Juxtaposed by Patti Keiper. Intro scene by Sarah Adams. (Circa 2013 - 2017) The squad rumbled down the 405 at half the speed of regular traffic because Roy and Johnny were actually off duty in uniform, returning from a education presentation at a nearby school on the way back to the station to drop off the rig. "Roy, are we nuts?" asked Gage, fiddling with his helmet's strap. "Nuts about what?" DeSoto asked. "We're not getting paid." Johnny retorted. "About doing this?" asked Roy, holding up a fistful of fire safety pamphlets. "We aren't PR specialists." Johnny spat tiredly, rubbing his chin. "Johnny, you like to talk." Roy said, a grin spreading across his face. He pursed his lips and glared at Roy. "You're a barrel laughs, Pally." Roy stuttered as he clarified his meaning. "No, I- I mean. Cap knows he can rely on you coming through for the department in a pinch, especially in public. This afternoon, you were great. You had all those kids stopping, dropping and rolling inside five minutes." "Well... I do have a way with kids." Johnny said as he looked out the window and pouted. "But not with women, eh?" DeSoto retorted with amusement. Johnny looked over him sideways. "I haven't found the right pussy cat to charm!" Roy choked back a snicker. "I thought Betty was your recent pussy cat." Gage glared at him... "Very funny... Really... you are not funny." "She was your date last night, right?" Roy wondered. "I was just trying to be social. Don't be so sensitive when a guy asks whether or not you had a fun time." Roy glanced over at Johnny from the corner of his eye. "Really." Roy glanced over at Johnny from the corner of his eye. "Just drive.. Sheeesh!" Gage grumbled, to match the deep rumble of the squad.

Roy looked over at Johnny quickly and strengthened his grip on the steering wheel as the squad started to pull to one side and the road started to wave in undulations. "Roy watch out!" Gage yelled. "Whoa!" DeSoto gasped, fighting to keep from suddenly careening into a crash wall on the freeway. "It's an earthquake!" Johnny braced his arms against the dashboard as he watched Roy struggle to bring the squad to a halt. A strange fog appeared, and it stank, foul, like fish. Dust mingled with the smell of gas and oddball chemicals. Johnny started to try and open his door, but found it stuck. He moved upward in an attempt to pound his shoulder against the window of the door to budge it when he looked up and saw a strange mist heading towards them. "What on earth is that?" "We're sixty miles from the nearest pier, why are we smelling the ocean?" DeSoto countered, equally shaken. Johnny looked over at Roy."Yeah.. we are. Just weird..." "What are we jammed up against?" DeSoto asked, turning up their radio in puzzlement at the lack of emergency calls coming in about the tremor they had just experienced. DeSoto opened his driver's side and stood up on the landing to peer up over the roof of the squad's cab. A tall, blue box looking like an outhouse loomed out of the thick fog, a flashing light on its top. "Holy cow! Where did that come from?! It's blocking your side." he said. Gage crawled over to the driver's side and followed DeSoto out. "WOW.. What is it?" Gage's eyes widened as he saw the strange blue box. He smiled when a red headed woman peeked out the door. "...and why is it in the middle of the freeway?"

Amy peeked out the door and saw a red truck and two men in blue looking at the Tardis. "Ummm, Doctor... There are two firemen looking at the Tardis." A youngish voice thick with a British accent spoke up, addressing the fireman who had asked the question. "Ah, that's because the TARDIS put herself there. Don't worry. She wouldn't endanger any passengers. Or.. uh, innocent bystanders. My,..." Dr. Who said, tweeking his bowtie around his tweed jacket. "Is this an emergency truck? No lights on. So no emergency call on rescue. Got it." he rambled. Then he held out his hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor. This is Amy." "The Doctor? My name is John Gage... and my partner, Roy DeSoto." Johnny looked over at the red head and tilted his helmet. "Hello, Amy." "Are any of you two hurt?" Roy asked. "Us? Injured? Why would we be? Couldn't be better. On a vacay, gentleman. Only just arrived." said the man who called himself a Doctor. Gage looked at him in wonder. "What is that thing? Doctor Who?" The Doctor retorted back to the dark haired fireman. "No, it's a who and she's not a Doctor. I guess I am. Of a sorts." he frowned. Gage looked at him as he wondered what he said that led to his reaction. Roy wouldn't be deterred. "Look, an earthquake happened just a minute ago and stopped traffic. Now there's this oddball weather change. We..we thought this box slid off a truck or something nearby in the sudden stop like a crash. Why else would you two be standing in the middle of a road?" "Why not? The two of you are." Dr. Who shrugged, dragging out a skinny metallic device which glowed and made a buzzing sound as the man took a reading of the fog in the air. Amy leaned up to the Doctor's ear... "Ummm, Doctor...he does have a point."

Johnny took a step back as he watched the strange man with the metallic object as he felt a wave of dizziness come over him. Roy watched in horror as his partner suddenly crumpled and began falling to the ground. "Johnny?!" (Patti's turn) ------------------------- Amy Pond startled just as badly. "Doctor?!" The wild haired young smooth faced Timelord grumbled over his shoulder at her interruption while he was trying to concentrate on getting a tachyon reading off of his sonic screwdriver. "What?!" he hissed, "I'm trying to get a-  The air and gravity's all fine for England."   Then he turned around and saw the younger of the two American medics was on the ground, quite unconscious. "Oh! He's the one who's not all right. Well, why didn't you say so?" And then he knelt, flipping over the setting on his screwdriver to full blown med scan. "I tried." Amy snarled through tight teeth while still trying to smile encouragingly at their new companion, Mr. DeSoto who also was on his knees, quickly tipping back Johnny's head and feeling for a carotid as he listened for any breath coming from Johnny's mouth. The Doctor's device whirred and began warbling alarmingly.

"He's not breathing." Roy told them. "And he doesn't have a pulse any more?!  Sh*t!" he grunted, leaping to his feet to the squad for the defibrillator and oxygen powered resuscitator. "Whoa.. whoa.. no strong language before a lady, please. Shite if you must. What are you doing?"   the Doctor asked Roy. "Get out of my way. Johnny's in cardiac arrest." the blond haired man fretted, working urgently to set up his equipment. "We've got to countershock and get a rhythm back. Look, I don't know if they teach CPR in England, but could you help out a little here?! Miss. Take this mask, it's positive pressure powered. Fit it over his nose and mouth and punch that button every five seconds." Amy had already picked up a bit of Roy's panic, and she complied by taking the demand valve and filling Gage's lungs. "Doctor, I know this. Rory taught me how to bring him back last year, remember?" "How can I forget.." the Time Lord murmured, growing thoughtful, peering scientifically at the probe end of his sonic. "Wait!!" he said, snapping out of it, just as DeSoto ripped open Johnny's shirt and placed two gelled up charging paddles over his chest. The Doctor snatched away the grips from Roy's hands. "What in Hades are you think you're doing?! This man's not dead. His heart's just not beating that's all." "I know! Are you crazy? Give those back." Roy said, beginning urgent chest compressions around Amy's ventilations. "He'll die without defibrillation!" "He can't die. Not like this. Not in his current state. There's not enough time around him to live, or die." said the Doctor taking Roy by the shoulders and dragging him to his feet less than gently. "See? The Local Group tachyons are totally absent an inch above his skin." he said, smacking his sonic screwdriver into Roy's hand as if the paramedic could understand its flashing coloration lights and electronic patterns.  "Amy, you can quit resuscitating safely. We'll move Mr. Gage into the Tardis, and their vehicle, too. I don't want another car risking a crash into us while I figure out why this happened to him."

Roy's mouth dropped right open when the Doctor easily picked up Johnny into his arms, while holding his sonic screwdriver in between his teeth. A deft twist of the TARDIS key and a kick with a free foot and both double doors were opened wide into a strangely darkened interior. "Kay.." Amy said, going with the flow, she folded up all of Roy's medical gear and put everything back away in the same spots she saw the paramedic take them from. "Paramedic er.. and Firefighter DeSoto.." she said peering at Roy's name badge. "Sir, the steering wheel's on the wrong side of the car for me. Would you mind?" she said, indicating he open the driver's door. Then she prompted got into the squad, climbing into Johnny's seat. "Just pull her round and back on in. I'll spot ye from here." she encouraged. Still stunned and a bit disoriented himself, Roy did as he was told.  He didn't wrap his head around the incongruency of the size of the squad versus the width of the blue box's swung in wooden doors, he just drove and suddenly they all were inside. The Doctor had already set Johnny down onto a convenient fainting couch next to the main console as the squad came to a halt. As soon as the limp young paramedic's body hit the seat's cushions the cloister bell began to sound and the TARDIS emergency lights kicked on, providing dim, fire orange like illumination to all eyes. Roy froze in mid stride on his way back over to his partner's side. "Did I just check out right now?" he asked his two strangers with overseas accents. "No, you still have your truck's key in your hand. We've only just arrived." the Doctor replied, milling about the console, turning on various instruments and the main viewer to outside. Roy marvelled at the dimensions of the TARDIS room they were in. "How did we get inside a huge building? Looks like a museum exhibit of some kind. There wasn't one anywhere near us on that freeway..." Amy and the Doctor both grinned in nostalgia at each other about the dimensionally transcendental effects every new passenger to the Doctor's conveyance noticed. The Doctor smoothly bypassed the usual. "You're just worried. About your partner.. But don't be. He's being well cared for. She won't let anything happen to him now that she realizes that there was a time eddy or pocket at work."

"Who's she? Amy, your friend?" Roy asked, still partially angry that circumstances were still spiralling well out of his control. "No, my.. my ship. You told me you could smell the ocean. Look.. where we are's not important. Not really. Let's just get your friend situated and then, we can have a chat about us in more detail."  the Doctor promised.  He finished putting on the TARDIS's defenses. Then he returned a green glowing sonic screwdriver, whirring softly, and laid it on Johnny's chest like a talisman.   The urgent sound of the faintly echoing cloister bell from the Zero Room, died away into silence. "I really need to get him on an EKG. I..I..have to know if--"  Roy said numbly, overwhelmed by all of the changes. "Already done." the Doctor said, pointing to the main viewer. On it, was a normal rate sinus rhythm heartbeat being sketched in blue light on the screen. "My TAR-- my machine has accelerated time back up to normal around Mr. Gage.  You'll find he's sleeping it off. Amy, how about fixing our guest.. guests... some tea. If it helps, Mr. DeSoto, go ahead and do whatever paramedic thing you need to reassure yourself that this is true." Roy peeled back Johnny's eyelids and checked his pupillary responses. "Normal and reactive to light." he sighed. "If he had been without oxygen for even a few seconds--" "..his pupils would have been dilated from hypoxia. Yes. But they aren't now, are they? Trust me that they never were." smiled the Doctor. "No jeopardy to his health exists, Roy. Not now or in the future. Not while I'm around." he said, growing more serious at the American who still was harboring doubts about his ample abilities. "Okay.." Roy said quietly, reluctantly placing some trust out into the open. Trembling, his weak legs folded and he sat suddenly down on one of Johnny's cushions as his pure adrenaline rush faded away. Amy Pond coughed low in her throat. "Oyii.  Crumpets or scones, gentlemen? Come eats while it's hot." she invited, wheeling in a solid silver Victorian tea cart complete with white linens and a rose bouquet in a crystal vase. "Plenty more where this lot came from." (Patti's Turn) ---------------------------- Roy was mumbling something at her when in mid-thanks, he toppled over onto the couch next to Johnny in a dead faint. Amy frowned, setting down the tray of pastries that she had been handing out. "Is my accent coming on too strong again?" she asked. The Doctor chuckled, "A bit, Pond. But that's not the trouble. No, the man checked out because of being ripped out of his proper time and place so rudely. In his case, not so extensively as his friend, but still he was done a nasty, none the less. I'm fairly certain they've both been victimized by an extremely long distance sent transmat beam." he said, flipping a few switches and studying the results graphs he generated on the flight console.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was an hour later in 1976. The Tardis was parked just down the block from the fire station on the corner of 223rd Street and Wilshire under a Spirit of 76 gas station globe. Its sphere was spinning like some grotesque planetoid on the internal Tardis monitor.  Already, a few passersby had mistaken it for a phone booth. ::So far so good.:: thought the Doctor. ::No direct attack yet from the unknown quarter.  But one fact's solid stone. Our two paramedics are bait we went for.:: Amy Pond was seated on a stool next to the Victorian leather couch Roy DeSoto and Johnny Gage lay on. She smiled when the darker haired, Native American fireman finally opened his eyes. "How do you feel?" she asked. Johnny Gage sat up in some confusion, his hair mussed on one side. "I'm okay. But I think I lost some time." "Truer words were never spoken." grumbled the Doctor from where he was staring at the gas station globe revolving slowly on the screen.  "You are an excellent paramedic on diagnoses." "Huh?" Johnny sputtered. But then he noticed Roy lying flat out next to him. "Roy!" he shouted, moving instantly to his head to feel for a carotid. "He's fine." Amy said. "Just like you, Mr. Gage. No harm done." "Only a bit of time suffocation, er... sorry, you're a firefighter.. It's like smoke inhalation in a fire. Can't live without air. Time's like that, too. You both were without its flow... but only... for the briefest spell, I promise you. Uh,..she promises you." he amended, adding the Tardis's dialog. The Time Lord was now highly disturbed by the circumstances within which they were all caught up as neatly as fish in a net. Johnny didn't let go of his partner's pulse. "Where are we, mister? I thought I saw Big Ben out there a while ago." "We're in your backyard. At your station. In Los Angeles County.." hinted the Doctor. "We've already parked the squad out there for you." Amy's eyes unfocused. "I can hear Cap bellowing about it." she giggled. "Pond, stop 'listening' !" the Doctor hissed sharply at her. "Mustn't encourage that brain twist. You're the minnow now." "Never.." she hissed back, sotto voce. Johnny Gage openly ignored the two bystanders who seemed unbalanced both mentally and emotionally. He was used to that. ::People always freak out whenever they think a medical emergency is going on.:: he figured. "Look. Thanks for taking care of us and bringing us to our crewmates. They'll definitely get us squared away via Rampart. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go get a stokes, and them, over here, to fetch Roy. I don't know why he's unconscious." "I just told you why. In very clear detail." the Doctor said, throwing up his hands. Amy shushed the Time Lord and turned back to Gage warmly. "Okay. The door's that way, Mr. Fireman. See all of you in a minute." she invited. The Tardis obligingly opened her outer portals. Johnny saw the handy talkie jammed into the console and he retrieved it swiftly. He spoke into his radio. "Squad 51 to Engine 51 and L.A., I've a Code I. Lifesigns stable." "We're next to your friendly neighborhood petrol station." said the Doctor told him with a sigh. "See?" he said pointing to the view screen.

Johnny looked up and saw the orange globe sign. He nodded thanks. "Requesting an ambulance to my location at 2055 East 223rd Street and Wilshire." ##Squad 51, 10-4. Responding a Mayfair. E.T.A. of five minutes.## ##Squad 51. This is Engine 51. Share details of your incident immediately. Last transmission I received showed you 10-7 from a public PR engagement two minutes ago.## Hank called into the channel. ##Did you suffer a vehicle collision?## The Doctor and Amy nodded enthusiastically. "With the Tardis." Johnny tuned them out. His worry for Roy was greater than his need to figure out how a small blue box was somehow as big as an airport hanger inside. "No crash, Engine 51. Grab a stokes. I can meet you guys out front with him in half a minute." In a few seconds, he had Roy hoisted over his shoulder into a fireman's carry snugly and was gone.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amy managed to intercept the firemen crew from Station 51 as they loaded up their blond haired paramedic into a waiting Mayfair. Pond nimbly climbed up after Gage into the ambulance, plopping down onto the rider's bench. "I'm going with you." she declared. "Uh, miss. You can't be in here." Johnny grumbled at her. "And why not? I'm a witness as to what ails him. I'm useful!" she snapped, folding her arms after slamming the doors shut behind them and ducking out of sight so the Doctor wouldn't have a chance to spot her through one of the windows. "But.." "Just go." growled Cap, who was seated in the front cab passenger's seat. "The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get him to Rampart to where the docs can have at him to figure out what his problem is. She's not hurting anything by coming along with us, so shut the mouth, Gage." The force of Hank's sharp order stunned Johnny into sudden, stuttering silence. "Not. Another. Word." Cap punctuated. "Now, Miss? I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Hank Stanley, Roy's captain at Station 51." "I'm Amelia Pond of the U.K. via Scotland." "You're a long way from home." Gage gaped. "A lot farther than you think, gents. Now.... Is there anything I can do to help out with him while we're waiting to get him in hospital?" she asked. The Mayfair departed on its way to Rampart with a lurch. "Can you count a pulse and respirations?" Gage wondered. "I'll have you know that I'm married to a nurse. Of course I can." Amy glared, grabbing up one of Roy's damp wrists. "Rory was a fine teacher. I can even resuscitate when necessary." "Ah, no thanks. He's good." Johnny said quickly, glancing at the EKG monitor he had set up that was showing a slow sinus rhythm. "No CPR on this bus without my say so." Amy's face fell into a glower. "You're not related to any M.D.s are you? Any doctors in the immediate family?" "No. I....  only work with a few for my job." Johnny said with perplexity, beginning to take a blood pressure on his partner on auto pilot. "Good. Now all I need is an apple to munch on and I'm all set." "Oh, my G*d. Are you a diabetic, Amy?" Johnny asked, his eyes shooting up to appraise his young companion intently.  "I didn't even think to ask." "No, no.. no." the young woman laughed. "I was just referring to an expression, you know, 'An apple a day helps..' "...keep the doctor away." Johnny finished with a grin. "OhhHhhh, I get it now. Boy, can I relate to that. I hate getting dragged in to see doctors whenever I get sick or hurt." "That's why I'm here." Amy mumbled to herself about her narrow escape from the Time Lord. "Huh?" "Never you mind. How long until we get where we're going?" she asked. "We're three minutes out. How about handing me that oxygen mask? We'll get him going on some." Gage pointed to the counter near Amy. She nodded and did so, handing one over and connecting it deftly. "Bugs me that he's still not waking up even after a full dose epinephrine shot." he told her. Pond got the vital signs Gage had requested she get off DeSoto. "Pulse is regular and strong at fifty. Respirations are twenty five and shallow. But he's still a very pretty pink, Johnny." "Thanks." Gage sighed, some of the worry leaving his face in some relief. He began writing down their figures.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rory Williams jolted out of his Roman drapery canopied bed next to the T.A.R.D.I.S. swimming pool lounge when the cloister bell was suddenly amplified right next to his ear.  "OhmyG*d!" he blurted out. "What in bloody blazes!" he said as his blankets tangled around his feet, causing him to fall flat on his face when he tried to leap off the cushions.  Groggy with sleep, Rory quickly put two and two together. "Oh, no. That bell thing means H*ll in a hand basket and mighty quick, too!" he roared angrily at the T.A.R.D.I.S. "Why can't you use words like normal sentient beings do, you bloated, blue--!" *DONG*... echoed the cloister urgently, making Rory whip up his hands to his ears protectively. "All right! I'm up! What's such a big emergency that you had to interrupt a passenger's nap?!" *D--*  The cloister immediately cut off once Rory made it out of their private room and into the T.A.R.D.I.S. corridors.  He was shocked that the console room doorway was open and located right next to their home suite. He could have sworn that it had been at least a three minutes' walk to reach the pool the night before. Rory pulled on a convenient ski vest from off the Doctor's hat rack along with a pair of cowboy boots that he remembered leaving there.  He spun around in place, calling out loud. "Doctor! Amy! Where are you? What the h*ll is going on around he--?!" He broke off when he noticed the emergency medical roundel was open and ajar and the Doctor's field care satchel was missing from within. "Sh*te!" he swore, reaching in and grabbing an Earth stethoscope and jamming it into a snug pocket.  "Got it. Tell me where they went, girl." he spoke out loud to the T.A.R.D.I.S. "If there's a crisis like you say, they're going to need help." Dutifully, the viewing screen on the swivel monitor kicked on and showed their exterior. Rory eyed up the view of Station 51 and an Earth street, showing a departing angle of an American ambulance pulling away with full lights and sirens. The Doctor appeared to be chasing it on foot, shouting his wife's name. Williams ran full tilt out the door and onto the boulevard. "Doctor! What's the matter?!" he said, chasing after him. "Is Amy in that ambulance?" The young Doctor ran out of steam and stumbled, catching himself with his hands on his knees, leaning over, seriously out of breath. "Yes, I think so." he admitted, puffing heavily. Williams grabbed the Doctor by the shoulders and literally shook him. "What do you mean you think so?!" Rory roared. "Is she hurt? Sick?" "Uh, no, she's not a patient, Rory. She's.. well, something's not right in her head."  the Timelord said, plopping his black doctor's bag onto the curb as the two of them watched the Mayfair get away. "The T.A.R.D.I.S. detected it an hour or so ago after we ran into some American paramedics in London, and warned me of it by using the cloister bell." "What's the issue?! You're beating around the proverbial bush. This is my wife you're talking about. And I don't care what I have to do to you to get an answer!" Rory said, grabbing the Doctor by the collar of his shirt. The Timelord easily broke free using some Venusian Judo and straightened up his bow tie again while Rory was recovering from his tingling, arms suddenly gone limp. "It's this timeline. 1976. Earth. Amy remembers a whole fire station of people she's never met. I was going to examine her brain to see what she thinks she remembers for some clues, when she ran away from me. In that!" the Doctor said, jerking a finger at the distant Mayfair finally turning a corner and out of their sight. Rory finally regained use of his fingers by shaking out his hands vigorously. "Fine! Why run like stupid? We know where they're going. That's an ambulance. They'll be going to the nearest hospital. Can't we just fly to the closest one on a map?" The Doctor sat down on the curb of the street in Station 51's driveway next to his doctor's bag. Rory joined him, oblivious to the 1970s traffic whizzing by in both directions down 223rd Boulevard mere feet from the ends of their toes. "The T.A.R.D.I.S. can't do micro hops in space inside the same time line. Especially not now. She's too worried about Amy. I don't want us to get lost away from this exact here and now by trying." Rory slumped in his plaid shirt in stunned disbelief. "Is Amy in serious danger?" The Doctor just looked at him with dull eyes. "Remember how the Pandorica was for me when it opened?"