"Twit." Captain Stanley muttered under his breath. This was the third time this week that his youngest crew member, John Gage had been late for roll call. Then, as if on a cue, Johnny burst from the locker room. "You're late, again." Stanley snapped.

"Sorry Cap," came the mumbled reply, while John's eyes shot daggers at lineman Chet Kelly, station 51's "Phantom." Cap saw Johnny glaring at Chet, who smiled innocently back. Stanley looked back at Johnny, who didn't appear to have a drop of water on him. Johnny caught the look from his Captain, the same look on the other three men's faces, who were standing at attention. Johnny answered the unspoken question. "Taped my locker shut, flour bomb MISSED, and clear plastic wrap," he said, stressing the word missed.

"WHAT?" Kelly screeched. "The flour bomb missed my favorite pigeon? Oh no! This won't do! You better watch your back, Gage."

"Oh, go play on the freeway, Kelly!" the young paramedic shot back. His partner, Roy DeSoto, engineer Mike Stoker, and lineman Marco Lopez burst out laughing as Chet Kelly's face turned beet red. He was just about to growl back at Gage, but was cut off as Stanley snapped "Let's line up today, not next year." The five young firemen in front of Hank immediately snapped to attention.

"Alright, everyone's here, so let's get started," Stanley said, clapping and rubbing his together, " Marco, you're cooking, Mike, dorm, Roy, apparatus bay, Chet, rec room. John, since you were late, you get the latrine."

"Kay, Cap." Marco said.

"Alright." Mike's voice responded.

"Sure, Cap." came from Roy.

"Ok Cap, fine by my." Chet said a bit too enthusiastically.

"Sorry, Cap. I'll get going at it." Johnny's voice sounding a bit upset.

Twenty minutes later Johnny walked into the apparatus bay with the cleaning supplies. Just as he finished putting the supplies in the cleaning closet, he heard Chet's angry bellow of "Gage" as it echoed through the station. John grinned knowing his retaliation on Chet worked. Sure enough, Chet stormed out of the locker room dripping wet and white with flour. Johnny burst out laughing when he saw Chet. The others, who had come to see what was up joined Johnny's laughter when they saw their friend.

"Gage, I'm gonna kill ya for this," Chet snarled, but couldn't contain the laughing tone of voice.

The SCU tones sounded… Squad 51, man down… 2356 Amherst Rd… 2-3-5-6 Amherst Rd… time out, 08:57." came Sam Lanier's voice came over the speaker.

"Squad 51, 10-4 KMG-365." Cap responded, keying the mike.

When the squad arrived, a woman ran up to them in a panic. "Hurry, I think he's had a heart attack!"

"Ma'm," Johnny questioned, "Who?"

"My husband of course! Who else?"

Johnny and Roy grabbed the needed supply kits and ran into the house. Johnny set the kits he had down and kneeled down next to the victim for his pulse. It was there, slow, but steady. Johnny set up the biophone to contact Rampart.

"Rampart, this is county 51. How do you read?"

"Go ahead, 51." came Dr. Brackett's response.

"Rampart, we have a male victim, age approximately 61. He has crushing pain in his chest and his breathing's labored."

"51, do you have your EKG monitor hooked up?"

"Affirmative Rampart." Before Brackett could ask, Johnny answered, "We'll send you a strip. This will be lead 2, Rampart." Johnny started the monitor and checked what it read. V-tach with multiple PVC's he thought to himself. "Rampart, I'm reading V-tach with multiple PVC's. Confirm?"

"10-4, 51. Start IV D5… 51, he's starting to fibrillate! Defibrillate, 400 watt seconds!"

Roy applied the conductive gel to the paddles while Johnny started the charge. After the charge had built, Johnny placed the paddles on the man's chest and ribcage, then fired the paddles. The man's heart beat jumped, then settled into sinus rhythm, with occasional PVCs.

"Rampart, we read sinus rhythm with occasional PVCs," John stated. "Confirm?"

"10-4, 51. Sinus rhythm with occasional PVCs. What are his vitals?" came Brackett's voice.

"Rampart, vitals are, B/P 90/50, respirations are 8, shallow, and labored, pulse is 150 and thready." Gage read off the piece of paper Roy had given him.

"10-4, 51. Start an IV. 2 amps sodium bicarb and ringers lacitate. Transport immediately." Brackett said with a sigh of relief.

"10-4, Rampart. The ambulance has just arrived." Gage's voice responded as he shut down the link.

"Hey Roy? You wanna go in with him?"

"Sure Johnny, I'll go in with him." Roy said, walking out the door behind the gurney.

On his way out the door, the woman stopped Johnny. "Is he going to be okay?" she fearfully asked.

"Yes, he'll be just fine. Were taking him to Rampart General Hospital, if you want to follow us in. Do you know where that is?"

"Yeah, I'll follow you in."

In the ambulance…

Roy's hand flew to the biophone. After assembling it, Roy snatched it up. "Rampart, this is squad 51 again. How do you read?" No answer. "Come on, come on. I've got a dying victim here." He muttered under his breath

Just as he was about to call again, he heard, "51, what have ya got?"

"Rampart, our heart attack victim has gone into respitory arrest." Roy stated as he reached for the bag.

Brackett's response came as expected, "Bag him 51. What's your ETA?"

"ETA Is two minutes, Rampart," Roy stated, looking out the side window of the ambulance.

Brackett waited impatiently for the ambulance to back up to the doors. "Come on, that man's dying and I can't do anything about it until he's in a treatment room." Kel mumbled under his breath. When the ambulance stopped, Bracket whipped the doors open, and directed them where to go. "Treatment room 4, STAT!"

Roy came out of treatment 4 to find Johnny standing at the base station desk talking to the head nurse of Rampart Emergency, Dixie McCall. Roy and Johnny talked to Dixie while they got supplies, then headed to the doors to head back to the station. On their way out, the doors opened and a gurney was whisked by. John and Roy saw Tom Wheeler, one of 110's paramedics, holding an IV bag.

"Whatcha got?" Johnny asked in passing.

"Pneumonia!" Wheeler called over his shoulder.

Johnny keyed the mike as he climbed in the squad, "Squad 51, available."

"Squad 51," Sam Lanier's voice responded.

"Come on Junior. Let's get back to the station." Roy said.

"Alright, Pally."

Walking into the rec room back at the station, Johnny was grumbling about something that was in yesterday's paper. Opening a cupboard door to grab a mug for coffee, two familiar sporing sounds were heard and a startled gasp came from Johnny. Roy's face paled as the others ran into the room. Mike, Marco, and Cap's faces paled as well while Chet was red faced and laughing at his pigeon standing there in shock, honey and flour clinging to him.

Chet was finally able to speak. "I toldja this mornin' to watch your back, Gage. Why didn't you listen?"

"Cause I figured a water bomb, not honey and flour." Gage growled as he stalked off to the locker room to clean up.

"Kelly, you have latrine duty for a month after this!" Cap snapped.

"Oh, but Cap!"

"I could make that two months, Kelly!"

"Okay, Cap." Chet mumbled sullenly.

Roy chuckled as Chet stalked off. "He just doesn't learn!"

"Who," Cap asked, "John or Chet?"

"BOTH!"

By: Jessica Fuller

The characters of EMERGENCY! Do not belong to me. They are property of Mark VII limited and Universal studios.