A Rude Awakening

No matter what Roy tried John remained groggy and incoherent, fighting to keep his eyes open, there was no convincing him at this point what he had done and Roy was sure he didn't remember a thing. It was up to medical intervention now to try and reverse the effects of the drug he'd been given. As much as he hated to do so Roy stood up and pulled away from John, he was lifted onto an ambulance gurney and handcuffed to it in one smooth motion. As he was being rolled toward the ambulance the police officer who would be accompanying him started reading him his rights.

Hank insisted that Roy's temporary partner ride in with John, he knew, and so did Roy, that they needed to find those little girls. If something happened to them or they had been hurt in any way- Even if John were completely cleared of any knowledgeable wrong doing his self imposed guilt would do more harm to him than a firing squad.

As the ambulance pulled out the police car driven by the Sergeant in Charge pulled in. Hank wasted no time in approaching him.

"John Gage is on his way to the hospital, Sir," Hank started, "He's still pretty out of it and having trouble believing he really took those girls. The Doctors are going to do everything they can to help him remember what he did with the children, but in the mean time let's see if we can figure out where he might have left them ourselves."

The police Sergeant was pleasantly surprised by the firefighters focus on the young girls instead of their shift mate.

"Could we get a good look at that map you were using and see if we can get any ideas?" Hank suggested before adding, "Roy you better come over here, you know Johnny better than any of us."

The group spent a few minutes looking over the map, a dot was placed in the location of Dwyer's apartment building and another at the point where John was found. Then a Circle was drawn around the points starting at Dwyer's apartment and encompassing the space between there and where John was found. Time was calculated and they were amazed in the distance he had traveled. Hank reminded them that John was a fire fighter and that meant he was in top physical condition.

The rest of the crew was pulled in to the mix as Hank started to ask if anyone knew any of John's girlfriends and if any of them lived within the circle that had just been drawn on the map.

"Let's not forget that in his state of mind," Captain Stanley added, "He may have just set them down to get a drink from a drinking fountain or sprinkler somewhere and forgot about them."

"So you're saying we should be looking around every drinking fountain and sprinkler we see?" The men looked up to see Officer Charles and Dwyer stepping up to the group.

"Yeah, I'd recommend it," Roy added looking over the new comers. "Do you think the three year old would have tried to carry her baby sister away somewhere?"

"I don't know," the police sergeant spoke in response to Roy's question, "we should talk with the parents and find out if she's done that kind of thing in the past."

"Roy I'm so sorry about what happened to Johnny, I had no idea they were going to pull a special session with the crisis councilor tonight when I agreed to take Johnny to my place, and I had no idea Marlene would give him something other than what she was told to."

Roy thought for a moment and realized he didn't hold Dwyer responsible for what happened. His partner would have found some way to get into trouble no matter who was watching him.

"It's all right Dwyer, I don't think I've seen a better case for Temporary insanity before in my life, let's just find those girls before something happens to them. Because if anything happens to them there will be nothing left of my partner's sanity to save."

The search crews were directed to refocus on three different apartment buildings and as luck would have it the first one they went to they found a nurse that Johnny had dated, she didn't know anything about the children but she did know plenty about several other nurses Johnny had dated and the areas where some of them lived.

-0-

Meanwhile at the hospital John was quickly hooked up with two IV's and a catheter to help flush the drugs out of his system. Dr. Early was called and woken up for a consultation and his advice on what to do next, and of course he came back to the hospital to deal with his patient himself.

Dr. Brackett was called at home by fire department headquarters because one of the paramedics he oversaw was displaying signs of a mental breakdown, which was an interesting way to describe Johnny's actions, so of course he also quickly dressed and hurried back to the hospital to weigh in on the situation from a hands on point.

Dixie was contacted by the police, through the personnel office, because one of the nurses they met in their search thought she might know more about the nurses Johnny dated and where they lived. It wasn't long before she was also at the hospital with personnel records in hand and a police officer with a radio at her side.

Finally, only an hour before the drugs he had been give would have worn off anyway Johnny started to come around. With this news both Doctors Early and Brackett moved into his treatment room, each carrying a cup of coffee for him and followed by two police detectives. Two police officers had been standing guard over their prisoner from the moment he had been found at the burger joint. It made for a crowded treatment room.

When they arrived in the room Johnny was starting to turn his head back and forth and squinting against the light that was far brighter than he likes.

"Johnny, Johnny, I need you to wake up and talk to me, Come on Johnny." Dr. Early started prodding While Dr. Bracket turned the over head lights off to help encourage him to open his eyes.

"Doc," John opened his eyes and gave Dr. Early a puzzled look, he then looked around the room before turning back to Dr. Early, "What's going on here, I thought I was released to stay at Dwyer's place till Roy was off duty." John lifted his head but still felt the effects of the drugs, "Why are they —" Johnny started to point to the police officers in the room, that was when he noticed he was handcuffed to the bed rails.

"What's going on here, why am I handcuffed?" Johnny started to panic.

Dr. Early placed his hands on John's shoulders, more in comfort than to hold him down. While he was trying to get Johnny to look at him and not the police officers, Dr. Brackett worked the foot controls to raise the head of Johnny's bed till his was nearly in a seated position.

While the bed was rising John managed to take in the two IV's and the extra tube inserted lower in the anatomy and turned his focus on Dr. Early because he knew he would be the one to tell him what was going on.

With a hand on the side of Johnny's face to keep his attention on him Dr. Early began to talk,
"Johnny there was a slight mix up with your medications, as a result you started sleepwalking."

John registered what he was being told and noticed the tender soles of his feet, "Where did I walk to?"

"Well to be honest with you, we don't know, but we do know that you picked up a couple of girls along the way." Dr. Early was treading carefully to keep his patient and friend from going in to a panic that would be anti-productive.

Johnny started to smile revealing he had gotten the wrong idea about what was being said, then he turned to the law enforcement officers in the room. "What did I do? Are they saying I tried to rape them or something?"

"NO Johnny listen to me, listen carefully," Joe Early pulled John's face back to focus on him.

"The two girls were age three years and eight months," John's eyes flew open wide in panic and disbelief.

"Doc, I'd never," Dr. Early stopped him quickly with the raise of his hand.

"I know you'd never do anything like that under normal circumstances, But you were under a lot of very heavy sedatives at the time. We think you were responding to their crying and wanted to help them."

"So what did I do, did I hurt them, why am I here with these," he pulled at the handcuffs holding him to the bed, "their okay aren't they?" John turned deeper and deeper in panic as his breathing increased out of control. "They're not dead are they?"

"Johnny, Johnny, listen to me, come on listen to me, focus on me." Dr. Early fought to get control of his patient. "WE don't know where the children are, when we found you they weren't with you. We need you to help us find them. We need you to help us figure out where you left them."

"I left them somewhere?" Johnny questioned, how could he have done what they were telling him. How could he have hurt two defenseless little girls, little babies?

Still breathing faster than he should Johnny looked at Dr. Early then Dr. Brackett and gave a slight nod of his head. "Where do I start what do I need to do?"

"That's good Johnny," Dr. Early continued to hold his face in his hands to keep him focused, "We need you to think back, think hard, what's the last thing you can remember?"

Feeling that the medical personnel were working for the same goal they were, which was finding the lost children, the Law enforcement officers remained silent and stayed off to the side.

Johnny rest his head back against the bed and tried to think hard, but it looked as if he might go back to sleep.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Dr. Early prompted again.

John's eyes flew open in panic and his breathing increased and he locked eyes with Dr. Early but didn't say a thing.

"What is it, John, what do you remember?"

"He shot them, their beds, he thought they were in them and he just shot them to pieces. His own children, he just shot them!"

Dr. Early and Dr. Bracket looked at each other in a panic similar to the state John was in then looked to the police.

"That was yesterday morning," the detective responded quietly, "The shoot out in the apartment next to his."

Dr. Early took a calming breath at the reminder of why John was on sedatives in the first place and turned back to his patient, still maintaining contact by holding his face in his hands.

"That was before Johnny, that was yesterday morning, you got the children out, their safe now with their mother."

"They said I didn't do anything to get them out of there," Johnny continued to remain panicked and if they didn't need him to remember where he'd left the little girls both Dr. Early and Dr. Brackett would have had him sedated again by now. "They asked how I felt now since I did nothing."

"Johnny, Johnny," Dr Early gave a gentle shake of his patients head but maintained his hold. Dr. Brackett reached for an ammonia capsule but waited and gave Dr. Early one more chance to calm his patient down and pull him out of the one traumatizing moment.

"Johnny!" Dr. Early's voice was loud, sharp and demanding; Johnny stopped breathing for just a second and focused hard on Dr. Early's face, "those children are safe, you saved them, the reporter who asked you those questions had bad information. You didn't do anything wrong, but I need you to move on from there. That was last night I need you to remember what happened tonight."

"Tonight?" Johnny questioned. Calming down just slightly as he kept his focus on Dr. Early.

"Do you remember, you were spending the night at Dwyer's place, you were staying in his guest room so you could sleep better? Do you remember going home with Charlie Dwyer?" Dr. Early continued to talk to Johnny and to hold his face in his.

Johnny paused in thought for a moment his eyes rolled around in their sockets as he thought, "I don't know maybe. Charlie had to go to headquarters, told me to choose between Hall or his friend Marty or something like that, Marlene, that was her name, said you told him not to leave me alone."

"That's right I did," Dr. Early was happy to be moving forward. "What happened next?"

"He told me he had a wife," Johnny remembered bits and pieces but they all seemed like a long ago, half forgotten dream. "She died, before he was a paramedic, Chocked to death. They'd only been married six months."

"Did he tell you that?" Dr. Early was making sure they were still on the right time line for the information they needed.

"Yeah, Marlene looks too much like his wife, not his type. He gave me permission to," Johnny stopped again and his facial features confirmed he was thinking hard. "Not sure what he wanted me to do."

"Okay Johnny, that's understandable, we wanted you to sleep you were bound to be confused because of the sedatives we gave you before you left the hospital. You needed to sleep do you remember that?" Johnny gave an affirmative nod of his head and put his complete focus back on Dr. Early's face.

"What do you remember next?" Dr. Early prompted. Johnny just looked at him with a distant stare.

"He gave me the other pill, and a glass of milk." Johnny spoke then paused for a moment Doctor Early was about to prod him forward when he added. "Put me to bed in my favorite sleeping clothes. He hung my dream catcher over the bed to catch the nightmares."

"You're doing good Johnny, what next?"

"He sat down on, on the side of the bed, he sat there and talked to me, He started to cry, he was crying and I was so sleepy I, I couldn't help him. I couldn't help him." John started to get frustrated and anxious again. "I couldn't help him."

Doctor Early pulled John into his shoulder and allowed him to cry as he rubbed the back of his head. "That's okay, I'm sure you did more than you remember. I'm sure Charlie just needed to cry some and that he didn't need you to do anything more than listen. He's alright now, he's just worried about you, I promise we'll see to it that he gets all the help he needs. Can you trust us to take care of both you and Charlie?

John's crying began to subside with Dr. Early's words and finally he was able to nod his head against the shoulder he was being held to. Once John was more settled, Joe rest his head back against the bed but still kept one hand at the side of his face to keep him focused.

"You're doing real good Johnny we're almost there. Can you remember anything that happened after that? Do you remember when Marlene was there looking after you?"

Again John thought hard and took a few deep calming breaths, "She made me chowder, clam chowder, better than Captain Stanley's. Don't tell cap I said that."

"I won't, I promise," Joe smiled and tenderly rubbed the side of Johnny's face. "Do you remember anything after the clam chowder?"

Johnny thought again, "We talked for a while and I was getting shaky again, I kept remembering the guy shooting, shooting at me, to a, to make me stay where he wanted me." Johnny started breathing fast again then took a deep breath and held it, forcing some resemblance of control. "She gave me my pills, and a, a, glass of milk to drink with them. Then she helped me back to bed and stayed with me, she was rubbing my back and then I must have fallen asleep."

"Do you remember anything else?" Dr. Early leaned forward and stood face to face with Johnny, Do you remember hearing the girls crying?"

John looked away in thought but then looked back at Dr. Early, finally he shook his head negatively.

"Do you remember someone shouting, a man shouting for the little girls to be quiet?"

Johnny thought long and hard again and finally shook his head. "I, I a, I don't remember anything like that Doc. The last thing I remember was Marley rubbing my back and then I woke up here. I woke up with them and these." John motioned to the police officers in the room and then pulled again against the handcuffs attached to the bed rail to make his point.

Dr. Early stood up straight and took a small step away from the bed, after a deep breath he turned his attention to Dr. Bracket and then took in another breath.

"So does that mean I really didn't do what they're saying I did?" Johnny questioned hopefully.

Dr. Brackett chose to step into Johnny's line of vision and carrying on the next part of the conversation.

"There were witnesses, Johnny, Marlene Johnson for one and the little girl's parents are two more. The police have found a few people who were driving on the road in front of the apartment building that said they saw you carrying the two little girls and running up the sidewalk." Dr. Brackett took a moment to place his hand on Johnny's shoulder, "What we now know for sure, no doubts, is that you were sleepwalking, you had no conscious awareness of what you were doing or why you were doing it. Unfortunately that is a rather common side effect of the drug that was substituted for what had been prescribed for you."

Johnny listened carefully to what Dr. Brackett was telling him, he felt absolved of any wrong doing, except, except they were also telling him that there were two tiny little girls out there somewhere that he had sat down and walked away from. Two tiny little girls all alone in the dark, cold, hungry, scared, and whether he knew what he was doing at the time or not he was the one who left them there.

"You got 'a help me remember doc. There has to be something you can do to make me remember where I left those little girls."

"I Don't think there is much we can do Johnny, but don't worry there's a lot of people out there looking for them. We'll find them."

"And what if you don't? Doc you've got to make me remember. There's got to be drugs you can use or hypnosis something like that," Johnny pleaded.

Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early once again shared silent consultation looks and they both sighed.

"It's a long shot Johnny but hypnosis might help you remember where you took the girls. It could also bring your memories from the day before up front and more vivid than they are now. It could be difficult."

"I don't care about that, once you find the girls you can dope me up again if you have to but we've got to find those girls. As fast as possible."