Part VII
Head Nurse Dixie McCall and Dr. Mike Morton were the two that went to meet the helicopter. All they knew was that there were two victims that had been caught in a landslide caused by the morning's quake. The first recognizable face Dixie saw was Roy's as he was keeping a close eyes on whoever was in the stokes, which meant the back facing her most likely belonged to Johnny. Seeing only one stokes, she wondered who the second victim was - until Johnny turned his head and she got her first good look at him.
It was never a pleasant surprise to find out incoming wounded were friends. Dr. Morton kept his professional demeanor in place for the most part, but even he winced at his first good look at Chet's leg.
"Dixie, get a call to orthopedics and x-ray. Then call Kel and see if he can check Johnny over while we're with Kelly. Come on, let's get these men inside pronto."
Johnny's first reaction was to deny he needed to see anyone until he knew how Chet was. He was overwhelmingly outvoted by Roy, Dixie and Morton though and found himself loaded into a wheelchair despite his protests.
Dr. Brackett reached the treatment room about the same time as Johnny did. It didn't take him long to find he had a disgruntled patient on his hands.
"John – the sooner you settle down and let me do what I need to do, the sooner I'll let you out of here so you can check on Kelly. Understand?"
Dixie stuck her head in just a couple of moments later.
"Chet's being taken into surgery, tiger. The rest of the guys are on their way and Roy's in the waiting room."
Then noticing Kel's frustration, Dixie came the rest of the way in, taking Johnny's hand.
"Do you remember what happened, Johnny? You and Chet were the only ones there, right?"
"Yeah. I've got to go back and get Chet's pan."
Dixie's eyes flickered up and met Kel's. He looked as puzzled by that comment as she was.
"Pan?"
"Old cast iron skillet. You know between it and its lid that thing weighs about thirty pounds?"
"Pretty hefty."
"Yeah. I kind of thought Chet was crazy for lugging around something that weighed that much. He says its older than he is."
The ramblings coming out of Johnny were starting to make sense now.
"So – he brought that pan for your fish fry?"
"Yeah. It's under all that dirt somewhere. Dr. Brackett? Could you ask Dr. Riker to look in on Chet?"
"You mean Dr. Riker over in pediatrics?"
"Yeah. That's the one."
"Tiger, I know Chet can act a bit young, but don't you think he a little old to be seeing a pediatrician?"
Dixie finally got a grin from the young paramedic.
"Yes and no. I've been talking to Dr. Riker about learning problems. I was trying to keep Chet talking while he was trapped and – you don't think Chet is stupid, do you?"
"No. A little immature, but hardly the only man I know that suffers from that."
"Well, Chet thinks he's stupid. I think he might be dyslexic."
"Hm. Well, even assuming that you might be right, what do you think Dr. Riker could do for him?"
"Well, you know how we have to test for promotions at the Department? Chet says he never has been able to take a test well. Maybe . . . ow!"
Johnny flinched as Dr. Brackett hit an especially tender spot, then drew a deep breath as he tried to organize his thoughts.
"My head aches and I might not be saying this right, but wouldn't it make sense that he might do better at a test if he wasn't going into it thinking he's too stupid to get it right?"
Squeezing Johnny's hand slightly, Dixie nodded.
"That makes perfect sense to me, Johnny. And besides, Dr. Riker might be able to give him some suggestions on how to cope with it better."
She narrowed her eyes at Kel, who was giving her a skeptical look.
"Okay, so he's older than the rest of Dr. Riker's patients, but Frank Riker has made the study of learning problems his life's work. What would it hurt to ask him?"
"I know when I'm outnumbered. Fine. I'll ask him. If nothing else, it might give Kelly something constructive to do while he's recovering. I'm going to be numbing this area, John. I think it will heal better with a couple of stitches."
Dixie gave Johnny's hand another squeeze to distract him.
"You've been jumping around a bit mentally, Johnny. Why don't you tell us what happened?"
"Well, I really don't know what happened to begin with. I mean, we set up camp, fished, ate dinner, told a few stories and settled down in the tent. Next thing I remember, I'm still in my sleeping bag, but I'm out of the tent and my head is killing me. Then I realize that everything is sort of bouncing and I fully woke up as I figured out it was an earthquake. I didn't exactly know where I was, only that it had to have been Chet that got me there, so I decided the best thing to do would be to stay put until my head cleared. But then I heard Chet scream and I had to see if he was okay."
Johnny's grip tightened slightly on Dixie's hand.
"All I saw at first was his hand sticking out of a pile of dirt and my first thought was that he was dead, but I started scrambling the dirt off of him. You know he told me that he'd been buried alive before? Man, that's creepy. So – I mean, he's got this whole thing going on thinking he's on borrowed time from the first time that happened and that it doesn't really matter because he's not that bright. You know, he teases me all of the time about stuff, but when he talks down on himself, he's not teasing then. He's serious."
"When was Kelly buried before?"
"When he was in Vietnam. He said his left leg got messed up pretty bad then too."
"Hm. I think I'll call up and give them a warning that they might have to look out for old scar tissue. Well, stitches are in. I'll let you get into a wheelchair and join the others if you promise to stay in it. You're going to be here at least overnight for observation."
"Alright. I'll behave."
Dr. Brackett took that with a grain of salt knowing that Johnny would probably also agree to wear pink polka-dotted pajamas in order to get up to await word on Chet's condition. Giving his head a shake, he spoke to Dix before going to make his call.
"See if you can keep him out of trouble."
A slightly wicked smile graced Dixie's face.
"No problem at all, Kel. I'm going to turn him over to Hank."
