TITLE: As Luck Would Have it (pt 6 of 10)
AUTHOR: dustytiger aka Trista Groulx
RATING: M to be safe (or whatever is the equivalent to R)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters, and I am certainly not making any money from borrowing them. They belong to NBC their creator and the actors and actresses who portray them.
SUMMARY: what would have happened in the early days had Kim made a different choice?
AUTHOR'S NOTES: this one is one of the longer chapters for dramatic purproses, plus it's Johnson again, and I really am enjoying exploring his character as a sub plot a name is revealed
"Jesus!" Francis heard her gasp.
He coughed. "Not the way a man wants to wake up," his voice was gruff.
"You shouldn't talk," Kim reminded him.
"Just a little smoke. Damn I didn't get her in time."
"Try not to think about that."
He couldn't not think about that right now, he hadn't gotten the girl out in time, and he hated when he couldn't get someone out in time. He had tried so hard to get her, then remembered the floor caving in, and some pain. Ruth was going to be so mad when he saw her. At least if he had hurt his foot he would not be able to work for a little while. There was an upside at least, for her anyway.
He hated having to take time away from work, he loved his job, and he knew that before he knew it he would have to retire. He knew the job stressed his wife out sometimes, but he had offered to quit before they were married, and she had told him she could live with the stresses of being fireman's wife if it meant sharing her life with him.
He never doubted that she loved him, but sometimes he knew it was hard for her to handle it when he would get hurt on the job. This time it had been something minor, but he had had some close calls. But he wanted to get that girl out, if he explained it to her that way she would understand. She had to. She always had before.
His mind was reeling and wasn't sure how he was going to explain everything to his wife once he got the hospital. That was when the panic began to set in; his heart was beating a million miles a minute. He couldn't go to the hospital and face her. Once Ruth realized he was going to be all right she was going to give him hell for what he had done. He was so worried about what his wife was going to say and do that he hardly noticed the tension between Kim and her partner.
"I am fine, Caffey turn this rig around!" Johnson snapped.
Kim was staring at the read out, and he knew that there was no way that anyone would turn a rig around with a guy whose heart rate had just spiked like that. But the driver in the front seat would have no way of knowing what the equipment was reading.
"No Sir," he defied.
"That's an order."
"No Sir," repeated.
"Turn this damn rig around! My squad is there!"
He had tried this before and it had worked with him. He always tried it with rookies, sometimes it worked, and sometimes it wouldn't. It usually depended on whether the veteran had ever been tricked into it. He hoped he could succeed again, he knew Kim was pretty convincing. Maybe because Kim was new she might somehow talk him into it. He was surprised she hadn't really said anything when he had ordered them to turn around. She certainly was acting strange.
Since Kim was still new normally it would be easier to get her to do what he wanted, which was at that point to get her partner to turn the rig around so that Francis would not have to face his wife. He wasn't ready. There was one thing in the world that scared him, and that was his wife when she was angry.
"They are not, and I ain't dealing with that wife of yours when I show up with an empty bus again."
One of his first trips with his boss he had made the mistake of listening to the order to turn around and go back to the scene. Ruth had been furious. First at the young rookie who had brought her husband back when he needed medical care, then at her husband for tricking the young man as he had. Francis was glad Caffey had learned that lesson it when he remember what his wife had threatened if he ever, and she meant EVER, did something that foolish again.
He looked up and Kim, who was looking very pale. His instincts as a Lieutenant, a father, and a husband kicked in. He now understood everything that had been going on that day. It became even more clear when he heard her shout.
"Stop!" yelled Kim.
"NO!" Bobby snapped. "He needs the hospital."
"I can wait a minute," Francis assured, he knew that look; Kim was going to be sick.
He hated puke, that's why he chose to run into burning buildings. At first he had wanted to be a paramedic, but when he realized how many patients puked he knew he would never be able to handle it. He had wanted to help people so he decided the next best thing would be fire fighting.
"You need to stop NOW!" Kim repeated.
"Damn it Kim! Why?"
"I'll puke all over you!" she hissed.
He slammed on the brakes, and Francis wished that stretchers came with seatbelts. Kim quickly jumped up, and out of the rig. He watched her stop for a moment before finding a garbage can nearby. There was nothing more humiliating then to be sick on the streets of New York during the day.
He could see pedestrians swerve to avoid the woman who was puking into the garbage cans. He could even hear their snickers from passers by. A couple of motorists zooming by even yelled obscenities. Sometimes he wondered what exactly he loved about the city where he had spent most of his life.
All the pieces of the puzzle had now fallen into place, and he began to laugh. He knew someone had given him pain killers because this was not a laughing matter. This was serious and when he got back to work there would be one hell of a situation to deal with.
"Sorry, Boss, next time she comes to work like this I'll have Doc send her home," he said.
"We can't have that," Francis sighed, shaking his head, that would certainly make the situation worse.
"Why not? She has to know that she can't come to work hung over."
Francis just laughed, the poor kid had no idea what was going on, but the Lieutenant did. He had been down this road a few times with his own wife. The misplaced anger, the morning sickness, all of it, and it was only going to get worse from here if they didn't start being more forthcoming with one another.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"She's not hung over," laughed Francis.
"She's not?"
"Ruthie has done this to me a few times," he was still laughing, though it was turning into a chuckle.
He just was not getting it. "What does your wife have to do with this?"
He shook his head. "Congratulations Caffey."
"Sir, did you hit your head in there?"
He still chuckled. "Possibly, but a congratulations is still in order in a situation such as this."
"What situation might that be?" the young paramedic was truly confused.
"When a man is going to be a father in approximately eight months," laughed the Lieutenant, who was now kicking himself for not reading the signs sooner.
She had acted just like his wife had before each of her pregnancies. She had had three and he missed this, Ruth would never let him live this one down. Not in a million years would she ever stop laughing at him when he told her that it took him this long to read the signs.
Of course it shouldn't really surprise his wife; it almost took her smacking him for him to understand that she was trying to tell him, subtly, that she was pregnant the first time around. This was probably not how the young couple had wanted the truth to come out, and suddenly it wasn't so funny anymore.
"Excuse me, Sir," Bobby said, jumping out of the rig, and going over to Kim. He was glad to see that the two of them might finally be getting it.
End part 6
End notes: so the scene in the bus is actually the original plot bunny that's been keeping me up at night, ps I know it's a tease with no first name, but come now it's fun