NOTE: This story is the second in a series (that I have yet to name) in which Johnny has a sister. The first story was called "Jokester" and is here on this site if you want to have a look at it. I know not everyone wants to read the previous story, so I did my best to make it so you can enjoy this one without reading the other.

Three significant characters introduced in the previous story, "Jokester"

Johnny's sister, Enakowa Gage: (Nakee is her nickname). She joins the Rampart crew as a nurse and has an enormous crush on Mike Stoker, and he likes her a whole lot too. Trouble is, they both fumble around each other like morons.

William (Billy) Brennings is a new Chief who once worked with Hank when he was a boot.

Carl Phillips, a sleazy paper pusher with delusions of rank. He's also the son of a retired fire chief and likes to use his imaginary rank to bully others - and the boys of 51 have been a bit not-nice to him last time...but Carl whole heartedly deserved what he got.


THE CHARM OF THE WOLF

Nakee Gage, a very pretty young brunette with her long hair in a braid, struggled to squeeze a trash bag full of clothes into Joanne Desoto's already overloaded Volkswagen. "I can't get it in there!"

From the window of her living room, Joanne was leaning out watching the other woman pack her car full of old clothes and toys. "Is there any more room in the jeep?"

Nakee knew her new friend couldn't see that the white LandRover at the far end of the driveway that was already so packed, she feared it might be illegal to drive like that. "No, there's no more room at all. I think I got a spot for this though!" Nakee moved a stuffed animal and a small box around in the back seat of the small car, and then just barely managed to squeeze the trash bag into the remaining space she made. Sides of trash bags were sticking out of the open windows, and she was reminded of a movie she'd seen called "The Blob."

Crunching of gravel on the driveway drew her attention. She turned to see Joanne had come limping out and was looking at the two vehicles. Her short chestnut hair looked particularly red in the sun, and a thick bandage on her leg was visible below the hem of her dress. "If I just had a little more space in my car, we could do this in two trips instead of three or five! You know lately I have to leave the kids with a sitter to go and get groceries because there's not enough room for both kids and the food! "Can you stay with me so we can make another trip?"

Nakee nodded as she tested the ropes she'd tied the trunk down with. "Sure! I have nothing better to do today. Besides, I haven't been to the Used Barn in a week." She paused to give her friend an uncertain look. "That is where you're taking these things, right?"

"Of course!" Joanne nodded, and put one last stuffed animal into an empty corner of the trunk which was open but tied down. "I can't thank you enough for helping me."

"I think all the clothes you gave me are thanks enough! And the shoes!" Nakee looked down at the blue sneakers on her feet that were practically brand new, but had been a size too small for Joanne. Nakee smiled as she went around the small car to check on the ropes she had holding things in place on the roof.

Joanne smiled slyly back to her friend. "After we drop this off, we could bring lunch to the station again. That way we can go oogle our fellahs?"

Nakee blushed as the smile fizzled, but she giggled despite herself. "I just have to get my purse."

"Me too!" Joanne limped after the younger woman, grinning as she decided to tease her a bit more, "So, did he ask you yet?"

Nakee stopped at the top step to turn and look back clearly with disappointment in her eyes. "No." She exhaled sharply, reminding Jo very much of Johnny. "Oh! He's never going to ask me out! If I keep waiting for him, I'll die an old maid!" She stepped into the kitchen to get her purse off the table, which she slung over her shoulder in a sulky way.

"This is a whole new age, Nakee." Joanne got her own purse down from the top of the refrigerator. "There's nothing wrong with asking a guy out. Besides, I know Stoker, he's as quiet as they come. You have to give him the invitation to talk."

"Maybe I'll just kick him! That'll get him to at least react!" Nakee's body language once again reminded her of her brother, Johnny Gage. Hands on hips and brows raised up to sharp points, she shrugged and then let out a long exhalation. "I guess I am old fashioned. I figure if he wants me to go out with him, then he should work up the nerve to ask me!"

"Dropping lots of very obvious hints doesn't fall into that philosophy of old fashioned behavior, does it?" Joanne teased with a smirk and limped a daring step forward.

Nakee stiffened a little, but ran for the door rather than let Jo see her blushing face. "Let's hurry! I wanna see if they got any new books at the store."

"Subject changer!" Jo snarled and laughed as she chased after the other.

-51-

Soon Joanne was driving down the road with Nakee behind her in the jeep. Both vehicles were filled to capacity, including the front seats, and only just enough room was left for the two drivers, and this was a spectacle to other drivers who seemed inclined to drive more slowly when they had to drive by them. After taking the roads out of the neighborhood, they turned onto a double laned main road. Coming up in the opposite direction was squad 51, traveling at a casual cruise and heading back to the station. The three vehicles beeped in recognition at each other.

Johnny smiled as they passed first Jo in her small Volkswagen, and then Nakee in his jeep. He noted how packed the two vehicles were and commented to Roy. "Did you get a look at that? They got both cars almost buckling under the weight of all that stuff!"

"Yeah, I saw." Roy answered with his eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel. "With the way they both chatter all day, I didn't think they were gonna get half that much done, even with the kids at my mother's house."

"You're not surprised by all that stuff?"

"Not at all!" Roy shook his head. "My mother and Jo's mother both love to go shopping for the kids. Sometimes I wonder if they compete with each other to see which of them can buy us more stuff. They run out of things to buy for the kids and start buying things for me and Joanne and they get all the wrong sizes. If I'm surprised by anything, it would be Joanne and your sister getting all that stuff out of the house in less than three trips."

Johnny shot his partner a bewildered expression. He would never speak rudely about another person's house, no matter how they chose to live, but he'd always thought the Desoto family had far too many things for their own good. Now he understood why.

"What do you suppose they'll buy us for lunch?"

"Huh?" The change of subject threw Johnny off and confused him.

"Your sister and my wife," Roy reminded his partner without looking away from the road as he drove. "The last three times they spent the day together, they brought us lunch at the station. I bet they do it again today."

"Oh." Johnny blinked and rubbed one eye. "Well, maybe." He wouldn't complain out loud, but really wanted to get back to the station and make himself a glass of Alka-Seltzer, and eating anything was the last thing he wanted to do. He'd already been feeling a little bit ill from the dinner Marko had made the night before with all the cheese and hot sauce. And then he'd been dumb enough to drink Chet's coffee that morning. Now he had terrible coffee rot that was bordering on nausea.

"Maybe they'll get chicken salad sandwiches and cole slaw again from Bob's deli." Roy's brows rose at the thought, and took no notice of Johnny's disgusted expression. "Or, some of those sandwiches with the gooey cheese and that orange sauce. Was that a mix of ketchup and mayonnaise?"

"Uhhh...be quiet about food." Johnny sank in the seat.

Roy was smiling as he daydreamed, but kept his eyes on the road ahead. "I hope they get another one of those coffee cakes for desert!" He didn't turn his head or see that Johnny was turning very ashen, but he did hear a whimper. "Sorry, I know you're hungry too. I can't help thinking about it. I'm starving. Haven't had anything to eat since that sandwich I grabbed yesterday. At least you got dinner last night. And I didn't even get any coffee this morning."

"Lucky you." Johnny moaned pathetically.

"Some of Nakee's coffee would certainly hit the spot right about now. She makes it better than you do. How'd you both learn to make good coffee but neither of you can cook? I mean that last batch of burgers you made was like eating burnt dog brains or something."

Johnny wanted to hide, but wiped imaginary sweat off his upper lip. "Ohhh man!"

"What is wrong with you?" Roy finally looked at him.

"Well, I...uh..."

The radio crackled, "Squad 51, Woman trapped in a pool drain, 718 Fordham road..."

Roy hit the siren and Johnny put on his helmet and got out his papers and scribbled things out. He acknowledged the call and did his best to forget that his stomach was unhappy. Maybe if Roy didn't talk about food, he'd feel better.

The siren wailed in the distance and though Dale Wilson's ears heard it loud and clear, his mind didn't know a thing about it. He was late and if he didn't get to his class very soon, he would miss his test, which was already a scheduled make up, and this being Saturday, if he didn't show up, his professor would flunk him for sure! And Dad would be yelling for a month if he flunked again. Maybe if he'd been able to find a place to park his car on campus instead of in the neighborhood, he wouldn't be in this fix! But, he'd been late and all the good spaces were full. He'd have to run all the way to class and he'd still be late! His pre-occupied mind had no idea that the siren was a lot closer now than before, and he stepped into the street...

Roy was barreling down the road, or so it seemed like he was. In a residential neighborhood in mid-summer on a bright day with kids playing all over, 40 miles an hour might as well have been 120. There was no safe speed when you were driving a vehicle heavy enough to turn the average sized human being into something that would resemble ham salad. He spotted a girl with wild golden hair, and she had one foot one foot on the curb, and she had her hand firmly planted on a toddler's shirt and was not letting go even though he was angrily trying to brush her off. Both were looking straight at him and not going for the road at all. Still, he worried they might just bolt out in front of him because kids were just so unpredictable. He tensed the muscles in his right leg and prepared to slam on the brake.

Johnny lifted his helmeted head from his notebook just in time to see a suspicious shadow on the pavement. He looked to the right, and sure enough, saw the motion of a human head visible just over the top of a parked car a few dozen yards ahead. He knew that person was running and wasn't going to stop, so he screamed, "LOOK OUT!"

Roy's instinctive reaction to his partner's scream was to slam his foot on the brake before he even could snap his head back to forward view, away from the kids on the other side. He saw the figure stepping into the road in front of the squad that was not going to stop in time although he was aware the wheels had locked and were now screeching on the pavement. He threw the wheel to the right in an attempt to steer away from both the kids and the running person. Metals screamed and crunched as the squad impacted the front fender of the other car. Metal pealed away from both with a loud bang and a horrible crunching. Roy's concern went to his partner. He got a vague impression of Johnny lifting an arm instinctively as he pitched forward into the dashboard with a yelp of fright. In front of the squad, he saw a person falling. The girl on the other side of the street let out a terrified scream.

'God! I hit him!' Roy thought as inertia threw him forward into the steering wheel.

More soon...