D-Day

These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise when I'm done to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.

"And this too, shall pass." Abraham Lincoln.

Let's take a moment and step back in time to see what Roy and his shift mates went through day of his final divorce from Joanne.

Chapter 1

"Roy, will you please talk to me?" Johnny said as he followed Roy around the squad.

It seemed that no matter what direction the senior paramedic took Johnny managed to cut him off at the pass, "I don't want to talk about it."

Johnny threw his hands up in the air. He knew that Roy was upset this week and he had tried for days to get him to talk about it but to no avail. The last shift he was quiet the whole time and for Johnny it was the longest shift on record. He came to work today determine to get it out of him. Whatever it was, anger, joy, sadness or even regret he knew that Roy had to talk about it.

Roy dodged him one more time, opened up the hood of the squad then proceeded to bury his whole body in it.

"Roy, will you stop for just a minute and talk to me?"

He looked up, "Johnny, I can't talk about it right now alright. It's just," he hesitated. "Too hard."

Johnny leaned on the end of the squad, "I know this divorce has been hard on you but the final day is Friday. I thought that after work we could go camping for a couple of days.

Roy finished the tinkering under the hood that didn't need to be done in the first place but it kept him busy. "I have the kids this weekend." The guys at the station had been nothing but fully supportive through all the Joanne issues he had but this week they were about to kill him with kindness. Why couldn't everyone just act normal?

With a deep sigh Johnny moved out of the way as he dropped the hood back down. He followed his partner into the day room just thankful that the shift was almost over at this point. He'd tried for twenty four hours to get the man to vent. Even an outburst of anger would have been good at this point but the quiet man remained subdued and quiet. It wasn't like Roy to hold stuff in for this long with Johnny usually able to get it out of him one way or another.

Johnny sat down next to Marco after fixing himself a cup of coffee. They looked up to see Hank stick his head in the door, "Roy, my office."

Great, Roy thought. First he had to deal with his partner nagging him all shift. Now the Captain wanted to quiz him. He stepped in the office, "Wanted to see me Cap?"

"Close the door Roy," Hank said as he leaned back in his chair.

Never a good sign.

"I just wanted to take a minute and see how you are doing this week Roy?"

"I'm good Cap," Roy wasn't going to elaborate if not required to.

Hank tapped his fingers on his desk. Roy wasn't going to make this easy was he? "I know this week is final papers right?"

"Yes," Roy hung his head down. Please don't ask me how I feel about it.

Hank sat up in his chair and leaned forward, "I'm not going to ask how you feel because I'm sure Gage has worked hard enough on that issue to last the rest of the month."

Roy shot him a smile. Their Captain knew them very well.

"But I do want you to know that my office door is open if you need to talk about it. No one expects this to be easy for you but we are family here Roy."

Roy stood up and shook his hand, "I know Cap, thanks. I'm dealing with it. One more shift and it will be in the past."

The next shift came and Johnny found Roy in the locker room with a big smile on his face. "Feeling better?" He asked him.

Chet walked past him, "Happy D-day pally!" Chet's view had never changed, good riddance to she who walked out on all of them that night.

"D-day?" Johnny asked as he buttoned up his uniform shirt.

Chet was proud of himself, "Divorce day Johnny. Today is the day for ole Roy here to become one of us single men again."

Johnny shot a little look to his partner to see how he was handling Chet's enjoyment of this day. He couldn't even get him to talk about it so he feared the open celebration might send him over the edge.

Roy just smiled, "Thanks Chet." He pulled open his locker and was immediately doused with a huge water balloon right in the middle of his chest. Roy stared at his locker, swished his tongue around in his mouth a bit then silently unbuttoned his home shirt to put on his work uniform.

Johnny just froze. He was so acutely trained to the 'click' of the mechanism that he knew in that fraction of a second before it hit him. He shot a completely dark brown eyed glare over to Chet who just shrugged and looked as surprised as everyone else. "Chet," Johnny growled through his teeth. This was NOT the day to play practical jokes on Roy.

Roy turned as he buttoned up his dry shirt. "Ya know Chet I did take a shower before I left home this morning," he said with a half smile.

He finished tying his shoes and stood up. Closing his locker door he was almost a little jealous. He had tried for a week to help his best friend feel better and nothing had worked. Now two days off and he seemed over it?

"Roy honest. The phantom wouldn't hit you on a day like today." Chet said as he pulled on his pants over his boxers.

Johnny just shook his head as he tied his shoes. But it was Marco's laughter that made them both turn around. They looked over to see Chet struggling to button up his pants but the metal clasp was a good two inches from even meeting.

"Chet what exactly did you do on your days off buddy?" Johnny laughed.

Chet frowned as he continued to pull and pull and pull with the clasp getting no closer together. "Uh, nothing special. Why won't this." He looked up to see Hank come through the room to announce roll call coming up soon.

Hank watched the curly headed man and just shook his head. "Kelly, am I going to have to put you on a diet?"

Chet's jaw hung open with disbelief, "No Cap. I swear these fit last shift."

Mike slapped him on the shoulder, "No more pizza buffet's for you pally."

Hank stood with his hands on his hips, "I've got a box of new pants to divvy out to the shifts. You can borrow one of those until you can let those out some." Hank just grinned as he left the room for his office.

Chet pulled off the highly annoying pants. "It was that stupid dry cleaners." He reached in for his shirt and slipped it on as he continued to complain. "You know one time they turned my shirt purple? Now explain how that happens?" He pulled the front of the shirt together and paused in his babbling as the buttons didn't want to come together. "What the?"

Johnny was loving every minute of it as he sat down on the bench for the show, "Geeze Chet what have you been eating?"

Chet tugged and pulled and finally got the top three buttons done but the bottom was there was just no way it was going to happen. Marco and Mike were laughing at his frustration and inability to dress himself today. That was okay. "Here, this one I washed myself, it will be fine." He quickly took off the too little one and slipped on the new one before Hank got back but immediately found the same problem.

Chet looked over to Roy, "Hey man, do you have a spare shirt?"

Roy shook his head, "I don't know Chet. If the phantom gets me again then I won't have anything to wear."

Chet shook his head quickly, "No phantom for you today. I promise to tell him. Hurry before Cap gets back. He'll kill me if he has to go back for a shirt too."

Roy reached into his locker and pulled out a shirt, tossing it to Chet just as Hank walked back in.

"Okay, here but get them back to me by the end of the shift." He looked at Chet putting on a shirt, "Don't tell me that doesn't fit either."

"No, Cap. It's fine, see?" He easily buttoned up Roy's shirt with a big smile as he took the pants and then put them on.

Hank looked around the room and just sighed at the crew he had to deal with today. Something was up; he could feel it in the air. Great, he thought. As he walked out he saw Roy wringing out his shirt in the sink and just took another deep breath. Sometimes it was like going from his kids at home to his kids at work.

He had a bad feeling that this was not the last of the phantom for the shift.