Part 1

Los Angeles County Fireman Paramedic John Gage had been dating primary school teacher Jane McKay for a number of months and things were going pretty well, he thought. There was a strong physical attraction between them, and more than that, she was becoming a very good friend. It wasn't automatic anymore that the first person he would tell everything to was his partner, Roy DeSoto. Now, more often than not, he turned to Jane. It was nice, very nice.

It was Safety Week. When the principal of the school found out that the father of two of his students was a fireman paramedic, he called Station 51 and asked Captain Stanley if Roy and his partner Johnny could be released to come and give a demonstration at the school under the auspices of the school's PTA. "Aw, really, Cap?" complained Johnny when he heard.

"Good for the department, John."

"What's the problem, Johnny?" teased Roy, "Afraid their questions will be too difficult for you?"

Johnny glared at his partner. "It's not that. It's just you have to prepare, take everything out, keep 'em from fooling with it, and then put everything back. It's a hassle, and they don't even listen to you."

"Builds character. You're going. And that's my final word," admonished Cap. "Thirteen hundred hours at Gardenview Primary School. They'll be waiting for you."

"Cheer up, Johnny, you'll get to see Jane," consoled Roy.

Just before one o'clock, Roy greeted the school secretary as they entered the school. "Hello, Kathleen."

She smiled broadly back at him, "Hello, Mr. DeSoto. We are thrilled that you both are able to come to the school today and help teach the children about safety. Your wife arrived a while ago - she's in the gym helping with the classes." She walked with the two men towards the gymnasium where the school population was already assembled. "You know, it's always exciting for the children to meet firemen, but I don't believe we've ever had paramedics in the school. Here we are." She opened the door, and they saw the students were all seated on the floor, with the principal at the front of the room. He waved to them to come to where he was standing.

Johnny looked at the students. There must be close to two hundred of them! He would never admit it to his partner, but the sight of all those children made the palms of his hands sweat with nervousness. 'Give me a rescue twenty stories up any day over a school demo!' he thought.

Near the front of the room sat Miss MacKay's grade one class, with Jane standing to the side, ready to intervene if any of her kids needed redirection. Both Jenny and Chris waved at their father Roy as they saw him, with Jenny whispering loudly in a proud voice to her classmates, "That's my daddy. And that's my uncle Johnny. He's going out with my Miss MacKay." Johnny blushed, Roy winced, and Jane shushed the little girl, a little pink in the face herself. Joanne was standing at the back of the room beside a table with cupcakes and punch on it. She grinned sheepishly with embarrassment for her daughter. The principal smiled and introduced the men to the assembly.

After they spoke about general rules for staying safe at home and at school, they took out their equipment and showed how the bio-phone linked them directly with the hospital. They explained what CPR was and why they gave medications and IV in the field. "Do you have any questions?" asked Roy.

"What was your scariest rescue?" asked a girl.

Mindful of his children in the audience, Roy prevaricated, "When you're in a situation, you don't think about it being scary. You just do what you have to do."

Another child put up a hand, and Roy nodded to him to go ahead with his question. "Do you ever see dead people?"

Johnny took that one. "Most of the people we see are alive and they stay that way, because we are able to give them proper emergency care under the direction of a doctor."

"Why do you have to shock people who have a heart attack?" asked a grade 5 boy.

Roy replied, "Now that's an interesting question, and brings up a common misconception. Defibrillation doesn't actually shock the heart; it 'stuns' it, which briefly stops electrical activity. If the heart is still capable, its own pacemakers then start firing again and make a rhythm that can restore proper blood flow. It's pretty complicated."

Johnny added, "All of this equipment requires very specialized training, and it can be very dangerous. Doing the right thing at the right time is what counts. That's why we don't do anything without consulting a doctor or a nurse."

Another hand went up. Johnny pointed to the child. "So, do you kiss teacher?" coyly asked a grade one little girl.

Jenny spoke up right away and announced, "A-course he does. I saw him. Lots o' times." Johnny's eyes got a hunted look, as the crowd tittered and snickered.

Roy tried to rescue him. "Well, we're talking about emergency situations, here."

"Could be an emergency," quipped a well-developed grade six girl. Scattered laughter erupted and Jane looked like she wanted to sink into the floor.

The principal jumped in and said, "Well, now, thank you very much, Mr DeSoto and Mr Gage. That was a very informative demonstration. We are going to invite the teachers to bring their students back to their classes now."

As the children filed out, Roy and Johnny smiled and nodded toward the children who thanked them personally for their demonstration. The grade six girl said to her friend as she passed by, "I think I could have an emergency, if that paramedic would kiss me."

Johnny turned to Roy, shocked. "She's got to be, like, twelve!" he hissed, "What's wrong with these kids?"

Roy whispered in his friend's ear, "Hormones." Johnny shook his head in disbelief.

Once the students were gone, the principal, Mr Melville, invited the men to the back of the gym for coffee. Joanne smiled widely at her husband and his partner, and proffered a tray of cupcakes to them. She knew that Johnny really needed the sugar right now. "You know how it is, where ever there's the PTA, there's got to be cupcakes," she explained.

Roy reached out to take one, "And I know they're good, because I grabbed one on my way to work this morning." Joanne waved her finger at him. "I know. And you know that I made only just enough, too!" He just smiled back at her and took a big bite.

There were several other parents around, and they had some questions on safety, mostly to do with first aid. However, one woman exasperatingly insisted that the firemen, "Explain to me why inflammable and flammable are the same thing? Shouldn't one of them mean it doesn't catch fire?"

Finally they were ready to go back to the station. Johnny sighed with relief as he closed the doors on the squad after putting away their cases. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes after climbing into the cab. Roy grinned at him, asking, "Now, was that so bad?"

Johnny rolled his eyes, and then looked down his nose at his friend with his eyebrows raised. "Are you kidding? It was terrible! And you know it."

Roy gave a laugh. "It was pretty hairy there for a while, with those questions."

"Y'know, Roy, I don't care if the Cap puts me on report. I am NOT doing one of these again. He can put me on latrine duty for a month, I don't care. That was one of the most painful things I've ever done."

"As usual, Johnny, you're over-reacting," Roy responded as they pulled away from the school, "But I gotta admit, most times I'd rather do just about anything than a school demonstration."

"Ah, ha! Y'see! That's what I said!" replied John.

It was a beautiful spring day a few weeks later, and their first run of the morning had been to check out a little girl around a year old. She hadn't been walking long, and was just starting to run when she tripped, and fell hard onto her face.

Her mother called 911 when she picked up her daughter and saw that she had fallen so hard that carpet fibres were embedded into her forehead. The baby's cries were unusually high pitched and her mother feared that she had broken her nose or had a head injury.

When Squad 51 arrived, Roy gently took the girl from her mother's arms and laid her on the couch. He checked her vital signs and ran his hands over the girl's head and shoulders. "What's her name, ma'am?"

"Casey. Short for Cassandra," replied the mother, hovering anxiously nearby.

"And she's how old?"

"13 months next week."

Johnny could feel the woman's anxiety and reassured her, "Her vital signs are normal. I think she's going to be just fine." The little girl had stopped crying and was looking with interest at the shiny badges on the paramedics' shirts.

Roy said, "Well, let's get her to stand up and see how she walks now that she's calmed down."

He picked her up in his arms, and she smiled sweetly and reached out to pull on his badge. "Let go, sweetheart, I want to see you walk for me, okay?" She nodded, and he placed her standing on the floor in front of him.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, she immediately crumpled to the floor and started to screech. Johnny observed, "Y'know, I don't think it's her head that got hurt. I think she might have broken her leg! See the way the right one gave just like that? I don't think it can support her."

Roy picked Casey up, placed her back on the couch, and ran his hands gingerly down her leg. "I think you're right, Johnny." He looked up at the child's mother. "She should go to the hospital and get some x-rays – we can call an ambulance to take you in."

The mother nodded. "I can't drive her, and my husband is at work." She reached out to take Casey back into her arms and sat down on the couch with her daughter cuddled against her cheek. She looked like she was going to cry too.

Roy consoled her, "These things happen, you know. It wasn't your fault."

She cooed at and soothed her daughter and told Roy, "I know that, but I still feel so guilty! My poor baby!"

In the squad, driving back to the station, Johnny commented to Roy, "It's not easy being a parent, is it? I mean, there's always something, and you just can't protect them from everything."

Roy chuckled. "I think that's one of the very first lessons any parent learns." He glanced over at Johnny. "If you've learned that, even before you've had kids, you're ahead of the game." He paused for a moment, and then asked curiously, "D'you ever think about it? Having kids?"

Johnny shrugged. "I guess so. Someday, maybe."

Roy decided to be bold and press a little harder. "Have you and Jane ever talked about, y'know, children?"

John grinned lopsidedly and pointed his finger at Roy. "Now, now," he admonished. He looked out the window for a moment, and then added, "Things are going really good for Jane and me, and if, I dunno, we did get married at some point..." he trailed off, but Roy was satisfied. If his partner was going to 'settle down', it seemed more likely to be with Jane than anyone else he'd seen Johnny date. Which was nice for Roy, because he really liked Jane, and it would be difficult, to say the least, if he didn't get along with his partner's wife, whomever she might be.

Back at the station, Captain Stanley had given out the day's assignments, and asked Roy and John to come into his office so he could tell them theirs because they had missed roll call. BEEP BOOP BRAAACK! The men immediately turned and walked back into the rig bay. "Squad 51, hostage taking, with injuries, Gardenview Primary School...Police advise non-code R."

Cap took down the address, and started to hand the paper to his paramedics, when he saw that neither of them had moved. "Roy?"

Roy found his voice. It had a strange, otherworldly quality to it, like it wasn't really his. "Cap, that's my kids' school."

Johnny added, with that same strange voice, "And where Jane teaches."

Cap looked at his men with concern. "Can you take the call? Should I tell dispatch that you are not available?"

Both men sprang into action, Johnny taking the paper from Cap's hand, and racing to the squad passenger side door, and Roy opening the driver's side door. "NO!" he yelled, and then continued in a more controlled voice, "No, Cap. Now that we know, we gotta go!"

Cap pursed his lips together and shook his head in worry and frustration. "Then go. And God speed." But Roy had already started the engine, and was rolling towards the garage door, which wasn't opening fast enough for him.