Here is a possible scenario to what Roy might have been thinking and doing in the bar's parking lot after Johnny is hit by a car, until Dr. Early tells him he's going to be all right. It will follow the actions and dialogue on the show, with small extra thoughts, actions and emotions added in. From Roy and from Chet who was also waiting for news on Johnny. To me there were too many empty places that could have been filled in the episode so here is my take on what happened in those moments as well as the actual episode dialogue as close as I could transcribe it. It only covers the episode from the beginning after they leave the bar to walk to the squad until after the surgery is completed. Roughly the first 12 minutes of the show.
Seeing this episode is not required, but it helps if you are familiar with it. It comes from Emergency! Season 5 Episode 24 "The Nuisance". I do not have any working medical knowledge and tried to research what I could. I had no one to ask for answers. The treatment I wrote for Johnny from the parking lot may be wrong, but it was done with the spirit of the series in mind.
My apologies for any mistakes made medical or otherwise. This is my first story on Fan Fiction.. Enjoy
I don't own the rights to Emergency and its characters. That belongs to Mark VII Limited and Universal Home Studios Entertainment. I just claim them on loan now and then to put them in my twisted world and see how they survive my insanity.
A spaced out woman in a bar at 2:00am. What a way to be roused out of bed. Captain Stanley said they would head back to the station and get some sleep. That sounded very good to the two paramedics at the moment. They, as well as the rest of Station 51, were very tired.
"Well? What was it?" One of them had asked what they had responded to when Roy and Johnny came outside to head to the squad.
"Oh some spaced out dame." Johnny had answered them.
Roy was searching in the Biophone case for the MICU form he had asked his partner about, when he heard it. The sound of an accelerating engine was close, very close. The squeal of screeching tires. He looked up just as it happened. A small dark car heading straight for…"Oh God! Johnny!" His mind screamed. He could only watch as his partner stood frozen in the oncoming glare of headlights, then suddenly become launched into the air. Johnny landed across the hood of the car, then fell heavily to the pavement below. The drug box lay smashed and scattered around him. Roy stood there stunned, not believing the car stopped, then sped away. Someone not caring if they had injured the man they had just hit. He raced to Johnny's side as he writhed in pain on the ground. The noise of the speeding car growing fainter with every passing moment.
"You OK?" He heard himself ask his partner as his heart jumped into his throat. He put his hands on Johnny's chest trying to get him to stop moving and lay still.
"Trauma box!" He yelled out. He heard the sound of running feet behind him, growing closer and closer. The thud of the box hitting the ground beside him as Chet brought it to him.
"What the hell happened?" Captain Stanley asked as everyone started to gather around the fallen paramedic. Engineer Mike Stoker dropped to one knee and tried to straighten out Johnny's legs and feel for any broken bones.
"Johnny?" Roy called out frantically.
"Are you all right? Can you hear me?" Johnny struggled for moment as Roy tried to restrain him. "
Can you hear me?" He repeated as he forced Johnny to lie back.
"Get back." Someone said aloud. Roy kept trying to get Johnny to lay back down on the pavement, his hands gently forcing him to remain on the ground.
"Where do you hurt?" He asked the younger man.
Captain Stanley immediately got on the radio. "LA this is Engine 51. We have a Code-I at this location. Respond with an ambulance."
"My…My hip, my back, my leg." Johnny answered his voice thick with pain. Roy's heart raced as he saw the agony in his partner's dark eyes. Johnny struggled feebly to move. He groaned in pain and his jaw opened and closed, his eyes staring at nothing. He seemed to be stunned. Roy kept trying to keep his partner still. He looked over at the ruined drug box and knew there was nothing he could do to ease his friends pain. He wondered how long it would take for the ambulance to get there. Time was always the factor on whether a patient would survive an accident or not. Roy was hoping inside that in this instance, it would not be against them. He willed it to get there quickly.
He asked for the Biophone and it was brought to him within seconds. He flipped it open and secured the antenna.
"Rampart, this is squad 51. How do you read me?" Silence, he swore under his breath and tried again.
"Rampart, this is squad 51. How do you read me? He repeated, his anxiety growing as there was no answer on the line, then…
"Squad 51. Read you loud and clear. Go ahead."
"Rampart, we have a hit and run victim. Male. Twenty six years old. He is complaining of hip, back, and leg pain. He is conscious but in a tremendous amount of pain.""
"Squad 51 what are his vital signs?" The familiar and welcome voice of Dr. Early came over the airwaves. Roy started a blood pressure reading, as well as a pulse and respiration.
"Rampart BP is 130 over 70, pulse 120 and rapid. Respiration 15."
"51 start an IV with Lactated Ringers solution. Add 20mgs of MS to IV for the pain."
"Negative Rampart. Drug box was destroyed. I have no sterile supplies in which to treat patient."
"Destroyed? 51, how did that happen?"
"Rampart…" Roy hesitated. "Victim was carrying said box when he was struck by a car moving at a high rate of speed." Dr. Early paused with his finger on the transmission button. He recognized the voice on the other end of the line as Roy DeSoto's which meant…Gage?
"Roy?…Johnny?" He didn't want the answer he knew he'd get.
"10-4." That affirmative told Dr. Early the identity of the victim.
"Is there an ambulance on route?"
"That is affirmative Rampart. It should be here any time now."
"Stabilize the patient as best you can and transport as soon as possible 51. I'll be standing by with a trauma room ready to receive him."
"10-4, Rampart." Roy put the phone down and turned to give his injured partner and best friend all of his attention.
Dr. Early told the nurse to have a surgical emergency room standing by. He wanted to have everything ready when the ambulance arrived with John Gage inside. He wondered how badly John had been hurt. Roy was as calm cool and as always on the Biophone transmitting to Rampart and there was no hint of panic in his voice, but that didn't meant it wasn't bad. Roy called out for someone to bring him the backboard and a C-collar. He didn't know who had ran back to get them for him. He just heard the echo of their feet as they ran back to his side. He continued to talk to Johnny as he eased the collar around his neck and secured it. Johnny tried to raise up a few more times, but Roy gently pushed him down into staying where he was.
He asked for them to help him carefully get Johnny out of his gear and put him on the backboard and secure him. He talked to Johnny telling him what they were going to do and preparing him for the moves. He had done it hundreds of times with other patients, but now it seemed even more important. He wasn't only reassuring Johnny, he was reassuring himself and everyone around him. He held his breath as they turned Johnny and started to remove his turnout jacket, boots and trousers so they could place him on the backboard without the weight of the protective gear on his body. Once removed, they moved him just enough to slide the board underneath him. He responded with a low painful moan as they rolled him onto the backboard, then flat onto the ground.
Someone, maybe Kelly or Lopez draped a yellow emergency blanket over him to cover him up since was only left with his under clothes on and to try to keep him warm. They secured the straps across him. He wanted it tight enough to keep Johnny from moving around, but not wanting to cause further damage to the hurting fireman. Roy stayed in a crouch beside his partner and continued to talk to him. He was hoping he would manage to remain conscious. Johnny seemed to fade in and out, but always tried to respond to the sound of his partner's voice.
Finally after what seemed to be an eternity, the shrill blare of the sirens, cut the stillness of the night. The ambulance finally arrived. Officer Vince Howard directed the ambulance to the location and waved them in.
"Ok, that's good." He raised his hand to tell the driver to stop.
"You got it?" Captain Stanley asked.
"Yeah." Replied the ambulance attendant who was opening the doors to retrieve the gurney.
"Can you guys make it OK there?" Roy asked the others who were surrounding Johnny waiting to load him up. As the attendants rolled out the gurney the others had lifted the backboard, Johnny groaned.
"Straight on the gurney?" The captain asked. The attendant nodded. Carefully they lowered him onto the awaiting gurney. Roy watched for a moment, then shook himself out of his thoughts.
"I'll put this stuff in." He walked to the back of the ambulance and loaded it with the equipment that had received no damage. He wanted everything to move faster, but knew they had to take their time as not to injure Johnny any further. Roy again wondered how bad it was.
"OK Chet." Captain Stanley called out, waving to Kelly to get his attention.
" Get the squad in, pal." He wanted to let him know he was going to drive the squad behind the ambulance. Roy walked back to where his partner lay and asked him.
"How you feeling?"
"Um…I'm trying to think of something funny, but I hurt too much.' Johnny replied. Roy had to hide a grin, leave it to Johnny to want to find something goofy to say at a time like this.
"All right, well, take it easy, hang in there." Roy told him. Johnny's response was another moan in pain as they wheeled him to the ambulance and placed him inside. Roy could only watch as the attendants, Vince and Captain Stanley loaded Johnny inside for his trip to Rampart Hospital.
Marco grabbed Johnny's helmet and stacked it on top of his turnout gear, and carried it to the engine. They had already cleaned up the debris from the destroyed drug box and put it in the side of the squad to take care of later. With a quick look around to see if there was anything he'd forgotten, he climbed into the back of the ambulance to tend to his partner.
Captain Stanley grabbed his HT and spoke into it. "LA, Engine 51, squad 51, 10-8 to Rampart." "Engine 51" Replied the familiar voice of the dispatcher. As Captain Stanley turned, he picked up his helmet from off the ground. Shakily he put it back on. He jogged back to the engine, passing Kelly on his way, who was waiting anxiously in the squad. He paused long enough to shut the still open side doors where there medical supplies were normally kept. They had been left open when Chet had hurriedly grabbed the trauma box out of it to give to Roy. Kelly was sitting in the driver's seat of the squad, preparing to follow the ambulance which held his friend. Chet watched the ambulance door shut and put the truck into gear. He was ready to go. The ambulance, sirens blaring, shot out of the parking lot quickly. Heading to Rampart , as fast as it could with squad 51 on its heels.
Roy sat on the bench beside Johnny and continued to talk to him. He didn't care that most of the replies were short moans of pain. Hearing that, let Roy know, Johnny was still with him. Still with him, meant still alive. Right now that was all Roy wanted. He stared at his friend's face and wondered just how badly he was hurt. Johnny had struggled to get up at first, but as the minutes waiting for the ambulance ticked by, he became more and more compliant with Roy's wishes that he lay still. That in itself was worrisome. Johnny was not the easiest man in the world to have as a patient. Seeing him strapped down to a board and not able to move and not even protesting at his being restrained, told Roy volumes on how much he was hurting. He wanted to do something, he wanted to help Johnny, but all he was able to do was sit beside his friend. Sit beside him and be ready in case something went wrong in the ambulance.
He was not the most religious of men, but a short prayer sped through his mind as he continued to monitor his best friends vitals and talk to him. He tried to do everything he could to keep Johnny as awake and alert as he could. The ride to the hospital was almost as agonizing for Roy as it was for a pain riddled Johnny. It seemed like it was hours, not mere minutes before they pulled up to Rampart's Emergency doors. Johnny was quickly being taken through the Emergency Room doors to where people were waiting to take care of him. Roy didn't look at anyone around him as he walked beside the gurney and tried to reassure Johnny and himself that everything was going to be OK. Johnny's eyes fluttered open at the sound of his friends voice and tried to turn his head in Roy's direction. The C-collar made it impossible for him to turn his head and he stared up at the ceiling as the tiles sped by.
"R…R…Roy?" He croaked out. He struggled slightly against the straps that were keeping him confined to the backboard.
"It's all right, Junior. Lie still. I'm right here with you all the way." Comforted by his friends voice, Johnny closed his eyes and tried to shut out the pain.
Dr. Early stepped into the hallway and directed the attendants to the room where he would examine the injured paramedic. Roy followed along with him. He had went this far with Johnny, he wouldn't leave him now. Roy, the two attendants, and Dr. Mike Morton carefully transferred the backboard from the gurney to the examination table. Roy, Morton, and nurse carefully began to undo the straps from the backboard and threw the yellow blanket to the floor. Roy helped cut Johnny out of the last of his clothes and discard them. The nurse draped Johnny with a sheet. He must have been out of it, because there was no flush of embarrassment nor a sly comment about being handled by a pretty nurse. Johnny's brow furrowed in pain and he didn't seem to truly be aware of what was happening to him.
The light above the examining table seemed extra bright as Johnny tried to focus on it. He felt the stab of the needles in his arms as an IV was established in right arm. The nurse drew blood samples out of his left arm. He was aware of two other pair of hands checking him for injuries. He heard the familiar voice of Dr. Joe Early instructing the nurse as to what he wanted.
"Type and cross, hematocrit and CBC. Tell the lab it's a rush." The nurse nodded.
"And find out where that x-ray unit is." She turned and hurried out of the room. Dr. Morton put on the BP cuff and started a vitals check on Johnny. "Mike, you see this bruise?" Joe gestured to the large ugly purple bruise on the left side of Johnny's abdomen. Dr. Morton nodded as he looked at the angry bruise that filled up most of the injured mans side.
"Johnny?" Dr. Early called out to the young man trying to get his attention.
"Johnny. Can you here me?"
"I…I…I…"
No other words seemed to form off his lips as his vision blurred and he fought to stay conscious. He stared into the exam light above him. He watched it blur heavily out of focus before redefining its sharp glare into his eyes once again as he started to come too.
"Johnny? Johnny. Can you hear me?" Joe repeated, hoping to urge a response out of the paramedic. A moan and another attempt at speaking was his response.
"I…"
"BP's down, 90 over 60." Dr, Morton reported to the doctor across from Johnny.
"He's gonna go out on us."
"Piggyback a Plasmite." Joe ordered.
"I'll do it." Roy offered. He was still standing in the room, momentarily forgotten. He watched them worriedly as they examined his partner. He stepped toward them to assist.
"Right over there." Morton said as he pointed to the table behind Roy. Roy turned around and grabbed the bag and tubing and stepped around to the right of Dr. Early to get the ordered solution into Johnny's IV line.
"That hurt? Joe asked as he tapped on various places on Johnny's upper body. Johnny's answers were groans of pain. Morton bent Johnny's left leg up to check for pain in his hip and then began tapping down Johnny's left leg to the foot with a reflex hammer for responses. Johnny's moans of pain increased as the on hands examinations increased.
His breathing seemed to be labored and he sounded like he was fighting for every breath. Dr. Early leaned down, his left hand planted on the table beside Johnny's head.
"Johnny? Does your right shoulder hurt?" He asked. Johnny groaned again as he fought to answer him.
"No." He answered as he slightly shook his head.
"How about the other one?" Johnny's eyes darted around as if he was looking for the answer as he thought about it.
"Ye…yeah, a little. My leg hurts." He complained.
Joe stood up and faced Roy. If he ruptured his liver or spleen, he'd be experiencing pain right in this area, near the collarbone." He reached over with his right hand and placed it on the front of his left shoulder. Physically showing Roy where the pain would be located. Roy looked at him, then down at Johnny.
"With blunt trauma to the abdomen, it could be either." Joe told him.
The door opened and in came the x-ray unit. Roy threaded the bag of solution around the front of Dr. Early so he could hang it next to the other IV bag on the pole, knowing he wouldn't be able to stand there holding it while John was being x-rayed.
"Get a film of the pelvis and tibia, chest film, abdominal and skull series and a lateral C spine." Joe ordered He wanted a full work up of pictures on the young man.
"Let's go, Mike." He said to Dr. Morton as he headed toward the door. Roy finished hanging the IV and followed moments behind them.
Chet Kelly was standing right outside the door, concern of Johnny's injures on his face. He would rather die than let his 'Pigeon' knew how he really felt about him, but anytime Johnny was hurt, Chet's real feelings always seemed to come out. He spotted Dr. Early coming out of the room where they had taken Johnny.
"Hey, Doc, how is he? He asked breathlessly.
"He's hanging in there. I'll know better when I see the films." Joe turned and headed down the hall away from Johnny.
Chet looked after him, then noticed Roy had joined him out in the hall. He had just come from inside the room. Chet noticed that Roy looked worried and exhaled the breath he had been holding as he walked out of Johnny's room.
"Hey he's going to be all right." Chet offered, trying to reassure Roy as well as himself.
"Nothing can hurt Johnny." He exclaimed.
"Yeah." Roy answered softly, wanting to believe it.
"What a dumb way for it to happen though, you know? Getting a call out in the middle of the night for some spaced out dame." Chet pondered out loud, almost not believing it could happen that way.
If he hadn't seen it with his own two eyes, he wouldn't have believed. He let out a sigh and shook his head, still not sure that it was all real. Roy hit Chet's right arm with his left hand and gave him a pained half smile.
"It's gonna be all right." He told him, trying to reassure them both about Johnny. He smiled again as he nodded. Chet nodded in return.
"Yeah." Roy turned toward the door, then looked back at Chet who rapped his knuckles softly on the door.
Roy turned away, concern returning to his weary features. It had to be all right. Chet stood there awkwardly for a few more minutes seeing the obvious distress in Roy's face. It was serious and he knew if Roy was worried then he should be too. That accident had looked terrible from a distance and he couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for Roy to have been so close to his partner and unable to stop what happened. Or for Johnny who had stood there, seeing the car coming straight for him and not being able to get out of the way in time.
Dr. Early returned a short time later with x-rays in hand and went into Johnny's room. He put them up and turned on the light. He stared intently at them, determining the extent of the damage to Johnny's legs.
"Fractured right tibia and fibula." He declared.
"Is it bad?" Roy asked.
"No. Under the circumstances, it could be a lot worse. It's a stable fracture" Dr. Early headed over to where Johnny was still lying. The sound of the BP cuff cutting the silence as Dr. Morton rechecked his vitals. Joe leaned into him and told him about the injury to his leg.
"Johnny, you got a fractured tibia and fibula." Johnny's body seem to react and his body shivered, his breathing growing rapid.
"Doc? My belly is really starting to h…hurt me a lot."
"BP is 90 over 60. He's diaphoretic." Dr. Morton announced.
"It's really beginning to kill me."
The rise and fall of his chest was moving faster and faster and it sounded like he was fighting for every breath. Joe looked over at Dr. Morton.
"He may have serious inter-abdominal bleeding. Looks like he's going into shock. Let's get him into a g-suit and alert OR for an emergency lap."
Both doctors moved away from the table to get to work on what they were going to do to stabilize their patient. Johnny's labored breathing seemed louder and Roy could only watch as his friend suffered. His black hair plastering to his head as sweat poured from him. He again stared at the light above him. He didn't notice Roy take several steps toward him. Roy was powerless and all he wanted to do was help him. He wanted to go and tell him that he was going to be all right. Roy knew he couldn't. How could he tell Johnny that he was going to be all right, when he wasn't sure himself?
A few moments later and the two doctor's were back. Again Morton checked Johnny's blood pressure.
"BP 100 over 60." He called out.
"Six units of blood. We'll get him up to OR right away. Tell the nurse to make the arrangements, all right Mike?"
"Mmm-hmm." He said in acknowledgement and quickly went to tell the nurse Dr. Early's orders as to the status of John Gage and the need for surgery.
Once out of the room, Roy stepped up to the table and looked down at his partner, his friend. He noticed Johnny's breathing was still heavy and rapid, and his body covered in a sheen of sweat. He had never seen Johnny look so weak and hurt as he did right then. It was the most un-Johnny like look he had ever laid eyes on. Roy was scared, but he didn't want John to know that.
"Well…hang in there." He said softly, trying to smile.
"Oh yeah. Both hands." Johnny managed a grin of his own. He looked up at Roy trying to convey to him, he would do all he could to survive. Roy had to push back the urge to lay his hand on his friend's forehead and tell him just how much he meant to him. There would be time to tell him later. Roy had to believe that. He stayed with his friend until the they came to take him up to OR. With no where to go, he wandered the hallways. He stopped at the phone and stared at it. He figured he should call and tell the others about Johnny's condition and that he was off to surgery.
Chet had left the hospital with the engine, when it was called out to respond to a house fire. The squad remained where Chet had parked it, beside the entrance to the ER. It was so Roy could make his way back to the station when he finished his wait at the hospital. Captain Stanley had made sure Roy was able to stay at the hospital with his partner by having him out of service. Several nearby Stations were covering until 51 could find a replacement to fill in for the injured John Gage. 51 would not be able to go out until there were two available paramedics on shift. The Captain knew until Roy knew Johnny's condition, he would be in no shape to work.
He wanted to call Joanne, but he didn't know what to tell her. He didn't know how to tell her that his best friend might be dying. She would be angry that he hadn't called her sooner, but he had been to focused on Johnny's well being to remember to call her.
"She's very fond of him and I know if I call her, she'll want to come down and wait with me. I don't want her to have to do that, especially since I don't even know if Johnny will even be coming out of that operating room." He thought.
Roy shook his head. He didn't want to even let that thought stay in his mind. He didn't want to believe that Johnny wasn't going to make it through this. He remembered everything they had gone through in the last five years and how many times they had been hurt. This was the worst injury Roy could think of that ever happened to Johnny. Why did that car speed up? Why did it just run him over like he was nothing? Why the hell didn't the driver stop? Why? Why? Why? So many damn why's. He tried to calm himself down. He wouldn't be any good for anything if he continued to wind himself up with questions he didn't have answers for.
He paced, he sat down, he tried to remain calm. Finally he found himself sitting at the table in the staff lounge waiting for word on his friend. He knew he would never be the same if something happened to Johnny. Life would never be the same. His heart would never be the same. Johnny meant more to him than he realized and watching him lay on the ground on pain, nearly broke him. He didn't want to lose Johnny.
Up in the OR, the only constant sound was the heart monitor. It let everyone in the room know he was still with them. Put under and deeply asleep, his surgery began.
"Are we ready?" Dr. Early asked all of the staff in the OR with him. Heads nodded.
"Ready." Replied Dr. Morton, who was there to assist.
"All right. Let's do it."
"Mmm-hmm." Came the reply. Dr. Early began the incision to open up the man lying on the table. To find out what was happening inside his body. "Clamp." Joe called out. The nurse handed him one after another as he put them in to stop any bleeding that might occur.
"Aha. There's blood in there, all right. I wonder where it's coming from?" Morton exclaimed as he looked down to see an alarming amount of blood pooled into Johnny's abdomen.
"Give me some suction. We'll look around." Early replied. Morton grabbed a suction tube and placed inside the incision and began draining the blood away to get a better view.
"Hmm." Morton said as he kept up the suction so Early could find where the blood was coming from.
"He's got a splenic rupture, Mike. We'll have to take it out." Dr. Morton nodded in agreement.
"All right." The tray beside them filled with used clamps and bloody gauze as they continued to work at removing Johnny's badly damaged spleen. Without words the nurses continued to hand the doctors the clamps and tools needed to complete the surgery.
Finally it was removed and Johnny was stitched up inside and out. Letting out a deep breath once Johnny had been wheeled off to recovery, Dr. Early removed his mask. He thanked Dr. Morton and the rest of the surgical staff for a successful surgery and left in search of Roy. He knew Roy would still be there, waiting for word on his partner. He asked a nurse if she had seen him anywhere. She shook her head no. She hadn't seen the weary and drained paramedic anywhere. Dr. Early made his way into the staff lounge and pushed open the door.
He found a worried and exhausted Roy DeSoto sitting at the table sipping on a cup of coffee. He rubbed his nose out of habit and walked toward Roy. The sound of the door opening caused Roy to look up in it's direction and saw Joe heading toward him.
"How is he?" He asked, trying not to sound as frightened as he felt.
"He looks good, Roy." Roy's entire body sags with relief as a tired sigh escaped him.
"Here…Some coffee?" Roy smiled as he slid the cup in Joe's direction. The first genuine smile crossed his face since the whole event commenced so many hours ago.
"Thanks." Joe replied as he took a drink from the cup. Roy looked at him across the table and told him what he had been thinking for the last several hours.
"I was really worried." Joe set the coffee down and leaned on the table with folded arms.
"The orthopedist will set his leg now, then he's on his way to the recovery room."
"Hmm. How long's he gonna be laid up?"
"Well in a week or so we'll have him in a wheelchair. Then we'll try and get him on his feet." Roy rested his face on his raised right arm. He felt tired and used his arm to hold himself up.
"I guess that could be close to about two weeks, then, huh?" He calculated.
"Maybe?" Joe answered. Roy still had a concerned look etched on his face.
"Look. We both know what kind of paramedic John is. Now we'll see what kind of a patient he is." That caused Roy to chuckle. There were just too many possibilities to what kind of patient John Gage could be.
