Author's Note: This story is based on a song. I'm sure you can figure out which one so I'm not telling. In my world Johnny grew up in a loving family and still has living parents. The show doesn't make it clear one way or the other what his family background is outside of being at least part Native American and growing up on a reservation. I took a few liberties and gave him some additional heritage that has helped shape his life and gave him some background to look back on. Merry Christmas, hope you enjoy my little romp through Johnny's life at Christmas time.
John Gage walked out of his apartment bright and early on the morning of December 23rd. It was a typically gorgeous California morning and if it hadn't been for the decorations littering lawns and street corners all over town one would never guess that Christmas was only days away. John should have been happy, the schedule fell in their favor this year and it was one of the rare occasions when they would have Christmas Eve and Christmas day off. Unfortunately, he was actually feeling more than a little sad. Because of the perfect timing his parents had arranged a rare visit to Southern California and he'd been looking forward to it for months. The phone call last night should have been finalizing the plans for when he'd pick them up and the details for the rest of the trip. Instead they had called to tell him that a series of storms were shutting down the airport and they wouldn't be able to get out until closer to the New Year and would completely miss the holiday. They would still come, just not for Christmas. John's favorite holiday was ruined.
The rain that had moved through the night before was just a small part of the storm front that was the source of his disappointment. Here in California you could barely tell what was headed towards the Northwest and Midwest states. In Los Angeles the rain was bitterly cold, but had come and gone in one night. This morning one could tell that a storm had come through only because of the puddles that had been left behind.
Walking down the steps from his building towards his Land Rover Johnny noticed one more sign of the storm and stopped to appreciate it. The winter had been so mild this year that some of the bushes lining the sidewalk still had roses on them. The storm the night before had left raindrops sitting on the petals of the remaining roses. It was a beautiful thing to see and John wished he had his camera so he could snap a few pictures. Roses were his mother's favorite flower and she had always loved to see raindrops on roses. He reached out to touch some of the silver drops, but quickly pulled back his finger when a hidden bee suddenly emerged and stung his finger.
"Ow! Stupid bee, what'd you do that for?" John paused his bee driven tirade when he realized how foolish he must look yelling at the rose bushes. Using his uninjured hand he pulled his wallet out of his pocket, removed his credit card and used it to scrape the stinger from the wound. Looking at his watch he decided he'd best hurry along to the station and put ice on it after he got there or he'd be late.
Arriving at the station John quickly changed without engaging in conversation with any of the others in the locker room. Exiting as soon as he finished changing he walked to the day room and headed straight for the freezer in search of some ice. Chet watched as his sometimes nemesis made a beeline for the freezer.
"Fine, don't say good morning, didn't your mother teach you any manners?"
John didn't hear and therefore didn't answer, this made Chet more determined to get his attention.
"Hello! Anyone in there?" When he still didn't get a response Chet walked over to the refrigerator and stuck his bushy mustachioed face into the freezer section right next to John's face.
"What'cha doin'." Chet whispered into John's ear.
Chet got the reaction he'd been seeking when John jumped and slammed the top of his head on the inside of the freezer.
"Dang it, Chet. What are you doing sneaking up on a person like that? I've probably got a concussion now."
"Yeah, with your soft head, you probably do. What are you looking for in there?"
"I need some ice. How come we don't have any ice?"
"C-shift hosted the winter open house yesterday. Guess they used the last of the ice. Why do you need ice, you haven't had time to go on a run and get bashed up."
"Got stung by a bee," John was almost pouting by now. The phone call, the bee, his aching head and the lack of ice were all indicating that this was going to be a horrible day.
Roy entered the day room just in time to hear the part about a bee sting. Walking over to his partner he held out his hand demanding, "Let me see."
"Roy, it's just a sting, I already got the stinger out, I just wanted to put some ice on it too, I'll just go run it under cold water and see if that keeps the swelling down."
John turned away from his partner without showing him the injured digit. Roy looked at Chet and gave him a 'what did you do' look and was returned a perfectly innocent 'I did nothing, he's your problem' look. It was starting to look like it would be a long day all the way around.