B is for Beginning

Chapter 1

Fireman/Paremedic Roy Desoto shouldered his way into the locker room at his new station – Station 51 in Carson. He was pleasantly surprised to see his partner of one month already seated on the bench in front of his locker, a white towel dangling loosely between his fingers, head bent down with water dripping off his dark hair. Desoto smiled at the white line around the younger man's hairline, plainly evidence of a fresh haircut on Gage's tanned skin.

"Good morning Gage! How was your day off?"

"Hey…..Roy," John Gage finally replied, slowly raising his head to look over at Roy.

Roy stopped his rummaging in his locker and looked closer at Gage. His partner was squinting up at him, dark rings under his eyes. Roy watched him run the towel through his hair a final time and drop it on the floor in front of him, before pushing himself off the bench with both hands. Johnny smiled sheepishly and finally answered the question.

"Left the station, got a haircut, walked into my apartment all ready for a nap – made the serious mistake of answering the phone. It was my old captain over at 10's, one of their lineman called in with the flu or something. So that's how I spent my day off….."

Roy grunted in sympathy and turned back to his dressing. He lifted up his sandals and placed them neatly in the bottom of his locker before straddling the bench to pull on dark socks and his leather boots, wishing he could work in the sandals. An unusual heat wave of temperatures in the 90's had plagued the city for the last three days, and showed no signs of relenting even though fall was almost upon them. Roy frowned as he watched Johnny pull on his dark blue jacket over his still untucked uniform shirt.

"You expecting a cold front to move in this morning? You're over there layering up, and I'm sitting here seriously considering REMOVING my tshirt! You ok Johnny?"

"Yeah, nothing a cup of coffee won't cure, and maybe a nap. Kinda swallowed some water on a rescue…..think I'm still feeling the effects of that."

"Rescue? Thought you said that you worked the truck?"

"I did. But they had six, SIX Roy, cars go over into the Dominguez Channel! Can you believe that?" John blew out his breath in a frustrated sigh, and half stifled the cough that escaped him. He finished tucking his shirt in as the door swung open and their engineer, Mike Stoker, poked his head in.

"Hey, guys, roll in 5…"

"Ok, thanks Stoker," Roy replied, pushing his locker door shut with the palm of his hand and waiting for his partner to pick up his wet towel and precede him. The men followed Stoker into the bay, picking up their hats along the way. The other three men were already waiting, loosely grouped in a semicircle in front of the engine.

Captain Hammer came out of his office and joined them. He paused, looking them over, before greeting them as a group.

"Lopez, you handling the meals today? How much do we need to give you?"

"Three each will do it, Captain." The Hispanic lineman replied, holding out his hand as his crewmates reached into their wallets and handed the money to him.

"B shift used a lot of hose on their shift – Stoker, Kelly get that cleaned up, will you. Desoto, handle the day room and the bay….Gage, take the dorms. Don't think you need to change the bunks, the men never had the chance to use them. And according to the captain over at 10's, once you're done with the cleanup, Gage, YOU need to hit the sack. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir….." Gage mumbled, inadvertently turning so that the left side of his face was clearly visible for the first time to his colleagues. A collective gasp arose from the group as they saw the vivid bruising running down the side of his face from his temple down to his jawline. Roy had no doubt that the bruising continued along his arm and down his side, judging by the way his partner was absentmindedly rubbing his left arm and listing subtly to the right.

Their captain cleared his throat, folded his arms, and looked quietly around the circle. "Gage was pulling an overtime shift at 10's, when they were called out at about 10 pm for that block fire down on Lomita. Our station went out on the second alarm about 10:30 – cleanup didn't start until almost 6am, it was that bad. Gage, fill us in on your mishap."

Johnny lifted his head, but kept his eyes down as he answered, nervously pushing his hands into his front pockets. "Weeelllllll…..we were into it about three hours by then, not sure how many stations were in it by then. I was backing up a boot from 36's on a line about 200 feet into one of the buildings….he kinda lost control of the hose and went sideways….the nozzle snaked up and whacked me a good one on the face before I was able to fall on it," Gage paused and again unconsciously rubbed his arm, "and get full control of it."

He finally raised his eyes and looked at Roy, then glanced back at his captain before visibly shuddering and folding his own arms tightly across his body, mimicking Hammer's stance.

"According to Captain Smith at 36's, you did a pretty thorough job of gaining control of that wild hose and keeping their boot from serious injury. Good job, John. Now let's get to work men…."

The crew silently dispersed, shooting glances at their tired, disheveled paramedic as they did so. Mike Stoker hit the button to raise the back bay door and headed in the direction of the hose tower, stopping by Gage on his way. He laid a hand gently on the other man's shoulder and spoke softly to him, eliciting a small smile and nod from the younger man. Chet Kelly did the same, before following the lanky engineer outside.

Roy Desoto watched all of this, leaning on the front fender of their squad. As soon as his partner made a move toward the dorm, he straightened out and crossed the cement floor towards John. John immediately stopped, turned slightly and raised a stopping hand. He shook his head at Roy, smiled, and trudged out of sight around the engine.

Roy sighed and continued on into the day room. After a few minutes of clearing up the counters and large table, he smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand and loped back into the bay. After only a month of being a certified paramedic, he wasn't quite settled into the daily routine yet of the required tasks he and his partner needed to take care of at the start of every shift. It didn't make him feel any better that apparently his junior partner had forgotten also…

After the required radio check with Rampart, and checking through the medical supplies, Roy returned to the kitchen. It didn't take long to clean up the area, especially with Marco commandeering the kitchen area to begin preparations for lunch and supper. He only saw Johnny once, when the dark haired paramedic pushed the mop bucket into the kitchen, pointed mutely at it, and left. Roy moved into the bay area and swept and mopped it – after having Mike move the engine into the front driveway alongside the squad.

Two hours later Roy Desoto crept stealthily into the dorm and peered across the room, locating his partner on his bunk. John was curled up tightly on his right side, the white sheet pulled up to his chin. Desoto moved across the room to stand by the side of bed, peering down at his sleeping crewmate. He noticed the flush look of his skin, and resisted the urge to put his hand across John's forehead to check for fever.

"Don't EVEN think about doing what you are about to do," John slurred, obviously annoyed, without opening his eyes. Roy jumped back, realizing that he had been leaning slightly forward in order to locate his partner's wrist to check his pulse. He gulped and took up a defensive stance.

"And just what was I about to do?"

John finally opened his eyes and snaked both arms out from under the covers, stretching and wincing as he did so. He sat up slightly, forearms under him, and glared at the older man waiting patiently for his reply. Roy noticed that he now had the blue jacket zipped up to his chin.

"Kinda looked like you were about to play doctor on me, that's what, partner." John dropped back onto his pillow and briefly closed his eyes, before opening them again and turning his head towards Roy.

"Can you blame me? I've got all these paramedic skills just going to waste…first you tell me that you swallowed water, then I get to hear about how you got whaled on by a charged hose…combine that with no sleep, probably no food, and the fact that you look and sound like death warmed over….makes me want to utilize all of our learning and get some good practice in."

Roy smiled and relaxed his posture. He watched his partner yawn, sit up again, and untangle himself from the sheet before swinging his uniform clad legs over the side of the bed. Whatever reply John was going to make was forestalled by the klaxons going off for the first time that shift.