They Ought To Have A License
Chapter 4
While Johnny and Roy were occupied with the two injured children inside the house, outside the situation was beginning to intensify. The deputy's back-up arrived, and the four law enforcement officers took Sadie into custody.
Sadie at first feigned innocence of any wrong doing when the officers advised her she would be arrested for injury to a child. But the deputies persisted until the woman confessed to "punishing" the children for stealing ice. With Sadie's admission to beating the twins, an arrest was made, the law enforcement officers read Sadie her rights, and put her in hand cuffs. The angry and now restrained woman was placed unceremoniously into the back seat of a cruiser.
An ambulance arrived shortly after the sheriff's car, and the EMT's unloaded the stretcher from the back of the vehicle pushing it toward the front door of the house where the peace officers indicated the injured children would be found.
Sadie glared at the EMT's as they pushed their gurney toward her home. "Those stupid little brats must be putting on quite a show." She thought angrily. "Really! They aren't hurt all that bad. I only gave them what they deserved. Those little thieves needed to be punished for stealing from me. Kids like those, the trash of society after all, had no conscience. Not like decent people. They had to be taught right from wrong!" Sadie's mind rationalized.
The EMT's entered the domicile, placed one girl on the stretcher, and wheeled it back to the ambulance. Johnny gently carried Anna to the ambulance with Roy clearing up the medical refuse, picking up their equipment and following his partner to the ambulance.
As Johnny carried his little sleeping bourdon toward the ambulance he was forced to walk past the squad car containing the child's foster mother. Staring unabashedly at the woman, Johnny didn't bother to conceal the rage boiling in his eyes. Sadie looked at the handsome young medic carrying Anna. To her astonishment, the man seemed to be treating this piteous creature with great tenderness. Sadie curled her lip in disgust as her eyes met his. The fiery anger Sadie witnessed in those dark pools stunned the unrepentant woman. "What has he got to be angry about? I'm the one tied up in this car! And just look at that little brat, pretending to be hurt, letting him carry her out like that in front of all these people! Little whore has no shame!"
Roy too caught sight of Sadie as he followed his partner out to the ambulance. He saw no sign of remorse in the woman's brazen stare. Reaching the ambulance, Roy slid the Biophone and drug box inside and gave Johnny a smile saying "I'll see you at Rampart." With those words, Roy closed the back doors of the ambulance, gave them the customary double tap indicating it was now safe for the driver to pull away and turning he strode back to squad 51 for the drive to Rampart.
Inside the ambulance, Johnny gently laid Anna onto the padded bench. The movement woke the dozing child, and she opened her eyes to look up at Johnny. "Where's Abby?" She sleepily inquired of the dark haired medic.
"She's right here beside you princess. Here, look over to your right." Johnny replied with a soft smile as he placed his hands on the girl's cheek, and tenderly turned her head so that she could look down upon her sister who was dozing on the gurney.
As Anna turned to look at Abby, she noticed the Mayfair EMT sitting in the captain's chair at the head of Abby's gurney. Slightly startled by the presence of yet a different man Anna turned back to Johnny saying "Who's that?"
Johnny chuckled and with a small grin he introduced the attendant to Anna. "Anna, this is George. George, this is Anna and…" gesturing toward the sleeping child on the gurney "this is Abby."
"I'm very pleased to make your acquaintance young lady." George replied gallantly smiling over at Anna.
The ambulance with its' precious cargo slowly turned up onto the road, followed by squad 51. When both drivers reached the roadway, they turned on the emergency vehicle's sirens and picked up speed. Inside the ambulance Abby who had been sleeping on the gurney, woke groggily as the gurney swayed with the turning of the ambulance. "Wh…..what's goin on?" She questioned with what looked to be mild alarm.
Johnny turned to look at her, and reaching down he gently grasped her hand while answering "remember? We are taking that ambulance ride I promised you. How do you like it so far?"
Abby sleepily looked around the compartment, then back at Johnny saying "www…well, it's sort of neat, but the siren is pretty loud…..and this bed thing moves around some….. ." Then Abby looked over at Anna who was lying on the padded bench with Johnny seated next to her. "How come Anna is riding up there with you?"
Johnny smiled at her, and gently squeezed the hand he had been holding. "Because I wanted you to feel special too, so we let you have the bed 'cause Anna got so much of my special attention while ago." And he winked at Abby.
The little girl giggled lightly, her mood altered by the medication she'd been given. "He really is cute." Abby thought of Johnny. And so far he's not lied to us…..yet. Maybe…" and her heavy eyelids closed as she drifted.
While the twins napped, Johnny took an opportunity to get a new set of vitals, and sneak a peek at the injuries concealed by their clothing. The bruising he'd noted on the children's arms was echoed on their shoulders, chests and upper backs. Johnny could easily make out the outline of the buckle of what had to have been a belt marked in purplish bruises on pale skin, punctuated by small spots of blood where the tine of the buckle had punctured the flesh. The monstrous woman who'd beaten them seemed to have been aiming for whatever part of those small bodies she could hurt the most.
The children's bodies were decorated almost everywhere with older bruises of differing shapes colored in brown, green and yellow. Some were marked in narrow strips, others in broader bunches. Johnny shuddered imagining what instrument would make such marks, and his mouth forming a thin tight line, he shook his head in angry disgust.
Johnny's rage was a palpable force in the ambulance. George, the EMT from Mayfair had also seen the injuries the little girls sustained. The two men's eyes locked, and each found some validation realizing both were outraged at what they'd seen.
George reached into a cupboard in the ambulance, and drew out another thermal blanket, handing it to Johnny to drape over the sleeping form of Anna. Johnny tucked the blanket securely around the girl, carefully bringing it up to tuck under her chin. The sleeping child turned her head slightly and her little cheek rested on the back of Johnny's hand as she snuggled into the warmth and comfort of the blanket, and human compassion enveloping her.
Johnny felt his eyes moisten and his vision blurred, while he left his hand where it was offering at least this moment of comforting human contact to one who so obviously craved and needed it.
XXXXXX
Roy following the ambulance in the squad had time to consider the events of the past few minutes. He was upset by what he'd seen. The memory of those two little girls shook Roy to his very core. Two innocent children who had obviously been terrorized and brutalized for who knows how long was an almost unbearable circumstance to consider for the family man. Roy couldn't help but think of his own daughter Jennifer. In another life or with some unforeseen circumstance something like this could very well happen to her, his beloved daughter.
Gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were a ghostly white, Roy shook his head as if he could shake away the memory of what he'd seen.
Then Roy began to consider how he'd seen Johnny behave with the two girls. Johnny had been so gentle and caring. Roy wasn't surprised by this, but he was astounded by Johnny's reaction to sedating their patients. In the moment when Johnny had caught Roy's eyes in a long look, Roy had witnessed what looked to be Johnny's aversion to sedating the twins even though Roy knew both men had realized the sedative would be needed given the girls emotional state and the indignities they would have to undergo at Rampart.
Though most medics would have been surreptitious in the injection of the drugs, Roy had witnessed his partner's transparency with the girls. Rather than hide the syringes while preparing them, Johnny had seemed to attempt to help the girls see why the medication would be helpful. Roy mused that his friend's honesty was admirable, though if Roy were truthful with himself he'd have to admit to having initially been a little skeptical of the tactic Johnny had chosen to employ.
Things could have preceded mush differently. Roy's mind presented visions of the paramedics having to wrestle two screaming already traumatized girls down for medication administration and with a shake of his head he attempted to dispel the image. The open approach Johnny had chosen had turned out to be perfect, and Roy still couldn't help but wonder how or why Johnny had decided to deal with the physicians orders in such a direct fashion with the children.
"What was it Johnny said to the girls when he was preparing the injections?" Roy thought. Johnny had mentioned something to Anna about having days himself like the day the twins experienced today. And then there had been the remark about having several foster mothers, some good and some bad. "Was Johnny ever in foster care?" Roy considered.
Johnny had never been forthcoming about the specifics of his family life or childhood short of some occasional comments about growing up on the reservation. The men of station 51 knew Johnny had an Aunt Rose, but Johnny rarely spoke of her, and they had never met her. Johnny had not mentioned having any other relatives, and Roy was designated as Johnny's next of kin. Roy realized he really knew very little about one very large part of his best friend's life.
"As hard as this rescue has been for me, I am betting it was much tougher for Johnny." Roy thought. "I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you Junior. It might be time for you and me to have a long talk." Roy vowed as he stopped to allow the ambulance to back into the bay at Rampart. Roy took his turn, and after backing the squad into the bay beside the ambulance, he disembarked to go and assist his partner in getting their patients safely into the emergency room.