Johnny Come Lately

Disclaimer: I don't own Emergency!, or it's characters, I'm just havin' fun with them.

John Gage was sound asleep, with a smile on his face. He was dreaming about last night's date. She was a typical California girl, blonde hair, gorgeous blue eyes, her skin was darkly tanned with a body that didn't quit, and to top it off she was a swimsuit model. They hit it off so well that he didn't get home from his date until 3am.

The alarm clock went off at 6:30am. Johnny woke up, but still groggy, he hit what he thought was the snooze button. Everything went downhill from there...

Johnny woke up again, the sunlight was blinding him through his window in the bedroom. Blinking furiously to avert the assault the bright light had on his sleepy eyes, he looked at the clock, "Seven fifteen! What the.." He had exactly forty five minutes to roll call.

He jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to turn the shower on. While the water was warming up he brushed his teeth, "I'll shave in the shower, that'll save some time!" Johnny said to himself.

Johnny got in the shower, "Geez! Hot water tank went out again!" Shivering now, he quickly lathered up top to bottom, when he realized he left his razor on the bathroom sink. When he stepped out of the shower to get his razor, he slipped on the tile floor with his wet soapy feet and whacked his arm on the sink to catch his fall, "Ow! Man...that's gonna leave a mark!" Huffing, he carefully got back in the shower, lathered up his face and started to shave, "Ow!" Immediately, his chin stung from the soap, he washed the offensive lather away along with...blood, "great! just great!"

After he finished showering, Johnny put a piece of toilet paper on his chin to stop the bleeding, ran a comb through his thick hair and went to his bedroom to get dressed. He looked at the clock on the nightstand, it was 7:35. Deciding it would save more time, he would put his uniform on now, rather than at the station. Pulling on his last boot, he grabbed the shoelaces to tie them, snap. "Crap!" He gritted through his teeth, "can't do anything about it now! I'll just have to get a shoelace off one of my other boots in my locker!"

Running out of his apartment, he got in his Rover and started it while looking at his watch, it was 7:46, "Man, I hope traffic isn't backed up today, that's all I need!" Now on his way, he felt he had just enough time to get to the station, a sense of relief washed over him, albeit briefly..glancing at the gas gauge, it was almost on E! "I knew I shoulda got some gas yesterday, but NOOO! I HAD to make a good impression on this chick and I didn't wanna be late! Now I'm gonna run outta gas!"

Johnny was on the 405, white knuckling it all the way, praying he wouldn't run into heavy traffic and out of gas. Somebody must have heard him, he sailed right through traffic with no problems. Briefly, he looked at his watch, at the stop light on Carson, it was 7:57.

Screeching his tires as he turned into the station parking lot, he pulled in to his parking space and ran into the locker room to get a shoelace from his spare pair of boots. He pulled his locker open, when suddenly he was hit in the face with one the Phantom's famous water bombs. "Chet!" Johnny yelled out, "you jerk!"

Johnny hung his head in defeat, closed his locker, got his uniform hat out of the closet in the apparatus bay and joined his crewmates at the end of the line. Not saying a word, he felt all eyes on him as he stood at attention. Captain Stanley came out of his office carrying his clipboard, stopping to look at his paramedic from head to toe.

Johnny's hair and shirt were dripping wet, the blood stained toilet paper clung to his chin, his arm had a shiny new black and blue bruise the size of a baseball, and last but not least, one boot left untied. He knew Cap was strict when it came to punctuality, he also knew he had it coming to him.

Before Johnny could open his mouth and apologize, Captain Stanley stood in front of Johnny with a slight smile. He knew his men... well... they were family. "Did you enjoy your date last night?"

He was dumbfounded, "Uh..yes Sir?" Johnny replied, waiting for the other (ahem) shoe to drop.

Captain Stanley with a big grin on his face replied, "In that case you have latrine duty today!"

Johnny looked at his watch, it was 8:01.

The end.