Doppelgänger:noun- legend- a ghostly duplicate of a person.

*Note: we're gonna look at the idea of Dopplegänger minus the ghost part...

Full Summary:

A wildfire raging just outside of Los Angeles has crews from all over California working to keep the blaze from reaching the city. Station 51 is right on the front lines and that's where they meet an all-female Station 15 of Kings County. Right from the start, something feels odd...almost like seeing double. Meanwhile, it's a zoo at Rampart when the circus has come to town...or to be more accurate, the hospital's waiting room. As the paramedics and firefighters alike get caught up in rescues amidst the fire, could it be that 51 has finally met their match…so to speak?

So, after a hiatus, I HAVE RETURNED. Not that any of you would have noticed I was gone...this is my first adventure of writing an EMERGENCY! fanfic. I just wanted to dispel any rumors that I'd been murdered by Vigilante FanFicers (which is a story for another day). But I digress; since this is my first time, keep that in mind when I screw up terminology...or the layout of Los Angeles (it's a big city) or anything else I could possibly mess up (there will be grammatical errors. You have been warned). If you aren't afraid yet, without any further ado...


Chapter1:

The air was thick and hot without a breeze in sight; it was hard to distinguish between the heat from the fire and the heat of the late afternoon sun. Fireman Paramedic John Gage paused to wipe a bead of sweat from his forehead. The flickering of the flames were barely discernible four miles away across the ridge. For nearly a week, crews had been working tirelessly in the San Gabriel Mountains to get the fire under control before it swept down and into the Northern part of Los Angeles. So far, containment was under the ten percent mark. Fresh men had been brought in from the surrounding counties, even from as far as Kings County, which was over three hours away.

John and his partner, Roy DeSoto, were stationed just outside of the Base Camp #2, on the south side of the fire, close to the Los Angeles city limits. It had been a long day, men trickling in with various small injuries: smoke inhalation, heat exhaustion, cuts, scrapes, and bruises. They hadn't been needed out in the field since their shift had started and it was beginning to get a little bit monotonous.

It had been surprisingly quiet for the last half an hour, and the two paramedics stood in the wings, listening the base commander and the updates coming in from the field.

"-34, come in from the south-"

"Tractor 3, that's a 10-4-"

"Copter 9, proceed to 45's location-"

"-Truck 77, refueling, out fifteen minutes-"

Base Commander Simmons glanced over at the paramedics. "It's gonna be a long one, boys. We gotta smoke inhalation coming in along with some sort of laceration. They should be here momentarily."

Without waiting for a reply, the man turned back to his radio and his aides, effectively dismissing Gage and DeSoto. The two headed back to their station where the equipment was set up. Another smoke inhalation. How exciting. The camp was quiet with most of the firemen who worked the night shifts sleeping, but soon the other trucks would be coming back for chow. The crunch of gravel on the road alerted the men to an arriving truck, bearing the first shift of hungry men and from the looks of it, the smoke inhalation and laceration.

The truck rolled to a stop to let the two men out. One short, slight guy hopped out, careful of his left hand, and then turned to help his colleague, who was trying to cough up a lung, down from the truck. Their helmets both read KINGS COUNTY 15 and their faces were almost completely black from the smoke and soot.

"How you doin'?" Johnny asked, reaching out to help the smoke inhalation to a seat in the shade.

He just shook his head, hacking and wheezing too hard to get any words out. Johnny nodded sympathetically and reached for the oxygen mask, "Sorry, don't try to talk. Got a little close to the fire, huh? I'm just gonna take your helmet off here-"

As he was talking, John gently pulled off the helmet, which revealed a knot of hair that was still remarkably bright past the soot and sweat. He took another look at his patient, "Hey, you're a girl!"

"Really?-" the woman gasped, still managing to sound caustic, reaching out to snatch the mask from the slightly surprised paramedic and pressing it against her mouth, taking deep, hungry breaths.

John turned to look at his partner who sat a few feet away, talking with another woman who had short brown hair swept back from her forehead, "Hey, you're a girl- woman, too!"

She rolled her brown eyes, but smiled rather serenely, "Observant."

She glanced back at Roy with the little half smile on her face. Roy looked at his partner's confused countenance; he and the woman must have taken a little pity on the other paramedic, "They're from King County, one of their all-women stations."

The woman, Gage noticed, was fairly pretty once she mopped some of the soot from her face. Round face, bright, intelligent eyes under a quirked, slightly disbelieving eyebrow, "You have heard of women firefighters before, right?"

Shaking himself, John sat up a little straighter, "Oh yeah, I just wasn't expecting to see one out here."

The red head pulled off her mask and fairly snarled, "Where else are we gonna be? Makin' chow?"

A fit of coughing compelled her to put the mask back on, but her partner spoke to her, "Don't be such a witch," she directed her attention back to Johnny as Roy pulled out some gauze and antiseptic from the medicine box, "Sorry about that, she tends to turn into a raging feminist when she hasn't eaten…or as a matter of fact, when she has eaten. Her bark's a lot worse than her bite."

Poor John was still trying to come up with an intelligent answer when his partner stepped in, "Well, he tends to put both feet in his mouth on a regular basis. I'm Roy DeSoto and that's John Gage, my tactless partner."

"Julie Chrysler. I'd shake your hand," she shrugged and motioned to the long, gagged gash down her palm, "but things might get messy. That's my partner Liz Abel over there sucking up all the oxygen."

Abel frowned through her mask, still angry about Johnny's remarks no doubt. Once she could breathe a little better, she pulled the mask off and used the sleeve of her turnout coat to wipe off some of the soot, revealing a very pretty face. A sharp upturned nose with a smattering of freckles, eyes, that although were bloodshot, hinted at emerald green, full lips, and of course that bright red hair.

"Seriously, what are you lookin' at?" she demanded, giving both paramedics a hard stare "is there a problem here?"

"Really Lizzie, stop. They're not doing anything wrong," Chrysler chastised gently.

Abel was glaring at Johnny from behind her mask again. She pulled it off and gave a cough that barely disguised, "Bull."

Chrysler rolled her eyes and ignored Abel as Roy turned to look at her hand, "What'd you get into here?"

"Barbed wire. Trying to get Liz out and it ripped right through my gloves. Pity, they were still pretty new," Chrysler replied, holding up what was left of her glove.

"Why were you in barbed wire?" Johnny dared to ask the glowering Abel.

Pulling off her mask, she sighed, which might have been more dramatic if a heavy cough hadn't interrupted her. Once she had taken a few more gulps of air, she directed her answer at Roy rather than Johnny, "We were up at the front, on the east side, the air up there's all smoke, and I tripped over a rock or somethin' and ended up in somebody's fencing."

"I'm always following her around and getting her out of situations like this. And she doesn't get a scratch," Chrysler muttered, winching as Roy gently scrubbed at the cut on her hand.

"My air mask didn't make out so well," Abel said, holding up the aforementioned mask, "damned barbed wire cut right through the hose. That's why all I was gettin' was smoke."

"How is your breathing feelin' now, by the way?" Johnny interjected.

Abel's head snapped back around, but the look on her face wasn't quite as vicious as it had been, "Better actually. Thanks," she added, almost grudgingly.

Across the way, Roy was talking in low tones with Chrysler, "Not as bad as it looked at first. I don't think you'll need stitches, but keep it as clean as you can and see a doctor at the first sign of infection."

Julie Chrysler nodded, patting her freshly wrapped hand, "Alright, I think I can accomplish that…Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Ask away," Roy said, looking back at the other firefighter with a half-smile.

"Have you been a paramedic long?"

Roy shrugged, "I've been in the program since it started up, a few years back."

Chrysler nodded, brushing her sweaty hair back from her forehead, "Is it hard?"

Roy sat back on his heels, "Most days it's like being a firema- firefighter. They've both got their bad days, but I know the work I do makes a difference."

Soot on one cheek, Chrysler nodded wordlessly, watching Johnny and her partner. She looked dead tired, Roy decided. They were all dead tired at this point. He cleared his throat and brought her attention back to him, "You been in the department long?"

"A few years…ever since I got drummed out of the Police Academy for insubordination."

"Insubordination?" Roy asked disbelievingly. From his brief conversations with both women, he wouldn't have picked Chrysler as the rebel.

She just shrugged, "Yeah, it's kinda a long story."

Roy didn't press the issue any further, just smiled understandingly. A few feet away, Johnny seemed to being having a conversation with Liz Abel that wasn't wholly hostile.

Gage had turned his 'charm' on full-force, "I'm real sorry if said anything that offended you," he said with a grin, pushing his too-long hair back out of his face.

The redhead was scowling, a seemingly constant state with her, "I wasn't offended, I was pissed. Am pissed. You really don't get it, do you?"

For the second time in just about as many minutes, John had somehow landed his foot in his mouth, but he didn't really understand why this time. He shrugged helplessly at the pretty firefighter.

"Don't you get tired of people askin' for a real doctor?"

Johnny frowned, "Yeah-"

"Well, it's kinda the same thing for us. We get sick and tired of 'you're a firefighter?!' I'm aware of the fact that I'm a chick. I also know me and the rest of my crew are damned good at our jobs."

Johnny wasn't faking his understanding or sincerity now, "When you put it that way…"

He was rewarded with the first non-snarl, non-sarcastic smile of the afternoon; a dimpled, light-up-her-whole-face number that was kind of gorgeous. Johnny's mouth might have been hanging open, but Abel didn't notice it. Glancing over her shoulder where smoke and fire were still visible she changed the subject, "Heard they lost half a dozen summer houses up in the mountains. Least there wasn't anybody home. If the winds don't change soon, we'll be losing a lot more than that."

"Yeah." John was still trying to get his act together but cracked a grin, "I did hear somethin' about rain tomorrow. Or heavy thunderstorms," his smile faded as he admitted, "which could be good or bad."

Liz Abel shot Johnny a look, then rolled her green eyes; glancing over at her partner as well as his. The sun was sinking lower, casting a golden light on the group, making the soot look like friendly shadows. The sound of several trucks coming up the drive turned all the firefighters' heads. "Well, thanks for the help," Liz Abel said, grabbing her helmet and hopping to her feet, "there's our ride."

She was gone before either paramedic could say a word, heading for one of the trucks that had pulled up for chow and sleep. Julie Chrysler shook her head and smiled tiredly, "Don't mind her, she's…well I don't know what she is," she shrugged, then too headed over to Truck 15 with the rest of the crew.

"Well, that was-" Roy started, trying to find the right words.

"Wow?" Johnny supplied, watching the two firefighters from Truck 15.

Roy glanced over at is partner, not really surprised to see the look on his face, "It was kinda strange."

"Huh?" Johnny said, finally pulling his gaze back to his partner.

"Didn't talking with them feel a little strange?" Roy shrugged, "It was an odd feeling."

John looked over at Roy, "Not because they were girls?"

"No, no, it wasn't that," he shook his head; "Like you they were really familiar, their mannerisms, just their general demeanor…Never mind. Forget I said anything. Let's clean up, we get off in a few and the guys should be back for chow any minute."

They moved to clean up their respective areas with the odd conversation hanging between them. 'Like they were really familiar, their mannerisms, just their general demeanor…' Roy's words echoed in Johnny's head as he packed up the oxygen.

The way she sat, the way she spoke... Roy was right. He replayed the conversation he had with Liz Abel in his mind, and looking back, she was oddly familiar. The grumble of a familiar engine pulled him back to the present. The arrival of the engine meant their shift was over and he could finally get something to eat. He pushed all thoughts of Engine 15's ladies as far out of his head as he could manage.


Well, how was that? Drop me a line and let me know!

~Striker