Emergency
Title: Trouble.
Author: Numb3rsfan
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: There are slight mentions of character and actor names from the television show Dukes of Hazzard, in this story.
Warnings: Angst.
Disclaimer: I don't own Emergency, never have, never will.
Summary: A routine day at Station 51 goes awry during one 'simple' rescue at an amusement park.
Chapter One.
Roy sat down on the bench and grabbed his shoe, just as his partner and best friend Johnny Gage came walking in with a smile on his face and a spring to his step.
'Oh, here we go again.' Roy thought as he resisted the urge not to roll his eyes at his partner, who stopped in front of his locker and opened the door.
"I take it you had a good week." Roy guessed, deciding to tempt fate and just hope John wouldn't go blabbing his whole week vacation to him in one long string of sentences.
"Did I have a good week? I had the best!" John replied with a smile as he unbuttoned his uniform, took it off of the metal hanger and put it on before buttoning it back up.
"Well, that's great." Roy said as he finishing tying his shoe and stood up from the bench.
"Yeah, can't wait to tell you all about it." John said, flashing that charming smile of his that would either send any female nurse flocking to Johnny's side, or it would earn Johnny a slap in the face from some nurse that he had pushed to far.
"Yeah well, tell me about your marvelous day later. Right now we got roll call." Roy said as he all but rushed for the door and yanked it open before Johnny had a chance to say anything.
John watched his partner go; wondering what was the matter with him.
"That was odd." He muttered as he put on his own shoes and tightened the laces before closing his locker door and heading out to join the line up, just as Captain Hank Stanley exited the office with the ever present slight frown on his face.
"Alright men, let's get started. Stoker, Lopez, you guys got the dorms. Roy, kitchen. Gage hose room and mop the bay floor. Kelly you got the latrine. Make it spotless this time, not that streaky mess that you called clean, last time." Hank said as he looked his men up and down.
With a nod, Hank turned and went back to his office while Mike Stoker and Marco Lopez went to clean and tidy up the dorms, Roy went to clean and tidy up the kitchen, John went to the hose room to put the hose back in their proper place, before getting the ever loved mop, bucket and soap out, while Kelly wrinkled his nose and trudged to the latrine to clean it, yet again.
John had just replaced the first set of hose when the tones sounded.
"SQUAD 51, CHILD TRAPPED IN SINKHOLE, 46 AND WOODMONT, 46 AND WOODMONT. CROSS STREET VERNON. TIME OUT 09:26."
Leaving the rest of the hoses, John raced for the squad, quickly jumping in to the passenger seat while Roy climbed in after taking the slip of paper from Mike Stoker, who had written the address down.
While Marco opened the bay door, Mike grabbed the mic and said, "Squad 51, 10-4, KMG-365."
Turning, Mike and Marco watched as Squad 51 roared out of the bay and made a quick left.
"46 and Woodmont, that's just two miles away." John said as he directed Roy through a series of shortcuts that helped them shave off four minutes if they were to take the long way.
Quickly pulling to a stop right beside an old two story house, John and Roy quickly saw the sinkhole.
It was hard to miss, being about the size of a minivan and about as deep as the deep end of a swimming pool.
As quickly as they could, Roy and John exited the squad and opened up the side compartment; grabbing their gear before rushing over to the lip of the sinkhole.
Looking down, John and Roy could clearly see the small boy curled around a piece of concrete, right smack dab in the middle of the sinkhole.
"I'm going down." John remarked as he ran back to the squad and grabbed the coil of rope.
Handing the rope to Roy, John quickly grabbed a piece of the rope and made it in to a sort of noose, before tightening his hold on it and walking back over to the length of the sinkhole.
"Ready?" He asked his partner after a minute.
"Whenever you are." Roy shot back as he tightened his hold on the rope in his hands.
With a sigh, John carefully eased himself over the lip of the sinkhole, and carefully began to climb down.
It was hard work with the loose dirt slipping all around his feet, making it quite hard to get any kind of traction, but soon he was at the bottom, with a thin sheen of sweat just beading on his brow.
Letting go of the rope, John quickly made his way over to the boy, who hadn't moved a muscle ever since they had arrived.
"Son, can you hear me?" John asked as he dropped down next to the boy and put a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder.
When no answer came, John carefully moved the boy on to his back, before speaking again.
"Son, can you hear me?" John asked again.
This time however, the boy was semi awake and slightly aware of his surroundings.
"Y..yeah. Can hear..ya." The boy muttered as he struggled to blink in the early morning sunlight.
"What's your name?" John asked as he turned and signaled to Roy to bring down the biophone, splint, and drug box.
"Ben….Ben Jones." The little boy muttered as a wave of pain swept through him.
"Alright Ben, now I know you're in a lot of pain, but I'm going to need you to stay as still as you can." John said soothingly as he watched his partner, Roy, slowly lower the biophone.
Rising, Johnny walked over and grabbed the orange box and untied it, before walking back over to Ben and putting the biophone on the ground.
"What…that?" Ben asked through gritted teeth as he glanced at the biophone which John was just opening up.
"It's a biophone. Let's me talk to the hospital." John replied as he opened the box, grabbed the small antenna and fit it in to place, before rising again and going back over to the side of the sinkhole and unhooking the drug and splint box from the rope, and bringing the two boxes over to Ben.
Opening up the drug box, John withdrew the stethoscope and BP cuff.
Putting the end part of the stethoscope to Ben's chest, John listened to the boy's heart for a second, before taking his BP.
Once that was done, John leaned over and grabbed the biophone.
"Rampart this is Squad 51. Rampart this is Squad 51." John said in to the receiver as he jotted down the boy's vitals on his notepad using his green pen.
"Squad 51, this is Rampart. Go ahead." Dr. Kel Brackett said moments later.
"Rampart we have a male child, approximately 9 years old. Victim of a fall attributed to a sinkhole." John began.
"Repeat that 51. A sinkhole?" Kel asked, not sure if he had heard John correctly.
Sinkhole's were not that uncommon, but usually no one was injured from falling in to a sinkhole.
"That's an affirmative. Child seems to have suffered a broken rib. His vitals signs are: BP 90/60, pulse 90 and thready. Eyes are equal and sluggish, but reactive. He seems to be slipping in and out of consciousness." John said as he watched Ben struggle to keep his eyes open.
"51, suspected head injury. Immobilize the head and start him on an IV, Ringers Lactate TKO. Put him on twelve liters 02 and bring him in here as fast as you can." Dr. Brackett calmly ordered as he bent over the transmitter.
"10-4. IV, Ringers Lactate, TKO. Twelve liters 02." Johnny recited before he reached in and grabbed an IV set up and the plastic bag of Ringers.
"Roy! I'm gonna need the 02!" Johnny shouted, before he leaned over and swabbed down Ben's arm.
"Now Ben, this is going to sting a little." Johnny warned.
"Don't…care." Ben muttered back, before he grimaced as John plunged the needle in and taped it there, before hooking in the IV.
Looking back up, John was surprised to see not only Roy but the rest of Station 51 there as well.
Captain Stanley was directing Marco and Chet who began to lower a stokes and the 02, while right behind them an ambulance was just pulling to a stop.
"Don't worry Ben, we'll have you out of here in no time." Johnny reassured as he glanced at the boy, but Ben had already passed out.
Swallowing uneasily, Johnny glanced back up and rose up to grab the stokes once it was low enough to the ground.
Reaching in, Johnny quickly took the bottle of 02 and the face mask, completely ignoring the stokes while he went back to Ben and slipped the 02 face mask over the boy's face and turned on the air.
Next Johnny eased Ben over and carefully deposited the boy on to the stokes, carefully placing the IV at Ben's side, and the air bottle between Ben's legs.
"Alright, take em' up!" Johnny called as he stepped back.
Slowly and with great care the stokes was pulled up, before the rope came back down.
With a slight sigh, Johnny grabbed the rope and with the help of Mike, he managed to pull himself up and walk over to Roy who was already helping to place Ben on a gurney and transport him over to Rampart.
"Johnny, I'll go ahead and ride on in with him." Roy said to his partner, before turning and hopping in to the back of the ambulance seconds before the ambulance attendant shut the door and raced around to the front.
Seconds later the ambulance was roaring off, heading towards Rampart Emergency, leaving John to go back down the sinkhole and collect the gear, which he did with only a limited amount of groaning.
Two trips later, John was back up top and wrapping up the rope, while the engine crew of Station 51 hopped back on the rig and took off heading back to the station, leaving John standing there alone.
'Now I know why I like to ride in with the victim.' John thought as he stashed the rope and equipment and hopped in to the driver's side, before taking off, heading for Rampart Emergency.