Losing Your Head
Disclaimer: I do not own Emergency, nor these guys who play them, though i do wish to meet them...
Rated T just becuase I am paranoid. ^_^ Enjoy.
It all happened so fast. One spark from a match undoused by water and the building was ablaze. The couple that lived in the two-story house split up, the husband running to the phone to call 911 and the wife to get as much stuff as her small arms could carry.
At station 51, it was just a regular day. It was Marco's turn to cook and he was dishing out the beef stew, giving all 6 men heartily scoops in hopes for making up missing breakfast.
The men dug in hungrily like they have not eaten in days. The firefighters were eating and talking about anything their tired minds could think of.
"Hey Marco, this beef stew is really good, and here I thought if it was chili again I was going to explode." John Gage, the younger paramedic of the two, gave a huge grin to the lineman.
"I agree with John here." Chet, the second lineman added to the statement while patting John's back.
"You know I thought you guys were mi amigos, but im starting to see your true colors." Marco joyfully added fuel to the fire.
"Okay okay, you kids should stop bickering and eat you never know when those bells will ring." Roy, the more mature and older paramedic enlightened his partner and crewmates.
His partner looked at him and rubbed the back of his head while smiling sheepishly. The rest of the crew all went back to eating and in the middle of lunch they all started to discuss what the men were going to do on their day off after this shift ended.
The tones rang throughout the station alerting the men of an emergency.
'…Station 51, house fire…2081 Barcelona Drive….20-81 Barcelona Drive Time out 14:45…'
Immediately after the tones sounded the previously full table was empty.
Captain Hank Stanley was at the intercom acknowledging the call and writing down the address.
"KMG-365" Hank barked into the mic.
Stanley ripped out the pink sheet of paper out from underneath his and handed it to Roy. The paramedic passed it along to Johnny within their small squad who told Roy where to go, while Stanley got into the cab of big red with Mike, the engineer of the crew, at its reigns.
The drive over to the scene took about two minutes with houses flying by; when they got close they could see and smell the smoke emerging from the building.
The house fire had already gotten to the bottom of the second floor by the time the station had arrived. The dark haired captain needed back-up so he contacted LA.
"L.A. We need a second alarm, the house is fully involved."
"10-4 51" More tones could be heard as engine 91 was called to the scene.
The fire captain took charge of the chaos and called his men to take an inch and a half line to the front of the house breaking down and instigating the battle of dominance of who will take control, the fire or the firemen.
"Okay Cap!" The two linemen ran off with Mike by their side starting up and making the pumps come to life giving off the water.
Just as they got to the engine they could see a man running out of the burning house coughing really hard with the soot and ash upon his face and clothes.
John ran to him and gave him some oxygen. "Hey man, its okay everything's goin' to be okay." Johnny tried to comfort the obviously distraught man.
"Please help! My wife she's still in there!" The man had coughed trying to get the smoke out of his lungs but he was still heard.
"Cap! Somebody's still in there!" Roy called out to Hank.
"Okay guys go get the gear and lifeline then go in and get her out real quick!" Stanly replied.
The two paramedics ran for their smaller engine and reached into the unlocked compartments grabbing the equipment and putting it on rapidly.
The dark haired paramedic put on the lifeline and rushed into the burning building in search of the wife, with Roy holding the rope.
John looked through the dark smoke barley able to see a couple feet in front of him, listening for the sounds of the wife screaming for help, but heard nothing other than the crackle and pop of the fire and his breathing through the tank.
He saw the stairs and rushed up to find a closed door down the hall. He put his hand on the door knob and pulled open the door and found the man's wife under a table unconscious.
Johnny grabbed the rope tailing behind him trying to gain more slack but when he pulled the rope the end came instead, still festering with red timbers and singed.
He sighed. 'Someone really should come up with a better idea then just using rope for a lifeline.' He rushed to the women and took his mask and held it over the women's face giving her some much needed oxygen.
John coughed but picked up the small women and carried her in his arms.
As he got to the stairs the fire had broken up the floor and infiltrated the smoke filled hallway causing an explosion pushing Johnny and the lady down the stairs.
He knew he was going to get hurt, but he didn't want to risk adding more damage to the women so he took all the force of the fall upon himself, twisting his body so he was falling on his back and the wife on top of him.
The amount of stairs ran out and Johnny crashed to the floor with a loud bang and the air tank attacking his back. The mask was still on the women's face with the tubing attached to the tank behind Johnny.
The paramedic coughed even harder as he got the wind knocked out of him and maybe broken some bones. He felt around…and ouch. 'Yep, they are broken all right, ugh! Is the women still okay?' Johnny looked towards the wife.
She was breathing a little harder but all in all not a newer scratch that he could see 'That's good. Damn my vision is going fuzzy. No, I have to stay focus we have to get out of here!' The dark haired man tried to focus but was feeling the after effects of the explosion and the loss of air.
The man faded into the darkness of unconscious all the while praying that the women will at least be able to make it out alive.
The women was starting to wake up but was in very much pain, she started to notice her surroundings and saw the fire closing in and that she was attached to a mask who was attached to some man she didn't know.
She took off the breathing mask and coughed. She started to crawl towards where she knew where the door was located, leaving behind the paramedic, only wanted to see her husband one more time before she died, but was stopped by a sandy haired man who was dressed in the same clothes as the man she was previously with.
Roy tried to pull the rope but only got the other end with no Johnny tied to it. The older paramedic had been feeling uneasy ever since John had went into the building, but was taught to keep his head and stay cool in any situation during the Vietnam war, but now that he had the rope in his hand and didn't see John anywhere in sight he just knew he couldn't stay where he was.
It's the action's that saved lives not standing around doing nothing. So Roy did something that he never usually did, he lost his cool, he ran into the burning building, he had to find out if his partner was okay, and to help him. 'Oh god, please be all right!'
Mike had seen the panic in Roy's eyes and alerted their captain who was about to hold him back until he could get someone to cover the paramedic, but was shocked that his most mature and level headed paramedic ran into the building that was currently engulfed in flames.
Hank knew this was bad, he knew what was going around in the older medic's head, hell the same things were swirling around in his head to, along with everyone else from their shift, they were like brothers for god's sake, but rules were rules. "Damnit! Just get him out alive, Roy." He directed the back-up station 91 to go and cover the rouge paramedic and aid him in whatever he needed.
As Roy went towards the stairs he saw someone crawling towards him, and as he got closer he assumed it was the wife of the man outside. She didn't have the mask but he saw it behind her and looked to find Johnny.
He took off his mask, picked up the woman and gave her his mask. The sandy haired man ran out and into the living room handing her off to the backup switching air masks once again and he left to go get Johnny.
He was back at the stairs a couple seconds later and reached for Johnny. "John hang in there, I got you." The dark haired paramedic started to gain consciousness at the sound of a voice.
Roy picked up the broken medic gently and rushed outside and put John on a yellow sanitary blanket by their squad, looking around for the drug box, the bio-phone and the oxygen tank.
The paramedic took off the tank on his partners back and gave him some from the portable medical one.
"Roy." Stanley firmly called his name trying to gain the worried man's attention.
"I know that Johnny and you are really close, I mean we all are, but you should have told me or someone that he was in there. I shouldn't have to be alerted by Mike who needed to concentrate on the gauges of the engine." The captain gave his lecture but ended with softening eyes.
"Good job Roy."
"Thanks." They both started to hear coughing so they looked towards the youngest member of their crew and saw him starting to wake even more.
"R…oy."
"I'm here partner, don't worry you're out of the house and the lady is perfectly safe except some smoke inhalation." The light haired man tried to quell his fears that his partner was not going to make it.
"Kay." The injured man was laying down letting the oxygen do the work, he would breathe and his lungs felt they were on fire.
Roy was on the bio-phone within a second. "Rampart this is squad 51, do you copy?" Roy was trying to mask his nervousness but his voice still quivered slightly.
"We hear you 51…" Dixie's voice came over the phone shaking Roy from his thoughts.
Roy proceeded to tell everything from the vitals to the symptoms and who it was, along with the wife's vitals and information.
Dixie paged Dr. Brackett and gave him the same information the Roy gave prior.
"Dix this could be bad. With that pressure there could be internal bleeding." Brackett turned back to the base station prescribing the appropriate treatment and asking for the ETA.
"ETA is 5 minutes Rampart." Roy's voice now sounded professional. The medic set up the correct IV and gave him the medicine, then loaded him and the wife up into the back of an ambulance.
Captain Stanley knocked on the back of the doors letting now it was all clear and the vehicle sped off towards the hospital.
"Marco, can you take their squad to the hospital?" The leader looked towards the mustached man.
"Sure Cap." The lineman ran off towards the red vehicle, driving off after the ambulance.
The rest of the crew stayed for clean up along with 91 until everyone was dismissed.
The engine crew rushed towards the hospital, they told LA that they would be 10-8 to rampart and LA acknowledged with a '10-4'.
When the crew entered through the emergency doors, they took one look at Dixie and she pointed to the doctor's lounge.
They were all worried at they would find especially when they saw Dixie just point and looked depressed. The 3 men pushed open the door; they took a nervous look in and wished they hadn't.
Roy was pacing the floor like a mad man with Marco hot on his heels trying to get him to calm down.
"Roy, it's going to be okay! You know Johnny's strong and he's been through a lot worse." Marco looked toward his captain for help.
Stanley took a deep breath and crossed the space between him and his two pacing charges.
"Roy why don't you come and sit down and tell us what's going on?" The captain put a firm hand upon the medic's shoulder and pushed him down onto the couch.
"John's in surgery…they don't know if he's going to-" Roy covered his face with his hands.
"I've got to call Joanne, she and the kids would want to know." He started to get up but was pushed back down.
"The call can wait, try to relax and get it into your head that John will be alright. Okay?" Hank Stanley looked down and was reassured by Roy already starting to get control back.
"Okay cap."
"Man I wouldn't have bet you to lose your cool like that." Chet started to laugh and everyone felt relief.
Stanly covered his face with one hand. "Oh man."
Mike, the ever stoic and quiet man began to laugh at the antics of Roy. "You know he pulled a Johnny!" The observant engineer stated in-between controlling his laughter.
Everyone cracked up including Roy and that made Mike lose what control he was building and laughed along side the crew.
They were laughing so hard they didn't notice the door opening and two very tired doctors came in going straight to the coffee.
"Would anyone like to inform two weary doctors what is so funny?" Dr. Early and Dr. Brackett looked towards each other and then towards the group of hose-jockeys.
"Roy pulled a Johnny, he ran into the building without thin-" The groups laughter died down when they realized who asked the question, and bombarded the two suspecting doctors with questions of their fallen comrade and brother.
"Doc's, how's Johnny?" Everyone was thinking it, so no one realized who said the most important question.
"Well, it will be a while till he returns back to work, but other than he's okay." The two doctors smiled and everyone else began to smile and laugh as well.
"Doc, when can we see him?" Another voice different than the last but still no one could have told you who said it, came from the group.
"Well we are currently moving him into a more stable room and he's going to be groggy because of the anesthesia but you guys can see him then." Dr. Brackett replied to the question.
"Now I really got to call Joanne!" Everyone could tell who said that as no one was married or knew another person named Joanne, except for Roy's wife. Roy rushed to the phone and told his wife the old bad news and then the good news.
Ten minutes passed and they were all allowed to go see him, the only promise was not to get him too overwhelmed.
The crew agreed and heard the doctors reply with a statement know one would have guessed, station 91 A-shift (The crew they were working with during the fire) would take the rest of station 51's shift as 91's had ended a half hour after the fire ended. The men all agreed silently to themselves that station 91 is going to get a huge thanks from them, giving up part of their off time to let the other station be with their fallen member.
They all walked into the room that held John. The recovering man was hooked up to a couple machines and an IV, but he was sitting up with the pillows behind him and his eyes half open.
"Hey John. How ya feelin' pal?" Stanly acquired of his paramedic.
"I've been better Cap, I feel like a bag of broken bones." Johnny croaked out.
Mike offered the glass of water toward John and he took many small sips of the liquid feeling relief as he felt the cold beverage go down his sore and burning throat.
"Well, we talked to Brackett, and he said that you will be back to better in no time." Hank tried to cheer up the youngest crew member.
"Thanks Cap."
"Hey guess what John!" Marco looked at the bed ridden crew mate.
"What Marco?"
"Roy here pulled a you." Marco and Chet both busted out into a fit of giggles while Stanly and Roy groaned.
"You did?" Johnny's attention was fixed solely on Roy as he looked away and rubbed the back of his head and neck not realizing that he was doing another one of John's traits.
"Yeah, I guess I did, I ran into the burning building without thinking to get you. I guess I was so worried that I did it without knowing and telling Cap." Roy during the whole speech was looking at the ground and made his way to look towards John.
When he did he saw John's dark brown eyes go wide in shock. "Thanks Roy, I owe ya one." The younger paramedic found his voice.
"Nah, you don't need to go that far, I mean you have done the same thing for me and all of us in much worse and dangerous conditions." Roy continued to look at John in the bed.
"I realized something out of all this though." The sandy haired man continued on. Nobody wanted to ruin the moment so they all kept quiet in anticipation on what he had to say.
"Staying calm all the time doesn't always get the job done, I mean sure it helps, but you have saved so many lives at the risk of your own. So if I never knew you, I probably would never had run in without thinking and told Cap first and that would have put yours and the lady's life in danger. So thank you. I'm sorry, Junior." Roy got everything off his chest that he had been pondering ever since the incident happened.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Partner. Like you said, I do it all the time. I'm glad you were there and had my back. And no permanent damage has been done and I should be back to work within two or three week's right cap?" John looked to his leader with hopeful eyes and bringing all the attention to him.
"Make it four weeks and you get yourself a maybe." Everyone had to smile at the pout on the younger's face.
"Okay….but I don't like it." Johnny agreed to the strict rules albeit unhappily.
"Get some rest Junior everyone will be here when you wake." Roy commanded softly.
"Okay." John didn't realize how tired he truly was until Roy had said something.
"Night everybody." He slowly closed his eyes and drifted off. The way he said the last comment earned him some quiet giggling from the tired crew.
The crew dispersed throughout the room, going off to take a nap along with John.
Captain Stanley took the big comfy rocking chair, Marco and Chet took the bed near John, one laying on one side and each others feet near their heads and Roy took the chair closest to John's bed. Everyone fell asleep within minutes.
Doctor Brackett and the head nurse Dixie came in and took a look around and small smiles graced their lips.
"Dix, why don't you get some blankets for our sleeping hose-jockeys?" The dark haired doctor looked towards the blonde.
"Sure Kel." Dixie left the room in search of blankets as Dr. Bracket adjusted John's medications.
As he was finishing Dixie came back her arm filled with fluffy blankets, they split up and distributed the blankets covering up the tired men, each giving their own types of sounds as thanks. Both nurse and doctor softly chuckled and left the room to check on the other patients.
Four and a half weeks later found John back with Station 51 enjoying what he and his friends and crewmates do best, saving people's lives each and every day, with unexpected happenings and incidents thrown throughout.
End.
Well, this little short one-shot was for the prompts of "Losing Your _" contest. I am still writing my other story "The Savior" so do not fret. I even have the ending written out. ^_^ This is my very first Emergency fic, so please by nice *smiles* Please review, i mean how else are you supposed to learn and get better. xD I hope to hear from everyone soon, through email or reviews and whatnot. Bye for now, i worked on this and others all day so i am tired now. LOL, so night.
Ninjapirate101 (Alessandra)