Goodbye and Hello

These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise when I'm done to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.

"Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." Corinthians.

Chapter 21

Hank, Mike and Marco moved back out to the waiting room to leave Roy alone so he could get some rest. They knew that even though he didn't feel the best that nothing would make him move from his designated spot right now.

"Marco, let Mike take you back to the station. I'll stay here with them," Hank said.

"Cap, I really want to stay," Marco protested.

"Look at that foot," he point at the swollen appendage. "It's already twice as big as it should be. You're going to have Dixie after my hide if you don't get some rest."

Marco had to admit it was officially killing him and going home sounded good but a big part of him felt terrible for leaving Chet and Johnny. He looked up as Hank put his hand on his shoulder, "You're not abandoning them pally. Look at it this way, when the rest of us are back at work you can keep them company when we can't."

Marco smiled. His Cap could read him like a book. "Okay Cap. It's a deal but you'll let me know how their doing right?"

"Better believe it," Hank said with a smile. He turned back to his engineer who also was balking at leaving but understood that one the engine needed to be returned to the station and two that they needed to take care of Marco. "Thanks Mike."

"I'll be back in a little bit. I'll help him get home and settled in first," Mike said. As soon as they left Hank headed back to sit with Chet. First he moved to the glass window of Johnny's room and watched Roy. He wanted to make sure that he was doing well enough to stay there with him. Dixie was with him, checking on his IV and giving him a blanket to rest. Johnny's monitors were free of alarms right now so Hank went to take his position across from Chet.

Roy awoke to the sounds of someone stirring in the room and looked up to see Johnny moving around in the bed. Standing up he realized that Johnny's eyes were still closed but he was restless. He pushed the nurses call button and began talking to his friend to try and calm him. As soon as the initial anesthesia had worn off Roy's calming voice would help Johnny wait until the next pain medicine was due.

"He's in a coma, he can't hear what you're saying," Nurse Johnson said curtly as she worked her way between him and Johnny making Roy step back from the bed. He didn't feel like fighting a war with this woman so he simply moved to the other side of the bed and resumed his calming words.

She took a syringe out of her pocket and an alcohol swab and began to wipe the port of his IV.

Roy looked up, "What are you giving him?"

"Something to sedate him," she simply said.

Roy was concerned, "He just had something a few minutes ago. It's too soon." Johnny had already calmed down under the gentle words of his friend. But Nurse Johnson continued to prepare the IV site at his hand for the injection. Roy was now standing up straight now. "Don't give him more Morphine. He's calmed down now." There was a rising sense of panic in him feeling that she wasn't listening to a word he was saying.

"I know what my job is and he needs more sedation. We can't just have him thrashing all over the bed like that," she said, having no intentions of letting this strange man tell her what her job was.

Roy looked down at Johnny. Earlier in the day he had begun breathing on his own and he had seen the respiratory therapist wean the ventilator settings. He knew that too much Morphine could stop his breathing again and put him in danger. She took the cap off the syringe as Roy came around the end of the bed.

"Don't give him that." His voice was now harsh and it caught her attention.

"I'll call security if I have to Mr. DeSoto. You might be able to sit here with him but you may not interfere with his care." Her voice was smug and not conceding to his desires.

"You're not even his nurse. What are you doing in here?" He was right at her now standing nearly toe to toe.

"Roy?"

He turned around to see Hank now standing in the doorway, having heard Roy's voice getting upset over something. "Cap, get me another nurse right away," Roy said. When he turned back around to face her his gut was hit with a stone cold dread. She was now holding an empty syringe. She simply patted Johnny on the arm and started to walk out of the room.

Roy reached down and debated ripping his IV out but she had given the medication directly at the hub, right at his hand. Pulling the IV out wouldn't do any good at this point. He looked up to see what little color Johnny had drain from his face, then his chest stopped moving. He looked up just as the monitor alarmed.

He turned abruptly to her and yelled, "Get Dr. Brackett now!" At the same time he reached up and pushed the blue button that was positioned on the wall above the head of his bed. The shaken nurse looked at the monitor and saw his rapidly falling heart rate and plummeting blood pressure then looked at Roy. But he wasn't paying attention to her anymore. He reached for the ambu bag and disconnected Johnny from the ventilator and began giving him breaths. The code alarm sounded through the unit drawing every available nurse into the room. Suddenly Hank, who had been watching the scene unfold, found himself pushed back into a corner as they drug in the large, wheeled, red code cart. The next person to push his way through the group was Brackett.

Brackett immediately moved to Roy for report. "What happened Roy?"

The fury on his face was not something you could miss, "I told her it was too soon to give him Morphine but she did it anyway. He stopped breathing." They both looked up at the monitor and could see that the immediate breaths that Roy gave had stabilized his heart rate. His blood pressure remained low but at least was not continuing to fall. The respiratory therapist that had come at the alarm readjusted his settings to provide the full support his lungs now needed until the medication wore off a little. Roy stopped the manual breaths and let the man put him back on the ventilator.

"Damn!" Brackett cussed. "How did this happen?" He turned to bark at the Charge Nurse.

She was shaking now, "He was restless. I was just giving him his Morphine."

Another nurse stepped forward, "You know he's my patient. I just went down to the lab for a minute. Dr. Brackett I had just given him a full dose less than 10 minutes ago."

Another nurse was working on vital signs, "Doctor his blood pressure is 70/40."

"Cindy, let's get some plasmanate going right away. We've got to get his pressure up again." Brackett wanted to choke someone. They had just gotten his pressure stabilized. Now just as his kidneys were showing signs of some recovery they were back to stage one. He knew that under normal circumstances Johnny would have been able to handle the double dose but he was still too critical. They had just gotten his blood pressure to stabilize at a borderline low reading. He wasn't strong enough to handle the whopping dose of medication.

"I want an incident report filled out. Mrs. Johnson, don't set foot in this room again." He also knew Roy had tried to stop her. "This man is a paramedic and knows his partner better than any nurse in this hospital. If he questions what you are doing then you better double think your action before carrying it out."

When everyone had left Hank came over to Roy, "I'm glad you were here. I think you just saved his life again buddy."

Roy sat down hard in the chair, "No, but I'm telling you one thing Cap. I'm not leaving anytime soon."

Hank patted him on the shoulder when they suddenly heard the rantings of one upset fireman down the hall. Hank and Roy went running. When they came in the room they saw Chet sitting up in bed with his hand on his lip.

"What did they do to me?" He said through pain clinched teeth.

"Will you settle down!" Hank barked. "You twit, it will grow back." Chet leaned his head back with a deep sigh, holding his belly where his abrupt movements had gotten him hurting again.

"But Cap?" Chet started to whine.

"Don't but me. Now lay down and shut up," Hank said. Roy moved to his side, trying to hide the smile. He reached down to his abdomen and checked his dressing.

"You pop any of those stitches and Brackett might just shave your whole head," Roy told him with raised eyebrows and a nod of his head.

Chet instantly shut up. Danged doctors. If they will shave off a man's prized mustache then he wouldn't put it past them to shave his head.

Roy laughed, "I think you're okay. Just try and behave."

The sun was just coming up when Roy found himself being awakened by Hanks hand nudging his shoulder. "Roy."

He sat up and stretched out his stiff muscles from sleeping in the cramped little chair. Looking over to Johnny he stood up and ran his eyes over his monitors and sighed that they had made it through the night. He seemed to be no worse for wear over his Morphine incident. Once again he was breathing on his own and his blood pressure had been stable. Roy noted there wasn't any blood hanging anymore so that must mean his count had stabilized finally.

"Cap. How's Chet doing?"

"Good, grumpy," he smiled. I think they are moving him to a room today. They both looked up to see Brackett and Early come into the room. With char in hand they both reviewed his vital signs and now did an assessment on him. The two men stepped back to be out of the way and waited, patiently.

"Well, I wasn't sure he would do it but I should have known you'd get him through the night Roy," Joe said with a smile. "His vitals are getting stronger and there's no evidence of any further bleeding at this point. We'll take him off the ventilator in a couple of days and wait for him to wake up for us."

Roy nodded. He knew it was good news but he still wouldn't rest easy until he woke up. He wanted for Johnny to know he was there, that he had come back.

"Thanks doc," he said as they headed out the door.

"Roy I know you don't want to leave," Hank started.

Roy looked at him and half smiled, "I know. I need to get Jenny and Chris." He sighed knowing that he was all they had right now and he couldn't just abandon them.

"Mike is here. He will sit with Johnny. Go pick up the kids and get them ready for school. I've already called Emily and she will pick them up afterwards and feed them dinner."

How did he ever think it was the right thing to do in leaving? These men were as much his family as anyone else. "Thanks Cap," Roy said. They were simple words but there was no way he could tell him how much he appreciated him. Many might think its a common occurance for a crew to bond with their Captain but Roy had been in the field long enough to know it wasn't true. A tight, close and bonded shift was something that didn't come around everyday and he was thankful to be a part of one of those families. "I need to make some phone calls to, get the house stuff out of storage and get the phone turned back on."

"Do what you need to do for your family Roy. We will be here with him. If anything changes we'll find you okay? Mike had Brice help him get your car to the parking lot outside the ER." Hank still couldn't believe he was even standing there. The world had done a one eighty in the last twenty four hours. He must have used some mighty strong convincing words to have gotten back on a shift so soon. And with that though it suddenly dawned on him, that if Roy had gotten on with 51 he would have been with Johnny and he would have been the one going down through the fallen floor. He reached out and grasped his shoulder with a smile. One last reassuring touch that he was actually standing there.

Roy looked back into the room. It was going to be one of the hardest things he had ever done, to walk out and leave Johnny like this but it was his choice to bring the kids with him. He had to make sure they were taken care of too. He walked over to Johnny, "I'll be back partner. Behave for Mike." With a squeeze of his shouder Roy grabbed the turn out coat, pulled it on and headed out the door with Hank.

"Thanks Mike," Roy said as he came up the hallway.

"Well," he hesitated. "I think there's been a change in plans," Mike said.

Roy and Hank looked at him with confusion. "What's wrong?" Roy asked.

"Joanne's in the waiting room to see ya Roy," Mike said while biting his lower lip.