I'm a little nervous because this is my first Emergency! story. I have the other half that I will upload the other half tomorrow. Pinky swear.


"This is Halloween," Natalie Brisk sang to herself, taking her broom and sweeping at some of the fallen leaves along the sidewalk.

Her knee length black dress fell to the top of her black buckled boots. The cool wind snaked through her corn colored hair and plated with the tip of her cone shaped hat. And Natalie enjoyed all of it. She enjoyed the feel of the night air that danced along as if it were joining in her happiness.

LA County in October looked no different than in August, except for there were cooler nights around Halloween and into November.

"Ghouls and goblins and witches too," she laughed as she danced with her broom, leaves kicking up around her ankles.

Her pointed hat nearly fell of her head but Natalie caught it. This was her night, her time. With a swinging beat playing in her head, she danced along the sidewalk, regardless of the parents and children across the street watching her.

"Tonight is the night, wait and see, for the dead will rise and the monsters will creep."

"MEOW!" A cat was heard over Natalie's head.

Her joy turned to confusion, which made Natalie look around while holding her broom close to her. The fading light proved impossible to see anything, well anything that didn't move. But something did move. Up on a high branch of a tree nearby it was a cat, a black cat no less.

"Kitty, kitty- kitty." She called looking up at it. "How did you get up there?"

"Meow, me-uff," the cat sneezed.

"Oh you silly cat, how are you going to get down?"

"Meow," it offered.

"Climb the tree in my dress? This is the only dress I have for the party. And my hat?! It was given to me by a very handsome man." She tugged on the brim a little.

"Me- uff," the cat sneezed again.

"Okay, okay. If you inist I suppose I can climb up there. Just let me put these down."

Finding a safe spot to park her broom and to put her hat next to it, Natalie looked up at the cat. It was a good ways up there, more towards the top of the tree if she had to guess. Natalie took in a deep breath and reached for the lowest branch that could get to. Pulling herself up to the next branch was a little hard, but after that it became a little easier. But only by a marginal amount.

"I should have worn some pants." Natalie said yanking her hem free from a branch.

Regardless that her nice dress was getting more holes in it than a wedge of Swiss cheese, Natalie continued on up the tree. She ignored the sway of it, where the wind pushed and pulled the tree back and forth. But it really did start to pick up once she got towards the middle of the tree.

"Okay, you can stop now." Natalie told the wind. When it did settle somewhat she sighed, pressing her cheek to the rough bark. "Thank you."

The cat meowed again, this time closer to the top of the tree. It had made little to no sound at all when it did move that Natalie wasn't aware at all. Which was hard to believe.

"Oh you darn cat." She grumbled trying to dodge falling leaves that were hitting her face. "Stop that or I'll climb back down. I mean it, Cat."

"Meowf."

Groaning, Natalie kept on climbing. The more she climbed the more holes she got in in her dress. It was just a dress, she told herself as she untangled it again from the fingers of another branch.

"Meow, meow-f." This time the cat was below her.

"What?"

One foot on on branch, her right hand reaching for another, Natalie hear a cracking sound and the next moment she was falling.


"What's your kids doing tonight?" Firefighter paramedic John Gage asked his partner.

Roy DeSoto shrugged at first. "This year I am glad I work this shift. My mother in law is having a party over at our place tonight after the trick or treating is done."

John laughed, knowing just how judgmental Roy's mother in law was. He'd been around for her to have a jab at him as well.

"What's your girls doing tonight, Cap?" Roy looked at the other married man with kids in Station 51.

"A Halloween dance at their school. My wife is a chauffer for the event." The Captain answered from his spot at the day room table. He'd been nursing the same cup of coffee and newspaper puzzle for the last half hour.

"You know, they say a lot of weird stuff happens on Halloween night." John mentioned.

"Who says that?" Lineman Chet Kelly asked as he and Engineer firefighter Mike Stoker cleaned the dinner dishes.

"Halloween brings out the crazies. Drunks, a few hit and runs, I've heard the police answer calls for paranormal activity from said drunks."

"Gage you are," Chet started to say but was interrupted by the Klaxons sounding off over head.

"Engine 51, Squad 51, woman stuck in tree." The dispatcher gave the name of a street near a cross street but no real address to say.

"That's near the cemetary on 12th street. It's almost rural out there." John told Roy as they began pulling out of the station.

"It's also next to that old house owned by that old woman everyone says is a witch." Roy added. "She has all those parties around the year. I bet she thinks it's Halloween all year around."

"At least she keeps the bushes trimmed." John said.

With their sirens blaring, the squad led the way for the Big Red engine, whose own sirens wailed in their wake. Many people moved their cars out of the way, required by law but some needed a little reminder.

Yet that was all the trouble the men of Station 51 had getting to the scene. It was the trouble of getting the person out of the tree that meant more trouble for them.

"Looks like the entire cemetary showed up." John pointed to the gathered crowd.

"Looks that way." Roy agreed with his partner's description of the scene.

A lot of the spectators were gray skinned, pale or had various applied fake injuries to them. It was like looking at a frozen screen of the John Romero Night of the living Dead movie. With make up kits now accessable to the everyday people who wanted realistic injuries. It was the woman at the head of the pack, flanked by someone with pointed ears and the other resembling Igor that caught John's attention the moment he got out of the Squad.

"What the issue here." Vince the cop asked, having just arrived himself.

"It's her." The old woman pointed up at largest tree between the woman's property and the old cemetary. "My cat climbed up there and I assumed the girl thought he couldn't get down. The dear went up, got close to the top and fell somehow." The woman said as she petted the cat in her arms.

"We're going to need harnesses and a ladder, Cap." Roy stated.

"Right." Hank answered.

"And I'll do the climbing. That tree is tall and thin, much like me." John said.

"I'll call it in on the BioPhone." Roy said.

Chet and Marco Lopez, the other lineman, got the adjustable ladder off the side of the engine. Mike stayed with the truck since he was the engineer for the station. John also headed for the Squad to get the rescue harnesses.

"She's on a few branches that don't look like they can hold much more weight." Captain Hank told the paramedics.

"That means no on the stokes. I'll have to attach a harness to her and climb down with her." John said as he looked up at the woman.

"She had to climb up there. There's no other way she'd gotten up there." Roy said.

Having gotten their things together, John and Roy to the bottom of the tree. Chet and Marco had steadied the ladder for John to climb up.

The woman was face down, her blond hair creating a curtain so John couldn't see her face. She was sprawled out along three branches, one across her chest, hips and leg. The other leg was dangling off the tree, which caused her body to rock.

"I hope that girl is okay. She was coming to my party, you know." The old woman said near where Roy was standing. "She was supposed to be a fresh face in our old group."

"So you know her?" He asked.

"Of her, yes. Quite gifted and lively. She has a magic about her, compassion. Heals a great many ills. Don't you think, young man?"

Roy looked at the gray haired woman with the palest blue eyes he'd ever seen. For a moment Roy couldn't say anything because he was drawn to this old woman somehow.

"Hey Roy, she's waking up!" John's yell broke the spell the woman seemed to have over Roy.