The Boot

Chapter Twenty Five

By GCS

DISCLAIMER: "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. and Universal Studios. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction. This story is only written for entertainment. No financial gain is being realized from it. The story, itself, is the property of the author.

They were falling…sliding down to the end of the tethered rope.

With a sudden jolt he felt the belt pull against his ribs as he swung back and forth in the open expanse dangling beneath the 405 overpass; the tanker driver precariously held in his arms though his own safety belt was hooked securely to Johnny's. "I'm slipping."

"You're okay. They won't let us fall." Johnny knew they wouldn't. In the dizzying sway of the pendulum they had become he somehow knew they wouldn't let them fall. But then suddenly, mocking his new found trust the rope slipped and again they were falling only to jerk to a stop once more. The belt pulled against his middle causing all the air to burst forth from his lungs at an unnatural speed.

A few short hours ago he had been at his apartment straightening his collar and finger combing his hair practically bouncing in anticipation of his first day back from sick leave. Now his back hurt, his arms trembled from the exertion; his teeth clenched against the pain the belt inflicted on his mid-section. He knew they wouldn't let them fall, but he'd feel better once their feet were safely on solid ground.

"Oh God, we're going to die!" The victim screamed after their second rapid descent.

"Hey it's all right. We're all right. We're tied off. Just take it easy. Stop struggling so much." Johnny remembered the stories the Dwyer brothers had shared with him back at Rampart about calming victims in rescue situations. He tried to emulate their words.

How he ended up climbing out onto the tractor that hung mostly off the freeway bridge seemed a little like a bad dream at the moment, and he wished for the feel of the water pulsing through the hose in his hands instead of the tug of the belt around his waist.

Tony and Joe had been working feverishly to extract the victims in the sedan lodged beneath the middle of the tanker. Captain Jones had asked for people with climbing experience. And to his credit his love for camping, backpacking and rappelling through the San Gabriel Mountains had led him to step up to the call for volunteers. Cap had questioned him about being sure he could handle the strain of the rescue, after all it was his first day back. A smile slid across his face as he remembered the concerned look his Captain had when he had asked. It felt good knowing someone actually cared. It felt good to be back at work.

He was shocked back to the present when an explosion rocked the bridge above them, and the big rig slid further off the edge. Johnny looked up into the staring headlights that threatened to crash down upon them and drag them into oblivion.

The men up top had directed their hose at the overturned tanker fanning the spray from side to side. Every time they moved the spray the flames shot up again, but they kept at it knowing that Tony and Joe still had a victim in the crushed sedan. The foam truck had just arrived on scene.

"Get that foam in there!" Captain Jones called over the HT.

Scotty looked down at the foam as it spread across the asphalt coating the leaking fuel. Gotchalk and McDonald stepped closer to the target and moved nearer to the crushed car.

Tony and Joe finally extracted the victim and ran past them. "Get back. It's gonna blow." Tony yelled to them.

Gotchalk glanced over his shoulder at McDonald who nodded in agreement. They, like the other teams of men with hoses nearby, would stand their ground until Tony and Joe were a safe distance from the tanker with the victim. Then they dropped the hoses, and everyone ran for cover.

Johnny could feel the rain of hot embers falling down on him and the tanker driver as the flash of heat wafted over their heads. He squeezed his eyes shut, lowered his face to his chest hoping his helmet would provide the needed protection to his eyes, prayed silently in his head that the rope wouldn't give or burn and pulled the driver closer. Another drop on the line as the jolt of the blast hit, and in an instant it was all over. They could feel the cool spray of water sifting down on them as the flames were once again shot down.

Johnny could barely hear the voices above. He thought he heard Captain Jones calling orders to the men, but the noises of the burning vehicles and the spray of the hoses kept him from making out what he was saying. "Hey!" Johnny yelled trying to get someone's attention.

"Hang tight for a minute Gage; we got our hands full up here." Gotchalk called down.

'Hang tight he says. Easy for him to say he's not the one swinging on the end of rope with a freaked out man grabbing at him. What was I thinkin' volunteering to climb down to this guy? I just told Tom Dwyer back in that hospital room that I didn't want to be in rescue. "I'm a lineman"…I told them. "I just wondered what makes you guys want to ride rescue." Well look at yourself now Gage…hanging off of a bridge, swinging in the wind. What was I thinkin'?

"Okay Gage, we're going to pull you up now." Gotchalk yelled down.

"Okay! We're ready!" He could feel the slow pull of the rope as they gradually came closer to the precariously teetering truck cab, the only thing keeping it from falling on the two men had been the lines that Captain Jones had insisted they tie it off with before allowing Johnny to go after the driver.

Hands grabbed under his arms and pulled him and the driver to safety back on top of the bridge. Cooper unhooked the driver's safety belt and escorted him over to the waiting ambulance to take him to Rampart so the doctor's could check him out. Cooper patted Johnny on the shoulder, "Good Job Gage."

Captain Jones came up beside him, "You all right Gage?"

Johnny looked into his Captain's eyes and saw that concern he'd seen earlier. "Yes Sir." He pulled the safety belt off and dropped it on the bridge, took off his helmet and ran his fingers through his sweaty hair. "Where do you need me?"

Captain Jones smiled at him, "Where do I need you? You're something kid, really something." He patted Johnny on the back. "How 'bout you take a breather over by the engine and cool off." Johnny nodded and turned to walk away. "Oh, and Gage." Johnny stopped and turned back to his superior. "Get something to drink. I can't have you getting dehydrated before we finish clean up." Captain Jones chuckled and turned back to the blaze. Johnny continued to the engine where Scotty handed him some water which felt wonderful going down.

While he sat beside the engine watching his shift mates fight down the blaze that now had the two vehicles looking like burnt out shells, Johnny thought about rescuing the driver and back to the day he met the Dwyer brothers and talked to them about why he had become rescue men. He remembered asking Tom about his career choice. "What made you leave the engine for the rescue squad?"

"Man, you don't ask easy questions do you?" Tom chuckled. "You thinking about rescue?"

"Me?" Johnny laid his hand on his chest. "Nah, I'm a lineman. I just wondered what makes you guys want to ride rescue. I love to tame the beast. I just got in, and I'm not gonna let anything mess that up."

"Well Johnny from what I hear you've got nothing to worry about. But to answer your question, I got in because my big brother Burt was a rescue man. He would come home telling stories about how he carried a kid out of a burning building or pulled a family out of wrecked car. It was infectious ya know? I mean he would get so excited about it. My whole family has been in the fire department for as long as I can remember my dad, my grandfather, my uncles and a bunch of cousins. It never occurred to any of us to do anything else. What about you? Why did you become a fireman?"

Johnny thought for a minute about Tom's question before answering. He had decided to open up a little. Maybe now was a good time to give it a try. Tom seemed like a nice enough guy, and they were stuck in the hospital room together. "When I was a kid I used to sneak into town. I would watch the fire station until they got called out. The way the engine pulled out with sirens blaring and lights flashing." He could feel the excitement building just remembering how watching those fire trucks barrel past made him feel.

Tom could see the gleam in Johnny's eyes when he talked about watching the fire trucks pulling out of the station. He could tell that Johnny had developed a love for firemen even before he had joined the academy. "So did you grow up around here?"

That did it. That question was too close. His inner sense of what is right or wrong seemed to be impelling him toward sharing part of his story, but a voice inside his head warned him that too much information always led to trouble. Johnny shifted uneasily in the bed. 'Why does everyone always want to know where I grew up? It isn't a good story.' The bad dreams he had about it was a testament to that. "I went to high school here." 'There maybe that will be enough. Maybe he won't ask anything else.'

Tom noticed that Johnny had shifted nervously in the bed; it made him curious as to why talking about his childhood would make Johnny uneasy. He hadn't really told him anything about where he grew up, so that must be a touchy subject. Deciding that maybe if he talked about himself some more Johnny would relax again, Tom resumed the conversation. "We grew up here, my brothers and I. We have a pretty big family. Actually we have two sisters as well. They're both married with kids. Burt's the oldest, Angie's next; then Lucy and then me and Charlie. We're twins."

Johnny looked over at Tom with a raised eyebrow and a small smile on his lips. "Twins huh?"

"Yep…but I got all the good looks." Charlie said from the door. Johnny's eyes shot immediately to the new voice in the room and saw two men in the doorway one of which looked an awful lot like Tom; the other one similar, but older and taller.

"Oh get in there you dufus." Burt pushed passed his brother and straight over to Tom's bed. "What happened?"

Tom pushed back into his pillow and pulled the blanket up tighter. "Roof collapse, but I got the victim out." He glared at his twin and continued, "Please tell me Charlie didn't worry Mom with this."

Burt chuckled and glanced over his shoulder at Charlie who had the decency to look sheepish. "Well…?" he shrugged his shoulders. "She is your mother, ya know."

Tom scowled at his twin brother. "Man Charlie, can't you just wait until I'm out of here to tell her?"

"It's not like she ain't gonna notice that big white cast there bro." Charlie defended himself.

Johnny couldn't help but laugh at the banter between the brothers which drew their attention to him.

Tom pushed up on one elbow. "Hey Burt, do you know who that is over there?" Burt and Charlie looked from Tom to Johnny and back. "That's John Gage."

"John Gage?" Charlie asked with a confused look on his face.

Burt on the other hand walked across the room with his hand outstretched. "Nice to meet you John. I heard about you pulling Cody out the other day. From what I hear it was quite a rescue."

Johnny reached out and shook Burt's hand. "You heard about that?" He said softly.

"You bet! I think the whole department is talking about it and you. I mean it isn't every day that some Boot beats the best hydrant drill time in the department."

Johnny's face and neck turned red, and he lowered his eyes.

"That's the guy that graduated first in the last class!" Charlie finally spoke. "Man it's great to meet you." He joined Burt beside Johnny's bed. "You ever thought about joining the ranks of rescue?"

Johnny huffed softly. "No. I'm a lineman."

"GAGE!" Johnny shifted his attention from his memories to his Captain's call. He rose from his resting place in the shade of the engine and returned to his duties as lineman smiling to himself knowing he loved the job he'd chosen. He loved riding the engine and pulling the charged hose into the battle. He jogged over and gratefully accepted his clean up assignment.

A few hours later a tired group of firemen trudged into the dayroom. A dumpster fire after the road rescue had been followed by a three alarm fire at a warehouse. Since they had been first on the scene their station had been released as soon as the fire was out. Clean up was left to the other responding units. Several of the guys congratulated Johnny on his earlier rescue as they filed into the day room.

After Captain Jones had talked to everyone on their shift about the incidents that led up to the nail in his tire, it had turned out that most of the guys really liked Johnny and didn't really understand why Cody had such a problem with him. Even Cody had talked to Cap and apologized for his behavior. Somehow the two Boots had actually become friends through all of the chaos. Now they could put all of this behind them and get back to the business of fire fighting. And that is exactly what they had done this morning. Now they were back at the station, and ready for some well deserved lunch.

"Okay fellas, who wants to man the grill?" Tony walked in with two sacks of groceries and a big grin on his face. "Cap had us stop for burgers and dogs." Joe trailed behind him with two more bags. All the men in the room stood to help un-bag the groceries and begin the food preparations. Before long the fire in the grill had been doused and the large group of men that made up their shift gathered around the large table enjoying their meal.

Scotty looked over at Johnny, he'd missed him while he recuperated from the pneumonia that had left him hospitalized for several days, and then more time off at his tiny apartment. He smiled as he thought about how the guys had come together to help, bringing food and keeping the place tidy for the kid. And Jimbo slipping that protein into the vanilla milkshakes had helped him gain back the weight he'd lost. Funny how fast the pounds seemed to drop off that wiry kid. Most people had to diet for weeks to lose a few pounds, but the weight just slid off the kid. He must have a metabolism that never stopped. Scotty smiled as he watched Johnny eat like he hadn't eaten in days. To be such a skinny kid he sure could put away some food.

Feeling like he was being watched the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Johnny looked up from his second hamburger and saw all the guys looking at him. "What?" He asked with a mouth full of food. The men around the table burst into laughter. Johnny looked bewilderedly around at the men and settled his questioning gaze on Scotty.

"It's good to have you back Boot! Good to have you back." Scotty slapped him on the back and turned to his own plate.

Johnny shrugged and held up his half eaten burger in a salute, "Good to be back."