Vince arrived at the station late afternoon, Gage and De Soto were on a run. Captain Stanley was on the phone. Chet offered Vince some coffee. He accepted the coffee but Chet could see that Vince was a little annoyed. "Everything ok Vince?" he asked.
"What's up with Gage complaining, that I took too long to get to a scene when I was there before him. He should have been complaining about his wayward partner." frowned Vince.
"Really?" asked Chet. "Gage didn't mention anything about his partner. What happened?" he innocently asked, trying to draw as much information out of the officer as he could, without raising suspicion.
"It's when he sent him out for the backboard, I could tell Gage was really struggling, you know, keeping the victim alive. He was rushing from the phone to the victim. He kept looking at the door for his partner. When he finally turned up, Gage was really annoyed. I remember he said to him'you took your sweet time'. His partner just shrugged his shoulders" Vince finished his coffee.
"That's interesting Vince cause Johnny is having trouble remembering that very run."
"Really then why did he conplain?" he asked a little annoyed.
"You'll have to ask the Cap that"
"He'll have to ask the Cap what Kelly" injected Stanley surprising both Kelly and Vince.
"Vince here was just telling an interesting story about that run Gage is having trouble remembering Cap" Kelly pointed to Vince.
Just then the squad backed into the bay. Both Stanley and Vince entered the bay area. Gage smiled at Vince. "Good to see you Vince" As annoyed Vince was he couldn't help but smile back at Johnny.
"We have a little problem John" he stated.
"Lets take this into my office fellas" Stanley ushered them both into his office.
"Psst..Roy" Kelly nodded his head to the kitchen. "I just had an interesting conversation with Vince. Seems Johnny was none too happy with Healy cause he dissappeared on him while he was treating a victim. Vince said when he turned up with the backboard Gage was really annoyed and said 'you took your sweet time'. He said he worked really hard to keep the victim alive" Kelly showed his concern for Gage.
"That certainly doesn't sound like someone who's slow and acting like he's been drinking as Healy put it" De Soto was frowning, something definately wasn't right. "I think I'll give Dr Brackett a call and get him to isten to the tape." De Soto dialed the number and asked for Dr Brackett.
Brackett was most concerned when De Soto relayed the information. He told De Soto he would look into it. "I'm on my way over to talk to Johnny and Captain Stanley"
"You know Roy I was talking to my friends over at 43s, seems Healy and his partner Gibbs are not very popular." Kelly poured himself another cup of coffee. "Turns out they take a long time on runs and when someone fills in for either of them, they complain to the crew about their dissappearing act during treatment" he nodded knowingly to De Soto.
"So what your saying" De Soto made his way over to the table to sit opposite Kelly "Healy and Gibbs are probably up to something during runs"
"Looks that way" replied Kelly.
Meanwhile in the Captains office things were starting to come to light for Gage.
"I knew it, the backboard. He took a really long time to get the backboard. I almost lost that patient" he looked at Vince for reassurance as he still didn't quite trust his own thoughts. "So when I said the twenty minutes, it wasn't about you" pointing to Vince "It was Healy. I think I was going to lodge a complaint with you Cap and that's when I fell out of the squad"
"Or was pushed" injected Stanley.
"But I still don't understand why I couldn't remember much about that run"
"I can help you there Johnny." Dr Brackett's deep voice startled Gage. "I got your bloods back, tiny traces of diazepam and some traces of prozac." he looked up and half smiled.
"Prozac. What the heck is that?" Gage thought things were going from bad to worse.
"It's used as a behavior controlling drug" stated Brackett.
"But we don't have that in our kit, so how would that have got in my system?" asked Gage. He felt totally wiped out emotionally.
"It's usually in capsule form" informed Brackett, he shrugged his shoulders, his mouth was twitching "I'd say it was probably mixed in something you digested."
"But how, who would have mixed it ..." and then the pieces fell together "Healy...Why?" Gage looked at the three men.
Stanley rubbed his neck and sighed, Brackett frowned and Vince looked like he had just swallowed a canary.
"What?" Gage said to Vince.
"I think we just solved a string of robberies and one of those robberies included a container of Prozac capsules"
Missinterperating Vince, Gage shook his head and stepped back "Aah no, no...you're wrong...I would never" Gage turned around and walked into the bay area.
"Johnny, I'm not accusing you. Some of these robberies were in another county but they're all the same MO" Gage was pacing running his hands through his hair, he looked up.
"Will you come back in here and calm down John" Stanley ordered.
"Cap I think you should know something we found out at 43s" said Kelly
"What's that Kelly?"
Things moved quickly from there, Healy and Gibbs were detained. Their lockers and homes were searched. Several stolen items were found. Several charges were laid against them. Healy was charged with unlawfully drugging Gage and assault. Healy denied the charges but since Brackett had tested Gage and listened to the tapes and the crew gave statements about Gage's behaviour, Vince was sure the charges would stick. There was too much evidence for Healy to deny them. The only charge that couldn't be proved was assault since no one saw Gage get pushed and he still couldn't remember clearly what happened.
Gage was sitting on De Soto's deck sipping a beer. "Seems I have a lot of people to thank" Gage stated, feeling much calmer than he had for some time.
"Chet is one you have to thank" De Soto took another sip of his beer.
"You know Roy...this was all your fault" Gage sighed and got more comfortable.
De Soto looked up and frowned "How did you figure that?"
"Well...if you hadn't of taken that day off to go see Kirk's teacher...none of this would have happened" Gage half smiled and raised his I eyebrows.
De Soto shook his head "Only you would think that Junior" They sat silently enjoying each other's company, sipping their beer and watching the sunset.
