D-Day

These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise when I'm done to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.

"Marriage has no guarantees. If that's what you're looking for then go marry a car battery." Erma Bombeck.


Chapter 2

Hank stood in front of his men all lined up, standing at attention, uniforms finally on and presentable for inspection. It was a long standing ritual of the fire department and most of the time he didn't go through all the steps but today he felt a need to have at least a moment of sanity before he released them for the shift.

"All right men," he began. "B-shift had a bad fire and left us 400 foot of hose to do. Johnny and Marco you take that. Roy dorm today. Mike dayroom and bay. Chet."

"I know Cap latrine," he said with a heavy sigh.

"Marco you're cooking today. What's for dinner?"

Marco rubbed his hands together, "Ah Cap, I have a new enchilada casserole recipe from my mother,"

"Good," Hank said. At least they would eat well tonight. "Dismissed."

They all moved into the dayroom and worked at making coffee and getting some of the wonderful smelling fresh made Danish that Marco's mother had sent in with him.

"Oh man Marco, this smells wonderful," Chet said as he put a chunk on his plate. He walked over to the counter and got a mug of coffee. When he got back his plate was empty and everyone was sitting around eating.

"Marco, give you mom an extra hug for this," Johnny said with his mouth full of food.

"Who took my Danish?" Chet complained. "Pass the dish back this way."

Roy picked it up and got a little more it was so good then passed it to Mike. Mike took another corner off as he licked his lips again, then it went to Johnny. Johnny still had a mouthful but needed just a little more. From Johnny the plate moved to Hank who saw one last piece sitting on it. He looked over to Chet.

"Aww Cap, come on. I didn't get any yet," Chet whined.

Hank leaned over and patted his belly much to the chagrin of the fireman. "Just looking out for your welfare pally," he said as put shoved the last piece in his mouth.

Chet was almost speechless, almost. "Guys, come on. Just a bite?" They all looked at him like he was some kind of giant marshmallow man. "Just a crumb?"

Johnny stood up and walked over to him with his plate and reaching down he pinched two fingers together and picked up something. Ever so carefully he placed the crumb down on Chet's lonely, empty plate. "There ya go," he patted him on the shoulder. "Now don't say I've never did anything for ya."

Chet frowned, "Thanks a lot."

Johnny walked over to the refrigerator and took out the container of milk. He put his glass on the table and poured but Mike and Roy had to jump fast as the milk hit the top of the glass and splattered everywhere making a huge mess.

"Johnny, will you be careful?" Roy barked as he almost fell back over his chair.

Johnny looked stunned at what happened. He put the milk carton down and picked up the glass to see a small pool of milk in a puddle which seemed to float on the top of the glass. He took his finger and poked at it. There was clear film of cellophane over it. "Chet!" Johnny yelled. "I aught make you clean this mess up!"

Chet stood up, "I didn't do that!" He walked over and picked up the glass as the others eyed the meticulously placed piece of saran wrap. "But I have to admit, that's pretty good."

"Pretty good. You don't fool me Chester B." Johnny grumbled as he wiped a towel over the milk on the table.

Hank stood up, "Kelly, tell the phantom to ease up today." He stole a glance at Roy who didn't seem to happy at the moment. He knew this day would be hard enough on the man without Kelly being an idiot all shift.

"Cap, I swear," Chet started.

Hank held up his hand, "I don't want to hear it. Just lay off." He then walked off to his office, just in time to hear the tones sound off.

Squad 51…Man down……………….time out 0855.

Johnny and Roy ran towards the squad, jumped in, slipped on their helmets, and paused for the moment as Hank wrote down the information for them. Taking the slip Roy passed it to Johnny and pulled down the driveway and onto the main road.

The ride was quiet as Johnny pointed out the directions to the subdivision and found the exact address. Pulling into the driveway they both saw a woman waiting on them. Once out of the truck they went to the side to pull out boxes and the woman followed them.

"Thank you for coming, he's in the backyard." She told them then began walking to show them where he was.

As they rounded the corner of the house they saw a large backyard with an in ground pool. There were two children playing in the pool, seemingly oblivious to their presence, as they followed the woman. She took them just past the pool to a little wooden gazebo that held a hot tub.

Inside the hot tub was a man who was holding onto the side of the tub with his head hanging back against the outer edge. Roy stood by the man's side but wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do. He looked up at the wife with the look of 'what?'

"He's stuck and I need him out of here as soon as possible," she said with an air of disgust.

"Sir, where are you stuck?" Johnny asked the man but as he watched him he realized that the man wasn't really listening to him.

"Sir?" Johnny nudged him and the man started too slid into the water.

"Roy," he called for help although Roy was already jumping into action as Johnny was in the tub with him holding him up above the water. "Man, it's too hot in here!" He looked at the woman, "We need to turn this heat down."

Roy reached under the man's arms to lift him out but felt him stop. Yep, he was stuck. "He won't budge," Roy said.

Johnny knew his arms were free so he reached under the water and found his legs; pulling on the right now he could tell it was free so he moved to the next one. It was the culprit. Following his way down the lower leg, to the foot then to the toes he realized that the man's toe was stuck in one of the jets.

He looked over to the woman, "Can you turn the jets off? And the heat?" He was sweating where he wasn't already soaking yet.

Roy meanwhile obtained a pulse, "Pulse is 130 Johnny, respirations 36."

Johnny looked at him, "He's too hot in here, we gotta get him out."

"Has he been sick?" Roy asked the woman.

"No, I don't think so." She seemed only mildly interested in helping them.

"Is he on any medications?"

Again she shook her head no.

Johnny continued to try and figure out how to get him released from the jet. The woman finally found the right switch and turned off all the power to the tub. As the water settled down Johnny could see through the clear water now. With his own face just barely above the water he continued to reach down and manipulate the foot until finally he was released. Roy pulled him back and with Johnny's help they got him out of the water. Laying him down on the wooden floor of the pavilion Johnny worked on getting a blood pressure while Roy opened up the biophone.

"BP, 90/50."

Roy called the vital in to Rampart.

"51, Sounds like possible heat stroke. Begin an IV of LR KVO and transport as soon as possible."

"IV LR KVO and transport. 10-4."

"I'll ride in with him Roy," Johnny said as they closed up boxes and put him on the stretcher. He looked over to the lady who continued to just watch. "Mame we're taking your husband to Rampart emergency if you want to follow us.

She leaned back and put her hands on her hips, "Oh he's not my husband." She then handed Johnny something. "Here's his wallet so they can call his wife."

Johnny and Roy just looked at each other, "Okay."


Roy walked down the hallway to see Johnny leaning against the desk talking to Dixie. They both looked at him. "How's he doing?"

"He regained consciousness about the time we pulled in. Vitals stabilized."

Roy nodded his head, "Good. You ready?"

"Almost, waiting on supplies," Johnny said as the other nurse worked at the supply cabinet gathering things.

"So I hear that it wasn't his wife he was with," Dixie said.

Roy really didn't want to talk about, "Seems so." He messed with the radio in his hand then decided he didn't want to face a conversation about marital issues. "I'll be in the squad."

Dixie watched him go down the hall, "What was that about?"

"Well Dix," Johnny said. "You know what today is, don't you?"

She shook her head, "No, what?"

"His divorce is final today."

She suddenly felt bad for the medic and friend, "I didn't realize. How's he doing with it?"

"Ah, I don't know Dix. He won't even talk about it." He took the stack of restock supplies from the nurse. "Talk to ya later."

"Yea, bye Johnny." She watched him walk down the hallway, his worry about his friend very apparent.

Johnny leaned against the truck door as they headed back to the station. "You ready to talk about it."

Roy just sighed, "Look, I'm fine alright. Joanne and I have been separated for months now. This is just a formality. "

He narrowed his eyes at his partner, "Have you talked to her?"

Roy kept his eyes on the road, "No. She took the kids to her mom's for the week."

"Well, my offer is still open for some camping this weekend you know," Johnny said with a smile.

Roy knew what Johnny was trying to do and he did appreciate it. "Thanks Junior. I'll think about it but really I'm doing fine."

They wandered into the kitchen to find everyone hovering over the table picking something off a plate.

"What's that," Johnny said.

Mike took a bite, "Cap's wife brought in cookies. Have one." Just as Chet reached for a cookie Mike picked up the plate and passed it Johnny, just out of his reach.

"Hey!" Chet complained as he moved around to the other side of Mike aiming for the plate but just as he got past the long arms of the engineer the plate was moved from Johnny to Roy.

Roy took a cookie off and ate it, "Mmm…these are great." He looked over to Marco, "You get one Marco?"

"Yea, got one but give me another."

Chet lunged for the plate but just missed it as it was passed to Marco on the other side of the table. For a moment he considered climbing over the table but seeing Cap standing by the door decided he better not. Quickly working his way through Johnny and Roy who he could have swore was trying to slow him down, he went around to Marco.

"Tell your wife thanks Cap," Roy said as he waved another cookie before eating it.

Hank moved around the table and stepped just in front of Chet as he almost had his hands on the plate. As he took the last cookie Chet looked like a little child who just lost his …well….cookie.

Hank just smiled at the flustered man, "Now Chet. We're doing you a favor here pally."

"Favor? Cap, it's just a cookie!" He was just about at his wits end. This was torture.

Johnny slapped his shoulder, "Just think, by next shift you might fit back into your pants."

"Har har Johnny boy. Just wait. The phantom remembers how everyone treats him."

As the fervor died down around the cookie plate Johnny looked around to see that Roy was no longer in the dayroom. He wandered out into the bay to find him sitting on the back bench of the Squad. He sat down beside him, stretched out his long legs and crossed them.

Roy just waited for the question. Johnny had asked it of him a million times so why not one more time. But as he waited his friend remained silent. It was a little reassuring that Johnny would just come and keep him company without requiring a major conversation from him. As he thought about it more he decided maybe it was time to talk about it a little.

"You know me and Joanne saw a marriage counselor," Roy didn't look at his friend since he felt embarrassed about it.

Johnny took the words in and decided to not react. He knew this was hard for Roy to talk about and if he was ready to talk then he had no intentions of interrupting him. Roy took the silence as permission to keep talking.

"It was required for our divorce proceedings." He sat for a moment in thought. "It of course didn't change anything but I guess it was good for someone objective to hear what we had to say."

Johnny just nodded. He wanted so badly to jump in but he knew he had better keep his mouth shut right now.

Roy continued, "He had some good advice about how to get through the divorce without being angry at each other. You know for the kids."

"That's good," Johnny said quietly.

"Yea," Roy kinda perked up some. He leaned back against the Squad with Johnny, "I haven't been a bachelor in years."

"Just don't be trying to take all the chicks from me," Johnny said with a crooked grin.

Roy put his hands behind his back, "I don't know Junior. They might be more interested in someone with my experience."

Johnny sat up with a shocked look on his face, "Experience? You have to be kidding me? Why, you've been with the same woman." He was now completely flustered, "Experience?"

The ease of getting Johnny all riled up was nothing short of therapeutic to the senior medic. Roy stood casually and simply patted him on the back, "Don't worry Johnny. If they don't work out for me I'll be sure to send them your way." With that he turned and walked back to the kitchen leaving a completely dumbfounded medic in his wake.