"I Never Said That"
Chapter Four
Roy DeSoto whistled his way across Station 51's apparatus bay.
That morning, Gage was going to be back on duty, and that was definitely something to whistle about.
His partner had suffered bruising to both his ribcage and his kidneys. However, it was the severe rope burns to his hands that had caused Johnny to miss the last couple of shifts.
DeSoto strolled into the locker room and stopped.
Gage and Kelly were standing in front of their open lockers—arguing.
Well, at least Chet's side of the conversation sounded 'argumentative'.
Johnny was currently laughing so hard, he couldn't really say anything.
"Yeah!" Kelly sarcastically exclaimed. "It was just hunky-dory! I didn't really mind her coming to pick me up, so much. But, when she opened the car door for me—"
Gage fell back into his open locker and then sat there, clutching his bruised ribcage and laughing—hysterically.
Roy couldn't help but grin. "What's so funny?" he wondered, as he stepped up to the bench in front of his own locker and began unbuttoning his shirt.
Kelly gave Gage an annoyed glare. "Why don't you ask that lying partner of yours?"
The hangered shirts in Johnny's locker parted and his grinning face appeared. "I never lied, Chet!"
"You told me she was incredible!"
Johnny's head disappeared behind his blue uniform shirts again, and he began laughing harder than ever.
His partner's laughter must've been contagious, because Roy found himself chuckling right along with his friend.
"I never…said…that," Gage corrected, when he'd regained enough of his composure to speak. "I said that…she was…unbelievable," he somehow managed to blurt out, between fits of giggles.
"Okay," Kelly was forced to concede. "But you can't deny that you said that the two a' you had a really terrific time!"
Johnny fell out of his locker and onto the floor. He was now laughing so hard, he could barely breathe. He knelt there, doubled over the bench in front of his locker, laughing and laughing and laughing. "I never…said…that," he finally managed to get out, between guffaws, gasps and groans. "I said…it was an evening...I would never forget!" he quickly squeezed in, and then cracked up all over again.
Chet remained un-amused. In fact, he was looking downright miffed. Just as his mustached mouth opened to speak, the Station's alarm went off. The fireman finished tucking his uniform shirt's tails in and snatched up his helmet.
"Engine 51…"
Kelly gave his still-giggling, extremely aggravating shiftmate a parting peeved glare, before disappearing out the locker room door.
"…refuse fire…2147 South Polomar…cross streets: Garfield and Ames…Two-one-four-seven South Polomar…Time out: 07:53…"
Roy grinned down at his bemused buddy. "What was that all about?"
Johnny stifled a few last snickers and then started getting stiffly to his feet. "Chet took Margo…to a party Friday night. Well...actually, Margo took him," he corrected and commenced chuckling—again.
His friend's face filled with horror. "Not that Margo!"
Gage grinned and nodded. "That Margo."
"That man-hating chairm—person of the local Women's Liberation movement?"
Another grin. Another nod.
DeSoto shuddered. "How could you do that to a fellow fireman?"
Gage dropped back into his locker and began tugging off his shoes. "Hey, I didn't tell Kelly to call Margo," he stated in his defense.
"From what I just heard, you didn't discourage him any, either."
Johnny sat there, looking very pleased with himself. "I mean, it's not my fault that Chet has such an overactive imagination."
"You realize he's gonna wanna get even with you. Don't you. He's gonna use that 'overactive imagination' of his, to figure out a good way to get back at you."
Gage looked thoughtful, and maybe even a teensy bit nervous. He gave his smug partner a grumpy glare.
Sheesh! Roy could be such a killjoy at times.
Later that same day…
Station 51's paramedics were returning to quarters, following their sixth run—in as many hours.
Johnny suddenly leaned forward in his seat, so that he could look up at the sky. "Know what happened the last two times we got called out to replace 36's?"
"No. What happened?"
"We got a real bad thunderstorm."
"Johnny, that was just a coincidence. The weatherman is calling for sunshine and blue skies—all day. Honestly, how can you remember all that nonsense?"
"Because I file all interesting 'coincidences' away in my brain."
"Under 'N'…for nonsense?" Roy teased.
John gave the Squad's doubting driver a 'We'll see…' look. "Under 'I'," he calmly corrected, "for interesting."
His partner looked even more dubious.
The pair rode along in silence for a few blocks.
Suddenly, Gage started giggling—again.
DeSoto grinned. "Thinking about what you did to Chet?"
"Correction. What Chet did to himself. Maybe, just maybe, this'll teach 'im not to steal another man's dates."
His buddy looked more dubious than ever.
They finally reached the Station.
Roy backed the Squad into the apparatus bay.
The two famished firemen climbed wearily out and started heading for the rec' room.
Mike Stoker was seated at the kitchen table, scribbling something on a pad of paper. As their missing shiftmates came strolling into the room, the engineer stopped what he was doing and locked gazes with Gage. "One-thousand-one, one-thousand-two, one-thousand. I figured it out," he added, upon seeing the paramedic's look of complete confusion. "Two-and-a-half seconds was all the time you had to save Chet's life. That building was about 180 feet off the ground, and Chet was falling at an accelerated rate of 32 feet per second. So in the first second, he fell 32 feet. In the second second he fell another 64 fee—"
"—I, uh, believe what Michael is trying to say," Captain Stanley suddenly interrupted, upon noting that Stoker had lost Gage right at around 'I figured it out', "in his own inimitable 'engineer' way, is that…Yah done good, pal!"
"Oh," John gave his grinning interpreter a grateful glance. Then he locked gazes with the engineer again and beamed a grin back at him. "Gee. Thanks, Mike."
Mike flashed both his fast-acting friend, and his Captain, a bashful smile.
"So-o," the speedy rescuer patted his grumbling belly a couple of times, "anything leftover from lunch?"
Lopez glanced up from his crossword puzzle. "There's some sandwiches and salads in the fridge."
DeSoto's right hand had no sooner touched the handle on the refrigerator's door, when their Station's tones sounded.
"Squad 51…"
The dispatcher's words were nearly drowned out, by a sudden, unbelievably loud 'Boom!' of clapping thunder.
Roy winced and then followed his smug-looking partner back out to the garage.
Gage and DeSoto were kept hopping all shift.
So Chet didn't get a chance to converse with John again, until the two of them were assigned to get the kitchen cleaned up the following morning.
"When did you ditch Margo, Gage?" Kelly wondered, and passed the paramedic another dripping plate.
"I was gonna get out of her car at the first stoplight," John confessed, as he toweled the object dry. "But I hadn't eaten anything all day. So I let her take me to this really swank restaurant, where she insisted upon picking up the tab, and ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. I tell yah, I ate like a king. After dinner, she had planned to take me to this exclusive club. But I told her that I was too tired to dance. So then she suggested that we go back to her place. I told her I wasn't the kind a' guy who kisses on the first date."
The two guys traded grins.
Gage placed the dried plate down on the counter. "Margo ended up dumping me, actually—onto the sidewalk in front of my apartment building."
Kelly passed him another plate.
The paramedic looked curious. "So-o…when did you ditch Margo?"
"We-ell…I let her take me to the party. I let her pull my chair out for me. I even let her fetch me a drink. But, when she started showing me off to her friends—like I was her latest 'boy toy', I told her I had to go 'powder my nose'…and left."
The two guys exchanged grins again.
Suddenly, Kelly's grumpiness returned. "Because a' you, I'm out ten bucks cab fare!"
The paramedic just stood there, smiling unrepentantly. He set his soggy dishtowel down, picked up the stack of dried plates and went to put them away. "I was sort a' hopin'," he said, as he cautiously pulled the cupboard door open, "that the Phantom would give me a free pass." Nothing sprang out at him, so he set the dishes down and closed the cupboard door. "On account a' how I saved his sorry ass the other day."
Chet looked pensive. "That sounds reasonable."
The paramedic appeared to be both pleased and relieved to hear that and immediately headed off, in the direction of the locker room.
DeSoto finished changing into his civvies. Just as he was about to exit the locker room, his partner entered, closely followed by Kelly.
Johnny stepped up to his locker and jerked its door open. Instantly, his ears registered the dreaded 'sprong' sound. The paramedic cringed and closed his eyes, as a panful of water was flung in his frowning face. The fireman slowly forced his soggy eyes back open. He blinked the liquid from his lashes and aimed an annoyed glare in Kelly's direction. "I thought the Phantom was going to give me a free pass."
"I never said that," Chet nonchalantly replied. "I said, 'That sounds reasonable'."
Gage exhaled an exasperated gasp and then attempted to shake some of the water from his hair.
Roy flashed his flustered friend a smug 'What'd I tell yah?' smile. Then he stepped out into the apparatus bay and went strolling off in the direction of his car…whistling all the while.
The End
