Terror In The Night
The emergency room at Rampart was its usually busy Saturday night. The nurses were running around carrying out doctors orders, gurneys were being pushed and lined up in the hall, and the doctors were running in and out of treatment rooms trying to take care of their patients as quickly and as efficiently as they possibly could.
It was close to ten o'clock by now, and the E.R was just beginning to wear off some. Still a bit of rush and confusing, but it was becoming easier to focus, and to take a minute to relax.
Dr. Brackett was leaning over the counter at the nurses station, just hanging up the phone with surgery upstairs, and signing off on a couple of papers. Dix walked up to him and patted him on the hand….
"Looks like its ten Kell….. time for your shift to end isn't it?"
"Yea, sure is…. And boy do I need it. I just finished signing these papers for Mr. Labowski to go up to surgery Dix… so you know what to do with them… and I guess I'll see ya tomorrow."
"Yea…. I guess so…"
"Well have a good rest of the shift Dix… bye"
"Yea…. I'll make do the best that I can… but bye for now Kell"
Brackett clicked his pen back in and stuck it in the pocket on his long white coat, and headed for his office for his jacket and briefcase.
Just as he was turning the doorknob to his office, a young man in an orderly's clothes walked up behind him.
"Hey doc?"
"Yea, what is it?" Brackett said as he turned around
"Doc… there's a guy that works here, one of the janitors I think, he's had a heart attack in one of the closets down the hall there, he's in pretty bad shape….."
"Well did you try calling for help? I'm off duty…"
"Everyone was busy… and I saw you…. So…."
"Yea…. Okay, well take me to him"
Brackett followed the young man down two hallways, just outside of the emergency department. Then he spotted a hall door sitting open that led into a janitors closet. As the young man stepped aside and stopped, Dr. Brackett rounded to the other side of the door, and wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion….
"There's nobody in here…." Brackett gave a questioning look to the young man.
"Sure there is…..You!"
Brackett threw up his arms as the young man lunged at him, but he was tackled to the ground and a needle with a sedative in it was struck into his arm.
They tossed on the ground and struggled momentarily, but soon the medication took over, and Brackett's muscles turned weak and unusable.
The young man dragged the limp body of the doctor into the closet. He tied Brackett's hands behind his back, and put a strip of duct tape over the doctors mouth. Then he turned off the light and shut the door and locked it.
Slipping the key into his pocket, he ran his hand through his sweat stained hair and headed back to the emergency department, whistling a tune.
He walked out of the hospital and into the cold night air. The handle popped on the ambulances passenger side door as he opened it up and hopped in.
"Did ya take care of everything Drew?" The driver asked.
"Yep, we got the patient in just fine Sir." He nodded at his senior ambulance attendant.
"Good, I'm glad to hear that young girl's gonna make it. Call us into dispatch as available"
with that, they drove back off into town.
Meanwhile at the station……..
"Roy!... I'm telling ya! … It's nothing!... really! It's just a little splinter I got in my arm over the weekend workin outside… that's all!"
"About an inch and a half infected splinter partner… I'm takin you to Rampart to get that cut out and you cleaned up."
"Ahh… come on Roy, it's almost eleven o'clock and I'm tired, can't it wait?"
"Now Johnnie…." Roy's words were cut off by the tones sounding off
"Station 51, station 110, squad 10, traffic accident with gas spill, North Leland street, cross street Summit, time out 10:05, ambulance is responding"
"Station 51 10-4, KMG 365" Stanley responded and handed the address to Roy before making a dash for his seat on the engine.
The engine and the squad pulled up beside the officers flares blazing against the dark road and the blackness of the night. Only two cars were involved as near as both paramedics could tell. One of them was on fire, but station 110 was handling it, and were almost finished demolishing the flames.
"Marco… you and Chet get an inch and a half on those gas leaks, and wash that stuff out." Stanley ordered and went to talk to the captain from 110.
John and Roy had gotten their equipment out and had headed for the second of the two cars, since squad 10 was taking care of the first one.
It was only one driver, and he was slumped over the steering wheel with blood running down his face from a mild laceration wound on his head. The car had been hit head-on, so the door wasn't too badly jammed and Johnnie was able to open it up fairly well.
Roy walked to the other side of the car and got in the passenger side door and slid over the seat towards their patient.
"It looks like the only problem is this head wound Roy, I think we can go ahead and get him out and take our vital signs over at the squad.." John spoke loudly to his partner.
As soon as John leaned in towards his patient, the gas around the car door and around the ground where he was standing caught on fire. The flames shot up into the drivers door and on the legs of his patient.
Johnnie desperately pulled at the man and tried to smack away the flames that were smothering the mans legs. The man had on nylon pants that were quickly melting in the heat, and it didn't take Johnnie long to realize that the melted plastic was sticking to his own hands and burning.
More flames shot up and caught his jacket on fire. He had to run away from the car and fall on the ground.
Station 110 was now at the car and spraying down 51's patient. Marco and Chet ran over to John who was flailing around trying to stop the burning and quickly sprayed their hose onto him. The flames stopped and Johnnie wrenched his head back in pain and clenched his teeth together, revealing his long strands of neck muscles in the process of the painful strain.
"Aghhh my hands!" John screamed as he looked down at them and the melted pieces still smoldering on them.
Roy ran over to John quickly after squad 10 took over their patient for them. He grabbed Johns hands and held them under the hose while Marco let the water run out.
There was some relief on John's face, but it was obvious he was in somewhat of pain. Roy checked over the rest of him. There was a large whole in the back of Johns shirt where the fire tore through, but only did minor burning.
After Roy had rapped John's hands up and put some cream on his back, he helped the ambulance attendant, Drew, load him up and jumped up in the back with him.
Marco drove the squad to the hospital behind the ambulance.
"So how are they feelin Johnnie?" Roy asked as he looked down at his partners hands.
"Not so bad now that you set up and I.V and gave me something for it. They aren't gonna be all that bad though. Just a little sore for a couple of days."
"Yeah… enough to get you off duty for the rest of the shift though, and probably and earned nights stay at Rampart."
"Yeah… don't remind me."
"Well at least while you're there you can get that splinter taken out.."
"Yea, might as well…. You know… that reminds me, I needed to talk to Brackett tonight about some yard work he wanted me to help him with tomorrow."
"Well you can't do that tonight, Brackett doesn't work Saturday nights remember?"
"Oh yeah… that's right.. hmmm… I'll just give him a call at home then. Dix says all he does is sit around the house, and since I'll just be sitting around the hospital I think I'll give him a call." John smiled and laid back against the pillow on the stretcher.
Drew frantically rubbed around his nose and mouth… this would mess up his plan. Nobody was to discover Brackett missing for at least two days. He had to think of something.
The ambulance pulled up to the hospital doors and Drew hopped out first, helping Roy pull Johnnies gurney out.
They pulled it down the hall way and into exam room 2 where Dr. Early was set up and waiting for him.
After changing Johnnie into a gown and dressing the wounds on his back and his hands, he signed the orders for John to stay overnight, and had the orderly's take him over to room 33 to stay for the night.
Roy's new partner for the shift had arrived and he patted John on the shoulder and told him goodbye as a call came over the HT for the station.
Johnnie had been in his room and lying in bed for about five minutes now. He then remembered that he had to call Brackett, as soon as he picked up the phone, however, Drew, the ambulance attendant walked in.
"Hey Drew!" Johnnie nodded and greeted the man
"Hey John… I was just stoppin in to see how you were doin…"
"O.. I'm alright I guess, thanks for askin though…"
"Yea.. well I also came in here, cause Dr. Early just signed some orders for you to go to x-ray for that splinter you had. I told them I was coming up to check on you and offered to take you there on my way out.."
"Well that was nice of ya Drew…lets go.."
Drew wheeled around a wheel chair to the left side of Johns bed and helped him climb into it. He opened the door and backed out of it, and began pushing John down the hall.
"Hey Drew…" John Shouted back at him
"Yea John?" Drew replied
"Hey… you missed the turn back there, x-ray is over down the hall you just passed"
"O… sorry John. I'm not used to this hospital ya know."
"Yea, it's okay, this is just a dead end hallway anyway, nobody comes back here really, so I guess you would've figured that out sooner or later."
As Drew continued pushing the wheel chair down the hall, Johnnie began to wonder if he was alright.
"Drew… come on man.. I'm tired… just turn this thing around and quit foolin around!"
The chair began to pick up speed and John barely had time to put his hands up before the chair crashed into the wall where the window was at the end of the hall.
Only a small part of the glass at the bottom shattered as Johns forehead crashed into it, and knocked him out.
Drew quickly fumbled for the key in his pants pocket and opened the door to the janitors closet.
Dr. Brackett was sitting up against the shelves and tried to stand up and run into Drew. Drew laid him out with a swift punch to the face though. And he grabbed Johnnie off of the wheel chair and through him in on top of Brackett.
"I'll be back soon.." was all he said as he once again slammed the door shut and locked it.
Johns head was bleeding onto Brackett's shirt from the fragments and shards of glass that had cut him in the face.
Kell knew John must have become a patient there tonight, seeing as how he was in a hospital gown and had dressings on his hands. He also noticed the blood on Johns arm where his I.V had no doubt been ripped out.
He could feel the taste of blood in his own mouth as well from where Drew had punched him in the face. His lip was probably bleeding. He noticed that the wetness coming off his lip, however, was beginning to loosen the tape that was around his mouth.
After a minute or two, Brackett was able to roughly wipe his mouth on his shoulder and peel away the tape. As the duct tape fell to the floor, he took a moment to take in some much needed deep breath's.
When Drew had thrown Johnnie in, he forgot to turn off the light this time. Brackett knew he could find something in the room to use to get the rope off of his hands.
He carefully rolled over on his side, to gently let John off of his chest, and then stood to his feet. His eyes were searching frantically on every shelf. Then he spotted a pair of medical scissors in a plastic tub that had some basic first aid supplies in it.
He backed up to the box and clumsly fumbled around. As soon as he gripped a hold on them, the rest of the box crashed onto the floor, spilling our it's contents.
It took Brackett a good minute or two to gnaw through the rope with the scissors, but at last his hands were finally freed.
He quickly took a knee beside Johnnie and began to assess him. He didn't know what John was in there for, but whatever it had been, he sure wasn't doing any better now.
Brackett had taken some vitals and tried to clean up John's head wound as much as he could, and then he took his white coat off and bundled it up under John' head for support.
Johnnies head turned from left to right as he mumbled some and began to open his eyes. His body suddenly stiffened as he began to sit up in a panic, remembering what was going on, but he was stopped by the force of Brackett's hand on his chest.
"Calm down Johnnie, just lay still…" Brackett tried to sound warm and reassuring
John looked around in confusion for a moment.
"Doc…wher… where are we?"
"Some janitors closet a couple of hallways down from emergency."
"Wha… why?"
"I wish I knew Johnnie… I really do."
"Hey Doc…."
"Yeah Johnnie?"
"Doc… I don't feel so well."
Brackett quickly touched his hand to John's forehead. There was definitely a fever present.
"John… what did they bring you in for?" Brackett questioned
"ugh… burns…. On my hands and some minor on my back." Johnnie swallowed hard and shut his eyes.
"Come on John, stay with me here…"
"I am doc… just don't feel so well."
Brackett thought to himself for a moment. The head wound would probably be making John feel a little woozy, but that and the slight burns on his hands, didn't explain the onset of his high fever.
"John .. have you been sick at all this week?" He asked going into "doctor mode"
"ugh… no…just a splinter." John said as he pointed down at his arm
Dr. Brackett could clearly see just by looking at the skin that a bad infection had set in, and now knew the cause of his fever.
"John, you really need to take better care of yourself." Brackett shook his head as he looked down at him.
Roy and Manny, his temporary shift partner from10's, had just finished a run to the hospital with a heart victim, and were counting their supplies up at the nurse's station.
"Hey Dix!" Roy said as she walked over "How's Johnnie doing?"
"I actually haven't had the time to check in on him yet Roy, it's just been one of those busy nights ya know…"
"Yeah… I know what ya mean…. Well could I go see him?"
"Sure… he's in room 33 down the hall. And you boys tell him hi for me okay!" Dixie smiled at them and gave them a wink as she headed into exam room 3 to help Dr. Morton with a patient.
Roy led, and Manny followed down the hall. The door to room 33 was wide open, and when they stepped inside they all they saw were two nurses changing the sheets on the bed around for a new patient to come in.
"Ughmm… excuse me Ms. Do you know if there was a Mr. John Gage in here?" Roy asked politely
The nurse looked at her orders for a second and the back up at Roy with soft eyes.
"I'm so sorry to tell you this sir, but Mr. Gage just passed away. We were in here on orders to clean up the room."
Manny watched Roy as he interlocked his fingers and set his hands on top of his head, trying just to breathe.
"Roy, you alright?" Manny asked
Roy just shook his head for a second…. "Ughh………ugh…. Yea.. I just don't understand….I mean… John just came in here with a couple burns… he was doing alright… I thought….. ugh… does it say why he died mam?" Roy turned back to the nurse and asked
"It was a cardiac arrest"
Roy began breathing more and more quickly and deeper and deeper. His face began to turn white, and his palms sweating.
"Roy, you okay pal? You don't look so good."
Roy didn't respond he just collapsed onto the floor. One of the nurse's ran out of the door to go get a gurney.
The orderlies rushed in and put Roy up on the gurney, then they wheeled him quickly off to the emergency room down the hall.
"What've you got?" Dixie yelled down the hall at her nurse, as she saw Roy Desoto being pushed into exam room 4.
Dixie walked into the room just as Manny was explaining what had happened.
"Well, we went to go see Johnnie, but when we got there, the nurse's told us that he had gone into cardiac arrest and had died just a few minutes ago, they were in there cleaning up the place when Roy and I came in. I think he just fainted from the news and got sick." Manny explained.
Dixie stopped for a moment, as did Dr. Early to take in the news.
"Johnnie died….are you sure?" Dix asked with much concern and sadness in her voice.
"Yes mam.." Her young nurse replied "The doctor gave the papers straight to me and told me exactly what had happened.."
"Well I want to know who this doctor is! And I want to know exactly what in the hell happened!" Dixie began to yell as the tears hit her.
Dr. Early wrapped his arms around the senior nurse in an attempt to comfort her. After letting some tears out, she sniffed in and pulled away…
"I'm goin to go call Kell and tell him, and I'll let the rest of 51 know." Dix tried to hold in her sniffles and tears as she opened the exam room door and walked away.
She was almost to Dr. Brackett's office, when she reached into her pants and pulled out a spare key that he had given to her. To her surprise, however, the door was already unlocked.
She thought of it as somewhat strange, but brushed it off and went straight to the phone to call him.
Ring after ring after ring. She had called him a total of five times now with no answer. This was not like Kell, she thought to herself. Something was wrong, she could feel it, but didn't know just what it was.
She walked around the office for a moment trying to think, and then gasped in a breathe of air as she saw Kell's jacket still hanging on the hook and his briefcase, untouched in the chair beside it.
She quickly picked up the office phone and rapidly dialed.
"Yes give me security asap" She said to a voice over the phone "Yes… we have two missing persons in the hospital. A Mr. John Gage and Dr. Kelly Brackett." She finished giving a description of the both of them and hung up the phone, almost knocking it over as she ran back to the E.R
Dixie immediately got on the intercom.
The intercom squeeled to a screeching start inside of the Janitors closet. And Brackett smiled as Dixie's voice came over the speaker.
"This is a page being sent out for a Dr. Brackett and John Gage… if you are in the hospital, please report immediately to the nurse's station in the E.R. everyone else is to be looking for them as of right now! And if you have any information, please contact security immediately!"
"That a girl Dix!" Brackett smiled as he talked up to the speaker.
He leaned over and felt Johns forehead again. He was hotter, and the infection was getting worse. He stopped to pray, hoping that somebody would get to them soon enough.
As soon as Dixie had made the announcement, she had taken notice to Drew, the ambulance attendant. He had been helping to wheel a patient down the hall when they announcement came over, and he quickly stopped what he was doing and began to walk back down the opposite way, trying as much as he could to avoid eye contact with Dixie.
She noticed the sudden change of direction and that he was picking up his pace down the hall. She needed to get his attention.
"DREW!" She shouted at him just he was going by "Drew could you come over here please?"
He just ignored her though and began to take off down the hall.
"SECURITY!" Dixie yelled as she took off down the hall after him.
Dr. Early and Dr. Morton saw her running after him, and joined in the chase.
Drew ran hard enough to get himself ahead of her. He fumbled for the right key to open up the closet as he continued to run.
Brackett could hear the footsteps running down the hall.
Drew grabbed a small pistol he had tucked in the back of his shirt, and flung the closet door open.
Brackett's initial reaction was to tackle him, but after seeing the gun, he just threw his hands up in surrender.
At the very moment that Drew began shouting orders for Brackett to pick up John and move it, the security officers rounded the corner with Dixie and the other two Doctors.
"Drop it!" The officer shouted, somewhat calling away Drews attention.
Drew quickly flung the gun up into shooting position, aiming at Brackett, who was on the other side of the door and out of the officers site. But as soon as his hand with the weapon had moved, the officer shot him in the left side, just below the armpit, and pierced his heart.
As Drew's body hit the floor, the gun in his hand went off and shot into the closet.
Dixie, the officer, and both doctors, rushed to the end of the hall to reveal the mystery behind the door.
Dr. Brackett was just beginning to stand back up and was clutching onto his calf, with blood running through his fingers and onto his pants and shoes. Dixie quickly grabbed his side and helped him to sit down in the hallway, while Dr.'s Morton and Early assessed Johnnie and helped the orderlies put him up onto a gurney.
"He dead?" Brackett asked nodding towards Drew, who was laying in a pool of his own blood.
"Yea, I'd say so Kell" Dr. Early responded "That cop had a pretty good shot at him." And he tried his best to smile down at his friend.
"How about Johnnie?" He asked with concern
"Well he's got a bad infection and looks like only a minor concussion, we'll take him down to emergency and get him cleaned up and started on some antibiotics, he should be good in a couple of days though!" Dr. Early reached down to grab onto Brackett's right arm as Dixie took his left and the two of them helped him limp down the hall to emergency.
Dr. Early helped Kell into exam room 4. Roy was sitting up on the side of the bed with his head in his hands. He had finally woken back up.
"Hey Roy, you don't mind if I bring Kell in here do you? I don't think you're hurt at all, and we've got to get him stitched up. He had a bullet graze into him about an inch deep. Good thing it went all the way through and didn't stop in there though." Dr. Early explained.
"No…I don't mind" Roy got up from the table and started walking towards the door
"Oh.. and Roy…" Early began "Johnnies next door… he's gonna be just fine. We'll explain everything to you later, but he's alive and well." Early smiled as he saw the senior paramedics face light up and sprint out of the door.
"Those two really are the best of friends!" Early said smiling at his co-worker.
"Yeah, well, lets get on with those stitches so I can go home pal. I've had a rough night" Brackett did his little quirky smile to the left and laid back on the bed.
2 days later
Dr. Brackett used his crutches in a clumsy manner, making his way in the door and down the hall to the nurse's station. He was dressed up in his blue work-shirt and had on his red tie.
Dixie admired his handsome figure as he approached her desk and stopped.
"Well what brings you in here today sir, I thought you were supposed to be at home recovering?" She smiled at him gently
"Well, I find it helps my recovery along, when I get to come see my favorite nurse." He smiled at her and gave her a wink as she smiled back and blushed a little. "Actually I stopped by to see how Johnnie was doing….."
"Come on… follow me, I'll take you to his room." Dixie waved her hand toward herself and started off down the hall with Brackett following close behind.
She opened the door to room 33 and stood to the side, letting her hob-a-long friend in while she held the door for him.
Roy was sitting on the edge of John's bed talking to him, and both were eating cookies from a batch that Joanne had made for Johnnie as a get-well gift.
"Hey Brackett!" John said, wiping a few crumbs from his face and sitting up a little straighter in bed. "How did everything at the police station go?"
"Great, they finally figured out what Drew's motive was." Brackett replied
"Oh yeah?" John barely squeezed through cookie filled cheeks. "Well, what was it?"
"Apparently Drew had a brother who was a firefighter, his name was Nate Davenport…"
"Oh yeah, he worked over at 28's a few years back. Didn't he die in a fire though?" Roy commented and asked
"Yea, he was in a fire and was badly burned. His throat had closed off and he had stopped breathing. This was before we had the paramedic program though, and by the time they got him here, a lot of the brain damage had been done. I guess there was a slight possibility that he would have lived for one maybe two more days if we had attempted to revive him, but it was just one of those decisions you have to make sometimes, and we let him go….. his brother Drew had been the ambulance attendant that brought him in, and took everything pretty hard. Blaming me for his brothers death. The police figured that he was out for revenge, and that was his motive, to get back at me for killing his brother. I guess he didn't plan on you finding out about it though John, and that's why you wound up in this whole mess." Brackett shook his head and curled in his bottom lip as always.
"Wow…. So he was really gonna kill us… in-credible." John just laid his head back on the pillow and stared at his partner.
"I guess these things just happen sometimes boys." Dixie smiled knowing that it was all over though and that her two favorite people were perfectly fine and safe.
"Yea you're right Dix, just one of those things, just one of those terror's in the night I guess!" Brackett smiled up at her, and then grabbed a cookie before making his way out of the door on his crutches.
"Later Doc!" John called out to him, and continued chewing on his mouthful of cookies.
The END!
Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading. God bless!