LONDON'S BURNING
Bird Patrol
Blue Watch were in hysterics at the sight of Hi-Ho running round the yard chasing a chicken which had somehow found its way to the fire station. Pearce had ordered them to get rid of it before DO Griggs arrived at the station for his weekly edition of The Spying Game.
Hi-Ho paused and looked up, realising that everyone else would rather stand around in hysterics than help him out!
Adam had the perfect excuse as he and George were called out to the West End, crewing the ALP.
The shout turned out to be a false alarm, but as the officer in charge explained, they were still checking the area. Whilst awaiting further instructions, Adam occupied himself with chatting up a female colleague.
"Heaven must be missing an angel!" he grinned.
She turned to look at him, unimpressed with his line.
"Heaven won't take me" she replied. "And Hell's afraid I'll take over! You'll have to do better than that!"
He grinned again. "I like a woman with attitude! I'm Adam by the way."
"That's nice for you."
"Do you have a name then?"
"Not one that you can use! Bye Adam!" she left him standing by the appliance.
He frowned, wondering if he was loosing his touch. Then he remembered the bird-pulling spray, which he'd put in his pocket when they got interrupted by the crash landing chicken. He was going to sell it to Hi-Ho, who had managed to prove that the stuff worked!
Back at Blackwall, DO Griggs had arrived, with his new driver, Donna Miller, who had a reputation for being a bit of a loud mouth! She had probably managed to put her foot in it with the wrong person, which was why she had landed herself the job of driving the DO around.
In the station yard, the chicken was still roaming free as Blue Watch tried to act normal.
Griggs mumbled the formalities and hurriedly disappeared to have an urgent conversation with John Coleman, not that anyone was complaining. As soon as he'd left, the Watch tried again to round up the chicken.
Donna grinned. "You guys don't have a clue do you!"
"Could you do any better!" Hyper demanded.
Hi-Ho had given up. "Maybe it will just fly away..."
"Chickens can't fly, Hi-Ho!" Hyper reminded him.
"Where's it come from?" Donna wondered.
"No idea!" Recall replied.
"It'll have a ringlet on its ankle" Donna explained. "That'll tell you."
"Do you wanna catch it to find out!" Hi-Ho asked.
Donna just rolled her eyes. Cautiously, she approached the chicken from behind and made a grab for it, scooping it up into her arms.
"What's your secret?" Recall wondered.
Donna grinned. "I grew up on a farm in Essex! I think she was on her way to the slaughter house, poor thing..." she ruffled the birds feathers.
"It'll make a good roast then..." Hi-Ho muttered.
On the shout, Adam once again tried to get the girls attention. It had surprised him how effective this cheap spray was, so much so that he'd increased the price dramatically!
He still hadn't managed to get a name out of her, but that was a minor detail.
"Is that something you're wearing?" she asked about the smell.
"Do you like it?"
"Not really, you smell like the perfume counter in a department store!"
He frowned, and then decided that, for once, he had been defeated.
She raised a smile at his pitiful look. "You know, it's times like this I'm glad I became a lesbian!"
She left him standing open-mouthed!
Donna had tried rescuing the chicken from the slaughter house, she wanted to take it back to HQ with her, but Griggs wouldn't be too happy. She'd let the chicken sit in Griggs' hat, which he'd left on the seat in his rush to speak to Coleman.
"No way will Griggs let you keep that!" Hyper pointed out.
"I know" she lifted the chicken up. "Perhaps you could find her a good home..."
Hyper didn't look impressed. "Perhaps we should just call the RSPB!"
"Hey, look!" Hi-Ho had found two eggs sitting in Griggs' hat.
He attempted to rescue them, but one of the shells cracked, oozing runny egg all over the inside of Griggs' hat!
"Ooops..." he picked up the hat to show the others.
They didn't know if they should fall about laughing, or if they should be worried about it!
"Quick, he's coming back!" Donna shoved the chicken at Hyper and grabbed the hat from Hi-Ho, which she placed on the car roof.
DO Griggs emerged from the station and was about to reach for the hat as Blue Watch held their breath, he paused on noticing the chicken in Hyper's arms.
"What is that!"
"It's um..." Hyper thought quickly. "It's our new mascot!"
The others glared at him, Griggs just gave him a strange look as Adam and George returned with the ALP.
Everyone looked at each other, in anticipation, as Griggs picked up his hat. Without looking inside, he placed it on his head...
Griggs looked round at the Watch, then made a hasty retreat back inside the station, a touch of yellow soiling the back of his perfect white collar as Adam approached the group.
They held their laughter until Griggs was out of ear shot.
"What's going on?" Adam wondered.
He couldn't get an answer out of anyone as they were all paralysed with laughter.
Donna put her hand on his shoulder. "When you don't know what's going on, Adam, just smile and pretend you do!"