Disclaimer: I do not own Emergency!. I also do not own the complete idea for this story, which was somewhat derived from both the Emergency! episode called Women, and also I gained a few ideas from the anime show and manga called Kaichou wa Maid-Sama. This story is set somewhere near the end of 1st season of the tv series.
Chapter 1: Weakness
"Sis, wake up!" Cassie Roland's younger sister hissed as she poked her in the ribs.
Cassie groggily rolled over in her bed and groaned, "Why?"
"Your alarm didn't go off! You're due to meet your editor at the fire station in 20 minutes!"
Cassie shot up in her bed and gasped, "No way!"
She scrambled out of her bed and pushed past her little sister, Jane. Cassie ran to her dresser and yanked out a pair of jeans and a sweater, then dashed to the bathroom to change.
"Great," she thought grimly, "The story I've been grabbing for finally gets set up and I oversleep!"
Cassie opened the door to the bathroom after she changed and trotted back to her room and sat down at her vanity and began applying her makeup.
Jane sat on Cassie's bed and she blandly pointed out, "You're excited."
"Hell yes," snorted Cassie as she delicately put her eyeliner on.
"Why? Firemen are about the manliest guys you can find. And I know you well, Cas. You hate guys like that," Jane stated.
"I don't hate guys in general, Jane. I'm just trying to prove that the world doesn't always need men to do jobs like fighting fires. Women can do them just as well," Cassie replied, finishing her basic style of makeup and proceeded to brush out her curly, blonde hair.
"This might be an instance where you can't pry the fire department apart at the seams and make it seem sexist to your readers. Men are physically able to work jobs such as fire fighting more than women," Jane returned.
"That's the problem with boy-crazy girls like you. You don't have an open mind to all the things women are capable of. If we were given the chance, a door would be opened to the amount of jobs women would be able to do," Cassie said, standing up and picking her bag with her notebook and pens.
"Men and firemen are about 25% brawn and 75% ego. This my one chance to pick apart the fire department and put my story into the magazine and hopefully procure an ample amount of anger within the women readers. Sooner or later, women are bound to shake up regulations so much that there won't be anything left of the rules once we are finished. And before you know it, women will be fighting fires alongside men," Cassie declared, swinging her bag over her shoulder and leaving her non-feminist sister somewhat confused.
By the time Cassie got to the end of the hall, she heard her sister call, "I think you'll find that after spending a week following the day-shift of Station 51 around that men are stronger than women."
Cassie rolled her eyes and pulled her hair into a ponytail as she ran out the door.
"We'll see about that..." she mused with determination.
Cassie jumped into the drivers seat of her convertible Corvette, an expensive car she'd bought after her many successful articles written for her magazine. She started the car up and pulled out of her driveway and made a ten minute drive to Los Angeles County's Station 51.
Once she arrived, she pulled into the parking back-lot and spotted her editor's pickup truck waiting for her. She parked, knowing she was about to be chastised for her late time.
"Cas!" the editor, Ed Walters snapped, "You're approximately 23 minutes late! What's the matter with you? Don't you know how long it took me to set this up? It's like a slap in the face to the fire department if we are late for our first meeting of the crew!"
"Save it, Walters, or we are going to even later," Cassie replied hotly as she opened her convertible's door and stepped out haughtily.
Ed grumbled about Cassie's smart mouth and dejectedly lead her into the entrance to the station. As soon as they stepped inside, Cassie looked around curiously. She saw that they apparently came in the back door, because they stood in a kitchen/tv room.
At first, Cassie only saw three men. One sat at the kitchen table and read the newspaper. He had light-brown hair and clear blue eyes, and seemed to hold a laid-back air.
Another stood at the stove and cooked something that smelled like chili. He had frizzy, dark hair and an unflattering mustache.
The third lounged on the couch watching the news, and Cassie could only see the back of his dark-brown, wavy hair.
They all looked up when they heard her and Ed walk in and as soon as they spotted her, they stood up. Stupid male formalities.
"You must be the journalist," the man with light-brown hair said, walking over to greet Cassie with a handshake, "Hi, I'm Roy Desoto."
"I'm Cassie Roland, journalist for a popular article in the magazine called Harper," Cassie replied professionally.
"Nice to meet you," Roy returned.
Cassie watched as Roy gestured to the man with a mustache, "This is Chet Kelly."
Cassie shook hands with him too.
"And," Roy waved his hand towards the man who used to be on the couch, "My partner, John Gage."
Cassie looked in the face of John Gage for the first time. The first thing she noticed about him was that he was undeniably pleasing to look at. His dark, wavy hair was short and parted to the side and his chocolate eyes were gentle, yet playful. His nose was crooked in a very subtle way and his grin was lopsided and toothy. He had tanned skin, which when paired up with his dark features, revealed obvious Native American blood.
The second thing she noticed made her instantly feel repulsed. He gawked at her, his dark eyes roving over her form in an interested manner.
"He's checking me out!" thought Cassie with disdain.
His goofy grin became wider as he reached his hand out to shake hers. Cassie merely looked down at his tan hand with digust.
She wrinkled her nose and gave him a very formal and detached greeting, "Gage."
He lowered his hand, his smile fading as he glanced over at Roy, who looked just as perplexed as Gage.
"Well, I'll leave Cassie with you guys," Ed told the firemen, "Take care of her! She's going to make Harper the hottest magazine since People!"
Ed left the station with a laugh that derived from his lust for money, leaving Cassie standing before Roy, the frizzy-haired Chet, and Gawking Gage.
"So," Cassie cleared her throat and addressed Roy in an authoritative voice, "I assume you and Gage are the paramedics I'll be following with this week?"
"Yeah, we are the paramedics. I hope you don't mind sticking with us rather than the firemen, but we see much more action than they do," Gage replied for DeSoto.
"Ah, so you are meaning to tell me that the firemen are inferior to you?" Cassie inquired, reaching in her bag and pulling out her handy notepad.
Gage's tan face paled when he noticed he was about to be quoted on his statement, so he quickly attempted to cover it up, but DeSoto beat him to the draw.
"All he was trying to say is that fires are very uncommon in any station. We get more accidents and sicknesses than we do fires. he never meant we are superior, we just have the job that requires more runs."
Cassie, angry that her first sight of a breakable seam had been protected, lowered her notepad.
"Yeah, you don't have to get so picky," scoffed Chet, who was immediately reprimanded by DeSoto with an elbow in the ribs.
Cassie returned her notepad to her bag and crossed her arms, glaring hard at the three firemen, "Listen, before we go out on any of your 'runs,' I think there is something you ought to know. I'm not a normal journalist. I won't follow you guys around all week like a star-struck puppy, hanging on every word you say as if you were gods. I'm not going to write about how firemen are indestructible he-men, either. In fact, my column will be just the opposite. I'm going to nose around for any weaknesses you firemen have and poke holes in them. My plan is to reveal to my women readers that firemen aren't perfect and your jobs are something that the female population can take over. When I'm finished with my article, my hopes are that women will began to demand for some bending of the rules, and that we'll be right beside any male fireman holding the heavy end of the hose. You got that?" Cassie informed them, pleased at the way their faces fell through her mini speech.
She almost laughed when Gage's jaw went slack.
"Bunch of idiots..." thought Cassie as she glared at the boys, expecting no argument with her daring statement.
"Now wait just a dog-gone minute!" Gage suddenly hissed.
Cassie looked up in surprise.
"How can you make that kind of a proclamation? You know nothing about this station, or us for that matter! You might find that we do jobs that women are just not cut out to do!" Gage growled at her.
"That's right, Gage, take that attitude. Your attitude is just like any other man's: egotistical. You think the opposite sex is no greater than yours. You're wrong. Women are a lot stronger and able-bodied than you think we are," Cassie replied with exasperation.
"That may be the case, but there are some jobs, like firefighting, that are better left up to the men! I'd like to see you carry a human twice your size out of a burning building!" Gage snapped, his voice gathering a country twang as he spoke faster and louder.
'Well, maybe I will!" Cassie yelled back.
Cassie and Gage stood there, staring daggers at one another, hands on their hips. Roy and Chet were the innocent bystanders, who looked completely shocked at the entire argument.
Cassie lowered her hands, "I can't believe I'm lowering myself to your level just to argue with you."
"Lowering yourself to my level?" squawked Gage, but Cassie's response was interrupted by the station alarm.
The dispatcher said over the intercom, "Squad 51. Woman trapped. 1135 Westington Rd. Timeout, 0730."
"Come on Cassie, that's us," Roy instructed the journalist as he and Gage barreled out of the kitchen and into the garage.
Cassie followed and stepped into a garage with a large engine and a little squad truck parked next to it. She trailed after Gage to the passengers side of the squad and slid into the small cab between DeSoto and Gage.
Roy hesitated before taking off as the garage door opened to get a piece of paper from someone who looked to be the captain. Roy handed the paper to Gage and then flipped on the sirens, speeding out of the garage and onto the street.
They drove in silence, the siren being the only thing that filled the mute tension. Gage didn't acknowledge that Cassie was even sitting beside him, but Roy frequently glanced out of the corner of his eye to sneak a peek at her.
They were uncomfortable with her presence, and she knew it and was proud of the fact. She would make them see, beyond a shadow of a doubt that women could do everything men could.
A/N: Like a said in my disclaimer, this story is based off of both an Emergency! episode called Women, and from the anime/manga called Kaichou wa Maid-Sama. I needed more resources to base Cassie's character off of than just Christie Todd from Emergency!: Women. I thought the perfect subject would be Misaki from Maid-Sama, who is basically a feministic crusader. From Misaki, I got the idea to make Cassie talk rough, even though that was uncommon for women in the 70's.
Anyway, as Cassie would put it, there can be many seams of weakness put into this story, but I hope my readers enjoy it :) Please note to those Emergency! fans out there that I am somewhat new to the Emergency! land. I only started watching the series in late November of 2010. However, I've seen all the episodes, excepting the ones from season 7 ,which are mostly movies and the final episode, which I'm not looking forward to watching, since Roy and John are both moving up to captain's rank and won't be in the same station anymore :( So I have all the facts, but I might forget some of them. If I get anything wrong, please let me know!
Also, the next entry will be posted very soon so that you can sort of get the feeling of where this story is headed :D
Please review, too! Let me know what you think of the story! Kind comments, compliments, and constructive criticism are most welcome!
~Face