Chapter 2

"That's funny; I seem to remember that you didn't teach her." Johnny shifted the conversation, trying to turn back time in his partner's memory, in hope of getting him out of the moment he was dwelling on. "Do you remember that day when she was brought in to the emergency department at Rampart?"

Roy didn't want to feel better but just the mention of that day lifted his mood. "She thought she was being arrested."

"Yeah," Johnny responded realizing his tactic had worked, "as I remember it, she was more worried that you were going to spank her."

Johnny managed to drag his frustrated partner to the back of the squad and get him to sit down on the bumper as he sat next to him. While they were moving, Roy's focus drifted back to that day a little over three months ago.

It was early in the afternoon and they had had a crazy morning of run after run after run, they had to stop and pick up supplies and that had ment taking themselves out of service to do so. They were so busy filling out forms and counting the supplies that they were receiving that they didn't notice the paramedic team race through behind them, they surely wouldn't have noticed the two police officers following a few minutes later each one holding the hand of a little girl. At least they wouldn't have noticed if one of the little girls hadn't have called him by name.

"Mr. DeSoto! Your daughter hit my mom in the stomach and made her spit out her strawberry."

Roy could still clearly remember how stunned he was when he turned around to see who was addressing him and see his daughter and the neighbor girl in the custody of the police. The neighbor girl was accusing his daughter of hitting her mother. Jenny never hit anyone before. Just what was going on?

"Do these two girls belong to you?" the officer asked, Funny Roy couldn't remember who the officer was now but it was someone he had worked with before.

"A, NO, just this one," he squatted down, to be able to see eye to eye with the little girl who was being accused. "What's going on here?"

"I'll tell you what's going on here," seven year old Tara Fulmer yelled in anger as she stood next to the police officer with her hands on her hips. "First she pushes my mom out of her chair and onto the floor and then she hits her in the stomach with both hands."

"Please don't spank me daddy!" Jenny sobbed tears streaming down her face and dripping on her blouse as she held both hands over her bottom. "I didn't mean to get arrested, please don't spank me, I know I too little but Tara doesn't know anything. Please don't spank me."

"I do too know stuff, I go to school I'm not a preschool baby," Tara was still shouting, still holding her hands on her hips and jutting her chin forward.

Just then Dr. Early stepped out of the treatment room.

"How is the woman Doc?" One of the police officers asked.

"She's stable right now," Dr Early answered as he squat down next to Roy and looked into the frightened tear filled eyes of his daughter. "I need you to tell me what happened so that I know how to help Mrs. Fulmer. Can you tell me exactly what happened before the paramedics got there?"

"She hit my mom in the stomach," Tara screamed again.

"What da ya say you and I go down here and see if we can find a story book to read," one of the police officers spoke with Tara as he pulled her away from Jenny, her father, his partner and the Doctor.

"Okay Jenny, just start at the beginning and tell me what happened. You're not going to get in trouble." Dr. Early calmly coaxed the young girl.

"Tara's momma was putting chocolate on strawberries for a party tonight and there was this one really really big strawberry. She said that it was too big, but her dunked it in the chocolate anyway and put it in her mouth and took a great big bite. That's when Barney ran across her foot."

"Who's Barney?" Dr. Early questioned.

"Her boy's pet hamster," Jenny answered.

"What happened next?"

"Her made this funny sound, like a vacuum cleaner when a piece of paper is stuck over the hose and she kept grabbing at the front of her neck then she sat down in the chair and her head fell over on the table and she fell to sleep only her eyes stayed open."

"Then what happened?" Dr. Early coaxed her forward.

"Her face was turning funny colors and when I put my hand on her tummy it wasn't going in and out. I thought the strawberry and her apple were fighting."

"Her apple? Did she eat an apple as well as the strawberry?"

"No, the Apple that's in the front part of your neck that moves up and down to tell the food which pipe to go down."

"The Adams Apple?" Dr. Early guessed at her description.

"Yeah, that thing, only this one belongs to Mrs. Fulmer." Jenny confirmed and Johnny coughed to hide his laugh while Roy just bit his tongue, trying to remember where his wife would be. By now he had pulled his daughter closer to him and she was leaning against the inside of his knee with her daddy's arms around her.

"I tried to blow in her mouth but even when I climbed on a chair I couldn't reach her mouth and pinch her nose berry well, but I remembered what daddy taught Chris, he's my brother, that you need to have them laying on the floor. But I'm too little, I couldn't move her"

"Is that when you pushed her off the chair?" Dr. Early was beginning to put the pieces together. Jenny just nod her head.

"Well, considering the size difference I'd say you did the only thing you could under the circumstances. What happened after you got her on the floor?"

"I tipped her head back and pinched her nose and tried to blow in her mouth but the air didn't go anywhere it just made her face fat. That's how I knew the strawberry was fighting with the apple. So I did the Hamelkick mover."

"You mean the Heimlich Maneuver. " Dr. Early corrected with a smile.

"Is that what you call it daddy?"

"Yes sweetheart," Roy responded but was afraid to say any more for fear he would burst out laughing. Still he was growing very aware of how serious the situation had been and was very proud of his daughter for being able to save the woman's life.

"I didn't hit her in the tummy I just pushed on it, in and up just like my daddy showed Chris and Jimmy, but when I did it the strawberry moved in her mouth and she breathed all by her own self."

"Then what happened," Dr. Early stiffeled a grin as he coaxed the rest of the story out of young Jenny.

"I stayed by her and watched her breath until daddy's friends from the fire department comed in and took the strawberry the rest of the way out of Tara's mommy's mouth. I asked Tara to get a blanket for her but she was mad at me cause she thinks I hurt her mommy." "After daddy's friends were getting ready to leave with Tara's Mommy in the amblance the police came and arrested me. I know I too little but no body was there that had watched my daddy teach anybody how to do it. Tara's brother comes to my house to have my daddy teach him. She didn't get to watch him learn like I did."

"The way I understand things I think Mrs. Fulmer is a very lucky lady that you were at her house today." Dr. Early gave the young girl a squeeze on her shoulder then looking at her father, "I believe she received a mild concussion in the fall from the chair but that's a lot better than the alternative. This young lady is very observant."

"Do I have to go to Jail now?"

"No Jenny, we're going to let your Daddy find your Mommy and then you can go home." Dr. Early gave Jenny a big friendly smile before pushing himself to a stand. "And if your Daddy gives you a spanking you just tell me, and I'll give him a spanking."

#####

"You know you were a mighty proud papa when you picked her up that day." Johnny had succeeded in getting a smile back on Roy's face as they remembered together.

"Her Uncle Johnny looked like a proud peacock himself." Roy turned to his partner.

"As I remember it you were able to call the dentist office and find Jo Anne and tell her what had happened and get the phone number for Mr. Fulmer's work before we got another call and had to leave Jenny with Dix." Johnny recalled.

"Dix told everybody in the hospital what she'd done and everyone gave her something loaded with sugar to congratulate her." Roy recalled. "When JoAnne finally got her home she had a stomach ache."

"Do you remember what happened when Dix put her in for that Young Hero Award?" Johnny said as he leaned back against the squad while Roy leaned forward resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his fists.

"She was so scared of all the people." Roy remembered.

"I can't remember, why did they do it here at the station again?" Johnny remembered but he wanted to keep his partner talking till he had talked everything out.

"They a, the newspaper people that sponsored the award wanted to explore a, like father like daughter, angle to their story." Roy explained what had been explained to him in the Captain's office. "I still can't believe how frightened she was. When it came time to hand out the award she was nowhere to be found."

"We had the guys looking everywhere in the station while the police, that were here, were looking outside and in all the cars in the back." Johnny snickered as he remembered. "We all forgot one thing though, we forgot she was a five year old girl and could fit into places we never dreamed of looking."

"Who was it that finally saw her dress hanging out of the compartment on the squad?" Roy tried to recall.

"That was me and Cap," Johnny remembered. "We both thought it best to let you really find her. If you know what I mean."

"Yeah, Thanks" Roy leaned back again with moist eyes and looked at his partner. "She was so scared that the only way I could talk her out of the compartment was to promise to hold her and protect her."

"With her Uncle Johnny there to help you," Johnny added. "She wrapped her arms around your neck so tight I thought we were going to have to resuscitate you."

"Na, Fathers are used to that sort of thing."

"She wouldn't even let go long enough to receive her award."

"Nope," Roy shook his head and smiled.

"Did the newspaper people ever get a picture of her face?"

"Jo has copies of a couple, one when I pulled her out of the compartment; she has her finger in her mouth. Then there's another one of my back with her eating a cookie," Roy remembered. "She got cookie crumbs down my neck and it drove me nuts until I took a shower that night."

"I thought you were going to have to take her with you when we got a run, she was hanging on to you so tight."

"It was a good thing that JoAnne was there to hand her off to," Roy remembered.

Roy's mood turned suddenly somber again. "Why did she do what she did today, didn't she know she could have gotten herself killed?"

"Probably not, and because she's her father's daughter," Johnny offered as an explanation.