Gageisms – 11

Thanks, Kathy.

Roy slammed his own door and turned his key in the ignition. He felt Johnny's eyes watching him still waiting for confirmation that the kidding was over but he had no intentions of letting Johnny off that easily. He did however look over at his injured partner and felt a sense of melancholy wash over his being. How many times had he nearly lost his best friend over the years? He'd been run down by a hit and run driver and bitten by a rattlesnake. Roy had been forced to leave him behind after an explosion rendered him unconscious inside an apartment complex that had been crashed into by an airplane. But, civilians always came first and the lady Johnny was trying to rescue had to be taken out before he could return for his partner. He would be forever grateful to the firefighter from Pasadena who went in and retrieved his partner during that incident. There was also the cave-in at the construction site where Johnny had been trapped with a couple of workers and a near disaster when Johnny had been retrieving a little boy from a hole when the soft dirt sides began to collapse. Even with all those incidents in their short few years together, nothing had prepared Roy for the accident in front of the station that had resulted in his partner's injuries from which he was now recovering. The sight of his limp body dangling from his seatbelt, broken arm bent awkwardly and his face covered in blood; his eyes closed as if in death and no matter how long Roy lived, he knew he'd never be able to forget that scene.

He turned to his right to back out of the parking space and saw the grin on Johnny's still bruised face. He knew in his heart that the younger man had actually been enjoying the memories of his friends during his time in the hospital. Even so, he felt a tugging of his heartstrings to say what he'd never before told his friend.

"Johnny…I, uh," Roy exhaled, unsure of how to explain what he was feeling.

Johnny looked over at Roy and saw the seriousness on his best friend's face. He briefly wondered if perhaps all his misadventures through the years had created a situation where he had worn out his welcome in the DeSoto home. He really hadn't given it all that much thought while he was in Rampart but now, seeing the look on Roy's face, he began to think that he needed to go back home instead. After all, it wasn't Roy and Joanne's place to take care of him.

He returned his gaze to the back parking lot at Rampart; the same parking lot he and Roy had parked the squad in hundreds of times while on shift. He inhaled deeply, summoning the courage to say what obviously Roy was finding difficulty in saying. "Roy…I can manage fine at my apartment. Why don't you just take me home, 'k?"

Roy knitted his eyebrows together in confusion. Johnny had never refused his help before so he was curious as to why he was doing so now. Had the accident changed their friendship somehow? Was Johnny actually hurt or angry about the stories Roy and the others had been laughing about?

"C'mon, Roy…I get it…I mean, you and Jo…well, I know you get tired of playin' nursemaid to a grown man who keeps gettin' hurt all the time."

"What? We're partners…friends…you've helped me out plenty of times before and…"

Johnny snickered, "oh yea rriiiiiight….like when you stayed at my place while your house was bein' fumigated?"

That thought brought a smile to Roy's concerned face. "Oh yea…that…ok, not a good example but you have pulled me out of danger plenty of times…and you even caught me after I got blown out of that window and we both fell off the ladder."

"Yea," his lopsided grin widened at the recollection. "Hey, and remember when we got trapped on that ledge and Cap ordered us to jump down to the safety net?"

"How could I forget that? Scared the hell outta me but…well, the flames actually scared me worse." Roy shuddered at the memory of that fateful day.

"Oh, man…I was kinda surprised when you didn't bounce halfway back up….that damn thing had no spring to it." Johnny's face reddened temporarily as that thought triggered another memory…one he was hoping Roy might have forgotten. But when Roy screwed his eyes shut and struggled to control the giggles bubbling up from his belly, he knew his friend had remembered it too. "Awww, hell…"

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"Geez, Roy…those clouds are lookin' angry." Johnny leaned forward peering at the sky through the windshield of the squad as he and Roy returned to the station.

Roy took his partner's cue and looked out his window as well. The dark clouds seemed to be growing, bumping into each other and merging as they raced directly toward Carson. Roy was as familiar with the streets between Rampart General Hospital and Station 51 as he was with his own face but as he gripped the steering wheel tighter to keep the vehicle in the center of the lane as the wind whipped around it, he forgot about the pothole that had been forming for several weeks on 223rd Street. The jolt and subsequent yelp of his passenger let him know that his right front tire had found it.

"Ow!" Johnny groaned, grabbing the dashboard with one hand and rubbing his head with the other.

"Oops…sorry about that, Junior." Roy tried to hide the grin overtaking his face while he decelerated. He then shifted into reverse and backed the squad into the bay just as a flash of lightning streaked across the somber sky followed by the low rumbling of distant thunder.

A strong gust of wind made opening the squad doors more difficult than usual for the paramedics; a sight that instigated another round of chiding from The Phantom.

"Hey Gage…you do a rain dance or something?" The prankster stood between the engine and the squad, hands in his pockets, and a smug grin on his face.

"Don't start that up again, Chet," Roy admonished. "You remember what happened the last time…besides, you said you buried the hatchet."

Johnny, never being one who could just walk away, turned to face his tormentor, his back to the open bay door. "Jealous 'cause you can't do one, Kelly?"

Roy had heard enough. He rolled his eyes leaving the two firefighters standing in the apparatus bay trying to 'one up' each other like a couple of boys on a school playground but in his haste to remove himself from the folly, he forgot to close the bay door.

Chet tried to think of a snappy comeback while he stood there stroking his thick mustache. "Oohh, I get it. So, Gagey-baby…if you can dance then why not show me some moves?"

Johnny narrowed his eyes at the aggravating Irishman. "Kelly…would you shut up."

Chet was about to respond when Johnny continued.

"Or better yet…go play in the street." He turned around, walking past the hood of the squad with Chet yipping at his heels, when a loud blast of an air horn followed by screeching tires drew his attention to the front of the station.

Shock and fear each grabbed one of Johnny's legs leaving him firmly planted on the concrete apron in front of the squad. His eyes widen like saucers and his mouth opened, gulping for air causing his adam's apple to bob up and down rhythmically. Terror nearly paralyzed his vocal chords leaving him panting out the word 'tramp' in an airy harsh whisper.

Chet had rushed to the apron just in time to see Johnny released from his temporary paralysis and dive to the concrete protectively covering his head with both arms. He watched in utter amazement as a round blue trampoline, which had obviously been dislodged from a trailer by the infamous pothole then picked up by another strong gust of wind, barreled over the outstretched John Gage then crashed into the station's flag pole.

Johnny paused just long enough to catch his breath then using his forearms, he raised himself up partially off the concrete apron. His chin was stinging, a sensation that let him know that he'd left part of his skin meshed with the concrete but was relieved to find that he was otherwise intact. That's when the second round of pain assaulted him and he groaned as he tried to discreetly cover his aching manhood. The horn blast followed by a crashing sound so close to the station drew the remainder of the crew into the apparatus bay. Johnny had managed to pull himself up into a seated, albeit painful position; unable to find his words.

Chet however, had no problem using his voice. "Haha, oh fellas…ya shoulda seen Gage do a swan dive on the concrete!" The lineman's face was turning crimson with his chortles then darkening with embarrassment as he realized his friend really was in pain.

"What the hell happened?"

Johnny tried to respond to the question asked by his engineer but his words came out a mixture of unintelligible syllables, groans and Neanderthal grunts. "Duh, ah tram…tramp on…on na p-pole." His dark eyes bouncing between Mike and the station's flag pole.

Without missing a beat, the normally quiet engineer responded with a devious grin. "Gage, sounds like a personal problem to me. You need to keep tramps off your pole," he deadpanned with a quick glance to the place where Johnny's hand still lay protectively.

Before Johnny could move, a sheet of rain came rushing across the industrial complex across the street from the station. It quickly made its way to the front of 51's leaving Johnny sitting on the apron in the pouring rain wishing he could think of a snappy comeback.

"Sorry, Gage…lemme help ya up."

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Johnny sat back in the seat of Roy's car, leaning his head against the headrest. "Oh man…I didn't think Chet would ever stop the rain dance jokes. At least he did have the decency to walk out into the rain and help me up…unlike some people." Johnny arched an accusatory eyebrow in Roy's direction.

Roy grinned as he shifted the car in gear, glad to see his friend smiling again. "And who knew Stoker could be so…so…"

"Quick witted?"

"Brazen," Roy corrected.

"Say, what ever happened to that trampoline anyway?"

"Well, while Chet and I were helping you inside and getting you cleaned up, the driver of the truck it fell off of came back to the station." Roy hesitated, flipping on his blinker and merging into traffic before he continued. "Cap, Mike and Marco helped the guy load it back up and tie it down." He snickered, looking over at his partner. "I think Cap taught the guy how to tie a real knot."

"So, was I the only casualty? I mean, the pole and the trampoline were both undamaged right?"

Roy smirked as he continued on his way to his house, his friend no longer protesting the destination. "Yea…your pole was the only one damaged by the tramp, Junior."

"Very funny, Pally."

Both men chuckled as Roy drove into the night, no longer paying attention to Johnny's mumblings about his pole being just fine; the earlier emotional conversation he had begun with his best friend completely forgotten amid the laughter.