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************************************************** From: patti k (pattik1@hotmail.com) Sent: Fri 6/12/09 8:36 AM Subject: Connections.. PART TWO -- THE FIRE WITHIN -- MOVIE ONE Roy, Thib and Trap and Stoker wheeled Ken Baxter's stokes into the park hospital on the gurney that had been provided once 240 Robert Air had landed in the parking lot of Park Headquarters at Appalachian Central. Paul Carnes, the park ranger captain, trailed along to get a verbal report from the three paramedics and one firefighter as they rushed their patient in to the doctor awaiting them. "Don't worry about his personal info, we have that. Just a condition status on Ken. And then I'll take one on the chopper." he ordered. DeSoto replied dutifully, "Hypovolemic shock, with estimated 1400 or more CC's of blood loss. In respiratory arrest. He's tubed, EOA with that ambu. He's got an open fracture of the left femur, with one point arterial involvement, managed. We found signs of possible light internal abdominal injuries, just deep bruising no guarding. I think it's most likely from his seatbelt. The MAST trousers have his pressure back up to 90 systolic. Pulse is 124, thready. EKG is showing sinus tach, regular. Pupils reactive but sluggishly dilated. We think it's possible coma. Deep tendon reflexes are absent. He's got Ringers running in full. Blood glucose is 130, up from 70 following IM glucagon." "Got it. I'll give this to Dr. Almstedt, direct." said Paul, writing quickly on his report form. "Wainwright?" he prompted. Morgan reported on Bluebird Five. "She's salvagable, total front and rear rotor damage but just some minor cabin dents and dings from what I could see. I'd assume electrical shearing to some of the equipment in the patient cubicle. All her windshield flight glass and both cabin access doors will need to be replaced. Only one fuel tank was leaking. The other's still intact. And what I saw of the hydrolic system's fine. A paratrooper fire crew's remaining behind to prevent any ignition points until the military air crane comes in to airlift Bluebird Five free of that pine tree." "Fuel's pooled on top of clay. It'll be easy to clean up with absorbent sand, sir." offered Stoker. Paul then nodded to Wainwright, as the rescue and recovery group rounded the corner and went through the emergency entrance side of the national park's tiny hospital. "Is she going to be lifted to ISLIP airport?" she asked about the crash damaged helicopter. "Yes, for the investigation and any later restoration." answered Paul. "I take it I'll be staying behind to take over Bluebird Five's regular duties?" she asked. "You got that right. Until further notice." said Carnes. "I'll keep you posted." he added, about Ken. "Go ahead and refuel from the pump. I've unlocked it. Grounding wire's all laid out. Thanks, Morgan." "No problem, captain. Glad I could help." the red haired pilot said, falling back to return to her chopper. "I'll keep my radio tuned to base for when it's time to fly Ken to a Level One for orthopedic surgery." Soon, the rescuers delivered Ken into a patient treatment cubicle. Joanne Almstedt and her team got to immediate work. Joanne began shouting out care orders to her staff. She caught the chart that Paul tossed to her neatly while an intern took over Stoker's bagging efforts on Ken. By the curtains, Paul noticed that Sarah Collins had followed them, carrying a sleeping, blanketed Joey in her arms with the assistance of Ted Cassidy, into a nearby cubicle. A nurse followed them in. "How's the boy?" Roy answered. "Banged up, but all right. He's just sleeping. He said he was feeling tired and hungry. His vitals signs checked out fine on the way in." said DeSoto, hanging up Ken's I.V.s onto a pole. Trap grinned, thinking about something, as he helped unblanket Ken for Joanne's examination. "You know, we really need to be grateful to Joey once he wakes up." "I heard. Did he really keep up manual resuscitation on Ken for that long?" Carnes asked, surprised. Applegate gladly shared the news. "Yep. And stopped that arterial bleed. He saved his life." replied Trap. "I have a feeling that Ken'll come out of this whole thing without suffering any damage from lack of oxygen. Baxter's color was still a good shade when we got there despite all that blood loss. He never lost a regular, viable carotid. Signs of that would have shown up on the EKG monitor as irregularities due to ischemic effects." "Lucky." Carnes said, nodding as he studied the rhythm on the screen. "Things still look okay." "Let me be the judge of that." bristled Joanne, overhearing. "Fellas, you've done your job for the day. Give us some room please." Her hint of dismissal was unmistakable. All five men held up amused, mock surrendering hands and retreated from the bay. "Yes, ma'am." Paul said, his eyes twinkling. |
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joey Collins opened his eyes and let the nurses fuss over him as they cut off his soiled gory clothes and fitted him into a warm patient gown. His hand never let go of Sarah's the whole time. He just kept mumbling random thoughts over and over again in his fatigue. "...All that Dad was, everything that he believed in, is now a part of me..." he whispered. "Yes, Joey. That's true of everybody you get to know." frowned Sarah, worried. "He's just emotionally stunned, Mrs. Collins. Anybody would be, surviving the kind of ordeal he's just been through. Rest'll fix him up faster than anything I suspect. You can stay with him if you like." the nurse offered. "That wasn't even questionable.." Sarah snapped, holding a soft hand on Joey's cheek through his rambling. "Easy, love. I'm here. Just close your eyes." "No! I want to talk to Ken...." Joey hollered, still figetting under the warm wash towels the staff was using to clean him up to look for more minor injuries. Terri Blake hurried into the boy's curtained cubicle. "Shhh, he can't talk right now Joey, remember? He's got a tube down so they can breathe for him by machine while he's being drugged into sleep." "Roy said he's in a coma, Terri." Joey cried, distraught. "Yes, he wouldn't lie to you." Blake agreed. "An induced, protective one young man." said the older nurse kindly. "He's got a lot of mending to do before he's healed enough to be awake." "For how long?" Joey frowned, anxious. "He's gotta eat." "A couple of days at the most." smiled Margaret the nurse. "Now enough about your friend. Tell me what YOU want to eat and drink. That's the next step." "I'm not hungry." "Fib.." Sarah said, tipping her chin up at her grandson in warning. "Tell the truth.." "Okay, okay. I am. How about a soda?" "Oh, Joey.." Sarah grinned. Margaret shrugged. "It's sugar at least. Good enough for the doctor, it says here." she said, eyeing up Joey's chart. "Clear liquids if nauseated." she read. "But Joey hasn't thrown up." Sarah wondered. "No, but I'm sure he feels like he wants to right about now." said Terri in sympathy. Then she sat down on a stool right next to the boy as he was covered up in thick heated blankets. "Joey, you can relax. Ken's responding to treatment. He's getting transfusions and his pulse's stronger. Can you hear that EKG monitor coming from over there?" she asked, pointing towards one curtain. A beat that was no longer rapid was sounding softly, very near them. "Yes." said the boy. "That's his, so you can keep tabs on him from right where you are. I had Joanne turn on the audible." said Blake. "And you'll be able to hear everything the doctor does for him. DeSoto told me you wanted to be informed as soon as it happened." |
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On cue, they heard Almstedt's orders to the stabilization team she had assembled around Ken in next cubicle over. "I want a full series; skull, spine, chest and pelvic films. Draw another red top for arterial blood gases, baseline hematocrit, and a hemoglobin study. Ann, just use a dipstick urinalysis to rule out occult hematuria. I don't want to waste time with a foley before we fly him out of here. Oh, and Matt? I want a serum potassium level to see if rhabdomyolysis is going to be a factor for us. What's his pressure?" she asked at large. "120/88." reported a nurse. "Good. Keep the abdominal part of the suit inflated for now. I'll let them worry about it later." said Joanne about the surgical team in Long Island who had been alerted that Baxter was going to be sent to them. "How's that foot?" she asked. "Pulse's weaker." said an intern monitoring circulation. "Swelling's worse." "Turn it until you get a better one." Joanne told her. "We've got that repaired artery retracted away from the bone end so don't be shy about experimenting with repositioning." she told him. "I want to see pink toes." "Yes, ma'am." he replied. "He's starting to gasp." said the staffer on Ken's head, working the bag. "How often?" Joanne asked. "One every four." "Get him on a portable bird. Easy vents on PEEP, 80% O2." Almstedt concluded. "We'll support him for now that way until he takes a more active interest in breathing on his own." "Right away, doctor." he said. Listening intently, the boy held his breath. "His leg. It's so bad.." Joey sobbed, tearing up. Terri Blake smiled to reassure him. "Ken's not feeling it anymore. And we're gonna fix it with surgery so it's as good as new. The doctor said the break isn't serious. It just slipped out of place while he was out there and made a small hole in that artery. They've already sewn it up." ------------------------------------------------------ The Station 51 five was ever grateful to see a set of free hotel rooms. Reaching his room, Cap pulled down a penned note somebody had left taped to his door. "Our deer was sent to town." he said, reading it. "It'll be at the butcher's when we leave ISLIP after airport training, already dehydrated and preserved for us and packed up. Says all our luggage is already in our rooms, too." "Who did that? Wow,.." Marco asked. "..that was nice of 'em." "Doesn't say." Hank told him, flipping the note over. "Give me that. I can tell." insisted Chet, snatching the paper out of Cap's hand. He looked at it. "It's a girl's writing. And it's curly. I'll just bet this was Terri." "The younger one?" asked Stoker. "Yeah, the cute redhead." Kelly nodded. "She gets everywhere, doesn't she?" Roy laughed. On a thought, DeSoto paused in opening his room's door with his key. He moved over to the door directly across the hall from his that had a do not disturb sign on it, and knocked. "DeSoto.." Chet chided. "It's okay." Roy laughed. "I'm sure we can guess who this is." Johnny Gage opened the door. He was clean, dressed in a cowboy shirt, jeans and boots, wearing a cheeky grin. "Hi guys." he said, leaning on his door frame. "Boy, do you look like something the cat dragged in." he joked. Stoker snorted. "Don't we always after rescues?" Chet countered, nailing Johnny in the chest with a finger tip. "And you look like the cat that ate the canary." Johnny snickered. "Well, I did." "Who was she?" Marco asked excitedly. "It's not what you think. Joanne Almstedt and I had lunch together. To patch up a rough start." Gage said matter of factly. Cap just harrumphed neutrally, already on a different track. "Is the food any good?" "It's great! I had a roast beef sandwich and a salad." Johnny said, patting his very full stomach. |
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The grimy, hunter clad firemen five eyed up his sated condition jealously. "Oh. The cafeteria's only open until seven now that all the excitement's over. You've got twenty minutes." Johnny told them urgently. "After I shower. Then we can meet over supper to do our reports for the park people." Hank told them. "Aw, Cap. Let's do that later.." said the other five men in sync. Marco raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, I thought the dinner table's for downtime." "Say, that's right. I forgot." said Cap in mock discovery. "Could have fooled me that we're on vacation." he chuckled. "I feel like I've just finished a four alarm fire. I sure smell like one." He entered his room and closed his door vigorously, leaving the rest of them standing in the pinewood hallway, alone. Chet was still reading the note. "Hey, guess who's coming to dinner." Johnny just winked at him. "Everybody." Then he looked dismayed. "Oh, no. I sure hope Morgan's going to be there." "Why? Does she have a vendetta against you, too?" asked Kelly. "No, the opposite." Gage grinned. "She likes my cheeks." Johnny saundered away, whistling happily with his hands in his pockets for the lodge and its warm fireplace, leaving Chet behind to scratch his head in puzzlement. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The special of the day was grilled venison a la cranberry and sweet potatoes, irresistable to the California six. "You just ate." Kelly scoffed at Gage as a steaming plate of deer flank was laid before him by one of the park's wait help. "I'm still recovering. I was cold injured, remember?" Johnny told him, reaching for the pepper mill on the plastic red and white plaid covered long table the main rescue crowd now occupied. "Yum. This one was taken by bow." he said taking a bite on a fork. "How can you tell?" Cap asked him, incredulous. "No metallic aftertaste." Johnny said, cheeks bulging with meat. "Steel shot leaves a residue that .....circulates around." "Eowww.. I'm eating.." said Chet, picking at his venison steak. Next to him, Deputy Paramedic Dwayne Thibideaux chuckled. "Think of the savory grasses and herbs he must have eaten this morning, Chet. Free seasoning." "Thanks a lot." Kelly grumped, still remembering his bad kill a few days before. "What's with him?" Thib wondered, looking up at the others mildly. "Virgin hunter." Gage told him seriously. "Oo, sorry pal. I was that once, too. It'll pass. Game meat'll forever taste good once you get over it." Trap Applegate shared with Kelly. "I sure hope so." Chet moped. "Yours is worse because of the city dweller effect." offered Sierra Ranger Ted Cassidy. "Bet only Johnny here's been raised out in the country. Am I right?" The firefighters nodded. Roy added more. "I helped on a farm once. Processing pigs." Kelly slammed his fork down in disgust. "Do you mind.." he grunted loudly, glaring at Roy. "Sorry. I thought I said it discreetly enough." DeSoto told him. "Here, have my chicken." he said, trading plates with Chet. "That at least, has still gotta to be neutral memory for ya." "Thanks, pal." Chet smiled. "I owe you one." he said diving in hungrily. "Just take hunting lessons or something when we get back home and we're even." DeSoto said. At another part of the table, Joanne Almstedt and Terri Blake were talking quietly over non alcoholic wine and pie. The doctor nudged her younger companion with an elbow. "So, are you gonna ask him out?" |
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"No.." said Terri, nervously eyeing up her mentor and object of affection, Paul Carnes, who sat obliviously near them, chatting up the fire crew from L.A. "Well, I wouldn't know what to say.." "Terri, you're a grown woman. You've rehearsed this in your head for the last year at the very minimum. Just do it." Almstedt encouraged lightly, in a whisper. "Ohfine.Okayheregoes." Blake sighed deeply, sliding her chair over to where all the men had gathered to eat. She licked dried lips and opened her mouth. "Paul..." Carnes was engaged in animated, laughing conversation. ".....and there we were with snow up to our butts and forty eight hungry kids trapped in the lodge along with us for the duration..." he shared with the rest of the group. "So how did you feed everybody?" Stoker grinned. "Turned it into a sleepover around the fire: hotdogs and soda cans. With extra blankets on the floor. Turned off the lodge lights to keep everybody calm. The boyscouts were fine. They treated the whole affair like it was part of the tour." Paul laughed. "Uh, Paul.." Terri started in again weakily, afraid to tap his arm. Carnes was captivating to his audience and equally lost in mirth. "I've never seen such a well behaved group of kids in all my years as a captain. They didn't kick, fight, or scream to high heavens. They just told ghost stories. Those even frightened the girls. Didn't they, Terri?" he suddenly asked, looking right at Blake. "I...uh.. " Terri stammered, feeling all eyes on her from around the table. She flushed red and promptly dismissed what she was about to do. "Well, yeah, one of them." she offered lamely. "Remember that creepy account of a mass murderer running around upstate New York? They told it in incredible detail." "Ah, but that guy was real." Carnes agreed. "He was on the news just that night, still at large from the authorities." Then Paul turned to Joanne. "Didn't they catch him only a mile or so from here, holed up in one of our cabins?" "Uh,.. yeah." Almstedt agreed. "Living on poached deer." Joanne jerked her eyes towards Paul with a small urgent head bob at Terri, but Blake shook her head vehemently, her movements equally miniscule. Then the moment was gone when Paul slid up close to Marco to tell him something else. And so went the young woman's courage. She wilted in her seat. Joanne just buried her head in sympathic frustration. "I'll say it again." Paul said animatedly to Lopez, hefting up his root beer glass and sipping it. "Here's to a day full of successes. This is certainly one night I'll never forget." "Same here." Terri mumbled under her breath, disappointed in herself. She slid her chair back over to Joanne's end of the table and unenthusiastically nibbled at her pie. "Better luck next time?" Joanne shrugged, topping off her friend's glass with more pink catawba. "There might not be a next time. I'm hopeless." she frowned. Joanne did not give up. "Try asking him when it's just the two of you around." "I can't do that. I'll... I'll chicken out for sure because you're not there, poking me." Terri sighed, mortified. "Then we've got a real problem here. You want Paul to notice you. But he's too dumb to know that you're even interested." "Joanne..." Terri stage whispered, chiding her. "What? It's the truth. I'm an expert at assessing people." she sniffed. "So.. What's the next best approach here?" she eyeballed her friend seriously. Terri gritted her teeth. "I hit him over the head with a baseball bat?" "That'll work. But then I'll have to treat him and you'll get arrested for assault." Joanne joked, deadpan. "And then for sure, you'd lose your job." "Yeah.... .." she sighed. Then she tensed up again. "Oh, I don't know what to do." Terri ansed. "Use your imagination. You've got a great one. And I'm not the only one who knows that." she said significantly, angling her head back in Paul's direction again. "I'm getting up to go sit by the fire. There's room enough on that free couch over there for two." she hinted. Terri studied her twitching hands uncomfortably, and sucked in a big nervous lungful. Joanne took one of them, and stilled it. "Do you have that letter of reprimand Paul gave you? Maybe that can be the topic of your conversation to start with. That way, your first excuse to talk to him alone can be your worry over it." "You really think so?" Blake asked, her lip quivering. Joanne just nodded fractionally, sincere. "Just be yourself. And Terri. Always remember that he's a friend first and a captain second. There isn't a man alive who'll ignore a best friend in distress. Trust your instincts. Once he's looking at you undistracted, there's no way he'll be blind to your other feelings once you've expressed them." Terri didn't say anything and she looked down, becoming very quiet then with new private thoughts. "Go. I promise I won't watch." Joanne whispered, seeing the moment at last in her friend. A few minutes later, Joanne smiled out of the corners of her eyes when she saw Paul Carnes place his hand over Terri's in something more than just reassurance, in the fire's romantically warm glow. |
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Write me?" Johnny said, grinning out the driver's window of his rover at Morgan Wainwright. He was eating breakfast, a cojoined pair of cinnamon sweetrolls. She was wearing a fetching exercise suit under her ski jacket, now that she was off duty. "You bet I will." she said, giving Johnny a light kiss on the lips. "I have to see if those buns are still warm." She moved her teeth to take a big bite out of his food and he enjoyed holding it for her the whole time, delightedly. She smiled. "See you when I get to California, Johnny. Thanks for the taste." Pilot Wainwright winked. Chet and Marco hooted from the back seat while Cap, Stoker and Roy just rolled their eyes at the innuendo. "Gage, move it out. We're late." Cap gruffed. "We should have been there half an hour ago." "Ah, duty calls." Johnny grinned with mock reluctance at his new love interest. Then he rolled up his window and he took their luggage laden rover into the main lane of the parking lot, which led out to the highway. He kept Morgan's waving image in his rear view mirror for as long as possible until a tree forced him to yank the steering wheel around sharply to the right, to avoid hitting it. |
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****************************************************** Subject: The Bonding.. From: patti k (pattik1@hotmail.com) Sent: Sat 6/20/09 5:27 AM "We're here." announced Chet happily, as he drove Gage's land rover over yet another non descript low set bridge over salty marsh. "Out of the city limits." "We're where?" Johnny jilted sleepily from the back seat. "Just looks like more of the same to me. Too many people." he groused limply, yawning and wincing in the bright, winter sunlight that was in full force on this side of the Appalchian mountains. "Those skyscrapers we passed were two burroughs, Brooklyn and Queens. That was New York. Now we're in the 'burbs according to the map; Nassau and Suffolk..." said Stoker, "..on the way to Patchogue, where Chief Joe Rorchek lives. His house is where all of us are going to be staying when we're not training with his crew." "Well, when are we going to get to Long Island?" Johnny asked, complaining miserably, feeling up a cramped aching back from sleeping in a poor position. "Isn't that where their fire station is at the airport?" The others just laughed. Cap spoke up. "We've been ON Long Island for the last hour, Gage. We're surrounded by the ocean. Can't you smell it?" Johnny quickly rolled down his window. "Yeah. Holy cow. Just how big is this island? It must be huge." he said sitting up, thoroughly awake now and surprised. The snow scented air billowed in his hair and refreshed him. Mike chuckled. "118 miles long, 23 miles wide with a population of 7,400,000 people." "No sleepy eastern seaboard islet is this." Kelly giggled. "Out here, they do everything grand scale. You missed seeing the World Trade Center, Johnny. Man, those towers were BIG. We could see them all the way from our island." "Sorry I missed them." Johnny whispered sincerely. "I've heard they're something really special." A camera click filled the rover as Lopez hooted in touristy excitement. Marco pointed animatedly as they passed another road sign. "Hey, you'll never guess the name of the avenue we just passed." "What was it?" Hank asked, still interested in learning the topography. "Stanley Avenue." "Oh, no way." Cap chuckled. "It's true. I took a picture of it for you as a souvenir." Marco said, patting Cap's shoulder. "I'm so loved." Hank rolled his eyes. "But donuts would have been appreciated much more." he sniffed, scanning the businesses around them for their appointed goal. "Oh, yeah.. Chet, pull over. There's the place right there. The one Joe mentioned in his phone call last night. He said to pick up some ribs from that joint to be part of lunch today for the bunch of us." |
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