The Dilemma- Part 1

Winter of 1983

"5...4...3...2...1...YES!!!LET'S GO MARCO!!!" Chet cheerfully screamed, as he ran to the dorm so he could change for the three day fishing trip he and Marco had planned. Marco just shrugged his shoulders and followed behind. They both changed and crossed paths with Hank, Mike, Johnny, and Roy as they left the dorm.

"Cap, Mike, sure you don't want to join us?" Chet asked.

"You know EXACTLY how I feel about fish" Hank growled as he shook his head at the thought.

"Sorry guys. We've had this hiking trip planned long before your fishing trip" Mike replied.

"Roy?" Marco asked.

"I would love to Marco, but I already promised Joanne that I would help do a few things around the house."

"What about you Johnny?"

"Sorry Marco. I wish I could, but Jenna's sick"

"Still?"

"Yeah. Nasty cold she picked up. I don't even know where she got it from"

"Who cares where she got it from. Why don't you just drop her off at Roy's for the weekend. You drop her off all the other times" Chet interrupted.

"Chet, don't be so tacky!" John answered. "Besides, me dropping her off all the other times are different than me just dropping her off over a fishing trip"

"Exactly!" Roy cut in.

"Fine, suit yourselves then. Have fun painting and taking care of a sick kid. We'll be having fun catching some fish, won't we Marco?!?"

Marco just sighed and followed Chet out to the parking lot.

The first day of fishing for Marco and Chet wound up being their last day. They didn't catch any fish, Chet landed in a poison oak plant, and Marco received a few bumps and scrapes when he tripped while running, all thanks to Chet, who accidentally angered some bees when he fell in the plant. They were headed back into the city that night, after the sky looked threatening to rain, and possibly snow in the mountains.

"Horrible....worst idea EVER!" Marco pouted.

"Oh come on Marco. It wasn't that....oh never mind. You're right!" Chet replied angrily.

"Do me a favor" Marco asked.

"What's that?"

"Never invite me to do anything with you again....EVER!!!"

"OH Lopez, come on.." Chet was cut off when Marco yelled "CHET WATCH IT!" Chet looked forward. By the time he realized what Marco was yelling about, he hit a deer that ran into the road. After hitting the deer, the truck rolled to a stop. Chet tried to restart it a few times.

"Shit! Kim's going to kill me" Chet said as he got frantic.

"Awww rest in peace you beautiful innocent creature" Marco said sadly.

"MARCO!!" "Why did you have to be roadkill little deer?!? Why must you have died?!?... Oh sorry Chet. What were you saying?"

"Kim's going to kill me!!! The truck won't start! And that's just the beginning"

"Well, what about the rest of our problems?"

"Well... we're in the middle of nowhere WITH NO PHONE!!"

"That's it?"

"Yeah"

"Oh well...maybe I can help there" Marco replied as he pulled out a map. He opened it up, studied it for a bit, and told Chet "Looks like we're not far from a cabin. Maybe they have a phone we can use"

"Oh great! But there's a slight problem to that"

"What do you mean?"

"I can't call Kim, your wife's out of town, we don't know what part of the forest Mike and Cap are in, and then there's Joanne"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So who do we call?" They sat for a few minutes until the answer hit them both at the same time.

It was unusual for Johnny to have fallen asleep in the living room, especially in his white -shirt, blue jeans, and with the TV on. He was awakened by the phone ringing. He let out a yawn, got up from the couch, and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Johnny, boy am I glad you're home!" Marco said from the other end.

"Marco? What do you want? I thought you were fishing"

"Well see it goes like this..." Chet came on after cutting off Marco. "We were heading back to the city, and well....I kind of hit a deer on the way back"

"Kind of? Chet, either you did or you didn't.."

"Ok I did hit it... but it wasn't my fault!"

"Huh huh, sure Chet!"

"Really Johnny!"

Marco's voice cut through over Chet "He really did Johnny!!!"

"Well if that's all..."

"Johnny don't hang up. I..we need a favor" Johnny just sighed. "What do you need?"

"I need...we need you to pick us up!"

"WHAT?!? No way.."

"You see, when I hit the deer,the deer killed my truck. And well, we don't know exactly where Mike and Cap are, Rita's in San Diego with Roberto, Joanne will strangle me if I call Roy out this late at night, and Kim's already going to kill me altogether just for the truck, so the only person left I..we can call on this late at night is you, buddy, pal!!"

"CHET!! It's 11:30 at night! Besides I have no idea where you two are at!"

Chet told Johnny where they were and how they got there. Johnny answered "CHET! That's a hour and a half away from here! So wake me to go out in the rain in the middle of the night to go pick you two up!"

"Well if you leave now, you'll get home faster, which then you'll be able to go back to bed!"

"Chet, perhaps you forgot too, but I got a sick kid here"

"And?"

"And? So I should go wake her up, bring her out into the cold and rain with a cold already so she can catch pneumonia, all because of you!!!"

"Well, there's no need to wake her up. You could just let her sleep in your rover with the heat blasting"

Johnny just sighed before he answered Chet back. "Whatever Chet"

"So does that mean you're coming?"

"What do you think?" Johnny responded as he hung up the phone. He put his jacket over his street clothes, put his shoes on, and quietly went into Jenna's room. He turned on the light, found her jacket, and tried to put her jacket on without waking her up. By the time he got her jacket on, he realized his attempt to not wake her up failed. He saw two little groggy eyes looking up at him.

"bye bye daddy?"she coughed.

"yeah sweetie" Jenna started to get herself up out of bed when Johnny stopped her and told her sweetly

"Hey you can go back to sleep. We're just going for a ride"

"blankie go?" Jenna asked as she pulled the blanket on her bed closer to her. Johnny looked and smiled at her.

"Of course princess" he answered her as he wrapped the blanket around her and carried her outside.

It was dark, a little too dark for Johnny's likings, on the winding state road through the mountainous national forest he drove on. Why he would ever go out on a dark road, so late at night in the rain over Chet, is all that he kept thinking about. Finally a harsh cough from Jenna brought John back into reality.

"You ok sweetie?" He looked into the rear view mirror on the land rover. All he could see was her pulling the blanket over her head. He just shook his head and kept driving. The ride remained quiet until he saw a curve in the road. He started taking the curve when Jenna scared him with another cough.

"Darn it Jenna..." His sentence was cut short when he heard Jenna moan "oww".

"Jenna, sweetie, what owie?" All he got in response was a moan.

"Princess?" This time, he had turned his head back. All he could see was Jenna continuing to pull her blanket over her head. He faced back to the road. He started thinking to himself

"maybe I should stop off at Rampart on the way back. She's been sick for about a week now and she's not getting any better. Besides Chet and Marco wouldn't mind. Actually, it'd be a good way for him to hide from Kim a bit to figure out what he's gonna tell her about what happened"

Finally he reached the last bend in the road to the cabin. He saw lights and thought "well at least I'm not the only one out here"

Shortly after he thought that he sneezed. He opened his eyes back to the road to see the other car coming at him. He tried to stop and swerve, but it was too late. The other car hit him head on, causing Johnny to crash into the guardrail a few times before the guardrail gave way, allowing the land rover to flip and roll down a hill.