Life or Death part 10

When the paramedics finally returned to the station, they found that Jane had made them a very large plate of chocolate chip cookies as a thank you for having the Côtés over. Johnny went to the fridge and poured himself a tall glass of milk, offering some to Roy as well. Roy shook his head, and just grabbed a cookie. "How come these are still here? I would've thought they'd be all gone when you got back from the fire," he nodded towards Marco and Chet playing cards at the other end of the table.

Marco replied, "Yeah, well, there was a note saying that if we ate them before you got a chance Jane would hear about it, and we wouldn't get any more cookies for a month."

"She's pretty protective of you, Gage," said Chet.

"I'm impressed you actually listened to her," Johnny responded as he sat down.

"She makes good cookies," explained Mike from the couch, "Didn't want to risk it."

Roy grabbed a second cookie and sat down at the table beside his friend. This time he was the one who restarted their long-ago interrupted conversation. "So, about your views on life and death, Johnny…"

Captain Stanley put down the paper he was reading, looked curiously at his senior paramedic and commented, "That's a pretty heavy question to lay on a man while he's eating cookies, Roy, don't you think?"

"You don't understand, Cap, 'cause you weren't there when Johnny was giving me his philosophy about being a paramedic a couple of shifts ago," said Roy.

Chet snorted, "Philosophy, Gage? Life and death? Seriously?"

Mike came over from the couch to sit at the table as well. He might not contribute much to station conversations in general, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy a verbal tussle among the other men of the shift. And Kelly and Gage together were always good value.

"Well, I think that life is just what you make it," continued Chet.

"Um, isn't that a pop song? Donny Osmond or something?" asked Roy. "My daughter likes him," he explained in response to the surprised looks the others were giving him.

"Yeah, you got something you wanna tell us, Chet?" goaded John with a grin.

"Hoo, Mr Philosophy! More about the death than the life part, I'd say. The death of intelligence."

"Y'know, Chet, sometimes you…"

The captain interrupted before things could degenerate any further. "Okay, so now I'm curious. What are your thoughts about life and death, John?"

"Okay." That was all the encouragement John needed in order to start up again. "See, we deal with it all the time. Like Roy says, it's the nature of the job. But, that means we're part of the essential meaning of…" BEEEP BOOOP BRAACK! That darn alarm. It insisted on going off just when things were getting interesting. This was obviously one of 'those' shifts.

"Station 51. Child fallen from balcony…"

When the rig and squad pulled up in front of the apartment building, they saw a small crowd gathered around someone lying on the ground. Johnny looked up and saw that a sliding door was open for an apartment balcony…on the third floor. His stomach turned over. He had a pretty good idea what they were going to find in the middle of that crowd.

"Don't you DARE die! Please, please, don't leave me..." the woman holding her little boy's broken body in her arms crooned and wailed and rocked back and forth. Roy gently pried her arms away from her son, all the while talking to her in a soothing voice, "Ma'am, we're paramedics, we're here to check your boy, we're in touch with the hospital; we need to look at him." She couldn't register what he was saying to her, but another woman, older and rather grandmotherly in appearance, took the younger woman and wrapped her in her arms.

Johnny and Roy moved in as soon as the child was liberated from his mother. He was only three years old. There was no point in saying that she shouldn't have picked him up or moved him in any way; it was done. Johnny found a pulse, but it wasn't strong, and fluid was leaking from his nose and ears. There was blood in his mouth. It would be touch and go if they could save him. Marco was sent by Cap up to the balcony to see if the railing was loose or if there were other obvious reasons why the child may have fallen.

A man from the crowd came over to Mike, waiting by the rig, and asked if he could speak to him confidentially. Mike was very surprised but nodded and said, "Sure."

"I, uh, I'm not sure, but I, uh, don't know if that was an accident." Mike felt a chill of fear go through him.

After a moment's pause where the other man didn't continue, Mike said, "Go on."

The other man was obviously very uncomfortable, but gathered himself together and said in a low voice, "There's been a lot of fightin' and cryin' comin' from that apartment. Today was real bad. Mostly complainin' about the noise the kid makes. A man – some guy – doesn't live there, but I think he might be the mom's boyfriend or somethin' - drinks a lot, y'know." He shrugged.

Mike's fear seemed to settle in his stomach. "What are you saying, sir?" he asked.

"I dunno as I'm sayin' anything. Lots of yellin' – couldn't help but hear it was 'bout the kid. Not an easy kid, for sure – seemed to get sick a lot, y'know? Cryin' through the night lots 'o nights. I live just below, y'see, so I hear it all."

Mike just nodded, wishing there was someone else hearing this, like the captain. Or Johnny and Roy – they would know right away what to do, what to say, but he was just an engineer for crying out loud – they didn't get trained on how to deal with this kind of stuff.

The ambulance had arrived, and the paramedics were packing up their gear to go with the child to the hospital. Mike bit at his lower lip. Should he ask for more information? If he told the man to talk to the police, would he do it? He decided to go with something neutral. "Anything else you'd like to tell me?" he asked.

The man shrugged. "Just don't think it was a natural fall, that's all." As the rest of Station 51 returned to the rig, the man looked nervous and backed away quickly, then turned and took off.

"What was that all about?" Cap asked Mike as he came up beside him.

"I didn't get his name. I should've gotten his name!" Mike was frustrated with himself, and now the fellow was gone. Cap could see that his engineer was agitated by something, so he said quietly to him, "Do we need to talk? Something you need to share?"

Mike took a deep breath, and briefly recounted what the stranger had said about the child's injury. Cap pursed his lips and replied, "I'm sorry Mike, but you know you gotta tell that one." He patted Mike on the shoulder consolingly. "Do it now, while it's fresh."

Mike sighed and walked towards the patrolman taking down information from a couple of people in the crowd who were gesturing up at the balcony, and over on the ground where the child had lain. Some days he'd give anything for a nice straight forward factory fire.