Founding Father – Conclusion

Station 51

Roy was the first arrival.

Once he'd pulled his Porsche into the parking lot, he took time to absorb his surroundings. He'd never been part of a new fire station before.

He entered and was greeted by two sights – the now-familiar Squad 51 and the majestic Engine 51 - appropriately, a Crown. Wow.

Roy resisted the urge to walk over to the vehicles and instead went into the locker room. Sitting on a bench was a young man, maybe a year or two younger. Roy had seen him before, but couldn't remember his name.

Roy moved forward. "Hi," he said, stretching out his hand. "Roy DeSoto."

The other man looked up and accepted the hand. "Oh, Hi," he responded. "Mike Stoker."

Stoker. Not only 51's new engineer, but a new engineer, period. "Congratulations," Roy said.

"Thanks. You, too. You're one of the para – uh, para…"

"Paramedics," Roy finished. He knew he and Gage were going to be doing that a lot early on.

"Right," Stoker said. "Congratulations to you."

\

"Thanks."

That was the end of the conversation for now. Well, Roy had heard that Mike Stoker, who had served as a lineman at Station 18 before his promotion, was considered one of the quietest men in the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

As Roy put on his uniform, the locker room door opened to a man who was the exact opposite. "Good morning, Roy!" John Gage exclaimed, stopped momentarily when he saw Stoker, then gave an enthusiastic "Hi!" and reached out his hand. "John Gage!"

"Morning," Stoker responded with a nod, returning the handshake quietly. "Mike Stoker."

Roy forced back a smile. Talk about polar opposites….

"Good to meet ya. I've heard a lot about you," Gage continued, congratulating Stoker on his promotion.

As the young man rattled on, another man walked in. Roy turned around. Marco Lopez.

They hadn't been crewmates, but had frequently served together when one or the other had overtime. Somehow, they'd developed a teasing relationship – particularly over their cooking. Roy knew that Lopez was actually an excellent cook.

Lopez smiled. "Good to see you, DeSoto – even if you are one of the worst cooks in the fire department."

"I seem to remember an engine company being sent out after the last time you cooked chili," Roy shot back. He could hear Gage giggling.

"We're giving bad impressions to these other guys here," Lopez said. He reached his hand forward. "John Gage, right? I'm Marco Lopez."

"Oh, I've heard all about you – and your chili," Gage responded.

Lopez looked at Roy. "Oh, don't listen to DeSoto; he exaggerates."

"If it's about you, Marco, he's not exaggerating," came a new voice from the door. They turned to see a short, curly-haired man.

Before Lopez could say a word, the man had looked at Gage. "And what about you?" he asked. "Where's your bassinet?"

Gage frowned. "What did you say?"

"Where's your bassinet?" the man repeated. "I mean, the stork should have delivered you to the hospital, shouldn't he?"

Roy watched as his new – and young - paramedic partner got flustered. "I'm not that young," Gage responded.

"And you're not that tall, Kelly," Lopez broke in, laughing. "Guys, this is Chet Kelly. He should come with some sort of warning."

They were all surprised – Kelly especially - to see Gage stick out his hand to shake Kelly's. "John Gage," he said.

Roy looked at the two men. These two are going to have an interesting relationship, he thought.

"Good morning, men," they heard from the door.

They all turned. "I'm Captain Hammer," he said, walking forward. He shook hands with each of his men as they introduced themselves, one by one.

"I've heard good things about all of you," Hammer said. "It's good to start a new station in such a promising way."

The five men nodded silently. Hammer seemed approachable enough, but there was also a no-nonsense aura about him.

He walked out. The others looked at each other. Kelly broke the silence. "He seems OK," he said. His new colleagues nodded in agreement.

They fell silent again until Stoker popped up. "Well, time to get at it," he said. "I heard someone from Headquarters is supposed to be here this morning." With that, he shot through the door.

They all looked toward the trail the engineer had left. "I have a feeling that's more words than he usually says," remarked Kelly.

The others chuckled.

"Well, Chet, let's get dressed," Lopez said. "I want to look around this station – the kitchen, especially. Anyway, we've just met these guys," he added, with a wink to Roy and Gage.

"I need to find my locker, Marco," Kelly responded.

"Well, we all need to find our lockers," Lopez retorted. "Just be sure you can find your badge, Chet."

With disgust, Kelly looked at Lopez, then quickly at the paramedics, who were trying unsuccessfully to hide grins.

"You just can't stop, can you, Marco?" Kelly fumed.

The paramedics got into their own uniforms, watching the jokingly bickering linemen with amusement until they exited the locker room.

Roy turned to Gage. "Have you seen the squad yet?" Roy asked.

Gage shook his head.

"Let's go, Junior," he said.

As they left the locker room, Roy grinned as he heard Gage mutter about the nickname.

Roy DeSoto suspected he'd have lots of time to deal with the whirlwind that was John Gage.

Meanwhile, it was time to get to work.

THE END