Chapter 4
Bleats and Warnings
Roy maneuvered the dusty squad through the narrow entryway that led to the gravel parking lot of the petting zoo. He looked around him with interest as he navigated around the haphazardly parked cars, of which station wagons seemed to be in the majority. He headed towards the several buildings clustered together and flanking a wide, opened gate, which seemed to indicate the entrance.
Angling the truck near the brick walkway that led to the opened gate, Roy jumped out and met Johnny on the passenger side. His partner's blue jacket was zipped up to the top and the collar turned straight up to cover part of his neck; the younger paramedic grinned at Roy and pointedly tightened the green chin strap on his helmet before following him down the red brick path. He started whistling a ditty before they reached the small cluster of people waiting at the gate; Roy couldn't suppress a grin and looked over his shoulder at his warbling partner.
"I think it's the yellow brick road, Johnny, not a red one," he suggested, his voice laced with mirth. Johnny grinned back and shrugged, not the least perturbed by Roy's laughing correction. He tried to ignore the thin trickle of sweat sliding down the side of his face as he hustled to keep up with his rapidly striding colleague. Definitely a little too warm to be wearing a jacket in September, he thought, as he finally caught up and caught the tail end of the conversation. A woman had fallen down in one of the pens and the employees had been afraid to let her get up, as she seemed to have injured her leg.
"Follow me please. She's towards the back, in the goat pen. I don't think it's anything serious, but…" the owner shrugged, one hand beckoning them and the other sweeping towards the back corner of the park. Roy gazed in open admiration at the tidy, winding paths weaving through the various shapes and sizes of pens dotted across the several acres of the little zoo. A little oasis of animal paradise in the middle of the city, he contemplated, as he tagged along beside the woman, Johnny dogging his heels. Trees and patches of wildflowers provided shade and striking visual attraction; the normally expected metal benches had been replaced by chunks of logs, sanded smooth and coated with a clear finish and all conveniently located in the shade of the trees. Even the required trash cans had been cleverly camouflaged by silly wooden animal caricatures and the several restrooms they had passed by were built to resemble igloos. Igloos! All very pleasing to the eye, but Roy wondered how the animals fared in a place like this.
"Here we go boys," the woman announced, stopping at the gate to a fairly large pen. She swung open the gate and waited for the paramedics to precede her into what Gage had once termed "a man trap"; although when he had uttered those words he had an amused but slightly pained look on his face. Roy remembered that run from last week quite vividly – being trapped in a small room waiting for the inner door to be opened while at least ten female college freshmen jostled against them and, judging by his colleague's embarrassed and annoyed twitches, pinched BOTH of their behinds. The resulting bruises on his derriere were excruciatingly painful to explain to his skeptical wife, and had ultimately resulted in a day of frigid temperature in their home until Jo had relented and finally believed the story. His several days off, however, were then laced with sneak attacks from "behind", cleverly planned and executed by his snickering wife. By the time the next shift had rolled along, DeSoto was fervently wishing for a soft pillow and quite ready for a woman free environment.
This "man trap" however, was just a simple square area of dirt and clean straw. The Hispanic woman simply closed the outer gate behind them and then motioned for the employee manning the inner gate to push it open. The young man, attired neatly in a uniform of khaki shorts and green polo shirt, did as bidden and closed the gate behind the three as they entered the enclosure.
John glanced around him, scrutinizing the area quickly but thoroughly, the feline incident reflecting quite prominently in his actions. The rectangular shaped pen contained about twenty goats of different breeds and sizes, as well as some neatly sheared sheep. All of the guests had apparently been escorted out, for only a kneeling employee, a woman, and her two young children remained at the back of the area. The woman was sitting on the ground, leaning against the fence, while her kids were plastered against the wire fence on each side of her; both children had their tiny fingers on one hand gripping the fence while their other hand clutched the long, black tresses of their grimacing mother. Johnny wasn't quite sure if the expression of pain was from the yanking fingers of her terrified offspring or was the result of her propped up leg, now resting slightly elevated on the employee's hat, still recognizable as an African Safari pith helmet. At least that was what it looked like, not being an expert in hats; he wasn't quite sure but had to guess that whatever it was certainly had to be a lot cooler and probably a lot more comfortable then the black heat sucker that was currently baking on the top of his own head. He was sure his still damp hair on the top was steaming, probably emitting wisps of smoke. He swiped the back of his free hand down the side of his face, trying to prevent the trickle of salty liquid from hitting his scratches.
Johnny hunkered down beside the woman, assessing with his eyes the swollen ankle while Roy did the same across from him. Both men, while focusing on their victim, were keenly aware of what was transpiring around them. Although the college student that had helped them with the gate was distracting the animals in the pen with handfuls of feed, some of the curious goats kept drifting back to the cluster of humans.
After being butted gently for the third time, which had resulted in him almost landing across the woman's lap, Roy firmly planted a knee on the ground and tried to angle his back as close to the fence as he could. He was hoping that he could at least see what was coming at him. There was one large goat that seemed to have become fixated on him; unfortunately it also had enormous winding horns on its bony head that Roy kept nervously glancing at. It stood about a foot away from Roy, regarding him with large, yellow eyes, a black horizontal slit prominent in each one.
A smaller, brown goat with a long tangled beard had focused its attention on John, or at least his jacket; he was nibbling busily on the sleeve. Every time Gage pulled loose the little goat bumped him and latched onto the blue material once again. Roy would have found the whole situation extremely amusing if they didn't have an obviously distressed victim to take care of.
Speaking of distressed victims…Roy directed his thoughts away from the very distracting goats and focused his attention 100 % on the woman herself, and not just her obviously sprained ankle. The woman's lips were pouted out in an expression of pain and annoyance as she looked at Roy; it appeared that she wasn't sure if she should scream or start crying. Once his gaze met her dark eyes, however, he knew he was in trouble of a bigger kind.
"You're a fireman? And you take care of injured people, too?" Her voice has taken on a sultry huskiness to it, and a slim, elegantly manicured hand softly gripped his wrist.
Roy swallowed hard and broke the eye contact, skewing his eyes towards Johnny and wishing he HADN'T done that. His partner's equally dark eyes were wide in disbelief and he seemed to be fighting to keep his expression neutral; whether he was ready to explode in mirth or just extreme agitation, Roy wasn't sure. That little goat now had Gage's sleeve between his teeth and was pulling with all his might. Johnny reluctantly broke his scrutiny of the Roy DeSoto fan club that was going on in front of him and commenced a furious tug of war with his bearded nemesis.
Roy choked back his snort of laughter as the scuffle between man and goat continued but sobered immediately when the hand on his wrist moved further up his arm, gripping with a little more force then needed and sure to leave unexplainable bruises on his bare forearm. He resisted the natural urge to shake off her hand and instead tried to direct her attention away from him.
"How old are your children, Mrs.…?" The trill of laughter that met his query, while melodious, stirred uneasy thoughts in Roy's mind. They were proved correct when she replied that they weren't her kids, just nephew and niece.
"And you can just call me Nancy, Mr. R. DeSoto, with no Mrs. in sight for a long, very long time." She added, with an obvious invitation weaving within her purred words.
"Sorry about that, Miss Nancy," Roy muttered, wishing he wore his wedding ring while on the job. "Let's just get this ankle wrapped up; you'll need to go to the hospital for x-rays just to make sure it's not broken."
"Okay, anything you say!" With her free hand Nancy was trying to dislodge the tight grip of little fingers in her hair; her efforts were successful because her clinging limpets had completely forgotten their own fear of the animals. They were giggling and watching in avid fascination the fracas still taking place to the right of their aunt.
Johnny finally won the tugging bout, but only with an undignified sprawl on his rear onto the straw and dirt. His attention was immediately diverted to a different goat that was now nose deep in the opened bio-phone case.
"Hey now!" He made a furious, desperate dive for the case, visions of Brackett doing his own "chewing" of a certain paramedic when he tried to explain the teeth marks and missing knobs of the expensive piece of equipment. He flopped clumsily over the box, the palms of his hands and his chin hitting the dirt as he jack knifed his body to avoid smashing the controls of the box.
Roy, busy wrapping Nancy's ankle, ducked his head to hide the grin that he just couldn't keep under wraps. The sight of his hapless partner, straw covered butt up in the air and hovering protectively over the bio-phone, was just too much. The laughing kids had dropped to the ground in helpless abandon, completely releasing their clutching hold on their aunt and the wire fence. Unfortunately for DeSoto, however, their smitten relative, newly released from her hair captivity, leaned forward and grabbed onto her rescuer with both hands.
His own hands just finished with his task, Roy began to rise to his feet. He turned to face Nancy and tried to politely shrug off the clutching hands. The curly horned goat that had been standing immobile off to his side chose that moment to make his move. Bleating rapidly, the cloven hoofed mammal delivered a swift, hard prod to Roy's backside.
Air leaving his lungs in a whoosh of sound, Roy tumbled over Nancy's legs and crashed into Johnny, who was just slowly straightening up and still had his back to them. The partners collapsed in a flailing heap with Johnny flattened like a pancake under Roy. The older medic had instinctively tried to avoid falling on the woman's legs; this had resulted in him seriously squashing his fifteen pound lighter cohort.
"Johnny! Are you all right?" DeSoto asked in the other man's ear. He could have sworn that John bleated in reply.
"Get the mmmmph off of me!"
Roy finally understood the strangled words his partner was breathlessly uttering, and promptly scrambled to his feet. He couldn't help but mentally replace the nonsensical word in his new partner's snarled command with a few colorful words of his own; the way the day was going he was sure that both of them were probably going to be inventing a new dictionary of words by the end of the day.
Johnny immediately rolled to his side, yanking at his tightened chin strap and coughing. Roy cautiously advanced forward a few steps, holding out his hand while Gage gasped for breath.
"Gimme a minute, jus' gimme a minute!" He growled, sucking in a huge breath of air between each spit out word. He drew up his legs and flopped gracelessly onto his back, eliciting another round of giggles from their audience, whom had been momentarily rendered silent by the unbelievable spectacle that had unfolded in front of them. He spit out a mouthful of dirt and raised his head slightly to glance towards the gate. "Thank God…..Scotty isn't here…"
Throwing up his hands in mute surrender, Roy backed off a few paces and fought off the urge to rub the point of goat impact. He fervently hoped that bruises would not appear THERE; there was no way JoAnne was going to believe another "stranger than fiction" tale, especially when it involved that part of his anatomy.
He cautiously looked over towards the fence, giving Johnny some time to collect himself. Nancy was staring at him, the seductive smile still lighting up her pretty face. Well, at least he had distracted her enough to forget her injury. The kids were sitting on either side of her, hands over their mouths as they tried to stifle their merriment. The female employee still crouched behind Nancy, shoulders shaking in silent mirth.
Roy, remembering just where they were, whipped his head in the other direction to check the status of all the four legged creatures within the pen. They had all lost interest and wandered off, except for Gage's bearded friend. The little brown goat was standing two foot away from him, gazing at him with adoring eyes. Or maybe the goat was fixated solely on Johnny's jacket; Roy wasn't sure.
Johnny, helmet now dangling by the strap and lying over his shoulder, awkwardly clambered to his feet, brushing in vain at his straw and dirt covered clothes. He noted the presence of the hopeful goat with a scowl and glanced over at the four people behind Roy. Completely ignoring DeSoto, he studied the tipped over bio-phone at his feet and tentatively nudged it with his foot. Squatting down flat footed and facing Roy and the goat, he tipped the orange case over and then gently lifted and tipped the heavy case and shook off the debris. He set it back down and hopefully lifted the handset; he froze in place and stared at the entrance to the pen.
Thinking that maybe Scotty had materialized in time to witness their second joint slapstick act of the day, Roy followed the direction of John's gaze. It took him a long moment to understand what he was seeing; in that brief span of time the other paramedic had appeared beside him. He purposely inserted himself between Nancy and Roy, effectively blocking Nancy's view of his partner and blocking the one sided flirting that the extremely attractive woman seemed incapable of shutting off.
Within the mantrap square of dirt stood the young male employee and the owner, Mrs. Gutierrez, along with an extremely tall man of about six foot seven, whom was currently engaged in a rather heated argument with them both. There was a lot of hand waving going on by the two hundred and fifty pound man, and Roy decided that it was the finger that kept pointing at the woman at their feet that had him nervous. It appeared that the junior medic had the same apprehensions, based on his defensive movements and the way his eyes kept darting towards the squabbling trio. The towering giant was apparently Nancy's boyfriend, friend, or something like that because he was definitely getting very emotional. Now Roy wished that Scotty WOULD suddenly appear; he sure didn't want to become involved in some kind of confrontation, physical or otherwise, with a jealous "friend".
Nancy, still oblivious to the drama ensuing around her, frowned at the dark haired man that had emerged in front of her. He had dropped down onto one knee beside her and seemed to be intentionally distracting her from the other fireman. She looked at him and then at his nametag, her disapproving glare switching instantly to a petulant pout, and then sliding into a mischievous smirk.
"Mr. J. Gage, you have blood on your chin…." She intoned in a solemn voice, and then messed up the delivery by breaking into a fit of giggles. Johnny self-consciously wiped at his chin with the back of his hand, succeeding in only smearing the blood into a well-mixed mixture of blood, dirt, and sweat. Sliding down the zipper on his jacket partway, he absently fished in his shirt pocket for the handkerchief, forgetting that it was currently residing in his trouser pocket; he didn't notice the scrap of paper that fluttered out. Sharp eyed Nancy did, however, and quickly latched onto the downward spiraling missile. Her eyes opened wide as she read the phone number, the words "call me", and the name "Amber" written in flowery, cursive handwriting.
"Mr. J. Gage, may I borrow that green pen of yours?" She cooed innocently, stretching out her hand while shushing the unwelcome interruption behind her; the little girl was beginning to giggle again and pull at her blouse. "Hush Melanie…"
"But Nancy, Joe is….." Nancy waved off the girl's words and wrote something down on the paper. She tapped the cute paramedic's arm, well, maybe cute if he washed the junk off his face and his nose wasn't quite so biggggg…
Johnny grunted in acknowledgement, distracted by the bio-phone that he had dragged over behind him. He looked up and accepted the slip of paper Nancy was waving at him, not realizing that it had originally came from his own pocket. He slid it back into his pocket, still not paying much attention to the increasingly annoyed woman.
"J Gage!"
"Yes ma'am," Johnny responded, eyes flicking up and then settling back at the stubborn communication device between his feet. He paused, hand hovering over the box, as his brain finally shifted into awareness.
"Would you please give that to your, uh, partner, or whatever he is?" Nancy asked, sweetness dripping from every word, strongly incensed that this, this fireman, was completely oblivious to her charms and calling her ma'am! Ma'am for Pete's sake! He was no older than her, maybe the same age, or maybe even younger!
"Roy's married," the words automatically rolled off John's tongue. He finally looked up and gave his full attention to the woman after she grabbed his hand and squeezed; she was definitely emitting strong, thoroughly incensed waves of anger? Annoyance? Gage wasn't sure; he had to admit that his concentration was being divided into at least three different camps, one of which had, to all appearances, had won his argument and was blowing in their direction.
"Ahhh, well, that's just too bad," Nancy conceded, again shushing the persistent nagging of the child to her left. "And what's your name, Mr. Gage? Are you available?"
"Johnny, 'jus Johnny…yeah, but, sweetheart…do you know that guy?" John's chin jerked in the direction of the approaching storm, his low and insistent voice finally catching her undivided attention; the progressively agitated movements and utterances of her niece had not even made a detour in the route on the one way, man eating street Nancy was currently navigating at break neck speed.
Nancy slowly broke her scrutiny of the man in front of her to glance in the direction of the cyclone whirling towards them. A small smile broke through the blank look on her face and she waved a hand in dismissal. "That's just Joe, he's my boyfriend.
Gage didn't miss the sharp exhale of breath behind him and without looking, laid a restraining hand on DeSoto's pant leg that appeared beside him. Trying to look professional, a look he surmised he was failing at miserably due to the sweat now tracking through the dirt down both sides of his face, he laid his other hand down on the bio-phone. Releasing Roy's pant leg, he peered cautiously at the attractive woman. "I'm going to get on the phone with the hospital now, Miss, and see what they advise."
Both paramedics were sure they felt a slight tremor in the earth as Joe the boyfriend dropped to his knees across from them. "Nancy baby! What happened, are you alright?"
"I'm just fine, Joe honey. These nice para…para whats, guys, are taking real good care of me. Aren't you fellas?"
"Yes, Miss," John agreed softly, black phone finally cradled in place between his shoulder and chin as he twisted the antennae and turned the transmit knob on. He was studiously avoiding direct eye contact with either of the pair and was glad that both of Nancy's hands were fluttering in the air and were no way near himself or Roy.
"Hey, what's with the popsicle box?" Joe boomed out, his voice matching his stature. He pointed at the orange box and Johnny grinned, realizing just how close the bright color mirrored an orange popsicle.
"Oh baby, that's a telephone. They talk to the hospital with that," Nancy replied in a slightly condescending tone. "They're going to take me to the hospital to get my ankle checked out."
"In an ambulance? No way, come on kiddos; help Uncle Joe get your aunt. We'll take ya over to Vinny's, Angel; he'll take care of you. She gonna need an x-ray fellas?"
"Uhhh, yeah, strongly recommend it. We'll need…" John's words trailed off as the intimidating redwood in front of him effortlessly swooped up his girlfriend from a squatting position and carried her toward the entrance, the two children following obediently. "Sign a form," he concluded with a shrug and brief shake of his head. He looked down at the black phone still clutched in his hand, dropped it back in place, and closed the lid. He finally looked up at Roy, who was watching the procession leave the pen.
"You wanna chase after her and get that form signed?"
Roy reluctantly drew his attention away from the departing figures and met his partner's inquiring gaze. His eyes traveled over the flushed, dirty face, the swollen nose, and the cut on his chin. "Okay, why don't you get cleaned up and I'll find some ice for your nose when I get done with the paperwork. Meet you at the front, all right?"
"Yeah, that's good." Johnny's hand went up to his nose and gingerly felt it, than swiped again at his chin. "Man, what a day…."
Roy simply smiled and nodded his head. He picked up the trauma box and took off after Nancy and her entourage, hoping he would be able to catch up with Joe's giant strides.
Johnny rose to his feet and picked up the popsicle box, jumping when he felt the goat once again laying claim to his sleeve. A giggle wafted through the air from behind him and he pivoted toward the sound, pulling the material from the tenacious beast at the same time. The female employee, who had been steadfastly assisting Nancy during the whole bizarre incident, had also risen to her feet and was stretching her stiff muscles.
"Oh, that's Hercules. He's such a nuisance sometimes. Let me show you to the staff area, there are towels and stuff there that you can use to clean up."
"Sure, that would be great." Johnny trotted after her, yanking his helmet over his head and carrying it by the strap in his free hand. He nodded his thanks to the young man still manning the gates of the goat pen and caught up to the helpful woman.
"Is that camel still around here?"
"Oh yes, he's very popular. There's usually a line for the rides."
"Camel rides?" Well, that explained what a camel was doing in a petting zoo, John thought, following her pointing finger and catching a fleeting glimpse of the camel's head poking up above the flowering bushes and then disappearing once again.
"Of course, that and pony rides. Both adults and kids like the camel rides; sometimes we get college kids in here just to ride the camel. I know my fraternity has done that." She glanced at the paramedic curiously. "Are you a college student? You look familiar."
"Not really, I take a few classes here and there. My work schedule…" Gage shrugged and followed her through a gate marked "employees only."
"Right through there, J. Gage." She smiled at Johnny and winked, motioning with her hand towards an octagon shaped building covered in thatch and resembling a tiki hut. "I'm Tricia Vanders, by the way. Trish, just Trish."
Feeling the slow blush crawl up his neck at her teasing words, Johnny couldn't help but smile back at Tricia and compare her innocent but playful demeanor with that of Nancy's predatory stalking. "Ok, thanks…"
"I'll be out here somewhere, take your time!" She batted her eyes at him in an exaggerated manner, twirled her chestnut hued hair around a finger, and laughed; John ducked his head in embarrassment and high tailed it into the bathroom, dropping the box and his helmet onto the small, convenient table near the opening. Spying the large sinks lining one wall of the spacious room, he wasted no time in flipping on the taps and plunging his hands and face into the stream of warm water.
Gingerly blotting his face with a cotton towel, he leaned over the sink and tipped his face up to look at the cut on the bottom of his chin in the somewhat murky mirror. The cut had stopped bleeding, but now there were small bruises beginning to bloom around it.
"No wonder that hurt so much," Johnny mused out loud, remembering his chin cracking the ground in his efforts to protect the bio-phone. "Stupid goats…"
"HANDS UP MISTER!"
He dropped the towel in surprise at the screeched command and spun around, reflexively half lifting his hands in the air as he looked in confusion about the restroom. When a whistle followed the shrill words, he slowly looked up and located the source of the noise. Perched casually on bamboo rods that crisscrossed the dome ceiling, two grey parrots stared down at him with black, beady eyes.
Sighing in relief, and feeling a little bit silly that for the briefest moment he had thought he was in serious trouble, he returned to the mirror and the sink and finished his cleanup. Already thinking about the cold drink that Roy was hopefully obtaining along with the ice, he picked up the towel, wadded it up, and sunk it with deadly accuracy in the dirty linen bin. He spun around and took one long step in the direction of the exit.
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!"
Johnny grinned, paused, and glanced up. His good humor was rewarded with a plop of white on his shoulder; his sideways dance step wasn't quick enough to avoid the second direct hit onto his dark hair.
"No way!" He muttered in disgust, keeping his voice down at the thought of the young lady lurking somewhere outside of the building, probably within earshot the way his luck was running this shift. "What's with the animals and their sh…poop today, anyways?"
He stomped back to the sink, immensely grateful that the sink was deep and the faucet was a long, gooseneck; it extended up and over the basin allowing him to easily douse his whole head under it. Using the bar of soap, he thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed his hair for the second time that day. Well, at least he would get the soap out of his hair from earlier. Feeling the water running down the back of his neck and soaking into his shirt collar, he winced and ran a finger between the two collars. He looked down at the shoulder of his jacket, and then held his arm up and looked at the goat slobbered sleeve.
"This just gets better and better," he whispered to himself, "by the time we get back to the station I'm not gonna have a stitch of clothing left on me."
He rolled his eyes upwards and peered at the now silent parrots, who were staring back at him with avid interest. "And you two, don't go squawking at me about…about hauling me in for indecent exposure!"
He squeezed his eyes shut and turned his head but couldn't stop his lips from twisting into a smirk of amusement. Shaking his head in disbelief, he unzipped the jacket and yanked it off; he threw it under the still running water and scoured it with the bar of soap as best as he could. After thoroughly rinsing and wringing it out, he held it up by one finger and looked from it to his blood stained, cat clawed, and wet collared uniform shirt. He visualized the two garments rubbing against each other and his irritated skin.
"Guess the really wet one wins…no way I'm gonna wear those two wet things together."
He quickly but carefully unbuttoned his shirt, pulling it off and replacing it with the wet jacket, which he zipped up all the way once again. Giving the feathered comedians a wary glance, he made a wide detour around their target zone and stopped at the table where his gear lay. Opening up the bio-phone case he flipped his shirt inside and closed it again. He grabbed his helmet by the strap and bolted outside, nearly colliding with Trish.
"Oh! John, uh, Johnny, what happened to your jacket?"
Johnny grabbed her by the arm to steady her, then immediately released her and pointed an accusatory finger at her. "You didn't warn me about the pair of cops in there."
"Cops? Oh, oh, I'm sorry, I completely forgot about Mo and Flo, they didn't…oh they didn't…oh geesh, I uhh…" she clapped a hand over her mouth and coughed, trying to hold back her laughter. She gave up, letting the laughter flow over. John stared at her for a second openmouthed; he rolled his eyes but grinned at the infectious sound.
"I really am sorry, Mr. Gage," she choked out, finally getting control of herself and steering them in the direction of the front gate. "Those two are really something, though, aren't they? Their owner really loved Adam 12, the TV show you know, and since he had those greys from an early age, they really picked up the dialogue fast."
"Not a problem, it's been one of those days. Besides, I kinda like that show anyways; I guess those birds have good taste, huh?" He teased, good humor easily restored.
Trish giggled again, shooting the dark haired paramedic a sideways, admiring glance. She wondered if she dared asked him when he was off next; she remembered the slip of paper she had easily read over Nancy's shoulder and decided that being that forward was probably not a good idea. Although if he didn't plan on calling Amber, he wouldn't have kept the paper, right? So maybe he didn't mind if woman gave him their phone numbers or asked him out? She took a deep breath and took the plunge.
"There's your partner by the gate there…..Johnny, if you're ever off on a Saturday afternoon, a group of us hang out in the common area of the college, so if you're in the area and want to just stop by," she faltered to a halt, both with her feet and her mouth and felt her own blush crawling up her neck and warming her ears.
John stopped beside her. "Umm, yeah, sure, I can do that, good deal. Ok, thanks for your help, uhh, Trish, and maybe I'll see ya next Saturday….I'm off, yeah. Bye." He stammered out, backing up a few steps and then heading off in Roy's direction, wincing at his awkward school boy utterances.
Roy, noting the approach of his slightly off balance partner, moved to the side of the squad and set the two drink cups up on the top. He unlocked and opened up the compartment door; he turned back around and leaned against the side, crossing his arms and watching as Johnny closed the gap between them.
"They have a shower in there?" Roy asked, tipping his head towards Gage's wet head and jacket. Johnny scowled at him and bumped the box onto the shelf. Spying the drinks, he grabbed one and opened up the passenger door. He stepped up into the truck, placing his right hand on the chrome rail on the roof for balance. He took a long draught of the drink before looking down at his curious partner.
"You don't really want to know," he drawled, shaking the cup and rattling the ice before finishing it off in several gulps. He peeled off the lid and shook some cubes into his mouth. Noticing Roy still gazing at him in amusement, he shook the cup at him.
"Roy, if you knock me on my ass one more time this shift, I'm going to…going to call up Nancy and give her your phone number!" He huffed in exasperation and dropped down and onto the seat, grabbing his door and slamming it shut. He crossed his arms; the cup still clutched in one hand, he sulkily stared out the front windshield.
Roy moved to the door and looked in the opened window. "It's not like I did it on purpose. Here, I got you some ice for your nose, although it probably won't do much good now." He held out a napkin wrapped baggy, the ice within already starting to melt.
Eyes narrowed, Johnny looked at the proffered bag and accepted it with a long, drawn out sigh. "I know, I know, it's just….."
He held the bag up to his face and abruptly switched gears. "Say, didn't they have any food at the snack bar? Hot dogs or somethin'?"
Roy smiled at the rapid topic change and got into the truck before replying. "Nope, just peanuts, cotton candy, that kinda of stuff."
"Huh, figures. We haven't even done a transport to Rampart yet, have we? Man, even that cafeteria food sounds really good right now," he complained, emptying the rest of the ice into his mouth and crunching loudly. He tapped the empty cup on his leg and stared out his window, plucking at his wet collar with his free hand.
Roy merged into traffic, both hands lightly gripping the wheel as he thought about their runs. "I guess the upside is that you got out of cooking lunch."
Gage shot him another irritated look. "Yeah, well, tell that to my stomach."
Amazingly, the radio remained silent as the men made a fast stop for food and t-shirts. They pulled into the empty station and both men made a hasty retreat to the locker room. Roy went around the corner to the second row of lockers but doubled back again at Johnny's startled yelp and a loud noise.
"Oh…" Roy was at a loss for words seeing his partner standing ankle deep in bananas and cans of tuna fish. John looked at him, looked down, and looked at him again. He bent over and picked up a single banana and one of the cans.
"Johnson, gotta be Johnson. I wonder who told the guys…Scotty!" He stared thoughtfully at the yellow fruit in his hand and deftly peeled it down and bit off a chunk. He tossed the can up in the air and shot his partner a mischievous smirk. "Don't we have macaroni and mayonnaise in the kitchen? I think the engine crew just bought dinner!"
