Every Breath You Take
By
Numb3rsfan
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Angst, H/C, maybe a tad bit of Language as well.
Author's Notes: For those of you who have ever wondered, all my work is unbeta'd only because I can never find anyone who wants to help.
Disclaimer: I don't own Emergency!
Summary: During a rescue, both Roy and John are injured and trapped in a burning building, with no way to get out and no way to reach each other.
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Chapter One: Early Morning Hours
The drive over to Station 51 was short and sweet for the two paramedics, Roy DeSoto and John "Johnny" Gage, even though they both lived twenty minutes away from the station, and yet they lived at least thirty to forty minutes from each other.
Both men arrived at the station at the same time, parking side-by-side like they normally did.
Exiting his newly washed and waxed Rover, Johnny smiled and waved at Roy who smiled and waved back.
"How were your days off?" Roy asked as Johnny walked the five steps over to him.
"Not to bad, not to bad. Man, kickin' back and relaxin' never felt so good. I'm tellin' ya." Johnny replied.
"I hear ya, only Joanne had me up and about doing yard work and fixing the leak in Chris' bedroom." Roy replied, turning and heading for the station's entrance, with Johnny walking along beside him.
"Aww man, that's rough." Johnny replied, knowing just how Roy felt. Well, he kinda knew how Roy felt. Since Johnny lived in an apartment, he didn't have a yard to mow, but he sometimes 'had' to fix his living room 'roof' when it started to leak, because his apartment manager would never call anyone to fix it.
Entering the station, both men bypassed the day room and entered the locker room, heading straight for their lockers.
Reaching their lockers, both men opened the doors at the exact same moment and reached in for their uniforms at the exact same time.
If anyone had been watching, they would have thought that it had been a rehearsed performance, but it only came from years of working together.
Buttoning up his blue uniform, Johnny grabbed the shiny badge and pinned it on before he grabbed his name badge which ID'd him as a LA County Paramedic, and pinned that on as well.
Then he got his regulation pants on before sitting down and putting on his black socks and shoes.
After that he stood back up and tucked in his uniform before looking at Roy who was doing the exact same thing.
Uniforms tucked in, each man put their belts on before shutting their locker doors and leaving the locker room, one behind the other.
Entering the day room, Johnny and Roy headed over to the coffee pot, only to find it empty and the cups untouched.
It was only then that they realized that they were the first ones there that morning and roll call was supposed to be in seven minutes.
"Ok… this is new." Johnny said after a minute, going to the window and looking out in to the parking lot.
"Yeah, usually Cap and Mike are here by now, and Marco should be pulling up anytime. Chet usually gets here three minutes before you do, and usually you are a few minutes late." Roy said.
"Well not today, partner. Not after Cap said he'd have my head if I was late again." Johnny replied, looking back out the window.
It was three minutes till roll call when four cars pulled in to the parking lot, one right after the next.
Each of them parked in their usual spots before getting out in a rush.
Suppressing a laugh, Johnny looked at Roy who nodded back at him with a smile.
Quickly both of them went to the apparatus bay and formed the beginnings of a line, both ready for roll call.
Within ten seconds, Johnny and Roy heard the front door fly open before they heard the sound of hurried feet entering the locker room, before there was nothing.
Chuckling a little, Johnny looked at Roy again, smiling a little as he fought not to laugh at this.
He finally had to bite his smile back when they both heard the locker room door fly open and the sound of hurried feet heading their way.
In seconds the red faces of Mike, Marco, Chet and Captain Stanley appeared, running through the day room and skidding to a stop beside Johnny and Roy.
Clearing his throat, Hank took two deep breaths before he entered his office and came back out with a clipboard and pen.
Out of his peripheral vision, Johnny saw that Chet's badge was upside down, and Marco's uniform had a few wrinkles.
Turning his head slightly, Johnny also saw that Mike's black shoes were untied, suggesting that they all had literally thrown their uniforms on and dashed to roll call before checking themselves over.
"Ok…" Captain Stanley began, looking up from his clipboard, "Mike, Johnny hang the hoses, Roy you have the dorms, Marco you have the kitchen and Chet…"
"I know, I know Cap. The latrine." Chet said, sounding down about that.
"Yes, and make sure you get everything clean…including the shower stalls!" Hank ordered.
With the orders for the day handed out, Hank retreated back to his office, while his men busied themselves with cleaning up the station.
Three hours in to their shift, Johnny and Mike had just been about through with the hose hanging when the tones went off.
"Station 51, skateboard accident at Holly Lane, skateboard accident at Holly Lane. Cross street Martin Ave. Time out 10:30."
Quickly Johnny scurried down from the tower and dashed back in to the station, sliding to a halt as he gripped the door to the squad and opened it, jumping in before closing it and grabbing his helmet.
Once his helmet was securely on his head, Johnny took the call slip from Roy as Roy flipped the siren on and roared out of the bay.
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"Holly Lane is just off of Martin and 10th Roy. Turn on to Wood street and you can shave five minutes off." Johnny said as seconds later, Roy made the turn on to Wood.
"Skateboard accident. That's rather vague." Roy said after a minute as he concentrated on his driving.
"Well you know Holly Lane. It's a pretty steep road, plus it has a sharp curve." Johnny reminded.
"I know, I know." Roy replied before he turned on to Martin and drove down that road for a half mile.
Flicking on his turn signal, Roy raced up on to Holly Lane and drove up the steep hill.
About half way up, just before they got to the sharp curve, Johnny leaned forward and said, "Hold it, hold it!" as he pointed to a young boy who was waving his arms, trying to flag them down.
"I see em'!" Roy said, killing the siren and bringing the squad to a halt beside the boy.
The young boy couldn't have been more than 8 years old, Johnny guessed as the boy climbed up on to the squad's running board so he could look in through the window at Johnny and Roy.
"What seems to be the problem, son?" Johnny asked, seeing the boy's eyes start to water.
"My brother! You have'ta help em' mister fireman! He went over the edge!" The little boy cried, pointing to the guard rail where the sharp curve was.
"Don't worry, we will. Now, why don't you move back a little so I can get out?" Johnny said softly.
The little boy did so, allowing Johnny to get out of the squad.
Turning to the boy, Johnny knelt down till he was at eye level with the boy.
"What's your name son?" Johnny asked.
He knew that he really had to hurry and check on the other boy but he first had to gather as much info as he could from this young child in front of him.
"Luke…Luke Hanson. My brother's name is Johnny." Luke said.
"Ok Luke, now I need you to tell me exactly what happened." Johnny said before he glanced at Roy who was now over at the guard rail and peering down below.
"Momma told him not to do it, but Johnny said he could skate down this whole hill without stopping. I ran after him and saw him hit that and go over." Luke said, gesturing to the guard rail.
Seeing that the boy was about to start crying, Johnny put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's going to be alright Luke, it's going to be fine. My partner and I are going to get your brother. He's going to be fine." Johnny said before he stood up and went to the squad's compartments.
First he grabbed two sets of ropes and the belts and put them over his shoulders before he grabbed the drug box and biophone.
Then he ran over to Roy.
"What do you think?" Johnny asked, stopping by his partner.
Glancing down, Johnny saw that there were small rocks everywhere, making the ground seem a bit unstable.
Right at the bottom of a hill was a little boy lying next to a rock, and a broken skateboard lying next to the boy's head.
"Could be better." Roy admitted, taking the ropes from Johnny.
"Think we can do this without the engine?" Johnny asked.
Roy took another look down at the wounded boy before he nodded his head and said, "I think so.
Attaching the belt to himself, Johnny then grabbed the rope and tied it to the belt while Roy took the other end of the rope and attached it to the wheels of the squad which he had moved closer to the guard rail.
Johnny turned around, hands on the rope as he stood poised over the edge.
After receiving a nod from Roy, Johnny sighed before gently stepping off on to the unstable slope.
"MORE SLACK!" Johnny yelled as he kept lowering himself down.
When he had a few feet to go, Johnny felt the rope vibrate more than usual.
Looking at the rope, Johnny tightened his fists around it before the unthinkable happened.
The rope broke, plummeting Johnny the rest of the way down.
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Johnny hit the ground hard on his feet, however he hit the ground with such force that his legs immediately buckled, sending him to the ground in a cloud of dirt.
"JOHNNY! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Roy yelled down to him.
Johnny didn't reply for a moment as he mentally checked himself over.
Deciding that he was for the most part alright, Johnny looked up and waved at Roy.
"I'M FINE! SEND DOWN THE DRUG BOX AND BIOPHONE!" He yelled back.
While Roy was working on getting another rope from the squad, Johnny went over to the boy and knelt down next to him.
"Johnny…Johnny can you hear me?" Johnny asked softly.
Slowly the boy's eyes opened and he gave a moan of pain in reply.
"Johnny, My name is Johnny Gage, I'm a fireman/paramedic with the LA fire department, and I'm here to get you out. Now, can you tell me what hurts?" Johnny said before he glanced back up to see the drugbox coming down.
"M…head…leg…" Johnny mumbled softly.
"Well don't you worry. We're going to make the pain go away." Johnny Gage replied as he stood up and went over to the drug box.
He waited there until he also had the biophone in hand before going over to the boy, who hadn't moved a muscle.
Kneeling down, Johnny opened up the drug box and took out the stethoscope and the BP cuff.
Quickly he got the boy's vitals and wrote them down before he gently felt the boy's arms and legs, searching for a possible break.
When that was done, Johnny opened up the biophone and put the antenna up before flipping it on and putting the receiver to his ear.
"Rampart this is Squad 51. Rampart, this is Squad 51." Johnny said.
Two seconds later he heard the voice of head nurse Dixie McCall on the other end.
"Squad 51, Rampart Base. Go ahead." Dixie said as she grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil.
"Rampart, we have a male child, approximant age 15, suffering from a broken leg and possible internal injuries, based on complains of the patient. His BP is 70/40, heart rate 80, pulse is shocky and unsteady, pupils equal and reactive." Johnny said.
There was a pause before Dr. Brackett's voice came over the line.
"51, start the patient on Ringer's Lactate, also 12 liters of O2 and transport as soon as possible."
"10-4 Rampart." Johnny replied before he put the phone down and began to set up the IV.
He knew that he could stabilize the boy, but if the boy needed surgery, then they would have to have the parent's ok.
"Now John, you might feel a little needle sting." Johnny softly said as he swabbed down the boy's arm.
"Don't care." The boy replied.
Smiling a little at the boy's resilience, Johnny started the IV.
He knew that they would have to start O2 on him when he was up top, since it would be almost impossible to do it now.
Looking up, Johnny waved to Roy who waved back and seconds later the stokes was being lowered down.
"Shouldn't be long now John." Johnny said to the boy, before he went over to the stokes and brought it over to the boy.
Glancing at John's voice, Johnny saw the boy's eyes slide shut.
"Hey, hey. I need you to stay awake for me." Johnny said.
"tired…" the boy whispered, not feeling a thing as Johnny carefully placed him in the stokes and secured it.
"I know…I know that you are tired, but if you can stay with me a little while longer, you can sleep at the hospital." Johnny said.
Slowly the boy opened his tired eyes and whispered, "kay…"
With that confirmation, Johnny secured the stokes to the ropes and held it steady as Roy took up the slack and pulled it back up.
As the stokes went up, Johnny kept praying that the bag of Ringer's wouldn't fall out from the stokes, because he hadn't secured it all that well, but his worries were all for naught, because within three minutes the stokes was up top and handed over to the waiting ambulance.
Then the rope went back down and Johnny attached himself to it.
Soon he began to feel Roy take up the slack again, and slowly Johnny felt himself rising.
Deciding to help his partner, Johnny half climbed up himself. Well, he half did it for his partner; he half did it because he didn't trust the rope!
However, within minutes he was up top and headed over to the ambulance, leaving Roy to put away the biophone and drugbox, which Johnny had held on to during his climb up.
Once in the ambulance, Johnny grabbed the O2 tank which Roy had placed there, and gently put the O2 mask over the boy's face before turning it on.
Seeing the boy smile a little, Johnny said, "See, I told you it wouldn't take long."