Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Emergency. They belong to the people who created them and the actors who played them. The other characters may be loosely based on existing characters but that's just because I couldn't help myself. I'm still not making any money on this and borrowing the characters briefly before returning them relatively unharmed.
Susanne
AN: This is a plot that I shared with emom. I'm waiting to see what she does with the general idea but I had to start posting my version. I'm looking forward to seeing the differences.
CHAPTER ONE
It was a beautiful spring day in Los Angeles County. It was nice enough that fireman/paramedic Roy DeSoto had the top down on his little convertible. The blond haired man hummed along with the radio while his thumbs tapped out the beat on the steering wheel.
It wasn't very often that Roy got to spent time alone in his car. Usually he had to drive his wife's car because Joanne and one or both of the kids rode with him on his days off. The convertible was primarily his car for driving to work and back. Today, however, Joanne was out visiting a sick friend and both of the kids were in school. That left him all alone, cruising the vaguely familiar streets.
The streets were vaguely familiar in that he'd planned his trip with a city map. Joanne's birthday was coming up. Rather than running out to the store the day before, which he frequently did, Roy had decided on a specific present. He had a good two weeks before the actual birthday but the present he wanted may have to be made so he wanted to get a jump on things.
Roy spared a glance at the map folded on the seat beside him. He should have taken the time to write the directions out. Trying to figure out where he was on the map while driving wasn't one of his more brilliant ideas. Sighing, Roy put the map down and went back to humming. During his shift yesterday at Station 51, Roy had phoned every jeweller in the yellow pages. He had a very specific gift in mind.
While Joanne was growing up her grandmother had worn a heart shaped pendant. Her grandfather had given it to her on their first anniversary. Joanne had always hoped that her grandmother would pass it down to her when she was done with it. Unfortunately, during the move from her grandmother's house to the nursing home, the chain and pendant had gotten misplaced. When Joanne and Roy moved Nana's few possessions from the nursing home following her passing, she'd looked for the pendant. It was nowhere to be found.
Roy knew how much the pendant meant to his wife. There had been many tears shed since its disappearance. Within the confines of the map was a picture of Nana wearing the pendant. The jeweller he'd talked to on the phone yesterday had said he was familiar with that particular pendant, based on Roy's description, and that he had some in stock. If the ones he had didn't match the one in the picture the man was prepared to make one for him. The image of Joanne's face when she opened the box was enough to make up for the probable cost of the item.
The traffic on the street was light. Roy was in an area of Los Angeles that he'd never been in before. The jeweller sounded like one of those little mom and pop operations but he didn't care. If the man could fulfill his wife's wish, Roy was willing to drive to the ends of the earth to get it. The place should be just around the corner. At least according to the map he'd read last night.
Sure enough, the jeweller's shop was a little hole in the wall between a laundry mat and a bar. The building was brick and looked like it had had other neighbours for the first part of its life. The buildings on either side of it were much more modern in appearance but looked a little run down anyway. The windows to the jewellery shop were sparkling clean while its neighbours were somewhat grungy from the Los Angeles smog.
Roy was very careful where he parked his car. The convertible was his baby. The last thing he wanted was to get the automobile damaged. It was currently in mint condition and he intended on keeping it that way. Climbing out of the car, Roy picked the map up and stepped onto the curb. Hopefully this wasn't going to take very long. It was Roy's day off, he'd love to take a drive along the ocean or do something else he didn't usually get to do by himself.
There weren't many times in Roy's adult life that he had been alone. Between marrying his high school sweetheart, being in the Army and then the fire department, his free time wasn't very often his own. Even when he went on vacation, camping or fishing or the like, it was usually with his partner, Johnny Gage or one of the other members of A shift at Station 51.
The thought made Roy feel a little guilty. He loved his family, both the one at home and the one at work. But it sure was nice to get away from it all if only for an hour or so. Walking up to the front door of the shop, Roy pushed the glass door with the metal bars on the inside open. A bell above the door jingled as the paramedic stepped inside.
"Hello there!!" an elderly man sitting on a stool behind the glass counter said brightly. The counter ran the entire length of the right side of the shop. The left side, ten feet away had a series of glass cases along it, all of which had heavy locks on them. Inside Roy could see from a distance some of the most beautiful pieces of jewellery he'd ever imagined. It looked like he was at the right place.
"Hi," Roy said, a smile brightening his blue eyes. "I'm Roy DeSoto. I talked to you on the phone yesterday about a pendant and chain that I'm looking for."
"Ah, yes, I remember you. Come here," the man said as he carefully extracted himself off the stool and padded to the end of his counter. The man waved an arthritic looking hand over a display of intricate heart-shaped pendants and their accompanying chains.
Leaning over the glass to get a better look, Roy pulled the picture out of the map and laid it where he could see both. "Is this the picture?" the shop keeper asked. The picture was an old black and white one from when Nana was in her early twenties. Roy could see where Joanne got her looks.
"Yeah," Roy replied as he turned the picture around so the shop keeper could get a better look. The man looked over his thick glasses. In a glance, Roy took in the man's mop of white hair that sat on his head like a halo. The man's eyes were blue, much like Roy's but had a rheumy look about them. The shop keeper's face was lined with wrinkles, especially in the corner of his eyes.
"Well," the shop keeper said. "I don't have this one but I'm familiar with it. If you could leave the picture with me I could make it in about a week, ten days."
"Really?" Roy breathed. He felt like several pounds had been lifted off his shoulders. "You could do that?"
"Certainly!" the shop keeper answered, a huge smile spreading across his face.
"How much will it cost?" Roy asked. He didn't really care but he had to make sure he had the cash with him. Joanne did the bills. He didn't want her to see a void check from this business before her birthday.
"I don't know," the shop keeper hedged. There was a twinkle in those blue eyes. The man knew Roy was a fire fighter. He knew that the fire department didn't pay very well. He could see just how important this was to the man. "Thirty dollars and I'll throw the chain in too."
At first Roy stared at the man in shock. Surely he was kidding, right? Roy was ready to pay a hundred or more. Custom work like this should cost much more than that.
"Are you sure? I thought it would cost more," Roy asked.
"For a member of the fire department, I will do it special," the man replied, the twinkling increasing. He loved doing this stuff!
"Are you sure?" Roy repeated in his shock.
"Positive. Come back in ten days, I will have it made by then," the shop keeper insisted as he gently placed the picture on a shelf just below the display case. He was going to spend extra time on this one.
"Thank you, thank you so much," Roy said. "Joanne is going to love this!"
Saying his good byes, Roy headed back out to his car. His head was swimming with images of Joanne's face. Excitement flowed through him. It was like the anticipation on Christmas Eve when he was a kid. Whistling a merry tune, Roy climbed into the driver's seat. It was going to be a good day.
Half an hour later, Roy wasn't so sure about his optimistic take on the day. He was lost. And not just a little. The map would have been a real help at the moment but it had blown out of the passenger's side ten minutes back. Well, it's all Los Angeles. Eventually he should find an area that he was familiar with.
Half an hour after that, Roy found himself driving along the ocean. He knew he was heading north, not the direction he wanted. Unfortunately, there wasn't any place to pull a u-turn. Somewhere along the way he'd left all of the main roads and was now following what amounted to little more than a dirt road. On one side of it was a steep cliff and the ocean, on the other was another sheer cliff. There was nowhere to go.
Then he saw it, just ahead was a turn out. Pulling into it, Roy performed a three point turn and headed back down the road. By now Joanne and the kids would be waiting for him at home. The sun was well past its zenith and was losing some of its warmth. If he didn't get home in the next half hour he was going to have to stop and put up the roof. All ready goose bumps were peppering his exposed arms. Suddenly this wasn't such a fun trip after all.
The stretch of road Roy was on was still deserted. At this time of day he expected someone else to be on it as well. No longer humming, feeling a little chilled, Roy continued down the road. Then he noticed on the ocean side a small plume of black smoke. The firefighter in him wouldn't let him drive right on by. Braking carefully, Roy pulled up on the side of the road a few feet away from the plume. If it was a fire he didn't want his car and its gas tank too close.
Killing the engine, Roy climbed out and moved over to the steep bank. Now that he was looking for it he saw tread marks leading to the edge and over it. Careful to not go over the edge before he was ready, Roy leaned over a little to see what was beyond the low brush. His stomach sank to his knees as his eyes came to rest on the yellow bus twenty feet below him.
"Damn it," Roy swore to himself. He went back to his car and popped the trunk. He pulled the tire iron and first aid kit out of it before heading back to the edge. The low shrubs kept the soil that made up the slope from sliding down into the ocean beyond. With their help Roy steadily made his way toward the bus. There was stencilling on the side of it but it was just the name of one of the bus companies. It didn't tell Roy who might be inside.
As he got closer Roy noticed just how very quiet the interior of the bus was. Maybe they'd all ready been extricated from the accident. He doubted it because he hadn't seen it on his way by the first time. Reaching the back of the bus amid small landslides of dirt, Roy made sure to not touch it. The long vehicle was perched rather precariously on a large boulder. It was the only thing preventing it from skidding the rest of the way down the slope and crashing on the large boulders just along the surf line.
"Hello?" Roy called out as he carefully made his way along the passenger side of the bus. He knew the folding door was on this side. If there was someone inside he wanted to make sure he could get them out as quickly as possible.
After several heart stopping moments, Roy came up to the folding doors and looked beyond. Slumped in the driver's seat was an older man in a uniform. From where he stood, leaning in to look through the window, Roy couldn't tell if the man was breathing or not. The fact that he was there, however, told him that he was the first one on scene. Placing the first aid kit on the ground by his feet, Roy placed the tire iron between the doors and heaved.
The metal of the doors at first resisted him. Putting his shoulder into it, Roy tried again to pry them apart. Under his hands he could feel the bus shifting and rocking slightly. He had to get the driver out before this thing went the rest of the way down. His muscles strained and sweat broke out on his forehead as Roy continued to pry. Then, with a pop, the doors separated and Roy nearly fell inside.
"Hey, are you okay?" Roy asked as he climbed the stairs to reach the driver. He was so intent on the driver, his obvious victim, that Roy didn't see the three men huddled in the aisle. As he reached the driver and slid his hand over his neck to feel for a pulse, the LA County Fireman was tackled from the side, sending him flying toward the windshield.
Roy tried to recover from the crack to his head on the unrelenting glass as a pair of strong hands caught him by the arms and pulled him to the ground on his stomach. Under him he could feel the bus continue to teeter on its perch. "I'm here to help," Roy got out as the wind was crushed out of his body. All he could see were feet, the legs from the seats and beyond that the wire barrier after the first set of seats. He was in a prison bus and the door in the barrier was sitting wide open.