The Fire Talks
Chapter Seven
by GCS and Hotshow
DISCLAIMER: "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. and Universal Studios. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction, and any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. This story is only written for entertainment. No financial gain is being realized from it. The story, itself, is the property of the author.
Johnny and Roy stopped by the market on the way back to the station to pick up the things Mike needed to complete their meal. They also decided, or rather Johnny decided, that they needed some vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup for desert. Arriving back at the station the two friends entered the day room with their grocery bags. Just as Johnny sat the bags on the table he could hear a quiet meow coming from the area by the couch. Looking over he saw Chet grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Seen any kittens Gage?" Chet bowled over with laughter. Johnny shot an angry look at him. "What's a matter Gage cat got your tongue?" Giggles could be heard around the room.
"Go play on the freeway Chet." Johnny spun on his heel and left the room. His arm was beginning to hurt from the long deep cat scratch. It hadn't needed stitches according to Roy, but it sure hurt. Johnny would never let on to his friends that a little cat scratch was making him feel bad, so he went to his locker in search of some aspirin. As he crossed the vehicle bay the tones went off. He redirected his walk and slid up next to the squad passenger door. Smiling over the top of the squad at his partner as they both climbed into the vehicle.
"Heart attack," Roy told him as he handed him the call slip.
"Yeah," Johnny met eyes with Roy. This call could go either way. It could be a false alarm like heart burn, or it could be a full blown attack. "Take a left." Roy was accustomed to following Johnny's directions without question. The engine followed behind. If he had been giving directions Roy would have turned right, but Johnny obviously knew a short cut that would get them there faster. Mike also knew that Johnny would shave as much time off of the drive as he could. He too followed Johnny's lead without question. The two emergency vehicles were on the scene in a matter of minutes. Roy smiled over at Mike as they both realized if they had taken the normal route they would have been at least another five minutes before arriving. Five minutes to a heart attack victim could mean life or death. Grabbing the gear from the squad the group of firemen approached the home.
"Help he's in here," a woman yelled from the front door. "He's not breathing."
Johnny and Roy sprinted to the house and ducked quickly inside. Johnny checked for a pulse and when he didn't get one dropped to his knees and began CPR. Roy quickly set up the bio-phone to get permission for an airway and medication. Mike set up the oxygen to be ready to hook it to the airway. Marco was bagging the man as Johnny did chest compressions. Captain Stanley radioed dispatch to get the ETA on the ambulance. Chet was setting up the drug box. Roy looked over at Chet. "Can you relay for me?"
"Sure," Chet said as he reached for the bio-phone receiver. These men worked well together. They had handled enough heart attack calls to know exactly what was needed. "Rampart stand by for vital signs. Mike had finished getting the oxygen ready and was working on getting a blood pressure reading. Johnny and Roy had taught their crewmates a lot about basic rescue work over the time they had been together at Station 51. The engine crew made excellent assistants to the paramedics.
Johnny was sweating by the time Roy had the airway in and IVs started. His arms were hurting especially the one with the cat scratch. Looking down at the bandage Roy had put on it earlier Johnny could see that it had begun oozing blood. He could see the red through the gauze. Captain Stanley also saw Johnny's arm, but at the moment it could not be helped. Roy got permission to shock the patient after administering the necessary medication through the IV port. "1,2,3 400 watts seconds, Clear!" He shocked the man. Nothing. "Again," Roy pressed the recharge button. "1,2,3 Clear!" The man's body jerked off the floor and a bleep could be seen on the screen. "We have him back."
Johnny wanted nothing more than to sit back and rest a minute, but in a rescue like this there was not time for that. Both paramedics knew that the renewed heart beat could disappear at any time. They had to move fast to get their patient to Rampart. Loading him on the gurney the crew got the patient and all the gear loaded in the ambulance and squad. Johnny climbed in with the patient. Roy would follow in the squad.
Half way to the hospital the patient crashed again. "Pull over!" Johnny yelled to the driver. "We need to shock him again." Johnny worked frantically doing chest compressions again as Roy climbed into the ambulance to assist. After another few minutes and two more shocks the patient once again had a pulse. It was weak, but it was there.
Johnny's arms ached and his head hurt from the exertion, but they had successfully gotten their patient back and for that the tiredness he felt was more than worth it. They delivered the man to Rampart and slowly made their way back to the squad. "I think he'll be all right."
"Yeah I think he will. That was close." Roy said patting Johnny's back. Just then Roy noticed Johnny's arm had been bleeding again. "We better let one of the Doc's clean up your arm."
Johnny smiled at his friend. "I'll do it while you drive us back to the barn partner." Johnny opened the compartment door and got out some gauze and antibiotic cream to redress the cat scratch.
Roy had already seen the extent of the injury and wasn't too worried about it at the time.
Just as the squad turned to back into the station the tones once again sounded, this time to a pile up on the 405. All together there were two cars and a pick-up truck. "I'll get the truck," Johnny told Roy.
"Okay Johnny I'll take the first car and have Cap check the other one."
Johnny was already beside the truck by the time Roy had asked Captain Stanley to check the third vehicle as he ran over to the other one. Reaching into the driver's side window Johnny felt for a pulse. He smiled as he found one. "Hey can you hear me?" He asked the young man in the driver's seat.
"Unnn, wha….what happened?" The man asked.
"You're going to be okay. You were in an accident. I'm going to get you out of here. Don't try to do anything. Let me do all the work okay?" Johnny talked to the man as he felt his arms, legs, neck and back for injuries. "Cap I need the jaws over here. He's stuck under the dash."
"Kelly, Lopez help John," Captain Stanley instructed. His car had a female occupant that had no serious injury. Captain Stanley was helping her over to sit on the bumper to the squad. Mike was helping him.
Chet grabbed the jaws and together he and Marco helped Johnny extract the man. Captain Stanley went over to help Roy. Fortunately Roy's victim only had minor injuries as well. Roy came over to see if Johnny needed any assistance. The man in the truck had a laceration on his forehead where he had impacted the steering wheel and a broken ankle. Johnny's bandaged arm was now covered in the victim's blood as was his shirt, but he had managed to get the bleeding stopped. Roy splinted the ankle. The paramedics were again on their way to Rampart with victims. Roy was in one ambulance with the two patients from the other vehicles while Johnny rode with the truck driver. Marco followed in the squad. By now it was late evening and the crew from 51's A-shift had not had dinner. They were tired and hungry.
In about an hour Mike put dinner on the table. He called to Chet and Captain Stanley just as the squad backed into the bay and Roy and Marco joined them at the table. Johnny went for a quick shower to clean up after the last run. He peeled the gauze from his arm and stepped into the shower. His arm hurt. Looking at it Johnny could see that it was red and puffy. "Great. All I need is for this cat scratch to get infected." He said to himself in the shower. He quickly dressed and towel dried his hair. He grabbed some fresh gauze and rewrapped his arm before Chet could see how red it had gotten. Johnny was tired from the last two runs. He didn't want to hear Chet's comments about 'cat scratch fever' that Johnny knew he would make. That disease affected children and Johnny knew that , but he also knew that Chet would taunt him with that comment for hours if he knew the scratch was bothering Johnny. He came into the kitchen just as Roy finished fixing him a plate.
"I thought you might be hungry," Roy smiled at him.
"Thanks Pally."
After a hearty dinner of fried chicken and vanilla sundaes for dessert the crew settled around the dayroom to relax. Johnny excused himself and went to lie down on his bunk. Roy glanced over the top of his copy of "The Fire Talks" and looked at his partner with a look of concern. Deciding that Johnny was probably just tired he went back to reading. A couple of hours went by and the rest of the crew joined Johnny in the dorm. Roy checked on his partner before getting into his own bunk. Johnny had his arm over his eyes and appeared to be in a deep restful sleep. The guys didn't get much sleep that night. At around four am they were called to a four alarm fire at an all night bowling alley. Johnny and Roy were in and out of the structure several times with victims. No one suffered anything more than smoke inhalation, but each of the two paramedics had carried out several victims. The paramedics made several trips to Rampart as did two other guys from Station 16. The fire was finally out and clean up completed just in time for shift change. The engine crew had already returned to the station and everyone except Captain Stanley had left when Roy backed the squad into the bay.
Roy looked over at Johnny asleep in the passenger seat and laid his head on his arms draped across the steering wheel. "Come on Junior. Let's get out of here." Johnny didn't make a move. "Hey," Roy reached over and gently shook his partner. "Wake up Johnny."
"Huh?"
"We're back at the station. It's time to go home."
"Okay Roy, I'll get up in a minute." Johnny never opened his eyes and his head never moved from against the passenger side window.
"No Johnny we have to give the squad to the next shift. You have to get out now." Roy nudged him again. Johnny turned his head toward Roy and cracked one eye open. He slowly came to awareness and nodded his head. The two men slowly got out of the squad. Captain Stanley came out of the office with a cup of coffee.
"You guys okay?"
"Yeah Cap, just a little tired." Roy said as he passed his commander. Johnny waved.
Suddenly as he approached the rear of the squad Johnny slid down and planted himself on the bumper, "Oh man."
"What's wrong Johnny?" Roy asked as he moved quickly up beside his partner.
Captain Stanley came around the back of the vehicle. "Roy, John?"
"I don't have any water at my place," Johnny lowered his head into his hands.
Relief spread across Roy and Hank's faces, "Well Johnny you can come to my place this morning. Joanne will fix us breakfast and…"
"No Roy too tired." Johnny said shaking his head still planted in his hands. "I'll shower here, now." He slowly got up and walked toward the locker room.
"Don't worry about him Roy. I'll see that he gets home," Captain Stanley patted his senior paramedic on the back and pushed him toward the locker room. "Go on home and get some rest."
"Okay Cap."
Johnny was finished in the shower in no time and came out to find Hank waiting for him on the bench with a cup of fresh coffee. "Come on son I'll drive you home. You can come back for the Rover later. I'll come get you or you can call Roy after you've had some sleep."
"I'm okay Cap. I can drive." Johnny stumbled a little as he went to his locker.
"No John you're not. You're exhausted and I'm driving you home."
"O…Okay Cap." Johnny quickly put on his street clothes and the two friends went out to Hank's waiting car.
Arriving at Johnny's apartment Hank had to wake the sleeping man. "Come on John let's get you upstairs." Johnny climbed slowly out of the car and had to hold onto the side to stand up. Hank took him by the arm and helped him up to his apartment. Johnny pulled his keys from his pocket and handed them to his Captain. Hank made short work of opening the door and steering Johnny inside. Johnny immediately laid down on the sofa pulling the blanket from the back haphazardly over his long legs in a wad. Hank smiled at the young man and grabbed the blanket shaking it out and covering the already asleep man with it. He glanced around the room. The apartment was sparsely decorated. In the corner there was a cardboard box. On top of the box was a copy of "The Fire Talks", the novel everyone had been reading. On the coffee table there was a newspaper that was open to the story that had been in the paper the morning before their last shift had started about the novel rising to the top of the best seller list. Hank smiled and shook his head. "You're more interested in that novel than you led us to believe John." Hank turned to leave the apartment. He stopped to take Johnny's sneakers off placing them on the floor beside the couch and left making sure the apartment door was securely locked.