn something about compassion." Johnny took a bite from his donut, then belated remembered that he had already bitten into the first one. Lamely, he offered the pastry to Roy. DeSoto took it, and began offering the pieces wearing Johnny's tooth marks to the snuffling Henry who had sprawled his heavy weight across Roy's legs. "Here, buddy. Yeah, that's a good boy.." and he smacked Henry's hide loudly in affection. The rest, he popped into his mouth. "Nausea finally gone?" Johnny asked. Roy looked up, almost as if he had forgotten his partner was there. "Yeah, that anti-emetic you gave me worked." he said chewing slowly. "Who authorized that?" |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Joe Early. He knew what you had been up against yesterday. And understood the need for the hypo today." "Does everybody know about ...what happened to me?" Roy asked quietly, caressing Henry's ear as the dog snoozed in his lap. "Only those who care a whip about ya." Gage quipped. Then he leaned forward, lacing his fingers together. "Listen, Roy, so what if it took six years for you to finally crack on a call. Big deal. You're a human being. It means that you care.." "Yeah, maybe I care a little too much." Roy said softly. Johnny rubbed his mouth in frustration and then he got angry."Oh, boy, here we go again. You didn't make that driver hit the bus. You didn't cause that canyon wall to come caving in on us. And unless you're really Moses, I know you didn't cause that rain storm to flood us out like it did. So knock off the pity pit. A paramedic's GOT to have empathy. H*ll. You're the one who taught me that.." he sat back with exasperation. Roy was silent for a time. Then he said. "I'm thinking about leaving the program Johnny. I really think I can't hack it any more." he pointed to the uniform that Cap had folded neatly on the dresser and said. "I really don't know if I can ever get myself to wear that uniform again. Ever. It now hurts too much.." and his lip quavered. Johnny showed no sympathy. "You're just saying that. Now what would I do in a few months if Kelly kept good on his threat and suddenly became my new partner?" Johnny asked drily. Roy finally smiled and laughed. "You two'd probably, most likely kill each other the first week out." "There ya go.." Johnny said. "So don't leave me in that kind of spot. And quit talkin like that. You're just hurting, that's all. You're not disabled. A little time taken with the family will make it all right again." "Now you're sounding like Cap." Roy said. "Good, cause he's right. And that's what he said worked for him when he cracked over his own child call." |
 |
 |
 |
|
Roy sat up. "You know something Gage?" "What..?" Gage said, curling Henry's tail and scratching its white furred tip until Henry picked up his head to see who was messing with it. Henry's tail started wagging when he saw who it was. "You're right. M- Maybe that's all I'll need. A little time off. Just enough ta.. get my clear thinking back again and maybe I'll even find that sense of inner balance that I had before.. " he said, grinning. "That's the ticket.." Johnny beamed, taking another bite out of his donut. "No, wait a minute, I can't go on leave." "Why not? You got enough vacation time coming to ya. As long as I've known ya, you've only been on vacation twice. Once to Santa Rosa with me, and the other time when you took Joanne and the kids to the f--" he broke off. "You can say it, Johnny. Farm. I'm not mad at you over that any more. I mean who can control circumstance?" "And that's it right there, Roy. On your coming days off, hold that thought and you think about it, real hard.." With that, Gage disappeared, leaving the rest of his donut abandoned on the bedspread. Roy blinked, amazed that Johnny could move so fast. And that, in itself, made him think all the more about Roy DeSoto. Johnny's cool advice and Henry's warm tongue on his fingers, made him mull over what was really the most important thing going on in his life apart from his family. Sighing, Roy picked up the donut and began doling out the correct pieces to the proper mouths. Then, feeling thirsty, he reached for the water container. And a bit later, after a long tearful talk with the crisis counselor and Joanne,.... ...Roy DeSoto reached for his uniform.. ---------------------------------------------- Returning back to the present, all three ranked firemen realized that their stomachs were growling. Captain Gage rose from his chair. "All right if I dig in? You guys can join me." "Rank does have privileges.." Stanley agreed, holding up his chowder bowl. "Let's eat,... Cap." Hank teased. Beside them, Roy DeSoto began to laugh wholeheartedly at the nickname used by Hank. "That sounds so... odd.. coming from you." he admitted. Soon, the trio were filling their stomachs while sharing current news and catching up with each other's past during the few years that had gone by following Gage and DeSoto's promotion. |
 |
 |
 |
|
*********************************************** From : patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:28 pm Subject: A Moment Of Weakness.. Johnny burped loudly and pushed away his chowder bowl. "Still that good, eh?" Hank chuckled. "Nothing like home cooking. And this station still feels like home to the both of us." "Sure does." said Roy, wearing a huge contented smile on his face. "I know what you mean. And I guess 48's is still mine. And I haven't been doing much with them, except eyeballing the number on their trucks when they show up for our annual brush fire details, for alot of years now." Stanley admitted. "Haven't you ever wanted to go back to those days?" DeSoto asked him, his face growing quiet and thoughtful as he leaned forward on his arms resting on the table around his meal. Captain Stanley smiled ruefully and scratched his whitening temples. "Past missing familiar surroundings, sights and smells, I can't say the ties I had there were that memorable, Roy. Unlike what we had together, my first crewmates just worked as a team and got the job done. And it definitely wasn't a blessing that Dick Hammer followed me here to 51's when the time came. I lasted only a month before I transferred out to 24's. I was so upset that a man like that so abused the captain's spot, I vowed to learn to be a captain, too. Just so I could prove that I could be better at it than--" Hank broke off, realizing that he was sharing something private and deeply personal. Roy and Johnny froze, not believing their ears at first. Then they registered the shock on Hank's face, his look forcing them to react. Gage's expression faded from surprise, and he smiled in soft politeness. "Cap, that last thing you said,.. We know it slipped out. You don't have to say anything more about it. Some things are better left uns--" Hank fell silent and he suddenly looked burdened while he studied the coffee grounds still clinging to the bottom of his empty coffee mug. "Well, not this time. Now you know why I was so worried about what Chief McConnikee would do to me for burning his hat. I didn't want to lose my new Cap's spot that I was using to show everybody what I could do before I lost confidence in myself and my abilities, for what I did to Hammer." "Dick was a negative stimulus?" Gage asked, confused. "No, actually. A twisted positive one. Sort of like what Brice was to you whenever he seemed to always come up smelling like roses." Stanley said, finally beginning to smile. "Hammer wasn't a bad man. He still isn't. But I still can't condone what he was doing in his final days with all of you behind your backs." Stanley sighed tiredly, almost whispering. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Now it was Roy and Johnny's turn to be disturbed. Finally, Roy spoke to fill the stretch of silence building between them. "Hank, what happened before you came back to Station 51? We never noticed anything different in Dick." Gage amended. "Well, not that different anyway. I mean, there were changes. More time spent in his office.. The darker moods.." Then he turned to his old partner. "Roy, remember?" DeSoto's face fell into old thoughts. "Kinda. Maybe...uh, it would help if we had something more to go on... Cap?" Hank slowly put the cover onto the chowder pot, keeping it hot for the rest of the gang for when they came back inside for lunch after finishing the back yard chores. "Maybe I should start from the beginning.." he said, meeting both of their eyes sadly. "It seems you guys don't remember that particular event that he and I never, ever forgot." --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another deep groaning rumble echoed through the abandoned building and rattled both trucks of Station 51 where they sat at the ready along the curbside. Captain Dick Hammer knelt before the boy. "And you say your friend's still in there? How old is he?" "Billy's eleven.." replied the dusty kid. "He got lost. We didn't mean to go inside." Vince Howard frowned ruefully. "Didn't you see the orange signs posted on the doors about collapse danger? The whole building's condemned." "We both bought good slingshots. We just had to try them out on all the rats." replied the city wise boy proudly. Policeman Howard grabbed the plaster powdered kid by the arm. "They're fast enough to get out of way. And it seems, smarter, too. Didn't you realize something was wrong when you didn't find any of them running around inside?" |
 |
 |
 |
|
Behind them, a fourth story floor fell internally under the weight of the morning's rain, causing another cloud of dust to rise up into the mist. "I didn't know..." sobbed the boy as the horrible din died away. His tears mingled with the raindrops running down his face. "Let's just better hope your friend's in an open spot, or else you and both your mothers will never hear the end of it, coming from me!" Vince spat, disgusted with the bravado of the young. "Let's go call them now." Feeling a wave of unaccountable dread, Dick directed a very freshly assigned Gage into DeSoto's shadow for the first scout into the old hulking department store. "Gang.. grab the portapower, first aid gear and radios. Stoker, it won't hurt to get the listening probe ready." "Yes, Captain." Mike replied. "Roy, Johnny, start scouting around. And be careful. I want life lines on the both of ya. Manned." Hammer ordered.... The scene faded out... --------------------------------------------------- Back in the present, the three captains shifted in their chairs uncomfortably. Gage looked up somberly. "I remember now. It was Hammer who finally found him and-- that kid.... he....didn't make it out alive....Right?" Hank nodded minisculely. "That's how the chief explained it to me at the official inquisition later on. I was given all the rescue notes on it because I was called as a character witness for what happened a week afterward." "How did that boy die?" Roy asked, still not remembering. "Both of his lungs were ruptured." Stanley replied. "He wouldn't ventilate during CPR. You weren't there. You were called away for a bystander who fainted on the sidewalk who had been watching the rescue from across the street. A second ambulance was called and you had to go in with her." Johnny's eyes grew blank. "Roy, Hammer didn't stay on scene. He insisted on riding along with me during that child's code. He ordered the others back to the station except for Marco, who followed your patient in with the squad since ours had basically d--" he broke off, suddenly putting two and two together. "Cap," he said, meeting Hank's troubled eyes. "What did you notice on Dick later that was so bad? Leaving charge of a fire crew's not an offense. Not for an active resuscitation attempt." |
 |
 |
 |
|
Stanley didn't look up. In fact, he looked nauseated. "Dick's got kids of his own. So does Roy, and...and..and me. Lord knows how finding a fatally mangled child would have effected me or any of us if things had been different. But it was Dick facing it back then. Alone..." he sighed. "One week following that death, my station and yours were called to a hotel fire. Dick asked me to go get his assignment slateboard he had forgotten to grab. I did so, for he was incident commander for the duration. Well, I.. went back to the engine, just like he asked, and I got the board for him." Hank told them matter of factly. But then his eyes clouded. "But when I slammed the door shut again, I heard a tinkling of something made of glass, spinning around on the floor under his seat. I..I...well I, just couldn't believe my eyes when I pulled out a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels into my glove." Gage and Roy both startled. "He was drinking on the job?" "Yeah. And a random chief appointed spot check from the cops on another call later proved that he still had alcohol in his blood while on active duty. I had to turn him in. For any command decision he made for you guys while under the influence could have proven to be a wrong one." Stanley shared miserably. |
 |
 |
|
Roy whispered. "You were protecting us." Hank rubbed his face. "Then why do I still feel guilty about it? Guys, I ruined that man's career. The department made him retire for unresolved job stress effects." "You did what you had to do." DeSoto emphasized. "It was by the book." Gage agreed. Stanley sighed, looking haunted. "I don't know why the crisis counselors weren't effective that particular time for Dick. And he still doesn't know it was me who discovered his newly formed dependency problem. You guys probably just saw his increased cigarette smoking." Johnny nodded, still serious. "How's he doing now?" "Dick's back participating in sports, like he used to when he was part of the Olympics. And he's not an alcoholic anymore." Stanley said. But he couldn't find it in himself to smile at the outcome. "Thank G*d his kids still think he's a hero." |
 |
 |
 |
|
************************************************** From: patti keiper <pattik1@hotmail.com> Date: Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:46 pm Subject: Carbon Copies.. In his darkened Intensive Care Room, Kel Brackett finally let the sedatives they had pumped into his system take full hold. Slowly, the sound of the myriads of monitors keeping tabs on his blood pressure and other vitals signs, faded out. Sighing, he felt Dixie squeeze his hand encouragingly as she whispered that she was still there, close by. Dimly he could make out long hair silhouetted in the faint light of the ward, and the glint of loving tears from his future wife's eyes as she sat down near him. "I love you, Dix..." he gasped, through his oyxgen mask. "Shhh, go to sleep, hon. I'll still be here when you awaken." |
 |
|
 |
|
Soon, the head of the Cardiology Department fell to dreaming about past events that had been equally as painful to Kel as his current illness.... ****************************************** Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 18:54:30 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeff Seltun" <finiterider@yahoo.com> Subject: The Stuff of Dreams (From Father And Sons, Episode Two) The phone rang two times and the pauses showing his call going unanswered between them only increased his anxiety. ::Why am I feeling like an errant school boy? I'm forty two years old. Dad is just dad to me, isn't he?:: his thoughts rose. |
 |
 |
 |
|
------- ------- ------- "Because he's you're dad." Dixie's voice spoke from his memory of a conversation he had a week ago with his husky throated head ER nurse on just that same subject. "And you still look up to him. After all, you did follow in his footsteps getting into the medical field." she said. "Emergency medicine's a far cry from psychiatry, Dix. I didn't follow anyone to get where I am today. Especially not him." Kel said a little defensively when Dix's comment stuck a little too far into the real truth of matters. "Also, I've branched off into cardiology, too, and that's an even more unrelated area than being some office bound, leather chair to couch side shrink." Dix's frosted eyebrows rose in amazement. "Oh? I'd say in that way, you and your father are in an area a little closer together my fine, fretting friend. You both deal with matters of the heart. Only yours deals with just the physical aspects of things. You fix the body whereas he fixes the mind. Quite a complimentary pair to have in one family, in my book. You should team up together, Kel. Even if just to compare professional notes or something. Might be a way for you two to work out differences." she said gently, handing Dr. Brackett a cup of coffee. "We are. I have dinner with him once a month." "Oh, really." Dix said, throwing disbelieving doe eyes at Kel. "There's twelve months in a year, Kel. And I distinctly remember setting up reservations at Mannie's for you and your father only twice total, since this time last year.." Kel's chin twitched. "I've been busy.." "Yeah, well so have I. " Dix countered. "Although in my case, I haven't been too busy to see family I care about, to drift apart from again, due to carelessness." From anyone else, Dixie's remark would earn a scathing sharp reply. But Kel and Dix were the best of friends, been old flames even, at one time. And what she said and felt, was still very very important to him. "You .....really think so?" he said, studying his hands and rubbing absently at their surgical dryness. Dix shoved a jar of hand cream at him across the lounge table. "I know so. I've seen you two cross by my desk everyday. Brent to his office on the ninth floor and you to yours. I can't believe you two even work in the same hospital. He could be in Greece for all the contact I've seen. I can read the whole state of affairs between you two just by the degree of scowling on your faces. You in particular, have a certain cheek twitch that pops up whenever you think of your father.." "I do not.." Dr. Brackett protested. |
 |
 |
|
"You do... Ahaa!" she cried out in triumph. "There it is again! That's seven times today already." She leaned forward, finely filed nails clicking on the formica table top. "And for me, that's a critical sign with only one treatment available in my line of thinking.......Go call him, Kel. Arrange one of those well overdue dinner dates. You both are in severe need for quality father/son family time.....Oh,.. Just one thing though.." Kel's face was sheepish as he used the cream Dixie had given him briskly to ease his chapped aching hands. "And what's that, Dix?" "Promise me you'll both leave your white doctor coats at home.." ******************************** From : "satchie51" <satchie51@hotmail.com> Subject : [EmergencyTheaterLive] Dinner Reservations Date : Fri, 22 Nov 2002 15:50:32 -0000 Outside Mannie's Restaurant.. Kel reluctantly relinquished his car to the restaurant's valet. He walked toward the entrance with the enthusiasm of a man facing his executioner, not his own father. Summoning his resolve, he approached the maitre d'. "Yes sir. How may I help you?" Taking a deep breath, he replied, "I'm joining Dr. Brent Brackett for dinner." The maitre d' nodded. "Ah, yes. He's been expecting you. Please come this way." Numbly, Kel walked to the familiar table. A distinguished looking gentleman was already seated. He glanced disapproving at his watch. "You're late. I thought perhaps you changed your mind." "I'm sorry. Things got a bit hectic in the ER at the last minute. I didn't think I was going to be able to get away," Kel apologized. |
 |
 |
| |||||||||||||
 | |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
|